7 | REBELLION

The First Order soon came in range of the Resistance ship, once again, and began attacking them. The shields were down and the medical unit was out of fuel. They were on their last limb and Holdo seemed to be doing nothing about it. Celestia was only in the command center by Holdo's side because she was a commander, but, she had banned Poe from the bridge. "The last of our crew has been evacuated and heading your way! It's been an honor, admiral. Godspeed, Rebels!" A pilot Holdo sent out to swat away the First Order fighters was communicating with them as he was about to die a noble death. His communications cut off, signaling his ship and his life had reached its end.

Holdo seemed to be in despair. "Fuel reserve's at six hours." One of the commanders notified Holdo.

"Maintain our current course." Holdo instructed.

Celestia shot her a worried look, they were nearly done for and she wanted to continue her plan that was obviously not working. She prayed for Finn and Rose to hurry up and destroy the First Order's tracker. 

Celestia stood at the doorway to the bridge, her head resting on the door frame as she fumbled with her fingers, anxiously awaiting their fate. She heard quick steps fast approaching the command center from behind and she whipped her head around to see Poe storming in. "Here to make a scene?"

"Yep." He brushed past her to go scold Holdo for her terrible command. "Holdo?!"

"Flyboy." She rolled her eyes at him.

"Cut it, lady! We had a fleet now were down to one ship, and you've told us nothing! Tell us that we have a plan! That there's hope!" He begged of her to do the minimum as she held Leia's title, temporarily.

"When I served under Leia, she would say, hope is like the sun. If you only believe in it when you can see it—" Holdo began to quote their leader that was current incapacitated.

"You'll never make it through the night." Poe finished the quote for her, interrupting her as he had known the quote as well. His shoulders relaxed and he was no longer as tense. His voice had quieted as well as he thought of Leia and how she would think of him acting out in such a way.

"Yes." Holdo sighed.

A low beeping could be heard from one of the many screens in the room. Poe's eyes flickered over to the screen and saw that it was showing transport ships being fueled. His demeanor reverted to his tense state once again. "Are you fueling up the transports?" He asked, his voice low and suspicious.

Holdo held her breath, knowing he didn't like her plan at all. That's why she hadn't revealed it to him or most people, at that. "You are... all of them?" Poe pressed for answers.

"Poe—" Celestia took a step forward, trying to calm him before he exploded on the Admiral and got himself demoted, once more.

"You stay out of this!" He pointed an angry finger over at Cel. She gasped quietly at his outburst and took an embarrassed step back. "We're abandoning ship? That's what you got? That's what you brought us to?!" He shouted and began to rage. He kicked the crates of supplies and threw a chair aside out of pure disappointment and rage. He wanted to win. He wanted to defeat the First Order so badly, he could not accept such a grand defeat for the Resistance. And he seemed to have loose control over his temper as he allowed himself to act in such a way before so many people.

The Resistance guards stationed around the room to protect the Admiral took a cautious step forward, readying their weapons in case Poe tried to hurt her. "Those transport ships are unarmed, unshielded. We abandon this cruiser, we're done! We don't stand a chance! No, you are not just a coward, you are a traitor." Poe insulted the Admiral.

Holdo clenched her jaw. Celestia was surprised she allowed him to go on for so long shouting and disrespecting her. But, calling her a traitor was a new low. And it really snapped her patience. "Get this man off my bridge." Holdo barked at the guards. They obliged and marched over to Poe. They led him out of the bridge.

Celestia forced her eyes to stare down at the floor below her feet, as she felt all the pairs of eyes on that bridge turn to look at her. They weren't distasteful stares, as Poe's actions were not her fault. They just wanted to see what her reaction was, but she abstained from giving them the pleasure to see her drown in embarrassment before them.

* * *

Celestia stormed out of the bridge to go speak with Poe once she saw the guards return from escorting Poe back to his quarters. She hurried over there to tell him off for speaking to her and Holdo in such a disrespectful manner. When she slammed open the door to his quarters, he was sitting on his cot, brooding. His eyes tracked up to meet Celestia's. Her entire body was tense and steam seemed to nearly blow out of her ears from how she was seething. "Have you lost your mind?! Did you forget who the fuck I am, Dameron?" She shouted at him, taking a few steps forward, winding back her arm to maximize the power in her arm and swinging it down to slap her hand clean across his face.

Poe grunted and grabbed his now raw cheek. "What the hell?!" He cursed at her.

"What the hell to me? What the hell to you! Don't ever speak to me like that in front of people—scratch that—don't ever speak to me like that, ever, regardless if we're in private or in public, again. Yelling at me?! In front of all the other commanders like that? Do you know how humiliating that is?" Celestia's face turned bright red from all the yelling she was doing. Practically everyone on that station could hear the confrontation happening, but she didn't care anymore.

"I wasn't even trying to gripe at you!" Poe defended his actions.

"Yeah, you were yelling at our boss. You're so full of yourself, you know that?! You think you can march in anywhere and do and say whatever you want! That's why Leia demoted you. That's why you used me as soon as I got promoted for you to facilitate your secretive little operation with Finn and Rose! I can't believe I was stupid enough to let you use me like that," she palmed her forehead, taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, "I was never this stupid before I met you. I was everything before I met you. I had it all. And I had no one to worry about disrespecting me except myself." She continued to snipe at him.

Poe rolled his eyes. "Like you're any different than me. You're just as entitled, if not more." Poe instantly bit his tongue after insulting her once more. He was in the heat of the moment and couldn't help but to snap back at her after she had blown up at him.

Celestia began to chuckle hysterically. "You know what, I don't need this." She gestured to the space between the two, suggesting she was talking about their relationship. "We're done." She hissed at him before stomping out of his quarters and returning to her post on the bridge.

When she found her place once again, Holdo approached her. "Before you say anything, I feel I have the obligation to tell you that Rose Tico—a Resistance maintenance tech—and an ex-Stormtrooper—Finn—have escaped this ship to find a code breaker to shut down the First Order's hyperspace tracker." Celestia turned her head to look up at the tall women.

Her brows raised in shock at the new information. "A stormtrooper and a who now are doing what?" Holdo needed her to repeat what she was saying. It all came out too abruptly and quickly.

"They're trying to save us. This is our best chance for escape. And I suggest you scrap the idea of the transport ships and place your money on this plan." Celestia took a deep breath, worried she'd fire her or denote her for saying such a thing. Yes, she knew she had just told Poe's head off for being disrespectful and defying Holdo, but, she couldn't let Holdo send them away without knowing that they still had a shot.

"There's no time now. We have to get clear of the cruiser. Load the transports!" Holdo shouted the last part loud enough for her team to begin scrambling to load everything they could from the bridge to the transports.

Celestia nodded at her, and followed her comrades out to the other hangar where all the transports were located. She began to help the support crew grab crates and load them on the transports to salvage what little weapons they had. Once Celestia exited the transport, she spotted Holdo and her most trusted commanders standing at blaster-point. Various of Resistance members were holding Holdo and her team as captives in the hangar, probably by Poe's command. Celestia held her hands up in the air, surrendering so she wouldn't get killed or stunned. "This is new." She muttered to herself.

* * *

Turns out, it was Poe. He had held Holdo and her trustees hostage to take over the bridge to communicate with Finn and Rose. Fortunately, Leia had awoken from her unconscious state and used a stun gun on Poe, knocking him out. Leia resumed the transport ship loading operations and had everyone board the ships.

Celestia didn't even have time to think about what Poe had done, again, since she was sent off to pilot one of the transports. "Where are we headed, General?" Cel spoke into her communication device with the General that was on the other transport.

"Crait. An uncharted hideout from the days of the Rebellion. An abandoned Rebel base. It is heavily armored with enough power to get our distress signal out." Leia explained.

"In spirit of the rebellion, huh?" Celestia liked the idea.

"We've got to protect the spirit of it, at all costs." Celestia could practically hear Leia smile.