FINN

"Well?
How is he?" A hollow voice echoed throughout the room causing my ears to pop from locked pressure.

My eyelids twitch from rising irritation at another voice in the room.

What happened? Where's Poe? Am I dead! No, if I was dead, the horrible smell of bacta wouldn't be here.

My eyes snap open to the older face of a blonde woman peering down at me through her lashes with a look of disgust, as she crosses her arms over her chest.

I just woke up and this woman already dislikes me.

A series of gurgles erupt from my throat as I attempt to use my voice and rub the drowsiness from my crusted eyes.

I sound like I'm dead, that's for sure.

"Finn!" A familiar voice yells next to my left ear, I wince at the pain he just caused.

"Poe..." I say with a less than elated sigh.

"Bad news Finn, General Leia..." He trails off.

My dark eyes flick to look Poe's as a look of confused concern contorts my facial features. "What about her?" I ask.

"She's been captured by The First Order...and the Resistance base on D'Qar has been ransacked." His eyes drop to his hands as they wrench into fists. He's clearly angry that he wasn't there to witness and help out in the action.

I don't know how to respond. My mouth stays closed and I let my eyelids flutter shut as I rest my head back down to the cold medic table.

"What now?" I finally ask as I lay there.

Before I could forget her disturbing presence, the woman's voice spoke again before Poe could respond to my question, "I'm bringing you to our headquarters and from there you can flag a ship to wherever you wish."

I attempt to arch my back painfully back up into a position where I could see her, I prop myself on my sore elbows.

"I'm sorry, who are you?"

"My name is Captain Ara, I'm in charge of this vessel and as of right now, you. I had orders from Leia to extract you and Lando Calrissian from Soccoro even before she was taken by The First Order."

Questions flooded my mind immediately as she was talking, my eyebrows furrowed, "wait, what happened to Von? How did Phasma find us? Where's Kendra? How did we get on this ship?" I asked in rapid succession as my mind to calm down but panic sent my mouth into overdrive.

Poe walked in front of me and held out his hands in a calming gesture, "to answer your questions; Von stayed behind to clear our way to leave and I'm not sure what happened to him after that, we learned our get away ship was damaged once we entered the atmosphere. Ara found us, picked us up and then we learned that there was also a tracking device attached to our ship that we arrived in and that's how Phasma found us, I imagine and Kendra, she's in the hull with Lando." Poe to a large intake of breath after the whole explanation process.

"Thanks," I said after taking a moment to digest the information. My gaze flickered back to Ara, unlike Leia, her elbow length, bleached hair wasn't delicately placed across her collar bone but instead, it was frayed at the ends and thrown about aimlessly. Her eyes showed determination, plain and simple yet the pail bags of unattended skin that hung beneath them almost revealed something else.

Sadness.

A quiet beep of a door signaling its activation steals my concentration away from the quick inspection and towards the source of the sound. My eyes widen at the sight of a creature entering the room that I have never seen before in my entire life of researching, training and studying on species from planets that had allied themselves with The Resistance.

Its head climbs to approximately my height, a mix of brown and sleek gray furs flowed down its uniform-clad body that consisted of loose maroon shorts with a matching, fit tunic. It almost resembled a wookie, but much more lean and slinky than Chewie.

"Chi'imb col'r omb, Cutan Ar'raa." The foreign words hissed off of its tongue as it spoke to Ara. It's furry head bobbed and weaved with each strange word, his nostrils on his downcast, wrinkled face expanded and shrank with every switch of breath. The creature, surprisingly held no certain odor that I could pick up as he stands near me, awkwardly awaiting Captain Ara's response.

She released a heavy sigh while turning her back to me and facing the alien attendant who still stood taciturn, blinking rapidly.

"Yes. Thank you Zin'que. You may return to your post."

With a silent nod, the seemingly intelligent creature left the room.

"I don't mean to pry," Poe began, "but what was that about?" I followed Poe's gaze back to Ara to include my attention. Soaking suspension hung in the air like a heavy coat on a rung while we waited for her response.

Ara pressed her lips into a fine, chapped line and took in a steady breath without even blinking.

"Well." She paused to take another breath. "Let's go see how our dear Lando is doing." Her features suddenly morphed into a forced smile as she turned and exited the medical bay. Poe shot me a glance, eyebrows raising in suspicion. All I can do is a shrug and make my way to the door.

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