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chapter twenty-three: torn apart
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        FROM THE COCKPIT of his ship, all Poe Dameron can see is blue as hyperspace streaks by in a vivid tunnel of light. Drifting somewhere in space, he anxiously waits for the all-clear message from base HQ. Come on, come on, he thinks restlessly, knowing that the status of the shields directly ties into the well-being of his girl. If the shields are still up, it means that Indira hasn't gotten to them yet, which could mean any number of terrible possibilities. But, if the shields are down, it means that — at least for the time being — she's alive and wreaking havoc somewhere down on the ground below him.

     The sound of his radio crackling distracts him from his thoughts and he listens intently to the transmission. "Black Leader, the shields are down," Rear Admiral Gulch informs him and Poe lets out a deep breath that he hadn't realized he had been holding in. "Go to sub-lights on your call."

     After silently thanking every lucky star in the galaxy, he switches on his comm unit to respond. "Roger, base," he replies to the rear admiral before addressing his squadrons. "Red Squad, Blue Squad — take my lead."

     One by one, the various members of the fleet drop from hyperspace into the atmosphere of Starkiller base. Outside his window, Poe gets his first real look at the base and grimaces at its unnatural structure. As the fleet approaches the surface, he catches a glimpse at the terrain that they'll be flying through — snow, mountains, and trees. Just looking at it makes Poe shiver and he finds a newfound appreciation for D'Qar's tropical climate. The thought of being confined to a frozen wasteland like that makes his skin crawl and it reminds him of his parents stories about Hoth. Damerons definitely aren't suited for the cold.

      "Almost in range," he warns both of the squadrons as they approach the oscillator. "Hit the target dead center; as many runs as we can get!"

      "Approaching target," Snap confirms over the comms.

     As soon as he's in range of firing, Poe focuses his gaze on the hexagonal shaped building that Finn had pointed out during their meeting. He knows that there's a lot at stake right now and that he has to be at his best. There's a chance that this flight could be the single most important flight of his entire life and he cannot afford to slip up.

      "Alright," he commands as soon as the ships are in range. "Let's light it up!"

     The squad makes its first bombing run, swooping in dangerously low over the base before letting off as many blasts as they can at the center of the target and flying away. Poe checks for any significant damage, hoping for at least one of their cannons to have done some harm, but he is sorely disappointed to see otherwise.

     "I got a direct hit!" One of the younger pilots — a kid named Yolo Ziff — shouts excitedly over the comms.

     "But no damage," Kali counters. "This isn't over yet."

     "Yeah, we gotta keep hitting it," Poe agrees, steering his X-wing around in a sharp loop. "Another bombing run." He glances out the window, catching sight of the fading sun as it drains lower and lower. "Remember, when the sun is gone that weapon will be ready to fire. But as long as there's light, we've got a chance."

      BB-8's alarmed beeping drags his attention away from the oscillator and Poe frowns as he listens to the droid's warning. On the horizon, dozens of TIE fighters are rising to meet their ships in the air with numbers that far overwhelm the scarce Resistance forces present. Adrenaline floods Poe's veins as he prepares himself for a fight, locking his guns into place.

     "Guys," he warns as the enemy fighters approach. "We've got a lot of company!"

     The world around him seems to move in slow motion as the TIE fighters approach. Poe sends Black One into a barrel roll, cutting between two opposing ships while firing off the cannons, taking out a different fighter in the distance. Around him, he can hear the sound of gunfire being exchanged as the rest of his squadron engages the enemy. It makes him feel a little more alive.

      "I've got one behind me," Snap shouts over the radio, calling for help from anyone nearby.

      "I'm on it," Jess replies quickly. Out of the corner of his eye, Poe sees Jessika's ship swerve around to gun down the TIE fighter riding on Snap's tail.

      He opens his mouth to commend Jess for her quick flying, but is cut off by the sound of a heavy cannon firing off a torpedo that smashes into one of the fighters near Poe and tears it to pieces. Horrified, Poe watches as the ship bursts into a million flaming fragments, plummeting down to the snow-covered surface of the planet below them.

     "Burillo's been hit!" Karé shouts over the radio.

      Momentarily distracted by the death of one of his subordinates, Poe nearly flies directly into an enemy ship before swerving out of the way at the last second. Kriff, he thinks, shaking his head to try and clear it. Kriff, kriff, kriff.

     "Watch out for ground fire!" Snap warns.

     In the distance, another ship goes down, followed by another; the pilots instantly killed on impact. That's half our fleet, Poe thinks numbly, dodging one TIE before blasting another. Half our fleet and we haven't even made a dent in that oscillator.

      With such low numbers and heavy losses, he knows that it'll be a miracle if they're able to take out the oscillator now. There is no way his pilots can combat an assault from both the ground and the air. It would be damn near impossible to succeed.

     Kriff, he thinks again, desperation creeping over him. We need help.

ON QUIET FEET, Rey makes her way around the base, creeping around corners with the gun Han Solo had given to her clutched tightly to her chest. She isn't sure how she's going to escape, but she knows that she can't stay here. It would take all of her wits to leave this place and she would have to come up with something fast before Kylo Ren found her again.

     Just as she turns the corner from one hallway to another, she nearly runs into a small crew of people. Instinctively, she lifts her blaster; fully prepared to shoot whoever is in front of her before she realizes who it is. With wide eyes, she takes in the sight of Finn, Han Solo, Chewbacca, and two other women she is unfamiliar with. One of them is a girl who looks to be a few years older than Rey herself, with thick curly brown hair and tan skin. Behind her, a small, round-shaped droid hovers just over her shoulder. The other woman is older, with graying hair and murky, unseeing eyes. She clings to Chewbacca's back the way a small child might cling to a parent, holding tight to the Wookiee's neck with thin arms.

     "Are you alright?" Han asks her and Rey nods quickly.

      "Yeah," she replies, slightly stunned.

       "Good," Han says gruffly, brushing past her to scope out the corridor for any other enemies.

      Finn comes up to her quickly, standing only a few feet away. "What happened — did he hurt you?" Her friend demands, eyes wide and searching as they look her over with concern.

      "Finn," Rey says in disbelief. "What are you doing here?"

     "We came back for you," he replies, as if it's the simplest thing in the world.

     Chewbacca lets out a small roar and Rey's eyes well up with unshed tears as she listens to his words. Finn glances at the Wookiee before looking to Rey. "What'd he say?"

      "That it was your idea," Rey replies, stepping forward to hug Finn and closing her eyes to prevent her tears from falling. He embraces her tightly, burying his face in her neck and holding her close. "Thank you," she tells him; the words too insignificant to capture the gratitude she feels. No one had ever come back for her before; not until Finn and Han. It was the only thing she had ever wanted.

       "How did you get away?" Finn asks, his voice muffled against her shoulder.

      Rey shakes her head. "I can't explain it," she admits. Her eyes briefly meet those of the dark-haired girl standing a few feet away. "And you wouldn't believe it."

      Before Finn can reply, Rey feels a tap on her shoulder and she pulls back from his embrace. Han Solo gestures for her to follow him. "Escape now, hug later," he instructs and Rey nods, following the man she'd come to admire so greatly.

     The small group makes their way into one of the transport elevators, stepping behind a pair of blast doors and waiting for them to shut. In the time it takes the elevator to start moving, the unfamiliar girl turns towards Rey and offers her a hand.

      "I'm Indira," she introduces herself, shaking her hand firmly. "You're Rey, right? BB-8 told me all about you."

       Instantly, Rey perks up at the mention of the small astromech droid. "Are you with the Resistance, too?"

       Indira nods and gives her a smile. "I'm a technician."

       The elevator comes to a jolting halt just after that and the doors fly open, revealing the outside of the base. A blast of cold air hits the group as they step onto the snow covered surface of the planet. Overhead, the X-wings roar across the sky, doing their best to dodge incoming fire from both the TIE fighters and First Order missiles in the light of the dying sun. All of them watch in horror as one of the X-wings gets caught by a torpedo from the cannons on the ground and goes spiraling down to the ground in flaming pieces, hitting the surface with a resounding thud.

      Indira's face twists with worry as she looks up at the sky, trying to distinguish the X-wings from one another. Rey watches her eyes flit from ship to ship as she desperately seems to be searching for something or someone up above.

      Han looks back at their group with a resigned expression. "They're in trouble," he says, mouth curling downwards. "We can't leave." He glances over at Chewie. "My friend's got a bag full of explosives. Let's use them."

THE GROUP SPLITS into two different teams: one is made up of Han, Chewbacca, Indira's mother, and EV-1 while the other consists of herself, Finn, and Rey. Though Indira had loathed parting with her mother so soon after just being reunited, she knew that in order to help Poe, Kali, and the other Resistance fighter pilots, they would have to split up — and she trusted Chewie enough to keep her mother safe.

      Rey had hijacked a snowspeeder on the ground for them and she, Finn, and Indira had all piled onto the vehicle before heading off to a conjunction station a few miles away as Chewie and Han made their way directly to the weapon's center. The duo wouldn't be able to access the inside of the oscillator until the security system was taken offline — which is what Indira, Finn, and Rey would be responsible for.

       The trio arrives at the conjunction within a matter of minutes, bursting through the doors of the facility to find it completely unoccupied. Immediately, Rey and Indira begin scouring the structure for service panels while Finn stands guard.

       At the back of the building, Indira finds the main power grid for the system. "Rey, over here!" She shouts and the smaller girl comes running over.

      Without hesitation, the scavenger tears the doors open on the hatch before studying the parts intently. After a brief moment, she reaches in and tugs on one of the components, tearing out pieces of the machinery and effectively rendering it useless. Indira joins her, ripping out wires and fibers until there isn't a single piece that is left in place.

       "Are we good?" Finn asks, coming over to the two of them. "The sun's getting low. I don't think we have much time left."

       "We've done it," Rey confirms, stepping back from the box.

A particularly strong gust of wind flows through the base and Rey shivers in the thin rags she'd worn from Jakku, causing Finn to immediately discard his jacket — the one that had once belonged to Poe — and he slips it over her shoulders with a gentle sort of affection that makes Indira's heart ache. She can't help but think of Poe, wondering if he's still alright.

      You would know if he wasn't, she tells herself, touching her necklace briefly before turning back to the former stormtrooper and scavenger. "Let's hurry and get back to base," she says, anxious to leave. "The sooner we're gone, the better."

      Finn and Rey nod in agreement and the three of them hurry back towards the snowspeeder, making their way to the oscillator with great haste. Up above them, the sky continues to grow darker by the second; hardly any light left as the sun is drained of all its energy. Indira takes one final glance back at the fighting X-wings and TIE fighters before following Finn and Rey into the oscillator, climbing a ladder up the side of the building.

      The interior of the oscillator is dark when they enter on one of the upper levels. It takes Indira's eyes time to adjust as she squints against the darkness, searching for Han, Chewie, and her mother. From a distance, she catches sight of Chewbacca and her mother on one of the lower levels, but there's no sign of Han.

     Feeling uneasy, Indira scans the room before her eyes lock on the sight of two figures standing over a narrow bridge across the gaping pit of the oscillator. She gasps faintly when she recognizes Han's figure facing off against the masked man from her nightmares — the one who had taken her mother captive and slaughtered the villagers on Jakku.

      "What is he doing?" She whispers frantically, eyes wide as she looks over at Finn and Rey.

      Finn shakes his head in disbelief. "That's Kylo Ren," he mutters. "Solo's no match for him."

      Indira's face grows taut with worry as they all watch the former smuggler close the gap between himself and Ren. They're too far away to hear anything that's being said between them, but it doesn't look like a fight, which confuses Indira even more. As the two men meet in the middle of the bridge, the masked man removes his helmet, revealing his face to Han before offering him his weapon.

What the hell ... Indira thinks, holding her breath.

      Outside, the sun vanishes completely and plunges the planet into total darkness. Fear rises in her heart as Indira feels the crystal against her neck pulsing frantically in time with her hammering heartbeat — almost like a warning — and she wants nothing more than to leave. The sun is gone, she thinks. We were never meant to stay here this long.

      As Indira looks back at the bridge, the world seems to fall into slow motion. She watches, transfixed in horror as Han and the other man grapple with the weapon. For a second her eyes flit upwards, catching sight of a figure dressed in all black in the upper rafters of the oscillator. Their blonde hair glints in the red light from the oscillator's glow and Indira gasps when she sees the rifle they have trained on Han's figure.

"Oh, gods," she breathes, looking over at Rey and Finn with wide eyes. "It's a trap!"

      Finn inhales sharply at the realization, knowing that Indira is right. He opens his mouth to shout to Han, but the sound is cut off when the unthinkable happens. He doesn't even have time to scream before Kylo Ren ignites his weapon, impaling Han's body on the glowing red blade. Gunfire rains down on him from above, piercing his skin and wracking his body violently.

      A scream leaves Rey's lips, echoed by the sound of Chewbacca's anguished cry. Indira can't even find it in herself to cry out, watching mutely in pure shock as the blade twists violently before it is pulled from Han's body. The smuggler reaches up to touch the face of the man who stabbed him, holding it almost fondly for a moment before he lets go and falls from the bridge; spiraling downward towards the center of the reactor beneath the pit until he can no longer be seen.

      A sense of grief washes over Indira that is so powerful that she nearly staggers back from it. It is not her own grief, but it is familiar to her. The burden of Leia's sorrow at the loss of her husband is overwhelming, bringing tears to Indira's eyes and she nearly sobs in anguish.

      For a moment, there is stillness in the aftermath of Han's death; one that haunts the room. Beside Indira, Rey chokes back tears as Finn starts to hyperventilate. None of them know what to do as they continue to reel from the shock of Solo's demise. However, the stillness is broken when Chewbacca lets out another agonized howl before he raises his crossbow and fires directly at the man who stabbed Han.

        Sprung into action by Chewie's attack, Indira steels her face into a mask of anger and raises her weapon. She squints at the blonde-haired sniper above the pit and fires the trigger on her gun without hesitation, watching with a grim, vengeful sort of satisfaction as the girl falls to the ground and doesn't get back up.

      Next to her, Rey sobs as she blindly fires her gun at the stormtroopers entering the building and Finn does his best to hit them as well. Indira watches as Chewbacca runs through the building with her mother still clinging to his back, shooting at every stormtrooper in sight until he ducks into an alcove outside of the line of fire. Seconds later, an explosion wracks the oscillator as he detonates the explosives and the building is flooded with heat as the columns collapse, crippling the foundation.

     On the bridge, Kylo Ren looks up and locks his gaze on Finn, Indira, and Rey with a murderous expression. Filled with fear, Indira tugs on the arms of Finn and Rey, knowing that they have to leave now before the building collapses and crushes them or Ren catches them.

      The trio makes their way down the ladder as quickly as they can, scrambling down the metal rungs until their feet touch the ground. Rey is still sobbing when they hit the ground, but there's no time for Indira to comfort her. She scans the scenery outside, noticing that their snow speeder is gone.

      "Where's Chewie?" She pants, unable to catch her breath. "My mother?"

      Finn shakes his head and her stomach fills with dread. "I don't know."

       The necklace around Indira's necklace burns with heat, sending a prickling feeling down her spine like she's being watched, and she spins around quickly with her gun drawn. A few feet away, a man dressed in the uniform of a First Order officer has his own weapon drawn on the three of them. His hair is dark and his eyes are a strange, light blue color as he takes in the sight of them. Indira's brow furrows when she notices the crystal around his neck tied to a twisted leather cord — just like the one she wears hers on.

     Neither of them move; both frozen with their weapons trained on one another before the officer lowers his gun, refusing to shoot. "Go!" He shouts at Indira. "Get out of here!"

       Confused, she lowers her weapon. "What?" She demands, failing to understand why the man is letting them go.

      "The Wookiee already left with the droid and the old woman," he replies tersely. "Now go before he finds you."

       Indira hesitates, wanting to ask the man a hundred different questions before she decides otherwise. She turns towards Finn and Rey, grasping their hands in hers before taking off at a run without a second thought. The trio scrambles over a bank of snow, heading towards the forest near the Falcon's last location. Rey offers Indira a hand when she nearly slips on the icy ground, pulling her over the ridge as they start to run again. In the distance, explosions flare across the sky while the X-wings continue their airborne battle.

      "The Falcon's this way," Finn informs Rey, gasping the words out through short breaths.

       They're nearly to the edge of the forest when Indira's necklace burns hot against her neck. She stops abruptly, unable to run any further as her lungs burn with exertion. Finn and Rey are similarly exhausted when she turns to face them, chests heaving as they all inhale and exhale rapidly.

       The hum of a weapon igniting causes the hair on the back of Indira's neck to rise. Her breath catches in her throat when a glowing red blade illuminates the darkness of the forest, casting light on a single, solitary figure cloaked in darkness as he blocks the path ahead of them. She hears faint gasps from Finn and Rey beside her as they see him too and her heart begins pounding frantically in her chest.

        Kylo Ren steps forward from the trees, twirling his blade in a menacing fashion as he glares at them through dark, hate-filled eyes. His black hair falls across his forehead and he shakes it from his face, lips curling down into a hardened line before he speaks through gritted teeth.

      "We're not done yet."

a/n: two important plot points for this chapter:
1) the girl who helped shoot han is an OC named raena naghy that belongs to my friend vic stxrmborn from her kylo ren fic PRISONER, so if you want to learn more about her you should most definitely go check that book out!
2) the first order officer that indira runs into before fleeing to the forest is an OC named stefan nakada that belongs to my friend mal malisandre from her fic HAUNT!
both of these characters will become important players later in this story, but these are just their introductions. more to come from them later!

EDITED ON:
10.13.19