28 || found and returned: one space girl

"NICE TO SEE YOU COMING BACK ALIVE HERE, KYRA."

RESISTANCE BASE, ILENNIAN SYSTEM-

There was a rush of excitement as the heroes stumbled out of the ramp of the Millennium Falcon, streams of people rushing towards the ship as the group was coming off. The Resistance was overjoyed at the fact that the First Order had taken such a large hit to their pride and their strength. The Resistance had saved an entire planetary system from destruction- and they had gotten the map (even if it was only partially complete) to Luke Skywalker.

The odds against the First Order were looking better with every moment.

Fox and Han stood off to one side as the celebrations occurred in front of the Falcon, silently talking to a medic about Finn's condition as Chewie carefully lowered him onto the stretcher. The three of them seemed very concerned as they watched Finn be escorted away, Fox muttering something small to Han before following the stretcher, assuring the smuggler that he'd be fine accompanying the man. In fact, the defected trooper almost preferred it that way. No attention would be drawn to him, and Han and Chewbacca could settle whatever matters they had with the General.

He had seen the look in the woman who he recognized to be General Leia Organa's eyes as the three of them left the Millenium Falcon- and it definitely wasn't a look that he wanted to get in the way of. Fox was more than happy to leave in that situation.

Rey, the last member of the party, lingered behind the group, trying to figure out what was going on in the midst of arriving at a place she had never been to before. Everything seemed so confusing at that time. She knew that everyone else had different affairs to tend to, but she wasn't sure where she exactly belonged in that moment within the Resistance. However, it wasn't long before all of Rey's worries of being the outsider inside of the Resistance were quelled, a young female Resistance pilot who had survived the attack gesturing for her to come into the crowd, wanting the scavenger's story to be told.

The only person truly left in the party to deal with was Kyra, who was already in the midst of the crowd. She had bounded down the ramp of the Millenium Falcon, hopeful when she saw a familiar black X-Wing landed on a bay not too far from the Falcon. Kyra knew what that ship meant, but now she had to go and find-

"Space Girl!" Poe yelled, Kyra turning around to see him barrelling towards her, BB-8 whirring close behind. The whole world seemed to stop as she saw him coming towards her, a bright sign of joy  in the midst of the Resistance members. Through the entire crowd of the Resistance, Kyra wasted no time in running towards him, tears forming at the edge of her eyes as she saw him, safe and alive.

The distance between the two heroes got smaller and smaller until Poe finally reached Kyra,  the two locking in the tightest hug for a moment. It didn't take long for Poe to immediately hoist Kyra up as the two of them laughed, locked in their tight embrace and happy to see each other again. As Poe spun Kyra around in the air, a smile grew wider on his face, an inexplicable amount of joy swelling inside of him as he lowered her back to the ground.

It almost didn't feel real at that moment. The two had just helped defeat a weapon that would have destroyed the entire galaxy, them included, and yet there they stood. Just a couple of inches away from each other, the distance feeling like nothing now that they saw each other. A couple of days ago, the distance they kept from each other and the freedom that they had together would have been impossible.

"I guess I finally found you again." He chuckled, his eyes meeting hers, the man seeing an expression lighting up her face that he had never seen before. There was a sense of laughter in her eyes, a happiness that he hadn't seen. Kyra was free, and he could see it in every feature in her face. Poe loved seeing that side of her- it was a sign that Kyra was truly happy, that she was in a place with people who loved her.

A place where she belonged.

"I guess you did." Kyra laughed with him, quickly shutting her eyes as she forced her tears back into her eyes, trying (and failing) to not get too emotional about seeing Poe again. She quickly wiped her eyes, giving a small laugh as she tried to play it off in a cool manner. Looking up at Poe, she smiled, his eyes making direct contact with hers.

There was a moment of silence as the two just stared at each other, everything fading away into a quiet whisper as they just cherished the fact that they were together again. In a way, it showed the two that no force, whether it be the threat of the looming First Order or the distance of a thousand lightyears and countless planets, could stop them from finding each other.

Because they would always have each other in the galaxy.

"It's a good thing, too." Poe placed his hands on her face, just amazed that he had found her again, and that nothing had gone wrong during the events in which they had destroyed the Star Killer base. There was a small chuckle as the words that came to mind popped into his head, the man almost at a loss for words of what to say to her in that moment. "I really wanted to finish that conversation." He smiled, leaning down to kiss Kyra again.

The moment in which their lips met was a moment that seemed more amazing than the last. Their eyes closed, Poe and Kyra both realized something at the same exact time. This was a moment of reunion, not one of uncertain goodbyes. Kyra and Poe had found each other, and one thing was for certain- they weren't going to be letting go of each other any time soon.

This time would be very different than the last- and in more ways than just one.

This time around, Kyra and Poe noticed that there were definitely a lot more things that were different than the last time. Everything was rushing around behind them, people definitely taking notice that the two of them were locking lips this time around. Resistance pilots and members seemed to take note of the fact that the First Order double agent and the best pilot in the Resistance were locking lips, cheers rising up as the two broke away from their moment, Kyra turning beet red as she looked at the crowd.

There seemed to be all sorts of people turning their attention towards her and Poe now, the Resistance pilot beside her giving an embarrassed laugh as he whispered a quick apology to Kyra. However, the man didn't break from her side, instead weaving his hand through hers, deciding that it would be better to come outright with it rather than deny it.

Giving a shrug, Kyra laughed as she kissed Poe on the cheek, her embarrassment still obvious as her cheeks blushed a deep pink. The Resistance was going to find out about them eventually- if they hadn't already known. BB-8 was a known snitch- he had snitched on her already to Han, some of the stories of the thing she had done on missions that only Poe had known about coming to light during their ride to the Star Killer base. They might as well address it before the rumors started to spread all around the Resistance base.

"C'mon." Poe nudged Kyra, looking down at BB-8, who had been sending out a string of shocked swears of why they would ever do what they just did in public, to follow them. "If we're going to celebrate, we might as well do it together." He laughed, running his free hand through his hair as one of his closest Resistance pilot friends, Snap, ran up to him.

"So this is the infamous double agent you've told us so much about, Poe." The other Resistance pilot smiled up at the young woman who was by Poe's side, sticking his hand out for her to shake. He seemed rather approachable, the twinkle in his eyes one that seemed to signify a friendliness that was genuine, something that Kyra had been seeing a lot more of recently. "The name's Snap. I've been a part of this idiot's squadron for as long as I can remember."

"Kyra." She laughed, shaking his hand very lightly. "Kyra Ceydea. It's a pleasure to meet you too, Snap. It's also nice to know that I'm not the only person he acts like an idiot around." Kyra joked, earning a light elbow from Poe, which made Snap chuckle as well.

"Seeing as I will probably see you around a lot more, figuring that you're finally with us in the Resistance, and you're sticking around Dameron here, I just wanted to introduce myself. We're all a family around here." Snap placed his hands on his hips, looking around at the ships that were coming in from the mission onto the Resistance base. "And if you ever need someone to give you a lift if he won't, I'd be happy to accompany you on any missions. Any friend of Poe's is a friend of mine's." He smiled, his grin one that was genuine.

It made Kyra feel much more at ease inside of the Resistance. She wasn't just some myth inside of the rebellion group now- she was a person who was more than that, and she could be acknowledged as such. "Thank you so much." Kyra nodded her head at him, the gratefulness in her rather overwhelming.

The introductions kept on coming after that. Poe introduced her to the rest of his squadron, most  of them giving the head pilot a hard time about his newfound romance with Kyra. Whether or not they had seen it with their own eyes, the news had spread like wildfire through the crowd- now everyone knew what had transpired between Poe and Kyra when they had arrived back on base.

In all perfect honesty, it was a little unsettling for Kyra at first. When she had gotten back from this mission, she had expected some new interactions within the Resistance, sure, but not the overwhelming feeling of support that they were giving her. Resistance members were coming up and introducing themselves, some even hugging her or offering a high five as a celebration of what she had done to help the cause.

It took a little while for Kyra and Poe to weave their way through the crowd of Resistance members, but eventually a time came in which they found a break in the crowd, the two of them moving away. BB-8 had gotten lost somewhere in the crowd, and if the two of them were perfectly honest, they didn't want to try and find the small BB unit. He would find his way back to them at some point on base. As Kyra turned back around, giving one last look at the Resistance members who had just given her a feeling of home, she wanted to say a silent thank you to all of them.

Instead, hidden in the background, was a smirking Han Solo, who just gave her a thumbs up as he leaned up against the ship. He was next to a grinning ( if Kyra could tell that he was grinning ) Chewbacca, who seemed to give a small roar of excitement to her, waving his arm goodbye.

"What are you looking at?" Poe asked her, leading her ahead as he kept a loose grip on her hand. He turned to look back at where she was staring, just seeing the normal Resistance celebration that he was so used to seeing after the success of a great mission. Granted, none of the celebration had been to this caliber before, but he had seen the joyful return of the Resistance far too many times.

"Nothing." Kyra replied, a small smile forming on her face as she tore her eyes away from where she saw Han and Chewie, almost as if it was a little secret between the three of them. "Nothing at all." She turned her attention back to Poe, who was looking at her with a fond smile of his own on his face. "Now, where are we going, Space Boy?" Kyra teased, walking to stand side by side with him, using the signature name he had donned on her for him.

"Well-" Poe's grin grew wider as he picked up the pace. He had a plan- and he had asked General Organa before he left he could do it- which made the surprise that he had in store for her all that much better.  "I was thinking, since you don't really have any quarters or a place to stay, maybe-"

"Kyra!" A voice interrupted Poe, Rey running towards her friend and a Resistance pilot ( who she assumed to be Poe from the stories that Kyra had told her ). "Uh- sorry for breaking this moment up." She cleared her throat, shaking her head for a moment to knock herself out of the awkwardness she held in that situation. "Well, the Resistance needs all of us inside. They're saying they might've found the full map to Skywalker."

Poe and Kyra exchanged a quick look between the two of them, both of them knowing that the map that they had seen was not complete at all. How the hell had the Resistance figured out a way to find out where Luke Skywalker was? It was great news to hear, but also rather perplexing at the same time.

"No- you're fine Rey." Kyra reached out to touch Rey's arm, giving her a reassuring look that everything was fine, and that she hadn't interrupted anything. "Uh- that is some pretty big news. I'm assuming that they want all of the Resistance to hear this, huh?"

A quick nod from Rey was all the young woman needed. "They want me to go tell the group over there that we're meeting in the briefing room ASAP. Probably discussing who's going and what comes next for the Resistance." She explained, her words in between quick and short breaths, trying to get out all of the words that she possibly could in a short amount of time.

"No, please. Go do that." Poe agreed with Kyra, giving her hand a small squeeze. "Kyra and I will go on and head that way. I suppose we'll have to put the plan on the backburner for now." He muttered, somewhat peeved by the news, but still happy that the Resistance was making such huge strives forward.

"Uh- right." Rey flashed a quick smile at Kyra before bounding off again, trying to inform everyone that she possibly could about the news. It wouldn't take her long, Kyra figured, with everyone so close together and news spreading around rapidly.

"We should head that way then." Kyra cleared her throat  as they watched Rey run off, the couple turning their attention towards the HQ of the Resistance base. "If they're calling this meeting quickly, we better get there quick, before the intel gets shared and we're out of the loop."

Kyra and Poe quickly ran together towards the base, never unlocking their hands. It was a sign of their reunion, and the fact that they probably didn't want to let go of the other's hand for a very, very long time. They quickly navigated their way through the familiar stairs that led down to the main hub of the Resistance base, finding that there were many more people down inside of the base than there were outside.

Moving their way through the people running to and fro, the couple found themselves in front of the briefing room, the doors whooshing open before they could react. Inside was General Organa, who had moved inside after she had seen all of the Resistance members return back to base, safe and sound. Other important Resistance leaders were inside as well, Kyra recognizing some of the faces she had briefed on Star Killer base alongside some new ones.

"We came as quickly as we could, General." Poe acknowledged the room, somewhat out of breath as he walked in, Kyra quickly matching his pace. "We heard from-uh-" He paused for a moment, Kyra supplying him her friend's name when he struggled. "Rey that you said that there was important information about the location of Skywalker."

"Yes." General Organa dipped her head, a droid that the Resistance hadn't seen active in a very long time by her side. "R2-D2, Luke's old droid, has woken up from where he has been powered down for the last many years. We believe that he has the rest of the map inside of him."

"That's-" Kyra paused, all eyes in the room on her now. "That's amazing to hear, General." She dipped her head a little, the excitement in her voice a little too noticeable in her voice. With the fact that the map had always been stored in a droid that was in the possession of the Resistance, it helped reaffirm the fact that the First Order was never going to get to Luke Skywalker- and Kyra rather enjoyed that sentiment.

"It is." General Organa smiled at the young woman, an unspoken conversation flashing quickly between their eyes as they maintained eye contact. The woman seemed to be hinting that it was alright that she had said that. There was no reason to fear speaking out in the Resistance, because every voice mattered- no voice being oppressed in the General's eyes. "Although I suspect we have a lot more members incoming if Rey has done her job communicating the message out. We should wait to disclose any further intel."

"Of course." Poe agreed, squeezing Kyra's hand in reassurement yet again. He understood the high pressure of being in a room with such intimidating figures for the first time, although he had learned to fear them less now. "Let's wait for the others to arrive."

After that, people began to quickly file in as the news spread, Leia explaining the situation to everyone once she felt that enough of the right Resistance members were inside of the room. The sounds of shock and celebration seemed to echo through the room in a quiet manner, another victory on top of the destruction of Star Killer base a rewarding thing to the Resistance.

Suddenly, BB-8 appeared right by Kyra and Poe, who were standing by a side of the table, analyzing the map that R2-D2 was now displaying. The astromech droid had been prompted to do so by C-3PO and General Organa, the Resistance analyzing the map like it was the most precious thing in the galaxy. The map had a piece missing inside of it, almost as if there had been a chunk purposely torn out.

It was painfully obvious where that other piece was supposed to go, the piece that had been ingrained into Kyra and Poe's mind the obvious fit into the map. General Organa had seemed to have figured that fact out as well, the other generals and Resistance members slowly realizing what the map with the missing piece meant.

Let me help out with the other part! BB-8 beeped up at his two masters, the droid seeing how Kyra and Poe were basically inseparable now. He assumed that after everything that Kyra had been through with him, the least he could do was classify her as one of his masters. He seemed almost as excited about the discovery as the two of them did, and it was obvious in his tone, even in binary.

Looking down at his trusty droid, who had carried the information inside of him for most of the journey, Poe chuckled. "I hear you, BB-8. Hold on." He reached to the hologram table where the map he had received on Jakku still was placed, pressing a button so that it would rise.

Grabbing the map piece, he quickly bent down to feed the information back into his droid's hard drive, BB-8 processing the map information quickly. His little hard drive area where the map had been placed closed shut, the little BB unit beeping happily when the map integrated seamlessly into his systems.

The droid soon left Kyra and Poe's side, moving over to where R2 was displaying his map. A hologram quickly appeared on BB-8's projection ability, the map piece that Poe, Kyra, Rey, and Finn had fought so hard to get to the Resistance, the missing piece of the map that R2-D2 contained.

Within seconds, everyone in the Resistance realized what was going to happen before their eyes. The two pieces of the map clicked together as BB-8 rolled closer to R2, making sure that everything was lined up perfectly for the Resistance to see. And there, before their eyes, a complete map to Luke Skywalker stood before their eyes.

The Resistance had done it.

Cheers erupted from the Resistance members once again, people hugging, crying, and clapping as they realized that the galaxy would be saved. With Luke Skywalker back on their side, it meant that there would be hope inside of the galaxy again.

Luke Skywalker would come back and restore things to the way that they were, and he would help defeat the new threat of the First Order that loomed over the galaxy. The Jedi would defeat the sith lord in training Kylo Ren, and the Supreme Leader that controlled over Ren. The Resistance would no longer have to fight alone.

There was an overwhelming sense of accomplishment as Kyra stared up at the map, the happiness she felt in that moment the most she had felt in years. She had Poe Dameron, a man that she had found after fighting against the First Order, by her side, rescued old friends, and had saved countless lives and made new friends in the process.

Kyra had done everything that she had been told would be impossible to do by the First Order's standards. Her ledger that had been stained black by the deeds she had committed under the First Order was slowly getting lighter and lighter, and this was the first huge step towards cleaning it entirely.

Before she could even entirely process what was going on in front of her, Poe had wrapped her into a tight hug, the two celebrating something together that they had fought so hard to achieve. The secret meetings, the quiet exchange on Tatooine, the hell of interrogation by the First Order, and the journeys that they had to take all alone on Jakku- it had all paid off.

Closing her eyes, Kyra finally allowed for the tears to stream down her face that she had been holding in since they had arrived on base. The emotions that she was feeling were consuming her- and in the best way possible. The feeling of light, hope, joy, and overwhelming love were too much for her to bear inside of her, and were let out through her tears of joy.

"We did it, Poe." Kyra whispered, opening her eyes to stare up again at the map that meant so much to her. It signified so much to the young woman- much more than anyone inside of the Resistance (barring Poe) would know. "We did it."

As Poe was locked in the embrace with Kyra, he just smiled. This was all that he had wanted- her safe in his arms, the First Order a problem that was becoming weaker and less of a problem to the galaxy with every waking moment. His heart swelled with the same emotions she was feeling, the journey that the both of them had taken to get to this exact moment finally paying off as they stared up at the blue projection of the sky.

"I know."

<~•~>

well, well, well...

if it isn't the chapter that I wrote while avoiding sleep on Monday night.

anyways, I'm super excited to bring you guys this chapter, even though it's super late in the night when I'm posting it! if y'all saw anything on my insta, you'll see I've bumped the updating schedule for the last week to Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and then Sunday.

I want to get this book done by my wattpad "anniversary" as we're calling it, because I've been on this site for four years now and I think that deserves something to be done in  celebration.

okay, I really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, because it was SUPER fun to write,,, I mean it's just fluff, like what did you expect me to do? be mean to pyra? nah, that comes in the sequel boys and girls, you just wait around for that.

alrighty, thanks so much for reading!