THROUGH THE CAVE PASSAGEWAYS WHERE THE METAL LAB MET THE DIRT, SHE KNEW EXACTLY WHERE TO GO.

She ran with glee and a sort of untamed reckless energy I admired. And as she ran, she... sang. At first it was a soft, gentle, calming hum, maybe to focus, I don't know. I'd been in a lot of battles, though, and I'd certainly seen weirder ways to calm the nerves. It sounded nice. As we reached a natural stair-sloping set of rocks and began to scale, Alya opened her mouth to form words, but I couldn't understand them. The tongue sounded completely foreign to me, though my droid seemed to enjoy the noise. BB-8 whooped in tune with the melody and then suddenly turned to me and beeped with adoration.

"Poe, this is your beautiful lady, your princess, her voice, she's here!"

Alya instantly stopped and looked back.

"What'd he say?" She asked as my face turned completely red. "I can only understand the more basic 'yes' and 'no.'"

My cheeks burned. "N-Nothing, nothing, he said nothing."

She raised her brow at me. "Doesn't sound like nothing."

I looked to the side, biting the inside of my cheek. "Actually, Beebee says your singing sucks." I lied. "He wishes you'd stop. He said that if he had ears, they'd be bleeding."

The reaction was instant. Alya scowled at me, turning head and continuing onward, rolling her eyes, while BB-8 beeped at me in indignation.

"Poe!! You always tell me not to lie, and there you are! Now she's gonna hate me!"

I quickly shot him an apologetic look, mouthing a genuine "I'm sorry", which BB-8 half-accepted. We had stopped climbing and had reached an alcove of sorts. Alya fidgeted with a metal fixing in the wall, slipping a screwdriver underneath the hatching until it flipped open to reveal a window.

"What'd it mean?"

"Huh?" Alya wiped her brow as she set the screwdriver back in her belt. "My song?"

I nodded.

"It's nothing, just an old traditional nonsense Poyterian song my adoptive mother used to sing before my dad used to run into battle."

"Your adoptive mother?-"

Instead of answering me, she shushed me. She had finally thrust open the window. I had been expecting sunlight, but all that poured from the outside was rain and stormy, gloomy skies. Alya jerked her dark hood over her face, motioning for me to do the same. She pointed down below on the path at some movement. On the horizon, there was a splotch of light, a flashlight mechanism guiding the patrol's way.

Silently, Alya dropped. I had only just looked back, and only to see the girl leap out the window the second I had done so. She flipped in the air, fell about twenty feet off the cliffside, and landed, perched safely in a tree. Looking down at her, she caught my gaze and expectantly motioned for me to follow.

I shook my head and sighed. Then upon hearing an impatient beep from beside me, I tucked BB-8 in a pocket in my cloak that secured him to my side. My feet teetered on the edge of the cliff. Rocks and pebbles fell down, ricocheting off of each other in mid-air.

I clutched Beebee to me tightly and jumped. When I landed on the treetop, there was a considerable noisy impactful crunch on the branch.

Alya let out a gasp as she teetered, nearly losing her balance as the tree shook. Instead of swiping at me like I expected she would, she grabbed my head and forced me to get down in the cover of the foliage with her.

A light was shined above our heads from the patrol, illuminating the vegetation where we had previously been standing. I heard voices murmur.

"What the fuck was that?" One bounty hunter screeched. It returned the flashlight back to the path. Through the leaves, I could barely make out its grotesque and scarred green Rodian face. Its features were contorted into a scowl. "Don't tell me it's one of those damned Rugrats creatures again."

"The cute ones with the sharp teeth?" A second bounty hunter, a humanoid with enormous fangs overlapping pale blue lips, asked. "I believe they're called Rograts, dumbass."

"Whatever. Only you'd think they were cute." The Rodian grunted. "They're a fucking menace. I hate guard duty. The Boss never bothers sending anyone over here usually anyway. Why the fuck did we get stuck with this fucking rancor-ass job?"

"You're forgetting the... scene the Boss found us in." The second one mumbled, his cerulean face gathering some blush color. The Rodian turned red as well (well, as red as he could get, he was green after all) and swatted playfully at his fellow bounty hunter.

"I suppose you're right for once. Get caught doin' the crime, do the time. Now come on." They laughed and continued on.

"Only two of them." Alya noted after we were done listening. After hearing all that, I could tell where Alya got her filthy mouth. I mean, if the entire planet talked like that, how could someone not? Through the dim light, I saw her eyes glance my way. A thoughtful expression played on her face. "C'mon," She ordered. "Let's take care of them quickly before they get too far away."

Before I could protest, she took off again. It irritated me to not be in control, I realized, and to control Alya seemed like an unlikely expectation for me to hold. She seemed to have a plan, however, so I sighed and followed yet again.

Alya stopped her tree-hopping at an overlying, drooping branch over the path. If I could yell in that moment, I would have. I mean, what was she thinking? She was in full view, no cover at all! But... she didn't seem to care.

She relaxed and sat, leaning against the branch, propped up by her elbow. The two bounty hunters froze in their tracks instantly at the sight of her.

"Oh what the fuck-" The Rodian began, gripping for his blaster. "A civilian wandered off?"

"I guess you could put it that way." Alya smiled falsely at them, tilting her head like a doll. "Have a good time executing more citizens for exercising their basic right of free speech today?"

The two bounty hunters grumbled at her remarks, both springing into attack, both of their hands drawing their weapons. But Alya was quicker.

"Y'know, it's quite rude to take over, treat the Poyter people like they're nothing, and then not expect a fucking uprising." Alya yelled, her charged kyber gloves glowing with powerful energy. She dodged a blaster fire and then swiped at the Rodian, missing by mere millimeters. "Not to mention it's just plain fucking stupid."

Alya was speedy and agile enough to evade the blaster fire and the punches of the two bounty hunters, and managed to low-kick sweep the Rodian off of his feet. The Rodian fell to the ground with a thud, the blaster clattering out of his hands, and his companion was caught of guard. Alya seized the moment and promptly smacked the gloves to his chest, causing a kyber crystal burst, sending the humanoid flying backwards, making a dull impact with a tree. She laughed to herself triumphantly, but I noticed something she did not. The Rodian was stirring, reaching for his fallen blaster, and aiming it at Alya's back.

I aimed my kyber-laser weapon at him and fired without hesitation. The Rodian fell, crumpled to the forest ground.

Alya spun around with wild eyes as she realized what had happened.I let a cocky grin slip over my lips easily as I cocked my head up. The girl was stunned, frozen in her spot as I merely told her, "You're welcome."

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A/N: long chapter, so enjoy! don't forget to vote, comment, all that good stuff. xx Natalie