scene with ~confrontfear.

[poeticforce]

There was a danger in celebrating too soon. But was it really too soon when it felt like they had grabbed their lives back from the jaws of defeat? The unnatural lightning attack had been sudden and devastating, and could have easily wiped out their motley fleet of rebels if it had lasted much longer. But it'd ended as suddenly as it started and they managed to recover, to get back into the fight and finish off the Final Order fleet that was as good as grounded.

It wasn't until they all began to regroup back at the base that they were able to take stock of who might not make it back. The lightning storm had been hell on most of the electronics and blew out the comms on several of their ships, so it was just assumed that if they couldn't get a hold of someone that was why.

But as people were celebrating still being alive, and trying to find their friends among the gathering masses, there was one particular X-Wing that seemed to be missing.

Hours passed and as night fell on Ajan Kloss there remained one very notable and concerning absence. No one could raise General Dameron on the radio nor could the X-Wing he had been flying be located, its last signal from during the battle. Surely he wasn't one of the casualties... was he?

***

The Resistance did score a victory at the Battle of Exegol, however, not all its inhabitants perished in the ship battle or the magical shock wave when the former Emperor was killed for good. A few Sith, having been elsewhere in the citadel, emerged as the chaos quieted. They were met with dismay when they found there was nothing in the amphitheater to be salvaged, no trace of their dark lord that could possibly be revived yet again.

Outside of the citadel the ground and ocean had become a graveyard of ships and their occupants. Yet there were still some traces of life among the wreckage. Nothing that could restore what all had been destroyed, of course not, but they had toiled in the darkness, in secret, for years. Revenge came in many forms, and they were patient.

A weakened signature in the Force led them to a Resistance pilot that had managed to escape his wrecked ship and swim to solid ground only to pass out not far from the water. His body was dragged back to the citadel. Down below, where they had painstakingly worked for years to recreate the Emperor through testing and experiments. A ripe mind filled with knowledge of their enemy would be a terrible thing to let go to waste.

***

It started not a month later. The Resistance had moved on from Ajan Kloss, needing a base of operations more suited to the task of centralizing and organizing their fresh support, as well as the difficult task of dealing with what should come next. A skeleton crew remained at the Ajan Kloss base, with intentions of the base serving as an outpost for the time being.

When no one could be raised on the comms after several hours, a few went to investigate, just in case it wasn't something related to the weather or faulty tech. What they discovered was a slaughter. All that had been stationed there were dead, most killed execution-style. Some looked as if they hadn't even gotten a shot off. It was all too clean and efficient to be the work of lingering First Order troopers.

The holovids from the security system revealed it to have been the work of a single person — masked and darkly dressed, who moved through the base calmly and almost as if they had familiarity with the location. Perhaps most troubling was not simply the kills, but that they had disabled the security systems, not destroyed them to prevent them from working. The system hadn't been hacked, but breached by using the proper access codes.

Within a few days' time there was an attack at another Resistance location, this time at the home of a small rebel cell that was working to destabilize a First Order occupied world. The security camera had been taken offline prior to the attack but the kills were done in the same manner.

Did they have a traitor within their midst? Had the scattered remnants of the First Order hired a mercenary in a last-ditch effort to wound the Resistance as much as they could before they were stopped? Or was something worse, something more horrible, at play?

Comments

[jedied]

"I didn't say I'd be taken prisoner. I said I'd come with you. Just you."

She needed to get them both away from here before the First Order decided to send in reinforcements. They had to know this was a gamble. She can't understand why they'd even risk using him if they were't going in for any kind of subterfuge. Just to twist the knife a bit more, she supposes. To gloat about having turned two of the Resistance's strongest assets against one another, and claiming them both in the end.

She can't let it happen. Better that they both die here in this forest than corrupt what they'd both stood for.

It doesn't need to come to that yet, but they do need to get away.

"I'll let you fly my ship. There's another asset in it for you if we can't come to an agreement."

BB-8's waiting for her. It's a risk, to be sure, but if the droid doesn't spark some recognition, he can at least send a covert message.

[poeticforce]

"For what, a joy ride?" His sass had a sharper edge than before, though at least it's still there.

It was a ridiculous thought to him, and one that was starting to make him wonder if she was just trying to distract or delay him. He wasn't confident in that line of thinking though. When he had come across her she had seemed more likely to be getting a sense for what had happened here, not specifically looking for the perpetrator.

Unless of course she had backup somewhere near enough to contact using her abilities rather than traditional means. An idea he wondered slightly more about when she mentioned there being someone else, presumably on her ship.

"Stay out of my head, Jedi. Let's start there." he replied gruffly, narrowing his eyes at her. Not that he could see what kind of 'agreement' they could possibly come to, given his orders were to attack another Resistance location after he was finished dealing with her. The Sith also didn't value any of the others as much as they did her, as far as he was aware, so he didn't immediately see how another of the surviving Resistance would prove valuable. "Just what kind of agreement are you proposing?"

[jedied]

His snark has her rolling her eyes in an entirely familiar fashion, and for a moment a flicker of something like relief crosses her features. Her friend is alive. His memory has been tampered with, but he's here, standing in front of her, and if it comes down to it she knows she can knock him out and get away. But the goal is to get away with him, and that's a whole heck of a lot easier if she doesn't have to drag him back to the Falcon.

"You can take my ship wherever you want once you've heard what I have to say, even if that means back to the First Order. I've got an astromech back there with a lot of intel on it, too. It's more valuable to you than I am. Come have a look; I'll stay out of your head."

At least until we get there.

She doesn't like the idea of rooting around in Poe's head, but it's going to be necessary, she's sure, to undo whatever was done to him. She's just hoping that a look at some familiar surroundings and one familiar droid will rattle something loose for long enough to give him pause.

[poeticforce]

One eyebrow lifts as Poe gives her a slightly incredulous look at her suggestion. He doesn't care about whatever kind of ship she's flying or what astromech she has with her. None of that is important to the Sith so by extension it's not important to him.

... But it might be easier to get the upper hand on her if there was someone else, even a droid, distracting her. Potentially fighting in closer proximity wasn't necessarily a great risk, however knowing that she's without her lightsaber makes it marginally less risky. Jedi leaned on their tools; surely the odds were decent that she might not have as much experience fighting hand-to-hand.

What precisely he would do if when he got the advantage of her he's not sure; leave her to wake up alone, wondering which of her friends were in danger, he supposes. If he could reasonably secure her he might try to take her back to Exegol but he's not leaping ahead to that just yet. One thing at a time.

"Fine."

Poe straightens, not crossing his arms though that sort of energy is definitely present. His hands itch for the rifle, and he briefly considers reaching for his pistol but refrains. Better to leave it be and not encourage her to try and toss that who knows where as well.

"Lead the way. And you can start with whatever it is you're so determined to say while we walk."

[jedied]

It pains her to leave her lightsaber behind, but she can come back for it once she's got Poe taken care of. She scratches her left wrist idly, surreptitiously activating the tracking beacon she'd brought with her just in case. It would be a few hours before anyone could reach her here, but it was well enough hidden under her armwraps that unless he had reason to try to bind her wrists, it ought to go unnoticed. If worse came to worst, Finn would follow. He'd be able to get through where she'd failed, if she failed.

She's not intending to fail.

"Do you know about the remaining Sith holocrons? As it turns out, there's more than just the Wayfinder -- which I have, by the way. They're difficult to create, and almost as difficult to find unless you have a particular affinity for objects with Force signatures."

None of it is untrue; he's free to search her thoughts to confirm as much.

"I've found the location of another. It would be priceless to any Sith devotee left alive, especially with Palpatine gone. And I know how to open them. Imagine the bargaining power you'd have if you brought one back along with me."

It's a gamble -- she's not sure how hungry this version of Poe is to impress his superiors. If there's anything of that showoff nature left behind. She thinks there must be. He would've wanted to go above and beyond, to bring back the impossible. The last Jedi and a lost artifact?

"You could have whatever you wanted. Your freedom, if you chose. Or a promotion."