revivalproject | So who talks first?

Entry tags:

So who talks first? | Calibrations

WHO: Poe Dameron, OPEN
WHERE: Poe's Calibration room
WHAT: Calibrations
WHEN: 3 June - 10 June
WARNINGS: Torture, War, Weapons of Mass Destruction

You step out into a hangar, half sheltered, but open to the air along one side. The sky is blue, and in the distance there's scattered chatter from resistance members passing by as Poe and BB-8 work. Poe's perched atop the broken wing of his X-wing, scorch marks on her belly suggesting they'd recently come out of a tough scrape.

Poe's still half in his flight suit, the upper half tied round his waist, his old jacket sitting off to the side, draped over a ladder rung with care. There's scattered tools and wires to navigate, a makeshift workbench set up with his helmet and blaster abandoned there, next to his data pad which flashes at him with some unread message, though Poe seems to be pointedly ignoring it. Looking quite out of place, there's a tooka doll, not the sort of sentiment one might associate with Poe, and beside it, and old model of an A-Wing.

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It's the data pad that Ren goes to first. He's been conflicted about whether or not the First Order is right but he's still curious about what the Rebellion is up to and the data pad probably has those answers. From what he understands about these damn rooms is that they show the past, not the present. He might get answers for when he inevitably returns to his own galaxy.

"What secrets do you hold, then?" he asks, touching it to see what the unread message is.

Poe watches Ren silently from atop his X-wing as he crosses the hangar, and BB-8 rolls to avoid the force user with an anxious beep.

The hangar disappears, though they still seem to be in this base. Poe's sweaty and battle worn, and the few Resistance officers that mill about look equally apprehensive. Poe nods towards the holo file, "Just...play it," he instructs, sighing and placing a reassuring palm on Leia's shoulder.

What plays is a scene Kylo should be familiar with, Hux's speech to the troops before the activation of Starkiller Base. And then- the destruction of the Hosnian System.

Leia's hand moves to settle over Poe's, and he pulls her close, wincing and pressing a kiss to her temple as a heavy silence settles over the room.

He's never seen the destruction up close from the eyes of someone who truly cared. He'd been removed from the destruction of Hosnian Prime and had only thought to be his grandfather again, to destroy that which was precious to the Rebellion in order to crush their spirit. Destroying one of the bastions of the New Republic had been a place to start.

It's different this way. Seeing his mother makes him want to turn his eyes away, too hurt by even the memory of it. She'd told him about Alderaan when he was younger, how beautiful it was and how it had disappeared in a flash when his grandfather had used the Death Star on it. As a child, he'd been horrified. As a teenager, he'd been enraptured.

"You didn't tell me you showed it to her yourself," he says, trying to keep the emotion from his voice.

The memory holds a bit longer on the intimate moment before it fades away, and Poe continues to watch him from the wing of the ship, similarly affected by seeing the destruction again, and the toll it took on Leia.

"I wanted to be there for her." He tried to keep his tone neutral, but there was a pointedly accusing look in his eye.

Ren wishes he had his mask. It's difficult to see his mother and difficult to be judged and found wanting by someone who truly knows him. He'd been cruel to Poe because Poe knew his weaknesses. He could be a true enemy whereas others were merely prisoners.

"She was always more dedicated to the Republic. I was her afterthought and inconvenience."

"You really believe that?" Poe narrows his eyes, finding it hard to believe he really couldn't feel how much his mother cared for him. Still cared for him.

"She still hadn't given up on getting you back."

"She should give up. I'm not the boy she raised as her son any longer. You ought to know that better than most. You knew me then and you know me now."

Hearing that she's not giving up on him pulls at Ren's heart in a way that he doesn't want to think about. He buries the emotion, purges it in the way the Jedi teach and not the Sith.

"I'm changed."

"Everyone changes Ben, you aren't special," he counters with a hint of that teasing smirk from boyhood.

Poe's gone out of his way to think of Kylo as almost a separate person from Ben. He has to. But here in it's mind it's harder to keep them separate.

"I don't use that name anymore," Ren says, visibly bristling. He doesn't want to be reminded of Ben, a failure, and he wants to be the man he's crafted himself into instead.

Still, the lingering echo of Rey in his head tells him to embrace Ben, to become who he used to be in this place so far from home. He shakes his head to clear it.

"You do that on purpose, don't you?"

"Push your buttons? Of course. You make it way too easy."

He climbs down from the X-Wing, reasonably confident Ren can't hurt him here, not really. BB-8 still seems cautious, trying to heard Poe away with a whine.

"I swear, you used to be funnier. The whole back and forth thing? Can't say I love this whole dark and serious persona."

Ren huffs out his annoyance and rolls his eyes. He doesn't have the patience to deal with Poe right now, especially with his power crippled and being within the mindscape of someone who isn't himself or Rey. This is unfamiliar territory, for the most part, and he doesn't want to be here. Still, there's a latent curiosity about what he can gather from this place and he wants to see what information he can pull to be used again later.

"I can't say that I've ever liked yours. In this, we're on even footing. Why am I having to endure your mind on your terms and not my own?"

"Oh don't lie. You used to love it," Poe counters easily, but then he fixes Ren with a pointed look, "Could be pay back for the time you forced your way in there on your terms, mm? It's not all that different, it's not like I can stop you any better now than I could then."

Poe actually has him there, against Ren's will, and he huffs again. Eventually he's going to end up getting the better of this damned pilot but he guesses it's not going to be right now. He wants to see his mother again and almost asks but that is weakness. That's something he can't show even though he'd felt his mother blink out of the Force just the same as he'd see the life drain from his father. It'd been harder with his mother, too, considering they'd always had that bond through the Force that went beyond anything physical.

"It's different when it's an interrogation and not a memory. You know that."

Thankfully, Poe isn't aware of the future that awaits Leia, and the shoes he'll soon have to fill.

"Not a fan of having you in my head either way."

"Not a fan of being here, either, unless you give me information that I need about your resistance. Then again, that isn't the true war. The First Order is a distraction. Did you know that?"

He doesn't even think most of the Order knows that, truly, and it's something he's kept close to his chest for a long while. The true struggle is between light and dark and that is a war he intends to win. If the First Order helps him get there, so be it.

"They eliminate my enemies, yes, but it's like swatting flies."

Poe frowns. "...a distraction?" he repeats, "These are people lives, Ren. Countless lives and families destroyed, and you're talking about it like it's some sort of game to you."

"It's not the real war, that's what I'm telling you," Ren says, bristling at that. Maybe the First Order is responsible for the deaths of millions but they aren't the true power in the galaxy. They never have been. They're just a tool to be used by other powers at work and he thinks Poe ought to know that.

"The real war is between Jedi and Sith. The Republic and First Order are just the means. You won't be able to do anything from here but...you have to destroy the Sith to destroy the Order."

"Like you destroyed the Jedi?" he challenges. Poe's long admired the Force, but this war, their parent's war, and every war before it, it's been them at the heart of it. "What do you think we've been trying to do all this time? Snoke leads the First Order. We're all ready trying to take him out. And you."

"It's not that," Ren says sharply. "Snoke isn't even an issue anymore, he's dead. It's the Emperor. He's alive, Poe, and he's the one pulling all of these strings. He's the one you should fight. He's the one you should be going after, not this...not the distraction of the First Order. Cut off the head and the rest will fall."

"..." Poe pales, unblinking a moment before he shakes his head. That can't be true. It's some kind of trick.

"If that was true why would you tell me?"

"Because...well, you'll know why eventually. Just take the information as good," Ren says. "I wouldn't give such a thing if I hadn't turned my coat and I don't think...I'll never come back but I can give her this."

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So who talks first? | Calibrations

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