Who: Rey and Finn When: May the 6th (Revenge of the 6th) Where: The streets of the OC, where all the crazy is. What: Star Wars shenanigans! Rating/Warning: Low Status: Complete
Rey had spent the past two days in varying amounts of running. Running from droids (and destroying them), then running from the troopers that had tried to help her, and finally running from the damned Empire. It was during that that she finally found Finn, and dragged him bodily through the streets of the OC. “This is worse than last year!”
“Tell me about it!” He shouted back amidst the blaster fire around them.
For his part Finn had done his best to stick close by Rey's side; when she'd alerted him about the strange ships showing up on day one he'd dashed out of work on a 'personal emergency’ just to get to her. They'd managed to stick together, but the chaos of the second day when the clone troopers turned on them had Finn being swarmed and eventually dragged away for 'reprogramming’ (which he managed to talk himself out of to a higher up). He'd wandered the streets desperately trying to find Rey and BB-8, until today when she'd found him. He'd almost gotten a taste of a lightsaber thanks to his Storm Trooper armor but thankfully he'd kept the bloody handprint on his faceplate that set him apart from the hordes of older school troopers.
“Is it me, or is the temperature dropping?” Finn said as they ran Pell mell through the streets. He raised his blaster and shot a droid, then another. He saw the hesitation of the Storm Trooper beside them, confused as to why this trooper was suddenly a traitor. Finn ducked a few blasts before shooting him too.
“It’s...freezing!” It wasn’t event that cold, but for Rey, it was already frigid. The first signs of snow were dropping on them as she skirted past some Stormtroopers. She was… probably getting into fighting a little too much. Still untrained and raw, but enthusiastic, much to the detriment of the enemy.
And then it was like the entire landscape had changed and they weren’t on Earth any more. Rey wrapped her arms around herself as ships blasted at each other overhead in a battle that made what was going on in the OC look like a stunt.
Finn halted right beside her, also gaping up at the sky. He heard BB-8 chirp inquiringly as the droid too swung his magnetically attached head back to look up. “Why does the desert suddenly look like Hoth?” He knew this battle all too well, they'd been taught about it when given history lessons on the Empire and even run simulations in it's landscape for training. He felt Rey shivering and frowned behind his helmet. There was nothing he could do save strip down and have her wear his armor while he stood in the snow in his skivvies.
She was going to die, she was going to freeze to death. She’d never seen snow in her dreams and very rarely had she while awake. She looked at Finn. “We have to find shelter!”
There was also the advancing walkers to consider, but they were firing on some kind of base.
The snow was thickening and Finn knew she was right. He was starting to feel the cold through his armor. He was a regular terrain Storm Trooper, not a Snow Trooper. His helmet's heads up display was showing him the Empire's vehicles, identifying them in green and the rebels in red. The slow, plodding AT-ATs were focused on the base. It was their best path beneath them. But to where after that? He scanned and zoomed and saw just past the hulking metal beasts and through the heavy snow possible salvation.
“There's a cave!” He shouted over the din of X-Wing and TIE fighter engines and the thunderous cannon fire of the AT-ATs. He pointed with a gloved hand. “If we make a run for it we should be okay! But we gotta go under that AT-AT! You gonna be able to make it?” He was about to offer to carry her but knew better.
Rey nodded, and in case he couldn’t see her in the growing snow, she said, “Yes, I can make it.” Running would help, if she kept moving she’d be okay long enough to get to safety. She wondered if there was a way to warm up with the Force, but she wasn’t exactly trained enough in that. “BB-8, lets go!”
The droid seemed to be fine in the snow, though he complained bitterly about his circuits freezing.
Rey laughed. “Oh, you’re freezing?!”
Finn chuckled a bit, reminded of Han and Chewbacca’s exchange on Starkiller. Running alongside Rey, they charged into the fray. The wind was picking up as the snowstorm intensified and Finn worried if the hundred yards they had to run would vanish in white out conditions. His helmet gave some help in seeing their objective but not as much as he'd like.
Picking up his feet through the snow was about as bad as trudging through the sands of Jakku. He watched with some level of jealousy as BB-8 rolled along just fine though the snow like it was open asphalt. Glancing up as they approached the monstrous AT-AT Finn gulped a little; the last time they'd encountered one they'd made the risky move of climbing the thing to hijack it. Now, it seemed scarier just to scamper beneath it's ten story tall legs. “Watch the feet!” He shouted, and kept an eye on the enormous round hind foot nearest them as it lifted to move.
The sound of a lightsaber sizzled out in the cold, and Rey deflected a stray blaster bolt. Which was kind of exciting, but she was working on instinct. Unfortunately, a lightsaber didn’t really give off much heat, but Rey thought she could use it to cut through some rock and that might give them some warmth. Almost as an afterthought, she jumped onto a rear leg and started to cut through it as it moved.
“Rey!!” Finn shouted in a heated panic as he watched her suddenly leap upon the metal leg just as they had cleared the other side of the AT-AT. “ARE YOU CRAZY?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” He had to bellow the words out between the wind and the machinery. He watched the blue streak of the lightsaber as it whacked and sawed into the enormous leg. He could do nothing himself, armed with only a blaster and no Force powers.
He sighed and said to BB-8. “Great. My girlfriend is gonna get herself killed climbing an AT-AT in a snowstorm. On Hoth. Or whatever this is.” The droid let out a series of chirps, beeps and warbles that were his voice and Finn only understood a fraction of it, as Rey was teaching him droid. It sounded like BB-8 was worried too, but also a little in awe.
Rey flipped off of the leg as it lifted up. When it stepped back down, it snapped, and the entire monstrosity collapsed in screaming metal. She turned off the saber and grabbed Finn’s hand again. “Lets go before they realize what happened!”
There was a cave, or a base, or something. Either way, it was their best shot.
Finn pulled his helmet off and gaped. Then he pointed wordlessly at the smoking hulk, as if Rey had just slain a dragon. Which by comparison was a fair assessment.
“You just…” and then she was grabbing his hand and they were running again. Had he had time to process the irony that it was now Rey who was constantly grabbing his hand and dragging them away from danger he would.
Finally they reached the mouth of the cave he'd seen. It was icy in its first ten feet in, but further back looked rockier and safer. Hopefully. It was pretty dark. Glancing out he saw the snow thicken into a full blown blizzard.
“Well, I don't think anyone's gonna find us in here.” He said.
It was irony, but she didn’t care. She didn’t want to lose Finn in the snow. She didn’t want to lose Finn ever, ever again. “... It’s a bit warmer in here. Do you think we can use the blaster to make a fire pit? Or heat up some stones?”
She looked at her fingers, which were starting to turn blue. “And quickly…”
Finn dropped his helmet when he saw the color of Rey's fingers. “Ohmygod, nonono Rey your fingers!” He pulled off his armored gloves and took her hands in his, enveloping them and blowing on them before rubbing them between his hands. “Gotta keep the circulation going.” His Special Forces training was kicking in (the First Order didn't give a damn if a trooper froze to death) and his mind was cycling through what to do. “Yeah, we can try making a fire pit but if the stones don't work we're going to have to find something to burn. Maybe we can find some stuff further back in the cave. It'll probably be warmer back there too.” He was still trying to heat up her hands when he remembered his gloves. “Oh um, here. Put these on.” He paused a moment, eyes scanning her shivering form. He had to take his uniform off, at least the top part. Finn started peeling off pieces of white armor, dropping them around his feet.
“Finn, you’ll freeze too!” Rey’s teeth were chattering, which was probably a good sign, and despite her protests she accepted the gloves willingly. She wasn’t built for snow, let alone Hoth. At least she had on boots, even if they weren’t snow boots.
“Not that I mind the view, but I’d like you alive.”
Something rumbled at the entrance to the cavern, and Rey stiffened. “What’s that?”
“I'll be fine, you need to get warm and I've been pretty insulated in this thing.” Sort of. He clenched his teeth as the bitter cold cut into his bare skin when he pulled off the black under armor shirt. He was just handing it to Rey when she looked at the mouth of the cave with concern. “It's probably just the Walker burning or something. There's kinda a war going on out there.” He pushed the shirt into her hands. “Put it on.”
BB-8 was making worried sounds and babbling nervously. Finn wasn't sure what he was saying and turned to Rey for translation. “Does he see something?”
“Fine.” Rey pulled the shirt over her head. It much warmer than what she’d been wearing before. Turning to BB-8, she asked. “What is it?”
Before the little droid could answer, something large, hulking and white charged at them. Rey shouted, grabbing Finn and shoving him deeper into the tunnels. “Run! Run!”
Finn had just enough time to grab his gear and run, which wasn't easy with one arm. No way in hell he was leaving his armor behind, it clearly had come in handy more than once already. He had to pull his hand from Rey's grip in order to keep the helmet from dropping. “What is it?!” He actually hadn't seen it, just heard it's angry growl. BB-8 for his part was booking it ahead of them into the inky depths of the tunnel. “Rey! We can't see where we're going!” He stopped to pop on the helmet. The HUD lit up giving him visuals on the cave with computerized outlines and then flooding the visual field in night vision green. He turned around to see the hulking mass of the Wampa stalking them. “Oh come on!” He complained. “It couldn't have been a Taun Taun?”
“I don’t know but it’s really ugly and it’s really angry!” It also looked really familiar from their movie marathon but she couldn’t quite remember from which movie or what it was. Only that it was bad. She glanced back and cursed loudly. “Wampa!”
She grabbed Finn’s blaster and started shooting at the Wampa. “Die you ugly shite!”
“I know! I…” and Finn cut himself off as he felt Rey yank the blaster from his waist and start firing. “What are you doing?!” He bellowed behind the helmet. He pulled it off and said frantically, “Don't you remember the movie?! You're just gonna piss it off! Skywalker cut it's arm off with a lightsaber and then ran the hell away which is exactly what we should be doing!”
Rey shouted something unintelligible, then slapped the blaster against Finn’s chest before shoving him further down the tunnel. The Wampa was gaining on them and it was pissed. Obviously, Finn was right. She ignited her lightsaber. “Keep going, I’ll hold it off!”
Finn was doing his best to run with all the pieces of armor in his arms and Rey pushing him along. His heart was racing with adrenaline and he dare not look back at the beast he knew was closer than before. This was insanity! And he thought last year's Star Wars reality had been dangerous!
“What?! No way I'm leaving you to fight off that thing alone!” Finn shouted defiantly over the Wampa’s roars. He dropped his gear and drew his blaster. “I'll draw his attention and you see if you can use the Force or something before trying to cut him to pieces.” Finn started steadily walking around the creature, keeping enough distance to not be in striking range. The Wampa was a white, shaggy creature that looked like the ugly cousin of the abominable snowman. It snarled at him, glancing from him to Rey, trying to figure out which meal to grab first.
But what if she wanted to cut him to pieces? Rey was feeling really angry, a tug that was hard to ignore.
“Fine!” She lifted her hand towards the ceiling, and it started to rumble. Snow and bits of rock started to drift down as the stalactites above the wampa wobbled.
“Good! That! Do that!” He shouted pointing at the cave ceiling. Whatever 'that’ was. He was assuming she was trying to bring down the stalactites onto the creature’s head. The Wampa roared, glancing up at the irritating debris before it decided Rey would be the first to go. It stalked toward her, making grabby hands in the air.
“No!” Finn shouted and fired at it, aiming for its head. The blaster bolts struck their target but the Wampa didn't seem to notice.
“I’m fine!” Rey shouted. She finally just threw the blaster at the ceiling, pushing at it with the Force. It overloaded, and the explosion dropped the ceiling on the Wampa. But it also threw Rey deeper into the tunnel.
Finn didn't even get a chance to make a sound of protest before his blaster was ripped out of his hands by the Force and hurtled upwards until it blew up right over the Wampa. Also hurled backwards by the concussion of the explosion, it took him a long moment to clear his head. Landing on rock would do that.
“Dammit. Really? My blaster?!” He shouted finally in frustration. When he didn't hear or see Rey he got worried and scrambled to his feet. BB-8 was somewhere in the dark, warbling his droid language. “Rey?!” Finn called out, worry in his tone. Blindly he made his way, feeling along the icy cold cave walls with his hands, the cave too dark at this point without his helmet. He tripped over his gear, cussed, and blindly gathered it up, counting the pieces to make sure he got it all. “Rey! Are you okay??” He called as he did this, before slowly heading towards the sounds of BB-8.
“You can get another one they’re dropping them out there like they’re candy!” Rey sat up, feeling blood dribbling down the side of her face. “I’m fine, I think. Do you hear that hum or did I just really hit my head hard?”
But there was a hum, and it was coming from a nearby tunnel. It vaguely sounded like a ship’s drive.
“It's not the same!” He argued. “Those are Empire blasters. Ours are way better.” Finn realized he could use his helmet and popped it on. He had to smack it to get the HUD to engage. He frowned; he and Rey would have to figure out how to fix it later. He looked this way and that as the computer laid out the digital map of the cave in green lines. He saw a heat signature sitting on the floor of the cave thirty feet away from where he was. “Rey!” He blurted, rushing over. “You're hurt!” The helmet was automatically scanning her and reporting a minor head wound but no concussion. He reached out and touched her shoulders to let her know he was there. When she mentioned a hum he listened too. “Either we both hit our heads hard or that's a ship’s drive. What's a ship doing this deep in a cave?”
“I’ll live.” Rey leaned slightly into Finn’s hand, and ran her hands along the side of the cavern. It looked like it had been carved out with a laser or something manmade. “If there’s a drive, there might be a ship, and if there’s a ship it will have heating. We might even be able to fly out with it!” She kissed the side of his helmet and again she took Finn’s hand and started to pull him.
Finn let himself be pulled, wondering how the hell Rey was able to see anything in the depths of the cave. Must be the Force or something. He watched BB-8 rolling along with them, warbling something. Finn finally was starting to really register the cold, considering he was now shirtless and holding cold pieces of his armor against him, and he was beginning to shiver.
“Well wherever it is it better be close!” he said, teeth starting to chatter.
The light was blinding when Rey stumbled into the cavern. She shielded her eyes, waiting for them to adjust. It appeared to be a rebel hangar, almost everything iced over and abandoned in a hurry.
But at the center of the hangar was a familiar shape. “Oh my god! It’s the Falcon!.”
She dropped Finn’s hand and ran towards it.
Finn was also simultaneously stunned, despite the helmet. When it adjusted, he gaped, pulled off the helmet and stared. He didn’t even register that Rey had completely run ahead without him.
“Wha….” He blinked, rubbing his eyes with his arm to get rid of the temporary floaters from the lights and stared again. “No way. NO WAY!” He whooped and let out a laugh before chasing after her. “Are you kidding me?! She’s here?! How??”
“I don’t know! But she’s beautiful garbage and she’s our way out of this!” The plank lowered as Rey rushed up, and she ran for the cockpit. The cavern shuddered, marking the Walkers getting closer and closer. She really didn’t want to be here when they got here. “Thank god it’s warm in here.”
Finn dropped his gear off in the lounge area and then immediately scrambled for the gunner’s cockpit while BB-8 rolled about making all kinds of excited sounds he couldn’t understand entirely.
“Seriously. I don’t ever remember being that cold, here or in the dreams.” Settling into the wildly swinging gunner’s seat, he grinned, trying to harness his dream knowledge. He could hear the deep rumble of the walker’s steps. “All right, let’s do this!”
Finn hadn’t even needed her to tell him to get into the gun. It was like she read his mind and Rey grinned to herself. “All right, here goes!”
The Falcon started to power up and choked. Rey flicked some switches then kicked a console and the engines roared to life. They shot out of the Hangar at high speeds, and nearly ran into a walker. Rey jerked the controls, taking the Falcon around the Walker’s right side and nearly losing the Falcon’s dish in the process.
A pair of ties fell in behind them as they gained alitude, and then an alarm started blaring. Rey looked at it and let out a curse that could make any smuggler blush. “Finn! We have to take out those ties, the Falcon’s systems are failing we don’t have much time!”
The sensation of Rey’s driving of the falcon made Finn’s head swim a moment. She drove the freighter ship so hard and fast with hard angles and turns, and being in the gunner’s seat which swiveled wildly on its own as the targeting program ran didn’t help things. Why had this seemed easier in the dreams?
Finn shook his head and forced himself to focus as he heard Rey’s warning. “Got it!” And he fired up the targeting display, hitting a few switches. The chair swung into position and Finn lined up the first TIE fighter on the grid, eyes glued to the screen before it was lined up perfectly. He fired, squeezing the triggers hard, and watched as several pulses erupted from the Falcon’s cannons - hitting the TIE fighter dead on. It exploded in a fireball and Finn grinned to himself. But he knew it wasn’t over. The second TIE fighter was a bit smarter, and wove back and forth, making tracking harder. It fired, and the blasts just missed Finn’s clear paneled cockpit. He winced despite the fact he was okay.
“Uh, Rey!” he said, a thought occurring to him as he finally heard the ship’s alarms (he’d been too focused on getting rid of the first TIE fighter to realize just how bad the ship’s state was in). “I kinda have to tell you something!”
He kept trying to target the clever TIE fighter, muttering to himself in frustration. “Come on you sonuva…” he growled. He fired but missed. Firing again he got in a glancing blow that caught one of the wings of the TIE but he only succeeded in forcing it to fall back a bit.
Rey let out a shout when the first TIE went down. She took the Falcon into a high loop, like some kind of insane roller coaster, twisting and banking hard enough to rattle her teeth as they came out of it. She checked the sensors, “It’s falling back. What is it?”
She had to find a place to land and she had to find one fast. Preferably a place where she could work on repairing it.
Finn had to force himself not to feel like losing his lunch after that maneuver, and when he finally spoke again he still sounded a bit queasy. “Uh...I kinda saw the teaser trailer for 'The Last Jedi’ while I was at that Star Wars Celebration thing!” He called up, hoping she could hear him as renewed blaster fire erupted in their general direction. He turned to see the maimed TIE had been joined by another perfectly working one. “Oh man….why can't you guys.. just...go away!”
“The what?” The Falcon started to lose altitude, and Rey prepared for a crash landing. “Finn!”
The freighter shook under fire, and one of the TIEs managed to hit the engine. The ship lost power and plummeted as Rey fought the controls. “Come on come on! We can do this!”
Finn had been about to fire on the TIEs when everything went dead. He could feel the sensation of the ship starting to dip and the gravity shift as they lost altitude. The gut wrenching sound of air rushing around the ship as they fell was now heard as the TIE’s ceased fire. He scrambled from his seat and up the ladder, trying to race through the hallway as the ship tilted. He leapt over BB-8 who had already anchored himself with his tethers, and darted into the cockpit.
“What happened!?” he buckled himself into the copilot seat. There was no way in hell he was sitting on the bottom of the Falcon in the gunner’s seat if this thing was going down.
“We’ve lost power!” She turned to buckle him in but he’d already taken care of that. It let Rey focus more on saving their asses. “It looks like the TIEs have given up pursuit. Hold on to your butt!”
The Falcon continued to dive, “BB-8! Get to the engines we need those engines or we’re dead!”
The droid chirped in response, rolling out of the cockpit. Rey managed to level them out somewhat, but they were still falling too fast and the Falcon wasn’t built to glide down. At the last second, the engines kicked on and Rey pulled up hard. The ship hit the ground, bouncing and skidding along pavement. Rey felt her shoulder twist and her head smacked into the console. She blacked out for several seconds, coming to as the ship came to a stop.
Dazed, she said, “Not my best landing.”
For his part Finn was doing his best not to freak out. Granted, this was actually less scary than the drop from hyperspace landing Solo had done in the dreams, which also resulted in an epic crash landing. When Rey hit her head, he turned and yelled her name, but his voice was lost in the cacophony of their landing - metal screeching horribly against pavement that was getting upended and chewed up by the mammoth space ship.
“Rey! Are you okay?” he said, when it came to a stop. When she commented on the landing, he let out a small laugh. “Yeah, definitely not.” Outside the cockpit, there was no longer any snow. They’d left the Hoth zone and were somewhere else entirely.
Finn unbuckled himself and check on Rey, tenderly touching her head where she’d hit the console. He heard BB-8 roll in and glanced at the droid.
“Good job, BB-8.” and he held out a thumbs up with one hand.
Rey was bleeding, and she’d have a hell of a bump. On the plus side, she didn’t think anything was broken, though her leg had bent in the wrong direction for a brief second. Good thing she liked milk?
“I’m okay. I think. Help me up I need to see the damage to my ship.”
Because of course it was her ship. She blinked, and asked. “Wait, are you okay?”
Finn looked at her strangely, like as though she were talking in another language a moment. “I’m...fine. And just...stay. I need to clean that up. Then we can take a look at the Falcon.” He rushed off to get the medical supplies (he knew where they were now thanks to the dreams from when he’d had to patch up Chewbacca) saying to the droid, “Don’t let her leave.” He watched as the lighter flame tipped thumbs up BB-8 had held out for him stayed there a moment longer as the droid chirped at him.
He dashed into the lounge area and made a beeline for the locker that held the medical supplies. He pulled out gauze pads, some tape, and some cleaning solution in an alien language. It took him a moment to realize he recognized the language and could actually read it. Cool.
Rey just made a grumbly sound, sinking farther back into the seat with a groan. She wanted to look at her ship, which, right now, was more important than her own health. Rey had her priorities straight, or mostly she was just excited about it.
Though the world was spinning and Finn was probably right.
He returned, supplies in hand and dumped them onto the dead console. Opening the bottle of alien disinfectant he moistened a swab of gauze and said, “This is gonna hurt. Giving you a heads up so you don't smack me.” And proceeded to wipe and dab at her head wound. Once it was clean, he grabbed some medical cottony material and tore a piece off with his bare hands. The tape was tougher and Finn ended up having to tear it with his teeth after several unsuccessful tries by hand. After taping the material to her forehead he took a moment to look at her, studying her face a moment. Abruptly he asked, “How many fingers am I holding up?” as he raised a hand and held up two.
Rey put up with the wound tending, sighing dramatically a few times, mostly for effect. She squinted when he held up two fingers. “Two, but they’re a little fuzzy.”
Finn frowned. “You got a concussion. Mild probably.” His face lit up a moment as he realized something. “I'll be right back.” A moment later he ran back into the cockpit, probably looking goofy as hell shirtless with the lower half of his Storm Trooper armor still on and the helmet on his head. He sat back down in the copilot seat and stared at Rey for an awkward silent moment as the helmet scanned her. “Yep,” he said, his voice slightly muffled and digitized. “Mild concussion.” He pulled off the helmet and said words he knew she didn't want to hear. “You're gonna have to stay put.”
“But the ship.” Rey had an angry pout, though she was dazed enough that it came off a lot softer than she intended. “Fine… Fine. I’ll just… sit here and day dream.”
Screw her apartment. As soon as the Falcon could fly? She was moving in.
Finn smirked. “About me or the Falcon?” He teased, that lopsided grin of his on his face. “How about we send BB-8 to check what the deal is with the ship and he can report to you? In the meantime, we need to figure out where we are.” Finn said looking out the window. Where were they indeed.
“Why not both?” Rey took Finn’s hand, suddenly inclined to not argue or fight, and just rest. Really, she just wanted to rest now.
He smiled at her, that soft smile he only had for Rey. He lifted their hands and kissed her knuckles as he watched her relax into the pilot's seat. He’d have to sit vigil to make sure she didn’t fall asleep, that was one thing she wasn’t allowed to do. “I won’t argue with that.” Still holding her hand and sitting down fully in the copilot’s seat, he looked out the window and listened to the very distant sounds of battle. Looks like they wouldn’t have to worry about defending themselves for a while. They’d nearly been killed by Empire troops and a Wampa. They could take five and have a breather.