HE WAKES ALONE. he wakes cold and enclosed and alone. a jet of agony down his spine makes molars g r i n d together, friction brakes struggling to bring an x-wing careening out of control BACK IN LINE. obey, mind commands sharp and unrelenting as those who trained him, who bred him, who BIRTHED him. obey! it echos and throat collapses upon the scream of torment threatening to spill free. the soldier snaps to attention and sits up, head s l a m m i n g against clear linoleum TOMB they buried him in.
medbay is evacuated, and he stands alone, stripped of all but tubes running life-saving BACTA along t a t t e r e d and singed flesh. his body is wailing in time with the alarm, but pain is something FAMILIAR, something easy to grab tight and shove down. his knees falter from extended disuse, but legs trained to march until FAMINE stilled them eternal move him further into base, chasing the rising terror and muffled bark of commands. that too, is familiar, even if the grimy walls are nothing like the pristine white of first order base and the air is heady with ASH and the metallic tang of spaceships rather than sterile recirculate.
people pause in their frenzy, pause and stare a moment at the broken remains of a soldier marching his way further into base, further into the heart of the BATTLE. find the ships, mind commands and body obeys, the dull thump of feet against the ground in time with the steady mantra of run ! run ! run ! run ! this place is unfamiliar. he woke alone. this place is unfamiliar and he is ALONE and all he can do is run ! run ! RUN ! ( until he cannot run any more )
❛ finn ! ❜ someone shouts behind him and mantra STOPS because that is FAMILIAR. not the name ( NEVER the name, as foreign to the soldier as this base and these p e o p l e ) but the voice. fn-2187 finn turns. blinks. poe mind whispers, and body yields to unspoken command and goes.
“ finn! ” he calls, as stumbling, anxious and eager feet lift him out of his x-wing, dropping him the short distance to the ground, where he springs up and chases after the figure in in the hallway. his gaze drops to the leaking tubes and he attempts to stem the flow of liquids currently spilling in all directions. a warm smile cracks his features, soothing some of the tension in his brow, though the worry remains in his eyes.
“ you’re awake. ” he nearly smacks himself in the face at the obvious statement, but given the battle and the swift evacuation from jakku and the first order breathing down their necks, he hasn’t had a chance to check up on him beyond the first night. the run on the dreadnought has adrenaline spilling through his veins, and he sucks in a few deep breaths to attempt to ease himself out the intensity of battle; to focus on finn, focus on now.
“ you must have so many questions. things have been —— ” a short pause, his mouth chewing over the next words. “ — moving faster than expected. ” he’d apologize for not being there, but war hadn’t allowed for much respite, always moving from one thing to the next, faster and faster, that all he can do is attempt to stay one step ahead. the best he can do now is to look out for finn, get him set up with some fresh clothes and let him figure out what he’d like to do.
his fingers hover over the machinery, unsure if he should stop the tubes or where to properly proceed as liquid drips down to the floor of the ship and onto his flight boots, but he doesn’t move away. “ how are you feeling? that was quite the injury you got, buddy. i don’t know if you should be standing up right now. ”