Don’t Stop

Characters: Rose Tico, Paige Tico, Finn

Pairing: Finn/Rose

Warnings: Violence, angst

Summary: Finn and Rose have to save the Resistance. Paige gets in the way.

They fled down the length of the hangar with the sound of pursuit in their ears, their speeder hurtling toward the far entrance and the promise of their goal.

The discharge of a blaster shattered the air. The speeder screamed like an animal as it skidded along the floor. Rose wrestled with the handlebar trying to regain control while Finn, an arm still tightly clenched around Rose’s waist, had his blaster out and fired back at the source of the blaster fire.

Rose wrenched at the handle and the speeder bounded off the floor.

“Bail!” she spun in her seat to scream at Finn, her hair coming out of its tail and flying in her face.

As if by instinct they clutched each other and jumped clear of the speeder, rolling away together while it bounced off the floor and toward a bulkhead, where it crashed and fell to the floor. Smoke rose from the blaster hole and its fried engines.

A figure stepped out from behind a set of stairs, bright yellow in her gunner’s suit against the grey of the hangar, her weapon trained on the two of them.

“Hands up, both of you.”

“Paige.”

Rose didn’t budge as she faced her sister. Finn raised his own blaster, and Paige turned her gun on him.

“Looks like a stalemate.” Paige grinned. The sound of the pursuing speeders grew. “Why don’t we wait a few minutes while my friends get here?”

“Paige.” Finn looked down the length of the blaster barrel. “You know what Holdo is doing is wrong. She can’t imprison General Organa and strike a deal with the First Order.”

“Maybe you both need to remember what it means to be a soldier. I follow the Republic chain of command, because I am a soldier of the Republic. Just like you, sis.” Paige raised her voice just as Rose started sidling toward the door on the far end. “Take another step and I’ll shoot him.”

“Or maybe he’ll shoot you.” Rose looked between her sister and Finn, her face pale. “You know how good he is.”

“He won’t.” Paige smiled. “He won’t shoot the last family you have left.”

Finn swallowed at her words and tightened his grasp on his blaster. “Rosie…”

The pursuers were close now, their forms blurry at the other end of the hangar. Paige held out a hand at Finn. “Now that we’ve established you won’t shoot, Starros, why not give me that gun? I don’t know how you dragged my sister into your little mutiny, but-”

Blaster fire rang out, and Paige stumbled. She stared for a moment before she fell to one knee, uncomprehending.

Finn took a step back as though he himself had been shot. “Rose.”

Rose dropped her blaster from limp hands and ran to catch Paige in both arms. Her hand fumbled at a pocket in her coveralls and thrust out a data cube at Finn.

“Finn, go.” She sat down on the floor, propping a still shocked Paige against herself, and raised her voice over the sound of the approaching engines. “You have to restore the command codes.”

“I’m not leaving you here.” Finn’s hand tightened around both the data cube and her hand.

She pulled him by the hand and kissed him, fierce and sharp, as though to swallow in a single moment a lifetime of what might never be.

“And I’m not leaving my sister. Go. Don’t stop for anything.”

Finn’s hand, clutching the data cube, brushed her cheek for the briefest of moments as he turned away. She closed her eyes at the sweetness of it even as her hands yanked a medpac from her belt.

As Finn’s purposeful steps pounded away down the hangar, Rose pressed with her hands against the bleeding wound in Paige’s side and injected her with a stim. A shade of color came back to Paige’s face and she managed to focus her eyes on Rose’s.

“I can’t believe you shot me.”

“You were being a bitch.” Rose fumbled one-handed with the medpac before grabbing a pressure bandage.

“Did you seriously snog a guy over my dying body? Ew.”

“You’re not dying.” Rose’s voice shook as she started cutting away Paige’s yellow gunner suit. “I can put anything back together.”

Shouts and the hum of engines filled the air as the Republic soldiers’ speeders pulled up.

“Don’t move! Hands on your head!” Soldiers aimed blasters in Rose’s face. She struggled as they pulled her off Paige.

“I shot her. Please help, I shot her.” Tears leaked out of her eyes as she held up her blood-spotted hands.

“Where’s Starros?” A red-suited officer thrust his blaster against Rose’s chin, forcing her to lift her head. To his unit he shouted: “Get to the control room! Stop him before-”

At that moment the lights dimmed.

“This is Commander Finn Starros of the Resistance.” Finn’s voice came over the internal comm system. “As of this moment General Organa’s Resistance has full control over the base’s systems. Republic mutineers are advised to lay down your arms and surrender.”

The Republic soldiers pounded on the door up to the control room. “It’s no use, sir! We’ve been locked out.”

“And if you break the rules of engagement to harm any prisoner in your power,” Finn continued over the comm, a calm fury cutting into his voice, “rest assured you will face the full force of the law and me.”

“Traitor. What did you do?” The officer turned his gaze on Rose.

Shaking, pale, her face stained with tears and her hands with blood, Rose smiled.

“You lost.”

With a roar of rage the officer raised his blaster and struck the butt across Rose’s temple while Paige screamed at him not to hurt her sister. Rose slumped to the cold floor unconscious, the elation of victory still carved in the curving of her lips.