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Chapter Text

Rey needed to breathe, and that was today's main irritation. 

The wraps around her mouth had to remain lighter, letting the sand and grit gleefully worm its way between her lips. Briefly, Rey wondered if this was what those skinny little salamanders felt like, the ones that dashed across the rock to bury themselves in the sand. Did they get irritated from the sand coating their needle-sharp teeth? Or did they have a way to lock their little mouths shut against the grains?

Rey was wasting her time, and she knew it. With a soft sigh, she stuffed the calibrator piece into her bag, leaning down to tug dutifully at the knots tying her to the rope. 

If she was a salamander, she wouldn’t need to bother with it either. Rey pictured herself some sort of half-lizard, half-woman; scuttling down the walls on clawed fingers clicking and sticking her thin tongue through her chapped lips. She couldn’t help a snort. Damp sand sprayed from her nose. 

Ugggghhhh…

Rey kicked herself off the edge of the platform, rappelling herself down towards the ground. Her boots crunched into the assorted litter of sand, steel and rock, and her stomach settled just a touch. It always held a good bit of nerves, no matter how much time she spent in the air. That time was becoming more and more common as the lower levels of the star destroyer were steadily picked clean, like the corpse of a massive beast. 

Maybe that makes me more of a sand vulture than it does a salamander. Rey thought ruefully, starting to undo the complex matrix of knots around her hips. Except they’d fly away with a full stomach. 

Vultures didn’t have to try to strike bargains with Unkar Plutt, though she supposed he didn’t see much difference between her and the greasy-winged birds. He called them the same thing anyways; scavenger.  

If she was lucky, she’d have enough for tonight, and maybe a little extra to eat tomorrow. Breakfast was a luxury, food steadying her hands as she untangled wires and eased delicate mechanics out of their casings. A quick glance through her bag confirmed it; enough for a portion and a half. 

Spirits considerably lifted, Rey shouldered her bag and started the careful trek towards the loose beams of sunlight easing their way through the makeshift exit. 

She’d had to make it herself, a several patient hours of picking at the ripped steel and reinforcing her hole with the sturdier rubble, then finding a way to hide it from other scavengers. Best case scenario, they’d use it for themselves and strip away everything of use in her regular spots. Worse case? Someone with a grudge, vendetta, or even just a cruel streak would seal it up. She’d be left to starve or die of thirst, or torn apart by one of the desert's nocturnal predators. 

A horrible, shrill wail knocked Rey from her thoughts. Instantly, her hand went for her staff, but the sound wasn’t coming from inside the wreckage, it was coming from above. 

 The image hit Rey, a slap to the face. Bone-rattling hums of machinery, the whine of wind buoying durasteel wings, confusion and fear settling on her tongue as thick as dust. 

Her vision cleared as the stabilizer piece clattered sharply against the floor. Rey swore colorfully, scrambling across the dust to snatch it up. She didn’t pause, shoving it in her bag and sprinting for her exit. 

The vision hit her again, burying her like lightning sand, filling her throat and choking her up to her head; metal tearing and burning, the horrifying plummet of free-fall, terror and rage forcing her heart to slam against her ribs. 

It was all she could do to crumble to the floor, locking her arms around her neck and head, trying to block out the cacophony assaulting her ears and mind. 

Rey pulled in a single, shuddering breath. 

BOOM.

The wrecked ship rumbled around her like an enraged beast. Dust fell in thick, choking showers, the weight of the destroyer groaning under the impact. Rey wished she’d thought to get some kind of cover, but she didn’t know where the next ship would hit, where the next avalanche of durasteel and sand would fall in crushing waves. 

CRASH!

This one was closer, much closer. The debris crumbled in a thick shower, slamming into the dust with a vengeance. Rey let out a tight gasp, tucking herself further into a ball on the ground. 

I’ll be buried here, away from the skies and stars and wind, just another pile of bones for some other scavenger to unearth. 

Images flashed in her mind; an endless score of lines etched into rust, a cracked and filthy pilot’s helmet, the scrap of sky tvisible through her ceiling, endlessly cycling between blue and pink and orange and black, thousands of empty days spent waiting for something that would never come. 

I don’t want to die here. 

Rey’s chest jerked. For a moment, she thought she’d been impaled, but there was no pain, no steady pour of blood into the thirsty sand. The tug at her chest only intensified, like someone had clamped a tether to her ribs and pulled. 

Was this what it felt like to die? 

Rey squeezed her eyes shut, clenching her fists until the muscles and sinew groaned in protest. She saw it again; an endless sea of scores in the rust, an infinite cycle of sky. 

Disgust boiled up her throat, sharper and more potent than any amount of sand or dust; a consuming bile of hatred. 

That won’t be my life. 

I refuse to die here. 

That feeling again, pulling sharper. But there was a feeling attached to it, echoing in her chest like a voice calling from the other end of a cavern. 

Approval. 

Legs shaking, nearly collapsing under her weight, Rey rose. She took in a shaking breath, a second. The movement burned her lungs, even through the wraps over her mouth. 

She might have stood there for a handful of seconds, or an eternity. Eventually, the rumbling stopped. The massive ship groaned and settled, deep within her desert grave. 

Rey dared to open her eyes. 

Only a few strings of light stretched through the place, caressing fingers onto the carnage around her. Rey used to be able to see a dozen paths up the sides of the wreckage. Those secured outcroppings of durasteel, the solid platforms, the tunnels where she could squeeze deeper into the ship’s inner guts…everything was buried in a meaningless collapse of rubble. 

Rey cast her gaze around the wreckage, feeling her stomach plummet. How long would it take her to burrow to somewhere valuable? How much more danger would it present? Her years of knowledge, of memorizing unsteady patches and weak siding meant nothing . Everything had changed. She may as well be scavenging blindfolded. 

Frustration boiled up in her stomach, and her eyes darted to the ground, looking for a piece of debris to kick. 

The anger drained away, water swallowed by sand. Rey stumbled back, twisting, eyes searching for some kind of explanation. But none came. 

The ground was covered in shredded metal, dead wires, crumbled stone. It carpeted the ground in a thick expanse, knocked free from the ceiling and the walls. There was no end in sight, with one exception. 

Around Rey was a pure, untouched circle of pale sand.

Chapter Text

The air reeked of burning. Copper weighed, bitter and choking on Kylo Ren’s tongue. He lay limp in the stubborn hold of his harness, the burn of the tether harsh across his arms and chest. He took in a shaking breath, the cockpit blurring through the view of his shattered visor. 

Kylo’s ears were still ringing with the impact of the crash, but they were drowned by a deafening roar, the memory of those words branding into his gray matter. 

That won’t be my life. 

A woman’s voice, desperate, terrified, calling out for help even in her defiant words. 

I refuse to die here. 

She’d had the power to do it herself, but still, she’d reached out. The aptitude practically trembled off of her, sparking off like a raging inferno. Kylo hadn’t needed to contribute in any way but control. 

His mind tried to tread its paths, analyze what exactly had happened and why, how this woman had reached out to him, how he’d returned the grasping hand. But the thoughts fell away from him, unable to linger. 

Kylo gave an irritated growl. It wasn’t like him to be so scattered, unfocused. Snoke would certainly have something scathing to say about it. He was being foolish and--

Crimson dropped into the spiderwebbed glass of his visor, spreading to fill the cracks in a haphazard pattern.

Oh. 

It was then Kylo could feel the blood, dripping steadily from his brow, pooling in the shattered helmet still pulled over his head. Without it, he may have died. 

He still might. 

Kylo tried to muster his strength, managing to unclip the harness. The pain eased, and Kylo took in a shuddering breath. His hand instantly went to his hip.

The air froze in his lungs. 

Kylo bolted up, nearly falling to the floor at the sudden motion. His ribs were bruised, his legs unsteady from the flying and the falling and the crashing, but none of that mattered. Horrible, gnawing fear had swept over any other meager pain in his body. 

He could feel the irritation, prickling at his mind from a galaxy away. The air suddenly became thick and hot, a choking sensation that had nothing to do with the stifling air. 

Your lightsaber is your life. How dare you treat it so carelessly. 

“Looking for something?” 

Kylo Ren froze at the familiar pompous drawl. He ground his teeth, slowly lifting his gaze. 

Poe Dameron stood on the roof of his ship, peering inside with a satisfied smirk. His jacket was missing too, leaving him in a short-sleeved shirt that showed he was nearly as battered as Kylo. Bruises and scrapes littered his arms, and that was only what Kylo could see. 

A wavering beam of light burned his silhouette into Kylo’s retinas. His eyes narrowed, partially from the glaring brilliance, and partly from irritation. 

“Commander Dameron.” he growled. He drew himself up slowly, hiding any trace of pain in his stance. 

“Ben.” Insolent as ever, Poe leaned against the side of the opening, raising and eyebrow. “You got messed up, huh? You know, this feels familiar, except I was nice enough to wait until you got out of the chair.” 

“What do you want?” Kylo snarled. 

“Right now, I want to make sure you don’t get crushed under a hundred tons of durasteel.” Poe said, tone suddenly growing flat. “Can you imagine what Leia would say if I let that happen?” 

Nothing. She’d say absolutely nothing, because if there’s anything that woman knows, it’s war. 

He fought back the words, feeling them cling to his lips closer than the smear of blood. He didn’t want to get in a fight with Dameron. No matter how that resolved, he’d end up with a pounding headache, and the crash had done that enough. 

“Come on, Ben.” 

“Don’t call me that.” he snarled. 

“Fine then, oh grand prince of darkness, will you get out of the kriffing ship so you don’t turn into a greasy black pancake?!”

The rage came quickly, naturally. It roiled over his mind, a storm blocking out every semblance of thought and reason. It struck the ground with rain, a deafening roar that drowned out any possible thought. 

“You know where the map is.” Kylo spoke through the hate, his voice crackling through the damaged modulator. “That’s the only reason you’re still alive.” 

Approval washed over his mind like a steadying breeze. The feeling of presence that had lingered, ever since he’d discovered his missing saber, subsided. 

Kylo stretched out his hands, breathing a heavy sigh. The storm couldn’t be quieted with any kind of speed, but for now…well, for now, the need for it had left. His mind would quiet eventually. It always did. 

“Sure.” Poe huffed a sigh. “Can you still do that Force thing where you jump super high? If it’s going to be too much on your old man knees, I understand--”

Before he could even think about his injuries, Kylo launched himself up, through the ragged tear in the ship. Instantly, he could see better. He hadn’t realized how little light had gotten in, and now the rapid adjustment made him blink sharply. 

They stood in a…chamber? Cavern, of some sort? The sky was almost completely cut off, save for two massive holes where they’d crashed in. They were surrounded in wrecked equipment, steel walls stretching up hundreds of feet in the air. It was all torn and weathered, panels cracked and pulled away by scavengers. 

Poe’s low whistle snapped him out of it. “That jump was a little higher than the base’s fence. Looks like all that Sith training is coming in handy.” his voice dripped with sarcasm. 

The fence at the base. 

Memories flashed through Kylo’s mind; hiding giggles and hushed whispers as they snuck away from their rooms, sliding out the loose window. Kylo using his newfound skills to bound over the fence with ease, snickering while Poe scrambled his way over the interlocking rows of metal.

Kylo was suddenly grateful for his mask, regardless of its shattered state. He chose to ignore the barb. “Where are we?” 

Poe ran a hand through his hair, ruffling the dark curls. They were choked with dust, and now that Kylo was closer, he could see the raw gashes streaking the man’s brow. 

“Wrecked Imperial Star Destroyer.” he answered. “I saw a glimpse of it before we went down. These things are tough. Even after 20 years of rotting away here, it tore up our ships on impact with the hull.” 

“Of course. It was Imperial.” Kylo sneered. The bait was snatched up immediately, Poe drew in a sharp breath, and Kylo smirked, face still hidden by his mask. 

He instantly tuned out Poe’s tirade about Imperial incompetence and cruelty. They’d received those lectures together, he didn’t need to hear them again, second-hand from someone less articulate than General Organa. 

Out of the pit and upright, Kylo’s mind wandered to other, more important matters. Suddenly, something in his mind clicked. 

“Where’s the other person you were with?” he asked, cutting off Poe’s latest rant. 

The voice in his mind, could it have been the stormtrooper? He’d sensed the Force coming off of the trooper, all the way back in the village. Trooper armor was uniform and unchanged against gender, and Kylo hadn’t paid attention to if it had been a man or woman. 

Kylo hesitated before venturing. “FN-2187. She was with you, wasn’t she?” 

“She?” Poe looked at him like he’d grown a second head. “ His name is Finn, and yes, he was with me when we crashed. The impact tore the TIE fighter in two, but it looks like his side took the least of the damage.” Poe scowled, rotating his shoulder with a wince. “ And my jacket.” 

Well. Maybe not, then. 

FN-2187 was likely dead in the crash. He honestly wasn’t sure how Poe himself had survived, and he wasn’t interested enough to ask. Besides, the story would likely be a kernel of truth hidden within a story riddled with exaggerations and sharp-tongued jabs. 

“I need to find my lightsaber.” Kylo said, finally. “I can’t sense its presence here.” 

“You can sense that oversized glowstick?” Poe deadpanned. “Fine. But our next priority should be getting out of here.” 

The wind blew in time with his words. A deep, harsh groan sounded through the place. A cool shard of ice slid down Kylo’s spine. 

“I don’t know how long this will hold.”

Chapter Text

The galaxy may see scavengers as vultures, but that didn’t mean Rey liked picking over corpses. 

She held back her grimace as she looked up at the tangled wreckage of the TIE fighter. It’d had a rough day, that was for certain. Its plating was twisted and torn, the glass of the cockpit shattered. It looked as if she’d been ripped in two; the back torn away. The poor First Order sod in the cockpit would have died on impact, and that wasn’t even discussing his friend, torn out of the ship entirely. 

Corpses or no, it was far too good of a haul to pass up, especially with her usual scavenging places destroyed or buried in rubble. It was chock-full of new parts; untouched by sand, grit, and time. 

Rey made her way up one of the collapsed walls, carefully testing each foothold before trusting it with her weight. It was long, grueling work, and a part of her whined to just be done for the day, to come back early tomorrow. But this was First Order tech! If she left, the best case scenario is that others would rip free all the best bits before she could get to them. Worst case, it would be crawling with stormtroopers by nightfall, reclaiming their tech and refusing entry to anyone. 

Finally, she made her way up to the cockpit, hoisting herself up to perch. As suspected, it was shattered completely. Glittering shards of glass were strewn across the control panel, but Rey barely saw it. Everything was so uniform, so clean. A dozen delicate instruments lined in neat rows, levers and buttons dotting the sides. Rey had never seen steel shine like that, she could practically see her own reflection in it. The matte black panels surely hid even more treasures; wires and fuses and parts working in perfect, fluid motion. 

And then…Rey forced herself to look at the body, lying limp in the harness straps. His face was bloodied and bruised, deep brown skin covered with a thin sheen of sweat. His eyes were closed, head slumped against his shoulder, still adorned in stormtrooper white. Maybe he was a part of the First Order, but Rey couldn’t help but feel a pang of sympathy. It was a terrible way to die, crashing to the ground on a planet that didn’t know your name. 

She took a steadying breath, shaking her head. There was no use in thinking about all of that. Right now, she needed to worry about herself. The sun would be going down in a few short hours, and she didn’t even have a way out yet. 

Get the best parts. Climb back down. Walk the Destroyer’s edge looking for a weak point to burrow through. Easy. 

Rey shifted her weight, pulling a screwdriver out of her bag. The most expensive part she could reach would be the comm system, located…right next to the corpse’s ear. Rey grimaced. 

Get the parts. Don’t worry about anything else. Just get the parts. 

Rey leaned over the trooper, tool in hand, and began to work away at the screws. Soon, she settled into her usual rhythm; easing out the parts as gently as she could, tugging the bright wires free, easing parts from their joints and stashing them into the pouches on her belts. 

She could practically feel the parts as food lining her stomach. Tonight, she would be full, she was sure of it. Unable to eat another bite, slowing down to savor the meager flavors instead of just scarfing it down to settle her body’s protests. 

Rey was just easing out a brilliant blue chip when a scream split her ear left ear, inches away. 

Her chest seized in panic. Rey jerked away, an immediate, terrified response. She scrambled back. Her stomach lurched as her foot slid on the steel window frame. 

Gravity snatched her, cruel and unforgiving. 

Rey was falling.

Chapter Text

Shuffling. The scrape of metal, the click and hiss of machine parts detaching. Finn’s eyes flung open to see a mask, inches from his face. The creature, whatever it was, was hunched over his unconscious form. A predator looming over its food. 

A scream ripped from Finn’s throat, and the creature (person?) barked out a curse, stumbling back. A scream of their own matched his as they began to tumble backwards. 

Sharp-honed instincts kicked in. Finn lunged forward, snatching the fabric wrapped around their torso and yanking them from the precipice of freefall. 

Just as quickly, their hands wrapped around his wrist, holding themselves in place. 

Finn’s heart hammered in his throat as he desperately tried to get his bearings. The hands gripping his own…they felt human; five fingers circling his wrist, though covered in worn gloves. Their face was wrapped in fabric, eyes covered in a dusty pair of goggles. 

But they’re a person. And they’re not from the First Order. 

That much was obvious, everything from the dusty clothes and the fact they hadn’t shot him in his sleep. 

“I’m sorry!” they gasped, fingers tightening around his arm. “I didn’t--I thought--” 

It was then that he realized they were still an inch away from falling, their feet barely finding purchase on the steel lip of the ship’s window. 

With his spare hand, Finn released his harness, standing to take hold of them with his other. It kept them from falling, and it made sure they didn’t lunge. 

“What are you doing here?” he asked. 

“Scavenging.” the person gasped. “For parts, this fighter’s got the newest and cleanest I’ve ever seen. I thought you were dead and I didn’t--” 

Suddenly, everything clicked. 

Finn remembered the blur of sand as their TIE fighter tumbled from space, the massive wreckage they plummeted towards, and then…impact. Darkness. Nothing. 

With careful precision, he pulled the person from the edge, letting them step down into the cockpit. As soon as they had decent footing, he loosed his fingers. The muscles practically groaned at the sensation, like stuck hinges. He’d had their clothes in a death grip. 

The scavenger was watching him like a cornered animal, shoulders tensed, head slightly lowered. Their hand wasn’t on the massive staff on their back, but it wasn’t far from it either. Finn couldn’t blame them. Less than 24 hours ago, he’d seen exactly what the First Order had done to innocent civilians who got in their way. 

Finn gestured to the half-scavenged parts of the comm. “You can keep going, if you want.” It was an attempt to ease the tension. He furthered it by trying a laugh. The sound came out harsh and stilted. 

The scavenger didn’t move or visibly change, but Finn swore he felt their gaze grow suspicious. “I don’t think your superiors would like that.” 

Finn took a deep, measured breath. Did he tell them? If he did, they could turn him in, but if he didn’t, they might just kill him to keep themselves safe. 

“I’m doing a lot of things my superiors wouldn’t like,” he admitted. “I think…yeah, I think everything I could possibly be doing, that they wouldn’t like. Is what I’m doing.” 

That got the scavenger’s attention. “You’re rebelling?” It was the first time he’d heard anything beside guarded steel in their tone. There was a curiosity, almost a softness. When the words weren’t barked out or rushed in terror, Finn could read them much clearer. 

Her (and it almost certainly was a her ) voice was light, and pretty. Tinged with an accent that he’d only heard a handful of times before, in officers who were from the Inner Rim. 

He realized then that he’d been asked a question. “I’m running.” he corrected. “My ship had someone else; a Resistance pilot, Poe Dameron. Have you seen him?” 

“I’m sorry,” she said, and she did sound sorry. Too much, in fact, which made Finn step forward to glance inward at the ship. His stomach sank at the sight. 

The ship had been torn apart. The other seat, so close to his own, had been torn out from the impact. The entire back, most of one of the wings…it was a stupid amount of luck that he’s survived. The only thing that remained there was Poe’s jacket, soft brown leather against cold black durasteel, strewn with brilliant shards of glass. 

Finn picked it up, numbly holding it in his clenched fist. The last thing he’d remembered, Poe was alive; a bright spark of a human, laughing and joking and crying out in triumph. He had an energy Finn had never witnessed, and now that spark had been snuffed out forever. 

“Come on, then.” The woman spoke again, that voice still soft with sympathy. “We should try to find a way out. The crash sealed off my usual exit, but there’s bound to be one somewhere.” 

Finn nodded numbly. “We should get what we can from here, first. Rations, water. Anything of use.” 

The woman hummed agreement, then paused. She tugged off her gloves, then pulled her goggles from her eyes, letting them dangle around her neck. The face covering was yanked away, and Finn found himself face-to-face with the woman for the first time. 

“I’m Rey.” she said, her accent even clearer without the wraps. “I don’t have too much, but for now, you can stick with me.” 

A sickening knot twisted in Finn’s stomach. 

I should tell her no. If the First Order finds us together, they’ll kill us both, without hesitation. If they even see us together, she’ll be marked for life. 

Finn’s head throbbed. The taste of copper was starting to bloom in his mouth from all of the movement, and every bone and muscle in his body throbbed from the impact. 

He took her offered hand. It was smaller than his, but no less strong. Calloused in the heel of the hand, the base of her fingers. Her flesh had been formed by handling tools, not firearms. 

“Finn. Thank you.” 

Rey took her hand back, immediately getting to work on the TIE fighter’s mechanics. Finn watched her for a moment. There was an odd thrill of satisfaction, seeing the harsh corners and clean lines of their designs come apart under her steady hands. 

“I’m sorry about your friend.” Rey said finally, pulling up a panel from the floor. 

Finn’s gaze dropped to the jacket, still clenched in his fist. “Yeah…” 

He looked up, realizing for the first time how massive the space was, just outside the skeletal frame of the broken cockpit. Grey steel stretched out for miles, silent and cold.

“Me too.”

Chapter Text

The way Poe saw it, this was a win all around. 

Alive? Check. Finn had the bigger half of the TIE fighter, so also likely to be alive? Check. Kylo Ren? Annoyed out of his mind! Also alive, which was another important “check.” 

Sure, Poe was technically a prisoner of the First Order, but that was being used as little more than an (ineffective) tool to shut him up. Kylo didn’t even have that stupid jittery lightsaber of his, and his mask was breaking down the more they walked. Eventually, Kylo pulled it off his head with an irritated growl, throwing it into a heap of scrap. 

Poe gave a low whistle. “Nice one. Personally, I would have drop-kicked it. Been fantasizing about that for a long time, though to be fair, your head was always still in it.” 

“Can a moment pass without you making some irritating little remark?” Kylo snarled. 

Poe snorted. “You knew me my entire childhood, and you’re really asking me that?” 

“I’d assumed you’d matured past adolescence. It seems I gave you too much credit.” 

“And I assumed Sith were dark and mysterious, and didn’t throw fits every time one of their toys got broken.” 

Kylo Ren fell silent at that, clearly too irritated to continue the constant back and forth with him. 

The two trekked on. They seemed to be in some sort of docking bay, all tunnels to the outside completely caved in. Piles of wrecked ships had fallen to one side, sand nearly covering the entire ground. It was dark and stifling, the summer heat leeching in through the steel to place a damp and heavy hand on Poe’s brow.

He ran his fingers through his curls, fluffing them out to relieve the condensation. He kept his eyes up, eyeing the loose pieces of metal dangling above their heads. 

Soon, they were headed deeper into the destroyer. It meant no massive chasms over their heads. The halls they walked were nearly normal, if not at a dramatic slant. Still, it was better than picking over shards of metal. 

Soon, even the meager light began to fade, and with it, the heat. Poe started to long for that stupid lightsaber, at least for the light. Something above their passageway scuttled, the hollow scrape of long nails echoing. 

Maybe for protection, too. 

His blaster was gone, the night chill was starting to settle into his bones, and the silence between him and Ben was growing sharp. 

Kriff. Kylo. Kylo Ren. That’s what he chose, that’s what I need to focus on. I can’t let myself forget that. 

“We should stop.” Be--Kylo’s voice cut through his thoughts. “No use in wandering around when we can’t see.” 

Poe grumbled a begrudging agreement, sliding their pack to the floor and settling beside it. Kylo’s ship had some rations that had survived the crash; plain , crumbly cubes packed with protein and fat. They were made for keeping you alive, not for any kind of enjoyment. 

Poe chewed miserably, spirits only lifted by the half-grimace Kylo wasn’t able to hide. 

“Wish we had some of Mama’s pilafa stew.” Poe sighed, pushing the bite around his mouth to savor it. 

“We have food.” Kylo said quietly. “You should be grateful for that much.” 

Poe didn’t have the energy to fire back, chewing in silence. 

The darkness was settling further still. Poe grimaced down either side of the long, shadow-choked hallway. Soon, they’d barely be able to see each other, let alone any enemies or predators. With a heavy sigh, Poe reached into their bag, pulling out one of their precious few glow rods. A quick snap, and white light flooded the place. 

Poe stood, wedging it into place in a loose plate of steel above their head. They could see a good thirty feet down on either side. It wasn’t perfect, but it was far better. 

“Shara had a way of making everything taste better.” Kylo finally spoke up. Poe blinked, genuinely surprised. 

Kylo was sitting against the wall. His dark eyes weren’t turned towards Poe, but his head was tilted up, letting the cool white light flood his face. “Do you have any idea how many vegetables were in that broth?” 

Poe frowned. “What? No, that was a bone broth.” he protested. “I saw her make it, she’d stew the bones for hours.” 

“And I’d distract you while she pureed vegetables to thicken it.” Kylo said, the corner of his mouth twitching up. “She had to make sure you didn’t stay a runt forever.” 

Poe blinked. He wasn’t sure whether to be offended or delighted. It was the first time Kylo had sounded like anything resembling his brother. He narrowed his eyes, overexaggerating the motion. “All this time, and you never told me?” 

“I’ve been busy.” Kylo said dryly, taking a swig of his water. 

With that, all of the humor drained from Poe’s chest. He slid back down, resting his head against the wall with a sigh. 

“We both have.” 

It was the only thing he could find to say. Kylo gave a grunt, maybe of agreement, maybe just to fill the silence. 

“Do you think they’ll send troops after us?” Poe asked. He set down the rest of his protein cube, instead engrossing his hands with his boot buckles. He wasn’t hungry anymore. 

“The Supreme Leader knows I’m alive.” Kylo replied. 

“Your comms are up?” Poe raised an eyebrow. He hadn’t seen Kylo using one, and they hadn’t been apart for him to do so. 

Kylo shook his head. “There’s…” he paused, tilting his head to consider his words. “There’s something called a Force Bond. It ties two Force users together. We can draw on each other’s strength, and it helps communication over long distances. It’s not perfect. It wouldn’t work if he wasn’t so close.” 

Kylo’s eyes drifted upward, to where the First Order ships circled the planet like vultures, hidden by a hundred layers of durasteel. 

“But he knows. As soon as I woke up, he knew.” 

Poe frowned. “You haven’t answered my question.” 

Kylo was silent for a long moment. His head dipped, drawing sharp shadows across his face from the clinical light above. It was long enough that Poe was about to nudge him again, but just as he’d opened his mouth for a jab, Kylo spoke. 

“He won’t.” 

“How do you know?” Poe pressed. This situation was only manageable so long as it was only Ben--kriff, Kylo -- he was dealing with. Surrounded by stormtroopers and generals and the Dark Side, what was left of his brother would slip back into that cold, sneering mask. 

“I’ll make sure he doesn’t. He’s sure to…he’ll talk once I’m asleep.” Kylo said finally. “Take first watch?” 

“Sure.” Poe sighed. “Go running off to your master, like a good little hound.” 

The air prickled with rage, as palpable and dangerous as the scent of ozone. Kylo squared his shoulders, shifting his clothes so that stupid cloak wound around him. 

“Keep sharp.” he said, voice cold and dead. “And finish eating. You’ll need your strength.” 

He turned from Poe, back turned while he faced down the hall. He was instantly still, but Poe saw from the rise of his shoulders that he didn’t sleep for a long, long time. 

Chapter Text

Kylo shifted at the dull throb in his shoulder. Sighing, he shifted to his back to ease the strain. His hackles raised in an instant.

Something’s wrong. 

The harsh light of the glow rod wasn’t burning his closed eyelids, even though his new position should have faced him towards it. His eyes shot open. 

He was lying in the sands of Jakku, flat, empty and alone. The Star Destroyer was nowhere to be seen, and neither was Poe. 

He slowly rose to his feet, taking in his surroundings. The sky above him was clear, but utterly devoid of stars or Jakku’s moons. Instead, thick tendrils of smoke hovered in the distance, locked into place against the dark sky. 

The village from last night, the one he had razed in pursuit of the map. The flames still licked the sky, but they were completely still. There were no screaming villagers, no stormtroopers, but the village stood, nonetheless, in stunning detail. 

A beautifully rendered portrait of his failure from the night before, frozen in an instant of destruction for the two of them to enjoy. Kylo gripped onto the agony of failure, all of the sickening twists it turned in his gut. Fear. Desperation. He nursed the spark into pure rage, letting it roil over in his mind, covering his entire mind with the promise of destruction and the stench of ozone. 

Kylo squared his shoulders and stepped into the village. 

Snoke was, as always, in the apex of the destruction. He sat on a rudimentary bench, most likely built and used by the village's watchmen for generations. There were a few like it, circled around a bonfire piled thick with wood. 

He stopped just outside the ring, waiting. Eventually, Snoke waved a hand towards a bench. “Please, sit. We have much to discuss.” 

The words were bitingly neutral, and it took everything in Kylo not to shudder at them. 

You are not scared. You are angry. Your fear is nothing in the face of your rage, and your rage is nothing in the face of what that rage will make you do. 

Images flashed as he stared at the fire; warriors crumpling from a wave of his hand, screams of the dying echoing in his ears, the stench of burning flesh under his blade. 

Under the cacophony, Kylo let a single breath of wind slip through. A still, quiet thought whispered;

The fire isn’t warm. There’s no heat. 

Snoke’s dream manipulation was masterful. There were details Kylo didn’t even remember seeing; the pattern in the woven blanket by his side, a windchime of broken bottles dangling from a tent post, the arrangement of stones around the firepit. These were all proof that Snoke had clearer access to aspects of Kylo’s mind than even he did. 

But there were some things that Snoke could not disguise, and that was the fact that Kylo’s real body, tucked away in that wreckage, was cold. No tricks of the mind could convince his body otherwise. 

“You made quite the rash decision.” Snoke finally spoke, his voice still carefully measured. Though below it, Kylo could easily detect the undercurrent of scorn. “And now you’re crashed on a pathetic scrap of a planet, needing my troops to come remedy your failure.” 

“It was hardly a failure, Supreme Leader.” Kylo spoke up, letting the anger in him flare sharply. “The Resistance Commander Poe Dameron is still in my grasp, and now I am closer to where he has hidden the map.” 

Snoke hummed lowly. “Perhaps. But how do you plan on getting the map to me?”

“Quite easily, Supreme Leader.” Kylo replied swiftly. “Once we leave the Star Destroyer, I will give Dameron the illusion of escape. I will track him while he retrieves his droid. Then, I will dispose of him and capture the droid . I will seize a ship from a nearby town and return to your side.”

Kylo conjured up images in his mind; Poe flying into his waiting fist, the bones of his neck snapping as he finally fell lifeless, that quick tongue silenced for good. 

Snoke’s presence stroked over his thoughts, plucking out the violent urge to study it. Across the bond, Kylo felt his master’s rush of pride. 

“Good, very good…” he murmured. “You have taken my teachings to heart, Kylo Ren. You make me proud to call myself your master.” 

“It is as you say, Supreme Leader.” Kylo slid from his seat, kneeling before the man. “Is there anything else you require of me?” 

“No. Go, and do what you’ve promised.” Snoke stood, taking a few steps forward into the wrecked village. “I will be monitoring you closely, to see my favorite apprentice in action.” 

Soon, his wrinkled, pale form vanished into the smoke. 

Kylo sat, waiting, but the dream didn’t fade. He felt a tug across the bond, urging him forward. This “conversation” wasn’t over yet. 

Rising, he stepped in the direction of the urge. It led him through the village, to the outskirts of the tents. He saw his own TIE Silencer, still standing sleek and unscratched, ramp lowered. Kylo frowned, slowly making his way through the area. What did Snoke want him to see?

His foot met still-warm flesh. Without even looking down, Kylo now knew exactly where he stood. It was where stormtroopers had held Lor San Tekka for him to interrogate. Where the man had died for the Resistance, cut down by Kylo’s own blade. 

It seemed Snoke had decided one corpse was worth his time to manifest. His master wouldn’t be satisfied until Kylo had gazed upon his good work. 

He let his gaze fall, ready to stare into the blank blue eyes of the old man who’d been martyred so unwaveringly for the cause. 

Deep brown eyes, unfocused up at the starless sky. Dark curls, framing a face that was rapidly losing its pallor in death. Mouth agape, tongue ripped out and dried blood coating his chin and throat. Silenced forever in death, Poe Dameron lay at his feet. 

Kylo didn’t even have time to steel himself before he was being ripped out of the dream, roughly dropped back onto the floor of the Star Destroyer wreckage. 

He gasped awake, shooting up and grabbing for his absent saber. 

Poe scrambled up, snatching a piece of shrapnel he’d apparently commissioned as a weapon. 

Kylo stared at Poe blankly. Whole. Alive. A string of curses falling out of his mouth. He started running over the events of the dream in his mind. 

The village. 

The plan he’d promised Snoke, the orders he’d received. 

“I will be monitoring you closely, to see my favorite apprentice in action.” 

Poe’s corpse, woven in his mind out of whole cloth. Not a memory. A fabrication. 

Snoke promised that he’d be monitoring Kylo closely, but dream walking took energy. Sculpting new images took even more, and the image of Poe’s corpse was strikingly vivid. 

Closely. Kylo took a shuddering breath, rising to his feet. Poe’s look of concern was rapidly shifting to alarm. It was all Kylo could do to hold up a hand, a wordless reassurance. Closely. But not now. 

The clouds in his mind broke open, a downpour of pure terror soaking him to his bones. Kylo Ren lurched over, vomiting onto the floor. 

Chapter Text

Golden fingers of sunlight brushed Rey’s face, bringing a welcome warmth to her chilled flesh. She murmured sleepily, shifting around to settle deeper in her bed. Sand pushed harshly against her cheek, making her frown. Had she tracked sand into her hammock? She was always careful to shake it out before she slept, sometimes even beating it against the side of her home to chase out the stubborn grains. 

Rey opened her eyes, and for a moment, utter confusion filled her mind. She was curled up in the sand, a wavering beam of light touching her from a hole in the ship above. The events of the day prior came rushing back. 

The two ships impacting the Star Destroyer. The perfect circle in the debris around her. Finding the TIE fighter, and the runaway stormtrooper inside, Finn. All of her usual routes blocked, no way to get out that wasn’t dangerously unstable. Last night, she’d been forced to let him keep watch over her while she slept. Rey was sure she wouldn’t be able to sleep through his watch, but sleep had claimed her soon enough. 

Exhaustion had won over paranoia. She believed that he’d run from the First Order. She’d be dead otherwise, and he had no reason to lie to a scavenger. But you didn’t have to be a member of the First Order to be violent or cruel, Rey had learned that too many times to count. 

The low timbre shook the last of the grogginess from her mind. Singing. Someone was singing. 

The someone, obvious in retrospect, was Finn. Rey slowly propped herself up on her elbows, studying him with a quizzical tilt to her head. 

He sat a few yards away, a damaged blaster in pieces around him. The song spilled from him, echoing around the vast, empty chamber. A part of Rey thought to shush him, but just as she opened her mouth, she thought to listen to the words. 

Star’s tide, rising bright. 

Come to wash o’r sleepless night. 

Trust the wind child, quiet, sweet,

Sweeping down our village street. 

It wasn’t the sort of song she’d expected a stormtrooper to know, but then again, Finn wasn’t anything she’d expected from a stormtrooper. He was nudging little parts back into configuration from where they’d jostled loose in the crash. 

Eventually, his words started to falter, shifting to humming in the middle of stanzas. 

When the darkness has reached her crest,  

__________________________ to rest, 

Find me under __________________, 

Where we’ll ____________________…

As the humming drifted off, Finn’s eyebrows knitted in a frustrated sort of concentration. Rey stood, and Finn’s head twitched, ever so slightly, in her direction. A soldier’s instincts. 

“Does it aim better when you sing it a lullaby?” she went for a tease, softening it with a smile. It seemed to land.

“I wish.” Finn laughed slightly. “It’s a tradition, I guess. No matter what, we’d need to take apart and reconstruct our weapons every morning. It kept us sharp. A man in my squad, a…he was a friend. He and I would sing that, to remember.” 

Remember what, exactly? 

The words hovered on Rey’s tongue, but something in Finn’s expression stayed her words. Instead, she tilted her head a little, turning the lyrics over in her mind. 

“It’s pretty.” she said finally. 

Finn’s hands started moving again, sliding the pieces of his gun together with practiced precision. “Thank you, Rey.” 

The words were quiet, but warm, and they gave her enough courage to speak up. 

“Do you think…?”

His eyes were on her, curious, and it was too late to swallow back the words. Even if she could, they’d snap like lizards in her belly, circling until she blurted them out. 

“Could you sing that again for me, sometime? Before we part ways?” her voice came out small and horrifyingly vulnerable, enough to make Rey clear her throat and stiffen her tone. “I’ve just never heard music like that.” 

Finn studied her face for a moment, like she was a particularly stubborn piece of machinery he was trying to work out. “Like what?” 

“Soft.” Rey admitted. “All I know are drinking songs.” 

“Of course.” Finn said. He shouldered his gun, rising to his feet. “Just say the word.” 

Rey grabbed her staff, leaning on it to shuffle to her feet. She stretched out the stiffness in her muscles, tilting her neck away to hide her embarrassed face from Finn. She supposed that’s what happened when the only people you talked to were Unkarr Plutt and the odd droid; your social skills got as rusty as a duneskimmer’s underside. 

Finn continued to pack up their things while Rey sketched in the sand at their feet. Finn soon joined her side, peering down at her as she worked. “We’re towards the nose of the ship.” she explained. “It’s sunk into the sand, so it’s a less popular place to look for parts. You need rope, and to be flexible enough to climb and work your way along the ledges and cracks.” 

Scavenging was done by anyone unfortunate, but young, fit people like Rey were rarer. Mostly it was done by older, desperate, debt-ridden folk who didn’t have the living family or energy to try to move somewhere better. There wasn’t much that could keep you tethered to a place like Niima Outpost. 

“Rey?” Finn’s voice sounded confused, and it knocked her out of her thoughts long enough to focus. “Right. So, the point is, we’re in a tough spot. If we want to get out, we’ll be making our way uphill, towards the back of the ship.” she explained. “That’s where it lifts out of the sand. If we can find a way to lift up some of the panels or find a hole in the side, we could probably find a place to jump out through that’s not too far off the sand.” 

Finn nodded slowly. “And you’re sure there’s nowhere at ground level here?” he asked. 

Rey shook her head. “None that I’d trust. The impact of your ships shifted the weight of the roof. Fuss around with anything on the sides too much, and we’ll risk burying ourselves under a kriff load of durasteel.” 

Finn shuddered, and while Rey couldn’t blame him, the threat hardly meant anything. You could only spend so many years terrified of it before it became routine. One day, gravity may decide that it was done with Rey’s existence, and drop a metric ton of steel on her head. Getting squeamish over the fact would do nothing to change it. She was a scavenger, sunk into the sands of this place as surely as the Star Destroyer itself. 

Rey stepped from her drawing, glancing back over to the hole in the ceiling to gauge the light. “From the slant of that light, it means it’s early morning.” she murmured. “So the sun’s in the east. The nose of the ship faces north, so that means…” she shuffled her position, using the two reference points to eventually point ahead. “We need to go that way. We’ll skirt the edge, see if there’s anywhere we can get out now, just in case.” 

Finn nodded, shouldering their bag with the few supplies they had. Rey’s throat ached for water, but she pushed it aside. They had precious little, and it would go further and mean more in the height of the day. The morning cool was enough to push aside the harshness of her throat.

They’d gone a few hundred paces, picking over rubble and walking through what was at one point a docking bay when Finn spoke up. 

“Rey.” 

She glanced to watch him, a half-step behind. He was studying her in the same way as before, when she’d asked about the lullaby. It made her skin prickle, but she pushed it aside. There wasn’t any ill intent to the look, she understood that much. It was just that Rey wasn’t used to being looked at. 

“Finn.” she echoed back the exchange of names, trying to keep her voice light. 

Sensing her discomfort, his eyes trailed back to the path ahead. His attention was still trained on her, but with a softer edge; steel focus wrapped in a woven shroud. 

“Why are you helping me?” he asked. “I’m a stormtrooper, and a drain on your resources. Without you, I’d be lost, dead or crushed.” 

Rey blinked, confused by the question. Not why he was asking it, of course, that much was obvious. She was someone who lived off the fallen, scraping them for everything they were worth. Despite her bag being chock full of lucrative parts from the TIE fighter, they didn’t translate to food or supplies until she got them to Niima Outpost. Besides, it wasn’t as if Finn had given them to her, he’d simply crashed the ship and hadn’t stood in her way. 

“Not that I’m trying to change your mind,” Finn continued quickly, humor battling nerves in his tone. “I’m grateful, I’m just--” 

“No, I know.” she reassured him. “I just…” She pursed her lips, running his question through her mind. Why? Why give up time and valuable resources on Finn? 

She brought her mind back to the night before. The image of his face in that cockpit, the sickening thud of her stomach as she saw his dead body. The shout, the tumble, the tense conversation. 

“I guess…the same reason you didn’t let me fall.” she explained. “Your hand shot out, that was instinct, right? You wouldn’t have had the time to think about it.” 

Finn nodded. “Of course.” 

“But afterwards, you held me there, and then pulled me back inside. You could have let go. No one would have had your head for it, and you didn’t know if I’d try to hurt you.” 

“No one?” 

“What?” 

Finn’s feet came to a shuffling halt, his dark eyes piercing her once again. “No one would have had my head, is what you said.” 

“Oh.” Rey scuffed the toe of her boot through a splay of wires, ends twisted and fried beyond use or even recognition. “Well, I guess you wouldn’t have known that. But…all the same, you’d have killed nobody.” 

The silence was thick and heavy for a moment, before Finn spoke again. " I held on, because I know what it feels like to let go. Once you take a life, it changes you. How you see things.” 

Rey frowned. “It gets easier?” she ventured. It was what someone had said to her, long ago. A bounty hunter, lounging in the shade. They were drinking from a heavy brown bottle and holding a sack that was starting to reek in the scorching sun. They’d talked of their hunt as if it were a game, the loss of life as casual as a handful of credits around a gambling table. 

“For some.” Finn replied. “It breaks something in you. Changes it. For me…I don’t know. You were scared. You weren’t trying to hurt me.” he shook his head, giving a small laugh, but there was no humor in the sound. “Two nights ago, that was my first battle. And it was full of people like you. Who were scared. Who didn’t want to hurt me. I didn’t want to add you to the list.” 

The hypocrisy of the words twisted harshly in Rey’s stomach, a bitter sort of sting in her mouth. “I think you chose the wrong career for that.” she huffed. 

“I didn’t choose anything.” Finn shot back, anger flooding his voice as rapidly as hers. “As much as you didn’t choose to be stuck on Jakku.” 

A part of Rey wanted to snap back, that she wasn’t stuck here. She was here by choice, waiting, ready for the day that was sure to come soon. But the rest of his words caught her mind, snaring it firmly. 

“You didn’t choose to be a stormtrooper?” she ventured, toning down the anger to caution. 

Finn shook his head, a brisk, sharp motion. “I was taken from a family I’ll never know for a purpose I had no choice in following. That was all of us, the foot soldiers anyways. No idea about the upper brass.” 

Guilt curled in her stomach like choking smoke, overtaking and smoldering the rage that had sparked there. “I didn’t know.” Was all she was able to say. 

Finn shrugged. “We should keep walking.” 

Rey didn’t argue, taking up the pace and trying to ignore the clawing guilt at her assumptions. All she could do was set her jaw and keep her head up, leading them both to some kind of safety. It was a good handful of minutes before Finn spoke again.

“You know, if you killed me, no one would be coming after you, either.” Finn said quietly. The words were careful, but not hostile, an offered drink from a water flask in the heat. 

Rey took them, quickly. “Nobody?” 

Finn gave a huffing sort of laugh, though it may have been from the fact their path was slowly becoming steeper. “The First Order would give you a pat on the back for it.” he admitted. “I’m a deserter, and all. You know, my name’s barely a day old. I just had a string of numbers before. Poe, the pilot I was with? He gave me a name, just before we crashed.” 

He had killed before he’d had a name. The wrongness of that panged in Rey’s stomach, but it wasn’t directed at Finn. It was solely focused on the faceless beings in the sky above, who’d forced him into this, away from his family. 

“I’ve just got Rey.” she said, finally. “I was too little to remember my surname.” 

Finn was quiet for a moment. “They’re…?” 

“Gone.” she said curtly. “But not forever. They’ll be back.” 

She could feel the doubt weighing the air, like all those times before. Like every time that Rey mentioned her parents, the promises they’d made to her, even when she was whining and wailing like a pathetic little dunekitten. 

They wouldn’t be gone forever. Wait, and be strong for them. 

“That’s a surname enough, isn’t it? One we get to share.” Finn spoke up, huffing in amusement. “Rey and Finn Nobody.” 

“Rey and Finn Nobody.” she echoed. The word was round and hollow in her mouth, like the gaping void of an empty stomach. It filled the space, somehow, even in its emptiness. Something to go after her short burst of letters, even if it had no substance to it. 

“The scavenger and the stormtrooper.” he shook his head. “What a pair we make.” 

“ Ex- stormtrooper.” she reminded him. 

“Ex.” he agreed. 

They continued on in silence, only the wind whistling through the wreckage to fill the gap. And yet, it felt…peaceful. A silence built on contentment, rather than tension. 

It was nearing noon when the peace was shattered. 

A dark blur shot into the side of Rey’s vision, making her stumble back. She took in the figure, standing a few hundred paces away. He was unlike anyone Rey had ever seen, and yet she nearly shouted out his name as she saw him. 

His name? How could I call his name if I don’t even know what it is? 

She didn’t, and yet, familiarity tugged at her as insistently as mud on the soles of her boots. 

He was a night-colored specter, dark-clothed with black hair in a wild tangle brushing his shoulders. Even at this distance, Rey could tell he’d be much taller than she was. The way he moved was both frantic and strong; every push of his feet against the ground propelled him rapidly around the space, and yet he was ducking and weaving with a horrified urgency that set her own nerves frayed as old cloth. 

“Rey?” 

It was Finn’s voice, but he sounded miles away. She was locked into the man in front of her, on the other end of the hangar. He was clearly in combat, but there was no sign of an enemy. 

His mouth opened and closed, clearly shouting. Orders? Insults? Threats to his opponent? By the twist of his face, he was clearly shouting, she should have been able to hear him. Only the wind reached her ears. 

Rey took a step forward, then two more. The distance remained, shifting like a mirage. Just out of reach. Rey had been a victim to them before, but this…why would her dehydrated mind fool her with the vision of a man? 

Finally, with a final thrust of his hand, the battle seemed to end. The man slowly stood from his stance, rising to catch his breath. He leaned down, snatching up an odd metal cylinder. 

“Who are you?” 

As if her words had slapped him across the face, the man startled. His head whipped around, searching. 

Rey’s eyebrows furrowed, and she called again, louder. 

“Over here! I’m just…turn around!” 

The man twisted wildly. His eyes whipped her direction, but their gaze ran straight through her. With a chill, Rey realized he couldn’t see her at all. 

“Rey!” She was suddenly aware of hands on her shoulder, shaking her with a desperation that was bordering on painful. “Rey!!!” 

“Finn! What?!” Rey grabbed his hands to still him, confused why he was so frantic. “What is it?” 

That only deepened the concern on his face. “You were…gone. Your face, it was like you were a million miles away. What happened?” 

Rey frowned. “I was watching the fight. But I couldn’t figure out what he was fighting and--” 

“The fight?” Finn was staring at her like she’d sprouted scales and a tail. “What fight?” 

“The man,” Rey started, turning to point towards him. As soon as she did, she froze. Where the dark-haired man had stood, mere moments earlier, there was nothing but the dark, steely depths of the wreckage. 

Chapter Text

The creature lunged for Poe, slamming into him and nearly throwing him onto his back. It attacked with blunt, wide teeth, closing around his arm. Poe snatched it away at the last second. By the weight of the creature and the powerful snap of the jaws, Poe was certain his bones would have shattered. It clung to him with thin tendrils in place of limbs, winding around him and clinging to the fabric of his shirt with dried skin in long, patchy shreds. 

Another growl joined the beasts, deeper and just as animalistic. 

“ Fall.” 

The creature was torn from Poe’s torso, leaving behind a few of the vine-like limbs. It slammed into the wall from a relentless power. A horrible crack split the air; bone splintering against steel. 

Poe pulled the torn limbs from his body, shuddering. He spotted Kylo Ren out of the corner of his eye, crouched in a fighting stance. His eyes were dark and wild, and utterly fixed on the saber hilt behind the line of beasts. 

“Are you injured?” 

The words took him off guard. He’d expected the words to be an infuriated growl, but Kylo’s tone was carefully tempered. Angry, but none was directed at him. 

“Fine.” Poe said. He stepped closer to close ranks, feeling the thrumming pressure of the Force intensify. But this wasn’t like Luke, or Leia, or even how Ben’s had been. It was like stepping into the wall of a hurricane, the pressure laying thick and heavy on his tongue. 

“I’m going to rush them.” he growled. “Once I have my saber, this’ll be over in an instant.” 

“Go on, ask me.” Poe folded his arms over his chest. 

The maelstrom seemed to shift, uncertain. “Ask you?” 

Poe grinned, despite the creatures prowling mere feet away. “Ask me to cover you.” 

Kylo’s head twitched, like a dog flicking away an irritating insect. “What.” he deadpanned. 

“As soon as you rush in, they’ll pile onto you, so you need someone to protect your back. Come on, we’ve drilled this. But since I’m your helpless hostage, I’m going to need incentive.” 

A strange sort of huffing sound tore from Kylo’s throat, and if Poe didn’t know better, he’d think it was a laugh. “Stars, you’ve never changed.” 

Poe tapped his foot, but his grin only grew. “Nah, more than you realize. Then again, Leia always said we brought out the worst in each other.” 

He didn’t continue to what she’d say afterwards, when their faces settled into round-cheeked pouts. And the best, she’d reassure them, laugh lines deepened around those warm, wise eyes. When you put your minds to it, always the best. 

He didn’t need to. Kylo’s head twitched again, a low growl rumbling in his throat. The air thickened again, rage boiling so thick that Poe could hardly breathe. Still, his voice rumbled; “Watch my back.” 

Poe’s smile slipped, but he hefted the piece of rebar he’d snatched from the wreckage. Without hesitation, Kylo rushed forward. Poe slipped in, immediately slamming his makeshift weapon into a creature. It only took a few swings for the path to be cleared enough for Kylo to leap through. 

He leapt, landing in the center of the creatures, saber hilt between his feet. Kylo bent, then froze. His head jerked again, then stilled. 

A creature was racing towards him to tackle into his back. Poe was about to shout a warning, but Kylo’s words spilled out first. 

“MOVE!” he shouted.

Poe shot backwards, instinct moving quicker than thought. Kylo’s fist slammed into the ground next to the saber. A rippling echo of Force slammed into the creatures, sending them flying in every direction. Poe had to duck to keep a particularly lengthy one from clipping his head. 

The room fell silent. They’d found his saber in some sort of control room that had been turned to a makeshift nest of scavenged shiny parts, hoarded by the creatures that had swarmed them so soon after. Now, it seemed they’d all died or retreated. 

Poe poked around in the pile of their treasure, looking for something useful as a weapon, but everything seemed destroyed by age or rust. 

“You made such a big deal about getting to your saber when you could do that ?” Poe huffed. “You didn’t even need the oversized glowstick!” 

Silence. 

Poe rolled his eyes, huffing at the total silence. “What, is this because I made you ask for help? I didn’t even make you say please .” 

Poe stopped clanging around the piles of junk, glancing over to Kylo. His face was pale (well, paler than usual), every muscle frozen in place by some unknown power. His eyes were staring off, focused on a patch of ship that looked to only be steel. 

Poe’s hands flexed, uneasy energy jittering down the lengths of his fingers. “Oh grand prince of darkness?” 

Nothing. The spikes of nerves shot up his arms, rivers of nervous energy stabbing to his shoulders. If that didn’t make him fire back, then what--

Suddenly, his head whipped around, hair lashing across his face. His face held a million emotions that Poe couldn’t name, and he braced himself for an attack, verbal or physical. 

But the blow never came. Kylo’s eyes whipped around the space, as if looking for something just beyond the cold gray walls. His eyes focused, seemingly on a random point, but there was nothing but confused frustration painting his face. 

Finally, Poe had enough. He steeled himself, crossing to Kylo and grabbing his arm. “ Ben. ” 

Kylo gasped, snapping back to the room. His pupils were harsh, wide discs against the dark iris of his eyes, and he still wasn’t fully looking at Poe. 

“He’s gone.” Kylo whispered. 

Poe was ready for a rebuke, a snarl, a shove to get Poe away from him. But there was nothing in Kylo’s expression but awe. 

“Who’s gone?” Poe ventured to ask. Kylo’s eyes dropped down to meet his, and all of a sudden they were Ben’s. A memory flashed in between them, carried by the Force. 

They were sitting under the jun fruit tree in the Solo’s backyard, the sounds and smells of dinner drifting from the windows. Ben was practically wiggling out of his skin, but he’d made Poe sit next to him, watch as he closed his eyes, lifting up his hands like he was catching raindrops. But instead of rain, the brilliant violet fruits drifted from the highest branches, where it was sweet and ripe. Poe broke into a delighted giggle. “More! Do more!” he urged. Soon, there were too many for Ben’s hands to hold, toppling into his lap and breaking him from the trance. Ben’s eyes shot open. Awe, strength, peace. They shone behind his eyes as brilliantly as stars. 

Ben was standing before him once again, captured in a single moment and unwilling to move from it. 

“Ben,” Poe prompted again. “ Who’s gone?” 

“Snoke.” Ben murmured. “As soon as I heard her voice, his voice burned away like dew in the grass. He was gone, and she was there, even though I couldn’t even see her face.”

A million questions cycled through his mind. Gone? For good, or for now? And what had Ben meant when he said Snoke was here? Surely not in the Star Destroyer itself, Ben had said the night before he was above the planet, in his ship. So in his mind? How often was Snoke there? But the only thing Poe was able to say was “She?” 

Ben’s brow furrowed, as if Poe was asking a ridiculously simple question. But soon, confusion filled his expression, too. “I don’t…” 

Something was sliding back, the awe of the moment falling back into his old guardedness. Poe’s chest jerked, feeling his brother slip away from him once again. His grip tightened on Ben’s arm, as if his strength alone could keep Ben from vanishing under his fingers like smoke. “Who is she, Ben?” 

“I…” Ben shook his head. “I think…she was the sun.” 

He must have hit his head worse than I thought. 

But Ben didn’t look concussed; he looked more like himself than Poe had seen in the last decade. He shifted, taking Poe’s hand from his arm. The movement wasn’t harsh, but it was firm. Poe didn’t fight it. 

“You shouldn’t call me Ben.” His tone was almost chiding, like telling a child not to say a bad word. Poe’s hands sharpened into fists, but he bit his tongue. “That was the Force. The Light, wasn’t it?” 

Ben was quiet for a long moment. “Yes. She’s reaching out from the light.” 

Poe shook his head. “Not that.” he insisted. Ben’s eyes came back to meet his, confused. “When you made that shockwave, against the creatures. You used the Light.” 

Ben’s face contorted, a snap clear on his tongue. But no rebuke came. His eyes left Poe’s face. 

“Yes.” 

Chapter Text

When one member of your squad was distracted, it meant the entire group was at risk. 

Whatever happened to Rey, it was as dangerous as it was unsettling. She’d stopped mid step and stared, completely unresponsive of anything he’d said or done. He’d checked her face for any signs of fainting, but her skin had been warm and full, not pale. Her pupils weren’t dilated, in fact, they had seemed focused, fixed. She was staring at the durasteel wall, clearly seeing something, but there was…nothing.

Later, she’d told Finn she’d been calling out. But her mouth hadn’t so much as moved much less shouted. As they continued on, Finn started rattling off options in his head, trying to dredge up memories of the bare-bones medical classes they’d received. 

1. Heat exhaustion. That was a possibility, it was the desert. Still, Rey lived here and was likely adjusted to the heat. At the time, it had still been mid-morning, not nearly as hot as the desert seemed to get. They were shaded and cooled by the bulk of the Star Destroyer, and he wasn’t feeling faint, even though he was unused to the climate and had more insulating clothing than her. 
2. Heat Mirage. He’d read about those. They happened from dehydration, not just heat. But from the little he knew about them, they happened from the sun playing tricks on your eyes. Besides that, they normally involved illusions of water, not odd dark figures. 
3. Concussion. It was the most likely, but again, she wasn’t experiencing any symptoms besides hallucinating. Her pupils were dilating properly, she was answering simple questions without any confusion. And yet…it was the only one that made sense to Finn. 

“Rey,” he started, hesitant. 

“Mm?” Her head turned his direction, but she was still scanning the wreckage ahead of them. They’d found their way from the docking bay into some kind of hallway, a long, narrow tube that gently curved upward. 

She was still distracted, that was clear, but she was focusing on Finn’s face without any trouble. Mental distraction, not physical. Still, that could be just as dangerous. He’d need her focused if they were going to keep traveling this place safely. 

“Can you tell me what happened when our ships crashed here? I want to make sure your head is okay.” 

Apparently honesty hadn’t been the best policy, because she leveled an irritated look in his direction. “I’m not concussed, Finn.” 

Finn held up his hands. “I’m not saying you are!” 

“You thought it, though.” 

Finn swallowed awkwardly. 

Rey sighed, dropping her hand to pick at one of the loose seams of her pants. “You won’t believe me, even if I tell you.” 

Finn paused, feeling guilt prickle his stomach. He hadn’t really been listening, had he? Instead, he’d been focused on trying to diagnose what was wrong, not paying attention to the emotions she was tangling with. 

He slightly picked up his pace, stepping beside her instead of trailing behind. “I don’t really know what’s going on,” he admitted. “I’m flying blind, and you’re my only way out of here. You get why I’d be worried, right?” 

Rey’s expression softened. “Right. Well…” she tugged a stray thread loose, twining it between her fingers. “Finn, have you ever heard of the Force?” 

Unbidden, an image flashed in his mind. The roiling, snapping energy surrounding Kylo Ren as he’d held Poe’s blaster bolt. Suspended in mid-air, held with a terrifying power that he could barely comprehend. 

“Of course. I think everyone has.” 

Rey’s fingers twisted and wove, starting to mindlessly tie and untie a knot in the thread. “When your ships crashed, I was about to die.” she admitted. “The crash dislodged a ton of  the ship’s ceiling; there was debris raining everywhere, nowhere to run. I felt frozen, I didn’t even have the breath to scream. But I…I don’t know.” her brow knotted. “I called out, but…like I did earlier. Not with my mouth but with…” she shook her head, clearly frustrated. “Not with my mind, either, it wasn’t like I was thinking, more like…” 

“With your soul.” Finn had meant to phrase it as a question, so why hadn’t it come out that way? His tone was matter-of-fact, as if he were informing Rey what color the sky was. 

“My soul…” Rey murmured. She didn’t seem as confused as Finn was, brows knitting as she considered it. “Yes, I think that’s…what it was.” 

“Did anyone…” Finn frowned, looking for the right way to phrase it. “Did anyone teach you to do that? Or have you done it before?” 

Rey shook her head. “It was the first time I’d felt anything like it.” she admitted. 

Finn bit back his disappointment, then felt a flash of irritation at it. 

This isn’t about you. 

“What happened next?” he asked. 

“I was huddled on the ground, and I called out for help. But…” she shook her head. “I don’t know how to describe it. Someone answered, but it wasn’t with words. It was like someone reached out their hand, and pulled me to safety. Then, when I opened my eyes, there was debris everywhere, Finn. All except for a circle around myself. If that’s not the Force, then I don’t know how else to explain it.” 

Finn watched her closely. She didn’t look like a Sith. She was small and scrappy, with a soft voice and a distinct glee for picking apart First Order wrecks. He doubted any of that was common for Force users. 

She doesn’t feel like one, either. 

Kylo Ren’s presence was like standing on the edge of a thunderstorm, lighting the edge of every nerve on fire. He was the only Sith that Finn had met, and standing beside Rey was nothing like that. She felt…solid. Like a cavern floor under his feet, or the support of a bunk under his head while he slept. 

“Look, I know it sounds crazy, but I wouldn’t lie about something like this.” Rey’s tone prickled with discomfort, and Finn realized that he hadn’t responded. He had been staring at Rey with a frown, which probably didn’t give her much confidence. 

“Sorry!” he winced. “I’m used to the helmet, you can’t really read our expressions through them, so…” 

Rey waved aside the apology, but she still looked awkward, like she was regretting speaking up at all. 

“I don’t know if that’s the Force,” he admitted. “You don’t feel like a Sith, Rey. Besides, even if it was the Force, that’s not something you’d want. ”

Rey frowned. “But that isn’t all there is to the Force. What about Luke Skywalker?” 

Luke Skywalker? The name was familiar, but…he wracked his brain for anything about the man. Eventually, a memory of one of his childhood instructors came to mind, teaching a crowded classroom of cadets about the “glorious history of the Galactic Empire.” 

She’d crowed on for what felt like hours about the Emperor Palpatine, known as Darth Sideous, and his traitorous apprentice, Anakin Skywalker. Skywalker, that’s where he’d heard the name. And there was another Skywalker, that “Luke” person that Rey had named. 

“He was a rival Sith…” Finn said slowly, dusting off the faint memories. “Who made a coup against the Emperor with Darth Vader. He was going to take over, but he failed…and the Empire collapsed in the power vacuum.” 

Rey was staring at him with clear confusion. “A Sith? Where did you hear that?” 

Finn felt his face grow warm. He’d always suspected that their teacher had been exaggerating the “glory of the Empire”, but he hadn’t thought to question that part.

“Where do you think, Rey?” 

It was Rey’s turn to flush. “Oh. Right. Well, it’s not like I know everything about it, but everyone talked about Luke Skywalker and the Jedi when I was small.” 

“Jedi…” Finn repeated the word. It felt solid in his mouth. Not like the solid weight of armor, but…comforting, almost. The press of a friend’s arm slung over his shoulder, the presence of an ally at his back. 

“The First Order didn’t talk about them?” Rey asked. 

“Not at all,” he admitted. “What were they?” 

It was Rey’s turn to pause, tilting her head as if the answer might spill out her ear if she went far enough. “There were lots of stories, and I don’t remember all of them too well. But the Jedi were like…the Light, I think they were called. The Sith were Darkness, the Jedi were Light. And the Force was different for them, too. They used it to protect people, and to fight those who were evil and wicked. Luke Skywalker didn’t want to rule the Empire, he wanted to collapse it.” 

Finn remembered the whispers he’d heard about Kylo Ren and his Knights. How they could wrap a hand around your throat from across a battlefield, or pull you onto their blade like the wind itself was carrying your body. 

“What could they do?” he asked. 

“Move things.” Rey said confidently, then hesitated. “With their thoughts, obviously, not with their hands.” 

“I’m sure they could do that, too, or they wouldn’t be that good of fighters.” Finn offered. 

Rey gave a small burst of a laugh, seeming to not expect that. “Right, that too.” she shook her head, kicking a piece of rubble down the hall with a sharp clang! 

“They had lightsabers, they were like these swords of light that could cut through anything. But people always argued about what color Luke’s was, no one could ever get it straight if it was blue or green. And they could trick people’s minds, make them do what they wanted.” 

Finn felt his throat tighten. “And these were the good guys?” 

Rey scratched the back of her neck. “Well, sure. But I guess it wouldn’t be so bad if you forced someone threatening you to stand down, or something.” 

That was fair enough, he supposed. Still, Finn hated the thought of Kylo Ren reaching into his mind, snaring it, forcing his gun up or tightening his finger around a trigger. 

“What else?” he asked, swallowing the bitterness that had risen in his throat. 

“I don’t remember much else of what they could do,” Rey admitted. “Mostly just the stories. Most of them were about Luke, of course, but some people said there used to be dozens of Jedi, even hundreds! They’d travel the galaxy and help anyone in need.” Rey laughed a little, shaking her head. “Clearly, some of those things were just fairy tales.”

“So, you think you have this Light?” Finn asked. 

Rey hesitated, then nodded. “I can’t think of any other reason I could do these things.” she said firmly. 

Finn paused. Honestly, he couldn’t refute her. The vision of the man, he could hand-wave. But standing unharmed in an avalanche of debris? Nothing came to mind but sheer dumb luck, and even that wouldn’t have created the perfect circle Rey described. 

“Look, Rey…I don’t know much about the Force, but I know it’s not something to mess around with. You haven’t known me for long, I know you can’t trust me completely but…” Finn stopped, placing a hand on her shoulder. 

Rey looked up at him, her gaze settling into his for the first time since her vision. Her eyes softened. 

“Trust me with this, okay?” Finn said softly. 

Rey nodded. “Whatever happens, I’ll be as careful as I can be.” she promised. 

“That’s all I ask.” 

Rey stiffened, and Finn immediately reached for his blaster. “What? What is it?” 

For a horrifying moment, he thought she was going into another trance, but Rey’s eyes were wide and clear. She whipped her head to the side, grinning widely. 

“ Finn. ” She breathed. “Do you feel that?” 

Finn turned his head, realizing it as she spoke. The little wisps of hair on Rey’s brow were moving, even though she was still. He took a deep breath, oxygen filling his lungs. 

Wind. And it smells fresh. 

He immediately looked back down to her, seeing his own grin reflected on her face. “There’s a way out!” 

Chapter Text

Kylo’s dreams were a swirl of moonlight and shadow. Half-remembered bits of conversation, faces covered in darkness and blurred by time, pangs of emotion that ripped at the lining of his chest. He kept his eyes closed, letting it fall past. 

 The unsettling collage of torn images that meant Snoke wasn’t lurking in his mind. When his dark master was here, everything was crystal-clear, sharply drawn out details and danger lurking around every corner. But when Snoke wasn’t here to torment him, all that was left was the messy scar tissue from his unconscious mind being ripped and shaped over the course of a decade. It was uncomfortable, but it wasn’t actively painful. And so, it was acceptable. 

 Ben let it pass in front of him, like an old painting blurred by water. He sighed, wishing for darkness to take over his vision. At least that didn’t fool his mind into chasing stray bits of sensation, seeking out memory in vain. 

 Clean lines drew his attention, sharp and clear. Ben immediately snapped to attention, chasing the sensation. For a brief, bleak moment, he worried that it was Snoke, spreading through his dreams like ink in water. 

 But as he drew nearer, a warmth spread through his chest. It was as if the Light was taking his hand, tugging him closer like an impatient child. The Force had been awakened in him, ever since that brush with her. She hadn’t caused it, but her presence had chased out Snoke’s. And in that empty space, the Force had risen in him, clean and clear like springwater. He didn’t even know how close the Light had been, until Snoke’s weight had lifted from his mind. That water from a spring, glittering in the sun…Ben couldn’t resist taking a taste. It was frightening really, how readily the light had come to his call. It had been a horrifically stupid indulgence, one that he swore he would never indulge in again. 

 But for now…for now, it’s leading me back to her. 

 Kylo let himself be pulled in, finding himself standing in a part of the wreckage totally unfamiliar to him. It was a large, slanted piece of ship, likely where cannons had been fitted to fire from the ship’s side. The cannons were gone, scavenged by some desert-dweller long ago. But that wasn’t what made his breath catch in his throat. 

 About twenty feet down, the golden sands of Jakku stretched out. Whoever this woman was, she’d found a way out. 

 More movement caught his eye. Ben whipped his head around, catching the sight of a young man, crouched by one of the holes and peering out into the desert. He had deep brown skin, black hair cut neatly against his head. His mouth moved, but the entire scene was silent. 

 Even as the man stood, feet scuffling in the debris, there was no tell-tale clink of metal. He looked behind him to something, speaking again, and Kylo followed his gaze. Everything seemed to still. 

 She was smudged with dust and sand, wrapped up so securely in scraps of fabric that he could barely see what she looked like. A hood was drawn over her head, covering her hair except for a few soft brown wisps. They framed her face, which was liberally brushed with freckles and stained with a clear patch around her eyes, where goggles had sat snugly against them. The goggles were around her neck, revealing eyes as soft and brown as the last sigh of dusk. 

 He hadn’t realized he was reaching out until his fingers passed through her, as solid as a mirage. Kylo bit back his disappointment, instead reaching out with his mind. 

 “It’s you.” 

 The image of her shivered, and her eyes widened. Kylo watched her lips form words, and struggled to read them. But they were moving too fast, firing off questions he couldn’t hope to keep up with. 

 “We don’t have much time.” he warned her. Her mouth snapped shut, and she nodded. He spoke again. “I’m lost. Can you show me…how did you get out of here?” 

 Her forehead wrinkled, but seemed to realize as Kylo reached out for her mind. Brushing up against her presence, images started to flash into his mind. 

 Long corridors leading to a hangar bay, marked with a series of letters and numbers. Her eyes slid over them quickly, but Kylo managed to brand them on the inside of his mind. Going to the east-most side of the destroyer, where it was lifting out from the sand, the rest of that side buried deep. He understood the logic of it, either by her guidance or by guesswork; the wreckage was steadiest here, and closest to the ground to make a jump or climb down less lethal. 

 Kylo pulled away. “Thank you.” 

 She nodded, but still seemed worried. Her eyes went to their escape route, then back to the depths of the Star Destroyer. 

 “Don’t wait for me here.” he reassured her. “I want you to be safe. I’ll find you, I promise.” 

 She started to protest, before realizing she couldn’t be heard. Finally, begrudgingly, an image was pushed into his mind. 

 An outpost, full of half-scrapped ships, trading posts, and roaming with desert beasts. He’d never seen it before, but he assumed it must be close. 

 “I’ll be there. And you’ll meet me?” 

 She nodded, and Kylo felt the Force tugging him away once more. He gritted his teeth, wanting nothing more than to stay, but the image was growing hazier by the second. 

 “I promise. I’ll come find you.” 

 It was the last thing he could manage before the dream faded to white. Hands were on his shoulder, irritably shaking him. 

 “Is it Snoke again?” Poe’s voice sounded above him, accompanying the shaking hands. “If he’s in your head and I punch you, does he feel it?” 

 Kylo let out a low, irritated groan. “No.” 

 “To him being in your head, or feeling the punch? Because honestly, I’d love to punch a Sith Lord.” 

 “Both.” 

 “Shame. I guess I’ll need to make do with you.” A smack hit his shoulder. Kylo lifted a hand, shoving Poe away with a messy push of the Force. He buried his head back in his arms, trying to grasp at the memories of the path to freedom, the best way to climb out, and…well, if Ben was being honest, he was picturing her face, the gentle curve of her jaw and the warm intensity of her eyes. 

 “Dirty play.” Poe grumbled. There was the soft metal rain of scrap as Poe dragged himself to his feet.. “Come on, get up. We’ve got places to be and no idea how to get there.” 

 “Hanger 21,” Kylo said, lifting his head as the images finally clicked into his mind. “I know how to get us out.” 

 “Huh?” Poe’s frown deepened. “How do you know that? What, is it a Dark Side technique to be good at directions or something?” 

 Kylo sighed, pulling himself to his feet. “No. I was shown the way.” 

 “Shown the…” Poe’s dark eyes showed thoughts racing faster than a speeder bike. “The girl? The one who--” Poe drew himself up, squaring his shoulders and graveling his voice in a horrible impression of Kylo’s voice “Looked like the sun?” 

That had been the best part of being Poe’s friend, and the worst part of being his enemy; he was quick. He picked up on everything, unspoken words and the slightest flicker of expression. It meant he sulked insufferably when he was wrong, but that those mistakes were few and far between. For the first time since he was a jealous little boy, Kylo thanked whatever being decided who’d be blessed with the Force had never given it to Poe. If his powers of observation were supernaturally enhanced, he’d be even more of an annoyance than he was now. 

“Yes.” he said finally, clipped and short. “And you’d be pleased to know your renegade stormtrooper is with her.” 

Poe’s excitement was near palpable. “Finn?! And they’re together?” Poe slid his hand up through his hair, ruffling the curls to busy his restless hands. “Did he look okay? Injured, or anything?” 

Kylo recalled back the image of the man, and shrugged. “Fine enough.” 

He wondered, for a sudden moment, why he was telling Poe any of this. This wasn’t about Poe, or about this so-called “Finn.” It was about getting off Jakku, about finishing his mission. One he’d thought he’d need to complete alone, but now…now, with the girl, it might not have to be that way.

“Right, right, I’m sure you were much more focused on the girl.” Poe drawled. “The actual, literal girl of your dreams. She’s hot, isn’t she?” 

Kylo got to his feet and started walking. He didn’t know what direction the hangar was in, but he did know his current direction kept his face turned from Poe, and that was currently his highest priority. Not that Poe needed to see the red staining his ears to know he’d nailed it. 

“Soooooooo, what’s her name?” 

Kylo picked up his pace. 

“You’re lame, and going the wrong way.” 

Kylo did an about-face, and pushed past Poe with an irritated sigh. This would be a very long walk. 

Chapter Text

Rey’s Koro-2 airspeeder filled the air with a cacophony of noise; shifting bolts and rattling levers. She whined for another splash of oil or charge of powercell. Rey cooed as she ran her hands over it, patting the surface that was as red from the rust as it was from paint. Her Koro speeder was her baby, found abandoned in a junk heap and cobbled together from parts from a dozen different wrecks. She was a masterpiece of careful plotting, cleaning, and gradual upgrades. 

 Finn was not impressed. He clung to Rey around the waist, eyes squeezed shut and a spew of colorful curses spitting out through gritted teeth. He couldn’t hear Rey laugh over the racket, but she was sure he could feel her laugh as he clung on. 

 “Are you sure this thing won’t fall apart?” he shouted. 

 Rey shrugged. “It hasn’t yet!” Not while she was riding it, at least, and that was what Finn was worried about. 

 In response, Finn groaned lowly and buried his face into the loose fabric of her shirt. This time, Rey restrained her giggle. 

 It didn’t take long for Rey to bring them to her home, the slumped over Imperial Walker. Rey hopped off of the speeder, her feet crunching softly into the sand. 

 Finn eyed the wreckage. “Scavenging again?” he asked, brows narrowed. 

 Rey shook her head. “It’s my home.” 

 Finn fell silent, his embarrassment prickling the air. Rey gave him a light shrug, not caring much. It only made sense; it had been a scavenging spot, just one that had been repurposed. “It’s not much, but it’s better than sleeping on the sand. I’ve got some food tucked away, just give me a minute.” 

 Rey walked to the front of the AT-AT to the storage place at the head. Rey grabbed the key to unlock her little lockbox of rations. Snatching a couple portions of food and one of her larger canteens of water, Rey glanced back towards Finn. 

 He was quietly poking around the legs of the wreckage. “That’s clever.” he said, glancing at her as she approached. “But how do you get the power to keep them active?”

 Rey realized he was staring at the motion sensors she’d affixed into the feet of the AT-AT. She stepped past him, beckoning him to join her. At the back of the walker, she’d set a couple of solar panels. 

 “Best way to get power out here.” she explained. “Lots of sun to go around, you know?” It was one of her most prized possessions, but it had taken so much time and effort. The panels had taken Rey forever to get the parts for. It had taken the length of almost an entire line of the tallies on her wall. 

 Finn went back outside, offering to move her speeder into the space she’d allotted in her home for it. Rey agreed, starting to activate their rations with water. A nice, full breakfast meant they’d have the strength to travel during the heat of the afternoon, although they’d likely need to rest here until the height of the noon suns dimmed. 

 As the food gradually warmed on her stove (some kind of vegetable dehydrated and stiffened into thin flakes, a dried meat coaxed into edibility with water and heat, spongy bread) Rey’s eyes wandered to her wall. 

 It seemed so much larger than the last time she’d been here. Endless scores of lines, marching across the wall like soldiers, staring down at her with cool impassivity. 

 Rey stepped away from the stove, picking up a small, sharp tool to etch in her next lines. Night, then day, then night again, and then sunrise this morning. Rey counted it off on her fingers. Two lines, a third when they returned. 

 Rey touched her tool to the rust. Her fingers stilled. 

 Her eyes fell to the floor. She’d tracked in sand, clinging to the bottom of her boots in thin, white trails. She remembered how it had looked under her feet, cleared of rubble, pushed aside by some supernatural force of her own power. 

 “This won’t be my life.” 

 Her own words, angry and desperate, had burned into her mind, hot and precise as a brand. 

 “I won’t die here.” 

 Rey’s free hand raised, brushing against line after line of tally marks, days she couldn’t count for how many had passed. 

 It didn’t feel like looking at a record of life. It felt like a death sentence. 

 But it isn’t either of those things. It’s a promise. And I don’t break my promises, no matter what. 

 Rey dug the tool into the rust, ready to score her tallies. 

 “Rey!” 

 Finn’s voice made her drop her tool, snatching up her staff. He was standing in the entrance, eyes wide. “Something’s going on, I hear yelling and…beeping?” 

 Rey nodded, hot on his heels as he led her up the dune. She kept her mind focused ahead, paying attention to her steps, listening for what he said he’d heard. It was all a steady, useful distraction from the relief pushing at her ribs. 

 It wasn’t long before she heard what Finn had. 

 Distress! Distress! Distress! 

 The rapid beeps and whirrs of binary made Rey frown, and quicken her step. Just over the crest of her sand dune, Teedo had snared a little round droid in his net. He was irritably poking at the little creature, growling for it to pipe down and come quickly. 

 “Hey!” Rey shouted, slamming her staff down into the sand. “What do you think you’re doing, scavenging in my territory!” she snarled. 

 Teedo and the droid both froze. Teedo snarled something about how the droid was his mark, how he’d tracked it into her part of the desert and so it didn’t count. Rey shot back that it sounded like bad luck for him, but he’d need to go. 

Running over, Rey tugged the net off, ignoring Teedo’s irritated shouting. He wouldn’t be stupid enough to start a fight with her, and especially not over something like this, even if it was a nice droid. 

The droid had ceased it’s cries for help, simply repeating over and over 

Assistance! Assistance! 

 In soft, low beeps and whirrs. 

Teedo grumbled something about coming back later, taking the droid while she was asleep. Rey yanked off the last of the net, shooting to her feet to snarl a quick, angry “Just try.” 

She didn’t miss his small flinch. Eventually, after a moment of staring at her darkly, he slapped the reins of his beast, lumbering off. 

 The droid tried to thank her, but Rey shushed him quickly. “That’s just Teedo.” she glowered at his retreating form. “He wants you for parts. He’d got no respect for anyone.” 

 The droid gave a low, soft hum in response, peeking around her to glance at Teedo cautiously. Rey knelt, gripping the little droid’s antenna to straighten it. “Where do you come from?” 

 He was the cleanest droid she’d ever seen; white paint that hadn’t been dulled to a muddy tan, bright orange accents like a late sunrise, all of his parts intact and running smoothly. 

 Information classified! Sorry! 

 Rey felt a wry smile come over her lips. At least he was polite about it. “Classified, oh really? Me too, big secret.” She fixed the antenna back onto his little domed head, leaning back on her heels and nodding at her work. 

 “All clear?” 

 Rey glanced to the top of the dune. Finn had positioned himself crouching in the sand, blaster at the ready and still aimed at Teedo’s retreating form. “Do we need to worry about him?” 

 Rey shook her head. “No, he’s just--” 

 Alert! Alert! Thief! 

 The little droid’s beeping had returned with a vengeance, this time levied at Finn. Rey noticed he was eyeing the man’s jacket, and her heart sunk into her boots. 

 “Hold on, wait.” Rey said softly. “It’s not what you think.” 

 The droid rolled back his head, looking up at her with its wide, round eye. Rey bit the inside of her lip, jerking her chin towards her home. “Come on. I left the stove on. Finn isn’t a thief, we’ll explain everything.”  

 ~~~~~

 BB-8, as the droid had introduced himself as, had been quiet all through dinner. Rey had hooked him up to one of her power banks, and his lights were slowly shifting from yellow to green, but he seemed to only get less responsive as the day wore on. Rey was worried that she’d somehow connected his wires wrong, until Finn spoke up. 

 “Poe’s a smart man. Besides, Rey has been…” he glanced over at her, trying to find the words to describe what exactly had been happening. “Communicating with someone who was in the wreckage too. We all survived it, there’s no reason to believe he couldn’t too.” 

 BB-8 gave a low, slow whine. But Finn’s words seemed to have some sort of effect on the droid, because he beeped out a question to Rey. 

 “No, not through comms.” she explained. She paused, trying to find the best way to explain it to the little droid. “Through…well…have you heard of the Force?” 

 BB-8 perked up visibly at that, starting to chatter out brightly. 

 The Force! Master General Organa knows the Force! She uses it to help our ship, and the other ones in the fleet! We fly faster, and shoot better! 

 Rey’s eyes widened. “The Force can do that?!” That sounded amazing, Rey had never heard of the Force helping ships before. 

 Finn frowned at the droid’s beeps. “So…it’s true? That there’s a Light side to the Force?” 

BB-8 slowly tilted his head, before beeping affirmation. Finn sat back, chewing slowly on the last piece of bread. “Let’s talk strategy.” he said finally. “You said this guy is going to meet you at the outpost, right?” 

Rey nodded. “I think he might be another scavenger.” she guessed. “I don’t know why else he’d be in the wreckage. It’s too dangerous for most people.” 

Finn nodded slowly, clearly considering something else, but unwilling to voice it. “I don’t want you to go alone.” he said finally. “We have no idea who this guy even is.” 

Rey snorted softly, tapping the staff lying by her side. “I can take care of myself, Finn.” 

“That isn’t what this is about.” he said immediately, looking up to her. “Look…Rey. I don’t know how you stand it.” he admitted. “Being out here alone, all of the time. For my entire life, I’ve been around other people. The First Order was a nightmare, but we had each other’s backs. You saved me back in the Star Destroyer. So until I figure out a way off this planet, let me have yours.” 

Rey hesitated, then nodded. “How do you think you’ll do that?” 

Finn shrugged. “If Poe’s alive, I could ask him. See if he’s got enough credits to get a ship, or we could steal one.” 

It was barely a plan for either of them, but they couldn’t think of much else to do. Finn’s eyes wandered, finding the shelf with some of Rey’s trinkets. A bell, a little plant that barely needed a splash of water, and a doll she’d made out of scraps of orange cloth. She remembered sewing it as a child, with clumsy fingers and a careful eye on the tavern’s screens. Serials flashed by in the dusty screen; of the rebellion, the Jedi, even of the General Organa that BB-8 had mentioned (though Rey remembered her being called “Princess”) 

For a moment, Rey imagined herself in one of those flight suits. An entire squadron at her back, a ship that reacted beautifully to every tilt of her hand, a droid like BB-8 to keep her ship running and keep her company. 

She reached across, gently taking the doll in her hand. “So you really don’t know anything about the rebellion?” She asked. 

Finn hesitated, then shook his head. Rey scooted back, making more room on the floor in front of her and grabbing a few pieces of scrap. They had a few hours until they needed to leave, the heat too dangerous to travel in just yet. 

“Then let me tell you about the battle of Hawk!” she said, trying to take on the daring tone that storytellers on the television screens did. 

BB-8’s helpful beep cut her off. Rey sighed, shaking her head but smiling sheepishly. “Right, sorry. The battle of Hoth. It was a planet completely covered in snow and ice--” Rey paused, trying to remember what she’d been told. “Snow is like…water, I think, but so cold that it’s soft and solid when you touch it.” 

“I know that much.” Finn assured her. “Keep going.” 

He was watching with a curious expression, and Rey felt a warm thrill run up her spine. She’d never had someone look so interested in what she was saying, and she wanted to hold that attention steady. She wobbled the doll across the floor, like it was wading through invisible snow drifts. 

“Well, out in the snow, the great heroes Luke Skywalker and Han Solo checked the border, on the lookout for activity from the evil and cruel empire…” 

Chapter Text

The outpost was thick with the stench of fuel and animal waste. Kylo’s face was twisted into an unavoidable grimace. He hoped the locals would take it as a reaction to the sun, and not for the first time, wished for his helmet to cover his face. It was futile. Even if he’d brought it along, he’d risk cutting his face or even his eyes on the twisted metal. 

At least Poe wasn’t faring much better. He was just as sweat-soaked, flicking his hands through his hair the way he did when he was irritated. 

“You see her?” He asked, casting his eyes around. At the shake of Kylo’s head, he gave a bone-weary groan. “Right. Let’s try to find some shade, then. Maybe there’s a tavern?” 

Kylo jerked his chin to the east point of the collection of broken-down structures. They trudged inside the place, the heat only slightly alleviating with the shade. The suns were oppressive, and Kylo hadn’t realized how much the bulk of the Star Destroyer’s durasteel had soaked it up until they’d ventured outside of it. 

Digging around in his belt pouch, Kylo found enough credits for some water, but not enough for the rations the outpost boasted as their only food. He tried to hide his frown. They’d be alright without food for awhile, but was this really somewhere that she spent most of her time? The thought spiked uneasiness in his stomach. 

From the power that flowed between them, Kylo had assumed she was just as proficient in the Force, perhaps even as strong as he was. But if she was spending most of her time here…the best he could hope for was that she was one of the people running this operation, with more expertise and social power. But if that were the case, why would she have been scavenging in a wreckage? 

The hours ticked by, and the unease in Kylo’s mind only grew. He wanted to reach out to the girl again, but the proximity to Snoke made him hesitate. His dark master still hadn’t entered his mind, but the threat of it loomed like a bank of storm clouds. The mass of the First Order Star Destroyer was visible through a gap in the patchwork ceiling. It hung over the outpost, the entire planet, like a prowling vulture. 

For the first time since two nights prior, Kylo let himself thing about what lay ahead, now that they were free of the wreckage. He blinked, once, and Poe’s broken, torn body flashed behind his eyelids. Nausea roiled in his stomach, anger battering at his brain with long, sharp talons. How much longer did Poe have? 

Kylo clamped his hands over his knees until he felt the bones creak under the force of his grip. The sparks of pain brought that familiar anger, covering his mind with thick, dark clouds. Shielded by the anger, Kylo spiraled through the possibilities in his mind. 

Poe could escape. Kylo would be punished, horribly, but bearably. That was an option. But how would he explain that? That a single pilot got away from him? The idea was laughable, Snoke would see through it in an instant. 

He could destroy the droid, and the map along with it. No use. He’d still be expected to bring Poe back for more questioning, or kill him on the spot as his usefulness expired. 

The woman…she could become his new priority? He could tell Snoke how they’d--the idea didn’t have time to fully form before Kylo shoved it aside. That light, that strength and warmth, he’d tear himself apart before he let Snoke get his hands on her. 

Every situation ended in failure. Every plan in Poe’s corpse, torn and broken at his feet. 

A part of him found it ridiculous. Lor San Tekka had died by his blade a handful of nights ago, and he’d accepted it as a necessary sacrifice, as everything else was. 

But Poe, this woman…stars, he didn’t even know her name and the thought of either of them dead or taken by Snoke made him want to tear into his master with his teeth. 

Beside him, Poe shot to his feet. 

Kylo’s hand was on his saber instantly, scanning the tavern, shifting to cover Poe’s blindspot. Protecting Poe, his old friend, his brother as quickly as thought. His stomach lurched again, and he thought he’d vomit the water back up. 

But Poe’s hand wasn’t on his pistol, and a wide grin split his face. He dashed out into the sun, and it occurred to Kylo just a moment too late that a proper Sith would have stopped him. 

Idiot! 

He shoved his chair back, following after Poe with a muttered curse. He stumbled into the brilliant gold light, the suns just starting to touch the horizon. Blinking spots from his eyes, his eyes eventually fixed on Poe’s knelt figure, crouching next to--

Kylo’s stomach plummeted. 

The little orange and white astromech he’d seen in Poe’s mind during the interrogation beeped and whirred with urgency, bumping it’s little body against Poe in triumph. Poe, for his part, was trying to speak over the droid, urging it to leave, hissing warnings. 

His eyes shot back to Kylo, and for the first time since they’d woken up in that wreckage, they were glassy with fear. 

Like water flooding a sinking ship, like mold creeping across the inside of his lungs, Snoke’s presence oozed into his mind. It captured, constricted, purred into his mind. “Do it, my young student. Fulfill your promise.” 

Ben’s hands remained frozen at his side, stiff with fear. Only a second has passed, was it enough to show his hesitation? Could Snoke feel it, had he shifted through his mind, through the anger to find the bloodlust lurking underneath? 

He can’t. He can’t know. He won’t. 

His heart stopped. 

He was used to the feeling of two presences in his mind. It was alien, cold, but familiar. But for the first time, there were three. 

His own. 

Snoke’s. 

“You’re here!” 

The joy surged down the Force, curling around him like a ribbon of sun in a void of night. 

Her. 

She wasn’t pushing Snoke out, not after last time. He was prepared for her, holding fast to Ben’s psyche, but he wasn’t pushing her out. With a jolt, Ben realized that Snoke couldn’t. 

Their presences were overwhelming; night and day, darkness and light, life-giving warmth and nerve-numbing cold. Vaguely, Ben was aware of stumbling, barely catching himself. Poe’s eyes narrowing, concern mixing with the fear. 

Ben’s thoughts were cracks of lightning across his mind, stinging and surging, building with a swelling roar. 

Through every rivet and valley of his mind, every swell and dip of his soul, ached out one phrase; 

GET ME OUT. 

A shift of sand, a slight breath of exertion was all the warning he got. 

Ben turned his head to see her, standing behind him. Doe-brown eyes hardened with determination, stance shifted and ready. 

Her staff slammed into the side of his head, and his mind went blissfully blank. 

Chapter Text

Poe didn’t know whether to smack the scavenger or thank her. The part of him that still stubbornly clung to Ben as his brother felt a sickening lurch as he hit the sand, but he couldn’t deny how Ben looked before that. 

Murderous. Angry. Like Kylo Ren. 

Poe had never seen that look on his face before. He’d only tormented Poe as a Sith from behind the blank anonymity of his mask. It was easier to separate the two. It was stupid, but it was. 

The woman, for her credit, had frozen. Probably in shock of what she’d done, as her eyes fell to the lightsaber at Ben’s hip. 

“Did I just knock out a Jedi?” her voice was barely a squeak, and despite it all, Poe couldn’t resist an exhausted smile. 

“No, it’s much funnier.” he assured her. 

Her eyes darted to him, narrowing in suspicion. “BB-8, keep your distance.” she ordered. 

Poe supposed he looked suspicious to her; hair and clothes thick with dust and sand, covered in scrapes and bruises. Thankfully, BB-8 was quicker than her staff this time. The little droid let out a series of chirping beeps, and the woman’s shoulders slouched in relief. 

“You’re his master?” She looked less tense about him, but her eyes still darted around, trying to take in everything at once. She tried for an smile, but the expression was jagged and quick across her face. “Let me guess, you’re “classified” too?” 

Poe looked down at BB-8, who gave a low, bashful whistle. “Aw, come on buddy! Awfully rude of you.” He looked back to the woman with a grin. “I’m Commander Poe Dameron, but since I like the cut of your jib, you can call me Poe.” 

She blinked, once. “Jib?” 

It wasn’t worth slowing down to explain. He didn’t know how long Ben would be out, and…and then what? Leave him here? That was probably the safest bet, wasn’t it? The First Order would come pick him up, and he and BB-8 could go back to the Resistance with the map, like they’d planned. Oh, this girl too, probably. He doubted Ben would shrug off being whalloped in the head. 

“Poe!” The girl’s tone meant it probably wasn’t the first time she’d said his name. Her eyes had narrowed again. “Commander? Of what, exactly?” 

Poe gave a quick glance around. Thankfully, it didn’t seem like knocking people unconscious was uncommon in these parts; no one had stopped to stare. “Of the Resistance. ” he hissed. “You got a name?” 

“Rey.” she said shortly, clearly still not convinced. 

“Just Rey?” 

“Is that a problem?” 

Poe flung his hands up. “Course not! I just gave you my surname and title and everything, so I was curious--” 

“Poe!” 

His head whipped around as a familiar figure raced across the sand towards him. Poe could hardly believe his eyes, racing across the sand to greet him. 

“Finn! You’re alive! But how?” 

Finn shook his head, seemingly too confused to properly answer. “I--what--, I had the ship, what do you mean how? You’re the one that got torn out!” 

Rey’s head was jerking between the two, eyes widening as she took them in. “Do you…know each other?” her eyes settled on Finn. “How do you know a Resistance pilot, weren’t you a stormtrooper? And what--” 

Finn cut her off in the middle of her barrage, seemingly to just now notice the crumpled figure at her feet. 

“Is that Kylo Ren?! ” he hissed. “Rey, did you knock out Kylo Ren?!” 

“I…well…” Rey’s eyes fell to the man at her feet. “He asked me to?” 

Her voice had faded again to that strained squeak, and it only added to Poe’s confusion, especially as she said “Who’s Kylo Ren?” 

Finn started at her in disbelief, before slowly dragging his hand over his face. “Jakku really is a backwater planet.” 

“Not helpful!” she snapped. 

“What do you mean by “asked you?” I was right here, and all he was doing was staring at me.” Poe cut in. 

Staring, and looking like he was going to pass out. 

Rey’s face shifted into a grimace. “It’s…complicated. I’ve been seeing him in my mind…I think through the Force?” 

Every word was as unsteady as the sand under their feet, but Poe immediately knew she wasn’t lying. His eyes widened, and he smacked himself square in the forehead. “Of course! You’re that woman he was talking about!” 

She didn’t look like the sun to him, but she was pretty, and Poe guessed Kylo’s options had been pretty limited; just snob-nosed Imperial officers and evil knights and--

“Talking about?” Rey jerked her head, dismissing her question as soon as she’d asked it. “He asked me to get him out. But he didn’t mean like…the outpost. Or maybe he did, I don’t know.” 

She pressed her hand to her forehead, as if trying to shove the confusion from her head. “He was there, but there was someone else in his mind too. A…creature? I don’t know, it didn’t feel like a person. But it kept insisting that he kill you, and he didn’t want to. I saw all these flashes, all the ways he was trying to get out of doing it, but it kept ending in people dying; him or you or…I don’t know. Other people?” 

“Slow down.” Poe crossed the gap, placing a hand on her arm. To his surprise, Finn had backed away, but he didn’t have time to worry about that now. 

“He didn’t want to?” Poe asked carefully. 

When Rey finally met his gaze, it was firm. “No. It felt like his mind was tearing itself apart at the thought of it.” 

“Then--” 

A horrific scream split the air, one that Poe knew all too well. His gaze shot skyward, where TIE fighters were dropping from the belly of the Star Destroyer, swarming against the clear blue sky like biting flies. 

“We need to get you to Leia.” Poe said firmly. 

Rey’s eyes widened. “ Princess Leia?” she breathed. “The one that helped defeat the Empire?” 

Poe grinned. “Sure, that’s one of the things she did. Once--” 

“Focus!” Finn’s voice snapped out. “TIE fighters!” 

“Right!” Poe scanned the shipyard. “We need something that can take a hit. Maybe--” 

As his eyes locked on the freighter he let out a single, breathless laugh. He remembered then what Luke had said; how the Force had a sense of humor, how it liked to place certain things just so, just perfectly. 

“That one.” he said, pointing to the Millenium Falcon. 

“Fine, whatever!” Finn snapped. “We’ve got less than a minute until they’re on us!” 

Poe grabbed one of Ben’s arms, motioning for Finn to take the other. “Come on! Leia’s gonna want this one. Do either of you know how to fly a ship?” 

Rey’s hand shot up, and Poe jerked his chin to the Falcon. “Get her started up! She’s got a sticky ignition switch, give it a good wiggle and a push and she’ll be fine!” 

Rey, thankfully, didn’t pause to ask how he knew that, just taking off across the sand, BB-8 at her side. She was bizarrely fast, bounding over the uneven surface like she’d been born with fanned feet. 

Poe gave Ben’s body a tug, looking over to see that Finn hadn’t moved. “Come on!” 

Finn was giving Ben’s body a steady glare, and it suddenly hit Poe why. 

Poe dropped Ben’s body, letting him fall face-first into the sand. He gripped Finn’s shoulders, forcing the other man to look at him. “I know. He’s a piece of work--” 

“He’s insane, and evil.” Finn snapped. “He’ll try to kill me for being a deserter, and you for being with the Resistance, and Rey just because he’s angry.” 

“I need him.” Poe said bluntly. “And we will tie him up. Take away his weapons. All of it, I promise.” 

Finn’s jaw wound tighter, until Poe was worried his teeth would shatter under the tension. Finally, Finn shrugged off Poe’s hands, grabbing Ben by the elbow and starting to drag. There was no gentleness in the motion, and Poe didn’t blame him a bit. 

The two ran for the ship as the first blasts of the canon fell.

Chapter Text

The ground became liquid under Finn’s feet. 

The impact of the blasts shook him to his core, battering against every bone and joint. Sand erupted into the air in thick, choking clouds. It stung Finn’s eyes, filled his nose and mouth, raked against his skin. Through the terror of nearly being blasted to death, Finn managed to be grateful for it. The cover meant that the next shots scattered widely past them. 

But his relief soon turned to dread. They had no idea where Rey and the ship was between the terror of being shot at and the haphazard layout of the shipyard. Finn glanced over at Poe, barely visible. The hard set of his eyes meant he’d come to the same conclusion Finn had. 

They’d need to leave the cover for any chance at escape. 

Finn tightened his grip around Kylo Ren’s arm. Every instinct in him was screaming to just drop him, let him fall to the sand and be buried in it. It was kinder than what he deserved. 

But one more glance at Poe told him everything. Poe would drag this monster of a man to safety with his teeth if he had to. 

Kriff it all. 

The blasting had ceased. They had seconds before they’d be revealed. Through the clearing haze, Finn barely managed to see the misshapen outline of the freighter Poe had insisted on. He veered towards it, making the most of their cover. With a sickening lurch of his gut, Finn knew it wouldn’t be enough. 

They were a good forty yards out from the ship, and only a generous ten of those would be covered by the haze, thinning by the second. 

They can’t see us. I can’t let them see us. 

The sights of the TIE fighters were like white-hot needles on the back of his neck, digging into his skin with sickening certainty. 

If I don’t do something, they will see us, and we will die. 

Do something? It was laughably stupid. There was nothing he could do. He was a defected stormtrooper, hauling a Sith Lord and an exhausted pilot out of his cockpit. 

As they finally left their cover, an old memory nudged at his mind. 

A massive chamber, walls of polished black durasteel barely glinting in the tracks laid out in front of them. Two perfectly straight, thin lines. The cadets, only five years old, marching in rows of two. FN-2003 by his side, their fingers tangled together in a tense knot. The only thought on Finn’s mind, repeating over and over in a horrified chant as steady and persistent as the falls of their boots. 

“Hide me. Please.”

003’s fingers tightening on his as they were brought before the throne, made to stop and wait. Finn’s teeth grinding into his lip, the horrified mantra branding the inside of his brain. 

“Hide me. He can’t see me, hide me, hide me, hide me.”

A steady warmth spread from his hand, up his arm. It felt like sunlight filtering through cold glass, relaxing the muscles of his chest enough for him to breathe. Beside him, 003’s eyes flickered in his direction, and somehow Finn knew that he’d felt it too. In some strange way, he was answering Finn’s plea. Finn squeezed his hand, and 003’s hands became warm under his. 

The reprieve lasted a blissful, few seconds. 

Invisible fingers trailed over their minds, a horribly cold force unlike anything he’d ever felt. Stopping, for a moment, on him, then 003. A moment passed. Another. Finn felt as if he was being cut open and picked apart, each section of his body examined by a cruel and sadistic surgeon. 

A voice scraped against his ears, so abrasive and harsh he saw several of his classmates flinch. 

“Nothing of particular use. Proceed.” 

The memory stung more than the sand in his throat, but even then, he’d had 003. He’d had someone. Now, he only had himself. 

Finn dug his nails into Kylo Ren’s sleeve, biting out a string of curses. Except he didn’t. He had Poe, who he owes a life debt to. Rey, who also led him out, and Kylo Ren, the favorite attack dog of that horrible monster from his childhood. It was far worse than only having himself. 

The shrill hum of the TIE fighters filled his senses, choking out everything until it was just him and death shrieking in his ears. 

Finn took a shuddering breath as he lunged forward, ever forward to the ship he’d never make it to. He was no stronger, no braver than how he was as a child. The same wavering plea still battered at his mind, 

Hide me. 

Warmth stirred in his chest. He felt it blur his edges, like water dripping onto fresh ink. 

His arm ached from carrying Ren. The man who’d kept him in terror for years. 

Poe’s ragged pants rang in his ears. The man who, when trying to escape the First Order, had shot 003 square in the chest, not even slowing down to consider what he’d killed. 

Finn felt ghost tremors across his face where 003 had dragged his fingers, soaked from the blood pouring from his wound. Reaching up to a face that would be forever out of his reach. 

He closed his eyes for a single moment. 

Hide them, too. 

The TIE fighters roared in his ears…and then began to fade. 

Finn whipped his head up, eyes shooting open. His concentration crumbled, the warmth spilling out of him like oil from a shattered lamp. 

The ships had pulled up from their pursuit, circling like black, buzzing flies. They were looking for Finn and his group, even though they hadn’t changed paths or gotten any cover. 

“COME ON!” Poe’s yell snapped him from his confusion. “I don’t know what in the kriffing hells is happening, but let’s not waste it!” 

Finn nodded sharply, snapping his gaze up to where the freighter was slowly starting up, dust pouring from its engines and lights slowly blinking on. 

They dragged Ren the last few, agonizing yards. Up the onboarding ramp. Onto the floor of the ship. 

Poe dumped him in the hall, slamming his fist against the button to close the ramp. “Rey! Get us out of here!” he started down the passageway. Finn only noticed then he was limping heavily. “Finn, get to a gunner position!” 

Finn took a single step, then hesitated. He knelt, wrapping his hand around Kylo Ren’s lightsaber. 

The impact nearly slammed the breath from his lungs. Hate sunk its fangs into his hand, as swiftly and mercilessly as if a snake were coiled around the hilt. All of the warmth, all of the protection he’d felt seconds prior drained away like skin on ice. 

Finn released it as soon as he’d taken hold, flexing his fingers to try to rid his hand of the sickening ache. 

“Finn!” Poe yelled. “Get to a gunner!”

This time, he didn’t hesitate. 

The controls took a solid yank to respond, a world of difference from the TIE fighter’s touchy interface. The ship swang and shifted, lurching Finn’s body skyward while his stomach remained firmly on the ground. 

The next few minutes felt like hours. Swinging in the seat, firing blasts at the TIE fighters advancing behind them, and all the while trying to ignore the sickening tingle still clinging to his hands. Eventually, as the ship tilted up into the atmosphere, the engine finally sputtered louder. With a cacophony of metallic screeches, hyperspace slid past them in brilliant streaks of white-blue. 

Finn stumbled from his seat down the hall, only to stumble under the arms of a near-hysterical Rey. 

“I thought you three were dead!” she gasped, gripping at his arms as if to make sure he was real. “And that shooting, and--” 

Finn shook his head. “Forget my shooting, your flying, how did you--” 

Rey grinned, edged in mania from adrenaline. “I’ve flown, mostly just to make sure they still run but I’ve never been into space and--” 

“I did help.” Poe’s voice sounded from where he knelt on the floor. BB-8 had anchored himself and Kylo Ren to the wall with a series of wires, to keep them both from slamming around the cabin in flight. 

Before Finn could warn him, Poe’s hand closed around the saber. His face didn’t change a fraction. He wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or slightly disturbed as Poe pocketed it, turning to Finn with an easy smile. “See? Told you I’d disarm him.” 

Rey’s face twisted into a frown. “I know him from my visions, but…you two know him too?” she turned her puzzled gaze on Finn. “Why didn’t you tell me?” 

Finn opened his mouth, honestly unsure where to begin, but Poe held up a hand. “Rey, why don’t you make sure the ship’s all steady? She’s an old one, so I wouldn’t trust her on autopilot alone. I’ll be with you in a minute, I’ll explain everything.” 

Rey clearly wasn’t satisfied with that, but Poe held up his hands in a placating motion. “Two minutes. I promise. We just need to make sure we won’t crash into a moon, okay?” 

She grimaced, but nodded. As she left, Poe turned to Finn. “That’s all he carries, but you can check again.” 

Finn paused, remembering the horrible feeling of the lightsaber, but decided he’d rather Kylo Ren didn’t keep anything like that on him. He knelt to the floor, patting down the Sith’s clothes. Nothing, only a few credits in a side pouch and a mostly-empty wrapper from a protein cube. 

He spared a glance to Kylo Ren’s face. He’d never seen it before, always hidden behind that heavy durasteel mask. Maybe it was because he was unconscious, or maybe it was the ability to put a human face to the monster, but he looked…normal. Defined features, pale skin, dark hair messy with sand and rubble from their escape. Still, he was human. It was deeply unnerving. 

“He’s a valuable asset to the Resistance.” Poe said, watching him as he studied Ren’s prone form. “I’m sure General Organa will personally thank you for helping us. There’s no way I could have let First Order secrets like his get away, I hope you understand--” 

“Poe.” 

The man’s ramblings cut off as swiftly as they’d started. That’s what they were; ramblings. Edged in guilt and thick with an emotion that Finn couldn’t begin to name. Poe had been good at hiding his emotions before, but the stress of the days seemed to have worn him thin to breaking. 

Still. Finn didn’t bother burying the frustration burning in his chest. 

“You had a reason. Maybe even a good one. That’s fine, I don’t need to know. Just don’t lie to me about what it is. I’ve had enough lies for one lifetime.” 

Poe blinked, letting the silence stretch between them. His face held none of the humor Finn was accustomed to. No darting of his eyes off in a dozen directions, no restless fidgeting of his hands. 

“No lies.” he said finally, extending a hand to Finn’s. “That’s a promise.” 

Finn took his firmly. More calluses, but different from Rey’s. There were the ones Poe shared with Finn; by the second knuckle of the trigger finger, the cushion by the ring and pinky finger. But there was another set, at the tip of the middle finger. If Finn had to guess, a pilot’s hands. “No lies.” he echoed. 

“So let’s start with the promise I made before.” Poe said, finally breaking into a small smile. “Tie the grand prince of darkness to the holochess table.” 

Finn snorted, letting go of his hand. Poe started to rummage through one of the cabinets. “They moved plenty around.” he grumbled. 

A dozen thoughts were clamoring for Finn’s attention, but the sentence was still odd enough to catch his attention. “You’ve flown in this ship before?” 

Poe gave a bright laugh, shaking off the remaining tension lurking in the room. “Flown in it? Finn, buddy, I was raised in this beauty!” 

Finn’s eyes traveled around the cabin, taking in the seating smudged in grime, the control panels clearly scraped together with the cheapest and most convenient parts the owner could find. 

Poe could see his doubt. He pulled a thick coil of cord from the cabinet, spreading his arms wide. “Welcome Finn, to the Millenium Falcon ! Fastest ship in the galaxy!” 

A clatter sounded from down the hall, then the rapid fall of cloth boots. 

Rey burst into the room, eyes as round as moons. 

“ We’re aboard the Millennium Falcon?!” 

Chapter Text

The First Order had come to Niima Outpost twice. 

The first was when Rey was almost too little to remember. The tavern had suddenly become silent as men in stiff gray suits entered, speaking in quick, harsh words to the bartender. Their accents were what she’d heard one of the other scavengers dismissively sneer as “Corrie.” Rey didn’t know what that meant, but her mother had always waved it off. 

In that moment, Rey had wished she’d asked more questions. The men didn’t really look like her, but the way they stretched the sounds of their words was nearly identical to her and her father. She’d huddled close to her mother’s side in the booth, watching and waiting as the men eventually filed out. As soon as they did, her father had spat on the ground with such viciousness Rey thought his drink had spoiled. But he didn’t say a word, just finished the last of it and ushered the three of them out. They didn’t speak of that day again. 

The second time was…later. Rey, tall and lanky with adolescence, had been stopped on her way to trade with Plutt. These men and women (Rey would be told later they were called stormtroopers ) had asked her question after question. Who she was, where she was going, where she’d gotten the parts. She’d nearly spoken of the Star Destroyer, but remembered at the last moment about the serials she’d seen on the TV. These stormtroopers lived in those, or their superiors did, at least as far as Rey could remember. She instead wove some nonsense story about an abandoned Jawa sand crawler (as if the Jawas would have left anything of use behind). That’s how she could tell they were off-worlders, they bought her story. 

When they finally stopped berating her with questions and swinging their blasters around, she made her way to Plutt. He asked if she’d mentioned scavenging the Star Destroyer. She told him she hadn’t. He hadn’t so much as grunted approval, but he slid her a quarter more portion than her haul was worth. Like with her parents, the two of them never spoke of the First Order again. 

Kylo Ren wasn’t like the officers in slate-gray, or gruff, aggressive stormtroopers. According to the others, he was something different entirely. 

Less of a ranked soldier, more of a…personal assassin? Poe had used the term “attack dog.” Rey had fought her fair share of wild animals, warded off with shouts and slams of her staff. Kylo Ren didn’t feel like an animal, but she wasn’t able to deny the looks on Poe and Finn’s faces as they explained. 

This was a man to be feared. 

It set a harsh twist to Rey’s gut, and Poe must have been able to tell, because he quietly led her back to the cockpit, trying his best to distract her with the inner workings of the ship. Rey didn’t bother telling him she knew a good few of them. Stars, she’d fixed most of the Falcon’s more fiddly mechanics. However, she soon let Poe take over, realizing the real distraction was in his explanations, not in the value of their information. 

“Now, this panel here, that runs to the primary ignition.” he explained. They sat against the chairs, cross-legged on the floor to get a better look at some of the workings under the control panel. Poe gestured to the colorful matrix of chips and wires. “That’s what gets the ship’s engine flying.” 

Rey suppressed a smile. Wow, really? The ignition makes the ship fly? I’m not four years old, Poe. She hummed, pointing to a thick, lime green cable. “And that one?” 

Poe, to his credit, only paused a moment before pulling some lie right out of the rear of his flight suit. “Well, obviously that’s the coolant, uh, valve!” 

“Oh, is it?” Rey snorted, unable to keep the ruse up. “And not the main connection to the hyperdrive?” 

Poe opened his mouth, then closed it again. “You know exactly what you’re doing here, don’t you?” 

Rey grinned. “Poe, I’ve been inside the belly of ships before I could walk.” 

His eyebrows tugged down. “Before you could walk? ” He clearly thought she was messing with him, which made her puff her chest slightly. 

“Of course. My parents were scavengers like me. It wasn’t like they could just leave me behind all day. They carried me on their backs. My mother used to say I learned ship parts before I learned my own name.” 

“Oh.” Poe blinked, and Rey bristled further at the softness of it. 

Kriff! I was saying that to brag, not so that he’d pity me! 

“Point being, I appreciate it, but I don’t really need the lessons.” she said, going for a pivot in subject to distract him. “If Kylo Ren’s so bad, why’s he on our ship?” 

Poe leaned back against one of the seats, closing the panel and snorting. “So first you lie to me, and then you want insights into our secret resistance plans? That’s devious, Rey!” 

Rey quirked an eyebrow, unimpressed. “I wasn’t lying, you were acting like a know-it-all!” 

“Oh really, little Miss “I knew ship parts before my own name”, that wasn’t being a know-it-all?” he fired back. 

The edges of his mouth were curling up, clearly relishing in the banter. Rey folded her arms across her chest, indulging it. “Is it being a know-it-all if you’re telling the truth?” 

Poe threw up his hands, a clear sign of defeat. “He’s one of Snoke’s favorites. He’s got intel that the Resistance would die for.” 

Somehow, the way he said it…Rey knew that wasn’t an over exaggeration. She tucked her knees up to her chest, trying not to shiver from the cool durasteel pressing into her back and legs. 

“So that’s where we’re headed? The Resistance?” 

Poe nodded. “Sure. It’ll take us…maybe a week? The good hyperspace lanes are regulated by the First Order, so we’ve got to hop our way around more obscure ones. That means more fuel, so more stops…yeah, a week sounds about right.” 

A whole week. Rey picked at the ties of her boots. “And then you could get me back to Jakku, right?” 

Poe frowned. “Back to Jakku? I mean, maybe, once the First Order clears out, but why?” 

Rey felt her hackles raising, but managed to shove down the hostility for long enough to answer. “My family.” 

Poe’s eyes immediately softened. “Your folks, right. You mentioned them.” Worry flashed behind his deep brown eyes. “They know how to keep out of trouble, right? They won’t go asking around for you? I don’t want them to get in trouble.” 

The questions were hooked jabs to Rey’s sternum. She tried not to grimace at the sharpness of them, knowing they weren’t intentional, they couldn’t be intentional.

“No.” she said. “No, they’re smart enough not to go looking for me.” 

The words very nearly brought her to tears, stars, they were words she’d whispered bitterly to herself so many cold, sleepless nights, and now she was saying them to Poe, to what? Comfort him? Tell him her parents were clever enough not to ask after their foolish daughter, not to--

Warm hands circled hers, pressing gently into her shaking fingers. Rey blinked rapidly. A tear fell from her lashes onto the back of his palm. 

Kriff! 

“I’ll keep you safe. No matter what, Rey. I promise. Finn and I, and stars, even Be--even Kylo Ren. I’ve never seen him care for someone like he cares for you. We’ll make sure you stay safe, and…” 

His hands squeezed hers, and she managed to drag her gaze up to him. His smile was like yellow sunshine after a desert storm, easing her chest just as deeply. “Rey, we will get you to where you need to be.” 

Rey wanted to grab him in a hug. She wanted to shove him away. She wanted to thank him for saying exactly what she needed to hear, and snap at him for comforting her like a scared child. 

So instead, she squeezed his hands back, once. “Okay.” she whispered, loosening her grip.

“Okay, then we’ve got a plan!” Poe let go of her hands, getting to his feet and dusting off his flight suit. “Trust me Rey, a Dameron plan never falls apart.” 

Rey huffed, wiping quickly at her face. “Never?” She weighed her voice heavily with doubt. 

Poe planted his hands on his hips in what was probably supposed to be a heroic pose. “Not until the second I decide they do.” 

Rey couldn’t help it, she laughed a little. It was a harsh, halting sound, but it softened the last of the tightness in her throat. 

She was about to fire back, some half-baked witty comment, when a presence brushed against her mind. It was faint, almost groggy, but undeniably there. 

“ It’s so quiet.”

His “voice” was barely a whisper, not wanting to break stillness. Rey tugged at the wraps on her hands, not sure of whether to respond, not sure if it was a specific message to her, or if she was reading his thoughts. 

“Quiet?” 

She finally asked, reaching out to send out that quick word. 

He paused, seeming to consider. “Of sorts. Less crowded. There’s more room to think.” 

He didn’t sound like an assassin, or an attack dog. He sounded tired. Relieved, in some strange way. 

“Rey? Everything alright?” Poe was technically asking questions, but she could tell there was an understanding underneath them. 

Rey nodded. “He’s awake.” 

“Talking to you through the Force, right?” 

She nodded, unsure of what else to even say. 

He clapped her on the shoulder, once. “Alright. I’m going to go talk to him. You can stay here or you can--” 

Rey shouldered her staff, raising an eyebrow. Poe laughed a little, raising his hands in that way Rey was quickly learning meant playful surrender. “Right, right. Let’s go, then.” 

Rey barely heard the last murmurs of speech before they entered the main area. Finn was walking back to his seat, across the main deck from where Kylo Ren was tied to the holochess table. Poe leaned against the wall nearby, and Rey made her way to sit next to Finn. 

Kylo’s eyes went to her first, and he gave her a slight nod. She felt his presence retreat from their mental link. 

She didn’t nod back, but she didn’t look away either. 

“So!” Poe’s sudden, bright tone snapped all the eyes in the room to him. “Mind filling me in on why I’m not bleeding out in the sand of a miserable little des--” Poe’s eyes flicked to Rey, then back to the bound man. “Ah, the sands of Jakku?” 

Rey raised an eyebrow, but neither man was looking at her. Their eyes were firmly locked on each other. Rey half expected to see lightning crackling within the eyeline, the energy was so palpable. Finally, Kylo Ren settled back. 

“Her.” he said, finally. His gaze settled back onto Rey. “I don’t know your name, but I’m sure they’ve told you mine.” 

“Kylo Ren.” she said softly. A flicker of surprise came over his features, confusing her. He’d just said he knew that she had his name, so why was he acting so confused? She pushed it aside for the moment. “I’m Rey.” 

“Rey.” He repeated, seemingly satisfied with what he heard. 

“What do you mean it was because of Rey?” Finn finally spoke up, tone cold and hard.

 Kylo’s eyes moved to him, curious. “I was given a directive by Supreme Leader Snoke to capture something of great importance. Due to Poe Dameron’s meddling, I failed. I captured Poe to interrogate him for the location of the map. Once I obtained it, he escaped. I chased after him, and you, seeing as you assisted him. We damaged each other’s ships to the point of crashing, and ended up in the same site where you spend your time.” he directed that last comment towards Rey. 

Her throat was starting to tighten. He spoke so calmly, but about such dark things. They were banal to him, as ordinary as the dunes were to her. 

“In order to keep my plans as they were,” Kylo continued “I had to lie to Snoke and tell him that I would kill Dameron and retrieve the map that he stashed in his droid. If I hadn’t, he would have swarmed the planet with troops and everyone on this ship, save for myself, would be dead.” 

BB-8, at Poe’s urging, had hidden himself away out of Kylo Ren’s reach. Poe frowned. “Keep your plans? What do you mean?” 

Kylo gave a slight sigh, looking around the ship. “It’s sensitive information--” 

“Very sensitive.” Finn agreed sharply, “Since it decides whether we keep you here or toss you out the airlock.” 

For the first time, Kylo Ren seemed to study Finn fully. He seemed almost impressed with what he saw. 

“Poe Dameron has recovered a map to the Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. Supreme Leader Snoke wishes to acquire it so he may find Skywalker and destroy him. The Resistance wants it to recruit the missing Jedi to their side of the fight. I assumed that Poe would attempt to escape from me to obtain the plans with his droid, but he stayed by my side until the end.” 

The look that accompanied this information was unreadable to Rey, but he seemed almost…annoyed? 

“And you?” Poe raised an eyebrow. “If you’re lying to Snoke so you can work on your own plans, what do you want with it?” 

Kylo Ren levied his gaze to Poe. “I wanted to destroy it.” 

Silence filled the room. Rey glanced around to see the others as puzzled as she was, but Kylo didn’t take the lapse in Poe’s questions for granted, continuing on. 

“By the time I realized he’d reunited with his droid, it was too late. Snoke had been watching my progress, he knew that I was right in front of what I’d promised him. If I wanted to prove myself a loyal apprentice, I needed to kill Poe and retrieve the map. I didn’t have a way out, until…” 

Dark eyes met hers. The deep, rich black of the iris reminded Rey of the gaps between the stars. “Until Rey arrived. Through the link, I managed to send her a message that Snoke could not hear. I asked her to get me out.” 

The edge of his mouth twitched, and Rey could have sworn it was nearly a smile. “An…unorthodox method, but she delivered. You both have her to thank for all our lives.” 

“All?” Finn shot back. “You wouldn’t have killed Poe to keep your plans intact?” 

“Of course I wouldn’t.” 

Rey blinked at the thought, shot down the link as bright and sharp as a grappling line. She could tell from Kylo’s expression that he hadn’t meant for her to hear it, and he likely wasn’t even aware she had. 

“I wouldn’t have handed over the map at any cost.” He clarified. “I’d have destroyed it, confirmed my disloyalty to Snoke, and he would have swarmed us with troopers and knights until we were all dead. Since Rey knocked me unconscious, he believes I’ve been captured.” he paused. “Or, at the very least, he cannot rule it out as a possibility.” 

Rey frowned. If he wasn’t going to kill Poe, and Rey truly believed he wouldn’t, his reaction was so immediate and sharp. So why not say so? Why not put everyone’s mind at ease? 

“You’d destroy the map at any cost. You’d let yourself be killed for it, to snuff out our last hope.” Poe snapped. “We’d still be doomed, so what is this all about? Spite? So you don’t have to see your u--Skywalker return?” 

“No. Not spite. Justice.” 

Kylo’s cold eyes traveled to each of them, catching their attention to levy it solely on him. “No matter what it takes, no matter how long, I will kill Snoke.” 

Chapter Text

Kylo was ready for any response from the three of them. Finn’s disbelief, Rey’s concern. Anything but the flat, irritated words out of Poe’s mouth. 

“ Kriffing stars, you're an idiot.” 

Kylo narrowed his eyes. “What’s that supposed to--” 

Poe had sprung from his place leaning against the wall, throwing his hands in the air and pacing, agitation lining every muscle and movement. “Yeah, sure, you’ll just kill Snoke. Of course! Why didn’t we think of that!” 

Irritation started to roil at the edges of Kylo’s mind. He opened his mouth to fire back, but Poe was far from finished. 

“You think you can come up with a better plan than Leia Kriffing Organa? ” Poe snapped. “You think we haven’t had dozens of assassins, spies, entire strike squads trying to do that for years?! What makes you think you could achieve what men and women with an entire rebellion of backup couldn’t?” 

“Poe.” Rey’s voice, quiet and careful, was oddly enough to pause his tirade. “I think you're missing the point.” She was leaning forward, watching Kylo with an unreadable expression. 

He turned, matching her gaze with his own. She dug her nails into the sides of her pants, but didn’t back down. “Whose side are you on, Kylo Ren?” 

He studied her for a moment. She was small. It was one of the first thoughts he’d had about her upon entering; a sharpness to the edges of her shoulders and hips that spoke of malnutrition. She wasn’t the master of the Force that he’d been hoping for. Still, looking at her eyes, so full of determination, disappointment was far from his mind. 

“My own.” he answered. “But that doesn’t have to conflict with yours.” 

It wasn’t the answer she wanted to hear. That was evident enough by the pinch of her brow, the slight fall of her gaze. 

“Will you hurt any of us?” 

He didn’t allow hesitation to slow his next answer. “No. Unless you try to kill me, I won’t raise a hand to you.” 

He managed to tear his gaze from Rey for a moment, for long enough to meet Finn’s eyes. “ Any of you.” 

Finn stared back, silent. Kylo remembered his words from earlier, just moments before the others had walked in. 

“I won’t forget what you’ve done.” 

Finn’s eyes felt like they were searing into him, trying to burn beneath the layers of his skin to glimpse at his mind. Kylo knew his response was likely just as fresh in the former stormtrooper’s mind. 

“Good. Make sure they don’t, either.” 

“He has killed for Snoke.” Finn said, flatly. “I don’t know why Poe is any different. I know why you--” 

His eyes fell to Rey, and Kylo stiffened, but there was only protectiveness in Finn’s eyes. “--are different. He’s got that link to you, he thinks he can use you. Maybe Poe too, I don’t know. But don’t think for a second I’m trusting what he says.” 

Poe and Rey looked at one another, trying to conjure up some kind of defense. Failing to. It was expected. It was good. 

Finally, Poe sighed. “Look, at this point, it doesn’t matter. I’m a commander, the two of you are outranked. It’s up to the Republic and Leia Organa to decide his fate now. He won’t be hurting anyone or killing Snoke from behind bars.” 

He looked down at Kylo, his dark curls ringing his face in a dark halo against the ships’ fluorescents. “Within a week, he won’t be our problem anymore. Get ready for landing, we’ll be making a fuel stop in an hour.” 

With that, Poe exited. 

A moment of silence stretched out, before Finn moved to join him, muttering something inaudible under his breath. 

Kylo closed his eyes, breathing out a light sigh. Maybe it would be better unspoken. But if he really had a week left, and Finn was determined to keep his distance, this would be his last chance to say it. 

“You were strong, to hide from him for so long.”

Finn froze. 

“Even in my greatest moments of strength, I’ve never been able to keep my mind from him, let alone my Force potential. But you…you must have been a child. So young, and still--” 

“Stop.” Finn said sharply. “I don’t care if you think I’m strong. What does strength mean to one of Snoke’s puppets, anyways?” 

The insult thudded home, gathering dark clouds of anger. With great effort, Ben pushed them aside. 

“The strength of a knife. One who could cut strings” he said. “Snoke doesn’t destroy. He subjugates. But he cares little for those outside the reach of the Force. By keeping yourself hidden for so many years, you kept yourself from doing what I had to in order to survive.” 

Finn didn’t speak for a long moment. When he did, his words came out harsh and clipped. “What’s your angle?” 

Ben sighed. “Does there need to be?” 

A muscle worked in Finn’s jaw. He said nothing more, just looked at Kylo for a beat, before leaving to join Poe in the cockpit. 

“I never thanked you.” 

Rey’s voice made him startle. It wasn’t as if he’d forgotten she was there (how could he?) but he hadn’t expected her voice to be so soft, and he hadn’t expected gratitude. He leaned against the table’s leg, tilting his head up to see her better. She seemed to notice the odd angle. “Thanked me? What for?” 

Another surprise; she moved in front of him, sliding to the ground to sit. She was still a good few feet away, crossing her legs to fiddle with her boot straps. “You saved my life, didn’t you? When your ships crashed into the Star Destroyer. Did you create…” She shook her head for a moment, before reaching out over the bond. “This?” 

He concentrated, and he could almost see the bond between them. It was brilliant, delicate, her word running through the connection like a drop of rain across a thread. 

Ben blinked. It had felt like ages ago, but in reality, it was likely only a couple of days. “You called out, and I answered.” he said finally. “I didn’t create the bond, I understand that much.” Regardless of how fascinated he was with her now, Ben would never have made the choice to allow someone else into his mind. “Besides, it wasn’t as if I gave you the ability to save yourself. You had enough raw power to do it. Tha was only…” he frowned, trying to find the right words to describe it. “A lending of control.” 

Rey nodded slowly. “Still. Without it, I would have died.” 

He shrugged as well as he could against his bindings. “And without your quick thinking, we’d all have died to the First Order.” 

Rey’s head tilted a fraction, those loose wisps of hair falling over her brow as she did so. Then, understanding dawned on her face, washing her freckled cheeks in pink. “Do you mean--” 

The corner of his mouth twitched, a smile threatening to raise it. “You have a good swing. I’d be interested to see what you could do with a lightsaber.” 

Her face bloomed from pink to red. “You sounded--” she cut herself off, shaking her head. “I don’t know! Like you needed help.” 

“I did,” he admitted. Oddly, the words didn’t sting his lips, the way they had when he’d been coerced into asking Poe. “And you certainly delivered.” 

“Well, I suppose you’re welcome.” she finally conceded. Her hands flitted to her face as if she wanted to cover it, before clasping tightly in her lap. 

“It’s unfortunate we’ve forged this bond, right before I’m going to be locked up.” he said finally. “I won’t be able to give much interesting conversation from there.” 

Rey bristled like a startled cat. “I’m not untying you!” she said firmly. 

Ben raised a single eyebrow. “I didn’t ask.” 

“But you want to get out of here, I’m sure you do.” 

Ben gave a soft sigh at the suspicion lurking in her tone. “Rey, I’d like nothing more. But that isn’t an option for me right now. You’ve got yourself to worry about, and the others would be upset if you untied me. So I’m not asking. No matter where they put me, or what General Organa decides, it doesn’t matter anyways. I will kill Snoke.” 

Rey didn’t seem outright disgusted by his words, but their intensity did seem to give her pause. “You’re so sure.” she murmured. “Why?” 

“Because it has to be done.” 

Rey hesitated, the words hovering on her lips before finally spilling out. “Alone?” 

“Yes.” 

Her mouth tightened, and the burst of frustration that came across the bond was thick and heavy on his tongue. “Why?” 

He didn’t let himself falter, didn’t let himself imagine her, brilliant and warm at his side in the horrible, choking presence of his Master. 

“There’s no one else to risk.” 

Chapter Text

“I thought we went out to get food,” Finn frowned up at the bright neon sign advertising “The cure for all your fashion needs!”

They’d landed in some sprawling urban area, on a planet Finn had never heard of before. Coming down from the atmosphere showed the surface was covered in deep gray rock, fissures splitting the planet into countless jagged chunks. Clearly some kind of mining colony. Poe assured them it would be a great place to lie low enough to get fuel and supplies. 

They’d left Kylo Ren under the watchful eye of BB-8, still tied securely to the holochess table, and headed out to the shopping center. 

Poe waved him off. “We are, absolutely. But if Rey keeps trying to hide her shivering, I think her hair buns are going to start vibrating, and you, well…” Poe gave him a cheeky smile. “You look like you’ve thrown the jacket of a very stylish, put-together man on top of a stormtrooper undersuit. Probably because that’s exactly what you did.”

Finn looked down at himself, then at Rey. Her arms were wrapped at her middle, trying to warm herself with the meager scraps of fabric wound around her body. She gave him a sheepish smile, shrugging. “It would help us blend in better?” 

Against that, and her obvious discomfort, Finn had no way to argue. Armor would be more expensive than clothes. Even if he’d rather spend their credits on that, they needed to save for food and fuel. 

Poe seemed to be on top of that, though. He was shuffling through their credits with quick, practiced hands. The motion reminded Finn of FN-284, the silver-tongued trooper in his squad. She’d  always thread cards through her hands during off hours, trying to coax the others into gambling rations in a game. 

Silver flashed as Poe handed Finn a stack of credits. They weighed heavily in his hand, and Finn’s eyes went wide. 

Poe cackled at his clear shock. “The Falcon’s emergency credit stash was untouched.” he grinned. “We’ve got more than enough to spend on food and fuel for the week, so we might as well be stylish rebels.” 

Style was more important than food or fuel? Finn wondered if he’d ever really understand Poe. Still, he had more experience, so it only made sense to defer to him. 

Finn gave a reluctant nod, and Poe’s smile went as wide as the sky. He led them inside, gesturing widely. 

“Take a look around! If you need help deciding on something, I’m more than happy to give advice.” 

Rey was wandering the aisles, a clear look of confusion on her face as she poked at a belt of metal links. She likely wouldn’t be much help, and he didn’t feel like he could offer her any guidance. No need for the blind to lead the blind. 

Finn wandered through racks of shirts, pulling a few out at random to look over. He immediately passed over anything white or black; he’d spent enough of his life in those. That just left…every color. Great. 

He decided to focus on texture and cut over color and style. What would be the easiest to hide stains in, what would keep his movement open to run and fight? 

Finn’s hands froze on a rich red piece of fabric. It was unimaginably soft under his hands, far more than his undersuit and the blankets in his bunk. He held it up next to himself, comparing the colors against Poe’s…well, he supposed it was his jacket. They matched nicely, enough that Poe wouldn’t throw up a fuss. 

As if Finn’s thoughts had summoned him, Poe strolled up and glanced over his choice. “Good one!” he praised. Finn felt an odd warmth at the compliment. 

“It was soft,” he said with a shrug. “And it seems like it won’t snag or mess with my movement at all.” 

Poe nodded, turning back to the rack and flicking through. He found two more; one in a soft gray and the other in a blue as clear and bright as the sky after rain. “They’re not expensive, and it’ll be easier to clean if you have a few,” he said. He also held out a couple pairs of sturdy pants; beige and gray. “These have tons of pockets. No point in pants without them. Here’s a belt too, and a holster.” 

That, it seemed, was the one point of fashion they could agree on. Finn checked out, changing as soon as possible. He had felt odd and exposed in his armor underclothes, even with the jacket thrown on top. But these clothes? 

Finn looked at the long mirror of the changing room. He could have passed himself on the street without a second glance. He was unmemorable, but at the same time…

 The rich red of the shirt brought out warm undertones in his skin he’d never noticed, and matched the small red accent on the jacket’s shoulder. He sank his hands into his pockets, feeling out the space to hold his leftover credits. The belt came last, holding his gun just inches from his dangling hands, at the perfect height to snatch and fire. 

“Finn. My name is Finn.” 

As he looked at himself, the name seemed to settle onto him as cleanly and warmly as the clothes. 

Finn stepped out from the dressing room, going to save an increasingly flustered Rey. Poe stood at her side, flipping through a rack of jackets. 

Rey shrugged. “I don’t think I like the feeling of jackets.” she admitted. “Too heavy, and they restrict my shoulders too much.” 

Poe hummed in through. “So, looser then?” He looked over her clothes skeptically. “Do you like how you look?” 

Rey bristled immediately. “And why shouldn’t I?” 

Poe lifted his hands. “Woah, no, not what I meant!” he backpedaled. 

“I think Poe was trying to ask if it was like me,” Finn said. “I didn’t have much of a choice in my armor, you know?” 

Rey shrugged, but her hackles lowered. “I made do with what I could find.” she admitted. “But I liked my belt, and my arm wraps…and the way my tunic looked and felt.” 

Poe slapped his hands together. “Ok, perfect! I can work with that!” 

He rushed off, and Finn leaned in to Rey. “Remember when this was about us picking out new clothes?” A part of Finn was glad to see Poe so upbeat. Clearly, a moment of normalcy was exactly what he’d needed, and he seemed to be relishing in it completely. 

Rey shook her head, watching Poe with an amused quirk of her lips. “Honestly, he’s having more fun than I would be. As long as he doesn’t put me in something awful, I don’t mind.” She gave Finn an appraising look. “That’s a good color on you.” she said warmly. 

Finn thrust out his arm, too excited to pretend any differently. “Feel it.” 

Rey brushed her fingers over the sleeve, her eyes rounding. 

As Poe made his way back over, Rey whipped around. “Poe! Tell me you got me something that feels like that!” 

Poe shuffled a few items through his arms, humming. “Not exactly that fabric, but they’re all comfortable.” he assured her. “Try this one.” 

Loose, golden yellow pants were paired with a rich brown top, hemmed to her hips on the sides and flowing down in a thin strip in the front and back. Like Finn, Poe had grabbed a belt full of pouches and sturdy brown boots. 

Finn and Rey immediately reached out to feel the fabric. The pants were sturdier, woven of a thick, fibrous cloth. Not terribly soft, but they were well-made, and loose enough that the texture wouldn’t bother her. The top, however, was as soft as Finn’s, but slid and slipped through their hands like it was cut from flowing water. 

Rey crumpled her hands into them, eyes gleaming. “How many credits is this stuff?” she whispered. 

Poe shrugged. “Not too many. What I’m getting costs more.”

He handed over a similar pair of pants (gray) and another two tops (blue, green) and went off to find his own clothes. 

Rey hesitated. She looked at her handful of credits, then to the clothes draped over her arm. Finn frowned. “Missing something?” he guessed. 

Rey shook her head, and suddenly it clicked. When they’d first arrived at the outpost, Rey had taken him to trade in the scavenged TIE fighter parts for food. The man there, Unkar Plutt, had immediately tried to cheat her out of the value of the parts. After that argument was through, Finn was confused to see how Plutt traded in portions of food, rather than money. Walking away, Rey had counted on her fingers and bit her lip when trying to calculate what they’d need. 

“Have you ever handled credits before?” he asked, voice soft but casual. 

Rey froze. She looked ready to deny it, but the words stalled on her lips. She shook her head, quickly, once. 

“Okay, no problem. Can I see?” 

She shoved him her handful of money, with a quick glance in Poe’s direction. She didn’t need to worry, he was fully absorbed in a rack of jackets.

“Alright.” Finn sorted out the clothes, doing quick mental math. “All this should run you about seventy credits, so you’ll just need this one.” he handed the clothes back, along with a 100 credit piece. “The man at the counter should give you three 10 credit pieces back, or one 20 piece and one 10 piece.” 

Rey’s brow furrowed as she took the single strip of metal. “What do I do if he doesn’t, and tries to keep it?” 

“Then we get Poe to make a diversion, and we steal the whole register.” 

Rey’s eyes shot up to meet his. “But won’t that make a scene?!” she whispered, eyes darting to the security cameras. 

“It was a joke, Rey.” Finn smiled. “He won’t. I’ll keep an eye out if he tries, ok??”

Rey nodded slowly, going over to the counter with a final glance towards Finn. He flashed her a thumbs up and a reassuring smile. 

In a handful of minutes, it was over. Rey bounded back to his side with a wide grin. “He didn’t try to take any!” she held out her hand, the copper pieces glinting against her pale skin. 

Finn shoved aside the soft pang of pity at her clear delight. “Why don’t you get changed--here, the rest of your money.” 

Rey slid it into her newly acquired belt pouch, heading off to the changing rooms. 

“Check it out!” 

Finn turned to see Poe behind him, posing in a brown leather coat, a shade darker and a bit longer than the one Finn wore. 

“You really don’t have to,” Finn scratched the back of his neck. “It’s your jacket.” 

Poe shook his head, clapping him on the shoulder. “Finn, come on. I told you back on the ship, it suits you perfectly! Besides, I’m always looking for a change of pace.”

Finn accepted the pat, and with it, the gift as well. 

Newly clothed and properly disguised, they started heading back to the Falcon. Finn felt lighter, stronger. With his gun swapped for one they’d found in the Falcon , he’d shed every last piece of the First Order. 

They’d had the ship fueled while they were away, so Poe split off to the front of the shipyard to pay the fee, waving the others ahead in front of him. 

Rey’s tunic fluttered in the wind with every step. Even though she’d refused a proper jacket, she seemed newly comfortable in the thicker fabric of her clothes and arm wraps. 

He’d just turned to comment on them when her head snapped forward, towards the ship. Without another word, she took off at a sharp jog, gripping the staff off her shoulder. 

Finn nearly shouted after her, before thinking better of it. Whatever she’d heard, she’d thought it was worthy of arming herself. He snapped his mouth shut, taking off behind her as quickly and quietly as he could. 

Soon, Finn heard what she must have; loud voices ringing out against the high ceilings of the docking bay. He rounded the corner of a heavy freighter, the Falcon finally coming into view. 

Finn’s heart clenched. 

Rey was nowhere to be seen. A man with gray hair and black leather jacket stood a few feet from the ship, waving his arms as he spoke. 

And right at the base of the docking ramp, Kylo Ren stood, completely free of his bonds. 

Finn’s hand went to his gun, eyes darting between the two. Did the old man work for the shipyard and recognize Kylo? 

Finn quickly dismissed the thought. He had spent his entire life with the First Order, and no one he knew had seen Kylo Ren’s face, even within their own ranks. Had Kylo attacked him? Surely not, or the man would be long dead. 

Finn inched forward, enough to make out the words. 

“You need to leave.” Kylo seemed to speak for the first time, his voice thick and heavy with an emotion Finn couldn’t name. 

“She’s looking for you. I’ve been tearing the galaxy apart looking for you, kid.” The man shook his head, his irritation seeming to ramp up. “Do you know what kind of trouble--” 

Finn didn’t get to find out what kind of trouble Kylo had caused this mysterious man. In a blur of fluttering brown fabric and durasteel, Rey had leapt from behind a pile of crates and swung. 

If Finn thought Kylo Ren was frozen before, he was pure stone now. Horror carved his face as the old man hit the ground with a solid thud . 

Rey stared at him, eyes round with concern. “Over the force link, you just kept saying “he found me”. Are you okay?!” 

Kylo shook his head mutely. 

Finn jogged up, throwing Kylo a sharp glare. “You’re supposed to be tied up.” 

Rey shot him a look. “The ship was being attacked. Did you want him to let our only way out get stolen?” 

“How do you know he wasn’t trying to steal it for himself?” Finn shot back. 

“Because then he wouldn’t have been outside the ship, getting yelled at by someone who’s apparently been tearing the galaxy apart looking for him!” Rey snapped. 

Finn shot a look at Kylo. He hadn’t moved, eyes fixed on the old man. Finally he spoke, thick and heavy like his tongue was made of lead. 

“Rey. Did you kill him?” 

Rey frowned, before shaking her head. “He’s an older guy, so it was just a tap. Why, is he dangerous?” 

Kylo made a noise somewhere in between a whimper and an incredulous laugh. It was nothing like Finn thought he’d hear from a Sith, and if the situation was even a little less unsettling, he’d have enjoyed it. 

“No. Well…” Kylo finally seemed to be able to move, just enough to raise a hand to his head and grip onto a fistful of his hair. 

“Rey, this is my father.” 

The words dealt a second blow to Finn’s ribs, and a glance at Rey showed she was just as shocked. “Your father? ”  

Footfalls made Finn turn, and he let out a sharp breath of relief. Poe. Surely, he’d bring some kind of sense to the situation. 

“Hey! It’s all paid, why are we just standing arou--” 

Poe froze, and his expression took on a perfect mirror of Kylo’s blend of shock, horror, and that third emotion Finn couldn’t pin down. 

“ I swear to every kriffing star, Ben Solo, if you killed Han I will personally kriffing throw you into the closest kriffing black hole.” 

Kylo’s head shot up, black eyes wide. “What?! Of course I didn’t kill him!” 

“He’s on the kriffing ground, Ben!” 

“Ben Solo? ” Rey’s voice was barely a squeak. “And you said Han, and that’s his father so--” 

Poe’s eyes darted up to Rey, her staff still out and clutched tight. 

“Oh. Oh Rey, you didn’t… ” 

“I didn’t kill him, kriff, I did not kill the Han Solo, Poe, I promise.” 

Poe let out a noise that could be mistaken for a laugh, if he were drowning. He dropped to his knees, bringing two fingers to the man’s neck before nodding up at her. 

“You did not, in fact, kill the Han Solo.” 

The hangar was silent except for Rey’s sharp exhale, the exertion shaking her small frame. 

“I don’t want to…” Finn gulped as everyone’s eyes sprang to him. “I don’t want to sound like an idiot. But who’s Han Solo?” 

Poe opened his mouth to explain, and by the softening of his eyes, Finn was sure it would have been a great explanation. Made him feel less like the odd man out, like everything had happened all at once without him being able to do anything.  

And then, the seven-foot-tall hairy monster burst into the docking bay, screaming, with blaster fire echoing behind him. 

Chapter Text

For the second time in twelve hours, Poe Dameron shut down his brain. 

There was no time to think, only time to move. Finn’s question (though seriously, who didn’t know about Han Solo? ) would have to wait. 

Poe hoisted Han onto his shoulder and started lugging him towards the Falcon. 

Chewbacca was racing towards their ship, but there were several stormtroopers on his heels. They rained blaster fire, whizzed past the wookie’s head to slam into surrounding ships. The air was soon thick with smoke and sparks, adding more chaos into the air. 

Finn had dragged Rey to the ramp for cover, but Ben hadn’t moved at all. 

“Ben!” Poe snapped, hoping his tone was sharp enough to get him to do anything besides just stand there and gape. 

Ben dragged his eyes to meet Poe’s, but they were clouded with a cold sheen that sent a chill down his spine. His eyes went to Rey again. “He’s here. Snoke.” he choked out. 

Poe let loose a slew of swears, dragging a hand across his face. He dumped Han’s body into the ship, turning back to the others. 

“Figure it out!” he snapped. Then he whirled to Rey, pointing a finger at her “ Without concussions this time!”

Poe grabbed his blaster, racing to meet Chewbacca. “And get the ship started up!” he yelled over his shoulder. 

Sharp streaks of light split the gloom of the hangar bay, crashing into docked ships or stacks of crates. “Over here!” Poe shouted to Chewie. 

The Wookie’s eyes brightened as he saw Poe, switching his path to run towards him. Poe let out a sharp breath of relief. 

Poe raised his blaster, taking a breath to steady his shooting hand. One. Two. The stormtroopers hit the ground. Just enough to give them some distance. 

“Come on! We’ve got Han, we’ve gotta go!” he shouted. 

As they closed the distance back, Poe let out another string of irritated curses. Rey was gone, and the ship’s engines were rumbling to life, but Ben hadn’t moved. Finn was standing in front of him, mouth twisted with frustration. His hands were pressed into Ben’s temples, and his face showed clear signs of strain. 

Finally, as Poe and Chewie arrived, he stepped back. “Don’t push it.” he said finally, pushing away from him to get into the ship. 

Poe didn’t bother trying to understand what all that was supposed to be, just snapping a quick “Done?” 

“Done.” Ben’s voice was equally clipped short. Without a glance at Chewbacca or to his father on the floor, he ran into the ship. Poe caught a glimpse of him heading for a gunner. 

“Get her in the air!” Poe shouted. “If Snoke’s here, we need to get out, now. ” 

Chewie roared a confused string of words, but Poe didn’t have near enough time to answer. Instead, he raced to where Rey was frantically getting the Falcon ready for flight. Her shoulders sagged as she saw him. 

“Take co-pilot, the rest of you get to gunners!” Rey nodded sharply, moving to the other side to ready her side of the controls. 

“The Wookie’s injured!” Finn’s shout echoed back. 

Poe hissed out another curse before correcting. “Get him healed up and--” 

“Quit shouting.” Kylo Ren’s voice cut through the comms on the control panel. “I’ve got one. Get us out of here.” 

Gone was the horrified, stilted tone. His voice was all now rigid lines and sharp edges, brittleness masquerading as strength. There was no time to worry about that now. 

The Falcon lifted jerkily into the air, swaying as Poe struggled to ease the old girl into a premature flight. It was her second hasty liftoff in less than a day, and her engines had plenty to say about it. 

“Start prepping the hyperdrive.” Poe said to Rey. Her hands immediately switched positions, and he found the space to admire how quickly she’d been able to shift into the task. He could coax the Falcon into an early ascent with enough expertise, but her hyperdrive was a whole different matter. 

The subtle thrum of the hyperdrive powering up rumbled under his feet as they lifted jerkily into the air. Blaster fire peppered her hull, but the ship was sturdy enough to take it in stride. 

He only counted three shots landed before Kylo retaliated, the powerful cannons shattering the concrete floor of the hangar and sending white-armored troops flying. 

Poe lifted her through the opening gates into the dull gray sky of pre-morning, letting out a shaky breath as he finally had a full view of the area. 

The star destroyer from earlier was a behemoth in the sky. Poe grit his teeth, watching the TIE fighters swarm from its belly like thick, black flies. 

“Rey, how long until we can make the jump?” 

Silence. 

Poe managed a glance over to her, seeing her eyes skidding over the controls. Her eyes snapped shut, and she barked out. “Less than a minute!” 

“Eyes open, look sharp!” he snapped, turning the ship to avoid a pepper of fire. “What does the meter say?” 

“I don’t know!” she shot back. “I can’t read! But I can feel it, the ship says we’ve got less than a minute!” 

Poe wanted to slam his head against the panel, but he supposed three concussions wouldn’t do them much good. “Let’s hope you’re right!” 

The Falcon swept and dipped, avoiding the rain of fire as she rose higher, higher still into the atmosphere. The TIE fighters weren’t trying to hit their mark, Poe realized with a sickening lurch. They were trying to herd them towards the ship. And they were succeeding. 

An incoming transmission flared on the controls. Poe and Rey exchanged a quick glance. 

“Should we--” Rey started. 

Poe snorted. “Nah, they’re just gonna try to distract us.” He declined the transmission, gripping the controls once more. He tried to bank left, to escape the slow pincer of the ships closing in on either side. A quick volley of blaster fire made him jerk back, spilling out irritated curses. 

There was a moment of silence, just rushing air and churning engines. Then the transmission flared up again. 

Rey silenced it this time. About five seconds of silence. 

Then the bright chirp once again. 

Poe groaned, slamming his hand on the accept button. “Sorry, can’t chat right now! I’ve got some absolute karkheads trying to cut me off in traffic. Can you believe the nerve? ” 

There was a moment of perplexed silence before a voice crackled through the speaker. “This is General Hux.” He sounded stiff and downright obnoxious from those few words alone, and Poe had to resist the urge to start mouthing off immediately. As soon as they’d answered the call, the blaster fire had stopped. 

“You are to board our ship, come out unarmed, and surrender yourself completely to the First Order.” Hux said stiffly. 

“Look, Lieutenant Hugs--”

“ General.” he snarled out. “ Hux. ” 

“Right, of course. Why should I listen to you? I’ve found your kind aren’t too friendly to dashing Resistance pilots like myself.” Poe turned to Rey, asking a silent question. She mouthed the word “soon”. 

“This is your final warning, or we will shoot you out of the sky!” he snapped. Poe hoisted himself up in his seat, craning to look over at the hyperdrive meter. A handful of seconds left, they needed to keep him talking.

“No, you won’t.” 

Rey’s voice made his head snap around. She was gripping the hyperspace controls, ready to send them flying in an instant. But her eyes were fixed on the receiver, burning as if she could see the sneering man on the other end. 

“We have something you need. Kylo Ren, Snoke’s attack dog. ” she was only parroting the words he’d told her, but they still churned his stomach uncomfortably. Still, Poe’s breath caught in his throat. Were they really going to--

“An acceptable loss.” Hux sneered, but there was a barely perceptible note of uncertainty in his tone. “Surrender now or--” 

“If you were going to kill us, you would have done it.” Poe’s grin started to creep over his face. “Besides, I’ve got someone far more important than Kylo, someone you couldn’t shoot down even if you wanted to.” 

That declaration was enough to get them a few more (confused) seconds. 

Rey’s eyes widened, hands tightening on the controls. Without her reaction, Poe would have never felt it; a soft rumble in the durasteel under their feet. It was almost imperceptible against the engine, but her glance to him confirmed it. 

“It’s your mother.” Poe slammed his hand on the transmission button, ending the call. “Rey! Punch it!” 

She shoved the lever, and the world around them blurred into blue and black. Poe couldn’t help but let out an exhilarated whoop as the G-Force slammed him back into his seat. The ships surrounding them stretched and blended into nothing, and soon all that surrounded them was the sweet rush of hyperspace. 

Rey collapsed against her seat, rubbing her face. Her fingers shook slightly as she drew them over the bridge of her nose. “Is being a Resistance pilot like that all the time?” 

“Nah.” Poe leaned back, giving her an impish grin. “Sometimes, things get intense.” 

Rey huffed, wrinkling her nose at him. “Oh, so the yelling and panicking was just for fun?” she sniped. “You had everything under control?” 

“Yeah, ‘course I did!” Poe clapped her shoulder. “I’ve got a great copilot.” 

Rey snorted, but didn’t brush his hand away. 

“I mean it!” he insisted. “You’ve never been in space before, and you recognized the feeling of her hyperdrive kicking on, just from the feeling of it?” 

Rey shrugged. “I’ve spent my life around ships, it doesn’t seem that strange to me.” She was trying to brush it off, but Poe didn’t let it slide. 

“Knowing what a part is and understanding how a ship flies are two different things.” he argued. “Rey, you didn’t know how to read the monitors and you still--” 

“I can read a little!” she snapped. 

Ah. Sore subject. 

Poe backpedaled. “I was paying you a compliment. It’s impressive, how intuitive you are.” 

She didn’t look convinced, but didn’t interrupt, so he continued. “You’ve got a real talent for this. If we got you through a few training courses, you’d give even Ben a run for his money.” 

Rey fell quiet, and Poe took the opportunity to fill the silence. “I’d teach you how to read beforehand. Promise.” 

Her eyes flicked over to him, irritation conflicting with hope. “Yeah.” she said finally. “Okay.” 

“Finn. How’s…Han?” Ben’s voice traveled through the in-ship comms. 

“Unconscious, but stable. I think.” Finn’s voice was clearly frustrated. “The Wookie won’t let me get close enough to check, and I wasn’t trained for medical care.” 

Poe shoved his chair back, glancing at Rey. “They’re both injured, do you know any first aid?” At her nod, he stood. 

“Right. Rey and I will be there in a minute to patch them up. Finn, I need you to watch the ship’s controls, make sure we don’t go off-course.”

There was a moment of quiet before Finn spoke again. “Poe, I don’t know how to--” 

“I’ll do it.” Kylo spoke up again. 

“So you can turn us back to the First Order?” Finn snapped. 

“It’s just keeping us on course.” he answered, voice blank. “I think you’ll be able to tell if the ship turns around . If it does, you can tell Poe.” 

Silence stretched out, and Kylo sighed. “I’d be an idiot to try anything now. Why do you think I didn’t steal the map from BB-8 and leave when you were all gone?” 

Because the map is in the pocket of my jacket. But…you didn’t know that, did you? You were unconscious. So maybe…?

Poe sighed. This wasn’t worth the headache. “Finn, you’ll keep an eye on him?” 

“An eye and my blaster” 

“Perfectly fine. We’ll go with that.” 

They barely had time to stand before Ben was pushing into the cockpit, brushing past Rey with a nod and settling into her copilot seat. 

Poe sighed at the harsh set of his jaw. “He’s going to want to talk to you eventually.”

“I’m sure.” his face and tone, were impassive as a wall of stone. 

I do not have the energy to handle any of this. 

With that, Poe walked down to the main area. Just before he was out of earshot, Rey’s voice caught his ear. 

“I was just trying to help, I really didn’t mean to--” 

Ben’s voice cut her off, stone softening in an instant. “You’re alright, Rey. I didn’t explain well enough.”

Poe stopped. 

“I’m trying to get better at communicating through…whatever this link is.” Ben continued. “Maybe we can practice later.” 

A beat of silence. “I’d like that.” 

That’s enough of that. Poe decided. 

“Reeeeey, come on!” he called. “That goose egg you put on Rebellion veteran Han Solo isn’t going to heal itself!” 

Rey’s embarrassed little huff was just audible as she hurried down the hall, a flush high on her cheeks. “I’m coming, yeah.” 

Han was just starting to sit up as they entered, blinking into consciousness to the very irritated yells of Chewbacca. 

Poe grabbed the ship’s medical kit off the table, squatting in front of Han with a wry smile. “Hey, Dad. We’ve got a lot to catch you up on.” 

Chapter Text

To Finn’s relief, Kylo Ren wasn’t trying to talk to him. 

Noise-cluttered silence filled the cockpit; soft ticks and hums of the ship’s machinery, the occasional click as Kylo’s hands moved over buttons and knobs, keeping the ship steadily on course. But not a single word was spoken. 

That was what Finn wanted, right? As little contact with the Sith as possible. 

Finn threaded his hand against his scalp, keeping the other lightly gripped onto his blaster. He hadn’t forgotten that night, where Kylo had stopped a blaster bolt with nothing but an outstretched hand. It went a long way in draining any comfort that being armed brought. 

Still. It’s something.

It made him feel more in control, as Kylo’s words from earlier spun a maelstrom in his mind. He’d been able to ignore it while shopping; caught up in helping Rey and rebuffing Poe’s goofy remarks. In this enclosed, dark place, they were impossible to ignore. 

“You said I was strong, to stay hidden for so long.” 

Finn’s own words surprised him, springing from his lips. He felt like he’d kept them locked there for the eternity that had been the last 24 hours. But the words were out now, and they seemed to have shaken Kylo out of a trance. 

He turned in his seat, and Finn rushed out the question before it could seem like Kylo’s compliment had meant anything. “I know what you meant by hidden. When I was a child, my friend and I…we hid each other from Snoke. Like what I’m doing to you. I don’t know how, but I could tell he was looking for something inside of me, and he didn’t find it, so--” 

Finn’s throat tightened. He hadn’t said that to anyone, why was he spilling this to Kylo Ren of all people? Just for a shot at answers that might just be a lie? 

“What would have happened?” Finn said finally. “If he had. If he’d seen whatever…was in us, that he was looking for?” 

His words finished jumbled and heavy, falling off his tongue like stones. Kylo Ren, to his credit, didn’t acknowledge it. His head tilted slightly, eyes drifting off of Finn’s face as he thought. 

“Snoke’s designs are not my own. If I tell you,” he said finally, his low timbre seeming to fill the cockpit. “Will you lash out at me as if they are?” 

Finn’s throat tightened. He didn’t regret anything he’d said to Kylo; not when he’d first woken up, tied to the table or in the port an hour earlier, when Kylo looked like he was escaping. 

Kylo’s eyes met his own, and there was an exhausted sort of amusement in them as he spoke again. “At the least, it’ll make this go faster if you aren’t accusing me the entire time.” 

“I’ll listen to what you have to say.” Finn said finally, the nerves in his stomach still churning. “I’m not going to promise how I’ll feel about intel I don’t have yet.” 

Kylo blinked, and something like respect flickered across his features. Finn almost thought he’d imagined it, with how quickly they settled back into impassivity. 

“Very well. Are you familiar with the Knights of Ren?” 

Finn nodded slowly. “I don’t think anyone from the Order isn’t.” 

He hadn’t met most of them in person, thankfully, but Zyth Ren had been stationed on Starkiller base. He’d seen her striding through the halls more times than he’d like; hair burning the same shade as her twin sabers, sharp eyes fixed firmly ahead. And there was always a breath of relief given when troopers were assigned with Elio Ren, considered to be the most even-tempered of the bunch. 

“They’re Snoke’s personal strike squad.” Finn continued. “Normally they oversee his personal projects.” 

Kylo nodded, gaze thoughtful. “All true. Are you aware of where they come from?” 

Come from? 

The thought hadn’t occurred to him. They’d been as human to him as the monsters he imagined in the shadows of their cadet bunks. 

“Those sensitive to the Force are one in a million.” Kylo said quietly. “Difficult to find. Even more so to pinpoint an individual. When he sensed a Force sensitive individual in a village, he would raid and burn it to the ground. The adults killed. The children and infants stolen to become stormtroopers. This, I’m sure, you’re aware of.” 

Kylo’s tone offered no sympathy, but not a hint of smugness, either. Finn wasn’t being pitied, but he wasn’t being gloated over, either. It was an acceptable middle balance of neutrality. 

“Once the children get old enough, the Force is stronger within them, far more perceptible. They’re brought before Snoke, and he reads their minds and spirits. When he finds the Force Sensitive among them, he removes them from the cadet group and brings them into special training. These children become the Knights of Ren.” 

His words thudded against Finn’s chest, freezing him still in that moment. His eyes raked over Kylo; the pale skin, the emptiness in his eyes, the aura of consuming darkness that pulsed and swelled with every breath. 

I could have been exactly like him. 

Finn’s new clothes, the clothes that were undeniably his, that he’d felt marked him as his own man…they suddenly weighed heavy on his shoulders. 

I would have been him, if it weren’t for 003. 

“Did you get to pick your names?” 

Finn blinked at the stupidity of the question as it left his mouth. Kylo’s head tilted again, but he didn’t prod at the question. 

“No.” he said simply. “They’re names in Ancient Sith. The…language, not the people.” 

Finn felt an odd twinge of satisfaction as Kylo stumbled over his words as well, but he didn’t interrupt. 

“They mean things.” Kylo ran a hand through his hair, brow creasing in memory. “Zyth meant “one who sees through veils”. Then there was Asryn, she was “steps lighter than air.” I don’t remember them all.” 

“Asryn?” Finn frowned. He thought he’d heard all of their names before, but Asryn’s was new to him. 

Kylo gave him a quick, appraising look. “Gone, before you would have served. She died on a mission when she was sixteen.” 

Somewhere, in those quiet, stiff words was a shred of emotion. Finn couldn’t guess to what, only that Kylo seemed to force the words out through a strained throat. 

“What about Kylo Ren?” 

His shoulders stiffened, and Finn knew immediately he’d gone too far. 

“You asked about your own potential future, not my past.” he snapped. 

The air grew thick and heavy, like ozone scenting the winds of a coming storm. Finn’s hand tightened on his blaster, but the energy was all moving inward, swirling in a maelstrom of anger and bitterness and something thicker that laid on Finn’s tongue like a coat of ash. 

It was only then that he felt his mind groan under the strain. He dug his fingers into the armrests of the chair. “Kylo. Careful.” 

Kylo Ren blinked, and Finn felt his attention sharpen and focus. It seemed through bond they’d created for Finn to hide him, he could sense the strain. 

The burden eased. 

“Apologies.” he said stiffly. “That should help.” 

Discomfort churned in Finn’s gut. “Did you use the Dark--” 

“Yes. It’s the weapon at my disposal, and the most effective one we have. If you want help from the light, go ask Rey.” 

The words were halting and stiff, but there was no rage in them. 

Finn settled back in his chair a bit, breathing a sigh. “As long as it works.” is all he said. 

Kylo’s presence in the Force wasn’t comfortable, but it wasn’t piercing like Snoke’s. It was as if someone was grabbing him under the arms, constricting, to keep him afloat in deep, dark waters. It wasn’t anything like Rey had described; there was no intention or curiosity. Kylo’s help was as personal and connective as a data transfer. 

Silence reigned once again. The hum of machinery. The occasional beep and click of buttons and knobs. Speech, muffled, from the main area down the hall. 

“Ren is the name of our order.” Kylo’s words nearly made him jump. “The others don’t have it attached to their names as often. As their leader, I’m rarely without it.” 

His eyes were fixed on Finn once more, dark and unreadable as the void between stars. “Kylo means “discarded one.” Does that answer everything you needed to know?” 

Finn didn’t resent the jab. It was warranted. Instead, he silently nodded his head. 

There was no place to speak, not that Finn would have had any words for him. The ship’s inner comm blinked to life. 

Kylo pressed it without hesitation. 

“Finn! You should get some rest, we’re going to switch shifts.” Poe’s voice came over the comm. He sounded exhausted himself, but Finn wasn’t about to argue. 

He left the cockpit, only glancing back one to see Kylo, silhouetted black against a void of silver and blue. A voice sounded behind him, quiet and weighed with exhaustion.

"Thanks, kid. I'll take it from here."

Chapter Text

The shuffle of footsteps drew a sigh from Kylo. As…taxing as that conversation with Finn had been, it hadn’t escalated to arguing. But it seemed Poe was all too eager to take Finn’s place, and Kylo was sure how that would end. 

“Ben.” 

Kylo's hands froze on the control panel. 

Han’s voice was level and calm, but it may as well have been a shout. 

A decade of training slid into place, as natural as the next breath he took. It wasn't what he'd received from Snoke, on how to stride through the embers of his heart to ignite that perfect roil of burning rage. No, this was training he'd had long before that. Following his--following General Organa's perfectly neutral expression, indifference stitched onto her face as neatly as the embroidery of her dress. 

“Han Solo.” his voice was dry, clipped and clean. “I'm sure you've been waiting a long time for this.” 

Han moved closer, took a breath to speak, but the proximity alone made the hairs on Kylo's neck rise, his fists clench. His mask of calm fixed messily on his face, he stood briskly. He'd only made it two steps to the door before Han's words stopped him. 

“You’re free to go. But if you do, I’ll turn the ship right to the Resistance headquarters. I know how to slip through the First Order’s defenses, they’re not so slick.” 

Kylo’s hands tightened into fists, a sharp scoff shaking his chest. “And if I don’t?” 

“Well, if you have a seat, we can talk this through. We’ll compromise. It’s what family does, right?” 

Kylo hated him, hated this , how every time that foolish old man looked his way, he felt 7 years old again, being scolded for breaking Poe's toy. Like he was a rebellious child and not a skilled wielder of the Force. 

“We’re not family.” he snapped. 

Han’s silence told that the jab stung. “Fine.” he sighed, settling into the pilot’s seat. “Then this is a negotiation. Your mother taught you enough about those.” 

Kylo’s hands flexed. He didn’t need his anger, didn’t need to reach for it to shield his mind. It rose up anyway, freezing sheets of rain that pounded and numbed his psyche. He could leave, right now. He wouldn’t have to talk to Han if he did. 

But he’d be walking right to Poe, who’d chew him out for it. Rey, who’d have questions. Finn, who was still grappling with everything Kylo had told him. 

A negotiation. If I can convince him to hold this off, for just a little while longer, I can escape them. Get back to Snoke. Fulfill my mission correctly, as it needs to be.

His thoughts bit back immediately, hissing the truth that he wasn’t ready to fight Snoke, that if he tried, he wouldn’t be able to kill him before--

“Ben.” Han’s voice had softened. 

Kylo sunk down into the copilot’s chair. This wasn’t a conversation he could escape, not forever. As little choice he had here, he’d have less in the prison he was being sent away to. He was sure if Han didn’t have his little talk here, he’d visit him there. 

Silence swallowed the chamber. 

Han seemed to not have expected it to work, or perhaps he was just totally unsure of what to say. Kylo didn’t blame him. What was there to say? There was no forgiveness after what he’d done. No hope of reconciliation. 

“Take that mask off.” 

Every muscle in Kylo’s body stiffened, pulled to the snapping point by those four simple words. If only he had his mask still, he might be able to look up. But there was no degree of separation there, nothing but his own will to keep Han at bay. 

“What do you think you’ll see if you do?” 

Han’s voice, weathered and rough with age, held a determination that rivaled the stars. “The face of my son.” 

Anything part of Ben that he could have loved had been swallowed by the darkness, broken and twisted into Kylo Ren. And so it was almost a kindness when he spoke again. 

“Your son is dead. He was weak, and so I killed him.” 

Han’s voice snapped back, just as quickly. “You don’t even believe that. If it were true, I’d be dead the moment that Rey knocked me unconscious. Poe would have been killed on Jakku, you would have left the others in the dust when they left you on the ship, now what is your plan, Ben, because it sure as hell isn’t the same as his!” 

“Poe left that detail out, did he? When he was telling you everything else?” Ice coated every word that Kylo spat out at Han. 

“No he didn’t, because the kid’s still got loyalty to you, after everything!” Han snapped. “Even though it scares the hell out of him, because don’t think for a second it doesn’t Ben--” 

“Don’t call me that!” The words ripped from Ben’s throat, raw and furious. He’d held it together for years now, held in the storm raging in his mind, never letting it spill over, not like this. He commanded the storm, but now it was ripping him into pieces. 

“I’m splitting in two.” he ground out, as if the grit of his teeth could keep it all in, all of the anger and bitterness and loathing. “The Light hasn’t left, and it’s tearing me apart, every step I take, like crawling over glass, keeping me from what my destiny has to be.” 

It has to be. Has to be. 

The words spun, a frantic mantra in his mind. His fingers dug into his palms, longing for that anchor point that had been Vader’s mask, the memory that this is what he needed to do. It was the path laid out before him, the only one he could take. 

I will finish what you started. I promise. 

“I know what I have to do.” The words scraped his throat raw. “But I don’t know if I have the strength to do it.” 

The admission burned worse; more acute than the aching muscles in his hands, beading blood under his nails. He was slipping away, pulled back into the shadows at the base of his skull, wrapped up in Dark wrapping around him. He wasn’t strong enough. He could have trained under Luke and Leia for a thousand years and not been strong enough. 

“You can’t help me.” 

The admissions wasn’t even bitter; it was a statement of fact. His father was no great wielder of the Force. Skywalker had a chance to kill Snoke, and wasn’t ruthless enough to take it. His mother and her Resistance had been battling against the First Order for over a decade, and she’d never even gotten close. 

“I’m the only one strong enough. Like my grandfather, I will bring order to the galaxy and destroy Snoke. It is my birthright.”

It was all he could choke out before Han’s arms were around him, clutching Kylo to his chest like he was a little boy. Every muscle in his body somehow clenched tighter, and Kylo was sure he was about to break apart at the seams. 

“Kriff that.” Han snarled. “Birthright, destiny, all of that is a load of garbage!” 

Warmth dripped down onto Kylo’s shoulder. Han was crying. 

“You’re rejecting the title of my son? Fine! But I’ll never stop being your father, Ben. You can’t come home? I knew that already, when I left Leia to come find you! But I’ll be damned before I let you throw yourself on a pyre in the name of a destiny you decided for yourself! If you’re going after Snoke, I’m going there at your side.” 

“He’ll kill you.” Kylo finally found his voice, if only to warn Han of how utterly stupid he was being. “Old man, he’ll tear you to pieces!” 

Han scoffed, gripping him tighter. “He already did, eleven years ago. And I’m not letting him take you any more than he has.” 

Muscles shaking, mind blurring with pain and confusion, it was all Ben could do to move his arms around Han, gripping him tight. “I can’t do that from a prison cell.” he said finally. 

“We’re not going to Leia. We’re not risking your mother like that.” Han said finally, pulling back. “Snoke’s been tracking you somehow, and I’m sure that Finn kid is great, but we can’t take that chance. You want to kill him? You’re doing it with me.” 

She’ll never forgive me if you don’t make it home. 

Kylo felt his plan sliding from his fingers, like they were slick with rain, with blood. Han was resolute. Killing Snoke would involve him now. Another piece for Kylo to handle, another thing to go wrong. 

There was no other option to be had. 

For the first time since he was fifteen, Kylo looked up into his father’s face. 

Tear tracks grooved into the wrinkles of his face. Every hair on his head had turned gray, a stark contrast to eleven years ago. He remembered Han fussing over the flecks of gray in his hair, Leia chuckling warmly as she brushed it from his face, telling him that it “built character.” 

This wasn’t “character.” This was a decade of stress and pain and longing for someone who would never return home. Who still couldn’t, no matter what either of them might have wanted. 

The presence of the Light brushed against him, soft and gentle. 

And what do you want, Ben? 

His eyes dropped instantly. 

“Fine.” he lied. “We’re doing it together.” 

Han’s hand clapped his shoulder; briefly, once. It was almost too much for either of them to handle. Then he turned, resting his hands on the controls of the Falcon. It was as if life seeped back into him from the dusty levers and switches, bringing a light to his eyes. 

Kylo brought his hands up to his face, but no dampness met them. He hadn’t cried since the day he left Luke. There was some relief that this particular barrier hadn’t crumbled to dust yet. Seconds stretched to minutes, to perhaps an hour before Kylo finally found his voice enough to speak. 

“Where are we going?” 

“Well, we’re mostly there.” Han sat forward, hands moving over the controls effortlessly. “We’ll be entering the atmosphere of Takodana in a few minutes.” 

Ben blinked. “Maz Kanata?” Despite everything, despite the emotions tearing through his chest, he managed a slight, amused huff. “Does Chewie know about that?” 

Han’s hands paused on the controls, a barely contained wince touching his features. “It should be…fine?” 

Kylo snorted. 

“He’ll stay with the ship!” Han decided, punching in the last of the controls. He reached forward, tapping the ship’s inner comms. “Alright kids, everyone in the cockpit!” 

Kylo barely had enough time to straighten up before the others entered, crowding into the tight space. Finn’s elbow nearly knocked his jaw, and Poe crowded to Han, leaning over the other man’s chair to poke at the controls. “Hey, maybe ease up on the--” 

Han irritably smacked his hand out of the way. “Are you telling me how to fly my ship?” he snorted. “Still got some nerve on you, huh kid?” 

Despite the grumbling, Poe’s insolence had lightened Han’s eyes again, dropping some of the tension in his shoulders. 

“Right.” Han turned in his chair, facing the rest of them. “We’ve come to an agreement. He’s not willing to work with the Resistance, but I’ve been a technical third party for the last few years. We’ve made a temporary alliance to take down Snoke. So let’s talk conditions.” 

“Snoke needs Luke Skywalker.” Kylo said, as soon as Han’s eyes went to him. “We need to destroy the map before he can get his hands on it.” 

“If you really think--” Poe shot forward, but Han placed a firm hand on his shoulder. 

“Give him a chance to explain himself.” he said evenly. 

Poe grimaced, but said nothing. Kylo bit back a sigh. “Eleven years ago…” he didn’t need to elaborate any more than that, seeing how Poe and Han’s faces darkened. “He was going after Luke. He got me instead.” The words tightened his throat, but he pushed through it. “All this time, it’s all he’s cared about. One of the Knights of Ren was killed looking for him when she was just a teenager and--” 

Poe shot up again. “If you’re saying Uncle Luke would kill a kid--” 

“That’s not what I said.” Kylo snapped. “Would you calm down for five seconds and listen?” 

Poe glowered, but nodded tersely. 

“What I was trying to say is that Snoke doesn’t care what sacrifices he has to make. Asryn Ren called in on a lead, and he made her pursue it alone before she lost it. That killed her, and she was one of his most skilled pupils, all for a fraction of a chance to capture Skywalker. I don’t know what he has planned, but our best chance at survival is keeping the map out of his hands. If that means destroying it, so be it.” 

“He destroyed the Emperor.” Rey said softly. “All those years ago…couldn’t he stand up to Snoke now?” 

Kylo looked over to her. She was tense, but clearly listening to what he had to say. He softened his tone in appreciation. 

“He didn’t, not exactly. It was Darth Vader who caught Palpatine off guard and delivered the final blow. He restored order…in his time, at least, by sacrificing himself.” 

Poe opened his mouth to argue, but closed it again with a snap. 

“I’m going to be real with you, kid.” Han spoke, and Kylo did his best not to bristle at “ kid”. “Maybe that’s Snoke’s goal, but it’s been the Resistance's for just as long. We can’t waste or destroy a resource that could save us out of fear.” 

“Like fighting.” Rey said quietly. “If you spend all your time blocking attacks and never striking back, you weaken yourself until you can’t defend anymore.” 

Han paused, giving her an appraising look. “Exactly, Rey. You’d know about swinging first, eh?” 

Rey’s face flushed, and Han chuckled. “No hard feelings, kid. Point is, you’re right. We’ve got to get that map to Leia. Now, look, we will be smart about it,” 

He directed that last comment at Kylo. “Which is why we’re going to Maz. She’s got good connections, ones who know how to stay real quiet. We’ll send Poe and whoever wants to shelter with the Resistance with her. Then Kylo and I can go on whatever plan he’s got for taking down Snoke, since he’s so adamant about that.” 

Poe’s eyes flamed, but he bit his tongue again. Kylo knew, from that look alone, that they’d be sharing words later. 

“Any objections?” Han spoke up. 

“I’m not going to the Resistance.” Finn spoke for the first time, studying everyone with cool intensity. “I just got out of the fight, I’m not jumping back into it. Kylo Ren said that I barely escaped Snoke’s notice as a child, I’m not giving him another chance. I don’t even have a family to go back to, but--” he grimaced sharply, eyes darting around as if daring anyone to challenge him. “But I won’t live the rest of my life killing and dying.” 

No one spoke for a long moment, before Han finally sighed. “Alright, kid. It’s not the life for everyone, there’s no shame in that.” 

“I’m not ashamed.” Finn snapped back. “Lots of people get to live normal, peaceful lives. Why can’t I?” 

“You can, Finn.” Rey snapped. “I’m not going to stop you if you want to leave us.” There was barely concealed hurt in her eyes, in the tense line of her shoulders. Kylo noticed Poe’s eyes softening as she spoke, and he felt a slight rush of relief. Maybe he couldn’t count on Finn to watch her once he was gone, but he knew Poe always would. 

“Fine, then. Rey and Poe to the Resistance, Kylo Ren and I on the mission against Snoke. Finn, I’ve got some friends who can get you into decent work. It won’t be glamorous, but it’ll be legal and keep you fed. That fair?” 

Finn was quiet for a long moment. “Deal.” 

“Good.” Han leaned forward, pulling the ship out of hyperspace. 

Takodana rushed into view, a familiar scape of lush forests, bursting with brilliant colors, leaves shifting in a never-ending sweep below their ship. They danced in a swell of emerald and sage, dappled gold by sunlight and deep with shadows. 

A soft gasp sounded at his shoulder. Rey’s eyes were locked onto the landscape, reflecting the colors of life in her soft brown eyes.  

“I didn’t know there was this much green in the whole galaxy.” 

That was enough to turn Han’s head too, and Kylo saw there what was likely reflected in his own eyes. 

She’d been so beaten down by the galaxy, forced to scavenge and scrape by for her entire life. Alone. Scared. Hardened by the cruelty of reality. But here…her eyes were as soft with wonder as a child’s. 

It wasn’t the first time Kylo made the promise, but he ran it through his mind again, stronger. No matter what, he would never let Snoke so much as lay eyes on her. 

With the Dark Side beside him, and in a few days time, Snoke wouldn’t be alive to do so. 

Chapter Text

Exhaustion weighed heavily on Han’s bones. The cup of caff in his hands was doing its best, and he hadn’t dozed off yet. He was just glad that Poe’s caff hadn’t. The young pilot was slumped over in an armchair in the corner of the room, asleep roughly thirty minutes after he’d declared he’d stay awake all night. Rey, Finn and Ben were gone long before he was, tucked into the bunks scattered around the room. A part of Han was surprised at how quickly Ben had fallen asleep, but Poe had caught his look and explained. Apparently the kid hadn’t had a sleep not interrupted by nightmares or induced by Rey’s particular brand of beatdown since before they’d reunited. By Poe’s estimation, that had been four days. 

They all needed sleep, desperately, and thankfully Maz Kanata had provided. She wasn’t able to speak with them that day anyways, instead turning over one of her personal rooms for their use. She promised they’d talk first thing the next morning, and as agitated as that made both Poe and Ben, Han was relieved for the night of rest.

Well. What amounted to rest, anyways.  

 Han’s jaw still ached from Poe’s debrief, biting back the anger, pain and rage kicked into a frenzy. Everything from Poe’s interrogation at the hands of his brother to the declaration from this Rey kid that Ben hadn’t wanted any of this. 

Stars, just talk to me, kid. 

But he had, hadn’t he? And that was the worst part. He’d spat out some horribly jumbled speech about destiny and fate and a whole other load of kark. They were the ramblings of an exhausted, terrified, broken man, and Han knew Ben believed every word. 

And seeing him again, face to face, had unearthed every thought he’d shoved to the corners of his mind. His little Ben, his child was a man. He’d missed everything. 

Ben had been fifteen when he’d run to Snoke, to that clinging darkness that Leia was terrified he’d never escape. Han wondered who’d taught him to shave, who’d shared his first drink. Who had done all of the things in his place? Who’d snatched the moments he’d dreamed of as he’d watched Ben sit on his makeshift booster seat in the Falcon’s copilot chair?

Han closed his eyes for a moment, feeling the warmth from the morning sun seep in through the windows. Han wasn’t a praying man; never had been. The three people he loved the most; Luke, Leia, Ben, they’d all had a connection he’d never share. It was to each other, and to that strange, awesome, terrifying Force that always lurked just outside his understanding. 

But there was one thing he did know. When he sat beside Leia and Luke, his newborn child in his arms, he’d felt it. For just a moment, something warm swelled around them all, cradling the child just as much as his arms had been. He’d felt…affection. Protectiveness. Love. 

He hadn’t spoken a word of it, not even to Leia. It was unsettling, maybe even a little insulting. What did this Light know about his son that he didn’t? What claim did it have to his child? But now, helpless to do anything but follow Ben on a fool’s crusade against a dark lord, that moment was nudging into his mind.

Maybe it was better this Light thing loved Ben as much as he did. It couldn’t do much worse of a job protecting him than Han had. 

You’ve never been with me. That’s not quite how you work, right? You pick your people, and I ain’t one of em. That’s fine. I don’t think I’d do much good with it anyways. But…

Han’s throat tightened. Even asleep, Han refused to cry in front of his son again. He gripped the armrests of the chair, as if that might anchor him in this moment; by Ben’s side, resting and safe from Snoke. 

You love him. Like I do. And you’ve been with him this whole time, like he said, trying to bring him back to Leia and I. Don’t give up on him. I know you might want to, it’s been over a decade, but don’t give up on my son. 

Silence stretched, only broken by the soft murmurs and snores of the sleeping kids. There was no rush of wind, no feeling in Han’s gut except for dread. 

Can’t you hear me?! 

Han’s desperation fueled a bitterness, spreading in his mouth sharper than the coffee. 

Bring him home! That’s what you want, isn’t it? So just do it! If you’re so powerful, bring him back to me! Or send me a sign that you will, or--

“Excuse me?” 

Han’s eyes blinked open. Rey was standing a few feet away, hands clenched over her forearms in an awkward, tense position. “Are you okay?” 

Han looked down, realizing his hands were shaking, gripped onto his cup. With a heavy sigh, he placed it down on the table, clenching his fists at his side. “Fine, kid.” 

With measured effort, he placed the mug on the side table. “Up already?” 

“I’m used to getting up before dawn.” she admitted. “It’s easier to get moving before it gets too hot.” 

She slid into the chair opposite him, eyes darting to the window, even as she tried to keep her focus on their conversation. Through the clinging haze of exhaustion, Han’s chest eased. 

Every time the trees had been in sight, Rey couldn't tear her eyes away. Now was no exception. Their window looked out at the square, merchants and travelers in their colorful clothes starting to mill around. Beyond that was that endless green mist of foliage. Han couldn’t remember the last time he’d stopped to admire much, let alone trees, but something about Rey’s blatant awe made his eyes trace their shapes as well. 

“Where are you from, Rey?” The wear of her hands and the freckles dotting her face said she was no stranger to hard work, but Poe hadn’t exactly explained where she fit into all of this.

“Nowhere.” she replied, managing to drag her eyes away to meet his. 

Han snorted. “Everyone’s from somewhere.” he prodded. 

“Jakku.” 

Ah. 

“That really is nowhere,” he admitted. “Sorry you got mixed up in all this, kid. It’s probably a lot more than you signed up for.” 

Rey shrugged. “I’ve always wondered what’s beyond Jakku.” she admitted. “It’s nice to know everyone wasn’t exaggerating; about trees and clouds and water. ” She gave a small, wondering shake of her head. “You just…turn the handle and it comes right out! Clean and fresh and as much as you want.” 

Han swallowed the pity welling up in his throat. It wouldn’t do her any good. “What now, Rey from Jakku?” 

She gave a small, slight shrug. “The Resistance, it sounds like.” she admitted. “It’ll be nice to get BB-8 somewhere safe. And then, back home.” 

“Back to Jakku?” Han’s eyebrows raised. “You sure you want to cut your sightseeing short so soon?” 

Rey shrugged. “It isn’t really about--” 

She bit down on her lip, stifling the words Han knew were next. 

Not really about what you want, eh kid? 

“It’s a big galaxy.” he said, watching her out of the corner of his eye. “If there’s people who’d cause you trouble if you didn’t come back, there’s places to hide from them. You could go with Finn, or stay with the Resistance.” 

If Han really was marching alongside Ben to their deaths, he wouldn’t be there to help this poor kid, but he never knew Leia to turn aside someone like Rey. 

But Rey just shook her head. “I’m waiting for someone.” she said finally. 

The words rang hollow and cold, like marching feet against durasteel. Han wasn’t the kind of man who could argue her out of it. He knew the set of that jaw, the shine in those eyes. The look Luke had given him before he’d launched himself at Vader, believing redemption was there without a lick of proof and--

Han paused. 

Aw kriff. Did I really turn into Luke in my old age? 

Instead of dwelling on that for any amount of time, Han reached over to rifle around in his bag. “All you’ve got is that big stick, eh kid?” 

Rey nodded, seemingly relieved at his lack of resistance. 

Han tugged out his spare blaster. It was a dingy little thing, but reliable. It would work well enough. 

“Ever fire a blaster?” 

Rey took it, eyes gleaming with sudden interest. “No…but it’s easy, right? Just aim and shoot.” 

Han huffed out a laugh. She was starting to remind him of himself now, with her casual confidence, even if it was unfounded. 

Stars help you if you really are like both Luke and I. At least find yourself a Leia. 

His mind really was fogging over, wasn’t it? Han huffed out a small laugh. 

“There’s a little more to it than that. We’ll practice later.” he promised. He brought his mug up to drain the last swigs of caff. 

“I can, too.” 

Finn’s voice made his hands jolt, nearly splashing all the liquid over his only extra shirt. Han cussed and swallowed, twisting around to look at him. 

He was sitting on one of the cots, calmly reassembling his blaster. A part of him itched to ask how long Finn had been awake and listening in, but the other part was too tired to care. 

“Get good sleep?” was what he settled on, setting the mug on the side table. 

Finn shrugged. “As good as I could manage.” 

The others were stirring at the additional voices. Poe grumbled for five more minutes and Ben’s groan was wordless and gruff. 

They wouldn’t be moving anytime soon, that was for certain. 

“You didn’t sleep.” Finn’s voice was clear. “And they clearly need more time. Rey and I can keep watch while you get some rest.” 

Everything in Han wanted to protest. He wasn’t about to be ordered around by some young upstart. 

But as he thought of sleep, thought of what was ahead…

“Yeah. Alright, kid.” Han stumbled over to one of the vacated beds, eyes already growing heavy. 

He hadn’t seen Leia in years. And with the promise he’d made to Ben, that pre-dawn kiss in their bedroom was the last he’d ever have. 

Except maybe…maybe one more, in my dreams. 

Opening his eyes a slit, Han gave one last glance out the window. The sky outside had just shed the colors of dawn. That brilliant, crisp blue was the last thing Han saw before sleep claimed him. 

Chapter Text

Poe guessed the cantina would be less busy than the night before, with the sun just barely reaching noon. Like so many times in the last week, he was wrong. 

Smugglers and businesspeople haggled and argued, looking just as shady as they did rich. Drinks of every color and viscosity spilled brilliant, potent scents into the air as they were whisked by on trays manned by quick-footed alien waiters. A band played on a cacophony of instruments plucking, blowing and hissing to weave together an unfamiliar melody. 

Maz Kanata ran a business that burst with chaos, a sensory nightmare. His first instinct was to dismiss it, but Mama’s training murmured at the back of his mind to look again, and closer.

 The rapid pace of the waiters made it hard for anyone to linger anywhere but a table. Drinks, of course, made anyone’s lips looser, and the band was just loud enough to mask any eavesdropping from neighboring tables. Maz had created a room that could be filled with people and masked with privacy, where good times could be had to sweeten business deals. It wasn’t the way Mama conducted her careful environments to set the boundaries of this agreement or that, but Poe wasn’t here with Leia, was he? And the way Han navigated through the crowd as cleanly as he did the vacuum of space, Poe was again reminded of the choices Dad was making, and how much Leia would purse her lips at them. 

They were escorted to one of Maz’s personal tables, a low slab of wood with several plush, comfortable chairs. Poe sat next to Han, while Ben took the far end of the table. Poe wanted to be annoyed, but as he sunk down into the chair, he couldn’t help but find it far smaller than expected. 

Except…no, it wasn’t that it should be bigger, it was that he was. The colorful cushions that served as chairs were low enough that he had to fold his legs under the table. But when he was a kid, making faces across the table at Ben the plush fabric seemed to envelop his entire body. He had to mask giggles as the moms, Shara and Leia, discussed business with Maz. 

Ben was staring down at the grain of the table with an equally distant expression. But as Poe watched, he was drawn back to the present as his eyes darted to the left. 

Rey had plucked a piece of fruit from the bowl in the table’s center. Her fingers slid and scrabbled over with the spiny rind, eyebrows furrowed and her lip drawn between her teeth. Poe opened his mouth to offer help, but Ben was already leaning in, murmuring quiet instructions. 

Rey’s narrowed eyes were soon turned to him, but Ben simply spoke again, pointing to the fruit. He didn’t do anything more, and soon her fingers hooked into the grooves in the peel. It slid off with a quick dig of her nails, revealing the brilliant green fruit underneath. Rey grinned, and the corners of Ben’s eyes softened. 

Poe wondered if Ben knew he was being obvious, or if he even cared. He seemed pretty willing to throw his life away on some half-baked mission to kill Snoke, so maybe he thought he was just entitled to toy with Rey for now. 

“You’re glaring.” Han’s voice murmured lowly, to his left. “Ease up, kid.” 

Poe bit down harshly on the inside of his mouth. Dad was right. Of course he was. But Poe was almost missing the time before Han had shown up. Poe didn’t have to be the bigger man with their father out of sight. 

A loud, crowing voice broke through his thoughts, instantly drawing everyone’s attention. Rey quickly stuffed the last of the fruit into her mouth, wiping brilliant green juice from her lips. 

“Han Solo!” 

Maz hobbled over to the table, plopping down in her chair with all the self-importance of a queen (albeit, a very small one). Han blinked a second longer than usual, before Poe saw him affix his classic “charming smuggler” look. “Hello, Maz.” 

“A map to Skywalker, that’s what you said last night, yes?” She chuckled. There was no reaction to the smile, no dancing around with niceties. “You’re right back in the action, aren’t you? I should have known you’d still be scheming, even away from your wife’s side.” 

Han lips flickered into the beginnings of a grimace, glancing around to see if anyone was within earshot. “Maz, please. We need to get this map to Leia, but things are too complicated for me to go myself. The First Order has been at our heels, and if we lead them right to her--” 

“You’re trying to keep her safe.” Maz cut him off in an even tone. “Doing your husbandly duties, as it were.”

Han’s shoulders slumped in relief. “Yes, exactly.” 

“In that case,” Maz said primly. “No.” 

Poe leaned forward, brow creasing. “I don’t think you understand what we’re dealing with here! If we don’t get the map to Uncle Luke, then--” 

“You’ve grown in everything but sense, boy.” Maz rumbled, shaking her wide head. “Now will you keep running your mouth, or listen?” 

I can do both. Poe bit back the sarcastic words. Getting into a verbal sparring match with Maz wouldn’t help their cause. And…as much as he hated to admit it, she’d probably win. 

Poe shut his mouth, leaned back, and gave her a small nod. 

Maz took a sip of her drink, tapping the side in thought before setting it down. “Ben Solo.” she said finally. “Why has your father let a Sith join my table?” 

Ben looked up, but his eyes held that slight, dark sheen, distance stretching between his eyes and his mind. “I was knocked unconscious,” he said finally. “And brought aboard their vessel.” 

Maz huffed, placing her hands onto the table with a weight that even made Han ease further back into his chair. “I’ll only ask once more, boy, and even that is out of kindness to your father. Why are you here, instead of heeling at your master’s feet?” 

Ben’s eyes flickered to the nearby tables, but luckily for him, it seemed few were familiar with the face beneath Kylo Ren’s mask. “I’m going to kill Snoke.” he said finally. “My father has insisted on joining me. Likely out of some sense of familial loyalty, but you’d have to ask him to be certain.” 

Maz hummed. “That is his goal. What is yours?” 

Ben sighed sharply, sitting up enough to finally meet her eyes. “I said that already. I’m going to kill--” 

“To what end, child?!” Maz snapped. “ Kylo Ren is not renowned throughout the galaxy for his acts of altruism, and you wouldn’t be skulking at my table if you dreamt of conquest.” 

Ben remained silent, and Maz shook her head. “You and your father, just the same as always.” 

He visibly bristled, mouth opening to snap back at her, and for one Poe agreed. Ben wasn’t like Dad, and if Maz saw any of the clever, kind, gentle man that Han was in Ben, she was deluding herself. 

Maz didn’t hesitate even a moment, turning on Han. “And so, my answer remains the same. You are letting your fear drive you.” her eyes swept the table, landing on each of them individually, before finally settling on Finn. “And that only leads to darkness.” 

Finn bristled, but his jaw wound tight. Poe wondered what problem Maz had with Finn specifically, he hadn’t even spoken to her, and he especially didn’t like how her eyes had landed on Rey. 

Maz turned her attention, once again, to Han. “Enough running from Leia. She is a General, a princess, a Jedi. Vader’s fear of losing those he loved tore this galaxy to pieces, and I won’t watch you make the same errors! I will offer you an unmarked ship, a path to her. But there is no escape from your fear until you bring your family together to work this all out.” 

Her eyes shifted to Ben. “If you are genuine in your concern for this galaxy, you’ll stop running from those you’re afraid of!” 

Silence spread across the table, cool and thick. Ben’s eyes widened, and Poe saw every barrier holding his words back shatter in an instant. 

“ Run from them? Do you think I’ve had the luxury of running?!” His voice was a cold, low hiss but it grew as he worked himself up, practically spitting his words.. “I’ve spent my life with Snoke’s claws digging into my mind. Never a thought, an emotion, a single second of myself that was free from his reach. He’s been choking me with fear since I was a boy. There was no escape. No other way to live but to rip apart my mind with the darkness until it was torn enough to hide what little of my family I had left in the scar tissue. You know nothing about me.” 

Maz’s eyes didn’t narrow, and she didn’t so much as flinch from the onslaught of words. “I didn’t mean Snoke, as cruel and twisted as he is. I meant your mother, and your uncle.” 

Ben’s eyes flashed. “Afraid of them?” he scoffed. “I’ve given everything to protect them!” 

That word struck Poe, harder than any blow Kylo Ren had struck him with, more shameful and searing than the mind probe. 

He shot to his feet, face flaming. The bowl of fruit rattled and shoot until it nearly spilled over, only Rey’s startled gasp and hand preventing it. 

“Protect?!” He snapped. “Is that what you’ve been doing? Capturing me and torturing me, destroying that entire village, every other slaughter you’ve done in the name of the First Order, that’s protecting Mom and Uncle Luke?!” 

Maz continued as if he hadn’t spoken, as if his enraged shout hadn’t drawn the attention of nearly every table in the vicinity. She didn’t even look at Poe, everything was about Ben, wasn’t it?

 “You don’t see them as they are, Ben.” she said sharply. “You’ve drugged your mind with fear and anger, drunk on the poison Snoke’s fed you. To you, they’re vengeful and weak. If you were in any kind of right mind, you’d know they are neither.” 

“All I have left is them!” Ben’s jaw was wound to snap, gripping onto the table with white knuckles. “The only thing left to do is save my family!” 

“Save us?!” Everything was on fire, the fire in Poe’s gut and the sweat soaking his clenched fists and the tears he’d been choking back for days, spilling down his face. He stormed down the table, for once being the one to stand above him. “You broke us! You tore Dad away from Mom, you made Luke so ashamed he couldn’t stand to be in our family anymore, and while you’ve been off slaughtering our allies, our friends, I’ve been the one who had to step up for you! I’ve been the son they can be proud of, except every time they see me, they’re mourning the fact you’re gone! This is all your fault!” 

Ben rose slowly from his seat. “I know. That’s why it’s mine to fix.” 

Poe punched him in the jaw. 

Ben’s head reeled back from the blow, a sharp hiss spitting from his mouth. Crimson dripped onto the table, until he slowly brought his sleeve up to wipe across his mouth. 

Rage spun in Poe’s head, choking out any hope for coherent words. All he could do was glare, and hate himself for thinking Ben had any sense left in him at all. 

Ben’s jaw flexed, and he finally looked down at Han. 

Their father’s face was ashen and pale, and for once, Han Solo didn’t have a single thing to say. 

“When this is over,” Ben’s voice was low with gravel, and had the cantina not fallen silent, his words would have been swallowed up. “Tell Mama I did it for myself. All of it, I was being selfish and cruel. Promise me, promise me you’ll tell her.” 

Han’s eyes were set as stone. “I don’t lie to your mother, Ben.” 

Ben took a single, shuddering breath. And with a blur of darkness Poe could barely track, he bolted out of the door. 

Poe was running before he could draw another breath. 

He shoved through the tables, the patrons scattering from his path. He burst out of the door, the sun instantly searing into his eyes. 

Delicate fabric flags spun in the wind, and a few scattered traders dotted the square. Beyond the plaza, the woods stretched dark and deep. 

Ben was gone. Again. 

The rage and the pain and the loss welled up in his chest, and the tears he’d been choking back since Jakku rose to choke him. 

Poe fell to the pavestones and wept. 

Chapter Text

A brittle, wry laugh broke the trance Finn had fallen into. 

“Well,” Maz Kanata said with a satisfied sort of smugness. “That certainly could have gone better.” 

Finn couldn’t even point out the understatement. He thought he knew all that words could do. His commanders barked out horrific orders with the bitterness of frost on flesh. They were horrible, they were cruel, but they weren’t like this . He didn’t know words could rage and burn, as destructive as sheets of rain and wind. He felt as if he’d witnessed some force of nature, and barely escaped to stumble out the other side. The worst part was, he wasn’t sure who’s ferocity had shaken him more; Kylo Ren’s, or Poe’s. 

“Why did you do that?” Rey’s voice was so steady, unmoved, that Finn wondered if displays like that were commonplace on Jakku. 

“I needed to see how bad it had gotten.” Maz sighed. “The boy isn’t as far gone to the darkness as I’d feared. But the Dark Side manifests in all manner of selfishness, even when one pretends for themselves it’s protective instinct.” 

Rey was quiet for a long moment. She’d picked and shredded at the peel from her fruit, now laying in tattered pieces in front of her. She took one in her hand, running her finger along the brilliant green fiber. 

“We’re connected, he and I.” she said finally. “Does that…” Her thumb sunk in, nectar rising up into her nail bed. “Am I the same way?” 

“Mmmm…” Maz took Rey’s free hand in her own, tracing her fingers over her palm, her wrist. Finn bit back a protest. If Rey didn’t want this strange woman touching her, she wouldn’t allow it. Still…as much as he’d tried to stay away from the Force, it seemed that Rey was all too willing to sprint towards it. 

“Bonds in the Force aren’t…uncommon.” she said finally. Her gnarled thumb rested over the soft white of Rey’s inner wrist, pressing lightly on her pulse point. “But this is something deeper. I cannot command the Force to my will, but it whispers in my mind, loud and intangible as the wind. Between you and that man, it is a maelstrom.” 

Rey’s eyes widened. Her freckles stood out like a smatter of constellations against her paling face. “But does that mean--” 

“Our connections are not who we are.” Maz’s voice was softer than Finn had ever heard it. “They can influence us, of course. Pull us this way and that, towards hardship or peace, to the light or the darkness. But no, Rey. His actions are his own. Do not concern yourself with them. And most of all, if you do not wish to be tethered to this man…” her eyes softened. “Connections can be severed.” 

Rey nodded quietly, and Finn spoke up. “How? If we can get her free of Kylo Ren--” 

“That is something she can discover for herself.” Maz assured. “And a decision she needs to make for herself.” 

Finn bit down on the inside of his mouth. This was his first time speaking to someone who had the Force who wasn’t Kylo Ren, and he wondered if all Force users were this annoyingly cryptic with their answers. 

“We’ve run out of time for their family squabbles.” she said with a slight sigh. “But it’s worse than I thought. I’d hoped to foster some kind of connection, but I am no Leia. Foolish, foolish man, that Han.” she laughed roughly, shaking her head. “What did he think, bringing them to me, when he has the strongest woman in the galaxy by his side, if he’d only let her? Even so…he’s gone beyond where family can reach him, for now anyways. There needs to be a bridge, and I’m afraid I’m too blunt of one.” 

“What will happen if they can’t?” Rey said quietly. “Bridge the gap, I mean?” 

Maz shook her head. “Only three in their family hold the Skywalker blood, but strength reaches far deeper than blood. They are a force to be reckoned with because of their will, their refusal to stand by when there is something to be done. Together, they could end this war. Keeping them divided is the best chance Snoke has of winning this fight. But I'm afraid Snoke has driven Ben to a place where his family can no longer reach him.”

“What fight? ” Finn said sharply. “What is all of this about , and why do you care so much? What does it matter who wins, if the same Force is ruling over all of it anyways?!” 

Maz lifted her head, eyes zoning in on him. For the first time since he sat at that table, he had her undivided attention, like a bug under an examiner’s scope. 

“You have been lied to.” she said quietly. “Made to fear the power in your hands enough to never wield it. Snoke is as clever as he is cruel, and he has planted seeds of fear in your heart, to choke out any roots of resistance that may rise in you.” 

Finn’s mouth tightened. “You don’t--” 

Maz clambered onto the table, shoving the bowl of fruit aside with a wobble. She lurched towards Finn. He jerked back in his seat, but there was no escaping from her gaze. Her eyes filled his vision; vast and watery and deep, deep, brown. 

“When you live as long as I have, you see the same eyes in different people.” she mused quietly. “Right now, I’m looking at the eyes of someone who wants to run.” 

Finn managed to grasp his breath, enough to keep her gaze and bite out; “There’s nothing wrong with running from a monster too big to face.” 

Maz hummed, her large, glistening eyes never moving from Finn’s face. “Of course not. Until that monster gluts itself on your fear, devouring the land beneath your feet until there’s nowhere to left to run.” 

She held his gaze for what felt like minutes, before lowering back into her chair. “And you can never truly run when your heart longs for the opposite. The ones you left behind. The ones still here. And the ones you failed to protect.” 

Finn opened his mouth to protest, but Maz didn’t give him an inch of ground. “Continue on this path of fear, and you will end up in the same twisted maze as Ben Solo.”

Chills broke out on Finn’s arms. He nearly had, if Kylo was to be believed. Almost one of those masked, faceless creatures lurking under Snoke’s command. 

“Now!” Maz’s voice was suddenly filled with brightness. “You'd better go find your friend. She has a head start on you, after all.”

Finn jolted, instantly looking to his left. Rey’s seat was empty.  

“When did she leave?!” Finn could have kicked himself. He was being sloppy, careless . What had happened to the trooper who everyone trusted to take night watch, the fighter who’d always watched 003's back? 

Maz leaned back in her chair, starting on the peel of one of those brilliant green fruits. “Right around the time I said family couldn't get through to him.” 

Finn's teeth set, barely parting to spit out the words. “And you didn't stop her?” 

Maz let out a cackling laugh. “Stop her? Boy, I'm 1,046 years old and half her size. What did you want me to do, tackle her?”

Finn growled in irritation, shoving himself to his feet. Worry churned in his gut. She could be anywhere, he knew that. But with just as much certainly he knew she wasn’t just anywhere. She’d gone after Kylo Ren. 

Finn tried to weave his way through the tables, but the stunned silence from earlier had dissipated. Chairs were pushed out and in his path. A waiter whisked by, nearly spilling a drink on his new shirt. Finn stumbled back against a wall, searching for a path between the chaos. 

“Twone.” 

Lightning shot up Finn’s spine. 

Their official “names” were always too long for casual use. So within troops, nicknames were used. FN-2187, before he was Finn, was Twone. But that was just it, between troops. They were discouraged by higher-ups. 

It would be enough just hearing the nickname. It would mean that a member of the FN squadron was here. But the voice, as familiar as his own, sent that crackling spike up his back. 

“003?” Finn’s voice was barely a whisper, nearly too quiet for his own ears over the cacophony of noise. 

The doors were closed, no windows were open, and yet, the cool touch of wind pressed against Finn’s face. 

“Brother,” the voice was coming from behind him, and now so distinctive, completely unmistakable. 

Finn whirled around. To his left, a small hallway curved down, a yawning dark doorway and stairs. 

003 is down there. 

Finn didn’t let himself consider how he knew that. He knew exactly how, but he couldn’t dwell on it, couldn’t linger, he just had to act. 

Finn stumbled down the hall, picked his way down the stairs, blinking at the sudden cool dimness that filled the space. 003 wasn’t in sight, but he’d heard his voice, he knew he had to be here. Finn pressed forward. 

There was something in the room. Presence wrapped and filled the space. Quiet. Watching. Waiting. It wasn’t 003, but it was… it was both. It was neither. Like light filtering through a lens, or a drop of rain in an ocean, Finn could feel his brother, just as much as he could everything around and within him. 

“Twone. Finn. ” 

The voice was clearer now, but with it came the crushing realization. He’d called him Finn. 

“You’re not really here.” Finn’s voice cracked, throat tightening harshly. “You’re not--you aren’t still--”

“Wherever you are, I am.” 003’s voice thickened and widened, as if his voice had multiplied into hundreds, a chorus of reassurance that made relief and terror battle in his chest. “And wherever we are, so is the Force.” 

“We didn’t want it.” Finn spat out. That resentment, that anger roiling in his gut finally caught up, breaking off every corner of his words. “We didn’t want the Force! And it came anyway, infecting us like a disease, putting us in danger! It’s the reason Snoke attacked our village! It’s the reason we could have been Knights of Ren, and when it really mattered, it abandoned you! You’re dead, and the Force did nothing to stop it!” 

Hot tears were streaking down his face. “Maz, Han, Ben, and now you, you want me to believe there’s a Light? Not just that choking darkness that surrounded us every day of our lives?! Then where was it?!” 

The last syllable had barely left his mouth. Color exploded into Finn’s mind, a memory so vivid and sharp he could taste the dirt on his tongue, feel the press of his shattered armor against his back. He’d gone down, been dragged into the brush to escape the enemy forces. The Resistance had taken the battlefront, racing through the woods outside the base. 003’s arms wrapped around him, pressing him down into the dirt as the explosions and screams pierced his head. 

Heavy boots slammed the dirt inches from his face, the well-worn boots of some Resistance soldier moving up his troops. 

The Force, quiet and still, wrapped around them both. 

The man didn’t look down. 

The image stilled, keeping Finn transfixed in that singular moment, trapped between life and death. 

“It kept us safe.” 003’s voice said quietly. “But how could it fight against itself? How could the Light lend us its strength when we stood against everything it fights for? We were showered with mercy, Twone, every day we spent under the First Order. Every time we went to battle, we fought against it. And it still didn’t leave us.” 

“We didn’t have a choice.” Finn bit out. “We didn’t--” 

“And now we do. Now you do.” 

Finn stared out from the echo of his eyes, the flashes of blood-streamed white between the trees. He did. But the rest of the FN troop--no, the rest of the army of the First Order didn’t. 

The memory faded. 

Standing in front of him, in that dark, chill basement, 003 stood. His feet misted just above the ground, his silhouette flickering with blue light. His armor was gone, and he was dressed the same way as Finn; comfortable, warm-toned clothes that they never could have dreamed to wear before. 

“And now, it’s allowing me to stay by your side,” he said softly. “I’m the Light’s ambassador to you.” 

He stepped forward, moving to press his forehead to Finn’s. The only affectionate gesture they could regularly perform, with their entire bodies encased in cold shells of white. There was no contact of skin, no warmth from his ghostly form, but his presence swelled around Finn, like sinking into the depths of warm water. 

“The Light and I are speaking as one.” he murmured. “I am with you always, till the end of the ages.” 

Tears spilled down Finn’s face, dripping through the shimmering form of his friend, his brother. He was here, but he wasn’t. He was gone, but he wasn’t. 

Finn drew in a shaking breath, pulling back to look into 003’s eyes. They were that rich green that all the girls in the squadrons had teased or cooed over, brilliant as the trees surrounding this quiet place. 

“Thank you,” he whispered. 

And then, before Finn could even blink, 003 vanished. The presence faded, but didn’t dissipate. It intensified, pulled, as Finn’s attention fell on a chest at the center of the room. 

He thought his legs would shake as he crossed the room to it. They remained steady under him, as solid as the stone floor. 

The lid creaked softly as he opened it, as if the hinges hadn’t been moved in decades. 

Sitting on a small pile of books was a shining silver cylinder, dotted with black raised designs and a few buttons. 

Finn had only seen a lightsaber thrice before, but he wasn’t quick to forget what they looked like. This wasn’t the cold black durasteel of Zyth’s weapon, nor did it bear the distinctive cross-hilt of Kylo Ren’s. 

Finn’s hand closed around the hilt. 

He’d expected…something. A burst of vision like he had with 003, a looming feeling of dread or pain, a sudden surge of power. 

But all Finn felt was certainty at how wrong he’d truly been. 

The Force swelled around him. There was Light. It was as obvious as pointing out the sun, or as striking as if the world had gone from grayscale to brilliant color. He had no idea how easily he’d ignored it until now. 

Now that he had, there was no ignoring it. Finn breathed, and the Light swelled to fill him. 

And for a long moment, that’s all there was; Light, surrounding him with a joy and a pride that was all its own. 

As easily as he’d seen the Light, truly seen it, darkness slammed into him with the force of a tsunami. 

Finn gasped, gripping onto the saber, but blackness coated every corner of his vision. The basement was swallowed up, every light source extinguished under the crushing pressure of cruelty and hate and…evil. This was evil. 

Screamed echoed from upstairs, and Finn’s eyes widened. 

It’s not just me. What’s going on?! 

Stumbling back to the stairs was like swimming through ink. His entire body felt dragged down by the weight of it, every muscle straining. 

He pulled himself up the stairs, just in time for Maz Kanata’s voice to cut through the cacophony. “Everyone!” She snapped. “Stay calm! Keep your weapons close, but don’t you dare discharge or we’ll end up killing each other!” 

The room fell silent, broken only by ragged gasps and the scrambling of hands to blasters. Still, everyone held. 

Finn stood, frozen in fear. Every muscle in his body screamed for him to run, to tear away from this clinging darkness that threatened to swallow him whole. 

His fingers tightened around the lightsaber, brushing against the side. 

Brilliant blue tore through the night, ripping a gasp from his throat. He hadn’t even meant to ignite the saber, but now that he had, its light flooded the room. Dozens of eyes shot towards him, jaws nearly hitting the floor. 

It was as if someone had lifted a mountain from his shoulders, all from the touch of that brilliant blue beam. 

“You’ll make a fine Jedi someday.” Maz Kanata cut through the stunned silence. “Seeing as you don’t know how to follow an order to save your life.” 

Finn’s eyes shot to her. She stood on her table, hands clenched to tiny fists at her side. “Find her,” Maz said. “She needs you. We all do.” 

There were too many questions flying through his mind, all swarming around that single word, Jedi. Finn shoved them all aside.

The Force pulled at him, pointing towards that single other pinprick of light in the clinging darkness, one that burned with the warmth of the desert sun.

Chapter Text

Forty Minutes Before the Darkness 

Boots scuffed pavestones. A familiar rhythm, one that brought relief aching through Poe’s chest, even as the sobs wound it tighter and tighter. 

If anyone can get through to him, Dad can. He doesn’t give up on people, and he won’t give up on Ben, even if I do, and--

There was a familiar groan that spoke of old, tired knees. 

And Poe was pulled into his father’s side. 

The scent of leather and mahogany hit his nose; Han hadn’t changed colognes in years. The same scent of being pulled up onto shoulders, carried home in a sleepy daze, since he’d hidden there at Daddy’s funeral, as if the linen of Han’s shirt could swallow up the rest of the world. 

It was the first time he remembered Uncle Luke really looking like a Jedi, standing in front of  that pyre with a look in his eyes that was both somber and wise, his words sounding as old as Yavin’s earth below their feet. 

“ There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends,” Luke had said. “And no greater trust than Kes Dameron had, to leave his wife and son in the hands of those he knew would love them richly, fully and well.” 

Poe clenched his fist into Han’s shirt. The palm still stung from the slap. 

He wondered how much of Luke’s speech Ben had retained. How much he’d let shape his heart and his mind until he was convinced this was the only way forward. 

That’s not the kind of love I want from you. 

But had his actions ever told him that? Had he ever, in good faith, tried to reach out to Ben, without a thick protective layer of sarcasm and sharpness…or worse, outright anger? 

He wondered why, sitting here, finally with his Dad again, all he could think about was a funeral. 

“You should go after him.” Poe barely recognized his own voice, leathered with exhaustion and pain and too many layers of tears. 

Han’s arm pulled him tighter, pressing his chin into the top of Poe’s head like he was a child. “I’m exactly where I need to be,” he said. 

Poe wrapped his arms around Han, finally letting himself pull close. But with that had to be the admission, had to be some responsibility for what he’d done.“I failed you.” 

“I’ve already got one of my sons talking nonsense.” Han’s hand came up, ruffling Poe’s curls. “I won’t have you starting with me, too.” 

Poe shook his head. “But--” 

“Poe.” And at that, Han did pull away, just enough. Just enough for Poe to really see him. He wiped at his face with the back of his hand, trying to clear it but just making a bigger mess. 

“Listen to me.” Han’s voice was gentle, and Poe felt five years old again, being soothed from a nightmare, and led back to bed. “I am sorry.” 

Poe’s protest was immediate. “You don’t need to apo--” 

“I do.” Han said firmly.

His hands gripped Poe’s shoulders, and those steel blue eyes were as serious and steady as rainfall. 

“I left you and Leia, and Shara, all to chase after Ben. It was the right call to make. But I only talked to Leia. I should have talked to your mother too, and to you,” Han shook his head. “I didn’t. I wasn’t there when Shara died, and I should have been. I wasn’t there for you when you lost another parent, and I should have known you’d take the weight of Leia, and Ben, and the entire Resistance. You’d put the weight of the galaxy on your shoulders if it would fit. I’ve always admired your love for people. It comes so easily, kid. A few days with Rey and Finn, and you’re becoming a leader they can be proud of and rely on.” 

Poe’s chest swelled, filling to nearly shatter. His throat tightened, cutting off anything he could have said as Han continued. 

“But you need to know that it isn’t a weight I ever meant to rest on your heart. I should have come back. I was scared if I did, I wouldn’t be able to leave again. But that’s not what’s important. You don’t…” 

He shook his head. “You don’t hide with excuses like that. If something scares you, you get stronger until it doesn’t. Or you find the kind of people who take that fear away. And I know your mother would have gotten me back out into the galaxy, after him. So I have no excuse. All I have is an apology. I never should have let you shoulder that pain, Poe. I never blamed you for Ben. Neither did Leia, neither did Shara, and if Kes had been alive, he wouldn’t have either. I am so proud of you, and everything you’ve done. I love you. And if the galaxy burns tomorrow, if we lose everything we ever fought for, I’ll at least thank the Force I could have spent this last day with my sons.” 

The dam broke. Poe broke out into sobs, unstifled this time. Han let him, rubbing his shoulder and being present, solid, and warm. 

When it all subsided, Poe lifted his hands to his face, looking for anything to clean away the snot and tears. Han searched through his pockets, only coming up with a tiny, crinkled napkin from a fast food stop. 

“I wish your mother were here.” Han grumbled. 

It pulled a halting, but genuine laugh from Poe. “She’d have real tissues.” he bemoaned, wiping the little piece of paper across his nose and mouth. 

“Forget that, she’d have cosmetic wipes that would get rid of your dark circles and reduce your pores or something.” Han huffed out a laugh, searching every pocket for something more. 

“And then, she’d tell us to get off the steps, stop pouting and get to work.” Poe added. With a wince, he had to resort to his sleeves for the tears. 

“Not before giving us a hug and a kiss, and telling us we’d fix it.” Han shook his head. He lifted his chin, gazing up at the clear blue shell of the sky. “Maz was right about one thing. Leia needs to be here. Ben won’t be able to grab a transport off planet anywhere but here. If we play our cards right, she might be able to be here before he tries to leave.” 

Poe got to his feet. He’d expected to stumble, from all of the tears and agonizing guilt burned away by stark relief, but his shoes remained steady on the paving stones. He held out a hand to Han, who gratefully accepted. “Maz was right about a lot of things.” Poe admitted with no small amount of begrudging. “But never tell her I said that, her ego’s too big to even fit in that head.” 

“She doesn’t need me to,” Han huffed. “She already knows. Which is why we need Leia here. I’ve never seen someone who can match Maz’s words except your mother.” 

Leia being here…that decision alone made the sun shine brighter. He’d been the one to wrangle the others so far; keeping Ben from self-destructing on a hair trigger, trying to coax Rey out of her sand-hardened shell and Finn from his tense suspicions. Han had helped in more ways than Poe could count, but Leia was a different matter. 

She exuded control, the kind that made the world seem to click back into place around her. She’d sort all of this out. 

In a selfish way too, he wanted her to be there so she could hug him, reach up to ruffle his hair and tell him what an idiot he’d been in a voice warmed with rasp and affection. He thought Rey could use one of those hugs too, honestly. Finn, if he’d let him.

“I’ll stay here while you make the call.” Poe offered. “Keep an eye on the shipyard to make sure Ben doesn’t try to sneak off with one.” 

Han frowned, but eventually nodded. “I won’t be long.” 

He stepped from Poe, a single tap of his boot against the paving stone. 

His vision was snatched away. 

The sky was swallowed in black, the sun going dark and everything spinning into void. Poe’s eyes widened, but there was no light for that expanding pupil to catch, no escape from the dark swelling in. 

“Han!” 

He lunged forward, grabbing his father’s arm. It was warm, solid underneath his hand. Poe whipped his head around, searching for anything. 

The birds and insects had gone completely quiet. The usual flutter of the colorful flags and banners had ceased, the air dead and still. The only sound were screams; terrified echoes from around the plaza and inside the building. 

“What’s happening?!” he gasped out to Han. Han’s hand tightened on his own, but his bewildered silence was all that met Poe’s ears. Far off, he heard the distant, panicked roar of Chewbacca, the wail of BB-8’s fear. 

But he didn’t dare move a step. The black was thick and cloying, as if he’d been submerged in swamp mud up above his head. It pulled at him, crooning at him to sink to the ground and give in, let the darkness numb and chill his flesh.

Pure blue cut through the shadows. A single, brilliant beam of light. 

Poe’s eyes widened. It was the same shade as Mom’s! But Leia couldn’t be here, there was no way! 

Before Poe could reach out or even speak, that beam flew past him, through the darkness, to where Poe guessed the woods were. 

Han’s hand loosed. “Follow that Jedi!” he called. “I’ll find Maz, we’ll make sense of this!” 

Poe had always lied as a child, when asked about the Force. Dozens of times, Ben had asked him if he wanted it, if he was ever jealous of the ability to reach out and brush against the world around him in a deeper, richer sense. 

Poe had said “of course not.” 

You didn’t admit those sorts of things to your brother. 

He didn’t have any way to lie to even himself, here. He’d have given up his credits, his ship, the jacket off his back for a single moment with the Force. 

Just long enough to know, as he sprinted after that beam, if Uncle Luke really was running through those trees ahead of him. 

Chapter Text

Thirty minutes Before The Darkness

Rey thought the forest wouldn’t be too hard to navigate. 

Jakku’s desert had a wide, open line of sight, but she’d spent most of her time in shipwrecks, where sharp angles and clustered wreckage obscured her vision at every angle. The floor has been covered in debris, uneven in places where it slanted down. 

But after several minutes, Rey had to admit that this was completely different. The trees blocked her path, but they also shifted in the wind, hundreds of thousands of tiny leaves flickering and drawing her eye. The ground underfoot was uneven, but this time it was thick with roots and shifting dirt, not the steady pattern of dust and metal scrap that shifted under her boots. 

More importantly, Rey couldn’t rely on her gut, as she always had. In the wreckage, there had always been a slight tug in the back of her head, warning her of a too-thin foothold or a desert creature nesting nearby. That tug in her mind was still there, but it seemed to come from every direction. 

Birds swarmed the trees, plumage as brightly colored as a rich lady’s dress, and little bugs and furry creatures scampered through the underbrush. Each one of them set off that soft ping in her mind. She’d never been surrounded with so much life. It was beautiful, it was fascinating, and it was deeply frustrating. In that clamor of information, she couldn’t find Ben at all. 

Family can’t reach him. 

Maz's words still set her teeth to edge. Rey didn’t know what she was to Ben, but it certainly wasn’t family. She didn’t hold the tempered pain in her heart that nearly glowed in Poe or Han’s eyes, or the guarded sharpness of Finn’s pain. 

A foolish, naive part of her wanted to even say she was his friend. But Rey didn’t have friends. Or at least…she hadn’t. If she didn't know what she was to Ben, she certainly didn't know what she was to the others. Poe spoke to everyone from Imperial officers to his own father with the same cheerful farmiliarity, and Finn...

Well. Finn was leaving them anyways. So it really didn't matter what he saw her as, did it?

With a frustrated shake of her head, Rey shoved the thoughts aside. It didn’t matter what Ben was, she just needed to find him. 

Reaching into her mind, Rey took hold of that shimmering golden thread that bound them. As she brushed against it, Maz’s words rang in her ears. She’d called the connection between Rey and Ben “a maelstrom.” 

But as knowledgeable as Maz had seemed, Rey couldn’t see it as that. Because it was only a moment, only a slight hesitation before Ben’s presence was touching her mind. Gentle. Careful. A greeting, and an invitation. 

In the place where Rey’s soul met her eyes, that golden thread stretched out into the trees. Rey took a deep breath, and she followed it. 

Ben was sitting beneath a tree, eyes fixed on a pair of bright red birds that squabbled amongst the branches. His black clothes stood out starkly against the warm browns and greens of the forest, softened only by the sunlight dappling across the fabric. He didn’t look over as Rey approached, but he withdrew softly from the connection. 

“Is it just you?” he asked finally. 

Rey tilted her head, approaching slowly to sit next to the tree beside his. “Couldn’t you tell if it wasn't?” 

He shrugged slightly. “Aren’t you forgetting we have a Force cloaker? Finn’s good enough to keep us both hidden from Snoke.” 

Rey shook her head. “Just me,” she confirmed. “Finn was still talking to Maz when I left.” 

“And considering I’m not getting yelled at or punched,” Ben mused. “I take it Poe and my--and Han were left behind as well.” 

Rey tried to bite back the irritation that roiled in her stomach at that. “Why do you do that?” she asked as plainly as she could. 

She must not have done too good a job at masking her emotions, because Ben’s eyebrow raised. One of the birds above them flashed it’s wings out, fluffing it’s feathers to frighten the other. “Do what? Argue with my--with Poe?” 

“ That. ” Rey sat forward, sliding her staff into her lap to drum along the side of it. “You keep yourself from calling them what they are. Your brother. Your mother, and father. That doesn’t make them any less your family, regardless of what they’ve done.” 

“Rey.” 

Her name, spoken so softly, made her look to him. His eyes were finally fixed on hers. The sunlight lifted hues from the dark iris; shades of brown as rich as the wood and deep as the soil beneath them. He looked, suddenly, much more in place than he did mere minutes ago; something natural and breathing among the trees. 

“If you understand anything,” he said “Understand this. It isn’t about what they did. It’s about what I did. I hope, one day, I can earn back the right to call them my family.” 

Rey’s lips pressed together. “I think you’re spoiled.” she said finally. 

Ben let out a sharp huff of breath, and Rey couldn't tell if it was surprise or irritation. Likely both. "Spoiled?” 

“Maybe. Or maybe I’m just jealous.” Rey’s words rang petty in her own ears, but unlike Poe, she was being honest about her own bias. “Love is cheap. Anyone can love someone else. But to fight tooth and nail to help you? To be at your side? It’s…a different kind of love. It’s rare. Precious. Most people would kill to have love like that.” She slotted her fingers into the notches of her staff, shifting and clicking the mechanics. 

“That isn’t love.” Ben’s voice was soft, but it instantly brought a fight to Rey’s lips. He saw the anger flaring up, and raised his hands passively. “Cheap, I mean. It can’t be. That isn’t love then, it’s…comfort, I suppose. Pleasure, entertainment. You can feel all of those things with people you aren’t attached to. But love is what keeps your heart tethered to theirs, regardless of if either of you deserve it.” 

Rey stared, fixed, at the ground. There had been affection there. Comfort, as her mother held her close as a doll and just as carelessly. Her father had chuckled at her little jokes, before his eyes had wandered back to his work, or worse, his drink. They'd enjoyed her. It had been enough, until the day they hadn't.

“You missed your calling as a poet.” She said finally. 

Ben actually laughed at that, and with a start, Rey realized it was the first time she’d heard the sound from his lips. “Did I now? I think you missed yours as a carpenter.” 

She tilted her head, and he clarified; “Someone who works with wood. To build things, like tables and chairs.” 

Using wood to build that sort of thing seemed frivolous to Rey; a waste of a good, rare resource (though she supposed on planets like there, where the trees seemed as numerous as Jakku’s sands, that was more understandable). 

“Why do you say that?” 

Ben flicked the edge of her staff with his finger. “You’re talented at slamming things into place.” he smirked. 

Rey’s jaw dropped, an indignant squeak falling out before she snapped it shut. “Are you ever going to let that go?” she complained, scuffing a quick line through the dirt with her boot. 

Ben hummed, a low, amused sound. “I think I’m the one who gets to decide that, right? It was my head.” 

Rey huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. “You’re dodging my point.” 

Ben shrugged. “You let me.” 

He tilted his head back. The sunlight dappled in an endlessly shifting pattern, deepening shadow, feather-soft light, blending together in a tapestry over his features. “It’s more complicated than just letting them in,” he admitted. “You know that Snoke has a tether to my mind, correct?” 

At her nod, he continued. “It’s more than a tether, deeper than what you and I have established. My mind is his.” he explained. “Every memory, every thought, every impulse, it’s laid out to him as clearly as a map.” 

Rey blinked. “But…you said you wanted to kill him. That you’d been planning to…does he know?” 

Ben shook his head. “If he did, I’d be dead.” he said plainly. “Rey…if you were to be attacked, with no warning, what would your first thought be?” 

Rey paused for a moment, tapping her fingers along her staff. “I don’t…think, really. There isn’t time, I just react.” 

Ben nodded. “Right. And how do you feel? If you were expecting to be safe, maybe even to rest, and all of a sudden, that safety was ripped away from you.” 

“Afraid.” Rey said, then, more honestly. “Angry. If I had spent all day scavenging, only for all my hard work to be stolen, for me to have gotten hurt…” She didn't need to imagine. It had happened more times than she had fingers to count on.

Ben nodded. “Fear. Anger. That is what the mind defaults to when it’s put in danger. Those are the emotions that can cloud the mind from Snoke. There’s little thought behind them, nothing he can read. I’ve trained myself to detect when he sifts through my thoughts, and if I focus on my anger, I can channel it to obscure parts of my mind.” 

His words were carefully measured, but Rey could see the strain pulling at the corners of his eyes. “It sounds tiring.” she said. “To have to hold onto that rage, all of the time.” 

“It is.” he said. “But for Snoke to stay clear of my plans? It’s worth it. Every second, every dreamless night. But it’s why I can’t be honest with all of you about everything. Why I’m only saying this much to you. Poe and Han, the Force isn’t with them, like it is with us. Finn holds potential, but you…” 

His head turned, eyes fully meeting hers for the first time. The sunlight struck through them, warm and full. 

“What you and I have goes deeper than a usual bond. You are strong, Rey. For a moment, I even hoped you could help me. But this isn’t something you’re ready for. I won’t lead you into a fight that could get you killed. Not without training.” 

A frown, frighteningly close to a pout tugged on Rey’s mouth, but she shoved it aside quickly. She wasn’t a child, and she wasn’t about to beg to tag along. 

Instead, she rose to her feet, causing Ben to lean back in surprise. 

“Well, this is the second time you said you’d train me.” she said. “And you’ve done a lot of sleeping, and a lot of arguing, but not even a little training.” She played up her indignant sniff, pleased with the way Ben’s smile slid onto his face, lopsided and genuine. 

“Are you sure you’re not a Corrie?” he got to his feet, dusting off his pants. “You’re acting just like one.” 

Rey rolled her eyes. “Accent or not, Jakku’s sands are as deep as my bones. I’m just expecting you to deliver on your word.” 

Ben dipped his head in resignation. “Then, Rey, what can I teach you?” 

Rey opened her mouth, then slowly closed it again. What could he teach her? What couldn’t he? Every incredible ability from those Jedi serials crowded through her brain, each clamoring for her attention first. 

“A mind trick!” she blurted out. “Where you can make someone do something…even if they normally wouldn’t.” 

Ben’s lips twitched. “Alright. That means I’ll have to do it on you, though.” 

Rey’s eyes widened, but she nodded. She supposed Ben couldn’t practice on the trees. He approached, standing until they were only a foot apart. His eyes sharpened with concentration, staring deep into hers. Then, lifting his hand, gently shifted his fingers in a wave. 

“You don’t want to keep badgering me about Force lessons,” he murmured. A distinct shiver came over Rey, the Force pulling and tugging at her mind. “You want to go back and listen to Poe spout nonsense all night.” 

Rey’s brow furrowed. “No, I don’t.” she said firmly. 

“My mistake.” Ben said. “A mind trick only works if it’s something you’d survive.” 

Rey blinked, then huffed out a laugh. “That’s mean!” 

He lifted his shoulder in a half-shrug, but he seemed pleased. “You’re only saying that because you’re not the target of his irritation. But no, Rey, that isn’t why it didn’t work. Mind tricks only work on the weak-minded, those who have wills easy to overpower.” 

Rey looked up at him, considering. If the last week had taught her anything, it was that Ben’s will was as immovable as century-buried stone. 

“Maybe we should try something else.” she admitted. 

He hummed in agreement. “Something more physical. When we first connected, you used a feat of telekinesis to protect yourself from falling rubble. So let’s try that again.” 

Rey nodded, then frowned. “You’re going to drop something on me?” 

Ben laughed again. There was a soft crinkle beside his eyes that Rey was beginning to find very endearing. “Not exactly. But the principle is the same.” 

He reached out his hand towards a stone on the ground. Within a blink, it had flown through the air to plop firmly into his palm. “I’m sure you felt it when you stepped in here. Every living thing is surrounded by and exists within the Force. If you learn to claim that energy within you, you can harness those fields of energy to manipulate your environment.” 

Rey blinked. 

Ben winced. “Right. Let me rephrase.” 

He tossed the stone back onto the ground, moving beside Rey and taking her arm in his own. “Stretch out…yes, like that, with your fingers splayed. Good.” 

The woods seemed warmer than a moment ago. It was probably her new clothes. Or the fact she’d just run through the forest. Or any other reasonable explanation, as Ben’s hands gently moved across her arm to position it. 

“You’re not pulling from your own strength,” he explained. “The Force is in you, yes, but it’s outside of you, too. If you rely on only your own strength, you’ll exhaust whatever power reserves you have. Let it help, let it in.” 

Rey nodded, closing her eyes to focus in. Ben’s hand had lingered on her arm, and it was so obviously the source of warmth, the thing shooting flush to her cheeks and chasing every coherent thought from her mind. 

“Can you back up? Just a little?” she asked softly. 

Ben blinked, then looked down at his hand. His lips curled slightly, and he stepped back. “Apologies for the distraction.” 

Rey’s cheeks flushed. “It’s not that!” She protested. “It’s that…you…” 

Ben’s smile had only grown. Rey was struck with the realization that he and Poe really were brothers.

Focus! This is probably the only time you’ll get! 

Rey took a deep breath, letting her mind shift and expand out. The thread to Ben was obvious, easily accessible. She ignored it for now, stretching out further. A dozen pinpricks of energy shifted around her. The plants, stretching up to the sun. The animals, scurrying around her. And finally…the stone. It wasn’t living, not really. But it existed in a place that breathed life. 

She breathed in life. 

“Well,” Ben’s voice was surprised, warm. “That’s a strong start.” 

Rey opened her eyes. The stone had scooched a few inches through the dirt, sitting near her boot. 

“That’s it?!” Rey gave it a half-hearted kick, watching it fly into the brush. 

“It’s why Force sensitives tend to train young.” Ben said. “Honestly, Rey, I started training by sitting next to a stream and meditating for hours, before Luke even let me try that much. It’s impressive. I wish…”

“That you could stay?” Rey didn’t need to brush against the mind link for that. 

He nodded. “I would have liked to see what you could do. You need a teacher, I could have shown you the ways of the Force. But…you deserve someone who can give you everything you need. Right now, my attention is divided. And besides, I haven’t walked with the Light for over a decade.” 

Rey bit down on her lip, stifling her disappointment. “So where will you go?” she asked softly. 

Ben paused. “Back to Snoke. I don’t…” he shook his head. “If it could be different, I’d stay. But every second I stay by your side, by Finn or…” his eyes softened as he looked at her. “Or by my family, I put you all at risk.” 

He’d called them that, either because he didn’t want to handle another squabble or because he was being more genuine with her. But either way…

“You don’t have to carry all of that alone.” she said softly. “At the least…you should say goodbye. Most people don’t get that chance.” 

Rey’s eyes shot to the ground, her cheeks burning. The last words were choked out, forced from a throat tightening with tears. It was embarrassing, really, how often she’d been driven to them over the last several days. His boots came into her vision, just before a hand lighted on her shoulder, as gentle as one of the birds overhead. 

“I will,” he promised. “At the threat of you calling me spoiled again.” 

Rey’s cheeks flushed, a whole different flavor of embarrassment crushing into her. “Well that wasn’t--!” 

Darkness slammed into her vision. 

Rey nearly fell, as if a blow had rained down on her head. But there was no impact, no pain, just a complete lack of sense, as if the world had tipped sideways and pulled her along with it. The birds, just moments ago chirping brightly, dropped into silence. The rustling of the underbrush died.

And the Force, so brilliant and shifting around her, vanished. 

In an instant, Ben’s hand was gone. His feet crushed against the plants, his panting ringing cold and too loudly in the sudden void. 

Rey reached out, trying to close the gap. Panic was ripping at her chest, utter confusion clouding her mind, but she wasn’t alone, not while Ben was here. 

“No,” he whispered. “Not yet. What is he doing?!"

Rey wanted to cry out, to ask what that meant, when a beam of brilliant light split the darkness. From the angle, it seemed that it was being held by a person, almost at the angle that Rey wielded her staff. 

The light splashed up onto a cold metal mask, washing it in deep red. 

“Kylo Ren.” a modulated voice crackled. “Finally, we found you.”

Chapter Text

The darkness rose up around them, vast and dark as the depths of a cruel ocean. Rey’s presence remained a sputtering flame. As if he’d been burned, he snatched his mind away.

He could tell her to run, he could--

Stop thinking about that you idiot! 

But the worry poured into him as he heard her small, terrified pants, the way she whispered “Ben?” so soft, just audible over their force bond. 

Kylo Ren dug his teeth into the inside of his cheek. Flesh shredded under the impact, blood filling his mouth. Anger rose with it. 

Through the roar of the storm, a calm, calculated voice broke, as quickly as her blade had sliced through the darkness. 

“Kylo Ren,” Zyth said. “We finally found you.” 

It felt as if it had been years since he’d seen her, but even in those couple of weeks, her force presence felt different. Harsh and bitter, like dry breath. Her veil was pulled back from her mask, revealing the smooth grooves and depths of its wide eyes. If she were to remove it, Kylo Ren was sure the gaze underneath them would be equally as hollow. 

“Of course it was you,” he said finally. “Finally fulfilling Snoke’s expectations.” 

Zyth’s fingers gripped her saber hilt, just enough to make the beam waver. She never had been good at ignoring barbs. “Oh, but I’m sure he will be even more pleased with you, ” she snapped. “Seeing as I’m sure you’ve fulfilled your mission after all this time. Now.” 

She raised a hand, and a row of stormtroopers stepped from the gloom, smeared with bloody light from the glow of her blade. “We can kill the scavenger who attacked you and be finished with this whole mess. You’ve set our Master’s plans back long enough.” 

The stormtroopers lifted their blasters, and Rey’s fear spiked an arrow to his heart. His need to protect roared, and he squashed it firmly under his feet. 

“Idiot,” he said coldly. “You’re about to set them back indefinitely. The map was destroyed, and she’s all that’s left.” 

“What?” Rey’s voice was thin to the point of snapping, terror rigid in the sound of that single word. 

He turned his head, forcing every hint of warmth from his tone. “Did you think I’d betray my master for your sake alone?” he sneered. “That map in your mind is leagues more valuable than any companionship you could offer.” 

Zyth huffed in annoyance, her mask modulating it into a sharp hiss. “What are you talking about?” Her hand was still raised, still prepared for her soldiers to fire at a moment’s notice. 

Twelve troopers. Ben, without his saber. Rey, with only her staff. 

“The map was destroyed.” he said flatly. “But not before the little scavenger got her paws on it. She found the droid and saw the map for herself. I was working on an extraction plan, but your troops came in and attacked. The map was destroyed in the fight. She’s the only one to have seen it, and our only chance at finding Skywalker. So unless your exemplary abilities have expanded to raising the dead, we need her alive. ” 

Zyth was quiet for a long moment, before lowering her hand. “Fine.” she snapped. The troopers behind her lowered their blasters, and Rey reminded Ben why she’d been so easy to grow attached to. 

She sprinted off into the woods, swallowed instantly by the clinging gloom. 

“Get her!” Zyth snarled. 

Kylo ran, twitching and stretching out his hand to make disturbances in the underbrush, spreading the troopers out on false leads. 

Zyth’s presence had veered off to the left, covering Rey’s escape path back to Maz’s cantina. That was fine, Rey would be smart enough not to go there anyways. 

The Dark was swirling around him, aiding his path. It recognized him as one of its own, shifting him out of the way of roots and trees, keeping his feet light and practiced against the clinging foliage. Rey was quick, and she was clever. She would find somewhere to hide. She had to. 

A shimmer of blue caught his eye, and the Light side of the Force shifted into place over his mind. 

As soon as Finn shielded him once again, Ben realized how stupid he’d been to go so far. Distance put strain on even a practiced Jedi’s mind, but Finn was self-taught and inexperienced. As soon as Kylo had run into the woods, he’d immediately informed Snoke of where he was. 

Of which planet to target with Starkiller Base. 

“Finn!” Rey’s voice brought on a mixture of panic and relief. 

Run. 

Shielded, for the last time by Finn’s hand, Ben let himself think clearly. 

You need to run, please, I can’t let him corrupt you, too. 

He wasn’t foolhardy enough to press those thoughts down the link. He needed to find a way to chase them off, the opposite direction of where he was coming from. But how to keep them from attacking? How to steer them the right way through the night? 

“Rey!” Finn’s voice was harsh with relief. “You’re ok--thank the stars--what’s going on?!” 

“I don’t know!” she gasped. Their auras in the Force were blending, shifting into one another in comfort. Light calling to Light. They were able to comfort one another, if only for this moment. Relief bloomed in his chest, wrapped around a harsh shard of jealousy. “There’s another Sith…or I guess, a Knight of Ren? She’s here in the woods, Finn, I don’t know what to do!” 

“A Jedi.” Zyth’s voice was quiet enough for Finn and Rey not to hear. 

Kriff. Kriff! 

“Chase off the one with the lightsaber.” Kylo Ren said thickly. “The girl is mine.” 

“Seems spending time with Dameron has weakened your mind.” Zyth sneered. “The boy playing Jedi is nothing. I won’t let both of us get punished when she slips through your fingers again.” 

With that, Zyth charged through the trees. 

Her back was unguarded. He could have done it; a single blow to bring her down, a crush of his hand on her neck, and she would have been gone. 

Zyth didn’t turn. 

Kylo Ren followed. 

Her saber gored a path through the trees, sending Rey and Finn scrambling. Finn grabbed her hand, but only succeeded in bringing them both down to the ground. The lightsaber fell from his grip. 

Zyth advanced on him, a snarl curling her lips, but was driven back by a volley of blasterfire. 

Kylo Ren lunged, gripping Rey’s arm in his hand. He yanked her close, and a horrified gasp choked her breath. 

He didn’t let himself care. He couldn’t. 

Bringing her close, he slammed his hand to her temples. He repeated the advice he’d given Poe only weeks before, advice that Poe had rejected with a snap of his teeth. 

Stars, but you’re smarter than Poe. 

“Be afraid.” he whispered, as softly as he could. 

Rey’s eyes widened. 

The link between them glowed, that single thread of sunlight. It was so bright against Snoke’s choking hold over the very atmosphere. It was a breath in the crushing void of space. It was water on his tongue after days in the desert. It was a Naboo sunset. It was a little handmade doll sitting on the shelf of a home he’d never seen with his own eyes. 

He didn’t let himself mourn. 

He severed the bond. 

Rey only had time to gasp as the pain ripped through their souls. Then his hand came to her brow, and she crumpled into his arms. 

He’d keep her there, in the privacy of her own mind, for as long as he could. He wondered if it was quieter than his own. He hoped so. 

Striding forward, he snarled at Zyth. “I have what we need. Let’s go.” 

Zyth snapped her head around. She still faced off against Finn, lightsaber poised and ready in her hand. “He’s a traitor to the First Order.” she hissed. “Have you really gone so soft?” 

Kylo Ren took another step. His foot brushed something, and the Light sparked, ever so briefly in his mind. 

“How long did Snoke say you had?” 

Zyth froze. “How did you know we had a time limit?” 

“There’s no way he could have gotten that deep in the time I was gone. So how much time do we have left?” 

Zyth was quiet for a merciful couple of seconds. “A minute, at most.” 

“So do you want to deal with Solo and Dameron trying to shoot down our ships? Or do you want to get out of here while we still have cover?” 

Zyth growled. “Fine. But what if he tries to--” 

Kylo Ren reached out across that link that Finn had, against all logic, established. What had kept Ben safe for long enough to see his father. What had kept himself, Rey, all of them alive. He invaded Finn’s mind, sending him crumbling to the ground. 

“Satisfied?” 

“Barely.” Zyth turned and stormed off into the woods, letting out a sharp cry for the rest of her troopers. Soon, they rallied around her. 

Rey was lighter than she should have been. Lean muscle pressed against his chest as he carried her close. It was so bitter in its wrongness; he carried her like a man would his love, or as if she were a child. 

He held her like a protector. And he was powerless to do anything of the sort. 

They’d just broken the trees when the sun burst through the night. 

The gloom covering the skies shattered into fragments. They weren’t quite clouds; more liquid than gas, they congealed and swarmed over the skies, trying to fill it once more. But the sun was stronger. 

Light and shadow dappled the ground in swarming conflict, Snoke’s power slowly waning. Criminals and Resistance members were locked in combat with First Order stormtroopers. Any hope that Ben had left thudded harshly against his ribs. 

At least five squadrons and a Knight of Ren. Any chance for him to go down believably, for Rey to be rescued from his arms vanished like the cheap fantasy it was. Soon, the troopers had surrounded him and were ushering him towards one of their transports. 

Ben shifted Rey in his arms, enough to reach out a hand. 

Poe was ducked behind cover, blaster fire slamming into the concrete barrier beside his head. He must have felt the shift in his jacket a moment before it happened, eyes widening. 

Kylo Ren’s lightsaber flew from the inside pocket and into his waiting hand. 

Poe followed the weapon, eyes locking harshly onto him. Confusion, betrayal, hurt, it all swirled in a maelstrom in his expression. 

That’s not enough. Not enough for him to want to come after me, to make me pay. 

Kylo Ren clipped the lightsaber onto his belt. He shifted Rey closer in his arms. Leveling a cold-eyed gaze at Poe, he smirked. 

Then, he turned and boarded the ship. 

Poe’s enraged roar echoed around the plaza, cut only by the ramp raising and sealing shut behind Zyth. She jerked her head in his direction, leading him to her quarters as the stormtroopers piled close in the main hold. 

Her room was small, but mostly taken up by windows. He remembered then that she got airsick easily. At any other time, he would have mocked her for it. But that scream still echoed in his ears. Rey laid in his arms. 

He sat, with her across his lap, and didn’t loosen his hold. 

It wouldn’t protect her from Snoke. But maybe it would be enough to protect her on this flight. 

Zyth gave Rey a dismissive glance. “She’s not going to wake up and start wrecking the place, is she?” 

Kylo didn’t dignify that with a response, simply shooting her a cool look. 

Zyth sniffed. “Don’t pretend your abilities haven’t been suspect as of late. You’re going to have to get another mask, you know. Snoke’s been generous enough to get one made for you. You’ll have to wait for Starkiller to get it though, he got sick of chasing after you himself.” 

The last of the darkness had been pulled into nothingness. The skies were clear, open and blue as the craft lifted up, up, up into space. The sun fell through the window, and onto the three of them. 

Rey was wearing her golden yellow tunic today, glowing as the fingers of light played along the fabric. 

Uncle Luke had held him the first night after Mama and Papa and Poe had left. He’d sobbed through it, even though he’d been so brave when they’d gone. They sat on the cliffs, watching the sky lighten from gray, to pink, to orange and finally that warm burst of gold. 

“See?” Luke had said, squeezing an arm around his shoulders. “It doesn’t matter how dark the night is, Ben. It never lasts forever.” 

Dameron was enraged. Finn wasn’t the kind of man who’d leave a squad member in danger. And Solo and General Organa were almost addicted to fighting for lost causes. 

The last of the sun faded. The ship lurched and shuddered into hyperspace. 

And for the first time in eleven years, hope sunk its claws into the despair that clouded his mind. 

“Zyth.” he said. “How long has it been since you lost your Force visions?”

Chapter Text

Finn’s limbs were lead. 

He’d faced death before. He’d been in the endless roar of combat, blaster fire skimming past his helmet, only a flinch and a hope saving him. He’d felt the prickle in the air when Zyth stalked past his post, or the flurry of storm that came along with Kylo Ren’s presence. 

He’d faced Snoke, once. Long ago. So long ago, he’d buried the clawing fear somewhere deep and hidden in his mind. With a sickening twist of his stomach, he knew how lucky he’d been to have had the chance to. 

Zyth faced him off, a snarl harsh on her lips. Finn had seen her in combat before, diving and cutting through her enemy with the lethal grace of a bird of prey. 

He should have been dead ten seconds ago. He should be dead now. His blaster fire shouldn’t have thrown a waver into her step. Every twitching muscle spoke of uncertainty and fear, of everything he knew a Knight of Ren was not. 

“I have what we need. Let’s go.” Kylo Ren’s voice was detached and cold, Rey lying limp in his arms. 

It threw Zyth’s focus even further. She was unbalanced, a blade on a cliff’s edge, tipping and swaying at every breath of wind. “ He’s a traitor to the First Order.” she hissed. “Have you really gone so soft?” 

He had. He had, hadn’t he? This wasn’t the man who Finn had known and feared within the First Order. But he wasn’t the brother Poe had lost, not the one who spoke carefully and quietly in the Falcon. He was something entirely new, as he averted his eyes from Finn. 

“How long did Snoke say you had?” 

Zyth froze. “How did you know we had a time limit?” 

“There’s no way he could have gotten that deep in the time I was gone. So how much time do we have left?” 

Zyth’s pause clenched his chest, before; “A minute, at most.” 

“So do you want to deal with Solo and Dameron trying to shoot down our ships? Or do you want to get out of here while we still have cover?” 

What do you want, Kylo Ren? 

Finn didn’t dare to speak it, didn’t even try to reach out through the Force like he had with 003. There was that ever-present threat of Snoke, a looming specter over both their minds. 

Kylo Ren was sparing him. If this was a full betrayal, it made no sense for him to. His reasoning to Zyth shouldn’t have worked, it wouldn’t have, if she hadn’t been so unstable. 

Finally, she tore her gaze from Kylo Ren and back to him. “Fine. But what if he tries to--” 

Memory flooded Finn’s mind, sliding tendrils around his throat and dragging him deep, dark. 

It was as if darkness was trying to enter every orifice, every pore of his body. It crawled over the surface of his skin, crooning and stroking, begging to be let inside. 

Finn’s head dropped. His hands, shaking and open, rose in front of him in the void. Pale skin, lightsaber callouses. This wasn’t him. This was a memory. And it was far from over. 

Finn flexed his fingers. 

By the time he’d clawed himself to the surface of that vision, the sky had cleared. Scraps of blue shimmered between the trees. It was nearly noon, the heat of the sun baking sweat into his clothes. He welcomed the discomfort.

Something had broken him out of the vision. A scream, cracking through the forest with the force of a tidal wave. And with it, the distinct presence of Poe. 

But every muscle was weighed down, every breath forced through aching lungs. Every cell of his body flinching back with the force of that memory. 

“My Knights of Ren…my chosen ones. My children.” 

Snoke’s harsh croon sent a shiver of disgust down Finn’s--Ben’s--spine. On his right, Zyth stood with her veil over her mask, her red hair the only spot of color in the freezing dark chamber. On his left…

Her presence and her form were both small. Even though this memory of Ben was in adolescence, she barely came up to his shoulder. Her near featureless mask tilted towards him, and Ben snapped his head away. 

There were three more, clustered towards the end, but Ben wasn’t looking at them. His eyes were fixed on Snoke. 

“Today, I share my victory with you. The empowered of the galaxy, the ones who rise above the rabble to rival the power of the stars themselves.” 

The girl on his left had leaned forward, and Ben’s thoughts echoed through Finn’s mind. 

“He’s lying, Asryn. He’s lying.” 

Ben bit down harshly on his lip, spiking anger through his mind and clouding it. 

The pain still echoed through Finn’s mouth. The memory had sent him to the ground, keeping him strangled in its grasp until it was finished. Their bond in the force had made it quick, effortless, plowing through the thin walls between their minds. 

But why? Why a memory, why not send him flying into a tree? Why not knock him unconscious as he’d done with Rey? 

Finn flexed his fingers. 

“Please.”

The leaves overhead shifted, spilling gold into his eyes. The memory was becoming just that; a memory. 

“Please,” he gasped. “I need…strength. I need to save her.” 

The Force thrummed around him. Energy lent, without direction. 

Finn opened his hand and pulled. 

The lightsaber, discarded in the brush, flew into his hand. 

Finn took in a shaking breath, the cool metal strengthening him to sit up. His muscles strained at the effort, but they weren’t what was important. The Force pulled at him, urging him forward. Up. 

With the help of a nearby tree, Finn staggered to his feet. Both hands would have aided him better, but he only tightened his grip on the saber hilt. 

It was an anchor as the memory started to shift and sort itself in his mind. 

“ For generations, the Sith have delved into the mysteries of the Dark Side.” Snoke was pacing, footsteps echoing around the freezing durasteel walls. “But every time, they die. Of old age, of Jedi, of their own kind raging against one another.” 

Snoke’s eyes had fallen on the girl to Ben’s left. Asryn, Ben’s memory had supplied. 

He smiled. 

“But their loss can be our victory. We will take the opportunities they were too noble to consider.” 

The air was warm; too warm for his thickly-woven tunic. Sweat slid down his neck, but it wasn’t enough to suppress the shaking. 

He felt feverish; knowing his temperature was rising but needing more. 

The trees were growing further apart, the underbrush more scarce. To his left, a blaster mark burned a dark star in the bark of a tree. 

He was getting closer. 

“It won’t be without its trials.” 

Snoke had warned, and another shudder of dread coursed through Ben’s spine. 

“But our squadrons of stormtroopers are hard at work as we speak. Soon, we will delve deep into the crust of the planet Ilum. Once, it was rich with kyber crystal. The perfect place to hide the true treasure of this place.” 

Shouts were starting to ring from between the trees. But no blaster fire. No screams of death. The fighting had ended, and there were survivors whose voices weren’t muffled by a stormtrooper’s helmet. 

Finn forced his legs to keep moving, to finally break the treeline into the sun, unbroken by branches. As soon as he left the treeline, his eyes fell on the shattered square. 

Dead stormtroopers were being pulled into piles, injured and dying patrons of Maz’s bar pulled themselves into groups, taking stock of their numbers and patching up wounds. 

Poe was slumped against a blaster fire-scored concrete wall, eyes glassy and unfocused. 

It was enough to drive the last of Finn’s steps, to cross the gap of the shattered plaza and lean on the wall beside him.  

Poe’s head came up, eyes locking with his. His jaw shook, and his hand came up, clamping onto Finn’s shoulder firmly. 

It was a sign of relief. It was also a tether; support to keep Poe on his feet. 

The scoundrels and bounty hunters of the galaxy were picking themselves back together. The First Order had come quickly and hit hard, but they’d retreated as soon as the darkness had faded. Han and Chewbacca seemed to be leading the regroup efforts, directing medics and settling down squabbles. 

Poe had treated Han with a reverence and respect that Finn had never fully been able to grasp, Seeing him making sense out of the chaos bridged that gap of understanding. 

“Do you know what I told her? The first time we really sat down and talked?” 

Poe’s voice was graveled with exhaustion. He still wasn’t looking at Finn, his eyes firmly fixed on the ground where a scrap of bright yellow flag had caught on a shattered branch. 

Finn’s throat tightened. “Poe--” 

“I told her I’d keep her safe. I promised her, no matter what. I smiled at her, and I told her that we’d get her to where she needed to be.” 

As if the effort held the weight of planets, Poe raised his head. His eyes pierced past the sky, into the depths of space as if his eyes could bring those First Order ships back down. 

“I’m an idiot for saying that.” Poe laughed, sharp and bitter. “For promising something I couldn’t guarantee.” 

“You’re right.” Finn winced, but the words had shattered some of the glass from Poe’s eyes, into dangerous points as his head whipped around in a glare. 

“You’re right,” he pressed on. “You shouldn’t have given her a hasty promise. But you did. So are you going to be an idiot and a liar?” 

Poe’s hand tightened on Finn’s shoulder. “Are you going to be a coward?” 

Finn’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t deny it. “We’re finding her. Together.” 

Poe’s head jerked in a nod. “Together. No matter what it takes.” 

The silence stretched out for a moment. Another hasty promise, held up with nothing but hope. Shaking off the last of the shock and the pain, the guilt was starting to leech into his mind, harsh and cold. He grit his teeth, pushed past it. 

“Poe,” Finn said. “I know where they took her.” 

Poe’s head snapped around. “Starkiller?” 

Finn nodded. “Rey and I met in the forest,” he explained. He held his hand up, showing Poe the silver cylinder still clutched in his grip. “I tried to get us out, but it was us versus two Knights of Ren.” 

Poe’s eyes sharpened, but Finn held up a hand. “They took Rey,” Finn said. “I don’t know why, but they did. And Zyth was going to kill me, but Ben stopped her. He knocked me down, but he used our link in the force to send me a message…a memory.” 

Poe’s brow furrowed. “Why would he--?” 

“It was a warning.” Finn said. “The last one he could give. Starkiller base isn’t just a point of operation. It’s more than that.” 

Poe’s eyes darkened, his thoughts clearly spinning a million miles an hour. “More?” 

Finn, in his brief time stationed there, remembered the Depths. It had always radiated sheer cold, a warning rippling through the Light to stay away or be sucked in. He remembered the way Zyth would stand at the edge and gaze down, hands twitching at the hilt of her saber. How Kylo Ren would avoid the place like it’s presence burned. 

He remembered the endless cycle of rock and debris; carved and lifted and discarded as they bored deeper and deeper into the ground. 

“It’s an excavation site.” 

Snoke’s voice had started to quicken in excitement. 

“ Deep below, there lies the tomb of Darth Tenebris. And with the power he left us, we will have the strength to cover an entire planet in darkness. An eternal night that only we have the power to navigate and command. Our enemies will blunder into our hands, their forces will divide and despair, ripe for the reaping. And once we’ve taken what we need from there, we will move to the next, and the next.” 

Besides him, Zyth shifted. The Force swirled around her, her fingers softly undulating to stir it past her eyes. 

Whatever she saw made her straighten, excitement rigid in the set of her shoulders. 

Snoke smiled at her, and the expression held a sickening, genuine warmth. 

“And soon, it will be as clear to you as our little seer.” 

Poe opened his mouth to speak, surely about to ask more, but a bright series of beeps and whistles cut him off. 

BB-8 rolled to his side, bumping against him with clear urgency. But there was no fear in the movement, and Poe’s shoulders dropped in relief as the droid continued. 

Finn looked up just in time to see a dozen ships drop from hyperspace into the atmosphere, little specks of brilliant silver against the clear blue sky. Weeks ago, the sight would have sent dread coursing through his stomach, but now, he only felt the clear relief painted over Poe’s face. 

Poe ran his hand through his curls, a shaking smile painting itself over his face. “She’s here. Mama.”

Chapter Text

Princess. Senator. General. Jedi. 

Leia tried to reach for any of those titles to drape around her shoulders, to tilt her chin up and strengthen the set of her shoulders. She’d worn them, used them, set them aside and picked them up again as needed countless times over her life. It was rather strange how words could build her up enough to batter her will against the galaxy’s in a countless barrage. 

She needed to be confident as her royal title, as well spoken as her role in the senate, brave as her military rank, wise as her spiritual role. They were weights, in a way, but what were weights but tools to strengthen? 

The familiar wobble and shift of the ship made Leia’s spine straighten. The panel on the side slid away, and her Resistance troops flooded onto the torn and shattered square. They spread into the trees to check for stragglers of the First Order or any nasty surprises they may have left. The medics swooped in on patch-fixes, applying more effective medicine and setting up shelters. The survivors of the attack seemed to let out a collective sigh of relief, the very air easing with their presence. 

Leia swept her eyes, locking onto three figures immediately. 

Her jaw softened, dispelling a tension she didn’t know was present until it released its grip. Her titles slid from her shoulders. New ones graced onto her shoulders as light and delicate as bird wings. 

Han’s hair was choked with dust, the wrinkles deepened around his eyes as he squabbled with a couple of bounty hunters, waving his hands as if to physically swat down their protests. 

Wife. 

Poe stood next to a boy she didn’t recognize, leaning against the wall and talking with his hands just as emphatically, a clear, though likely unintentional mimic of his father. 

Mother. 

Leia stepped forward, only to be met with a massive wall of fur. 

Joyful warbles and roars shook her chest, and Leia didn’t try to fight the arms pulling her into the dense carpet of hair. 

“I missed you too, Chewie.” she laid her head against him, closing her eyes for just a moment. She’d been truthful about feeling his absence, but every time she thought about it, she thanked the Light that he was beside Han, keeping him safe with every bit of loyalty and strength that she herself could have. 

Chewie rubbed her back, stepping back with another soft groan. He gestured to his arm, and Leia immediately saw the odd angle in which he held it. She nodded with a sympathetic smile. “Go get that looked at.” she agreed. “We’ll have plenty of time to catch up.” 

The Wookie stampeding into her arms had finally drawn the attention of her boys. 

Han stood a few feet away, taking in the sight of her with his signature smirk, and no small amount of softness in his eyes. 

Poe had been bouncing on the balls of his feet, and didn’t hesitate to launch at her the second he got the chance. 

“Mama!” he thought to spare her old bones, crashing into her with only a small measure of the force she knew was possible. He towered over her now, and Leia felt a sudden twinge of longing for the days where she could tuck her head over his. 

He didn’t waste too much time before ruining the tender moment. “You smell like Wookie.” he huffed, wrinkling his nose. 

“Off with you!” Leia pushed him away, clucking her tongue. “A couple of days back with your father, and you’re just as bad as him.” 

“As if he ever lost it.” Han stepped forward, but held back from actual contact. Waiting, she supposed, for her. 

What a surprise. Who would have thought time away would turn him into a “nice man?” 

Poe slapped the boy’s shoulder next to him. “Mama, this is Finn. We can introduce him more later, but he got thrown around a bit in the fight, so…” 

Leia didn’t miss the way his eyes had flickered between her and Han. She smiled, dipping her head to Finn. “I look forward to hearing your story.” she said. “But Poe is right. Go, get medical attention and a bit of rest. I’ll be by as soon as I can.” 

Finn’s hand at his side twitched up, before he seemed to force it down. Still, his nod was stiff. “Ma’am.” 

There was a rigidity in his shoulders that made Leia’s heart ache. She shook her head at him. “That’s not how things are here, Finn. And it was a suggestion, not an order.” 

Finn’s shoulders dropped a bit, and he did nod, but Leia could still see the stormtrooper in the way he fell into step beside Poe. A part of her worried he would have a tense reception in the tent, but flanked by Poe, he couldn’t be safer from her forces. 

Even if her son had to enforce it with a bloody nose or two. 

The rest of the crowd seemed to shift away, leaving them in a quiet, stolen moment of solitude. Just how things had always been. Rushed, and never quite enough time…

Leia looked to her husband, only a handful of steps away. His time for waiting had run out. With a deep breath rising his shoulders, Han stepped forward. 

Metal flashed brightly as C-3PO wobbled into his path. “Goodness!” he exclaimed. “Han Solo! Look who it is!” he turned to Leia, pausing as he saw the look on her face. 

Seeming to realize exactly where he was, the droid hobbled away with a muttered apology. Han’s gaze followed him for a moment. Han’s face had never quite changed, not when it came to the annoyance painted over his features. 

The sight of it bubbled a laugh back up her chest. Han’s head snapped back to her, a self-defending protest forming on his lips. It fell away as he locked eyes with her. A smile of his own started to form, and he started to close the distance.
Leia didn’t wait. 

She rushed forward, flinging herself into his arms like she was a young woman again. The warm smell of leather and wood rushed to meet her. A man of habit, as always. He hadn’t changed since that last morning they’d said their goodbyes. His chest trembled slightly as he breathed in, his arms holding her so close she felt as if she’d sink in forever and find a new warm place there, far from any fear or danger. 

His hands stroked along the soft crease of her bun, fiddling with the hair there to knock a few strands loose in the way he knew would make her pout. “Scoundrel.” she huffed, voice muffled by his jacket. 

His laugh rumbled through his chest, filling her with starlight. “I thought you liked scoundrels.” he murmured. “You’ve certainly given me that impression, Your Worship.” 

Leia huffed, trying to pull away to shoot him a proper glare, but his arms tightened around her. “Leia…I’m sorry.” 

Her throat constricted. All she could do was shake her head, but it wasn’t enough to stall his words. 

“I was gone for nine years…” he took in a shaking breath. “Trying to bring him home, all that time away from you. I’m sorry, Leia. I failed you.” 

That was enough to let her pull back fully, indignation stiffening her spine and setting fire to her stomach. “That’s nonsense.” she snapped. “Completely ridiculous! You found him for a time, didn’t you?” 

Han stared down at her, a crease forming between his brows. “I never called you…how did you--” 

Leia brought her hand up, cupping his cheek. “Years apart, and you haven’t changed, Han.” she said softly. “I know how hope looks on your face.” 

Wordlessly, Han brought his hand up to cover hers, keeping it anchored on his face. 

“He was so close, Leia…” He shook his head. “And it’s so much worse…so much better, but so much worse than what we thought it was.” 

-----

Leia’s hand was gripping onto Han’s hard enough to whiten both of their knuckles. It wasn’t for comfort, it was to anchor her to that step where they sat, to keep her from jumping into the nearest ship to blast a hole between Snoke’s eyes and drag her son home by herself. 

It’s not enough that Luke always saw the good in you, enough to risk his own life, was it Vader? You had to steal my son’s mind with delusions of your stupid, pompous self-sacrifice?! 

“Easy, Princess.” Han murmured. Leia slightly eased her grip, giving him an apology in a short nod. 

Anger and hope were waging a relentless war in her chest. 

He still loves us. 

He wants to throw away his life trying to protect us. 

He never wanted to leave.

He’ll never come home of his own accord, not until he’s achieved the impossible. 

Well. Leia Organa had been achieving the impossible since she was eighteen years old. She wasn’t about to balk in the face of some shriveled up, disgusting worm of a Sith. Snoke was stronger than anything she’d faced without Luke, and it didn’t matter one bit. 

There was a road that led to her son, and if Snoke stood in her path, she’d show him exactly how much his little darkness tricks meant to her. 

“There’s my girl.” Han’s finger tilted her chin towards him, and Leia considered biting it for a considerable moment. But his eyes were warm, and his tone was gentle as he said. “I’ll never leave you like that again, not for anything.”

“You left to find our son.” Leia said softly. “I gave you my blessing.” 

Han shook his head. “It was right for me to go.” he said. “Just like it’s right for me to stay by your side from now on.” his lips curled into a smirk. “You won’t be getting any of it now, so I hope you enjoyed the quiet, Princess.” 

“Not a second of it.” she admitted. 

Han leaned forward. Leia wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. 

Softer than the days of their youth, but sweet and gentle as wine on her lips. 

There was so much to do. People to organize, plans to be made, Rey’s rescue and Starkiller base and a million little things. But for that single, stolen moment, Leia let her mind clear of everything but him, as cloudless and brilliant as the skies above. 

Chapter Text

11 years ago 

“Either kill me or leave. Quit lurking around.” 

Ben froze.

He was sure he'd been completely silent, walking down the hall and standing so his shadow didn't stretch over the doorway. But…that didn’t mean much to Zyth, did it? 

He clamped his lips together to bite back the words he wanted to spring out. 

I don't want to do either. Why would I kill you?! I barely know you. 

He swallowed, straightening up. “I'm coming in.” 

It was said as neutrally as possible, and quickly followed by the action. 

Zyth's door swung open without any resistance. There was no lock, not even a knob. The door was on a hinge. A barrier to break an eyeline, not for any real sense of privacy. 

He didn't need to look to know. Every knight's door was the same. 

Entering, he saw the chamber was the same, too. Black steel walls. A single bed. A closet. A bathroom. None of it was poor quality. All of it made the coldest, most unsettling chambers Ben had ever lived in. 

Zyth was sprawled on the bed, sitting in some kind of training top. With a start, Ben realized it covered little but the middle of her chest. 

His eyes shot to the floor, cheeks flaming. 

He hadn’t wanted to stare, but there was a flash of enflamed skin barely a glimpse before he’d stared away. A stone settled at the base of his throat. “I’m--” 

Zyth’s voice was dry. “If you're going to say sorry, you might as well gut yourself now. Sith don't apologize, except to their masters. And especially not to a corpse walking.” 

Ben's eyes shot back up, brow furrowing “What does that--” 

His own words cut off with a strangled gasp. 

Zyth’s torso was covered in furious crimson blisters. They rose in twisting vines; layering over her stomach, stretching to cover her ribs and wind around her throat. Her skin was sallow, her face still completely covered by her shifting veil. 

“You were saying something, Kylo Ren ?” She sneered. 

She was pressed against the wall like a cornered animal, her lightsaber easily within reach to snatch and ignite. She was in no state to fight. Every tensed muscle in her body screamed that she’d lunge at the slightest provocation. 

If she fights me, I’ll have to fight back. I could kill her. 

“How did you know it was me, outside the door?” The words were clumsy and awkward, stumbled out in an attempt to fill the silence. 

She tilted her head, letting the shifting fabric of her veil fall across her head. “You’re really asking me? The greatest Sith seer of the millennia?” she purred. 

Ben blinked, another apology burning on his tongue. Zyth snorted and flopped back against the wall. She tore her veil free from her head, and Ben started at his first good look at her face. 

Her nose was narrow and sharp, skin pale and sheer as a ghost’s. Her eyes were a hazy shade of milk blue, but they were sharp as daggers as they stared into him. Her crimson hair, typically only visible behind the veil, also curled in tiny wisps beside her face. 

“Idiot.” she sneered. “I knew it was you because anyone else would have just come in and done their duty. I didn’t need my sight for that.” 

Ben’s shoulders slumped slightly. Well. It was good to know her visions weren’t that random. 

“What happened to you?” He asked finally. The veil was off, so maybe she’d be more open with him.

She shrugged. “Let some survivors escape on my last mission.” she said flatly. “They’re going to spread to the next town, get the news out to the galaxy. The First Order’s supposed to be building slowly and quietly, we don’t have the numbers to take on the Resistance. I kriffed that up.” 

Ben’s brow furrowed. “The survivors…how did they do that? ” his eyes ran over the rows of harsh, angry marks. 

Zyth’s hand shot up, and Ben instantly snapped into a defensive stance. 

He didn’t need to bother. 

She slapped her hand over her mouth, sinking in her teeth to stifle her laughter. Her shoulders shook, and her eyes gleamed out at him, a predator’s sneer. Finally, she lowered her hand. 

“Kriffing stars, you’re dense.” she chased away the last chuckle, shaking her head. “You think when we mess up, Snoke just gives us a slap on the wrist?” 

Ben’s blood ran cold. “But…you didn’t mean to let them go, did you?” 

Zyth snorted. “Of course not. But I won’t next time, cause I’ll remember this. Honestly, I couldn’t care so much if he didn’t wrap it up in a load of utter kark.” 

Ben stepped further into the room. She didn’t spring, so he made his way to a chair and sat. “What do you mean?” 

Seeing him sit, Zyth grabbed a damp cloth from her side table, starting to scrub at the wounds. “The whole “family” thing. He calls us his father, he says we’re his “chosen children.” Then he boils my skin with the Dark, or works Asryn till she drops, or names you something stupid like “ discarded one.” It would almost be funny if we didn’t need to play along.” 

Ben’s fingers twitched. The skin was reddening under her careless hands, the harsh rasp of cloth on flesh filling the air. 

He bit back his protest. She didn’t want his pity. 

“Do the others buy it?” he asked quietly. 

Zyth shrugged. “Not sure about the twins. They’re older than us, way older. In their twenties, I think? They stick around Snoke all the time, and I’ve barely talked to them. Elio doesn’t. He’s got his brothers in his squad, he’s figured out Snoke’s stupidity from them. But Asryn?” 

She snorted. “She’s still a kid. Only twelve, you know? Young enough to buy what he’s selling, not enough beatings to knock her head straight.” 

Asryn…

He hadn’t seen much of her, not yet. She was tiny, always swathed up in black robes and hidden behind her featureless mask. But her presence in the force, even in the Dark, was quick and lively. He’d tried to keep the thought from his mind, but the comparison was obvious. 

If Poe had the Force, he would feel the exact same way. 

A question was still burning in Ben’s mind. “How do you know that this isn’t a family? I thought Snoke stole you all as infants.” 

“Some of us.” Zyth admitted. She attempted to reach for a sore on her back, wincing at the strain. “That’s not the point though, is it?” 

She fell silent, her eyes moving up to his before sliding back down to focus on her work. 

“I’ve killed enough families to know. The children hide behind their parents. The fathers step in front of them, get cut down by my blade first as if those two seconds of time mean anything. Can you imagine Snoke taking on any kind of hurt for us? Risking or giving his life?”  

Ben opened his mouth to speak, but she just kept going. “And then there’s mothers, holding onto their children and shielding them with their bodies, or trying to strike at me with every last bit of strength. If they were smart, they would have run and abandoned the kids. But they’re not smart.” 

Zyth’s hand lashed, a snake’s strike as she threw the cloth to the floor. 

“They’re loving, and that’s what gets them killed. Then we steal the kids, shell them up in white and shove guns in their hands. None of the love mattered. Not in the end. But my point is, that’s family. Someone who gives half a kriff to keep you alive, not because it’s smart but because they want to.” 

Every breath shook Ben’s chest. Disgust, anger, rattling through him like storm wind through a forest. The casualty of which she spoke, the cool detached tones as if the lives she’d split apart meant nothing. 

But she’d said it herself. She had no family. Why would they? 

A thought, fuzzy and indistinct, rose at the edge of his mind. Long brown hair, soft eyes, a proud smile and a sharp tongue. 

He immediately shoved it down. 

“I can heal you,” he said quietly. 

Zyth snorted. “That’s a Light side technique, idiot. Are you that eager to experience his torture first-hand?”
Ben set his jaw. 

Zyth’s eyes glinted up at him, eyes lifeless and cold. She may as well have been carved from marble, a solid defense against anything he stood to offer. 

The rattling shake of her breath rose the skin of her back. Blood and harsh white fluid oozed from one of the boils, ripped free from her careless treatment. 

Stone didn’t bleed. But Zyth’s heart was made of it, deep down inside her chest. 

That’s what she wanted from him, wasn’t it? 

“I’m healing your wounds.” he flattened his tone, words harsh and dull. “You can fight me on it, or you can deal with it.” 

He crossed the room, stiffly moving to sit beside her.

With a blur of movement, her hand shot out and locked around his wrist. 

His other hand was on his saber before the thought could rise, finger pressing lightly on the ignition switch. 

She stared into him, eyes sharpening harsher than any blade. He’d been wrong. She wasn’t carved from stone. Those milky blue eyes held nothing but fire. 

Ben’s glare didn’t waver. 

“No one wants you as our leader.” she said finally. “A Light-sided Skywalker whelp who’s still too scared to bite back.” 

The Force brushed against him, the dark curling into his mind and nudging. Her aura spiked out in harsh, cold lines. Zyth wasn’t tapping into anger for her power. She was clinging onto fear. 

The weaker of the emotions. Snoke had warned him as much. 

Snoke. 

Bitterness welled in his throat, choking out any other thought. It swelled like a symphony, rising higher into harsh, bright stabs of rage. 

Zyth’s hand loosened slightly, the smallest fraction. 

His words were cold and dead. “I don’t recall asking for your input. Perhaps Snoke would like to hear of your ideas.” 

Her fingers flinched back as if they’d brushed ice. Her hand fell. 

She turned her back, moving her long mass of hair from her back to give him access to her wounds. “This is going to make him angry.” she said quietly. 

Ben reached out his hand, closing his eyes. “I know.” 

Her tone grew harsher. “If you think this is bad, you’ll be crawling by the time he realizes you used the Light.” 

“Zyth.” Ben said, irritation equally matched with exhaustion. “Shut up.” 

She fell silent, and Ben reached out in the Force. Her aura had settled somewhat, but it shifted and hissed as he reached out in the Light. 

It took far longer for him to tap into its strength, his heart burning a hole of rage inside his chest. 

--- 

Present Timeline

They’d carried him, too. 

Rey had slammed her staff into his head, freeing him from his choice. Dameron had grabbed his arm. FN-2187, the other. And they’d pulled him to their ship, regardless of the danger. He’d slowed them down, enough that a TIE fighter had almost blown them all to pieces. 

They’d carried him. Dragged along through the sand. A desperate, hopeful dash for safety. 

Rey was light in his arms. Lighter than she should have been. The life of a scavenger stealing every ounce of comfort and softness from her frame, carving it into bone and muscle. 

She wasn’t the one to save me. Poe said she had been starting up the ship. Could I live with myself if she was the one who’d dragged me through? If I’d--

Shut up. 

That last voice of reason snapped him out of that hopeless spiral of thoughts. He couldn’t think about those kinds of things. In minutes, he’d be close enough. No Rey to slam him out of this. No Fi--FN-2187--to shield him. No ship to escape to.

Zyth leaned against the wall opposite him, crimson hair burning in the low light of the ship. Her veil shifted across her face, scattering his gaze from the delicate weave. 

“How long have you known?” 

It was the first time she’d spoken in hours, letting his question hang in the air with the malice and precision of a guillotine. 

“How long has it been since you lost your Force visions?”

Kylo Ren raised an eyebrow. “Since I thought about killing you in that forest.” He said bluntly. “And you didn’t so much as flinch.” 

Zyth barked out a bitter laugh. “Good. I was worried your time with that Rebel scum made you soft. If you’d gone through with it, I might even have been impressed.”

“Since when have I cared about proving things to you?” Kylo Ren sneered. “Besides, I figured I’m in enough trouble as it is.” 

Zyth gave a tight shrug. “He’s too busy with his tomb. I’m sure he’ll slap you around for a while, but you’re the only one who can extract the map from her mind without making her a drooling lump of flesh.” 

Zyth’s head had tilted slightly towards Rey. “So it’s not like he can kill you, or even punish you enough to make it really count. He wants that girl, ever since she shoved him out of your head.” 

Kylo Ren’s chest tightened. “How did you--?” 

“Elio was with him, in the hangar. Said he could feel the struggle, or the lack of it, honestly.” Her head tilted a bit further, seeming to take in Rey further. “What is she? Elio said he’s never felt anything like her.” 

“So now you’re cozying up to Elio?” Kylo snarled. “I thought my second in command would be more loyal.” 

“Idiot.” Zyth snapped. “We thought you were--” 

She cut off her own words, and he could picture her expression; lips pressed under her teeth, just subtly enough to whiten the skin. 

“It was like with Asryn.” Her voice was thick. “One second you were there, and then just…gone. We assumed she killed you. The Force doesn’t just go silent like that. Not without a reason.” 

A cold sliver of rage wormed into his chest. “And what the hell do you care about Asryn?” he sneered. “You always hated her.” 

“I hate all of you.” Zyth snapped. “Isn’t that the point? Put a bunch of volatile young Force users in one place, give them ranks they don’t deserve and prod at them until something explodes. Except you had my back, at least in fights. You made sure I didn’t get torn to pieces on the battlefield, and then you were gone.” 

His stomach twisted, harsh and cold. This wasn’t the same. He didn’t have an obligation to her, she wasn’t his family, she’d said it enough times. 

“I didn’t have a choice.” he snapped. 

Zyth shot to her feet, snapping back her veil with a sharp hand. “Yes, I went to the one other person who might have my back. As if it would matter to you! Like you wouldn’t go crawling back to your family. You want to know what happened to my sight, Ben Solo? ”

The air churned and shifted, Darkness curling around them both. Kylo Ren shot to his feet, gently placing Rey on the bench. 

Zyth’s flinch wasn’t subtle enough to be covered, even by her snarling. “You sensitive little--” 

He lunged, snatching her by the shoulders and slamming her back into the wall. Her words broke, then choked as his hand slammed over her mouth. 

“Enough” he snarled. 

Zyth’s eyes narrowed, her teeth skimming the flesh of his hand. She had been about to bite him. Then, her eyes widened, jaw softening under his grip. 

“Squabbling already, dear children?” 

Snoke’s voice held no small measure of amusement. Zyth went limp, and Kylo Ren stepped back, letting her collect herself. 

“Really, Zyth. This isn’t the homecoming that Kylo Ren deserves, as your leader or your brother.”

“Of course, father.” Zyth’s voice was a measure softer. She slowly lowered her veil, catching one last glance at Kylo Ren. It held nothing but begrudging relief…with maybe the tiniest flicker of gratitude. “Apologies to you both.” 

“Accepted.” Kylo Ren murmured. 

“Very good. Now, I’m quite busy…your rescue operation didn’t go quite as planned, Kylo Ren, but no matter. I’m sure your dear sister can fill you in. In the meantime, please extract the map of Skywalker from the girl. Takodana was only the beginning.” 

Rey’s skin was washed out in the cold gray light filtering in from the windows, reflecting the planet’s sheer coat of ice as they descended.

She’d be hard to break. That fact stayed solid, immovable in his mind. He clung to it, white-knuckled. 

Zyth’s eyes were impossible to track. But the slight tilt of her head told Kylo Ren that her eyes were piercing into his face, searching for any kind of clues within. 

His nails dug into the flesh of his hands, piercing pain rising up to haze his mind with storm clouds. 

“Yes, master.” 

As Snoke’s presence faded, the light from the planet’s surface grew sharper. Zyth turned, reaching into a box beside her. 

“Come on.” her voice was softer than he’d ever heard it; her tone strangled with something he couldn’t name. 

She pulled out the deep, dark metal of a mask. An exact replica of the one he’d lost on Jakku, shattered in the crash into the Star Destroyer. It slid on easily, encasing his head in the familiar, suffocating darkness. The modulator on his voice sounded alien and cold, just as he’d designed it all those years ago. Not his own. 

“We have a job to do.”

Chapter Text

“It’s been too long, baby.” Poe chuckled, running his hands over the controls. Each switch and button chirped at the press of his fingers, the engine purring to life. 

“Mama should run her war meetings from inside you, shouldn’t she?” The silver and black shell of the cockpit was the place where everything snaps into focus, narrowing and sharpening through the blaster shield. 

“When are you going to stop talking to your ships like a lover and find a real girlfriend?” Leia’s voice snapped his attention, a grin forming on his lips. Poe swung his arms over the side of the opened cockpit, dangling them loosely. 

“Not all of us can find our soulmates on the battlefield, General.” Poe shot back, grinning. “Start pairing me up with dashing bounty hunters, we’ll see how that goes.” 

Leia huffed out a grin, shaking her head. “You take after your father enough already, I can’t set you up with someone just like you. Now are you too much of a big shot to come say a proper goodbye?” 

Without skipping a beat, Poe swung his legs over the side of the fighter, dropping the length of the ship down to his Mama. Leia flinched back, a curse falling from her lips. 

“Poe, you little--” She crossed her arms, firmly fixing him with an icy glare. “Are you trying to twist your ankle right before the fight?”

“Sorry, sorry!” Poe held his hands up in surrender, but couldn’t keep the chuckle from rising up in him. 

Leia smacked his arm, shaking her head. “At least promise me you’ll be more careful in the air, flyboy?” 

Poe’s humor dimmed somewhat at the tightness in her tone; worry frozen over with a layer of irritation. He placed his hands on her shoulders, gently rubbing his thumbs into the stately gray General’s coat. “For you, Mama, I’ll try.” 

Leia’s eyes softened, and she reached up to place her hand on his cheek. Poe could feel his throat tighten from her touch alone, from every word he wanted to say, every single one of them a word he couldn’t. 

Finn hasn’t given up on Ben, so I won’t either. 

I’m going to do whatever I can to save Rey. 

I’ve always promised I’ll come home, but I can’t this time. 

Finally, his tongue loosed one of them. “Are you sure you want me to take Dad? You’ve only been back together for a day…” 

Leia nodded. “I can’t go with him, not this time. So I’m sending him with the best damn pilot in the fleet.” Her warm eyes drifted back up, to where Finn was trying to make himself fit in with Han in the back of the fighter jet. “And a boy who the Force sings over.” 

Poe tried to hold back a sigh. “I thought Ben and Uncle Luke were bad enough. You really gotta start talking like them, Mama?”
Leia laughed a little, shaking her head. “No better way to explain it, I’m afraid. It sounds like…” her lips tighten a moment, before she nods slowly. “Alderaan had a festival of music; every hill and valley would echo with the sounds of it, rich as honey and soft as flower petals under your hand. It was the most joy I’ve ever heard.” 

Her words were beautiful, but Poe’s brow furrowed. Mama always started talking about Alderaan when the air crackled with the tension of combat. When there was something to lose. 

He closed the gap. Mama fit into his arms snugly, her head pressing against his chest as it lurched. His Mom, Shara, had always teased Mama for being so small, and Poe, tiny as he had been, had giggled along. Secretly, he’d wondered how it would feel to be Mom, tall enough to reach the cookies on the highest shelf and swing into her cockpit with a single raised arm.

Leia lifted her head, reaching out to touch his cheek. “Your mother would be so proud of the man you’ve become.” 

Poe’s laugh was more from bewilderment, masking the cool shock that ran through his spine. “Reading my mind with the Force, General? How rude!” 

Her eyes didn’t shift from his face. “You always think of her in times like these.” she said gently. 

The words were the impact of a batting ram. His eyes darted down, and he nodded silently. 

When there’s something to lose. When I’m scared. 

“The Force does not run through your veins.” Leia said softly. “But it honors those who fight for it. And I assure you, Poe, it is with you. All three of you.” 

Poe’s arms tightened around her. He’d give up anything; his blaster and ship and the jacket off  of his back to turn her young again, just to be swift and sure and strong at his side as they ran into the battle. 

She pulled away, and his eyes met hers one last time. Warm, brown, deepend with wrinkles and glowing with wisdom and pride. 

“May the Force be with you.” he echoed the pale repetition of her deeper words, unable to form any of his own. 

In the end, she knew. 

----

Ilum was a prick of white through the viewfinder, steadily growing as the Resistance fleet approached. A point rounder, fuller, bluer than the stars around her, the planet’s ice seemed to give off a harsh aura of chill. Poe breathed, easing his hands on the controls as he dipped the Black Sparrow away from the rest of the Resistance Fleet. 

“I never thought I’d miss my helmet, but I can barely breathe in here.” Finn’s voice split the silence, ridged with irritation. “Why does your ship smell like…” 

“Leather and mahogany” Han supplied 

“Amber and patchouli” Poe said, almost simultaneously. 

Han shifted in the tiny space in the back of the fighter, jostling his bad knee by his grunt of pain. “I always put on cologne before a fight. Poe picked it up from me.” his weathered hand ruffled through Poe’s curls.

 Poe swatted it aside, a grin coming to his face despite it all. “Yeah, yeah. It’s about confidence, you know?” 

“No.” Finn’s voice was quietly baffled. “I don’t know.” 

“Eyes ahead.” Han’s voice was suddenly sharp. “We’ve got company.” 

First Order ships were rising, a swarm of locusts against the rich black of space’s void. They rose to meet the Resistance fleet, to that proud flagship where Mama stood. 

Finn straightened in his cramped “seat”, furrowing his brow. “What’s…the General is--” 

“Battle meditation.” Han supplied. “Long story, kid. But it’s time for your part.” 

With clear effort, Finn tore his focus from those invisible connecting threads between the ships. He placed one hand on the roof of the fighter, another on Poe’s seat, fingers digging in slightly, taking a steady breath. 

That same, shivering feeling rose over Poe’s ship. Han frowned a little, turning to Poe with a questioning look. 

“Move.” Finn said, teeth set. “They’ve got a Knight of Ren in the aerial assault, I can’t keep us hidden for long.” 

“You heard the man,” Poe’s lips slid into a grin. “Moving!” 

With a string of curses from Han and a harsh shove of the controls, the Black Sparrow dipped and fell. 

Finn’s hand dug into his shoulder instead, keeping himself from flying into the viewshield. “ARE YOU INSANE?!” 

Poe chuckled, cut off slightly by the straps digging into his chest. “Ask the old man! He taught me how to fly!” 

“Focus on your force stuff.” Han’s voice was almost bored. He settled back in the seat and closed his eyes. “Poe’ll get us down to the surface.” 

“THAT’S WHAT I’M AFRAID OF.” 

Poe’s laugh was louder this time. “Come on, Finn! Have I ever given you a reason to doubt my flying skills?” 

“You crashed the first ship we were ever in together!” 

Poe paused, turning to look at Finn. “Well that was--” 

“Eyes forward!” Finn snapped. “Don’t look at me!” 

“There’s nothing to look at! There’s only one direction we’re going!”
Finn slammed himself into the backseat, elbow knocking Han’s jaw in his scramble. An irritated, harsh sigh fell from his throat. 

Satisfied in his victory, Poe turned back to their descent. 

We’re really coming up on it, huh? 

“Hold on!” he warned. “This might get a little rough!” 

Finn didn't bother to respond, except to breathe out a series of colorful swears and grip onto the sides of the ship.

Ilum gleamed in the last dying breaths of sun, shimmering orange light over the ice-slicked plains and mountains. Orange and white. The colors of rebellion. Poe chose to take it as a good omen, or a sign from the Force. What Papa would say, or what Mama would. 

Black Sparrow curved her path, Poe easing up on her speed to let them coast smoothly, only a handful of yards from the surface. He coaxed her further, towards a scrubby patch of trees dotted with snow. 

He set her down within the cover; not as thick as he’d like but enough to keep eyes off of her at a glance. 

“Everyone make it?” he called behind him. 

“We’re fine.” Han signed off, giving Poe’s seat a shove. “Now scram, kid. My knee’s going to cramp up.” 

Poe didn’t fight him on it, popping open Sparrow’s top and perching on her nose. Han clambered out of the back with a groan. 

“That’s all I’ve got for now.”

 Finn hadn’t moved. 

His voice held a certain edge of exhaustion, set into the lines of his face. Poe recognized it from the handful of times he’d seen it over Kylo Ren’s features, after a long day of training with Uncle Luke. Finn’s exhaustion lay somewhere deeper in his soul, that place where Poe could never quite reach. 

“It’ll be enough, kid.” Han had paused at the edge of the cockpit, looking down at Finn quietly. “Promise.” 

Finn’s mouth set into a harsh line. “And if it’s not?” 

Rey was always the one who could convince Finn. Ever since those few days in the wreckage of the Star Destroyer, their bond had formed and fastened quickly. A single look at Finn, casting his eyes across the cold expanse of the planet's surface, told him that it hadn't severed. 

“That’s why we don't operate alone. Why we have squadrons.” Poe cut in. “Now let’s go get the rest of ours.” 

------

Finn’s boots crunched into the thin layer of ice. 

Drawing closer, ever closer, to that slate-gray nightmare clawing up into the sky. To the place he'd promised he'd never go back to. 

Poe's blustering attempt at boosting his spirits hadn't worked. The rest of Finn's squadron was in there. 

The FN troopers. His brothers. His sisters. Leaders, friends, rivals, even enemies, other troopers who'd bit insults and hit too hard during training. 

They'd get in his way. Raise their blasters against his. 

The FN squadron is in that base. 

And so is Rey. 

His fingers curled around the cool metal cylinder at his side, feeling the weight of it settle in his hand. 

He allowed himself a brief moment of calm, letting the icy air sting his lungs. 

He had Han, Poe, the entire Resistance at his back. He had the Force. 

Right now, Rey had no one. 

No one but me. 

The Light shifted and nudged at his mind, rippling out at his call to brush against her mind. 

I’m here. 

I’m not leaving you behind. 

Chapter Text

The room was crafted on a razor’s edge; shadows cutting through the harsh LEDs. Her skin was clammy and pale under the glare, bound from wrist to shoulder, thigh to ankle in thick steel. She’d awoken to silence. 

And with every passing moment, it thickened like blood over an aging wound. No one was in the room, but she wasn’t alone. The Dark spilled out of every corner, prodding at her mind with a curious talon, a predator seeing what new meat had wandered into its path. 

Rey took a steadying breath, trying to rip her mind from it, to focus on where the shadows ended. But as she watched, they swelled with her breath. 

The bonds seemed to grip tighter, her chest ripping in a breath as the shadows coalesced into the edge-blurred form of a woman. 

Rey’s teeth cut into her cheek, snatching her terrified whimper and shoving it back down her throat. 

The figure tilted her head, casting Rey’s eyes across the weave. It was impossible to lock onto a single feature, only the crimson blaze of her hair spilling out from behind the mist of her veil. 

“We don’t have much time.” 

Her voice was quiet and dry as the first pebble in a landslide. 

Then the storm front broke into the room. 

Kylo Ren’s appearance spoke only of rage, pounding out through the force to batter against her. 

The silver around his eyes only deepened the hollows, pulling her in like the depths of a black hole. Her pulse jumped, wavering as he leaned in slightly. 

His last words to her echoed in her mind. 

Be afraid. 

Hours ago, they’d sat in that beautiful forest, watching the leaves dapple the ground in sunlight, surrounded by every living and blooming thing. He’d told her everything she needed to know. 

“Fear. Anger. That is what the mind defaults to when it’s put in danger. Those are the emotions that can cloud the mind from Snoke. There’s little thought behind them, nothing he can read. I’ve trained myself to detect when he sifts through my thoughts, and if I focus on my anger, I can channel it to obscure parts of my mind.” 

“It sounds tiring.” 

“It is.” he said. “But for Snoke to stay clear of my plans? It’s worth it.

This had been Kylo Ren’s home; this constricting, freezing place. He’d asked her to reach for fear, because what else could come easily in a place like this? What else could he feel, every desperate grasp of a plan shattered to pieces between them? 

Rey stared into his eyes, and allowed herself to forget every kind thing, every warm gesture he’d ever done. 

The Dark didn’t hesitate for a single second. 

 Cold fingers brushed up her spine. She didn’t try to hold back the shiver, the flinch as the veiled woman circled around her, head tilted, boots impacting the steel  like the ceaseless toll of a bell. 

Rey dug her nails into her palms, and she loosened her grip on her courage. The Dark crowed in triumph, rippling out through the room. 

It was as if a piece of her had been chipped off and savored, wrapped in that blackness to never see the light of the sun again. But the darkness was there. And her mind was shrouded in it. 

The woman's voice was a brittle crack. “I said, we don’t--” 

“If you’re going to stand there and repeat yourself,” Kylo Ren sneered. “You can change careers to one of those useless advisors, Zyth” 

“If you’re going to stand there and stall, ” Zyth snapped back, “Perhaps I should delve into the girl’s mind myself.” 

The step was barely noticeable, but the Dark surged with it. The room was filled with his aura, choking the breath from her lungs with its intensity. Zyth’s breath broke into her throat, a ragged gasp that sounded more like a hiss. 

She retreated back, shadows wreathing around her. 

Kylo’s attention fell back to Rey. 

“This will be quick.” 

The words nearly shook with a dozen unsaid. For the first time, Rey got a glimpse of the man she’d known, wreathed in shadow and locked in steel. 

It didn’t ease the horrible thud of her heart against her ribs. 

Kylo Ren raised his hand. 

A paralyzing grip fell onto her mind, snatching her still and gasping, joined locked, drought thick on her tongue. 

Good. 

The murmur scraped and shredded against the severed bond. It wasn’t connection, it was dominance. And below it all, a slight, unmistakable shiver of fear. 

Rey’s hands locked onto the bindings, knuckles whitening. 

He did this for damage control. So I wouldn’t be killed in those woods. Despite it all, he’s trying to protect me.

The answers were clear-struck as those hundreds of lines across the line of her home, as certain as the steel beneath her body. 

Kylo Ren probed deeper. 

He curled around the memory of her…small, sobbing tears she couldn’t afford in the shadow of a burned out wreckage. Blood seeping into the cracks of her too-small hands. A broken tool in her hand, a failed attempt at a weapon. 

Shaking, every inch of her body wracked with tremors. 

Wanting to track down that sneering scavenger who had taken everything, and rip his throat apart with her teeth. 

Fear. Anger. What the mind defaults to when it’s in danger. 

As if he’d needed to tell her. As if it wasn’t the pattern that had ravaged her mind, day in and day out, ever since she’d been kicked to the side and left to rot in the dust. 

The disgust of her compliance choked her tongue. Fear? That’s what would save her here? It wouldn’t break her bindings and it wouldn’t keep her alive. 

Anger tore through her chest with the ferocity of a sandstorm, the desire to snatch and tear. 

Rey bolted forward in her chair. The bonds broke the air from her lungs but the Force surged with her movement. 

Kylo Ren’s mind shattered open under her touch, a million barriers and clouds of mist torn free from her attack. 

She didn’t know what she was looking for, what she was doing, but feeling his eyes on that horribly vulnerable part of herself made her body quake with rage. He was the reason she was here, his lie wouldn’t hold up, and for all she knew, that was his plan all along! 

“Ben! Stop!” 

Her body was not her own. Sobs and screams echoed in her ears, but they echoed, echoed, not reaching her mind. There was something in the way, a choking darkness, miring him up to his throat and filling his lungs and--

“Well done, young apprentice.”

Staggering through the plains, hands drenched and shaking around the blade of his saber. Every breath falling in a ragged pant, every newly-cleared though pounding the same desperate plea through his mind. 

“Just let it end.” 

Kylo Ren’s hand slammed into the chair beside her head. 

The helmet was gone. When had it gone? He was looking at her and it wasn’t the man she knew, it wasn’t Kylo Ren. His eyes were red-rimmed, anguish scrawling over his bold features. 

His hand curled around the base of her chair. It hadn’t been a play for intimidation. He had fallen. 

“Rey--” his voice was ragged, a raw tremor edged in fear. 

Curled up in a room of freezing black steel. Older now, hands wider and scarred. Blood had seeped in through the gloves, staining his skin crimson. Deeper and deeper, the more he scrubbed. Sticking to his hands, never to be free. 

“Let it end! Just let it end!” 

Snoke’s soft chuckle as he blinked. His hands were clean. They had been for hours. But never again. Never again. 

The security cameras shattered in a rain of sparks. Rey’s vision snapped back, just to see Zyth’s clenched fist, her presence in the Force still shivering around those twisted carcasses of metal. 

“Get a hold of yourself!” Zyth snapped. 

Why did she destroy the--

I don’t care. 

They can both go to hell! 

Kylo Ren’s hand came to her shoulder as if trying to pry her from his mind by taking hold of her body. “You don’t know what you’re doing!” he snarled. 

“I’m keeping a monster out of my head!” her voice barely sounded her own, an animalistic growl that rose from her throat. 

He flinched back. 

A green lightsaber flashing through the haze of summer night. Raising to defend itself, again and again, against the blue blade in Rey--in Ben’s--in Rey’s hands. 

The shadows howling around them, crying out for blood in an endless cacophony. 

The green blade falling. 

Not by defeat. 

By surrender. 

Ben’s voice rang in her mind. 

“Uncle Luke…”

The terrified whimper of a child. 

Rey’s stomach lurched. This…no, he didn’t. He couldn’t have. 

But I did. I did, I did, I did. 

His own voice, as he stood, trembling and sweating, just a breath apart. 

I was too weak. 

Blood and screams, the horrible wretched howls of the creature denied his greatest wish. Ben’s hands curled in the grass. Blood and earth caked his palms. It wasn’t enough. Wasn’t enough to make it real, any of it. 

Hours passed. Or minutes. Seconds. 

Snoke had returned. 

Ben’s lips formed the first rasping instance of his manifesto. 

“End it. Let it end.” Raising his head, taking in those sunken eyes filled with pure malice. “Kill me. I just want to die.” 

The eyes brightening, a smile curling. 

“No.” 

Ben’s mind was made up. 

And it hadn’t changed since that night. 

“You’re afraid.” 

Rey’s voice was too thick, splitting the air with a clumsy thunder of words. But it they didn’t stop. Not as she looked up into Ben’s face and into those eyes. Bright with fear, anger to mask it. An opposite dance to her own; fear masking that roiling rage in her stomach. 

“That you’ll never be as strong as Darth Vader. ” 

Ben flinched back as if she’d lashed her nails across his face. He choked in a breath, stepping back. Shaking his head. 

“The map…” His eyes fell to Zyth. “We’ll…” 

“Go.” she said quietly. “Don’t let him find you like this.” 

Kylo Ren fled. 

Rey didn’t know how long she sat in that thick, choking silence. Her own ragged breaths rang in her ears, sorting through the decades of memories that had poured into her head. With each new one that came into clarity, she felt a new bout of tremors fall over her body. 

Why did I do that? I was so angry, but I shouldn’t--this is everything he warned me about, this is everything Finn was afraid of. 

This was everything I told myself I’d never be. Why did I--

“You don’t have the map. You’ve never seen it.” 

Rey froze. 

Zyth paced to stand in front of her, boots crunching on the shattered glass of the camera lenses. Her back and shoulders were drawn at harsh, hard angles, contrasting against the flowing sweep of her veil. 

“I understand.” 

Her voice, still quiet, had taken on a brittle edge. Rey blinked. 

“The scramble to survive. Raking your nails against anything soft to find purchase, to keep breath in your lungs just one more day. To be alone,” 

She tilted her head towards Rey, and suddenly that brittleness had an edge sharper than shattered rock. “And to have no one truly understand.” 

Rey held her breath. As horrible as this all was; she was alive on Ben’s lie that she had the map. If Zyth broke that news--

“I saw everything.” Zyth continued. Rey’s stomach plummeted deeper. 

“Are you going to tell Snoke?” 

Her words hung in the air, ready to shatter at Zyth’s next breath. 

“If he knew,” Zyth stepped forward, ripping her veil from her head to stare into Rey’s eyes. “We would all be dead. You, me, and that little Skywalker whelp.”

Zyth’s eyes, a cold, watery blue, pierced into Rey with the chill of a desert night. Her face held the gaunt, desperate scream she’d seen a thousand times; drought, setting into the skin and etching pain over every feature. 

Zyth was deprived of something as vital as water, and Rey was certain she’d rip her open for the slightest hope of getting it. 

When Zyth spoke again, it was deceptively, chillingly calm. “ Do you understand?” 

Rey’s mind had been laid out before Zyth like a map; nothing to hide and no lies to conceal her. “No.” she admitted.

Zyth snatched herself back with a hiss. “Snoke cares about nothing else but that map. So either convince him you’ve gone brain dead or accept your fate as one of us. A recruitment isn’t the same as Skywalker, but it might keep us alive for now.” 

The words sent disgust curling through Rey’s stomach. “I’m not going to bow to Snoke!” Rey snapped back. “If you really saw everything, then you know what he did to Be--” 

“I know what he did to me! ” Zyth snapped back. “Idiot child, where do you think you are right now?! You’re alone! You have no one, and I’m throwing you a lifeline, so stop choking on water and take it!” 

The words rang out in the freezing room, cut short by the utter silence from Rey. 

It was too much at once, too much to listen to or handle or absorb, every word pounding against her skull in a cacophony. 

“Kylo Ren had a family who loved him. Poe Dameron has more families than he knows what to do with. Finn had his squadron. They had everyone. We have no one. I’m not going to pretend to be your long-lost sister, or to love and protect you, because that would be an utter load of kark.” 

She really did see everything. 

Zyth’s hands crumpled the veil in her hands, clamped in by a snow-knuckled fist. “No one wants to be alone. But we’re not children anymore. We take what we want, before our hands are too bloodied to hold onto it. No one will care enough to keep us alive but ourselves.”

Rey’s throat tightened, but a single look from Zyth silenced her. “If your friends did? They’d be here.” 

The words died on Rey’s tongue. 

There was a kind of satisfaction in Zyth’s eyes…or maybe it was closer to relief. 

“I don’t…” Her mouth twisted into a grimace. “I don’t take pleasure in telling you this. You’re strong. I gave up on…” she waved her hand, a harsh, sharp motion. “Your kind of hope long ago. It isn’t like the galaxy didn’t try to beat it out of you. This isn’t out of malice. It’s survival. You and Kylo Ren are my best shot at that. We’re all each other’s best chance. 

Her hands came up, affixing the veil back over her face, drifting it with that cool veil of misty fabric.  “Think on it. But we don’t have much time left.”

With that, Rey was alone once more. 

Her bones gave in. Rey collapsed back against the bindings, squeezing her eyes shut. In the moments of quiet she was finally allowed, Rey let the tears spill out. 

Tears she couldn’t afford; not for the lack of water in this horrific place, but the absence of warmth. Life. Anything to cling to as she felt herself slip deeper and deeper into the rage that had boiled at the base of her skull. 

“Be afraid”, he had said. 

Rey was sick of being afraid. She was sick of crushing herself smaller to squeeze between the cracks of the world, hoping and praying to a responseless void for someone to just look up and see her. Rey had the snarled promise of a Sith. She had herself. 

It would have to be enough. 

Sleep had almost taken her. 

Rey didn’t know where she would have gone. 

But with that soft brush, that gentle touch, she was shocked back to reality. A feeling like bedrock beneath her feet. Assurance like her favorite tools in her hands. 

I’m here. 

A sob shook her chest, pure relief spilling out of her like a desert spring. 

I’m not leaving you behind. 

And in the belly of that planet, crushed under tons of rock and caged in by steel, all of the guilt for her tears vanished as they poured freely down her face. 

“Finn!”

Chapter Text

Finn! 

The memory of Rey’s gasp echoed a steady beat against the insides of his skull, matching every pound of his boots against the freezing durasteel of the corridor. 

She’s alive. She’s here. She can be saved. 

Finn tightened his grip on those facts, keeping him steady as he followed Poe deeper and deeper into the excavation site. 

The hallway had been dark and silent, lit with dull white LEDs and just enough insulation to not freeze over the wires. With any luck, the high amounts of manpower needed by two Knights of Ren and a high profile prisoner would keep them that way.

“Look alive, buddy.” Poe’s quip was painted with a thin sheet of cheerfulness, chipping away with every hour they’d spent away from Han. It had been the plan from the start, ordered by General Organa and agreed on by everyone present. Poe included. 

Which made the disquiet in the air prickle against his skin even harsher. 

Finn blinked, shaking his head. When the Force had claimed him, it had been bombastic and brilliant. 003 coming back to encourage him forward. The lightsaber blazing to life in his hand. The Light filling and surrounding him as darkness overtook the planet. 

But it was present now in a dozen quiet ways. 

The Force murmured around Poe, casting unease through the air like ozone before a stormfront. It could have been insight, or supernatural intervention, or the same unease rippling through his own chest, but Finn knew his words would pierce when he spoke them. 

“He’s not nearby.” 

Poe froze. His eyes, dark and quiet, shifted over to Finn’s for just a moment. 

“Ben isn’t here. Our Force bond didn’t activate, I’m not covering him. We’ll get Rey and get out before he knows we’re even here.” 

Poe gave a single, slight nod. The trek continued on, and Finn couldn’t help the way he noticed Poe’s shoulders relax…and the guilt that echoed bitterly through the Force along with it. 

I’ve really got to figure out how to turn this thing off…

“Hands up!” 

Poe’s gun was raised in an instant, but Finn was faster. With a strength and speed he didn’t know he possessed, he flew into Poe’s shoulder. The blaster clattered to the floor sharply, and the stormtrooper who’d rounded the corner hissed a sharp intake of breath. 

Poe didn’t strike back. The trust was dizzying, even as Poe stepped back to reach for a side-arm. 

“Twone?!” 

Disarming Poe had thrown enough confusion into the trooper’s mind to stall his trigger finger, and only confirmed to Finn who he was facing.

It meant he’d only have another handful of seconds before Sixoh panicked and called their commander. 

Sixoh swing his gun back and forth, fingers fumbling on the trigger. As it swept towards Poe, Finn struck. He slammed into Sixoh, his superior weight and strength bringing them both to the floor.  He grabbed Sixoh’s blaster and yanked harshly. 

“Let go of me! You trai--” 

Sixoh’s blaster skidded across the floor to Poe’s feet. Hands free, Finn snatched off his helmet and tossed it to the side. 

“Shh!” Finn shoved his hand against Sixoh’s lips, locking eyes with the young man. The stupidly childish gesture made them both pause. 

Sixoh had been a crybaby, a tattle tale. A couple years younger than most of the boys and less ruthless in combat than the girls, he was always nursing a bruise and “reporting misconduct to a higher officer”. 

Finn had shoved a hand over Sixoh’s mouth more times than he could count. Grimaced and promised “hit me back, fine, just don’t tell the overseer”. Rolled his eyes as 003 crawled over to Sixoh’s bunk and murmured words that always quieted the younger boy’s sobs. 

003 had said that Sixoh could remember his family. 

Finn, only fifteen at the time, had told 003 that Sixoh should either count himself lucky or just forget if it was going to make him cry so much. 

Sixoh’s face was flushed, dark hair was a messy tangle that stuck to his soaked brow. Ilum was freezing. Their armor wasn’t suited for it. 

“What’s going on?” Finn pressed, eyes sharpening to a glare. “What’re they planning?!” 

“I’M NO--” 

The distinct sound of a blaster charging echoed down the hall. 

Poe, recovered from Finn’s shove, was pointing the barrel squarely at Sixoh’s unshielded face. “Keep it down,” he said mildly. 

Sixoh’s eyes flickered from him back to Finn. Finn didn’t move. 

Sixoh placed his head against the floor, throat bobbing. “Fine. Fine. But I’m not--” His eyes darted between them again. “I can’t tell you anything. You know how much they let us in on, Twone--” 

“I know exactly how much. Too much. We’re not eyes or minds to them.” Finn drove his knee into Sixoh’s stomach with a slight shove. “Just full shells of armor. So what have you seen? What do you know? ” 

“I know you betrayed us, right after that piece of rebel scum killed 003!” Sixoh snapped. Poe’s only reaction was a sharp sting of emotion into the Force. Finn ignored it. “I know you’re throwing everything away!” Sixoh continued. “For a scavenger and a Rebellion that’s so ready to crumble that a senile old woman is leading the charge!” 

“Stop.” Finn raised a hand at Poe’s sharp breath, the tightening of his hands on his blaster. Poe’s emotions were running hot, and the cold certainty of dread had fallen onto Sixoh’s face. 

A coward. He was always a coward. And they still managed to lodge suicide into his thick skull. 

“Don’t try intel protection protocol on me.” Finn said flatly. “Not to someone who sat next to you when you cried over learning it.” 

“Intel pro--” Poe cut his own words off with a harsh grimace. “Kriff--” 

Sixoh’s teeth gritted. Finn didn’t speak to the clear relief that washed over his face. 

“What are they planning?” Finn nudged him again. “Talk. You’re not dying tonight. Not for them, not by my hand.” 

Sixoh curled his lip. “And what about your rebel scum up there in the sky? Shooting our brothers down by the minute and--” 

“And making sure a thousand more villages don’t get razed like ours.” Finn said coldly. “Shot like the mother you sobbed over every night in your bunk. Now stop stalling.” 

Sixoh’s eyes sharpened. Predictably, tears began to form in the corners. “You can’t think it’ll matter. Even if it does, even if you take down Snoke, another beast’s going to crawl out of hell to replace him. And over and over again, the same cycle for as long as the stars burned.” 

Finn hesitated. “They lied to us, scrap. But not like any of their other ones. They’re not hiding some monster. Not a weapon, or a Knight, or anything that they’re proud of.” 

He loosed his grip on Sixoh’s arm, letting his hand linger over the freezing white shell for a moment. To watch for a flinch, a jolt of movement to a weapon. 

Nothing came. 

Finn reached behind him, pulling out the light silver tube. 

Sixoh’s eyes widened in clear terror, a struggle freezing his muscles. 

Finn ignited the saber. 

Blue, as warm and clear as a summer sky bloomed down the dim hall. The saber sang to live, humming that harsh promise of power. However Finn chose to wield it. 

“There’s more than just darkness. More than we’d ever be able to imagine. And they hate it, Sixoh. They’ll destroy it if they get the chance.” 

The saber beam split Sixoh’s pupils, a clean line between a narrowing circle of black. “If it’s so important,” his fingers scraped against the durasteel, an unconscious motion. A shiver, as if he couldn’t tell if he wanted to lunge for the saber or flinch away from it. “Then why does it need you to protect it?” 

“It’s the other way around.” Poe’s voice was quieter than Finn had ever heard it. His curls shone, highlighted in every strand to cast shadow over his eyes. But he lifted his head, Sixoh’s discarded blaster lowering to his side. “It chose Finn. And it’s the reason I wasn’t stupid enough to put you in the ground alongside your brother.” 

Sixoh’s mouth twisted into a grimace. “So you’ll spare every trooper in this base? On this planet? Do they not teach you about war in the Resistance? If Finn had been a second slower, you would have--” 

The blaster came up in an instant, raised to aim between his unshielded eyes. 

Click!

Poe’s finger had tightened on the trigger. Sixoh’s blaster lay calm and dead in his hand. 

“I would have shot a soldier who walks around on border patrol with his safety on. I think Finn deserves to take point on this one.” 

“Finn?” Sixoh’s question died in his throat as Finn nudged his knee in again.

 “We’re out of time.” He said flatly. “And I’ve got a squad member in there.” 

An unreadable expression came over Sixoh’s face. But when his words came out, they were dull and quiet as hewn stone. “Snoke’s going to have his prize by tonight. If I had to guess? Only a handful of minutes left.” 

Poe’s soft, huffing laugh split the air. Sixoh’s widened eyes fell to him. “Well kid, you got one thing right. Only a few minutes left.” 

“What does that--” 

His words cut off as Finn slammed the butt of his blaster into Sixoh’s brow. The smaller trooper slumped to the ground. 

He was disarmed and tied up. His comm was stolen to listen in on, and Finn and Poe were down the hall in a matter of minutes. 

The hall stretched on, deeper and deeper into the depths of the planet. 

“I killed your friend,” Poe said suddenly. 

Finn nodded. “You’ve killed a lot of people, I’d imagine. So have I.” 

“...so you’re not--” 

“Poe.” Finn stopped, placing a hand on his shoulder. “This is war. You’re not a murderer, and you didn’t kill him for any other reason than self-preservation. It’s in the past. We’ve got no other choice but to move on.” 

Hesitant, Poe nodded. And as bitter as the words were, they rang true. There was no time to get caught up in the details. Not while their mission lay ahead. 

“I attacked you.” He said finally. “Because I saw a chance to spare one of mine. I won’t waste time again.” 

The silence was thicker, heavier this time. Again, Poe nodded. “We’ll do what we can. But we need to make sure we make it out alive.” 

The hall led further and further into the planet, chill settling deeper into Finn’s bones as they went. 

“So, Twone, huh?” Poe’s words finally broke the silence. “Didn’t mean to give you a name if you already--”
“It wasn’t a name.” Finn reassured him. “Besides…Finn’s better.” 

It was a reminder. One that he’d sorely needed. 

Twone was a member of a unit. As long as he saw himself as such, he’d be as slow as he was today. Almost enough to let Poe’s itchy trigger finger drop another one of his brothers. 

Sixoh was right. This was war. Finn would have to kill before the night was out. He didn’t blame Poe for killing 003, or himself for the inevitability of tonight. 

But he’d be carrying the right name to do it. Finn; taken from the name of his squadron, of all his brothers and sisters. He wouldn’t hide within the numbers anymore. He’d wear the name of his squadron on the lips of everyone he was coming to love. 

Until they were gone, or he was.

Chapter Text

Kylo Ren--

Ben--

Kylo Ren's hands gripped the edge of the sink, trying to still the tremors shaking his body. 

Snoke didn't notice. He's too busy. 

The only rock in this storm, the only anchor keeping him from spiraling completely. 

Not forever. Not forever. He's going to turn or kill her. 

My fault. 

My fault. 

My own kriffing fault.

She shouldn't be here. I should have never gotten close. 

He'd let hope poison his mind, wreathing and choking him until he had the gal to believe it. To imagine, just for one moment, returning back to what he'd lost. 

But…just because I can't…that doesn't mean that she can't. 

Rey had hated him. He couldn’t blame her for that. The horror, the pain he'd inflicted on her…it was only right for her to lash out. 

He felt hollowed out by the force of her gaze, skin stripped from his bones to show her every festering scrap of flesh

It's better she knows. She's too kind. If she knows…

Ben slowly released his grip from the sink, the tendons in his fingers groaning. 

She'll be smart enough to leave me behind. 

He crossed the room, sweeping off the massive, dark sheet covering his most prized possession. A gift from Snoke, one that both confused and comforted. 

The shattered mask of Darth Vader stared back at him. 

Ben sunk to his knees, the all-too familiar posture he’d taken hundreds of times. At first, he’d had to crane his neck up to stare at it, but now he was level with the piece, able to stare directly into the empty, hollow sockets of the mask. 

“Grandfather.” 

His voice was too hollow, too weak, a child's frail cry. He sunk his own mask back onto his head, feeling it lock around his face. That extra bit of armor. That extra edge he'd need.

“I know what I have to do.” 

It had been the relentless drum at the edges of his mind, the constant sharp rhythm that had kept his heart beating when all he'd wanted to do was vanish.

“I don't have the strength to do it. Not alone. Grandfather…please.” 

His throat closed, a swallow barely keeping it open. 

“Help me.” 

Silence suffocated the room. Minutes passed, ticking away. Every ragged breath a plea, every bead of sweat a prayer under that stifling, suffocating muzzle of a mask. 

He didn't have forever to wait. 

Ben rose to his feet. 

The Darkness had been his ally for years. Maybe the Light would read his heart, turn its face away for long enough to let him do this. To let him save it. 

He lifted up his eyes. 

A long brown cloak. Hair that tumbled down to his shoulders. A strong chin, like Uncle Luke. A square brow, like Mama.

Anakin Skywalker, wreathed in the light of the force, stood before him. 

Kylo Ren's mask shattered. 

Metal peeled off and clattered to the floor like a wilting flower, glass raining down in a frail shower to catch in his hair, his robes, clinging rather than cutting. 

Ben's breath rattled with the exposure. 

“No.” Anakin's voice was soft and solid. “I revoke my birthright. It was never yours to take.” 

Dread swallowed his chest. “You can’t!” 

He lurched forward, as if there was anything real in this prison, as if he wasn't begging a ghost for something as intangible as words. 

“It's all I have! I have to save them! Or what else was it for?!” 

“My life was a tree planted in rotting soil.” Anakin crossed the room, closing that impossible gap. “Everything I did bore bitter fruit. The only thing worth any value was the life I helped bring into this world. No one is born to die, Ben. Not even men like us.” 

“But what if dying is the only way? What if it's the only way to save them?” 

“Sacrifice can be noble. But it isn't atonement. They aren't yours to save--” 

“Then who will?! Rey's captured, Finn barely knows the Force, and Poe--” 

“Alone, Ben.” Anakin continued softly, yet in a voice that boomed and covered his own. “The Light does not let us struggle alone. Not without it. Not without those we love.” 

All he could do was shake his head, plead with the ghost of that late, great Jedi. His own blood. The grandfather who’d done so much for the galaxy. “I won't be strong enough. I can't be.” 

Anakin’s eyes softened, but his expression was resolute

 “Neither was I.” 

In a blink, he was gone. 

Every question, every desperate scream for answers died on Ben’s tongue. 

He was alone. 

Nearly. 

Like sunbeams in a rainstorm, the Light dipped and cut through the Darkness, swirling their way through the dappled landscape of his mind. It was ready. 

It was calling. 

And every breath without it tore razors through his lungs for want of it, for the need of a soft, easy release into what it promised. 

Ben closed his eyes. 

“Thank you.” 

The sincerity of it stung his lips, the knowledge that he couldn’t end there. 

“But I can't be weak for you. You'd have me crawl to the Light instead of marching through the Darkness with my head held high. And if…if I have any chance at getting them out, I need strength. Not submission. Not now.” 

The Dark swelled with pride. 

“But I'm done fighting for it.” 

It faltered. 

And that was enough. Enough to give him the confidence that he could do this. He could honor his grandfather, follow his desires for Ben, and he could hold onto the strength he needed to get through this. 

He’d walked the lines of darkness for Light’s sake enough time in his mind. He could balance this much more. 

Ben stepped for the door. 

The planet beneath his feet groaned and shook. 

HATE. 

The voice filled everything.

Every breath, every thought, every molecule of his body was Snoke. 

 It ground against his bones, shredded the flesh of his mind, poured into those two words. 

KILL. HIM. 

The image of Han Solo was slammed into Ben's mind, a roughish grin plastered across that wrinkled face that was all too familiar. 

He was standing at the edge of a pit, an empty bandelier of explosives thrown over his shoulder. Snoke's presence tainted the image, the words of fury, the clawing presence in Han's mind. 

He had taken what Snoke had wanted. 

And there was only one thing he could have destroyed to incite that much rage. 

Ben’s door slammed open, and Zyth shot through in a blur of gray gauze. 

Her veil was crooked, hands pale with veins and grasping, clutching at his shoulders as if he was the last solid thing in the galaxy. 

“It's happening--” her words were a ragged gasp, her nails would have broken his skin had they not been ragged, torn to the quick. 

Ben tried not to wince, tried to shift so she didn’t see his wrecked mask behind him. “I felt it, Zyth, I know--” 

He should’t have worried. Fury roiled off of her in waves as even those short words left his mouth. “You don't, so shut up for once in your life and listen !” 

Ben's tongue stilled. 

“I told I lost my visions.” Her breath shook in, a failing attempt to steady herself. “I didn't tell you why.” 

Ben's eyes cut across her veil, trying to find her eyes underneath. 

“Zyth, he could--” 

“He's in mourning!” She snapped. “He doesn't care what we're doing as long as we kill that fool! But listen--tonight is the last vision I ever had. I…I couldn’t handle it. I could never experience it to the end, so I…I got locked in that moment. The Dark won’t let me see anything else until I accept it.”  

Ben stilled. “You knew? Why didn't you say anything?” 

Brash hope slammed into his ribs with the rhythm of his heart. Maybe she wasn't fully gone. Maybe-- 

“Tonight,” she gasped, fingers digging in, and Ben knew that nails or not, she'd be leaving marks behind. “Tonight, we’re going to die. Both of us. Bleeding in the snow, by the hands of  a girl with the sun under her skin and a man with a soul that sings with the Force. I’ve seen it. Again and again, the Dark tells me, they strike us down if we fail Snoke. And then…he’s going to keep at his plan anyways.” 

Her veil firmly cut off his gaze. It didn't stand a chance of hiding her. 

“Zyth,” he said quietly. “We need to run.” 

She flinched back, as surely as he'd burned her. “Run?! For how long?! Until the darkness has us cornered, until Snoke's consumed enough of the galaxy that there's no ground beneath our feet?! We need to pray to whatever part of the Dark follows our command. We need to try to fix this before it's too late!” 

Simultaneously, their comms sprang to life. 

“This is FN-6048.” A dazed, stumbling voice sounded over the comm. “I encountered Resistance Fighters in the base. Commander Poe Dameron and the traitor FN-2187. I don't know their mission, but they were headed east into the planet's crust through the maintenance tunnels.” 

Zyth stared up at Ben, waiting. 

He placed his hand to the responder. “Gather the rest of your squadron.” 

“Bu--sorry sir, but all squadrons have been told to search the base for Han Solo. It comes directly from the Supreme Leader, sir.” 

Ben nodded slowly. 

Better be as quick as you brag, old man. 

“Fine. Follow your orders as stated.” 

“Sir!” 

The line clicked off. 

“Kylo. Please. ” She swallowed as if the plea had risen up bile. “I’m not going to make it if you don’t”

Ben looked down at her, placing his hands over hers to ease them from his arms. The tendons stiffened…But relented.

“You're not going to die.” he tried to put every ounce of assurance, every solid rhythm of promise within the words. “I'll take care of Solo. You try to take care of the Resistance fugitives.” 

Zyth shook her head. “He’s your father, Kylo, you’re not going to be strong enough to--”

“And if you fail,” Ben said firmly. “You’d take on the pain. So listen, ok? Find the fugitives. Get them in a cell, and come find me.” 

Zyth nodded. Her hand gripped her saber hilt like a lifeline. 

Maybe he could convince her then. Or maybe they’d both be doomed by her vision. 

She was never wrong. 

But neither was the Light. And it had sent Anakin to him, telling him to live. 

Bleeding out in the snow. Taken down by Rey and Finn. 

But not dead by them. Maybe it’s enough. 

Zyth’s free hand came up, giving her veil a gentle tug to adjust it, letting it fall smoother over her face as she started for the exit. 

“Zyth.” 

She paused, glancing back in the doorway. 

It wasn’t something Sith said, but the words slipped from his lips regardless. “May the Force be with you.” 

Zyth’s tiny snort rippled the shifting fabric of her veil. “Sap.” 

Ben didn’t deny it. “Make it back to me. Save the rest of the insults for then.” 

With a shift of fabric and a swallowing of shadow, Zyth was gone. 

Chapter Text

Han’s mind was a shivering haze, thoughts swarming too quickly in and out to catch. Chewie had already saved his life more times than he could count, pulling him to hiding places, and shooting stragglers on their tail.. Han couldn’t find the breath to thank him. Even if he could, he wouldn’t be able to form the words to speak. 

With a concerned grumble, Chewie grabbed his arm and pulled. The two entered a control room, the panels blinking and flashing with alerts in the dim light. 

“Whole base is after us, buddy.” Han laughed. “Been awhile since I was this popular.” 

Chewie didn’t bother entertaining his bragging, starting to barricade the door with whatever he could find. 

 Han collapsed against one of the walls, leaning his head back to the sheer, dark steel, trying to settle his heart. But there was nothing he could do to keep his face from splitting open into a grin. 

Luke would have called it arrogance, if he was in the mood to be tactful. At worst, and more accurately, it was pure vengeance. 

It was everything he’d been dreaming of, for eleven long years. 

Ten minutes ago. . . 

“Clear the crypt! Supreme Leader Snoke commands it!” The trooper was barely visible, even in his pure white shell of armor. The entire place was lit with floodlights,but they rained down in sheer, contained beams, pinpoints of brilliance against the swallowing darkness of the dig site. Troopers spilled out of the depths of the dig site like ants from a disturbed hill. They were all movement and unease, only fully visible when passing through those meager beams of light to climb their way back out of the depths. The commander was the last to go, scanning the cavern for any stragglers. 

Just out of sight, Han and Chewie stayed quiet and still in their alcove. The clinging shadows, for once, were working for them instead of against. Han pressed against the carved tunnel, shooting a grin back to Chewbacca. “Well, if the Supreme Leader is commanding it, we better check it out, eh Chewie?” 

Chewbacca gave him a look, somewhere between exasperation and amusement, the mine far too echoed to risk speech. Not for the first time, Han was grateful his old friend had split off with the Falcon to join them on the planet’s surface. Against Leia’s orders, but if she’d wanted to stop him, she would have. 

No, it seemed this was where her role as a doting wife took over her sensibilities as a general. Han would thank her for it, once he was back in her arms. 

Stairs had been carved into the sides of the dig site, leading to the First Order’s discovery. Spires of carved stone broke from the ground in a ring, like filthy teeth. In the center, the ground gave out in a perfect, symmetrical ring. The hollow was filled with shadow, too thick for Han’s eyes to see any details. 

Chewie grumbled lowly, and Han shrugged. No idea if there were cameras, but with the pace Finn said they’d been digging, he doubted they’d had the time to set up wiring for it. Either way, this was the only chance they’d get. 

As the last trooper slipped away through the entrance tunnel, the pair wasted no time in scaling down. Han’s knee was beginning to ache by the time they’d reached the bottom, and he was doing everything he could to avoid Chewie’s knowing look. 

There was no time for that. He could fall apart some other time, when his princess’s life wasn’t on the line. 

The two approached the edge, gazing down into the hole. 

Nothing but darkness, untouched by the harsh floodlights from above. 

Han grimaced, but pulled out a glowrod, pointing it towards the depths. The shadows parted, sluggish and clumping like congealed blood. 

The glowrod’s beam fell onto a solid granite table, carved with some kind of runes that Han had no chance of reading. The entire chamber was empty, except for what lay on that surface. 

Han looked down into the empty eyes and leathered skin of an ancient corpse. The cloak around it, in contrast to the state of the body, was still a rich, deep black. It had plenty of folds, loose and wide with how much the body had shrunk in death. 

“Kid was right…” Han felt a sliver of ice run up his spine. “Alright, Chewie. Lower me in.” 

Footsteps fell, rising in succession, echoing down the tunnel. 

Han whispered every curse his lips could find and slammed himself into the shadow of the wall, where a tool had dug just a bit too deep. 

He and Chewie had barely enough time to make it to the top of the dig site, and there was only one way out. A way that someone was walking down rapidly, about to burst in and see them. 

A figure came into view, and Han’s stomach twisted. 

Skin as cracked as droughted earth, dark pits where one would expect eyes. He wasn’t much taller than Chewbacca, but his presence swelled in the room, making the floodlights seem even smaller, more pitiful in the face of something so deep and vast. 

Snoke raised his arms. The dark layers of his cloak wisped around him like the writhing branches of a tree in a storm. And, instead of turning to use the path, to see Han and Chewbacca, he began to float down. His breath echoed like the desperate pant of a hound. 

As Snoke lowered himself deeper, Han jerked his chin towards the entrance. Once Snoke arrived at the bottom, they’d have seconds. Not much time for running left in it all. 

Chewie nodded, and the two slowly began to slink their way to the tunnel’s entrance.  

“Han Solo.” Snoke’s sneer rang out, splitting the air on a knife’s edge. “Truly, what a surprise.” 

He’d always tried to imagine what Luke had felt when he’d faced Vader, up in that Death Star. The man who’d tortured him. Destroyed Leia’s planet, who had sent irreparable damage shattering through the galaxy. 

He’d made his peace with the fact he would never know. Because Luke had to give up on his hatred to defeat Vader. To forgive him. 

As Han dragged his gaze down, to the sneering, festering creature below, he thanked the Force it had never wrapped around him like it had his family. If the Dark Side had offered itself to him in that moment, he would have used every bit of it to crush the creature below him. 

“I didn’t think even you would be so foolish,” Snoke began to stride for the edge of the hollow, towards the corpse lying in wait. “I should have known better, to never underestimate a fool.” 

Han’s hand itched for his blaster, but he kept it in his pocket, curled around the cool plastic piece. 

Chewbacca’s roar echoed, his bowcaster blazing red in the dim space. 

Snoke’s hand rose, the energy scattering off and into the rock. 

“Look, even the animal has more words than you.” Snoke sneered, as if he’d swatted away a fly. 

He’d made it to the hollow, raising his arms. Black fabric fluttering, the corpse began to rise towards Snoke’s waiting arms. “No words for me? Of course not, you’re not here for me. No, you’re here to take back your murderous wretch of a child. I wonder if you’ll find anything salvageable in him once I--” 

They were too close. 

Han didn’t care anymore. 

His thumb jammed into the button. 

Snoke had a second to see the new adornments to his prize, rows upon rows of thermal detonators crossed over the corpse’s chest, barely hidden by those loose black robes. 

Fire swallowed the mine. 

------

Han’s jacket reeked of smoke. Blast marks scored his face, setting deep into the lines around his eyes. He couldn’t care, not for a single second, as he remembered the scream of pain and rage and agony, all over losing that precious thing that Snoke had spent years of his life searching for. 

“Back to the Falcon , Chewie.” Han said, giving his old friend a weary smile. “We’ve gotta trust the kids for the rest.” 

Chewbacca let out a sharp groan of protest, and Han shook his head. 

Poe and Finn…they’d take care of the rest. Because as much as Poe might deny it, he would bring his brother home. And neither of them were going anywhere without Rey. 

“It’s their turn, now.” 

Chewie growled, but eventually relented. He grabbed onto Han’s arm, supporting his steadily worsening knee as they went. 

The thrill in his chest, the pure satisfaction made him allow it. Snoke wasn’t dead. Far from it. But he refused to let himself be caught, used as a bargaining chip. 

I evened the field, as much as I could, kids. It’s your game to play, now.

Chapter Text

Rey’s limbs had long since fallen asleep. She kept wiggling her toes, stretching her fingers, shifting as much as she could to keep herself from going completely numb. But every time her writhing got too frequent, a sharp glare was thrown her way by the stormtrooper standing at the entrance of her cell. 

The fifth or so time, the trooper let out a growled warning. Rey went still, closing her eyes and trying to think. 

Three options in front of her. Three paths. 

Wait for Finn. He was here, somewhere, on the planet. His presence had flooded into her mind like summer dawn, pulling herself from the dark spiral her brain had fallen down. But just because he was on the planet, it was no guarantee he was nearby, or able to get to her. 

So, the other option; take Zyth’s deal. Join the Knights of Ren, wrap herself in darkness to protect, like Ben had always done. 

Zyth had been emotional, intense, and sharp. She’d seen every horrible thing Rey had tried to hide…and she hadn’t shied away. She would still try to support her. So that they could both survive, the two of them and Ben. 

Or…try to escape on her own. A plan with no clear way to move forward. As impassable as a wall of stone.

If Rey stayed here, she would have to deal with Snoke. And if Rey knew anything, she knew that--

HATE. 

Every muscle in Rey’s body locked, every instinct screaming out to run. Her limbs jolted against the bindings, pulling with no hope, like an animal snared in a trap. 

KILL. HIM.

Rey’s head slammed back against the chair, her hair ties digging into her scalp. Han’s face, smirking and satisfied, flashed through her mind, refusing to fade as Snoke’s rage choked her, rising up her throat to burn her breath. 

Rey could barely hear the panicked chatter over the blood roaring in her ears, but she forced her eyes open, scanning the room. Across from her cell, armor flashed as the troopers raced past. 

Finn was here, and if that vision was true, he wasn’t alone. She’d bet her last credit that Poe was too; as if he’d let his father and Finn go at this alone. And now, the entire base was looking for them. 

Rey’s vision narrowed, until only one path remained. 

Staring up at the ceiling, she envisioned dancing sunlight and shadow pouring across it. A pattern woven by a thousand green leaves. The air full of birdsong, the wind brushing her skin with a gentle hand, carrying nothing but the scent of life, rising over the cell’s scent of steel and ice. 

Dark eyes, struck with warmer hues by the sunlight. A gentle voice, and hands somehow even more so. 

Rey’s own words echoed in her ears, a bitter string of jealousy that he’d done nothing but quietly take. 

“Love is cheap. Anyone can love someone else. But to fight tooth and nail to help you? To be at your side? It’s…a different kind of love. It’s rare. Precious. Most people would kill to have love like that.”

Only to calmly rebuke in turn. 

“That isn’t love. Cheap, I mean. It can’t be. That isn’t love then, it’s…comfort, I suppose. Pleasure, entertainment. You can feel all of those things with people you aren’t attached to.”

But love is what keeps your heart tethered to theirs, regardless of if either of you deserve it.”

She’d teased him then, because what was she meant to say to all of that? That it was something she’d longed for her entire life, without knowing it was even what she’d wanted? That the love she’d convinced herself she’d wanted, the love of her parents arms around her, wasn’t love in the first place? 

He had been right. He’d voiced every bitter truth she’d whispered to herself on those isolated, freezing nights, huddled in the scraped out belly of machinery. Wrapping her arms over her head, clenching her worn muscles until they ached, trying to exhaust herself into sleep. 

The dark had ripping through her so easily. Barely an outstretched hand, a slip of judgement, and she’d torn through Ben’s minds like sand through flesh. Seeing everything he had to hide, every pain that wasn’t hers to unearth. 

She had been cruel, bitter, sadistic. She couldn’t take any of that back. Like how he couldn’t take back what he’d done to her, putting her in danger and landing her here. 

What keeps us tethered to them. Regardless of if either of you deserve it. 

The bridge between her and Ben had burned to ash. 

But Finn was here. 

I don’t deserve it. The first second I got the chance, I fell to the Dark. I jumped into its arms, just like Finn was worried about. 

But…

But he’s here. He made the choice to come after me. 

So I need to love like he does. Whether or not it’s right for me to. 

Rey moved back into the memory. The Force shifting with every sway of the branches and quick-footed animal in the undergrowth. 

The small stone by her foot. The feeling of Ben’s hand around her’s; lifting, spreading her fingers. 

He had been so warm, like a man with a hearth in his chest. 

Focus, Rey. The stone. 

She’d moved it a handful of inches…barely anything. But the bindings around her arms…they needed to move less than that for the unlatching mechanisms to kick in. 

Rey closed her eyes. 

I’m sorry. 

The Light drifted, quiet as a breeze, across her skin. Rey shivered, feeling naked as a babe under it’s attention. 

Please, I need your help. 

Peace drifted over her, churning her stomach further. 

I don’t deserve it. I know I don’t, but I want--I need to keep on living. 

Finn was here. Poe had told her that he’d make sure she got to where she needed to be. Han had laughed at her words, Ben had smiled, joked with her, so soon after the screaming and pain of his argument with his family 

I want to go home. 

To them. Please. 

The Force filled her. Waiting. Ready. Buzzing at the ends of her fingers like latent electricity, ready to spark out at a single thrust of power. 

Rey flexed her hands. This was the only chance she had. Everyone was focused on Han, stars protect him, but that meant there were less troopers here. 

Rey flicked out her fingers. 

The latch over her left arm shuddered, and opened with a hiss. 

Her eyes grew wide, immediately pulling it free with a gasp. 

It had been simple. Not without effort, but without strain, like reaching out to touch glass but finding only air beneath your fingertips. 

“Hey!” 

The stormtrooper’s shout slammed her back to reality, his boots slamming on the floor as he approached. 

Idiot! I shouldn’t have moved until everything was unlatched! 

“How did you get that open?!” The trooper snarled. He snatched her arm, and it took everything in her not to yelp like a frightened animal. 

Rey’s mind blanked out as he snatched her arm, trying to wrestle it back into her binding. She could barely move a rock, she couldn’t shove him away! 

“Mind tricks only work on the weak-minded, those who have wills easy to overpower.”

Mind trick. He’d tried it on her once, to demonstrate, but she’d shrugged it off in an instant. She hadn’t even bothered to try it on him, but…

She remembered how it had felt. 

“You want to unbind me!” her voice stumbled out, a harsh squeak. “A-and pretend that you never saw me!” 

Her will battered against his, a shredded scrap of paper battering against a wall. The stormtrooper’s eyes burned from behind his visor. 

“What was that, scavenger?” 

His grip had tightened to a vice on her arm. She’d only have one more chance. 

Why? Why does he want to do that? 

Rey’s mind reached out and grasped, closing onto the memory of Zyth. What she’d felt like, slinking into the room like cold mist. Her presence rising up, her hair like a tangled nest of crimson serpents. Come too closely, and you’d be bitten. 

Rey imagined herself cloaked in that same sense of authority, the aura of warning. 

“Release me.” She said firmly.

The trooper’s hand fell away. 

Rey’s heart surged, and her concentration nearly snapped, but she dug her nails into the outside of the trooper’s psyche, raising her presence up in his mind. 

“You want to undo my bindings, and then pretend you never saw me.” she whispered. 

“I want to undo your bindings, and then pretend I never saw you.” He agreed, hands moving over them quickly. 

Rey stumbled free from the chair as he began to walk off, nearly falling to the floor by how numb her legs had gotten. “And you’ll drop your weapon!”
“Aaand I’ll drop my weapon.” 

His blaster clattered to the floor. 

Rey had to clap her hand over her mouth, hardly believing her eyes. Her grin pressed against the skin of her hand. 

---

Starkiller base wasn’t the same as a Star Destroyer, but Imperial tech was Imperial tech. The power cells weren’t choked with dust and sand, but they were all stored along the walls in the same pattern. The hallways were the same grid of well-labeled pathways, and in no time at all, Rey had found what she was looking for. 

The barracks of the troopers were empty, everyone combing the base for the intruders. Rey pried open the panels on the walls, looking for any spare suits of armor to cover herself in.

The presence brushed her mind, stilling her hands. 

Rey? 

Her eyes widened as she whipped around. Without another thought, she was bolting in the direction of the presence. 

Finn! 

Careening around the corner, she slammed into his chest and nearly toppled them both to the floor. But then his arms were around her, first keeping her up and then embracing, refusing to let go. 

“You’re okay.” His words were more breath than voice, arms trembling slightly as he held her close. 

Rey’s eyes prickled, a hiccup of a laugh springing up in her. “You’re here.” She blinked, realizing the prickling of her eyes wasn’t just from relief. She let out a choked, incredulous laugh. “Finn, why do you smell like a rich trader’s wagon?” 

Finn pulled back, eyebrows furrowing, before he groaned. “Poe and Han and their weird battle-preparation habits.” he sighed. “I was smashed in a starfighter with them for hours.” 

Rey wrinkled her nose, then sneezed. “You’ll have to tell me about it later.” 

The words danced on her tongue; later. There would be a later to have, to share their stories somewhere safe and--

Rey brushed her giddiness aside. They weren’t out of here yet. “Han, and Poe? Where are they?” 

“Split off,” he explained. “Han went to destroy the Sith corpse that Snoke wanted, and Poe went to find us an escape ship while I got you. But it looks like you freed yourself.” 

“The corpse? ” 

Finn shook his head. “I’ll tell you soon, I promise. But for now, we need to--” 

The sound of shredding steel and electronics cut off his words, seizing his hands around Rey’s arms protectively. 

Alerted by the sound, trooper boots began to hurry down the hall. 

Finn bit out a curse, pulling Rey back into the barracks. His eyes scanned the room, looking for anywhere to hide. But there were only thin storage units, too small for either of them to squeeze into, and stacks of bunks. Nowhere where they’d be out of sight for more than a few seconds/ 

But there was only a moment before the footfalls slowly began to retreat again. 

The cacophony of destruction halted. Silence, except for the occasional shower of sparks and heavy, tense breathing. 

Rey’s tongue unlocked. “We should--” 

“Finn?” 

Ben’s voice was startled, followed quickly by his footfalls as he rounded the corner into the barracks. His lightsaber was in his hand, but it hung limply at his side, unactivated. 

For a long moment, all they could do was stare at each other, baffled. 

“You’re not locked up,” Ben said dumbly. 

“You’re on fire.” Finn pointed out. 

Kylo Ren’s hand went to his sleeve, patting out the fire smoldering on the thick fabric of his cloak. His mask was…gone, his skin flushed with more life than Rey had ever seen it. 

“You two need to leave.” His voice had solidified now, sharp and quick. “I’ve only seen Snoke this angry once before.” 

His eyes met Rey’s, and that moment, that memory she’d torn from his mind, flashed in front of her. A scream that had slashed into the earth like the swings of a scythe, that had torn through everyone’s minds and--” 

“Our mission succeeded.” Finn said quickly. “The best thing we can do is leave. All of us. Order your troops off the planet.” 

Kylo Ren’s brow furrowed in confusion, only to settle again with understanding. “I can’t.” He admitted. “They’re under Snoke’s command, and my word doesn’t supersede his.” 

Finn’s jaw tensed sharply. “Snoke will rampage, and they’ll pay for it.” he snapped. “So if you’re not even going to--” 

“Stop. I only said I couldn’t.” Ben pulled out his comm, raising it to his lips. 

Finn’s hand tightened on his blaster, but Ben held up a hand, understanding in his dark eyes. “Elio. Come in.” 

Static crackled over the line.“This better be good, Kylo!” A deeper, sharp voice cut through. “We’re keeping the Resistance from the surface, but it’s patch work. I can’t come down to help with the Han problem, we’ve got our hands full up here!” 

“Then call more troops. Fill every ship.” 

Elio made a choked sound over the radio, only to be accentuated by the harsh rain of blasterfire. “That’s against direct orders.” 

“It is.” Ben agreed. Then, with a quiet pause. “Zyth had a vision. If she faces the Resistance fighters trying to escape the planet, she and I are going to die.” 

Elio swore colorfully. “She--kriffing stars, and she’s telling us this now?! How does getting troopers off the planet help?” 

“A guard for her.” Ben said simply. “If these resistance kids do escape like her vision says, Snoke’s rampage is going to get worse. And you know who’ll get caught in the crossfire.” 

The other line was quiet for a long moment. Then, words measured and guarded, Elio spoke again.“Since when have you started caring about our troops?” 

“Since it got me back in your good graces, so you won’t snitch on Snoke about us letting the Resistance fighters slip away. I’m not about to die for a renegade stormtrooper, an old man, and a scavenger.” 

Elio was quiet for a long moment. “What about you?” 

“I’ll be in the air once Zyth is in the clear.” he promised. “...we’re not having another Asryn.” 

Asryn. 

Rey’s own chest tightened in empathy; of Ben’s shared memories of that tiny scrap of a girl, quick-tongued and brightspirited. Snuffed out forever, for no reason other than carelessness. 

The name stuck lightning into the room, clear even through Elio’s silence. “No.” he said finally. “No, we’re not.” 

The comm went dead. Then, seconds later, a comm in Finn’s pocket flared to life. “New orders!” Elio barked out. “All troops, to your stations! We’re taking this battle to the air!” 

As the line went dead again, silence filled the room. 

Ben looked to Rey. “It won’t matter for long. But I never meant for you to get hurt.” his eyes rose to Finn. “Either of you.” 

“I wiped you and Rey from the databases. You’ll still be recognized by those who knew you, obviously. But you won’t be automatically flagged by the security cameras.” His hand lifted towards Finn. A small flash drive sat, nestled against the dark fabric. “And…I couldn’t find anything on Rey. But this is all of the information the First Order had on the planet and villages they raided for the FN squadron.” 

Finn’s eyes widened, looking to Ben and then to the drive, as if it was going to morph into a blaster. But after several seconds, he quietly took the drive without another word. “We’re leaving the planet,” he said finally. “You’re going to let us?” 

“I’m going to make sure you do.” Ben said firmly. “So that Zyth doesn’t kill you…and you don’t kill her, looking for a way out.” 

Rey’s mind was spinning, and all she could think to say was. “But…you said Zyth’s vision…that we killed you too.” 

“That’s what she said.” Ben agreed. 

“...has she ever been wrong?”

“No.”

Chapter Text

Rey was shivering. 

More than once, Ben had to keep himself from turning, sliding off his cloak and offering it to her. The new clothes they’d bought had been useful for lower temperatures, but they didn’t stand much of a chance against the drifts of snow pulled up by biting winds. Her shoulders were bare, her hands uncovered. 

Yet she still gripped the blaster tightly in her fist, knuckles white against the deepening red of her fingers. Tense and terrified as a wire about to snap. And so Ben said nothing, trudging through the woods back to the starfighter they’d taken here. 

Finn had hung back slightly, several steps behind Ben and a few behind Rey. The obvious reason was to keep an eye behind them, as the harsh white lights of Starkiller Base faded behind them. But the more obvious reason was clear; if Ben tried to hurt Rey, he couldn’t get to Finn in time to stop him from firing. 

The silence was deafening. Ben has done everything he could to make up for what he’d done. It wasn’t enough. That was okay. 

He hadn’t done it so they’d forgive him. 

The forest was thickening, dark branches lacing over their heads like bony fingers. Between the scraps of darkening sky, flashes of light sparked in an endless, random pattern. More ships from the surface rose into the air, and Ben bit back a grimace. 

Be smart enough to leave, Mama. Please. 

The planet shuddered underneath him, the earth itself flinching back as the Dark spiked out again, endless waves of pure rage. 

Finn darted forward, catching Rey’s shoulder as she nearly crumpled to the ground. Snoke’s rage slammed through Ben’s body, coating his mouth in blood. It dripped from his lips into the snow as he gasped, trying to keep himself upright. 

The ground trembled under him, Snoke’s rage pouring through the very earth itself. The trees swayed and bucked, all bending to his influence, to the words snarled into Ben’s mind. 

“WHERE. ARE. YOU. GOING?!” 

Ben’s mouth twisted in a grimace, his own knees buckling. But there was no one to catch his shoulder, no one to keep him from tilting down into the ground. 

His hands gripped into the freezing layer of snow, trying to snap himself back into focus. “I’m getting them away from here. Away from you. ” 

There was no point in lying now, no way he could cover up escorting these two into the woods. 

“Didn’t your sister tell you? You’ll die in their escape.” 

Ben’s eyes widened, but he didn’t know why he was so surprised. Snoke has latched onto every part of their minds. Why should Zyth’s visions be safe from him?
He took a shuddering breath. “I know.” 

“Ben?” Rey’s voice was very small, the snow crunching under her boots as she took a tentative step forward. 

He held up his hand, shaking his head. 

“So, another move in your useless journey for redemption. Leia never forgave Vader, not even after he saved the galaxy. Not even after her brother, far more powerful and wise than she was, forgave him completely. Do you really think she’ll ever look on you as more than a failure, a worthless traitor killed by his own ambitions?” 

“I’m--it doesn’t matter what they think.” Ben ground out. “I’m doing this for their sake. They can hate me for it, but--” 

“Maybe don’t try to lie to the man inside your brain.” 

Ben’s head shot up. Finn’s hand clasped onto his shoulder. “You’re doing this so we forgive you. Own it. You don’t have to pretend you’re doing everything for the greater good, especially when you’re being suicidal about it.” his words cut out. “In fact, it’s pretty annoying when you do.” 

The Light brushed over him like an ocean wind, strengthening as another hand grasped his other shoulder. 

Rey, kneeling in the snow beside him. The fabric of her pants were starting to grow dark with water, her fingers still shaking slightly as they dug into his shoulder. 

“We have to go. You said so yourself.” she said firmly. “So let’s go.” 

Snoke was gone. 

Maybe it’s because of Rey and Finn. Maybe they shunted out his presence, like Rey did before. 

Finn’s hand tightened around his shoulder, pulling him to his feet. “Come on. We need to get moving.” 

“He’s coming.” 

Ben jolted to his feet, shoving himself in front of the others. 

Zyth stood several yards away, boots planted firmly in the snow. The wind whipped her veil and robes around her. Her saber was in her hand, unlit and at ease. But the worst part was the silence. Normally, he could feel her emotions pulse through the Force. Now, all he heard was a low, vibrating hum at the edge of his consciousness.

“Zyth--” 

“That’s why he left.” She cut in. “He’s coming to take care of us himself. The liar and the renegade.”

Ben’s hands gripped into fists, ignoring the urge to pull out his saber and at least hold it in some kind of defensive stance. “Zyth, please. Come with me.” 

Finn gave a sharp intake of breath, but he ignored it. “We can let these two go. And you and I can find somewhere to hide out. Away from Snoke, away from all of this. You can look into the future, find a path where you don’t have to live like this! You can leave the Force behind entirely!” 

Zyth stood, motionless, as the winds tore around her. Her veil lifted with the force of it, for just a moment, to let Ben see her slightly quivering mouth. 

“You never had a chance.” Finn’s voice was quiet, and her head snapped over to look at him. “Snoke, the officers, everyone always looking over your shoulder. You never had the choice to even look for a better path. If you come with us, ” and the word caught Ben’s breath, making his head spin with hope. “You’ll have that chance.” 

Zyth’s hand gripped onto her veil, hands creasing the fine, misty fabric. “A prodigy in the Force.” She murmured, still looking at Finn. Her eyes slid to Ben and Rey. “A bond of power unlike any the galaxy has seen in centuries. The greatest pilot in the Resistance, and an old legend come back to life…” 

Ben’s throat tightened, and the urge to reach out to feel if Han was safe nearly overtook him, but he stayed steady, keeping his eyes locked on Zyth. 

Her hand lifted, outstretched. 

For the briefest moment, hope flared up within him. 

“All of these…and you were tracked down and captured in a matter of days.” 

Red swallowed his vision. 

He was on his back in the snow, breath slammed out of him, warmth slowly melting the snow beneath him. 

“One of us dies here tonight, Ben.” Her voice lifted above the snow, reverberating out through the trees. “I won’t let it be me.” 

----

“GET DOWN!” 

Finn dragged Rey into the underbrush. The sniper fire had come out of the trees, a line so precise and deadly it could have only come from one trooper. 

His voice, a moment later, confirmed it. “Debilitated, ma’am. Not killed.” 

FN-0004, or “Zeroes”, as he allowed the younger recruits to call him. Right hand of their commanding officer, and the sharpest eyes in the squadron. 

Finn took a shaking breath, eyes scanning the trees around him. There were places to duck and hide, plenty of ways to break Zeros’ eyeline. Zyth wouldn’t want to leave Ben’s body. If they ran, using the trees as cover, maybe--

“We’re not leaving him.” Rey’s hand clenched on Finn’s wrist, her brows furrowed and tense. “We can’t. He risked everything to save us, and now he’s paying the price!” 

Finn’s mouth twisted into a grimace.

Staring into her eyes, he remembered, less than a two weeks ago, when he’d met her. He’d asked her why she’d saved him. Why she was leading him out of that Star Destroyer. 

Instinct, she’d said. She hadn’t needed to think about it.

Maybe…those stories about the Jedi weren’t so fantastical after all. 

 Finn shoved Rey’s staff and blaster into her hands. “Poe’s close, but we can’t hold them off for long.” He warned. “On my mark, we split from either side of the tree. Try to scatter the sniper’s fire.” 

Rey’s eyes flashed in the half-light of the wood’s dusk, nodding. 

“Where are they hiding?” Zyth snapped. Finn took in a breath, weaving the Force around them tighter, masking their presence as securely as he could. 

“Three.” 

I’ll go out early. Draw the fire, be sure it won’t hit Rey and--

Her hand clamped around his wrist. “ No !” she hissed quietly. “ You won’t !” 

Finn blinked at her. “Did you read my--” 

“You were practically shouting it.” she huffed. She glared up at him, and it took everything in him to not shrink away from the small woman. “We’re not doing a sacrifice play. We go out to the left. Together. On my mark now.” 

Boots crunched in the snow, getting closer. There was no time to argue, only grip his blaster and hope. 

Rey shoved her hand into the snow, slim, red fingers curling into the thick white sheet. 

“Three…two…one…mark!” 

Rey thrust her hand up. A flurry of snow sprang from her hand, carried by a thrust of the Force. Sniper fire split through the flurry in a bloody streak. 

Finn darted out the other side, blaster up and firing. Zeroes (and it was him, kriff it all!) darted away to reload out of the range of his fire. 

Rey’s blaster fire scattered into the trees, flicked away by an expert slash of Zyth’s saber. There was no more time to consider. 

They want us both. But we’re outmaneuvered if they have each other. 

Rey’s thoughts snapped into his head like a spark onto tinder. Finn raised his blaster, firing off a volley as he turned and ran into the trees. 

“After him!” Zyth’s voice snapped to Zeroes. “I’ll handle the girl!” 

“Be safe!” Rey’s voice echoed again. 

With his limited stretch of the Force, Finn was able to manage a frustrated “ How?!”  before he was ducking another piercing shot. 

He couldn’t go too far, in case Rey needed him. Not too close, to make sure she was blocked by tree cover.

The forest was silent, only the distant shouts of Zyth and Rey echoing forth. Finn stopped behind a broad trunk, scanning the treeline. His breath puffed out in clouds of steam, trading every scrap of warmth for the frigid air. 

Zeroes was invisible. His black and white armor providing the perfect cover. The armor Finn had rejected outright. 

I can’t regret that. Now now. 

The Force pulled, and he fell into its grasp. 

Finn jolted away from the tree as blaster fire seared the wood beside his chest. His jacket reeked and burned, the scent filling his nose as he snapped up his gun to return fire. 

Biting out a curse, Finn returned fire, causing Zeroes to vanish back into the treeline. 

Finn fled again, darting between the trees and brush. He found another place. Smaller this time. Hiding less of his body. 

We don’t need to defeat them. He held onto that fact, gripping it close. Just buy enough time for Poe to get here. 

But what had Zyth said? That Snoke was on his way, too? Finn shook his head quickly. There was no point in thinking about that now. 

They were stalling. Either for their salvation, or until their death. 

On his wrist, his beacon flashed, letting Poe know exactly where they were. And on the other…Sixoh’s comm. 

Finn’s fingers hastily punched in the code, as familiar to him as his own. A click, as the comm channel opened. 

“I don’t want to fight you.” Finn said firmly, keeping his lips close to the receiver so his voice didn’t carry. “No more of our brothers should die today.” 

Zeroes’ voice was flat and rote; a pattern of words that could have come from any of their mouths. Words that weren’t his own. “You abandoned and betrayed. You joined the Resistance trying to snuff us out.” His voice was as unyielding as stone, and cold as the flurries pressing against Finn’s skin. 

Finn grimaced. “They stole us from our homes.” He shot back. “Loyalty isn’t taken. It’s earned. Snoke has done nothing to earn mine…but all of you have.” 

Zeroes started to speak, but Finn pressed on. “You snuck me and the cadets medicine when we were sick. You pretended not to hear 003 and I singing, trying to hold onto our memories of the past. You protected us in combat. You’re a good man, forced into the service of a monster.” 

A twig snapped to his left. 

Finn darted from the tree, rushing behind the cover of a shard of stone, jutting up from the ground. The planet under them shuddered again. The breaking of the stone looked fresh. 

Snoke was tearing Illum apart. 

I can’t think about that now! 

“You got contradictory orders from Kylo Ren, on my demand.” he kept on, eyes scanning the trees. “Snoke’s fury is going to tear this planet apart, and he doesn’t care who that kills. Us. Our brothers, our sisters. We’re collateral and canon fodder for his plans, and I won’t continue to fight for that.” 

Movement. 

Zeroes rushed around the boulder, sniper rifle raised and aimed squarely at Finn’s head. 

He dropped to the ground, rushing for Zeros’ feet and knocking the larger man off balance. In an instant, the lightsaber blazed to life in his hand. 

As the rifle swung around, Finn struck.

The gun’s barrel fell to the ground, neatly sliced in two. 

Finn’s breath caught in his throat. Rey’s terror sparked down their bond, and his stomach lurched. 

Without thinking, led only by the Light, Finn yelled over the bond. 

Catch! 

The saber flew from his fingers.

Instead of falling to the ground, it lifted. With a blur of silver and a rush of power, the weapon sailed away into the trees. 

The telltale click of a blaster reached his ears. 

“You’re a bad liar, FN-2187.” 

Finn froze. He didn’t dare move, only his eyes to see the familiar armor painted in bands of deep blue, demarking the man’s rank. The small sidearm, pointed at his head. 

“I am.” he said quietly. “Which is how you know I’m telling the truth.” 

Zeroes was quiet. “That’s Sixoh’s comm. But I saw him in the FN shuttle, just before Mistress Zyth and I came after you.” 

“I told you.” Finn dared to turn his head, to meet the hollows where the other man’s eyes hid away. “We were torn away from our homes. But I haven’t forgotten the one you helped make for me here. Any of you. I’m not here for vengeance.” 

“Then why are you here?” 

“For my squadron.” Finn finally turned, letting the crosshairs of that blaster aim squarely at his chest. “Why did you bull rush me with a sniper rifle?” 

Zeroes’ fingers flexed. “They’re teaching you to question all kinds of things, huh kid?” 

Finn shook his head. “I was there for a single night. Didn’t have much of a chance to. This is all on you, sir.” 

“I’ve got orders. To take you in alive.” Zeroes grunted. “But First Order blasters don’t stun.”

His fingers shifted. They fell beside the trigger, loosening. 

Finn wondered if Zeroes really was quick-tongued enough to make that excuse work, when he’d disabled Kylo Ren so efficiently with a live round. 

Finn hoped so. 

“Resistance blasters do.” 

With a flick of his hand and a brilliant flash of light, Zeroes lay unconscious in the snow.

Chapter Text

Zyth moved like a sandstorm.

Rey had braved hundreds of them, and knew the chilling reality; to survive, you escaped. You got to shelter. You waited until their fury died. 

There was no hiding from Zyth. 

Her blade sliced through the air like a crimson ribbon, slashing through trees like paper and felling their mighty trunks across Rey’s path. 

Everything was a flurry of instinct and the Light, dodging her blade and scrambling over trunks to try to keep her distance. 

Rey’s numb fingers fumbled on her blaster, raising it and firing. The kickback almost flung the weapon from her hand. Zyth’s saber flashed, reflecting the projectile to burn into the snow at her feet. 

Zyth advanced, veil snapping and flowing in the sheer winter wind. “We’re all going to die!” she screeched “Because you couldn’t just lie down and take it like we’ve all had to! You couldn’t be satisfied with just surviving, and now Snoke will make us all pay!”

Her lightsaber swung, and Rey could only throw herself to the side, bare shoulder slamming into the snow as she fell. The crimson blade gouged snow and dirt where she’d been a second before. 

 “Every night, every night when I closed my eyes, the Dark showed me.” Zyth continued. “Over, and over, and over, so I’d have this chance. I’d have the chance to fix this, to stay alive, and I’m not letting you ruin that!” 

Her words were a garbled hiss, a knotted thread of threats and terror that Rey couldn’t begin to untangle. 

“Just let us go!” She managed to cry out. 

Zyth’s rage spiked through the Force. She whipped around, bearing down on Rey who was just starting to push herself to her feet. “If you go, I die . You’re a survivor, a scavenger! You know better than to ask me that!”