Thank you for the great feedback on last chapter. Here is a shorter chapter. Again, any big discrepancies that are really bad, please let me know. Thank you.

...

The mining base is dark. Only the dim, flickering emergency lights remain on. The heat is barely working and Rey shivers in the icy air. Her skin prickles with goosebumps and she can feel the tiny hairs on her body brush against the thin fabric of her robes, designed for the hot and arid desert. The only sound they can hear is the ragged breaths as they adjust to the cold, dark space, muscles tense preparing for an ambush.

There was garbage everywhere: paper, cloth, rock dust, discarded helmets and light sources. It was highly possible that this place was abandoned in a hurry, which was not a good sign if whatever scared the previous inhabitants may still be lurking about.

"What are we doing here?" Finn hissed at them nervously. He'd been in worse situations but the atmosphere of the abandoned building with the mysterious occupants is a new level for him.

BB-8 beeps and whistles at him and rolls off down the hall and around the curved corner. The normally quiet, constant thud of his body echoed in the dark grey circular chamber as he whirred away quickly. Poe tenses watching his robot rumble away, cursing something under his breath and he turns around to waive his team on with one hand, the other hand gripped firmly on his fully loaded blaster.

Lieutenant Kaydel Ko Connix had decided to tag along with the blessing of General Organa, she followed Dameron swiftly and fluidly down the hall, her feet silently gliding after him rustling neither paper nor debris. Rey swung her head to look at Finn to ensure he was still coming but a smudge of something on the wall behind him caught her eye. Quietly, she brushed past him to evaluate the foreign substance and was alarmed to find two finger smears of dark, fresh blood on the doorway leading back to the loading dock where an electrical panel had been pried off recently. Wires hung about, a small green and black device nestled among them with blinking lights that looked foreign and secondary, and below the box on the floor was a tiny puddle of oily looking blood mixed in with the errant mineral dust that littered everything in the hall. It reminds her of the throne room on the Supremacy, guards downed around her- their blood on the slippery black floor.

The atmosphere grew heavy around her abruptly and she whipped her head sideways startled by the change. It was fleeting but she swore for a moment that Kylo's all too familiar figure would show up in her periphery.

"This person's hurt." She whispered dazed and disjointedly to the team, her quiet voice echoing down the hall a few meters as she pointed to the blood on the wall and floor.

"Rey?" Finn said in a hushed tone, unease etched into the set of his jaw. She blinked at him, feeling the air equalize again.

For a brief moment they exchanged concerned glances, Rey inspected the tangled wires and puddle of blood for a second more before turning around and locking eyes with Poe.

"We should keep moving." She waltzed forward in the direction of BB-8, avoiding a toppled fire extinguisher and some errant tools as the robot beeped and chittered at the group. "In and out, that's right."

Crackling of loose electric lines and buzzing emergency lights rattled around in the acoustic hall, guiding them closer to what signs described as the mining control room. They passed doors that were lodged open with more rocks and crates, leading to unknown areas of the building. Rey thought she spotted a boot attached to a leg peeking from behind one of the slightly ajar doors but she looked away as she continued to follow the trail. The blood looked human at the very least, and not too much where this person would be unconscious, she hoped.

"How do we know this isn't a stormtrooper or someone else who's waiting to kill us?" Finn tumbled a little over a downed piece of pipe, arms flailing as he tries to regain his balance.

"Weren't you a trooper?" Poe's eyes dart back to him exasperatedly from his half-crouched position at the front of the group.

The smell hit them before the sight did as they turned into a corridor with several tunnels branching off: burned flesh and blood. It was unmistakable. The stink of incinerated hair and melted skin was familiar to them.

"Ugh!" Kaydel gagged and coughed a little bit, her large, oval eyes looking distressed at the odor as she held her hand to her nose and grimaced. Finn's nose wrinkled in response and he subtly brushed at his lip, uncomfortable with the stench. The closer they got to this person or thing, the stronger the smell became and Rey was suddenly less convinced that this person was still living.

"It's this way." Poe motioned, leading them down a hall to the northeast. At the entrance, another panel had been broken into in order to get the door open. Dusty, faded plaques on the wall let Rey know that this hall lead to the captain's quarters and the armory.

A brisk walk down the dark walkway and they found themselves in a ransacked room that had boxes and crates tossed and scattered around. Glass littered the floor though it was difficult to tell where it came from and wires hung loosely from the ceiling where fixtures had been. The room smelled strongly of dust, chemicals, and burnt flesh. A pained groan gurgled from the far corner behind an overturned shelf and Kaydel leapt towards the sound, looking to help.

"Lieutenant!" Finn snapped but she disregarded him.

"Someone help me get him up!" She barked at the rest of the group, sliding cargo and metal away from the stranger. Finn rushed to help her but stopped dead in his tracks and jerked his blaster up threateningly at the sight of the person behind the debris.

"Back up!" He ordered Kadel loudly. "Back UP!" She reeled back as if she had been slapped and scrambled out of the way, not wanting to be on the receiving end of Finn's blaster fire. "Put your hands up!"

"Finn, what is it?" Rey moved to approach him but he held an arm to hold her back. Her eyebrows came together in confusion and she held up her staff in preparation for something terrible to happen.

"P-p-p-p-please, Finn. It's not w-w-w-what you think." A calm voice stuttered from the corner. "I want to help."

"Like hell it's not what I think, you betrayed us you scum. I should put an even bigger hole in you right here." Finn sneered at him, charging him cautiously with the gun raised, his brows furrowed in hatred. The man didn't flinch but looked wearily at him, he desperately needed medical attention.

BB-8 beeped loudly and angrily in agreement.

"Hey, roundy." The man said with half-hearted amusement.

"Finn, buddy, what's going on?" Poe looked alarmed but his voice was level as he slowly moved closer, putting himself slightly between Finn and the stranger crumpled and wounded in the corner. He'd never seen Finn get so aggressive with someone like this but he knew there had to be a good reason for it.

"He sold us out. You, me, General Organa, the whole fleet of resistance fighters…" He didn't take his eyes off the man. "For what? Money?" He spat at the man, disgust rolling off him in waves.

Rey peered around Finn to take a look at the stranger. He didn't look threatening to her, slouched in the corner, legs extended and hands raised in a pacifying gesture. He was older than they were with dirty brown hair and a worn, salt and pepper unshaven face. His hands were bloody, still wet from tending to his wounds. Most of his pants were burned away or burned into the flesh of his legs, it was hard to tell, but the clothes he was wearing looked like they were expensive. However, Rey got the impression of someone who was slightly reptilian. Human, she thought at first glance, but definitely someone she would want to keep at a distance.

Finn leveled his hands on his blaster, prepared to shoot if the injured man made one wrong move. "This is the codebreaker Rose and I found on Cantonica, DJ."

...

"Any information?" Kylo's deep, silken voice rumbled in the small cabin, a certain danger in the tone he used as he stared down the hologram. His elbow rested on the black padded arm of the high backed captain's chair, chin on his palm as he flew through the stars towards Takodana.

"None yet, sir." A man replied briskly. "We have ears on all available channels are working on sorting through the encrypted channels as fast as possible. We have our best team on it but for now, it seems that Leia Organa is sitting quietly." Kylo frowned. Leia Organa was not an idle person, she was always plotting and strategizing for the next big move.

And yet, there had been no sight or sound of her or the rebels in days. The galaxy was wide, but the reaches and ears of the First Order went far. There was always something, a whisper, a rumor- it had been a very long time since the resistance was able to maintain a presence off the grid. Had he dealt them such a blow that they were unable to recover? How many members of the resistance remained? Not many, he assumed. It wouldn't take much to snuff them out, but he had to find them first.

The tall man sat up straight in his chair, feet flat against the textured floor of the Silencer. His handsome face was mired with discontent.

"Look harder." He bit out sharply to the glowing face before ending the call, sick of the incompetence of his supporting staff. Incompetent… Snoke had called him this often, finding his weak spots and twisting sharp barbs into them, making him stronger and immune to the weaknesses of the heart.

Kylo Ren was glad that Snoke was dead. After the years of humiliation and browbeating, the nonsensical ramblings, and the many pointless missions and the lies, he was finally free of his collar and leash; able to truly flex his muscles and run the First Order the way it ought to be ran- right into the ground. He would succeed where Sidious, Snoke and, most of all, Vader had failed: eliminate the Jedi, restore order to the universe, maintain control of the galaxy. No more bureaucratic leaders causing chaos over money and power, Kylo aimed to centralize the seat of leadership and rule the galaxy- alone.

Don't do this Ben. Please don't go this way…

"Get out of my head, Rey." He groaned into the darkness of his ship. He was alone in that moment, she wasn't there and that gave him both relief and an off feeling in the pit of his stomach. Rey… Kylo squeezed his eyes shut uncomfortably, his hands gripping the armrests of his chair, trying to center his thoughts.

The air seemed to bubble around him, changing the pressure in his head ever so slightly.

"This person's hurt." He heard her whisper quietly, no louder than a breeze.

"Rey?" Kylo's heart skipped a beat, betraying him for a moment as hopeful. Did he call her? Was it really still there, this force connection that they had? There was no response. She was gone again.

All of his thoughts were now on her. His scar on his face burned as the memory of how he got it flooded back to him, skin ice cold from the snow but sweating with exertion. She had bested him twice now but it didn't send him into a spiraling fury like his other losses had. Instead, he felt a pang of something akin to pride, he had underestimated the fire in her and it only made him more curious. He almost wanted to speak with her, talk about what had happened in the throne room, try to convince her to change her mind and join him.

You're nothing, but not to me…

Rey had chosen her path though. She couldn't see the end of the tunnel with him, the need for order and the end of the duality between the Jedi and the Sith. Then he was conflicted again, she had chosen the path of the resistance and helped them escape; she had hidden Luke Skywalker from him; she had refused his hand.

The creeping admiration in his heart was quickly overshadowed by the icy sting of loneliness he felt. Alone in his cabin in deep space, his face lit by the dim red lights on the control panel, Kylo's body seemed to fold in on itself ever so slightly, crumpling into a solitary visage of sadness and self-inflicted loss.

"Sir," The nav system buzzed. "Takodana."

"Take me down." He stood and flipped a few switches on the control panel, setting the coordinates, and embraced the speed of the descent that slid through his body as he approached the grassy land. The last time he was here he was decimating yet another rebel base; the time before that he was enjoying a drink with Han Solo as a young man. Kylo felt nothing at the thought of Han. He gripped the saber at his belt, checking that it was securely attached before standing to grab his helmet from where it sat on the cot behind him.

The ship shuddered as it made contact with land. It was time. He hesitated over the headpiece for a moment, his hand lingering on the shiny surface. He knew she knew he was coming so there was no need to hide. Kylo exhaled and turned sharply, the fabric of his cloak swishing behind him as he left the helmet behind.

...

DJ was cuffed, fingers forced apart, and dragged onto the Falcon after the team had determined it was all clear and that he was the source of the transmission. Not minding his injuries, Finn roughly shoved him down in the tiny brig. DJ hissed in pain, eyes screwed shut and teeth ground together. They had stopped the bleeding from some of the shrapnel wounds but the burns would need some serious work at the hands of someone who knew what they were doing.

Rey was still wary of the man but she felt a small amount of compassion for him. Finn had shot her a disgusted look when she recommended that they attempt to bandage him up and refused to touch him or help in any way.

"You," Finn jabbed his blaster at him. "Stay here until we decide what to do with you. And you better hope it's not me."

Kaydel Ko was on the first round of watching him, ensuring that the renegade master codebreaker didn't fiddle with anything in the cell or pull a fast one by trying to escape.

"Finn," Rey hissed at him sternly. "I know you don't like him but he needs medical attention." She stopped him, grabbing his shoulder and leaning into him nearly head to head to speak lowly. "He will die with those burns if he doesn't get some help."

He looked like he didn't want to hear what she was saying, ready to turn away and ignore her.

"Lieutenant Connix, please call for someone to look at him while he's in here." The words were bitter in his mouth. Better that DJ dies than they waste precious resources on him but that was the way of the First Order. He was better than them, at the end of the day. Connix nodded in response and Finn stormed off, unhappy to have offered help to the man.

"He's a traitor!" Finn spun in the small white-grey room, his hand landing firmly and loudly on the table rattling the glasses of liquid resting on it. The kitchen was quaint, when not filled with anxieties. Rey had spent many days and nights sitting at that very table chatting with Chewie, or even with Han Solo when he was alive.

"Maybe but he says he can help us." Poe looked sorry to be on the opposing side from Finn but he had a point. In the shuffle back to the ship, DJ explained that he had experienced a change of heart- a real one- the First Order had left him to die on the Supremacy, bleeding and burned. They thought he had betrayed them as well, in some fashion, leaving him stranded and without an ally.

"Sounds like he needs our help more than we need his." Rey chewed on her cheek a little, looking first at Poe, then at General Organa. Leia frowned at her pensively. She had to do what was right to protect the rest of her crew but also make sure that the resistance rose again.

"He has access to ships," Dameron argued back. "Money, resources, things we're in short supply of right now. I don't like the guy but we need what he has."

"People died because of him." Finn's voice was pleading. He had seen what had happened as a result of DJ's choice firsthand. He could not support sustaining the betrayer.

"How did he get on to the mining base? This could be a trick." Leia stood from the table, steadying herself as she climbed over the seat to look at the holomaps again.

"He stole a cruiser, took it as far as he could away from the First Order but it ran out of fuel. He landed on the base and knew that if he could patch through to us we might come and get him." Poe fiddled with the edge of the table with his dirty hands. His nails were chipped and his fingers calloused from repairing his x-wing. "He's a… wanted man by many interested parties."

"So let's turn him in!" Finn raised his arms in frustration, miffed that they were even thinking about letting him stay. "We can sell him to the highest bidder and use the money to buy supplies." His eyes widened as he realized what he just said. "Oh, Rey, I- I'm sorry…"

She rolled her eyes at him from her spot against the wall. She was a spectator in all of this. Conflicted because they needed the connections this man had but at the cost of disrespecting the deaths of so many resistance fighters.

"Poe is right," Leia spoke up. "We need to see if he can access these resources before we think of alternatives. This is war." Her eyes were grave as she stared down Rey with an intensity she had not experienced before. "We do what we must."