Chapter 2

C-3PO's incessant babbling, which was the reason Chewie's former partner had nicknamed him "The Professor", had long since begun to weigh on the Wookie's nerves. The protocol droid was obviously far from finishing his latest tirade on the futility of their current situation, and Chewbacca was only growing more frustrated with not only the golden droid but also with the now lengthy time Finn and Poe had spent conversating with Rey. He was an old Wookie, very old in fact, but that meant that there were things he could explain to her. After all, this was not the first time Chewbacca had seen the Dark Side rise to such power through the actions of one young man.

"And what will we do afterward, R2?" C-3PO asked frantically. "Even if we do by some miracle defeat the First Order, what then? The New Republic is no more, don't you remember? We barely made it out of-"

"(Shut up, 3PO!)" Chewie growled.

"Shut up?" 3PO turned to the Wookie. "Shut up!? Have none of you even considered the ultimate effects of our actions? Or am I the only one here who has the sense to-"

"(Just shut up, 3PO.)" Chewbacca's tone was relatively calm as he stood, glaring down at the droid who backed away immediately.

"Point taken."

A different, more primal and traditional side of the Wookie told him to rip off the droid's arms. After all, he could just reattach them or get some new ones, and it would definitely drive his point home for the foreseeable future. Memories of long-decided tavern brawls, all in good fun of course, were driven away by the sound of an automatic door sliding open behind Chewbacca. Finn and Poe stepped out of the cockpit of the Falcon, with the former Stormtrooper looking up to the Wookie with a forlorn expression.

"She wants to talk to you," Finn said dryly, his eyes obviously being forced to meet his gaze. Chewie recognized this as a common human expression of distress and worry. He growled in agreement and stepped inside as the two men walked past him. Poe knelt by his droid, BB-8, and Finn sat down at the circular table wordlessly, staring into nothing.

Ducking to accommodate his height, Chewbacca entered the cockpit. seeing Rey sitting in the revolving captain's chair and staring at the ground. He made the most assuring growl he could to get his young partner's attention. It succeeded, and Rey looked up from her revelrie to meet the Wookie's gaze, forcing a smile just as she had with the men.

("Bad time?")

"No, not at all," she said. It was a good thing that this girl could understand him just as well as Han had. C-3PO would no longer be required to follow him everywhere he went to translate. Rey stood up and walked over to the old Wookie, her head only coming up to his chest. "It's just that... there's alot of things going on right now, and... I have a lot to think through..." Rey rested her head on his furry chest, eyes closed. Chewie brought a hairy, padded hand to the back of her head, rubbing her soft brown hair. She did not embrace her companion, but only rested against him.

("She'll be okay,") he growled. ("We all will.")

"You don't know that."

("Look at me.") She raised her head to do so. ("Sit down, Rey.") She did. He immediately noticed the emotion fading away from her face, her expression becoming neutral, almost ghastly. Her eyes were understanding but her gaze blank. ("Are you making yourself peaceful, like the Jedi?")

"Trying. It's what I'm supposed to do. I am a Jedi after all."

("I always thought that the Jedi were supposed to be peacekeepers. It's what I was always told in legends around the campfires on my homeworld.")

"Kashyyk, right?"

Chewbacca chuckled. At least, in the Wookie way, which sounded like a low barking. ("Even a lowly scavenger like you can have some knowledge of other worlds, I guess.")

"I sometimes heard the traders at Plutt's shanty talk about it." Rey suddenly became ever so slightly more lively. "They said that the trees could be hundreds of feet tall, and that the villages in the canopies and the forest grounds were like two different worlds."

("That's more true than you might think,") Chewie smiled. ("We learned to live in the trees so we would never be ambushed by the evil things of the planet. There were lots. And up in the trees we would spend our nights when we were young telling stories of Wookie heroes and adventurers, and of the Jedi.")

"What about the Jedi?"

("Lots of things. Mostly from the Old Republic; that's where the real action was. Back when the Jedi were much more active in the galaxy's problems than they would end up becoming. Until the Clone Wars, that is.")

"Clone Wars?" Rey questioned. "What's that?"

("You don't know?")

"No, I don't. I've never heard of it."

("Well, you did spend your life out beyond the middle of nowhere.")

"No need to remind me," Rey said indignantly.

("Sorry.") Chewbacca looked around the cockpit and leaned forward towards Rey, his expression becoming more solemn. ("Before the First Order, there was the Empire, and before the Empire, there was the Republic. We on Kashyyk didn't care much for the politics of the core worlds or the Separatist Party they were constantly fighting with, but it wasn't long before we got involved in the Wars. The Separatists had their own infinite droid army, and the Republic had built in secret an army of highly trained clones, somehow knowing this would happen one day. Don't even ask me how they did it.") Rey listened intently, never moving her gaze, hardly blinking. ("The Jedi Order at the time became their generals, and they really were the deciding factor in most battles. No droid or clone, no matter how advanced or trained, could compete with Force wielders like those Jedi. I even got to fight alongside Grand Master Yoda at the end of the Wars, an old friend of my clan.")

"Who's Yoda?"

("He was the leader of the Jedi Order, and the most powerful Force wielder I'd ever seen. You wouldn't guess it from his look though. A tiny, green goblin like thing who walked with a cane and talked in jarbled, sometimes backwards sentences. Only stood up to here.") Chewbacca held up his hand about three feet from the ground, which only confused Rey more than his description was already doing. ("Honestly, no one even knew what species he was. He never told anyone I knew.")

"Doesn't sound like much of a great warrior to me."

("That's what everyone thought until they saw him in action. No blade or blaster bolt could even touch him. He was truly unstoppable, but always would speak with everyone like an old sage, or sometimes a crabby grandpa. Also always had a weird but endearing sense of humor too; probably one of the reasons he was so close to my father and clan,") he chuckled.

"He was that powerful?"

("I haven't scratched the surface of his power, Rey. He was the most powerful warrior I've ever fought with.")

"That's incredible. I wish I could've met him."

("I have a feeling Yoda would've liked you. He'd probably find you enthusiasm about the Force endearing.")

"What's that supposed to mean?" Rey asked, crossing her arms and playfully raising an eyebrow.

("Nothing. Nothing at all.") Chewie turned his seat around, looking outside at the blues and whites of hyperspace. ("With powers like Yoda had, I almost thought we were going to win that war. As you can probably guess, we didn't.")

"I did guess. What happened? If your army and the Jedi were as powerful as you say, how did anything defeat you?"

("I said that there was no droid or clone that could stand up to a Jedi. I was right. That's exactly why we lost.") Chewbacca's head lowered, as did his eyes. ("It was a Jedi that defeated us, Rey.")

The young Jedi stood from her seat, her eyes wide with shock. "What!? A Jedi? How!?"

("We were betrayed, Rey. A young and powerful Jedi betrayed us at the end of the war. With his help, the Emperor rose to power and conquered the entire galaxy, destroying the Republic and dubbing it the Empire.")

"Wait, if this Jedi helped the Emperor, that was it...?"

("Darth Vader. Or as we knew him, the war hero Anakin Skywalker.")

Rey slowly fell into her seat. "Skywalker?"

("Luke and Leia's father, and Ben's grandfather. He was a living legend in the Clone Wars, the greatest pilot in the Republic, possibly the galaxy, and everyone knew of his epic battles with his loyal clone legion, the '501st', as they were called. For reason's I still am not sure of, he turned to the Dark Side and became what we know as Darth Vader. I didn't know for sure who it was until Luke told me after the Bespin incident. It took all the will power I had not to tell him the truth of his father, what he really did during Order 66.")

"And, what is Order 66?" Rey sounded almost frightened.

("The Emperor's order to wipe out all Jedi. The Clone Army was programmed from birth to be completely loyal to any order given by the Chancellor, which was his former title. When we were about to achieve victory, when we felt our strongest, he struck, knowing it would be our weakest time. The Jedi were spread too thin around the galaxy; most of them commanding a clone legion alone. The perfect time to strike. I watched the clones we fought with on my homeworld turn on Yoda. Of course, they were no match, but he could feel through the Force what was happening across the galaxy.") In the Wookie's eyes, Rey saw genuine and true sadness, the likes of which she had not seen since Han was cut down. ("Yoda could feel the pain of every Jedi who was betrayed and killed by their own clone allies. I saw the hurt and anguish in his face, and I knew what had happened. It was later that I found out about Skywalker.") Chewbacca's face turned from saddened to wrathful, making the young Jedi feel a chill run down her spine. She could feel the anger within the Wookie without even reaching out with the Force. ("He had been sent to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant to personally destroy the Order, and all who stayed there. Even the younglings.")

"No... How could he? He was a hero, right?"

("More than just a hero, a legend, an icon... And he hunted them all down, and then the Separatist leaders after that. I don't know if the galaxy had ever seen such bloodshed in just one night.") Rey had to force herself to sever the connection between her and the Wookie; the pain and depression she felt in his memories was more than she could bear. ("That's the man that inspired Ben, Rey. That's the man my best friend wanted to be. That's the man he tried so hard to become. That man's legend is why my best friend is dead, why there are no more Jedi, and why Luke is dead as well. And why Leia is dying.") Chewbacca's expression and voice became more intense than ever. causing more fear to involuntarily well in Rey. ("Even after all this time, all our problems can still be traced back to the legendary Skywalker family.") Chewbacca sighed. ("Don't get me wrong, I love Luke and Leia like they were from my own clan, but I've still been wondering from time to time just how the galaxy would've turned out if there were no Skywalkers.")

Rey appeared contemplative for a moment, bringing her thumb and finger to her chin. "Well, you would never had known Ben."

("And I would never had watched my best friend's family get torn apart by him.")

"Do you honestly hate Ben, Chewie?"

("No, I can't say that.") The old Wookie paused. ("But I can say I hate what he's done, what he's become. He's become a shadow of his grandfather, and that's bad news for anyone in the galaxy.")

Slowly, Rey responded with, "I understand. At least, somewhat."

("What do you mean?")

"I can never know what it's like to lose someone with which you shared such a deep relationship as you did with Han, but I had so much respect for him as well. Watching Ben kill him was unbearable to me. It had to be nothing like how you felt, but even I can't empathize with you, Chewie, I can still sympathize with you."

Chewbacca looked her in the eyes for a moment and then chuckled to himself. ("No wonder why everyone here likes you, Rey.")

"What do you mean by that?"

("You know how to put some light into even the worst situations. That's something we all need right now. Even an old Wookie like myself.")

Rey smiled her bright, illuminating smile. "Thank you."

("Thank you too, kid.")

Rey stood up from her seat, her face suddenly looking ever so slightly less tired. "Do you want to go see Leia with me? I told her I'd come by around this time." Chewbacca growled in approval. "Alright, let's go," she motioned for the Wookie to follow.

They walked out of the cockpit and down the hall toward the makeshift medbay. Finn and Poe had already left along with the droids. Food was being served to the injured by those who were still at least mostly mobile. It was actions like these that confirmed in Rey's mind that not all light was lost from the galaxy yet; that there were still some who had not lost hope. She knew that number was small among their ranks, but it was still there.

The medbay was a few steps away when BB-8 rolled up to Rey, chirping electronically. The small droid rolled up to her leg and rubbed its head against her knee, almost like a cat.

Rey chuckled and knelt to look BB-8 in the optical sensor. "It's good to see you too, BB," she said contentedly. It chirped and blipped again, seemingly happy. "Yes, I'm fine. Don't worry about me." She patted her little droid friend on the head who then rolled back and made more happy sounding noises. "You should be worrying about Poe instead, you know. He can hardly go anywhere without you. I mean, minutes after you left him he was captured and interrogated. Maybe if you had been there-"

"I heard that, Rey," came Poe's voice from the other room. In walked the famous pilot, smirking playfully. "Need I remind you that minutes after you left my droid you were captured to?"

"Drat," Rey said, defeated. Chewbacca growled in agreement with Poe. The young Jedi smiled to the small droid. "He has a point. I guess we're all hopeless without you, BB-8." A compartment opened on the droid's body and out came an ignited lighter, resembling a thumbs up. "Wait, what's that for?" BB-8 bleeped and chirped again. "Since when do you not appreciate sarcasm?" Rey replied jokingly. "Your owner is Poe Dameron, for crying out loud."

"That, I can agree with," Poe added. BB-8 made more noises and rubbed its head against Rey's leg again, and then rolled off, chirping at Poe on its way out. "Love you too, buddy." More chirping followed by Poe rolling his eyes.

"Doesn't appreciate sarcasm, indeed," said Rey.

"He does, except when it's aimed at him. He's a very sensitive droid." Rey couldn't help but laugh. "Haven't you seen do that much in a while."

Rey stood to her feet, still smiling. "I know. It feels good."

"I hear you." Poe gestured to the room behind him. "General Leia asked after you two. Says she would like to speak with you."

"We were just going in, thank you."

"No problem, but... try to keep it brief."

Rey could sense the pilot's reasoning. "She's not doing well today," she said.

"No, I'm afraid not. Finn is visiting her right now, and the doctors said you two will be her last visitors for the next few hours. She needs some rest."

"I understand." Chewie barked from behind her, which meant the same. "Please excuse us."

"Of course." Poe stepped aside as his companions walked up. "Just... keep the conversation light, okay? We all need to be in the best spirits we can, especially her."

"I know, Poe," Rey replied dismissively. "Thank you."

Poe watched them enter the medbay, rolling his eyes at the Jedi as he turned to leave. She could probably sense his annoyance but he did not care. He was too tired to care, and she likely was as well.

Rey and Chewbacca entered the medbay somewhat timidly. Rey especially had spent little time with Leia since she had collapsed two days ago, then being immediately taken to their makeshift intensive care. There the princess turned war hero lay, Leia Organa to most but Leia Skywalker to those who knew her best. Clad in a white medical gown, she stared into the ceiling as the doctors around her examined all manner of equipment and readings. Rey felt awkward, almost disrespectful in this moment, simply watching on as the older woman stared, changing her gaze from the grey ceiling to the gray walls. She almost considered leaving, but it was Chewbacca's growl that got Leia's attention.

General Leia turned her head to the entrance where the two companions stood. She squinted her eyes as if she could not properly see them, but smiled after a moment, recognizing the two heroes. Slowly, laboriously, Leia raised an arm to beckon them to her side, all the while still smiling. Rey and Chewbacca did as inticed.

In almost a whisper, Leia said, "Come here, you two. Come closer." Rey knelt beside the General, taking Leia's hand in hers. "Kid, you look like you haven't slept in a week," Leia remarked. "How are you gonna go off and save the galaxy like that?"

Rey's eyes went wide, far from expecting such a statement from the ill General. "No, no, I'm fine! I wanted to know how you were holding up, General."

"Oh, please. Chewie, you were supposed to be keeping an eye on her, you know." Leia managed a smirk. "What have you been doing all this time when you should've been making sure Rey is okay? Polishing your bowcaster?" Chewie grunted. "Oh, I look much worse than I feel... but thank you for the concern." Chewbacca grunted again, seemingly smiling. Leia turned back to Rey. "You shouldn't worry about me, Jedi. Your life is much more important than mine now."

"What?!" Rey bolted to her feet, letting go of Leia's hands. "How can you say something like that? You're our leader, our hero. You've led us out of the absolute worse time and time again! Me being tired is not nearly as important as your injuries."

"Kid, I'm an old widow," Leia deadpanned, but still smiled. "You're a young Jedi literally able to move mountains. I wasn't the one that held up an avalanche with my mind, or took down a whole Sith legion; that was you, Rey." Leia reached out for the younger woman's hand. Rey took it, seeing the weariness in her General's face. More tears welled in her eyes. Rey cursed herself silently, but all thoughts left her mind as she knelt back down before Leia, who continued to smile at her. Rey did the same. Looking off wistfully, Leia said, "It feels like so long ago that all we had left to place our hope in was a spacey farm boy with a laser sword." Chewbacca growled. "Yes, yes, and a couple of scoundrels flying a trash heap they called a freighter." Chewie made a noise resembling a "Hmmph" of approval. "Back then we too had to defeat a scary Force wielder in a mask. We all fought together for months, but you know who really saved us all at the end, Rey?"

"The spacey farm boy with the laser sword..." Instinctively, Rey touched Luke's saber she now always carried on her belt.

"Yeah, kid. From the most worthless corner of the galaxy came the greatest hero all the worlds had seen in years. He had nothing but a drive to do good at first, and it was that drive that would ultimately get him everything he needed to save us all. Sound like someone you know, Rey?" Unable to hold her smile at bay, and her tears, Rey nodded as she wiped her eyes, a small sniffle escaping her. "So you see, we've all been here before, kid. We've all been in this very spot before, where we thought all hope was lost and there was nothing left to fight for. All that has to happen next is for the spacey farm kid with the laser sword to pick herself up and get back in the fight. It's happened before, and-" Leia coughed into her arm, and then again, and then again, violently hacking.

"Leia?" Rey asked fervently. "Are you okay?!"

Leia stopped coughing after a moment and looked at her arm. Droplets of blood stained her white sleeve. Chewie growled, but it almost sounded more like a whimper. Leia chuckled, sounding pained. "Well, and here I thought I was done with that."

Leia layed back on the sheet, closing her eyes for a moment. "What do you mean?" Rey asked fearfully.

"This isn't the first time I've coughed up blood. I think it's the seventh since Crait by now. Hasn't happened since yesterday, though. For a moment, I thought I just might be done with it. I guess not."

"Are you alright?"

Leia breathed slowly, her snarky smile fading. "No, Rey, I'm afraid I'm not. That's why I had R2 set a course for my home."

"Your home?"

"Yeah, kid. Naboo." Rey's expression changed little, her mind was racing so much. "I can call on allies there. Our army isn't massive, but it's a start. And there are things I would like to do first before..."

"Before...?" Chewbacca made a sound that was definitely a sympathetic whimper and walked up beside Rey. The Wookie extended his arms towards Leia, gently holding her up into an embrace. The former Princess slowly wrapped her arms around her long time friend, resting her head on his chest. Leia then pulled back and laid back down.

"I'm sorry, Rey, but I'll have to tell you when we get there. I want you to come help me with those things."

"Whatever it is, I would be honored, General."

"Oh, shut it with that talk, kid. I'm just an old woman." Leia put a hand to Rey's face. The young Jedi was unsure of what to do next, simply closing her eyes and feeling Leia's soft but cold hand. "He was proud of you, you know. In his own way." Rey's eyes slowly opened at the words. "He was very proud of you."

"Your Highness," the doctor, a pale, balding human said, "you need your rest. I'm sorry."

"No, not at all, Doctor Corso. It's fine." Rey sat motionless. Chewbacca placed a furry hand on her shoulder. "Get some sleep, Rey. We'll be very busy when we reach Naboo."

Unable to muster any more energy, Rey simply said, "Okay," and stood to her feet. "Thank you."

"And thank you."

The two companions walked to the entrance, with Rey stopping to glance at the General one more time. She was already noticeably thinning, and she could sense the pain she endured everytime she moved her hand. And she felt the anguish when she alluded to Ben. Looking to her feet instead of Chewbacca, Rey walked back to the cockpit and closed the door. Chewbacca made no attempt to object. She looked at her captain's chair, and suddenly thought of Solo. For whatever reason, Rey could not find it in herself to sit in his chair this once. Instead, she sat in Chewbacca's seat and closed her eyes. She needed rest. She was the spacey nobody with the laser sword now, expected to save the galaxy just like Luke had all those years ago. She would need all the sleep she could get for that.