Well, happy mid-January. I was deeply saddened to hear recently of the death of Alan Rickman. He was a fine actor. I especially liked his portrayal of Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series and his other works were also very good.

On that note, I'm very much happy decided to right itself after some trouble this morning, so I could post this before heading off to work.

Enjoy!

Chapter 3

D'Qar

Pilots, by nature were drawn by curiosity. Poe could admit this to himself as he walked toward his X-wing, BB-8 in tow. It was curiosity about flight, the thrill of being airborne and the rush of adrenaline that had motivated him into becoming a pilot.

Just how morbid that curiosity was, was questionable. A group had gathered around a grassy knoll by the time he had finished breakfast and thought to check on his X-wing, what was happening, and Finn.

But in no particular order. In fact, Finn had been heading towards the mess hall as Poe had been leaving. BB-8, reluctant to leave his side ever since his capture by the First Order, had taken to following him everywhere. It wasn't until Poe had pointed out the potential of his motor overheating as he showered as a potential problem for the droid that BB-8 had decided that his secondary caregiver would be Finn.

What went on in that droid's head, Poe did not want to know. In fact, he sort of blamed BB's interaction with R2-D2 for that.

"What's going on here?" He figured he'd bite the bullet and get on with it. "Those two are training." Finn replied. "But they're not using lightsabers."

"So what are they using? Hand to hand?" Poe thought hand to hand combat in general was fairly good sport. Hand to hand combat between two Jedi would make for an interesting sight.

"Sticks," Finn replied. "They've been at it since dawn."

Dawn had been three hours ago. Poe thought this was impressive, considering most beings needed to eat within an hour of waking up or losing all potential usefulness in the basic function of staying awake.

Poe and Finn pushed their way through the crowd, who upon recognizing BB-8, gladly parted for the two heroes. The girl was blindfolded, yet moved her stick with astonishing speed. The boy however, had taken the role of instructor, most likely, given that he was constantly barraging her with talk of watching her strike and other things in a mix of Basic and the language Poe couldn't understand.

As he watched, the girl paused, reaching out. The look of calm belied the tension that he saw in her muscles. The crowd was distracting, Poe knew. So she had to rely on the Force, rather than her hearing to find her opponent.

He was waiting at the opposite end, waiting. Each waited for the other to make the next move.

In the blink of an eye, she had crossed the expanse of the circle and the boy was forced to dodge. The counterattack was swift. As Poe watched, they matched each other, blow for blow, drawing on the Force for strength.

"They're good." Finn said, watching as they kept at it. "They've been trained."

"Why do you say that?" Despite being a hero of the Resistance and Commander of Black Squadron, Poe had not been privy to the meeting held a day prior. All he knew was that the brass including the recently returned Luke Skywalker-had sequestered themselves in a room with the two.

"Look at their stances," Finn pointed as the girl assumed a pose with her feet positioned with one slightly in front of the other. "That's too practiced. If you look at where she's holding her weight, you can tell she's done this before. She keeps on the ball of her foot to push off and move quickly. Anyone new to this, like Rey, would instinctively keep their center of gravity on their whole foot and be fumbling around."

"So they've been trained," Poe said. "But Kylo Ren destroyed the Jedi. Who trained them?" At this BB-8 beeped and chirped excitedly, his circular body moving erratically. "What's up, little guy?" Poe asked, looking at him.

"Have you heard?" Poe turned his attention from BB-8 to the young woman standing next to him. "Heard what?"

"That Luke Skywalker wasn't the last Jedi." Rey joined the two watching the sparring. "There's been a group hiding on Illum since the end of the Old Republic."

"Illum's out of the way and cold," Finn said. "Somehow that's not surprising."

"How cold?" Poe asked as the girl managed to land a blow. The boy barely flinched before once again going on the offensive. "Cold enough that you'd freeze before you even got out of your ship if you're not geared up."

At that point, the two individuals stopped their spar. They faced each other and held the sticks in a salute and bowed.

The crowd, while disappointed, clapped. The cheers grew louder as the pair faced each side of the circle in turn and bowed again and again.

The pair left, the pins on their shoulders gleaming in the sunlight as they made their way toward their ship, chatting in a language none of the three could understand.

"What do you think?" Finn asked Rey as the trio watched the pair disappear.

"I think that they can help us." She replied. At that, the trio turned back toward the Resistance base and mentally prepared to face the day.

-PAGEBREAK-

The Force was mocking him. Troopers scrambled out of his way as he strode toward the command center.

He was not sure when it had started, but he was certain that even if he had to murder everyone in his path, it would stop.

Kylo Ren fumed, as the Force flowed, light, lilting, and laughing. Even when he had been a Jedi, the Force had never dared mock him.

The medallion was what had started this. From the moment Snoke had told him what he held, the Force had been nothing but mocking him.

The medallion had belonged to an Old Republic society, the Ruse Spy Ring. The Force Sensitive Sybereans of Alderaan had been recruited to provide more manpower during the Clone Wars. Pockets of their descendants still polluted the galaxy as smugglers, traders, and other ill-begotten beings.

The Jedi had formed camaraderie with them. The spies had been unofficially adopted into the Order and given training. In respect of this, they wore their lightsabers strapped to their calves, rather than attached to their belts. One particular Syberean had been a thorn in Palaptine's side.

Highly intelligent and keenly observant, Arya Tesles had deduced many things about the emperor. Things that the emperor would have rather stayed hidden. She had been a favorite of the Jedi, who pulled her out of situations that would have gotten other beings sent to Kessel.

Despite Palaptine's many attempts to put an end to her, Tesles had escaped time and time again. Then, at the Purges, vanished completely. Needless to say, she was problem no more; it was assumed that she had been killed along with many other Jedi. If not then, certainly she would have been on Alderaan when it was destroyed.

Either way, the medallion belied this. Tesles had survived. Which meant others had survived, for she had sent a single message to the emperor before vanishing from the galaxy.

And the medallion meant something, too.

Tesles had survived. And he would see her dead if she was not. Despite claiming to be a pacifist, Tesles wanted a war.

And she would have one.

Again, I'm of the opinion that Ben Solo needs a swift kick in the ass to right himself. He gets epic bad dude points for killing his dad, but really, he doesn't scream "evil." He really screams "parental issues" and "emo." Of course, we'll have to wait until Episode 8 to find out more, but did ya'll hear about the X-wing movie coming out later this year? I'm psyched. I hope you are too.

Until next week-may the Force be with you.

Sparky