Hi! I hope you liked the last chapter. I'm sorry about the slow progression right now. Just be patient and stick with me! ;) Enjoy!
Chapter IV
Rae-Lynn stretched as she woke, groaning and wincing at the dull pain in her abdomen. She glanced around, trying to remember where she was, and cursed when realization hit her with the blunt force of a saber. She had hoped it was all just a dream. It became enormously clear that it was real when Dr. Quo bustled into the room, her normally sleek and smooth hair frizzed.
"Ah, good, you're awake," the doctor said, her words a bit rushed. "General Organa has questions for you, and she… well, she expects them all to be answered. Or she at least hopes they will."
Rae-Lynn clenched her jaw and met Dr. Quo's inquisitive stare. "I'm not answering anything."
The doctor sighed and ran a hand over her face. The bags under her eyes were more prominent today. "Right. Of course not."
Rae-Lynn was about to snarl her retort when she noticed the small bandage around her forearm. She pressed a finger against it and hissed at the bruise-like pain. "What's this?"
"I took a blood sample last night while you were sleeping." She shrugged. "I slipped a drug in through your IV so the needle wouldn't wake you."
Rae-Lynn's lip curled back and flashed her teeth. "You what?"
The doctor didn't respond. Instead, she went over to the counter on the side of the room and leafed through a binder filled with papers concerning past patients. "You see, we don't know anything about you," she said, running a finger along the text. "All we know is your name, Rae-Lynn. Pretty name, by the way."
Rae-Lynn only tilted her chin higher. "What does that have to do with the blood sample? I'm not some animal to be tested."
The doctor ignored her. "And we know how you ended up near the Sarlacc, thanks to Dameron."
"What?" Rae-Lynn snapped.
Dr. Quo turned to her and blinked. "You told him about your… incident. Inevitably, he told General Organa."
Rae-Lynn scowled. That no good-
"So, we now know that you're a pretty well sought after criminal. There are some hefty prices on your head, girl."
"Don't call me that. You don't know what I've been through."
Dr. Quo only chuckled and turned the page. "Indeed. That leads to the next question. There's still the mystery about your past. Definitely more than meets the eye with you. Where does that lightsaber come from? You clearly know how to use it, and it appears to be of value to you. So does that pendant. It's from your sister, right? What's her name?"
Rae-Lynn narrowed her eyes. "What do you and the rest of this useless rebellion want with me? What's the point of this?"
"We merely want to know who you are, Rae-Lynn."
"Then you already have your answer. I come from Tatooine, where I've lived my whole life. My sister and I separated when she went to work on a moisture farm for higher pay. The pendant was a farewell gift; she was a Resistance sympathizer. With her gone, I had to found my own way of making money, since she was the one who always worked and I stayed at home." She paused to pick at one of her nails, then smoothed a rumpled section of her thin and flimsy hospital gown. "I found the lightsaber in an abandoned X-Wing far out in the deserts. I was scavenging for parts to sell, just like the rest of my… associates. I don't know what it was doing there, but it looked like it would fetch a good price. Dameron brought me here before I even had a chance to put it out on the market."
Dr. Quo clicked her tongue and shook her head. "Good lies, but not good enough." She closed the binder and headed for the door. "General Organa and Dameron will be here shortly."
"Who is he, anyways?" Rae-Lynn asked sharply.
"Dameron?" Dr.Quo turned around to face her. "He's the best pilot in all the Resistance."
The girl blinked her bright emerald eyes. She must have realized the dazed expression on her face, because she shook her head and raised a brow. "If that's true, then why is he running around doing all the general's dirty work?"
Dr. Quo shrugged. "Why are any of us doing anything at all?"
"That doesn't make any sense."
"It makes perfect sense. In all honesty, most of what we do has little impact throughout the galaxy. Perhaps a bit, but not much compared to the First Order. The only reason why we continue to put in an effort is because of one small thing."
Rae-Lynn bit her tongue. The doctor wanted her to ask just for the satisfaction of it. "And what's that?"
Dr. Quo's lips pulled up into a small smile. "Hope."
"Hope doesn't get you through anything," Rae-Lynn spat. "You can believe in it all you want, but in the end it's only a false belief worshipped for personal comfort."
The doctor only shrugged again and left the room, ignoring the smuggler-girl's vulgar mumble.
"You sure about this?"
"Of course I am, Dameron."
General Leia Organa and Poe Dameron were making their way through the web of countless Resistance ships.
"I don't think she's gonna be all too happy that we're searching her for midichlorians."
The general shrugged. "Once Dr. Quo has the results from the blood test, we'll know if Rae-Lynn is more than she appears."
"I still don't like it," Poe frowned. "We're lying to her."
"We don't have a choice." General Organa frowned as well. "If she is who I believe her to be, she could help in bringing down the First Order."
"And why is that?"
"I suppose we'll find out soon. And if she doesn't answer our questions today, I'm going to ask Dr. Quo to lace her food with a truth serum tomorrow."
Poe shook his head. "That's not right."
"As of right now, this girl could be our only hope. We're relying on her. She just doesn't know it yet."
"Still-"
"I don't like it any more than you do, and you know that," General Organa said. She took a right towards the main database center. "But if she's the help we've been looking for, then I'll do anything to make sure she is. And now that there's the rumor about the map…" She trailed off and shook her head.
Poe cocked his head. "That Sith Lord- whatever he is- isn't going to stop until he finds it."
"I know," she bit out tersely. "That's why we need Rae-Lynn to tell us everything she knows."
Poe sighed. "Well, it sure seems like-"
"General!"
Both of them turned around to see Dr. Quo. She was panting, sweat gleaming on her brow. "You're going to want to see this."
The pilot and general knew better than to resist.
"How is this possible?"
General Organa cast a glance over her shoulder to Admiral Ackbar and Mon Mothma, both waiting for her to answer the admiral. They were as pale faced as she was, their lips drawn in tight lines.
"That's the thing, admiral," Dr. Quo said amongst the silence. "It's not."
"Well, it clearly is." Poe leaned against the wall, raking his eyes over the screen displaying countless lists of information and numbers. "The proof is right there."
"All the Jedi were wiped out by-" Admiral Ackbar saw General Organa tense out of the corner of his eyes and stopped himself. "There weren't any survivors."
"Not that we know of," Poe corrected with a slight raise of his brows. "Who knows who was able to make it out of there?"
"Is it possible that the blood sample was somehow tampered with? Or perhaps our technology is beginning to slow down on us?" Mon Mothma asked.
"Not likely. No one here would dare to mess with classified information. They know the consequences and risks. And our technology is just fine," General Organa responded.
Admiral Ackbar swiveled his yellow eyes on the general. "Then it's really true, then. She's Force-sensitive."
Poe scoffed, earning him a few glares from the high-ranking people around him. "She's not just 'Force-sensitive'. She must have learned how to control it somewhere. Otherwise she would be blasting us with uncontrollable waves of that stuff."
Dr. Quo winced visibly. "He's right. It's possible that she trained with… with Master Luke Skywalker at his academy."
Poe looked to the general, searching her face for any reaction, but she only nodded.
"I thought so," General Organa said.
"You had suspicions?" Mon Mothma asked softly, like she was afraid of upsetting the general.
"Of course. My… my son acted the same way when he struggled to contain the calling," Organa answered slowly. Anyone who noticed the pain on her face- though she tried her best to hide it- quickly looked away. "Rae-Lynn seems to have been concealing her sensitivity for a long while now. I think that might contribute to her… personality. No one knows how it might affect her to keep a power like hers contained for so long."
"I don't believe any of it." Admiral Ackbar shook his head, shifting some of the tendrils on his face. "What's her midichlorian count?" He inclined his head to Dr. Quo, who got the message and turned to the screen.
The doctor swallowed hard and read the results from the blood sample. "Fourteen thousand, nine hundred sixty-three."
Mon Mothma gasped, followed by a barely audible 'would you look at that' from Poe. Admiral Ackbar merely widened his already too-large eyes.
Dr. Quo seemed at a loss for words as well as she flipped through a thick, leather-bound book. There were no words or markings on the spine, however, on the front was a symbol of a beacon of light framed by a something that looked like a set of wings. "That's… that's almost as high as-"
"Luke," General Organa murmured. "And higher than... Ben."
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