Rey never realised the power of resolve. The sense of purpose and order displayed by armies preparing for battle was so fierce and unlike anything Rey had ever experienced. As everyone scurried about, collecting equipment, getting into position Rey could feel a buzz of anticipation. Everyone coming together, joining their individual strengths to become a single force. One entity existing to face another, for the betterment of the galaxy. Selfless. United.

She felt a tinge of envy as she watched the Admiral lead the fleet off towards the battle-zone. Although Rey had no desire to fight or die, she longed for the camaraderie.

She had tasted it, for the briefest moment with Finn and BB-8 for the first time in her life. And to her surprise, she didn't hate it. The solitary existence she had grown accustomed was a comfortable livelihood, but did not compare to the solidarity of shared-hardship.

Instead, Rey and the Lieutenant had flown off in their own cruiser, heading towards a more discreet and secure location. Vu'inh had barely uttered a word the entire flight, having almost become mute since her final good-bye to the Admiral.

The silence allowed Rey's mind to wander, scrutinising the ship's interior. It was completely functional, albeit shabby, much like the rest of the fleet. Rey had to commend the craft for its few minor structural flaws, although she suspected it had seen many upon many battles before. The exterior was so rusted and tattered Rey was surprised the Resistance hadn't just scrapped the ragged thing.

"We're here." The Lieutenant muttered, snapping Rey out of her train of thought.

The craft came to land in a low-lying trough on the outskirts of a sun-scorched slope. Rey imagined that the battlefield must be just beyond the imposing mound. The fleet would already have arrived, would there be casualties already?

As the craft came to a halt the stirred-up dust scattered in the air seemed to still. A haze of ochre clouding them from the outside.

As the cabin opened, Rey followed Vu'inh into the dry searing heat. Exposed to the elements, she felt a few grains of sand float down heavily onto her lashes. Despite the planet's similarities to Jakku, the minor differences were off-putting. Her feet sunk too deeply into the ground, the grains were clumped not loose. There were two suns, not one. And one moon, not two. The air blew harsher against her skin. It was wrong, all wrong. She tried to blink the sand out of her eyes, its weight resembling the heaviness in her chest. Her trepidation.

As she marched through the dunes, the arid winds whipped around the few loose ends of her garments. She was unbalanced.

Rey took one misstep and collapsed into the unyielding sand. The harsh terrain smacked against her like an open palm, slowly enclosing around her.

The impact incited a flash of sounds into her mind. Sweeping her consciousness into darkness.

"Rey! Rey!" It was Finn's voice "Oh no…" He sounded distressed, was something wrong?

She wanted to call back to him, ask him what was wrong. But a different sound resonated through the air. At first it was a crackle, followed by static and a deep resounding hum. The noise is mimicked not moments later. The sound was so far away, what was going on?

"… It belongs to me!"

"Rey!"

A hand pulls her from the sand, dragging out of the warm tomb the terrain had created and back into the cruel winds.

"Rey are you alright?" The Lieutenant's voice came out distorted by the Stormtrooper helmet.

Rey coughs into the wrappings around her face, heavily clumped sand having breached its tight hold. She removes the wrapping and shakes out the excess sand, replacing it promptly before she breathed in any of the heavy particles sifting through the air.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

The Lieutenant takes a moment before hesitantly responding. "We're almost there. Just follow my lead, alright?"

Rey nods in response, finding her feet again. No time to reflect on what she'd heard, on what may have happened to Finn, may be happening to Finn. If she wanted to see him again she had to complete this task ahead of her, and help the Resistance fight the First Order.

They traverse over the dunes. Rey careful this time to follow the Lieutenant's steps. They descend further down, Rey's heart rate increasing as they finally break through the thick haze and the scene comes into view.

At first, all Rey can see is the outline of a township, probably just larger than the Niima outpost, but with many short, stout buildings sprawled across the flat land. Then, she heard the sound of blaster fire, causing her to jump when Vu'inh grabs tightly onto her arm. Flashes of light, explosions and scuffling across the township resound through the smoky environment.

She turns to face the Lieutenant. Was she… afraid? Rey was surprised, for all her stoic demeanour was the Lieutenant truly afraid of battle?

Vu'inh must have caught on to Rey's concerned look, as she loosens her grip slightly.

"You're my prisoner, remember?" Oh, right. They had an image to uphold. "I'll need your lightsaber now."

Rey wants to protest, but understands that no prisoner would be allowed to keep their weapons. Hesitantly, she unclips the saber from its holster, her fingertips tingling as the saber leaves her grasp.

"I'll return it to you once we infiltrate the compound." She assures Rey, pulling her away from the direction of battle and towards a cluster of large buildings. Their windows all blacked out.

Despite the thick cloud of sand drifting through the atmosphere, the twin suns still penetrated harshly onto the planets surface with a scorching heat. Rey could understand why the platoon was facing off in person, rather than attacking from the sky. The visibility was just too low.

The sound of marching footsteps pulled Rey from her thoughts and she felt her blood drain as a small group of Stormtroopers exited the building she and the Lieutenant were nearing.

They approached the pair post-haste. "What are you doing?" One asked gruffly, "You are required in battle soldier."

The Lieutenant wasted no time whipping up a believable lie, fully immersing herself into character. "I have received orders to bring this one directly to the head of command." Vu'inh held up the lightsaber and directed their attention towards Rey.

Curiously, the troopers immediately tensed, recognition obvious in their posture shift. An uncomfortable silence followed, broken finally by a single trooper. "Is that her?" Both Rey and the Lieutenant were shocked at the question and stumped for a response.

Rey's breath hitched in her throat. She couldn't see their eyes, but she could feel them inspecting her, examining her. Just who did they think she was? Is this what it felt like to be a Jedi? Being gawked at like some two-headed hutt? She shifted uncomfortably under their gaze. Were they figuring it out? Could they tell they were fakes? Imposters? She wanted to scream. She wanted to run.

Their pretence was thankfully saved when one trooper cleared his throat. "Never mind, just take her directly to Lord Ren."

"Yes sir." Vu'inh responded, falling back into her façade. Gripping Rey tightly and leading them towards the building ahead of them. Rey was relieved to be out of their way, her fear of discovery hopefully being msitaken for the distress of a prisoner.

"Soldier!" The trooper called out to them, Rey's blood ran cold. No. Please no. "Lord Ren is in the town hall." He pointed towards one particularly withered structure.

"Sir." Was Vu'inh's response, hastily steering them in the immediate direction of the town hall. Their hearts both beat fast-pace until the moment they barrelled through the hall's doors. After checking the coast was clear, the Lieutenant released a sigh of relief.

"I wonder if there has been a change in command." The Lieutenant mused, trying to rationalise the Stormtroopers' strange behaviour. "Nonetheless," She moved to hand the lightsaber back to Rey. "here, you'll need this now." She half-encouraged, half-commanded.

Rey took a moment to recompose herself, finally safe from the scrutiny of the enemy. "Our intelligence indicates that all prisoners were taken to the town hall and now it seems we have successfully located it."

Rey almost laughed, and wondered if there was some deity she had to thank for their luck. Managing to narrowly escape being caught up in battle and ending up where they were required to be.

She glanced around, the dusty hall seemed to branch off into multiple passageways, some angling downwards towards lower levels.

"Hmmm..." The Lieutenant hummed, fabricating a plan.

"We shall split up, if you find Jelde you can contact me on this communicator." Vu'inh passed Rey a nut-sized device with a blinking blue light.

"But…" Rey began to retort, before the Lieutenant interrupted.

"If I find Jelde before you, I'll communicate with you through this. Try and make your way back here." She pointed at the device drawing Rey's concerned face away from Vu'inh's and towards the small thing, "That has a tracker inside, so even if you get lost you won't be left behind. I promise."

Rey's anxiety was swallowed by a feeling of solidarity and belonging. The Lieutenant actually cared what happened to Rey?

"But how am I going to find Jelde?"

Vu'inh paused, before removing her helmet to look Rey directly in the eyes. "I have faith in Wen-Tek, and the Admiral has faith in you. We can do this. The Resistance will win today." Her hand momentarily squeezed Rey's shoulder in assurance, before she returned her helmet.

The Lieutenant bowed her head and took off. Leaving a ghost on Rey's shoulder and a warm feeling in her chest. She didn't have the time to reflect upon the sentiment, instead opting to shake herself into preparation. Saber in hand and senses heightened, Rey took the route opposite to the Lieutenant's.

She silently stalked the halls, which were eerily silent. Were all the First Order troops distracted by the battle outside? Perhaps this plan wasn't so mad after all.

The thick concrete floors were cracked and caked with the heavy sand, causing Rey to almost glide along the halls. She inspected countless empty rooms, filled with stale air, dim lamps, and mismatched furniture coated in dust to no avail. However, she persisted in her search. Every step was a step closer to finding Jelde. A step closer to ending the battle. A step closer to Han, Chewie, BB-8 and Finn.

But what did Jelde even look like?

Rey rounded a corner and almost ran directly into a thick metal column, swiftly dodging it and being struck instead by the realisation that she didn't know a single thing about the man she was supposed to be searching for. How was she meant to find someone she had never seen?

What in the galaxy did Jelde even look like? Was he a man? A wookiee? Heck, he could be a Jawa for all she knew – although unlikely.

She released a frustrated sigh, taking a step back from the column and rubbing at her temples. The strange thing had taken her by surprise, who put something like this in the middle of a hall? She took in the eye-sore and her confusion only increased upon her realisation of the item's origin. It was… a drill? It seemed like some sort of art installation, but a strange one at that. It was huge and industrial. Not any run-of-the-mill builders drill, but the sort of thing used to break through a planet's crust. The planet somehow managed to get stranger and stranger the longer Rey spent there.

She began to walk around the impractical decoration when a sudden shudder in the building caused her to grab hold of the inanimate drill for support. The ground temporarily shook as a thunderous rumbling echoed through the halls.

Rey was grateful that the structure seemed to be more stable than it appeared as it withheld the trembling quake. A sudden beep came at her thigh. It was the communicator.

Something was definitely wrong.


Yooooooooooooo! Happy Seasons and all that! Boy the past few weeks have been such a roller coaster. I swear life is so tumultuous and fiction is such a nice escape from it all.

So I have finally returned to see so many new followers for my story? Say whaaa? Seriously thank-you all so much!

I know you've all got busy lives, so since this fic has no comments or feedback I'm just gonna pretend that you're reading this story going "Nice." and "Cool." and "Huh!" For me it's crazy to look at the hits and think that some of these people are actually reading what I've written? I am so so grateful!

Okay sooo, this chapter kinda just kept getting longer and longer and although I was gonna have the Rey/Kylo meet happen in this chapter it has been post-phoned until the next chapter (So Sorry!)

I'm really enjoying writing Vu'inh (which is weird coz at the start I found her so difficult!). In my mind she's like this super-serious person who has all these emotions they want to feel but doesn't know how to express them. And Wen-Tek is just kinda her idol because Wen-Tek is the epitome of charisma and charm haha

Anyway! I'll be back in the new year with a new chapter! (And let's be real, all the best parts are always when Rey and Kylo interact, so if you've enjoyed the story this far then this will be my New Years gift to you!)

B^)