Poe Dameron paced the length of his holding cell. His heart was beating fast, faster than it usually did in the cockpit of his X-wing in battle formation with the rest of the Black Squadron.

Moments in his life seemed to flash by him every few minutes, of his parents, of his mentor, of his comrades. If that stormtrooper, FN-2187, didn't come through, he was going to never see them again.

He wasn't one to cry, but the idea almost made him do so. His family was down on Endor. Would they know what became of their son? Would his little sister understand what made him do it? He remembered how they had argued before he had joined the Resistance, and how she demanded why he should go and fight when their parents had played their part so many years ago during the Battle of Endor.

He closed his eyes and pictured their last happy day together before he'd left for Yavin IV to join the Resistance. The sun was shining that day, brighter than any star before.

The door opened. He didn't bother to open his eyes for what was probably his firing squad, as a stormtrooper roughly grabbed his arm. He expected to be forced onto his knees, and would hear a click, and it would be all over.

Instead, he was forced to walk.

Where are they taking me?

He wondered that in echoes as he was escorted down the corridors of the Star Destroyer Mal'ary'ush. He finally worked up the courage to open his eyes. He was going towards the hangar! It was the stormtrooper whom he had begged to save him! The trooper moved quickly and on the edges, keeping out of everyone's way and as much in the shadows as you could in the bright standard lighting of the hallways.

He was pushed towards a TIE-fighter with red paint.

"Wait! Isn't that Poe Dameron?" The supervisor, who they had somehow gotten past without detection, had cried. Every blaster in the room was trained on the two of them.

"Go!" FN-2187 ordered, and he fired as Poe scrambled into the cockpit of the TIE-fighter. The stormtrooper got inside, and pulled off his helmet to reveal a young, dark face that was shell-shocked.

"The name's Finn, and I'm in charge now," he said. "You take the back, Dameron, I'll try to fly us out."

Poe nodded and got in the gunner's seat and started firing. He couldn't see very well, though, but he could see a flurry of glowing bullets, so he tried to fire in that direction as they began to disappear from view. The TIE-fighter sped up, and was starting to spiral like crazy.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?!" He yelled at Finn.

"I DON'T KNOW!" Finn replied angrily as they continued closer to a desert world.

Kira Ren was delayed due to the hangar being destroyed by some renegade trooper who had decided to rescue Poe Dameron. She growled at the thought. Master will not be pleased.

She clenched her fists around her lightsabers and stormed to the conference of where Traya Ren and Ulic Ren were waiting for her.

The older Echani woman with the light-whip was waiting for.

"Hello, Kira," she said coolly. "I see your flight got canceled."

"Well you tell me what I was supposed to do about it!" Kira hissed angrily. That was no way to talk to her superior, she knew, but Traya was only a teacher, she didn't go out into the field much anymore.

"Still, because of it," Traya continued with a murderous glare in her eyes. "We have to send Captain Phasma with you."

Her heart beat faster. She hated Phasma! Why did she have to get suck with the android? She had no room to complain, though, so she nodded with that ugly look of anger plain and evident on her face.

It started with the dream. Instead of the ones of the woman in white and the melodies and the fur and the snarky voice, Rey dreamed that she was floating in the stars. It felt like what she imagined water all around her, like in a bath or lake would feel like, stars above and below her. She could hear a voice screaming at her to help her. She turned around to see Kylo being dragged down by horrible yellow-eyed monsters.

What was most horrifying though, were his own yellow eyes.

She awoke to hearing creaking sounds around the AT-AT. In the silence of Jakku, she got up and padded outside. No one there. When she turned around, she heard a thump in the darkness, right near the bed.

He was whimpering in his sleep, as he usually did, although he never screamed anymore. She picked up her staff quietly, and before one of the boys could raise their vibrio blades and finish the job, she pulled the staff under two of the boys' chins, causing them to yell with fear and surprise. Kylo awoke immediately as Jovi attempted to stab him. It only got in a little bit before he Force-pushed him to the wall. He picked up his lightsaber and activated it, illuminating the faces of three more village boys who were in on the attempt.

"What is this?" Rey demanded from the boys she had trapped.

"Don't kill us!" One of the younger ones begged.

"Kill you?" Rey frowned, and she withdrew her staff. Kylo made a little hissing noise, but she ignored him. "I won't hurt any of you. Now tell me what you were trying to do."

There was silence. Rey closed her eyes, and a bit of intuition sprang to her.

"You wanted to claim a deed for yourself. Kill the monster taking over your village," Rey said. "But you weren't brave enough to do it in broad daylight, so you waited until nightfall and tried to slit his throat while he was sleeping."

Jovi squirmed under the Force grip.

"And Jovi convinced you to do it," Rey said softly as she fit the final pieces. "The rest of you can clear out. If I catch you hanging around here again I will end you. Understand?"

The boys looked at each other, frightened by the change in the tiny orphan with the "kick-me" attitude. They then scampered off, leaving Jovi, who Kylo was giving a fiery glare.

"Let me go!" Jovi grunted.

"Do it," Rey ordered.

Kylo side-eyed her. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Absolutely," she answered with more confidence than she felt.

Kylo let the boy down, and Jovi got to his feet, begrudgingly remaining with the angry couple.

"When they hear about this, they'll all be after you!" Jovi snarled, and he lunged and punched Rey, who stumbled back, placing her hand over her eye. Her eyes were closed, so all she heard was a sickening cry and the hum of Kylo's lightsaber and the sound of a body hitting the floor.

When she was able to reopen her not-black eye, she saw that he was standing over Jovi's body, breathing with shuddering breaths, and he turned and saw her horrified face.

"H-How could you?" She asked in a trembling voice. "H-He was just a kid."

"A kid who tried to kill me!" He protested in a shaky voice as he deactivated his lightsaber as Rey backed away, absolutely terrified. She'd heard him talk about some of the things he had done, but it wasn't like experiencing it firsthand. Much to her embarrassment and fear, she stumbled backwards into a chair, and came crashing down. Tears leaked out of her eyes as her heart tried to break free of her chest, it was was pounding so hard.

He rushed over to her when he saw her go crashing down, and knelt beside her, not sure what to do. He then settled on stroking her hair and holding her close enough to his chest that she could hear his heartbeat.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I'm sorry."