Jayd tossed and turned trying to make herself fall asleep. She couldn't stop remembering the pain she'd felt when the Hosnian system was destroyed. Panicked faces of people she would never know flashed through her mind. Young people with dreams, old couples clinging to each other, parents squeezing their frightened children for the very last time.
She remembered the kind, genuine smile that Ben Solo used to have compared to the grim half-hearted attempt he made these days. The ever-present conflict raging inside him even though he tried to hide it.
She remembered the first time she'd killed someone for the First Order. Some unsuspecting Resistance fighter whose name and story she never knew. How frighteningly easy it was, then.
She remembered her parents. Kind, wise, simple. She had grown to look strikingly similar to her mother, she realized, but with her father's rich dark brown hair instead of hair made of sunlight. She remembered, in particular, her father's funny mustache and how it poked and tickled her cheeks and forehead when he kissed them.
She sat up in her bed, sweating, deciding in one fleeting moment to do something crazy.
She stumbled out of bed, dressed herself and walked back out into the hallway, right towards the interrogation room.
As she rounded the last corner, she came face to face with the scavenger girl who pointed a stolen blaster at her.
"Please, hold on," Jayd said quickly, throwing her arms up, "You don't have much time. The general has commands to use this weapon against the Resistance itself. I was coming to let you out myself, but looks like you've got that taken care of."
The girl lowered her gun. She was pretty, with dark hair pulled into three buns on the back of her head.
"What is your name?" Jayd asked.
"Rey," the girl said cautiously.
"Rey, I'm Jayd," the colonel said, "I don't suppose you have anyone coming for you?"
"Not that I know of," Rey said.
"Then you'll need to get to the nearest hangar and steal a fighter," Jayd said, "Follow this hallway all the way to the end, turn right and go about halfway down and then turn left down corridor A12. It'll take you straight to Hangar 718. It might take a little longer, but you're almost certain not to run into anybody, and if you do, there are places to hide."
Rey started off in the direction Jayd pointed. "Why are you helping me?" she asked.
Jayd rubbed her forehead and chuckled, "I must be insane. Go now, quickly. I'll stall anyone who comes looking for you, but I can only hold them off for so long."
Rey nodded and was off like a shot.
Jayd headed back toward the hologram room. She ran into Ren on his way back to the now empty interrogation room.
"Kylo Ren," she said, trying not to let her voice quaver, "May I have a word?"
Ren followed her back to the closet they met in before.
Ben took off his helmet. "I was just about to go get the map from the girl."
"The girl's locked up," Jayd said, smirking, "She's not going anywhere."
Ben grinned and kissed her. "I wish I could stay, but we have a job to do. We'll have plenty of time for this and...anything else we'd like, once our goal is reached."
"You're right," Jayd said, "I have to hurry to the control room. We're due to fire the weapon soon."
"Right," Ben said.
They exited the closet and parted ways, Jayd hurrying quickly before Kylo Ren could discover that Rey was gone.