Chapter 14

Mar travelled silently, jumping from hyperspace lane to hyperspace lane and constantly listening, feeling out for a familiar tug, like the one that still held the water canteen's attention. The last time he had used psychometry for tracking, he had still been a boy on Kiffu, and even if he had been proficient at it, inaction made his senses lethargic.

Mar closed his eyes, slipping the object from hand to hand, taking in the images.

When he'd first touched the canteen, he'd seen the ship she flew — an ancient Nimbus-class V-Wing — and she'd flown from a planet with an immense forest. The faces he had seen; mostly human, male and female, and those who had also touched the object were clearer to him. Mar concentrated on those faces, those images.

As he sorted through them while shooting through space— almost half in meditation— he caught glimpses of faces he'd seen on First Order Wanted posters throughout the Outer Rim. Poe Dameron; the pilot whose death tally was likely in the hundreds of thousands by now. Despite the First Order's attempts to keep it quiet, the fact that he'd escaped their custody aided by one of their own Stormtroopers was a rumour that stretched from the Unknown regions to the Inner Rim.

Then there was the Wookiee. Mar assumed it was the same Wookiee that Kylo had spoken about when he was still Ben. His father's partner in crime who had been more of a dad than his actual father ever had been. From the glimpses of memory Mar could grasp, it seemed the same could be said for the Wookiee's relationship with the girl.

Her name was on the tip of his tongue as he barrelled through the memories linked to the canteen. Half-syllables and noiseless mouth movements, until he dropped onto one more familiar face: General Leia Organa's.

The mother that Kylo could never deny.

Among the flickers of images, the general had smiled warmly at the young Jedi. A depth of understanding in her brown eyes that Mar knew well. He knew those eyes, because they were Kylo's too.

The beacon will always be on, we will always be waiting for you… Rey.

Rey.

Yes. The Force almost hummed in approval as Mar said her name aloud.

He smiled briefly, his hand tightening on the object in his hands. If there was a beacon then all Mar had to do was find its twin to find the Jedi.

Mar took out his datapad, inputting small details of what he had seen: the types of trees the forest held, the large shelter that the Resistance were holed up in, with machinery that was over thirty years old. It wouldn't have been a surprise if they were utilising an abandoned Resistance base, the question was simply, which one?

XxX

Kylo blindly made his way back to the TIE-fighter, moving obstacles out of his way in order to keep that link to Rey alive and awake in his mind. Ice gnawed at his fingers through his leather gloves as he pulled himself across the roughened landscape, taking a beeline over ridges rather than returning the way he had come.

He was out of Ilum's atmosphere within minutes of climbing back into the TIE-fighter, closing his eyes and letting his own soul, his own connection to the Force guide him. The light purple energy he had been following was quickly evaporating, and even as he prepped the ship for his hyperspace jump, he felt the solidity of the connection fade, until it was just him and the gentle presence of Rey at the corner of his mind. Like a hand on glass; visible, yet separate.

His eyes closed, seething and reigning in his frustration to anything but anger, especially in the tiny cockpit of the starfighter. Kylo had known when Rey had been on Arkanis, and he had an inkling that she was no longer there.

Flicking open the navigational panel, his eyes dragged over the streams of data in front of him; at the star maps that charted most of the known galaxy.

Trying to feed off his connection to her, he took steady breaths as his gloved hand fingered the controls, wishing that Rey would willingly tell him where she was. That she could accept what the Force wanted for them both.

Deciding on a whim, he punched in coordinates for the Core worlds, hoping that docking in Coruscant would give him some further clarity. As the planet was still under New Republic control, it granted him a semblance of anonymity that he would not take for granted. Even if Hux had taken it upon himself to dismantle the New Republic, they still had strongholds within the Mid Rim.

Yet Kylo was still filled with some trepidation as he launched into hyperspace. If Hux had been behind the murders on Chandrila, it wouldn't have surprised Kylo if more New Republic murders sprung up elsewhere in the Core worlds, and if that were the case, the Resistance would be the least of his problems.

XxX

It took Mar a day and a short stop for refuelling in Hutt Space to knock his selection of planets down to four, not risking removing any planets 'presumed destroyed' or 'presumed uninhabitable'. His years working adjacent to the First Order meant he was fully aware of how much the Resistance were capable of. And even when they had been knocked off their feet, they always found a way to drag themselves back up. To some level, Mar respected their tenacity.

As his mind roved over the four planets in front of him, he turned the canteen in his hand, trying to get into the mind of General Organa and thinking of the kind of distances they could have travelled after the almost annihilation of their entire enterprise on Crait.

Asher III. Cardooine. Ahlenn. Barkhesh.

The constant exercising of his psychometry meant he was falling back into the ease of using it, and Mar smiled as he settled into the images and memories flowing through the objects around him. There were times when he could even smell the memories, taste the Force's presence on each moment.

He knew a lot more about Rey because of it. Or perhaps it made more sense to contemplate that he knew a lot more about her place within the Force: How the Force revelled when she channelled it, felt alive when her heart was racing. But what Mar found the most interesting, was the moments when Rey was alone. When there was quiet besides the steady beat of her own heart, when the Force hummed gently; a sirens song that Rey followed it each time.

Mar had no idea what it was. Hadn't experience it himself, yet the Force seemed to call to Rey in a way he'd never seen before. Even with Kylo, the Force wasn't so calm. It was erratic, and Mar had always considered that perhaps that was why Kylo was the way he was. His irregularities even made the Force around him strange and off-beat. As if he were off-kilter and the Force was always trying to correct him but failed every time.

The thought creased his brow and Mar realised that he hadn't read Kylo in months, maybe even years. How he was studying Rey currently through this object, was something he hadn't done to any of his fellow Knights in a very long time. Perhaps because nothing ever used to change.

His mind drifted through the canteen's potent memories again, and he settled on another conversation with General Organa. He enjoyed listening to her speak. It was different when she addressed Rey alone; warm and motherly.

Do not take the blame for Ben not following you.

His thoughts halted immediately, and he dropped the canteen, removing his feet from up on the pilot's consul and staring down at the metal rolling beneath his feet. Mar shook his head, trying to figure out whether he had heard wrong, or he had projected something from his own mind. However, that voice…it wasn't his own. It was the General's.

Swallowing, he reached for the canteen, but his fingers merely glanced against it and he sat up once more, his eyes focused on the viewport.

Ben.

His mother still called him Ben. But it was the fact that she'd said the name to Rey, as if it were familiar between them. How did the woman who butchered Snoke and his guards leave the scene with even Kylo's name in her memory?

Mar swallowed, distracting himself by looking over at the names of the four planets again.

Ahlenn. Its craters and jungles and destroyed base seemed a reasonable choice.

Even as he made his decision, his mind roved continuously over Leia's words.

Following her? To where? To what end? Had Rey tried to take Kylo prisoner after killing Snoke?

He was already in hyperspace when his head began to ache, and he rested his head on the consul, trying to clear his mind. Suddenly, it wasn't so easy to release the memories simmering within his skull.

XxX

Strangely, over the past few days, Rey had quickly settled into being in Coronet City, and despite Obi-Wan not appearing again, she had resolved herself to staying on the planet for a little longer. The old ghost mentioning that this was where Han had lived once had Rey hesitating in her ship, hesitating long enough that she had found a docking station for the night and the nights that followed.

The city itself was just as noisy as Rey had expected. It was the loudest and busiest place she had ever been, and Rey took in the life that teamed around her. It was almost overwhelming to meditate here while feeling the lives of so many around her. The fear that something like Starkiller could so easily wipe out a planet, a system even, of this many people, was constantly on her mind and the thought hardened her resolve. If what Kylo—what the First Order was doing right now was genocide, then who would be next? Where would they stop?

Her fingers absently grazed the cool metal of the beacon that remained on her wrist, a simple reminder that even if she was reluctant to return – fearing that Kylo was close behind her – it was important that she did.

Despite the din of Coronet City, the noise of the day was different from that at night. It wasn't a kind city, Rey knew as much, particularly considering the Corellians who constantly tried to sell their wares; artificial and flesh alike. She'd almost been dragged into a dingy casino by a shifty-looking Toydarian and was only able to dissuade him with an elbow to the nose.

Even then, Coronet city was something familiar. In some ways, Jakku was a microcosm for this kind of place, and just like Jakku, the hills weren't far. The only difference being that here they were grass and there they had been sand.

The sea breeze blew through the loose tendrils of hair at her temples and she sighed softly. She revelled in the coolness of the wind, as the chaotic shipyards below only made the warm climate more unbearable.

When Rey turned to make her way back down the hill to return to the room she had rented within the heart of the city, she was met with the expansive and expressive back of Kylo Ren, his attention fixed on the lightsaber in his hands.

Rey readied herself, taking a breath as he turned around; alert to her appearance, despite the passivity of his expression.

'Hello,' he murmured.

She was silent as she looked at him carefully.

'Rey.'

'I would prefer if you didn't say my name,' she said flatly, brow furrowing.

He closed his eyes for a moment before meeting her glare, his expression open—far too open. 'Thank you,' he began. 'For Vardos.'

The words left Rey in silence and she just stared at the man, somehow believing that perhaps she was hallucinating after all. That from the start this Force bond had been a product of her own nightmares.

'I didn't know, so thank you.'

'Are you sure that is something you should be admitting to your enemy?'

Kylo's lips lifted into a shadow of a wry smile. 'You are not my enemy.'

'Will I have to kill you to prove it?'

His eyes dipped, and Rey watched him swallow, tongue slipping out to lick his lips. 'Would you?' He asked, voice low. 'Would you kill me?'

Rey nodded automatically. It didn't matter if every part of her was screaming no.

'Would you not kill me?' she questioned in return.

He tilted his head, assessing her in silence. 'I had my chance, didn't I?'

And he had. Rey could have almost forgotten that part, if it weren't for the scar on her arm that reminded her daily of what had happened in that Throne room. And even more than that, it reminded her of what she had done, what she had wanted.

'It's not too late, Rey,' he murmured. 'The Force calls us together, so why do you resist it?'

Rey snorted, folding her arms across her. 'It could very well be calling us into battle.'

'I don't want that.'

She was shaken by the abruptness of his statement, by the simmering rage that settled behind his eyes and the fact that the weapon he had held so tightly in his hands, was cast to the side, thrown in irritation.

He approached her, and Rey didn't move, she only watched him, her breathing growing shallow as he drew closer.

'Please, don't.' The words slipped from her mouth. Weak words. Submissive words.

Though he stopped all the same, still holding her gaze, even when they stood a metre apart. 'Are you scared that it'll be different or the same?' He inquired. 'That when we touch, nothing will have changed.'

'It changed the moment you asked me to—'

'—What if that's not important anymore?' He interrupted. 'If its not what I want?'

He trudged towards her and Rey held her breath before he was gone. Like wisps of wind, gently blowing her clothes with the abandoned momentum of his approach.

It felt like a punch to the gut and she bent forward, suddenly feeling like her skin was exposed, that she was left to the elements and everywhere the world touched, burned. The tears were cold on her burning cheeks and she clung onto the memory of Chewbacca's comforting embrace, trying yet again to fight the part of her soul that fought for Kylo, that wanted to save him.

An hour may have past before Rey had the will to move from her place hunched on the hillside.

She slowly made her way through the busy streets until she decided on the cantina beneath the inn she was staying in. Rey sighed as she settled into a chair at the bar, waving down the bartender and asking for a glass of Corellian wine and a plate of whatever was going.

She felt hollow, even after hours of trying to leech whatever strength she could from the soil beneath her while she had cried. It was like she'd been wrung out and her heart ached with her willing resistance to everything Kylo said to her, and everything she tried the most to push away.

It couldn't matter if he changed his mind, because what had happened was the past already. The past couldn't be changed, and because of that, she couldn't see him differently, she wouldn't.

She took up the fork, spearing several cubes of jogan fruit and forcing them into her mouth, having to chew wide and for a long while before the food was manageable to swallow.

'It's easy to choke like that.'

Her eyes glanced to the man who had slid silently onto the stool beside her, already with a glass of whiskey in his hand and the other curled into a fist on the bar. Rey looked him over briefly, noting the yellow tattoos on his face, and the dark dreadlocks that were tied on the top of his head. She could sense something else about him but was not sure exactly what it was.

'At least I'd die with a full stomach.'

He smirked and sipped at the drink before turning briefly to her, his hand held out. 'I'm Mar. I've been looking for you Rey.'

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