Rey
High above the remote mountains of Evryn, two X-Wings rolled and dove in a wild, roaring aerial dance. They chased each other across thousands of kilometers, ostensibly taking scans of the cities and surrounding jungle. This was their excuse, but their flight patterns revealed their true purpose: reveling in the freedom of the skies. They rocketed up into the blank expanse of stars and screamed along a vast, remote lake. Maneuvering and whirling around one another like birds in a mating ritual, they clearly felt no need to be stealthy or careful. Fortunately their scans reported no First Order activity to compel them to be more discreet. The sun glinted off the wings like flecks of light, dawn trailing behind them in a vapor of gold dust.
When they finally returned to the base, both pilots were flush with euphoria. Rey climbed out of the X-Wing first and sprinted to Poe's. He yanked off his helmet, grinning the biggest grin she'd ever seen.
"That was some fancy flying!"
"Me?" She laughed. "You! What were you even doing?"
He shook his head, unclipping his harness to climb out. "I was trying some new stuff — but you kept pace like it was old news, like you'd done it before. Nice work!"
She stepped back to make room for him at the bottom of the ladder. "It felt good," she admitted.
"I prefer being in the cockpit. It's like every problem stays on the ground and you get to just be alone with the stars."
"Yeah." She grinned. "Exactly."
Poe ran a hand through his hair, long dark lashes framing his eyes as they slid slyly in her direction. "I'm glad you came. You needed some distraction."
"Hopefully Finn's gotten along alright," she said lightly, deflecting. Thus far, she'd been able to avoid any direct conversation about her situation with Ben, and she wanted it to stay that way. Poe didn't really have anything to do with it, and she wasn't interested in hearing his opinions on the matter. Besides, she'd awoken this morning with the peculiar feeling that something between herself and Ben had shifted again. Somehow, she felt closer to him upon waking than she had the night before. It needed some examination, but not while Poe was around.
"You're the one who kept assuring him he'd be fine," Poe continued, drawing her thoughts back to Finn.
She expelled a short laugh. "I'm sure he is."
Finn hadn't been exactly thrilled about the plan when she explained it in the early hours, before he was even fully prepared for the day. He hadn't comprehended what they were asking of him until Rey slipped the wristband off her arm and onto his.
"What? No! I don't want to be his babysitter!" He'd protested vehemently. "What if he tries to kill me?"
"He won't," Rey assured him, sighing. "I thought we were past this."
"I totally trust him while you're around. But what happens when you're not? What if he tries his crazy mind-tricks on me and convinces me to let him go?"
"That only works on the weak-minded, which you're not."
He lowered his voice conspiratorially, glancing at Poe who stood beside him. "What if he forces open my brain like he did to Poe?"
"He promised he wouldn't."
"Finn," Poe had finally said, exasperated. "I don't like it either, but I think she's got him effectively leashed. And it's only breakfast! We'll be back before it's over."
Outnumbered, Finn had finally surrendered. Rey tentatively trusted what Ben had said the night before, so she felt reasonably certain everything had gone well this morning. But she didn't really know how the two of them would get along without her, and she had to admit — she was a little nervous about it.
Still. Poe didn't need to know that.
"Thanks again," she told him as they headed out of the hangar.
"My pleasure. We'll do it again sometime," he promised.
She wondered briefly about the wisdom in using fuel resources for something as frivolous as pleasure flying, but decided Poe probably knew more about that than she did. He was a commander, after all.
They discovered the truth of Finn's situation soon enough, when they found both he and Ben heading down the corridor that led from the commissary to Ben's room. The two of them were talking — which was a good sign. In fact, they were so deep in conversation they didn't quite notice Rey and Poe's approach.
"I told you they'd be fine," Rey laughed, drawing the attention of both men.
Finn's expression illuminated. "Rey! Poe! How was the flying?"
"Great." Poe grinned, his gaze flashing to Ben.
Rey nodded. "It felt good. How about you? How'd you get along?"
Ben met her glance. Though his expression didn't change, she felt the fleeting echo of relief and pleasure, and perhaps a twinge of jealousy through that undefinable channel that linked them. No annoyance or resentment, though, which was another good sign.
Finn, unaware of this exchange, answered for them. "Actually it was pretty good! Ren here —" He clapped Ben on the shoulder, received a stare from the taller man, and quickly withdrew his hand. "Uh…Ren thinks I might not be the only one."
"The only what?" asked Poe.
"The only bug in the system, as Phasma so lovingly put it," Finn said nostalgically.
Rey cocked her head to the side, considering. Was this what Ben was pondering last night?
"Finn," Poe complained, impatient.
"What I mean is that I might not be the only one who thought about desertion. I mean, in an army of tens of thousands, what are the odds?"
"I dunno, one in tens of thousands?" Poe guessed.
Finn shook his head. "No way. I can't accept that. It's gotta be bigger. I bet you anything there are others with secret doubts. People defected from the Empire way back in the day. Wasn't it an Imperial pilot turned traitor who helped the rebels get the plans to the first Death Star?" He glanced at Ben for confirmation.
Ben nodded once.
Finn continued, his eyes illuminating with the excitement of his idea. "There are others out there. I know it. I didn't question anything until that village on Jakku. Suddenly I couldn't do anything I'd been trained and programed to do my whole life. Maybe others are like that — devoted, until something happens that shakes them. Right now they're just lying dormant, like deactivated bombs."
Rey alerted to the mention of her homeworld. "What village?"
Finn had already defected when he met her. She'd never asked him what had spurred the decision, but she was startled to hear her dusty little corner of the galaxy played a role in his moment of courage.
"Tuanul," Poe replied darkly.
"Tuanul?" Rey echoed, the name evoking memories of the eccentric visitors to Niima Outpost from the little isolated community. The other scavengers sometimes laughed about the superstitions and outdated beliefs of these quietly fanatical believers, but in the end they were reasonably honest people who stuck to themselves and didn't make trouble — which couldn't be said of most Jakku residents. She glanced at Finn, confused. "What purpose could stormtroopers possibly have in a tiny religious village?"
Finn didn't answer. He looked to Poe, whose gaze leapt directly, and accusingly, to Ben. Immediate tension swelled between all three.
Ben met Poe's stare evenly for a long, somehow dangerous moment.
Rey frowned. Darkness swirled around Ben, curling in against him like tendrils of smoke. She felt it, and recognized that something significant had passed between the three of them which she did not understand. It made her uneasy.
"I heard rumors…" she shook her head. "I didn't believe them because why would anyone want to ransack Tuanul? Niima Outpost is bigger and richer — though that's not saying much. Tuanul had nothing."
"What happened there was senseless," Poe said, an icy edge to his voice.
Rey shifted uncomfortably. Suddenly she was certain she did not want to know more. "...But it triggered something in Finn. And now he wants to activate dormant bombs," she prompted.
"Right," Finn seized this way out and took it. "Exactly. Ren thinks we should use me as the thing that activates them. The spark that lights the fire."
"How?"
"We might need Rose's help on this, or if we can get Maz here that would be even better. But if we can figure out a way to broadcast directly into the comms link in their helmets — if we can slice into the signal the commanders use, I can record some propaganda as the one who got away and feed it into their helmets. Like the voice of their conscience."
Poe squinted dubiously. "You want to send recorded messages telling them to revolt?"
"Something like that, yeah. I know how these guys think, how they operate, and the little acts of defiance they still cling to. Like playing Sabbac after hours. Spending a little too much time in the cantinas. Things like that. If I can exploit those little rebellions into something bigger, we might be able to deprogram them. Obviously we'll have to do it carefully."
"We'll definitely need Maz on this," Poe ruminated. "It's either really stupid, or really crazy."
Finn grinned at Ben, who offered the barest nod of encouragement in return. "Yeah, maybe a little of both."
"Okay." Poe sighed. "Let's go present it to the General and see what she thinks."
Rey, still shaken but trying to focus on the brilliance of this plan, smiled. "She'll go for it, no doubt. But I'll let you take it to her without us. I think Ben and I should get back to the schedule."
Finn nodded, slipping the wristband off his arm and back onto hers. "Not that is hasn't been a good time, Ren, but I'm a little glad to get this thing off of me."
"I agree," Ben said mildly.
With a promise to find her later and report on Leia's decision, Finn and Poe hurried off. Rey turned to Ben, conflicting emotions complicating her reaction to being left alone with him now. She was glad to see him again, still curious about the strange closeness she woke up with, but somehow this business with Tuanul had made her feel unsettled. She found it difficult to look him in the eye.
"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked quietly. He knew. He could see.
"I…don't know."
It was strangely alienating to realize Poe, Finn, and Ben had all shared a horrible experience together while she was still accepting Plutt's unfair payment for her meager daily haul. It made her feel small and insignificant. Worse than that, however, was the persistent ache in her stomach at the memory of the rumors.
She glanced reluctantly at Ben, but her gaze dropped again immediately. "You were there?"
"I was."
The gossip around the scrubbers had brought her such heinous, incomprehensible reports that she struggled to believe them. Reports of a massacre, of utter destruction, of slaughter. She shuddered. Finn had been there, tasked with that slaughter. Poe was captured there, plucked for torture. And Ben…
She felt sick.
"Rey," he said softly. "Look at me."
A more difficult request she couldn't imagine. His face was one she had come to know so well, it felt more familiar than her own. But right now, she also saw the eyes of a murderer. Of course she'd always known this about him — had witnessed it herself, in fact. But these days it was easy to forget. The reminder felt like cold water dumped over a warm fire. Her affection and regard for him sputtered under this painful realization.
"What I've done I can't take back. I did it because I thought it was right." His expression was guarded, carefully masked, but she felt his vulnerability. He wanted her to understand. He was afraid she wouldn't.
She softened. They'd come so far since those early connections when all she could do was spew venom at the devil she perceived him to be. She knew that black deeds marked his past, but she'd seen so much deeper than those deeds, to the truth of him. And whatever happened on Tuanul was not the truth of him. "I know. I'm sorry."
"Don't apologize for your horror at my actions. You're not the one in the wrong."
"I've convinced us both that everything you did in the name of Kylo Ren doesn't matter," she admitted. "But I guess it still does."
He reached tentatively for her, fingers hesitating before they sought her own. "It does matter. To you. To me. Especially this, because it happened so close to your home. I destroyed part of your world. Had I known that a scavenger in the Graveyard would come to mean so much to me and that this action would hurt her, I might have made a different choice back then."
Her heart leapt into her throat, gaze dropping to her hand in his. She swallowed, issuing a question which could easily ruin the gentle sentiment he'd just expressed. "Is it only because of me that you'd do it differently?"
His mouth twisted in wry amusement. "That's a difficult question to answer. Without your corruptive influence, I would still be in the service of Snoke and making more of the same choices. If I feel regret over my actions in Tuanul, it's entirely your fault. I know you don't want to be the reason, but you can't escape your guilt in this."
A slow smile teased and then grew over her own face. Finally she laughed a little, very softly. The action of it released any lingering tension in her chest. "I guess I don't mind being guilty, then."
He let her hand drop again, pleased that the situation was stabilizing. "What do you think of Finn's plan?"
"Finn?" Her brow lifted. "Not the traitor?"
Ben shrugged. "I can't call him a traitor without calling myself one as well, I suppose. Besides, it's more comfortable to say than FN-2187."
She grinned. "Yes, it is. The plan is interesting, but I don't know much about stormtroopers. You think it will work?"
"I do. Hux believes his training method, and I think that very hubris prevents him from seeing how fragile his system is. Finn could be the key to shattering it."
Warm pleasure zipped through Rey at the idea that her favorite friend might suddenly become the most important piece in the new rebellion.
"Did you enjoy your flight?" Ben asked, changing the subject.
"Yeah, I did." They began walking now, closing the distance between their position and Ben's door.
"X-Wings are nimble machines in the right hands," he remarked. "It's been a long time since I flew one, but I remember the thrill."
"I'd like to fly your Silencer for comparison." She imagined the sleek, deadly vessel sitting abandoned on that moon. If Ben intended to go back one day to fix her up, she intended to go with him.
He glanced at her, a flash in his eye. "There's no question which is superior. You'll see."
She laughed. "I intend to."
They arrived at his room, and after submitting to the mandatory inspection by a guard she did not know, she activated the access. "I'll go get the books and we can study before training today. Is that alright?"
He shrugged. "You're the warden."
Stepping away after he'd gone inside, she felt a peculiar sensation bubbling up from some place within her. The horror and harrowing solemnity of moments ago was gone completely, replaced by something that reminded her of how she felt this morning, soaring high above the planet. It had all the gut-wrenching euphoria of a steep aerial dive.
A/N:
Sorry for the longer wait for this chapter, guys! The publishing company I work for has been at a big writer's conference for the last few days and it has kept me incredibly busy. Fun, but busy. But I'M SO EXCITED because I just wrote a scene a few chapters down the line that I cannot wait for you guys to read! It's coming. I'll try to edit and post these next few quickly so you can get there :D As always, thanks for your reviews!
And to the person who doesn't like the Damerey stuff because of the age gap - yes, it's a little weird. Poe isn't twenty years older than her, though. He was 32 at the time of TFA (born in 2 ABY and TFA happens in 34 ABY) so he is a good 12 years older. So definitely not old enough to be her father. It's a gap, I admit, but stranger things have happened. And don't get too worried, I'm fully Reylo trash and I do not ship Damerey, so this will not be a story about them.