Chapter 24

It wasn't long before Leia left the medical centre, her duties requiring her attention no matter her personal wishes. Leaving Ana alone. And as soon as she was alone, Ana was pulling herself from the cot and making her escape.

She couldn't stand to stay. Not without Poe or her Aunt or, well, anyone. Not left to the mercy of her own thoughts. Not without someone to force her to turn her thoughts from places she desperately didn't want them to go.

So she left, even knowing she probably shouldn't.

She didn't know why, but once she managed to evade 2-1B and Dr. Kalonia to escape the med-centre, Ana found herself retreating to one of the dusty, nearly forgotten corners of the Command Centre. Thankfully someone had thought to leave a set of clothes next to her cot for when she was eventually released—her burgundy leather flight jacket, a soft, high-necked dark shirt and chestnut breeches—so she at least wasn't sneaking around the Base in one of the awful med-centre robes.

She'd intended to find Poe or her Aunt or at the very least retreat to her quarters to sleep.

But instead she found herself kneeling in front of a familiar blue and white droid.

Artoo was silent. He'd been that way for so long that Ana was beginning to forget what the cheeky little astrodroid had been like when he was awake.

As she looked up at his large dark eye, Ana couldn't help but exhale in disappointment. She'd hoped—no, that had been foolish. Why would he wake for her now? He hadn't done so when she was fourteen and heartbroken that her family had been torn apart. He hadn't when she was sixteen and about to steal away on the Falcon, hoping to…well, do something. He hadn't woken when she was twenty-one and had finally returned to the Resistance.

Why would he wake up now?

Suddenly feeling exhausted from the constant state of pain and uncertainty she had been in for what suddenly felt like an eternity, Ana was soon leaning tiredly against her dormant childhood companion, her forehead resting on Artoo's compact metal body. There was a faint, rhythmic droning coming from beneath the little droid's outer shell, evidence that he was still active, or at least functioning on some level. Tears slowly began leaking from beneath her tired eyelids, creeping slowly down her cheeks. Her left hand came up to rest against the rounded torso, her fingertips tracing the grooves of his compartment hatches and interfaces. She hurt too much to deny her feelings in that moment, no matter how weak she knew she'd feel for admitting it later.

"I need my Father, Artoo," she whispered, struggling to keep from sobbing outright, "you have to know where he went. You have to."

A soft whirring sound grew in the hushed space around Ana and a quiet, consoling series of beeps jerked her from the heartbroken place her thoughts had been sinking to.

Her eyes snapping up, Ana found herself face to face with a very much awake R2-D2, the old droid humming comfortingly as his lights and readouts flickered back to life after his self-imposed dormancy.

Ana could only look up at him in astonishment, her lips parting in shock. She barely comprehended BB-8 nearly knocking into her as he rushed over, the orange orbiculate droid warbling excitedly. Nearly as enthusiastically, Artoo chirruped back, speaking too fast for Ana to follow in her shock and pain-fogged state. All she caught was something about thanks for triggering a sub-program of some kind. But Ana was too astonished to think on it further, so much so that she found it hard to breathe as Artoo came back to life before her eyes, to even register the familiar sound of Threepio's servos as he scuttled over himself.

"R2-D2, you've come back," the golden droid proclaimed with satisfaction. With a burbling answer, Artoo shifted, extending his third tread, careful not to hit Ana who still hadn't moved. He looked at her, his large, dark eye fixed on her as he warbled soothingly again before turning back to Threepio, his tone decidedly more excited. He was speaking too quickly again and Ana was feeling far too muddled to properly keep up with what he was saying, out of practice with his dialect as she was. She didn't get much of it. Though he had no such problems understanding, Threepio hesitated before responding, looking down with what could only be described as perplexity at his old counterpart.

"You found what?" Artoo all but snickered back, drawing an affronted reaction from the protocol droid. Ana nearly chuckled; that she'd understood.

"What? How dare you call me that," Threepio blurted back, giving his old friend a whack on the side of his silver and blue dome. Artoo snickered again, and beside Ana BB-8 joined in laughing at the golden droid. She couldn't help the smile that was slowly spreading across her face. It was just as she remembered, with Artoo teasing Threepio; it was like nothing had changed.

But then Artoo drew himself back on topic, chattering off something else too quickly for Ana to catch. Again, Threepio sounded perplexed, looking from Artoo to Ana and back again.

"Find Master Luke how?" Abruptly Ana was no longer on the verge of laughing, feeling the blood draining from her face. Artoo warbled and beeped again, slower this time, and this time Ana understood him.

When BB-8 had told him he had the Map fragment, Artoo had begun cycling on again.

Because he had the rest of the map.

Threepio shifted eagerly. "Come Artoo. We must go tell the others at once!" Artoo didn't need to be told twice, and neither did BB-8, both of them wheeling after Threepio as the protocol droid hurried off to locate General Organa. Ana sat where she had knelt in a daze, struggling to process what Artoo had said.

It took BB-8 bumping gently against her side to rouse her, the little droid having doubled back when he realized she hadn't moved. Feigning a faint smile at his eager urging to get up, she managed to get to her feet, a little surprised that her knees didn't give way on her. Stumbling after the trio of droids, Ana followed them out into the Command Centre proper, where Artoo's lively chortling—and general liveliness, really—was drawing all sorts of attention as he and Threepio headed straight for the General. The Command Centre was lightly manned, but the attention of nearly everyone remaining had been drawn by Artoo's sudden reappearance.

When Ana caught sight of her Aunt, Leia was standing alone in front of one of the tactical displays, though her bowed head easily told Ana that her Aunt's thoughts were far away. It took two tries for Threepio to get her attention, but it was Artoo's animated chatter that finally had Leia turning around, an expression of disbelief on her damp face that Ana could certainly understand.

"R2-D2 may contain some much needed good news," Threepio said gently, showing a rare bit of tact. Leia, still stunned, stared at Artoo for a heartbeat before glancing first to Threepio before her gaze settled on her niece. Ana didn't need to say anything, or even gesture to confirm the question on Leia's face; Ana's pale features and unusually bright eyes said it all. Leia turned back to Artoo, her voice containing a faint but distinctive trace of hope.

"Tell me," the General prompted, her relief and enthusiasm plainly visible. With a happy warble, Artoo rolled back past Ana, over to an open area of the Command Centre, trundling past the Jakku girl Ana had yet to actually talk to. Her steps hurried, Leia followed, Threepio close on her heels. The General paused at Ana's side though, laying a gentle hand on Ana's arm, sparing her niece a questioning look. Ana tried to smile reassuringly for her Aunt's sake, but couldn't quite manage it. Sparing Ana a sympathetic glance, Leia stepped around her, following Artoo.

Swallowing thickly, Ana forced herself to turn and follow too, brushing past Snap, Poe and Major Brance to stand just off to the side away from Leia next to one of the Command Centre's support columns, opposite where the Jakku girl sat. With a querying rumble, she felt Chewie come up behind her, just as drawn to Artoo's presence as everyone else.

Leia stopped next to Poe, who had been talking quietly with Ackbar and Snap next to the primary tactical monitor until Artoo had gone warbling past them. As Ana allowed herself to lean against the archway behind Threepio, next to Admiral Statura, she could swear she felt Poe's questioning eyes on her, but even his concern and the questions she could see straining to burst free or the step he took toward her before his way was blocked by his companions wasn't enough to tear her attention away from the old blue and white astrodroid. And quickly enough, even Poe was watching Artoo intently.

Burbling happily, bright blue light emitted from the old astrodroid's holo-projector, manifesting in a detailed starchart with what looked like a hyperspace route traced in red leading to a large blank section.

BB-8 peered at the map for a moment before racing over to Poe's side, bleeping excitedly, causing the Commander to kneel next to him as the little droid babbled away. Poe nodded.

"Alright, buddy, hold on," he reassured him, nearly dashing to the tactical monitor to retrieve Lor San Tekka's data unit from its interface, placing it in the data reader compartment in one of BB-8's tool-disks. Then, scurrying into place, BB-8 fired up his own projector, displaying the bit of map he and his master had been charged to find. Around them even more personnel had gathered. The Jakku girl had stood, watching the map nearly as intently as Ana and Leia were. The BB unit manipulated his section of the projection until it fit perfectly into the blank space, causing a hushed and excited murmur to go through the assembled crowd as every eye was fixed solely on the map.

But Ana felt like she was shaking apart inside, her chest feeling tight as the sound of Threepio stating conclusively that the map had been completed faded into nothing. The world around Ana seemed to go quiet.

She recognized it.

Ana recognized the map.

She had recognized it the instant Artoo's projection had initialized. She remembered her parents looking over this very map all those years ago. It had been missing a piece then too…the piece BB-8 had.

The piece Lor San Tekka had given Poe.

And abruptly a memory returned that she'd nearly forgotten—or perhaps she'd made herself forget…. A memory of Lor San Tekka's final visit to her parents…mere days before That Night…

"Luke," Leia nearly sighed, her warm eyes wide and bright and hopeful as she stared at the map to her brother. Around her, others began to smile and shift excitedly, word already being passed along to the back of the crowd that the Resistance had a way to find Luke Skywalker, the Hero of the Rebellion.

Ana wavered on her feet. She knew she should feel, well, something; happy, excited, anxious even.

But she felt nothing, she felt hollow. She turned and allowed herself to slide down the column, sinking to sit on the crate at its base. She couldn't look at the map anymore. Beside her Chewie rumbled worriedly, his voice nearly lost in the eager chatter that had risen up as soon as BB-8 had finished the map.

A gentle hand landed on Ana's shoulder. It took a great deal more effort than it should have for Ana to lift her eyes to meet her aunt's. The General looked down on her, her expression just as concerned as Chewie's tone. Ana's eyes slid back over her shoulder to look at the map, though she no longer really saw it.

"You've seen it before." Leia's voice was so low Ana barely heard it. She nodded once, the movement so slight that, had Leia not already seen the answer in Ana's eyes, she would have missed it.

"They were working on it," Ana answered back, her voice just as quiet, "I remember them working on it. They were trying to finish it. And then San Tekka visited…I'd forgotten. Dad—Dad was so excited…the very first Jedi Temple, he said…Mum too. They were…they were starting to plan… She was even working on it the night…That Night…I remember her holding it…" Leia squeezed Ana's shoulder gently, but she didn't say anything. There was nothing to say. Ana could feel her emotions rising in her throat, threatening to strangle her.

She needed to get away. She needed air.

Choking back a pained sound, she stood suddenly, nearly knocking into her Aunt before elbowing her way through the crowd.

It was crisp and bright outside, the sunlight just on the verge of shifting to the warm tint of evening. She paused, forcing herself to breathe deeply and steadily. It was not easy.

After all this time, she now knew for certain where he was. She jerked at the thought, her feet moving of their own accord. She wasn't entirely sure where they were taking her, but she hoped it was somewhere quiet and deserted. Someplace where she could scream or cry or just curl up and succumb to the hollow, pained feeling growing in her chest for at least a little while before reality forced her to pull herself back together. She wove through the milling Resistance personnel.

It was then that she heard Poe calling out behind her, barely registering the sound of his voice just scarcely rising over the natural noise of the Base.

"Adyé!" She knew he was calling after her, but Ana kept walking, hoping he'd think she couldn't hear him. Ana wasn't sure she could handle talking to anyone right now, much less Poe; her emotional defenses seemed to count for little around him recently. She didn't have that luck. She could hear him chasing after her, pushing through the Command Centre personnel as he went: "Ana!"

His grip closed around her uninjured arm, turning her abruptly to face him.

"I feel like I'm always chasing you," he laughed. She looked up at him, fighting to keep her face neutral. He was grinning down at her, though his usually smiling eyes were solemn and worried. And determined.

"Maybe I'm trying to run away," she bit half-heartedly back.

"Not from me, I hope," he teased, though an uncertain shadow surfaced in his eyes as he said it. Ana deflated.

"No, Poe," she admitted softly, "not from you. From…from everything else," she added bitterly. It was only when Poe's grip on her arm tightened that she realized she had tried to step away. Still trying to run…maybe that was the true legacy of her family…the desire to run when things hurt too much…

She looked up at Poe, the plea for him to let go poised on her tongue. But the look he was fixing her with made it very clear he wasn't going to let it go. Not this time. Not after everything that had happened in the last few days. She swallowed back a dry sob, her jaw clenching. This wasn't a conversation she wanted to have yet.

"Not now, Poe," Ana said softly, her tone hard, hoping he'd get the message. She saw in his face that he did, but he summarily ignored it.

"Yes, now. Why didn't you tell me," his voice was hushed, barely loud enough to for her to hear him over the din around them. Ana snapped her gaze away from him, unable to meet the nearly accusing yet inquisitive cast to his brown eyes. She kept her mouth firmly shut. But Poe was not one to be deterred so easily, causing her to silently curse the stubbornness of pilots.

"Why did you never say the General was your Aunt? Is she actually? You could have told me you were that close, Ana. Why didn't you? Did you think I couldn't keep it to myself? Or—or that I'd jump to conclusions about your place in the Resistance? Because I'd never do that. Never. Everyone knows you've earned what you've got—" Ana still refused to say anything, but her eyes jumped up to Poe's in panic as he rambled off his rapid-fire questions before flitting to anxiously scan the faces around them, astonished that even he could be so reckless. She couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when no one seemed to show sign of hearing what he'd just said. It wasn't the thought of people knowing her relationship with Leia that upset Ana.

It was the thought of people making the obvious association of precisely how she was related to Leia.

When her gaze flicked back to him, he was frowning in bewilderment, having trailed off when he recognized the upset panic on her face.

"Ana, what is going on with you? You're edgier than a Tatooine…" he trailed off, his eyes widening as the realization Ana was waiting miserably for arrived, "no, wait. Wait a second; Ana, you're not—" With a sound oddly like a growl, Ana grabbed Poe's wrist, cutting him off abruptly as she dragged him away from the milling personnel into a quiet corner of the nearest hangar bay, ducking in behind a stack of crates.

"Are you out of your mind, Dameron?" She said harshly as she swung back around to face him. Poe barely reacted to her livid tone, instead staring at her in awed disbelief, unable to move past his revelation.

"You're a Skywalker!" he blurted out. Ana hissed at him to shut it, but he again ignored her, his fingers suddenly gripping her shoulder to keep her from turning away again, "Are you a Jedi too?"

"I'm no bloody Jedi," she snapped, shoving his grip from her shoulder with her good hand. This time he did fall silent, finally realizing just how distraught she was. Poe studied her for a moment before continuing, deliberately speaking quietly, trying to sound as calming as he could. Ana was nearly vibrating she was so on edge, though whether it was anger or something else she wasn't quite sure. She wasn't keen on figuring it out, either.

"But you are Force-sensitive," he finally asked carefully. She could practically see his mind working, reconciling things he knew about her and things he'd seen her do, especially in the last few days, with this new bit of information. Ana forced herself not to grind her teeth at the question, weighing whether or not to answer him. She looked up at him again. And some of her anger bled away. This was Poe. Sighing, she admitted to herself that he did deserve an answer.

And she found part of her actually wanted to tell him.

"Considering who my parents are, especially my Father? Yeah…" she said quietly. There was no mistaking the bitterness in her tone. Poe's expression was unreadable. Her gaze dropped to look, unfocused, somewhere past his right shoulder.

"So you are his daughter," the pilot confirmed tentatively, finally catching on to her concern about being overheard. After a moment she nodded sharply. Poe swallowed thickly, struggling to process this new development. "So he isn't the last Jedi."

"I told you, I'm not a Jedi." It wasn't as vehement as before, her tone deadening instead. He eyed her thoughtfully, before scoffing a little.

"But Ana—"

"I want nothing to do with them! I want nothing to do with him!" she snapped again, her temper sharpening. This time, though, there was a thread of anguish laced through her words. She clenched her jaw shut. Poe just stared, surprised, though his eyes were beginning to harden as his own temper kindled.

"Ana, he's your Father! Surely—"

"He left me!" she interrupted furiously. She was so upset and agitated that she barely thinking anymore. She was at the end of her rope, and it was beginning to fray in her hands. And the words began to pour from her mouth without a single, conscious thought.

"When I needed him most he left! He trained Kylo Ren, okay? I knew him, I trained with him! I know his real name, the one the First Order will kill to keep quiet! Then Ben turned to the Dark Side and destroyed everything! He killed everyone at the Academy, even my s—" she choked back another sob, her grief threatening to overwhelm the anger and the sorrow that had finally broken free. "Then…then I watched him butcher my mother and I couldn't stop it!"

Ana's voice cracked as she finally admitted to shadows in her past aloud, the memories she had tried to force herself to forget. Poe watched her silently, his own anger at her defensiveness melting away as she bared a part of herself he'd never been allowed to see before. Her fists clenched and her eyes squeezed shut, fighting to keep back the angry prickling she could feel building behind her eyes.

"I tried to help her," she continued, her voice wavering dangerously close to a sob before her voice grew sharp again, her eyes snapping open to fix mercilessly on Poe, "to stop him but he sliced her lightsaber in half right in my hands. Then he cut me down too and left me for dead! You've seen the scar, Poe; you're one of the only ones who have. You've seen how bad it was. He nearly cut me in two! My best friend did that, my cousin! I should have died! Ben was my family," she cried, "and he destroyed everything!" Her eyes blew wide as her mouth slammed shut, horrified at what she'd let slip. Poe twitched, his eyes widening as the implications of her words sunk in.

"Ben?" he rasped out, "Ben Solo? The General's son?" This time a sob did gasp free, and Ana violently shook her head.

"No," she snarled. "No, he's not Ben anymore. Ben would never have killed my mother; he loved her; she understood him. And Ki—" Another furious sob ripped free, sounding more like an angry scoff before her anger faltered, Her shoulders hunching against the raw pain vibrating through her body, her arms wrapping tight around her torso. "My—my sister? She loved him so much, and he adored her right back. Yet he burned the Temple down with her still inside! We were his family, Poe. I was his family! Ben would have never hurt me. We were like—like two halves of a whole." Her head fell to her hands as she fought to regain control of herself, to rein in the words pouring from her lips. In front of her Poe looked on in horror at everything she'd said, his own eyes growing bright at the visceral anguish she was fighting that he couldn't tear his eyes from.

"Your sister…Ana—I didn't kn—" His breath catching, he shifted, looking like he was about to reach out for her.

But Ana didn't want him to touch her. She didn't want anyone to touch her. She just wanted to find that isolated, quiet corner she kept thinking about and fall apart. She wrapped her arms back around herself, squeezing hard as though the action might force the memories and the words she'd set free back into the place she'd hidden them for so long.

When she continued, not entirely sure why she let herself keep talking, her voice was hollow, all the passion of a moment earlier gone.

"Then my father just left. He left me. My Aunt said they found me barely alive, that without the medical attention the Resistance could provide I would have died. Yet my father…he was holding me when they found us. But then he…when I woke up, she said he would come back. That he just needed…but he would come back because I was all he had left. She was so sure. But…but it's been so long…I—I don't even know if she believes it anymore…." Ana's voice finally broke for good and she fell silent.

"Ana, I—" Poe tried, but the words didn't come. That he had no idea what to say in response to everything she had revealed was painfully clear. Ana forced breath after raw, aching breath into her lungs, willing her terror from that horrible night and all the pain and sorrow to go away.

It wasn't nearly so easy as that.

She sighed heavily, forcing back the tears that had been gathering to join the others that had already leaked out onto her cheeks. It was as though she hadn't even heard him. Neither could she bear to look at him, to meet his eye. She feared what she'd see in his dark eyes.

"You all hear the name Luke Skywalker and you think of a hero," she finally said, "I hear it, and all I can think is that he never came back. I tried to believe he was a hero. I tried, but I can't." Force, she hated how broken she sounded. Poe took a half step forward, reaching out to lay his hand on her arm. She leaned away from it.

"Just…just don't, Poe," she murmured, stepping haltingly back. He took another step toward her in response, but she just moved away again. After a long, painful moment, she chanced one quick, anguished look at him before spinning on her heel and fleeing. She hated the look of shock and disbelief, the horror and the sympathy—even pity—written plainly across his face.

Poe was about to follow when a small but firm hand landed on his arm.

"Let her go, Poe," the General said softly, "a lot has happened that she needs to process. She needs time. When she's ready, she'll find us." For an instant, Poe looked as though he was about to object, looking down at Leia incredulously before looking up to where Ana had disappeared.

"I knew, in my gut, that she'd lost someone—probably her parents—but…but this…shit, not this…not any of this." He looked back to Leia, feeling utterly helpless. "I didn't even know she had a sister…" Sighing heavily, he carded his fingers through his hair with frustration, unable to find anything more to say to the General, before turning and stalking off back into the Base.

A/N: So here we are! We are on Brand New Material from here on out! Yes, technically a bit of the beginning was the last of the Reposted content that made it up before I pulled everything for The Big Revision, but the rest was all new! New material and NEW REVELATIONS! Who saw it coming? ;D

I hope you all loved the chapter! I know many of you have been waiting for it for a long time!

Thanks for reading!

I'm anxiously waiting to hear what you all thought! And Hey!

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See you next time!