Journalism13- Thanks :)

Raphael M.G.M Tabbris- Your review was really touching. And that's not meant to be in some sarcastic way or anything. I know that I haven't updated any of my fanfictions in a really long time. The past year or so for me has been so full of shit and I've been going through a lot of really hurtful things, and it's felt basically impossible to actually write anything. But i guess I also forgot that I'd written a couple chapters in advance for this story that have been lying around for a really long time. It really means a lot to me that you like this story so much. Everytime I get a review I reread it about twenty times and get this super goofy grin on my face. And the fact that there's still people who could care so much about my stories seems incredible to me. I promise I haven't forgotten about this story, or any of my others. I'm sorry for leaving you and everyone else in suspense, but I promise that I'm not gone. I can't guarantee a consistent posting schedule, so I'm not even going to try suggesting one for myself. All I can say is that I'll never forget my works. My fics are the first long pieces of writing I've ever done, so they do mean a lot to me. And each person who reads them means the world. I wish that there were something I could do to apologize, but it still seems so crazy to me that anyone could really like anything I've written that much. I know that this chapter isn't going to really be anything special, so it won't make up for the long absence. But I hope that it can be a start. Thank you for leaving that review. I swear i won't be able to stop smiling for days now.

Finn pushed his way through the crowd to get to the platform. He walked up onto it. "I have something to say." He didn't look at Iris, he just turned to look out at the crowd. "The Order kidnaps babies and brainwashes them to guarantee their loyalty. Iris's actions were not entirely her fault. And in the end, when it really counted, she got her wakeup call. She nearly died, to protect us.

"So you want to accuse her of getting people killed? Are you all just conveniently forgetting that she was the one who suggested we move our base? She could've just let us stay at the old base and be wiped out without warning, but she didn't do that. Even after moving bases, she could've told the Order where we were, and we would've been destroyed. But she didn't do that either.

"I'm not saying that she's completely innocent. Not even close. Of course she's

made mistakes. But haven't we all? Iris has saved us all time and again, and you want to kill her? Or lock her away where she'll never see daylight again?"

Someone in the crowd shouted angrily. "That traitor got General Organa killed!"

Apparently Finn had no good answer to that. He stared into the crowd sadly for a moment, then stepped down off the platform.

Kiah nodded. "Thank you for that." She lowered her voice. "But you also once fought for the Order. Defend a traitor too hard, and people may begin to get the wrong idea."

Iris rolled her eyes. "This is about me, remember? I'm supposed to be the star of the show here."

That was enough to turn Kiah's attention away from Finn. He gave Iris a strange look before disappearing back into the crowd. Before Kiah could ask if anyone else wanted to take the stand, Iris cleared her throat. Kiah looked at her with annoyance. "What is it now?"

"Well, it would be only fair for you to allow me the opportunity to speak for myself, wouldn't it? I mean, it is my future on the line." She rattled her handcuffs noisily.

Kiah frowned. "You'll use your power to control their thoughts."

"You can do that?" Iris asked excitedly, before remembering the situation she was in. She had turned on Kylo Ren, and she'd never be trusted by the Resistance again. She would be better off finding some remote planet far enough away that no one had even heard of the First Order. She'd find a way to survive; she always had. "I could just as easily do that from this chair. But I won't, so I'm asking you. Please, let me speak for myself."

Kiah finally nodded, and Iris was unattached from the chair. She stood up, and walked over to the edge of the platform. She cleared her throat and stared out at the absolutely silent crowd. They were waiting with bated breath to hear how she'd try to defend herself. Iris couldn't figure out why this moment seemed so much more terrifying than defying Kylo Ren and nearly being killed by him.

Iris wondered for a moment if there was even a point to speaking. Everyone had undoubtedly already made up their minds. But then again, it really couldn't hurt either way. She cleared her throat again, just for good measure. "So. So, uh, we're all here right now because I betrayed you. All of you. I infiltrated the Resistance under the guise of being a rebel, but I was sending out secret reports to the First Order from the moment I arrived here." There was no reaction from the crowd, and Iris couldn't tell from the few faces she saw what they were all thinking. "I thought that that was my destiny. I thought that my only purpose was to live the entirety of my life in service to the Order. But I-" her voice cracked a bit. "But I know that I'll never be able to make up for all the harm I've caused. And I'm not going to give you any excuses. I was a traitor. There is nothing I could say now that could possibly change that fact. But that is my past, and I wish to leave it behind me. I simply want to step back, now. I just want to go. I don't want any trouble."

Kiah looked at Iris in surprise. "You want to leave?"

Iris turned away from the crowd to look at the general carefully. "I thought you'd be happy. You're the one who keeps talking about what an untrustworthy snake I am. And I keep telling you how uninvested I am in this place. Besides, it's not exactly like I can just stick around here."

She turned back to the crowd, but didn't get the chance to continue her plea for freedom. Rey climbed up onto the platform, and stood next to Iris. She spoke in a soft, serious voice. It didn't matter that she spoke quietly, though, because the crowd was so silent that most of them could still hear her. "Do you regret your past?"

Iris was confused, but she answered the question. "I regret what I did, but I'll never regret where I ended up. This place totally sucks, but I've never lived anywhere better in my life. So whatever happens next, I accept my fate. But I'll always regret what's behind me. That'll always be my burden to live with."

Rey nodded with satisfaction. She held out a smooth, flat stone, and her staff, of all things. "Here. Destroy the rock. There was a definite challenge in her voice, and Iris was curious.

She raised one eyebrow. "Why? What's so special about this rock? What will that prove? Is this some kind of trick? Is it like an ancient relic or something and breaking it will get me in a lot of trouble?" Rey said nothing. Kiah allowed Iris's hands to be uncuffed completely, and she took the rock and the staff.

The rock looked smooth and perfect, but in her hands, Iris could feel all the dips and grooves. Rey watched blankly, while several rebels had their hands on their blaster. Iris threw the rock down onto the platform. She lifted the staff above her head and slammed it down on the stone.

Iris picked it up and tossed it to Rey. "Happy now?" She handed the staff back as well.

Rey smiled, and looked at Kiah. "I handed a very deadly weapon to your traitor, and she wouldn't even smash a rock with it." She looked at Iris kindly. "And just so you know, this rock isn't even close to being destroyed." Rey left then, leaving the rebels to come to their own conclusions.

There was still silence from everyone else, which seemed to make Kiah feel uncomfortable. "Is there anyone else who wishes to speak?"

A voice rang out from the crowd. "Just put her to the vote already!" which was followed by a steady chant of, "Vote! Vote! Vote!"

Iris clenched her jaw. She knew they wanted to vote on her demise, but there was nothing to be done. Rey's brief demonstration wasn't enough to sway the thousands of minds. Kiah scowled at everyone. "Alright, enough!" She had to shout a few more times before the rebels quieted, though it wasn't even close to being as eerily silent as before. There was the buzz of everyone speaking to each other in soft tones. "All who believe that this child is, and always will be, a traitor, speak now."

Iris squeezed her eyes shut, and held her breath. There was a handful of shouts, but they quickly died down. Iris opened her eyes to stare out at the crowd in shock.

Kiah seemed equally surprised. "All who believe that this child was once a traitor, but has reformed, peak now." She sounded slightly unsteady.

The volume of all the shouts made Iris fear that she was going to go deaf in her one remaining ear. There were so many people shouting so many different things that Iris couldn't make out a single individual voice.

It took nearly half an hour to get everyone to quiet down again. She had a defeated look on her face. "Sounds like the ayes have it."

Iris looked at Kiah with wide eyes. "So just to be clear here, I'm free to go?"

The general nodded. "You are. But clearly they like you and want you to stick around. They may even make you the new general, since you're so popular."

"I wouldn't want to be general even if there weren't a million other people more qualified than me." Her expression softened. "Just because they asked for my freedom doesn't mean they hate you. And it doesn't matter, anyways. I'm going to pick a planet as far away as possible, and live out the rest of my days there."

"We're at war. We need every body we can get."

Iris shrugged apologetically. "I can't help you. You've got so many people here who would love to put an end to Kylo Ren."

"And you wouldn't?"

Iris shook her head. "Call me traitor all you want, but I can't be the one to end that bastard's life. Sorry." She jumped off the back end of the platform, and began walking towards the landing pad.

The sound of footsteps racing to catch up with her didn't slow her down. "Wait!" At the sound of Poe's voice, she came to a sudden halt. When he was next to her, they began walking together. "So the trial went well. You don't look very happy, though."

Iris shrugged. "I've been playing you literally the entire time we've known each other. How do you know this isn't my real happy face?"

"Fine, so we won't play this game. But I do need to talk to you." He stopped, and grabbed Iris's arm to pull her to a stop as well. "Will you just look at me? Listen, I want to talk to you about what happened back on the Order base."

Iris frowned. "There's nothing to talk about. I screwed you over, and then I felt bad about it, okay?"

Poe stubbornly refused to let the matter go. "Well, what about Dalton-6? You totally saved my life long before you changed your mind about what side you're on."

Iris narrowed her eyes. "What do you want from me? I saved your life and I've severed my allegiance with the Order. It's not like there's anything not adding up. You don't have to convince me not to be a bad guy; I already figured that one out on my own."

"I just want to know. When we walked into the base, did you already know which side you were going to pick?"

Iris shook her head. "I thought that I did. I was going to keep my loyalty where it had always been. But then I realized how totally stupid I'd have to be to let my only friends die. I didn't turn until I was standing right there next to him." She looked down at the ground. "You shouldn't have come back for me. I was trying to keep him distracted so you guys could escape. But you came back. Twice! Idiots."

Poe smiled fondly. "You didn't seriously think that we were going to just leave you behind, did you?"

Iris shrugged. "I betrayed you. I'm starting to think that that hasn't really sunk in for you yet. You're not supposed to rescue the person who throws you under the bus. Then again, you guys seem to do a lot of things around here that don't follow the rules."

Poe shrugged as well. "What rules? This is a rebellion. It's literally our goal to go against the rules that have been wrongfully placed in front of us." A thoughtful look crossed Poe's face. "Hey, back when Rey tried to teach you how to meditate, you pulled away, right? You did that to yourself? Because you were afraid that she'd read your mind and know you were a traitor?"

Iris nodded impatiently. "Look, wherever you're trying to go with this, can you get there a little quicker? I'm in a bit of a hurry."

She picked up her pace, forcing Poe to speed up as well. "What's the hurry? The galaxy will still exist a few minutes from now." When Iris didn't respond, Poe sighed loudly. "Alright, alright. You put yourself through a lot of pain to stay loyal to the Order. That's the kind of loyalty and determination that we could use here."

Iris came to a sudden stop, and whirled around to face Poe. "You don't need me for your stupid army, or rebellion, or whatever, okay? I'm a single person with unreliable abilities, I have a history of betrayal, I don't care about your cause, and I'm literally going insane."

It was only the last piece of the list that seemed to get Poe's attention. "Why would you think you're insane?" he asked gently.

Instead of responding, Iris turned and kept walking. She'd already bared too much of her soul. She didn't need to tell Poe about what were most likely stress induced hallucinations. Besides, she hadn't seen or heard from her ghosts since she'd asked to be left alone. "It doesn't matter, okay? I just need to get out of here. I have no place in your war."

"But the force does. And as someone with the ability to use the force-"

Iris shook her head. "I'm going to just stop you right there, okay?" she interrupted. "I don't have any obligation to fight for anyone or anything. My life is finally my own, so no one can make me do anything."

The pilot nodded. "I know. That's why I'm asking you to stay. You might just be one person, but you could really help."

Iris paused midstep. "In that list you guys keep of every rebel, what did you do to my name?" At Poe's confused look, she had to elaborate further. "Did you cross it out? Scribble over it? Tear that page out to salt and burn it?"

Poe answered honestly. "I really don't know. You'd have to ask the guy in charge of the list. But I doubt that they did anything to your name. You were a part of all this, like it or not." He stepped a little bit closer. "Where would you go anyways?"

"Well, I had to come from somewhere, didn't I?" She frowned. "Didn't I?" The Order was good at a lot of things, but Iris was pretty sure they'd yet to master making people appear out of nowhere. "I'm going to find out where I'm from." Even if it means talking to every single person in the galaxy, I'll find out where I'm from."

"And…?" Poe prompted.

Iris crossed her arms over her chest. "And I'll go there; live there. I'll meet my parents and ask how they could give me-" A pressure began building in the back of Iris's head, but she fought to push it away. The force was trying to show her another vision. But Iris was tired of seeing other peoples' lives. Iris was a free person. She didn't have to let the force control her. "...how they could give me-"

The pressure increased and Poe was looking at Iris concern. "Hey, is everything okay?"

His voice faded to the background as Iris continued fighting against the force. She was stronger. She didn't have to look at whatever the force wanted her to see. The force didn't know shit, anyways. The pressure increased until it felt like someone was beating Iris over the head. She sank to her knees, jaws clenched, determined to win for once.

The familiar voice of Leia suddenly cut in through the pain. "Don't be such a stubborn fool! Unless you want to be the one idiot that goes down in history as the one who died of pigheadedness. Just relax." She got a bit closer to Iris. "We get it, you're strong. But there's no shame in some guidance every now and then."

Iris felt something wet on upper lip, and she reached up to wipe it away. She realized that she'd closed her eyes at some point, and forced herself to pry them open. There was blood streaked across the back of her hand. Leia was looking at her with concern. Iris was vaguely aware of Poe on communicator, requesting a doctor.

Leia reached out to grab Iris's hands, but hers passed right through the former stormtroopers. She looked at Iris with warm eyes. "Whatever you see may be confusing or frightening. But it is ultimately intended to help you, I promise."

Iris wiped away more of the blood that was dripping from her nose, then closed her eyes again. "Fine," she muttered. "I guess I'm destined to always be someone's bitch, eh?"