Rose entered the room hesitantly. Her friends were sleeping in their beds, warm and safe. Each of them had had the blessing of a bath and a full meal – that wasn't mushrooms – and now had fallen asleep, the sleep of the safe and secure, and now she was about to ruin it.
She made her way slowly over to the far corner where Commander Dameron was curled up on his side, snoring very slightly. He had his blankets pulled up to his ears and his hair was rumpled from sleeping on it wet. Rose sighed.
"Commander," she whispered. He didn't move. "Commander," she tried again, shaking his shoulder slightly.
Poe snapped awake and sat halfway up, reaching for his blaster. He mumbled a confused syllable or two and then looked at her.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
She hesitated again. "It's – well it's Finn. He's gone."
"Finn?" Poe muttered, not comprehending. "Did you, like, check in the kitchen?"
She shook her head. "I mean, he's gone. He took the Falcon."
Now fully awake, Poe swung his legs around to the floor and ran his hands through his hair. "He took our ship? Where would he go?"
Rose gave him a meaningful look. There was only one other place he'd ever really been besides with the Resistance.
Poe stood up and Rose did too. There was worse news she had to find a way to tell him.
"He … also … took BB-8 with him."
"What? Why would he take my droid?" Grief permeated Poe's voice.
"I mean, BB-8's missing and Finn doesn't know how to fly, so …"
Poe groaned deeply. He wasn't sure which of his friends he should lament over first.
"Sir, what should we do?"
He was already putting on his belt over the soft temple robes and tucking his blaster into it. "I really have no idea."
Closing the book and tucking it under her arm, Rey moved quickly back through the corridors, feeling out ahead of herself for Moriah. She wasn't ready yet to deal with the rising anger inside her and she didn't know how she'd react if Moriah caught her in the halls.
She was going to Ben's hospital room to try to work out what she had just read. They'd spent so many nights awake together, just talking; she felt sure that he would be able to help make sense of it all, and she knew for certain that he was the only person in the temple she could trust with everything she had just learned.
On her way, though, she passed the chamber where the rest of the remnant had been sleeping. They weren't any more: torches were lit and hung in the metal hooks on the walls, and each of them was getting dressed. Rose must have told them all about Finn.
Her shoulders tensed, not with anger but anxiety. She set her jaw and told herself not to feel it, and she stepped into the room.
Silence fell over the already hushed Resistance fighters. She was, as each of them saw it, a traitor, and she knew it.
"I don't think you should be here," Rose said. Rey hadn't seen her there by the door. She ignored her.
Poe was facing her, defiant. She approached him, hating herself and hating that she had no choice but to have this conversation.
"She's right: you shouldn't be here, Rey."
"Do you think you're leaving?" she asked, forcing her voice to be calm. "Finn took the Falcon."
"We can't overstay our welcome with the Jedi," Poe said, after a moment. He was making it up as he went, she realized.
"They're not Jedi," Rey corrected him. "They call themselves Watchers, but they're not just watching anymore." She was aware that her words only made partial sense to him.
"Whatever," Poe snapped. "Did you know Finn left? He couldn't take any more of your lies either."
Rey shook her head, trying to dismiss his words. Poe wasn't making a lot of sense, but the whole situation was swiftly spinning out of control around her.
"We've got bigger problems to deal with," she replied. "Moriah called the First Order."
Fear rippled through the remnant. Rey could feel them recoil, could feel their confusion. Poe's face changed, softened somehow. "Why would she do that?" he stuttered.
"I don't really know. I think she wants to use Ben and me to control them somehow."
"Wait, who's Ben?" Poe asked.
"Ben Solo. Kylo Ren. The man you're so angry with me about!"
Poe was stunned silent. After several moments, he collected himself enough to repeat her words. "Ben … Solo. Leia's son?" Rey nodded, feeling her frustration rise. "Is Kylo Ren?"
"Doesn't anyone know anything?" she blurted out, her voice louder than she intended. "How can there be so many secrets?" Tears of exasperation and exhaustion overflowed and fell down her cheeks. She wiped them away roughly with the back of her free hand. "I can't help any of you if everything is just secrets," she muttered, more to herself than to him. She was becoming irrational as her emotions swelled.
Sunlight was beginning to filter in through the windows. It was morning.
"You're not safe here," she said, at last. "I'm sorry; I thought you'd be safe here but I was wrong. You have to go."
"Go … where?" Rose asked, softly.
Rey steeled herself as a realization entered her. "Go into the jungle and hide."
"The jungle?" Poe repeated.
"Go into the jungle and hide," Rey said again, with more conviction. The kind of conviction she knew she needed right then. "I'll do what I can to hold them off. You get as far away from the temple as you can."
"We'll go into the jungle and hide," Poe said, flatly.
"We'll get as far away from the temple as we can," Rose added.
"Yes, go into the jungle and hide," Rey said.
"We'll go into the jungle and hide," the others said, one at a time.
Re swallowed hard. As they gathered their things into their arms, she turned and went down the hall to where Ben was.
