A/N- Sorry that my update schedule has basically devolved into a never ending cycle of 'when I feel like it'. I was going so strong for a while, but it's really hard to write seven or eight chapters a week in order to update every fic. This is probably the definition of biting off more than I can chew. But I don't plan on quitting, so as long as y'all have patience, it'll all work out.

Iris wasn't in the mood to talk to Evan once they'd boarded the ship. She knew that realistically, Evan had been correct in his assessment that they'd have much better odds if they did this on their own. They'd been the two students at the top of their class for as long as Iris could remember, and they were both far more skilled than either Matt or Elise. But it still felt wrong to have lied to them and ditched them like that. Well, Elise knew that she was being ditched, so even though she was probably upset about it, it was something she'd agreed to. Matt hadn't gotten a say in the matter though, and he was bound to be hurt by the deception.

She knew that she'd have to talk to Evan eventually, so that they could actually discuss their plan, but there was still plenty of time for that. For now, Iris surprised herself by actually wanting to meditate. It wasn't usually something she was willing to do, but with her emotions all over the place and a potentially lethal mission ahead of her, Iris knew that it would be beneficial.

She sat down in the back of the ship after letting Evan know that she was taking a nap so he wouldn't disturb her, and crossed her legs and rested her hands on her knees. Iris closed her eyes, and took several deep breaths. She tried to think about everything Rey had tried to teach her about meditation. Though thinking about that did sent a small jolt of guilt through Iris. She should never have been such an ass towards Rey, who'd only wanted to help.

But the guilt slipped away after a few seconds, and Iris was delighted to find her way to the waterfall. It really was such a calming and peaceful place, and she was glad that it existed, even if it was only in her head. Iris wandered around for a few minutes, taking in the bright green grass, and the water that was so pure she wouldn't even know there was any water there if it weren't for the constant motion of it.

Then Iris perched down at the edge of the pond at the base of the waterfall, tugged off her boots and tossed them aside, and then dropped her feet down into the water. She gently swung her legs back and forth, splashing around the water and getting the bottom half of her pants soaked. But since this technically wasn't real, she didn't think it would really matter if she got all wet or not.

After a few minutes of sitting there peacefully, Iris heard the sound of someone clearing their throat. She quickly turned to look at them, and her eyes widened in surprise. She was staring right at Killian, but a much younger version of him than the one who was trapped in the dregs of the Order. And suddenly she knew exactly what was supposed to happen, because she'd seen all of this before. It had been in one of her visions, and even though it felt like she'd seen it years ago, she could still remember all of the details. The force must've felt her subconsciously seeking out Killian, and had given her a chance to see him.

"Who are you?" Killian was looking at her cautiously, which made sense, since he had absolutely no idea who she was.

Iris couldn't help feeling how right it was to be here in this moment. She hadn't even been aware that she was still searching for the man, but it felt nice to have found him all the same. "Thank the force you finally showed up," she said with a teasing smile. "There's no need to be scared. I'm a," she hesitated for a moment to think of the proper word that would describe her relationship with this man she'd never met before. "Friend," she finally settled on. We haven't met yet. I'm just here to tell you not to forget my face, okay? A lot of time is going to pass before we meet again, but I promise I'll still look the same. It's very important you remember me, okay?" It would be much easier to spring Killian from his prison if they didn't have to waste time convincing him that they were the right people to go with.

Killian frowned. "If it's so important, why don't you just visit me closer to whenever you are?"

Iris could almost feel it as her smile shifted into a slightly less friendly one. She reached up without thinking to tuck her hair behind her ear, but when it only fell forward again, she was reminded of the fact that she was an ear short of an average human. "I used to work well under pressure, but now I'm only human. And I have like zero training basically, so it isn't easy. Just don't forget me, okay?" She knew that that wasn't really a sufficient explanation, but it was the best she could do. She couldn't spend a lot of time here, because it was important that she actually wake up and strategize with Evan.

"But who are you? Why is it so important?" There was a desperation in Killian's voice that Iris didn't really understand. There was no reason for him to feel how urgent all of this was. He was still in the middle of living his perfect life.

Iris blinked, and reached up to scratch awkwardly at the back of her head. "It's too hard to explain it all right now. Just know that someday you're going to hear a lot of stuff about me, but none of it is true. I mean, there's a little bit that's true, but none of the stuff that's likely to piss you off. Now I've got to go." It was hard to say for sure how long she'd already been here, though Iris did feel bad about not being able to give any better answers. And Killian hadn't really heard a lot about her, but he'd at least heard that she had defected from the Order. But beyond that, any of the guards could have blabbed or Kylo Ren might have mentioned something in a moment that Iris hadn't been privy to.

Before Killian could ask anything else of her, Iris stood up and leapt right into the water. For a moment she was ready to panic at the feeling of liquid filling her nose and mouth. But then she reminded herself that none of this was real, and she couldn't drown in her own head. But it had made for a sufficiently dramatic exit, and when she closed her eyes, she thought hard about waking up.

When Iris' eyes snapped open, she started coughing, but of course no water spilled out. It had just been a dream. And she was curious to learn more about how meditation actually worked, but now wasn't the time for that. Maybe when all of this was over, Rey would be willing to give her a few pointers. Killian was also an option, but Iris felt that she'd have to be a complete moron to trust that man as her teacher.

She stood up and stretched, groaning softly as she heard the creaking in her shoulders and knees. Clearly she was getting way too old for all of this. Maybe she'd retire after rescuing Killian. No, she couldn't do that. If it turned out that he was her father, then she wouldn't have anything else to search for in the vast expanse of space because she already knew that Killian's wife was dead. And if he wasn't her father than she had absolutely no leads to go off of, and surely she'd be forced to go on her own because Matt would never forgive her. And it would be wrong to leave the Resistance to fend for themselves. As good as they were, the Order had more people and more resources and more willingness to commit cold blooded murder.

Iris wandered up to the front of the ship, and saw that Evan was lounging back in his seat, with his legs propped up on the control console. She rolled her eyes at the sight as she sat down next to him. "So is it just me or are we not at all ready to do this?"

Evan grimaced. "It's not just you. The thought of actually killing anyone makes me sick. But I know that it's something necessary in order to get us all through the day. And I know that we are the ones in the right here. We wouldn't even have to do any of this if the Order hadn't started this fight first. They've only got themselves to blame for the casualties that they're going to cause. I just wish that there was some other way, you know?"

Iris tilted her head thoughtfully. "Maybe there is. Listen, I've never really gotten any formal training in how to use the force to my advantage. I only had a couple lessons with Rey, and I basically backed down like a coward from all of them. And I've never met anyone else with the force, except for maybe Leia, but I was never entirely sure about her. While, I guess you could count Kylo Ren. But I've only met him like three times before and one of those times we were trying to kill each other, so obviously he wasn't trying to help teach me a thing or two."

Evan arched one eyebrow. "Is there a point to all of this, or are you just trying to remind me of how unqualified you are so that you can psyche me out of doing this?"

Iris laughed. "No, it's not that. It's just that even though I'm not exactly an expert with this stuff, I do know that there is a wide range of applications for this ability of mine. Matt told me not to get too dependent on it, and I don't think that I have been. But I do think that in this case, it could actually be something really useful for us. Maybe I could just gently knock out everyone we come across? It isn't exactly ideal because we'll still have the same amount of enemies after us at the end of the day. But it does mean that we wouldn't have to go to the extreme of killing anyone. We don't want to become as bad as the people we ran away from, right?"

Even though the look on his face showed off his doubt, Evan did nod a few times. "I suppose I could see that being a viable solution. But only if you're really really sure that you can do it. Because if we go in there unarmed and then you fizzle out, we're both dead."

"Oh no, no, no. I would have never suggested that we go in unarmed. You must have a couple spare blasters lying around here, right?"

Evan grinned. "Thank goodness. I was just starting to think that I must be really insane to go along with any plan concocted by a crazy witch like you. But apparently you do have at least a bit of common sense in your bones." He hopped up, and walked to the back, where he rummaged through a cabinet for a moment. He came back with a blaster in each hand. One was dented and clearly old and well worn, while the other was shiny and looked like a brand new latest model.

Since Iris already had the advantage of the force on her side, despite how little training or experience she actually had with using it, she figured that it was only fair to let Evan have the cooler looking toy. She plucked the older one of his hands, and tucked it away in the back of her pants. Evan nodded once before doing the same with his, and then he sat back down. "We're going to be there soon, aren't we? Is there any last words we should discuss before we head in there like a couple of suicidal idiots?"

"Nah. It's much more fun to not bother with that stuff. It gives us more motivation to get through the day. And rest assured that when we get out of there, with Matt's dad in hand, I am going to have a lot of things to say to you."

Iris grinned, and nodded. "Fair enough. I'll have a few things to say to you too. Though I might be too busy with some combination of making sure that Killian stays alive and simultaneously kicking his ass for being an absolutely horrible father, and sub par human being all around."
That startled a laugh out of Evan, but when the control console started beeping a moment later, the laugh was quickly wiped off of his face. Both of them shuffled closer to the console, mostly so that they could look through the window above it. The base was right in front of them, and they were about to march in there with what had to be some kind of very messed up death wish. But Iris was determined to make it through this alive, with Evan and Killian alive as well.

Evan slowed the ship to a stop, and glanced over at Iris. "Well, ready or not, here we go." He pressed a few buttons, and then gripped the steering mechanism to inch them closer to their destination. "I'm not going to lie, I'm more than a little terrified right now. Anything could happen once we go in there."

"Last chance for a bathroom break if you don't want to embarrass yourself in front of the big scary stormtroopers," Iris teased.

Evan scoffed. "Whatever. Screw you. Kriffin' hell, let's just get this over with. The sooner that we're in and out, the better."

While he brought them closer to the admittedly rather intimidating looking base, Iris reached out to gently press the palm of her hand against the cool inner wall of the ship. She closed her eyes, and begged the force to let them get through this unscathed. Or to at least let them succeed in the actual infiltration before decided to toss them on their butts as total failures.

Whether it was her praying, or Evan's well executed piloting, or the fact that it was a rather small ship, they managed to get closer to the base without being detected by any of the many smaller ships that were in constant orbit, ready to defend the Order base at a moment's notice.

They reached their final destination, and Evan gently landed the ship down without making a single noise. "Come on. The longer we sit around in here and think, the more likely we are to get caught." He grabbed a piece of cloth that had been dangling from the ceiling, and wrapped it around his face, covering everything but his eyes and nose. He tossed her an identical cloth. "So that we'll be able to breath through the stink of whichever helmets we grab first. Also because at least your face is pretty well known, and I don't want your infamy getting us made before we can do anything."

Though she hated the idea of having to cover up like that, she recognized the logic in it, and she quickly wound the cloth around her the same way that she'd seen Evan do it. She reached up to shift it aside so that her ear wasn't covered. She felt like she couldn't hear anything at all when it was, despite the fact that Evan seemed to be having no problem with that. Then again, he had two good ears, so maybe that's what made all the difference

They walked up to the entrance that they had planned on using after investigating all the possibilities on Iris' blueprints. Evan glanced at her with one eyebrow arched. "It smells revolting."

Iris shrugged. "What did you expect from a garbage chute? Don't worry so much. It may smell bad in there, and I have no doubt that the odor will only get worse as we climb, but it's the least protected area, and probably the only way in that doesn't involve making a big scene. Just suck it up and come on." She grabbed at the large metal grate, but it wouldn't budge.

With a frustrated grunt, Iris narrowed her eyes, and stared at the grate with intense concentration. For a moment she was afraid that it wasn't going to work, but then the grate burst open, and Iris quickly caught it before it could slam up into the metal wall above it. The force of the grate slamming into her hands was almost definitely going to leave a couple of bruises, but she was just glad that she'd managed to get it open.

She glanced back to nod at Evan, and then scooted forward so that she could peer up the large shaft. If any fresh garbage were to fall down on top of their heads, Iris would have to work hard to suppress the urge to vomit. She nodded again, mostly for herself, and then reached up inside. There were no specific handholds inside the chute, since it wasn't meant to be climbed up. During maintenance times, they probably sent down small droids that could do the work, since full grown adults probably wouldn't even fit. Iris felt extremely awkward doing so, but she pressed her arms up against the sides of the narrow tube, and slowly began to wiggle her way up. It was going to be a slow trip, but the tightness of the chute made Iris feel more confident that she wasn't going to slip back down and fall to her death.

Once she was all the way in the chute, grimacing at the grimy feeling of the metal walls, she peered back at the entrance when she didn't hear Evan climbing up, though there wasn't even enough room for her to see over her own shoulder. "Come on, what are you waiting for?"

There was a grunt, and then an annoyed growl. "I can't fit. My shoulders are too wide. Either we both leave now and wait for another plan to come to us, or you're on your own while I try to figure out another way in."

Based on what she'd seen in her vision of Killian before, Iris knew that he didn't have the luxury of time. They couldn't just back down and return another day. If they didn't get to him now, he'd die, if he hadn't already. "We don't have any time. I'll go on ahead. Whatever you do, be careful."

Evan was silent for a moment before he spoke again. "I think we need to make a promise to each other. No matter what, no matter which of us are back on the ship or how close the others are, whoever's there needs to leave in four hours."

That sounded like a terrible idea to Iris. But they didn't have time to bicker about it. "Sure, deal. Now get moving." If her and Killian were the first back on the ship, then they'd just wait anyways. And if Evan left without them, Iris would find a different ship for them to steal. Whatever was going to happen would be a problem for the her of four hours from now, though. Right now there were other things to think about. She looked back up, though she could only see darkness above her. And when the grate clanged shut behind her a moment later, she couldn't see anything at all. This was completely disgusting and a little nerve wracking, but Iris was determined to succeed. So she wriggled up some more, and hoped that she'd reach an exit soon.

A/N- If anyone's curious, the dream vision at the waterfall took place in chapter 22 from Killian's perspective