Far Away From Nowhere

Chapter 29: If I Lost the Map

Poe Dameron flitted through Varm's medical tent like a restless whisper bird. The other inquisitive Volths had lingered at the tent flap for a while, but they went to bed eventually, dropping off in twos and threes. Even Vox reluctantly left a few minutes ago, their wide brown eyes growing droopy.

"Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, Pohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhwaaa," the fuzzy one had said before slipping away.

The Resistance pilot polished a smudge of oil from BB-8's shell with a rag. Then he soundlessly went to Rey's bedside, checking her breath, her pulse. Her brown hair framed her face, adding to her youthful and innocent features.

"You gonna wake up soon?" he whispered to her gently.

Next, Dameron moved on to Finn, who was placed on a cot directly behind Rey, still unconscious. He examined the bandage on the side of the ex-stormtrooper's head. It could have just been his imagination, but Finn's frame seemed to shiver at his touch.

"Cold?" Poe murmured. As a reflex, he removed his leather jacket—No, Finn's jacket—and covered Finn's chest with it. As the solid weight of the clothing left his shoulders, Poe sighed, a spark of energy and compassion flooding through him.

This was meant to happen. He was meant to wear it again.

"He awake…?" A broken voice from behind Finn made Dameron look past the ex-stormtrooper's bed. Ben Solo had propped himself up on tremorous elbows, trying to sneak a glance of Finn.

"Ben!" Poe exclaimed softly. He ducked to avoid a paper mobile hanging from the ceiling and fetched a cup of water for the other man off a nearby shelf. Then Dameron pulled up a stool and deftly propped Solo up with pillows. He pressed a hand behind Ben's neck and held the cup to his lips. Solo slurped its contents greedily and sighed, his head tilting back, his eyes closing. Poe assumed Ben had fallen asleep until the younger man's eyes flashed open, lashes wet, cheeks flushed.

"Finn—is he…. Is he going to be all right?"

"I think so," Dameron said, repressing a smile. "How do you feel? Do you need anything?"

Solo's words slurred slightly as his eyes slipped closed. "Jus' sleep righ' now… Thanks…"

Poe nodded and stood, about to walk away when Ben's voice called him back.

"You…can talk."

Poe couldn't stop grinning this time. "Yeah."

"Help me?"

Dameron leaned over the other man and spied an object in Ben's hand that made his blood ice over when he saw what it was.

"You still have those?" he asked, incredulous.

Solo shrugged. "Neural inhib'ters. They...help."

"Help turn you into the undead, maybe," Dameron muttered. "Truly, Ben—I don't get it. Tell me how they help you."

"Visions," Solo said, exhaustion creeping through his voice, barely able to keep his eyes open. "Snoke and my…father. I take them, and they go away."

"Ben, look at me," Poe said suddenly, gripping the younger man's arms and looking straight into his eyes. Solo complied, surprise flashing across his face. "Snoke isn't here, is he? It's just us. And if that bastard does come for you, drive him out. You're way more powerful than he is. Am I right?" He shook Ben's shoulders again. "Am I?"

Solo nodded reluctantly.

Dameron rubbed a hand across his face, trying to decide what to do. "Look, we're in this together now. There is no them, only us. The Resistance used those drugs to control you, to contain you, because they knew you were too powerful to be caged. They used the neural inhibitors to numb you—but you're on our side now. You don't need them."

Poe held his hand out and waited in silence for Ben to give them over. Solo hesitated, but eventually he dropped the pill container into Dameron's palm, and a visible shiver went through Ben's body. Dameron began to walk away.

"Poe?"

Dameron stopped and turned around again.

"I—I'm sorry."

Breath caught in the pilot's chest. Solo's wide eyes stared with complete honesty, and Poe realized in that moment that Ben was apologizing for everything—for the fire and the cave and the tree and the torture. For a friendship that had been broken years ago when the two young men had chosen opposite paths.

Poe nodded and left the tent, stepping into darkness. The pill bottle jangled in his hand as he walked outside of the Volth village to the edge of the forest. Making sure he was completely alone, Dameron knelt to the ground and dug a hole with his fingers. He dropped the neural inhibitors into the opening and covered it neatly with dirt, placing a large stone on top to disguise the quick burial.

Then, wiping his hands on his pants, Poe ambled back to Varm's tent and the cheerful yellow light inside. He extinguished the lantern's flame after checking to see that his friends were all sleeping peacefully before curling up with a blanket on a makeshift cot beside BB-8's motionless shell. The pilot felt in that moment, peeking through the tent flap at the diamond-shine of stars in the sky, that everything might just work out. He fell asleep almost instantly.

Finn woke to a dull headache, a dry throat, and the sound of humming. It was low and not particularly melodic, but it immediately calmed his mind. Finn couldn't quite remember what had happened, but this current setting was pleasant enough.

A streak of sunlight cut through a flap in the tent that sheltered him. His feet bathed in dappled warmth from a sunbeam. Someone was cooking nearby because the mixture of spices reminded him of sweet porridge the Resistance served for breakfast.

It was one of Rey's favorite dishes.

Rey. Nar Shaddaa. The Chelandion. A vast ocean. Crashing. The ship in flames.

Finn shot up in his cot, which caused two things to happen: the humming abruptly stopped, and a familiar jacket slipped from its previous position across his chest.

"Poe?!" Finn exclaimed.

"It's all right! It's all right! Easy."

The ex-stormtrooper knew the voice but couldn't reconcile the soothing words with the pale face of the dark-haired man sliding into his view.

"Ben…" His vision tilted, causing Finn to grip his cot, but Solo caught his shaking frame an eased it back down, covering him with Dameron's jacket that he gently picked off the floor.

"It's all right… You were injured in the crash…"

Ben placed a cup in his hands, and Finn sipped the cool water gratefully. Splices of images from his memory slowly came back to him, along with some sensations too. The softness of sand, bright green foliage, the humidity of a forest. And throughout the pain and wavering consciousness, Finn had felt those same arms covering him, holding him, lifting him up.

How was that possible?

A brief glance into Solo's dark eyes answered his question.

"You carried me...with the Force...through the jungle?"

Solo nodded almost imperceptibly, then he looked away. In response, Finn took his hand and said something that a handful of days ago, he never would have uttered:

"I'm in your debt. Thank you."

Ben opened his mouth as if to contradict Finn's words, but his eyes spoke for him-relief, pain, and guilt in two darkly burning embers. Then he stooped (his head kept bumping against the low-hanging canvas of the tent) and limped towards a table with food.

"Are you hurt?" Finn inquired, concerned at Ben's slow gait.

Solo turned around and revealed a thin smile, then he tipped his head down to indicate the small, fuzzy creature clinging to his left leg the way an infant clings to her favorite toy. All four of its brown-furred limbs wrapped around his shin. Slowly, ze looked up at Finn with sweet green eyes.

"Fihnnnnnnnnnaaaahhhhhh!" Its voice was high-pitched and growly at the same time.

"What is…?" Finn was at a loss for words.

"This is Vella. She's a Volth, and she's Varm's niece. I think. I still don't quite understand everything they say."

"And who's Varm?"

"Ze's a doctor."

Finn slid Dameron's jacket on and sat up slowly, trying to stand. "I suppose I should find Varm now and thank them too."

Ben's strong arms pulled Finn to his feet, and they began shuffling towards the tent's opening. "Thank someone else first."

Finn marveled at the home's decorations-handwoven rugs of multiple colors underfoot, ribbons swaying in the wind, attached to the tent's opening. The aesthetic was almost garishly colorful and bursting with creativity, yet simple and soothing and thoughtful. Nothing seemed extravagant or out of place.

Except us, Finn thought grimly.

But then the limping, Vella-clad Solo led him through the tent, and the ex-stormtrooper's eyes were accosted with bright sunlight and the fresh taste of the outside. When his vision adjusted to the outdoors, Finn focused on a familiar sight.

"Poe!"

Dameron looked up from where he knelt beside BB-8. Another Volth (this one much larger than Vella) was in the process of handing the pilot various tools. But when Poe saw Finn, he stopped what he was doing, a smile enveloping his face.

"Finn!" he hollered and ran to him.

They embraced like they had on Takodana, when Dameron had returned from the dead to find Finn wearing his jacket. Finn looked down at it-the familiar feel of its leather against his skin was comforting, exhilarating, and it made their reunion even more steeped with the memory of their second meeting.

"I think this is yours," Finn said, about ready to slide the jacket off his shoulders.

Poe stopped him and spoke, completely tongue-in-cheek. "Keep it. It suits you."

Finn beamed, then he thumped Dameron on the back, because the whole jacket business was less astonishing than the words rolling off the hell-of-a-pilot's tongue.

"You can talk!"

"That's right," Dameron crooned, sing-song. "Your days of telling me to keep my lousy opinions to myself have returned."

"I couldn't be happier about you AND your lousy opinions!"

A soft clearing of the throat made Finn remember his unlikely savior, standing awkwardly several paces behind them. Solo shifted from one foot to the other, taking Vella on a ride. She purred with the movement, giggling and growling.

"I should get back to Rey," Ben said.

Rey.

Finn's heart lurched and skipped several beats. "Where is she? Is she okay?"

"She was hurt the worst of us all," Ben said in his matter-of-fact way that also managed to be sulky and bitter at the same time.

"But she'll be waking up soon." Poe's steady voice pitched in to reassure him. "Varm told us it'd be anytime now."

"All the more reason to be with her when she wakes up," Finn said. Ben nodded in agreement, and (for some reason) it made the ex-stormtrooper feel a pang of jealousy.

"All right. I'll be there in a sec. Almost done with the motivator and-"

The sudden cheerful bleeps and blips and warbles of a familiar friend interrupted Poe.

"BB!" Dameron practically leapt in the air with excitement, whirling in circles and slapping the droid playfully on its metal head as it swiveled around, clearly as overjoyed as its companion was at their reunion.

Finn made eye contact with Dameron, and Poe's true smile made his chest feel warm. Other Volths wandered over sluggishly and shyly to greet the mechanical mischief-maker. Finn turned around and walked back to the tent he had come from with Ben. He cracked a yawn, his head beginning to throb again, and his limbs starting to stiffen from tiredness. Although he had only been awake for twenty minutes, it seemed like twenty hours.

Ben guided him, gently limping, through the doctor's tent to the very back. In its dimness, he made out a pale figure lying very still on a cot.

"Rey," he whispered. Fear tugged at his insides, despite what Poe had just said about her recovery.

"She will be all right," Ben said softly.

Jella's eyes widened at the sight of the girl from Jakku. A purr escaped her lips, dreamy and speculative. "Reyyyaaaaah. Shelllaaaaahmmmoht."

"What happened?" Finn sat down hard on a seat beside his friend. There was still so much that was a wash. He had been exhausted during much of what happened on Nar Shaddaa: caring for Poe, Rey, and a neural inhibitor-addicted Solo. He hadn't had much time for sleep.

"She was stabbed by Grakkus' blade. It was poisoned."

Finn huffed out his anger. "If only I had known-"

"There was nothing we could have done…" Ben paused, his eyes bright. "You need food and water."

Finn waved his hand to stop his stomach from gurgling, but it didn't work. Ben left and returned a few minutes later with a cup of water and some kind of soft dough filled with spiced roots and other vegetables. Finn stopped himself from wolfing it down and thanked Solo. The tall, dark-haired man paused.

"You care for her."

Finn froze. No one but Poe knew, and he hadn't really even told Poe. It was more implied. But of course the Force-manipulator would know.

"Yes," he said. He couldn't lie. Not now. Not sitting at her bedside, hurting, and unable to be anywhere else.

"As do I."

Before Finn could snap out of his shocked silence, Ben slipped away, letting him eat and listen to Rey's even breathing in peace. Finn felt for the note that contained the deepest feelings of his heart. It was still in his pants pocket. He breathed a sigh of relief and waited for Rey to wake up.

Rey felt dreamy and comfortable, warm without pain. Voices dead, and not yet born, called to her. Her pulse echoed more like drum and moonquake than heart. Rapturous infinity-glorious, blissful sleep. She could have slept for three more days, but she knew she had to return.

Kriff, what a headache.

And through the stabbing pain between her eyes and a weakness in her limbs, she heard the rhythmic snuffling only produced by deep sleep.

Her eyes fluttered open and landed like a carrier butterfly upon Finn's face. His chin was nearly touching his chest, his entire body slumped over in his seat. Half a bowl of something spicy sat beside him. In one ravenous moment that was more prankish than sly, Rey took the bowl and ate spoonful after spoonful until one couldn't tell there had been any food in it, and the spoon was licked clean. Although she couldn't place the ingredients in the dish, the ex-scavenger found the concoction delicious.

Next, water.

Like a loth cat, she stiffly sat up, aware of the bandage wrapped around her side, but determined not to wake up Finn. The game was easier whispered than won.

Rey hadn't traveled more than a few feet when a familiar (and fully functioning) astro droid trilled through the tent where her and Finn were resting, lighting up like a star destroyer with bleeps and trills.

She tried to shush it, but that was when Rey's vision got all wonky, and her legs did a crumpling impression.

Luckily, BB-8 had awakened Finn.

He half-fell into her own fall, but he caught her nevertheless. She felt his arms surround her, grabbing on for dear life, like the first time they met. The handholding (albeit annoying at first) felt appropriate now. It felt right.

And it made her want to cry.

"Finn…" she rasped.

In two motions more fluid than a dancer's, Finn propped her up and placed a cup of water in her hands.

"Rey…" His worry shone in full, blinding force. "How are you? Are you okay? What can I get you?"

She giggled at his ever-present anxiety, nearly choking on her water, which caused Finn to cry out and thump her on the back, which caused her to cough more until tears were streaming down her face from laughter. BB-8 twittered between them, circular head lunging right and left on a non-existent neck.

Once everything had calmed down, Rey asked the inevitable, "How long have I been asleep?" followed by, "What happened?"

Finn was quick to respond with a story so unbelievable, Rey almost imagined it was something he'd dreamt. There was a giant silver ship, much grander and magnificent than its makers. It broke apart in fiery pieces above a vast ocean. There was a trek through a jungle with an unconscious man and a ghost. There were furry creatures, advanced in art and technology and hot air balloons. Poe found his voice. Finn found a friend.

BB-8 trilled adamantly and spun around.

"And you're back too-I was just getting to that part!" Finn rolled his eyes at the droid's impatience and sighed.

Rey wanted to see the village immediately. Finn didn't think that was a very good idea. They eventually compromised. BB-8 acted as a monitor between the two as Finn held Rey up steadily. Slowly, carefully, they walked out of the tent and into the crisp sunshine.

Rey's mouth fell open, not just at the architecture, and the music, and the smell of stew too scrumptious to imagine eating if you had been born on Jakku, but at the sight in front of her.

About a dozen Volths (fuzzy, slow-moving, permanently content faces) were helping Poe Dameron and Ben Solo erect a stone structure. Rey wasn't sure if it was functional or art, but it was shaped like a circular doorway, framed with shiny gems. Hanging from the door were windchimes that created a lovely cacophony with all the movement at the structure's base.

Sweat visibly ran down Poe's brow in the sun, and Ben had removed his shirt, breathing heavily. All the while, a tiny Volth seemed to be permanently attached to one of his legs, purring and looking up at him.

The structure was at last in place, but it looked slightly askew. Ben and Poe helped the Volths adjust the base of the structure, but it didn't do much to help, and the two humans seemed at a loss…

"Why not just use the Force?" Rey called.

The two men turned to her, and a silence ran through the Volths. With a flick of her eyelids, the doorway settled and righted itself, staying upright without assistance.

Before another word could be spoken, Poe ran up to her, shouting and laughing and practically dancing. Other younger Volths joined him, albeit at a slower pace, and suddenly Rey had an entourage of well-wishers. When Ben Solo made it to the group, towering over most of them, the Volths hushed and Rey placed a hand on his bare shoulder. The electricity she felt when she touched his skin made her shudder. Finn bristled beside her.

Rey felt simultaneously exhausted and renewed. They were all safe and together. They had made it.

"Kehhhhhhnnnnnnnobeeeeeeeeeeeeeee."

Rey's mouth fell open as the group of creatures slowly stepped away to allow a very grey and wrinkled Volth to step forward.

The old one's eyes fixed on Rey as ze spoke again. "Lehhhhhhhhmaaaaaaannnnnnoh. Toooooooowaaaaaaahh Volllllllllllth-laaaaaaah seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelll."

Dameron rubbed his cheek as if he couldn't believe what he just heard, and he turned to Rey. "This is Von, an elder in the village. He says he knew your parents."

TBC

A/N: I know, I know-it's been ages since I posted. With the next movie coming out, I got nostalgic for The Force Awakens and thought of some other ideas of where a sequel to this fic might head. There are only a few chapters of this one left. Thanks for sticking with me! … Also, FYI: one of Poe's lines of dialogue he says to Ben in this chapter is from a U2 song, "Invisible."