"You sure you want to do this?"
Finn blinked, his head tilting as he looked up at Rose from where he sat at the terminal.
"I thought this was the plan," he replied carefully, trying to suss out the reason for her sudden change in demeanor, and ejected the data stick from the console.
Rose frowned and nodded to the stick now resting between his fingers.
"As soon as this gets spliced, Finn, it will make you a top priority on the First Order hit list. They suppressed your defection as best they could. They lied for it, killed for it. For better or for worse, this will make you, a former First Order trooper, the new face of the Resistance." She paused, her smile wry but proud, and entwined her fingers with those on his free hand. "And while Hux definitely wants you dead, he's been content to wait for an opportunity to kill you. This puts a target on your back."
His eyes slid from her face to the grey chip, the coolness of it in one hand such a contrast to the warmth in the other.
"This isn't the First Order. You have a choice," she murmured, her gaze steady.
"I know," he replied, rising to his feet to pull her into a hug and press a kiss into her hair. "But I think this is how we win. By saving, not killing. A very smart person once told me something like that." He felt her gentle laugh against his shoulder as her arms squeezed more tightly around him.
He smiled, thinking her strength would always surprise him, before pulling back to jerk his head towards Calrissian's office and tugged her to follow.
The man kicked his feet off his desk when they entered, his gaze homing in on the data stick even before Finn held it out.
"What's on it?"
"The truth," Finn replied simply. "How I left, who really killed Snoke, the defection of Kylo Ren, the assassinations of the trooper dissidents… All of it."
"Do you really have someone who can splice it into the First Order systems?" asked Rose, folding her arms over her chest.
Lando's brow raised at her brittle tone and she shrugged. "I haven't had good experiences with splicers. You trust yours?"
"I trust that she can get it done."
"That's not as reassuring as you think it is."
The older man's face split into a toothy grin, still roguish despite his age. "Competence is its own currency," he replied, "But yes, even more than that, I trust her."
"Trust," repeated Finn, "is a currency as well."
"That it is," agreed Calrissian. "Nothing more valuable when needed, nothing more worthless once broken."
Rey scrunched up her nose at the ink stains on her fingers that remained despite strenuous scrubbing and swore she preferred grease.
At least it came off at the end of the day.
Wiping off the excess that had dripped onto her skin, she returned to her page of text, eyes skimming for familiar patterns. Though they had a functional key at this point, the process of translating the work had proven slow and frustrating. The book in their possession appeared to be part of a series, some of its context dependent upon the previous volumes, and the dialect was strange, refusing to follow any of the varying sentence structures either she or Ben were familiar with. The result was a disjointed, mostly nonsensical list of words.
Her current page seemed to contain a number of references to nature and the stars, though she hadn't been able to clarify much beyond that, so she set it aside before reaching for another.
Glaring down at the next symbol, she held the stylus between her teeth while flipping back a few pages to find what she needed.
Edge… an edge of death from the planet…
Her pages rustled again as she returned to her original paper, retrieving her stylus from her mouth.
"What is it?" asked Ben, his head still bowed over his own work across the desk.
"Have you ever heard of a dagger of Mortis?"
His own stylus stopped its scribbling before resuming his pace. "Mortis was a planet out in Wild Space, far beyond the Outer Rim. It was where the Force converged."
"A nexus? Like Nom Chorios?"
"Supposedly it was where ALL of the Force converged. Some even thought it was the source of the power behind everything."
"Supposedly?"
"It vanished. No one knows why."
Rey jabbed a finger at her work, following along with it as she read.
"Well this, as best I can tell, describes how this Master was killed with the Dagger of Mortis by one of his disciples. That this blade had the power to kill immortals. Sounds fairly pertinent, don't you think?"
She glanced back up to see him staring at the left lower side of her face.
"What?"
"You've got ink on your face."
She swiped at it with fingers and looked to him for confirmation.
"Okay, well now it's worse."
"Kriffin' hell," she muttered, reaching for the cloth she had been using to clean up her drips and rubbed viciously at her cheek.
"Still getting worse… what you're doing is not helping."
Rey threw the rag down on the floor and took back up her stylus. "I'll deal with it later," she grumbled but glanced up in time to see Ben's deadpan affect crack, his mouth twisting as if to hide a smile, and he pushed back from the desk after retrieving something from a drawer.
"Alcohol works best to remove the ink," he said, stepping around the table and tipping what she recognized as one of the wine bottles onto a clean cloth before handing the damp material to her. She passed it over her face, relieved to see ink now deposited on the surface, and after a few seconds more looked at Ben questioningly.
"Better," he replied in a measured tone, "but you still…" His hand lifted, pointing a finger to her temple, cheek and jaw before he shrugged, looking away. "You'll require a complete submersion in the lake if you keep going that way."
"I can't swim, remember," she grumbled, holding out the cloth. "Help me then."
He hesitated for a moment, the fabric crumpled in his palm before he stepped closer and took her chin in his hand, tilting it upward. Her eyes watered with the fumes from the wine but she blinked them away, far too intrigued by the idea of studying him up close while his attention was diverted.
Rey found most humans dull in appearance with their limited facial variations and lacking the vibrant skin colors of so many of the alien species she had come across.
But she'd never seen anyone quite like him, each of his features striking in such a way they should not work together and yet they did. More than handsome, she found him interesting… a man with lips defined by their fullness and color, but still completely at home in such masculine features. She wondered if they were as soft as they appeared, what they would feel like against the skin of her neck, her elbow, her inner thighs…
She blinked, scrambling to ensure their mental link was still firmly closed and sighed in relief to find it was.
What is wrong with me?
Rey shook herself and stepped away, looking for anything to change the sudden and alarming direction of her thoughts, when the light caught something within the slightly ajar drawer of the desk.
What's this?
Her lips parted in disbelief when she held it up for further inspection, too distracted to notice how still Ben had gone before her.
"It's a night bloomer," she stated, brows shooting upward.
"Yes."
"Why do you have a necklace of a night bloomer?"
"There was a pushy street vendor when I was on Correlia. Seemed easier to just purchase something than to draw attention to myself."
"We had these on Jakku but I never saw their colors in the light of day. They're lovely," she muttered, tracing her finger over the black petals that ran with vibrant veins of violet and gold.
"Keep it, if you like it."
Rey felt the wall between them solidify ever so slightly as he moved to retake his seat on the other side.
"I have no use for it. I forgot it was even there," he continued, dipping his stylus into the ink and rearranging his papers. There was something slightly off in his posture, a sudden, odd edge in his demeanor.
"If you're certain..."
"I am," he replied quickly.
She admired it in her palm a moment longer before sliding the thin leather strap over her head, her lip quirking in a small smile. Her life had certainly taken unexpected turns when her first piece of jewelry was of a flower she'd always been curious about, from a planet she hated, given to her by the former Emperor of the First Order.
"Thanks. And you? Getting anywhere?" she asked jutting her chin towards the stack of paper under his hand.
Nodding, he showed her one and Rey's brow lifted to see exactly how much he had managed.
"There was a lot of repetition with only a few word changes," he explained before passing it over to her. The hair on the back of Rey's neck rose as her eyes danced over the words.
Passion, yet peace.
Serenity, yet emotion.
Chaos, yet order.
We are wielders of the flame, champions of balance.
The Force is all things.
We are the Force.
"Who is 'we'? Specifically, I mean," she asked.
"The order created under this master. Neither Jedi nor Sith, they went by another name." He handed her another page, this one with a symbol that was an amalgamation of some she had seen earlier. "I don't know what it means though," he continued.
She didn't hear his last words, the synapses in her mind firing in that exhilarating way they did when she finally figured out how to get a droid working again or how to navigate a tricky path while scavenging.
"Wait… Ben, wait." She reached back over the desk, shuffling the papers to pull back out her discarded one. "It is the symbols for 'sunrise' and 'nightfall' combined." Rising to step up to her side, he leaned over her shoulder, following her finger as she traced the similarities. "I thought this page was just about nature and how it is affected by the Force but it is literally about the nature of the Force. This is how they refer to the light and the dark sides respectively."
"That would make their Order what? The middle ground of sunrise and nightfall?"
"Not the middle of," she corrected shaking her head. "The combination of-"
"Of Light and Dark."
Rey nodded and turned away from the page to look up at him, a smile pulling at her lips.
"The Grey Jedi."
"The revolts are increasing"
"How many?" asked Hux.
"It's hard to say with the disruptions in our communication in the Outer rim-"
"What disruptions?"
The Lieutenant's throat bobbed before he cleared it and spoke again. "Our comm engineers have reported the divisions stationed in sectors Eight and Nine have all gone dark.
"And the Knights?"
"Nothing since Nom Chorios."
Hux's nostrils flared with frustration. His life's work was falling apart, slipping between his fingers the more he tightened his grasp.
"There's one more thing, sir."
"What?" he snarled, rounding on the Lieutenant, his hand itching to move toward the blaster at his side.
"The… the engineers have found some data that was spliced into the troops' daily assignments. It's, um, it's him, sir."
"Kylo Ren?"
"Nn-n-n-no, sir. FN-2187"
The holoscreen before Hux flickered to life and the face of the former First Order trooper solidified.
"My name is Finn and I was once like you, taken from my family and forced into servitude by the First Order. To them, I was only a number and a body meant to follow orders . But I was more than that. You are more than that."
The leather of Hux's gloves creaked as his hands tightened into fists. The vid continued.
"You are the blood that gives the First Order life. You are the back it breaks worlds upon. The First Order needs you. But you don't need them…"
The roar of blood in Hux's ears drowned out any further words from the holo.
"Find him," he growled through clenched teeth. "Kill him."
Gravel is surprisingly comfortable, Rey mused, looking up at the clouds drifting over the blue-purple sky. Though I suppose pebbles really are just large grains of sand and I slept on that most of my life.
She felt Ben's Force signature nearing and pushed herself into a seated position, squinting at the light that reflected off the lake. His aura paused on its approach before resuming again, his footfalls lighter than usual at he pulled up even with her.
"Scanners show a storm headed this way."
"When?"
"Couple of hours, maybe a little sooner."
"How bad? Do we need to shelter in orbit on the Falcon?"
He shook his head. "No high winds, just lots of rain."
"Good," she murmured, turning her head to look up at him. "Any news from Hannah?"
He shifted his stance, though his gaze remained on the horizon. "Your Resistance is using splicers to plant their propaganda within the First Order ranks. Hux is doing his best to squash any word of mutiny getting out, but he is proving once again to be wholly incapable of doing anything competently." Rey bit back a smile at the barely contained disdain in his voice. "Nothing on the Knights since your encounter with them, though. Their locations are currently unknown, but I-"
"Were you ever friends with any of them?" she interrupted.
There was a beat of silence. "What?"
"The Knights. You must have grown up with some of them. They followed you when you left and then worked under your command. There must be something there."
He didn't answer and instead just bent over to remove his shoes while Rey watched with complete befuddlement.
"You need to learn how to swim."
"Wait, what?" she asked, alarmed, but he had already started toward the water's edge, one arm fisting the back of his tunic to pull it over his head. The muscles in his back tensed and relaxed, his complexion just as pale as she remembered.
"There's a storm coming!" she half-heartedly reminded him, but he ignored her protests, instead choosing to slosh loudly into the water.
Leggings, she thought abruptly as she stood and toed off her shoes. She could leave on her leggings and her chest wraps. Yes, that should give her enough freedom to move unencumbered in the water. She ignored the slight tremor in her fingers and focused on unlatching the belt that cinched her tunic closed, trying not to appear as eager or as terrified as she felt. Her gaze flicked back up to him as she checked to make sure the end of her breast band was secure and her necklace in place. Entering the water, she winced when it hit the exposed skin of her stomach.
The dark liquid enveloped her body, hiding her limbs from view as the blue from earlier slowly started to reflect the gathering grey of the sky above.
"Is this deep enough?" she groused and he turned to see how far she had gone but his only response was to head further away from shore.
"I'll take that as a no, then."
She followed, suppressing a sound of surprise when the seabed turned grassy, the slimy strands slipping past her calves and she was reminded of the viscous liquid that coated Nom Chorios, how it weighed her down when she had fallen, both comforting and menacing at the same time.
"That's far enough," he said as the ripples caused by the light breeze reached her jawline and she stood on her tiptoes. "You should start by trying to tread."
She inhaled deeply and pushed forward, ignoring the sensation of falling when her weight came back down and she felt nothing. Her legs kicked but she continued to sink, the water closing in over the top of her head and filling her ears. Hands clamped about her waist, lifting her up, and the cold sheen of the water was replaced by warmth.
When her vision cleared her hands were on either side of his chest, her fingers curled over the ridge of his clavicles. She was staring at his lips again, the imaginings that had intruded her thoughts the evening before assailing her as she blinked the dripping water out of her eyes.
"Maybe not treading then," he murmured. "Think you could float on your back?"
"I won't sink?"
"Well, yeah, most likely. On the first few tries at least, but I won't let you go under."
His fingers were warm where they pressed into her skin and Rey was struck with the sudden absurdity that this was the same man who had once held a lightsaber inches from her face.
His grip faltered.
"I'm sorry about that," he murmured, his eyes closing as a line furrowed between his brows. "Truth be told, I'm sorry about a lot of things.
"I can't speak for everyone you have harmed but as far as our history goes, I forgive you."
His eyes flicked over her face and his fingers flexed where he held her around her waist.
"I do, however, require a recompense," she added schooling her face into her most solemn expression, "You do not let me drown."
His lip quirked in a small smile before he swept her feet upward and pressed a hand lightly up against her back.
"Lean back, arms out to disperse your weight."
"Anything I should do with the Force?"
He huffed a short laugh. "No, just float."
It was a little unnerving when her ears filled with water, muffling her hearing and amplifying the sound of her own heart. He only had to press against the small of her back twice before she found her balance.
It was relaxing... the serene quiet of the water, knowing that for a moment, she did not have to be on alert. Ben was with her, watching out for her.
She opened her eyes when she felt him tap a finger against her spine and turned her head so one ear was out of the water.
"Now, same concept except on your stomach. Keep your weight dispersed near the surface while reaching with your arms and kicking your legs."
She nodded and rolled over, ignoring how his fingers skimmed over her skin to rest lightly against her abdomen.
The position felt more awkward with her neck arched to keep it above water, her body automatically wanting to move into a more vertical position, but she did as he instructed, one arm over the other, her feet kicking. He followed her for a minute before he fell away and she was moving through the water with effective, if graceless, form.
She put her feet back down when she made it to where she could touch, and turned back to Ben, grinning, when she saw her wild kicks had soaked his hair with water causing his large ears to poke through the strands.
He frowned back at her. "They're not that big."
The juxtaposition of his boyishly petulant expression with his broad frame made her dissolve into laughter, not really caring how poor a job she was doing at keeping her thoughts from moving through the bond.
"They are," she disagreed, sending a toothy grin his way, and waited for his scowl to deepen with her teasing.
But it did not come, and as he instead just stared at her, she felt a slight tightening of her abdomen as words skittered across her mind.
Beautiful.
The smile dropped from her face and her throat closed in stunned silence as she suddenly saw herself from his perspective, skin aglow and smile blinding.
Is that how I look to him? she thought and took a sharp intake of breath when she heard him respond.
That's how you've always looked to me.
They stared at each other across the water, both their minds blank and yet racing until in the distance the sky flashed.
"We should get inside," he said out loud once the thunder had passed.
She nodded a bit dumbly, still finding it difficult to speak and made her way back to shore just as the sky opened up, large sheets of ice-cold water crashing over them.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him scoop up their shoes, while she did the same to her tunic and together they ran back toward the temple, something light and airy and completely new blooming within Rey's chest.