Rose woke up when the Millennium Falcon dropped out of hyperspace. She moaned, resisting the urge to roll over and fall back asleep.

It was something about this ship that made her feel so comfortable. Maybe it was the well-worn look or the multiple modifications that made it feel personal and homey. As someone inclined towards mechanical skills, places didn't feel right unless there was a chance she could get grease in her hair.

"Come on, Rose, we need you," Paige said, gently shaking her sister's shoulder.

Rose sighed and yawned, pulling herself up to sit. "Where are we?"

"We just arrived at the location of the First Order's fleet. You need to get us past the Supremacy's shields."

"Okay, just give me a second."

Rose stretched and used the refresher, scrubbing her face with cold water in the sink, before making her way into the cockpit.

"Whoa," she said. Kylo was already in the cockpit with Chewie, guiding their approach, and the others crowded in after her. In front of them, hanging in the dark void of space, was the floating city that was the Supremacy. It was massive, eclipsing most of their view, even though they were still several kilometers away. Other lesser destroyers were scattered around Snoke's flagship, looking puny in comparison although Rose knew they were each weapons of mass destruction in their own right.

"Alright, Rose," Kylo grumbled, engaging the sublight engines to bring them nearer to the Supremacy. "Do your thing."

Chewie shuffled aside, allowing her to sit down in the copilot's seat once again. "Ok, cloaking our approach... now." Rose's face tightened in concentration as she aligned the freighter's shields to avoid detection from the First Order's fleet, even though with the Falcon's many modifications and upgrades, her job was significantly easier than it would've been with any other ship. "We should be off their scopes."

The Falcon edged closer, entering the range of the nearest Star Destroyer's scanners. Rose kept inputting code, keeping them invisible and prepping for the Falcon to slice through the Supremacy's shields. Finn and Poe held their breath, leaning forward, waiting for someone to hail them and demand their business. When nothing happened, Rose rolled her shoulders.

"A little space, please?" she asked. They shuffled back with mumbled apologies. In the corner, Paige observed with a smirk.

"We're approaching the shield," Kylo warned.

"I'm ready," Rose said, slipping a spike into the Falcon's dashboard.

Another few tense minutes passed as the Supremacy's shadow slid over the Millennium Falcon.

"We're in," Kylo announced. "Finn, it's your turn. Where do I park her?"

Finn stepped forward between the pilots' chairs. He scanned the surface of the massive ship and swallowed. Pointing up and to their left, he said, "Best bet is by that exhaust port. There's always a few maintenance hatches, and that one's far enough away from the high security areas like the detention center or the officers' quarters in these central sectors that we should have less to deal with on the inside."

"You've been on this ship?" Paige inquired.

"No, but it's got to follow First Order basic design standards just like every other vessel," Finn answered.

"But this is huge," Poe said. "And it's Snoke's ship. Wouldn't it be different than the others?"

"Well, Snoke didn't build it," Finn said.

They all fell silent again as Kylo maneuvered the Falcon carefully into place. Rose thought she felt her heart stop as they slipped into a dim juncture next to the exhaust port Finn had pointed out.

"Activate the maglocks," Kylo ordered. When nothing happened, he glanced over at the copilot's seat where Rose was staring out the viewport, a frozen look of wonder and fear on her face. "Rose?"

"What, me? Oh, sorry, I'm not – what –"

Kylo pointed silently at the toggle and Rose reached up and switched it. The Falcon's hull reverberated as it made contact with the Supremacy. Rose shook herself a little, eyes wide, but did as he bade her, as efficient as always.

"Alright, we're here. Let's establish a transfer with one of those maintenance hatches and get moving," Kylo said.

"That's right, team," Poe said with gusto as BB-8 zipped excitedly around his feet. "Let's go!"

Rose caught Kylo's eye roll as everyone filed out of the cockpit and smothered a giggle under her hand. Kylo stood, putting a hand on her shoulder, at first tentative, then firm as if he'd decided to commit to it.

"You did good getting us here," he acknowledged.

She blushed. "Thanks."

"But you're not done yet," he said. "Stay sharp."

Rose nodded.

"Alright." He removed his hand abruptly and stepped back, allowing her to leave the cockpit first.

Poe and Paige were finishing adapting the ventral dock's coupling mechanism to connect with maintenance hatch when everyone gathered with their limited gear. Once they heard the locks click into place and the hiss of pressures equalizing, Poe stood, dusting off his knees.

"Kylo and I are going to drop in first," he announced. "Make sure the area is clear. Then the rest will follow. At that point, Finn will be our primary navigator until we can find a port for Beebee-Ate to hook into and find us our route to the hyperspace tracker."

The Resistance fighters nodded and Rose grabbed the necklace at her throat, the one that was identical to the one her sister wore. Up until this point, they could theoretically back out, escape back to the Resistance base on Crait, and things would return to the closest thing to normal she'd known for years. Well, unless they were court martialed, but still, that was better than whatever treatment the First Order would give them if they were captured.

Rose glanced at her sister, but Paige looked calm and ready, her eyes fixed on the men preparing to breach the First Order's ship. Rose exhaled slowly, then straightened, setting her shoulders back. She could do this – she knew it. She had to do it, too, for everything they'd lost and everything they stood to lose if they didn't complete this mission.

The hatch hissed open and Poe clambered through, Kylo on his heels. The rest of the team followed suit, trying to reorient themselves to the Supremacy's artificial gravity while not letting go of the metal rungs welded to the bulkhead or step on the fingers of the person below them. Soon they were all crammed in a dingy maintenance shaft, full of hissing pipes and bundles of wire. BB-8 was the last to come through, Chewbacca trying to lower him through while Kylo and Poe clumsily grabbed ahold of the rotund astromech with Paige giving occasional direction.

Rose took the moment to take in their surroundings. This part of the ship looked like just about any other large vessel's industrial parts: unpolished and dimly-lit. But even so, something about it unnerved her - maybe the unrelenting repetition of the evenly spaced hatches, the grated walkway their party stood on going off in both directions until she couldn't distinguish the distance. Still, she knew what this was: part of a machine built to subdue and destroy innocent people. Her nose wrinkled in distaste. She hated this ship. Suddenly she wished their mission was to blow it to pieces, not just disable the tracker. If she could, she'd make this whole ship burn. She wanted to make them hurt.

Finn bumped her elbow, fidgeting as he stood next to her. She looked up and saw his eyes darting around, taking in the corridor like she had.

"Is this where they made you work?" she whispered.

Finn startled, his gaze fixing on her. She noticed then his white-rimmed eyes blinking too quickly and shallow breaths puffing from parted lips.

"Hey." She took his hand, and even though it was a little sweaty, she held on until his fingers relaxed enough to grip hers back. "You can do this. I know it."

"I'm not supposed to be here," Finn said. "They'll find us – they know we're here –"

"No, they don't," Rose said firmly. "And you're going to make sure of it. You beat them once and you're going to do it again."

Finn kept staring at her, his breathing slowly coming back to something close to normal. Eventually she squeezed his hand and let go.

"You alright?" she asked.

He nodded. "Better. Thanks."

Rose turned back to the rest of their group. With BB-8 safely transferred to the Supremacy, Chewbacca moaned his well wishes and secured the hatch behind them. Kylo looked just a few degrees off from thunderous after having Poe nearly drop BB-8 on his head a few times and on his foot for sure.

"Alright. Keep your heads down," Poe said eagerly in a low voice. "Finn, you're up. Where to?"

Finn rolled his shoulders and stepped forward. "We need to go a little deeper in, to one of the bigger tunnels they use for distributing supplies around the ship. There still won't be many officers or crew, but the dataports will have access to the ship's main systems. Any ports around here will have limited access for diagnostic purposes."

"Excellent. Lead the way."

Finn nodded then turned, Rose on his heels. The rest of the group followed with BB-8 trundling along behind. Finn took them around the next corner, deeper into the ship. They all were on edge and Rose could feel the tension, the hum and occasional hiss of the machinery around them filling the silence.

"Where are we going?" Rose whispered.

"Further in," Finn answered, his face set determinedly, but he didn't look over at her. Rose looked down at his hand and saw he held a blaster now, the safety disengaged. She looked away.

While Kylo brought up the rear, Poe walked just behind Finn, clearly repressing his instinct to be in front from the number of times he stepped on their heels. "No talking, you two," he said.

"Sorry," Rose apologized hastily, falling back next to her sister. Finn didn't need her with him anyway.

At every intersection, Finn and Poe would step forward, swinging their weapons as they looked for First Order soldiers, then waving the rest of them forward cautiously. Once they heard footsteps echoing from around a corner and they all froze until the clomping boots faded away. After a few more turns and doorways, the corridors began to change. The floor beneath their feet changed from metallic grating to smooth paneling, and the lights changed from the dull yellow sconces to continuous pale overheads.

"We're getting close," Finn said over his shoulder. "Start looking for that dataport."

"You there! Halt!"

Rose nearly ran into Finn's back as he slammed to a stop. The rest of the group checked themselves, freezing as a squad of stormtroopers trained their blaster rifles on them.

"How'd you get on board? State your business!"

Finn froze, his mouth half-open. Beside him, Rose reached up and snagged the back of his shirtsleeve.

"I said state your business!"

Rose watched in horror as the first stormtrooper lifted the commlink on his wrist to his mouth, when Kylo stepped in front of the group, his hand raised in a gentle wave.

"It's okay that we're here."

Rose shivered at the underpinning of forceful calm in Kylo's words, glad he wasn't speaking to her.

The stormtroopers' posture slumped, the grip on their blasters going lax. "It's okay that you're here."

"You're going to leave us here and then you're going to go on your way," Kylo stated, his hand curving through the air.

Rose watched in awe as the troopers dutifully repeated what Kylo had said. When she glanced at the others, they looked similarly disquieted.

"Can he do that to us?" Poe asked no one in particular. "Has he done that to us?"

Kylo turned to him. "What do you think?"

Poe glared. "Not cool."

"You're welcome," Kylo stated. He crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. "This is stupid. We're not going to make it anywhere like this."

"He's right," Finn spoke up, recovering his voice. "There's no way we'll make it to the hyperspace tracker without running into another patrol or getting spotted on surveillance."

"Now?" Poe said furiously. "Now you guys decide to tell me all this?"

Kylo shrugged. "Nothing we didn't know. It was always likely to be a suicide mission."

"No one's dying just yet," Paige pointed out. "Now what would be great is if instead of you idiots making wild absolute statements, maybe we can think of a solution. Finn? You know how this place works. What do you think?"

Finn glanced around the group and saw that everyone was looking at him expectantly. Rose gave him a hopeful smile, and he exhaled, keeping her gaze. "Uniforms. We need uniforms to blend in. It'll be quicker, too, than taking the back ways and maintenance access links."

"Again, why are we just coming up with this now?" Poe said, waving his hands in exasperation.

Paige shushed him. "What about security clearance? Won't it get suspicious when we can't even get through a doorway?"

Finn looked to Rose again. "Between Rose and BB-8 we can slice our way into the secured areas we need to access, but there won't be much between us and there. They're kind of arrogant like that. They don't expect their own to turn on them."

"Alright, uniforms it is." Kylo pushed away from the wall. "Where are we going to get those?"

It took them only about half an hour to find the laundering facility. It was surprisingly easy if someone knew what to look for – and Finn was apparently that someone.

"The First Order does everything the same, every time," Finn explained to Rose in a whisper as they crept down the corridor, a little way ahead of the others. "Even the pipes. And when you see that many hot and cold water pipes on the maintenance deck, and you find a sewage pipe here –" he broke off to point to the thick duralloy tube plunging from ceiling to floor "– you know you're underneath a laundering facility."

Rose wrinkled her brow. "Really?"

"It's also steamier and smells like the First Order's cleaning agent," Finn added. He frowned, his expression clouding. "I think I miss that smell."

"Well, I'm sure it smells better than living with the Resistance, because I'm pretty sure no one knows how to wash their own clothes, or themselves for that matter," Rose said.

"It does smell, doesn't it?" Finn whispered. "I thought I was just being weird."

"It can get pretty bad," Rose admitted. "When you're living on the run, hygiene isn't everyone's first thought."

"Hmm." Finn halted, staring up at the ceiling where a hatch sat at the top of a ladder embedded into the wall. "I'll go first, make sure there's nobody there. Shouldn't be, unless they're repairing the equipment." He started to climb.

Rose glanced back at her sister, who raised her eyebrows. Rose felt a little warmth in her cheeks. She looked back to Finn, right up at his ass as he ascended the ladder and shoved open the hatch. She stepped back hastily.

"Don't tell me we're going to have to get Beebee up there," Poe groaned.

"No, we're not," Finn said from above. He clambered through then reappeared, with some kind of rectangular box in his hand. He dropped it to Rose. "It's a laundry hamper. It should fit."

BB-8 squealed in protest when the hamper settled over him, but quieted when Poe soothed him. "We'll be back, buddy. Just hang here for a minute."

The laundry facility was entirely automated, with only a few droids busy at work, too occupied in their tasks to bother with the five strangers pilfering from their neat, endless stacks of pressed uniforms. Everyone stood uncertainly until Rose nudged Finn.

"What should I wear?" she whispered. "I don't know what all these things are."

"Oh." Finn dropped the cap he'd been staring at. "Um…" He looked her up and down. "Let me get you something."

Soon Finn had outfitted each person with the appropriate choices and they ducked into different corners to change.

"I don't like it," Rose said to Paige as she fidgeted with the jacket's fastening. "It's itchy and stiff."

Paige straightened the cap on Rose's head. "Keep your chin up," Paige said. "You're much braver than any other person who could wear this uniform."

"You look ridiculous," Poe said to Kylo as he tucked the TIE pilot's helmet under his elbow. "Everyone can tell you're wearing clothes under that technician's get up. And your boots -"

"I wear what I want to."

"Okay, whatever. But seriously, I feel like I look good in black. What do you think?" He cocked a hip, grinning a little.

Paige snorted, fastening the jacket of her officer's uniform.

"It was just a little humor," Poe huffed. "Alright, everyone. Let's go."

Everyone grabbed their gear, stuffing their old clothing into the incinerator before dropping back through the hatch.

"I'm leaving now," Kylo said. Rose looked up, something about the way he said it.

"What do you mean? You're coming with us," Finn said.

Kylo shook his head. "I've got my own thing to take care of. Just get back to the Falcon and Chewie will get you out."

"No," Finn said, stepping towards him. "I already had to drag your ass out once. I'm not doing it again."

"Don't worry about me. Go," Kylo ordered.

Poe let out a grunt. "Come on, we have a mission to complete."

Finn protested. "But –"

Poe grabbed his arm. "He's not going to come, and we're wasting time."

"How can you just leave –"

"He's got that Leia look when she's made up her mind. We have to let him go," Poe said. "Now, let's move."

Finn let Poe pull him back, but he glared at Kylo. "Meet us back at the Falcon, okay?"

Kylo looked away.

Rose floundered, stuck between trying to convince Kylo to come with them or follow the stormtroopers that were leaving them behind. She'd seen enough horror holoshows to know that splitting up was never a good idea.

"So this is what you weren't telling us," Paige stated. Kylo's eye twitched, but he didn't respond. Paige shook her head. "Come on, Rose. Let's go."

Rose grabbed her sister's elbow. "But Paige -"

"He was never going to stay with us," Paige said, glancing at Kylo, who shifted his weight to the other foot. "There are other forces at work here, and he has a different part to play." Paige turned and walked away.

Rose felt her face screw up, almost as if she was about to cry. She looked up at him. "Bye, Kylo. Stay safe."

Before he could respond, Rose scurried after the others as they turned a corner. When she stopped to look back, Kylo stood alone in the corridor, his back to her and his head bowed. Rose felt a pang of sympathy for him even though she didn't quite understand it. Paige touched her shoulder, startling her.

"Come on, Rose," she said. "We've got a job to do."