Jeyna hangs on to her restraints, fighting waves of nausea as Ben pilots them erratically. They swerve and dodge around asteroids, the engines flaring every time they hit an open space, pushing them faster.

"Have they entered the asteroid field?" Jeyna asks, craning to try to see the instrument panels.

"Yes, they're attempting to route through to follow us," Ben confirms. "Scans show they're releasing TIE fighters."

She has an idea, but isn't sure if she should try it. But it could assist in blocking the Finalizer's path, and shielding them from TIE fighter fire. "Would I be able to operate the laser cannon?" she asks. She saw two mounted on the ship, back when they took it from Luke.

Ben veers them at the last minute to avoid a massive rock that's drifted into their path. "It's basic point and shoot, so probably. Why?" he demands urgently. She's already moving, however, unbuckling from the seat and stumbling through the cockpit door. "Jeyna!?" he shouts after her. "You won't be able to breach the Finalizer's shields!"

"I'm not aiming for the Finalizer!" she calls back, staggering sideways into the wall as they bank. She steadies herself before running again, reaching the ladder that descends to the weapon. She makes it halfway down before having to cling to the rails in a panic as the ship jerks sharply upwards, shaking. Then she continues, dropping down into the seat, her eyes scanning quickly to take in the view from here. She can see much more, the laser cannon protruding from the belly of the ship.

The Finalizer is intimidatingly massive compared to the Falcon, and she can see it in the distance, attempting to navigate a clear path. It is falling further back, but she can spot the swarm of TIE fighters pouring from the side of the vessel.

The smaller fighters are better equipped to dodge through the drifting hunks of rock, and look to be gaining ground. Jeyna buckles herself into the seat, taking hold of the controls in an attempt to learn them. But the whole thing seems locked into place. She feels Ben a moment before his voice fills her head.

Pull back on the handles.

She does, before panicking briefly as the whole chair swivels, unlocking and responding suddenly to her grip on the controls. She experimentally pulls left and then right, feeling a bit giddy when the massive weapon obeys her. If they weren't in a race for their lives, it would almost be fun manning it, the seat swinging opposite of her aim. The laser comes equipped with sighting assistance, and she sets it on an asteroid retreating behind them. She fires a test shot, pleased to see it impact the rock.

TIE fighters won't hold up well to impact. The more debris, the better.

Jeyna takes that as a green light from Ben, firing on the asteroids as they appear behind the Falcon's path. The metallic rocks fragment into huge pieces and smaller floating boulders. Each explosion scatters the remains into widening arcs, obstructing the fighter's path of pursuit. Her vision is lit up with the green bursts of laser fire, stomach lurching with nerves and motion sickness.

Jeyna sees the small First Order ships go wide, attempting to loop around the debris field. But it makes their paths longer, prolonging the time until they can fire on the Falcon. She's lost sight of the Finalizer in the distance. She continues firing, attempting to estimate the fighter's paths and block them.

She sees some of the fighters attempting to come at the Falcon directly, a few colliding with massive pieces of asteroid disastrously. As Ben said, the TIEs don't seem to hold up well to hitting the rocks. The tactic won't work forever, though.

We're almost there.

One of the more daring TIE pilots that has chanced taking a path directly through the obliterated asteroids finds more success than his peers. She sees the red bolts of laser fire as he opens fire, the Falcon shaking under the impact. Jeyna reacts on instinct, attempting to aim for the fighter and firing back. She adjusts slightly, her eyes widening as she manages to hit the TIE. It goes careening in a side spin, as the pilot apparently loses control of his ship's flight system.

Jeyna braces herself, feeling the Falcon shuddering as Ben pushes the sublight engines to their maximum output, and she notices there are no new asteroids drifting past her field of view. They've cleared the field.

A moment later, and she's surrounded with the sickening blur of hyperspace as they jump. She unbuckles from the seat, hastily pulling herself up the ladder and away from the view that threatens the meager contents of her stomach.

Jeyna settles herself on the floor of the hallway, pushing her back up against the curving metal wall. She feels dizzy from the rocking of the laser cannon and the chaotic piloting, and takes a few minutes to regain her sense of balance.

Ben emerges from the cockpit after a little while, and she realizes that he's still shirtless. She looks down, realizing she's still neglected to put on pants. Something about their state of undress in such a life-threatening situation strikes her as funny, and she fights giggles.

"Are you okay?" he asks, looking torn between amusement at her antics and concern.

The laughter erupts. "Yes," she confirms once she can catch her breath. "Perhaps a little hysterical, but otherwise fine."

"That was a smart idea you had," he commends her. "Your shooting wasn't too bad, either."

She gives him a grin as her laughter finally fades. "Thank you. But the weapon system does assist."

"Still better than most on their first attempt," Ben replies, offering a hand to pull her up. She takes it, feeling steadier on her feet now.

"How did they find us? Do they know you're on board?" Jeyna asks.

"I'm sure Hux suspects. The Knight's ship, the Night Buzzard, would have scanned the Falcon's ID when it was within range on Nathema," Ben explains. "They likely investigated Nathema and concluded we escaped on a third ship, and were able to identify it from the records on the Buzzard."

"Does this mean Hux is trying to kill us…again?" she presses, even as she knows the answer.

"Most likely," Ben says, nodding. She doesn't miss the irritation in his eyes. "Either he fired intending to kill us, or he fired intending to kill the Rebels who captured us, as well as us."

Jeyna feels her old hatred for the man stir. Couldn't he be content that he had been left in charge of the First Order? Why bother coming after them?

"He is trying to guarantee I don't return to threaten his command," Ben says in response to her thoughts. "We were probably spotted by a scout in the area."

"Well hopefully we can evade any more scouts on our way past the Outer Rim," Jeyna says, even though she is skeptical. Their luck has been far from good, and it sounds like too much to hope for an easy escape from the known galaxy.

"The route we're currently on should dump us right at the beginning of the unknown regions," Ben explains. "From there, we'll just need to keep an eye out for gravity wells and solar storms."

"Fantastic," Jeyna comments wryly. He smirks at the sarcasm in her tone.

"At least you don't have to worry about spiders in the unknown region," Ben says, his tone turning teasing. "Surely that is a positive to our situation."

She wets her lips, suddenly aware of the way he's lingered close since pulling her to her feet. He gives her a small smile, and it's infectious, her own lips quirking upwards. "I can think of a few positives to our situation," she admits, her tone coming out far more playful than she'd meant it. She doesn't miss the way his eyes light up in response.

Much Later

Ben tosses rations onto the bunk before settling down and pulling her to sit between his legs. Jeyna wrinkles her nose at the sight of the dried sustenance, wishing they'd had time to stock the ship with something better.

"You need to eat," he chastises her gently.

"It's awful," she mutters. He leans down, moving her hair to kiss at her neck. She closes her eyes when he hits a tender spot, the same place he'd sunk his teeth not even an hour before as he pressed in between her thighs. They've had no problem passing the time on the ship, though it might not have been in the most productive manner.

"It's worse than awful," Ben agrees quietly. He reaches past her lap to grab one of the nutrient bars, opening it to hand to her. "But you need calories."

She sighs before resigning herself to force down the flavorless portion. When she's done, she relaxes back against his chest. "If we survive, I'd like to stay on a planet for a while. I don't even care which one," Jeyna admits. "Just a place with solid ground underneath my feet and food that has a taste."

One of his hands eases under the black material of the shirt she's pulled on to splay against the sensitive skin of her stomach. "When we survive, I agree with that plan," Ben corrects. Jeyna realizes his words aren't empty. She can feel a new sensation from him, tentative as it might be. She realizes it's hope coloring his words, resonating in his chest. She closes her eyes, enjoying the moment.

Later

Jeyna's woken by an alarm going off somewhere in the cockpit. She throws the blankets off her shoulders in confusion, realizing she must have fallen asleep. Ben isn't in the dormitory, so she dresses quickly and heads towards the sound of the noise that disturbed her. It's silenced as she approaches.

"It was just a proximity alert," Ben tells her from the pilot's chair without looking back. "We're near the coordinates from the map."

Jeyna sits in the copilot seat to search the black of nothingness outside. It's been nothing but dark space for more than a day and night cycle, the unknown regions seeming to be a void of anything. But now she can spot something, far off in the distance.

"Is that a star system?" she asks. Ben nods.

"We're being directed towards one of the planets. Once we get a little closer, we can scan for signs of life and do an atmospheric analysis," he says.

But Jeyna's distracted, her head beginning to feel a slight pressure. Her heart beats faster in fear, remembering the last time she'd felt the sensation. The pressure grows, a throb beginning in her forehead. She tries to not flinch, not wanting to alarm Ben, but it's useless. He must feel it through their connection, his hands falling from the controls as he turns towards her.

"It's him, isn't it?" he asks, voice tense. Jeyna inclines her head once, tears stinging at the pain. Ben's in front of her in a flash, kneeling as he takes her head between his hands. She feels Ben's presence surging in her mind, and bizarrely, it seems to help. The pressure relents slightly, and she gasps in air in relief.

The words are there, lingering on her tongue, even as her brain doesn't have a clue what sounds she is trying to make. Ben speaks the name at the same time as she does: "Dromund Kaas."

Approaching the System

The planet of Dromund Kaas looks to be a deep blue color, orbited by two moons, and Jeyna searches her mind for reference to it. Something about the name strikes her as familiar once she's said it aloud, but she can't place where she's heard it before. Had she read about it, in some ancient text?

"I've heard it, too," Ben says quietly, as he steers them closer to the world. "I think it was part of the ancient Sith empire."

"That's probably not a good sign," Jeyna admits meekly. Is this where Revan ended up, she wonders? She can't help but acknowledge there is something lingering in her brain since the most recent intrusion. Some foreign presence that isn't Ben, lurking just at the edges of her mind. She can feel it in the force, even as she doesn't know how to examine it more than that.

"There's no signs of life according to the scanners, but there is some sort of low powered signal," he says, squinting in confusion at the readout. "I'll take us down there."

As they approach more closely, she sees what looks to be remains of cities. The planet is in a state of regression, the remains of civilization giving way to wilderness. Patches of swamp and forest seem to be reclaiming ground, growing into and pulling down the structures.

Jeyna feels the foreign presence tug on her thoughts, and she becomes physically aware of it like an extra sense. She can detect the source, somewhere before her, and growing nearer. "I can feel it. We're almost there," she tells Ben. She notices the way his hands tighten on the controls, tension pulling his knuckles taut.

He sets them down on the remains of an old landing pad, and they pause in the main hold to arm themselves. Ben straps on a blaster before grabbing the silver handle of the lightsaber Luke gave him. He holds a blaster out to her, and she reluctantly takes it.

They open the door, and a wave of sickeningly humid air hits them. Jeyna feels the moisture immediately cling to her skin as she follows Ben down the loading ramp, and onto the old walkway. It connects the landing pads to a central building, and as she surveys the towers rising high before her, she knows they are in the right place. She can feel whatever, or more aptly, whoever is in her brain. They are right there, a beacon calling to her.

The walkway is long, stretching across swamplands and scraggly trees. It is crumbling away in parts, and more than a few times Jeyna hears an ominous creaking noise when she steps.

"Try to walk where I walk. This isn't the most stable," Ben suggests. She attempts to follow his directions, placing her feet where she's seen his land. They're halfway to the end when Ben freezes for a moment, raising his hand as if to pause her. "Run, Jeyna," he orders suddenly.

She obeys in confusion, taking off in a sprint to follow him as he leads them at a frantic pace. "We need to get under cover, now!" he calls urgently. She pushes her legs faster, trying to not slow him down. The walkway cracks beneath them, visible fractures forming in the material. Her eyes widen in fear.

"Why? What is it?" she gasps out.

Jeyna hears it before he can answer. A shock travels down her spine, hair standing up at the roots in fear. The angry scream of TIE fighters assaults the air. She looks up, and the sky is filling with the First Order ships. As she watches, the Finalizer appears, materializing as it enters the atmosphere like a silent omen.

She doesn't realize her pace must have slackened until Ben grips her wrist, urging her to move faster with him. They make it to the end of the walkway, darting under the cover of the buildings that rise around them.

"How did they find us?" Jeyna asks between panting for her breath.

"I don't know," Ben answers, eyes surveying their surroundings. His face is unreadable, eyes calculating, but she detects desperation coming from him.

It's then that the oversight hits her. "My datapad," she says in horror. "It's linked to yours. We left it on the Finalizer."

His eyes darken, aggression filling them. She turns from him as he paces in frustration, gaze searching as she tries to reason her way to a solution. The sound of the TIE fighters is pervasive as they swarm over the planet. They've likely already spotted their ship, meaning they don't have much time. Jeyna tries to focus despite the dire circumstances.

The city is built in layers, and they appear to be on the top level. She can see downwards, where they'd be better hidden, but the feeling in the force is urging her up. Somewhere above her, is what she's come for. But how can they continue, with the First Order here? They need to hide, or better yet, flee the planet.

As soon as she reaches that conclusion, the presence in her mind surges violently. It's will battles with her own. As much as she wants to return to the Millennium Falcon, it is fighting with her to stay. Pain blooms inside her brain, pushing against her skull in burning waves of agony.

Jeyna's vision turns to static as she crumples to her knees, overwhelmed by whoever is arguing with her instincts. She vaguely makes out Ben as he rushes towards her, but before he can reach her, the world explodes.

The First Order has opened fire, and the crumbling city around them is blasted apart. The surface underneath Jeyna gives way, as if its support has been demolished. She screams when she feels the rumbling travel through her hands, and the giant slab of stone is splintered beneath her. Ben lunges for her, but by the time she reaches out, it is too late. She's falling, in a shower of broken rock.