Chapter Twenty-Two: The Ghost: Isolation

Rey sighed as she leaned back in the pilot's seat of the Ghost. She was starting to like the ship. It was old, but it was kept in very good condition. Unlike the Falcon- which had been abandoned on Jakku for years- the Ghost had been in flight continuously. Despite her initial misgivings about the ship, Rey had fallen in love with the Falcon. Still... The Ghost was very nice.

However, there were a few things she didn't care for on the Ghost. A big one were the doors that refused to be codebroken. Ben was locked in his room and would not engage in their bond. Poe brought him food, but that was the only time the door opened at all.

Rey scowled deeply and looked at BB-8. "You know you don't have to watch me all the time. I'm just sitting here."

BB-8 whistled and beeped, bumping into Rey's chair. Rey sighed and went back to her brooding as she stared out the viewport.

She didn't understand what Ben's hesitance was. Yes, they had caused an incident with the Holocrons... But the only way they were going to get past that was if they worked through it together.

As much as Rey did like the Ghost, she didn't much care for long haul flights. The ship was starting to feel claustrophobic. Maybe it was because of the tension between her and Ben. It might have been easier to take the close quarters if she wasn't angry with half the people on the ship.

"Hey." Rose stepped into cockpit. "How are you doing?"

"Hm?" Rey looked up. "I'm fine. I just thought I'd fly for a bit. Give Poe a chance to sit with Kaila for a bit."

Rose curled up in the co-pilot's seat. "Finn's back there with them right now. Talking about the mission. Do you have any idea what the mission actually is? Because I don't think they'd have so much to talk about if it was just recruitment."

Rey nodded. She was fairly certain Leia wouldn't have sent them if it was about recruitment. One or two of them maybe. But Poe was her right-hand man. Not to mention every single Jedi known to live were on the ship. But everything was played so close to the chest.

"You're not fine, are you?"

Rey lifted her head. "What do you mean?"

"Is it Ben?"

Rose was so empathetic, Rey sometimes wondered if it might be latent Force abilities or if she was just so kind as to be able to tell others emotions. Still, she wasn't sure she wanted to talk about it. She smiled far to brightly, shaking her head. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"He's really cute. And I've seen the way he looks at you. He likes you." Rose shrugged. "He might've just gotten scared by whatever happened when you guys were meditating. Does that happen when Jedi meditate a lot?"

"No," Rey answered quickly. She felt her body heat up at the memory of their physical Force Bond. "That was different."

"Just give him some time," Rose advised.

Rey engaged the autopilot and got up. "No offense, but I don't really want to talk about this right now. I'm going to go back to my bunk."

"I'm sorry!" Rose cried. She jumped to her feet. "I didn't mean to..."

"It's fine, Rose," Rey sighed. "I've just got some things to do before we get to Coruscant."

As she headed towards the back, BB-8 beeper and rolled after her. She turned back and scowled at the small droid. "You don't have to follow me everywhere."

BB-8 whistled.

Rey rolled her eyes and stalked to Poe and Kaila's bunk. She opened the door, not bothering to announce her presence.

"Can you please tell BB-8 he doesn't have to follow me everywhere?" Rey demanded.

Poe looked away from the hologram Chopper was projecting. He was sitting on his bed with Kaila leaning against his chest so she could sit up. He blinked at Rey. "Hey Buddy," he called to BB-8. "Why don't you come in here and help us?"

BB-8 chirped and rolled in. Poe gave Kaila a quick peck on the cheek before slipping out from behind her. "I'll be right back, Babe. Finn, you keep talking."

Finn looked worriedly at Poe and then to Rey. "Is everything alright?"

"Don't worry about it." Poe strode out into the corridor. "Rey..."

"I'm not a child who needs babysitting," Rey snapped. "I know what you're doing. Ben's already not leaving his bunk. You're treating me like I need to be looked after and..."

"Shh..." Poe looked back over his shoulder at his open bunk door. He led Rey into her own bunk to give them some privacy. "You don't want to worry Finn. Rey, I'm sorry. I... I didn't think things through. It was disrespectful to you. You just freaked me the hell out. I should have handled it better."

Rey nodded firmly, still feeling anger course through her. "You should have. I can't believe-"

Poe sighed, shaking his head. "Rey, can you please look at this from my perspective for like two seconds? It wasn't that long ago that Kylo Ren killed a man in front of me, ordered the death of a whole village, took me hostage, tortured me, invaded my mind and nearly killed me two or three times. Then I'm sent on a mission that it turns out is to rescue him. My girlfriend has decided to dedicate herself to training him and letting him live with her. On top of all of that, someone that I care about has fallen in love with him. As a result of whatever weird Jedi thing you two have going on, the ship was nearly blown up and my girlfriend was this close-" he held his thumb and finger mere millimeters apart. "-to being killed. Now all of us are stuck on a ship together while I'm trying to command a dangerous mission in the core of the galaxy where the First Order has been amassing forces. So yeah, I'm on edge and I reacted badly. If you're not a child then... Get over it."

Rey opened her mouth to say something, but she really didn't know what to say in response to everything Poe had said. He had a point. Ben had done all of those things. "You've still confined him to quarters."

Poe shook his head. "No I didn't, Rey. That was Ben's decision. Even he knows that you two can't be around each other right now. Not with everything that is at stake." He sighed. "Kaila and Leia both think it was because he loves you that he's made this turn. I know he killed Snoke for you. I don't like the two of you, but I can't deny how much good it's done. But you have to be careful, Rey."

"He's not going to turn to the Dark Side." Rey's defenses were still high.

Poe shook his head. "No. I'm not talking about being a Jedi or anything like that. We haven't talked much about your life before you joined the Rebellion. But I know you're nineteen and you were a scavenger. Did you have many relationships on Jakku?"

Rey shook her head, remaining silent

"I thought so. Relationships are hard even without the forces of light and darkness. I've been with people from different species and genders and it is never easy. Even when you're in love."

Rey shrugged. "You and Kaila don't seem to be doing too badly."

Poe laughed. "That is twenty-five years of friendship, fifteen years of dancing around how we feel about each other, abandonment in the middle of the night, years of estrangement, occasional infidelity and once dating the same guy. And I'm still not certain where we are."

"You did call her your girlfriend."

Poe blinked. "I guess I did." His hand reached up and clutched at his necklace. "Still. That's a first. After all of that. Love's not easy. And the battle of good versus evil just makes it more complicated. Don't rush things." He sighed. "I'll tell BB-8 to lay off. But he's not too happy about you and Ben either so I can't promise anything. I have to go back. Are you okay?"

Rey nodded. "I have things I need to do."

Poe gave her a small smile. "All right then. I'll leave you to it." Poe left the bunk, closing the door behind himself.

Rey knew Poe was right. Still, it was all hard to hear. Her mind knew that she should take things slow- stay away - from Ben. But every other part of her urged her closer and closer to him.

She decided it was best to keep her mind off of him. Since she'd returned from the Supremacy she'd been working on on something. She'd even brought it with her on the mission. Master Bridger had a lot of components to help her with it.

Rey sat down at the small desk and continued to work on the lightsaber. She always understood how things worked and the lightsaber was no different. It was cracked, but she could see how to repair and replace what she needed. Not everything stayed broken.

Finn watched Poe re-enter the bunk, looking exhausted. "Are you okay?"

"Fine," Poe sighed. "Just... Things. You don't want to know about it- believe me."

"We were just getting into everyone's role the mission." Kaila patted the bed. "Come on, Flyboy... Command us."

Poe got back onto the bed and propped Kaila up again. "So we have three objectives: Create a groundswell of support for the Rebellion in the populace via propaganda imbedded into the local holonet. Finn, I think you and Rose would be best for that job. You'll need to get into Galactic City's transmission matrix. Can you do it?"

Finn nodded. "Definitely. As long as we don't need to hire a codebreaker this time."

"I think you'll be okay with just BB-8 and Chopper." Poe nodded to the droids. "You two up for that?"

BB-8 beeped wildly, while Chopper grudgingly whirred. BB-8 then began to circle the other droid before Chopper stopped him with his pincher.

"So the other objectives..." Finn said, looking over his datapad. "Rey was supposed to find Jedi."

Poe nodded. "Leia wanted her to reach out to see if she can sense any Force Users in the city. It's a long shot, but it's still a shot."

"Do you want me to go with her?" Kaila looked back at Poe.

"I might need you with me," Poe replied. "My part of the mission requires infiltration. You're pretty good at that."

Kaila nodded. "Okay. So Ben will go with Rey then."

Both Finn and Poe looked at each other warily. Just the thought of Kylo Ren going on the mission with them made Finn sick to his stomach.

"Whatever you might think of him, he's one of the strongest Force Users in the Galaxy. If there are Force Users, they'll be able to find them."

Finn put his head in his hand. He hated to admit that it was right. But he still felt his protectiveness swell. "Are we really going to put Rey into a position where she's with Kylo Ren alone? He could stab her in the back!"

"He doesn't have a lightsaber," Kaila pointed out. "And if you believe in Rey, then you should think she could take Ben if he turned against her."

Kriff. Another good point.

"Okay," Poe sighed. "We'll have Rey and Ben go for the Force Users. Which leaves you and me, Babe."

"We're finding a spy," Kaila said. "That's what Finn said."

Poe nodded. "Yeah. A Resistance Operative who has been working in the core gathering intelligence. Leia got worried about him when he didn't respond to her distress call. She thinks he's in trouble. So she wants us to go in and extract him. We could use his help."

"Is he that good?" Finn asked. "Just who is this Lando Calrissian?"