Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars or any of the recognisable characters of the franchise. This story is purely for entertainment.

Chapter 28

Rey felt groggy. Her eyelids were so heavy. She tried to remember where she was. Someone was supporting her head trying to pour something wet into her mouth. It tasted weirdly as she felt the fluid running down her throat. She tried to spit it out almost choking in the process.

'You have to drink it.' – She heard an urgent voice right next to her ear. It sounded vaguely familiar. –'Rey! You have to wake up! We have to run away! We're in danger!'

Someone shook her and she slowly opened her eyes. She must had been dreaming. She could see Temini's worried face but it was impossible…it was impossible because she was…yes, she could remember now…she was on her way to Ahch-To. Wasn't she? They were surrounded by mist.

'Where are we?' – Her voice was croaky; her throat was dry. She suddenly realised how thirsty she was. With shaky hands she took a mug from the boy and started drinking greedily.

'On the Millenium Falcon. Chewbacca is unconscious. He's really bad. The droid's completely smashed. The guy jumped ship…in an escape pod.' – There was an urgency in Tem's voice.

Rey closed her eyes again and started breathing in and out. In and out. She was drawing on her inner strength because her body seemed completely useless.

She focused and reached out. The boy was right. There were only three of them on the ship. Yet, the awareness of danger ever so present from the moment they left Canto Bight, was so overwhelming now that it spurred her into action.

She gathered all her strength and shakily rose from the chair. For a moment she struggled to gain her balance. Standing opposite the dejarik table, she started wondering what was wrong with Chewie. His conscience felt odd when she was checking the ship a moment earlier.

'How's Chewbacca?

'Not sure. He's in a pilot's chair. I think he got a bigger dose or something.'

'Right. Wherever we are...we must get out of here.' – She clumsily tried to run towards the cockpit holding onto the walls to keep herself upright.

'We need to move him to the floor. Stand back.' – She reached out and concentrating even more she lifted an unconscious Chewbacca out of the chair and gently laid him onto the floor behind it. She didn't have time to check up on him. She would have to do it later.

'Tem. Take care of him. I have to get us going.'

She quickly started reprogramming their hyperspace navigation system. Only when she finished and was about to jump into lightspeed she looked ahead and gasped. To their right, the First Order's starship popped from the hyperspace. Without waiting for their attack, she quickly accelerated and within seconds went into lightspeed. The screen in front of her went blurry.

She sighed with relief. That was close. But now she was sure of one thing…she was being hunted. It was a relief that she managed to lose them. Hopefully, they won't be able to track her through lightspeed.

She slightly relaxed and turned in her chair towards the boy and still unconscious Chewie. Tem was trying to pour a drink into her furry friend.

'Be careful with him. He can be quite brutal when he is forced to do something he doesn't like.' – She warned the boy. – 'Let's put him on his bed.'

'It's like lifting rocks. You can do it.' – She whispered to herself as she gently lowered Chewie's heavy body in crew quarters. She was no medic but she was sure he was drugged or poisoned pretty badly. She was still shaking inside herself. Was she given something different? Why was he not waking up?

The boy followed her, assessing her with his watchful eyes. He looked uneasy.

'Can you explain to me what you are doing here and what happened when I was knocked out?' – She sat down on bed and suggested him he should do the same. – 'You were supposed to go with Finn and Rose. But then you disappeared. They were very disappointed and worried having to leave without you.'

'I never said I wanted to go.' – He lifted his chin up proudly. – 'I like them but I'm not a child, you know. I want to stay with you and the fathiers. I can take care of myself.'

'I guess, you are right. We should have asked you what you wanted.' – She sighed. She thought she had it all sorted. Everything taken care of. Obviously, it wasn't the case. – 'So how did you end up here?'

'I knew you were up to something. Your habits changed. You were meeting a lot with Chewbacca so I was staying close. Just in case I checked the ship and found a good place to hide…under the floor.' – Rey couldn't help but smile remembering how she hid in exactly the same place with Finn. She should be angry with him for coming here and putting himself in danger but she couldn't. The boy continued, – 'I was right. You were leaving Cantonica so I sneaked in at the last moment when you had a big argument with the rough guy.'

'The last thing I remember was that we tried to decide where to leave him. I can't remember what we decided. Or what happened next.' – Rey closed her eyes tightly trying to focus, trying to remember.

'I didn't see anything but I think he spiked your drinks. It was quiet for so long that I think I fell asleep. The droid's shouts about something not being permitted woke me up. I heard the blaster and then something heavy crashing. And then there was a very long silence after that so I decided to get out. I checked the ship and I found you and Chewie. But only you seemed to be reacting to my voice.'

'Well done. You saved us. I know I shouldn't say it but I'm glad you're here.' – She hugged Tem for a moment. She could see that he was calming down. He was quite shaken when he tried to wake her up. – 'Right. Now I will check the ship and you can see if you can wake Chewie up.'

She stood up and quite steadily walked towards the nearby engineering bay. - 'Remember… gently.'- She added loudly enough for him to hear before entering the bay. The smile that started lighting up her face quickly died. She immediately could see that the boy was right – one of the escape pods was missing and to her right next to the hyperdrive was C-3PO lying in a heap on the floor.

She fell to her knees next to a pile of golden metal. DJ must have been furious or something because it looked as if he first used the blaster and then hammered the droid on top of that as if he tried to make sure 3CPO won't be ever rebuilt again. She touched the golden arm and the tears appeared in her eyes. – 'You tried to warn me. Sorry I was so stubborn. You were a good friend.'

She looked behind her at the hyperdrive. It looked untouched. What was the point of all this? It seemed that DJ, or whoever the tramp was, simply drugged them, sold her whereabouts to the First Order and set up the autopilot on a low speed so that it could be easily caught or shot down by the First Order. He then, probably to have his hands clean, left the ship. If she only could lay her hands on this scum-

She quickly brushed the tears away. Tem shouldn't see her crying. She needed to stay strong. She had to get the Jedi texts and contact Ben as soon as possible. They didn't have enough fuel to go back to Cantonica without his help.

...

'Are we still on the right course?' – Supreme Leader Armitage Hux was pacing the bridge. Seeing the surprised look on Commander Galus' face he added, – 'I'm just making sure there are no more problems.'

They were following the Millenium Falcon with a bigger delay than he originally wished for. When the freighter suddenly jumped into lightspeed they had to decide whether to give up or follow it.

Hux couldn't believe his brilliant plan didn't quite work out the way it should. The thief had disappointed him. He would take care of him later on. The girl and the furry thing manged to run away after all, when they were supposed to be unconscious. Thanks to the thief they knew where the girl was originally planning to go. But after their very brief encounter with the First Order the girl and her companion could had decided to go back to Cantonica. In such case, it was pointless to chase after them but…if she continued her journey to the Unknown Regions, she would get stuck there. He knew that the freighter didn't have time to get any extra fuel.

Hux was the one who insisted on continuing the chase. He was convinced the girl didn't give up on her plan and he felt it was their only chance to get her. He now wished she and the other guy were poisoned straight away instead of being drugged. He underestimated them, he underestimated her. He wouldn't make the same mistake again. He really hoped the thief got her destination right and that the girl decided to follow through with her initial plan.

'Supreme Leader,' – One of bridge officers drew Hux's attention to himself. - 'we are slowing down. We will leave the hyperspace soon.'

'Very good, stick to the plan.' – They decided that even though the delay gave the freighter more than enough time to reach the planet, it was actually better this way. They had a better chance for a successful attack after the freighter landed. Hux wanted to make sure they would not be able to escape. It was even to their advantage that they didn't follow them straight away.

He was listening to the countdown, full of emotions. Finally, he would be able to get the girl. His flagship was more than enough to deal with one small freighter, his bombs were more than enough to deal with this whole planet. His eyes were fixed on a screen ahead of him. The outside world suddenly started taking shape. The first thing he saw was a blue planet with a small moon.

'Can you confirm our location?'

One of the officers turned to him. – 'As predicted sir, we are in the Unknown Regions. Unfortunately, we do not have detailed maps for it – only the course details given by the thief. We are still trying to check what planet this may be and if we have any details about it. '

'Don't forget to do a proper search of the area. Let's do the usual orbit around the planet. Just to be on the safe side. And find the girl.' – He barked at his officers.

He knew it could take some time and yet he was impatiently pacing the bridge for what seemed like ages to him.

'Supreme Leader, we can confirm that the freighter is on the planet.' – He finally heard Commander Galus' voice.

'We should follow with the plan then. Let finish it once and for all.' – Hux ordered decisively. He was relieved the waiting was over.

'Sir? I don't think we can.' - Galus suddenly sounded anxious.

'Why not?!' – Hux didn't like when someone was undermining his orders.

'The Resistance ship is approaching. Launching shields in attack mode.'

He could see them now on the screen. One cruiser with possibly a squadron of old x-wings against his newest star destroyer and 4 squads of new TIE fighters on board. He smirked with disdain.

'Sir, they want to speak to you.'

'Put them on speaker.'

Suddenly a booming, vaguely familiar voice filled the bridge. - 'This is Commander Poe Dameron of the United Republic fleet. I have an urgent message for Leader Hugs. And I'm not going to hold this time.'