A/N: Hey everyone! Hope you're all doing well!

Thanks to everyone who continues to follow/favorite/review! I appreciate each and every one of you more than I can say. Your continued reading is such an encouragement! Thanks also (as always) to FenrisInside and Leona2016 for their help in this project. I tip my hat to you both!

Hope you all like this chapter and continue to stay healthy and safe!

Dread curled in Rey's stomach, sending another wave of the all-too-familiar nausea rolling through her. She focused on taking several deep breaths in the hope of suppressing the sensation. Beside her, Mela shuddered and clasped her arms against her chest as Cy spoke to her in low, comforting tones. Ben drew Rey gently away from the pair, giving them room to speak.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"I don't know," Rey said, suddenly realizing that she was shaking all over. "What was that? What does it mean?"

"It's a warning," Mela said, before Ben could answer, taking a staggering step toward them with Cy's aid. "I know that much. I don't understand it, and my sight wasn't clear, but I know for certain it was a warning."

"Against what?" Rey asked.

"Against Snoke, and against the dark side," said Mela. "Turn back, Rey. That is the only thing that is clear in my mind. Turn back, now, before it's too late."

Mela's expression had shifted into a fervent desperation so terrible that Rey took a step away from the knight in fear, deeper into the circle of Ben's arms.

"I can't go back," she said. "With Snoke still alive and Hux searching for any way to get rid of us, I need the power the dark side gives me."

Mela shook her head.

"Please, Rey, listen to sense. I don't know exactly what I saw, but I know something terrible could happen if you don't turn back to the light side. It's too late for us: me, Cy, Kylo and the others. But it's not too late for you. I can feel it. Can't you?"

Rey shook her head and helplessly spread out her hands.

"I don't know how to go back," she whispered. "I can't hear the light side. I used to be able to sometimes, faintly. But not anymore."

They all went silent as the full weight of Mela's vision settled on their shoulders. Rey bit her lip, terror and guilt boiling inside her. It was all her fault. She was the one who would be responsible for the destruction of all she'd come to hold dear. The thought made her stomach clench. She looked down at her hands. It didn't seem possible that she could use them to upend the galaxy. But hadn't she already done so, in a way?

Ben must have read the anguish in her face, because he leaned closer and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"Dreams and visions don't always come true in the way we expect them to," he said. "Or they may not come true at all."

"But what if this one does?" Rey asked. "What if-"

"Stop," Ben said.

"But-"

"Rey," he said, turning so he was looking straight into her eyes. "Stop. I know you. You don't have it in you. Mela's visions have been wrong before."

"Really?" Rey asked, looking to Mela for confirmation.

The knight nodded hesitantly, biting her bottom lip.

"I have been wrong before," she admitted. "I may be wrong again."

The relief that swept through Rey was like a brief flash of light in the darkness; intensely bright but gone as quickly as it came. Ben's arm tightened around her as her knees shook with an exhaustion that seemed to come from nowhere. She gave in to it, lowering herself to the floor and running a hand over her face. Above all else, she longed for the peace that had flowed through her so long ago, but her mind still echoed with Mela's words and the weight of the galaxy that seemed to come crashing back down around her as the darkness drew close once again.

"Rey, are you alright?" Mela asked, her concern shifting from the vision to Rey herself. "You don't look well."

Rey tried to nod but the movement sent her head spinning. She closed her eyes and leaned against the wall to steady herself, pressing her palms against the cool floor. The nausea that roiled her stomach was growing worse, and bile burned the back of her throat.

"I'm fine," she whispered. "Just tired."

"You're as white as the snow on Hoth."

"I'm fine," Rey insisted.

Ben crouched next to her and pushed the hair from her face to press the back of his hand to her forehead. Rey nudged him away, turning her head far enough to see Mela from the corners of her eyes.

"What did you mean," she asked weakly, "when you said that the darkness would take something from me that I don't know I have?"

Mela shook her head as she sat down across from her.

"I don't know," she said. "I wish I did."

Rey shivered, crossing her arms over her stomach and drawing up her knees as though to keep herself warm. Mela slid closer and tried to wrap an arm around her shoulders. Rey flinched away, afraid of the touch after what Mela had pronounced over her. Mela pulled back, understanding and hurt flickering over her face. She clasped her hands in her lap and looked down at them.

"I'm so sorry, little sister. If I could take back my words, I would."

Rey nodded, but couldn't find the strength to say anything. She sat, frozen, locked in her own drifting thoughts as she stared into space, too tired to move. The low murmur of Ben's voice wrapped around her, lending a small amount of security, but it did nothing to calm the tumult of her mind.

"Why don't you take her to Corann?" said Mela's voice, breaking through Rey's trance.

"What?" she asked, looking up.

"I'd considered it," Ben said, avoiding her eyes. "But he's on the move and hasn't checked in with his coordinates again."

"She needs a med-droid, at least, Kylo."

"I do not need a med-droid to prod me all over only to tell me I have an upset stomach," Rey protested. "I'm fine. Today is just one of the bad days."

"One of?" Mela asked, hand on her hip. "Just how long has this been going on?"

Rey was spared from having to answer her by the buzz of Ben's holopad. He flicked it open and an image of a man in a long robe glowed blue from the air above the device. Ben's brows drew together in confusion even as he dipped his head in a greeting.

"Jai, I wasn't expecting you to report in yet. Is everything alright?"

"Everything's fine, but I have news. Are you on the Finalizer?"

"No," Ben said. "We're on Cy's transport."

"Good, that'll be closer. Taryn relieved me an hour ago so I'm only about a parsec out. Should be there in a half hour or so."

"What's going on?"

"I'll tell you when I get there. I'm about to make the jump to hyperspace, so I'm going to lose you."

"Alright, we'll be waiting for you in the hangar."

"Copy that. See you soon."

As the hologram fizzled into empty air, Rey gathered herself and stood, fighting a wave of dizziness. She ignored Mela's concerned expression and stepped forward to take Ben's arm.

"We'd better get a move on," she said. "It sounds like he's on to something."

...

Rey studiously avoided Mela's searching looks as they trekked through the corridors of the transport ship toward the hangar bay. She made a point of sticking close to Ben's side in an effort to evade the knight's attempts to draw her into another conversation. Mela needn't have worried. To Rey's great relief, the nausea had ebbed, as was its way, and she found that she felt nearly herself for the first time that day.

She was still keeping her gaze well away from Mela's when Jai's ship glided through the bay doors. It hovered for a moment, then sank to the floor, coming to rest like a great bird. Ben was already striding forward to meet it as the hatch swung open and the unfamiliar knight stepped out onto the wing, sliding to the floor with a grunt.

His brown hair was wild about his face and several days' worth of beard covered the deeply tanned skin of his chin and cheeks. He was coated head to foot in filth and, on close inspection, Rey noticed a threadbare quality to his robes. Ben didn't seem to care and threw his arms around the knight, who returned the embrace without hesitation.

"It's good to see you Kylo," the man said. "More than you know."

"And you as well," Ben said.

They clung to one another; brothers united after months apart, before stepping to arm's length again after a long moment. Only then did the knight look about him, seeming to take in his surroundings for the first time. He smiled at Rey, drawing closer and offering his hand.

"You must be Rey," said the knight. "I've heard a lot about you from the others. I'm Jai."

"Good to meet you," Rey said as she hesitantly took his callused hand.

"Mela says you come from Jakku?"

"That's right," Rey said.

"From all I hear, it sounds a lot like my home planet, Tatooine," Jai grinned. "I don't miss it."

"I don't miss Jakku either," Rey said.

Her apprehension began to fade as a small smile tugged at her mouth. Jai radiated a warmth that almost immediately put her at ease.

"Glad you finally brought us another sister, Kylo," Jai chuckled. "I'm sure Mela is thrilled."

"You don't know the half of it," Mela said as she came up beside them with Cy at her shoulder. "I might finally have someone to talk to besides you bunch of laserbrains."

Rey eyed her but didn't say anything, afraid that if she did, Mela would start prying again. There was silence between the five of them for a few moments before Ben broke it with the question Rey knew was foremost on his thoughts.

"What news do you have, Jai?"

Jai took a step back and ran his hands through his hair so that it became even more unkempt.

"We found him."

Rey froze, the three words echoing around her. Ben had told her about the duty he'd entrusted to Taryn and Jai; how they'd been sent to search for Finn and to shadow his movements once they found him. And now, it seemed, they had tracked him down.

"Where is he?" she asked, her voice weak and shaking.

"Cantonica. Right outside Canto Bight."

"How can they hide in a place like Canto Bight?" asked Mela, coming up behind them.

"They're not hiding. They have a sympathizer that owns one of the casinos. He funds them and protects them, but I'm still surprised your informants haven't discovered them yet, Kylo."

"It sounds as if Canto Bight is rethinking its neutral stance," Ben said, wryly. "But it doesn't surprise me that our informants haven't come forward. I guess that they would only turn the Resistance over to us after they were done benefitting from the surge in local business. They're not going to inform while there's money to be made."

"Too true," Cy muttered.

"Have you been able to watch Finn's movements?" Ben asked. "Is there any sign he's searching for the younglings?"

Jai shrugged.

"I've had to shadow him from a distance, Kylo," he said. "I can't hear every conversation he has or keep tabs on every one of his contacts, but from what I've observed there's nothing to indicate he's hunting for us. Mostly he comes and goes, just like the others. The only thing I've seen that struck me as odd is that the Resistance has some kind of animal down there that they started bringing in a few weeks ago. They look almost like a dog, but they seem wilder. I wouldn't want to meet one without a saber. Something in the eyes."

Rey looked up, confused.

"What do you mean, dogs?"

"I don't think they're dogs, exactly," said Jai. "I don't know what they are, but the Resistance has several penned up where they keep the fathiers. I was able to sneak down there last night and saw them. They went mad when I got close; tried to climb the bars to get at me. They made so much noise that I got out of there as fast as I could before someone came down to investigate."

Ben frowned.

"Is this relevant, Jai?"

Jai rubbed a grimy hand over his equally dirty face.

"I think so. I've got a bad feeling about whatever it is the Resistance is plotting."

Ben sighed and turned to Rey with an expression that mirrored her own exhaustion. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close against his side. She leaned into him, letting some of her fear ease away. Ben's hand found hers and he squeezed her fingers as if to reassure her that they would be alright.

"I need you and Taryn to keep to your posts for a little while longer," Ben said to Jai. "We're going to need as much information as you can give us before we lead troops into a city where we are at a tactical disadvantage. We're going to need numbers, if you can get them: a rough estimate of firepower and other resources they may have at their disposal, as well as bodies."

Jai nodded, then looked down at his dirt stained clothing.

"How long do you want us trailing them?"

"Until we have the information we need. And I expect you to report anything Finn does that might seem suspicious. I don't need to tell you that any advance warning will be vital if we have to move the younglings."

"No, you don't need to tell me," Jai agreed, determination etching his face. "I'm as unwilling to risk the lives of my charges, as you are yours. I'll kill, if I have to, to protect them. Your trust isn't in vain."

"I know it isn't," Ben said. "But keep your head down unless you know for certain they're under threat. I don't want the Resistance getting jumpy."

"Right."

"It will probably only be a few more weeks before we can launch an attack. I don't anticipate longer than a month, especially if you can get us the numbers we need quickly."

As the conversation went on next to her, Rey began to draw inwards and away from the others. She couldn't help feeling a growing uneasiness as her mind played over everything Jai had said, though she wasn't able to place its exact source. But as Ben continued to instruct the knight in his duties, she realized what was increasingly unnerving her. Jai had vowed to kill if he had to. But they weren't talking about a faceless, nameless enemy this time. They were talking about her friend. About killing him.

"Ben," she said quietly, "what about Finn?"

"What about him?" Ben asked. "He's a traitor."

"He was my friend," she said. "I know he turned on me, and I know the threats he's made against the younglings, but he might be more valuable to us as a prisoner than dead."

Ben considered her for a moment, and she guessed he could read the desperation in her, even without the bond. Could he sense her other reason for wanting him alive? The darkness might be consuming her, but she couldn't fight the ache she felt for reconciliation with her first friend. He'd been angry with her, and she'd been angry with him, but perhaps they could forgive one another. She remembered his face the last time she'd seen him, and the ways she herself had changed since that terrible day. She'd drawn so deep into the darkness. Would it even be possible to start over?

"He might be valuable, Kylo," Cy said. "If he knows the location of the rest of the Resistance, we might be able to get the information from him."

Rey's insides crawled with guilt at the thought of Finn being interrogated, but wasn't that better than him being dead? She bit her lip and locked away her misgivings. Ben glanced at her again, gaze running over her face as if he were trying to decipher her thoughts. She tried to plead with him with her eyes. Surely, he knew. He must know how much this meant to her.

"Please," she mouthed.

Ben gave her another long look before he slowly nodded.

"Take him alive, if you can," he said, turning and addressing Jai. "But don't endanger your position to do so."

"As you say," the man said, though Rey thought she saw a flicker of uncertainty crossing his expression before his features settled.

"If you can't take him before, we'll try to apprehend him during a battle," said Ben. "Cy's right. He could be a valuable source of information, especially if he's ascended to a position in which he has power."

"Do you think he has?" asked Rey.

"He's a prominent voice, at the very least," Jai said. "I don't see him without two or three others around him. I can't tell for certain, but I suspect they're for his protection."

"If that's true, and with General Organa's death, it would be very likely that he has risen through the ranks," Mela said, "especially since he was close in the general's circle, as you say he was, Kylo."

Rey saw Ben flinch before he quickly covered the movement with a nod. She knew how deep the wound of his mother's death ran, because it still lay raw and open in her own heart. Neither of them could speak of the pain, but they could allow the bond to commune for them. Like the years of loneliness, their grief was an agony that words could not do justice, yet it still drew them closer together.

She stretched out and caught his hand in hers. Even if she couldn't reach him in the bond, she wanted him to know she saw and understood. He gave her the briefest of smiles and squeezed her fingers before he spoke again.

"If Finn is the new voice of the Resistance, then he must be captured. His threats against the younglings under our care cannot be allowed to continue to circulate through the Resistance. We can't afford to waste time trying to keep them from hunting down our charges."

Rey glanced around them, taking in the arching ceiling of the small hangar, and remembering the few corridors they'd walked to come to this point. Ben had told her of a time when the Jedi and the Sith were feared and honored, the councilors of kings and emperors. How was it that, in only a few generations, the galaxy had so utterly rejected them that Force-sensitive children now lived out their lives on a few transport ships that traversed the vast emptiness between worlds. They were a people without a home, forced to choose between exile and death.

Sorrow crept into her heart at the thought. She saw again the little faces turning toward them with smiles that seemed to light the room and the young Twi'lek, Nanni, crying in her fear that Ben would leave and never return. A different memory flashed across her thoughts, one that she'd seen over and over again in her nightmares and in her darkest waking moments. A little girl staring up at a ship rapidly disappearing into a harsh blue sky, screaming for those whom she'd loved to come back for her.

The only difference between them was that Nanni's family had come for her. A different one, perhaps, than the one she had been born into, but a family nonetheless. Rey wondered what her life would have been like if someone had come for her, to teach and guide her through those terrible years alone. To love her. She'd had Hausis, but the old woman was no substitute for a mother and father.

Had Ben had someone he could turn to? Had Mela and Cy and the others? Or had they all been lost children, searching for a place to belong? What had happened to set them on a path so far from the one on which they had started? She'd heard Ben's story, and Luke had told her the same when she'd pressed him for the truth. Ben, at least, had been lost, and his uncle had not helped him. Perhaps that was why the Jedi had fallen all those long years before she was born. Perhaps they had abandoned their own. Wasn't that what had driven Ben away?

She looked at him, studying his profile. She knew him, perhaps better than anyone else in the galaxy, and yet she was still oblivious to so much- ignorant of all those things she'd never asked. There was so much that she was afraid to uncover, and much that had been revealed that she did not understand. But one thing she did know. When she looked about and saw the determination and righteous anger in the faces of Ben and his knights, she found that she was certain of one thing and one thing alone. Mistakes of eons past would be rectified in a new generation.

There would be no abandonment this time.