—Chapter 26: Rising Suns—

As the light snuck its way through the crack in the door between the curtain and the stone frame, Rey stirred. She felt the warm body pressed into her side, and lowered her face into the mop of black hair barely visible above the edge of the blanket, nuzzling it. Wrapping her arm more closely around the shape of the body, something didn't feel right. Ben was… too small. Opening her eyes wider revealed an unfamiliar room and an incredible sense of disorientation.

Rey jolted awake, remembering where she was. She'd spent the night in Simeon's small bed, cuddled up with Ren. He had climbed into this bed last night, after Simeon's funeral, and Rey had joined him, grateful for an excuse not to have to go home. The thought of sleeping alone in the large bed she shared with Ben, back at their cottage on the lake, was just too much. Ben was gone, and she had no idea where he was. Crying silently, she pulled her son closer and buried her face in his hair.

"Mm, mama, you're holding me too tight," Ren said, squirming under her arm. "Is it morning?"

Rey nodded into his hair, followed by a brief, "Mm-hmm."

"Are you okay mama? You don't sound right."

Rey struggled to get control of herself, taking a steadying breath. When she was sure she could speak without being interrupted by her twitching diaphragm, she said, "Yes honey, it's morning. How did you sleep?"

"I slept okay. I dreamt about daddy a lot. I kept seeing him in that weird place with the lightning, from your dream."

"That was his dream, but I know the place you mean," she said, remembering. Rey sat up, shifting the blankets so they remained covering her son, and breathed deeply of the crisp morning air. Dendrokaan was such a beautiful planet. She hoped she'd be able to enjoy it again one day.

"Mama, are we going to find daddy today?"

Rey's lip quivered, but her voice was steady. "I don't know, sweetie. We're not really sure where to look."

"Maybe we should look in our dreams?" he suggested. "That's where we lost him, isn't it?"

It was a suggestion fit for a five-year-old, but Rey considered it nonetheless. "You know, honey, that's not a bad place to start. Which dreams should we look at first?"

"Well," he said, tentatively, "I don't know if there are any clues there, but… I'd sort of like to know what you dreamed while you were asleep."

She smiled sweetly at him. "You would? Well, I can show you, if you'd like…"

"Is this a Jedi thing?" he asked innocently, with an air of excitement he was trying to conceal.

She recalled his note from the ceremony—his last words to Simeon. She hadn't taught it to him, but Ren had learned the Jedi Code, or at least part of it. On his own, he'd taught himself to enter the minds of others, to see what they saw. He must have… He'd seen the moment the thing posing as Ben had stolen her mind from her body. She'd tried to give him a normal childhood. She'd tried not to push… But he wanted to learn, and she hadn't been paying enough attention.

"Yes, Ren, it is a skill granted to you by the Force. Would you like me to teach it to you?"

He nodded his head vigorously.

"Okay. This is what you do. You sort of… select what parts of your memory you want to give to someone. It's like your mind is a book, and you're choosing what pages to show them. You don't even have to be able to recall it all perfectly, but your brain recorded it all flawlessly, and it's in there for you to share. Choose the pages, and just… give them away."

"Will I forget them if I give them to you?" he asked nervously.

"No," she said, shaking her head. "Don't worry, you don't lose anything. It's just like making a copy."

"Okay, so after I pick the pages, how do I give them to you?"

"That's the part you need the Force for. The Force is an energy, like light or heat. You know how light and heat can move from one place to another, don't you?"

"Like the heat from the fire last night making it all the way to where I was sitting?" he asked, as an example.

"Yes, just like that," she said, jostling him encouragingly. "The Force is very much the same. A Jedi, or anyone who uses the Force, is able to channel that energy, move it, from one place to another. For me to give my memories to you, it helps if I touch you," she said, placing her hand gently upon his forehead, "and I think of those book pages, and with my mind, I… I just move them into your head. Are you ready?"

Under her hand, he nodded his head.

"Okay, here goes." With just a touch of trepidation, she readied herself to show him everything she'd experienced from the moment the man in Ben's dream touched her, to the moment her mind reunited with her body. Reluctantly, she gave him her terror, her prayers, the inky blackness of the void that had consumed her. She hoped she wasn't making things worse for him by suddenly giving him so much instruction, all at once, after his entire life up to this point of no instruction at all.

"Wow, that felt really awful," he said, frowning. "But I'm happy. You thought about me a lot!"

She laughed sharply, tears pricking her eyes. "Yes, I did! Very much! I wanted absolutely nothing more than to see your face again."

"Well, here I am, you got your wish!" he said, smiling. "Now we need to make your other wish, and my wish, come true. We need to get daddy back."

Rey nodded. "I would like that," she said, her voice cracking just a little.

Ren considered for a moment. "I'm sorry, but I don't see anything in your memories that gives me any idea where he could be. Besides your thoughts, there was just… nothing."

"I know, I'm sorry. I really was useless that whole time," she said, shuddering. "I couldn't be there for you. Ren, I…" she stuttered, holding him tighter, "I didn't mean to leave you like that! I hope you can believe me," she cried, her tears coming freely now. Her attempts to conceal her grief, her guilt, her remorse, were hopelessly abandoned. She bent over her prone son and laid her forehead on the blanket covering the side of his body. He wrested his arms out from under the blankets and pushed himself up to hug his mother.

"Mama, no, don't be sorry," he said. "You didn't leave—you were taken. I tried to protect you, but I couldn't. I wasn't strong enough to stop what happened…" he said, frowning.

"Oh, my sweetie, I'm the mama… It isn't your job to protect me, I'm supposed to protect you." She kissed him on his forehead and pulled him close. "It was never my intention to leave you alone."

"I know, mama. They're bad people, the ones who hurt you. We need to help daddy get away from them."

Rey nodded, wiping the tears from her eyes. "We do," she agreed. "I just wish I knew how to find him. I can't feel him through the Force anymore…"

"You don't think he's dead, do you?" he asked, suddenly much more grave.

Rey shook her head vigorously. "No, honey, no. I don't think he's dead," she said, hoping he wouldn't be able to feel her uncertainty. "I just can't feel him. I'm sure he's just… his spirit is somewhere I can't go right now. His body is walking around somewhere, we know that much. His mind is probably experiencing something like… what I was experiencing."

"In the black?" he asked nervously.

"Mm-hmm," Rey answered, nodding.

"Boy, I hope not. That place was scary." He looked at his mother, red-cheeked and puffy-eyed, and made a promise to himself. "I'm going to help you find him," he declared confidently. "Whatever it takes, I can do it. We're going to get him back, you'll see. We'll spend today figuring out where he is, then we'll go and get him."

Rey reached out, took her son by his shoulders, and pulled him in for a close hug. She loved this little boy so much—it gave her a tremendous sense of pride that she had created a life such as his. His spirit burned brighter than any other she'd ever known, which was saying a lot. She hoped desperately that she could engineer the outcome they both wanted, for his sake, if not her own.

—

There was a song—a melody that seemed to flit in and out of existence. In what seemed like the far reaches of his memory, Temiri knew the song—it was familiar. It haunted and hounded him. It comforted and kept him. The song was a part of who he was, who he had been, yet he felt as if he was hearing it for the first time, like only now was he really listening.

Dendrokaan's skylarks had begun the day, chirping their greetings to the sky, and exalting their flight. As he listened to their birdsong, Temiri opened his eyes to see his home as something new. It was arranged entirely the same—same familiar furniture, laid out in the same pattern as he'd always kept it, save for a makeshift bed on the opposite side of the room. It wasn't that he didn't know the room, but it still somehow felt new, like the birdsong, like the tears that still stung his eyes.

He sat up and looked around, confirming that things were, in fact, unchanged from how he'd left them before his latest excursion. It just felt so odd to be back in this life. He inhaled deeply and let his shoulders relax. His robe slipped off his armless shoulder, and he absently tugged it back into place. Pulling his legs out from under his blankets, he quietly stood up from his bed to check on his houseguest. Finnie lay peacefully asleep under her blanket, breathing evenly. Her blond hair, normally tied back in a crown of tight, circular braids, had come loose in the night, and a few strands hung down over her cheek and across her lips. As she breathed, it stirred rhythmically under her nose.

Guardian angel… thought Temiri as he studied her. As he breathed in, he felt the air fill his lungs and became aware of the finely tuned mechanisms of his human body. The air in his lungs, the blood in his veins, the heat in his muscles. They all still functioned, and for that, he had to give her credit. Were it not for her intervention, he would be dead, and his family would be throwing more bits of paper into a roaring inferno.

Well, if he was going to live, he was going to make the most of it. He slipped his feet into his shoes and headed out the door, deeper into the woods. His secret stash was calling.

—

The distinct sound of puttering around roused Finnie to the new day. She extended both arms and pointed her toes as she stretched out her body under the warmth of her blanket. Breathing deeply as she peeled open her eyes, she thought she detected a savory aroma.

"What do I smell?" she blurted out as her mind became fully conscious.

Standing in front of his cooktop, Temiri gave her a suspicious side-eye as he acknowledged her question. "Eggs," he said simply. "I'm cooking eggs."

"What kind of eggs are those?" she asked animatedly. "They smell fantastic!" She got up and smoothed her rumpled shirt down over her hips before walking over to inspect the pan on Temiri's cooktop.

"Just normal bird eggs," he said. "What you're probably smelling is the catabar spice I added to them—it has a strong aroma. Tastes like black pepper, but sweeter."

"Where did you get catabar?" she asked, in apparent disbelief. "I know they don't grow it at the school gardens…"

"No, because they can't keep their greedy mitts off of it," he said pointedly. "I tried for ages to grow it there, but the others were always so desperate to eat it that they'd pick it too early and I'd never get any for myself," he added with a huff. "Now I just keep a private patch growing in a clearing further into the woods," he said, jutting his chin forward. "My catabar…" he added, with an exaggerated imperiousness.

Finnie smirked at him, then turned back to her bed to tidy up her belongings. Temiri bent down to open a cupboard at his feet, and pulled out two plates. Setting them on the counter, he unstacked them and turned back to the burner to retrieve the pan. Ordinarily, he would use his other arm to scrape the eggs onto the plate, but from now on, he would need to use the Force just to engage in normal, mundane, everyday activities. With the pan held at an angle above the plates, he focused his energy on the eggs and carefully distributed two equal portions.

Finnie turned back around to find the plates on the table. "You're sharing?" she asked, with what sounded like genuine surprise.

"I figure my life is worth a couple of eggs," he replied sarcastically.

She smiled, then took a seat at the table to join him. She evaluated the pile of scrambled eggs in front of her one last time before picking up her fork and lifting a bite to her mouth.

"Holy shit," she said, letting the eggs swirl around her palate, savoring the taste. "These eggs…"

"I know," he said, nodding, staring blankly ahead as he too luxuriated in the simple breakfast.

They didn't speak again until the very last speck was gone, and Finnie had licked her plate clean.

—

Poe was up early. At any rate, he was the only one in the outdoor kitchen, and as far as he could tell, no one had been there ahead of him to get the caf started. He rummaged around in the cupboards looking for filters and cups, his caffeine-deprived mind unable to recall that he already knew where the cups were kept.

"What are you looking for?" It was Rey, walking out from Simeon's cabin and meeting him in front of the counter.

"Cups," he declared simply.

"You might want to brew the caf before you pour," she said facetiously, gently nudging him out of the way as she took over.

Poe rubbed some sleep-sand out of his eyes and took a seat at the long breakfast table, nodding his head in apparent agreement. "I like how you guys brew your caf here," he remarked. "It's tolerable even without hydrocarbose."

Rey smiled as she started the caf distiller. "That's Ben," she stated fondly. "He's very particular about how caf is brewed—made sure everyone understood how to brew it 'properly' so we wouldn't waste our meager supplies brewing caf he couldn't drink."

"But you still prefer it with hydrocarbose?" Poe asked. "I was told that's how you take it."

"Ohhh, no," she said with a dramatic shake of her head. "We use real sugar here. Ben takes his caf very seriously. Says if I'm going to ruin it with sweeteners, it may as well be proper sweeteners, not that 'weapons-grade poison they serve in the canteen.'"

Poe chuckled. "What a diva," he said sarcastically. "Who knew he was so highfalutin'?"

"Very spoiled, to be sure," she agreed, taking a seat at the table with him. "When it comes to food and drink, at least. Of course, the sugar is back at our house, so this morning, I'll be going without."

Poe was silent for a moment. "Slept here last night, huh?"

"Yes. Ren put himself to bed in Simeon's cottage, so…"

"Mm-hmm, I get it," said Poe. "How's Ren doing, anyway?"

"He's fabulous," she answered confidently. "I'm in awe of him, really. I kind of can't believe he's mine."

"He has nerves of steel, that kid," Poe replied, by way of agreement. He thought back on some of the conversations he'd had with Ren over the duration of their whirlwind rescue mission, and considered doing some meddling. "You know, he's really pretty strong with the Force—"

"—And I've been holding him back, I know," she interrupted. She looked Poe in the eyes and creased her lips. "I just didn't want to push…"

"But he's eager, you know that, right?"

"I do. I'm going to teach him. He's been teaching himself, right under my nose. I can't believe how blind I've been."

"I'm never having kids," Poe declared with finality. "For all the fucking up everyone seems to think they're doing, you all have amazing kids. If you guys think you're fuck-ups, then I'm a lost cause…"

Rey smiled sweetly at him. "You don't find it reassuring that, in spite of my fuck-ups, I haven't ruined my kid? Maybe fucking up is the secret sauce of parenting."

He shook his head. "I'd just be the exception that proves the rule."

"I don't think you're using that adage correctly."

"Are you sure? I thought the point of that phrase was to deflect the logic of someone's point, thereby winning an argument," said Poe, tongue in cheek.

"Well, I'm not willing to admit that you've won any arguments, but I'll go ahead and accept the deflection," she said, looking over his shoulder at the arrival of Finnie and Temiri. "We have company."

—

Rey pulled the curtain door closed and took a seat at the table inside Simeon's cottage. Finn was already seated in the chair opposite her. Between the bed, floor, and walls to lean against, the others—Finnie, Poe, Temiri, Malfi, and Ren—made themselves as comfortable as they could in the small cabin.

"So, ideas?" asked Poe.

"You're all positive that he's not on Naboo anymore?" asked Temiri.

"The guy at the port said a guy matching Ben's description was caught on camera stealing the shuttle and taking off," said Finnie. "We're pretty sure he's gone."

"Do we have any leads?" asked Finn.

"I spoke with Simeon last night," volunteered Temiri, causing everyone to sit up a little straighter. Ren, who had found some of the calligraphy paper left out after Simeon's funeral and been on the floor drawing, sat up excitedly from his work.

"You did?" he blurted out, impressed. "As a ghost? I knew it!"

The corner of Rey's mouth curled up inconspicuously, smiling knowingly. "And what did you talk about?"

"Lots of things," answered Temiri. "But among everything, he said he could feel that the Dark Side was 'coalescing', at a point deep in the galaxy."

"'Coalescing'?" said Finn.

"That was the word he used, yes," said Temiri. "That he believed that whatever happened to Ben was the catalyst for something bigger. He thinks the Black Dragons on Naboo are part of a larger organization, and they're being mobilized or something."

Finn perked up, snapping his fingers and pointing at Poe. "Hey, Bespin, Tatooine…"

"Right, all the other places I'd seen that dumb symbol," said Poe.

"Symbol?" said Rey, confused.

"Their stupid dragon biker gang logo thing," explained Poe dismissively. "We saw it when we were walking around Naboo, and Simeon got all excited when I said I'd seen it on a bunch of other worlds. Well, you know, 'excited'… I think he may have raised a single eyebrow slightly."

"Well," said Temiri, continuing his retelling of the night before, "he said that it felt like they were being called to something, like a beacon, out deep in space."

There was a moment of quiet as the group exchanged glances. Malfi, who had been sitting quietly on the bed next to Finnie, looked hopefully around the room, expecting someone to offer some suggestion. No one did.

"I don't suppose he made mention of what part of deep space the Darkness was coalescing towards?" asked Finnie, with just a hint of impatience. "Cuz, ya know, this thing called 'space' is big…"

Temiri shrugged.

Finnie rolled her eyes. "That guy, I swear…" she said, under her breath.

"So," said Poe, empty hands outstretched, "we've narrowed it down to the entire Outer Rim. Fabulous."

"Mama, do we have anything I can use to color this purple? Or red?" It was a question that seemed to come from out of nowhere, and the adults felt a stab of impatience that Ren had chosen this moment to interrupt their serious discussion with questions about something so trivial.

"No, sweetie, we don't, I'm sorry. Let us finish talking now, please."

Ren absently went back to his spot on the floor, looking at his drawing. He crinkled his nose at it, and began retracing lines he'd already drawn, making them darker.

Finnie looked down at it. The flow of the conversation already broken, she went ahead and asked him about it. "What are you drawing, Ren?"

"This is from mama's dream—well, daddy's dream, that she was in," he said.

Rey leaned over in her chair, looking down at it more closely, feeling a little guilty that she had tried to brush him off. "Is that me?" she asked, pointing.

"Yeah, and that's daddy, and that's the weird statue that you thought was daddy, at first," he said, pointing at various details.

Poe and Temiri, who had remained standing, took a step away from the wall they'd been leaning against to give their own appraisals to the drawing.

"Is that lightning?" asked Poe. "Looks like a lovely dream you were having," he added facetiously.

Temiri looked much more serious as he examined the drawing. "Lightning…" he said, concentrating. "Why does this scene seem so familiar…" he asked no one.

Finnie also looked somewhat more grave as she thought closely about it. "You said that was a statue? A statue of what?"

"It was just a man," Rey said. "In the dream, I ran up to it, thinking it was Ben, but it wasn't. It was very dark there, so I didn't realize it wasn't him until I was right up on it. Then Ben, or whoever, came up and started talking to me."

Poe snapped his fingers again, trying to jog his own memory, "Yeah, that was that dragon asshole, wasn't it? What did he say again?"

"He said there was nothing to be anxious about," recalled Ren.

"Right, that things were 'finally coming together,'" added Rey.

"And then he touched you, and then he said something about 'Zrirus'," said Ren, wrapping up the narrative.

"Right, Zrirus. That's how we figured out who it was that had incapacitated Rey, remember? Guy's really pissed at you for cutting down his buddy," Poe said to Temiri in faux reproach.

Temiri was nodding. He'd heard Ren quote Lonâm earlier, right after their rescue, but at the time, he wasn't able to put any of it together. Now he was hearing it with fresh ears. "So Lonâm incapacitated Rey, leaving Ben vulnerable." He bit his lip, thinking. "But it can't have been Lonâm who took Ben over, right? He's dead—Ben would be back by now if it had been him, don't you think?"

"I have a feeling that whoever got Ben is higher up the food chain," said Poe. "How much did you learn about them in your short stay there? Do you know who his boss was?"

"No, but I know that he had one," answered Temiri. "Lonâm's… secretary, I guess? He would keep me out of Lonâm's office when he was busy 'communicating with our master'…"

"Hmph, okay," huffed Poe.

"Oh! The scourge!"

Surprised at the abrupt exclamation, everyone jerked their heads to look uncertainly at Finnie, who had just cried out. "The 'scourge'?" asked Poe.

"Yes, the Great Scourge! That's what this reminds me of!" she exclaimed. "I've been wracking my brain trying to remember what this looks like," she said, pointing back at Ren's drawing.

"Oh, hey, yeah!" said Temiri animatedly. "Where was that again?"

"It was…" she began, thinking, "Malachor!"

"Malachor?" asked Finn. "What makes you two think this is Malachor?"

"Well, just some of the details reminded me of it," she explained. "You said this was lightning, right? Well, Malachor's atmosphere is highly electric—there are constant thunderstorms there. And it's really rocky, like this looks."

Poe raised an incredulous eyebrow. "I've been around…" he said. "There are lots of rocky planets with shitty atmospheres…"

"No, but the statue is the other thing…" she said defensively.

"Yeah, during the Great Scourge of Malachor, a war between the Jedi and the Sith ended when a tremendous weapon activated, petrifying all of the combatants," said Temiri. "I read that, to this day, thousands of years later, their bodies still stand as stone monuments to the event."

"This was just a dream, though," said Poe, insisting on playing devil's advocate. "Are we even sure that the dream was of a real place?"

"No, it was," insisted Rey. "When he was talking to me, Lonâm, I guess, the one standing in for Ben, seemed surprised when I said I didn't know where we were. He sort of… chided me for not knowing history." When it had come to the students' education, Rey's lack of conventional schooling had left more formal subjects, like history, in the purview of Ben or Simeon.

"Is that something Ben does frequently? Give you shit about how ignorant you are?" asked Poe, not seriously.

"No, never," said Rey, answering him anyway. "I was completely creeped out by him—even before he called me a bitch—" she added, with a derisive shake of her head, "but the whole thing was weird, so I just… didn't put it all together quickly enough."

"It's all right," said Poe. "I'm not really giving you a hard time. So anyway, let's say this is Malachor—how does this help us? Are you suggesting that's where we go? I mean, I know it's the only potential lead we have, but it's pretty thin. While we're distracted by that, we could be missing something bigger…"

"Ren, what had you needed the purple for?" asked Finnie, in an apparent non sequitur.

"For this," he answered, pointing to a large spire jutting out of the skyline of his drawing.

"What's that?" asked Malfi.

The group studied the child's rendering of the inhospitable scene. From Rey's vantage point inside the dream, the structure hadn't even registered in her conscious mind, but looking at it now, it seemed familiar.

"It is Malachor," said Temiri, staring intently at the drawing.

"What? How do you know?" asked Malfi, mildly frustrated by her own ignorance. She had thought she and Temiri had received basically the same education.

"Is that the kyber crystal?" asked Finnie. Maybe it was because of her progenitor, but Finnie had a keen interest in all the major wars and conflicts across the galaxy. Having spent many hours doing independent study, she knew her world-ending superweapons.

"It has to be!" exclaimed Temiri. "That's the crystal that powered the Sith weapon!"

Rey looked hopefully down at the drawing. "Could… Could a kyber crystal that large serve as… a beacon?"

"Something to 'call out to the Dark Side', you mean?" asked Finn. Rey nodded subtly.

There was an intense, anticipatory silence as the group considered this revelation. They scanned one another's faces looking for any signs that their own tenuous hopes were mirrored elsewhere.

"Well," said Poe, breaking the long silence. "I'll do some digging into the Republic's records on Malachor—see if there's any more recent history that will better prepare us for what's to come. The rest of you, get ready. We leave as soon as we can."

—

Poe's eyes stung, and his bladder ached. He had been parked at the computer terminal in Simeon's cottage, tossing back cups of caf, ever since their meeting had adjourned. Tedious research spent pulling scraps of information from databanks had never been the flyboy's strong suit, but he was determined to discover everything he could about Malachor. Flying to the Outer Rim based on dreams and a child's drawing seemed reckless, even to him—insane if it was nothing, but suicidal if they were right—and Poe wanted to know what the hell they might be flying into.

He had learned that, surrounding the kyber crystal at the heart of Malachor, was a ruined Sith temple, which was in keeping with the distinctly creepy-religion vibe this whole thing stank of. However, beyond confirming that the images they'd described on Malachor could conceivably still endure on that long-abandoned world—abandoned, so far as the Republic knew—he didn't learn very much that he thought could inform their potential rescue mission. He got coordinates, but that was about it. As far as the Republic's records were concerned, nothing of note had happened on Malachor since the days of Emperor Palpatine, when the temple was destroyed during some scuffle involving Darth Vader.

Poe shoved himself backwards away from the console, his chair legs driving deep gouges in the dirt floor. He sighed, coordinates in hand, ready to push himself out of the chair and get on with things. Just then, the console's comms equipment began sounding, and he recognized the comm code.

He scooted his chair back in and flicked the toggle to open the channel. "Admiral! To what do I owe the pleasure of a call?" said Poe, with a level of enthusiasm that was exaggerated, but sincere. He wasn't sure the circumstances justified it, but he was feeling good.

"Oh, just thought I'd check up on my favorite pilot," answered Connix, in a businesslike but amiable manner. "How are you, Poe? You sound good."

"Yeah, I'm… doing a lot better," he said, with a deep breath in and out. "Thanks."

"Been taking some time to get things right?" she asked hopefully.

"I guess you could say that, yeah."

"I saw you were in Theed," she volunteered. "Business or pleasure?" she said, almost teasingly.

"Ummmm," he droned for a bit, quite honestly totally unsure which answer was less inappropriate. "I guess… business. Yeah, business, let's go with that."

"I wasn't spying on you," she said, a little too quickly, "but I guess I didn't think I needed to tell you that grounded pilots have their off-world credit privileges suspended. There was a flag on your account."

"Yeah, sorry, I probably should have realized."

"So, I don't mean to pry, but what 'business' did you have on Naboo? It was my understanding that you would be babysitting the kids at the school."

Poe could tell that she was prying, a bit. Grounded or not, he thought her interest in his off-world activities came a little bit out of the blue. "Well, things with Ben Solo's trip with his student didn't go as expected, and we had to… check up on them."

"Are they alright?" she asked calmly.

"Well," he paused, weighing just how much of what had happened he felt like getting into with her. It's not that he was hiding anything, it was just a lot to tell, and he didn't have the energy to retell it all. If he was being honest, he wasn't sure he was ready to relive it. On top of that, there was probably paperwork she would expect him to file, and who had the time for that right now?

But he couldn't bring himself to lie to her, either. He sighed. "No, not really," he finally admitted, "Things are pretty much completely terrible. But it's also not… not really a story I can tell right now."

"Oh?"

"It doesn't have an ending yet. I'd have to leave you hanging, and I know you don't like loose ends." Poe shrugged, lamely.

"I see," she said, disappointed. "Is there anything I can help with?"

"No… No thanks, I think we're probably on our own here," said Poe, honestly. He recalled, with a sting to his pride, that there was some operation going on, one he hadn't been told about, that was surely keeping her busy. Besides, he'd already learned what the Republic had on Malachor, and, thanks to the very operation that he wasn't in on, he knew there weren't any ships better than the Falcon available to use.

There followed an awkward silence. Poe crossed his fingers, hoping that Admiral Connix would wish him well and promptly sign off, but she didn't. "Admiral?" he finally asked.

She sighed, but did not sign off, and the two of them sat there in silence for what seemed like a parsec.

"Kaydel?" he prompted.

"Poe, what is your interest in Malachor?"

Poe was stunned—this question hit him like a ton of bricks. Where was this coming from? "Are—are you sure you're not spying on me?"

"Okay, I'll level with you: We've been watching that sector—not Malachor specifically, but that general part of space—for several months now, and we're looking at those files constantly. When I saw you had accessed them… well, that drew my attention."

"What, I can't use the databanks now?" he said defensively, though he tried to play it off like he was kidding.

"Poe, you know you're the best pilot there is. You're a fantastic strategist, and an all-around smart guy, but you are not the first person I'd go to when I want research done. So tell me: Why are you interested in Malachor?"

Poe exhaled sharply, moving his lips as no words came. "God dammit," he cursed in resignation. "I really didn't want to have to tell this fucking story," he said, losing all pretense of rank.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I know you don't. But I don't ask just for myself."

So you're asking on behalf of the Republic? he surmised. What the fuck…? "Okay, look… We're looking for Ben. He went AWOL on Naboo. Got taken over by… some dark presence, or something, and we think there's a chance he could be on Malachor now. I was just doing some research to try to confirm our suspicions."

"Are you saying… Ben Solo turned to the Dark Side?" she asked, aghast.

"No! Holy shit, no, that's not what I'm saying," he said, flustered. "Just… a dark something-or-other… You know, some ancient Sith shit…"

She was silent, taking all this in. "Simeon knows about that stuff, doesn't he? Didn't he used to be on the Dark Side?"

"They don't really take sides here, Kaydel, so I don't really know."

"Well, what does he have to say about all this?"

Poe sighed. "He's dead, Kaydel."

There was another long silence. Poe knew she was steeling herself. "How?" she asked, simply.

"We got separated, so I wasn't there when it happened. We found a den of cultists who call themselves 'Black Dragons', and they're the ones responsible." That was as much detail about that as he felt was strictly necessary.

"But Ben didn't kill him, did he?"

"Not Ben, the Sith thing," he hastily corrected her. "But no, he had already taken the Republic shuttle and left Naboo by the time we all got there."

"En route to Malachor," she presumed.

"Maybe, yeah. They saw some stuff… in their dreams…" he said, pinching the bridge of this nose, "that made us think that."

Connix knew enough about the Force to know that that didn't sound as far-fetched as it normally would, so she didn't press the matter specifically. "So you're definitely going to Malachor?" she asked.

Poe sighed. "It's the only lead we have right now, so yes. We're leaving as soon as we can get all our shit together."

There was a tense pause during which Poe could tell she was calculating something. "God dammit," she said, with a huff. "You're reinstated, effective immediately."

"What? I am?" He was flabbergasted. "Why now?"

"Because you're an insubordinate asshole that will go anyway even if I forbid it, and if I boot you out of the military for being an insubordinate asshole, you'll just go as a private citizen, and I won't be able to court-martial you for it."

Uh oh. "Does that mean you're forbidding me to go?" he asked nervously.

"No, because I don't want to fucking court-martial you!" she yelled. "You're such a pain in the ass, you know that?"

If she could've seen the look on his face, she'd either have kissed him or slapped him. Probably both. "So," he said hopefully, eyebrows arched and forehead creased. "Does this mean I can expect a military briefing on Malachor to be forthcoming, Admiral?" he said, really leaning into those deferential military courtesies.

"Forthcoming, yes," she said begrudgingly. "You will be prompt and up-front with all your findings, inferences, and suspicions, do you hear? If I have even the slightest inkling that you're holding your cards close to your chest, Poe, I swear, I'll—"

"—I'll be licking the latrines clean for the rest of my military service. I hear you loud and clear, Admiral."

"I'm glad you understand," she said diplomatically. "I'll be in touch soon, Captain." And with that, Admiral Kaydel Ko Connix signed off, and Poe was left reeling at what had just happened.