"RUN!" Rey ordered, hauling Albion to his feet.

The Bimm allowed himself to be yanked up and pulled behind her, but slowed them both by taking the time to glance around in confusion. Another blazing bolt of plasma, this one glowing red, shot by them at waist level, narrowly missing him.

There were two, she realized, at LEAST two of them, and judging by the angle of their shots they were at least 40 to 50 Trogan meters apart.

"Come on, Come ON!" she urged, dragging Albion away from the forest and back into the thickest patch of the swirling red mist. This time, he was quick to comply.

More than two, Rey decided, still running. Though she could barely see more than a few feet before her, she could feel the presence of others, feel the shots that were somehow aimed at her and Albion, and for an instant she was back on Ahch-to, blinded and waiting for the pebbles Master Luke would send rocketing toward her. She could sense the attack, just like then.

"Stop!" she called, immediately freezing and bracing her body for impact. Albion smashed into her and stumbled back, as she knew he would, just as the plasma bolt burned through the mist and buried itself by her foot with a sizzling sound.

"How did you—"

"This way!" she snapped, shoving him in the opposite direction of the shooter.

Yet still there were more, and as they ran, several burning shots missed the two of them, forcing them to duck, or pivot to another direction. Each time, Rey sensed the coming hit and was able to dodge, but a certain memory was beginning to needle her focus. She had been blinded to train on Baudere as well.

"Attack wasn't my intent, Rey," Kylo Ren whispered in her memory, "What did I intend to do?"

Reaching out with her mind, she felt something alien and aggressive push back against her.

"You will battle those who will use the Force as a weapon, wielding it at as fast as they swing a lightsaber… You must learn to shield your mind as well as your body…"

These opponents were more than simply force-sensitive, she realized, they were using it to find her and Albion in the thick mist, and yet, many times their shots missed by too wide a margin—

"Intent!" The memory of Kylo hissed.

Gritting her teeth, she reached out again, channeling through the strange wall she first encountered. Kylo had once told her that intent in battle was a shallow thing. It floated on the top of the attacker's consciousness. Remembering this, she focused first on the easiest thing to grasp—feeling. The shooter was excited… but also expectant, as though this was something the attackers had done many times. The hunters worked together but did not aim to kill. They were driving her and Albion through the thick mist toward something… toward… there was a steep-walled ravine ahead!

Their intent was to drive the quarry to run blindly forward until they pitched over the edge of the ravine. The fall would likely cause many injuries, though rarely death, effectively crippling their victims before they approached to capture them.

Rey's steps slowed as she began to make her way forward with greater caution. Their plan was smart, but it betrayed something else about the hunters. They feared an outright confrontation.

"Stop!" she commanded Albion.

This time, schooled by several instances of smashing into her instantly halted form, the Bimm froze at her word.

"They're driving us into a trap," she whispered. "Stay behind me."

Albion nodded mutely and followed her as she continued forward, crouching low to better see the ground. Aware of their plan now, she did her best to shield them both, focusing the energy inside her to move out and surround them.

She felt the edge before she saw it. Dropping to her knees, she tried to peer down into the chasm but found that this too was completely obscured in this crimson haze.

Rey took a deep breath and closed her eyes. The land around her throbbed with dark energy. She knew that what she was about to do would signal the hunters, giving away their position in an instant, but she could think of no other way.

She reached forward, took another breath, and latched on to the darkness of the strange land, pulling it into herself, feeling it race through her veins.

"Clear!" she hissed, and beneath them, the mist melted like an ice chip on Jakku.

Albion gasped, but she barely registered his shock. It was only for a moment, but she could clearly see the rocky bottom of the gorge, the steeply sloping sides, and across from them, on the other side, a jagged outcropping of large rocks protruded from an eroded slope. There was, however, a way down. Not far from them, and only seven or eight feet down, a ledge of solid rock jutted out from the side and was met at its base by a sloping pile of loose shale. Her brain was still piecing together a plan when she felt the next attack.

Rolling to the side as she shoved Albion, the plasma bolt hit the ground directly where she laid only an instant before. The mist again obscured the canyon.

There was no more time to think.

She got up and ran the few feet to where she had seen the ledge with Albion close behind. Without, even pausing to explain herself, she took a deep breath and let out a terrified shriek.

"Jump!" she whispered in the next breath, and then stepped off the ledge, her body falling naturally into a crouch.

She hit the ledge, and waited, hoping the Bimm had seen and understood. An instant later, Albion landed clumsily beside her, almost pitching off the ledge as he stumbled to gain his balance. Rey caught his arm, steadying him, and then put one finger to her lips cautioning him to be silent. Quickly she got down and eased herself over the edge, hanging from the side for a moment to lock eyes with Albion and nod, encouraging him to follow.

When she dropped, the shale pile was a little further than she had gaged, and the small sharp rocks cut her wrists and legs. She winced but quickly moved down and out of the way. Tiny pebbles skittered and rained down to the canyon floor with every step she took. It did not matter if she shielded herself with the Force. They would hear her. Albion fell behind her with a pained grunt, sending even more of the gravel sliding down around her.

"Hurry!" she mouthed.

The two struggled through the shifting rubble until at last, they reached the bottom of the gorge. She could no longer see the rim, but she had a good idea of where she had seen the outcropping and knew there had to be somewhere they could hide. The bottom of the ravine was strewn with boulders and thorny scrub brush, and while it slowed them down, she knew it would make for good cover.

"There!" she whispered, beckoning to Albion.

A large piece of the canyon wall had long since collapsed and left the massive broken slabs haphazardly strewn across the base of the ravine. The crevice she indicated was formed by two such slabs and partially overgrown with hanging moss.

Albion went first, and then Rey crouched down at the opening, pulling the moss down a little to further obscure them, though with the heavy mist it was still difficult to see very much at all.

She was no longer using the Force to hide them. The hunters would come. She could feel their cautious approach, and their own weaker attempts to locate them. In another moment, the clatter of falling rock rang through the canyon as the hunter scaled down the sides. It was easier to separate their energies now that they were closer. She counted four within the ravine and one still above them. They were definitely a wary group and clever besides, already suspecting a trap.

As the four approached her hideout, the mist began to clear. It was likely that they could control it, and were much better at doing so than she was. This, however, would work in her favor. It was better if they could see.

Only a little further now… Rey glanced at the opposite side, although it was still hidden, she could visualize it in her mind. The steep embankment, the outcropping… she took another deep breath, closed her eyes, and stilled herself, connecting to the flow of the Force around her. She visualized herself, injured, bleeding, her foot twisted at an odd angle, and then projected that image.

When she opened her eyes, the mists had cleared away enough to see the other side, and at the base of the wall, lay an injured and bleeding slave girl… herself.

She did not have time to register the unsettling sentiment of seeing herself exposed and bleeding on the ground. The hunters approached.

All were women, pale-skinned and clothed in swathes of red fabric which were wrapped down their legs and arms. Several had curving black lines tattooed across their faces, and she could see at once that they were all heavily armed. Three of them carried plasma bows, and one, a long metal blade that seemed to glow very faintly.

They had spotted the fake Rey, and gauging her injuries, relaxed their stance. The woman with the sword seemed to be the leader. She sheathed her blade and signaled the others forward. Just a little further…

As the group approached, Rey tensed. She would have to find the exact right moment for it to work. They were almost there.

The leader took a few more steps and shouted something at the false Rey in a language she didn't recognize. The woman crouched down and reached toward the image. Her fingers passed through, causing her to fall back in shock as the others raced to her aid.

"Now!" Rey whispered and shot the massive, gathering energy in her core toward the opposite wall.

The outcropping of stone crumbled at the hit, falling in massive chunks as soil and shattered rock poured down in a veritable landslide.

The women screeched, and stumbled, trying to run in their confusion, but it happened too fast. They were struck with rocks, knocked down, and buried in the rubble.

From atop the canyon came an answering screech and Rey saw her chance. She dove from the crevice and reached with invisible hands toward the sound, intent on catching the last one before she could flee and flinging her down to the floor of the—

"NO!" she growled, balling her hands into fists and gritting her teeth.

The woman was running. Perhaps she would bring others, or perhaps she ran in fear. It did not matter, killing was a last resort. She had almost forgotten herself.

"Come on, we have to hurry!" she called to Albion.

Her companion crawled out of the fissure and stood slowly, his eyes on the rock slide the entire time. Rey motioned impatiently to him, but he did not come to her side. He turned his gaze from the rock slide to her.

"I know what you are now," he muttered.

"We really don't have time for—"

"You're a Jedi… right? And you used the force to do that, didn't you?" he asked.

"I… I don't know… I'm training still, so I don't feel right… calling myself that, I mean," she admitted.

"A Jedi," he mused. "After a whole lifetime learning these stories and telling them over and over… to think I met a real Jedi—that I'm traveling with… that I'm IN a story. I'm the noble sidekick!"

"It won't be a very long story if the rest of those hunters find us, now come on!" she ordered.

Albion nodded firmly and seemed to put on his best serious and noble sidekick face before he hurried after her.

They had little choice now but to follow the winding floor of the canyon, as the sides were too steep to clamber back up, but at least the mist had cleared. In a short time, the first two moons rose and gave enough light for them to pick their way through the fallen rocks and crawling vines. Further on, the walls grew shorter, indicating that they would soon come to the end of the canyon.

In the beginning, they had hurried along, jogging every time they came to a bit of clear ground, but as time passed and they found they were not pursued, the two had slowed to a companionable walk. After all, neither was sure where they were headed or what they were looking for.

"Where did you learn it- the Force stuff?" Albion wondered. "I thought all the Jedi died out."

"From my master. He was trained a long time ago by a master on the old Jedi Council. He's been in seclusion on a planet in the Unknown Regions all this time," she explained quickly. None of what she said was exactly lying, but she knew instinctively that the name 'Luke Skywalker' would draw more questions from the Bimm than she was ready to deal with.

"I suppose he must be very old then," Albion mumbled.

"Yeah," Rey agreed, feeling a bit guilty.

It was silent for a moment, and the sound of their footsteps echoed through the ravine. Rey knew it was only because Albion was mulling something over.

"It's odd to think about though, isn't it?" he asked.

"Hmm?" she responded.

"Well, if there's still Jedi—hiding out on distant planets and whatnot—wouldn't it stand to reason that there are still a few leftover Sith here and there? I mean… that whole bit about the Force and balance and all—it's part of all the stories."

"There's the Knights of Ren and all those creepy acolytes," she reminded him.

"Yes, but they're not Sith," he countered.

"They use dark force!" she argued back.

"Doesn't make you a Sith. The Knights of Ren aren't evil, so much. They're more… I don't know… chaotic?"

"Isn't causing chaos evil?" she scoffed.

"Not at all! A lot of good can come from chaos… new beginnings, the fall of rotten old hierarchies, order, purpose. The Knights of Ren aren't power-hungry or driven by greed, they just like to knock things down and smash them up."

"Alright, what about Kylo Ren?" she asked, dropping her voice to an almost whisper as she spoke his name, as though afraid that even saying it out loud would call his attention.

"What about him? I thought he got blown up on that ridiculously big Death Star," Albion snorted.

"Starkiller base," she corrected him.

"Ridiculously big Death Star," he stood his ground.

"Either way, he didn't die. He still commands the First Order," she informed him.

"But he's a Skywalker," Albion reminded her.

Rey clenched and unclenched her hands a few times before answering.

"You don't think a Skywalker can be evil?" she prodded. "What about Darth Vader?"

"Misunderstood," Albion countered.

"Now I've heard everything!" she huffed. Albion chuckled at her indignation.

"He brought down Palpatine in the end," Albion reminded her.

Rey did not feel the need to correct him. That story was too long and still hurt to tell.

"I just mean that you never know when it's a Skywalker, they're all a bit gray if you ask me," Albion clarified.

"I disagree, and I think you know—" Rey froze and turned toward him, her eyes widening. "Keep walking, and don't turn around!" her voice dropped to a hiss.

Albion spun immediately and stifled a scream as he saw what was skittering toward him

The Bane Back Spider had likely been stalking them at a distance for some time and had decided to attack just as they were reaching the end of the canyon. They would have to climb their way up to escape, and the arachnid with its eight legs was much faster going up a wall than they would be. Its four black eyes trained on them as it charged. The moonlight glinting off its armored abdomen.

There was nowhere to run. Rey cast about quickly for something—ANYTHING—she could use as a weapon.

"Do something!" Albion shrieked in an unnaturally high tone. "Do some kind of Jedi magic thing!"

Rey drew a deep breath and pushed with her mind. The creature flew backward and smashed into a rock. She almost let out a shout but saw that it immediately sprang up and charged towards them faster. She had forgotten the strong plates that covered its exoskeleton.

"Kriff!" she growled.

"Don't kill it!" Albion insisted. "Those things spray toxic acids everywhere when they die!"

"Kriff! Kriff! Kriff!" she continued.

All she had at her disposal were rocks and boulders. If she threw a boulder with enough force, she might be able to smash the nasty thing, but if Albion was correct, they'd die of toxic fumes and acid spray. There was only one other way.

Choosing a decent size slab of rock, she focused hard, and then, straining with the effort of the Force lift, raised it aloft. The Spider did not deviate. Still holding the rock, she threw her arm out toward the creature and again pushed it back. As it scrambled to get back up, she heaved the slab. It smashed down squarely on two of the arachnid's legs.

The Bane Back Spider spasmed in pain, emitting a high-pitched shriek. Albion whooped beside her and threw his arms up in celebration.

"Direct hit! You got him right in the—Aack!"

The Spider spit something clear and frothy which struck Albion on the back of his leg. The Bimm collapsed, grabbing at his calf.

"Albion!" Rey cried, she lunged forward and snatched him under the arms, dragging him out of range from the creature.

"I forgot… about… the spitting poison… part," he admitted through tightly clenched teeth.

"Kriff!" Rey swore yet again and grabbed at his pants giving them a forceful tug.

"What are you—" he began.

"You have to take your pants off. It's already burned through to your skin, you have to take them off before it gets worse!" she explained.

The Bimm have naturally reddish skin, but Albion's face burned scarlet as she ripped the trousers the rest of the way off, and then attempted to wipe the back of his leg with the cleanest part.

Albion hissed as she swiped the cloth across the wound. It had already burned off a few layers of skin, leaving a raw, weeping lesion with blackened edges.

"Can you walk?" she asked.

"No… it's the poison… it's spreading. My whole leg's already gone numb. Can't you do that Force healing trick?"

"Uh…" she cringed slightly.

"What? I thought all… the Jedi learn that. It's in… all the stories!" The pain was causing him to speak in gasps.

"Yeah, well, I told you I'm still training. I… I've never had to. I mean, I understand the theory…"

"Could you… at least… TRY?!" he demanded.

Rey held her hands over the wound, careful not to touch it. She knew that initial practice for force healing involved long periods of meditation. It required some medical knowledge as well. One had to understand exactly how the body healed itself to be able to guide it in a sped-up process.

There might, however, be a way to cheat. The wound was not so bad, it was the poison that crippled him. If she could detect the poison in his blood, she could move it out and back through the wound.

Concentrating was difficult with the trapped spider still shrieking and struggling behind them, but she focused on the beating of his heart as it moved the blood through his veins. The blood itself radiated warmth and life. The poison took a little bit longer to find, infused and spreading in that warm flowing blood, it was strongly camouflaged. She was able to separate it finally by its nature. There were cells that brought life throughout the body, and droplets that destroyed what it touched. These droplets she thought of as tiny pebbles and drew them to her the way she would any other matter.

When she opened her eyes again, the wound was slowly dripping yellow-tinged pus. This she drew into the air before casting it back at the ground. It fizzed when it hit the bare earth.

"How does it feel now?" she asked.

"Ugh! About the same," he moaned. "It doesn't look any better at all. I think it might be worse! Have you even s-"

"Can you feel your leg?" she cut off his complaint. The fact that he no longer spoke with labored breaths already told her what she needed to know.

Albion bent his leg at the knee and slowly moved it back and forth.

"I can move it now, I guess, but it still hurts like—"

"I've removed most of the poison, I think, but I don't trust that I have enough skill to heal it correctly. We'll need to find water and rinse the wound out before I try it again. You can lean on me if you need to, but you'll have to walk."

"Walk?!" he scoffed, and then Rey remembered that they had reached the end of the canyon and they were facing a short but difficult climb. "Lucky for us though, you're a Jedi. You can just do that Jedi floaty trick and fly me right up there, right? Right?" he grinned.

Rey heaved a long, frustrated sigh.