The Resistance goes on like this, finding more and more old outposts, more and more traders and families and communities willing to help in whatever ways they can. The marginalized and oppressed, who had been quiet for so long, willed themselves to start fighting back. Slowly, they rebuilt their fleet with cargo ships, a medical ship, and even three new freighters. They're not as new or as pretty as what they had, but they're fast and strong, and even if they creak in jumps, they work.
This goes on until one day, Poe looks around and realizes they are back at fighting strength. It has taken three years since their decimation on Crait, but they are back. They are on Batuu, in the furthest reaches of the galaxy, when General Dameron realizes they can stop running and turn around and fight.
They are in the middle of fixing another fleet when he stands on top of the Falcon and instantly grabs the attention of the working crowd below.
It is here where he turns to his troops, and rouses them with Leia's words. Rey stands in the crowd, looking up to see Poe as his speech begins. His words are few, but powerful, and Rey imagines them going out to the galaxy, imagines them existing far beyond this moment, throughout history. This is where the Resistance turned, she thought. This is where everything changed.
"General Organa, our Princess, once said, 'Hope is like the sun. If you only believe it when you see it, you'll never make it through the night.' We have made it through that night. The sun is on the horizon and it is because of you, all of you, who worked tirelessly every day over the last three years. You are not small, you are mighty. You are the reason the dawn now rises for the Resistance. LET'S GIVE THEM HELL" his voice rings out through the crowd as it erupts at his final words.
Rey yells out with them, tears welling in her eyes as she looks around. She used to be able to name every single Resistance fighter, and now that would be impossible, there are too many. There are scattered faces in the crowd she knows, yelling and hugging and crying. Behind her Rose and Finn find each other and kiss deeply. Chewie barrels towards her and before she knows it she's in the air, Shyriiiwook blaring in her ears, but she can't stop smiling in his embrace.
And just as suddenly, General Dameron's hand ushers them to the ships, urging them to start working again. This small victory was theirs, but they still had to get through dusk before the sunrise.
Rey runs back to the X-Wings to continue her work, but before she reaches them, General Dameron intercepts her.
"Rey! Let's take a walk" she can't quite read his voice. It's much more formal than it ever has been, perhaps because he is in full General mode now.
"Don't you need to...be doing...General stuff right now?" she was surprised that she was the first one Poe was talking to in this moment, after he just wrote history in front of her.
"It can wait" his voice makes something in her drop, and she follows him immediately.
They walk quietly up to the plateau above the troops, admiring the sea as it rolls out beside them. This planet was green and dewy and gorgeous and Rey loved the smell of salt that permeated it. Unlike the sites of some other abandoned Rebel bases, she would be a little sad to leave this one.
They stop at the peak and look down at the people below, all scurrying, all full of adrenaline for what was to come.
Poe's voice pierces the salty air, "Rey, I need you to stay behind with the Falcon for this one."
She tilts her head towards him, hurt blossoming on her face, "What?" the sound ekes out of her.
"Rey, you are too important. I know I have let you get your way in the past, but I just can't with this one. You're the ONLY one of us who can kill Kylo Ren. Without you, we lose, I need you to understand that." Poe talks to the air in front of him, not looking at Rey. His voice is still that of the General.
Rey turns her whole body to his and hisses, "This is all just a game to you, isn't it? This isn't dejarik or Shah-tezh, General. We are not pieces to be won or lost."
Poe turns around and takes some steps back from the edge of the plateau, away from Rey, still not looking at her, he exhales heavily, "Rey, your youth is showing."
She wants to scream back at him but she knows that anger will get her nowhere. Instead, she breathes the damp air of the maritime planet and glares at him.
He closes the distance between them and lightly frames her shoulders with his hands. Both their expressions soften with their familiarity. He is tired of screaming matches with Rey, but also so thankful for their tiffs. She is one of the only people who still questions him, still make him feel like a human and not a warlord.
"Look" he turns her around to the valley behind them, to see the tiny rebels in the distance loading materials onto their now three large flagships, the Falcon , and their cargo ships.
The amount of people is still sparse, but it has grown so much over the last three years. By the last count they had 2176 people travelling with them on all their ships, but more had pledged their allegiance on the planets they had travelled to and in the Outer Core, with more news everyday of pockets of resistance. "You are the difference between me losing some of them" he puts his hand out in front of her, obstructing her view from half of the little dots moving below, "and losing all of them", he turns his hand so she can no longer see any of them, nor the ships.
She sees the outlines of Finn and Rose, the giant outline of Chewbacca, the glints of Threepio and R2 and BB-8, and Connix's platinum hair all disappear behind Poe's hand.
"Do you get it? If we lose you…" Poe brings his hand back down on her shoulder.
"Yes Poe, I get it," her voice trembles with sadness, the familiar gloom of abandonment growing in her center.
He squeezes his hold on her shoulders more tightly before releasing them and walking back down to his fleet.
That night, Rey enters her training room, BB-8 hot on her heels, needing to get out some of the frustrations of the day. It was now solely her training room, there were now enough beds for Resistance fighters to sleep in on the other ships. The Falcon was no longer littered with sleeping bags and fighters.
She centers herself as BB-8 projects a ball, a familiar stand in for her training. Her saber ignites on her side and she is jousting within seconds, her body the fulcrum of the blades, spinning them effortlessly and richoting the tiny hologram from blade to blade. She is graceful, even elegant, at first, words Rey would never imagine could ever describe her. Her mind smooths with the force, until an image of Poe's hand wiping out the fleet enters her mind. Her movements grow more frantic, the ball struggling to keep up with how quickly she is moving now. BB-8 rolls back a bit, to allow her more room but doesn't cut the projection. Rey is all flurry now, her whole body spinning with her saber as the ball accosts her from all angles.
Then, it's too much, she's out of control and she can't stop. She spins her weapon too quickly and it comes down on her, and for the second time in her life, she is touched with the lightbeam of a saber. She lets out a small scream.
"Rey! Are you okay?!" Finn's voice fills the cabin. Rey hadn't seen him staring at her from the entryway.
She grabs her leg. The blade had hit her just above the knee, but it was such a slight burn. It might not even scar. "I'm fine, I'm fine. I just feel stupid."
"I mean, I've never seen anyone impale themselves with their own saber before. Its gotta take real skill," Finn's voice is full of levity. Rey shoots him a look.
Finn reaches out his hands to her knee, and cradles it as he examines the cut.
"Finn, it's really nothing" Rey tries to pull away as she says it.
"Sit down" the levity in Finn's voice is faded and he is much more stern now.
"Finn, please, I just want to be alone" her voice whines into the room.
"No you don't," his truth tinges the air, "Sit down, Rey, please."
She does as he instructs. He takes a bacta pad out of his leather jacket. Finn always carries extras, being her defacto training partner, for whenever they bruise or get scratched up from ground attacks.
He pulls up her leggings and unwraps the bacta pad. It stings as he smooths it out on the area above her knee, but she is used to it. She has had more bacta on her than she can recount in these last three years. It is a necessary evil she wishes she had the first 18 years of her life on Jakku.
"Rough day?" he asks, his face concentrating on unsticking the wax paper from the remaining patch.
"Yeah. Rough day." Rey smiles weakly at this endlessly kind man.
He sits down next to her when he is done. "I talked to Poe. He told me what happened."
Rey straightens her legs out in front of her, "Yeah." She stretches her arms out with her legs, as if to convince Finn that it wasn't a big deal to her, but she knew she couldn't hide the truth from him.
"How are you feeling?" Finn sees through her nonchalant body language, of course.
"I get it. I just wish there was another way. I haven't been away from you guys since...since I made this thing" she holds up her now extinguished saber that had been dormant beside her.
Finn chuckles, "And even then we were right outside the caves."
Rey smiles, "I just...I wish it were different. Sometimes I fantasize about what my life would be like if I didn't have the force. What would ourlives be like, Finn? I would have never gone to Luke, would have never left you when you were so injured. Things might be so different if I were just normal." Her mind flashes to Rose, at the tiny prickles of jealousy that were way behind her. She is glad Finn can't read her thoughts.
Finn's mouth gapes open, "Rey, you saved me from death using the force on Starkiller base. That would have been the end of us right there if you weren't what you are." One side of her lip tenses upwards, knowing he is right, "Rey, you're a Jedi. You're maybe the last Jedi left. Yes, that makes you different, but we need that, we need you."
"I'm not a Jedi, Finn."
"Then why have we been reading Jedi texts? Why have we been practicing Jedi forms for the last three years?"
"It's more complicated than that."
"I don't think it is. You represent hope. When Luke sacrificed himself on Crait, that traveled throughout the galaxy, that helped us strengthen the Resistance. But you, you are what is keeping our numbers growing. You are the Jedi. Without you, there is no end to this war. You will rebuild the Jedi after all this is over and crush the dark down." His voice is so sure of her, so sure they will survive. It almost hurts.
She takes a few moments before talking again, "What if that's not the way to go? Rebuilding the Jedi? What if that's exactly what we shouldn't be doing?"
"What do you mean? You HAVE to rebuild. That's the only way to fight the dark." Finn has turned his whole body to her, separating their two bodies, almost not believing what he is hearing.
"Is it?" Rey's voice is small, but honest.
Finn's face is full of confusion and hurt, "Yes. I was taken from my family, trained to fight to the death, as nothing but an expendable, meaningless cog. I saw them build Starkiller, knowing that it would destroy millions. I have seen innocent people, children, slaughtered in front of me. All because the unchecked influence of the dark side. We need you. I need you, to believe that won't happen again. Don't run from this Rey, this is who you are, this is who you were always meant to be."
Rey's shoulders collapse as tears start to run down her face, "I don't know. I don't know anymore."
"It's okay, I know for both of us. It's okay," as Finn says it, he pulls Rey into him by her shoulders and kisses the top of her head.
Her head settles on his shoulder as tears roll down her cheek, dotting his jacket with beads of water. They sit like this for a moment, Finn not convinced he had made anything better.
"I never told you how I met Rose, not the truth," Finn breaths out, after a long while of just holding Rey.
"You lied to me about needing help from maintenance with a malfunctioning teeth cleaning unit? Nooo, really?" Rey's sarcasm almost drips as she sniffles and wipes her tears. She knew it was a lie, but didn't feel like the truth was necessary in this instance.
"Only a little."
Finn recounts his attempted escape from the Resistance and Rose's deep loyalty to the cause that kept him in their folds. Rey's face shifts through emotions as he talks, but Finn doesn't notice, focusing all his energy on articulating the meaning of this story.
"She STUNNED you?"
"The point is, I wanted to run. I wanted to leave it behind because I was so worried that I would mess everything up and you would come back to a Resistance that was disintegrating, but Rose didn't let me turn my back. And you did come back to a Resistance that was disintegrating, but we rebuilt it, all of us, together."
Rey smiles sadly, remembering that in a few days, she won't be part of their "together" anymore.
Finn notices, "What I'm trying to say is, all I knew was running. I ran from the First Order, I tried to run from Solo, from the Resistance, because I was scared of all of this, scared of what it meant. But once I stopped running, I found my meaning in all of it. Don't run from this Rey, don't run from what you truly are, and what you mean to the galaxy."
Rey reaches out and touches Finn's forearm, "I'm really glad you stayed. I don't know what I would have done without you."
"Well, good thing you'll never know now. I know you're scared, of being alone. I hate leaving. But we will be back together before you know it. You're my oldest and best friend Rey. Nothing, not even being the most powerful Jedi in the galaxy, will change that, or keep me away from you."
Rey smiles and squeezes Finn's hand more tightly, before Finn pulls her into a kneeling embrace. BB-8 breaks the moment by trying to snuggling between them, wanting to be a part of the family hug. They laugh and get back to training.
Space is colder than she could ever imagine. The sleeping style she acquired on Jakku, knees to her chest, hunched into her body, protecting all her internal organs, served her well on the Falcon . It preserved her precious heat, keeping it swelled in her center. Some nights were worse, where she would not be able to control the soft chatter of her teeth.
The first night she bunked with Rose, when they still did not know each other, Rose climbed out of her bunk to silently join Rey, hearing the shivering, and nestled against her back. This stopped Rey's shaking almost immediately, because of Rose's physical warmth, but also because of the warmth of her soul. She had never known true kindness before she met Finn, and now a second person was offering it up, without the expectation of anything in return. This became Rey and Rose's ritual from then on.
The night after Poe's rallying cry and her training mishap, Rey poured out everything that had happened that day to Rose, and Rose held her as she cried. When all her tears were out, she turned to face Rose in the bed, and propped herself up on her elbow. Rey brushed Rose's bangs out of her eyes and smiled.
"Finn told me how you two actually met" Rey's voice is still shaky from crying, but holds a bit of humor.
Rose rolls her eyes, more at Finn than anyone else, "I'm surprised you bought the toothbrush thing for so long."
Rey laughs, "Did you really stun him?"
Rose's smile changes and her eyes widen, "Oh yeah! I forgot about that."
Rey laughs, "I am so jealous. I have fantasized about stunning him SO. MANY. TIMES."
"It was really satisfying. He flew like 10 feet."
"Whaaaat?" Rey's question comes out in a long laugh.
"I can't believe I forgot about it. I really have to make sure to watch my back, now that you've reminded him of that," Rose actually sounds as if she is plotting her pseudo-defense.
A beat passes between them.
"Thank you, Rose" Rey's voice is sincere through the frivolity.
"For what?" Rose turns her head on the pillow to more fully look at Rey above her, her grin disappearing in response to Rey's sincerity.
"For making him stay."
"Ah, anytime. Actually, can you thank me by being my personal bodyguard from here on out?" Rose's smile blooms once again.
"You know I have your back."
Rey snuggles into Rose's side and Rose brings an arm around Rey. Rey does something she never would have expected to happen after the day she had, she falls asleep smiling.