It is her skin that wakes before she does, prickling into gooseflesh against the stagnant cold. She knows she's on the Falcon again as the familiar dead air of space breaches her, rutting down into her bones. The only warmth comes from a small hand in her own, rubbing circles into her knuckles. It's not the same hand that she had fallen asleep entwined with a day earlier, but it isn't the wrong hand, either. It lets her know she's home.
Rey turns the sound on next, and hears Rose's breathing, slow and steady next to her. From somewhere else, not far off, Chewie's soft grumbles are overlaid by Poe and Finn's voices. They're tense, getting nowhere fast in talking to the Wookie, their proficiency in Shyriiwook lacking without Rey acting as translator. Small mechanical whines and sharp hums let her know the droids are there too, their sounds giving away the underlying tension in the room.
They're safe.
Something that had been missing wells in her chest, though she is careful not to show any outward signs, still wanting to appear to be asleep, just until she can find her bearings. But they're safe, they're safe. The joy of this fact elicits a ripple in the force around her, as if to remind her that it was there again, that it had unmuted itself. She dips into it immediately, letting it billow over her, reaching out to the binding that runs through every living thing in their fleet. She feels the losses of the battle immediately, but also the deep victory in how few were actually gone.
Warmth rises from her core, the force come back to her acting as a sense memory. The only times she had felt the force in the last few days had been when she was close to him, when she touched him. And now, the force is with her, but he isn't. All at once, a hole disintegrates in her stomach, the warmth decaying into itself. He wasn't there. He wasn't there, but more than that, she couldn't feel him. Even in the years the galaxy had separated them, she still felt him like an shadow in the back of her mind, but now even that was gone.
A fear rises in her but she knows she has to control it. She reaches out further from the fleet, following the infinite cords that run out, linking the universe together. It's different than her meditation, less formal. Nothing is laid out in front of her, and all she can see is the blackness behind her eyelids, but she feels the span of the galaxy in front of her and the basest of threads between everything.
The further she gets, the fainter everything becomes and so she focuses, brushing past star systems and asteroid fields, doubling back and guessing the best she can. She follows the threads back to Mustafar, approximating locations, her years of navigating the Falcon and working out coordinates with Chewie paying their dividends. She feels the heat from the planet, a dim red glow rising behind her eyes, and she can't tell if it's real or if her mind is just filling in the blanks. She searches. She feels everything, everything, but not him.
The muscles in her stomach all tighten, as if preparing to be attacked. She backs up from Mustafar, the red glow setting like a sun as she does. No.
Panic descends and she starts following random strands, all strategy lost, hoping to find anything. It twists and tangles in her mind and barbs rise in her chest. She runs through countless living things, the flora and fauna of exotic planets rushing into and out of her veins. She feels the misery and joy, sees the newborn faces and decaying rot. She's never gone this fast through it all, never felt it all so fully. She feels almost omnipotent, but the one thing she wants most desperately she cannot see. It overwhelms her but she can't stop, the cycle of life, death, rebirth flashing unnaturally in front of her until she feels it, and stops cold, stifling her nausea.
One of the millions of threads is being strummed. The vibrations become more insistent in the seconds following her noticing it, before they crescendo into a deafening roar.
Kylo.
He's trying to find her. He can't feel her either, wherever he is, but he can't do what she's doing. He is too shut off to the totality of it all to traverse it like this.
It's as if he's standing on the other side of a shut door and pounding, hoping she's on the other side.
Rey moves slowly, as if quick movements would alert him. She lays out the possibilities in front of her.
She could follow it, she could follow this cord to him.
But then what? She's not sure what happened, really, to bring her back home. All she remembers is the earth opening up to swallow her and then blackness. What had he done? What had he stopped himself from doing? She needed to work out the answers on her own before seeing him.
She steps back, but as she does, the cacophony of the strumming changes. It doesn't lose its insistence, but it becomes more desperate, and less agitated. It carries something else, and Kylo's last words to her ring out in her mind.
Could she call them words if he hadn't spoken them? He hadn't meant for her to hear it, but she had. Love.
She understood love on a survival level. The smallest part of her loved Plutt, as twisted as it was, for protecting her in order to protect himself. She understood it on a familial level, still feeling Rose's hand in her own, despite her brain being across the stars.
But that kind of love, the kind of love he thought he had, she had no realm for it, no understanding for it. It didn't serve a purpose to her. She had no room for something like that.
She couldn't face that yet. She needed to figure things out. All she had wanted was to know that he was alive, and he was.
She retreats, hoping to edge out of this slowly, but something in her recognizes how cruel it would be to not let him know that she was still there. That he was not alone. That had been her promise, and she had always kept it. She wouldn't break it now.
So she sends a pulse back, a single strum, and hopes he can feel it through his own clamoring. Immediately, the vibrations stop. Message received.
She withdraws back to the Falcon, easing back through the synapses. But as she does the string that connects them starts shaking again, more violently than before. It is too loud, too imperious, too entitled, and she rushes backwards from it.
The last step, the step that makes everything real again, is taken for her. Rey opens her eyes, fleeing from Kylo's demand.
As soon as she does, the sounds stops, and she feels Rose's lips press into her forehead. Rey doesn't blink, not wanting to allow him back in again, not yet. Instead she lets Rose's black hair span her vision. Her body swells, the changing emotions threatening to paralyze her. Her brain runs into sensory overload, Rose's scent filling the air in front of her with a familiar soft vanilla. Poe and Finn's whispers and Threepio's "oh dear"s in the background are magnified, and the racket of the old ship's systems roar. She breaths in, but the air shakes past her throat, and stutters through her. It all hits her, her friends, the caves, Kylo. She had betrayed them, she was a traitor. Her face scrunches and tears fall sideways out of her eyes.
"You're okay, I'm here," Rose whispers to her, noticing Rey's shakiness. It was the mantra turned hymn they would whisper to each other after their respective nightmares, cuddled up in the darkness after lights out. It made everything better, but it couldn't fix this.
"Rose," Rey's voice is weak and there's a desperation to it.
Rose's face lights up in a smile and her eyes well, before her face darkens, "Don't you ever do that again. I can't lose another sister in this lifetime."
Rey reaches up and wipes the tear falling from Rose's cheek.
"I'm sorry," Rey's apology holds more meaning than Rose knows.
Rose sits up straighter and her chin dips ever so slightly in a nod. She immediately accepts the apology, her hand gripping tighter around Rey's.
Rey knows, though, that Rose doesn't understand the apology she's accepting. She knows that if Rose truly understood, she would never forgive her.
Rey moves her feet, digging her heels into the cushions below to push her body up into a sitting position against the wall behind her, but as she does, her spinal fluid swishes in agony. She squeezes her eyes tightly, her head pounding as if it had been split in two.
Rose's hands are on her shoulders now, guiding her back down into a lying position.
"Don't rush it," Rose readjusts the blanket on top of her. Rey reaches out to hold the blanket tightly, but as she does she realizes that it isn't a blanket at all. Instead, the soft brown leather of Finn's jacket envelops her. She holds it even tighter when she notices.
"Try to sleep more," Rose glances behind her as she whispers, "They'll bum-rush you once they notice you're awake again, so for your sake, let's try to stave that off as long as possible." Rose's smile graces her face once again as she sweeps hair out of Rey's eyes.
"Thank you," Rey's eyes close, the pain making her forget about what lies on the other side of her eyelids.
"You know I got you," and with that, Rey lets the soft hum of the Falcon take her to sleep.
Rey's body shoots up into a sitting position from a dead sleep, everything in her screaming at the change. She gasps, and tries to catch her breath, the air here being so much easier to force into her lungs than it had been on Mustafar. The strumming had haunted her dreams until it was too much, until she had to flee back to consciousness.
Instantly, her friends are upon her, Finn and Chewie reaching her first.
Finn comes down and instantly hugs her, kneeling in front of her. She hugs him back before Chewie pushes him out of the way, and takes over the hug, his grumbling full of relief and apology.
"I know, Chewie, I know. It's my fault, really. It's all my fault." Chewie releases her and his large paw comes up to touch her face. It almost covers her entire head, but when he brings his paw back down, she misses it.
Finn opens his mouth to speak, but before he can, he is interrupted again and nearly bowled over by a flash of orange and white.
BB-8 parts Chewie and Finn, and brushes against Rey's leg, hanging now from the enclave of the bed. She wills her ab muscles to bend and adjusts his antenna lightly.
"Hey, buddy. I'm so glad you're okay."
Finn takes it as his opportunity, "Rey, are you okay?"
She smiles and nods before her eyes well with tears and her chin quivers.
"Oh Rey," Finn pulls her back into a hug.
"I was so worried about all of you." Her words muffle themselves into Finn's shoulder.
Finn grabs her shoulders and pushes her off him gently, his mouth gaped open, "Rey, we found you with that monster. You shouldn't have been the one who was worrying about us."
She sees now the whole group lined up behind Finn. Rose stands next to Poe and Threepio, all of their faces gripped in concern. Rey's eyes unlock themselves from them and wander downward, a tear dropping between herself and them as they do.
"I didn't know he would be there," Rey's voice is full of a misplaced apology.
"Of course you didn't," Rose speaks for the group.
"I'm so sorry," Rey says softly.
"What are you sorry for Rey?" Finn takes back over.
"I don't know. For making you worry, for the wasted resources, for everything," she is half telling the truth, the half she can face.
"It doesn't matter. You're here, you're okay. None of that matters," Finn's hands move down from her shoulders and skim her arms until he finds her hands and holds both of them in his own. "We know he tricked you with Threepio," Rey glances at Chewie as he nods, knowing they had deciphered enough of the Shyriiiwook language to get that tidbit out of him, "He tricked you and you're okay and that's all that matters."
"He didn't trick me."
The group sways back a little at this casual admission.
"It was the force. It brought us there together, I think, to show us a path forward," she looks at each member of the group as she says it, as if willing them to understand.
When she's looked at everyone, she comes back down to Finn in front of her and sees his Adam's apple bob as he swallows hard and shifts uncomfortably. She feels the air shift around them. Her homecoming was over, and the part of all them that had to be soldiers wrestles the moment away.
Finn looks around to Poe and the others, gathering their tacit approval for his next words. Poe nods, as if giving him the final push he needs to be able to talk.
"Rey," Finn's voice comes out different, as if, for the first time since they met, it was hard for him to find the right words, "When you came back for us on Crait and saved our asses, we didn't ask any questions about what happened on the Supremacy, because it didn't matter, you were back with us," he swallows, hard. "When you came out of those caves with half a red lightsaber, we didn't push it because we trusted you. And when you came back a year ago almost dead because of..." Finn's voice trails off, "We didn't ask any questions, because we knew you."
"And now you don't?" Rey's eyes are gripped with fear.
Poe shakes his head, but it is Finn who talks, "No, it's not that...we just, we need to ask questions and get answers, Rey. We can't keep pretending that there's not something between you and, and him," Finn's voice is laced with disgust as he references Kylo.
Rey exhales, her head stinging with the pressure. A silence descends and she knows they are waiting for her to respond, to tell them that they're wrong, that there's nothing there, that she hates him as much as they do, but all of that would be a lie. She freezes, not sure of what to do next, and looks to Poe, who always helps her when she's stuck or can't figure something out. Poe, her saviour.
Poe waits in the background, not looking back at her, not really. He rolls his bottom lip between his thumb and his forefinger, as if in contemplation. She wants him to say something, but he seems determined not to. She realizes he hasn't hugged her, and the thought makes her insides burn.
"Hey, back up, back up, give my patient some room," a strong booming voice erupts from the corner of the room, breaking the tension. Rey can't see the owner of the voice past the group in front of her, but she knows by its cadence that it's Dr. Kalonia, obviously on loan to check on Rey from the medical freighter.
The group parts to allow Kalonia to see Rey, and Poe finally speaks up, "Kalonia, actually, it's not a great time…"
Kalonia turns from Rey and stares knives deep into Poe, "Not a great time? She's bleeding from a head wound and covered in alien bacteria. I hate to break up the reunion, but some things take precedence, General."
Poe nods curtly, knowing when to accept being put in his place. He knows Kalonia is one hundred percent right and he is one hundred percent wrong.
"Now go, I need to clean her up so I can tell what I'm looking at and I don't need a gaggle of men surrounding me when I do."
Everything in the room had changed so suddenly with Kalonia's appearance that it takes them a while to actually move. They disperse slowly as Kalonia moves her head under Rey's arm to support her enough to stand. Rey tries to help, but the change in positioning reignites her head wound and she sags like dead weight on Kalonia's frame. Kalonia knows she can't carry her to the fresher alone.
"Rose, actually, can you stay and help?"
Rose turns and almost runs back, putting her head under Rey's other arm to help support her.
Finn and Poe still, looking to Kalonia, signaling that they could help too.
"No, you two leave. Anything without a vagina needs to be out of the room right now."
Rose can't help but laugh at Kalonia's brashness, a welcome change from how uncomfortable everything was only a moment again. Rose's laugh makes Rey smile too. Rey watches as her friends file out, dejectedly.
"This is discrimination," Finn says, faking seriousness, as he puts his hands on Poe's back to avoid running into him in the shuffle.
"File a complaint with our non-existent Human Resources department," Kalonia deadpans back, readjusting her grip on Rey as she does.
Rey looks as her friends leave and takes inventory: Threepio leads the way, followed by Chewie, Poe, Finn, BB-8….where was R2?
When they're gone and the door shuts behind them, Rey turns to Rose, "Where's R2?" but her words are mumbled under her clothes as Kalonia lifts her grimy shirt over her head.
"Let's get these filthy things off," Kalonia throws Rey's top on the ground.
Kalonia starts to pull Rey's leggings down, peeling them off her skin, as Rose holds her up from behind. Rose's face awkwardly rests between Rey's shoulder blades, her cheek pressed against Rey's back, amplifying the height difference between the two. Rey's not sure Rose heard her question, so she opens her mouth to ask again about R2, but as she does, Kalonia stops undressing her. Rey's leggings hang midway off her leg and she looks down, unsure of how she was going to step out of them in this awkward position.
Kalonia is staring at the bright red inkblot of blood staining Rey's undergarment. Kalonia's face looks upwards at Rey, and there must be a pleading in her eyes, because Kalonia quickly pulls the leggings the rest of the way down and balls them up, throwing them discreetly with her shirt, before Rose is any the wiser.
Rey is left bare in front of them, her clothes a pile next to her.
She's been naked in front of Rose too many times to count, and in her recovery a year ago, Kalonia had been the one to bathe her, mostly, with help from Leia and Rose. But there was a different energy now, and she was wholly uncomfortable to be this exposed in front of them.
Rey didn't know much about sex or the mechanisms surrounding it. She knew Kalonia was a doctor though, trained in anatomy, and that she had just seen the evidence of her coupling with Kylo, though Rey wasn't sure Kalonia would interpret it that way.
At the thought of just how unmasked she truly was, Rey immediately covers her naked body, pushing her forearm to her breasts and a hand to her pubic mound, trying to hide any tell tale signs that weren't there.
Rose cocks her head to the side when she sees Rey hiding herself. Rey had walked around their room ass out to the world so much, Rose thought she might be more well acquainted with Rey's body than her own, so to see her so bashful was different.
Rey braces for Kalonia's words about the blood, but they don't come. Instead, the two women start to walk her in the direction of the fresher.
"There's really not a need for this, I can bathe myself, been doing it for years," but almost as soon as Rey says it, her steps betray her and a knee gives out, almost crumbling her to the floor. Kalonia and Rose flank either side of her and keep her up.
"Yeah, what about walking? Been doing that for years too? Because you suck at it," Rose chuckles as the words leave her mouth.
They reach the fresher and Kalonia stretches out to turn it on, still supporting Rey with her other hand. They wait for it to heat up and Rey takes time to internally thank Kalonia for this reprieve. She didn't know how she would answer her friends questions about Kylo, but at least this staved it off for a little longer.
They sit Rey down on the floor underneath the stream once it is warm enough, and Rose kneels beside her, keeping her upright.
Rose reaches up and squeezes soap from the dispenser, and slowly starts to wash Rey's body, caked in sand and sweat. Her shade lightens as the dirt washes down the drain, revealing her clean skin below. Rose is fully clothed, and the water soaks through her, but if she minds, she doesn't let on. She's focused on cleaning Rey, washing her like a mother would her child.
Or, how Rey imagines a mother might wash her child. Her mother had never bathed her before. Not that she could remember, at least.
Rey allows Rose to lather her hair, and stretches her legs out in front of her, losing herself in the feeling of Rose's hands working against her scalp. Rose gathers all of Rey's loose hair, which had long ago fallen out of her tight three buns, and piles it on top of her head, kneading in the soap, careful not to touch the gash on the front of her head.
As Rey leans into Rose's touch, she suddenly feels Rose's fingers still in her hair, before one of Rose's hands runs down to slowly graze her neck. Rey feels the bruising under Rose's fingertips and freezes, too.
"Dr. Kalonia?" the concern in Rose's voice kills any hope in Rey that she hadn't seen the blemishes.
Dr. Kalonia had been threading a needle to give Rey her much needed stitches, an old technique she still employed, never fully entrusting any medical work to droids. At hearing Rose's voice, though, she immediately stops and closes the small distance between them. Rose tilts Rey's head to the side, exposing the bruises more fully to the doctor above them.
Kalonia stoops down and her eyes survey Rey, who twists her legs together, afraid of the doctor's gaze and what she might find. Suddenly, Rey feels very lightheaded, and slumps back, causing Rose to have to shore up her hold on Rey's now slippery body.
"Rey, is it okay if I touch your legs?" Kalonia's voice is safe, but it still scares Rey to no end.
Rey nods, the heat of the water making her sleepy. Kalonia puts her hands on either side of Rey's knees and opens them, slightly, before closing them and looking down at the ground.
"Rose, can Rey and I have the room for a while?"
Rose gives Rey a squeeze, a silent kindness, before Kalonia turns off the water. She grabs a towel and wraps it around Rey, taking responsibility for Rey's now fragile body. Rose stands, her clothes soaked through, and begrudgingly takes her leave, her eyes not leaving Rey until the very last second.
Rey's heart pounds beneath the towel as Kalonia helps her to stand. What had they seen? Did they know? Was it a secret that all women could guess?
Kalonia dries Rey off and helps her step into fresh leggings, before wrapping her top loosely in a tunic. They don't bother with a breast band, Rey's endowments being small enough that she didn't need one unless she was on a mission or training or fighting.
Kalonia sits Rey down on a closed toilet, the only part of the room stable enough for an unstable Rey, before backing up and leaning on the sink behind her.
It takes a moment for Kalonia to speak, but when she does, her voice is even and measured, "I need to ask you some questions now that we're alone. I was going to wait until tomorrow, but I'd like to ask them now. Is that okay?"
Rey nods, her throat already burning.
"I need you to be honest with me. Some of these question might be uncomfortable."
She knows, she knows, she knows, alarms blare in Rey's head, but she nods through the noise.
Kalonia takes a deep breath, the grey lining her temples becoming apparent to Rey. "I noticed...bruising," Kalonia touches her neck, and then reaches down and touches her inner thigh, indicating the spots on Rey she noticed it, "That isn't consistent with typical battle bruises."
Rey can't look Kalonia in the eyes anymore. She stares at the textured ground of the Falcon, wishing she could sink in and become one with the ship.
"Rey, did Kylo Ren hurt you...differently than he has before?"
"No." Rey's response is immediate.
Kalonia nods.
"Have you had any changes since the injuries you sustained last year that you've not shared with me?"
"What do you mean?"
"Have your menses returned?"
"No, you said they wouldn't," Rey knows why she asks, but isn't ready to delve into the real reason for the blood Kalonia had seen earlier.
Kalonia nods again, "I'd like to take you onto the medical freighter tomorrow to run further tests."
"Why am I not there now?"
"Your wounds appeared superficial at first, there wasn't a need."
"And now? They don't appear superficial anymore?"
Kalonia looks away, "Given your injury history, and the fact that it appears your menses have possibly returned, I'd like to do a pelvic exam."
Rey holds her breath. "It's not what you think." Her mind is flipping wildly. She knows Kalonia knows. She feels the judgment, feels Kalonia's appraisal of her soul for laying with the enemy.
"I don't think anything Rey, I'm not here to…"
"It was consensual."
It feels as if the air is sucked out of the room. Dr. Kalonia's body straightens and her eyebrows raise, as if not expecting that at all. Her medical training and bedside manner quickly intercede though, and her body language evens out. A quiet descends between the two.
Rey knows what comes next. She knows she will be shunned and left, and this time, it will be all her fault. She gave herself to Kylo Ren, willingly, more than willingly, and she no longer deserves the friendship of the people he hurt, of the people he continues to hurt. She braces in Kalonia's silence, waiting for her to leave to tell Poe that Rey has betrayed them, that she's a traitor to their cause. Rey knows she will take whatever punishment they give her willingly, that there will be no fight. The shame that settles in her is all consuming.
Rey looks utterly torn apart, more lost than Kalonia has ever seen the young Jedi. Kalonia worried, in the absence of Leia, of Luke, about this girl with the fate of the Galaxy looming on her, but the confidence and happiness the girl exuded on the Falcon, surrounded by her friends, erased all her doubts. Now though, she could see it, as Rey's eyes glistened with heavy tears in front of her.
"I delivered Ben Solo, you know," Kalonia finally breaks the awful silence.
Rey looks up and takes a long breath in, but her expression is blank, still unsure of what would happen next.
"He had more hair than I've ever seen on a baby, before or since, and it was all pitch black. I don't think he stopped screaming, ever."
Rey body relaxes and she smiles, "He still hasn't."
Kalonia pushes off the sink and stands in front of Rey, taking the young woman's hands in her own, "I'm a doctor Rey, I'm your doctor, but I was also his, once upon a time. I don't choose sides. I choose life. I think we're alike in that way."
Rey body shatters at the doctor's words, and the pent up tears of the last week coming crashing down, leaving in huge heaving sobs from her body. Kalonia draws Rey into a tight hug, giving her patient the most needed care of the day. Rey cries, unashamed, purging all her mixed emotions, a catharsis washing over her with each tear.
Finn was right, she couldn't pretend anymore. Kylo wasn't just an afterimage burned into the back of her mind, he was a part of her and he always would be. She couldn't run from that anymore.
Kalonia allows Rey all the time she needs, and holds her until the young woman steadies herself. Rey eventually leans back out of Kalonia's hold, drying her tears with her hands.
Kalonia sees the exhaustion in Rey, and knows she needs rest above all else, but her head wound still trickles blood.
"There's one more thing. And it's going to sting." Kalonia moves towards the thread and needle as she says it.
The stitches only take a moment in the capable hands of the doctor, and Rey barely notices the pain over everything else. Her eyelids droop as Kalonia applies the bacta pad over the finished stitches to accelerate healing.
Kalonia notices and knows it's time to go. She grabs Rey's hands once more and gives a final parting squeeze, "Please come visit me on the medical freighter tomorrow," she leans down until her gaze is on the same level as Rey's, looking deeply into her eyes, "Please."
Kalonia moves towards the exit, but pauses before she presses the door mechanism.
"No one here will ever fault you for choosing life Rey, remember that."
And with that, the doctor is gone.
It takes Rose much longer than usual to drift off. There was no feigning of sleeping in their own separate bunks tonight. As soon as they reached their quarters, Rose had pulled Rey into the bed with her. Rey expected a long talk, or crying, but there was none, just Rose leaning her head against Rey's shoulder as they laid silently looking up at the ceiling of the Falcon. It was enough just to be back here with them, and Rey's tired body grew nauseous as she imagined what tomorrow might be like, as she pictured the hurt in their eyes in hearing the truth. She leaned her head into Rose's, hoping it wouldn't be the last time Rose allowed her to share their bed.
Once Rey is sure Rose is asleep, she slips back into the bathroom, locking the door behind her. There weren't many people on the Falcon now, but she needed to ensure time alone.
Rey looks at her body in the mirror, inspecting it to find differences, but there are none. She didn't know if she expected a huge change, or if she had expected anything at all. On Jakku she never expected to find anyone that she would want to share herself with, and so she never thought about what would happen if she did. She cups her breasts, before folding her arms over them and exhaling. She knows all of this is just killing time, that she'll have to face what comes with sleep eventually.
She slowly makes her way back to her bunk, careful not to wake Rose as she reassumes her position next to her. As she closes her eyes, the strumming returns, more insistent than ever. She gives a single tug back, harder this time, and it stops. She lapses into sleep almost immediately.
Ah! This one took a little longer than I thought it would, so thank you all for your patience. It's a whole lot of badass women, so hopefully that makes up for some of the delay.
Also, I hope to have this entire fic completed by the end of this month, so there is an end in sight! I'm not sure about the chapter count yet, because while I have it outlined, I'm still unsure about how realistically paced it feels, and I don't want to just be like "And that's the end, bye." So I'll update you when I'm more aware of my own thought processes.
Lastly, I just want to give a huge thank you to everyone who is reading, and to those who have favorited, followed, and left reviews. It's really amazing to feel like I'm a part of a creative community, so thank you all, truly.
Next chapter should be out within the next couple days!