The sun had gone down by the time the council assembled. Streaks of pink and orange slid across the sky, the last of the light draining into the horizon. Night came in like a timid traveler beneath the trees. Rey breathed it all in: the many colors of the forest, the sounds of the animals moving towards their rest, the earthy smell of pine needles, leaf litter, and soil. Though she'd seen so much since leaving Jakku, she would always be a desert kid at heart, and planets as lush as this one still filled her with a sense of wonder.

They had decided to convene outside, in a clearing a short distance from the base proper. Rey had arrived early, staking claim on a spot in front of the trunk of a large fir, and watched as the rest of the Resistance gathered. Someone had built a fire in the center of the clearing. Light and shadow moved fluidly on the faces of the people that formed a circle around it, their expressions grave, or at the very least stoic.

Rey fought the feeling of dread rising within her, to little effect. Her heart lifted slightly at the sight of Chewbacca and Poe entering the circle. Poe offered her a perfunctory smile; Chewie waved in a friendlier way. But neither of them came to stand with her, joining instead the Resistance High Command, of whom Poe, as General, ranked highest. Finn, Rose, and Jannah filed in near the officers, but of the three of them, only Jannah deigned to make eye contact with Rey.

For the most part, the group was quiet, murmuring solemnly amongst themselves as they jostled into place. A strange atmosphere after such an incredible victory. It went to show how thoroughly Rey's decision to rescue Ben and bring him here had stymied them.

Rey steeled herself as Poe stepped forward, the fire reflecting amber on his face, and the crowd fell silent in anticipation. Whatever happened next, whatever words were spoken, she resolved to keep a level head on her shoulders.w

"All right, everyone, listen up," Poe said. He lacked the finesse and poise General Organa had possessed when it came to addressing a group, but he could certainly command their attention. All eyes were fixed on him. "We've got a lot to discuss and not a lot of time to do it in. I'm sure you all have questions, and stuff you want to talk about. We'll get to that, but we're going to cover a couple of main topics first. When we're done with that, then we can open it up to everyone. Sound good?"

A murmur of assent rippled through his audience.

"Okay, great." Poe glanced at Commander D'Acy, who gave him an encouraging nod. "First thing on the agenda is the future of the Resistance. We were formed for the sole purpose of undermining and eventually quashing the First Order, which we've done." A light cheer went up. Poe raised a benevolent hand for silence. "Yeah, we deserve to celebrate, but I think we can all agree that our work is far from over." Some muttering, but most people were nodding. "The First Order destroyed the New Republic, leaving us without an intergalactic force for peace and communication. We've been talking about how we can start another one from scratch, but that'll be an entirely separate committee, made up of diplomats from the planets that want to participate.

"Our main order of business here, as Resistance fighters, is making sure that the First Order is really gone. We obliterated most of the main fleet, but there were some outliers that escaped, and we've obtained intel on several residual First Order bases on various planets. There may be more we don't know about. Right now, we're thinking we should split up into a couple of different task forces, some designated to hunt down the few Star Destroyers that eluded us after the battle, and some to investigate the First Order bases. Any questions so far?"

A dozen or so hands shot up. Poe called on the person closest to him, a Resistance pilot Rey didn't know. "How will the task forces be decided?"

"On a volunteer basis," Poe said. "But if one is heavily favored over the other, we may have to rearrange our manpower."

Next question: "Which planets have bases been discovered on so far?"

And so on and so forth. The questioning went on for some time, to the point where Rey stopped listening. Her anxiety was far too intense to pay attention to the minutiae of the matter, not with Ben's undecided fate hanging over her head. She tuned back in when it was Rose's turn to ask a question. "What will we do with the First Order loyalists once we've caught up to them?"

"Demand their surrender," Poe said. "If they do, then we'll take them as prisoners and evaluate their level of involvement and loyalty to the First Order values. Most of that will be carried out by the same committee of diplomats."

"Which brings us to our second topic," Commander D'Acy cut in gracefully. "The matter of the prisoner."

She didn't need to specify which one; everyone already knew. The reaction this inspired was more than subtle discussion, and neither Poe nor D'Acy tried to settle the crowd until a couple of minutes had gone by. Even then, D'Acy had to raise her voice to be heard.

"Yes, the rumors are true; we recovered Kylo Ren, former Supreme Leader of the First Order, during the battle. Rey reports that at the last moment, he turned cloak against the First Order, and helped turn the tide of battle." To her credit, D'Acy maintained a neutral tone, but it was clear from their body language that the Resistance found this claim dubious at best. "He is now recovering here, under guard. The decision of what to do with him remains before us."

She didn't even blink as the group collectively broke out into chaos; instead, she stepped closer to Poe and began to speak to him in a low tone. Rey stood at attention, every nerve in her body tingling and on alert.

D'Acy nodded at something Poe said and straightened up, once again speaking over the crowd. "We've discussed several options as to his sentence, but before we get to those, I'd like to review—"

She was interrupted this time by a commotion to her left; someone was pushing through the ring of people. Beaumont Kin, a man Rey knew only by name and had exchanged few words with, stumbled into the circle of firelight, breathing heavily, a look of distress on his face. A hush fell over the crowd.

"General Poe," Beaumont said. "We have a situation."