Ben didn't relinquish Rey's hand until he needed both of his on his lightsaber. They cut through the hallways with synchronized efficiency, untouched by the waves of stormtroopers that broke upon them uselessly. As they drew closer to the hangar, though, retracing their steps, the ranks of the soldiers who materialized to hamper their progress thinned dramatically. It was evident that a massive upheaval was taking place behind the scenes on the Star Destroyer - an upheaval that they had helped to catalyze. Whatever the former First Order officers were doing on the bridge to help ease their passage, it was working.

Rey was honestly starting to get comfortable with the idea of a positive outcome when they came to a screeching halt inside the hangar, in the middle of a raging firefight. Their companions had beaten them in the race back to the ship - Finn, Rose, Janna, and the rescued prisoners had made it this far and were facing off with another group of stormtroopers. They were holding their own, but they were dangerously outnumbered, and Rey swung her lightsaber in anticipation as they started towards the battle.

The motion of the light caught Finn's eye; he glanced over and grinned instinctively when he saw her. "Rey!" he shouted, his voice echoing in the massive room.

Relief flooded her cells at the sound of her name from his mouth - he didn't hate her, not completely. "Finn!" she said, a familiar call-and-response. "We're coming!" He nodded, and for a moment everything felt right between them, their comfortable, certain partnership clicking back into place. But then Finn caught sight of Ben close by her side, and any trace of pleasure that he felt at her arrival vanished from his face. "Look out!" Rey cried as a stormtrooper seized the moment of opportunity to catch him off guard.

It almost worked. Finn whipped around just as the stormtrooper lunged at his blaster, trying to wrestle it from his grip. The two of them struggled for the space of a breath before a growl of energy tore the air by Rey's ear and she saw Luke's lightsaber - no, Ben's lightsaber go pinwheeling past, gliding through the fray on a path carved out by Ben's mastery of the Force. The blade melted the stormtrooper's armor and sliced through his chest like it was water. Finn yanked his gun from the dead man's grip as his body crumpled, the lightsaber boomeranged, and Ben reached out to catch it neatly in his waiting hand.

Rey saw the two men lock gazes for an instant, and in that instant, she glimpsed a flicker of begrudging respect. Then the three of them did as they'd been trained to do, and sprang back into the battle.

No one could have begrudged them the fact that they made an excellent team; with Rey and Ben's aid, the group cleared the hangar in a matter of seconds. Rey and Finn were the last to board the ship, both of them of the same mind in that they wanted to make certain everyone made it on, but with their own unique motivations. Finn nodded curtly once Ben had sheathed his lightsaber and was headed up the ramp. When he gestured for her to go next, Rey decided to give him this one without putting up a fuss, and he brought up the rear as the ship roared to life.

Rey threw herself into the seat next to Ben and clicked in her belts, as he had already done, only this time his hands weren't cuffed, but free to grab the safety restraints where they crossed over his chest. Rey noticed Finn notice this particular detail, but to his credit, he said nothing, rather taking his seat opposite Rey and fastening his own belts with the unmistakable abruptness of anger.

Everyone inside the ship held their breath together as the thrusters gathered beneath them, the landing gear retracted, and the pilots gunned it. The ship tilted slightly as it took blaster fire from behind, but nothing so serious as to keep it from bursting through the airlock and crossing into the freedom of open space beyond. Rey finally exhaled when nothing stopped them - no pull of a tractor beam or barrage from the Destroyer's turrets - and the ship sped away as though they'd planned the whole thing.

"Well," Rose said after a minute, "that went better than I expected."

"You can say that again," Janna said. "We were hardly in our cell for five minutes before it opened again." She looked at Rey. "What happened on your end?"

Rey took a moment to explain everything, from Trusk's broadcast to the woman who had helped them to the insurrection they were leaving behind on the First Order ship.

"Wow," Rose said with unveiled admiration. "Good for them. And good for you. Both of you," she added, with a hesitant glance at Ben. "You did a pretty thorough job in there."

A murmur of agreement and praise rippled through the team that they'd rescued, followed by a round of thank-yous primarily directed at Rey, that washed over her in a way she'd come accustomed to over the past few months. What she hadn't gotten used to, though, and didn't want to get used to, was the shadow of disappointment that Finn cast on her anytime they were in the same room together. The break in the clouds that she'd glimpsed earlier in the hangar was sealed again, though the sunlight of his smile was still bright in her memory. Her eyes sought his in vain. Of all of them, he had not spoken, had not made a sound, and he would not look at her the whole flight back to base.