A/N: I am so sorry for the delay. Please! Enjoy.

Chapter 12: Time is Running Out

"I'm tired of waiting!" Kailin said while angrily hacking his sword into the trees around him.

"Stop acting like a child, Bailo. Your obsession is beginning to fester." Aeron flicking dirt off his glove.

"You do not tell me what to do!" Kailin turned with a quickness, his giant sword inches away from Aeron's masked face. "You are nothing but a puppet for Ren."

"Aren't we all?" Darik said quietly as he rolled his eyes, growing bored

Aeron rested his shoulder blades against the bark of a tree as he watched the Heavy swing his massive sword into a tree. He was growing bored of the man's whining about the scavenger. These last couple of days have been insufferable. His continued talk about this girl from nowhere. 'She is not worthy', 'She is nobody', 'She was struck by the luck of the Maker, by being able to defeat Kylo'.

She, she, she, she

Aeron rolled his bi-colored eyes as he looked at the man going back to having his childlike tantrum. He looked over to Darik, he too, was inwardly expressing the same emotion.

'His tantrums are becoming far worse than Ren's.' Aeron speaking to Darik through the Force.

Darik chuckled 'That, you are right my brother. A bit cosmic isn't it?'

"You find this funny? We sit here like sitting ducks, while she plays rebel with those … those people" Bailio screamed

On the other side of the clearing, Keir squinted at the defector Mortathi. She couldn't believe that this man would betray them, betray Kylo… betray her. They sought solace in each other in the time after the fall of Master Skywalker and before they became the Knights of Ren. They've spent countless secret nights together, on outer rim planets, when they weren't on a mission. They were tired of this life. The fighting, the constant barking orders.

'Your heart is showing' Vrei snuck into her mind. Keir looked over at the women and hardened her face. 'Don't let this cloud you. If not now, he would have later. Don't make this harder.'

Keir nodded to her, picked up her cloak and walked away to her ship.

As she walked to her ship, there was a deep rumble. It was violent and loud. The ground and the trees shook around her. Keir covered her ear, protecting them from the horrendous metal screeching that violated the air.

"What the hell was that?!" She tried screaming over the noise.

"I can't hear you" Vrei replied in her clipped accent. 'I can't hear you!' She screamed back at her through the Force.

"What!?" Keir still couldn't hear the woman.

Then a quick silence. A high pitched ringing echoing in their ears. And out of nowhere, a familiar whining sound zoomed above them.

All the Knights froze, staring up at the sky, jaws dropped.

"Is that what I think it was?" Mortathi first to break the silence and used the photoreceptors of his helmet to scan the sky.

"No!" Kailin screamed, "I'm taking her NOW!" Kailin sheathed his sword, clipped his helmet on, and rapidly walked away.

"Time for the hunt, brothers, and sisters" Mortathi smirked as he stroked the modified shotgun that laid upon his chest. He lifted himself off the log and followed.

Poe couldn't resist, he needed to fly again. Mostly because he needed that freedom of flight, to be in the air. He began to go stir-crazy after being underground for the most part of the week.

He greedily looked over the console like an old lover, even though they've just met. Seductively running his fingers across the surface of the dust-covered buttons treating it tenderly. The panel was more outdated than the one he had stolen on Starkiller Base, but it was nothing he couldn't handle.

"There you are, you beauty" With an excited bite of his lower lip, he found the what he was looking for. With a small twitch of his finger, he flicked the red switch up. The ship roared to life. The TIE fighter pulsed around him. Lights on the console twinkled for the first time in over 30 years. Then the ship calmly turned to a purr as the engine warmed. Poe read all the gauges and scans, everything was working perfectly. So he hoped.

"Beebee-Ate open those doors" Poe yelled through the open cockpit. He sat back in the seat, buckled himself, put his helmet on, and turned on the thrusters. The ship hesitated a little.

"Come on, sweet thing. You can do this" he sweetly pleaded to the fighter ship. He gave the ship a couple of seconds before he gave the thrusters another go.

"Alright, you got this." He flipped the switch again. The thruster sputtered and forced itself to continue. "Atta, girl"

"Beebee-Ate, those doors, please!" BB-8 beeped and blipped. After a few moments, a deafening metal being heavily scratched filled the bunker as the doors opened. The setting sunlight filled above the dark hanger like a cavern. Poe flicked another switch above him and the ship wobbled as it slowly lifted off the ground.

Up

Up

Up… the ship went out of the hanger. Poe's smile stretched from ear to ear. He flipped another switch, pressed another button, and checked the gauges. Everything seemed to continuously be running smoothly.

"There we go, slowly" His excitement growing more the higher he went "Gently"

Poe could make the outline of shadows, of trees, stretching across the edges of the opening.

A static noise came through his helmet "Poe, can you hear me?" It was Rey

"Sure thing kiddo" he tapped the side of the helmet "you're coming a little choppy, but it's fine."

"How's is it?" There was a jovial sound to her voice

"So far, so good." He smirked "Nothing's smoking."

"Not funny, Dameron" he heard Cova Nell in the background. He laughed into the com of the helmet.

Nothing but pure bliss coursed through his body in the next moments. The sun poured into his cockpit. Poe gripped the yoke as the dirt began to surround him as he flew higher out of the ground. He wished BB-8 were able to fly with him, his little buddy, a partner in flight.

Rey, Lieutenant Connix, Cova Nell, and Cai Thranalli laughed as they heard Poe whooping through the com.

"Oh, I can't wait to modify these engines," said Cova Nell, "These things were top class in their day. But, even now, they're way advanced than some of the ships we had."

"Yungm'cha" Cai Thranalli nodded in agreement in his growly native tongue, waving a torque wrench. Cova padded the Abednedo-ian on his shoulder and continued to tinker on the TIE Silencer

"When I was a kid, on Jakku, I used to pretend to fly one of the these. I even used to wear a rebel helmet as I 'escaped' from the Empire. " Rey reminisced about her old life.

"Really?" Connix asked, removing a panel from the Silencer.

"Yea, there wasn't really much to do. You know, being a junkyard planet and all." Rey scoffed.

"Did you have a lot of children to play with?" asked Rose

"No, not really. I knew kids, that I scavenged with. But that's about it." Rey continued playing with the buttons of a console.

"I know how you feel. Growing up, it was just me and Paige on Hays Minor." Rose subconsciously rubbed the half-medallion around her neck as she threw a wrench to Rey.

Rey nodded as she began unscrewing bolts on the console of the TIE Fighter she sat in. As she began to pull the panel she was unscrewing, the world around her became foggy.

"Oh, kriff" she mumbled to herself. Rey continued to pull the panel, exposing the wiring and electronic boards behind it.

"What in Maker are you doing?" She could hear Kylo. Rey ignored him "Rey?"

"I can't speak right now" she mumbled. Rey playing and pulling wires that were connected to a black box.

"Are we not alone?" Kylo looked around, even though all he could see was Rey with a wrench in her mouth and wires in her hands, beads of sweat forming between her brows

Rey looked over at her friends and roughly smiled to Rose with the wrench still between her lips. A little dribble of drool began to pool and spill out of her mouth.

In a small swoop, Kylo bent over and with his thumb wiped some of the drool from her mouth. Rey's body quickly reacted by shooting up and making her head slam against the under part of the cockpit console.

"Nooo!" Making Rey's eyes widen and the wrench to fall out with a loud clank against TIE's cockpit floor.

"You ok?" Cova yelled in worry.

She responded with a loud MHM. Rey winced and rubbed the throbbing spot on her head. She rose her eyes to give him a dirty look only to see a glistening bare chest in front of her. Her eyes grew wider, her breathing shallowed, as she realized one of his hands were gripping a black towel around his waist.

She immediately looked up at his face, her cheeks red as the sky of Mustafar, and her hazel eyes refusing to blink. With her face toward him, her eyes wandered everywhere else trying not to notice as the glistening water from his hair dripping and landing on his collarbone, then falling to his chest, slowly rolling down to his abs and be soaked up by the towel he held.

"My eyes are up here," Kylo used his two fingers to give her the watching-you-watching-me signal. Using that same hand to push back his wet hair from his face and all with the signature Solo grin.

Rey stood to her feet, stumbling out of the cockpit, landing hard on her hands and knees.

"Holy kriff, Rey!" Connix ran over to help her up. "Are you ok?"

"Yea… yea" Rey refused "I'm… a…"

Kylo was now standing next to Connix with that, looking like he was leaning on her, a smirk plastered on his face. When their eyes met, he twitched his eyebrow up as he shrugged his shoulders.

"Can you put on clothes are something?" Rey hovered her hand over her eyes. She felt like she was going to throw up her heart.

'Oh! He's beautiful. I wonder...' She violently shook her head at the thought. Her imagination running wild. She wanted to run her finger through his ink black hair and wondered what it would be like to place her lips on his full lips. Thoughts continuing to betray her.

"Um… I am wearing clothes?" Connix said slowly as she tugged at her flight suit. "Are you sure you're ok? Did your head on the way down?" worrying about her.

"Yes, I'm fine. I'm just gonna…" Rey words fumbled out. For a split second, she thought she heard Kylo laugh. It was an odd and satisfying sound. "What are you laughing at?" She spat.

"I'm not laughing at anything, Rey." Connix looked around.

"Ugh" Rey let out a big sigh and stomped off.

"Maybe you should go to Medbay!" Nell bellowed out. Rey waved her hand as she continued to walk to the turbo lift, Kylo following behind.

"Bailo, STOP!" Screamed Aeron chasing after the man. For a stocky man, he moved with a swiftness.

"Oh let the man get what he wants." Mortathi nonchalantly waived the man.

"Are you insane! We will be caught."

"Are you scared of rebel scum like them?" Mortathi's voice raising

"No" Aeron responded, shifting his eyes to Vrei.

"Ren, gave us strict orders to get that girl when the time was right" Mortathi lied. Aeron's nose flared, under his mask, with anger. But his emotions vibrated through the Force. "And the time is right!"

"Why are you so mad, my brother? Is there something upsetting you about this?" Darik played along.

Aeron slowly calmed himself. "No" he retorted

"Good" Mortathi headed towards Kailin's direction, continuing to follow him, Killstreak in hand.

"But seriously, could you put something on?" Rey continued to face the turbolift doors.

"I am covered up."

"No, you're no…." Rey's body stiffened and turned her head to her side as if she saw something other than Kylo. More like sensed, Her body shivered, her stomach turned, her face blanking. It was the same terrible gut-wrenching feeling she was given by the voices in the woods.

"Rey?" Kylo grabbed her shoulder. All her emotions shot through his mind. She was scared. It was his Knights. They were close. They were coming for her. "It's too soon."

Rey snapped out of her daze, stomach still in knots. Fear and anxiety coursed through her veins. "What did you just say?" she turned to him.

"Not yet," Kylo said angrily, he was paying no attention to Rey. She saw him sit in an invisible seat and start poking multiple somethings. For a split second, she had thought she saw out the viewport of a cockpit, hyperspace whizzing by.

"I'm sorry? Do you know where we are?" realizing what was happening. Rey herself began to press the turbolift buttons as if it would make it go any faster.

"Of course, I know where you are." He continued to click switches, press button on his cockpit panel.

"Oh Maker, I... have to... tell Leia..." Rey was beginning to hyperventilate, her head becoming light-headed, mouth dry. "I can't breath." On hand grabbing her chest, the other hand the wall, holding her up. It felt like all of the air in her lungs left her body.

Without taking his hands off the console, Kylo looked at Rey. "It's ok, Rey. Just keep breathing. Just give me a … second. Ok."

Kylo moved over to Rey and placed himself in front of her. "Ok, calm down. I used to have these all the time as a kid."

"Calm down? Are you mad, you know where we are. The whole First Order knows we're here." fumbled Rey. "Can't you just leave us alone? Don't touch me!" she screamed. Kylo tried to place his hands on her shoulders to try and calm her.

"Rey, look at me." He gently grabbed for her shoulders again, this time she didn't retract. "The First Order knows nothing of the Resistance's location." Rey still shaking, looked into his eyes. She was reading eyes for any deception. "I'm telling the truth."

"You are telling the truth," she affirmed. Her nerves began to settle with his sincerity. She could feel his truth. She felt his anger but it wasn't towards her or the Resistance. It was for something else she couldn't precisely pinpoint.

"And what did you mean by 'Not yet'?" she aggressively asked.

'We're coming for you, Scavenger' a heavy-bodied voice came into her head.