The drop out of hyperspace jolted Ben out of his meditation. He opened his eyes and looked around the cabin, his gaze finally settling on the digital readout on the opposite wall. He squinted. The timestamp indicated that several hours had passed. It had seemed like mere minutes, but he felt more rested than he had in quite some time.

Rey's hand was still in his.

As she came out of her own meditation, she relinquished her grip on him and stretched her arms out in front of her. "Are we nearly there?" she asked Rose, who had just come into the cabin from the direction of the berths.

"We're approaching now," Rose reported.

Poe brought the ship through the atmosphere to skim along the tops of the trees, finally circling around to land in a small clearing several klicks away from the old Resistance base. Ben checked that his lightsaber was clipped to his belt as the others likewise armed themselves.

"All right, everyone," Poe said, stuffing a blaster into the back of his belt as he exited the cockpit. "I didn't see anyone when we came in, but that doesn't mean they didn't see us." He slipped another, smaller blaster into his boot. "Keep your eyes peeled out there 'til we can scout the area." He checked a third blaster, then holstered it at his side.

Finn gave a tight nod. Rose bit her lip and sidled closer to him. Rey set her jaw and rested a hand on Leia's lightsaber, where it was hooked to her belt.

Ben punched a finger into the controls. As the ramp ratcheted down, he descended first, and paused at the bottom to scan the area and listen. The flora this deep in the forest was dense and overgrown, and the canopy overhead blocked most of the sunlight from reaching the forest floor. Visibility was much lower than he would've liked.

He had a bad feeling about this.*

But then a steady presence appeared at his back. Rey.

The others joined them, Poe shutting up the ship as he exited last. With a final sweep of his gaze through the surrounding trees, Ben turned and headed toward the old base.

With Rey right behind him, he led the way through the dense forest. His gaze constantly flicked from shadow to shadow as they picked their way along. Finn and Rose trailed along behind them, with the ex-trooper's head on a constant swivel, and Poe brought up the rear, blaster out and safety off.

Ben's hand hovered over his lightsaber hilt as he pushed through the thick underbrush. Every so often, he took a steadying breath and reached out with the Force, searching their vicinity for any company. He felt Rey doing the same, alternating her efforts with his.

She felt them an instant before he did.

"Everyone get down!" she hissed, tugging at his shoulder and gesturing at the rest of them. The team ducked into the underbrush.

From their cover, Ben peered through the leaves as several Stormtroopers tromped over an incline several yards away.

"It landed through there," one of them said to his fellows, pointing. His modulated voice carried through the forest to where the Resistance members were hiding.

Kriff. As he'd feared they might, the First Order had left a contingent of troopers behind to guard the base. Damn Hux and his eternally suspicious mind. At least it meant there had to be a functioning transport they could commandeer, he supposed.

But the Stormtroopers couldn't be allowed to find and tamper with their ship. Tracking the flashes of white armor moving through the brush, Ben looked beyond them and made a flicking motion with his hand.

A crash sounded far off through the trees.

The troopers froze. "What was that?" one asked.

"Sounded like it came from over there," another said, pointing in the opposite direction.

"We'd better go check it out," the first one decided. He started off in the direction of the sound, leading the others safely away from the Resistance ship and the team's hiding spot.

Rey touched Ben's arm. "Nice work," she whispered, grinning at him. He proudly smirked back.

They waited until the Stormtroopers were far enough away to be out of earshot, then started moving again. Doing their best to make as little noise as possible, they pushed through the underbrush, stepping carefully over fallen logs and shouldering through low-hanging branches. It was slow going, and Ben kept glancing around, hoping the rogue Stormtroopers wouldn't catch up to them.

When they at last emerged from the trees at the edge of the base, Ben stilled at the sight stretching out before him. At his shoulder, he heard Rey's breath catch.

Poe had been right. The First Order had razed the base to the ground.

As they made their way out of the forest and into the base, Ben observed the wreckage around them with a sense of disquiet. The First Order—people he had known—had done this. Once upon a time, he had done this. Empty shells of buildings stood like shadowy specters, their windows blown out and walls scorched from laser fire. Crates were overturned, and blackened debris was scattered across the ground. A lone combat boot sat abandoned by the wayside, its singed mate several yards away. Weeds were already starting to encroach on the well-worn pathways.

This once-bustling place had been his home for six years. He'd done life here. He had studied and trained and tested and fought and yearned here. It had all been reduced to a graveyard.

He shuddered. The shadow of Kylo Ren hung heavily over this place.

"Come on," Rey murmured from beside him. "Let's keep moving."

On high alert, the team made their way deeper into the base. There was certainly enough scrap metal strewn around for the sets of armor he wanted to construct, Ben mused. At least the destruction would be good for something. He made mental notes of where the best shrapnel was so he could double back later and scavenge the better pieces.

They passed by several downed TIE fighters. One had dug a deep ditch in the soil behind it, while another had torn the roof off an outbuilding as it had crashed. The dented, wingless hulls were empty and badly burned, their viewports busted out with only jagged, teeth-like shards of glass remaining. There would be nothing of use there.

The team rounded the corner of the barracks building, and came face to face with a squad of Stormtroopers.

"Stop right there!" one trooper cried, raising his blaster.

Ben palmed his lightsaber and thumbed it on, the violet blade instantly humming to life. Rey's blue saber ignited in tandem with his.

The troopers opened fire.

In the same moment, Ben felt his bond to Rey flare open and her thoughts intertwine with his. He immediately understood her plan, and rather than worry, he found himself starting to grin.

Just like old times.

As one, they whipped up their sabers in an intricate flurry of violet and blue, blocking the laser fire and pushing forward. Blaster bolts ricocheted in every direction, rocketing off into the air and gouging into battle-scarred walls, some striking back at the troopers who had shot them. One trooper went flying back, crashing heavily to the ground.

And then the Jedi were upon them.

Ben quickly incapacitated one, and Rey took out another. The fourth escaped around the corner of the barracks before Ben could stop him, his comm in hand as he radioed for help.

"Get ready for company," Ben warned over his shoulder.

Armed and ready, the others glanced around, looking for a place to hide. Poe pointed to another outbuilding some distance away, and Ben began to lead the group in that direction. Through the labyrinthine alleys and piles of debris, they ran for the battered outbuilding.

Before they could reach cover, another squad of troopers trotted in formation around the last corner, blasters out and primed. Ben skidded to a halt and spun on his heel, the others following suit, but at the other end of the alley, a second group of troopers appeared.

They were trapped.

"Hands up!" one trooper shouted.

Ben and Rey exchanged a look. Poe nodded to Finn and Rose.

With a roar, Poe started shooting at the group behind them. Finn and Rose joined in. Ben and Rey turned to the other group in a mixed blur of blue and violet light.

The melee was brief but intense. The troopers were skilled, but they didn't stand a chance against trained Jedi and scrappy Resistance fighters. They went down one by one.

Cutting off his saber with a hiss, Ben turned to the group. "Everyone all right?"

Poe winced as he attempted to put weight on his ankle. Finn and Rose were immediately at his side.

"A stray bolt hit near my feet. I landed wrong," he explained. "I'm fine. Just need to walk it off. Let's keep moving."

Ben shook his head, eyeing Poe's ankle gravely. "No. We can't have any more surprises or injuries. Get to the outbuilding and hide. Rey and I will scout the rest of the base."

Poe looked ready to argue, but he bit his tongue and finally nodded. With a shoulder under each arm, Finn and Rose helped the pilot limp the rest of the way to the entrance of the deserted outbuilding.

Ben turned to Rey, an invitation in his eyes. She nodded wordlessly at him. With saber hilts in hand, they turned together and continued around the corner.

Tiptoeing down pathways and slipping past burnt-out buildings, they managed to scout the rest of the base without running into any more Stormtroopers. In fact, the whole base seemed to have gone quiet. It didn't sit well with Ben, who reached out with the Force every few minutes to check again for nearby signs of life.

When they came to the opposite end of the base, Ben peered around the last building, then beckoned for Rey to take a look. A makeshift compound had been erected by the First Order contingent several yards outside the old Rebel base. Beside it stood a mid-sized transport.

Perfect.

Spotting a pile of rubble up ahead, Ben sprinted over and ducked down behind it. Rey hunkered down next to him.

They watched as a couple troopers milled around the entrance to the enemy compound. Sizing it up, Ben reckoned a platoon of about twenty troopers could be housed there, in addition to a few officers. By his count, they'd already dispatched eleven troopers, and four others were presumably still searching the forest for the source of a noise they'd never find. It left a few unaccounted for, but their team's odds were looking better and better.

The troopers came to attention as a pair of officers walked by, but the uniformed men were too deep in conversation to notice them.

Ben cocked his head. "D'you think the officers' uniforms would fit Poe, Finn, or Rose?" he asked quietly.

Rey glanced sideways at him and shrugged. "Only one way to find out."

Staying low, they skirted the perimeter of the base, drawing closer to the First Order compound. The officers had gone inside, and the troopers continued on their rounds, oblivious to the two approaching rebels.

They'd almost made it when Ben suddenly had the uncontrollable urge to duck.

Without even contemplating the move, he jerked out of the way just as a blaster bolt whizzed by his head, close enough to singe the ends of his hair. He spun around, automatically sweeping his hand up in an arc, and the next bolt froze in midair, crackling mere inches from Rey's chest. She gasped.

A squad of Stormtroopers had snuck up on them.

"Hey!" one of the troopers at the compound shouted, finally noticing what was going on. His cry rallied his fellows, and they started to approach, weapons drawn.

Brow drawn low, Ben took them in, then turned a deadly glare back on the squad behind them. Mud was caked onto their boots and smeared up their shin guards, and he could read the frustration flowing off them in waves. A smirk curled the corner of his lips.

Ah, so the forest troopers had figured it out, then.

He ignited his lightsaber at the same time Rey ignited hers. She put her back against his, facing off against the compound soldiers while he took on the forest group.

As one, they leapt into action. Rey charged at the compound troopers with a roar, saber held aloft and slicing through the air with a high-pitched hum. She ducked their fire, maneuvering through and around them before they could hit her, incapacitating them as she went. Ben snarled at the forest troopers and rushed at them, swinging his blade with deadly accuracy as he reflected blaster bolts and cut them down. He could feel the rage flowing through him at the thought that one of them had just tried to kill Rey. He wouldn't allow them a chance to make that mistake again.

Yes… Fight them…

He cut off the end of one's blaster in a shower of sparks, then sliced through another's armor. The injured trooper fell to the ground, cradling his midsection. Ben swung back and relieved the first trooper of his head.

Feel the anger flowing through you…

Another trooper had a Z6 baton. He slung the electrified baton out, ratcheting it around to catch Ben's blade. Ben bared his teeth as he grunted with effort against the trooper's strength. But he was taller, and he pressed down on the trooper's weapon with his saber, finally overpowering the man and pushing him away.

The fourth trooper had circled around with a vibro axe. He lunged at Ben's back, but Ben twirled his saber around to block the attack just in time. The trooper reared back and swung the axe again, bringing it down upon him. Ben met his weapon with an arcing uppercut, and they clashed again.

Ben pushed him away in time to deflect the baton again. The first trooper swung the baton around with an angry howl. Ben swept his saber across his midsection, blocking the baton's crackling vanes before they could make contact and electrocute him.

The vibro axe swung for his head. Ben caught it before the trooper could embed it in his skull and slung off the weapon with a powerful thrust. Without waiting, the trooper cocked back and swung again.

"Don't kill him!" came a shout. "The Supreme Leader wants him alive!"

Had it not been for his years of training and honed skills, Ben might've been distracted by the directive. As it was, he whipped his lightsaber around him in a blur of humming violet light against the tag-teaming troopers, swiftly blocking their attacks and viciously striking back. He flicked a sweaty strand of hair out of his face as he defended himself against the axe, then the baton, then the axe again.

The baton-wielding trooper made a mistake, and Ben's blade found its mark with a sizzle, ending the threat. A blaster bolt whizzed by him as he swirled out of the way, ducking to catch the axe under the hooked blade and shoving the trooper away from him, then he spun sharply with the saber, relieving the trooper of the axe with his hand still attached to it. A swift thrust, and the trooper was relieved of his life as well. Another blaster bolt was coming—but he flicked his saber up and parried it back to embed itself in the trooper who'd shot at him.

Ren… Feel the power of the Dark Side…

Breathing hard, Ben turned in time to see Rey dispatch the last of the troopers. She sagged in relief as the trooper fell. Wisps of hair had escaped from her buns and framed her pink cheeks in sweaty strands, and she turned to him with burning hazel eyes.

She was beautiful.

And suddenly, he found himself wanting to dominate her. He wanted to grab her by the hair and kiss her, invade her mouth with his tongue. Push her to the ground and take her right then and there—

He smothered the train of thought with a frisson of horror. How insidiously the Dark Side tried to lure him in! The thought of violating her like that sickened him.

Pushing away the roiling anger and the thrill of battle, he shut off his lightsaber and quickly closed the distance between them. "Are you all right?" he asked, looking her over for signs of injury.

"Fine," she managed, still catching her breath. "But there's no way those officers didn't hear all that fighting."

Ben cast a look toward the compound. "I'm sure they've already called the incident in. We've gotta find them. Come on."

With his hand at the small of her back, they entered the compound. Only when they were out of range did Ben finally release the very first blaster bolt, which hit the outer wall of the compound with an explosion of sparks.

They came upon the officers relatively quickly. Pushing through the door to the central command tent, Ben and Rey found the two officers huddled around a portable comm unit. The two men looked up at them with wide eyes.

"Who are you?"

"Wait, don't—!"

Ben raised a hand and put them both into a Force-induced sleep. They wouldn't remember anything when they awoke, which wouldn't be for at least another day or so. He crossed the room and turned the comm unit toward him.

"No outgoing calls in the past several hours," he reported.

"They could've wiped the history," Rey reasoned.

"True. Come on, let's make sure that's all of them, then get the others. We need to do what we came here to do, then get the hell out of here."

On high alert, they swept the rest of the compound, and then the transport ship. They encountered no other First Order personnel, and a manifest Rey found on the ship proved by their count that there were no soldiers left.

They went back to the barracks to retrieve the others. Ben and Finn supported Poe back to the First Order transport vessel, where Rey dug out a first aid kit and began to tend to the pilot's injured ankle. Rose went in search of the cockpit to begin examining the ship's computer.

Poe hissed through gritted teeth as Rey gingerly removed his boot and folded up his pant leg. Across the cabin, Finn and Ben grimaced at the purple, swollen joint.

"This looks like more than a sprain, Poe," Rey observed with sympathy. She rifled through the first aid pack, retrieving several bacta patches and a roll of elastic medical tape. She eyed the selection with lackluster enthusiasm, then opened the first bacta patch.

Pulling Poe's foot into her lap, she spread the medicated patch onto the joint. The pilot sucked in a breath through pursed lips.

A frown came over Rey's face as her hands lingered on the joint. "That's… odd," she murmured.

"What is it?" Poe asked in a clipped, panicked tone. "What's odd?"

"No, it's okay, it's just… I think I can feel where the bone is broken." She cocked her head, then spread her fingers over his ankle. Her eyes drifted closed. "Yes," she said, smiling faintly. "It's just there."

As she continued to hold the joint in her hands, Poe's expression morphed from pain to confusion, and then into wonder. When she removed her hands, he examined his ankle, gingerly flexed it, and finally turned wide eyes up to her.

"How did you do that?" he asked, his voice full of awe.

She shrugged. "I don't know. I just… knew what to do."

Finn leaned closer to Ben. "Was that another one of those Force things, Solo?"

"Don't call me that," Ben muttered back.

But he was too distracted to truly take offense. Yet again, Rey had displayed signs of incredible power. Force healing wasn't a common skill, and certainly not one that was so intuitively performed. He'd never personally witnessed it, at least not outside the vision, and truth be told, he didn't know as much about it as he should. But the amount of strength it took… he was torn between concern for her well being and awe at her abilities. The girl was an entity to be reckoned with.

"Do you feel well enough to walk?" Rey asked, standing back.

Poe got to his feet. "Yeah. Yeah, I feel great, actually. That's incredible! Thank you!"

Rey smiled up at him.

Jerking a thumb over his shoulder, Poe said, "I'm going to check on Rose in the cockpit, see if she needs any help."

"I'll look for any extra uniforms," Finn offered, heading toward the berths at the rear of the vessel.

As the team dispersed, Rey came to stand beside Ben. "Should we go look for scrap metal?"

He nodded silently, still a bit in awe, and followed her down the ramp back to the base.

…

"So what exactly are we looking for?" Rey asked. They were on the far side of the base, studying the spray of shrapnel Ben had seen on the way in.

"Things that can be made into armor plates and helmets," Ben replied.

"I don't think we're going to find much of that here," she said, squatting and picking up a large fragment of metal casing.

"It doesn't have to be pretty. In fact, it's better if it isn't." He crouched down and hefted a torn sheet of metal. With a bit of work, it could be turned into a breastplate. He held onto it and stood up.

Rey nodded. With a better understanding of what they were looking for, she began to pick up similar pieces.

Together, they amassed a pile of potentially usable scraps. As they worked, Ben's mind ticked over in the background, putting the pieces together like a puzzle and coming up with a tentative mental design for their suits of armor.

The sky was beginning to darken when he decided they'd collected enough for the time being. Gathering everything together, he Force-lifted the scrap pile and followed Rey back to the First Order transport ship.