Author's Note: Don't panic you didn't skip a chapter! Yeah you read that right, I'm switching up the POV from here on out. Hope that doesn't cause too much confusion but it's needed in order to keep the story flowing. So cheers!
Disclaimer: I do not nor have I ever owned Star Wars. I simply play in their world.
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"There is a sacredness in tears. They
are not the mark of weakness, but of
power. They speak more eloquently
than ten thousand tongues. They are
messengers of overwhelming grief...
and unspeakable love."
-Washington Irving
Rey
"Where did Poe and Finn run off to? Where's the Falcon?"
Both them and ship have vanished and I'm talking to empty space, fuming.
The compressor was nearly shot from their last mission and I had intended to fix it before they took off again.
With Poe's flying I could only imagine the kind of work Chewie was having to put in to keep her together.
"Gone."
Leia coming up from behind me, her mouth pressed into a hard line.
"Where?"
"Back to Sinta."
"They just came from there," I don't understand why she sent them back if the First Order was crawling all over that place, "why would you send them back?"
"Boolio has found something. A datafile from a high-ranking officer in the First Order. Heavily encrypted."
Her words take a minute to sink in and the implications are beyond anything I could imagine.
"Are you saying there is a spy in the First Order? In the upper ranks?"
If that was true...then we had an ally...and Ren had a traitor walking among his people.
"I don't know. But that's why I sent Finn and Poe to retrieve that datafile. If what we suspect is true that information is vital to the war."
"I understand."
I must have sounded as distracted as I felt because Leia is giving me that look I've been seeing too often. The one that says I've worried her again.
"What is it Rey?"
I swallow and grip my staff tight before offering her Luke's saber that I had been practicing with.
"I let my anger get the better of me in training. I'm not ready for this. I don't know if I'll ever be ready."
It was the closest I could admit to being afraid of the legacy I now have to bear.
Gently Leia takes it from me, staring at her brother's saber in the silence between us.
"He wasn't ready for this either," she sounds as if she is reliving the past, "he was just a boy from Tatooine. He knew nothing of war or the hard lessons that come from endless fighting."
I have never heard her talk like this. There was no bitterness, no regret. Only infinite sorrow that made my heart tremble to hear it.
"Master..." I want to offer her comfort but I didn't know where to begin. How do you offer comfort to someone who has lost everyone she has ever loved?
Her husband, her brother and though her son was alive, he too was lost.
Leia's hand closes over the saber and she gives me that steely smile that we all recognize.
The one that tells me she doesn't want, or need, anyone's pity.
"He found a way, just as we did. I'm not going to be around forever. Sooner or later you're going to have to decide your own fate."
"Master," alarms were going off in my head, a sense of dread that sends a cold chill through me, "don't say that! We need you...I need you."
"I don't plan on dying anytime soon so don't look at me like that."
I let out a watery laugh and shake my head. What am I so worried about? The General was going to outlive all of us, I swear it.
"Right. Sorry. I'm going to go check in with Rose, see if there is anything I can do to help with preparations."
I've only taken a few steps when her voice calls out to me.
"Rey, it is not our fears that define who we are. It is how we handle them that matters."
I turn back to Leia, confusion and wary hesitation thrumming through me.
"Master?"
But she only shakes her head at me.
"No I won't give you the answer. That's something you have to figure out yourself."
Just then I hear Commander D'Acy calling out for her and our time together is over.
The General is needed and I am left with more than a few questions in the wake of our strange conversation.
Luke mentioned once in passing that Leia had a gift for seeing visions of the future.
I wonder if she saw something of mine and this was her way of trying to tell me the path I should follow.
But my head is full of what I shared with Ren in the training area and I can't concentrate.
I needed a distraction.
That distraction arrives in the form of the Falcon landing with half the hull on fire.
"Damn it Poe what did you do to her now!"
I'm already sprinting for the burning ship just as crews arrive putting out the fires as Poe and Finn come racing down the gangplank.
"Rey!"
Finn picks me up and hugs me tight. I return his embrace, happy to see my friend.
With Finn everything was so easy. His brotherly affection is like a balm and I can return his affection without reservation.
Unlike Ren whom I...
No. I have to stop thinking like this.
We break apart and Poe is staring at me with a disgruntled look on his face. I'm probably wearing the same expression.
"What the hell did you do to the Falcon this time?"
"If you were around maybe you would know!"
I step back stunned by the hostility in his voice.
"Poe...you know I'm being hunted by the First Order! Going out is like painting a target on my back and anyone who is with me."
"Look around Rey! Everyone here has a target painted on their backs. Hiding away isn't going to change that or help win this war."
I know he's speaking the truth but I can't help but hate him a little for his callous way of thinking.
Finn steps in between us ever the peacemaker.
"I know it looks bad but if Poe had hyperspace-skipped us away from the First Order..."
"What!" I cut Finn off and glare at Poe, "I told you the compressor was going out! No wonder she's on fire! You're lucky you didn't cripple her!"
"Well it was either that or get killed by the First Order so yeah, I'll take a burned out compressor or two over our deaths any day of the week!"
I throw up my hands, I can't deal with Poe when he's being this...this unreasonable.
"Finn...help me out here..."
He actually refused my plea for backup.
"Sorry Rey...but Poe is right. He saved our lives with that trick of his and we could have really used your help out there."
I rock back on my heels, betrayal and hurt flowing through me. Finn has always supported me...but now he's siding with Poe.
Finn sighs and Poe's temper is riding high. "I'm taking this datafile to Kin. Whatever is on it we need to know about now. I have a feeling it has something to do with what Kylo Ren was doing in the Unknown Region."
I swallow back my anger and nod my head. I say nothing of what I already know.
"Fine. I'll help Chewie repair the Falcon."
"Rey..."
Finn reaching for me but I brush him off.
"No you've both made your opinion clear. Leave me alone and let me do something useful...for once."
I pretend not to see the hurt on his face, he always wears what he feels out in the open but right now I'm not interested in hurt feelings.
I have enough going on in my life I don't need anymore complications.
I could feel my anger burning inside of me. I needed to calm down.
Ren's words come back to haunt me.
"Anger can be useful...but only if you focus it."
Fine then I would focus that anger into fixing the Falcon.
Maybe after a while I'll have calmed down enough to apologize to Poe and Finn without choking on it.
"Damn...the entire section's going to have be replaced Chewie!" I call out to the Wookie as I pulled the burned cables from the ports. Poe really did a number on her.
At this rate it would take three days of back-to-back shifts to repair all the damage.
Chewie's responding...but he sounds urgent and I wipe the sweat from my brow and climb up the hole I was just in.
"What is it?"
He makes a series of growls and I can only stare at him.
"Kin has deciphered the datafile already? Leia's called a meeting?"
Chewie nods his head and offers me a hand up. I take it and push the repairs out of my mind. This was more important.
"Let's go."
We leave the Falcon behind and I notice that we're almost the last ones to arrive. Leia chose the open area around communications to hold the meeting and a dull pang of regret goes through me to see how little of us remain.
Compared to the First Order our Resistance is just a droplet of water against their storm.
"Good now that we're all here I'll just come out and say it," Leia's dark eyes are turbulent and that feeling of dread from earlier grows inside if me, "Palpatine is alive."
I hear the gasps...see a few of our members stagger or simple drop to their knee's as if the strength has gone out of them.
Poe looks devastated and Finn looks just as fearful...but that quickly fades as their stubborn tenacity kicks in.
I give them a wan smile and hope my lack of surprise goes unnoticed.
"I'm letting Kin take over from here. He's studied the Sith and will explain better than I can at this point."
My attention sharpens immediately. I hadn't known that about Kin. I thought he was just an intelligence operative.
"What I have...well it's not good, for us or for the the galaxy."
"Kin! How could the Emperor have survived? It's been thirty years!"
I can't tell who called out the first question but soon more questions are raised until the area is nothing but a cacophony of noise.
"Enough!" Leia's voice cracks through the air and the din comes to a halt, "let Kin speak. Questions can wait."
"Right...as for how the Emperor survived," Kin shakes his head and holds up his hands, "the Sith have information and resources that we would never think to use. Dark science...cloning...perhaps all of them or none of them. All we know for now is that he is alive and calling the shots. Whoever our spy is he's part of the inner circle."
My stomach clenches as the cheers go up that we have access to such vital information.
But I don't join in.
I can only think of the traitor who is close to Ren...a dagger in his back waiting to strike.
Ben, I close my eyes briefly sending my prayer to wherever he is roaming, be careful.
I didn't care how much we argued or what side of the war we stood on, I can't stop what I feel for him.
He's all alone up there...even if he is surrounded by his so called 'allies'.
How can I not worry for him?
...a caress of phantom fingers sliding down my cheek...
My eyes snap open and I take in a shuddering breath, my skin pebbling despite the humidity hanging in the air.
It lasted for a fraction of a second but I know what I felt.
Ren, reaching through our bond...comforting me.
Tears blur my vision and I blink them away, feeling oddly vulnerable.
I clench my hands in my lap and struggle to return my attention back to the meeting.
I can't feel this way. Not now.
"...soon for cheers," Kin still speaking, "we've uncovered more and it's all bad news. The Supreme Leader has found a way to navigate the Unknown Regions using a Sith device but unfortunately our spy doesn't know what it is. We do know that Kylo Ren made contact with Exegol and the Emperor. This is where is gets worse," he looks at us with a despair I have never seen in the stalwart man, "There is a fleet waiting in Exegol, something called the Sith Eternal and in less than twenty-four hours the 'Final Order' will be executed. The fall of freedom as we know it...and the rise of a new empire."
Leia stumbles and hands reach out to grab her, pulling her into a chair. Kin's revelation is like a blow to her soul and I ache to see the heavy lines etched into her face.
It is as though I am watching her age right before my eyes and there is nothing I can do to stop it.
"All along," she murmurs softly but everyone can hear her, "it's been the Emperor pulling the strings. All this time...and none of us aware..."
I have to do something.
The guilt from the secrets I carry is too much to bear. My eyes stray to my workstation in the distance.
The books.
Of course, the answer was right there! I could do something without feeling like I'm betraying my friends.
I leave the meeting well aware that Finn and Poe are watching me but I have no time to explain as I look through the books and my fingers brush Luke's journal.
"Kin!" I cut through the clamor and everyone looks at me, "I think I know what Kylo Ren used to find Exegol."
I didn't think, I knew but at least this way I had proof.
"Rey?"
Leia regarding me, a spark of hope in her eyes and I give her a fleeting smile as I push my way through the crowds.
"I've been studying the books from the Jedi Temple including the journal that Master Skywalker kept."
I meet Leia's gaze. Trying to explain, to atone for all the secrets I've been keeping, "Before Master Skywalker retreated from the world he was researching those Sith devices that Kin described. They're called wayfinders...only two in existence were made. One for the Master and the other for his apprentice."
"Did Master Skywalker figure out where to find them?" Kin demands and I see the despair in his murky eyes disappearing as a fierce light emerges.
I look through the worn journal, my fingers skimming the fluid writing.
"Most of this is encoded, I can't read all of it...but I do know that he mentioned at least one place. Mustafar."
"Where the Steadfast was waiting for his return." Kin mutters and I remember the message he had overheard.
I nod my head.
"Okay but why Mustafar? That's a dead world."
That was Poe speaking and I look up briefly to catch his eye.
"Because at one time it was the home of Darth Vader."
Poe looks at Leia and I say nothing more on the subject.
"But why was Luke hunting for these Sith...wayfinder things..."
That was Finn and again I'm only relaying what I've read..and what I've guessed at.
"Master Skywalker was trying to find a way to get to Exegol. To finally defeat the Sith once and for all. But he never completed the task."
"Great, fantastic." I frown at the sarcasm Poe is spewing, "If Luke couldn't find a way how the hell are we suppose to defeat something we can't even get to!"
"If you let me finish," I snap at him, "you'll find out. As I said Master Skywalker couldn't get to the wayfinder on Mustafar. It was too heavily guarded by a cult that had formed after Vader's death. But he knew of the second wayfinder and he went looking for that instead, hoping it would be more accessible."
I look at my friends and Master.
"His trail stopped on Pasaana and I don't know why. But that's where I need to go. I need to pick up where he left off and find the second wayfinder. That's how we'll get to Exegol...and defeat the Sith."
"Out of the question."
Leia snaps out her refusal so abruptly I'm startled by it.
"General," I'm not addressing her as a Padawan to her Master but as a Resistance fighter to her leader, "this is the only way we're going to win this war."
I motion for Poe to stand next to me. "Come here and tell me if you can read this."
He gives me a bemused look as I thrust the journal at him.
"What joke is this Rey? These pages are blank!"
I thought as much. I turn to Finn and he's already moving to take Poe's spot.
"Finn, tell me what you see."
"It's...something is there...but it's blurry I can't make out the details."
That confirmed it then.
Only those who trained with the Force could read these pages.
That was why I could see them. It's how Ren found them as well.
I was certain Leia would be able to read the pages in her brother's book.
"Only a Jedi can read these pages," that wasn't exactly true but I wasn't about to reveal that Ren and I were still communicating, "so it has to be me."
I turn my focus back to Leia.
"I have to go. This is my path that I need to follow, the reason I've been training all along. Only another Jedi can finish what Master Skywalker began."
"Alright then, let's get the Falcon fixed up and back in the air. If we only have twenty-four hours before the galaxy is destroyed then we had better make them count. Finn, get Rose and the other techs to the Falcon now. Chewie go with them. I want her ready to leave for Pasaana in the next hour."
Poe is issuing orders and everyone is suddenly in motion to obey and I'm standing here gaping at him like an idiot.
"Poe...no...I have to do this alone."
He gives me that cocky smile of his when he's about to do something reckless or stupid...or both.
"Not happening Rey. This is the Emperor we're talking about. It's the fate of the galaxy at stake. I know I said some harsh things to you earlier and I'm sorry about that," I lift an eyebrow at him and he grins at me, "well no I'm not. You needed to hear it but what I'm saying is...we're friends. We're in this together. It's do or die time."
Before I can respond, he's pulling Leia into our argument.
"General you more than any of us knows what we're facing. Tell her that she can't do this alone."
Leia crosses her arms and glares at both of us in equal measure.
"As much as I hate to agree with him, he's right. You can't do this alone."
I open my mouth to argue only to realize it's useless. Poe is too stubborn to listen to reason and I know Finn. There's no way he would agree to stay behind.
"Alright, fine. Come with me but don't start complaining if you end up getting yourself killed."
I relent with ill-concealed reservation but Poe has taken off at a dead run for the Falcon.
Leia is watching me and I move to her side, taking her brother's journal with me.
"I don't want to defy you Master," For once I want to be honest with the woman who has given so much to me, "but I will do this. You told me that I was going to have to find my path...choose my own fate. That's what I'm doing now."
I take a deep breath and square my shoulders. I couldn't hide here any longer. I was not a child to be frightened of the dark.
I was a Jedi...and now it was time to live up to that title.
"I will complete the work your brother started but I would like to leave knowing that I have your support. Will you give it to me?"
Leia's on her feet and before I can do anything, I'm in her arms.
I don't remember what my own mother's embrace felt like...but as I wrap my arms around Leia...I hoped that it felt like this.
"Rey," she whispers to me and I know that her words are for me alone, "never doubt the strength inside you. I won't stop you. Know that you carry my love wherever you go."
My vision blurs and all I can do is hold onto her, hoping she understands just how much I needed to hear that someone loves me.
"Thank you Master," I whisper, tears soaking her collar, "I won't fail you. I promise."
"Oh Rey," her words sound watery, "you could never fail me."
