No one came to answer the door.

Of course no one came to answer the door! She was an idiot. The woman hand proven herself to be cautious and more than capable of defending herself upon their last encounter. Rey had done nothing more than give her forewarning and time to prepare herself.

She ground her teeth together in frustration. Master Luke would have made her hang back. Master Luke would have taken his time, and insisted they watched the house to see who came and went and at what times. She, however, had raced into action, intent on proving to herself that she was useful, that she was more to the Resistance than a liability. Thanks to her lack of foresight, she now had only one option.

Rey backed up and ran at the door, smashing her shoulder against the solid wooden planks. She felt a little give. It took two more runs before the door burst inward, depositing her into a richly adorned chamber which reeked of cloying incense.

Red gauzy fabric hung in swathes from the ceiling. Rey brushed a shimmering curtain aside impatiently and saw the woman reclining on a divan. A large and intricately designed hookah sat beside her, and as Rey watched, the woman lifted the hose to her mouth and inhaled. Staring back at Rey with an obvious lack of concern, she exhaled leisurely.

"Well… come in, why don't you?" she smirked, giving a pointed look toward the broken door.

"Your name is Amalia, isn't it?" Rey asked, taking a cautious step forward.

The woman did not bother to answer her question, but she gestured at Rey with the hand that held that hookah pipe.

"I know you!" the woman realized. "The little would-be Jedi. I suppose you still haven't found what you're looking for?"

"On the contrary. The Dark Moon was a ship. A sith ship used for battle meditation, but I suppose you already knew that."

"Then you'd be supposing incorrectly," the woman said and drew another breath from the tube. "I did as I was asked- dropped a few crumbs, hoped the insects would follow the trail, and when they did, I collected my fee."

"You…you… were working for the Knights of Ren?" Rey realized.

"I suppose so," the woman agreed slowly, as though the thought had not occurred to her before. "Though I have no loyalties to them. It was more of a favor to a very important client—I was asked to share the name of the weapon which destroyed Affa Bal Zid, and if anyone came looking for more answers, to call upon the Knights—which I did. A good thing too. We weren't expecting the raiders."

"A favor?" Rey repeated shakily.

"Mmm," the woman agreed. "So, you see, if you've come to threaten me for specifics, you won't have much luck."

"You know the Knights of Ren well-" Rey began.

The woman gave a harsh laugh and took another breath from the hookah.

"Stars, no! Not all of them, at any rate. Only one Knight in particular, and only for an hour or two at a time."

Rey flushed at the woman's words, and cleared her throat. The haze of smoke was beginning to affect her. She felt light headed, and her mouth burned when she swallowed.

"I need you to tell me everything you know about him then—his coming and goings, any small bit of information he might have shared. Anything strange you might have noticed. I need to know what the Knights of Ren are planning. I can compensate you."

"And if I don't?" the woman smirked.

"Then… I can find other ways to motivate you." Rey said, her face becoming hard.

Ah… not very subtle. The ways of the Jedi are changing with the times, I see. Very well, you make a compelling case. Let me think…"

She took another deep hit and blew the smoke in a long steady stream toward Rey.

"I know that Kylo Ren likes to be on top. I know that pain makes him more excited—that he likes me to scream when he pulls my hair or bites me. He likes it rough and fast against the wall or on the floor, and I know that it makes him hard when I pretend to be frightened. I know his tongue has talent, and I don't mean with words. I know he'll pay extra to put me in restraints and—"

"STOP!" Rey shouted, her hands curling into fists. "You know that's not what I meant. You're just trying to… trying to…"

The woman chuckled under her breath and cast a furtive glance towards Rey. The smile faded from her face as she lifted herself slightly on one elbow.

"Does my work disgust you, little Jedi?" she asked, her tone deadly serious.

"You're toying with me! Pretending you don't understand what I mean!" Rey spat.

"Or is it—" the woman continued, speaking over Rey, "that you feel betrayed? Oh yes, don't think I don't recognize that look in your eyes. In my line of work, one sees it often enough—and don't think I don't understand the feeling, little Jedi—I do! I certainly do." She calmly took another hit, but then scowled, and lifted the lid on top of the hookah bowl, judging what was left. "Let me see if I understand correctly… I suppose you were taken prisoner during the raid. You were terrified of him at first—I'll bet he enjoyed that immensely—but all the same, you held out, refusing to give him whatever secret plan or information it was that he wanted. You're a loyal little Jedi after all! And it surprised you when he treated you well, didn't it? You were suspicious for a while… but then… alone and afraid and starved for connection, you began to snatch up those little tokens of kindness he occasionally threw your way. It was all you had to think about, so you began to attribute great meaning to every little smile or lingering glance, and he let you—no, I'm willing to bet that he encouraged you. And when at last, he wanted you in his bed, you were more than willing—but then again… this is Kylo Ren we're discussing. More likely he had you on your knees on the floor of a—"

"You… will… answer… me, NOW!" Rey growled, snatching her lightsaber and igniting it.

The woman did not react the way Rey had expected. She stared at the lightsaber for a moment, and then scoffed, as though she simply found it annoying. Slowly and deliberately, she removed the hookah lid and set it aside. Next, she removed a draw string pouch from among her voluminous robes—Rey's grip on her hilt tightened as she tensed into a fighting stance—but when she opened it, the pouch appeared to contain only ash.

She took a pinch and threw it into the open bowl. Rey understood. The woman did not burn Resurrection Dust as incense, she smoked it, using it as a drug. She was likely far too high to understand the threat she was facing.

Rey lowered her blade.

"Now then, little Jedi… if you don't like my answer, perhaps you should try asking a more specific question. You said that I should tell you anything I knew. It isn't fair to be angry because I did as you asked," the woman pouted, running her fingers through the gray and shimmering dust in her pouch.

"Alright, fine," Rey agreed. "You said that you were able to contact the Knights of Ren, that you had called them to this place when the Raiders came. How?"

"The same way you'd contact anyone else—the HoloNet, of course!" the woman giggled, as though Rey was being ridiculous. She scooped the dust into her hand and let it fall between her fingers.

"There is no HoloNet service in the Outer Rim," Rey countered.

"Oh no?' the woman challenged, sitting upright and swinging her feet to the floor. "I suppose I'm just going to have to prove it to you—"

The woman moved faster than Rey would have ever suspected she was capable of moving. Her hand came out of the dust bag and shot forward. Before Rey could flinch, her eyes were burning and the world had gone dark.

She screamed in pain, swiping at her eyes with one hand while slashing at the air in front of her with the other. The blindness was short-lived and after rubbing furiously at her eyes for a few seconds she could see the room again, though it was blurry and her eyes still burned. The divan was empty.

Rey let out another scream, this time enraged, and raced through the open door and down the steps. She burst through the entryway and skidded to a stop, searching up and down the street, her eyes still watering. It was deserted—except for the hunched over figure of Finn and the familiar robed figure beside him.

"Kriff!" she growled. "Kriff! Kriff! Kriff!"

She ran towards the pair of dark figures.

"Did you see her?" she demanded. "She must have just come out. Which way did she run?"

"Who—what now?" Finn asked glancing up in surprise.

"You lost her?" Master Luke asked, his voice incredulous. "You ran in there with no surveillance, no back-up, no plan—I presume, and then you lose her? What were you even thinking? Do you know how dangerous it is to walk into a blind alley alone?"

"We can still catch her!" Rey insisted. "She can't have gone far!"

With the street deserted, Rey glanced upwards, towards the roofs. It would have been difficult to escape across a row of roofs that were conical, but there was a walkway from one of them leading to the bell tower—one of many which were used to signal the raider warnings—and she might have—

"You won't catch her!" Master Luke scoffed. "This is an outlaw town, even the back doors have back doors."

"We have to! She can contact them—the Knights of Ren! She can lead them here, right into a trap that we set for them and then… and then…" distracted by the sound of her own heart beating, loudly and irregularly in her chest, Rey lost her train of thought.

"She's probably contacting them even as you speak!" Master Luke growled. "If they come here, which they very well may, we will be vastly outnumbered—and in their territory, keep in mind. They're heroes to these people!"

"But—"

"No! I am sick and tired of you doing whatever it is that you feel like doing. Jedi do NOT—"

"They don't what?" Rey challenged, feeling the direction of her rage shift like a changing tide. "They don't lie? They don't use other people like tools? They don't make allies out of evil-doers? What is it that Jedi don't do again, Master?"

Master Luke shook his head slowly as he stared at her.

"What's happened?" he asked slowly. "That woman did something to you, didn't she? I can feel it—there's something off. Your energy is sporadic and unfocused and—"

"And dark?" she guessed. "Like his was?"

"No," Master Luke said immediately. "You were drugged. There's something wrong with your eyes. We need to get you back to the ship and off of this planet."

"No," Rey shook her head. "No. I won't. I won't go with you. I won't put everyone I care about in danger anymore. I won't be your tool—your bait for Kylo Ren either! I won't be lied to. What was your plan for me—once you blew up the base on Hoth, that is? You wouldn't bring me back to the Resistance to put them all in danger again, would you?"

"She knew about that?" Finn demanded, glancing up at Master Luke. "You told me I wasn't allowed to say anything!" He hiccupped and shook his head as though very disappointed.

"I advised you to rest and meditate so that you could strengthen and train your internal defenses," Master Luke spoke slowly and clearly. "You did not do as I asked."

"You could have told me that Kylo Ren was in my head!" she cried, raising her voice.

"And then what? Be honest with yourself, Rey. What would you have done then? If you had known that your presence put the Resistance in danger you would have lit out there so fast—"

"So what? Our people DIED on Crait, they died on—"

"Every single one of our people know the risk that they're taking. Every one of our people have chosen to follow Leia and—"

"If I hadn't been there on Crait, the First Order wouldn't have found us!"

"Rey," Master Luke said in a soothing tone, "we need to get on the ship now. We need to leave. We can discuss all of this, but we need to get you medical attention and—"

"No. I'm not going. I'm not going to wait for Kylo Ren to hunt me down and kill every person that I care about. I will hunt HIM down. I will find him and I will make him answer for what he has done!"

"Rey…" Master Luke held his hand out and took a few slow steps towards her.

"No," Rey whispered and glanced upward. She saw the bell tower again and knew what she had to do. She closed her eyes and focused.

The bell clanged loudly, ringing out again and again. Rey opened her eyes and stared calmly back at Master Luke.

Other bells from across the city picked up the alarm and began to ring. The entire town of Ka'vec seemed to reverberate with the sound of them—and then came the stampede. The sound of thousands of panicked feet, all running for the gates, for escape.

"Rey!" Master Luke yelled and reached for her, but Rey snatched her arm away and ran. She met the advance of fleeing citizens a few seconds later and lost herself in the crowd, allowing their movement to dictate hers. She was being pushed out through the city gates to where the ships and the escape pods were. Master Luke and Finn were gone.

She knew what she had to do, and she would not flinch from it.

Just outside the gates, she broke free of the fleeing herd and raced between the ships. She spotted the Zygerrian ship right away—its features were easily identifiable. There was also a few light freighters, which she quickly passed by— she knew what she was looking for. The men she needed to find would most likely fly a mid-sized, nondescript, transporter. This they would use for shuttling their captured slaves to and from a much larger cargo barge. She couldn't be certain, but if she had to guess she would say they were Karazak Slavers.

Her guess soon proved true as she caught sight of an old Kom'rk class fighter/transport—it was rather banged-up. A battle-scarred old vessel to be sure, but that made sense given the sort of missions it probably flew.

There was also the fact that Eye Patch raced past her toward the ship. Rey was surprised by his speed, but then… her legs weren't quite working the way they should, or maybe the ground wasn't staying put, she wasn't sure. All the same, she was getting on that ship, even if she had to drag herself through the mud.

She had no plan for gaining passage, and the ability to focus long enough to make one was currently alluding her, but as luck would have it, no plan was necessary.

Eye Patch stopped before reaching the ship, as though it had suddenly occurred to him that he had left something behind. He leaned back, cupping his hands around his mouth as he bellowed into the chaos of the night:

"SAFE PASSAGE! SAFE PASSAGE HERE FOR 27! HURRY, HURRY!"

He sounded for all the worlds like a price barker at the Undermarket—and his wares were just as suspicious. Safe passage from a slaver! Even in the state she was in, Rey almost chuckled at his daring.

Most of those fleeing at the sound of the bells paid him no mind, but a few took his offer. Rey grit her teeth and forced her stiff legs to move, one in front of the other.

"Safe passage?" she called out, as she approached him.

"Aye! Hurry now!" he assured her, giving her a quick once over, no doubt taking in her bloodshot and watering eyes, her staggering footsteps and the way her words slurred together.

The fact that her condition has severely weakened her ability to defend herself certainly occurred to her as she stumbled up the ramp, but the remarkable thing was that it had also deadened her ability to feel fear.

As she shuffled behind the line of those who had come aboard, she noted that two of the crewmen directing them had blasters and kept eyeing each other furtively. Any moment now…

The sound of the ramp raising behind them must have been the signal. The men stopped and turned their blasters toward the group of refugees while more crew swarmed from their hiding places among the cargo.

There were shrieks, cries, cursing, bodies pushing against hers as the others tried to flee… where they thought they could run to, who could say?

Through it all, Rey stood still, waiting. When the iron collar clanged around her neck, she did not flinch or even glance up at the crewman fitting her. She allowed herself to be led by the chain attached to her collar, and uttered no protest when she was searched, and the lightsaber was removed from her belt, or later, when the chain was secured to a metal ring on the floor of the passenger hold.

While others around her cried silently, or begged their sneering captors, Rey lowered herself carefully to sit cross-legged on the floor and wait for the pain in her eyes and the confusion in her brain to subside.

Two thoughts sustained her in her discomfort—First, that she was on her way to the Knights of Ren and second, that she was going to make Kylo Ren pay.