Chapter 42 - From the Ashes

Takodana

The Jedi Temple

When Rey finally woke from her unconscious slumber, she wasn't sure if she was alive or dead. The world was no longer the vibrant bastion of life and green, but one of fires, screams and ashes. Everything was gray, coated in a thick film of dust and oily powder falling like corrupted snow. It was hard to breathe, it was hard to think. Everywhere was smoke, sometimes so dense she couldn't even see the hands in front of her.

She rose from her bed of embers, her body caked in the matter as she began to aimlessly wander. She called out, her voice echoing in void. She was quickly answered by screams in the distance, and she tried to follow them. Tried to reach out and sense the world around her to find something, anything. When she did, the world's anguish drove her to her knees and she had to shut it out.

All life was connected by the Force, even entire worlds… and she had never felt it in such pain. She tried to think back to what had happened, but it hurt too damn much. She gagged at the rampant filth in the air, and her despair turned to pure sorrow when she saw them. The luminescent, weeping forms of transparent ghosts; wailing at the realization of death.

They were recent, too. Many were pirates, rangers and soldiers. But she saw others there, others from long ago that too added to the death song of a planet in utter agony.

"Am I dead?" she choked. No, if she were dead, then her parents would be here. That however meant she was in potential danger, not just from the living but from the deceased. Everywhere else, they wouldn't be able to touch her. But on this nexus world where the lines were blurred, and a terrible travesty left its spirits in a state of sombered frenzy?

She carefully turned around and went the other way, stumbling over craters and jagged pieces of things she couldn't see. It was then that she realized she didn't have her lightsaber. She cursed her monumental stupidity, and slowly attempted to retrace her steps. Her mind was swimming though as she took in one ragged breath after the other, staggering and tripping over the broken, burned and gone.

She didn't realize the enemy was ahead until she almost ran right into them. She couldn't make them out at first, just dark silhouettes with the distinct shapes of rebreather masks. Then she saw their stained crimson uniforms and she threw herself behind cover. There were at least a dozen of them, maybe more. Certainly more than she could hope to take on without her weapon, and they were between her and it.

She watched them milling about, turning over things in the ruins. Looking for survivors, maybe? Either way, they weren't going away anytime soon. She slumped down into a shallow ditch, now practically a gray snowman. She reached her mind out again, trying desperately to reach anyone. However, the screams of the world chased her away again, and she couldn't even feel the minds less than twenty feet from her. Helpless.

An arm suddenly shifted in the ash beside her and she backed away in a hurry, getting ready to fight or fly. The arm, however, stopped moving. When she uncovered it completely, she found it belonged to a Ranger. He was looking at her through the lenses of his mask; he grabbed her wrist, pulling desperately as he broke into a horrible coughing fit. She shook her head and put a finger to her lips to show they were not alone. Only then she saw that he was holding his guts in with a rucksack.

A shiver of horror ran down her spine. There was so much blood staining the ash layered mud. His feverish eyes were on her, pain and desperation dancing behind the lenses. She knew what he wanted her to do but she didn't know if she could do it. She wasn't a K'kruhk or Shaak Ti. She wasn't even remotely on the same level as her own master. But she had to try.

"Okay," she whispered, "okay, I'll help you. But I need to remove the bag. It's gonna hurt. I need you to stay quiet. Can you do that?"

He nodded, eyes hardening. She took a deep breath, steadying herself… then she removed the bag. Blood immediately began to seep from the wound. Rey placed both hands upon the injury, focusing and forcing life energy to a focal point there. A blue radiance began to take shape, and slowly the edges of the lacerational burn started to regenerate. Cell by cell, flesh began to grow and stitch back together.

Sweat quickly soaked Rey's clothes, her head pounding like a tribal drum as she struggled to keep her focus, to keep the Force flowing into the wound. The Ranger's hand clamped on her leg, fingers digging as he desperately bit back his scream. She let him. She couldn't imagine the utter pain he was in and it was a testament that he hadn't passed out yet.

An inch of new fiber, muscle, fat and then skin crew on the outskirts of the wound. She poured more of the Force into it, gritting her teeth as her own body began to spasm from overexertion.

"Stay… focused!" she hissed at herself. Her vision was swimming, and her stomach was cramping. Pain stabbed deep into her brain, her lungs and her heart. The latter began to beat like an overdriven engine as a creeping darkness marched from the corners of her eyes.

"No… no!" The energy was ebbing away from her, slipping out of her blue aura spluttered in and out of existence as a wave of nausea hit her. She was weak, and soon everything was just… cold. She didn't even realize she'd fainted until warm blood seeped through the clothes on her chest.

She pushed herself back up, and that effort almost pushed her over the edge again. The Ranger's wound was still open, still oozing blood, and even without her tapping into the Force she knew he didn't have much longer to live. That gave her the right kick she needed, and she pressed her hands together, shutting out everything but the wound before her. Just when the flickering light began to return, the Ranger grabbed her by the arm and shook his head at her.

She didn't want it to be, but she knew he was right. Doing this much had physically drained her to the point of passing out, and going further might very well kill her. She berated herself silently for that failure. So good with fixing machines, but people-

"Hhnn," he groaned, and tore the mask from his face with a shaking hand. The sight of it made her heart sink further. He was young, too young to die like this in this Force-forsaken blasthole. But there was no fear in his eyes, not even anger at her.

"I am one with the Force," he whispered, so softly that she had to read his lips, "and the Force… is with… me. I shall… know-" He shuddered and hacked up blood. She put what little energy she had left to soothe his pain. He tried again to take up the prayer, but it died in his mouth. That was more painful to see than even the pain he was in.

"I shall know no fear, for the Force shall guide me," she replied, squeezing his limp hand "There is no death, there is only the Force. I am one with the Force, and-"

"The Force… shall keep… me."

His eyes found the sky above, and they did not move. For a long moment, she merely stared at the dead boy. He shouldn't have been here, shouldn't have died here. She shook her head at the contradiction, though. He was no older than her when she took up the cause. Why shouldn't he?

Rey grimaced. She was a Jedi though… but he wasn't much different. Perhaps he wasn't gifted with the Force, but he had the same desire to protect the galaxy and its peoples from those who worship evil's might. And unlike so many others, he acted upon his desire. He chose to fight rather than to cower.

"But it's not right!" she cursed softly, fists balling up. Something shifted against her, and she instinctively grabbed it. He'd pushed his mask into her chest.

"Oi! You down there! Turn around slowly!"

When she did, she sent him flying with a single telekinetic push.

"Jaxtin!" someone screamed ahead, and she heard their footfalls coming her way. She donned the rebreather, taking in the clean air as she rose from the pit to face her attackers.

"Looking for me?" she snarled out at them, "Here I am."

"You! Take her down!"

A cascade of bolts tore through the smoke and ash. Rey dove behind a wall, tearing up clouds soil to block the incoming projectiles as she moved. The Corsairs closed in on all sides, pouring marching fire against the ancient stone she cowered behind. As they got closer, Rey mentally plucked stones up and began hurling them at the pirates, but her aim was sporadic at best without her precognitive sight.

Only a few screams reported successful hits, but that wasn't her intention. She'd targeted the stragglers on the wings, causing the formation to bunch together to avoid being hit. Ahead, she heard the sounds of men tripping over debris sticking out of the ground, and she calculated the distance in her head. Satisfied, she made her move.

She threw up a torrent of soil and ash to her left to draw their fire. She then stepped out to her right, taking in the heavily armed Corsairs at a glance. As she suspected, they were laden down with explosives and gas canisters, no doubt meant for her. Before they could even react, she stretched her hands and began to systematically arm them.

One by one, detonators, grenades and canisters all began to whine and beep the seconds from detonation. With thunderous applause, men exploded in terrible flashes of white and green. Some were instantly incinerated by the blasts, others ripped limb from limb into tenderized pieces. The worst burned alive when their incendiary devices detonated, or choked from their own poisons.

Three however managed to cut their belts away and tossed them at the Jedi. She held her hand out, catching them in midair and mentally holding their arming primers in place. As the bombs dangled before the Corsairs, Rey addressed them coldly like a snake playing with a rat.

"You could've run. You could've left this world in peace. But instead, you destroyed my home, started killing my people, and for what? A bounty? A paycheck!?" she shook her head at them, her fingers toying with the floating web-belts, "Well, maybe it's time you get what's owed to you."

Horror dawned on their faces and they ran for all they were worth. She let them get so far, then she hurled the explosives at them. Their screams of panic were cut short from the detonation, and not a trace of them was left.

She let out a weary sigh, a pang of guilt and rage plaguing her in that moment. A part of her believed they deserved it; that they'd signed their death warrants long ago. Another however condemned her for it. This wasn't justice, but petty, malicious slaughter. No different than the Sith she fought!

"I am not one of them!" she shouted to the world around her, "I am no Sith!"

She heard the report of a plasma ignition and she ducked. A crimson bolt struck where her head was a moment before; followed by more as she ducked for cover. She chanced a look, seeing crimson outlines pouring down the hill like frenzied Bao Ants. There were too many for her to take on in the open like this, but in the forest ahead she might have a chance.

With a desperate pace, she ran. The pirates followed in hot pursuit.

"Damn you, Sydow!" Phasma cursed, "Hevy, apply pressure-good, thank you. Hold on, Ones, we'll get you out of here."

Even as she said that, her words turned to ash her mouth. Even with a minute's warning, there had been nowhere to take cover in the flat plains they'd found themselves pinned down in. Hell, the only reason they hadn't been completely vaporized by the orbital barrage or torn to pieces by the resulting debris shrapnel was because a building fell on top of them, and they were damn lucky they weren't crushed in the process.

So many others weren't though, and their burnt remains littered the landscape. Ones had pushed Twenty-Three to safety, and had been caught in an explosion of superheated gases for her trouble. Her arm was gone, and most of her suit had been outright melted into the skin.

"You stupid pigsy," Twenty-Three cursed, "it was supposed to be me, damn it. Me!"

She craned her head over painfully, the right side of her face burnt like an overdone nerf steak. Still, she managed a rueful smile as she croaked "Glory... hound." She shot him a vulgar gesture that made him laugh despite the situation.

"Cap'n," the corpsman said, "she doesn't have long, even with the bacta strips. We need to get her into a hyperbaric chamber, and fast."

"And that goes double for most of the boys," CPO Mako grumbled, "but the LZ's several klicks in the opposite direction, and popping smoke here's a good way to attract the neighborhood."

A voice crackled in Phasma's ear and she held up a hand. "This is Phasma, go ahead."

"Mum, this Eighty. We have the package. We've called in for dustoff. What's your location?"

'They're crazy enough to land here?' she thought before she responded, "Understood, Eighty. Proceed to Aurek-Three-Besh, and make it a squadron. We have multiple wounded, including Ones."

There was a long pause before he acknowledged, "There's one other thing, Mum. Lord Kylo's gone after the Jedi. We have no idea where he is."

"That's not our problem, trooper. If he wants to go chasing her, that's fine. We have what we came for. Meet us here when you can. Out."

"Mum… you're suggesting leaving him here?" Twenty-Three asked.

"I'm sure he'll find another way off, especially if he thinks chasing the girl is better than helping us."

"That's cold," Mako remarked, "we Corsairs never leave our own."

"Neither do we Stormtroopers. But Lord Kylo isn't one of us. His own goals make that very plain."

There was a sudden burst of comm traffic. "This is Raider 3-1! The Jedi's taken out 2-3! We're movin' to intercept!"

"Corsairs, disengage!" Mako bellowed into his mike, "Forget about the Jedi, we are buggin' out!"

"To hell with that! We ain't letting her get off that easy! Movin' to intercept, out!"

"Damn them," Mako cursed before turning to Hevy and his team, "make sure the idiots don't get themselves killed."

"Rogo 'Sides, I got an inklin' to meet up with her again. Got a question for her."

"Are your men always this way, Chief?" Phasma asked diplomatically as they took off.

"The boys take losses personally. I know you understand that."

"This is Raider 2-1! We are under attack from a Jedi! He's cuttin' through us! Help!"

"He?!" Mako growled, "What do you mean 'he?' There's only one and it's a woman!"

"Tell that to this guy! There's two-" the unmistakable report of a lightsaber silenced the comm, and Twenty-Three shook his head.

"Now there's two of them. This is really starting to get out of hand. Mum… Mum, are you okay?"

Phasma shook her head. It could only mean one thing and by extension, one person. So much for priorities. "Trooper, Chief Mako, keep the area clear. If I'm not back in ten, leave."

She took off running into the smog, leaving the protests behind to the swirling mists. It didn't take long to find the bodies, marked with plasma lacerations and even blaster wounds. Further ahead, there were screams, blaster reports… and a lightsaber. Her hands tightened around her blaster as the cyan blade appeared in the smog, followed by a flash of sparks and a scream.

As it disappeared, she brought her weapon up and advanced at a trot. The bodies were becoming more cluttered, more desperate. Clean, efficient kills turned into messy dismemberments with burns marking the walls all around. She rounded a corner, and there he was.

With unnatural speed, he sliced a pirate's weapon arm off followed by his head. He grabbed the body and used it as cover to close the distance with the second and last. He threw the body at him, and skewered them both with a single powerful thrust… just like she taught him. He rounded then, his blaster raised on her and he stopped short. "Captain?"

"FN- 2187," she replied sadly, keeping her weapon trained on him. The sight of one of her troopers wearing the armored-fatigues of the enemy made her blood run cold.

He craned his head curiously, his weapons at his side, "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here for you," she replied, bringing her weapon to hip level, "drop that relic. You're coming home with me."

Her dark eyes hardened as he growled, "No."

She stiffened at the response, but her tone remained firm. "Do I need to make it an order, Trooper?"

"You may, but I will disobey. I'm not a Stormtrooper anymore."

"Stop it!" she snapped, descending into the remains of the assembly as she jutted a finger at him, "You are one of my Troopers! Mine! I raised you, I trained you, I gave you purpose! And I will not let some Jedi harlot disabuse you of that fact!"

"You did, mum," he nodded, "I have not forgotten. But I am not going with you. I won't."

"Why?" she exasperated, stepping closer to him, "What did she show you that made you turn your back on your family?"

"She had nothing to with it," he snapped, "I made my decision long before I even met her. And even now, all she has done is offer me training and insight. The truth of things."

"What truth?" Phasma scoffed.

"That my brothers and I are little more than slaves who die for the whims of the Sith. That we are fighting a war we did not choose and cannot win. That the First Order is nothing more than an extension of Palpatine's madness."

"The First Order had nothing to do with Palpatine!" she spat, "You were taught this, remember? We may seek to restore the Old Empire, but we do so for the good of the galaxy! To free it of corruption and chaos, not for the ambition of one man! We are not Palpatine's empire!"

"Really?" he shook his head at her, "You claim that, and yet we answer to the Sith. We follow their ambitions and designs to our graves."

"We do not answer to answer to Sith. The Knights of Ren do not command us-"

"Yes, they do. Perhaps not with directness of Darth Vader, but they command us. The High Marshal himself is their master and he commands us."

"Is that what the Jedi told you? That the High Marshal is just another Palpatine? Trooper, without Hego Damask's vision, we would be little better than the Remnants! A squabbling mass of selfish children! He united us for the purpose of bringing order to a corrupt galaxy."

"Just as he did with the Old Republic?"

"What are you getting at?" she scrutinized, watching his eyes as he elaborated:

"Damask is not another Palpatine because he is something far worse. He is the man who created Palpatine. He set in motion the fall of the Old Republic, the Clones Wars and the rise of the Empire. All Palpatine did was follow his design… right after he killed him."

He believed this. There was no trickery there, no hint of some mental magic. He truly, fundamentally believed what he had just said. He jutted his disignited saber at her.

"What you fail to understand, Captain, is that we are just another generation of puppets to ambitions Sith. No different than the old Empires of millennia ago, and certainly no different than Palpatine's."

She heard this argument before. The words were different, the men were different, but the meaning was the same. Only it was worse. There was no madness or delusions of grandeur in her Troopers eyes. There was only conviction there, and the dangerous kind at that.

"And will you do with this 'truth' of yours?" she asked with a hollow whisper.

"Give it to the rest of my brothers and sisters. To give them the right to choose their own path, as I have. To give them freedom."

"Freedom?" she shook her head at that, "You merely traded the Corps for the Jedi and the government they serve. You after all carry one of their weapons, killing on their behalf. And this 'truth' of yours? All it will do spill the blood of your siblings."

"No revolution is bloodless, Captain. And I do not serve the Jedi or the New Republic. I choose to fight alongside them because they believe in what I believe. I chose to fight in this battle. I was not ordered to. I chose."

"Revolution? Do you even hear yourself?" she took another frantic step forward, her weapon falling to her side, "You promote the idea of turning your family against itself, and you call it revolution? I know you cannot believe that."

"But I do-"

"No, you don't!" she snapped, "How do I know this? Because in every engagement that pitted you against your family, you always refused to kill them. You maim, you wound, but you never kill! That is why I knew you weren't fully gone. But this? This is madness!"

"Freeing them from an unwinnable war is madness? Freeing them from a system that forces them to be soldiers without the choice to be anything else? I don't want to kill any of them, Captain. I want to save them."

"By starting a revolt that will get them killed?"

"Against the Sith and the High Marshal? Yes! It's the only way for them to be free!"

"And what would you do with this 'freedom?' Have you honestly thought about that? You and the rest of my children are not just soldiers, but warriors! Fighting is what we do best, but without purpose, without a clear code to guide us, we become nothing more than barbarians."

"The Mandalorians and the Aquilians seem to have a good model."

"With a history of pointless genocide?"

"Is that any different than what we did at the village?" he growled, "We murdered women and children, Captain. Not enemy combatants, but civilians."

"Civilians?" she scoffed at the idea, "They chose their fate when they sided with the enemy! When they remained in that valley, when they aided them in their efforts! They chose, Eighty Seven, and they paid the price for their choice!"

"And yet it was we who attacked! We who killed anything that got in our way so that we could wage a war that will kill billions! And for what, revenge? To resurrect a dead government?"

"For the promise of a better galaxy."

"Built on a graveyard. Tell me something, mother," he stepped forth, coming face to face with her, "how is that any different than the tribe who murdered your first family? The barbarians who orphaned you? Surely, they had the same justifications as you."

Indescribable rage took hold of her, and it took everything she had to beat it back down. "Do you understand why I'm here, Trooper?"

"Yes," he nodded, "the Admiral wants me dead because of what I have become, and he has sent you to do it."

She didn't bother asking how he knew. There were certain things about the mystical powers the Knights of Ren and the Jedi wielded she would never truly understand. As she looked down at him again, her hand instinctively found the hilt of her messer.

"There was another like you once. He was brave, loyal and… and a friend. A true hero of the First Order. But like you, those who wished to destroy the dream we have spent decades building twisted him. Turned him rabid. Of course, he believed he was right. That he was saving the First Order. And for that, he betrayed and murdered his kin, turned our family against itself."

"Did you ever consider if he was right? Or did you kill him without asking, like a good little soldier?"

"I did it to protect you!" she jutted her finger into his chest for emphasis, "I made that sacrifice to protect our family. My children. Because all his 'righteousness' caused was pointless death and destruction! All for a deluded ideology that would've seen our downfall!"

"'Pointless death and destruction.' Much like the coming war with the New Republic? How many of your children will die all in the name of the Sith's goals?"

"How many people die and suffer for the New Republic's inability to act? For courting with criminals and monsters? You need not look any further than the Outer Rim for proof of that. All the 'New' Republic offers is decadence and a slow death, just like the Old one before it."

"The Old Republic lasted for twenty-five thousand years, Captain, and the New Republic now six years longer than the Empire. That is not a slow death, and what happened to Parnasos was set in motion a thousand years prior-"

"I'm not an idiot, Trooper. I know of the Reformation, and it only proves my point. The Old Republic was willing to trade strength for the facade of peace. No different than the Chancellor today."

"Which was set in motion by you. Just as what happened to Parnassos was set in motion by the Sith."

She scoffed in utter exasperation, "You make it sound like they're behind everything! That they are the cause of the galaxies every woe! Well, I'm sorry, but you don't need devils to create evil. It exists in everyone, and the Old Republic simply allowed its cultivation."

"You're right about that. You don't need devils to create evil. You just need people who do nothing to stop them! And do you want to know what I see? I see a good woman who does nothing because she's too afraid to admit that she was wrong, and that the truth was right in front of her the whole time."

"Eighty-Seven-"

"Finn. My name is Finn, not some serial number you gave us."

"You made them your names. Isn't that more important? Something given has no value!"

"Except the purpose you gave us? How can the great mission have value if we did not choose it? If we didn't earn it? And that is the issue right there. We are not living beings to your superiors. We're little better than intelligent droids made for the meat grinder."

He shook his head and scoffed, "Tell me, are the Colonies even real? Is there really a paradise for us at the end of our service? And even if it was, what would you do if we refused to hand over our children to become the next generation of Stormtrooper?"

Phasma's mouth was agape as she processed what Eighty-Seven just said, and the implications of it. She shook her head after a moment, her mind struggling to answer. "Even if you're right, if everything you said true, is civil war the right way? The only way?"

"No, I don't want that to happen, but I don't see any other alternative. Like you taught us, change only occurs because of force, and violence is its supreme measure. There is no other way."

In a strange way, she was proud of him. He had become the perfect warrior she predicted he'd be if given the right nudge. Unfortunately, he was on the wrong side, and he blazed with the dark fire of fanaticism. It was the same flame that had taken her two brothers from her. No, she would not allow history to repeat. Right or wrong, she would not allow it.

"I came here with orders to kill you, Eighty-Seven. But I stand here, begging you to come home. So I'm going to ask you one last time: drop the lightsaber and come with me."

"No."

Phasma's eyes hardened, her grip on the Messer tightening, "Then you have chosen the path of destruction."

His grip on the lightsaber tightened in response, "Better destruction than bondage."

She drew her blaster, setting the weapon to stun. But in a movement faster she could perceive, the cyan blade chopped it in half. As the severed half fell, her other hand swung the Messer from its sheath. Her electric coated vibration blade struck his plasma one in a dazzle of sparks that sent him reeling back.

He drew back several steps, his blade raised in a guard. "Walk away, please."

"Never," she uttered as she drew into her own stance, and charged.

They were hot on Rey's tail. Like ravenous hounds, the Pirates pursued and threw everything they had in her wake. But this was her home and defiled as it was, it still provided her all the measure she needed. Moss and vines became delaying action, logs and tree projectiles, and she always remained one step ahead of her pursuers.

Still, the pirates kept coming and she didn't mind. "Let them come. I need to go this way anyway.'

She heard and even smelled the sudden ignition of rocket boosters behind her. She didn't stop to look, instead leaping through a sycamore cluster as the jump troopers pursued. The fired away at her with rifles and light repeaters, the stench of burning wood and even cloth filling her nose as she kept moving.

Her hands gently moved to the side as she leapt, spinning in the air to meet her attackers. With a telekinetic pull, she yanked every loose object available and sent them screaming at the jump troopers. Many were felled and stunned by the incoming barrage, allowing her to grip some men by their harnesses and rip them loose.

Their falling screams echoed far behind her as she jumped the gorge, coming into a clear moss field. Suddenly, a team of the pirates came barreling in ahead of her. She dove behind a tree as they opened fire, the footfalls of the rest coming in echoing loudly.

"It's over, witch! You got nowhere to go! Come out an' we'll make it quick!"

"You lie!" she shouted back, as the tree buckled under blaster fire. She listened past that, noting the subtle crackling of their boots on the moss. 'Just a little more. Come this way. C'mon, you-'

"Oi lass, there you are!" a cheerful and all too familiar voice echoed in front of her, a rotary cannon breaching the underbrush, "I've been lookin' all over for you!"

"Oh. It's you," Rey groaned, "Hevy, right?"

"Aw, you remembered! I'm flattered!" he then gestured with his weapon and she sighed, slowly moving from her cover with her hands raised.

The other pirates leered wickly at her, "Nice work, Hevy. Y'know, now that we got you here, mebbe we won't make it quick. Mebbe we take our time an' really make you sorry fer what you-"

"Stow it, Grappa!" Hevy shouted at him, "The Chief sent me an' the boys over here to make sure you don't do anything stupid! And that's really stupid! Plus, we have standards, remember? We ain't Zhan's boys!"

"Fine, let's just shoot her and be done with it!" someone else in front of her shouted.

"Oh no," someone behind her retorted, "the lady's a good 65k alive, remember? I plan to grog me up with that kinda cred!"

"Scoutie, now yer bein' stupid! The greedy kind of stupid!"

"Oh stop being such a pansy, pansy!"

"Oh great, the soldier boy is takin' now-"

The sudden roar of the rotary cannon silenced the conversation and dropped a considerable number of burnt leaves on Rey. "Chill, or I'll record y'all down and dock each and every single one yer pay. 'Sides, I have a serious question to ask our lady Jedi here."

Now she turned to face the burly man with the big gun, "And what question is that?"

Straight faced, he asked, "What's your name?"

"Um… sorry, what?"

"You heard me. What's your name, devotchka?"

"It's Rey. Why the hell do you want to know?"

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "Hmm, Aayla-Rey. I like the sound of that."

Rey was about to ask what the hell that meant when she saw it, or more accurately, herself. "Is that… me?"

"Ah, you like? My best work, I'd say. Not quite as good as ol' Aayla there. Clone was a real artist, that one. But still, you make her fine company."

Despite herself, Rey couldn't help but crain her head to get a better look. "It's… nice. I mean, I don't think I was ever that haughty looking but-"

"Okay, this is just ridiculous!" someone shouted behind her, "Let's cuff her and bag her already!"

When his boot made the right report, she smirked and spun around to face him, "Why don't you come and do it yourself, spacerat?"

"Oh you little-"

Rey snapped her fingers. Suddenly, the floor beneath caved in and he fell into the darkness below with a scream.

"What the-!?" another one fell with a scream, followed by another and then another.

"Oh crap, we're on a log!" Before they could do anything about it, they were now all falling to the mossy depths of a long dead and buried tree. All except for one.

Hevy looked all around him to find himself alone with the Jedi. He looked at her and then at the hole in front of him. "I take it I need to go jump through that hole?"

"Yup."

"Well der'mo," he looked sadly at the rotary cannon in his hands, "can I leave her here? I don't want her gettin' hurt."

Rey couldn't help but chuckle at the request, but she nodded.

"Thanks luv," he said gratefully as he set Aayla-Rey down, and then jumped through the hole.

"Damnit, Hevy! You landed on my leg!"

"Oh stop yer complain'. At least she didn't kill us!"

"Yeah, no. Be stuck in this hole and probably gettin' napped by the Green and Brown Boys is real better!"

"As Hevy said, Maggot," there was an audible slap from below, "stow it and stop complain'!"

Despite the horror and death the pirates had brought to her home, Rey couldn't help but chuckle at the comedy. "Pirates."

"Heard that!"

"You were meant to!"

That was when she heard it: clapping. Slow, congratulatory was a sudden feeling of cold despite the humidity. She turned very slowly and across the way was a man in black. A man with a mask.

"Impressive, most impressive. You really haven't missed a beat."

A note from the Authors:

Hey everybody, this is JSailer and Squasher here. Same story as before, we are currently still writing Chapter 43. While we will work to get our backlog back by October 27th, we may delay the release of certain chapters if we can't. I will update if this is the case. For that reason, no preview will be posted this time. We'd also like to thank Terminator57 and Transformers g-1's-Prime for their reviews.