He snapped back to reality at the ringing of an alarm, his dad flipped a few switches and BB-8 cut the hologram, his uncle groaned trying to sit up. Toby helped him to settle down,
"I'll help dad."
"Ok,"
"You want to help?" his dad asked Rey and Finn, they both nodded, "We are going to see an old friend, she'll get your droid home." He walked towards the cockpit,
"This is out stop." the ship jumped out of lightspeed, revealing a beautiful green planet, Takodana.
She followed him into the cockpit and sat down just as the ship was jumping out of lightspeed. A beautiful green planet came into view, her throat seemed to close as she stared out the windshield,
"I didn't know there was this much green in the entire galaxy." she whispered, the Falcon crested over a lush green forest revealing a castle next to a perfect, serene lake. They landed the ship next to the castle among other small freighters, the castle was beautiful, with it's cold stone walls and lines of colored and worn fabrics hanging in the square. The ramp went down, and she walked off feeling the soft ground sink under her feet. She looked around in wonder at the beautiful landscape. She looked behind her to see Han walking out, he handed her a blaster.
"You might need this,"
"I can handle myself."
"I know, that's why I'm giving it to you. Take it." she gripped the blaster in her hand, she fiddled with it for a second,
"You know how to use one of these?"
"Yeah, you just pull the trigger."
"There's a little more to it than that. You got a name?"
"Rey,"
"Rey, I've been thinking about bringing on some more crew, Rey. A second mate, someone to help me out with Toby off doing his own thing now. Someone who could keep up with me and Chewie and appreciates the Falcon."
"Are you offering me a job?" she asked hopefully,
"I wouldn't be nice to you. It doesn't pay much."
"You're offering me a job."
"I'm thinking about it." she wanted to yes, so badly,
"Well,"
"If you were, I'd be flattered, but I have to get home."
"Jakku?"
"Yeah, Jakku. I've already been away too long." he turned to Chewie,
"Check out the ship the best you can," he turned back to Rey, "too bad, Chewie seems to like you." He headed off towards the castle, and Rey followed behind with Toby and Finn walking at a distance.
He walked alongside Finn,
"Look, I know you are a stormtrooper. Your boots are a dead give away, and I saw the way you looked at me. You saw me on Starkiller base, I will keep your secret if you keep mine." he growled,
"Deal."
"Solo, why are we here?" Finn asked catching up to the three, with Toby still following at a distance.
"To get your droid a clean ship."
"Clean?" he asked they stepped into the castle,
"Do you think it was luck that Chewie and I found the Falcon? If we can find it on our scanners, the First Order's not far behind. Want to get BB-8 to the Resistance? Maz Kanata is our best bet." Toby ran and caught up with them and gave his dad look, Han shot on back.
"We can trust, right?"
"Relax, kid. She's run this watering hole for a thousand years. Maz is a bit of an acquired taste, so let me do the talking. And whatever do, don't stare…"
"At what?" Finn and Rey asked,
"Anything," Toby said following Han into the castle. The noise was deafening, as things broke and they pushed through the crowd. She spotted a small alien, orange, wrinkled, maybe about four feet tall. She whipped around almost as if she sensed something.
"Solo!" she shouted, the noise quieted and everyone turned to look at them. She shrunk behind Toby, who was taller than her,
"Hey, Maz!" everyone went back to what they were doing and the noise resumed. Maz walked over to them,
"Where's my boyfriend?"
Chewie's working on the falcon."
"I always loved that wookie. Ah! Toby, so wonderful to see you."
"Nice to see you too Aunt Maz." she smiled at him,
"I assume you need something. Desperately. Come on." she motioned for them to follow her as she pushed through the crowd. She walked further and they all followed through the chaos. They sat down at a table and she ran off to get food, a few minutes later she was back,
"A map to Skywalker himself? You are right in the mess" she asked setting the plates down,
"Maz, I need you to get this droid to Leia."
"Hmm, no. You've been running from this fight for too long. Go home!"
"Leia doesn't want to see me."
"Please, we came here for help."
"What fight?" she asked looking at the four of them who knew exactly what Maz was talking.
"The only fight: against the dark side. Through the ages, I've seen evil take many forms. The Sith. The Empire. Today, it is the First Order. Their shadow is spreading across the galaxy. We must face them. Fight them. All of us."
"There is no fight against the First Order! Not one we can win. Look around. There's no chance we haven't been recognized already. I bet you the First Order is on their way right-" he stopped as Maz started to climb over the table towards him,
"What, wait, what are you doing?" she adjusted her glasses.
"Solo, what is she doing?" he asked, panicking,
"I dunno, but it aint good." her eyes now huge looked into his,
"I have lived long enough to see the same eyes in different people. I'm looking at the eyes of man who wants to run."
"You don't know a thing about me. Where I'm from. What I've seen." he glared at her, "You don't know the First Order like I do. They'll slaughter us. We all need to run." she looked at him shocked, Maz crawled back down from the tables and pointed at two pirates.
"See them, see they'll trade work for transportation. There's your ticket, disappear." He got up from the table,
"Finn!" she said chasing after him,
"Come with me." he said,
"What about BB-8. We're not done yet. We have to get him back to your base."
"I can't." he said, walking towards the pirates. She followed after again,
"What are you doing?" he turned back to the pirates,
"Don't leave without me." they nod and he turned back to her before getting up to leave.
"You can't just go, I won't let you."
"I'm not who you think I am."
"Finn, what are you talking about?" he turned around and looked at her with I'm sorry in his eyes,
"I'm not with the resistance, I'm not a hero, I'm a stormtrooper." she started to leave but he grabbed her hand. "Like all of them I was taken from my family and brainwashed, and raised to do one thing. But my first battle, I made a choice. I wasn't going to kill for them, so I ran. Right into you and you looked at me like no one had ever looked at me, I was ashamed of what I was. But I'm done with the first order. I'm never going back, Rey come with me."
"Don't go." she whispered, he let go of her hand and left with the pirates. She stood there staring at him, about to cry but then she heard a cry from a little girl.
"One, two, three, four, five, six, one, two, three, four, five, six." The young jedi moved their lightsabers with the number of each form in perfect sync,
"Alright, that's enough. Everyone sit." his uncle said, as everyone sat down on the soft grass.
"These are the fundamental steps of basic lightsaber combat. If you mess up, that's ok. My master used to say that the best teachers teach failure. It's ok to not get it right the first time, you learn this way."
He was brought back to reality by a terrible screaming within the force. He gripped the table as it echoed through the halls. He scrunched his eyes shut trying to make his head stop pounding.