I.

"So what exactly are we looking for again?" asks Rey, gazing around the area with interest.

"Didn't you pay any attention at the meeting?" Poe grumbles as he studies the landscape with his quadnocs. They're on a barren moon in the Japrael system, nothing but drab, rocky terrain as far as the eye can see, overhung with grey clouds and a cold wind. He set them down on the edge of a series of large canyons. It could work for a new base—unknown, unpopulated— though his first instinct is not a good one. It feels too empty, too bleak. But they're getting desperate, and apparently, it had been scouted during the Rebellion as a remote possibility; it does seem better than someplace like Hoth.

"Some," she admits. "I didn't expect to be sent out on a scouting mission, to be honest."

There are no trees anywhere, only scrubby bushes dotting the rocks, and he kicks one away, noticing the long, sharp thorns and making note not to get stuck on one. "Better things to do?" he asks, pleased when it comes out more teasing than bitter, since he's not bitter, not exactly. Then again, she can probably feel his real meaning, what with her training and all.

"Not better," she says calmly. "Just different." He's seen her riled up, been on the wrong end of her stubborn side, and knows she's almost as much of an impulsive hothead as he is, but this calmness…this is new. This is what she's learning from Leia, and as much as Poe hates to admit it, it suits her. He could probably use some himself.

"Right," he drawls. "Different." They continue to study the area, though Rey seems more caught up in the scenery than anything. It's not unlike Jakku, only without all the sand. "Hey, can you do some scans, see what we're looking at here? We need to find a new base quick, you know."

"Right," she says, and pulls a portable scanner from her bag and waves it around. "Sorry. Not used to this."

They take their readings in silence, which is something Poe always prefers to break. "So it's different," he starts, and she glances up.

"What is?"

"What you're doing, with the General."

"Yes," she answers. "Different."

"Different in a good way or different in a bad way?" He can't resist asking, since he still wonders what exactly she's doing, other than mystical Jedi things. He has the utmost respect for Jedi, having met Luke Skywalker many times, but sometimes he wishes they were a bit more down to earth. And helping with the Resistance more.

She rolls her eyes at him, though he still hasn't figured out if it's a friendly eye roll or an annoyed one. He's only known her for a few months, and he feels like he's spent half those in his ship, searching for allies, bases, anything that can help them after the disaster at Crait. What he's gotten to know, he likes, but she's…prickly. She almost reminds him of what he was like as a teenager, if he'd grown up on an isolated desert planet alone in an AT-AT walker. She's quick and smart, a hell of a pilot and mechanic. BB-8 loves her, and Chewbacca, and Finn, and Leia has taken Rey under her wing like a surrogate daughter.

She is also the last Jedi. Sometimes Poe finds himself watching her in awe, thinking of what she's been through and how far she's come. Then he wonders why she's not doing more for them in the field and gets frustrated. But he knows the Force works in mysterious ways, and he sets his irritation aside. Poe can play the long game, because he suspects she will be one of their most important players at the end. Even if she is stubborn, impulsive, and prickly.

"Do you ever miss flying?" he asks, genuinely curious. The planet is unnaturally quiet and Poe hates the silence. "You're too good to be grounded, you know."

He can see the surprise in her face, though he wonders why she's surprised. Like him, she knows she's good and doesn't try to hide it. Maybe she wasn't expecting to hear it from him, but he tries to be generous when it comes to compliments; maybe he needs to try harder with her.

"Thanks," she says. "Yes, I miss it. I think it's one reason Leia wanted me to come."

"I think it's one of many reasons," Poe agrees. They'd been tasked with checking out several star systems in an old two-seater Y-wing. Rey had piloted them to the Vandor system, while Poe brought them to Japrael; Y-wings were definitely not his preferred way to fly, and he half wished they'd taken a pair of X-wings instead. "We may need you in a ship one day, you know."

He can feel her watching him, but continues to scan the area around them. The canyons should be large enough for their small fleet, not to mention giving them some good training opportunities. There are caves below that might make decent barracks; they'll have to take a look to see what they're like. Atmosphere is hospitable, but Poe wonders about the weather: it's already cold on the canyon tops, and he suspects fierce winds and frigid nights. There's a small creek running through the bottom of the canyon that might work as a water source, though Poe imagines rushing floods taking out the camp after a bad rain. They've had worse homes, but it would be nice to find somewhere they didn't have to worry about environmental issues and could concentrate on more important things, like fighting the First Order.

It's the lack of trees, of grass and brush and anything green (or living) that bothers him the most. It feels so exposed. He can't tell if it's always been like this, or if something terrible happened there eons ago. Still, it's somewhat out of the way and clearly unexplored, so maybe it will work. If it wasn't for the bad feeling tickling the back of his mind.

"You think there are other reasons she sent me?" Rey asks. It's as much a statement as a question, and he wonders what she suspects about Leia's unexpected orders to pair up and scout systems together. Both Chewbacca and Finn had seemed surprised as well, though Poe still wonders if there's something else going on there, even if Finn said there wasn't. He shrugs in reply.

"Maybe. Maybe she thought you needed a break from your training."

Rey does not reply, tweaking something on her scanner. "Have you picked up the caves?" she asks. "They look promising."

"Yeah, we should take a look, see if they're stable. Occupied." He walks to the edge of the canyon and looks down. It's a long way down and not too steep, but a tumble won't do either one of them any favors.

"Occupied?" she asks, coming to stand next to him and gazing into the rocky canyon. "I'm not picking up anything."

"Me neither," says Poe. "Doesn't mean there isn't something down there." He grins. "Ready?"
Without waiting for an answer, he starts picking his way down, slipping and sliding until his pants are ripped and he's breathing heavily. Rey seems equally annoyed, and he wonders if maybe they should have taken the ship down right into the canyon.

"If this were sand, we could just slide all the way," she calls to him.

"If this were sand, Finn would never leave the Falcon," he tosses back, and she laughs. Even so many months later, they still tease Finn about Jakku. It takes about twenty minutes of awkward shuffling to make it to the bottom of the canyon, relatively unscathed if exceptionally dirty, and Poe looks around, both pleased and unsettled.

"It seems big enough," Rey says, and she's right. There's more than enough room for what they have now, with space to grow. The problem is that something is…off.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Poe murmurs.

"You feel it too?" she asks, lowering her voice.

"Yeah, there's something not right about this place," he says. There are several caves in the side of the ravine, all of them dark shadows in the stone that could hide anything. The creek is small and dirty. There are still no signs of life. "I don't know what it is, but I don't like it."

"Are you Force-sensitive?" she asks. "Because that's what I feel, the Force, but…not right."

"No, I think it's just that obvious," Poe says. He doesn't mention that he grew up around the Force, hearing the stories, climbing the tree in his yard. He shakes off whatever the bad feeling is—instinct, the Force, a change in the weather—and keeps walking. "Let's check out the caves, to be sure. Might make a decent bolt-hole if anyone ever needs one."

"Bolt-hole?" she asks, following him.

"Place to lay low, say if you're being chased through the system. We've got a few scattered around." He'd probably do everything he could to avoid this one, but any intel they can gather will be useful. "We've still got several hours until darkness, but it shouldn't take that long."

The first cave is dark and empty, as is the second. They are shallow, perhaps made by water flowing through the canyon in better days. Not deep enough for much shelter, though safer than living out in the open. The third one they come to is smaller, more like a doorway, but it leads into a much larger cavern. Scanners show it's dark and empty, so Poe pulls out a small lamp and steps forward to enter. He is both curious and reluctant. Rey grabs his arm, looking alarmed.

"This is it," she says. "The bad feeling."

He shines his light inside, can't see anything but more darkness. "Do you get anything else?" he asks. "Besides the bad feeling?" He feels it too, but he doesn't want to write off this place without having a good reason; bad feelings don't always qualify. He's made too many mistakes lately and is still having trouble trusting his gut. And the first system they'd scouted didn't look promising either.

"It's something to do with the Force," she says, her brows knit together in concentration. "It feels like this place on Ahch-To, a cave. It was…not a good place." Her eyes are distant and pained.

"Are we talking Dark-side bad here?" he asks, because then he'd definitely turn around. Leia would understand that kind of bad feeling. Rey shakes her head.

"I don't think so, but it's unclear. Maybe I'll know more when we go in." She unclips the repaired lightsaber from her belt and steps inside.

"Then I guess we're going in," Poe murmurs, and he follows, feeling far more reluctant and nervous now. What good was a Jedi if all they had were bad feelings and nothing more specific? He could do that on his own.

The cavern is the size of a small building and twice as high, but Poe can't tell whether it is natural or was carved by some alien race. He doesn't see obvious signs of civilization, but it seems odd, this large cave in the middle of nowhere. Their footsteps echo eerily in the dark, boots crunching on something Poe doesn't want to look down and see. He forces himself to check anyway, and finds the entrance littered with bones. Not human, but some sort of large creature, and he shudders from both the cold and the uneasiness growing in his gut. Toward the back of the cavern he notices something that is not natural.

"It looks like a camp of some kind," he says as they move closer. "Someone came here, a long time ago." There are several metal supply cases, the kind an old starship might have used for storage, a lantern that must be decades old, blankets that are practically disintegrated, all laid out in a small half circle. He shines his light around, and not far away he sees it: another pile of bones, this one human.

"Nope," he says. "I don't think we want to set up base in a tomb."

Rey is staring around her with horror. "Something terrible happened here," she whispers, walking slowly over to the bones and kneeling. He watches her warily, ready to step in if she has some kind of Force breakdown. She reaches out, but pulls her hand away quickly, her eyes squeezed shut.

"Can you sense anything?" Poe asks, regretting it immediately. Of course she can; he feels the weight of the stone above him, the ghosts of the dead around him. She's a Jedi-in-training, and clearly she feels more. When she doesn't answer, he touches her on the shoulder. "Come on, let's go. No need to put yourself through this, we're not coming here."

She gasps and jumps up, stumbling backward, and he catches her before she trips. "What did you see?" he asks in alarm, looking wildly around the cave as if expecting something to attack them. His light catches on the skeletons by the door, illuminating the horror. "What is it?" It is obvious she's seen, or felt, something through the Force.

"He was a Jedi," she says, her voice low as she stares at the former corpse. "He was attacked, mauled by creatures from outside, in the canyon." They glance at the small opening to the cave. "He dragged himself inside, but they followed him, and he defeated them at the cave entrance. He died a horrible, painful death. Alone."

"That explains all the bad feelings then," Poe says, and jerks his head to the exit. "Let's go." He starts forward, but she grabs his arm.

"Wait," she says, looking back to the small camp area. "He was a Jedi. I should…I want to see if he left anything behind. To know who he was."

Poe glances at the skeleton on the ground, thinks to himself He's dead, that's what he is. But he nods and follows her over to the small camp area. They search through the metal cases. Poe finds another lamp, some plasma power cells, and a blaster tucked in with some other weapons, while Rey finds an old Mandalorian power shield next to the Jedi's lightsaber, half buried in the dirt near the skeleton. She holds up the blade almost reverently.

"You were right," Poe says, though he never doubted it. "He was a Jedi."

"What was he doing here, you think?" she asks.

Poe rocks back on his heels. "Judging by the state of this stuff, it's been here a long time, but not centuries. My guess is he was escaping the Jedi Purge. Most of the Jedi were killed back when the Empire took over, but some escaped and were hunted down."

"He wasn't hunted down," she said, shaking her head. "At least, not by the Empire. Something else killed him, those creatures."

"Maybe he was hiding here, then." Poe looks around once more. "We haven't seen any other signs of life, though, so whatever killed him must be long gone, nothing but dust and bone."

The other two metal cases hold a supply of tinned food rations, water pods, an old medpac and more blankets. And there is one smaller box, hidden in a fissure in the wall behind them. Inside is an old, decaying book and a data chip. Rey puts both in her satchel, looking more hopeful. "These will tell me more," she says. "I know it."

"Ready, then?" Poe asks, and he stands up to leave. She nods her head, though she's staring at something in the dark on the other side of the cavern. "Or is there something else we should check out?"

"No," she says quickly. "But I think there's more to this cave than just skeletons. There's something here, in the Force. I think Master Skywalker called it a vergence, or a nexus. Like the cave on Ahch-To. Maybe it's what drew him here, the Jedi."

"And when he got here, he was attacked by the local wildlife." Poe starts toward the door. "Still doesn't feel like a great place for a base, if you ask me."

"I agree," says Rey. Poe turns and gives her a smile.

"Finn will be impressed," he says, and offers a wink. "We actually agreed about something."

"We agree," she protests, then amends it. "Sometimes. Rarely."

They laugh easily and step outside. Only the cloudy day they'd left behind is gone, and a fierce wind is whipping through the darkening canyon, almost pulling them off their feet.

"What the hell!" Poe shouts over the gale. "We weren't in there that long!"

A scrubby branch from a long-dead tree sails by and hits Rey on the arm; dirt flies into Poe's eyes and he steps back into the safety of the cave to check his scanner.

"What is it?" Rey asks. Her hair is a mess; Poe imagines his only looks worse.

He swears again, turns his scanner to show her the bad news. "Massive storm rolling in on top of us. I swear there was nothing on the scopes when we got here."

"I believe you," she murmurs. There's a blinding crack of lightning that makes them both jump. Poe is pretty sure Rey mutters an oath under her breath. "It's like a sandstorm on Jakku. They can come out of anywhere with almost no warning."

"If the weather is that unpredictable, that's yet another reason to cross this place off the list and get out of here." They exchange a look, silently agreeing this time, and Poe steps back out, hoping they can beat the storm back to the ship, even if it means facing the howling wind. Rey follows close behind, but they've gone barely twenty meters when the skies open up, instantly blinding them and turning the canyon floor to mud. Poe barely hesitates before he turns her around and pushes her back toward the cave. At first, she resists, shouting something at him he can't hear. When they get back to the cave, they are drenched.

"Why did you turn around?" she demands. "We need to get back to the ship!"

"We'd never make it," he tells her. It had been his first thought as well, but he's messed up enough over the last several months to know better than to trust his more impulsive thoughts: they've got him into as much trouble as they have out of it, and this is different. He's not taking any chances with Rey, even if she does drive him mad sometimes. She opens her mouth to argue, but he stops her. "Trust me, I've been in situations like this before. I've gone down in them. You think you can get ahead of a system like this, but you can't. Better to wait it out."

"In here?" she asks. "Together?"

"I don't bite," Poe tells her over his shoulder as he heads back to the Jedi's camp. "At least, not unless someone asks."

"What?"

"Never mind." He grins to himself, pulling out the ancient lantern and whooping when it not only turns on, but it's warm. "Oh, brilliant! It's an old fusion furnace." He takes a tattered blanket from the metal cases and lays it on the ground for her, another for himself. "Come on, get warm and dry out. We'll head back up as soon as it blows over."

She sighs and sits down, holding her hands in front of the heat. Poe does the same opposite her, pulling out his much cleaner emergency blanket and toweling off his hair and his jacket. He leans up against one of the old boxes, sighs, and closes his eyes. Almost like camping in the ruins on Yavin IV, he thinks. Except for the dead Jedi nearby.

"Are you actually going to sleep?" Rey asks. "How can you sleep at a time like this?"

"I'm a pilot," Poe replies without opening his eyes. "I learned to sleep whenever and wherever I could, including overnight in the cockpit."

He cracks open an eye to find she's taken out her blanket, as well as a water pod. She's also staring into the darkness with a strained look on her face. Poe sits up.

"I'm sorry," he says. "I forgot there's one of those Force things here. Are you going to be okay?"

She looks at him in surprise, either that he's still awake or that he's expressing concern, but then she smiles and nods. "I'll be fine. It's not as bad as Ahch-To." She hasn't said much about the planet where she spent time with Luke Skywalker, at least to him. They don't talk about much besides the missions they're on, or gossip around the base, or occasionally Leia, whom they both worry about.

After a silence, Poe decides to ask. "What was it like, this place on Ahch-To?" When she's silent, he nods. "That bad, huh. Why don't you close your eyes, then? I'll keep mine open for anything weird, let you know when the storm is over." Her expression is skeptical. "Promise!"

She shakes her head. "It called me," she says quietly. "The cave. Master Luke said it was strong with the Dark Side, and yet it called me, and I went. I fell, so far, into a pool of water cold as ice. And when I came out, I saw myself, in a mirror reflected hundreds, thousands of times."

Poe did not speak, sensing there was no need. He didn't know what to say anyway.

"Two dark figures approached from the other side of the mirror, and I was so…" She looks up at him, then away. "I was so excited, and scared at the same time. I felt…I thought they were my parents. That I would finally know my family. But as they came closer, they merged, until the only person standing in the mirror was me. Alone."

She clears her throat, stares into the lamp. "And that's when I knew, they were dead. I'm alone. Master Skywalker said it was a test. I don't know if I passed. I hope I did."

"Oh." He's almost sorry he asked, because it makes no sense to him, and sounds like it was difficult to share for her. "You're not alone, you know," he offers. "You have us."

She glances up with a look that seems strangely shy. "I know that now. At the time, I didn't. I just wanted to find my family, my place."

"I'm sorry that you didn't find what you were looking for." Poe thinks he knows how she feels, in a way. He's spent much of his life searching for something, never quite sure what it is. He'd always thought it was flying, but then he'd run away, looking for belonging, when it was exactly where he'd left it. When he'd come back to his family, he joined the New Republic, hoping to find meaning and purpose. Questioning that had lead him to the Resistance, where he was still chasing the future, searching for…well, something.

"It's okay, I think," she says. "Because I found something else." He can tell she's still figuring it out, though, and says so.

"You're just not sure what."

"You know, you can be annoyingly perceptive sometimes," she tells him. "Which is even worse than being annoying."

"I'm not annoying," Poe protests. "I'm…an acquired taste. You'll get used to me. Everybody does."

She rolls her eyes at him again. "That's what Finn keeps saying. Don't tell him, but I already have."

"You have?" he asks in surprise. "And here I thought I had my work cut out for me."

"No, you still do." She grins slyly at him, a sort of half smirk that he can't read. "Especially with Finn."

Poe feels his face scrunch up in confusion, which is probably why she bursts out laughing. "What do you mean, with Finn? We get a long great!"

"I know," she says with that same look.

"So?"

"So what?" The innocent act doesn't work on him.

"What about Finn?"

She smiles, this time more naturally. "He's an amazing person. Special."

She's hinting at something, but he's not sure what. He does know that his heart does little flip over it, but he's not quite sure why. Or maybe he is and he doesn't want to admit it.

"You've said that before," Poe reminds her. He wags his eyebrows. "You're not…you know…"

This time she gives him a disparaging look. "Definitely not. Didn't you already ask him that?" He nods sheepishly, slightly embarrassed to be caught at being nosey, and she continues. "He's a good friend."

"The best," Poe says softly. Rey chuckles to herself.

"Oh Poe," she says. They are silent for a long moment. "Do you mind if I meditate?" she asks, out of the blue. "I want to try and understand this place more."

He nods slowly, concerned. "Is it safe? Because from what you said about Ahch-To, it sounds like these sorts of places usually aren't."

"I don't think it's the same," she says. "And I have to know, I don't want to leave without knowing."

"Sometimes it's not worth poking the bantha," he tells her. "Been there, done that." Many times, and it always got him in trouble. But from the stubborn look on her face, he'll never talk her out of it. "Be careful."

"I will." She goes to sit closer to the dark corner of the cave, and Poe decides he is going to keep an eye on her, in case anything goes wrong. He knows little about the Force, except that it can be as dangerous and dark as it is beautiful and light. So he settles back against the metal cabinet, pulls out a ration bar, and tinkers with some of the old equipment while he waits for the storm to end.

Author's Note:

This is a story about Poe and Rey, though in no way a romance; I am a Finn/Poe shipper through and through, and there are a few hints of that here. I wrote it to go with a scene in the third part, and because I wanted to explore their friendship based on some of the enigmatic interactions we saw between them in The Rise of Skywalker. Many thanks to goldenroses13 for helping me out with some uncooperative details! This story is four parts and almost finished. Updates every few days. Thanks for reading!