It was the distraction that kept her awake. She knew it should be the fact that she'd nearly crashed a Dreadnaught into a planet and wiped out billions of lives – that was what was bothering the rest of the Resistance. All they knew was that she'd been busy distracting the Supreme Leader and the Force had gotten away from her, but that was enough to start the whispering in corridors, the suspicious looks in the canteen. She had it before of course, there were only so many occasions on which you could lift rocks before it stopped being cute and started being downright terrifying. People were afraid of her, particularly the new recruits, but as long as Poe and Finn were on her side no one would say anything to her face. But last night she'd walked in on Rose and Poe having an enormous argument during which the words 'dark side' and 'out of control' had been liberally used, and she'd started to think that her support amongst the leadership team might not be quite as solid as she'd thought.

She'd downed copious amounts of alcohol at Poe's welcome home party for the Millennium Falcon in an attempt to forget the events of the previous day, but that wasn't causing her insomnia. What kept her awake was the distraction.

If she hadn't distracted him then the Resistance would be no more – Poe and Finn would have given up all its secrets before succumbing to a grisly end and she'd be spending her days in secure isolation. The distraction had been necessary. Her first instinct had been to divert him with power and for that to work she'd had to have a physical connection, so she'd kissed him and it had all gone wrong from there. At the time, there hadn't seemed any other option. Now, she could come up with hundreds.

She had initiated contact, and all he'd done was take her up on the offer. What really kept her awake at night, tossing and turning in her narrow cot, listening to the swish of the vines and the howl of jungle mammals outside, was her reaction. She'd responded to his kiss, not just because she had to, not just because doing so would keep herself and her friends safe, but because she'd wanted to. There was a point when she was in his arms when all she'd wanted was to kiss, and to be kissed in return. She stayed awake, and thought about the distraction so long and so hard that she didn't even notice when those thoughts faded into dreams.

It was early dawn when she awoke to the sight of a man sitting next to her on the edge of her bed. She groaned, rolling over and hiding her face in the crook of one elbow. 'Are you really here?'

The tip of one, very real, very present finger touched the exposed flesh of her arm. 'I'm here.'

'And how long have you been here?'

'Ajan Kloss.'

She groaned again. 'Poe is going to kill me.'

'Then don't sleep so soundly. I went for a walk, calculated the angle of the suns, researched some of the more exotic wildlife. Interesting choice for a rebel base. I would have thought the mosquitos alone would make it uninhabitable. Why did you kiss me?'

She buried her face in the bed. 'It was a diversion. I was trying to distract you.'

'I'll rephrase. Why did you carry on kissing me? Why did you stop trying to hit me with the furniture?'

'Is that really what you came all the way here to ask?'

'I came all the way here to ask what you were looking for in my bedroom. I'm going to assume it wasn't me.'

'I didn't know that was your bedroom. Could've been anyone's.'

'Then tell me how you got onto the ship. I had the shuttle you came in analysed. It transmitted a shield slicer code that could only have been written by someone with a detailed and current knowledge of First Order technology. How did you get hold of it?'

'Why do you care? Aren't you supposed to be working with me to bring down the First Order from the inside so you can come back home?' She rolled over onto her elbow, squinted up at him accusingly.

He gave the room a disparaging look. 'Not if this is all that home has to offer.'

She sat up, put her back to the wall and glared in his direction. 'Why are you in my bedroom? Don't you have some ruling to do or something?'

'In a minute. I came here to tell you that I'm about to announce a truce. I'll be inviting the Resistance to attend peace talks as soon as I've found a neutral location.' He held out a hand to her, nodded at it. 'Go on then.'

'Peace talks?' she managed weakly.

'Peace talks. You said if I declare a truce you'll help me destroy the First Order and turn from the dark side and you'll also trust every single word I say and hold my hand. So, go on then, there's my hand. Unless you'd prefer to kiss me again.'

Her mouth fell open, but she thought he might take that as an invitation and snapped it shut. 'That wasn't a kiss, it was a diversion.' He had that look about him again, the one from the vision, that strange suspicion that somewhere deep down he was enjoying himself, although he wasn't quite able to let it surface.

He dropped his hand with an exaggerated sigh. 'Alright, I suppose it can wait until next time.'

Over the last year the Resistance had learned the limitations of permanent bases. They'd had to move so many times at short notice that every piece of equipment, every generator, every scanner, every dwelling was now modular and therefore portable. Scarcely an hour had passed since Kylo Ren had made a dramatic exit, taking the location of the Resistance base with him, and already the majority of that base was ready for departure.

Rey watched as her home pod was winched into the belly of a cargo freighter and stacked on top of another, ready for quick deployment onto their new hideout, the ice world of Kijimi. Only one pod was to be left behind – the habitation of the Resistance's only princess, remaining in position as a memorial on the last place she had drawn breath. Rey pulled up her hood and turned in the direction of the Falcon, ignoring the venomous glances being flung her way by the rest of the rebel scum. No one would quite believe that she hadn't somehow been responsible for the discovery of their location – and now everyone blamed her for the fact that the First Order was undoubtedly on its way, as well as for the near destruction of Coruscant.

It had taken her a few moments after he'd left to work out what was missing. She'd sat up in bed immediately, knowing that she had to call an evacuation as quickly as possible but as she hunted for her boots she realised they were standing together in a neat pair right next to the door. This was not where she usually left them, and particularly not where she left them after stumbling back in an alcoholic stupor after drinking the night before. It occurred to her belatedly that no one needed to go for a walk and look at the wildlife to work out which planet they were on – they could simply use their communicator to obtain the information straight away. That meant that he had spent some time in her room while she was sleeping and the more she looked around, the more she realised that her belongings had been searched far more carefully than she had managed on his ship.

She had very few possessions and even fewer secrets so it was difficult to work out what he might have been looking for. The Jedi texts were untouched in their place beside the bed under a half drunk mug of caf, her lightsaber still attached to her belt below a mess of stained trousers. Only when she was dressed did she miss it – the slim saberstaff she'd appropriated from the Sith museum was nowhere to be found. She'd never so much as unfolded it and it wasn't like its loss would impinge on her daily life, but the fact that he'd taken it still rankled – he was both a liar and a thief.

Kijimi was not popular with the Resistance from the moment of their arrival. The planet was freezing, their new home an ice cavern cut into the rock halfway up an inaccessible mountain pass. Rose was already complaining about how long it would take to fetch supplies, while Finn had bruised his elbow slipping on the ice and let Rey know in no uncertain terms that this was all her fault. It was for this reason that the Resistance did not learn that they had won the war until the comms relays were connected late into the evening, by which time the news had been playing on HoloNet for some time.

General Pryde, an older, dark haired man with an emaciated frame and sharpened cheekbones had given a terse interview, delivering his message in a clipped tone that suggested he didn't approve. 'Within the last few days the attempts of the outlawed Resistance to destabilise the First Order's peaceful acquisition of the galaxy have sunk to a new low. They endangered billions of lives on Coruscant with a failed attempt to scuttle the First Order flagship in the middle of a celebration parade, showing no consideration for any potential loss of life. We will not allow this rebellion to continue unchecked. In an attempt to curtail the Resistance's threat to our citizens, the First Order is willing to offer a temporary ceasefire. We will broker talks to determine whether there are any terms under which this terrorist organisation will agree to desist with their attacks on the peace of the galaxy. The First Order invites the Resistance to attend negotiations under a flag of truce on Dorumaa in two days time.' The General frowned, bent slightly closer to the camera. 'I imagine they will be too cowardly to show up.'

There was no one watching the broadcast on Kimiji who was not surprised, albeit for different reasons.

'We've got them on the run,' crowed Poe over the hubbub of raised voices. 'I knew it would work in the end.'

'Sounds like a trap to me,' Rose was not quite so sure.

Finn was tapping at a pad. 'Dorumaa is a water world, a resort planet in the Expansion Region noted for its ridable giant sea turtles. No military installations. Lots of hotels. Doesn't appear to be a threat.'

'It's a neutral location,' Rey noted absently. 'Just like he said.' This was going to be some sort of trick, wasn't it? The sort of trick that got announced publicly by a high ranking official in the middle of a news broadcast. The sort of trick that couldn't be reneged on because everyone in the galaxy would be watching.

'Finn, get someone out to Dorumaa to keep an eye out for First Order infiltration. If this is an ambush we need to know. And try to get hold of the mole – maybe he can tell us if this is a serious offer, no, don't say it, just try. Rose, you'd better get working on a list of demands – start with unconditional surrender to the Resistance and move down from there. I need to speak to a guy.'

Rey spent the next two days profoundly uncomfortable, and not just because most of the Resistance had stopped talking to her and it was so cold on Kimiji that the inside walls of her pod kept freezing. She vacillated between certainty that the truce was a trick and fear that it wasn't, fear tinged with a sickly excitement that she might be called upon to make good on her promise - to help him turn from the dark side, to hold his hand. Maybe he was expecting more than that. Maybe she'd promised something she couldn't deliver.

Dorumaa went some way towards alleviating her concerns. It wasn't a place that lent itself to gloomy thoughts and depressing ruminations. It was mostly ocean, with a few isolated islands replete with sandy beaches, gently swishing palms and friendly wildlife, which popped up at regular intervals to wave a flipper. Even the breeze was gentle. Rey couldn't imagine a place further from the First Order's strict regime. The entire planet was empty, having been cleared of tourists in honour of the peace talks and the Resistance had swept both sea and land for hidden military tech, disguised stormtroopers, weapons caches, poison stashes, bugs and listening devices and anything else that Rose could think of. They had found nothing. This appeared to be as it had been advertised – a neutral location for a truce.

The Resistance delegation arrived at the appointed time the evening before talks were due to begin, their arrival choreographed so as not to clash with that of the Order's hierarchy and avoid any potential unpleasantness in public. Rey passed through the weapons scanners set up in the lobby of the planet's most exclusive hotel, which was larger than most of the bases she'd lived on, and gazed around with wide eyes. This level of expense wasn't something to which she had ever been accustomed. The floors were surfaced with some kind of brilliant white, sparkling stone, buffed to a polish in which she could see her reflection and every facet of the walls glinted with precious metal, gleaming in the light cast by crystal chandeliers. It made her feel cheap, and she could see that same feeling in the uneasy glances her friends were giving each other, the way that their conversation flagged and died the further across the floor they went.

There was no one at the front desk, just a gleaming platinum service droid dispensing room keys and arranging for luggage to be transported upstairs. Rey kept hold of her single bag, which contained a change of clothes and nothing else of any practical value, began the long walk up the sweeping staircase to her room on the upper floor, trying not to lose her feet in the opulent depth of the carpet. She had been allocated a suite, rather than an individual chamber, complete with an entire lounge and kitchen, an old-fashioned bathroom with unlimited running water rather than the fresher she was used to, and a bed seemingly large enough to sleep six. She dumped her pack on the floor, not wishing to mess up the sheets and took off her shoes, because besmirching any of the costly, woven floor coverings with dirt from the outside world would be sacrilege. One of the walls in the bedroom had been replaced with windows responsive to movement, so that when she gestured them to open they glided silently to one side, letting in the warmth of the ocean breeze and the sound of the waves.

She stood on the balcony, feeling more at home outside than in the gilded salon behind her.

'This planet used to be frozen, once upon a time.' She wasn't even remotely surprised to hear his voice. 'Covered in ice, nothing alive in the seas. Then its trajectory was changed and the ice melted. Now it's a different place.'

She tightened her hands on the smooth metal railings. He was somewhere behind her, a swatch of black just visible in the corner of her eye. 'Is that what you're doing here? Changing?'

There was a short silence, broken only by the crash of the sea and the call of distant birds. 'You still don't trust me.'

She stood there watching the waves. It was a request that she couldn't refuse. Or to be more specific, it was a request that she shouldn't refuse. He wanted redemption. He wanted to come home and he had asked her for help and that was what the light side was all about, wasn't it? Forgiveness, selflessness, service to others. 'I'm not sure I know how,' she replied eventually.

'I have done everything you asked of me. You wanted peace, I called a truce. You wanted that ship back, I let you escape with it. You kissed me, I kissed you back. What else can I do, Rey? What else is there?'

She sighed. 'Say you're sorry.'

'What for?'

'Everything. For what you did to your family. For what you did to everyone else. For the choices you made and what happened because of them.'

He came to stand next to her, close, but not touching and his fingers were white as they gripped the railing. 'No,' he said.

She flicked him a glance but he was gazing out to sea, fixed on a point far away on the horizon. 'I will kneel but I will not crawl. It is not your place to forgive me – there is no one left who can. And the mistakes I have made, I did not make them alone. I will not allow you, or anyone else to pick over my errors and tell me exactly where I went wrong. I will make amends in my own way and either you accept that, or you don't, I am done begging you for help. You can trust me now, or walk away and we can go back to fighting each other until the rest of the galaxy is dead and gone and you are standing on the moral high ground with the wreckage of everything you have ever loved beneath your feet.' The hand on the railing next to hers turned palm up. 'It is such a precious thing, a second chance. Are you really so sure you will never need one?'

There was an ocean in front of her and a door at her back but Rey still felt like she had been boxed into a corner. It was a problem of her own making, at least partly. She wanted to be the sort of person who offered second chances, who always saw the good in people and was ready with forgiveness but this man had burned her before and she found it difficult to walk into the fire so readily again. But this was a request she couldn't refuse, and still be the person she wanted to believe she was.

Tentatively, she reached out and took his hand.