10 days after the battle of Crait - Jakku - Inner Rim:

Rey was awakened by a repeated pounding against the door of her sleeping quarters. She struggled to get up but eventually managed to crawl painfully out of bed.

"I can hear you! I'm coming!" She grumbled hoarsely.

Chewie growled from behind the thick metal wall before she heard him walk down the ship's hallway and away from her room with heavy steps. She had slept in her clothes and couldn't even begin to claim she was well rested.

After returning to the Falcon in the middle of the night, she had had a hard time falling asleep and scarcely after finally reaching it she had bolted upright on her bunk, her eyes tired, breath short, and body trembling. She had been in a panic and had tried to understand what was happening. But her head was devoid of thoughts, filled instead with Ben's instantly recognizable voice and the intense sensation of pleasure radiating out from her belly like a supernova.

She just had an orgasm. It was the first time that this had happened to her without any sort of provocation.

She had never felt shame in recalling the intimate caresses she lavished on herself on the loneliest nights on Jakku – sometimes, it was the only way to find comfort in the vast emptiness that had been her miserable life.

But this one was different. It didn't feel like it was completely hers. It felt like the aftershocks of someone else's.

Had she fantasized about Ben? Had he managed to somehow revive the Force bond? Had he… touched her while she had been asleep? She knew it was possible to make physical contact with him through the bond, but she didn't know if Ben could do it from thousands of light-years away while she was unconscious. Her attempt to go back to sleep had failed miserably when, in addition to that, she had tried to process what she had discovered in Niima.

The purring of her cabin's ventilation system brought her back to herself.

It was morning now and Rey scrubbed both of her hands over her face in an attempt to order her thoughts.

In just a few minutes, she would be seeing Maz again. With stiff movements she walked over to the washbasin tucked into the corner of her room. She splashed her face with water and adjusted her tunic. The little leather bag was still attached to her belt and hung against her thigh. She placed a hand on it as if to confirm that its contents were still there and then looked up to the little mirror on the wall. An unflattering reflection stared back at her. She looked truly awful, but there was nothing for it. Taking a deep breath, she grabbed her staff, nodded at the little rag doll that lay on her bunk, and stalked out of her quarters.

OoooooO

Maz Kanata was the same smart-looking spitfire of a woman that Rey had met on Takodana. The First Order's destruction of her castle hadn't altered her ardor or character in any way. Although one thing had changed: she didn't want to stay at the fringes of the rebellion anymore lurking in the shadows. Now she wanted to be at the very heart of the action.

She was at the head of what she called the "Maz Squad", a group of about thirty mercenaries and space cowboys ready to do anything to annihilate the First Order.

So far, they had carried out a number of raids against strategic outposts and enemy installations. They were no doubt insufficient in completely disarming the powerful organization but, at the very least, Maz could brag about the fact that she was a thorn in dear General Hux's side.

The first light of dawn had broken across the sands of Jakku.

Maz's ship had landed close to the Millenium Falcon at the pre-arranged rendezvous point in the carcass of the Imperial cruiser. When the ramp of her ship lowered, the twenty rescued miners spilled from the mouth of it first. They were in rough shape, and some of them even sported visible injuries. Their clothes were nothing but rags and they were all extremely thin. Rey's throat tightened and she immediately thought of Rose. She exhorted them to board the Falcon immediately. As the miners passes her one by one, each of them gave her a solemn nod and a grateful look. Some of them managed a smile and one old woman came up and gave her a silent but firm handshake.

These people were broken; broken but free. They would rebuild. Painfully, and slowly, but they would recover. Rey would take care of it. She made the promise silently to herself.

Her feet moved almost before she'd made the conscious decision as she rushed forwards to support a young boy who looked like he was on the verge of toppling under his own weight. Rey was quick to beckon Chewie over who swept the boy up in his arms as if he was as light as a feather.

Maz finally made her appearance at the top of the ramp when all of the miners had disembarked. Behind her stood the five members of her crew, three of them carrying crates filled with Haysien ore.

"Chewie!" She exclaimed, sprinting towards the Wookiee, like a moth drawn to a flame.

Seeing the little woman coming down the metal bridge, Chewie made a sudden turn with an embarrassed grunt and bolted inside of the Falcon, still carrying the boy in his arms.

"Just as shy as always, my beautiful stallion!" Maz said with a smile, giving up her pursuit in favour of standing in front of Rey. She peered at the doorway Chewie had just disappeared into. "At least I'm patient." She chuckled, turning towards the scavenger and grabbing her hand to give it a squeeze. "I'm pleased to see you again, my child. And I'm glad you found Luke."

"Luke is dead, Maz."

"I know. But believe it or not, Rey, no one is ever really gone."

The last miner had boarded the Corellian freighter by now and Maz's crew, armed to the teeth and visibly nervous, began to re-board their own ship. One of them approached the two women.

"Where are you taking them?" Asked the burly man with shaggy red hair.

Maz raised her free hand to his face, silently telling him to shut up.

"The less we know, the safer the Resistance is, Zikko."

The large fellow spun on his heels without saying anything else and walked away. Maz then motioned for the young woman to follow her and both of them sat on an old compressor to continue their conversation.

"Did you find what you were looking for on Ahch-To?" She asked. "Leia told me that Luke had retired there."

Her small inquisitive eyes pierced Rey's, but the scavenger held her gaze with determination.

"He didn't want to mentor me."

"I suspected as much," Maz chuckled. "But don't think you didn't learn anything during the time you spent on the island. Luke turned the place into his own personal purgatory for rehashing mistakes and left no room for finding peace. All the while denying the Force."

"How do you know all of that?" Rey couldn't help but ask cautiously.

"The Force sent me a vision of him a few years after he disappeared. Don't ask me why, I don't even know that myself, but I saw everything there was to see about his life over there. I could feel his dismay, his regret, and his remorse. I saw him wandering the lost island alone in the middle of the ocean."

"Why didn't you tell us all of that on Takodana? Why didn't you inform the Resistance?"

"And tell them what? That Luke Skywalker turned his back on the cause? That he had given up and would rather lurk on a rock in the middle of nowhere instead of fight? Also, to be frank, at the time I didn't know that he was hiding on Ahch-To."

Rey sighed as she closed her eyes, which prompted Maz into continuing.

"When I met you on Takodana, I felt your determination and I knew that the Force lived within you. And then, when Luke's saber called to you in the basement of the castle, I knew that you might be the only one who could convince him to come back."

"I failed." The young woman replied solemnly. "And you're wrong, I didn't learn a single thing over there. Even when the Dark Side lured me into a cave at the heart of the island with the promise of answers, I didn't learn anything."

"I'm not so sure about that. Something within you has changed. I feel it. I think that it had the opposite effect on you, that it was perhaps the place of all revelations."

"I wanted answers about my past and I didn't get any." Rey said firmly.

"Really? And about your future?"

"I don't get it…" The young woman spluttered before trailing off.

Rey felt deeply unsettled. The smuggler always seemed to be one step ahead of her. Maz laughed.

"I'm one thousand two hundred and twenty-eight years old, my dear. The Force and I are old friends, you understand."

Maz stared at her insistently, her eyes demanding an answer. With the simple look, Rey realized that she had to lay all of her cards on the table. The words that the alien had uttered in the basement of the castle came back to her at once, their meaning now clear.

"On Takodana, when you told me that the ones I was waiting for would never come back, but that someone else could…"

"The 'someone else' was not Luke."

Maz's voice was calm and postured. Rey opened her mouth, but no words managed to break through the barrier of her lips.

"You know who I want to talk about now. And you're right to think that Skywalker made a terrible mistake. He thought that everything had been lost, that the Dark Side had won, but you know he was wrong. You've felt it… the light that still shines from inside of Kylo Ren. And you wanted to bring him back. I would have done the same thing. Ben Solo back on the Light Side and the First Order wavers."

The young woman nodded in agreement.

"The first time I felt the conflict in him was when he searched my mind on Starkiller." Rey explained.

"Rotten luck for him then because he woke up what had been buried within you for so long: your ability to master the Force."

"I could see into his mind too…"

"And you haven't emerged for this ordeal unscathed. A sort of transfer seems to have occurred… Ben received both Jedi and Sith training and, it's amazing, but you seem to have absorbed some of these teachings. I think that's what happened because I have never heard of an inexperienced Force-sensitive being mastering her own powers so quickly."

Rey sucked in a surprised breath at the realization that Maz had to be right.

"A strange connection has formed between the two of you." The smuggler continued. "That's why you can see the light still nestled deep inside of him."

"I failed to convince him and realized too late that it was just a trap. I went to him without thinking." Rey retorted in disagreement.

"The trap seems to have worked against him." Maz laughed before growing serious again. "The bonds that are created between two Force-sensitive beings are very powerful. To be honest, I've only witnessed this kind of thing at one other time in my life. It was between Luke and Leia, who were twins, as you're aware. Family ties obviously induce a particular connection, but perhaps, compassion or empathy can also be at the root of such a bond. Love could be another…"

Maz stopped speaking and Rey lowered her gaze towards the ground in an attempt to mask the panic that had suddenly seized her.

"Rey…" the little alien breathed out, her face frozen.

The sand under the scavenger's feet had never been as interesting to look at as it was right now.

"You… you have feelings for him."

Cards on the table.

Rey could continue to lie to everyone on Arbra. To repeat day and night that Kylo Ren was a monster, that he had chosen to turn his back on her and to surrender himself, body and soul, to the darkness, dreaming of nothing but power and destruction. He had murdered his father in cold blood, had wanted to do the same to his mother, and everyone else who remained a part of the Resistance…

But here, in front of Maz, the truth of the matter couldn't be ignored. What she felt deep down inside was irrational. It was shameful and deplorable.

Yes. She cared about him.

Tears began to flow down Rey's cheeks in a silent confession. Liberating tears. Tears that implored the forgiveness of all those she held dear. She felt as if she was betraying every single person who had faith in her. How would they ever be able to understand it when she couldn't even understand it herself?

She told Maz what had really happened on Ahch-To and the Supremacy. She also told her of her confusion as her fingers had touched his. She talked about her irrational hope, in the throne room, that Ben would make the decision to return to the light, and of her immeasurable disappointment when he had dashed that hope with a few simple words: "It's time to let old things die."

"I don't even know what I'm feeling now," she admitted, wiping her face with the back of her hand.

She waited for the smuggler's reaction with bated breath. The alien only scratched her forehead, looking pensive and still a little shocked.

"What am I supposed to do, Maz? I'm terrified. Am I running the risk of going to the Dark Side?"

The little woman's expression veiled itself almost imperceptibly.

"I don't have an answer for either of those questions." She sighed. "All I know is that you still haven't reached your full potential. I'm sure of it. That's why Snoke was scared of you, why he wanted you dead."

"I have no one to guide me now. Only old books and a broken lightsaber. My parents sold me like an object."

"Did you go to Niima?" Maz asked reproachfully.

The conversation veered off suddenly in a completely different direction than it had been going.

"I had to know the truth. I went to visit Unkar Plutt last night. Ben was right. My parents were junk traders who did business with the worst of Niima's scoundrels. They scoured Jakku's neighboring planets looking for anything and everything that could be sold. Plutt said that they were called Tark and Iona."

"Tark and Iona," Maz repeated, as if lost in thought.

Rey felt tears well up in her eyes again, but she pushed them back as best she could.

"I tried to remember them, to hang on to any little detail I could, to put faces to the names I had forgotten. How could I have forgotten their names, Maz?"

Rey was almost at her breaking point and the alien hastened to take her hand again.

"Plutt also told me that they were off their heads most of the time. Alcohol, drugs… they usually spent their nights at the tavern."

Rey was having more and more trouble breathing, it felt like her chest was being crushed, and each of her muscles began to seize.

"They sold you for drinking money."

Ben had been right. She had waited her entire life for people who had used her as a bartering chip for a cheap gut twister and a dose of glitterstim.

Rey thought back to how disgusted she had felt upon learning all of this yesterday.

Her legs had buckled underneath her, and she had only caught herself on the nearby table at the last second as the hold she had on Plutt's will faltered. The Crotule had blinked several times, suddenly taking notice of the fact that he had been acting against his own will.

Rey had sucked down a big gulp of air before refocusing. She had then asked if anyone on Jakku had known them well. Plutt told her of an old smuggler, reputed to be a dealer. He often lurked about the tavern and his name was Pandor. Tamping down the nausea that had overcome her, the scavenger had ordered the Crolute to forget everything that had transpired between them and go back to sleep. As Unkar had collapsed with all of his weight against his filthy mattress, Rey had staggered out of his shack before vomiting out what she had in her stomach behind the tent.

"I found the glitterstim dealer, Pandor Tellis, in the tavern. I dragged him outside and made him tell me everything." Rey continued.

"Your mother started using like your father right after you were born. They always wanted more. I didn't need other customers; their business alone could have kept me afloat. They would do anything for a dose. Your father had always been someone special. Strange, I would say. Worrying even. The other scrap dealers were always a little afraid of him. I remember one day when he threw Gert clean across the room in the middle of a fight while barely even lifting a finger. No one bothered him after that. He was a real character, I tell you. Besides that, I'm not sure that he was quite right in the head… something always seemed to be gnawing at him. That's why he needed the glitterstim. He once told me that he used it to "calm his demons". I still wonder how they managed to look after you for as long as they did when they couldn't even stand up most days. Anyways, one day they didn't come to our appointment at the tavern and I never saw them again. Later on, another trader told me he had found them dead in a wreck in the northern reaches of the desert. The guy kept their ship and whatever else they had with them. He was a rather charitable fellow actually because he took the time to bury them not far from here. He also needed a new speeder and I had one. So he paid me with what was in the pockets of your father's jacket."

Rey's eyes were now clouded and unseeing. While she had been talking to Maz, her hand had unconsciously plunged into the little leather bag hanging from her belt. She pulled out the item she had taken from Pandor Tellis, a gold broach covered in verdigris. She handed the object to the alien who examined it carefully. The piece of jewelry was round and the stamp it bore resembled a stylized flower carved with fine lines. At the back, there was some sort of engraved lettering that had come close to being worn away with time.

Maz looked up at Rey and stared at her in astonishment.

"You said that this belonged to your father?"

Rey nodded her head in affirmation.

"That's what Pandor told me. He wasn't lying, I read his mind. He kept it with him after all this time to "save it for a rainy day". Apparently, it's valuable. I forced him to give it to me. I've seen the emblem before though. On a pilot's uniform inside of the wreck of an N-1 Naboo fighter in the desert. My parents were junk traders. They must have found the pin while they were scavenging a nearby system or maybe even here, on Jakku."

"That's impossible." Maz said firmly.

The seriousness of her tone and expression aroused a sudden anxiety in the young woman.

"Why's that? It's the emblem of Naboo's fleet, right?"

"No, child." Maz said with a hard voice. "This is the emblem of the Royal Council. Such a piece of jewelry can only be worn by a high dignitary of the palace or by the ruler of Naboo himself."

OoooooO

10 days after the battle of Crait - On board the Finalizer

Armitage Hux had always been a supporter of order and discipline. He took an undisguised pleasure in seeing his troops standing at attention in tidy rows and observing every subordinate he had engaged in conscientiously performing the task that had been assigned to them. Every droid, mechanic, and officer had a precise role to play in the great enterprise that was the First Order. They operated like a well-oiled machine, efficient and all powerful.

He was standing on the glass walkway overlooking hangar six when he heard footsteps come up behind him and stop next to him. He didn't have to turn his head to know the identity of the person who disturbed his precious moment of solitude. The subtle scent of exotic flowers caressed his nostrils and a slight smile graced his lips.

"I hope that you're well settled and that your reunion with our beloved Supreme Leader has unfolded in just the way you wanted it to."

When Hux finally decided to glance sideways to his left he realized that Sylla was staring at the swarm of troops below them. She stood motionless with hands crossed behind her, imitating his own militant posture. Her face remained expressionless despite Hux's innuendo. A long silence settled between the two of them before the brunette finally spoke.

"You hate him, do you not?" She asked directly, without any embellishment.

The secret to Hux's survival, all of the years he had spent serving the most powerful and feared in the galaxy could be summed up in two words: prudence and submission.

However, since Snoke's death, something that threatened to dash his beautiful resolutions roiled within him. He could no longer restrain his ambition. He felt that the situation could shift in his favour and he knew that he was going to do everything he could to make things go in that direction. And he knew exactly how to achieve his ends in this particular moment.

"I admit that I do not always approve of Ren's decisions and that I still have questions about Snoke's death." He said.

"You made that clear during our last audience with Kylo. You're lucky that he didn't eviscerate you then and there."

"It seems that I'm not the only one with some… reluctance to obey the new Supreme Leader blindly."

Sylla turned her head towards him.

"You want to talk about Viri?" She asked, amused. "Simply male rivalry. It has always been that way between them. The strongest warring for dominance. It is in the nature of all Sith heirs to want to outdo their masters."

Hux's forehead wrinkled slightly. Had Sylla just confessed that she also suspected Ren of being responsible for Snoke's death?

Prudence and submission.

"All of you combined are an undeniable strength to the First Order. Kylo certainly plans to have you take an important place at his side. The systems that will be coming under our control soon will need governors at their heads. In any case it would be a pity if he confined you to the direction of a few squadrons of stormtroopers."

"Don't you worry about our future, Hux." Sylla said with a cheerful smile.

"Oh, but make no mistake, I'm not worried about you. I just want to make sure that nothing and no one will be able to annihilate everything that Snoke has had such a hard time rebuilding after the fall of the Empire."

"The Rebellion had been reduced to nothing. Skywalker is dead, and with him the hope of seeing the Jedi Order reborn. The New Republic has been pulverized. All systems have been weakened and destabilized. We have the power and the means to make them bend without any pushback. I'd love to hear what you think we have to fear."

Hux took a deep breath and chose his next words carefully.

"Not what… who. I'm thinking of the girl that seems to have become dear Kylo Ren's new obsession."

The woman at his side was fascinating. If, as he had hoped, his words had managed to intrigue her, she did not let it appear as such. She remained still for several seconds, her gaze fixed on the speeders parked along the hangar walls, her face calm and serene. Hux only realized that he had touched a nerve when she opened her mouth again to talk in a falsely detached tone.

"You're speaking of the scavenger who killed Snoke?"

Hux then rushed to press down on the weakness she had shown him without hesitation.

"He took her captive on Takodana and wished to interrogate her personally before delivering her to Snoke. And not only did he get nothing out of it, but when he came from the interrogation room I had never seen him so troubled. Miraculously, the girl managed to escape shortly after that."

"And there lies the proof of the complete incompetence of your men, General Hux." Sylla spat, the mask of a blank face she had been putting on suddenly shattering.

"And then she returned a few days ago, as if by magic, practically throwing herself to us. Seemingly without any reason at all. Strange, I'm sure you'll agree. I do wonder what exactly she came to do on the Supremacy. Or perhaps more precisely who she came looking for."

"Surely her rebel friends who were apparently aboard the ship too. One wonders what's left of your dear… Phasma, is it? I'm sure we'll find a much more effective replacement for her."

At the mention of the name of his former acolyte, Hux had no more reluctance in spitting his venom.

"Ren disagreed with Snoke about the girl's fate. He wanted to make her his apprentice against the Supreme Leader's wishes. He said that she showed incredible potential, that she was exceptional. Apparently, the scavenger caught his eye."

The sound of cracking glass punctuated Hux's words, silencing the soldier instantly. The window in front of him had cracked from top to bottom. Sylla hadn't moved a millimeter but her body was now as taut as a bowstring and her fists were clenched behind her back. Amitage didn't dare to so much as breathe. He had gone too far.

Overconfident, he had neglected prudence. It was now necessary to bet everything he had on submission. He went on without hesitating:

"Even though the girl has some ability and has been able to resist both Ren and Snoke, she's alone now. She won't be able to do anything up against five knights of Ren who are devoted to the First Order. I must admit that she has a certain courage… if not recklessness. If she and her band of rebel vermin are crazy enough to confront us again, or if she persists in trying to thwart our plans, I hope that the Supreme Leader will be ready to give up on her and inflict on her what she has coming."

"I will tear the girl's heart out myself if necessary, General Hux."

Sylla's words sounded like hatred in its purest form. The knight didn't even bother to give Hux a second look before she took her leave, heading for the exit. When he found himself alone again, Hux forced himself to take slow breaths in and out in order to calm his poor heart that threatened to beat right out of his ribcage. A drop of sweat ran down the side of his temple at the sight of the gigantic fissure in the hangar window. He wiped it quickly away with his gloved hand. He knew that he was lucky not to have suffered the same fate as the glass wall. His pulse gradually took on a less delirious pace and he was able to savour what was, in his eyes, the first victory of many to come.

OooooooO