Hello again, I can't believe how long it's been! Or how much I missed this story and our grumpy yet soft protagonist Eris.

But first things first, I did completely reimage Eris' look (as you will see in the banner). I could not stop imaging her as an alien and it eventually overtook me. So I have completely gone through and edited every chapter to reflect this, and in doing so have rewritten some scenes entirely.

The biggest changes (meaning new scenes) are chapter 6 with the flashback in italics, the end of chapter 7, the end of chapter 8, chapter 13 when she's helping the Resistance squadron outside the compound, and chapter 14 was almost entirely rewritten.
But again all chapters have been edited and there are some small details that weren't there before, especially with Eris' feelings.

I do apologize if these changes aren't well accepted, you can find my original story with all the original scenes on archive of our own. I'm pretty happy with this though and I hope you guys are too, and that you enjoy some of the new scenes because they were very fun – there's a lot more Poe, and ya'll know how I love that boy.

In other news: I saw the new movie! And I have the second part of this series entirely mapped out I just have to find the time to write it. So be on the lookout for this (but in like one to two weeks cause I'm moving cross country tomorrow and will not be writing). I'm super excited and I hope you guys are too, if you're all still with me.

One last thing, I've been sitting on an alternate ending for this story that I scrapped two years ago in favor of all of chapter 14. But it's for the most part complete, it's just missing those last few lines to real seal the end of the story.
If you're interested I'm putting it below, it starts when Chewie finds Rey and Finn before the Starkiller Base explodes.

Alternate Ending:

Bursting through a row of trees the ship's beam landed on two small forms lying in the snow. "Open the door," Eris yelled already running for the exit. Hitting the snow she ran beneath the ship to the place Rey knelt beside Finn. "Is he breathing?" she asked dropping to her knees beside him.

"I think so," was Rey's choked answer.

Eris nodded looking up to see Chewie jogging towards them. "Where is he?" she asked Rey quiet and unelaboratory.

Confused Rey turned to Eris wondering why it mattered. "The ground split, I couldn't get to him."

Again Eris nodded her eyes falling to the snow as she thought. And she thought, trying to talk herself out of it but her own stubbornness got the better of her. With a crushing sigh Eris looked up at Rey already seeing the hurt in the girl's eyes. "I'll explain later," she said by way of goodbye.

Rey watched with eyes widened with betrayal as Eris disappeared through the trees, watching as she left her. "Eris," she screamed hoping she'd come back. Chewie shook his head knowing what she was doing, knowing why too, and gathered the unconscious boy in his arms. "We can't leave her," Rey said rising to her feet prepared to go after before a large quake shook the ground and she nearly lost her footing.

Chewie roared back that Eris made her choice, and that she'd want Rey to leave. It wasn't what Rey wanted to hear, and though she followed the Wookie back to the ship she turned still hoping to see Eris come back.

.^.

He didn't feel anything, nothing but the cold. The wound in his side had stopped hurting, the one in his shoulder had dulled to a faint twinge, and he couldn't even feel his face. He wondered briefly if the girl had taken it. He lay on his back staring at the sky feeling the ground tremble beneath him. This was how he'd die, alone, cold, not worthy of the legend tied to his name – he'd be forgotten.

It was soft at first, so much so he didn't realize he was hearing it until he knew they were footsteps. They stopped, grew muffled, and then grew short as they quickened pace. A soft grunt, metal scraping rock, a hand clawing at the snow – she'd jumped the gap between them, always the reckless fool.

And suddenly there was a figure filling the sky as she stood over him, her face cast in shadow, her hair gleaming in the distant moonlight. She almost looked like an angel, a cruel hateful angel come only for the glory of his death.

"Not gonna lie," she said stepping around him to stand by his head, "I kinda wished you were dead." Without another word she grabbed the collar of his shirt and heaved him back toward the base.

With movement the pain returned, as did his anger to how freely she spoke to him. "Don't think this excuses your aiding them," he told her thinking that must be the reason she'd come back for him.

Eris gave a quick tired roll of her eyes as she continued pulling his heavy limp body along the snow, hearing something behind them and hoping it was a ship because the planet wasn't holding together much longer. "I don't pick sides, you know that," she told him.

"You helped her," he said forcing her to admit she'd chosen wrong.

But it was something Eris didn't agree with. "Just like I help you."

That was true, he could feel it in her, she was no more with the Resistance than she'd been The First Order. But there were people he could feel an allegiance to, and he was surprised to find himself one. "Why do you always come back?" he asked feeling his open skin stretch and pull with every word.

She paused hunched over as she kept hold of him staring down at his torn face, the confusion in his lighted eyes. He had so much power, enough she honestly thought he could rule the galaxy. But he was childish, and broken. "I don't know," she told him honestly seeing from the heavy blinking of his eyes he was fading.

Turning to look over her shoulder she saw a ship aiming it's beacon to them, Hux having located Kylo Ren. The sight of her was a great surprise, though not entirely unbelievable – somehow she'd garnered a soft spot for Ren. It made no difference to Hux, she'd be killed either way.

She turned back to Kylo who lay limp staring up at her dazed letting her drag his aching body across the snow, trusting her in his weakest moment to save him. To return the favor. "This is gonna hurt," she warned him before throwing him over her shoulder. She heard his pained grunt, too proud to cry out.

As the planet crumbled to pieces she carried him onto the ship.