She floated freely among the stars. The dust of unborn wishes swirled around her and carried her to a nebula that glowed gold and black and blue and everything inbetween.
Tall figures with gaunt, starved faces stood amongst the graveyard dust. "You do not belong with them anymore young one. The Whills welcome you back child, will you stay with us this time?"
Just for a moment, she wanted to. This was what she had always been striving for. Becoming one with the Force, free to float the galaxy.
'I want to be free of my skin.' The familiar whisper fllled the air around her. She had been offered this before and in her grief and fear she had refused and had returned to her broken body the day most of her had died.
This was different, she wasn't afraid and she wasn't sad. She felt light and happiness, but not how she used to feel it before. A thread of red dust curled around her wrist and tugged. She turned and saw the gnarled face of the monster that had haunted her.
"You didn't think that you could escape me that easily little girl."
A human hand, pale and spotted with a red ring reached for her. She jerked away from it and for moment the dust let her go.
Light filled her vision "Maia, come back to me."
"Go back to him." The monster sneered, "And seal your fate."
The dust disappeared and she fell for so long she forgot why she was falling. It was darkness and stars and weightlessness.
Her eyes closed and when they opened again she was on the edge of a stream in a forest. Glowing flowers floated lazily downstream and a man in a cloak watched.
"I shouldn't have scared you away." The man spoke.
She sat next to the man, as she had done many times before, "You thought you were doing the right thing."
"I should have let you talk to him at least, it wouldn't have hurt anything, maybe even shown him that he had a friend." The world worn face of Luke Skywalker looked over at her, "You were his friend, weren't you?"
"As much as I could be."
"He always was hard to reach. But you would have done a better job than I did."
"Most definitely."
Luke chuckled, "I always thought that if I had a daughter, she would be like you."
"And if I had wanted a distant, strict father, I suppose I could have done worse than you."
He didn't find that funny, "There are things I would have done differently. Make sure Rey doesn't make my mistakes."
"Rey will make her own mistakes, we all will. But we've learned from yours."
"Good. You best be going now." He reached into the water and picked up one of the glowing flowers, "Your name means flower, doesn't it?"
"Close enough." She leaned over and kissed the side of his head, "Goodbye again."
"Goodbye again." He gave her a kind smile and she was floating away, not falling this time.
Something tugged on her hand insistently and a soft voice spoke in her ear. It was comforting and felt like home. She followed the voice and into the light.
She opened her eyes to Leia, looking down at her with a smile. "You're okay." She said confidently, touching the younger woman's face gently.
"Where's Poe?"
"He's alive, don't worry. We had to force him to leave your side."
Relief flooded through her, she hadn't failed, he was fine and she was alive too. They were both alive and everything would be fine.
Tel was giving Poe the cold shoulder. Every time he came to ask how the ships were doing, he got even gruffer answers than he was used to. Finn saw one of these short exchanges and winced in sympathy, "I'm sure he'll forgive you soon."
Leia was a little stiffer with him too, but considering the abysmal state of the Resistance, he couldn't blame her. She was always off trying to make alliances and support. Finn often went with her, it turned out he was pretty good at convincing people to join them. That left Rose and Tel with the bulk of repairs and maintenence, which they were fine with. Finn was a good helping hand but didn't exactly know what he was doing. Poe had walked in on the three of them having intense discussions in the hangar bay late at night and every time he interrupted they all jumped apart like they were doing something wrong. He decided not to ask too many questions.
They let Maia out of the medbay the next day. She was remarkably upbeat and seemed almost stronger, or so at least he thought. Maia put a hold on Rey's training for the time being. She said Rey needed to put more work in with the Resistance and Rey seemed more than happy to do just that. She had missed being in a ship and Chewbacca was glad to have her back too.
"Good morning." She kissed him and slid on the bench next to him in the mess. It was early, he didn't ask how she knew he would be awake. First shift wouldn't be awake for another hour and third shift were all busy. SHe was uncomfortable showing affection in front of others, she said it took away from her mystery. He was okay with that, he kind of liked these private moments they found.
"Good morning indeed." He kissed her more soundly then went back to shoveling food into his mouth.
She shook her head, "You have nowhere to keep all that food."
He started to mumble a response with his mouth full, but he was cut off by a comm. He was being summond to Leia's office.
"It seems as though a First Order funded insurgent group has started causing mayhem on Teranai 5." Leia pulled up a map and the planet in the mid rim, near the outer rim, was magnified.
Tel nodded, "I heard some rumors while I was there last."
"A group has been fighting them, the contacted us and requested assistance. We intend to send it."
Poe read through the request, "Why Teranai 5? No offense, but it's nowhere important, why does the First Order want anything to do with this place?"
"The Dennon wine trade is surprisingly lucrative and has been gaining traction over the last ten years. It would be a good source of income as well as flooding the market with it to make people, complicit in a way."
Dennon wine was considered illegal in the core worlds and many other planets. Itw was sweet and addictive, causing people to go into a haze and often forget their pain.
"I also find it suspicious, almost as if they know one of our members is from that particular planet." Leia finished.
"My family knows and that's it. They wouldn't sell me out." Tel said confidently.
"I don't think it's you they would be thinking of." He looked at Leia, who nodded understandingly. "And someone else could have found out, you said you couldn't get a comm to us, someone could have intercepted it or stopped you from contacting us."
Tel hesistated at that, "You could be right. I'm not a field agent, but I know my home and the people there. I can go find out what's going on."
"They know we are coming, I don't want to send you alone." She turned to Poe, "Go with him, take a few others, not Maia and not Rey, anyone else."
Poe nodded, he hadn't intended on bringing them anyway, although a part of him thought that Rey would be a good asset with her Jedi skills and Maia did know the planet.
He asked Finn and Rose to come with them. They were both the people he trusted most in the Resistance and Finn's new found talent in diplomacy would be useful.
A figure was standing in his room, scaring him nearly to death. Maia stepped out of the shadows, hands on her hips, "When do we leave?"
Pulling his hand off his chest and running it through his hair, he took a deep breath before replying, "You can't scare me like that, how long have you been waiting here?"
"Long enough for you to be nervous. When are we leaving for Teranai?"
"Leia said you and Rey couldn't go."
"I know, Tel told me already and I'm saying that both of us are going."
"You aren't even in the Resistance Maia, you can't just come on missions."
Her hands moved from her hips to crossed across her chest, "Flybird, do you doubt that I could be helpful? I lived on Teranai five for nearly ten years. I know my way around."
"But it's been what, twenty years since you were last there? The First Order is there too, and I can't have you get to close to them. What if Kylo Ren shows up? Are you saying that you can fight Kylo Ren? That didn't go so well for you last time!"
"I know I'm not as strong as him, but what are the chances of him showing up on Terenai 5?" She took a few steps until she was in front of him, "I can be helpful."
Poe rubbed his face, "Maia, we've lost so much recently, I've. . . made some bad decisions. I don't want to make another decision that will hurt you."
Her eyes softened and she placed her hand on his chest, "Poe."
"Please, Maia." He pleaded.
"At least take Rey." She conceded, "She should get off the base and she is much more talented than I can ever hope to be."
He agreed and then pulled her into his arms, "Sorry, I just. . . it's been rough."
"You know I just want to help."
"I know. I'm still getting used to that. I'd feel better if you were here, safe, this time at least. Next time, I will bring you along."
She beamed, "That's all I ask."
Sorry for the long wait, work has been crazy and inspiration has been low. But I've got a few easy weeks and I hope to get a few more chapters out before April when my life will get busy again. Thanks for your patience.