As they followed their new allies through a series of tunnels under the city, Poe fell into step with Maia, "Any chance you can tell me the story behind all that?"
She looked around before leaning into him to talk quietly, "I was looking for a way off the planet. My mother had gotten mixed in with one of the gangs and there was a man who came around her house, he was not a. . . good man." Maia shook her head as if she was trying to shake out the memories. "Jak and I were on the streets, sometimes we performed together to try to get some money but he's terrible and can't carry a tune to literally save his life.
"We had a contract with the Dennon Collective, who had it out for the man my mother was involved with. We were supposed to steal some stuff from him, including that necklace from my mother and the ring from him. In return we would get money that we would split and we could start saving to get off world. I had the jewelry and the papers when we were escaping and that's when I ran into Luke. I didn't think, I left everything in my hiding spot and left with Luke. It was wrong of me to do that, but I also thought that Jak knew where my hiding spot was and could get the things for himself. I didn't know any of that would happen."
He squeezed her arm comfortingly, he was still weary of these people and didn't want them to know too much about them. "You couldn't have known. You also couldn't have known that he would be here of all places. Let's just hope we can get through this without him turning on us."
"I don't think he will, I can feel it. But he is teetering on the edge, try not to push him."
"Do you know what you were stealing or why they wanted the jewelry?"
"I was too small to know." She looked down at her hand. There was a small pale band of skin where the ring had once sat on her finger. She felt strange without it, she had been holding onto it for so long it felt like it had become a part of her. But it was oddly freeing, it had always been a reminder of bad times in her life.
"The bad things that you survive make you who you are, make you stronger. Don't hide from the horrors, wear them like a badge of honor." A hand much larger than hers put the ring in her hand and closed her fist over it.
Poe pulled her out of the memory, "Something's still bothering me about all this. What are the chances the First Order sets up shop on your home planet? Did Kylo Ren know where you are from?"
"I never told him, he never asked. I assume he wasn't interested. At the Temple, none of us talked about where we were from because those were places we would probably never return to."
Before he could respond, the group had collectively stopped at an ancient looking metal door. "The first colonists lived underground." Tel explained. "These are the last things left of our ancestors."
The leader, Mikal, knocked a short pattern on the door. It slid open slowly, another man struggled to push it open. Mikal clapped him on the shoulder and they entered well-lit room. There was a holo table in the middle of the room but it seemed to be made of spare parts and the image of the city it projected flickered and occasionally went out completely.
About five other people were gathered in the room, doing various tasks. Everyone jumped to attention when their group entered the room. Poe wondered if ten people were all they had fighting the First Order.
"Everyone, these people are from the Resistance, they are here to help us." Mikal ran through proper introductions of his group. Maia didn't recognize any of them and they didn't seem to recognize her, Jak must have been an outlier. Poe introduced all of them, "And our Jedi Master, Maia and her Apprentice Rey."
Maia wanted to correct him, but they were trying to exude an air of power so she stayed silent. She was not a Jedi, she had made that perfectly clear to him on multiple occasions. She was uncomfortable with lying about it but silence would have to do. Murmurs went through the small group at their introduction, most seemed skeptical but one or two seemed to believe them.
There was one woman with dark skin and curly hair and she was different than the others. She had some Force sensitivity. Maia wondered where she had come from and why she had come here of all places.
They gathered around the improvised holo table. Jak slapped the side and the layout of the city appeared again. The insurgent First Order group had taken up with the Dennon Collective gang to the north of the city and were hiding out in the Dennon Wine fermenting house.
In the last few months they had bombed a building where children had been learning and blamed it on a Resistance mission gone wrong, assassinated the old head of the peace keepers and installed a new one that turned a blind eye to their activities and helped them eliminate other gangs in the city. The city was on the edge of fear, waiting for the next tragedy.
"Why don't we blow up the fermenting house?" Finn suggested.
The Teranians shook their heads vehemently, even Tel. "That's not on the table." Mikal told him.
"Why not? We could take out both the First Order, the gang and the Dennon Wine factory in one blow."
"It's more complicated than that."
"It doesn't seem like that to us." Poe interrupted, "Dennon wine is illegal and anything we can do to stop the First Order should be done."
"What about our families?" Someone else spoke up, "Our families, our neighbors work in the fermenting house or gathering algae on the sea. We destroy the fermenting house, we destroy their lively hoods."
"So do you want to take control of it? Use it for your purposes?"
The rebel group exchanged glances with each other. Mikal put his hands on the holo table, "You don't live here, if we can take control, we can change it, maybe. Give our families and friends better lives. The man who controls the factory is a First Order sympathizer and he has thrown his lot in with the Red Death gang and the other gangs are suffering from it. We just need to take out this man and the gang members he directly supports."
"It's actually good that you are here Maia." Jak spoke up, "We need to know what happened to that data stick we stole all those years ago."
She looked around the room, "Why?"
"The man we stole it from was Braxis V'ron, the owner of the fermentation house. His family has held it for three generations. He's expanded the market for Dennon Wine 100 times what it used to be since he came to power. We made a copy of his off-world bank information and the recipe for making Dennon Wine and a bunch of other things."
"How do you know all this?"
Jak grimaced, "I think I would remember what they told me as they tortured me for failing."
Her heart sunk, there was nothing she could do to take away the pain her past actions had caused. Jak would always bear the scars of her mistakes. He had been her friend and she had thrown him away. "I don't have the stick."
"You have the jewelry but not the data stick with the information? Typical." Jak scoffed at her, turning his back to the table and running his hands through his hair as he stalked around.
"I dropped it twenty years ago, I have no idea what happened to it."
Poe had seen her pocket something else on that roof, he wondered why she was lying to them.
"We can get the information once we take them out." Mikal placated his comrade, "It was a good thought Jak but we can figure something else out."
Maia pulled out her small cloth of rocks, her finger brushing against the data stick. She sorted through the rocks and handed one to Poe, a small black one that was rough on one side but had been worn smooth by the sea on the other. He winked and pocketed it and her heart skipped a short beat.
Everyone was pointing at the map and arguing, she hated this part so she wandered away. She swiped an old data pad from a chair and put it under her jacket.
"I suppose you think you need that." A soft voice said next to her. It was the woman with the Force sensitivity. She was much cleaner than the others and her smile was mischievous, Maia already liked her.
"Are you turning me in?"
"Not this time. Rika Dravvad, I'm from Chandrila."
"How does a good Chandrilan girl end up in a place like this?"
Rika's eyes slid back to their friends around the holo table, "A good friend and a sense of what's right."
"How often do you get that sense of what's right?"
"I'm certainly not getting it now." Rika turned back around to face the group but kept talking to her, "I know you're a Jedi and all, but I know when someone is lying to me, I hope you have a good reason."
"I hope so too."
Rika looked at her thoughtfully and Maia felt a small tug of the Force, so faint it was barely there but Rika was trying to reach her. This would work on someone who wasn't strong with the Force and Maia could understand her being a valuable ally to this group. Rika retreated, nodding her head softly as she rejoined the group.
Things were going to be interesting here.