—Chapter 6: Exodus—
In the morning, Rey awoke later than she'd meant to, feeling groggy, with butterflies in her stomach. She'd spent so much of the night fretting and second-guessing her decision that she hadn't slept very well.
After throwing on her clothes. She repacked Ben's bag of personal items with what he'd requested, slung it over her shoulder, and repeated the routine of feeding herself and then going back for seconds. When she got to his room, he was sitting on the edge of his bed, examining the pants he'd put on.
"This patch job defies description," he said, turning his head to look at her in the doorway.
"Yeah, well, at least you're not naked. You're welcome." She set his breakfast down on the table where his pants used to be and flung his bag at him. "The rest of your stuff is in there."
"Thank you," he said, and opened up the bag to inspect its contents. Finding his shirt, he pulled it out, inspected it briefly, and pulled it over his head. It stretched unevenly over his muscles as the new seams pulled in odd directions. "Again, I'm speechless," he remarked, looking down at himself.
She ignored him. "Hurry up and eat your breakfast, then come find me in the hangar. How are your legs? Did it hurt to stand up?"
"It's nothing. I can walk."
"Good. Okay, I'll bring our supplies to the hangar and see you there when you're finished. Your boots are in the corner," she added.
"I saw them. And make sure the guards know I'm leaving. They got agitated when they saw me get up, and I don't want them to do anything stupid when I try to leave."
"I had already informed them. If they were agitated, that's on you. See you in a bit, then." She turned around and left as he reached for his tray of food.
This was actually happening. In less than an hour, Rey would be off the base and away from her friends for the foreseeable future, training to be a Jedi. She was excited, but nervous, and she felt guilty about leaving at a time when there was so much upheaval within the Resistance. She had confidence that they would be alright without her, but she still felt like she was shirking her responsibilities—shirking her responsibilities in order to go off into the wilderness with the Resistance's greatest enemy.
Taking a deep breath, she marched resolutely back to her quarters to collect their things.
—
When she arrived in the hangar lugging the two big backpacks, their satchels, and her quarterstaff, Rose and Finn were already there. Rose ran up to hug her, not even waiting for Rey to set her bags down.
"Rey! Good morning! How are you feeling? Are you all set to go?" asked Rose.
Rey set Ben's bag down and shrugged her own backpack into a more comfortable position. "Yeah, I think we're ready. I feel bad about leaving you guys though. There's just so much going on right now, and here I am, abandoning you…" she said, frowning.
Finn approached, arms outstretched for a hug. "Don't worry about it, we've got things here covered."
From behind Finn, Chewbacca bellowed his agreement, R2-D2 whistling at his side. C-3PO was hobbling to catch up to them.
"Hi, Chewie. Hey, R2. Thanks for coming to see me off." She accepted a giant shaggy hug from the Wookiee, and gave R2 an affectionate rub on the head.
"Is Poe coming?" she asked. She still felt bad that he'd had to hear it from Finn that she was leaving the base, but they'd had no time to reconnect before now.
"Yeah, he'll be here any minute. He said he needed to grab something first," said Finn.
On cue, with BB-8 rolling dutifully alongside him, Poe strode into the hangar, locking eyes with Rey as soon as she spotted him. He didn't have the same cheerful expression her other friends had greeted her with. "Hello, Rey."
"Good morning, Poe. Thank you for coming." She looked at him with a tired expression. "I'm… I'm sorry. I know you're not thrilled about this," she added apologetically.
He shook his head. "No, I'm not. That's why I wanted to make sure you had this." He pulled a small communicator out of his pocket and pressed it into her palm. "It relays your precise global position back to the base, and if you press this button here," he said, indicating a small switch, "you can connect with any of four different receivers. This dial lets you choose between them. I'm #1, Finn is #2, Rose is #3, and #4 connects directly to StratComm."
She stared at the small communicator in her hand, somewhat embarrassed that it hadn't occurred to her to collect something like that herself—she had forgotten that Ben was their enemy. "Thank you, Poe," she said, looking back up at him.
"Please contact us immediately if you need anything. And be careful," he cautioned.
Finn slapped him on the back. "Stop being so ominous, Poe. It's Rey! She's tough! She'll be fine," he said, looking at her with pride. She smiled.
At that moment, Ben emerged from the hallway and stepped into the hangar, cloak swirling behind him. Immediately, several mechanics dropped their tools and hastily left. The ones that remained did their best to look small. Ben glanced at them without reaction, approaching Rey and her friends. He nodded to them, but said nothing. Without warning, Chewbacca roared and swung his giant hairy arm around, punching Ben right in the face. Ben staggered back a few paces, but calmly recovered. Everyone flinched, and Rose gasped her surprise.
Ben was shockingly unaffected. Standing tall, he nodded his greeting to the Wookiee, "Chewbacca."
Chewbacca just stared at him, growling slightly, but it seemed he had done what he needed to do. He would never be at peace with what was happening, but he was smart enough to understand why Rey needed him. C-3PO could be heard muttering anxiously in the background.
Turning to Rey, Ben asked, "Is that my bag?" gesturing to the large sack at her feet.
"Yes. If you'd like to check it, go ahead. If everything is to your satisfaction," she added smugly, "you can put it in that speeder over there."
"Speeder?" He shook his head. "We're walking."
Rey protested. "But you said it was ten klicks from here. With these packs, that will take all day to walk to!"
"It won't take that long. Besides, that's part of the point. If it was convenient to go back and forth between here and there, you would do it too often. You need to focus, and that means separating yourself from your attachments."
Poe brushed his comment aside, exasperated. "Rey, don't listen to him. Take the speeder."
Rey pulled Poe aside to speak to him privately. "Poe, I think you're worrying too much. I just don't want to walk that far, but you sound like you think he wants to take me out there to murder me," she added, flippantly.
"Well, maybe he does," he replied, trying to sound sarcastic, though Rey could sense the gravity in his tone. Poe continued, "I just want you to be safe, and I don't see why having a speeder at your disposal is such a bad idea." He leaned in closer to her, taking both her arms. She felt a little awkward.
Eyebrows raised, Rose and Finn watched the exchange with unease. Ben stared at Poe critically.
"Listen, you gave me the communicator. If I need to hurry back here for some reason, I'll just contact one of you and you can come pick me up," she offered, searching for a compromise.
"You know that's not going to help if he's really coming at you. This is the man who tortured me like it was nothing—I'm sure he doesn't remember, he's probably tortured so many people he can't keep them straight in his messed up head. He dug into my brain and stole my memories, taking what he wanted without any concern for what it was doing to me. If he wants something from you, he'll just take it, no matter what you say."
"Nice to know you have so much faith in me."
"Come on, you know it's not about your capability. He's a monster. Sure, you say he's not now, but just two days ago, he was. To all of us, at least."
Rey was silent at this, her own words echoing in her head.
Poe pressed on. "Ask Finn's spine what kind of person he is. Ask Luke. Ask his own murdered father." Poe took a deep breath to calm down. He hadn't intended for this to become a fight. "Look, Rey, the only reason in a million years that he's even being allowed to leave is because there's nobody at the helm right now. With Leia gone, nobody knows who's in charge, but even so, I'm really sticking my neck out for you by allowing this to happen."
"Oh, come on."
"I'm serious, Rey. I trust you, but that has to go both ways."
Rey looked away. She knew he was right, but was still too angry to completely acknowledge that.
"I hear you." Rey looked at him imploringly. "Please, just give this a chance. I promise I'll let you know if I have any concerns, okay? If I'm worried, I'll just look into his mind and see what I find, and if I don't like what's there, I'll call you."
Poe lowered his head and let out a deep sigh, still holding her arms. "Rey…"
"Poe, you're going to have to let this go, and just have faith that I can take care of myself." She pulled away from him and turned around.
Poe put a hand on her shoulder, more gently this time. "Look, I'm helping you go, aren't I?"
"Sort of…" she said, smiling crookedly.
Poe snickered. "Alright, just promise me one more thing."
"And that is?"
"Promise me you'll at least try to pump him for information on the First Order's troop movements. I had to give my bosses some sort of carrot to get them to approve this insane scheme of yours."
"Yes, sir." She walked back over to her other friends, where Finn and Rose had been pretending not to eavesdrop, and Ben had been busying himself by rooting around in his bag, for far longer than necessary, she was sure. That had given him an excuse not to have to talk to anyone else while he waited.
She stopped walking when she got to Finn and Rose, but directed her attention to Ben. "Okay, we're leaving, you can stop pretending to inspect your bag."
Ben, from his crouched position, stopped digging through his open sack, and tilted his head up at her to give her an irritated look. "It's about time."
Ben straightened up and hoisted his pack onto his shoulders. Rey gave her friends one last hug each, and marched out of the hangar. Ben followed her out, without acknowledging the others. Finn, Rose and Poe quietly watched them leave.
Poe was stern. "This is a horrible idea. He's going to… do something to her, and we won't be able to help."
Rose looked between Poe and Finn. "I don't know, Poe. We're never going to win by fighting what we hate. This could be how we win." She looked meaningfully at Finn. He knew what she was saying, but wasn't sure why she was saying it. Rose shrugged, and walked off, back to her work.
Poe turned to Finn. "What's she talking about? I got the feeling she had some hidden message for you in that."
Finn was staring out the hangar doors at his departing friend and her companion. Slowly, he began shaking his head, continuing to stare. "I don't know, Poe. Rose is weird sometimes."
Poe took one last look at Rey, then turned around and left. Finn continued watching his friend and her companion recede from view, out toward the forest, for another minute after Poe had already left.
