"I can fix most of it," Rey said from inside the panel. "I can modify the pieces from our ship and patch them in. But this," she said, dropping a burnt out regulator, "I won't be able to replace."

Poe nodded. "I felt the regulator going during the last leg here. We can buy a new one." If they had any money, which they didn't. "We'll need more fuel. What about your fuel cells?"

"Almost empty. We pushed our ship here with the Force half the way." She focused on the open panel. Poe didn't know Rey well, but knew a 'don't ask' expression when he saw one. She stared at the parts, then nodded to Ren, who turned and walked out, dropping his knapsack by the door.

"Where's he going?" Finn asked, ready to follow and bring him back.

"It's fine," Rey said. "I sent him back to the other ship for the parts. He'll sell the rest for scrap. That will pay for our fuel."

Finn said, "We can't just let him go off by himself. He'll turn us in to the first Stormtrooper he sees."

"You're selling your stolen ship?" Poe asked her. They hadn't even spoken. "How does he even know what the parts are?"

"No, he won't. Yes, we are." She twisted a screw until it fell out into her hand. "He used to help repair the Falcon. It's fine. We need the parts and we need the money. Hold this." She handed him the front half of the microcompressor before pulling out the filter. "This just needs cleaned."

"Finn," Poe said. "Clean the lady's filter."

But Finn had already walked out.

Catching up with Ren wasn't easy. Finn had trouble figuring out the sliding pavements, and he huffed his way to Ren's side.

"Did Dameron decide I need a guard?"

"No," said Finn, not liking how out of breath he was as he puffed the word. "I don't trust you not to turn us in."

"You realize they're back there wondering if we've both just defected back to the First Order."

Finn hadn't considered this. "They know me better. They know I won't."

"They've known you less than a month. You've spent all of three days in Rey's company. How well do you think you know her, or she knows you?" Ren continued his brisk pace, long strides forcing Finn to hurry to keep up.

"I know her well enough to know she and I are a lot alike." He pushed Ren on the arm. For a second, he saw him reach for his weapon. He felt a hand inside his head. Both were gone in a blink, and he felt Ren's voice mutter inside him contemptuously, "Truce."

Finn went on. "Neither of us has a family. Neither of us knows where we came from. And both of us learned to deal with refuse. But that's the difference. See, Rey's a scavenger. Her job was to look for hidden value in whatever junk she found, and try to find use for a piece of worthless trash. My job was to get rid of the garbage." He poked Ren. "You're the garbage, in case that wasn't clear."

Ren touched his head for a moment. A second after that, Finn felt Rey in his mind, with an irritated "Get back here."

"No," he thought.

Ren sighed in an annoyed fashion Finn had seen more than once. "Fine. Walk faster. Weren't you trained to march?"

"When this truce is over, I'm going to enjoy shooting you."

Rey wouldn't admit how worried she was until at last Finn and Kylo returned safely with the parts. No deaths, no injuries. She could worry about what they'd talked about later. She and Poe had kept their conversation strictly on the repairs. His mind had started out shielded, the way Luke had taught him, but his thoughts had drifted, and she'd seen.

She could worry about a lot of things later.

"How much did you get for the ship?"

"Sixteen thousand," Kylo said, placing the credit slip into her hand. "We picked up the regulator. There's eleven thousand left."

"He Jedied the buyer," said Finn. "I want to learn that."

"Mind control?" Poe grabbed the credit slip. "I'll order the fuel."

"They'll be loading that for hours," Rey said, taking the parts. "Once I get these in, we'll need charge time on the batteries. We're here at least overnight." She bent to her task, quickly reconfiguring the pieces. Without speaking, Kylo bent in beside her and did the same. They finished just as Poe came back.

"We can't stay on the ship," he said. "There's enough left here for a meal and a night somewhere cheap."

Finn looked at Rey. "Can't you Jedi us a room somewhere?"

"No more mind control," said Poe.

"We could have real food and real beds."

At his winsome face, Poe relented. "Fine." Finn wanted to learn the Jedi mind trick, but Rey suspected he'd developed his very own.

They found a hotel not far from the spaceport. "You two stay here," Rey said.

She kept herself from gaping in awe at the lobby. Crystal chandeliers lit the ceilings, and thick carpets piled over the marble floor. Serving droids wandered the fancy lounge area with drinks and nibbles. Fine music she'd only heard in holovids tinkled tastefully in the background. Around her, she saw wealth and finery on display, in the gemstones around beings with two or three long, graceful necks, and tasteful, web-delicate fabrics draping huge and wispy bodies of every kind.

A Nautolan, wearing a casual bracelet on one arm worth more than everything Rey had scavenged in her entire life, stared down its green nose at her outfit. She'd packed her desert garb into her own knapsack, but the borrowed clothes she wore were hardly better.

"This is a lot more than we can afford."

"It's perfect." Before she could dart out, Kylo grabbed her arm. Rey walked with him unhappily to the concierge, and she only knew that was the word because she heard it inside Kylo's mind.

"Play along."

In a bright voice light years away from his usual dour tone, Kylo said, "This is so exciting! Can you believe we came all the way to Axxila for our honeymoon?"

"I'm excited," Rey said, mimicking his enthusiasm.

The concierge clearly agreed with Rey's earlier assessment. "Are you sure sir and madame are in the correct hotel?"

"Of course. We have a reservation." She felt Kylo push him as he spoke.

"You have a reservation," said the concierge. "What's the name?"

"Bail Naberrie." He smiled, and Rey hid her shudder as she watched him play friendly to someone he was thinking about Force choking. She could picture the grey face turning purple and dying on the floor in Kylo's lurid imagination. "You see it right in front of you."

"That's the worst undercover name I've ever heard. The Naberries are famous. Everyone has seen the holodrama."

She felt his affronted pride even as he maintained the pleasant smile. "That holodrama was entirely fictitious."

"They don't know that. I didn't know that. But I know who that family is. This is a 'your family' thing, isn't it? And so is Bail. That's an Alderaanian name. You get a grumble in your mind every time you think about your family."

"I'm sure you've had plenty of experience going undercover in the sand dunes of Jakku."

"I know better than to name myself after famous people! Next time pick something anonymous like Antilles."

"And Mrs. Naberrie's name? For our records?"

Rey put on a matching false smile. "Ishie. Oh, wow. I'm finally Mrs. Ishie Antilles, I mean, Naberrie!"

"Congratulations, ma'am."

"We'd like a suite," said Kylo. "Make it nice. We'll want room service covered." He handed over the credit slip, and took it back again without letting go. "Now I've paid you. You'll record that."

"I'll record that, Mr. Naberrie. Here's your access cards." Rey grabbed them from the man's hand. "Room 2056. The lifts are to your left. Please allow our droids to carry your baggage."

"We'll manage," said Rey. Leaving the dazed man behind them, they returned to the street. "You are terrible at subterfuge. Don't you know any normal people?"

"Fine. The next time we're on the run together from the First Order and pretending to be married, I'll call myself Owen Antilles. Happy, dear?"

They turned a corner and found the others. "We've got a room. Let's get off the street."

Poe recognized their problem instantly. "We can't stay here." The two idiots had reserved a huge suite on the eightieth floor, complete with a sofa and lounge with tables, a small food preparation area, a refresher the size of the first house he'd lived in, and one large bed piled with enough pillows to sleep half the Resistance.

Finn said instantly, "Yes, yes we can." He threw himself onto the large, soft mattress that dominated the room and buried his face in three pillows. "We can stay here forever."

"You said 'nice,'" Rey said to Ren, and sat on the bed wearily. A moment later she flopped backwards, and had enough space not to bump Finn.

He wanted to argue, but the two little fluffkens had never slept in a real bed before. The bunks back on the Falcon were as close as they'd come. Both sets of eyes had already closed in bliss. Had it just been the three of them, Poe would have joined them for a nap. But they had another guest.

Ren gave the pair a look, then went to the comm pad. "Menu." He scanned it and pressed a dozen selections. Poe didn't have a chance to see what was on order before Ren sent the lot. Great. They'd wind up eating Ewok eyes or something worse. Ren also dialed in a music channel at low volume, a slow keybed piece Poe vaguely remembered from years ago, soft and haunting.

Poe nudged Finn. "Don't go to sleep yet."

"I'm not sleeping. I'm committing this to memory for when we're back in the barracks." He expected to get home, which was more than Poe expected at this point.

"Rey?"

"Same."

"Both of you up now. Go for a walk. Chat."

Rey's eyes opened and for a moment she stared at Poe, or something did. He wasn't sure who was looking out from behind her eyes. Madame Luna had always been fond of the saying, 'if you invite the Devil into your house, don't be surprised if he stays a while.' The lesson and warning to her favorite almost-nephew repeated over and over in Poe's head. Part of him hoped they both heard him.

"I'm not sure I should leave you two alone," she said.

"We'll be fine," said Poe.

"You have to swear to me not to kill him."

Poe said, "I promise."

But she was looking at Ren. He rolled his eyes, but she nodded as if he'd said yes.

"Come on, Finn. Let's talk."

Finn grumbled as he got out of the oversized bed. "We can talk here."

"No, we can't."

Finn expected to head back out into the overwhelming city. Instead, Rey walked just ahead of him, peering around her until she found her way to the restaurant at the top of the hotel, one hundred dizzying storeys up. They found the entrance, only to discover the entire room was surrounded by windows looking out into the shimmering evening lights of the city. Finn gulped down his acrophobia and followed Rey.

The other patrons were dressed much finer than they were. There were stares. Rey ignored them, leading Finn to a table near the back where an older Bothan couple sat chatting over the remains of their meal.

She told them, "You're finished. You're tired and want to go back to your room."

The two men blinked at her, then slowly rose from their seats, heading off together. Rey sat down. "There. They even left the bread." She grabbed a piece, taking a look out the closest window where Axxila glittered as though encrusted with gems.

Finn sat down across from her. "You made them leave?"

"I wanted this seat. They were finished."

"You Jedied them."

"You said you wanted to learn how. I can try to show you." Her smile was kind and open, but there was an arrogant tone under her words which hadn't been there before. She made a face at the bread.

"Later." He took some of the leftover bread, and discovered the same unpleasant taste she had. "I thought rich people food would taste better."

"So did I." She played with her sour bread, tearing it into bits on the abandoned plate in front of her. When he'd met her, she'd been on the edge of starvation, and wouldn't have rejected a single scrap, no matter how stale. "We could order something."

"Room service is coming." Ren had done the ordering, though. Finn figured the upper levels of Command dined on birds' tongues and rare wines.

"They don't," Rey said.

"You're getting creepy with the mind-reading."

"Sorry," she said, not sounding sorry at all. "It's more convenient. People don't say half of what they mean. If I want to know something, I like being able to tell when they're lying, or what they're leaving out."

"Yeah, but people have a right to do that. I hate being lied to as much as you do. I grew up being lied to. It's not right listening in just because you can. Maybe some people have good reasons to lie." He saw her face. "In case you've forgotten, we're at war. Your new friend tortured you and Poe both to get information neither of you wanted to give up."

"I know."

"You can't trust him."

"I know that, too."

"Because Ren's changing you, and I'm worried."

Rey started to protest. Then she stopped. "I need to learn what I can from him now. He's the only one left who knows anything about the Jedi."

"That's because he killed everyone else. I don't want you to be next."

"He's not going to kill me. He thinks about it, but he won't. He's too self-centered." Her mouth quirked. "He's afraid it would kill him. As long as we're bonded like this, he's obligated to keep me alive and unharmed."

Harm was relative, Finn thought behind the small shields he did have. Kylo Ren might not want Rey dead, but a Rey turned away from the Light and set to rule the galaxy by Ren's side as a Dark Queen would be a far greater tragedy. Finn had no doubt this was part of the overall plan, and right now, he couldn't say Rey was against the idea.

"I'm not in love with Kylo, Finn. I don't even like him." She took Finn's hands. "He's not like you. You're kind, and you're brave even when you don't want to be. You're the first real friend I've ever had."

"You want to be friends?"

"I think it's a wonderful perfect place to start." She crinkled into a smile. For one happy moment, Rey was the same girl he'd stolen a ship with and walked back into Hell for. Maybe his girlfriend, definitely his friend, and Finn couldn't even count how lucky he was to have two best friends. But that was why they needed to talk.

She said, "You should go ahead and say what you're worried about saying."

Her face was too kind, too open, too practiced.

Finn pulled his hands away and sat back. "Whose mind?"

"What?"

"Whose mind did you read? You already know what I'm about to say. Did you read me or him?"

Her expression changed to puzzlement. "Does it matter? It's fine. It was a long voyage. You were lonely, and Poe clearly adores you. I'm not angry. I'm not even surprised."

Around them, the wealthier patrons of the restaurant went on with their meals and their conversations. Expensive foods drifted intoxicating scents through the room, catching on the low candlelight at each table. Soft music played. Beyond the tables, couples of half a dozen species danced slowly in near-darkness. Any other time, this would have been a wonderful venue for their first date, a romantic moment stolen between battles by two like souls who'd found each other by sheer luck. They could look back on the night for years to come, and sigh about the one perfect evening that started it all.

Rey was gorgeous in the dim sparkle of the muted lights, and she'd just said she didn't mind at all that he'd had a fun couple of days in bed with his other best friend. She was offering simple affection, and didn't even see the need for forgiveness.

He ought to feel grateful. He wondered if that thought was his own. Watching her from across the table, Finn didn't know who was speaking to him.

He said, "Let's go back upstairs. The food should be there, and if we're lucky, Poe will have already shot Kylo Ren."

"He hasn't," she said, sliding out of her seat. "Kylo's been teasing me about killing Poe the whole time we've been here, but Poe's fine."

Finn hid the clench on his face but he didn't close his mind in time.

"Don't be that way," she said. "I wanted to keep an ear open in case they started fighting."

"Great."

They reached their room right before the food cart. His mood wasn't improved when the delivery droids offered their droll congratulations to "Mr. and Mrs. Naberrie" along with a complimentary bottle of blossom wine for the celebration of their honeymoon.

"Thank you," said Ren, smiling and pretending to be a normal person. Creep. "Bring three more bottles."

"Of course, sir," said the lead droid.

Poe scowled at the multiple carts of food. "I'm not eating it, whatever it is."

Finn considered making the same stand, but after smelling so much food in the restaurant, he was famished. "It's not going to be poisoned. If he wanted us dead, he'd have Force-choked us."

"True," Ren said, opening the first dish. His face lit up at the pile of bite-sized pastries, and he immediately popped one into his mouth.

Rey stood beside him. "What's that?"

"Try one." Ren grabbed another and held it in front of her mouth until she took a bite. Finn looked away, and noticed Poe also watching them.

"At least they're speaking out loud," Finn said. "Come on." He opened another dish, and found a pile of piping hot meat slices with a small dish of sauce. His stomach let him know he wasn't even pretending to care if the meal was Baked Human.

At last, Poe was tempted. "Is that Brualki?"

Finn filled a plate with everything he could see, sat on the floor, and dug in. "I take it back. Rich people food is delicious."

"This isn't rich people food," said Poe. "This is just food."

Rey finished the bite in her mouth. "You mean people eat like this all the time?"

"Not as much as this."

Ren said, "I was laying in supplies for the next stage. We'll need food for tomorrow." He took a large bite of something wrapped in a flatbread, and Finn discovered the most fearsome threat in the galaxy chewed with his mouth open. Still a creep. A mind-reading creep. "It's much better than we had with the Order. I would think you'd appreciate that."

"Everyone says you and Hux and the rest all eat off gold plates."

Ren choked for a moment on his food and swallowed. "No," he said, and stood to open and pour the blossom wine. He took a long drink, and again he made a pleased face.

Rey asked Finn, "What did you eat?"

"Nutrient paste. It wasn't good."

Ren recited, "'Full of vitamins, perfect calorie balance, with extra ingredients.' We all ate it."

"Extra ingredients?" Finn wondered if she was asking inside her head as well.

"There were different blends," Finn said.

"Mild steroidal enhancers for the fighters," Ren said. "Immuno boosters. Libido suppressants."

Finn set down his food. "What?"

"The nutrient paste was designed to build perfect soldiers." Ren took another bite. "Everything else was extraneous."

Poe looked at Finn and Ren. "Neither of you have eaten any of that stuff in a while, hm? That explains a lot."

"All the sex, you mean," Rey said. "They didn't even know what they were missing." She smiled at Poe. "Fluffkens."

"I suspected what I was missing," said Finn. All the sex? Ren didn't say anything, only ate more. Finn hoped he was stewing over the 'fluffken' comment. "Hungry?"

"Enjoying. When I return to the Order, it's back to the paste."

"You're going back?" asked Rey.

"Of course. Once our mission is complete, naturally."

"You can't." Her tone remained steady, but she fooled no one. "You can defect like Finn did."

"My trial would last less than an hour. Dameron's already considering his own testimony. Then I can look forward to being shot or hanged as an example. Long live the Republic." He took another bite. "When we are finished retrieving General Organa, and I've killed Lord Snoke, I'm going back."

"Not if we imprison you," Poe said. A moment later, he clutched his throat, gagging.

"Stop it," Rey said, and Finn felt the mental blow she sent against Ren. Poe caught his breath, glaring daggers at his enemy.

"You're not going to imprison me."

She said, "Then run away. Space is big. You don't have to go back to the First Order or the Resistance."

"And spend the rest of my days as a fugitive, looking over my shoulder, wondering if the next person I meet is a spy for any of the large number of people who want me dead? No. The First Order won't object if I kill the Supreme Leader. Assassination has always been an acceptable means of advancement." That was true. Finn remembered the early lesson about rising in the ranks: you made your own promotions. "Hux may submit me for a medal."

Rey stood, leaving her plate. "There's a bathtub in there, isn't there?" She nodded at the open door leading to the refresher. "That's what you call them, when you fill a whole cauldron with water just to bathe in?" Finn nodded. "Don't interrupt me for the next hour." She went into the room and locked the door. The sound of running water came through soon after, and a distinctly happy aura filled the room.

"Desert kid," Poe said. He stood and began packing the food into the small cold box in the suite's kitchen.

"Yeah." Finn looked at Ren. "I don't care if you go back. You're crazy for even considering it, but I think you were already crazy a long time ago."

"Opinions vary." Ren examined him. "I had a vision of you once. I didn't know it was you after until we fought. I was fourteen at the time. We were learning how to control our prescience."

"You saw I was going to fight you?"

"I saw you were going to die. There would be a war waged between two armies, one of children raised by the First Order, one of Jedi younglings. I saw you, and I saw thousands of others. All of you died. Bodies piled to the skies."

Definitely crazy. "There's no army of Jedi children."

"I know." If Finn hadn't spent the last several years of his life being terrified of this guy, he'd have sworn he heard a hesitant crack in his voice. "I decided then I was going to step in. I was going to save you all by preventing the war. Ironic, considering I plan to kill you as soon as this mission is done." The door buzzed. "That will be the rest of the wine." He answered the door quickly and took the delivery from the droids, putting on his fake smile which was more frightening that his put-on Dark Lord persona.

"We didn't have any alcohol in the Order, either," Finn said to Poe, tasting a sip from a glass. The flavor was light, a little floral, but nice. "It's good. Try it." Ren was already pouring his third helping and settling on the sofa, his long frame dangling off the end like a puppet.

In the quietest place inside his own head, Finn mused Ren wasn't going to Force choke anyone while he was passed out.

The third patrol was well out of range when they took the Falcon safely from her refuge in the asteroid field. "We'll get to a safe distance and contact the fleet," Leia told him. "They were instructed to choose one of four sites based on a sweep of each. Even I'm not sure which one they picked."

Chewie pointed out that she didn't used to be this paranoid.

"The Republic is cracking. Without the Senate, the old fears are going to be in charge, and the first power to show leadership will take it all. We're not powerful. We weren't ever at the strength of the Army, and I don't trust the people from the Army who would have survived the attacks. It's them or it's the First Order until we manage to establish a new government, and I pray it's a government I can support. I can only fight on so many fronts. We'll keep working. We'll keep fighting. And we'll stay hidden until we know for sure who we're fighting."

Chewie said she used to practice her speeches better, too.

"Look, it's not..." The ship was rocked with an explosion. Chewbacca fell back. Leia, already in the pilot's seat, hit the engines, uncaring of their direction. "Four? Who the hell sends four patrols?" She punched in any coordinates she could into the nav computer, praying she didn't shoot them into a star. There was another blast, and she heard the deadly pop of sudden decompression in one of the outer bays.

Chewbacca gave her a shove and Leia let him take over the flying. She hit the communication button. "This is General Organa, calling the Resistance. Emergency. Do you read?"

The squeal of the Order's jamming software told her clearly that they weren't.

Another shot took out the engine entirely. They spun, unable to regain control. Chewie roared at the ship, his own preferred method of dealing with it, but nothing would help now.

They were doomed.

A tractor beam took hold of the ship's hull, stopping their spin with a tooth-grinding thud. "Prepare to be boarded."

"Like hell," she said. Beside her, Chewie had his bowcaster. She had a blaster.

They held each other's eyes for a long moment. She reached out and squeezed his arm. Han was gone. Luke was gone. Ben was as good as gone. There were worse fates than to go out together with the last of her best friends.

Then she smelled it. Leia covered her mouth and nose with her hand, but the nausea already hit her. They were taking no chances. Sleep gas, or poison gas, it didn't matter.

Chewbacca was already coughing and opening a panel Leia had only seen once before. Self-destruct. If the ship blew, it would destroy all the ships around them in its death throes.

He scrambled at the activation switches. The gas was too much for him. Her head swam as she tried to help him. The code. She knew the code. She'd seen. Han showed her. In case.

Leia closed her eyes and couldn't open them again. She heard the boots, and heard a distant voice say, "Tell the Supreme Leader we've captured them."

tbc

Reviews welcome