In the previous chapter: Rey and Kylo Ren learn that Cue is enslaved to Squalo, her mech-wrecking opponent. They make a bet with him to free Cue if she wins the fight, which she does with some 'unofficial' help from Ren and Rey. Rey works hard to convince Ren not to kill Squalo afterward, leading to some harsh truths and a steamy kiss.

Chapter 13

It was past midnight by the time I returned to the Resistance transport, still parked in the secure, private hangar on the lowest level of Skunkt. Leia was reading reports at the lounge table and pinned me with an inscrutable look when I entered the room. Luke sat in the chair next to her, sound asleep until I tapped him on the shoulder.

I passed along Roony's message about the prisoner exchange. Leia, exhausted and irritable, simply groaned when Luke reminded her we were legally required to give Phasma an update. I volunteered for the task, though only as an excuse to avoid questions about Ren or why I had been gone for so long with him.

The guard standing outside her cell gave me a grateful nod when I dismissed him for a short break. I took a deep breath and entered the cramped room.

Captain Phasma was a formidably large woman, even without her customary reflective armor. Her drab tan prisoner's smock, pale skin and cropped, fair blond hair made her appear nearly colorless – except for the heavy, dark circles staining her face below each eye. She looked bedraggled and, honestly, in need of a hug.

Phasma sat on a bench which spanned the length of the space and doubled as a bed. She stuck her chin in the air when she recognized me.

"Why are you bothering me?" she asked, her tone imperious despite the fact her arms and legs were cuffed together.

"I have an update for you. The First Order has agreed to complete the prisoner exchange tomorrow morning."

"That is hardly news, scavenger trash. I never doubted they would."

I narrowed my eyes, pity starting to evaporate in wake of her rudeness. "You never doubted Hux would," I corrected her, recalling both Ren and Finn telling me of Hux and Phasma's secret relationship.

Phasma sat up straighter, reevaluating me. This was clearly not the first time she'd defended herself from this type of accusation.

"Hux and I were promoted through the Order together. When he was given command of the Finalizer, he rewarded me with a promotion to the Captain of the Guard. There is no higher honor for a Stormtrooper."

Phasma sounded like she was reciting an often told lie. I couldn't help weaving a needle-thin thread of power around her head, seeking out the truth hidden underneath her rehearsed veneer. But I burrowed a sliver too deep into her shields, which were deeper and denser than most non-Force sensitives, and Phasma jerked at the unmistakable sensation of my power brushing against her mind. Her eyes released a flicker of hatred before they resumed their steely, almost dehumanized stare. A sour sneer draped across her lips.

"Get out of my head, you piece of filth. Picked up that nasty trick from Kylo Ren, have you? What other vulgar Force tricks has he been teaching you?"

It was impossible to hide my horrified shock. How did Phasma, of all people, know that I'd been spending time with Ren?

"Hux keeps no secrets from me," she crowed in satisfaction at my discomfort. "He and Supreme Leader are both intrigued by Ren's little side project with you. Leader Snoke was only too happy to give him permission to pursue his ridiculous theory – Potentium, isn't that what it's called? Snoke thought Ren could use it to sway you to the dark side, though he half-expected him to snap and kill you. But Ren has done neither of these things, which leads to some very interesting council meetings."

I thought of Ren's own admissions of growing doubt toward his leader. Was his status in the First Order on shakier ground than I realized? Could I dare hope it meant his allegiance was irresolute, too?

Phasma's eyes glittered at my silence. "Ren has many failures, but you're his worst one. The Supreme Leader will make him kill you soon. An abomination of the Force deserves no less. Though maybe Ren will let his Knights take turns with you first."

A searing red blush bled across my cheeks, stinging as if they'd been slapped. "Stop it," I told her, voice firm even as I hid my trembling hands in tight fists.

"Or better yet, Snoke might make Ren keep you around. Breed as many Force brats from you as possible. Make a miniature army of screaming toddlers, all with mommy and daddy issues."

"I said stop it."

"Perhaps Kylo Ren won't slaughter another generation of Force users if they're his own children," she sneered with a vicious, braying laugh.

Rage curled deep inside my chest, and for a dark moment I wanted nothing more than to make Phasma suffer for her cruel words and disgusting humor. A coarse stream of power had already woven through my fingertips before I realized I'd summoned it from the black depths of hatred in my psyche. You're afraid, the darkness in me hissed. You're afraid that she's right.

I immediately stomped down my volatile reaction. Phasma watched my shoulders relax, the way I shook my fists loose to dissipate the power gathered there, and knew that her attempt to make me lash out at her had failed.

"You won't survive him, scavenger," Phasma whispered. "He'll rip you to shreds. After he fucks you, of course."

I spun and left her cell without another word.

–

–

–

The eight of us made a sullen, solemn group as we walked through Skunkt's endless labyrinth of hallways early the next morning. Leia led the way, closely flanked by two stony-faced Resistance guards. After them came Phasma, escorted between two more Resistance guards. Luke and I brought up the rear.

We met Broodu, Roony's reptilian associate, in the same spot as yesterday – the plaza where I'd bought the leather satchel to hold Kylo's helmet. My eyes sought out the narrow maintenance corridor we'd vanished into twice the night before. Both times it had felt like sinking out of this world and emerging somewhere deep and hidden and secret.

Ren was surely going to be at the prisoner exchange. Standing in the same room as him and feigning indifference would be torture. I couldn't stop the dizzying drop in my stomach from just thinking about his lips on mine last night, nor the sick clench in my stomach from Phasma's vulgar comments.

Our group stepped onto a platform which whisked us through a tunnel bridging two different parts of the space station. Then we crowded into a circular turbolift which carried us down several levels and opened to reveal a huge warehouse. Shelves of stacked crates and barrels lined all four walls, though the floor itself was bare except for a few sparse clusters of boxes. The far side of the room was a mirror to our half, complete with a second turbolift shaft. I silently thanked Roony for securing a room with this particular layout on such short notice.

There were four figures on the opposite side of the warehouse: Hux's shock of red hair, Kylo's familiar oversized form, Fariya standing tall despite her arms being cuffed behind her back… but the fourth figure wasn't Snoke. It was the rotund Herglic from the day before, who was acting as the escort for the First Order the same way Broodu was for the Resistance.

My palms turned clammy. Something wasn't right.

I forged a connection to Ren through the Force web, shyness and nerves from the night before momentarily drowned by my unease. 'Where is Snoke?'

Ren didn't answer, or even indicate he'd heard me. Fear curled in my gut.

"Wait here," Broodu ordered us. "Don't do anything stupid." He grasped Phasma by the elbow and marched forward to the middle of the room. The Herglic approached with Fariya, who, to her credit, looked perfectly calm despite the fact she'd been held prisoner for the past two days.

In fact, everyone seemed calm, though given the circumstances it was certainly forced. So why did I feel such a jittery twinge in my stomach? Why were nerves plucking an icy tune up my spine?

'Kylo, where is Snoke? Why isn't he here?'

He still didn't answer.

Broodu and the Herglic swapped prisoners in the middle of the room and returned to their respective sides. Just that quickly Fariya was back, safe and sound, with the Resistance.

"Glad to get away from those psychos," she said light-heartedly to Leia, who unfastened the handcuffs while Luke scanned her with a Force-enhanced eye to ensure the Order had not done any invisible permanent damage.

"We're thrilled to have you back," Leia said with a warm smile, wrapping her in a tight hug.

Meanwhile, I couldn't tear my eyes from Ren. My anxiety starting to leak toward him through the bond. I tried one last time: 'Kylo?'

Finally, his helmet tilted and he turned to look directly at me from across the room.

'You need to leave.'

There were so many ways he could have spoken those four words: threatening, arrogant, bitter. Cold and somber, or even soft and regretful.

But his tone conveyed none of those, and that was what caused the nervous energy dancing along my spine to coalesce into a pulsing, throbbing pit of very real dread in my stomach: Kylo Ren was scared.

He knew exactly why Snoke wasn't here in the room. He knew and he couldn't tell me because his staunch obedience to his master forbid such an outright betrayal… but he had still warned me, and that act of disloyalty spoke volumes about how much Snoke's absence frightened him.

Now Luke and Leia were both hugging Fariya. After a critical inspection, Hux had enveloped Phasma in a tight embrace as well. Ren and I were standing still, gazes locked across the room. There was nothing I could really say to him, not with the heated moment from the night before still fresh and raw in my mind. So I shared the only words that made sense: 'Thank you.'

Ren just barely inclined his head in acknowledgment. He turned and hit Hux in the shoulder, startling the General from his embrace with Phasma. The three of them left the room through their turbolift, accompanied by their Herglic escort.

Our group reentered our own turbolift, which shot us back up to the main level of Skunkt. Fariya was chattering animatedly, eager to share every second of Jedi courage and bravery she'd shown during her ordeal.

As we left the lift, I touched Leia's elbow. "General," I interrupted.

Leia saw the alarm in my face and immediately gave me her complete attention. "What is it, Rey?"

In that instant, I realized exactly why Leia was such an invaluable leader. She didn't know the magnitude of the problem I was bringing to her attention – hell, even I wasn't fully sure – but she was instantly prepared to listen to me and mobilize whatever resources she had at her disposal to resolve it.

"Something is wrong. We need to talk to Roony."

Leia unclipped her comm from her belt. "Organa here," she spoke into it. "Roony, do you copy?"

A long, eerie silence stretched between us.

Leia repeated her words: "Roony, are you there? Repeat, do you copy?"

I spun toward Broodu, who was trying to slink away unnoticed down the hallway.

"Why isn't Roony responding?" I asked him.

Broodu shrugged, his scales flashing in the dim hallway lighting. "Working," he grunted.

"Isn't he supposed to monitor the prisoner exchange? Why wouldn't he answer?" Leia challenged.

My thoughts flew at a furious pace. First Snoke, and now Roony, were absent from this meeting. What could be more important than a highly risky prisoner exchange between the Resistance and the First Order? Ren had told me Snoke wasn't truly concerned about Phasma's safe return, and was only here on Skunkt because Ren and Hux had talked him into the exchange. Now Snoke was going after something apparently much more valuable to him than Captain Phasma, something important and powerful enough to spook Ren. What had caught his interest?

I took quick, violent steps toward Broodu and cornered him against the wall.

"Tell us where Roony is."

Broodu was stubbornly silent.

And I knew – I knew I shouldn't have, but I was scared, and I was mad. Before I could take it back, I'd swarmed Broodu's head with Force power and mind-tricked him so hard his eyes crossed in front of his face.

"Rey!" Luke chastised me sharply.

I ignored him and urgently repeated my question: "Where is Roony?"

Broodu's head lolled to one side, his voice toneless: "Hiding from Snoke."

"Why?"

"The memories Roony took from you. Snoke wants them."

Shit. The memories that had been meant to act as collateral for our dangerous meeting with the Order had inadvertently become more valuable than the results of the meeting itself.

I spun to face the others. Luke and Leia had gone pale, while Fariya and the guards looked confused.

"What memories?" Fariya asked.

No one answered her.

Luke, Leia and I knew the danger of Snoke getting his hands on our deepest secrets. The First Order would twist them into propaganda used to slander our names across the entire galaxy. The thought of my private moment with Ren in the Gryl's temple plastered across HoloNet newsfeeds made me squirm in embarrassment. How could I face Leia and Luke, not to mention Finn and Poe and the rest of the Resistance, after something like that went public? Not to mention whatever skeletons Luke and Leia had dragged out of their closets for Roony's macabre demands. We had to find Roony before Snoke did.

Luke's mechanical fingers clacked together anxiously.

"Leia, take Rey, Fariya and the guards back to the transport and prepare for immediate departure. I'm going to look for Roony."

"I'm coming with you," I told him.

"Wait, that's my line," Leia said to me, her lips quirked in a slight smile despite the gravity of the situation.

Luke shook his head at his sister. "If these secrets are exposed to the galaxy, you're the only person who can deal with the aftermath. You need to get home safely. None of the rest of us matter."

"You're crazy if you think I'm letting you go alone! Take Rey with you."

Luke hesitated. It dawned on me with stinging clarity that Luke didn't entirely trust me. The time I'd recently spent with Ren, coupled with the way I'd used the Force in front of him just now and in the past, apparently didn't inspire complete confidence in my intentions or loyalty to the Resistance.

"I want to help," I said quietly. "We can't let the First Order win."

Luke exhaled. "Rey and I will look for Roony together," he conceded. "If you don't hear from us in twenty minutes, leave Skunkt. We're not worth the risk to stay any longer. Do you understand? Leave me and Rey behind. We'll charter another ship to get home."

Leia's jaw clenched in displeasure, but she gave him a dignified nod. "Roony's bracelets are likely worthless now that the exchange is finalized. You're on your own out there. Stay safe."

Leia, Fariya and the four guards departed, leaving me and Luke with Broodu.

"Why is everyone riled up over a memory?" Fariya asked in a wheedling tone as they walked away.

Once they had vanished around a corner, Luke turned to me and bluntly asked: "Rey, do you still want to become a Jedi?"

I gaped at him. I'd expected a rebuke for the harsh mind-trick I'd inflicted on Broodu, but not this.

"What other choice do I have?" I replied, trying to make the question sound nonchalant despite actively wondering about its answer.

Thankfully, Luke didn't appear offended – or even surprised – by my response.

"We'll discuss this further back at base. Until then, for both of our sakes, please adhere to your training and control your anger. You're going to get us killed if you resort to being fueled by your emotions during a time like this."

Luke grabbed Broodu's elbow, who had tried to slink off again while we weren't watching him. "Take us to the last place you saw Roony," he ordered, a measured dose of Force power lending strength to the command.

Broodu sagged against Luke's grip and nodded, stomping off at a hurried pace back the way we'd come. A few minutes later, he stopped outside the room that Ren and I had visited last night immediately after the meeting. He pushed several buttons on the wall-mounted panel, which gave a shrill beep and flashed red.

"He was here before the meeting," Broodu grunted, "but the code has changed."

I barely heard him, disturbed by a sensation rippling through the Force. A persistent tremble was coming from somewhere above us, like someone punching the Force web repeatedly.

"Do you feel that?" I asked Luke. "That's Roony using the Force. He's calling to us. He's nearby."

At that precise moment, a squad of six Stormtroopers rounded the corner of the hallway. We all stood frozen in shock for an impossibly long second, and then everyone sprang into action.

Broodu retreated from the fight, his heavy steps lumbering back down the corridor behind us. Luke ignited his lightsaber. I pulled forth a hardened, glittering shield of air, the motion like second nature after so much time spent using the Force during Potentium missions. The Stormtroopers raised their blasters and showered us with bolts, which fizzled against my shield while Luke expertly rebounded several off of his humming lightsaber. Three Stormtroopers crumpled to the floor, shot by their own bolts thanks to Luke's Force-enhanced reflexes.

I scraped some spare energy from the side of my shield and shaped it into a bar parallel to the floor, then sent it speeding down the hallway. The invisible mass smacked the legs of the three Stormtroopers still standing, and they all yelled in surprise as they tripped and fell to the floor.

As the trooper closest to me went down on his hands and knees, his blaster fired off an errant bolt. It glanced off a light fixture in the wall and came straight at me, sizzling through the weakened area I'd inadvertently created in the side of my shield. I rapidly pushed power toward the bolt, intending to soak up the plasma before it struck me.

Then something happened that I wasn't expecting at all: the bolt dragged to a halt in midair a mere foot in front of my face, shaking and vibrating as the energy begged for release from its unnatural immobility.

I had seen this happen before, on Gryl. It could only mean one thing.

I looked past the hissing, snapping bolt to where Kylo Ren's black form dominated the middle of the corridor, hand outstretched in my direction. Luke stared at him in curious silence. Knowing that Ren tolerated my presence was one thing; witnessing him protect me from potential harm was quite another. However, Ren was still under the impression that Luke didn't know about our Potentium missions, so he quickly moved to correct his apparent slip-up.

"Your orders were clear. They are to be taken alive," he snapped at the Stormtrooper who had unwittingly almost shot me, giving him a savage kick in the ribs. Then he stalked forward, closing the gap between us.

"Skywalker," Ren growled, his words hot and deep and dead through his helmet.

Luke took a few steps closer to his nephew and nodded. "Ben."

Ren exhaled in dissatisfaction, creating a storm of static in his voice modulator. "You know better than to address me by that name. It won't bring your nephew back."

"I don't believe he ever truly left."

"Your beliefs are worthless. You've lost all purpose since leading the Jedi Order to ruin. My own intent is clear. I'm here to finish Vader's work and end the Jedi forever."

"You cannot claim to be Darth Vader's grandson while disregarding the family forever bound to both you and him. Me, your mother. Your father."

Luke's voice cracked the slightest bit and he stopped short, grief evident in the deeply weary stare directed at his nephew. Why had all three generations of Skywalkers fought one another? Why did this family refuse to embrace peace?

"You strive to uphold your grandfather's legacy," Luke continued, "yet you fall short in so many ways. The only place you outmatch Darth Vader is your willingness to be deluded by your master."

The bolt shaking in front of my face abruptly broke free of its invisible cage, but instead of hitting me it shot straight toward Luke. Luke ducked out of its way, but Ren took full advantage of the distraction as he activated his crackling red saber and launched toward his uncle.

For a second I could only stand paralyzed as they met each other in battle. Luke and Ren spun and whirled around each other at such a blinding pace that I had to use the Force to track them. They executed a living game of Sabbac – seamlessly moving and bluffing and countering in the span of milliseconds – lightsaber blades whipping through the air and cracking upon impact with each other. Luke deflected all of Ren's heavy blows with fluid ease, though he seemed reluctant to make any offensive strikes against his nephew.

I had fought Ren before, and had always known I'd have to fight him again. But as my hand curled around the hilt of my lightsaber – a spare that Luke had given me after Starkiller – I realized that battling him in a cramped corridor, with his estranged uncle at my side and our intimacy from the night before still thundering through my veins made everything about it feel wrong and unfair.

I tried to forge a connection to Ren through our bond, but he was hidden inside a maelstrom of anger in the Force web. His mind was ablaze with fury, leaving no room for me or even rational thought. He howled in absolute hatred as he brought his blade down in a powerful, wild swing at his uncle, and for a moment it terrified me that I'd willingly kissed this man just the night before.

I had called him a monster after murdering Han. Did I still think it was possible he could change?

Luke leapt out of the way of Ren's blow, moving to the opposite side of the corridor so indescribably fast he practically teleported. Before Ren recovered his balance, Luke swung and grazed Ren's arm with the tip of his green saber. Ren staggered back, clutching his arm.

During the brief break in the fight, Luke saw me still standing there in the hallway, frozen like an idiot. "GO!" he yelled, and I abruptly realized Luke meant to hold Ren's attention while I searched for Roony and the memories. My heart broke as I spun and left them behind, locked in a twisted battle that had originated with the Sith and was perpetuated by Snoke.

I followed the strange pounding in my head caused by Roony bashing on the Force web. After a few minutes of running through Skunkt's labyrinth of hallways, I reached the door to his current hideout. It was indistinguishable from the hundreds like it in this residential area of the space station. The door rumbled open when I approached and revealed Roony kneeling in the middle of the floor, clutching a blaster. The room was empty besides a single light fixture embedded in the ceiling, which cast an unhealthy yellow glow over Roony's bald head.

I knelt next to him, startled to see magenta blood trickling from his ears.

"You're mixed up with some bad people," Roony said, accompanied by a hacking cough which made his colorful mohawk quiver.

"Are you alright?"

He looked at me and nodded, and it was then I realized that something was not right with Roony. None of his four eyes were actually focused on my face, and they gleamed just a smidge farther away from sanity than was comfortable.

"Snoke found me. Here, in my head." Roony tittered nervously, projecting the memory into the Force web. I caught a glimpse of the interrogation he had gone through while imprisoned inside his own mind. The ordeal had clearly left behind mental scars. "He saw that I'd already destroyed the memories. But now he knows there's nothing stopping him. No collateral, no safety net for the Resistance. He's not coming after me or the memories anymore. He's going after you."

I struggled to follow his erratic warning. "So why… why were you calling to me and Luke? If the memories are destroyed?"

Roony's face twitched, and all of his eyes completely lost focus and lolled in four different directions at once.

"Snoke didn't search deep enough to find the truth," he said, his voice strained and bordering on maniacal. Fear itched up my spine. "He only wanted to know if the original memories were gone. They are. Gone, gone, gone. But one of them… I made a copy of one."

Roony pulled a disk from his pocket, one that could be played on a holopad.

"I lied to you," Roony said. His tone was momentarily more sane, and full of regret. "I lied about everything. When I first got into this business, I vowed to never watch any secrets. But it was too much to resist. I started to give in. Just one secret out of the bunch, I thought. I would just watch one. But it got addictive. I had to know more. I started to watch all of the secrets. Every single one. Snoke knew I'd watched the memories you gave me. I don't know how he figured it out. That freak is ancient. Powerful. Insane. You need to know what you're up against."

He tapped the disk with a dirty fingernail.

"This one involves both of you. Watch it. You need to know."

"Both? Who?"

Roony gave me a sly grin. "I watched your secret. You know who."

Kylo Ren. This memory concerned him, too? Was it his?

Suddenly, the light in Roony's squalid hideout flared from a power surge in the space station. An explosion boomed in the distance, and the floor and walls vibrated from the waves of pressure. The First Order seemed intent on ripping apart the space station – and then I remembered that they weren't looking for Roony at all. Snoke was hunting us.

Roony shivered as his brief spell of calmness evaporated, replaced by a bone-jarring shake in the Force web and more nervous tittering. There was a fluttering sensation against my ear, like a winged insect had buzzed too close.

Roony handed me the disk, his fingers trembling so badly it took effort to pluck it from his grasp. I tucked the disk inside a deep pocket in my vest.

"Thank you, Roony. I'm sorry you got mixed up in all of this."

But my words fell on deaf ears as Roony started crooning to himself in a sing-song voice. "One and one is two. Two and one is three. You and me are he and she, though not the same as being we."

The door rattled open as I edged toward it, frightened by Roony's mental state deteriorating right in front of me. Roony continued singing to himself as I left the room: "Let's go home, the bantha said. Let's go home and go to bed."

The door slid shut behind me as I entered the hall. I inhaling shaking breaths for a long second, forcing myself to remain calm and clear-headed despite the waves of absolute panic threatening to scatter my thoughts. Could Snoke invade my mind the same way he had Roony's? Would he steal all of my sanity, leaving only a husk behind? What the hell had Roony seen in that memory?

My thoughts came to a screeching halt when I heard the unmistakable sound of a blaster shot from inside the room. I stood completely motionless in the hallway. My heart turned to ice in my chest. Was Roony… had Roony just…. ?

The silence emanating from the room was horrifying.

The sudden stillness in the Force web was far worse.

I swallowed the thick, heaving sobs rising in my throat and backed away from the door. I had to find Luke. I had to reach Leia and the others in the hanger. I had to get the hell off of Skunkt and never come back. I bolted down the hallway, frantically retracing my steps to the place I'd left Luke and Ren embroiled in their bitter fight. However, the corridor was eerily silent, and I would've thought I'd made a wrong turn if it weren't for the Stormtroopers slumped against the floor.

Though I trembled at what I might find, I plucked at my bond to Ren. His mind was no longer enshrined in anger, but still bristled with raw, blistering heat. 'Where are you?'

'I'm on the opposite side of Skunkt,' he seethed. 'Skywalker locked me in a turbolift and left.'

'Is he okay?'

'Quit worrying about him and get the hell off Skunkt! Snoke will destroy this place looking for the Resistance. This is the last time I'll warn you.'

'I'm not leaving without Luke!' I snapped, and pulled up shields to block his furious growls out of my head.

I scooped up more power as my feet carried me through the hallways of Skunkt. I swept my power through the minds of everyone I passed, like brushing my hand against the warm mass of a sand dune, and placed gentle whispers in their subconscious. Have you seen him? I asked, pressing an image of Luke into their minds – his disapproving stare, graying beard, hood pulled low over fierce eyes. I need to find him. Where is he?

But no one responded to my silent, pleading questions, and worse, the strain of physically navigating across Skunkt while mentally searching for Luke through the Force was rapidly weakening my focus.

The corridor opened into a plaza I'd never seen before where red lights pointed at a gurgling fountain in its center. I spotted the Stormtrooper squad the same moment they saw me and prepared to defend myself, but I couldn't strengthen my grip on my fading power. The golden lines of my Force signature dimmed as the energy leaked back into the Force web.

The Stormtroopers ran across the plaza, fanning out into a tactical formation to block my exits and capture me. I succumbed to a moment of helpless panic as I dropped my mental shields and screamed wildly into the Force: LUKE!

I clearly heard him say my name, but then it morphed into a rumbling, guttural voice. Soul-wrenching dread sank into the pit of my stomach. Before I had time to slam down my shields or even blink, Snoke barreled into my mind with the force of a doomed ship meeting its grave upon the earth.

I tried to yell again for Luke, but all of the air had been sucked from my lungs. I coughed and barely managed to draw rasping, hacking breaths into lungs too small to contain them. My chest burned like I'd stuck my face straight into a fire and inhaled. I buckled to the ground, dizzy and weak, powerless to fight back against Snoke's presence inside my head.

When I'd been a prisoner of the First Order, Ren had used the Force to view the worst memories of my life.

Snoke was able to create them.

He forced vision after vision into my exhausted brain: Finn and Poe spiraling out of control in a damaged ship and dying in a fiery explosion, Daamith corrupting Fariya to the dark side of the Force and unleashing her as an agent of the First Order, Kylo Ren's blood-red lightsaber slicing off Luke and Leia's heads.

Suddenly, something warm and solid smacked me across the face so hard I cried out in shock. The impact knocked me clear of the visions long enough to focus on Cue's electric blue eyes.

"Cue," I sputtered, taking the scraps of golden power glittering around me and quickly smashing them together into a weak shield. I spotted the Stormtroopers strewn motionless on the floor around us. "What are.."

"The fucking leader of the Order is here, and he's tearing this place apart looking for the Resistance. Ren sent me to find you and get you off Skunkt. Why the hell were Stormtroopers attacking you? Where's your ship?"

Snoke's power manifested as black spikes drilling through my shields, decimating my fragile golden lines. Though I didn't know the depth of Cue's allegiance to Ren or the Order, I knew I wouldn't make it off of Skunkt without her help. Right as I spoke the name of the hanger where the Resistance's transport was parked, Snoke pierced through my battered shield and viciously pried it away, like a scab off of raw skin.

I clutched my head while my mind flooded with a new terrible vision: Unkar cheating me out of portions so many times I grew weak from hunger, and lost my footing while scavenging in the Graveyard. The fall broke my legs, and I lay there for days, slowly dying from thirst and exposure, while other scavengers passed by and didn't lift a finger to help.

My name echoed against my ears, like someone yelling it from across a great distance, but I only sank deeper into these terrible, fake memories, each more horrible than the last: suffocating in space, drowning at the bottom of the ocean, the Resistance base in flames, suffering through a lifetime of loneliness on Jakku, my parents never returning – not because they were dead – but because I wasn't worth coming back for.

Out of nowhere, a massive wave of power ricocheted throughout my entire body and the visions crumbled to dust. Snoke hissed in fury as he evaporated from my mind. I realized I'd been moving this whole time, Cue helping me stumble through the hallways of Skunkt as I clung to her shoulder for dear life.

"Keep moving, Rey!" a voice shouted from the corridor behind me. I craned my neck to see Luke Skywalker single-handedly fighting off a dozen Stormtroopers, his cloak whipping in an invisible storm as he majestically flung his arm outward and sent his opponents flying through mid-air.

I faced forward again, catching Cue's shocked gaze as we crossed the threshold into the private hanger. I almost cried at the sight of Leia in the doorway of the Resistance transport. She and the Resistance guards adamantly defended the ship against the horde of Stormtroopers who had followed us into the hanger.

Blaster beams howled past us as Cue and I stumbled up the ramp of the ship, followed closely by Luke. One of the guards took a hit to the shoulder seconds before the door sealed behind us. The other guards rushed to help him while Cue buckled herself in beside Fariya, whose mouth dropped open at the sight of Cue's exotically colored skin and gleaming blue eyes.

The hull erupted with staccato pops from blaster shots as I followed Luke and Leia into the cockpit. They dropped into the pilot's chairs and I took a seat behind them, secretly glad they were at the helm because I was a shivering, exhausted mess.

"Did you find Roony?" Leia asked over her shoulder while Luke punched buttons on the ship's console

"Yes." My heart pounded directly against the disk hidden in my vest pocket. "He destroyed the memories before Snoke could see them. And then he killed himself."

Leia's soft sigh was drowned out by an explosion at the far end of the ship. Shrill alarms blasted in our ears.

"We're cutting this close," Luke warned.

"You can take off from the hanger at lightspeed," I suggested, and the twin's identical, incredulous looks prompted me to add, "Han's done it."

Luke and Leia shared a terrible, forlorn glance.

"I wish he were here," Leia whispered.

I opened my mouth to echo her sentiment, until I remembered that just hours ago I'd passionately kissed the son who had murdered him in cold blood. The son who might have already been given orders to kill me. You won't survive him, Phasma had warned me, unaware that the lost scavenger from Jakku had already started surrendering to a quiet death. My eyes pinched shut to hold back sudden, stinging tears, and then the hyperdrive roared around us and we vanished into the safety of space.

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