Kylo Ren, General Hux, and Captain Phasma stood in front of FN-2191 in the escape pod bay. They were giving him a few last-minute pointers before he be shot into space and off to D'Qar. The command ship was a few planets away from the Illenium System- close enough so that FN-2191 wouldn't have too far to travel, but far enough away that the First Order couldn't be caught on radar.

They had given FN some civilian clothes to make him look more natural. He had food and water for a day, and maps galore on how to get to the Resistance base and back.

"Now remember," General Hux began. "You've just escaped the First Order because you want to join the other... Side," he said with distaste rolling from his tongue.

FN-2191 nodded nervously. He had gone through the whole plan in his head multiple times and was sure he could get it down. Kylo Ren- who had since received a new mask- walked over and gave him a hard pat on the shoulder.

"Don't screw this up," he said robotically but casually.

"Y-yes sir," FN replied, stuttering. Kylo Ren was much more intimidating with a mask.

FN headed to the escape pod, turning around once more, clicking his heels together and giving the First Order salute. Phasma and Hux did he same, while Kylo stood there, sighing impatiently. He was just there because he wanted to please Snoke.

"Good luck, soldier," Phasma bidded.

"Thank you, Captain."

Finally, carrying his heavy rucksack full of more clothing, food, and many different communications devices on his back, FN-2191 crawled into the escape pod, seeling the door behind him. Sitting in the pilot seat of the cozy pod, he gripped the yoke and turned to Hux, giving him a nod- the signal to launch the pod.

With a burst of light, the pod went sailing out into the black abyss, following the little red trail laid out on the map that FN-2191 set out. Pulling the comlink out of his pocket, FN tried radioing back to Hux, testing one of their many ways of communication.

"Testing, testing," he tried out. "General, are you there?"

Back on the ship, Hux pulled his identical comlink out of his breast pocket as it beeped and squealed.

"Loud and clear, FN-2191," Hux replied. "Is everything going well?"

"Yes General," he said. "Just as planned. D'Qar is only a few hours away."

Though they couldn't see eachother, both FN-2191 and Hux smiled evily. Their plan to thwart the Resistance might actually work.

They raced through the doors. Rey and Finn flew past offices and hangars, droids and people. Finally, they found the outside exit. Suddenly, Rey froze.

"Wait," she murmured. "Where do we go?"

Finn smiled.

"We can go anywhere."

Smiling back, she grabbed Finn's hand, dragging him to the edge of the tarmac, where they stood at the border of the woods before a long, narrow path. Rey stopped again.

"Can we go into the woods?" She asked. "Are we allowed?"

"Plenty of people have gone in before," Finn reassured. "I'm sure it's fine. I know it's fine."

Averting her gaze to the miles and miles of trees in front of her, Rey stepped forward, placing her feet in the soft grass bordering the woods. It was at this moment that she realized that she didn't have shoes on, but she wasn't bothered.

She liked the way the grass felt between her toes. It tickled; something that the scortching sand on Jakku did not. Rey giggled gleefully, walking steadily into the woods, Finn trailing not far behind.

They walked for hours. Every once in a while, Rey would stop, staring up at the canopy above her, gazing in awe of how something could be so beautiful. She would spin around, smiling and laughing at herself.

She had been in a wood before, but on Takodana, she had been under different circumstances. She didn't have time to take in her surroundings, the only thing on her mind was to run. Fast.

But now, she had time to look around and really contemplate what was going on. And it was all beautiful.

Finn ran up and grabbed her hand.

"What are you doing?" She almost screamed. She whipped around, about to wrench her hand free when Finn stopped her.

"C'mon, there's something I wanna show you," he said, pulling her through more and more trees before coming to a large clearing.

In the middle of the clearing sat a gigantic pond, and in the centre of that gigantic pond sat a small island with a huge, decades old, mystical-looking tree planted smack-dab in the middle. Rey's eyes widened in wonder.

"How did you ever find this?" She asked agape, looking at Finn, who smiled proudly.

"Poe showed it to me. Only some people know about it," he said. "So it's very secretive."

Rey laughed. "Well, I think it's wonderful!"

She ran over to the water's edge, eyes locked on the tree. She couldn't help but think I could climb that, no problem.

But she stopped, she did have one problem: she couldn't swim, therefore she couldn't get to the giant tree. She looked down to her feet solemnly.

"I can't swim," she mumbled.

Finn's proud smile washed away. He hadn't thought of that before. How could he not have thought of that? Rey was from Jakku, the desert planet. Water was always hard to come by, and definitely wasn't wasted for swimming.

"Oh," Finn said, mirroring Rey's sad tone. "Sorry, I didn't think of that."

"Well, do you know how to swim?" She asked.

"Yes," Finn said. "It was mandatory storm trooper training."

Rey looked at him promisingly, smiling slightly. "You could teach me, couldn't you?"

Finn thought for a moment. Finally, his smile returned.

"Yeah, of course. Why not?"

FN-2191 was getting close to D'Qar; only an hour yet. His nerves were building.

What if the mission didn't go as planned? What if something got compromised? What if he just died on impact? (He had no idea how to land the pod)

Slowly, the planet of D'Qar came into view, and it's magnificent solar rings aswell.

"This doesn't look too bad," FN said aloud to himself. "It's actually rather nice."

He was to alert General Hux that he was getting close. Pulling out his comlink, he radioed the ship.

"General," he began. "Come in, General."

The line went static for a moment. He must have been going through the atmosphere already- he was told that that would disrupt communications. Then he got a reply.

"FN-2191," Hux began. "Are you getting close?"

"Yes, General," FN stated. "Just got through the atmosphere. Five minutes until this thing touches down."

"Dispose of this comlink as soon as you land," Hux commanded. "At that geographical level, they can scan the frequencies."

"Yes General."

"You must report back every night," Hux said.

"Yes General."

"Good luck, soldier. Out," Hux snapped, signing off once and for all. Or atleast, for today.

FN sighed, turning off his comlink. He sat back and started scouring the surface of the planet, looking for the Resistance base. Though he knew this was the right planet- this the map proved, he nor the map knew where the base was exactly.

Then he saw it. A long tarmac stuck with old X-Wings. Trails and trails leading off into the woods. A large cliff off to one side.

"Doesn't look too big," he said. He didn't know that it wasn't mostly underground- and it was actually huge.

He gripped the yoke and started his turn towards the base. But to his surprise, the pod wouldn't move. He tried again, pushing it to the right with all of his might.

Then some machine started to beep. He didn't know what it was, but figured it had something to do with how hard he was pushing the yoke, because the beeping stopped abruptly when the yoke snapped off in his hands. FN gasped.

"Shit..."

Rey and Finn sat by the pond's edge, their feet sitting in the shallow, warm water.

"So you've never been swimming before at all?" Finn asked, almost in denial.

"No," Rey replied. "Not unless sand counts."

Finn laughed. "How do you go swimming in sand?"

"After sand storms, the entrance of my home would get burried," she began, looking at the sky and squinting. "I had to get out somehow."

Finn smiled. "Yeah, I guess."

They sat back, both looking at the sky and the pretty clouds. To Rey, clouds weren't a common sight on Jakku, and when they appeared, they never stayed long. To Finn, clouds also weren't a common sight, when you spent most of your time indoors. They seemed so carefree and whispy, and Rey and Finn were mesmerize by them all.

They were caught off guard when some unknown object shot through the sky, leaving a different trail of its own.

Smoke.

Frantically, Rey looked at Finn, who looked at Rey, equally worried.

"What was that?" They both said at the same time. Stifling, they both stood up, chuckling a little bit at their blunder.

Then they heard a big BANG. The thing must have crashed, and not far from them. They both gasped as the shock shook the ground and dark, grey smoke arose from the trees

"Should we follow it?" Finn asked.

"Umm," Rey pondered. "Someone could be inside it, they could be hurt."

Finn nodded, reaching down and handing Rey her staff.

"Alright then," he said. "Let's go."

They followed the long, dark trail of smoke even farther away from the base. The sight wasn't hard to find. They could tell they were close when they heard the yelling. Rey was right, someone was there- and they were hurt. They called out frantically, voice curling in pain.

Finn and Rey ran even faster, Rey slapping leaves and branches out of their way with her staff. When they finally came to the thing, they both stepped back in shock. The whatever-it-was left quite a large crater. All of the trees surrounding it were scortched or burning, the air was hard to breathe or see through.

The crying was terrible to listen to. It was blood-curdling, gut-wrenching.

"Help- me!"

Wasting no time, Rey grabbed Finn's arm and pulled him down into the boiling hot crater.

"We have to help!" She yelled.

Looking at her feet, which were covered in soot and ash, Finn stopped Rey, tugging her back up.

"What are you going?!" He demanded. "You're in bare feet!"

"Doesn't bother me," she said, staring him in the intensely. Wrenching her arm free, Rey shot him an evil eye, before gracefully sliding back down the side of the crater, her staff leaving indents in the soft earth.

"Come if you want to," she began. "But don't try to stop me!" She yelled back.

Sighing exasperatingly, Finn followed, not wanting to be "that guy".

He wasn't as nimble on the soft ground, and he staggered around a bit as he descended, and the heat was almost unbearable. But Rey barely stumbled. The shifting ground and mind-numbing heat was what she was used to- and it didn't bother her in the least.

Finally, they both reached the bottom of the crater, where the thing was lodged in the ground. They sidled up to the edge of it. Looking to pry it open somehow, Rey put her hand on it, only to recoil in pain as the seering metal burned her skin. She yelped in pain.

Finn's hand shot out and grabbed hers protectively. She looked back at him as he looked into her eyes.

"Don't do that," he said. "It's hot."

"Yeah," she said sarcastically. "Do you really think so?"

Giving her an annoyed look, Finn continued to walk around the pod.

"Hello?" Someone called out- someone from inside. "Is- is there someone there?"

Finn and Rey looked at eachother confused and startled. What do they say?

"Uh," Finn began. "Uh, yeah, we're here to help you."

"Can you see anything?" Rey asked.

"Yes," The person said. "I can see the sky, and the tree line."

"There's got to be a hole in it somewhere," Rey said to Finn.

"Here!" He called out from the other side, finding the hole which the person was talking about. "Rey, here!"

She hurried over to where Finn was, and there was the large crack through the outer wall. Rey stuck her staff in and used it as leverage to pry it open more- not using her hands this time. She pulled with all of her might, but it barely moved.

"Help me, Finn!" She called. Finn grabbed her staff and began to pull aswell. Slowly, the gash in the side of the pod grew bigger. As the side opened up, and light shone through, they could finally see what was on the inside.

A pale, bloody face and scraggly brown hair stared back up at them. Their clothes were torn in places and soaked in blood.

Finn's mind stopped mid-thought. For a moment, he thought he recognized that face. Was it really-?

It couldn't be.

"Help me," the person repeated.

Pushing the gap open a bit more, Rey removed her staff and reached in to grabbed ahold of the person inside. She pulled and pulled but couldn't get them loose. She turned to Finn, looking at him angrily.

"Stop day dreaming and help me!" She yelled.

Jumping from his train of thought, Finn did as she said, reaching in and grabbing the persons shoulder, Rey doing the same. They heaved and groaned as the person was pulled from the thing. Together, they dragged the person out and, panting, carried him out of the crater. All three of them were out of breath.

"Thank you," they said in between gasps.

Finn and Rey smiled proudly at each other.

"No problem," Finn said, speaking for both of them, but Rey didn't mind. She was busy unwrapping the cloth from her forearms to use as gauze for the person's head wound.

"Uh, do you know how to dress a wound?" She whispered to Finn.

Smiling and nodding, he took the loose fabric from her hands and carefully, like a nurse, wrapped it around the persons head. Rey took the bindings from her other arm off and wrapped them around her burnt hand. The burns weren't too bad, she could treat them by herself, but later.

"Thank you again," the person said as Finn finished with wrapping the fabric around his head. Though he could dress a wound properly, that was the extent of his first aid training. "Are you two with the Resistance?"

"Yes, we are," Rey said.

"Good," the person said, finally catching their breath. "I just escaped the First Order."

Rey's eyes shot up to Finn, but he wasn't looking back at her. He was looking down at the person. Maybe he was who Finn thought he was.

"I'm FN-2191."