A note from your humble author: Allow me to hand you some duct tape – you're gonna need it to hold onto your butts!

Zeego Hue was sitting at the bar in Maz's palace, sipping a Corellian brandy through a straw that went through the mouth guard of his helmet, when one of Maz's bouncers tapped him on the shoulder.

"Maz might have some information that may be valuable to you. She's in the back room," he said, pointing to a hallway past the bar.

Zeego was a Bothan, and usually wore a full helmet, because in the trade of bounty hunting, anonymity was a valuable asset. He hadn't had any good leads in days, but he made it a regular habit to visit Maz's tavern every other cycle because it was a good place to gather intelligence. Maz herself was not usually the one to pass along information; she preferred to remain neutral in the dealings of her patrons, it was better for business.

He had a naturally distrusting nature, but he hadn't received any other leads in such a long time, he decided to throw caution to the wind.

When he walked into the back room his suspicions rose even more as he noticed Maz was not alone, there was also an older human male and a young human female.

The door seemed to slam shut behind him all on its own and he instantly jumped. "What is this?" he asked.

"These are some friends of mine. They sort of need a bounty hunter and they sort of don't. They can make it worth your while," said Maz.

Zeego probably would have looked very confused if not for his mask. "What do you mean they do and they don't?"

The human male stood and approached him. "We don't need you; we need your identity, your ship, and your code for First Order clearance, and your silence when this is over. We know you've worked for the First Order in the past, you do still have your clearance don't you?"

Zeego did have a working clearance, though he hadn't used it in ages. It had been a long time since he had turned in any bounties for the First Order. He found their rewards to often be stingy for the type of people they wanted him to hunt down for them, usually resistance spies. He suspected these people were with the resistance.

"I have it. It should still work, but like hell I'm giving up my ship or my identity, whatever that means."

The older human looked shrewd, and not like someone to take 'no' lightly. Zeego was curious to at least hear what they had to offer.

"We'll give you twenty thousand credits, which is probably worth twice as much as you and your ship combined, and an extra ten thousand if you keep your mouth shut about all this. Rest assured, if you go back on that last part," he said as he switched on a deadly looking weapon, which looked like an old fashioned Jedi light saber. "I will be forced to find you, and make you very very sorry."

Zeego was instantly terrified, but he was also more than a little greedy. "Thirty? Seems a little low for ruining my reputation with the First Order. You realize you'll ruin my business with them from here on. That's a lot of business to lose!" he argued.

"Thirty five," he said and reached out his hand, suddenly Zeego's helmet snapped off his head and flew into the man's hand. "And we're taking this."

"Thirty five?" Rey cried when they were on their way back to the base in a speeder. "Can the resistance even spare that?" She knew she hadn't much experience with credits, on Jakku almost everything was bartered in portions, but she knew enough to know that that was no small sum. She couldn't even comprehend how many portions that could buy.

"We have several sympathetic financial backers, one happens to be a very old friend of ours, who fought with us against the Empire back in the day. To this day he still supplies funds and weapons when we need them, ships too, if we ask nicely."

"Who's that?"

"Maybe you'll meet him someday; his name is Calrissian, one of our best generals in the days of the Rebel Alliance. These days he's made it so rich he doesn't know what to do with all his money, and he has no love for the First Order."

They had him hooked up to medical machines again, forcing him to live against his will. Once he had recovered enough to survive another day of torment, they would begin again.

He tried so desperately to remember his dream. They had only allowed him a few hours of sleep before they began punishing him again. Sleep deprivation would also be one of his tortures. Everything was so painful and blurry, but he thought, maybe, just maybe, he had felt her. Maybe not as strongly as he usually felt her in their shared dreams, but he could have swore he felt her presence come to him, yet he could remember nothing beyond that. For all he knew it could have just been his wishful thinking, his desperate desire to feel her once more through their bond, to believe that she had at least made it out alive.

Maybe she was dead. Maybe he had failed; if that was the case, he was more than ready to follow her into the beyond. There was nothing left for him anyway.

"Captain Phasma, bounty hunter Zeego Hue is requesting permission to land in docking bay seven," said the technician as she handed the report to the chrome armored captain.

Phasma looked it over, the ship description checked out. "Does he have a security clearance?"

"Yes, ma'am. It checks out," replied the technician.

"Give him permission to dock in bay seven. I will go down to meet with him personally and see if he has brought us anything of any value or if he's just wasting our time again."

Rey tried her best to find her center of peace as they heard over the com-link that their security clearance had been approved. She released a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.

"I hope this plan of yours works, Chewie," she said popping a voice modify in her mouth and placing Zeego Hue's helmet over her head.

Chewie simply roared that this plan had always worked before and gave her an encouraging pat on the back, before letting Luke place a pair of unlocked binders over his furry wrists.

Master Luke gave her a wink before he put on a pair of goggles and finished wrapping his own face in a series of scarves usually worn for desert planet conditions. Then they waited as the ship was pulled into the docking bay.

Once they were safely in the docking bay they opened the ramp to Zeego's small space cruiser and walked out, one on each side of Chewbacca, holding onto his arms and pointing blasters at him, as if he were only a moment away from an unruly outburst.

They waited patiently as the chrome captain approached; four stormtroopers in tow.

"Zeego Hue, you haven't brought us a bounty in quite a while. Who is this captive?" she asked.

Chewie roared in protest. The bounty hunters gripped his arms tighter.

"Chewbacca, the Wookiee companion to the man who had once been General Han Solo of the Rebel Alliance, seems he's been on your list for quite some time," replied Rey through the voice modifier, hoping the First Order captain hadn't memorized too much of what Zeego's real voice had sounded like. She watched nervously as the captain seemed to tilt her head inside her helmet quizzically.

"And who is this?" she said, pointing the blaster she had been cradling towards the other silent bounty hunter.

"My new partner, Horzo. We've been splitting bounties this past year. You have any idea how hard it is to bring in a Wookiee this big on your own? Barely worth it with how stingy you bastards are with your bounties."

"I'll have to look up the record on him. Wait here until I return," she finally replied after an uncomfortable silence.

They waited until the tall captain had removed herself from the hanger bay then turned their attention to the four remaining stormtroopers.

Luke released his hand from Chewie's arm and gently waved it in front of the troopers. "You will escort the three of us to the prison block personally."

"We will escort you to the prison block," they all replied at once. Then turned around and began walking out of the bay. Luke and Rey followed just behind with Chewie still gripped between them. They had to continue to look like they were in on escorting the prisoner.

As they walked down the long corridors Rey searched through the force, hoping to find him, she could feel that he was alive and that he was in great physical distress. Once they reached the prison block they would not have much time before the Captain sounded the alert on them. They had to get in and out – fast.

When they finally reached the prison block, Luke waved his hand again; "You will return to the docking bay. You don't know where we went," he said. The troopers turned around and started walking away down the hall.

Chewie tore off his binders and Rey rushed to the console and began accessing the ships prisoner database. She needed to find where they were keeping Kylo, and she needed to find an empty furnace hatch. She looked for the hatch first.

"This might have been quicker with a droid," Luke commented.

"Quicker, but not easier. It'll be hard enough just getting the four of us out of here, if we get out of here at all," she said as she pulled up the municipal schematics.

"Finn, do you read me?" she called through the com-link she had hidden in her disguise.

"I'm here, Rey. Did you find one?" she heard him ask.

"South-west wing, it's behind the lower docking areas. There's three furnace shoots over there. It'll be the middle one. Be careful!" she added.

"We'll be there!" he replied.

Captain Phasma was on the bridge looking through the bounty database. It was apparent that the Wookiee Chewbacca had a very long list of offenses, and she was just preparing to return to the docking bay when another technician approached her.

"Captain Phasma, It seems there was a momentary glitch in our ships radar. It blacked out for about sixty seconds."

"Is it a system error?" she asked.

"All systems seem to be online," reported the technician.

"Our airspace?"

"Nothing around that our radar has been able to see. It could just be an equipment malfunction," he replied.

"You better report this to the General. Equipment malfunctions can be very serious," she said as she picked up her blaster and marched her way back to the docking bay. When she arrived she saw her four stormtroopers waiting, but no bounty hunters, and no Wookiee.

She had taken off her helmet so that she could see better, and removed the voice modifier, disguises would be of no more use to them. Master Luke had already cast off his and was using his lightsaber to melt the edges of the main door into the prison block so that once they were discovered no one could get in, and the only way out would be up through the technician's access sector. At last she found the information she was looking for.

"Maximum security interrogation cell twelve, third corridor to the left and one block up. Security footage shows only two guards at post."

Just as they started running again they heard the alarm sound throughout the ship. They were honestly amazed it had taken them that long to sound the alarm.

When they reached the right cell block the two guards shouted for the advancing trio to stop, but when they didn't they opened fire. Luke successfully blocked all of their blaster shots with his saber, while Chewie took aim with his bowcaster, which Luke had concealed for him, and decimated both the guards and the cell door.

"Well, that's one way to get in," quipped Rey with a smirk. She only hoped Ben hadn't been harmed in the blast. Luke and Chewie gave her a moment to go in alone first and covered her.

Her heart nearly stopped when she entered the room. The blast had not gone too far beyond the entryway, but what she found there was even worse than she could have imagined.

"Ben!" she cried as she rushed to where he lay strapped to an interrogation table, much like the one she had once experienced.

Blood was everywhere; running down the side of his mouth, from his nose, his ears, and smeared all over his body from the many horrid wounds, burns, and lacerations. His shirt was missing and he wore only a pair of black trousers, even though the room was exceptionally chilly. There was an IV attached to his arm that led to a machine that also monitored his heart-rate, which clearly was not functioning at a healthy pace. His breath came shallow and distressed. When she reached for him he was drenched in sweat and his skin was burning hot to the touch.

"Ben! Ben, wake up! Look at me! Please, wake up!" she cried as she grabbed his face in both her hands and tried to shake him gently but firmly. She watched as he slowly managed to wrench his eyes open. They looked frighteningly unfocused and she could tell he had burst a blood vessel in one eye. "Ben! Ben, it's me. It's Rey. I'm here. I've come back for you. I promised, remember. I said I'd come back," she spoke gently to him as tears rolled down her face.

"Rey?" he asked in a barely audible whisper.

Suddenly she felt herself fill with a terrible black rage as she lashed out with the force and tore out all the restraints and pulled the IV from his arm. He slid down in the chair and toppled forward but she caught him in her arms and gently eased him down to sit on the floor. He was burning with fever. "Ben, can you hear me?" she called to him again, becoming frantic.

"I…just wanted to see you…once more," he struggled to say as he reached a shaking hand to touch her face, to feel if she was real or only just a dream. As soon as his hand felt the warmth of her skin he closed his eyes again, and his hand dropped leaving streaks of blood across her cheek.

"Chewie! Master Luke, come quickly!" she shouted for them.

They immediately rushed in. Luke looked mortified and Chewie gave a furious roar as he scooped up his injured nephew.

"He's alive," she assured. "But we have to get him out of here, now!"

Chewie slung the unconscious Kylo Ren over his shoulder so that he could still hold his bowcaster in his other hand.

"Captain Phasma, what is the meaning of this?" asked general Hux, who was also with Aldo Ren.

"General, resistance fighters have infiltrated the Finalizer. According to the security footage they are here attempting a rescue. We have shut down all of the docking bays. They will not make it back to their ship."

"A rescue, of whom?"

"It appears that they have taken Commander Ren, sir," she replied. She watched as the general's face turned as red as his hair as he seethed in anger.

"There's more, sir."

"What?" he shouted, so loud it echoed on the bridge.

"We have reason to believe one of them might be Luke Skywalker, and the other his apprentice."

Aldo Ren simply turned and briskly walked off.

"Where are you going?" shouted the general.

"To stop them," replied Aldo Ren over his shoulder.

They were running, and were nearly out of the cell block, making their way towards the technician access sector, when she saw him.

At first he was startled to see the group, who were obviously not First Order personnel, and jumped to pull the alarm in the hall, which would have been a pointless gesture as alarms were already blaring over the whole ship.

"You!" she shouted!

He stopped and looked at her with his terror stricken beady eyes. She had felt it the moment she looked at him – the tormentor! She could sense his intentions through the force, twisted and violent.

"You did this to him!" she shouted at the shaking doctor and extended her hand, locking him in a solid force grip.

"Rey, careful, the darkness…" Luke had tried to caution, but before he could finish the doctor's head twisted on his shoulders and a bone crunching snap rang down the hall.

She released him and his limp body crumpled to the floor.

He could feel the darkness radiating off her. "Rey?"

"Let's go," she urged, and again they started running.

They made it to the access sector. Rey had to tear off a control panel and hot-rig some wiring to force the locked door open. Once inside, it was a much darker room, not as sterile and white as the prison area had been. There were long empty halls filled with pipes and loud machines.

"Stop where you are, Jedi scum!" came the mechanical voice of Aldo Ren, with him were the other Knights of Ren, the only one apparently missing was the tall female, undoubtedly due to having only one leg to stand on.

"Chewie, make for the furnace hatch, we'll hold them back," assured Luke.

Chewie gave a protesting roar.

"Don't worry, we can catch up," he offered

Chewie finally gave a low growl of acknowledgement and ran off down the hallway towards where the furnace hatch would be waiting, Kylo Ren still limp over his shoulder.

Luke and Rey ignited their sabers. Rey couldn't help but feel a little thrill to finally be able to fight beside the legendary Luke Skywalker. He had sparred with her on Ahch-to, but that was different, they had never stood together against an enemy.

Then she saw it, she watched as Aldo Ren pulled out Kylo Ren's cross-guarded light saber and ignited it. Aldo Ren had always wanted a light saber, and when Kylo Ren had been defeated on Dantooin, and sentenced to torture and death, he had claimed his prize.

Rey felt the darkness of anger wash over her. That was not his saber; it belonged to Kylo Ren…to Ben! True, it was a representation of his dark side, but his darkness was still a part of who he was. She knew all too well the sacrifice and struggle that goes into making one's own saber, the fact that you literally pour your heart and soul into it. Taking another force user's saber was like taking a part of that person, it's why she had never felt herself using Anakin Skywalker's saber. Her saber was like an extension of her own soul, the very idea that someone else would take something so personal filled her with rage.

"That," she said, pointing with her saber staff, "does NOT belong to you!" Then with a terrible war cry she sprang forward, with Luke also following behind.

The Jedi and Grey Jedi came down upon the Knights of Ren like a tidal wave. Luke, while much older than the last time he had had to fight in serious combat, was certainly no slower. His force powers had only seemed to have grown over the years. He could block every blow from Ereus Ren while effortlessly pushing Hiji Ren and Fresza Ren. Hiji Ren tried throwing a vibro dagger at Luke, but Luke was too quick and froze it in air with the force, all while parrying blows from both Ereus and Fresza who had got up again and charged with her vibropike.

Rey had been somewhat separated from where Master Luke was battling, but was holding her own. She was fueled with terrible darkness and hatred. She hated the Knights of Ren, she had always hated them in a way, but after personally battling with them, after watching them nearly kill Kylo Ren before her eyes, capturing him and being one of the causes of his suffering, and stealing his saber, she wanted their blood!

Aldo Ren could barely hold her off as she rained blows upon him with her saber staff. He was a good swordsman, and the saber of Kylo Ren was not too different, fighting style wise, from his usual vibro long sword, but he was no match for Rey in her dark fury. Even Cend Ren could barely do more than defend himself from her. Finally Aldo Ren managed what could only be considered a very pathetic excuse of a force push, he was, after all, not nearly as strong with the force as Kylo Ren or Rey, but it had been just enough to cause her to temporarily lose her footing. Cend Ren took this opportunity to come down on her with his vibroax, but Rey managed to put up another effortless block. With the other end of her saber staff she cut into Cend Ren's thigh and when he dropped she rose up and with a blinding twirl of her saber staff, she separated his head from his shoulders.

Luke had felt the dangerous flow of darkness coming from her. "Rey, the darkness, don't let it take you!" he shouted as he sent out another mighty force push, this time successfully knocking out Ereus Ren by smashing him into a boiler so hard it nearly crumpled under the impact of the thrown knight.

Rey could barely hear the words of Master Luke. She had gained a sick pleasure from taking the life of Cend Ren and she knew she wanted more. Aldo Ren charged for another attack, but she managed to lock him mid-run in a powerful force grip. Her eyes burned like fire as she felt the knight's pitiful attempts to wriggle free. "Give it to me," she ordered in a dark voice, as she began trying to yank Kylo Ren's saber from the struggling knight's hand. In a final act of defiance he managed to maintain a grip on the saber's cross-guarded handle, but she was in no mood to be defied. With one powerful and furious yank she tore Aldo Ren's arm out at the shoulder, saber and all, and it flew into her hand. She caught it by the wrist, and pulled free Kylo Ren's saber.

Aldo Ren shouted in horrific agony as blood sprayed the floor all around them, even spraying all over Rey, but she paid him no mind; he was still locked in her force grip. She only looked down at the sparking red saber of Kylo Ren, which she now held in her hand. Suddenly she could see a vision of him, standing before her in the snowy woods, his saber firmly in his hand, then the vision changed and she saw him again, but this time fighting against the Knights of Ren, falling as he sacrificed his life to protect her – her. He had wanted to protect her. Suddenly she felt the moisture on her face, as tears uncontrollably rained from her eyes. "Oh, Ben," she cried under her breath. And suddenly the darkness that had possessed her was washed away, suddenly all she could see was his eyes as he had looked at her that night on Dantooin.

I need you.

And she knew in that moment that she would not let the darkness take her. She powered off his saber and placed it in her belt, then released her grip on Aldo Ren, who collapsed to the floor, too weakened by blood loss to be of any further threat for the moment.

Luke had just managed to use the force to render the other two knights unconscious as Rey ran towards him. "Rey?" he asked.

"I'm fine. Let's go!" she called as they took off together.

Finn and Poe waited in the Millennium Falcon. Before they set out for this mission Chewbacca had replaced the top hatch of the Falcon with an air lock hatch that could be used to lock onto one of the Finalizer's many furnace refuse ejection hatches.

Finn had helped plan the means for their escape as he had worked as a sanitation specialist in the First Order and had intimate knowledge of the Order's practices of dealing with space waste. The Finalizer would be equipped with several furnaces that would burn down the bulk of the First Order's waste then eject the ashen remains into space, but the furnaces were only lit once a week and they were always on a schedule.

They had known that the rescue party would not be able to get out by the same means in which they had got in, and now Poe and Finn waited to provide their getaway. Poe had piloted the Falcon. When Finn had explained Rey's situation and that she was in need of his help to Poe, he had been just as off-put by the idea of helping the likes of Kylo Ren as Finn had, but Poe cared about Rey, he counted her just as much his friend as she was Finn's friend, and he loved Finn with all his heart. If Finn wanted to help Rey, no matter how crazy the scheme, he was in. Not to mention that any opportunity to get behind the controls of the legendary Millennium Falcon, was okay with him.

She was an old ship, and certainly in need of a cleanup, but he could definitely tell why she was still the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy as he powered her though the First Order's airspace. He had been able to use a short signal disruptor to sneak past the First Order's radar and lock the ship into place against the hull of the Finalizer. The short signal disruptor usually wasn't too handy because it only worked for such a brief length of time, usually not enough to get both in and out of an air space unseen, but he only needed enough time to get them in. They would have to fight their way out again. Undoubtedly the First Order would have noticed the disruption to their instruments, but they would be looking for something coming or going, they would not assume that an enemy would so willing just park right beneath their own vessel. So far they had avoided detection.

Finn sat waiting in the gunner's seat, his hand growing sweaty as he clutched the com-link. "Rey? Are you there? What's taking so long?" he finally asked.

Rey and Luke had just jumped down the chute that lead into the furnace below. They landed on a pile of garbage and scrap where Chewie howled in relief. He had pulled an access panel from the wall and was trying to open the hatch door, but was becoming frustrated at his lack of progress. Kylo Ren lay propped against the wall still unconscious and looking pale as death. Rey ached to go to him, but she had to help Chewie get the hatch open, or they would never get out alive. She immediately started yanking out wires, when she heard Finn call to her over the com-link.

"Rey? Are you there? What's taking so long?"

She stopped long enough to grab her com-link from her belt. "We're in the furnace now; we're just trying to get the hatch open. I can do this. I've almost got it!" she called.

Suddenly they all heard the sound of valves opening in the furnace.

"This is going to be bad," she heard Master Luke say.

"Phasma, report!" barked Hux, who now looked more disheveled than she had ever seen him. He was furious to learn that the Knights of Ren had failed to capture or kill the resistance scum. He knew that Supreme Leader Snoke would have his head if he dared to let Luke Skywalker out of this ship alive.

"Sir, they've disappeared. We think they might have jumped into a furnace chute. I've sent tie fighters to check the outside of the ship. They must have a means of escape outside if they think they can get out that way."

"Which furnace?"

"We're not certain, sir."

"Light them! Light them all!" he shouted.

"Rey! We have tie fighters!" she heard Finn shout over the com-link followed by the sounds of energy cannon fire.

"Cover us for just a second longer," she called as she furiously twisted more wires together.

Luke stood watching the walls. He could see where the fire would come out from the sides and from below them. He could hear more valves opening, then he closed his eyes and outstretched his hands and felt as the force began to flow through him.

Suddenly streams of fire shot from every spout in the room but instead of burning them all alive the flames moved and flowed up from the floor, away from the rescuers, and over against the furthest wall, creating a burning wall of solid flame that was held back from the rescuers only by the power of the force that flowed from Luke Skywalker.

At last with a final wire adjustment the hatch door opened wide. Chewie grabbed Kylo Ren and dove in, followed closely by Rey. "Master Luke!" she cried.

With one final push of the force Luke shoved back the wall of flame just long enough to give him time to dive in after Rey. They ducked as the flames crept their way past the top hatch of the Falcon, but Chewie quickly hit a switch and closed the Falcon's end of the hatch and disengaged it from the hull of the Finalizer. He roared for Poe to punch it.

Poe didn't speak Skyriiwook, but he hardly needed to to understand what Chewie had meant. He pulled out the falcon and began speeding it past the many tie fighter's that were now on their tail.

Finn had already shot out several ties while waiting for Rey to open the furnace hatch, the ships shields had managed to save it from severe damage from the fire they had already taken. He swiveled the chair about as he took out more of their pursuers.

Chewie jumped into the co-pilot seat next to Poe and began punching into the ships computer to bring up the navigation codes to make the jump to hyperspeed.

Poe managed to duck and outmaneuver most of the pursuing tie fighters. "Man this ship can move!" he shouted with a satisfied grin on his face.

Luke and Rey remained in back with Kylo Ren's limp body. She could feel his presence in the force growing weaker by the moment.

"Rey, we must heal him. He won't make it if we don't," said Luke as he began running his hands over the many wounds on Kylo Ren, willing the force to repair him. She placed her hands on his face and tried reaching into his mind. She could feel the force flowing from her body into his.

Ben, come back to me.

She begged through the bond, just as the ship lurched forward and shot into hyperspeed, leaving their enemies behind.

A note from your humble author: Phew, that chapter was so much fun to write :D I hope you guys had just as much fun reading it. Please let me know your thoughts, because I really hope that I'm keeping you guys entertained and I love love love reviews.

Big thanks to everyone who has reviewed, followed, and favorite so far. You guys are awesome!

Next chapter might be a little on the short-end because our storage pod arrived today (we moved to the CA desert from Texas a few weeks ago and we've been waiting for our stuff to be delivered to us) so now I have to start unpacking at my new place, and uggggh not fun. It's really going to cut into my writing time, but I'm still going to try and get at least a little something up every day. And just because the chapters might be shorter, doesn't mean I won't do my best to make them entertaining. So hang with me guys. I'm not done with those two yet MWAHAHAHA