Lando's treadable had made it as far as the sandy shore where one of the Dividing Rivers met Aki-Tetu before the Rebels disembarked. Most of the Aki-Aki present had turned their eyes to the Star Destroyer entering the lake and the TIEs and transport airships that streamed out of its hangars. The Rebels ran along the beach heading for the river, moving between groups of natives.

Rey's pulse and breathing quickened, as much from the running as what she knew. Kylo was here for her and he would do anything to find her. Everyone at the festival was in danger. "We need to get to Ochi's ship faster."

Poe glanced around and spotted two old unattended sand skiffs sitting at the water's edge. He pointed. "There! Those skiffs!"

Poe vaulted over the deck railing of one of the skiffs and darted to the helm. He mashed the startup rune and the tin plated outrigger poles hummed to life. Everyone scrambled aboard the two skiffs save for Threepio who lagged behind complaining about the sand in his joints.

One of the Aki-Aki happened to notice the ongoing theft of the skiffs and yelled out. A dozen heads turned and as many voices joined the first.

Poe swore. "We gotta go! Now!"

"Wait for me!" Threepio cried.

"Somebody grab him!" Poe dropped the sail and took off with the other skiff following closely behind.

As the skiff moved by Threepio, the automaton held his arms up. Finn quickly snagged him and hauled him aboard.

At the top of a nearby rise, a stormtrooper lowered his binoculars and tapped his comm crystal. "I've spotted them."

The two skiffs raced up the riverbank, throwing up small rooster tails of pink sand. The mechanics of the vessels fascinated Rey, who had only thought it possible to sail on water.

Chewbacca contemplated the skiffs as well, musing on how the one he had climbed aboard bore a similar design to the one that he, Han, Lando, and Luke had been on over the Pit of Carkoon. So much had changed since then.

Rose leaned on the skiff's aft railing, resting her chin on her folded arms and rubbing her medallion with a thumb. Being at the festival had put her into a rather melancholic mood with memories of the single one she and Paige had attended back home. It was a simple one, but the fact that Papa had worked hard to afford for them to go made it a special one. It was also the last time that they had celebrated as a family before the First Order came.

Rose rubbed the welling tears from her eyes. When she reopened them, she saw a growing dust cloud behind them. She lifted her head. "Uh, guys? We've got company!"

Rey whipped her head around. A pair of steamhorses equipped with treads were rapidly closing in, each with a duo of stormtroopers atop them. Rey hissed in frustration and drew her pistol.

A Moze shell from behind glanced off the aft of Poe's skiff, making Finn yelp before firing off a shot of his own. Chewbacca meanwhile had already traded places with Rose and was loosing bolts of magic from his crossbow. Rey intermittently twisted around and cracked off a shot or two but the skiffs' jostling and the distance at which their stormtrooper pursuers stayed meant that most every bullet and bolt went wide.

Finn recocked his carbine and frowned. He admittedly did not have much experience with the First Order cavalry corps, but he did know that they were engaging outside standard range. Something was off.

Clouds of white smoke suddenly erupted from the rears of the steamhorses. Finn's jaw dropped at the sight of a pair of stormtroopers flying out of the clouds with rockets strapped to their backs.

See Threepio pointed skywards. "They fly now!"

Finn balked. "They fly now?!"

Poe turned and glared at the airborne troopers. "They fly now."

Chewbacca roared and loosed a trio of bolts, all of which missed the airborne troopers.

Rey clenched her jaw and moved her head to the right to dodge an incoming shell. The distance between them and the steamhorses was closing fast.

A smoke trail streaked over the skiffs and impacted the ground in front of the vessels. Immediately, a geyser of pink sand surged into the air, propelled by a powerful explosion. Another rocket followed closely after with this one detonating close enough to make Poe's skiff yaw left towards the cliffs. Fortuitously, this shift of course allowed Poe to see a canyon a little ways ahead that was wide enough to accommodate the skiff.

Rey jerked the wheel hard to the right to avoid another rocket. She twisted back and cracked off a shot from her pistol. The steamhorse rider returned the gesture with a burst of Moze rounds that screamed past, barely missing the bow. Their luck would not keep for much longer.

After steering through a few canyon turns, Poe stole a glance back. "Did we lose them?"

Finn hadn't seen anything since entering the canyon, even on the straightaways. "Looks like it."

"Excellent job, sir," Threepio said.

One of the steamhorses came over the canyon rim, sliding down an embankment of sand and pulling behind the skiff. A four shot burst of shells whizzed over the skiff passengers' heads.

"Terrible job, sir," Threepio corrected.

Bibi-Eit stared curiously at the chalk canister projector next to Chewbacca. He turned his domed head and chirped to Rey.

"Not now, Bibi-Eit," she shouted, violently turning the wheel to avoid the incoming fire.

The micronaut turned his attention back to the projector. He extended a grasping claw from his chassis and turned the locking wheel at the base of the apparatus, letting the tube fall to almost level. Patiently, he waited until the steamhorse was in just the right position then pulled the release.

The projector's powerful spring hurled the chalk canister on a direct arc to the steamhorse. It exploded in front of the machine and rider, consuming them in a cloud of yellow.

The trooper growled and waved his hand in front of his face to clear the dust. A moment later, he emerged from the cloud, far too late to avoid the inclined rock directly ahead. The combination of his speed and the sharp slope launched him considerably high and far, exposing the underside of the steamhorse.

Chewbacca immediately exploited this weakness and loosed a pair of bolts. Both struck true with one rupturing the fuel tank. The resulting explosions tore the steamhorse apart and sent the rider cartwheeling through the air.

Rey let out an impressed laugh. "Never underestimate an automaton!"

Emboldened by the death of their comrade, the rocket troopers opened their throttles to full.

Poe continuously swore as chips of granite knocked loose by the slew of Moze shells stung his face. Threepio babbled to himself, convinced that he was mere seconds away from being scrap metal littering the canyon floor. Finn's heart pounded, but not from fear.

In his hands, Finn held the hooked end of a cable tow. He waited for a break in the gunfire and threw the hook with all his might. As he had hoped, the hook caught on one of the steamhorse treads' grousers and the thick hemp cable quickly began to wrap around the track.

"Poe!"

The sky pilot ceased his swearing. "What?!"

"On my mark, drop portside anchor!"

Poe snapped his head around with an expression that wordlessly questioned his friend's sanity. It shifted into a mischievous grin at seeing the rapidly uncoiling cable leading to the steamhorse. "Finn, you crazy bastard!" He put his hand over the rune.

Finn watched the last few loops of cable unwind. "Now!"

The skiff's sand anchor dug deeply into the pink ground. The hull creaked and cracked under the strain as it swung around. The steamhorse swung wide on its tether then rolled out of control before slamming into the canyon wall and exploding.

The two men hooted and cheered as the smoke and fire rolled skywards.

Poe detached the anchor line. "Where the Hell did you get that idea?"

"Rey and I pulled a similar trick with the Falcon," Finn replied as he cut through the cable tow.

"Could someone please help me up?" Threepio politely asked from his face down position on the deck.

Chewbacca lined up his crossbow and pulled the trigger. A pale green bolt of magic flew true and struck one of the rocket troopers in his chest. In addition to the grievous injury the shot caused, the force of the hit threw the trooper out of balance. He spiralled out of control and hit the ground with bone breaking speed, leaving a furrow through the sand.

Rose squinted her eyes. "Rey! Up ahead! I see something!"

Rey looked up the river. It was a bit difficult to see through the heat haze, but she thought she could make out a mast. "Ochi's ship!" As she sailed closer and started to make out more details though, her blood grew colder. "It can't be..."

She had seen that ship before. It had been only once, but that was enough for its form to be burned into her memory. The unusual squat shape of its hull had haunted her nightmares since that bright sunny day. For several seconds that might as well have stretched until the end of time, Rey was a scared little girl watching her parents leave again.

Poe's skiff came out of the mouth of the canyon to Rey's left but she didn't notice. Nor did she hear Finn asking if all the troopers had been dealt with. Nor indeed did she hear the incoming rocket from the final airborne trooper which landed directly between the two skiffs and destroyed the runed outriggers.

The sudden shift from the sand behaving like a fluid to it behaving like a solid tore the skiffs apart and catapulted the passengers through the air. The Rebels and scattered pieces of debris landed in a large patch of dusky red sand as smooth and soft as silk. They scrambled to their knees as quickly as they could and opened fire on the rocket trooper while he swung around for another pass. A lucky shot punctured one of the rocket pack's tanks and sent the now helpless trooper careening into the bluffs.

Poe suddenly realized he felt much shorter and looked down. Slowly but surely, he was sinking into the sand. He tried to move his legs but only sank faster. "What the Hell is this?"

"Sinking fields!" Rey answered. "Try to grab onto something!"

Unfortunately this proved ineffective at best. In Chewbacca's case, it only sped up the rate of his sinking.

"Will this agony never end?" Threepio moaned.

Finn watched Poe founder one last time then slip below the sand. "Poe! No!"

Bibi-Eit was next to vanish, with Rey crying out in protest. Threepio fell backwards and disappeared in a splash of sand. Chewbacca and Rose clung to one another, trying and ultimately failing to keep their heads up.

Finn clutched his crystal pendant. "Rey! Rey, I never told you! I-" He never finished his declaration.

"What? Finn!" Rey pointed her face upwards and took one more breath before everything went dark.

Snap Wexley felt a terrible guilt for not having been able to help with the Resistance's disastrous retreat from D'Qar. The fact that the mission that had drawn himself and Black Squadron away from the fleet had failed exacerbated that feeling. His reflection on this was interrupted by the Autopress printing a newly received communiqué.

Snap hurried towards the command center, tape in hand. "General! There's a lot of First Order chatter regarding the Festival of Ancestors and Pasaana." He handed Leia the strip of paper.

Leia glared at the tape. "This mission is everything. We cannot fail. Any word from Rey?"

"The Falcon's... not responding to hails," Snap said gloomily.

Lieutenant Connix frowned. "Do you have to say it like that?"

"Like what?"

Leia tented her fingers in front of her face. "Do me a personal favor, would you? Be optimistic."

Snap cleared his throat. "Yes, ma'am. Uh... This is... terrific news. You're not going to believe how well everything is going to turn out. It's, uh, gonna be great."

Leia stared flatly. "Wexley?"

"Yes, ma'am?"

"Shut up."

"Yes, ma'am."

Bibi-Eit squealed in alarm at the sand around him giving way to free fall. He plunged through the darkness for only the briefest of instants before hitting solid ground. The micronaut ignited his magelamp and found himself in some sort of tunnel with a stiff breeze blowing around him.

Poe landed behind Bibi-Eit with a grunt and tried to spit out the sand from his mouth. After standing, he pulled a pocket lantern from a pouch on his belt and tapped the ignition rune. "Rey? Finn? Rose?"

Threepio came around a bend. "You didn't say my name, sir, but I'm all right."

A feminine grunt of pain came from some way up the tunnel followed by Finn calling out Rose's name. Poe jogged towards them and arrived in time to see Finn helping Rose to her feet with one of her arms slung over his shoulder.

"Ah, Master Finn and Miss Rose," Threepio declared.

"You all right?" Poe asked as he put Rose's other arm over his own shoulder.

"Twisted my ankle when I landed," Rose answered. "I should be fine in a few minutes."

Rey jogged up the tunnel, holding her Lightblade above her head to see. Chewbacca followed closely behind. "There you are. Is everyone here?"

Poe nodded. "With you and Chewie, yeah."

"Oh, so that's how they work," Rose muttered, looking around.

Finn frowned. "What?"

"Forced air. That's how the sinking fields work."

"Look," said Poe, "I'm glad that the weird sand fascinates you, but I'd like to get out of here."

Finn frowned. "Speaking of, where is here?"

"This isn't the afterlife, is it?" Threepio asked. "Are automata allowed here?"

"I thought we were goners." Rose rolled her ankle around and winced. "I think I'm good now, thank you."

"We might still be," said Threepio.

Finn looked up and down the tunnel. "Any idea which way is out?"

Rey held up her Lightblade and briskly followed the wind. "This way. We have to hurry."

After a few minutes, Rey turned to Finn

"So what was it?"

"What was what?"

"What were you going to tell me? When you were sinking in the sand you said 'I never told you...'" Rey raised her eyebrows expectantly.

Finn swallowed and his hand unconsciously went to his crystal pendant. "I... I'll tell you later."

Poe pouted jealously. "Do you mean when Poe's not here?"

"That's not-" Finn sighed. "That's not what I mean."

"We're possibly gonna die in a weird sand burrow and you're keeping secrets?"

Finn rolled his eyes. "How about you share about all the shifty stuff you get up to?"

"Shifty? Me?"

"How do you know so many smugglers, hm?"

"Rebellions are supplied by smugglers," Poe replied, perhaps a bit too defensively. "Everyone knows that."

"Then how come so many know you from before you joined the Resistance?"

Chewbacca roared at them to shut up.

Poe was quiet for only a few seconds. "I do not want to know what made these tunnels..."

"Pasaana is known for its wandering subterranean rivers," Threepio stated. "When the flows shift, they leave behind these tunnels."

"Oh. Well, that's not as bad as I thought."

"Although judging by the diameter and the scratches left in the walls-"

"Thank you. That's enough. Wait, what's that?" Poe cocked his head and pointed at something in the grotto ahead.

Finn frowned at the whatever it was partially buried in the wall. "Is that a horse?"

The Rebels moved closer until the blue glow from both the Lightblade and the mage lantern fully illuminated the object.

"It it sure looks like a horse." Finn put his hand on it. "It's metal."

"It's old," Rey said, intrigued. "Maybe pre-Empire."

Rose nodded. "It is. It's an Automaton Army mount from the Great War. Back home, the miners used to use them to pull ore carts."

Poe put his hands on his hips. "What's it doing here?"

"Perhaps we will find the rider as well." Threepio mused.

Bibi-Eit chirped.

Poe scanned around with his lantern. "Yep, Bibi-Eit, I think dead, too."

"Oh, my," Threepio cried after closer examination of the mechanical mount. "A hex charm!"

"A what?"

"A common symbol used by the Sith loyalists during the Sith Wars."

Rey furrowed her brow as she looked at the silver charm affixed to the mount's forehead. "But those happened a thousand years before the Great War."

"Sith..." Rose mumbled. "Could this have been Ochi's?"

"That's why the trail went cold," Rey said.

Poe snapped his fingers. "He must've been heading back to his ship.

"And then he ended up down here." A chill ran down Finn's spine.

"So how did Ochi get out?"

"He didn't," Rey said from a short distance away.

Chewbacca was the first to see what Rey was staring at. A mummified corpse sat propped up against the wall surrounded by empty wine bottles. The Wookiee wailed in revulsion.

Finn blew out his cheeks. "He sure didn't."

Bibi-Eit pointed his magelamp towards a thoroughly dry rotted leather bag sitting in the sand near Ochi's corpse. The micronaut chirped inquisitively.

"Yeah, I see it," said Rey as she knelt down. The bag's top flap crumbled as she lifted it and the seams disintegrated when she opened the mouth.

Much of what was in the bag was odd trinkets, but one thing caught Rey's eye. It was a sheathed black dagger with a crescent handguard and spiralled ebonwood hilt. When she touched it, she gasped at how cold it was - as though it was made of ice.

Emotions that were not her own flooded her mind. Echos of excruciating pain, boundless anger, unfathomable grief, and abject terror swirled together and made Rey involuntarily whimper. Her Lightblade deactivated and fell from her hand.

Finn moved defensively moved towards Rey. "What happened? What's wrong?"

Rey trembled as she looked at the weapon in her hand. "This dagger," she whispered, "it's been used for such terrible things..." Shakily, she drew the blade.

Poe squinted. "Is that writing on it?"

Rey held the blade in the light from his lantern. Angular symbols decorated the blade to either side of the fuller with what appeared to be dried blood in each one. "I can't make out what it says."

"Perhaps I can be of assistance," Threepio offered.

Rey handed him the dagger.

"Oh! I believe that this is the clue that Master Luke was looking for!"

Rose's face lit up. "It says where they are?"

"It's a bit cryptic, but I believe so."

"What are you waiting for?" Poe asked. "Tell us what it says!"

"I'm afraid I cannot tell you," Threepio said, returning the dagger to Rey.

Poe narrowed his eyes. "You know however many thousands of languages and you can't read that?"

"Oh, I have read it, sir. I know exactly what it says. Unfortunately, it is written in the Sith ur-Kittât runic alphabet."

Rey frowned. "So what?"

"Laws in place since the formation of the Grand Republic forbid me from translating it."

Finn stared at Threepio incredulously. "Laws haven't seemed like much of a problem to you before."

"Special restrictions were put in place to ensure that the Sith ways died at the end of the Sith Wars. Forbidding the translation of their language was one of them."

"And look how well that worked out," Poe said bitterly. "You're telling us that the one time we actually want you to talk, you can't?"

"Irony, sir. I am completely incapable of speaking translations from Sith. I believe it was the Jedi Order that petitioned for the law."

Nobody was listening to him by the end of his history lesson, instead focusing on the enormous fanged maw that had slowly emerged from the darkness behind him.

Threepio turned around and shrieked. "Serpent! Serpent!"

Rey ignited her Lightblade while Poe raised his carbine. The armor headed serpent hissed and snarled at his den's uninvited guests, but made no move to attack them. Rey furrowed her brow and wordlessly lowered Poe's gun with her free hand.

Rey passed her sword to Finn and put out her hand. She slowly stepped towards the serpent, despite the hushed protestations of her friends.

Rey calmed herself and reached out through the Force. This was not some soulless monster craving violence, but rather an animal frightened by the creatures that had invaded its home. She also felt the pain the serpent was in - such that had left it weak and unable to hunt.

The serpent kept its six beady black eyes locked onto the strange creature moving towards it. This one wasn't like the ones that had hurt it.

Rey examined the serpent's body coiled up against the far wall. Almost immediately she noticed the large open sore on its side oozing a viscous discharge. The serpent hissed at Rey as she moved towards the wound.

Poe lined up his sights on the serpent's head. "I'm gonna blast it."

Finn grabbed his barrel. "Don't blast it."

The serpent hissed at Rey again, but took no further action. Rey breathed nervously as two opposing instincts fought to be the one for her to follow. She pressed onwards and knelt down next to the serpent.

The wound smelled foul and Rey could feel the sickly warmth emanating from it even before her hand made contact. The serpent growled and recoiled its head at her touch. Rey closed her eyes and took and released a deep breath.

Gouts of pus poured from the sore as the flesh knitted itself together under Rey's magics. The serpent visibly relaxed as the pain that had plagued it for months melted away. The Rebels gaped in awe as they watched muscle, nerves, blood vessels, fat, and scaled skin grow in seconds, perfectly sealing over the wound without even leaving a trace of a scar behind.

The serpent blinked its nictitating membranes at Rey as though thanking her and slithered away up the tunnel that the Rebels had come from. Everyone visibly relaxed.

Finn stared at Rey. "What was that?"

"I just transferred a bit of life energy. It's one of the first things Jedi learn to use the Force for." Rey rubbed her tingling hand.

Rose's eyebrows shot up. "But won't that kill you?"

"If I used it all at once, yes. I can recoup what I used with some time meditating in Ajan Kloss though."

The wind from the tunnel suddenly stopped as the serpent blocked the flow with its girth. A sandy section of ceiling that presumably was one of the sinking fields collapsed to the floor. The Rebels winced at the sunlight shining in from above.

Poe threw his arms wide in astonishment. "Two miracles in a row. Chewie, do you have a grappling hook in your bag?"

Chewbacca grunted an affirmative and exchanged the resheathed Sith dagger he had been inspecting with the hook.

Downstream, even as it dropped anchor, smoke and sparks belched from the smokestack of the Night Buzzard. The six Knights of Ren leapt from ship to shore, tabards and cloaks fluttering as the wind picked up. Wordlessly as one, they drew their weapons. The hunt was on.