The Bestoon Legacy pulled away from the dock and into the ice choked waters of the harbor. Poe could hardly take his eyes off the medallion he held. Zorii was still impossible to predict. As he steered the Legacy closer to the Steadfast, the comm crystal crackled, making Poe jump.

"This is Steadfast. Medallion recognized, Captain Kiell."

Poe tapped the crystal. "Thank you, Steadfast. Requesting permission to dock."

An uncomfortably long pause.

"Permission granted, Captain. Please proceed to Drydock Twelve."

Poe heaved a deep breath and the resulting fog swirled around him. He tapped the ship intercom. "Medallion's good. I'm taking her in."

Rey smiled at Poe's declaration. "Hang on, Chewie. We're coming."

Threepio was beside himself. "Whoever this Chewie person is can't be worth the risk of illegally boarding a military vessel!"

An attraction field guided the Bestoon Legacy into the drydock. Clamps slid out from the walls of the berth and securely held the ship in place. A pair of stormtroopers slowly walked towards the gangplank extending towards the Legacy's railing.

"Credentials and manifest," said one of them in a bored tone.

Poe popped his head over the frame of the bridge window and shot them.

Finn jumped out of the deck hatch and swept the room with his carbine. "All clear!"

Rey, Rose, and the three automata emerged from below deck while Poe descended the metal steps from the bridge. "What's the plan?"

Rey pointed to the automata. "You three stay with the ship."

"Happily," Threepio said with an edge of annoyance.

"Finn, which way to the detention block?"

"Uh, I think this way. Follow me."

Poe chuckled to himself. "This brings back memories, doesn't it, Finn?"

"Yeah. Here's hoping we don't have to escape in a TIE fighter this time."

The Steadfast's corridors had a layout that did not deviate from the standard Star Destroyer, much to Finn's relief. It took only a few minutes for him to orient himself and get on the right track for the detention block. What proved to be more of a challenge was avoiding the patrols with three other people.

The Rebels waited until a stormtrooper patrol moved past to emerge from their alcove, guns at the ready. So far they had been lucky, but Finn had a nagging feeling that their luck would not hold. As if on cue, a pair of stormtroopers cane around the corner of the T junction ahead.

The troopers trained their carbines on the Rebels. "Drop your weapons!"

"It's okay," Rey said calmly, her hands raised. She made a subtle arcane gesture with her off hand. "We're allowed to be here."

The stormtroopers relaxed and lowered their guns. "You're... allowed to be here."

"It's good," the other trooper said.

Rey repeated the gesture. "You're relieved we're here."

All remaining tension in the stormtroopers dissolved. "Thank goodness you're here."

"Did you know she could do that?" Poe whispered to Finn.

Finn shook his head in response.

"Do you think she's ever done that to us?"

"We're looking for a prisoner and his belongings," Rey said.

"Well," said one of the stormtroopers. "There's only one aboard."

The Rebels stormed into the detention block and found it free from all but the most paltry of defenses. In less than a minute, all guards lay dead.

"Interrogation," Finn read out loud. "They said Chewie's in here." He slung his carbine over his shoulder and set to work on the door runes.

While on her way over to Finn, Rey stopped, sensing something. She turned away.

Finn tapped out a rune combination. "There." The door opened and he was about to beckon his friends in when he noticed Rey acting strangely. "Rey, what are you doing? Come on."

"The dagger is on board."

Rose shrugged. "So what? We already know what it said."

"We can't risk Kylo knowing too. I'll meet you back at the ship."

Finn moved towards her. "Rey, you can't just-"

Poe stopped him. "Chewie."

Finn nodded. He, Poe, and Rose jogged into the interrogation block.

Screams filled Kijimi City and homes burned. Stormtrooper squads systematically searched every building for the Rebels and slaughtered anyone who resisted. Kylo found his Knights at the dockside. They hadn't been able to find their quarry, but it had been their recommendation to Ren to begin the sweep in the hopes of drawing the prey out of hiding.

"Expand the search," Kylo said. "They haven't gotten far. I can still sense her."

"Here," Rose cried out. "Cell six."

Finn punched in the rune sequence and the door slid open. Inside, the exhausted Chewbacca roared with joy.

Rose laughed happily and rushed over to hug her friend. "Of course we came to rescue you."

Finn and Poe each offered a shoulder for support. Chewbacca grunted as he inelegantly rose to his feet.

"Yeah," Finn said. "Rey's here too. She's going to get the dagger."

Chewbacca took three steps forward then stumbled.

Poe swore. "We're not gonna be able to sneak around like this. Is there any other way back to the ship?"

Finn thought for a second. "The maintenance tunnels. It'll take longer and Chewie'll have to crouch, but they should get us close."

General Pryde marched into the hangar that held the Bestoon Legacy while alarms blared all around. He stopped and stared at the ship, not wanting for it to be the one he thought it was. An officer walked up to him, stepping around a corpse.

"Whose ship is this?" Pryde asked him in an uncharacteristically quiet tone.

Finn opened the hatch to the maintenance tunnel and scanned the corridor beyond. "Looks clear. Come on, the drydock is just up ahead."

He led the way up the corridor towards a Y junction and narrowly avoided being hit by one of the troopers lying in wait. Finn blindly returned fire as he retreated. "Wrong way!"

Chewbacca heard the clanking of stormtrooper armor coming from the T junction the other way and growled in alarm.

"There isn't really a right way, is there?" Rose asked rhetorically, drawing her own immaculately maintained pistol.

Poe cracked off a few rounds around the corner of the junction, dropping a few of the stormtroopers and forcing their comrades into cover. The carbine of one of the slain troopers slid across the floor and stopped near Poe's feet. He picked it up and tossed it at Chewbacca.

Poe downed a few more of the troopers as they poked their heads out. "Clear! Follow me! Move, move!"

Finn called out to stop him. "Poe, we can't get back that way!"

"We'll find another way off!"

The four Rebels, armed with a motley assortment of firearms moved down the corridor like a wave with Chewbacca dictating the speed. Anything in white armor that appeared before them died just as quickly. Corpses and gunsmoke filled the corridor in their wake and it seemed nothing could stop them.

Poe called out Finn's name. "Are we close to anything?"

"Airship hangar. Next left."

Poe turned the corner and a bullet tore through his bicep. He fell to the floor, swearing and clutching his bleeding arm.

Finn screamed Poe's name and rushed over to him, not considering the surroundings. "Are you okay?"

Poe looked up at the score of gun barrels trained on the two of them. "No," he grunted.

More stormtroopers converged on their location from behind Rose and Chewbacca. "Drop your weapons! Now!"

Poe looked at his blood dripping onto the floor. "Sorry about the mess."

Rey opened the double doors to Kylo's throne room. Immediately the brightness within dazzled her. Once her eyes had adjusted, the dazzlement turned to bafflement. This was not at all what she had expected such a room to be like.

Rey had assumed that Kylo would have surrounded himself with darkness and negativity, but for the most part the focused energy of the room was calming. Two shadows stained the tranquility though, with one being close by.

Atop a black marble pedestal sat an old skeletal helmet, warped and misshapen by heat. Rey knew whose it was, as did most everyone else who had heard the tale of Luke Skywalker. Something about it seemed... wrong though.

Luke, Leia, and Kylo all had a similar imprint on the Force, likely owing to their relation. Despite belonging to someone of the Skywalker lineage, this helmet had a completely different imprint to it. One that felt more close to Rey.

Rey tore herself away from the helmet before her mind could wander further down that path. It was not why she was here.

An alabaster slab table on the other end of the throne room held what she had come here for. Scattered across its surface lay Chewbacca's belongings. Rey's eyes drifted to the the dagger and she moved to pick it up.

As had happened the first time she had touched the dagger, emotions that were not her own filled her mind. This time though, she felt a deep familiarity with whose they were.

Rey gasped. "Mama?"

"Rey," Kylo Ren's voice said from behind her.

She gasped again and whirled around to see Kylo standing before her.

"Wherever you are," Kylo began, "you're hard to find."

"You're hard to get rid of." Rey turned away, feelings of sadness and betrayal boiling withing her.

"I pushed you in the desert because I needed to see it. I needed you to see it. Who you are. I know your story."

Rey did not respond.

"Rey?"

In one fluid movement, Rey drew and ignited her Lightblade. "You're lying," she snarled.

"I never lied to you. What I told you before was all you remembered and a belief that you suppressed. Your parents were nobody - junk traders who hardly had two coins to rub together." Kylo took a step forward. "That's only half the story though. This is the life they chose for themselves. This is the life they chose to keep you safe. Being so young, you had no way to understand the context of their actions."

Rey narrowed her eyes, spilling tears down her cheeks. "Context? They sold me!"

"It was the only way."

"No!" Rey roared and lashed out swinging at Kylo in a wide arc.

Kylo leapt back to dodge the strike and drew his own sword in time to block Rey's follow up. Their blades locked and Kylo looked into the rage-filled eyes of the girl before him. "Remember before the betrayal. Even when drunk, did your father ever raise his hand or voice to you? Was your mother never there when you needed her?"

Rey growled with each breath but tried to remember. She saw a dark haired woman whose sad eyes were the only feature that stuck with Rey. 'Hush, little Sun Ray. It's going to be all right. Be brave for Mama.'

A man whose face Rey could not recall appeared next to the woman. 'Rey, I wish you could understand. You'll be safe here. I promise.'

Rey broke the blade lock with a grunt and stepped back. She and Kylo slowly strafed one another.

"They sold you to pay for passage out of Jakku," Kylo explained. "It was the only way they could afford to."

"Stop," Rey shouted. "Stop talking!"

"Rey, I know what happened to them."

Rey slashed at Kylo who merely deflected her attack. She tried again to the same effect, though in the dockyard where Kylo stood, his Lightblade cut through the side of a barrel of pickled nuts. Brine and nuts spilled onto the throne room floor. Kylo caught an overhead swing from Rey and redirected it to the ground.

Two squads of stormtroopers escorted the shackled Rebels into the conference room where generals Pryde and Hux awaited. Hux's eyebrow twitched upwards with interest upon seeing Rose among them. He had not forgotten her insolence aboard the Supremacy.

One of the squad leaders stepped forward. "Allegiant General, the scavenger was not with them."

Pryde scowled. "Take them away. Execute them." He turned. "General Hux, I want you to see that the execution is carried out properly. There will be no slipping away this time."

Hux glared at Rose. "With pleasure, Allegiant General."

The Rebels looked to one another in turn, each hoping one of them had a bright idea.

Rey's and Kylo's Lightblades connected over and over as Rey sobbed. Kylo never once went on the offense even when Rey left herself open to counterattack. Their blades locked again and Kylo pushed her away.

"Tell me where you are," said Kylo measuredly. "You don't know the whole story."

Rey charged him, putting her whole body into a downward swing. Kylo sidestepped and Rey stumbled past him. Tears blurred her vision and she couldn't breathe through her nose for the mucus.

Kylo turned. "It was Palpatine who had your parents taken. His assassin intercepted them at the docks before their charter ship ever arrived. He was looking for you but even under torture, they never revealed where you were. Enraged, the assassin killed them both and followed the only clue he had." He pulled out the nut husk necklace from a pouch on his belt. "A necklace like this one."

The dagger in Rey's hand flashed cold enough to make her fingers burn. A vision of a living Ochi holding the blade appeared in her mind's eye. Blood coated both the dagger and his front. At his feet lay the butchered bodies of Rey's mother and father.

Rey screamed and fell to her knees. Kylo took a step forward.

Rey swung blindly in his direction. "Get away from me!" The dagger flew from her hand and vanished.

Kylo noticed something bounce across the snowy cobblestones and come to rest next to his foot. He stooped down and collected it, finding it to be the dagger that Chewbacca had been carrying in his satchel at the time of his capture. "So that's where you are."

Rey gasped and charged, desperate to get the dagger back. Kylo deflected and parried each attack as they came until once more their blades locked.

"Do you know why the Emperor was so interested in finding you?"

"...I don't care!"

"You do. I'll come tell you."

Kylo vanished and Rey stumbled forward. It was only with the absence of the crackling of Kylo's Lightblade that she could hear that alarms blaring outside the throne room doors. She grabbed Chewbacca's kit and hurried out.

Kylo tapped his comm crystal. "The scavenger is in my throne room. Lock down the ship."

Hux ordered his prisoners to face the reinforced wall of the of the execution chamber. The four troopers comprising the impromptu firing squad raised their carbines.

Poe shook his head. "Finn... There's something I've wanted to tell you and I don't want to die without telling you."

Finn looked to his friend. "What is it?"

Hux frowned. "Hold a moment. Trooper, hand me your rifle." He scowled at the back of Rose's head. "I want to take care of this one personally."

The stormtrooper diligently offered the General his weapon. Hux trained the sights onto his target.

Poe sighed. "I-"

Four shots rang out in quick succession.

One by one, the Rebels opened their eyes and turned around. Hux stood staring at them defiantly holding a smoking carbine. The four executioners lay sprawled over one another with bullet holes in their chests.

Hux dropped the gun. "I'm the spy."

"What?!" Poe shouted.

"You?" Finn and Rose asked in unison.

"No, but... What?" Rose furthered.

In the drydock, one of the stormtroopers assigned to guard the Bestoon Legacy grew increasingly irritated by the diplomatic automaton that had been dragged up from below deck. "What is your designation?" She added a pause between each word for effect.

"Edir eht gnitayolf enots hitew iiyekneb," Threepio replied.

"That's not even a language," the trooper exclaimed.

Behind her, Bibi-Eit beep-laughed.

The stormtrooper was about to retort when a green bolt of magic struck her in the side of the head. Her comrades rapidly suffered the same fate as Rey fired off bolt after bolt from Chewbacca's crossbow. Some of the other troopers managed to fire off a shot or two but none scored a hit on the agile Jedi.

Threepio was beside himself as bolt and bullet tore through the air. "Oh my! My first gunfight!"

Rey swept the room to check for any more troopers then ran to Threepio. "Where are the others?"

"They haven't come back yet."

Rey slowly turned her head. The drydock doors started to open. In the distance, Rey could see the Whisper coming in from Kijimi City.

Rey removed Chewbacca's bandolier and put it over Threepio's shoulders. She thrust the crossbow into his hands. "Find them."

Threepio, Bibi-Eit, and Dioh hurried out of the drydock. Behind them, Rey watched as the Whisper moved in towards the empty cargo loading area next to the Legacy. She took a deep breath. She couldn't lose her composure again.

"I don't even know where I am," Threepio griped. "How am I supposed to find anyone else?"

Five people slid into the corridor ahead of them. Dioh immediately perked up. "Friends-friends ahead."

"Oh, yes," cried Threepio. "There they are!"

Hux stopped at the door to one of the drydocks and began tapping in a rune sequence. "I'll shut down the attraction field and open the clamps. You'll have only about two minutes."

Poe was first through the door. He smiled at the Millennium Falcon. "There she is. She's a survivor."

Hux followed the Rebels into the drydock. "Wait, wait."

They turned.

"Shoot me in the arm. Quick."

Finn furrowed his brow. "What?"

"Or they'll know."

Finn drew his pistol and aimed it at Hux's arm. The General braced himself. There was a shot and Hux fell to the floor gripping his outer thigh.

Finn slowly turned to look at Rose whose pistol had a curl of smoke coming out of the muzzle. She shrugged coldly. "More convincing."

Finn returned his unfired pistol to its holster. "Why are you helping us?"

Hux grunted and adjusted himself into a sitting position. "The First Order had a vision for peace and justice in this world. Kylo Ren destroyed everything."

Poe scoffed. "Maybe he's not all bad."

Hux glared. "It might not have been your vision of an ideal world, but we had one. He cares nothing for building. He only wants to conquer and destroy. I don't care if you win anymore, I just need Kylo Ren to be stopped."

Rey and Kylo slowly approached one another. Around them, stormtroopers swarmed the drydock, their footfalls and clanking armor blending into a monotone din that once absent made the drydock uncomfortably quiet.

Rey stopped and stared at the fallen Jedi standing before her and took a deep breath. "...Why did the Emperor want to find me? Tell me!"

"At first he wanted to kill you for what you were. That was before he knew your potential. He sent his assassin to find you because of the seed of power he sensed inside you."

Rey shook as Kylo's words sunk in. She was on the verge of having one of the greatest mysteries in her life revealed and she was terrified.

"Your parents were nothing because that's what they wanted to be, but that doesn't change where they came from. Your mother was the child of a bastard son of Mandalore. Unremarkable." Kylo paused. "Your father was much different. It isn't just any power you possess. It's the power your father was meant to have... The power from his father... The power of Palpatine."

The name hit Rey like a hammer. All color seemed to drain from the world as her mind fought to rationalize the revelation. She wanted to scream, to deny it, to call Kylo a liar, but she couldn't. He wasn't lying.

"My mother is the daughter of Vader. Your father, the son of the Emperor. We are both heirs to the Sith throne. What Palpatine doesn't know is that we are a dyad in the Force, Rey. Two that are one."

Rey's lip trembled. More mysteries suddenly made sense. When Kylo tried to probe her mind in Ilum, he had inadvertently transferred his knowledge of the Force to her - something that should have been impossible according to the Jedi texts. What's more, the Force bond they shared was tactile - another supposed impossibility. She gasped as she realized she had been unconsciously moving backwards and now stood at the edge of the drydock with the ice water of the harbor below.

"You and I are destined to rule beside one another. We will kill Palpatine together and take the throne." Kylo removed his helmet slowly. "You know what you need to do... You know." He held out his hand.

Rey stared at it for a moment then looked back to Kylo with pleading eyes. Slowly, the pleading turned to resignation, then determination. "...I do."

Rey crouched then launched herself backwards out of the drydock doors with the aid of the Force. She tucked herself into a ball and waited to feel what she knew was coming.

Rey landed on the deck of the Millennium Falcon as it passed by at full steam.

She rolled and came up into a crouch. In the drydock the stormtroopers opened fire, peppering the Falcon's shield wards. Kylo meanwhile merely stared and lowered his hand.

Finn laughed victoriously as he returned fire with the Moze gun. "I told you it would work, Poe! I told you!"

"That'll teach me to doubt you," Poe yelled. "Okay, Chewie, we're clear! Open the gate!"

Chewbacca roared and punched the green crystal on the navigation box. Kylo and Rey locked eyes one more time before the Falcon slipped into Hyperius.

All around Kylo, troopers inspected the casualties dealt by Finn but nothing could be further from his mind. After a moment, he pulled out the dagger Rey had dropped and looked at the runed blade.