Rey Skywalker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thatwaslucky) wrote2022-08-27 09:59 am
thatwaslucky) wrote2022-08-27 09:59 am
Pasaana- later Saturday
Rey didn't expect to feel anything about the ways that Pasaana made her think of Jakku. It didn't look the same, no more than seeing Ryloth from the sky had. The sand was redder, there were cliffs instead of the endless expanse of flats and dunes, there was more life here. But the sun was just as relentless, the sand just as insidious, the wind just as dusty and dry. She wondered how she'd ever survived in a place like this.
She missed the humidity of Ajan Kloss immediately.
"You sure this is it?" Poe asked as they trudged through the sand.
"Oh, yes," Threepio answered. "These are the exact coordinates that Master Luke left behind."
Poe opened his mouth to speak, but a deep drumbeat began somewhere in the distance, loud enough that Rey thought she could feel it in her chest. It was followed by a sound something like a thunderclap, a giant crowd shouting a single word in unison.
"What was that?" Poe asked.
They crept forward, following their ears, finally coming to a spot where they could see below. The music was coming from there, with hundreds- thousands of people- singing and dancing, surrounded by color: their cloaks, kites, flags, everything.
"Why, it is!" Threepio exclaimed. "We happen to have arrived on the very day of their Festival of the Ancestors! This only happens once every forty-two years!"
That festival was also going to make it very hard to search for anything. Poe grabbed the quadnocs from Finn, who answered with a dry, "Well, that's lucky."
"Indeed! The festival is known for its colorful kites and delectable sweets!"
They all turned to glare at him. Threepio turned back to see if someone was behind him.
They made their way forward to wander through the festival. If they had been here for any other reason, if they had any actual time for this, Rey would have enjoyed the event quite a bit. The music was incredible, the dancing was beautiful, the Aki-Aki people were happy. The fact that there was so much life and culture in a place that had at first reminded her of someplace very different made her a little wistful.
"I've never seen anything like it," she said, half to herself.
"I've never seen so few wayfinders," Finn said dryly.
"There are always random First Order patrols in crowds like this," Poe told them. "Keep your heads down. Especially you, Chewie."
Chewie hunched down as they walked.
"Let's split up," Poe said, "see what the locals know."
He and Finn headed off, but Rey noticed the group of Aki-Aki performing a puppet show for the children, wide-eyed as they listened, laughing at things she couldn't understand. She felt a tug on her tunic, and looked down to see a little Aki-Aki girl in a green robe trying to get her attention. Rey knelt before her.
The girl had a trinket in her hands, a colorful necklace with beads woven in. She held it out with both hands, and Rey ducked her head to allow the girl to place it around her neck as she spoke.
"She says her name is Nambi Ghima," Threepio translated helpfully.
"That's an excellent name," Rey smiled. "I'm Rey."
Nambi asked another question, and Threepio said, "She would be honored to know your family name."
Rey's smile grew terse. That was a complicated question to begin with for someone who kept seeking out family, but especially right now… "I don't have one. I'm just Rey."
Just Rey. Why did that sound so terrible to her? Finn never had a problem with just being Finn.
She didn't have time to deal with it further, though. All of a sudden there was that feeling, a warning. She stood up, walking away to find the source of it.
She sensed him before she saw him, and everything fell away around her. She no longer heard the din of the celebration around her, no longer noticed whether it was day or night. It was just her, and Kylo Ren. He'd tried talking to her over the last couple years. She'd always shut him out. But right now, with her current mission… she didn't this time.
He was in the mask again. It was clearly cracked, pieced together by some violently red material that stood out against the silver. It was disappointing, when she'd only ever seen his face since… well, since he'd tortured her. But now, it felt like even when he'd been searching for her, he was shutting her out just as much. It was what she'd wanted and yet it hurt at the same time.
"Palpatine wants you dead," he said simply.
"Serving another master?" Rey guessed, managing to keep some of the bitterness out of her voice.
"No. I have other plans." It was that same voice from Starkiller Base, him telling her matter-of-factly what he was doing, daring her to do something about it. The familiarity they'd had was gone, or at least he was pushing it away, and it bothered her that it bothered her. "I offered you my hand once. You wanted to take it. Why didn't you?"
She didn't deny it. She didn't answer it directly, either. "You could have killed me. Why didn't you?"
"You can't hide, Rey. Not from me."
What caught her off guard about that was the realization that despite this bond that they had that she couldn't get rid of, she didn't know that she'd ever heard him say her name before.
"I see through the cracks in your mask," she told him. "You're haunted. You can't stop seeing what you did to your father."
"Do you still count the days since your parents left?" Kylo countered. "Such pain in you. Such anger."
He began walking towards her, and Rey braced herself. There were things she noticed now, like the fact that he cast a shadow on the sand, like he was actually here with her.
"Where are you?" he asked, reaching for her mind, as she instantly threw up barriers against him. It didn't bother him. "My mother doesn't see the darkness in you. Your friends don't, either. But I do."
She wanted to tell him off. Leia saw the rage and frustration that came out in their training sessions. Maz did, too. As much as she tried to pretend it wasn't there while being terrified that it was, they saw that. Or maybe she wanted to believe that they did, and therefore she was fine. She kept it to herself now. She wouldn't give him that satisfaction.
It didn't matter anyway, because suddenly he was directly before her, so close that she could smell molten iron off of him. "I don't want to have to kill you," Kylo told her. "I'm going to find you, and I'm going to turn you to the dark side. When I offer you my hand again, you'll take it."
That was the most terrifying thing Rey could have heard, and she spat out, "We'll see."
Before she could even blink, he reached out to snatch the necklace from her neck. She knew they could touch like this, so she wasn't surprised to even feel his glove against her skin for that brief second. What she was surprised about was that he took the necklace with him, leaving the nape of her neck stinging. This was different than before. They had been in each other's spaces just now.
It was like the lights came back up in the desert. Kylo was gone, Rey was once more among the people, with the festival whirling around her. She shook her head to snap herself out of it, focusing on looking for her friends in the crowd. She spotted Chewie first, even slouching, and rushed over to interrupt their conversation. "We have to go," she said. "It's Ren."
No one questioned it. They took off around the nearest tent, trying to book it in the direction of the parked Falcon. BB-8 rolled along, but Threepio struggled to keep up. And then they almost ran right into a stormtrooper, who whipped up his blaster.
"Hold it right there!"
They froze.
"I've located the Resistance fugitives. All units report to-"
Rey reached into the Force, but didn't have time to do anything. There was a resounding crack, and the stormtrooper's head jerked back, an arrow sticking out of an eye lens.
They whirled, finding a tall helmeted figure just inside the tent, holding back the flap with a walking stick. "Follow me," he said. "Hurry."
There wasn't time to debate it, so they all set off after him. They were going in the opposite direction of the Falcon, but he'd just saved them a lot of trouble so no one protested. Hopefully they were doing the right thing by trusting him.
He led them to one of the giant treadable vehicles they'd passed, which reminded Rey a bit of the speeder she'd cobbled together on Jakku, if ten times the size and without propulsion. The figure hurried them inside. It was hot and claustrophobic, and the drive shaft ran right through the center which barely allowed headroom.
"To the east passage, Kalo'ne!" the figure called to the driver, and then they jerked and lumbered forward. It was a terrible getaway vehicle, but they were out of sight and moving, and that was what was important. "Leia sent me a transmission."
"How'd you find us?" Finn asked.
The man reached for his helmet, revealing a face that Rey didn't know, but Chewie roared his name and immediately went in for a hug that almost lifted him from the ground. She'd heard a lot about Lando from Leia and Chewie. The Falcon had belonged to him. It was an honor to be in the same space with him.
"Good to see you, too, old buddy," Lando laughed. He sounded vaguely familiar somehow now that the helmet was off.
"This is General Lando Calrissian," Threepio announced. "Allow me to give you a complete history of-"
"We know who he is, Threepio," Rey interrupted.
"It's an honor to meet you, General," Finn told him.
"General Calrissian, we're looking for Exegol," Poe said.
Lando froze for a second, and then nodded. "Of course you are," he said, leaning more heavily on his cane. By the sense of things, it wasn't something he liked talking about a lot. "Luke and I were chasing down a real scoundrel. His name was Ochi of Bestoon."
The name gave Rey a start, though she didn't know why.
"A Jedi killer since the Clone Wars. He was searching for Sith relics. Evil, old things." Lando activated his wristlink, showing a holo of Ochi. He was not human, with large black eyes, with a very scarred face and some sort of cybernetic headgear. Rey wouldn't have registered him as a threat upon sight.
"Like the Emperor's wayfinder," Poe said.
"That's it," Lando confirmed, switching the holo display to a pyramidal object, just like the drawing in Rey's books. The wayfinder. "Ochi bragged at a cantina that he had a clue to the wayfinder's location. That he had its coordinates transcribed."
"Inscribed where?" Rey asked.
"That's the question, kiddo," he said. "We chased Ochi halfway across the galaxy."
"Here to Pasaana," Finn assured.
Lando nodded. "Where the trail went cold. Ochi disappeared into the desert. Luke sensed he was still here. We found his ship abandoned, but no Ochi. No clue. No wayfinder."
"We need to get to that ship," Rey said. "Search it again."
The treadable luched to a halt. The screaming of TIE fighters filled the air. They peeked out from the entrance portal and spotted them gliding along the horizon. The First Order's reach had spread across the galaxy. Kylo Ren could have backup troops on the ground looking for them in an hour.
"I've got a bad feeling about this," Lando said darkly. "Ochi's ship is growing rust out past Lurch Canyon. It's the only clue I've got."
Poe and Finn scrambled out of the treader, and Chewie moaned a goodbye at him, getting a squeeze of a furry arm in return.
"Leia needs pilots, General," Rey said.
"My flying days are long gone," Lando said. "But give Leia my love."
"You should give it to her yourself," she said. "Thank you."
They'd gotten across the valley to the other end of the festival grounds. They had to find transportation to wherever Lurch's Canyon was, but Poe spotted some parked skimmers. Some were empty and some were not, probably rented by festivalgoers. Rey worried about how they'd pay- everything was on the Falcon- but Poe was already ripping open a panel on a skimmer to hotwire it.
"How do you know how to do that?" Finn asked.
"No need to worry," Threepio announced, finally catching up. "I made it."
"Got it," Poe said. "We gotta go!"
Rey had no idea how he did that. He did that faster than she'd be able to. She didn't argue or ask, though, and jumped onto one skiff with BB-8 and Chewie, feeling terrible about stealing, even when it was necessary. This was necessary, though; this was literally the fate of the galaxy here. So she took off, with the boys and Threepio on another skiff right behind her, and suddenly the desert was whipping past her, and she had to hope they were going in the right direction.
She heard a blast behind her, and looked back to see that the First Order had shot at the other skimmer, but missed. They had two treadskimmers following them now, each carrying two troopers, and they were closing fast. Poe was beginning evasive maneuvers, and Finn had started shooting, but thanks to the piloting a lot of his shots were going wide.
Chewie was using his bowcaster behind Rey, but having similar luck. They were making it harder for the First Order to catch up, though.
And then she heard Threepio exclaim, "They fly now!"
"They fly now?" Finn yelled.
And a defeated, "They fly now," from Poe.
Rey glanced back and saw that the troopers on the speeders were jet troopers, and now much harder to hit.
"Rey!" Poe yelled. "We should split-"
"Split up!" she agreed, veering right towards a dust grain farm, while Poe took them towards a rocky canyon.
The speeders split up, too, but the jet troopers were pursuing Rey specifically. That was fine with her. Poe and Finn had a chance. Chewie was still firing, but stopped when the troopers confusingly moved ahead to start firing charges into the ground in front of the skimmer.
Rey yanked the controls, turning at the last moment and barely dodging an explosion. Immediately she had to dodge again to turn away from the treadspeeder. The controls on this were sensitive, but she was having to anticipate what they were going to do, and it was taking all of her concentration. She was going to make a mistake.
"Get them!" she yelled to Chewie. "I'll go for the speeder."
It was possible to dodge obstacles ahead while shooting at something behind them, right? Well, she was about to find out.
Chewie was still fighting at the troopers with his bowcaster, while Rey had to slalom through grain-processing pipes that jutted up from the ground. She pulled the blaster that Han had given her, focused, and fired several times in quick succession at the treadspeeder. The shots hit, but did no damage.
"The front shields are up," Rey said.
BB-8 beeped excitedly about something he'd found up ahead.
"Not now, BB-8!" Rey called back.
Chewie yelled, pointing.
She looked in that direction, and saw a… ship in the distance? It was atop a sandstone bluff above them, parts of it covered in sand. "I see it!" she said, ducking instinctively as a blaster bolt went whizzing past her ear.
One of Chewie's shots hit a jet trooper, who bulleted to the ground. Two to go.
Rey tried to get some more shots off, but nothing did damage. "Their shields are too strong," she yelled.
BB-8 had lodged himself behind the controls to keep himself from rolling off. She could tell that he was doing something with the controls, but she was just going to let him work while she shot and steered. He could do whatever he was going to do.
The next thing she knew, there was a canister of yellow something being body-bumped by a little rolling droid and flying into the air behind them, blinding a jet trooper who swerved left, right into a rock.
The speeder shot high, exposing a fuel tank that was unprotected by the forward shields. Rey aimed her blaster, fired, and the treadspeeder exploded.
BB-8 beeped smugly.
One to go, but Rey and Chewie couldn't see the remaining jet trooper anywhere. Taking the chance, she steered towards the abandoned freighter, but the closer she got, the more unsettled she felt. "Ochi's ship…" she murmured. "I've seen that ship before."
Poe's skimmer reappeared over the rise, but they all seemed okay.
"There's one left," Rey called.
A moment later, something roared overhead, dropping charges into the sand all around them and blowing the skiffs apart, throwing the people onto the ground.
Automatically, they all grabbed their weapons and aimed upwards. It was impossible to tell who hit the jet trooper, but he spiraled out of the sky and slammed into a cliff. His jetpack detonated.
And now that she had a moment to breathe, Rey realized that the sand around her was the wrong color. It was black in a sea of red sand. She'd seen this before, and she was sinking up to her hips.
"What the hell is this?" Poe asked, trying to pull himself out, which only made him sink faster.
"Sinking fields!" Rey answered. She should have known. "Grab onto something!"
There was nothing to grab onto. Chewie let out a panicked yell.
"Oh, what an ignoble end," Threepio moaned.
BB-8 was spinning wildly trying to get out, but in seconds he'd disappeared beneath the surface as Rey yelled for him.
"Rey!" Finn called, already in up to his shoulders. "I never told you-"
"What?" she yelled back.
He was in to his chin. "Rey!"
"Finn!"
And then he was gone, Poe following a moment behind along with Threepio. Rey held her breath, covering her face with her hand to try and keep the grit out when she sank below, too. Maybe she'd choke to death on less sand than if she didn't do that.
She'd expected to suffocate. She didn't expect to keep falling until her legs were suddenly free below her, and she tried to wriggle her way down to see why. Someone caught her to keep her from hitting the ground below.
"You all right?" Poe checked, letting her go once she was safely down. "Where's Chewie?"
Chewie roared from a distance away, standing and shaking the sand off.
"Finn?" Rey called.
"Yeah, I'm good," he said, already up and moving. "What is this place?"
"This isn't the afterlife, is it?" Threepio asked. "Are droids allowed here?"
Poe was clearly relieved. "Thought we were goners."
"We still might be, sir," Threepio said helpfully.
"Which way out?" Finn asked.
Rey unhooked her lightsaber and turned it on, filling the cavern they were in with a soft blue light. She couldn't really tell where they were, exactly, but she could see the multiple tunnels they could head through.
Beside her, Poe turned on his glow rod. It was almost imperceptible next to the lightsaber. He used it anyway.
"This way," Rey said, reaching out and trusting the feeling one way gave her over the others. The others followed without questioning. The air was cooler down here, and the ground was flat under their feet, which was good because she had no idea how long it would take to get out. Longer than they had, probably.
"I don't want to know what made these tunnels," Poe said.
"Judging by the bore circumference," Threepio said, "any number of deadly species could-"
"Do not want to know. Not."
"So what was it?" Rey asked Finn, ignoring that.
"What?" he asked.
"What were you going to tell me?"
"When?"
"When you were sinking in the sand, you said, 'I never told you…'"
Finn was avoiding her gaze. "I'll tell you later."
"When you're not with Poe?" asked Poe.
"Yeah," Finn said.
"Great. We're gonna die in a sand burrow, and we're all keeping secrets."
"I'll tell you when you tell us how you know how to do all that shifty stuff."
BB-8 warbled at something up ahead, which brought them up short. "What's that?" Poe asked, aiming his glow rod.
"A speeder?" Finn asked.
"An old one," Rey said. Its steering vane was bent at an impossible angle, and it was out of date by at least a decade. The hood ornament was interesting, and she bent to get a closer look.
"It's a hex charm," Threepio said helpfully. "A common emblem of Sith loyalists."
It looked familiar, and Rey didn't know why. She didn't even want to think that maybe she'd been seeing Sith imagery in her visions. "Luke sensed it," she said vaguely. "Ochi never left this place."
"He was headed away from his ship," Poe said. "Same thing happened to us happened to him." It would explain why no one went near his speeder.
"So how did Ochi get out?" Finn asked, looking around for an exit.
Rey glanced just beyond the speeder. "He didn't," she said, realizing there was a pile of bones there. Either he'd died on impact, or he'd injured himself so badly that he'd died slowly here.
"No, he didn't," Finn agreed.
BB-8 had spotted something in the pile, and Rey crouched beside him. He used one of the tools from his compartment to blow away some sand, revealing a long, dangerous-looking blade. It was silvery but untarnished, with a scalloped edge designed to do as much damage coming out of a body as sliding into it. There were runes along the edge.
Rey's heart raced as she reached for the dagger. It was almost like it was talking to her. Not quite calling. But when she picked it up-
Screams rending the air, the metallic scent of blood, the feel of blade against bone and sinew…
She blinked the vision away, feeling sick. "Horrible things have happened with this," she murmured.
Poe took it from her, and it was like a weight lifted from her shoulders as soon as the dagger left her hand. "It has writing on it."
"Perhaps I can translate," Threepio said, and Poe handed it over to him. "Sith assassins often inscribed their secrets on… Oh! Look! The location of the wayfinder!"
They all practically knocked heads trying to get a closer look.
"What's it say?" Poe demanded.
"Where's the wayfinder?" Finn asked.
"I'm afraid I cannot tell you," Threepio said.
Poe gaped at him. "Twenty-point-three-fazillion languages, and you can't read that?"
"Oh, I have read it, sir," Threepio told him. "I know exactly where the wayfinder is. Unfortunately it's written in the runic language of the Sith. My programming forbids me from translating it. I am physically incapable!"
"Wait," said Poe. "Wait. The one time we want you to talk, you can't?"
"Irony, sir."
Threepio continued on, but Rey sensed something coming up behind him. She lifted her lightsaber in readiness, as a great shadow loomed over the droid, then hissed. It was a massive serpent, its jaw open to reveal sharp fangs dripping venom as Threepio bolted away as fast as he could.
The others raised their weapons, but Rey reached out to lower Chewie's bowcaster, still watching the snake. She was pretty sure it was a vexis. She'd heard about them from a trader who had been to other desert planets.
"I'm gonna blast it," Poe said.
"Don't blast it," Finn said, also watching the snake.
The vexis rose higher, hiss-roaring. It was terrifying. Rey could sense its rage, it's hunger. But she also sensed great pain. She handed her lightsaber to Finn and stepped forward.
"Rey-" he protested.
"It might be injured," she said.
"Might just be a giant killer sand snake," Poe said, and she ignored him.
Rey took another couple steps forward, reaching out in the Force to the vexis. She was a friend. She was here to help. She didn't take her eyes off of it except to glance over, and saw that a giant gash ran across several segments of its body. Carefully, slowly, she climbed over, projecting calm, until she was within its coils. If it decided to kill her at all, all it had to do was squeeze.
She reached for the wound. The vexis hissed, and she hesitated, like she was waiting for permission. It didn't attack. Heart in her throat, she stretched her hand forward to gently rest upon the wound.
Whenever she fought, she channeled the Force, using it for her own advantage. This instead was giving. She reached inward, offered it up to the serpent. Her own energy. Her own life. It was part of the Force, too, and she didn't have to keep it all to herself.
She felt the vexis calming, and when she opened her eyes, the wound had closed.
The vexis lowered its head to hers. It hissed lightly, blowing her hair back a bit, and she knew it was in thanks. It uncoiled around her, slithering away into the dark, forging a new path in the sand that revealed sky.
BB-8 rolled up to Rey, asked a question.
"I just transferred a bit of life. Force energy, from me to him," she explained. Her hand stung. She was so much more tired than she'd just been. She'd healed before, but never anything that large. It took something out of you to do it.
He whirred.
"You would have done the same."
*****
The tunnel dumped them out closer to Ochi's rusty freighter. Hopefully it was space-worthy. Rey wasn't positive until they got closer.
Threepio must have been feeling the same way. "I suggest we return to the Millennium Falcon at once," he tried.
"They'll be waiting for us at the Falcon," Poe said as they reached the ship.
"They'll send us to the pits of Griq," Finn added.
"You both make excellent points at times," Threepio said.
Rey frowned. The boys were having fun with him, but they were also probably right. The Falcon might already be in First Order hands. She might never see her ship again.
She didn't have time to deal with that thought, because it was then that she sensed him.
"Rey?" Finn asked, stopping because she did.
There had been reasons she wanted to do this alone. Mainly, the reason was Kylo Ren. She knew Finn especially was her strongest defender, and she couldn't have him getting hurt now. Not on her account. Not that he wasn't capable, but she was the one Kylo Ren apparently wanted to turn to the dark side instead of killing now. She had no doubt that he'd make Finn collateral damage to get to her.
"I'll be right behind you," she said gently.
"Rey-"
"It's okay," she said, giving just a little push with the Force. Just so he'd stay where it was safe.
He didn't argue, and she handed over everything she was carrying save her lightsaber. Then she ran down the dune, to a clear expanse of sand, where she saw the black dot of a TIE Silencer in the distance heading right for her. He wasn't stopping. It wasn't that kind of confrontation.
Rey had never faced down a TIE before. She was terrified, but she took a few breaths to calm herself, and she waited.
It was several agonizing moments before she moved, pulling her lightsaber free and then igniting it, turning like she was going to start running. She looked over her shoulder at the ship bearing down on her, but Kylo wasn't turning. He was fully intending to kill her this way. She could feel it.
Well.
When she felt the moment was right, she sprinted across the sand, pulling on the Force as well as her training, as well of a lifetime of dealing with this kind of terrain. The TIE seemed to be screaming in her ears as it got closer… now.
She leapt up and flipped backwards, sweeping her legs in an aerial arc, whipping her lightsaber down at the support pylon. She landed neatly to watch the ship wobble, then a wing hit the sand, and bounce along at speed, out of control. A wing ripped off, and it only stopped when it slammed into an embankment.
Rey turned off her lightsaber. She hoped he was dead. No, she didn't.
She hooked her weapon to her belt and started in the direction of Ochi's ship, until Finn came running out from it, waving his arms and yelling. "Rey! They got Chewie!"
She followed his point to see a transport lifting off into the air. No, no, no. They couldn't do this. And she had the thought of I can't do this again…?
Panicked, Rey's hand outstretched toward the transport, imagining herself grabbing it with her fingers and pulling it back. She knew Anakin could do this, why couldn't she? It actually slowed, and wobbled in the air. Its engines whined. She drew on her panic, her determination, her fear, even her exhaustion. She wouldn't lose him.
She felt a presence, and looked to see Kylo Ren emerging from the fire that had been his TIE. His black cape whipped in the wind, dramatics apparently running in the family. She had to work even harder now. She couldn't save Chewie and deal with Kylo.
And then he was reaching his own hand up, yanking the ship out of her grasp, but not fully. This was what had happened aboard the Supremacy to break the lightsaber.
Her heart was pounding, and she bore down with all the strength in her being. It wasn't intentional, she was just pulling from whatever she could right now, and she drew on her rage at Kylo, at the fact that he was trying this, at the terror of losing Chewie. Who was to say Kylo wouldn't do to him what he did to Han? Every part of her was focused on winning this.
Force lightning burst from her fingertips, arcing toward the freighter. It wrapped around the transport, which jerked sideways before exploding into a fireball.
Rey stumbled back in shock, screaming. She thought she heard Finn do the same. Bits of wreckage fell to the sand below. Everyone inside was gone. Chewie was gone.
She stared at her hand in horror. That wasn't supposed to happen. That wasn't supposed to come from her. She wasn't supposed to be able to do that. She couldn't believe it.
"Rey!" Poe yelled from the ship. "They're coming! We have to go! Now!"
Half a dozen TIEs were approaching over the horizon. She knew he was right, but she didn't feel like she was moving of her own accord. She looked at Kylo Ren, who looked as surprised as she felt, and she felt his… satisfaction at what she had done? Unable to deal with that, she started stumbling back towards Ochi's ship.
[The longest one of these you're gonna get, I'm sorry to anyone who actually reads these. It's better from here, I swear. NFB, NFI, OOC okay. Taken from The Rise of Skywalker by Rae Carson.]
She missed the humidity of Ajan Kloss immediately.
"You sure this is it?" Poe asked as they trudged through the sand.
"Oh, yes," Threepio answered. "These are the exact coordinates that Master Luke left behind."
Poe opened his mouth to speak, but a deep drumbeat began somewhere in the distance, loud enough that Rey thought she could feel it in her chest. It was followed by a sound something like a thunderclap, a giant crowd shouting a single word in unison.
"What was that?" Poe asked.
They crept forward, following their ears, finally coming to a spot where they could see below. The music was coming from there, with hundreds- thousands of people- singing and dancing, surrounded by color: their cloaks, kites, flags, everything.
"Why, it is!" Threepio exclaimed. "We happen to have arrived on the very day of their Festival of the Ancestors! This only happens once every forty-two years!"
That festival was also going to make it very hard to search for anything. Poe grabbed the quadnocs from Finn, who answered with a dry, "Well, that's lucky."
"Indeed! The festival is known for its colorful kites and delectable sweets!"
They all turned to glare at him. Threepio turned back to see if someone was behind him.
They made their way forward to wander through the festival. If they had been here for any other reason, if they had any actual time for this, Rey would have enjoyed the event quite a bit. The music was incredible, the dancing was beautiful, the Aki-Aki people were happy. The fact that there was so much life and culture in a place that had at first reminded her of someplace very different made her a little wistful.
"I've never seen anything like it," she said, half to herself.
"I've never seen so few wayfinders," Finn said dryly.
"There are always random First Order patrols in crowds like this," Poe told them. "Keep your heads down. Especially you, Chewie."
Chewie hunched down as they walked.
"Let's split up," Poe said, "see what the locals know."
He and Finn headed off, but Rey noticed the group of Aki-Aki performing a puppet show for the children, wide-eyed as they listened, laughing at things she couldn't understand. She felt a tug on her tunic, and looked down to see a little Aki-Aki girl in a green robe trying to get her attention. Rey knelt before her.
The girl had a trinket in her hands, a colorful necklace with beads woven in. She held it out with both hands, and Rey ducked her head to allow the girl to place it around her neck as she spoke.
"She says her name is Nambi Ghima," Threepio translated helpfully.
"That's an excellent name," Rey smiled. "I'm Rey."
Nambi asked another question, and Threepio said, "She would be honored to know your family name."
Rey's smile grew terse. That was a complicated question to begin with for someone who kept seeking out family, but especially right now… "I don't have one. I'm just Rey."
Just Rey. Why did that sound so terrible to her? Finn never had a problem with just being Finn.
She didn't have time to deal with it further, though. All of a sudden there was that feeling, a warning. She stood up, walking away to find the source of it.
She sensed him before she saw him, and everything fell away around her. She no longer heard the din of the celebration around her, no longer noticed whether it was day or night. It was just her, and Kylo Ren. He'd tried talking to her over the last couple years. She'd always shut him out. But right now, with her current mission… she didn't this time.
He was in the mask again. It was clearly cracked, pieced together by some violently red material that stood out against the silver. It was disappointing, when she'd only ever seen his face since… well, since he'd tortured her. But now, it felt like even when he'd been searching for her, he was shutting her out just as much. It was what she'd wanted and yet it hurt at the same time.
"Palpatine wants you dead," he said simply.
"Serving another master?" Rey guessed, managing to keep some of the bitterness out of her voice.
"No. I have other plans." It was that same voice from Starkiller Base, him telling her matter-of-factly what he was doing, daring her to do something about it. The familiarity they'd had was gone, or at least he was pushing it away, and it bothered her that it bothered her. "I offered you my hand once. You wanted to take it. Why didn't you?"
She didn't deny it. She didn't answer it directly, either. "You could have killed me. Why didn't you?"
"You can't hide, Rey. Not from me."
What caught her off guard about that was the realization that despite this bond that they had that she couldn't get rid of, she didn't know that she'd ever heard him say her name before.
"I see through the cracks in your mask," she told him. "You're haunted. You can't stop seeing what you did to your father."
"Do you still count the days since your parents left?" Kylo countered. "Such pain in you. Such anger."
He began walking towards her, and Rey braced herself. There were things she noticed now, like the fact that he cast a shadow on the sand, like he was actually here with her.
"Where are you?" he asked, reaching for her mind, as she instantly threw up barriers against him. It didn't bother him. "My mother doesn't see the darkness in you. Your friends don't, either. But I do."
She wanted to tell him off. Leia saw the rage and frustration that came out in their training sessions. Maz did, too. As much as she tried to pretend it wasn't there while being terrified that it was, they saw that. Or maybe she wanted to believe that they did, and therefore she was fine. She kept it to herself now. She wouldn't give him that satisfaction.
It didn't matter anyway, because suddenly he was directly before her, so close that she could smell molten iron off of him. "I don't want to have to kill you," Kylo told her. "I'm going to find you, and I'm going to turn you to the dark side. When I offer you my hand again, you'll take it."
That was the most terrifying thing Rey could have heard, and she spat out, "We'll see."
Before she could even blink, he reached out to snatch the necklace from her neck. She knew they could touch like this, so she wasn't surprised to even feel his glove against her skin for that brief second. What she was surprised about was that he took the necklace with him, leaving the nape of her neck stinging. This was different than before. They had been in each other's spaces just now.
It was like the lights came back up in the desert. Kylo was gone, Rey was once more among the people, with the festival whirling around her. She shook her head to snap herself out of it, focusing on looking for her friends in the crowd. She spotted Chewie first, even slouching, and rushed over to interrupt their conversation. "We have to go," she said. "It's Ren."
No one questioned it. They took off around the nearest tent, trying to book it in the direction of the parked Falcon. BB-8 rolled along, but Threepio struggled to keep up. And then they almost ran right into a stormtrooper, who whipped up his blaster.
"Hold it right there!"
They froze.
"I've located the Resistance fugitives. All units report to-"
Rey reached into the Force, but didn't have time to do anything. There was a resounding crack, and the stormtrooper's head jerked back, an arrow sticking out of an eye lens.
They whirled, finding a tall helmeted figure just inside the tent, holding back the flap with a walking stick. "Follow me," he said. "Hurry."
There wasn't time to debate it, so they all set off after him. They were going in the opposite direction of the Falcon, but he'd just saved them a lot of trouble so no one protested. Hopefully they were doing the right thing by trusting him.
He led them to one of the giant treadable vehicles they'd passed, which reminded Rey a bit of the speeder she'd cobbled together on Jakku, if ten times the size and without propulsion. The figure hurried them inside. It was hot and claustrophobic, and the drive shaft ran right through the center which barely allowed headroom.
"To the east passage, Kalo'ne!" the figure called to the driver, and then they jerked and lumbered forward. It was a terrible getaway vehicle, but they were out of sight and moving, and that was what was important. "Leia sent me a transmission."
"How'd you find us?" Finn asked.
The man reached for his helmet, revealing a face that Rey didn't know, but Chewie roared his name and immediately went in for a hug that almost lifted him from the ground. She'd heard a lot about Lando from Leia and Chewie. The Falcon had belonged to him. It was an honor to be in the same space with him.
"Good to see you, too, old buddy," Lando laughed. He sounded vaguely familiar somehow now that the helmet was off.
"This is General Lando Calrissian," Threepio announced. "Allow me to give you a complete history of-"
"We know who he is, Threepio," Rey interrupted.
"It's an honor to meet you, General," Finn told him.
"General Calrissian, we're looking for Exegol," Poe said.
Lando froze for a second, and then nodded. "Of course you are," he said, leaning more heavily on his cane. By the sense of things, it wasn't something he liked talking about a lot. "Luke and I were chasing down a real scoundrel. His name was Ochi of Bestoon."
The name gave Rey a start, though she didn't know why.
"A Jedi killer since the Clone Wars. He was searching for Sith relics. Evil, old things." Lando activated his wristlink, showing a holo of Ochi. He was not human, with large black eyes, with a very scarred face and some sort of cybernetic headgear. Rey wouldn't have registered him as a threat upon sight.
"Like the Emperor's wayfinder," Poe said.
"That's it," Lando confirmed, switching the holo display to a pyramidal object, just like the drawing in Rey's books. The wayfinder. "Ochi bragged at a cantina that he had a clue to the wayfinder's location. That he had its coordinates transcribed."
"Inscribed where?" Rey asked.
"That's the question, kiddo," he said. "We chased Ochi halfway across the galaxy."
"Here to Pasaana," Finn assured.
Lando nodded. "Where the trail went cold. Ochi disappeared into the desert. Luke sensed he was still here. We found his ship abandoned, but no Ochi. No clue. No wayfinder."
"We need to get to that ship," Rey said. "Search it again."
The treadable luched to a halt. The screaming of TIE fighters filled the air. They peeked out from the entrance portal and spotted them gliding along the horizon. The First Order's reach had spread across the galaxy. Kylo Ren could have backup troops on the ground looking for them in an hour.
"I've got a bad feeling about this," Lando said darkly. "Ochi's ship is growing rust out past Lurch Canyon. It's the only clue I've got."
Poe and Finn scrambled out of the treader, and Chewie moaned a goodbye at him, getting a squeeze of a furry arm in return.
"Leia needs pilots, General," Rey said.
"My flying days are long gone," Lando said. "But give Leia my love."
"You should give it to her yourself," she said. "Thank you."
They'd gotten across the valley to the other end of the festival grounds. They had to find transportation to wherever Lurch's Canyon was, but Poe spotted some parked skimmers. Some were empty and some were not, probably rented by festivalgoers. Rey worried about how they'd pay- everything was on the Falcon- but Poe was already ripping open a panel on a skimmer to hotwire it.
"How do you know how to do that?" Finn asked.
"No need to worry," Threepio announced, finally catching up. "I made it."
"Got it," Poe said. "We gotta go!"
Rey had no idea how he did that. He did that faster than she'd be able to. She didn't argue or ask, though, and jumped onto one skiff with BB-8 and Chewie, feeling terrible about stealing, even when it was necessary. This was necessary, though; this was literally the fate of the galaxy here. So she took off, with the boys and Threepio on another skiff right behind her, and suddenly the desert was whipping past her, and she had to hope they were going in the right direction.
She heard a blast behind her, and looked back to see that the First Order had shot at the other skimmer, but missed. They had two treadskimmers following them now, each carrying two troopers, and they were closing fast. Poe was beginning evasive maneuvers, and Finn had started shooting, but thanks to the piloting a lot of his shots were going wide.
Chewie was using his bowcaster behind Rey, but having similar luck. They were making it harder for the First Order to catch up, though.
And then she heard Threepio exclaim, "They fly now!"
"They fly now?" Finn yelled.
And a defeated, "They fly now," from Poe.
Rey glanced back and saw that the troopers on the speeders were jet troopers, and now much harder to hit.
"Rey!" Poe yelled. "We should split-"
"Split up!" she agreed, veering right towards a dust grain farm, while Poe took them towards a rocky canyon.
The speeders split up, too, but the jet troopers were pursuing Rey specifically. That was fine with her. Poe and Finn had a chance. Chewie was still firing, but stopped when the troopers confusingly moved ahead to start firing charges into the ground in front of the skimmer.
Rey yanked the controls, turning at the last moment and barely dodging an explosion. Immediately she had to dodge again to turn away from the treadspeeder. The controls on this were sensitive, but she was having to anticipate what they were going to do, and it was taking all of her concentration. She was going to make a mistake.
"Get them!" she yelled to Chewie. "I'll go for the speeder."
It was possible to dodge obstacles ahead while shooting at something behind them, right? Well, she was about to find out.
Chewie was still fighting at the troopers with his bowcaster, while Rey had to slalom through grain-processing pipes that jutted up from the ground. She pulled the blaster that Han had given her, focused, and fired several times in quick succession at the treadspeeder. The shots hit, but did no damage.
"The front shields are up," Rey said.
BB-8 beeped excitedly about something he'd found up ahead.
"Not now, BB-8!" Rey called back.
Chewie yelled, pointing.
She looked in that direction, and saw a… ship in the distance? It was atop a sandstone bluff above them, parts of it covered in sand. "I see it!" she said, ducking instinctively as a blaster bolt went whizzing past her ear.
One of Chewie's shots hit a jet trooper, who bulleted to the ground. Two to go.
Rey tried to get some more shots off, but nothing did damage. "Their shields are too strong," she yelled.
BB-8 had lodged himself behind the controls to keep himself from rolling off. She could tell that he was doing something with the controls, but she was just going to let him work while she shot and steered. He could do whatever he was going to do.
The next thing she knew, there was a canister of yellow something being body-bumped by a little rolling droid and flying into the air behind them, blinding a jet trooper who swerved left, right into a rock.
The speeder shot high, exposing a fuel tank that was unprotected by the forward shields. Rey aimed her blaster, fired, and the treadspeeder exploded.
BB-8 beeped smugly.
One to go, but Rey and Chewie couldn't see the remaining jet trooper anywhere. Taking the chance, she steered towards the abandoned freighter, but the closer she got, the more unsettled she felt. "Ochi's ship…" she murmured. "I've seen that ship before."
Poe's skimmer reappeared over the rise, but they all seemed okay.
"There's one left," Rey called.
A moment later, something roared overhead, dropping charges into the sand all around them and blowing the skiffs apart, throwing the people onto the ground.
Automatically, they all grabbed their weapons and aimed upwards. It was impossible to tell who hit the jet trooper, but he spiraled out of the sky and slammed into a cliff. His jetpack detonated.
And now that she had a moment to breathe, Rey realized that the sand around her was the wrong color. It was black in a sea of red sand. She'd seen this before, and she was sinking up to her hips.
"What the hell is this?" Poe asked, trying to pull himself out, which only made him sink faster.
"Sinking fields!" Rey answered. She should have known. "Grab onto something!"
There was nothing to grab onto. Chewie let out a panicked yell.
"Oh, what an ignoble end," Threepio moaned.
BB-8 was spinning wildly trying to get out, but in seconds he'd disappeared beneath the surface as Rey yelled for him.
"Rey!" Finn called, already in up to his shoulders. "I never told you-"
"What?" she yelled back.
He was in to his chin. "Rey!"
"Finn!"
And then he was gone, Poe following a moment behind along with Threepio. Rey held her breath, covering her face with her hand to try and keep the grit out when she sank below, too. Maybe she'd choke to death on less sand than if she didn't do that.
She'd expected to suffocate. She didn't expect to keep falling until her legs were suddenly free below her, and she tried to wriggle her way down to see why. Someone caught her to keep her from hitting the ground below.
"You all right?" Poe checked, letting her go once she was safely down. "Where's Chewie?"
Chewie roared from a distance away, standing and shaking the sand off.
"Finn?" Rey called.
"Yeah, I'm good," he said, already up and moving. "What is this place?"
"This isn't the afterlife, is it?" Threepio asked. "Are droids allowed here?"
Poe was clearly relieved. "Thought we were goners."
"We still might be, sir," Threepio said helpfully.
"Which way out?" Finn asked.
Rey unhooked her lightsaber and turned it on, filling the cavern they were in with a soft blue light. She couldn't really tell where they were, exactly, but she could see the multiple tunnels they could head through.
Beside her, Poe turned on his glow rod. It was almost imperceptible next to the lightsaber. He used it anyway.
"This way," Rey said, reaching out and trusting the feeling one way gave her over the others. The others followed without questioning. The air was cooler down here, and the ground was flat under their feet, which was good because she had no idea how long it would take to get out. Longer than they had, probably.
"I don't want to know what made these tunnels," Poe said.
"Judging by the bore circumference," Threepio said, "any number of deadly species could-"
"Do not want to know. Not."
"So what was it?" Rey asked Finn, ignoring that.
"What?" he asked.
"What were you going to tell me?"
"When?"
"When you were sinking in the sand, you said, 'I never told you…'"
Finn was avoiding her gaze. "I'll tell you later."
"When you're not with Poe?" asked Poe.
"Yeah," Finn said.
"Great. We're gonna die in a sand burrow, and we're all keeping secrets."
"I'll tell you when you tell us how you know how to do all that shifty stuff."
BB-8 warbled at something up ahead, which brought them up short. "What's that?" Poe asked, aiming his glow rod.
"A speeder?" Finn asked.
"An old one," Rey said. Its steering vane was bent at an impossible angle, and it was out of date by at least a decade. The hood ornament was interesting, and she bent to get a closer look.
"It's a hex charm," Threepio said helpfully. "A common emblem of Sith loyalists."
It looked familiar, and Rey didn't know why. She didn't even want to think that maybe she'd been seeing Sith imagery in her visions. "Luke sensed it," she said vaguely. "Ochi never left this place."
"He was headed away from his ship," Poe said. "Same thing happened to us happened to him." It would explain why no one went near his speeder.
"So how did Ochi get out?" Finn asked, looking around for an exit.
Rey glanced just beyond the speeder. "He didn't," she said, realizing there was a pile of bones there. Either he'd died on impact, or he'd injured himself so badly that he'd died slowly here.
"No, he didn't," Finn agreed.
BB-8 had spotted something in the pile, and Rey crouched beside him. He used one of the tools from his compartment to blow away some sand, revealing a long, dangerous-looking blade. It was silvery but untarnished, with a scalloped edge designed to do as much damage coming out of a body as sliding into it. There were runes along the edge.
Rey's heart raced as she reached for the dagger. It was almost like it was talking to her. Not quite calling. But when she picked it up-
Screams rending the air, the metallic scent of blood, the feel of blade against bone and sinew…
She blinked the vision away, feeling sick. "Horrible things have happened with this," she murmured.
Poe took it from her, and it was like a weight lifted from her shoulders as soon as the dagger left her hand. "It has writing on it."
"Perhaps I can translate," Threepio said, and Poe handed it over to him. "Sith assassins often inscribed their secrets on… Oh! Look! The location of the wayfinder!"
They all practically knocked heads trying to get a closer look.
"What's it say?" Poe demanded.
"Where's the wayfinder?" Finn asked.
"I'm afraid I cannot tell you," Threepio said.
Poe gaped at him. "Twenty-point-three-fazillion languages, and you can't read that?"
"Oh, I have read it, sir," Threepio told him. "I know exactly where the wayfinder is. Unfortunately it's written in the runic language of the Sith. My programming forbids me from translating it. I am physically incapable!"
"Wait," said Poe. "Wait. The one time we want you to talk, you can't?"
"Irony, sir."
Threepio continued on, but Rey sensed something coming up behind him. She lifted her lightsaber in readiness, as a great shadow loomed over the droid, then hissed. It was a massive serpent, its jaw open to reveal sharp fangs dripping venom as Threepio bolted away as fast as he could.
The others raised their weapons, but Rey reached out to lower Chewie's bowcaster, still watching the snake. She was pretty sure it was a vexis. She'd heard about them from a trader who had been to other desert planets.
"I'm gonna blast it," Poe said.
"Don't blast it," Finn said, also watching the snake.
The vexis rose higher, hiss-roaring. It was terrifying. Rey could sense its rage, it's hunger. But she also sensed great pain. She handed her lightsaber to Finn and stepped forward.
"Rey-" he protested.
"It might be injured," she said.
"Might just be a giant killer sand snake," Poe said, and she ignored him.
Rey took another couple steps forward, reaching out in the Force to the vexis. She was a friend. She was here to help. She didn't take her eyes off of it except to glance over, and saw that a giant gash ran across several segments of its body. Carefully, slowly, she climbed over, projecting calm, until she was within its coils. If it decided to kill her at all, all it had to do was squeeze.
She reached for the wound. The vexis hissed, and she hesitated, like she was waiting for permission. It didn't attack. Heart in her throat, she stretched her hand forward to gently rest upon the wound.
Whenever she fought, she channeled the Force, using it for her own advantage. This instead was giving. She reached inward, offered it up to the serpent. Her own energy. Her own life. It was part of the Force, too, and she didn't have to keep it all to herself.
She felt the vexis calming, and when she opened her eyes, the wound had closed.
The vexis lowered its head to hers. It hissed lightly, blowing her hair back a bit, and she knew it was in thanks. It uncoiled around her, slithering away into the dark, forging a new path in the sand that revealed sky.
BB-8 rolled up to Rey, asked a question.
"I just transferred a bit of life. Force energy, from me to him," she explained. Her hand stung. She was so much more tired than she'd just been. She'd healed before, but never anything that large. It took something out of you to do it.
He whirred.
"You would have done the same."
*****
The tunnel dumped them out closer to Ochi's rusty freighter. Hopefully it was space-worthy. Rey wasn't positive until they got closer.
Threepio must have been feeling the same way. "I suggest we return to the Millennium Falcon at once," he tried.
"They'll be waiting for us at the Falcon," Poe said as they reached the ship.
"They'll send us to the pits of Griq," Finn added.
"You both make excellent points at times," Threepio said.
Rey frowned. The boys were having fun with him, but they were also probably right. The Falcon might already be in First Order hands. She might never see her ship again.
She didn't have time to deal with that thought, because it was then that she sensed him.
"Rey?" Finn asked, stopping because she did.
There had been reasons she wanted to do this alone. Mainly, the reason was Kylo Ren. She knew Finn especially was her strongest defender, and she couldn't have him getting hurt now. Not on her account. Not that he wasn't capable, but she was the one Kylo Ren apparently wanted to turn to the dark side instead of killing now. She had no doubt that he'd make Finn collateral damage to get to her.
"I'll be right behind you," she said gently.
"Rey-"
"It's okay," she said, giving just a little push with the Force. Just so he'd stay where it was safe.
He didn't argue, and she handed over everything she was carrying save her lightsaber. Then she ran down the dune, to a clear expanse of sand, where she saw the black dot of a TIE Silencer in the distance heading right for her. He wasn't stopping. It wasn't that kind of confrontation.
Rey had never faced down a TIE before. She was terrified, but she took a few breaths to calm herself, and she waited.
It was several agonizing moments before she moved, pulling her lightsaber free and then igniting it, turning like she was going to start running. She looked over her shoulder at the ship bearing down on her, but Kylo wasn't turning. He was fully intending to kill her this way. She could feel it.
Well.
When she felt the moment was right, she sprinted across the sand, pulling on the Force as well as her training, as well of a lifetime of dealing with this kind of terrain. The TIE seemed to be screaming in her ears as it got closer… now.
She leapt up and flipped backwards, sweeping her legs in an aerial arc, whipping her lightsaber down at the support pylon. She landed neatly to watch the ship wobble, then a wing hit the sand, and bounce along at speed, out of control. A wing ripped off, and it only stopped when it slammed into an embankment.
Rey turned off her lightsaber. She hoped he was dead. No, she didn't.
She hooked her weapon to her belt and started in the direction of Ochi's ship, until Finn came running out from it, waving his arms and yelling. "Rey! They got Chewie!"
She followed his point to see a transport lifting off into the air. No, no, no. They couldn't do this. And she had the thought of I can't do this again…?
Panicked, Rey's hand outstretched toward the transport, imagining herself grabbing it with her fingers and pulling it back. She knew Anakin could do this, why couldn't she? It actually slowed, and wobbled in the air. Its engines whined. She drew on her panic, her determination, her fear, even her exhaustion. She wouldn't lose him.
She felt a presence, and looked to see Kylo Ren emerging from the fire that had been his TIE. His black cape whipped in the wind, dramatics apparently running in the family. She had to work even harder now. She couldn't save Chewie and deal with Kylo.
And then he was reaching his own hand up, yanking the ship out of her grasp, but not fully. This was what had happened aboard the Supremacy to break the lightsaber.
Her heart was pounding, and she bore down with all the strength in her being. It wasn't intentional, she was just pulling from whatever she could right now, and she drew on her rage at Kylo, at the fact that he was trying this, at the terror of losing Chewie. Who was to say Kylo wouldn't do to him what he did to Han? Every part of her was focused on winning this.
Force lightning burst from her fingertips, arcing toward the freighter. It wrapped around the transport, which jerked sideways before exploding into a fireball.
Rey stumbled back in shock, screaming. She thought she heard Finn do the same. Bits of wreckage fell to the sand below. Everyone inside was gone. Chewie was gone.
She stared at her hand in horror. That wasn't supposed to happen. That wasn't supposed to come from her. She wasn't supposed to be able to do that. She couldn't believe it.
"Rey!" Poe yelled from the ship. "They're coming! We have to go! Now!"
Half a dozen TIEs were approaching over the horizon. She knew he was right, but she didn't feel like she was moving of her own accord. She looked at Kylo Ren, who looked as surprised as she felt, and she felt his… satisfaction at what she had done? Unable to deal with that, she started stumbling back towards Ochi's ship.
[The longest one of these you're gonna get, I'm sorry to anyone who actually reads these. It's better from here, I swear. NFB, NFI, OOC okay. Taken from The Rise of Skywalker by Rae Carson.]