Like An Exposed Nerve

Rey wasn’t sure what she was expecting when she arrived on Ahch-To. There was the chance that the legendary Luke Skywalker would take one look at her and send her back to the Resistance with nothing but a wave of his hand. There was the chance he was completely mad, and he would cut her down without Rey even realizing it until it was too late. She wasn't sure if Skywalker killing her or him offering to train her to be a Jedi was somehow more or less terrifying. Rey nearly talked herself out of this entire thing half a dozen times as she climbed the stone stairs. She didn't think that made her weak in any way. If anything, doubt and hesitation had kept her alive for most of her life, but there was a voice in the back of her mind that said she should have more confidence. She had the Force; she had told a stormtrooper to release her, and they did; she had stared down Kylo Ren and ignored the dark voice in her mind that said to kill him. Something inside her had changed, and Rey knew she could not ignore it.

She couldn't ignore what the First Order had done and what the Resistance was fighting for. She watched as X-Wings fell from the sky as they struggled to destroy Starkiller. She felt Han Solo's life end with the burn of a lightsaber. There was a deep sadness weighing on her that felt heavy, and Rey could only assume it was the life in the Hosnian system that Kylo Ren and the First Order had ended with the flick of a button. Starkiller was gone, but Rey had a feeling the First Order was going to regroup faster than the Resistance would. It was a matter of 'when' the First Order found them and not 'if.' General Organa seemed to know that. Despite how strong and powerful she was, when she sent Rey out to find Luke Skywalker, there was a desperation to her. It seemed to scream, 'we have this situation under control, we're going to be okay, but please help us.' It was a call Rey couldn't ignore, which was the only reason she was able to leave before Finn woke up.

She was sitting by his be in the days immediately following the destruction of Starkiller Base when BB-8 rolled in, and Rey met Poe Dameron for the first time. He stopped short when he saw her and hesitated like he wasn't sure if he was supposed to leave or stay. They met briefly when R2-D2 and BB-8 put the maps together. Rey had never felt such joy before, and, despite never liking people touching her, she turned to the first person she saw and embraced them tightly. It turned out to be Poe, and they awkwardly introduced themselves to each other.

This was the first time they had seen each other since then, and Rey had no idea how to react. He looked tired, maybe even more so than he did after the attack on Starkiller like he hadn't been sleeping. There were dark circles under his eyes, which drew attention to the wound under his eye that wasn't healing quite right. 'It's going to leave a scar,' Rey thought.

"I'm sorry," Poe said after a long moment of silence. "I can come back another time."

"[Hello Friend-Rey!]" BB-8 beeped happily. "[Friend-Poe would like to know if Friend-Finn is better but doesn't want to bother Friend-Rey.]"

"Does he now?" Rey said. She didn't fight the smile that tugged at the corner of her lips. Poe, on the other hand, was gesturing desperately to BB-8 to be quiet.

“[Yes, but I told him that Friend-Rey is very nice and wouldn't mind telling Friend-Poe how Friend-Finn is,]" BB-8 replied.

"That's enough," Poe said loudly, he looked almost embarrassed, and BB-8 made a sad noise at him. "Don't mind BeeBee-Ate. I can come back later." He turned to leave, and something made Rey reach out and touched his arm. She almost gasped: it felt like there was like there was a large wound which wasn't healing that was invisible to the naked eye. Rey remembered what Finn had told her: that Kylo Ren had interrogated Poe. She knew what that felt like. Rey also knew that she had found a way to protect herself, to force him out, while Poe did not. The Force—she thought it was the Force anyway—around Poe felt like it was crying out in pain. Poe blinked and at her hand on his arm.

"You want to sit with him?" she asked despite the fact that she already knew the answer. "I don't think he'd mind having both of us here."

"No, I don't think he would," Poe replied slowly. "What about you, though? Do you mind?"

Rey couldn't remember the last time someone asked about her own wishes over theirs. It reminded her just how different life was outside of Jakku.

"I think I need the company," she said. Poe nodded. The two of them sat with Finn for two days until Leia called Rey to the command center and asked her to go find Luke Skywalker. She said goodbye to Finn and found Poe waiting at the end of the hallway for her.

"He's going to be okay," he said.

"I know," Rey replied. "But that doesn't mean I don't want to be there when he wakes up. The last time he saw me, I was unconscious after being thrown into a tree."

"I'm going to make sure he’s not alone when he wakes up," Poe said, and Rey believed him. He didn't seem like the kind of person that would lie about something like this.

They walked out of the infirmary together, and Rey almost wanted to ask Poe if he could come with her. He was a calming presence despite the fact that she could see the bleeding wounds in the Force around him. Rey could tell Poe was unaware of how bad the damage was, or he was ignoring it, but she didn't know how to fix it. When they joined Leia on the airfield, she glanced at Poe, and Rey knew that Leia knew too. Rey hugged a woman she barely knew for the second time, took off in a ship that felt like an extension of herself, and went off into space to find a legend. Now that the legend was waiting at the top of these stone stairs, Rey was questioning every decision she had ever made to get to this point.

Rey felt Luke before she saw him but didn't approach him. He was dangerous; Rey trusted her instincts on this and waited for him to acknowledge her presence in turn. He turned slowly, and she held out the lightsaber like a peace offering. Rey wasn't even sure what she was asking for precisely, for him to train her, to help the Resistance. He watched her for a long time.

When Luke finally approached her, Rey held her ground, refused to take back even a step, and he took the saber from her. He turned it over in his hands a few times and sighed heavily.

"I was wondering when someone was going to come," he said softly.

"We need your help," Rey said, and he nodded.

"Yes. It's time for me to stop running from my failures." Luke handed the saber back to her and gestured to a small camp not far away. "Come, I have some food, and you can tell me everything." Rey released a breath she didn't know she was holding and followed the last Jedi.

+++

It felt like Poe was watching the Resistance through a filter. The world didn't seem real, and he had to keep pinching the inside of his arm to remind himself that it was, it was all real, and he had to keep focus. The galaxy was in chaos, the Resistance was hanging on by a thread, and people kept looking to him and other officers for answers that none of them had.

Leia called all of the senior officers into the control room two hours after Rey had departed. She looked strong, but Poe could see the worry in the crease of her eyes, in the way she held onto the edge of the table, and the way she took an extra second to compose herself.

"Rey has gone to find my brother, but I don't believe it's best to put all of our faith in him," Leia said. "I'm confident Rey will find him, but whether he's going to come back is another question. There are more important things that we need to deal with."

"The Hosnian System is a deathtrap of asteroids, and the debris could obstruct the Corellian Trade Spine or even the hyperspace lane," Commander Satura said. "There are a few ships out there as well that could have civilians or members of the Republic on them. If the ships got damaged, they’d be stranded."

"We need to send some ships out there to survey the full extent of the damage. If we can help evacuate a few Republic citizens, perhaps they will finally align with us," Leia said.

"I would think the destruction of a whole system would be enough to sway the Republic," Poe said, but Leia shook her head.

"It might just make them afraid. They could surrender to the First Order because it's easier. Even though Starkiller is gone, we are still staring down a force that could take out entire systems in days," she said. Leia frowned as she looked at the latest reports from the Hosnian System. Poe knew what she was going to ask him before she even did. "Poe, I need you and two other pilots to go out there and tell me what you can find. I need to know if there are any civilians that need help. The Resistance is fighting for them, and if we don't protect them, we're no better than the First Order."

"Yes, ma’am," Poe said.

"As for the rest of us, we need to prepare for an immediate evacuation of the base. The First Order knows where we are, and they'll recover before we do. Everyone get to work, dismissed," Leia said.

Poe was only halfway through making preparations for the mission; Snap and Jessika were also preparing to join him when Leia and C3PO joined him. He could hear C3PO rattling off the statistics for navigating an asteroid field and Leia telling him to hush; she knows the number and doesn't need it again. Poe saluted when she approached, and Leia smiled.

"Poe, I understand you've been spending some time with Finn since he was injured," she said.

"It didn't exactly look like we were winning when he was hurt, ma’am," Poe explained. "Someone needs to be there to tell him Rey's safe, and he's safe. There should be someone there when he wakes up. He nearly died helping us destroy Starkiller, and we owe him that much." Leia raised a hand to silence him.

"I'm not disagreeing with you, Poe. I also believe someone should be there when he wakes up. Unfortunately, the two people he would likely enjoy seeing are a little busy right now. So I wanted to let you know I'll be taking over your duties while you are off-world." Poe blinked; this was not what he was expecting. He wanted to be there when Finn woke up, but there was too much to do. If he was busy, he couldn't even imagine what Leia had to do.

"Ma’am, I'm sure you have other things to do," Poe said weakly.

"Are you questioning my ability to multi-task?" Leia asked, and, for the first time since Solo had passed away, she looked close to laughing. If he got Leia to laugh, even if it was at his expense, Poe was okay with that.

"I wouldn't dream of it," he said.

"That's what I thought," she said.

Poe was about to make a smart comment when she reached forward and put a hand on his arm. He could feel Leia reaching out of him in her own way right now. It was the same feeling he used to get from his mother when she was tucking him in at night. It loosened his tense muscles and was almost as good as a sedative at making him feel relaxed. Poe hadn't realized he had closed his eyes until he opened them and saw that Leia was frowning just a little. She looked almost far away. He was about to ask what was wrong when she visibly pulled herself together and squeezed his arm.

"Be careful. The First Order might be stretched thin right now, but that doesn't mean they won't come to finish the job on any Republic ships that might be nearby."

"I'd say that I'm always careful, but it's probably not a good idea to lie to a superior officer," Poe said, and Leia rolled her eyes. "You can probably tell when I'm lying anyway." She smiled and walked away without confirming or denying anything.

+++

BB-8 was beeping unhappily from the back of Black One as they approached the ruined planets. The debris was already becoming harder and harder to navigate, and there was a good chance they wouldn't be able to get anywhere near where the planets had once been.

"[Friend-Poe, there is a lot of debris,]" BB-8 said.

"I can see that BeeBee-Ate, but we need to get closer. If there is a ship that's damaged, we need to help them," Poe replied.

"[General-Organa said not at the expense of your own safety,]" BB-8 replied, which made Poe frown.

"I don't remember her saying that," he said. Poe wasn't sure how a droid could scoff, but BB-8 found a way.

"[General-Ogana told BB-8 because she knew Friend-Poe wouldn't listen.]" That should have been insulting but didn't make it any less true. Poe didn't have the reputation he did because he played it safe.

"Black Leader, I'm picking up readings of a ship nearby," Jessika said. BB-8 confirmed there was something. Whatever it was, it didn't have any power.

"Take point, Blue Two, and we'll follow," Poe replied. Jessika leads them towards what appeared to be a large Republic ship floating dead in space. The structural damage was catastrophic, and even if there were any people on board, they wouldn't have life support. Poe knew these ships and how many people they could fit. He also knew there was a very good chance a large portion of those people didn't make it.

"Black Leader, do some of those holes look a little off to you?" Snap asked. Poe narrowed his eyes and carefully made his way through the debris to get a closer look despite BB-8’s warnings. Snap was right: some of the damage was from a mass amount of debris, but some of the hull breaches looked like cannon fire.

"Yeah, this ship was attacked," Poe said. "BeeBee-Ate, is there any way to see if the blaster damage came before or after the debris hit the ship?"

"[Undetermined but the placement of the blasts indicates they were strategically fired,]" BB-8 said. Poe was about to ask for more information when a loud beep distracted him.

"We need to move," Poe said. It wasn't the best move, but they needed to hide from the scanners as a few TIE-fighters appeared on the scanner. They were in a patrol formation, and Poe hoped they wouldn't come near a dead ship and they could hide among the remains. Snap and Jessika were further away and managed to ease behind a rather large asteroid, but Poe was too close. If he rushed over to them, he could risk drawing attention to himself.

"Black Leader, get your ass over here," Jessika snapped, but Poe ignored her.

"BeeBee-Ate, how long can we last if we reduce all systems to the bare minimums?" he asked.

"[That would be unwise,]" BB-8 said. "[To avoid detection, we would have to cut all heat signatures. Friend-Poe would freeze within three minutes.]"

"Cut the systems. There isn't enough room to engage in a dog fight, and we can't have the First Order knowing we were here." Poe switched off communications just as Snap started to argue that there had to be another way. He switched to the emergency oxygen system and prepared for everything to get very cold as BB-8 shut all of the engines down. They were floating near the wreckage now, and Poe could get a better look at the blaster marks. He had a terrible feeling that the ship was damaged and in the process of evacuating when the First Order decided it needed to finish the job. He watched the TIEs patrol the area and then take off into hyperspace just as he was having trouble feeling his toes. BB-8 didn't even wait for Poe to say anything as the life support came back on, and his x-wing got much warmer. "Okay, we're clear," he said once communications were back on.

"You're an idiot," Jessika said.

"[Agreed,]" BB-8 said, the traitor.

"We're all fine. Let's get back to General Organa; I have a bad feeling about what the First Order is up to," Poe said. They maneuvered away from the wreckage and, once they were clear, into the hum of hyperspace.

+++

Finn thought being dead would be colder, but instead, he was very warm and quite comfortable. The other thing Finn thought was that death would be painless, and instead, he felt quite a bit of pain along his entire spine. He could feel his toes and hands, which he thought was a good thing. 'Rey,' he thought desperately. 'She wasn't safe when Ren got the better of me. Starkiller was still aiming at the Resistance, and Poe was losing.'

Finn wanted to sit up and ask what had happened if everyone was alive, but when he tried to open his eyes, they wouldn't listen to him. There was someone in the room with him, someone that felt a little like Rey but different. They stayed quiet while Finn had a silent crisis about not being able to open his eyes. It took several tries, but he finally forced them to open.

The entire world was a blur for a moment and then slowly came into focus. He was in a hospital bed, and the air smelled clean. Someone had undressed him at some point, and he was wearing scrubs under a thin blanket. He tried to swallow and found that not only did his mouth taste disgusting, but he was very thirsty and so hungry.

"Welcome back," a soft voice said. It took Finn a moment to place that voice. He looked over at the chair next to his bed to find General Organa casually going through a file on her holopad like she didn't have a care in the world. "It would be best if you didn't move. You’ll be fine, but it will take some time."

She looked up from the holopad and smiled softly at him. It made Finn feel a little better, but if Leia was sitting with him, then where were Rey and Poe? Finn opened his mouth to ask, but all that came out was a strange wheezing sound. Leia poured a glass of water, put a straw in it, and held it out for Finn to drink. He didn't think water had ever tasted so good.

It took a few tries, but he finally got his mouth working.

"Rey? Poe? Is everyone safe?" Finn asked. Even his voice sounded odd.

"Rey has gone to find my brother and hopefully bring him home. Poe is out on a mission. Starkiller Base has been destroyed thanks to your help," Leia explained. "As for why I'm here waiting for you: Poe promised Rey he would look after you, but I had to send him on a mission, and I couldn't have him distracted. So I volunteered to keep watch over you."

Finn still had many questions, but it felt like what little energy he had left his body, and he was very tired.

"Sleep. You're healing, and someone will be here when you wake up again." Leia placed a hand on his forehead, and the touch eased Finn into a peaceful sleep as he dreamed of a planet covered in oceans and a large island in the middle.

+++

Rey took the better part of a day to tell Luke ("You can call me Luke if you'd like") everything that had happened in the years that he'd been in hiding. There were some gaps that Rey wasn't sure about, but after they went down to the Falcon, a big hug Chewie, and R2-D2 told him the rest. They were sitting in the Falcon in near-total silence as Rey fought the urge to start to fiddle. Luke sat back in one of the chairs and nodded slowly to himself as he was coming to some sort of decision.

"We will go back, and I'll face my sister. Then I want to begin your training, Rey," he said. "I believe that you have great potential, and the galaxy is in a dark place. We need hope, and we need everyone. Are you interested in learning the ways of the Jedi?"

Rey wasn't sure what the right answer was and, if Luke was as powerful as Kylo Ren, then he could likely sense if she was lying, so it was probably best, to be honest with him.

"I don't know," she said. "But I know the First Order is dangerous, and they are going to hurt my friends if I don't help stop them. I want to get stronger, and I want to protect those I care about and myself." Luke tilted his head to the side and smiled a little. He looked pleased by that answer.

"I believe R2 can get in touch with my sister? I think you should do the talking, and I will wait until I see her in person to explain myself." He frowned deeply and walked away. Leia told her to try and reach BB-8 first, if possible. There was a better chance that the message wouldn’t be intercepted if sent directly to a droid rather than a base.

“Try to hail Beebee-Ate,” Rey said. After a moment, R2 informed her that BB-8 was out of range but that a secure line could be connected to Leia if she wanted.

"What do you mean 'out of range'?" she asked. R2 explained there was a good chance that BB-8 and Poe were out on a mission and couldn't accept transmissions from Ahch-To. R2 put her through to Leia, who looked a little rattled when she appeared before her.

"Rey, it's good to hear from you. We were worried you would be out of range, and we wouldn't be able to make contact with you," she said. R2 beeped that this connection couldn't last too long if they didn't want to risk the First Order tracking them.

"General, he has to agreed to come with me. We just need to know if we're heading back to back or somewhere else," Rey replied as she made sure to be as vague as possible.

"Somewhere new," Leia said. "Your friend is healing and awake, and his watcher is off-planet." Rey breathed a sigh of relief that she didn't feel too bad letting the General see. That meant that Finn was awake and healing, and Poe was on a mission.

"Thank you," Rey said. "We'll see you soon."

"May the Force be with you," Leia said, and the image flicked away. A moment later, R2 announced he had new coordinates to the base as Luke came back.

"I don't have much, but I'd like to bring a few things with me," he said. "I know you don't want to climb the mountain again, but we need to talk along the way about your training." Rey nodded and told Chewie to prepare the ship to depart. She began to walk up the long staircase to the top of the mountain with Luke at her side. "The Force is a power that can be used for good or evil, but the two are often not as black and white as the old Jedi Order would have lead us to believe. The truth is somewhere in the middle, and a true master will know where to look. What do you feel?"

"Everything," Rey said without hesitation. It felt like sensory overload, and she wasn't sure how much of it was her experiencing the universe for the first time and how much of it was this new power that had awakened in her.

"It's good to be in tune with the Force, but that also comes at a cost. You're going to feel everything that those around you feel. It's why we often train in solitude, but that is a luxury that we do not have right now," Luke explained as they climbed. "You're going to hear and see things that aren't yours, and they are likely going to be terrible. We tend to dwell on the bad in life rather than the good, and Leia and the Resistance have likely seen a lot of bad."

"I'm going to have nightmares," Rey said.

"Yes, and for some time until you get better at shielding your thoughts. From what you've told me, you managed to push Ben out of your head, but that's different. It's like learning to fight so no one lands a hit compared to getting one good hit in and winning. It seems you're well trained with a weapon, so that should help things along." Luke paused as they were walking, and Rey noticed for the first time that he didn't seem winded at all despite the hard climb. "You've already felt the temptation of the dark side as well. Snoke spoke to you, and he told you to kill Ben." Rey twisted the cloth of her vest. She felt odd about telling Luke about the voice she heard in her head and how she managed to ignore its influence. She had a feeling what and who that voice was, but it was hard to believe that someone or something could reach across galaxies and touch her mind like that.

"I wanted to, though," Rey said softly. "I wanted to kill him because of what he's done to everyone I care about. I wanted to kill him."

"But you didn't, and while thoughts are important, actions are what matters," Luke said firmly. "You're going to feel the pull of the Dark Side in everything you do. It's going to be there to tempt you, but you've fought it back once. That means you can do it again." Rey wasn't sure where that level of confidence came from, but Rey accepted it for it was.

"We should get going. We're going to have to take the long way to the new base. We wouldn't want to be the ones that the First Order tracks there." She nodded and, with Chewie, began the preparations to depart to the new base.

+++

Poe arrived back on D'Qar as they were making the final preparations to evacuate to the new base. His body was stiff from too much time in an X-Wing, and one of his ears was having a hard time adjusting, so Poe was half deaf, but that didn't stop him from hurrying across the base so he could report to Leia. He was almost there when Poe ran into medical transporting and saw who was awake.

"Finn," Poe said softly, and he raced over to the bed. The nurses rolled their eyes but paused as they rolled Finn toward the transport.

"Poe, you're okay," Finn said with a dreamy look on his face. Poe could see the IV of various painkillers flowing into Finn's veins and smiled at how obviously high he was. That was better than— him feeling the pain of nearly being cut in half by a lightsaber. "Leia—
the General—was with me when I woke up. She said you were okay, but I wasn't sure."

"I'm fine, buddy," Poe said, and he squeezed Finn's hand. One of the nurses loudly cleared her throat, and Poe released Finn to take a large step back. "I'll see you on the new base; get some rest." There wasn't enough time to wait and listen to what else Finn had to say. Poe jogged away and found Leia in the command room. She looked up when Poe entered and frowned deeply.

"It isn't good news," she said.

"Ma’am, I'm afraid not," Poe replied. "We found a Republic ship that appeared to have taken damage from the debris coming from the destroyed planets, but upon closer inspection, it appears that it was attacked. I can't confirm this, but I believe it was attacked after it sustained damage to prevent the crew from evacuating. I believe the attackers wanted to cover it up by using the damage to hide the evidence. There was a scouting squad out in the area as well."

"The First Order attacked a Republic ship to prevent any witnesses from escaping," the General said softly. "I've been monitoring the Republic channels, and they are in chaos from the Starkiller attack."

"But they aren't declaring war on the First Order," Poe said and winced when he realized he had just interrupted his General. Leia didn't scold him because she had that far away look that she something got. He waited until she came back and nodded.

"No, I imagine that they won't," she said. "They are afraid, and they should be."

"What are your orders, ma’am?" Poe asked.

"I need you to keep the ships heading to the new base safely and await further instructions," she said. Poe saluted and went back out to find most of his squad waiting for him.

"We're protecting the evacuating ships. If we run into trouble, we have to do everything we can to make sure we draw all of their attention to us so they can escape," Poe explained. His squad all nodded, and he dismissed them all to get their ships ready to take off. Poe cracked his neck and tried to ignore the ache in his joints. There was a job to do, and he wasn't going to let anything get in the way of it.

+++

When Rey landed the Falcon on the new base, there were people running around and trying to get everything together that they barely noticed her. A Resistance member informed her that Leia was on her way and would be joining them shortly. They would stop every other moment to stare at Luke like they didn't believe that he was real and then move on. Luke didn't seem to notice or care, so Rey decided it was probably best not to let it bother her either. Instead, she let herself walk toward the medical barracks so she could ease this ache in her heart. When she arrived in Finn's room, he was awake and scrolling through files on the Holonet. He looked up at her without Rey needing to announce her presence, and she felt a large pressure ease from her shoulders.

"Rey, you're here, you're okay," he said, and Rey rushed forward. She wanted to hug him tightly; she knew he was real, but there were still bandages on his back, and he was still healing.

"I thought you were dead," she whispered. "I thought he killed you." Finn didn't reply, and Rey let herself hold onto him until someone said 'interesting' from the door and startled them both to the point where they jumped apart. Luke was standing in the doorway to Finn's room; apparently, he had followed her without Rey, even realizing it, and was looking at the two of them analytically. "This is most unexpected."

"Luke, this is Finn, the ex-stormtrooper that I told you about," Rey explained.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, sir," Finn replied, but he sounded a little wary. Luke, on the other hand, didn't take a step forward to make any pleasantries.

"A stormtrooper who broke through his conditioning; that explains a lot," Luke said. "It appears that I'm going to have my hands full in the coming months." Rey frowned and glanced at Finn, who appeared to be just as confused as she was. "Rey, you aren't the only Force-sensitive person whose abilities have been awakened."

"Do you mean me?" Finn asked, and Luke nodded. "That can't be possible. They tested me when I was little to make sure. I wouldn't be alive if I was Force-sensitive. The First Order made sure that anyone who tested positive was not allowed to live. I can't be."

"The Force is in all living things, but it is also something that can protect people as well. Your sensitivity was dormant, like Rey's, and now you're coming into your own." Luke tilted his head and looked at the two of them. "It's good that you appear to get along just fine since I'll be training you together." Rey wanted to ask for more information, but a Resistance member rushed over to Luke and saluted stiffly.

"Sir, the General, is landing," he said.

"It's time to face the wrath of my sister," Luke said. While he didn't sound so happy about this, there was also a level of fondness that Rey couldn't ignore. "I will leave the two of you to catch up." Luke followed the Resistance member out of the medical ward and left Rey sitting with Finn with only the whir of the machines and the droids to break the silence.

"I'm Force-sensitive," Finn whispered, and he looked at Rey. "We're going to get trained by Luke Skywalker. I'm just a stormtrooper." Rey reached over and took Finn's hand into her own.

"I'm just a scavenger," she replied.

+++

Poe was the squad member to leave D'Qar as he followed Leia's ship from the planet and toward the new base. They were radio silent for the moment, which left Poe to his thoughts and BB-8 until they arrived. Just before taking off, they had heard that Luke and Rey had landed at the new base. Poe wasn't sure what was going to happen when Leia saw her brother for the first time. She loved him, but Luke running away was going to be a sore spot for the two of them. There was also the fact that Luke hadn't stayed when Ben had attacked his school and instead withdrawn from the world until he vanished without a trace. Leia had visited them on Yavin 4 not long after, and while Poe was young at the time, he could tell how much that hurt her.

He tried not to think about Ben and who he was now because it made Poe's head hurt. Poe had known Ben for a large portion of his life, and they had spent time in Poe's backyard near the Force tree that Luke had given to his mother. Ben always liked the tree, while Poe just liked the shade. As they got older, Ben got more and more distant, and, looking back, Poe wished he could have seen the signs that something was wrong. Their families were on a diplomacy trip that Leia had asked Poe and his Dad to accompany them on, and Poe was sharing a room with Ben. It was the middle of the night when the sound of someone talking to themselves woke Poe up. He found Ben tossing and turning in his bed, it looked like a nightmare, but looking back, Poe understood that Ben was losing his fight to the Dark Side. He had knelt down to shake Ben awake, and within seconds Poe was pinned down to the ground by a furious-looking Ben.

"It's just me," Poe said slowly because he could see that a few objects in the room were levitating. "Ben, do you know where you are?" The objects in the room dropped, and Ben eased off of Poe.

"I was having a bad dream," Ben said slowly.

"I can see that," Poe replied. "You need me to get your parents or your uncle?"

"No," Ben said, in retrospect, far too quickly. They went back to bed without another word, and it was mere weeks later that Ben attacked his fellow Jedi students and vanished.

Poe hadn't thought much about Ben until he was strapped to a table on the Finalizer and had had his mind violated. His voice was nearly gone from screaming as he looked up at the black mask of Kylo Ren.

"Don't you remember me?" Poe asked. He was taking a gamble: the First Order had the location of the map, which meant they didn't need him anymore. If he could find some way to get to Ben, then maybe he could prevent his bloody and no doubt public execution. Kylo Ren removed his helmet, and the face of Ben Solo smirked down at Poe. He set the mask down and walked until they were eye to eye.

"Of course I do," Kylo said. "Ben Solo might be dead, but I still remember everything about my previous life. Do you think bringing it up is going to help you?"

"I was betting on it," Poe said, and he winced when he felt Kylo reaching into his mind again. It hurt, and it felt like the worst kind of violation.

"The Supreme Leader thinks you could be of value to us," Kylo said as he pressed fingers to Poe's temples. His mind was beginning to fog up as the pain began to mount. "I told him you would never betray your precious Resistance, but everyone has a breaking point. Shall we find yours?." The last thing Poe remembered before the pain brought him under was Kylo laughing at him softly.

The memory made Poe wince, and his heartbeat began to speed up. It was like someone was picking through his brain again; it was like he was back on the Finalizer, despite the fact that he knew that wasn't true. He was flying, he was supposed to be protecting Leia's transport, but Poe could hardly focus.

"[Friend-Poe?]" BB-8 asked, but the droid sounded far away somehow. "[Friend-Poe, your vitals are not stable. What is wrong?]" It took a few tries, but Poe managed to slow his heart down, and the world began to swim back into focus. He realized that BB-8 had taken over flying while he got himself under control, and he was deeply grateful for it and extremely ashamed that it came to that.

"I'm okay," Poe said though it sounded like a lie to his own ears. BB-8 made a dubious sounding noise but didn't call him on it. They followed Leia's ship to the new base and managed to land without killing himself. Luke Skywalker was waiting for them, and he nodded to Poe.

"Commander Dameron, it's good to see you," Luke said as he offered a hand. "I see you've grown into quite the pilot."

"As if my mother would allow me to do anything less," Poe replied. Leia walked out of her ship, and Poe wanted to give the two of them privacy, but Luke was looking at Poe oddly in that same way that Rey and Leia sometimes did.

"I'd expect nothing less from the son of Kes Dameron and Shara Bey." Luke released Poe's hand, and Poe made his escape from what was no doubt going to be a very loud fight between the Skywalker siblings. He heard the loud slap and what sounded like some crying and decided that it was probably best if he went to visit Finn.

+++

Finn was still trying to wrap his head around the idea that he had Force powers when a very excitable robot came rolling into his room. Rey looked down at BB-8 and smiled as it beeped happily at the two of them. Finn, however, didn't understand a word the droid was saying.

"I don't understand," he said.

"BeeBee-Ate says that it is glad that 'Friend-Finn' is safe," Poe said as he walked into the room. Finn smiled and was about to say how happy he was when the words died on his tongue. He wasn't sure why he hadn't noticed it earlier—it must have been the painkillers making everything hazy— but the hurt that followed Poe Dameron around was enough that it made it hard for Finn to breathe. He looked at Rey and saw that she looked just as stricken. He looked physically fine, but Finn wanted to have a droid look Poe over for some large, gaping wound that wasn't healing. Rey squeezed Finn's hand, and he felt like she was telling him that it was best he didn't bring it up.

"I'm getting better," Finn replied slowly. "How did the transport go? Is everyone safe?" The question he wanted to ask—are you okay—hung heavy in the air, but Poe didn't seem to notice.

"Everything is fine. I'm fairly sure that I heard the General slap Skywalker but considering everything that has happened, I can't say I'm that surprised," Poe replied. "Rey, it's good to see you again. I'm sorry that I wasn't here when Finn woke up. I made a promise, and I broke it."

"You're fine," Rey said. "Someone was here, and that's all that matters."

"Yeah, it's fine; I'm getting better," Finn said. Poe nodded, and BB-8 beeped out something that sounded a little sad.

"BeeBee-Ate says the General is calling for a meeting with all of the squadrons, so I have to go, but I'll be back later. Maybe around dinner?" Poe framed it like it was a question like he was asking permission to be around the two of them, which confused Finn. He always wanted Poe and Rey around, so why would now be any different?

"Dinner it is," Rey said. Poe nodded, but the feeling that something was very wrong didn't settle now that Finn had felt it.

"What's wrong with him?" Finn asked. "It feels like he's hurt."

"I think he is," Rey said softly. "The Force is in everything, or so Luke tells me, and it feels like the Force in Poe is wounded somehow. I think this is from when Kylo Ren had him." Finn felt like his stomach was going to drop to the ground; the idea that Poe was still suffering because he hadn't acted fast enough to protect him made Finn feel ill. Rey squeezed his hand again, and Finn let the feeling of Rey's spirit wash over him. It felt like warm water, and it made everything in him relax.

"I want to help him," Finn said. He glanced at Rey and saw her watching him fondly. He was about to ask what was wrong when she climbed into bed and pressed close to him. It felt like safety.

"We're going to," she said. Finn knew he must be exhausted still because he could barely keep his eyes open. He knew that people were running all over the base, trying to get everything in order, and somewhere nearby, Luke and Leia were pulling in their commanders for a meeting. There was a desperation to everything in the Resistance Finn didn't think he could ignore even if he wanted to. Now Finn was being told he had the potential to be a Jedi and decided, at that moment, that he was going to train as hard as he could to help these people.

+++

Rey closed her eyes and did her best to find peace the way Luke was telling her to. It was several weeks later, and Finn was finally back on his feet and walking. There didn't appear to be any long-term side effects from Kylo Ren's attack, and he was even beginning to join Rey and Luke in their training. Finn was nearby as well, and Rey could feel him twitching with the effort not to move. They were both having a hard time focusing because things were not going well with the Resistance.

The First Order was lying low at the moment, but that didn't stop them from stalking the various Resistance ships halfway across the galaxy. Poe and his pilots were constantly returning on X-Wings that were barely functioning or nearly blowing up. There had been too many close calls for Rey's comfort, and the first time she saw Poe helping an injured Jessika Pava into medical, her heart felt like it was going to beat out of her chest. Rey tried to push the memory from her mind, but it was more how broken and beaten down Poe, and his pilots were beginning to look that stuck with her. He still believed in what he was doing; she could see that in all of them, but it was getting harder and harder for them to go out on missions when they were almost failing.

"That's enough for today," Luke said as if he could sense that she couldn't focus right now. He looked a little disappointed like he expected better of them by now, and Rey ducked from his impressive stare with Finn to run back to the Resistance.

"I couldn't focus," Finn said softly.

"Me neither," Rey replied. She felt a little better when Finn took her hand as they walked back toward the hanger. It was late in the afternoon, and that meant Poe was probably working on Black One. Finn was quite close to Poe, and she had to admit that being around him did make her feel better. The best part was seeing the wound left on him from Kylo Ren slowly healing, and Rey went out of her way to try and soothe it the best she could whenever they were around him.

BB-8 beeped happily when it saw Rey and Finn approaching and rolled over to greet them.

"[Friend-Rey and Friend-Finn, I'm glad you're here. You need to help Friend-Poe,]" BB-8 said.

"How so?" Rey asked.

"I don't need any help," Poe said from somewhere underneath Black One. Finn mumbled something about 'really needing to learn binary,' which BB-8 beeped an affirmative. Poe emerged from Black One, and Rey could see why BB-8 was worried: he looked terrible. There were dark circles under his eyes, and the smears of grease and dirt were not helping.

"When was the last time you slept?" Finn asked, but Poe shook his head.

"I'll get some sleep later. We have another mission coming up, and I need to be ready. This one is going to be important," Poe replied.

"They're all important," Rey said. "You're not going to help anyone if you're too tired to fly." BB-8 beeped that it agreed, and Poe glared at the astromech like it had somehow betrayed him. "We can help."

"You have training," Poe said as he waved them off. "I'll grab dinner and sleep later." Rey was about to argue some more when Poe slid beneath Black One and began to work some more. Rey was about to tell BB-8 that they tried when BB-8 turned and looked at them.

"[Friend-Rey and Friend-Finn, General Organa is requesting your presence,]" it said.

"Best not to keep her waiting," Poe said from underneath Black One as Rey translated to Finn.

"I expect not to see you here when we get back," Finn said.

"Sure thing, buddy," Poe said, but he didn't sound very convincing. Rey wondered if they could hide Poe's tools and enlist BB-8 to help them. When they walked into the control room, she was a little surprised to see just Leia and Luke waiting for them. They appeared to be having some sort of staring contest or a silent conversation, and they only looked away when Rey and Finn entered the room.

"Rey, Finn, thank you for coming so quickly," Leia said. "We've been stretched even thinner than usual, and we have several pilots who are out of commission until they heal. We believe we've found an abandoned First Order base, but we lack the strike team to investigate it. I know you are both still training, but you do have combat experience. I'd like to send you and Poe to investigate this base."

"I do not approve of this idea," Luke said. "They are both months away from being able to protect themselves should the worst happen."

"Which is why this is the easiest mission on the roster at the moment," Leia said as she glared at Luke. "I also believe this is my Resistance."

"And they are my students," Luke said. He sounded as close to angry as Rey had ever heard him, and it set her nerves on edge.

"What's the alternative?" Finn asked. "If we don't agree to go, will Poe have to go on his own?"

"Given the amount of injured, yes, he would," Leia said. "I have absolute faith in all three of you, and you all seem to work very well together. The mission will be in and out of the base and only if it is abandoned. The first sign of life and you are to evacuate and return to base so I can arrange a larger strike team." Rey glanced at Finn and knew he was thinking the same thing he was: the last pilot that went out on a solo mission didn't return, and the mission before that was Poe's mission to Jakku. Even the best-needed backup and Rey already felt like she wasn't doing enough to help.

"We can do this," she said when Finn nodded. Luke still looked deeply unimpressed, but Leia seemed relieved.

"Fine, if we must do this, then they're going to need supplies," Luke said. "Follow me." Rey and Finn followed Luke out of the room just as Poe was walking in. Leia pulled him aside and began to talk quietly, but Rey missed the entire conversation as the door closed behind them. "We don't have time for you both to build your own sabers, so one of you is going to have to go without one."

"I will," Finn said immediately. "Rey is a better hand-to-hand fighter than I am." Luke nodded like he agreed, but he still didn't look happy about this.

"We're going to be okay," Rey said.

"I sincerely hope so," Luke replied. "You leave tomorrow, and I want to make sure you meditate as much as possible beforehand."

+++

Poe frowned deeply as he walked out of his meeting with Leia. He knew he was going to investigate this base, but he didn't know Finn and Rey were going to come with him. When he mentioned that he thought it was best if they stayed behind where it was safer, Leia said that he would be safer with backup. He collapsed in his bunk and stared at the ceiling as he listened to BB-8 plug itself into the wall and went into low power mode. Poe had had a feeling of dread before the Jakku mission, and now he was getting the same feeling.

When Poe closed his eyes, all he could see was the room in the Finalizer and how much it all hurt. The nightmares weren't daily anymore, but they made sleep so hard to get. Poe only had so much faith in the Force, but it seemed like the more time he spent around Rey and Finn, the better he slept. He wondered if that had something to do with them or if it was the Force working through them. Either way, Poe enjoyed their presence much more than he thought he should.

The three of them were together more than they were apart these days. Rey and Finn were connected at the hip as they trained, but they would bring Poe along for the ride whenever they could. When Luke asked the two of them to spend some time in the woods centering themselves, they managed to convince Poe to go along with them. While they were meditating, Poe fell asleep and got one of the most restful naps he ever had. When he woke up, Finn and Rey were sitting on either side of him, talking quietly. Poe knew he liked spending time with the two of them, which could only end poorly for everyone involved. It was only a matter of time before Rey and Finn would have to go face their destiny, and that would mean leaving the Resistance behind. Poe knew this, but it didn't make facing it any easier. He closed his eyes and tried to get some sleep.

The following morning Poe managed to get himself ready and out the door to the shuttle they were going to take.

"[I do not like that Friend-Poe is going without BB-8,]" BB-8 said.

"It's just a scouting mission, and I'm not going to be in an X-Wing anyway," Poe replied as he began to prep the ship.

"[Yes, but Friend-Poe needs BB-8's help more than he doesn't,]" BB-8 beeped.

"I should find that offensive but considering it's the truth; I'm going to let it slide this time." Poe dropped his bag in storage and went into the cockpit of the shuttle. It was an old Republic shuttle that Leia used when they needed to try and fly under the radar. It wasn't exactly his favorite ship to fly, but Poe would take flying a hunk of garbage over not flying at all.

"[Friend-Rey and Friend-Finn are coming too?]" BB-8 asked.

"Yes, but don't worry; I'm going to keep them safe," Poe said.

"[Yes, but who keeps Friend-Poe safe?]"

"We'll keep each other safe," Rey said, and Poe looked over his shoulder to see her and Finn walking onto the ship. There was a saber clipped to her belt and her staff on her back while Finn had what appeared to be an old imperial nightstick and a blaster.

"I don't know what BB-8 said, but we're keeping each other safe," Finn said. The two of them looked so determined as if they could fight back the entirety of the First Order just to keep the other safe. It felt like an honor just to think that they included him in that small circle of people worthy of their protection. That answer seemed to calm BB-8 down a little, and it only made some sad beeps as Poe walked it off of the ship.

"I'm coming back," Poe said as he knelt down in front of the droid. "I always come back, don't I?" BB-8 didn't sound entirely convinced, but Poe didn't have time to try and convince it otherwise. Luke and Leia both walked toward the ship as Rey and Finn joined him at the on-ramp.

"The first sign that the base is not abandoned you report back to base," Luke said firmly.

"If this is really such an issue, I can go alone," Poe said.

"No," said Rey, Finn, and Leia at the same time. He felt like he should be insulted by how little faith they seemed to have in his abilities but decided it was probably best if he didn't draw attention to the fact that he was still recovering from his last solo mission.

"We can handle this," Finn said like it was an argument that they had already had many times before.

"I know you can," Leia said before Luke could say anything. "Travel safe, and may the Force be with you." Poe saluted as he joined Rey and Finn in the shuttle. He could see the twitch in Rey's fingers as she eyed the co-pilot's seat.

"Go ahead," he said. She smiled brightly as she sat down and began to familiarize herself with the ship. Finn sat down in one of the seats behind Poe as they went through their final checks. Poe eased the shuttle off of the ground, and they took off toward the location of this base. While he would have been fine doing this mission alone, Poe felt a lot better having Rey and Finn here with him.

+++

Finn didn't know anything about piloting, but he enjoyed listening to Rey and Poe talk about it as they passed through lightspeed. They were both so eccentric about it that despite being able to understand every third word, he let them banter back and forth. There was something soothing about their voices that helped ease Finn's nerves. This was the first time he'd been back to a First Order base since Starkiller, and he wasn't sure how he felt about it. There were times that Finn was sure this was all a dream from reconditioning, and none of it was going to be real. The idea woke him up more at night than any of the strange dreams or voices that he sometimes heard.

"Sorry, Finn," Rey said and jerked Finn back to reality.

"For what?" he asked.

"All of the pilot talk," Poe said. "We're leaving you out of the conversation."

"That's okay. I like listening to you two talk," Finn replied. Rey smiled brightly, but Poe turned back to the panel. His ears looked a little red, though, which Finn found fascinating.

"We're coming up on the planet," Poe said as they cracked out of lightspeed and over a planet that Finn had never heard of. It was part of the outer rim and appeared to be a good place to hide something; it was also a place that he'd never heard in passing. That didn't mean anything, Finn had told Leia right before they left on the mission, but he knew at least the general locations of most of the major bases.

"All of the scans are reading clear," Rey said. "I'm not even sure if the base has any power at all."

"The mission report said that the planet supports human life," Finn said.

"Let's go see what we find in an abandoned First Order storage closet." Poe turned the shuttle toward the planet, and they landed in what appeared to be red dirt several miles from the base. Rey did another scan to see if anything popped up on the radars, but they seemed clear. Poe strapped a blaster to his leg, and Finn followed him and Rey out of the shuttle. The planet wasn't exactly warm, but it was very humid. The dirt appeared to be more like mud that stuck to absolutely everything.

"I'm glad you didn't bring BB-8," Rey said as she made a face at the mud that was sticking to her shoes. "It would have taken years to get it clean after going through this stuff."

"Be sure to tell it that when we get back. I'm pretty sure it's mad at me," Poe said, and he looked at Finn. "Do you want to take point?"

"Sure," Finn said as he began to lead the three of them toward the base. It looked similar in design to others that he had seen or heard about over the years. The readings all continued to say that no one was on the base, but Finn kept to cover nevertheless. Something about this place set his teeth on edge, and he wanted to ask Rey if she felt the same way. He glanced back at them, under the pretense to make sure that both of them were close by still, but Rey looked very calm. They trained together, and Finn could tell now when she wasn't centered, but Rey seemed like the epitome of calm.

The base's doors were almost sealed shut from the mud of the planet, and it took all three of them to get one of them to open just enough for them to sneak through. The air in the base felt very still, and there didn't appear to be any functions inside. It somehow made the humidity even worse.

"Let's have a look around, and then we can report back to the General," Poe said. Finn wanted to disagree—his instincts were telling him something was wrong—but Poe began to walk further into the base. Rey reached over and touched Finn's hand. It was like Rey's calm spilled over his body like water, and Finn released a breath he didn't know he was holding.

"Everything okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, let's see what we can find here," Finn replied, and they followed Poe down one of the dark hallways.

+++

Rey wasn't sure what was bothering Finn so much, but she tried to think calming thoughts to him as much as possible. She wanted to reach over and take his hand, but that seemed like it would be a little out of place considering where they were. The base was dead silent save for the sound of the wind outside. There also didn't appear to be any supplies or information left, either. The few rooms they managed to get into were just as empty as the rest of the base. The longer they went without another sign of life, the calmer Finn seemed to get. She guessed he was just on edge because this was a First Order base, and he knew, better than anyone, how they worked.

The main rooms appeared to be just as abandoned as the rest of the base, but there was hardware that couldn't be moved. Poe frowned as he looked over the equipment and pushed a few buttons.

"Do you think you can get this up and running, Rey?" he asked. "There might be some data left that I can recover."

"There is probably a little power left in a few cells beneath the base," Rey said. "But I can't make any promises."

"I'll keep watch," Finn said, and they got to work. The equipment appeared to be in good working order, and Rey threw out directions to Poe from across the room so he could help as well. It took a little longer than Rey would have liked, but she found a backup battery that appeared to have enough power to bring everything up for a few minutes.

"I knew that if there was anyone who could get this stuff working, it was you," Poe said with that disarming smile of his.

"Thank you," Rey stuttered, still not used to people around her saying such kind things. Finn walked away from the door and stood close enough to Rey that their shoulders were touching. He was still unhappy, and Rey wasn't sure if it was Finn affecting her emotions, but she didn't feel safe either. "We won't have much time, and the power could draw attention to us."

"Then we'll get anything we can and hightail it out of here," Poe said as the system booted up. The various screens in the control room flickered as Poe plugged in a drive similar to R2-D2 and BB-8 that would download any data left. All of the screens showed what appeared to be the same security camera. It was Kylo Ren, and he wasn't wearing his mask. Rey could see the large scar she had left on his face, but it was the way he was looking directly at the camera that made her heart start to pound.

"I believe it was my parent's good friend Admiral Akbar who said it best," Ren said with a smirk. "It's a trap."The base suddenly turned on as everything around them began to spring to life. Ren was nearby, Rey couldn't believe she hadn't felt it, and he was eager to see them.

"Get back to the ship, now," she said. Finn and Poe didn't need to be told twice, and the three of them began to sprint down the hallways of the base. Ren was close, it was like he was breathing down their necks, and the first time a blaster bolt nearly took her head off, Rey nearly jumped out of her skin. The three of them ducked into a side hallway, but this kind of cover wasn't going to stop him. Rey touched her lightsaber and tried to center herself.

"Okay, okay, you two get back to the ship," Poe said. "I'll stay here and try to hold him off as long as I can."

"You won't last five seconds against that guy," Finn said loudly. "Rey and I have fought him before, and maybe between the three of us, we can stop him."

"Or at least wound him enough that he leaves," Rey said, and she shivered when she felt Ren approaching.

"No, you two need to leave. I can distract him long enough that you can get away," Poe said, but he shook his head when they tried to disagree. "I'm just a Resistance commander; you two are far more important."

"You're not just a commander to us," Rey blurted. She realized two things at once: it was true despite the fact that she shouldn't speak for Finn and that, on some level, Poe was right.

"I'm not leaving you to that maniac. Not after I risked my neck to get you out the first time," Finn said. "We're not leaving you."

"Please," Poe said, and he was practically begging. "Please, let me do this. Let me protect you two." Rey didn't know what to say; this was only the second time in her life that someone declared she was worth dying for. She glanced at Finn, and she could feel how conflicted he was. At the same time, they both respected Poe not only as a fighter but as something more than that. There wasn't any time for goodbyes, Ren was right behind them, and if they were going to get away, they needed time.

"We're coming back for you," Rey said.

"Whether you like it or not," Finn finished.

"Go," Poe said, even if he didn't look entirely convinced that they would be able to come back for him. Rey didn't want to think about that, and she certainly didn't want to think about the kind of galaxy they were fighting for if they didn't bother to save their friends. Rey reached for Finn's hand, and they ran.

Poe slammed his fist on the blast door and heard it seal behind him. The door was supposed to protect them from canons and would likely slow down Ren. If Rey and Finn managed to get back to the base, they could probably evacuate before the First Order showed up. Poe could have kicked himself for being so stupid; the Resistance was stretched so thin that Rey and Finn had to leave before they were ready. He wouldn't have been surprised if this was Ren's plans all along.

"Do you really think a blast door is going to stop me?" Ren asked, and his voice seemed to echo in the hallways.

"I'm thinking it will slow you down if nothing else," Poe replied. There was a reason why he thought that he would be a good distraction. There were rumors that Ren was furious that Poe and Finn managed to escape. He was a man hell-bent on revenge, and there was no greater revenge than capturing and executing the enemy that got away. That was something that Ren couldn't resist. Poe was also a trusted commander to Leia, and if he sent Poe'd body back, that would make a statement. There was a good chance he would be publicly killed in a way that assured that Leia would see.

"Commander Dameron, I was hoping we'd see each other again," Ren said.

"I think we can drop the formalities, Ben," Poe said.

"You don’t want to call me that name again," Ren said, though he sounded a lot angrier now. Whenever Ben would get angry, he would act irrationally. Poe could use that to his advantage. Poe began to sneak away from the blast door and into the labyrinth of tunnels that made up the base. He didn't think he could really sneak up on Ren, but he could do something else.

"Your mother told me everything," Poe said, and Ren was close enough that he could hear the dismissive scoff. "So did your uncle." If Ren hated his mother, there was a good chance that he hated Luke even more. The days after Luke had arrived with Rey, he had pulled Poe aside and explained the situation. When Luke explained that he basically ran away while Poe and his friends were dying, he had to resist the temptation to punch the last Jedi in the face.

"You don't know what it was like," Ren said lowly. Poe pressed his back against one of the walls and peeked around the corner. He waited until Ren emerged and fired off a few shots of his blaster. Ren blocked each one with a hand and his saber. The glow from the unstable blade made his eyes look red. "You don't know what it was like at that school with all of those other people. You don't know what the voices and how much it makes you feel everything around you." Poe fired another shot and ran down the hallway without looking back.

"How do you feel now, Ben?" he yelled.

"You know, I was wondering if it was going to be you or if you were going to bring those two children with you," Ren said. He sounded calmer, which did not work to Poe's advantage. "I'm almost glad you're here trying to protect them." Poe tried to ignore the way his blood ran a little cold at the mere mention of Rey and Finn. He didn't believe in religion, but if the Force could hear him right now, he was praying that they were off the planet. Poe stumbled when the world suddenly tilted on its side. It was like the beginning of a migraine: the world was suddenly far too bright, and the sound of his own breathing was as loud as X-Wing engines.

"Get out of my head, Ben," Poe said through his teeth as he tried to regain his footing.

"Afraid of what I'm going to find in there?" Ren asked. If Ren was getting in his head, then there was only so much time Poe had to do something about this. He thought about space, about the inner working of an X-Wing and BB-8, and made three left turns. Poe turned a corner, and Ren's back was to him. Poe fired three shots of his blaster without thinking twice. Ren turned, and for half a second, it felt like time had slowed time. Poe watched as the three bolts sped toward the son of the woman he idolized, and he just wanted one of them to hit. Ren raised a hand and, in a quick motion, flicked the bolts away as if they were nothing. One went left, the other went right, but Ren turned the bolt around with a flick of the wrist. Poe didn't have time to react, and his own blaster bolt tore through his side.

The pain was enough that Poe stumbled, and between his side and the fact that his vision was blurry, he couldn't stay on his feet. Poe tried to reach for his blaster, but he was suddenly off of the ground and slammed against the wall. The pain in his side made Poe see little black dots, and he had to fight to keep from passing out. He could feel the blood oozing from the wound. It was bad, and he briefly wondered if Ren was going to leave him here to die slowly of a gutshot.

"Do you know how easy it would be for me to crush your throat right now?" Ren asked as he walked toward Poe. There was a pressure around his throat that felt like a hand, but Poe refused to back down.

"Is that the only way you can tamper down all of those feelings these days, Ben?" Poe asked. The pressure around his throat increased, and he could not breathe. He remembered reading about how Darth Vader would Force choke the people who stood up to him. It made sense that Ren would try to emulate the person he idolized more than anyone, even in how he killed people. Poe wanted to reach him as if that could somehow relieve the pressure, he wanted to put a hand to his wound to try and stop the bleeding, but none of his limbs were working. The world was beginning to go dark around the edges as Ren moved into his field of vision.

"Do not call me that again," he said. Ren's hand twitched, and Poe could breathe again. The gasping breaths just made the wound on his side hurt even more, but Poe would not let Ren know that. At least he would not voice it out loud. "The Supreme Leader knows about you, did you know that, Poe?"

"I'm not surprised," Poe replied. "I did fire the shots that blew up Starkiller."

"Oh no, not about that, though he does know you did that. You'll pay for that with your life, eventually," Ren said as if they were having a pleasant conversation. The situation was getting rapidly bizarre, and Poe didn't know how to react to it. "He wanted me to kill you that night we were in the same room. The Supreme Leader was in my mind and telling me what I wanted to hear, but when he told me to kill you, I hesitated. Do you know why?" Ren didn't actually want Poe to answer, so he just continued as if he hadn't asked a question. "I knew if, given the opportunity, you could be an asset."

"You think you can turn me?" Poe asked incredulously. "You might have been in my head, but you don't know anything about me." He felt Ren push into his mind; it was somehow worse than when he was looking for BB-8. Now Ren was digging through his feelings and his memories without looking for much of anything. The pain made the wound on his side burned even more, and Poe could hear his own blood dripping to the ground below.

"You care about FN-2187 and the scavenger. You think you're sacrificing yourself to protect them somehow. You think you can save them by not saving yourself," Ren said, but he sounded far away and yet in Poe's mind at the same time.

"As long as they're safe, they can still defeat you," Poe said through his teeth, but his world was beginning to fog over. He wasn't sure if it was the pain or from blood loss, but he couldn't pull away when Poe felt two gloved fingers on his temple. "Do your worst because I'm not afraid to die for them."

"You're not going to die, Poe. I intend to do my worst as I break you down and mold you into something beautiful," Ren said. "And if that doesn't work, I'll let them watch as I lay your broken body at their feet." Poe didn't have a chance to defend himself; he was suddenly off of the wall and airborne. He could hear Ren talking to someone, it sounded like he was calling a medic, but Poe couldn't hear anything else as he slammed into another wall. He couldn't stop himself as he cried out in pain, and it was all too much. Poe let himself sink into darkness if only to make the voice in his head stop laughing.

+++

Finn hated the idea of leaving Poe behind more than anything. While the First Order always told them that a downed soldier was useless and should be left where they fell, Finn couldn't ever find it in himself to do that. He would hurt his own test scores to go back and help Slip or anyone else that needed it. Captain Phasma and the other trainers would punish him for it, but they would also say he was a good leader. He would tell him that he would make a fine captain or more someday. Sometimes, Finn wondered if Captain Phasma would have taken him under her wing to teach him and help him rise to the top.

He never thought like them, though, so the idea of doing something that felt so like them sat so wrong. It felt like someone had put shattered glass underneath his skin: and no matter what Finn did, he couldn't get it out. He wanted to turn around and go back for Poe, but he couldn't get rid of the image of Poe begging them to leave without him. It felt wrong to dishonor a fellow soldier like that even if his fellow soldier's wishes felt so wrong. Finn wasn't sure who was madder that all of this was a trap, but he would not let Poe die here. They were going to come back and get him.

The first vision made Finn stumble so hard that he nearly fell into the red mud. It was brief, but it was like he was back in that hallway again, only now there was blood on the floor and on the wall. The world was rapidly getting louder and brighter, and it was getting harder to focus on Rey as she ran in front of him. The hallway flashed in front of his eyes again, and Finn could hear someone whimpering in pain as someone else laughed about it. He tripped over a rock and fell to his knees. Rey stopped and knelt down in front of him.

"We need to keep going," she said as she tried to help Finn to his feet.

"I can't," he said. "Rey, he's in my head. I can't keep him out."

"I can feel him trying," Rey said, frowning. "But I haven't seen or felt anything yet."

"We both know you're the stronger one," Finn said as the hallway flashed in his mind again. It was like he was looking through the eyes of Kylo Ren now, and he could almost feel the other man's emotions. They were much more complicated than he thought they would be. There was anger toward the Resistance pilot on the ground, but something else was brewing just beneath the surface. Finn could smell the burnt flesh that came when someone got hit with a blaster. "He keeps showing me what happened to Poe or what's going to happen. I can't get it to stop."

"You have to keep trying," Rey said, but Finn was having a hard time figuring out whether she was real or if the hallway was real. He could hear Kylo Ren talking about giving orders, but he couldn't understand what they were. He could see Kylo Ren putting a hand on a blast door and watching it fall to pieces through his fingers. "Finn, look at me." There were hands, hands that had callouses on them from years of digging through wrecked space ships looking for parts, the hands of someone that had to do so much to survive, and Finn looked into Rey's eyes. He wanted to tell her he couldn't keep him out, but she didn't give him the chance. Rey leaned forward and kissed him.

Finn didn't have that much experience with kissing other people. While there was no way to stop it from happening within the stormtrooper ranks, Finn didn't like to take part. They seemed to be people trying to get each other off in an attempt to forget what was happening, but this was different. This was like getting in a cold shower after a long day of practice like the water was washing away all of the evidence of the previous day from his body. It felt like Rey was slowly washing away, Kylo Ren from his mind, and it was being replaced with her own unwavering strength. It felt like safety, like protection, but also so much more.

Rey pressed her forehead to Finn's. He didn't remember reaching up to touch her arms, but when he became aware of it, he couldn't pull away. She was helping him keep Ren out of his head, and he didn't want that to end.

"Thank you," he whispered.

"You're welcome," she replied. A beat passed before they both seemed to realize that they were supposed to be running and jumped to their feet. This time Rey took his hand as they ran. It was like being on Jakku again, as they ran from the TIE fighters with BB-8 close behind. This felt familiar, and that was something Finn could hold onto as they ran up to the shuttle. "We're coming back," Rey said as she began to flip the various controls. Finn wondered if she was reading his mind and could see how conflicted he was about this. Then again, Rey and Poe had developed a good friendship over their mutual love of flying, so she probably wanted him back just as safe as he did.

"I'll handle weapons," Finn said as he ran to the back of the shuttle where it had one canon that wouldn't do too much. This was supposed to be a recon mission, so there didn't seem any reason to bring anything bigger.

"I'm not seeing any other ships at the moment," Rey said. "Let's get out of here before that changes." The shuttle took off from the ground and began to ascend into the atmosphere. Finn was about to relax when two large booms hit the shuttle hard. "What was that?" Rey yelled as she struggled to control the shuttle. Finn scanned the planet and could see two large anti-aircraft cannons hidden near the base. It looked like they were tracking for another hit.

"Anti-aircraft cannons!" Finn screamed. He got up to run to the cockpit to help Rey since there was no fighting a cannon when another strike hit the shuttle. Finn was thrown to the side and slammed into the wall. He could hear Rey telling him that they were going down, and there wasn't anything she could do about it. It was instinct more than anything that helped Finn strap himself into a seat, but they were falling fast. Rey screamed to brace for impact, and Finn's entire world cut to black.

+++

Rey's world slowly came back into focus. She could smell smoke and some fire, but it didn't feel close. There was also the smell of fuel, which meant that they needed to get out of here as soon as possible. 'We never stood a chance of leaving if we didn't see Kylo Ren,' Rey thought as she struggled to get out of the seat. She was sore everywhere, but nothing appeared to be broken.

"Finn?" she called out, to no answer. When Rey took a step, her right knee nearly gave out, and she needed to brace herself to keep from falling. She tested the leg again, and she was able to walk with a limp. Rey made her way into the shuttle's main part and found Finn still strapped into a seat and no moving. She panicked almost instantly. "Finn? Finn! Can you hear me?" she felt his neck for a pulse. There was one, but he didn't appear to be waking up. It took all of her strength to get him out of the chair and drag him out of the shuttle. She needed to get some distance in case something decided to explode.

Rey managed to get them a safe distance away and set Finn down on the ground. She was having flashbacks to Starkiller and how still Finn was back then. How she didn't think he was going to live, and she was going to lose the first person she ever really cared about. Rey touched Finn's cheek again, and he groaned, which made her breathe a sigh of relief.

"That doesn't look good," a voice said, and Rey looked up to see Kylo Ren walking toward them as if he didn't have a care in the world. Her knee screamed, but she was on her feet in seconds as she put herself between Ren and Finn.

"You shot us out of the sky," Rey snapped with a hand on her lightsaber. Ren looked at the weapon on her belt and smiled a little.

"I couldn't have you leaving, and I'm sure you didn't want to leave either," Ren said. Rey noticed as he got closer that there was blood on Ren's black robes. She thought about lightsaber wounds and what kind of damage could cause that much blood. Ren, of course, noticed her looking. "You want to ask if he's alive, but you're afraid of the answer." Rey refused to give Ren the satisfaction that he was able to read her, but he took her silence as affirmation. "I must say blaster wounds can really do a lot of damage to a person. Not enough to kill, not yet anyway, but close if he doesn't get medical attention."

"I'm not going to let you leave him to bleed out," Rey snapped. She pulled her lightsaber off of her belt and turned it on. Ren tilted his head to the side as if he was seeing something entertaining.

"Do you know why he was so adamant that you two leave?" Ren asked.

"Because Poe's a good person with a good heart; something you wouldn't understand," Rey replied.

"There is some of that; Dameron has been self-sacrificing half of his life, so I'm not surprised it has gotten worse. He wanted to make sure that you two were safe. He was willing to give his life for it, but his intentions were not entirely his own," Ren explained. He turned his saber in his fingers but didn't turn it on. "He was under orders."

"What are you talking about?" Rey asked.

"My mother and my uncle. They pulled him aside before you left and told him to give himself up if it kept you and FN-2187 safe. You two mattered more than his life." Ren smiled like he heard a great joke as Rey felt her heart turn to ice. "Those are the type of people you're following, Rey. Ones that would throw an ace pilot to the wolves if it kept Jedi's safe. Jedi's lives always mattered more than anyone else's." Rey wanted to argue that it wasn’t true, but she realized that she didn't really know Luke and Leia that well. There was a reason the two of them were still alive; Rey didn't want to think about all of the people they must have double-crossed over the years. Ren grinned and turned his saber on. "I see you're coming to the correct conclusion."

"It doesn't matter," Rey said. "I'm not going to let you take us, and I'm not going to let you hurt either of them." Ren smiled and didn't say a word as he rushed toward her. He was much faster than Rey expected, and she stumbled back on her bad knee almost immediately. She ignored the pain, she could power through it, but Ren noticed her hesitation.

"The last time I was injured, and you were barely able to beat me. Do you really think you're going to beat me when you can barely walk?" Ren asked. Rey knew she couldn't possibly beat him, but she wasn't about to lie down and let him win.

"If you're going to kill me, I'm not going to make it easy," she said.

"Kill you? I don't want to kill you. I don't want to kill either of you," Ren said. "The Supreme Leader thinks that one or both of them could be useful. He wants you taken captive, and that is what I plan to do." Rey didn't get the chance to reply as Ren unleashed a volley of attacks that she could barely block. Rey stumbled back on her bad knee and fell to the ground. Ren put a hand out, and she couldn't move. He wasn't in her head, but she couldn't keep him from holding her still. Rey struggled, but when he touched her temple, all she heard was the word 'sleep' echoing in her mind.

+++

Poe didn't remember a lot. There were flashes of someone picking him up and the pain being almost unbearable. Someone was prodding his side in a place that looked a little too white. There was the all too familiar smell of bacta patches, which meant that he was being stitched up for some reason that didn't make any sense. The world was hazy, but whatever painkiller they had given him was not enough, and his side still ached.

The first time the world came back into focus, Poe realized he was being wheeled down a hallway on a bed. They hadn't put binders on his wrists, and he knew he should try to get up and run, but his limbs weren't responding. The stormtroopers rolling the bed didn't even acknowledge that he was awake as they typed in a number to a room. The troopers pulled Poe off of the bed and dropped him on the floor like he wasn't injured at all. He groaned as he pressed a hand to the wound on his side and tried to keep from crying out in pain. The troopers rolled the bed out of the room, and the cell door shut. Poe tried to focus on something other than the pounding pain in his side, but that only made him realize that he was not alone.

"I'm not sure I get the point in patching me up if your troopers are just going to rip me open again," Poe said. He didn't need to look to know it was Ren leaning against the far wall. It took some effort, but Poe managed to get to his feet and glanced over his shoulder. Ren looked amused, which annoyed him.

"We've fixed you enough that the skin won't break and you won't bleed, but we didn't heal any of the torn muscle," Ren replied.

"Of course, you didn't." Poe made his way to the other side of the cell and leaned heavily against the wall. It took more effort than he was willing to admit to slowly ease back down to the ground. "Wouldn't want to leave me pain-free, would you, Ben?" Ren was on his feet and halfway across the room before Poe could blink. Poe gave himself a mental pat on the back that he didn't flinch and just raised an eyebrow. Ren released a deep breath and looked considerably calmer.

"You're baiting me," he said.

"You’ve always made it so easy," Poe replied.

"I shot your two Jedi friends out of the sky, and they are being held here as well," Ren said calmly. Poe sneered and tried to jump to his feet to rush Ren, or at least do something, but Ren waved a hand and knocked Poe back on his ass.

"You're not going to touch them," Poe growled.

"Baiting. You always made it so easy," Ren said with a smirk. "Does that upset you?"

"Does you taking my friend captive upset me? What do you think, Ben?" Poe snapped. Ren's eyes twitched at the mention of his real name, but he wasn't rising to the bait anymore.

"No, that you don't get to die for them," Ren replied. "I know that's what my mother and my uncle told you to do." It annoyed Poe that Ren had apparently been in his head when he was asleep and knew about that conversation. It wasn't that Leia or Luke wanted him to die for Rey and Finn only if that was the only option, then he had to take it. "They're going to come for them eventually because they are important. They wouldn't come for you, though."

"I'm one Resistance fighter. I wouldn't ask them to," Poe said.

"The sad thing is, I think you really believe that." Ren turned and walked toward the door but paused there. "The Supreme Leader wants those two, and you're going to help me accomplish that, one way or another. Then I'm going to put a blaster to your head and pull the trigger like I should have done years ago." Ren marched out of the room all the drama queen he was when he was a kid with robes flowing behind him. Poe closed his eyes and tried to slow his heartbeat down. He wasn't going to help Ren turn Rey or Finn. He would die before he did that, and it was looking like that was the end of the road no matter what he did.

+++

It took a considerable amount of effort for Finn to open his eyes. It reminded him of when Ren had sliced his back with the lightsaber on Starkiller base and how the first time he woke up in medical, his entire body had felt like a bruise. It was not quite as bad this time, but it was still tough to get his limbs to cooperate. Finn shifted, and there was someone by his side within seconds. He recognized Rey immediately, and it made him feel a little better than she was with him. Finn opened his eyes and saw a very worried Rey looking down at him.

"Oh, thank the Force," she whispered and threw her arms around him. Her hug was hurting some of his bruises, but Finn ignored them in favor of her calming presence. He glanced around and realized they were in a large cell somewhere on the base. There weren't any troopers nearby; in fact, Finn didn't hear a single voice anywhere nearby.

"What happened?" he asked. Rey pulled away and looked ashamed for some reason. "Rey, what's wrong?"

"We crashed, and Kylo Ren was there. My knee was hurt, so I couldn't fight him, and he got the best of me," she explained softly. "I wasn't strong enough."

"You were injured," Finn said softly, and he took Rey's hands into his own. "There was nothing you could have done. This was all a trap. Now, catch me up on everything that you know." Rey visibly pulled herself together and squeezed Finn's hands.

"Poe is alive, or at least he was when I saw Ren. He doesn't want to kill us because Snoke wants something to do with us. He also told me that," Rey hesitated. "He told me that Luke and Leia told Poe to sacrifice himself if it meant that we would survive. Ren said that Jedi lives have always been worth more than anyone else."

"Do you believe that?" Finn asked slowly.

"I don't know. I hope not," Rey replied. "I haven't seen anyone since I woke up, and there was food waiting for us when I came to. I can't feel anything either. It's like we're completely alone."

"Okay, we have to eat, so let's get some of that food and try to get our strength back," Finn said as Rey helped him stand up. He was bruised from the crash, and his head was spinning a bit, but in general, Finn felt okay. The tray of food was sitting near a small hatch that was maybe three inches tall on the ground. They were in a normal steel cell with bars that didn't feel like they had anything preventing them from using the force in them. They could meditate and make the tray, and some of the food float, and Finn could easily feel the force. However, it seemed like any person that could possibly influence was out of their range.

It was several hours of no one coming that the door leading into the room where their cell was open. Finn was ready to work with Rey as soon as the person walked into the room, but they were both surprised to see a protocol droid instead. It was carrying another meal and didn't seem to be accompanied by anyone.

"Hello? Can you tell us what's going on?" Finn asked. The droid put their food on the ground, slid it in the cell, and walked away without even acknowledging them. Something about this entire thing was making Finn very uneasy, but he wasn't sure why. The lights in the cell dimmed after they finished their meal, so he guessed it was time for them to sleep. "We should take shifts."

"We're both aware enough that no one could really sneak up on us," Rey said as she yawned. "Ren is very loud in the force now that we know what he feels like better, and stormtroopers aren't exactly quiet."

"I can be sneaky if I want to be," Finn said with a pout. It made Rey smile, which made the entire cell feel a little warmer. There was only one bed, and they had a silent conversation before deciding it was probably best to share. Finn had to keep his back to the wall as he pulled Rey close to him. It felt comforting, but it also felt like it could be so much more. He willed his body to ignore its basic functions because this was not the place or the time.

"You need to stop projecting," Rey teased, and Finn felt his cheeks turn bright red. He buried his face in her hair in a hopeless attempt to hide.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled. "I swear it's not intentional."

"I know it's not intentional," Rey said, and she sounded amused, which was probably a good thing for Finn. She reached over and placed his hand on her hip, and her hand lingers. "We need each other to get through this and to save Poe. We can do this."

"Yeah, we can." Finn didn't entirely agree with her, and Rey probably knew that if he was projecting, but the truth was he didn't see this ending well for them. They had no idea what Ren actually wanted them to do, and they had no idea if Poe was alive or even still on the base. Finn needed to be brave, and he knew he could do this if he tried. He had faith in Rey's ability to keep them safe, in Poe's ability to stay alive, and in his own ability to figure out a way to get them out of here alive.

Finn's dreams had only gotten worse the longer he had spent training with Luke, but now it was like swimming in an endless void. There was darkness everywhere, and he wondered if maybe he was seeing Ren's dreams somehow. There was pain, so much pain, and a deep sense of failure. This was a feeling he knew, Finn recognized this person, but before he could reach out, it was like Poe was snatched away from him. Finn's eyes snapped open just as the door opened again.

Rey was up too—it appeared they had woken up at the same time—and he glanced at her. She nodded; she must have been dreaming as well. The same droid that brought them their food was here again with what appeared to be breakfast, but a smaller droid was following behind. Their food was left on the ground, but the smaller droid stopped just out of reach of the bars and sat there. The larger protocol droid left without acknowledging them again.

"Hello?" Rey asked the smaller droid. "Can you communicate?" It said nothing, but it did appear to be waiting for something.

"They aren't sending people," Finn said as they ate their breakfast. "We can't manipulate droids. That's why we can't feel anyone. They're keeping us isolated from anyone we could sway."

"It's a good plan," Rey replied. "I just don't understand what we're supposed to do if we never see anyone." They ate in silence for a time until the droid seemed to turn on and opened to reveal a screen. It flickered on and revealed what appeared to be an interrogation room. The door to the room opened, and Kylo Ren walked in. He waved at them.

"Hello, you two. I see my droid has found you," he said. "This is a two-way broadcast, so I can see and hear you both as well."

"What do you want, Ren?" Rey asked.

"To get the show started, of course," Ren replied with a smirk that made Finn's blood run cold. Rey reached over and took Finn's hand into her own. She didn't care if Ren saw it and assumed something or saw it as a weakness. She needed to know he was there just as much as he needed her at that moment. Rey could feel how Finn was silently panicking just as much as she was at that moment.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"You're both too powerful for me to sway, so I've decided that I'm going to have to convince you to come with me in another way. If you don't choose, then there isn't any point, and the Supreme Leader needs you both to come willingly," Ren said. Rey watched as the door opened, and two troopers dragged Poe into the room. She didn't want to witness this, but she couldn't look away either. "You both seem to think your dedication to the light is a strength. I believe it is a weakness, and I'm going to prove it to you now." Poe winced as they strapped him to one of those damn interrogation chairs. There was a considerable amount of blood on his clothing, and Poe was very pale, but Rey could also see what looked to be a bandage. The two troopers left, and Ren smiled.

"Is that a camera?" Poe asked.

"Say hello to your Jedi friends," Ren replied. "We're broadcasting live to the two of them."

"This is your plan, Ben?" Poe asked. He didn't sound worried despite looking half dead, which just made Rey even more worried. There was no way he was this flippant. Ren moved faster than Rey's eyes could follow. Poe's head snapped to the side that made her wince as Ren backhanded him hard. Poe's lip started to bleed, and he spat blood onto the ground.

"I told you not to call me that name," Ren said darkly. The tone of his voice sent a chill down Rey's spine, but she was surprised that Poe didn't seem that worried at all. In fact, he looked at Ren like he wasn't a threat at all.

"What's your plan here, Ben?" Poe asked as if he didn't just get hit for calling Ren by his real name. "You're going to hurt me in front of them to prove something?"

"I told them what my mother and my uncle did," Ren said, and Poe raised an eyebrow. "I told them that they wanted you to sacrifice yourself."

"You mean like any soldier would do for a fellow soldier," Poe replied as if it wasn't that big of a deal. "That's what good people do for each other; they give up their lives to help one another. I'm willing to give up my life to save them, so you might as well just kill me and get it over with. You're not going to get anything from this."

"No," Rey said without thinking. Poe looked at the camera for the first time and shook his head just a little. Ren looked at the camera and smiled.

"Yes, you're willing to die, Poe. I've always known you were willing to die, but the question is: are they willing to watch you die?" Ren asked. He began to circle Poe like a predator, and it made Rey nervous. "Here are the rules for this little game, Rey and Finn. You look away from this feed, and he dies. If you try to turn off this feed, he dies. Unless you want that blood on your hands, you're going to watch every second of this until we're done." Ren raised a hand, and Poe began to shift uncomfortably. He was using the Force to inflict pain, and it made Rey feel sick. "You're going to watch him suffer over and over again, and I want you to know that it's your fault. You could end this, but you won't." Rey could almost feel the pressure of the Force as Poe began to sweat and grit his teeth together. He was trying not to scream, and she hated it. Rey looked at Finn, who appeared to be about five seconds away from unleashing hell on the entire world. Finn saved Poe from this fate once, and the idea that he was a catalyst for it happening a second time must have been killing him.

"Stop this, Ren," Finn said.

"There is only one way to stop this," Ren said as he circled Poe and placed a fingertip on Poe's temple. Poe jerked and bit his lower lip hard enough that it started to bleed. He was trying not to scream. "In fact, you two can stop this. All you need to do is agree to come with me with the Supreme Leader of your own free will. I can't make either of you come, so this is the next best thing."

"No," Poe said between his teeth.

"Did you say something, Commander? Did you want to join the conversation?" Ren asked. He was smirking like this was hilarious to him. "Do you really think begging me is going to do anything to help?"

"Wasn't talking to you," Poe managed to say, and it sounded like it took a lot of effort. Poe looked directly at the camera and at them; he was looking at them, and somehow knowing that fact made Rey feel even worse. "Don't give in," Poe managed to say, but it took another considerable effort for him to get the words out. He gripped his fists so tightly Rey was sure Poe’s nails were cutting into his own palms. "I can take it but don't give in. Not for me." Ren's composure shifted at that; his eyes went darker somehow, and he smiled.

"Self-sacrificing idiot," Ren said. Ren pressed his entire hand to the side of Poe's head, and Poe could not hold back his scream anymore. It echoed throughout the cell, and it hung on Rey's skin. It was the worst feeling in the world, but through the screams, Poe managed to look directly at the camera again, and he shook his head. He was asking them not to save him, he was asking them to let this happen, and Rey squeezed Finn's hand. He wasn't begging Ren to stop the pain or to spare his life; Poe was begging Finn and Rey to continue to say 'no' to Kylo Ren and Supreme Leader Snoke. Rey didn't hide her tears, and when she looked at Finn, he was crying as well. There was nothing either of them could do.

+++

The session ended after god knows how many hours of screaming. Poe hardly had a voice left, and all he wanted was some water. Ren was stomping around the room like a child having a fit and waved his hand. Poe could see the feed of Rey and Finn, the picture he'd been clinging to like a lifeline, turn off. Ren glared at him, and Poe had to laugh because he was probably a little out of his mind.

"I can't believe you thought that would work, Ben," Poe said he nearly lost some of the words. "You never thought your plans through very well." Ren was in front of him faster than Poe's eyes could follow, and a strong hand was wrapped around his neck. It felt as if Ren could snap his neck right there, but instead, Ren stood too close and watched as Poe struggled to breathe. The world around him began to darken, and Poe wondered if this was it. If Ren was going to choke the life out of him and give up on his plan for Rey and Finn.

"Call me that name again, and you'll regret it," Ren warned. He released Poe's throat but stayed close as Poe struggled not to hyperventilate. Poe's neck felt bruised, and now it felt like it was going to be even harder to talk. Ren was close enough that Poe could see Leia's familiar eyes looking back at him, and it made reality tilt on its side for a second. Poe blinked several times to try and clear his mind, but Ren must have caught his stray thought. "You aren't looking into the eyes of your precious general, Poe. She won't save you, no one is going to save you, and you'll be begging for death before the end of the week."

"I bet I won't be," Poe replied. He sounded much more confident than he felt, which was a little irritating. Ren probably knew, but Poe was doing his best not to acknowledge the fact that the pain behind his eyes was Ren going through his thoughts. It was probably best if he didn't think about it too much.

"We will see how confident you feel in a few days if you last that long," Ren said. Poe shrugged, or did his best to, and thought about space just to throw Ren off a little. Two stormtroopers came in and dragged Poe from the torture rack and back to his cell. He couldn't get the image of Rey and Finn watching him with big, broken eyes and actual tears. He knew they cared about him, but he also knew they probably cared about each other more. Poe never thought they would cry over him for even a second. The troopers dropped Poe on the ground of his cell, and the wound on his side screamed. He curled inward and tried to keep his breathing even. They left him alone, but it didn't last long. The doors opened, and Ren stomped in again. Poe was about to ask what Ren wanted now when he was pinned to the ground.

"What are you doing now, Ben?" Poe asked and mentally winced as he realized his mistake. If Ren noticed it, he didn't react the way Poe thought he would. Instead, he sat down on the ground next to Poe and glared like Poe was somehow the worst thing he had ever seen.

"I contacted those two children, and they said that they wouldn't join me despite the fact that I said I would spare your life," Ren said conversationally.

"Because they knew you were lying," Poe replied. "You won't spare me. We both know you wouldn't do that because your pride won't let you." Ren narrowed his eyes but said nothing, so Poe continued. "I got away once, and that bothers you."

"You think that's why I won't spare you?" Ren asked, and he laughed. Poe winced because that laugh sounded far too much like Ben, and it made his head spin a little. There was the familiar feeling of Ren picking through his memories, but he tried to ignore it. He tried to think about the sun or the inside of an X-Wing or counted the number of notches in the ceiling. "I used to admire you, Poe." That was not what Poe was expecting, and, for some reason, it made his stomach twist more than any threat Ren had made. "I wanted you to notice me, but you never did. I guess I have your attention now, don't I." He always knew that Ren, Ben, liked him as more than a friend on some level. Now, however, Poe wasn't so sure that this was just the crush that he thought it was. Ren was looking at him like he was something to be possessed. Like he could somehow own Poe, and that set every one of his nerves on edge. Ren smiled and left the room. He was able to move, but Poe stayed on the ground, completely still, for a long time.

The next three days were a haze that Poe couldn't keep track of. The troopers would come in and drag him into the room. They would strap him to the torture rack and leave him there, looking at Rey and Finn looking at him, just long enough that he could acknowledge that they were still safe until Ren would walk in. The rest of the day, the night was spent reliving all of the worst moments of his life, amplified to the worst possible degree. His nerves were constantly on fire, and the questions that Ren was asking because irrelevant. Poe screamed until he completely lost his voice and bit down on his tongue hard enough to draw blood. He took an inordinate amount of satisfaction, spitting that blood into Ren's face even if he paid for it with a punch hard enough that it broke his nose.

The days and hours were blurring together, and Poe was having a hard time remembering everything that had happened. There was a very good chance that he was starting to go out of his mind and that he wasn't going to last much longer. Poe could tell when Ren was getting close to the room; it felt like his nerves were on fire. It was like his body was slowly catching on fire the closer Ren would get to him, and now Ren only had to be in the room for Poe to be in enough pain that he would start screaming.

Ren reached forward with the Force, and Poe's world when white with pain.

+++

Finn hated every second of this. The last several days had been spent listening to a good friend scream in pain while being able to do nothing about it. After the first day, he sat with Rey, and they tried to come up with a plan. Perhaps they could lie to Ren? There was the chance that he could tell, and he might kill Poe just for pissing him off. Rey reached with the Force as far as she could, but everyone was always just out of reach. By the end of the fourth or fifth day, Poe looked like he was barely holding on. He was wincing before Ren even walked in the room, and he screamed worse than ever. Finn hated watching this but, despite it all, Poe kept telling them not to give in. He kept insisting he could take this, but it seemed he never thought about what he was forcing Rey and Finn to watch.

"Maybe we should refuse to watch," Rey said after the troopers dragged Poe away and Ren vanished from the screen. The droid had just left the room, and Finn frowned.

"Ren said he would kill Poe if we didn't watch," Finn said, but as soon as he said the worlds, the reality of what Rey was saying sunk in. "You think it would be kinder if we let him die?"

"You're thinking the same thing," she said as she shifted from her place on the small bed. She had arms wrapped around her legs as if she was trying to make herself look smaller. "If Ren doesn't have Poe to loom over us, he has to deal with us directly, and maybe we can influence him somehow." The idea that either of them was powerful enough to influence Kylo Ren nearly made Finn laugh, but the idea was better than what they were doing right now.

"Ren won't let him go even if we do agree to go with him," Finn said, and Rey nodded sadly. "I don't want him to die."

"I don't either, but watching this is killing me. I can't keep doing this," she said.

"I can't either." Finn sat down next to Rey, close enough that their shoulders were touching. The last several days have been hard on both of them, and Finn knew they were becoming more and more dependent on each other for comfort. The idea of separating gave Finn the same anxiety he used to get back when he was a trooper, and he had to go somewhere by himself. It was a giant, glaring, and obvious weakness that Ren could take advantage of, but he didn't care. Finn took Rey's hand into his own and held onto her like a lifeline.

"We won't watch tomorrow," Rey said softly.

"We won't," Finn agreed despite the fact that he knew he was condemning a brave man to die. They curled up together on the small bed, but neither of them slept much. The droid rolled in at the same time as always. It booted up the screen, and they watched the empty room for only a few moments until two troopers dragged Poe in. He was dead weight in their arms, and while his eyes were open, they didn't appear to be focusing on anything. The troopers left the three of them alone, and there would be only a few seconds before Ren joined them. "Poe, can you hear me?" Finn tried, but Poe twitched and groaned. "Poe, we're going to help you. We're going to put a stop to this."

"And how do you plan to do that?" Ren asked as he walked into the room. Poe tensed considerably and squeezed his eyes shut like he was in pain. Ren hadn't touched him, so the response didn't make much sense. Ren even seemed a little distracted by the reaction and watched Poe with rapt interest.

"We aren't playing this game anymore," Rey said.

"Have you finally decided to end his suffering by joining me to see the Supreme Leader?" Ren asked.

"No, we're not watching you torture him anymore," Finn said. There was an awkward silence as Ren stared at the two of them through the screen.

"If you refuse to watch, I'll kill him," Ren said as if they had somehow forgotten that little fact.

"We know," Rey said softly. Ren began to pace the length of the room, and whenever he would get a little closer, Poe would whimper in pain.

"I see what you're doing," Ren said. "You think you can free him of this pain by refusing to watch me torture him. You think you're somehow saving him." He stopped and watched Poe with a look in his eye that set Finn's nerves on edge. Finn glanced at Rey because this was not going the way he thought it would. "Very well. If you no longer watch this, I can't make you, but the answer is 'no.'"

"What do you mean 'no'?" Rey asked.

"I mean no, I won't kill him," Ren said, and he smirked. "He's mine to do with whatever I seek, and there have been some interesting side effects to this endurance. He isn't broken, not yet, but it's only a matter of time. When he does break, I'll rebuild him as I see fit. I do need a reliable pilot, and who better?"

"I won't—" Finn started, but Ren laughed loudly.

"Are you going to stop me somehow?" Ren shook his head and smiled to himself. "The only thing you've accomplished is now this is the last time you'll see him. When you both give in and finally decide to come with me, and he isn't broken, I will hand him over to General Hux. He doesn't have the Force, but he has his own ways of breaking prisoners."

"You're insane," Rey said, but it was soft enough that Finn wasn't sure that Ren even heard them. He was too busy staring at Poe like he was a piece of meat.

"General Hux arrives tomorrow, and I will have other duties to do. He will take over Commander Dameron's interrogation, though you two won't get to watch anymore. Tell the droid when you want to take me up on my offer. Until then, I do hope you enjoy the accommodations," Ren said. He raised a hand, and Poe began to scream just as the feed cut.

+++

"Ren, Ren, come back!" Rey screamed, but the screen remained dark. She was trying not to panic, but she couldn't help the tight feeling in her chest. It reminded her of one of the first days when she was so hungry she could barely stand, and Rey thought she would die. This time was somehow worse because it was fear for someone else rather than herself. Luke had mentioned that attachments were the path to the dark side, and, as she called out to Kylo Ren, she could see how easy it would be. If Ren told her he would spare all of her friends if she turned to the dark side, Rey wondered if she would even hesitate. She wondered if Finn would hesitate if it kept everyone safe. She wondered if even Luke or Leia would fall if it meant that Kylo Ren would return to them.

"We have to do something," Finn said as he paced back and forth in the cell. "Hux is a completely different type of madman, but he'll do something terrible to Poe. He's so mad that Poe and I made his soldiers look incompetent that he might kill him and say it was an accident. He'll make it painful. He'll make sure Poe suffers."

"Then we need to get out of here," Rey said. "We need to get out of here right now."

"How? We can't break through these bars, and there isn't anyone that we can influence," Finn said. "If someone got close enough, maybe we could, but they are staying far away."

"Then we need to give them an excuse to get closer." Rey watched as the droid began to fold in on itself. It was going to leave, and Rey had an idea. She turned her back to the droid and beckoned for Finn to join her. "If we can make that droid break down just close enough to our range, maybe someone will come and get it in person." Rey offered her hand. "I need your help."

"I'll do whatever it takes," Finn replied, and he took her hand. Rey closed her eyes and let the Force flow through her. It felt powerful, and she could feel Finn trying to help her. He didn't know what piece to break within the droid, but Rey had been studying the droid for days now. She knew to make it look the droid just broke down. If she broke the droid too close to them, the troopers wouldn't come, but if she waited until they were just in her range, they might think it was safe.

Rey felt stronger than she had in years. His presence felt like the feeling she got when she had her first full meal with the Resistance. It felt like the first time Poe let her fly Black One. It felt like the first time Luke smiled when he was teaching her because she had done something that made him happy. It was impossible to describe, and Rey wasn't sure if she could find the words even if she was given an entire lifetime to do so. The droid was slowly making its way down the hallway, and it was getting further and further away. It was near the edge of her range, and Rey reached out with the Force and snapped a small gear in the droid.

The droid stuttered and slowly rolled to a halt. There wasn't anything she could do now except wait and hope that someone would come looking for it. Rey could feel Finn reaching, and he was a steady presence that kept her grounded as they waited. The minutes went by, and Rey refused to admit that she could be wrong, and this was all for nothing. The flicker of a mind eased into Rey's awareness as two troopers walked toward the droid. She could feel their hesitation, they knew they were supposed to keep away, but they had to get the droid. Rey waited and prayed to whatever was listening that she could do this.

The moment Rey could, she latched onto both of the troopers’ minds. They were simple, and when she told them to come to the cell, they listened. Rey didn't want to risk losing the connection and held on until she vaguely heard the door open.

"You will open this cell, leave your weapons on the ground, and come inside," Rey whispered.

"We will open this cell, leave your weapons on the ground, and come inside," the two troopers parroted back to her. Rey tried to ignore how dead their voices sounded and how much it set her nerves on edge that she was controlling people like this. The troopers dropped their weapons, opened the door, and stepped inside. They stared at her as if waiting for further instructions. Rey held onto Finn as they walked slowly out of the cell and locked the door.

"When someone asks you what happened here, you will tell them nothing," Rey said.

"When someone asks us what happened here, we will tell them nothing," the troopers said.

"Sleep," Rey said, and they collapsed to the ground as if they were dead weight. She released her hold on their minds and glanced at Finn.

"You did it," Finn said as he smiled brightly. Rey squeezed his hand and nodded.

"We did," she said. "Let's find Poe and get out of here."

+++

Poe wasn't sure what was real and what wasn't anymore. He imagined that torture from Kylo Ren would eventually become so indistinguishable that reality and what thoughts Ren was planting would blur. There was a very good chance that was exactly what Ren wanted; Poe not only doubting his own sanity but reality itself. If it wasn't for the persistent heartbeat, Poe would be unsure if he was even alive.

The pain wasn't helping either. It felt like Ren was trying to tear him apart cell by cell despite the fact that it didn't even look like he was trying. Ren was just pacing back and forth in Poe's cell as if he wasn't trying to kill Poe with pain slowly. Poe winced and tried to focus on what Ren was saying, but the words kept fading in and out. The pain was too much, and he couldn't focus.

"It's too much," Poe whispered, maybe, he might have just thought it, he wasn't sure. His throat was so raw that Poe wasn't sure how he could form words, but he tried; he needed to tell Ren to stop.

"It's so interesting to me," Ren said, maybe, or maybe Ren was saying that in Poe's head. Either way, the words cut through him like a lightsaber, only somehow worse. Poe would have taken a saber to the guts over this. He would take anything over this. "I wish I could be here to explore this development further."

"What are you talking about?" Poe asked, or thought, he really wasn't sure what was going on, or if Ren was even there. Was he hallucinating his captor? Could Ren project an image into his head? Poe wasn't really sure what the limitations of the Force really were.

"I'm sending you off," Ren said. "Or I'm being made to send you off. I have things to do for the Supreme Leader, so I'm letting General Hux work you over for a while," Ren said, but he stopped in the middle of his pacing. Poe's vision was very blurry, but he could have sworn that Ren looked angry for some reason, which made no sense. Ren should be happy that Poe was going to continue to suffer under the hands of someone else. "He won't keep you alive for long, though. He's going to make you scream every secret I haven't pulled from that head of yours, and he's going to execute you. He's going to broadcast it to the entire galaxy, so everyone has to watch the golden boy of the Resistance die at the hands of the First Order." Ren punched the wall of the cell hard enough that Poe winced. For a moment, Poe thought that maybe he screamed because the burst of power hurt so badly.

"Ben, I can't—"

"I have told you not to call me that," Ren said, his voice rising to a scream. Poe could barely move—his limbs hurt so bad—but he managed to curl into a smaller ball on the floor. Somewhere, in the haze of his mind, Poe knew he was pathetic. That he was weak, and now he was going to pay for that weakness with his life. "You aren't his to kill. I will make sure of that." Ren said or thought, or something.

Ren was suddenly in Poe's field of vision and so close that it felt like someone was trying to peel Poe's flesh from his bones. Poe squeezed his eyes shut and nearly bit his tongue in half as he tried to hold back the screams. "You will look at me." It was like someone else was in control of his body as Poe opened his eyes. Ren was close enough that it didn't matter that Poe could barely see straight. Ren smirked like he was satisfied with something. Poe wished Ren could just put an end to all of this. He didn't want to die, but he also wasn't sure how much longer he would be able to handle all of this.

"Oh, I'm not going to kill you," Ren said. Poe wasn't sure if he was talking out loud or if Ren was in his head again; the fact that he wasn't sure said a lot about his state of mind. "As much as I would love to see my mother and uncle's faces when I slit your throat, I'd much rather show them a broken man who does whatever I tell him."

Ren stood up, and Poe closed his eyes. There was a certain level of truth that he didn't want to accept about his current situation. He hoped that Ren would have lost interest in him by now and he'd be dead, but it didn't appear he was going to be that lucky. Instead, Poe was now the fixation of a mad man who seemed to think keeping him alive and in unbearable pain was the best course of action. Poe knew Ren wouldn't let him kill himself, but the idea of fighting against the Resistance made Poe sick to his stomach. He thought Ren said something about 'collecting him soon' but wasn't sure. Poe curled into the smallest ball possible and tried not to scream as Ren began to walk out of the room.

Poe tried not to think about what he would do for a pain-free day and let himself drift. He lost himself within the chaos of his own mind and, despite the pain, it still felt like a relief. It still felt like an escape.

+++

In a perfect world, Finn wouldn't have to shoot another Stormtrooper. He knew most of the troopers were just people who didn't know better, who were doing their jobs, and he couldn't really hold that against them. At the same time, they were also trying to kill him, and Finn wasn't about to give up and die for them. Rey seemed to understand that he didn't want to kill when he could avoid it, and they worked as hard as they could to knock the troopers out, lock them in closets and other rooms, and in general try to spare as many lives as possible.

They had a location for Poe, but something felt off as they made their way toward him. Finn thought maybe it was Kylo Ren, but it felt different from that. It was like there was blood in his mouth, and he couldn't get the metallic taste out. Rey winced, and Finn wondered if she was feeling the same thing he was. Finn stopped a nearby trooper and reached out with the Force. They needed answers.

"You will tell me where Kylo Ren is," Finn said.

"Lord Ren just finished prisoner interrogation and is set to leave on a mission for the Supreme Leader," the trooper replied. Rey waved a hand, and the trooper fell to the ground, dead asleep, in seconds.

"Something isn't right," Finn said. "Do you feel that?"

"I do," Rey said with that faraway look that she sometimes got when she was trying to communicate with the Force. She suddenly jerked like someone had slapped her, and Finn reached out to steady her.

"Was it Ren?" Finn asked as he tried to think if they could defeat Kylo Ren if he was around the corner. The odds didn't appear to be in their favor, but if Snoke wanted them alive, then they stood a better chance.

"No, I tried to reach for Poe, but it was like I touched a live wire," she said. "We need to get to him." It wasn't until they opened the door to the cell that Finn realized what was causing the bad taste in his mouth and why he felt on edge: he was sensing Poe. He barely recognized the man that was curled on the floor in dirty clothes. Poe was whimpering like he was in pain and visibly jerked when they took a step toward him. Finn looked at Rey and slowly nodded; there was no telling how Poe was going to react to even them after everything Kylo Ren had done to him.

"Poe, it's us, it's Rey and Finn, can you hear me?" Finn asked, but as soon as he spoke, Poe tensed.

"Please stop," Poe whispered, and he sounded so broken. Finn wanted to tear down the First Order piece by piece if it meant that he never had to hear Poe sound like that again.

"Poe, it's us, it's Finn and Rey, can you understand me?" Finn asked, but Poe flinched like just hearing his voice was painful.

"We have to move him," Rey said softly. "Ren is going to notice something is wrong sooner rather than later, and we don't have time."

"I don't think he can walk," Finn replied. Rey pressed her lips together and put her hand on Poe's cheek. He screamed as if he was being burned but fell asleep under Rey's touch nonetheless. When she pulled away, Finn tried not to notice that Rey's hand was shaking. He pulled Poe's dead weight over his shoulder before he decided it would be best if he just carried his friend. Poe felt light in Finn's arms, and he wondered if they had fed him at all in the last week or more. Ren didn't want Poe dead, but he also didn't want Poe in his right mind either. "You take point, and I'll follow," he said. Rey nodded and began to lead them through the compound.

There was still the anti-aircraft weaponry problem that could shoot them out of the sky again if they wanted. Finn shifted Poe in his arms, who was whimpering in pain despite being asleep. It was worrying that maybe Ren did some sort of internal damage that Finn was making worse, but he had to push those thoughts from his mind. He followed Rey through the compound as she knocked out more troopers and cut down the few that were left behind. Finn tried to ignore the blood on the white armor, but it was a sight that was going to haunt him for a while. Rey tilted her head as she looked at a large door in front of them.

"There are too many in there for just me, and this is where we disable the canon," she said. Finn didn't want to, but he set Poe down on the floor and caught the blaster Rey tossed him. He hit the button to open the door, and a lot of things seemed to happen at once. There was an entire crew in the room that were not expecting them to barge in. Rey cut down two officers before a guard could get a weapon out. Finn didn't waste time trying to incapacitate anyone when they needed to have control over those weapons. Finn ducked when a trooper fired a blaster at his head, but he knocked the trooper back with a wave of his hand. The last body fell, and Finn looked at Rey. She was standing over the bodies like some sort of warrior Goddess in a way that took Finn's breath away. She was stunning in her strength, and she wasted no time heading over to the controls.

Finn pulled Poe into the room and began to look him over for injuries as Rey worked on shutting down the canons. The thing that worried Finn, the more he looked Poe over, was that he didn't see much in the way of injuries. It looked like someone had hit him a few times, and there were bruises and cuts but nothing that should have caused the kind of reactions Poe was having. It made Finn nervous, but there wasn't time to focus on that.

"How are we looking?" Finn asked as he joined Rey at the controls.

"I almost have them disabled that will give us enough time to escape, and it looks like there is a small shuttle in the bay, but we might have a problem," Rey said, and she pointed to a familiar black ship that was still docked.

"Ren hasn't left yet," Finn said, and she nodded.

"How does Poe look? Do you think he could pilot for us so we could focus on fighting?" Rey asked, but Finn shook his head.

"He's still reacting like someone is hurting him, but I can't find any injuries that are obvious to me. He won't be able to help us," Finn replied. "I've held Ren off before, and I could do it again if I have to. Or at least until you can get us off the ground."

"They know about the new base, but when we didn't return, we can hope they already evacuated. Maybe there will be something there that can help us find the Resistance again," Rey said. "I just want to get off of this planet and somewhere safe." Finn reached over and took one of Rey's hands and squeezed it.

"Then let's go."

+++

Rey made her way through the base and did her best to remain as aware as possible, but it was hard. The pain from Poe was so bad despite that he was asleep; it was almost distracting, and Rey was worried she was going to turn a corner and get them all killed. That was not an option: she would sooner lift a shuttle off of the ground herself if it meant that Finn and Poe were safe. The fact that it was going to be Finn facing down Kylo Ren if they got caught made her more than a little sick to her stomach. Finn didn't know how to pilot, though, and there weren't any other options. That didn't mean Rey had to like it.

When they got close to the hanger, she took Poe's limp form from Finn's arms and handed him the saber and an extra blaster. Rey knew she wasn't doing a good job of hiding how unhappy she was with all of this, but she didn't expect Finn to press his forehead to hers.

"We're going to be okay," he said, and he sounded so confident that Rey wanted to believe him. She closed her eyes and nodded. Rey wasn't sure what she was expecting, but Finn pressing a soft kiss to her forehead wasn't it. There wasn't any time to talk about it, though. She could feel Ren moving around the base, and his anger was palpable.

"He knows," she whispered. It was hard to hold the dead weight of a full-grown man, but they began to run as fast as possible. If Ren knew they were out, then wasn't any point in being subtle. Rey shot down troopers with the small blaster in her hand as she carried Poe. The hanger finally emerged, and Finn drew the fire from all of the soldiers as Rey ran over to the small shuttle. The door opened, and she set Poe down on the floor none too gently so she could run to the cockpit.

Finn was just outside expertly shooting trooper after trooper and blocking the blasts with the saber as if it was nothing. Rey was trying not to be distracted by just how impressive Finn truly was, but it was a little hard. Rey wondered if this was the same reason she would sometimes catch Finn staring at her like she was a miracle. The firing stopped as Rey continued to do the check-ups on the ship to get it moving, but it was not going as fast as she wanted. She looked up and saw why no one was firing: Kylo Ren was walking across the hanger. He looked furious, and his lightsaber was already burning bright. Rey wanted to get them off of the ground before Finn needed to confront him, but as soon as she tried to start the ship, it made a horrible sound. Finn looked over his shoulder at her and shook his head; it was like he knew that she wanted to come out there and help.

"I can do this," Finn said softly, but it was like he was standing next to her.

"I know you can," Rey replied and got to work. The moment she heard two lightsabers clash, she winced painfully and tried to focus as she looked through the ship to find the problem. Rey found the problem—it was a loose coupling—and was about to run to the cockpit when she noticed Poe was clutching his head in his sleep. His fingers were digging into his scalp so hard that it was starting to bleed. There weren't any wounds on his head, though, nothing that should be bothering him like that, and that made Rey worry. She had to push that pain from her mind and go back to the cockpit. Finn and Ren were clashing, and it appeared that Finn was holding his own, but Ren was clearly the better fighter. It was only a matter of time before Ren got the upper hand, and the image of Finn lying motionless in the snow nearly made Rey lose control. The shuttle hummed to life, and she raced outside to help her friend.

Ren knocked Finn back a step, and, as if they were one person, Finn raised his hand just as Rey raised hers. Kylo Ren froze in place and looked so surprised.

"This isn't possible," he hissed. "I'm stronger than both of you."

"We're leaving," Finn said.

"And the next time you see us, we'll make you pay for what you did," Rey finished. They kept their hands up as they both backed into the shuttle. Rey wasn't sure when she had reached for Finn's hand, but as soon as their skin touched, it was like the Force amplified. They both pushed, and Ren was sent flying across the hanger and slammed into another ship. It wasn't enough to kill him, but it was enough to distract him. Rey ran into the cockpit and strapped herself in as Finn dragged Poe in and strapped him in as well. As soon as Finn was secure, Rey took off and refused to look away until she hit hyperspace. They got away, they were safe, and she finally felt a little relief.

"What do we do now?" Finn asked. "The Resistance will have left the new base for somewhere safer; how do we find them?"

"Let's jump to a few different locations and meditate on it. Maybe the Force can tell us where to go, or maybe we can reach out to Luke or Leia," Rey replied. They moved Poe back to the floor of the ship, and Rey managed to find a few blankets. She touched his forehead and whispered for him to sleep. He nearly screamed but soon went still.

"What did Ren do to him?" Finn asked, but Rey had no answer. She touched the wounds on Poe's forehead that he had inflicted on himself and had no answers.

+++

Poe wasn't sure where he was or how he got there, but he did know it was dark, and he couldn't see an inch in front of his own nose. There was someone else in the room with him, and he could make an educated guess as to who it was. He was about to ask Ren what was going on and what he was going to do this time when a hand was suddenly around his neck, and Poe was shoved against the metal wall behind him. The hand was like a vice, and Poe could not breathe. Ren moved into his line of vision and sneered.

"Did you think you could get away?" he asked, but Ren wasn't looking for any answer. If he did, he wouldn't be crushing Poe's windpipe. Poe wanted to fight back, but it was like he had lost all autonomy. It was the worst feeling in the world, and the fact that he couldn't fight back in any way made it worse. "You think you're going to get away from me? You're mine now, and nothing you do is going to change that." Ren squeezed tighter and black spots began to dance in front of Poe. The world was beginning to fade, and he thought that this was the moment. This was the moment when Ren was going to kill him. The world went black, and there was only the sound of someone calling his name and laughter in his head.

Poe opened his eyes, and everything hurt. It was a familiar pain that came whenever Ren was close, but his surroundings were different. There was someone touching his shoulder, but the touch felt like someone was slowly driving a knife through his flesh. Poe scrambled away from the pain and blinked. He wasn't in a cell anyone, and Ren wasn't the person standing in front of him. In fact, there were two people standing in front of him, and their faces slowly became clearer.

"It's us, Poe," Rey said softly, but her voice hurt the same way Ren's voice did. In fact, this was somehow worse than Ren’s, which didn't make any sense. It stood to reason that Ren would want to make him hurt, but Poe couldn't understand why Rey and Finn were standing there like they weren't putting him through agony. "We managed to get away, do you remember?"

"Why are you doing this?" Poe asked and barely recognized his own voice. It sounded like he had spent an entire lifetime screaming.

"Because we had to get away before he killed us," Finn said slowly like he was talking to an idiot, but none of this made sense. Rey and Finn wouldn't hurt him, wouldn't make it feel like someone was trying to tear him apart, so why was he hurting so much?

"You're not real," Poe said. "You can't be real. You're just images Ren put in my head because there isn't any other explanation." He clutched his head and squeezed his eyes like he could somehow make the visions of his friends go away. This was new; Ren taking the images of the people Poe cared about and making them hurt him. Poe opened his eyes; he was still on a ship, and Rey and Finn were still looking at him like he was a wild animal. They were hurting him. Maybe they were real, maybe Ren had somehow turned them, and this was how he wanted to rub it in Poe's face. They were under orders to make Poe suffer not just physically but to break him by demonstrating how he failed them. "Please, please, don't do this anymore."

"Poe, what are you talking about? We aren't doing anything," Finn said. He raised his hands like Poe was going to attack him and took a step forward. It was like being hit square in the chest with a blaster. Poe cried out in pain, and Finn hurried to take a step back. The betrayal of Finn and Rey torturing him now hurt more than anything Ren had done thus far.

"This is what he wanted," Poe whispered as he looked at the two of them, and the gravity of the situation hit him. "He wanted you to be the ones who finished it. He wanted you to be the ones to break me, so he's having you stand there and put me through the same pain he did."

"Poe, we aren't doing anything to you," Rey said. "We don't know why you're in so much pain, but it's not us." Poe wanted to believe her—she sounded sincere, but there was no possible way it was true. He shook his head and felt something fundamental break in his spirit. This was what Ren wanted, and he had it; Poe felt broken.

"Stay away from me," Poe said as he scrambled away from them. "You're doing enough; just stay away from me." He moved as far from Rey and Finn as he could on the small shuttle. When his back his the far side of the ship, Poe pressed himself against it and tried to ignore the pain. They were still standing there like they had no idea what they were doing to him, but they had to. There wasn't any other explanation. Poe closed his eyes and tried not to focus on the sharp pains flowing through his entire body. Rey and Finn went to the cockpit. After a long silence, but nothing got better. Poe slammed his fist into the metal floor and took solace in the pain. It was better than the alternative.

Finn glanced over his shoulder toward the back of the ship. He could see Poe leaning against the far wall; he winced when Poe slammed his fist into the metal floor.

"It's called 'referred pain,'" Rey said softly. "It's when you purposely hurt yourself to take the pain away from another injury."

"He hurt his hand, though," Finn replied. "He is completely dependent on his hands, and he just hurt his hand. He's not okay." Rey hummed in agreement as they jumped from one sector of the galaxy to another. They didn't really have any idea where they were going. They had stopped at a port, and Rey had stripped the ship of any trackers; now, they were leading anyone that could be following them on a wild goose chase. The two of them had meditated for a while to see if they got any indication from the Force as to where to go next.

"Maybe we should go to the base. They could have left some sort of hidden message as to where they were going next."

"Seems risky," Rey said, but she typed in the coordinates for the base nevertheless. "I imagine Master Luke and the General considered their options when it got out that we got captured."

"In the end, we weren't the ones to suffer for it," Finn said. "I just hope we didn't make the Resistance lose their best pilot."
Rey didn't respond. They watched hyperspace as if it could somehow provide an answer. Finn could hear Poe sleep for a few minutes at a time and then jerk awake again. He still sounded like something was hurting him, but Finn could not figure out what it was. Poe acted like he and Rey were somehow hurting him, which didn't make any sense.

The small moon blinked into view as Rey guided the ship toward the empty base. It looked like the First Order had been here, but once they had ransacked the place, they had abandoned it. Finn frowned: It didn't feel as abandoned as he thought it would. He looked at Rey, who had a similar expression.

She landed the ship, and they carefully walked out. Neither of them attempted to move Poe just yet. In the middle of the nearby hangar sat a lone body. They walked closer, and Finn stopped when he realized who it was.

"I knew you would get out eventually," Luke said as he stood up. They met each other halfway, and Luke gingerly hugged both of them. "I'm glad you're safe."

"What are you doing here?" Rey asked.

"Waiting for you," Luke replied like that was the obvious answer.

"But there aren't any ships nearby. You're here by yourself? They just left you here?" Finn asked.

"I told them I would wait; my sister didn't exactly have the moral high ground to tell me otherwise. It was easy enough to hide from the First Order when they arrived, and afterward, I waited here until you joined me," Luke explained as he looked between two of them. "You don't appear hurt, which I'm very grateful for, but you're missing a certain pilot. Is he the injured one?"

"In a way," Finn said slowly as they walked back toward the ship. The closer they got, the more Luke tensed up; he looked wound so tight he could snap as he walked in the shuttle.

Poe reacted immediately: he screamed like someone was trying to kill him. Finn tried to run toward him to check for injuries, internal bleeding, anything, but Luke put a hand out to stop him. Instead, Luke rummaged through the first aid kit nearby and pulled out a sedative. When he walked toward Poe, the latter shook his head and began to beg for Luke to stop. Luke didn't say anything as he put the needle in Poe's neck. Finn watched Poe fall asleep, and Luke carefully laid him on the floor.

"What's wrong with him?" Rey asked.

"We need to keep him sedated," Luke said without answering her question. "There is another ship waiting for us at a different port that we can switch to and then go to the new base."

"Is it safe for him to travel? I already feel like we've somehow made this worse. He's been telling us to stop hurting him. What happened to him?" Finn asked. Luke was looking at Poe carefully. When Luke didn't reply, Finn decided they probably weren't going to get any answers. He and Rey went back to the cockpit. Luke told them the coordinates for the new ship, and Rey began to put them in.

"Oh, Ben, what have you done?" Luke said when the engines started. Finn wanted to ask for an explanation, for anything, but he knew when it was best to follow orders, even if you didn't like them. He took Rey's hand into his own and laced their fingers together, grateful for her presence, which calmed his own nerves. If he never heard Poe scream again, Finn would be happy. The stolen shuttle took off and sped off to the port.

+++

Rey kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, but it seemed like they were out of danger for now. The ship was waiting at the shady port, and they managed to move Poe without anyone noticing they had a man half-dead with them. Luke refused to tell them what was wrong; he sat with Poe the entire way to the new base. The moment that Poe began to stir, Luke administered another sedative to help him sleep, but Rey could feel the nightmares even then. The first night they slept on the shuttle Rey nearly woke up screaming; it took considerable effort to calm herself down. Finn woke up with her, and he did his best to keep her company. He also seemed to be having nightmares; Rey did her best to return the favor.

She wasn’t sure what she was expecting when they landed, but Leia, a few pilots from Poe’s squadron, and the droids were waiting for them when they landed. Rey opened the door but paused when she saw that Luke wasn’t getting up.

“Tell my sister to get Doctor Kalonia right away and that no one else is to come in this ship,” Luke said with the rare authority of a Jedi master. Rey glanced at Finn, and they both walked out of the ship. Leia was on them in seconds as she pulled Rey into a tight but brief hug.

“I’m so glad you’re both safe,” Leia said. She hugged Finn. “I feared the worst when you didn’t return.” She glanced over Rey’s shoulder and into the ship. “Where is Poe? What is my brother doing in there?”

“Something’s wrong with him,” Rey said softly. Leia’s face shut down immediately: she was the General now. “Master Luke said no one but Doctor Kalonia is to go in there.” Jessika Pava and Snap Wexley stopped as they were about to go into the ship.

“Of course,” Leia replied. She told C3-PO to put in the order to get the Doctor out here right away. Rey wasn’t really paying attention, or at least that was what she told herself when BB-8’s excited form nearly knocked her off of her feet. Finn put a hand on her shoulder and steadied her as she looked down at the droid.

“[Friend-Rey! Friend-Finn! You’re both safe!]” BB-8 exclaimed. “[Where is Friend-Poe?]”

“BeeBee, he’s—” Finn started to say but cut himself off: they didn’t know what was wrong. For all they knew, Poe was going to die any moment now, and Rey didn’t want to think about how BB-8 would react to that. The little droid was so emotive that Rey sometimes forgot it was a droid at all. She looked up and saw a young woman rushing toward the shuttle with two nurses and a stretcher behind her. “He’s inside. Luke said no one but you.”

“Of course Luke is being cryptic,” Kalonia muttered as she rushed into the ship. Leia watched her go and frowned. Kalonia was only on the ship for a moment when she called for the nurses to join her. They didn’t emerge right away; then Luke slowly came down the steps. He nodded to Leia and looked out at everyone.

“We need to leave,” he said.

“What? No, we have to go to medical with him. He can’t be alone when he wakes up,” Rey said.

“I said we need to leave,” Luke repeated. It was a statement. Jessika and Snap didn’t look too happy about this, but everyone began to walk away from the ship. Rey looked over her shoulder as they walked; she waited to see Kalonia and the nurses move Poe. Without thinking about it, Rey reached over and took Finn’s hand into her own. It made her feel a little better, but until she saw Poe healthy again, Rey knew this pit in her stomach wasn’t going away. They were halfway across the base before Kalonia finally emerged with an unconscious Poe on the stretcher and rushed in the opposite direction.

“Care to explain?” Leia asked when they all reached what appeared to be the new command room. “Why was it so important that we leave?”

“What happened to him, exactly?” Luke asked Rey and Finn as if his sister wasn’t a General of the Resistance. “I need to know every detail you can remember.”

Rey didn’t want to think about it, but she and Finn told Luke, Leia, and several other high-ranking members of the Resistance everything that happened while they were captured for the next two hours. Rey knew she was out of that cell and safe, but that didn’t stop her hands from shaking when they were done. Finn was pale and sickly like he was about to pass out. A long moment of silence passed as everyone seemed to process exactly what Rey and Finn had told them.

“Luke,” Leia said, finally breaking the silence. “what did my son do?”

“It’ll take some time before I’m entirely sure, but, right now, it seems like Ben stripped Poe of the ability to defend itself from someone with the Force. His mind is exposed like a nerve: it knows what the Force feels like, and it immediately associates it with pain. Anyone with the Force in the proximity of Commander Dameron will cause him extreme pain.” Luke looked at Leia, Rey, and Finn. “None of us can get anywhere near him unless we want to torture him.”

+++

Poe felt comfortable, and that alone immediately made him panic. There was a good chance he was dead or that Ren had decided he needed to be kept somewhere ‘safer,’ and that didn’t make him feel any better. If anything, Poe was sure the worst had happened, and his mind had snapped. He opened his eyes and looked at a medical wing's bright light, which made him very nervous. That meant he was so out of his mind Ren had decided he needed medical attention.

“Commander,” a voice that sounded a lot like Kalonia said. “I know you’re afraid, but I need you to try and calm yourself down.”

“How can I do that?” Poe asked.

“You’re safe now,” she said. Poe blinked, and Kalonia was in front of him, smiling. It was the tight kind of smile she got when she needed to tell someone terrible news but didn’t trust them to react properly. “What is the last thing you remember?”

“Pain,” Poe said. “I remember pain.”

“No one is going to hurt you,” Kalonia said. “Rey and Finn managed to break the three of you out of the First Order base, and now you’re at the new Resistance one.”

“Are they safe?” Poe asked quickly. “Are they okay?”

“They are fine,” Kalonia replied as she took his hand into hers and squeezed it. “They are with the General and Skywalker right now.” Poe tried to remember his last coherent thought, but it was all a blur. He thought he remembered being around Rey and Finn, but he also remembered the same pain he got from Kylo Ren, so that couldn’t be right. Rey and Finn would never hurt him like he did. “Poe, do you remember what happened to you?”

“Vaguely,” Poe said, and he knew it must be way worse than he thought because he was already tired and wanted to sleep more. “Ren wanted Rey and Finn to join him willingly; he thought that if he hurt me, they would. I told them not to.”

“How did he hurt you?” Kalonia asked.

“He used the Force,” Poe whispered. He remembered pain ripping through every inch of his body. He remembered he couldn’t trust his own thoughts toward the end and how he had been sure he would die. “It started out with him trying to blackmail Rey and Finn, but it was more than that. Ren, he wanted to personally make me suffer. He liked the idea of me turning against the Resistance. He wanted me to be his personal pilot because—” Poe cut himself off: he wasn’t sure if Kalonia knew Kylo Ren was Ben Solo, which was a large part of why Ren was focused on him.

“Please, don’t hold back, Commander,” Kalonia said.

“Ren—Ben—he wanted to hurt me. He wanted me to suffer. He was angry that he had to leave me behind and was planning on coming back to get me,” Poe explained. It took some effort to his get his heartbeat to slow down. “Something had happened that he was curious about that I didn’t understand.” Kalonia didn’t react to that: it meant that whatever it was, it hadn’t gone away. “I need to see Rey and Finn. I need to know they are safe.”

“I can’t do that, Commander,” Kalonia said. Poe hated the way she sounded so sad all of a sudden.

“Why?” he asked. He forced himself to sit up despite the fact that he still felt so weak. Kalonia didn’t try to stop him—in fact; she did her best to help him— Poe noticed, for the first time, how empty the room was. “Am I compromised?”

“In a way,” Kalonia said. “We’ve been trying to figure out exactly what happened. At the moment, Skywalker and the General are doing everything they can to help you.”

“What’s wrong with me?” Poe asked: it wasn’t like Kalonia to dance around a question, and right now, she wasn’t telling him what was wrong.

“We aren’t entirely sure, but Kylo Ren has somehow left you vulnerable. He used the Force in a way we haven’t seen since the early days of the Empire,” she explained. “He made it so you would associate the Force with pain to the point that if you are around anyone strong with the Force, you are in incredible pain. That’s why you’re here alone without Rey, Finn, or anyone else.” Poe didn’t want to believe what he was hearing, but it made sense.

“I have vague memories of being on a shuttle with Rey and Finn and being in pain. I thought it wasn’t real because I couldn’t understand why they were hurting me.” Poe said. “You haven’t told me how we’re going to fix it, so I’m guessing that means we don’t know if we can.”

“We’re going to do everything we can to help you,” Kalonia said. “Now get some more rest, Poe.” Kalonia only used first names when the situation was dire; Poe didn’t comment on it. He didn’t want to think about what that could mean for his future. He was useless if he couldn’t be around certain people. The idea that he might not be able to see Rey and Finn again made Poe hurt in a very different way. The beep from the heart monitor began to speed up, and he forced himself to calm down until it was regular again. He was going to be fine; he had to be because the other options were too hard to contemplate.

+++

Finn spent the better part of the next several days in a panic. It wasn’t that he thought everything was lost; he had hope, but he knew better than to rely entirely on hope. Luke and Leia were looking over everything they had to try and figure out how to help Poe, but they couldn’t find anything.

One morning, Finn walked outside to see Luke meditating in the middle of the tarmac. When Finn got close enough, he realized Luke was talking to himself. It wasn’t until later that Finn realized Luke wasn’t so much talking to himself rather than to the ghosts of various Jedi masters. That’s what Leia said when Finn mentioned he was a little worried Luke might be losing his mind.

Rey didn’t seem to be holding up much better. She was taking the blame for everything that had happened like it was somehow her fault. Finn found her a week later on the edge of the base, absentmindedly making rocks hover in the air and fly off into the distance.

“We don’t know if the damage is permanent,” Finn said as he joined her.

“We should have done more to escape,” Rey said. “We should have put him out of his misery in the beginning.”

“Ren wouldn’t have killed him even if we didn’t comply with what he said,” Finn said. “There was something personal there that we couldn’t even begin to understand. If we had refused to watch at the start, Poe would have still been put through hell; only Ren wouldn’t have let us see him ever again. We would have had no way of knowing if he was alive or not.” Finn put an arm around Rey, and the two of them stayed close for what felt like a long time. It was dark by the time they made their way back to the base, hand in hand, when Doctor Kalonia jogged over to the two of them.

“Rey, Finn, there you are. I’ve been looking for you, and Master Skywalker wouldn’t tell me where you were,” she said. Finn feared the worst as he thought about the many ways everything could have gone wrong.

“What’s wrong? Is Poe okay?” Finn asked.

“He’s fine,” Kalonia said as she put her hands up in surrender and smiled. “I know the two of you really want to see him, and he wants to see you, but I worry about the pain and how he will react to it. I can’t let you see him in person, but I could put you two through on a holocomm.”

“Is he okay with that?” Rey asked. “Video is how he saw us while we were captured. I don’t want him to have any sort of flashback.”

“I asked him about thatÆ; he said that even if he did, it would be worth it,” Kalonia said. She had this look at she looked at the two of them like she knew something that they didn’t. The idea that Poe was willing to go through a flashback to see the two of them made Finn blush for a reason that he wasn’t quite willing to examine. “Is that a yes?” she asked.

“Yes, yes, of course, we will,” Finn said, and Kalonia nodded.

“Come with me.”. Finn and Rey followed her to a small room on the far side of the base, away from the medical ward. She handed them a holocomm and smiled in a way that made Finn wonder what she knew that the two of them didn’t. She left them alone as the screen flickered to life. Finn’s breath caught his throat as Poe’s image appeared before them. He looked tired, but he wasn’t screaming in pain when he looked at them.

“Finn, Rey, you’re okay,” he said as if they were the ones he was worried about. “I knew they wouldn’t lie to me about you two being safe, but I feel so much better now that I’ve seen you.”

“Us?” Rey said in disbelief. “We’re completely fine. It’s you we’re worried about.”

“I’ll be fine,” Poe said as if it wasn’t a big deal.

“You aren’t fine,” Finn said. “We can’t come to see you without putting you through horrific pain. That isn’t fine.” Poe twisted the blanket in his hand, and Finn could hear a beeping in the background. He could only assume it was BB-8 keeping Poe company, which made Finn feel a little better: Poe wasn’t alone.

“I’m alive, and it’s because of the two of you. That’s all that really matters,” Poe said softly, but Finn could hear the pain in his voice. It was tearing Poe apart, that he might not be able to help the Resistance again. That he might have to give up being a Commander. “I miss the two of you.”

“We miss you too,” Rey said. “We’re going to make you better, and then you’re not going to be able to get rid of us.”

“You’ll be sick of us before you know it,” Finn said with a smile.

“I won’t ever get sick of you two,” Poe said softly, and Finn felt that same tightness in his throat as he held onto Rey’s hand. They had to get Poe better because the idea of never being around him again was not a future Finn wanted to live in.

+++

Rey didn’t like standing still. It made meditating very hard. It upset Luke when they first started to train, but Rey had grownup knowing that standing still meant she was going to die. If she stood still, she couldn’t eat, couldn’t drink, would wither to nothing under the Jakku sun; all of it meant that, despite the fact that she didn’t need to, Rey wanted to keep moving. She was extremely annoyed that there didn’t seem to be any progress for helping Poe recover. He still had horrible nightmares, according to BB-8, who stayed with him every night, and even with Rey, Finn, Luke, and Leia on the other side of the base, he still got terrible headaches. No matter how much research they did, no one could come up with a good explanation as to why he wasn’t getting better.

The lack of focus was not helped by the fact that Rey was having a hard time being around Finn. It was not that they weren’t getting along; if anything, they were getting along too well. Luke had mentioned something about attachments in the old order but told them the reason he had been able to defeat Vader was drawing on the love and support from his friends and family. There was no reason to think it would be any different for the two of them. They trained together, so she was constantly aware of his presence; she had even gotten used to having him sleep next to her when they were in captivity. The first few nights they were back, Rey couldn’t sleep; she had been relieved when Finn asked if they could sleep together.

She was sitting with Finn as she watched Leia plan a new attack on the First Order and hated every second of this war she had been pulled into. She knew she was happier here, now that she had these people in her life, but this was one of those moments where she was almost feeling homesick for Jakku. She missed how simple her life was: scavenge, eat, repeat. In her weakest moments, Rey cursed BB-8 for finding her the way it did. It wasn’t the droid’s fault, but Rey couldn’t help herself sometimes.

The meeting ended, and Rey couldn’t flee fast enough, but it seemed that Finn had other ideas because he caught up to her right away.

“I have a question for you,” he said while they walked through the base.

“What is it?” she replied.

“I’ve been a stormtrooper for as long as I can remember. Sometimes I have a hard time remembering what I’m allowed to do as ‘Finn’ now. I’m having one of those moments, and it feels like you’re the best person to ask about this,” Finn explained, which baffled Rey.

“You know I spent most of my life alone on Jakku, right?” she said. “Why do you think my point of view is going to be any better?”

“Because it involves you.” Finn looked oddly nervous. Rey put her hand on his arm to see if it would calm him down a little to ask this question. “I know you don’t like people dancing around a subject with you, so I’m just going to be blunt and hope you don’t break my arm.”

“Finn, you’re starting to worry—”

“I like you,” Finn interrupted. He spoke the words so fast. Rey thought she heard him wrong. “I’m attracted to you, but not just physically. I like everything about you. I know that Luke said we are a different brand of Jedi: we can have attachments, and I like having attachments. I like spending time with you, and I want to be around you at all times. The thing that I don’t know about is that I feel the same way about Poe, and the idea of having to pick sounds impossible. The First Order didn’t care who you were with and when, but I don’t know if it’s conventional for someone to like two people and want to be with both of them at once.”

Rey stared at Finn; she didn’t realize her mouth was hanging open until she closed it. The fact that Finn brought this up in such a manner meant that he’d been thinking about it for a while but hadn’t known how to bring it up to her or ask anyone else about it.

“Would you be happy being with both of us?” Rey asked after she managed to collect herself properly.

“I can’t imagine very many things that would make me happier,” Finn replied. “But it isn’t just what I want, though. I think it’s what you want, and what Poe wants too.”

“I think, if it makes us happy, then I don’t really care what anyone else thinks,” Rey replied. She wasn’t sure when they had stepped into each other’s space, but suddenly her and Finn were so close she could count his eyelashes if she wanted to. “Is this what you want?”

“Yes. Is this what you want?” Finn asked. Rey nodded, and she pressed her forehead to Finn’s and closed her eyes. His presence was just as calming as it always was, and to stand so close to him felt warm. “We’ll have to ask Poe when he gets better.”

“We will.” Rey was used to taking what she wanted—it was the scavenger instincts in her that would probably never go away—but she knew this was different. If they were really going to navigate this road, then she needed to ask questions. “I’d like to try kissing you: is that okay?”

“I thought you’d never ask.” Finn closed the distance between the two of them and pressed their lips together.

Rey felt every nerve in her body light up; it almost felt like the first time she truly felt the Force coursing through her veins. The kiss was basic, just the two of them pressing their lips together: Rey had little idea what she was doing, and she guessed Finn wasn’t that much more experienced if his hesitation was anything to go by. She wanted to see if touching Finn was going to be like this every time if she was always going to feel this good when they were together, and how much more intense it could be with Poe there too, but a frantic beeping interrupted them. BB-8 was rolling across the base like it was being chased by the First Order itself and was beeping so fast Rey couldn’t understand it.

“Wait, BB-8, slow down; what do you mean something is wrong?”

+++

Poe didn’t remember falling asleep, but this had to be a dream because he was alone. The doctors rarely let him be alone these days: they weren’t sure how he was going to react to everything that was happening to him. After weeks of trying, no one appeared to be any closer to figuring out why he kept reacting to the Force the way he did. No matter how many times they reassured him they were doing their best to help him, Poe didn't feel like he was getting any better. In fact, if he was honest with himself, he was starting to feel a little worse.

The headaches never really went away, which wasn't that surprising. Leia, Luke, Rey, and Finn were on the base, so it made sense that he would be able to feel them even if a little. Those around him were likely more force-sensitive than they realized. Unless Poe went off by himself, he was going to be in pain until they figured out how to heal him. He was useless to the Resistance until he could be around Force-sensitive people without losing his mind.

The last few days, however, Poe began feeling worse. He grew sensitive to light again like he was getting a migraine, and there were times when a stabbing pain came out of nowhere and nearly took his breath away. Poe didn't know what to do to protect himself against that, and he could only assume it was someone reaching out to him to see if he was okay.

However, in this dream, Poe wasn't so sure that the pain was coming from a good place. There was a lingering thought in the back of his head that maybe it was from someone else, and that terrified him.

Poe closed his eyes and tried to calm his racing heart. The idea what someone like Ren could be tracking him through their connection was terrifying. It wasn't so much that he was afraid that Ren would take him again and cause him painPoe knew he wouldn't last long as it was—but the thought of Ren and Snoke getting their hands on Rey and Finn? That frightened him. Those two would do anything to keep the people around them safe, and he could easily see them falling to the dark side to save someone like him. The idea that he could be the catalyst was not an option.

"You're smarter than you look," a voice said, and Poe opened his eyes to see Kylo Ren standing in front of him. There was a harsh spike of pain, and, as if from very far away, Poe could hear BB-8 beeping at him in alarm.

"Then I'm right," Poe said, he struggled to even see straight. "You can track me."

"I'm not just tracking you, Poe. I'm being that catalyst you thought about. Your friends are getting desperate, and you know they're going to seek me out to try and save you from this pain. When they, do I'll be waiting, and if I don't take both of them, I will take at least one. I'm going to get them, and there isn't anything you can do to stop me," Ren said, and he smiled. "And if they don't come to me, I'm going to find them through you."

"I'm not going to let you use me anymore. I'm taking control." Poe closed his eyes and dug his fingernails into his palm as hard as he could. There was a good chance he was drawing blood, but he had to wake up. He could feel Ren walking around him, standing very close; he wanted to be done with this. He had to wake up before Ren found them. Poe could feel a hand reaching for his head: he knew that everything would be lost if Ren touched him. He squeezed his eyes shut and screamed.

Poe woke up to the sound of frantic beeping and people running around him. Kalonia was trying to calm him down, but Poe couldn't understand the words that she was saying. He was trying to say something, but his words were slurring together and not making any sense. He had a point to make, and he had to get it across.

"He's tracking me," Poe gasped. "He's tracking me and trying to make it worse."

"Poe, you need to calm down," Kalonia tried to tell him, but Poe grabbed her arms so she would look at him.

"Put me in a medically induced coma. You need to do it now," Poe said.

"It hasn't come to that—"

"It has. He's in my head, and he's going to find us. You need to put me under, and you need to do it now," Poe said. Ren must have felt that Poe was trying to stop him, and a wave of pain unlike anything he had felt in weeks overcame him. He kept repeating over and over again for them to put him under. He vaguely heard Kalonia agree, then the sting of a needle in his arm. He felt the entire world fade away and an angry scream in his head. He smirked in his own victory, and everything went dark.

+++

One moment Finn and Rey were standing together, and the next, they were hand in hand and running. BB-8 was trying to keep up, but they were faster than the droid and beat it by a few minutes. Kalonia was just exiting Poe's room when they raced up to her. She looked grim, and that did nothing to ease Finn's fears. She nearly jumped when she saw the two of them as if she hadn’t expected them to come running when BB-8 reported something had gone wrong. Kalonia looked like she was about to lecture them for coming to the medical ward when they weren't supposed to, and the fact that she didn't nearly drove Finn into a panic.

"What happened?" he asked.

"He asked me to put him into a medically induced coma," Kalonia replied softly. "He's been getting worse over the last several days, and he woke up today insisting that Kylo Ren was tracking his location somehow, and the only way to stop that was to put him to sleep. His vitals were dropping, and they weren't evening out. I wasn't sure he would make it if I didn't put him to sleep."

"What does that mean? When are you going to wake him up?" Rey asked, but Finn had a horrible feeling that he knew what was coming.

"I don't think waking him up is a good idea," Kalonia said. "I'm not sure he'd survive it right now, and besides, this is only temporary. I think his vitals are going to continue to drop over the next several days, and I still don't know how to fix this."

Kalonia looked frustrated, angry even, but she was a professional and delivered the news with the composure of someone who had delivered death sentences before. She seemed to visibly gather herself as she put a hand on each of their shoulders.

"I need to contact the Commander and get in touch with his father. Maybe if we rush, we can get him here in time. If you'll excuse me." She walked past them and began to talk to a nurse that was following. Finn was too stunned to say anything. When he looked at Rey, she looked like she was one step away from killing everything or breaking down.

Kalonia didn't tell them to leave, and Finn wasn't about to. He walked into Poe's room with Rey, and they stared down at their friend. Poe was sleeping, but he was frowning like he was having a bad dream. It didn't look like he was reacting to their presence, though, which made Finn feel only a little better. The only time they could be close to Poe was when he was in a coma. BB-8 was at their feet, and Finn was only picking up on parts of the conversation.

"[What] ... [Friend-Poe?]" was all Finn could catch, but he understood what the droid was asking. It wanted to know what was happening to Poe.

"He's dying," Finn whispered as he sat down in a chair. This was the only time Poe had been alone since he got home; there wasn't any point to someone staying close. The medical droids were saying something about a number dropping in a dangerous direction. Rey sat down on the edge of the bed and touched Poe with the tips of her fingers as if she was afraid he would break.

"Luke hasn't found anything," she whispered. "Kalonia is telling him and Leia what's happening. I can feel how hopeless they are because they don't know what to do."

"There has to be something," Finn said. "I refuse to believe that the only option is sitting here and watching him die."

He sat in total silence with Rey for what felt like a long time. He didn't remember reaching for her hand, but the Force seemed to sing when their skin touched. They were so much stronger together.

"Ren is able to get in people's heads," Rey said. "I know what it feels like: that's why Poe is so sick. He's hurt, but he's hurt in a way that we can't touch."

"A mental scar," Finn said, and she nodded.

"If Ren can get into our heads, I wonder how deep we can really go. How deep into someone's mind could we go if we concentrate?" she asked and looked at Finn. "Could we go deep enough to heal him?"

"Kalonia said he likely wouldn't survive coming out of the coma. Wouldn't it kill him if we failed?" Finn asked.

"He's going to die anyway. At least this way, we know we tried everything we could to save him," Rey said. She squeezed Finn's hand. "You know how strong we are when we work together. I can't sit here and wait for that heart monitor to stop; I can't do that. Let's do everything we can to save him."

"If Ren is in there, he could get to us," Finn said, but he had already made up his mind. "I hope he is so I can show him how I really feel."

"Luke and Leia are not going to approve, and they are on their way," Rey said as she jumped to her feet. "They said he's going to get worse as time goes on, so now is the only chance we have."

"Then we're going to take it," Finn said. It didn't take long for them to brace everything heavy they could against the door and lock it. Finn watched as Rey explained to BB-8 that the droid had to do everything it could to keep Luke and Leia out of the room for as long as possible.

BB-8 beeped in a way that sounded very determined and plugged itself into the mainframe of the entire building. Finn could hear the blast doors slam shut and various people freaking out about this.

"No one is in this wing," Rey said. "But that won't last long. BB-8 says it'll do everything it can to keep the doors closed for as long as possible but doesn't know how long we have."

"Then let's do this," Finn said. They pulled another chair on the other side of the bed and reached across Poe to clasp hands. He looked at Rey, and she nodded. They both took Poe's hands to form a triangle between the three of them. Finn thought about entering a mind, he thought about healing wounds that no one could see, and he vaguely felt his head hit the bed as the world around them went dark.

+++

Rey felt like she was falling, and there wasn't anything she could do to stop it. The world was endless, dark, and for a moment, she thought she had made a terrible mistake. That she was just going to fall, and that was going to be her existence for the rest of time. Rey was falling, and then she was on solid ground again. She opened her eyes; she hadn't remembered closing them and looked around. The world was dark, but she wasn't alone. Or she was for half a moment, and then she wasn't as Finn appeared next to her. They were still holding hands, and that was a grounded thing in this dark world that didn't seem to end in any direction.

"I thought a mind would have more going on," Rey said as she looked around. "How are we supposed to heal him if we can't see anything?" It was like something became aware of her as soon as she said anything. The entire world felt like it tipped on the side, and they were standing in the middle of the old base on D'Qar. They were completely alone, and it sent shivers down Rey's spine; it felt like a graveyard. She glanced at Finn, and they began to walk through the winding hallways that seemed warped. Rey wasn't even sure where they were going, but her and Finn seemed to be heading in the same direction.

Rey thought she would start to hear faint voices and then have to follow them, but it was like she turned a corner, and suddenly it was like Poe was standing right in front of her. Finn knocked their shoulders together and silently gestured with his head to their left. It was the door to the main command center. Rey glanced around the corner, and it took all of her self control not to storm into the room.

Poe was on the ground near one of the control centers, and Kylo Ren was leaning over him. There was blood on Ren's fists and Poe's face, but she could hear Poe laughing. It didn't sound like a good laugh.

"There's nothing you can do," Poe said. "I told them to put me to sleep, and they aren't going to wake me up. You've made it so I can't wake up."

"You're going to die in here with me," Ren sneered, but Poe shrugged.

"You won't get them, and you won't get the Resistance. That's all that matters in the end," he replied. Ren nearly screamed in anger as he began to pace back and forth. Rey watched as Poe winced painfully as he sat up and put his back against the panel. He was pale like he lost a lot of blood, and she realized that it was because Poe was dying.

“No one is that selfless,” Ren knelt down in front of Poe and narrowed his eyes. “You think by doing this, you can protect those two untrained children from me? I can use you dying against them. I can make them crave revenge, and that’s how I’ll make them fall.” Ren smirked and leaned in so close Rey could hardly hear them. “How does it feel to die for nothing?” Rey could see Poe breaking down as he stared back at Ren. She took a step back and pulled Finn with her so they wouldn't be heard.

"If he breaks, there might not be anything left if he wakes up," Finn whispered. "I've seen what happens when Ren breaks a man, and it's nothing good."

"Then we have to stop him," Rey replied. "We have to figure out how to stop him now."

"Ren is like an infection," Finn said after a moment of silence. "He's infected Poe's mind, and now that infection is killing him. We couldn't cure it because how do you cure a presence in someone's mind? But, we're here now, and maybe we can be like his white blood cells. We can fight that infection and kill it in here, and that will save him out there."

"If we can give him an advantage, then maybe he can fight back and purge himself of Ren," Rey whispered. They both looked down, and in their hands were lightsabers despite the fact that there was only one in the real world. Rey glanced up at Finn and nodded. Neither of them mentioned that they had no idea what would happen if they died in here. Neither of them mentioned that Ren had seeded himself deep and likely could control more than they could. Neither of them mentioned that Poe was killing himself to keep them safe. That was something they needed to talk about in the real world and at a different date.

Rey clutched her lightsaber so tight the hilt was digging painfully into her palm as she leaned forward and kissed Finn gently. Rey could vaguely hear yelling, which meant that it was only a matter of time before Luke and Leia forced them out of Poe's mind, and if they didn't do this now, there wouldn't be another chance. They broke apart and walked into the command room.

She wasn't sure who looked more surprised to see them; Ren and Poe. It looked like the sight of them broke something else in Poe, something that was so deep Rey wasn't sure it could be healed, and he banged his head against the console gently.

"I didn't think you'd be stupid enough to try and enter a mind untrained," Ren said as he stared at them.

"Neither did I," Poe said under his breath. Ren flicked his wrist, and this time Poe's head hit the console a lot harder. Rey managed to hide her wince, but Finn wasn't as good. They couldn't let him see weakness. Ren smirked when he saw the reaction, and Rey knew that he knew how attached they were. Rey turned on her saber, and Finn followed suit seconds later.

"We've come to purge the infection," Finn said, and Ren laughed.

"No, you've come to watch your friend die, and when you fail to save him, you're going to see that all of this is pointless." Ren turned on his saber, and he was still smiling like this was somehow the best day of his life. It set every single one of Rey's nerves on edge. "Besides, he's mine, and even if you manage to save him this time, you won't be able to the next time."

"Poe belongs to nobody and especially not to you," Rey snapped, but Ren shrugged. There was a bang loud enough that it made the entire world shake. They were almost through the door. She didn't wait to hear this maniac self aggrandize anymore; Rey charged forward with everything she had.

The first time Rey faced Kylo Ren, she was on the defensive. He was wounded, but she was a novice who barely knew what the force was. She was not a novice this time, and Ren seemed surprised that she was as talented as she was. However, Ren seemed much calmer than he was on Starkiller, which made him more dangerous. When Ren was angry, it was easier to find his weak spots, but he had trained as well. Rey knew she wasn't strong enough alone and it was like Finn's presence filled her awareness. They were linked in such an incredible way; they were both stronger, faster, and better fighters together.

For half a second, time seemed to slow down, and Rey met Finn's eyes. There was one more thing they could do to overpower Ren. Rey reached out to Poe with the force; he wasn't sensitive, but he was still strong with it even in such a weak state. She tried to make him feel how much her and Finn cared about him, how they would protect him no matter what, that they wouldn't fall to the dark side because it would disappoint him, and that they couldn't win this war without him.

It was the feeling of all three of them together that made Ren stumble. With Rey at his front and Finn at his back, they both sliced down the image of the man that had caused them so much pain. There was blood and gore, but Rey wasn't paying any attention to that. She didn't care about the blood of a projection on her hands because Poe was slumping to the ground, boneless, lifeless, and that was the only thing that mattered.

+++

For a few moments, Poe was sure that he was hallucinating Rey and Finn standing in front of him. Maybe they were there to give him some sense of peace before he died, but then Poe noticed how surprised Ren looked. It was terrifying the thought of the two of them in his head, here to fight his battle for him, but as he watched lightsabers clash, Poe could feel everything start to get hazy. He watched Rey and Finn cut Ren down, but it was like trying to see through a cloud. Poe didn't remember falling over but, in this place where he locked himself up with Ren, he could always hear a heartbeat. Right now, he couldn't hear one, and it was taking a few precious seconds for his mind to realize that it was dying.

Rey and Finn were at his side in seconds, and they were holding him. Poe wanted to tell the two of them that they were very brave to come in here. That they were his saviors, and he could feel how much he met to them in the end. He wanted to tell them that the knowledge that they cared was going to make everything much easier in the end. There was a loud bang, and people frantically talking. He could see Rey and Finn talking to him, but Poe couldn't hear the words.

In one second, they were there, and the second, they were being pulled away from him. Poe tried to hold onto them as tight as he could, selfishly, but they slipped through his fingers as the darkness lit up with lightning.

Poe opened his eyes and realized that he wasn't in his own mind anymore. He was in the same bed he'd been for weeks, but things felt different now. There wasn't any lingering pain in his head, there wasn't any feeling that someone was tracking him, and Poe couldn't feel Ren anywhere.

He swallowed a lump in his throat when he saw Rey and Finn curled up and asleep together on a small bed right next to him. Poe braced himself for pain, but nothing came. Instead, the only thing he felt was an ache in his chest. Kalonia walked in just as Poe was really trying to grasp what had happened.

"I was wondering when you were going to wake up," Kalonia said softly. "How are you feeling?"

"I've felt worse," Poe replied honestly.

"It's not every day you go into cardiac arrest," Kalonia said. It felt like it took her almost no effort at all to push Poe back into his bed. "You were legally dead for about a minute." She sat down in the chair on the other side of his bed and looked at Rey and Finn as they slept. Neither of them had reacted to Kalonia, which said something about how tired they must have been.

"What happened?" Poe asked.

"Rey and Finn decided the only way to save you was to try and go directly into your mind. The General and Luke were not okay with this, but your droid managed to hack the systems of the building. BB-8 locked everyone out of the building and then out of the room long enough for them to save you. When your heart stopped, Luke pulled both of them back because he didn't know what would happen if they died with you." Kalonia sighed as she began to look over a datapad in her hand. Poe could see that it had his vitals on it. "That was almost three days ago. The truth is we don't know how they saved you, but since you woke up and you aren't in pain with the two of them here, we're going to have to assume it worked." Kalonia nodded, which Poe took that he wasn’t dying anytime soon. He glanced over at Rey and Finn; Poe wanted to thank them and talk to them about everything he felt, but they looked so peaceful as they slept.

“I’m assuming the General and Luke nearly killed them for that,” Poe said, and Kalona hummed in agreement.

“They were angry until your vitals began to improve, then they were more relieved than angry,” she said. “They aren’t going anywhere, and neither are you, so lie down and get more sleep. I know you think you should be fine because you’ve been bedridden this entire time, but you’re still healing. We need you, which means we need you to get better.” Poe wanted to argue, it was in his nature to refuse medical service, but he did feel tired. “Get some sleep, and then I need you to call your father. Kes threatened to walk here when I called him to tell him the worst and then called him back an hour later saying, you were going to be okay.”

“Oh no,” Poe said. “He yelled at the General.” Kalonia didn’t reply, which was all the proof Poe needed. He decided that he was too tired to deal with any of this and was fast asleep before Kalonia even left the room.

Poe slept a lot over the next week or so. He endured a very loud argument with his father over a video call, but Poe smiled at the way his father was swearing loudly by the fact that his eyes were still a little red. Rey and Finn had vanished the second time Poe woke up, and he was starting to think they were lurking in dark corners on purpose. On the third day, Leia walked, and, for the first time in a long time, she lost a little of that composure. He accepted her hug and then her scolding for putting himself through that. Then she locked the door and said something Poe wasn’t ready for.

“I’m sorry Ben put you through all of that,” Leia whispered, and that composure broke again. “I always knew that Ben admired you, likely had a crush on you, but I never thought it would turn into something like this. I never thought he’d do something like this.”

“We also never thought he’d help the rise of fascism in the galaxy again, yet here we are,” Poe muttered, which was probably the wrong thing to say. He respected Leia too much to take it back now. She reached out and put a hand over his; he could feel her trying to heal him in a way that only a mother could.

“One day, if you want to, I’d appreciate it if you let me see everything,” Leia said. “I’d like to see if I can glean anything. Rey and Finn didn’t interact with him like you did, but I can understand why you wouldn’t want to relive that.”

“When I’m ready,” Poe said, interrupting Leia in a way he almost never did. “I’ll call you.”

Luke came next on the fourth day when Poe was one thousand percent sure Rey and Finn were watching over him while he slept. He tried to get BB-8 to spill the beans, but they had somehow turned his droid against him because BB-8 kept avoiding the question. As gently as he could, Luke reached into his mind, but Poe still winced at the intrusion. This was probably not the best idea, but he had to know if Ren was gone.

“I can’t feel him anymore,” Luke said as he looked around the room. “My students are hiding from you.”

“I’m pretty sure they’re watching me sleep,” Poe said. He wasn’t supposed to be out of bed just yet, but Luke seemed like the type that would run out on medical too. Poe walked around the room, testing his unused limbs, and tried to ignore the ache in his bones.

“[Friend-Poe is not supposed to be moving!]” BB-8 exclaimed from across the room. Luke looked at the little droid fondly but didn’t say anything.

“You used to help me break out of medical all the time,” Poe countered as he looked over his hands. Ren didn’t want him damaged in any way and had spared them for his piloting skills. Poe was almost glad for Ren’s obsession with him; it was the only reason he got out of there in one piece physically.

“They will come to you when they’re ready,” Luke said. “Right now, neither of them really know how to deal with forming deep bonds with other people.” Poe froze but could not force himself to turn around so he could see if Luke Skywalker was playing a trick on him. “The bond the three of you have is different, though, and will take some time to understand. It’s likely the reason they were able to save you.” If Luke knew that he was turning Poe’s entire world upside down, then he wasn’t calling him on it, which made Poe respect the man.

“When they’re ready,” Poe said as he mentally gave himself a pat on the back for how steady his voice was despite the fact that he could hardly hear anything over his heartbeat. “The ‘watching me sleep’ thing is still a little weird.” Luke smiled but didn’t argue.

+++

Finn couldn’t remember the last time he felt this foolish. After being pulled out of Poe’s mind, he opened his eyes to the sight of two furious Skywalker’s, a frantic droid, and doctors shoving people away as they were trying to restart Poe’s heart. At that moment, Finn begged whatever was in the galaxy, the force or a god or some higher being or just the universe, to make Poe’s heart beat again. It took a full minute, but it finally started again. Poe’s vitals were still very low, but they weren’t getting worse. Luke nearly dragged both of them out of the room as Leia looked on.

“Do you have any idea what you could have done?” Luke asked.

“No,” Rey replied honestly as she glanced at Finn.

“But in our defense, I don’t think you do either,” Finn finished. It was probably not in his best interests to make a Jedi master mad, but he couldn’t help himself. Luke looked between the two of them, then at the door to Poe’s room and sighed heavily. He looked very much like an old man at that moment.

“Let’s see if he improves,” Luke said. It took almost a day for Poe to begin to improve, and Finn finally felt the tension ease out of his shoulders. In a way, Finn still thought they would decommission him just like that, which, on some level, Finn knew wasn’t true, but he couldn’t shake it. He was curled up on the small bed near Poe’s with Rey as they waited for him to wake up. They wanted to be there when he woke up. Rey yawned deeply; Luke was pushing them extra hard as punishment for what they did, and they were just exhausted.

Finn didn’t remember falling asleep, but one moment, he was lying with Rey in his arms, and the next, he was slowly waking up to Kalonia in the room. Finn moved, and Rey jerked awake as well.

“You just missed him,” Kalonia whispered. “He needs more rest, though.” Finn didn’t want to leave, but he also knew better than to piss off medical. He could practically feel Rey about to argue, so he took her hand and pulled her from the room. As they walked away, Finn just didn’t let her go. Luke was waiting for them at the training ground, and he was looking at them with an odd expression on his face. Finn didn’t trust that look at all, and judging by the way Rey tensed up, she didn’t either.

“What’s wrong?” Finn asked, but Luke shook his head.

“I’m just surprised it took me so long to figure this out,” Luke said as he gestured for them to join him. They went out into the forest to a small clearing where they would meditate or make rocks hover in the air. This time Luke sat down like they were going to talk. “History has a way of repeating itself without us realizing it. I just realized why the two of you and Poe have bonded the way you have.” Finn felt his stomach drop, and for a moment, he thought he was going to be sick.

“What do you mean we’re ‘bonding?’” Rey asked, and she sounded just as suspicious as he was, but Luke just looked amused.

“You’re stronger together, correct?” he asked, and they both nodded. “Then rest assured that as a trio, you can change the world one way or another. As I said, history tends to repeat itself and our history, my family’s history, the Jedi's history, tends to play out in threes. It started with my parents and Obi-Wan Kenobi, but they changed the galaxy for the worse. However, the second trio of myself, Leia, and Han, and that strength we gave to each other is how we were able to defeat the Empire. The type of bond seems to vary; my relationship with Han was very different from Leia’s, for example, but we were always better together, just like the three of you will be too. You are connected on a very deep level now.” Luke stood up and looked down at the two of them. “I can see this is going to take some time to process, so I’ll leave you to meditate on it.” Luke stood up and left like he hadn’t told them something world-altering.

“So you feel it too,” Rey whispered, and they looked at each other. “There isn’t just something between the two of us but Poe as well. There is something between all three of us.”

“It almost feels like a deeper version of what I had with my unit,” Finn replied. “But even though it feels similar, it doesn’t feel the same. What I feel between you and I isn’t the same that I feel with him, and I think it’s the same for you.”

In some way, this leads to where Finn now; feeling foolish as Luke told him and Rey to stop watching Poe sleep because he knew they were doing it, and it was making him uncomfortable. If he knew they were watching, then Poe also knew they were avoiding him.

“The Doctor has released Poe from medical, and he’s in his room with BB-8 right now,” Luke said. “This is overwhelming for the two of you, I understand, but this bond means you don’t have to carry that alone anymore. Stop hiding, and that’s an order from Leia.” Finn glanced at Rey, and they both smiled brightly. He took her hand as they began to run through the base.

“It’s like Jakku all over again,” Rey said, but she was smiling and laughing.

“I like this a lot more,” Finn replied as they stopped in front of Poe’s door. He knocked without thinking about it too much, but Finn realized he should have thought this through when the door opened. This was the first time he’d seen Poe up and about without in pain, and it hit him like a blaster bolt to the gut. He didn’t remember pulling Poe into the hug, but the next thing Finn realized was that Poe was trying to tell him that he was having trouble breathing. Finn released him only to have Rey pull him into a tight hug as well.

“It’s good to see you two too,” Poe said as he released Rey. “Come on in.” He stepped aside and let the two of them into the room. The room was a little messy, but there were lots of things in it that reminded Finn of Poe. There were flight manuals for planes that Finn had never even heard of everything, models of various planes, and a couple of orange flight suits scattered around. “So, you two have been avoiding me.”

“It’s complicated,” Finn replied. He was unsure where he was supposed to sit, and Rey looked just as uncomfortable in the situation. Poe looked between the two of them and moved over on the bed, so there was room for both of them. Rey looked like she was feeling closed in, so Finn let her take the edge of the bed with a little more room.

“We don’t really know what we’re dealing with,” Rey said.

“Luke filled me in or at least filled me in with what he knows, which, it turns out, isn’t much.” Poe sighed like he was having just as hard of a time with all of this as they were. “Whatever it is, I just know that I’m better out there when I’m with the two of you.”

“So am I,” Finn agreed.

“Me too,” Rey said. “But you can’t just throw yourself in front of the firing squad like that again. We have to protect each other.”

“Yeah, no more self-sacrifice,” Finn said.

“If you insist,” Poe said. Finn smiled to himself as he realized that they all knew they were lying, but no one was willing to call anyone on it. Rey suddenly stood up and walked around, so she was on Poe’s other side. The three of them were sitting very close, and Finn could feel the heat coming from Poe’s body. It felt warm, and it felt alive. Finn offered his hand, palm up, and waited to see what would happen. Poe looked at his hand and then at Finn like he was afraid to ask the question. On the other side, Rey offered her hand as well, and they both waited for Poe to do something. If he wanted to keep everything between the three of them, platonic Finn was sure he and Rey could make that happen. He knew that they could find some way to make it work if Poe turned them down.

Poe took their hands, and it was like the final piece of everything fell into place. It felt like serenity, peace, in a way Finn had never experienced. It felt like true balance, and it made him sigh with relief. Finn leaned forward to kiss the corner of Poe’s mouth, but Poe moved at the last second, so their lips touched. It wasn’t the explosion of passion or attraction that Finn was expecting in the weak moments when he thought about kissing Poe. Instead, it felt like that balance; it felt natural like they’d been doing this for a lifetime. They broke away, and Finn opened his eyes just in time to see Rey turn Poe’s head and kiss him. They were breathtaking to watch, and Finn could almost feel this bond flowing through the three of them. Poe broke the kiss and groaned.

“What’s wrong?” Rey asked.

“Kalonia told me I couldn’t strain myself, and here I finally have the two of you, and all I want to do is take a nap,” Poe said. “Life must have it out for me.”

“A nap sounds great,” Finn said. It took a little time, but the three of them managed to arrange themselves on Poe’s small bed. Finn was still feeling protective of Poe, so he was happy when Poe ended up in the middle. Finn was at his back with a protective hand over Poe’s waist and his back to the wall. Rey was at Poe’s front with a clear view of the only entrance. While it wasn’t exactly what Finn wanted in that second, he also knew that there was still time. The war was still going on, and Kylo Ren and Snoke were both out there, but, at this moment, there was time. If Luke was right and the three of them really were stronger together, then Finn was convinced that they could do anything.

Finn closed his eyes and drifted to sleep with the two people that meant the world to him in his arms. It felt like peace, and it felt like hope.