The Jedi texts were strewn across her workbench, and Rey was poring over them for the hundredth time. Luke's added notes on training had been invaluable to her and Leia. C-3PO had translated much of the rest, which had helped Rey learn about the history of the Jedi and the Sith. But some of the writings remained a mystery, their language too old or too secret to be in even C-3PO's databanks. The odd thing was that some of the mysterious notations were in Luke's handwriting, which meant they had been carefully ciphered on purpose. Rey's friend Beaumont—a former historian and current Resistance intelligence officer—had been working to unlock these portions, and Rey hoped to have answers soon.
In the meantime, she was looking for a clue in the translated texts, anything that might help her interpret her vision. Or better yet, something that would help her find peace. Now that the Force was awake inside her, she had more questions than ever before, about Luke, her connection to Kylo Ren, the Jedi of the past, the nightmarish visions that haunted her. If she could embrace Leia's calm, she was certain the visions would stop altogether. She'd sleep better, train better, become a Jedi to make Leia—and Luke, wherever he was—proud of her.
She itched to be in the fight, but the girl from Jakku was still inside her, and that girl yearned to survive. Leia was right; she had to prepare herself. How could she possibly learn all she needed in time? One thing about her visions was absolutely clear: The fight would soon come to her, whether she was ready or not.
"Rey!" Nimi Chireen called, startling her from her thoughts. "Falcon's back."
Well, that was a relief. Rey had started to legitimately worry about her friends.
"Thanks, Nimi." Nimi was a new pilot who'd just been given charge of her own fighter. Poe thought she had great potential.
Rey hurried over to the landing area, which was no more than a cleared space in the middle of the jungle. Good thing the Falcon could land on a credit chip.
She stopped short when she saw her ship, and her heart clenched. Black smoke curled up from the engines. Scorch marks streaked the hull. The sub-alternators were a writhing mass of charred wires and warped housing. What had Poe done?
The pilot himself was striding down the ramp, and she briefly forgot to be angry. She was just glad to see him back safe. "It's on fire!" Poe was yelling, as droids and mechanics started hosing down the smoking bits. "Whole thing's on fire. All of it. On fire!" He spotted her approaching. "Hey!"
"Hey!" she said. "I heard there's a spy?"
Poe seemed a bit haggard, sweat sheening his brow, his shirt blotched with oil stains. He'd apparently done his best to conduct some emergency repairs on the trip back. He said, "Really could have used your help out there."
"How'd it go?"
"Really bad."
Something sparked under the Falcon's belly. "Han's ship…"
Poe's face fell even farther when he spotted BB-8 and his dislodged tool-bay rim. "What did you do to the droid?
"What did you do to the Falcon?" she retorted.
"Falcon's in a lot better shape than he is."
"Beebee-Ate's not on fire."
"What left of him isn't on fire," he threw back.
What was Poe talking about? It was just a tool-bay cover! "Tell me what happened," she said, trying to change the subject.
"You tell me first!"
She gave him a humorless smile. "You know what you are?"
"What?" He raised an eyebrow in challenge.
"You're difficult. You're a really difficult man."
"We'll, you're…" Poe made a noise of exasperation.
"Rey!" came Finn's voice.
"Finn! You made it back!"
Finn was descending the ramp, and his face lit up as she approached. "Barely," he said. Finn had grown his hair out a bit in defiance of First Order regulation, giving him a more relaxed air. In general, Finn had become easier in his own skin in the months after Crait.
BB-8 warbled at Poe, telling him about the training mishap, while Rey wrapped her arms around her friend in a tight hug. Letting Finn fly off and put himself in danger without her was one of the hardest things about Jedi training. She was always so relieved when he returned in one piece.
"Buddy, look at you," Poe said, inspecting BB-8's damaged casing.
"Bad mood?" Rey asked Finn.
"Me?"
"No, him," she said, with a nod toward Poe.
"Always," Finn said, drawing the word out with a flourish.
"Do we have a spy?" she asked.
Chewie interjected with an outraged, multisyllabic moan.
Rey's eyes widened. "Lightspeed skipped?"
Finn winced. "Oh, boy…"
"I got us back, didn't I?" said Poe.
"The compressor's down," Rey said, and her tone came out more accusing than she intended.
"I know," Poe said. "I was there."
"You can't lightspeed skip the Falcon," Rey said, unable to stop herself. How could Poe take that kind of risk with the Resistance's most precious asset? Besides, she loved that ship…
"Actually, it turns out you can," Poe said, unblinking.
"Guys," Finn said, trying to sound reasonable. "We just landed."
"What happened?" Rey asked.
"Bad news is what happened," Poe said.
Rey felt her frustration build. She understood that Poe had just been through something, but she needed information. She turned to Finn. "Did we make contact with a spy or not?"
"Yeah. We got a mole in the First Order." Finn confirmed. "They sent us a message."
Poe started to head off, but he couldn't resist throwing some final words at Rey over his shoulder: "You dropped a tree on him."
"You blew both sub-alternators," she slung back.
"Guys," Finn said.
"Maybe you should be out there with us," Poe said, rounding on her. He was good and angry now, but Rey could sense it had little to do with BB-8.
"You know I want to be!"
"Rey…" Finn said.
"But you're not," Poe said. "You're here training for what?" He took a deep breath, as if considering. Rey could see the exact moment he decided to give it to her straight. "You're the best fighter we have. We need you out there, not here."
Rey had nothing to say to that. Poe was right. But Leia was right, too. Rey needed all the training she could get to face what was to come. She wished there was a way to make both of them happy.
Poe caught sight of someone, and Rey was relieved to no longer be the subject of his merciless glare. "Aftab!" he called out.
Aftab Ackbar approached quickly. The young Mon Calamari was a decent pilot, and he had also displayed some of his father's flair for tactics. Leia had gotten him up to speed as fast as possible and was delighted with his progress.
"Get Artoo's data transferred and into reconditioning," Poe ordered.
"Yes, Commander," Ackbar said. He left with the droid, while Poe and BB-8 headed toward Rose's repair station.
Rey and Finn walked together toward the Tantive IV and passed the blockade runner's giant skids.
"What's the message?" she asked Finn.
—
Everyone had gathered beneath Leia's ship for the debriefing: All Rey's friends, Leia's advisors Maz Kanata and Commander D'Acy, even the droids.
Poe addressed the group. "Thanks to See-Threepio and Beaumont, we've decoded the intel from the First Order spy." He waited a moment, as though reluctant to continue. After a deep breath, he added, "Kylo Ren has found Exegol."
Rose frowned. "Exegol?"
Rey thought of her dark visions. Her eyes flew wide. Exegol.
R2-D2 danced in place.
"The planet does not appear on any star chart," the protocol droid began, but Rey was hardly paying attention. She'd heard that name in her vision. She'd seen it before. She was sure of it. "But legend describes it as the hidden world of the Sith."
Rey had to get back to the Jedi texts. She slipped away while the others continued to talk and sprinted up a rise to the rocky bit of ground that made up her "quarters."
"How is it hidden?" Rose asked.
Beaumont responded, "It's in the unknown regions."
As Rey reached her workbench, she heard Poe say, "The Sith followers have been building something for years. The largest fleet the galaxy's ever known. They call it the Final Order. In sixteen hours, attacks on all free worlds will begin."
"If we want to stop them," Maz said, her gentle voice penetrating the din with quiet authority, "we must find them. We must find Exegol."
Rey rummaged around in the crate where she kept the Jedi texts. Where was it? She tossed one aside. Then another.
"Is that all?" Beaumont asked.
Rey dug deeper into the crate. The text she was looking for had a large round seal on the front…There! She grabbed it and rushed back down to the group. They hardly noticed when she returned. Everyone's faces had fallen. They were all thinking the same thing.
"We're not ready," Beaumont said. "Only half our ships are working. We have no large-scale weapons."
Rose raised her chin. "So we fix them. Fast."
"Friends," Leia said, her voice commanding attention. "This is the only moment that counts. Everything we've fought for is at stake."
"If this fleet launches," Beaumont said, "freedom dies in the galaxy."
Softly, Rey interjected: "General. May I speak with you?"
—
Leia wouldn't have minded if Rey had chosen to show this to everyone at once, but the Jedi texts had last belonged to Luke, and the girl was always respectful of his memory and legacy. So they were alone in Leia's quarters, one of the texts open before them.
"I know how to get to Exegol," Rey said, her finger tracing as she searched, "because your brother wrote about it in the Jedi texts."
Leia perked up. "Tell me."
"Luke searched for it. He nearly found it." Rey spotted what she was looking for and brought the book closer. "There are ciphers here I can't read, but he said, 'to get there you need one of these.' A Sith wayfinder." She pointed to a drawing of a pyramidal object. Rey looked up at Leia, eyes wide. "They lead the way to Exegol."
Leia's breath came fast. If Luke had already been searching, then they simply had to find his trail and pick up where he'd left off. This gave them somewhere to start. It gave them hope.
"If we're to find this fleet," Rey continued, "to stop what we both feel is coming, I need to finish what Luke started. Find Exegol."
Now Leia's breath came fast for a different reason. "No," she choked out. Rey wasn't ready. There was so much left for the girl to learn! If Rey left too soon, she could be drawn to the dark side. Leia had sensed her pull to the dark, the same way she had sensed it in Ben years ago.
But as Rey's eyes continued to plead with her, Leia had to face the truth: Rey needed more training, it was true. But the real reason she couldn't bear to see the girl go was that she'd grown deeply fond of her. Luke had told her that the Master-Padawan bond was strong. But he hadn't warned her that she might come to see her apprentice as the daughter she'd never had.
"What have I been training for if not for this?" Rey said. "I don't want to go without your blessing. But I will."
Leia was still shaking her head.
"I will," Rey insisted. "It's what you would do."
Leia had no answer for that.
—
Rey had barely finished packing when Maz found her at her workbench. Maz was tiny and unassuming, but her warm wide eyes and compelling voice made Rey want to do anything Maz asked of her. She braced herself.
"Leia and Rose will stay behind to plan the attack on the fleet," Maz told her. "But there can be no attack until you've completed Luke's mission. To find Exegol."
Rey's heart raced. She knew she had to do this. She wanted to do this. But she wasn't ready.
"Maz, I might be a danger to the mission—to everyone. I'm afraid that I—"
"There is no one else," Maz said, somehow managing to sound gentle and firm at the same time. "The search for Exegol is a task for a Jedi."
Rey remembered when she met Maz long ago, Han brought her to Maz's castle on Takodana. Maz had seen what Rey would become before anyone else. "I'm not a Jedi. Not yet. I'm not as strong as Leia thinks."
Maz leaned forward. "You won't know how strong you are until you know how strong you have to be."
Rey shook her head. "The dark side has plans for me. If I go, Kylo Ren will find me."
Maz was not impressed by that in the least. "You have faced him before," she reminded her with a shrug.
Rey's voice dropped to a near-whisper. "It's not him I'm afraid of."
Maz studied her a moment. Finally, she said, "To find the darkest place in the galaxy you will need to face the darkest part of yourself."
Somehow she knew what Rey was up against. Somehow, Maz always knew.
"You must go," Maz urged. "The Force has led you here. You must trust in it. Always."
—
Rey disconnected a fuel hose from the Falcon. Rose had worked miracles, getting the compressor back online, repairing the sub-alternators. Rey herself had buffed out some of the scorch marks and fine-tuned the rear shields. Her ship was nearly prepped and ready, and anticipation buzzed in her limbs. She was moments away from being behind those controls again.
She'd run a few assignments with Finn and Poe when they'd first established the base on Ajan Kloss, but for months now she'd been stuck here, training, training, training. Poring over Jedi texts with Beaumont's and C-3PO's help. Working on her lightsaber. But she yearned to see space again. To get back in the fight. To feel truly useful.
Wiping her hands, she cut around the Falcon toward the on-ramp, and nearly ran into Rose.
"Thank you," she said to the mechanic. "I can't believe how fast you got this ship ready."
Rose smiled. "You know I'd do anything for you and the Falcon."
There were so many things Rey ought to say to her. She settled for "You've been so kind to me. You and Beaumont, Connix and Snap…"
Rose's smile faltered. Became a straight-up glare. "Why does it feel like you're saying goodbye forever?"
"I'm not! I just…" Rey didn't know what she was trying to say.
Before she could figure it out, Rose enveloped her in a hug. "Me too," she said to Rey. "Now go do your Jedi stuff." After a final squeeze, Rose headed toward the Falcon for a last-minute inspection of the ship's landing gear.
Rey was about to grab a crate and load it onto the ship when Poe nearly collided with her.
"So you got her up and running," Poe said.
"You were right before," she blurted. "I can't stay. I'm gonna pick up Luke's search for Exegol."
"Yeah, I know," Poe said, giving her shoulder a friendly smack. "We're going with you. Chewie, did you get that compressor fixed?"
Chewie moaned that Rose had helped him.
Rey stood, mouth agape, as Poe grabbed a crate of supplies and started helping Chewie load the ship. Before she could formulate a response, she caught sight of Finn approaching. Him too?
She grabbed Finn's shoulder and yanked him close. "I need to go alone!" she said.
He nodded. "Yeah, alone with friends."
"No. It's too dangerous, Finn."
Poe and Chewie drew near, BB-8 rolling after them.
Finn lifted a chin at them in acknowledgment. To Rey he said, "We go together."
Chewie loudly agreed with Finn.
BB-8 beeped his own insistence on going.
"I wholeheartedly agree," C-3PO said.
Rey looked around at them. Poe was giving her an arch look, as if daring her to contradict them. Finn was as earnest and determined as always. Chewie just seemed impatient to be off.
Her friends. She was terrified for them all. But she couldn't keep herself from smiling.
Knowing something in her head was different from knowing it in her heart. Rey had understood on some level that she wasn't alone anymore, but now she knew it, and it was so wonderful it hurt. Tears filled her eyes. Loneliness was a kind of agony. But belonging was another.
—
While they'd packed their things, Beaumont had been doing some final research. Now Rey and her friends gathered with him beneath the jungle canopy to go over what he'd learned.
Beaumont Kin was a slight, sandy-haired man who appeared younger than his years. He wore a mud-speckled field jacket and always carried a holstered blaster—on strict orders from Rose and Connix, who insisted that even an academic had to have a good blaster at his side.
He bent over a console table, Jedi texts arrayed before him. "I've analyzed Luke's ciphers," Beaumont said. "Learned a little more about the wayfinders."
He pointed to a familiar page from one of the texts, the one with the drawing of a pyramidal object.
"Ancient things," Beaumont said. "Only two were made; one for the Sith Master, one for the apprentice."
Rey peered closer. She'd always found the markings on the wayfinder odd. Circles with lines leading away from them, like crude navigation charts.
Beaumont pointed to some ciphered text. "Luke was on the hunt for the Emperor's wayfinder, but his trail went cold on a desert world called Pasaana."
"In the Middian system?" Finn said.
"You been?" Beaumont said. "Can't get a decent meal there. At least Pasaana's unoccupied."
Finn frowned, and Rey knew exactly what that frown meant. For now. Unoccupied for now.
"So we start on Pasaana," Poe said.
"Yes," Beaumont agreed. "Luke left coordinates. They point to the Forbidden Valley."
Well, that didn't sound foreboding at all.
"There's something else you should know about Exegol," Beaumont said. "Legend says it's home to a goddess of Mortis, Abeloth."
"A goddess of Mortis?" Finn said.
"Abeloth is described as the bringer of chaos," he explained, "she was cast out of Mortis and trapped on Exegol."
"Do we believe this is true?" Rose asked.
Rey thought of the voice she heard in her visions, "It's true."
Finn spoke with determination, "Then we destroy her, and the Sith, once and for all."
—
Everyone was saying their goodbyes. Rey looked around, the finality of it all like a weight in her gut. It was possible they wouldn't come back from this. How could the skeleton crew of a single ship discover a way to defeat the greatest fleet the galaxy had ever seen? It seemed ludicrous. But it was their only play.
C-3PO bent over R2-D2, speaking with uncharacteristic softness.
"In the event I do not return," he said, "I want you to know: You have been a superb friend, Artoo. My best one, in fact."
R2-D2 responded with a sorrowful whir.
Rey turned and looked around the base. This mess of jungle and wires and exposed terminals had become home, and it would be harder to leave than she thought. She loved the foliage, the way rain collected on broad waxy leaves, the scent of loamy soil. Green, she had decided—the color of jungles and forests and grass and life—was her favorite.
"We should get going," came Poe's voice. When he noticed her staring off into space, he added, "What is it?"
"Nothing," Rey said, a soft and gentle lie.
"Rey?" came another voice, and relief filled her. Leia.
She hurried toward the general, blurting, "There's so much I want to tell you!" Rey should have told the truth about her vision. She should say how much Leia's training had meant to her. Thank her for giving her a place with the Resistance and letting her make the Falcon her own. Tell her how much she admired—
"Tell me when you get back," Leia said.
She couldn't help herself; she reached to embrace Leia. Which turned out to be fine because Leia reached for her at the same time and hugged her tight, like she never wanted to let go. Rey closed her eyes, absorbing Leia's strength and calm. They stood together a long moment.
Finally, Leia said, "Never be afraid of who you are."
Rey's eyes flew open. Leia's voice was filled with power. With finality. Maybe the Force had shown her something. Or maybe it was just damn good advice.
Overwhelmed, Rey could only nod in grateful acknowledgment.
—
Rey settled into the pilot seat. Beside her, Chewie huffed a warm greeting. They locked eyes, and she smiled.
"It is," she responded. "Let's take her up."
Poe and Finn entered the cockpit, followed by C-3PO and BB-8. Her skeleton crew. The best crew.
As they lifted off, Maz and Leia stood together on the jungle floor, watching them go. Leia's heart ached. It was just like watching Ben leave to go train with Luke. Like watching Han go off on a mission without her. It was like saying goodbye to part of her own self.
"If she finds Exegol," Maz said, "she may just survive." Like Leia, Maz occasionally caught glimpses of people and places, presents and futures, through the power of the Force. Like Leia, she rarely understood what they meant. "But if she doesn't," Maz added, "the galaxy will surely not."
Leia had done her best to hide her worry from Rey, if not her affection. That girl might be their last hope.