"So, where are we exactly headed to?" Poe asked, sitting down in the pilot's seat, starting to flick some controls.
Rey seated herself in the co-pilots chair, eyeing Poe as he leaned back in the spot she usually sat in. "We're headed to a planet in the Unknown Regions. A planet called 'Ahch-To'," she told him.
"Anch-To, huh? Didn't Skywalker flee there after Ren burned down his academy?" Poe questioned.
Rey flinched at his words. Only she knew the real story of what had happened at Luke's academy, of how Ben had been haunted by Snoke so many years and that he had been fighting the voices in his head until Luke had sensed the darkness in him, betraying Ben by thinking his mind had been made up causing him to turn.
Rey had thought about telling her friends his story, the real story, but she knew they wouldn't believe her. No one in the entire galaxy would believe her if she told the story of how the legendary Luke Skywalker had been the one who betrayed his nephew and not the other way around.
She felt Poe's eyes on her and forced a smile before turning her attention back to the controls in front of them, hoping he hadn't noticed her reaction and her absent answer.
And it seemed so because when she looked at him out of the corner of her eye, she watched him put in the coordinates and start the Millennium Falcon, slowly rising from the sand to fly into the atmosphere.
Rey fell back against her seat, relieved that Poe wasn't paying all too close attention to her until he asked, "So, what exactly are you looking for on Ahch-To?"
Rey glanced at him sideways and back into the starry void in front of them. "Secret Jedi stuff," she stated matter-of-factly with a gnawing feeling in her gut.
Poe stared at her, his brows raised before he turned to face the controls again, mumbling slightly annoyed, "Well, alright then," leaving an awkward silence hanging between them.
Finn began to rummage through the Falcon as soon as they left Tattooine for food, spare clothes and possibly a blaster or two in case they needed to defend themselves on Ahch-To. He had heard of the planet before from Rey, yet never been there, so he wanted to be prepared, just in case.
Finn remembered what it was like to prepare himself for any raid when he was in the First Order and he shuddered. He thanked the Force for his strength to leave the First Order before he could have hurt people and inflict damage to the galaxy instead of fighting for it. He also thanked the Force for leading him to Poe and to Rey, his best friends, his family. If he hadn't had found them, he probably would be hiding somewhere in the outskirts of the galaxy, far away from the First Order, far away from the Resistance. He probably would be all alone.
But he wasn't. Instead, he played a huge role in defeating the First Order and restoring peace in the galaxy, alongside his friends.
And that was something he would never change in his story.
Finn began to open compartments and drawers in the Falcon, continuing his search for anything useful when he felt a sudden pull to a small compartment close to him. It was a tingling curious feeling Finn had felt dozens of times before. He knew it was the Force trying to show him something, so instead of pushing the feeling away, like he used to back when he hadn't been aware that he was Force sensitive, he went directly to the compartment and opened it to reveal a blaster lying on a black sweater, black jeans and black shoes.
There was something familiar in the clothing in front of him, but he couldn't quite put his finger on who they could belong to. Picking up the sweater, he noticed that it was massive in size, so Finn decided it definitely didn't belong to Rey, not only because of the size but because he had never seen her wear black ever since he met her. So Finn figured the clothes could be Poe's, even though he rarely wore black too.
While further examining the sweater, he noticed a hole on the right side close to where the chest should be. Concern filled Finn's body as he thought that Poe could've been shot in a recent mission and that he had hid his clothes from Rey and him to prevent them from worrying, so Finn immediately stalked to the cockpit to confront his friend.
"Poe, are you alright?" Finn asked as soon as he stood behind him.
"What do you mean?" Poe questioned in return, turning his seat to face his friend, Rey following suit, her eyes widening as soon as she saw the sweater.
Finn explained, "I found this and a bunch of other stuff in the back and seeing that this has a hole in it, I was wondering if you're hiding something from us."
Poe shook his head. "That sweater ain't mine, Finn. I don't wear black. And besides, that's way too big for me."
"Well, then who's could it be?" Finn wondered aloud.
Rey suddenly got up, staring at the floor and said, "They're my clothes," taking the sweater from Finn's hands and walking past him.
"But," he began, yet upon seeing that she already left the cockpit he mumbled, "aren't they too big to be your's?"
Finn slumped down on the co-pilot's seat, staring back at where Rey went to, concern visibly painted on his face.
"Don't worry too much about it," Poe told him, placing a hand on his knee. "It's probably not that bad."
"Poe, she didn't even look at me," Finn stressed. "Rey's hiding something. I can feel it."
Rey kneeled down to neatly fold Ben's clothes back into the drawer where she kept them, running her hand across the soft fabric while silent tears streamed down her face as she remembered what it felt like to hold his hand, to be held by him as if he were about to lose her and what it felt like to feel his lips against her own.
It was a feeling she could never have imagined in her entire life. It was the happiness and belonging she had longed for for so long.
She shut her eyes and saw him again. She saw his face, his smile right before he died and tried to hold on to that feeling of happiness when they were with one another.
Rey decided to try to focus on to that feeling and reach out with the Force. She knew it was a long shot, but maybe if Ben was in the world between worlds, she could connect to him if she tried hard enough.
But as soon as Rey tried to reach out, she was pulled back to the vision she had had when she had been dreaming. The vision of Ahch-To, the door in the darkness, Palpatine's laughter, but this time she saw herself nod while tears trickled down her cheeks, as if she were accepting a harsh reality.
Immediately, Rey snapped out of her vision, afraid that she was going to see herself lose Ben once more or not be able to bring him back after all. And she couldn't dare watch herself lose him again.
She shut the compartment and got up, wiping her tears away as she tried to compose herself before turning around to head back to the cockpit. Yet as soon as she spun on her heel, she saw Poe standing in front of her, his face set in a worried expression.
She knew that he saw her crying, she sensed it as she watched him search for words, trying to break the depressing silence between them. Rey knew he felt sorry for her even though he didn't know what was going on, he felt that she was grieving, and he knew that she didn't want to talk about it.
"I-," Poe began and exhaled deeply staring into Rey's tear-stained eyes, "I wanted to let you know that we are about to reach Ahch-To."
"Thank you, Poe," Rey sniffled, not only thanking him for telling her that they would be arriving soon, but for feeling her pain, even if he didn't know why she was hurting.
"Hey, it's no big deal," he said and smiled softly before heading back to the cockpit to prepare for their landing.
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