The next day was quiet. Poe’s leaving had pulled all of the air out of their little home. Finn and Rey ate meals together, but there was no chatter, no banter, just quiet. It gave Rey time to think about their next move, but still, she hated it. Finally, out of what felt like desperation, she struck on an idea.
Finn was practicing his own meditations when Rey knocked on his door.
It took him a moment to answer, and it was just long enough for Rey to worry. If her plan didn’t fly with Finn now, he might begin to pull away from her too.
“So… I think I have a plan,” Rey started.
“Let’s hear it,” Finn said, resuming his seat at the edge of his bed.
“I think we should go to Organa too, but maybe in like, a day or so…you know, just to give Poe some breathing room.”
“We’re going to Organa because that’s where Poe is, but we’re still going to let him leave for Yavin?” Finn asked, confused.
“No, sorry,” Rey admitted, “this isn’t about Poe. But his leaving did make me think about a couple of things.”
“Well, I’m glad his leaving was good for something.”
The bitterness in Finn’s voice was unmistakable. Rey couldn’t ignore it, but she also needed Finn to know that his staying with her meant a lot. She wanted her plan to give him even more of a reason to trust her.
“Ok, well, it dawned on me last night that what we really need is someone who knows even more than Maz’s books, right? We need someone who might have, I don’t know, seen one of these things before?” At this, she pulled the binoc circuit out of her pocket and held it up.
“And you think that person is on Organa?”
“No,” Rey said.
“Then why are we going?!” Finn almost yelled in frustration. He was in no mood for a guessing game.
“Because they ARE on Organa, but it’s not a person,” Rey said, letting the excitement linger in the air a little. She was trying to lead Finn to her conclusion without outright telling him.
“I hate riddles,” Finn said. But at that moment, Rey could see the understanding spread across Finn’s face; he suddenly knew exactly what she was thinking.
“You mean Artoo, don’t you? You think we need to talk to R2-D2.” Finn replied, his excitement beginning to match hers.
“Artoo's on Organa,” D-O said.
“Yeah he is, buddy!” Finn whooped, leaping up from the bed.
Rey was smiling now and began to speak too quickly. Finn slowed her down so he could catch up.
“Ok, ok, start from the beginning,” he said, standing directly in front of her, eyes shining in anticipation.
“So, as far as I know, Artoo is the only being in this whole galaxy who knows, well pretty much, everything…despite what 3PO always says about his rusty innards,” Rey said, smiling at the earnest protocol droid that she hadn’t seen in years.
“At the very least, he has things that Luke, Leia, and myself all downloaded into his archives. I also know he’s been around longer than any of us. If someone knew what the binoc could be used for, if it was in any archive before the Sith destroyed it, Artoo might be the only one who can tell us what it is.”
Finn was pacing now, excited at the prospect of having a place to go, something to do.
“And while we’re there, we can check in on Rose and Connix.” Rey smiled at Finn, pleased with this plan.
For Rey, this plan accomplished several things. She had listed them off in her head right before seeing Finn, in case she needed to validate her plan further. In no particular order:
- It got them off of Takodana
- It was something that they COULD do without Poe, even if it wasn’t the way Rey or Finn wanted it
- It got their minds off of thinking about Poe being gone
- They’d be able to see their friends
Ok, so maybe it was more of an “Operation Forget About Poe Leaving” kind of idea, but still, it was their best shot as far as Rey thought. At worst, if Artoo didn’t know anything, they would end up precisely where they were right now. On the other hand, if Artoo DID know something, well, then maybe they could figure out their next steps before they met back up with Poe; IF they met back up with Poe, Rey hated to say it, but she was just preparing herself for the worst. It certainly wasn’t anything she’d say out loud to Finn.
“I like this plan,” Finn said, rubbing his hands together while still pacing. Then he stopped, “See, I knew you could do it!” he said, pulling her into a gigantic hug. He stepped back, holding her an arm’s distance away, “So, when do we leave?”
…
The Falcon was in the air 2 hours later. They had needed to pack things up and move their other ship into their usual docking space at Maz’s. She always threatened to charge them a rental fee for the bay, but Maz hadn’t collected yet.
With her free time in the last five years, when Rey hadn’t been training, she had been cleaning up the Falcon. It wasn’t pristine, it would never be pristine again she had finally acquiesced, but she had worked on it steadily enough that she had begun to feel like the ship was grateful for the sprucing up and it flew smoother and faster than ever, it seemed. Or maybe Rey was just excited about this trip.
Finn sat in the co-pilot seat, now familiar with the buttons that Rey would ask him to hit. Usually, she and Poe switched off, but Finn was still more than capable. Besides, Rey hated an empty co-pilot seat. Looking over and seeing no one made her miss Chewie more than anything else.
Unlike most trips, though, this one was uncomfortably quiet. It was unlike Finn to go this long without starting some sort of conversation, or at least asking a question, and Rey knew that it was all still a hangover from Poe’s exit. She was tempted to say something, just to hear anything other than the hum of the engine, but all she had come up with far was “Well…,” so probably best to stick with silence for now.
A few minutes later, Finn looked over and finally did ask, “so how long til we get there?”
“Our current course has us arriving in about 4 hours,” Rey replied after checking.
“Do you mind if I take a nap? I’m sorry, it’s just been an exhausting couple of days. I haven’t slept much at all.”
“No, no, you’re fine,” Rey said, shaking her head slightly, “go ahead and lay down. I’ll come and get you if we need anything, but for now, it seems like it’ll be an easy trip.”
She hated to possibly jinx the journey, but there also just wasn’t that much happening right now. Their course was set, and she could see nothing that would get in the way of that. She wished she could take a nap too. Instead she just stood up and stretched a bit.
D-O wheeled himself in and cocked his head up to her. Rey knelt down to him.
“You ok?” Rey asked, genuinely concerned for the little droid.
“I Miss BB-8,” D-O responded, his head falling a little.
“I know,” Rey said, “I do too. You know, he was the first one of all of them that I met. He was the one who brought Finn and Poe to me!”
“Tell me more, please,” D-O stated. And so, Rey started at the very beginning. She wasn’t sure she had actually ever done that before, and she couldn’t think of any better way to fill the time.
…
As they were approaching Organa, Rey woke Finn.
“Hey,” she said, gently pushing at his shoulder, “Hey, we’re almost there, ten minutes to landing.”
Finn sat up slowly, swung his feet over the bed and rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands.
“You let me sleep the WHOLE way?” he asked, incredulous and slightly insulted at the same time.
“Well, you were tired! And we didn’t run into any issues. And now I’m waking you up so that you can help me land!” Rey called over her shoulder on the way back into the cockpit.
Once they were safely on the ground, Rey opened the ramp. She could hear Finn descending and then a loud, “ROSE!”
By the time Rey and D-O were down the ramp, Finn had pulled Rose into a gigantic, bordering on dramatic, hug and was spinning her around. Rey was glad she had contacted Rose ahead of their trip so that she could be there to meet them.
“Ok, OK…put me down, now,” Rose said, laughing before Finn set her down, keeping his hands on her shoulders while she steadied herself. Once she no longer felt like her head was spinning, she looked up at Finn and threw her arms around him again.
“I have MISSED you!” she said, before looking over and seeing Rey. She let go of Finn just long enough to run over to Rey and throw her arms around her. “And I’ve missed YOU too!”
Rey hugged back, feeling like, for the first time in a while, her sense of belonging was returning. Rey hugged back fiercely, hugging so much she had to scrunch her eyes closed, “I’ve missed you too!”
Rose finally stepped back and looked the two of them up and down.
“Why do I feel like it’s been a YEAR since I’ve seen you?” Rose demanded
“Well, not a year, but probably like what,” Finn looked over at Rey, and they said, “eight months?” unintentionally together.
“So…that’s still happening, I see,” Rose said with a small chuckle.
Rey remembered, years ago, when Finn was first starting to get serious about training, Rose had commented on their habit of saying things at the same time.
“You know, you guys, like, say the same thing a lot. Like twins. Like when you have the same response, it just comes from you at the same time. Like you have your own language or something…”
Finn had just laughed, “well, I mean, yes, we are CLEARLY twins,” he had said, his hand motioning between Rey and himself quickly as if the ridiculousness of such a statement should be obvious.
“No, I know, OBVIOUSLY, but I just mean, it’s happening a lot more. That’s all I was saying. Like, remind me not to ask you both which outfit I should wear, because if you both say different things but at the same time, I’ll be more confused than ever!”
Thinking about that moment gave Rey a chance to realize just how far they had all come, in what sometimes felt like the blink of an eye and sometimes felt like a whole lifetime itself.
“So, how are you? How’s Maz? How are the droids?” Rose asked, in quick succession, turning around and heading back to a 10-story building that looked like a giant concrete donut, except in the middle there wasn’t just a courtyard, but practically a jungle, at least that’s what it had looked like from the sky when Rey flew over it. They all knew Rose was just trying to avoid Finn’s direct gaze.
“Well, we’re fine, Maz is fine, the droids are fine, Poe is fine,” Finn said in an equally succinct manner.
“I’m sorry!” Rose said, “When Rey said you were coming, she gave me a quick update. I promised I wouldn’t say anything, but then, I don’t know, I was asking, and it was out of my mouth and I tried to correct before I directly asked ‘how’s Poe?’ and I mean, I just saw him, he stopped by before heading to Yavin, and he seemed, weird, but I don’t know Poe always seems kind of…intense, and he didn’t mention anything so, well, anyway, that’s that.”
“It’s ok,” Finn said, placing a kind hand on Rose’s shoulder as he caught up with her.
“I mean, it’s not ok, but what was I going to do? Make him stay somewhere he didn’t want to be? He’ll cool off, at least I hope he does. And then we’ll meet him on Yavin. That’s the plan anyway,” Finn shrugged.
Rey and D-O had caught up to them now, and though, within earshot, Rey stayed quiet.
They were inside the building now, and Rose was leading them to an elevator. They got in, and Rose hit the button for the eighth floor. They were all quiet on the way up, and Rey said, “It’s my fault,” just as the door opened.
Everyone looked at Rey for a minute, and just as the door was closing, Rose stopped it and held the elevator as everyone exited.
“Here, this way,” Rose said, shuffling them into an empty room.
When she looked up and looked out the window, Rey could see that the floor was filled with offices, some for people, some for storage, some looked like small archive rooms.
Organa was the new home of the galactic government, whatever that would eventually be. It was a small planet, practically tiny, in the Thustra system. Mostly jungle with large expanses of water, it always reminded Rey of Takodana, but more temperate, not quite as prone to the humidity and endless rainy seasons. The building they were in was the largest in the settlement so far.
There had been a lot of growing pains in the last five years, and Rose and her colleagues were often embroiled in heated debates as they attempted to answer a myriad of questions, all of which seemed to boil down to one big one: What was best for the galaxy now? It was probably a question that would always be asked, but Rose was one of the ones on the ground, doing the work to figure it out.
Once they were safely in their empty room, Rose looked to Rey.
“What do you mean, it’s all your fault?” she asked concerned, leaning up against the table in the middle of the room.
Rey, her back against the windows, looked up and met Rose’s concerned face.
“Well, I was asking him to do something that he didn’t think he could do. I guess the best way to put it would be ‘morally opposed,’” Rey said.
Both Rose and Rey looked at Finn for a moment, but he had nothing to add.
“Morally Opposed?” Rose almost laughed, “Poe, we’re talking about THE Poe? The one that led a mutiny? My gosh, Rey, what were you asking him to do?” Rose asked, still smiling.
She couldn’t fathom any request that would push these three away from each other. The bond they shared had always made sense to her, but she also knew it was something separate from her friendships with all of them. As close as she to them, and after everything they all had been through, she knew she was as close to them as it was possible to be, but these three, it was like they shared something she just simply couldn’t see. An invisible cord that had tied them together. To think that Poe had left out of anger seemed entirely unbelievable.
“I was asking him to help me bring Ben back,” Rey said quietly, looking at the floor before looking up at Rose again.
“You were…what? How? WHY? …I mean, is that even possible?” Rose stammered.
Silence hung heavy over the small room, the only sound was D-O wheeling between Finn and Rey in an anxious motion.
Rose knew she had to say something, anything, to get her friends to talk. And not just talk to her, but from the look of things, to speak to each other.
“Ok, so…Uhm, I’m going to need a quick refresh, I think? Or perhaps I need to hear it all for the first time?” Rose asked gently.
Finn got up to leave and Rose looked sharply at him.
“Where are you going?!”
“Well, I was just gonna go, walk around or something, I don’t know. I’ve heard all of this before. Several times.”
“No, you’ll sit, and you’ll listen to your friend, Finn,” Rose instructed
Rey locked eyes with Rose, and smiled, thanking her silently, for at least trying to understand. It was the most anyone, aside from Maz, had done for her during this whole situation. She knew that Finn was here, and that did count for something, but she felt like he was there despite Ben, not because of Ben, and here was Rose, ready to really listen.
“Fine,” said Finn, “but I want to go on record as me having said I have been here and done this before.”
Rose laughed a little, “So noted.”
“Ok, Rey, so tell me, WHAT is going on?”
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