Star Wars Redemption #3: Return Home

Chapter 9: Rey's Return

Rey climbed from the remains of her fiery TIE fighter, nearly choking from the smoke. But she was alive. As she fell from the sky, she had thrown a protective bubble around the ship, shielding herself from the worst. She was battered and bruised and the edge of her cape was on fire, but the ship had sustained the brunt of the damage. Rey briefly felt bad she had crashed her and Ben's ship, but she squashed her feelings down as she extinguished her cape. It didn't matter.
"Finn!" she yelled, looking for the base, hidden as it was inside the wreckage. "Leia!"
She could sense their presence, and following it like a string, she found an armored door that led into the Resistance base. It was locked from the inside, but that didn't matter. Rey pulled out her lightsaber and got to work.

Thirty seconds later she was inside the base, her red lightsaber reflecting on the scratched metal walls of the corridor. Someone familiar was coming around the corner. Rey quickly switched off her lightsaber and hid it under her robes as Poe emerged around the corner, blaster drawn.
"Rey! You're back!" he said in surprise, lowering the blaster immediately. She plowed past him, but he strode to keep up with her.
"Thanks for shooting me out of the sky and pointing a gun at me," she said.

"That was you? Then you must have escaped from the First Order! What happened?"
"I'll tell you later! Right now I need to find Leia. The First Order knows you're here."
"She's in the control room, but I'm guessing you already know that," Poe said, following Rey through the passages as she pushed past fellow Resistance fighters. She strode into the busy control room and spotted Leia and Finn at the far end.
"Leia!"
They looked up at the same time. "Rey, you're here! What happened?" Finn said, astonished at the sight of her dark and torn clothing, her battered appearance.
"You shot me out of the sky, but that's not important right now. The First Order is on their way. They'll be here in a few hours."
"They're coming? Evacuate immediately!" Leia shouted. The room was thrown into a frenzy, generals contacting their pilot to load up the ships, engineers called to dismantle all the equipment.
"Evacuate? Leia, now is our chance to fight against them. This is our territory. We can win!"
"Now is not the time," she said, furrowing her brow. "The First Order is too strong. We need to be sure allies will back us up should the battle go badly. We have to keep the flame of resistance alive."

"But I'm here now," Rey argued. "I've finished my training. I can destroy them! Aren't there any old weapons on the Death Star we can use?"
"Rey, the time will come for you to use your training. But be patient. For now, the best course of action is to retreat to Ajan Kloss." Leia was about to leave, but she lingered a moment longer. "I'm glad you're safe."
Rey watched her go.
"This is yours," Finn said, handing her her old lightsaber. She'd almost forgotten he was here.
"My saber! I thought I gave it to Leia?"

"Leia let me hold onto it for you." His eyes softened at the sight of his old friend. "I'm so glad you're back."
Rey was barely listening. "Finn, would you do something for me?"
Finn looked surprised. "Sure, what do you need?"
"Tell Leia I'm on one of the transport ships. I know there were some old superweapons left on the Death Star, and I'm not leaving until I find them."
"Rey I can't leave you here."
"I thought you'd be on my side!" Rey said. "You know more than anyone what the First Order is capable of. If we can get the old laser working, even partially, we can destroy their entire fleet!"
"Or," said Finn, "we could go against direct orders from our general and blow up this entire planet."
Rey's gaze hardened. "Get to the transport ships. I'll meet you there."
Finn slapped her back gently. "I'll save you a seat."