The Flight Before Us | FanFic/Damarey/ Before Ep 9

Chapter 1- Breathe

Rey had to remind herself to breathe.
How could someone so in tune with the force forget to breathe? She took a sharp breath, trying not to cry.
These were her first breaths with no Jedi in the universe. Or as the last one. There was only person who claimed to be trained by the last jedi left.
And she was hugging her, trying to make sense of it.
Leia pulled back.

"Don't do that," she said.

Rey blinked, scolding herself for crying. She didn't want to appear to be weak when they had only moments.
"I'm sorry," she said, wiping her face on the back of her sleeve.
"No. You can cry, darling," Leia said. "But don't think you're alone."
"But I am. I mean, there is you," Rey said awkwardly, but she knew as much as anyone in the galaxy that Leia was strong in the force, but not trained and more committed to politics and leadership than Jedi training.
Although she'd learned enough to survive the vacuum of space.
Still, Rey hesitated to ask her for guidance, even now.
Leia shook her head. "Not me, Rey. It wasn't meant to be me. Luke was meant to train you, but me... I was always meant to train someone else. That became clear when you showed up."
"What?" Rey was intrigued, but she also heard footsteps. She quickly reached out to see who it was.
"It's Poe."
Rey said it, not thinking Leia would say, "Exactly."
Rey looked back to Leia, confused by her words.
"Wait? What?"
Leia said, "Poe. While Finn is connected to the force, and you may train him, I sent you to learn from Luke," she hesitated, just as Poe came up out of the brush beside her, "and I was going to train him."
Poe was holding a paper.
The blue paper.
Rey had learned to hate the sight of it.
They were leaving another planet again. Three in the last week.
"We have another transfer order, only about twenty hours to prepare, your highness, and..."
He had stopped talking, his dark eyes darting now between Rey and Leia.
"I missed something. Or you're talking about-" he hesitated to say her brother's name, still confused and grief-weary himself, but Lando's presence had only made everyone miss Luke Skywalker more. "There's an update, that's all, I can come back-"
"No," Leia said, "I can't wait forever to tell you."
Rey blurted out, "Him? I mean... he's a good pilot, but...you were doing to train him?"
Poe took a step back. "General, I'm confused."
"Firstly, Dameron, you are the General now. I know it's difficult for you to wrap your head around that, but it's the truth. If you call me anything from now on," she paused, pulling her lightsaber off of her belt and handed it to him as she said, "it'll have to be teacher. I can't stand the title Master, but I most certainly am not that, and I'm far too important to have to be uncomfortable if I don't want to be."
He stared at the lightsaber in front of him, taking it from Leia's hands, but the confusion continued to numb any expression Rey could read from him.
"I'm sorry, General... I mean, your highness..." Poe turned from Leia to Rey, and even behind him where BB-8 had rolled up beside him with a surprised squeal. Poe pointed to the droid.

"Yeah, what he said. Is this a joke?"
"It might as well be, but I'm growing fairly certain it's not," Rey said, almost to herself.
"Poe," Leia said, turning back to face him, still holding the lightsaber awkwardly, as if holding it as a courtesy for her. "You weren't ready. From the moment I met you I knew that. That's why... I sent you to find him originally."
Poe looked at the lightsaber again, but shook his head. "No. No, you sent Rey to Luke."
Leia shook her head. "Not at first. I sent you to find the missing piece of the map."
Poe squinted his eyes, remembering meeting with the old man, the way he passed the information on to him, as if it was his legacy and Poe's future.
"In fact, I told old San Tekka that if he ever found the map, I would send him the one that would need it most. At the time, I thought that was you. You were the only one remotely in tune with the force the way Luke was. The way you fly... it's like a flashback. Then, she came... and I didn't know..."
Poe still looked like he wanted to run back to base, but he looked back at Rey.
"She's more powerful. So you sent her."
"No," Leia said. "I sent her because... you'll learn. You don't just use the Force, sometimes it asks to listen. The Force speaks to you. I was meant to send her. And I realized I had to teach you."
"By having me almost lead a mutiny against Holdo?"
Leia took a deep breath. "You probably wondered why I didn't tell you the plan. Or she didn't. It wasn't logical. It wasn't meant to be. It wasn't to teach you strategy, it was to teach you the nature of surrender. But it was also to see if you were ready." She stared back at the lightsaber in Poe's hand. "And I think you are."
Poe looked at it. BB-8 let out a beep that sounded like shock next to him.
"You said it, buddy," Poe said.
"Leia," Rey said, "What about Finn?"
"He is strong with the Force, but his path is not to be trained by me. Rey, you will train him in time, but he must also wait to be ready. But Poe-"
Rey interrupted, shaking her head, "Is a pilot and a captain-"
"General," Leia corrected, with the no-nonsense look she got about rank.
"But he doesn't even want to. He doesn't even know what to do with it! And he doesn't-" Rey stopped short.
Leia and Poe looked at her, until they could hear what she sensed moments earlier.
Finn came barreling down the path. He shouted the moment he saw them. "There you are! Poe, they say we're launching in twenty hours, but that we need to wait at least two days because..."
Finn trailed off, but then spoke into the awkward silence.
"Poe, what are you doing with that?"
Poe looked down again at the weapon again.
"Well," he said, "If you ask Rey, I'm not going to manage to do anything with it at all."