To Do the Next Right Thing

Part 5

To Do the Next Right Thing

Chapter 5

"My mother isn't alive," Armitage scoffed. But Rey was able to read through the façade right away, could tell there was something hiding. This semblance of hope, that somewhere out there in this galaxy, out of the trillions of beings that inhabited it, one of them could be her. "Maratelle had told me she'd been dead for years."

"Come on, Armitage, you don't actually believe that, do you?" Rey rolled her eyes. Boy, the name was a mouthful every time she said it. Then again, everyone she'd known well had such simple names: Rey, Finn, Poe, Rose, Han. Chewie, even. "I saw it myself: that woman was a monster who would do anything to crush your spirit. Do you trust her more, or the Force?"

Armitage made a face, his brow furrowed, features pinched up. "Neither," he admitted. "You're going off of a feeling instead of cold, hard facts."

Poe shrugged. "You have to admit, he has a point."

But Rey had a Sabacc up her sleeve. She leaned forward on her elbows, smirking like the Lothcat that ate the Snee; Armitage would surely agree with her after this. "Alright. I mean, I was willing to help you look for her, but if you'd rather stay here on Ajan Kloss and stand to face trial among the rest of the Resistance, by all means."

Finn's eyes widened. "You want to what?" he asked. "You want to look for this woman just based off a drawing and a feeling? Not that I don't doubt your powers, but..."

"But what?" Rey asked.

Finn huffed, "Can I speak to you privately for a moment?"

Silently, Rey got up and followed Finn just a few paces outside her dwelling. Finn gestured for Poe to join, knowing that if Armitage tried anything, Chewie could just rip his arms off. But he wasn't going anywhere.

"What is this about?" Finn asked once they were out of earshot. "Really."

Rey flushed. Yes, just a few moments ago, when she saw him, she chased him with every intention of striking him down. But now she'd seen into his mind. Heard his story. Felt his pain. It was a pain and hurt far more intense and tragic than anything she'd ever felt with Kylo Ren.

Poe crossed his arms. "Yeah, I'm missing the part where you two really looked into his mind—that bad?"

Rey nodded. "I didn't want to be in there for a moment, and yet he's been living it for so long," she said.

"Like I said: that still doesn't excuse all his behavior," Poe pointed out.

Sighing, she tried to gather together an explanation. One where she didn't tell her best friends that she kissed Kylo Ren in the heat of the moment. They wouldn't understand it (and hell, she really didn't, either, or necessarily even liked it), and it would just... alienate them. She thought to his mother, and if she was alive, she probably spent every waking moment tearing herself up about what happened to her son without her.

How she imagined her parents felt, leaving her behind on Jakku.

Because of what happened with Kylo Ren, she didn't have a leg to stand on. Not when it came to potentially helping Armitage.

But there was something else nagging her at the back of her mind, on top of this moral quandary with which she found herself. Now that the war was over, now that her Jedi powers had heightened completely and she learned all she needed to know... what now? She had her own lightsaber. She had everything she needed.