"The Falcons back!"
The sound of Connix shouting excitedly drew Rey and Leia from the main control room. Rey could just about make out the heavy grey outline of the Falcon through the dense jungle cover and she turned to Leia, smiling, relieved. Maybe it would be alright, maybe Ben hid away and the First Order were sitting ducks as predicted. Maybe it took so long because they were busy obliterating the enemy.
Rey rushed ahead of the General, darting through the trees and into the clearing, just as Poes x-wing touched down, followed by two more and one cargo ship.
Finn excited the Falcon, his arm around Roses shoulders. She was weeping. Rey knew, knew just from that image that Ben hadn't just hid himself away, he'd been ready for them. She had given him what he needed to hurt them. The thought made her angry. She had warned him, to save his life, not so he could destroy the resistance.
"Finn?" Rey stammered as he and Rose approached her. Finn shook his head and carried on walking. Poe was next to appear, stalking through the trees from his x-wing, his face set, "Poe, how did......?" Rey began. Poe swivelled round to look at her, his eyes dark,
"How did it go?" He barked. Rey nodded. "I'll tell you how it went. We lost a quarter of our new members, most of our ships and Snap, Snaps gone"
Rey opened her mouth but found that nothing came out, except for a choked, "Why....?"
Poe ran a gloved hand over his face, "It was a trap. Clearly our spy in the First Order can't be trusted after all. They lured us there, Rey we were like sitting ducks, they lay a trail and we followed it, right into their hands"
Leia joined them then and Poe turned to her. His eyes were glassy and Rey realised that she had never seen him truly emotional before now. "General I'm sorry, we've lost..." Poe stuttered, his voice cracking slightly.
"No, we haven't lost, we can rebuild, we can recover from this" came Zorri's voice from behind them. They all turned as she walked towards them, helmet in hand.
Poe shook his head, "Wake up Zorri, we're done, you saw the size of their fleet, the firepower, the god damn base they have!"
Zorri stepped closer to Poe, "We just need to find more people willing to fight"
"We need a miracle Zorri! That's what we need!" Poe shouted, walking off and kicking angrily at a storage canister as he went.
Leia sighed, her hand coming to her brow, her other hand on her stick. Rey suddenly thought how frail she looked and another deep pang of guilt filled her, she'd done this, she'd been responsible for Snaps death, all the deaths in fact, the loss of their ships. And for what? To save one person?
Suddenly, fuelled by rage and remorse, Rey made her excuses and left for her hut. She had to contact Ben, she had to tell him exactly what he'd done, what he'd caused, he had to pay for his actions.
