18. Rescued

CHAPTER SUMMARY: A mission to rescue a Resistance recruiter from execution by a local crime lord goes awry.

Rey regains consciousness slowly, her mind coming back to life in spurts and stops, like an engine that hasn't been turned on in years.

The first thing she notices is the throbbing pain in the back of her head, the result of a swift and unexpected impact, the last thing she remembers.

The second thing she notices is that she's moving.

Two figures pull her along roughly, one on either side of her, gripping her upper arms tightly and dragging her heels across an uneven surface.

She's blindfolded but she can smell that she must be in some sort of earthy, underground structure. It's dank and musty with the distinct scent of grimy pools of water that haven't seen the light of day in centuries.

Just as the fog begins to clear from her mind, she hears what sounds like the clanging of keys. A heavy door swings open and the large hands thrust her bruskly forward. She lands flat on her back on a cold, damp surface. She sits up immediately, a hand flying up to remove the blindfold, but the door slams shut just as she slips it off.

One of the figures beats what looks like a metal rod against a small, grated opening near the top of the door.

"Keep quiet in there, girl," a man's voice commands gruffly. "If I don't hear you, you won't see me. And trust me when I tell you, sweetheart…" He hunches over, bringing his lips closer to the opening, "You don't wanna see me. Ever." He lingers menacingly for a moment before pulling away and beating the door with his metal rod once more for good measure. She listens as two pairs of boots stride casually away.

Rey waits until she hears them fade out completely.

Then she scrambles towards the door, crouching just in front of it, inspecting the lock.

This is difficult. There isn't much light. Just a faint stream drifting in through the grated opening. But she can see well enough to tell that this won't be an easy lock to pick. Maybe impossible…

Sheer, cold fear seizes her chest.

It's not that she's not worried about getting out of here. She'll figure that out eventually.

But she is very much worried she won't get out of here in time to rescue the Resistance recruiter who's set to be executed within the hour. That's what has her heart thumping and her pulse racing.

Rey whips around, quickly taking in her surroundings, still feeling slightly woozy, a dull aching at the back of her head.

It looks like she's in a cave that's been converted into a jail cell. The only sign of anything manmade is the door. There's a rocky wall just to her right, but the cave stretches out to her left, extending into darkness.

She closes her eyes and begins hobbling towards the dark, still crouched, reaching out with her Force senses.

There must be something here. Something she can use to pick the lock.

She inches forward deliberately, one palm stretched out, hovering just above the earth, sweeping over its damp surface. She continues like this for a minute until she reaches another wall, then turns, creeping along next to it.

Suddenly, she stops.

She lowers her hand to feel something hard and slender. She grips it and tugs violently, snapping it free from an unknown base. She crawls quickly out of the darkness and into the faint stream of light, bringing up her palm to inspect her find.

She immediately sucks in a breath and lowers her hand.

It's the bone of a human finger.

She shudders, letting out an uneven exhale. She closes her eyes briefly, then crawls back towards the door. She settles in front of it, examining the lock closely. There's only one opening on it, at the top left.

And it's too small for the finger to fit into.

She falls back on her calves, tossing the bone angrily to the right. She bows her head and covers her eyes with her hand, cold fear gripping her chest once more.

Rey tries to take in a slow, deep inhale, but it chokes through as a thin, half-breath. She sputters it out, shaking her head, her hand still covering her eyes. She fights to take in another breath, then another, each one a little steadier than the last.

She needs to calm down.

But in the same instant that she tells herself this, she can't help but curse Poe inwardly.

If he'd just listened to her, they wouldn't be in this mess.

She's the one who suggested they find a back way into Clava's palace, sneak in at the docks where local pirates and slavers deliver their goods. They could be quiet, blend in, find their man then whisk him away well before his execution was set to begin.

But no. Poe insisted it would be too heavily guarded, impossible to get in and out without being seen. Instead, they should take a more unexpected, unconventional tact, go straight into the belly of the beast, infiltrate Clava's court dressed as pleasure slaves, ambush the guards just before they delivered their man to The Boss himself, sweep him over the edge of open deck and onto the Falcon, then blast off into the sky.

I've seen you fight, he says. You'll thrash the palace guard and I'll snatch our guy right from under them, he says.

Maybe that would have worked. They'll never know. Because not ten minutes after sneaking into Clava's court, a Durosi man recognized Poe and immediately attacked. She was so caught off guard that she dove right into the fray, completely forgetting about the man who'd been trailing behind her, eyeing her suspiciously since she arrived. He was ready. And she was distracted.

One swift jab to the back of her head and she was out.

And now she has no idea how long it's been, how long she has before their rescue— what's his name? Simon?— has until he's brought to Clava for execution.

Rey pushes out a frenzied exhale, bringing the base of her palm to her forehead.

How long did they have before this whole mess started?

She shivers a little as she manically searches her mind, bringing her hands up to rub her bare shoulders. She wishes, not for the first time today, that she were wearing real clothes.

What she's wearing right now really isn't all that different from something she used to wear almost every day on Jakku. Two strips of fabric, smooth and deep red, draped over each shoulder to cross snugly at her chest and back, clinched in place with a brown belt at her waist. It's long, extending down to her ankles.

But that's pretty much it. Excepting a pair of knee high boots and gold underwear.

Her sides are completely exposed. And no matter how much she tugs at the fabric across her chest, she can't keep her breasts from peeking out one way or the other.

She's going to stick out like a sore thumb in this part of the palace. She'll need to find a change of clothes. Though she may be too crunched for time to take the subtle approach. Poe may just get his thrashing of the palace guard after all…

Then it hits her.

Fifty minutes.

That was it. The last time she checked the time. And that was less than five minutes before the Durosi recognized Poe, no more than five minutes at least.

So, she's probably been out for… ten minutes? She'll guess fifteen minutes to be safe. Thirty minutes until the execution.

She shakes her head briskly, bringing herself back into the present, refocusing on the priority of the moment— the lock.

She whips to the right, crawling towards the darkness for the bone she cast aside earlier. Maybe she can file it down somehow? She extends her hand, not searching for long before she finds it surrounded by stray pebbles. She crawls back into the light, eyes shooting up then down, from the right to the left, hunting for anything that could be used as a file.

Suddenly, she stops dead, still as a statue.

Despite her frenzied state, she feels it the instant it hits. That warm feeling welling in her core.

Oh no.

No, no.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Rey gasps and closes her eyes, bowing her head and bringing a clenched fist to her forehead. She tries to take in a measured inhale, then another, then another.

Don't fight the bond. Don't fight the bond. If it's happening now, it's for a reason. Don't fight the bond. Don't fight the bond.

Yet, as she repeats this to herself, frustration rises like a volcanic blast her chest.

But why right now? Right now!? Right NOW!?

She grits her teeth and braces herself. She can't even imagine what his reaction will be…

Before she has time to consider this, she feels his presence to the right of her. She exhales slowly, keeping her eyes closed, her head bowed, clenched fist still at her forehead as she crouches in front of the lock.

The cell is silent.

Rey waits, unmoving, her nerves on edge. She feels him cycle through several levels of shock, blended with something else she can't quite identify. Mostly, he's just shocked.

She huffs out an exasperated sigh, dropping her fist and turning her head towards him with a hardened expression. He's standing just where the light meets the dark in the cave, gaping at her with wide eyes. She's never seen his emotions so outwardly transparent. He's usually so good at maintaining a cold exterior.

But not right now.

"What…?" He finally spits out a word but has trouble continuing. He takes a step forward, hunching down to inspect her more closely as if to make sure that what he's seeing is real. "is going on here?" He spits out the rest of the sentence with a mixture of fury and concern.

"What the hell are you wearing? Where is this? Is this a prison? Are you in a damn—"

Rey lunges towards him, whipping an index finger to her lips, shushing him and violently gesturing him away from the door.

But it's too late.

She hears a pair of boots approaching distantly in the hall.

"Boji scum!" The guard from earlier yells out gruffly as he walks towards her cell. "That's not you I hear, is it!?"

Without thinking, she shoves Ben with both hands towards the darkness and he staggers back. She turns and darts to the grated opening just in time to see the guard stop at the cell across from her and beat his metal rod against the door.

"Do you need another beating?" The guard taunts the prisoner with a sadistic undertone, seeming to take pleasure in the prospect.

Nothing in response.

The guard lingers, breathing heavily, broad shoulders hunched, peering into her neighbor's cell. Finally, he turns, casting a glance towards her cell.

She immediately drops to the ground, crouching.

He takes a few steps. His heavy breath gets closer, closer... She can feel his eyes on her. She scrunches her shoulders into her ears and stares intently downward.

Finally, she hears him turn and begin to make his way back down the hall, the sound of his boots gradually fading away.

Rey waits, perfectly still, until the sound disappears completely. Then she waits a few more seconds for good measure.

She releases a slow exhale, twisting her body to the right, searching.

But there's nothing. Only darkness.

She creeps towards it, still crouched, tilting her head and squinting her eyes to focus.

"Ben?" She whispers, inching forward.

He sighs heavily. Then he emerges from the shadows, shaking his head.

He starts to say something but she instantly brings and index finger to her lips and gestures emphatically for him to crouch down next to her. His eyes flit upwards in annoyance, then he descends, kneeling down beside her in the faint light. He has that patronizing look, the one he gets right before he talks down to her as if she were his troublesome student. He opens his mouth to speak again, but she cuts him off.

"I don't have time for a lecture," she whispers furiously. "I'm on a rescue mission, I have thirty minutes until my target is executed, and the bond obviously brought you here to help. So, I need you to search this cell for something I can use to pick the lock. That or—"

"Wait a minute. Back up." He raises a hand, closing his eyes and opening them again. "Where is this? You're rescuing who from what?"

"That doesn't matter, Ben," she seethes through gritted teeth. "All you need to know is that someone's life is on the line and I'm running out of time. Help now. Talk later." He immediately shakes his head.

"No." He whispers, pursing his lips. "I'm not doing anything until I get more information."

"Are you kidding me!?" She spits out in disbelief, raising her voice without realizing it. "What do you not understand about a rescue mission. Execution. Thirty minutes!?" Suddenly, she jerks back, clapping a hand over her mouth, catching herself as she gets louder.

She ducks down, still crouched, her senses heightened, listening. She creeps towards the door, hearing the faint sound of footsteps approaching in the distance. They stop at the end of the hall. A few seconds pass. Then they continue onwards.

Rey lets out an exhale, not realizing she was holding it in. She shakes her head briskly, refocusing. She feels Ben watching her from behind. She twists around to face him.

She immediately straightens, surprised, her cheeks aflame in an instant.

She recognizes that look. She's been getting it from men all day, eyes slaking over her body as if she were a meal and they were starving. But there's something about getting it from him makes her blush...

She looks away, cheeks growing hotter, feeling intensely self-conscious. But embarrassment soon melts away into anger.

She crawls forward quickly, stopping just in front of him. She cocks her head, jaw hardened, eyes boring into his with an unspoken admonishment. He stares back at her, not even having the decency to look ashamed of himself.

"Ben," She hisses at him furiously. "A man is going to die in thirty minutes." She leans in closer. "I don't have time to fill you in on the details. Are you going to help me or not?" She raises her eyebrows.

He looks at her evenly, back to his typical cold exterior. She glares at him as he takes several long seconds to consider his answer. Finally, he speaks, his voice quiet but firm.

"I want to know where you are, who the man is, and why he's being executed," he demands. "Then I'll help you." She sucks in a breath, narrowing her eyes in anger.

But she doesn't have time to keep fighting about this.

She sits back on her calves, crossing her arms tightly, keeping her gaze trained on him all the while.

"I'm in the Vagadarr system on the planet Castell," she begins barely above a whisper. "The man's name is Simon, one of our recruiters. He made the mistake of recruiting several people who turned out to be slaves of a local crime lord, Clava the Bando. That means "boss" in these parts. Apparently, he has very strong opinions about slavery and is known to dole out the harshest punishment to anyone who dares to interfere with slaving in any way. This is his palace, his prison." She tilts her head sharply. "Satisfied?" She raises an expectant eyebrow, squirming inwardly with impatience.

He stares at her silently for a few seconds before his gaze begins to drift downward, his eyebrows knitting together. He starts shaking his head.

"Why the hell are you wearing that?" He raises his voice at the last word and she immediately lunges towards him, clapping a hand over his mouth.

"This wasn't my idea," she hisses. "Poe was the one who insisted we infiltrate the court as pleasure slaves and surprise them." Her hand slides away. "I would have snuck in through the back."

"Poe," he spits out the name, his eyes sharpening into a cutting glare. "Again." He cocks his head. "This Poe's going to get you killed one day." His face descending closer to hers for emphasis.

"I don't have time for this." She turns abruptly, dropping her hands to the damp earth and crawling forward, searching for the bone. "If you're not going to help, fine. Just stay out of my way," she warms him in a hushed tone.

She finds the bone quickly, then crawls towards the door to inspect the lock one more time. Ben watches her as she does. She can feel his eyes scanning her body. She tries to ignore him, but can't stop from growing increasingly infuriated. Not only is he refusing to help….

She's on the verge of whipping around to lash out at him when she suddenly hears him move towards her.

"You do realize you don't need a tool to pick that lock," he says quietly, sidling next to her. "You can use the Force." Immediately, she jerks around to face him.

"You're just telling me this now!" She hisses, eyes wide with disbelief. "Well, go on." She demands at a whisper, gesturing wildly at the lock. "Open it!" He narrows his eyes.

"Do it yourself," he says matter-of-factly, nodding towards the door.

"Ben." She says his name breathlessly, dropping her shoulders. "I don't have time for a lesson. Just do it," she insists, growing panicked.

"No." He shakes his head, infuriatingly calm despite the urgency of the situation. "You won't learn anything that way."

She buries her face in her palms, fighting back a wave of desperation. "Please," she begs, sliding her palms down. "You can teach me later. If I don't get out of here soon, a man is going to die." Hot tears push at the back of her eyes.

"Which is exactly why right now is the perfect time to learn," he whispers back decisively. "Especially for you."

"What do you mean especially for me?"

"I mean you seem to learn by relying on instinct, not training." He leans towards her, eyes flashing with a strange kind of glimmer. "Like when you healed me in the training room. You'd never done that before, had you?" She shakes her head wordlessly. "Then how did you do it?"

She immediately looks away, quickly running through a catalogue in her mind, the observations that stick out the most in the time she's spent lying awake at night, thinking about that moment.

The truth is she didn't quite know what she was doing, even while she was doing it. She didn't act with intention. Well… at least not one she could articulate. She has no idea if she could even do it again.

Suddenly, Ben interrupts her thoughts, grabbing her wrist and lifting her hand up towards the lock.

"What you did then," he starts, dark eyes still fixed on hers, "do now. Close your eyes," he commands curtly. "Focus on the energy of the moment. Let that be your teacher."

Rey tenses, hardening her jaw. Part of her wants to resist, to jerk her arm away and rip into him for suggesting she experiment with her Force abilities at a time like this. But a deeper part of her can't kick the feeling…

She can't explain how she knows, but…. She knows.

This is the reason why he's here today.

So, she closes her eyes and disappears into her own mind, her own body, disappears into the energy filling the space around her, surging through her. She opens her right palm hovering just in front of the lock. Ben loosens his grip and drops his hand from her wrist.

"Picture the inside of the lock like I know you've already been doing," he whispers. "Picture the mechanisms, all the individual parts and how they work together."

She does. She's mapping out the inside of the lock in her mind's eye. Before, it was just conjecture, how she imagined the lock might work based on her previous experiences. But the more she loses herself in the Force, the more she starts to see it, really see it. She's piecing everything together, exactly where it all is… there's the cylinder… the strike plate… the key pins…

She can see it. Now she just needs to move it.

But this isn't like lifting rocks. The movements here need to be very precise. And she's never attempted such fine movements through her Force senses before…

Rey sucks in a breath, a wave of urgency seizing her chest.

"Use that." She suddenly hears Ben whisper, his lips just next to her ear. "Use your impatience, how you feel like you need to get this done right now."

She does. She surrenders to the urgency wracking her body, putting her nerves on edge. In doing so, she grows inexplicably calm, a contradiction, like a loss of control that feels so natural it's comforting.

And just like that, everything snaps into focus.

She reaches into the lock with invisible fingers, teasing one key pin up, then another, then another…

Click.

Rey's eyes fly open to find the door in front of her slightly ajar.

"I did it!" She exclaims, snapping her head around to face Ben. Then she immediately claps a hand over her mouth, the horrible realization hitting her at once.

She yelled that so loudly that her voice reverberated down the hall.

A second later, two pairs of footsteps approach swiftly in the distance.

"Girl!" The guard from earlier belts out, beginning to charge towards her cell. "Is that you I keep hearing down there?!"

In a panic, she pushes the door closed, dying a little inside when she hears the lock latch back into place. Then she whips towards Ben.

"Go now!" She hisses, gesturing wildly to the darkness. "And don't do anything. Just be quiet." She pushes him away before he has a chance to react.

"Go!" She repeats. He shoots her a look, but he doesn't say anything, instead turning to disappear into the darkness just as the sound of keys clang against the door. Rey rises and backs several steps away before it swings open.

Light from the hallway pours into the cell and she quickly glances to the right to check for Ben.

The cave is partially illuminated, a few more feet of rocky earth visible, but the corners are still shrouded in blackness.

She looks forward to see a very large, broad-shouldered man duck to enter the cell, and another, shorter man follow behind him. They're both well-muscled, each with strange markings, tiny bumps etched all across their arms and chests into some sort of pattern she can't quite identify. The first man is bald with a head that seems too small for his massive body and the second man appears to be missing part of his nose, patchy, red flesh pulled back, leaving his right nostril exposed.

Both men grip long, metal rods.

The taller man stops just before her, cocking his head as he scans her up and down slowly, languidly. His lips twist into a smirk just as his eyes reach her face.

"You look like trouble." He leans down, descending close enough for her to feel his foul breath on her face as the second guard circles behind her. "Are you trouble, girl?" There's a sinister twinkle in his eye.

Rey stiffens, hardening her jaw. She juts her chin up defiantly, her gaze piercing, unwavering.

Silence.

Her Force-senses are heightened, so much so it's as if she can see the whole room. She knows exactly how far away the second guard is from her back. She senses his movements, the twitching of his hand, how he's leaning slightly to the right. He feels excited, but he's waiting, waiting to follow the first guard's lead…

The taller man in front of her takes a step back, scanning her up and down once more. Rey resists the urge to roll her eyes.

She is so sick of getting that look today.

"You know…" He begins slyly, taking a couple of steps around her, leaning over to get a better look at her backside. "Normally we'd give a noisy prisoner like you a good beating." He repositions himself just in front of her, looking down with that same smirk. "But I have a feeling that when Clava gets a good look at you, he's gonna say you've found your calling." He gives her a knowing nod, and she grits her teeth. "Wouldn't want to damage the goods, now would we?" He winks at her, taking a step forward, pushing her back a step.

"You're gonna make us a lot of money." His face descends towards hers, and she tenses, bracing herself.

This is about to get ugly.

But if she moves quickly, she can keep things quiet. The guard behind her is about to reach out to grab her and when he does, she'll snatch the metal rod out of his other hand and give the fellow in front of her a good, swift strike to the head. The second guard will lunge towards her but—

Then, just as everything starts into motion, just as she feels the second guard's hand extending towards her waist, the first guard's hot breath on her cheeks, she hears a loud cry and a crack behind her.

She whips around to find the second guard unconscious in a tangled mass on the ground.

Wait…

She looks closer.

Is he… dead?

"What th—"

Before the first guard finishes the sentence, Rey hears him fly backwards towards the hallway. She turns around just in time to see his head smash against the top of doorframe on his way out, his neck snapping in two. He hits the door across from her cell with a loud clang, then lands with a thud on the ground.

For a moment, Rey just stares at him, gaping.

"Damn it, Ben!" She yells out without thinking. "I told you not to do anything!"

She whips around to see him emerge from the shadows, black eyes fixed on the second guard's body, boiling over with rage. She clenches her fists and lunges towards him.

"You didn't have to kill them," she hisses. He parts his lips to speak, but he stops abruptly, jerking his head towards the open door.

And she knows exactly why.

Because she hears it too.

Footsteps, many of them, fading in quickly, rounding the corner of the hall just outside.

Her eyes widen and for a second, she shares a knowing look with Ben. Then she sighs heavily, dropping her shoulders.

There's no use in trying to keep things quiet now.

Just as she hears the first guard enter the cell, Rey whips around and leaps into the air, wrapping her legs around him and jerking his head down by the hair. She immediately begins jabbing the sharp edge of her elbow down hard onto a soft spot at the back of his neck— one-two-three-four-five-six strikes and he loses consciousness.

She dives into the hall as he crumples to the floor, eyes trained on a metal rod abandoned on the ground. When she grabs it, she immediately strikes hard at the back of a guard's knee just beside her, bringing him down. Another strike to the back of the head, and he's out.

She lunges forward, tumbling between a couple of guards and leaping forward to land on one of a trio behind them.

She strikes the guard on the back of the head then flips off of him, landing lightly and turning to lunge towards the other two, quickly ducking and striking hard at the side of one man's knee then the other's. The both stumble forward and Rey rises just as they hit the floor, whipping around to deliver two swift blows to their heads.

She looks forward, ready to take on more attackers, but no one's in view.

Though with this much racket, reinforcements can't be far behind...

She turns around to see Ben stepping over bodies littering the hallway, regarding them with a raised eyebrow. If she didn't know better, she'd say he almost looked impressed.

"Come on," she commands, gesturing for him to follow. She races to the end of the hall then crouches. There's a small, make-shift lounge ending in a steep staircase just ahead, a long hall to the left, a half-open door to the right.

Rey closes her eyes, reaching out through the Force, mapping out the terrain in her mind's eye. Poe's somewhere in the labyrinth of cells to the left. She senses him… but she also senses the docks, the smell of the ocean to her right, and according to their intel, that's where Simon will be. So that's where she needs to go.

"There's more coming," Ben says as he kneels beside her.

"I know," she responds without opening her eyes, still reaching out through the Force, concentrating on the sound of footsteps rumbling in the distance. Some will be coming down the steps just ahead, eight, ten maybe. But there's more coming from the right. Fifteen at least…

She opens her eyes, inhaling deeply. She turns to address Ben but stiffens when she catches him staring down at her body. She instantly snaps her fingers in his face.

"Eyes up here!"

He jerks back, looking up, having the decency to appear at least slightly sheepish this time. She glares at him before gesturing to the stairs in front of her.

"Take out the ones just ahead, then come meet me. And don't kill anyone." She rises, darting through the door to the right before he can respond.

She looks around the room as she enters, quickly taking in her surroundings. It's a storehouse, quite large, long and expansive with a tall ceiling, but it's mostly empty, nothing but towers of crates stacked along the walls and a few patches of rotten produce strewn across the ground.

Her head snaps to the door just across the way when she hears footsteps arrive on the other side. She immediately lifts a hand and Force-pushes a stack of crates in front of it as it starts to open. She dodges left, racing to the door. A guard grunts, struggling against a crate, then barges through only to be met with a swift blow to the back of the head.

The door flings wide open as several more guards charge through, a few with blasters but most with melee weapons. Rey meets them head on, gripping her metal rod and leaping into the air.

She strikes hard and fast, precise hits on the most vulnerable parts of the body— the back of the knees, the groin, the lower belly, the neck— anywhere that will disable her attackers without killing them. She falls naturally into a catch-me-if-you-can style of combat, flying and dodging, flipping and sliding, weaving between blaster fire and weapons clumsily flailing about.

Guard after guard charges into the fray and as she grows dramatically outnumbered, Rey begins Force-pushing stacks of crates lining the walls to the floor, knocking some of her attackers down and distracting others.

But she won't be able to do this for long.

The room is filling with guards, more than she anticipated. There must be at least fifteen standing men in the room with more pouring through the door.

She seizes with panic as she backflips high into the air, landing on a tower of crates behind her.

Oh yeah. There's definitely over twenty guards in here, soon to be twenty-five. She can't take on this many by herself.

Where is Ben?

Then suddenly, it's as if time freezes.

Everything stops— the sound, the motion, the energy, the frenzy, the panic. Everything.

Everything except for the memory of his voice in her head.

"Focus on the energy of the moment. Let that be your teacher."

Without thinking, Rey drops her metal rod and leaps forward, high into the air. She lands crouching, dead center in the throng of guards. It seems like every single one of them lunges towards her at once as she rises, closing her eyes and extending both arms out beside her, palms open.

And she just lets it out, a flash of light that fills the room with blinding brightness for a split second, like she just conjured the sun out of nothing. A chorus of shrieks rip through the air and she opens her eyes.

She's surrounded by guards on their knees, faces buried in their palms, hissing and crying out.

"I can't see! I can't see!" Several of them yell desperately. "Can anyone see!?"

Rey gapes at the men, dumfounded, unsure of what she did. She begins looking around her and catches sight of Ben just slipping through the door behind her. He scans the room with furrowed eyebrows, looking just as surprised as she does. But soon, a half-smile slowly creeps across his face. She runs over to him.

"I see you can Force blind now." He glances down at her.

"Is that what that was?" She asks breathlessly, still pumping with adrenaline. He widens his eyes with disbelief and, if she's not mistaken, a little awe. He studies her closely for a moment, but then shakes his head briskly, refocusing on the present.

"This is temporary," he informs her, glancing at the guards still crawling around.

"They'll regain their sight soon, probably in the next ten minutes." She gives a single nod before hurrying to the open doorway where the guards poured in. She slows a bit, walking through cautiously, her senses heightened, but relaxes when she feels no immediate threat.

She slips quietly through a small, empty room, a long, winding staircase just to the right, probably leading out of the dungeon and into the palace proper. She walks away from it towards an opening at the other end.

On the other side is another store room, but this one is massive, extending out in all directions, absolutely packed with all manner of sacks and crates brought in from the docks, the smell of fresh produce and seawater filling the air. There are several openings that she can see and maybe more that she can't— three along the wall to the left, two to the right, one directly across from her.

But which one leads to Simon…?

Rey closes her eyes.

She could be thinking about the blueprint of the palace that she studied exhaustively with Poe last night, the rough estimate of their rescue's location.

But her instincts seem to be serving her well today.

So instead she gives herself over to the Force, to the energy of the moment, the frenetic rhythm of life all around her. She loses herself in it, loses the sensation of having a physical body.

She is everything. She's the powerful ocean breeze, the fruit slowly rotting in crates, the worms in the earth, the disoriented guards in the room behind her, every scared, desperate prisoner trapped in this labyrinthine dungeon—

"What are you doing?"

Suddenly, her eyes snap open. And not because of the sound of Ben's voice beside her.

Rey darts across the expanse of the storehouse, leaping over sacks and crates on her way to the opening just across from her. She bursts through and races several feet down a long, dimly lit hall before halting and crouching low to the ground. She waits a moment then crawls towards light shining from an open door just a few paces ahead. She hears several voices inside.

She feels Ben approach behind her, moving quietly. She looks over at him as he crouches down beside her.

"There are eight in there, I think," she whispers. "But we're close. Simon's just on the other side." She glances briefly down at her empty hands. "I need a weapon," she mutters to herself. Suddenly, Ben extends an arm, offering his metal rod.

"What about you?" She whispers as she takes it.

He looks down at her with a strange glimmer, almost like pride.

"You don't need me." He shakes his head. "Go on," he tells her, nodding towards the door. She squints, studying him for a moment, wishing she had time to concentrate, to read him better.

But she can't bother with that right now.

She gives a quick nod then rises, moving swiftly towards the door. She straightens and tucks the arm with the metal rod behind her back, striding wordlessly into a long, skinny room that looks like a torture chamber. A guard lounging back in a metal chair sits up with a loud guffaw.

"What do we have here?" He crosses his arms and cocks his head with a smirk as six of his comrades turn their heads towards her. Two of them immediately reach for their metal rods and rise to their feet. The others just leer at her.

Rey studies them coolly.

No time for the subtle approach.

With one swift wave of her arm, she sweeps everything hanging on the right wall—the whips, the spiked clubs, the heavy chains, the metal rods— across the room, catching all of the men off guard and knocking most of them to the ground.

She bursts towards the two guards standing, ducking and going for the knees, bringing them down with hard strikes. She rises, extending a hand to Force-push another guard stumbling towards her before quickly turning around to deliver two precise blows to the backs of their heads. She dodges left, missing the swing of a club, and leaps up to land on a guard who's just managed to stand.

Rey falls into the rhythm of combat, moving swiftly and decisively, aiming to incapacitate her opponents and protect herself, nothing more. She dives and swings, flipping away then charging forward, ducking abruptly and hitting hard just where it's least expected.

A minute later, she's the only one left standing.

She quickly scans the bodies around her, making sure it's safe to proceed. Before moving on, she twists to where she entered, looking for Ben.

But he's not there.

He's not even in the palace anymore. She just realized that she no longer senses his presence.

Which is strange because she could swear she felt him watching her not ten seconds ago…

She shakes her head briskly, then races over to a door at the opposite end of the room, opening it to step into a single, narrow hall with large metal doors lining either side. Rey proceeds quickly.

She halts in the back end of the hall, slowly turning her head to the right. Then she swiftly kneels in front of the door, closing her eyes and lifting a hand to hover an open palm just an inch from the lock. She does exactly as she did before, picturing the inside of the lock, channeling the urgency inside her, giving herself over to that eerie sense of calm.

Click.

She opens her eyes to see the door ajar before her. She rises and pulls it open.

A man is standing just inside, squinting down at her, his eyes adjusting to the light. He's tall and thin, with sharp, angular features and dark skin. He has a large cut across his forehead and his clothes are a bit tattered.

He steps forward, eying her warily.

"Simon?" Rey says this more like a statement than a question.

He nods, still looking guarded.

"I'm here to rescue you."

"You're who?" He knits his eyebrows as he looks her up and down.

"I'm with the Resistance," she adds hastily, but this doesn't seem to clear his confusion.

"Aren't you… uh…" He tilts his head. "A little small for a Resistance fighter?"

She starts to speak but stops, whipping around when she hears the door at the end of the hall.

A guard walks in, slowly at first, but his eyes widen when he sees her. He immediately charges forward, gripping a spiked club. She calmly lifts an open palm and Force-pushes him back where he came from, right through the doorway. She turns around to find Simon staring at her, bug-eyed.

"Wait a minute," he starts, recognition slowly registering on his face. "You're Rey!" He announces this like a revelation. "It's an honor to be rescued by you." He steps forward eagerly, extending a hand.

Now Rey's the one who looks confused.

She cocks her head, surprised, but snaps to the door again before she can respond.

The same guard charges at her. In an instant, she rears back and casts her metal rod forcefully forward. It flies through the air with audible wind before smacking the man dead in the face. He falls to the ground, unconscious.

She turns back to Simon.

"Can you fight, Simon?" She asks matter-of-factly.

"Uh…" He stammers. "Yeah, absolutely," he finishes with false bravado. "I've been in a couple of brawls in my time."

"Good," she replies, turning towards the door. "Because you and I have one more person to rescue. And a lot of people to get through on our way out." She strides forward, stooping down to pick up the metal rod next to the guard's body as she exits the hall. Simon waits a few seconds before scurrying after her.

Rey continues through the interrogation room, her mind busy with what comes next.

They need to get Poe, but he's not far. The hard part will be getting to Chewie. He's expecting to meet them at the top of the palace, just under the deck. There's no way they're going to make it there in time. They'll just have to improvise…

She peers down the hall that leads to the storeroom. She begins moving swiftly in that direction, listening for Simon following behind, her senses still heightened, adrenaline still pumping.

Yes, getting out of here won't be easy.

But despite the odds stacked against her, the impossible challenge that lies ahead, she's not scared. In fact, she feels strangely confident.

She'll survive. And keep her friends alive along with her. She'll figure out a way…

She always does.