Chapter Text
Rey leaned around the corner, looking both directions carefully before rounding it and taking off at a light jog. Finn followed behind her, blaster out and at the ready.
A simple mission the General had said. Just the two of them sneaking in a side entrance to find the information the Resistance needed while another, larger group kept the base’s attention off them by attacking from the front.
In and out.
Simple.
Things had been going according to plan. They got in fine, found the info, and were on their way out. It seemed like the mission was going to be just as simple as the General has said. Right up until they ran into a platoon of Stormtroopers going the wrong direction.
If it hadn’t been for Rey’s training they would both be dead. Even with her new-found skill Finn had a nasty graze-burn on his right arm and her tunic was singed on the side from a shot that came way too close for comfort. They made it though. All they had to do now was get to the exit.
They were only three turns away from their destination when out of nowhere a wave of fearhopefearsadnessfear washed over her senses, a powerful heart-wrenching combination that had her tripping and almost crashing to the floor.
“Rey?”
Rey looked up at Finn’s silent question, head swimming with feelings that weren’t her own. “I’m alright, I just-” She glanced around, trying to pinpoint where the outpouring of emotion was coming from. “I feel something.”
Her friend’s eyes widened, a bit of fear slipping into his posture as he began scanning the area in earnest. “Ren?”
She shook her head and closed her eyes, concentrating. “No. I don’t know what it is, but it’s not him.”
From beside her Finn let out a huge sigh of relief just as the presence she had brushed up against dimmed alarmingly.
“This way.” She opened her eyes and quickly turned around to dart down a hallway that looked almost identical to the ones they had just been walking past.
“Woah, whoa, wait!” Finn hurried to follow, glancing behind them at the sound of explosions still coming from outside. “We’re supposed to be getting out of here remember? They’re waiting on our go-ahead to blow this place up!”
“I know.” But her pace didn’t slow, something was telling her that she needed to find whatever had reached out to her. And fast. “But this is important.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.” She replied as she skidded around a corner, Finn almost tripping into the wall at the suddenness of the turn. “I just know that it is.”
Around the next corner a group of Stormtroopers were moving quickly in the opposite direction. At the sound of their appearance several of them spun around, blasters lifting. Rey ignited her lightsaber and made sure Finn had ducked behind a wall before continuing forward, deflecting plasma bolts as she went. The Troopers went down easily, three of them to Finn’s expert shooting.
When they were all dead she threw her arm out, catching the officer that had been fleeing the fight and flinging him back toward them. He hit the ground hard and a bundle of cloth tumbled out of his grip.
Rey’s attention immediately zeroed in on what the man had been holding.
That.
That was what she had been drawn to. Whatever was hidden in that bundle had reached out to her, she just needed to-
The sound of a blaster going off jolted her out of her revere. Her head whipped around just in time to see the First Order soldier slump to the side, gun in one hand and a smoking hole in his back.
“Rey!” Finn was running down the hallway sounding worried and chastising in one. “What are you doing? He almost shot you!”
She didn’t really know how to respond, instead she just frowned and turned back to what the man had dropped. Cutting off her lightsaber and hanging it on her belt, she walked over and crouched next to it.
Rey felt her friend follow and lean over her shoulder as she started to shift through the cloth for whatever it was hiding. “This is what’s so important that we had to make a detour in a soon-to-be-blown-up First Order base? What even is it?”
Rey was about to say, again, that she didn’t know it was just a feeling, when the last layer pulled away and she was faced with-
“Is that a baby?!?”
Finn’s voice pitched up nearly an entire octave as he leaned in closer, but Rey was too surprised to tease him about it. She carefully smoothed the fabric away from the tiny being, revealing two long green ears and face that was strangely childlike despite the wrinkles.
“I… think so?” It was unconscious, but breathing and she was suddenly worried that it had been hurt by the fall. “We need to get back to the Resistance. To make sure it’s alright.”
The ex-trooper nodded quickly and straitened up. “Yeah… yeah, right. Ok.”
Rey picked the baby up, gently tucking it’s ears back into the folds of the blanket and cradling it to her chest as they both turned to make their way out of this place.
The Force seemed to hum around their little group.
“Let’s get out of here.”