Lost Hope

Chapter 4

Rey glanced at Finn as he crept through the shadows at her side, they were really going to make it to the ship and get back to the Resistance base to find out what had happened! Or it seemed that way until a figure stepped out of the shadows ahead of them and gave the two a stern look. She froze in place as her master came to a stop right between them and the ship.

"Where do you two think you're off to?" Luke's voice wasn't angry but it wasn't kind either.

Rey confronted him with Finn close behind her, no use in trying to hide now, not when he obviously knew they were there. "We need to get back to base. I have to know what happened, to see it for myself!"

Her master gave a sigh. "You saw the transmission my sister sent."

Finn nodded. "A part of it, just that there was an attack from the inside... a spy."

"Yes, there was." Luke confirmed. "There were of course some casualties but not many, more like the spy was just trying to get out."

"Alder...?" Rey questioned, hoping he hadn't been lost in the fighting. He'd been getting so much better, and so rapidly too; stronger than he'd been even before the battle, or at least according to Luke and General Organa.

"They found a body in the training grounds at the base. It was too mutilated to know for sure but... no one has seen him since the attack." Luke's voice was solemn as he spoke. "Han is dead too."

Han was dead along with Alder? Rey clenched her teeth; the First Order would pay for this. Those two had been the closest people to family she had ever had and now they were gone, sure she still had Finn and BB-8... and she guessed she could count Poe and Chewie, but those two were the closest people to her. If only Alder hadn't been called back from here to fight again... or if they had gone together...

"Don't blame yourself." Luke spoke as though reading her mind. "Nothing could change their fates. You could've been dead now too, and where would that leave the Resistance? They still need you, both of you."

"And what good are we here?" Finn questioned. "We're training while they are dying, we need to go back."

Luke walked past them before responding. "Then I will not stop you."

"Seriously?" Rey had expected a fight out of him.

"You remind me of myself when I was young, perhaps a reason why my old lightsaber called to you. Go help, but come back when this fight is over, your training still needs to be completed before you take on Snoke or all of his Knights of Ren."

Rey looked over at Finn, it was that easy to leave? She turned to stare at their master as he walked away, his words ringing through her head, they could leave to fight again! Personally, she couldn't wait to see Kylo Ren and his men; she had killed his Dark side want-to-be apprentice and nearly finished him. With the training they'd received, Finn and her wouldn't lose again... they would finish this war.

She leaned back in the seat as Finn started to fly off in the ship for the Resistance base, loving the feeling of flying now that he learned how to. Finn seemed to guess what she'd been thinking however, as he turned around to face her. "You heard what Master Skywalker said. We stay out of Kylo Ren's way. He's too powerful and well protected, more so after the last fight I bet."

"Master Skywalker said not to engage Snoke or the Knights of Ren." Rey retorted. "We can still take out Kylo."

"He is the Master of Ren." Finn responded, repeating what he'd heard from his time as a Storm Trooper.

She smirked a bit, knowing the over confidence could be getting to her head but not exactly caring at the moment. "If he's the master of those so called knights then I don't see how they pose much of a threat."

"We won from shear luck last time Rey, remember? You didn't even know you could use the Force until that point and I was lucky only to be unconscious! We might be trained in the ways of the Force but that doesn't make us ready to take him on again... especially without Master Skywalker or Alder."

Alder...Rey went silent at his name. The last time either of them had seen their friend he'd been smiling and waving farewell as he took a ship to the same place they were going now. His recovery had been no less than a miracle... a short-lived miracle that she was determined to exact retribution for. Whoever killed him would pay dearly... especially if it had been under Kylo Ren's orders. Even Finn couldn't argue with the need to get justice for the murder of two of the few people to first accept him as a real ally and not a spy. When the time came she knew he would still fight with her to kill the First Order's precious Master of Ren if and when the chance arose. Going back to the action certainly guaranteed they would pick up the pace at which the Resistance and First Order went at each other again... and that meant a greater chance at drawing out Kylo Ren to his death.