Force Destiny

Surrender

"Get down!" Poe shouted, collapsing over Rey as he forced her to the ground, and the location they had been standing exploded in a blinding fireball. The concussive wave of the blast knocked Rey unconscious momentarily. When her eyes snapped open, her vision was blurred by the resulting cloud of dust. The battle around her was silent save for the loud ringing in her ears. She coughed as she pushed herself to a stand, immediately regretting the decision. Nausea and vertigo crashed through her senses. She dropped to her knees, crawling to a form kneeling a few meters in front of her.

As she dragged herself closer to the figure, her senses came crashing back all at once. The blaster fire was muffled by the screams of the injured and cries of the desperate. Smoke assaulted her lungs, and a metallic taste remained on her tongue. Her shoulder ached from the fall, but she was otherwise unscathed. Her hand bumped something solid. Rey looked down, disoriented, and realized it was a person. She waited for the rise and fall of their chest, but there was nothing. The woman's face was covered in ash. Rey didn't even know her name. The woman were sprawled lifeless at her feet, and there was nothing Rey could do.

Rey searched around her, but there was no one sprinting to render aid. The woman had fallen defending the Resistance, but no one stopped. No one cried. No one tried to save her. She was immediately accepted as a casualty of war as the others ran past her. This was the reality of war. Rey could just as easily have been the one dead on the floor. Would anyone care if it was her instead? Other than the man who had just offered to exchange his life for hers?

"I'm so sorry," she cried. Her tears were lost to the debris on the ground. She knew there would be casualties in the war, she had seen good people die before, and she didn't know the woman – but seeing someone dead made the impending war a reality it hadn't been before. This woman had died for nothing.

Rey began crawling forward, searching for Poe to help her drag the woman's body to safety, but she stilled as Poe's form appeared through the cloud of dust. He was rocking on his knees, screaming in agony. But not physical agony... she realized. He was concentrating on pieces of singed wire, chips and drives in his hands. There were metal fragments in his lap.

Barely recognizable orange and white metal fragments.

Perhaps Rey could have convinced herself that her scavenger brain did not easily recognize the charred remnants in his hands as droid parts, but that antennae that was scattered among the debris she would have recognized anywhere. Rey choked on a sob as she realized who else had been an unnecessary casualty of the explosion.

Beebee-Ate.

Poe was unhinged. He reminded her of Kylo in that moment, tears of sorrow replaced by screams of fury. If she gave Poe a lightsaber, she had no doubt he would destroy the entire base. He would blame the stormtroopers, kill them all, but it was his choices that led to the droid's destruction. She wiped at the tears falling down her cheeks as his sweet binary beeps replayed in her mind. Rage burned through her veins, quickly replaced by the cold nothingness of darkness.

"This is your fault!" she shouted hoarsely at Poe. "His death is on your hands! You should have just listened to me and surrendered!"

She pushed herself to a stand and waved her arms in defeat. "Cease fire!" she shouted. "We surrender!" Neither side heeded her words. Blaster bolts streamed across her vision from every direction.

She swallowed apprehensively and stepped out from behind a section of rubble, her arms waving above her head. If the Resistance saw her, she had to believe they would stop firing. Her only hope was that the stormtroopers noticed their surrender before they killed her.

"I surrender!" she shouted. She waited for her friends to suspend their attack, but it was the First Order that ended the assault first.

"That's the girl! That's the girl! Cease fire!" a trooper shouted.

The girl?

"I have come to negotiate our surrender," Rey said, stepping toward the stormtroopers, her hands raised non-threateningly. The troopers kept their weapons trained upon her as she walked cautiously out to meet them. She counted seven alive; three more lay dead by the entrance to the base. If Kylo had told her the truth, then they were all accounted for. She waited until they had surrounded her before speaking again. Manipulating each of their minds as easily as she had Finn's and Rose's in the rainforest, she spoke with persuasion.

"You will leave on your ship immediately. You will not remember the battle that took place here. You will remember that you landed on this planet, there was no sign of the Resistance, the base was destroyed, and three of your men were killed when you were attacked by a pack of wild beasts. It is your opinion that no further reconnaissance missions are necessary for this planet." The seven troopers repeated her speech in unison, then turned back toward the ship.

"Wait," she said to the trooper closest to her. "You will answer me honestly."

"I will answer you honestly," he repeated mechanically.

"Who am I to you?" Her voice softened as she thought of the young man under that mask, not unlike Finn, who had become a pawn of war.

"The girl from the holo," he replied simply.

"What does the holo say?"

"The bounty. 'Capture Only.' We are under direct orders by the Supreme Leader not to engage or harm the Jedi girl or the general under penalty of death. We are to detain them and await further orders from the Supreme Leader himself." It would have been easier, she thought, if he wanted her dead. Shame churned in her gut.

"You will leave and not remember this conversation," she whispered through tears.

"I will leave and not remember this conversation."

Rey stepped back into what was left of the base. They were safe... again. Poe would see now what she could be for the Resistance. Even if he suspected her bond, it had helped save them. Maybe she was meant to be a Jedi. Maybe she could be what they all wanted her to be. Maybe there was still hope for her in the Resistance. She hadn't prevented casualties, but she'd prevented a massacre. She smiled - even though she knew they had an uphill battle.

Rey would have to tell Leia the truth after the woman willingly assisted in her lie. She would have to forgive Poe for almost killing her and convince him she was not committing treason with their enemy. And she would have to apologize to Kylo and tell him the truth about the darkness that was clouding her thoughts. There was so much to fear, but, for the moment, everything would be okay. She was not nothing with them. They needed her as much as she needed them. She smiled, because she finally had hope that she was exactly where she needed to be.

She smiled...until she saw the expression on their faces. No one else was smiling, celebrating or, at the very least, thanking her for fixing their mistake. No, the other Resistance members only stared at her in silent incredulity... and terror. Her eyes scanned through the dust and smoke until she found Finn. She waited for him to say something, to embrace her in relief, but he stood as motionless as the rest.

Are they... afraid of me?

"Finn..." she began, but he shook his head in disbelief. His eyes told her everything she needed to know. He didn't trust her. None of them did.

"You're all welcome!" she spat, pushing past them to search the rubble where Poe had knelt only moments before. Please, she begged the Force, please let it be intact. In answer, she caught the glint of something silver in the rubble. It could have been anything, but she knew. The central processor. She cradled the component to her chest, turning back toward the temple. This wasn't for Poe, this was for Beebee-Ate. Rose may have called after her, but the anger spurred her forward. As she stomped through the trees, she dared the beasts that hid in the shadows to instigate a fight with her.