From dusk until an hour before dawn, Rey scavenged the Ravager. Then she prowled the records again, looking for more information on her mother. Now that she had seen her again, her heart burned for her. She continued to ask how could her mother leave her here.
Over the last few days, Rey had watched the links related to her mother's capture, torture, and escape on the Death Star. Today, Rey continued with the next link on the selection menu for her mother, a place called Cloud City.
A dark industrial facility appeared in the view screen. A tall man with dark hair spoke to a shorter man in a blue cape. "What's going on, buddy?"
Rey could tell that the tall man's wrists were shackled with binders. A Wookiee with a protocol droid strapped to his back stood behind and to the man's right.
She remembered from the other videos that this man was named Han Solo. Her mother stood beside the Wookiee, dressed in a white suit, her hair intricately braided. She looked so sad.
The man in the blue cloak said, "You're being put into carbon freeze."
A man in green armor approached her granddad—no, that creature is not my granddad, she thought—approached Darth Vader. "What if he doesn't survive? He's worth a lot to me."
"The Empire will compensate you if he dies." Vader gestured with his hand. "Put him in."
The Wookiee roared, sending two soldiers off the ledge. The protocol droid whined something.
When the man in the green armor raised his blaster. Vader moved the blaster down with his arm, preventing the bounty hunter from firing.
Rey stopped the video and called out, "Granddad! Granddad!"
Ani appeared but did not say anything. His face was solid.
"Why did you stop the bounty hunter from firing? Did you know?"
"No, I didn't know she was my daughter, Rey. I needed the rest of them alive. I wish you wouldn't watch this. You're not going to like it."
Rey glared at him and started the video again.
The Wookiee continued to throw soldiers off the ledge and roar.
Solo walked over to the Wookiee and told him, "Stop! Chewie, stop! Hey! Hey! Listen to me. Chewie! Chewie! This won't help me. Save your strength. There'll be another time. The princess. You have to take care of her."
Her mother approached the Wookiee and took him by the arm.
"You hear me? Huh?"
The Wookiee responded his reluctant acceptance in Shriywook.
Her mother gazed at Han. The look she gave him was full of emotion—love, fear.
Rey stopped the video, watching her mother's heart break. Tears poured down Rey's face. "How could you, Granddad? How could you? I don't understand how you could be so cruel."
She hit play again, watching her mother and the smuggler kiss until two soldiers pulled them apart and led Solo to the carbon freeze platform
As Solo stood bravely on the platform waiting for the machine to activate, her mother yelled, "I love you."
Solo answered back, "I know."
Two small creatures adjusted something on Solo and left as the platform descended. The Wookiee roared in mourning as his friend descended. Rey stopped the video.
"Granddad, how could you tear two people apart like that?" Her eyes burned with fire. "You tell me you loved my grandmother, so how could you do this to anyone?"
"It was necessary at the time."
"This should have never been necessary. You don't do this to people."
"The dark side clouds everything, Rey. Remember that. When held by the dark side, what seems right is usually wrong."
Rey turned back to the screen and watched the rest of the footage as it cut back and forth, following her mother through the corridors of Cloud City. Rey found a tenacity in her mother that she admired. While in the deepest of her own sorrow, she escaped, in the Falcon—his ship—Rey's ship, according to her granddad.
"Granddad, is Han Solo my father?"
"Yes."
"Does he know where I am?"
"He doesn't know you exist, Rey. I'm not the only one to make poor choices in our family."
Rey pondered that statement. Was her granddad talking about her mother, her father, or both, or someone else altogether?