ONE: AN UNEXPECTED DISCOVERY

Kyra's laughter echoed through the cantina as Fox stepped in, the bar somewhere in the middle of nowhere on the Outer Rim. The sound was almost music to his ears as he stepped into the small and somewhat rundown cantina, the place dead save for a couple customers in the booths and the pair at the bar. The appearance seemed vaguely familiar, but then again, most cantinas did resemble each other.

It was a planet called Eriadu, and Fox honestly had no idea how Poe and Kyra had ended up here. They were sharing drinks together, leaning against the bar, as there were no stools or seats to sit down upon in the cantina.

"Out of everywhere in the galaxy, I didn't expect to find you two lovebirds idiots here." Fox chuckled, sliding into a place that was far away from the two that it gave them some comfortable breathing space, but close enough that he could talk and have a civil conversation with them .

"Fox." Kyra smiled, a large and radiant one. It was an expression Fox had never seen before, and it made him happy to see that she was so overjoyed in that moment. The kid deserved a little bit of happiness even after all that she went through. "Sorry we didn't send out a comm or anything, it's just that-"

"No, no. I get it." Fox tapped two fingers on the table, gesturing to the bartender that he wanted a cup of spotchka just like Kyra had. The woman had gotten him hooked to the drink when she made him try it a couple of years before, and he had stuck with it ever since. "BB-8's been catching me up on all of the little things that he's seen the two of you do."

"That little snitch!" Kyra muttered, somewhat unhappy with the BB unit going around and telling all of her friends what she had been doing in her private life. "When we get back to D'Qar I'm going to give him a piece of my mind."

"Please don't hurt him too badly." Poe sighed, knowing that there probably wasn't going to be a way out of the confrontation between his girlfriend and his droid. He had tried to tell BB-8 to not stick his nose into others' business, but look where that had gotten him.

Snitched upon.

"Anyways," Fox tried to divert the conversation, realizing that he had probably brought up a sore subject about the droid spilling one too many secrets about the two. "Han said his ship wouldn't be too hard to track down, and he was right. He's a little upset at you for taking it without his permission though, Princess."

Kyra gave a small wince as he mentioned the fact that they had hijacked Han's ship, the two of them being missing for a little over a week. She hid her wince with a sip of her drink, trying to give a hesitant smile. "Oops?"

A cup of spotchka was slid in front of him, Fox muttering his thanks to the bartender as he took a small sip, giving a small shrug. "I'm not going to be the one answering to Han Solo when we get home. Although it's been a week, and the Resistance needs you two back. A lot has happened since the two of you decided to honeymoon off into the stars... or whatever it is that you did."

Poe and Kyra exchanged a look with each other, Kyra turning a deeper shade of pink as she cleared her throat, her eyes telling Poe that she'd handle whatever backlash that they were going to get when they got back to the Resistance. "Fox, this was my idea. I needed a break from the pressure that General Organa was putting on me. Especially after that bombshell and the decision that I would have to make. It's too much."

"No. I get that." Fox reached out his hand, rubbing her arm in a brotherly way. "You need to take your time with your decisions. I'm not here about that anyways. Han had a stern talking to with Leia about respecting your privacy and your wishes with this whole matter. The Resistance will be fine, whether you go track down Skywalker or not."

A relieved sigh escaped Kyra's lips, the woman taking a sip of her drink again in celebration. "Thank the maker." She muttered under her breath, unsure of what else to say in that situation. While on base, she had picked up a few of the sayings that she heard frequently from Resistance members- that line being one of them.

"What are you here for then?" Poe questioned the man, taking a sip of his own drink. Spotchka wasn't really his style, so he had settled on some cocktail mixture of fire water and some other ingredients that were too extensive to remember.

"Well, for one, Han needs his ship back." Fox stated the obvious, getting a grunt of understanding from Poe, the man nodding his head slightly to the side as he took another sip from his drink. "He needs it back, and I'm pretty sure Chewie is having withdrawals from the ship already." He chuckled, shaking his head at the thought of the distraught Wookie.

"What's the second thing you came all the way out here for?" Kyra knew that there was a second part coming- there always one with these kinds of pickups. It was never simple with the Resistance- something she despised and hated at the same time. There was another layer to everything, which was very different from the simple yet ruthless order of the First Order.

"That's what I really did come out here for." Fox agreed, pointing his finger at Kyra. She knew him like the back of her hand, and sometimes that was both a blessing and a curse. Taking another sip of his drink, Fox let out a small breath, smiling as he spoke. "Thought you two would want to come back for this."

"Back for what?"

"It's Finn. He's awake."

TWO: THE LOOMING THREAT

"General Hux."

"Kylo Ren."

The two men stood side by side, carelessly acknowledging the other in an exchange that was anything but friendly. They stood carefully by each other, watching to ensure that the other would not betray them. The First Order and what was left of the personnel from the destroyed Star Killer Base were on their way to Snoke's person Star Destroyer, set up in a system not too far away from Sorgan, the original target for the new Death Star-like weapon.

Snoke wanted to see it burn, the two supposed. Neither questioned why it was there, only agreeing to follow the path that their Supreme Leader had set out for them to do. It was what the First Order required them to do, and they would do it with no hesitation.

"There's been some news that we received from the destruction of the Star Killer base." General Hux spoke cooly, his tone coy and sharp as a snake's. "The Resistance destroyed our shields from within, using a code that was designated specifically for Solani's two personal guards."

"We split the two of them up after her treason." Kylo Ren noted, turning his head slightly towards Hux with curiosity. "Who was the offender? FN-4236 or FN-6978?" He asked, their numbers ingrained into his brain after hearing them in reports from Solani after so many missions.

"It was FN-4236's code." Hux answered, his hands tucked behind his back, posture perfect as he stared ruthlessly out at the galaxy of stars in front of him. He saw nothing but dead wastes of space, things that had no sense in being in space and having a presence.

"I assume Solani helped him defect to the Resistance's side." Ren spoke the obvious, Hux nodding in confirmation. "We sent the other one, FN-6978, onto Snoke's ship. See to it that he is arrested on accounts for betraying the First Order."

"The order was sent out as soon as we left." General Hux spoke, happy for once that he was one step ahead of Kylo Ren. It would make him seem better in the eyes of their superiors, and he would be the one honored by the Supreme Leader upon their arrival. He would be the superior against Kylo Ren, a man with too much temperament for the general to like.

"Good." Kylo Ren spoke tersely, nodding his head with satisfaction. His voice was almost devoid of all emotion as he spoke, almost as if this was the normal way things were inside of the First Order. " If Solani is after one, she'll be after the other one next." He murmured, already thinking of ways that he could attempt to lure in Solani and defeat her in battle the way that he was unable to the first time.

"That's... another thing that came back in the report, sir." General Hux paused, unsure if he should share the information with the man. It would make him hellbent on a new mission- and he wasn't sure if he wanted to encourage that again. "We've found the origins of Solani. We never had to question where she came from before, as you know, because we assumed she would be loyal and on our side. She was young enough to adapt to our ways of life and not question anything else, we assumed, but obviously.... we were wrong." Hux cleared his throat, giving a quick side eye to gage Ren's reaction.

"We now have a the full identity of the traitor. Her name is Kyra Ceydea, daughter of Alora Ceydea. The First Order has known she's been a part of the Ceydeas, but we finally got it out of the Sorganian villagers whose daughter she actually was."

"Alora..." Ren trailed off, his mind thinking back to the days in which Luke Skywalker had been set on training the next generation of Jedi, telling stories of the people he had encountered along the way. "Interesting." He remarked, all of the information flooding back to him at once, his childhood being useful for once.

Alora Ceydea.

The youngest daughter of the Ceydea lineage, and the one that Luke was closest to. His mother and father would always talk about the devastating loss that losing the Ceydeas had on Luke and the rest of the Rebellion. It had been easy to figure out that Luke and Alora had a relationship when he was younger, and it was even easier to put the pieces together now.

It all made sense.

How she was able to wield Skywalker's old lightsaber when her powers innately forced all other sabers off in her vicinity. Her tenacious nature to go back and save the ones she loved, the small spark of light inside of her that wouldn't be diminished. It had all seemed so familiar, so oddly similar to a person that Ren had shoved to the back of his mind.

But it all added up now.

"Kyra Ceydea... Solani..." Kylo Ren sneered with disgust, his mind shuddering at the thought of the traitor who had bested him in battle with a lightsaber that she didn't even know how to use. "She's the missing piece to getting Skywalker back."

"I'm afraid I don't understand." General Hux spoke, confusion laced within his voice. It was evident in the way that he spoke that he hated being behind the loop about these things- and Ren was doing just that. Being vague and keeping all the information to himself.

"The Resistance has always spoke about how Alora Ceydea and Luke Skywalker were rumored to be in a relationship together. The story is one that is well known." Kylo Ren spoke like he would if he was speaking down to a child, trying to spell it out for Hux. "From her age, it's obvious Solani was born right around the destruction of the former Galactic Empire, and right before then-"

"She's the daughter of Skywalker." Hux realized, a small smile coming to his face as he realized what that meant for the First Order. "Supreme Leader Snoke will be very pleased to hear this." His chest puffed up with pride at the thought that he would be the one to tell the Supreme Leader that they had found a way to defeat the last Jedi.

"The trooper in custody. The one that was Solani's friend." Ren spoke, a plan already formulating inside of his mind. "He is a valuable piece in all of this. If we are to destroy Skywalker before he can help the Resistance, that means that we must have a way to get him to come to us."

"And his daughter will be the way to do it." Hux finished Kylo Ren's though, already on the same page as the sith lord in training. "The trooper is merely the bait for us to get her back in our hands. From there, we can force Luke Skywalker and the Resistance's hand. They will have to choose the girl or their precious Jedi. We can act now."

"No. Let the Resistance think that they have this win." Kylo Ren warned, for once thinking without impulse. "We don't know yet where the Resistance is located. We will track the Resistance when they decide that they are bold enough to make another move again, and we will snap the trap and use our bait to get what we want."

For the first time in a very long time, a smile grew upon Kylo Ren's masked face, a small and cold chuckle escaping from his mouth. He turned away from the place where General Hux, finding nothing more valuable in the conversation that had been occurring between them, walking away.

"Solani and the Resistance won't know what they have coming for them."