08 | ahch-to gone astray

"SO, WHO DO WE BELIEVE?"

AHCH-TO ISLAND-

Han was, quite frankly, getting tired of the fresh air and the salty scent of the ocean that Ahch-To provided him. It had been over three weeks of being stuck in the same place- no extra mission to go on, no smuggling job that took them across the galaxy, just a long con game that seemed to be going nowhere. Not to mention that it had been days since any contact had been made with the Resistance.

Rey had not so subtly dropped a bombshell on Luke a couple of days earlier, and since then, had been training with the Master Jedi in an attempt to try and learn the ways of the Force to help her friends. The situation was growing more dire with every day that the Resistance didn't reach out to Han and Rey was another day in which it was getting harder for Han to lie and pretend like everything was fine.

The man was pretty sure that Rey had already seen through the facade, the lie that everything was going to be fine and was fine in the moment. But the two of them both knew she was trying to listen to him and the idea that the Resistance was fine for both of their sakes.

Because if either of them lost that small sliver of hope for even a second, Han knew that it would only go downhill from there. The game would be up, the mission failed. This mission was the hope that the Resistance needed- that the galaxy needed.

Staring out at the crashing waves, Han heard the cheery beeps of R2 from behind him, turning to see Rey walking down the steps of another early morning of Jedi practice, the droid alerting him to her presence. There was already a rather large frown on her face, the smuggler preparing to hear the young woman complain about how awful Jedi training was already- but as dismal as it seemed at the time, it sort of made Han's day. "Hey kid. How'd it go today?"

"Better than yesterday." Rey grumbled, letting out a small sigh as she settled down next to Han, sitting in the grass just below his feet, staring out at the cliffs below. "This time he wasn't actively an asshole." She looked up at Han, who gave a small scoff.

"Once upon a time, that would've been my schtick." He gave a small smile amidst the frustration that was obvious in his eyes, shaking his head as he looked down at the young girl. "But I guess people change. What Luke went through- I couldn't imagine." Han's small smile turned into a hardened expression rather quickly, placing his hand over his mouth as his mind flashed back to the past for a brief moment.

"We all suffered." Rey objected, her stubborn mindset making her still slightly upset at Luke, the Jedi training that he had been giving her not helping the situation either. "Doesn't mean you run away from those who need you the most when the situation gets dire."

"He's still got that much of a chip on his shoulder, kid?" Han settled down next to Rey as his feet settled on a smaller section of the cliff that they were standing on, trying to take in the information of the day. It was the best way to distract himself from the dire circumstances that they were in, and the situation that was growing worse and worse with every second.

"Well-"

"Han?" A familiar voice crackled through the communication device that had been tucked away in the top pocket of Han's jacket, the man immediately grabbing the small black cylinder, desperate to hear some sort of news from the Resistance. "Han, are you there?"

"Kyra." A small sigh of relief came to Rey as she turned to Han, who had already begun speaking into the communications device. If the Resistance was finally allowed to communicate with them again, maybe whatever had happened to them was over. Maybe they were safe- or they had been in the first place. " What the hell kid? There's beem no communication, and-"

"Han, there's no time for this." Kyra's voice sounded broken and desperate, the channel barely pushing through the long distance range, almost as if the communicator had barely been able to push through some kind of barrier preventing the two of them from speaking. Her voice was hushed, her voice soft and scared. "You have to listen to me."

"Listen to you?" The man seemed shocked at how much desperation was in her voice- the last time that they had spoken, everything had seemed alright. Everything had been fine. Why was Kyra acting like this? "Kid, no. I don't care if there's no time. You gotta give me an answer about what the hell happened. It's been days." Han pleaded, worried for the well being of everyone that he cared about inside of the Resistance.

"It's been days?" Han could hear the surprised tone in Kyra's voice, another person in the background murmuring something to her, the situation growing dire as Han realized that maybe things weren't as good as he had anticipated. This wasn't just an update as per usual. "I had no idea."

"Kid." Han spoke slowly, his voice dropping as the level of concern that he felt for the situation rose. This wasn't good- at all. If Kyra had no clue how much time had passed- it meant that the Resistance was either in hiding, something had gone wrong on a mission, or the kid was being held captive. "What the hell happened?"

"There's no time for that." The static that had been murmuring in the background of the conversation through the communications device distorted Kyra's voice, the frustration and terror inside of her tone becoming more evident as time went on. "You just have to listen to me. You do not believe anything that you hear from anyone outside of me from now on. Not Poe, not Leia, not the Resistance, and definitely not the First Order. If the First Order sends out any semblance of a message to you, ignore it. If anyone inside the Resistance comes to find you- don't believe a word they say. You do not leave the island, and you do not find the Resistance, or me. You do not leave the island, with or without Luke, or reveal your location to anyone. You don't tell my father any of this- of any message you receive. Don't trust anyone. Do you understand?"

"Kyra, what-"

"Promise me Han. Please." The desperation in her voice had reached a breaking point, Han hearing the woman's voice crack, almost seeing the tears fall from her eyes as the fear inside of her heart grew, the tiny spark that had ignited inside of his chest starting to fan itself into a fiery blaze as he grew scared himself.

"Okay." Han sighed, wanting to know more about exactly what the hell had been going on to cause Kyra to be in this bad of a situation to have her terrified out of her mind. There wasn't much that he knew to scare her, so to have her be this flustered about something? Something was most definitely wrong. Rey's intuition a couple of days before had been right. "But kid-"

"I'm sorry Han, there's no time for anything else. I have to go. Don't use this line again. It's not safe anymore. They'll track it once they catch on to this message." Her voice sounded rushed and filled with anxiety in that moment, the comms device crackling in and out only adding to that feeling. She sounded hurt- not just emotionally, but physically, the hoarseness in her voice more obvious as she continued to talk. " Just please- remember what I told you."

"Kyra-"

Before Han could even get another semblance of a response, the line went dead, indicating that Kyra was no longer on the other side. Whatever message she had wanted to send out to him was finished, any questions that Han had wanted answered dead with that conversation. Balling his hand up into a fist, his face scrunched into an expression of frustration and fear, Han placed the communicator to his forehead, unsure of what to do in that moment.

"Don't trust anyone. What the hell do you think that means?" Rey asked Han, the young woman unsure of what had exactly unfolded in front of her. She could sense that something was very very wrong on Kyra's end- but it wasn't clear enough for her to take any action or understand the situation deeper.

"I don't know." Han murmured, frustrated with the fact that he had been able to get in some sort of communication with someone inside of the Resistance and had gotten nothing except vague answers and no more hope than what he had before. "But I think the kid got herself into another mess- except we're not there to bail her out. We just have to hope that the rest of them can."

"Uh, Han-" Rey paused for a moment, seeing a small ship in the skyline, a sense of worry rising up into her stomach like she hadn't felt before. "I feel like we're about to get some answers."

"Or prove Kyra's point." The man sighed, placing his hands on his hips as he opened the communicator once again. "We're about to find out if we really should be all that concerned." His eyes followed the ship as they found a place to land, Kyra's words echoing in his head.

"Trust no one. Let's just hope that the kid isn't saying that for the wrong reasons." Han murmured, beginning to walk up towards the two ships that had now landed. He was admittedly curious to see what had caused the Resistance to bring more people to the isolated island, but also afraid- there was no good reason they would want to bring more members of the Resistance away from the main cause unless it was vitally important.

As the small ship's ramp lowered, smoke billowing out of the depressurizing cabin, Rey and Han saw Finn, Fox, and Poe walk out of the ship, looking rather agitated. Han's stomach immediately dropped with the looks on their faces.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Han sighed, walking up towards the ship to meet the three Resistance members halfway.

"What are they doing here?" Rey questioned, voice tense as she fell in behind Han, peeking over his shoulder to see the three men. Her face immediately molded into an expression of concern as they continued to walk closer.

"Well I guess we're about to find out."

"Rey. Han." Poe nodded at each, still taking the time to do some form of a greeting. "How has the progress been?"

"Let's skip the pleasantries and the bullshit. We all know that it hasn't been going well." Han waved his hand at Poe, telling him to just get to the point. "Why the hell did Leia send you all the way out here? She knows it takes half a day to get across the galaxy. So why-"

"Kyra's not with the Resistance right now. She's been captured by the First Order."

"What do you mean she's not with the Resistance?" Han questioned, giving the group of three Resistance men a strange look. Slipping the communicator he had with the supposedly missing woman into his pocket, he wasn't sure if he was to trust Poe's words or not. "I just got a message from her from our encrypted comm that she only has access to. There's no way that the First Order would just let her keep that. How-"

"What did she tell you? Kyra, what did she say?" Poe interrupted, surprised that the woman had made contact and yet was radio silent on the Resistance end. He knew what kinds of self-sacrificial plays Kyra would make when it came down to it- and sending out a message after the First Order had all but threatened her life was definitely one of those kinds of plays.

"Not important." Han waved the question away, flashing Poe a look that told the Resistance pilot that he would tell him that information in private later. "What do you mean she's missing from the Resistance- captured by the First Order?"

"Han, Kyra's been missing for over four days." Finn jutted in, looking at Poe for confirmation that he could share the information that the Resistance had. "Well, not missing- but she gave herself up to the First Order in exchange for Silas' freedom. The other trooper that Fox knew."

"But the First Order hasn't given Silas up yet, have they?"

"No. She walked right into a death trap." Poe agreed, holding out his hologram communicator with the message on it. "And, unfortunately, things do not get better for us." The man shakily pressed play on the message, the familiar hurt face of Kyra appearing before him again. It made him sick.

"Enemies of the First Order- let this be a new message to you. We obviously know how to hold what one desires close to one's heart-" Ren gave a sharp tug to Kyra's head as he made sure her face jutted towards the camera the projection was coming from. "So let this be a warning. You cannot defy us. You cannot escape us. Those who have tried, well..." Kylo Ren's mask tilted to look at Kyra's face. They watched her physically recoil away from him, Ren reaching his hand out to choke her. The woman gasped for air in horror for what seemed like forever. Suddenly, there was a release, Ren dropping his hand, allowing Kyra to breathe again. She disappeared from the frame of the transmission, Kylo Ren wrenching her back up to stare at the camera. "You can see what we do to those who try to defy us.So take this warning, and this little... message that we have alongside it-to give us what we want. We can do a trade, even, if you would like to take that gamble again.Bring us Luke Skywalker, and maybe some mercy will be offered to your meager Resistance. If not?" Kylo Ren looked down at Kyra, who was obviously suffering. "Don't-" Kyra rasped out. "Don't listen to him- don't bring him here-" Her warnings cut out as Ren began to choke her. "Well, let's just say that the Ceydea lineage is as good as gone."

"And to make things worse, Leia told us that we've been placed on a twenty-four hour deadline. And we're almost halfway through that said deadline." Poe added as he shut down the comm, hiding it inside of his leather jacket's pocket.

Letting out a long sigh, Han placed a pinched hand on his temple, already dreading the fact that he had gone ahead and gotten attached to yet another idiot Skywalker. And the running deadline that was now placed on her life. "Damnit kid," He swore at her, although he knew that Kyra couldn't hear it, "So the message that she just sent us-"

"It was all to cover her tracks." Rey looked at Han, who just simply nodded in agreement.

"You both know how Luke has been, and the three of us have some semblance of an idea. We're not going to give him up to the First Order, but for clarification's sake-" Fox gestured to the three Resistance members, "-Does he know?"

"Know about Kyra?" Han double-checked, seeing a nod from Fox as he clarified the question. The former smuggler turned to look at Rey, who gave a small sigh as she realized Han was going to make her admit what she had done.

"Yes. We told him, funnily enough, around four or five days ago." Rey noted, realizing the timeline of all of the events that had led everything for the Resistance to go south. "Since we've had no contact form you at all, we tried to take actions into our own hands."

"Rey's been training with him for a bit but we wonder if-"

"If it's enough." Poe finished, seeing a hesitant nod arise out of Rey as he finished her sentence.

"I've learned a bit, but it's taken so long for me to even break him out of his shell and get him to start teaching me. It's the basic fundamentals, but nothing more. Things that sometimes the Force instinctually tells me." Rey explained, letting out a sigh. "I feel like I'm running in circles. Going nowhere. Something is holding him back."

"And that's a whole other thing that we've been trying to solve." Han added quietly, letting out a small scoff as he racked his brain to figure out why the hell one of his longest and well-known friends was acting the way he was.

"Do you think he'd leave," Finn interrupted Han's train of thought, standing awkwardly as he raised a question that he knew was probably not going to end with the answer that the Resistance wanted. "You know, for her?"

"It's uncertain at this point. I don't even know how he really feels about the fact that he had a daughter in the first place. Luke has all but shut himself out except for Rey's training. She tries to ask him questions about why he left, anything-" The smuggler gestured up at where Luke was residing, knowing the man was probably not going to emerge from the small stone village he lived in. "But we've gotten nothing."

"So then, what do we do?"

"I don't think he'd be willing to leave." Rey warned, thinking back to. the past couple of days with the hesitant lessons of the last remaining jedi.

"So we go without him."

"What?"

"Yeah." Finn agreed, backing up Fox's crazy suggestion, shifting his stance. "We obviously can't turn the tide towards our favor without one of the two Skywalkers, for lack of intel or power, so if we go ahead and rescue Kyra and bring her here-"

"It might just be enough to encourage him to come back." Han realized his point, his eyes lighting up with just a spark of hope. "To give him hope."

"Well then, what are we waiting for? We have a Space Girl to get back."

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

HELLO MY LOVELY  LADIES AND GENTS AND NON BINARY FRIENDS!!

first semester of college down and many more to go but I promise I will *attempt* to be more consistent with updates. I finally actually wrote out the entire plot for this book so now I have a much more concrete idea of what the hell I'm doing. 

I hope you all have been doing amazing, and I hope you're still interested in this story! because tbh she's been years of plot writing and rewriting and I feel confident now that I finally have it all perfect (: 

anyways, chapter nine should be out soon. it's already prewritten so all I have to do is make you guys wait for that one. you know that chapter i've been saying is gonna kill you all for like three years? yeah. that's the next chapter

hope you guys enjoyed this update and hope you don't kill me for the next one !

xoxo