Rose Tico stood at one of the terminals with Commander D'Arcy and Lieutenant Connix. Rey, Finn, Chewie and Poe along with the droids BB8 and C-3PO had been gone for days. It wasn't that long in the grand scheme of the Resistance's reconnaissance endeavours, but she missed Finn. Now he was a Commander he spent more and more time away from the base, away from her. Rose knew what Finn did was important, recruiting and reconnaissance and she was proud of him, but that didn't mean she didn't wish he was with her.

"Rose, they're back," Connix informed her.

Rose looked up and sure enough Finn, Rey, Poe and Chewie were striding through the command centre with 3PO struggling to keep pace and BB8 wheeling enthusiastically alongside. She rushed to Finn, and they embraced warmly pulling back from each other to eye each other and check the other was ok.

"How was it?" Rose asked, eyeing a nervous expression on Finn's face.

"It wasn't great," Poe interjected as he walked off. Rose eyed Commander Dameron uneasily before turning back to Finn.

"Sandy and," Finn paused, "Kylo Ren turned up and Rose something is going on between him and Rey, it's like, it's like they're... I dunno allies? No more than allies- friends. Like they know each other. It was as though he knows her, more than I know her. He was different, too, less scary."

Rose listened to everything he said intently and guiltily. Rey had confided in her on multiple occasions about a man. After Crait Rey had struggled, her ability with the Force diminished. To Rose, Rey had admitted it was due to blocking a Force bond, a bond with a man. Rey had been lost without her ability; she'd felt as though she was letting the Resistance down. Rey had openly admitted to Rose how lonely she was without this man who'd helped her. Through Rose's careful probing, Rose had come to the conclusion the man in question was Kylo Ren. There was no-one else who used the Force who Rey could know, Luke was dead, and Rey hadn't broken any bond with him, you only broke something like that for a reason, like if the person you have it with is supposed to be your enemy! Rose had suggested to Rey that she stop blocking this bond, that the Force had created it for a reason, Rey had followed her advice, and when she'd reopened it, her abilities had returned. Rose's conclusion had been proved valid during the meeting where Rey had admitted her bond with Kylo Ren. Rose couldn't say she understood it, Rey's link with Kylo Ren. From what she'd learnt about Kylo Ren, he was an awful person; a villainous demon, dark, abusive and cruel. The opposite of Rey.

Finn looked at her running a hand over his confused face; in her face, he saw a lack of reaction. Rose was a terrible liar, and Finn knew it.

"You knew, and you didn't tell me!"

"I wasn't certain until the meeting before you left for Pasaana. Rey told me in confidence, like a sister. It was not my place to share that confidence."

Now it was Finn's turn to look guilty at the accusation.

"Finn I know you think the Force brought you together, that your friendship is stronger than anything but Rey isn't like us, Kylo Ren is. She was alone, and the Force bonded them, she tried to fight it, cut herself off from the Force and made it worse. Whatever is going on between them be her friend, support her, trust her."

Finn paused for a moment considering before he sighed, "You're right; I know you're right. Why are you always, right?" he said as he smiled at her taking both her hands in his.

"Cos I'm amazing!" she exclaimed kissing him sweetly.

"That you are," Rey joined them from having debriefed Commander D'Arcy, "and I need your help with something."

"Shoot."

"Can you write a deciphering programme?" Rey asked.

"Depends what I'm deciphering."

"The information within the Holocron was all in an ancient language, Dwartii. We need to decode it so we can figure out how to destroy it."

"I can try, I'll see if Maz can help and Babu."

"Good idea, we were thinking Babu would be necessary as we're planning on using C-3PO."

-X-

Onboard the Finalizer General Hux was approaching the private chambers of Kylo Ren, hidden within the pocket of his uniform was a data drive with the information Kylo had requested he look for within the imperial archives. It hadn't been a particularly difficult task, not for someone as knowledgeable about such things as General Hux was. Keeping all trace of his search and download hidden had been slightly more demanding. He knocked on Kylo's door, and with a hiss, it opened, and Kylo emerged letting him enter. Hux peered about the room, it was dark like everything on this ship, but on the table was a crate, Kylo was packing for something or other. There was nothing else of significance in the room no personal possessions; like his, it was stark and clinical.

"I've got what you asked for, may I ask what it is you plan to do with it?"

"I'm giving it to the Resistance so that they can write a deciphering programme."

Rey had opened their bond almost as soon as he'd returned to the Finalizer. Her friend within the Resistance Rose Tico was working on the programme to allow C-3PO to decipher the information in the Holocron.

"Do you know they'll be able to? I have teams of people I'm sure who are far more qualified for such a task."

Kylo looked at him, Hux was quite possibly right, but it was too great a risk.

"The more people that know within the ranks, the greater the risk. I'm sure she'll be able to do it, she's quite a skilled programmer, so I'm informed."

"She?" Hux asked, surprised.

"Yes, I believe you met her on board the Supremacy with FN 2187 after she and a slicer hacked in. Girl from the Otomok system as I recall."

"You're working with her?" Hux seemed outraged, and Kylo turned to him, confused.

"Keep your voice down," he warned, looking past Hux to infer whether the troopers on duty outside had heard or cared, sensing everything was as it should be he turned back to Hux.

"That vermin bit me!" Hux exclaimed in whispered tones; he was turning red in his anger. He tended to do that when angered, Kylo was glad his moods did not change the tone of his skin and give away his feelings like that.

"She bit you?" Kylo queried failing to keep the sarcastic undertones from his voice and a hint of a smile from his lips. It amused him that someone had bitten Hux in retaliation, he looked forward to meeting this Rose Tico. Hux pursed his lips, regaining his composure and swiftly moved onto the matter at hand, removing the data drive from his pocket and handing it to Kylo.

"How is recruitment going?" Kylo asked, turning from him, hiding the drive within his belt.

"Well," Hux replied his usual official demeanour having returned, head held high, hands firmly gripped behind his back. "Admiral Deltan, General Targo, Captain Peavey and Colonel Kramer are all with us so far, along with their ships and troops. I'm unsure of General Valax and General Kail. Admiral Skalick and Vice Admiral Renor are too close to the Contingency to be trusted.

"Agreed," Kylo recalled that Admiral Skalick and Vice Admiral Renor were old Imperial veterans, not so high to have been part of the official Contingency but high enough to not be trusted. "General Valax and General Kail will side with whoever ensures their survival; currently, that is not us."

"To defeat that host of Imperial Star Destroyers Ren, it will never be enough. The Resistance was too diminished, what backing you or I have will not be sufficient. Something else needs to be found."

Kylo looked at Hux then, he was sincere, defeat seemed inevitable, and yet Hux was not running from it he was standing his ground and thinking of an alternative to a massacre. He nodded, Hux was right, and there was no denying it. He was the military strategist, the man with the ideas, though hideously destructive they had been exceptionally effective.

"What do you suggest?"

Hux quivered slightly, and a mild smirk twitched his mouth, he was being appreciated, asked his opinion, and it rallied him.

"You need a superweapon, like the Death Star or Starkiller Base, something that can destroy the fleet with the least amount of damage to our troops.

"We don't have time to produce something like that, and even if we did, we wouldn't be able to hide it or fund it."

Hux guffawed at him, as though he were being particularly dense which bristled him.

"I am well aware of that Ren. The Contingency had you searching for artefacts did it not, artefacts that could power the superweapon on Malachor or Mustafar as the one on Malachor was destroyed. If you found it that could be the answer we need. Letan Nex and Allegiant General Pryde believe it was a dead-end, the fact that you're bringing him the girl is now all he cares about. Find the artefact, use the superweapon."

Kylo smiled, Hux was right and what Hux didn't know is that they already had the artefact, a nugget of information that for now he'd keep to himself. Hux smiled back at him, proud with himself.

"I don't think anyone credits your intelligence enough General. Is information regarding the temple on Mustafar something you can easily get hold of?"

"Yes, I can't see it being more difficult that information on the Dwartii."

"Good. Bring it to me as soon as you're able."

As General Hux left Kylo's chambers together, Kylo spoke to the guard outside.

"General Hux was never here. I was alone in my chambers all night."

The trooper's voice returned the same sentence but sounding distant and robotic.

"General Hux was never here. You were alone in your chambers."

Kylo nodded, then headed back inside. As soon as Hux brought him this new information, he'd leave to meet the Resistance. A plan was beginning to form, and he allowed himself a glimmer of hope that maybe it might work.

"Your journey nears its end." A sinister voice whispers and a flash of blue light reveals a fleet of Imperial cruisers filling the vastness of space as blue fire leaps between them.

A powerful red laser of an unseen weapon obliterates the surface of a planet.

Shrieks, whispers and screams and then the sound of a saber igniting a fiery red saber but behind that saber is Rey, her hand twitches and the saber becomes a double-pronged staff.

A maniacal evil laugh cackles and Rey smiles, a smile of grey pointed teeth that turns into a snarl.

But this is your fight.

Kylo awoke wrestling with the sheets of his bed and an unseen foe. Heart pounding damp from a cold sweat and breath haggard he tried to quiet himself. Just a dream, it's not real, its just a dream. The segment of the vision with Rey, however, was now the constant component of that dream. He needed to leave. He dressed and went to find Hux.

Kylo found Hux overseeing training over one of the vast halls within the ship. These crafts were meant to be the centre of the First Order; safer than being stationed on one planet. Everything they might require to be in orbit for months on end was here. Hux spotted Kylo as he approached and for the sake of onlookers, they made a show of inspecting the troops together. Occasionally pausing to assess a weapon, Kylo even stopped to appraise the hand combat of one particularly zealous young trooper before they returned to the viewing platform once more where Hux removed another data drive from a hidden pocket with his uniform handing it to Kylo. The man had far too many of these concealed pouches; it made Kylo question what else he was hiding. Kylo needed the General and his allies; however, unconditional trust was a luxury he couldn't afford. Kylo nodded to the General before heading briskly for the hangar that contained his Tie Interceptor. All trackers off he had a system location, once within the system feeling alone would get him where he needed to be.

-X-

Babu Frik was a tiny furry creature, several people on first meeting him had made the mistake of referring to him as cute. He was a renowned droid builder and currently, he was working on installing the programme Rose had made into the ancient communications droid C-3PO. Babu had worked on this droid more times than he cared to count. There was the incident when the droid had lost his arm. When he'd first met him, he'd had to reconfigure all manner of wires correctly as the protocol droid had clearly been dismantled and reassembled multiple times incorrectly. He currently sat within the wires at C-3P0's back reconnecting specific cables. Within the stark room beyond was Rose with the computer checking the programme she'd been working on. Rey the Jedi, Captain Finn and Commander Dameron, Chewbacca, the bounty hunter Zorri Bliss and the dark garbed figure of their one-time enemy Supreme Leader Kylo Ren.

Kylo had arrived a day or so ago with a data drive containing old Imperial information which Rose had excitedly ploughed through before applying the programme she'd started writing. Their computers were slow, but she'd finally come up with something tangible. The information from the Holocron had been downloaded into C-3PO. Now the programme was being wired in with Rose able to view its progress simultaneously on the monitor.

Babu's tiny delicate hands worked nimbly until 3P0 moved his head away and stood to look at the crowd within the room and Babu cursed as the spark hit his fingers instead of the wires he had been about to connect.

"What you doing there, 3P0?" Commander Dameron asked?

3P0 surveyed them, "Taking one last look, Sir, at my friends."

Beside him R2-D2 whined and vibrated, Chewbacca howled. They all hoped this wouldn't be the end of the protocol droid, but there was no knowing what attempting to read this information would do to him. C-3P0 was willingly sacrificing himself for them, and he was doing it without his usual utterances of complaints, but with something, a droid should not truly possess- humility and feeling. The droid leaned back, and Babu continued his work as he connected all the wires to the right components. Satisfied his work was complete he scrambled down the droid to the floor and gave a flurry of indecipherable sounds to Rose that he was done and so she uploaded the information from the Holocron into C-3P0. Kylo Ren and Rey eyed each other across the room, emotions racing across each other's faces at the implication of C-3P0's words. Holding the controls to the platform on which C-3P0 had been lying, Babu began to bring the table back to an upright position, he turned to Rose and Rose nodded. They were ready.

C-3PO powered up, his eyes glowing as his optical lenses started to function, focusing and unfocusing but they glowed red instead of white. The station he'd been on became vertical, and he looked about from side to side.

"3PO?" Rey asked nervously.

"This doesn't look good," Poe muttered.

"No, it doesn't." Kylo confirmed stepping towards the protocol droid, "3PO, it's master Benjamin. Can you decipher the information?"

3PO's head twitched from side to side and a voice, not his usual eloquent robotic tone sounded, speaking in a language no one understood.

"Turn him off," Kylo demanded.

Rose began flicking at switches, nothing happened.

"Turn him off!" Poe shouted as Finn aimed a few blasts at the protocol droid who was now moving towards them.

Kylo raised a hand holding 3PO in place as Finn and Poe shouted to turn him off. Rose panicked at the computer monitor; Babu started hopping about with Rey behind the droid trying to shut him down. Kylo took all this in and in the blink of a moment clenched his out-turned hand inward, and the droid crumpled motionless to the floor at his feet. Kylo knelt next to the droid. He wasn't kneeling here because everything had gone wrong, because they'd failed to decipher the information. He was kneeling here because this golden protocol droid had been his childhood companion, he'd never feared him, stayed with him when Kylo had been left behind by his mother and father for a meeting with senators or some job or other.

"I'm sorry old friend," he whispered.

Rey stepped towards him.

"I'm sure Babu can fix him, right Babu?"

Babu scurried over to the motionless metallic form and gave a series of grunts and arm gestures, none of which sounded particularly polite or hopeful. Kylo stood and glowered at her then turned sharply and left the room, cape billowing behind him as the others looked at each other awkwardly.