The surviving Zaveens were taken into the Akiva palace dungeons to await sentencing. Fortunately, no outgoing messages were picked up on the Resistance's radars, so there was no chance the First Order could know their whereabouts. Luck was on their side for once.

As the days wore on, Poe barely saw Rey. She remained locked up in her room doing... something. When he brought up the topic of the young Jedi, General Organa said she was training, but she wouldn't go into details of how. On the rare occasion when Rey came to eat with everyone else, she really wouldn't talk about what she was doing either.

Both women, being hesitant about the subject of Rey's training, intrigued him. He wanted to know what they were being so secretive about. Bored—because Finn was equally absent since he almost never left Rose's side in the Medical Ward—and thinking up of something to do if he could successfully get Rey out of her room, he mentioned it to BB-8.

The droid beeped happily. "I think Rey would agree to that. Let's go see her!"

Poe and his droid headed toward Rey's room. As they drew nearer, his purposeful stride slowed as his confidence faltered. She was an attractive girl, but that wasn't the reason why he wanted to spend time with her... Right?

He wanted to spend time with her because... she needed a break.

Yeah, that was it. He'd go with that. Knowing Jedi could read minds, he'd be sure to keep his feelings for her stored away. Maybe he could distract her by thinking of flying or something instead of her.

Approaching her closed door, Poe raised a hand to knock, but hesitated. He glanced down at BB-8, looking up at him curiously.

"What if she says no?" he whispered.

"She won't," the orange-and-white BB unit beeped confidently.

Poe huffed. His droid had more confidence than him at talking to a beautiful woman. Well, BB-8 wasn't human, so he didn't understand the fear of being rejected.

He took in a breath for courage and rapped his knuckles on the door.

"Rey, it's Poe," the fighter pilot began. BB-8 beeped in irritation. "...And BB-8. May we come in?"

There was a pause.

"Sure," she said.

Her door slid open; BB-8 rolled straight in, followed by Poe. Rey sat cross-legged in the center of her room surrounded by four thick, old and heavy-looking books. His eyes scanned the rest of the room; it disappointed him there wasn't anything important looking.

He looked back at the books. Were the books what Rey and General Organa were so mysterious about?

"So, you stay cooped up in here reading?" Poe began when he walked toward her and folded himself down. "Sounds boring."

Rey smiled. "Sometimes I practice and others I meditate."

"Still sounds boring."

"The life of a Jedi," she said.

"Where did you find the Aionomica and the Rammahgon? The Sacred Jedi Texts were believed to be lost," BB-8 said after looking down at the books for a while.

Poe looked over at the droid. The what? He had never heard of them, but if they were sacred and had been believed lost, no wonder Rey and General Organa kept it quiet.

She looked at BB-8. "You know what they say?"

He beeped affirmatively.

"Don't tell anyone that's what I've been reading, okay?"

The droid lowered his head like he was ashamed.

"Why?" Poe asked. Even though he had probably guessed right, he wanted to hear the reason from her. He wanted to believe there was more mystery than just trying to hide some ancient books.

Rey looked at him. She hesitated for a second before beginning. "Because they're my last hope of becoming a true Jedi. These pages hold something I need to know—I can feel it. Without them, I won't become better to defeat Kylo Ren."

The fighter pilot didn't say anything. Her hesitation confirmed his belief that there was something going on. He longed to know exactly what—if she felt threatened, he wanted to protect her—but he had a feeling she wouldn't just tell him if he asked. So, he decided to please her.

He shrugged. "Well, if you want us to keep quiet, we will. Won't we, Buddy?"

BB-8 twittered in agreement.

"Anyway, I came to see" —BB-8 twittered angrily, and Poe corrected himself— "we came to see if you'd join us at the hangar. Maybe go flying some; what do you think?"

She opened her mouth to probably deny him.

"Oh, come on!" Poe interrupted before she could speak. "You need a break!"

"Yes, Rey," BB-8 began. "Humans lose more information than they retain if denied rest."

"See?" Poe leaned toward the droid. "Way to back me up, BB-8."

BB-8 looked at him—the question mark over his head was practically visible.

Rey considered the Texts for a moment; she sighed as she closed the open one on her lap. "Alright, I'll go."

"Yes!" Poe said before he stood.

Rey used the Force to slide the Texts back onto the bookshelf as she rose; Poe gave her a hand to help her up.

They left for the hangar with BB-8 happily rolling ahead of them. Poe kept the walk from becoming awkward by talking with Rey, mostly rambling. Finn had told him she was an excellent pilot, and he desperately wanted to see her in action ever since.

In the hangar, Poe led Rey over to two X-wings. To their left, the beautiful day outside the open hangar doors lit the entire area. BB-8 rolled right up to Poe's X-wing—painted black, but it wasn't his original baby; she had been destroyed on the Raddus. Recognizing an astromech droid, the ship lowered a claw to pick up BB-8 and pull him into the droid socket. Rey took one of the spare astromech droids moving around the hangar.

Poe climbed up into his cockpit; after putting on the helmet and closing the glass over him, he went through his routine of flipping switches to awaken the engine, calibrating the computer systems, and making sure the comlink with BB-8 was working. Finished, he looked over to see Rey busy doing the same thing in her cockpit. She somehow became even cuter in a pilot helmet.

"Don't fall behind," Poe said through the headset.

Her scoff echoed through the communication system; he laughed. After lifting off its landing gear, Poe eased out of the hangar into the bright day. Rey followed him.

They flew out over the vibrant city of Myrra. It was liberating being back in the air, surrounded by the vast blue sky lit by only one sun in this system.

"Where is she going?" BB-8 beeped.

He looked over to see the white underbelly of Rey's X-wing ascending higher and higher.

"Going to leave me?" Poe asked.

Her X-wing descended. "Sorry. Where to?" she asked.

"This way." He banked to the right and his monitor showed she followed suit.

After a while of just peaceful flying, Rey sped up to become level with Poe. He looked over at her in question.

"I thought you wanted to see how good I was?"

Before he could respond, she shot out ahead.

Poe laughed gleefully. "Game on!"

He sped up after her. She banked hard to the left, and he copied her; Rey continuously turned—trying to shake him—but Poe remained with her.

Rey suddenly flew straight up to flip over him, probably in hopes of catching him off guard.

"You're not getting me that easy!" he yelled.

Poe sharply turned to the left so she couldn't get behind him. Now it was her turn to get behind him. No matter what Rey did, he doggedly kept in her wake. She was giving him a good game of keep-away; they shared laughter as they performed aerobatics to try to get behind the other and declare them dead.

They continued their playful dogfight for a while until enormous trees appeared ahead. The massive jungle trees had to be at least a hundred feet in diameter and twice that in height.

"The Ga'hini," Poe announced. "Show me what you got, Rey!"

She closed the starfighter's wings to make her handling easier. "Gladly."

Rey flew straight at one of the Ga'hini, then sharply banked to avoid its trunk. Poe ascended above the trees to watch. Her X-wing swerved and twisted to dodge the trees' hanging vines as she dove, swooped hair-widths away under a branch, skimmed trunks, or darted around vines blowing in the wind.

BB-8 whistled at the aerobatics display.

"I know, Buddy," Poe agreed—he had turned their comlink to private so they could comment without Rey hearing. "She's good. I think I'm in love."

"Do you say that in a metaphorical sense or literal?"

"Whichever one means I'm serious."

BB-8 didn't say anything else.

After flawlessly maneuvering through the treacherous Ga'hini for a few minutes, Rey emerged out of the trees to meet Poe hovering nearby.

"Impressive," Poe said.

"There have to be some caves around here somewhere," she began. "I can do more in close quarters."

"I bet you can, but we're not going that far. Need to stay within reasonable distance of the palace."

"That's no fun," she pouted.

Poe laughed. "No, but I don't think I would be liked much if I took the last Jedi away from helping in an attack or something."

With them done playing around and she proving herself as a talented pilot, they headed back for Myrra.

***

When they landed in the hangar and Poe had exited his X-wing, he hurried over to BB-8 being lowered to ask him to stay quiet about his feelings for Rey. The droid promised to. A squawk from a Porg caught his attention; Poe looked too to see one of the birds on the Millennium Falcon's boarding ramp. BB-8 rolled off to go see the problem and the fighter pilot headed toward Rey's X-wing.

"Finn wasn't lying," Poe began as he looked up at her. "You are good."

"Just good?" She climbed down from the cockpit.

He put his hands on her waist to steady her on the way down. "Well, really good, then? I can't say you're better than me, but you're close."

Once her feet touched the ground, Rey turned to look at him. "Who's the one that maneuvered through the Ga'hini and the one who bailed?"

Poe lifted his hands in defense. "I've got to take it easy. What would the Resistance do if their best pilot is dead?"

"Replace you with the better pilot: me."

He scowled at her as she laughed. He thought she was beautiful normally, but her smiling and laughing left him stunned.

"You should laugh more often," Poe began. "It brightens you." The words just tumbled out of his mouth.

Even though she smiled and thanked him, Rey ducked her head out of embarrassment.

Some awareness looked to hit her suddenly, for she looked up in recognition and her eyes scanned the hangar. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. She had recognized whatever touched her, but something else left her puzzled.

Poe had felt something when she did, but he had no idea what it had been. It felt like a wave of heat with the impression of emotions in it. Anger. Hatred. Jealousy. He looked around too, but there was nothing foreign in the hangar.

"Rey? Everything okay?" Poe asked.

She nodded. "Yes, I just thought I felt something."

Chewbacca's infuriated roar echoed through the hangar. He and Rey looked toward the Millennium Falcon to see BB-8 speeding away from the ship with Porg on his head, screeching. The Wookiee appeared, chasing after the fleeing droid and bird.

As Chewie disappeared through the doorway BB-8 and Porg slipped down, Rey tried to cover her laugh with a hand.

"What?" he asked.

Rey explained what she had seen in Chewbacca's mind: As he had been sleeping, Porg had pecked at his hands, pulling out hair. When the bird moved down to his feet, the Wookiee woke and now chased his little friend.

He laughed with her.