Chapter Nineteen: Titles

Disclaimer: I own nothing here and your Tauntaun will freeze before you reach the first marker!

Warning: This chapter involves references to alcohol and although I do not condone under-aged drinking, please note that I have not specifically defined Rey's age in this story nor do I specify that anything she drinks actually contains alcohol. I leave these delicate matters up to each reader's imagination/discretion.

Rey stepped onto the landing pad and took a brief moment to soak in the daylight of Mawan's twin suns. Ben had walked away to engage with the four TIE pilots that had escorted them to the landing pad, probably giving them instructions to wait on standby unless their air support was needed at some point.

While he was momentarily occupied, Rey took the opportunity to scan her surroundings curiously, blinking in awe as BB-8 whistled grandly at her feet. She had glimpsed the city from the sky on their landing approach, but having the enormity of it sprawled out all around her was a new experience.

It was easily the largest city Rey had ever seen. Though that wasn't exactly surprising considering she could count on one hand how many inner rim planets she had visited so far. Further out on the horizon, beyond the glinting high rising buildings lay what appeared to be vast swaths of green forests, attributing to the heavy, humid air, she guessed.

Speeders buzzed overhead and below the platform via invisible lanes at varying heights, advertisements blared from numerous billboards and holoprojectors all around, while a steady rumble droned out from a nearby factory.

She had heard many stories of Coruscant's grandeur and wondered if this city of Naatan held any comparison to it. Suddenly struck by the expanse of it all, Rey felt a creeping tick of doubt settle under her skin and wondered if it was even in the realm of possibilities to find a single person in all of this. The task seemed so much more daunting now that she had her feet on the ground, or as close to it as necessary anyway.

"Ready?" Ben's voice and proximity startled her, not having heard his footfalls for all the background noise of the city. She regarded him with a small smile and tried to feign confidence by drawing herself up, but his keen awareness had caught the slight twitch in her neck and he scrutinized her carefully. "You're not. What's wrong?"

Rey let out a disparaging sigh. Why did she even bother trying to hide her feelings from him anymore? It was a futile struggle, like fighting a losing battle but fighting it nonetheless, only to end up exhausted in the end. "I was presumptuous to think this task was possible."

"Giving up before you even try?" Ben nearly snorted and shook his head in disbelief. He settled a steady gaze on her. "What makes the situation so impossible for you?"

"Look around!" Rey whined at him and made a sweeping gesture. "How are we supposed to find person in all of this?"

"Simple." Ben shrugged indifferently and gave the city a cursory glance. "We start at the top of the food chain and work our way down."

"But this is worse than a needle in a haystack!" she argued, frustrated with how little concerned he was by the expanse of it all.

"You're doing it again."

"Doing what?" Rey snapped, idly wondering at how worked up she was becoming while her counterpart was the picture of serenity beside her.

"Allowing your mind to limit your potential," he answered and jabbed an index finger at the floor as he spoke. "You need to forget about those limitations and keep yourself in the and ."

"But what if Hux was right?" Rey countered, not liking the sour taste the question left in her mouth. "How can we find someone when an entire division of soldiers couldn't?"

"Think about it," Ben replied patiently. "What do have that the division did not?"

"...The Force?"

Ben nodded. "If you're attuned to sensing it, a being's fear can be like the scent of blood to a predator." He tipped an odd look at her. "How do you think I found you so fast in the forest of Takodana? You were practically with terror."

Rey winced at the unpleasant memory but shook her head slightly, taking his words for what they were; a lesson. "So we make an effort of investigation and eventually an individual will contact the fugitive, letting him know there are a couple of lightsabers hunting him down. Then we just... him out?"

"Something like that," Ben answered with a telling smirk as he handed her a comlink from his belt. "Here, in case we get separated."

"What about BeeBee-Ate?" she asked when the droid made a small noise at their feet.

"I stand by my decision," Ben grumbled as he regarded the mech with a scowl. He apparently still carried a lingering grudge towards the droid after all the trouble it had given him some months ago. "Stays with the ship. He can help the pilot if there's any trouble."

Unlike their short, private ventures to visit her friends on different star destroyers, Ben had enlisted a pilot for his imposing black shuttle this time, probably anticipating the possible need for a hasty evac from an unsavory situation. She looked down to the astromech as he appeared to be bobbing dismally, a mannerism Rey had come to associate with scuffing one's boots in an idle pout. "Sorry Bee," she told him sympathetically. "Maybe you can come along next time."

Rey watched with a wry amusement as BB-8 warbled sadly but obediently rolled back into the ship. "I expect decisive action from you on this mission," Ben said, drawing her attention as he led the way over to the only building on the platform, a small booth with a number of speeders parked nearby. Normally the proprietor inside would have no doubt stormed out demanding payment for the occupied space where the five ships currently roosted, but since they were First Order ships, he was probably trying to ignore the intrusion altogether.

Rey frowned as she compensated her strides to draw beside him, his words puzzling her for a moment. "What's supposed to mean?"

"Vallis would have killed you because of your hesitation," he told her, pausing mid step to pin her with a serious stare. "In like manner, there is no room for hesitation on these missions. Criminals like this will do everything they can to escape." He continued forward, not waiting for her to reply.

Rey thought it was unfair of him to assume her failure against Vallis was only attributed to hesitancy. The truth of the matter being that she had become unbalanced with rage. She followed after him with a knowing smirk, pushing aside his outward criticism and accepting his carefully woven concern instead. Despite his calm façade, she could feel his own anxiety building with every step, along with his apparent insatiable need to protect her.

She had eventually come to terms with that same sense from Finn an Poe some time ago, after initially feeling annoyed by the sentiment as if it were a fly buzzing around her head. After so many years on Jakku, with only her own skills as a defense, this concept of depending on another being was only just beginning to blossom new feelings in her chest. A warm thought, that maybe, she was protecting all of a sudden.

Ben left her to her silent musing as he halted in front of the booth and peered through the window at the humanoid inside. Rey noticed with curious fascination how the Mawan's skin was pale, with unique blue veins visibly lining his arms and face, almost like markings on a furred animal. The briefing she and Ben had listened to during their descent to the planet had described the native species, among other things, though hearing about it and seeing it for herself were two very different things.