-The Old Perlemian Trade Route- O-8 Quadrant, Prackla Sector, Expansion Regions

After dropping out of hyperspace, Rey cut the power to her engines. She gazed at the stars, part of her still in disbelief over everything she'd taken part of the last several months. Letting go of the control steering, she wrapped one of her hands around the handle of her saberstaff at her side and closed her eyes. Since leaving Ahch-to, she'd grasped the weapon several times to remind herself of the role she played in the galaxy. In the quiet of space, Rey felt more receptive to the Force.

    No, she thought. Not more receptive...less distracted.

    The presence of the Force on Ahch-To was an ever-constant entity, in which it took little—if any—effort to summon. Even when not concentrating on it, the energy flowing through all living things never diminished.

While in space and thousands of miles away from the nearest planet, she could still feel it, but only just.

Closing her eyes, she reached out and brushed the Force with her thoughts. The link she felt was faint with nothing but space surrounding her, but far more defined. Instead of allowing herself to be enveloped by it, she focused all her will and awareness into funneling the continuous power into her subconscious.

Once again she saw her father in the field, turning to smile at her. Again she watched him run up and give her a hug, she watched the same conversations and scenarios play out…

Opening her eyes she sighed, looking down at her double-bladed lightsaber.

Did you go back...any further? She heard the faint voice of Luke in her head.  

"Further?" she asked. "What do you mean? How can I remember a time before I existed?"  

Luke shook his head. "Some who possessed the ability to look into the past have lost themselves trying to figure out how events went wrong, what they could have done differently, to the point where they forget about living in the present. You did not fall into this trap."

Rey remained still as she thought about the conversation.

Closing her eyes once more, she slowly opened herself up to the Force.

    This time when her childhood memories appeared, she pushed away from them and moved into the shadows of her mind. For what felt like several hours, the darkness clouding her vision was like space without stars. Sounds were muted, her vision limited. Every time she caught a glimmer of color or light to follow to a deeper memory, it would fade into nothingness.

    Rey started to release her connection with the Force.

   In that moment, a torrent of sounds and images flooded into her mind filling her senses with memories not her own…

A beautiful, strong young woman only slightly older than herself with golden, shoulder-length hair stood atop a palace balcony and spoke to thousands of people. "War is intolerable. We have been deceived into thinking that we must be a part of it. I say the moment we committed to fighting, we already lost." Many appeared to absorb the words she spoke while just as many turned away in anger and bitterness.

 The memory blurred and reshaped itself; Rey watched as the woman—now cloaked—stayed close to several armed guards as they escorted her from what part of the massive city to another. Several figures wearing armor and jetpacks appeared from everywhere, ambushing them. Just before fire opened up on both sides, one of the attackers shouted, "FOR MANDALORE!" Blaster bolts filled Rey's vision. Men and women on both sides screamed as they fell to the ground wounded or dead.

Damaged jetpacks exploded or sent those wearing them hurtling into the sides of buildings.

Rey turned away, having no desire to look upon the carnage any more than she had too.

When the sounds of battle ceased, she turned back to see a new scene; the golden-haired woman stood alone, clearly nervous, in a dimly lit room with several guards posted outside. She wrung her hands together and paced the lavish quarters as she waited for something. Or someone.

She stopped and faced the open door upon hearing voices outside.

"Right this way. Thank you for coming on such short notice; our guards can't keep up with the attempts on her life." said an older man's voice.

Two men entered her room then; a Jedi Master and his Padawan. The older one was tall, wore a ponytail and a short beard. His arms were crossed under the large sleeves of his drab, brown robes. Next to him stood his short-haired, clean-shaven student, whose blue-eyed gaze made her feel more anxious than when she was waiting for them to show up. She turned away nervously, which in turn made the Padawan grin ear to ear.

The young man held out his hand.

"Hello there."

The Jedi Master held out a hand in front of his Padawan, motioning him to step back. In a voice sounding like the very epitome of calm he responded, "It is our honor to both serve and protect you Duchess. I am Qui-gon Jinn. This is my Padawan, Obi-wan Kenobi."

The young woman looked to the Padawan and then to the Jedi. "Thank you for coming. It is most generous of the Jedi Counsel and the Republic for sending not one, but two protectors to watch over me. I am eternally grateful." She bowed her head. "I am Satine Kryze of Clan Kryze, Duchess of Mandalore."

Rey felt the breath leave her lungs.

The sky echoed the roar of a Kom'rk class fighter and she spun around in time to see it pass overhead. On the ground, the older Jedi lead a group of Mandalorians against another while the Padawan escorted the Duchess through the city with lightsaber drawn.

The image changed again, with Obi-wan and Satine hiding inside the ruins of a building with the Duchess laying her head against the young Force wielder's chest.

    The memory returned her to the room the Duchess of Mandalore first met her protectors, except she watched from a distance as the Padawan she come to care for was admonished by his master.

Another memory took her near a landing pad, where Obi-wan looked deep into the eyes of Satine, waiting for her to respond to something he said. When she replied with silence, he gave her a final smile, turned and walked up the ramp of a shuttle.

As the vessel ascended into the sky, tears ran down the cheeks of the Duchess as she caressed her stomach.  

    Rey inhaled a sharp intake of air when she came out of her trance.

Once the effects of the Force vision had worn off, she looked on at the insides of the X-wing as though she were seeing it for the first time. Her eyes rested on a flashing light next to her comlink. She tapped the button and a man's voice she'd only heard once before started playing.

"Rey, this is Wing Commander Poe Dameron of the Resistance fleet. I received these codes and transmission frequency upon the new assignment of leadership," his voice changed from serious to somber. "Princess Leia Organa has passed away during our battle with the First Order at Corellia and has designated Ackbar, myself, a Corellian named Darvin Klax and you as the new leaders of the Resistance. We believe both Snoke and Kylo Ren perished with the destruction of the

Supremacy, but the threat is far from over. Please return to us soon; the remainder of Snoke's armada all fled to the same location where we believe a larger force is making ready to attack.

"Finn's mission was successful in gathering intel from Wayland; and is in the process of locating a suitable location to relay everything on the Supreme Leader and hopefully the plans he had for the Republic. Depending on what is discovered will determine our next move."

A long pause.

"May the Force be with you. Commander Dameron out."

The light on her com continued to blink and so she pressed the button again.

"Hey Rey," Finn's voice said.

Her mouth drew up into a smile upon hearing her friend's voice.

"So, I'm partially droid now after the psychopath cut my spine in half," he gave a half-hearted laugh before speaking again. "The General sent me to get information on Snoke, can you believe it?

Never thought they'd trust me to do anything important so soon...Didn't turn out how I thought it would, but it all worked out just the same," he cleared his throat. "I uh, I heard you were okay after

Starkiller Base and wanted to let you know I'm okay, too. I don't know how we got off the planet before it was destroyed...before I went unconscious I thought about you laying on the ground and how I'd failed. But we survived somehow…" there was a beep signaling his allotted time was nearly up. "Okay I wanted to tell you Maz gave me a name of a mercenary of some kind who might be willing to teach me,"

Rey's eyebrows furrowed. Teach him? She wondered.

The holorecording continued. "After what happened, I don't want to be caught off guard again. I want to fight alongside you, Rey; but to do that I have to be able to hold my own. They told me you're training with a Jedi. Next time we meet, we'll give the First Order something to be afraid of.

"Stay alive Rey; and May the Force be with you. Finn out."

Rey couldn't help but feel a sense of pride upon hearing Finn's voice. When she'd met him he'd been afraid and unsure of himself—much like herself—but now had the conviction of someone who knew exactly what they wanted and was willing to do whatever it took to get it.

Opening an encrypted channel the message from Poe came in on, she pressed and held a button to record a her own transmission.

"Poe Dameron, this is Rey, Padawan of Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. I will return to the Resistance as soon as I am able," she flipped several switches powering on the engines and hyperdrive. Taking hold of the steering she leaned back in her seat. "But first I have business…on Mandalore. End of transmission."

After hitting the button to send the message, she pushed forward on the lever controlling the drive speeds. Stars blurred around her and with a thunderous boom, entered into hyperspace.