𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐈𝐅𝐔𝐋 𝐏𝐄𝐎𝐏𝐋𝐄 ── poe dameron

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

THE MILLENNIUM FALCON.
JAKKU SYSTEM.

REY LEFT THE COCKPIT IMMEDIATELY, BUT ANAYA STAYED BACK, WATCHING THE CONTROLS AND STARS. She shifted over into the pilot's seat, placing the Falcon on its autopilot as she heard Rey and the man speak. 

They sounded enthusiastic, but all she was waiting for was BB-8. As she waited, she lifted up the ring on Poe's necklace. It was simple silver, nothing more to it. There were no secrets to find within its metal. There were no more secrets to find. 

"Nice shooting!" Rey was saying. At the same time, Anaya heard the man say, "Now that was some flying!" And it was true. It was Rey's piloting and knowledge of the area that had saved them from the First Order. 

"Thanks!" she said. Anaya sat up, realizing that BB-8 was waiting outside of the cockpit, waiting for her. Neither of them could wait for the other forever. She stepped out of the familiar cockpit to the padded expanse of the hall. 

When she looked down it, she could see that the spaces led to the common area, a holochess table in the middle of it all. The Falcon was an absolute disaster. Boxes and pipes lay, untidily crowding the space, no doubt a product of its owner before it had been stolen. Anaya had a sinking suspicion that it had been the junk boss, Unkar Plutt. 

"How did you do that?" the man asked. 

"I don't know!" Rey answered. They sounded as confused as each other. Anaya smiled bittersweetly, remembering moments that she had had like that before. "I mean, Anaya was flying and I've flown before, but I've never left the system!" 

She sounded like a little girl, enveloped in her glee. The compliments between her and the newfound acquaintance piled on and rose in volume, until they faded, with nothing more to say.

When the silence fell, Anaya spoke. "BeeBee, are you alright?" The droid confirmed her relieved suspicions. She knelt down, meeting him at his eye level. "Good," she said with a sigh. She didn't know what she would do if she lost BB-8 now. 

"You're both going to be okay," Rey reassured. "He's with the Resistance. He can help you get home. We both will." Despite meeting her eyes, Anaya stole a glance at the man behind them. 

The guilt in his face said everything and her original guess was confirmed. He was no Resistance fighter. Maybe another scavenger or a bounty hunter or perhaps something more sinister. But Rey was here, and she was promising to get them home. That made Anaya a tad more relaxed.

Rey looked away from BB-8 and Anaya and said, "I don't know your name."

"Finn," he said. It seemed like the name was unfamiliar, but he spoke it truthfully. At least there was one thing he was truthful about. "What's yours?"

"I'm Rey." Finn looked like he was fighting something back. When he looked at Rey's honest and open eyes, then at Anaya's grief-stricken frame, he seemed to decide to say something. 

"Rey-" he started, but was cut off. Anaya cursed, realizing that there may not be another chance to get the truth out of him. But what had happened was more drastic than not knowing where Finn had come from.