Poe had no reply to Finn's words. He knew on some level that Finn was right about people changing but to accept that Kylo Ren had changed that much was a big ask. Nor did it erase the awful things that he had been responsible for. The two men stood in silence for a while as Rey's sobs gradually reduced. The reality of her grief was heart-breaking and both of them wanted to give her the time she needed. 

Eventually the silence was broken by Kaydel Connix entering the room. Poe looked up enquiringly. She gave him a short report: "Seven dead, four seriously injured. We have made them confortable and sedated three of the four. Some of the security team moved the bodies and searched them but they were clean, no ID of any kind." 

"Thank you. Please ask them to bury the bodies a good distance away from the base." Kaydel nodded and left. 

He turned to Finn and Rey. "Rey I think that you should go and rest. Finn come with me, let's see if the one that's awake will tell us anything useful."

Rey was too tired to argue. She wanted peace and quiet. She was emotionally drained after the argument with Poe and also needed to tend to her own injuries. She left the room at a brisk walk and headed back towards her quarters. She let out a sigh of relief when she entered her room and sat down on the edge of her bed. She wanted to sleep, knowing it was the middle of night, but needed to fix her wounds first. 

She went into her small bathroom and stripping her top half to her breast wrap inspected her shoulder. She sucked air through her teeth as she washed and the injuries stung and burned. Her shoulder wound was quite deep and the edges were ragged, leading her to wonder how often she would be able to heal herself before she was covered in scars. The mark on her cheek had bled a lot but actually wasn't too bad and it didn't take long for her to close it. Once the job was done she was able to get back into bed. 

But tired as she was sleep eluded her. As soon as there was trouble at the Base they yelled for her. She was glad to have helped Finn but she had to admit she felt used. They wanted her to help them fix the mess but then Poe didn't even thank her. But there was a little voice at the back of her mind reminding her that it was her fault that those men came here in the first place. They were after her, she had basically led them here. And the survivors would be back but with more firepower. It would have been better if she had killed them all. No! she warned herself. That's never the solution. She felt like her mind was at war with itself, her true nature up against a darker version. And at the moment it felt like the darker side had the upper hand. 

***************************************

After a broken couple of hours of sleep she was determined to spend the day focusing on the Light side of the Force. She picked up three of the ancient Jedi texts that were the easiest to understand and her saber and put them into her a bag which she slung across her body. She made her way out of the accommodation and followed her familiar path into the forest. Sitting down she began to meditate, lifting the rocks around her until she was surrounded by floating objects. As she concentrated she levitated from the ground herself, keeping the golden web and the darker strands of the Force balanced, supporting each other. 

As she concentrated she was overtaken by a Force vision. She was battling Dark Rey, both using double-ended sabers, one red and one yellow. Their sabers clashed together, they were matching each other stroke for stroke, neither having the upper hand. Dark Rey swung for her head and she just blocked it in time. The red saber rebounded and swung at her side instead and again she just managed to block it. On the back foot already she wasn't quick enough to evade the next one and Dark Rey's red saber slashed across her face. She felt the searing burn of the blow that would be very similar to Ben's scar. She fell backwards and the vision faded leaving her breathing heavily as she landed with a thump on the ground. 

She gasped and put a hand to her face to check and was relieved to feel that her face was still smooth. She had a feeling that the vision would be important but she didn't know whether it was literal or a representation of her current emotional turmoil. She tried to fix the details in her mind, running through what had happened. The shock of the saber slice to her face, even if not real, had jolted her badly and she didn't want to return to meditation. 

She decided to try reading instead, turning to one of the passages she had yet to read. At once her eyes caught a sentence in the middle of the page: 'Follow the Force to the heart of the Galaxy where dwells the Wellspring of Life'. She scoured the page but could not find any other mention of either the Wellspring or the heart of the Galaxy. She sighed in frustration. It didn't really tell her anymore than she knew already. 

******************************************

Later that day she met Poe and Finn in the Comms room to hear what they had found out from the wounded attacker. Poe wouldn't look her in the eye and seemed uncomfortable. She could see patches of bacta bandages sticking out below his rolled up sleeve and wondered how bad the arm injury had been. She tried not to stare, thinking that it would make Poe even more uneasy. 

He gave her a summary of their interrogation. "We didn't get much out of him unfortunately, he was basically hired muscle. Met the bounty hunter in a bar and was offered a job for a big pile of credits. He needed the work and didn't ask many questions. Similar story for the rest of them. Hired by the bounty hunter, who didn't give them his name." 

"I have to leave," Rey told them sadly. "As long as I'm here they will come for me and it puts you all in danger." 

"But you're vulnerable on your own. What will you do? Where will you go?" Finn questioned anxiously. 

Rey shrugged. "Honestly I'm not sure. The first thing will be to lay a fake trail that takes any mercenaries or bounty hunters away from the Base. I can't risk anyone getting hurt." 

"I'm fine," Finn replied. 

"Yes but you might not have been," Rey pointed out. "There's something I want to do anyway that should take me out of the way for a bit." 

"Which is?" prompted Poe. 

"A Force thing." Rey didn't want to give them more detail than was strictly necessary, knowing that telling Poe she was going to try and find Ben and bring him back would go down spectacularly badly. It might not even work so no point upsetting him she thought to herself. Either way she would try and find the Wellspring of Life. It would take her away from the Base, protecting the others, and she would never be able to live with not having tried to find him. 

"Really?" said Poe sarcastically, "That's it?" 

"Yes," Rey replied. 

Poe gave her a look. "Well great, I'm glad we had this chat, really cleared things up."