Finn and Poe are walking through a gray corridor, and at its end is a white room. Poe motions to HQ-7 to disable the droids guards. Merilia is inside. She looks at them and says, “Last time I saw you two, you guys were a bit taller.”

Finn tells her, “We’re Finn and Poe, and we received a message from Leia that you have info about General Citho.”

Merilia looks at Finn, “I know who you are; I met you on Juri.” Merilia then looks at Poe, and says, “So you’re the one she entrusted the message to.”

“I thought you would’ve figured that out sooner,” Poe smirks.

“You’re not the first person I had in mind, but you were a close second,” Merilia replies. Poe looks slightly offended.

Finn says, “What did your team find about Citho?”

Merilia sighs. “I never got a chance to talk to them.”

Finn is confused. He asks again, “What happened?”

Merilia replies, “If just one of us was captured, the entire operation would’ve failed. So we split up. Three of us found info on Citho, but before we could get together to piece up what we found, the Raid of Buruma happened. My team members were accused of being traitors; they were imprisoned in different locations, and their intel was confiscated, stored in the main base. By then, Leia was gone, and no one could stick up for us. I’m the only one of us who’s still left.”

“Did they figure out you were all looking into Citho?” Finn asks.

“No. The security in our equipment is so unique, there’s only one person I know who can bypass it, and he doesn’t work for the Resistance. Also, we didn’t know if our combined evidence would accuse Citho either, so I couldn’t risk calling him out. But I know that if we gather all the pieces together, we can find out if Citho really was working with the First Order or not.”

“What do you want us to?” Finn asks.

Merilia twitches her nose. “Alright,” she declares, “Here’s the plan. Because I’m a Yintil, I can remember map layouts pretty well and figure out what’s happening in different places just by hearing faraway sounds. Echolocation through walls and stuff. So you see that screw over there?” She nudges her head in a place behind Finn and Poe. They turn around, walk over, and see a small metal screw lying on the ground. Suddenly, it vanishes.

“Whoa,” Poe exclaims, “What was that?”

Merilia answers, “I don’t know. But it’s one of those anomalies that’s been happening lately. At any moment now, the screw will be back.” Sure enough, the screw pops back into existence. Merilia continues, “I’ve been listening carefully to what’s been happening all around the ship. Focusing on certain sounds. Based on my calculations, the screw’s been teleporting through a sequence of rooms. It teleports to the engine room, and teleports back. Then to someone’s chambers, and back. When it gets to the end of this sequence, it repeats itself. It goes through a lot of rooms. It’s so small, I don’t think anyone else has noticed it yet.”

Finn is astonished. “So, what happens if we pick it up?”

“I don’t know,” Merilia answers. “Maybe you’ll be ripped apart. But if you don’t, and if I my calculations are right, then you can get to rooms where I believe the two pieces of intel are kept, and steal them.”

Finn gulps. Then, he says, “I’ll take the risk.”

Poe shakes his head, “Finn, I’ll do it.”

“No. You’ve got to lead the Resistance. I’m expendable.”

Poe sighs, but agrees. Through his transmitter, he tells HQ-7 to be ready to mess with certain cameras and tracking systems when he tells him to. Before Finn heads to the screw, he reaches into a pocket and takes out a peculiar device. He snaps it and breaks it into 3.

Merilia looks at it with curiosity. “What’s that?” she inquiries.

Finn replies, “It’s a transmitter device, a prototype I took from the First Order base when Rose and I went there. I figured out that when we swallow it, we’ll be able to hear each other speak. It flows through our bloodstream. However, it only lasts for a few hours.” He gives a piece to Merilia and Poe, and they all swallow it. Now Finn walks towards the screw.

Just before he picks it up, Merilia tells him, “There’s something else I need you to get: my transmitter.”

Puzzled, Finn asks her, “Why?”

“I have an associate to follow up with.”

Not questioning any further, Finn readies himslf to touch the screw. “Alright,” Merilia says, “You’ll have to wait for 3 more teleportations before you touch it.” The first one occurs. Then the second. “On my signal,” Merilia continues, “Go.” Finn touches the screw, and is transported to a dark, lab-like room. He breathes a sign of relief. No one is there. Merilia directs him to the equipment, and Finn grabs it. He heads towards the screw, and is able to grab onto it before it teleports back.

On the second try, Finn readies himself and almost touches the screw, but just then he hears: “Wait,” Merilia cautions him, “Don’t touch it just yet.”

“What?”

“You were a second too late. It blinks into the right room, but just after, it blinks into Citho’s chamber. You would’ve be a goner if you went there. We’ll have to wait another cycle and try then.”

They wait, and the chance comes again. Now, Finn touches it, and braces himself. He lands in a hangar, grabs the piece, and heads back. Then he prepares for the final run: the transmitter. Merilia counts down, and Finn touches the screw, and ends up in a well kept chamber.

“Merilia, I’m here,” Finn says.

“Good. Do you see the storage boxes?”

“Boxes? No. I see a bed, and some fancy looking counter, and gold plates...”

Worry grows over Merilia’s face. “You’re not in the storage facility. You’re in Citho’s chamber.”

“What? Merilia, what the hell?”

Merilia is confused, “I don’t know; I know you timed it right. Some other anomaly must have changed the teleporting sequence!”

Finn tries to look for the screw again, but it’s disappeared. As he panics, he hears footsteps. “Who’s that?”

Merilia whispers, “Citho.”

Finn scrambles to find a way out, and suddenly, he hears a voice call out to him. He can’t make out who it is, but it sounds familiar. He approaches a golden box. The voice is telling him to touch it, and to visualize the storage facility. He answers the voice, “But I’ve never been there.” The voice tells him: “Use the Force.” He does, and he disappears with the box. A second later, Citho enters the chamber, and feels something suspicious.

He finds himself in the storage facility. “I’m there!” Finn says. Merilia and Poe are surprised. Merilia quickly tells him how to find the transmitter. He grabs it, and holds onto the golden box again, visualizing the prison chamber. He’s back with Merilia and Poe.

Poe shakes him. “How’d you get back?”

“There was a voice. It told me to grab onto a golden box. It’s right-” He looks back, but nothing is there anymore.

Merilia tells him, “Let’s not waste time on that. Pass me the intel and I’ll assemble all the information from them together. I’ll also need my transmitter.”

Finn watches as Merilia places her hand over the intel, and suddenly, he feels a power emanating from her. He is taken back, surprised.

“Are you... using the Force?” he asks.

Merilia raises a brow at him. “No? This is just something called an Unravel that all Yintils can do. It’s a way to hack into technology using ancient magic. As we crack it, we store the information we got within our minds.”

Finn doesn’t know what to say, but something in him is sure that he feels her using the Force. He and Poe wait for her to finish. Finn thinks back to the voice. He shuts his eyes in deep meditation, as if trying to contact someone. He whispers, “Rey.” But no one speaks back to him. Poe asks him, “What are you up to?”

Finn sighs. “It sounds crazy, but I heard a voice back in Citho’s room. I think I’m getting more and more connected to the Force. So I’ve been trying to reach Rey using this meditation thing she told me about.”

Poe is surprised. “You. You can do those magic tricks, too?”

“Not like Rey. But I’m starting to do stranger and stranger things.”

Poe laughs, “Wow. Is everyone getting Force powers?” Just then, Merilia succeeds in cracking open the devices, and a hologram of messages appears. They read through them, and she whispers, “It can’t be...”

Finn clenches his teeth down, “What the hell is this?”

Merilia replies, “These communication logs... my teammates were planning to betray the Resistance to the First Order.”

Finn shakes his head. “They... met with Citho.”

Merilia solemnly says, “They thought he was on their side. They wanted to steal the Partul power cells from the Resistance. But it turns out, Citho was only pretending to help them; he knew there were traitors, and disguised himself to find them.”

“Citho was right all along?” Poe exclaims.

Merilia answers, “That’s what we know so far. Citho has a medical condition, and his device has to adjust his body to handle new environments. My team members stole data from his health tracker records, which logs his location and uses it to learn how to adjust his body better. These records match the events described by my team members.”

Finn angrily slams his fist into his palm. “You’re lying to us. These logs- they’re a forgery. This was a trap, wasn’t it? At any moment, Resistance fighters are gonna walk through those doors and arrest us. Maybe you’re working with Citho. He forced you tell us this.”

Merilia berates him, “Get out of here with your insane conspiracy theories. These logs are the truth. You can’t just ignore them because you don’t want to believe them. The evidence says that, at least in this case, Citho was right.”

“This doesn’t sound right to me.”

“If you want to do the right thing, you have a responsibility to accept the truth, even if it goes against what you want to believe,” Merilia says.

“A responsibility? To who? To you?”

“To everyone, including yourself! You can’t live in a bunch of lies. Do you want to be just like those you say are so brainwashed?”

Finn is still incredulous, but starts to calm down. Merilia continues, “We gotta stand up for what we believe in. But we’re not just responsible for supporting our beliefs; our job is to know the truth, too, even if it goes against what we want to be true.”

Suddenly, Poe gets a signal from HQ-7. “We can’t stay here. The guards are coming back to patrol this area.”

They hand Merilia a transmitter, which she hides. As they leave, Merilia tells them, “If you need me, you know where to find me.”

“Well, it’s not like you’re going anywhere,” Poe quips.

Back in the isolated room, Finn and Poe sit in silence. Then Finn asks, “I know the evidence points to Citho being right. But why was Rey suspicious of Citho?”

“You believe in that Force stuff too, now?”

“Rey’s not stupid. There has to be a reason she suspects him. I’ve been trying to contact her, but I just can’t do it.”

Poe sighs. “I’m going back to my post. Let me know if you get anywhere with this. Until then, let’s do what we’ve been assigned.” He leaves the room, leaving Finn alone. Finn shuts his eyes.

It has been over a month since Rey went missing. Another month passes. Without Rey, the Resistance begins to lose hope.