It wasn't as simple as defeating an emperor, it never was. It was made easier by the imperial warships being networked, so that most had been destroyed when Exegol had been. However, there were enough First Order survivors trying to put down the rebellion, but they generally didn't get too far so long as they provided a swift response. The bigger problem was establishing a new, fairer power structure. There were supplies and resources that needed to be distributed, and trade routes and people to protect, and if they didn't work quickly raiders and scoundrels would fill the power vacuum they had created.

The physical injuries from that battle had healed by now - though frequently replaced by smaller ones from new fights - but the psychological trauma was still healing.

They had lost their beloved general, the figure who could have united the galaxy as the talks progressed on new leadership. They had all lost friends. Many had lost people they considered family. They had tried to grieve and mourn their losses, but the demands of the galaxy didn't wait, and their duty prevented them from just taking a month or two off to take stock and process. Too busy to do anything but keep going.

But none had lost as much as Rey. She had died. When she emptied her mind - or tried to - she was startled back by echoes of memory from when her essence had started to become one with the Force. Enough to remind her, not enough to know what she'd experienced as she fought to stay alive and failed.

Finn was still determined to make her talk. He had decided the reason she was struggling, the reason she was restless, the reason she was hunting down stragglers was because she refused to share her problems. Poe and Chewbacca were convinced that it was making things worse.

"We could always throw one of them out an airlock..." Poe suggested as he entered new coordinates after they finished a supply drop. They could hear the raised voices in the common area from the cockpit.

"Rey wouldn't let you." Chewbacca roared.

"Maybe I'd push her." Poe retorted, flicking a switch above his head. Chewbacca laughed. "Okay, assuming she didn't kick my ass in the process." He admitted.

Chewbacca only laughed more. "You'd still never push her." He eventually roared.

Poe spared the wookiee a side glare before punching in the final computer commands and initiating the hyper-drive. "Fine, then I guess you want to go and break it up?"

"Only if you're too scared."

"I'm not scared." Poe corrected quickly, and Chewbacca scoffed - or at least he was pretty certain that grunt was a scoff. "I'm not." Poe insisted trying to stare down the wookiee, though knowing that was a lost cause. "Fine." He admitted, checking the auto pilot and removing his head piece to head to the common area. Where Rey and Finn were still arguing. "Rey, you and Chewy are on dinner duty tonight." He announced.

"Fine, get him out of my way." Rey decided, folding her arms.

"I was leaving anyway." Finn added, stomping off.

"Oh my." C-3PO added. "I had been hoping for them to finish for some time, but this seems worse."

"Go and talk to him." Chewbacca gently roared.

"Me?" Poe asked, shocked, but Chewbacca just growled at him. "Okay, okay." Poe decided raising his hands in defeat, leaving the wookiee to talk to Rey whilst he tried to find Finn.

There were only so many places quiet enough to take refuge in on the Millennium Falcon, so it didn't take Poe too long to find Finn. Finn's lack of imagination - or care - for a hiding place helped speed the search up too. "You coming to yell at me too?" Finn sighed.

"I dunno, how shit do you feel?" Poe asked as he took a seat opposite.

Finn gave a wry chuckle. "Pretty bad." He confirmed.

"Then it sounds like I don't need to." Poe agreed. As much as he sometimes wanted to punch Finn for his tactless attempts to help Rey, he knew the other man had good intentions and that he shouldn't be too hard on him. He just needed to learn he couldn't steam-roll through.

Finn scrubbed his hand back and forth through his hair in frustration. "I want to help her." He stated, rocking in his seat slightly. "All she has to do is let me in and I can help..."

"If she's not ready for help, you can't force help on her." Poe reminded the other man.

That didn't help Finn sit still. "I know." He admitted unhappily. "I just wish she'd tell me why she wouldn't let me help. I'd do anything to help her and she keeps shutting me out without telling me why. Maybe if I knew I could actually help..."

Poe rather thought this was the problem, somewhere along the line Finn had forgotten he needed to consider Rey's viewpoint to be able to help her, probably because Rey rejecting his help made him want to help her more because it felt so wrong for her to close off to him. "She's hurting, and she doesn't mean to hurt you by pushing you away. But the more you try and force your way through, the more she's going to keep pushing." Poe explained as gently as he could, slightly irritated with himself by the fact that it still sounded like he was scolding Finn. "She's been through things we can't imagine, and she needs to come to terms with some of that before she can come to us for support. All we can do for her is gently remind her that we are here for her when she is ready, without expectations. Beyond that, what she needs from us is to carry on being her friends."

"What? Act like nothing happened?" Finn almost demanded. "She died, Poe! I felt her slip away!"

"And I can't ever know what that feels like." Poe almost snapped, locking away the part of his brain that was asking if it was anything like your heart stopping every time someone said those words, he was not going there. "But she needs normal, or at least as normal as she ever got. She needs to know that despite the fact everything has changed, some things never will. She needs stability and security so she feels safe enough to open herself up to the hurt she's been through."

Finn was still restless, but sighed. "You think I'm a jackass, don't you?"

"My words were stronger, but that'll do." Poe agreed and the two men shared a wry smile. "We all know you mean well, you just..."

"Go about it like a herd of bantha?" Finn asked with a pained expression.

Poe gave him a sympathetic look before nodding. "Yeah, pretty much."

Finn chuckled to himself. "Okay. If you really, honestly think it's best. I'll stop trying to make her talk."

"Just be her friend, like you have since we all ended up on this ship together." Poe corrected.