Sex, drugs, r'n'r, extravaganza, subversion of power, Star Wars, Bukowski and Moorcock – welcome to this orgiastic piece of fanfiction.
Leia's funeral was on Dagobah – the majority of remaining Resistance was present to mourn her. Mandalorian Nite Owls join their cause roughly around the same time. Rey returns from Ahch-to with a ship she stole from the Guavian Death Gang when they're intercepted by the First Order. Kylo Ren is there and there's an imminent battle ahead. Or is it?
"Everything under heaven is in utter chaos; the situation is excellent."
A saying attributed to Mao Zedong.
"Ren", Rey exclaimed, her voice clear and deep, "This war is between you and me. Let my men go".
He doesn't answer as his thoughts are in violent disarray.
Rey wasn't aware it was physically possible for a man to have four different trains of thoughts at the same time.
Now she seriously suspects he lost it completely – and mentally – since the Throne Room.
His eyes are feverish like he's on a bad acid trip. She heard the Empire used hallucinogenic drugs to enhance the influence of the Dark Side – maybe he went overboard with something?
Because those eyes are just deeply demented.
They lock on her renewed, double-sided blade and she's now looking into two battering rams from Crait, only miniaturized so they might fit in his pupils.
But then they slide across the plasma beam and across the hilt to settle on the ring – his mother's bipartite blue ring, a token she received from Leia on her death bed. And something snaps. It lasts for no more than few seconds, but to Rey, the time seems to hold to a standstill.
"Very well". He says and flexes, deactivating the hilt.
"What?" She heard herself asking in dismay.
"What?!" She heard the Resistance and even Poe, hovering above them in the ship she has stolen from Snoke. (They had an audio connection throughout).
"Me'ven"?! She hears the Nite Owls.
She meant a duel; he meant something altogether different.
"I will spare this ship", he says matter-of-factly, with that strange amalgam of softness and threat in his voice. "I will spare its crew. You proceed to Dagobah…"
Rey shudders. They were compromised already. The First Order could've evaporated the whole base while they were here, stuck in a desperate fight.
"… or whatever planet you rebel scum now inhabit".
Ah, there it is. The true, elitist, arrogant Kylo Ren – he looks at Rey with a hardened gaze now.
"The Jedi comes with us as a hostage", he says coldly.
Poe's voice breaks through the other side.
"You are now officially breaking the code of law regarding the merchant and civilian ships no. 357 subsection 8…" Poe says, and then comes to a hold. There is a heavy sigh that the audio device transmits too consistently.
"Listen, pal", he can barely contain a growl. "I need to talk to Rey… to Jedi. Anything you try is not sanctioned by the Resistance and by the Republic, so everything I heard is invalid. It didn't happen. I didn't hear it – static in the communications. Zero – a glitch in the system – understood"?
Poe.
She holds her breath for a moment and in that dead silence, she can practically hear her own sweat dripping on the metal floor. He has that expression that could all at once mean he's calculating how to scorch them all, himself included; how to Force choke the pestering pilot; how to fight with her and her only or drag her from that ship without any further notice.
But he again flexes and makes a gesture of dismissal with his hand. Just an imperial flick of a wrist and it is downright insulting.
The Nite Owls are cursing in low voices, but stand at ease now. Perplexed, annoyed, angry even – but then again, they always have a plan B. And this plan B is practically shoveled down their throats.
Anger and fear boil in her head as she stalks away from the corridor, fearing they might just continue their bloody pyre while she is gone. It feels surreal – all of it.
She goes back to the control room.
Poe is an explosion.
"What was that? Are you seriously considering negotiating with that… thing? Gods, Rey!"
"I didn't expect this to happen", she said. "I appealed to his code of honor. Even the Sith and the Ren have it. I expected him to fight me, not try to arrest me".
"That is just incredibly stupid", he shouts back at her. "You Jedi are not all just crazy, but also incredibly stupid. We had the plan – let them pull you, storm the ship, keep Ren busy until everyone is gone and hold on until I disable them".
"Didn't you hear what he just said?" she retorted, unfaltered by his anger. "Dagobah is already busted. I was against the planet in the first place. There is a dark nexus there and he knows all the stories, they're imprinted in his mind since his birth. He felt us there, damn it. We probably reeked from across the galaxy to him, but you didn't care to listen to the mad Jedi, so the mad Jedi has to deal with the aftermath on this bloody ship"!
Rey wasn't aware she had the capacity of so many expletives and shudders at the notion that the whole corridor can hear their marital dispute.
Poe is on the other side, exasperated. He wanted to fight – he needed to fight so badly. He goes with his fingers through his thick, curly mane. He touches his mother's wedding band on his chest, instinctively. He reaches out for that place when he's deeply troubled – and that's not very often.
Breathe. This is no vocabulary of a Jedi.
"Poe", she calms down and lowers her voice. "I can't let him slaughter all those people".
"So you'll just serve yourself to him on a plate?" he barks at her, but there is pain in his voice. "Remember what I told you. I didn't tell you that to make you feel better. I meant it – you are the Light of this movement. Without you, everything falls apart".
"And with me fighting here, many of these men shall perish", she almost cries that one out.
Damn it, Poe.
"Dagobah is one hyper-jump away from here. One order from him and everything falls apart. What sort of Light am I if everyone around me is dead?"
Her point is poignant. She is so right and it makes him go crazy.
"Rey", he tries to reason with her in an insane situation. "I can make a shock-attack while they're still on hold. Kay dispatched the distress signal to Dagobah – they're evacuating as we speak. We'll scatter around. We were in bigger ordeals than this one".
Rey shakes her head and tenses. There is some stirring in the corridor. The Nite Owls – disgruntled, perplexed. This goes way above their heads. This goes way above her head too.
"Resistance had 10.000 followers then. We don't even know who's in this alliance anymore. Poe, you're the Council now", she says softly. "Tell them I'll make a truce with Kylo Ren. Tell them I'll buy them some time; that I'll persuade him to stop hunting down the Resistance and all its sympathizers, at least for now. He is many things, but I don't think he wants to kill me. Either way, when a Jedi dies, the Light doesn't die with him".
"Fuck your Jedi ways", Poe reduces himself to expletives. "What can you expect from a man who used his own mother's funeral for his own political agenda"?
And that's exactly what happened – they gathered on Dagobah so they might organize a dignified funeral. Had they not been so loyal to the memory of the late General Organa, they'd probably scatter around and remain undetected. But practicality was never Resistance's strong suit.
"There is no other way, Poe", she says and puts her rucksack on. She needs her stuff. She's going away for some time. "I would be the first to pierce his heart, but it would only lead to many more deaths. I cannot stand it. She couldn't stand it anymore".
"Leia was perfectly aware what we're up against, what are the risks and what he has become", Poe growls, but his growl turns to a wail. "Rey, please, do not go there".
"Leia never imposed that risk on anyone else but herself", Rey says. "I'm the commanding officer on this ship, you appointed me. And under the code of law no. 678, section 0-9, I am in charge of making decisions like these".
She realizes he scrambles to remember what paragraph was that exactly, so she makes it simple.
"I won't let all these people die because of some misguided cause. There is no Resistance if we're all corpses".
Damn it, girl. Why are you so unnaturally intelligent? Why did I give you the credentials? Why have I let you read the bloody code of law no one even upholds to anymore?
"Godspeed, Rebels", Rey says firmly and switches the panel off before he has time to protest.