It's a risky plan, and Luke knows it. At a glance, it seems so simple: run an airstrike on the First Order's primary training facility on Arkanis, and then send in teams of ground troops to flush out as many Stormtroopers as possible. But there are so many things that could go wrong, so many variables beyond their control, and it drives Luke's weary mind into a panicked frenzy. Still, Luke understands why Leia asked for his help yet again, after all this time. Arkanis' facility is home to thousands upon thousands of training Stormtroopers and upcoming officers, and it's certainly foolish to barge into such a place without some sort of advantage. Having a seasoned Jedi and his powerful Padawan on their side increases their chances tenfold.
Luke is quick to hide his doubt underneath the hardened shell he presents to the world. It is something Luke has grown quite good at, hiding from his past. The guilt of his shortcomings as his nephew's teacher threatens to eat away at him, but Luke is elusive prey. Still, there's a buckle in his knees whenever he thinks of his sister, broken and alone and left behind, but still standing strong. Even when Ben turned, and Luke left, and Han followed. And now, with Han gone it seems like maybe she's alone in the world, but to Leia, losing people she loves is all too familiar; it's home.
Luke had felt it. He felt the waver in the Force when the light slipped from Han's eyes. He felt his eyes close as somewhere, star systems away, Leia's eyes were kept wide open, as if she couldn't stop herself from watching, from feeling. It was as if all the air had been sucked from his lungs, and he knew that Leia was out there suffering alone. They'd both been alone for far too long.
So when he received the call from Leia begging for his help, Luke didn't have the heart to refuse, despite his doubts. Instead, he says goodbye to Ahch-To, this monument to his solitude, taking a few moments to drink it all in once more. But the time for sentiment is quickly ending, so he packs up his meager belongings while Rey does the same.
When the Falcon arrives, Luke feels a knot catch in his throat, which suddenly feels as dry as the blistering sand on Tatooine. It's too familiar, that ship. The hatch opens and Luke feels himself almost collapse at the sight of Chewbacca, still the same after all these years. But there's an emptiness to Chewie's eyes that Luke never thought he'd see.
To Luke, there is no Chewbacca without Han. There is no Millennium Falcon without Han. They'd been through so much together, and although Luke knows it can never happen again, he half expects to see Han stride out of the cockpit with the crooked, smug, bastard grin he always wore on his face like a badge of honor. But there is no more Han, no more bad vests or crazy schemes or dressing up as Stormtroopers or hiding in Tauntauns. There are no more blatantly rigged games of dejarik on long trips in the Falcon, or sarcastic remarks to hide genuine affection, or hours spent red in the face because, kriffing hell , Han could be infuriating sometimes, but he was Luke's friend, and he truly cared.
But there is no point in dwelling on what happened, so Luke swallows the raw emotion that forms in his throat and lets the Force roll over him in waves. He takes a step forward, and that is all the encouragement Chewie needs to pull him into a bone-crushing embrace. They stay that way for what is probably far too long, clinging to each other like the memories of the past they're too afraid to forget.
"Chewie, I'm sorry," Luke says at last, and he pulls away as Chewie moans mournfully in response. When they finally get onto the ship, Rey is already in the cockpit making preparations. She glances in their direction with a knowing look spread across her face.
"I didn't want to interrupt you two, so I went ahead and set our destination for D'Qar." Wordlessly, the two sink into their seats, and with a lurch, they're off the ground and making their way home to the Resistance.
It's a miracle in and of itself that Rey doesn't hurt herself or anyone else in the mad dash she makes to the med bay immediately after touching down on D'Qar. Perhaps it's rude to leave Luke behind to face his sister for the first time in years alone, but she's got one person and one person only on her mind: Finn . But he's not there when she bursts into the room where she saw him last, trailed by an entourage of doctors and specialists grumbling about her lack of clearance.
Instinctively, her mind leaps to the worst possible outcomes, and she finds herself in a blind panic as she rushes through the med bay in search of her friend. She's on the verge of laughing and sobbing when she finally finds him near the X-Wings, a cup of steaming caf wrapped up in his hands and grease smeared in streaks across his uniform as he chats to one of the pilots. She nearly knocks his cup entirely out of his grasp with the force of the hug she gives him.
"Rey? Rey!" Finn exclaims, taken aback at first, before throwing his arms around her in return, nearly squeezing all the breath out of her as he lifts her up and spins her around. He holds Rey at arm's length in order to get a good look at her.
"You're back," he says, and he's all smiles as he slings his arm over Rey's shoulder.
She nods while leaning into him, careful not to nudge any healing wounds. "And you're healthy."
"That I am, back and better than ever. I even have a cool battle scar to boast to Poe about," he says, shoving his thumb back toward the pilot with the tousled hair and the warm smile.
"I don't think that's much to brag about buddy, you're cool enough as it is, you don't need any scars to prove it." Rey meets the man's extended hand with a firm shake. "I don't think we've met. I'm Poe Dameron."
"Rey," she said, immediately relaxing in the easygoing presence of the man in front of her. Trust isn't something that comes easily to Rey, but there's something about this smiling pilot that just puts her at ease, and she finds herself grinning right back at him.
"Pleasure to meet you, Rey, I've heard a lot about you. By the sound of it, the Resistance sure owes a lot to your courage."
"Thank you." There's a flash of movement and out of the corner of her eye she catches the spinning astromech she's come to love.
"Beebee-Ate!" The little droid trills happily as Rey bends down to it. They'd been through a lot together, she and BB-8. "What have you been up to? I see your antenna's been fixe-" Her voice is drowned out by the screeching of a siren overhead, and she snaps to attention.
"That's our signal," Poe says, zipping up his flight suit and climbing up to the cockpit of his X-Wing to grab his helmet. "I hate to cut this short, but I have a briefing with General Organa and Admiral Statura before we have to get off the ground. I'll catch up with you two sometime later, maybe tomorrow, yeah?"
"Sure thing, Poe," Finn says, and with a quick slap to the shoulders, Poe is jogging away from the docking bay and into the command center, with BB-8 trailing behind him. "We'd better get going, we're assigned as ground troops, and we've got to get to the transport quickly, so we're accounted for."
Rey rests a hand on his arm to keep him from dashing off too. "Are you sure you're up to this, Finn? I thought you said you were done with fighting." He looks her in the eye, and there's a steely determination which she'd only seen once before: in the snow on Starkiller.
"This is something worth fighting for, Rey. Now, let's get going, before they leave us behind."
Blood is the first thing Kylo Ren sees when he emerges from his meditation, and he knows by the warm stickiness of his garb that it's his own. He winces through the sharp pain as he pushes himself up to check the dressing on his wound. It's a new cut, a deep gorge in his shoulder, from late night training with his Knights. It was against the Supreme Leader's orders to heal himself, so instead, Kylo grits his teeth and cleans the wound, smoothing a fresh bacta patch over it. He wears his scars as reminders of his failures and shortcomings. A tribute to his shame.
He brushes his fingers over the jagged flesh which runs from his brow down to his collarbone, feeling the place where the scavenger girl had marked him. Rey , he thinks, Rey is what the traitor had called her as he had thrown her harshly into a tree. How stupidly fitting, that the girl from the dusty, washed up, sun-bleached planet of Jakku should be called Rey. He finds himself almost laughing at the thought. Had she named herself, all alone, raised by only the relentless sun and the ruins of the fallen Empire?
He should feel disgusted by the thought of her, Kylo knows. He should want to seek her out and end this pointless war, and yet he can't stop thinking about the loneliness he once saw in her, that raw and untouched anger she kept bundled up inside of her until it finally came out, uninhibited and directed straight toward him. And he can't help but feel like he's uncovered a monster and a fighter and someone with so much potential for greatness. But she'll never find it with Luke Skywalker or FN-2187 or the Resistance, and he knows that full well.
He wonders how long it will take her to realize, as he once did, that the light is not as perfect as they'd have her think.
There's a quick series of beeps from his comlink, and he turns the device over in his hands. It's from Hux, and Kylo resists the urge to throw the comlink out of the airlock without a second thought. He's to prepare his Knights for combat and report to his shuttle immediately following (without breaking anything along the way, the message says, but Kylo finds that bit entirely unnecessary). He doesn't respond.
Instead, he pulls his helmet roughly onto his head. It closes with a slow hiss, and he makes his way to the Knights of Ren, making sure to leave a wrecked comlink behind as a gift for the General.
The lightsaber in her hand feels strange and weighty as Rey bounces on her toes, waiting for the transport to make the descent into Arkanis' atmosphere. She's more jittery than she's ever felt and Luke seems distracted, as if he's staring off at something light years away. Finn is off with the rest of the ground squad, preparing his blaster rifle, and Rey feels alone again. As soon as those doors open, it's straight into battle, and Rey can't help but feel like she's still not prepared.
She takes comfort in fiddling with the weapon in her hands as she whips her pack around to her front, taking out the pelt. She's fashioned it as a sort of cape around her so that it won't fall off, and once it's wrapped around her she feels the steadiness of it wash over her. But there's a shrill ringing in her ears which she can't shake, and she pulls at it like a loose thread at the back of her mind.
In an instant she feels her vision blacking out, the ringing turning into a giant burst of sound and light, and she closes her eyes as suddenly she's thrown back through the air and the lightsaber flies from her hand into a black gloved grip.
When she opens her eyes, the noise is gone, and she's back on the perfectly intact ship, lightsaber in hand. Her heart is racing as Luke turns toward her in concern, sensing the shift in her signature.
"I'm okay," she tells him as he asks her what's wrong, and he's quick to accept her half-hearted assurance. His mind is elsewhere, Rey knows.
I'm okay, she thinks, and as they break atmosphere on the planet, Rey hopes to the stars that she's right.