Chapter XII.

The quantum of hope.

Synopsis: Hera surrenders the sabers to Rey. Snoke loses the battle. The Alliance must stop the clone army on Corruscant.

Hera landed the "Ghost" on the small barren place in the woods incredibly smoothly, making Finn realize she teased him on purpose on Lothal.

"That's your stop, kid", she said.

"You can't possibly go right away", Finn said. "Rey would be disappointed".

Hera laughed with her hoarse voice at Finn and ruffled his hair.

"Kids", she said. "Kids and babies against the First Order – I definitely have to re-name my ship, it's high time".

Rey was standing alone at the make-shift landing platform. She held the green glow-rod and smiled at Finn. However, her face was troubled. Finn could clearly see it.

"Rey", Finn said. "This is Captain Hera Syndulla of… Lothal. She helped me escape the First Order. She is the hero of the Rebellion".

"Hardly", Hera answered, shaking hands with Rey and observing the young Jedi with interest.

Rey smiled at the Twi'lek pilot.

"I'm so glad to meet you", she said, genuinely happy to see someone joining her, or the Resistance – she was unsure, now that it was a grey zone. "The Resistance is grateful for any help we… they can get". Rey's attention was immediately drawn to the small crate Hera held in her hand. It was a relic full of Force. The energy was somehow subdued, but Rey could clearly sense the powerful source contained within the box. It left her perplexed, but she didn't want to push this matter any further. She sensed there is a time for everything – and by this point, she really knew nothing ever happened randomly in this universe.

Hera raised her eyebrows.

"Listen, kid", she said to Rey plainly, "This is not the first time the Rebels have their fall-out with the Jedi. It's kind of an off and on romance with you two, but it's a romance nevertheless".

Finn looked at Rey and said with his eyes: "I told you this one's a piece of work".

But Rey appreciated Hera's sincerity.

"Finn", she told her friend, "There is good news. Go. The sick bay is in the next camp. Take the light".

Finn's eyes widened and he quickly hugged Rey, rushing to Rose's side with a short "bye, I'll be back soon" to both.

"Kids", Hera shook her head.


Rey took Hera to the "Falcon". Hera's eyes misted over with tears as she stopped for a moment.

"Goodness", she whispered, "I thought I'd never see this rusty can again".

Rey's Jedi empathy was sometimes working against her, she thought. Her heart ached with the old Twi'lek as she placed her hand on Hera's shoulder.

"Hera", she said, "I have to tell you something".

"You mean, the fact that you now protect the Jedi Killer?", Hera said bluntly. "The one who's also Solo's kid? Yeah, I know. I know. I may be an old Twi'lek, but this brain serves me good still. You kids think you know everything and that the rest of galaxy is just full of weak minded peasants. Ha".

Hera strode past startled Rey.

"Nothing I wasn't guilty of in my youth", Hera winked back at Rey.

Rey's heart finally got some much needed relief. She smiled and came running after Hera.


Ben was sitting near the fire in what resembled meditation, with Chewbacca barely containing an incessant low growl from the opposing side.

But as the beast saw Hera, the growl stopped. He jumped to his formidable height and made a bitter-sweet sound.

"Old friend!", Hera exclaimed and hugged Chewie. They conversed for a moment as if they saw each other last week, and not all those years ago. Rey looked at them with gentle jealousy – she wanted that kind of friendship, the connection that never truly goes away.

Hera finally turned to Ben and gazed back with her inhumanly bright blue eyes. The same as with Satine, Rey suspected Hera was also a Force sensitive, untrained but highly intuitive. Rey remained near Ben, letting Chewie and Hera some time to talk without interruption. But underneath it, she still had her concerns and felt uneasy every time she'd leave his side.

Ben looked at Hera inquisitively, but remained silent, his eyes now fixed on the crate she was carrying with her.

"So", Hera said, frowning. "This is him? This is Ben Solo?"

"Hera", Ben stood up and nodded.

Hera came closer fearlessly, inspecting his face with intensity that made Rey think she might have to interfere.

"You have your father's eyes", she said. "You've grown, but you haven't changed".

He smirked.

"Hardly", he answered dryly with his gaze again fixed to the crate.

"Oh", Hera answered sheepishly, "I see this interests you? You know very well what's inside".

He tensed and shuddered. The crate practically shook with the vibration of the Force contained inside. Rey frowned and reached for the hilt. Not such a good idea after all, she thought. The Force emanating from the crate was now alluring, murmuring and humming in his presence. The crate itself wasn't made of common fabric – it definitely served as the container for all that energy that was until that point muffled.

But this tension lasted for a split second. He flexed and stepped back, away from the fire.

"It is of no concern to me", he practically growled and turned his back on the small group.

Chewbacca howled and his weapon clicked as Ben strode off away from the "Falcon".

"No", Rey said, raising her hand. Not a minute's rest. "Stay here", she said to both of them, and went after him.


"What was that?" she asked openly.

"Didn't you sense it?" he replied bitterly. "Perhaps your emotions block you from seeing it. Look more closely".

Rey felt this falling back into his old condescending tone unsettling, but even more so, the fact he might be right.

"It's Luke's green saber", she murmured. "How's that possible?"

He turned to her with his eyes dark and closed off.

The sudden realization came over her. He was right. Her petty emotions blocked her view from the full scope of the atrocities he committed.

"The Knights of Ren killed Ezra Bridger", her eyes welled with tears, "And you led them. You… let them do it".

The old vision from Maz's temple came back roaring like a tidal wave.

He gazed at her with his old vicious gaze.

"It is completely different when you put a name on it, isn't it?" he snapped. "I knew Ezra very well. And I remember the exact moment he was outnumbered and stabbed in his back, then stabbed some more. They butchered him and I didn't stop them. I could've stopped them, but I didn't. Only thing I regretted is that I haven't slain him myself. The last Jedi master has fallen. I was free".

Rey wanted to scream, but she made only a small whimpering sound. It was all too much.

"I am too far gone", he whispered, and at that precise moment, he sounded and looked exactly like in her nightmare. "You know I'm a monster. You know you have to kill me".

Rey made a low, painful sound.

"And it is not over yet", he hissed. "There is much more to come after that. I'd kill him and his Master if I had the chance, and every single potential padawan and Force sensitive child in its crib. I'd kill you and all your offspring and your padawans. I'd extinguish every single light in the galaxy until nothing but death remains".

"No", Rey shrieked this time, waking the nocturnal fauna of the planet, "No".

The hilt at her side shuddered and she felt it under her grip, howling with sheer Force.

"Do it", he hissed back at her. "You know you want it. You have that look on your face again. Do it, scavenger! Do it!"

Rey felt the crimson rage falling on her like acid rain. She could feel the same lust for blood, the same desire for vengeance taking control over her. The Resistance would take her back. She would have the unanimous support of the Council again. They have no use of this deviation. They have no use of old-man's apparitions behaving capriciously, murmuring idiocies of the past era. This is the new age, the new order. New rules apply and no tradition binds her. She'd find the way to absorb his energy instead of Snoke, and then she'd be invincible.

She remembered the Throne Room and how glorious and exalting and liberating it felt. With that sort of energy forever in her veins, she'd shatter the First Order into oblivion. A new era would dawn with her as its sovereign leader. An era of infinite peace, freedom and prosperity was at her grasp: no more suffering and no more slavery. She would establish a powerful bloodline that would be destined to rule the galaxy for centuries. She just needed to snuff out the light of his pathetic, wasted life.

And as she sunk into this maelstrom, she saw that her saber turned into a phantom-like grey hue. The brilliance was gone. Even her ring became dark and impenetrable like obsidian. And she couldn't be certain, but she thought she could see her Master's face: that of an old, frail man, with eyes extinguished with sorrow and defeat. He didn't speak. He just stood there at her side, motionless.

The imagery overcame her and tore her apart.

Rey howled in pain and deactivated the saber.

He stood over her, frozen and silent. "He'll kill me", she thought. And she truly didn't care. She stepped into something dreadful. Something sacrilegious even – she was tainted. The Darkness always wins, playing cat and mouse. Balance is but a short episode in between the devouring.

But in the next moment, he fell to his knees near her. He coiled and screamed, the ground beneath him muffling his terrible, heart-wrenching screams.

"Ben", she said, and touched him. He flinched.

He was sobbing.

The wound that festered for so long and that was only scratched on surface that day in "Falcon" was now ruptured. The poison burst open and was being washed away by his atonement. She could feel it. Some unknown creature howled in pain in the great distance, deep in the forest. Rey kneeled next to him, letting him cry everything out. He couldn't speak.

Poe, Chewbacca, Hera, Finn and Satine, accompanied by a small squadron of Resistance fighters and Mandalorians, came their way. Their shattered lights found them both on the ground, with Rey embracing Ben from the top, covering him with her raincoat.

"Don't shoot", she whispered. "Leave him alone. He needs to be freed of this pain".

By the time his tears stopped running, he was so drained that he couldn't speak, or walk. Rey staggered under his practically dead weight but managed to keep him straight.

To her amazement and extreme gratitude, Poe came to his other side and helped her carry him. Hera, Chewbacca and the rest of the team took shifts instead of Rey. She wasn't aware how far they went into the wilderness until they started coming back to the camp. It went on and on for ages.

When they finally reached the "Falcon", she staggered and lay down next to him, not caring about the outer appearances and about the condemnation she might receive. Hera covered them both with thick blankets made from Bantha wool.

They fell asleep the moment they hit the ground. Chewbacca shook his head. Hera rubbed off the tears from her face. Finn was crying in the shadow of the "Falcon". Satine stood motionlessly, arms crossed, with a frown on her face.

"Let them rest", Hera turned to Poe, who nodded at her. "You did the right thing, General".


At the Ren temple, a terrible, disembodied shriek shook the building down to its mystical roots.

The high priests and the Praetorians ran in terror to the altar that was growling and shaking in what resembled a dreadful earthquake.

They prayed to their Dark Lord to have mercy on them – but it was Snoke who felt poisoned and hit to the core. Kylo Ren, his right arm, his channel to this world, his strongest medium, has died and with it, part of Snoke's might was gone too.

Putrid blood-like liquid burst open from the altar, infecting all the priests, guards and First Order soldiers on the planet: almost 3 million of them.


"Rey", he whispered. He had the appearance of a man who woke up from a deadly illness. He was pale, and his cheeks have sunken. But he was smiling at her. Never in her life has Rey been awakened to a more beautiful sight.

She smiled back at him and kissed him gently on the forehead.

"You're here", Rey said.

"I was always here", he replied.

The Council was buzzing with the events of the previous night. Some older officers remembered Hera Syndulla and greeted her whole-heartedly. But as the time passed, many were left under the impression that the old Captain has somehow lost it. She was quick and strong as ever, but her ideas seemed to be pretty off.

She claimed that she brought the light-sabers for the two Jedi who helped the Resistance. She referred to Kanan Jarrus, the dead Jedi, as if he was alive.

Hera opened the crate and there they were – Ezra's, Kanan's, Ahsoka's sabers and Luke's green saber.

They all exchanged troubled looks, but it was Poe who again interfered.

"I have changed my mind", he said. "I believe we should accept Ben Solo into Resistance. We have not one, but two Jedi now in our midst. Rebellions are built on hope. What sort of Rebels would we be if we discarded that hope?"

Shock and mistrust went through the Council like an electric current.

Kay added: "The First Order raided Sullust mere hours after our evacuation. Our base was destroyed. Anyone who sold as much as a tea bag to a Resistance fighter was arrested".

Poe continued: "We received intels from all over the galaxy confirming there is an ongoing raid on every single planet. Every Resistance fighter and every supporter is being persecuted and arrested with orders to kill at even the smallest sign of opposition".

"We will not leave galaxy in the paws of these fiends", Poe said. "The final battle is approaching. And the victory won't be won by technology or armory or canniness. It will be won by hope, as it always was".

"We saw hope last night", Finn said. "I know First Order better than anyone. I was on Jakku with Kylo Ren during the genocide. But yesterday… it all changed. If Rey managed to win him over to the Light Side, I think this galaxy stands a chance".

Sato looked at them with mouth wide open. Are they all out of their wits? Is this planet somehow poisoned? Has the Dark Side converted them without them even knowing?

And he wasn't the only one. Humans and humanoids in the Council murmured, cursed and shouted in shock and disbelief.

Satine stood up and used her beskad's hilt to hit the ground. The ground trembled and the Council went mum. Only Sato complained that Satine has no say in the Council, since she is not an official member of it.

But her fierce look made him keep silent as she began to speak.

"I feel Force is good and strong this morning", Satine said. "My people followed the Jedi traditions since the time immemorial. We always had our differences. We stormed the Jedi temple. We stole the Dark Saber. And we paid dearly for it. It is not the Jedi who failed the ancient rites. It was my people that failed the Jedi and the Force. I vow to this Council and to this blade, passed to me from my ancestors, that I will never fail Jedi again. Rey is the leader. Where she goes, I will go. If I have to lay my life for her, I will do so. If a darjetii can be redeemed, then Mandal'ore will be redeemed as well".

Mandalorians raised high their weapons and shrieked a call of warriors. It was at the same time both mesmerizing and intimidating.

"Call Rey and… Ben Solo then", Browne said, feeling both taken away by this irresistible outburst of courage and loyalty and frightened by its sheer force. "Let them speak for themselves".

"Aye", Sato added. "We haven't seen or heard from him since the evacuation of Sullust".

Rey came slowly into the tent. Hundreds of eyes turned her way. Ben came after her. He was still uncertain on his feet, but stood there straight and silent.

Rey could sense the atmosphere around them tensing and thickening with disapproval and even open hatred.

"My friends", Rey said, trying to ignore the wave of discontent coming her way. "The enemy has lost his way to this world last night. The battle has been won, but the war is far from over. We don't have the power the First Order has, but we possess something First Order will never have – Hope. The evil is a parasite. It needs fear and despair to feed itself. But the Light will not tolerate it any further. Remain hopeful – it is the deadliest weapon against the enemy we must face. And we will face it. We will defeat it".

Solemn silence fell on the Council. Her words were powerful, but the Council was full of people who lost so much fighting the First Order and where either deeply disturbed by Ben Solo's presence or openly resented Poe and Rey for letting him in. Fear didn't allow them to vocalize their discontent – fear of the former Knight of Ren.

Ben took her hand in his.

The unpleasant silence was broken by a faint alarm from one of the panels and Kay's shaky voice.

"Sir", Kay addressed Poe. "There is something… disturbing in the Outer Rim".

The hologram projection has shown the spread of a deadly infection turning all diseased into extremely aggressive hosts. Images have shown fall of some minor planets in the Outer Rim into chaos and plunder. The infection seemed to start deep in the Outer Rim, probably in the former Sith worlds – uninhabited and forlorn since the fall of the Empire. The First Order issued a statement there is nothing to worry about, and guaranteed that the infection was contained. However, no one in the Council believed First Order's propaganda.

"If they needed to confess to this", Browne said. "Then the real situation is at least twice as bad".

"Snoke", Ben said. "His energy is bleeding out. He is dying. But he won't go out without a fight. He needs host to continue living. As a spirit, he is powerful but constrained. I should've known it might come to this".

"Spirits, infections…" Sato shouted. "Even fighting against the technology of the First Order was beyond our powers, but this?!"

The Council was again in the state of uproar.

"Wait, wait", Poe shouted out with Chewbacca roaring and Satine clashing the bleksad against the ground again. "Wait. How much time do we have? Intelligence officers, how much time do we have until this infection spreads to other inhabited worlds in the Outer Rim?"

"By the rate of its spread so far, we're talking days. One week the most", the intelligence officer responded anxiously.

"And that means what?", Poe asked again nervously.

"The annihilation of all there is", Ben responded calmly amidst the dead silence. "It was never about power and control as the ultimate goal. It was about death and destruction".

"Force, have mercy", the lament escaped the Council.

"Wait", Poe exclaimed. "If the old man's spreading like a virus among all the life forms, then he's losing his strength, right? If the infection is contained, if we shut down all planets and quarantine all our supporters, and if the First Order does the same, then that's it? He'll die out when the last infected dies?"

Ben shook his head.

"It's not that simple", Ben said. "I don't know what virus they used. The First Order experimented with many. And this is not just the matter of physical transmission. It's something more".

He looked worriedly at Rey.

"The Light Side is immune", Rey said. "I can feel it. But it means whoever succumbed to Dark Side or serves the First Order might be susceptible".

Browne howled.

"That makes for at least three quarters of this galaxy", he said desperately. "And perhaps even some within this Council".

He and some other officers again glanced with open hatred and mistrust at Ben.

"No", Rey exclaimed. "Ben Solo is out of his reach. Kylo Ren was his hope for regeneration and Kylo Ren is dead. That is why he's panicked. Afraid, even – the Light is toxic to him. He has nowhere to go. The Ren order is dead – he killed them so he might grow in Force. There is no living Sith left. There is no one remotely powerful enough left for him to possess for long enough".

"But then the question remains – how to stop this?", Poe asked.

"Let me see the pattern of its spread", Ben said boldly.

Poe raised his eyebrows and looked at Kay. Kay stood confused for a moment, and then flexed and gestured at Ben to come to the screen and see for himself.

"Thank you", he said awkwardly and observed the pattern intently.

Rey followed.

"What do you see?" she asked, aware that the surrounding officers shrunk away from them both, unnervingly.

"It appears to be spreading randomly, but it doesn't. It only wants us to think it does", he said. "It prefers the First Orders strongholds".

Ben turned to Kay who twitched only slightly.

"Officer, you don't have the map of former Sith worlds in your archives by any chance?", he said as gently and as politely as he could.

"No", Kay stuttered. "Perhaps the Old Republic had those, and we managed to retrieve some of their database but still our archives are largely fragmented, I'm afraid". And there was an additional thought she had, but didn't dare to speak out: "Mostly thanks to you".

Ben understood and nodded. He pressed his hand against the screen and invited Rey to do the same. He asked her softly: "Do you see it?"

She put her hand on his shoulder and closed her eyes. Vision came almost immediately in his presence. She found herself in a dark labyrinth full with mirrors. It reflected her image 1000 fold, similarly to what she experienced at Ahch-to. But the mirrors then started reflecting other shadowy figures, figures she couldn't immediately recognize. From afar, she could hear Ben's voice calling her. He was calling her in pain. And as she rushed to find him, she saw that the mirrors weren't mirrors at all – she was surrounded by armies of men and women, humanoids and alien life forms. She didn't know who they were, but she felt clearly they belonged to the glorious past and terrible wars. Some of them were powerful Jedi, while the rest were the servants of the Dark Side. To her horror, she observed a face she knew well – it was young, but it was unmistakably the face of her Master. It was Luke Skywalker, no more than 20 years old. But there was something off with his face and his presence in that strange place. He was somehow frozen, detached and not entirely human.

She shook off the vision and found herself again in the Resistance base.

"What was that?" she asked equally confounded Ben.

"It was a clone facility on Coruscant", familiar voice replied. "Snoke's been hiding it for years now".

The Council trembled. It was Luke Skywalker.