Part XIV: Hope, Renewed

He was losing his strength. She could feel it. Each of his swings a tad bit weaker than the last. Through the haze of blue and red clouding her perception, she was able to make out the muffled sound of a shuttle landing. Even in the heat of battle she'd be embarrassed if the type of ship making a sound was unidentifiable. "AARGH!" Ben grunted as she made another smoking orange blemish on his chest. It would be over soon.

Rey would end him for killing Han and Finn. The two combatants let out a shout as they both tried to kill the other, and each grabbing the other's blade hand. They were struggling like that for a while, blue blade and red blade in perfect symmetry. Rey felt her power surge as she physically overpowered Ben and drove his lightsaber into the ground at a steep angle. He was beginning to yell, out of frustration or pain, or both, Rey wasn't sure, but she managed to break his grip on her arm. He did however manage to redirect her swing from cleaving him in half from shoulder to hip. Unfortunately for Ben, Rey didn't miss altogether.

Roughly 20 metres away, Barriss and Galen Starkiller were both hunched over the figure of Finn. Barriss whispered to her one-armed ally, "Take him back to the shuttle, if his heart stops, use the Force to preserve his breathing and blood flow manually; can you do that?" Galen smirked as he nodded at her. He glanced at the grievously injured boy rose from the ground at the urging of Galen's upwards nod as they both began moving at a slower pace back towards the shuttle since Galen was using his good arm to hoist Finn along. In the distance, he could see Juno and the resistance pilot exit the Knight of Ren's shuttle, the resistance girl in particular looking particularly pleased and more than a little mystified. She turned toward him and saw something over his back shoulder than made her sprint in their direction. Galen only turned his head when she blew past him.

Barriss was looking at the same thing Jess was, she just had a closer view. The Knight of Ren was trying desperately to crawl away from the girl in sand-coloured garb who now held both lightsabers. Admittedly, he was getting away quite fast due to Force-augmented movements.

Blood for blood. Finn and Han… This creature had to die. Rey didn't realise she was breathing so heavily, she looked down to see both Ben's right arm and leg smouldering and very much detached laying at her feet as their owner tried his upmost to get away from her. She stalked towards him, blades trailing alongside her feet, cutting through the snow and leaving a clear path of intent scorched into the frozen ground. Ben was only a few metres away now. Rey heard movement behind her, but she didn't care. She also didn't care that the snowflakes around her had severed their loyalty to the winds whipping them around, and were now only loyal to the aura of the girl's power, now framed in dual light.

The fallen Knight of Ren pushed himself up to face her, having come across a felled tree blocking his path. He rocked back and forth for a minute, like a turtle, unable to gain his balance.

Jess had reached the not-Mandalorian Force user, who was also staring at the girl with the sabres, though probably for different reasons. The Force user Barriss, as Juno had mentioned her name to Jess, stuck out a hand, a caution to not step further.

Rey stood still, looking at Ben. Her indigo coat floated behind her, as did her personal army of snowflakes. Her hands were trembling, with too many emotions to name. She couldn't stop loathing his face, but it hit her, the terror in his eyes was identical to the terror in hers when he removed his mask for her. A pretty face in fear didn't change his traitorous behaviour, and as he was about to say something, anything. But right then, Rey deliberately dragged-not-slashed the sputtering scarlet sword across his face. And with that, she turned back towards her friends, leaving the bleeding and gutturally howling Knight of Ren in the snow.

The ground split, creating a jagged dive between the two parties. A light came down from above, an evacuation shuttle. A couple troopers and a ginger in uniform retrieved the broken Ben. Well, the troopers retrieved their fallen superior, the pissed off ginger glared at the three women before turning sharply back towards his ship. A few moments later, it took off, leaving the three women alone in the flickering light of the two lightsabers.

"The fight is over child, sheathe your blades," Bariss spoke softly. Rey looked up at the woman who gave her the indigo coat. Her eyes caught the new woman standing slightly behind the ex-Jedi. She was really pretty… and she was staring at the blades in Rey's hands before looking up, and their eyes connected.

Rey let the stare linger for a moment, lost, but then reality crashed back into her thoughts, "Finn. Is he, is he dead?" she asked Barriss. There was a flicker from the eyes of the pretty pilot Rey didn't try to decipher right then.

"No, he–," Barriss was cut off when the ground between Galen/Finn and the shuttle began to give.

Galen turned back towards Barriss, Rey, and Jessika; "I can't make that jump!" he shouted at them over the rising wind.

Juno looked at the widening chasm with wide eyes, and dashed into the cockpit. Ahsoka and Han were both on board, along with the two droids, but there was no way that she'd be able to save Finn and Galen along with the other three, who she could see were sprinting towards Galen as the chasm on their side was also extending, creating an ever thinning strip of land, trapping them all. The Ghost gave a groan as it plunged into the abyss. Despite her years of training, tears started to form in her eyes. She'd have to choose.

"Proxy! Where are you? We need you for evac, now!" She shouted into her communicator.

"Aiding the Resistance in their retreat, as it is the tactically intelligent thing to do. They would not have survived this long were it not for my efforts. Though several of them died anyway," the droid replied nonchalantly. "We are undergoing heavy fire, I could come get you, though it would mean the deaths of Dameron and the rest of Blue Squadron." He continued in his not quite apathetic tone.

Juno didn't even have to think about it, "Proxy, I am ordering you to–," she cut off abruptly as a light shined through the cockpit and descended near where her friends were gathered on their island amid the crumbling abyss. Juno let out a heavy breath as she said much more calmly, "Proxy, negative, I repeat, get Blue Squadron to safety, we're good." She shut off communication with the droid as she saw Barriss herd the others onto the Millennium Falcon. Both ships lifted off the ground and after a quick exchange over the comms with Chewbacca, both ships engaged their warp drives simultaneously, escaping the planet's death by seconds.

Aboard the Millennium Falcon, Barriss quickly healed what she could of Finn's catastrophic injury, but she looked up to a worried Rey, "He will need medical droids to fix his spine, but he will live if our ride home doesn't jostle him too badly." Rey let out a long breath as she sat down next to the new pilot. "Wookie!" Barriss called kindly towards the cockpit. He emerged after a few moments, pouting. Barriss waited until she had Rey's attention as well as Chewbacca's before saying, "Han Solo is alive. I was waiting for him to fall and immediately started healing him. He's in a bacta tank on the shuttle with our friends. His injury is severe, but since his heart wasn't damaged, he should make it." She spoke slowly, so that they wouldn't mishear her.

Chewbacca was speechless, he just sort of slouched down into the nearest available seat. When the great Wookie started to cry, Rey slowly walked over to put an arm around him, which if his soft purr was anything to judge by, he was quite grateful. Barriss looked at Galen and Finn, both of whom were unconscious and horizontal in available rest compartments of the main cabin. Barriss sent the Resistance pilot Jess a meaningful look and nodded toward the cockpit. They had barely made it three steps before Rey shot out a hand and lightly grasped Jessika's. Jess' face flushed slightly at the contact, and so did Rey's, but Rey looked at Jessika with this earnest kindness that allowed her to put these surprise nerves aside. "Sit with me?" Rey asked hesitantly, and Jess was there in a heartbeat. Barriss' mouth quirked into something resembling a grin and muttered something about checking in on Juno and Ahsoka. Eventually, Chewy muttered something to Rey and she patted his furry bulging shoulder as he lumbered off to his cabin.

Rey and Jessika sat there alone for a few minutes with the tension building up slowly. Rey was nervously thumbing her new lightsabers trying not to stare at the gorgeous pilot siting not two feet away. Jessika was going over the duel in her head, wondering how that ferocious goddess with the coloured blades; who crippled and scarred Kylo Ren! Could possibly be the fidgety adorable girl sitting beside her. That was until Jessika got ahold of herself and exhaled, turning towards the duellist and said, "Hi, I'm Jessika Pava."

Rey turned to look Jessika in her dark oaken eyes and replied with her signature smile and a definite blush, "Hey, I'm Rey."

Author's Note: Hi, it's been a while, sorry about that. Please review!