It was Rey's idea, and Calliope couldn't really believe it.
"Let me use my connection with Ben to trick him. I know I can do it."
To connect with that snake and make him believe that she was on her way alone and determined. Rey would distract him as long as possible going on the notion that Calliope's DNA overrides would still work on whatever uninhabitable planet Ren ran to, probably Kerroc, but Calliope would slip in and lower all shields and anti-air assault weapons. Poe would sweep in with bombers and enough squadrons to bomb out whatever hole they were hiding in.
Calliope looked up at her exhilarated expression, having cried all of her tears, "Rey, even if you could I don't think I could hide all of us."
"You just kept a two ton spacecraft from leaving the atmosphere." Poe rubber the hand she staunchly had a hold of, "I think you can do it."
"This is a huge risk going on the hope that they didn't clear my fingerprints from the system." She looked sullen at her feet.
"If all we have is hope then I say were well off." Leia's voice rang over the disparaging cloud in the room."If all we have is hope then I say were well off." Leia's voice rang over the disparaging cloud in the room. The General briskly walked over without the use of her cane, "I will command the cruisers, and we will get Anakin back."
The two mother's gave each other a smile, a smile of connection and one of determination. Calliope stood up, "Scramble the fleet. Rey, come with me."
24 hours later.
The girls stood outside the Falcon. Their day of practice was near perfect.
"It's like looking in a mirror." Calliope softly grinned from her shadowed dimension, "Now after you connect with him, just let me into your mind and it'll not only look like me. It'll be me."
Calliope turned to the small squadron she was hiding with her, "I need everyone else to remain as still as possible. Keeping you in this state takes a lot of energy and the less you move the easier it will be." They all hesitantly nodded. "When we land. I want you in proximity to Rey so if she's in immediate danger you can cover her. I don't know how this going down, so you might have to make on the fly choices." Calliope held out Ren's saber to Rey, "Give Finn yours. That way there not really taking anything from you."
They exchanged the sabers, and with a collective deep breath…
She entered the Falcon alone.
Snoke's nostrils flared taking in a huge breath before screeching, "END THEM!"
Finn threw Rey her saber who activated the double sided staff. Finn, Rose, and Chewy began shooting troopers who had waited for the Supreme Leader's command before firing. Calliope slowly approached Rey and Ben keeping eyes on the Knights of Ren on the other side of the room. They had all primed their weapons. Camulus had a long ionized staff. Ares two dueling blades. The twin brother's boasted kyber resistant batons. Calliope ignored them looking at the duo before her,
"From what I've seen I think you can handle this lot on your own." She looked up at Snoke, "That monster is mine."
Rey nodded anxiously twirling the staff in her hand. Calliope put a hand up to silence whatever was about to come out of Ben's mouth, "Save it Solo." and she leapt up to the platform in which Snoke rested upon. She met eyes with the demon.
"You threatened my son." The crystal in her hand crackled, "Out of everything you've ever done to me that was your biggest mistake." She held out her opposite hand reflecting a blaster shot from Hux. In this ginger embodied distraction one of Snoke's metal legs swept up clutching her by the waist in a three pronged claw. He raised her up to his level of sight, and penetrated her mind.
She was back at the temple. The flames licking the air and the stench of iron lingering. Ben Solo turned to her with a feverous expression.
"Join me." Less a suggestion than a command.
"No." Calliope whispered and a swift saber slash rippled through her body.
"If you were truly the good willed person you think you are… this is what would have happened. You would be dead only with the rest of the students who chose the light." Snoke's voice ricocheted through the space in her mind, "But you aren't that beam of light that all jedi are … no… you were so much more."
Now she stood above a pile of bodies; her very first mission. Snuff out the resistive natives of Lyra Minor, so the Order could drill for a mineral of kyber quality. Pride enveloped her as the mission which Kylo Ren had failed she had succeeded.
"You were so absolute. Never were you conflicted. Never did you question me because you were born to do this. You were born for this."
There was another change. Calliope now stood above a tank with an olive like spec suspended in a thick almost tissue like liquid. A middle aged woman stood over the tank on the other side next to a man similar to her. The woman had beautiful mahogany waves and fair skin although all her refined clothes and jewelry couldn't hide how aged she was.
"Don't be embarrassed child." A robed elderly man entered the room, "You wouldn't have survived such a raw power in a natural birth, not at your age."
"Father." The woman instantly bowed her head, "We weren't expecting you."
Emperor Skeeve Palpatine drew next to her after force slamming the man into a bow. He waved a decrepit wrinkled hand over the tank.
"Yes… she will be the one."
The woman sniffled, "She will make it past eight months won't she? Ekons says she'll be just like all the others."
Emperor Palpatine nodded, "Ignore you're disappointment of a brother. She will live and become an instrumental tool for our cause."
Ekons scowled, "This was my idea fath-." The Emperor stopped him mid-sentence sucking the air from his lungs, "Be gone you unmitigated mistake. I have no use of you."
The Emperor turned to the woman, "Nyx, my dear you must make preparations."
"How right my father was." Snoke's voice pulled away from the image, "You were a useful tool."
Calliope looked up at the man who now claimed to be her blood uncle. He thought he was clever and that she would so enthralled by his visions that she could not act outside of them. The visions didn't move her- it didn't phase her- it didn't paralyze her as he had intended.
"He was right." Calliope's kyber crystal had been hovering over Snoke's forehead sine he had taken them into the mindscape, "You're a disappointment." And the crystal dug through his skull.
His screams rang over all the noise emitting from the battle below and he fought against it. Calliope felt the metal claw strengthen against her as they battle for control of the laser rock. The claw was going to pinch her in half if it didn't squeeze the breath out of her first. There was a long mechanical hiss from below the apparatus keeping Snoke together. The leg holding her detached from Snoke's body and she fell to the ground. Anakin was holding a tube that he'd yanked from the bottom of the machine. Calliope pried the claws away from her and ran to her boy scooping him up getting out of the way for the rest of the legs to collapse, and the mechanism keeping the creature alive to buckle. Snoke was no more, and the crystal left a hole in his brain to make sure of that.
She touched his hair, his face, his arms checking each bone rapidly before clutching him close to her. When she pulled away she noticed his nose flared and his eyes dead set upon something behind them. The seven year old boy held Hux in a force grip while holding a blaster shot mid-air. Armitage Hux grasped at his throat.
"Ani, let go." Calliope moved them away from the blaster shot. The boy remained focused,
"He hurt me. He wanted to hurt you." Anakin's teeth scraped together in anger. She stared at him in a moment of awe. He was already surpassing her when she was at his age. Calliope put herself in his view kicking the blaster that had fallen from Hux's hands away,
"Anakin Soruna you know right from wrong."
A deep heave came from the General and he fell to the ground cursing them before going unconscious. She rubbed his shoulders in comfort, "I need you to hide again and stay put okay?" The boy nodded, hugging his mother before vanishing seamlessly.
Calliope looked down upon the mayhem, touching her ear piece, "General Dameron, General Organa how's that air assault coming?" There was only static in reply. She jumped down. Ben was engaged with Ares though they were hardly attacking each other. Camulus was splayed on the floor. Shinto and Shen Cha were paired with Rey who held them off expertly. Calliope put a single finger to her throat; this was a long shot but it would at least work on the troopers. The force pushed her voice through the air amplified for all to hear, "YOU WILL ALL PUT DOWN YOUR WEAPONS."
Ares duel blades were the first to clash against the ground followed by storm trooper blasters like a hard rain against tin. Shinto and Shen Cha continued to clash with Rey, but they slowed down in curiosity until the realization of their demise caught up with them. Finn and Chewy began collecting the weapons. Rose had been hit in the leg and was sitting against the wall putting pressure on it. Ben knocked out the remaining knights. The blast door remained closed but what laid beyond them? Could eight stand a chance against the battalions waiting for them? There was radio silence.
Rey approached her,
"What do we do?"
"We could lock down the blast doors and wait? I don't have the energy to hide us all again. I can't."
"Patience then." Ben joined them. Calliope raised a hand to strike him in anger, but dropped it. He took their son. She took his arm. Continuing the abuse wouldn't make it any better.