36. Others
They had received a beacon with coordinates that morning. The distress beacon they had programmed for Leia, the one that would tell them where the Falcon was. Poe had tried to contact the Falcon but there had been no response, and then a few minutes later the signal had ended abruptly. Poe sent some scouting vessels – he was afraid it was a trap. Finn understood, technically, but how could they just wait here while Rey and Leia were in danger? He didn't bother Poe with that, but he did grumble to Rose, who kept telling him to shut up, she'd told him already that she agreed it was awful. In the afternoon, the scouting vessels reported back: Batuu was surrounded by First Order forces: bombers, fighters, and star destroyers. Far more than the Resistance could fight through, since they'd only managed to build up a force of ten fighters since Crait.
So Poe said they would have to wait. And he was right, but Finn didn't want to wait.
He, Poe, Rose, and Captain D'Arcy went to dinner together in the mess hall, which Finn ended up feeling was a bad idea – they were all so tense that they couldn't eat, much less talk. Only a few other officers had been told about the attack on Batuu and the risk to their leader, so most of the mess buzzed with energetic conversation about the day's work. HoloNews played on a display near the middle of the room, droning about wartime statistics and who the Resistance was currently trying to form an alliance with.
Speaking of the display… Finn frowned and nudged Poe. "Look." The HoloNet display crackled and fizzled out, loudly enough that a lot of other heads turned. Then a new display lit up, showing a figure standing against a red background.
Finn recognized the face immediately, as did Poe – Rose was slower on the uptake. Sallow skin, thin cheeks, haughty eyes and a curdled smile, General Hux peered triumphantly down his nose and began speaking. Finn thought this frequency was supposed to be secure – but clearly it wasn't after all. He saw Poe and Captain D'Arcy glance at each other and knew what they were thinking. A broadcast by the First Order on a secure wartime frequency was not a good sign.
"This is General Hux. I want to personally inform friends of the First Order – and enemies as well – of a most happy event."
Finn's stomach plummeted. The General's face was screwed up in a worshipful smile, which Finn had seen before in broadcasts when Hux announced progress on his superweapon or new planets won for the First Order.
"The leader of the Rebellion is dead," Hux purred.
Finn stopped breathing. The cafeteria went silent. Poe made a choked sound. Rose shuddered.
"Liar," someone scoffed.
"So is the… 'Jedi' girl and the weak traitor, Kylo Ren," Hux continued, voice shaking with glee. "Their precious Millennium Falcon is a ruin, and the planet that harbored them will soon be no more than a husk."
Rey? Not Rey, too. Hux was lying, he had to be. Finn's heart slammed hard and fast against his ribs.
"See for yourself."
There were videos. Hux had planned for this. Corpses that still burned lying scattered through metal wreckage, still recognizable in some places as the Falcon. Bones white against blackened earth. Remnants of a leather jacket that Finn recognized as Han's. A video of the moment the Falcon exploded and… and that was Leia, the ship collapsing around her. Perhaps a dozen other people tossed through the air and then just… lying there. One of them he recognized as Rey.
Finn stared and stared, and it wasn't as if he'd never seen death before, but… "Rey," he whispered.
The mess hall wasn't silent anymore. Murmurs and shouts and horrified crying began to spread throughout the room.
Captain D'Arcy was crying, but she stood, lifting her chin. Finn could see how tense she was.
Poe grabbed Finn's arm. "I have to go to the command center," he said. "I have to… They'll need me."
Finn nodded mutely, glancing at Rose, who looked stoic. Her eyes were wet, but he knew this wasn't new to her either.
Hux continued speaking. "Let all of you who consider harboring Resistance scum remember the example of Batuu. The First Order has no interest in survivors among those who would defy us." Hux smiled and dipped his head in a mockery of a subservient nod. "My condolences for the loss of General Organa." Finn wanted to shout and curse, but he didn't. Others weren't so self-controlled.
The HoloNet flickered back to the usual news. Finn watched Poe get up, straighten his jacket, and glance around before striding through the cafeteria towards the command center, Captain D'Arcy joining him. People looked to him as he went, watching – they all knew he was their leader while Leia was gone, and maybe now for good.
How could Rey be dead? It didn't feel like she was dead, somehow, but Finn had seen her lying on the ground. However it felt, he trusted the evidence of his eyes.
Rose looked at him and shook her head. "I can't believe it," she told him, as if she really couldn't. "Them too." He understood. The Resistance had become far too acquainted with loss, lately.
This was worse in a way because things had started to seem better. Word had spread about Rey, the powerful young Jedi who had twice defeated Kylo Ren. (Or at least, that was how Leia had been describing it.) Poe had allowed rumors to spread saying that Kylo Ren had betrayed the First Order – whether that was technically true or not, he said, it would give people hope.
Now Rey was dead, and Leia, all because they had to go after Kylo Ren. Whatever Rey said about Kylo "rejecting the Dark Side," he was still Kylo kriffing Ren, and Finn didn't believe the Master of the Knights of Ren, Snoke's pet enforcer, could just defect.
It was good he was dead, if Leia and Rey had to be dead too.
Finn shivered and stood, knowing he should make himself busy. There would be time later (too much time) to cry. "I'm going to the command center with Poe," he said. "You should come." Rose shouldn't be alone right now. And he didn't want to be alone either. Rey. His best friend Rey. How could this have happened? He swallowed, his chest suddenly aching.
"I will." Rose took his hand, and one tear escaped her eye and trailed down her cheek. "I'm sorry, Finn."
"She's your friend too," Finn managed.
"I know." Rose's hand was shaking.
"Will we listen to him now, Teka?" Kashek Ren wheezed. "He has proven himself more capable than we thought."
Teka didn't believe that simply commanding an army to blow things up made Hux "capable" – but he had destroyed Master Kylo, as he'd promised. She waved a hand, and the HoloNet display winked off. She turned, sneering a bit at Kashek. "You will contact him. Tell him we are open to discussion. But we will not be his weapons to send where he pleases."
She sensed Kashek was reluctant to obey – he was not yet used to her leadership. With Snoke dead, however, and now Kylo, she was the Master of the Knights. "Kashek," she said, her low voice pitching higher and softer. "I did mean at once."
Kashek was the weakest of the Knights, in Teka's estimation. He was a crawling, subservient coward whose loyalty to the Dark Side hinged on his belief that it could keep him safer than the Light. That was true, but if he came to believe otherwise, she knew his loyalty would prove to be shallow indeed. She would hate him, were he not her brother now.
"Of course, Master," he said, inclining his head. Good. She turned away and traced her fingers over the hilt of her darksaber – a constant reminder of all Snoke had given her.
"We must properly honor our brother. Tonight we will meet and perform the rite."
"He was a traitor," Kashek spat.
Teka scowled. Kashek understood nothing. "A brother nonetheless, and our Master. Don't forget it was him who brought us to Lord Snoke." A night she remembered often, a night of fire and screams.
She awoke to the Temple in flames. Grabbing her saber from her night table, she staggered out of her room. The Temple was under attack, was her first thought, although she knew that didn't make sense. She started down the hall towards the source of the smoke, the Force communicating nothing but fear and pain. Suddenly, she was met by an uplifted saber and eyes that burned with pain and fury. "Outside," Ben growled, and she trusted him, so she obeyed - leaving her saber on her belt. Her instincts told her to. She felt Darkness in him that she hadn't felt before, and she was intrigued.
She walked in front of him out to the courtyard, where the rest of the students had gathered. Not the rest. Some were not here. Dead, she thought. One of the oldest students who, like she and Ben, had been able to make her saber, flanked Ben as Teka went to stand among the other students.
The students could have rallied and fought Ben, perhaps, but none of them seemed to realize they needed to. It must have looked, to the others, as if they were under attack and Ben was defending them, but she sensed otherwise now. She could feel the same Dark in him that purred in her own chest, so she knew it was probably because of him the Temple was burning.
"Master Skywalker is dead," Ben announced. "He tried to kill me because he was afraid of my power." His voice cracked, and the Voice in her head hummed agreement. Ben was not lying. "I am going to a master who won't fear me or hold me back. Any of you may join me."
His friends ignited their sabers, and Teka knew… it was time to choose. Ben was barefoot, in his nightshirt. He looked small, but the Temple blazed behind him and the Dark roared. This was power Luke had never given them.
"Or else you will die," his companion said, and Teka unclipped her saber from her belt as a few of of the other students did. There were shouts, cries - the other students called Ben a traitor. But Teka felt calm, felt certain. She had little affection to spare for Master Skywalker, and less still for his Order. She ignited her saber as the Dark growled, and stabbed the closest boy through the back where he stood. He was twelve, the youngest student Skywalker had taken.
She and her brothers and sisters dealt so much death that night, but she remembered it was Kylo whose darkness had inspired her.
Pain gives him strength, the Voice had told her. Snoke, she knew now.
Kashek sighed and walked away, and Teka fiddled with her long black braid. She was glad of Kylo's death – it was long overdue. Brother or no, she had long known she should be the one who was Master of the Knights.
Still, it was not their way to celebrate each other's deaths. At the rite tonight, they would all honor him, even those (like Kashek) who now hated him. Kylo was not the first to leave their order. And like they had for those before him, they would choose someone to take his place.
After that, she would not wait in suspense for permission to act, like Kylo had so long done.
No, Teka Ren had grander plans for her Knights than Snoke ever had.
And if that began with an alliance with someone who thought their powers were only foolish mysticism, so be it.
A/N: Alright, we're all caught back up to where we were at the start of this week! On Tuesday you'll get a totally brand new chapter!
I'm figuring out how to write this story the way I want and with quality control. I have a lab report due Tuesday too which is great. -_- But I think I have time to write both things. Should work out.
Please keep reviewing!