Chapter 13

General Mors stood resolutely in her command center at the top of a security tower on the north side of the palace. She watched as the Resistance transports tried to land soldiers in the alleys in front of them. Of the very few transports that were able to land, none survived the retreat.

A colonel scurried up to General Mors, and halted, waiting patiently for Mors to address him.

"Yes, Colonel Crous, give me the status," Mors ordered.

"The Resistance transports have been able to put an estimated three thousand soldiers in the alleys, working their way to the palace. The navy has successfully stopped any further transports from unloading."

"And the space front?" She questioned.

"Our defenses are holding. Only small fighters and the last of the transports have made it into the atmosphere. The surface cannons and our TIEs are keeping those under control. As I said, none of the remaining transports are able to reach the surface."

General Mors understood the situation and was pleased.

"Send AT-ST's, with ground assault and jet clone troopers into the alleys."

"Yes, General," he replied.

Mors picked up a cup of hot caf and took a sip, then placed it back on the console. She always drank caf during routine operations.

A contingent of clone troopers was dispatched into each alleyway along with two AT-ST's for each alley. The dual legged AT-ST's, like the larger AT-AT's, were also augmented from their old top-heavy models with two cannon-equipped, lean, forward arms to aid stabilization and firepower if needed.

Citizens of Coruscant rushed into the bars and pawn shops trying to escape the meteoric fire. Many found shelter in business basements, as they huddled in groups and shivered. However, the blasts from the AT-ST's as they fired down the alleys sometimes caused portions of these structures to collapse on the hiding people, their sanctuaries becoming their tombs.

The Resistance soldiers tried to advance with a desperate effort. If it had just been the ground assault clone troopers, the narrow alley would have nullified the First Order's numbers and evened the odds. However, the Resistance soldiers had to deal with AT-ST fire, which could be fired over the approaching clone troopers. Added to that, the jet troopers flew in above them, giving the First Order another advantage. A few of the transports had been able to drop mobile shield generators, which could protect an area with a radius of fifty feet. The generators aided protection from the AT-ST's and jet troopers, but the soldiers still had to exit the shield to fire.

Yet, in the end, the Resistance army was weakening quickly.

….

"What do you mean it's gone?" Rey quickly asked.

"I mean it is gone! I can't feel it!" Ben held out his hand to use the Force on a broken fragment of the column. He strained his muscles, clenched his teeth, and held his breath in the effort, but nothing happened.

"I can't use it!" he cried out, then composed himself. "I can't use it," he said again in a low and defeated voice. "It's the same thing that happened to Maz Kanata, the last time she and Yoda faced Snoke. She didn't say it, but I know."

"What?" Rey asked surprised, not knowing about that history.

"My grandfather mentioned that they had paid a great price, but I didn't think . . . " Ben's voice trailed off. With his thoughts directed to his grandfather, Ben was reminded of the reason they had come.

"The Sleeper," he said, shaking off his despair for the moment as he grasped onto a purpose. "We need to kill the Sleeper."

He got up to go, but Rey stopped him.

"You are in no condition to do that," she said.

"I have to," he replied. "I have to finish this. Don't take that from me. That's all I have left . . . it's all I have left of my destiny."

Rey looked at Ben, his eyes piercing her and imploring. She thought a moment and understood. "Then let's go," she said. Rey realized that she needed this, too.

They managed to climb around and over the debris from the fallen column and walk through the opened portcullis, its open mouth receiving them. The narrow path took them deeper into the stomach of the mountain, Ben and Finn lighting the way with their lightsabers. They came to the chasm with the two paths.

"To the right," Ben said.

"What's the other way?" Finn inquired.

"Ghosts," Rey said with finality, signaling that she was not going to speak more of that.

They walked single file down the path toward the dark passage and then further in and downward. The air became colder and damp until they finally arrived at a large domed room with a rounded pool full of black thick water.

"The pool is only shin-deep," Ben said. "But the Sleeper is in there."

Rey limped around the pool to the left and Ben to the right. Finn stood where he had entered.

"I can't call it out anymore," Ben said. "You need to, Rey."

"It will take the anger of dark side to lure it out to me," she said. "It's not safe for anyone if I do that."

"You have to. There is no other way," Ben said.

Rey shouldered her staff, looked at Finn, took a deep breath, and then held her hands toward the pool, feeling the pull of the dark side. She could sense the being in the pool, full of hatred and death. She allowed her anger to rise and lure the creature out. It responded reaching out to her with its own cruelty and malice and rose out of the pool.

A large, black form emerged from the slime, glistening as the thick, dark water oozed over it. The slime flowed down off its body, and it could be seen for a moment as if it had a hard shell and four tentacled arms. However, that form melted quickly into a human form, a man that had a hard and weathered face, dark brown hair with gray feathered sides. His eyes were black and soulless.

"Ren," Ben said.

Rey looked at the face of her dead father. She appeared to be unable to move, her own thoughts paralyzing her and the dark side confusing her with anger.

"Rey, my daughter," he said. "It has been so long." He reached his hand toward her as if to take her hand.

She was not deceived by the ruse, but withdrew back a bit, still trying to shake off the draw of the dark side.

The Sleeper felt the withdrawal. A red lightsaber ignited in Ren's hand, and he stepped toward her. However, his advance was stopped abruptly. A yellow blade suddenly appearing from his chest. The yellow lightsaber then retreated, and he looked down at the burning hole.

For a moment he staggered as though he would fall over, but then he turned around. Ben was standing there in front of him, his white-knuckled fists gripping the hilt of his shining lightsaber. Ren felt the wound on his chest and looked at Ben. "Stabbing someone in the back. That is not like a Jedi." Ren taunted.

"I am no Jedi," Ben replied.

"No, you are not," the Sleeper said and held out the red lightsaber. The opposite blade lit and the two blades began to spin around the knuckle guard. As the Sleeper advanced, Ben backed up out of the pool and to the wall.

Rey having regained composure, moved around the pool in order to aid Ben; but at that moment the room lit with a blue-white light. Finn screamed a deathly wail as his body was engulfed in blue lightning. He fell forward into the pool, writhing with every muscle contracted and every joint bent. Through the door walked Snoke, lighting blasting from his fingertips. Finn rolled into the center of the dark water, the lightning arcing through him into the water and back.

Rey, without thinking, jumped in between Finn and Snoke. She held her hands in front of her and surrendered to the Force. The lightning split around her, creating a wake that protected Finn. Finn, free from the lightning tried to crawl out of the pool, but still, a few stray arcs would shock him.

Snoke advanced on her, furrowing his brow in rage.

"You have chosen the wrong side, Irata." He blasted her with another powerful wave of electricity. She stepped back, as the wave crashed over her and split in a shower of lightning. He stepped nearer.

Ben backed up against the wall, the spinning red blades getting closer. He tried to stab his blade into them to stop the blades as he remembered Luke doing almost fifteen years ago, but the spinning was too powerful for him to overcome with sheer strength. Without the Force, his corporeal strength was all he had. The yellow blade bounced off the spinning red blades with such speed that it caused Ben to lose his balance and stumble to his right. He regrouped and looked for any advantage.

There was hardly any room now. He gripped his lightsaber with both hands and aimed for the only place that he could, Ren's hand at the center of the spinning blades.

The Sleeper went to lift his arm to avoid this attack, but it was too late. The tip of Ben's lightsaber missed the Sleeper's hand and broke the circular knuckle guard cutting the bottom blade head free and abruptly stopping the spinning. The bottom lightsaber fizzled out.

The Sleeper then attacked again with the single blood-red blade. Ben raised his lightsaber to block it. He was successful, but without the Force, it felt as if his body was slow and heavy, his reactions less efficient.

He counterattacked, trying to remember the dance of lightsaber fighting. The Sleeper blocked, but stepped back. Ben felt the familiar pattern of attack and swung again. The Sleeper again blocked and stepped back. Ben increased his swings and lunges, although he could never make any contact with the Sleeper; but he was not trying to make a direct strike on the Sleeper. He swung again with purpose. This time, the Sleeper tried to defend, but it stepped back into Snoke's lighting that had split over Rey.

The creature screamed out an unnatural cry, the blue electricity pulsing through it. Its form dropped the appearance of Ren, then returned to the shelled crustacean form for a moment, before melting into the black sludge and retreating into the pool.

Rey had been struggling to maintain her ground as Snoke approached, his lightning becoming stronger. Pulses of powerful waves came unpredictably almost causing her to fall back; but she leaned in, tensing all of her body. She became like an immovable rock in the rapids of a river. Snoke drew within one step of touching her. The power he emitted seemed to cost him no exertion at all. Rather, he appeared amused at Rey's attempt to stand against him, his sharp smile ornamenting his pale and gaunt face.

"You see, Irata. Surrendering is the way to death. Even if you surrender to the Force. You will soon die, but I will remain."

It was at that moment that Ben had backed up the Sleeper into Snoke's lightning.

Snoke's countenance changed, recognizing what happened. His eyes widened and mouth dropped.

Rey quickly stepped forward and grabbed Snoke's wrists. The lightning stopped, but the dark side from his touch pushed into Rey. Her face filled with anger, but no red rage came to her.

Snoke noticed that she did not succumb to the dark rage.

"You resist me," he smiled. "Very well."

Snoke closed his eyes. Rey began to feel fear as she realized what he was doing. She tried to let go, but could not. A wisp of smoke began to come from her ears. She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate, but it was no use. Smoke started to come from her eyes.

But that was it, what little smoke escaped from her dissipated. Ben had approached from behind and grabbed Snoke by his temples, and something he was doing had broken Snoke's focus. "You may have taken most of the Force from me. But you can't take it all," Ben said through his gritted teeth. "This is from Maz Kanata!"

Green light began to glow from under Ben's hands as he allowed his life force to flow into Snoke. Snoke, being purely of the dark side, cried out in fear as he realized what was happening. He tried to escape, but Rey subdued him with the Force as well, shackling him as he had done to her. The light from under Ben's hands grew brighter, and Snoke's color grew even paler.

Rey perceived what Ben was doing. She closed her eyes and her hands began glowing green as she imitated him. Snoke screamed out, his dark soul not able to stand the invasion into his body.

Ben and Rey did not relent. Snoke's eyes began to glow, the intensity getting brighter and brighter. He writhed and struggled between them, but his strength was never in his weak decrepit body. It was the dark side that made him powerful, and that was being pushed out of him.

His soul searched desperately for an escape from the body and rushed out into the pool beneath. The remaining shell of a body went limp. Rey and Ben continued, their Force following Snoke into the pool. The water beneath their feet began to glow the same dull green and moved outward toward the edges of the pool, the black water fleeing and boiling as if in anger. The light from the pool became so bright that the whole room appeared to be bathed in sunlight.

Snoke's spirit lost its hold on the pool, as the pool was caught up in the Force. It passed to the edge where finally Snoke was overcome, his soul dissolving irrevocably into the Life Force.

Ben and Rey both fell into the pool, now filled with clear and glowing water, the ripples they made reflecting off the ceiling of the domed room. Rey gasped and rose quickly, rushing to Finn. He was not moving. Burn marks covered his skin and clothes. She leaned over him and felt his face and head.

"Finn," she said, fearing the worst. "Wake up." He squinted weakly and opened his eyes. "Finn!" She cried out.

"Rey," Finn said in a low voice. "Did we. . . win?"

"Yes! Yes!" Rey said. "Now we have to get you out of here. You need a medical droid."

"And Ben?" Finn asked.

"Yes, he's okay. Let's go." She tried to lift him, but he cried out in pain. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." She said gently letting him back down.

Finn's face became sad as he realized what was happening. "I'm dying, Rey."

"No, you're not," Rey said sternly. This time trying more carefully to lift him.

"Rey, stop," Finn said. "You and I have seen people die . . . You know . . . I'll be dead before you carry me up there."

Rey's eyes welled with tears.

Finn knowing what she would be thinking said, "This is not your fault, Rey. You fought well, and you returned."

She stared at him. "You brought me back," she said. "I couldn't have returned without you."

Finn smiled. "There was always good in you."

Rey's tears began to flow freely. "Don't leave me. Please. Don't leave me." Finn managed to lift his hand to touch her face. She cupped it with her own hand. Rey was a four-year-old girl again, crying the words it had taken her fifteen years to find. "Don't leave me," she whispered. "I love you."

"I know," Finn replied.

With that she leaned over and kissed him, their tears mixing as they fell. He held her as best he could; and she cradled his head, their kiss not tainted with fear anymore, but broken with sobs.

His hand fell away. She bent over his body and cried.