Chapter 24 – Jailbreak
Ben had just been deposited on his back into a cell when he heard the guard shut the door and say something over the intercom.
"You wanted to see Commander Dameron? Well here he is. You two can have some quality time together."
Ben groaned as he began to regain some control over his erstwhile-motionless limbs. He attempted to flip over onto his chest, but was ultimately unsuccessful. His legs felt like jelly.
"What the hell happened to you?" he heard someone say from above.
Looking up, Ben saw the pilot who he had gone through the trouble of being tased for. He was looming over him with a concerned expression as he scrutinized his face. Ben tried to explain himself, yet found that he was unable. His lips were so swollen, he couldn't even speak. Those little tasers packed a real punch, didn't they?
"Here, let me help you," Dameron said as he picked him up by the armpits and strained to lead him toward a bench on the back wall. Ben appreciated the effort, but it was clear that he was far too heavy for the slender pilot to carry. Slapping Dameron's hand away, Ben extricated himself from the man's grip and managed to stumble toward the bench on his own. "Damn, she really got you good," Dameron said as he continued to stare at his face in amazement.
"I… I got tased," Ben was able to say.
"Buddy, you got way more than just tased," Poe told him with a shake of his head as he stood back upright. "I'd reckon she tranquilized you." Ben's wide-eyed expression conveyed the question since he was unable to properly ask it with words. "Don't worry, you'll be fine in a couple of hours," Dameron assured him. "But it's no fun getting tranqued."
"Have… you?" Ben managed to ask.
Dameron snorted and nodded. "My ex was a real nut job," he said vaguely. "Anyway, what are you even doing here? Did you piss off the general like I did?"
Ben gulped in fear when he thought about how his mother would react to what he had done, or at least tried to do. "Not yet," he said grimly.
"In that case, you'll be out of here pretty soon," Dameron said. "I, on the other hand, will not."
At this comment, Ben suddenly remembered why he was here in the first place. "You!" he said rather bluntly as he pointed his index finger at the perplexed pilot. "I need you."
"Um… what?" Dameron asked, taking a step away nervously.
Feeling frustrated, Ben pulled at his still-swollen lip before giving it another go. "You, me, ethcape," he said, gesturing to the door.
"Escape?" Dameron asked.
"Ethcape!" Ben confirmed.
Dameron crossed his arms and gave Ben a skeptical look. "How do you intend on doing that, exactly?" he asked him.
His legs wobbled a bit, but Ben managed to get to his feet without Dameron's assistance. For all her feisty enthusiasm, Ben wasn't sure how competent this guard really was. Perhaps she hadn't considered him much of a threat because she had thrown him in the cell without checking if he was armed. Gesturing to Dameron to stand back, Ben produced his lightsaber and activated the white blade.
"You've got one of those too, have you?" he heard Dameron mumble. Disregarding this comment, Ben thrust the blade into the cell door. A powerful heat struck his face as he began cutting through the thick metal door. He was much stronger now than he had been in the past, but in his enfeebled state the task was far more difficult to him. Finally after several minutes, he completed sawing a circular pattern out of the door and kicked the metal aside, granting them access to the hallway.
"Come on," he said to Dameron, noting with pleasant surprise that he was having an easier time speaking than just a few minutes ago.
"Where are you taking me?" Dameron asked. "Because I don't want to get into any more trouble as it is."
Ben gave him an incredulous look. "I'm your only hope, Dameron," he said, the numbness of his mouth forcing him to speak prosaically. The message was conveyed, however. There was no recovering from this point for him. Quite simply, the pilot had nothing left to lose.
Dameron seemed to come to the same conclusion. Shrugging, he threw up his hands and mumbled "Ah, what the hell," before following Ben out of the cell and into the hallway.
Looking both ways, Ben beckoned Dameron to follow him out of the prison ward. "Keep your head down," he whispered to the pilot as they emerged in the main corridor and were greeted by a flurry of activity. "We have a few minutes tops before they notice we're gone."
Eschewing the elevator for the stairs, the pair had made it up halfway to the hangar when an alarm system began blaring loudly, forcing them both to cover their ears with their hands. "Emergency alert. Emergency alert. There has been a breach in the prison ward, cell 3117. All available units report."
"Now what?" Dameron called out from a few flights below him.
"Just go!" Ben yelled back over the deafening sound of the klaxon. "Do you have a ship?"
"If they haven't taken it already," Dameron replied.
Hurrying up the final flights of stairs, Ben pushed the door to the stairwell open and rushed out into the hangar. A few moments later, Dameron emerged from behind him. "Where's the ship?" Ben asked him, glancing around nervously to see if anyone was watching them.
"Follow me," Dameron said, taking off running down the length of the hangar. Right hand still grasping his now-deactivated lightsaber, Ben followed after the pilot. Remarkably, no one stopped them as they streaked by, although Ben could swear that they were all watching them. Why would that be…?
Disregarding this question as irrelevant, he and Dameron came to a stop in front of a rather shabby looking shuttle. It looked quite a bit like an enormous, rusted gonk droid, in fact. "What the hell is this?" Ben asked Dameron who was looking up at the ship with a proud expression.
"This is my ship," he said, oblivious to Ben's incredulity.
"This isn't a ship, it's a relic!" Ben exclaimed.
Dameron rolled his eyes and shook his head as he walked away from him toward the already-unfurled ramp. "You and your sister are so much alike," he bemoaned.
"Pardon?" Ben asked as he followed after the pilot up the rusted ramp and into the main cabin of the ship.
"Pretentious and condescending as all hell, both of you," Dameron said, spinning around to point a finger at him.
"Hey, watch it!" Ben said. "I'm rescuing you right now! A little gratitude wouldn't hurt."
"I wouldn't need to be rescued if it weren't for your sister," Dameron countered.
Ben shrugged. "Fair enough," he conceded. "Anyway, where's the cockpit in this… ship?" he asked, biting his tongue so as to prevent himself from adding a derisive adjective to which Dameron might take offense.
Dameron was about to lead him out of the main cabin when a BB unit came rolling in from the hallway. The droid was beeping emphatically, clearly enthused to see Dameron. "Yeah, I know buddy," Dameron said to the astromech droid. "We're in a bit of a rush, though." He was about to walk past the droid when it stopped him by rolling directly in his way. "Say what now?" Dameron asked, looking down at the obtrusive droid with a startled expression. "Well that's not good."
"What's wrong?" Ben asked, having not heard what the droid said.
"BB-8 said the hyperdrive has been shut down," Dameron told him grimly.
"It has? But why?"
"It's basic procedure," Dameron explained. "All unauthorized vessels have to be incapacitated in some way by the hangar crew."
"Well can you fix it?" Ben asked, licking his lips nervously.
"Not in five minutes, I can't," Dameron said. "There's an internal and external component. I can't repair both at the same time."
"I can help!" Ben said enthusiastically. When Dameron gave him a skeptical look, Ben clapped his hands together in frustration. "Just tell me what to do, okay?" he said. "I work on droids all the time, how much different can ships be?"
"A lot different," Dameron said at once. "They're nothing alike."
Ben's face fell at this comment. "Well, it's not like we have any other alternative," he said. "Tell what to do."
Dameron hesitated a moment longer before folding. "Fine, take BB-8 with you," he said. "He can diagnose the problem and tell you what to do to fix it. Hopefully you won't need any tools."
Without wasting anymore time, Ben spun around and hurried out of the main cabin toward the ramp with BB-8 right on his heels. As he reached the ramp, however, he came to an abrupt stop when he saw that he was entirely surrounded by blaster-wielding Republic troops. Unable to stop himself, BB-8 went crashing into the back of Ben's legs causing him to stumble forward a bit before regaining his balance.
"Ben, what the hell are you doing?"
Looking up, Ben's eyes widened in abject terror as he saw his mother striding toward the ship. The soldiers parted before her, allowing her to march directly toward the base of the ramp.
"I can explain –" he began to say, but Leia cut him off.
"Come down here, now," she demanded, her eyes steely as she glared up at him at the top of the ramp.
Gulping loudly, Ben didn't even consider disobeying this order. Taking three heavy steps down the ramp, Ben was pulled forward by the collar of his robes when Leia reached out and grabbed him. Dragging him off the ramp, she pulled him down so that they were at eye level.
"Zorq told me about your ridiculous plan," she told him.
"Snitch," Ben grumbled. When he tried to look away, Leia tugged harder on his robes and forced him to look at her.
"I don't know what has gotten into you, but I cannot tolerate this level of recklessness, Ben," she said. "Especially not now. Do you understand?"
Frowning, Ben reached up and grabbed his mother's hand by the wrist and wrenched it away from his collar. Standing back upright, he elevated his chin in defiance as he stared down at her much shorter figure. "When I do it, it's reckless, but when Ania does it, it's somehow my fault?" he asked her. "It's always a double standard with you."
Leia flared her nostrils with fiery indignation. "How dare you –" she tried to say, but Ben interrupted her.
"You never treat me and Ania the same!" he accused.
"That's not true in the slightest!" Leia insisted.
"Yes it is!" Ben said, feeling flushed as the soldiers around them began to whisper amongst themselves. "You care about her more than me."
"Ben!"
"Do you deny it?" he asked.
"Of course I do!" Leia exclaimed.
Ben shook his head and took a step away. "You're lying," he said, jaw clenched as he pointed a finger at her. "And you know what else you're lying about?" he asked, switching tracks. "Sidious. You say you're so much better than him, but you two are completely the same. You're both tyrannical control freaks who destroy everything and everyone they touch! Luke was right to run away from you. He saw you for what you really are!"
Unable to bear his tirade any longer, Leia shrieked and thrust her hands out at her sides. Caught off guard, Ben was sent soaring off his feet and crashed painfully into the metal ramp behind him. He slid back down to the ground where he was deposited at his mother's feet. Looking up, he met her gaze with the utmost terror as she clenched her fists and trembled with rage.
"I am nothing like him!" she bellowed, her voice deep and cacophonous as it echoed about the vast hangar. "He tortured me and he continues to torture me every day of my life! You have no right to compare me to him! You don't understand anything, Ben! Nobody does!"
Hands held up over his face, Ben cowered before the unparalleled power exuded by Leia through the Force. The terror he felt was as raw and absolute as the one he had experienced just a day prior when he had foreseen Chandrila's destruction. He feared for his life, having entirely forgotten that the woman in front of him was his mother and instead perceiving her as the embodiment of destruction itself.
A beat passed, and the maelstrom in the Force seemed to temper. Leia's belligerent posture deflated a fraction as she glanced around to see that all of her soldiers had been blown away by the blast of energy she had unintentionally summoned. The glowing, incandescent element in her eyes faded as she looked down at her hands which were shaking horribly. Realizing what was about to happen, Ben struggled to his feet as quickly as he was able before Leia could completely fall apart.
"I'm sorry," Ben murmured as he wrapped his arms around his recalcitrant mother who feebly attempted to fend him off. "I shouldn't have said those things."
"I – I'm not like him," she whimpered into his ear as she ceased struggling and turned limp in his arms. "I'm not."
"I'm sorry," Ben said again, swaying slightly as Leia cried softly against his shoulder. "I didn't mean it."
Several minutes passed as Leia recomposed herself. All the while, the soldiers who had been expelled by the blast began to return into formation. They all eyed their commanding general warily, unsure what to do. Ben watched the brewing tension with apprehension. Finally, his mother ceased crying and pulled away from him.
"I can't do this right now, Ben," she said, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "I'm so afraid of losing Ania. You understand that, don't you?"
"Of course I do," Ben said.
"I can't afford to lose you right now, Ben," Leia said. "I need you to support me."
"And I will, as long as you support me in return," Ben said boldly. "I know you're stressed about Ania, but you can't blame me for what's happening."
Leia considered him for a moment before nodding. "You're right," she said. "I'm sorry as well. I haven't treated you well at all." She paused, swallowing hard as she struggled to look him in the eye. "I'm scared, Ben," she confessed in a small voice. "I'm scared I'm going to lose her again."
"You're not going to," Ben insisted, reaching out and grabbing her gently by the shoulders. "Ania's going to be okay. She can look out for herself." When Leia bit her lower lip and looked away, Ben squeezed her shoulders before letting her go. "I want to go find Luke," he said purposefully. "It's clear that you need him right now."
"No, Ben!" his mother rejected at once. "I need you! You can't leave me right now!"
Ben hesitated as he considered this heartfelt entreaty. On the one hand, it was flattering to know how desperately his mother needed him. On the other, however, Ben knew that he couldn't be what she needed him to be. What she needed was someone to help her keep a level head during this trying time. That person had always been Luke, not him. Even so, he could concede that it was dangerous to leave Leia alone when she was in such a fragile emotional state right now.
"Alright, but I'm going right after we rescue Ania," he said. Leia opened her mouth to object, but Ben didn't let her. "We can't delay this any longer," he insisted. "We need Luke."
Once again, Leia tried to speak but was interrupted by an audible vibration in her pocket. Grumbling in frustration, she reached down and produced her comlink. "What is it?" she asked sharply.
"General Skywalker, we're about to drop out of hyperspace into the Jakku system," the voice of General Dune said over the comlink. "You should get to the bridge."
Leia's eyes widened as she nodded her head. "I'll be right there," she said, the authoritative voice of the general replacing that of the terrified mother in a heartbeat.
"Admiral Ackbar is awaiting orders for the 7th Fleet as well, ma'am," Dune said.
"Tell him not to engage enemy forces and to keep all ships out of range of their turbocannons," Leia said as she spun around and began marching away. Unsure what to do, Ben hesitated for a moment before following after her, having to jog in order to catch up with his mother's powerful strides. "This is first and foremost a rescue mission," she said into the comlink. "I need to know where my daughter is before we initiate battle."
"Yes, general," Dune said obediently. "I will relay your orders."
Pocketing the comlink, Leia glanced up to see him walking beside her. "It's going to be fine," he assured her with contrived optimism. "Don't worry."
Leia exhaled loudly as they made their way toward the hangar exit amidst a flurry of activity as pilots and flight crew rushed to their respective stations. "I'm afraid I can't do that, Ben," the general told him gravely.
Ania's whole body was wracked with a dull, aching pain. Occasionally, she would flinch as residual currents of electricity continued to afflict her weary limbs. Worst of all, however, was her left leg. From knee to toe, her leg felt as if it was on fire. She didn't know whether the pain was phantom or not, but it felt excruciatingly real to her regardless.
Her eyelids were fluttering as she slipped in and out of consciousness. She wanted nothing more than to sleep – perhaps never to wake back up – but the pain in her leg refused to admit this simple wish. So instead she lay there strapped onto the elevated table for hours on end, waiting for Rey to return so that she may resume torturing her. Ania didn't dread this nearly as much as she should. Of course, she feared the pain like anyone would, but deep down she understood why she was being subjected to it. She was guilty for having committed a horrible sin. Rey was only exacting revenge for what Ania had done.
She deserved this pain. Rey was entirely right; Ania deserved to suffer for what she had done.
It was this acknowledgement which kept Ania from crying. Instead, she merely rested her head against the leather padding of the table and waited with grim resignation. She didn't let herself think of her brother or mother whom she knew where probably terrified for her. All she allowed herself to think about was Rey. It was her fault that Rey had turned to the dark side. Sidious may have been responsible for capturing her, but it was Ania's doing which had rendered her susceptible in the first place. She had killed the girl's father. Their father.
Ania hadn't ever considered Rey in the way she knew Ben did before now: as a sister. On the contrary, Ania had always been irked whenever Ben referred to the girl as that. She was jealous; he didn't want to share Ben with anyone else. She was Ben's sister, damnit! No one else, just her! But now she could understand why Ben felt this way. He appreciated how close Rey had been to their father. In this sense she was far more Han's child than either of them had been. She at least had known the man whereas she and Ben had not. Rey probably considered them as imposters, claiming Han as their father without hardly knowing nor caring for him.
I'm sorry.
I'm so, so sorry.
"F-forgive me," Ania forced herself to say out loud, her chapped lips and parched throat screaming in protestation. "Forgive me, F-f-father."
Every night, Ania repeated this ritualistic apology. Now, however, she was apologizing to more than just her father. Now she was apologizing to Rey, the girl whose life she had destroyed with one barbaric act. She didn't expect to be forgiven, nor did she feel as if she deserved to be. Nevertheless, she felt obliged to seek penance. It was all she could do to keep the guilt at bay like her mother wanted her to do.
Just then, the door to her cell opened once more, causing Ania to squint as the room was flooded with bright white light from the hallway. "Ren wants the prisoner," she heard a voice say.
"Are you sure? I didn't hear anything about that," a second voice said.
"Orders came from Ren himself," the first replied.
"Oh, okay."
Eyes adjusting to the brightness, Ania saw a Stormtrooper enter the room and approach her table. Ania licked her desiccated lips nervously as she watched the soldier come to a stop in front of her and hectically begin removing her restraints.
"Where… are you taking me?" she asked, her voice horribly hoarse and difficult even for her to understand.
"Keep quiet," the Stormtrooper said in a whisper. Releasing her from her final restraint by her legs, the trooper stepped away and beckoned her forward. "Come on," he said urgently.
"I… I…"
The Stormtrooper stared at her blankly for a moment before realizing her predicament. "Oh," he said. "You can't walk?" Ania nodded feebly. The Stormtrooper glanced behind him for a moment before taking a step forward and taking her by the shoulders. Ania limply allowed herself to get dragged away from the leather padding of the table and down to the ground. Her knees buckled and she quickly reached up to grab the Stormtrooper's arm to stabilize herself.
"Aren't you going to… bind me?" she asked, feeling a wave of debilitating lightheadedness as she looked up at the masked Stormtrooper.
"No," the soldier said with a shake of his head. "Come on, lean on me."
Bewildered, Ania nevertheless complied. Wrapping her arm around the benevolent Stormtrooper's shoulder, Ania leaned heavily against him as he led her out of the cell. Her unresponsive legs dragged a bit as she struggled to keep up with her companion's long strides. "S-slow," she pleaded, shutting her eyes tightly as the room began to spin.
"I can't," she heard the Stormtrooper say. "Come on, try to keep up."
And so Ania persevered onward in spite of her burgeoning nausea. Feet skidding against the slick ground, Ania found herself being led leftward toward a small alcove. Where was this Stormtrooper taking her? Unable to ask, Ania allowed herself to be dragged away, more or less entirely unable to walk on her own by this point.
"Here," the Stormtrooper said as she felt herself be released and propped up against a wall. She turned her head to the right and rested her cheek against a mercifully cool metal beam. Relieved by the sensation, Ania managed to open her eyes once more. As she did this, she saw the Stormtrooper reach up and remove his helmet.
"What… what's happening?" she asked, brow furrowed as she laid eyes on the man in front of her. He was breathing heavily and his dark skin was glistening with sweat.
"This is a rescue," the man said. "I'm helping you escape. Can you fly a TIE fighter?"
"A… a what?" Ania asked, eyes blinking rapidly as she internalized this bizarre combination of words. Her brain felt fuzzy and discombobulated as she was having a difficult time processing what the man was telling her. Was he not with the First Order? Why was he doing this?
"I'm breaking you out!" the man said in a hushed voice. "Can you fly a TIE fighter?"
Ania opened her mouth, but no words came out. She tried to swallow, but she found that she couldn't do that either as her throat was too dry. "Water," she finally managed to say, voice cracking as her larynx threatened to close shut.
"What?" the man asked.
"I need water."
"Oh!" the man exclaimed. "Sorry." Reaching behind his back, he produced a white canteen from his belt and handed it to her.
Hands trembling, Ania struggled with the cap of the canteen for a moment before the man reached out and undid it for her. "Thank you," Ania murmured as she raised the canteen to her mouth. She drank greedily for a minute before finally lowering the canteen and wiping her mouth with the back of her sleeve.
"Better?" the man asked as he took the canteen back.
Ania nodded as she felt moisture returning to her mouth. She felt significantly less dizzy as well, and she found that she no longer had to lean against the wall to stand upright.
"So can you do it?"
"Do what?" Ania asked.
"Fly a TIE?"
Ania hesitated as she considered the question. The truthful answer was no, but that wasn't really an option at the moment. "Of course," she said therefore.
The man's face broke out into a broad smile. It looked as if he was about to reach out and clap her on the shoulder, but he evidently thought better of it. Ania was glad. He very well may have knocked her over had he done that.
"Why are you doing this?" she asked him, unable to shake the feeling of bewilderment at this Stormtrooper's actions. "Why are you helping me?"
The man's ebullient expression sobered at this question. "Because it's the right thing to do," he said seriously.
Ania looked back at him silently for a moment before nodding. "Alright," she said. "Let's do this."
"Let's do this," the man responded in kind.
Author's Note: Thanks for the feedback, everyone! I think I'll keep updating at my current rate (twice a week). At the very least, I hope I can give you something to look forward to while we stay in quarantine.
Side note: I've never played around with the sequel characters before (in large part because I don't think they're particularly well-written characters, but to each her own). This is the first time I've used Poe and Finn, so I hope I was able to capture their characters. They'll continue to play minor roles in the chapters ahead.