"With the equipment you have here, there's no way of knowing how many ships are out there. However, I can tell you which type is out there."

Poe watched as Ben inserted a datacard of some make into the command center's holotable. He tapped a few keys, and a grid of folders erupted in pale blue.

"When I discovered the Final Order," he continued, "I had some of the cult's chief engineers upload as much data on the new ships as they could fit on this card, along with several others. Even then, I knew better than to trust them fully. Moreover, I needed to know what I had at my disposal." Ben tapped a couple controls, and a short, stocky cruiser displayed. "The Corvo-class frigate, a special operations vessel with advanced sensor and stealth capabilities."

"A ship that size can cast a sensor screen?" Rose asked.

Ben frowned and shook his head. "It's much worse than that. Full optical and sensor cloaking. When its stealth systems are engaged against the dark backdrop of space, it's practically invisible."

An uneasy murmur rippled through the command staff.

"So theoretically," Finn said, "they could have an entire blockade of these things orbiting us right now, and we'd never know?"

"That's about right, yes."

Rey bit her lip and shrugged. "So, what? We just take a chance that they're not looking?"

"I wouldn't," Ben said. "Armament wise, they're not built to withstand a pitched battle, but they could vape anything you have here with a shot or two from their ventral cannons."

"Not to mention they're probably packin' more of those scary fighters," Poe said.

"That too."

"So we're dead in the water," Finn said. "Great."

Poe blinked and tapped his lips. "Maybe not. Chewie, you took a squad or two alive, right?"

The Wookiee rumbled and roared.

"Any officers?"

His head bounced in assent.

"Okay…okay…"

Finn frowned at him. "What are you thinking?"

"I think we can get their cloak down with one of their own. Our analysts combed those dropships. They didn't have any special scanning tech, so these troopers must've had some way to reconnect to the main ship."

"Like a sign-countersign system," Rose posited.

"Exactly." Poe turned to Ben. "You think you can pull the clearance code from their heads?"

Ben blinked. "Me?"

"Don't get it twisted—I still don't trust you, but right now your head is on the chopping block with ours." Poe's jaw clenched, like what he was about to say would physically pain him. "And you didn't have to come back."

Ben was silent for a while, taking that in. "What am I supposed to do?"

Poe glared at him. "Take a wild guess."

Ben thought for a second, scowling. "Even if I wanted to do that, I couldn't." He took a breath and clarified. "I tried a mild mind-probe on an officer of one of the Xyston-class before it deployed."

Finn huffed and crossed his arms. "You really don't trust anyone, do you?"

He met Finn's gaze. "You were on Bogden. Do you blame me?"

He shrugged. "Point."

Ben sighed. "The point is, their mind was hardened against psychic intrusion, through a method of Force conditioning, I'd guess. Considering Sidious' paranoia eclipses my own a thousandfold, I'll wager he's had that done to all his officers." He leaned on the console to take weight off his injured leg. "Best case scenario, I get the information we need and turn them into a vegetable. Worst case—"

"You break their mind and we get nothing," Rey interrupted.

Ben shrugged.

Poe sighed hard. "Smart."

Rose huffed a laugh and shook her head. "Guys, we don't need anything that extra."

They all stared at her.

"Think about it. No matter how disciplined they are, they're still human, and humans are driven by fear in tough situations. They're captured, outnumbered—what's their first priority right now?"

Finn's eyebrows rose. "Calling for rescue." He frowned. "Or orbital bombardment. From how fanatical you think they are," he nodded to Ben, "a suicide mission isn't unlikely."

Ben tilted his head in agreement. "They'll need to transmit their clearance codes either way."

"They'll never go for it," Poe said. "Not unless they believe it's their idea."

Rose smirked and exchanged a look with Finn. "I think I've got an idea about that."

…

The cells of what passed for a brig in this hovel were run-down and scorched, looked like they'd suffered through bombardment. Despite that, the bars held steady despite everything Captain Qoyo threw at them. Not to mention, the bloody Resistance had a heavy gunner acting as sentry, periodically patrolling the halls of the brig. Qoyo had been separated from the rest of his squad just a few hours prior, presumably to prevent him from organizing them into an insurrectionary force. Fools. His commandos needed no guidance to know their duty.

Still, breaking out alone in the den of their enemy was more daunting than he'd expected. They'd been led to believe the Resistance was undersupplied and undisciplined, and perhaps from a certain perspective, they were. Yet their grit and sheer ferocity in defending their home had caught him off-guard. That and the giant kriffing Wookiee who'd slammed him into a wall hard enough to knock him out even in armor.

Their resolve was almost admirable.

Almost.

It was upon the third guard rotation that he noticed something about a section of the bars. Part of it was melted through and deformed, which didn't seem to have any bearing on its structural stability at first glance. A closer look revealed otherwise: a weak point where the metal thinned to a jagged edge. One good shove would dislodge it. He just had to time it right. So he waited another long ten minutes for the gunner to come around again and waited until he was walking past the weak point.

Qoyo grunted as he shoved the door hard, charging through shoulder-first. The gunner yelped as he was pinned under the metal, trying to get his weapon in position. Qoyo kept his large weapon pinned with one leg while a hand reached for the guard's sidearm. He frowned. A blaster shot would be too loud in these close quarters—it'd echo and alert the whole block. So he confirmed the pistol was already configured for stun and fired off a bolt at point-blank. The gunner's head smacked the ground with a dull thud.

Qoyo heaved with exertion, lips spreading in malevolent glee as he clambered upright. If one of the AAL transports was still intact, it'd have the right frequency already configured. He swiped the guard's security key on the way out, sticking to the shadows as much as possible. Their numbers had been thinned significantly in the initial attack, so the density of sentries between him and the hangar was minimal. There were only two actually guarding the dropship. Easy enough to pop them both with stun bolts.

Qoyo climbed aboard the ship and sealed the door behind him. They'd have to bring in a full demo crew to breach that door—or a lightsaber. He shunted his thoughts toward his objective and began powering up the comms. gear. Qoyo glanced out the viewscreen, checking for movement, then hit the transmitter.

"Tenebrous One, this is Captain Qoyo of the Tenebrous Legion. Come in."

Only static answered.

Gritting his teeth, he tried again. "Repeat: Tenebrous One, this is Captain Qoyo of the Tenebrous Legion. Respond, over."

Slowly, the static resolved into something intelligible.

"Captain—status report. What's happening down there?"

He didn't recognize the voice, but that was hardly surprising given the number of comms. personnel aboard the ship. "The Resistance put up more of a fight than expected…and they have the traitor Solo with them. Most of the ground force has been eliminated, but my squad remains largely intact. I managed to escape their brig. Need immediate reinforcement and evacuation."

Static held the line for a few seconds. "We are not in the habit of rewarding failure."

Qoyo's teeth gritted. "I have critical intelligence about the enemy's force and numbers. Give me a line to the commander, and I will hand you what's left of them on a platter."

Another moment of silence. "Understood. Transmit clearance when ready."

He didn't have his code cylinder on him, but each officer memorized a failsafe for just this situation. "Transmitting: Aurek-Jenth-Zerek-Niner-Enth-Quark-Four-Oh-Grek—Lock."

More silence.

Qoyo frowned. "Tenebrous?"

"Thank you very much."

That voice came from right behind him.

He whipped around, blaster raised only for it to be ripped from his grasp by invisible fingers. He didn't even have time to let go, and screamed as his fingers were dislocated. That same blaster fired a stun bolt that hit him dead center, and all he knew was darkness.

…

"Rose, that was brilliant," Poe said.

She grinned. "I aim to please. Now let's see if this works."

Rey lounged against a databank as the technician worked her magic. The whole thing had worked about as flawlessly as they could've predicted, like a stage act. The gunner, the cell, the sentry patterns—everything was engineered to serve as a believable escape scenario. Even the blaster the captain had pilfered was locked to stun. It had been a bit of a gamble that Ben had warned against, in case the officer had tried to change the settings and found it suspicious. Poe had put his foot down. He wasn't about to risk another man's life to pull this off, even if he had volunteered.

They'd put up a sensor web that blocked any signals in or out of the dropship hangar, rerouting any outgoing messages to a dedicated terminal in the analytics wing of the base. The whole time, Qoyo had been talking to one of the Resistance comm. techs. And now they had his clearance code. All that was left to do was test it out and hope for the best.

"Okay…should be…done," Rose said at last. "Question is, who's gonna make the transmission?"

Poe frowned and exchanged a look with Finn. "It should be someone who's part of the team going aboard. Needs to be the same voice."

"That's if they let us land," Finn said.

"Yeah, well if they don't, then this was all pointless anyway."

The way Ben told it, the only way to figure out the positioning of the cloaked ships was to get aboard one of them and jack into their intra-fleet comms. Corvo -class frigates were rarely deployed alone, according to Ben's files. On a mission this critical, they'd be arranged in a network of interlocking orbits to provide as complete sensor coverage of the planet as possible. It was an invisible interdiction that wouldn't work as well against a planet with integrated defenses like an ion cannon or ships powerful enough to survive shots from the frigates. Against a backwater world like Ajan Kloss, it was the perfect trap.

By tapping into their comms., the Resistance could pinpoint the live positions and patterns of each ship in the network and hopefully find a gap in that web big enough to slip through. They just needed to get a strike team aboard with the technical know-how to slice in and the combat ability to fight their way out if everything went pear-shaped.

"Clock's ticking," Rose said. "We got a volunteer?"

When multiple pairs of eyes landed on her, she began shifting uncomfortably.

"Uh, guys? Why's everyone staring at me?"

Finn shrugged. "This was your idea. And you know how to fight."

"But—oh come on!" She waved at everyone else in the room. "Any of you would be better at this than me."

"Maybe," Ben said, "but if they're working off stormtrooper protocol, the officer would be the only one who might be required to remove their helmet."

"…so?"

"We found an officer among the dead who you might be able to pass for," Poe said. "Even if we hadn't, everyone else who's qualified would probably be recognized immediately—and not in a good way."

"But—" She grasped about for an alternative, looking to Finn first.

He shrugged. "Ex-stormtrooper."

Rose turned to Rey.

"Clone of their leader," she said.

Poe shrugged. "Persona non grata."

Ben winced. "Used to lead them."

Rose sagged in her chair, head lolling back.

Finn smirked. "Unless you think Threepio could do a better job."

The droid had something to say about that. "On an enemy vessel?" he asked incredulously. "Surrounded by these…these…"

Poe clapped his shoulder. "Relax, Threepio. No one would ever seriously suggest that."

Rey caught Ben hiding a smile. He was standing some ways away from their group. Everyone else in the base gave him a wide berth, even with the intervention Finn had told her about. They didn't know what to make of him, and truthfully, neither did she.

"Okay," Rose sighed at last. "Okay, fine." She stood up and jabbed a finger in Finn's face. "But you owe me."

Then she activated the comms. array and began transmitting on the frequency they'd pulled from the dropship.

"Tenebrous One, this is Captain—" She hesitated a moment.

Finn mouthed something to her.

She frowned, but repeated it back. "Captain Nido of the Tenebrous Legion. Please respond."

The static resolved much quicker than their staged version.

"Captain Nido. This is a surprise. We assumed your squad was eliminated with the rest."

"Almost," she replied. "We had to withdraw into the jungle when air support was cut off, but not before we snagged vital intel on the Resistance base. Need immediate extraction."

A moment of silence passed. "Transmit this intel, and we'll see."

Rose grimaced and exchanged a look with Poe. He waved and nodded for her to keep going.

"Negative," she said. "Connection is unsecured. Any large file transfers will give away our position."

More silence.

A sigh came first. "Very well. Submit code clearance for verification."

Rose took a deep breath. Here went nothing. "Transmitting: Aurek-Jenth-Zerek-Niner-Enth-Quark-Four-Oh-Grek—Lock."

Now they just had to hope the codes weren't unique to each officer. The silence that answered them seemed to last forever.

"Verified. Transmitting coordinates for extraction. Get your squad there and don't be followed. Tenebrous out."

The moment the connection was cut, the whole command center erupted in cheers. Rose fist-bumped Finn. Rey heaved a sigh of relief. So far so good.

"Now we just need to figure out who goes and who stays."

Ben's declaration drew everyone's attention to him.

Poe frowned. "I'm going."

"General," someone said, "you really think that's a good idea?"

Finn winced. "He's right. We need you here in case something goes wrong."

"You're the only leader we have left," Rose added.

Poe's frown deepened. "I'm not gonna get stuck on the sidelines every time things get a little hot. That's not who I am."

"And we're not asking you to," Rey said, putting a hand on his arm to calm him. "It's just…this mission is all or nothing, Poe."

"Exactly. Either it works and we make it back, or it doesn't and we're all dead anyway."

Everyone fell silent. He had a point.

Finn sighed hard. "It's your call, general."

Poe tightened his jaw. "I'm going. You too."

Finn snorted. "Obviously." He grimaced. "Gonna hate wearing that substandard osik, though."

Rose smirked. "Snob."

"When it comes to armor? You're damn right." Finn turned to Rey. "Rey?"

She smiled. "Of course."

"I'm coming too," Ben said.

They all stared at him.

He arched an eyebrow at them. "So you want to leave me here, alone, in your base, where you can't keep an eye on me?"

Their universal grunt secured his place on the squad.

…

Getting armor that fit each of them was easy enough given how many commandos they'd captured or killed. Selling the deception would require more than that, though. Specifically, making battle damage that screamed, "we fled for our lives amid heavy fire." Chewie and Finn helped with that. Of all of them, Rey had the hardest time adjusting to wearing armor. She'd never had to wear anything so restrictive, even for undercover work. The whole way to the extraction zone, she flinched at every pinch and chafe.

Finn gave her tips on how to make it work, and she did her best to follow them. They needed to sell this, after all, and these commandos would've been wearing this armor for years. When they finally reached the LZ, it was pitch dark outside. If it weren't for the helmets' built-in infrared filters, they wouldn't have even been able to see each other. The dark was the only impediment to their vision. According to Finn, these helmets were configured much better optically than an ordinary stormtrooper's.

Visually, Rose was the officer, but they were all actually following Finn's lead, since he was the only one among them with actual infantry training. Waiting for extraction was a nerve-racking exercise in patience. They swept their blasters over the scenery, eyes peeled for movement in case they'd made a misstep earlier and this was a trap.

Then they heard it: a faint hum billowing over the treetops, rapidly approaching the clearing. There were no floodlights or running lights. Their only hint at the vessel's arrival was the stars suddenly being blotted out by a large black mass.

The transport set down in a clearing a few dozen meters from their position. At Finn's motion, they made their way toward it in formation, Rose taking point. The entrance ramp lowered, permitting two other red-armored Sith soldiers to exit, kneeling on either side of the ramp.

Rose and the squad boarded the ramp in single file, making their way into the belly of the dropship. Rey could feel ripples of fear running through some of the others at how packed to the gills with Sith this vessel was. Still, they hadn't shot any of them yet, so that was a good sign.

A burst of static filled their helmets a moment before a new voice came through.

"Captain Nido—welcome aboard."

Rey could hear the frown in Rose's reply.

"Get us out of here," she said in a firm, clipped tone.

Oh yeah, Finn had coached her on how to sound like an Imp, too.

"On our way," the pilot replied.

The faint hum of the engines quickly intensified as they rose from the ground. Then the hatch closed behind them, and the faint light of Ajan Kloss's moons was blotted out.

None of them had been given seats, so they assumed it would be a quick trip. To Rey, it seemed to last forever. The whole ride up, she could hear the blood thundering in her ears. She could feel Finn's presence next to her, barely nervous for all that they were surrounded. She ached to grip his hand. He'd always been good about steadying her, and his training with the Mandalorians seemed to have intensified that calming aura. Instead, her grip tightened around her blaster.

The inside of the dropship was pitch dark. No windows, no indication of where they were going. It forced the passengers to trust completely in their pilot…which would be fine if she trusted the pilot.

"Remember," Ben said softly over helmet comlink, "these troopers would've been raised by the cult since birth. It wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that they all have resistance to mental manipulation."

Rey stiffened. "So we can't rely on the Force to do our convincing for us. Great."

She held the blaster a little closer.

"We'll be fine," Finn said firmly. "Just stay cool."

Rey almost nodded before remembering they weren't supposed to be talking.

Finally, the engines changed timbre and the ship lurched slightly with external gravity. When the exit ramp descended, the light that streamed in made Rey feel like she could breathe again. The formation of Sith troopers waiting for them at the bottom twisted the knot in her gut back up again. In the center of those two columns was a man clad in black officer's dress with red trim. The uniform of the Sith officers was similar enough to the First Order for Rey to see the inspiration, but the common red motif between the soldiers and officers reminded her a little too much of the saber that had nearly claimed her life on multiple occasions.

Which, she supposed, was the whole point.

The officer stepped forward, hands clasped behind his back, and gave Rose a nod. "Captain Nido. The commander is eagerly awaiting this intelligence of yours." He held out a hand. "If you please."

Rose tensed up for a second. Rey glanced at the Sith formation in the corner of her eye, ready to start shooting. Then she realized it was all part of the act when Rose responded.

"If you don't mind, I'd rather deliver it myself."

The officer smiled irritably. "Be that as it may—"

"Listen," she growled, "and listen well. My men and I went through hell to get this. If your 'intelligence' had been more complete, perhaps we wouldn't have been massacred." When Rose saw him flinch, she turned her chin up at him. "So you'll excuse me if my faith in your…abilities is a bit thin right now."

The officer stared at her with thinly pressed lips, then stiffly nodded and turned about. "This way, then." He waved to the others in her squad. "I'm sure your troopers will want to get themselves cleaned up. No need for them to be present."

Rose tensed up again. "They stay with me," she said firmly.

Ben cleared his throat. "If I may, captain—the lieutenant has a point." He glanced at Finn. "As your second, I'll stay with you to make sure nothing is left out of your presentation."

Rey could feel Poe bristle at the idea of leaving Rose alone with him.

Poe stepped up. "Are you questioning the captain's faculties?"

Ben stared him down. "Only covering our bases. It's been a long day, after all."

The lieutenant was looking between them confusedly, frowning deeper by the second.

Finn cut his external mic and spoke helmet-to-helmet. "Guys, stop it. They're getting suspicious. It's better if we split up—we can hit multiple objectives."

Poe held Ben's gaze for another second or two, then turned to Rose. "Then I'm coming too." He tilted his head almost tauntingly. "In case you forget something."

Ben shrugged. "The more the merrier."

Rose cleared her throat sharply. "If you two are done."

They nodded and fell in step with her, leaving Rey and Finn to go with two other troopers who led them down a separate hallway from the hangar.

Rey released a small sigh of relief when they were away from the bulk of the troops. She patched her helmet into Finn's. "That was pretty impressive acting from Rose. You did a great job coaching her."

He chuckled faintly. "Oh, I barely had time to give her a few tips. That was all her."

She smiled. "So what's our next step?"

He hummed. "We ditch these two somewhere and make our way to the reactor."

"Right. Mind the cameras."

"Yeah." Finn's head tilted slightly up to keep an eye on the ceiling. "Looks like a blind spot in three, two one—"

Both escorting troopers flew into a wall when Rey swept her hand sharply left. A little added pressure to their necks temporarily cut off blood flow and rendered them unconscious. They wouldn't be out long, but without a visible culprit, it would at least take them some time to figure out what had happened.

When Rey had verified that they were out, she stood up to see Finn standing tensely. He relaxed a few seconds later.

"No alarms. So far so good." He jerked his head sideways. "Let's shove 'em in that closet for now."

They stripped the troopers of their weapons, disabled their helmet comlinks, and secured them to a standpipe in the maintenance room, then they were on their way.

…

"I know you don't trust me, Dameron, but can you make it a little more subtle? We're supposed to be on the same side."

Poe scowled, grateful for the privacy of his helmet and its ability to let them talk unheard. "We're thousands of kilometers from the surface, far from help in the middle of enemy territory. Guess I just can't shake the feeling that our actual alliance is as much an act as this is."

"Guys, enough," Rose said irritably. "Poe, you said his head's on the chopping block next to ours, so trust him or don't. Right now, we're all we've got."

His jaw clenched, but he didn't rebut her. Even with the strong front she was putting on, he could hear the tension and ever-so-slight shake of her voice. He was glad the distortion effect of her helmet's vocalizer kept that from everyone else or they'd be made instantly. The lieutenant led them through one hallway after the next, everything getting more crowded by the second, until they reached a deck with a cadre of officers milling about. Most were wearing headsets of some sort, bent over terminals. This wasn't the bridge.

"Communications?" Poe asked.

"That's my guess," Rose answered.

Ben looked around. "This 'commander' isn't here. None of these people have the right feel about them."

"Or the right rank," Poe noted, eyeing the patches on each uniform.

The lieutenant turned back to them. "The commander should be along any moment now, captain. Feel free to remove your helmet. I can't imagine you've had a breath of fresh air in hours."

Rose stiffened a bit, glancing toward Ben. He shook his head. She turned back to the officer.

"That would be a breach of protocol," she replied flatly.

The officer blinked and tipped his head slightly. "Very well," he said innocuously.

Then he walked off, leaving the trio a tad confused.

"Was that a test?" Poe asked.

"Maybe," Ben said.

Rose shook her head. "I don't plan on sticking around to find out if we passed. Let's find a terminal and crack this thing."

Ben waved at the analyst pit. "Think we can do it without being noticed?"

She huffed. "I don't need a central terminal, just a hardline of some kind. Gotta be another one somewhere that isn't being too closely watched."

Poe glanced around and spotted an unattended station on their floor, built into a wall near the entrance. "What about that?"

Rose nodded slowly, cautiously making her way toward it. "If this is anything like First Order construction, it should be enough."

Poe and Ben kept a lookout, making sure no one looked too closely at their "captain" while she worked. Poe didn't know what Rose was doing, but there hadn't been any Huttese curses flying about, so he guessed it was working so far. Ever since the incident on the Supremacy over a year ago, Rose had made a promise never to have to rely on someone outside the Resistance to act as their hacker on sensitive ops like this. So she turned her mechanic's aptitude toward slicing and threw herself into it.

"I think," she said slowly, "I think I got it. Yes! I'm in. Just need a little time to upload the worm to their network and we should have a live feed into the fleet's movements, even without this ship."

That last bit was the critical part, since there was only one way they were leaving this ship. One way or another, they were going to blow their cover. If they didn't do something to the ship, it would raise questions as to why they risked boarding in the first place—perhaps enough suspicion for the Sith to discover their worm, which would render this entire operation pointless.

For now, all they could do was wait and hope the other team was well on their way to completing their objective. Ben gently tugged on Rose's arm.

"We need to wait far from here."

She nodded and returned to where they'd been standing earlier. Long minutes passed in tense silence as they waited for the upload to finish or the commander to arrive—whichever came first. The distorted voice that came from the entrance soon answered that question.

"Apologies for my tardiness."

The trio whirled toward the source of the voice. Even in armor, Poe could see Ben go stiff. Something told him he recognized this one.

A woman in all black stepped through the door, flanked on either side by red-armored troopers. She had on a trenchcoat of some kind of matte leather, collar pulled up and around her neck. Her head was encased in a flat-plate mask with two slim eyeslits. Armored gauntlets and greaves adorned both arms and shins, and on her chest was a network of plates with a dagger-shaped insignia embossed in red, right in the center. Poe had seen that same symbol on a few of the other officers, but her armor was distinctly different than the rest. She was no ordinary soldier.

Ben's tension alone was enough to prove that.

Her hands were clasped behind her back as she strode up to the trio, head cocked slightly. "I was informed that the intelligence you carry is for my eyes only. It had better be worth interrupting my meditations, captain."

Rose froze for a second, then forced herself to speak. "It is, ma'am. I assure you of that." She reached into a pouch on her belt. "Datapad?"

The armored woman waved absently to one of the analysts, who handed one to Rose.

Rose inserted the datacard, tapping a few keys to access its contents. "Take a look."

The woman took it from her and scanned through the datapad.

"Surveillance footage of the base's last four hours—enough to gather troop movements, locations, numbers—and perhaps their evacuation plan if they were foolish enough to discuss it within sight of the cameras."

Poe mentally crossed his fingers.

The woman stared at the 'pad for a bit longer. "Hm. Not bad for a failed mission. But I'm curious—how did you survive when the rest of the attacking force was slain?"

Rose froze up again. "I—" her head shook, "I lost consciousness when an explosion went off. I'm afraid I don't have the answer to that."

She glanced at the others expectantly.

Poe stepped forward, suspecting why Ben was so tense. "I carried her out." He waved to Ben. "The sergeant took command and ordered us to mine for intel when he realized the tide had turned. Fortunately, we were already close to a side exit and managed to escape in the confusion."

The woman hummed. Her gaze was fixed on Ben. Poe could feel it, even with that mask.

"Is that true?" she asked.

"I wouldn't lie—" Poe said.

"I asked him," she snapped. Her arms crossed. "If he is the supposed hero of this story, let him speak for himself."

Fierfek. If I'm right about what she is, and he talks…

Ben coughed and cleared his throat, fiddling with his helmet for a second. Then he took a breath and spoke. "The corporal's assessment is accurate."

Poe's jaw dropped inside his helmet. Ben sounded completely different. He must've fiddled with the vocalizer to increase its distortion.

"We were heavily outnumbered," Ben continued. "I decided our lives would be better served preparing for the next assault than wasted in a suicide mission."

The woman stared him down, seemingly sizing him up. Poe tensed, ready to go for his blaster.

Then she nodded slowly. "That decision saved your squad—and may well have given us the key to wiping out these insurgents for good." She tipped her head up at him in salute. "Well done, soldier." Her head jerked toward the door. "Get yourselves cleaned up and rested. We will need you again soon enough."

"Yes, ma'am," Rose said.

She threw both arms up and out. "Hail, Itharii!"

Poe felt all the blood drain from his face. These miserable, fascist—

All three mimicked her motion and chanted back, "Hail, Itharii!"

When she finally let them be, Ben used the Force to pull their drive from the terminal and covertly levitate it back into Rose's grip. Rose double-checked the drive and verified that the upload had been successful. Then the trio walked away as fast as was polite.

Poe had never felt so sick in all his life.

…

Finding the reactor deck was easy enough, given the schematics they copied from Ben's data disk. Getting there without drawing attention was the tough part, especially in their battle-scarred armor. They stuck out like sore thumbs, big time. First point of business was to get to the barracks and find fresh replacement armor, which wasn't as difficult as they'd expected. The quartermaster had been expecting them, after all. He calmly issued them new sets and sent them off to get refitted.

The truly nerve-wracking part came when they took their helmets off, thankfully in the relative privacy of an unoccupied bunk cell. Still, there was no lock on the door. Anyone could walk in, and if they were as recognizable as they'd assumed—especially Rey—it was over.

Finn could feel her tension from across the room, even without looking her way to preserve some sense of modesty. He cleared his throat to distract himself from that embarrassing topic.

"Something on your mind?" he asked.

"…not really. Why?"

Finn frowned deeply. "Rey, you've been avoiding everyone ever since Leia…ever since that night." He took a deep breath, trying to find how to word this. "I know everyone deals with grief differently, but I can't help feeling like you're doing everything possible to shut us out."

He heard her stop moving briefly, then sigh. "Finn, I can't help how you feel."

"I know, I know. It's just…my intuition isn't usually wrong when it comes to you."

She didn't answer.

Irritated, Finn turned around to see why she hadn't replied (probably). Rey had just put her new helmet on. He cleared his throat and hurried to finish suiting up. The moment he did, he linked their helmet comms.

"Mic check," he said.

"Check," she replied.

They grabbed their blasters and exited the cell in lock-step. They didn't speak for a while.

"Rey," Finn sighed.

"It should've been me."

He stopped short.

Rey hesitated at the door of the barracks. "I set all this in motion. I'm responsible for all this destruction." She opened the door and moved out with Finn trailing behind her. "I should've been the one to pay for it…not her."

Finn stayed silent a while, then sighed hard. "Rey, with the way you've been torturing yourself, I'm pretty sure you already are. Which I know is the exact opposite of what she would've wanted."

Rey didn't respond for a while, not until they entered a turbolift to the engineering deck. "Before she died, Leia told me to find a reason…" her voice clipped, "to find a reason to keep going." She huffed. "Like it's just that simple."

"No. But it's necessary." Finn bit his lip. "You know, when I was training on Mandalore, it took me a while to find my reason. When I did…" his head shook, "hell, it's the only reason I survived the trials."

She looked at him. "What was it?"

He stiffened for a moment, hesitating. Then he shrugged. "It doesn't matter. It's my reason, not yours. I can't tell you what to think, Rey…but I can help with how to get there."

Rey waited expectantly.

Finn turned toward her. "Ask yourself what you'd be willing to die for. Actually…no—" he stepped closer, forcing her to look up at him, "—ask yourself what you'd do anything to live for." Finn's lips pursed tightly. "You can't keep blaming yourself for everything, Rey. You're worth more than that. Leia knew that." He gripped her shoulder tightly. "And so do I."

Their gazes held for a long time, even through their helmets, until the doors opened and they resumed their mission.

…

It was halfway to their next objective that Poe finally asked the question that had been nagging at him.

"Was she one of your Knights?"

Ben turned his head halfway toward him before facing forward. "Yes and no. And they're not my Knights anymore…if they ever were."

Poe waited for him to continue.

"The Knights of Ren are, collectively, an order on a scale you don't understand—and that's by design. Generally, they're separated into three divisions. There are the Sages, scholars who are by and large noncombatants. They process countless centuries of Sith texts and other ancient knowledge—anything that the Knights can use to their advantage. Then there are the Squires, inductees into the order whose main purpose is as underlings for the Knights. Some are spies, some are assassins, some saboteurs—all are strong in the Force, both as a uniting factor and to develop the next generation of Knights should one fall."

Poe frowned. "And the Knights themselves?"

"There are only ever six at a time, plus their leader. They are the living embodiment of the Dark Side, the most powerful agents of its will. With Ushar dead, they now number five."

"And without you," Rose said, "they have no leader."

"Yes…for now." Ben jerked his head in the vague direction of the bridge. "She was a Squire."

Poe frowned deeply and kept moving.

They finally reached their next objective: the ship armory. It wasn't a question of if their cover was blown, but when. They intended to have a bit more firepower than the enemy when that happened. So they waited until there was a gap in the armory patrols and moved in so Rose could slice the door controls.

A minute later, Poe was getting nervous. "Rose, how's it comin'?"

"This one's being stubborn; give me a second."

"Hey!"

Poe froze and whirled toward the source of the voice: another Sith soldier.

The red-armored figure approached them, Ben and Poe doing their best to block what Rose was doing from sight.

"You're not supposed to be here," the trooper said. "Identify yourselves."

Poe cleared his throat. "We're uh, on special dispensation to perform an inspection of current munitions. Surprise test, to make sure no one's slacking."

The trooper tilted his head sideways. "Is that why your captain is trying to break in?"

Fierfek.

Ben tensed up, getting ready to do something stupid.

Poe thought quickly, a flash of memory from a long time ago hitting him.

"Almost—you got it! We're clear! Damn good talkin', squig."

Poe blinked, his voice even and calm. "We're specialists command brought in to test armory security. The combination of tight patrols and the locks between us an the armory allowed you to discover our break-in. Well done." He stepped closer. "Only one problem: why didn't you immediately report this to your superiors?"

The trooper stiffened. "Uh—"

Poe mentally crossed his fingers. "Protocol dictates that any intrusion must be reported up the chain of command immediately, even if it's a false alarm and especially around the armory." He pulled the trooper aside. "You want our enemies to be carrying our kit because you were too stupid to call for backup?" Poe jabbed a finger into his chestplate. "If we really were infiltrators, we could've gunned you down the moment you spotted us and broken in anyway."

The soldier cleared his throat and straightened up. "Yes, sir. That was an oversight on my part. It won't happen again."

Poe's shoulders sagged a bit in relief as he gave the trooper a nod. "See that it doesn't. Now, on your way, soldier."

"Of course."

The Sith trooper turned halfway down the hall, then stopped and calmly turned back toward them. Poe stiffened. Something was wrong.

"Need something, trooper?" Poe asked.

Then, from both adjacent hallways came two squads of red-armored commandos in full kit, halting to put the trio at gunpoint. The one Poe had been talking to raised his weapon then.

"Just needed to stall you," he said. "Now, what were you saying about calling for backup?"

Poe's blood ran cold. Ben stepped up next to him, hands up, and leaned in to whisper to him.

"Nice try. Now we do this my way."

Poe's eyes widened in alarm a split-second before a wave of Force energy slammed into both squads. They flew and slammed against the nearby walls hard enough to dent their armor, but some were already scrambling to their feet. Poe raised his blaster in tandem with Ben. Their rapid-fire ST-W48 rifles cut down most of them before they could even stand. The rest fell soon after.

"Got it!" Rose shouted.

"Finally!" Poe exclaimed.

They ran into the armory, grabbing anything they could comfortably carry. Ben stuck with his compact rifle and picked up a few detonators. Rose grabbed a pair of small blasters, SE-44C repeating pistols plated with red plasteel. Poe found the real gem in the back of the armory: an ST-1K repeating blaster cannon—a hip-fired rotary blaster with an explosive conversion module similar to those carried by First Order rocket troopers. It could switch between standard plasma rounds and armor-cracking explosive shots.

And it was surprisingly lighter than it looked.

The trio rushed for the exit as soon as they were geared up, finding surprisingly little waiting for them immediately outside. That changed as soon as they entered the armory hallway. Of course. They'd be sitting ducks in such a narrow space.

Or they might've been—if Ben didn't step to the front of the group, reach into the storage module on the rear of his belt, and twirl out his lightsaber to deflect the first incoming shots. Poe sighed hard and hefted his cannon. This was going to be a long walk.

…

The reactor room of the Corvo-class frigate was one of the only spacious areas of the ship, with high-vaulted ceiling four stories up and a massive, seemingly endless pit crisscrossed by catwalks. They all led to the maintenance terminals in the center of the room, presumably as a defense mechanism to isolate any potential infiltrators. Strangely, there wasn't anyone on this deck—not even a token guard force. Rey froze on the catwalk halfway to the reactor controls.

Finn turned to her. "What's wrong?"

Her head shook slightly. "Ben—I can feel his fear. The others are under fire."

"…then why aren't the alarms going off?"

The air vibrated a split-second before Finn flew into the air, screaming as he was hurled into the chasm.

"Finn!" Rey screamed.

Her land lashed out on instinct, yanking him to an abrupt stop midair over one of the catwalks. Then she felt the aggression behind her and released him. Finn fell four meters and slammed arms-first on one of the catwalks, most of his body hanging off the side. She'd miscalculated the distance, but had no time to worry about that. Rey whirled around, blaster rising halfway to target before she heard it. She snapped her body backward so fast she lost her balance and fell down—a preferable alternative to getting decapitated. As it stood, the blaster barrel and front half of her helmet laid on the ground in smoking ruins.

Then the sizzling hum returned, and she threw her empty hand up reflexively. Barely ten centimeters from her face, there hovered a lash of roiling red plasma, glowing bright enough to hurt her now-exposed eyes. She snarled and pushed it back toward its source. The lash whirled and coiled around an extended arm, hissing viciously but otherwise doing no damage. Rey stared at the unusual weapon's wielder as she got her bearings. The trenchcoat, the armor, the gauntlets of unknown make—that could apparently repel the cutting power of her weapon.

This woman hadn't been in Rey's vision on Takodana, but she recognized the aesthetic and feel of one associated with the Knights of Ren. And she recognized that weapon from the Jedi texts: a lightwhip. Because of how they were constructed—with tiny fragments of crystals layered into the whip's filaments—their cutting power was typically less than that of a proper lightsaber. That hadn't seemed to stop this one.

"We prefer not to alert nasty little saboteurs that they are known," said the woman. "Speaking of whom—" she started unwinding the whip, "—so you're the Jedi we've heard so much about."

Rey climbed to her feet and ripped off what was left of her helmet, scowling at her enemy. "And you are?" She cast a glance toward Finn, who was slowly climbing onto the catwalk.

"Slero," replied her distorted voice. "Squire to Ushar."

Rey didn't know what that meant, but she could guess.

She sized Rey up. "You don't look so threatening now—alone…unarmed."

Rey felt a vindictive fire build in her chest, quickly reflected in the smile on her lips. She hadn't felt such energy in days. "Amazing. Every word of what you just said…was wrong."

She reached for the back of her belt, unlocking the armor's storage unit. It usually held an emergency grenade or survival supplies. Instead, she twirled out a familiar alloy cylinder.

Snap-hiss!

Rey saw Slero tense up momentarily.

Rey smiled wider. "Ushar is dead. Do you really want to join him?"

"An opportunity for me," Slero countered, slowly approaching Rey. She began twirling the whip in a circle at her side. "How better to prove my worth and ascend than to bring the Master the shredded corpse of the last Jedi?"

Slero lunged, snapping her wrist and lashing out at Rey with a long stroke. Rey shifted her saber up, smacking blue against red. She nearly lost a hand at her oversight when the lash curled around her blade. Rey barely managed to avoid it by taking one hand off the hilt. She quickly pulled away to reevaluate only to withdraw further when a follow-up strike came. Rey backpedaled across the catwalk, grimacing at her position. Slero had the range and skill to keep her running indefinitely.

Closing the distance was her only chance to even the odds, but surviving long enough to would be a gamble. Then Rey remembered that she had backup and glanced Finn's way to see him finally climbing to his feet. Slero's lightwhip slashed through the catwalk, cutting it off from the central platform. The side closest to Rey started falling—and Finn with it. Panicking, Rey lashed out with one hand to catch him, her focus split between keeping him aloft and keeping Slero at bay.

The Squire was getting closer. Slero snapped her wrist out toward Rey. The Jedi swept the tip of her blade toward the lash, keeping a little extra distance between her and danger, then used the brief rest period to levitate Finn a little higher. The hum returned, directed straight at her neck. Distracted, Rey couldn't reposition in time. Finn drew an SE-44C from his belt and fired a crack-shot that nailed Slero right in the mask. She screeched and nearly dropped the lightwhip. She did stop swinging though, and the lash fell short of hitting Rey. Rey quickly pushed Finn toward the nearest landing on the other side.

Finn hit the deck not a moment too soon. Rey whirled around to see the lightwhip rapidly approaching and smacked it away hard, ready to go on the offensive. Slero twirled it in spirals that effectively formed a wall between them, every so often snapping the tip out at Rey. She parried two whip-thrusts, then pushed out with her left hand. The coils swept toward Slero in a grid that would've shredded her if she hadn't immediately gotten the weapon back under control. Rey roared and sprinted at her blade-first.

Slero snarled and twirled the whip-line around her arm, gloved fingers grabbing the lash itself to pull it taut just in time to block Rey's stab. Shocked, Rey came back in with an overhead and two horizontal strikes. Slero held the whip like a garotte, deflecting her strikes and dancing around her.

How is she—

Rey's thought was cut off when part of the whip uncoiled from Slero's gauntlet and curled around her body. Slero pulled it tight, making to slice her in half. Only Rey's quick readjustment of her saber kept it at bay. Slero used her distraction to close the distance, properly snatching both ends to either garotte Rey or pull her own saber into her face. Rey had no leverage to break free. Her back was to Slero, her arms were already aching from holding back the hissing energy lash, and Slero had a strength advantage. The hiss of the weapons' contact drew closer with every passing second. It was then that Rey finally heard the answer to her unspoken question: a slight hum coming from Slero's gloves.

Her hazel eyes widened. Crushgaunts?

Then her jaw clenched and the blades stopped moving closer.

"Who was it?" Rey hissed.

Slero's body tensed.

"Who did you kill…to get those?"

Her snarling voice quickly answered. "What?"

Rey pushed back just enough to get some room between her and the lightwhip, then dropped to her knees and rolled away. The sudden disappearance of Rey's resistance threw Slero off-balance. Rey threw her lightsaber as soon as her roll ended. The sizzle of burning flesh filled her ears a moment later. Slero stared at the lightsaber buried in her gut, slowly looking up at Rey. The Jedi snarled and reached out with her left hand. Slero's gloves were forcibly yanked from her hands to Rey's. The Squire fell to her knees, lightwhip falling in an inactive pile at her legs.

Rey strode up to her, holding Slero's failing body steady with the Force. "When you reach the Chaos—" she twisted the lightsaber in deeper, "—tell your master he won't be alone long."

Then she ripped the blade out and kicked Slero into the pit.

Rey stared into the blackness as she caught her breath, then turned off her saber. Finn reached her right as she clipped it to her belt.

"You okay?" he asked.

Rey frowned and held up the crushgaunts. Finn pulled off his helmet and reverently took the gloves. His eyes shut tightly as his head shook.

"I don't recognize them," he said, "but that doesn't mean anything. I don't know all the Knights. If she killed one of them…" Finn sighed hard. "I don't know what this means."

And then the alarms started going off at a maddening volume.

Rey stared at the flashing lights on the ceiling. "It means we need to go."

Finn nodded and put his helmet back on. "Figured you had that handled, so I finished the mission. The reactor's already going critical. We have about three minutes."

Rey's eyes widened in alarm. It would take at least two to reach the escape pods. They turned for the exit and started running.

…

Poe heard the empty beep and immediately dropped the rotary cannon in favor of a repeating pistol. They'd taken the escape pods a minute or so ago. Rose had already destroyed the release mechanisms on all but one. Now they just had to hold until the others got back and get off before it blew. This had to look strictly like sabotage or they'd never make it off Ajan Kloss. And if there were no survivors to take a closer look…well, all the better.

He heard the hum of a new lightsaber moments before a blazing sapphire blade cut down a Sith trooper. Rey leapt into the doorway, slashing mid-dive and beheading another commando. She rolled on impact with the ground, falling into a pattern of rapid deflects from four other troopers. A fifth one quickly joined them only to take one look at Rey and promptly shoot the other four in the back.

Poe grinned. "Finn! You made it!"

He chuckled. "'Course we did."

"Then let's blow this joint."

Rose rushed to their pod. "Yeah, literally if we don't leave now."

Rey turned toward the other exit, seeing a red-armored figure deflecting bolts with a cyan crossguard saber.

New crystal? I didn't know.

"Ben!" she called.

"Coming!" he shouted back, ducking a shot and returning another.

He spun on his heel and ran toward the pod. Rey felt a warning from the Force and realized she'd left her back exposed. She whirled toward the doorway in time to see a blaster bolt streaking toward her face. She shifted her saber and just managed to deflect the shot into the ceiling. Two more shooters joined the first, laying down a pattern of rapid fire that forced her to backpedal toward the pod.

"Get in!" she screamed.

Ben's lightsaber deactivated. She heard one, two, three dull thumps as the others leapt into the pod. Then one of the Sith troopers knelt and a secondary barrel on his weapon flared with light. Alarm flashed through her as she moved her blade into defensive position. Suddenly, her vision of the doorway was blocked by a flying body. A familiar grunt sounded a moment later, in tandem with a deafening boom that rattled her eardrums. Finn slammed on the deck, a thick hole burnt through his chestplate. He wasn't moving.

Rey shrieked before she understood what was happening. The shooters flew backward, two slamming into a far wall with a sickening crack. They didn't get up. Finn's body began levitating, and she turned around to see Ben holding out one hand. He caught the body and jerked his head toward the inside of the pod. Numb, Rey leapt through the door and shut it behind her.

"Everyone hang on!" Poe shouted.

Rey's stomach lurched violently as the pod shot from the frigate like a missile. Somewhere in the back of her head, she knew they had to time the launch down to the wire, or the Corvo's cannons would shred the pod. The reactor's detonation rocked the escape pod a moment or two after launch, but she barely noticed. All her attention was on getting Finn's helmet and chestplate off, a task made infinitely more difficult with the way her hands were shaking.

Ben held him steady while Rose helped with the finer tasks. Rey couldn't breathe. It was such a big hole. When they finally got the armor out of the way, all the blood drained from her face.

"Karabast," Rose breathed.

Rey's hand pressed against her mouth to keep herself from screaming.

Whatever that Sith had hit Finn with, she wouldn't have been able to block it, at least not without dislocating her wrist. Now she knew why. This injury—the depth, the size, the way it had punched through Finn's armor—it was just like the aftermath of getting shot by Chewie's bowcaster. Absently, she realized this meant that the Sith cult had reverse-engineered an extremely dangerous piece of Wookiee technology. More immediately pressing was how pale Finn was. And how horrible his breathing sounded.

"He—" Rose choked, pulling her helmet off. "I think it punctured a lung."

If his lung was even there anymore.

Ben frowned deeply. "He's lucky to have survived at all."

Rey looked to him. "But—he'll be okay, right? I mean, you…"

Her throat closed up, but she knew the answer. On Starkiller Base, Ben had taken a glancing hit from a shooter who still remembered the boy who was like a nephew to him. This was a direct hit from a fanatic bastard hell-bent on killing them all.

"Rey," Finn wheezed.

She snapped back to him, seeing him weakly holding up his right hand. She took it and held on with a vise grip.

"I never—" He coughed and wheezed.

His breathing hurt to hear. Rey looked to Rose, the only one of them with any sort of medical training. Her head shook as she prepared an emergency stim—a painkiller. Rey's eyes widened in dread. That was it? That was all they could do?

Finn wheezed as he took another breath, grimacing all the while. "I never told you…"

Rey grasped his hand in both of hers. "You will." She nodded rapidly as Rose injected him in the neck, his eyelids fluttering closed. "You will."

"Rey," Rose said softly.

Rey stared at the wound, one hand coming off Finn's limp appendage to peel the scorched body suit aside. Her hand hovered over the wound, shaking violently.

"Rey."

"No!" she screamed in Rose's face. "I am not leaving anyone else to die!"

If Poe heard the outburst from the pilot seat, he wisely chose to keep silent.

Rey shifted all her attention to the seeping injury. Her hand wouldn't stop shaking. It didn't matter. Her eyes shut tightly as she forced her breathing to slow. She blocked everything out—the pod, the others, their uncertain future. A memory invaded her mind—a reminder.

"The Force resides in all living things. It surrounds us and binds us. Once, I came closer to death than I ever had—saw that energy with my own eyes."

Rey took a shaky breath, slowly stabilizing as she felt Finn slowly fading away. Luke's voice echoed to her once more.

"The Force is life. The Dark Side would twist and subjugate it."

Everything went silent.

"But those who fight in service to life…are sustained by it."

Finn took a breath—shallow, rough, but lacking some of that horrid wheezing. Rey kept her focus, feeling her body getting progressively weaker. She didn't stop until he took another breath—and another, and another. She was lightheaded, felt herself beginning to fade. She didn't stop. When her limbs started going numb, there was a reflexive squeeze on her right hand.

Rey opened her eyes, looked down at Finn.

There he was. Eyes closed. Pale. Breathing.

She shifted her gaze to her blood -soaked left hand and hesitated for just a moment before lifting it out of the way. A small sob left her. Beneath was a charred mess of ruined body glove—and smooth dark skin, perfect and unmarred.

Rose stared at him agape. "You—you did it." Her eyes slowly shifted to Rey. "You did it."

Her head shook slowly, nearly as much in shock. "I didn't know I could until just now."

Rey sobbed and grinned, tears streaming down her face as she bent over him. The embrace was half in relief, half because she was so weak. Rey scooted up and to the side so as not to aggravate his injury—not that there was anything left of it. Better not to take the chance.

When she looked up, Ben was eyeing them with a strange, pensive expression. He frowned slightly and nodded. She swallowed hard, lips pursed as she nodded back. Then she held Finn and brought her lips next to his ear, whispering.

"You made a promise." Rey gulped and pressed her face into the side of his head. "Come back to me."

Her right hand was squeezed a little harder, and then a whisper answered her.

"Always."

AN: Well, two chapters down in a decent time period. That bodes well. Next one should be considerably shorter, given there's a bit less to go through.

The Sith fleet was honestly a bit underwhelming in canon, mostly because they served as more of a prop than an actual fighting force. So I tapped into some Imperial-style specializations and created a few new ship classes and weapons to spice things up—starting with the Corvo-class frigate and ST-1K cannon. On that note, the Xyston-class Star Destroyers do not work like they do in canon. More on that later.

This chapter, I decided to address one of the more—ahem—controversial parts of Episode IX. Force Healing. Bringing someone back from the brink is something that's been done for ages among Force healers. If any of you have read Kandosii'tal, you'll know that Kael did something similar when Xel was poisoned by a Kaleesh warlord. But it does take a lot out of the healer, especially if they don't have an innate ability for it.

Additionally, the memory that runs through her head is from a conversation between them of my own creation, a reference to The Courtship of Princess Leia. Fantastic book that inspired a lot of my depictions of the Force over the years. Long story short, the events of that book are why Luke's notes have so much written about Dathomir—and how he knows that near-death states are not only survivable but reversible. Keep that in mind. It will be very important soon. And go give that book a read if you get the chance.

Other items…ah, the "Chaos" Rey refers to when sending off Slero is another word for the Void, or Hell—a sort of afterlife not widely understood. However, in both canon and Legends, it is believed to be a section of the Netherworld of the Force roughly analogous to our concept of hell. The spirits of deceased Sith and others who serve the Dark Side (though not necessarily Force-sensitive) are believed to reside there after death in perpetual madness. Just a fun little tidbit I decided to throw in.

Rey's a bit edgy after everything that happened in Act I. Fact is, she's a tad pissed off with everything—herself mostly—and done holding back when fighting the Dark Side.

Hope you enjoyed this one. More to come soon if I have anything to say about it.

Drake out

Musical Inspirations:

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
- Peacekeepers: start-0:37—punctured lung/fading fast/no one dies, 0:37-1:35—a reminder/slow breaths/pale but breathing, 1:35-end—"you did it"/a promise kept/end of chapter