The Raddus
Bit by bit, the Raddus is being ripped apart.
Turbolaser fire shreds the hull, drawing out explosions from within. The entire ship is rocked back and forth, struggling to remain in one piece.
On the bridge, Leia takes a seat in one of the officer's chairs. There is a joystick and throttle in front of her. She puts one hand on each. She moves the joystick around, angling the Raddus at the Supremacy. She looks out at the remains of the Resistance fleet and for a moment only stares. At length she nods, and returns her gaze forward.
Suddenly, the comm crackle with Poe's voice. "General, they said you were only one left onboard. What are you doing!?"
Leia smirks.
"Sorry, Poe. I spent all that time chiding you for being reckless. Now here I am doing something worse than anything you ever pulled..." She shakes her head.
"Leia get out of there!" Poe shouts. "We can still all make it out of here!"
She sighs. "No Poe, I don't think we can."
"No! You...you can't! This is all my fault, if I hadn't-"
"Poe listen to me! You did the best you could. You were reckless..." She laughs to herself. "...but we're freedom fighters. We're all reckless. I guess I forgot that for a while."
"Leia, you can't..." Poe says quietly. "...we need you."
"No you don't. You'll do just fine without me..." Her voice trails off. "...take care of the men. Ackbar's a good strategist, but he doesn't know the men in the same way you do. You'll make a fine leader."
"I...no! I'm coming to get you!"
"No you aren't!" Leia commands. "You go keep the rest of this fleet alive. That's an order. My last one. Understand, soldier?"
"...yes ma'am."
Poe's X-wing turns and starts to fly away from the Raddus. Leia smiles at that and the tension seems to release from her body.
"Goodbye, Poe Dameron. You were the best soldier a commander could ask for." Leia says, with teary eyes.
"Goodbye...Princess Leia."
Poe's hands tremble on his controls, as if burning to whirl around and fly back to the Raddus' aid.
But he doesn't.
Poe sucks in a labored breath, and flies his X-wing onward, to the the remainder of the Resistance fleet.
Leia watched him go. Finally, she wipes her eyes, and sets her hand back on the throttle.
"Coming to see you Han..."
The Chimera
"They're escaping on shuttles." Hux says.
Thrawn narrows his eyes at the smaller ships leaving the Raddus.
"Shall we target them, sir?" An officer asks.
"Why would they abandon their command ship now...?" Thrawn muses.
"Perhaps they think by splitting up a few of them may survive." Hux suggests. "It's pointless though, we will destroy them all."
Thrawn drums his fingers on the command chair, looking thoughtful. His eyes widen suddenly, and he stands bolt upright.
"Hail the Supremacy, now!"
The Supremacy
Snoke watches Rey and Luke's duel with glee. A grin is stretched across his wrinkled face. His yellowed eyes follow the flashing sabers back and forth across the room.
The communicator on his throne pings. Snoke ignores it. It keeps pinging. His eye twitches, but he continues to focus on the fighting. The pinging does not stop. Brow wrinkling in annoyance, he walks over and slams the button. An image of the Chimera's bridge is projected onto the air in front of the throne.
"What is it, Thrawn!?" Snoke demands. "You are interrupting my-"
"The Supremacy has to take evasive maneuvers immediately!" Thrawn says quickly.
"Evasive maneuvers?" Snoke says with disbelief. "This is the flagship of our fleet. The most powerful ship in the galaxy! What could they possibly have that could even scratch us?"
"The Raddus!" Thrawn seriously. "I believe they are going to try-"
"That little ship? Display feed."
Thrawn is cut off as his image is replaced by a view of the Raddus. The ship is motionless, occasionally taking a turbo laser blast. Kylo and Luke both turn to the display, as if sensing something.
"Mom..." Kylo whispers.
"Leia..." Luke mutters.
Snoke laughs.
"What in the stars could they be-"
Leia throws the throttle forward. The star lines stretch out in the Raddus' viewport. Leia closes her eyes. The Raddus jumps to hyperspace, directly into the Supremacy.
"NO!" Luke and Kylo scream in unison.
The Raddus smashes into the Supremacy at lightspeed. The entire right wing of the Supremacy is sheared off, sending cracks through the rest of the ship. Explosions shoot up from the space that opens up, spraying shards of metal. A shockwave spreads out, damaging the nearby star destroyers,some of them bumping into each other. Even the Resistance ships have to weather the turbulence from the blast. A white glow at the impact point is all that remains of the Raddus.
The impact spreads through the rest of the ship, and the occupants of the throne room are thrown. The floor cracks apart, and the walls shudder. Snoke manages to hang onto his throne, while Luke and Rey are sent flying across the room. Kylo slams into the side of the doorway. But he stares at nothing, numb to the pain.
"Mom..." He says, dejected.
Luke lays on his side, struggling to push himself up. He pushes himself into a sitting position, but cannot muster the will to stand.
"Leia...no..." His face is torn with pain.
"My ship..." Snoke says with disgust.
He turns to Rey. "End this."
She hesitates for a moment. Her eyes almost seemed to clear for a moment. But she looks down at the lightsaber hilt in her palm, and her expression contorts in anger again.
To Luke's horror Rey drags herself to her feet. She reactivates her lightsaber and begins to walk towards him. Luke, struggling, pushes himself back to his feet and activates his own lightsaber. Rey smashes her lightsaber against Luke's as he scrambles to block.
Kylo looks at the fighting but does nothing. He leans against the wall, with tears streaming down his face. Through his mind, two scenes play back and forth. One of Leia smiling at him right before she vanishes, the other of Han Solo with a hole in his chest falling into oblivion.
Rey thrusts at Luke and he barely manages to deflect in time. He moves much slower now. Rey advances on Luke, throwing wild swings from above, below, from side to side. Luke struggles to resist against the flurry of blows. Rey slaps Luke's lightsaber aside. He stumbles back, looking at Rey with defeated eyes. Kylo stands up straight. He almost takes a step towards them, but hesitates.
"Please...Rey..." Luke says weakly.
Sneering, Rey raises her hand towards Luke. She curls her fingers into a claw.
"No..." Luke stammers.
Purple lightning shoots out from Rey's fingertips, slamming into Luke. He screams as the lightning sears into his body. Kylo cringes as Luke is tortured. Luke drops his lightsaber and falls to his knees. Smoke rises from his burned clothes and skin. Rey stands over him, her lightsaber held at her side.
"Finish it!" Snoke commands. "Finish it, and become who you were always meant to be!"
Kylo looks at them, between the two, his eyes racing. He looks at Rey, Luke, then Snoke. He looks down at his hands.
Leia smiling. Han Solo dying
Pushing through the pain from the lightning, Luke seems to regain some of his former steel. His eyes harden into an expression of disappointment. Both for himself and her.
"...Rey, you're better than this. And you know it."
Rey hesitates. She seems to be struggling against something, as if invisible chains tug at her. The lightsaber trembles in her hand.
Do it! Kill him! The whisper shrieks in her ear.
Screaming, Rey brings the lightsaber up. Luke loses what strength he had mustered and drops his gaze in acceptance.
Kylo's eyes settle on the dejected Luke. He sees an image of Luke years earlier, showing him how to use a blade. Ben, as he was then, grins up at his master.
Leia smiling. Han Solo...holding his son's face one last time.
He turns his gaze across the room, to see Luke's blue lightsaber lying on the floor, where Rey dropped it. The lightsaber begins to rattle. Rey swings her lightsaber down. Luke closes his eyes. Luke's lightsaber flies across the room, it lands in a hand and activates. The blue lightsaber blade shoots out, blocking Rey's red blade. Luke opens his eyes, and looks up. He gasps. Ben Solo holds the lightsaber, defending his old master.
"What are you doing!?" Snoke demands.
Ben looks down at Luke. The two lock eyes.
"What Anakin Skywalker would have," Ben says.
Luke is speechless. Ben turns back to a snarling Rey. She pulls back and swings her lightsaber like a club. Ben deflects the strike to the side, and taps Rey lightly on the gut. Rey is sent rocketing across the room, and slams into the back wall.
"You fool!" Snoke exclaims.
He thrusts a hand toward Ben, firing sith lightning. Ben blocks the lightning with the blue saber, deflecting it back at Snoke. Snoke knocks the lightning stream away burning a hole in the side wall. His eyes narrow at Ben. Ben's gaze doesn't falter. The room shifts again, entire ship groaning.
"Let's go!" Ben shouts to Luke.
Still in shock, Luke nods. He grabs his green lightsaber and stumbles to his feet. The two sprint out the doorway.
"After them!" Snoke bellows to Rey.
Trembling with rage, Rey leaps back up and launches herself after the two. Ben and Luke race down the dark corridors, both of them pushing through wounds and exhaustion. Rey springs after them, seeming immune to her own body's damage, or perhaps stronger from it. Ben throws a hand back, force-pushing her back down the corridor. This barely slows Rey as she continues her mad dash at the two. Luke tries the same. As Rey is pushed back, she activates her lightsaber and digs it into the floor, slowing her backward momentum. She tears her lightsaber out of the molten trail she left in the floor, barely slowing in her chase. Ben and Luke race around a corner. Luke almost stumbles, but Ben drags him back up. They sprint down the dark hallways with Rey close in tow. She throws her lightsaber at them. The red blade spins through the air towards Ben and Luke. Ben whirls around and swings the blue lightsaber, knocking Rey's aside. She growls, snatching the weapon back out of the air. Ahead, Ben and Luke are met with the sight of a burning chasm in the middle of the hallway. One of the fractures from the impact of the Raddus. The two ends of the hall are separated by a dozen meters, fires burning up from deeper in the ship.
"We've got to jump!" Ben yells.
Luke nods. Running at full speed, the two throw the Force into their leaps. They sail across the gap and land at the other side. Rey leaps after them. Both spin around, and throw their hands out at Rey. She is blown back, to the other side, skidding to the floor. She races back up to jump again, but something deep in the ship shifts. The chasm widens to twice its original width. Rey stares down, assessing the distance. She shakes her head, and narrows her eyes at Luke and Ben. They stare back for several seconds. Then, they turn and keep running. Rey frowns, then turns back the way she came.
Luke and Ben dash out into the hangar bay. The Millennium Falcon sits at the end of the hangar with its landing bay open. Finn and Lorn stand just outside, looking back at Luke and Ben.
"What the-" Finn stammers as he sees Ben.
"I'll explain later!" Luke shouts. "Just get onboard!"
"Where's Rey!?" Finn demands.
Luke doesn't meet his gaze.
"No..." Finn says.
"Damn!" Lorn swears.
Luke and Ben race onto the Falcon's landing bay. Lorn follows after them. Finn shoots one last gaze across the hangar, then reluctantly runs inside the Falcon.
"Chewie, get us out of here!" Luke shouts to Chewbacca in the cockpit.
Chewbacca growls back, and the ship rises into the air. Ben looks around the interior of the ship, clearly uncomfortable.
"Never thought I'd be here again..." He says to himself.
"Makes two of us." Luke grunts.
The Millenium Falcon flies back out of the Supremacy's hangar bay. The ship rejoins the fleeing remains of the Resistance Fleet and together they race past the First Order ships, into free space.
The Chimera
Thrawn is pulling himself back up after the shockwave of the Raddus' impact. His officers struggle to follow suit, many of them dazed.
"How much of the fleet is functioning?" Thrawn asks.
"It seems many of our destroyers are either damaged, or still recovering from the shockwave." An officer reports. "TIEs got hit even worse, they're struggling to regain cohesion."
"And us?"
"Our core systems and weapons seem to still be functioning. We just took a roll."
Thrawn gazes out the viewport, at the escaping Resistance ships. Despite the damage to the First Order Fleet, Thrawn's red eyes still gleam with determination.
"Bring us around and prime the cannons. I want as many of those Rebels finished off before they escape. I am to leave their forces so devastated they will never be able to rise again. "
"Right away, sir."
The Chimera turns to focus on the escaping Resistance fleet.
Admiral Ackbar watches at the Chimera focuses on what remains of the Resistance fleet.
"Damn you, Grand Admiral. Can you not even let us have this?" Ackbar says to himself.
"Turbolasers ready sir!" An officer reports.
Thrawn nods.
"Fi-
Dozens of ships drop out of hyperspace just behind the Resistance fleet. There are light freighters, old X and Y-Wings, even a few Mon Calamari cruisers. The ships fly out to guard the escaping Resistance fleet and let loose with laser cannons.
"...damn you, rebels." Thrawn swears.
Ackbar looks on with astonishment. The ships fly out raining laserfire on the Chimera, while blocking its path to the Resistance fleet.
"Sorry about the wait," A suave voice says over the commlink.
"Lando Calrissian? Is that you?" Ackbar exclaims.
"Sure is, Ackbar." Lando confirms.
A light freighter zooms past to shoot a pair of missiles at the Chimera. The explosion rocks the destroyer.
"Took me awhile to round up the people that were actually willing to help." Lando explains. "But once I heard that distress call, I knew it was time to get back in the game."
An old X-wing blows an approaching TIE fighter out of the air.
"We'll hold these guys off, your just get out of the system." Another voice says over the comm.
"Wedge Antilles!?"
"Retirement didn't suit me." Wedge replies.
Ackbar's large eyes well up.
"She was right...they did come." He almost whispers.
"We'll regroup later, so don't worry about us." Lando pipes in.
"Thank you." Ackbar says genuinely. "Thank you..."
"Hey no need to thank us. After all we've gotta have our moment to shine." Wedge says.
Ackbar nods. He turns to the pilot of the craft.
"Are calculations ready?"
"They are." The pilot confirms.
"Then get us out of here."
The Resistance fleet along with the Millennium Falcon, jump to hyperspace, and disappear.