Walking these halls again was the strangest form of déjà vu.
The cold sterility of the Finalizer had been home for years, if it could be called a home. This was where Kira Ren was born. This is where she'd sworn fealty on bent knee to Snoke. This is where she'd carried out countless missions of horror and death.
This is where she and Ben had found each other again, although it had taken them years and many tears to come to this moment.
She could walk the route to the bridge blindfolded, but kept pace with Ben's reassuring warmth as Finn's troopers escorted them out of the turbo lift.
Ben touched her elbow. What is the plan?
Why would you assume I have a plan? She sidestepped a cluster of officers glaring fearfully up at a white-armored guard, cuffed wrists behind their backs.
I didn't assume, actually I assumed the opposite.
Her lips flattened. You still assume.
His amusement skipped across the bond. It was a pretense to begin developing a plan, not a critique of your preparedness or lack thereof.
Taking a deep steadying breath, she forced herself to keep walking without a retort. Then, after tentatively reaching out through the bond, found that his sincerity was genuine, her shoulders relaxed.
The blast doors loomed ahead. A crowd of stormtroopers, some helmeted, some not, loitered in the hall leading up to the doors, which had been scored and dented by any number of weapons and tools scattered across the floor.
"Out of the way!" one of their escorts shouted. "Move over!"
The troopers parted, curious eyes sizing up the ragtag newcomers. She couldn't help the self-conscious tug at the hem of her musty brown clothes that had been scrounged from the Falcon's storage. Ben's torn outfit was vaguely Resistance, with an orange tint. All in all, they made a perplexing puzzle, especially when they were ushered right up to the doors.
"These doors are thick, aren't they?" Ben observed.
A woman with short-cut straight black hair framing a stern expression stepped forward, helmet resting in the crook of her arm. "And just who are you? You're not one of us."
"We're with the Resistance," Ben offered.
We are? Kira thought.
Well, we're not not with the Resistance, he retorted.
The trooper's face did not soften. "Where's FN-2187? We were expecting him."
"He boarded with us. He's attending to the hostage situation in the brig."
"Shouldn't he be here? The bridge is priority."
"And that's why he sent us."
"Uh-huh." A team of troopers approached, carrying a nasty-looking industrial saw with a blade about as long as Kira was tall, but the woman raised a hand and they halted. "Hux is on the other side. If we get him…" She knocked a knuckle against the dome of her helmet, a fierce smile on her lips.
"We'll get him," Ben assured.
"You mean we'll get him. This is our fight. Hux is ours."
Kira bit her tongue. She was here to make Hux pay, these troopers wouldn't understand the depth of resentment and hatred between them.
"Is this the only way in and out?" Ben asked.
"The other main door is also locked. The elite officers' private turbolift that connects to their quarters has been disabled."
"Perfect," he said. "Like womp rats in a barrel."
"Well, I don't see what you have that we don't, so if you don't mind, we'll handle this on our own."
"We're specialists," Ben said.
The woman's eyebrows fell into a scowl. "Look, we've tried just about everything that we've got, so your advice isn't going to help."
"We're specialists, not consultants."
"Sure," she scoffed. "You think you can crack it?"
Kira resisted an eye roll. "FN-2187 sent us to help, so let us help," she said. Ben laid a hand on her shoulder, giving a gentle squeeze, and she clamped her mouth shut and looked at the floor. The scrutiny of some of the soldiers was a little too close for comfort.
"You got some kind of secret weapon on you? We've tried just about everything short of this saw, and the cannon."
"The cannon?" Ben said.
She shrugged. "Miniaturized Death Star tech."
"That might be overkill," Ben agreed. He turned to the doors and ran a hand over a particularly impressive gouge in the metal. They must have tried launching a RPG at it, but it only left a dent. The seal was still intact.
"So, specialists, what's next?"
Kira still couldn't pull out the red lightsaber without compromising her identity, but didn't think carving another hole through a meter or so of durasteel would be a feasible option. The doors were far too heavy, the locks too complex to pry open with brute strength. This would require a more forceful approach.
"Give us five minutes," Ben said. "If we can't crack it, we'll let you go at it with the saw."
The woman was still skeptical, but raised an acquiescing hand with splayed fingers. "Five minutes."
"Have the soldiers step back and prepare to breach the bridge once we open them," Ben said as Kira stepped next to him, laying both hands on the door's cool surface.
"Whatever you say, stranger."
Ever heard of technokinesis? Ben thought.
Only one of us here holds the title of 'nerd', so no.
Well -
I can tell you're preparing a speech that'll take the entire five minutes. Spare me and just tell me what to do.
A burst of affection from his end of the bond almost made her whip around and with the full power of a death glare.
I'm not trying to be cute, Ben.
I know.
For Force's sake.
Alright.
The trickle of amusement receded, the bond falling into a pensive hum. Together they bowed their heads and spread their fingers against the blast doors.
Feel the energy moving through the doors, the framing, Ben said. Magnets, wires, static. Everything working to keep them shut against us.
It was unfamiliar and odd. Meditation had always been about connecting with other lifeforms through the Force, but now they were reaching for a more basic essence, more basic than the manipulation of cells and living tissue that they had used to heal one another and the others. This was touching the elements, the energy and matter that it was all built from.
Without each other, it would have taken months, if not years of study to master. But as the dyad, they guided each other, like crossing a stream on a trail of stepping stones, working silently to find the best path, steadying one another if they lost balance.
There. That way.
Their consciousness sparked along cables, around wheels, over gears. It was an awareness of each individual part, how they fit together, how they worked to keep the doors shut fast. When they arrived there, it only took a nudge to shift the mechanisms locking the doors into a reversal. Funny how it only took the smallest pebble to start an avalanche.
Eyes jumping open, Kira sucked in a lungful of air and stepped back as the doors began to groan, then rumble as bolts drew back. A few gasps and murmurs rose from the crowded hallway, but discipline kicked in. Lines of stormtroopers braced themselves to rush forward, their blasters primed.
"Let us clear the way," Ben said.
"Hux is ours," the trooper leader retorted, slipping her helmet on.
The first panels of the door began to slide away.
"Sure, but we can make it a bit easier on you. Specialists, remember?"
She grunted. "We're on your heels. Don't trip us up."
Ben chuckled as the blast doors' second and third layers peeled back and he lit his sapphire blade, lifting it before his face.
The woman's eyes grew wide, mouth opening like she was about to speak, but Ben cut her off, "We've got it covered."
Kira stood at his elbow, letting the breath hiss out through her teeth while raising her hands. The last panels retreated, and as they did, panicked cries and the red plasma of blaster pistols came through the widening gap. Ben deflected the first bolts and launched himself into the breach, Kira tight to his side. A mighty shove outwards through the Force sent the doors crashing open so the full front of stormtroopers could follow behind.
The bridge was a pitiful sight. Some of the officers had set up a weak defense line, but it had been years since they had attended military academy. Although individually they were well-trained in handling their firearms, when their own carefully crafted war machine turned against them, they were thoroughly outmatched.
Kira thrust out a hand, sending several gray uniforms skidding across the floor, a few toppling into the pits where technicians cowered in fear. Ben protected her flank with his humming blade, not a few officers crying out as their own blasterfire reflected on them without mercy. Many others collapsed under the barrage of the advancing stormtroopers. She spun on her heel and shoved a squad of First Order officers into the wall, where they cried out and slumped, unconscious.
Where's Hux? Ben thought, as he telekinetically snatched several pistols from a cluster of officers, who fell to their knees and raised trembling hands before stormtroopers surrounded them.
That was an excellent question. She would have expected Hux to be bellowing and raging at the front of the room. But he was conspicuously absent. To find him first, she would have to find him now. Perhaps he had abandoned his greatcoat and donned the uniform of a lesser officer. If so, it wouldn't be beyond belief if he was accidentally killed in the chaos before he could be taken into custody by the troopers.
Eyes closed, Kira reached out with her feelings. Perhaps he had taken the turbolift before the troopers had deactivated it. But no - there he was. So close she could almost feel his rapid heartbeat.
"This way," Kira muttered, snatching Ben's lightsaber from his grasp despite his squawk of protest. The tide of stormtroopers rushed past as she sidestepped and approached the portside wall, scanning it for the little door she knew to be waiting there. Most bridge officers on the Finalizer under her rule didn't last long enough to remember such an inconsequential little room where obsolete datapads and mouse droids were thrown. But Hux had lasted long past his expiration date, despite her better judgment.
Kira stabbed the door's control panel with the lightsaber and extinguished it, tossing the weapon over her shoulder to Ben, who caught it nimbly. The door's lock reset and it snapped open with a sharp hiss. Kira stepped inside.
Hux was pressed against the back wall; pale, sweaty, disheveled auburn hair stuck to his forehead,. He gasped and tightened his grip on the young female officer with a pistol pressed to her temple. The girl shrieked, but Kira just laughed.
"Do you think a human shield would be enough to stop me, Hux? I think you've overestimated my value for sentient life."
"Others might've," he countered through gritted teeth. "But not us."
His finger started to pull the trigger, but Kira flicked her wrist. His hand flew back and hit the wall with a crack as the plasma bolt went wide, striking the ceiling in a shower of sparks. Hux shouted and the young officer struggled free. She tried to dodge around Kira, but it was too easy to snatch the girl's starched collar in the small space. The officer didn't have time to cry out before Kira cradled the back of her head and sent her into a deep sleep. The girl slid soundlessly to the floor.
When Kira focused on Hux again, he was snarling and supporting his limp right hand in the other. "How does it feel, Ren?"
How did it feel? Triumphing over Hux after all these years, seeing him watch every ambition, everything crumbling to dust. She'd been looking forward to this moment for so long, but hadn't expected it to be here, like this, with Ben at her back and a thousand free stormtroopers beyond, dismantling the ugly wretched regime.
How does it feel?
Hux sank to the floor. "Well, Ren, get on with it."
She took a step forward, then another.
How does it feel?
She raised Ben's lightsaber, its energy vibrating in her grasp. But it felt… empty.
It should have felt like an ending, the last piece of a puzzle fitting into place, like the door of her past locking. Hux's breath stuttered over dry peeling lips, hand raised in a useless gesture to ward off the anticipated blow. A familiar spark of rage still burned in his dilated sapphire light of her weapon was reflected in his pale green eyes, blown wide with panic.
Eyes that clouded in confusion when she lowered the shimmering blade and switched it off.
"Ren, please," he hissed. "Don't be an ass about this too."
"Your life is not mine to take."
"No," he said, lips curling into a snarl. "No, don't you dare end it like this."
"It's not for me to decide. This is not about us, it never has been."
"I know you want to kill me, so do it, damn you"
"That was Snoke, not us."
Hux growled and lunged for the pistol. Kira's boot snapped out, kicking his skull, and he fell to the floor in a heap.
"He's here," she called, then turned and walked past Ben, shouting louder across the Finalizer's bridge. "Hux is here!"
Kira and Ben stepped back as the stormtroopers rushed in to take custody of the last Supreme Leader. They restrained his limp body and dragged him off the bridge, down to the detention center. He was still alive, and if he died, it wasn't her choice.
"You did good," Ben whispered as he wrapped her in his arms. "You chose well."
It was a burden lifting off her that she hadn't known she was carrying. "I want to let it go, Ben. I'm so tired."
"Let's rest then."
After finding a shadowed corner to hide in, they sat and held one another while the stormtroopers took the Finalizer. She hadn't started this battle, and she wasn't here to finish it either. She could step back from the narrative. A lightness blossomed in her heart as its rhythm synchronized with Ben's.
Finn found them after a while, along with Rose, who had picked up some nutritive bars somewhere and was willing to share them. Finn didn't stay long as the stormtroopers settled the Finalizer and moved to assist the Retribution, which fell in line without too much more struggle. Updates on the fleet flew over their heads as the troopers shared news. Most of the fleet had fled, but it was a start for them. Their excitement was buoyant, but Kira let herself drift away from it. Her part, as horrible and futile as it had been, was over.
Some time later, Silyana, Poe, and Chewbacca returned from the Retribution, having helped the stormtroopers aboard flush out the last resisting crew. They found their way from the bridge and sat down next to them, and for once were blessedly silent.
Exhaustion weighed down heavily on her drooping eyelids, but she was safe. Safer than she'd been since… she wasn't sure. But as a drowsy fog descended, she realized she could rest here, with these people. There was no fight anymore. Her head fell to rest on Ben's shoulder, allowing the ache of fatigue to steal over. Ben's cheek rested on the crown of her head, and she let a soft sigh escape.
It felt like the absence of fear, fear of the past, and fear of the future.
It felt like rest, like home, like belonging.
Ben traded sips of water with Kira as she dozed, reminding her to drink and passing the canteen of ultra-filtered water that Poe had retrieved for them after they had dragged Hux away.
Around their little huddle, the Star Destroyer was a hive of activity as the stormtroopers settled into their new charge. It was exhausting, imagining the work ahead of them. While Finn didn't take to the role with ease, he accepted it with grace and attention.
When word reached them that the Resistance would be joining the liberated Star Destroyers, Ben and Kira took that as their cue to take their leave. Ben wasn't interested in the politics and bureaucracy that would inevitably entangle them.
"We should go," he murmured into Kira's hair. Once things settled down, someone would demand a tribunal, or an investigation at the least, and he refused to put Kira through that.
"You're worried about Leia," she said.
He was. He didn't want to make his mother take sides.
"She wouldn't want to see me anyway."
"You'd be surprised. She's had more faith in us than anyone."
The bond shivered with uncertainty.
"I can't see her, not yet," Kira said.
"I know, that's while we'll leave, for now."
"I think I'd rather sleep," she mumbled back, faintly relieved.
Stars, she was so thin and small, and he felt like he should gather her in his arms and hold tight and -
"Hey." Kira jabbed him in the ribs. "Just because I'm a little tired doesn't mean I can't still whip your ass."
Trust me, he said, I know.
"Alright, then," she sighed. "Let's get going."
"Sure thing," Silyana said, "Well, Poe, this is where I leave you."
"What?" Poe gawped.
"Oh," she said, waving a hand. "Oh, I just meant temporarily. Things might get a bit sticky if I stay. Connix seemed sweet and all, but I'd rather not run into her again."
"I'll go with you," he declared, taking a step forward with a determined set to his jaw.
"No, no, Finn's gonna need help. You and Rose are better off here. Also can't have you deserting the Resistance. Only one of us should have a bounty on their head at a time."
Poe's face scrunched into an almost-pout. "I guess that makes sense."
A sly smile crept over her lips. "Besides, it's hotter when people think you're sleeping with the enemy. I'll give you something to tide you over."
Avert your eyes, Kira said, burrowing her face into his side.
Wow. Oh, wow. WOW.
Ben Solo I swear -
That doesn't even look enjoyable. That's just too much.
"Alright, let's go," Kira said, struggling to rise until Ben stood and lifted her by the elbow. "Silyana, are you coming?"
"Mmm." She broke away from the wet vicelike liplock with Poe and gave him a salacious smirk. "Until next time, flyboy."
Ben wondered if Poe minded such graphic displays of affection, but his answering grin was just as lascivious. He took Silyana's hand with a gentleness that contradicted their recent interaction and kissed her knuckles. "Until next time, my love."
Silyana leaned over to Kira and whispered, "I didn't even train him to do that. He does it all on his own."
Chewbacca escorted them back down to the hangar, where Finn had assured them the Falcon would be fueled and ready for them to take off.
"Stay safe, stay in touch," he'd said in parting.
"If you need anything," Ben replied, and he wasn't totally surprised when Finn pulled him in for a hug, clapping him on the back.
The turbolift was crowded on their way down, and a few speculative glances were cast their way, but if Chewbacca wasn't a big enough distraction, Silyana kept her chin tucked and face averted. Kira was snuggled against his side. As they walked across the hangar, Ben gave into his impulse to scoop her up into his arms, ignoring Silyana's suggestive smirk. Kira didn't have the energy or the desire to protest, even as he went straight into the captain's quarters and laid her on the bunk.
"I have to help Chewie with the preflight check," he said, brushing the stray hairs away from her forehead. "But I'll be back."
He started to stand but she grabbed his hand. "Kiss me," she requested, and he obliged, mouth warm and soft.
After a minute, he pressed his lips against her cheekbone, her temple. "Rest," Ben said. "You're safe."
"Don't take long," she returned.
"You'll be here?"
"I'll be here. I'm not leaving you, Solo. I'm staying right here."
A/N: And here we are.
What are you thinking? Let me know in a review - can you believe we made it? I have a plan for an epilogue, hopefully to tie up a few of the things left hanging and see how things turn out for our favs.
Thank you so, so much for all of you for following along, whether you've been here since this started three years ago (crazy, right?) or if you've just jumped in now. This has been an incredible, invaluable, 250k-plus-word experience. I hope you enjoyed this story.