Chapter 19
A Last Resort
If hell could exist, Rey was pretty sure that this would be it.
It was the waiting that killed her. Sweat from her hands beaded her lightsaber staff and the humid air hugged at her clothes like someone had tightened a rope around her body. Outside the grimy windows lay a green clearing littered with logs and vines, bathed in sunlight. Leia told them to stay out in the open. If anything could attract the First Order forces like moths to a flame, it would be a totally obvious strategy that guaranteed their victory. Only when they had touched down would they turn to more deceptive measures.
Finn, Chewie, and Rose stood by beside her in the cockpit of the transport. Determination was bolted to each of their faces. For them, this was their last stand, the end of a saga. Rey envied them a bit, for she'd have a lot more work to do after this battle.
Around them soldiers shifted nervously. Some fidgeted with the holsters on their hips, others chatted amongst themselves quietly. Some even exchanged money from pocket to pocket, betting on their odds.
"Are we sure those cannons are going to work?" Finn asked, sweat dripping from his brow. He was referring to the long line of primal-looking stone cylinders mounted on wooden stands, hiding just inside the branches of the tree line. Rey just couldn't wrap her mind around tech not made of metal, like the stuff she'd worked with her whole life. In terms of looks they didn't promise as much as a typical ship's cannons, but if King Canaan insisted, they could deal some amount of damage.
"The king swore by them. It's how they've been untouched for the past hundred years," Rose reassured him, bumping him on the shoulder kindly. "We're going to get through this, Finn, I truly believe it."
The two clasped their hands together. Rey and Chewie stared straight ahead, letting them have their privacy.
"I hope Ben's alright," Rey wondered aloud. Chewie met her concern with a soft growl.
"You're right, he's held out for this long," she agreed.
Maybe it was the presence of her comrades around her, or maybe it was the flatness of the plain outside. A wall of déjà vu slapped her across the face and she physically jolted where she stood.
This was almost identical to the beginning of her force vision within the waterfall. Sure, this planet differed from the grassier Nov Sensum, but everything else matched up. This battle, this group of people, even her white robes were dropped straight out of her vision.
But if the planet then wasn't the same, what drew the line between what she saw and what lay in front of her?
Ben. He had been here since their shared waterfall trance. He had stuck by her, faced his past and his present without ducking out or running away. Now that she had begun fitting the puzzle pieces together, the meaning of the draining colors also hit her: if he had left her, so would have the hues of the galaxy, of her friends and of her home.
"Rey, are you alright?" Rose peered around to ask her, her dark bangs swaying around her face.
Without her noticing, a tear had trickled down her cheek. She hurriedly brushed it away.
"I'm okay, Rose. Promise."
Rey closed her eyes and promised Ben the biggest kiss of his life when she next saw him again on the Finalizer.
The doors of the transport snapped open and the hot jungle winds slapped their faces. Rey ignited her staff and her friends readied their blasters. All at once they and the rest of the ground forces filed out of their ships.
Sunlight assaulted her eyes, causing her to blink rapidly. Through her eyelashes dozens of other troops poured out in the transports alongside them.
The destroyers descended out of the thick jungle atmosphere like massive ghosts and from their bellies spilled dozens of TIE fighters, their engines roaring from even here on the ground. The bulkier shapes of First Order transports also bared down upon them, undoubtedly holding huge numbers of stormtroopers calling for their blood.
"Keep going!" Rey yelled to the rest of her group, paving her way to the front and breaking into a sprint.
Soon a volley of laser fire rained down upon them, but she and the rest of the Resistance were ready. They split up into small teams and fled across the grassy clearing. As Leia had explained to them, it was harder to shoot the smaller and smaller the size the group of targets is.
Rey, Chewie, Finn, and Rose all kept together while heading to the western end of the field. The ex-stormtrooper and maintenance worker set their sights on the nearest TIE fighter. They yelled like barbarians as the spherical metal hull bared down on them and the shot their blasters in quick succession. With a mighty bang, the hull exploded and veered away from them, crashing down a safe distance away.
"That's what I'm talking about!" Finn laughed, and Rose shrieked with glee.
Some of the First Order shuttles had just touched down on the ground, and a sea of white spilled from their open bay doors. Stormtroopers, armed to the teeth and sprinting for their lives, had arrived on the scene. Broken trunks of trees and boulder chunks provided Rey's enemies with easy protection, and already they started to dive behind various covers.
Rey, almost blinded by the sunlight, could just pick out small silver boxes dangling some of the troopers' belts. She'd never seen anything like them before. What were they? Medical supplies? A new weapon fresh out of the First Order's labs? They'd have to wait and see what kind of danger they'd pose.
A jarring rumble blazed to life behind the tree line. Rey and her friends swiveled their gazes towards the sky. Flashes of orange and white whizzed past, shaking the very air itself. Red lasers met green, and one by one TIE fighters were shot down. Whistles of howling wind through charred hulls and wings soon filled the clearing. She could practically hear Poe whooping with glee in his cockpit right above them.
But the way the TIEs moved suggested something else going on. Some of the shuttles floated in place above the battle and the faster, smaller TIE fighters seemed to be working to protect them.
They didn't have much time to celebrate any more, however. The lasers from the oncoming TIE fighters were soon paired with blasts issued from the stormtroopers on the ground. Their Resistance fighters stood their ground, but the fighting soon proved to be way too thick for some. Cries rose up around Rey.
"There!" Rose shouted over the din. She had her finger locked on a fallen tree about four feet in diameter, a great place for cover. They sprinted over and slammed their backs against the chipped bark.
Rey popped up from time to time to deflect a few blasts back but couldn't quite pinpoint a good escape route. Sure, the X-wings above were clearing the skies above them as best they could, but they needed something else down here.
"Stay down!" she shouted to her friends. As soon as they nodded their acknowledgement, Rey bit her lip and peered to her right. There, that's where she'd try it. Time to experiment a little bit.
With all her might she whipped her saber staff out of her hands in a swiping arc. The stormtroopers watched in awe as Rey closed her eyes and thrust out her arm.
Her breathing slowed in her chest as she focused, each inhale and exhale passing thoughtfully through her. She could feel her staff moving the air around it. Now it was just a matter of keeping it on course.
Blades whizzed and rippled as the staff dipped and spun towards the enemy wave. It slipped down and whirled across each ankle and knee with deadly accuracy.
A collective screech rose up from the troopers and one by one they collapsed to their knees. Rey opened her eyes once more to catch her staff firmly in her hand. A couple of quick pants escaped her; sure, it wasn't a huge move, but it exhausted her mentally, nonetheless.
"Take their weapons away," she instructed a dazed Rose and Finn, who peeked over the fallen tree truck with awestruck gazes. Chewie roared and followed her order immediately. He strutted along the groaning soldiers and snatches up their blasters in his furry paws until his arms were full of weapons.
Once their area appeared to be safe, Rey marched forward and turned her lightsaber off. The fallen stormtroopers stared up at her while clutching at their grazed legs and hips.
"We're not going to kill you if you don't kill us," Finn said behind her, a careful hand on his holstered blaster. "We can get you out of here if you surrender."
"Why are you doing this?" a voice wavered over to Rey's right. She turned to watch one of the stormtroopers slip her helmet off to reveal a young, thin faced young man with skin as pale as milk.
"Why keep us alive? You know one side or the other goes in the end," the man restated.
Finn shrugged and nodded to Rose. He gazed down at the stormtrooper. "I was one of you once, and these guys still took me in. I want to extend that courtesy to the rest of you."
The man shook his head, his expression dazed with confusion and pain. The rest of his comrades gazed at one another, nodding slowly.
"Finn, Rose, take them back to the transports. They can wait there till this is all over," Rey told her friends.
They nodded in unison. Rose held out an outstretched hand to the unmasked trooper. He took it with a fraction of hesitation. Soon all of the soldiers were on their feet and slowly marching towards the safety of the transport ships. Dark mutters rose up, but they seemed to be falling in line.
"Why aren't those ships landing?"
Finn pointed to the First Order shuttles still hovering in the sky like birds of prey.
"The silver cases! Watch out for them!" The pale stormtrooper shouted with a grunt over his shoulder as Rose led him away. "They're controlling them remotely."
"Controlling what?" Rey asked herself. Chewie roared nervously and he dropped his payload of stolen blasters.
As if on cue loud mechanical whirs met their ears. As some of the troopers laid down some protective fire, the others were squatting low and tending to the cases attached to their hips. They threw the boxes on the ground and, before their eyes, something metallic and bright zoomed out of them at breakneck speed. They were long and cylindrical, like giant robotic worms.
"They're droids!" Rey shouted to her friends, twirling her lightsaber in preparation.
Instead of flying towards them like she would have expected, the new droids dove their pointed heads into the ground and began to tunnel under the planet's surface.
The Resistance fighters started to panic. Some aimed their blasters at the ground and pounded shot after shot into the moist soil. But the droids seemed just out of range, for they began to burst out with dull thuds. They snaked around the ankles and calves of the Resistance ground troops, their legs were twisted, and their bodies were flung to the ground. This distraction gave the troopers enough time to aim at the fallen enemy and fire without fail.
Rey flung her head around this way and that and watched helplessly as her troops collapsed around them. It was almost brilliant, really. These droids weren't built to attack explicitly, but to confuse and trap the Resistance.
What had that stormtrooper said? That the droids were being controlled remotely?
"The cannons," Rey whispered to herself. She turned to Chewie and Finn. "The king's cannons! We need them to take out those shuttles. We shoot the shuttles, we stop the droids."
Finn and Chewie exchanged worried glances, then nodded.
"How are we going to tell them what's happening when we could wind up tangled in those things?" Finn asked, wiping the sweat away from his brow.
"We keep moving. I'll tell you where to go." Cold sweat ran down Rey's back, different from the sweat shed by exertion. She could tap into the Force and sense the droids coming, but would she be able to steer her friends clear of danger?
Her heel planted into the ground and she took off running. Finn and Chewie followed close behind, their toes almost snapping at her heels. The tree line, that's where they needed to go. Canaan's forces were lying in wait there, just out of sight and mind.
Once the burrowing droids had hit the scene, the battlefield had descended into pure chaos around them. Resistance soldiers yelled and crumpled to the ground as coils of metal clung to their legs. Red lasers met green overhead as the TIEs and the X-wings faced off under the blazing jungle sun. Despite all this Rey kept her head down and her arms and legs pumping with everything she had, keeping her focus in front of her.
An itch in the back of her brain alerted her. She screeched to an almost complete stop before setting off at a forty-five degree angle to her left. Behind her Finn and Chewie followed suit and she heard Finn shriek in surprise as the burrowing droids unearthed themselves a few feet away, swinging their tendrils into the air. Another few steps to the right and the three of them would have been laser fodder for the advancing stormtroopers.
The shadows of the towering trees engulfed them, but that didn't slow Rey's pace in the slightest. Looking wildly above her, she shouted, "We need the cannons! Aim for the idle shuttles, they're controlling the droids out there!"
Chewie roared in agreement and fired his bowcaster over his shoulder. The impact of the laser blasted a jagged hole into the vine-covered truck of a tree, sending a cloud of woodchips out and blocking the stormtrooper's view.
One of the king's Dorjaak subjects jumped to a lower tree branch above their heads. His tail straightened behind him and his dim yellow eyes grew wide with understanding. He threw back his head and let out a strangled meow into the foliage around him. Slowly, rustling noises drifted down above Rey and her friends. The rest of the soldiers up there were readying themselves, but she couldn't really see through the leaves.
Then the long, stone snout of a cannon, dense with detailed carvings, emerged from the top of the treeline. As they watched from the ground, more and more nozzles poked out to join the first. Gears clocked and mechanisms growled, like a gigantic droid had perched in the branches above them.
"Aim for the shuttles!" Rey shouted again, pointing the burning tip of her lightsaber into the sky. Her teeth gritted and her breath came out in short bursts through her nose
"I'm coming, Ben, I'll be there soon…" she whispered to herself.
Pap. Pap pap pap pap.
Violet blurs erupted from the cannon's nozzles faster than Rey could follow with her eyes. Finn and Chewie watched dumbfounded beside her, breathing heavy and lowering their weapons. Reaching out with the Force, she sensed air rushing impossibly fast across fat, black stones, streaked with ribbons of purple. So, they didn't use laser technology? At least not in the conventional way.
The effect of the blasts was almost instantaneous. The cannon shells ripped through the hulls of the floating shuttles like a lightsaber through steel. Pink sparks cascaded from the blasted points and smoke rose up as the shuttles fell to earth. Shouts of alarm reached Rey's ears and the footfalls of fleeing Resistance troops.
The burrowing droids seemed to screech like dying animals as they twitched and sagged to the ground, their connection severed with cannonfire.
A familiar female voice cut through the noise: "Move it, troopers, we can bring you to safety if you move your asses!"
Ames stumbled out of the cloud of gray smoke with an injured stormtrooper slung over her shoulder. Close behind her follow Sestro and Joran. They waved the rest of the defecting stormtroopers on towards the safety of the trees.
The droids were gone, most of the First Order forces had been captured or convinced to join the other side. Rey planted her feet into the damp soil and watched the beautiful carnage.
"Enjoying the view?" Eloisa popped up beside her, twirling her spear in her skilled hands. The tip of the blade crackled with energy.
"I just hope this was enough to distract them," she hoped.
"It will be if you get yourself up there in time."
"You're right." Rey took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Concentrate. You want to be where he is. Draw the line, cross the bridge.
"Don't worry. You guys have this. You have this." Eloisa put a gloved hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently. Her dark eyes sparkled knowingly "Just get back in one piece, got it?"
"Right." Rey smiled. She swiped a hand over her hair and felt a few strands come loose. She must look like a wreck, but that didn't matter.
She opened her eyes and there he was, a couple yards away.
Strapped to a chair and bruised around his eye, his wide brown eyes met hers.
"Ben!" Rey cried, running towards him.
"Rey! Take my hand!" He reached out and Rey clasped his hand as hard as she could.
The hot, humid jungle climate around her whisked itself away, now replaced with a cold, sterile air. She was on the Finalizer at last. But she wasn't the only one in this room.
The officers gasped and Penma let out an angry screech.
"How—Why…? Why is she here?!" she belted, reaching inside her jacket pocket for her blaster.
Rey's eyes widened in understanding, she wrenched her hand out of Ben's and whipped it around to the enemies blocking the door. Penma's blaster flew from her grip and soared around the tiny room, knocking into both officers' heads and rendering them unconscious. Before the colonel could utter any word of warning, Rey raised her hand once more.
The woman went as stiff as a board with her mouth clamped shut and her hands locked into fists by her sides.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Rey warned, then she squeezed her hand into a fist. Penma's eyes fluttered shut as she slithered to the cold hard ground, unconscious.
Rey fiddled with the chair's controls and managed to spring the clasps on Ben's wrists and ankles up. He stood himself up warily, rubbing at his hands. Red-hot pride flowed through him.
"I'm so sorry I'm late!" she cried, clasping her hands earnestly. "It's hell down there and I couldn't concentrate and—"
The rest of her apology was cut off as he leaned in for a deep, passionate kiss. His hand curled around her jaw and she gripped his arm like a lifeline, his sigh drifting along her skin. Eventually they had to break apart to catch their breath.
"Looks like you beat me to it," she admitted bashfully.
"Only because you were so late," he replied sarcastically.
"Right, so what's the plan?" Rey asked, steering herself back on track. "I see we've already got a couple to bodies on our hands." She gestured to the unconscious forms of Penma and her officers, sprawled out ungracefully before them.
Rey caught sight of Ben's lightsaber and floated it over to him. He caught the handle with no effort, as if he'd held the weapon for a thousand years
"Thanks," he said, then closed his eyes, concentrating. "Hux should be on the main bridge, giving out orders with the rest of his dogs. If we're quiet enough, we won't have any more people to hide."
They both let out a mutual sigh, then eyed each other with determination. Rey slung her lightsaber over her head and nodded.
They crept out of the interrogation room, the door sliding over Penma and the others and blocking them from sight. Rey couldn't help but glance over her shoulder one more time at her, replaying their battles in his memory. She gave her a silent, not-so-fond farewell before jogging away, hand in hand with Ben.
Black-and-white hallways crisscrossed in front of them, corridors winding into each other like a labyrinth. If Ben hadn't prowled around the Finalizer as much as he had in the past, there would be no way he could remember his way to the bridge.
Much to their delight, no guards met to greet them on their walk to the turbolift. Things had turned sour on Raspitar, after all, and they needed all of the troops they could get.
Once they were in sight of the turbolift, however, their luck had run out.
Four troopers in full gear turned around at the sound of their footsteps.
"Blast them!" nearly blocked out the loud "Dammit!" Rey shouted as they jumped behind the cover of a large doorway.
When Ben had summoned enough bravery he stepped out, twirling his lightsaber. Concentrate. Feel the blasts through the air. Not a single one should be missed.
One by one the green lasers met his violet lightsaber blade and were deflected into the surrounding walls and floor, hissing and spitting. The soldiers slowly lost ground as shots backfired in their direction. Rey trotted up behind him and watched his six, her lightsaber at the ready.
The stormtroopers crumpled to the floor with some well-timed shots to their legs. They lay there twitching on the ground while Ben and Rey stormed past.
The pair arrived in what appeared to be one of the major control centers of the ship. Long black columns of machinery rose from the floor hundreds of feet below them and towered into the ceiling. Little red lights blinked on and off under sterile lights from above. Only a slim walkway with branching paths showed themselves, high above the collecting fog that swirled just out of reach.
"Watch your step," Rey warned him, but he didn't need her to see how dangerous this place could be. One misstep and you were a goner, anyone with a brain would tell immediately.
Rey took his hand and, praying that no more troops would spring on them, they trotted across the beams, boots rattling the grates below them.
"He's just up ahead, I can sense it," Ben shouted behind her.
Rey reached out but felt nothing. She assumed that because of their rocky history Ben seemed more in tune with his frequency.
"We'll get him, don't worry."
"Oh, I'm not worried about that." Even without seeing his face she could tell that his teeth were locked together in a grimace.
A door materialized out of the gloom and Rey bit at her tongue as she quickened her pace. Ben's hand clenched hers.
"Rey."
She turned to look at him. His eyes, dark brown and impossibly deep, bore into hers. He looked afraid.
"I can't promise I'll restrain myself in there. It's Hux, you know that. I just wanted to say something before…"
Rey smiled sadly to herself, then met his fearful gaze. "I wasn't expecting you to hold back."
"Really?"
"This is a man who continued to tear up the galaxy even after you wiped Snoke out. I know how close this is to you, so don't be afraid of my getting angry."
She had told him to hold back instead of lashing out, to consider his options and then execute on them. But now was the time to put those lessons on hold. This man had to go down.
Ben slammed the door open and they ducked inside.
Black-capped heads swiveled towards them as desk jockey officers took notice of the intruders. Blinking consoles and huge supercomputers surrounded a main table about thirty feet long. All around the dark wood sat the rest of Hux's commanding officers. Some froze in their seats while others wore expressions of pure misery. And at the head of the table, of course, was the general himself, gazing pensively out of the glass window onto the main dock below.
"As you can see, we're losing the fight down there. They've figured out how our droids were functioning, and—" One of the officers stalled on his battle report at the sound of their new guests.
As soon as Rey and Ben readied their blades and began to bore down on the commanding officers, Hux whipped his head around and let out a high-pitched yell.
"Get these dogs off of my ship!" he shrieked. The general of the First Order threw himself to the ground with a thunk, leaving the rest of his people confused and helpless.
The rattle of unholstered blasters rang in Rey's ears. The next thing she knew barrels pointed at their chests.
For a few moments nobody moved a muscle. Only the buzz of Rey's and Ben's lightsaber blades penetrated the deadly quiet.
Suddenly one operator sprang up from his seat and rushed past Rey to the exit. Ben did a double take over his shoulder.
Hux peeked over the edge of his table as the rest of the desk jockeys rose from their seats and filed out of the door as quickly as they could manage. Dozens of boots scuffed the polished floor on their way out. The battle on Raspitar had gone sideways and it seemed appropriate for the lackeys to leave when they still had the chance to run from the Resistance.
Only Rey, Ben, Hux, and a half dozen of his captains and colonels stuck around the command center. Lonely blips and transmission chatter replaced the presence of the technicians that had abandoned them. But still those six officers stood still and proud with their weapons locked on and ready to fire. Though the anguished expressions on their faces betrayed their true feelings.
The mass exodus of all of the First Order's top technicians didn't seem to phase the almighty general one bit. He plucked himself up from the floor, red and fuming.
"What in the hell are you waiting for? Take them out once and for all."
Were a couple hands trembling? Rey stole a glance at Ben and saw that her partner's lips were folded into a resolute crease. He knew that they knew there was no getting out of this alive if they chose to fight.
"Leave now if you don't want to get hurt," Rey said simply, her lightsaber humming along with her words as if to reinforce her point. Ben lowered his violet lightsaber a degree.
Three of the officers left as soon as Rey had finished speaking, ducking out as Hux looked on with his mouth gaping in enraged surprise. The other three cocked their blasters and took aim.
As if directed to by an unseen entity, Rey and Ben raised their hands towards their enemy and splayed their fingers. The green laser blasts stalled in front of them and hovered in the air. They traded a determined glance and thrust the lasers backwards.
The green bolts hit the targets that had expelled them in the first place. The officers sank down to the floor with grunts of pain and didn't get back up.
Now Hux was alone. He back up until his back hit the cold glass window behind him. Ben advanced before Rey, storming towards the general with a fire in his eyes and his all-too-familiar snarl lacing his lips. His saber burned dangerously in his grip.
"Do your worse!" he shouted. His usually immaculate hair now hung around his pale face in greasy streaks. "It may not have occurred to you freaks at all, but I hold more power right now than you two ever could."
"Shut up," Ben muttered darkly. He was now within three feet of Hux and still shortening that distance.
"You think you've changed, don't you? Now that you've saddled yourself up with her lot. Think you're going to fix this whole thing?" A crazed grin carved itself onto Hux's face. He wrung his hands together over his coat.
Ben said nothing but drew even closer while Rey watched from behind.
"I'm the only one who can fix all this!" He waved his gloved hand over the sight in the window. Stormtroopers ran from one parked shuttle to the next while TIE fighters were being deployed down to Raspitar at random. "We need order, and your pain-in-the-ass Resistance is an enemy of that order! You kill me, and the galaxy is killed along with me."
Ben towered over Hux and glared down at him. His face was like a stone mask, unmoving and unreadable. Rey held her breath, her grip on her staff tightening until it was almost painful. Victory lit up in Hux's pale blue eyes, and the man let out a small laugh.
"The galaxy doesn't need order like you think it does." Ben's words barely floated over the whirs of the supercomputers.
Ben peered over at Rey, a small smile alighting on his lips. "It needs hope. And love."
Rey's eyes filled with proud tears as Hux's expression fell. He gritted his teeth like a wild animal and glared up at his former Supreme Leader.
"But I have power."
And with that Hux dove under Ben's arm and slapped the underside of the table. Ben swept his lightsaber up in a deadly arc and caught Hux in the chest. He let out a choked scream and finally crumpled to the floor, his breathing ceasing.
As soon as he was down, Rey ran to Ben and turned her staff off.
He whipped around and wrapped her up in a rib-crushing hug. He switched his saber off and buried his nose in the crook of her neck.
"We did it," he breathed, his lips grazing her collarbone.
"We did it," she repeated as a blush burned her cheeks.
It was all over. No more First Order. No more battles, no more running away or losing lives. Her friends were safe and the galaxy was free. No more black and white. The future was gray, and Rey couldn't be more elated about that.
The control room's lights switched off and were replaced by a hellish red glow. Shrill alarms blared in their ears.
"What's happening?" Ben shouted over the sudden din.
The floor shifted under Rey's feet and she stumbled to stay upright. Was the floor… tilted?
Oh no. What had Hux said? That he had the power?
Outside the window, the surface of Raspitar drifted closer and closer.
Author's Note: We're almost to the end, boys! I know this took a lot longer, but I made sure you got a little more bang for your buck. Hope you enjoy!