—STAR WARS—

CHAPTER TEN

Han Solo was now in possession of the map to Skywalker. That map would soon be in the hands of the Resistance. Kylo Ren was struggling to keep her composure, hands balled up so hard she felt her fingers would soon break. She thought that she would be done with that good-for-nothing smuggler, that criminal. In her chambers, the mysterious warrior locked the doors tight and proceeded to the very back, hidden behind a vault she scanned the artifacts in her own possession. Remnants of a fallen darkness that held within them great power.

She had a sense about her; the Force that ran through her soul was strong and when she touched such artifacts, they tend to have stories to tell her. She stared at them, opening the glass case that contained them, and with her un-gloved hand, lightly caressed the intricate designs—an old, deformed mask, melted away on a pyre, but the fires couldn't eradicate all of it. On the shelf below that was a singular lightsaber.

As her pale fingers touch the mask, she felt that familiar surge. The Force speaks to her. It spoke with as much potency and clarity as she was sure it had for the great Master Skywalker. Yet it was not subtle like Skywalker had described it…to her it was loud and demanding.

"I feel it," she murmured to the sacred relics. "The tug, the pull to the blinding Light. I can feel its dirty fingernails clawing at my heart. I can feel it stealing my will, leaving me powerless." She knelt down on one knee with her head lowered in dutiful prostration. "Please, Lord Vader, show me the true nature of the Force. Show me the true power of the darkness, and I will let nothing stand in my way again."

Trembling slightly, Kylo Ren rose from where she was kneeling. Once more, she caressed the artifacts, and once more she felt their songs. The object of Ren's fervour: the ghostly, deformed mask that had once belonged to a figure of rumour and legend and fear.

"I will finish what you started…grandfather."

—=O=—

While Finn's appetite had been sharpened by a strict military diet of synthsus, it was nothing compared to Rey's. In spite of himself, he could not help but marvel at the amount of food the girl downed. It was as if she had never eaten food in her life at all.

Origins didn't seem to matter, either.

They were in a private sky-box overlooking an arena on one side and a pod-racing track on the other. They were well away from the chaotic activity at ground level Hub. Apparently, it was Lando's private suite; someplace where he could monitor most of the going-ons around his establishments in relative peace. In the middle of the room was a circular table that they sat around, was filled with a wide assortment of food which took Rey's attentions rather easily.

The room itself was lavish. The walls that broke the panels of glass windows were pristine white, adorned with various artworks from across the Republic. A small testament to how well travelled he was.

Baron Lando Calrissian had told them that he was given this portion of the planet and the station to administer it by the Republic, mainly for the help he provided during the Galactic Civil War. It was originally an Imperial settlement where political hostages were kept but not imprisoned. It wouldn't be hard for the old swindler to transform it into a high-earning establishment. Rich people from all over the galaxy came here to spend their time and their money having a good ole' time, forgetting their worries or just having a breather from their lives for a time. Though they also had families come over every now and then.

Most of the hostages the Empire sent here were either from Naboo or Alderaan thus most of the building they constructed for themselves were in that style, and he was more than happy with that. Naboo was if nothing else, renown for making beautiful things, and he was able to capitalise on that well enough.

Rey couldn't help but stare at their host with a large grin, masked only by the food she gobbled up, as Calrissian regaled them on the tales of his exploits during the war, and his adventures with Luke afterwards. "I had only ever heard of Luke Skywalker from legends," Rey sighed. "Stories that space pilots tell me when they're passing through Jakku, and the holovids I've found. He was a Jedi, right?"

Lando chuckled and glanced at Han with a bemused smirk. "Ah, Luke Skywalker? He was the Jedi." Before he continued, Lando had Clanker bring in some more drinks, making sure to ask the other if they would like anything specific. After this, the old magistrate drew back against the seat, making himself more comfortable. He had regaled the tale of the Farm boy the Pirate and the Princess before. Many people had already heard it to death by now yet sometimes they'd still like it being told, recited even. "After the Emperor died and his Empire shattered, Luke sought to rebuild the Jedi Order. As the New Republic was taking shape, he scoured the galaxy in search of knowledge and enlightenment. Talismans and artifacts, ancient wisdoms lost to time, even to search for the first Jedi Temple itself. I helped him in some of these ventures from time to time, hooking him up with connections I had established years prior. That sort of thing. Lothal was the last place I saw him. But I suppose it begs the question of where he is now."

"Well, that's where we come in, Lando." Han leaned in closer to his friend. He pointed to BB-8. "Apparently my little friend there may be carrying a map that will lead to Luke himself." He gestured for the droid to come forth and had Finn help him onto the table.

Lando dimmed the lights and from the spherical droid, a light burst from his optics, and there before them appeared a holographic chart of stars, floating in a blue void.

Both Finn and Rey were mesmerised by the map, but Lando and Han however were left troubled. On the ethereal map was found no legend, no key, no indication of the placement of planets and star systems. It was just glowing dots. "This map is incomplete, see," Calrissian observed. "I'm guessing this is only half of the data. Not encrypted, just missing. And here," he pointed at the very corner of the projection, away from the moving stars, to a series of moving lines and shapes. He told everyone to look at it from his perspective and as they did so the found at a particular angle the shapes formed into a symbol: a winged blade of light. "A living sunrise…Symbol of the Jedi."

They all exchanged uncertain glances at each other, mostly to Han, who was scratching his stubbly chin. "It's Luke," he breathed. "He's calling out to us."

"With only part of a map?" Rey pointed out.

Again, she watched as the two legends exchanged knowing looks with each other, like a secret language privy to only them. "Luke often did that when he journeyed. He'd split up messages." Calrissian explained. "One part he'd put into a normal data chip, and the other he'd entrust to only one companion... his droid..."

"R2-D2," Han provided. "Cheeky little, machine. Not unlike you, Ball. White and blue, and fiercely loyal, with a side of sass thrown in. Saved our lives more often than I care to admit." He then turned back to the Baron. "Lando, we need a line of communication to Leia."

They were interrupted by the appearance of another visitor; a frizzy haired young woman, about the same age of Finn and Rey if not a little older. Dressed in an elegant white gown that complimented her dark skin tone, she approached them with a silver tray of cups surrounding a round, glass pitcher. "Ah, yes. Everyone new here, this is Jannah, my daughter." Said Lando as the girl set the tray onto the desk by the window. "Jannah, this is Han's friends, Rey and Finn."

Jannah bowed quickly at the new faces and then came in to warmly embrace Han. "It's good to see you, uncle Han."

"And you too, Jannah."

The younger Calrissian then looked about the room, noticing the absence of one of their members. "Where's Chewbacca?"

"Oh, he went down to make sure your father's orders get consolidated properly."

She bobbed her head and then turned back to the hologram. Suddenly understanding. "Resistance business?"

Han sighed and regrettably nodded.

"In that case I think I better leave you guys to it." She then walked over to Lando, planting a soft kiss on his forehead and wished him a good night.

Once she had gone, it was right back to business. Han told his old friend of his situation, that he had gone to Mygeeto where he'd last seen Leia and where the Resistance had set up shop in an old abandoned Rebel facility. He had found it abandoned once again. "By the looks of it, they had to leave pretty quickly; the place was a mess."

"Well, I didn't get any word from Leia, though I must admit I've been busy. Clank here's been doing most of the spy stuff." On cue, the battle droid entered the room again, and stood tall beside his master.

"What about rumours?" Han asked.

"A small tech hamlet in Mygeeto was the last major headquarters that Senator Organa had operated from. But after that it was reported that they had settled on Zeffo." Clanker started. "After which a legion of stormtroopers led by a warrior wielding a red lightsaber, perhaps a Sith warrior, lay siege upon the planet. From there, it has been quiet."

"Okay, I'm a little bit confused here," Rey started. "Stormtroopers, the Sith, the Empire; these all happened a long time ago. I thought the Empire fell and the Jedi returned. I thought you guys won."

"The fight is never over." There was a hint of offended distain in Han's voice, some resentment in this fact. The fight was never over.

"What fight?" Rey had to ask.

The baron of Canto Bight suddenly grew serious, and sad. "The only fight." He shrugged his shoulders and poured himself another cup of wine. "Travelling in the company of Luke Skywalker and his Jedi, I saw many things, learnt many lessons, including the sad truth that the fight against the dark side never ends…it just takes on different forms. The Sith, the Galactic Empire, and now as it turns out, evil has become the First Order. Like before, their shadow is spreading. At first, we thought little of them—they were just a little group of Imperial sympathisers, believing that things were better under Palpatine's Empire. Of course, it was made up of former Imperial leaderships, statemen and military personnel, people that actually benefitted from Imperial tyranny. But they were harmless. We thought they had no resources, no weapons, no formal plan, just shouting for shouting's sake." Lando sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as though the very thought had given him a headache. "We were wrong. They were a remnant of the dark forces of my time. Palpatine's final insult to the Jedi and the Rebel Alliance."

"Kylo Ren?" Finn inserted and both Lando and Han nodded.

"In some circles she is called the Starkiller." He then paused and looked towards Han, asking him wordlessly if he could proceed. The old space pirate was never too sensitive that a word could cause him pain, yet it wasn't a topic that he liked to revisit. But it was Finn who once again thought to provide some insight.

"She is leader of a warrior band called the Knights of Ren. They lead the First Order, not officially but I guess by default." He then tried to catch himself.

"Yet it would appear that the fledgling Republic was still too young. None of them believed the First Order is a real threat. Still don't." Han interjected, eager to move away from the dark Jedi. "At least most of them. The Resistance is more or less a secret. Not a very well-hidden secret, mind you. A task force of political hunters, meant to weed out those sympathisers of the Empire was unofficially financed by Republic leaders, former Rebel fighters. While the rest believed it would just perpetuate war, people like my wife believe that the First Order has been spreading under our very noses."

"That's why we have to face them," finished Lando, studying Rey intently. "That's why we have to fight."

"There is no fight against the First Order!" Finn had blurted out. His face had turned to smouldering anger as he slammed his cup against the table. "Not one that we can win. I don't know much about Kylo Ren— only that she got the moniker of Starkiller when she blew up Christophsis, and as soon as she showed up, the First Order knelt before her immediately…in fear."

Calrissian's eyes turned to Han who was leaning against his chair with something playing off as amusement on his face, as was his own. "You know, I've seen that look many times before. The look of a man who wants to run." He spoke like Han; the same mannerisms, the same way of thinking. Those two could have been brothers. "I don't blame you, kid. I'd run too. But once guys like Han and I are gone. You'll have to fight anyway."

Finn's smouldering anger was given a bit of a boost into something short of rage. The sparkle of his starstruck eyes had faded and he came in close to the baron of Canto Bight, as though he were to challenge him, dare him to strike. "You don't know a damn thing about me. Where I'm from…what I've seen. You don't know the First Order like I do…"

They were quiet around the table. Finn had drawn himself back, mortified at what he had just said. Looking around he spotted Rey's surprised face. Strangely, neither Han nor Lando shared that expression. They were more undiscerning. There was no turning back now.

"I'm…" he took one last look to Han Solo whose response was to simply nod at him. "I'm not with the Resistance…I'm not a hero. I'm…" He sighed once more, just trying to stall as much as he could. "I'm a stormtrooper. A First Order stormtrooper. Like all of them, I was taken when I was born, from a family I'll never know, and raised to do one thing. But in my first battle, after I saw what they were truly capable of, I made a choice. I was not going to slaughter innocents for them. And that's what they'll do; they will slaughter us all. We all need to run."

He had finished his rant and found his nerves returned when faced with the audience he had just unloaded all of his problems on. He just announced to the room that he was indeed a stormtrooper…an enemy. Suddenly his eyes grew in fear.

"I'm sorry, I…"

Lando raised his hand to him in dismissal of his fears, and shame. "Kid, we've all done some unspeakable things in our past. We've run, betrayed, lost hope. So, none of us here are on the moral high-ground, at least not enough to judge."

"That's my point, Baron Calrissian. This place…there's no chance that we haven't already been compromised by First Order spies."

"Kid, relax." Said Lando. "This is a very secure place. I spared no expense in its security."

Finn shook his head. They didn't know what he did. They didn't know the Knights of Ren like he didn't know what kind of creature Ap'lek was. "You people aren't the only ones looking for Jedi. Kylo Ren, the Starkiller herself is looking. I can't stay here."

The Baron nodded and handed him a data-stick. "I have a few associates working on a freighter for a friend of mine named Sidon Ithano—sorry, I mean Captain Sidon Ithano. His ship is bound for departure tomorrow, they take work for pay. This is an application form. Sign it and meet them at docking bay one."

He was apprehensive at first, thinking it could be a trap. In the end however, he did accept the offer and took the stick.

"No wait!" Rey finally spoke out and put down her food. "Finn, we made a promise to BB-8. You need to help us get him to the Resistance."

"I'm sorry, Rey." He said to her and stood up. "I can't help you." The renegade stormtrooper marched out of the room with what little pride he actually had. He left Rey looking rather shaken.

The scavenger glared at the two former criminals. Imploring them to do or say something, but they just sat there. Aggrieved, Rey stormed out after her friend with BB-8 zooming behind

"You alright, buddy?"

For a moment, Han said nothing. He watched Rey run after Finn and slunk back into his seat. After letting out a deep sigh, a mix of relief and sadness, he final glanced up at his old friend. Lando Calrissian had aged gracefully. Though he did not leave the fight behind him, he was also not all consumed by it. When the Rebellion was no more, he settled into his new life of leadership and principality on Cantonica with relative ease. Gotten married, had a few children, settled down. Often times Han found himself envying his friend's new life. "We should have retired, Lando. This fight…it shouldn't be ours anymore. This is a fight for the young and the spirited. We should be laying on a beach under the sun, complaining about how kids these days don't get it."

"Hey, buddy, I told you that whenever you wanted you could just come stay here."

"I know, I know," the old smuggler reasoned. "I would have taken the offer…it's just…"

"Leia?"

Han nodded. Domestic drama was never his strong suit and came as a rather rude awakening for the usually self-proclaimed loner. "After Kira…I guess heading up the Resistance was a way to cope. Heck, I initially thought it was a good idea at the time as well. Something to distract us. Now I'm tired."

Lando was sympathetic to his best friend's plight. Though perhaps he might not be able to fully understand it, he could see that his best friend was somewhat broken.

"We've been fighting for more than thirty years, Lando. Out of that time we had perhaps ten years of relative peace. Was all of our suffering worth just ten years of peace?"

"It was a well-earned peace."

"It was a cruelly limited one." With that, Han took another swab of his cool and numbing drink, the sweet and strong taste was enough to help the pain ease away. It was something he found himself doing often—too often. After his cup was empty, Han pulled himself up, the dizziness of the alcohol was seeping in though beyond his less than stellar vision, had not impeded too much of his faculties. He informed his friend that he was turning in and to keep him in the loop once they were able to locate his wife.

Lando smiled at him and had his daughter help him to his room while he himself went back to the secret operation room where most of his Resistance missions were conducted.

—=O=—

Rey found him at the very top of the stadium, on a balcony overlooking the starting point of what appeared to be a podrace track adjoining the casino. Knees tucked in to his chest, arms crossed over them and his face, nestled within. She couldn't see his face but already, she knew he was very conflicted and did not want to add to his burdens.

Neither of them wanted to break the solace that enveloped them, allowing the atmosphere of a million gleeful spectators cheering on as the flare-gun was fired and the podracers burst out into a rage of onwards momentum.

"I was ashamed of what I was," Finn finally muttered into his arms. "I was ashamed of being a part of something so cruel…so…" He felt his knuckled clench, his anger returning. "I am done with the First Order. I am never coming back."

Rey sat herself beside him. "No one's judging you, Finn. But that doesn't mean that running away is your only option."

The renegade chuckled half sarcastically; some self-distain evident in his tone. "FN-2187. That's my name. It isn't 'Finn'. My identification number is FN-2187, those were the first things I heard when I was a child, that was my name according to Phasma."

"Then where did 'Finn' come from?"

Again, Finn chuckled, but this time there was some genuine fondness in his youthful voice. "Poe Dameron, the Resistance pilot, BB-8's master. When I freed him and we were making our escape…he offered me a name. Finn."

For the next few minutes, all they did was sit there in silence, watching the race below. The announcer called out the final lap, passing some comments on a Rodian podracer who lost control of his vehicle and collided with a column. It elicited many applauses from the audience but was otherwise unremarkable. When Rey finally broke that silence, she asked him if he was really going to take that job on the freighter.

"What about you," he asked back. "What are you going to do when you've finished your mission? Going back to Jakku?"

"Deflecting, nice."

"Come on, I just wanna know."

The young scavenger girl had to think on that for a while. She shrugged her shoulders. "Yes…no…maybe? I don't know. I used to want to leave that hellhole, me and the other scavengers my age. Out of all of us, only three made it off world alive. Whenever I got the chance, I would hop onto a ship heading out, but Unkar Plutt would always find me…or at least that's what I say to myself." She sighed, her deep breath searing in her pain. "In truth I would just stand in the dark vaults of the ship's hull…until the crew told me to leave." Her mesmerising hazel eyes found him, tears forming were nearly blurring her vision. "Something was keeping me on that junkyard planet—yes, I admit what it is. I guess I just thought…hoped that my parents would come back for me."

Finn sighed, seeing her begin to tear up, he came in closer and placed a hand on her shoulder meant to comfort her.

"I remember them…my parents." A small, timid smile once again threatened to collapse the strong visage she had and Finn nearly forgot who it was he was talking to. Rey was strong, no-nonsense survivor with a hard shell, and this he got from only a few days in her company. "Sometimes I remember their faces, as clear as I see you. They're talking to me, smiling at me. What about you?"

"Have I ever pictured my own parents; you mean?"

The scavenger nodded.

"No, not really." Said Finn, plainly. "I like to think I was far too young for my disappearance to affect my parents very much. It was easier." The two teenagers chuckled, then Finn stopped. Paused by the sight of his friend's youthful smile once more. He then leaned in closer. "Rey, come with me."

"Finn…" Rey was struggling to answer, feeling her own conflict sizzle up. "I would want nothing more than to go with you on more adventures. But we haven't finished our first one yet. The Resistance needs us, Finn. They need us to return BB-8 to them with the message, they need our help to find Luke Skywalker. Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

The renegade shook his head at her. "Once you see what the First Order id really capable of, what Kylo Ren is capable of, Rey…then you'll understand."

The young scavenger bobbed her head, saddened and disappointed. She got up and placed a hand on his shoulder. "In that case, good luck, FN-2187." She vanished into the casino once more, leaving her fearful friend out in the cold, alone.

Finn was gobsmacked, but his conviction was resolute now. As he watched the race begin again, his mind began to wonder and took out the data-stick. A fresh start…a proper fresh start.

—=O=—