Chapter 8: Goodbye Forever?
It turned out that Chewie had not been on the transport that Rey had fried. While seeking out a hacker named Babu Frik to reprogram C3PO and help the golden droid read the message that had been on the Sith Wayfinder, the group learned that the Wookie and the Knights of Ren had fled Pasaana on a different transport. Setting aside for the moment that Rey and Kylo had played tug-of-war with the wrong ship, the Resistance team mounted a rescue mission, using a First Order clearance badge given to them by Zorri Bliss, an old girlfriend of Poe's.
Landing right on Kylo Ren's Star Destroyer, Rey, Poe and Finn raced through the corridors. After the Jedi mind-tricked a couple of Stormtroopers, the three decided to split up.
"You guys get Chewie. See you back at the Falcon." Rey looked at Finn for a moment. Knowing there was a real possibility that Kylo would catch her, she realized: this could be it. It was now or never. Taking a deep breath, she had just made the decision, was just starting to propel her body forward to launch herself at him and kiss him...
But Poe and Finn were already turning and sprinting down the hallway. Swaying to a stop with inertia, Rey huffed out a breath. Oh, kriff. Now she would have to get off this piece of junk alive if she ever wanted to... She moved on.
Rey found the Wayfinder and recovered most of Chewie's confiscated things, but her Force Bond opened to Kylo Ren and they had a lightsaber fight right there in his rooms. Meanwhile, the men had sprung Chewie and were making a mad dash back to the Falcon when Hux captured them. The evil general marched the group to just off the hangar bay to be executed. Unfortunately, Poe chose this precise moment to needle Finn about what he wanted to tell Rey earlier.
Just when things looked hopeless, Hux turned on his own men and announced himself as the spy. He even let the group escape for the Falcon. Poe fired it up and they lifted off to hover just outside the hangar bay, where they could see Rey in a standoff with Kylo. None of them could hear how Kylo was revealing to Rey that she was the Emperor's granddaughter, and that Palpatine had ordered her parents killed.
The gangplank to the Falcon lowered, and Finn reached out a hand. "COME ON!" Rey Force leapt to him across the expanse, and Finn swung her around. Feeling herself nestle back into his wonderful arms, the pair hustled onboard the freighter and blasted away.
Seeing Rey and Kylo engaged in a fierce lightsaber duel just ahead, Finn made to dash forward amidst the ocean spray lapping onto the ruins of the Death Star. Jannah held him back.
"We can't follow her!"
"I can't leave her!" Finn bellowed. He was practically vibrating with terror. "REY!"
"We can't!" Jannah insisted.
At a lull in the waves crashing against the aged structure, he made to sprint the short distance to the two Force users. He ignored Jannah's screaming behind him. He was almost there when -
Rey turned between swings and saw her Finn coming. Coming to save her. She shuddered to think what Kylo might do to Finn if the ex-Stormtrooper was caught in his clutches a second time.
"NO!" she screamed, throwing out a hand and the Force. It was the hardest thing she ever had to do, to push him back, when she needed his comfort, his love, as her destiny became harder and harder to obtain.
There was a screech of metal, and Rey watched in horror as the section of the Death Star holding Finn and Jannah broke away from her own platform. High waves crashed up towards the air as the pieces broke, so Rey couldn't see what happened to her friends.
"NO!" she screamed in anguish. If that was it, that was the end, and she never got to tell Finn how she really felt...
But no, he was still alive. Somehow, she could sense it.
Turning back to Kylo with new rage, Rey continued the fight...
He was in the skies above Exogol when he felt it. Felt the agonizing tear of Rey's presence being yanked from this galaxy. Staggering against the wall of the ship, his face fell in horror.
No... No! The woman he loved could not be gone. Not before he got to tell her he loved her, and maybe even finally kiss her, if she'd have him.
Feeling Jannah next to him, a grief-stricken Finn returned to the battle.
It was strange relief, then, for the Force to later show him mercy, as Finn once again sensed Rey near him, and he realized she was flying an old X-Wing off of Exogol.
"Rey's alive!"