CHAPTER 26

"Mom, I don't want to go to the Jedi temple. I want to stay here with you and dad."

"I know, Ben. I would like to keep you with us too. But you will be fine there. You're going to learn a lot from Luke. And when you're ready, you will have a magnificent lightsaber, like your uncle's."

She'd cried so much that day, and had felt so guilty afterwards. But today was different. There was still water in her eyes, but the pain had given way to joy and relief, but also apprehension.

She was standing over her son, Elias' body stretched out at her feet, and she watched Ben get up slowly with a stunned look and parted lips. She let the lightsaber fall to the ground and, just before her legs gave way, her son grabbed her arm to support her.

It was the first physical contact they'd had in twenty years. Ben's huge fingers clasped hers tightly. She suppressed a grimace. Her wrist must have been sprained, maybe even broken. But she didn't care.

All she wanted, right now, was to feel the warmth of her boy's palm against her skin…and for time to stop.

Now, there was no more mask to prevent her from seeing the man he had become.

A long scar streaked across his right cheek. A hematoma blued at the corner of his jaw and his cheekbone was split. But the moles she used to cherish when he was a child still dotted his face. He had the same mouth as his father's. And he had her eyes.

He was so broad, so tall, so beautiful ...

"You're hurt," he breathed.

She had already heard him speak through the Resistance's communications channel, but he had never addressed her directly. She detected panic in his words and her heart skipped a beat. She had only bruises and a slight head wound, unlike Rey who was still unconscious a few meters away.

"It's nothing. You have to go see to her. Quickly," she replied, overcome with emotion.

Ben released her hand and rushed over to Rey. At the same time Chewie, Ferr Cox, and the rest of the rebels burst into the room. When the Wookiee saw Leia wobbling in the back of the hall while her son was kneeling near Rey's seemingly lifeless body, he let out a raging cry and aimed his crossbow at the former Supreme Leader.

"No, Chewie!" the general yelled, leaning on the column behind her.

The hairy giant hesitated, then groaned before reluctantly lowering his gun. Leia knew very well what the Wookiee was thinking. Ben was her son, and he had left the First Order, but that did not change the fact that he had killed Han.

One of the rebels ran to her.

"General, are you all right?"

"The stormtroopers…" she evaded.

"All the soldiers were neutralized."

"And Finn?"

"Rose is with him. He is seriously injured."

Ben hadn't even realized that the Resistance fighters had joined them, so focused was he on Rey. Her flesh was burned from the top of her shoulder to the hollow between her breasts, but she was breathing. She was alive, and that was all that mattered. As her eyelids fluttered, Ben stroked her hair before returning his attention to the still-active shield. A few rebels stepped forward and fired blasters at the energy field. It was a waste of time, as their shots were all absorbed by the luminescent barrier. Through the blue veil, Leia could see the countdown symbols scrolling down inexorably. A few years earlier, under the supervision of Luke, she had learned the basics of the Sith language, and she saw with horror that there were only a few minutes left before the explosion.

Her son then moved away from Rey to approach the desk.

Leia saw him raise his arm towards the sphere and take a deep breath. She felt the vibration all around her and the silent call from Ben invoking the power of the Force. He was trying to channel the intangible flow to redirect it to the shield. He wanted the barrier to give up. It was indeed their only chance, since weapons were ineffective.

"Bring me to his side," she asked the man who was supporting her.

"General, you are too weak…"

The rebel was right. She could barely stand.

For a short time, the energy field flickered and lost intensity. Ben's features were distorted by the colossal effort he was making. Sweat ran down his temples, and the veins in his neck seemed ready to explode. He was struggling with all his might—but Leia felt him weaken. The shield was resisting. Her son couldn't do it alone. When the countdown was complete, the bomb would wipe the entire system off the galaxy map.

Then a calm, determined, and familiar voice rose from the depths of the Force.

"Hold on, Ben."

Leia's entire body shivered when she witnessed, dumbfounded, the appearance of her brother's ghost alongside her son.

Skywalker put his hand on Ben's shoulder and suddenly, the Force was unleashed all around the two men.

The rebels, who did not quite understand what was going on, instinctively backed away.

A few meters away, Rey, who had also seen Luke, made a painful attempt to get up.

Every muscle in Ben's body was igniting, and he let out a heartbreaking rattle. He sensed his uncle combine his power with his and realized that he no longer harbored any bitterness or hatred towards him. His anger, his desire for revenge were gone.

Then the defining moment came. The lead case buried deep in his chest cracked open, and a new energy spread in his veins and throughout all his nerve fibers. He let the Light diffuse in each part of his being and slowly combine with the Darkness. The two opposing forces seemed to savor their unexpected reunion for a moment before a burst of raw power surged down his arm and a stream of dazzling lightning flashed out of his fingertips to strike the energy field.

A fault line appeared on the surface of the sphere, and then everything happened quickly. Rey's slim figure entered his field of view. Without him being able to do anything, the young woman rushed into the breach to find herself finally facing the desk.

Seeing her cross through in his place disconcerted Ben and he collapsed, out of breath, at the foot of the shield that had once again become impassable. Luke's ghost vanished as suddenly as it had appeared, and Ben shouted:

"Rey! Switch off the shield!"

Sylla's small metal disc was still placed on the desk near the bomb. The scavenger reached out to grab the object, but against all odds, Ben saw her pause.

"Rey!" he yelled again.

But the young woman was paralyzed. The voice in her head had returned. Petrifying. Deafening. She felt like the fire from her wound was now spreading throughout her arm, and there was no way she could focus on anything other than that burning sensation and the words echoing in her mind. Her eyes had drifted towards the holocron. Locked in the sphere, she was now suffering the full force of the dark and terrifying power emanating from the artifact. Ben was screaming something, but nothing was piercing the fog enveloping her brain except the voice…

"My child ... my flesh and my blood …"

Darkness wanted to enter her again and, more than ever, she felt drawn to this promise of greatness. A huge shadow draped in a large hooded tunic had just taken shape before her closed eyelids.

She immediately knew who the man was. It was him. It was Palpatine.

"The power of the Dark Side is limitless. "

The attraction was unbearable. Beyond words, she felt it, this infinite power. She had access to it. It was there buried deep inside, her fascinating and terrifying heritage. She just had to let go and she could stop the bomb. She knew she would be able to control the holocron alone, because the emperor had imbued the object with his power and because her great-grandfather's blood was flowing in her veins. That if she embraced the Dark Side, she would become more powerful than any creature living in this galaxy. More powerful than all the Jedi put together, more powerful than Snoke had ever been… More powerful than Sidious himself.

She could no longer ignore the fury which brooded in the depths of her soul, her wasted childhood on Jakku, this father who had erased her memory, this mother who had not seen fit to offer her all her love. So she let her anger come out, along with the sadness and the darkness that she had repressed for so long. She had the right to blame them all, the right to want to be strong. But instead of being consumed by all this hatred, the Light inside her merged with the Dark and Rey was overwhelmed by an immense feeling of fullness, of accomplishment ...

A balance.

Ben had retrieved Elias' lightsaber and was now trying to split the shield with the sheer force of his despair.

Leia had started to shout too, trying to get a reaction out of Rey. There were only twenty seconds left on the cylinder countdown.

But Rey saw none of this. Eyes closed and face transfigured, she brought her hand to the holocron.

A sneer echoed near her ear, and the red glow in the center of the artifact pulsed like a beating heart.

Just as her fingers came into contact with the cold metal, Rey opened her eyes, her face adorned with a surreal glow.

"Stop," she ordered in a breath.

Then the facets of the holocron closed and the countdown stopped.

OooooO

The two armies were clashing in orbit around the planet. The destroyers called by Hux had finally arrived from the far reaches of the galaxy where they were stationed, and enemy ships were now shooting at each other at point-blank range. Three rebel cruisers in flames ended their suicidal course against battleships of the First Order. The Hapan squadrons prevented the star fortresses from using their surface guns, and the bombers piloted by the Sullustans unloaded their last shells before trying to escape disintegration under heavy fire from First Order TIEs. Explosions rocked the ships, and the groung began to vibrate under the boots of the all-new Supreme Leader.

"Communications established with the Finalizer, Sir," the operator announced

"Finally…" the redhead spat, raising his voice to cover the noise of the turbolasers. "Peavey, do you hear me?!"

"General Hux, this is Captain Bash. I took command of the ship. Captain Peavey had a little problem with the Supr… I mean with Elias Ren and …"

"Where is he?" Armitage cut him off bluntly.

"The captain is in the infirmary for …"

"I don't care about Peavey! Elias Ren, where is he?" Hux shouted, losing patience. "Have you managed to neutralize him?"

Tension on the Fellfire's bridge was at its height. The soldiers were fidgeting in all directions in the pit and Palkott was barking orders, sweating profusely.

"General, I'm afraid he escaped from the Finalizer," Bash announced. "We found his Rattataki partner dead in one of the secondary hangars. Elias must have stowed away on one of the troop transports and returned to Naboo. He could not have done otherwise since we immediately took over all the other starfighter hangars."

Hux's eyes widened.

"He's returned to Naboo?"

"Yes, and one of our squadron leaders on-site contacted us a few minutes ago. Elias Ren was seen entering the royal palace, probably to retrieve the so-called Sylla who had been sent there with a mysterious suitcase. However, the child who came with him has remained on board. We put him in a cell."

Hux was suddenly afraid to understand and his blood froze in his veins.

"Wait a minute…What was in this suitcase? Have you searched his quarters? Did you find a small pyramid-shaped object? Have you questioned the child?"

The questions had flown like a torpedo salvo, and Captain Bash replied in the negative to each of them. The general therefore had confirmation that his fears were justified. Elias Ren had killed Yehnu and had managed to flee to Naboo to find Sylla. The holocron was still in his possession. Before Hux had revealed to everyone that the knight was an impostor, Elias had announced the annihilation of the Chommel system, so this suitcase had to contain ...

Kriff… So he would never be done with these damned Sith!

Captain Bash's quavering voice cut short his speculation by announcing another piece of news.

"Leia Organa and a group of rebels also managed to enter the palace. And before them, two resistance fighters with lightsabers attacked the guards. A tall man with a scarred face and a young woman. Do you think it could be …"

Armitage Hux was no longer listening to him. His brain was boiling. He managed, however, to catch snippets of the conversation that was going on between Palkott and his NCOs. "We are regaining the advantage. The rebel fleet is suffering heavy losses. Our firepower is greater. "

"General?" Bash was getting impatient and was awaiting orders.

The redhead completely ignored his subordinate and turned to Sergeant Elkarr, who was sitting in front of his screen.

"Contact the Harbinger."

The operator did so and tapped on his keyboard before announcing that the captain of the battleship was online.

"This is General Hux. Position yourself above the capital. I want you to raze Theed."

"At your command, General," Captain Elmo replied.

A smile then spread over Armitage's face. Despite all their efforts and the intervention of their allies, the Resistance had no chance. Kylo Ren, what was left of his knights, his mother, and this girl from Jakku would soon be annihilated, and the "Fusion project" would die with Elias and Sylla.

Nothing would get in his way now. All of his wildest dreams were about to come true.

OooooO

The holocron was off and Rey pressed the shield switch to deactivate it. Ben let go of Elias' saber and rushed towards her. He wrapped her in his arms before she fell to the floor, and while trying to catch his breath, he whispered in her ear.

"You did it, Rey. You did it. It's over."

Then he kissed her forehead, her cheeks, her mouth, and she was gently pulled from her torpor.

The rebels were still in shock. Stunned by what had just happened, they were staring dazedly at them.

Chewie let out a groan. Yes, the fight was far from over. However, General Organa could not take her eyes off these two beautiful young people so tenderly entwined. Deep down, she had long understood that the bond that united them could not be a coincidence. She was not mistaken, and she smiled in silence.

Then, as if to remind them all of reality, the comlink attached to her wrist started to vibrate and flash. The device was set up to receive messages from the Holdo.

"This is Leia Organa, we are in the palace," she responded in the transmitter.

Everyone turned their heads towards her.

"This is Dameron."

"Poe! Glad to hear your voice! We did it! The bomb is deactivated!"

"Leia, you have to be quick." Poe's panicked tone made the general's enthusiasm fall like a blow. "You must leave Naboo immediately. One of their battleships is positioning itself just above the region where you are. The Holdo's sensors have detected that their ventral guns are loading. They're going to fire on Theed!"

"No, no, no, not now!" the princess cried. "Please, Dameron, try to buy us some time!"

"Leia, they heard our call. Dozens of ships have come from all over the galaxy to help us. But the First Order Armada has also grown stronger, and we're losing a lot of men and ships. We will do our best to stop them and give you time to get out of here."

"Poe, I…" Leia's words were interrupted by a crackling noise and the communication was cut off.

For a few seconds, no one dared to make the slightest movement. Yet time was running out. It was Ben who broke the stillness by helping Rey down the steps of the platform. Then he left her in Chewie's care before going back to the desk. On the way, he picked up his and Elias' lightsabers from the ground.

"Go, we must recover all our wounded people and try to return to the Millennium Falcon. This is our only chance," Leia decreed.

Rey then realized that Finn and Rose were not there. She was about to ask Leia when she saw Ben grab the bomb.

The countdown was frozen with only ten seconds left. He quickly examined it, then unscrewed the top of the tube to access the stone's containment chamber. He removed the piece of alloy from its support and reduced it to crumbs in his palm with the Force. Then he dismantled the body of Elias' saber, retrieved one of the red crystals and introduced it in place of the amalgam in the center of the device. Once the top was on again, he placed the bomb under his arm, grabbed the holocron and returned to where Chewie, Rey and his mother were.

He faced the young woman once again, placed the artifact in her hand, and took two seconds to caress her cheek tenderly. The gesture made Rey shiver, and he sighed a "I'll be faster alone" before walking towards the exit.

"Wait, what are you planning to do with that bomb? And what do you want me to do with this?" she exclaimed, leaving Chewie's arms and running after him.

As they exited the royal office, Ben and Rey froze, horrified, when they saw that Rose was in tears, sitting in the middle of the gallery. Finn, unconscious, had his head resting on her knees, and she was pressing his chest with her tiny hand to contain the bleeding.

"Finn…" Rey's heart stopped beating. In two strides she found herself alongside the technician.

All the rebels had followed, and Leia grabbed her son's arm. "Ben, where are you rushing off to like this?"

"We won't all get to the Falcon in time," he answered, watching Rey inspect Finn's injury. Ben knew very well that the wounded and especially the young man were not transportable on the speeders that the rebels had used to come to the palace. "I will take the landspeeder that we left in the yard to get back to the freighter and try to reach the Harbinger."

"No." Leia shook her head, fingers tightening on her son's wrist. The tone of her voice was adamant and she had stopped breathing. But Ben had already made up his mind. He sensed that Rey was now staring at him too, so he looked away from his mother's desperate face to address her this time:

"I replaced the alloy with the red crystal from Malachor. The explosion should be less powerful than the one Elias had planned. With luck, it could blow up the entire First Order fleet."

"You won't have time to go far enough. The Falcon risks being destroyed at the same time as Hux's destroyers. Please Ben, you can't do this."

Now it was the love of his life who was begging him. But they had no choice.

"When I'm close enough, you will reactivate the holocron. I'll tell you, through the bond."

"No, wait ... I'm coming with you." But he was already running towards the exit. Holding tightly to Finn's hand, she shouted his name one last time before seeing him disappear in the blinding light of the forecourt.

OooooO

Ready to start the landspeeder, Ben froze when he saw Chewbacca jump in the passenger seat. The latter had roared, looking straight ahead and tapping his fist on the dashboard to signal that there was not a minute to lose. He knew Chewie would never forgive him for what he had done to Han. But Ben also knew that the Wookiee was ready to put the rebels' lives before his own, even if it meant helping his best friend's murderer.

When the Falcon's ramp lowered to let them in, he grabbed the hairy arm of the colossus to hold him back.

"I can do it alone."

Chewie eyed him from atop his seven foot two inches height.

"Dwaaargghhhh drooaugggg," he let out before turning on his heels and disappearing into the passageway of the ship.

"I know you're the best co-pilot in the galaxy," Ben smiled sadly, following in his footsteps.

OooooO

"Aim at the destroyer's ventral cannons!" Admiral Dupp Zar commanded.

"A dozen TIE fighters are covering the ship, it's impossible for us to approach!" Cova Nell retorted from her X-wing.

Poe let out a sigh of dismay, and at his feet BB-8 gently tilted his small dome-like head.

OooooO

The Millennium Falcon was invisible. Before taking off, Ben had fixed the second cloaking device on the hull, and the Corellian freighter was now zigzagging between metallic debris, torpedoes and laser blasts.

"Excuse me Sir, but how do you intend to cross the destroyer's deflector shield to place the bomb on the ship?" exclaimed C-3PO, who had now realized that he was part of a suicide mission.

"We are not going to cross it, we're going to send the bomb on board one of the rescue pods as close as possible to the Harbinger."

"If we don't get disintegrated before that!" the golden droid hissed after Ben turned sharply to the left to avoid a TIE fighter who, unable to see them, was flying straight at them.

They were no longer far from the destroyer and could even see the cannons' mouths turning red.

"Chewie, contact the Holdo," Ben asked.

The Wookiee opened the channel.

"Dameron, can you hear us?"

"Solo? Were you able to get off Naboo?"

"Chewie and I are aboard the Falcon. We will try to neutralize the battleship ready to fire on Naboo."

"What? But where are you? We're not picking you up on any of our sensors, and I don't see you!"

"I don't have time to explain, but everyone has to retreat and make the jump to hyperspace. Get out of here!"

"Is this a joke? Where is Leia, where is Rey?"

"Dameron! You have to trust me! Please! I have a bomb on board."

"But you…"

"Time is running out, Poe! My mother, Rey, Finn and the rest of the rebels are still on Naboo. I know I'm asking a lot of you, I know that I could never erase all the horrors that I did and that I'll never be anything but a monster to you. But please, right now, I'm just asking you to trust me. I'm begging you."

Chewie groaned to support his request while the crimson arm of C-3PO squeezed the armrest of his chair in a death grip in the back of the cockpit. They heard the pilot sigh at the other end of the line before continuing:

"Very well. But they'll chase us, even in hyperspace. Allied ships and half of our aircraft are not equipped with Rose's scramblers."

"If everything goes as planned, they won't have time to do that," Ben replied.

OooooO

Aboard the Fellfire, Caporal Cherm had a hard time believing what he was seeing on his screens. "General ! They're running away!"

Hux, hands behind his back and straight like an "i" in front of the observation bay, felt himself overcome by pride and euphoria.

The enemy ships were leaving the battlefield one after the other to disappear into the void of space. They must have finally understood that the First Order was the strongest.

"I want the trackers of the Finalizer, the Ravenous and the Fellfire start the analysis of the hyperspace coordinates. We will go after them and destroy every last one of them. But first, I want all ships to witness the destruction of Theed!" the soldier exulted.

OooooO

A series of explosions violently shook the Corellian freighter, and several alarms in the cockpit began to howl. A Sullustean starfighter had just been blown to bits on their port side, and fragments of the ship had struck the rear.

"Kriff!" Ben spat, trying to stabilize the ship, and Chewie got up to go check.

At the same time, a laser shot struck the exhaust ports of the Falcon. Then a second.

OooooO

"Captain Elmo, a rebel freighter is heading straight for us."

"Well, I thought they had all run away with their tails between their legs," the officer sneered. "Let our support TIEs take care of it."

"That's what they do, Captain."

" long before firing?"

"Thirty seconds, sir."

"Perfect."

OooooO

The cloaking device was down. When Chewie returned to the cockpit, Ben read on his face that it was apparently the least of their worries. The Wookiee informed him that the electrical systems on the right rear flank were damaged, including the pods release mechanism and the hyperdrive.

"No no no!" Ben yelled and he got up in turn, asking Chewbacca to take the controls.

"If I may say a word, Master Ben, I…" but C-3PO saw Leia's son disappear at the bottom of the passageway, and Chewie roared at him that this was not a good moment to complain.

In the hold, the pod containing the bomb was ready to be launched. The control box just needed to be repaired, but they didn't have time for that. An explosion was heard inside the lounge, and Ben went up quickly to see that a fire had started on one of the panels. The ship was rocking in all directions. Chewie was feinting and slaloming in an attempt to escape the TIEs' shots. Ben put out the flames and hastened to return to the hold. He absolutely had to find a way to eject this pod.

When he arrived, the door had been closed and the security lock was on. Through the window, he saw C-3PO in the launch chamber, carrying the two small thrusters of the emergency space suit on his back. The droid opened the pod and took out the bomb, then he wedged the cylinder against him and headed towards the manual opening panel. Grabbing the handle, he turned to look at Ben, who was standing completely stunned behind the window.

"What I wanted to tell you in the cockpit Mr. Ben is that since your grandfather made me, I have always done my best to serve your family. I know I'm just a protocol droid, but for once I believe that I too can accomplish something good for the galaxy."

The young man's throat tightened and a strange memory rose from the depths of his mind. A distant memory, but suddenly perfectly clear: he was five or six years old, no more. In his mother's huge official apartment on Coruscant, he was lying in his bed and crying as he always did when Leia wasn't around to tuck him in at night. So C3-PO had entered his room and approached slowly. The robot had sat on the bed next to him and flashed his photoreceptors in an attempt to make him laugh. Ben thought it was silly, but he did laugh. C-3PO then had told him a story to put him to sleep. And the next night he had been there too. And the evening after ...

As far as Ben could remember, C3-P had always been there, with the Skywalkers. A simple protocol droid, but ultimately much more than that ...

Leia's son then forced himself to tear his eyes away from the golden humanoid and hit the intercom button near the door. There was nothing he could say in answer, and his heart sank in his chest

-Chewie ... You have to make a passage closer to the battleship, he ordered.

The Falcon dove forward, and the Harbinger's turrets began to scroll past the passage window.

There was no more a minute to lose and C-3PO knew he had to hurry. He gave Ben a final nod, lowered the handle and disappeared with the bomb, sucked into the void of space.

OoooooO

Rey and Leia were waiting feverishly outside the palace.

Suddenly, the bond opened.

"Ben…" the young woman gasped.

"Now, Rey."

The scavenger closed her eyes, and her trembling fingers touched the top of the pyramid. A tear rolled gently down her cheek.

"I love you," she whispered.

"I know," Ben replied.

OoooooO

Ten…

Nine…

Eight…

A lightning bolt streaked across the cockpit windshield and Ben, seated once again in the pilot seat, pushed the throttle fully. The Falcon leaped forward and all of the indicator lights started to flash. The cabin creaked as if it were ready to go to shreds.

"Come on, damn it, come on!" he yelled as he and Chewie were pressed into the backs of their seats by the force of their acceleration.

Seven…

Six…

Five…

Standing still on the Fellfire's polished footbridge, the Supreme Leader of the First Order was jubilant. The moment he had always been waiting for had arrived. He, Armitage Hux, was going to finally become the master of the galaxy.

Four…

Three…

Two…

Hanging on the metal ladder of a Harbinger turret, C-3PO had a breathtaking view of the blue and green planet. When he turned off his photoreceptors, the bomb wedged under his red arm, his last thought was for his friend R2-D2 and all the members of the Skywalker family.

One…

The exosphere suddenly ignited without a sound, lighting up the sky of Naboo with a blinding blaze. The breath of the explosion was felt on the surface and the connection with Ben was broken.

Rey, who was still holding the holocron in her hand, collapsed in tears at Leia's feet.

OoooooO