Linkonpark100 and Guest, thanks for reviews. Linkonpark100, Char Bright is indeed a combination of Char Aznable and Bright Noa.

Chapter 8 – Escape to Yavin IV

Char was on the bridge of a Star Destroyer and was surrounded by about ten officers, among them Max. Char was wearing a robe that was dark in color and had become singed while a hood covered his face. His eyes were yellow and glowing. Char and his officers were gazing at an immense fleet of Star Destroyers, Tie Fighters and Tie Bombers. The ships of the fleet seemed to be more numerous than the thousands of stars. A feeling of coldness and darkness could be felt all over the bridge. Nevertheless, all of the officers were smiling and seemed confident.

"My Lord", Max said, "we're ready for the final offensive that shall cripple the Republic."

Before Char could reply, his dream ended abruptly and he was shaken back into reality. Streaks of sunlight had penetrated the window and woken him up. He was lying on the floor of Jonathan's house. "That dream sure looked real…", he commented as he got up. He saw that no one was inside the house and so he made his way out. He saw Rey and Jonathan talking about something.

"Good morning.", he said as he approached them.

Jonathan smiled. "Hope you slept well last night. I am once again sorry for making you sleep on the floor."

"No need to apologize. I am a military man; I can handle a bit of hardship."

"We should be heading to Mos Eisley.", Rey said. "From there, we will be taking a ship to Yavin IV. "

"I will go with you up to Mos Eisley.", Char replied. "From there, I will see where I will be going."

"Why won't you come with me to Yavin IV?", Rey asked. "The First Order already considers you a traitor, so what are you going to do? Where will you go?"

"The past few days I've been thinking about going with you to the Resistance. But while you may be able to forgive me for my past actions, I do not think that the leadership of the Resistance will do so. They will most likely put me on trial and jail me."

"I will not let this happen.", Rey replied. "I will personally ask General Leia and Master Luke to forget about your past. You can make up for your wrongdoings by helping us against the First Order."

Char sighed. "I…damn, you always manage to persuade me. I will come to Yavin IV with you. Hopefully I shall not regret it."

Rey grinned. "I knew you would agree with me."

Char still believed that going to Yavin IV was a bad idea, but on the other hand he did not want to leave behind Rey once more. If he could, he wanted to follow her and be with her. Jonathan, who had been quietly listening all this, interrupted their conversation and said, "We should get going. We will have to walk for about an hour in order to reach Toch Station."


The three companions had been walking for almost half an hour. The glowing and radiating suns of Tatooine and the hellish heat made them sweat and exhausted. Jonathan, having lived in the desert for years, was somewhat less tired. He said, "In about half an hour, we will have reached Toch Station."

He smiled and then pointed at a small sand dune. "There is an old well there. Legend has it that people can see their fate in it. But none of the few people who have visited the well have seen anything. I certainly haven't."

"We should check it out.", Rey said. "They say that every legend has a bit of truth in it."

"Sure, follow me then."

Jonathan led Char and Rey to the well. It was made of stone and went deep down but there was no water inside, only sand. Rey and Char looked inside hoping to see if the legend was true. Rey could see only the sand and dust. Char, however, could see a dark figure inside the well. His face became ashen white and he was terrified. "Wh…", he stuttered. The figure was clad in dark robe and a hood hid his face. Before he could take a closer look, he was interrupted by Rey.

"What did you see?", she asked.

"Don't you see the dark figure?", he replied.

Rey looked inside the well once more but saw nothing. "No.", she replied. Char too looked once again but saw no one this time. "The sun must have hit me hard.", Char said and laughed.

"Indeed.", Jonathan replied. "You are not the first one to be tricked by this desert's illusions."


When Jonathan, Rey and Char reached Toch Station, they found it empty of people. A gust of dry wind winded through the maze of houses, whose windows were shattered. All streets were deserted and silence reigned. Seeing this, Jonathan rushed forward. There was cold sweat on his forehead and a look of surprise on his face. He couldn't formulate a thought and his face was washed blank with confusion.

"This place looks abandoned…", Char said. "Didn't you tell us that there are people here?"

"There are…", Jonathan replied. "This Station never had many people but it was not abandoned and had some modest traffic. Where did everyone go?"

Rey looked around and suddenly saw through a broken window what looked like a white figure inside one of the houses. "There is someone there!", she said.

"I have a bad feeling about this…", Jonathan said. He then noticed that the white figure threw something at them. "Look out!"

A deafening sound broke the silence that reigned in the Station as a grenade exploded near the three companions. They were barely able to dodge the grenade and the ensuing explosion. The white figure threw another grenade but Char quickly pulled a blaster pistol from his belt and fired at it, making it explode in mid-air. Rey ignited her lightsaber and rushed inside the abandoned building, searching for the white figure. The entrance hall was roomy and eerie. There was no trace of the mysterious figure. It seemed that the enemy, having thrown his grenades, had retreated deep into the house. As Rey walked slowly inside, she could barely see anything due to the lack of lighting. Only the glowing light of her lightsaber allowed her to see where she was going. She peered through the darkness, but she found no one within it, making her stomach knot. As she slowly moved forward, she stumbled on something; to her shock, it was a mutilated corpse. She let out a scream but quickly regained her composure.

Rey was sure that the killer was nearby. He must surely have heard her. She suddenly felt an urgent sense of danger. She closed her eyes and let the Force guide her. She could hear the slight sound of footsteps. She could hear the enemy pointing his blaster rifle at her. Rey quickly turned around and used her lightsaber to deflect the enemy fire. The enemy had finally revealed himself; he was a Stormtrooper. Rey rushed forward and stabbed her lightsaber through the soldier's chest, instantly killing him.

Having killed the enemy, Rey ran out of the house. Upon getting out of the abandoned building, she was met with a rain of enemy fire which she was barely able to dodge. Jonathan and Char were in no better position as they were being fired at by Stormtroopers from all directions. Jonathan deflected enemy fire with his lightsaber while Char fired back with his laser pistol and with accurate shots killed one after the other the Stormtroopers. At that same time, Rey was rushing forward at the enemy, wielding her lightsaber. She approached a squad of five Stormtroopers and used the Force to push them back. As they fell on the ground, Rey quickly finished them off with her lightsaber.

"We are not going to last long here!", Char said. "Stormtroopers are coming from seemingly every direction."

"We should get a speeder.", Jonathan said. "There is one in the local market. You and Rey go there and take the speeder while I get the attention of the enemy."

Rey and Char ran towards the local market while Jonathan, using his lightsaber and Force push, was attacking the Stormtroopers and getting their full attention. They quickly reached the market; outside the building was a landspeeder guarded by two Stormtroopers. Seeing them, both Stormtroopers opened fire. Char fired back, shooting on the head one of the Stormtroopers. The other, undeterred by his comrade's death, aimed at Char and was about to fire when Rey sliced her lightsaber across his chest, killing him. Rey and Char then jumped onto the speeder and headed back to save Jonathan.

Jonathan was being overwhelmed by enemy fire and had been injured on his left shoulder, which was bleeding profoundly. More than twenty Stormtroopers surrounded him and were firing from all directions. Although Jonathan was fast with the lightsaber, he couldn't possibly deflect all enemy fire at once. A shot injured his left leg and he let out a scream. He used the Force to push away the Stormtroopers in front of him but a trooper fired at him from behind his back and hit him on the right shoulder. Jonathan turned around and with a swift move beheaded the trooper. But he was exhausted and barely able to walk. He vomited blood and was about to collapse when the speeder arrived. Char helped Jonathan jump onto the speeder. He lied on his seat, bleeding and sweating. He was breathing heavily.

"Are you alright?", Rey asked.

Jonathan smiled. "As you can probably see, no, but we do not have time to discuss this."

The landspeeder sped forward and, dodging a rain of enemy fire, left behind Toch Station.


The Star Destroyer 'Conqueror' was floating above Tatooine while Tie Fighters were descending on the planet to scout its vast deserts. In the 'Conqueror', Max was in his private chambers and lying on his bed, resting for a few minutes. He had gotten a report last night that the escape pod Rey and Char used had been spotted nearby Toch Station and so he had ordered a regiment of Stormtroopers to occupy that Station, massacring all its inhabitants and setting up an ambush for the two fugitives. Max was sure that Char and Rey would head to the Station if they survived the desert.

The door knocked and an officer walked inside. He saluted Max and said, "Sir, your prediction was indeed correct; Rey and Char did show up in Toch Station."

"Did you capture them?", Max asked, jumping from his bed.

"Well….we…I…mean…", the officer stuttered, "We were not able to capture them; they escaped. They had the help of another Jedi too."

"Another Jedi?", Max asked. "That's impossible! All Jedi except Skywalker and Rey were killed by Kylo Ren."

"Apparently Lord Ren did not kill this one."

"Apparently, if you do not find them and bring them to me dead or alive, you will not last long here!", Max angrily shouted.


Jonathan, Rey and Char were walking in the docking bays of Mos Eisley. Now that they had reached the spaceport, they had to find a pilot to hire to get them to Yavin IV. But this was easier said than done. None of them had a significant amount of money on them and finding the right pilot could prove difficult.

"I didn't expect that finding a pilot would be more difficult than escaping Toch Station.", Jonathan said. He was walking slowly due to his injuries but his bleeding had been stopped.

"Do we have to hire a pilot?", Char asked. "We can steal a ship. I know how to pilot a starship."

"I do not believe that stealing ships is what Jedi do.", Rey replied.

"What about this ship then?", Char said and pointed an a First Order shuttle that just landed on the docking bay. The shuttle had three wings: one tall, dorsal stabilizer that remained stationary, and two lower wings that would extend during flight and fold upward for landing. The shuttle was mounted with two forward-facing double laser cannons.

As soon as the ship landed, the outer hatch opened and the ramp was lowered. One lone Stormtrooper got out of the shuttle. Upon seeing Rey, Jonathan and Char, he immediately walked towards them and removed his helmet revealing that he was in fact Finn.

"Finn, it's good to see you are alive!", Rey said and smiled.

Finn laughed. "I am hard to kill. After you were captured, I was about to break into the cells but then I learned that you had been saved by Char. So I disguised myself as a Stormtrooper and stole a shuttle."

"Don't want to interrupt your friendly conversation", Char said, "but the First Order will not take long to realize that we are here, so let's leave as soon as possible."

"Yes, we should leave.", Finn said. He then pointed at Jonathan and asked, "And who is this guy?"

"A fellow Jedi.", Rey replied.

"What? I thought the only Jedi were you and Luke. Whatever, let's go."

So, Finn, Rey, Char and Jonathan rushed into the shuttle. Finn ran to the cockpit, sat on the pilot's seat, pressed a few buttons, pulled a lever and the shuttle took off.


While the shuttle was journeying to Yavin IV, Char was sitting alone and thinking. So much had changed in his life in those few days. What purpose did he have in his life? What was he going to do now? He had asked himself those questions back in Tatooine and had no answer back then. He asked them again now and he still had no answer. 'What am I going to do in Yavin IV?', he wondered. 'When I was an Admiral for the First Order, I had a clear purpose; to rise to the top, to crush my enemies. Now, I have no purpose. The Resistance will not trust me to lead a fleet. I am no Jedi like Rey or Jonathan. What use will I be to them?'.

The only thing that Char was certain about was his will to follow Rey wherever she went. When he went to join the First Order, he had left her behind in Jakku and had always in his heart regretted that decision. Now, he was not going to do the same mistake again. Rey was more than his only friend. Only when he was with her could he feel a sense of happiness, could he forget all about battles and glory. She was the only person that could make him laugh and sincerely smile. When he was with her, he could ignore the entire world; he focused entirely on her. That was more than a simple friendship.


When the shuttle landed on Yavin IV and its crew walked out of it, they were greeted by Luke. When he saw Rey, he smiled and said, "I am glad that you are well. I had heard that you were captured and I feared the worst."

He then saw Jonathan. His face became ashen white and he gaped with astonishment. It took a second or two for the fact that Jonathan was alive to sink in, even though he was right before his eye. "I…thought you had died."

Jonathan fell on his knees and lowered his head. With tears in his eyes he said, "Master, I failed you. I could only hide from the enemy. I was…too afraid."

Luke's eyes slowly filled with tears. "Please, get up!", Luke said and helped Jonathan get up. "I…you don't know how happy I am to see that you are alive. You were always my most promising disciple. And you did not fail me; I was the one who failed everyone by failing to teach Kylo Ren and thus allowing him to fall to the dark side."

"That is not true Master!", Jonathan retorted. "You should not blame yourself for Ren's fall. It was caused by his greed for power. He has only himself to blame for this."

Luke then noticed Char. He approached him and asked, "Admiral Char, I suppose?"

"Yes", Char replied, "although I am no Admiral anymore."

"Jedi do not believe in killing prisoners and I am indeed relieved that Rey did not have to kill you.", Luke said. "But although I will make sure that your life shall be spared, I will have to discuss with the leadership of the Resistance about what will happen to you. For the moment, you will have to be temporary detained in the cells."

Rey intervened. "Master, Char has already left behind the First Order and has since saved my life more than once. Why detain him? He is of no threat to us. He can make up for his past wrongdoings by aiding us."

Before Luke could reply, Char said, "If Master Skywalker feels safer with me in the cells, then I have no problem with that."

"The detainment was meant to be only temporary.", Luke assured Rey. "But since you can guarantee for him, I will let him free. But he will have to come with me to see the leadership of the Resistance."

Luke led Char and Rey to the headquarters of the base. There, Leia and the rest of the Resistance leaders were waiting. Leia was surprised to see Char; she had heard that Rey had been captured and managed to escape but she had not heard any news about Char and so she thought that he must still have been with the First Order.

"It's good to have you back.", Leia said to Rey. "But what is Char doing here? I thought you were captured, so how did you manage to capture him?"

"I did not capture him. He helped me escape from the First Order.", Rey explained. "He has left behind the First Order, so I must ask you to forgive him for his past wrongdoings and give him a second chance."

"I understand that you are old friends but he still has-"

"General, he can make up for his mistakes by aiding the Resistance.", Rey said, interrupting Leia. "Please, I can guarantee that he has turned over a new leaf."

"Is that really so?", one of the Resistance leaders asked. "Or is he using your relationship to fool you?"

"I believe in Rey's judgment of characters.", Leia replied to him. "If Char was truly an evil person, Rey would have not befriended him in the first place. I believe in second chances and we do not kill prisoners; if we did so, we would be no better than the First Order."

She then turned to Char and asked him, "Why did you leave the First Order?"

Leia and the rest in the room expected him to say that he realized how cruel the First Order was or that he saw how truly evil they were; that he was just temporary blinded by his quest for glory. Char simply said, "Because of Rey. I could not be her enemy."

Char did not care that much about the brutality of the First Order. Back in Jakku he had gotten used to the idea that this was a brutal world and the savagery of war only reinforced this belief of him. What he cared about was Rey. If it was not for Rey, he would have still remained in the First Order.

"If it wasn't for Rey, you would still be Admiral of the First Order?", Leia asked.

"Indeed. I must be honest with you. I have come to the Resistance not because I care that much for your cause, but because Rey is here."

'I would follow her to the ends of the world.', he thought but did not say. He was always unwilling to let out his emotions, especially in public. He had already said too much.

When Rey heard Char say those words, she was instantly reminded of their time together back in Jakku. One night, when they were lying on a sand dune and watching the bright stars on the night sky of Jakku, he had told her that he would follow her to the ends of the world. She still remembered those words and she could understand what Char was thinking right now.

"Very well", Leia said, "since Rey is willing to assure us that you have turned over a new leaf and since you have left behind the First Order, I shall allow you to stay here. You may be of help after all."

Rey could not help but smile. Char too smiled although briefly. He knew that Leia and the Resistance leaders would not trust him with any important task and he was still wondering of what use he could be to them and what his purpose in life was. But at last he could be with Rey and that was what mattered to him the most.