Chapter VII.
"Conquistador" is fallen.
Synopsis: Rey talks to Luke Skywalker and makes a terrible revelation. Chewbacca saves Rey from the damaged ship. An unexpected help saves the alliance from the "Conquistador".
She was on Ahch-to.
She could clearly remember what has happened – she knew that the dying brain expands the notion of time and actively hallucinates for no more than 10 microseconds that feel like eons.
She was sitting on the top of the island, her legs crossed. The saber was in front of her, neatly placed on a grey rock polished by sun, wind and rain.
The ocean breeze was soft and mild. It was a brilliant sunny day. She felt alone on the whole island, with no sight of her Master. But for the first time in a long time, she didn't care if he was present or not. She felt perfectly content and complete by being herself and alone on that strange island.
She examined her arms: there were no wounds. Her skin was healthy and unbroken. In fact, everything seemed so complete and untainted in that moment.
She had no fear. She thought this might be that gateway to the other side of life, so rarely mentioned even in the Jedi texts. There was little chance she could have survived that blow – it was a powerful hit to the main control room that almost tore whole vessel in two pieces.
Ren was closer to the impact zone, making his own survival even more improbable. And who could pick them up on time in the open space? He was abandoned and betrayed by his own people. Her men were trapped onboard the "Conquistador". The last time she saw Snoke's craft, operated by Poe, they had at least 3 TIE fighters on their tail. She trusted him and his skills – she believed he'd lose them and fly away on time to warn the remaining Resistance and start the evacuation, only if he wasn't that kind of a fool that would fly back and try to rescue her from the ship's debris.
She felt tranquil and relieved. Only one shadow permeated into this place – the fact she tried to use the split second of his distraction to cut him down. No wonder the saber failed her – it is good that it failed her. Rey felt deep disgust to mere assassination, and this would be one.
She relished in the mild weather and closed her eyes as she heard her Master's voice from her left:
"Why are you here again, Rey?"
He looked like an old librarian interrupted in the middle of reading an ancient scroll he himself uncovered.
"Don't you know?" she asked him. "I am dying".
And she said it without a trace of fear or regret in her voice.
"No, you're not", Luke answered as if he was correcting a silly answer by his student, "You're being picked up by Chewie as we speak".
"Chewie?" she asked. They indeed signaled their coordinates to the "Falcon", but haven't heard from them until the Guavian ship was hit.
"You're a powerful Light", he said, taking a seat near her, "You're the kind of Light that doesn't go away that easily. That's why the Darkness pursues you so stubbornly".
"Kylo's men betrayed him", she said, "They must've realized he was the traitor who murdered Snoke. Even if he did survive, there is no one to come to his aid".
"Do you think the First Order cares who leads them, as long as their leader is powerful and provides them victory?" he asked, "Look more closely, Rey. There is greater darkness on your trail, and you know who it is. You felt it there on that ship".
"Snoke?" she whispered, her eyes widened with shock.
Luke nodded.
"He is the powerful Darkness, not Ben. Ben Solo was that mixed light and darkness since before he was even born. Leia told me about her intuition regarding her child. He is still alive, but his life is slowly leaving him. If he dies, Rey, he'll be absorbed by the Dark Side. Darkness is a parasite – it needs his strength to grow. Help him, Rey. Bring him back".
She felt the very earth under her trembled and the brilliant colors of the island, the sky and the ocean withered.
Her friends were alive, she could feel it. But they were caught deep in what was an imminent death trap. Kylo was badly injured, but remarkably, he wasn't thrown far away from her. She tried to breathe in and ask her Master one more question, but in the next moment, she felt herself being pulled back into consciousness.
Her whole body ached, the frost bites burning like her own flesh was being torn apart, her battle wounds open and hurt.
She had the oxygen mask on, but the air felt like an explosion of million crystals that penetrated her lungs. "Falcon" wasn't equipped with sophisticated medical equipment. This is the best Chewie could do. The creature released sad and desperate howls as he tried to bring Rey back to her senses.
Every single movement felt like it demanded a superhuman strength from her. Every single one of them seemed to last for an eternity. She tore the mask off of her and said in hoarse voice to wookie:
"Steer the "Falcon" 10 degrees to the east, and pull Ben in".
Wookie made a short, disgruntled sound.
"Do as I told you, Chewie", she said again, in a failed attempt to get back to her feet.
But Chewie remained conflicted and – motionless.
It was R2 who gained the control over the "Falcon", with BB-8 helping him.
Rey glanced at Chewie with discontent, but what reason she had to be frustrated? She didn't understand any of this herself. She was helping the murderer to survive. She was helping the Jedi Killer to stay alive.
Chewie growled, but helped Rey get up to her feet.
"Falcon" made a short turn and a quick maneuver. She sensed him being alive only barely. They had to retrieve him by tractor beam from the "Falcon", as Rey was almost completely drained and felt the effort would harm her, if not even kill her.
It all went for eons, Rey thought, when in reality no more than 5 minutes have passed.
As the door in cargo bay slammed shut, she came closer to him, staggering. She could clearly see how terribly bruised and battered he was as she put the oxygen mask on him. He felt cold and dead, but his pulse, although very weak, was there and she could feel he was struggling. Chewbacca had to pull him to the sick bay, which he did without an ounce of gentleness. Beast's unreadable face became feral and his gaze hardened.
"We can't lose him", Rey whispered, feeling the strain needed to speak was too much for her – nevertheless, she felt complied to explain it to Chewbacca the best she could, "If he dies, the Dark Side becomes stronger. Snoke is alive. I can't feed him with Ben's Force".
She tried to wrap Kylo Ren in thermal blanket the best she could.
Chewbacca howled in a low tone, mixing grief and anger.
"There is still some Ben Solo left in him. And yes, I was there and I remember what he did", Rey replied, "I don't forgive him. But his father did".
Chewbacca made a long, heart-breaking howl.
She felt frail and weary. Her blood dried on her as she went through all these motions almost robotically. Her heart has sunken low and she didn't even dare to ask Chewbacca where the remnants of their small alliance are. The wookie creature responded by gesturing to the dashboard of the "Falcon". He was always much more intuitive than an average human.
Rey saw a bitter fight in space – her stolen craft now caught between 4 TIE fighters.
"We must help them", she screamed and then coughed, "Chewie, we have to go there".
The beast roared and howled with some annoyance. He couldn't be on two places at the same time. It is little short of a miracle that he picked her signal on time at all – and she made him do the thing he found most repugnant and hurtful – he had to save his friend's murderer.
Chewbacca growled shortly.
"I am sorry, Chewbacca", she said, feeling the pang of commando guilt. She threw herself into the artillery cabin and switched on the locators.
Iavaomir escaped the doomed "Conquistador" with no more than half a dozen men. He was injured, bleeding profusely from his blue-pigmented head. He saw the Guavian ship hit awkwardly with their projectile before the "Conquistador" shook and moaned under the direct hit to auxiliary cannon that shut down half of their ventral engines at the same time. Frantically, he ordered the remaining guns to fire at Guavian ship, seeing the raptor crooking and falling freely in the space. It was still heavily damaged – but he didn't intend to be a failure for his true Leader.
He wanted the vessel evaporated.
And as he struggled to retain the order on the deeply shaken command bridge, the single Mandalorian warrior broke his way to the bridge, at least a half a dozen following his lead. A primitive bomb took lives of 3 his officers and plunged him over the ledge to the communication pods.
That was twice in one day he was caught off guard and he wholeheartedly resented the fact.
He tried to regain the control of the command bridge, but another direct blow slanted the floor of the ship. The lights flickered; alarms were roaring. With his peripheral vision, Iavaomir has seen that the stolen First Order craft came dangerously close, hitting their main engines with admirable precision.
He struggled to his feet and rushed to the control panel where he activated the self-destruction mode, taking two Resistance fighters down on his way to the panel.
He had no intent to let this ship fall into the hands of these wild partisans.
From there, he ordered a haste retreat and made his way through the launch bay to the remaining TIE fighters, salvaging as many of his crew as he could, and leaving many more of them wailing on the ground or caught mid-fire with the Resistance alliance.
He intended to continue the battle in space, leaving the Mandalorians and very few Resistance fighters caught in a futile clash with the remaining troopers.
He wanted that ship and her daring crew out from the sky. He would stall the time; preventing the craft to hyper-jump or rescue their remaining crew stuck onboard the "Conquistador". In the meantime, the Starkiller Ship "Invictus" would appear to pull the wreck of the Guavian ship and show its remains to the Supreme Leader. He needed only 15 minutes to stay battle ready.
The TIE fighters roared quickly from the launch bay. Iavaomir used their lightness and speed to attack the craft from behind.
Poe couldn't escape them on time since the craft was not quick enough for small squadron of TIE fighters at his tail. However, his gunmen hit one TIE fighter sending him on a downward spiral.
Poe let the vessel fall freely and abruptly similarly to a pigeon persecuted by a hawk, sending the TIE fighters in wild hunt behind them.
"Poe", his officer yelled, "Our main engine's been hit. We'll explode if we continue to engage".
"Sir", Kay cried out from the other side of the control room, "The self-destruction mode has been activated on "Conquistador"."
"I'm leaving no one behind", he yelled, "Revert all the power to auxiliary engines. It's enough to take down these flies. How much time is left, Nunb?"
"Two minutes and 24 seconds", Nunb yelled.
"Good", he uttered, "I'll get as close as I can. They won't stick on us so easily if I'm attached to their launch bay".
"Sir", Kay exclaimed, "I have connection to the "Conquistador"!"
Amidst the roaring alarms, Finn could hear Poe's voice yelling from the loudspeaker:
"Attention, Rebels! The self-destruct mode has been activated on "Conquistador"! Try to deactivate it! And take as many TIE fighters you can with their guns!"
"Damn it, is that all?" Finn thought to himself, feeling that he is surely coming to his wit's end.
He tried to move from his make-shift barricade, but was met with the barrage of the remaining Stormtroopers. He tried to return fire only to realize his old blaster gun jammed.
Finn felt stranded, desperate and useless. The Mandalorians were somewhat cornered on the command bridge, with Satine trying to bypass the blocked weaponry.
"Soldiers! I am FN-2187, I was one of you. Your leaders don't care about you. Your leadership has left you, sacrificed you! I don't wish your death!" Finn tried to plead with the remaining troopers, but was met with curses, accusations of treason and another barrage.
True Stormtroopers – programmed, conditioned and loyal until death to a misguided cause.
"FN-2187", a faint voice behind him said, "The self-destruct mode… I know how to over-write it".
"Who are you? How can I know you won't just blow us up even faster?" Finn screamed.
"You can't", the faint voice replied, "I am… I was a communication officer on this ship. Take this".
A small object came Finn's way and he reached with his hand. It was a miniature decoder with pre-set values.
"Insert it into the main control panel on the launch deck", the faint voice said. "But hurry".
Finn made the run of his life, tumbling and avoiding the direct hits of the troopers. Mandalorians saw his desperate attempt and jumped immediately to his aid, helped by the remaining Resistance Fighters, but were blocked by the desperate counter-attack of the Stormtroopers.
Finn felt the fabric of Poe's jacket soaked with sweat: he felt the dread like a physical presence pressing hard against his temples. There was no argument to believe the injured officer. These people were fanatics, born and bred to serve the First Order. But there was something in this young man's plea: perhaps his youth or perhaps his desperate position, since he was left right in the middle between two conflicted sides. Finn had nothing else to rely upon except his intuition.
"0k, let's do this", he murmured and inserted the decoder into the control panel. The electromagnetic bound clicked smoothly and immediately – just a quantum of normalcy caught in the trembling, mutilated ship.
The ship trembled again under another powerful strike by TIE fighters dead-bent to destroy the ship and all the rebels on it. The control panel flickered and timer went off. It was 22 seconds to the final countdown and Finn felt the peak of his dread coming at him. He couldn't tell, but he felt the timer was somehow accelerated.
"That fanatic has fooled us all", a feverish thought came running through Finn's mind, "and I helped him".
He thought about Rose and about Rey. They lost all contact with Rey too long ago and he saw the ship being hit some time after that. The total annihilation was avoided only because of Poe's desperate maneuver that disabled the cannon – however, not quick enough to avert the projectile altogether.
And as he found himself praying to unknown gods or forces to be merciful, the timer stopped. It was stuck at 0:03 seconds.
Finn sighed deeply. The ship tilted even more, dislodging blaster gun from one of the dead Stormtroopers and sending the gun directly to his feet.
And as he grabbed the weapon, prepared to join his comrades again, a familiar group of people stormed the command bridge, stopping the Stormtroopers' fire with their surprise attack.
It was Poe and the Resistance. They managed to lock the ship onto "Conquistador".
Iavaomir lost another TIE figher, hit by that rebel piece of junk. It was insulting on all possible levels. To add insult to injury, the timer was either broken or even worse, that scum managed to deactivate the time bomb.
He had no time to ponder on his many failures, being hit himself by one of the auxiliary guns from his own vessel.
As he plunged spirally downwards, the only thought that was left in him was that of rage and revenge.
He had only 3 minutes left until "Invictus" would come into range.
If he only lasted that long - he calculated with life and death, as he always did.
"Finn", Poe yelled, "The ship is falling apart. Come, quickly!"
But Finn felt obliged to bring the young communication officer with them. He jumped to his side, only to find him barely conscious.
"You saved us", he whispered to the injured officer. His name tag read "O'Hara".
"O'Hara, you're coming with us", Finn said, "We leave no one behind".
"And what about all the other soldiers", O'Hara whispered, with a bitter smile, "Oh, no. I'm done for either way. Go, leave me. You have to go. "Invictus" will be out of hyper space in 2 minutes. Go and hyper jump immediately – but first… take this to my family. Find Frank O'Hara on Lothal. They're farmers. They think I'm dead. Now they may know what happened. Tell them what happened".
Finn felt his eyes welled as he accepted the dying soldier's name-tag and a small locket carved in peculiar wood, with what appeared to be initials of at least 4 different persons.
"Tell them I never forgot them", O'Hara said, "Tell them Dev has never forgotten them".
"I'll tell them you died a hero", Finn promised, "A Resistance hero".
Dev smiled faintly.
"That sounds nice", he said simply and lost his conscience.
Poe screamed from across the hall.
"Finn! We have no time!"
Finn ran to his friends in a semi-delirious state. Later, he couldn't even remember how he ever got to the stolen craft or how they escaped, followed by "Millennium Falcon". But as they were microseconds away from synchronous hyper-jump, he had the glimpse of "Conquistador" destroyed by a powerful blast activated from the inside.
It was a force strong enough to crush directly against the incoming "Invictus", buying the small alliance additional time to escape.