Rey's heart dropped as Finn fell off the edge of the shuttle pad while struggling with a guard. The other two guards lay unconscious, and that didn't matter because Finn was falling.

She threw herself to the ledge, catching sight of him. Instantly, she reached out with the Force, trying to grab hold of him the way she'd first taken hold of her lightsaber. Energy flowed through her, but it was scattered, terrified. She felt the tendrils of her power wrap around him, slipping past without capturing.

She couldn't catch him.

"Use your fear! Your power will come to you!" Kylo shouted in her brain.

She felt his annoyance, and in a moment, she sensed intense energy crackling, but not through her. Kylo held out his hand and gestured up. As she watched, Finn's descent slowed and stopped. The guard's did not. Even at the great distance, she thought she could hear the smack as he hit the ground far below them.

Finn floated up and was dropped ungraciously to the shuttle pad, where he gasped and trembled. Rey ran to his side, touching his arms, reassuring herself he wasn't dead.

He gulped a breath. "You caught me."

"I didn't," she said, staring at Kylo. Poe wore a face she couldn't read at all. He helped Finn to his feet.

"Why?" Finn's voice had steadied, but filled with confusion.

"I am sure most people say 'thank you,'" said Kylo. "Even you were taught that in the crèche."

"Thank you for saving my life," Finn said. "Why?"

"You are useful. Get on the shuttle."

She felt Kylo's self-satisfied smirk as he turned away from them. She also heard the thought both Finn and Poe had at the same moment: if Kylo had fallen, both would have let him hit the ground. Rey couldn't have caught him if she'd tried. She had nearly let Finn die because she couldn't control her powers.

"I should have punched you and made you furious."

"Why do you have to be so awful all the time?" Yet he'd saved Finn, and she saw the underlying reason, no matter how well-hidden Kylo believed his motives were.

The sounds of pursuit shook her from her reverie. The other guards would be close on their heels. She boarded the jump shuttle behind the others, closing the door. Already, Poe and Kylo were sniping at each other at the controls. There was no pilot, and both intended to fly.

"It's automatic," Finn said, sliding between them and slamming the 'Go' button. The jump shuttle lifted off smoothly, heading for its programmed destination. Behind them, more guards emerged onto the shuttle pad to find their concussed colleagues.

Poe said, "How did they figure out where we were staying?"

"Does anyone else with the First Order know Naberrie is a family name?"

Kylo ignored her, which meant 'yes.'

Despite Finn's fears, there were no guards waiting for them at their ship. "We'll just take a different one," Rey had said, and he was still too light-headed from his near-death to point out she was casually suggesting stealing. Again.

Poe disappeared with their remaining credits and met them at the spaceport with a loaded hovercart full of rations and extra fuel cells. "We don't know how long this will take," he said, loading them into the tiny cargo hold of the little blue ship. "How does she look?"

Rey said, "She's in better condition than the one I came here in." She went inside and began checking all the systems one more time to be sure. Finn followed her on board. Ren went straight to the communications panel and popped the cover.

"What are you doing?"

"We'll want to listen in on First Order transmissions. We need those frequencies." Finn watched him reset the electronics under the panel.

"Don't forget the subfrequency. Ships don't use that one, but they always sent us our orders that way."

Ren's hand hesitated over the board. "I know about the subfrequency. I'm not sure where to locate it."

"You wouldn't." Finn grabbed the board from him and fixed in on the same subfrequency he'd heard inside his helmet for most of his life. "There. You find us fleet movements, I'll find us where the ground troops are going."

Poe stood behind the pilot's chair, watching them. "Will your codes still work?"

"FN-2187's won't. Mine will."

"I don't use that name any more."

Ren shrugged. "There." He plugged in the panel and dialed in the main First Order channel, typing in a long code string which Finn tried to memorize for later. Voices floated through the cockpit, and Finn was back in the First Order for a haunting moment, waiting to be told his next action. Boring communications droned over the speaker, relaying coded positions and supplies.

Poe slid into the pilot's seat. "Strap in." He eased the ship out of the dock. They weren't shot at or followed. Finn let out his breath and sat in the co-pilot's chair for their ascent. Ren went aft to find a seat.

"We'll need a route," said Poe, switching the radio over to a different channel. "Send out a message to frequency two nine gamma four."

Finn opened the frequency. "What should I say?"

"Echo echo. Fly away home."

Finn repeated the message over the channel. Poe had tried several different channels and code phrases on their way here. They'd never heard a reply. He didn't expect one now.

"We will be able to find them. Right?"

"We will. They may be using the short range transmitters to keep from being overheard. We'd have to be closer. We'll travel the hyperlane. Why don't you do the flight plan? It'll give you some practice."

"I'm never going to learn to do this as well as you do."

"No. But you can learn to do it as well as you can. Try."

Finn remembered his last lesson on the nav computer, and ordered up a short route. He plugged in the numbers. "Okay."

"Good job."

After they entered hyperspace, Rey joined them in the cockpit, Ren close behind her. "Where are we going?"

"We're still trying to reach the Resistance fleet. We can figure out our next move then."

Ren pushed past him and dialed in the First Order channels again. "As much as I'd like to discover exactly where your latest secret base is, we've got other priorities."

Moments later, a droning voice said, "Dragon bird on route to Outland Base."

"I know that one," said Finn. "Isn't Outland Base on Khar Delba?"

"Khar Shian." At their blank looks, he said, "The moon. We retreated the remainder of our forces from Starkiller Base. They're taking her there."

"What?"

"'Dragon bird' is one of the First Order's codes for General Organa."

"I like it," Poe said.

"You would. They're taking her to Lord Snoke. Can we intercept?"

"Sure." Poe spun in his chair. "We can reach the star destroyer before they hit your secret base, and engage them in our rusty shuttle with no weapons. Are you this stupid all the time? Because I just had a big boost in confidence about how the Resistance is going to fare if you're the best they've got."

"You think you'll do better against the secret base with the combined forces of all the First Order's star destroyers? Be my guest but I'd like to disembark first."

"We can't fight them," said Rey, and she looked at Finn. "You got into Starkiller Base through a back door when you came looking for me."

"We had the best pilot in the galaxy fly us in. He's dead now."

Ren didn't rise to the bait. "A full assault wouldn't work, not even if we had your fleet. There is no back entrance. There's only the front door."

Poe shook his head. "Then we've got nothing. I can chart us a path to get to the Khar Delba system in a day, especially if we rig in those extra fuel cells."

"We can push the engines faster with the Force," Ren said, looking at Rey with a smile Finn didn't like.

She said, "The ship won't get us home if we do. I can line in the fuel cells."

Poe said, "I said, we can get there. But unless you have a plan to sneak us inside to grab the General, it doesn't do us any good. We'll arrive in time to be captured ourselves. Was that your idea all along? You couldn't catch Finn or defeat Rey but here they are, walking right into the base with you. You'll betray her to Snoke and turn him over for execution. Don't give me some story about wanting to rescue your mother. These two watched you kill your own father. You've been using us all along."

Anger and fear lit his words. Ren's fingers had been inching closer to his lightsaber for a while. They'd start fighting any second, and there went the truce.

Finn said, "You're a genius. That's it."

Ren's hand dropped from his weapon. "That would work. That would work perfectly."

"What would?" Poe was still spoiling for a fight.

Rey stared at Ren a moment. "You're right. Poe, you're brilliant." She kissed his cheek.

"What just happened?"

Finn said, "We're going to walk through the front door as the prisoners of the Dork Lord here."

"No, we're not."

"It will work," said Ren. "I never planned to defect. There's been a hunt for Finn since he left." He hesitated only for a second on Finn's name. "He's not the only Stormtrooper who has started to complain. They want to make an example of him in front of any other Stormtroopers who might think about leaving. A messy example."

Finn flinched. He'd witnessed that kind of execution before.

"Snoke ordered you to kill me," Rey said. "And you gave the order to have Poe executed."

"True. But I told Lord Snoke several times you were more valuable as an asset to us. He's expecting me to defy his order and bring you in as a prisoner. Dameron's more difficult to explain. You'll have to hide. I can order the ship not to be searched."

"I can hide. Will they believe you?"

Finn nodded. "Him? Yeah. He's Snoke's pet Jedi, and he'll be coming home with prisoners. They may throw him a party."

"And we're sure this wasn't his plan all along?" He looked at Rey. "You're reading his mind."

"This wasn't his plan. This is our plan. And it's all we have. Can we find out how much of a lead they've got?"

"We're in luck," Poe said, pulling up his charts. "If I'm calculating that transmission correctly, they're almost as far out as we are. The Falcon must have given them a real run."

"Fastest ship in the galaxy," Ren said quietly.

"Why does he want me dead?"

Rey waited until they were alone, which was difficult on this small spacecraft. She mentally nudged Finn into asking for more flying lessons, which Poe was only too glad to give. Every time she pushed someone, the task was easier. She'd strained her mind trying to influence that first Stormtrooper. Now the power came easily, and the control. Kylo's pride at her latest trick sparkled inside her head. She ignored him, focusing on her question, forcing herself to speak aloud.

"If Snoke wants to drain Jedi of their powers, it makes no sense for him to want you to kill me. It made no sense for him to order the deaths of all those other Jedi at our school. What's missing?"

"I've wondered that." He offered her his thoughts but Rey pulled back. "He's been draining my fellow apprentices one by one, but he wanted my mother killed before we lost my uncle and he changed the order to capture her. He could have had them both."

"He could have killed you whenever he wanted." Kylo had been Snoke's willing lapdog for years.

"I prefer to consider myself his ally and protégé."

"I'm sure that's what he wanted you to consider yourself." Her stomach rumbled, or maybe his did. "Where did we put those supplies?"

"Here." The hard rations were stored away, but they'd kept the leftovers from the previous night close at hand. His delight tickled her brain as he poked through the containers. Before yesterday, he hadn't touched this kind of food since he was thirteen years old. She'd never had the chance at all, because of what he'd done at fifteen. He hated himself for his past even as he refused to apologize.

"Apologies are pointless," he told her. "They change nothing."

"They make the people you've hurt feel better."

"I don't care how other people feel."

"You saved Finn because of how I feel."

"You aren't other people."

He found the container he wanted. Rey had seen fruit before, but not often. The luscious colors of the berries promised tart and sweet. He flicked two into his palm, and brought his hand to her face. She pulled back, annoyed again, but he pressed one berry to her lips. She glared at him, allowing her lips to part. She let herself taste the firm skin on her tongue before biting into the yielding flesh. Juicy pulp filled her mouth. He popped the second berry into his own mouth, smiling at her.

"Good?"

"Close your mouth while you chew."

She grabbed a handful of berries and ate them one by one. When she was down to her last, Kylo took her hand, bringing it up to his mouth to steal her treat and press his lips against her palm.

From right behind her, Poe said, "If I have to spend this trip watching you two flirt, I'm abandoning the mission and airlocking you both." He pushed past. "What's left for lunch?"

"That wasn't flirting," said Rey. Finn stood in the entryway. "There's plenty."

"We've shaved off another couple of hours." He grabbed one of the food containers. "What's this one?"

"Gorak-style Roba over ginger noodles," Kylo told him. The words were meaningless to Rey and she saw the same confusion on Finn's face. "Try it."

Rey opened more containers, sorting out the cold meats and grains and sweets. "I need more fighting practice. If we have to battle our way out, I want to be ready."

"You'll be a prisoner," said Finn. "They won't let you have a weapon."

Kylo said, "I'll hold onto it for you." Rey was used to feeling the tendrils of his lust. This was the first time she'd felt it directed against an inanimate object. She moved the edge of her cloak over the grip.

"We'll think of something."

The hyperdrive coughed them out in the middle of an asteroid field at the end of their third jump. The pathetic shields on this ship held off the smaller rocks that buffeted them as Dameron swore, sliding back into the pilot's seat to navigate them safely through.

Finn said, "I thought the nav computer took care of that kind of thing?"

"It does," said Rey, clutching the back of a chair to hold herself upright. "It should."

"Yeah, well, not when you're trying to hit the gravity wells near stars to get an extra boost of speed." Dameron frowned as he turned the ship.

Three large asteroids loomed menacingly before them. Irritated, Kylo reached out with his powers and swept them aside to crash into their fellows. "Would it be easier if I swept the way for you?"

To his private enjoyment, for once Dameron looked impressed. "Can you do that?"

He could, or he could use this as another teaching opportunity. He took Rey's arm, startling her. "You need the practice. Move those aside."

"I can't. They're huge." Under her protest was the fearful memory of letting Finn slip away, and before, when she'd dropped her hold on Kylo. She blamed herself in part for Luke's death, and she worried she would fail again and kill someone else she cared about as she'd nearly killed Finn.

A kinder, more patient teacher would guide her through her fears to work past them, but the kind, patient teacher was dead. "You didn't get the 'luminous beings' speech? He usually did that one early on. When in doubt, quote Master Yoda."

Rey's mind flickered in unexpected amusement. "He did, actually. I didn't know it was part of the usual lesson plan."

"Asteroids," said Dameron in a loud voice.

Kylo closed his eyes, stretching out their hands together. "This is simple. The Force is here, stretching between the stars, between the asteroids, between us. Use it. Feel your connection with the stone and the ore. Brush them away from our path."

Rey's powers merged with his, golden-hued in his mind. She pushed out in a radiant glow only he could see, thrusting the asteroids ahead of them aside like the bow of a sailboat cutting through water. Gaps opened and Dameron steered their ship between planetoid-sized chunks of iron and silicon. Kylo felt Rey grasp an asteroid the size of a small moon and cast it away like a child's ball. "Good."

She opened her eyes. "I did that?"

"That was amazing," said Finn, once again impressed by her power.

Dameron piloted the ship away from the deadly field, plugging in the next jump coordinates. They zoomed back into hyperspace. "Thanks," he said, to Rey. To Kylo, he added, "Neat trick. You should teach it to Finn."

"You're joking."

Rey said, "Luke said he's Force-sensitive."

Disbelieving, Kylo closed his eyes and reached out. A small, bright glow pulsed from Finn, not much, not something he'd have seen unless he went looking, but there. "You're fortunate. Had you been more gifted, you would have been identified when you were a child and joined the ranks of the Knights. Lord Snoke would have eaten you for breakfast."

Finn made a face. "I'd be another Darth Windbag, too? No thanks."

"Seriously," said Dameron. "If you're training people, train him, too."

"I already have one apprentice. I have no need of another." There were only ever two, that much he remembered from the other stories.

"I'm not your apprentice," said Rey, offended.

"That is precisely and entirely what you are to me."

She made a face, and for once, he couldn't easily pick out what she was thinking. He didn't miss Dameron and Finn's exchanged glance, nor Dameron's quiet, "Like I said. Things get complicated."

"He's right," Rey said after a moment. "You should train Finn. I'm still learning and can't teach him. It's too bad there isn't somewhere he could go to learn more about how to use his powers. Like a school?"

He ignored the jab, and the layered angers under her words, both old and fresh. "He doesn't have any powers. He has a vague potential. I doubt he could even make the blue sphere."

"The what?"

Kylo sighed. "Image projection is one of the earliest Jedi lessons, after not getting hit by projectiles. You create an image of a blue sphere in front of you. I managed to perform it when I was a toddler. Like this." He brought up the picture in his mind, and he projected it easily in front of himself. "Rey?"

"How are you doing that?"

"Luke didn't show you?"

"I was learning fighting skills. I thought you were going to kill me."

He shrugged. "Try it now."

Her hands moved in front of her as she began plaiting her powers together to weave the image. To his surprise, Finn tried the same. Rey's sphere bloomed in front of her, an icy blue. The air in front of Finn remained empty.

"Keep trying," Kylo said. "Picture it in your mind, the most perfect blue you can imagine. Push the power from your core." He watched as Finn's hands formed a faint sphere, almost too pale to see, but definitely real.

Rey collapsed her sphere. "If you were less of a kriffhead, you'd be a decent teacher."

Dameron said, "If he was less of a kriffhead, we wouldn't be in half the mess we are. Our little trip through the asteroid belt cost us some time. I've had to reroute again." Kylo pushed past him to check the calculations on the jump. He wanted to point to a mistake, find some means of speeding up their transit by a better path, but Dameron wasn't a fool and he knew how to navigate.

"You said you could Jedi the engines," said Finn. "You might want to try."

"Not now," Rey said at exactly the same moment Kylo said, "Of course."

"They've been in there a long time." Finn looked worried.

Poe wasn't sure what to say. Rey had shut herself in a small cabin with Ren, and that worried him plenty too, even though their ship gained speed with the energy they'd found. He had a very strong idea how they'd managed the trick. A few days ago he'd have been furious with her, not just for sleeping with the Devil and endangering them all by letting him inside her head on purpose, but for how much he was sure it'd hurt his new friend.

He still wasn't sure Rey hadn't made a fatal mistake, and he still wasn't sure Finn wouldn't wind up hurt badly for her error. He no longer had the luxury to be angry. They were running short on time. They would deliver Ren to precisely where he wanted to be, and he would abandon them the moment he had what he wanted. Poe knew it in his bones.

"Ignore them. You and I need to be on the same page with the plan. You go into the prisoner block, you find the General, and I'll bring the ship. We get out. Nothing else."

"What if Rey and I get separated?"

"I've got trackers for you both." He bit his lip. "Finn, you know there's a chance she won't want to come back with us."

"You think she's going to decide to stay with him."

"She's changed. He's wrapped up tight inside her head. Do you know how this Jedi stuff works or how to fix it? I don't. We get in, we get the General, we go. If Rey wants to come back with us, great. If she chooses to stay, you can't stay with her. The First Order will kill you. I need you to tell me you understand that."

"She's not going to stay with him. I know what you think. I was awake last night, and I know what they're doing now. I'm not stupid, even though all three of you think I'm an idiot."

He didn't argue because he'd come to that conclusion and didn't like saying so. "You know he's technically a prince."

"You know he's entirely a," Finn ended with a word Poe had never heard before in any language he spoke, but the meaning was clear. Finn wore the nervous smile of someone who didn't swear often and believed he would get in trouble for doing so.

"Why aren't you upset? You're sitting here calm as a rock while your girlfriend is in there with Kylo Ren making the bantha with two backs."

Finn rested in his seat, and a change came over his face. Poe had settled into one impression of his new friend, that of an eager kid, more than a little naive, happy to help and ready to believe whatever slop he was fed. Finn's friendly, open face failed at any attempt at guile. Rey may not have seen through his "hero of the Resistance" story, but she was a young kid, too, and she'd been the only one. Now Finn's expression shifted, and for the first time, Poe saw him as mature, even calculating.

"I'm seething. And she's never, ever going to find out for three good reasons. The big one is, she doesn't want to be with Mister Anger Management Issues. She hates that guy, but her brain is all messed up with the Force right now. When Rey gets free of him, she's going to feel awful about what's been going on. I'm not going to make things harder for her." He held up one finger, and joined it with another.

"Second, she's not first prize in a ball toss game. The moment I start treating her like a possession, she's going to kick my butt and never speak to me again." He held up a third finger. "Third, he's expecting me to act like a jealous idiot. He wants to watch me squirm. I'm not giving him the satisfaction." Finn smiled tightly.

Poe looked at him, impressed. "You're a little evil sometimes."

"Stormtrooper."

"Worst Stormtrooper ever."

"You like me, though." And that was true. He let Finn take his hand. "In fact, you like me a whole lot. Maybe even more than that."

This again. He pulled his hand back. "I'm not saying I do and I'm not saying I don't. I'm saying, we're in the middle of a war and I might have to order you into a battle you don't come out of. Can we please just stick to 'like'?" Especially while Finn was spending this much time planning how best to keep Rey happy. Emotions never did well when multiple people got involved, no matter what two certain sex-obsessed Jedi might claim.

The door to the cabin opened. Rey, looking exactly like someone who'd just thrown her clothes back on, padded out on bare feet. "What's our ETA?"

Her voice wasn't right. Poe checked the navigation system, although he already knew the answer. "Six hours."

"And what is the expected arrival of the ship with the General?"

"Four hours." They'd stretched the terrible little ship to its limits, and yes, whatever those two were doing had pushed it even faster. They still wouldn't arrive on time.

"We're feeding the Force energy into the engines. We can get us there faster but we won't have any strength left when we get to Outland Base. We need more power."

"You rigged in all the fuel cells."

"We don't need more fuel cells. We need your help," Rey said to Finn. She turned to Poe. "We need both of you."

'We.' Poe's stomach sank. "Can I register a bad feeling right now? Having one."

Finn said, "Whatever you need."

"Count me out," said Poe. "He got into my head once. I still have nightmares. He's not getting in again, and until I know you're just you, I'm not letting you in, either. He's turning you into something."

"Yes," said Rey. "And we'll worry about that after our mission is completed. Finn, are you in?"

"Okay."

Poe took his arm. "Are you sure about this? Some Jedi orgy using you as a battery sounds like a very bad idea." Something in the back of his own mind liked the thought, though, didn't it? Trapped between bodies, moving over hot skin, frictioning energy like a sparkler. Part of his mind thought it sounded very good indeed. A smaller part pointed out this didn't sound like his own thought at all, that it sounded like a thought implanted by someone else.

The last sane piece of Poe Dameron stood up. "Stop this now." He knew she'd block the punch easily, but something passed out of her eyes as she did.

"What's going on?" That sounded a lot more like the Rey he'd met that first day: hard, suspicious, and wondering what she'd gotten herself into.

"Your brain twin is trying to Jedi-whammy us into sex. Something about powering the engines faster?"

"Oh." Rey closed her eyes, then pinched the skin right under her own arm and squeezed viciously. She made a pained face, and the fingers left a nasty, purple mark. She opened her eyes. "It is a good way to push the engines," she said in half-apology. "But if we push too much, we'll destroy this ship, too."

"You screwed the other ship to death."

"Yes."

"We could push these engines a little more," said Finn hopefully.

Poe said, "This is not part of your flight training."

"It could be."

Poe threw up his hands. He was alone inside his own head right now. He was almost positive of that. There was no accounting for how persuasive Finn's hopeful face was. "Fine. But we are tying Darth Loser up again and putting a gag on him this time. And we are not talking about this later. Ever."

Whatever Rey heard in her head in response, she was wise enough not to share.

The pain droids had been and gone. Leia lay limp and trembling on the hard table. She was getting too old for this. She hadn't told them anything. Surely they'd known going in that she wouldn't. This was theatre for someone's benefit.

She felt the ship touch down.

She heard the door open. A presence thick with darkness moved into the cell with her. The mind wasn't human, was all obtuse angles and malevolence.

Without opening her eyes, Leia said, "Snoke. And here I thought you'd make Ben murder me."

"The brat had his own part to play. I can't risk his losing his faith now."

"Ben isn't here. He ran away." The gentle, loving touch inside her mind soothed the discomfort in her joints.

"Send him in. You know I won't tell you anything. You're not a gifted enough telepath."

The blow was entirely mental, and more painful than the droids. "Your death is going to be remembered for centuries. The Republic is dead. The Resistance will crumble. I will rise."

"Same old boast. Don't you dark lord types ever learn new tricks?

Snoke placed a clammy hand on Leia's face. She felt him attacking the edges of her mind. He dropped his hand. "Oh, I have one you haven't seen before. Until now, I could only absorb the Force from the Dark Side. It's taken me decades to develop a way to drain someone filled with disgusting Light, and your brother died before I could bring him before my remarkable machine. You'll have to do."

She saw his plan clearly, like a light show bursting in brilliant color against the night sky, and for the first time, her will faltered. Snoke had supped on his own disciples, using their natural gifts as draughts for his own nourishment. He had intended to feed on the most powerful Jedi the Light had seen, but Luke had died. Leia also had stores of Force energy in her tired old frame. Her father's legacy to her was to create one of the most powerful potentials ever born. She would fill Snoke like an ever-flowing fountain, and he would use his stolen gifts to complete his takeover.

"You've had Ben since he was a child. Don't tell me you're too attached to him to eat him."

"Your father knew what I was. He tried to have me eradicated. You should know, I take great pleasure in urinating on his grave on the anniversary of my escape from his clutches."

She laughed. She couldn't help it. "I never went that far. You and I should have met long ago. We could have formed a social club."

"Imagine my surprise one day when I'd gone to perform my yearly ritual, and there was a creature of great Force energy digging the bastard up. Full of anger, full of questions. Very disappointed in you for not telling him the truth. I could have eaten him up right then, bones and all." He bent intimately towards her ear. "But I don't eat children."

"Such a saint."

"A stupid little nerf calf stumbles right into the predator's pit. An animal would strike and have its meal, and be done. An intelligent being does not. Today the calf is small, hardly a mouthful. Lure him from his home fields into your care, feed him fresh grasses and sweet milk, let him grow fat on compliments and nursed grudges. Teach your prize to herd and to hunt for you, make him rich in the juiciest darkness with his own kills, until he's full-grown and ready for the slaughter." Snoke practically salivated. "Hunters eat their meat once. Farmers dine every night. Patience allows for a great feast."

"Ben walked away from your snare. He's not here for dinner."

"Kylo Ren will return. I can feel him drawing closer to the base even now. I'll have his power, and I'll have yours, and not only will I have ended Vader's lineage but I will have destroyed it utterly. No power left in the galaxy will stand against me."

Leia didn't move. She'd survived so much death. She had withstood all losses with her faith in herself and in the long arc of justice intact. This hideous creature had destroyed her family for power and for needless revenge.

She struck once, aiming all the energy she could summon into a single blow. Snoke flew across the room, rattling his bones on the far wall. Leia climbed to her feet, not caring that rage drove her now, not afraid of the power she'd always known was hers to claim if she gave in just once to the hate etching rivers along her soul.

Leia flung waves of Force energy against Snoke, shoving him deeper into the wall, ready to crush and maim.

Every moment of happiness had been ripped from her. Every hope she'd had to break free of her family's curse had been stolen from her arms and dashed on jagged stones. Was this what had finally claimed Anakin Skywalker for the Dark Side? The promise of vengeance for all wrongs, flowing like quicksilver from the center of her being into crackling, seething fire at her fingertips? All she must do was seize her destiny and accept the fate she'd been offered since the day of her birth.

Vader had wanted to rule the galaxy with his son at his side. Leia could choose that path now, striking down Snoke and ruling in his stead, rejoined with her own son at long last. None would dare stand against them as they shaped the galaxy to their own desires. And she did look fantastic in black.

The only price would be her soul.

Invisible arms lifted her, crashing her into the ceiling and letting her drop painfully to the hard floor. Ribs cracked. She felt his stolen power whipping around her. He'd consumed the last of his pupils before coming into the cell. She might have defeated him on a different day.

Snoke walked over to her, breath coming in hitches. "Untrained. Such a pity. You could have become the Darkest Queen the galaxy has ever known. I could have fed upon you for weeks."

She didn't reply. The rage lingered within her, but the power curdled, undirected and fading.

"Luke, can you hear me? Please say you can hear me." He'd leave her side now. He'd seen her yield to temptation.

"I'm here. We're here. Don't be frightened." Luke's presence exuded kindness. They'd forgiven each other much worse. "If Han still had a physical body, he'd be very turned on right now."

"Really not the right time, kid."

Leia choked out a sad laugh through the pain in her ribs. "Snoke's going to use me to destroy everything. I can't let him. I need to learn to stop my own heart. Teach me. Please."

Snoke opened the door of the cell. "Bring her."

tbc

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