Finn kept his hands up. "Hi. Isn't this the refresher?"
The trooper pointing the blaster at him didn't waver. "Back inside, traitor."
"What's your name?"
"My designation is none of your business." She gestured with the gun. "Go on."
He lowered his hands. Without a weapon, he knew he couldn't fight her.
"Go!"
"You don't have to do this. You don't have to do what they say. They kidnapped us. They brainwashed us. We don't have to be who they want us to be. You have a name. Do you remember it?"
"Five of my friends died two days ago because they agreed with you, FN-2187."
"It's Finn. My name's Finn. Do you remember what yours used to be? I'm sorry your friends died. Who ordered their deaths?"
"We live to serve the Order." He knew this litany. Live to serve. Die to serve.
"Not any more. We can choose how we live."
"General Hux made them an example. None of us are allowed to talk about you."
"I'm not any different than you are. What was your name?"
"I don't remember." The blaster lowered. "I don't want to be killed because of you. I don't want my friends to die because of you."
"We've got a ship." Which was already kind of small, but they'd worry about that later. "You could leave with us. It's great out there. It's beautiful and scary, and people fall in love. You wouldn't believe it all."
The mask faced him impassively. Then she removed it. "You're right. I wouldn't."
She fell to the floor, clutching her knee. "Ow!" she said, in the worst fake-acting he'd ever heard. She held up the blaster to him. "I can't believe you overpowered me so easily and stole my weapon."
Finn took the blaster. "Aren't you coming?"
"I've been gravely injured and will need medical attention while you're escaping. Fortunately the infirmary isn't far from where your ship is docked, and two of my friends work there."
"Take your masks off when you go on board. I don't want to accidentally shoot you."
He knew so few of his former comrades under the masks, and she was just another face, sweaty and plain and too young to have been taught the things they had all learned. He'd recognize her on the ship. She nodded and redonned the helmet.
Most of the pain had receded except for the throb in her ribs. Leia had difficulty keeping her feet as she was dragged to wherever they intended to kill her, and she had no interest in making their job easier. "Get moving," said one of her guards.
"Thanks, but I'll stay here." She got a sharp shove for her trouble. Could she goad one of them into shooting her? Luke had gone silent in her mind, if he'd ever been more than a cruel hallucination.
"I've heard the reason you wear those masks is because they scar you with acid as children. Is that true?" That earned her a kick, but she knew they wouldn't go further. They were under orders.
When they reached their destination, one of the guards shackled each wrist to a post, pulling her arms uncomfortably above her shoulders. The other poked her in the chest. "I lost friends at Starkiller Base," he said.
"So did I."
Leia stood on a small platform that was covered by stains she didn't wish to examine more closely. The Order took out vengeance on its own just as readily as on its enemies. Finn had been an excellent source of information, funneled to her quietly by Commander Dameron.
"Not a spy," he'd said the day after Finn woke up.
"Are you sure?" She'd been aching, and the mere thought of ferreting out a First Order spy, and what she'd be happy to do to the next one she met, well, she was her father's daughter in some respects.
"I'm sure," Poe had said, and she'd trusted his judgement.
Leia smiled remembering the earnest belief on his face. Unfairly, this bought her another kick. "Just thinking. You can kill me, but my friends will always live to see another day. That's why we're going to win."
"That's not what I heard," said the trooper with the busy leg. "I heard that Skywalker's dead, and that Kylo Ren has returned with the traitor and with Dameron's head."
She'd left them on Yavin, no matter how unwillingly. They would all die for nothing. She closed her eyes.
"Knock it off," said the other trooper. "Go check the holoprojector again."
The first trooper marched off. The second one said, "No standards at all."
They were hidden behind a vast, dark curtain from what felt like a huge space slowly filling with people. An audience. Snoke would raise the curtain and present his prize prisoner to his troops, sending out the image on every broadcast frequency as he engaged his infernal machine. He'd drain Leia of her life, drain her of the Force, and he would use her birthright to destroy everything she'd built.
Still not the worst situation Leia had ever found herself in, but things looked bleak. She tried one last time to summon the same power that had come to her in her anger. Grief wouldn't budge a keyring from a distracted guard. Neither would despair.
She turned her head to the Stormtrooper next to her. "I'm not going to ask you to let me go, but if you'd shoot me now, I'd consider it a bigger favor than you'd believe."
"I can't do that." The Stormtrooper leaned in. "I have to know something. Is it true? Did you meet him?"
Leia squinted. She'd met many famous and infamous people during her life. "You'll have to be more specific." Vader? Luke? She'd never met the Emperor.
"FN-2187." There was a terrified excitement in his voice. "Did you meet him? Is he real?"
"Finn, what have you done?" she asked herself, very quietly. "Yes. He's real. Nice kid. You know, the Resistance is always looking for more young faces with bright ideas." There were worse ways to die than talking like a recruitment poster.
"Leave us." The voice was low and commanding, echoing with mind-bending demand. Leia lifted her head and stared at her greatest failure.
There were much, much worse ways to die.
"Yes, sir," said the Stormtrooper, hurrying away without a backwards glance.
He was tall.
The few videos and holos she'd managed to find, the records that survived from the devastated worlds in his wake, these had given her glimmers of image without perspective. Leia had wanted perspective, just as much as she'd wanted to crack open that mask and see his face. She'd hoped when he was tiny that he'd grow up to be as tall as Han. She'd hoped so much.
The ridiculous lightsaber flared. He always had to show off.
"I'm not afraid of you, Ben. I will never be afraid of you."
Her son approached the small platform, and stepped up to join her, towering over her. She tilted her head up at him, wishing he'd remove that silly mask. She'd like to see him just one more time before he killed her. The few minutes back on Yavin hadn't been enough.
Ben lifted his arm. She heard the crackle of power in his lightsaber, and remembered years of watching Luke practice, of trying her own hand briefly until she knew she didn't dare, of watching the recordings her brother had shown her from Ben's time at the school. How proud she'd been.
She remembered holding him, tiny and red and full of all her wishes for something good to come out of the wreck of her past.
The blade flashed twice. Her wrists fell free. He doused his lightsaber and clicked it to his belt, then grabbed hold of Leia as she half-collapsed. Tall and strong. He had the best of both of them as well as their worst.
He yanked off the mask.
"Why not? Why couldn't you have tried, just once, to be frightened of me?" He sounded angry, but he'd always been angry. Ben held her upright against himself as he helped her down from the platform. His armor was solid. She tried to touch his mind, but he was a blank wall. She couldn't even sense him next to her.
"We have to get away from here as fast as we can. Snoke wants to drain us both." She shouldn't want to protect him still, not now.
"I know. My friends and I came for you." He led her past a ruined machine, which he'd clearly destroyed with his lightsaber. The remnants sparked and hissed. Snoke wouldn't be using that today.
She was tired, and she was sure she had internal injuries, and her whole world had just been set on its side. "I'm glad you finally made some friends, Ben."
"Stop calling me that."
"It is your name, not whatever Snoke calls you. Your dad gave you that name." And your father and I agreed, she didn't add aloud.
He breathed heavily, and she was sure it wasn't from exertion. "Kenobi killed thousands during the war, and he left his closest friend in all the universe to burn alive rather than risking his own precious soul to end the suffering. You named me for a monster and a maker of monsters. What did you think would happen?"
"He died to save our lives the day we all met. Even monsters can choose to be heroes." Her own breath came hard. "Why did you come back for me?" Part of her expected this to be a trick. Ben had murdered Han and nothing would ever wipe away that crime, nor the rest of the deaths he'd caused. Leia could barely walk. He could kill her easily, yet here he was helping her, half-carrying her as they hurried. Luke's spell hadn't worked to change him. Leia didn't believe for a moment that his new friends, whoever they were, had changed him. "Tell me why you're here."
He frowned at her. He had Leia's own frown, she knew from a thousand mirrors. "I don't like being lied to. You lied to me about your parents. You lied to me about your husbands."
"We were protecting you. Every single decision we made was out of love for you."
"Obviously. Love turns otherwise intelligent people into fools and deceivers. Snoke doesn't have that excuse. He lied to me and used me, and I'm going to disembowel him." Ben stopped suddenly. "Wait here."
From around the corner came a cadre of Stormtroopers. Ben put his mask back on and stood in front of her. "There's been a change of orders," he said, falling into a sneering tone of command. "Lord Snoke commanded..."
"Halt!" said the first trooper, blaster raised. "All soldiers, prepare to fire." Ben flared his lightsaber again.
"Wait!" shouted a voice from behind them. To Leia's surprise and delight, Commander Dameron shoved his way in front of them. Putting his back to Ben, he held up his hands and said, "Don't shoot him!"
"He's one of the top members of the Order!" The Stormtrooper didn't sound happy to hear that.
"He used to be. I don't really care who he works for right now." Poe hurried to Leia's side. "General, are you all right?"
"I've been better. Explain?"
Poe waved his hand. "Funny story. It turns out there are a lot of people working here who don't want to be. These nice people," he said in a strained voice, "just surrendered to me a few minutes ago, on the promise we'll take them with us."
"How big is your ship?"
He wiggled his hand. "Eh?" One of the more blaster-happy troopers aimed at Ben. Poe said, "Hey. Hey! No shooting Kylo Ren. Anybody gets to shoot this guy today, I call firsties."
"You can try again and you'll miss again," said Ben. "We have been over this."
Leia said, "We need to go. Now."
Poe asked Ben, "Where are the fluffkens? You had them last."
"I am not a fluffken," said Finn, appearing at the end of a corridor and flanked by another half-dozen Stormtroopers. "By the way, I've made some friends. They'd like a ride. Hello, General. I see they found you already."
Leia started counting helmets. "Finn, I don't know what you've done, but you're cleaning up after all of them."
"What's our next move, sir?" asked one of the Stormtroopers who'd come with Poe. As Poe and Ben both turned to answer, Leia saw whom the trooper was addressing.
Finn's mouth popped open, but only for a second. He recovered. "We're getting out of here. We'll need," he counted as quickly as Leia had, "at least three ships. And we're missing one member of my team."
"His team?" she said to her son.
"'Sir?'" he replied sourly.
Poe just grinned at him with unmistakeable fondness.
"Where's Rey?" asked Finn.
Ben said, "Snoke's quarters."
Finn's expression turned to something darker. "You left her there with him?"
"Rey is distracting him. Lord Snoke believes she's turned to the Dark Side."
"Why?"
"Because I turned her."
"You did what?" Finn's voice was cold. In response, more of the Stormtroopers lifted their weapons.
"Snoke had to believe. Had I told you that part of the plan, you would have overreacted. Rey sends her regards to everyone. She's telling us to leave without her but she doesn't mean it." His voice dropped, and Leia swore she could hear him smiling as he said, "You don't. Because I can tell when you're lying, that's why." Ben turned to Finn. "She needs our help and won't say so because she doesn't know the difference between being brave and being foolish."
Ben had just said he couldn't stand being lied to, but he was teasing Rey about it instead of snarling at her. He'd nearly murdered Finn, but now Ben was asking him for help. Poe had stepped in front of a blaster for his sake. Leia had clearly missed several memos and a ten-hour meeting. "He's mentally communicating with Rey? I thought they hated each other."
Only Poe Dameron could be that expressive with a single shrug. She'd seen the same on any number of mornings, finding him emerging from the wrong barracks in yesterday's clothes. "Well, you know." Same lack of excuse, too.
Leia looked at Ben. "Oh. Well. Rey is a very nice girl." Or she was. Turned her how?
His entire body contorted in clear embarrassment. "Not now, Mother."
Finn started to give orders. More amazingly, people listened. "Commander Dameron, the General is injured. Get her and the rest of these people to the docking bay."
Ben told them, "Remove your helmets." Not a soul stirred until Finn nodded. The transformation shocked her. One minute, they were surrounded by grim warriors in white masks. The next, she was in a sea of kids, none of them older than her son, who was the only one still in his own mask.
Poe unclipped a lightsaber from his belt and handed it to Finn. "Give this to Rey. And don't dawdle." Ben and Finn hurried down a corridor together. "Let's get you out of here."
Leia took a breath. "Soldiers, you want to join the Resistance?" She saw nods, a few firm, most scared. "Fine. Get to your docking bay and ready us some ships. Make sure there are enough for everyone."
"General?"
"Commander, take your new recruits. I'll join you shortly. I'd like to have a word with Snoke before we go."
"I appreciate the desire, but you can't." He saw the look on her face. "Ma'am." Her expression didn't change. "Fine, but I'm going with you. Ma'am." He pointed at five of the gathered Stormtroopers. "Come with us. Put your helmets back on. We're not finished here yet."
They made it most of the way before four troopers stepped into their path. Ren waved his hand to move them from the corridor, flinging the troopers into the wall where they fell unconscious or dead.
"Hold back on that next time. Maybe I can talk to them."
"Doubtful. We're close to the transmitter here, and now that the mutiny is spreading, Command will have increased the signal power."
A number of things came to his attention. The first was Rey, and if Kylo Ren was worried for her safety, they couldn't afford to tarry. He ran. "What transmitter?"
"The subfrequency. It broadcasts in your helmets along with your orders, and reinforces loyalty to the Order. There's a separate transmitter near Snoke's quarters. One of his inventions."
Finn wanted to ask why he didn't know about it, but the higher ups would have no incentive to let on, would they? "You knew."
"Of course. Why do you think you were always ordered to keep your helmet on?" Ren's own helmet gleamed. "I ordered yours to be examined when we recovered it. The receiver had a small malfunction."
"That's not. No. I chose to leave the First Order! Luke said I have Force sensitivity, that it helped me choose."
"What does it matter why you chose to leave? You left."
Finn had felt special up to now. He'd thought he had changed on his own, that he'd helped others to change. Like so many deluded fools who'd thought they'd talked to gods, he was just another ordinary guy with a short circuit in his communicator.
He felt a slap on the back of his head, and looked up to see Ren fuming. "You do not start doubting yourself while we are about to face Lord Snoke. You will get us all killed."
Finn rubbed his head. "One, never do that again. Two, stay the hell out of my mind, you freak."
"You broke free of the subfrequency and threw yourself head first into the Resistance. Despite your terror, you continue to run into danger instead of away from it. You perform brave acts you don't want to do on behalf of others. Congratulations. You're a hero. Now act like one."
The compliment warmed him. "Thanks. You usually spend your time insulting me."
"You're still a terrible kisser."
"That's more like it."
From the point of view that she wasn't dead yet, Rey was having a good day. From any other point of view, she was floundering badly.
She braced for another Force attack, throwing up her arms to buffer the blow. Snoke had leapt immediately, just as soon as the door had closed behind the last of her guards. She'd kept up the wailing a bit longer for the show, dodging him only half a second before he landed where she would have been. Since then, staying alive had become her primary aim.
"Your destiny brought you to me, child. The hour of your death has been foretold since the moment of your birth."
Rey had felt her destiny move her. She'd been drawn to the casket in Maz's catacombs. She'd been led to Luke Skywalker. She'd been yanked along as though on a chain into Kylo's self-destructive spiral. Destiny had much to answer for if its ultimate goal was to drop her here to die.
"Poor girl. Drifting into darkness without ever understanding. Led along by a faithless lover and abandoned in the viper's pit. I should be very angry if I were you."
She was. Rey had told herself these last several days that all her choices had been for the right reasons. She'd stolen, she'd lied, and these were merely part of her old existence, scavenging for what she needed. But Kylo had been an admirable teacher in so many other aspects. Living in his mind had become part of her. She breathed him like air, sometimes foul and murky, sometimes pleasant and cool, always inside her. He'd shown her how simple it was to poke into the minds of those around her, those who couldn't fight back. It had been so easy to push them towards what she wanted.
She was furious with Kylo for the stains she felt on her own soul.
"I never made you do anything you didn't choose yourself. I could have."
"I still hate you." She ducked again, this time too slowly. The mental blow from the awful creature rocked her.
"Excellent," said Lord Snoke, his voice drilling into her, trying to etch through her shields. "Let that hatred and anger flow." He grinned lasciviously. "It's delectable."
She could only run so far, and she could only dodge him so long. She had power, and she used what she had at hand, throwing the table, books, anything she could find, but she was hampered with her own worry. What if the Force surging through her was the final manifestation of the Dark Side in her? She could kill Snoke, she was almost sure, but if she did, wouldn't that make her just as evil? How would she know the difference?
"You are a delight to chase, child. I'll dig inside your mind soon enough. Even my sulking apprentice drilled into your head."
Rey felt it then, the welcoming spark of her friends returning for her. "You're right. I couldn't keep him outside of my mental shields. I tried. I pushed and pushed, and he kept finding ways in, and the only way I could fight was to slip inside his mind right back at him."
"A fatal mistake. We've known your every move." He attacked her in a flurry of wind, shoving her against the wall, where she rolled out of his way before the creature could touch her.
She smiled at him, unnerving him and keeping his eyes from the doorway. "I couldn't keep Kylo out. So I brought him inside and shielded us both together."
The red lightsaber flashed, and only a leap from Snoke saved his life from Kylo's sudden attack.
"Stand and fight!" he shouted at his former Master. Rey felt his rage rolling off him in waves. "All this time, you used me. You used all of us!" He attacked again, but Snoke was faster.
Finn reached Rey's side, and took her hands. "You okay?"
"Fine."
In an instant, she was lifted off her feet and pinned to the wall. Rey couldn't move, could barely struggle. Snoke held one hand up, keeping her in place. The other waved a power she couldn't see but felt thudding through the room, and he hit Kylo dead on, striking him to the floor where he writhed, clutching at his neck. His lightsaber fell unheeded. Rey felt the phantom fingers choking her, although his attention was fully on Kylo.
Snoke stalked closer to him. "You think I would train you, guide you, give you power, and not leave myself a door inside your mind to stop you? Gullible oaf. Spoiled, wretched child. You know nothing."
Kylo couldn't speak. She felt him strangling. She wondered if she'd lose consciousness before their link killed her, too. Finn edged closer to her. Snoke hadn't bothered to notice him.
"Only you could be foolish enough to Force bond with an enemy." He aimed a vicious kick at Kylo's stomach, which jarred through Rey, blackening her eyesight with a bombshell of pain. "I ought to keep the pair of you as breeding stock and raise a dozen powerful, brainless brats to feed on."
"Finn!" He'd struggled with the blaster he had at his side, finally lifting it and firing at his former Supreme Leader.
Rey felt the power drop, and she landed roughly on her feet, coughing for breath. She dashed to Kylo's side.
"He's mine!" The word echoed inside her, and Rey shook her head.
"Get out of here. You're a liability."
"I have to..."
"You can't fight someone who lives inside your head!" She felt the turmoil in his mind. Kylo wanted vengeance, but more than that, he was frightened. For her. Terror lay naked in his mind that Rey would be killed if he left her side now. There was no time for this. "You are useless. Go!"
He turned and ran for the door, pushing out and past.
Snoke used the Force to rip Finn's blaster away from him, clattering across the floor. "The Stormtroopers' hero. How sweet. Hux has enumerated all the ways he intends to have you killed."
Rey spun, focusing her energy to blast a sandstorm-strength wind against Snoke before he reached Finn. Snoke turned and glared at her.
"Leave him alone. You want to fight someone, fight me." She held out her hand, pulling her lightsaber from Finn's belt into her own hands.
"I would have thrown it to you."
"Sorry." She held her lightsaber up, ready to attack.
Snoke touched his communicator. "Detain Kylo Ren. I'd prefer him alive but it's not necessary."
Kylo could take care of himself, Rey knew. She felt bad for whoever tried to capture him. Right now, she had Snoke to contend with, and she threw herself at him, slicing and aiming just as she'd learned these past few weeks.
'Rid yourself of emotion and you will find your focus,' went the Jedi teachings in the old, lost books. She couldn't let herself fear that Finn would be killed, couldn't allow herself anger at what had been done to him and to them all. Love led into dangerous sinking drifts. Rey would be emotionless as stone.
Snoke fell back from her attack, reaching behind his chair for something. A green blade lit. "You didn't frisk Skywalker's body."
"There wasn't a body," she said, eyes drawn to the lightsaber in Snoke's much better trained hand. She could do this. Then he leapt over her head and attacked, and she focused on not dying as Finn dove for his blaster.
Leia felt her injuries more as they hurried. Her friend and crutch finally stopped. "You can't do this, ma'am. You're in no condition to fight. I want this guy dead, too, but you're in no shape to do it yourself."
She nodded and indicated he should let their honor guard get ahead of them a bit. As soon as they were alone, she asked him quietly, "Between you, me, and this panel, what do you think our chances are of blowing the base as we leave?"
He stood back a moment, and she felt his surprise. "You're joking, right?"
"We are in the heart of their stronghold, Commander. You took out Starkiller. If we destroy this base with their leaders here, the war is over."
He chewed his lip, thinking. She never, ever told him he looked ten years younger every time he did that. "I can see if we can rig something. But General, you go ahead and think I'm crazy if you want, but I don't think we should. Something's changed. Something big." He looked at the troopers ahead of them, whom they should catch up with soon.
She knew what he meant. She let Poe help her hobble faster. "We'll take as many of them with us as we can. I don't want to murder innocents if we can avoid it."
"Ma'am, none of us are innocents, but as someone pointed out to me, all of them were kids when they were taken by the First Order."
As he spoke, Leia saw Ben limping out of the doorway to Snoke's chambers and skulk down the corridor away from them. She wanted to call out to him, ask him where he was going, but she was too far away. She heard a shout from inside the room. Finn.
"Snoke first," she said. "Then we'll see." She didn't intend to leave this base intact.
"I don't even like Stormtroopers," he muttered to himself. Wretched, annoying people, raised to follow orders and not always good at that one job. Taken as children and brainwashed, not seduced the way he was. They couldn't even shoot straight.
Kylo knew where the transmitter room was. He could just as easily check that the power cables were secure, and that the range was turned up to full blast. Yes.
As he hurried, he felt Rey's thoughts wheeling in a desperate blur. She fought Snoke for her own life and for Finn's, and she fought for Kylo's soul because she believed it the only way to save her own. But she was falling back, afraid of her own potential, letting Snoke's verbal jabs land home.
"Don't tell me you're listening to him."
"I'm going to die because you turned me to the Dark Side."
"You're not on the Dark Side. If you were on the Dark Side, you wouldn't care. You're on the knife's edge. Use your rage and kill the bastard."
He felt her resolve, and he took a moment of pride in his student's skills as she went on the attack. She was a natural who'd taught herself much, and she'd learned a bit from his uncle, but Rey had picked up that spinning trick from him, and half her stances were from the books he'd fed into her mind. Even with her improved technique, she resented how Kylo had deliberately changed her, turned part of her into a reflection of himself. He resented far more that the mirror had two faces.
Someone sensible would run away now, hoping the chaos of the day's events would cover his tracks as he escaped. Someone better than he was, someone kind, someone whose task it had always been to find the value among the refuse, she would approach the transmitter room with a plan.
Teaching changed the student, and it also changed the teacher.
The door to the room was locked, but his lightsaber slashed through it like a warm knife through Eopie butter.
Captain Phasma waited inside. "What do you want?"
"I've been ordered to check the transmitter. The subfrequency is weakening amongst the Stormtroopers. Why aren't you out there controlling your soldiers better?" Accusations worked well. Phasma on the defensive was less likely to question him.
"There's a problem with the latest upgrade to the helmet software," she said, aggravated by his interruption. She indicated the two technicians she had working there with her. "We've got to debug everything while keeping the signal strength up. The idiots keep thinking about the traitor. Is he dead yet?"
"The order hasn't been given." Stupid. They were all so stupid and trusting, following a worthless chain of command. He'd followed them as well. So stupid.
"I see." Phasma tilted her head, the sign of someone listening in on another order packet. Her blaster was still pointed at Kylo's mask. Without a word, she fired.
tbc
Reviews welcome. Anon reviews welcome.