Poe's shaking too much to pilot the ship. Leia's never seen him look more sickened, not even when he arrived back from Jakku. Thankfully Han, in all their years together, taught Leia a few things about piloting.
"Poe," Leia begins gently. "Poe, he tried—"
"What if he wasn't dead?" Poe demands, looking at her. The blood from his own gash has dried on his face in flaky, crimson streaks. Poe's made no attempt to wipe it off. "The bomb didn't hit him—I saw him go flying just because of the impact—General, he—"
"If he wasn't dead then," Leia says, wishing she didn't have to say these words. "The First Order's surely killed him now."
Poe bites his lip, presses his fist against his chin. Tears fill his eyes.
"Poe?" Leia inquires. BB-8 rolls up to Poe, pressing against his master, little head drooping in empathy.
"I'll kill them," Poe ekes out. "Every last one of them. He was—he'd never have been in this position if it weren't for me."
"Poe, he wanted to come."
"Yeah, but—" Poe shakes his head, covers his face. "I love him."
Leia says nothing, because it's too reminiscent of when Han died, and she knows there was nothing, no single word or string of words or actions that could have alleviated that pain. Nothing, except reversing the past.
You can't change the past, she recalls her father, Bail Organa, telling her one night when she lay awake panicking that she'd never be good at anything. But you get to chart whatever course you want in the future.
And if I want to be part of the Rebellion? she'd shot back.
Your mother'd be furious. I'd be proud, though.
You did a far better job parenting than I did, Leia thinks to the man whose death she watched from the stars.
"We'll go," Leia says aloud, because it's the only thing she can say to move forward.
"What? Where?" Poe lifts his head. His eyes are red-rimmed and his nose swollen.
He did love him.
Leia can't allow herself to ponder the strange love story, or whether Finn even knew. "Radio Jessika and the rest of the base on D'Qar. We're going to find my brother."
"Sir." Phasma's voice filters in through their transceiver, Kylo and Hux crowded around it. "The Resistance general escaped."
Kylo's breath hitches as Hux's face swells purple.
Thank you, he thinks to Rey, because he knows that if his mother was warned, she would be prepared to fight. Of course she escaped alive.
I'm so relieved! Rey gasps.
Me, too, he thinks.
"What?" Hux blusters. "How? Captain, the Supreme Leader will—"
"We are bringing back a prisoner," Phasma cuts in. "Who might have vital information."
"Who?" Kylo demands. A prisoner. For him to interrogate, no doubt. Will he even be able to do it, when he won't want to find whatever information they seek, if that information means Leia Organa's death?
"The stormtrooper who betrayed us. FN-2187."
"Why didn't you just kill him?" Hux scoffs. "He's useless, a traitor—"
"We can find out why he did what he did, prevent another mishap," Phasma interrupts again.
"Indeed," Kylo says, mostly just to irk Hux.
"And he was travelling with Leia Organa. I suspect he has information that Snoke may benefit from."
"We can hope," Hux sneers.
Rey's clambering through his mind. Her fear permeates him. Finn.
Is that what the traitor styles himself? Kylo snips as he stalks away from the general.
Please don't kill him, Ben.
Don't use that name! It belongs to someone who no longer exists!
Would Kylo Ren fear so much for his mother, though? Would Kylo Ren even call her his mother? Why am I calling the General that?
Ben! Rey screams back as Kylo enters his chamber. He's my friend! Please!
He can feel her clawing through his mind, trying to grasp his location. He blocks her. Don't even attempt it. You're not strong enough yet.
Please.
If you give me your location, my uncle's, maybe we can talk, he tells her, heart thumping.
You're a monster.
"I know it was you!"
The shout cuts through the unclosed door. Kylo whirls around.
Hux stands there, lips curled, teeth bared, like a rabid beast.
"What," Kylo demands. "Are you talking about? Get out of here!" He ignites his lightsaber.
Ben, please, Ben—I'm begging you—
Shut up!
Hux whips out a blaster.
"You really want to do this?" Kylo asks. The lightsaber hums.
"You told the Resistance. I don't know how—probably with that Force shit—but I know it was you." Hux steps closer. "All you ever do is ruin my—"
"I should have known this was about you and your blasted ego," Kylo retorts. "Isn't everything?"
"My ego?" Hux laughs. "I'm not the one routinely subverting Snoke's orders to chase after my own personal interests! Remember the droid?"
"You're just jealous."
Aren't you both adults? Rey huffs.
Kylo's stomach twinges. He retracts the lightsaber. "Get out of here, Hux."
The redheaded general lowers the blaster, still glaring at Kylo.
Kill him. You can do it—use the Force…
No one has the right to hurt you. Or insult you. Snoke's voice echoes.
Kylo can feel Rey in his mind, waiting, breathing.
He turns away from Hux, back towards the mask of his grandfather.
What's happening to me? He's asking himself. He's asking Rey. He's asking his grandfather.
When the pew of a blaster shoots, Kylo's taken aback. It scrapes his shoulder, but Kylo swings around to freeze the second shot inches from his head, and to freeze the general.
Ben!
Is that concern he hears in her voice? Kylo shakes his head as he calls for stormtroopers.
Hux glowers, still defiant even though he cannot move anything but his eyes.
"We'll see what Snoke thinks now," Kylo says, but the taunt comes out devoid of pleasure.
The troopers come and carry the General away. Kylo steels himself, pressing his fingers into the torn skin of his shoulder and wincing. He'll have to bandage it before he goes to Snoke.
Are you all right? Rey questions.
Kylo swallows. If I was dead, wouldn't it solve so many of your problems?
You're the only one who can help Finn, she responds. You're my only hope.
Rey may not know the significance of those words, but Kylo does, or Ben does, and his eyes sting worse than his wound.
For all the times Snoke praised his specialness, how different and useful he is, he's never called Kylo his hope.
Luke feels her presence before he even spots the black dot of a ship up in the atmosphere. Leia. His sister. The one whose pleas he always answered, up until fifteen years ago, when Luke failed to answer the most desperate of any of her requests.
Chewie sniffs the air and lets out the happiest roar. Rey's eyes sparkle, and R2 blips in ecstasy as they watch the ship land beside the Falcon.
"Are you okay?" Rey asks him, and Luke nods, because he doesn't know what else to do.
There she is. His sister. Hair graying, face still beautiful and strong, in spite of it all.
In spite of Luke.
She marches straight for him. Rey helpfully stands aside, as does Chewie. R2 veers towards BB-8 as a pilot Luke doesn't recognize climbs out and manages a small wave to Rey.
"Leia," Luke says. Her name. That's all he can say.
One corner of her mouth tightens, and Luke flinches. The other trembles, and then her entire face trembles, and she wraps her arms around him. "Luke."
"Chewie—maybe we should—?" Luke hears Rey suggest. Footsteps tell him they're leaving the siblings in privacy.
"What happened?" Luke asks.
"Han's dead."
"Rey told me." Luke shakes his head. "Leia, I'm so—I'm so sorry." More than you know.
"We lost another good member of the Resistance yesterday," Leia says. "An ex-stormtrooper."
Luke's eyebrows fly up. "An ex-stormtrooper?"
She nods. "Walk with me."
"Careful, Leia," he calls, hurrying after her. "The paths here can be slippery."
She slows but continues. "We need you."
Luke deflates. This is what he feared. "Leia—"
"The galaxy needs you, Luke Skywalker." She spins around, grasping his shoulders. "Why did you leave? Surely no Jedi temple can be that—"
"Leia, I failed," Luke interrupts. "I failed Ben in ways I didn't even fail Anakin Skywalker. I failed all my padawans, all their families. I failed—" He shakes his head. It's more my fault than I can ever tell you.
Because he'd encouraged his nephew.
Luke looks out at the water, gray like the clouds, dark in pools overshadowed by the island. He can't tell Leia that, seduced by the notion of harnessing the Dark and the Light, he'd encouraged Ben's exploits into what becoming a gray Jedi might be like.
If once you down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will, as it did Obi-Wan's apprentice.
But it hadn't consumed Anakin, not forever. The fact that Luke stands her, inhaling the salty air and feeling the dampness against his skin is proof enough of that.
He could have saved Ben, though. He chose not to, because of his own curiosity, because if his own greed and thirst for knowledge. He'd used the boy like an experiment, and when it went horribly wrong and Luke found the crumpled bodies of all his apprentices, burned and some of them, in pieces, he fled.
Because only then did Luke understand how Obi-Wan felt, how Yoda felt.
When Yoda claimed he was too old, had he really meant that, or had he meant that he himself was too afraid?
Without him, Luke hoped that Ben would come back to the Light. Instead, he'd apparently embraced the Dark even more tightly than Anakin. He'd murdered Han.
Luke spreads his hands, sees that they're clean, and drags them along a mossy stone, watching the mud and green smear and scratch. Because Han's blood is on them, almost as much as it's on Ben's.
"It was Snoke," Leia says, with a sigh as if she, too, is finally revealing a secret.
"Of course it was." And it was me.
"I told Han, right before I—before he—" Leia shakes her head and sits down on a wet stone. "He was watching Ben from infancy. I never told anyone—I thought I could protect him—I thought I could shield him—I thought by sending him to you—"
Luke breathes, tries to absorb this. "Then—did you—why didn't you tell me? Warn me?" I would never have encouraged him if I'd known!
"You know me," Leia admits. "I like to rely on myself."
Luke drops to the ground beside her. Silence elapses, save for a slight rustling behind them.
"Do you think there's still hope?" Leia asks, her voice like steel, so brave always, and yet a façade.
"There's always hope," Luke answers. But it's not through me.
"Rey?" Leia asks. "How is she doing?"
"She's strong in the Force," Luke answers. "Stronger than anyone I've ever seen… save for Ben."
Leia waits.
"There's darkness in her, too," Luke admits. Above them, the sun struggles to claw through the gloom.
"Yoda once told you there was darkness in you, as well," Leia reminds him.
Luke stabs his fingers into the grass, into the soil. "There still is." He looks at Leia, and she sees the torment, and still she doesn't ask even though she so, so wants to, and he can tell. "I'm afraid of failing her," he confesses.
"You won't," Leia reassures him. "Her fate will not be my son's. Although Ben's has yet to be completed."
A Wookiee growls from behind them. Leia lifts her head. "Chewbacca!"
Chewie embraces her. Rey and the pilot linger behind.
"Luke, you remember Shara Bey and Kes Dameron?" Leia asks. "This is their son, Poe."
Luke smiles. More brave souls, gone before their time. Judging by the haunted look on Poe's face, he's lost much as well in these wars.
And Luke is so tired of fighting.
On board the Finalizer, Kylo huddles against a wall, replaying what Rey overheard.
Do you think there's still hope?
Ben's has yet to be completed…
There's darkness in her…
He feels Rey's worry, but he also feels his mother's words. She still hopes. Still. Even knowing what he did to Han.
She loves you, Rey confirms. I don't know why.
And he hears her wondering whether her parents, whomever they were, would have loved her that much. Would they be proud of her? Did they even know she had the Force?
Your parents would have been proud of you, Ben tells her.
How would you know?
Unless Snoke is your father, anyone would be proud of you.
There's a rap outside his door. "Sir!"
Ben pries himself off the floor, opening the door. "Yes?" Does Snoke want him to explain what happened with Hux again?
"Captain Phasma has arrived, sir. The prisoner is in interrogation."
Kylo nods. "I'll be right there."
Ben's has yet to be completed… His fate. It's his fate to become strong, unbreakable, untouchable. He's always believed that… been told that.
But this quest has hurt him far worse than he imagined.
Ben, please. Don't do this.
He stumbles down the hall with less certainty, less authority, than he's ever felt.