"No," Ben says. "The Emperor killed Darth Plagueis. In his sleep."
Hux sighs, as if exasperated with how dense Ben seems. "No. He didn't. He may have thought he did, but he didn't."
"Why wouldn't Snoke, or—or Plagueis—just kill a treacherous apprentice then?" demands Finn. "I mean, from what we know about him—"
"You know next to nothing about him," seethes Hux. "You—" He looks at Ben. "You know how manipulative he is."
"He could have been playing the Emperor. Manipulating him from a distance as he grew stronger," Rey muses. In her mind, in Ben's, despite the desperation to laugh at Hux, dismiss him, she can't. Neither of them can.
Names and faces flash through Ben's minds—the Knights of Ren, how Snoke always reached for whomever was the most powerful among them, drawing them into his inner circle and dispatching the others if necessary, the ones who were used up, the ones he'd crushed once he got what he wanted.
You're the Master of the Knights of Ren now, Rey hears Snoke's voice, cold and ghastly in a memory.
And later, screaming, and Kylo Ren's knights writhing around him, bleeding, burning. I have no need of them anymore. You are enough.
I will not fail you.
We will see.
"He uses people like you to do his dirty work," Hux says. "And uses his own power to stay alive."
"Many creatures can live hundreds of years, even millennia," Mother puts in.
"Snoke isn't one of them," Phasma sighs.
"But that plan doesn't make sense," Finn insists. "I don't—it doesn't make sense that Snoke was relying on Kylo Ren alone."
"He wasn't," Ben mutters, looking at Rey.
If what you say about this girl is true, bring her to me.
He might have killed you and taken me, Rey realizes. After you'd trained me…
When he gets what he wants, he'll crush you.
Rey squeezes Ben's hands as she watches his face flush with humiliation and shame.
"So basically," Finn drawls, sounding way calmer than he must actually be. "Snoke's going to come for one of us. Ben, Rey, me, Leia, Luke."
"I'm pretty sure he's given up on turning Leia and myself to the Dark Side," Luke says.
"Does Snoke even know about you?" Rey quizzes Finn.
"Yes," Phasma says. "He does. Now."
"So what can we do?" Rey asks. "Avoid him? Go into hiding?"
"We can't sacrifice more people!" Finn objects. "I mean, think about it, Rey—there's got to be more Force sensitive people out there, in the galaxy! Snoke will find them. I'm not willing to let that monster get his hands on another child." He drops his voice to a plea. "We have to take care of this. Take care of him. Now. It's not vengeance; it's protection. Self-defense, and defending others. Rey, you grew up alone because you're a Kenobi—what if another parent has to abandon their child? Ben, what Snoke did to you—manipulating you—if you and Rey ever have kids, don't you think he'll come for them?"
Ben shakes his head. We can't let that happen.
Although having children is the further thing from Rey's mind at the moment, she knows Finn's right. "We can't live the rest of our days looking over our shoulder, chased by shadows," she says.
"No child should go through that," Ben agrees softly.
"At the temple, did you learn anything that could help us?" Leia asks her brother.
"I'll think, try to remember…" Luke's voice falters, and a slow smile spreads over his face. "Or, I think there's someone at the Resistance base who might have an idea."
"Maz!" Leia surges towards the small orange creature awaiting them with a smile. Ben hangs back, gripping Rey's arm.
"Ben Solo!" Maz booms, pushing past his mother and uncle and beelining for him. "Let me look at you."
Rey pushes him down. Ben kneels so that the creature can peer into his eyes, goggles clutched in her tiny hands.
"I haven't seen you since you were a small child," Maz muses. "Clinging to his mother and watching the stars with his father."
Her words burn like a lightsaber inside him.
"Oh, child," Maz says. "You may be an adult, but compared to me, thirty years is nothing. He forgave you, don't you know? The moment he saw you on that bridge. He adored you."
"No," Ben says, fighting to ignore the people crowded around, the pilots whooping and hollering over their victory and the grumbling about the prisoners. "He didn't."
"You don't believe that. You've always known. It's what you were afraid of—that he loved you, saw you without any blemishes even as you took more and more lives."
Ben flinches. He wants to pull away, but he can't.
"Han was a part of the Force. It flows through every living thing, child, and just because he wasn't Force sensitive doesn't mean he wasn't a part of it—that he isn't a part of it." Maz's fingers brush Ben's cheek, mimicking Han's last gesture. "He died because of you, but he also died for you. Accept his forgiveness. Let it go."
A tear rolls down his cheek. He swipes it away.
"And Rey!" Maz cries. "A Jedi in training, in an academy far more free than ever before. Which is a good thing," she adds, with a meaningful look at Ben that turns Rey scarlet. "And you, Finn—so much for you not being a hero!"
"I'm not," Finn insists. Poe rolls his eyes.
"Oh, pishaw."
"Maz," Luke interrupts. "We need your help."
"I've brought you help," Maz says, beckoning to someone who steps out from the bunker, holding back from the crowds. The man gives Mother a sheepish wave.
Lando Calrissian. His father's good friend, the one who betrayed his father and who Ben distinctly remembers, when Ben was nine, yelling at his parents: "There's something not right with that kid!"
"Get out of this house!" Han bellowed back, and Ben's grateful to his parents, but at the same time he wants to scream that Lando's right, that something's not right, that he's scared and doesn't know what else to do. But Ben bites down on his lip, drawing blood, and watches as Chewie forces Lando out of their house.
That night, he calls out for his dream friend for the first time in a year.
"He, too, is finally tired of running," Maz proclaims.
Finn watches as Lando shakes Leia's hand, embraces Luke, and hesitates before calling out, "Ben."
Ben shuffles forward, extending his hand only for Lando to grip him on the shoulder and look into his eyes. "Is it true?"
Ben doesn't speak, but his eyes give the answer.
Lando sighs.
"You were right," Ben mutters. "About me."
"As your mother was right about me, in Cloud City," Lando says. He tries to smile and can't, but he gives Ben a tiny nod of acceptance.
Phasma's armor clinks as she and Hux are led away towards the cells by a growling Chewie.
"Finn!" Phasma calls. Chewie shoves her, denting her armor.
"What do you want with him?" Poe demands.
"Nothing that concerns you," Phasma retorts. Finn approaches cautiously. "Hux and I were going through the archives on Snoke's orders."
"Okay…"
"To look for families with Force-sensitive heritage."
Fire lights through Finn. "My family?"
"Snoke said something about someone named Mace Windu." Phasma's face is impossible to see beneath her helmet, but the kindly tone she takes with him reminds Finn of the times when he was in her division, the times when he showed too much empathy and she scolded him but gave him another chance.
"Let's go," grunts Major Ematt, and Chewie pushes the captain again.
Mace Windu. Finn's never heard the name before, of that he's certain, and yet—at the same time, the name comes with a soft sensation, like violet freedom and home.
Is this the Force telling me something?
"Wow," Poe says to his left. BB-8 beeps in awe.
Finn turns to him. "Will you help me? Go through R2's files?"
Poe nods. "Yeah, yeah—of course."
"Shit," Poe says, and Finn knows.
"They're all dead, aren't they."
Poe nods. R2 whimpers. "I'm sorry, Finn."
"It's what I expected." Still, Finn reaches over, holding the small screen in his hands, reading for himself what he's known but has hoped, prayed, dreamed isn't true. For a moment today, he let himself believe he might find his own family, find a woman who would look at him the way Leia looks at Ben, her lost son coming home.
It will never be, and it burns.
"Hey," Poe says gently, reaching over and putting his hand on top of Finn's. "I'm sorry, buddy."
Finn wipes at his eyes with his other hand. "It's what I expected," he repeats.
"My mom told me she was going die weeks before she did," Poe admits. "I still hoped she was wrong. Every day… she got so thin, she couldn't leave the bed, and Dad was crying all the time and still I thought she might not die." Poe's voice catches, and BB-8 lowers its head in empathy with both of them.
"It's like," Finn tries. "It's like I thought I might—there might be someone looking for me. Who misses me." Finn shakes his head. "I know I matter to Luke and Rey and you, hell, even to Ben. But to my family."
"I think you still do. Even if they're gone," Poe says. "It's like Rey… you're descended from a pretty badass Jedi, it seems." He studies the screen again. "Who got killed by the Emperor and Ben's grandpapa, apparently."
Finn snorts in spite of himself. "Figures."
Poe smirks. "Don't ever say that you don't mean something to anyone again, okay?"
Finn nods, something tugging at his brain, at his stomach, something whispering to remember Rey and how she chose Ben, except that whisper has no impact, because Poe's looking at Finn like Rey never has.
"Poe?" Finn asks, uncertain.
"I'm sorry," Poe stammers, but his face still hovers inches from Finn's own. "But I just—Finn, I—Finn, I really want to kiss you right now."
Finn's never kissed anyone before in his life. He only imagined kissing Rey, just briefly, before that wish blew away. But Poe is here, brows creased anxiously as he waits for Finn's response, eyes weighted with care for Finn and—it's Poe, the man who gave him his name, who was there when he woke up after teh first Starkiller base mission, who comforted him after Rey chose Ben.
All this time, he loved me, Finn thinks. He watched me mope over Rey and never said anything because he wanted me to be happy. He blows out his breath. "Okay. But—I don't know if I know how."
Poe doesn't laugh, and Finn's relieved. "I'll show you." His hand cups the back of Finn's head, and his lips are soft and warm against Finn's, and with him Finn feels safe, he feels home.
"Sorry," Finn pants as he and Poe skid into their meeting late. Poe flushes as Rey's eyes slide between him and Finn, Poe and Finn, Finn and Poe.
Really? Ben asks.
Are you blind? Rey hisses, and Ben smirks at her.
"All right," Maz says. "We can begin."
"Why aren't the rest of the Admirals here?" asks Poe.
"Because we don't need them right now," Maz replies. "Luke, Leia, why haven't you told Ben and Rey about the prophecy?"
The what?
"Anakin's prophecy," Luke says quickly. "That he was the chosen one to bring balance to the Force. Which he did, when he saved me."
Sentiment, Rey hears Snoke's voice echoing in Ben's mind.
No, love, he quiets the voice on his own, and Rey smiles.
"Maz has a theory," begins Leia. "That each generation will have somebody to balance the Force."
"Rey," Ben says, turning to her.
Cold cakes in around her. "That's—ludicrous. I'm—I'm not—"
"Anakin wasn't alone," Luke says. "I helped him."
"Ben," Rey realizes, turning to him. Now he's the one shaking his head.
"I think it's painfully obvious I don't balance in anything," Ben stammers. "I—when I was working for Snoke, I was fully on the Dark Side—"
"That's not true," Maz cuts in.
"Well, maybe not," Ben amends. "But I thought I should be. Most of the time."
"So, you're saying that you think we two—us together—we're supposed to bring balance to the Force?" Rey queries. "How?"
"That, I don't know," Maz confesses.
"I think you have the wrong person," Rey insists.
"You're sounding painfully like you did on Takodana, and I turned out to be right then, didn't I?" Maz reminds her.
But I'm supposed to be no one.
You're the granddaughter of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ben reminds her. That's who you're supposed to be, not just a scavenger.
And if I was just a scavenger?
You'd still be Rey, and I'd still love you. But that's not who you are.
"But I—we—have no idea how," Rey protests. "Luke?" She looks towards her master.
"I have an idea," Maz says. "Of where we can go for advice."
"Where?" Ben asks.
"Dagobah."