Crammed into an escape pod, Ben hopes Chewie's cannon shot can indeed wipe out the Star Destroyer's radar, or else they'll die right here, right now.
He can think of worse ways to go. Now, his mother clutching his hand and smiling, Poe with his hand resting on Finn's knee, Rey within reach, Ben feels more at peace than he's ever felt in his entire life, and he might be about to die.
"In there!" Finn directs Poe, who angles the tiny pod up a shaft. With a slurp, the pod is sucked inside, and Poe wildly presses the controls to keep the ship from smashing into the walls.
"Turn here!" Ben shouts, and instantly the pod veers to the right, and back to the left inches before being chopped by a fan.
Poe eases the pod to a stop in a small alcove with a ladder hanging down. Wind from a vent whips their hair, their faces, as they climb out. "We've got to hurry," he reminds them all.
"We know, Poe," grunts Mother as she hauls out a bag of explosives, passing it to Finn, another to Poe, and slinging one across her own back. She looks to Ben. "Go find Rey."
Ben nods. He's the first one up the shaft, and he's running through the halls, freezing every stormtrooper he sees.
"Traitor!" one screams at him before he freezes her.
Rey. Rey. Rey.
He doesn't know what cell they're keeping her in, but he feels her presence. Snoke's power still won't relent enough to let him use the bond, but it doesn't matter, because he can still feel the sweet pull of the Light, and it's leading him to her. He knows it.
There she is. The central cell. 65-74.
Ben uses the Force to pry the door open, heart thumping, tears ready to spring from his eyes as he charges in the room.
A blaster fires at his head.
"Ben!" Rey screams as the man she loves, the man she's almost given up on, freezes the shot in mid-air.
"Rey!" He stares at her, at the shot, then back at her, at her swollen abdomen. "You—"
"I thought you were a stormtrooper, or Hux!" she cries, and the emotions storm her, pulling her down to drown, lifting her up to breathe, tearing her apart and sewing her back together, stoking the fire inside her and washing her in cool relief. "You came."
He wraps his arms around her, pressing his cheek against her forehead as she fights back sobs. He smoothes her hair. "We all came. Mother, Uncle Luke, Finn, Poe, Chewie, BB-8 even. We're all here."
Is this real? But his arms are around her, and warmth emanates from his body and his hands are in her hair, she can hear his breaths, and he's here. It's real. "I was so afraid I'd never see any of you again."
"I know. I'm sorry," he says soothingly, until his voice catches and she realizes he's crying too.
The baby kicks, and Rey winces. She grabs Ben's hand and pulls it down to her stomach. "Feel him?" she asks. "Or her?"
Ben looks at her with childlike awe in his eyes. His lips waver and form a smile. "That's amazing."
"You're happy? About the baby?"
"Of course." He looks at her as if scandalized she could suspect anything otherwise. "Afraid, maybe, but Rey, I just wanted you—both of you—safe. This is my child."
She kisses him again, and he breaks apart only to lean down and press his mouth against her stomach.
Rey snorts. A terrible darkness tugs at her heart, wrapping it up and trying to strangle her the way that serpent tried to strangle Ben so many months earlier. "Ben, I told Snoke I would go to the Dark Side. I was going to try and escape again, but if I failed—I would have done it. At least I think I might have. To save our child." She gulps. "I'm so sorry."
Ben shakes his head. "But you didn't have to."
"I still feel awful for even considering it," she confesses.
Ben presses his hands, gloveless and calloused, against her tear-streaked face. "It's okay, Rey. What might have happened is irrelevant, because I'm here and you're here and we're going to get you out of here."
Rey sniffs, the coil loosening. Ben presses his forehead against hers, and she closes the gap, covering his mouth with hers.
Rey pries herself away and frowns. "Where are the others?"
Ben shakes his head.
"Escape now," Rey gasps. "Kiss later."
Luke deliberately aims his escape pod into the sea. If he survives, Chewie and Lando will have to rescue him.
Salt water explodes through the walls as Luke kicks his way out. It stings and scrabbles at his eyes. His lungs quiver as they start to scream for air. Clawing his way up, Luke breaks the surface and gasps. A snarky wave tosses itself into his mouth, and he chokes.
Luke hauls himself towards the shore. The island towers over him as his teeth begin to chatter. There—right there. He spots the steps, hewn from stone and wedged in-between two cliffs, one tall and proud, the other stooped and rugged.
"Good," Obi-Wan encourages him.
Gratitude saturates Luke as he drags himself out of the ocean. Obi-wan, Yoda, and his father all working together, to help him. Somewhere up in the sky, past the vast expanses of cerulean and pearlescent clouds, his sister, his nephew, Finn and Poe worked to free his apprentice.
He remembers when he first arrived on Ahch-To, convinced he had failed. Failed to save Han and Leia's son, the boy Luke had known and loved since the day he was born. He had failed his nephew in ways he hadn't even failed his father.
Luke Skywalker had never run before in his life, but he ran then. He'd given up everything, and others, like Nishi, had given up so much for him, and it was all for what?
Is this how it ends? Luke remembers asking himself. All his padawans, the ones he'd cared for, nurtured, lying slaughtered and burned in a muddy field? He'd run screaming for Ben, and when he didn't find the boy, Luke knew it the worst way.
Except Rey. She was his hope. Luke hid her, gave part of his map to Lor San Tekka in case Rey ever wanted to find him, and said goodbye to R2. And he left, because he couldn't face Leia. Not when she'd pleaded with him to help her son, and Luke had reported so many times what improvements Ben was making…
That wasn't how it ends, Luke thinks as he drags himself up the steps, flicking on his lightsaber. The temple comes into view, and with it, a redheaded man in black, and a creature who willingly became a monster.
This is.
"It's me!"
Rey's voice cuts through the radio and through Finn's heart. Rey. She's alive. She's okay.
"We're heading back to the escape pod," Ben says.
Finn plants his last explosive and nods to himself.
"Coming back at you," Poe says.
"Me too," adds Leia.
"I'll be just another minute," Finn says as he watches two stormtroopers march together a level below him, because he knows what he has to do.
If he's truly Force sensitive, Finn aims to stay as far away from the Dark Side as he can.
I can't believe I'm doing this, he thinks as he marches towards the circuit board. Because he remembers being the man who wanted to run, as Maz called him, when all he wanted to do was live, save his own damn life.
And then Kylo Ren took Rey, and he saw Han Solo die, and then Kylo Ren took Rey and now they've got her back. And the part of Finn that's always wanted to do the right thing—it overshadows his fear.
"Attention," Finn says. "Your ship is going to explode in about five minutes. I suggest you all make your way to an escape pod and evacuate. Like right now."
He has no more time to get the point across, and Finn knows a majority of the stormtroopers won't listen, but he had to try. Now they know.
Finn races back. A blaster shot explodes behind him, and Finn blocks it with his lightsaber.
"You're an idiot," Poe greets him when he finally gets back to the pod. But he throws his arms around him, hugging him tight and planting a brief kiss on his lips.
"Let's go!" Leia shouts.
Finn jumps inside, and another pair of arms closes around him. "Rey!"
"Finn!" She's beaming at him, her face a bit pale and her stomach swollen. She really is pregnant.
"You look great," Finn manages. This is the first time he's seen her since the snow-blown forests of the Starkiller Base, when the man whose arm is now wrapped around Rey and who is looking at her like she's the sun tried to kill him.
She laughs. "So do you?"
"Finn's going to be a Jedi now," Ben tells her.
"Oh right," Finn says. "Here's your lightsaber."
Rey takes it, studying his face. "Are you really?"
Finn nods. "Apparently."
"That's great!"
"Luke?" Leia asks, pressing her radio as they glide to the Millennium Falcon. "Luke, come in."
Ben and Finn help Rey down the ladder. "I can do it myself," she snaps.
She hasn't changed that much.
Finn lands, watching as Chewie wraps furry arms around Rey, murmuring and snuffling. BB-8 squeals, and Rey laughs.
"Luke's not answering," Leia reports as Ben starts to climb down.
"Then we're going, aren't we?" he says.
"Me too," Finn says, grabbing hold of the ladder again.
"We're all going," Rey says.
"No way," Finn, Ben, and Poe all answer.
"You don't get to tell her what to do!" Leia shouts. "Get back on the Falcon. We're all landing on Ahch-To because we need to avoid the blast!"
"You heard her!" Lando's voice drifts from the cockpit.
"Fine." Finn lets go of the ladder. Ben, Leia, and Poe slide down, and Lando takes off, speeding towards the planet.
"I don't want you to get hurt," Ben says to Rey, sounding sheepish.
"Snoke's been hurting me," she snaps. "You know that. I'm not stupid. I know I'm not exactly in prime condition for any sort of physical combat. But I can help. I have the Force."
Ben pulls her close and rests his chin on top of her head.
"Damn, they really are in love," Poe whispers, as if in awe.
"Isn't it wonderful?" gushes C-3PO.
Finn squeezes Poe's hand.
An explosion rocks the Falcon as it descends. BB-8 shoots out wires to hold itself and R2 in place as Ben and Rey fall backwards against the bunk.
"So long, Star Destroyer," Poe says.
Finn nods, wondering how many stormtroopers heeded his warning.
"Are you okay?" Poe asks softly.
Finn nods, but he's not. Guilt claws at him. If we killed them, how can we claim to be from the Light?
Poe grimaces and puts his arm around Finn. "You did what you could, Finn."
"I'm sick of death," Finn admits, just loud enough for Poe to hear.
Poe sighs. "Me, too, buddy."
"You're nothing but a coward, Luke Skywalker," calls Snoke as Luke ducks behind a boulder. "Keep trying to run and hide! You won't be able to forever." The boulder starts to levitate, and Luke rolls away.
"I can't beat him," Luke gasps out, not loud enough for Snoke to hear, but for Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Yoda to hear.
"Strong he is," Yoda agrees.
"Did you ever fight him?" Luke pleads. "Got any tips?" So far these ghosts are proving to be useless.
"You're a coward at heart," Snoke teases, shattering the boulder. One piece comes within millimeters of crushing Luke's shoulder. "Ruled by sentiment. Just like your father." The "Supreme Leader" saunters down the hill he's been standing on, as casual as if he were strolling through his home. "Tell me, has your sister forgiven you for abandoning her? For abandoning her son?"
Luke backs up, hands shaking.
"Don't listen to him," Anakin whispers.
"He's trying to distract you," Obi-Wan adds.
Cloud occlude the sun, and a cold wind blows through against Luke's face.
"All your years of training and you still can't beat me!" Snoke screams, the words ricocheting against the steep cliffs. "All you do is run!"
"Your man doesn't seem to be doing much better!" Luke hollers. The redheaded man disappeared behind a rock at the beginning of the fight. Luke hasn't seen him since and doesn't expect to again.
"Him? He's all talk. A coward, useful only for his brain, not his brawn," scoffs Snoke. A speck appears on the horizon, dropping from space behind him. Luke scrambles again.
They're coming.
Something bright snaps in the sky, orange and scarlet and brilliant white. Snoke gasps.
"Your ship's been blown up," Luke informs him, panting as he puts a hand on a damp rock.
Snoke whirls around to face him, black eyes spitting fury as he starts to laugh. "It won't matter. One last futile attempt by you foolish Resistance—I should have known."
"He's mad. Good," Anakin says.
"Anakin," Obi-Wan sighs in exasperation. "That is not good. You of all people should know."
"I of all people know why it is good," Anakin retorts.
"You cannot stop me!" Snoke yells. "I will rule the galaxy! I haven't been defeated in one thousand years. For years I let the Jedi and the Sith kill each other."
"There is no more Sith!" Luke yells.
"There is still the Dark Side! And I—I will destroy all the Force users, except for that girl and her child. I've been at it for years, haven't you realized?" The ship grows larger still, behind him, and Luke's not sure he's ever felt so grateful, aside from when Leia rescued him after his father cut off his hand.
"Yes!" Luke shouts back. "I have!"
"The Jedi are weak! You all are! All of the Resistance fighters—they're made of the same stuff as you Jedi! Weakness! Sentiment! Compassion!"
"Those are strengths!" Luke shouts. "Even my father realized that!"
"Your father had one weak moment—"
"No," Luke breathes. "No, he loves me. Can't you see him here?"
Snoke stares blankly at the grassy slope where Anakin stands. "What are you talking about?"
"Evil sees what it wants to see," Obi-Wan opines.
Snoke rants. "I will kill everyone you love. I will destroy the Resistance, all of you—and even if you manage to run and save your own skin again, you won't be able to run from the fact that they're dead, they're all dead—your sister, your nephew, your apprentice—" Snoke waves his hand, and the cliff under Luke's feet starts to crumble. He rushes away from it. Snoke's laughter drowns out the Falcon's impending landing.
"You know I've made it a habit to kill everyone around you, in my attempts to track you down," Snoke says. "Before I got Kylo Ren to do my work for me. Including—what was her name? Ah yes, Nishi. Sweet thing, too. Tygo Ren killed her for me, but not before I made sure she knew the exact life I had planned for her son. The poor thing showed no signs of being Force sensitive, so I—"
The Millennium Falcon smashes into the side of the island, sending rocks tumbling everywhere and Snoke tumbling with them.
"Get up before he does!" Anakin shouts.