-ooo- Escape from Ren, 9 of 13 -ooo-

141 Kylo's Mansion – Int. 141

The room is in its darkened state. Rey sits in deep meditation. Destroyed cubes litter the background, and some are carved (symbols of the Republic, the Empire, and Alderaan). Kylo throws small cubes of phrik at Rey; an energy shield tight around her figure deflects the cubes without disturbing her.

Kylo stops throwing when he sees Rey's body convulse.

Rey shocks awake while gasping for air, and three bolts shoot out of her. One hits a pillar, the other a tree, and the final strikes the x-wing—Kylo instantly pushes that one off. Rey still has tiny shocks around her body; they vanish as she settles.

KYLO What did you see?

REY Same thing. Always the same. Fire. A million screams... It's just too much. It's only gotten more difficult since training here.

KYLO I apologize. I know many of the complex techniques... but with visions... I barely exceed a Knight of Ren.

REY ...so there's nothing. I can't cast visions.

KYLO No. Even while training with Luke I... I couldn't cast visions either. No better than you can in a practical sense. However, your training in Styx-trance has been fruitful. Even when absorbed in meditation, your defense is automatic.

He points out the smoking phrik cubes, Rey smiling at her improvement... until she sees the x-wing's smoking wing as well. Regret stabs into her.

REY Oh! Jon! I'm so sorry! I know it must have been important to y—

KYLO It is unfortunate.

The damage clearly bothers him. Rey sees an opportunity to ask a burning question:

REY Jon... why did you betray Luke?

Kylo thinks about how to answer this.

KYLO The rest of the main family has arrived at Aquila's mansion. We shouldn't keep them.

Kylo makes a gesture, and the windows return to transparent, the lights fading out as natural light enters. They silently board the hover platform. It heads toward the elevator.

KYLO The Ides of Juzar is a reward to good soldiers to rejoin their families. I wish you could have been rewarded the same way.

REY I still get to visit my mother. Honoring her grave is enough.

KYLO My parents were Azerty Jax and Mary Galencia. They cleaved trade routes from pirate control, braved Wild Space, and cataloged its impossibilities. Childhood with them filled me with pride.

Rey is confused by his statement.

REY ...I see. That's good...

Kylo looks back to Rey, trying to explain.

KYLO My time as 'Jon Jax' ended once my midichlorian count was discovered.

Rey starts to get it.

REY Did they stop you from... becoming one of them?

KYLO Becoming a real Knight of Ren? Having my young skull ripped open, wired, and wiped of all consciousness, probably die screaming in the process like ninety percent of them? It was a suggestion. But the Emperor saw more opportunity in a special operation.

REY Sending you to Luke.

KYLO Yes.

REY Then what happened?

KYLO I had a new name, "Kylo." My status as a prince to only be returned after I killed Luke and stole all his Jedi teachings.

REY But you didn't do either.

Kylo smiles.

KYLO I spent the best years of my life as Luke's star pupil. Adventuring between stars, outstepping lurking dangers... At one point, he was dying in my arms... and I brought him back. My only exposure to my parents then were secret messages, shadowy envoys carrying their pleas. "Complete the mission," they begged me... and I rejected them –until the vision.

Kylo looks over to Rey.

KYLO (cont.) For once, it was cast clear to me. Vivid and real. My parents… being brutalized before Zaltan. I knew what I had to do.

REY Is that why you betrayed Luke?

KYLO Not even then, Rey. I was leaving to storm the spire and kill Zaltan.

REY Oh!

KYLO When I reached my spacecraft, Luke was waiting for me. He knew everything already. And Luke –the kindest man I have known– he gifted me his personal ship, he burned his school to the ground, and vanished, all to trick Zaltan. To save my family. He bore no resentment for my lies, my purpose. I left to fulfill Luke's dream and finally free the galaxy!

REY And then?

KYLO I told you I am terrible at visions, Rey. It wasn't of the future. I watched Zaltan kill my parents as it happened. There was nothing to save. Standing in front of him, surrounded by Knights of Ren... I knew I would fail. I already had. Zaltan opened his arms to me for my success, but once Luke returned, he lowered me to a Knight of Ren. Then assigned me to an arrogant hazard named Jacob Hux. Zaltan expecting me to die in another of Hux's blunderstorms. Along with this heinous thing:

Kylo shows his overdesigned lightsaber.

REY ...I like it.

KYLO Typical Imperial tool. Flashy. The idea of a guard is fine but making it two blades is idiotic. Now a bell-guard of phrik, wide and covering the knuckles, how grand!

REY If he heard your complaints, he'd have killed you instead.

KYLO Haha, yes. His one fatal mistake was letting me live.

REY We're going to kill him?

KYLO Yes. At least I will. Until I do, I continue to betray Luke's wish. I want to be more like him, Rey. Able to risk it all. To not trample the innocent. But I can't. We have family here that he can kill at any time! We aren't like the "people's hero" Finn, with nothing to lose. We don't get to charge in. We have to play everything perfectly, keep what we have, and take the throne. That includes breaking promises. And betraying our friends.

REY ...what will you do with the throne?

KYLO Draft a peace with the Republic.

REY General Organa will only sign a treaty after every Imperial Family member goes on trial, Jon. And every member will be sentenced to death... even if it was fair.

KYLO ...then if I must topple the Republic, so be it. The Galencia family will live in a peaceful time, with every planet free of tyranny. You are the guiding angel for that reality, Rey.

REY So that we may kill the Emperor.

KYLO So that we take revenge and heal this galaxy.

They get off the hover platform. Rey looks to Kylo's x-wing and his other displays.

REY So are those all Luke's?

Kylo laughs while pressing the button for the elevator.

KYLO No, most are just replicas from the best era. I even bought a new Millennium Falcon-type ship. Its crew abandoned it at a port with three droids. I'd have gotten it earlier, but somethings wrong with it. I'll show it to you tonight. Maybe you can fix it.

Rey's heart climbs as she pieces it together. The elevator arrives. They get in.

REY If we have the time.

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142 Aquila's Mansion – Int. 142

The elevator doors open to an expansive room. Well-lit. Polished reflective floors. Plenty of furniture but no cushions; all the chairs, tables, and statues are wire mesh metal and glass. The room is a hanging garden; all the pots are small and placed in delicate patterns with thin wire. Small, weightless creatures Float to and from flowers. This room has no doors, and on the corner of every entrance are convex mirrors correcting any blind spot —a room of thoughtful, controlled, beauteous paranoia.

Ephrath and Jael are dressed in black, waiting on a wire mesh bench. There are four Knights of Ren spread around the walls.

EPHRATH Hey. Happy Ides.

REY & KYLO Happy Ides.

JAEL Training go well?

REY I think so.

KYLO Where's Aquila?

JAEL She's taking a message from her fiancé. She won't reveal anything.

REY Is it that dangerous to tell her fiancé where we are going?

JAEL YES. Have you said anything?

REY Nothing.

EPHRATH Rey has been perfect in her role. No one should suspect anything.

KYLO How have you prepared if they have?

EPHRATH Large freighter, well-insulated, impossible for any known synoscan. Seven Knights of Ren, including Jon. Block of select troopers, loyal and small enough to be innocuous.

KYLO And Rey.

Ephie looks awkwardly at Rey.

EPHRATH Yes, and Rey.

REY I'll keep us all safe.

Aquila enters.

AQUILA I should hope so... we're going to be down one soldier.

REY ...happy Ides, Aquila.

AQUILA Happy Ides, Rey!

EPHRATH What do you mean?

AQUILA David Fashna just asked for "Kylo Ren" to escort a Monopoler on Satellite Port 4.

JAEL What?

EPHRATH Worrying.

KYLO Refuse him.

AQUILA The timing is worrying. If the Monopler is the warlord Adamis Kanth, Jon would better drawn that man out into a trade deal. A believable rouse, though I can feel the Emperor working through him. Whether it's to spite Jon's holiday season or to more isolate Rey is unclear.

EPHRATH I'm more worried for an attack on all of us.

AQUILA We all have appointments today we are missing by surprise. You made Jon and Rey's schedule, remember? They were supposed to be off to the Fashna controlled islands today, that's the public story, that's what they are using. They may be suspicious about Rey, hoping he sends her alone where they can approach her. That's what I lean toward. Unless they cracked the unified-code?

Ephrath ponders the possibility.

EPHRATH No, no such sign. I agree with your idea, it doesn't seem like an attack, but they are growing more suspicious. For now, Jon, you will have to leave, keep Fashna appeased.

Kylo stays silent, his way of tacit agreement.

EPHRATH And we still have to prepare for the worst. We'll send out more decoys, take wider alternative routes to the Graveyard. Further, we can't have the entire Main Branch in one place with Jon absent. Aquila, you will stay behind.

AQUILA No, I am going Ephrath.

Ephrath avoids eye contact with the head of house,

EPHRATH ...Jael, you will stay behind.

Jael was expecting this after Aquila's response.

JAEL ...l understand. Please give my bouquet to our father, Ephie.

EPHRATH I will.

Ephrath and Jael hug. Rey looks to the calm and regal Aquila, sensing a trap.

REY ...I could go alone?

AQUILA That's unneeded. Our secrecy to this event has been perfect, and my sister's security will watch for surprises. I want to be there with you, Rey.

REY ...Alright.

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143 House Galencia Garage 143

The garage is a massive hangar primarily staffed with cargo ships. The Eagle stowed near the wall. Kylo gets in his private classic TIE fighter, then waits by the front ship passage to open.

The three girls enter a tubular gray shuttle. Blotchy but sturdy. The back opens as the military starts to load on. Arranged in a perfect square: in the middle are the three princesses, surrounding them are five Knights of Ren, on their sides are ten soldiers, in their front and back are fifteen soldiers. The princesses are each in hooded robes and carrying grave offerings.

Once loaded on, the freighter lifts with a fleet of twenty identical twins. They stay behind the TIE fighter in the front, and once the garage open they slowly reach the shields generated outside. The gray island beneath them has dots of people roving around. At the very tip are the immense shield generators. Our ships hover to the front of the shield, in-between two large, matching metal arms. The arms push thirty meters into the shield, bending a rectangular opening the crafts take.

Having left the imperial city of Ren, the ships scatter off on their separate destinies.

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144 Red Republic Trophy Room – Int.144

Jetpack'd Finn deftly darts between the wreckage of the ships and weaves through the metal rafters on the ceiling. The speed and precision are so natural, like a hummingbird zipping among branches. Poe enters the room. It's hard not to be impressed by the results of Finn's training.

POE Your new practice beats meditation!

Finn sees Poe and throws himself on a wall, landing on his feet. He pushes off, both jets flaring, guns it straight to Poe. With a barrel roll and flip, Finn lands softly in front of him. Poe never flinches. As Finn stands, the jetpack folds, the two Jets pointed outward rest on the sides of Finn's chest, like two guns in a shoulder holster. Finn has augmented the leg harness to be leg holsters for his scrambler and new lightsaber. Finn wears a black t-shirt, and grey cargo pants that make the jetpack and leg holsters pop visually.

FINN I've been enjoying it.

POE Gotta say I'm a little envious! Thankfully, the Red Republic's ship came in the last night. I can show you some real flying.

FINN ...have they finished fixing it up?

POE Took 'em all night. It's time.

FINN Ides of Juzar.

POE Happy holidays. How's the new lightsaber?

Finn unholsters it. The hilt is smaller than the blue blade he left with R2. With a thumb press, a beam of white light shoots forth.

POE Aww, you didn't go for red?

FINN No Poe, of course not. I made it lighter too, and I've balanced it with my scrambler now.

Finn unholsters the scrambler, flourishing the two together in dual technique.

FINN (cont.) Feels a lot better. I should have made my own a long time ago.

Poe gestures to the door.

POE I'm sure she'll be impressed.

Finn flicks the saber of and stylishly holsters both weapons. They walk out.

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145 Red Republic Camp — Ext. 145

The background is noisy and curious about our heroes, but most are enjoying their Ides of Juzar. Finn and Poe make their way up to the hangar where only two soldiers are. A raggedy Pulsar.9 is being tightly fit into a small cargo ship.

POE Oh, you're kidding me.

EXHAUSTED MECHANIC It's what we got.

POE How did you even find a Pulsar.9?

EXHAUSTED MECHANIC From a place that reverse engineers 'em. Or something, I don't know.

POE Forget that! It only has one hyperdrive! We're on-planet, the gravity here is going to bust the thing! Then we'll still be trapped in Imperial-controlled space. (edited)

EXHAUSTED MECHANIC We're sorry about this sir, we got you the best engine we could. It'll take a beating, but we promise it will get you far away before it breaks. (edited)

POE Unbelievable... (edited)

Poe has serious reservations.

FINN You've worked miracles in a Pulsar before.

POE Yeah, but even I can't fit three people in a two-man cockpit...

FINN We'll squeeze in.

POE ...it's going to be an adventure. It'll still be hard to fly through a cargo ship.

EAGER PILOT Jus' a sleave. Don' wan' no atten-shin. Me an' Jess' ere 'ave loaded it wi' guns. If thangs sour, we'll stay 'ere 'n lay cover while yall jump out.

POE You'll be fine?

EAGER PILOT I'lll be in mah comfort zone.

Poe likes this guy.

AENEAS Finn, sir!

Finn and Poe turn around to see a group of eight armored men in teal robes.

AENEAS (cont.) We are ready, sir.

Aeneas hands two robes to Finn. Finn pauses and looks at all the men's determined faces. Finn looks behind them at a smiling General Byzancy looking on from a balcony. Byzancy waves. Finn's face stays solid. He extends his hand, gliding over each man.

FINN I said to bring no lethal weapons, You two stay behind.

Finn points two out. They freeze up, caught guilty. The other men glare at the newly outed and distance themselves.

FINN (cont.) Aeneas, you've got a good group. Let's head out.

As they all load into the faux cargo ship, the two men look back at Byzancy with wide eyes. Byzancy never loses his smile, but his face has lost some color.

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146 Sky over the Imperial Graveyard —- Ext. 146

Soft cold fog lays still over the silver ocean, The two ships are making separate paths through. Sea vessels with orange lights dot their way. In the princesses' ship, Aquila smiles calmly behind the copilot seat. Rey is looking at Aquila. Ephrath is looking at the soldiers. In the rebel's ship, Poe is looking out the viewport. Aeneas is looking at Finn. Finn is looking down, Each ship exits their fog, and we witness the island:

(rough concept art on A3O)

The twin monuments of the Darth Star stand out the most. These commemorate the 3,658,230 who died (a couple thousand engineers were left off to make a clean number). They visually resemble the stations with the bottom quarter buried into the island. Each a bulbous structure composed of black arches arranged circularly at the base, spaced evenly apart. The arches stretch vertically upward, never touching until they gather into an empty circle on the upper side, resembling the disc of the stations. The slotted quasi-domes each have an indentation along their equators to suggest the trench. Each arch has on average 7173 headstones. The DS1 monument has 245 arches, and the larger DS2 has 265. They rest on their respective hills, the island's two highest points.

The DS2 monument's circular base is a deep red for Emperor Palpatine's tomb. The DS1 monument's circular base holds a lush park for the Tombs of the Imperial Family.

Around these are millions of tinier black graves built on gray sand. The shoreline after these is empty, encircling the island in a gray ring. After, many harbors dock ships to keep the shore open. Large restaurant ships and smaller visiting ships crowd these harbors, all lit with orange lanterns. Haunting mist roams between every edifice.

All characters heed the Imperial Graveyard.

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