by Ian Doescher
[to R2-D2:] Behold, she plumbs the boundless depths of grief!
I’d have not such a heart within my breast
E’en for the dignity of the whole body.
’Tis certain Leia knows what she must do,
Artoo—to reach her errant son she must
Expend whatever strength in her remains.
R2-D2 Beep, hoo. [Aside:] My lady and my general!
[Rey and Kylo Ren continue to
duel on a section of the Death Star
surrounded by water on both sides.
Enter FINN and JANNAH, aside.
FINN
Fraught was the skimmer journey by the sea,
Yet we—though tempest-toss’d—forfended death.
Now may I proffer help unto her. [Calling:] Rey!
REY
[aside:] I’ll not have Finn in danger, standing twixt
This villain and myself. Nay, Finn, away!
[Rey uses the Force to shove Finn away,
then continues to duel Kylo Ren.
KYLO
[aside:] A massive wave shall break upon our heads,
As if all nature thunder’d at our clash
And would the conflict settle equally,
By washing us beneath the ocean deep.
[Rey jumps from one part of the
wreckage to another much farther away.
Kylo follows her. They land in a place
Jannah and Finn cannot reach.
JANNAH
[aside:] They leap like gods, not humans, by my troth.
FINN
[aside:] Though I perceive the Force, ’tis not yet thus:
Here is a power far beyond my ken.
[Rey and Kylo continue to duel.
REY
Thou villain! One of us shall not depart—
’Tis only Rey or Kylo shall go forth.
[Finn tries to run toward Rey.
JANNAH
Thou canst not follow them—most certainly
The sea would sweep thee up like thou wert chaff.
FINN
Unhand me, I shall not forsake her!
JANNAH
—Nay!
Hear reason, or thou shalt be quite destroy’d.
FINN
O Rey, would that I could thy safety win!
REY
[aside:] Our skill and pow’r is match’d most perfectly.
KYLO
[aside:] Our acumen and strength are nearly twins.
[She takes a giant leap to another
part of the wreckage, closer to where
Kylo Ren’s TIE whisper sits.
REY
[aside:] I dive again, but he will follow on.
KYLO
[aside:] She dives again; I shall with purpose stride.
[He walks and catches up to her.
REY
[aside:] The final confrontation, blow for blow!
KYLO
[aside:] The final confrontation, come what may.
REY
[aside:] He tries to strike, I stop him by the Force.
KYLO
[aside:] She tries to swipe, the dark side stoppeth her.
REY
[aside:] A dyad certainly, if e’er there was.
KYLO
[aside:] The realization of our fates conjoin’d
Doth break upon her face, e’en as these waves
Come crashing o’er the ramparts hereabout.
She knoweth she shall ne’er defeat me here,
For we are unified at ev’ry point.
[As they duel, Rey collapses to her
knees in exhaustion. Kylo raises
his lightsaber to strike her.
LEIA
[calling softly:] O Ben, my boy, my son, a mother’s bliss.
[Leia lies down. Kylo Ren pauses, looking
backward, and drops his lightsaber.
REY
[aside:] The error I have long awaited. Strike!
[Rey ignites Kylo Ren’s lightsaber
and runs him through with it.
LEIA
Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Ben:
Mine and thy father’s death come not on thee.
[Leia dies.
REY
[aside:] Nay, nay! The voice that call’d him reacheth me—
My teacher, guide, and friend, my General!
O Leia, can it be that thou art gone?
[Rey turns off Kylo Ren’s lightsaber, and he falls.
R2-D2
[aside, singing:] Come away, come away, death,
And in sad cypress let her be laid.
Fly away, fly away, breath;
She is slain by grief that doth not fade.
Her shroud of white, stuck all with yew,
O, prepare it!
Her part of death, no one so true
Did share it.
REY
[aside:] What have I done? This gentle lad laid low,
Who is the only vestige, now, of her.
Shall I give my life for an enemy’s?
Shall sacrifice become mine epitaph?
But is he, rightly said, mine enemy?
And would I ask a fonder epitaph?
If I may healing proffer, yea—I shall,
In mourning for my Leia, gone too soon,
I’ll render back the son that once she lost.
[Rey places her hand on Kylo Ren’s
injury and transfers life to him
through the Force. He is healed.
KYLO
[aside:] This touch—an unexpected clemency!
My wound is gone. Thus hath she done for me.
REY
’Twas true that once I long’d to take thy hand,
Yet not the hand of Kylo Ren. Ben’s hand,
Such would I gladly take if tender’d me.
[She runs to Kylo Ren’s TIE whisper
and flies away. Exit Rey.
FINN
She flies, and I no succor furnish’d her,
She flies, and even thus I’m left behind,
She flies, confusion reigning in her heart,
She flies, and I know not where she hath gone.
Dark moment for my true companion Rey,
Who seeketh separation from her friends
And flees with troubl’d heart and weary mind.
[The Millennium Falcon appears to
bear Finn and Jannah away.
May fate ordain that we shall meet again.
Conferr’d I not what thou didst need today,
Yet Finn declares: I’ll make it up some way.
[Exeunt Finn and Jannah in the
Millennium Falcon. On the balcony,
R2-D2 and Maz approach Leia’s body.
MAZ
Thou antic death, which laugh’st us here to scorn,
Anon from thine insulting tyranny,
Coupled in bonds of perpetuity,
One Leia, wingèd through the lither sky,
In thy despite shall scape mortality.
Goodnight, sweet princess, angel of our hearts.
[Exeunt Maz Kanata and R2-D2. Leia’s
body remains on the balcony.
KYLO
Alone, directionless yet still alive,
I am abandon’d on this sopping steel.
Enter GHOST OF HAN SOLO.
HAN
Holla, my child. O, how I miss thee, boy.
KYLO
Thy son is dead.
HAN
—Nay, Kylo Ren is dead.
My son,
my boy, my Ben—he liveth yet.
KYLO
Thou art a memory, and nothing more.
Thou art, mayhap, some undigested beef,
Thou art more gravy than come from the grave.
HAN
Yea, ’tis thy memory whence I have come.
Come home.
KYLO
—Nay, ’tis too late, for she is gone.
HAN
Thy mother, truly, she is gone indeed.
Yet all that she did stand for whilst she liv’d,
And ev’rything for which she bravely fought,
’Tis not gone, and with thee it ne’er shall be.
Ben, hear me, please.
KYLO
—I know what I must do,
Yet fear I’ve not the strength to make it so.
HAN
Thou dost and e’er didst.
KYLO
—Father! I—
HAN
—I know.
[Kylo Ren turns around and throws his
lightsaber into the sea. Exit Ghost of Han Solo.
KYLO
Now I have taken heart thou vanishest:
Sweet spirit, I would hold more talk with thee.
This visitation marks a turning point:
The end of one life as another starts.
I must be strong, remember my first call,
And shun the folly that consum’d my life.
The years spent with the vile First Order shall
Become the nadir of a human life,
The lowest rung upon my ladder tall,
The ebbing of the ocean of my days,
The bass notes of the symphony of time.
However long my strand of life shall be
Ere fate ordains to clip it and release
My life into the Force forevermore,
I shall exist to bring light to the world,
Deliver hope to those too long oppress’d,
Make recompense for all the wrong I’ve done.
The work beginneth now, as I proceed
To Exegol to face the Emperor.
Defeating him must be th’initial deed
In making up for Kylo Ren’s foul works.
The name doth leave a rotten taste inside
My mouth—what vanity, to turn away
The name my loving parents proffer’d me.
No evil knave, no longer Kylo Ren,
I turn away from he who I was then—
From now, I am a Solo once again,
The son of Han and Leia—I am Ben!
[Exit.
1 Editor’s translation: My friends, ye came! I knew not if you would,
For you have borrow’d peril great to do’t.
My Wookiee’s heart doth praise your loyalty.
2 Editor’s translation: The dagger—we must find it presently!
They stripp’d me of it when I came on board.
3 Editor’s translation: The final moment of your little lives,
And ye shall spend it dimly bickering?
4 Editor’s translation: Belike they deem us doom’d to failure, since
The landing gear severely broken is.
5 Editor’s translation: Would that we might, for I have had enow
Of prattling from the empty-headed droid!
SCENE 1.
Aboard the Steadfast.
Enter two STORMTROOPERS.
TROOPER 7
Good morrow, mate. Thy face is bonny as
The morning sun when first it shineth bright.
TROOPER 8
Well met to thee as well. I see thou art
In spirits high with smile upon thy face—
Or so, beneath thy helmet, I presume.
TROOPER 7
I cannot keep my merriment from thee!
TROOPER 8
What is it that hath fill’d thee so with joy?
TROOPER 7
I have been in the bunkroom. Ah—I find
Myself embarrass’d suddenly to tell
Of what I did therein.
TROOPER 8
—Embarrass’d? Thou?
’Tis only I, thy best and oldest friend.
TROOPER 7
We two were station’d here together but
A fortnight past, and only then did meet.
TROOPER 8
And yet our shar’d experience, when we
Were swindl’d by that Jedi harpy—
TROOPER 7
—True!
No truer friend I’ve had since that occurr’d.
TROOPER 8
Wilt thou vouchsafe thy secret, then, to me?
TROOPER 7
If thou shalt promise ne’er to mock, sirrah.
TROOPER 8
Say never so, my friend. I mock thee? Ha!
What was it, in the bunkroom, thou wert at?
’Twas naught nefarious or aberrant?
TROOPER 7
Nay, nay—’twas but a pastime, which is yet
A newfound hobby, vulnerable still.
TROOPER 8
I see, friend. Fear thou not my confidence—
Mine ears shall hear and ne’er a mock be born
From those two organs, to escape my mouth.
TROOPER 7
The plain fact is, I took some time to write.
TROOPER 8
To write? Heard I aright?
TROOPER 7
—A holy rite,
Composing with my pen, mine ink, and wit.
TROOPER 8
I am astonishèd! What dost thou write?
Belike some tome—the epic history
Of our First Order, in its chapter first?
TROOPER 7
Nay, something else, which still my tongue would hide.
TROOPER 8
Proceed, I pray—pull thou the bandage off.
TROOPER 7
’Tis fiction that I write! Yea! Stories, tales,
A fancy of imagination pure.
TROOPER 8
E’en so? Is’t something I could ever read?
TROOPER 7
Nay, never, no. ’Tis wholly private. Nay.
TROOPER 8
Canst thou, at least, tell me what thou didst write
That put thee in this splendid, joyful mood?
TROOPER 7
This far I’ll tell thee, yea, though nothing more:
I am the author of an epic tale,
Writ in nine parts, an opera of space
That telleth such adventures and delights
Thou never wouldst believe I penn’d the thing.
TROOPER 8
The tale sounds marvelous. How shall it end?
TROOPER 7
I cannot tell.
TROOPER 8
—Thou canst tell me, in sooth.
TROOPER 7
Thou miss’st my meaning utterly, my friend—
I merely mean I do not know as yet.
These strands, unravel’d, spread most anywhere—
Respect I’ve learn’d for storytellers all
Who plot these tales and tie up ev’ry end.
TROOPER 8
Full confidence have I thou shalt do so
As well. It seemeth art is thy domain,
Not mine, and I do wish thee well of it.
One day, perchance thou shalt let me peruse
The chronicle—once thou completest it.
Until that time, shall we to supper go?
TROOPER 7
Yea. Writing e’er gives me an appetite!
[Exeunt.
PALPATINE
The princess of old Alderaan did thwart
My plan, and still her deeds shall be in vain.
Come unto Exegol, strong Gen’ral Pryde.
PRYDE
As I did serve you in the former wars,
I serve you now, to settle former scores.
PALPATINE
Take thou the ship unto a world they know
And let it burn, our dominance to show.
The Final Order doth begin anon.
She’ll come to us; her friends shall follow on.
PRYDE
With full allegiance I give you my yea,
And shall your bidding do sans more delay.
[Exeunt.
Enter CHORUS.
CHORUS
Behold, the power once in Death Star hands
Is wielded by a single ship alone.
A Star Destroyer’s weaponry expands
And zounds! Kijimi unto bits is blown.
[Exit.
SCENE 2.
On Ajan Kloss.
Enter POE DAMERON, FINN, CHEWBACCA, C-3PO, BB-8, and D-O emerging from the Millennium Falcon.
Enter COMMANDER D’ACY, meeting them.
D’ACY
Poe, Finn, ye have return’d—with heavy heart
I must unfold to ye what hath occur’d—
FINN
We have some haste, Commander; hold thou off.
POE
We must unto the general anon.
Our news for her is most indefinite
And altogether unaccountable.
D’ACY
Yet she is gone and cannot hear your suit.
CHEWBAC.
Auugh, auugh!1
FINN
—Nay, Chewie, be not lost in grief!
CHEWBAC.
Auugh, auugh, auugh, auugh!2
Enter ROSE TICO, LIEUTENANT CONNIX, and BEAUMONT KIN.
D’ACY
—The woes but multiply.
We have receiv’d intelligence of late:
The vile First Order sack’d Kijimi whole—
The planet blasted into shards of stone.
POE
Kijimi? How? First Leia and now this?
[Aside:] This will be sure to cut me to the heart—
The place where my true Bliss resideth. O!
D’ACY
A blast from one mere Star Destroyer, Poe,
One of the newfound ships of the Sith fleet
Come forward from the unknown regions grim.
BEAUMONT
The Emp’rer sent a ship from Exegol.
Doth this, perforce, mean each ship in the fleet—
POE
Hath planet-killing weapons, yea, ’tis plain.
Upon this subject, however, shall I
