by Rae Carson
Unless the Resistance stopped him, the Sith would rise again.
The Sith had undoubtedly been planning this for years. Maybe generations. The Emperor and her father, Darth Vader, should have been the last of them. But when one fell, another rose. Always. First Snoke, and now her own son seemed poised to take the mantle.
She should have known Palpatine would have a contingency plan in place. After all, Palpatine had been a fixture in her life, from the time she was a toddler princess on Alderaan. Over and over again, she’d watched him encounter setbacks, only to rise more powerful than before. He was smart, determined, and aggravatingly prepared. Always two steps ahead of everyone else.
Leia didn’t know what this contingency plan entailed exactly, but she’d bet Han’s medal there was so much more to it than merely a colossal fleet of Star Destroyers.
She flashed back to Rey, to the girl’s bleak face as she’d attempted to explain her dark vision. Rey was holding something back, but Leia wasn’t the kind to push that sort of thing. It wouldn’t be good leadership. People were ready when they were ready.
But if Rey’s vision had anything to do with the rising Sith fleet, maybe she should make an exception and push a little more.
In any case, they had to do something. Now. Before Ben could claim Darth Vader’s legacy once and for all.
It’s just that she was so tired. She’d hoped to have a little more time…to train Rey in the ways of the Jedi, to train Poe in the ways of command, to see Finn and Connix and Rose all grow into the great leaders she knew they could be.
But she did not have the luxury of time, or rest, or even regret.
Leia sensed Commander D’Acy at her back. “We have to do something,” she said to her friend.
D’Acy was a middle-aged blond woman who was far too high-ranking and qualified for the grunt work she’d taken on to get their base operational. But she’d also become a friend and adviser to Leia. Between D’Acy and Maz Kanata, there was the occasional day when Leia could almost forget her grief over losing Amilyn Holdo. Almost.
“We’ll think of something,” D’Acy said, her voice full of understanding.
“Last time we sent for help, no one came,” said Leia. “No one answered the call.”
Even as she said the words, she had to concede to herself that it wasn’t that simple. Thanks to some risky assignments led by Poe, Rey, Finn, and Snap, they’d learned that the First Order had been doggedly pursuing their sympathizers, restricting communications, cutting off supply lines, capturing or even assassinating allies. In short, no one had answered the call because very few had even heard it.
That day on Crait had been Leia’s darkest moment. She’d thought the spark of hope had died. She remembered sitting down in the old rebel outpost, exhausted, out of options, while the First Order deployed a siege cannon that would make short work of the armored hangar doors. They were all going to die, and the Resistance with them.
And then her brother had appeared. Luke had distracted the First Order long enough for them all to escape, and their small remnant had survived to carry on the fight. Since then, they’d been reestablishing contact with old allies, calling in favors, recruiting everyone sympathetic to their cause. Maz Kanata joining up had been a huge win, for instance—she had more connections in more places than the rest of them combined. They were growing. They were almost a force to be reckoned with.
She’d been wrong to lose hope that day. She wouldn’t make that mistake again.
Leia stood to go. There was work to be done.
* * *
—
Rey had barely finished packing when Maz found her at her workbench. Maz was tiny and unassuming, but her warm wide eyes and compelling voice made Rey want to do anything Maz asked of her. She braced herself.
“Leia and Rose will stay behind to plan the attack on the fleet,” Maz told her. “But there can be no attack until you’ve completed Luke’s mission. To find Exegol.”
Rey’s heart raced. She knew she had to do this. She wanted to do this. But she wasn’t ready.
“Maz, I might be a danger to the mission—to everyone. I’m afraid that I—”
“There is no one else,” Maz said, somehow managing to sound gentle and firm at the same time. “The search for Exegol is a task for a Jedi.”
Rey glanced at the pieces of her unfinished lightsaber. Maz had urged her to take Luke’s lightsaber long ago, when Rey found it beneath her castle on Takodana. Maz had seen what Rey would become before anyone else. “I’m not a Jedi. Not yet. I’m not as strong as Leia thinks.”
Maz leaned forward. “You won’t know how strong you are until you know how strong you have to be.”
Rey shook her head. “The dark side has plans for me. If I go, Kylo Ren will find me.”
Maz was not impressed by that in the least. “You have faced him before,” she reminded her with a shrug.
Rey’s voice dropped to a near-whisper. “It’s not him I’m afraid of.”
Maz studied her a moment. Finally, she said, “To find the darkest place in the galaxy you will need to face the darkest part of yourself.”
Somehow she knew what Rey was up against. Somehow, Maz always knew.
“You must go,” Maz urged. “The Force has led you here. You must trust in it. Always.”
* * *
—
Rey disconnected a fuel hose from the Falcon. Rose had worked miracles, getting the compressor back online, repairing the sub-alternators. Rey herself had buffed out some of the scorch marks and fine-tuned the rear shields. Her ship was nearly prepped and ready, and anticipation buzzed in her limbs. She was moments away from being behind those controls again.
She’d run a few assignments with Finn and Poe when they’d first established the base on Ajan Kloss, but for months now she’d been stuck here, training, training, training. Poring over Jedi texts with Beaumont’s and C-3PO’s help. Working on first Luke’s and later her own lightsaber. But she yearned to see space again. To get back in the fight. To feel truly useful.
Wiping her hands, she cut around the Falcon toward the on-ramp, and nearly ran into Rose.
“Thank you,” she said to the mechanic. “I can’t believe how fast you got this ship ready.”
Rose smiled. “You know I’d do anything for you and the Falcon.”
There were so many things Rey ought to say to her. She settled for “You’ve been so kind to me. You and Beaumont, Connix and Snap…”
Rose’s smile faltered. Became a straight-up glare. “Why does it feel like you’re saying goodbye forever?”
“I’m not! I just…” Rey didn’t know what she was trying to say.
Before she could figure it out, Rose enveloped her in a hug. “Me too,” she said to Rey. “Now go do your Jedi stuff.” After a final squeeze, Rose headed toward the Falcon for a last-minute inspection of the ship’s landing gear.
Rey was about to grab a crate and load it onto the ship when Poe nearly collided with her.
“So you got her up and running,” Poe said.
“You were right before,” she blurted. “I can’t stay. I’m gonna pick up Luke’s search for Exegol.”
“Yeah, I know,” Poe said, giving her shoulder a friendly smack. “We’re going with you. Chewie, did you get that compressor fixed?”
Chewie moaned that Rose had helped him.
Rey stood, mouth agape, as Poe grabbed a crate of supplies and started helping Chewie load the ship. Before she could formulate a response, she caught sight of Finn approaching. Him too?
She grabbed Finn’s shoulder and yanked him close. “I need to go alone!” she said.
He nodded. “Alone with your friends.”
“No. It’s too dangerous, Finn.”
Poe and Chewie drew near, BB-8 rolling after them.
Finn lifted a chin at
them in acknowledgment. To Rey he said, “We go together.”
Chewie loudly agreed with Finn.
BB-8 beeped his own insistence on going.
“I wholeheartedly agree,” C-3PO said.
Rey looked around at them. Poe was giving her an arch look, as if daring her to contradict them. Finn was as earnest and determined as always. Chewie just seemed impatient to be off.
Her friends. She was terrified for them all. But she couldn’t keep herself from smiling.
Knowing something in her head was different from knowing it in her heart. Rey had understood on some level that she wasn’t alone anymore, but now she knew it, and it was so wonderful it hurt. Tears filled her eyes. Loneliness was a kind of agony. But belonging was another.
* * *
—
While they’d packed their things, Beaumont had been doing some final research. Now Rey and her friends gathered with him beneath the jungle canopy to go over what he’d learned.
Beaumont Kin was a slight, sandy-haired man who appeared younger than his years. He wore a mud-speckled field jacket and always carried a holstered blaster—on strict orders from Rose and Connix, who insisted that even an academic had to have a good blaster at his side.
He bent over a console table, Jedi texts arrayed before him. The pages of one had started to curl up at the edges, thanks to the moisture in the air. Once they learned all they could, Rey was determined to have them scanned and preserved properly. Some kind of hermetically sealed container, maybe. Surely Leia could spare the resources for that?
“I’ve analyzed Luke’s ciphers,” Beaumont said. “Learned a little more about the wayfinders.”
He pointed to a familiar page from one of the texts, the one with the drawing of a pyramidal object.
“Ancient things,” Beaumont said. “Only two were made; one for the Sith Master, one for the apprentice.”
Rey peered closer. She’d always found the markings on the wayfinder odd. Circles with lines leading away from them, like crude navigation charts.
Beaumont pointed to some ciphered text. “Luke was on the hunt for the Emperor’s wayfinder, but his trail went cold on a desert world called Pasaana.”
“In the Middian system?” Finn said. Rey had heard the name. She’d once met a junk dealer at Niima Outpost who made regular stops in the Middian system.
“You been?” Beaumont said. “Can’t get a decent meal there. At least Pasaana’s unoccupied.”
Finn frowned, and Rey knew exactly what that frown meant. For now. Unoccupied for now.
“So we start on Pasaana,” Poe said.
“Yes,” Beaumont agreed. “Luke left coordinates. They point to the Forbidden Valley.”
Well, that didn’t sound foreboding at all.
* * *
—
Leia, came Luke’s voice.
“No, Luke,” Leia whispered back.
It’s time, Luke said. He’d been pleading with her for a while now, and his voice was relentless. As if it came from within her very own soul.
“Not just yet.”
She stood in her quarters, holding Han’s Medal of Bravery. She’d had it with her since the day their son had killed him. She wouldn’t be surprised if someday her thumb wore a path through the engraved medal, so often did she find herself rubbing it back and forth, lost in memory.
“When you gave that medal to Han, how could you know?” came another voice at her back, just as relentless, almost as dear. Maz Kanata.
Leia turned. Maz was holding Luke’s lightsaber. Once again Leia was struck by how someone so tiny could have such a formidable presence. Maz filled every room she was in.
“How could you know where your life would take you?” Maz said. When Leia didn’t answer right away, Maz waved the question away with a flick of her fingers and changed the subject. “I know you fear Rey’s pull to the dark side. That you’ve had visions of her death.”
Leia frowned. Maybe she’d shared too much with Maz.
“But as you have often reminded me,” Maz went on, “the future is uncertain. The girl must find her true path.”
Something about that hit home. “True path…” Leia murmured. Had Ben’s turn set him on his true path? Leia was resigned to what had happened, but she couldn’t believe it was his true path. And she couldn’t believe it was Rey’s, either.
Yet something about Maz’s words pestered her. She knew this feeling. The Force was trying to tell her something. About Rey and her journey.
“Your spirit is strong my friend,” Maz said. “But you are not well. Your body grows weaker and weaker. Give her your blessing. Give her Luke’s lightsaber.”
Leia sighed. Being blown off the bridge of the Raddus into the vacuum of space had taken a toll. She had saved herself that day through the power of the Force, but her body had paid a steep price.
Maz offered the lightsaber to Leia, who took it reverently.
“While you still can,” Maz added. “While there is still hope.”
* * *
—
Everyone was saying their goodbyes. Rey looked around, the finality of it all like a weight in her gut. It was possible they wouldn’t come back from this. How could the skeleton crew of a single ship discover a way to defeat the greatest fleet the galaxy had ever seen? It seemed ludicrous. But it was their only play.
C-3PO bent over R2-D2, speaking with uncharacteristic softness.
“In the event I do not return,” he said, “I want you to know: You have been a superb friend, Artoo. My best one, in fact.”
R2-D2 responded with a sorrowful whir.
“Rose, last chance!” Finn was saying.
“The General asked me to study the specs of the old destroyers,” Rose said. “So we can stop the fleet if you find them.”
“If?” Finn prodded.
Rose smiled. “When.”
He nodded. “When.”
They hugged, and Rose said, “We’ll be on long-range. Take care of Rey.” After a moment, she added, “Take care of yourself.” She glanced over at Rey, who lifted her chin in acknowledgment. Rey would have loved to have her company on this mission, but Leia was right: Rose was needed on base. In addition to studying Star Destroyer specs, Rose would be doing everything she could to get what ships they had in top fighting shape.
Rey watched them hug again, feeling a little left out. Because there was someone she despearately wanted to say goodbye to, but she wasn’t sure how to go about it. Rey had been alone for so much of her life. Having relationships with people was a new skill, far more difficult to learn than floating rocks with your mind or fighting remotes with your lightsaber.
Uncertain, Rey turned and looked around the base. This mess of jungle and wires and exposed terminals had become home, and it would be harder to leave than she thought.
She loved the foliage, the way rain collected on broad waxy leaves, the scent of loamy soil. Green, she had decided—the color of jungles and forests and grass and life—was her favorite.
“We should get going,” came Poe’s voice. When he noticed her staring off into space, he added, “What is it?”
“Nothing,” Rey said, a soft and gentle lie.
“Rey?” came another voice, and relief filled her. Leia.
She hurried toward the general, blurting, “There’s so much I want to tell you!” Rey should have told the truth about her vision. She should say how much Leia’s training had meant to her. Thank her for giving her a place with the Resistance and letting her make the Falcon her own. Tell her how much she admired—
“Tell me when you get back,” Leia said.
The general’s hands came up, and Rey gasped at what they held. Leia was offering her Luke’s lightsaber.
Gingerly, reverently, Rey took it. She wasn’t sure she’d earned the right to carry it. But Luk
e’s lightsaber always fit so perfectly in her hand. Like two pieces of a puzzle clicking together.
She couldn’t help herself; she reached to embrace Leia. Which turned out to be fine because Leia reached for her at the same time and hugged her tight, like she never wanted to let go. Rey closed her eyes, absorbing Leia’s strength and calm. They stood together a long moment.
Finally, Leia said, “Never be afraid of who you are.”
Rey’s eyes flew open. Leia’s voice was filled with power. With finality. Maybe the Force had shown her something. Or maybe it was just damn good advice.
Overwhelmed, Rey could only nod in grateful acknowledgment.
* * *
—
Rey settled into the pilot seat. Beside her, Chewie huffed a warm greeting. They locked eyes, and she smiled.
“It is,” she responded. “Let’s take her up.”
Poe and Finn entered the cockpit, followed by C-3PO and BB-8. Her skeleton crew. The best crew.
As they lifted off, Maz and Leia stood together on the jungle floor, watching them go. Leia’s heart ached. It was just like watching Ben leave to go train with Luke. Like watching Han go off on a mission without her. It was like saying goodbye to part of her own self.
“If she finds Exegol,” Maz said, “she may just survive.” Like Leia, Maz occasionally caught glimpses of people and places, presents and futures, through the power of the Force. Like Leia, she rarely understood what they meant. “But if she doesn’t,” Maz added, “the galaxy will surely not.”
Leia had done her best to hide her worry from Rey, if not her affection. That girl might be their last hope.
CHAPTER 5
General Hux strode down the corridor of the command ship, barely keeping pace with Ren and Pryde. Behind him came the bass-drum boot steps of the Knights. They were always around now, stuck like adhesive to their master, Kylo Ren. Hux hated the fact that he couldn’t see their faces behind their masks. Maybe they had something to hide. They were probably hideous, scarred beyond recognition. It was cold comfort.
