by Rae Carson
“Friends!” said Cone-head.
Poe seemed as relieved as Finn felt. “Beebee-Ate, Threepio, come on,” the pilot urged.
Hux hustled them toward a door. “I shut down the impeders,” he said. “You’ve got seconds.”
The general opened the door revealing the Falcon, unscathed except for the entrance lock, which was a conspicuous mess of charred wires. No worries; Rose could have that lock working in no time.
“There she is,” said Poe. “She’s a survivor.”
They headed toward the ship, but Finn felt a hand on his shoulder. “Wait!” said Hux. “Blast me in the arm. Quick.”
“What?”
“Or they’ll know.”
Finn raised his blaster.
“I could kill you,” Finn said, testing the thought, letting it roll around inside him. He did not enjoy killing. He hadn’t even enjoyed watching Phasma fall into the flaming wreckage of the Supremacy.
Maybe he could make an exception for Hux.
“You need me,” Hux said.
True. But Finn could still make it hurt.
He shot Hux in the leg, doing as much external skin damage as possible. Hux grunted, and sweat broke out on his suddenly red face.
“Why are you helping us?” Finn asked. Hux hated the Resistance. Hated them all. Finn was certain of it.
“I don’t care if you win,” Hux spat out through his pain. “I need Kylo Ren to lose.”
* * *
—
Rey and Kylo circled each other like stalking wolves, slow and intense. An audience formed around them as stormtroopers charged into the hangar to watch.
He was going to tell her something important. She was desperate to hear it. Maybe she should just kill him. Or maybe she should flee.
She remembered what Leia said to her. Never be afraid of who you are. Spoken as Rey was wrapped in a loving embrace, with no trace of judgment. Only acceptance.
The memory filled her with resolve. With strength. And she asked: “Why did the Emperor come for me? Why did he want to kill a child? Tell me.”
He stepped toward her. “Because he saw what you would become. You don’t just have power. You have his power.”
Dread was a dark miasma, filling her until she was sick with it. She knew what he was going to say. She knew it.
“You’re his granddaughter. You’re a Palpatine.” He let the words settle for a moment.
She backed away toward the hangar entrance, away from his words, away from the certainty rising within her. It was true. She sensed it. All the darkness inside her, the rage…
Kylo pressed forward mercilessly, backing her closer and closer to the void. “My mother was the daughter of Vader. Your father was the son of the Emperor. What Palpatine doesn’t know is that we are a dyad in the Force, Rey. Two that are one.”
Her heart stopped. The dyad.
His words rang with truth, deep in her very soul. They shattered her, emptied her of everything.
She forced herself to continue edging toward the abyss where the hangar ended and the high atmosphere of Kijimi began. Rey peered over, gauged the distance to the hazy ground. Too high a jump, even with the help of the Force. Maybe she should try it anyway.
“We’ll kill him,” Kylo said. “Together. Take the throne.”
He removed his mask. A gesture of vulnerability. Of trust. It suddenly occurred to her how long it had been since she’d seen his face. The scar on his cheek had faded, but it would still mark him forever. “You know what you need to do,” he said. “You know.”
He extended his black-gloved hand to her.
She looked at it. Remembered. The last time he’d extended a hand to her had been in the wreakage of Snoke’s throne room. Their combined power had defeated him. It was true that together they could do such incredible things.
Suddenly, she sensed a weight at her back and along with it, Finn, his presence a bright beacon of light, piercing the dark.
“I do know,” she told Kylo. Rey turned toward the abyss.
The Falcon rose before her. Stormtroopers volleyed blasts at the ship, but the Falcon swiveled on an invisible axis. Poe hit the thrusters, blowing back everything in the hanger. Stormtroopers slid away helplessly.
Rey braced herself. She sensed Kylo doing the same behind her.
The Falcon remained hovering in the air as the access ramp descended, revealing Finn, wearing a breather and wielding a blaster. “Rey!” he called.
Debris flew past her, kicked up by the wash of the Falcon’s engines.
She turned back to Kylo one last time. She hated him for telling her. And yet she was glad he had. A dyad…
“C’mon!” yelled Finn.
She sprinted for the edge, then launched herself toward the Falcon. Finn grabbed her arm before she could sail by, and swung her onto the ramp. They sprinted into the Falcon’s belly as the ramp rose, closing them in, and the floor shuddered beneath her feet as Poe whipped the ship around and hit the accelerator.
* * *
—
Leia held her breath. Lieutenant Connix had run to fetch her the moment they’d received the signal, but it was coded. Please be the Falcon, she thought.
She listened on her headset as Beaumont worked the console controls, decrypting. A red light turned blue, and the console beeped.
Beaumont grinned. “We’re picking up their flight signature! General, the Falcon’s flying again!”
Leia couldn’t even savor her relief because a wave of weakness washed over her, making her stumble. The headset was suddenly too hot and tight. She jerked it off, let it fall to the ground.
Leia, came her brother’s maddening voice. It’s time.
I can’t, she told him. There’s too much to do.
She felt his understanding, his love, maybe even a touch of amusement. There is only one thing left, he said. And then you can rest.
Dizziness overtook her. She felt herself falling, the edges of the world caving in on her. She was vaguely aware of Connix’s arms wrapping around her, boosting her, the lieutenant’s worried voice: “General?”
Connix guided her to her quarters. Leia just needed to lie down for a bit. That’s all.
* * *
—
Kylo Ren and Allegiant General Pryde surveyed the hangar bay. They’d lost four stormtroopers, one cargo pilot, and two maintenance workers when the Falcon’s engine wash had flooded the hanger, pushing them into the high atmosphere of Kijimi. Kylo considered it a small price to pay to encounter Rey again, to provoke her into a rage, to say the word dyad and watch the truth of it wash over her lovely face.
The remaining maintenance crew had quickly restored the hanger to working order, but small fires burned throughout the bay. A few troopers lay injured on the floor; one bled badly from a leg wound.
He hardly paid attention. He kept seeing her face, the way her lips had parted with surprise, the way her body had canted toward him. If the Millennium Falcon hadn’t appeared, she might have come to him, taken his hand.
Kylo really hated that ship.
“Are you sure we shouldn’t pursue?” Pryde said.
“You scanned the dagger?”
“Of course, sir.”
“Then we know where she’s going.”
He’d been so very close. But now she knew the truth. She would accept it. She would come to understand that darkness was her destiny. Next time he saw her, she would turn.
CHAPTER 12
Rey found herself engulfed in a giant, hairy hug.
“I missed you, too,” she said. She’d gotten Chewie back. She hadn’t killed him. But the fact remained that she had lost control. The only reason her friend wasn’t dead was pure, dumb luck.
She’d lost control twice since then, with Kylo. Something had been happening to her, and s
he finally understood what it was. The darkness growing inside her; it all made sense now.
She was a Palpatine. Born of pure evil.
More than anything in the galaxy, she wanted to run back to Leia, beg her teacher for help. But there was no time. Rey was still committed to their mission, now more than ever. The mission was all that mattered.
Finn exited the cockpit and ran past them, saying, “Gear regulator’s out.” He paused when he saw her face. “You okay?”
Rey nodded, and Finn hurried toward the back to start repairs.
Chewie moaned his thanks for coming after him.
Rey forced a smile and said, “I’m so happy to…” Her voice trailed off.
Chewie shrugged and headed into the cockpit to help Poe.
Rey stood there a moment, a little relieved to be alone. She just needed to collect her thoughts. She leaned against the wall outside the cockpit and closed her eyes.
From inside came the sound of alarms beeping, then Chewie asking why they weren’t being followed.
“I dunno why they’re not following us,” Poe said. “But I don’t trust it.”
Because he already knew where they were going, that’s why. She was putting her friends in danger just by being here. Kylo Ren would always find her, no matter what.
Chewie gave Poe a rundown of damage to the Falcon.
“What do you mean, landing gear’s busted? How busted?”
Chewie told him to look at the readout himself if Poe didn’t believe him.
“Well,” said Poe. “That’s something else we gotta fix. I’m just glad we got you back. I’m not sure General Leia would have survived losing you.”
And it would have been her fault.
Rey straightened. Time to stop feeling sorry for herself and get back to work. She headed into the rear of the ship, where she found Finn at a panel, trying to fix the gear regulator.
Wordlessly, he handed her an electroprobe. They worked together in companionable silence for a while. Sparks shot up from the panel as they rewired, welded, and tested.
At last, Finn said, “Whatever Ren said to you, you can’t trust it.”
“All that matters is the wayfinder,” Rey said. “Getting to Exegol.”
“That’s what we’re doing,” Finn said, giving the command junction one last solder.
Rey lowered her electroprobe. She felt dazed. Her mind kept replaying the sickening vision in her head, over and over: Ochi’s dagger, piercing the people who loved her.
She should have been able to know them.
“He killed my mother, and my father,” she whispered.
Finn paused what he was doing to stare at her.
“I’m going to find Palpatine. And destroy him.” She lifted the probe and tested Finn’s newly wired junction. She could feel his eyes on her as he considered her words.
“Rey,” he said. “That doesn’t sound like you.”
Oh, but it did. Maybe she was revenge made flesh. Maybe she had been all along. She was a Palpatine, after all.
Finn said, “I know you—”
She slammed the panel shut. “People keep telling me they know me. I’m afraid no one does. I don’t even know.”
Rey strode away, knowing she was being a little unfair. Finn knew what it was like to grow up without a family, to finally find belonging and friends in a place you never expected. He understood her better than anyone.
But that didn’t mean she’d been wrong. A new Rey was rising inside her, struggling to break free. She’d spent so much time and energy getting to know a new Rey already—one who could use the Force and fight for a cause greater than herself. But maybe that Rey was just a skin to be shed. A temporary person.
She felt groundless, adrift. This must be why they identified children so young in the days of the old Jedi Order. They needed a foundation, knowledge, care, because the only way to survive their awakening into power was to be surrounded by those who had done it all before.
Rey had no one. Luke was dead, his voice closed off to her. Leia was half a galaxy away.
She realized that her hand hurt. She’d been gripping the electroprobe so tightly, its ridges were digging into her palm.
Rey took a deep breath. She’d try to fix the landing gear next. It would give her something else to think about.
* * *
—
“The Jedi apprentice still lives,” the Emperor said. Kylo was in a corridor of the Steadfast, but he was speaking with Emperor Palpatine—whose power was even more vast than Kylo had realized. Only Rey had been powerful enough to communicate over long distances like this—or maybe it was their strange connection that was powerful. Not even Snoke had been able to do it.
But such a demonstration of power was costing the Emperor, because he looked even more frail than before. Kylo didn’t know how it was possible for the Emperor’s necrotic vessel to appear paler than the last time, but it did. His eyes were nearly closed, and his breathing was labored. “Perhaps you have betrayed me,” Palpatine said. “Do not make me turn my fleet against you.”
“I know where she’s going,” Kylo said, shielding his thoughts. “She’ll never be a Jedi.”
The Emperor’s voice was like thunder in his head. “Make sure of it,” he said. “Kill her!”
Kylo Ren brought down a mental curtain to cut off their connection. Just in time, for he could hardly contain his sense of triumph.
The Emperor was terrified of Rey. Of her power. Once she accepted her destiny as part of their dyad, they would be unstoppable.
* * *
—
Zorii’s plan to flee to the Colonies had been two-pronged. Prong one: Acquire a decent ship. Prong two: Buy safe passage.
The second prong of her plan was defunct, now that she’d given her captain’s medallion to Dameron. But she still had her ship, a BTA-NR2 Y-wing with an armored cockpit module, upgraded navicomputer, and customizable tactical interface. It had cost her nearly forty thousand credits. Some people considered it crass to name fighter craft, but she’d named hers anyway: Comeuppance.
Zorii had a lot of scores to settle.
The Colonies were no longer an option, but as long as she had the Comeuppance, she could go somewhere. Her ship carried a week’s worth of provisions, so she had time to figure it out. Half a week’s worth, she corrected herself, if Lluda was on board.
The only problem was that Zorii was here, crouched on the city’s outer wall at the edge of the Thieves’ Quarter, and the Comeuppance was there, in a small ravine outside city limits, hidden by a snow tarp. Between them was an entire unit of snowtroopers and one of the butchers.
Zorii tapped her helmet to trigger the sensor array. A holographic overlay appeared, and she focused tight on the butcher—his long cloak, his wicked helmet. The holograph zeroed in, circled around, and beeped slightly, identifying him as Ushar, one of the Knights of Ren.
She needed a distraction.
Zorii glanced around for Lluda but saw no sign of the girl. She was probably hiding in a similar perch, waiting for an opportunity to make her move. Lluda always wore gray-and-white camouflage. With her pale skin and white hair, she blended right in with the snowy, stony surroundings. She could also handle Kijimi’s freezing temperatures without a mask. Zorii suspected she was a human hybridized with a cold-weather species, but Lluda had never shared details about her parents, beyond the fact that they’d been brutally murdered.
Someone screamed. Screaming wasn’t uncommon these days, but the voice pricked her with familiarity. Zorii crept to the roof’s edge and looked down. Her stomach turned over hard.
It was Jarraban, bleeding and broken in the snow, a black-clad Knight standing over him. The Knight’s massive ax dripped with her friend’s blood.
Zorii scuttled back and ducked behind an exhaust flute. She closed her eyes
futilely against the image burned into her brain. She and Jarraban had been running together for years. He was her right-hand man.
She would mourn later. She had to get herself and Lluda off this icy rock before they joined Jarraban in the afterlife. If there was an afterlife.
Zorii looked around, desperate for an idea. Her holographic overlay identified an explosive element.
It lay to her right, inside an observation tower, a holdover from the days of religious tourism, where beings once went to meditate and become one with the mountain scenery. Now they were used by various gangs and guilds as lookout perches, but this one was unoccupied, and it contained a neehwa oil lantern, shining bright against the night.
That would do. In the chaos, she’d make a run for the Comeuppance.
Cleats out, she crept along the roof’s ridgeline. Slow and careful was the trick. She’d feel a lot better with her twin blasters in hand, but she needed her fingers free in case she slipped.
She reached the tower, gripped the stone wall, and heaved herself over and into the tower well. Thick icicles dripped from the tower roof, for the lantern melted the snow above, which refroze on its way down. They created a tiny, icy cage that would shelter her from prying eyes as she worked.
Now, to rig it to blow.
The easiest method would be to just blast the darn thing from a distance, but trained First Order troopers would look for the source of the shot. Best to rig it and be far away when it exploded.
She fished in her utility belt for a fuse and some putty; it wouldn’t take much. Zorii pressed the fuse against the oil tank beneath the glass and tapped her helmet to sync the fuse with her detonator.
Zorii climbed out the way she came and paused to evaluate. Once the explosion triggered, the snowtroopers would be drawn…that way. Which meant she should be…there, near the wall.
She made her way to her chosen spot, a place far enough away from the tower not to be noticed, but an easy drop to the ground outside the city. From there it was a quick sprint to her ship.
