Finn followed Poe and Rey as they raced into the cockpit. Rey took the pilot's seat, and Poe slipped into the seat beside her. Both started flicking a dizzying array of switches. Lights came on, and the engines hummed to life. Finn tried to pay attention. Unlike Rey and Poe, he was not a natural pilot, but he was still supposed to be learning pilot things. Leia expected every member of her core team to be able to fly something in a pinch.
"Hang tight," Poe said. "We're going up hot."
In the Falcon, "going up hot" meant Finn had better get himself to the turret station, but there was nothing for a third passenger to do in the Bestoon Legacy; the cockpit didn't even have a place to sit. Until there was something for him to shoot at with a blaster, Finn would have to settle for holding on tight and offering encouragement. He was good at encouraging. He could encourage all day.
"Uh, you're both doing great," he muttered.
Rey lifted them away from the planet at such a fast, steep angle that the acceleration compensators couldn't keep Finn's stomach from dropping into his feet and pressing like lead against the floor. Within moments they had cleared the atmosphere and were quickly approaching the massive Star Destroyer that was most certainly Kylo Ren's command ship.
How was it that he always ended up flying toward First Order ships?
Rey slipped Zorii's captain's medallion into the dash slot. BB-8 and D-O rolled into the cockpit, which made the place a bit cramped, but Finn didn't mind. When you were about to try to sneak aboard an enemy ship—again—and your heart was racing and your feet twitched to flee, it was helpful to have something blocking your exit. Everyone in the cockpit was dead silent as they waited to see if they would get blown to bits.
Something beeped, and Poe's shoulders slumped with relief. "Medallion works," he said. "Cleared for cargo hangar twelve."
"Hang on, Chewie," Rey murmured. "We're coming."
"Whoever this Chewie is," said C-3PO, "this is madness."
There'd been a time when Finn would have agreed with the droid, before he'd had friends.
Traffic was heavy, with supply ships, TIEs, and shuttles flying to and from the various hangars. Rey angled them neatly toward one, slowing to regulation speed, slipping through the containment field, touching the freighter down onto the shiny hangar floor.
Together they rushed down the ramp. Two patrol troopers approached, stepping in unison. One said, "Credentials and manife—"
Finn blasted him. Poe got the other. Both collapsed to the ground. So much for sneaking.
Rey turned to the droids, who were attempting to follow. "You three stay there," she said.
"Happily," said C-3PO.
"Which way?" Poe asked.
"No idea. Follow me!" Finn said. Because he had a feeling. Besides, there was a pattern to First Order construction and organization that was fleet-universal. If he wandered around a little, he'd be able to figure out where to go. They jogged down a corridor, then turned a corner and came face-to-face with another pair of patrol troopers, who raised their rifles.
"Drop your weapons!" one ordered.
Finn did not want to kill anyone else. Leaving a trail of bodies throughout the ship would just make it all the harder to rescue Chewie and escape. But if he had no choice…He moved his finger to the trigger.
Rey said, her voice full of quiet strength: "It's okay that we're here."
Finn held his breath.
"It's okay that you're here," the stormtrooper echoed.
The other trooper nodded. "It's good," he added.
"You're relieved that we're here," Rey said.
"Thank goodness you're here!" said the first trooper, his shoulders going slack.
"Welcome, guys!" said the second.
Poe leaned over and whispered in Finn's ear: "Does she do that to us?"
"We're looking for a prisoner," Rey said.
The stormtroopers cheerfully gave directions to the cellblock where Chewie was being held. After the troopers resumed their patrol, Finn and his friends raced away. Within moments, they came to a split in the corridor, just like the troopers had described. Rey stopped in her tracks, and Finn's heart thudded in his chest. He knew that look. It meant their plan was about to take a detour.
"Chewie's this way," he reminded her.
Half to herself, Rey said, "The dagger's on this ship. We need it."
"Why?" Poe said. C-3PO had already translated it, already given them the coordinates of the Emperor's wayfinder.
"A feeling!" Rey said.
"Rey, you can't just—" Poe grabbed Finn's arm to silence him.
"I'll meet you back in the hangar." She dashed off before either of them could protest.
"Chewie," Poe reminded him.
Finn nodded, and together they jogged down the corridor.
—
Zorii Bliss crouched on the rooftop of the Kozinarg Guildhouse, spying on the squad of snowtroopers who gathered at the steps to Monk's Gate. Her left foot slipped on the steep, icy tiles, dislodging a bit of ice and snow, which slid off the roof and plunked down at a snowtrooper's foot. She froze, hardly daring to breathe. The trooper gave a small kick to rid his foot of snow, but otherwise did not react. Slowly, quietly, Zorii reached down to the tread of her boots and flicked a small switch built into the arch. Her cleats popped out—tiny metal gripping stars that were a lot noisier to walk around in, but they would dig into the toughest ice, keeping her from sliding off the roof. They were also pretty great in a fight.
Her perch now secure, Zorii leaned forward to hear better. A tall, black-clad humanoid with a long cloak swept toward the stormtroopers. At his back were a band of similarly clad warriors. She could see none of their faces, but their weapons expressed volumes. One carried an ax, with a long weighted handle even taller than he was. Another a giant club. Still another a wicked scythe. The scythe dripped with something dark and viscous.
Not warriors then. More like butchers.
As the black-clad man approached, the squad's officer snapped to attention. "Supreme Leader," he said.
Zorii barely managed to hold her gasp in check. The man standing below with his gang of butchers was Kylo Ren himself. The man responsible for all the horror she'd witnessed these last months.
"Lieutenant Barok," the Supreme Leader said. His voice was tight and calm, though Zorii got the feeling that he was barely containing his rage. He looked around, almost as though he was sniffing the air.
"We have a perimeter around the city—" the lieutenant began, but Kylo Ren cut him off.
"We're too late," he snapped. "She's gone."
Was he talking about Rey? Why was the Supreme Leader of the First Order specifically here for the girl Zorii had just met? Rey was remarkable, that much was clear. That lightsaber, those fighting skills…What had Poe gotten himself into? Well, she would waste no more time worrying about that nerf herder. The lieutenant had mentioned a "perimeter" around the city, and that was bad for business. As soon as the First Order troopers left Monk's Gate, she'd hurry back to the Spice Runners' den and tell her people to—
Supreme Leader Kylo Ren whipped out a lightsaber that teemed and sparked with chaotic red light. He slashed it back and forth in a rage, toppling a column of stone, slicing a neehwa oil lantern in two. The snowtrooper squad slunk away from his wrath, but his butchers looked on as though amused. When he was done, boulders and lantern scrap lay scattered on the ground, the melted water pooling beneath them already freezing back up at the edges.
"She had help," said the Supreme Leader, his voice calm once again. "Find them. Destroy them."
Zorii adjusted her plan. Now, somehow, she'd have to sneak back to the spice runners' den, and instead of telling them to cash in a few favors and open their emergency smuggling routes, she'd order them to get the hell out of the city.
—
Finn and Poe reached the prisoner cellblock and found the cell that supposedly held Chewie. Finn hit the switch, and the door whooshed open to reveal the Wookiee, manacled to the wall.
He growled and moaned excitedly, almost too fast for Finn to follow with his rudimentary understanding of Shyriiwook—he only caught the words for "surprised" and "danger" and "much gladness."
"Of course we came for you!" Poe said.
Chewie rattled off a question.
"Rey's here," Finn said. "She's gonna get the dagger."
Chewbacca started to chatter, something about Kylo Ren and information and how very sorry he was, but they didn't have time. It would take moments for the First Order to figure out that Ochi's freighter didn't belong in hangar twelve, if they hadn't already. And once that happened, even off-duty stormtroopers would be called upon to join the search for intruders.
"We've got Ochi's ship," Finn said to the Wookiee, interrupting him. "Follow me." He hurried down the corridor to a door and hit the release. It whooshed up—revealing a stormtrooper who raised his blaster. Finn hit the release again, slamming the door down. "Wrong way!"
They sprinted away in the opposite direction—and ran right into another stormtrooper, who began to fire. They'd caught him by surprise, and his first shots were wild.
"Not really a right way, is there?" Poe said, taking out the stormtrooper. He crouched over the fallen trooper, dislodged his blaster rifle from beneath the body and slid it along the floor toward Chewie.
The Wookiee grabbed it, and brought the rifle to bear just in time to blast two stormtroopers who had come up behind them.
They ducked around a corner and almost collided with an entire squad. Rifles whipped up, and the corridor became hot with laser blasts. Poe dropped to the ground, and Finn watched in horror as his friend clutched his arm in pain.
"Poe!" he yelled. The pilot's arm was charred and oozing. He needed medical attention right away.
Suddenly they were surrounded by troopers, way too many for the three of them to fight off. "You there, put your weapons down. Hands up! Now!"
Finn raised his hands in surrender. He knew exactly what would happen next: interrogation, execution.
"Hey, fellas," Poe said.
"Shut up, scum," said a stormtrooper.
He hoped Rey was faring better. If she found that dagger and got back to the ship, their mission still stood a chance.
—
Rey entered a bright, white space with soaring ceilings and clean perfection. Kylo Ren's private quarters. She stepped slowly, carefully, still drawn to the dagger. The room was beautiful and light-filled, but devoid of warmth. As though he didn't care about anything or anyone. Or maybe that wasn't entirely true, because a few more steps brought her to a pedestal, deep black in contrast with its surroundings, jutting unchallenged from the shiny white floor. A place of honor. Displayed atop the pedestal was a warped black mask, its eyeholes and vocoder still gaping but melted like heated wax, smeared into a display of perpetual agony. She stared at it a long time—too long—unable to look away. She'd seen this mask in Ren's thoughts, when he'd tried to pull Luke's map from her mind on Starkiller Base. It had belonged to his grandfather.
But that horrible mask was not what she'd come for, and she wanted nothing to do with it. She glanced around…there! On a table opposite the pedestal were Chewie's things—his bowcaster, his satchel, and Ochi's dagger. She reached for the dagger. Wrapped her fingers around the handle—
The floor shifted beneath her feet, and the air went dark. A Force vision. No, a connection. "You're hard to find," came Kylo Ren's voice.
Rey whirled. Ren stood alone before her, masked, surrounded by darkness. Snow dusted his cape. "You're hard to get rid of." She began to turn away. He was worth no more of her time.
"I pushed you in the desert because I needed to see it. I needed you to see it. Your darkness. The raw power."
She spun back around. Whipped up her lightsaber and aimed it at his throat. "I am not like you."
"You and I will claim the throne," he said, relentless, "of the Sith Eternal."
"No!" She swung the lightsaber. He brought his own to bear, and they clashed, yellow on red.
Rey pushed against Kylo's lightsaber, thrusting him back.
"Don't be afraid of your destiny," Kylo said. They circled each other.
"Stop talking."
"You and I will rule the galaxy."
His calm was maddening. She rushed him, swiped and stabbed with a series of blows. She was faster now, the lightsaber more like an extension of herself than a separate weapon, but he countered easily. Rey swung; he dodged. Her lightsaber sliced through a basket. Red berries came from nowhere, spilled out, brighter than blood against the…white floor of Ren's quarters? They were together and they were separate, in each other's minds and spaces, but Rey didn't care, she just wanted to land a blow, to hurt him. Their blades sizzled with impact as they fought, creeping closer to Vader's mask.
"Tell me where you are," Kylo demanded.
Rey attacked again. He dodged, stepped back to give them some space. She circled him slowly, looking for an opening. Anything to get him to stop talking.
"This is our destiny."
"No!" Rey screamed, launching at Kylo.
Their blades clashed, hummed with impact, and all at once she glimpsed his location, or maybe she was actually there for a split second—the shadowy stone rooftop, the icy air. Kijimi. He had probably just missed her. She was having no luck getting past his guard, so she swung blindly, chaotically. He moved to block. The pedestal shattered. Darth Vader's mask tumbled toward the ground…and disappeared.
"So that's where you are," Kylo said, looking down, presumably at the mask. Immense satisfaction tinged his voice as he said, "I'll see you soon."
Rey took several steps backward. What had she done? She'd let her anger get the best of her again. Let herself get distracted. Now Ren knew exactly where she and her friends were.
She half expected him to renew the attack, but he didn't. All went silent. Her vision of him winked out. Her own breathing was loud in her ears. The shattered black remains of the pedestal were strewn at her feet.
What just happened?
No time. She had to get everyone off this ship now, before Ren returned. She hefted the dagger, grabbed Chewie's things, and sprinted for the freighter.
—
It didn't take long for a First Order officer to appear on the scene. Finn glared at her as she approached. She was new to Finn. A dark skinned woman who wore a blank expression. Rank insignias in the First Order were subtle, but Finn knew them all. A General.
"The girl's not with them," blurted one of the stormtroopers holding them prisoner.
Thegeneral seemed bored. "Take them away. Terminate them."
Finn couldn't believe it. No interrogation? Not even a single question? What was so important about Rey that they'd ignore the opportunity to get intel about the Resistance from members of its core leadership?
The general tagged along as stormtroopers thrust rifle butts into their backs and shoved them down the corridor toward the execution chamber. It was a small room, with jets built into the walls. Once they were dead, the jets would release heat and toxins to break down their remains, then vacuum everything up, leaving a perfectly sterile chamber. All physical trace of their existence would be obliterated.
"Turn around," a stormtrooper ordered.
They faced the wall.
"I'd like to do this myself," the general said, and Finn heard the click of a blaster accepting a new identiprint.
"Poe...I don't want to die without telling you..." Finnhesitated.
"I know," Poe said, looking Finn in the eyes.
Chewie Roared.
A blaster shrieked.
Finn opened his eyes and turned.
The general stood over the stormtroopers' dead bodies, her blaster tip smoking after close-range fire on the highest setting.
"My name is Bellava Parnadee. I'm with the Resistance," she announced.
"What?" Poe said.
"We don't have much time," she spoke with urgency.
Finn, Poe, and Chewie all gaped at her.
"I knew it!" Poe said, pointing a finger at the woman.
"You did not," Finn said, rolling his eyes, which he knew was petty, but who cared? They were alive.