“Run! Run!” Finn shouted at his friends.
They did not have to be asked twice. Everybody took off running, but they accidentally left Rey behind.
Poe was the first one to notice. “Wait! We’re missing someone!”
“Rey!” Finn screeched to a stop and hurried back toward his friend.
Temiri tried to stop him. “Stop, Finn! Just leave her be! They’re here for her!” Unfortunately, Finn did not listen. Temiri couldn’t say anymore because he and the remaining friends dove behind rocks when the TIEs started shooting at them.
Finn ran through the gunfire and fell to his knees beside Rey. “You’re going to be okay, Rey. You’re going to be okay.” He yelled when one gun narrowly missed him but went ahead and put Rey on his back.
As he approached the rock structures his friends hid behind, Temiri shook his head. “He’s impossible. Right, Chewie?” When he turned around, though, Chewie was nowhere to be seen. “Chewie? Chewie!”
***
Lando Calrissian and Yamo were in the Millennium Falcon’s guest room, keeping General Hux company by asking him questions.
Questions like: “How did a scrawny fella like you join the First Order? How did you become a general when you were gullible enough to let a ghost take advantage of you? Why did Kylo Ren put you in charge and not someone else when he started his mission?” It went on and on.
Hux, who did not feel like talking, wrapped his blanket tighter around his shoulders. He said two words, “Shut up,” but then a frenzy of panicked roars came from the Falcon’s ramp.
“Chewie?” Lando asked. They left the guest room with Yamo, Hux, and the droids on his heels and hurried to the ramp. There was Chewbacca. “What’s wrong, Fuzzy Mc. Muzzy?” Lando wanted to know.
Chewie was too panicked to laugh at the joke that time. He continued to roar and pointed in the direction where he, Rose, Poe, Finn, and Temiri went on their search for Rey.
Lando, who’s eyes widened with every passing second, finally said, “They didn’t! Gentlemen!” Stomping his foot, he whirled around to face Hux and Yamo. “Grab your blasters. We’re going to war.”
***
“Here, take her!” Finn slid Rey off his back when he reached the rock Poe and Rose hid behind. Poe grabbed her. “Just keep her safe!” Blaster in hand, Finn threw himself into the fray. He was not going to let the Emperor take Rey. However, he was unaware that Rey had led them there, and it was all because she had pulled that switch in the computer room.
Finn pointed his blaster at the incoming TIEs. “This is for Rey!”
“Finn, stop!” Rose screamed from behind the rock. “You’re going to get yourself killed!”
“As long as Rey’s safe, I don’t care!” Finn yelled back.
Rey felt the TIEs coming for her. She had to go to them. She didn’t belong there. She belonged on the Dark side. She stirred in Poe’s arms, and he peered down at her.
“Rey! Rose, I think she’s waking up!”
Rey knew her friends had her, but she was scared that her new powers would destroy them if she jumped back into full consciousness. Therefore, she refused to open her eyes.
Poe tried to calm her. “Rey! Calm down! You’re safe with us.”
No, she wasn’t. Her friends should not have found her in the first place. Aside from fear, her arm also hurt.
Just before the TIEs blasted Finn, a new ship appeared, shooting down the TIE coming for him. Following close behind was the Millennium Falcon.
Finn ducked under the disabled TIE that flew over his head and crashed into a rock structure further down the Koewika Desert. A blast of smoke shot into the atmosphere.
Finn's face brightened when he saw who drove the ship that had saved his life. “Kylo Ren!”
Sure enough, it was Kylo Ren. He sensed what was happening at the Desert Resort and quickly picked up a ship so he could come to the Resistance’s assistance. Along the way, he ran into the Millennium Falcon, and they decided to work together.
Ben stooped toward the desert while the Falcon zoomed past him, shooting down TIEs.
In her cockpit, Lando was having the time of his life. He did not know why it was so satisfying to take out TIEs.
Chewie was having just as much fun, as well as Yamo, but Hux looked about to toss his cookies.
Ben Solo landed his ship behind another rock structure and quickly disembarked it. With lightsaber in hand, he hurried to Rose and Poe.
Their eyes widened, seeing him, and they yelled, “Ben!” simultaneously.
Finn also saw the ex-Sith.
He shot one of the TIEs in the engine and disabled it. As the ship fell from the sky, he dove behind the rock structure with Rose and Poe.
Temiri tried to join them but couldn’t without getting shot at.
Rey had a tough time fighting the urge to attack her friends. It got to the point that all three troublesome Resistance heroes had to grab her—she twitched so much.
“Please, Rey,” Poe begged. “Please calm down.”
Ben made it to them. At the sight of Rey injured, he felt a pinch of anger in his system and clenched his teeth. “Let’s go to my ship,” he told the Resistance heroes. “We need to help the Falcon.”
“But what about Rey?” Finn asked. “We can’t leave her.”
That was when Temiri yelled at them from his own rock structure. “We certainly can leave her! The First Order will stop attacking us if we do!”
“She’s our friend!” Finn shouted. “And friends never leave each other in the dark! Tell him, Ben!”
However, Ben seemed to be floating in the same boat as Temiri. He clenched his fists and told the scared heroes, “Guys, it is just as hard for me as it is for you, but at the end of the day, the Emperor needs Rey. This is the only way we will restore peace to the galaxy. We need to let her go. True friends know what is best for each other, and right now, turning Rey over to the Emperor is best for her.”
“But she’s hurt!” Finn argued as a few tears rolled down his cheeks. “Her arm is broken!”
“We need to let her go,” Ben repeated. “Come on, guys, we don’t have time to sit and argue. The Falcon can only take out so many TIEs.”
“No!” While Poe and Rose managed to pull themselves away from Rey, Finn stayed with her. He pulled her into a hug and sobbed, “I’m not going to let her go!”
“Finn, please.” Rose took his shoulder. “Kylo’s right, and so is Temiri. We should have just let her be.”
“No!” Finn refused to leave his friend’s side. “Rey is my friend! She’s the first friend I met on Jakku!”
However, as he said that, Rey yelled. She continued to twitch, and she shook her head as she did. She couldn’t attack her own friends! She just couldn’t! But she might have to if the stress continued to bombard her.
Ben, who saw she was about to attack, tightened his grip on his lightsaber hilt.
Poe and Rose grabbed Finn and pulled him away from Rey.
“No!” he begged as they dragged him on the sand. “Rey.” He held his hand out to her. “Rey!”
Ben Solo jumped before the three Resistance heroes and glanced over his shoulder at Temiri. He gave him a quick nod, and Temiri returned it.
The little boy backed up from his rock and hurried to Rose, Poe, and Finn.
Rose and Poe finally managed to pull Finn to his feet, but he kept trying to break free to return to Rey. They dragged him back.
Before he joined them, Ben said one last thing to young Rey. He put his lightsaber on his belt and kneeled to her. He picked up her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Rey, this is the best thing for you. I will turn you back to the Light side, but only when right. You are a girl of many wonders who has forever changed me. I am proud to call you my friend.” He closed his eyes and bumped his forehead against Rey’s. “But this is your fight.” Then, just like that, he let her hand go and stood.
No longer being pressured by her friends, Rey calmed down. As Ben backed away, she fell onto her side in the sand.
Seeing that, Finn again tried to run back to her, but his friends stopped him.
Ben led them to his ship, and the hatch opened to let the four friends in. Ben was the last to climb aboard. He glanced at Rey one last time and nodded. “Destiny is not a horse.” With those words, he climbed aboard his ship.
The Millennium Falcon continued taking out TIEs, but then Lando noticed they were no longer attacking them. Instead, they all made their way toward the rock structures the Resistance heroes hid behind. The ship Ben landed lifted into the sky.
Finn peered out the window as it flew away and passed the rock structures from above. He saw that the largest TIE in the bunch land beside the rock structure where he and his friends were, and a ghostly figure emerged from it—Palpatine. The last thing he witnessed before the ship took off to meet the Falcon was the evil man carrying Rey, his best friend, and he pulled her into his TIE.
In the Falcon, Yamo pointed at Ben’s ship and said, “They’re coming. Once they meet us, we will pull Finn, Rose, Temiri, and Poe aboard and lead Ben to Supher.”
“It is done,” Lando spoke in a slow voice. He nodded and took a deep breath, Chewie as well. Exchanging glances with the Wookie, Lukaemian, and First Order general, the smuggler told them, “Mission complete. It’s time to return to Supher.”
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