“You smuggled in weapons for the First Order? Why?” With every passing second, Finn felt his face growing hotter and hotter. He thought Lando was his friend, but then he betrayed him and his friends.
At the sight of his friends’ rage, Lando held his hand out to them and quickly said, “It’s not like that, guys! I did it for a specific reason!”
“You’re a traitor! I knew we couldn’t trust you!” Poe was the one who shouted that. He smacked his dinner plate off his lap and leaped to his feet. “You’ve been working for the First Order this entire time!”
“Guys, stop,” Lando begged, “You’re overreacting.”
“Overreacting?” Sudden lightning flashed as Rose leaped to her own feet. She gave Lando the evil death glare. “The First Order murdered my sister! I can’t believe we fell for your trap!”
“Stop!” Lando’s head started to hurt. He grasped it with both hands, and Yamo comfortably patted his shoulder. “It’s not like that!”
When he yelled that, Poe snatched his shirt collar and jerked him up from his seat, “We know perfectly well who you are! Don’t you play dumb with us!”
“But I’m not a traitor!” Lando cried out as he tried to release himself. “I did it because Jakku’s sun is going supernova!”
***
“Hang on tight! We’re going through!” Temiri and Chewie held their breaths as the gravity from the Phonolukamy Wormhole snatched the X-Wing and dropped them back into its mouth. On their way through it, they came up with a plan.
Temiri peered over his shoulder at Chewie and told him, “We’ll probably find the Emperor in the throne room.”
Confused, Chewie growled, “The throne room?” to the little boy. “I thought that was the Supreme Leader’s hideout.”
“You’re really going to fall for that?” angrily asked Temiri. “You? The great Chewbacca?”
Whining, Chewie shrugged his shoulders and growled, “I don’t know what you’re saying.”
“What I’m saying is that the Emperor hijacked The Limpton! The General Hux we spoke to when Lando tried to get us into the ship is the Emperor in disguise!”
“Oh!” Chewie felt so dumb. “Of course. It all makes sense.” He slapped his furry hand to his face. Chewie remembered Hux’s line before he released the Beacerika to attack the Millennium Falcon in the Phonolukamy Blockade:
“‘Kylo Ren belongs to me.’” If not for Ren himself, the Falcon would have never made it out of there alive.
***
Kylo Ren knew the General Hux he spoke to in the Phonolukamy Blockade was the Emperor in disguise. Something must have happened after he left for his mission to seek out Rey. Now, he knew she was in terrible danger. Ben knew the Emperor’s plot and why he was keen on grabbing her instead of him. He knew why Rey was a descendant of evil. The realization came when he sat in his throne room and thought about what happened that day when she and he teamed up to fight the Praetorian Guards.
Jakku was close. The Force wasn’t the only thing that told Ben that. A sudden heat wave engulfed The Robin Hood. There was Jakku, but something looked off with its sun. It was expanding—growing bigger (like the universe's beginning) and hotter.
Just at the sight of it, a terrible feeling flushed through Ben’s body, and he told P4-3, “I have a bad feeling about this.” As quick as a flash, he pulled Rey’s lightsaber off his belt and set it down on the co-pilot seat beside him. “We’ve got to get Rey out of there.”
P4-3 beeped to tell him she agreed. Her head flew back as Ben punched the accelerator, and they accelerated towards the desert planet.
***
The sandstorm hit with full force. It nearly knocked the Luggabeast off its feet.
Frightened, it searched the pile of sand that fell with Rey when she rolled down the Skyscraper Dune.
Suddenly, a hand shot up from the pile, and the cybernetic creature jumped ten feet in the air when Rey emerged from it like a zombie. A glare glued on her face, she tightly clutched her new lightsaber in her left hand, but her right hand started to tingle and shake again.
Once she pushed herself to her feet, her glare faded, and she gestured at the Luggabeast with her head. “Come on! We need to find shelter!” With that, the young woman sprinted through the sandstorm into the Desert Resort, and the Luggabeast chased her.
They reached the deserted bazaar, but right when they did, a great blast of wind knocked the lightsaber out of Rey’s hand.
“No!” she shouted, reaching for it. “Come back!” Unfortunately, she was not able to grab the saber with the Force. Remember, the hooded figure stripped her of her abilities.
The lightsaber stabbed the sand about two hundred feet away from her, and Rey hurried after it.
Behind, the Luggabeast called for her to return, but she didn’t.
Just before Rey could reach out and snatch up her lightsaber, the sand suddenly took on the form of a huge monster—the Beacerika, and it threatened her with its fangs.
Yelling, Rey stumbled backward. She held her arm up to her face, and her eyes widened at the sight of the terrifying creature. Of all the times she couldn’t have her Force abilities, it had to be now!
The Beacerika roared, and its huge, gaping mouth moved toward her.
Rey finally leaned back so far that she fell onto her back. Holding her hand out, she tried to use the Force to push the sand monster away, but nothing happened. She was powerless.
The Luggabeast tried to rescue her, but a blast wave from the storm chucked it into a building and knocked it out cold.
Traumatized, Rey held her hand out to it, and then her eyes moved back up to the beast hovering over her. She closed her eyes and braced her head as the Beacerika threw itself on top of her. It picked up the girl from the bazaar and swallowed her whole.
Rey tried to scream as she churned in its sandy body, but sand got in her throat. That prevented her from yelling. Not only that, but the overwhelming heat from not just the Beacerika but also Jakku’s dying sun caused her to feel like her whole body was on fire. For the love of Pete! Why did everything have to happen to her? She wished Ben was beside her. At least she felt safe around him during the earthquake on Phonolukamy. But no. Ben was gone, and it was all her fault.
Just thinking about him caused hot tears to stream down the girl’s cheeks. “I’m sorry, Ben!” she screamed. “I wasn’t strong enough to save you! I am nothing but a monster and a disgrace to this galaxy! Just let me die!” She slapped her hands to her face and ferociously shook her head, “Just let me die! Ben, I’m sorry!!”
Right after she screamed that, suddenly, time froze. The Beacerika stopped tossing piles of sand on the girl. Now, she looked like she was floating in space.
Opening her eyes, Rey removed her hands and looked forward. She then felt herself dropping gently to the ground. She watched the whole phenomenon with a bewildered expression.
Now covered in sand, her feet gently touched the street of the bazaar, and she noticed that the sandstorm was resigning. Sand zoomed by her head, and she turned it so she could follow its path. Freezing at what she saw, her jaw dropped.
Kylo Ren/Ben Solo stood before her, with his hand sticking straight out, and he surveyed the area with a confused look. It was as if he had no idea what he just did. The Beacerika’s Sand Form floated behind him, the one who tormented the girl, and P4-3 rolled up beside him. His eyes landed on Rey, then rolled up to the creature.
All Rey could do was stare. Trembling, she examined the man and monster who reigned behind him.
Kylo Ren/Ben Solo had tamed the Beacerika.
ns 15.158.61.8da2
