CHAPTER 27
PERMISSION GRANTED

RAENA ran down the long corridor as fast as her legs could take her. A sweat was coating her brow, but she couldn't stop. She felt like her legs couldn't carry her; they were too slow. She felt a pulse puncturing her brain. She felt everything all at once as she sprinted to the general's command room.

And gods, the last thing she expected to hear came out of nowhere.

Hello?

Raena was thrown off by the sudden voice in her mind. It was a familiar, heated voice that she had the disdain of hearing in private. Raena didn't know what was happening to her, and the jarring voice caused her direction to go off track. She slipped on the floor and hit her head against the metal walls of the Raddus, while dozens of Resistance workers ran past her.

She rubbed her head slowly. Her eyes were wide with worry. She didn't want to think, afraid that he would hear her. Was it actually him? It must be. No one had a voice like him. Raena rubbed her temples as she sat in the dirty hall, trying to control her breathing.

I have to do this. I have to kill her.

The voice was nauseating as Raena realized what was happening. Her connection to his mind was resurfacing. After she had come back to life, there was only a matter of time before this would happen, but Raena had hoped their connection wouldn't come back. She was an idiot for thinking that way.

After repeating his thoughts in her head, Raena began to run again. She knew what his thoughts meant, but she hoped that she wasn't correct. Raena shook her head as she ran, trying her best to shake his voice from her already confused mind. She felt tears glide down her cheeks. Was she crying? Why was she crying? Was it just the mere memory of his voice that caused her tears, or was it the painful recollection of a saber tearing through her chest?

Her feet skidded it a stop in front of the command room. Raena pressed her hand against the console to open the door, and it swung open before her. She was greeted by the whole room bustling with people as she shouted, "General, I'll take the mission –"

Alarms blared in her ears as someone screamed, "THEY'VE FOUND US!"

Raena's brow furrowed. The chaos engulfing the control room was terrifying. She looked around for the general, but it was difficult to see amongst the crazed coworkers. Raena shoved her way through the crowds, hearing Poe's familiar voice say, "That's Snoke's ship! Are you kidding me?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Raena exclaimed, gaining access to the front of the control board. The general, Poe, Indira, Finn, and three other Resistance members gathered around, each staring at the hologram of the Supremacy in shock. "What's going on?"

Indira gripped Poe's arm tightly. "The First Order has found us."

"Again?" Raena snapped with confusion. "How?"

"We don't know," Poe replied, "but what we need to do is jump into lightspeed."

Indira shook her head. "I think we only have fuel for just one jump."

General Organa quickly held up her hand, murmuring, "Wait." All eyes flew to her as she swallowed hard. "They've tracked us through lightspeed.

Finn was stunned at the general's explanation. "That's impossible."

"Yes," Leia agreed, "but they've done it."

Rolling through the crowds of Resistance members was BB-8, who began to beep hurriedly. Raena realized that he was agreeing with the general. "So if we jump into lightspeed, they'll just find us again and we'll be out of fuel," Finn realized. "They've got us."

"Not yet, they don't," Poe said with a shake of his head. BB-8 released a confused string of sounds. With one last loving look towards Indira, Poe approached the general with determination. "Permission to jump into an X Wing and blow something up?"

Leia smiled the slightest bit. "Permission granted."

Raena walked towards the general, who quickly let her anxious expression return to her features. Raena put a hand on the elder woman's shoulders and gave her knowing look. "If you let me go out there," she said, causing Leia to turn, "I'll complete the mission for you."

General Organa's breath hitched in her throat. Indira's eyes went wide as she asked, "You're going?"

Leia nodded for the assassin. "You bet she is." Reaching into her deep pockets, the general pulled out an earphone comlink. Raena opened her hand as Leia placed the device in it. "Wrap this around your ear and communicate anything important. You can only speak into it; we cannot reply. It's small enough that when it's in your ear, no one will ever see it."

Raena bobbed her head quickly. She placed the comlink in her ear, making sure it was in a comfy spot. "Got it."

"Good luck, Raena Nhagy."

The assassin smiled towards Leia, the first genuine expression she made in months. Raena then hugged Indira. Although she never considered herself part of this team, Raena hoped to return to the Resistance someday to see Indira and the general once more, because they were the only people to treat her kindly after all the bad she'd done. With a curt nod, Raena began her exit from the room, but not before Leia could call her name. Raena turned at the sound with worry.

"Miss Nhagy," General Organa said, pursing her lips. "Look after my son."

Raena's expression softened. She couldn't agree, or even nod to the general's wish, simply because she couldn't promise Leia that. The general knew Raena's final goal all along, but she could at least hope that maybe the assassin could change her son's mind once again. Maybe – just maybe – Raena Nhagy could help end this war and bring her son back. That's if she didn't kill him first.

Raena sprinted out of the command room, halting her movements to figure out which way the hangar was from here. To her right, she spotted Poe Dameron's figure running down the hall, so she followed him. BB-8 rolled in front of his master. Once she caught up with Poe's speed, Raena asked, "Is there any spare ships I can take?"

Poe stopped running for a moment to catch his breath. He looked at Raena incredulously. "What? You're not going out there!"

"Yes, I am," she snapped with her hands on her hips. "The general gave me a mission and I'm going to do it."

Poe decided there was no arguing with the assassin, so he put his hands up in surrender. "Fine," he replied, pointing a finger towards the hangar just feet from them. "I can get you into a spare evac ship."

Raena followed Poe's running again as they neared the hangar. BB-8 moved faster and led them through the crowds. Pilots in bright orange suits dashed by them, heading for their ships. Raena could hear the deafening sounds of the First Order's ship blasters from even outside the walls. She felt an incoming thought that wasn't her own, but she quickly pushed it away.

Ships were already leaving the hangar as Poe and Raena got there. "Don't wait for me!" Poe told BB-8. "Jump in and fire her up!"

BB-8 headed towards Poe's trusty X Wing excitedly. Poe stood with Raena at the entrance of the hangar, biting his lip nervously. Sweat clung to both their foreheads as Poe searched for an evac ship anxiously. Once he spotted one, Poe pointed his finger to the front corner of the hangar. "There's one right there. You should be fine with that one."

The two sent each other a nod before entering the hangar. They dashed amongst other pilots and technicians to get to their ships, but none of them expected what came next.

Out of nowhere, a large ball of fire flew into the hangar and exploded in the air. Ships combusted immediately. The bodies of pilots were killed on spot. The air reeked of toxic smoke. Everything was spinning. Raena thought she was dead, but was disappointed in remembering that couldn't happen.

Her body was flown across the room. She landed on Poe as BB-8's mangled parts were tossed beside them. Raena opened her eyes quickly, inhaling heavily, only to have smoke invade her lungs. She coughed loudly before squinting at the chaos in front of them. Flames danced amongst her eyes. Alarms blared again.

Raena noticed the hangar's doors were closing. She didn't think before she started to sprint inside the blazing hangar. Poe's scream echoed in her ears: "RAENA, WAIT!" But that's exactly what she didn't do. Raena turned to look at Poe over her shoulder, and the last image the pilot saw of her was running into the explosion.

Truthfully, what she was doing at this moment was wrong on so many levels. She couldn't breathe from the smoke around the room. Her skin was physically melting as she entered the flames to find the evac ship. But at this moment, as Raena ran through the fire, all she cared about was this mission. She would do this for General Organa. It wasn't like she would die, anyways.

They couldn't kill her even if they tried for a hundred years.

In the left corner of the burning hangar sat an evac ship, right where Poe had directed her. Raena raced towards it and practically tore open the door. After she got inside, Raena breathed in as heavily as she could. No smoke had sifted through the ship's vents yet. She adjusted the comlink around her ear again. Raena quickly turned on the evac, realizing it was a bit old and rusty. It would still do.

After much fiddling, Raena got the ship to lift in the air. Placing her hand on the lever, she pushed the evac forward and out of the hangar. Flames spread around her, but she was untouchable. Not even her burned flesh would be hurt. She was unkillable. She was the last Nhagy. Raena kept telling herself these words to relieve her sudden stress as she plummeted her ship towards the Supremacy. She could do this.

You're unkillable, she told herself. You're the last Nhagy, and you're going to eliminate Kylo Ren no matter how long it takes.