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chapter fifty-two: the battle of crait
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    RED AND WHITE. The two colors bleed together on the salted plains of Crait, flooding Poe's eyes as the Resistance speeders charge across the no-man's land between the blast door and the First Order barrage waiting on the other side. Poe feels his speeder wobble and shake as he forces it downwards, willing the small craft to work with him instead of against him. He'd once claimed that he could fly anything — and it was true — but the skim speeder was putting his skills to the test.

He had never missed Black One more than he does right now.

"All right, listen up," Poe announces, pushing aside the mournful thoughts of his old ship as the other speeders join him on the field. "I don't like these rust buckets and I don't like our odds, but —"

Before he can even finish speaking, a metal panel beneath his foot pops out of the speeder and falls onto the ground below him. "What the hell," Poe mutters before he shakes his head to focus up. "Just keep it tight and don't get drawn in too close until they roll that cannon out front."

He continues pressing onwards, routinely letting his vision flit between the First Order troops directly ahead of him and the lines of pilots situated to the left and right of his ship. "Ground forces, lay down some fire," Poe requests, wanting to see if the guns of their troopers will be able to do any damage against the heavily armored walkers.

The fighters in the trench copy his order, releasing a stream of artillery fire against the First Order ensemble from the cannons near the base. To Poe's dismay, he watches the blasts mostly ricochet off the armor and do little to no damage against their opponents. Poe nearly swears at that discovery, but chooses to bite his tongue instead. If they were lucky, the cannon would be more vulnerable than the walkers. But that was a very big if and their luck seemed to be wearing thin as of lately.

As if in sync with his negative thoughts, a squadron of TIE fighters pull up from above the walkers in the distance. The TIEs rush towards the speeders, diving down and opening fire at point-blank range.

"Fighters, break off!" Poe orders before yanking his ship in a sharp and sudden sideways turn to evade the unfriendly fire.

Instantly, two of the speeders are caught by the guns of the TIEs. He barely has enough time to think about who they are before Poe swerves again, forcing his ship through a cloud of red dust. His heart pounds at a sickening rate in his chest as the gravity of the situation settles over him. This is real combat and the stakes are higher than ever because Indira is with him. He'd never flown in a situation like this before — where the person he is in love with is at his side, following his orders and his commands. Now more than ever, he can't afford to make a single mistake.

Don't be her, don't be her, his inner monologue repeats. Take me instead, but don't touch her.

"Come on!" He shouts, hoping his voice doesn't shake over the comms. "We've gotta hold them till they pull up that cannon."

The fighters and speeders continue their dance, weaving and bobbing around one another across the crimson streaked battlefield. What had once been pure white salt on the ground is now tainted by a dark shade of blood-red. The obvious symbolism isn't lost on Poe. Each streak of red that he sees feels like a grim reminder of the blood that will be shed by the day's end.

"Rose, you've got three right behind you!" Finn's voice shouts across the comm, drawing Poe from his thoughts.

"Pull right!" Stefan Nakada orders. "Make it as sharp as you can."

Poe watches from his own ship in mute horror as the little Tico tries and fails to maneuver away from the three TIEs fighters on her tail. "It's not working," she says frantically. "I can't lose them!"

Just as he anticipates the worst happening to poor Rose, Poe watches as gunfire rips the TIEs behind the technician's ship into shreds. He hears Finn and Indira both let our triumphant whoops over the comm link and whirls his head around to catch a glimpse of Han Solo's infamous ship, the Millennium Falcon, soaring through the skies above them; undoubtedly with Rey inside at the controls. The guns of the ship continue picking off the fighters, engaging with them briefly before looping around and dragging the TIEs away from the speeders into the distance.

     "She drew them all off!" Poe shouts, slightly awed. "All of them!"

     "Oh, they hate that ship!" Finn crows victoriously; his heart ten times lighter at the sight of the Falcon and the knowledge that Rey is with them again.

     "There it is," Indira warns from her ship, referring to the cannon that had been rolled out to the front.

      Poe can see the center of it starting to glow from a distance. It makes him swallow nervously. "That is a big gun," Rose observes and he nods in agreement.

     "Okay, it's heavily armored," Stefan notes.

     Finn makes a noise of confirmation. "Our only shot is down the throat!"

      The closed metal rings at the center of the cannon expand, causing more light to flood the center of the weapon; a sure sign that it was close to full capability. They were running out of time and Poe begins to doubt if they will be able to make it.

     "The cannon is opening! This is our chance!" Finn warns.

     A new round of gunfire comes raining down from the First Order's walkers, pouring onto the small speeders in a hellish manner. Poe watches two ships get taken out instantly and doubt begins to flicker over him. There were only so many losses he could tolerate before the ends failed to justify the means.

     "They're picking us all off," he mutters. "We're not gonna make it."

     "All right," Finn announces, his voice slightly muffled. "I'm making my final approach. Target in sight. Guns are hot."

     Two more pilots go up in flames and Poe decides to make the call. "No!" He orders. "Pull off!"

     "What?!" Finn replies incredulously.

     "The cannon is fully charged," Poe shouts. "It's a suicide run." The memory of the dreadnought and the deaths of all the fighters there, including Paige Tico, weighs heavily on his heart. He couldn't — and wouldn't — let something like that happen again. Not if he could stop it. "All craft, pull away!"

     "No, I'm almost there!" His friend responds stubbornly.

     Poe grits his teeth angrily. "Retreat, Finn," he yells. "That's an order!"

     Poe steers his ship back towards the base, watching the others follow suit. In his headset, he can hear Rose and Stefan attempting to coax Finn out of disobeying Poe's explicit command.

      "Finn, it's too late!" Stefan warns. "Don't do this!"

     "No!" He shouts. "I won't let them win!"

     "No, Finn!" Rose pleads. "Listen to Poe. We have to retreat!"

      Poe shakes his head at Finn's foolhardy stubbornness. There wasn't a damn thing he could do from this far away that wouldn't wind up getting himself killed. As he looks to his left, Poe catches sight of Indira in her speeder. Her eyes catch his through the window of the cockpit and she shoots him a worried look.

     "What the hell is he doing?" She demands, the words carrying across the comm to him.

     Poe scowls. "Being a hero."

     As soon as his speeder is close enough to the trench outside the base, Poe forces it to a stop and flings himself out of the rusted hull of scrap metal. For a moment, he just stands on the salted earth, wind rippling through his hair and tearing at his clothes as he searches for Indira. When he spots her ship approaching nearby, Poe makes a run for the trench and throws himself to the ground before sliding into the dugout structure.

     A few other pilots are already there. Poe waves them inside, waiting for Indira to join him after she forces her speeder to a stop and abandons the ship. "Come on!" He shouts at her anxiously, watching as the cannon glows brighter in the distance. Poe reaches his arms up and waves for her to run towards him. "Hurry, hurry, hurry!"

     Indira follows his instructions, but doesn't attempt to copy Poe's sliding maneuver once she reaches the edge of the trench. Instead, she drops to a crouch at the edge of the surface and rolls over the ledge without warning. Poe's eyes bulge before he hastily steps forward to catch her and break the fall, preventing the technician from landing on the cement floor with an audible oof.

     "Kriff," he wheezes from the impact. "What would you have done if I hadn't caught you?"

     She pats the top of his head affectionately before slipping out from his arms to stand on her own. "That's a ridiculous question," Indira replies. A smile twitches at the corner of her lips. "I knew you'd catch me."

"Not the point," Poe grumbles, herding her out of the trench towards the small tunnel leading into the base.

"Wait," she says, stopping just inside the tunnel's entrance. "What about Finn?"

He shakes his head. "We can't help him now."

"But Rose and Stefan are still out there with him!" She objects. "We can't just —"

"Indira, listen to me," Poe says firmly, setting his hands on her shoulders. "There is nothing you can do without putting yourself in danger. We've already suffered enough losses today; I won't be the one to tell the general that I let her niece get killed on top of all of that, too. We can't lose you."

Indira frowns, looking over Poe's shoulder with a stricken expression before she nods. "You're right," she replies, pressing a trembling hand to her forehead. "There's nothing we can do." She drops the hand to interlock her fingers in an attempt to stop them from shaking. "I should go to Leia. Maybe we bought enough time for our allies to respond to her distress signal."

Poe doesn't have the heart to discourage her optimism, so he nods in agreement. Deep down inside, though, he already knows the truth. No one else is coming for them. They are alone.

"Watch for the others," Indira instructs him, already making her way down the underground tunnel into the base. "I'll go speak with Leia."

"Yeah, okay." Poe nods half-heartedly. "Let me know if there's any good news."

"It's not over yet," she says, determined.

"Not yet," he agrees, keeping the rest of his thoughts to himself. But soon.

STEFAN NAKADA IS too far away to do anything but watch when Rose Tico makes the decision to slam her skim speeder directly into Finn's. The impact knocks both the ships off course, preventing Finn from sacrificing himself for the battering ram cannon, but it also tears the already fragile speeders into shreds of scrap metal. Panic rises in Stefan's chest as he comes to a halting stop near the crash and throws himself out of the vessel onto solid ground. He sprints through the wreckage of his friends' ships, coming to a stop when he sees Finn working at freeing Rose from the confines of her seatbelt. His heart drops when he sees her slumped over in her cockpit with her eyes closed.

     "Rose!" Stefan chokes out. "Is she alright?"

     "Seatbelt's stuck," Finn replies shortly. His hands are trembling as he works at the straps. "I can't get her out, I can't —" his voice breaks and he shakes his head. "Why would you do that?" He asks Rose. "I was almost there! Why would you stop me?"

     Rose's eyelids flutter before she opens them. "I ... saved you, dummy," she replies, her voice weak. "My sister died, Finn." Her chin quivers slightly. "Paige. She sacrificed herself to save our fleet and I couldn't save her. But today, I could save you. That's how we're gonna win — not fighting what we hate; saving what we love."

Finn finally manages to slip her seatbelt off. "That's what I was trying to do," he grumbles. "I wanted to save all of you."

In the background, a loud boom from the cannon makes the ground shake as the weapon fires. It obliterates the blast door on impact, leaving a large crater in the heart of the metal surface. Stefan swallows thickly as he looks at it, knowing that the last line of defense for the Resistance is now gone.

"This war isn't done with you yet, Finn," Rose replies stubbornly as he hoists one of her arms over his shoulders. Her face contorts as she stands and sways, stifling a groan of pain. "It isn't done with any of us. This isn't the end — I can feel it. Can't you?"

"That's probably just the concussion talking," Stefan says as he hooks her other arm over his shoulders. "But, you're not entirely wrong. Finn, we saw you today — first on the Supremacy and then inside the base. You're a born leader; someone who inspires others and brings them hope. This isn't the First Order; you're not expendable here. We need you, Finn. All of us do."

Finn shakes his head. "I'm just me," he says as he thinks about Rey, who came all the way to the Supremacy to save him and now Rose and Stefan, who risked their lives to stop him from giving their own. "I'm only one person. I'm not ... special."

"You are, Finn," Stefan insists, meeting his gaze. "More special thank you know."

Rose makes a noise of affirmation. "Wouldn't have ... crashed a speeder into you ... if you weren't."

The tips of his ears burn and Finn shakes his head again. He couldn't let himself believe his friends' words. After a lifetime of being beaten down to fit a certain mold, compliments and praise were foreign to him. He has no idea how to respond.

"You shouldn't have done that," he reminds Rose. "But, I'm grateful that you cared enough to save me." Rose opens her mouth to argue, but Finn makes a huge shushing noise. "No, no arguing with me! You have a concussion and possibly several broken bones. That officially makes my judgment superior in this situation."

"That's cheating," Rose protests. "Stefan, tell him it's cheating!"

"I'm neutral," the pilot replies impassively. "Count me out of this debate."

Finn and Rose continue to bicker the entirety of the way back to the base, arguing back and forth with a sort of levity that can only be found in the face of utter destruction. They were all alive — for now — but the AT-AT walkers were advancing on the base with every passing moment. There was no promising that they would make it through this. They were running out of time.

    INDIRA BEREN IS JUST outside of the doors to the control room when a loud explosion wracks the base. For a moment, there is nothing but darkness inside the abandoned mine before the blast door crumbles into pieces and sunlight comes streaming into the cavern. Immediately, she recognizes that the destruction of the door means one of two things: that Finn had changed his mind and abandoned his suicide run or that his sacrifice had been in vain and the First Order succeeded regardless. For the sake of her friend's well-being, Indira selfishly hopes that it's the former rather than the latter.

As she hurries into the command center, the technician finds nothing but distraught faces awaiting her. "What's happened?" Indira asks. "What's wrong?"

Connix shoots her a mournful look from her station. "Our distress signal has been received at multiple points," the lieutenant explains, "yet there's been no response."

"They've heard us," D'Acy agrees. "But no one's coming."

Indira shakes her head. "No," she insists, stepping towards the transmitter. She smacks the side of it futilely, hoping to trigger a response from the system. "Maybe if we just try to —"

A warm hand settles over her wrist, pulling Indira away from the radio. She turns to see her aunt standing there, holding her hand gently. Indira searches the older woman's expression with desperation, looking for a glimmer of hope in her wisened brown eyes. In all her time knowing Leia Organa, no matter how dire the circumstances had been, the general had always been able to hold on to hope. Now, however, Indira sees nothing but sadness and defeat in her weary gaze.

"We fought till the very end," Leia says with finality. "But, the galaxy has lost all its hope. The spark ... is out."

      Indira's heart sinks. It couldn't be over yet — not like this. The Resistance had made it thus far against all odds, but all it would amount to was a merciless slaughter on a strange planet, alone and isolated from the rest of the galaxy. It wasn't fair.

      She closes her eyes and presses her fingers to her temples. The gravity of the situation weighs heavily on her shoulders as Indira realizes that her life's journey has reached its end. She would never have the chance to see her mother again. She would never reunite with Kali or Jess. She would never get to meet her father. All the things Indira had once dreamed of doing someday were slipping through her fingers and there was absolutely nothing she could do to stop it. She had thought that she could fight the war and live to see the end, but she had been wrong.

"Leia," Indira begins, her voice thick as unshed tears gather beneath her lashes.

Without warning, the radio crackles to life. "General Organa, Resistance members — all is not lost!"

Her brow furrows. "Who —"

"I'm going to go on a hunch and say that no one is hearing me right now," Raena Nhagy says over the radio.

Indira gasps as she recognizes the voice on the other end of the line. She hadn't heard from the assassin in so long that Indira had begun to fear that the worst had happened to her. When she looks towards Leia, her aunt offers her a faint smile and puts a reassuring hand on her shoulder before squeezing gently.

"I know you're all out there fighting and experiencing losses, but you can't lose hope," the other girl continues. "I'm going to ... I'm going to do something about it." She pauses and takes a deep breath. "I thought all hope was lost earlier today. The Supreme Leader found out that I was working against the First Order, but luckily for me he's ... well, he's dead."

People gasp around the room at the newfound information. Snoke's death meant a great deal of things for both the First Order and the Resistance. His absence of leadership could shift the tide of the war — that is, if the surviving rebels were able to make it through the assault on Crait.

"Kylo Ren has declared himself the new Supreme Leader," Raena explains. The words make Leia's mouth curl downward. "General Organa, if you're listening, I fear that even with his master gone — this new title may push Ren further into the Darkness. But, the spark isn't out yet. The person Ren used to be, he's still in there. And I think ... I'm going to do the right thing, General. I'm going to try and bring him back." She pauses for a moment, letting the words sink in. "I promise."

After that, the line ends abruptly; cutting all contact between Raena Nhagy and the Resistance. A beat of silence hangs in the air before Indira reaches out and shuts off the transmitter. The room is quiet, with no one knowing what to say in regards to Nhagy's message.

     Indira has so many reservations about the assassin's plan. Her own personal resentment towards Ren for what he did to her mother clouds her judgement. In Indira's eyes, the person Ben Solo used to be died the same day he took Ren's name and became Snoke's most valued apprentice.

      She wonders if Leia would agree with her assessment or if her aunt is still holding onto hope for her long-lost son. Whatever the general is thinking, it doesn't show on her face. Instead, she just looks tired and defeated. In spite of Raena's uplifting message, the light in Leia's eyes is still gone. The older woman takes a seat on top of one of the nearby crates and her hand shakes as she grips her cane.

      A peculiar feeling washes over Indira without warning. The sensation makes her shudder, exhaling sharply before she turns around slowly to look at the door to the control room. There, in the darkened tunnel, a cloaked figure is approaching. The stranger is dressed in all black from head to toe, with their face hidden from view. Indira's heart beats wildly in her chest. Her hands shake before she clenches them into tightly wound fists.

     No, she thinks with disbelief. It isn't possible. It can't be —

     The cloaked figure comes to a stop inside the room, lifting up two hands — one flesh and one mechanical — to pull the hood back from their head. The first thing Indira notices about the stranger's face is his sad, tired eyes. Eyes that she knows from fragments of dream-like memories. His beard is grayer than she remembers and his skin is more wrinkled, but despite all of that something inside of her just knows.

     "Dad," she says, the word escaping her lips before she can stop herself.

     "Hello, sweetheart," Luke Skywalker replies, his eyes shining with unshed tears. "It's been a long time."

a/n: fifty-two chapters later ... i deliver

EDITED ON:
11.14.19