" and you, my father, there on that sad height,
curse, bless me now with your fierce tears i pray.
do not go gentle into that good night.
rage, rage against the dying of the light "
blood runs thicker than water.
| dying of the light by kona |
|...
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IN THE TIME HALO SPENT KNEELING ON THE GROUND, POE HAD ARRANGED FOR CONTACT WITH THE REMAINING REBELS AFTER LEIA WAS GONE, INSISTING THAT HE REMAIN ON THE PLANET, AS CLOSE TO LEIA AS HE COULD BE, UNTIL THE END.
halo, finn, poe, rey, rose, and chewbacca sat under the cover of the old base entrance. no one said a word, the only sound that filled the room was the roar of x-wings and cargo ships as they departed from the hangar to the left. it had taken less than an hour for the entire remainder of the resistance to board the ships, say their goodbyes to their general, and take off. to halo, it felt like a million lifetimes.
she couldn't bring herself to see leia off. the general had decided upon a humble x-wing, something that reminded her of her brother. luke had been a great pilot once. it was something halo often forgot about him.
just before she left, she had promoted poe to general herself. the pilot was overcome. his eyes were so swollen from tears that he could hardly see out of them anymore.
the reality of what was happening was too much for halo to bear.
some time earlier, poe had told halo of the brave sacrifice made by vice-admiral holdo, to pilot the mothership while the rest of the resistance fled to crait. he had been so moved by it, for it established the ground-rules upon which a successful general governs; that the time for bravery and selflessness will present itself, when it is necessary. that had not been long ago, and now, leia was acting in that same manner. for poe, it was the final lesson, halo understood this. but a small part of her could not understand why leia was so ready to give herself up.
there had to be other ways for the rebellion to escape without the first order noticing. but rationally, halo knew that wasn't the case. they had somehow tracked them through space. maybe it was because hux capitalized on the relationship between ben and leia, and coerced him into revealing their position. but deep in her heart, halo knew that couldn't be true. ben would never expose them like that. not after he had begged halo to keep his mother safe.
she reached out to ben once more through the force, but again, was met with nothing. anxiety welled up inside of her. her last hope for leia's safety was that she would be able to warn ben that leia was coming with enough time for him to stop it. but he wasn't there.
none of this felt right. even the force, whose balance halo usually relied on, moved in her without ease.
halo let herself be warmed by the arms of chewbacca, who encased themselves around her as the x-wing leia piloted flew toward the horizon. in the distance, the starkillers had stopped moving. now, they could only wait.
