42. That was her number. Now with the resistance, 42 must cover her past life which proves difficult when she cannot tell her true name. And that Dameron guy . . . He needs to stop asking questions.
Follows The Rise of Skywalker
I turned to look at Rey. "Are you sure you can't do anything?"
She shook her head somberly.
In one last futile attempt, I put my head to 42's chest, listening.
Thump . . . thump . . . thump.
"She's alive!" I realized.
"Poe—" Finn began again.
"No, really!" I insisted. "Look, look." 42's chest began to rise and fall shallowly. I pulled her unconscious body into a hug. "She's going to make it," I breathed softly, running my fingers through her hair. "She has to."
I studied her slackened face. She was beautiful.
"Kai is still really hurt," I said just above a whisper as not to disturb her. "I know a place—"
"Kai?" Rey stopped me.
"What?"
"You said Kai, who's Kai?"
Uh oh.
"She told you her name, didn't she?" Rey pressed.
"No—"
"What? Then how'd you know?" Finn joined in.
"I just know!" I huffed. "Kai—she was my friend, a long time ago. On my home planet, Yavin 4, we spent a lot of time together as kids . . . She probably doesn't even remember me . . . I don't know what the Mandalorian do to past memories if any, but it was just so long ago." My voice trailed off.
"You like her, don't you," Finn said, though it was more of a statement and less of a question.
"Finn!" Rey scolded.
"No . . . He's right." I sighed. "But she'll probably hate me for taking off her helmet. So I guess my chances are kaput."
"Poe, you saved her life," Finn began.
"No. Rey saved her life," I said softly. I stood and set Kai down gently. Then, I pulled off my scarf, balled it up, and placed it beneath her head.
"We gotta go," I said, moving towards the cockpit. "More TIEs will be on us soon."
"Are you sure you want to fly?" asked Rey. "I can, and you can stay with her?" she offered.
"Yeah," I decided, "that'd be nice. Thank you Rey, thank you both."
The three of us embraced.
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***
"Alright," I began.
We stood in Ochi's ship as it floated in space, hidden in an asteroid belt. 42 was still resting against the cold floor.
"We got eight hours left. So what're we gonna do?"
"What can we do? We gotta go back to base," Finn said.
"We don't have time to go back to base. We are not giving up," I stated firmly. "If we do that, Chewy died for nothing."
"Chewy has the dagger," Finn remembered.
"Well then we gotta find another way."
"Well, there isn't," he argued. "That was the only clue to the Wayfinder thing and it's gone."
"It's true," 3-PO began. "The inscription lives only in my memory now."
"Hold on," I began, turning to the droid. "The inscription that was on the dagger is in your memory?"
"Yes, Master Poe," said 3-PO. "But the translation from a forbidden language can not be retrieved. That is short from a complete redacted memory wipe loss."
"A complete what?" Finn pressed.
"It's a terribly dangerous and sinful act performed on unwitting droids by drakes and criminals," 3-PO rambled.
"Let's do that!" Finn decided.
The droid turned objectively.
"I know a black market droid-smith," I remembered.
"Black market droid-smith?" 3-PO protested.
"But he's on Kijimi," I finished.
"What's wrong with Kijimi?" asked Finn.
"I had a little bad luck there," I said. "But if this mission fails, it's all been for nothing. All we've done, all this time."
Finn stood. "We're all in this til then end." He looked to Rey.
