Heir to Skywalker ⤇ Finn

Chapter 33

Chapter 33

Kylo Ren lit his saber in response to her doing the same. He didn't expect it when she came charging at him with full confidence and power.

Explosions went off in the background as they fought. The ground shook, only partly from the attacks on the base. The raw power emanating from the two battling each other was enough to destroy a planet alone.

They fought for a long time, attack after attack from Rey, defense after defense from Kylo Ren. Her power surprised Kylo Ren, and he feared it just as much. Finally, he was able to start attacking, pushing her back. She had to take defensive maneuvres to block his offensive.

Kylo Ren pushed her back once more, locking their sabers again. Suddenly, the earth fell from behind Rey and she was standing on a newly emerged cliff, the bottom leading to the core of the planet, which was pure lava from the sun that was now out.

"You need a teacher!" Kylo Ren shouted to her, over the sounds of the planet's impending implosion. "I can show you the ways of the Force!"

"The Force," Of course. She had been caught up with fighting, she had nearly forgotten. She calmed her self and closed her eyes, reaching out to a force that would guide her.

When she opened her eyes, she was practically invincible. With one clean swipe, she forced Kylo Ren back, and he tripped on his own feet. He fell to the ground, hos saber flying off into the snow. She delivered one slice after slice, hitting his face and chest. Kylo Ren scrambled back to escape her, reaching out to his saber. It wouldn't come. He was too distracted.

So was she. She could have killed him, but she had to stop herself. Rage had taken over her, and she was nearing a threshold that was considered darkness. She was drawing power from the darkside.

She refrained, stepping back and away from Kylo Ren. She calmed herself again, feeling the darkness leave her again.

The earth shook again, but this time it did more damage than before. The earth cracked between them, and the two were pulled away from eachother.

Rey, Padme, and an unconscious Finn were opposite Kylo Ren, who was now showing slices and burns all across his body. He had been defeated, but he would return.

But the three friends weren't entirely together yet. Rey ran tens of meters to find her friends together. Finn was laying on the ground, face down, with Padme over him, trying to draw from her endless memory of Kim's medical rambling on how to save someone's life in the wilderness, something that she thought might come in handy someday.

"Finn!" She shouted, seeing Padme's face wet with tears. Rey fell to her knees and tried to tend to him, but she didn't have any knowledge fo the matter. "Finn," She started crying as well. Finn's lifeless body was transferred to Rey's arms as Padme stood up.

"I'll, I can't, how could," She started mumbling, holding her forehead in disbelief. "He, why did, how," She couldn't believe the events that had transpired that day. She stopped and took three deep breaths.

"Padme," Rey tried to get her attention.

"We have to get off this planet. It's going to rip apart," She finally said. "We have to go. We have to get out."

"How?" Rey asked. "The falcon's gone, Padme. Either it was destroyed, it fell into a canyon, or -"

She was interrupted by lights coming from a ship in front of them. They both recognized the shape immediately. The pilot was just a reassurance.

"Chewie," Padme smiled. She was instantly relieved. Chewie roared at them. They didn't hear him, but they knew he was stressed.

He set the falcon down and ran out to help them. Padme and Rey were both too tired to carry Finn, so Chewie picked him up and carried him inside. Rey and Padme both stumbled onto the platform while Chewie placed Finn on a med bed and piloted them off the doomed planet. Rey accompanied Chewie in the cockpit.

Padme sat down on the bench next to Finn. She could sense life, but it was dwindling by the second.

She relived the events of the past hour in her memory. She remembered Kylo Ren's face and Padme's overwhelming feeling of hope right before he -

The planet collapsed behind them just as they left the atmosphere. X-wings were hot on the falcon's tail, escaping the planet's implosion just in time.

The flight back was solemn. Everyone in the fleet was either mourning their losses or nearly dead. They had lost friends, family, loved ones. They lost incredible pilots. They lost one of their leaders.

Their losses nearly outweighed the victory, but once they landed they realized they had won. The First Order had fallen, and it was thanks to those that had made the ultimate sacrifice that they did.

All ships landed on the strip, the falcon at the end. Poe was watching from a distance when Chewie walked off the ramp with the unconscious Finn in his arms. Medical personnel ran to his aid.

"Easy, easy. He's hurt," one of the officers warned, though Padme, who was now walking down the pathway with Rey, thought that was quite obvious. "We've got a heartbeat."

Rey and Padme walked side by side down the ramp, heads hung low. But when they looked up, they saw the one person who was hurting more than anyone else there. Leia was waiting for them, a cheering resistance behind her. They had no idea who they had lost.

Leia approached the two younger women in front of her. Padme stayed behind to let Leia and Rey have their moment. They had never met, and yet they already had a bond beyond anything she had seen between two strangers.

Leia held Rey's face in her hands, their emotions matching eachother. Leia pulled her into a motherly embrace as they cried together. Padme stood from afar, watching as Finn was carried off and Rey and Leia mourned together.

Poe was unloading his x-wing when he saw her. She was by the falcon still, waiting for something. Her gaze met his and they gave a greeting nod. Poe knew they had suffered losses greater than just Finn, and he confirmed it when he realized Han hadn't unloaded with them.

After a long moment of Poe trying to comfort his friend from hundreds of feet away, Padme's gaze faltered when she saw her best friend emerge from the med bay. She gave Poe one final nod, letting him know they would talk later. She looked back to her friend.

"Padme?"

"Kim," They shared a look of sadness. Chewie spared no profanities sharing how he felt about Han's death, of course all the medics knew. They slowly walked to eachother, afraid to run, as they might collapse.

"Oh, Padme, I'm so sorry," Ekimi said, reaching out for Padme. They hugged like they had been apart for decades. 

a/n - well bois i finished the story last night, and i'm pumped. the last chapter is a little long, but i said it was done by chapter 35 and I'm sticking with it. 

also two gifs for this chapter because i can.

i'm super excited, it's pretty epic. I'll update the last two chapters tomorrow and the next day. 

-olivia <333