Black Hearts | Kylo Ren [1]

V. "we are real."

In the lounge, Roman had fallen asleep, Letha always alert to his breathing, and Finn was finishing the bandaging of Chewbacca's injured shoulder. Chewie was proving to be a difficult patient. As a huge hand grabbed Finn yet again,

"Chewie, you've got to let go of him, understand? He can't secure your bandaging properly if he can't see what he's doing. Or move. Or breathe." Letha tried to make the Wookie appreciate the situation.

The Wookiee nodded apprehensively.

"Okay then. Let go." Chewbacca promptly shook his head no. Exasperated Finn yelled toward the cockpit.

"We need help with this giant fuzz ball!"

Chewbacca roared anew in pain. "You hurt Chewie," Han growled, "you deal with me!"

"Hurt him? He almost killed me six times." Finn continued to struggle with the Wookie.

A couple of minutes later Han came back into the medbay. Carefully, he checked Roman's bandaged wound.

"Maybe it's a little bit too tight. I don't know why but I got really scared." Letha said, pulling a strand of hazel hair behind her ear. "He's my brother, the only good thing I have left."

"Nah," he murmured, "don't say that. You did great." He smiled. "Believe it or not, child, I know what fear is. If you're not afraid of loosing of someone you love, you're not human, are you? He's gonna be fine." He rose. "You're gonna be fine."

Han turned to Finn, who, with BB-8 standing beside and watching, was trying to activate the holochess set. Looking on, Han hesitated.

"Good job on Chewie. I— Thanks."

"You're welcome." Glancing toward the bed alcove, Finn addressed the patient. "Thanks for not breaking my neck." The Wookiee replied with a rumble. Finn chose to interpret it as an apology of sorts.

"So. Fugitives, huh?" Han said.

Finn nodded and indicated BB-8. "It's the map he's storing. The First Order wants it, and they'll kill anyone who tries to keep it from them."

Rey arrived to join them. "Ship systems are stable. I made sure before I left everything on autopilot." She indicated Finn and the droid. "They're with the Resistance. And Letha, Roman and I were with them. So I guess we're now with the Resistance."

Han looked to BB-8. "Let's see whatcha got."

Dutifully, the droid rolled into a suitable position. A lens brightened, and abruptly the lounge was all but filled with an enormously detailed and complex star map. Even Chewbacca sat up to have a better look. Letha was impressed and Rey in awe—but Han found himself frowning.

Moving forward and into the three-dimensional representation, he tracked system positions and locator stars.

It was only half of the map there.

He turned to the others. "This is accurate, but it's not complete. It's just a piece. I can tell from the location of the breaks and from what's only partially shown." He grunted softly. "Ever since Luke disappeared, people have been looking for him."

Rey spoke. "Why'd he leave, anyway?"

Letha pursed his lips; thinking back, remembering. "He was training a new generation of Jedi. There was no one else left to do it, so he took the burden on himself. Everything was going good, until one boy, an apprentice, destroyed it all. Luke felt responsible. He walked away from everything."

Finn's tone was respectful. "Do you know what happened to him? Does anyone?"

"Roman and I were there, the night it happened. We were Luke's apprentices as well. There've been all kinds of rumors and stories. When people don't have access to facts, they invent what they'd like to believe, or what they think others would like to hear. Roman and I think he went on a personal quest, looking for the first Jedi temple."

Rey had been quiet for a while, absorbing everything in awed silence. She could no longer contain herself. "The Jedi were real?"

"We are real." Then Letha remembered Ben, the boy she had known like the palm of her hand. It was strange that a person she had known so well could change in the blink of an eye and do such atrocities. Flashbacks came to her. All the screams and cries for help. All the lives that were taken.

Han half smiled, to himself as much as to her. "I used to wonder that myself. A bunch of mumbo-jumbo is what it sounds like. Some magical power holding together good and evil, light and dark."

"Crazy thing is, it's all real. The Force—it's true. All true." Letha brought herself back to reality.

An alarm sounded, but this one was different from anyone the young ones had ever heard. Chewbacca started to rise, but Han put out a hand to prevent him.

"No. You relax." He headed for the cockpit. "This is our stop."

— 

There may have been more beautiful worlds in the galaxy than Takodana, but if so, they were unknown to Letha. Verdant and mild, with bands of white cloud and small seas and brightly lakes, it appeared before them as the Millennium Falcon dropped out of hyperspace. With Han in the pilot's chair, Rey copiloting, Letha, Finn and BB-8 standing behind, the cockpit was crowded.

"What are we doing here?" Letha asked as she gazed to the unfamiliar world ahead.

"You wanted my help, you're getting it," Han told her. "We're going to see an old friend."

Letha noticed Rey staring fixedly out the foreport. She seemed on the verge of tears. "Hey—are you okay?"

"I didn't know there was this much green in the whole galaxy," she said in awe.

A towering stone castle came into view as he prepared for touchdown. One side of the castle was dominated by a long freshwater lake, surrounded by a green forest. Letha rushed back to the lounge to check up on Roman.

"Roman, wake up." The girl knelt beside him, her bother's forehead was covered in sweat and his eyes where shut tight. "Roman!"

The boy sat straight, taking in a deep breath. "You're fine. You're fine." The boy mumbled.

"Of course I'm fine, can't say the same about you." Letha told him and the boy hugged her, wrapping his strong arms around her. "Roman— What did you see?"

Then it hit her. It felt like a bucket of iced water had been poured over her head.

—

Battlefield then, all around Letha. Putting a hand to her mouth, she rose and turned. As she turned, she found herself confronted by seven tall, cloaked figures, dark and foreboding, all armed. Soaked and shivering, she stumbled backward, turning as she half fell. Firelight illuminated her, firelight from a distant, burning temple. She knew exactly where she was.

The seven vanished. A sound made her turn, and she blinked in surprise at the sight of R2-D2. A new figure appeared. Falling to his knees, he reached out to the droid with an artifice of an arm. "Luke!" She blinked and both were gone.

Around her now: snowy woods, the sounds of unknown forest creatures, and a conviction that she must be losing her mind. Once more she climbed to her feet with chilled breath. From in front of her, not far away, came the sounds of battle: the cries of the wounded and the clashing of weapons.

"Don't leave me, Letha." Her brother's voice echoed through the woods. "I'm scared."

She whirled, glazed eyes desperately scanning the dark gaps between the slender trees, trying to penetrate the darkness.

"Where are you?" She started running toward her brother the voice.

"I don't wanna die."

She started forward again, running, only to be brought to a sudden halt by a figure appearing without warning from behind a tree.

She screamed, and screamed again, and fell backward, backward, sitting down hard in.

—

She was in the lounge of the Millennium Falcon, sitting on the cold old metal floor with Roman by her side, her chest pounding as if she had just run five miles. "I saw it."

"There you are."

The voice made her jump. But it was only Han Solo, standing alone in the loading ramp.