One year after the battle of Crait, the Resistance crumbles after an attack on General Organa's ship, leaving the galaxy to the mercy of the First Order's terrorist regime.
Fear spreads. Darkness rises. And the heroes are left to grapple with both p...
The Millennium Falcon arrived at Leia's battered transport just after the First Order ships jumped to hyperspace.
Rey sprinted through the darkened hallways as fast as she could, hoping for once that what she sensed was not accurate.
She slid to a stop in front of the bridge door to find it blown in. Then she looked up to see a crumpled form cloaked in blue robes.
"No," she breathed.
She dashed to Leia's side and touched her back, searching for any sign of breath. In a delusional hope, Rey held her own breath as long as she could, listening for any movement.
When she could no longer stand it, Rey took Leia's cold, gray hand. Tears welled in her eyes.
"No," her whisper trembled.
She stopped fighting her tears.
Chewbacca rounded the corner, finding Rey with tears streaming down her face. The Wookiee froze, unwilling to believe it. Leia was family. The last one left.
She couldn't be gone. Couldn't be.
His heart burned in his chest. He tilted his head back and gave a massive roar of agony. He wanted to mash every one of those First Order thugs into an armor stew. But, instead, he gave sorrowful moan and knelt beside Rey, putting a furry paw on her shoulder.
He had lost so many friends—no, so much family—in the last two years. He wasn't sure if his tender Wookiee heart could bear another loss.
***
Chewbacca quietly monitored the Falcon's controls just to have something to do. Rey had walled in her grief with impersonal rationality so she could cope.
There was nothing else I could have done, she repeated silently. There was nothing else I could have done.
"Once we make the jump I'll contact Poe," she found herself saying.
Chewie offered a soft grunt in reply.
"The First Order already knows what happened," she answered with a grimace. "I'm just worried about the Resistance..."
Sighing in agreement, the Wookiee flicked a lever and the Falcon leaped into hyperspace.
Rey retrieved a device from her belt and pressed a couple of buttons.
"Commander Rey," Poe's hologram acknowledged.
She opened her mouth to speak, but the words caught in her throat. She tried to shove her emotions away for just a moment more. "We had no success."
Poe shook his head. "What? Those should have been the right coordinates--"
"They were."
Poe's eyes met Rey's.
"...And we had no success," she repeated. "We were too late."
He paled, his eyes widening. "You're saying..."
She only nodded, afraid that her voice would break if she spoke.
Poe closed his eyes and gave a deep, decisive sigh. "We'll all be waiting for you."
At Rey's confused expression, he continued.
"They deserve to know about this."
***
The funeral was short yet beautiful for the last princess of Alderaan.
A solemn procession gathered at the chasm's floor, with white cliffs rising as far as the eye could see on either side. Saudade's sun sank into the horizon, neatly framed by the two cliffs, casting its waning rays on the assembly. A breeze whistled through the canyon, stinging the evening air.
The moment had come that Rey had hoped never would. As she stared at the makeshift memorial, just stacks of rocks and wild-picked flowers, that proverb tugged at her again.
Nothing dies like hope.
She pushed it aside, took a deep breath, and stepped to the front to deliver the final words.
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For a moment, she was overwhelmed with emotion and responsibility. She let her eyes scan the ragtag group of fighters. These rebels were a special kind that had dared to hope when there was none. What could she possibly say to keep that spark alive now?
She knew there were rumors. Whispers. A thousand different stories about what had happened on that transport.
And, perhaps more for herself than for anyone, she had to address that proverb.
"She did not just carry hope," Rey began, her voice echoing in the canyon. "She was hope. Now, her legacy lives through us. She ignited the flame and it's up to us to keep it burning.
'Save your sorrows,' she would have said."
Rey paused for a moment, willing her voice to not tremble.
"'We must live for today.'"
The Resistance applauded her eloquent words.
If Rey's emotions had not been swirling, she would have sensed a tremor of darkness, which would have drawn her attention to the cloaked figure at the top of the cliff. But, she didn't notice and the figure remained undetected.
The figure appeared content to silently observe the proceedings below, letting its dark robe billow in the wind. Then, it removed a small compass from its wrist and crushed it in its fist.
As the figure turned to leave, the wind swept the hood away from its eyes.
