Luke watches the remaining TIE fighters fly out of Crait's atmosphere. He turns to face the few stormtroopers still standing. He gives his lightsaber a causal twirl. The troopers collectively raise their hands. Luke nods, then deactivates the saber. He walks past them, towards the Resistance base.
A crowd is rushing out to meet him, proceeded by their cheers. At the very front of pack is Leia. Despite her age, the older woman runs faster than anyone. She sprints across the salt field, nearly tripping in her haste. She skids to a stop just in front of Luke. The two siblings stare at each other. The crowd stops short, giving the two a wide berth.
Luke smiles weakly. "Hi Leia...I'm back.
Leia nearly tackles Luke with the hug she wraps him with.
"Where have you been?" She says, teary-eyed.
"Away...for far too long." Luke admits, hugging his sister back.
"Why?" Leia asks, pulling back.
Luke looks down. "I...never could find a way to bring Ben back to you. It was my fault I should have..."
His eyes water.
"...I'm sorry Leia. I should have been able to stop him. Should have been there to save Han."
Leia shakes her head. "There you go again, trying to bear the whole galaxy's weight on your shoulders. "It's not your fault, Luke. Ben made his choices. Not you, not Snoke or anyone else. It took...took losing Han for me to realize that."
Luke opens his mouth to say something, but it gets caught in his throat. Instead he simply embraces Leia again. They pull apart, and Luke's eyes shift over to Rey.
The girl give him an "I told you so." look. Luke smiles, and nods.
"You've got her to thank you know." Luke says indicating Rey. "She told me how stupid I was being. That you'd want to see me no matter what I failed to do. Took some help from a few other old friends, but without her, I'm afraid I never would have left that island."
Leia looks back smirking at Rey. "She's got fire in her, that girl. Reminds me of myself at that age. It's why I sent her to drag you back here."
Luke chuckles.
Ackbar clears his throat. "Excuse me, I don't mean to interrupt reunions..."
They both turn to look at the Admiral.
"...but despite all this." Ackbar waves his hand across the desolated battlefield. "There is still a fleet of ships up there, considering their next move."
Leia nods. "This battle is only half over."
Luke sighs, exasperated.
"I know I made that look easy, but I don't think I can't do all of that again."
"No, we're getting out of here," Leia says. "Our ships should be back up and running soon. Once they are, we're gonna fly out of here, slip past that fleet and jump out of the system."
She quirks an eyebrow at Luke. "You still as good at piloting as you are at being a Jedi?"
Luke shrugs. "Guess we'll find out. By the way, is there someone that can fix my X-wing? I think it got a little banged up in the uh...landing."
"I can!" Poe shouts, running up. "I can fix your X-wing! I'm Poe by the way, Poe Dameron."
Luke nods at him. "Nice to meet you Poe. I'm Luke Skywalker."
Poe grins "I know!"
***
Everyone stands in the command room of the Resistance base, a holographic projection of the First Order fleet before them.
"They haven't sent anything else down to the planet, so I seems like they're waiting for us to come to them." Poe explains. "Which is good for us, since most of our engines still need a few minutes to recover. They'll be ready, though. They've got their ships encircling the planet. As soon as we break orbit, they'll be on top of us. The biggest problem we're facing is their capital ship, the Supremacy."
Poe indicates the projection of the massive ship, dwarfing all the others.
"Only one or two ships in our entire fleet could survive more than one hit from its its devastator cannons. To make matters worse, they've got it front and center, so we can't use blocking vectors like last time. The only upside is that, the cannons can't use rapid-fire. They seem to need to cool down frequently."
"So what's the plan, then?" Leia asks.
"Our best bet will probably to try and slip past the fleet, and hyper-jump out."
"Couldn't we just jump out as soon as we get up there?" Luke asks.
"Doubtful." Ackbar says. "Knowing Thrawn, he'll have those ships choke us in the moment we leave the atmosphere and some of them are bound to be Interdictors with gravity wells. Likely hyper-jumps will be too dangerous until we get past them."
"Unless you fancy flying into one of their ships at lightspeed." Poe adds.
"What else can we do?" Leia asks. "Seems like they'll just keep us blocked in and pick us off with those cannons."
"What if we took the cannons out of the picture?" Finn pipes in.
"Is that possible?" Ackbar asks.
"I think so." Finn says. "I never worked on the Supremacy before, but dreadnoughts use the same kind of cannons. Deep in the ship, near the engines, there was a power core specifically for the cannons. A few explosives would probably be enough to take it out, if we could get inside. But It'll be a hell of a time getting there..." Finn's voice trails off as he notices Rey and Luke staring at him.
"Oh right."
"We'll get you to that core." Luke says.
"Luke..." Leia says, worriedly.
"What?" He asks.
"That's Snoke's ship...Ben will be there too."
Luke narrows his eyes at the projection of the ship.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to let him kill me." He glances at Rey. "Besides, I won't be alone."
Rey's face hardens and she nods.
"I'll come too." A voice says.
They all turn to see Lorn standing in the doorway.
"That ship is basically a flying city." She explains. "You'll need all the help you can get."
"I wouldn't think a merc would be willing to go that far for us." Leia raises an eyebrow at her.
Lorn shrugs. "You pay well."
Rey stares at her, curiously. Luke also squints at Lorn.
"Have we met? Something about you seems really familiar..."
Lorn pauses before responding.
"...I think I'd remember meeting Luke Skywalker."
With that she turns around and walks back out the door.
"What's with her?" Luke asks.
"I don't know..." Rey says, distantly.
"So!" Poe says clapping his hands together. "You guys sneak in the Supremacy, and knock out those cannons, while we do our best to stay alive. Then, we all get past the fleet and jump out. Anything we're missing?"
No one speaks up.
"Great! Let's get to it then!"
***
"...and when he lifted those walkers, with the Force, and slammed them back down! It was amazing! I knew he was a Jedi but I didn't think anything like that was even possible!" Rey exclaims.
She is inside the base, pacing back in forth beside Luke's X-wing. Finn sits nearby, watching her pace. Poe crouches below the fighter, servicing it from an open panel in the side. R2-D2 is inside the X-wing, welding the X-wing from above. BB-8 does the same from below.
"I just can't believe I'm working on Luke Skywalker's X-wing," Poe says. "Yaknow, this was the X-wing that destroyed the first death star?"
Rey's eyes widen. "Really?"
Finn only rolls his eyes.
"What about you Finn?" Rey asks. "What do you think was the coolest thing he did?"
Finn shrugs.
"Oh come on." She prods. "Don't be a downer.
"...I guess when he reflected that walker's beam back at it ..." Finn admits.
Rey and Poe both nod in agreement. Poe pulls out a greasy, rusty, looking part. R2-D2 beeps at him angrily. BB-8 also chimes in.
"Hold on I was just-"
Both droids continue to chatter in droid-language.
"Geez, I'm just gonna clean it, then put it back." He looks at Finn and Rey. "It was bad enough when there was one of them."
Rey and Finn chuckle. Poe continues to work on the X-wing.
"You know, that fuel injector is out of alignment." Rey points out.
Poe looks confused.
"What are you-" He raises his eye, in surprise. "Oh, you're right."
Rey shrugs.
"These dang old X-wings were designed so confusingly." Poe shakes his head. "Still, I got a lotta respect for the classics..."
Finn's eyes track a group of unarmed stormtroopers being escorted through the base by Resistance soldiers.
"What do you think we're gonna do with them?" Finn asks, indicating the troopers.
"I doubt we'll do anything." Poe says, not turning from the X-wing. "We don't have the space to take them with us as prisoners, so we'll probably just leave them here. The First Order will eventually pick them up, but not much we can do about that."
"Why do you ask?" Rey says, curious.
Finn shrugs. "Just wondering, I guess."
"We're not going to execute them all if that's what you're thinking." Poe adds.
"I didn't think-"
Poe gives him a look.
"...alright maybe I thought that might happen."
"We're the good guys, Finn. Don't ever forget that."
Finn doesn't say anything, but he eventually nods.
Luke Skywalker walks up. "How's it coming along?"
"She'll be running like a beauty before long." Poe replies.
"Good." Luke say nodding. "I hear you're a pretty good pilot."
Poe shrugs nonchalantly. "I mean I'm alright..."
"When we get up there, they'll probably be gunning for me after what I did you their ground forces. I'll be relying on you to get make sure Rey and I can get to the Supremacy in one piece."
"Yes, sir. Consider it done." Poe salutes.
Luke chuckles. He turns to Finn.
"Finn right?" Luke asks.
Finn stands up straighter. "Uh, yes. That's me."
"Rey hold you in very high regard. If half of what she's told me is true, she's lucky to have you as a friend."
Rey blushes.
"Uh...thanks?" Finn says, awkwardly.
Luke shakes his head. "Never thought I'd be fighting alongside a stormtrooper. Guess the Force has a strange sense of humor."
"Well..."Finn says, thinking. "...I never thought I'd be fighting alongside Luke Skywalker."
Luke laughs.
"I like him." He says to Rey.
Rey sighs. "Is there something else, or do you want to embarrass me some more?"
"I need to talk to you for a minute."
Rey nods, and they walk off together. Moments later, C3PO walks up the the X-wing.
"R2-D2?" C3PO says, with disbelief. "Where in the stars have you been?"
R2-D2 beeps happily
"You brought Luke Skywalker back all by yourself? That hardly seems likely..."
***
"Kylo Ren is going to be waiting for us." Luke says. "And he'll probably have the rest of my former students with him. They aren't as strong as him, but do not take them lightly. We'll fight them all together, that's the only way to make sure we both make it out alive."
"Alright..." Rey says carefully.
"And Rey," Luke says, warningly.
"Yeah?"
"Somewhere on that ship is Supreme Leader Snoke. We will avoid him at all costs."
"But we could end this." She reasons. "Fight him now, and cut off the First Order's head."
"He's too dangerous Rey. You aren't ready. Hell, I'm not ready. Today our priority is to save the Resistance. We can worry about taking on Snoke another time."
Reluctantly, Rey nods.
"Is that a promise?" Luke asks, pointedly.
Rey sighs. "Yes, I promise to stay away from Snoke."
Luke nods, satisfied.
"Alright, I'm gonna take my own X-wing to draw their fire. You seem to know your way around the Falcon, so I'll meet you in the Supremacy's hangar bay."
"See you there." Rey says.
***
Rey walks back up to Finn and Poe. Poe has closed the X-wing back up, and is wiping his hands with a rag.
"All done?" She asks.
"Yep." Poe confirmed.
"Alright, I'm gonna get the Falcon started up then. Ready Finn?"
"Sure am." Finn hefts a bag over his shoulder.
"Welp Rey, it was nice to meet you." Poe says. "Make sure Finn doesn't get himself killed eh?"
"It was nice to meet you too, and I will." Rey nods.
"And you," Poe says to Finn. "Go take out those cannons for us."
Finn smirks. "Really? I thought you were such I good pilot you'd just take down the fleet all by yourself."
"Gotta leave some for you guys." Poe says shrugging.
They all laugh.
"But guys..." Poe says, seriously. "May the Force be with you. We're all gonna need it."
"And you." Finn says nodding.
With that Finn and Rey leave.
***
Leia is overseeing crates being loaded onto the Raddus, when Luke walks up to her.
"Looks like we're going into a hopeless battle once again." Luke says.
"Like that's ever stopped us." Leia replies.
"I guess it hasn't." Luke says, with a chuckle.
Both grow silent.
"...Leia." Luke says cautiously.
"Yeah?"
"I'm...going to bring Ben back"
Leia sighs. "I asked Han to do that last time. He die trying."
Luke takes several seconds to reply.
"...I wish I could have seen him again." He eventually says.
Leia laughs sadly.
"He may have gotten older, but he never really changed that much. Pretending he was just a scoundrel, then being the hero. Never did fool anyone with that front."
Luke smiles.
"He really was braver than he liked to admit."
"Just wish it hadn't gotten him killed." Leia says looking down.
"Leia." Luke says.
She looks up.
"I'm not going to ask Ben nicely."
She raises an eyebrow.
"I'll beat some sense into that boy, and drag back by his collar if I have to."
"Just don't...die. I don't think I could handle losing you too."
"I won't Leia." He smirks then. "You're talking to the guy who blew up the first death start."
Leia chuckles. "Alright hotshot. Go get in you're X-wing and blow some stuff up. I'll see you on the other side."
Luke and Leia hug one last time, and part ways.