A Girl, A Boy and the Stars - A FinnRey story

Escape from the Dark

Finn increased his pace into a jog. Freeing the spirits had taken too long. He was getting close to his objective now, he suspected; the intermittent rumbling and blasts of heat were becoming stronger by the minute, and he could feel Rey's familiar presence nearby.

He turned into a tighter corridor, at the end of it a red glow. Finn ran down the passageway, to emerge into a new space, wide and low, filled by a crowd of pillars arranged in a regular pattern and beyond them, the source of the light.

A voice, nearby, but not Rey.

Finn moved from column to column, quick and quiet, and felt more of the dead around him, embedded in the stone itself. The sound of the voice reached him through the pillars, coming from a space that revealed itself as he approached; he could see the back wall now, covered by a veil of dripping lava that illuminated the chamber, casting everything in a soft red light.

He peeked from behind a column to see a slender, stretched figure, silhouetted against the glow. It held two short, red sabers. A Darksider, their back to him.

And at its feet, there she was. The girl he would follow to the end of the universe was beaten, broken, slumped to the stone floor, one eye a vivid red, face swollen, blood and filth in her hair and clothes. Looking at the ground, defeated and abandoned. Finn's heart was stabbed with a pain as shocking as it was new to him, but he pushed it away before the feeling could overwhelm him; there was no time.

The Darksider was female, probably human, her legs extended artificially, wearing what seemed to be inappropriate dress for combat, and she was almost upon the stricken Skywalker.

Whoever she was, if she'd taken down Rey, then her skills were far beyond his. He would have little chance of survival. He would die here, with the girl he - just admit it - loved. There was no saving her. But the Sith hadn't seen him yet. He could back up, escape and at least one of them would live. Surely that was a better outcome than both of them dying and joining the ghosts of the tormented in this cursed place. He could live for her, honor her memory and do his best for the rest of his days to ensure she was not forgotten. His future awaited him.

As if that was even an option. Fine then, a death at her side it was. Not a bad way to go. Honorable and honest, at least.

He crept forward from the cover of the pillars. Rey looked up, met his eyes, exhaled in surprise with a dash of pleasure wrapped in a hint of a smile, and Finn could never, ever, have suspected that having seconds to live, lost in a nightmare hellhole of death deep in the heart of a cursed planet, could ever feel so right.

--

Rey lifted her head, to look her executioner in her black, fucked up eyes.

And there he was.

He'd come back. The dream she had never dared admit, because it was a childish fantasy and life with its bruising disappointments and hard realities had beaten such things out of her long ago. A fantasy that she had never let in, because it was doomed to fail and leave her even more broken than before. But here he was. He'd followed her into this place, and she knew what that meant. He-

No!

This was terrible! What the fuck did he think he was doing? Finn was going to get himself killed, and he had to live, he had to, because he deserved better while she deserved to die alone here. She struggled to get up and fight, but only managed a half kneeling posture, gritting her teeth at the broken knee. What was he going to do? How could she help?

---

Finn crept forward as the Sith turned, having noticed Rey's reaction. So much for a surprise attack. But he still had some cards left to play. He straightened up and readied the saber.