The Force Awakens

Chapter 15

Triumphant cheers echoed far and wide across D'Qar. The battle was over. Starkiller Base was destroyed. The Resistance had won.

General Leia Organa retired to her quarters and wept. Moments before the command center holoscreens had relayed the detonations, she had felt the sharpest and deepest of pains. As if her heart had ruptured.

Her husband. Han. He was gone.

Those who knew Leia considered her to be someone who had suffered much yet had always emerged from that suffering stronger and wiser. But immersed in her present grief, Leia found no strength. She found no wisdom. She found only anguish and emptiness. She'd failed to prevent her son from succumbing to the darkness of Darth Vader. Now her husband was dead.

Her brother lost.

Would it ever end?

"She doubted it would. But if she surrendered, who else would disappear? How many more homes and husbands and sons and brothers would vanish like hers?

Leia did not view herself as strong or wise. She was, if anything, persistent.

Steeled by that persistence, she strode out of her quarters and onto the tarmac to greet those who had returned from enemy territory.

C-3PO and BB-8 joined Leia as the Millennium Falcon landed. A crowd formed behind her. The freighter's hatch opened, but all cheering was respectfully muted when Chewbacca ran down the ramp carrying a severely wounded Finn. A medical team assisted him immediately.

The applause came back loud and triumphant for the girl who emerged next. She descended the ramp and walked over to Leia.

Leia held Rey's face in her hands, then embraced her, sharing the girl's tears. Then Rey followed the medical team.

I came out last, sighing out a breath of relief. The crowd was drowned out from my mind. All I focused on was the sight of my mother. I ran up to her and gave her a hug. Embracing each other's pain and suffering. I whimper into her shoulder. She then releases me and looks into my eyes.

"I felt it as soon as it happened."

"I saw it." I tell her. "I saw Ben stab Dad with his lightsaber."

"I'm sorry." She says, slightly wincing at the name of her son. "It's okay, Annie."

"I fought him. I wanted to kill him. But I couldn't. I also felt Dads forgiveness, just before his last breath. He saw hope that our Ben was still in there." I tell her. "And I want to believe that too."

"We'll get him back." She says, tears rolling down her cheeks. "Somehow, we'll get him back."

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I see Poe running up to us. He has a smile on his face upon seeing me for the first time since we got speedster on Jakku. My mother nudged me and pushes me towards his direction. I let out a smile and run into his arms.

"Annie!" He says, letting the happiness take over.

"Poe!" I say as we embrace each other. "I'm so glad you're okay. Finn said you died, but I knew it wasn't true."

"Me? What about you?" He says. "When I heard Kylo Ren took you, I didn't know what to think."

I lean into him and give him a deep, passionate kiss. The whole galaxy around us slipped away and I only felt him, in my arms.

We went to the situation room, taking BB-8 with us. A host of senior commanders and officers had assembled there, along with the girl from Jakku, General Organa, and her protocol droid. We had gathered to discuss the still unknown whereabouts of Luke Skywalker.

Poe started the conversation. "Kylo Ren said to me that the segment held by BB-8 is the last piece of the map that shows the way to Skywalker's location. So where's the rest of it?"

I chimed in. "The First Order has it. They extracted it from the Imperial archives."

Poe blinked in surprise. "The Empire?"

"It makes sense," said Admiral Statura. "The Empire would've been looking for the first Jedi temples. In destroying all the Jedi sanctuaries, they would have acquired a great deal of information."

Poe had nothing to say to that. His eye strayed from Statura to a light that had switched on in the back of the room. Seemingly forgotten among a pile of discarded equipment was an old R2-class astromech droid.

"We're still at war with the First Order—a war that won't end until they or the Resistance is destroyed," General Organa said. "The next time without Luke, we won't stand a chance."

The old R2 unit trundled forward into the gathering. It issued forth a stream of beeps that were every bit as loud as anything BB-8 produced.

"R2, what is it?" an oddly excited C-3PO asked. "I haven't seen you this functional since...slow down! You're giving me data overload!"

The R2 unit did not slow down, whistling and tootling as if his electronic existence depended on it. "What's he saying?" General Organa asked.

C-3PO translated. "He says if the information you are seeking was in the Imperial archives, he may have it in his memory. He's scanning through the records now."

The general gaped at the astromech droid. "R2 has the rest of the map?"

"He's certainly implying the possibility," C-3PO said, his voice high-pitched. "I've never heard him beep with this much energy before!"

R2-D2 hooted, then projected a hologram from his lens. Before them all hovered an enormous galactic map, far larger and more detailed than the one obtained from Lor San Tekka. Yet as before, an area of the map was blank, missing information.

BB-8 beeped and nudged me. "Yeah, buddy, hold on," I said. "I have it."

I took out the peculiar object Lor San Tekka had given Poe and I and the Resistance had returned to me. I inserted it into BB-8's data port. The droid sat still for a moment, reading its contents. Then BB-8 projected a star chart of his own. Once its proportions were adjusted, the smaller map filled in the gap in the bigger map.

C-3PO cheered. "Oh, my stars—that's it! R2? R2, you've done it!"

A less excited but more touching response came from General Organa. "Luke..."

The name electrified the room. Officers who had never shown emotion embraced each other. Poe mused that yet again, all the tiny victories had contributed to something greater. Then he looked to me and gave me a big, triumphant hug.

Rey stood next to us. Unsure of whether to embrace someone he barely knew, he introduced himself. "Uh, hi, I'm Poe."

"So you're Poe," she said, looking to me. I nodded. "Poe Dameron. The X-wing pilot. I'm Rey."

"I know," Poe said. "Nice to meet you."

They traded smiles. Poe then looked back to me and gave me another kiss. This time it was quick, because my mother interrupted us.

"Alright, you two." She said. We separated and turned to her. "Annie, may I have a word?"