Force Destiny

Fall Back

In his cockpit, Poe cried out in frustration. The Alliance was getting nowhere in this battle. Ben was right, they could do little damage with the deflector shields still functioning. Of all the different paths this war would take him, Poe never imagined it would come to this. The fate of the Resistance...the Alliance...the Republic...the galaxy...was in the hands of the former Supreme Leader. He had to trust his life—and everyone's lives he cared about—to his former enemy.

Poe had felt this guilt before—this guilt of misjudging a person. When he committed mutiny against Admiral Holdo, he had done it for the good of the Resistance. At the time, he had believed he was doing the right thing. She had died before he could tell her he had been wrong about her. He wouldn't make that mistake again.

Ben had been the Supreme Leader of the First Order. Poe had watched Ren kill the people Poe cared for and respected. He had been tortured by him. At the time, there was no reason to trust that Rey was telling the truth about Ren. What Poe did, he had done for the good of the galaxy, or so he had believed. But the guilt he felt now was deserved. He knew what he would have to do after this was over, after Ben pulled this off, but that was the least of his concerns now. First, they had to win this war. Ben Solo was their only hope.

"Everyone fall back," Poe reluctantly announced into the comms. Incredulous voices overwhelmed his cockpit.

"General, we have gone too far to give up now," his commander reasoned.

"We are not giving up," he said. "We have an ally on the inside. He's going to bring the deflector shields down. We just need to buy him some time." This was the most difficult part of being a leader. He had no benefit of foresight. He couldn't read someone's mind to determine their intentions or wave his hand and have an imaginary energy guide him to the correct choice. All he had was gut instinct, and he had to trust in that. Every single one of their lives was in his hands. All he could do was hope he made the right decision as he watched the fleet retreat out of the Finalizer's firing range. He had trusted Han Solo to save them all before; now he had to trust his son.

"I hope you know what you're doing, Solo," he whispered.