Star Wars: Episode X - The Rescue Mission

Chapter Three: Plans

After landing at the Resistance base, General Poe Dameron climbed out of his X-wing while BB-8 was lowered to the ground. It couldn't really be called the Republic base yet; the First Order was still controlling and harassing as many systems as it could, so the bigwigs on Coruscant were having trouble forming much of a government. The Resistance might have defeated the Final Order fleet and the Sith Eternal, but the First Order still had almost as many ships and weapons as they had before the Battle of Exegol, which was a lot.

A few planets had been liberated by the kind of cobbled-together forces which had saved the day at Exegol, forces made up of all sorts of ships and people. Those people had been too afraid of running afoul of the First Order's might—and its hyperspace tracking capabilities—to fight at Crait and afterwards. Ironically, the much greater threat of the Final Order had been what roused them to fight, because if that fleet had gotten out in the galaxy, there would have been nothing anyone could do to oppose the despotism of the Emperor and his forces after that. But there were still too many First Order forces out there...and the Star Destroyer Derriphan, with its planet-destroying capabilities.

Poe was exceptionally grateful that Zorii and Babu had gotten off Kijimi when they had. Zorii had told him that after hearing his report about the Final Order, she knew she had to get off the planet and join the Resistance as soon as possible. She and Babu had been able to get out without the First Order medallion, because the hyperlane blockades were outside the colonies, not backwater Kijimi, and the two of them were only heading for a smuggler's outpost. The outpost had been all abuzz with Lando's news and call to arms. From there, she'd followed the directions to Exegol.

Zorii had some connections which the Resistance hoped would be useful, but Poe had returned to Ajan Kloss because the last lead had gone nowhere. BB-8 was beeping a cheerful hello to Finn, but Poe felt only deep dejection. In the distance, he heard the distinctive whine of the Millennium Falcon. Rey was back from wherever it was she'd gone. He pulled out his communicator and signaled the Falcon. When Rey answered, he told her to meet him and Finn in the command center. To his surprise, she said she needed to talk to the two of them as well.

After calling out to Finn to follow him, Poe headed to the command center, BB-8 on his heels. It wasn't long before Rey joined them, carrying one of her sacred Jedi texts. After giving her a friendly squeeze on the shoulder, he got down to business. "Rey, Finn—is there any way you can use the Force to help us find the Derriphan? The longer that ship is out there, the more nervous I get." He slapped the table next to him. "We defeated hundreds of those cursed ships at Exegol, but this one may be harder to get rid of than all the rest, and as long as it's still out there, the war will not end and the First Order will have the ultimate trump card." He ran his hand through his hair. "Zorii's latest possible lead didn't pan out."

Rey spoke up quickly. "I have something to tell the both of you, which you may or may not believe, but it could change everything—even the threat from the Derriphan."

Poe and and Finn unleashed a simultaneous "What!?"

Rey faced Finn. "Finn, the reason I left a second time the other day was because I went to Ahch-To. I had a dream—a dream that was more like a vision—that Ben was there. Of course, he was dead, so I didn't think it meant anything. Then the spirit of Anakin Skywalker appeared to me and told me Ben wasn't dead."

Another simultaneous "What!?"

Rey held up a hand. "I know, I know. I told you all about Ben's death, and I was just as surprised as you are. It turns out that there's a...a place, a dimension called the World Between Worlds. It's in my Jedi texts, see?" She opened her ancient book and showed them a diagram. "Threepio translated all these books for me, but I didn't pay too much attention to this because no one had any proof of its existence, only myths, and I needed to concentrate on more practical matters at the time."