The Light and the Dark - A Star Wars Story

Chapter 15

Poe, Alinah, and Padmé exchanged looks as they saw Rey come down the ramp. Everyone held up their blasters again, causing for Finn to try and get them to lower them. Surprisingly, Rey didn't ignite her lightsaber or do anything to defend herself. She just stood there and looked at everyone holding their weapons.

"Put down your blasters!" Finn commanded, but no one listened. "She's on our side! Trust me!"

"How do you know that, Finn?" Poe asked. "She betrayed us before and she could do it again!"

"I know because she's been going against the First Order this whole time," Finn explained. "She wasn't going to give the device to them. And now she hates the First Order because of what we've discovered on Exegol."

"What was on there?" Leia asked, lowering her blaster. "And do you have it with you?"

"Not exactly," Rey said, stepping forward. "It wasn't exactly a weapon that we found there. I'm not even sure if the whole First Order knows about it because I was unaware. Somehow... somehow Emperor Palpatine of the Empire has returned."

Whispers and gasps spread among the Resistance soldiers. Everyone looked frightened at the mention of Palpatine and no one knew how he could be alive. They all looked over at Leia, who didn't even know how to react to this news. She looked down at the ground and sighed, worried about their chances against the First Order now.

Alinah was the one to break the silence. "Then we have to take down Starkiller Base now more than ever," she said. "That way we can weaken Palpatine's chances of hurting us more. We need to get going."

"We're attacking Starkiller?" Finn asked, receiving nods from everyone. "I'll come with you. There are shields that need to be deactivated, right? I can help with that."

"And I'll come too," Rey offered.

"No you're not!" Alinah shouted with a glare. "We can't trust you to not turn on us while we're there."

"Alinah, we could use Rey there," Finn said, stepping up for her. "The two of us are deserters, just like her. Sure, she had a higher ranking, but a deserter is a deserter. And I'll keep my eye on her the whole time to make sure that she doesn't betray us. But I know she won't."

Rey gave Finn a smile before looking back at everyone else. "Just so all of you know, this doesn't mean that I'm on the light side," she said for clarification. "I'm here to take down the First Order for what they have done to me. But I will not join the Jedi or anything that has to do with them, so don't expect me to."

"Fair enough," Padmé said with a shrug. "Let's just get going to Starkiller. We have a shield to take down anyway."

"I'm not comfortable having her on our side," Alinah said, shaking her head. "But I'll deal with it for now. Only because I want to destroy that base."

Finn nodded at her. "That's all I can ask for now," he told her.

Everyone sighed and moved on to prepare for battle. All of the pilots readied their ships and got their droids inside the ship. Poe patted Finn's shoulder as they passed each other, hoping that both of them would make it back alive.

Han and Chewie were making some preparations for the Falcon. Alinah and Padmé were loading the ship with weapons and explosives. Rey and Finn were inside the ship, sparring in case of a fight ahead. Both of them knew that Kylo Ren would be there, so they had to be prepared.

"Alinah, be careful with those," Padmé warned her. "They're explosives."

Alinah looked down at the box in her hands and then gave her a look. "Now you tell me?" She said, sarcastically.