↣ chapter twenty seven

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We all stand near the entrance and watch my uncle. "It's Kylo Ren. Luke's facing him alone," Poe says lowering his quadnoculars.

"Well, we should help him. Let's go," Finn says.

I stop him. "No, wait. Wait." We watch as Luke and Kylo ignite their sabers. "He's doing this for a reason. He's stalling so we can escape," I realize.

"Escape?" Finn deadpans. "He's one man against an army. We have to help him, we have to fight."

"No, no. We are the spark that'll light the fire that will burn the First Order down," I quote Holdo. "My uncle is doing this so we can survive."

"There's gotta be a way outta this mine!" Poe turns. He gestured to Luke. "Hell, how did he get in here?"

"It is possible that a natural unmapped opening exists. But this facility is such a maze of endless tunnels that the odds of finding an exit are 15,428..." C-3PO begins.

"Shh. Shh! Shut up!" Poe outbursts.

"To one," Threepio finishes his sentence.

"Listen," I say.

"My audio sensors no longer detect the..." Threepio starts before I cut him off.

"Exactly."

"Where'd the crystal critters go?" Finn asks.

A vulptex whimpers in front of us. I watch it scamper off. "Follow me," I say to the people behind me.

Everyone turns to Mom. "What are you lookin' at me for? Follow them," she gestures to Poe and I.

Poe grabs my hand and we lead the group towards the vulptex. We follow it to a cave. "This way!" Poe says when we reach a fork in the road. We continue behind the lone vulptex.

We run through the tunnel and are met with a wall of boulders. The creature squeezes between a few of the rocks.

"No. No, no, no, no, no!" I run towards the place where the creature went through. I look through to see a small opening.

"Move," I order Poe. The two of us climb off of the pile of boulders. I take a deep breath and hold my hand out. I channel the Force and begin to lift the rocks.

I open my eyes and see Rey holding the rocks up also. We all run out of the cave. The rocks move and Finn meets Rey in a hug.

I smile. Poe wraps his arms around me and kisses my temple. I look up at him and kiss his jawline. He leans down and we kiss each other.

"I love you, Cosmo," he says when we part. "I'm proud of you."

"Thanks, Flyboy," I say.

Everyone climbs the side of the cliff towards the Falcon. The pilots run in, leaving Rey, my mother and I outside.

We all give each other a knowing look. We all feel Luke's connection with us as it grows weaker.

We feel him die. Mom and I hold onto each other. We quietly sob into each other. "He's gone," I whisper.

"Not forever," Mom says.

We all walk into the ship. The ramp closes behind us and I run to find Poe. I find him hugging our crew.

Poe walks over to Rey. I lean against the side of the ship and smile as they converse.

"I'm Poe," he sticks out his arm.

"Rey," she shakes his outstretched hand.

"I know," Poe smiles. She smiles back. I feel something bump the back of my legs. I look down to see my familiar black and white astromech.

"Hey, Dee Gee!" I crouch down to her level. She beeps. "I know. I didn't mean to scare ya. I'm sorry. Hey, I'm okay though. All right, all right, I'll have a medic check up on me." I chuckle at my droid's concern.

Poe walks over to me. I stand and he grabs me by the waist. "Have I ever told you how much I love you?"

"I think you've told me, but I can't remember," I smile.

"Well, then. To refresh your memory, I love you more than the stars." He places a kiss to my lips.

"That's a lot," I say as we part.

"If only words could describe it," he replies. He kisses me once more.

"You're amazing, you know that?"

"So I've been told," he smirks. I roll my eyes.

"I'm gonna go check on Rey."

"Ok. Don't be too long, I miss you already," he calls behind me as I walk towards the girl.

I turn and smile at him. I continue towards Rey. "Hey. You alright?"

She looks up from the broken saber. "Yeah. Are you?"

"Yeah." I smile at her, "So, you're a pretty big deal now. I applaud it. I could never channel the Force the way you can."

"You lifted those boulders with me. Of course you can channel the Force. You just have to believe in yourself first," she says.

"If I decide I want to become Jedi, I'll make sure to come to you, alright?" I say.

She nods. "You and Poe, huh?" She looks behind me at him.

I turn to where she looks. "Yeah," I say. "He's pretty amazing."

"He seems sweet," she says.

"Oh, he is. Once you get past his hard, cocky, badass outside, he's the sweetest guy you'll ever meet," I smile as I speak about my fiancé.

Poe looks at me and smiles. "I'll let you go back over there. I can see you want to," Rey says.

"If you need anything, Poe and I are here to try and help you out." I stand, "You're a great girl, Rey."

"So are you, Maya," she smiles.

I walk back to my impatient fiancé. "Is there somewhere private on this ship?"

I roll my eyes as I shake my head. "You're worse than a teenager you know that right?"

"I know," he smiles and picks me up.

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