Episode 9: Nemesis of the Force Part 5

Skywalker Saga

The Shadows of the Past Trilogy

Episode 9: Nemesis of the Force Part 5

                On the Falcon, Kylo Ren jars awake.  Immediately, he notices that Rey is hovering over him, healing him with the Force via an outstretched hand on his leg.  He looks up at her, and his face has returned to its stoicism.  “What are you doing here?”  Then realizing that was a stupid question, he adds, “Why…why did you help me?  You could have left me to die on Corellia.  You’d have been better off.”

                Rey shakes her head.  “Why do you THINK I saved you?”

                He shakes his head as if disappointed in her.  Then he stands unsteadily in an effort to face her with more dignity - as well as to test his healed leg.  “Sentiment.  Snoke was right.  It’ll be your downfall.”

                She only smiles at him, and she meets his gaze.  "Come on, Jacen.  You know we’re connected.  I can’t let you die just as you can’t let me die.  That’s why you killed Snoke in the throne room on the Supremacy.”

                “No,” he says, but there is no conviction in his voice.  “I killed Snoke because the opportunity presented itself and I took it, to break free of my shackles - to be what I wanted to be.”  The last part of what he said seems to have stirred a bit of fire in him again.

                Her expression goes soft and sympathetic.  “Just let go.  Is this life really making you happy?  Was being Supreme Leader everything you really thought it was going to be?”

                Jacen breaks off and looks away.  He doesn’t answer, however, so she presses the attack.  “You’ve been betrayed, haven’t you?  Everyone you thought you ruled over tried to turn on you and kill you.  You have no one now.  You have no one except me and your mother, the two people you've been bent on killing.  Ironic, don't you think?  And there are others.  You can start over.  You can make friends.  You can have people who ACTUALLY care about you.  Don’t you want that?”

                He still doesn’t look at her.  Then he shakes his head as if the conflict in him is wearing him out.  “It…it’s too late for me.”  Then he looks up at her, tears threatening to cascade down his face.  “Once you start down the dark path, it forever dominates your destiny.”

                Rey steps up to him and places her hand on his shoulder in a comforting manner.  She smiles warmly at him.  “Now that sounds like something a Jedi would say.  Think about it.  Vader returned to the Light Side.  It’s not impossible.  It’s a decision you make, plain and simple.  You can return to the Light Side any time you want to.  You just have to decide that you’re going to stop doing what’s wrong and start doing what’s right.  And you have to stay determined.  Don’t give up just because it’s hard.”

                Their eyes continue to search one another as if seeking the truth in each other.  For a moment, there is a connection, and everything seems to disappear around them.  It is Rey who breaks away, uncomfortable all of a sudden.  She looks down at her feet and brushes a strand of hair back behind her ear.  “Yes, well…  Hopefully you won’t try to stab us in the back.  The others are very leery about bringing you aboard.”

                “That’s probably an understatement,” says Jacen.  “Chewie probably threatened to tear me apart for what I did to Solo, and…”

                “Your father, you mean?” says Rey, obviously not about to let him get away with desensitizing himself to the fact that he killed his own father.  Kylo grits his teeth at this, but he falls silent.  Again, Rey presses the advantage, though this time she is a bit more hard on him.  “Chewie, I think, is torn between wanting to strangle you and wanting to hug you and beg you to feel some remorse for what you did.  I must say that I share his feelings on this.  Half of me wants to beat you until I can’t beat you any longer, and the other half wants to…”

                “Wants to what?” he asks, and he gives her a look as if to imply something more.  “Hug me and beg me to feel some remorse?”

                Again, Rey is a bit uncomfortable, and she looks away, sighing in frustration.  “You are so…so…maddening.”  Then she seems to find the strength to lock eyes with him again.  “You had everything.  You HAD a loving mother and father and uncle.  They may not have known how to show it.  They may have not been there for you when you needed them the most.  They may not have understood how to raise you, but you HAD them.  And they LOVED you.  Your father was willing to risk everything to try to show you how much he loved you, and your mother would stand here before you and let you cut her head off if she thought it’d turn you back from the Dark Side.  And Master Luke...”

                “What?” says Jacen, himself getting upset.  “What about the Great Luke Skywalker?”

                “He made a mistake, Jacen,” she says.

                “Stop calling me that.  Jacen Solo is dead.”

                “No he’s not.  You’re so dramatic.  You are standing right here, JACEN SOLO.  You aren’t dead.  You can try to shove down who you really are until you are walking all over your true self, but he is still YOU!  This - this pathetic excuse for an evil villain isn’t YOU!  I can see it.  Your mother can see it.  Master Luke could see it.  And - and Han could see it too.  All you’re doing is acting; pretending.  It’s an ACT!  You’re desperately trying to be something you’re not.  Just stop it.  Let go of this “Kylo Ren/Darth Vader-wanna-be” persona you’re…”

                “I am NOT!” he snaps back with a ferocity that cuts her off, “I am not Jacen Solo, no matter how many times you nag me about it.”

                “Nag?  Nag?  I am not nagging you.”

                “I beg to differ.”  There is a hint of playfulness, then, in his voice, as if, just like that, he is no longer angry with her but he is enjoying riling her up.

                Rey then growls at him.  “You’re impossible.  Tell me, do you think you get that more from your mother’s side or your father’s?  Your mother told me that Han used to drive her crazy, so I’m thinking…”

                “So I drive you crazy?” he says, cutting her off again, and this time a smug grin plays across his face.  She just stands there, a bit stunned at this sudden directional change in the conversation.

                “What?  I…”

                He steps closer to her, and she backs away.  “You are right about one thing, if I am truly honest with myself,” says Jacen.  “No matter how much I try to kill Jacen Solo - his likeness to Solo and his likeness to Organa and Skywalker…and his likeness to Vader - I can’t seem to get away from him.” 

                He doesn’t stop walking towards her until she is pressed back against a wall and he is standing way too close to her.  “I’m so tired, Rey,” he says, a look of weariness in his eyes mixed with intense sadness.  “I’m so tired of constantly being in conflict.  I can’t stop serving the Dark Side.”  His teeth clench as if he is enduring such great pain.  Tears begin rolling down her eyes as she senses just how deep his pain is.  “Each time I try, it pulls me back in.  But I can’t stop serving the Light Side either.  Every time I do, it hurts.  The pain is too great.”

                He then becomes very intense and serious.  “Help me, Rey,” he says softly; pleading.  Rey continues to remain guarded, but she finds herself instinctively trembling.  She also can’t seem to take her eyes off of his, and though her hands are up on his chest as if to try to push him away, she finds herself unwilling to do so.  “Help me end my suffering.”

                Rey then finds the strength to push him away and slip to a reasonably safe distance.  She stops herself in the entranceway.  “If you’re willing to change, Jacen, I will help you.  You just have to decide whether you are really willing or whether you’re going to take the easy way out.  I can only help you if you want to be helped - if you want to take the hard road.”  She then leaves him standing there, alone, in the medical bay, a tormented look on his face.

                As Rey walks through the Falcon after leaving Jacen, Finn glances around the bend in the alcove he was standing in.  He sees Rey walking away, and he stares after her with a pained expression.  Setting his jaw in an effort to fight away his emotions, Finn turns his back and walks away, dejected.

                The scene cuts to the Barracuda.  Elyani Cordasi, the defector, slumps into a seat in the ship’s lounge.  As she does, she sees Bannick and Li enter.  “Well,” says Elyani, obviously nervous but trying to appear confident.  “That was close.”

                “Yeah,” says Li, a bit enthusiastically.  “If it wasn’t for those codes you had…”

                “Speaking of which,” says Zelia as she enters the lounge area from a different direction.  “Where’d you get them?”

                Elyani sighs, and she looks down at her hands as she plays with her fingers.  “I am one of the Empress Amelia’s chief special agents.  We have access to a lot of data.”  Zelia eyes her skeptically, but she says nothing in reply.

                “Why do you think the rest of the fleet didn’t swarm us once the Republic was gone?” Bannick asks.  It is obvious that he is also a bit suspicious of her.

                Elyani looks at them  in turn as if trying to search her brain for the answers.  “I’m not sure, really.  That doesn’t make much sense to me either.”

                Zelia continues to eye her, but then Kika’s voice is heard from somewhere deeper in the ship.  “Little help here.  Anyone?” Kika says.

                Zelia moves to answer the call.  As she goes, she adds a final comment.  “Well, maybe you can think about it and come up with a better answer later.”

                “So where are we headed?” Elyani asks Bannick just after Zelia leaves and IG-14 walks in. 

                Bannick gives her one final, suspicious look and says, “New military outpost for the Republic.  It’s on the borders of Hutt space and Hapes Consortium.  Manaan.  It’s an ocean world that actually supports a lot of industries.  Key world for the Republic right now who can use all the resources it can get.  That’s why a large portion of the fleet is rendezvousing there.”

                “So who are all of you, anyway?” asks Elyani.  “Are you all former Resistance members?”

                Bannick can’t help but chuckle a bit at that.  “We’ve done some work for them, but we’re not Resistance or Republic.  We’re mercenaries.  Li, here, used to be a pilot for the New Republic fleet, but she got kicked out for disobeying orders.”

                “Not my fault,” says Li with a wide grin.  “My superior officer was in the wrong, and I was just doing what was right.”

                “What’d you do?” asks Elyani.

                “I broke formation and single-handedly launched an attack on a convoy of ships.  I could tell they were slave traders, and they were going to get away if I had waited for my wing commander to give the signal to attack.  They were distracting him by dragging out his string of questions.  It was ridiculous.”

                “I tend to think he was on the take,” says Bannick as he grabs a drink and begins heading towards where Zelia disappeared.  “Sounds like it to me, anyway.”  He then vanishes to go off and help the girls.

                Li sits down across from Elyani, and IG-14 can be seen standing across the room behind her, just watching as if he is hoping Elyani tries something.  “Anyway…they WERE slavers.  However, the skirmish cost quite a few people their lives.  The monsters!  They used some of the slaves as shields.  But at least they didn’t get away.”

                “So they kicked you out because you stopped a bunch of slavers?” asks Elyani.  “That doesn’t seem right.”

                Li shrugs.  “It wasn’t for that.  I disobeyed orders and got in trouble.  I was kicked out for slugging my commander in the face and trying to beat the crud out of him.  He kept calling me a Mantellian Trash Rat.”  

                Elyani looks at her, confused, and Li explains.  “I’m originally from Ord Mantel, from the junkyard districts.  Lots of old scrap is dumped there.  Not a good place to grow up, and I fought hard to get out.  I wasn’t about to let some preppy, rich “paid-my-way-to-my-position” military snob call me that.”  Then she sighs sadly.  “All I ever wanted to do was be a fighter jock, like Luke Skywalker or Wedge Antilles.”

                “Oh well,” she concludes.  “I took what money I had and bought myself a Quad Jumper.  On Jakku, we had to sell it to this junk dealer named Unkar Plotz, or something like that.  It was banged up a bit after a skirmish I had with some local gangs.  Couldn’t get it off world.  I wonder what happened to it.”

                “Anyway, that’s where I met Bannick.  He was making a delivery.  I asked him if he needed a co-pilot because I needed a lift off planet and fast.  He agreed to take me on as a member of his crew.”

                “Are you two…well…an item?” asks Elyani.

                “Why?” says Li in reply.  “You like him?”

                Elyani’s eyes bug out of her head.  “No!  Oh my…I mean…I just…”

                Li laughs, having thoroughly enjoyed catching her off guard.  “Don’t worry.  I’m only kidding.  No.  I think he looks at me like a little sister.  He’s about thirty or something and I’m only like twenty-two.  I mean, it's not that that’s a big age gap or anything, but…well.”  She becomes more quiet and conspiratorial.  “I actually think he likes Zelia.”

                “What’s her story?” asks Elyani.

                “Bounty hunter,” says Li.  “She’s been one for almost a decade now, ever since she was eighteen, I believe.  She was training at some academy, learning about crafting gadgets and weapons and armor and jazz.  She received word that her family had been killed.  Big cover up.  Some Republic Senator had killed her father and kidnapped her mother and I think two siblings.  Anyway, it had something to do with her father learning the Senator was up to something and he was going to blow the whistle.  Zelia became a bounty hunter so she could track down the real culprits and bring them to justice."

                "So, you could say she has a very STRONG sense of justice.  She HATES when anyone commits a crime and gets away with it, and she hates corruption of any kind.  She also HATES lying unless it is to a bad guy.  You should see her when she gets mad about that kind of stuff.  You’d think she was a totally different person.”

                “And the Zabrak?  I’ve never seen anyone use a computer like that.”

                “Kika is also known as Mirage in the slicer world.  She’s done some pretty big hack jobs.  From what I understand, she has never found a computer she can’t hack, and that includes First Order.  But she only takes certain jobs too.  It’s like she does it for fun and to make slime balls and crime lords pay for what they’ve done to people.  She actually steals from criminals and I’ve seen her give money to all sorts of people in need.  She has a pretty big heart, and a wild and crazy side too.  What’s not to like?”

                Then Li seems to think of something and she immediately falls silent.  “What is it?” asks Elyani.

                Li shakes her head.  “Oh, it’s just - well…Kika…I mean.  I can’t really talk about some things about her.  She has some secrets that are not for me to tell.”

                Elyani seems to consider this a moment.  Kika then enters, pausing in the doorway.  She locks eyes with Li.  “Hey, we need everyone in here, please.  We need to hoist a big piece of machinery up and hold it long enough for me to squeeze under it and replace a few tubes and wires.  I…”  She then locks her gaze with Elyani, and for a second the two are unable to break away.  Kika is taken aback by this and finally shakes it off.

                Li doesn't seem to notice this strange exchange.  “Yeah?” asks Li.

                Kika tries to collect herself.  “Um…whatever,” she says.  “I forgot what I was saying.  Anyway, come on.”  Then she leaves the room.  Elyani and Li rise to follow, and IG-14 comes in behind them.

                In the bowels of the ship, Kika walks by Zelia and whispers, “That woman is not what she claims to be.  Maybe we can talk about it later.”  Zelia nods, and the group gets to work.