[THE DAY BEFORE]

The Tau politician yawned. She was in her night robes and was ready to sleep. Today was a busy day. She never expected Luke Skywalker would come back to Inimoni. But instead of praising all the wonderful things they did for the Jedi, Luke was angry. He demanded that they discuss those ancient kyber crystal relics. What for? They’re useless! The Tau politician starts to doze off. But after a moment, something strange wakes her up.

She sees nothing unusual in her room. But there is a presence. She gets up, and feels a plasma knife pointed behind her back. A voice whispers to her, “We have your daughter. Scream or alert anyone in any way, and we will kill her.”

“W-who are you?” the politician whimpers.

“Not important. Just comply with what we say.” He shows her a hologram, and she sees her daughter bound with many others. She shivers. The voice continues, “Tell Luke Skywalker that the crystal’s been found. And we’ll instruct you on what to do from there.”

[BACK TO PRESENT TIME]

ON a cloaked First Order ship traveling through Nissidha, a troupe of phantom assassins appears. They walk over to Serei and Hailden, who are out of armor. Hailden unsheathes his wings, and Serei whips her scorpion-like tail.

One assassin speaks, “We have infiltrated their ranks and taken hostage the loved ones of many key figures. These are the ones we must puppet, as they have the weakest wills and will surely submit to us. Both Tau and Skor needed to be manipulated in order to ensure our operation proceds in secrecy. By our calculations, we have secured the perfect places to hide the hostages.”

“Then the plan is nearly complete,” Hailden says. “Carry out the final acts.” The assassin nods, and after the ship passes through a shadow, the troupe disappears in the blink of an eye.

Serei breathes a sign of relief. “I can never get used to that. Those are some creepy dudes.”

Hailden walks over to a hologram scanner of the environment around them. Nissidha. A place he knew like the back of his hand.

Serei notices what her friend is doing, and says, “These tunnels were cozier the last time I saw them.”

“They’ve changed much since we were children,” Hailden replies.

“They were good for hiding after stealing some food.”

“Hiding from Skor isn’t that hard,” Hailden quips.

“Harder than hiding from Tau. If I hadn’t bumped into you, I would’ve thought all Tau sucked at looking for things,” Serei quips back. Hailden smirks.

Serei walks towards a device, waves her hand next to it, and a spiky fruit materializes in her hand. She takes a bite and says, “Kylo didn’t even hesitate to use your idea.”

Hailden responds, “He trusts that we know this planet well. He knows I’ve been preparing for this my whole life. Ever since my father cleverly stole that crystal from the Resepi, in the hopes of creating his superweapon, I’ve spent years looking for the other one.”

“Yeah, sorry again on behalf of all Skor for catching and executing him.”

“If only they just listened to what he had to say. I put myself in danger for hiding the crystal inside of my soul. But I knew that one day, I would create the Aquillian. I would use it to end wars, and fulfill my father’s dream.” He pauses. “Just like what that girl did with the orb.”

Serei takes another bite of the spiky fruit, and slowly nods while raising a brow. “Whatever you say,” she says.

ON another cloaked First Order ship, Kylo Ren sits nearly motionless on a daunting throne. Hux stands below him, supervising the team of ship operators. A troupe of assassins appears behind them.

“Supreme leader,” one of them rasps, “The trap is set.”

“Good,” Kylo says in a low voice, “Now all we need to do is to lure her in. Do it.” The assassins disappear.

Hux turns to Kylo, “Supreme leader, reports say that there may be a few missteps in our plan. Shall we prepare plan B? Our troops have only been ordered to lure the girl into the Resepi however they can, but have not coordinated to threaten the hostages yet.”

“Missteps? Then correct them, we don’t have time to practice plan B!” Kylo yells. “I already told you that it’s too risky to simply just ambush and capture her. We need to be sure that she has the crystal, and we need to snatch it from her. She would never tell us where it is. She’d die before that happens.”

“Perhaps if we threatened to kill the hostages, she would comply.”

“No,” Kylo firmly asserts, “Who knows how corrupted Luke’s teachings have made her. He thinks about society in the long term, choosing them over his personal attachments. And that shall be his downfall.”

“Yes, Supreme Leader. Then after we obtain the crystal, we will kill her on sight.”

“Hux, are you deaf? Stupid? I told you to stun her! She has knowledge of the Jedi texts. They will prove useful to us.”

“But Supreme Leader, isn’t-”

“DON’T QUESTION ME,” Kylo booms.

“Yes, Supreme Leader. I apologize for stepping out of line.” Hux turns away from him. After he does, his expression changes to annoyance and hatred for Kylo Ren.

BURSTS of cheers and celebrations ring throughout the streets. In a floating city filled with emerald streaks, Rey and Luke sit in a landcruiser as it follows several other military vehicles through a crowd. Though it is a Tau city, droves of Skor are being transported in, and Tau, hunching down and depressed, and being transported out.

“Let us cheer for our new savior, Rey!”

“We’ll return this city’s atmosphere to its Skor roots!”

But when they see Luke, they start booing again. Rey shoots them a dirty look and they stop, going back to cheering. Rey looks at Luke. He appears to be somewhat happy, but is mostly despondent.

Next to her is Yamados. Yamados whispers to Rey, “Never in a million years would I think the war would be ended in a single day, by a single girl.” Rey smiles, and says, “But I’m not done here just yet. I have to get that kyber crystal.” Yamados nods. He tells her, “Since it is an expedition, not a combat mission, I presume you’ll be leaving your starfighters with us, too?”

“Yes.” She thinks back to Litha, who she told to stay in the Osprey and hide. She can’t risk any spies finding the young girl. “But leave the Osprey alone.”

“I’ll take good care of everything.”

A COLOSSAL Tau carrier ship flies towards Nissidha, followed by a battalion of Tau and Skor ships. The Tau and Skor are reluctant to work with one another. But since both sides have advantages in their own technology, Rey has ordered them to both follow her in the expedition.

“Hey,” Luke talks to Rey through the soul instrument, “You sense that?”

“I know. Nissidha is a sacred expanse.”

Luke grins. “You’re getting better at this, kid.”

Upon reaching the tunnels of Nissidha, a Tau guide tells Rey, “This is where the Resepi lie. The crystal is far past these boundaries. If you are to retrieve it, you must use your other twin kyber crystal to ward the swarms away, lest you be snatched away and drained of your life force.”

Luke nods to Rey, who signals a hand sign to BB-8. But just then, Rey notices something suspicious. She tells BB-8 to stand down for now.

The Tau guides look at her with nervousness. “Is something wrong?”

“Yes,” she replies, “Something is. I read a poem in the Jedi texts about how heroes of the past retrieved the crystal from its birth place. It was not given to them willingly. Every event I’ve encountered so far has a mirrored counterpart in the poem. But not this part.”

“T-that is just a book! Surely you cannot adhere to it so dogmatically!”

Rey senses the nervousness in the guide’s voice. She looks around her. Shutting off the distractions, she focuses on the subtle details. The fidgeting of the guides. The contradictions they didn’t address. Something about this seems... too easy. She looks towards Luke, who picks up on her distress and begins to become suspicious, too. And then it dawns on her. She signals to BB-8 to call it off.

“I can’t take the crystal out.”

“Why not?” a guide asks with great fear and panic.

“Because I know this is a trap.”

She turns around, and points, “There!” Rey shoots her hand out and uses the Force to push an invisible phantom hiding in thin air, but it manages to break her grip and maneuver into a fighting stance. Luke and Rey draw out their lightsabers and, with their backs facing one another, counter the shards of light hurled towards them. The Tau soldiers who aren’t threatened with hostages fight back. Outside the ship, Tau and Skor fighters attempt to attack incoming First Order ships, slowing them down from getting to the main carrier, but are quickly outnumbered and massacred.

The duo find a place to hide. Rey pushes on a transmitter, “Yamados, we were set up! We need back up! Send the pulse to disable the transmitters!”

“It’d take a while, you have to give us time!” Yamados shouts back.

In the ensuring battle, Luke and Rey take out several phantom assassins. As Rey catches her breath, she hears Luke shout, “How did the First Order know we’re here?” He eyes Rey with suspicion. Then, the truth dawns on him too. He whispers to her, “You weren’t led here by the Jedi texts.”

Suddenly, after all the assassins are taken out, someone begins to board the ship. After many soldiers step through, the smoke clears, and Rey’s heart begins to ache. Standing before her is Kylo Ren, without his mask. He looks at Rey, and they lock eyes. She is in disbelief. He’s trying to fight a storm within him. But then, with as much conviction as he can, he tells her, “You knew, deep down, this was the only way.”

A flood of hatred and betrayal rushes in, and something is broken inside of her. Unable to take it anymore, she yells, “The only way? After all we saw together, how could you still do this?”

Now, Luke steps in. Upon seeing him, Kylo starts barking, “Fire on that man!” But Luke stops the blasters, and force pushes the soldiers out of the way. Kylo retaliates, but is pushed back and locked in place. His soldiers are locked in place too.

A stern disappointment grows over Luke, whose hand is still extended. Without looking at Rey, he says, “You never learned.” Rey whispers back, “It was different this time. I saw something else. He’s hurting inside. But he said he wanted to change. I had to help!”

“He’s a lost cause!”

Just then, Kylo and his soldiers manage to break out of the grip. His soldiers fire at Luke and Rey, who stop their blasts in the air, and Luke locks the soldiers in place again. But before they can parry the blasts away, Kylo force pushes against the duo, and they’re all locked in a stalement. He hovers his free hand over a transmitter next to his ear. “Not another move. Or else the hostages will die.”

“Hostages?” Luke simmers, and barks back, “Kid, you’re in for it now.”

“Give me the crystal,” Kylo demands, “You have 10 seconds.”

As Kylo counts down, Luke side eyes Rey. “Don’t. I sense he knows where the other crystal is. He’ll have both and the Resistance won’t stand a chance.”

Rey stares at Kylo. Five. Four. She shuts her eyes. Yamados, she thinks to herself. Please hurry. Three. Two. Kylo finally pushes down on his transmitter and yells, “Kill them!” Rey cries out, “I’ll-” But she stops; there is no response from the transmitter. Sensing the opportunity, Rey shouts at BB-8, “Shut off the lights!” BB-8, who has been hiding, turns off the ship’s lights, and suddenly the frozen blaster shots ring out and hit the walls in all directions. The soldiers turn on their night vision. In the darkness, a red lightsaber with a cross guard is ignited. And then, blue and green lightsabers blaze out and start slashing down the soldiers.

Just then, a huge blast fires upon the ship, and it’s torn apart. The soldiers fly out and the three Force warriors try to use the Force to hold on. BB-8 holds on with a cable and screams as it dangles in the air. Rey sees the massive world of Nissidha around her. It is cold and looming, and it sends chills down her spine. In the nick of time, the Myriori Osprey and X-wing, boarded by R2, approach the crashing ship, and Luke, Rey and BB-8 let go, jump onto their ships, and fly away. Just as the ship is about to crash, a Tie fighter approaches and Kylo jumps onto it, entering the cockpit. He follows the X-wing, but is met with a wall of Tau fighters, which severely hinder his pursuit. Two First Order fighters are on the Osprey’s tail.

Inside of the Osprey, Rey, followed by BB-8, sees Yamados. He’s piloting the ship, and Rey takes over, making him go down to the gunner seat right next to her. “Nice going with the transmitters,” he says, “The First Order can’t coordinate with each other now, but since Inimoni transmitters rely on a different frequency, we’re good to go.”

“I told you not to touch the Osprey!”

Rey maneuvers the Osprey in a spin to avoid First Order blasts, and Yamados shoots down one First Order ship. He yells out, “It just started moving on its own! I went in to investigate, and the next moment it started flying! I didn’t have time to get off, so I piloted it to you.”

“How did you know how to operate this thing?” Rey asks. Yamados looks worried, and hesitates to reply. Then, Rey feels a tug on her robe. She looks towards it and sees Litha.

“You brought her along?” Rey yells, angry.

“I didn’t know anyone was in here!”

Rey softly says to Litha, “You heard the commotion and got scared? You were tinkering with the Osprey’s auto-pilot and looking for a way to escape?” Litha nods. While still piloting, Rey hugs her with her free hand. “BB-8,” she orders, “Keep her safe.” BB-8 whirls and extends a robot rod out towards Litha. The girl grips onto BB-8, and is led away.

Yamados says, “We’ve discovered the First Order is keeping hostages, and we located that they’re in our compromised caravan ships. The good news is that we have instruments which send out electromagnetic pulses that will knock out any foreigners who are on Inimoni ships.” He takes down another First Order fighter. “We gave one to that droid in the X-wing.”

“That’s... oddly specific. Inimoni has a lot of secret tech.”

“It was built to keep foreign thieves away. Tau and Skor have immunities to the pulse. Once the soliders are knocked out, we’ll board the ships and rescue the hostages. Our soldiers will take care of the caravans outside Nissidha, and we’ll deal with the ones here.”

Rey relays the information to Luke, and they rush to save the hostages. A caravan is spotted. They are closely tailed by First Order ships. The Tau coordinate among themselves.

“This is Concave Leader. Report in.”

“Tenth ellipse standing by.”

“Fourth sphere standing by.”

“Fourth conic standing by.”

“Eighth sphere standing by.”

They continue their coordination. Concave Leader says, “Our weapons have been weakened. But our ships are still just as fast and adept. Do not let them fire a shot at that X-wing.”

Luke hears this and says, “Tau, this is a suicide mission. You’ll be acting as living shields!”

“We have to save those hostages!”

A sinking feeling seeps into Rey. “I’m sorry,” she whispers. Yamados overhears her, and says, “Don’t worry about that now.”

A squadron of First Order ships charge at them as they approach the caravan. They fire at the X-wing, which dodges and fires back, hitting several. But from behind, one of them surprises Luke. It fires at him, and a Tau ship flies in between them.

“I’m hit!” Fourth sphere says.

“You gotta get out of there!” Luke shouts as his X-wing rushes towards the caravan. But more First Order ships approach. Rey throws the Osprey towards Luke’s direction, yet she is too far away. Another First Order ship sneaks up and fires at the X-wing, and Fourth sphere again.

“It’s got me, it’s got-” Fourth sphere explodes.

A barrage of fire rains down on the X-wing. Just when it looks about it’s about to be the end for it, Luke hears a distorted, yet familiar, voice. “Use the Force, Luke.” He can’t tell if it’s his imagination or not. But it imbues him with the confidence to outmaneuver the rain of fire. The X-wing pushes through and a huge pulse is emitted, rattling the caravan and knocking out the First Order officers before they can process what hit them. A Tau ship approaches the caravan. “We’ll take it from here.”

Luke closes his eyes and mourns. He charges his X-wing towards the next caravan. But it’s being pulled away, and is approaching the boundaries of the tunnel, towards a portal that leads to the Resepi.

Luke says, “If those caravans get out of the tunnel, we’ll have no choice but to use the crystal to get it out. They’re trying to lure us in; we have to hurry!”

Working together, the squadron manages to save the caravan before it falls in. Then, from the corner of her eye, Rey spots another caravan, breaks away from the pack, flying towards it. First Order starfighters follow suit and tail her. Just as they’re about to fire on the Osprey, they’re hit by multiple blasts.

“This is the Skor captain of the Vector bridage. Report in.”

“Red prism standing by.”

“Blue diamond standing by.”

“Red pentagon standing by.”

The Skor ships surround the Osprey, acting as its guards. The captain says, “The Tau took all the good flying parts for themselves, but now we’ve got the better weapons. Let’s show those Tau bastards how it’s done.”

Luke hears the transmission, and says, “Vector Leader, this isn’t a competition. Work together with the Tau.”

“Negative. They’ll only get in our way.”

“You HAVE to synthesize.”

Luke is ignored. Rey asks Yamados, “Syntheize?”

He replies, “In ancient times, Skor and Tau starfighters were originally a stronger whole. I don’t think we’d be seeing that any time soon.”

Now Rey remembers Drunev’s words: if they were to synthesize, their capabilities would be stored. But she doesn’t have time to think; the Osprey is bombarded by lasers. The Tau stick to protecting Luke, while the Skor adhere to Rey. With their disadvantage in power, their ships are outmatched and gunned down like expendable prey. Luke and Rey push through as fast as they can, trying to stop as many the ships from sacrificing themselves.

They manage to save nearly all the caravans. There is only one left, and Rey spots it. But just before she can get close enough to it to send out the pulse, she hears a worrisome voice on the transmitter, “The First Order has gotten their transmitters back up! They’re telling the caravan guards to kill the hostages if anyone gets any closer! They want her to give up the crystal!”

Luke yells out, “Rey, back out! You won’t get close enough in time!”

Rey is at a loss now. But a fire stirs inside of her as she looks inside of herself, runs the calculations, and realizes her master is wrong.

“I can get there,” she says. Luke shouts back, “Don’t be reckless!”

Rey looks at Yamados, who says, “I saw you with the orb. I trust in you.”

The Osprey charges straight into the First Order brigade. They fire upon her, destroying nearly all of her Skor guards. And then, one of them hits the main shield. It penetrates through, blasting into the gunner’s seat. Rey hears a harrowing scream.

“YAMADOS!” she cries out. But she can do nothing about it. His body is knocked out of the seat and is motionless. Blood streams down from his temple and all the way down through the tips of his fingers. The Osprey begins to heal itself, sealing off the hole. Rey shuts her eyes in mourning. “BB-8,” she orders, “Pilot.” She reaches for the gunner seat, and grasps the pulsating instrument.

The Osprey accelerates faster and faster towards the caravan. Upon seeing the sight, the First Order guards nod to one another, and ready their blasters.

An overwhelming pressure starts to crush Rey inside. She thinks back to Drunev. She must have given her life protecting her neighbors. Both the Tau and Skor have given their lives to protect their own people. Rey thinks back to Litha, whom she prays is in a safe place on this ship. She can’t let her die. Though the Osprey is still much too far away for the pulse to reach, Rey realizes that it’s now or never. She activates the pulse.

A jarring boom blasts out, but as it expands more and more outwards, it begins to die down. But Rey won’t give up. She reaches further and further down into the instrument, holding her eyes shut, trying to reach down into it just like she did with the orb. And then, with every inch of her power, she feels the pulse accelerating again. She cries out one last time, and throws the pulse outwards with all her might. It waves through with an immense strength and is pushed out farther, much farther that it should have gone, and pierces the final caravan.