REY finally stopped running, deep in the forest. She didn’t know why she had been running for so long; she had just felt the need. Now all she felt was exhaustion.

Announcing himself with a beep, BB-8 rolled toward her. She blinked. Was she seeing things again? Had he really followed her all that way?

The astromech unit chirped a question of his own. He wanted to know where she intended they go. They? Just because the two of them had traveled together in the past, it didn’t mean they would do so in the future. Finn had reminded her of that.

But despite her pleas, the little droid refused to leave her. He would go wherever she went, to Jakku and back again if that’s what she wanted.

“No. You have to go back to them,” she said. “You’re important. Much more than I am. They’ll help you fulfill your mission, more than I ever could.”

The skies rumbled. Through a break in the treetops, she glimpsed a squadron of warships descending in the direction of Maz’s castle. An insignia of a saw-toothed circle inside a red square was emblazoned on all the craft.

The First Order had found them.

Rey sprinted toward the castle. She couldn’t leave Han Solo or Chewbacca to a First Order firing squad. Solo had offered her a job as part of his crew. She would show him that he was right to place trust in her loyalty.

Emerging atop a hill overlooking the castle, she saw she was too late. TIE fighters flew patterns around the fortress, leveling it with laser cannons. Stormtroopers leapt out of transports to secure what remained and shoot what still moved.

Rey went around the forest’s edge to see if she could sneak into the castle from the rear. A shuttle coming in to land prevented that. Out from its hatch disembarked a cloaked figure in a metal mask.

The same figure she had seen in her vision under the castle.

Blaster shots rang out, setting the trees on fire around her. A stormtrooper squad had seen her. She ducked behind a tree, returning fire with her pistol—or she had hoped to. It wasn’t until she flipped the safety that something other than a click-click issued from the blaster. Her first real round of shots did its job, nailing two troopers and forcing the squad to fall back.

Rey also fell back into the brush for more cover. “Keep going, stay out of sight,” she said to a concerned BB-8. “I’ll fight ’em off.”

The droid complied with her command this time and sped ahead into the woods. Rey continued at a slower pace, blaster ready.

Without warning or sound, the man in the mask strode out from the darkness of the forest. How he had managed to get in front of her, she could hardly guess. But she didn’t have to guess his purpose. He ignited the long red blade of his lightsaber. Perpendicular to its hilt, two licks of laser-flame formed a fiery guard that would pose a danger to the wielder’s hand, unless the wielder had complete mastery of the weapon.

Rey fired her blaster.

His lightsaber flew up and batted away every shot she took.

She kept pulling the trigger. There was nothing else she could do. He deflected her bolts, then reached out with his palm.

All her limbs cramped. She was incapable of physical movement. Not her legs, not her arms, not her fingers. It was even hard to breathe.

The man stalked toward her. His voice, filtered through the mask, mocked her. “You would kill me, knowing nothing about me?”

Rey’s tongue remained mobile. “Why wouldn’t I kill you? I know about the First Order.”

He circled her. “So afraid, yet I am the one who should be scared. You shot first. You speak of the Order as if it were barbaric. Yet, it is I who was forced to defend myself against you.”

He stepped close to her, raising his blade to cast its fiery light on her flesh. “Something. There is something.” He stared at her through his visor. “Who are you?”

Though her tongue and lips could move, Rey didn’t let them. She wouldn’t tell him anything.

The masked man deactivated his lightsaber and hung it on his belt. His gloved hand grazed her temple and cheeks. She shifted her eyes so she wouldn’t have to look at him.

She could still feel him. His presence tickled her mind. Phantom tendrils slithered through her thoughts. Memories of her youth flashed before her like data on a readout.

He sounded disappointed. “Is it true, then? You’re nothing special after all? You’re just a Jakku scavenger?”

Rey pursed her lips. His tendrils continued to worm around her mind—beginning to burrow deeper, as if their tips were scalpels. The more she tried to push back, the sharper the tendrils became.

They wrapped themselves around an image of Finn she held in her mind’s eye. “You’ve met the traitor who served under me. You’ve even begun to care for him.”

She struggled, trying to recollect anything, anyone else. Then she realized that gave him the access he wanted. “You’ve seen it—the map!”

Her mind thrashed as his phantom tendrils dug into her memories like claws. Mercifully, she blanked into unconsciousness.

When they got above ground, Maz’s order to Finn was simple. “Find the girl and the droid.”

Finn glanced at the rubble that surrounded them. He’d lost his blaster in their escape from the castle. “I need a weapon.”

Maz seized his wrist. “You have one.”

He activated the blade. It hummed in his hand, bearing little weight. When he swished it through the air, it felt like an extension of his arm. A deadly extension.

Its bright blue beam also alerted an enemy squad. Stormtroopers began blasting at them.

Han and Chewbacca dove for cover and shot back. Three stormtroopers emerged behind them, aiming at the unaware duo. Finn did the only thing he could think of to save the pair. He rushed the troopers.

The troopers were as startled as Finn when he sliced through armor, bone, and flesh. Two he cut down immediately. The third trooper dropped his rifle and brandished a melee weapon of his own, a riot control baton that crackled with blue electricity. Finn swung at him, but the trooper ducked and shoved Finn backward, off his feet. The trooper had raised his baton to finish Finn when a blaster bolt finished the trooper instead.

The shooter was none other than Han Solo. The old smuggler and the Wookiee ran over to Finn.

“You okay?” Han asked, giving him a hand up.

Finn picked up his lightsaber, which had retracted when he’d fallen. “I’m okay, yeah. Thanks.”

How much longer he’d stay okay was the real question. Stormtrooper reinforcements arrived to circle them, outnumbering them more than three to one. “Drop the weapons—now!” the trooper shouted.

Han and Chewbacca did as ordered. Finn let go of his lightsaber reluctantly. A trooper stepped forward and retrieved it.

His two companions murmured and growled about what to do next. There wasn’t anything to be done when a second squad approached. They were all captives of the First Order and would probably never see the stars again.

Finn took a final look at the sky to see stars streaking down at him.

Not stars—X-wings.

A squadron of them swooped over the lake, cannons firing at any First Order ships that dared engage. Most of the TIEs were parked around the remains of the castle, not expecting a surprise attack. The TIE fighters became what they’d turned the castle into—smoking ruins.

“It’s the Resistance!” Han cheered.

Everyone, captors and captives alike, scrambled for cover. White armor marked easy targets for the X-wings. Stormtroopers fell in large numbers.

Finn went for a dropped rifle, then decided against it. He wanted the weapon Maz had given him. He recovered the lightsaber from a fallen stormtrooper.

The lead X-wing, black with orange racing stripes, veered around to strafe the remaining stormtroopers and TIEs. “That’s one heckuva pilot,” Finn said to himself.

Finn glimpsed a figure marching out of the forest toward a waiting shuttle. He wore a cloak and mask, and seemed unconcerned about the stormtroopers dying around him.

Kylo Ren.

He carried in his arms a pale young woman.

“Rey!”

Finn dashed toward the shuttle. Enemy fire laced all around him. “No, no, no…Rey—Rey!”

His shouts were lost in the boom of liftoff. The First Order shuttle and a few other undamaged craft rocketed toward the atmosphere.

Finn was fighting tears when he returned to the castle and found Han. “He took her,” Finn said. “Did you see that? She’s gone. Rey’s gone!”

Han pushed past Finn. “Get out of my way.”

Finn halted, stunned. A few meters away, he heard Maz speaking softly to BB-8. “Yes, they have Rey now,” she said. The droid beeped. “I know. But we can’t give up hope. Share what you have with your people. They need you.”

The droid rolled off obediently. Maz walked over to Finn. “Looks like I’ve got some cleaning up to do, hmmm?” She stared at him through her goggles and smiled. “Oh. Wow.”

“What?” Finn asked.

“I see something else now,” she said. “Now I see the eyes of a warrior.”

His son had played a part in the attack. Their son.

His heart on the verge of breaking, Han stood amid the wreckage of battle and looked upon a woman he hadn’t seen in a long time. She disembarked from the Resistance transport that had landed near the castle. The plain jumpsuit she had on was a far cry from the royal robes she’d worn when he’d first laid eyes on her, in a Death Star corridor, decades before. Her brown hair had turned gray, and while it was still braided, it lacked the finesse of her youth.

She walked toward Han, her regal posture undiminished. Her protocol droid, golden once, now a blemished bronze except for one transplanted red arm, bumbled beside her. His official designation was C-3PO, though Han had plenty of other names for him. History had accorded the woman many names and titles, from princess of Alderaan to leader of the Resistance, but to Han she was simply Leia. His wife.

BB-8 rolled away with C-3PO for a droid debriefing. Han had learned that it was C-3PO who had discovered their location on Takodana. An ordinary GA servant droid in Maz’s castle was part of a Resistance spy network and had transmitted to C-3PO that BB-8 was there. Which meant Han owed his life to old Goldenrod, though he’d never admit it.

Once the droids were gone, husband and wife shared a moment together, alone.

“You changed your hair,” Han said.

She raised an eye at his outfit. “Same jacket.”

“No. New jacket.”

Their peace was short-lived. Striding toward them, Chewbacca burst out with an elated roar and enveloped Leia in his arms. His grunts and wroofs made her smile. Satisfied, the Wookiee boarded the transport.

The two followed the Wookiee’s example and embraced. Han could hardly remember the last time he’d held Leia so near. He missed her. And he regretted having to ruin the moment with news of their son.

“I saw him,” Han said. “He was here.”

Leia closed her eyes but did not seem surprised, as if she had already known.