by Ian Doescher
I did prefer my former poverty,
Not knowing that my parents had the wealth
Of parentage and ancestry to boast.
Fie! This unask’d-for affluence doth reek.
Perturbing birthright, legacy of filth,
As if the drops of Palpatine’s rank blood
Let loose within my veins were naught but bile,
Polluting any good with utter hate.
And Kylo Ren, what shall I do with him?
The words he spoke—that we a dyad are—
Is’t possible he may be credited?
Ne’er did I hope to join our two accounts,
E’en when his offer is the galaxy.
Rey is not Ren, yet what shall Rey then be?
Eventually, riches come to naught—
Vain is the hope that rests on pedigree.
I must not take the path of th’Emperor—
Let me not on such borrow’d wealth rely.
Endow’d with Jedi wisdom, peace, and strength,
Depend on this: I’ll pay to each their due.
Enter POE DAMERON and CHEWBACCA aside, in the cockpit.
POE
They follow not, which turneth my heart cold:
Insufferable gloom pervades my spir’t.
CHEWBAC.
Egh, egh.4
POE
—The landing gear is broken? What?
What nonsense dost thou talk! To what degree?
[Calling:] Finn, Rey, can ye assist? It seemeth our
Ability to land is dubious.
Enter FINN.
FINN
Let us attempt to fix the landing gear,
That we not fail for want of softer ground.
REY
Obtaining the wayfinder is our sole
Objective; finding Exegol is all.
FINN
’Tis what we do pursue e’en now, in faith.
REY
He kill’d my mother and my father, too—
I shall find Palpatine and him destroy.
FINN
These words have not the sound of thee, sweet Rey.
Full well I know thee—
REY
—Thus do many say.
How many people lately say they know
Precisely who Rey is? I am afeard
None know who Rey is truly, in her soul.
[Rey and Finn brace themselves as the
Millennium Falcon crash-lands on Kef Bir.
Enter EMPEROR PALPATINE, in beam, and KYLO REN on balcony.
PALPATINE
Th’apprentice of the Jedi liveth yet.
Perchance thou hast betray’d me. Is it so?
Make me not turn my fleet upon thine own.
KYLO
I know where she is bound, and shall pursue.
She ne’er shall be a Jedi.
PALPATINE
—Make it so!
Be certain of thy words. Kill her at once.
[Exeunt Emperor Palpatine and Kylo Ren.
Enter C-3PO, BB-8, and D-O as they disembark
from the Millennium Falcon with REY, POE, FINN,
and CHEWBACCA. They walk to the shore and behold
remnants of the second Death Star in the water.
D-O
Say! What is that?
REY
—The Death Star, what remains.
An evil place, left o’er from war of old.
POE
If ever island were enchanted, this
Is it. An island made of steel and brick—
Look on the size of it. We shall be years
In searching for the thing we need within.
C-3PO
Dear, dear!
REY
—“ ’Tis only this blade tells.” Those words
Shall prove a clue unto our purpose true.
[Rey pulls Ochi’s dagger from her satchel.
Perhaps a point along the hilt—a-ha!
[She pulls a small extension
from the dagger’s hilt.
The blade shall tell us ev’rything, methinks.
[She scans the Death Star with the blade
until she finds a point where the shape of the
blade matches the shape of the wreckage.
We’ll find our way to the wayfinder there.
Enter JANNAH and her band of WARRIORS, riding ORBAKS.
POE
This island is a very sing’lar one—
The Death Star first, now threats at ev’ry side.
Beware, my friends, here comes a troubling band.
[Poe and Finn point their blasters
at Jannah and her crew.
JANNAH
Harsh landing, worthies.
POE
—Would a madman have
Been e’en so wise as this, to land it thus?
Still, worse I’ve seen.
JANNAH
—And better have I seen.
Are ye from the Resistance hither come?
POE
Mine answer doth depend upon yourselves.
Are ye but demons that exult in the
Damnation of your foes? Who are ye? Tell!
JANNAH
Transmission we receiv’d from someone known
As Babu Frik.
C-3PO
—One of mine oldest friends!
JANNAH
He said ye would come hither, and that you
Our final hope do represent. Is’t so?
REY
We must unto the wreckage of the base.
There’s aught within that we must needs obtain.
JANNAH
By water I can take ye thitherward.
FINN
Hast seen the water? For ’tis rough and wild.
JANNAH
Yea, presently ’tis much too dangerous.
E’en when the morning sun shall raise his car
Above the border of th’horizon, then
We may make our approach.
REY
—We cannot wait.
We’ve no time.
POE
—Nor, it seems, a choice. In the
Consideration of the faculties
And impulses that overcome our toss’d
And wearied minds, let us this respite take.
Let us unto the ship and make repairs.
[To Jannah:] Have ye spare parts?
JANNAH
—Some, aye. I’m Jannah call’d.
[All proceed to the Millennium Falcon to
work on the ship except Rey, who exits.
C-3PO
[to Poe:] A dreadful situation in th’extreme.
Is ev’ry day with thy lot similar?
’Tis madness.
POE
[to Chewbacca:] —Pray, remind me, Chewie: did
We find a way his volume to control?
What doth he mean by yowling in that kind
Of style, e’en like a catty-mount?
CHEWBAC.
—Egh, auugh!5
[Elsewhere in the ship, Jannah
hands a part to Finn.
JANNAH
Take thou this part—an oh-six, yet should suit.
FINN
Full thanks. Yet, hold—for something seems amiss.
The provenance of this, thy proffer’d part,
Is’t not from the First Order?
JANNAH
—Even so.
There is a cruiser old on our west ridge,
Which we have stripp’d of parts. ’
Twas once our own—
The one to which my band was once assign’d,
The one in which my band did once abscond.
FINN
Amazement plentiful o’ercomes my heart—
Were ye of th’rank First Order?
JANNAH
—Not by choice.
Conscripted as mere children were we all;
Tee-zed-one-sev’n-one-nine was once my name,
If e’er a number could be call’d a name.
FINN
Eff-en-two-one-eight-seven was mine own!
JANNAH
E’en thou?
FINN
—Ne’er knew I any but myself
Who from the vile First Order did abscond.
JANNAH
Deserters, yea! Each one of us was once
A stormtrooper. ’Twas at the battle fought
On Ansett Island—there we mutinied
Together, after we were told to fire
Upon civilians, which our consciences
Could ne’er allow. We could not do the deed,
And laid our weapons down with single mind.
FINN
Indeed? The lot of ye?
JANNAH
—The company
Entire. In retrospect, impossible
It is to say how the collective act
Took root in ev’ry heart and mind as one.
’Twas no decision—
FINN
—Born of instinct pure.
A feeling.
JANNAH
—Yea, a feeling.
FINN
—’Twas the Force.
The Force did lead me here, among this group,
To Rey and Poe, my dearest friends in th’world.
JANNAH
Thou speak’st as if thou knewest it were real.
FINN
’Tis real. I need no evidence thereof—
At first I was not certain, yet am now.
None but the Force could lead me unto them,
None but the Force could power so much hope,
None but the Force could guide our searching steps,
None but the Force, which binds, surrounds, protects.
[They walk aside. BB-8 approaches Poe.
BB-8
[to Poe:] Blox flewflig rooh zood bleerooq flir zilf blee
Reej flliflit blis blav flirzooz bleeflib blay?
POE
What dost thou mean, to ask of where Rey is?
Hast thou not seen her? Raise alarum bells,
Their tintinnabulation shall resound—
A world of solemn thought their melody
Compels—Finn, Jannah, come! Rey’s fled and gone!
[All rush outside. Finn uses
quadnoculars to spot Rey.
FINN
My lass of folly rides upon the sea!
Such waves she faceth, nearly tipping o’er.
So unforgiving is this tempest grave,
I fear our Rey shall soon a shadow be.
JANNAH
Took she a skimmer? Brave and foolish both.
POE
By hell, what was she thinking of? She who
So well doth know the nature of my soul
Could not suppose her act would make me glad.
FINN
’Tis plain: we must go after her anon.
POE
Her actions make my nerves and spirit sick—
Sick unto death with that long agony.
We shall repair the Falcon and go forth
To rescue her when first we’re able to.
FINN
Nay, if we wait so long, she shall be lost.
POE
’Twas she who left her friends behind, afeard—
A pile of nothing but commingl’d gloom.
What wouldst thou do, Finn, swim?
FINN
—She’s not herself.
Thou knowest not the demons she doth face,
The battles she is fighting deep within.
POE Yet thou dost, eh? So happy, dauntless, and
Sagacious art thou, that thou know’st e’en this?
FINN
In faith, I do, as Leia also doth.
POE
The truth should be inviolate above
All things, e’en this: I am not Leia, Finn.
FINN
With damnèd certainty thou speak’st not false.
JANNAH
[aside, to Finn:] Come thou with me. Another skimmer I
Can offer thee, an thou wouldst take the risk.
[Exeunt all but Poe.
POE
Ah, dream too bright to last! His words, they sting;
O, Finn, the friend—nay brother—of my heart,
I would that we were not at odds herein.
Friends have I known throughout my blessèd span,
Close allies, confidants most plentiful,
Yet none were so well suited to myself
As thou wert from the moment we first met.
Thou art the other half who makes me whole,
As one doth think of Poe, one thinks of Finn.
Thou art the voice that doth my sentence end,
Before I speak it, thou dost fill it in.
Thou art the map that puts me back on course,
When I veer wide, thou settest me aright.
Thou art the books, the arts, the academes,
That show, contain, and nourish all the world.
Apologies, dear Finn, I owe to thee,
For my hotheaded and quick-temper’d bile—
I am the fire, thou art refreshing rain,
And once again I need thine easing cool.
Let us, when we are mad, not stay so long,
That sooner and that sweeter comes the time
When our two minds united are again,
The glad reunion of two wills in one.
This storm that passes by us shall surcease,
The sunshine break upon a greater peace.
[Exit.
SCENE 4.
On the second Death Star.
Enter REY, who begins to climb.
REY
Years on their years have pass’d since this bleak base
Exploded into pieces o’er the air.
The shell of it is harsh and horrible;
In shades of gray and gloom its ghosts reside.
Ne’er did I, as a child upon Jakku,
Think ever I would see the very place—
Here where the Empire ended years ago.
Exciting ’twere, if not so dangerous,
Fantastic that I should such hist’ry touch,
Observing it with ev’ry sense I have.
Rehearse thou not thy wonder longer, Rey—
Climb, rather, t’ward the end thou must achieve.
Experience doth make a simpler task—
Perforce I have turn’d scavenger once more.
Recall the steps, maneuvers, placement that
Once I relied upon for daily bread.
Fear not, but cautious be, for in this wreck
One small mistake may quickly fatal prove.
Unto the level accurate I’ve come,
Now through this hall, with vacant helmets strewn.
Dread filleth me—here is the Emp’ror’s throne,
Pulsating with the Force like mine own blood.
How now? A door doth open, bidding me—
[A door opens. Rey walks through
and it closes behind her.
Enclosing me e’en as I
step within.
Night is not dark as ’tis within this room,
Obscuring outer sight and inner calm.
Methinks I nearer draw unto—a-ha!
E’en there, the wayfinder before me lies.
No trap awaits above or underneath—
Oblique the path that led me to the goal,
Naught here but rubble, darkness, shades, and fear.
She grasps the wayfinder. Enter DARK REY,
brandishing a double-bladed lightsaber.
DARK REY
Rey, never be afeard of who thou art.
[They duel.
REY
O, ghoulish vision born of hell’s own heart!
I yet may change these shadows I have seen.
[Dark Rey snarls at Rey. Frightened, Rey
stumbles backward into the former throne
room. Exit Dark Rey. Rey drops the wayfinder.
Enter KYLO REN, picking up the wayfinder.
KYLO
Look thou upon thyself, and be asham’d.
Thou wouldst prove to my mother that thou art
A Jedi, heir to that proud legacy.
Instead, herein thou provest something else.
Thou canst make no return unto her now—
E’en as thou didst depart Jakku to make
A new life with the weak Resistance, thou
Hast made departure secondary here,
And never shall go back into their fold.
See, thou and I are one—I also have
Ta’en steps that led me permanently from
The life that once I led, in former times.
REY
Give me the wayfinder.
KYLO
—The dark side doth
Reside within our very natures, Rey.
Submit thereto.
REY
—Give me the wayfinder.
KYLO
Thou never shalt proceed to Exegol
Unless thou ventur’st forth withal myself.
[He crushes the wayfinder in his hand.
REY
Nay, villain!
[She brandishes her lightsaber. They duel.
KYLO
[aside:] —Dodge and sidestep, yet she doth
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favor’d rage,
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect.
[Kylo Ren turns on his lightsaber and
jumps outside, onto the wreckage
by the sea. Rey pursues him.
Enter GENERAL LEIA ORGANA on balcony.
Enter R2-D2 and MAZ KANATA on balcony, aside.
LEIA
What shadows spread their darkness o’er my sight!
The Force speaks in clear visions unto me:
My son and mine adopted daughter caught
In conflict vicious, battling to the death.
MAZ