Ahch-To, Part 9 - The Catacombs

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"Ouch!" Finn says as I trip over him in the corridor. He's sitting on the floor.

"What are you doing here?" I ask.

"I was..." Finn gets up and brushes himself off. "I thought we were going to leave in the middle of the night, not so soon. The General just finished her tea not too long ago and went to bed."

"Then she'll be sound asleep for a few hours."

BB-8 beeps. "Finn was guarding you."

"Come on," I say softly. "Let's go, and no more talking. We need to be a little more quiet."

We hurry down the hall. BB-8 slides around on the marble floor as she tries to get some traction. I slow down to wait for her.

When we're finally outside on the landing platform, Finn takes us to where Poe's X-Wing fighter is. We climb in without a word, the fog muffling the sounds of the hatch opening and closing. Finn uses the magnetic pickup crane at the bottom of the plane to lift BB-8 in and seat her behind us, where the bombs and supplies usually go. I turn back to her and make sure she's secure.

"How far is it to the Temple?" I ask, buckling up.

"Not far." Finn runs a hand over his hair.

"Aren't you going to buckle in?" I ask.

"I'm not much of a pilot..."

I sigh and open the hatch again so we can exchange places.

"I mean," he continues. "I can fly, it's just the fog. It's like flying blind," he says.

"No problem," I say, putting on my helmet and starting the engine. "You okay BB-8?" I call over the sound. She sticks out her lighter thumbs up, smacking Finn in the back of the helmet.

"Hey!"

"Sorry," she beeps.

Poe's plane has sensitive controls and each movement is dramatic enough to make my stomach uneasy. There's zero visibility so I watch the monitors in front of me carefully.

"Which island?" I ask.

"Uh..." Finn messes around with the controls. My stomach is already in knots with concern for Kylo and Finn's uncertainty certainly doesn't help. "It's that one, there," he points outside.

I look out. There's a break in the fog and I see the island and the ruins below. I search for a place to land.

"I got us some great ear pieces for communicating," Finn says, reaching into his pocket. His elbow bumps my arm and the pane tilts.

"How about you show me after we land," I say into the helmet headset.

Finn nods and sits still.

"Can I communicate too?" BB-8 asks behind me.

"Of course," I say. "Right Finn? Can she tap into our comm frequencies?"

"Yeah, no problem."

I lower the plane onto a rocky surface and the bottom crunches to a halt. I cringe. Oops. I'll have to apologize to Poe next time I see him. If I ever see him again, that is.

"You ready?" I turn to Finn.

"As ready as I'll ever be to raid the catacombs of an ancient Jedi temple, where the Galaxy's most dangerous weapon is locked up."

I roll my eyes and turn off the engine. Finn opens the hatch and I look down at all the stones and crumbling ruins that look as though they're going to collapse into the ocean at any moment.

"BB-8," I turn to her. "You'll just have to stay in here and wait for us."

She beeps.

"We won't be long," I say, then climb out.

The rocks slide beneath our feet as we make our way to the main area of the temple. Endless steps lead in many directions but our destination is visible up ahead, the tall center of the temple sticks out like a beacon in the fog.

Finn falls behind, somehow finding every loose stone to slip on. I grab his arm before he slides down the side of the cliff into the water below.

"Thanks," he says.

When we reach the sanctuary I breathe a sigh of relief. Here the ground is solid and we're closer to our destination. I stop to look up at the broken ceiling, open to the sky above. A few lonely stars twinkle in the dark blue sky, away from the fading sun that never sets. They seem impossibly far away, like we could never travel there, and yet Kylo is much farther than those two stars.

"Which way now?" I ask Finn.

He points to the other side of the sanctuary and I start to run, my boots crunching loose gravel on the stone floor. Finn follows.

"Here," he says, stopping and pointing down to the ground.

Cool, musky air escapes up through a dark hole in the floor. I step back. There's a rope ladder leading down into the darkness below.

"Seriously?" I say.

Finn shrugs. "Well at least I haven't seen any guards around."

I sigh. "You never know."

Finn pulls out a blaster and I wave my hand at him. "Put that away. If you shoot that thing here the whole place will crumble into the ocean." I crouch down and look into the hole. Another cool breeze wafts up, smelling of mildew and rotten things. "Do you have a light?"

"No," Finn frowns.

I set my hands onto the cold stone, preparing to climb down. Faint voices float up from the catacombs, children's voices, some crying, some talking. It's so faint that I wonder if I'm just imagining it.

"Can you hear that?" I look up at Finn.

"What?"

"The voices."

He shakes his head then crouches down beside me to listen.

I hear them more clearly this time but Finn is unfazed.

"I don't hear anything." He looks at me. "Why, do you hear something?"

I don't answer but start climbing down the rope ladder, kicking up dust from around the edge of the hole in the ground. I can do this. I have to. For the planets and animals and for Kylo.

I continue on down, imagining a long drop. But I reach the bottom faster than I expect.

"It's not too far down," I call up to Finn. He's still waiting at the top and I can't help but shake my head at him. "I can go look for it by myself, if you want to guard the entrance."

"No, I'm coming." Finn heads down.

I hear the voices again. I know they're not real people, but spirits of ages past. I try to block them out, the distant screams that echo in my mind.

"Hurry Finn," I say, wrapping my arms around myself. "We have to get back to BB-8."

Finn jumps from the ladder with a thud, startling me.