Work Text:
Vormir.
A world ruled by darkness, silence, and cold. Floating far from the edge of the known galaxy. A dominion of death, as the legends described.
A large sun hung in the sky, constantly eclipsed to bathe the surface more in shadow than in light. A biting wind blew gently across the dunes that dipped to give way to patches of lakes, the water looking almost black as it lay perfectly still and undisturbed.
A mountain loomed in the landscape, looking out for miles at the silent surroundings. Watching everything, like a guardian of the haunting world. The higher it reached, the colder the air grew, and a few specs of snow clung to the rocks.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” Nova muttered, her knees beginning to ache from the climb. A dark feeling had set into her chest as they had made planetfall, creeping through her veins like ice the closer they got to the top.
“How bad?” Poe asked from beside her, looking up and down their path.
She swallowed, meeting his eyes with a measured expression. “You don’t want me to answer that.”
He frowned, reaching for her hand. “Well, we knew this wasn’t gonna be easy. But we were prepared for that, right?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“We’ll get through this, together.”
She had to force herself to nod a second time. The dark feeling still lingered.
“Welcome.”
The voice shot through the couple and echoed around them, spurring them to draw their blasters.
The origin of the voice floated before them, hooded and cloaked in black that faded to shadow at their feet. They advanced slowly from the dark, revealing their face somewhat – crimson in colour and skull-like in features. A heavy accent coated their deep voice as they continued to address the pilots.
“Nova, daughter of Han. Poe, son of Kes.”
Poe glanced at Nova uncertainly, while she kept her gaze and blaster focused on the stranger.
“How’d you know us?” she demanded.
“It is my curse to know all who come here,” he answered.
“Who are you?”
“You can consider me a guide. To you, and to all who seek the Soul Stone.”
“It’s real?” Poe asked.
Most writings concerning the Soul Stone in the old texts had only speculated on its existence – a powerful relic sought after by the Sith and cast out by the Jedi, said to grant the user command of the soul itself. A powerful tool for good or evil.
And with the First Order spreading fast across the galaxy, once more under the command of the assumed dead Emperor Palpatine, desperate times were calling for desperate measures. Searching for hope in myth, and praying to keep it out of the hands of the enemy.
“Indeed,” the figure said. “I have guarded it for over a lifetime.”
“Well, you can consider yourself relieved of duty.”
“I am afraid it is not that simple.”
Nova clenched her jaw. “Explain.”
The Stonekeeper turned, leading them further up the mountain in silence.
Poe and Nova followed warily, maintaining a firm grasp on their weapons.
The top of the mountain levelled out to a courtyard of stone. Great carvings stretched across the ground. The edge was framed by two megaliths, reaching towards the darkened sky almost in worship.
The pilots looked over the drop – it was an unobstructed path straight down to death.
The Stonekeeper floated behind them, watching them. “What you seek lies in front of you. As does what you fear.”
Nova tensed, the feeling in her chest stronger than ever as her mind came to the frightful conclusion. Death weighing down heavy on her shoulders – for that was what she could feel.
She could not bring herself to look at her partner as he turned back to their guide.
“Where’s the stone? How does this work?” Poe asked.
“In order to take the stone, you must lose that which you love. An everlasting exchange. A soul for a soul.”
A deathly silence fell between the pilots as the words set in. They both knew the meaning. If they were to succeed, it would not be together. One of them was going to have to make the ultimate sacrifice, paying with their life.
Poe was quick to move to denial. “He’s making this up.”
“No.” Nova remained staring down the fatal drop, her face expressionless.
“He’s got to be.”
“What does he have to gain from lying to us?”
“I don’t know. This just – this can’t be the way.”
“But it is.” She shut her eyes against the cold wind, leaning towards the ledge. “I can feel it.”
“Yeah, well when have your ‘Force feelings’ ever been accurate,” he snapped, grabbing her wrist and dragging her back to the centre of the courtyard.
“We don’t have time for this.” She removed herself from his hold gently. “We’ve always known the risk; fighting this fight.”
“Well, if this is the cost, I don’t want to fight anymore.”
“Poe…”
“I can’t lose you, Nova.”
“Oh, and you think I can lose you?”
He sighed, laying his hands on her arms, and hanging his head. He could see where the argument was going. Nova had already made up her mind, and nothing he could possibly say would change that. She was as stubborn as she was foolish.
“We know who it’s gotta be.”
“Nova…”
“I’m not worth sacrificing the entire galaxy, Poe.”
He pressed his forehead to hers. “You are to me.”
She sighed, leaning into his touch.
“We could leave this all behind,” he suggested. “Find a world in the Outer Rim. Together.”
“Running and hiding was never your thing, Dameron,” she said. “And I couldn’t live with myself knowing I could have done something here. I don’t think you could either.”
He swallowed. “Nova…”
“This is my choice.” She held his face in her hands, running a thumb across his cheek bone. “We were always running on borrowed time. I always knew there was nothing for me after this war.”
“I’m sorry I’ll never get to prove you wrong.”
“Me too. But I’m glad we had the time we did.”
“I just wish we had longer.”
“I was an idiot, I’m sorry.”
“We both were.”
She cracked a watery smile. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” His throat was becoming tight with tears. “I’ll never love anyone else.”
She sniffed back her tears harshly, yet her laugh was soft. “Gods, that’s so you. Always the romantic.”
Poe could not bring himself to smile, choosing instead to press his lips to hers in a desperate kiss, like he was trying to pull her back to him and keep her there. He stepped as close to her as he could, arms around her waist as she kissed him back, her hands still holding his face. Her rough palms feeling familiar and comforting against his stubbled jaw.
It was a moment they both wished could last forever. Just the two of them in the galaxy, with only their love.
Poe grunted as his legs were kicked out from underneath him, sending him crashing to the stone. Nova had anticipated he would try and do a similar move on her, but her certain intuition allowed her to beat him to the punch.
He looked up in time to see her set off running for the ledge, but he still had time to act.
Pulling his blaster, he fired off a single shot.
The bolt landed in her left calf, causing her to crumple just short of the edge. She whimpered, pulling herself up as best she could through the pain.
She tried to press forward, dragging herself to the ledge without looking back as she could hear boots hitting stone at a run behind her.
Poe was by her side again. “I’m sorry.”
Nova knew what she had to do, reaching for her own blaster, flicking the configuration without even looking. “So am I.”
Before Poe could respond, Nova had knocked him to the ground with a stun blast, leaving him out for the count.
She left her blaster beside him, letting the tears fall unimpeded as she forced herself onwards. Her legs gave out with every step, but she was beyond noticing the pain in her knees as she worked herself into a system, one step at a time.
The sins of her past raced through her mind.
Her brother. The temple – Fenna. All her years as Blitz. Every crime she had committed, every life she had cut short without mercy.
But then came the light. Her return to some semblance of home. Her mother, her father. Her friends and squadron. Rey, Finn, Chewie. And Poe. The love of her life, she would admit.
Her last thoughts were of him, holding her close to his chest in the shadows of their room. A sanctuary for the both of them.
Her eyes fluttered closed one final time.
She did not feel the landing.
---
Poe woke up, feeling strangely weightless. As he came to, he began to realise he was in water, quite the contrast to the stone he had last felt.
His body ached as he sat up, his mind catching up far too slowly.
Then it hit him all at once. The mountain, the guardian, the stone.
Nova.
He looked about himself frantically, realising he had been returned to the surface; a pool surrounded by the dunes. In the distance he could spot where they had landed their X-Wings.
He paused, feeling something resting in his hand. Opening it, he felt sick at the sight of the orange stone that rested in his palm. It emitted a warm glow akin to life.
Nova’s life.
He closed his hand around it tightly.
Reaching beneath his shirt, his fingers found the chain he wore around his neck, freeing himself of it. Between finger and thumb he caressed the ring that had hung from it.
His mother’s wedding ring.
He had always planned to give it to the person he would spend the rest of his life with.
But now she was gone.
With a cry, he hurled it away from him over the dunes, and began to weep, holding all that remained of Nova Organa in his hand.