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Finn wiped at his eyes, his free hand trembling across Poe’s brow.
“I love you. I love you. Can you hear me, sweetheart? I love you.” He repeated over and over again like a mantra.
Poe’s eyes, which had been mutely trained on some otherworldly ether, focused suddenly on his, catching hold with confusion and adoration. Finn’s heart leapt even as fresh tears welled.
“Finn…” he rasped with a slow smile, and the hint of his old self shone through the frail shell of age for one miraculous moment.
“Yes, baby, yes, it’s me. I love you. I love you, honey.” He began desperately, his hand stroking warm across Poe’s cool brow.
“...love you…” Poe’s thin chest heaved and a brief look of pain swept across his face, and then his eyes wandered into that far distance once more. Finn shot an anguished look at Rey, who sat by his side. An expression of gentle concentration wearied her face, her steely grey hair done up in a loose bun. Her hands rested gently on Poe’s chest—reading the flow of his dwindling life-light, and directing the current to ease the pain of leaving.
“He’s not hurting…he’s not hurting, Finn, dear. It’s just reflexive.” She fought to keep her voice steady, for Finn would unravel completely if she gave way to the tears that threatened.
Finn stroked Poe’s forehead. “It’s getting thinner…” his voice broke. The blue light that he had watched for decades spilling in a steady, strong stream from Poe’s feet to the crown of his head had dimmed—like a guttering fire seen from behind a veil. He could not bear to see it fading, and panic hovered about his ribs. Poe was too bright, too full of vitality and humor and love. He could not be fading. “Poe—honey—I love you, I love you.”
The minutes passed like ages as Finn watched the love of his life slip slowly from him. Poe’s breath had long gone shallow and deep in his stomach, his age-yellowed eyes now unseeing, and his mouth parted. Finn took the sunken hand and kissed the knuckles, tears spilling onto the thin, age spotted skin. For half an hour he followed the dimming flow of Force through Poe’s body, watched as it twined about like shreds of mist on a frail wind, listened as his breath became hard and quick. “Oh…baby…please stay with me, stay with me,” he whispered, tightly gripping his hand as if that could keep him tethered.
Rey wiped hurriedly at her eyes. “He’s not in any pain.”
Poe’s chest shuddered, uneven breaths pulsing from him and then…nothing. The frail body went slack against the mattress, dark eyes now empty and dull. Finn watched through shaking tears as the deep pools of light, the soul-spots that had made Poe Poe unmoored and drifted like little stars after the last wisp of Poe’s life Force.
“No…no…wait, wait for me…Poe…” Finn's quivering hand reached to halt them but they ghosted through his outstretched fingers and then were swept up into the deeper stream that lay beyond even Rey’s sight.
Finn stared after them for a breathless moment, tears streaming down his face. “Come back.”
Rey sucked in a ragged breath. “He’s gone…he’s gone, Finn.”
Finn hollowed as if he’d been halved, his shoulders sagging. For a moment he could not breathe, and then he turned his streaming eyes back to Poe. His eyes roved frantically over the still form, desperate to see the glimmer of light that had lain beneath his right eye flair and catch to vibrant life, desperate to see that gossamer stream sweep into his chest like wind into an empty sail. But there was nothing—only the body that he had loved beyond his own, that he had loved beyond all else, still and cool. For a long while the shock of it mutely paralyzed him, and then he bent as if a weight were slowly crushing him, and he folded over him as the sob broke free, thin and desperate. Part of him had died, and the wound of it ran a jagged line down the front of his chest as if he were being torn apart.
He did not feel Rey’s hand upon his back, rubbing slow circles, was not conscious of the physical pain easing from his body as she soothed him through her tears. He cradled Poe’s limp body to him. “I love you…I love you…”
Rey tore her eyes from them. She had helped many transition from physical life back into the unending flow of the Force, but this one hurt her deeply. Finn’s sobs hurt her worse than any sound she’d ever heard. She stared out of the open window into the blue sky beyond, wiping the tears from her cheeks.
“He’s flying again, Finn. He’s flying free.”