The Resistance guards point a gun behind Finn’s back, forcing him to walk through the corridors in handcuffs. Just then, Finn senses an incoming message, as if someone is trying to contact him.

He thinks to himself: Rey? But something is blocking the message from coming through. And gradually, the signal begins to die down, fading faster until he can’t even sense the soul instrument to contact her anymore.

The guards all reach a central meeting spot, and Finn sees that someone else is there: Merilia, beaten and cuffed.

Gnovian and Citho approach the scene. Citho is furious. “I knew it. Traitors. They were working together!”

Gnovian sighs. “Finn. What were you trying to do?”

“I had a feeling that Citho was a traitor.”

Citho screams at him, “YOU THOUGHT WHAT? ON WHAT GROUNDS?”

“Well, you didn’t need any when you accused me,” Finn bites back. A guard punches Finn.

“Hey!” Gnovian commands. “Don’t hit them! Let us listen to what they have to say.”

Finn peers at Citho, and says, “I saw a Force vision. That you were on Fortuna, and speaking to someone about causing the Force disruptions. I figured you were going to use them against the Resistance.” Finn then tells them the date, time, and coordinates he saw him at.

“A Force vision? Ridicuous! This boy’s gone mad!” Citho exclaims.

Gnovian tells Finn, “I can assure you that General Citho was with me throughout that entire day.”

Merilia interrupts him “That was during the Axilim Skirmish.”

“Who said you could speak?” Citho says, glaring at her.

Merilia ignores him. “I remember. Gnovian, an elite Axilim assassin was tracking you, but its aircraft was never found.”

“Yes,” Gnovian replies, “We later discovered it had been intercepted by mercenaries who stole its equipment. Thank Fortune that occurred, as it would have been deadly had that assassin gotten to me.”

Gnovian and Citho take their leave. The guards throw them in transportable jail cells, and drag them along. Suddenly, Finn is struck by an idea. It’s all starting to come together.

Finn closes his eyes, and meditates. And he is transported back into the soul world, standing before all the bridges. In the distance, he sees it: the armored stalker.

“HEY!” Finn shouts at it, “I wanna ask you something!”

The armored stalker snaps its head towards Finn. With a menacing stride, it starts walking. And then, it runs.

Finn tries his hardest not to budge. Damn it, he thinks to himself. This is either the best or worst idea I’ve had this week.

Just as the stalker is about to come closer, Finn fumbles to think about what to say, and then he yells, “I’m not here on Resistance orders!”

The stalker stops. It is so close now that Finn can see its red pendant inscribed with three fangs. In a ghostly echo, he speaks. “Resistance clothes. Resistance insignia. If you aren’t Resistance, what are you?”

“I’m trying to find the truth. This apparel, it’s, uh,” Finn thinks for a moment, “It’s just a disguise. I think I know who you’re looking for. I’m looking for him, too.”

The stalker hisses. “Who?”

“Gnovian.”

The stalker peers at Finn. In a low voice, it says, “He sent me here. Trapped in this enigmatic world. Never aging. Never dying. I was ordered by my King to kill him. But now, I have my own reasons to enact his death.”

Finn awkwardly stares at the stalker. Oh man, he thinks to himself. This guy isn’t messing around. Finn thinks: I don’t wanna kill Gnovian, no matter how suspicious he is. I gotta think fast.

“I can help you find him.” Damn it, he thinks. Shouldn’t have said that.

“Where is he?” the armored stalker hisses.

“I- I think I can get to his soul world. Once you’re there, I can find a way out for you,” Finn lies.

The stalker backs off. “Show me.”

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FINN takes a deep breath, and feels something guiding him. He reaches a bridge, and is about to touch it, but then stops. A distorted voice, the same one he has been hearing many times, speaks to him: “This isn’t the bridge you’re looking for.”

Finn senses it’s not just a voice, but an apparition is there. He speaks back to it, “Who are you?” But it doesn’t respond.

“What is it?” the stalker asks with a ghostly hiss, impatient.

“Nothing.” Finn continues to walk along the path, and finds it. He enters the portal at the end, and the stalker follows.

When he arrives, he sees that he’s in an orderly, grand colosseum. Statues stand tall throughout, and a fire burns in a goblet in the center. It’s trying to burn something, to destroy it. But no matter how hot it blazes, the object remains intact. Finn walks closer to it. It’s a spherical globe.

“A soul artifact,” he whispers, “But who made it?” He hovers his hand over it. It’s much more fortified than any he’s ever felt before. Whoever made it must have kept something important inside, and someone else has been trying to break it apart, but with no success.

Finn reaches down further, but exclaims “Ow!” as he retracts his hand away from the flames.

“My patience is wearing thin,” the stalker tells him, “This is the way out?”

“Yeah- uh, just give me a minute,” Finn improvises. And then, he hears the voice: “When the fire strikes you, you shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.” Finn shuts his eyes. The Resistance. He told that figure in Merilia’s world that he wanted to give his life for it. And this time, he can’t back down.

He gnaws his teeth, reaches his hand down towards the flame, and yells out in pain. But he pushes through, and touches the sphere.

Suddenly, he’s transported into another world. A giant spherical hologram appears before him. He reaches into it, and something flows into him. Then he realizes what has happened: he sees it all. All the information stored in the hologram, he reads it. It’s evidence. Evidence someone has collected about the true nature of this war.

He reaches out, and the world around him collapses. Now, he is in a dimly lit, royal room. There is a figure there. When Finn sees it, he seizes up. He doesn’t know what to think. And then, he sees the entire event play out.

“HEY!” the armored stalker yells, and when Finn awakens, he’s back in this colosseum, and the stalker has pointed a gun at him. Finn looks back to the flame, and the sphere is gone. But now, he feels it inside of him.

“You said we’d get out,” it hisses.

Finn mutters, “Oh crap.” The armored stalker catches on. “You liar...”

But before the stalker can pull the trigger, a gigantic, lion-like creature snatches the stalker away. Finn is aghast, but wastes no time. He shuts his eyes, concentrating hard to get out of the soul world. He snaps back into the physical world.

“Merilia,” he whispers, “I found something important.”

She looks towards Finn’s prison cell. “Didn’t you just screw us both over with this Citho thing?”

“I was wrong. But that’s because I was doing it without any good evidence. But not this time. I got it.”

Merilia raises her brow at him, and whispers, “You got evidence? About what?”

“The real traitors.”

“How strong?”

“Very.”

Merilia pauses for a second. Then she says, “Well, I don’t have anything to lose now. Alright, then we gotta get that evidence somewhere safe. We’re getting out of here.”

“Er... how?”

Merilia grabs her arm, and out from her skin, a transmitter seethes out, as if it was emerging from the water. “My associate.” She hits a few buttons on the transmitter, and whispers, “Execute it.”

Suddenly, the alarms start blarring. Everything on the Resistance base is running haywire- screens are randomly flashing, equipment is flying loose, and droids are going crazy. Then, Merilia and Finn’s prison doors open, and they fall out. Merilia kicks at a guard, and hits another one, then grabs their blasters. She throws one to Finn.

“Head to the dome hangar bay!” she declares.

Elsewhere, Citho is raging again. Gnovian orders the base, “Two captives on the loose! Order them to be tracked down!”

Poe and Rose run in. “Sir!” Poe barks out, “Who?”

Gnovian replies, “Finn and Merilia.” Anguish falls upon Rose’s face. “What?” she whispers, “But he was trying to do his best to redeem himself.” Gnovian shakes his head in gloom. Rose whispers again, “No... that’s why he needed the master key...”

Poe walks out, his face stern and expressionless, but inside, he is cursing at himself. Damn it, he thinks. They got caught! However, to avoid suspicion, he now has no choice but to work with the Resistance to track them down.

Resistance soldiers head to their positions. Chewbacca is seen grabbing a bowcaster.

Finally, Finn and Merilia manage to get to the dome hangar bay. A wide, circular dome looms over them. They spot the ships and escape pods. However, once they get inside, Merilia realizes that it’s not so easy. “They’re locked!” she exclaims. “It’s gonna take me a while to get them loose.”

As Finn sits inside, wishing for Merilia to hurry up, he shuts his eyes. And then, he’s suddenly plunged out of the physical world.

“What the- I know I didn’t do this!” he shouts. Just then, a hooded figure grabs him from behind. Its grip is strong, reinforced by the Force. It’s wearing the same robes as the being on Fortuna.

In a distorted voice, the hooded figure whispers, “You wonder why you can’t contact her anymore? We picked up your transmissions. Though it was difficult, we succeeded in severing your connection.”

Finn grunts and in a hushed tone, he bites back, “You can’t hide the truth.”

The hooded figure reaches into Finn’s mind, and as Finn is screaming, it fumbles around, and finds something. The figure reaches its hand back out, and an instrument emerges with it. “Coordinates to contact Luke Skywalker?” With one swift motion, the figure crushes the instrument in its hand.

“Damn you!” Finn says. The hooded figure smiles, “Now, I will find that spherical artifact, and take back what’s mine.”

But just then, a blue lightsaber strikes at the hooded figure, who dodges it, and Finn manages to break loose of its grip. He can’t see anyone, but the blue lightsaber is fading again. The hooded figure has disappeared. Finn now knows what it was: A Force Projection. One more sophisticated than any he had ever heard about.

The distorted voice he had heard many times before speaks to him again: “You must pass on the evidence to someone before it is stolen! Show them the truth!” And then, the darkness around Finn collapses, and he is back in the escape pod. Merilia still hasn’t cracked them loose.

“Who can I pass it on to?” Finn says to himself. Then, he remembers. The last coordinates. The ones Rey told him to contact as a last resort.

“C’mon,” Finn says with a hustle, “Whoever this is, you gotta see this!” He shuts his eyes, and locks the coordinates in.