The droid was a brute—bigger, faster, and meaner than the last one he’d tangled with. Simon had taken the worst of it, a jagged swipe from one of its steel arms tearing into his side. For a moment, he figured that was the curtain call.

But then you came—just right on time. How you’d tracked him down was anybody’s guess, and he didn’t have the luxury to ask. Together, you made a break for it, plunging off the waterfall and disappearing into the black belly of the caves.

Simon was bleeding bad, his hands pressed tight to his side, fingers shaking. His eyes flicked everywhere but you—one wrong glance, too much focus, and his damnable heat vision might finish what the droid started. Your voice reached him in fits and starts, panicked and muffled under the sound of his ragged breathing.

His mind raced. Faces. Names. People he’d saved. People he hadn’t. Was this where it all ended? Alone in the dark, except… you weren’t alone. You were here. You’d come for him.

He couldn’t let it end here. Not for you. Not when you still had a chance. Even if it meant burning himself out entirely, you were walking out of this cave alive.