Damn, the princess has a mean left hook. Better grab on to something…

SANA STARROS:

Whoa…what the…

APHRA:

Gravity’s gone. The whole prison just shut down. We’ll fall into the star.

SANA STARROS:

Don’t worry. You’ll be dead long before then.

Sana wraps her hands around Aphra’s throat.

APHRA:

[struggling to breathe]

When I said “grab on to something,” I didn’t mean my neck, Sana! I’m starting to feel like…this isn’t the fight…we should be fighting.

SANA STARROS:

Funny how you didn’t say that before my hands were on your throat.

And I didn’t wanna fight. I just want to kill you.

APHRA:

Okay. Okay. I’m sorry, Sana. I really am. I’m sorry about the way I left things. If you were a blaster, I would’ve known how to deal with you.

Blasters I know. But people—

SANA STARROS:

Save it, Aphra. Save your last, miserable breaths. Dealing with people would require you to care.

APHRA:

I…I did care! I really did! Sana, from the moment I first saw you…I cared.

SANA STARROS:

Shut up, Aphra!

APHRA:

But I just…I never knew what I was doing, and you know I’m not great at thinking ahead, and…and I knew I was probably about to be expelled at any moment anyway!

I’m still shocked Sava Toob-Nix didn’t boot me after I back-talked him in class that day…

SANA STARROS:

He didn’t boot you because I told him not to!

APHRA:

Wh-what?

SANA STARROS:

I went to his office later that day—and I told him if he expelled you, I’d report the fact that he’d tried to teach us something completely erroneous. That he’d pretended to be ignorant to existing research, just because it furthered his own academic agenda. I told him he’d be done.

APHRA:

Y-you blackmailed someone? For me?

SANA STARROS:

Yes, and I’ve never regretted anything more.

APHRA:

Sana…please. I’m sorry about everything. We need to… guuuk, you’re still choking me. Did you hear what I—

SANA STARROS:

You’re sorry, huh? I’ll show you sorry, Doc.

APHRA:

Whaaaaaaaa!

APHRA (narration):

She flung me away from her with such force…For a second, I thought she was trying to save me. That she couldn’t bring herself to actually kill me.

And I felt…something soft. And sweet. After all these years.

Studious Sana had blackmailed someone. For me.

Is this…what love feels like?

But as it turned out, Sana was throwing me directly into the path of Eneb Ray, knocking him away from the princess.

I punched him in the gut. Just ’cause.

But the princess got the final blow in, knocking him out.

PRINCESS LEIA:

We will win, Eneb. Because there are more of us than you can count.

And we’re all sick to damn death of being told what to do.