It had been two days since Ben had been rescued, and Poe was already counting down the hours until they would be rid of him. The two hadn't interacted much (which Poe had been grateful for), but the few times he did see he "guest" Poe's heart would leap in his throat, half expecting to once again be in the presence of Kylo Ren. The Rebel pilot had seen that face hundreds of times in his nightmares, and now here Ben was in the flesh, casually striding about the Millennium Falcon.
Every time Poe saw Ben, his immediate reaction was to reach for his blaster. The capture on Jakku was still fresh in Poe's mind, even though the circumstances had altered. Despite all this, Poe tried to justify his paranoia through the knowledge that darkness continued to cling to Ben, even if the renounced Sith was fighting it with all his might.
Unfortunately, Poe knew his worries wouldn't end when Ben disembarked the Falcon. The son of Solo wasn't the only one leaving; Rey had no intention of immediately returning to the Rebel base either. With the First Order running amok, she didn't want to leave Ben to fend for himself, not after he'd recently spent days in isolation fighting the dark side of the Force while being psychologically tortured.
"But you're coming home with me, right?" Poe craned his neck to look at BB-8, who was sitting comfortably in the co-pilot's seat. The faithful droid chortled a positive agreement. "Good," Poe sighed. "You and I deserve a nice break after all this. As soon as we return to base I'll see to it you get a oil bath and I get a massage,"
As the two fantasized over their differing forms of luxury Rey entered the cockpit, wiping the last of the sleep out of her eyes. "Have there been any transmissions from our contact?" she asked, looking curiously at the dashboard.
"As a matter of fact, yes," Poe said. "We received one about half an hour ago. We should reach the planet Reija in a few hours,"
Rey nodded. "Good,"
They didn't know who their contact was. Someone had sent a message with a secure Rebel encryption, which lessened the chance of this rendezvous point being a trap. Whoever they met would bring a smaller and more suitable spacecraft for Rey, which provided an extra layer of security in the event that things on Reija suddenly turned sour.
"I've never heard of Reija before," Rey mused. "Have you?"
Poe reached between his and BB-8's seat, grabbed a data pad, and handed it to the fledgling Jedi. "It's a small planet. From what I read a good portion of it is water, so the port we're landing at is basically a beach,"
Rey's eyebrows knitted in confusion. "What's a beach?"
"What do you mean what's a-" Poe stopped. Sometimes it was easy to forget Rey's sheltered past. She'd grown up on desert dunes, and had only discovered forests within the last few years. Perhaps she never really heard of a beach before.
"It's where big bodies of water meet land," Poe explained, "But it's not like a pond or a stream where the land drops right off. The water is deep but gradually becomes a shallow coast where sand meets water,"
Rey's eyes nearly bulged out of her head with this newfound information. "Such a large body of water can exist in the desert?"
"No, beaches aren't necessarily located in a desert," Poe said. "The climate can actually be quite nice, even cold depending on the season,"
A smile played across Rey's face. "That sounds wonderful!"
Poe couldn't help but catch Rey's contagious smile. Whenever she encountered a new environment, she gained a childlike fascination as she soaked up the scenery for the first time. Still, forests remained her favorite. Multiple times Poe caught her reading about trees on a data pad, completely in awe that so many variations existed.
"I guess I better inform C-3PO," Rey said. "He'll be happy to learn that we will be docking soon,"
Poe thought back to all the times he'd heard the droid complain about space travel in the past. "I'm sure he will," Poe said over his shoulder as Rey exited the cockpit.
Rey wandered into the common area expecting to find only droids, but was pleasantly surprised to find C-3PO playing a game of Dejarik against Ben. The two sat at the table, C-3P0 trying to calculate his next move while Ben rested his chin on his fist.
"I didn't know you played," Rey said to Ben as she walked over.
"This is the staple of my childhood right here," Ben said, not taking his eyes off the holographic figures. "Once you learn how to play, you never forget,"
"Miss Rey!" C-3PO exclaimed, happy for the distraction. Had Ben grown so bored on the Falcon that he'd challenged the protocol droid to a game? "How did you sleep?"
"Very well, thanks," she said. "I just spoke with Poe. We should be arriving at our destination in a few hours,"
If C-3PO had lips, Rey was sure he would have broken into a slap-happy grin. "Wonderful!" he gushed as Ben leaned back contentedly in his chair. One could only be cooped up in a ship for so long.
"How'd he take the news?" Poe asked as the cockpit door open.
"I think we all could do to stretch our legs," Ben said.
Poe gave a start as he saw Ben enter. "I thought you were Rey," Poe admitted, watching Ben for any sudden movements.
"Not quite," Ben said. "I hear we are landing soon,"
"You heard right,"
There was a pause while Ben nodded at Poe. "You don't have to worry. I'm not here to hurt you,"
Poe looked down at his right hand, realizing he'd been caught in his new reflexive habit. "Sorry," Poe said as he let go of the blaster and forced his hands to settle in his lap. "But can you really blame me?"
"That's why I came here," Ben said. "You and I haven't had a chance to speak one-on-one yet,"
Poe ground his teeth. "There's really nothing that needs to be said,"
"We don't need to converse for long," Ben said as he took a seat behind BB-8, "But there are a few things that I need to get off my chest,"
Poe folded his arms. Ben had already given thanks for being rescued. What else needed to be said?
"The things I've done…" Ben paused as he searched for the right words. "…There's nothing I could say that would accurately reflect how sorry I am for the pain I've caused. I wish I could blame the dark side for all my actions, but I can't. Yes, the dark side fuels the fire so to speak, but I created the fire nonetheless, and it was a long time before I even attempted to put it out. For every Sith there is an unquenchable hunger for power and glory that flows through their veins,"
"But it all faded away," Poe said sardonically, "When you met the girl from Jakku,"
"My reclamation did not unfold like that," Ben said. "This is not a boy-suddenly-falls-in-love-with-girl scenario, like stories parents tell their children. But I will admit Rey helped put things in perspective. It was not until I lost everything that I realized how much I needed to gain,"
Poe hoped this conversation would end soon. All this goody-goody talk made him want to gag.
"What I'm trying say is," Ben explained, "I'm not the man I once was. Rey has helped me discover the light within my darkness, the one I'd thought extinguished with the birth of Kylo Ren,"
Ben took a breath. "I'm sorry. I'm so very, very sorry for what I did to my mother, your General Organa. I know what she meant to the Resistance. And I'm sorry for all the pain I've caused you,"
Poe thought back to when Rey showed him the memories molded in purple fog. It had been that moment he decided to go on this rescue mission. To view Ben's compassion through another's eyes had been one thing. But to see the former dark master pleading for forgiveness with his own was another. Clearly Ben had broken down the walls he had built; perhaps it was time Poe did the same.
"I know you are," Poe said, feeling suddenly self-conscious about the words he chose. "And I forgive you. But don't mistake this as my blessing for Rey running off with you. Should anything happen to her on Reija, I will hold you personally responsible. And I will be sure to make you pay,"