A/N: The final chapter! Thanks for all the support and I hope you enjoy the ending! I honestly feel so out of my league when it comes to Star Wars canon. I hope I didn't make too many eyesores. I've rewritten this one more than part xiii, honestly, and I'm basically frazzled with it right now. This chapter is a monster! LOL! Epilogue to be posted shortly.
SONG INSPIRATION(S): Hero (feat. Mike Mains) - Tommee Profitt
WARNINGS: extreme action sequences, profanity, gore/blood description and intense heart-wrenching moments (Steel yourselves!)
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Rey blinks.
None other than Lando Calrissian winks up at her, his expression one of pure mischief, and she gapes at him. Remembering instantly that the last time they locked eyes had been when she was coming out of the bedroom which both she and Ben had shared brings a lively flush to her face and she drops her eyes, knowing for a fact he had spied some of the love bites peaking above her collar. Ben nods from beside her as they descend down the Falcon's ramp with Rose following close behind, her mouth thinned into a line of suspicion.
"Glad to see your wounds healing well." Lando grins slyly.
Ben clears his throat, glancing over at Lando's ship. "Why am I not surprised you broke with the plan? You were supposed to be among the Rebel forces."
"I was." Lando agrees. "But, I figured, what the hell. It's not often you get to see your little starfighter in action."
Ben stiffens, his face going positively crimson. "Don't call me that!"
"Calm down, Solo. Your pride will survive." Lando winks again. "You're as bad as your old man."
Something about the statement hangs in the air; not like an undesired guest as most statements like this would warrant, but softer somehow. Memory soft. Like a warm and distant when with smiling faces and innocent laughter.
"I really shouldn't say 'old.' Reminds me of me." Lando adds, only half joking.
Rey opens her mouth to speak, but Rose interjects in a brusque tone. "Excuse me, but who exactly are you?"
Lando steps up to her with a polite bow. "Lando Calrissian."
Rose's eyes go as wide as saucers. "You were the one who fired the shot that destroyed the Death Star in the Battle of Endor!"
"Guilty." he smirks.
"I guess it is a good thing you're here, then." She flashes him a broad smile while simultaneously nibbling her lip in embarrassment.
Rey finds Rose's expression both endearing and comical. A part of her wonders if this was her expression the day she had met Han Solo, wondrous and shocked to see one of her childhood heroes brought to life. Her eyes flit to Ben's profile and she notes his uncomfortable frown.
His frown is the ghost of his father when he's flustered, she muses.
From behind them, a growl echoes at the Falcon's entrance and Chewie suddenly lumbers down the ramp heading straight for Lando. A grunt of laughter escapes the man as Chewie lifts him up into his arms and Rey finds herself giggling at once. If things go well then hugs like these will be plenty. Her hands furl into fists. Maker, she hopes for it.
"It looks like Chewie knew about Lando's plan all along." Rey says around her fit of giggles.
"Of course he did." Ben drawls, looking on as if unimpressed.
"So how are we sneaking in?" Rose asks, bringing everyone back to the task at hand.
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A blind spot, apparently.
Ben and Lando discuss what they know about the clandestine base as well as the planet of its location, a gaseous black and red giant with storms that can potentially disrupt scanners from detecting an incoming ship if the storm is large enough... and a ship comes in low enough. But that would mean—
"You can't be serious." Rey interrupts the conversation, glaring at Ben.
He centers his attention on her, expression placid.
Lando makes an awkward sound at the back of his throat. "I'd assume you know by now that he's the serious type."
Rey ignores him, keeping her focus on Ben. "You expect to breach the planet's shields by lightspeed and actually survive?"
"I know we can. It's been done." Ben says shortly.
"By who?" Rey snaps back.
"I don't think who it was matters." Rose inserts. "What matters is getting on the planet and in that base—
"By who?" Rey demands again.
"My father."
The main hold of the Falcon goes silent and everyone peers around unsteadily. Ben looks on at Rey with pointed eyes, nothing in his body betraying the chaotic trembling of his signature in the Force. How he mentions his father; his tone, so sure, so protective. Rey shifts warily on her feet, reading what she can in his eyes. The intensity there is almost terrifying. He swallows earnestly, the tendons along his neck standing out.
Chewie grunts, breaking the heavy stillness.
"My father breached the shields of Star Killer. When he came with FN-2187 to rescue you and sabotage the base, I knew. There was no other way he could have bypassed the shields." Ben whispers.
Rey closes her eyes as the memories assail her, cold and bitter, and she wonders if that bitterness will ever go away. Through the bond, she feels Ben's own sorrow, the sour taste of his guilt seeping deep into his bones, rotting away at him.
He has to do this. He has to, or he will go mad. The realization unsettles one part of her and yet appeases another. This is the most important thing he believes he will ever do.
And I will stand beside him to see it through.
She takes a composing breath, nodding more to herself than anyone else. "Alright then. Now, what do we do with Lando? He didn't exactly fit into our original plans."
Lando chuckles. "I have my own plans, kid, don't you worry."
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In theory, the idea of landing the Falcon coming out of lightspeed is one hero story Rey would've listened to with ardent fascination as a child, but in practice, and now especially as an adult, she knows such reckless abandon can exact any number of penalties.
Thank the Maker both she and Ben are such good pilots, and—
Is he grinning?
"We almost died." she says, dropping her hands from the control panel into her lap.
"Yeah." he replies, barely moving his lips from that delirious grin.
"It's amazing the ship survived. You didn't pull up when—
"I did pull up." The grin vanishes instantly and he cocks a sardonic eyebrow at her. "You didn't give it full thrusters when—
"We are alive back here, just in case either of you care to know." Rose calls out to them. "Though, I think Chewie might never forgive the two of you."
Ben and Rey share a nervous glance.
"I'm too old for this." comes Chewie's low groan.
"You and me both." Lando grumbles. "Now, come on. I've already put us behind schedule."
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In the thick of the storm it's impossible to tell the bodies between the hellish twisters of sand, though Rey can feel them. She breaths shallowly, the air of the planet stinging her lungs. They should not linger out here.
Glancing up to Ben, she notes his pained expression. She has felt it, too. From the moment they entered this planet's atmosphere, the Force has rubbed against their senses like sandpaper, chafing them raw. Fitting, she thinks.
"About twenty meters ahead." Rose calls over the howl of the wind.
"We'll enter through the sewage tunnels." Ben calls back.
"If we can find the outlets." Lando declares. "We can barely find our own ass in this mess."
Chewie huffs in agreement, but no one hears him. Rey considers commenting on the humor of Lando's assessment, but decides against it. Her mouth already tastes like the grating wind around her.
She shields her face and tries to look up into the clouds, but she is suddenly blinded. The strike of lightning radiates over her nerve-endings like a phantom whip and she feels Ben hunch over beside her. Her own arms curl protectively around her waist and her eyes squeeze shut with the sharp scrape of pain.
"What's wrong?" Rose yells beside them.
Rey waves her hand, attempting to conceal her grimace. "It's just the storm."
"It's more than the the storm." Ben says lowly.
"Come on!" Lando pushes ahead of them. "We're wasting time."
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They enter from one of the service tunnels into what appears to be a factory basement level. Gargantuan metal beasts, AT-M6s, stand in rows upon rows of production lines with other military machinery filling the great cavity of the room. New state-of-the-art TIE fighters, sleek vampiric bodies of black and silver durasteel-alloy, sit perched above them as if carrion birds, their dark glass cockpits like so many eyes, watching them.
"Your contact from Canto-Bight produces durasteel-alloy for this hardware, right?" Rose inquires barely above a whisper as she looks at Lando expectantly.
He nods, surveying the mass production lines. "We've been keeping an eye on him for months. If Solo hadn't turned when he did, we would have warned the Rebellion regardless." He looks to Rey. "Why do you think I was the one on Maz's ship waiting for her when you dragged that sorry disaster on board." Ben ignores Lando's pointed nod in his direction, seemingly too focused on something ahead of him.
"It's clever on Hux's part, really." Rose reflects. "You cut out the cost of a middle man through partnering up with the biggest producer. Block that producer from manufacturing for the opposing team by offering something they can't resist in exchange for loyalty, then put a strangle hold on all other competition."
"Ones who think they'll never join one side and continue to profit off both eventually realize the truth." Lando gives her a wry smile.
Ben's shoulder brushes Rey and she turns to him. He nods, one quick jerk, and then he's moving through the broken shadows cast around them. Rey and the others follow, hastening passed unsuspecting factory workers and heavily armed guards. By some stroke of luck and impeccable instincts, they make it to the opposite side of the factory floor without being spotted, neither by naked eye or camera lens.
"Alright." Ben exhales, glancing around their hidden corner to the number of exits. "This is where we part ways."
Everyone nods, each recounting their independent objectives. Chewie will to go with Rose to the main power supply room, while Lando will go on his own to 'create the necessary distraction you and lover-boy need' as he so aptly put it a short time earlier. Ben had scowled irritably and Rey had done her best to hide her reddening cheeks. Now, they only look at one another with simple, decisive purpose.
"Good luck, little starfighter." Lando winks and darts off through a closing door.
Ben looks after him at first with annoyance, but Rey sees the longing behind it. His parted lips seal back shut and he motions for Chewie and Rose. They glance at one another for a breath and then hurry down a long winding corridor to Rey's left. Rey braces herself for the worst, reaching out through the Force as they race toward their objectives, expecting at any second that they will be found, captured.
She focuses so hard, she does not realize the extreme pain along her temples until it pierces deep into her brain and radiates outward with a white, vengeful heat. Ben's arm catches her as she lurches back.
"Steady. Don't exert your strength. We're going to need it soon. The others will be fine."
"You don't know that." Rey argues.
"No." he whispers. "But, I do know that whatever is happening in the Force isn't altogether natural."
"It feels like something is warping it." Rey groans through her teeth. "I feel like I'm being warped with it."
"Yes." Ben replies. "So conserve your strength."
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The taste of hatred on her tongue, like the acrid lick of a chemical burn, lets her know exactly where the grand marshal resides—at the very heart of this facility. A low animal pulse within the web of awareness moving through the corridors to what she assumes is the command center. Naturally.
Ben motions to their right as a duo of stormtroopers appear around the bend of the corridor and Rey reacts immediately. She aims for the trooper closest to her, darting forward in a low couching run and sweeping her leg in a wide arc. The man grunts in surprise before he registers what is happening and falls, arms flailing and blaster flying. She angles forward and yanks his helmet off while planting both feet in a single movement and thwacks his skull against the wall.
He crumples to the floor, out cold.
Glancing over at Ben, she finds his own trooper in awkward angles propped up against the wall and an idea suddenly strikes her.
"It's a great idea." he affirms, reading her thoughts.
"We need a place to stash them."
He nods.
Moments later, Rey looks at Ben through the darkened visor of a stormtrooper helmet. He tilts his own helmet at her, its blank expression glinting in the overhead light.
"You look too short for a stormtrooper." he purrs through the modulator.
"Oh yeah," Rey grouses. "And how the hell do you think you look?"
A beat of silence.
Then, she abruptly bursts into choking giggles.
He looks beyond ridiculous and something about this entire scene makes her heart ache in a strange way. By First Order standards, he appears presentable, but she knows who exists under that mask. Rey knows the pride, the aloft disdain and one cannot forget the reminder of the traitor. She grins impishly.
"I outrank you. See?" She points to the black pauldron on her left shoulder.
He approaches, his hidden smirk as apparent to her as his towering height. "If we live through this, I wouldn't mind seeing how well you give orders."
Rey nearly swallows her own tongue at his boldness. "L-let's keep moving." she stutters, face hot.
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A series of light flickers ripple through the facility as two stormtroopers step aboard a freight elevator. They ride up the levels in silence with their lightsabers tucked safely away beneath their white armor. Beside them, a trio of guards glance around in mild alarm, but continue on with their conversation. Their dark red fatigues are branded with an emblem that is not of First Order.
Rey spares a furtive glance up at Ben as another roll of flickers dim the lights lining the walls, this time stronger, more persistent.
Almost, he whispers to her.
They step off the ramp onto their floor just as the lights go out completely. Crimson backups kick on and an alarm blares. Then, that goes out, too. Shouts rise through the facility and both stormtroopers propel forward before the chaos can drive them back.
"Tico is pretty good." Ben pants from beside Rey, his tone absent of any sarcasm.
"You have no idea." Rey replies.
A sudden explosion rocks one of the lower levels and Rey has to grab onto Ben to steady herself. It thunders up through the metal like a leviathan roar and she grits her teeth against the sound.
"That would be Calrissian." Ben drawls. "I should have seen that coming."
Stormtroopers and other guards in the same maroon fatigues pour into the murky corridors, filing passed them in the pandemonium. Rey grabs hold of Ben's hand and jerks him forward in the opposite direction of the flow.
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Whatever is wrong with the Force stews Rey's blood as they approach the command center... and there is a high pitched ringing. Why did she not notice it before? It's getting louder. Her stomach turns and she seizes Ben's arm out of reflex, an unexpected feeling of nausea overtaking her. He grips her shoulder with his free hand and she can feel his hold trembling. She peers at the blaster in his other hand. It wavers.
"It's Hux." Ben growls. "Somehow... I don't know how he..." his voice trails off as another wave of nausea hits them both.
A prickling heat builds at the base of Rey's skull and she walks faster, her body teetering unsteadily. "We have to hurry!"
Ben staggers beside her, pulling her forward with his weight into a clumsy run. They read the Force regardless of the pain, sniffing out their target's direction as they move. A strange nest of barbed coils has taken hold of their minds. It squeezes them like the coils of a snake and Rey fancies more than once that her head will simply yield to the pressure, crunching into a thousand gory pieces.
"Just ahead!" Ben grits out.
But the pain is so intense. She can barely see around the swells of color clouding her vision. "Ben," she moans, the modulator distorting his name.
"Stay focused!" he hisses.
They cross through an open archway to a wide-mouthed balcony. A wall of windows lies beyond it and for a breath Rey thinks her mind gets lost in the storm clouds outside, drawn in like a moth to a flame. The energy outside of the large room feels serrated and erratic and her skull pulsates with it. Through her haze, she sees Ben collapse to his knees, his hands pulling his helmet as the sound becomes unbearable, drilling into her ears, into her brain. She falls beside him, cupping her hands at the sides of her own helmet in a futile attempt to keep the sound out.
It continues to burrow, deeper and deeper, rattling her bones like thunder. Or is that real thunder?
Ben successfully rips his mask away and jerks his head around, eyes scanning, but Rey knows he can scarcely see. Eventually, she is able to hook her shuddering fingers under the lip of her own headgear and she quickly shoves it away, sweat smearing across her face.
Our sabers! We need to draw our sabers!
Something shakes the facility—possibly another explosion from Lando, though Rey cannot tell. Her mind feels emptied, stripped all the way down to the quick. Even her bones feel hollow.
"Rey!" Ben husks out, but he's floating away now... or maybe she is.
Everything seems so out of reach.
"Well, well, well. This is unpleasant, however, unsurprising."
Hux.
Rey glares upward, hoping her eyes can focus. She finds him at last; there, about ten paces away to their right. The balcony's edge. He leans against the railing watching them, his arms folded over his chest and his stare glittering.
"I should have known better than to trust anyone else with getting rid of you two." Hux's voice moves, circling them. "If you want something done right, you always have to do it yourself."
Ben twists beside her, attempting to aim his blaster, but it slips through his convulsing fingers and clatters to the floor. The hastening cadence of surrounding men alerts Rey that her own blaster would be a useless route. Ben lets out a snarl of frustration and attempts to get to his feet, though he falls back down, lips quivering and spittle dripping to the floor.
"This is rather poetic, Ren. Don't you think?" Hux is closer, much closer. "After all, it was your folly that allowed FN-2187 to release the rebel scum in the first place. Now look at you. I would say fate has a sense of humor after all."
Rey slides her hand along her waist aiming for her saberstaff when something hard connects with her temple. She hits the floor with a brutal thump and black stars erupt over her swirling vision, pain spreading over more pain. Perhaps if her head imploded from the pressure it would be better. Maybe then, she could think straight.
Someone else approaches through the archway from the corridor, choppy, hastening footsteps. Low voices. Then Hux.
"There has to be more than just one. Find the others!" he orders. "Take as many men as you need and find them!"
Lando... Rey's heart squeezes in agony. Somewhere far away, she feels Ben's own fear spike and she claws for mental clarity.
Hux approaches them again, standing directly in front of Rey. His scent wafts over her, stringently clean skin, pressed material, but no hint of warmth. It occurs to her that Hux smells inhumanly hygienic. She dares a glance up at him, the shifting light of the storm hurting her eyes.
"You have been a thorn in my side from the moment you left that second-rate junk planet." he spits venomously.
She grins coldly. "A thorn does what a thorn can."
Another blow, this time from her back. Her jaw slams into the floor and her teeth clamp into her tongue unexpectedly. Ben, clear of mind for the first time, growls like a wild animal and wrenches up to his feet. Rey tastes blood and it somehow brings her back, connecting her head to her body. Ben lands a solid punch to one trooper, knocking him unconscious before the others are upon him, striking his chin, his shoulder, his knee. He can do little more than throw his hands out in front of him to cushion his landing.
"Search them. Take whatever weapons they're hiding." Hux intones.
Damn!
"I'll keep them alive for a little longer." he continues. "I want them to see it."
Thinking fast, Rey centers all her mental focus onto the window, pushing it hard. A crack suddenly spiders over its surface as, at the exact same time, a parallel crack splinters through her mind and she doubles over, screaming.
"Rey!" Ben hollers, but his voice is swimming, broken and overlapping.
"Bring down the shutters! Bring them down!" Hux shouts hysterically. "We can't risk the storm! Shut them!"
Rey realizes hazily that the storm is how Hux has been able to nullify her Force abilities. The storm. The storm. Though, it isn't just any storm and the window isn't just any window. It's a magnetic mirror. The facility is the nucleus... and it is already damaged. Pierce the membrane of the core and the balance of the organism is shattered.
Ben, she presses through their connection, the agony in her skull pounding like a drum. Ben... the window. Now!
His signature curls around her, through her, and her awareness surges forward, hammering against the reinforced durasteel glass like a psychic battering ram. More cracks spider out. Again. An alarm shrills. Again. Again. Rey grits her teeth, growling a low animal sound as she feels Ben drive their combined energy forward one last time.
The deafening crash is everywhere, all encompassing, and the unseen coils unravel from her mind like harmless smoke. She's on her feet instantly along with Ben, her saberstaff drawn. Blasters aim for their chests, but a new explosion, one very close to their location, rocks the facility. Lightning clashes before the jagged view of the window, so bright Rey's eyes throb with it, and then the throng of stormtroopers are on them.
Rey swings low, aiming for unsuspecting knees and takes out three in one swipe. Ben blocks a blaster shot from hitting her and decapitates the shooter. As she turns to stand back-to-back with him, she notes several of the guards fleeing, Hux among them. Reading her, Ben pivots, throwing his hand out ahead of him and ripping it backwards in a claw-like motion. As if on a string, Hux is dragged astern, legs flailing and face contorted in pain.
Rey takes out the final guard at Ben's exposed flank and spares a cursory look around. Alone.
Thunder rumbles ominously as Hux chokes wetly, spit and blood glistening on his lips.
"You will call off your First Order attack. You will tell your troops their leader has been conquered and you will yield." Ben's words are cold steel.
"It's over Hux." Rey deactivates her weapon. "There's no need to cost more innocent lives."
He glowers up at them, his fists balled at his neck. "No."
They could make him, easily if they wanted, but Rey knows Ben wants Hux to willingly submit.
"I make this offer only once." Ben says evenly. "You yield and I let you live."
Rey's eyes flit to him. Mercy? He is allowing Hux mercy? She does not know how to feel about such an idea.
"Do you take my offer?" Ben asks, eyes resolute.
Hux's expression shifts to a malicious grin. "It must be excruciating for you to say that to me." The words come out flatly. "It must tear at your insides."
Ben remains dangerously still, his weapon downcast.
"It's more than the Rebellion would give you!" Rey snaps. "More than I would!"
"Rey." Ben warns, eerily calm.
"Do you really believe they will welcome you back with open arms?" Hux coughs. "You are still their enemy, even if you've been fucking their precious Jedi whore!"
Ben suddenly charges forward, hoisting the man up by his throat with bare hands and a grip of pure animal ferocity.
Hux sputters laughter, blue eyes wild. "Kill me! Go ahead! Kill me!"
Rey thinks for a moment that Ben really means to do it, to snap his adversary's neck and end it there. Seconds tick by. Another blinding flash of lightning, the thunder resounding through the air. And in the end...
He drops him to the floor.
Hux smears the spit from his mouth and glares up at Ben.
"You don't get out that easily." Ben murmurs, his voice lost to the storm, but his lips move clearly enough.
Rey breathes a sigh of relief, about to turn to Ben when—
The room suddenly rips in half as a massive fireball bellows up from the depths of the facility, sending all three occupants flying. For a suspended moment, Rey sees Ben's expression of shock as he is hurled in the opposite direction; she sees Hux, eyes wide and lips forming an unknown word as he is launched out into the storm. The distant consciousness of her mind shrieks in terror as she watches Ben's silhouette disappear into the roaring flames and she loses sight of him completely.
Then nothing.
Then darkness.
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Get up Rey!
She starts awake in a mass of fire and smoke. Her body protests avidly as she attempts to stand up and she falls back with a cry. Warm wetness trickles down her forehead. Blood. With as many times as she has hit her head, she wonders truthfully if there will be any lasting damage. If she lasts at all, that is. Surrounding flames lick at her body, their stifling heat blistering her skin even beneath her layers of armor and clothing.
"Ben!" her voice cracks.
No answer.
Panic races through her veins and she tries to get up again. She eventually succeeds with a grimace.
"Ben!"
The smoke burns deep in her lungs and she covers her mouth with her hand.
Where are you? she calls through their bond. Answer me!
"Ben! Ben!" Each shout cuts at her throat. "Ben! Where are you? Answer me! Ben!"
"Rey!"
Distant.
"Ben?" she runs forward, almost tripping over fallen debris. "Ben!"
"Rey!"
She can feel him now, a frantic pulse in the chaos, and she nearly rushes full tilt over the freshly made chasm which was once the command center. Smoke and storm clouds converge, lightning stabs at her eyes and she sees him. Out across the gaping abyss of fire, he stands at the opposite ledge, embers floating up in front of him. A momentary flash of Star Killer calls up from the hidden passages of memory and she grabs at her chest.
"Get back to the others!" he yells. "This place is falling apart!"
Rey shakes her head, anger seizing her. "No way in hell I'm leaving you!"
"Dammit! Don't argue with me!" He snarls. "I'll meet you, but you have to find the others! We don't have long before this place—
Flames bellow up in front of them, the roar smothering his voice and the fire blocking him from view.
"Ben!" Rey shouts, heart pounding.
"Go Rey!" His words are lost again to the howl of the fire, but she can make out one final, "I'll meet you at the Falcon!"
With everything inside of her screaming in protest, she turns... and runs.
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He'll make it, she tells herself. You know he will. Find the others, Rey.
With her eyes darting frantically in search of Rose, a frazzled Lando Calrissian takes her by complete surprise. She collides into him at full speed, sending both of them into the nearby wall. He cries out in surprise as she grasps his arm to steady him and he stares down at her with open horror. A fresh bruise darkens his right cheek and the shoulder of his cape is singed and frayed. Ten extra years seem to have been worn upon his face.
"Damn kid. You look..." he trails off, glancing behind her. "Where's Ben?" Alarm laces his voice.
"We got separated." Rey pants. "He's heading for the Falcon. Where are Rose and Chewie?"
"Already out. They're bringing the Falcon to the Hangar. I came back looking for the two of you." Lando replies and peers back behind her again despite her words.
"We don't have a lot of time. Come on!" she urges, jerking him with her.
The hangar, Ben! Go to the hangar! Marker, let him hear her. Please.
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The Falcon sits waiting for them under a yawning hole that was once a roof. Now it is nothing more than twisted, cauterized durasteel. The wreckage of other ships belch acrid fumes and rolling fire, casting the massive cavity in a hellish orange dance of light. Lightning strikes in the clot of red clouds above and Rey thinks for a moment she has fallen into the barren wasteland of Torment.
Rose waves her arms desperately at Rey and Lando the second she spots them. "Move!" she shouts.
As they reach her, Rose's eyes search for Ben. "Where is he?" she asks, face hard.
"He's coming." Rey nods emphatically. "I can still feel him. He's alive."
"He better be." Lando growls roughly, looking around at the ruined environment. "And he better move his ass. We don't have much time."
None of them proceed up the ramp into the Falcon and Rey will later realize that they were as worried for Ben's welfare as she was. But for now, she furls her hands into fists at her sides and waits, the attention of her mind focused on the shivering, blazing spark of Ben's signature within the Force.
Lightning dazzles the three of them and they shield their eyes.
Minutes tick by.
Another flash in the sky, this time followed on the heels by a stupefying boom of thunder.
All three of them flinch.
"Rey?" Rose asks.
"He's closer." Rey exhales a quivering breath, her heart still wedged in her throat from the thunder.
"If he doesn't show up in the next three minutes I'm going ba—
An all too familiar signature suddenly flares up in the Force and Rey sees the path of blue too late. A blaster bolt cuts through the smoke straight for Lando and she whips around, centering on the glare of hateful, cerulean eyes.
Hux!
She turns, igniting her saberstaff and propelling herself in front of Lando when the bolt suddenly freezes in midair. Relief floods through her veins as Ben steps out from the curling smoke, his face ashen and haggard but alert, though her relief abruptly vanishes when Hux jerks around and charges at Ben. The two crash out of sight in the haze and the blaster bolt wavers. Rey hastily yanks Lando out of the way as Ben's hold on it releases and it pangs off the wall behind them.
"That bastard!" Rose yells.
"Ben!" Lando cries. "Where did they go?!"
Rey darts ahead blindly in search of them. She finds them wrestling near the edge of a drop, the background of open sky a roiling apocalypse. Her stomach tangles into knots and she wonders why Ben has not drawn his lightsaber. Where is his lightsaber?!
Hux aims the blaster again, but Ben knocks it free from his hand and sends it clattering over the edge. She notes that her lover's movements are uneven, aimless, the mental and physical exhaustion grinning out at her like brazen markers. And Hux sees them, too.
Confirming her suspicions, Hux draws a dagger and her body is moving at once. She howls like an animal as she bears down on him, fear and anger and desperation all snarled up into a single thought: I cannot lose him!
Hux's expression broadens with that same malicious grin as he faces Rey and it all happens in an instant. Rey's saberstaff swipes downward, missing Hux by centimeters and a bloodied hand grabs a fistful of her shirt. Her eyes widen as it pulls, using her momentum and tipping her over the edge. Hux's bloody face bares more of his teeth at her as he drags her with him, intending to pull them both to their death.
Somewhere, Ben's horrified shout enters her mind and she wonders offhandedly if this is what fate has always intended for her. She can't complain. After all, she would gladly chose this death over a lonely, withered life on Jakku. At least here, she has found happiness.
Without warning, another body appears between them, breaking Hux's hold on her and shoving her backward. She can feel the use of the Force as her shirt rips and a gasp leaves her throat. Ben locks eyes with her. Panic clutches her chest as his own body angles outward, slipping over the edge, and behind him Hux stares in slack-jawed amazement.
Rey scarcely feels the bark of pain up her spine as her rear hits the floor and she skids several yards away from the precipice. Rose crouches at her side as Lando runs for the edge, shouting for Ben, and Rey's heart does a frightening thing. It goes silent.
Everything seems to slow down, the world around her undulating in lazy currents of time. Inside her, she feels a scream building, the heart unbeating in her chest beginning to splinter, beginning to break.
Then, as if touched by an exposed wire, energy crackles through her veins, launching her heart into a gallop. She's on her feet, bolting toward the drop.
"Rey!" Rose calls, but Rey ignores her.
I cannot lose him! her mind repeats, over and over, a demand, an appeal... a whimper.
Shoving Lando aside, she raises her hand with clawed fingers, beckoning out toward Ben's upturned expression, his raven hair rippling with the wind. Drawing on all her energy she reaches for him, imagining his body as a feather, light and weightless. Her teeth pierce viciously into her already wounded tongue as she focuses, her mind wrapping around him like protective wings.
Lando's exclaim of shock goes unnoticed as she feels Ben's descent slowing, a half-crazed laugh bleating from her lips. It's working! It's work—
One final explosion roars up through the facility and Rey's single thought before the blackness is to protect Ben, to shield him.
.
.
Are you sleeping? Rey?
I can still feel your heartbeat. Wake up, Rey.
.
.
"Let me in there! I want to see her! Now!"
Rey blinks, feeling strangely as if she is absent a body. And a mind, for that matter.
"Finn! Calm down! You can see her when she wakes." A woman's voice. Rose.
"It's been a month," comes another. Another man, older. Lando.
She wonders at that statement. A month? A month since what?
"No one knows why she fell into a coma, or when she'll come out of it. And that's not something you can control, Finn. Relax, alright."
Poe. Rey tries to turn her head to study her environment, but a sudden, sharp pain pries at her skull.
"Let me see her, or I start swinging." Finn snarls.
"Captain, no one is admitted to see the patient right now. I'm afraid all of you will have to leave the infirmar—
A fleshy thwack resounds throughout the room.
"Finn!" Rose exclaims in horror.
"Dammit Finn!" Poe echoes.
"Just let us see her." Lando says. "What's the harm in that?"
"Why don't you step aside and have that nose looked at." Poe whispers to someone.
Departing, angry footsteps. Then, a group of approaching ones, all equally hesitant and eager. Rey blinks again as fuzzy shapes float into her vision.
"She's awake." Finn utters breathlessly. "Rey! Can you hear me?"
She scowls. Where is—ah, there he is. Rey looks to the foot of her bed. Finn. She smiles, but the smile falters. Why does he stand so far away? A fragmented train of images pass through her mind and she recalls how last they had parted. Oh... Tears well up in her eyes.
"Finn," she murmurs, her voice reedy and dry. Thirsty. Maker, is she thirsty. "Finn, I'm so sorry." the last work breaks over her lips and the tears fall with it.
His face shifts through several emotions and then he is pushing people aside and coming to her. His arms close gently around her shoulders and he presses a kiss to her forehead. "Don't you ever apologize to me again, do you hear me?"
She nods heedlessly, her mind a building storm.
A storm.
Where is she? The last thing she remembers is...
"I don't care. I don't care. You're back and your safe and you're awake now. Those are the only things I care about." Finn prattles on incoherently.
"Back? Back from...?" her words trail off.
A storm.
Finn kisses her forehead a second time and her heart freezes in her chest, everything crashing into her at once.
"Ben! Where is he? Where's Ben?" Rey bolts upright, the sharp pain attacking her skull again, but she grits through it, demanding, "Where is Ben?! Where?! Tell me!" Her voice diminishes to a screeching whisper. "I want to see him! Now!"
"Rey." Rose's hand clasps her shoulder. "He... he was lost."
"We barely made it off that planet with our lives." Lando says with lowered eyes.
"When that last explosion hit, everything went up. There was nothing but fire and you..." Rose swallows back tears. "I couldn't wake you up. I didn't know what to do. And Ben... he was just gone."
Every word is like a knife to her heart, but she refuses to acknowledge the agony they inflict. Instead, she sits up straighter, chin lifted, stubbornly adamant. Rose is not lying, but she is wrong. Ben is not lost. How can he be? She can still feel—
"There's something else." Poe speaks up for the first time. She drags her wet gaze to him and notices an awkward shift in his stance. He swallows, glancing at his shoes for an eternity before eventually muttering, "You're pregnant."
The world around her ebbs away her jaw drops open in shock and white noise fills her ears.
.
.
I've found the place you wanted to meet me. Remember? The ocean. The island. It's exactly like you pictured in your mind.
I can understand why Luke had wanted to die here. It's peaceful.
Are you sleeping again?
.
.
Rey toys with the silver memory drive Maz had given her as she glances out at the celebration. A month. Her other hand drifts down over her belly and an overwhelming sense of protectiveness sweeps through her. They all know she refuses to accept what they feel is the truth. That Ben Solo is indeed dead.
Her eyes flit to the memory drive, then back to the laughing people outside. Tears rim her eyes and she quickly blinks them away.
With the fall of the First Order, the galaxy is experiencing an indefinite period of jubilation, shouting and dancing and even welcoming those among the survivors of the fallen regime who are willing to let go of its ideology. Everyone is rejoicing, and though Rey feels the relief of that success, she sits quietly with her saberstaff in her lap and her stare aimed at the stars.
For now, she has decided to stay. Until the celebrations are over and her friends have found new paths for themselves, she will remain. After that...
A dull pain throbs in her chest. She will miss them, but she will return. One day.
Someone knocks at her door and she rises to open it, knowing she will find Poe's reluctant face looking back at her. "Come in." she says.
"Finn told me where you were." he clarifies, looking everywhere but her.
She nods. "I suspected."
He walks over to her window. "How are you?"
"Asking how I am is not not why you came here." she declares, her tone gentle.
"No." he agrees. "But you can humor me, right?" The smile that lights his face is the first one she has seen in a long time on him and it's beautiful.
She smiles back. "I had a bout of nausea this morning. I'm better now."
"Good." he says.
Silence.
Rey walks to the opposite side of the window to watch the celebration again.
"What makes you still hold out any iota of hope?" Poe finally asks.
She takes a deep breath, letting it out in a quiet sigh. "You have instincts as well as I do, Poe. You may not be have blatant Force abilities, but you trust in whatever is inside of you to fly. You trust those instincts even when everyone else is telling you otherwise."
He stares at her, contemplating.
She shrugs. "It's the same thing."
After a moment, his smile shifts into a genuine grin. "Well, despite the past, I hope you're right."
.
.
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THANKS FOR READING!
AND IF YOU'VE SPOTTED ANY ERRORS, PLEASE LET ME KNOW! (WRITING THIS BEAST TOOK ALL MY ENERGY.)