A/N: Ugh I am so sorry for this two-week slump. I had caught the flu and just now finally recovered. It really threw me in for a loop. Also, this chapter just did not want to be written. This has probably been the toughest chapter I've written so far. But it's also become the most essential and important chapter written.

So please, enjoy!

Chapter 10: Leap

The cadre of the Resistance sat around the dilapidated hanger of the old Empire base. Leia had called for the group together. The last couple of days, they have been able to finally breathe and grieve for the loss of their friends. Even if they had time on the Falcon. But they all knew that the time for mourning was truly over.

"My friends, the time for sorrow is over. But we've also had weeks on the Falcon to do so." Leia said looking at the sullen faces of the Resistance. She looked as regal as she could. Even if she was only in her grey flight suit, navy blue vest, boots, and braided hair. "I know we have suffered so much loss in these last couple of weeks. We are strong. But we must take this opportunity, at least, to try and recruit people for our cause. And, once again, take up arms against the tyranny of this New Order."

"I understand if you don't have it in you to fight anymore." Leia felt through the Force to read their emotions. Each person was scattered in their feelings. Verza wanted to go home to Coruscant to see her family again. Kodi was an orphan and had no home. Eryn wanted to continue to fight alongside Leia and fight in memory of her fallen friends. The others were mixed with wanting to stay and not knowing what to do. She knew they believed in the cause. But they also believed that the New Order had won the war. The small crowd remained silent.

"Ma'am, none of our allies have tried to even reach out to us. Offering no help." Eryn finally breaking the stillness. Her voice was apprehensive. "They have yet to even answer any of our messages."

"This is why we need to send them a reason to believe in us again." Leia looked at Rey. "Rey, I know I should have asked of you this privately. I truly apologize," Leia continued to look at the girl with her tired eyes.

Rey knew what the General was to ask of her.

"You are the first of a new breed of Jedi. We need people to see that the Jedi are no longer a myth. Maybe we can also find other force-sensitive people in the process, who have been in hiding, and help them understand the power they possess." The cluster of people murmured between each other.

"She is not some cattle to be auctioned off, General" Kora trying to defend Rey. Rey gave the girl an irritated look. She bit the side of her cheeks in disdain as the people around talked about her as she weren't in the same space.

"No one said anything about auctioning off, Kora!" Leia gritted her teeth and tightened her grip on her cane. "Just conversations with leaders and possibly building relations with new allies. Showing people that we haven't given up on them even when they've given up on us."

"You're asking Rey to risk her life. Our lives, ma'am," Finn finally interrupted. "Not to mention she's quite possibly the most wanted person in the galaxy."

"It's risky, yes. She can bring hope to the people." Leia pinched her nose in frustration. "The New Order has taken over countless planets, since Crait, draining them of their natural resources, leaving the people with nothing."

"General, I have a bad feeling about this," Poe said cautiously

"Says the man who disobeyed orders, in order to blow up a Dreadnaught for his own ego, and risked the many lives of our people." Leia's words cut through Poe like a fine slice from a vibroblade. The room became silent again.

Leia walked over to Poe and calmly placed her hand on the pilot's shoulder. She gave him a look any worried mother would give their child to try and comfort them. "I'm sorry, Dameron. We've all fought for so long and so hard. We can't give up now." She continued to walk through the faction.

"Again, I will understand if any of you want to leave now. I will not stop, nor try to convince you. This includes you, Rey." Leia walked over to where Rey was sitting, on top of an old crate.

Rey felt Leia's plea. She wanted to do everything to help her friends, her first family. Sacrifices needed to be made in order for this to happen. Including her safety.

"I'll do it," Rey said quietly

"I'm sorry?" Finn looked at his friend in horror. This feeling was mutual around the hanger.

"I said I'll do it" Rey affirmed, her voice a little louder

"You can't" Thek Roy yelled firmly.

"We can't risk the biggest asset we have!" Crev Synn agreeing with Thek

"If she's our biggest asset then why are we just letting her sit here and do nothing?" Verza argued, "I agree with General Organa, we need to show the people we are still with them."

Rey jumped off her crate with anger. Her friends kept speaking about her as if she weren't there. And it made her feel used.

"You are speaking of all this as if I don't have a voice in the matter" Rey screamed. All eyes on her now. "This is my choice! This is my life on the line. I know what I'll be risking to try and defeat the Order. You're all acting as if this something I haven't been doing."

All eyes, now guilty, looked away from Rey.

"I'm so sorry, Rey" apologized Lieutenant Connix. Rey crossed her arms and nodded in acceptance.

"Question General?" Cova Nell asked "If we are going to send Rey throughout the galaxy, how is she going to travel there? I mean we can't take the Falcon, it's too recognizable"

"And all the ships here pretty much inoperable" Rose added.

"Ladies, I'm very glad you" Leia smirked a confident smirk

Kylo stared out of the cockpit watching the endless blue light of hyperspace pass him by. He always felt at peace with flying through the darkness of space, it was his only enjoyable trait. Something he knew he'd inherit from his father, and was ok with. Growing up, Han taught him everything he knew about ships. How to fly them, how to manage them, how to fight with them. It was one of the happy memories that always made him fight with the Light inside. Han wasn't the best of fathers, Kylo knew this.

Flying calmed his maddening mind and shattered soul. This is where he felt some kind of peace until she came along. She turned his universe upside-down. She was filled with all the good the galaxy could possess. She was innocent and naive. But she was also strong and stubborn with a determined heart. Kylo was the bug and Rey was the light it was attracted to. He knew she was his equal. It was why he offered her to rule with him. To become Supreme Leaders, together.

'She'll see we're on the same side' Kylo took in a deep breath and rubbed his face out of stress.

With a flicker, the light of hyperspace slowed. The beeping of the console became muffled, the blurry lights blinked at a steady pace.

He inhaled sharply. Shoulders tensed. Heart raced. At his peripheral, there she was. Sitting there in the co-pilot seat, eyes closed, chin high, and legs crossed. Rey looked better than she had two days ago. Her hair was neatly pulled back, her clothes clean and crisp. Beads of sweat formed at her hairline.

Without opening her eyes Rey acknowledged him. "Ben"

"Don't call me that," Kylo cringed at the sound of his true name. There was a minute or two of silence before Rey opened one of her eyes and turned her head to Kylo.

Kylo tried to concentrate on the slow pace of blue light outside so he his anger wouldn't burst.

"It's your name is it not?" Rey calmly laced her fingers together across her lap.

"No, it's not" he shook his head "Ben is dead."

Rey rolled her eyes away from Kylo and shook her head. Silence took over, again, for a moment as their tension calmed.

"Meditation?" Kylo inquired, breaking the stillness.

"No. Not really," Rey said as she looked forward and closed her eyes again. "But I am a little distracted."

"Sorry" he shuffled in his seat.

"It's not you. I just…" Rey took in a deep breath of despair "I have these books that I sort of can't understand." Rey's face scrunched. Kylo found it a bit endearing.

"Books?" he asked, puzzled. "Are they not in Basic or binary"

"Well, yes and no. I just don't understand a lot of what they're trying to convey." She was frustrated as she looked to be changing the pages of the book. "I think it's what I deserve for stealing some really old Jedi books from Master Luke."

"You truly are a rebel, aren't you?" he puffed through his nose, a some-what beginning sound of a laugh escaped his mouth.

"You know how to do that?" Rey raised her brows in awe. For such a brooding man, she didn't think he had it in him to smile, let alone laugh.

"Do what?" Kylo curiously looked at Rey

"Laugh." She now looked at him brightly knowing her gut feeling never strayed her wrong about the man in front of her. He still had a light inside of him, she felt it.

"I'm only human, Rey." Kylo looked away. The way he said her name reverberated through her body. "These books, they don't happen to be the actual Jedi text?"

"That's what Master Luke had said," Rey shrugged. "They're actually written instead of on a datapad. They're quite beautiful."

"I remember." Kylo rose to his feet. He rose both arms above his head and stretched. His shirt lifted with him showing the bottom of his muscled torso. Rey couldn't help but stare. Kylo noticed and a small smile tugged at the corner of his lips. Rey immediately snapped her head and looked the other way.

Leia was worried more than ever. She knew the Resistance to be over. But she wouldn't let it die this way. These were her people. This was her family. She was going to protect them with everything she's got.

With a sudden pull. She felt a familiar presence. A presence she hadn't felt since the Raddus.

"Ben" Leia whispered, one hand gripping her cane, the other shakily covering her mouth. Tears welled in her old eyes.

She felt her son. But it couldn't be. This feeling was different than what she felt before she was exiled from the main bridge. Then, he was shrouded in darkness and anger, filled with sorrow and grief. Now? Ben felt different. He felt lighter. There was a solace. The Force around him and his emotions were quiet and collected. Leia had never felt this from her son before. Even when her belly was swollen with Ben, she had still felt the natural dark tendrils that wrapped him.

"Rey" a smile perked on her wrinkling face. Her heart leaped with the possibility of her son's return. This was the closest she's felt to her son Ben, and not Kylo, in a very long time. All she wanted to do was hug her boy again. Whom was now a man. She would do anything to have that chance given to her again.

This was the determination Leia needed. This was the hope she'd been searching for. This was her newest mission.

Bring Ben home.