Day 5
Despite the darkness of the night, she saw him coming from a great distance. The royal tomb was an enormous, arching stone gazebo-like structure on an island with a long, flat, graceful stone bridge reaching it. It was smack in the middle of the capital city of Theed, but as far as she had been able to tell, the several shuttles he'd landed with had gone through the normal process at port. As it had turned out, there was nothing secret about his trip here, except for his meeting with her.
There were faint lights at intervals along the edge of the bridge. He was a moving shadow across it, walking purposefully and alone. The two plain-clothes guards who had accompanied him stayed at the far end. Whether they were his own or assigned by the Naboo government, she didn't know. He himself was dressed much as he'd been each time she'd seen him before – all in black, except he'd changed his cloak for charcoal grey. It was the traditional color for mourning on Naboo.
His hood was up, but she would have known him anywhere. She knew the way he walked even though she'd rarely seen it. It was clumsy and awkward and somehow graceful and predatory at the same time. It was the sexiest thing – just watching him come to her. At the moment, he was covering ground quickly. She wished she could go out and meet him, but as she could see the guards he'd posted, they would be able to see her if she stepped out. She kept herself hidden, but she knew he felt her presence.
Rey found her heart pounding just to see him, for real this time, with no more distance between them than what was left of the bridge. She remembered the hug she'd exchanged with Finn when he'd escaped the mine on Crait. There had been no reservation. But although she'd been thrilled to see him, it wasn't the same thing as when she looked at Ben. Not the same thing at all! She felt suddenly shy, worried about the impression she'd make, excited about everything Ben Solo.
He stopped as he reached the island and threw back his hood. He looked in her direction. They were some five long strides apart. At this distance, the guards wouldn't be able to identify her as anything but a humanoid form unless they had scopes. She came closer, approaching him slowly, looking up at his handsome, pale face. The scar on his face had healed to no more than a line.
His hair was styled differently. He'd worked an Alderaanian mourning braid into it and obviously done it himself as it wasn't very tight or good. The attempt came off as endearing. The rest of him was similar to how he'd been when she'd seen him last in person, but his expression was more controlled and less raw. He looked a bit more worn in real life than he did in the Force bond. He looked more real, at peace with his flaws, and less idealized.
In person. They were here in person! She was only a step away from him now. He had said nothing, but followed her every motion with his eyes. He was big, just as Finn had remarked. Wide. His sheer size had impressed her before, in the forest on Takodana and again on Starkiller Base. He could easily be intimidating in the darkness, but she wasn't afraid. She knew how he felt toward her.
She reached out to him. He immediately pulled off his glove and offered his hand. She let hers slide slowly over his, skin ticklish. Desire moved her. As they touched, a wave of Force power flowed over her, taking her breath for a moment and making flesh prickle. He seemed similarly effected.
He curled his fingers around hers very gently. They'd never touched like this, ever. Not physically. Not in the flesh. She supposed Kylo had carried her to his shuttle on Takodana and obviously someone had put her in restraints, but aside from a hand on her back to direct her into Snoke's throne room, and another moment of body contact while fighting the guards, he'd never touched her when she was conscious. They'd touched hands through the Force, she'd put an arm around him, touched his face and tried to stroke his back, but he was right – it wasn't the same as the real thing.
She smiled up at him and he down at her. She loved that smile. She had a feeling she was the only one who had seen it like this, warm and affectionate, for years. For a long moment, they basked in one another's presence. Then she switched his hand to her other and led him to the base of one of the pillars where Leia's name had been etched into the stone. She gave his hand a squeeze. He looked from her to the stone, then knelt and removed his other glove so he could run his fingers over the freshly graven name.
"She was like a mother to me," Rey said quietly. She saw Ben's head tilt down and his fingers fall.
"She was … less so, to me. But she was still my mother. The only one I had. I am proud to be her son." He looked at the blank blocks near the one he knelt in front of. "Do you think I should have something marked for Luke?"
"He said he didn't want to leave that island. Ever. If you did, I wouldn't put it here unless it's the custom to list all the relations." With everything that had happened, she had not had a chance to do much research on Naboo burial customs. She'd worn her best outfit (which wasn't saying much – it was the same that she'd had on for the trip to the Supremacy) and a mourning token an official with the Naboo government had given her after they'd landed. She already had grey in her outfit. But she hadn't thought about how to, or if, they should memorialize Luke. "He's one with the Force now," she added. "I think that's all he would have wanted."
"It's all anyone can ask for." Ben looked over his shoulder at her. "Ach-To can be his final resting place, then." Haltingly, he said, "If it is possible, I will observe their wishes."
She nodded. "I'll give you some time alone." She moved away, over to where she'd stowed her knapsack and staff.
"No," he said anxiously. "I want to be with you." He followed to join her, sitting cross-legged as she did. He scooted close until his knee just barely touched hers.
Rey gave him a long, absorbed look – at his eyes, his hair, his cheeks, his lips – then back to his eyes. He watched with rapt attention. She reached out again and he jumped to meet her hand, just as he had before. He held his hand still as she touched it, exploring him in the flesh the way she'd so often dreamed in the few days that had passed since this bond had formed between them. A small smile turned up the corners of his mouth. He hooked his pinkie finger over one of hers, tangling their hands together as the smile grew.
She smiled warmly, amused, and pulled her hand back. "I have to ask something - I some concerns and I don't know how to be delicate about this. I can wait until later if you prefer."
He gave her a sidelong look and a smile that was just as amused as hers. "When have you ever been delicate? Just tell me. I have been reading the minds of my subordinates lately to get a better understanding of how I should lead. I'm sure you won't say anything as provocative or insulting as some of what I've had to sit through."
"Okay, then." She took a deep breath. "I heard that you arrived with … eighteen star destroyers and two dreadnoughts. If you don't count Snoke's flagship, that's a more formidable a force than Snoke used when he tried to wipe out the Resistance."
"The Resistance had one capital ship and a few support vessels," Ben said. "Naboo has an excellent planetary defense system. I had originally thought I'd come alone, quietly, spend a day and return. But my advisors strongly recommended against." He sighed. "The only practical way I could come quickly was to make it a state visit."
"You arrived early," she chided him. "I want to be harsher about this, but I know we didn't agree on a time and technically, you did arrive 'after the funeral'. But I was expecting that to be a few days later and not, like, an hour. Not everyone in the Resistance had time to leave Naboo. In fact, most of them are still here and they feel trapped."
"There is no embargo," he said defensively. "My ships are merely parked. As long as no one shoots at us on their way out, they can leave whenever they please."
She shook her head slowly. "Ben, this sounds so much like it was engineered. Like you took my words and twisted them."
"I did not. I swear."
"What are we to do? Fly out and have you catalog everyone's vessels? All you have to do is make a log of who leaves and then investigate later. The First Order won. Everyone's terrified of what you'll do next."
"Have them just wait, I suppose. I'll meet the Naboo royalty tomorrow and leave." He sighed and pursed his lips, looking uneasy. "Hux wants me to demand tribute. I don't believe I will. It seems so … inappropriate."
"Tribute? For what? A reward payment for destroying the Senate? You should be visiting the markers for those of Naboo who were on Hosnian Prime when Starkiller Base took it out." Her voice turned severe for a moment. "It seems inappropriate because it is, Ben. If anything, the First Order owes the galaxy!"
"I can't argue that. Like I said yesterday, it goes so far back."
She wrapped her hand firmly around his. He jumped a little and looked at her with big eyes. "Then stop carrying it forward! You're right – don't ask for tribute; you should be offering restitution instead."
"That's too far," he said quietly. "We don't have the resources … for that."
"You don't have the resources to say you're sorry for killing billions?"
"That's not what you said. I can offer condolences. But not payment."
"It's not about money," she said.
"Yes, it is. Or at least, it's about resources. We don't want tribute as some token of dominance. I-" He shut his mouth, looking away.
"What?" Rey asked. Ben glanced at her and then looked away again. She put her other hand on his, holding his hand in both of hers now. "Ben, you wanted me to join you." She stroked his hand. "That's not what's happening, but we are working together. I trust you. I think I love you."
That brought him around, his lips parting, his eyes wide. Rey reached up and put her hand to his cheek, guiding him forward as she leaned in. Their lips touched and it was electric, lighting her up within. He made a soft and desperate sound of wanting and then he was pushing forward, kissing harder. Rey's hand slid past his cheek into his hair, making a shameless fist there and pulling to keep him from crowding her. He would bowl her over if she let him. She tasted him with a growl, then the possibility that they were about to do something even more involved in front of Ben's mother's tomb stopped her.
Rey tilted her head down to end the kiss, panting. Ben swallowed roughly and waited, his hand moving restlessly on her forearm. Growing up on Jakku, Rey had not had the opportunity to learn many social graces, but certain things were universal. Showing respect to Leia did not include making out with her son in front of her grave. It also didn't include seducing said son, who had gone through hell the last two weeks, to a degree she couldn't even imagine. Rey said quietly, "You're compromised right now. This isn't fair to you."
"I'm always compromised with you," Ben said huskily. She could hear him breathing, feel it against her temple. His lips touched there, grazing over her skin so softly that she moaned and shut her eyes while he did it. It was Ben that pulled back, slowly canting back to a normal posture. His eyes were on her constantly. She could feel them even though she was looking down at his hand, which had slid down her forearm to return to her grip.
"I was just saying," she struggled to say, "that I want to help you. Not in extorting Naboo, but in … ruling the galaxy. You're not going to succeed through oppression. We will oppose you. I will oppose you."
Ben shook his head. "I don't want to be another emperor. I don't want this to be an empire. Right now all we're doing is consolidating. Repairing ships. Other … things."
He was still leaving something unsaid, but if the kiss and the offer of help didn't get him to speak, then she resolved to leave it alone. "Tell me then, what are you going to go over with the king tomorrow?"
He sighed and looked chastised, like a boy whose teacher was scolding him about unfinished homework. "I don't know."
"Could I help you figure it out?" Rey offered.
He looked up at her in surprise. "Yes. That might … help. Yes."
"What are you trying to accomplish? If it's not demanding tribute, but you're interested in resources, are there things you need to purchase? An advance on taxes or something? Finances aren't my specialty, but we can talk this out."
He chuckled. "It's not mine, either. Logistics, sourcing, arms dealers, funding, project management!" Ben rolled his eyes and rubbed at his face with his free hand. "That's not what I trained in. Hux would do it all for me if I wanted, but that's how I ended up with an armada in orbit and me down here trying to figure out how to avoid mugging my grandmother's people. And we're only that light-handed here because he thinks I'm too 'sentimental' about my mother's passing. If it were up to him, this would all be an ultimatum at the end of a blaster."
"Ignore him for now. What do you want the First Order to do?"
Ben pursed his lips and focused, staring forward as he spoke. "The First Order's mission is to bring civilization and stability to the galaxy. Ideally, to return us to the Galactic Republic that reigned for over a thousand years. We're living in ruins now. Entire planets mined out, populations enslaved, organized crime and warlords, smugglers and thieves everywhere. I'm the most powerful man in the galaxy and I literally cannot come to a supposedly peaceful client planet without my keepers worrying that I will go missing if I do not have half of a fleet waiting in the wings." Ben tilted his head at her. "Do you know … how strange that is?"
"I don't know what to say to that. That's how it's always been in my life."
"I suppose they didn't teach history on Jakku."
"I know things!" she said with teasing indignation, swatting his knee with a smack from one hand while still holding his with the other. His shocked expression at the blow made it worth it, but only because he then made a low chuckle, gave her a toothy smile very different from his previous ones, and let his eyes roam over her face like he wanted to kiss her again. They both fell silent, watching each other. Rey made a note to herself that striking Ben (something she'd done repeatedly through their interactions, with lightsabers, blasters, and anything else she could get her hands on) obviously did not put him off. She started to lick her lips. He started to lean towards her. "Maybe," she demurred, "I know some things, yes, but not history."
Ben shifted his weight back, sitting in a manner more normal for conversation rather than potentially kissing her. "Of course," he murmured, and it was one of the sexier things he'd said. He didn't sound disappointed. She knew it was him acquiescing, agreeing, and being polite about it. More normally, he said, "It's strange. And a sign of how unsettled these times are. That you grew up without access to a good education is another sign. That you grew up in a sort of slavery, as you recounted the other night. It must be stopped. It's not the galaxy the Order wants."
"Doesn't the Order have entire planets devoted to training stormtroopers from birth, and factories manned by slaves?"
"Yes." He sighed, shifted his weight, and then drew away from her to stand and pace. "I have to break that entire model somehow."
"Can't you just tell them not to?"
Ben kept pacing. "Ships, weapons, troops have to come from somewhere. I'd like to talk about having them come from the core worlds of the New Republic instead."
"Wait," Rey said, getting to her feet. "That's an option?"
He looked wary, but said, "Yes?"
"Am I understanding you right that transferring the First Order into the control of the core worlds is an option?"
"Control is different from supply, but yes, both are an option that I would like to discuss. If we started with supply, it will naturally progress into control."
"The Resistance is trying to organize something very much like that. We were talking about it today! They're going around to all the systems and trying to get them to sign on to a mutual defense pact, a sort of trade alliance, where we all agree to sabotage the First Order as much as possible – sell you bad munitions, tainted food, impure fuel, whatever we could get by with!"
Ben looked appalled.
"No, listen!" she continued. "There's no reason to vandalize everything if the Order is part of the same organization. That could be the start of the government! That alliance pact. They still needed to work out details, but at the funeral today, all of Leia's allies got together and agreed on the goal."
Ben continued to look ill. If anything, he looked worse.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes." He rubbed the lightsaber scar on his cheek. "Hux was right. The funeral was just a cover for our enemies to plot against us."
"We have to be able to trust each other, Ben. You and me. It's the only way we can work this out. If the Order had attacked during the funeral, there would be no chance at this. It's bad enough your ships are out there in orbit after I told everyone, gave them my word as a Jedi which apparently means a lot to them, that the Force had shown me they'd be safe."
"I did not know you had made those promises," he said quietly. At her widening eyes, he said, "But what I said earlier was true. They are safe, assuming they do not deliberately provoke us."
She nodded, glad to hear that and reassured. "We can work as a team on this. Even if we have to struggle at times and it's not as automatic as the things we do through the Force. We're both trusting each other, with no more than hope to go on. That makes this so fragile. But we'll make it work. Together."
Ben drew close to her and rubbed the outside of her arms lightly.
"Tomorrow," Rey continued, "when you're going to have your visit with the king and his councilors, you need to meet with the Resistance leaders as well."
His brows rose slightly. "Will they? Meet with me?" He was fondling her elbows, of all things. As much as she would have liked to have allowed that to continue, it was going to inevitably lead to much more. She pulled away.
"I don't know. I'll have to ask. What sort of promises can you keep?"
He swallowed and pursed his lips. "They can retain their safe passage. Aside from that, I don't know what promises they want. I want to talk; not fight."
"With those ships in orbit, they're going to be hard to convince to meet with you." She tilted her head. "You didn't answer my question. There's a High Command of the First Order. You've mentioned them before. You've mentioned that people might disobey you. You've also said it was Hux's idea to make this a military maneuver instead of a simple graveside visit. If any of these people know you're in talks with the Resistance leadership, what will happen?"
He frowned. "My grand marshal is an exceptionally obstinate man. If he thought I was betraying the First Order, he would have me shot from orbit. I don't think I would fare as well as Luke Skywalker under the sort of firepower he will put my way. Direct mental control is out of the question. He is entirely dedicated to the Order, much more than Gracynn."
"What if you bring him with you?"
"What?"
Rey repeated herself. "What if you bring him with you tomorrow? Let him be part of the talks. He can't order orbital bombardment if he's in the target area."
"I think you underestimate Armitage Hux, but it's a good idea. There's no way he can claim I'm a traitor if he's right there with me." Ben thought it over and nodded slowly. "Yes, I can do this. Hux has many of the same motivations that I do. He wants to accomplish them differently, but the goals are the same. It's worth trying. I'll return to the fleet tonight and bring him with me tomorrow."
