CHAPTER TWELVE: Swimming Lessons

Rey

"I can't decide if this place is beautiful or not," Court mused, picking through a pile of rubble at the base of a massive earthen spire. The mound itself, composed of clay so packed and hard it had become as unyielding as stone, was more like a mountain in its girth, but spun into a thin point at the top. A city had been built into it, winding along its edge in an ever steeper slope. The city existed largely within the structure, doors and arched passageways leading into it from the exterior streets.

Of course, most of that city was destroyed now. Hence the rubble.

Rey shielded her eyes against the sun as she stared up at the top of the natural cathedral.

"Yeah," she agreed. "It's different."

This was the third city they'd visited in so many days, and the third that housed only a few hundred suffering citizens. So much of it ought to be torn down, but Ben was right — she had been able to find a few key areas worth saving amidst all the wreckage. Those key areas were now being worked in to the reconstruction plan as heritage sites. As long as the meager Rylothian government agreed to it, of course.

They had not been eager to see five star destroyers appear in orbit. Most of their able-bodied fighters were off assisting the Resistance, so they didn't have much defense to mount against a possible attack. They had no choice but to receive Kylo Ren and begin talks with him about his plans for their planet.

Court removed the broken remains of a stringed instrument, frowning. "Kriff, this is so sad. These people had a life here, you know? Like they really lived here. Families. Are they all enslaved? I mean, where are they?"

This was the first time Court had joined her on one of these expeditions to see a ruined city. The rest of the reconstruction team was still inside, poking around, but Rey had seen what she needed. She wanted the fresh air of outside. She'd been wading through the sadness that now struck Court so deeply for enough days now that she was becoming used to the weight of it.

"Many are, yes," she said softly. "Some are with the Resistance. The rest moved to the capital. Only the holdouts still live in these places."

"A giant termite hill," scoffed Court. "I'd want to go to the other place too. It seems nice there. Mountains and trees and stuff. This is…" She shook her head.

Ben had sent her to the capital to bring the representatives from Ryloth every time there was a meeting. Court had become familiar enough with the place over the last few days. Rey couldn't deny, she liked it better too. The dangerous animals and thermal activity of the surface forced most the inhabitants of Ryloth to live in caves and high, sheltered places. Like this earth-tower. But the current capital sprawled over an isolated mountain plateau, safe from dangers, near the last remaining Ryll mine that gave life to their limping, dying economy.

"Yeah," Rey agreed again, turning her gaze to the sweeping, dusty hills around them. The hot winds occasionally bore a sulfuric smell, the hallmark of this region, and vegetation dotted the brown landscape in feeble effort to spice the place with life. Unlike Court, she didn't wonder why anyone would settle here. She knew that life would spread to even the most unlikely places, defying good sense and flourishing where it had no right to do so. No doubt that's what happened here. But then they'd been raided, abducted, and destroyed.

Ryloth had been subjected to more or less endless waves of tyrannical occupation since before the Empire, from both the Hutts and later Separatists trying to seed discontent in the Outer Rims. Despite their once-bountiful resources, the little planet had suffered from its key position in the wild, outlaw territories of distant space, rarely patrolled or monitored by governments who should have protected them. But it was one thing to know the history in a purely academic sense, and it was another to stand on its wasted surface and see it firsthand.

In many ways, Rey was glad to have come here. She was glad Ben wanted her on his reconstruction committee. Suddenly the wealth buried in the mountains of Jakku seemed so much more important than ever, knowing it would help places like this.

"Hey," said Court, nudging her. "You okay?"

Rey drew a deep breath, trying to cleanse herself of the melancholy mood these expeditions always produced. "Yeah. I'm just…I'm glad we're going to change things here."

"Me too. Come on, if you're done, I'll take you back to the capital."

The rest of the crew could finish the survey without her. She'd make her recommendations, which they would inevitably agree to, and they'd do the whole thing again tomorrow. Ben had been right about their reaction to her presence among them. They were too nervous about her black magic abilities, as they perceived them, to put up much of an argument when she gave her assessment of a place. She still didn't like being the object of so much fear, but it was working to her advantage right now.

She followed Court back to the shuttle. The two red troopers who always accompanied her on these things as her body guards were already waiting there by the gangplank. They fell in behind as the two women passed them, boarding and drawing up the ramp in preparation for takeoff.

Inside the shuttle, three passengers had already been seated. They looked up nervously when the group entered and Court swept by, her tiny co-pilot leaping along ahead of her to get started on the liftoff procedures. Rey paused and glanced at them.

"Are you alright?"

Every ruined city she'd visited had contained haunted faces of the people left behind, and every time she'd gone back with the dissatisfied feeling that she could have helped them more somehow. This time, she didn't have to go back with the survey team. This time, she had a private shuttle and a pilot who was in on her secret. So when the Force had wrenched her attention to this little family — a father, a mother, and a small female youngling — she finally felt free to act. She sensed their enormous need and knew without asking that they were on the brink of starvation, but too poor to afford transport to the capital where their prospects were better. The little girl, in particular, probably wouldn't last much longer and her parents were desperate for a way out. So Rey had approached them, spoken briefly with them, and offered seats on her transport if they were willing to leave this very day. They accepted, surprised and heartbreakingly grateful.

The whole reason they were here was her own doing, so she didn't understand why something about them made her feel utterly uncomfortable. Unsettled. Restless.

Maybe the fact that they were a family. She didn't really…do families. Not real ones, with two real parents. At least, she didn't think she did.

The father, orange of skin with two red-striped lekku and the sharpened teeth typical of Twi'lek males, spoke for them. "Yes, we're fine. I thank you again. How can we ever repay you?"

"Live," she said simply, moving off to the cockpit.

Perhaps he wanted something more eloquent. She didn't have it. Despite the great, urgent need to help them, she simultaneously wanted to distance herself from them as quickly as possible.

Court had approved of the decision to bring them along, even if it initially surprised her. When Rey sat down beside her, she glanced up from her controls.

"Checking in on the hitchhikers?"

"They're fine," said Rey softly.

"And you, Sonic?"

The Pamarthian was all about nicknames — and seeing more than perhaps she had any right to see. If Rey didn't know for certain she wasn't Force sensitive, she might be spooked by Court's perceptive observation.

"I'm okay."

"That wasn't convincing, but I'm gonna let you have that one. Just saying, though, it's nice of you to let them come along. It doesn't jive with the role you're supposed to be playing, but I still think it's awesome."

"We're trying to save their planet. It wouldn't make sense not to help this one family, especially when it costs us nothing." Plus, Rey knew, parents had a tendency to put themselves before their children when their own self-interest was on the line, and she wasn't entirely sure the little girl wouldn't end up sold to the next slaver who came along offering money for a big meal.

They seemed genuine, and the Force was surging when she spoke to them, but she still harbored her secret doubts.

"Trust me, I'm completely with you. You gonna tell Boyfriend Bossman about it?"

"Yeah." Rey didn't bother correcting her for the millionth time.

They lapsed into silence as Court lifted off. This friendship thing between them had sprung up rather quickly, but very naturally. It was easy for Rey to be with her, and easy to be honest with her. They hadn't talked at length about their pasts, but Court knew that Rey grew up an orphan on Jakku, and Rey knew that Court grew up in a nuclear family. One was a child of the desert, the other of the sea and sky. Court now knew that Rey could pilot most things just fine, and Rey knew that Court had wanted to be a racer before becoming a pilot for hire, but her brother's contraction of bloodburn ended that dream. While Rey was scavenging for her daily bread, Court was running jobs — both legal and illegal — all around the galaxy. Their backgrounds were as different as they could be, but somehow they managed to understand one another. Even the silences were meaningful.

So it didn't come as a great surprise when, a few minutes into their flight, Rey found herself confessing in a soft voice, "This is the first real family I've ever spoken to. The first one still perfectly intact."

Court glanced at her briefly. "Does that make you feel weird?"

"I think so." The little girl with her parents…it stirred up some hunger in Rey she thought she'd buried. It was tiresome, and a little sad, to remember the longing.

"You know…" Court spoke with carefully measured words. "Family doesn't just work backwards, in your past. It can work forwards too."

Rey's brow furrowed. "What does that mean?"

"Means you can have and be what you lacked. Might help. Pour your love into something to prove you are capable of loving and being worthy of love."

"This is both vague and deep. What kind of mood has gotten into you?" Rey peered at her, perplexed and a little amused. They didn't usually get this profound in their conversations.

"Nothing." Court laughed and eased forward on the throttle. "Go tell our passengers that we'll be landing in half an hour. Wait. That sounded like an order. I'm not ordering you — you're the employer. I'm just—"

Rey laughed too, cutting her off to stand and do as requested. Perhaps Ben would say they were becoming entirely too comfortable with each other, but Rey didn't mind. She was glad to have a friend. She missed Finn and Rose and Poe, and it helped to find a similar kinship with someone in this strange new life.

Back in the passenger hold, the family sat huddled together. The wife rested her head on her husband's shoulder, arm linked through his, fingers interlaced. He whispered soft comforts to her. The little girl leaned against her father's other arm, feet swinging, big violet eyes looking around the shuttle with undisguised wonder.

Rey cleared her throat, drawing their attention. "We'll be landing in thirty minutes."

"Thank you," said the husband earnestly.

The red stormtroopers hadn't removed their helmets, though Rey knew they were itching to do exactly that. They'd gotten used to casualness and informality with her when no one was around to see — and indeed, she encouraged it. But these passengers meant they had to maintain their disguise.

She glanced once more at the child before she turned to go. The youngling had facial architecture like her father, but her mother's teal skin. Her gaze met Rey's when she felt the stare, and the Force rippled. Rey felt it, whispering distantly. Not as clearly as she'd heard it with Temiri, but distinct nonetheless.

Quickly, Rey returned to the cockpit and found her seat. The unsettled feeling returned, stronger now. If that little shudder meant what she thought it meant...

Perhaps that was why she was supposed to save this family. That youngling couldn't be allowed to die, she had a destiny to fulfill.

And if there were two children in the galaxy through whom the Force flowed, that meant the cosmic power was rising in the next generation. Rey did not know her part in that, but she knew that it wouldn't be the same as those who came before. She wanted to help — not just the Force-sensitives who might spring up — but any who wanted to learn how to feel the ballet of energy. Rose had been able to do it, once Rey showed her how. Perhaps others could learn.

She needed to talk to Ben. He could help her sort through these thoughts.

Her thoughts slipped back to the parents, so tender with one another in their relief and happiness. They didn't seem like the kind to sell their child to save their skins. Maybe they were better than that.

An hour after landing, Rey wandered around the government complex, waiting for Ben. The family had gone, and Court had headed off towards a cantina. Only the troopers stayed with her as she explored. Her silent companions. She didn't need them for safety, and would have preferred to be alone with her thoughts, but they came with the whole charade of influence, so she let them stay. These theatrics were becoming tiresome. She wanted to be a nobody again.

Ben found her standing at the corner of two municipal buildings, staring up at the steep sloping mountain above them. Except for the Ryll mine and rock quarry, most of it was covered in thick forest, lush and green and full of promise.

When she felt him approach, warmth flooding through her psyche, she turned. He looked polished and fine, as always. Right now, in her disquieted mood, she missed his less formal look from his days in Resistance captivity. Or better yet, that ridiculous tunic gifted to him by the inhabitants of their convalescent moon. Back then, he looked a whole lot less dictator, and a lot more scoundrel.

He waved her troops off with a faint gesture, giving them permission to go. They didn't need to be told twice, and marched off without a second glance backwards. Despite their ability to be far more relaxed during their personal time, they knew that their employer still expected exact obedience while in uniform.

Rey leaned a shoulder against a wall and gave him a little smirk in greeting. "Not interested in having an audience?"

He closed the remaining feet between them, making a soft, deep growl in response as his hands found her waist and he drew her in for a kiss so fierce it surprised her.

"Whoa," she laughed when he broke away. "What was that about?"

"It's always about you," he said, tucking some of her hair behind her ear. "These are long days, that's all."

They were. She felt them too. Since arriving at the First Order, their time together had grown increasingly scarce day by day. He was busy being Supreme Leader, and now she was busy touring Ryloth. They still sought the comfort of each other's presence in the night, but it didn't really satisfy the void they were beginning to experience during the day. It felt so odd to miss him when they only spent several hours apart, but that was more than she'd had to endure since she'd found him dying on that moon. Except for their brief journeys to Naboo and Pamarthe, they'd spent nearly every minute of every day in each other's company. This new routine was uncomfortable.

"Yeah," she sighed. "Long days."

He glanced up at the mountainside she'd been considering. "Would you like to escape for a while?"

Surprised, she pulled out of his grasp and gave him a dubious look. "Don't you have a hundred things you ought to be doing right now?"

Ben shrugged. "They'll wait."

The prospect was tempting. She eyed the mountain again. Just the two of them, exploring the sylvan wild, shedding their pretenses and roles — it sounded like exactly the relief she needed after a day like this. The Twi'leks were afraid of dangerous beasts, but the thought didn't trouble her. She knew she and Ben could handle whatever came their way.

"Alright," she agreed. A shy smile stole across her face. "Let's go."

He played with a smile too, motioning for her to follow as he turned. She did. At the end of the block, they found a speeder, driver leaning against it, reading the daily news on a holopad. Ben hired him for a quick hop, and off they went, zipping towards the high wall which protected the city against outside threats. A large open gate controlled traffic in and out, mostly a thin scattering of refugees from devastated cities making their way to hope.

Ben and Rey disembarked, walking through these hungry, needy few to head off into the forest. Rey glanced at them, remembered the family, and experienced a twinge of agitation again. She frowned and stared at the road before her.

Ben removed his black leather gloves, tucking them into a pocket, and took her hand. His flesh was warm. It felt good against her own.

"Something's bothering you," he assessed.

She glanced up quickly, though after all this time, she really shouldn't be surprised that he could read her mood so well. Still, no need to hide the reason. He'd be able to search the answer out himself, if he wanted. "I brought a family from that city in the sulfur fields. They were too poor to make the trip on their own. They didn't ask — I offered."

He said nothing, waiting for her to continue.

"I'd almost forgotten families with two parents still together still existed." She knew he'd understand that well enough.

He nodded.

Rey let go of a soft breath trapped in her lungs. "And I think their child might…the Force felt strange around her. Like Temiri."

His brow lifted. "You think you found another?"

"Perhaps. I'm not sure. She was very young."

The road ended where the forest began, becoming only a dirt trail through the soft mahogany-colored earth. Deep green foliage and black trunks covered the mountainside, sheltering everything within from the glare of the sun and the noise of the outside world. The latter phenomenon hit Rey only a few strides into the inky depths. The sounds of the city, the eternal clanking of the Ryll mine, and the howling winds off the edge of the plateau vanished. In here, all sounds became muted. The air was fresher too. Rich and satisfying. Rey felt better after only a few minutes.

"So this child," Ben continued as they departed from the path in no particular direction. "Did you get her name?"

"Pala."

"Did you talk to her about her abilities?"

"No. Like I said, she was very small. I didn't talk to her parents about it either. I'm not even really sure what I felt, but it reminded me of Canto Bight."

They climbed onto and over a large, mossy log. Rey thought of the huge tree on the moon where she found Ben dying. Her heart squeezed with longing, and fondness. Forests were her favorite places.

As to the conversation at hand, Ben didn't ask the next question on his mind, but Rey could feel it anyway. She could also feel him quietly probing her emotions, trying to determine how she felt about discovering this possibly Force-sensitive child. So she offered the explanation he sought.

"No, I didn't suffer a repeat of what happened with Temiri. If she has a family, there's no way I'm going to interfere with that. Your plan here will take a few years anyway. I can check on her from time to time."

Ben made a soft sound that wasn't quite a chuckle. "You're going to gather quite a stable of younglings to keep an eye on at this rate."

She laughed. "The Force keeps pointing them out. I don't know what I'm supposed to do about it, exactly."

The sound of water began to grow steadily as they walked, and eventually they decided to seek the source. It drew them, calling through the gloom like a maternal croon. Picking their way towards it, they discovered a stream gurgling down the mountainside, glittering and merry in its chattery descent. Ben and Rey kept going, following it up until the forest opened up into a clearing.

A small lake — or was it a pond? Rey didn't know how to identify the differences between bodies of water, except the obviousness of an ocean — spread beneath a leafy green fringe. The trees stood sentinel around this little pool and the fanned, fern-like plants bending over to brush a cool turquoise surface. Flowers of rainbow array dotted the otherwise vermillion growth, and a waterfall cascaded from a cliffside at the other end, plunging into the crystalline water and feeding the pond which fed the stream that wandered on down the mountain.

Rey's breath caught in her throat at the scene. During the sleepless nights of her adolescence, she'd tried to imagine the most beautiful thing she could possibly conjure, and it had looked something like this. But this was so much better. It couldn't possibly be real. Even as Ben tugged her towards the pool, she half-expected to punch a tear through the illusion and discover herself back on Jakku.

She clutched Ben's hand tighter, as if to reassure herself she hadn't stumbled into a vision — or possibly, a hallucination.

He gave her a curious glance. "Are you alright?"

"Ben…this place!" She shook her head, unable to summon the right words for what wonder overwhelmed her now.

He stopped at the edge of the pond, sweeping his gaze around the idyllic scene. "Have you found your winner, then?"

"Winner?"

"Our search for the most beautiful spot in the galaxy."

"Oh." She laughed. "Maybe. I don't know. I never dreamed anything like this could exist outside my own mind."

A gentle, affectionate smile twitched at the corner of his mouth. Through their bond she felt his bright hot urge to kiss her, but he didn't. She wished he would. Instead, he motioned and said academically, "It wouldn't surprise me if this turned out to be a sacred place in Rylothian lore. A place as pretty as this must have drawn some mythology to explain it."

Rey didn't know anything about all that, but she did understand that this place practically glowed with meaning. If it didn't have any, she'd find a way to make it meaningful.

Apparently Ben had the same idea. Or, some kind of idea. Rey felt his tingle of interest as he bent beside the edge of the pool and touched the water. His gaze flashed back to her. "Cool, but not cold."

She blinked, startled at what she saw forming in his mind. "You want to swim?"

He sat and began removing his shoes. "Why not?"

She could think of several reasons. Not the least of which was, "I don't know how."

"You survived falling into that cave just fine."

"Because I didn't want to die!" Rey could well remember the horrible vacuum of sight and sound swallowing her up, choking her, eager to flood her lungs should she give in to the panicked urge to breathe. Surviving that had been either a stroke of remarkably good luck, or an act of pure, instinctual defiance in the face of death. Either way, she wasn't eager to repeat the experience.

"I'll teach you," he said offhandedly. "It won't be difficult. You're already well attuned to your instincts."

"Ben…" but her reluctant protest trailed off as she watched him extract himself from his many layers and finally peel off the last shirt. She stole several glances at his chiseled, enormous chest, scarred and marked but still impossibly perfect. Rey forced herself to look away again, heat flooding her face.

"Dirty trick," she grumbled.

A moment later, a soft splash drew her attention back and she saw Ben lower himself off the edge of the bank and into the pool. He kept his pants on, which was something of a relief. She wasn't sure she wanted that kind of temptation at the moment.

Rey watched him swim with a deliberately studious eye, observing the way his powerful shoulders rolled as he took in water and swept it out again, propelling himself to the center of the pond. He cut through the scene like some kind of graceful aquatic creature. It looked easy. Rey knew better.

Still, she reluctantly kicked off her shoes and began pulling at her outer layers.

Ben detected her surrender and returned, swimming back to the edge to wait for her.

Down to only her pants and the tightly wrapped fabric that bound her chest, she sank to the earth and let her legs dangle into the water. Chills scattered across her skin at the cold kiss. Ben stood, glistening in that ridiculous Adonic way. Rey focused on the reminder that if he could stand, it must not be too deep.

She hesitated. Rare, and precious, and hard-won as water was for most of her life, she still wasn't eager to give herself over to it completely. Placing her body totally within its power filled her with quiet fear.

"Rey," Ben murmured, caressing her name in that gentle way he always did, "do you trust me?"

Another cheap trick. Of course she did. She felt his gaze, dark eyes rich and deep with concern. Bracing herself, she gave him a slight nod in reply, and slid off the edge and into the pool.

Ben's hands were at her waist immediately, steadying her as she found her feet. The ground wasn't far away — just a little shorter than her full body height. The jostling surface lapped at her collarbone. Cold wrapped all around her, and the weightlessness made her feel terribly unbalanced. Ben's grip helped, though. She shivered.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

Was she? This didn't feel alright. But she wasn't drowning, and his touch was awfully nice, and little by little her racing heart began to slow. It did feel kind of good, aside from the terror of the weight of the water bearing down on her, and the loosening of gravity's hold on her limbs. If she could forget about that, it wasn't so bad.

After a moment, she nodded. "I'm okay."

His hands transferred to her hands. "When you're ready, come with me to deeper water."

"Ah." She grimaced. "This isn't good enough?"

"It can be, if that's what you prefer."

He said it gently, but when she glanced up she saw a glint of mischief in his dark eyes. They both knew she wasn't going to stay there. Rey's nature made her deliberate and careful, but not a creature who shied away from a challenge. And this, uncomfortable though it may be, was nothing if not a challenge.

So after a moment, Rey allowed herself to move about a bit, testing the way the water dragged her movements, aided her bouncing, resisted her hands just enough that the lightest flutters could redirect her momentum. She glanced at Ben, who waited patiently while she got her bearings, and nodded. He took her hands again and pulled her into deeper water, issuing soft instruction about what to do with her feet and legs to keep herself afloat.

This lesson, she was pleased to find, didn't come as awkwardly as his attempts to make her dance. Strange Ben and his strange, surprising ways. Always insistent on pushing her into new experiences, so long as she was willing. Sometimes she felt like they were kids, and he was the one running around eagerly showing her his world. Or at least, that's how she imagined having a friend would be like as a kid.

All in all, Rey didn't mind these new diversions. They helped her feel normal. And Ben always approached them firmly, but gently, showering her with unspoken admiration and affection which she felt sparking through their bond.

Soon, her fear dissolved, turning to a giddy kind of elation when she realized she wasn't about to drown. She felt confident enough to tread without holding Ben's hand, and even found herself able to follow when he swam around. He floated onto his back and smiled a sleepy Ben smile.

"You catch on quickly. Well done."

But she wasn't interested in praise. Something had caught her eye. The light of the waterfall played in a strange inconsistent way. She swam towards it.

{Author's Note}

Hey guys, sorry for the abrupt end in the middle of the chapter! This one got super long, so I split it. Second half will be up shortly. :D

This chapter's fluff brought to you by Nakamagirl6! She put the idea in my head and it bounced around so much I had to put it in somehow.

Big things coming up very soon *cheeky grin*

Comment Responses:

Treblemkr: Thank you so much! :D It's fun to let Ben throw his weight around a little. He was forced into a more tame role in the last fic for the purposes of necessary character growth, so it feels good to let him bite again.

engineerwenlock: I've been traveling too, and fully understand. As far as the romance stuff — don't worry! I'm still fully committed to keeping this story 'T' rated. We've already achieved our max level of steam, so any romance that comes next won't get any hotter than that. I'm not particularly into smut myself, and tend to stick to a "closed door" policy when it comes to intimacy. So rest assured, I hear you, and I promise not to blindside you with anything crazier than what you've already read ;)