Chapter 14
A Seaside Skirmish
The shuttle dropped out of lightspeed with a familiar shudder, shaking the white carved mask that lay on a shelf by Ben's head. Out of the swirling stars a small, round planet of the deepest blue appeared. The tracker of the dashboard blinked its confirmation. This was the place alright. The planet of Mer'in.
"You said they'd be here?" Rey asked from behind Ben's chair, coming up and peering out the window with him. Her hand rested on the back of his seat and he tensed up, staying still so his shoulder wouldn't accidently brush up against her arm.
"The signal lead us here, so I think we're in the right place."
"And they're not with the First Order any longer?"
"They risked their lives to save me. I don't think they could go back even if they wanted to." His stomach curled at what punishments Hux could have in store for his squad of royal guards if they got themselves caught.
Rey nodded in understanding, running her fingers over and around her crude yellow mask.
"Bulani and Selisa?" he asked, gesturing to her mask.
Rey blushed and set the thing down on the dash next to the tracker. The names she had given their masked personas back on Jakku still tickled him in a way.
"I don't know, it just popped into my head. It's not like I could go announcing our names for the First Order to hear."
"No, it's just funny to me," he clarified. He grabbed his mask down from its resting place and lifted up in a toast. "To the Sun and Moon," he said.
Rey's eyes twinkled, and a mischievous smile wormed its way across her lips.
"Sun and Moon," she repeated, clinking her yellow mask with his white one. Their smiles both broadened at the silly act. Ben set his mask down where it was before while Rey slid into the co-pilot's seat next to him.
Lower and lower they descended, thick gray clouds wrapping themselves around the shuttle's dark wings. The tracker steadily blinked blue and beeped from time to time. They were getting closer, but to where they had no idea.
At first the massive shapes that sat upon the vast oceans below them appeared to be placed on large islands sticking above the water. However, upon closer inspection, every building stood on thin stone pillars jutting up from the turbulent waves. Complex grids of wooden walkways and piers connected each home and plaza to the one next to it. Scaly flying creatures circled the cities in droves and dozens of small transports zoomed from one stronghold to the other. The whole thing felt ripped out of the past, mashed up with modern tech.
Ben dipped the ship down as the tracker's blinks increased in frequency. The wings of the shuttle dipped below the edges of the water as the skidded towards an open dock jutting out from the rest of the city on stilts. A thick fog drifted just below the wooden slats of the pier, giving the illusion that the whole city was drifting along on a cloud.
The shuttle groaned to a stop above the waves, the back door facing the rest of the open dock. Weak sunlight trickled in through the white streaks of cloud overhead, dancing off the rusted metal of the larger buildings. All in all, it was a beautiful, run-down sort of place. He wouldn't mind hiding out here with Rey with things took a turn for the less favorable.
Ben exited the cockpit and snatched up his new and improved lightsaber. The old body of it was still intact with its cross guards, but the crystal within it was new. He had discarded the broken one that had resided in the saber for so long. He hadn't ignited it quite yet, wanting to see his handiwork in action first. The same had gone for Rey, whose staff lay unperturbed in the corner by her bench. She took a different route with her design, modifying her most recent staff in order to fit the crystal and the parts they had stolen from Jakku. He couldn't wait to see how it would work in combat, but secretly hoped that it wouldn't have to come to that just yet. He pulled on his mask, the brightness outside shrinking down to pinpoints.
The salty sea air fluttered their hair as they stepped out into the open. The crashing waves, the grumble of passing ships, and the cries of the flying creatures made quite the noise, but Ben pressed on and strode down the dock, the wooden slats creaking under the weight of his boots.
Rey trailed behind, her pale yellow robes swirling in the light wind. Her new staff was slung over her back and her mask concealed her face well enough. If he hadn't known her he wouldn't have recognized her easily.
A pair of stormtroopers appeared suddenly in front of him and it took all of his willpower to not stop suspiciously. The troopers eyed them nonchalantly and continued their walk, not bothering to look back.
Ben sighed in relief. It appeared Plutt hadn't warned the First Order of his masked assailants just yet, so they were in the clear. For how much longer, though, he couldn't say.
They had entered a busy plaza, lined with broken-down ocean vessels and strewn with wide fishing nets around the edges. Shouts and general chatter rattled around them. Unlike Urear, the vibe of the town was a lot more personable, as if he could grab a drink with anyone walking around here.
But there was a bit of tension floating around. The troopers that passed them by before now made their rounds through the plaza. The people that bothered to look up shot them nervous or hateful glances.
"Do you know where they are?" she asked with her voice muffled by her mask, her eyes wide and nervous.
Just then a dock-shaking explosion rattled his bones and acrid black smoke billowed into the sky a close distance away. Pedestrians stopped dead in their tracks to take in the incident. Sharp screams of panic and frightened murmurs rose up around them.
"I might have an idea about that," he said, reaching out his hand. She took it and they dashed toward the source of the blast. His new lightsaber clacked against his belt and his cloak whipped around his ankles.
People ran and stumbled away from the commotion, hopping into speeders or public transports and riding away over the waves. Ben and Rey ran in the opposite direction. His breaths were deadened by his mask and he struggled to keep his ears open for any other signs of danger.
"Ben!" Rey hissed as she seized his collar and yanked him behind a massive tub of gutted fish. As they watched from their hiding place a dozen stormtroopers jogged past, white armor beaded with condensation. The smoke had grown denser and it swirled in the air around their marching forms.
"You must realize your attempts to escape are quite futile," a piercing voice rang out over the smoke and the stench of the fish. "Surrender now, and we may not punish you as severely."
Ben's heart skipped a few beats. So, they finally had gotten themselves captured, and just as they were going to ask for their help, no less. Now they were surrounded by First Order troops. All six of them could be harmed or killed if they didn't intervene.
He knew that voice, that simpering, over-achieving bark. Penma had returned to screw things up once again.
"I knew it," Rey snarled when she realized the identity of the adversary. She slipped her staff over her head and gripping it tightly in her hands.
"Hold on, we still need to assess the situation." Ben peeped out from around their hiding spot. The smoke was thick, but he could still make out key shapes and colors.
Joran, Ames, Eloisa, Sestro, Elric, and Sal stood with their backs to one another in the center of a ring of heavily armed troopers. Ben almost didn't recognize them without their bulky black armor. All of them were dressed in bland beige and olive-green outfits in an attempt to throw off attention. Pemna walked along the perimeter of soldiers, hands clasped behind her back and wearing a smug smile. Her black eye had faded. She didn't look worse for wear, and this infuriated Ben.
"We weren't just going to let you terrorize the city," Sal spat, a blaster trembling in his hand. His comrades nodded their agreement.
"I wouldn't pick those exact words, but if you hadn't interfered in our business, none of this would be in this mess." Penma took a long, dramatic moment to adjust her gloves. "You took out a perfectly functional command post, and you should know how unkindly we take to these sorts of acts."
"When I tell you, move in and take out as many as you can," he instructed Rey. He placed a hand on his mask to make sure it wouldn't come loose and then eyed a tarp hanging a series of feet above the circle. On top of the tarp sat ashy logs and other debris from the blast, almost begging to be dropped. Holding out his hand, he willed with all of his might.
Gray ash flew up into the air as the tarp's ropes snapped and threw its payload down onto the surrounding troopers. Chokes and yells of surprise rose up from friend and foe alike and Ben knew this was their chance to move.
Before running out to rescue his friends he ignited his lightsaber in preparation. His heart was already twisted up in anticipation of the end result of the blade.
A luminous purple danced in front of his wide eyes. The plasma itself wasn't raggedy and volatile like his former weapon, but stable and uniform. He smiled and gave a small laugh of relief. Things really had changed.
Then he was sprinting towards the stormtroopers, saber hiked in attack mode above his head. Rey's footsteps pounded behind him and the hiss of her blue dual blades came to life.
"Watch out!" a trooper shouted in alarm, but that's all he was able to say before Ben's lightsaber slashed across the armor on his chest and sent him tumbling to the ground.
Rey sunk one of her blades into the leg of another enemy and caught a laser blast of the edge of her other just a second later. Her robes surrounded her like a sandstorm as she whipped her staff around in deadly arcs. A couple of the troopers even took a couple of steps back in awe at the sight of her. Ben couldn't have been prouder.
The dead trooper's blaster had skidded across the ground and Ben ran over to pick it up. He eyed Joran and tossed the weapon through the air to him.
The older man caught the gun and fixed him with a look of utter confusion. The other guards looked to their commander, then moved out simultaneously, taking down unsuspecting troopers with swift kicks of punches and taking their blasters.
"What is the meaning of this?!" Penma shrieked over the din of the fight. She had squatted down to take cover under a large wooden sign advertising a hotel and two stormtroopers stood beside her, weapons at the ready. "Get those masked buffoons and finish them already!"
A few pedestrians appeared around the corners of the plaza, looks of horror spreading across their faces as Ben was locked in combat with a stormtrooper armed with an electric baton. His blade met the business end of his enemy's weapon, but instead of slicing clean through, it simply clashed against it in a shower of bright sparks. The dead eyes of the helmet met his and Ben hissed with exertion.
He managed to push up and shove the man away, but not before the baton was knocked out of his assailant's hand and went flying towards a young couple watching from afar. Their shrieks cut through the chaos around him.
A flurry of panic rose up in Ben's chest. These people had nothing to do with what was going on, no one them should get hurt if he had any say in the matter. He threw out his hand and gritted his teeth under his mask. The baton froze in midair, hissing and spitting just a foot from their terrified faces, then feel straight to the ground.
The couple gave him a relieved look before sprinting away from the fight. Ben gave them a small smile they couldn't see before rushing back to help out his friends.
Sestro and Elric stood back to back, blasters leveled at the ring of troopers around them. Ben knocked two of them down and joined his comrades in the center of the circle. He blocked a couple of the troopers' blasts before running forward and dismantling them quickly with his new lightsaber.
"What the—" he heard Sestro begin but he didn't stick around for the rest. Ames and Eloisa were backed against a rough steel wall and Ben sprinted towards them, slashing their attackers down with a yell.
Eloisa brushed her dark hair out of her eyes and stared blankly at Ben. "Thank you," she muttered, shouldering her stolen blaster.
Ben nodded but said nothing. A flash of blue in his peripheral alerted him to Rey's position. There she was, twenty feet away and blocking shots from Pemna and her bodyguards.
"Why don't you just die?!" Penma screamed, sending shot after shot in Rey's direction. She silently advanced, each bolt ricocheting into the walls and signs surrounding them. Ben had to admit that with her mask she looked utterly terrifying.
Out of the blue Sal and Joran rushed the two bodyguards and tackled them into the ground. Rey took the chance to run forward and Force push the colonel against the wooden sign she was crouching behind. Her small pistol rolled from her hand and Joran kicked it away as Rey aimed one of her blue lightsaber blades down at her head.
"Thank you," Sal said breathlessly. Rey nodded but didn't reply, inching her staff closer to the woman's throat so she wouldn't dare run away. Ben looked around to find stormtrooper after stormtrooper falling at the hands of his guards. Sestro and Eloisa worked flawlessly as a team and slammed two troopers' heads into the hard brick wall they found themselves next to. Ames had grabbed a fishing net up from the wooden planks and threw it onto an oncoming enemy, tripping him up and pulling him down. Elric had knocked out two soldiers with the butt of his gun on his own.
They needed to leave now. The shuttle could hold all of them, right?
"This way!" he barked at the top of his lungs. Hurdling over the unconscious form of a trooper he sprinted towards a back ally at ran parallel with the path he and Rey had taken to arrive here. The six guards looked up with panicked expressions, but they nodded towards each other and followed after, keeping their blasters ready.
Rey came soon after, huffing and puffing and watching their six. Penma still crouched behind the sign but signaled her soldiers to pursue them.
Laser blasts and muffled shouts of indignant hate echoed behind them and the brick walls around them burst apart in the onslaught of red bolts. Eloisa cried out, but they all kept moving.
Ben kept his lightsaber ignited, the purple of the plasma shining off the metallic trash cans and electrical boxes lining the alley.
"While we're here running for our lives, some one of you please tell me what's going on?!" Eloisa shouted from the middle of the pack. Part of her outfit was singed from missed laser blasts.
"All you need to know is that Selisa and I are trying to get you out of here!" Ben yelled back. They skidded around a corner and emerged out into the open dock where they needed to be. Fishermen, pilots, and citizens just out for a stroll alike scrambled out of their way, some throwing out curses while others shrieked as their boots beat against the wooden planks.
"Behind us!" Rey called over to him. He glanced over his shoulder and swore under his breath.
A new swarm of stormtroopers were being escorted by two black-clad officers, sending blasts into the crowd of pedestrians. Cries of fear rang out, people ducking behind bins of fish while other sprinted towards their ships parked along the dock. The blasts cratered the wooden dock, smoke rising up from the smoldering floor. The air rocked with the shudder of engines and the thrum of sprinting feet.
"They're going to kill everyone here!" Rey bellowed. She stopped in her tracks and ran towards the incoming hoard of First Order. Her dual blades pulsed and glowed as she readied herself to fight and her teeth were bared in a scarily animalistic way.
Ben skidded to a stop to help her, but his guards stopped, too. They readied their blasters as Ben held up his lightsaber.
"We can take care of ourselves!" Ames yelled to him and her comrades nodded. They aimed and fired at the crowd of stormtroopers, dropping a couple to the ground in a matter of seconds. Ben charged ahead and lowered his lightsaber, ready to swipe up at the first piece of white armor he came into contact with. There was one now, one of the troopers leading the pack. He raised his blaster so that Ben could look straight down the barrel.
He never got a chance to hit him. A blue bolt caught the stormtrooper in the helmet and sent him sprawling on the dock. Ben looked around in surprise to see where the blast had come from.
A tall klatooinian man stood a number of feet away, his small rust blaster smoking in his huge paw. He gave Ben a curt nod and aimed again, this time taking out another trooper with a blast to their sternum.
Another blast joined his fire. A small, meek twi'lek woman ran forward, her manicured hands clutching a large blaster. She waved at the rest of the cowering crowd and gave shouts of encouragement that Ben couldn't understand, but a surge of shouts and cheers sounded up into the salty sea air.
Now more and more people stepped forward to help, unholstering blaster or picking up whatever tools or weapons they could find. Some of the bigger, hardier dock workers came at the troopers with harpoons and nets. Crowbars somersaulted through the air and collided with helmets. People wrestled soldiers to the ground.
Ben couldn't help but stand back in awe, his lightsaber dangling uselessly in his hand. The crowd's collective anger had burst like a dam and firing into a mass of innocents seemed to be the last straw. The whole scene was so glorious in its own way.
But he couldn't just stand there and let things happen around him. He joined in the fight, slashing and hacking any sign of white armor. Rey found him amongst the crowd and slammed her back against his. The chaos swirled around their bodies as they protected one another, and with the heat of her on him a bizarre wave of peace fell over him, as if everything in the galaxy had lined up so perfectly.
Soon most of the stormtroopers were down, fallen at the hands of the citizens they've overseen for who knows how long. The rest of the troops had run back the other way, their arms over their heads as laser blasts sailed past them and punched holes in the brick of the alleyway. Rey and Ben separated, breathing hard and gazing at one another. She held a hand over her upper arm and hissed in pain.
His blood ran cold. "Are you alright?" he asked, gently taking her arm and inspecting the damage. A cauterized cut ran above her arm wrappings.
"I'll be alright," she breathed, looking up at him. Though he couldn't see her mouth behind her mask, he could tell she was smirking at him with her eyes. "It's just annoying that I'm the one getting hurt and not you." She ran a finger up the arm that had been broken when their journey had began.
Impulse took over and he leaned his head forward, pressed the forehead of his mask against her own. Although their skin wasn't touching, and it only lasted for just a moment, the act still carried the same intimacy. "You sure you'll be alright?" he asked again.
Rey snickered quietly. "Believe me, I've been through a lot worse."
In his moment with her, Ben hadn't realized how quiet the crowd around them had become. Only the shifted of feet on creaky wooden boards disturbed the near silence. His squad of guards still stood protectively against one another and waited for Rey and Ben's next move.
Rey stepped forward to address the crowd.
"Thank you all so much for your help! The next time the First Order threatens you, tell them that Bulani and Selisa are on your side!" She raised her staff above her head.
The cheers that followed her words were deafening. Some of the fishermen fired their blasters into the air in celebration. Even the squad of guards clapped and cheered along.
Ben turned off his lightsaber and gazed at Rey. Sunlight alighted on her yellow robes until she seemed to blend into the brilliance. His heart swelled at the sight of her. She was scrappy and hungry and powerful. She was beauty and grace and light.
He was in love with all of her.
She turned back to him and nodded. "I think it's time to go," she murmured. For a second, he stood dumbfounded but soon regained his wits. They turned heel and quickly headed back in the direction of their ship before anyone else from the First Order could come in and start the whole fight over again.
He waved to his guards and they trailed after them, dropping their ill-gotten blasters along the length of the dock. Soon they reached the familiar black hull and folded wings over the escape shuttle, pocked with sea salt from the evaporated ocean water. The crowd cheered them until they climbed aboard and lifted off above the crashing waves.
"Can someone tell me what this whole thing is about?" Sestro wondered aloud.
…
It had taken some work to crowd everyone into the cramped cabin space, but the guards had found spots for themselves along the padded bench and on top of the countertops.
Ben and Rey had revealed their true identities to the guards, much to their anticlimactic non-surprise.
"I'd recognize that lightsaber from lightyears away," Edric chuckled, gesturing to the weapon clipped to Ben's belt. "I do like the change in color, doesn't look quite as evil."
"How'd you stay alive this entire time?" Sestro asked them incredulously, slapping Ben across the back. Their former Supreme Leader recoiled at his touch but didn't actively shoo him away.
"I sure helped a bit," Rey interjected. She had slipped her mask off and lowered her hood, her hair messy and frizzy. "Without me he'd been dead long ago. But I guess it's true the other way, too."
"Well, we're all back together again." Ames wound her finger around a strand of her hair. The other guards snapped to attention at her words. "Now what?"
"We need your help," Ben admitted. He unhooked his cloak and dropped it onto an open shelf. He turned to face Joran in particular. "Rey needs to get back to the Resistance, but we've been busy fending for ourselves out here. Any idea where they could be hiding?"
Joran rubbed the back of his neck nervously. Sal and Edric traded meaningful glances.
"To be honest, Ren—I mean Ben—we've been keeping ourselves out of everyone's hands, not just the First Order. None of us have been paying attention all that well."
Rey nodded solemnly and straightened up. "That's fine," she said quickly, giving Ben a tender look, "we'll just have to go around and look where we can."
Ben unintentionally stepped back in surprise. She had expressed her desire to return to her friends fervently. But that look… He bit his lip and suppressed the pounding his heart had begun to take up.
"First things first, we need a bigger ship if we're going to be traveling together. We have enough credits to get something cheap," Ames pointed out. As if on cue she smacked her elbow on the corner of a counter and let of a hiss of pain.
"You know, that whole crazy vigilante stunt you two pulled back there… I must admit I was pretty impressed." Sestro smirked at Rey and Ben, folding his broad arms over his chest. "Where'd you find this girl? She's incredible."
Rey met his eyes and blushed profusely. "From nowhere," she answered quietly, but a new confidence edged out her tone. Ben's chest lit up with affection.
"You're from nowhere?" Eloisa scoffed with a smile. "I'm from Gara, the lowest of the low. You have to be wallowing in garbage to surpass me."
"Really?" Rey raised her eyebrows and took a seat next to the other young woman. "Well, I've got stories for you…"
Ben left for the cockpit while Rey, Eloisa, and the others gathered around in a circle like children around a campfire. Soon loud guffaws and gasps sounded behind in from the open doorway. Though he stared out into the swirling stars pensively, Rey's wild hand gestures and radiant smile took up his mind's eye. A smirk lifted the corners of his mouth.
"Mind if I join you?" a gruff voice asked. Joran stepped through the doorway and sat down heavily in the co-pilot's seat with a sigh. Ben didn't respond, still wrapped up in his thoughts of the woman in the next room.
"Eloisa really seems to like her," the older man observed. "Everyone's really latched onto her."
Ben nodded. "She's incredible," he breathed.
"Are you two together?"
Embarrassment as cold and sudden as a splash of cold water rushed over Ben. He turned to Joran.
"What? No, we're not," he stammered. Damn, his voice sounded an octave too high.
"Really? I would have thought so, the way you two look and act around each other. Like two nervous schoolkids." Joran twiddled his thumbs and Ben could have sworn that the old man was hiding a sneaky smirk.
Ben said nothing but stewed in his own embarrassment. The back-to-back fighting, the forehead touch, the gentle looks. If they were in fact just friends, why did those things stir up his heart just reflecting back on them.
"Well, if you haven't told her how you feel yet, you should." Joran inched out of his seat and put a hand on Ben's shoulder. His blue eyes bore into Ben's brown ones. "You don't meet a woman like that every day. Take the chance while you still can."
He disappeared out the cockpit door, leaving Ben to let his words sink in.
He knew he'd been a coward. Fighting and training were so easy for him but gathering the courage to confess to Rey had apparently been too much. But she was still here with him, joking and training and connecting with him. His fear was only a lie. He had the strength to confess to her, and whatever will happen will happen.
Rey's sweet laugh echoed from the cabin. The sound of it cut through his muddled, confused thoughts like a shaft of sunlight. He sucked in a nervous breath and adjusted the sleeves of his doublet. Running his fingers through his dark hair he stepped back into the cabin, ready to rejoin his circle of friends.
Author's Note: Thank y'all so much for your follows, favs, and reviews! It means a lot that you guys stopped by and decided to support me. Here's another chapter for ya, sorry it's a tad late. Also, that teaser, though?!