"Have you heard Bendu at all?"
We'd landed out in a field on Chandrila and were getting our lightsabers before leaving the ship. Ben shook his head and handed me my saberstaff.
Only briefly during your meditation. Like I said, I regained control of myself fairly quickly and he didn't have to keep protecting you. He could be gone because we've achieved balance.
"Yeah…" I frowned, clipping my saber to my belt. "I miss him randomly popping into my head."
Ben raised an eyebrow. Odd, but not surprising.
We stepped off Daybreak into the familiar dreamscape of Chandrila, complete with a sweet breeze and warm sunshine. I stretched my arms towards the sky and smiled as Ben stood beside me and fingered the edge of my robe. It was nothing like our first visit, when we still had no idea what we were searching for or where to look. So much had changed in such a short time.
He looked around and absentmindedly kissed the top of my head. "If I don't see First Order troops in the next five minutes, Poe Dameron is going to feel my wrath."
I shielded my eyes with my hand, squinting across the rippling grassy field. "They're probably in Hanna City. No reason to wander around out here."
Ben threaded his long fingers through mine when I dropped my hand back to my side. We trekked across the field towards the towering mountains that led into Hanna City, quietly enjoying one another's presence. I didn't feel the constant need to calm him down and could slip into the depths of his emotions without worrying about drowning in them. It was peaceful—the right order of things.
I peered up at him. "What did you do for the seven weeks?"
Not much. He shrugged and watched butterflies flutter past us. At first I kept pacing around you and driving off the other three when they came too close. I spent a few days planning where we would go when you were done, and for the last week I mostly meditated and hoped I'd hear you.
"Oh. I mostly floated around in nothingness and had to learn how to be detached."
Ben nodded. That's going to be very difficult.
"You think?" I asked, cocking my head. "It was mostly just about not interfering or letting you sway my decisions."
The entire galaxy will learn about us sooner or later—and every one of them will want our help. We'll inspire extremists, attract sects. It won't be simple and staying detached will be almost impossible. We have to be careful of when to interfere and remember to use a light touch when we do.
Light touch… That would be easy for me, because the Light was defensive and passive, but the Dark was aggressive and passionate. Then again, if my friends were in trouble, ignoring it would truly be impossible.
I wound my arm through Ben's and rested my head on his arm. "What happened during your meditation?"
I thought of you. He squeezed my hand and vague snippets of me laughing and smiling floated lazily about in his mind. How to stay attached—to see the forest for the trees instead of concerning myself with the galaxy as a whole. Keeping the balance in small ways and not allowing my passion for change and growth to become megalomania, helping keep you from stagnation.
"Stagnation? How so?"
He showed me a memory from his meditation. Me, interfering in the natural order of change by preventing normal scuffles between factions out of my hatred of death and bloodshed. I couldn't concern myself with small things like Ben did. I had to check the bigger insults to the Force, like the First Order razing strife and destruction across the entire galaxy, obliterating entire planets.
"I don't want any more wars and death," I said.
I know. But it's the natural order, my love. You preserve life and I preserve death.
We came upon the same gate from our previous visit to Chandrila, but there were no guards outside. Ben narrowed his eyes and watched black smoke curling from within Hanna City.
"Speaking of death…" he muttered. He unclipped the Darksaber and ignited the black blade.
"REY!"
Finn, Poe, and Rose were jogging up to us from their ship. I beamed and gave Finn a side hug when he stopped beside me, and heard Ben hissing to himself about Poe when he decided to hug me and lift me off the ground. Rose whispered to him about not poking the bear and Finn pointed to the city.
"They sent out a distress call," he said. "There's not many of them, but they mentioned a guy dressed in black who could use the Force, so we figured we'd call you."
One of the Knights? Ben looked towards the city and narrowed his eyes.
"Ben thinks it's one of the Knights of Ren," I said without missing a beat.
Poe rolled his eyes. "There's a whole boyband?"
Ben shot him a dirty look and I hurriedly stepped in to diffuse the situation before it spiraled.
"They're former students of Luke's," I said. "They don't have lightsabers, but they can use the Force. We'll deal with him and you guys take care of the First Order remnants."
"Got it." Poe cocked his blaster.
We all headed to the city and both Ben and I felt a pulse from the Force near the gates. We exchanged a glance and brushed our fingers as I ignited the saberstaff.
"Together," I said.
Ben nodded. Together.
The city was in a state of panic. Stormtroopers had broken into and flooded through houses and were chasing people through the streets. It wasn't the peaceful, bustling city Ben and I had visit a few months ago. I winced, pained by the death all around us, but it didn't affect Ben. He caught a blaster bolt mid-shot and reversed it back into a Stormtrooper's helmet and seized a group of three with the Force to send them flying into a house.
"Focus on protecting people!" Poe called to Finn and Rose.
They all nodded to one another and broke apart to sweep down the streets and clear out the Stormtroopers. I swallowed hard, overwhelmed by all the violence, and found myself trailing behind Ben as he swept troops out of our way and ran through stragglers with the Darksaber when they got too close. His power waxed between us and soon I could feel a dark depression in the Force.
Up ahead, Ben said, pointing to a bell tower. I know who it is.
"How did they get all these troops?" I spun my saberstaff and shoved the blue end through a Stormtrooper chasing a woman.
The First Order splintered after I left. Various people are picking up the pieces.
We picked off what troopers we could and saw Finn, Rose, and Poe as we arrived at the bell tower. They were almost done liberating the city; the group of troops hadn't been huge and they were poorly organized. I followed Ben through the wooden door into the bell tower and peered up the staircase.
Blaster fire rained down on us and Ben again caught it with the Force to send it back up. He jerked his head towards the stairs and I followed, splitting my staff in half with a crackle.
It was a short walk to the top. We passed by two fallen Stormtroopers in black and emerged on the top floor, ringed by wide open windows and whistling with a cool breeze. Blaster fire from outside was slowly dying away and there was no other sound with in the tower.
A man in black was standing by one of the windows with a long, curved sword touching the cobblestone. He had a helmet on with holes in the front like a beehive and a thick, long cape draped across him. He turned slightly to face Ben and I, combat boots clicking on the floor. Ben twirled the Darksaber.
"Hello, Kylo." The voice was mottled and deep by the helmet.
Ben tilted his head. "Shivu Ren. What brings you to Chandrila?"
Shivu scraped his sword off the floor and pointed out the window with it. "I heard you had aligned yourself with the Resistance and knew they would rebuild here. I had to see it for myself."
"And where are the other Knights?" Ben asked.
"I'm not sure—but they'll be looking for you." Shivu spun his sword and turned it on me. "Is this the girl? From the visions?"
I frowned and looked up at Ben. "You had visions of me, too?"
Yes—several times before we met. He nodded to Shivu.
The Knight swept his sword over his shoulder, bouncing the blunt end. "Hm. Interesting. Darkness rises and light to meet it. Why haven't you killed her?"
I blanched. Uh…
Ben laughed and took a step forward. "Isn't it obvious? I'm weak, like the Supreme Leader always said." He spun the Darksaber again and it hummed through the air. "But I can still kill you."
"We'll see about that."
It wasn't a fair fight. I didn't think Ben and I would be able to have a fair fight with anyone in the galaxy again after our meditation. We were too powerful to be killing individuals like the Knights, who were evil, but beneath our purpose. I grabbed Ben's arm before he could swing the saber and both he and Shivu paused with their weapons raised.
"Did you bring the Stormtroopers here?" I asked.
"No." Shivu gestured towards the window. "As I said, I knew the Republic would rebuild here and followed a group of Stormtroopers. The two you killed had come to kill me."
"This would be an execution," I said, stepping in front of Ben. "We can't go around slaughtering people like we're gods."
Ben glanced over my head at Shivu. "We are gods."
"Ben." I tugged his shirt to make him look down at me again and raised my eyebrows. "Light touch. Remember? Killing him is not a light touch—especially if he isn't the source of the skirmish."
Shivu sighed loudly. "I did swear to follow you anywhere, Kylo, and I suppose if you're still aligned with the Dark Side, my fealty stands."
"He is," I said, turning to look at Shivu. "But not in the way you think."
"We could discuss this elsewhere," Ben said. "We need to clean up and rid the city of the Stormtroopers." He pointed the Darksaber at Shivu. "Don't think of trying to flee. I will find you."
"Oh, I won't. I'm much more interested in seeing this power of yours than running away."
Ben and I descended back downstairs to meet up with the other three. Shivu followed behind, lurking just out of sight, and leaned on the bell tower as we all came back into our group. There were dead Stormtroopers and civilians everywhere and some people were starting to come out of their homes to survey the damage. I wanted to vomit being surrounded by so much death and suffering.
"Help is coming from Naboo," Poe said. "They're sending medical supplies along with their Senator. Coruscant is sending aid to help rebuild and clear out the Stormtroopers with their Senator. It looks like we got them all, but…" He nudged one's arm with his foot. "The bodies have to be dealt with."
"I'll start gathering them." Ben clipped the Darksaber back to his belt and kissed the top of my head. "Be safe."
I watched him walk away with Shivu. Finn frowned at their backs as Ben began easily drawing the limp bodies together to put them in a pile.
"Is that the Knight?" Finn asked. "Looks just as creepy as Kylo Ren."
"We're giving him a chance." I turned to face them and sheathed my saberstaff. "I'm going to see if I can heal people. I've never tried it before, but… I don't want to stand around and wait. Rose, Finn, do you mind giving me some help?"
We went around Hanna City finding the injured. Finn would help prop them up and Rose would comfort them while I tried my best to use the Light to heal their wounds. It was difficult with how heavy the Dark hung over the city, but I drew from my endless wellspring and focused on knitting together the gashes and broken bones. Some things were too complicated but I could seal the goriest wounds enough to give them a fighting chance until help arrived.
We sat in the middle of the city near the fountain and people brought their injured family and friends. Finn and Rose scoured houses for more and Poe joined in, too. It was nauseating seeing how mutilated some people were but I refused to give up. I pulled and pulled from the Light and the group of healed civilians around me slowly grew larger.
One marveled after I repaired a broken finger and knelt beside me, seizing the edge of my robe. His blue eyes were wide and welling up with tears.
"Ashla," he whispered. He turned to the others who hadn't left yet and were staring at me with mixed wonder and fear. "Ashla! The Tythan legends—they were true!"
I laughed uncomfortably and waved my hands. "I'm just a Force-sensitive—"
"Yes!" A woman stood up, nodding and pointing at me. "See how she shines? Like a beacon! No normal Force-sensitive could heal such grievous wounds in so many people!" The woman turned to address the small crowd, who were murmuring amongst themselves. "She is an avatar of the Ashla—the Light Side of the Force!"
The line of people waiting to see me gasped and gradually, everyone in the vicinity began to kneel. I jumped to my feet and kept hysterically waving my hands. Poe, Finn, and Rose glanced between one another and back to me.
"Don't kneel!" I pleaded, trying to pull the man beside me back to his feet. "I don't want you to worship me; I'm just doing what's right!"
"We don't deserve you." The man grabbed my hands and bowed his head, trembling. "Are you here to lead the Republic, Ashla?"
"Rey?"
Ben appeared from my left with Shivu trailing behind him. The latter had his sword sheathed on his back and looked out across the crowd of kneeling Chandrilans.
I tore my hands free from the man. "Ben, they know what I am, and now they're all kneeling!"
"Let them. You can't control what they choose to do." Ben nodded to Poe. "It's done. The Stormtroopers are in a pile and we laid out the dead to be identified. Rey and I need to leave before the Senators arrive from Naboo and Coruscant and this—" He gestured to the crowd "—gets out of hand."
"You can't go yet!" Finn protested.
"Finn," I said, "we shouldn't even be here. Shivu was the only reason we came, and if the Senators find out who we are, this will get a lot more complicated."
A chant began in the crowd. Ashla the Mother… Ashla the Truth… Ashla the Light…
Ben took my hand. You shouldn't have healed all those people. Some of them were meant to die.
"I can't just watch people suffer," I snapped.
He rubbed his face and started to talk again when we saw figures emerging from the dust.
A Togruta female led the group, wearing a long, flowing red gown. She had dark orange skin with white facial markings and blue and white Lekku and montrals and appeared middle aged. Troops followed behind her and a human man in a slightly simpler style of dress was just behind her to the left. I didn't know where they were from, but I heard Poe mutter 'Coruscant.'
Her blue eyes assessed all of us and her grey lips turned up in a small smile. "Well this is interesting." She raised an eyebrow. "Do my eyes deceive me, or is that Ben Solo?"
I stared blankly at her and felt a bit of anxiety from Ben. He was trying to shuffle behind me to hide but the Togruta wasn't having it. She raised her long fingers and the Force rippled as he staggered back into view. He could've resisted it but let her pull him forward a few feet, where he stopped and kept avoiding her gaze.
"…Hello, Ahsoka," he mumbled.
I blinked rapidly, getting more and more confused. Who was this Force-sensitive Togruta, and how did she know Ben?
