They spent the rest of that day going over Maz's schematics, deciding to make entry through an exhaust vent. If the schematics were up to date they should meet little resistance right up to the main chamber, where they hoped to find what they were looking for. After that they meditated and worked on manipulating the force together. Rey found that they were close to where they'd been before Exegol and it eased her anxiety regarding their mission.
They woke the next morning in each others arms, took the time to shower, dress, and eat a quick breakfast, resisting the temptation to climb back into bed and do unspeakable things to each other. Well, mostly, Ben couldn't help but pull her into a few passionate kisses before they left.
The sun had just started to rise, the light around them dim, soft; the air was thick with moisture, dew dripping from the jungle around them. It was a beautiful morning.
Lando greeted the pair as they entered the hangar with a wave, "Hope you had a chance to go over the schematics."
Ben nodded, "We did, we have a plan. Mostly..."
"You sound like your Father, he tended to just make it up as he went too," Lando chuckled and then gestured to a dilapidated looking First Order cargo ship, "she doesn't look like much but she will get the job done. I've already had R2 program your codes."
He stepped forward to hand Rey a comm, "We will message you as soon as we have that planetary shield down. We won't send a crew to get you though until we get a response…"
"I understand…" she said, examining the expensive looking piece of technology.
While they'd been talking Finn had approached from behind. He cleared his throat to catch their attention.
Rey smiled back at him, "Hey."
Finn returned her smile, though his was strained, "I uh… Lando has me coordinating the fleet attack. I won't be seeing hand to hand combat so…" he held out Leia's saber to her.
"You're going to need this more than I will." Finn's gaze stayed on Rey as she took the saber from him, "Be careful." he said to her, concern plain upon his face, "We need you."
Rey accepted the saber, turning it over in her hands before looking back up at him, "Thank you Finn. You be careful too, okay?"
Finn smirked at this, "I'm always careful," he quipped, finally turning a glance over to Ben, "Watch her back?"
"Always," Ben said simply.
Finn nodded, giving Rey a pat on the shoulder before turning to go.
"He's a good man…" Ben said quietly once Finn was out of earshot.
"You are too." Lando replied, "You guys be careful and make sure to get back here in one piece. The Resistance needs its Jedi."
Instead of correcting him and explaining that they weren't really Jedi, Rey just smiled and dipped her head in a nod, "We will, may the Force be with all of us."
Lando waved again and then turned to head back towards the command center, leaving them alone.
Ben had noticed that his guards had all peeled off, probably assigned to different tasks for this mission. There was a brief moment of relief, he took in a deep breath, enjoying the sensation of momentary freedom before he opened the hatch to their decrepit cargo ship and gestured, "Ladies first."
The cypher codes worked like a charm and the pair found themselves waived through the planetary shield without even a second glance. They had decided to land away from the facility at a nearby cargo holding yard.
A man approached Rey as she disembarked her vessel, "Thought we had more time before pick up."
Rey pushed with the force, improvising, "You do, we're early, that's fine."
"You're early, that's fine." The man said, a glazed look passing across his face, "Do you want us to start loading now?"
Rey shook her head, "No, my partner and I are going to grab a bite to eat, maybe when we get back?"
The man glanced over her shoulder at Ben, who'd just ducked out of the ship as well, "Sounds good to me, take your time."
With that the man turned and headed back towards what must have been his office.
Rey released a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding and glanced at Ben over her shoulder.
He smirked, "Nice job, the best mind tricks are simple and believable, he won't question it."
Rey beamed at his praise, "self taught," she bragged.
"I know," he said with a laugh in his voice, "Starkiller?" he reminded her.
It was Rey's turn to smirk.
Before they left she unhooked Luke's saber from her belt and held it out to Ben, "Here, you might need this."
He hesitated before reaching out to take it. It felt heavy in his hands, not quite right, there was a momentary pang of regret at tossing his own saber away, but that was all it was, momentary. Ben clipped the saber to his belt and nodded, "We better get moving."
Bracca was a desolate world, covered almost completely with the refuse of the universe. A world sized scrapyard. The sky was brown and clogged by smog from the industry of disassembling ships; what vegetation did survive was dying and shrivelled. If this world were cut off from the rest of the galaxy the people here would starve and fast.
Rey walked slowly, datapad out as she tried to figure out where exactly the exhaust vent they were looking for was. Ben followed, hand on the hilt of Luke's saber, eyes scanning their surroundings wearily.
"Here," Rey said finally, pointing towards a particular heap of scrap, "It should be somewhere in that."
Ben nodded and gestured towards the pile of refuse, closing his eyes and using the force to gently lift it all aside, as quietly as he could manage.
Sure enough, once the pile was moved, the exhaust vent was obvious. Rey cast her senses out to make sure no one was near before she igited her saber with a hiss, using it to cut through the grating in their way. Once they'd both dropped in Ben turned to move some of the scrap back over the vent, hoping to hide their entrance from anyone who might pass by.
Luckily, other than blasts of warm, putrid, air, their path was unbarred and wide enough that they could walk stooped over side by side.
Once more Rey pulled out her datapad, consulting the schematics, while Ben looked over her shoulder, "The central chamber should be close, this vent should lead us there." she said, gesturing to the vent on their right.
"Well, then, what are we waiting for?" Ben whispered, sneaking a kiss from her before slipping ahead to lead the way.
It took them a little longer than they'd anticipated as the vents narrowed and forced them to crawl in places. Finally they found what they were looking for.
Through the grate before them they saw a large room lined with Bacta tanks. Within a few of the tanks the small bodies of children could be seen, children of all species, sedated and healing from something.
A noise from the opposite side of the room drew their attention. Black garbed stormtroopers drug in a boy, no older than 12, he fought them fiercely, flailing against them with all of his might.
"No! No! Leave me alone!" the boy screamed as the troopers moved to lift him on to a surgical table, holding him down as a medical droid approached. The boy let out a piercing scream and his eyes rolled with terror at the sight of the droid. Ben had to grab Rey's arm and squeeze, sensing that she was going to jump out and rush in to help.
He shook his head and said silently to her through the force, 'We need a distraction…' he pointed to an electrical junction near the troopers, 'Help me blow that thing?'
Rey nodded and closed her eyes, together they used the force to overload the terminal, causing it to explode in a ball of fire and sparks. Ben then yanked on the medical droid with the force, pulling it into the still sparking electrical junction, disabling it.
The boy cowered upon the surgical table as the troopers tried to figure out what had just happened.
One of them inspected the droid and shook its head, "Busted," they heard the trooper say.
"Kriffing droids, why would it fly towards it?" another said.
"Probably fried by the explosive EMP? Who knows." the first said.
"Better get the kid back to the cells, won't be any more operations until this mess gets cleaned up…" With that the troopers dragged the feisty kid back the way they'd come.
Once the room was empty Rey ignited her saber and cut a few bars free of the grate so they could slip through.
Ben used the force to gently turn the surveillance camera in the room so that it was facing the bacta tanks and then made his way over to what looked like the main console. He tapped in an old code of his and the datafiles opened wide; surprise colored his face as he looked to Rey, "Didn't think that'd work twice."
"Glad it did…" She said quietly, quickly downloading everything she could to her datapad.
It was about halfway done downloading when they both sensed something wrong, something very wrong. The force screamed 'danger!' and a shiver ran up both of their spines. Together they spun, igniting their lightsabers with a flourish just as a woman flanked by a contingent of shock troopers stepped into the room. She was dressed all in black, a familiar red saber spitting at her side. She looked about the same age as Ben, white haired, dark skin, scarred face, the slash of a brutal smile on her lips. Her voice emerged, imperious, menacing, "Well, well, well, what do we have here?"
Ben's eyes were wide, knuckles on his saber white with tension, "How?" he asked, voice cracking.
"How what?" the woman asked, tilting her head, "How am I alive? How did I know you were here? How did I get your old saber?"
Ben swallowed and stepped in front of Rey, "Voe.." his voice was pleading, "This isn't you… The darkside? You are the last person I thought would fall."
She sneered and stepped forward, her troopers levelling their blasters at Ben, "You have no idea who I am Ben Solo. You never did. Not then, not now. I waited for a chance to try myself against Kylo Ren, but since he no longer exists I suppose you will do."
She darted forward and the troopers opened fire. Rey and Ben reacted together. Moving with a singular purpose, sharing their force. Rey deflected the blaster bolts back at the troopers as Ben parried Voe's first onslaught.
Rey pulled on the empty Bacta tanks and threw them as hard as she could into the center of the troopers, taking them all out in one fell swoop. Voe made a slash that only missed Rey because Ben caught it with his blue blade and pushed her back.
Voe backed off and circled, she snarled, "So you chose this witch over ruling the Galaxy? Palpatine offered you everything! I begged him to teach me, to let me be his vessel, but no… He wanted you. Until you threw it all away. Then he went for her. Didn't even consider me!" Voe's eyes flashed red as her anger built, "Fools!"
Ben stepped forward, pleading again, "Voe… I don't know what happened to you, I don't know what drove you to this, but this is not the way… The darkside lies!"
"You're the one who lies Ben Solo!" Voe shook, tears now stained her cheeks. She looked to Rey and shook her head, "He will betray you, as he did me, as he did all of us…. Then you will see the truth!"
Something made the whole building shake, the holoterminal at her side vibrated. The planetary shield was down. Rey used the distraction to reach up with the force and pull down on a bulkhead, crashing it down onto Voe's head.
"That won't keep her for long, we have to go," she said to a stunned Ben, grabbing the datapad and running back towards the vent they'd entered through.
"Wait!" Ben yelled, "The children! We have to free them!"
Rey glanced back towards the hall the troopers had taken the boy through then over at the debris she'd dropped on top of Voe. Ben didn't wait for her, he darted forward towards the hall, leaving Rey no choice but to follow. She turned on her comm as they ran, "Finn! Poe! Anyone hear me?"
Finn's voice crackled through, "Rey! What's your status?"
"We need extraction!" she said as they rounded a corner, right into a group of troopers.
The comm was shot from her hand and she hissed, shaking it out before using the force to yank the blasters from the troopers hands as Ben cut a path through them, bowling ahead.
They reached the hall that led to the cells and Ben paused, "Do you feel that?"
She could, a darkness exuded from the hall, she glanced to Ben, "What is that?"
"I don't know… Stay behind me." He slowly stepped into the hall, he was met by the familiar sound of lightsabers igniting. Six younglings of different species stood before them, blank looks upon their faces, sabers held loosely at their sides.
"Surrender and we will spare you." One of them said in a hollow voice.
Ben backed up a step into Rey, he couldn't cut down children.
"We're here to rescue you, not to hurt you. We're here to help." He said as calmly as he could, "Please, don't be afraid."
The boy who'd spoken tilted his head and then raised his saber, pointing it at Ben, "Leave now or die," he said again in that empty tone.
Behind them Rey could hear Voe's scream echoing through the halls. Time was running out.
Rey took Ben's free hand, telling him through the force, 'we have to incapacitate them…'
'How?' he thought back.
'Do you trust me?' she asked him, she knew he did but she had to make sure he knew that what he was about to see was necessary.
Rey reached, reached way down, right to the darkest parts of her soul, drew on the anger she had, at what she had seen them do to that boy, what they might have done to these boys, and she let it fuel her. She lifted their hands and shot lighting towards the children, it struck true and they all convulsed and collapsed to the floor. She withdrew the power as soon as she could and released Ben's hand, stumbling back.
"What have you done?!" Ben yelled at her.
"They're fine, they're just stunned… Ben, there was something wrong with them..." Rey tried to catch her breath, the act had taken a lot out of her.
"I know," he said, bending to check the pulse of one of them. It was strong, the boy would be fine, that didn't mean he liked what they'd just done. He stood and that was when he heard it.
"Wait!" it was the boy's voice, "Wait! Don't leave us!"
Ben followed the voice down the hall, right to the last cell.
"Help us!" The boy begged through the bars, "Please!"
Ben nodded, "Back away."
He used his saber to cut away the bars and then stepped back as 11 scrawny younglings piled out of the tiny cell.
None of these children had the same glazed look the others had.
"Are you all okay?" Rey asked, looking between these children and the ones they'd just electrocuted.
"We are fine," the boy said, "They experimented on those ones… I was supposed to be next. We need to leave!"
"You're not going anywhere…" Voe stood at the opening to the cellblock, blocking their only exit. Ben and Rey both moved to shield the children, sabers raised.
"You can't beat us Voe…" Ben said, "Stand down, walk away…"
Voe laughed menacingly, the sound of it echoing eerily down the hall. She stepped into the light, her face now marred by blood, "Or what? You'll kill me? That's not very Jedi-like of you…"
Ben's expression hardened, as did Rey's and Voe's eyebrows shot up, "I see… You aren't Jedi. Good. You'll fight me properly then…"