A/N: And here's chapter 26...so was it space pirates who found Rey or...someone else? Only one way to find out haha Thank you so much for the follows/favs and especially for the reviews, I do love me some of those! :D Sorry about the late update, DocManager wasn't working...345th time lucky, you think? ;P Anyway, enjoy and I'd love to hear your thoughts (the last scene might be my fav...as weird as it is to say that of something you wrote yourself ;)
Harmannclan - chapter 25 -Jan 12: Thanks for another review! I'm afraid this chapter continues with that intensity at the end, I definitely needed a tissue after writing that (but then I'm a sappy smurf anyways ;p). And, yeah, can't trust Mr. Sly-Fox...obviously, Ben.. ;)
Guest - chapter 15 - Jan 14: Thanks! I appreciate the positive and encouraging feedback...a LOT! :D
CHAPTER 26
Nothing indicated that they were moving—that they sped past countless stars with such velocity it tore them apart until they were nothing more than pale smudges smeared across the massive hull of the Dominance. Not that Ben could see any of that—but he felt it.
It was all he wanted to feel...
Ben flattened his palm even more against the monolithic black of his cell, the throb of the starship's hyperdrive making his skin tingle. It told him little of where they were going. It didn't need to. There was only one place grand and humiliating enough for Hux.
Chandrila.
The muscles in his hand twitched as the Palace materialized in his mind, fingers arching so that with the increased pressure his nails stood out a ghostly white against all the solid black.
Maybe it was fitting. The right place for him to be when—
Ben let his hand slip off and turned abruptly away from the wall only to be met with the frustrating view of three identical ones. He wiped away a drop of blood on his lower lip with the back of his knuckles—not completely smothering the sting of having bitten it.
Although annoyed that his thoughts had strayed despite his resolve not to let them, he welcomed the sharp, reprimanding pain. It was a distraction—from all of it—no matter how short-lived.
He rubbed his sore lip, pulling his hand away to stare mesmerized at the pearl of scarlet dissolving in fragile rivulets along his finger. He was still standing there—unmoving and empty save for the dull, ever-present ache of loss—when the deadly silence was interrupted by a smooth hiss.
It was the same trooper. But she wasn't alone this time. A dozen copies poured inside; indistinguishable in their white, plastoid armor except for the subtle difference in how the Force moved around them. There was fear there. Revulsion. Hatred even. And something other than that one trooper's repressed curiosity. Something glaringly out of place and confusing.
Hope...
Feeling so little of it himself, Ben almost lashed out in resentment at the new pair of energy cuffs buzzing into life. The stormtrooper holding them half stumbled backwards with the angry stirring of the Force before Ben could check the impulse. But it didn't make a difference now the dark, shadowy shapes of Yara and Marrek Ren mingled with the stormtroopers: one broad-shouldered and tall; the other lithe and barely the height of those around her.
The Knights' mutual effort once again condensed the Force around him so tight it pressed in on him like a cage of glass: effectively cutting him off from the world beyond his own powerless storm of anger. He did feel the floor shift ever so slightly—the throb traveling through the soles of his boots changing pitch with it—as the Dominance came out of hyperspace.
"We're here...Master." Yara circled him with deliberate ease, hurling the last word at him in a venomous whisper.
Ben refused to take the bait, to bristle at the jagged edges of her Force signature piercing his own.
"No?" she asked, as if in genuine surprise and disappointment that he allowed her mocking stabs. "The mighty Kylo Ren, Commander of the Knights of Ren, isn't going to fight back?"
Completing her round, she tilted her head towards Marrek whose scoff was a distorted grating as cold as the steel of the mask that covered his face.
"Mighty no longer," he scorned, stepping around the other Knight to circle Ben in his turn, the slits of his hidden eyes taking in his former master in nothing short of disgust. "Not since he threw away power for Jedi filth—"
Ben flung out an arm before he could stop himself, manipulating the Force to rip into the robust Knight—to tear away flesh and bare bones. Marrek staggered back, shielding himself against the impact a fraction too late. He growled, one hand clawing at his chest, but he stayed standing. More than could be said for himself when Yara's swift retribution hit Ben.
Lightning a hellish blue dug into him like roots, contorting his body as it seemed to cut out a path through every fiber—every nerve. It was gone in an instant. The pain wasn't. His entire body still burned with it—the after-image of the bolts of electricity riddling his sight as tried to raise himself, panting hard.
"See?" Yara lowered herself to sit on her haunches beside his struggling form. "See how it's weakened you?"
She simply observed him as he fought to get to his knees, loathing and triumph radiating off of her in sickening waves. Her fingers caressed the hilt of her saber—clearly tempted to finish the job here and now.
"You've failed, Kylo. You failed by not letting go of Ben Solo. Did you think you could rule the galaxy without the dark side? That it would not crush the life out of that petty scavenger who thought she could save you? That it wouldn't blot out all light?"
The pitiless eye-sockets in her delicate mask glinted harshly, gathering more of the shadows already clinging to her robed form—sucking out even the glaring artificial light around them.
"Did you really believe that you could prevail against those who have given themselves to it?" she snarled, leaning closer still so that not even Marrek would hear. "Against me?"
Ben grimaced wryly despite the pain still rippling through him. So that was her ambition. She would get rid of Marrek when it would suit her. Hux too when the time was ripe for it. All so she alone would be the one to sit on Snoke's throne. To take the place of her—their tormentor.
And become a tyrant herself...
"You're the one who's failed," Ben said through gritted teeth, glaring back at the hate-wrought Knight with something close to regret. "You've become him—"
The accusation was cut short as the back of her gloved hand made contact with his cheekbone. Ben cursed inwardly—his skin a burning glow as he spat out blood.
"You're wrong. Like she was," Yara retorted as she rose to her feet, the usual silkiness of her voice consumed by fervid ire. "Ika and her pathetic dreams of a mutiny."
She visibly trembled with her revulsion, then tensed ever so slightly as Marrek came to stand behind her, mask cocked almost questioningly—hungrily. An instant later the Knight gasped for breath at Yara's fingers closing around air and his throat.
Other hand still brushing her weapon lovingly, she stepped around the man as he fell to one knee, reminding him as much as Ben when she spoke, "We have won because we demand the obedience that is our right, not by tolerating futile defiance."
At an infuriated flick of her hand, a pair of stormtroopers filed past the Knight still bent double and roughly pulled Ben to his feet. The electrostaffs of the troopers behind him snarled and collided with his body in paralyzing, teeth-rattling jabs designed more to torment than to guide or spur him.
With every blow Ben sucked in a pain-riddled breath, willing himself to stay upright and not falter as he was led through corridor after corridor. He could tell by the minute shudder of durasteel that the Star Destroyer had sliced effortlessly through the atmosphere. By the time they reached the immense hangar bay the ramps had lowered. Stretching out like talons, they loomed over most of the square—the Palace beyond dwarfed by the ship that cast all of it in shadow.
Almost all of it...Ben mentally amended, pace slowing as his gaze was drawn to the flicker of sunlight that set fire to the spires crowning the bone-white structure.
His moment of distraction was punished by yet another stab with one of the electrostaffs—nearly shattering a rib in the process. Still hunching forward, Ben rejoined the unflagging march of the surrounding guards, his jaw set and fists balled so tight that the cuffs bit into his wrists even more. The moment he straightened and squared his shoulders the stormtrooper in front of him hastily snapped her head back to the front.
It was her. He knew by that tentative interest—by the memories of that one Knight that trailed after her as clear as footprints.
Ben cast a careful glance ahead at the ominous figures of the Knights. Both of them flanked Hux, not bothering to walk even a step behind him in feigned respect. It was probably why the General had his finest elite troopers hovering close by as a precautionary reminder; dogging the heels of Yara and Marrek—almost touching the hems of their billowing robes.
He averted his attention back to the stormtrooper just as she flicked another quick look backwards.
Instead of snatching greedily at the one memory that stood out among the snippets of all the others, Ben opened himself up—thawing the imposed pressure of the Force around him just enough to let it materialize in his mind.
The Knights strode on, oblivious to the breach in their grip on him or the other Knight now taking shape in his thoughts. Ben closed his eyes to see Ika, as vivid and clear as if he had been in that remembered moment—kneeling next to the stormtrooper whose armor was stained red with blood. Her breathing came in labored gasps, helmet sagging and rising with the effort of it. Then it eased. Finally, the pain flowed out with a stuttering sigh of disbelief. If he could have seen her eyes they would have grown wide at both the now non-existent wound and the Knight's gesture as Ika reached down a hand to help her up. Behind the dark mask her lips moved and Ben let the words form on his own.
"What's your name..."
The stormtrooper in front of him stiffened, almost missing a step before she stated tersely, "I have a number."
"Something tells me you also have a name," Ben remarked, feeling strangely relieved at the realization. She didn't answer him, he could sense her doubt and urge to tell him like two battling currents.
"I remind you of her."
Her curiosity was visible in the way her frame tensed—Ika Ren's presence clinging to her like a ghost. No. Not clinging. Cherished. Missed.
"Is she awake?" Ben asked in a low tone, part of him already knowing and dreading the answer.
The stormtrooper's shoulders now set, she gave him a doleful shake of her helmeted head.
Ben picked up a change in the movement ahead. There were guards spilling out of his final prison now they had almost reached it. There was barely time left.
"Don't let them near her. Only those you trust. She trusted. She's your hope now."
Along with Rey...he added to himself, the thought overwhelming and sucking the air out of his lungs so violently that he nearly gasped as if he'd taken another hit to the gut from an electrostaff.
"How about you?"
Her voice was a small whisper and he almost hadn't caught it. The Force flickered around her, the terrifying possibility of being overheard losing out to her resolution. Taken aback by the question, Ben studied her profile as she craned her neck to equally observe him from the corner of her eye.
Then his mouth filled with the bitter taste of a resignation that cost him everything to surrender to. "I won't be saved by it. Not anymore. But others will."
Rey had to be okay...
He repeated it like a prayer. The fear that she wouldn't be—that she wasn't—making his vision blurry and obstructing his voice in his throat so much that all he could get out was a strangled, "You might too..." before the stormtrooper stayed behind at the threshold and the Palace swallowed him whole.
(…)
As eerie as the woosh of released air sounded, Rey couldn't help grinning at the person materializing amidst the white, hissing puffs of steam.
Finn!
The hydrospanner fell out of her hands and hit the floor of the shuttle with a resounding clang. Despite a groggy mind and a body so cold and stiff that it felt like lead, she made to rush forward—arms halfway outstretched for an embrace she had nearly given up on to ever be possible.
The expression on his ebony face stopped her in her tracks. His brows were furrowed into a scowl that could be concerned or reproachful; his lips a taut line instead of a smile that mirrored her own. Rey felt something like fear and disappointment pool in the pit of her stomach and the corners of her mouth dropped down in apprehension.
"Finn? It's m—"
There was movement behind him. A young woman she thought she'd seen before appeared—her blond braids twisted into two buns and a blood-red phoenix gleaming on her ocher uniform.
"Don't move."
Rey hadn't even seen the blaster aimed straight at her heart until she gazed down into its dirty barrel. Although trying to sound confident, the woman's voice trembled—so did the weapon in her hands.
"I said: don't...move..." she warned when Rey took an instinctive step closer in search of anything in her face that would trigger a name to resurface. This time there was anger in her words. Rey could sense the one word that was on the edge of her tongue—omitted only at the last second.
Traitor...
Rey swallowed hard. Unspoken or not, she thought she could hear that one word, that one accusation, repeat itself like a deafening echo in the tense silence—could see it reflected in the woman's eyes and that of a grizzled man gazing out at her from the crudely made shaft. It was there in Finn's eyes too—their friendly, warm brown dimmed and simply large with shock instead.
Her own elation wavered, teeth sinking into her lower lip. How could she have expected anything different? She had left them. Abandoned them. From where they were standing it was nothing short of treason. She would have felt the same...
"I-I... I mean you no harm. None of you," she stammered, not knowing what else to say or who to look at. Perhaps in honor of their friendship, she settled on the first person to step aboard the shuttle.
"Fi—"
"He's not on your side," the woman snapped. "He left the First Order. You ran to it..."
The statement stung her like a sand viper and she almost cowered when it made Finn look away—the faded leather of his jacket creaking as he folded his arms across his chest. Another, much more painful tremor, ran through her when she spotted the uneven row of stitches that had tried to reunite the fabric where it had been rent apart.
By Ben's saber...
"You ran to the First Order," the woman said again, the sense of betrayal palpable as she sucked in a resentful breath.
"Lieutenant Connix? There's no time for this—" the man with only one boot on board started to say, taking in the lifeless shuttle with a wary glance as if expecting stormtroopers to come out of their non-existent hiding places.
"Do you deny it?" Connix cut him off, her knuckles going white as she increased her hold on the battered blaster.
"No," Rey answered her softly, shoulders sagging with the admission. Finn stirred, rubbing the sides of his arms as if to ward off the cold and then turned away. He didn't want to hear any of it. Didn't want to look at her—be here. Seeing his frown deepen, the profile of his troubled face thrown in sharp relief, made her go on, "But I made that choice in order to save you. Not destroy—"
"Your plan didn't work. We were almost destroyed," Connix interjected bitterly, her pale face drawn and wan in what little starlight penetrated the dead spacecraft. "If it hadn't been for Skywalker... He saved us. Bought us the time we needed to escape. What was left of us..."
There was an unmistakable sadness that tinged her tone now, though it was quickly buried—the flexing of her jaw the only indication of the effort it cost her. Rey had no idea what to say to that painful truth or whether to apologize for her part in it or not. She doubted the Lieutenant would accept it. But then, it was hard to be patient when she didn't know where Ben was or how much time had passed.
If he was even still—
Rey stopped herself from finishing that sentence, the Force around her spiking and its intensity so nauseating that the thought alone nearly caused her to gag.
Connix scoffed, taking her silence for indifference. "Not that you would care how many we lost. Not since you abandoned us to our fate and joined them—"
Now Rey broke in, failing to hold back the resentment seeping into her own tone, "I didn't."
The young woman arched a skeptical brow, blaster not moving from its position pointing straight at her chest.
Rey instinctively held her breath, fighting not to say anything that would tempt the Lieutenant to make good on her threat. Then she slowly let it out and tried to explain in a steadier voice, "I didn't join the First Order to support it. I did it so we could bring it down."
"We?" Connix was quick to repeat, her distrust clear.
"The Resistance is not alone in wanting to defeat the First Order."
"We've been feeling pretty alone. There's hardly two dozen of us left."
"You're not alone—" Rey's voice broke at the memory of someone else saying the same to her. For a moment she could feel the pleasant heat of the fire against her wet skin—could see his face opposite hers in its orange, flickering glow. Rey shook her head, hurriedly pushing back tears.
It would take too long to explain. Then explain again in all likelihood. And again. She needed to talk to someone else. Someone she was scared to see after all this time.
Someone she had tried to find...
"I need to speak to Leia."
Connix' s grimace was almost mocking. "You're not in a position to ask for such a favor."
Before Rey could do so much as open her mouth to respond, the woman followed it up with a curt, "Now move."
She waved her into motion with the blaster, stepping back cautiously to let her duck through the makeshift door and into the small airlock first.
"And don't try any rock floating tricks," Connix called after her as the man with the gray hair hastily got out of Rey's way—hitting a switch with the same hand that still clutched a plasma welder—so that the door behind him shuddered out of sight with a protesting groan.
"I will shoot," she added the moment Rey placed a first boot on the threshold leading into whatever vessel they had come on. It sounded like she was convincing herself of that as much as she was warning her prisoner.
"She won't," another voice answered for her.
Rey flicked a surprised look over her shoulder. Finn. It was the first thing he had said. Not a sign of trust, she didn't dare hope for that. Not yet. But he knew her. After everything that had happened. He knew her. Didn't want to openly brand her a traitor. Not when she hadn't when he'd told her who he had been; a defecting stormtrooper—not a Resistance hero.
"How about the shuttle?" he asked Connix quickly, almost as if to forestall Rey saying something—thanking him.
"Better not risk it. We didn't expect to find anyone alive in it, and look how that turned out," Connix remarked, her sarcasm practically snapping at Rey's heels as the woman prodded her in the back, the barrel cold and hard against her spine.
Biting back a retort that wouldn't help improve her current situation, Rey obediently kept following the corridor she had stepped out on. Everything about it was old and tired. The walls were grimy and scratched and more than one overhead panel was simply missing, allowing anything from wires and what looked a lot like a rusty gravity flux compensator to spill outside. The ship must be ancient. It wasn't large either, for Rey soon saw the tall, hairy shape of Chewbacca in a pilot's chair in a cramped, dimly lit cockpit to her right.
"Keep walking," Connix reminded her as she instantly slowed down, pressing the blaster even harder between her shoulder blades. The Wookie's bewildered growl in her ears, Rey walked on, beginning to wonder if her jailor didn't have an idea of where she was going either.
After the next turn, however, Connix grabbed her roughly by the arm and made her halt with a clipped "Stop.".
At her nod, Finn sidled passed them both, hand hovering near a sensor that was hardly visible against the drab wall. He changed his mind at the last moment and swiveled around to make for the door across from it.
"Here." He motioned for Rey to enter as it disappeared into the wall, not meeting Connix's glare.
"Someone just volunteered for first guard duty," she let him know gruffly, pushing Rey inside, her face set but still betraying the concern and fear she felt—a fear she had been living with for too long judging by the dark circles under her eyes.
"I'm not your enemy," Rey tried one more time, bending her arm back to try and reach the sore spot where the blaster had been plastered to her spine. "Why do you think I was stranded in a crippled shuttle? Because they found out. I was trying to contact you. Find you."
Connix stared back at her, not lowering her weapon, her forehead creased. Finn hung his head but Rey knew he heard every word. He just really didn't know what to say to her either.
"The beacon's back in there if you don't believe m—" She made a frustrated gesture in the direction of a random wall to indicate the shuttle they left behind, but Connix had already waved a hand in front of a sensor and the door slid shut a split second later. Rey took a desperate step towards it, her fist clenched and ready to knock hard against it when, with a dull zzzt the lock was activated, sealing her in a prison all her own.
(…)
"If you don't stop that, you'll wear a hole in that floor...and mine."
Her voice was hoarse, and it scraped the back of her throat now she forced it out after hours of disuse. Rey raised herself from the narrow bunk, swinging her legs over the edge of it so that her dress tumbled down to pool along the floor.
Ben's tall figure came to a jarring halt. His breath caught as his eyes found her; their inky brown oscillating like disturbed water. His overwhelming relief rushed towards her like a lake rising to her lips and threatening to take all air from her too.
Rey pushed herself to her feet, avoiding his eyes that still followed her. Despite her stubborn resolution it was impossible to smother the same exquisite thrill at seeing him. It was impossible not to relish the feel of his presence so near and so painfully real. Even her own anger at her reaction couldn't dim that one stunning truth: He was alive!
She chanced a glance at him as if needing to confirm it. Ben blinked, lips trembling as he let out a shuddering breath. His frame wavered with the same difficulty he was having with her sudden appearance—yearning and rejection clashing in the turmoil of the Force around them both.
"You're still not going to say anything?" Rey pressed, only to meet with more maddening silence. Ben's eyes flicked upward as if in search of strength, his shoulders set in a way that told her he would turn away from her if she pushed him further.
"Fine. Go back to being that tacit monster at the edge of my mind," she bit out irritably, a sharp pang of hurt prompting her to bluntly turn her back on him instead.
She stared hard at a scratch in the grubby wall above the bunk, the sound of his boots as he took a step closer making her squint at it harder to resist the cresting urge to face him.
"Rey..."
There was such longing in how he said her name, longing that echoed her own as if the two were one. And always had been. She shivered and squeezed her eyes tight shut, tears clinging to her lashes, her balled fists shaking with the effort to not move.
"Rey. Please—"
"Why?" She pivoted around and threw the question at him.
His jaw clenched and he gave her a barely perceptible, pleading, shake of the head.
"Ben—" she choked on his name and had to swallow down the burning ache in her throat. "Where are you?"
"Don't..." he begged, voice torn.
Rey felt herself sway but she thrust the sensation away. "Where?"
"It doesn't matter," he dismissed, the dark color of his eyes hardening as he resolutely looked away.
"It matters to me!" Rey cried out, the Force flaring up around her, its tendrils reaching for Ben—invisible fingers trying to pull him back to her.
"It shouldn't. Not anymore," Ben told her, voice holding such finality it slammed into her. She felt her weight shift to her heels as he pushed her away, straining their bond to breaking-point.
"You don't mean that. I don't believe you," was all Rey could stammer.
"I'm sorry—"
"No." The rawness of her own voice grated her ears, and she took a furious step towards him. "You're the one who did this."
"I had no choice," Ben said, sounding frustrated more than defensive.
"You did. You do," Rey corrected, putting all of her conviction in that one word.
Ben's chest heaved, whether to repress an enraged roar or the contradicting flurry of his Force signature, she didn't know. Then he raised an unsteady hand, fingers sprawled tentatively, reluctantly, as he sent out another wave of the Force to gently, lovingly push her away. "Forget about me."
She ground her teeth so hard the muscles in her jaw hurt and she kept shaking her head, not breaking eye contact while she did.
"Rey..." He took a step closer even as the physical distance between them seemed to reassert itself—promising to once again extend to infinity. "Please."
"No," she muttered, gaze finally dropping away from him as she shook her head more frantically.
Ben stood before her, only inches away. She could feel his warmth. Feel the periphery of his breath reach her through lightyears.
"I can't," she gasped, tears streaming down her cheeks.
He leaned in, his hair ever so lightly brushing against her forehead, tickling it. "Why not?"
His tone was a feeble echo of the reticent challenge it once held. Now it sounded broken like rock splintering.
"Because... Be—" Rey cursed inwardly as her voice refused to work. She couldn't say it.
Ben let out a sad huff that ghosted her cheekbones. "I know."
Rey reached out a shaking hand, fumbling for his tunic like someone blind and exhausted. But before she could grab it and crush it in her fist the Force gave a mighty, unforgiving jerk and her fingers closed around nothing but air—his tear splattering like a warm drop of rain on her face...