Being a mom is easier said than done. Bente — her daughter — is loud, voicing her displeasure with sharp cries echo day in and night out. Her brother, Hanzo, on the other hand, is much too quiet. If Rey wasn't so attuned to his presence in the Force, she'd have thought him dead with how still he got. But that was only when they're apart; together, Bente is calm and Hanzo sighs and wiggles.
The rumors that follow after her don't make her life any easier. They wonder about the identity of the father and voice their theories: Finn, Poe, the mechanic Rey is friends with, and others. Every male that comes into contact with her is scrutinized. Rey nearly bursts into laughter when she overhears a group of women suspecting Chewbacca. Her children look nothing like the Wookiee. Rey tries not to let their gossip bother her. Rose is pretty good at squashing down any rumors with a sharp look. Rey doesn't do so bad herself either.
Poe comments on her appearance. So do a few others at the base. Apparently motherhood suits her. And Rey has to agree. The bruises under her eyes are almost gone. They'd have disappeared entirely if it weren't for the twins mewling in hunger or attention in the dead hours of the night. She's gained a healthy bit of weight and for the first time in her life, she has fat. Which suits her fine. Better cushioning for the babies. And the boys have stopped moaning about how pointy she is when they hug.
Then there's the fact that she feels hope. That Ben isn't entirely gone as she'd thought. Once the twins are a little older, not so dependent on her for their every need, she'd go about finding answers. For now, she'd content herself with Luke's Jedi texts and her children's presence: a beautiful blend of her and Ben.
It's when the twins are three years old that Rey dares to venture off the now ex-Resistance base. It's become a sort of haven for those who have nowhere and no one left to call home after the Resistance dissolved.
The idea hadn't been Rey's, however.
"C'mon. Take a breather." Poe insists one day. They're in one of the upgraded living quarters, big enough for Rey and the twins. Poe is sitting on the couch with Hanzo in his lap. Finn sits beside him. He's holding Bente who's busy slobbering on something rubbery and orange. "Stretch your legs. Get out for a bit."
Finn nods, "Poe's right. You need a break."
Rey gives them a look. "You can't take a break from being a mother."
Poe takes no heed of her words. "When was the last time you went off-world? Hell, when was the last time you left the base ?" He holds up a finger when Rey opens her mouth. "The jungle doesn't count."
Rey huffs. "Even if I agreed, who would take care of the twins? I can't just tote them around the galaxy. It's not safe." While the galaxy is a much safer place without the First Order and with the newly established Galactic Federation, there were still those who'd pay a handsome reward for the capture of the Last Jedi's brood.
"We will!" Poe exclaims. Hanzo cranes his neck and gives his uncle a disgruntled look. Bente looks up, curious, but goes back to her toy.
"We will?" Finn asks at the same time Rey skeptically asks, "You will?" Poe nudges Finn sharply.
"Uh, we will!" The ex-stormtrooper clears his throat. His eyes are earnest when he looks at Rey. "We'll take care of them. They'll be safe."
Rey still isn't sure. She's never been apart from the twins for more than a few hours.
"I don't know…"
Something hard bumps against her shins. Rey looks down.
"Safe," D-0 says. BB-8 whirs in agreement.
"Duh!" Bente coos and climbs off Finn's laps and rushes over the one-wheeled droid.
"H-Hello, Baby."
Rey watches Bente chase after the small droid, BB-8 joining the game of tag as well.
"Well," Rey says, thinking about it. Poe has a point. Plus, she could finally figure out how to go about finding Ben. There was only so much information in the three Jedi texts she had. They had provided a good starting point. An otherworldly plane of existence within the Force simply known as the World Between Worlds. A gateway between space and time. And where Ben had probably ended up, Luke and Leia sensing him somewhere else . Rey couldn't believe it. Trust Ben Solo to be floating around somewhere like some lost sock.
"Chewie didn't retire and leave you the Falcon so it could collect dust, Rey."
Dammnit, now they were trying to guilt-trip her.
"She's calling you, ya know." Poe sing-songs.
Rey narrows her eyes at her two closest friends. "Aren't you two busy helping run the Galaxy?"
"Meh, the galaxy will be fine." Poe waves his hand. "Besides we could use a little vacation too."
Bente shrieks somewhere in the background. Rey turns and finds her hugging D-0 triumphantly to her chest. The poor droid whirs in panic.
"Got you! Got you!" She chants happily.
Rey looks back at the two men sitting before her. "You call looking after these two goblins a vacation?"
"Sure," Poe says and swings his free arm to wrap around Finn. "We could use a little domestic va-cay. Right, Finn?"
Rey cracks a grin as Finn flusters. "Oh! Um, right. Yeah." He takes a deep breath to compose himself. The man looks down at Hanzo who's dozing peacefully in Poe's arms. "We've babysat them before. How hard could a few days be?"
BB-8 chooses then to whiz by, Bente hollering wildly from atop his head.
"Faster, Beebee, faster!"
The three adults watch the pair roll away into the next room. D-0 follows the two.
"Careful. C-careful." He repeats.
Poe looks away first. "Like taking clams from a Gungan." He grins. Finn rolls his eyes from next to him.
Rey popped out her hip. "Uh-huh."
"It'll only be a for a couple of days." Finn tries. "You can visit Chewie and Lando or Rose. Or just go sightseeing."
She does miss her friends. It'd be nice to surprise them for once.
"Four days." Rey relents. Her tone leaves no room for negotiating.
"Great!" Poe stands abruptly. Hanzo doesn't even startle. The toddler could probably sleep through a minor catastrophe. The general leads the way to her room. "We'll help you pack."
"Wait, no Poe, that's okay. You don't-"
"Poe, I think Rey can-"
The three adults stop at the entrance to Rey's room.
"Like taking a clam from a Gungan?" Finn parrots and throws Poe a look as a book floats by his face. Bente giggles from her seat in the middle of the room. Various objects are levitating around, suspended by the Force.
"No thank you. No th-thank you." D-0 says from somewhere near the ceiling.
"Yup," Poe says looking up at BB-8 who's floating above his head. He beeps a greeting down at them. Somehow Rey doubts that.
And Rey was right. It's on day three of her impromptu, forced vacation that Rey perceives it — a disturbance in the Force.
Rey's heart is in her throat as she closes her eyes and reaches for the twin's presence in the Force. There. Identical stars, shimmering brightly among the dim beings around them. Rey brushes against their minds- fearhurtworryangerterror.
Rey gasps and collides heavily against the pilot's seat. She reaches over for the controls. It's a little awkward to fly the Falcon solo but she makes due, refusing Poe's offer of one his own as a companion. Rey doesn't hesitate to throw the ship into hyperdrive.
Rey's heart is beating furiously as she enters Ajan Kloss' atmosphere. It picks up when Rey nears the Resistance base and finds a gaggle of unfamiliar ships parked outside. They look like they'd been put together in a scrapyard. As if someone had grabbed a couple of pieces from an X-wing, a few speeders, a Freighter, and then welded them all together.
All around she sees people running around, ex-Resistance and some scruffy-looking thugs whom Rey assumes are the owners of the strange ships.
"Bounty hunters," Rey growls. She's had a few run-ins with the likes of them. Hard not to when you hold the title as the Last Jedi. Although there have been almost no attempts on her since she had the twins.
Till now, that is.
Rey tries shooting at the ships but the blaster bolts simply ricochet off the ship's shields. Rey curses and prepares the Falcon for a quick landing. She needs to get on the ground, find her children, and pummel the idiots who'd dared touch what was hers.
The old girl is a few feet away from the ground when Rey jumps off. She gets up from her crouch, a fearsome look on her face. The five bounty hunters near her don't hesitate to shoot. Rey flings the bolts aside, running straight for them. There's no time for them to move as Rey takes out her lightsaber. The yellow blade sizzles as it cuts through the men.
Rey doesn't stop and continues forward, letting the Force guide her to what's hers. She doesn't know how many people she's cut down by the time she makes it to her rooms but the hilt of her lightsaber is slick with blood. Rey stops outside the door to her home and wipes her hands on her tunic, staining the white cloth red.
She takes a deep breath and rushes in. She only just stops herself from taking off Finn's head.
"Rey!" He yells in surprise. Rey's eyes widen and she immediately lowers her weapon. "Quick! We have to-"
"Finn?" She looks around her home, furniture destroyed and blaster bolts in the walls. "Where are the twins? Poe?" Her head whips to the right where she can hear Bente screaming. "Bente!" She rushes past Finn before he can say anything and to the twin's shared room.
She finds Poe crouched behind Hanzo's upturned bed. There's blood running down his temple and the air smells like burnt flesh. Poe points his blaster at her head but lowers it when he sees it's Rey. D-0 and BB-8 peek out from behind him. Bente is crying up a storm where Poe is holding her tightly.
"Hanzo! Hanzo!" She's screeching, tiny fists beating uselessly against the general's chest. Rey looks around for her son. Her stomach drops. Something cold and dark grips her heart.
"Poe?" Rey meets his eyes. Something in them causes the man to flinch minutely. "Where's Hanzo? Where's my baby."
"That's what I was going to tell you." Finn's voice pops up from behind her. Rey whips around to face him. He looks stricken. It's then Rey takes in his appearance. There's a blaster wound in his shoulder and a nasty gash on his chest. Not to mention the way his left eye is starting the swell and the blood dribbling down his busted lip. He looks terrible. Rey looks at his arms. They're empty.
"No, no, no," Rey mutters. Her lightsaber clatters to the floor. She can't lose him. Can't lose any more precious people. She cradles her head.
"Rey, I'm so sorry," Finn says. He doesn't try touching her. Which is good. She doesn't know how'd she'd take the contact. She lifts her head and takes a deep breath when Bente begins crying for her. She takes her from Poe who'd staggered onto his feet. Rey shushes her and holds her closely but she's inconsolable.
"Hanzo! The bad men took him, mummy! They- they took him!" Rey's heart breaks at her sobs. She takes a deep breath, centering herself. Her eyes open and she looks at her two friends.
"Who?" Her voice is steel, unforgiving and demanding.
"Some hot new Kaalsian guild. Violent and greedy." Poe spits. He wipes the blood from his mouth and holsters his blaster.
"They're headed to Cantonica," Finn says the planet's name like it's something dirty. And it is. Underneath its glamour and prestige lie its true colors, ugly and dark. She knows what they plan to do with Hanzo there. The son of the Last Jedi will fetch a good sum at auction and where better to sell him than to the galaxy's deepest pockets?
Rey tries to push the anger down, but it's always been there, just looking for something or someone to latch onto. Now it's bubbling up in her chest like hot tar, sticking to her organs and burning her alive from the inside out. Rey grabs it with both hands and wraps it around herself like armor. Rey's smile is sharp like broken glass. "Good thing we have a fast ship."
Rey picks up her fallen lightsaber and begins walking to where she left the Falcon. Poe and Finn follow her wordlessly. She can feel their guilt and shame in the Force. Rey does not blame them. They are not the ones who took what is hers and hers alone. With each step, Rey winds her anger and fear tighter and tighter around herself. When she steps out into the sunlight she's completely drenched in the dark.
No one will take what is hers. Not now. Not ever again.
Hanzo is, to be frank, completely terrified. The bad men had ripped him from his uncles and his sister and thrown him in a dark room somewhere on their ship. The ship is nothing like mother's. There are no bright lights, no hidden snacks, or toys. Most importantly there's no mother. And he misses his mom so much. She's so bright. Her light never fails to make him feel safe and loved. It chases the dark away. And there is a lot of dark here.
Hanzo knows he's not safe here in his dark little cell. The sharp pain in his arm where they'd grabbed him and his cheek where they slapped him when he wouldn't stop crying tell him so.
Hanzo curls tighter into himself until he resembles nothing more than a human ball. It's dark and scary here. He sniffs. The smell of urine makes his face grow hot with shame.
"Mother," He whimpers. He closes his eyes and tries to feel her in the Big Space, what his mother calls the Force. Nothing. She's too far away. He tries for his sister. Nothing. Hanzo is about to give up when he feels a pulse deep within him, just beside his frantic heartbeat.
Mother? He questions. Another pulse. Hanzo follows it, going deeper inside himself. There, nestled in his core is a powerful presence. Or at least it had been once upon a time. What must have been a great big shadow is nothing more than a wisp. Hanzo reaches out and cautiously touches the darkness. It reaches back and gently caresses him. It's not cold and scary like the darkness outside around him. This one is soft, riddled with veins of light that he can see now that he's closer.
Hanzo. A deep, grown-up voice reverberates in his head. It's not harsh like the men who'd stolen him. This is one nice, like his uncles but deeper, like his mother's ship engine. Hanzo decides he likes it.
Don't worry, sweetheart. She's coming.
Mother? Hanzo asks hopefully.
Yes.
The darkness wraps around him like a warm blanket. Hanzo sighs and snuggles into it. Lets it take him away from the scary place.
Sleep, little one. I'll watch over you.
Hanzo doesn't need more convincing, trusting the strange voice wholly in the innocent way that only children are capable of. Hanzo sleeps, lulled by the gentle crooning of his new friend.
When Hanzo wakes next it's to his mother crying, holding him close.
"He's okay, he's okay." He hears his uncle Poe repeat breathlessly.
"Mother?" He asks sleepily. Rey pulls back so he can see her face now. It's dark but he can see the dirt, sweat, tears staining her face. Hanzo feels his own eyes well with tears and he reaches out and clumsily pats his mother's face to make sure it's really her.
"It's me, baby, it's me." She sniffs and rubs his face with her free hand. He winces when her hand brushes his cheek. His mother makes a noise low in her throat. Hanzo flinches when her hand reaches for him again. Her touch is soothing and warm this time. His face no longer hurts.
"You came back for me?"
The voice had been right. Mother had come back for him.
His mother's face falls, "Oh, of course I came back for you. Did you think I wasn't?"
"You left," Hanzo replies simply.
His mother is crying again. Hanzo doesn't understand why.
"I said I'd come back and I did, didn't I?"
Hanzo considers her answer. She did, didn't she? He sighs and buries his face in her neck. His mother doesn't protest even if he wets her neck with his tears and boogers. He closes his eyes and revels in her light. It's nice like the dark friend he'd made but he loves his mother more.
"Love you, mommy." He breathes. Rey coos and pats his head.
"I love you too."
Hanzo allows himself to be cocooned in his mother's presence.
"Like stealing a clam from Gungan?" His mother says after a moment.
"Okay, okay. I get it, guys!" His uncle Poe cries. "I said I was sorry. No more vacations!"
Grown-ups are so weird.
When they get back to his mother's ship he hears Bente before he sees her.
"HANZO!" She screams. He opens one eye and watches his sister climb up their mother's side the same way she does with grandpa Chewie. "Little brother." She blubbers. Hanzo sighs and stretches his hand towards her before she can start crying. There's been too much crying today for his liking. Bente takes his hand and tucks it in under her chin on his mother's other shoulder. His uncles close in and now it's become like one big hug.
Hanzo rather likes it.
"...and then the Dark Knight asked the Scavenger become his queen but she said no-"
"Why'd she say no?" Hanzo asks. Rey starts, not expecting the question. The twins are older now. Five whole cycles she's cared and protected them. After what became known as The Kaalsian Gang Massacre no one had dared touch her children again.
Still, they're curious little creatures. Hanzo most of all. Although, Bente is more vocal than her brother when things stump her. Which is often, to her immense amusement. Hanzo prefers to sit and observe. The only exception is when it pertains to their nightly bedtime story. Normally, Rey didn't mind and Hanzo is good about waiting until she finishes to ask his questions. Normally.
"Ugh! Who cares why she said no?" Bente complains. "Just get to the fighting part. That part's my favorite."
"I know, Bente," Rey says. "But your brother asked a good question."
"Hmpf." She huffs but settled down beside her brother in their shared bed. After The Incident Bente had refused to part from her brother's side. Hanzo was equally attached. It only made sense to get them a bigger bed to share when Bente kept falling out of Hanzo's.
Hanzo looks at Rey expectantly.
"The Scavenger had to save her friends so that's why she said no."
"Why didn't she just take the Dark Knight with her?"
Rey smiled sadly, memories swimming in her head. "She couldn't. It wasn't the right time yet."
Hanzo frowns, his nose scrunching. "When is the right time? Didn't they want to be together."
"They did, but it just wasn't the right time, there were still many battles to be fought," Rey replies patiently.
"And won!" Bente pipes up.
But Hanzo still looks confused. "I thought they loved each other. Why were they fighting?"
"They did love each other." The twins are too young to pay much attention to the way her voice catches. "But grown-ups are silly like that."
Hanzo nods in agreement. Bente wiggles beside him and lifts her fist in the air. Hanzo's exasperated expression makes Rey giggle.
"Now the battle!" Bente shakes her fist and looks at Rey excitedly. "Oh! Oh! Do the sounds too!" She makes a series of explosion sounds with her mouth. Hanzo grimaces as spit flies onto their shared blanket.
"Okay, okay." Rey reaches over and gently pushes the girl's hands down. She continues the tale, interweaving dramatic sound effects and lowering her voice comically for the Flyboy's and Buckethead's parts that make the kids giggle.
Twelve happy, eventful years pass after the Battle of Exegol when Rey's world is turned upside down all over again. Luckily, no one dies this time. It's a small miracle all things considered.
"As you can see, your honor, by the evidence on this here holopad the Jedi Rey was indeed consorting with the deceased Supreme Leader Kylo Ren." The man taps the screen. A picture of Rey and Kylo Ren in his Knights of Ren garb pops up. Below them blinks a recent picture of the twins. And below that are a series of numbers and percentages. But the only thing Rey focuses on is the word 'PATERNAL MATCH' written in Basic.
Scandalized gasps sound throughout the council room.
Rey had always known the twins were hers and Ben's. Yes, they'd never done more than touch hands and kiss that one time, but she knew, like how she knew the number of days she'd waited for her parents and how much she loved her little family, that they were his.
The council chambers is a hub of hushed words. Rey should feel violated, angry. She does but overcasting those emotions is joy and a great pool of fear. What did the courts plan to do with this information now that they had it?
Rey swallows back her anger and worry and tries as diplomatically as she can to ask what will become of her children. She doesn't ask what is to be her fate. She does not fear death. The only thing she fears is what punishment might befall her children. There are those still wounded and resentful for what happened to the Hosnian Prime system and all the other horrors the First Order had committed. The galaxy tried hard to forget. But it's hard to forget when wounds refuse to scab over.
The judge looks down on her. "Have no fear Jedi Rey. They will be exiled to the Outer Rim." Her voice is clear and cool like ice.
Rey's heart lurches and thumps angrily in her chest. Who are they to rip her children from their home and abandoned on some backwater planet as she'd been?
"She's no Jedi ." The prosecutor hisses, low enough for only her ears. He says it with the intention of hurting her. But he does not know her well enough to know what would truly hurt her.
"No, I'm not," Rey says. "I'm not a Jedi." The man startles at being addressed so openly. Her eyes are hard. She stands her ground. "I'm Rey. Just Rey." It's what she'd been trying to tell them this whole time.
"Very well. Rey, you hereby sentenced to serve ninety-nine years on Gratr's prison moon for acts of Treason and Espionage against the galaxy. Dismissed."
Rey is escorted to her cell. Pictures and recordings are taken as she is led away in Force-resistant cuffs.
Finn and Poe, her loyal friends, put up a fuss. They argue, wheedle, threaten, and beg on her behalf and the children's. But the Galactic Federation is unrelenting in its quest for 'justice'. Rey's beginning to see why Ben had detested such governments.
She knows Finn's intention were good when he offered the story of a weakened Jedi Scavenger and how the Evil Kylo Ren had taken advantage of her. It would have shortened her sentence, maybe even allowed the case to be dropped, but it was not the truth. Ben, even when he'd been Kylo Ren, never would have done something so despicable, especially not to her.
She denies the claim. Tries to convince the council of the good Ben Solo had done, that without him she would have never defeated the ghost emperor Palpatine.
"A monster such as Kylo Ren cannot be redeemed." The prosecutor scoffed.
"Yes, they can," Rey says with conviction. "It's never too late to find the light."
He flips a pencil between his claws. "Well, if we are to follow your logic can we not say that the opposite is equally true? Just as it's 'never too late', you say, to turn to the 'light' can it not be true to turn to the 'dark'. Who's to say that you have turned not to the 'dark'?"
They'd taken and twisted her words until they were bent backward to better aim at her heart. They corrupted her well-meant words and truths. Used them like weapons against her. Rey has never longed for Leia's counsel more.
Rey senses him before they approach her cell. She leaps up and rushes to her cell window. Rey cups her hands around her eyes and struggles to see through the dirty transparisteel. Still no use. Don't they wash these things? She exhales on it and rubs it with the sleeve of her robes just in time to watch her two guards drop to the floor — asleep.
Finn's face pops into view next. He's sweaty and harried-looking.
"That was not easy." He said, gestured to the guards.
"Finn!" Rey hissed quietly. "What are you doing here?"
"I came back for you." He said. It's an echo of words he'd said in another time. It takes Rey a moment for her brain to come back online but when it does Finn's already opened her cell door. "Come on. We have to go now." He uses a key card he'd likely nabbed from one of the guards and her cuffs fall uselessly to the floor.
Rey pulls back her arm before he can grab it.
"Hanzo and Bente-"
"-are with Poe. He's getting them with Chewie." He grabs her arm and Rey lets him this time. "Lando and Rose are waiting for us outside."
"Outside where?" Rey asks incredulously. "We can't just waltz out of here."
"We're not." Finn stops at a nearby window. "We're going to fall." And before she can ask him what the hell that means Finn is shooting at the window. It breaks and then they're falling. Rey lets out an involuntary scream that is cut short when they face-plant atop the Falcon.
"Okay." Finn wheezes beside her. "We could have...planned that better.
Rey rolls onto her back and side-eyes him.
"You think?"
"Mom!" "Mother!"
Rey winces and half-heartedly waves at the two preteens. Finn groans and rolls over. Hanzo appears above her and she smiles in relief, happy to see him safe. He hauls her carefully to her feet and helps her drop inside the ship.
"Ow!" Finn cries. Rey looks behind her to see him rubbing his forehead.
"Hehe, sorry Uncle Finn. My bad." Bente apologizes sheepishly.
Chewie roars and Rey is being lifted off her feet in a hug from the Wookiee.
"It's good to see you too, Chewie." She says happily when he sets her back on her feet.
"Mom! You're okay!" Bente shouts. She wraps her long arms around Rey and squeezes tight. Rey returns the embrace eagerly and kisses the side of her head. Hanzo silently maneuvers himself into the hug. Rey chuckles and gives him a kiss too. Once they let go and Rey makes sure they're okay, 'they didn't hurt you, did they?' 'no, mom. we're fine.', she makes her way to the cockpit.
Lando leans back in the pilot's chair and grins a charming grin up at her. "Couldn't stay out of trouble, huh, kid?"
Rey laughs. "No, sorry."
"That'd be a miracle," Poe grumbles from the co-pilot seat.
"It's Rey. What can you expect?" Finn chimes in from behind. He walks forward and Poe perks up.
"Tough landing?" He grins at his partner.
Finn rubs his back with a wince and nods.
"Yeah, I heard it," Poe replies in amusement. Bente chortles. Lando is quick to maneuver the Falcon off the planet before the Galactic Federation can think to send anyone after them.
Rey's no stranger to being a fugitive. Fugitive to the First Order? Done that. Fugitive to the Galactic Federation? Doing it.
For the twins, it's a definite adjustment. It's both equally thrilling and terrifying at first. And then it's just terrifying. And then it's mind-numbingly boring.
Hanzo's adjusted just fine. He's always been quiet and bookish. Tinkering with droids and reading holonovels in his room is no different than doing so on the Falcon. Bente struggles at first. She's energetic and is used to exploring the outside jungle at the Resistance Base. And then there's the fact that they're constantly cooped up together on the Falcon. Even Hanzo's patience isn't infinite. Bente's much less so.
"Bente, you're being unreasonable." Hanzo grounds out from the next room. Rey lifts her head where she's oiling D-0's wheel.
"Me? I'm being unreasonable." The seventeen-year-old lets out a fake laugh. "There are lives on the line, Hanzo!"
"Sometimes we must sacrifice a few for the survival of the majority." Is her brother's indifferent reply.
"What are they doing?" Rey murmurs to the droid. He just continues to look up at her.
"That's sick! What if you had friends-"
"I don't have friends."
"Okay, smartass, what if I was on there? Or mother? Or-or even D-0!" Rey makes her way over to them.
"I would- that wouldn't change anything." His voice wavers, betraying his true thoughts.
" Sure ," Bente says smugly. Rey stops at the doorway and watches her daughter lean back, long legs clad in loose pants tucked into leather boots splaying open.
Hanzo raises a brow. "It's a game, Bente." He waves his hand through one of the hologame's pawns for emphasis.
"Ah, ah, little brother." The girl wags her finger in his face. "Games like these reveal a person's true morals and thoughts." She makes a face. "At least that what Grandpa Chewie says."
"Does he now?" Rey says, announcing her presence. Bente startles and nearly falls off her seat.
"Hello, mother." Hanzo greets. He nods at the little droid. "Hello, D-0."
"H-hello, Baby." He replies. He then rolls away somewhere within the ship. Bente stands up and casually dusts herself off.
"So, uh, how long were you standing there?"
Rey smiles. "Not long." She looks back at her brother who nods in confirmation. Bente looks towards the cockpit.
"So, Mom, where to now?"
"Tatooine."
Bente groans. "Ugh, c'mon! Anywhere but there. That planet's a heat stroke waiting to happen."
"Perhaps if you'd cut your hair-"
Bente gasps, hand coming to coving her mouth as she impersonates a scandalized socialite. Her other comes up and brushes the four, messy buns tied in a similar style to her mother.
"Take that back!"
Hanzo gives her an unimpressed look. He looks at Rey for help. She shakes her head fondly and heads to the cockpit.
"Hanzo!" She calls over her shoulder. "Come. I need a co-pilot."
"Aw," Bente whines. "How come you always pick Hanzo?"
"Because unlike some people," he says and sits down beside her, "I actually value human life. Especially mine." Bente moodily stomps behind him.
"Liar." She mutters. "He'd probably sell us for a new holonovel." Rey shushes her gently, trying not to laugh.
"Mother? Never. You, on the other hand, I'd give for free."
"Hanzo," Rey chides, "she's worth a least a quarter portion."
"MUM!"
Rey chuckles as Bente stomps away. She shares a smile with her son and plugs in the correct coordinates. There's a hut rumored to have belonged to a long-dead Jedi Master. One Obi-Wan Kenobi. To think the key to unlocking the secrets she's been searching for all these years was back on Tatooine. What is it with her and desert planets?
"Ready when you are," Hanzo says. Rey takes a deep breath.
She's so close. She can feel it.
Soon, Ben. Soon.
"Ready." The Falcon jerks forward as it goes into hyperdrive. Bente curses somewhere from within the ship.