A/N: Howdy y'all! Hope everybody's staying healthy and not losing their minds as I am starting to...honestly I'm not sure if my room's ever been this clean and I've actually taken back my desk for *gasp* writing! (What do you mean it's not supposed to be used for junk storage?) It's calving season on the farm though, so we've got a bunch of babies bouncing around the back pasture, which is hopefully a cheerful thought for everybody.

Life continues and the sun still rises every morning, and that, in the words of Gandalf the Grey, "is an encouraging thought". Keep your heads up everybody! Nothing lasts forever and maybe we'll come out on the backside a bit stronger for pushing through this hard time. To quote C.S. Lewis: "But courage, child: we are all between the paws of the true Aslan."

Thanks, as always, to Leona2016 and FenrisInside for putting up with my emails, questions, second guessings, and general frustrations. You both are the best! Thanks also to everyone who has followed/favorited/reviewed. You all are the reason I write. Thank you!

FluffyFox: Yeeeeep. *slightly maniacal chuckle*

Hartmannclan: Thank you so much for your kind review- it absolutely made my day! :D


Rey's soul had fallen silent within her. Betrayal was an old and bitter friend, yet it still scorched her as a living flame.

How could he?

The thought kept circling through her head in an endless, monotonous chant. With her own ears, she had heard the voice of a friend, whom she'd thought dead, calling for her execution. She shouldn't have been surprised. She should have known her own betrayal would invite the same, but it had never occurred to her that Finn, the first true friend she'd ever made, would be the one who wanted revenge. It was still a struggle to wrap her mind around the fact that he was alive.

The flight back to the Finalizer seemed to take no time at all as her mind buzzed with new pain and new fears. The number of those wanting to kill Ben and herself grew by the day. How long could they last?

Ben's anxiety sat like a knot in her stomach, coiled tight and adding tension to muscles already aching with exhaustion. He had stayed close by her all the way back to the ship and she could feel the heat of his body, even now, as he pressed tight against her side, shielding her from the eyes of the troops. She could sense his thoughts on the outskirts of her own, just as loud and just as confusing.

What are we going to do, Ben? she whispered through the bond.

I don't know.

She felt his yearning to pull her against him, to at once comfort her and assuage his own terrible fears. The same longing burned in her, desperation for the certainty of another's touch in a world where nothing was certain. But the most they could do was clasp hands beneath Ben's cloak where they couldn't be seen. His fingers were her anchor as the ship's landing gear engaged and it gently touched down inside the hangar bay.

They followed the troopers out into the open, Rey only half listening to their celebratory chatter. Instead, she watched the TIEs returning through the open bay doors, losing speed as they swept low over the heads of those below before coming to rest in their designated places. The pilots leapt out, shedding gear and shouting to one another, laughing and cheering. It seemed strangely familiar, yet it took her several moments before she remembered where she'd seen something like it.

The Resistance. She'd seen the pilots in the Resistance do the same thing in the aftermath of the destruction of Starkiller Base. The expressions on the faces were the same, the relief and the fierce joy in their voices was the same. The Resistance and the First Order, it seemed, were made up of the same people. She looked about her, taking it in with eyes that gazed past it all and a mind that let the realization wash through it without an inkling of surprise. Had she always known the truth? Had she always known how easy it could be to become what she'd once hated? That what she'd hated had not been a faceless, nameless evil, but was instead an army made of people just like the ones beside whom she'd been proud to fight?

Rey was startled out of her thoughts as a hand found her shoulder and squeezed. She whirled about with a yelp and instinctively reached for her saber. Ben turned at her cry and his hand darted out to catch her forearm, pulling her behind him and out of the stranger's grip. Only then did she catch a glimpse of the person who'd grabbed her.

A woman in white trooper armor stood before them with a confused and frightened expression on her face. She took a step back, hands coming up in front of her to show she was unarmed, her helmet striking the ground at her side as it fell from beneath her arm.

"Beg pardon, Supreme Leader," she said. "Rey."

Rey's fear left her in a great breath as she recognized the voice.

"Sim," she gasped, "what in the stars do you think you're doing? Don't scare me like that."

"I just wanted to thank you," the trooper said, eyeing Ben's free hand where it still rested near his saber hilt. "I shouldn't have surprised you. I'm sorry."

"It's alright," Rey said. "We're both a little on edge."

"Why?" Sim asked. "Was it the message we found?"

Rey didn't reply, but her face must have betrayed her because Sim's brows drew together in a frown.

"And you believe he's a threat?" she asked. "What power does he have? The Resistance is all but finished."

Rey tried to give her a wry smile, but it seemed to strain every muscle in her face, and she let it fall away. Sim studied her for a moment.

"You fought beside him, didn't you?" she asked. "He was your friend."

"How did you-?" began Rey.

"I know who you are," Sim said with a gentle smile. Her eyes shifted to Ben. "And I know where your allegiance lay before you became the Supreme Leader's apprentice."

Rey suspected that Sim knew more than what she'd said, or that she guessed more. Ben sensed it too. She knew it the instant his anxiety shrilled in the Force and the hand he still had on her arm clutched harder, fingers digging into her skin. Sim tracked the movement, and her smile stretched a fraction of an inch wider, as if her suspicions had been confirmed.

"Trooper, if I find that your insinuations have been circulated, you'll find yourself marooned on a Force forsaken planet light years into the Unknown Region," Ben growled.

"Don't worry," Sim murmured back. "I don't spread rumors. But both of you would do well to be more careful. I'm not the only one who has eyes."

Abruptly, Ben's hand left Rey's arm. With his absence cold seemed to steal through her, the warmth of his hand bleeding out of her skin from where the ghost of his touch still lingered. An image of Hux's malicious grin flashed through her mind and she wasn't sure whether it was her own thought, or if it was Ben's. A shiver went down her spine and she clutched her arms tight against her chest.

"Relax, Rey," Sim said. "I'm an ally."

"Forgive me if that doesn't exactly put me at ease," Rey said. "I just got a death threat from someone I thought was my friend."

Sim gave her another smile, then leaned in a little closer, wrapping an arm around Rey's shoulders in a companionable gesture.

"Perhaps you will trust me if I tell you that we have a mutual friend on this ship," Sim muttered. "Several, in fact."

"What?" Rey asked, looking at her in surprise.

"Lita spoke with me," Sim muttered. "She was trailing Tal and I for days before she caught us in a corner grumbling about Hux."

"Tal?" Ben asked.

Sim chuckled.

"He thought we were dead when Lita caught us. Had her at blaster point before she could speak. She's lucky she's a fast talker."

Rey waited for Sim to continue, knowing that there was more to the woman's story than what she'd yet told. A moment later, Sim proved her right.

"Tal is a great ally, Supreme Leader," she murmured. "I think you already know it. I know him, and you can trust me when I say that he would die if it meant Hux did too. The general all but put him through torture as a recruit and Tal's been holding a grudge against him for years."

"I didn't know-" Ben said, voice startled as it trailed into silence.

Sim stared at him for a long moment before she at last said, "We couldn't trust you before. You were just as much an enemy then as Hux is now."

"And now what are we?" Rey asked.

"I'll let time be the judge of that," Sim said with another of her faint smiles. "There is, perhaps, always hope."

And with that, she turned and walked away.

Rey stared after the trooper, not sure what to make of her speech. She could feel hope flaring up in Ben like a flame. Rey didn't know what to think. Part of her wanted to cling to his optimism and take it as her own, but another part of her- the injured, betrayed part of her- told her that it was foolish to trust Sim. What would happen if they trusted her and she, too, turned on them? It would be infinitely worse than Finn's betrayal, because it would spell doom for both herself and Ben. All it would take would be one loose tongue and she would have to watch Ben die before her own life was torn from her. Was she willing to take that chance? Was Ben?

They walked together in silence toward the bridge, falling in with a small group of men and women whose black uniforms bore the silvery gray arm bands that signified their rank as officers. A muscle in Rey's neck immediately knotted with tension. After nearly a full day in the easy company of the troopers, the stern, unyielding expressions on the faces of the officers made her mind buzz with anxiety.

On instinct, she reached for Ben through the bond. His music met hers with the familiar tangle of melodies to which she'd grown accustomed and, for the second time that day, she felt the joining resonate inside her to draw strange notes into her awareness. Ben seemed to sense it too, and his brows drew together in confusion for a brief moment before he could smooth it away.

Did you- he started to ask, then stopped, lifting a shoulder in a half shrug.

Rey thought about asking him what he'd felt but decided against it when she saw the doors to the bridge standing open at the end of the corridor. Anger and fear in turn rolled through her and she balked at the doorway, legs starting to shake beneath her. The last time she'd been on the bridge, she'd almost killed. Now she was returning a murderer. What if she couldn't keep back the fury that was even now building inside her?

It'll be alright, Rey.

Rey took a deep breath, trying to focus on Ben's voice inside her head instead of the fear coursing through her veins like blood. It wasn't easy, especially when they passed through the bridge and into a conference room on the far side to find a crowd of black clad officers surrounding a table. Rey's eyes were drawn instantly to a figure in dusty white armor, helmet tucked beneath an arm.

Tal stood rigid under the scrutiny of his superiors, answering questions Rey couldn't discern from the general noise surrounding them. His stiff expression was foreign to her, utterly different from the one she'd seem when she and Ben fought at his side. He seemed to have become a different person in the short period of time since she'd last seen him.

Rey started to fidget with the bracelet at her wrist, twisting it around until the skin started to burn. The movement attracted the attention of several of the officers, who turned to eye her. Her fingers stilled on the cloth band and she glared back at them, trying to hide her bone-deep exhaustion beneath her anger. Neither she nor Ben could afford to show weakness now. Not in front of a dozen and a half of the First Order's highest-ranking officers. She could not be weak while Hux stood at the head of the table with Phasma at his side.

Tal was watching them with eyes that swept the room continually. Rey couldn't help but remember Sim's words as she stared back at the stormtrooper Captain, searching for any sign that he might turn to their cause. There was none. He did not even seem to recognize them.

After a few minutes, he fell silent and moved off to a corner where he continued to scan the room. Hux pored over his datapad for another minute, speaking in a low tone with his officer, before he finally looked up and acknowledged Ben's presence on the bridge.

"Supreme Leader."

"General Hux. I see you've taken down the Captain's report."

"I have, sir, and I must say I'm not pleased."

You're never pleased, Hux. Rey heard Ben whisper in her head, but aloud he said:

"And what would you have had us do?"

"I wouldn't have you listen to the word of a scrawny little scavenger, who has past ties to the very enemy we are trying to defeat. She led our troops into a trap. The x-wing attack while they were trapped in the open was not something we'd anticipated or prepared for. We lost men because of her faulty information."

"Perhaps we lost men because of your poor planning," Ben said. "Rey saved lives today. She cannot be held responsible for failing to give information which she did not have."

Hux went purple with suppressed fury.

"And how are we to know she didn't sell us out?" Hux snapped. "How do you know she won't turn on you?"

Ben crossed his arms, his face a mask of stone.

"Still beating that drum, are you?" he said, quietly. "I thought we'd agreed that it was enough that I trust her."

Rey bit her tongue, struggling not to let her irritation at being ignored grow into something worse. Control. She had to control it.

"And on what do you base your trust?" Hux hissed through clenched teeth. "Her claims that she is loyal to you, or because you intend to build a dynasty through her?"

Rey's temper snapped. Her saber flashed red and the dark side of the Force encircled her with its low, seductive music, tempting her to give in once again and kill as she took a step out from behind Ben.

"Say it again," she growled. "Say it again, Hux. Better get all your accusations out in the open now, before I kill you. I have a few of my own."

Hux staggered backward and away from her, hand lifting toward his throat that was still a sickly green-yellow with healing bruises. Before she could advance on the man, there was a familiar prickle along her spine, and she spun just in time. Her saber sliced through the muzzle of the blaster just as the officer holding it leveled it at her head. Rey bared her teeth like an animal and took a step forward, lightsaber already raised to the man's throat.

Ben's hand closed around her arm before she could strike, pushing it downwards so the end of the blade pointed toward the floor.

We need them, Rey, His voice whispered in her thoughts. We can't keep the Resistance away from the younglings without the troopers. Don't make enemies here. Not now.

Rey froze at the expression in his dark eyes, fighting back the anger and the urge to kill that struggled to grow inside her. It wasn't his voice so much as the memory of bodies lying in the red stained sands of Jakku that finally broke through the music pulling her deeper into itself. She gazed about, half in a dream and half out, taking in the stunned faces of the other officers and the reddened, infuriated face of the one who had tried to kill her.

"Is this an example of the control you wield as Supreme Leader, Ren?" spluttered the man, gesturing toward her with the smoldering remains of his blaster.

Ben glared at the officer, scrutinizing the man through narrowed eyes.

"I don't control her," he said. "But if what you just said was meant to question my authority, then I suggest that you remember what I have done and what I can do. As you can see, I've trained my apprentice to be able to do the same. Be a little wiser when you choose your words, Admiral. They betray you."

The man backed up a step as he lowered the ruined blaster, fear and hatred twisting his expression. Ben stood tall above her, glare finding each man in turn. Most dropped their eyes to the floor after a few seconds but a few, Hux included, held his gaze. Ben seemed to take note of each.

"I have said before and I will say again," he finally said, "Rey is trustworthy, and a good soldier. If anyone has his doubts, I will personally make sure that he's on the next ship into battle so he can fight at her side."

Rey saw the corner of Tal's mouth quirk upward from across the room before he quickly smoothed his expression into careful apathy. There was silence from all sides, and she could feel Ben's tension calm by a fraction when no one stood to challenge him.

The rest of the debriefing passed with a sense of forced civility. She could feel both the eyes of the officers and Ben's growing unease, both of which set her increasingly on edge as time passed. The skin beneath her cloth bracelet had long since turned red from her constant twisting. It was a relief when the officers stood from their seats and left the room. Hux was among the last to go. Before he passed through the doorway, he fixed her with an expression of such raw and open hatred that Rey's hand flinched toward her saber hilt before she could stop it. The man didn't seem to notice, and he quickly disappeared down the corridor.

Rey glanced around to see if any of the officers remained and was surprised to see Captain Tal still in his corner. He stared across at them before picking up his helmet and approaching. Rey read wariness in the way he walked stiffly forward. He stopped several feet in front of them and inclined his head in a bow.

"Supreme Leader," he said. "Rey."

"Captain," Ben replied.

"I just wanted you to know," Tal said, turning to Rey, "that I didn't mean to imply that you were at fault in my report. I simply explained what happened. General Hux seemed to think the attack was your fault, somehow. I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault," Rey said, fighting down a new wave of anger. "Hux believes what he believes about me. Nothing you could have said would have convinced him to see me in a favorable light."

"Well, I know what I saw. You saved many of my troopers today, and I wanted to thank you for that. They asked me to pass the message along that they're grateful to both of you as well."

"The feeling's mutual," Ben said with a smile. "I think I remember one of your troopers killing a man who was about to kill me."

"And Sim saved me," said Rey. "I got hit by a pulse from a sonic rifle and she pulled me out of the way of blaster fire while I was disoriented."

Out of the corner of her eye, Rey saw Ben shoot a sharp look in her direction and she heard the swift note of his fear before it dissolved away again into silence. She wanted to reach out to him- to let the warmth of her hand remind him that she was alive and unharmed- but Tal stood before them and, though he might be an ally, she still couldn't take the risk.

The Captain bowed once more.

"It was an honor to serve with you both," he said. "I hope to do so again."

"As do we," said Ben.

Tal grinned and turned away, jogging off the bridge and out into the corridor beyond. Rey watched him go, then looked to Ben. The lines on his face had smoothed until he looked almost like he had when they'd visited his knights. The straight line of his shoulders had sloped, and he leaned heavily against a wall, rubbing a hand over his face.

What are you thinking? She asked him through the bond.

Ben closed his eyes and grinned.

I'm thinking that there might be some hope for us, after all, he said. We might just have a chance.