Last On: They arrive in Akiva and plan the ball. Commander Boche was resistant to holding an election on Akiva. Force Ghost Anakin has detailed plans to get Ben and Rey to kiss after the Ball.

Chapter 35 – The Ball

Rey waited until right before the Ball to remove the beige outfit cover from her dress. When Ben begrudgingly agreed to close their mental connection temporarily, it was safe to look at it. Leia got her to agree to keep the dress a secret, and in truth, Rey did want to see the look on his face when she came down wearing it. That dress, the one she specially chose with Leia for this occasion, was beautiful. It was a red gown, as soft as silk. It's sleeves were long and got wider near her wrists. There was gold embroidery near the neckline, which dipped down in a V above her breasts.

When Rey was dressed, the servant named Carly came in and offered to braid her hair, which Rey readily accepted. In the end she had two braids, going out and around her head to be pinned together in the back of her head, almost as if she were wearing a tiara. The rest of her hair was straight, except for a slight curl near her shoulders.

"Do you like it, miss?" asked Carly, holding a mirror out for her to see.

"Oh, yes! It is beautiful," said Rey and Carly gave a relieved giggle.

Just then there was a knock on the door, and a voice came from outside. "Rey, It's Po… PN-8031. The Supreme Leader wants a status report." said Poe, remembering to use his code-name in just the nick of time.

Rey sighed loudly. "Tell him I'll be out when I'm ready." She bit her lip, "I'm almost ready, a few more minutes."

Poe chuckled, then ran off down the hall.


As Ben got ready that morning, he fretted nervously.

"Don't worry, kid. It'll be fun." Luke Skywalker's voice came from behind him.

"I'm not worried about the dance. I'm worried because I can't get instant warning if some team of assassins make their move now." Ben turned to face his uncle.

Luke held his hand out and straightened Ben's tie using the force. "She's safe." Luke then held his hand up and a piece of mint gum floated in midair and into Ben's pocket. Ben looked down on his uncle suspiciously. "Just take it. If you don't your grandfather will never let me rest in peace."


Poe found Ben pacing in the downstairs foyer. The household servants were scattering in all directions, putting in the last minute preparations for the event. His anxiety seemed to be contagious, as the girl putting out flowers only needed to look at him once to have a look of dread spread over her face. She fled the room as if she were running from a whip.

"Supreme Leader, she's almost finished, she'll be out when she's ready." Poe gave Ben a mock bow, for everyone watching.

"How much longer is she going to take." Ben stopped Pacing to address his 'trooper.'

"From my experience, she'll take far longer than you'll think is justified, and there's nothing you can do about it. But trust me, it'll be worth it." Poe stepped back to stand at attention, and Ben resumed his pacing.

A few minutes later, Ben stopped suddenly when he noticed several servants in the room had stopped their tasks suddenly and looked up. Ben lifted his eyes to the top of the stair where he saw Rey. Her hand was on the railing and she slowly lowered herself down the stairs. Each step she took, Ben's heartbeat seemed to grow louder. His eyes couldn't help tracing the lines of her dress. He was glad he agreed to close their mental connection, as his thoughts then were not gentlemanly at all.

Rey looked at Ben and smiled. His face said all that she needed to know, still. She opened up the mental connection and sent him a thought based question. 'What do you think?'

'Sexy,' Ben's thoughts seemed to say without filter. 'Bea- I mean you're Beautiful.' Ben stumbled on a correction.

Rey laughed, humored by Ben's thought process.


It was less than an hour later that the guests began to show. Dilly had placed an open invitation in the local news holo and they came in droves. First there was a dinner, and the guests would be spread out between two dining rooms and a larger party room filled with tables. Then afterwards they would all be invited to the dance hall where a live band was set up in a balcony to play.


In the preceding week, Ben had heard Commander Boche complain to Dilly about every feature of this Ball, especially their insistence on inviting non-humans, whom he spat just talking about. Boche was amongst the first guests to arrive, and he brought with him several other higher ranking officers. Ben was introduced to them all in turn, and one caught his attention. He was a shorter man with dark hair and a mustache. His name was Millard, and he had a very dark presence. It was as if he harbored a lot of hatred.

Immediately after greeting them Ben pulled one of the household servants aside. "See that the human guests are divided up amongst the other guests. Especially Boche's guests." Ben was worried about the obvious species-ism and he hoped just getting them talking would solve a lot of the problems.


Ben and Rey went on to enjoy the party. During the meal it was Rey's idea to go around and meet as many of the guests as she could. Ben mostly stayed back, but he did accompany Rey on her visits. At one table there was a few Ithorian and Abednedo members who were having a lively discussion on the First Order's lack of support to Akivan farmers.

Ben interrupted the conversation to ask the one quiet table member what he thought. "Millard, do you have any opinion on this? "

Millard merely gave a gruff "humph. I wasn't listening to the rabble-rousers, sir."

"Should farmers be given aid during the monsoon season?" Ben helped.

"They never have before. If they don't plan for a few seasonal storms, why should we?" Millard answered.

This got the others in the table upset again. Ben got up to leave them to their discussions, but turned again to Millard. "The exact plight of the Akivan farmers during these 'seasonal storms' interests me. I'd encourage a man in your position to do as much as he could to learn all angles to the issue before suggesting a solution."


By the time it came to dance, Ben's social energy was running low. Fortunately, he and Rey would be the first ones out on the dance floor, and dancing required a completely different form of energy, of which he had in abundance.

Ben had been anticipating the moment when he'd get to put his arm on the waist of that dress all evening, and now that the moment was coming up, he felt his heart beating rapidly. He held his hand out to Rey and she blushed. 'Oops, what did I think?'

'Nothing unwelcomed.' Rey took Ben's hand and he led her out onto the dance floor. When he stopped she turned to face him and he reached his arm around the back of her dress. She sent him a mental image of his hand lowering several inches, and Ben's face turned bright red. Still, he took her direction and lowered his hand, not as far as she had hinted, but low enough his pinkie lightly touched her forbidden zone.

They danced a few paces when Comander Boche and his guests took their partners onto the dance floor. For a while it was just humans dancing, then one Sallustan couple decided to join the floor. Gradually the other guests joined in. Ben noticed several of Comander Boche's guests gradually left the floor when the others joined in, but he didn't care much about where they went or why they left.


In the Garden outside, Anakin was preparing to do his trick, and choosing his hiding spot when his concentration was interrupted by a loud crunch. He turned around and saw several force ghosts seated on one of the benches in the garden. Luke was amongst them, loudly crunching on a snack from the other relm. Anakin scrunched his eyebrows and stormed over to them. "What are you doing here?"

"We want to see it, the kiss of the century." Luke said, waving his hand for the last part.

"You've put in such an effort to get them to this point. We thought you'd want witnesses." Obi Wan reached over and grabbed a handful of snack from Luke's bucket.

"Alright, just don't let them see you." Anakin looked over and noticed a shadow moving behind the door. "Quick, they're coming!" Anakin jumped behind one of the bushes, while the remaining force ghosts disappeared.


After several dances the party was still as lively as ever. Ben, however, was feeling tired, and Rey's thoughts shared that same feeling. 'I bet the Supreme Leader can leave his own party whenever he wants to.' Rey silently chided him.

Ben looked up and around the room, seeing the doors to the gardens on the other side of the room. 'That he can.' He took Rey's hand, and led her through that door. The garden was quiet with only the trace amount of music coming through from inside. It was dimly lit with lanterns amongst the greenery. A stone path led down from the door and circled around a fountain in the middle of the garden. On the outer edges of this circle there were stone benches, and Ben walked with Rey towards one of these benches.

As they walked the flowers around them started to bloom. Rey looked around in surprise when she noticed the flowers. She looked up at Ben her a bright smile beaming across her face.

Ben noticed the flowers blooming and he looked around in confusion. "This isn't me, I didn't do this."

"It is pretty though. Don't you agree?" Rey's smile was not dimmed by his words.

"None more beautiful than you." Ben's eyes were fixed on Rey. She looked up at him and leaned up. Ben slowly leaned his head downward.

Rey's eyes opened in shock. Millard ran up behind Ben. He held a long knife with a curved blade, and he was swinging it towards Ben's head!


I know what you're thinking, poor Anakin. He just can't get his way. Well, Don't worry guys, I have plans... [Evil laugh] I have plans for those two.

I feel I am nearing the end of my story. If I take it the way I've imagined that is, I can see an ending soon. Now, I do have another couple of ideas for fanfiction, and I don't know which one I'll do first.

NOTE: If you are trying to avoid TROS Spoilers, skip the next paragraph:

One is a complete upheaval of the whole sequel series, tentatively titled "What if Anakin were not such a dead beat grandpa" Pun intended. It would be more of a spoof. I've thought of a few funny explanations for and ways to negate the less popular features of the story. The only thing is that I haven't actually seen TROS yet. Yes, I know, I don't get out much. But I've read a good deal of spoilers and I've already come up with some ideas of where to go. I imagine I'll start with Anakin Force dragging Han back to Leia before TFA. He then explains his idea on how to save Ben. Hint, it includes a young scavenger named Rey. He's partway through explaining his plan, gets to the part where Han is on the bridge with Kylo Ren and pleading with him to come home. Han guesses "And that's when he turns." Anakin replies "No, that's when he kills you." This plan will not be so popular with Han, and after some more arguing Anakin admits there is another way, "But you're not gonna like it." Also somehow he has to bring back a version of Palpatine, one that's been boiled and distilled to just his light side. Only when they do that, a monkey creature (a pet to a figure in the other relm helping him, a creature from a galaxy far, far away) accidentally gets some of the dark liquid part of Palpatine's soul on his ass, and accidentally smears it on the book of reality. A fitting explanation for TROS, don't you think?

My other idea is one I've had since seeing Revenge of the Sith. I hate bad endings, and I am still slightly cross they didn't pull a surprise time travel, AU stunt and give it a happy ending. My intention is to create an alternative plot where Anakin doesn't go Vader. I'm not sure how yet, I'll probably have to rewatch ROTS to figure it out. The feature I may change might be his mom not dying. Anyway, when Palpatine goes bad, Anakin and the rest of the Jedi go into hiding. Anakin has Padme off world, probably in Tatooine with his mom. And some time later, he has no choice but to bring Obi Wan to Tatooine to hide. When they are there, Obi Wan is surprised to see Anakin greeted by a small child calling him "daddy."

Anyways, I don't know which if any Fanfic I'll write next, but I wanted to share my ideas with you.