Force Dyad
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A/N-thank you very much for kindly reading and reviewing this story!
Chapter Ten-Betrayal
"I'll take this little one to bed." Magda said, taking Rey's hand.
"But I'm not tired yet." Rey protested. She looked pleadingly in Ben's direction.
Ben smiled at her fondly. "It's getting late, Rey. And I need to talk to Tai. You go with Mags and I'll check in on you later."
"Promise?" Rey whispered as the familiar anxiety welled in her eyes.
It saddened Ben that even after all this time Rey still worried that he was going to leave one day and never come back. He wondered if she would ever get over the trauma of her parents' abandonment, like a wound that would never heal. She never talked about it, but he knew it still haunted her dreams. She often woke up in the night crying for them.
Ben held out his arms and Rey ran into them. She clung to him for a minute as he hugged her. "I promise, Rey." He said gently. "Now go to bed."
Rey sucked in her lower lip as she tried to contain her tears. She let Magda pull her out of Ben's arm's, but continued to look disconsolately over the female Mon Calamari's shoulder at him as Magda carried her out of the room. When the door closed behind them, Ben turned to face his friend, only to find Tai looking troubled.
"What?" He asked, frowning slightly.
"She seems very attached to you." Tai pointed out.
"And why is that so surprising?" Ben was immediately on the defensive, feeling that Tai sounded incredulous that anyone could show an emotional attachment to him. It was his parents all over again and made Ben realise that Rey wasn't the only one whose emotional wounds would never heal.
Tai was confused by his reaction. "Its not surprising. Don't misunderstand me, Ben."
Ben's mouth turned dry. He reached for the glass of water sitting in front of him, condensation beading the outside. He took a sip to wet his throat and placed the glass back on the table. As he tried to compose himself, he ran one finger around the rim of the glass distractedly.
After sitting knee deep in silence for a while, Tai tried to kickstart the conversation again. "What are you going to do, Ben?" He asked, glancing around the rough-hewn walls of the inn's rustic kitchen.
"What do you mean?" Ben raised his head and looked at Tai sharply.
"Surely you can't be intending to stay on here."
"What's wrong with here?"
Tai sighed impatiently. "There's no need to be so argumentative. I'm just showing a genuine concern for your welfare, Ben. This isn't an ideal environment for a child of Rey's age-living above an old inn in a black-market port-especially one as Force sensitive as she is."
"It's temporary until I save enough to get my ship fixed. And Magda has been very good to us."
"I'm sure she has." Tai was getting a little frustrated with Ben's curt responses. He leaned forward in his seat, resting his hands on the rough paintwork which covered the table. "But what about the future? Where are you going to go next? You can't keep wandering the galaxy forever. Think of Rey, doesn't she deserve to be settled somewhere? You've proved your point, Ben. Don't you think its time to come home."
"You think I left home to prove some kind of point to Skywalker and my parents!" Ben scoffed.
"I know you've been struggling with the pressure of living up to your family's legacy. We spoke about it, remember." Tai reminded him. "But do you really think running away is the solution? You can't escape who you are, Ben. You need to accept it and just be yourself otherwise you'll never find peace." His eyes showed the same gentle concern that Magda often did when she was trying to give him some good advice.
Ben let out a slow controlled breath and attempted to loosen the tension in his neck and shoulders. He felt that Tai was trying to be empathetic to his situation, but knew that Tai could never truly comprehend the complicated relationship he had with Skywalker and his parents. "When I walked away from everything, Tai, it was with the intention of never coming back."
Tai was incredulous. "I can't believe that you really intend to throw away years of Jedi training…."
"I never wanted to be a Jedi!" Ben cut in harshly. "That decision was forced on me by my mother. It was a convenient excuse to send me to my uncle because she didn't know how to deal with me. As usual my father just went along with it. I wanted to be a pilot like him." He continued bitterly. "I was foolish to hope he would fight for me…."
"Ben." Tai tried again.
"No listen to me." Ben interrupted again fiercely. "I am never going back, Tai. I am going to make my own way. I am going to make my own decisions. I don't need or want anything from them. Rey and I are fine on our own. So, you can go back and tell Skywalker you've seen Rey, that's she well looked after and happy, and he just needs to leave us alone."
The storm had ebbed to nothingness, now the silence was as pure as the wintry blanket outside the inn. Tai seemed lost for words after Ben's outburst and he remained that way for a while.
Ben breathed deeply in the sudden silence, he knew tensing against the shaking of his limbs was useless but he did it instinctively, trying to suppress for a few more moments what he knew he could not. He needed to drink in the silence to counteract the fear that threatened to engulf him. As he picked up the glass again to drink, he watched Tai covertly, hoping in his heart that his friend would take him at his word and just leave and go make his report to Skywalker.
"Don't you think you're being selfish? So far you've only spoken about what you want." Tai said suddenly. "What about Rey? What kind of life can you provide for her? This?" He looked around the inn scathingly. "Aren't you doing to her exactly what you say your family did to you? You are making decisions for her and stopping her from realising her full potential. She's strong with the Force, Ben. I can feel it and so can you. With the proper training she could be exceptional. Don't project your own demons and unhappiness onto her, Ben. That's not fair and deep down you know it."
Ben nearly choked on the water. He threw the glass back on the table and glared at Tai. "You sound just like Skywalker." He snapped. "You pretend to listen but then twist my words and throw them back at me."
"That's not what I'm doing." Tai pleaded. "I'm trying to be your friend, Ben. I'm trying to give you a fresh perspective. To see things from a different point of view."
"No!" Ben argued. "You're just acting as Skywalker's mouthpiece. I did what you wanted. You've seen Rey. Now you can go."
The air was so brittle it could snap, and if it didn't, Ben felt he might. He didn't want to speak another word to Tai, what was left to say? Platitudes wouldn't cut it right now….
The scream that rent the air was as good as a siren. It was unmistakably Rey. The scream was the kind of sound that bypassed Ben's logical thinking and went direct to his emotional response. High pitched and raw it sent his heart racing with fear. He took off toward it, full pelt, with Tai hot on his heels. He crashed into the room where she was supposed to be sleeping, only to find the bed turned upside down and Rey missing.
Dread owned Ben, pushing against him like an invisible gale. His stomach locked up tight, nothing getting in or out. His teeth locked together when Rey materialised in front of him in the semi-darkness of the room-her hazel eyes were wide with terror, a hand clamped over her mouth to keep her quiet-a hand he recognised as belonging to Voe.
"Rey!" Ben tried to reach out to her but she disappeared into the ether.
The dread was an invisible demon sitting heavy on his shoulders and only he could hear the sharpening of its knives. His face paled, then the tremor in his hands began as he focused his anger and despair on the one closest to him. "You!" He raged at a confused Tai. "This was all part of your plan. You distract me while the others take her. I'm so stupid. I led you right to her. I should never have trusted you!"
Tai shook his head in denial. "I don't know what you're talking about, Ben. You can trust me. I honestly only came here to talk to you."
"Liar!" Ben yelled. He pulled a blaster on Tai, the one his Uncle Lando had gifted him when he was a kid, which he carried with him everywhere. "You're in league with Voe and Hennix. Where are they taking her? Tell me right now!"
Uneasiness shone in Tai's dark brown eyes. "You think Voe took Rey?"
"I know she did."
"How do you know?"
"Don't waste my time, Tai. I know you're a part of this." Ben growled. "Where are they taking her?"
Tai ran his fingers over his face as tried to comprehend what was happening. Could Voe really have acted on her own volition and kidnapped Rey to take back to Skywalker? And would Hennix really have helped her? He couldn't believe they would do such a thing. Their mission had been to find Ben and the child, then report back to Skywalker. He knew that Voe could be rash and impulsive, but this was on a whole other level. Tai knew that his fellow apprentice had been struggling, she was desperate to impress Skywalker, and sometimes that pushed her to act without thinking.
"Answer me, Tai." Ben demanded again.
Tai tried to pull himself together. "The Verity." He breathed. "They must have taken her to the ship."
Ben felt like a ticking time bomb was going off in his head. He couldn't stop it, reverse it or slow it down. Each tick dragged him forward, helpless to what was coming. He could no more avoid it than the beating of his own heart. He pushed past Tai, no longer believing he was complicit with the others, and charged out of the inn toward the landing docks in a last futile attempt to get to Rey before Voe and Hennix took her away on their starship.
Ben sprinted over the damp earth like he was wading through treacle. He heaved his legs against the strong gale blowing outside, against the pressure building on his chest and hitting his face like it intended to go right through. With eyes squinted to let in only enough light in to navigate, he never slackened his pace until he reached the landing docks. But he was already too late. The wind tore at his hair as he cast his despairing gaze to the sky only to find The Verity soaring toward space.
He was too late.
Rey was gone.
And with Grimtaash still grounded, he couldn't go after her.
A/N-thanks for reading! Please review.