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"Dyad's Blessing, Dyad's Curse"

By EsmeAmelia

Chapter 51

A month passed. Three more hypnotherapy sessions had all ended with Ben and Rey hearing those screams and they were still having periodic memory lapses. The guards still brought Ben's meals, clean clothes, and other necessities to his cell and only let him out for therapy sessions, showering, and another meeting with the Resistance generals. There were times when he wondered if the prison was trying to protect the other inmates from him or protect him from the other inmates.

Maybe both.

Ben and Rey still dreamed of each other's memories some nights. He experienced her cuddling her doll on long Jakku nights, going on missions with Finn and Poe, Jedi training with Leia – the latter of which had him waking up sobbing. "She talked about you all the time," Rey said while embracing him that night, to which he could only respond, "I miss her" before breaking down in tears. They lay in silence after that, Rey squeezing him close to her and wiping the tears until she disappeared.

Missions were sent out to some of the worlds Ben had named, but it was only to find that the bases were abandoned. It didn't surprise Ben – and he suspected it didn't surprise the generals either – but now it meant stopping whatever remained of the First Order was getting more difficult. Ben shared other locations they might have fled to, but he could sense that the generals were doubting his words.

Especially since at the end of the meeting, General Finn seized a moment to hiss into Ben's ear.

"I can accept that you and Rey are together if you're good to her," he said, "but if you hurt her in any way, I'll kill you!"

. . .

"I don't know if I can do this," Jannah moaned, leaning against the wall of the dressing room, the same dress Pooja had lent her for their night out pinching in all the wrong places.

"You can," said Rose, also wearing her gown from the night out, the pink fabric complementing her skin, smelling of flowery perfume as she touched Jannah's shoulder with that beautifully strong hand.

"I mean, I want to learn who I really am . . ." Jannah's chest felt tight. ". . . but at the same time I don't, you know what I mean? If they do find out who my parents are, will we even like each other?"

Now Rose's fingers were rubbing up and down her girlfriend's shoulder. "I don't know. I'm not going to say it will be easy, but your parents would be crazy to not love someone as brave and caring as you." She wrapped her arms around Jannah, gently pulling her away from the wall and kissing her cheek. "And no matter what happens, you're still Jannah. Kind, caring, courageous, fun Jannah."

Jannah's heart thumped as she gazed into Rose's beautiful eyes. Even though they were sort-of-officially girlfriends now, they hadn't actually kissed – not on the lips, anyway – but now there was a feeling. Maybe it was the Force or maybe it was Jannah's own instincts, but the moment felt right.

She gathered Rose's face into her hands and kissed her, intending for it to be a short, simple kiss, but Rose throwing her arms around Jannah's neck extended the kiss, letting them both savor it for a long, passionate moment.

. . .

The ceremony would open with Chancellor Naberrie delivering a speech about how today marked the beginning of hope for the families that the First Order tore apart. After her speech, Finn, Jannah's tribe, and Lando would step onstage for a medical droid to collect DNA samples in front of the entire galaxy.

Finn felt like he could pass out as he stood in the wings. His stomach was turning somersaults and his head was spinning – maybe the only things keeping him from passing out were Rey and Poe standing on either side of him with their arms embracing his shoulders.

"You can do this, buddy," Poe was saying, giving his shoulder a squeeze.

"Then why am I shaking so much?" Finn asked only in half-jest.

"It's all right, Finn," said Rey.

"Yeah, what she said," said Poe. "I mean, no matter what happens, we'll all still be friends and you'll still have us."

Finn turned around and wrapped his arms around them both in a similar matter to how they had hugged after the Battle of Exegol. He squeezed his two best friends in the galaxy close to him, savoring the warmth from their bodies, wishing he knew how to express how thankful he was to have found them.

"You two should get to the audience," he finally said, releasing them from the embrace. "You'll see my big moment better that way." He grinned halfheartedly. "Don't want to miss them cutting my hair and swabbing my mouth, after all."

. . .

Rey, Poe, Rose, and Chewie had seats in the front row of the theater. Though Rey was trying to listen to Pooja's speech, the twitch in her senses soon after the chancellor started speaking diverted her attention. With a deep breath, she turned her head to the right, where the seat next to her had previously been empty.

There was Ben, gazing at her in the dim light. "You're dressed up again," he said. "Are you having another night out?"

"Not exactly," Rey whispered back, hoping the others wouldn't notice. "They're starting the first phase of the stormtrooper reunion program today and I'm watching the ceremony."

"All right," said Ben. "I won't bother you."

Rey swallowed, gently wrapping her arm around Ben's shoulders. "You're not bothering me," she said, though at the same time she hoped no one was looking in her direction and noticing that she had her arm wrapped around nothing.

She felt Ben's muscles relax slightly under her arm. "For what it's worth," he said, "I am glad that you're doing this. I hope Lando can find his daughter . . . I even hope General Finn can find his family."

"I'll tell them you said that."

"I remember playing with Ava – Lando's daughter – when she was a baby, back before the First Order took her, back before . . ."

Rey squeezed his arm, resting her head against his shoulder. "We're sending missions to both Teth and Felucia – maybe the stormtrooper facilities there haven't been abandoned yet and we can rescue them. I mean, those are pretty remote worlds – they might not even know the war's over."

"Maybe," said Ben, though Rey could sense the doubt even without the Force. He wrapped his own arm around her, stroking her shoulder. "What's happening right now?"

"Your cousin Pooja is giving a speech."

"Pooja . . ." Ben swallowed, seemingly unable to say anything more about his cousin. Truthfully, Rey wasn't sure how Pooja felt about Ben – she seemed to care about Ben when they arrived on Coruscant, but then she voted to imprison him. Then again, maybe she truly thought imprisoning Ben was the best thing for the galaxy as a whole. Rey couldn't say she knew the chancellor well enough to tell.

"I think Pooja still loves you," she found herself saying. "When we first arrived, she looked at you like she was about to cry. And, well, since she believes that the stormtroopers deserve another chance, I'm sure she believes you do too."

"And yet here I am," said Ben, staring ahead as if he could see his cousin on the stage. "I'm not stupid – I know the chancellor's approval was needed for me to be here."

Rey didn't know how to respond.