Last On: Rey wakes up to see someone's in her bed! She panics and kicks him out. The Resistance has Ben filming promo videos for his 'new empire.' Ben offers to teach Rey a lesson in controlling her emotions and using the Force.

Chapter 17

Rey stuttered. Ben was offering to teach her again. 'Or Kylo Ren is,' said the logical part of Rey's brain.

'Still, it's not like you're having much luck on your own,' argued an emotional part of Rey's brain. Leia tried to help, but she only had a few more lessons than Rey herself had.

'You can look at the books again,' Logical Rey reminded herself, 'Once C3-PO finishes his work.'

'You can't even read those books without C3-PO's help,' thought Emotional Rey. 'And the last time you did, you were more confused than when you started.'

Rey glanced up. Ben was still looking at her, waiting for a reply. Still the warring sides of her brain argued, til at last Rey just said, "Ok."

"That's good, I'll meet you later. Um, where's your meditation space?" asked Ben.

"My what?" Rey asked, now even more confused.

Ben looked back at her, mirroring her confusion. Then his face settled to a look of determination. "Then we'll find one together. I'll meet you here, for Dinner."

Once Rey nodded, Ben left the Cafeteria and went back to the conference room where he was expected to join his mother again. Instead he found a folded outfit, and a note, instructing him to go to the Hanger, once he was dressed.

When Ben walked into the Hanger, he was shocked. There was a much larger screen up, and several Resistance members were lined up, some wearing stormtrooper armor. 'Likely stolen from dead troopers,' Ben thought. Others were dressed casually. There was also a small stage built at one end.

"Good, good, you're here." Leia said. "You've just conquered your first world. The people are thrilled to be back under your leadership. You will say kind words to them, appreciating them for their loyalty, and they will hail you as their leader."

"People being thrilled to be conquered is not really the First Order style, nor is thanking them for needing to be conquered back," Ben pointed out.

"This isn't really the First order, either. If we want people to turn their loyalty to you, or at least question Hux's power, then these are the type of people you must win over." Leia held her arm out gesturing to the half of the crowd in casual dress.

"That's it, no babies you want me to kiss," Ben joked.

Neither of them laughed, though. Instead, Leia looked up at Connix, who made a quick note on her tablet for later. Ben rolled his eyes.

"We'll have to re-apply your makeup," Connix said. As she worked on Ben's face, his mother handed him another script to learn.

The next hour was spent filming Kylo Ren as he proudly walked up the isle in the center of the crowd. Next Ben was instructed to read the speech, while the crowd was filmed 'reacting' to it. He had to read it several times before everyone cooperated with his mother's vision.

By this time everyone was getting tired of standing around, including Ben. Unfortunately for them all, another Resistance member arrived, accompanied by a young girl and boy, and holding a baby.

"Good, Good. We'll place you here, here, and here," went Connix.

Ben looked to his mother with an inquiring expression.

His mother answered him, "You wanted a baby to kiss." Ben rolled his eyes again. "You will be concluding your speech, and on your way offstage duck into the crowd again. This time find the children and baby and kiss their cheeks."

Filming this was a complicated endeavor, because Leia insisted on getting close-up shots too, which meant they had to film it more than once. It was made even more complicated when it became apparent that the children weren't too fond of Kylo Ren. The boy kicked Ben once, when the camera wasn't on. And the girl cried, right on camera when he tried to kiss her.

While the other adults were running around trying to find toys or candy he could give the children, one caretaker tried to explain the difference between a costume and for real person. Ben sat on the floor, bored out of his mind. When he noticed the girl child glancing at him, he made a face. She snickered, and then the boy child looked over to see what made her laugh. Ben made a different funny face.

In the end, after receiving a pocket full of candy, the children let Ben kiss them without another issue. After this, the majority of the room was finally dismissed. Everyone except for Ben.

The last thing they had to film was him giving his speech. This time they had listened to him giving it a few times already, and were able to start with some pointers, but Ben still took a few tries to get it perfect.

"Good work today, Ben," said Leia when they were finished. "I was hoping you would join me for dinner tonight. We can discuss a few things."

"Uh, I have plans. I'm gonna teach Rey some meditation later." Ben felt relieved that he did have those plans. It made refusing his mother easier.

Leia nodded. "That's ok. We'll try tomorrow then." Her eyes had a sad, wet look. She was disappointed.

Ben ended up fleeing the hanger, and rushing to get back to the cafeteria in time to meet Rey. He was sure she would have already eaten, as it was getting late.

To his surprise, Rey sat alone at a table, with two trays of food. When he walked over to her, she looked up. Her mouth open in shock, and her eyebrows creased with worry.

"Oh, my mom had me put this on for a project of hers." Ben eyed his outfit that he forgot to change out of.

Rey nodded, realization flooding her face. "The holos. One of the others reckoned you'd be out soon, so I thought I'd save some time and got a tray for you." Rey pushed one of the trays towards him. Ben sat down next to Rey and began to eat.

"So, what do you have planned?" asked Rey.

"We'll need to find a meditation space first," answered Ben.

"What's a meditation space?" asked Rey.

"A space to meditate in. It should be quiet, and private, but most of all, comfortable for you. Have you done any meditating before?"

"Um, I think. With Luke. He had me sit on a cliff and 'reach out' to the force. But not really reach out. With my mind reach out." Ben nodded as she spoke.

"Everyone does it a bit different. My uncle liked to go outside to meditate. I prefer a dark room. Whatever works for you will be different. We can walk around and look for a spot to try out," Ben explained.

After their meal Ben and Rey went for a long walk around the base. Rey knew the base a lot better than him, and she led him to some areas that were quieter, like he said.

"This is, probably, the most out of the way we are going to find. No one comes down here anymore." Rey led Ben out of the lift and into a dark hall. She pushed something on a control panel and lights turned on around them. "This is the only part of the old Rebel Base that withstood the Empire's bombings. The Resistance base was built on it's foundations."

Ben followed her as she looked into rooms. Most were filled with old, outdated equipment. Ben would never choose a place like this. But to Rey, the stuffiness of the rooms, combined with the smell of salvageable materials made her feel more at home. Plus the building's very outdated generator was down here, and it made the rooms even warmer.

She ended up choosing a white room, half cluttered with junk, the other half clear. On one wall was a broken holo-screen. On the floors were a grey tile.

"Ok, Sit down," Ben instructed her as he demonstrated.

"Do you want the lights out," Rey asked.

"Um, not unless you want it dark. This space is for you," Ben answered.

"Are we going to reach out to the force?" Rey asked.

"No. I want you to look at the force inward. The force is everywhere, including in all of us. Close your eyes," he instructed, and Rey complied. "It's like a flame, and it uses your emotions as a fuel. If you were using the dark side, you'd be carefully feeding it emotions like anger, and pain to give you strength. If the flame gets too big, though, it can do damage. You remember Snoke? His body was damaged from years of experimenting with power. Now, If you're goal is the light side, you'll want to calm that flame down as much as possible. It's the way of the Jedi."

"I see the flame. It keeps getting fed, how do I keep these emotions out?" Rey was getting anxious.

Ben put his hand out and touched Rey's arm. Then he pulled it back, rethinking the action. "I'm going to build a circuit between our minds."

"No thank you. I had you in my head once," said Rey, looking up.

"No, that was a mind reading. This is just a circuit. I'll only be able to see what you share, and vice versa," Ben reassured.

They went back into their meditation. Rey could feel the circuit connect, but there wasn't the painful tendrils she remembered from the last time he went in to her head, thankfully.

"Ok, I'm going to share a memory," said Ben. Rey immediately felt it.

She was in Takodana again, only this time, she was Kylo Ren. And she saw herself, shooting at him. She felt herself deflecting the shots with his lightsaber. And she could sense a playfulness to it. He didn't want to hurt her. Then the memory cut off.

"Now, can you do the same?" Ben said after a minute.

"Um, I'll try." and Rey tried sorting through her memories for something to share. After another minute she had it, and she concentrated on the circuit to send it over.

Ben was wet and shivering from the cold. His head was swimming with doubt and questions over what he'd just seen. He walked into a hut on a mountainous island with a desire to see someone specific. Him, she wanted to see him! That was when he looked up into the hut and saw himself sitting there. Then she cut the memory off.

Ben smiled a little, but Rey's eyes were closed so she didn't notice. "Ok, now we're going to work on what to do with your emotions. Lets use last night's as an example. What were you feeling then? Share the memory with me?"

Ben waited for Rey's response. Instead he heard what sounded like a trumpet blaring worth of noise from the circuit. 'That's strange,' thought Ben. Then the circuit snapped, as Rey got up from the floor.

"I can't do this now." Rey sputtered. She looked to be very nervous. Before Ben could say anything she turned and ran out of the room.

"Rey," Ben called. Though he looked for her, he didn't see any trace of her for the rest of the evening.


Ben woke up the next morning, after an uneventful night's sleep. When he went to his closet, he did something strange. He knocked. Then he waited for a minute. Out from the Closet popped the ghost head of Luke Skywalker.

"You know, the whole surprise effect is underwhelming when you knock first." said Luke.

"Yeah, you want to surprise me, hide somewhere different for once," said Ben. "Besides, last time I interrupted you and uh... I did not need to see that!"

"Well you wouldn't have interrupted anything if you'd been on time. Anyways, her name is Mara Jade. You're Grandfather introduced us. Kept saying I need to 'get laid,' whatever that means. Anyways, I was thinking about making her your new Auntie. What do you think about that?"

"Yippee," said Ben sarcastically.

"I talked to your mom. She said you started training Rey. How did that go?"

"Bad," Ben said.

"Did you wack her with a stick?" Luke asked.

Ben looked confused. "No! Why would I… Look, I told her about the flame effect our emotions have on the force within us. Then I built a circuit between our minds, and asked her to transfer a memory over. She panicked and ran away."

"Uh-hmm, Uh-hmm. A fearful memory?" Luke asked. Ben nodded. "Fear is a powerful emotion. Having it makes one feel weak even after the incident. It can feel intrusive to be asked to share it."

"But I was there too. I remember the incident." Ben shouted.

"Then if you remember it, you don't need her memory. What frightened her?"

Ben sat down to think. In truth he didn't know exactly what frightened her so bad. He woke up and she was so scared already. Then she kicked him out so fast.

Luke watched his nephew. When he started to see the lights of realization go on, Luke left this relm, disappearing into thin air.