Attention: I made a few revisions to the previous chapter. If you were in any way confused by it, please go back and read it again. the biggest block of new bit is between the bold ***
Last on: Chewy brought news that Poe and Connix had done something stupid, and gotten captured by the First Order. Ben, Rey, Finn and C3-PO go there disguised as stormtroopers to break them out of a prison. Poe gave away the location of the Resistance Base, as a trap so any ship that came by would be destroyed by the Star Dreadnought the Resistance had stolen, now named the Zealot's Vindication. Only Leia, Rose, and Chewy are now aboard the Zealot's Vindication and are driving it away from the Resistance base.
Chapter 28
Rey went right to the comm and told the General what she'd learned. The Zealot's Vindication was only a few systems away. Leia seemed disgruntled to learn about the full plan of her underlings. She ordered Rey to fly back to them immediately. "We'll deal with it when you get here," was all she would say on the matter.
When they reached the Star Dreadnought, Rey flew into the Hanger, and they left their shuttle and went looking for Leia.
When they got to the bridge, they found Rose and Leia in a stand-off against a familiar little droid.
"BB-8, stand down." Poe motioned with his hands a surrender.
"We've been wracking our brains trying to find out what could possibly cause so many system malfunctions, when it turns out it was this little guy," Rose sounded exasperated.
Leia turned to look at Poe and Kaydel. The look on her face made them melt.
"General… We can explain..." Kaydel tried to defend herself.
"Later. We have to get back to the base. The First Order is on their way," Poe ordered.
"No!" Leia refused. "The First Order doesn't know the resistance stole their Star Dreadnought, why would we fly in there and reveal all to them, just to take out one ship."
"But if we don't, then we'll lose the base." Kaydel sounded frantic.
"Chewbacca, of all of you, followed orders. When he found out about your little plan, he knew there would be a chance one of you would spill our location. So he activated Project White Out. Every droid we had began emptying the base of all important supplies. The computers will be wiped clean. A message was sent out to all personnel not to return to base, and to await further instruction."
"Then we'll have to find another new base." Said Poe, relieved to maybe have a job to do and that it will put off the inevitable.
Leia didn't blink an eye. "You're standing on it." Poe looked around him in shock.
"This ship is four times the size of our old base, and mobile," Leia explained.
"But it's First Order," Poe pointed out.
"We've been releasing holos about the Supreme Leader being active still, and going on missions impersonating his team. This is the next step."
Poe and Kaydel looked stunned, but Leia didn't respond to them. She began giving orders to everyone, dividing them up around the ship. There was a lot of damage BB-8 had done to slow them down that now needed to be repaired. Poe and Kaydel were sent with Rose to help repair some of the damage that BB-8 did to the water recycling unit on the upper deck. A mop was needed. Rey was sent to the Hyper-drive engine to get it working again. Ben was sent to the nav computer to unscramble all of it's connections. And Finn was sent to fetch them all supplies, then to go help Chewy restore life-support.
"BB-8 can sure make a mess when he wants to," Rey said before she departed.
"You're not kidding," Rose rolled her eyes and glared at the droid in question.
Poe reached out to "high five" a mechanical part that came out of the droid.
When they were finally able to fly, Leia ordered them to go to a certain moon, far enough away from their old base to not attract attention, yet close enough they could pick it up on their censors.
There was indeed a ship orbiting the Resistance base, and Ben recognized it immediately. It was the Finalizer, now probably Hux's capitol ship. Ben clenched his fists, wishing for once things had gone as Dameron and Connix had planned.
"General, what if he finds out it's empty? He'll continue to hunt us then," Rey asked.
"If Hux is commanding this, he'll bomb it from orbit. He won't even notice it's empty." As Ben answered her, the Finalizer's cannons started to fire. Within seconds the site of their former home was all rubble and ash. The few on the bridge took a moment of silence, staring at the screen in disbelief.
"Before we proceed to the Rally Point to pick up R2-D2 and our supplies, set course to Naboo. We have a parade to attend and a Holiday Week to finish," Leia ordered Ben. Then she turned to Rey. "Go fetch Poe, I wish to speak with him."
"I understand," Rey said, and left the Bridge.
She found Poe alongside of BB-8, who both were under the watchful eye of Rose, resolving a plumbing issue in one of the public restrooms on the ship.
"Hi Rey," Rose greeted her.
"Leia wants to see Poe now, has he earned a break," asked Rey.
Poe dropped a wrench with a clang, and BB-8 beeped a protest.
"Yeah, I guess nothing I can do to them will match what the General does," said Rose.
"Are you sure… Oh, alright. I guess I can't avoid this forever." Poe wiped his hands clean and started walking. When BB-8 attempted to follow, he gestured with a hand to stop the droid. "It's ok, little buddy. You keep helping Rose. I'll take one for the team."
BB-8 beeped a sad sound, and turned back to the work.
Rey followed the unusually quiet and somber Poe up to the Bridge. When they got there, Ben was the only one there, continuing to do some work on one of the computers. "She's in there," he said, motioning towards a small attached room, which Leia claimed as a temporary office.
"How bad is it?" Poe asked Ben. He eyed the door with a worried look on his face.
"A Lylek in a shopping district." Ben sounded like he was giving the weather.
Poe sighed, "Well, I guess I better say it now, while I still can. Thanks for coming in on the extraction." Poe gave Bens arm a friendly slap, then turned and walked into the office with his head held high.
"We've done enough now, the ship should fly to Naboo without a problem. Do you want to have a look around?" Ben gave Rey a playful smile.
"Ok, I think that's going to take them a while anyways." Rey motioned to the closed office door.
Rey eyed the fancy Cafeteria with wide eyes as Ben spoke. "Most First Order ships don't have a full kitchen. They use rations, but this one has three. One behind there, another for the stormtrooper mess downstairs, and a third in my own quarters. I planned to bring on a whole team of chefs to work them." He paused feeling a bit of nostalgia, then wiping it away he moved on. "Come, there's more to see."
Ben led her out in the hall, to the turbolift, and to another level of the ship. He then ran ahead to a large set of doors, but Rey stopped in the hall. There were a set of windows looking out on the blue-streaks of Hyper-space travel outside. Rey noticed again, how the walls were all white. The floors were all black tile, but with streaks of color. This one was green. Against one wall was a large white rectangular block, with black boarder. Coming out from the top was a holo image of a flowering plant. "This place is beautiful," Rey said, almost under her breath.
"Would it be weird if I said that I imagined giving you this tour as I designed the ship." Ben's face was red, and he nervously rubbed his hand through his hair. "I mean I didn't imagine it... like this. I'm glad you like it."
Rey smiled, and ran ahead to the next door. Ben opened it exclaiming, "Now this is a training room!" The room was large, and it was filled with brand new equipment. Some of the stuff Rey had no idea what it's function was. "Weights, you lift them to build strength… That one strengthens your thighs," Ben explained as Rey studied what was in the room.
"There's more," Ben said. He motioned her to follow through another set of large doors in the room.
Rey walked in and saw a large room, with a gigantic pit in the center, and a walkway around the pit. On one side there were a number of small alcoves. There were steps leading down into the Pit, but those seemed to stop after a while, leading nowhere. Rey could not guess what this room was for, so she looked up to Ben for an explanation.
"It would be more impressive if that droid hadn't messed with the water tanks. Imagine it full of water. It's a swimming pool. This is the reason this level has it's own water recycling unit."
Rey looked up in shock. She looked around, but could not imagine the whole room filled with water. Who would need that much water! "What's it for?"
"What do you mean. Swimming, it's for swimming." then when she still didn't look like she understood, he offered her another explanation. "It's good exercise. It builds muscles and helps your aerobics. Plus it's a lot of fun."
Rey shook her head, and put on a mock serious face. "Supreme leader, what kind of dark-sider provides his men with freshly cooked meals, and a swimming pool."
"You sound like Hux."
Rey's face broke into a grin. "I didn't think Hux was that easy to impress."
They explored many more rooms, each seeming to impress Rey more than the last. Eventually Ben got the courage to pull Rey over to talk to her about something more serious.
"I started talking to my mom again, about what I did to Han, and other stuff. It's brought something up, something else I need to apologize for."
Rey nodded as she explored one of the crew quarters. "I'm sure she'll understand. Your mom was thrilled just to have you come back, you know."
"No, I mean Yes, but It's not her I have to apologize to." Ben sighed. "When we met. When I interrogated you for Skywalker's map. I hurt you, reaching into your mind. And I saw things you didn't want to share with me. I shouldn't have done that. I'm sorry."
"What did you see?" Rey asked.
"I saw how lonely you were. I saw you waiting day after day for a family that you knew were never coming back for you. I saw…"
"I know all that. We've been through that before. But what else. You've brought it up again now, why?"
Ben looked down, then up away from her. "I had a dream. That night we stayed up late, on the couch. I don't know if my mind stitched it together from what I saw in your head during the interrogation, or if our bond somehow put it there."
"What was in the dream?" Rey looked at Ben with nervous eyes.
And Ben told her about his dream, about how he was in the desert of Jakku. He told her about how the At-At was robbed and how he felt himself dying of hunger after that.
Rey nodded, her eyes were no longer nervous but welled with emotion. "I've had that nightmare." She looked away. "Not recently, but when I was back on Jakku, I had it a lot. Almost exactly that."
Ben let out a deep breath. "Then it was the bond then." He looked back at her, fear in his eyes. "You're not angry. You don't feel like it's too much to have shared this with me."
"No. I feel..." Rey looked around trying to figure out how she felt. She felt lighter, in fact. Almost like a part of her was glad he shared the dream. "I feel like you understand it."
"I do." When Ben said this Rey reached over and laid her palm over his hand. Ben turned his arm over so his palms were touching Rey's. His eyes stared at their connecting hands, like he was shocked at the contact.
Later that night, Ben, Rey, Leia, Chewy, Rose, Finn, Poe and Kaydel walked off of the Millennium Falcon near the estate on Naboo. They were greeted by a very happy Pooja, who hugged her cousin and greeted all her guests warmly. There was one last event of Holiday Week left, and Leia insisted they all attend. A parade was held in town, and everyone lined the streets to watch.
There were balloons and vehicles decorated in vibrant colors that paraded by on the street below. There were also at least 10 people who stretched a costume of a large ocean creature over them. As they walked they bobbed their heads, making the creature appear to be swimming on the street.
During the parade, Rey reached over and took Ben's hand. She found herself craving the contact.
Ben looked over and saw his mom smiling at him. He recognized the smile and slight blush as an expression she had once before. As a boy, he once invited a young girl over to do homework together, and his mother swooned over the girl. His dad just said, "don't do anything I wouldn't do, kid." Young Ben thought they were over reacting. It was only a math worksheet. Still he made a point not to do anymore group assignments with girls.
Ben thought that boy's reaction would be to drop Rey's hand and pull out, but Ben made a different decision today. No, he enjoyed this a little too much to risk it not happening again. So instead he squeezed her hand tighter, as they looked up and watched the finale.
For the big finale to the parade, women walked out wearing long blue dresses. They each carried a device, and when they were all in position, a bright ball of light rose up out of the device, and it seemed to float in midair. Then they all seemed to explode as little balls of colored lights floated out from them and bounced all over the block. Ben reached out and as one of the lights streaked by, he used the force to pull it in towards Rey. She poked it and her eyes went wide as she saw it spin off in mid-air.
Rey looked up at Ben with a gigantic smile on her face, one that seemed to fill him up as well. It caught, and he smiled back at her, still holding her hand in his.
Thank you to everyone who left reviews, helping me to revise the last chapter. You've all been especially helpful.
I did add a bit of Reylo in this chapter...It's not a whole lot of steam, but a couple of bridges crossed, or recrossed, seeing as they already touched hands in TLJ. I figure they likely hadn't since then, and it kinda, sorta counts as a break up in that movie, so those bridges would need to be forged again.
Please leave your thoughts. As always, I enjoy hearing what you think.
