Trigger Warning: This chapter features a brief description of memories of sexual assault. No graphic descriptions are used, it's T-rated, but may trigger traumatic memories for those who have them.

Last On: The force ghosts attempt to prevent an impending force-bond trouble by helping Ben resolve his issues and move on from his lost empire. Anakin even appears to Ben to discuss the whole legacy thing. Ben, meanwhile learns he will just be a figurehead with no real power in the pseudo empire the resistance is trying to build. Rey had to go back to Jakku to negotiate with Unkar Plutt to purchase something, and her friends notice, when she gets back, she's behaving a bit differently. Yoda announced that the force ghosts were unsuccessful in preventing the force-bond trouble.

Chapter 30

The next morning Ben wakes up and begins his morning routine, which involves doing a number of sit-ups and push-ups to fully wake up his muscles.

That morning Rey wakes up and looks around surprised for a second. Then she remembers where she is, and she takes in a sigh of relief. It is her first morning since moving onto the Zealot's Vindication. Her mind is strangely busy. Numbers seem to keep floating into her head for some reason. Rey is just glad she got any sleep at all. Every noise the ship made last night seemed to demand her full attention.

As Ben does his twenty-fifth push-up a thought comes to his mind. 'At least the thermal regulator finally stopped gushing at oh-three-hundred hours.' Which seems odd to Ben, because he doesn't remember hearing any gushing. He slept well through the night, as he recalls. He was used to sleeping on ships like this. Still, he finishes his push-ups, then turns to pick out his clothes. Instead he gets a mental image of Rey and her usual thin desert outfit. Still he pushes it aside to choose his own outfit.

Rey is looking at her clothes, almost prepared to wear her usual gown when a thought comes to her, 'No, shouldn't wear that, space is cold.' So instead she takes one of the warmer outfits Leia had given her for her trip and decides to wear it instead. Next Rey remembers the room she has on the dreadnought has its own bathroom.

Ben starts to get mental images in his mind of a naked Rey. He isn't exactly trying to, this time, and he knows these thoughts will not be helpful if he happens to see her during breakfast. He sits down and tries to clear it out of his mind with meditation, only whatever he does, his mind just won't clear. So he tries to do the opposite. He uses an old trick his father taught him when he was going through puberty.

Mid way through taking a shower Rey's mind floods with thoughts about spaceship engines. 'Thermal C-clamp connects to the Vintral Mechanization Port. Which fits into the Rus-T X-box with the B-Nix flap up.'

'Flap Down.' Rey feels the need to correct herself in her mind. Even though she is unsure of where the thoughts about spaceship engines are coming from. She dries herself off and puts on the outfit she picked out earlier. The thoughts continue until she is dressed and standing in front of her mirror.

Relieved to finally have the images out of his mind, not that he altogether minded the images, Ben stops thinking about spaceship engines. 'Rey really is pretty,' Ben thinks to himself.

When that thought comes to Rey's mind she nearly jumps out of her skin. 'That thought wasn't mine. Who's was it? Who's in my head?'

Ben feels confused when that thought comes to him. 'No, it was my thought. No one's in my head. I would've felt the intrusion.'

'I am Rey, and I don't casually think thoughts about how beautiful I am. Ben is that you?' Rey's thoughts guess. She doesn't have any reason to say it was Ben, but being the only other force-wielder around, she'd hate to think of any alternatives.

Ben starts to feel shame and embarrassment, but suppresses it and embraces his curiosity instead. 'Yes, Rey! How is this? Can you hear all my thoughts, or just some of them? Hold on. Try now.' Ben uses the force to block his mind, the way he blocked Snoke from seeing more than he wanted him to see. He then thinks something random: 'Blue, Square, Blutfish."

In a moment Rey thinks back her answer. "Blue, Square, Blutfish? What are you getting at? Just get out of my head!'

'I'm not doing this on purpose. And apparently I can't even block you out of my head.'

'What are we going to do? I can't get through my day with your thoughts running through my head.'

'Like I want your thoughts in my head. I don't know. We could go to my mom. She might know what to do.' Ben feels childish suggesting they go to his mom, but he doesn't have any better ideas.

'Alright, meet you up there in ten minutes.'

'What do you need ten minutes for? You're already dressed!'

'My hair!' Rey's mental voice sounds like she's going over the obvious.

'Fine, in ten.' Ben's mind sighs.

Leia throws her robe on, and goes to answer her door. She doesn't know why she tried to sleep in, expecting they'd be able to get by the morning without her aid, but she obviously was wrong. Her door alarm is ringing constantly. "Oh, I'm coming." she uselessly tells it. Her head is splitting with a headache.

As she opens the door, Ben and Rey nearly fall into her room, surprising Leia. "Ben, Rey, what is this about?"

"Mom, uh…" Ben seems shocked to some kind of silence, as he and Rey eye each other with intention. "I'm getting to that... No… Uh go ahead."

"Ben and I can… I was about to… Ug, go on then!" Rey sounds agitated.

"You are hearing each other's thoughts." Leia is starting to make connections, and she suspects this will take forever if she doesn't speak up.

"Yes," both of them answer simultaneously.

"Come inside." Leia leaves the door open and steps back into her room.

"Have you tried blocking?" Leia suggests.

"No," Ben says sarcastically. "This isn't my first day with the force. Yes, I tried blocking and it didn't work." Ben huffs.

"What about meditation?" Leia asks.

"I can't meditate when she's filling my head with… thoughts."

"I'm filling your head! I'm not the one who keeps reciting random facts about spaceship engines." Rey turns to Ben, lifting her arm to wave at him in anger.

Ben, finding Rey's angry face stimulating in a way he'd rather not be with her in his head, not to mention his mother in the room, goes back to the ship engine thoughts. 'Ricitator connects to the B-Valve.'

"Ug, you're doing it again!" Rey places her hands over her head in a futile attempt to block the thoughts.

Leia then gives Ben a look like she knows more about what happened than she saw. "Inconvenient."

"You're telling me." Rey pulls her hands off her temple.

"I mean to suggest both of you meditating at the same time," says Leia.

"Do you think that will stop this?" Rey asks.

"Probably not, but it may give you some peace and quiet," Leia answers.

"Isn't there anything else? You've gotta get him out of my head?" Rey insists, and she and Ben look up at Leia with pleading eyes.

"I don't know what you expect me to do. I will talk to your Uncle about this. I usually see his ghost form around now. Go. Meditate, then try working one task at a time. Go slow. I'll get back to you if I learn anything." Leia pushes Rey and Ben out of her room. Then she goes to get one of those pills the medical droid gave her, to help with her headache.

Swallowing the pill she looks up in the room and speaks again. "Luke. Did you hear any of that?"

"All of it," his voice seems to come out of nowhere. "Yoda predicted the next force bond would have a big impact. I will discuss this with the others, but I fear the chance to stop it has already passed. We can only wait for the wave to crash ashore."

"I was afraid you'd say that." Giving up on sleeping in, Leia goes to get ready for her day.

Rey and Ben find a quiet corner and both manage to meditate for about twenty minutes. Ben, being more experienced, could've done longer, but Rey has trouble focusing for even that long, and he decides not to push her. They both feel better having had a little time with their heads quiet, anyways.

Next Ben tries giving Rey another reading lesson, only whenever she tries to sound out the letters, Ben can't help but read the word in his mind. This doesn't go over well. "Ben, I know you can't help it, but I'm not learning anything with you reading it in my mind."

After they give that up, Ben and Rey split up for the rest of the morning. Rey goes to the maintenance bay to help Rose with some repair work, while Ben is summoned to attend another meeting.

"Hey Rey," Rose interrupts her work. "I've been meaning to ask. How did it go, you going back to Jakku."

"It was fine, Rose." Rey sighs.

"I just ask, because you seemed, you know, different yesterday. I was wondering if going back brought up memories or anything like that."

Rey sighs again. "You know, now just isn't the time. I've got Ben's thoughts running through my head today, for some reason."

"You can hear his thoughts!" Rose says, easily distracted.

"Yup, and he can hear mine too, so we should probably keep gossip to a minimum." Rey jokes.

"Ok, but I just heard a good one, about the girl who serves caf," Rose jokes back. "Can you just hear thoughts, or can you see what he sees too?"

"Mostly just if he has a strong mental image in his mind. Like now, he keeps picturing Poe in a baby bonnet for some reason. Oh, he's being childish, insisting things go his way in their meeting. And you're getting bored listening to him whine." Rey says almost as if Ben is in the room.

"Interesting," Rose says, and her eyes are swimming through thoughts that she doesn't put to words. "Sounds like he could use a distraction then. Get me that hydrospanner, and I'll tell you what I heard about the girl who serves caf…"

And that is how they spend the rest of their morning. Rose never did bring up Jakku again.

'Rey, we're taking a break for lunch. Where are you?' Ben's thoughts come to Rey.

"Rose, do you want to grab lunch now?" Rey calls up to Rose. Rose had climbed onto a shuttle to repair the roof of an x-wing.

"Yeah, Sounds good." Rose calls back down.

'We'll be heading down in a little bit,' Rey sends the thought back to Ben.

In the mess hall Ben, Poe, and Finn are already seated, so Rey and Rose go to get their food in the line. Finn had listened to Ben describe the current state of the bond with rapt attention, and he sits watching Ben's eyes react as he listens to Rey's thoughts as she and Rose chat.

"You gotta admit, that kind of situation would be useful." Poe says to Finn, pointing at the distracted Ben. "I mean, to know what goes on inside a woman's head. It has it's uses."

"I think there are some things I'd rather not know." Finn sheepishly responds.

"Yes, especially when she hears everything you think." Ben adds.

Poe turns to get up, "Just think about it boys. You'd know what she wants, whenever she wants it." He then flashes a sly smile and walks over to the line of food to grab another drink.

Ben and Finn just look at each other and shake their heads.

Ben is watching Rey in line to get her food, half listening to Finn beside him drone on about this or that, and half listening to Rey debate her food choices. He sees Poe turn towards Rey in the Cafeteria line. He says some dumb joke, which Ben doesn't hear, but he hears Rey's reactions to it. Then Poe reaches out and places his hand on Rey's arm, giving her a wink. Rey freezes, uncomfortable with the contact.

Immediately Ben's mind flashes with a hazy memory of Rey's. His vision is blurry from her tears. She's being held down and someone's sliding his hand over her…

'No.' Ben's thoughts turn dark. He jumps out of his seat and runs to the cafeteria line, where he uses a force push to throw Poe into the wall behind the food tables. Ben runs over to where Poe landed. His mind is a hazy red whirlwind of anger and rage, as he picks up Poe and prepares to strangle him. He isn't even sure if he is using the force or his hands to squeeze him.

"Ben, No!" Rey is shouting beside him, but Ben can barely hear her above his rage. "It wasn't him!" Her voice breaks as she cries this. Ben turns to look her in the eye. Poe, who's still being held up, looks at her as well.

Images begin appearing in his mind of a tall Crolute with a permanent snarl for a face and limbs thick and ugly reaching down. A breath that smells like some of the worst seafood fills the air as he breaths on her.

Tears form in Rey's eyes as she shows him her memory. Then Ben is filled with a new rage. Only he has no target in the immediate vicinity. He drops Poe and turns to run out of the mess hall, and down the corridor.

A second later Rey bolts out another door in the room and runs a whole different direction. Then the collective of the room seem to let out the breath they had been holding in, as they react to the event that just took place.

Hi folks, I began writing this chapter and haphazardly found myself using present tense, so after correcting myself, I decided to go back to my initial instinct and make it present tense all the way through. I think it gives it a feel of immediacy that seems right for the chapter, but I'll let you guys judge if it works or not.

The chapter begins with some hopefully humorous situations, then ends with a very serious situation. I hope it doesn't color the humorous parts bad, because it's ok to laugh at some parts of a story and not at others.

I finished this chapter on Wednesday, but decided to hold onto it a couple more days to give it the extra attention I felt it deserved. Thank you everyone who has been leaving their comments/reviews. I enjoy reading them, and will love to read your thoughts on this chapter, too.