Chapter 12

Flashback

One night under the stars Elsi stood leaning against the balcony in her room, watching as the occasional shooting star shot by. She couldn't help but wish on each and every star, hoping that her wish would come true and she could spend her moments with Ben free from any fear or judgement.

She was snapped out of her thoughts hearing footsteps behind her, but she was not worried; she recognised the footsteps.

An arm stretched in front of her holding a single red and blue Nova Lily. It was her favourite flower.

Elsi reached out her hand to grab the flower and leaned her head to the side as she felt hands rest gently on her hips and a soft kiss is pressed on her shoulder.

Turning slowly she looked up to see Ben staring down at her, a loving expression on his face. She noticed that he was wearing a smart black tunic with black trousers. She was wearing an all black outfit as well; a tight fitted tank top with black trousers.

"Happy 6 month anniversary." He whispered against her lips as he softly kissed her.

"Happy anniversary." She responded, wrapping her arms around his middle and resting her head on his chest.

After a couple of minutes Ben pulled away from the hug and grabbed both of Elsi's hands in his. "Follow me."

"What? Why?" She was confused. It was late at night and after a day of training exercises they were both exhausted and couldn't be seen out late at night together, people would get suspicious.

"Just trust me." He reassured, pulling her further towards the door.

"Ok." Elsi was suspicious, but decided to follow him anyway.

After sneaking around together as a couple for the past 6 months and sneaking around as pranksters for the past several years, they were experts by now and knew the layout of the jedi temple in the dark.

They managed to exit the building undetected and Ben excitedly pulled her down the path to some steps leading through the cliff and down to the sandy beach.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs, they walked further through the sand until they arrived at a dead end.

"What are we doing here?" Elsi questioned. She was unsure why he had taken her here.

Ben walked forward and used the force to move a large rock that was in the way of an opening. Elsi looked at Ben in shock but he just grabbed her hand and pulled her into the opening and through a dark tunnel which led out onto a secluded beach cove.

On the sand there lay a blanket with a modest amount of sandwiches and bottled drinks. "Sorry its not much, it was really the most I was able to sneak out of the kitchen without anyone noticing or becoming suspicious."

She pulled him in for a hug. "It's perfect Ben." She looked up at him as she pulled away. "But you didn't have to do all of this."

Ben brushed Elsi's hair behind her ear. "You're special to me Elsi. I wanted to show you how much."

"Well I love it. And I love you."

"I love you too." Ben moved towards the blanket and together they talked and ate and laughed together until eventually they fell into a comfortable silence laying next to each other on the blanket in the sand. Ben's arm was wrapped around Elsi as she rested her head on his chest and rested her arm on his stomach. Ben occasionally moved his head down to kiss the top of her head.

"Did you ever think that we would end up together like this?" Elsi tilted her head back to look at Ben's face.

"To be honest I thought you didn't like me in this way." Elsi was shocked at Ben's words.

"What! I was the one thinking the same thing about you." She gestured down at herself. "I mean, I'm not exactly human, we're not the same species. I thought that would bother you."

Ben just stared down at her lovingly. He cupped her cheek in his hand and stared deeply into her eyes. "Elsi you are beautiful and nothing about you bothers me." Elsi flushed at his compliment. "Well except maybe your jokes, they are truly terrible."

"Hey!" Elsi teasingly smacked his arm but Ben just laughed it off.

After that their laughter drifted off into a peaceful silence and they returned to their position lying next to each other, watching the stars.

The two stayed in their loving embrace for what felt like hours. But eventually it was time to return to the jedi temple. When Ben had walked Elsi to her door, he hesitated, feeling nervous as to how to end the perfect evening.

"Could you stay?" Elsi's request shocked him. He smirked teasingly in response, raising his eyebrows at her. "I don't mean all evening. Just until I go to sleep." Inside her head Elsi was kicking herself. Surely she sounded such like a child. But truly she just didn't want her evening with him to end, and for some reason she felt like something terrible was about to happen.

Elsi had seen Ben's mood change recently. He became more irritable and it was easier to annoy him even when before he would have only taken it as a joke. But after his surprise for the evening she shook it off as merely a phase.

"I'll stay." Ben walked in the room and Elsi felt suddenly nervous. Whilst she knew she would only be laying in bed with him next to her, the atmosphere of the evening suddenly turned the act intimate.

After Elsi changed into her night clothes and lay in her bed, Ben laid next to her, half sitting with his arm wrapped around her and her head once again resting on his chest.

"Thank you for tonight Ben." Elsi whispered on the edge of sleep.

Ben tilted his head down until it was level with hers. "You are very welcome Elsi. I love you, with all of my heart." He kissed her softly. She responded passionately, waking instantly at the emotion filled kiss with the man she loved.

"With all my heart." She whispered against his lips before pulling his head fully against hers so that their kiss could deepen.

Elsi would always remember the last night they spent together. The night before the jedi temple was destroyed. That night where all of those sweet moments were worth it, where Ben showed her that his heart was so full of love and light.


Present Day

Elsi felt stronger ever since she had received her lightsaber back. Almost as though she had one of her limbs returned to her. She was no longer lost, instead she was filled with the purpose of returning Ben to the light. Her connection to the force was full again, as was her connection to those she loved.

Elsi could feel Kylo Ren's fury and anger through their bond, that until now, she hadn't realised had been re-forged.

She could feel him letting out his frustrations on the environment around him.

She didn't let anything show as she kept walking behind Leia as they headed towards the meeting room.

"Ben?" Elsi whispered, hoping that he could somehow hear her. Ben hesitated and in that moment she saw what had him furious. Not only had Rey escaped but the empire was re-charging their planet destroying weapon and they were aiming it at the Ilenium system. Right at the resistance.

"Elsi." Ben whispered through the force. Not Kylo. Ben.

Elsi gasped and had to hold the wall in support.

Leia turned around at the gasp and moved forward to help support Elsi, asking her what was wrong.

"You need to get out of there." Ben gasped out. "The empire know where you are. Master Snoke, he will kill you."

Ben forced the connection to cut off.

Elsi would have fallen over completely if not for Leia who was helping hold her as best she could. Elsi looked over at Leia with shock filled eyes.

"We have to get to the meeting room. The weapon is charging. We're next."

Leia shocked at the news but trusting Elsi, rushed urgently to the council meeting room.

Once she arrived with Elsi on her heals, the room fell silent.

There were many members of the Resistance in the room. They were all huddled around a table which displayed a holographic map of the surface of Starkiller base.

Elsi stepped forward and whispered to Finn who was on her right. "Rey's alive. She escaped Kylo Ren's holding cell and is hiding somewhere on the base."

"What?! How do you-?"

He was cut off by Leia who addressed the whole room and then handed over to Poe who explained what they were up against.

Elsi listened intently as they described the magnitude of Starkiller base and compared it to the death star which looked minuscule in comparison.

"This is Starkiller Base." Everyone stared in shock at its size. It would wipe them all out in one blast. Ben had warned her, but she would not abandon the resistance while she could still fight to save it.

"It uses the power of the sun." Finn explained. "As the weapon is charged, the sun is drained until it disappears."

Leia looks towards Elsi who steps forward to speak out everyone's worst fears. "The First Order are charging the weapon again, now… Our system is the next target."

"Oh my. Without the Republic fleet, we're doomed." C-3PO voiced.

"How would you know anything about this, you are just a deserter." Someone in the crowd shouted. Elsi knew that what the person said was true, but it didn't hurt any less.

Leia stepped forward in Elsi's defence. "What she says is true."

Everyone had solum looks on their faces at the news.

"Elsi has been working undercover for me for the past five years. Sending back information and risking her life to bring back BB-8 to us. So trust that her words are true." Leia turned to look at Elsi who had tears brimming in her eyes at her old jedi master who had defended her. "She is as resistance as any of us."

The crowd were silent as they accepted what Leia had said.

"Okay, how do we blow it up?" Han said. Always the voice of reason. Or the voice of stupidity if you looked at it a different way. All eyes turned towards him. "There's always a way to do that."

But no one says anything. Leia watches the silence, frustrated. "Han's right." Leia says, hoping to instill some confidence in everyone.

Han just looks at her surprised.

Elsi smirks at the interaction that passed between the two. Glad that the attention was now off of her.

Admiral Statura steps forward to speak. "In order for that amount of power to be contained, that base would need some kind of thermal oscillator..."

"There is one." Finn interrupts. Now all eyes on him. He moves around the hologram to point at a location on the Starkiller base. "Precinct 47. Here." He points at a hexagonal structure on the map.

Admiral Statura speaks up again. "If we can destroy that oscillator, it might de-stabilize the core and cripple the weapon."

"Maybe the planet." Major Ematt theorises.

"We'll go in there and we'll hit that oscillator with everything we got." Poe emphasises.

"They have defensive shields that our ships cannot penetrate." Admiral Ackbar mentions.

Han shrugs. "We disable the shields" He addresses Finn. "Kid, you worked there, what do you got?"

"I can do it." Finn responds.

"I like this guy."

"You like anyone who can make your plan work Han." Elsi mumbles under her breath.

"I can disable the shields. But I have to be there, on the planet—" Finn continues.

"We'll get you there." Han assures.

"Han, how?" Leia questions.

Han glances at Leia "If I told you, you wouldn't like it."

"So we disable the shields, take out the oscillator and we blow up their big gun. All right. Let's go!" Poe shouts out, motivating everyone.

Everyone leaves to get ready. Elsi nods towards Leia and heads out of the room.

As she leaves she spots the corridor that lead to her old room. Deciding that she had a few minutes whilst everyone was getting the ships prepared, Elsi heads down the hallway and scans the area that used to be her own. It was obvious that the room had been converted into a storage room. Many memories of moments in time graced the room and stuck to each item that lay there.

Elsi took a deep breath when she sensed some items that were obviously once Ben's but chucked in this room to be kept but out of sight. She hurried past that box and to the back of the room where she sensed an old metal box containing something of hers.

She looked inside and saw her old jedi clothes.

The cream coloured fabric felt foreign to her as she brushed her hands over the material. Carefully she pulled her simple but long flowing robe out of the box and held it out in front of her. The maroon coloured long tunic brought her back to those moments when she trained alongside her fellow padawans; alongside Ben.

She slowly changed into the tunic and then reached back into the box for her dark blue jedi cloak. Elsi removed her mask and cowl and replaced them with the full jedi outfit.

She no longer needed her bounty hunter outfit so she placed that into the box where some other items from her past lay. Though she did not look through them now. She had a mission to complete.

One that she would not be doing as the Fae, the bounty hunter.

Now she was Elsi.

Just Elsi.


Authors Note:

I'm so happy that this story has over 1000 views. It really makes me happy that people are reading it. I really enjoy writing it. Let me know what you thought of this chapter and the story so far. Ben and Elsi have a force connection again and I thought it was only right that Ben would want to protect Elsi by warning her of the weapon. Looking forward to the next few chapters. These are the chapters I had planned out before I even wrote the beginning of this story. Thanks again for reading. ZV.