As promised, Poe arrived back on base a couple days later. Ben stayed in his room and buried himself in the Jedi texts he'd brought from the academy, refusing to witness the pilot's lauded return and not caring if it seemed petty.

He wasn't surprised when Luke arrived at his door with a summons from Leia, asking the two Jedi to join them for the pilot's debriefing. He was surprised, however, at the subtle electric feeling of excitement and the whispers he heard on their way to the meeting chamber.

"What did Poe find?" he asked Luke in an undertone as they approached the door.

Luke shrugged. "I guess we're about to find out."

The door hissed open, and the hero of the hour paused mid-sentence in his report as the Jedi stepped inside. Before them, hovering above the holotable, was a grainy blue image of hundreds of Dreadnought ships.

Palpatine's fleet.

Ben remembered seeing images of the fleet before, but that didn't make the holo before him any less horrific. So many ships, so much destructive potential… A shiver shot down his spine as he took it in.

"As I was saying," Poe continued, drawing Ben's attention from the holotable, "BB-8 left with the chip, but I was unable to get Tekka out. Hux and his squadron killed Tekka and the villagers, and I was taken prisoner and put in a holding cell on Hux's ship."

"How did you escape?" one of the other commanders asked.

"Well, that's where my buddy Finn comes in," Poe said, reaching over and clapping the shoulder of the dark-skinned man standing beside him.

Ben recognized him immediately. It was FN-2187, the Stormtrooper who'd defected and joined the Resistance.

The world stilled around him. If Finn was here, did that mean…?

Poe's voice faded to the background—"Broke me out of my cell…," "Stole a TIE fighter…," "Crashed on Jakku…"—as Ben's gaze darted around the room. She'd always been near Finn; the two had been almost inseparable in his vision.

Someone standing on Luke's other side shifted, and—there she was.

She was here.

And she looked as beautiful as he remembered. Sun-tanned skin peeked out from beneath the gauzy swags of her desert garb, with a smattering of light freckles dusted across the bridge of her pert nose and slender shoulders. Strands of her brown hair had come loose from her three buns to frame her face, and her eyes sparkled with wonder and intelligence as she listened to Poe's tale.

All the years of waiting and yearning were finally over, and Ben suddenly felt faint. He braced a hand on the edge of the holotable, afraid that his knees might buckle without the support. Gritting his teeth against the sensation, he harshly reminded himself to keep breathing. She's actually here.

Luke gave him a questioning glance out of the corner of his eye. Ben ignored the unspoken inquiry, but took the look as a warning and endeavored to calm himself. Taking a deep breath, he once again focused on Poe's droning story.

"I tracked BB-8 across the desert," Poe was recounting. "Turns out, he'd gone to Niima Outpost—one of the few settlements in that sector—to look for a transport off-planet. Finn had gone there as well, and met Rey at the trade post.

"But we weren't there long before the First Order located us. Presumably, the Stormtroopers traced the stolen TIE fighter to Jakku, then followed us to Niima. They must've radioed back with our position, because next thing we knew, a deployment of TIEs was approaching. We were able to steal one of Unkar Plutt's ships and get off-planet without taking too much fire. But we didn't realize what ship we were in until we were captured again. Luckily, it was by someone much more friendly."

The pilot gestured to Leia. Ben's eyes tracked over to her, and then to the taller, greyed man standing beside her. His heart seized painfully in his chest.

Han Solo had returned as well.

Ben hadn't seen his father in ages. The die-hard smuggler had never stayed home for long, always flying off on some personal mission with Chewie, and occasionally his old buddy Lando. He'd ended up losing his beloved ship, the Millennium Falcon, in a bad gamble, and had had to rely on other, lesser ships to do his unsavory work. Leia had always turned a blind eye on his activities, but when he'd lost the Falcon, she'd actually gotten angry, and told him to stay away for a while until he'd learned his lesson. Now, it seemed he'd returned—and if Ben understood Poe correctly, they'd returned in his legendary ship.

Leia smiled up at Han and shook her head. "I'm not sure I would've believed it if I hadn't seen you land with my own eyes," she said warmly, turning back to Poe. She clasped her hands together. "So! FN-2187—may I call you Finn?"

The man in question nodded. "Please do."

Leia turned to the other newcomer. "And Rey…?"

The young woman hesitated, then seemed to realize Leia was asking if she had a surname. "Just Rey," she replied.

And stars, he'd missed that sound. It was as if the years had dampened his memory of her voice, turning the sound into something nearly as garbled as Poe's communication two days ago. Now, her lilting words were clear as a bell.

The last time he remembered hearing her voice had been on Exegol. The crackling blue light and dark shadows of the remote planet flashed through his mind. How fiercely she'd fought, how brave she'd been. The horror of her limp form draped across his lap. The sweet whisper of his name, and the thrill of her warm lips pressed against his. The fear in her eyes as he'd fallen back…

And all the times before that, when they'd met through the Force bond. How she'd talked to him, listened to him, reached out and touched his hand. How she'd treated him like a thinking, feeling human being—the first person to do so in years. How she'd come to him on the Supremacy, faced Snoke for him, and how he'd killed Snoke to defend her.

How she hadn't taken his hand afterward. How badly her rejection had hurt him.

As he continued to watch her from across the room, emotions silently storming through him, he came to an uncomfortable realization. He'd grown desperately impatient to see her again, but seeing her now, wary under the scrutinizing eyes of the Resistance and sparing him nary a glance… He realized with a pang that although he might know her, she didn't know him. He'd known it, of course, but witnessing her indifference to him and her uncertainty in her circumstances drove the knowledge home in a very real way. She had no idea who he was, or what they'd been through together. The vision hadn't actually happened. Sometimes it was hard to keep it separate from reality. The thought ached, like something had been stolen from him. Without their common history, how was he supposed to approach her?

And that led to another thought. It was only a matter of time until she found out about the vision. After all, the rest of the Resistance knew about it. How was he supposed to explain everything? He couldn't outright tell her what had happened between them; she'd think he was some sort of lunatic at best, or a lascivious monster at worst. He wasn't sure what to do. He'd wanted this for so long, but now that she was finally here, he felt frozen with doubt.

He glanced at her again, then quickly looked away.

"Welcome to the Resistance," Leia said to the newcomers.

His mother's words made something else click in Ben's mind. Of course. As focused as he'd been on Rey's arrival, there were other things being put into play now, too. With Rey and Finn's arrival, the key players he'd seen in the vision were all present now. And according to the vision, that meant things were about to start happening. The Resistance needed to be ready.

But it also meant that the timeline had been thrown off, he realized. Rey and Finn had been due to visit Maz's tavern with Han. That was where Ben had met Rey for the first time in person—on Takodana, not on D'Qar. And right around that same time, Starkiller Base had fired on the Hosnian system, wiping it totally out of existence. But as far as the Resistance had heard, and as far as Ben had sensed, the Hosnian system was still intact.

That meant the timeline Ben had witnessed in the vision had shifted with recent events. Parts had moved up in time while other parts had moved down, or had ceased to exist altogether. He still had an idea of what would probably happen, but he could no longer say with certainty when certain events might come to pass.

A shift…

That's what the Force episodes had felt like. A shift. Could that be what they meant? An indication of the timeline changing from what he'd seen? Thinking back, he realized the first occurrence had been right around the time Hux must've taken his squadron to find Lor San Tekka on Jakku. In the vision, it had been Ben who had gone to Jakku—as Kylo Ren. Hux had remained behind. At that moment, the current timeline had diverged from the timeline in the vision.

The second divergence had happened during Poe's mission to recover Tekka and the chip. In the vision, Poe had never made it to Niima Outpost. The reports from the TIE pilots and ground troopers had informed Kylo Ren that two, not three, figures and a droid had stolen a YT-class Corellian freighter and escaped. Rey and Finn had gone on to be captured by Han and Chewie, and then they'd gone to Takodana. Poe, on the other hand, had returned to the Resistance empty-handed. And Han…

Had been another casualty of the war, at the hands of Kylo Ren.

Luke was looking at him again. Ben realized his breathing had grown harsh, and made an effort to slow it back down.

"What is it now?" Luke muttered under his breath.

Ben shook his head once.

He glanced across the room at the man in question. Ben wasn't close with his father. When he'd been a little boy, he'd thought Han Solo hung the stars in the night sky. He'd dreamed of joining his father in the Falcon, flying out on trade missions, smuggling runs, and the like. He'd wanted to be just like Han. But as Ben had grown older, and his Force sensitivity had started to manifest, Han had grown uncertain and wary of his son. More often than not, Han would take off with Chewie on some sort of job, unable to handle the frustrated, emotional boy. That left a very busy Leia to tend to the child on her own—which often meant Ben tended to himself. When Han was home, he would argue with Leia over what to do with their son. Should they talk to him about his outbursts? Send him away to Luke for training? Ben spent many a night listening to his parents' heated exchanges when they thought he'd already gone to sleep. They hadn't known about the frightening voices in his head, or the near-constant pull to the Dark. They'd only known that he tended to act out, and when he did, bad things happened. Finally, they'd decided Luke's academy was their best choice, and then Ben hadn't seen them again for thirteen years.

He wasn't close with his father. He didn't even particularly like his father. But he'd never wanted the man dead. Seeing him alive and reunited with his mother gave Ben some degree of happiness, but he still didn't want to be around them.

As Leia and the officers reviewed the holo of the Sith fleet, Ben glanced again at the only person he did want to be around. Rey was standing by Finn and Poe, listening intently as the pilot conversed with the officers. Her attention flitted between them, occasionally squinting up at the holo and tilting her head in consideration as she absorbed everything. The planes of her face and shoulders were illuminated by the soft blue light. She looked otherworldly. Ethereal.

He'd only intended to glance her way, just for a moment, hardly enough time to savor the sight of her but just enough to reassure himself she was still there. But then her eyes flicked over and met his, and she shot him a small smile.

His thoughts screeched to a gibbering halt.

"—do you make of this? Ben?"

He realized his mother was speaking to him, and turned his attention to her. She glanced pointedly at the holo. The whole room had turned their eyes on him, seemingly waiting for his response to her question. Rey waited with them.

He swallowed, tamping down his rising nerves. His confidence had grown since the first time he'd been pulled before this committee and asked to give a briefing, but he still hated the attention, especially when it so often came paired with censure and derision.

Pursing his lips, he cast his gaze over the holo. He knew what Leia had really meant by her question. Is the vision still true? Is the timeline still on track?

"This intelligence aligns with my information," he hedged carefully. "But I am not sure what will happen next."

An uneasy murmur went through the room. Rey and Finn looked understandably confused at his less-than-direct statement.

"However, I do not believe Palpatine is ready to attack yet," Ben continued. "His fleet is incomplete. There's…" He trailed off, working his jaw. "There is still something he must do," he forced himself to finish.

And if Ben had anything to do with it, it would never happen. Palpatine would never get the opportunity to summon Rey to him. He would never endanger her again. Ben would make sure of it.

When he glanced surreptitiously back at her, he saw that Poe had bent over to whisper something in her ear. She looked up at the pilot, and he flashed her a broad grin. Ben quickly averted his gaze.

Leia studied the holo thoughtfully. "What do we need to be aware of next?" she asked.

Swallowing bile at the thought of Poe flirting with Rey, Ben considered his mother's question. "The next big threat is Starkiller Base," he reported. "The First Order plans to use it to destroy the Hosnian system—"

The room erupted before he could finish his sentence.

"What?"

"The entire system?!"

"Certainly it can't—"

"Yes, it can," Ben continued, raising his voice just enough to cut off any further interruptions. Hadn't they been through this before, years ago? He scowled at the lot of them. "It will be a test for their newest weapon, and a show of power for the benefit of the rest of the galaxy. After the Hosnian system is destroyed, very few other systems will put up a fight against them."

"When is this going to happen?" someone asked.

"I'm not sure," Ben admitted.

"Well, we've gotta stop them!" Poe exclaimed. "Surely there's something we can do, some way to destroy the base…"

"No," Ben said sharply, wishing he could shut the pilot up before the idiot spilled the secret. Beside Poe, Rey was frowning in puzzlement.

"What do you mean, 'no'?" Poe demanded. "We can't let them get away with this! How did it happen before?"

Ben shook his head; there was a frantic edge to his gesture. "It can't happen like it did before."

"Why not?" the pilot challenged.

"Because circumstances have changed," Ben snapped back, hackles rising. He knew he was teetering on the edge, balancing the vision with his wishes and the best intentions for the galaxy… But then a thought occurred to him, and his brows lifted as his brain ticked over. "Although…"

"What is it?" Leia asked.

He looked back up at the holo, his eyes drifting over the three-dimensional projection. "We may be able to use Starkiller Base," he said slowly, reaching for the nearest controls. With a few taps, he exited the chip program and pulled up a map of the galaxy stored in the table's databanks. He punched in the coordinates from memory, and the map panned to the location of the horrific hybrid base he had once directed. He slowly zoomed out, more and more systems coming into view as he navigated, until the Unknown Regions began to materialize along the periphery of the table.

Where Exegol was.

Leia looked through the holo at him sharply, catching onto his plan.

"What?" Poe demanded.

"We can use Starkiller Base to blow up Exegol," Ben murmured. "And take out Palpatine's fleet with it."

A hush fell over the room.

One of the other commanders spoke up. "But how do we get on Starkiller Base? The shields and security are unmatched; we don't have the manpower to do that."

"Forget about that," someone else interrupted. "Once we're on Starkiller Base—if we can get on it unnoticed—we would have to locate and hijack the controls, which we don't know how to do. Then after we destroyed Exegol, we'd have to get off Starkiller Base and destroy it too—all without being captured or killed!"

"It's impossible!" another cried.

"But," Leia spoke, cutting off the complaints, "it's the only plan we've got. What else has the capabilities of destroying an entire fleet?"

"Okay, then," Poe allowed. There was an air of defiance in his tone. "How do we hijack Starkiller Base? We know nothing about it."

"Someone here does," Ben countered, turning his attention to Finn.

The ex-Stormtrooper looked around, then seemed to realize Ben meant him and gulped. Leia motioned him forward. Finn stepped up to the holotable, clearly uncomfortable with his newfound attention.

"Uh… he's right," Finn said, shrugging. "I used to work on Starkiller Base before I defected."

Poe's jaw dropped. "Oh, kriff. You're right; you did. Buddy, d'you think you could locate and commandeer the controls?"

Finn shook his head. "I didn't have the clearance for that. I know where they are, but not how to hack in and operate them."

Leia caught Ben's gaze across the table. "All right," the general said. "Finn, you will be debriefed tomorrow for any information regarding Starkiller Base. Once we have a better idea of the station's layout, we will reconvene to discuss our plans further."

With that, the meeting was adjourned. As the officers began to file out, Leia stepped away from the holotable to speak with Rey and Finn. A fellow flight commander pulled Poe aside.

Seeing an opportunity to introduce himself, Ben started around the table to join his mother and the newest recruits, but Luke snagged the sleeve of his robe.

"What was all that about earlier?" the Jedi Master inquired.

"Nothing," Ben replied, subtly trying to tug his sleeve away as he glanced back at Rey. She was still standing with his mother and the ex-trooper.

Luke fixed him with a wide-eyed, insistent look.

"The Force episodes occur when current events diverge from the timeline in the vision," Ben muttered impatiently.

Luke hesitated, as if waiting for more. "That's it? That's what had you so distracted the whole time?" The Jedi Master leaned in. "It wasn't a Force dyad thing?"

Ben glared down at him. With a swift jerk, he freed his sleeve from Luke's grasp and started to walk away, only to find his mother and the newcomers coming toward them. Poe and the flight commander followed, but they turned off and headed for the door.

"I'll catch you guys at dinner," Poe said to Finn and Rey, then disappeared into the corridor.

"Luke, Ben, I'm glad I caught you," Leia said. She smiled at the two new additions. "This is Finn and Rey. Ben, I thought I might ask you to take them to their rooms, make sure they get settled in, and then show them to the mess hall for dinner later."

Ben nodded curtly, his expression shuttered.

Leia handed him a datapad programmed with their room assignments, then left with Luke. Feeling very unbalanced, Ben looked up from the slender pad in his hands to the two people standing before him. They were watching him with wide, waiting eyes.

How the kriff was he supposed to act normal?

"Right," he said, clearing his throat uncomfortably. "This way."