At dinner that evening, Ben was amused to find Rey sitting a short distance away from her friends, totally absorbed in reading the slim Jedi tome. Every few minutes, she would distractedly take another bite of her meal, careful not to let the food come near the book. Her eyes never left the page. She was already almost halfway through the text. A couple chairs away, Poe was trying to get her attention and draw her into the group's conversation, but she would only tilt her head and give him a brief response before delving back into the book.
Tray in hand, Ben settled into the seat across from her, intending to eat quietly and be available if she needed him. But she glanced up at the movement, and upon seeing him, she set the book aside.
"Hey," she greeted him. "I wanted to ask you about something I read earlier…"
And she was off, peppering him with questions on the passage she was currently working through.
Her eagerness warmed him. He appreciated having someone with whom to share intellectual conversations and interests, but more than that, he liked that she came to him with her questions. She trusted his knowledge, and wanted to hear what he had to say. She didn't dismiss him as a creep or a freak like some of the others did—namely the irritating pilot who was currently staring daggers into the side of his head.
The corners of Ben's lips twitched. No doubt it frustrated Poe to no end to know he'd been unable to pull Rey into conversation, but Ben had been successful.
Over the course of the meal, the stream of questions slowed into a discussion of the text thus far, and how the things she'd been reading applied to the training they'd completed earlier that day. That transitioned into a brief discussion on other fighting techniques and tips, which continued into an overview of lightsaber usage and construction, and then moved onto other Force abilities.
"Can you show me?" Rey asked, leaning forward against the table.
"Show you what?"
"I don't know. Something with the Force."
Amused despite himself, Ben raised a brow at her. Casting his eyes around the table, his gaze landed on the book. With a slight wave of his fingers, he lifted the book into the air and let it hover over in front of Rey. She gasped in delight.
"Will I be able to do that?" she asked him excitedly.
He smirked. "Yes." And so much more.
The book suddenly clattered to the tabletop as Ben stiffened. All thoughts of their easy conversation left him at the sight of Leia coming up to the end of their table. The general held a slim, wrapped item in her hands. Rey glanced over at him questioningly.
Leia stood by the table for a moment. When no greeting from Ben seemed forthcoming, she turned to Rey.
"Rey, dear," Leia said, addressing the girl rather than her silently frowning son. "How is training going?"
"Very well," Rey replied. She shot Ben a small smile, even as her eyes questioned his reticence. "Ben is a great teacher."
"I think you're just a natural student," he countered. She smiled wider.
"I'm glad to hear it," Leia said warmly. "However, no Jedi's training can be complete without the proper effects." She held out the bundle, and gestured for Rey to take it.
Rey took the bundled object carefully, and opened the wrapping to reveal the hilt of a lightsaber. She gasped, her eyes widening.
"It was mine," Leia explained. "I trained with Luke very briefly, for about a year before I had my son. Ever since, I've been embroiled in politics and haven't had the occasion to use it. I want you to have it, Rey."
"Thank you," Rey replied, her voice hushed. Ben watched as she reverently picked up the hilt and turned it over in her hands, studying its every detail.
"Put it to good use," Leia murmured, squeezing Rey's shoulder before taking her leave. She smiled softly at Ben, and he nodded in return.
…
Rey's training continued over the next week. She learned quickly, and showed marked improvement over the short time they'd been studying and practicing together. She was flying through the branches of the training course he'd assigned her, and more easily holding her own against him in their stick duels every day. Ben had ceased being surprised by her insatiable determination, and instead had made it his personal mission to push her limit at every session. She met him challenge for challenge.
They were out in the forest at present, this time with Rey armed with her staff. Ben had picked up a bigger stick, one long enough to mimic a double-bladed saber, and they were sparring. He'd had her on the run earlier, but no more; now, she was advancing on him, slowly pushing him back against the boulders as she struck and parried and thrust the staff at him. The loud, repetitive clack! of their weapons sounded through the clearing.
With a clever feint, Rey maneuvered past his defenses and clipped his knee with the tip of her staff. In the next instant she was swinging the other end at his head.
Simultaneously, a horrible feeling slammed into him, nearly making him vomit. The world seemed to slow down, sound becoming muted as the feeling overtook him in a clammy sweat. A building sense of unease crept over his skin like gooseflesh, then bloomed into growing, overwhelming, explosive terror. There was a bright, white-hot flash of breathtaking agony, and—
Everything went suddenly and eerily silent.
He collapsed to his knees, dodging the blow of the staff just in time, and stayed kneeling on the forest floor, bracing himself as he took several measured breaths. What the kriff had just happened? He was actually shivering.
Belatedly realizing something was wrong, Rey dropped her staff and knelt in front of him. "Ben? What is it?"
"Something just…" His heart squeezed in sudden horrified realization, and he gasped aloud. His gaze shot to the sky, searching as if he could still see it, hoping he could still see it, even though he knew very well it was no longer there. "The Hosnian system," he whispered.
"What?"
He stumbled to his feet, ignoring the dizziness that pulled at him, and reached for her. "Come on, we have to get back. Something's happened."
They ran back to the base and immediately headed through the outbuildings to the main bunker, ducking between patrolling officers and recruits on their way to the meeting chamber. Breathing heavily as they approached the doors, they noted other people were filing in too. Ben exchanged a glance with Rey.
This isn't good.
Stepping inside, Ben saw that his parents and uncle were already there. At their entrance, Luke and Leia met his eyes, and he knew.
Once everyone had assembled, Leia stepped up to the holotable to deliver the news. "We've just received reports that Starkiller Base has fired on the Hosnian system," she announced.
A horrified murmur went through the officers.
"You mean it's… gone?" Poe spoke out.
Leia nodded gravely.
The commander rounded on Ben. "You knew this was going to happen," he hissed at him. "You knew, and you could've said something. We could've saved those people—we could've warned them. But instead, you kept mum, and now an entire planetary system has been blown out of existence!"
Ben could feel himself growing defensive as he glowered back at the pilot. Of course this would get blamed on him. "I did say something, but I had no idea when it was going to—"
Poe put up his hands in a surrendering gesture as he interrupted, "Oh, right. Sorry. That's right. You didn't know when it was going to happen." He pointed an accusatory finger at the Jedi. "Except you've had your own private agenda for that blasted base for years, so we couldn't attack it yet, could we? We couldn't intercede just yet, because you needed Starkiller Base to be operational, and now millions of people are dead."
Ben ground his teeth together. Poe would never understand. He'd felt those millions of people, felt their terror and their agony as their lives had been unfairly and prematurely snuffed out, all in one fell swoop. He wished he'd known the exact moment the First Order was going to fire on the Hosnian system, because he would've warned them. He'd wanted to spare them; that was the whole point of what he was doing here. But if the Resistance didn't destroy Exegol before Palpatine's fleet deployed, then the entire galaxy would soon go the way of the Hosnian system. And Starkiller Base was the only sure way to destroy Exegol.
But then another thought struck him, and bile rose in the back of his throat. If the Hosnian system had been evacuated, the First Order would have suspected something. Snoke—Palpatine—would've grown suspicious, because how else would anyone outside the First Order have known their plans? They would have immediately increased security, and any hope the Resistance would've had to breach Starkiller would have been reduced to nothing.
Not for the first time, he felt trapped, useless. What good was the vision if he couldn't save people?
"We're supposed to be figuring out a way to get onto Starkiller Base undetected," he reminded Poe, changing the direction of the discussion. "It's our only hope. Any luck with that?"
"Don't you turn this around on me," Poe seethed. "I said we should've blown it up from the beginning."
"We can't blow it up yet," Ben insisted. "The timeline has changed. Circumstances have changed."
"Ah. So we did blow it up the 'first time around,'" the pilot mocked. When Ben didn't respond, Poe prompted him. "Right? In your vision?"
"Not before they destroyed the Hosnian system," Ben answered quietly. His eyes dropped away from the pilot to the holotable. Footage of the lethal blast and planetary fallout flickered before him.
"But afterward we did. Right?"
Ben's eyes almost fluttered to Rey, who still stood beside him, but he stopped himself just in time. "As I said," he reiterated, "circumstances have changed this time. We have information now that we didn't have then. We can't destroy Starkiller Base yet."
"Except that while we pander and stumble around, searching for the perfect way to carry out this impossible mission, Starkiller Base is going to fire on more systems and kill millions more innocent people," Poe predicted heatedly, addressing the room. "Palpatine isn't ready to launch his fleet yet, which means we're just sitting around, waiting for nothing. We could destroy Starkiller Base and still have time to plan an attack on Exegol."
The room murmured in mixed agreement.
"No, we can't," Ben argued, growing desperate. "The size of Palpatine's fleet is beyond comprehension. The only thing big and powerful enough to destroy it is Starkiller Base."
"How'd we do it before?" Poe countered suddenly, an air of challenge in his tone.
"What?"
"How did we defeat Palpatine and his fleet in your vision?"
Ben shook his head, dread pooling in his stomach. "No. We can't do it like that."
"So we did it," Poe confirmed. "Without Starkiller Base. We destroyed him and won the war."
Ben's hands tightened into white-knuckled fists at his sides. His breath hitched as he fought to tamp down his growing fear. No. No. It couldn't happen like that again.
"While what happened to the Hosnian system is terrible, we will stick to our current course for now, unless someone has a better plan," Leia intervened, ending the unproductive debate before it could devolve into an all-out fight. Poe started to speak, but she cut him off. "A definitive, rock-solid plan." When the room remained silent, she continued. "Until then, I suggest we all continue business as usual, while maintaining a high alert for anything suspicious. Proceed with scheduled training, system and hardware updates, supply acquisition and communications. Take care to keep signals scrambled and coded."
"And keep a bag packed, just in case we have to evacuate without warning," Ben added aloud. The room turned to him fleetingly before returning its collective attention to the general.
"If there are no more questions, then everyone is dismissed," she said.
As people started to file out, Ben headed around the holotable, intending to speak with his mother privately. With the Hosnian system gone, he wasn't sure when the First Order would discover the base on D'Qar, but he feared it would be sooner rather than later. She needed to know everything he knew about the altered timeline, and she needed to know he'd meant it when he'd said to pack a bag. With things so off-schedule now, they all needed to be ready to leave at a moment's notice.
But Poe waylaid him. The pilot stepped into his path, jaw set and eyes burning. Ben stopped short and glared down at the shorter man.
"I've never trusted you," Poe growled at him. "I know you've got them all convinced you're helping the Light, but I don't believe it." He pointed a finger at Ben's face. "If I get even the slightest indication that you're using your insider information for your own Dark agenda, I will end you."
Ben bristled at the pilot's threat. Really, what could the arrogant little man do to him? He could grab Poe by the throat and push him up against the wall right now and there wouldn't be anything the pilot could do about it. He stood head and shoulders taller than the cocky little bastard; it wouldn't be that hard. He could toss him across the room like a rag doll. He could Force-choke the little shit. He could break his neck with a snap of his fingers.
And part of him wanted to.
The Dark thought was enough to sober him. Shouldering past the commander without a word, he rounded the holotable and approached his mother. Luke and Han stood beside her, talking quietly, but the three fell silent as Ben came to a stop before them.
"Seriously, keep a bag packed," he told them. "I don't know when—or even if—it'll happen, but in that vision, the First Order located and destroyed this base not long after Hosnia. I thought we had more time, or I would've mentioned it sooner."
"We know," Leia assured him.
Han and Luke looked less certain. They exchanged an uneasy glance, and Ben saw it. His jaw ticked.
"Still don't trust me?" he bit at them. Neither man answered, but Han looked away guiltily.
"If you had known when the First Order would fire on the Hosnian system, you would've told us," Leia said placatingly. "Just like you're telling us now about them discovering us on D'Qar. I'll send word to the commanding officers to instruct their squadrons to be packed, fueled, and ready to scramble at a moment's notice."
He nodded at her, then swept past a still-fuming Poe and out of the room. Such was his haste to escape the contentious atmosphere that he almost blew right past Rey.
"Ben, wait!" she called out to him.
Turning at the sound of his name, he spotted her, standing with Rose and Finn just outside the meeting room. He went over to them.
"I was just telling Rose and Finn about what happened," Rey explained.
"What's gonna happen now?" Finn asked Ben. Rose was looking up at him with wide eyes.
Ben shrugged. "For now, we carry on as usual. But I meant what I said about being packed. Have a bag of essentials ready to go."
"Why?" Rose whispered fearfully.
He sighed. "Because I have a bad feeling that, sooner rather than later, the First Order is going to find and destroy this base," he confided in a low voice.
Finn frowned. "Is this part of your Jedi vision thing?"
"Yes."
"What all did you see?"
Ben shook his head. "Now isn't the time to get into all that."
"What will this mean for the mission?" Rey asked, her voice low and tense. "If we're found, what happens then?"
Ben considered her, then the others. They were watching him, waiting.
With a sudden rush, he realized they were looking to him for answers. Despite the rest of the Resistance's herd mentality toward him, despite Poe's actual position of leadership, this small team was choosing to trust him.
This was new.
He cleared his throat. "Then we evacuate," he told them. "But for now, the most important things we can do are to continue training and figure out a way onto Starkiller Base." His brow furrowed at the thought. "If the First Order finds us and we have to flee, then we'll regroup at whatever rendezvous point we've agreed on and continue the mission from there." He looked at each of them in turn. "Look, this doesn't change anything. We aren't going to give up, no matter what happens. There's a whole galaxy out there depending on us. We have to win."
"What if we get separated?" Rose asked.
"What if we get blown up?" Finn asked.
Ben gave the ex-trooper a look, then cocked his head at Rose as a thought struck him. "Then we stay in communication," he answered her simply.
Her gaze sharpened. "With a private communication system," she said, catching on. "Something that can't be tapped."
"Can you do it?"
She nodded. "Give me some time; I'll see what I can come up with."
"And I'll keep thinking about a route," Finn added. "Once we figure out our drop point, I'll be able to tell you more."
"Yeah, well, you'll have to ask our pilot about the drop point," Ben grumbled.
Finn followed Rose's retreating form down the corridor, in the direction of the systems room. Rey remained standing beside him.
"Ben?" she said quietly.
He looked down at her.
"In the meeting," she continued cautiously, "Poe made a good point about destroying Starkiller Base before the First Order can attack any more systems—especially if Palpatine isn't ready to make his move yet." She frowned. "But the idea seemed to upset you. It terrified you."
Slowly, as if reaching for a frightened animal, she laid a hand on his forearm. The muscles seized involuntarily under her gentle touch, and his breath caught.
"What happened in your vision?" she asked softly. "What are we up against?"
Snippets of the vision came back to him, memories of the horrors and the violence and the loss flashing before his eyes. That growling red lightsaber, buried to the hilt in his father's chest. His mother being sucked into the icy void of space. Luke's form vanishing into thin air, his Force signature dissipating soon after. Her limp form draped across his lap, eyes fixed and unseeing. Feeling the life leaving him as she came back. That brief, sweet moment before her expression morphed into distress, and he fell back…
"In the vision…" he started hoarsely. He stopped, cleared his tight throat, and tried again. "In the vision, we lost a lot of people. Important people. I can't let that happen again. There has to be a better way."
She was watching him carefully. "Important to the cause, or to you?"
He couldn't look at her. "Both."
"Your parents?"
"Among others."
She studied him. Not for the first time, he wondered if she was able to see further into him than he realized, if she could read him like a book with that gaze. He dearly hoped not. How weak and pathetic would she think he was, if she could?
Finally, she relented. "Well, whatever you saw, it's going to be different this time," she assured him, and squeezed his arm comfortingly. "You've already made sure of that."
He wasn't so sure. He was no longer certain what would happen next, or whether events were changing for the better or for the worse. He felt as if the weight of the galaxy was resting on his shoulders.
"I hope so," he murmured.
She released his arm. With a curt nod in her direction, he beat a hasty retreat down the corridor and out to the barracks, feeling her gaze on his back the entire way.