Author's Note: The incredible JenniferLadyBug strikes again, and chapters 1-9 are now illustrated on AO3! Add me on Tumblr erickawrites for links, art, and updates.

I've settled into a rhythm on this story and seem to update once midweek and once on the weekend. So next update on or before Thursday. This should be the regular schedule for a while.

I hope you're enjoying reading this as much as I am writing it! Will work for comments 😊 Talk Reylo to me!


"Stupid." Poe was mumbling to himself as he toggled a switch to illuminate the main sensor array and began the progression to fire up the engines. "So Maker-damned stupid. I should have realized they'd be watching this ship."

Or watching me, Rey thought. A cold chill scuttled down her spine as she recalled the feeling of dark eyes following her, stalking her across the galaxy from the In-Between. The Sith. You can still save him. Meet me here and I will show you, Malak had said. It had been so easy to fall into Ben's arms and forget, but life had always been a cruel teacher and now she was paying for her complacency.

Rey took the co-pilot's chair, punching in the launch sequences to speed up their take-off as Chewie growled a question from behind her.

"No," Rose answered, hands balled into nervous fists, "the grids are still misaligned." She fished into one deep pocket, coming up with a spanner she'd obviously been keeping handy for the job, and scrambled toward the maintenance crawlway to finish her tweaks on the fore deflector shields.

"Ben's here too," Rey said, making the announcement in case she had to translate for her friends who couldn't hear him.

"Great, what a wonderful opportunity for him," Poe said, engaging the repulsorlift drive. "Not everyone gets a chance to die twice."

The ship shuddered to life, sending Chewie, Finn, and Ben who weren't seated, sidestepping to starboard as the Falcon listed uncontrollably.

That's why you give the repulsorlift drive at least twenty seconds to warm up! Ben was leaning over the back of the pilot's seat, complaining at full volume despite the pilot's inability to hear him.

"I don't think we have twenty seconds," Rey answered.

Chewie growled something about having tried to warn Poe a thousand times before.

"What?" Poe yelled. "I'm getting half a conversation here. I don't speak ghost, remember?" But he was distracted by another alert coming through the comm.

She doesn't handle as well if you don't give her the twenty count, Ben said, holding tight to the back of the captain's chair. Those drives need time, otherwise she'll handle like a wet noodle.

"You aren't missing much," Finn said, cupping his hand to direct his speech to Poe, "Flyboy here is delusional, trying to give the best pilot in the galaxy advice about flying."

Best pilot in the galaxy? Ben gave Finn a sharp sidelong glance before grudgingly settling into the seat behind Poe with a huff.

"Get to the gun well." Poe gestured to Finn with one hand, and pulled at the control yoke with the other, maneuvering through the trees to stay low, glancing nervously at the sky. As if on cue, the unmistakable whine of a TIE's twin ion engine announced what they'd been dreading. "Hurry!" he added, though he didn't need to. Finn's boots were already pounding hard as he sprinted to the gunner's position.

Chewie strapped in behind Rey and Ben did the same behind Poe. The ship teetered to starboard again before Poe was able to correct, evening out over the canopy.

I told you, Ben mumbled under his breath.

The jungle was veiled in a thick morning mist as if the trees themselves clung to it for protection. Poe slid the Falcon into a wide arc to cut right through it, seeking cover from the heavy enemy presence to the west displayed on the sensor array. Unfortunately, as they cleared the edge of a vine-covered cliff, and Poe eased off the grips to even them out, three TIEs they hadn't detected streamed in from the east.

A red-orange indicator blinked to life on the console in front of Rey, alerting her that Finn had activated the ventral cannon. She slipped on a headset to communicate with him, just as a fourth ship roared by.

Poe snapped an order through his headset, "Tell Rose to get on the other gun!"

She could just hear Finn's voice over the engines, echoing down the hall as he yelled for Rose to take up the dorsal cannon.

Rey reached out with her feelings, trying to get a sense for how many ships there were.

"There, at ten o'clock." Rey jabbed a finger toward two more ships coming in.

Poe rotated the control grips and pitched the Falcon's nose upward into a backwards roll, leaving her stomach behind. This put Finn's gun in range and he fired, missing by a hair's breadth.

Ben jammed on his headset. I take back what I said earlier. You are hopeless.

"Who asked you?" Finn snapped. But Rey didn't miss the gentle ripple in the Force as Finn stretched out with his feelings before he sent another round of fire at an incoming TIE. This time, red bolts cut across the ship's wing, sending it careening into the trees before it erupted into a fiery mass.

Rey gripped the edge of her seat to keep from sliding out, as Poe maneuvered low, circling back to keep away from the village and setting them up for another shot.

A hollow fear settled in her chest as she sensed the approach of more ships.

There's too many of them, Ben said flatly.

"We need to get out of here, Poe," Rey said, "There are more incoming."

"Gladly," Poe adjusted his grip on the controls and the Falcon bucked like an angry Fathier, as he pushed hard on the throttle.

Rey aimed a blistering glare in his direction. "And no lightspeed skipping this time."

"No promises," he said, white-knuckling the controls, barely dodging a mossy grove of thick-trunked ironwood trees.

What? He was skipping? Ben looked absolutely scandalized by this exchange, running agitated hands through his hair as he forced himself back into his seat.

Unfortunately, their quick escape path was already blocked by more incoming fighters, including some approaching overhead which had already begun laying a blanket of laser fire in their direction. The ship lurched as it was struck along the dorsal shields.

Why aren't you using the SubLight Acceleration Motor? Ben was practically screaming at Poe now, desperately looking at Rey to translate.

"He's asking why you don't use the SubLight Acceleration Motor?" Rey repeated.

"The what?" Poe asked, slamming forward on the throttle to avoid hitting another TIE that had somehow entered their airspace not a hundred meters ahead.

Canon fire thundered against the ship's shields and Ben raised his voice even louder to be heard over the roar of engines and weapons. To draw backup power from the systems we're not using!

Rey hammered the controls to bolster the Falcon's aft shields as the TIEs passed, raining more fire from overhead.

Ben was standing now, leaning around the pilot's seat, stretching a long arm toward the instrument panel. He pulled on several levers, deactivating the lighting, circulation, and hyperdrive systems before pressing another unrecognizable sequence. This last adjustment sent a staggering surge of power through the thrust pressure manifold and they barreled ahead at a speed she was sure the Falcon hadn't seen for a long while.

At that moment, Ben grabbed one side of the control yoke, seemingly out of pure instinct, using all the extra thrust to steer around the web of TIEs who hadn't expected the sudden acceleration.

"What the hell?" Poe yelled, taking the controls back and elbowing the air, trying to move an invisible body out of his sacred piloting zone. "You are not the captain here!"

Ben gritted his teeth in frustration but was still working at the controls. As he bent over the console again, it became clear that he was occupying some of the same space as Poe. Rey was finding it difficult to grasp the physics of this interaction, but she didn't have time to puzzle it out now. Alerts screamed from every panel in discordant wails, competing for which one could be the most obnoxious. She wished for BB-8's built-in fire extinguishers as she saw smoke alarms triggered near the ion flux stabilizer.

Before she even had to ask, Chewie was unstrapping himself and headed down the corridor.

Checking the viewport, she saw that Ben had managed to lose the half-dozen or so ships that had cut them off. She watched Poe from the corner of her eye as he exhaled, eyes narrowed at the controls in reluctant deliberation.

The calm didn't last long. Two new TIEs circled in tight formation ahead, engines howling and cannons already unleashing their full fire power directly at the front of the ship. She could only hope that Rose was finished with those last tweaks on the fore deflector shields, as she flicked a switch to divert more of their defenses up front.

Red bolts from the ventral cannon managed to clip one fighter, but it continued on course along with its partner in formation.

Back in the pilot's chair, there was a different battle being waged. A battle of wills. And Ben was not relenting. Poe could only watch, exasperated as switches were activated and controls were tweaked right under his nose. As the TIEs came around for a second pass, Ben pulled back hard on the throttle, flipping an auxiliary switch to funnel power to the sublight drive, and the Falcon spun with gut-wrenching finesse, putting them at a better angle to pursue the fighters.

Poe leaned back off the controls, mouth hanging slightly open. The Falcon had gone from prey to predator in a single fluid motion.

Rey smiled to herself as they screamed past the stunned fighters and slipped through a narrow opening in the forest before lining up a shot for Rose, who had finally activated the dorsal gun.

Rey couldn't see the shot, but she heard Rose's whoop of victory through her earpiece.

Finn's voice confirmed the hit. "Nice one."

With this last maneuver, Poe had now slid out of the pilot's seat completely, his hard stare thawing into an almost reverent gaze as he appreciated Ben's ease with the Falcon's touchy controls. Ben didn't hesitate to take his chance, stretching out to claim the captain's chair like the birthright it was. With eyes sharp and hands drifting deftly from yoke to grip to throttle, he worked the Falcon like an artist works clay. He was sculpting something beautiful, creating a synergy with the machine that she'd never seen, not since Han himself had been at the controls, and even then, she wasn't sure the famed Han Solo could have pulled off a maneuver like that.

She watched in silent admiration as Ben effortlessly bypassed systems to fuel extra thrusts of the engines when needed. She felt the Falcon's easy roll as he coordinated perfectly timed pushes of the foot pedals to control the yaw. She was overwhelmed by his pull on the Force, wave after wave of powerful sensation buzzed through her, as he used everything he had to feel for the best openings, to time his movements.

TIE pilots who dared to match his speed slammed into tree trunks, cliffsides, and each other. Those that didn't wreck were baited into the perfect position for Finn and Rose. And in the span of a few minutes, Ben had somehow managed to either lose or destroy an entire squadron of fighters.

Rey's adrenaline began to subside, replaced by a liquid warmth bubbling up inside of her as she gazed at Ben. She became suspended in the gravity of this moment, the weight of a dawning awareness as she realized.

Ben Solo was made for that captain's chair.

With his eyes focused out the viewport, his hands gripping the controls, and his heart fighting for something he truly believed in, he was home. He'd been lost for so long, but here… this was where he was always meant to be, at the helm of his father's ship.

And she could watch him like this forever.

He was a beautiful sight, and lost so deep in concentration, he didn't notice her eyes drinking him in. Brows furrowed, jaw clenched, and muscles taut with the exhilaration of flight, the intensity of his physical presence so close had her thinking of other things. Her chest tightened, breathless, her stomach lurched and not from the barrel rolls, as she studiously followed his every motion - hands fisting tight on the throttle, palms curling around the handgrips, lithe fingers sliding deftly over the switches and levers.

Stars, he could have been touching her with the way she burned for him now. Swallowing hard, she adjusted herself awkwardly in her seat in an attempt to relieve some of the pressure building there. How he managed this without even looking at her...

She wasn't sure how long Poe had been yelling at her when she finally registered his voice nearby. "Rey!" he repeated, growing louder now. "Rey! Oh for Kriff's sake, Rey!"

She shook herself from her stupor, cheeks blazing with heat as she tried to attend to the new alarms buzzing all over the console.

"Sorry, sorry," she mumbled, avoiding Poe's questioning gaze at all costs. She buried herself in the action of flipping switches to quiet the alarms and patched through a waiting communication from the Free Worlds Fleet.

"Get out of there!" It was Maz Kanata's voice and it carried an urgency it rarely held.

Working on it, Ben responded, half under his breath as they barreled toward freedom with not a TIE in sight.

"Was that - ?" And Rey could hear the smile in Maz's voice, even from behind the staticky Falcon's comm system.

"Don't tell me," Poe said, shaking his head. "You can hear him, too?"

"As clearly as I hear you, General," Maz answered. "And you'll need all the help you can get if you're to meet us on Corellia. And hurry up about it, BB-8 has been a pain, I think he misses you already."

"You sure that's wise? Meeting on Corellia?" Poe asked, "We'd definitely be coming in hot."

"We need you here, the crew you sent uncovered a splinter group of Sith Loyalists. The Acolytes of the Beyond, Vader supporters since the Battle of Endor," she said. "We think they've got something to do with this re-organization of the remaining Sith and First Order fleets."

"They're there?!" Rey's adrenaline was back in an instant. Could these Acolytes be the remnant of the Sith Eternal that Malak had warned about? She wondered if freeing Ben from the World Between Worlds could be as simple as destroying these Sith Loyalists. "You found them?"

"Just a small subset of their operation, but it's a start," Maz said. "Now get out of there. There may be more than one Star Destroyer headed your way."

"Wonderful," Poe said.

"Just get clear and I'll send you coordinates. And Ben Solo?" Maz asked, pausing long enough for Rey to wonder if her signal had been lost.

Yes? Ben finally responded and Rey had to wonder if Maz was just testing his reaction to his given name.

"I believe that ship belongs to you, now. Your father would have wanted you to have it."

Rey watched as a dozen expressions seemed to chase across Ben's face and she felt each one directly through the Bond. A wince - shock, then he was chewing his lip - guilt, after a moment, his brows finally relaxed and he was able to respond.

Thank you, he said. But I don't think I've earned it yet.

"You'd better get to work then, Solo," she responded, followed by dead air indicating she'd cut the connection.

Ben's throat bobbed in a hard swallow and he was leaning forward, checking the scanners, and plotting the best course away from Yavin IV.

Rey had no doubt that Ben would work for the rest of his days trying to convince himself he deserved his parents' legacy. The thought was both heart wrenching and heart warming all at once.

"TIEs coming in again," Poe warned, pointing to the sensor array.

I see them.

"Does he see them?" Poe asked Rey. She'd almost forgotten he couldn't hear Ben. A pilot who couldn't communicate with his crew. This was going to be a problem.

Ben circled back toward the village which the scanners indicated was still clear of enemy ships. And as the Falcon dipped low to circle around, Rey took one last look at the sprawling branches of the Great Tree below before Ben lifted the Falcon's nose toward what was clear sky a moment ago.

But now, the shadow of a second Star Destroyer hung menacingly in the blue sky.

Poe slammed a hand against the back of the pilot's seat in frustration. "Where the hell did that come from?!"

Just came out of hyperspace.

Rey translated.

Ben pulled on the controls yet again, adjusting his path out of the atmosphere.

An impossible crash, like a thousand thunderclaps all at once erupted from the surface of Yavin IV. Rey peered through the viewport, eyes widening to take in the pillar of smoke and flame boiling up from the grassy clearing where the Great Tree had been. A geyser of red and orange spouted up from the earth, cycling through the colors again and again, red, orange, red, orange, as the cloud of flame grew. Then, finally reaching its apex, the color gave way to the dull hues of smoke and ash.

The aftershock of the explosion reached the Falcon a moment later, punishing the ship with shuddering heat and Ben…

Ben should have been seizing the controls to even them out. Ben would have handled it easily, with a twist of his palm and a rock of the throttle.

But the pilot's seat was empty.

The Falcon listed dangerously, succumbing to the shock of the blast.

"What's he doing?" Poe was screaming.

"What's going on up there?" came Finn's simultaneous demand through the earpiece.

"He's gone!" Rey said, reaching to steady the controls, desperate to stay focused on their escape and not the pain of Ben's abrupt disappearance and the complete silencing of the Bond.

Poe was scrambling over the pilot's seat, taking control again, tugging at the control yoke to smooth them out. TIEs screamed closer again, but Ben's head start had given them a chance, and Poe kept them speeding toward the safety of space.

Rey snuck a look down at the village and the clearing, knowing what she would find, but needing to see it anyway.

She put a hand to her mouth, not just to stifle her anguished cry, but to try to push back the dark emotions welling up inside of her. Where the Great Uneti Tree once stood, lay a smoking crater, and what was left of the sacred tree was now raining down over Poe's village as ash.