Ben's long strides thumped behind Rey's as they made their way to the nearby storage-room-turned-bedroom. The door whooshed open to reveal Doj and Theo crouched around Jarda's writhing form. She lay back in the bed with beads of sweat dripping down her pale face. The two men at her side snapped their attention to the two intruders. "What the hell is going on with her? I thought you said all she needed was rest? What did you do?" Theo shot an accusatory look at Rey.
Rey bit her cheek for a moment and looked back at Jarda. It was like she could feel the darkness Jarda had absorbed festering in her body like an infection.
"Are you going to answer or what? What the hell happened to her and how are you going to fix it?" The unusually strong voice of Doj cut through the silence. Rey crouched down to place a hand on Jarda's forehead.
"It's like I said before. We got stuck in a trap like in the tomb." Rey quickly began to explain as she felt the heat on her hand. "I knew I was too weak from the first time that I was going to need help. It was either that or dying." Rey could feel Ben's anger and worry bubbling at the new information. She shot him a quick glance, only to find his emotions expertly masked behind his stony expression. He was waiting.
"I can't explain why I could absorb the energy without this kind of effect. Whatever it's doing to her will kill her if we don't get it out. I just don't know how." Ben's brow shifted slightly in thought. She heard them faintly in the corners of her mind as she tried to contemplate her own solution. Jarda called out again in her sleep, writhing around in intense pain. Doj moved to gently caress the hair from her face, his jaw steeled in anger. Rey could sense his strong emotions, though he rarely let them show.
"Can you do it again?" Ben's deep voice spoke gently behind her. Rey turned to stand and face him. "I'm not sure. I don't even really know how I did it before. I just touched it and it was gone." She shook her head and looked back to Jarda. "I can feel it in her. It's like poison." She whispered to him. He met her gaze evenly and nodded. "What if you tried to draw it out then?" He said, eying Jarda. "It hasn't had any effect on you?"
Rey fidgeted for a moment before she looked back at him. It had. The exhaustion and physical and muscle fatigue had taken quite a toll on her. Rey thought back to the few times she had been able to Force heal. Perhaps that technique could be of use, but it had felt completely different when she had drawn the power out of the stone before. She had been so overwhelmed at the time, all she thought about was the Force. Ben sensed her discomfort and stepped towards her with an outreached hand. Together?
Rey nodded, taking his hand in hers and turning back to Theo and Doj. "We're going to try to draw it out of her." She stepped forward but felt Ben tug at her hand. "We have no idea how this is going to go. She may be in more pain while we do this." He looked over to the two men. "You should wait outside." His voice was commanding, but calm.
"There's no way I'm leaving her alone with you." Doj's usually quiet voice rose harshly as he looked to Ben with disgust. "You've done nothing but make her miserable. You tried to have me killed. You're the biggest murderer of the galaxy and, oh yeah don't let me forget, you came back from the dead." He huffed.
Rey felt Ben's hand tighten with hers. His emotions crashed like waves. Anger, resentment, guilt, sadness. Nothing he could say would make things better. "Doj, I hope you can trust me." She said gently, giving Ben's hand a squeeze. "This is the only way." She pleaded. His nose flared in anger as he quickly looked back down to Jarda who had begun to moan. He gave a curt nod but didn't look back up. "I'm staying."
That was enough. He stepped back as Rey and Ben knelt down on either side of Jarda's body, two hands intertwined, the others hovering over Jarda's shuddering form. They closed their eyes and focused on the Force. It was like Rey could see the blackness running through Jarda's veins. She stretched her fingers and called for it to come to her. Ben followed alongside her. Jarda began to shake harder and scream as it was pulled from her system.
Rey watched as black smoke rose out of Jarda's body and was gently pulled into Ben's fingertips. Rey could feel Ben's consciousness with hers as the darkness was absorbed into him. It lingered for a moment like smoke, before vanishing.
Theo and Doj had moved to hold Jarda down as Rey and Ben pulled the last of the darkness out. Rey felt a shock in her hand and pulled back, looking over at an equally confused Ben. They didn't have time to process what had happened before Jarda gasped beneath them. "It's gone." Jarda breathed heavily with relief. Rey could sense the exhaustion leftover beginning to pull at Jarda's consciousness and watched the woman close her eyes again.
Jarda hadn't made it out unscathed. Her skin was bubbled and burned where the smoke had left her. It had appeared like it was an acid. Ben and Rey took a moment to catch their breath before letting go of each other. Rey could sense Ben's intense concern when he looked over Jarda. "What is it?" she caught his attention while Theo and Doj attempted to soothe Jarda's new ailments with some creams from the med kit.
Ben paused for a moment before speaking. "I've seen this kind of burn before. Except this looks much worse.. Almost like dark aura." He lowered his head in thought. "What is that?" Rey questioned. "It's similar to Force lightning." Rey thought regretfully to that moment she had harnessed enough energy to send a shockwave through a whole company of Sithspawn. She shuddered internally and nodded her head.
"Dark aura is a massive amount of that kind of force energy controlled into a small radius, creating a miniature storm of charged energy. The only Sith believed to have used that kind of technique was Sidious." He looked to Rey sharply waiting for her reaction to this revelation. "Whatever we did was the reversal of that, drawing the power in rather than pushing it out. That's why we were unharmed."
Rey shook her head in disbelief. "Well I suppose being his granddaughter explains why I was able to do it, but why are you ok?" She gestured to Ben. He gave her a dry look and shrugged. Force Bond. She bit her cheek and sighed. "Ok well what are we going to do now?" She turned back to the two silent observers beside them. "This stuff isn't going to be enough." Doj gestured to the small container of burn gel. "Yeah, she's going to need a bacta tank for sure, but where in the galaxy are we going to get into that's going to have that kind of equipment without security clearance?"
Ben's mood soured immediately when Rey's mind snapped to the memory of the med bay at the Resistance base. No. He shot her an irritated look under his dark brows. Rey resisted the urge to roll her eyes at him but let him sense her thought. "It's the only one I know of that we can get in immediately and we cannot leave her like this for long." Rey folded her arms in front of her chest. Theo jumped up at the mention. "Where?"
Ben's stare hardened even more. Rey could sense that he truly knew there were no other options. She even felt guilty that she would have to suggest going back. Perhaps it would have been inevitable anyway for Ben to come back to the Resistance with Rey. Absolutely not. She gulped. They'd barely had a moment to enjoy their reunion, and certainly hadn't had a single discussion of what was going to happen next.
Rey swallowed whatever remarks she had begun to think and switched back to the main reason for going. "I know exactly where to go and she is guaranteed to get the help she needs. Anywhere else is going to require money or clearance we don't have." She paused to place her hands on his arms and give them a gentle squeeze. "I can drop you off somewhere if you really don't want to go, but I need to make sure I'm doing everything I can to help her."
She could feel her words bring up a sense of panic in him. Tilting her head slowly to meet his downcast gaze she looked at him with concern and waited. He gave a curt look at Theo and Doj before turning to leave the room. Rey looked over at the curious expressions beside her. "Don't worry, we're going to the Resistance now. They'll be able to give her the medical attention she needs, I promise." They both nodded to her and she gave a small smile as she followed Ben from the room.
She had sensed him move into the cockpit and made her way in. Rey sat and began to punch in the coordinates for the last known base on Ajan Kloss, hoping they hadn't moved in the time she had been gone. Ben's rage burned in her mind as he saw what she was doing. He grabbed her wrist forcefully, pinching and twisting it behind her back. Rey yelped in pain. "Rey, will you think for a moment?" His voice was icy. "While the Resistance might let us in. You have no idea who might follow you from here now that they know about us. They may be in league with the First Order now, or have their own plans for the galaxy. In any case, I'm sure they'd love to find where the last of the Resistance is hiding and take them out."
Rey felt her body relax. He had very good points, but his sudden concern for the Resistance still made little sense. Rey knew how he felt about them, but this kind of fear and anger did not match his earlier feeling. He sighed and relaxed his grip on her, lowering his eyes to the floor in shame when he saw the marks left on her skin. Rey rubbed her wrist absentmindedly and silently raised a question to him, waiting. "What's the other reason?"
He sighed deeply, sinking down to a knee on the floor so that they were face to face. He looked up at her after a moment. "I can't go back there, Rey. The galaxy thinks I'm dead. Maybe it's better to keep them thinking that way. Besides," he wavered and she sensed the deep rooted fear in his mind bubbling to the surface. "There are people who will never forgive me." He looked absentmindedly out the window. Rey saw his thoughts in her mind as though they were her own. Chewie was the only one left, now that both his parents were gone.
"Both of his best friends are gone. Because of me." His voice hitched, and he paused to clear his throat. "I've accepted that. I've tried to forgive myself for it, but if I go back there after he thinks I'm finally gone. It will feel like I'm gloating. I can't expect him to forgive me after everything."
Rey's heart softened. She'd had a feeling this was going to be something they would need to work through. She looked at his tear filled eyes, struggling to keep composed. He looked back at her, trembling. Rey only smiled and placed her hands on the side of his face, fingers entwined in his thick hair. "Let me show you something." She said softly, placing her forehead to his, pulling on their bond to join their consciousnesses together as she thought about her last conversation with Chewie before she left.
She remembered how he had reacted to the information she had shared about the dyad, his sacrifice, and her plan to go save him. She thought back to the emotions she had felt from him while they talked. They both knew it wasn't going to be easy, but Chewie would be willing to give him another chance when the time came.
The memory subsided and Rey pulled back from Ben. His eyes were still closed, tears falling down his face. She moved her thumbs gently over his cheeks to wipe the tears off. He opened his eyes to look at her, dark lashes dropping the few remaining tears. His gaze hardened. "What about your friends in command? Think they're going to be willing to even let me step foot on their base?"
He had a point. This was the problem she had been shoving off this entire time. The only person who even knew about her mission was Finn, and he had been sworn to secrecy. Poe and the Resistance council was an entirely different matter. They had seemed willing to 'forgive and forget' when they thought he had sacrificed himself and was gone for good. What were they going to say now when he shows up on their doorstep?
She gulped nervously. "I can try to talk to them. They were willing to believe me when I told them you turned, maybe that's enough to convince them to truly give you a second chance." Ben just shook his head and looked out the viewport. "And if they won't? And you have to choose?" Rey sensed his anxious thoughts and fully realized why he was so worried.
"Oh Ben." She sighed. "I made my choice as soon as the war was won and I knew I could bring you back." She pulled him into a tight hug. "It's you. It's always you. The Resistance will be just fine with or without me. I know my destiny now."