Rey carefully eyed her surroundings as she made her way down The Falcon's ramp. She halted at the bottom, waiting patiently for the cautious footsteps behind her to catch up. She could feel the fear and anxiety he was trying to control pulse in her stomach like it was her own. They had spent most of yesterday afternoon distancing and distracting themselves from what they knew was coming this morning.
It had been a nightmare to try and persuade Ben that it was even worth the time and effort it would take to convince the counsel to listen to what they had to say. It was evident that at this point, he was only willing to do this for her. The mere image of the Resistance brought up so much pain and shame for him. A constant reminder of everything he had done wrong.
Rey could empathize. She had her own guilt for what she had hidden from them, and as nice as it sounded to run off with Ben, her heart told her to at least try and explain herself. It seemed like she owed them that much after everything, not to mention the fact that they needed to be warned of the uncovered threat of the Sith Eternal.
They'd had a long discussion in the early hours of this morning after she had awoken to meditate. She could sense his reproach at her plans, not because they were bad, but ultimately because he was afraid. "At least give them the option, Ben. You'll never truly know if you've received their forgiveness if you don't ask." She'd begged when she had finally been able to sense the root of his unspoken fears.
His face contorted in anger and pain and she knew she had indeed voiced his inner turmoil. His left eye twitched as it always did when he was trying to hold himself together. His head gave a small shake before he lowered it to the ground. "They will never see me as anything other than what I was, and I don't blame them. How are you so sure they won't want to hold me accountable? Imprison me? Put me on trial?" His sunken eyes raised to meet hers. "They'll try to separate us."
It dawned on her. More than anything, Ben was afraid of separation. More than his fear of being forgiven or accepted. Her hands instinctively rose and clasped around his neck to pull him down to her. "Never. Those are my terms and conditions. They either get both of us, or we leave and we do this on our own. They know everything you and I both did to stop the Sith before. They owe their victory to us. This is not a trial, Ben."
His heartbeat had begun to slow at her words and she could finally feel him begin to relax. She was well aware of their advantages, and would never knowingly walk into a situation like this if she wasn't certain that they would both be able to negotiate some sort of deal. The fact of the matter was that she considered herself a loyal Resistance member, and they deserved to know that their hard won victory could still be threatened.
He was behind her now. His gaze wandered over the small landing pad, certain that someone would recognize him despite the fact that the amount of people that had seen him without his mask in the last 5 years could be counted on one hand. Rey pressed a comforting thought of assurance into his mind before leading him through the doors and inside the base.
Ben had to admit, the Resistance base was quite impressive given the short amount of time it had to expand in the last few months. Rey had told him about the small encampment they had before. It wasn't surprising to see what they were able to do with their newfound funding. Signs pointing to hangars, mess halls, barracks and more pointed in the opposite direction as Rey led him towards the priority clearance side of the base.
They weaved through long white halls. For the most part, personnel paid them no mind as they bustled past. A few caught Ben's eye curiously after recognising Rey's familiar form. It was easy to see the gentle reverence even the smallest engineer had for her as they gave small head bows and moved out of her path. It was a stark difference from his experience in the First Order, where his commanding gait had pulsed fear and terror in any nearby officer. He had to admit, he preferred this much more than he imagined.
Rey had led them silently to a smaller hall and opened a nearby door to a meeting room. Ben followed behind her, his heart rate quickening as he scanned the room. Much to his dismay, the long rows of chairs sat empty. He could still sense something ahead, his eyes moved to the end of the table where they met the hard stare of the former traitor, FN-2187.
Finn. His name is Finn, Ben. She reminded him gently as they made their way towards him. His expression was unreadable. Unusual considering how expressive it had been the last few times Ben had seen it. Finn gave a curt nod and fixed his eyes on Rey.
"We've got about 15 minutes until we're expected." He said, motioning for them to sit in the chairs opposite him. "What's the plan?" They sat and Rey looked over at Ben before taking a breath to briefly explain some of the major points of her proposition. Finn listened carefully, nodding along as she spoke before he looked at Ben warily.
"What about you then? Are you planning on adding anything or sitting there while she does all the talking?" His tone was light, but Ben could sense the underlying bitterness between his words. Ben steeled for a moment as a wave of irritation flowed through him. It would take time for him to get used to others speaking to him so casually after his years as a ruthless leader.
"I will offer my own explanation when the time comes, as well as answer any direct questions." He leaned in a bit, eyes betraying his confident demeanor. "It's probably best if I don't speak much besides that." He finished. "You got that right." Finn huffed before throwing a look at Rey who simply offered a shrug and a sympathetic smile.
Finn leaned back quietly and examined the two before him. "Well." He began quietly. "For what it's worth. You both will have my back. I'm partially to blame for some of the secrets around here, but I think most of them will understand why it was secret to begin with. Besides that, I think I was able to get through to Poe, he should be able to help word things in a better light." He eyed Ben again, his gaze lingering as his brows drooped over his eyes in silent confusion.
"I can sense it." He added solemnly as Ben looked up from where he had locked his eyes in frustration. "In many ways, you still feel like.. Him, But for what it's worth. I can feel the change. Not to mention how the two of you feel and look together." He motioned to the pair before folding his arms over his chest. He sucked on his cheek for a moment before nodding his head slowly. "It's definitely going to take some convincing for the others, but even without the Force you can tell the difference."
Rey shot him a grateful smile. Once again, hope tugged on the invisible string that held them together, pulling Ben out of whatever hole he was trying to crawl into. He was willing to do as Rey wished, but no amount of coaxing on her part had been able to fully convince him that they would even be remotely successful in their endeavor.
Finn looked at his watch. "It's time."
To Rey and Ben's relief, it seemed like no one had been briefed on the topic at hand. Barely taking a second glance at Rey's companion while they welcomed her back and settled into their seats in the large circular room meant for council meetings. She had given them short replies of thanks as she found a seat in the inner circle by the front.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity but in actuality wasn't more than a minute or two, Poe's familiar form entered the room and stood in front of them all as everyone waited in silence for him to begin. He gave a hard look to Rey, refusing to let his eyes wander to the companion to her side.
"Thank you all for coming on such short notice. This morning will be a debriefing on Rey's last mission, which as you all know has been classified up until this point." His eyes scanned the room as he took a breath. "I want to preface this meeting with a couple of points. Number one, none of the information in today's meeting will leave this room. This is level one clearance, no exceptions.."
Rey felt her chest lighten at this thought, if they couldn't have complete anonymity, this was the next best thing Poe could offer. "Second, you all should know Rey has been operating independently from the Resistance and therefore has complete immunity." Rey could feel the sudden confusion wash through the room and several eyes turn to her silently. "I've reviewed the details with her already and we've agreed in order to continue working together it was imperative that we have counsel knowledge and input to coordinate next steps."
The room remained silent but Rey could feel the growing confusion and doubt as Poe spoke. She shot him a grateful smile, despite how they had ended things yesterday, his preparation for her coming admission was more than she could have hoped for, even if he was bending the truth a bit. He sent her a tight smile in return and nodded.
With that, Rey stood up slowly and looked around the room at the familiar faces. "Hello everyone. First I want to begin by apologizing for the secrecy, I only ask that you all consider the following with an open mind and open heart." All eyes were locked on her as she began to fully recall the story of her and Ben's connection from the beginning.
She plainly recounted the story up until Ben's death before pausing. "As you all are aware, Kylo Ren turned back from the Dark Side, helping me defeat the Sith Eternal and saving my life." She didn't have to look at Ben to know how uncomfortable he was at hearing his personal story told so publicly.
Rey pressed on. "After his death, I began to have.. visions. This is when I learned that the Force had not fully accepted him, and rather, had him trapped between dimensions until he and I both proved worthy upon which we would be able to bring him back to life." She paused as the room gasped around her. Some catching on to her new companion with wide eyes. "It was during this trial that I was able to discover a few important pieces of information."
She continued, catching them up on the new Sith Eternal threat, as well as her new insight on the Force and her purging abilities. The tension in the room rose with every word she spoke. Whispers rising as they eyed Ben's stiff form in the front. He had completely shut off as he listened to Rey speak, eyes boring into the floor below him as he leaned over his legs, hands clasped tightly in front of him and hair falling down to obscure his face.
Rey stopped, waiting patiently for the room to become silent again. When all eyes found their way back to her she continued. "I understand that most of this won't mean much to the Resistance, I have no desire to bring my teachings of the Force into this new government. But, I feel it is imperative to warn you of the dangers of the remaining Sith Eternal. It's almost impossible to know how much of a threat they could be if left to their own devices. Not to mention if they are able to recruit any of the remaining First Order forces."
Poe stood and faced the room with her. "Now you are all caught up to today. We have insider intelligence here that can be used to our advantage. Four former First Order members arrived back with Rey. One in critical condition in our med bay. Her and her two companions worked as liaisons and spies with the Sith Eternal. The other," He dared to finally look over to the slumped form of Ben. "is indeed the former Supreme Leader of the First Order, successfully revived."
The room erupted as soon as the words were finally spoken. Panic rose as emotions were heightened. "Settle down! Enough!" Poe shouted over the clamoring and the room froze. "I'm not saying we welcome them all with open arms, but you've got to admit they'd give us one hell of an advantage." He shrugged and looked around the room.
"How are we supposed to trust them?" A male Mon Calamari spoke up from the front row. "You're saying they were the cause of the security breach?" He pointed a finger to Rey and Finn. "And I'm certainly not the only one who will point out that one was single handedly responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of our troops." Others shook their heads in approval as he spoke. Rey could feel her heart flutter faster as they spoke about Ben.
"I think I speak for everyone when I say that I trust Rey, and without her and Ben Solo's sacrifice on Exegol we wouldn't even be here. Beyond that, they had the opportunity to leave us in the dark about these Sith factions and they chose to come here and offer assistance even when they knew they'd receive this kind of reaction." Poe shot back. "So yeah. I think we might owe them a little trust." Poe shot back and turned to look around the room at the hesitant faces. "Listen, I'm not any happier than you all are about this, but we'd be stupid to ignore what their telling us here. All I'm asking is that we hear them out and go from there."
"Let him speak for himself then." A quiet Sullustan added from the back, motioning to the bent over form in from on him. "I for one would be interested in what he has to say." Heads nodded in agreement and Rey turned to look at Ben. He made no move as the room waited patiently. Ben. She called to him, and he finally looked up at her with such dread in his eyes Rey almost gasped.
He stood slowly and walked to the front of the room. Keeping his gaze low. Rey could sense the writhing pain he was trying to bury as he stood. He swallowed before turning his head up to look at the shocked faces around him. The room was dead silent in anticipation as he slowly opened his mouth to speak.
"I won't ask for your forgiveness, I know I don't deserve it. I deserved worse than the death I received on Exegol, and I certainly don't deserve a second chance at life." His voice came out strained. He took a moment to clear it before continuing. "All I can ask for is the opportunity to help however I can. I offer any knowledge of the First Order and Sith that I have. I understand if none of you ever trust me, I hope I can prove myself again worthy of my own name, for my parents." He turned and looked down at Rey. "and for you."
He bowed quietly when the room stayed silent and moved back to his seat. Rey could feel him retreat in his mind, waiting for the next outburst at his expense. It never came. A few voices called out more prominent questions about Rey's trip, the Sith Eternal, and then finally what her current plan was.
"To be honest, that was why I wanted to meet with you all. I would have been perfectly content to leave the Resistance with its very capable hands and Ben and I would continue purging the galaxy and training others in the balance of the Force as our destiny commands." Poe eyed her cautiously. "However the current threat to the Resistance jeopardizes our futures; I still very much care about all of you and believe it would be best if we were to work together. If you'll have us, Ben and I along with a small team will work on locating, destroying, and purging the Sith Eternal until we fully believe the threat has been eliminated."
"You can count me in." Finn's voice broke through the tense atmosphere in the room. "Me too." Poe looked over at Rey and turned back to the room. "If any of you have an objection to the current plan now is the time." A chorus of voices broke through and he grabbed his temple in frustration. "Why did I think this would be easy." He muttered to Rey before beginning to address the closest speaker.
Authors Note: Enjoy! This story may be a little touch and go with uploads for a little bit, just a lot on my plate right now. I appreciate the kind words and follows from you all. :)