Chapter Nine – Rey

The coldness of the tile floor pressing into her cheek roused Rey into consciousness. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment before blinking them open. White floor stretched out to meet a white wall. She groaned as she turned her head. The steady beeping of some kind of equipment sounded in her ears. Climbing up slowly, she made it to her feet.

A man with brown hair and wearing a brown jacket sat on a stool besides a hospital bed. He held the hand of the patient lying on the bed in his own hands.

"Han?" Rey ventured.

The man didn't acknowledge her. Rey slowly walked over. He had his eyes closed, his face pained.

"Han?" Rey tried again.

Still no response.

She put her hand on his shoulder and almost fell back to the floor when she passed right through him. She jumped back, shocked.

Still he didn't acknowledge her.

Realization began to dawn on her. She looked at the hospital bed and her stomach dropped seeing Ben lying unconscious on it. The beeping came from machines hooked up to him. A line of fluid dripped into his arm from a bag hung above him. He looked young, not as young as when she'd known him as a child, but not the man he would become. Somewhere in between.

This had to be one of his memories. As he delved into her mind, apparently she'd been pulled into his mind. She didn't know what was going on here, but she didn't like it.

The door behind her opened and Rey startled to see Luke, Leia and a young girl of about eight enter the room. She presumed the girl to be Mirabella, especially since she argued with Leia as they came in.

"But I want to go with you. I wanna help Ben too!" Mirabella pouted as she clutched Leia's hand.

Leia sighed and got down on one knee. Her hands found the girl's shoulders. "I know you want to help your brother, but the best way you can help is to stay here." She glanced at Han, who was still holding Ben's hand but watching them. "I really need you here to take care of Daddy. You're going to have to make sure he eats and sleeps and bathes!"

"I'll get super stinky if you're not here, little princess." Han lifted his arm and sniffed at his armpit. "Phew!"

Mirabella rolled her eyes. "Yeah, you are pretty useless without Mom around."

"Hey!" Han cried resentful, but had a smile on his face before he got up and gathered the girl in his arms. He lifted her up, hugging her fiercely. Then he set her down and drew Leia into a hug. He whispered in her ear, "I love you. Kill that bastard who's hurting our son."

Leia nodded into his shoulder. Tears shown in her eyes. She squeezed him then let go, hugging her daughter.

Han gripped Luke's hand in his. "Thank you."

"I promised I would protect him. To see him savagely attacked by the dark side pains me so." Luke squeezed Han's shoulder. "We will kill that bastard."

Han nodded.

Luke put his arm around his sister and guided her out. She glanced back over her shoulder at her family and those tears in her eyes escaped down her cheeks.

Han pulled up another stool from the corner to put next to his for Mirabella. Then he resumed his vigil, taking Ben's hand again.

Rey had to take a deep breath. She'd been mesmerized by this scene of Ben's family rallying around him. Her heart broke knowing he truly had not escaped unscathed from the dark side. She knew who the bastard was they planned on killing.

The tiniest sound of distress slipped from Ben's lips.

Rey's eyes flew to his face. His brow creased very slightly. She instinctively reached to smooth away his pain. Even as her hand passed through him, she felt herself being further sucked into this memory, right into Ben's head.

The image in front of her when she opened her eyes confused her. A large, bright screen reminding her of a holovid practically blinded her in the otherwise dark surroundings. She blinked and once her eyes adjusted, she saw Han on the screen, sitting on that same stool while holding Ben's hand. Mirabella wandered around the room, touching panels and examining the machines. Then she stepped out of the screen. Rey realized it was Ben's perspective from on the bed of the hospital room.

The cracking of a whip followed by a groan sounded behind her. Rey spun around, crying out to see Ben there, trapped within his mind. Not just trapped, but tortured. He hung with his arms high above his head. Thick rope wrapped around his wrists, rubbing nasty marks into his skin, and disappearing into the blackness above. He wore no shirt or shoes, just a tattered pair of brown pants. His left eye was swollen shut, but he also had his good right eye closed. A wicked cut split open his lower lip. Blood ran down from a stab wound in his shoulder. His feet looked purple with abrasion as they scrapped along the floor, no longer able to support his weight.

The whip cracked again. Ben gasped as it slashed across his back, the cut on his lip dripping more blood.

Snoke stood behind Ben. His deformed mouth twisted in a wicked grin as he drew back to whip Ben again.

Rey's arm immediately flew up, attempting to shove him away from Ben using the Force. "Get away from him!" Nothing happened. This was just a memory, nothing she could influence. She cried out again as the whip flayed Ben once more.

"You think your family can find me? Even if they do, I'm going to kill them. I'll split your mother down the middle and cut off your uncle's head!

"Come to me, Kylo. Come to the dark side and all of this will stop. You'll have power beyond your imagination. Your family will be protected. Only you can save them. And, as a Sith, you'll experience any pleasure you desire, something the Jedi deny you."

Snoke rose the whip again, but then dropped it. His eyes squeezed tight in agony as his hands slammed down over his ears. "That noise!" he shrieked.

The sweetest voice singing a lovely lullaby drifted into the darkness. Rey turned back to the screen, Ben's outside view of the world. Mirabella had moved her stool to the other side of Ben's bed and held his other hand. She sang to her crippled brother,

Darkness fall, a favorite blanket that surrounds us all,
A quiet ending to a busy day,
Of noise and troubles we have to put away to sleep,
You and I
You in your bedroom, me up in the sky,
As close as dreaming, we are holding hands,
We hug so tightly as you lay down, down to sleep,
To sleep
Dream your dreams, unspoken magic may be what it seems...

("Space Lullaby" by Chris Hadfield)

In the midst of this horrific scene, Rey smiled as that melodious voice soothed her. Rey looked back at Ben. He still kept his eyes closed, but his expression of pain and despair melted away. Rey realized with a start that the girl was infusing a Force suggestion of calm happiness into her voice! She wondered if Mirabella was aware of her power. No wonder Ben's sister went on to become a famous singer who could sell out arenas! Who wouldn't want to feel this way?

Apparently, not Snoke! He shrieked again in agony. "If you don't come to me, Kylo, I'm going to shove a lightsaber down her pretty little throat!"

With that, Snoke disappeared.

Mirabella finished her song, releasing Rey from the spell.

Ben's head slumped against his suspended arm.

Rey cried for him, wanting to touch him. Wanting to tell him he would get through this.

"Ben." A feminine voice called his name. Not Mirabella. A different voice.

Ben's right eye opened, his head straightening. "Rey," he croaked out in a voice so desperate and longing.

Rey gasped. Could he see her? She reached out for him, then movement caught her eye. She froze as a woman materialized out of the darkness.

It was herself!

Rey's mouth gaped open as she observed this version of herself. She wasn't sure if she'd actually ever looked so beautiful. She wore a white dress, which shimmered in the darkness like a beacon of light. It hugged her curves then flowed out around her legs. Her thick, brown hair cascaded down her back and around her shoulders. No scars marred her bare arms. Her red lips parted as she stopped in front of him. "Ben."

"Rey," he said again, his tone now worshipful.

She ran her fingers over his face in a gentle caress. "Fight it, Ben. Don't ever stop fighting it. Don't let it take you!"

Rey realized this beautiful version of herself spoke the same words that she'd said to nine-year-old Ben right before she'd been pulled back to the future.

"I'm trying," he replied. "It hurts so much."

Beautiful Rey cupped both his cheeks with her hands. "You are so strong." Then she kissed him full on the mouth.

Ben's body shuddered.

A blush crept up Rey's face as she watched their intimacy.

Then she felt the same pulling as when her mind was sucked into Ben's memory. Her consciousness rushed out of him, back into her own body. She woke up back in Ben's quarters, staring up at the ceiling. Somehow, she'd ended up on the floor. She shifted then yelped when she realized she was lying on top of Ben. Untangling her hand from his, she shifted off him.

He remained unconscious, bur she could see him frowning and his body twitching. Her heart went out to him. It had been difficult to see his memory. She couldn't imagine how hard it would be for him to see himself as the enemy in most of her story.

She crawled around him, then sat down and pulled his head into her lap. She ran her fingers across his face, mimicking the caresses of her beautiful self.

Ben stilled, his face relaxing. Slowly, he opened his eyes and looked up at her.

A/N: Thank you so much for reading! I adore your comments.

The lullaby lyrics are by Chris Hadfield. I tried to write my own, but when I found one called "Space Lullaby", I couldn't not use it. Besides, it's a good likelihood that 8-year-old Mirabella would sing a familiar song to Ben, not something she came up with. Does that make sense?