The Foundling

Disclaimer; all characters and copyright belong to their respective owners.

A/N-thank you to everyone who kindly reviewed this story!

Chapter Eight-United

"Ben, I have to go back." Rey's heart twisted and sunk with nerves. She was deeply regretting her hasty decision to leave with Ben. She couldn't reconcile herself with the devastated look in Leia's eyes as she went against her express wishes to go with Poe.

"You can't change your mind now." Ben said irritably as he continued with his flight checks. It was cramped in Grimtaash's cockpit. It wasn't really designed for two people. Which just made it all the more awkward as Rey and Ben faced off with one another. "You need to stop feeling guilty, Rey. She never does."

Rey glared at him as she elbowed him in the side viciously, making Ben yelp. "I know you're angry with her, but this has devastated her. You know this is probably the end of her political career."

"You're being overdramatic." Ben retorted as he rubbed his stinging side. "She'll talk her way out of it. She's good at that." He tagged on at the end.

"Do you have any empathy at all?" Rey said reproachfully. "You can be so selfish."

"If that's what you really think, then go back to her!" Ben snapped at Rey. "Go on! Get off my ship!"

Rey felt numb as tears gathered behind her eyes. She was damned if she was going to let him see how much he had upset her. With as much dignity as she could muster, Rey squeezed past his long body and went to gather her things. The flame of Ben's anger had died as soon as the harsh words had left his mouth. He was soon filled with regret. It wasn't long before he was chasing after Rey and apologising.

"I didn't mean it." He said, reaching out to take the heavy bag she had slung over her thin shoulder.

Rey regarded him wearily. She was tired of his temperamental outbursts. Being around him could be exhausting. She understood his pain on some level, she knew how rejected he felt, not just by his parents, but by people in general. Even with Luke and the other Jedi apprentices, he had managed to isolate himself. She didn't believe that none of the others had tried to befriend him. They couldn't all be like that Voe girl. She had met Tai and Hennix on a few occasions and they always spoke kindly of Ben, it seemed it was Ben's own choice to remain aloof.

"You should go back to Luke. I'm going to go with Leia to the Senate. She needs my support even though she won't admit it. She's going to face some tough questioning." Rey explained.

Ben felt the emptiness building up inside him as Rey proceeded to push him away. He had felt so elated when she had sided with him against Leia, but now in a short space of time she was turning her back on him just like everyone else. She sounded just like his mother when she told him to go back to Luke as if he was some wayward child and not a fully grown adult with a mind of his own.

"You think Mom can't look after herself?" He responded sarcastically. "She'll have Dad with her, so- "

"You have no idea, do you?" Rey fired back at him. "Leia is not calling Han. She said that because she didn't want us to worry. They broke up for good months ago, they've tried to reconcile a few times, but it always ends up in a bitter war of words."

Ben gaped at her. "No one told me. I can't believe this. Why didn't you tell me?" He demanded.

"It wasn't my place." Rey closed her eyes and breathed deeply through her nose to try and calm her shattered nerves. "Leia said she wanted to tell you herself in person. She didn't want you to worry."

"You mean she was afraid I'd kick off." Ben accused. He felt his anger rising again and turned away from Rey so she couldn't see his face. The empty void grew and grew inside him as it hit him again just how estranged he was from his parents. From everybody. He couldn't trust anyone. Not even Rey.

The void inside Ben grew wider. It was dark. A never-ending dark void that consumed everything, so he was left feeling nothing. Empty. Nothing to subside his hollow soul that creeps in the shadows, away from any other human life because its emptiness is so consuming it cannot bare to pretend that everything is okay. Nothing is okay! There was no getting away from it. His nightmares seemed to help fill it, with what he didn't care to elaborate, but he needed it. They reminded him of his childhood, like the emptiness is the monster under the bed. He needed to feel something. He needed something to go to shit, something to be imperfect. Ben thought, sadly, he felt safer when something was wrong. He needed that monster under the bed. He needed it to distract himself, not from everything else but, simply, from himself.

Rey became alarmed as Ben's dark thoughts bled through their force bond. They swirled around her like the air she breathed and she found herself struggling to breathe with the weight of them. She became afraid and immediately raised her mental barriers, desperate to escape the morbidity of his thoughts. She immediately felt the pressure on her lungs lift and she breathed deeply, in an attempt to calm her shattered nerves. "Ben. Oh, Ben." She murmured as she put a gentle hand on his arm and turned him to face her. "You're not alone. I'm here."

Ben's pent up emotions got the better of him as he took her hand, cradling it against his cheek as he closed his eyes in relief. He hadn't lost her.

Uproar swirled around Ben and Rey as they entered the senate together. They saw Leia standing alone and isolated in front of the other senators. The shouts, stamps and whistles grew louder. Angry fists pounded on the desks as Varish yelled above the din. "This is a lie! A filthy, outrageous lie, and one Senator Organa will rise to deny!"

Ben saw Rey's brows dip in an angry frown as she took the lead and began to wind her way through the melee to Leia's side. He followed swiftly after her, his sheer size and intimidating glare enough to grant them a path through the angry crowd.

"I do not come without proof," Ransolm said. "I will now present my evidence for everyone to hear, so that they can all know how close we came to allowing Lord Vader's daughter to rule over us all."

"Who the fuck is he?" Ben whispered urgently to Rey as they drew closer to Leia.

"Ransolm Casterfo." Rey muttered angrily. "He's an asshole."

Ben's eyes narrowed thoughtfully as he saw Ransolm hold up a box-not just any box, a keepsake chest. Every child on Alderaan had one. Parents and grandparents carved the designs, but only the child decided what would be put inside. Placing one of your possessions inside the keepsake chest meant that you had outgrown it but recognized its importance to you. In adulthood you could open the chest, look back, and see how you had chosen to tell your own story.

"That's Leia's." Rey gasped. "How did he get hold of something so personal?"

"You mean he stole it?" Ben demanded, his anger rising to match that of the hysterical crowd.

Nobody was ever supposed to open a keepsake chest without permission, but Ransolm opened this one now. From within he pulled out a music box, one Rey recognized so instantly that the memory pierced her heart like an arrow. Leia had told her it was a precious keepsake from her adopted father, Bail Organa. She had given it to Rey on her sixteenth birthday. Rey watched in horror as Ransolm opened it, and the tune began to play. Mirrorbright shines the moon— and then Bail Organa began to speak. Rey glanced up at Leia and was devastated to see the tears in the older woman's eyes as she listened to the sound of her adopted father's voice. But every word he spoke revealed her deepest secret.

"Ben." Rey gripped his hand in despair as she watched Leia crumble right before her eyes. "The heartless bastards are using Bail's own words against her."

Bail Organa, who had so often spoken out in the Old Republic and Imperial senates, who had possessed the courage to stand against Palpatine when nearly every other planetary leader had bowed to the Emperor's power, uttered his last words to the public from the music box, played on every speaker, to be reproduced by every news source around the galaxy within moments. "Your father has become Darth Vader."

The shouting rose again, even louder this time. Leia was struggling to keep her composure under the onslaught. Ben and Rey pushed their way through the last of the angry melee to reach her. Leia emitted a small gasp when she saw them, her eyes widening in alarm when they landed on her tall, handsome son.

"What are you doing here?" She whispered urgently as she gripped Rey's hands in her own. "I…I didn't want you to have to see any of this."

"We couldn't let you face this alone." Rey whispered back.

Leia's lips quivered with suppressed emotion as she tried to tune out the sound of her father's voice. Bail had recorded this message for his daughter alone to hear. He had given Leia the truth in the only way he could. And the Senate had repaid his service and his love by using it to humiliate his only child. Leia felt a moment of dull gratitude that at least Bail had never known this; he'd never had to face just how terribly his message had been used against her. Still clutching Rey's hands in her own she glanced up at her son, feeling frightened when she saw the anger glowing in his dark eyes.

"Ben, this is why I couldn't tell you. This is why I couldn't tell anyone. Please understand." She pleaded.

Confusion flickered across Ben's face for a minute as he looked down at her from his great height. His mother, who always seemed so strong, so vital, suddenly appeared so fragile, so exposed as her darkest secret was broadcast across the galaxy.

"Do you think I'm angry at you?" He asked quietly.

"Ben, I wouldn't blame you if you were." Leia faltered. "I was trying to protect you…at least I thought I was…but now I think maybe I was trying to protect myself. When I found out the truth that I was Vader's daughter, it shattered me, Ben. I hated Vader so much. What he did to me…." She closed her eyes in distress and couldn't continue.

"Did to you?" Ben echoed her. "Mom." He put his hand on her shoulder as she collapsed against Rey, her breathing becoming ragged. "Don't talk anymore."

"Ben, we need to get her out of here. Every camera is on her right now." Rey whispered to him. "This is being broadcast to the whole galaxy!"

"I'll give them something to broadcast!" Ben seethed as he stormed off through the crowd toward Ransolm Casterfo.

"Rey, you have to stop him!" Leia panicked.

"Ben!" Rey cried as she reluctantly left Leia and hurried after Ben. She had to fight her way through the swarming crowds. They were getting more and more hyped up, the shouting was getting louder, more raucous with each passing second. In the end she was left with little choice but to call upon the Force to help her clear a path. She was subtle about it. No one she used it on really understood why they had suddenly lost their footing and stumbled aside as she passed them.

Finally, Rey broke free only to find Ben towering over Ransolm like an angry storm cloud. He had drawn his saber; the blue plasma blade humming quietly as it remained poised above Ramsolm, who was cowering at his feet.

"How does it feel to be humiliated in front of the entire galaxy?" Ben yelled at Ransolm's quaking figure. "You're a thief and a coward!"

The crowd became muted as they listened with rapt attention as Ben continued to lambast the disgraced senator in front of the gaping crowd. Rey hastened to Ben's side and put a cautious hand on his arm. "I think you've made your point, Ben. We need to leave right now before we get arrested."

Ben swung around to face her, his brown eyes were shining with excitement, the adrenaline pumping through his veins. "They want a fight. We'll give them a fight." He laughed.

"You're actually enjoying this." Rey said incredulously.

Ben gave her a very Han like shrug as he grinned. "Do you still carry the light saber I gave you for your sixteenth?" He asked.

"Always." Rey had never seen Ben like this before. He was buzzing. "We are going to be in so much trouble." She sighed as she pulled out the hidden saber which was attached to the belt of her tunic. In the distance her keen eyes spotted the guards winding their way toward them. Rey took a deep breath to steady her nerves as she stood back to back with Ben and ignited the yellow blade.

But before the guards could reach them someone else did. Leia Organa came to join them, a raised blaster clutched in her right hand. "You are just like your father. You rush in without thinking of the consequences." She berated him, but the small smile on her face belied her harsh words. Leia yanked a small comms device off her belt and yelled into it. "Dameron, we could do with some help here."

"We're on our way." Poe responded immediately.

Leia turned to look at Ben and Rey, a smirk easing the careworn lines on her face. "Are you ready?" She asked them.

Ben grinned at his mother while Rey nodded in agreement. United, they focused on the incoming guards and got ready to defend themselves.

A/N-thank you for reading! Please review.