A.N: Hey guys!

Thank you so much for the Reylo love! Thank you for the reviews they are really motivating me. I hope you will enjoy chapter 2.

Steffy2106

Chapter 2:

"The First Order destroyed one of the medical speeders."

Rey saw Poe tense ever so slightly before he turned from the Galaxy map to concentrate on the young pilot.

"You said one… Where is the other one?"

The young man shuffled on his feet uncomfortably under the scrutinising eyes of the highest in the chain of command. "It landed an hour ago unscathed, the four doctors are already at work."

Poe nodded rubbing his stubble. "Maybe start with that next time, we need all the positive we can get." He jested but Rey didn't miss the earnest need of good news. Resistance was built on hope and they needed hope now more than ever.

Rey quickly looked toward Leia Organa's empty seat – A seat that Poe refused to use even when the General gave it to him before leaving.

Rey felt pain when recalling Leia's departure. She had been the beacon of hope for so many people and now, they were alone, her and Poe in charge of a barely standing resistance. Luke's death had affected Leia on a physiological level. She has started to weaken since that day on Crait, the injuries from the explosion coming back slowly. They had tried to look through the Jedi books but most of them were hard to understand. The only thing that could possibly explain it was the break of both the force bond Leia and Luke shared and their twin connection. Luke most likely helped her get back to the ship when the control deck had exploded using the power of the twin bond, allowing her to use his strength. This is mostly conjecture based on what could be understood from the remaining Jedi books, hopefully one day, we will know the truth for sure.

"You two are the legacy." She had murmured with a tired smile as they placed her into the incubator pod which should put her into a deep sleep, in the hope that she would regenerate. She had squeezed Poe's hand. "I'm leaving you in charge Commander Dameron I have faith in you. I know you have now learnt from your mistakes." She concentrated on Rey. "Commander Dameron could you please leave us for a minute?" She had asked gesturing Rey forward.

Once Poe left, Leia rested her warm soft hand on Rey's cheek. It was such a motherly gesture, so tender and full of love, she choked on the lump forming in her throat. She was about to lose Leia, the mother figure she had always craved, and she was fading away. The wave of despair that engulfed her at that moment was so powerful she could almost feel it, as if the link with Kylo had reopened and he was here with her. It had lasted mere seconds, but enough to remind her that it had all been real.

"I saw him." Rey whispered, looked down somehow feeling guilty for not revealing the whole truth, the bond. She had tried to convince herself that she didn't say anything because it had been one of Snoke's trick, just a temporary link between them but they were still force-bond after his death.

"I know you have and I'm sorry." Leia shook her head, her face tight with pain and sorrow. "Accepting the loss of my son took longer than it should have but I can't keep denying it anymore."

Rey shook her head, grabbing the soft hand resting on her cheek. "No, I'm not talking about Kylo. Ben, I saw Ben." She admitted somehow relieved to say that to someone. "It's there," she tapped her fingers against her chest, where her heart was. "It's almost hidden but there anyways. He…he saved me and he didn't shoot when you were in the ship he – he couldn't." She didn't add that he had been so angered at the fact that his mother remained a weakness.

Leia studied Rey for a few seconds and she would have loved to know what Leia was thinking.

"A force bond." Leia whispered, incredulity in her eyes. "This, this is what I was predicted – you are the light who will bring him back. Rey, you have to be careful my girl. Master Ell had said that 'A bond between two living beings is not something easily broken. It not a choice… it is like breaking a feeling. Like turning away from the Force. To break a bond, your feelings would have to change, or one of you would have to die—but even then, the bond wouldn't go away, it would simply… it would simply be empty, a wound.'" She stroked Rey's cheek. "You are both bound to save each other it is a self-preservation. Ben – be his anchor."

Rey shook her head, willing the painful memory away.

Rey? She frowned at the voice of Ben in the back of her mind. Her memories were really starting to mess with her head.

She looked down at the map before her as Poe was going over some new strategy to recruit more sympathisers.

She studied the vessels, both Resistance and First Order trying to concentrate on what was left to do. The red symbols were so much more present than the blue. No matter Poe words, The Resistance needed more than hope- it needed a miracle.

In the two months since they lost the battle on Crait and Leia assumed a comatose state, even with Maz help the Resistance army and weapons were building slowly…too slowly.

Poe assigned missions down the chain of command and dismissed the meeting.

Rey stood to go see Finn but Poe stopped her grabbing her hand. "Can I have a word?"

Rey disengaged her hand and looked around, noticing they were the two only remaining in the room. She concentrated on Poe who sat heavily, running his hands down his face.

Rey noticed the dark circles under his eyes. "How long it has been since you slept?" She sat across from him.

"What month is it?" He forced a smile.

She sighed running her finger down the map. "How bad is the situation?"

Poe looked at her scratching his stubble once more as he was doing every time he was undecisive. He took a deep breath. "Quite bad – Since the Republic has been destroyed the financing is low – We can barely rebuild a third of our fleet, as for sympathisers," He shook his head. "the ones joining us are sparse and most of them need extensive training."

"Can I help?" Rey asked still trying to figure out why Poe asked her to stay behind.

"You're already helping. You are the great Jedi who defeated Snoke and left the First Order in shambles, you are the only reason we still get help. Now would be such a perfect time to strike." Poe slammed his fist on the table in frustration.

Rey felt a surge of shame at the untruths in his statement. She didn't know why she never managed to tell anyone about her link to Kylo Ren or who he truly was, Ben Solo. She had never admitted that she had not been the one to kill Snoke even if she knew that admitting it would probably cause Kylo Ren's demise. How could she admit and explain that they had fought side by side in perfect synchronicity? How could she explain that they had protected and saved each other when she was pretty sure that neither of them knew why they did it? It was too late to come clean now, anything she would say would sound like a lie.

"I will go see Maz Kanata, ask her to arrange meetings with rich members of the Galaxy. I will convince them to fund us. I can…." I can lie and make them believe I am just as good as they think I am.

Poe shook his head. "It is too dangerous. The First Order is looking for us everywhere – The bounty on your head is astronomical. There are many First Order sympathisers on Takodana, we can't lose you Rey, that would be the final nail in the Resistance coffin."

Rey brushed her hand on the map. "Look at the map Poe – I am not an expert but there is easily twenty First Order Ships for one of ours – how many are we now? 100? 150? They are in the thousands. I want to hope but Poe, that final nail is already in place…It only depends on how fast we can remove it before it is hammered home."

Poe looked down at the map, running his hands over his face. "Okay…but you're not going alone. I'll give you a team and you go for two days maximum, not negotiable."

Rey nodded, not sure that two days would be enough, but she was happy to be able to do something, anything to ease the pain and guilt. The pain to have lost almost everything that mattered to her and the guilt of her lies, of her attachment to….to a man that might have been just a figment of her imagination, a trick. She feared that there was now a weakness in her, a weakness that neither the resistance or herself could afford.

Ben please… She begged mentally in a feeble attempt to make her vision for the future a reality.