Part XXXIX

They lifted off safely from the Serenity and Rey felt Ben securely in their bond until she engaged the hyperdrive and they were racing across free space back towards Dantooine. She could feel Poe's smugness through the Force and she held her curiosity at bay for about an hour before his continuous snickering to himself and amused sighed got to her. "What is wrong with you?" She asked with annoyance.

"It's not what's wrong with me…it's what's wrong with Kylo Ren," Poe voice was almost sing-song.

"What the hell is wrong with Kylo Ren?" Rey shot her co-pilot a dumbfounded look.

Poe let out a full belly laugh and was only able to get out simple words through his hysterics, "He likes you!"

Rey scoffs, "He tolerates me at best."

"No," Poe gripped at his sides and was as serious as he could be while wiping tears from his eyes, "he like, likes you."

"Bantha shit," Rey keeps her expression defensive, but internally she was sending off alarm bells. But Poe kept laughing at her apparent disgusted denial of such accusations. "We are never to speak of this again," she gave him a pointed stare. "Understood?"

"Sure Rey…anything you say Rey…I'll show you the Force Rey…"

Poe made kissy faces at her and she was half tempted to show him some Force and knock him out with it. With one more cutting gaze, he turned back to look out of the windscreen and continued to chuckle to himself for the remainder of their trip.

They decided to not reveal the prospect of a treaty to the Resistance fighter until they had the chance to look at the final document. If the plan was compromised, Poe still wanted some semblance of an army to defend his beliefs with.

True to his word, the Emperor sent over a draft of the treaty via an encoded message to Poe's personal comm codes that had been provided during their first meeting above Akuria. It was a daunting fifteen pages long and it took them almost an entire week to comb over every clause, taking notes and making amendment.

Finally, when they reached the last page, Poe threw down his data pad with an exhausted sigh, "Well at least through all of this we will finally get to see the unfortunate lady who is saddled with Kylo Ren for the rest of her Maker forsaken life."

"What do you mean?" Rey asked while smearing a pickled water-based vegetable with a sweet nut butter.

Poe pulled a face at his companion's choice of food combinations, but figured that compared to starvation, anything could be considered a delicacy. "Two people from each side are required to sign the treaty." He paused hoping she would understand but when she just took another bit of concoction that made his stomach roll, Poe continued, "Myself and Connix will sign for the Resistance and Ren and his Empress will sign for the New Order. That has to mean that she will be there in person."

Rey went pale, not knowing that she would have to out herself so soon and so publicly. She hoped to let her friends warm to the idea of her new position and who she would share that position with. But apparently her husband had other plans in mind and as a new wave of anxiety rolled through her, so did the nausea and she crudely wretched the contents of her stomach into a near by trash can.

"I told you not to eat that garbage," Poe said in empathic disgust. "All that sugar will rot your gut."

Fearing she had caught a bug or as Poe had suggested, purely upset her stomach with her new found hankerings for uncommon food combinations, Rey locked herself away in her room for two days, not wanting to chance getting anyone else sick, especially not Rose in her current condition.

With more sensible foods and with a lot of rest, Rey was feeling more like herself by the end of day two, and even though Ben had doted on her though the bond, she has not felt up to confronting him about her need to sign the treaty as Empress and not just Rey, reasonable Light-sider who kept Kylo Ren from damning the entire galaxy.

The Force went back to being fickle with their bond connections as the date of the treaty signing approached. Rey kept busy with her duties in the hangar and also continued to train and master her saber forms. As the days went on she felt a renewed sense of power brewing within her, untapped until now, and she was thankful for it with what was sure to be a difficult transition from rebel scum to crowns regent of the galaxy.

Three days before the signing, day five hundred and twenty-seven, Rey and Rose were back on the untraceable shuttle on their way to Orinda for Rose's thirteen week check up and on the short flight, they discussed some of the places that Rose wanted to see after the treaty was finalized.

Rey had unceremoniously been dropping hints about Coruscant and Naboo as prospects for work and settling their rapidly growing family, and Rose was certainly growing. Her stomach seemed to have popped over night, no longer looking like she had indulged in a large meal and more like she was truly carrying a little life within her.

There was so much change on the horizon and Rey buzzed with excitement as they came to land in the same yard on Orinda with the same port master who took her credits with a subtle bow. Unlike last time though, there wasn't any guards or Knights in sight and Rey was almost glad for it, because she need to confirm her suspicions without being watched at every turn, and then Ben would be the first she would tell any news to.

They made the short walk to the clinic and got Rose checked in. Rey reflected back on the past few weeks when she started to feel like something was different within her. Her menstrual cycle were never regular due to being kept at near starvation for so many of her developmental years, so it wasn't uncommon for her to go a few months without a bleed, but this time was not like the rest, something was off, but in the most promising and glorious way.

So she had a plan, she would find out during this trip if she was truly carrying Ben's child…their child, and then tell him the happy news after they once and for all brought peace to the galaxy. She just hoped that she could keep it a secret within their bond long enough to surprise him in person.

The consideration of not being pregnant flowed through her mind, and Rey found herself utterly devastated by the thought. So she placed her open palm to her lower abdomen and reached out with the Force. The feeling of…newness…was still there, pulsing with Light and even though she kept thinking that she only felt him because of the kyber that she wore around her neck, Rey could unmistakably feel Ben there too.

Rey went back to the exam room with Rose and her dear friend got a normal report and another small print out with even more detail of the little nugget that would undoubtedly be adorable considering who her parents were.

When Rose was redressed and asking if Rey was ready to head out, she did something that she would defiantly need to ask forgiveness for later. Rey Jedi mind tricked Rose into going back out into the lobby and waiting with no questions asked.

Once she was alone in the room, Rey bit at her lip and was pulled from her inner thoughts when the nurse came back around, "Oh! You're still in here. Is your friend alright?"

Using the Force again, Rey pulled the now wide eyes nurse into the room before closing and locking the door. "Calm down," Rey suggested. "I won't hurt you. I just need your discretion."

The nurse, who's name tag read 'Jini' visibly relaxed and nodded, "Of course."

Rey took in a deep breath, "I think that I'm pregnant and I need you to check for me."

"I'll go get the doctor," Jini offered in a chipper tone.

"No!" Rey panicked, the less people who knew the better. "I want you to check. Just you."

Jini nodded again and walked to a cluster of cabinets pulling out a small diagnostic component much like the one that they had on the base and Rey kicked herself for not thinking about testing her hormone levels herself. But she offered her finger all the same and the thirty seconds that it took the machine to analyze her sample was agonizing.

Rey held her breath the entire time and almost felt faint, perhaps from the lack of oxygen, or perhaps from the smile and offer of congratulations from Jini as the analyze came back positive.

"You should sit down, you look pale," Jini stated and helped Rey to a nearby chair.

Taking in some deep, calming breaths as the nurse instructed, Rey started to get her wits about her again and looked up at the classically beautiful woman with shortly cropped red hair who had just confirmed what Rey had been feeling for weeks now, "Can I get a picture? Like the one, my friend got…to show the father?"

Jini smiled and reached back before handing Rey a gown, asking her to strip then get situated on the exam table. "Do you have any idea how far along you are?"

Rey thought back, knowing that the last time they had sex, in person or through the bond had been on the Serenity, she had not been kidding when calling the Force fickle. Then she tried to remember the last time she took the pills that Ben had given her on Mygeeto and truthfully the last time she remembered having them was on Coruscant after their wedding and she suspected that they were in the top drawer of her vanity.

"Six weeks…give or take," Rey estimated.

With a slightly distressed expression, Jini went over to a machine and instead of picking up the flat wand that she used on Rose, the nurse held one that was quite… phallic. "If you are only six weeks along we will need go in vaginally to try and get a picture of the baby."

Nodding, Rey scooted her bottom down on the exam table like she had seen Rose do twice now and with a steadying breath, let her knees fall apart. "This will be cold," Jini warned and Rey grimaced at the feeling of being penetrated by the device. It's girth had nothing on the size of her husband, but Ben was diligent when preparing her for him and she was usually stretched and slick by the time he entered her.

Jini's voice was droning on and Rey tired to focus as the display screen flickered with grainy black and white blobs that she desperately tried to identify as her baby…that was until she heard the most amazing sound of her entire life and before she could completely comprehend what it was, tears were streaming down her cheeks.

Steady and strong, at the tempo of a hummingbird's wings, Rey heard her child's Light and pure heart beat for the first time and the emotion that flowed through her could only be compared to the moment that she knew loved Ben with every midi-chlorian in her being. But somehow it went deeper than that, she knew that there wasn't anything she wouldn't forsake for this child. She would protect this new life with every ounce of her being and reaching out with the Force, she already knew it's signature, already felt it's Light, and she loved her child unconditionally from this very moment.

Rey only came out of her daze when the probe was pulled from her and Jini told her that she could sit up and get dressed while she finished taking the measurements and printing the sonogram pictures.

The print out only showed a small white bean shaped blob inside of a dark, larger bean shaped void which she was told is her womb. Rey touched the smaller bean, "This is my baby?"

Jini nodded. "We usually don't start following expecting mother until about eight weeks, but you should go ahead and schedule yourself an appointment for four weeks from now, just to see how you are progressing and confirm your due date, but from my measurement, you are actually just shy of six weeks."

"My wedding…" Rey mused and almost had to laugh to herself that both Rose and herself would get knocked up on their wedding nights.

"Well again, congratulations to you and your husband. Perhaps he can come in with you on your next appointment." Jini offered as she started to wipe down the medical equipment.

Rey doubted that she would ever step foot back in this clinic again, knowing that as soon as she told Ben, he would task a whole team of doctors and midwives to be at her beck and call. So Rey gave the friendly and helpful nurse a sad smile as she reached out and placed her fore and middle fingers against the woman's temple, "You won't remember helping me today. You will not remember preforming any of the tests or any of their results."

Jini repeated the simple phrases and then smiled kindly and walked out of the room as if she didn't even see Rey standing there. Moving quickly, Rey tucked the pictures into her pocket and went to collect Rose from the waiting room.

On the journey home, Rey made an effort to keep the bond at bay, perhaps disguising her excitement about the baby with the anticipatory anxiety of the treaty signing. She also started to think about how she would tell him and she settled on tucking the picture of their little bean into the pages of another Jedi text, perhaps in the section that spoke of denying one self of attachments as a jeer at those who thought that these new lives were not worth consideration in the Force.

Rey came back into focus when the alarm sounded that they would soon be exiting hyperspace and she was hit with a wave of pain that practically left her breathless.

"What's wrong?" Rose asked from the co-pilot's seat as she watched her friend grip at her chest and gasp for breath.

"I don't know," Rey answered honestly, reaching into the kyber of her engagement ring before reaching out into the Force and was relieved to feel Ben's signature still shining strong across the galaxy as he was undoubtedly engaged in last minute council meetings before readying to set out from the Core to their rendezvous point over Akuria.

But when the shuttle stuttered into real space, both Rey and Rose cursed and Rey immediately took over manual controls. The utter chaos outside their windscreen was nothing that Rey could fathom. A Resurgent-class Star Destroyer perched just outside of orbit and TIE swarmed down to the surface, it seemed that legions of them blotted out the green of the vast forests below.

"What is happening?" Rose was screaming and sobbing at the same time, attempting to process how what they were seeing could be reality.

Thanking the Maker that her shuttle was undetectable and would not show up as a rebel ship on any of the Destroyer's scanning systems, Rey worked her way down to the surface, swinging wide to avoid the main fleets of TIEs. When the base came in to view, Rey knew what the pain was that settled deep in her chest…death…mass and seemingly unavoidable death.

Bodies of her fellow Resistance fighters littered the tarmac, X-wings sat untouched but ablaze as if the attack was such a surprise that not a one was able to get off the ground in defense. "How can this…" Rey stammered, still trying to wrap her mind around how this was possible.

Her landing was rough and she was out of her harness and racing for the hull door before the engines could finish winding down. "Rey!" Rose called out desperately, not knowing what to do.

"Stay behind cover or make sure to stay behind me."

Rose took out her blaster and they traversed through the forest around the base, ducking behind trees and larger rocks when possible. Rey had her saber in her hand, but had yet to ignite the twin azure blades, not wanting to give away their position. Running purely on adrenaline, Rey went into fighter mode, ready to rescue as many people from the base as she could. She couldn't pause to try and comprehend how this had happened, she just needed to survive now and get answers to questions later.

There were troopers on the ground, their white armor in stark contrast of the lush green of the forest and the plumbs of choking black smoke that seemed to emitted from every corner of the base. When a small grouping of troopers approached their position, Rey again paused, thinking who was behind the masks. Was it someone Finn knew? Would someone mourn them like Arlan had her old roommate who died in Ben's assassination attempt?

But as she heard them call out their position, she knew that if it was going to be her life, the lives of Rose and their unborn babies, or the five troopers who were unfortunate enough to stumble upon them, the trooper were undoubtedly going to meet their Maker that day.

With moves that were almost dance-like, Rey separated her sabers, ignited them with echoing pops and hisses, and cut the troopers down with forms a second-year padawan would learn. "We need to move," Rey called back to Rose.

As they ran, Rey's blades cut though white armor and Rose's blaster left precision char marks over chest plates. They were quite a formidable pair as they advanced on one of the side entrances of the base but were thrown back right when they came to the door when the ground shook around them.

Looking up, Rey saw the Destroyer hanging high above the atmosphere and was beyond belief that they would fire ion cannons at that range…they seemed to not care about their ground forces either, just the utter and complete destruction of the Resistance base. "We need to move," Rey yelled again over their ringing ears and she used the help of the Force to wretch the door from its hinges.

Once inside the base, the halls were clouded with dust and smoke, lights flickered over head and alarms sounded. "Go to your room, gather anything you will need, and see if Finn is there." Rey instructed while coughing through the sharp air. "I will see if anyone is in the command center. Meet me in the hangar in ten minutes."

Rey didn't think Rose was in no condition to be running all over the base, but she watched her feisty friend nod with large but determined eyes and stalk off into the dark halls, throwing blaster fire around each corner to clear her path. She had no doubts that Rose could handler herself, as before being coming pregnant, Rose would at times join Rey in hand to hand combat training.

So Rey took a calming breath and raced down the opposite hall. The command center was not far from this sections of the base and her heart almost skipped a beat of hope when she saw that the room was one the only ones on the hall that didn't have smoke billowing out of it. But her fears were spiked again when she stumbled to a stop just over the threshold when seeing six troopers in the room, attempting to gather intel from the computers.

"Halt!" One yelled out through his helmet and held up his DLT-19 heavy blaster rifle.

Rey froze but her saber hilt was still in her grasp and her other hand was ready to wield the Force if needed. "What is going on here? Where is the General?"

While the first trooper held her under gunpoint, another approached, "It's the Jedi girl. The Supreme Leader's order were to capture her."

Rey's cool exterior crumbled trying to process the trooper's words. They knew who she was, were targeting her, have orders to capture her. Next the echo of Supreme Leader rattled around in her mind before she looked up at the trooper again and raised her chin, "I am your Empress. You will cease this attack at once and tell me who gave these orders!"

As if none of the soldiers in the room heard a word she said, the trooper who keep his blaster on her the entire time clicked something on the rifle and the whine of a charge sounded, "The Supreme Leader gave me other orders."

It all happened so quickly that Rey swore if she didn't have her Jedi reflexes, she would surely have fallen in that dank command room. But just as Ben tough her, she felt the energy of the blaster bolt and was able to stop it in mid-air while she ignited one of her blades and sent a jabbing stab into the nearest trooper's chest.

Chaos rang out after that as Rey ducked, dodged, and froze blaster bolts and she advanced through the room, singeing off limbs, sending her blade through chests and necks until the trooper was nothing but heaps of polysteel armor and smoking meat hunks. Blood splattered across her face and matted her hair.

This was all a trap, she screamed to herself. All those time that Ben refused to agree to help Finn find a place in government, or agree upon a punishment for Poe's war crimes, it was because he never expected them to live to see those situations come to be. How could she have been so stupid?

Running from the command center, she cut down troopers all the way to her quarters, kicking the door in and grabbing for her larger travel bag that she used when going off-world for more than a few days.

She grabbed for the Jedi texts first, then started pulling clothes from her drawers but faltered when she came to the top drawer and her fingers bushed the box of Ben. By the time she reached her room, fat tears were rolling down her face, not wanting to believe the he could have any part of this. She thought that he had left the title Supreme Leader behind, she thought that he loved her too much to do this…he had promised!

Pulling open the lid to the box, Rey wanted to light the contenders on fire, all of his pretty words, gifts, sentiments, were all to lull her into complacency. He had asked her to rule with him back on the Supremacy and she had denied him, what a dark and crafty bastard he was to orchestrate a year-long plan to get exactly what he wanted.

She has fallen for him, his pretty eyes and attentive lips, given herself to him willingly, allowed him to know where the Resistance was based without warning Poe or the others of the dangers because she thought there were none. She had married him, she knew for a fact that their bond was solidified in the Force and by law. She was his, body and soul, and even with her troubled upbringing on Jakku, she had never felt more used…owned, than she did now.

No, Rey thought to herself, in death he would not have control over her, in death he could not hurt her like she hurt this moment, could not break any more promises. The troopers had been ordered to capture and kill, he wanted her dead and Rey almost wanted to fall into the black hole as it felt like her heart was being ripped out of her chest.

She rested her head against the cool durasteel wall of her quarters and whispered, "Fuck the Force…"

As she cursed the Force, something that she never thought she would have occasion to do, something that she would have been mortified to utter just months ago…She had trusted the Force, had put her unbridled faith in her visions and the pull towards Ben…towards Kylo Ren, as she fell hard and fast into his trap.

"Fuck the Force and fuck Ben Solo," Rey muttered through raw lips as she wished the Cosmic power that raged around her would just swallower her into the abyss, bring her into the beyond with all the other's who Kylo Ren had betrayed and ended.

But then she felt the pulse of Light from within her and she rested her hand on her lower abdomen. She had a child to think of now, his child, a conniving creature's child, but she would make sure that her baby always knew her Light and would never be touched by its father's Darkness.

As her heart was breaking and she continued to feel her friends pass into the Force as slow and agonizing deaths took them, Rey blinked through her tears, let out a heaving cry and then took the box and shoved it into the top of her bag before pulling the draw string close and throwing the straps over her shoulder.

Ten more troopers fell on her way to the hangar and she seemed to apologize to the Force with each life that she took, but she had to protect herself, her child, her friends…if any of them were still alive.

She rounded the last corner before coming to the open hangar when she heard Rose's shrill scream echo off the cavernous space. Without hesitation, Rey raced in the direction of her friend's cries and slid to a stop as if she had been punched in the gut.

Rey could see Rose's back as she knelt on the hard tarmac, her body rocking in an almost self-soothing manner, but what made Rey halt in her advance, was the limp body that Rose was cradling in her lap. Rey would know that jacket anywhere, the worn brown leather of Poe's old fighter jacket that Finn had lovingly stitched back together after Kylo Ren cut it through on Starkiller.

Kylo Ren, Rey seethed as she fell next to her friend searching for any signs of life in Finn's ashen face, but the blaster burns to his chest and abdomen left no question of his survival. "He's gone," Rey offers through a sob as she rests her head on Rose's shoulder.

Allowing her self a moment to fall apart, Rey cried for her first friend, thinking back to how they were both thrown into this fight and she wondered for just a moment if she had gone with him back when he offered her an escape on Takodana, what their life would have looked like. Would they have found a quiet world to settle on, maybe grow to love each other as more than friends, marry, and be expecting their first child?

Jakku and Takodana seem so long ago, another life that now she yearns for.

Looking up from her sorrow, Rey finally takes in the scene of the hangar and she feels that if she continues to cry this hard that she will die of dehydration. Bodies lay broken and burned by blasters and ion cannons. Not one X-wing is left serviceable as they lick with flames and smell heavy of jet fuel.

Then she sees it, the tuft of black hair, the dark leather jacket with the red and gold Rebel symbol sewn to the left shoulder…Poe. Her legs somehow moved of their own accord as she felt as if she had no control over her fatigued limbs, but she ran to him and slid to her knees next to him. "Poe!" She called as she checked over his body for injury and tapped at his cheeks.

She could feel the faintest life force still flickering in him and she laugh-sobbed when his eyes cracked open and looked up at her, "Poe! What the hell happened?"

"We were betrayed," his voice was hoarse and his breath bubbled with each inhale as his lungs filled with blood. "We had no chance…"

As his eyes drifted closed again, Rey looked over his paling face frantically, grabbing at his shoulders and shaking him, "Poe! You have to hang on!"

With one last gurgled breath, Poe's body went limp and Rey draped herself across his chest, screaming, sobbing, cursing. A shrill cry of binary echoed and Rey looked up at a blaster scorched BB-8 as he rolled up to mourn his fallen master.

Just beyond the smoke that shielding Rey and Rose's positions, she heard the troopers call out a retreat order, "They are recharging the ion cannons! There will be nothing left to sift through once they are done! Move out," the modulated voice rang out it's warning.

Rey and BB-8 shared a glance before she dipped down and placed a kiss to Poe's forehead, "You were a better man than I ever realized."

With one final sorrowful gaze, Rey stood and raced towards Rose. "We need to go," she panted. "They are going to blow this place to space dust!"

"We can't leave him!" Rose wailed.

Rey's heart broke more than she thought was even possible. "He's gone, Rose. They are all gone! We have to go. You have your baby to think of now. You have to live on for Finn. We have to live on for all of them," she looked around the hangar as more fires started and more alarms sounded.

Rose's face was blotchy and tear-stained as she kissed her husband's still face, whispering her love and promises to make sure that their child will also know what a brave and amazing man her father was. Rey didn't think that she could sink any deeper into despair, but she was too reminded that her child would never have a father like Finn, kind, loyal, and not willing to commit mass murder time and time again in the name of power.

Having to practically pull Rose away from Finn's body, Rey knew that her friend would blame her for all of this if she was ever to find out about Rey's secret life with Kylo Ren. Rey had been in bed, literally, with the enemy for over a year and surely all of this could have been avoided if Rey wasn't so desperate for attention, for love, for a family.

The cost was too high and Rey would live her life serving penance for this eternal and unspoken betrayal.

As they raced away from the base and back towards the shuttle that was tucked into the tree line, Rey felt the air pull from around her and she called out for Rose and BB-8 to go ahead and get the shuttle started for a quick departure.

When the bond opened, Rey turned towards him, in his full regalia, his mask was pulled off and cast to the side. His expression was wild and he looked at her as if he was seeing a ghost and it hit Rey that he expected her to be dead. His lips moved a few time but it appeared that he had no explanation for the massacre that he had been planning for over a year.

"You promised!" Rey screamed at him with gut-wrenching pain that almost made her double over.

AN: (Hides behind something)

I have tears in my eyes posting this, this is not easy for me, but this has always been the plan and I'm so sorry, but not sorry because this is how it has to be for now.

There will be one more chapter of this story before we venture into the next Episode which I have tentatively named The Reckoning in the Force.