"Master Ben! Oh! It's so good to see you! Might I say, you look quite grown up since the last time we met!" C3PO recovered himself and piped in with his usual overly cultured voice. "Of course, that was before you destroyed Master Luke's school, murdered his students, tried to dominate the galaxy and killed Master Solo."

R2-D2 made a whistling chirrup sound and BB-8 spun his head toward first C3PO then Ben and back to C3PO before he let out a series of electronic beeps and whirs.

"3PO, I'd be lying if I said it's good to see you." Ben said almost lightheartedly despite the scratchiness of his voice. "You stay here."

R2-D2 and BB-8 both chirruped and whistled in their electronic percolations as they followed the humans out of the shuttle bay.

"Was it something I said?" C3PO whined as he watched the others leave him behind. "Humans!" He threw his hands up in disgust. "So rude!"

R2 stopped at the doorway and spun his visual receptor toward his golden counterpart. He called out a series of twittering bleeps, bloops, chirps and whistles.

"Well, I never!" An affronted C3PO huffed. "Why is everyone so rude to me?" He wailed.

Ben lead the men and droids to a large conference room. Once everyone was gathered around the long oval shaped table he tapped a few keys on the holoprojector control panel in front of him and an image of the Behemouth TIE appeared above the center of the table.

"We weren't able to capture any visual feeds of this beast, so we'll have to work off of this sketch." He said apologetically. "See this area here?" He pointed. "This is where the lazers that disintegrated my ships fired from. I have no idea what this indented area here is, but it looks an aweful lot like the main weapon on the Death Stars."

"And how big is this thing?" Poe asked, peering at the image.

"As near as we can figure…" Ben tapped a few keys and a scale model of the Redemption appeared beside the Behemouth. "That's the ship we're standing on."

Poe whistled. "That's one big eyeball."

Finn squinted at the Behemouth. "Does it have any weapons besides these two? Defensive weapons against small fighters?"

"Unknown." Ben said. "We weren't there long enough to launch our fighters."

"At least we have a good sketch to go by, it'll help us gather intel." Poe said then asked. "Where was it when you ran into it?"

"The main shipping lane between the Kessel Cluster and the the Ephysian System." A few more taps and a map of the area appeared. "Here, by Ephys four."

"Hmm, I have some contacts in that area. It shouldn't take too long to track down someone who knows something." Poe said thoughtfully, then switched gears. "Off topic, but, how are you holding up? Everything alright with you, you know, temper wise?"

Ben gave him a blank look then answered stiffly. "I'm fine."

"That's good to hear." Poe eyed him for a few seconds. "And Rey? How's she holding up with all this?"

"She's fine, too. What are you getting at?" Ben asked suspiciously.

"Nothing," Poe hessitated for a second, then decided to lay out his concerns. "It's just that you had a pretty major meltdown the other day, and I need to know that if this doesn't go well you aren't going to freak out and make things worse."

Ben briefly considered smashing the rebel leader's face in for his insolence, but tamped down that urge. "I'll worry about me, you worry about the task at hand." He said in an aloof tone.

"I'm worrying about everything I need to worry about." Poe countered. "And from what I saw the other day, that includes you."

Ben really really wanted to smash the other man's face in but he checked himself. "I wont pretend that I don't still struggle sometimes, but I'm not going to do anything that might endanger this mission."

Poe looked at him for a few beats then relaxed. "Alright, That'll have to do."

"Yes," Ben's voice was cold despite being quite ragged from Chewie's choke hold. "It will."

"BB-8, get a copy of that sketch and relay it back to our ship." Poe instructed then turned to look at Ben again. "At the risk of getting too personal, I'd just like to say that I do appreciate how hard this must be for you. I should have chosen my words more carefully before." He paused a beat. "You're one of probably two men ever to return from the Dark side. I don't expect you to be perfect, I just need to know we can count on you when the going gets tough."

Ben reached out his feelings toward the smaller man and felt the sincerity of his intentions. He relaxed an almost imperceptible amount. "We will bring this thing down. You can count on that." He briefly debated with himself about saying more then decided to trust in the belief that being open and honest with your friends and allies is the best way to keep them. "You saw me in a moment of weakness and you saw Rey help me through it. I can't promise it'll never happen again, but I can promise that as long as she's by my side you have nothing to worry about where I'm concerned."

"In that case…" Poe smiled and withdrew something from his pocket. "Leia gave me these to hold for you, in the event that you ever did find your way back to the light." He held out his closed fist and waited for Ben to accept Leia's gift.

Ben frowned at Poe's fist then reached for what he was being offered. A shaft of pain sliced through his heart when Poe withdrew his hand, leaving Leia and Han's original wedding rings in his palm. They were the rings his parents had worn up until they'd gotten a new set to celebrate ten years of wedded bliss and the joyous news of Leia's second pregnancy. He'd been nine the last time he'd seen them, but he recognised them instantly.

The rings weren't flashy or all that expensive, Han's pride hadn't allow him to use Leia's money to buy her a ring, and Leia's good sense hadn't allowed her to buy him a ring that would outshine hers, but they were the rings that the pair had worn throughout the happiest years of their lives.

"She said when you did turn away from the Dark side, you'd need those." Poe said gravely. "She also instructed me to tell you, and I quote, 'no matter how tempted you might be to give Rey everything, you need to remember that happiness is as priceless as a gift given from the heart'."

Ben fought back the tears that stung at his eyes and was instantly glad to have been choked until his throat was raw enough to give the sudden added harshness in his voice a perfectly banal reason to be there. "How could she have known it would be Rey?"

"Your mother was the sharpest person I've ever met." Poe smiled sadly. "It wouldn't suprise me if she knew how many kids you'll have and what you'll name them."