Chapter 3

After that day, Rey tried to contact Ben a couple times, in the hopes that he would come back, back to the light, back to Leia, back to her. But no matter what she tried, Ben would not respond. It was as if he had built up a brick wall to block her out, a wall that she could not break. Saddened by Ben's actions towards Leia, Rey thought it best to forget about him. She instead, kept herself occupied with her training. Leia supervised sometimes, but she mainly just watched in awe of how good of a Jedi Rey had become. Other times, Finn and Poe would cheer her on from a short distance not wanting to "End up looking like Kylo Ren!" as Poe put it after he found out that the scar on Ben's face was from Rey.

Ben was hostile. Furious with Rey for telling his mother about their bond, furious at both women for thinking he could just leave the First Order and come back like it was nothing. But most of all, he was furious that Rey was spending more time with that damn pilot and now that traitorous stormtrooper. He couldn't see them, they were always out of view but Rey would talk to them, call them by their names. But he only ever looked for a couple moments, just long enough to check up on her, make sure she was doing okay, never long enough for her to be able to stop what she was doing and start talking to him. He had built a wall up to let go. He needed to let the past die, even if Rey was a part of that past now.

Another month passed, and there was still no sign of the First Order anywhere. Luke's island was very well hidden, and the Resistance was more than grateful that they had never gotten the other part of the map that Poe had hidden in BB-8.

"Leia, we can't stay here forever. We need a plan, we need to fight." Poe nagged one day as he followed Leia along the island.

"Look Poe, none of our allies in the outer rims has answered our distress calls, there's nothing we can do. We need to just wait, we're safe here, and that's all that matters. I am trying to figure things out but I'm tired," Leia sat down on a rock and sighed, "Just give me some time. I know you're bored, Luke's X-Wing is in the water, go ask Rey to get it out so you can go fly around and shoot at nothing okay?" Poe nodded and helped her stand up.

Leia swayed and stumbled back, Poe quickly grabbed her by the elbow to steady her

"Whoa, you okay general?"

"Yes. I'm just tired, a lot has happened lately. I'm gonna go lay down in my hut for awhile." She silently tapped Poe on the arm, a silent thank you for his help.

Rey was closing down the Falcon for the night so she and Chewie could go to bed without a Porg setting any alarms off in the middle of the night. She heard footsteps approaching, turning her head she saw Poe

"Hey Rey." Poe smiled at her warmly

"Hey there, what's up?" She asked, leaning on a wall of the ship

"Leia said that Luke had an X-Wing in the water, she said you could get it out for me?" He explained, Rey nodded

"Yeah, it might take awhile, but yeah I can do it." She smirked

"Thanks, I've never gone this long without flying before." Poe laughed

"Actually, have you seen Leia today? I need to talk to her about something." Rey questioned

"Yeah, I talked to her earlier this afternoon; she was tired and said she was going to lie down. But that was hours ago." Poe said worriedly

"Why do you say it like that? Is something wrong?" Rey stood up straight, no longer relaxed. Not Leia, please, not Leia.

"Well, she was kind of stumbling around, it was weird. I have never seen her like that." Poe remarked as Rey headed to leave the Falcon to check on her.

Rey headed to Leia's hut that she had been staying in since The Resistance had come to the island. When Rey told Leia that it was the hut Luke used to sleep in, Leia deemed it her hut, saying it made her feel closer to Luke.

Rey took a deep breath before knocking on the door, there was no response. She tried again, more forcefully this time, still nothing. Dread filled Rey's soul.

"Leia?" Rey asked quietly as she opened the door slowly, not wanting to wake the sleeping general. Or at least she hoped she was sleeping.

"Leia," Rey gently shook her shoulder, "Leia can you hear me?" Rey shook her harder, scared that she was not waking up.

Getting on her knees to kneel next to the bed, Rey reached over to check Leia's pulse with a shaky hand. There was not heartbeat.

"No. No Leia, please no." Rey cried, shaking the former princess' body in the hopes to wake her. But all was lost, Leia was no more.

Getting up to get Finn and Poe, Rey ran down from the hut to find them. No one knew about her, what were they going to do?

"Finn! Poe! Help!" Rey cried, tears streaming down her face as she searched for them in the dark.

Finn turned his head towards the cries of help and saw Rey running towards him

"Rey what's going on?" Finn questioned as Rey ran into his arms shaking and crying

"Hey, what's wrong?" Poe asked Finn as he came out of his hut with two beers in his hands

"I'm not sure," Finn shook his head, "Rey, what's wrong? You need to tell us what has you so upset." Finn wiped tears from her red cheeks

"Here, sit down Rey and tell us what's wrong." Poe wrapped an arm around her waist and guided her down to sit on a rock.

Taking a deep breath to calm down enough to explain, Rey told the men how she went to go find Leia and told them what she found

"Rey, what are you saying…?" Poe questioned

"It's Leia, she's- Leia's gone."