Chapter 14
Rey stared down at the man who had chased her across the galaxy and back. Amazing now how while the world was burning around them, he lay in her arms. He stared up at her, his brown eyes soft. His expression hid the raging hurt and hopelessness she could feel inside him. He was in agony, not only physically but mentally. The man named Kylo Ren was dead, and now all that was left was battered remainder of Ben Solo. He was in pieces, like a beautiful painting that had been ripped to shreds. He breathed in agony and exhaled despair.
"Go," he whispered, his voice shaking, "Leave me." I want to die.
Rey's mouth dropped open. Leave him? She could never leave him. The feeling was confounding, but it was still true. She'd fought on desert planets and snow covered mountains, and she had never left an ally behind. Unlikely as it was, he was now her ally. "No," she answered, "I can't leave you here. You'll die."
His dark eyes glanced around.
He had saved her earlier. Despite all odds, all logic, he had saved her from his dark master. Rey bit at her lip, feeling the tower shudder beneath them. If nothing else, perhaps that motivation could still save him. "I won't leave you," she said over the roar of a close explosion, "Either you get up and we get to the hanger bay, or we both die today."
Ben Solo, ragged and beaten to a pulp, met her gaze and knew instantly that she spoke truth. His eyes hardened, and he took in another breath.
Rey felt him draw every ounce of strength he could muster. His entire body shook, but he sat up. Moving away from him, Rey stood and held out her hands as the world shook around them.
He lifted his head, staring up at her silently.
Take my hand, Rey whispered through the Force. Let me get you away from here.
After a small hesitation, he reached up and grabbed her left hand.
Rey grasped his hand with both of hers. Using the Force to give her strength, she helped him get to his feet.
He leaned on her heavily, and together they made their way toward the exit as the roof of the Throne Room finally caved in. Together they traversed a world on fire, using the Force to give them the strength they didn't have. With Ben's arm wrapped around her shoulders, they staggered through Hell. Fire, explosions, and chaos surrounded them as they struggled to make it to the launching pad on the lower level.
Breathing heavily, Rey looked up to see the last ship on the launching pad. It was a troop transport carrier, with its ramp still down. Without weapons, it would be defenseless to the Alliance fighters. "There!" She cried over the sound of the explosions surrounding them, "Up there! Come on!"
Ben didn't reply, his hair had fallen into his face again as he slumped forward with every step he took. He was only barely able to walk, he wasn't going to answer her. He was using all his concentration to stay on his feet, using the Force to help him remain upright and balanced.
As the landing pad shivered beneath them, they stumbled up the ramp and into the carrier. The moment they reached the interior hold, Ben slumped to the cold floor beneath them. Crumpled in on himself he lay there, having done what she had demanded and nothing more.
Rey reached up and slammed the ramp sensor, making it seal up on itself. Bolting to the cockpit, she jumped into the pilot's seat as she revved the engines. She grabbed the com headset, "Two-one-five, Alpha!" She yelled into the com link, lifting the landing gears and starting up the sub space engines, "Red-two do you read me? This is Seven-Two-Five, I'm in a transport carrier, do not destroy. Repeat, I am in a First Order transport carrier, do not destroy!"
A familiar voice came over the com, "Rey?" Poe asked, his voice filled with a mixture of relief and excitement, "Is that you?"
"Yes it's me," Rey turned the carrier around and aimed to the starlit sky above.
Dameron let out a whoop of excitement, and she could hear the exclamations of the rest of the squadron in the background, "I knew you'd make it out!" he cheered.
"Thanks, just make sure your boys don't blow me out of the sky," Rey answered as she sped the sluggish transport cruiser up and into the dark sea of stars above.
"Sure thing, Rey," Dameron answered with his usual swagger, "I'll see you tonight and the rendezvous point. It's gonna be one hell of a party."
Rey glanced over her shoulder to see Ben slumped on the floor of the transport carrier. She couldn't bring him back to the Resistance. Under the command of a New Republic, he would receive a life sentence in prison. At worst, they would sentence him to a firing squad. She couldn't let that happen. Rey swallowed, punching coordinates into the data computer, "That's a Negative Red-Two," she answered, "Tell General Organa I won't take long, but I can't make it to the rendezvous point. I have something I need to do."
"Rodger that," Poe answered, "May the Force be with you, Rey."
Rey felt a tired smile pull at the edges of her mouth, "You too."
With that she punched the transport carrier into the cool silence of hyperspace, and the stars turned to streams all around them. Rey's shoulders sagged, and she let out a small gasp. Had they really made it? She glanced around the cool air conditioned cockpit. Slowly, she looked over her shoulder and saw that Ben was silently watching her from where he had collapsed to the floor.
He blinked slowly, his eyes sunken in and his features deathly pale. Ben looked as if death held him close now, but still he hung on. Thank you.
Rey got up from the pilot's chair and touched a button on the nearby control, opening the medi-kit cabinet. She didn't know if he was thankful for her saving him or the fact that she hadn't just handed him over to the resistance. The fact that she had gotten a thank you from him at all made her uncomfortable. She wasn't used to that level of sincerity. Their confrontations were almost always sarcastic, laced with a bitterness that came from being enemies. This was not the norm, and it made her feel uncomfortable. "Don't thank me yet," Rey muttered, "I'm a mechanic, not a healer." Taking an oxygen mask out of the cabinet drawer, she bent down and placed it over his nose and mouth carefully.
He didn't answer. He only stared up at her, too shattered to move or speak.
Rey wished she could comfort him. It was her nature to comfort him. In that moment, he was the most pitiful being that she had ever seen. Once mighty and fearsome, he had lost everything. She opened a bacta pack and knelt beside him on the cold mettle floor of the transport ship. Rey carefully placed the healing gel to the gash on his side. She wished she could tell him everything would be all right, that the nightmare was over, and that things would get better. But deep down, Rey didn't know if it was true.
Ben closed his eyes. Carefully listening to her worry as he drifted away in an exhausted and pain-ridden sleep. Rey could feel it, and she knew that it gave him some sort of peace. She only wished she had an answer to the question of why the galaxy could be so cruel. Perhaps this was why their destinies had been intertwined. She had needed him in the battle against the Supreme Leader, while he needed her now. Perhaps it was in these little things, these twists and turns of fate, that the Force found its balance.
TBC
(A.N. Wow that was a struggle, okay, now what's going to happen to these two? Hmmm… More chapters to follow! Please review!)
