Song for this chapter: I Found by Amber Run
"Stop!" Phasma screamed as she took off after Anya who was trying to find her way back to Ben's room. "Grab her!" Phasma yelled at the stormtroopers standing in front of Anya. Anya tried to turn the corner when she suddenly felt the two stormtroopers grab her arms and yank her backward causing her to scream in pain.
"No!," She cried as they began to drag her towards Phasma. "Stop! Let me go!" She cried trying her best to focus all of her energy onto the stormtroopers. She almost had done it when suddenly Phasma punched her in the face sending her the ground.
"I'll take care of her," Phasma said as she grabbed Anya by the hair and dragged her into a room.
"Get the fuck off of me." Anya screamed as Phasma threw her across the room causing her head to slam her into a chair that was covered in straps.
"Who are you?" Phasma said as she lit her staff causing sparks to run through it.
Anya groaned as she grabbed the lightsaber turning it on.
"Where did you get that." Phasma snapped as she inched her way towards Anya.
Standing up Anya gripped the saber tighter. She could feel the blood running down the side of her head and rage built up inside of her.
"Answer me you resistance scum," Phasma screamed again charging at Anya.
Anya took a deep breath as she skillfully sliced Phasma's staff in half.
Phasma was taken aback as she looked at Anya shocked. A smile spread across Anya face as she turned off her lightsaber and hit Phasma in the face with the hilt of the saber causing her to stumble backward.
"The resistance will not be intimidated by you." Anya said smiling as she could see the cracks in Phasma helmet that she had caused.
"Bitch!" Phasma screamed as she charged at Anya again.
Anya quickly darted out of the way dodging out of the way sending Phasma flying backward with the force. Phasma smacked into the wall crumbling to the floor.
"I hate the fucking Force," she grumbled under her breath as she stood up charging at Anya again.
Anya held her hand up once more causing Phasma to freeze in place.
Anya laughed as she took a step closer to Phasma. "I fucking love the Force." She smiled as she was about to walk out the door when suddenly a voice rang out in her head.
"I should have felt trapped or panicked," She heard Rey say.
Suddenly Phasma punched Anya again sending her to the floor.
Quickly Anya reached for the lightsaber but Phasma hit her again. Ripping the lightsaber away from her Phasma turned it on.
"The resistance will die," Phasma said as she lunged at Anya.
Anya brought her hand out just in time as the lightsaber sliced her arm.
She threw Phasma backward again as she got up. The lightsaber landing behind Phasma. By now Phasma's mask was completely cracked. Quickly she took it off to reveal the blonde haired woman under the suit.
"At the end, it would show me what I wanted to see." Rey's voice rang out again distracting Anya.
By the time Anya had gotten her focus back, Phasma had already charged at her and shoved her back into wall her head cracking against the metal. Anya didn't even have time to cry out in pain as Phasma wrapped her metal hands around her neck strangling her.
Rage had taken over Phasma and she wasn't thinking straight, she knew that she shouldn't kill the girl that she should take her to Hux, that anyone with the force needed to be brought before Supreme Leader Snoke. But she was just so angry that this girl had made her look like a fool.
Anya felt Phasma's grip tighten and as her conscious started to she was afraid that Phasma was going to break her neck. Quickly she threw her hand out and send Phasma stumbling backward instead of flying due to her lack of energy but it still caused Phasma to drop her.
She lay on the floor gasping for air as Phasma came up and kicked her in the stomach. Anya tried to reach up with her hand but Phasma quickly grabbed her wrist snapping it causing Anya to cry out in pain.
At that point, Phasma knew she had the upper hand on Anya and she just began to wail on her punching her and kicking her causing her to fly across the room.
"You're not alone," Anya heard in her head, but this time it wasn't Rey's voice she heard it was Ben.
"Ben!" She cried out in her head as she began to scream as Phasma bruised and beat her.
Elsewhere on the Finalizer, Ben Solo sat talking to Rey, he couldn't explain why he was so fascinated by her, he just was. There was some force connecting them and he needed to figure out why. But also he felt the sense of fear and aloneness within her that he had felt all his life.
"I'd never felt so alone," Rey cried as she sat looking at Ben. She too couldn't explain why she felt so connected to Ben.
"You're not alone," Ben said and he could feel himself getting emotional, there was a part of him that saw himself in the young girl, and he needed to make sure she didn't make the same mistakes he had.
"Neither are you," Rey said. "It isn't too late," She insisted and then she did something that caused tears to form in Ben's eyes, she reached his hand out to him. A gesture of trust and compassion, he had done terrible things, had hurt countless people including Rey, but she still was willing to give him a second chance.
Quickly Ben took off his gloves, needing to have the skin contact, knowing what it could reveal. As he reached out his hand he could hear Anya calling for her, but he pushed her to the back of his mind. As their hands touched, Ben was flooded with visions of him standing beside Rey and fighting beside her. However, these visions terrified him because he didn't see Anya in any of them.
"Stop!" He heard a voice scream and suddenly both he and Rey turned to see Luke Skywalker, his old teacher, standing before them looking horrified. Then everything disappeared and Ben was left alone once more. Quickly he wiped his eyes, getting rid of the tears. Just as he stood up to leave a wave of pain hits him so hard that he collapses to the floor.
"Ben!" He hears Anya scream in pain. Quickly he takes off running desperate to find her.
"Anya, where are you," He thought but Anya wasn't forming coherent thoughts, it was just pain. Suddenly Ben felt a rush of pain hit him in the ribs as he heard Anya scream out in pain again. She was being beaten and his panic began to set in as he ran through hall after hall unsure of how to find her.
"Ben!" She screamed again but Ben quickly skidded to a stop, he knew the only way he was going to find her on the fucking big ass Finalizer is if he connected them. Closing his eyes he focused all of his energy on her. It was painful, one of the most painful experiences he had ever had, he could feel his energy draining but at that moment he didn't care.
When he opened his eyes he found himself in one of the interrogation rooms near his room. He could see the back of Captain Phasma as she leaned forward grabbing something and throwing it backward. As the body slid across the floor Ben saw who he was.
"Anya" He gasped and Anya looked up at him, her face was bloody and bruised, one eye was already swollen and she had a busted lip that was bleeding.
Ben felt his heart breaking as he looked at her.
"Ben," She pleaded.
Then the connection was severed as Ben lost the energy to hold it. Falling to the ground, Ben didn't even take a second to regain his energy before he was on his feet and running to Anya
When he reached the door it slid open to reveal Phasma holding his lightsaber over Anya ready to stab her.
"No!" Ben screamed as he threw Phasma so far backward that when she hit her head on the wall it knocked her out.
"Ben," Anya said as she looked up at him her tears stung her wounds.
"Anya, I'm so sorry." He cried as he tried to pick her up.
She cried out in pain causing Ben to recoil as he tried to figure out how to help her.
"My wrist, I think… I think it's broken." Anya cried.
"Ok, I uh…" Ben said as he picked her avoiding her wrist.
The two didn't say a word as Ben stormed down the hall throwing stormtroopers out of his way as he went.
He barely waited for the door to slide open before he walked in carefully laying her on the bed.
"Ben," She finally said but he was off to the bathroom grabbing a washcloth before heading back out to Anya who was laying on the bed barely conscious. "Ben," She said again.
"I'm so sorry," Ben said as he started to lay washcloth on her bruise when she flinched away.
"Ben!" She screamed causing him to stop.
"What," Ben said.
"The stormtroopers, Phasma, they have all seen me and they have seen you carrying me to your room." Anya said.
"That… that doesn't matter."
"Yes, Ben it does, it does matter, because they are going to tell Hux or worse Snoke and then you are dead."
Ben didn't even hear what she was saying he just was looking at her. Her eye was swollen, her head was bleeding, her lip was busted open, and her wrist was broken.
"Ben, you have to go find them and make them forget."
"Anya what happened," Ben said quietly.
Anya looked away from Ben unable to look at him.
"Anya," Ben said leaning towards her again.
"Don't!" She snapped. "Where were you."
"What?" Ben asked hurt.
"Where were you! I needed you!" She screamed.
"I… Rey…" Ben started horrified at the fact that she blamed him for what happened.
"Rey," She laughed slightly before her laughs turned to sobs.
"Anya"
"I was trying to get off the ship Ben," Anya snapped wincing as the pain hit her. Ben looked at her tears in his eyes. Slowly he backed away from the bed. "That's how I got caught, I was trying to leave."
Ben felt a soul-crushing sadness hit him, one he hadn't felt since he thought he had killed Anya. She was trying to leave him, just like everyone always had his entire life.
"You were trying to leave me, why." He said looking out the window.
Anya choked on her sobs as she ran her good hand through her hair wincing as she hit the cuts.
"I thought you were too far gone, what you said to Rey, I thought Snoke had turned you too far."
"What I said to Rey…" Ben said turning back to her.
"Let the past die, kill it if you have to. It's the only way to become what you are meant to be!" Anya screamed. "That's what Snoke told you, that's what he told you when he wanted you to kill me. How could you say that to her!"
"I needed to convince her to not trust Luke he…"
"Ben I am your past, I am what is stopping you from becoming what you are meant to be according to Snoke."
"I would never hurt you again I made a promise to myself…"
"I thought you were getting Snoke to kill me, that's why I left." She said silencing Ben.
"You thought I would kill you," Ben said his voice cracking. "You actually believed I would kill you. Why after everything that I had said to you, I said I loved you!" Ben screamed angry now. "We have a connection."
"Yeah well you and Rey have a connection and it's stronger." Anya uttered trying to sit up but screaming when she used her broken wrist.
Ben quickly ran to her side helping her.
"How could you say that."
"Well for one you didn't try to cut her in half when you saw her in your room." Anya said but immediately regretted it."I didn't mean that" She said noticing how hurt Ben was by what she had said. "But you are never angry with her, never and with me…"
Ben collapsed to his knees next to her bed grabbing her good hand with both of his. "The reason that I was angry at seeing you was because I was angry at myself. Every time I saw you I was reminded of the fact that you were dead, and that I had killed you. Anya you said that you have been in love with me since we were 19. I fell in love with you the minute I saw you. With all the voices in my head telling me who I was supposed to be and what my life was going to become when I was with you, you saw me for who I was, a scared child just trying to make it in the world. You were what I focused on because I wanted you to be my future. I was going to stay with Luke if only to keep Snoke out of my head, but if you wanted me the same way I wanted you, I was going to leave the Jedi Order and marry you." Anya gasped tears streaming down her face. "When you died," Ben sobbed. "When I thought I killed you, my entire world fell apart, I didn't know how to live, how to function without you by my side. I still don't. That's why I have made so many horrible decisions, that's why I let Snoke train me and teach me the ways of the Sith. You believed in me more than anyone else, and when you died. I was lost. And every time I saw you or heard your face, I was flooded with grief and pain so much that I didn't think I could function, the rage fueled me and made it so I could actually get through the day and not run myself through with my own lightsaber, which I was tempted to do on multiple occasions. I love you Anya with all my heart, for you, I would fight an entire galaxy, I would kill Snoke and Hux in an instant, I would slaughter anyone who would even think of harming you. But that's not the man you want me to be, that's not the man you are or were in love with. So for you, I will be better, I have to be better. Because I can't lose you not again. I love you." He sobbed as he leaned his head onto her hand.
Any anger or doubt Anya had washed away as she watched the broken man before her sobbing. He really did love her. She felt so guilty for doubting him but at the same time the fact that he had confessed his love for her meant that he wasn't gone, in fact, he was the opposite of being lost, he was closer to the Light then he had ever been.
"Benjamin Solo of Chandrila, I love you with all my heart." She said causing Ben to look up with a smile on his face.
"Anyaest Dameron of Yavin 4 I love you to the galaxy and back." He said as he leaned up and kissed her forehead gently. "You need to rest," He said getting up and wiping his face. "Are you hungry," He had completely forgotten about the food that he had brought in for her.
"Not really," She said as she shifted uncomfortably.
"Here," Ben said as he helped her lay down. "You rest and I'll be back."
"Where are you…" Anya started concerned.
"I've got to make some people forget some things." He smiled.
It only took him a moment to hunt down Phasma and the guards who had seen him and make them forget. He fought so hard not to kill Phasma on the spot for what she had done to his girl. But he knew that Kylo would kill her Ben would spare her. He did, however, punch her in the face before he left.
Going back to his room, he found Anya asleep. A weak smile spread across his face as he watched her for a moment, however it faded as his eyes landed on all the bruises, he shuddered at the thought of how many there were under her clothes. He made himself a promise that he wouldn't again let her out of his sights, and that no one would ever lay a hand on her again.
He quickly took off his cape and gloves draping them over the desk chair, he set his saber on the floor as he made his way over to the bed crawling in. Ben lay down next to Anya focusing all of his energy on her wrists, trying to heal it the best he could. Anya moved slowly to snuggle into Ben's chest causing him to smile as he wrapped his arms around her and the two fell asleep.