Hello guys! New chapter, hope you like it! I'm very grateful for all the faves and the reviews, keep 'em coming! Oh, angsty times ahead, you've been warned! :D Xx
"It's been three days!" Rey exclaimed, exasperated.
"I know. Calm down," Finn said quietly.
"I can't! He won't even talk to me, and they are taking too long!"
"I think it's a good thing, Rey," Poe intervened. "It means they're divided. They're really thinking about it."
"I can't stand this uncertainty."
"I know. But it will be over soon. You said it yourself, it's been three days. We're at war, we can't exactly afford to waste too much time in domestic policy," Finn smiled.
"Yeah...you're right. I should... I should probably sneak back into his hangar and try to reason with him."
"You sure it's a good idea? You already tried it yesterday and the day before yesterday."
"I have to make him talk to me again! We can't… function without communicating! It's easy for him, he's in a cell. I can feel the effects of him shutting me out, and they're not pleasant!"
Fuming, Rey stormed off, leaving Finn and Poe who watched her with worry.
She hadn't been exaggerating. From the moment Ben had stopped talking to her, she had felt weird: weaker, in both mind and body. Distracted. Less sharp. She didn't like it, at all. She hoped she would be able to change his mind. She wanted an explanation: what had she done to deserve this?
She walked blindly for a while, passing hangars and people and ignoring the stares; when she arrived to the prison, she performed a mind trick on the guards at the entrance, convincing them to forget her presence. She got in easily and headed towards Ben's cell.
Rey found him just as she had found him before: on the floor, eyes closed, deep in meditation. This time though, she didn't speak to him: she merely copied his position, sitting down on the floor and closing her eyes. She looked for the thread of force that connected them, but she couldn't find it. Ben was still a million miles away from her.
She decided to attempt something, then. His absence from her mind, from her life, had felt like an open wound the past few days. She had kept busy, training with Luke, working as a mechanic and helping in any way she could. But there was still a hollow space inside of her that only Ben's presence could fill.
Rey inhaled deeply, concentrating, and she projected herself inside the cell, right next to Ben. He remained perfectly still, so Rey had no chance to see if he had noticed her presence. She looked at his face closely, and frowned. He had dark circles under his eyes, and the relaxed stance of meditation couldn't conceal the signs of weariness on his features. Without thinking, she reached out and moved a lock of black hair away from his forehead, letting her fingers glide down over the warm skin of his cheek in a tender caress.
For half a second nothing happened. Rey could almost imagine a small smile stretching Ben's lips, she could almost pretend that nothing had changed, that his distance had just been a horrible nightmare. But then he opened his eyes, and his glare was so full of barely-contained rage that she gasped and slammed immediately back into her body.
"Go away."
Rey frowned, opening her eyes. "I'm not leaving until you come back to me."
She was watching his face very closely, and she glimpsed a shadow of longing on it. But it lasted an instant.
"I won't."
"Why? I know you want to! And besides… I've already told you that this is harming me! I barely sleep at night, I barely function during the day! It's not healthy, I need you! And– and you need me," she finished in a whisper.
"You don't need me," he answered stubbornly. "You'll get used to it."
"At least tell me why! Why are you doing this? What did I do?" she asked, a hint of desperation in her voice. She felt so dejected, so abandoned that she had a lump in her throat.
"It's not what you did. It's what I did," he answered at last, without looking at her.
"What? What do you mean? Why–"
Right then, Rey heard the door of the hangar opening, and a minute later Finn appeared, panting as if he had been running.
"The Council… they're gathering. They're going to deliver their verdict!"
"Finally!" Rey said, anxiety squeezing her insides.
"Ben, you need to come with us."
Ben nodded, waiting for Finn to open the cell door, and following him in silence. Rey stayed back for a few seconds, watching Ben's nape and trying to hold back her tears and frustration. He hadn't even looked at her.
Once Ben, his defence and the crowd settled in their seats, the members of the Council walked in, calm and impassive.
Councillor Damaris didn't sit. He waited for complete silence, then spoke:
"Before we let you know our decision, we would like to hear from the defendant the information he gathered from the First Order. General Organa already briefed us the day you all arrived, but we want to hear it from the source."
A low buzzing pervaded the room. Ben shifted in his seat, then cleared his throat. He nodded to Councillor Damaris, who raised his arms to silence the crowd.
"While I was a prisoner I learned from General Hux that he had received an order from Leader Snoke. He had to assemble a team that would build a weapon similar to the one used to destroy the Hosnian system."
A few gasps erupted from the people in the stands.
"If you were a prisoner," a young woman with violet hair and eyes asked, "how did you acquire this information?"
"I delved into Hux's mind while he was… otherwise occupied."
She raised an eyebrow. "Occupied doing what?"
"Torturing me, of course. He liked it, so his mind was completely focused on the beatings, and I could explore it."
Ben's words sounded so casual, so unconcerned. He was talking about his days of torture as if they were nothing. Rey shivered. This Ben was… completely devoid of emotion. A stranger.
The young woman, Councillor Krieg, had fallen silent. She signalled Ben to go on talking.
"They intend to bring this weapon on Elbara Nine, once it's completed. They aim to destroy D'qar, but since they don't know its location, they'll fire at every Mid Rim, Inner Rim and Core planet until they find it."
The Council members looked horrified. Councillor Seastriker intervened.
"How many stars will they drain, to do that? How many planets will die in the dark, on top of the destroyed ones?"
"They won't need to drain stars to activate the weapon." Ben replied. "From what I gathered, this weapon is smaller, intended to cause damage on a reduced scale. That's why they wanted a Mid Rim planet. To be closer to the target."
"Do you know when the weapon will be ready?" asked Admiral Ackbar.
"I saw in Hux's mind that it would be completed within a month."
The Council members started talking among themselves. They seemed to forget their audience. Rey looked at her Master.
"Did you know all this?"
"Yes. Leia told me."
"What do we do?"
"We wait for the Council's decision, then we'll talk."
Rey looked at Leia, at the Councillors deep in discussion.
"As long as they don't take another three days…"
She chanced a glance at Ben, but he was looking at his feet, biting his lower lip. His hands were clenched into fists, his knuckles white. She tried to reach him with her mind, but she slammed into a wall of steel again. Something painful cut through her, a sensation she had grown familiar with by now.
Luke drew her attention. "They stopped talking."
Councillor Damaris asked for silence, then spoke once again.
"After this, all pilots are to gather in the main hangar. We need to discuss a plan of surveillance of Elbara Nine. The moment they bring the weapon there, we need to know. And then we have to destroy it before they have the chance to use it."
Ben raised his head.
"You won't be able to destroy it with the X-Wings the way you did with Starkiller. This weapon is smaller, I'm certain they'll keep it underground. They'll bring it to the surface at the last minute, when it's already charged and ready to fire. At that point there will be no time to fly there and blow it up."
"Then what do you suggest?" Councillor Seastriker asked.
"Someone needs to destroy it from the inside."
"Someone?"
Ben inhaled deeply.
"I'm volunteering, of course. I won't come out of there alive. If you let me do it, you won't even have to decide what to do with me. You only need to keep me alive for a month."
"NO!" Rey screamed. Everyone turned to look at her. Everyone except for Ben.
"WHY DO YOU WANT TO LEAVE ME? YOU CAN'T DIE. YOU CAN'T DIE!"
Leia stood.
"Rey, calm down."
Luke, who had been restraining the struggling girl, whispered "Rey, listen to her! Just listen!"
Rey stopped, her body trembling in rage and fear.
Leia's gaze shifted on her son. "Ben, you–" She stopped, looking around at the crowd.
Luke, I don't want my son to die. Rey doesn't want him to die. But I can't say it in front of everyone.
I know. Talk about the bond.
Leia sighed, nodding imperceptibly at her brother.
"Ben, if you die, she dies. You know that. There must be another way to destroy the weapon."
Ben looked at her, his face a mask of gravitas.
"There isn't, mother. And Rey won't die. I found a way to sever our connection."
Rey fell heavily down on the bench. Her head was buzzing. She put it in her hands, trying to quell the tremors that pervaded her body. She felt Finn's warm hand stroking her back comfortingly, but all she could think about was one word. Why?
Councillor Krieg rose and spoke to Ben.
"I want to know one thing: how can we be sure that, once inside the enemy's base, you won't betray us and rejoin their ranks?"
"I can answer to that question." One of the Councillors, the only one who hadn't publicly spoken yet, rose from her seat. Her almond-shaped, black and red eyes looked like burning embers.
"There's something you don't know yet. As Head of Communications, I received this a few minutes ago."
The Councillor took a Holobook out of her coat and switched it on. She passed it to Councillor Krieg, who read it aloud: "The First Order will pay 10 million credits to anyone who kills Kylo Ren."
A low murmur rose from the crowd.
"Thank you, Councillor Qobin," Leia said, looking daggers at everyone.
"Regardless of the bounty on my head, I would never willingly go back to the First Order. You have no reason to believe me, I know, but it's the truth," Ben stated.
"Well," Councillor Damaris intervened. "As we have established that, despite your crimes, you are trying to atone and you are an asset, we agree that it would be more useful if you were an active member of the Resistance, for the time being."
Rey lifted her head. Ben was free. I knew it!
"However," the Councillor continued. "However, we require that you wear this at all times."
While Damaris was speaking, Councillor Qobin produced a small bundle, and when she revealed what was inside it Ben paled visibly, and Rey almost fainted.
"No…no no no NO YOU CAN'T! YOU CAN'T, THAT'S INHUMAN, DON'T DO THIS!" she screamed, desperate. Moving too quickly for Finn or Luke to block her, she strode towards Ben, placing herself between him and the Councillors.
"You can't make him wear it! The First Order placed a Force-suppressing collar on him and he was sick, and weak, and not himself! You take the connection to the Force from him, you take away his very essence! That's inhuman, you don't treat people like this!" she yelled. She was furious.
"Rey, step aside. I'll wear that cuff," Ben told her.
Rey turned, glaring at him. "You can't!" she hissed.
"Don't tell me what I can or cannot do! Step aside, now!" he hissed back, scowling. If the situation had been less serious, Rey would have smiled at their bickering. But she only felt rejected and hollow once again.
She walked behind Ben's seat in silence, watching while he stepped forward and extended his left arm towards Councillor Qobin, who had been waiting on the edge of the dais.
The moment she clasped the metal cuff to Ben's wrist, he went down on his knees, and Rey only had time to think The Force! It's gone! before her vision went dark.