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Chapter 12
Hux watched as the last of Ren's possessions were moved out of his new chambers. The sentimental fool even had a wooden chest full of valuable calligraphy tools! Hux ordered that the set be polished and mounted for ornamentation. A Storm Trooper walked up to him, his white armor smudged by dirt.
"Sir, what about the mask?" He asked.
Hux looked to him, "Remove it."
The Storm Trooper hesitated, twisting his body slightly to obey.
"What is it?" Hux demanded.
"We, uh, can't move it, sir."
"What do you mean…" He trailed off, the memory of Ren and Snoke's vice upon various parts of his body searing his brain. "Where is it?"
Hux had only seen it once, that famed mask that had been Ren's claim to mythical status among the officers. He had it with him when he moved onto the Finalizer, and didn't allow anyone to hold that ebony box. Such action inspired imagination to infect the ship's crew, spread by the lowest ranking Storm Troopers who cleaned it's storage room until even Hux himself had to look.
It lied in a raised bowl of ash and black sand, sitting directly across from the chair Ren liked to do his penance in. It hadn't changed from the last time Hux had seen it, though the Storm Troopers assigned with it's removal had all glued themselves to the walls around it and shifted with unease. He inhaled, looking down at the mask, feeling the tension grow in the room as he looked at it: the mask of Darth Vader.
Such an honored, useless old relic, Hux thought. He looked around at the Storm Troopers, and snorted. "Well if there isn't a man among you," He spat. He lifted his hand and took a step towards the mangled myth.
Sparks surged at him, shocking him back to the tiles, heavy labored, rhythmic breathing hissing in his ears. Hux squirmed around, finding the Storm Troopers gone and his last means of escape welded shut behind him, the bright white lights flickering out until only one remained. Suddenly, a very large black figure moved around the chair, it's face the intact shape of the mangled mask on the ash.
Hux scrambled, trying to get to his feet but was held back. The breathing grew louder as the figure moved closer. Hux looked over his shoulder, heart hammering painfully against his chest as though trying to escape itself.
Darth Vader's boots echoed in the small room. His every movement magnified. He reached up, and took a long piece of silver from his belt.
Hux's boots scuffed the floor as he tried to get away. The action was futile, he couldn't move an inch. He was worse than a turtle upon his back, he was supper for a starved monster.
The crimson lightsaber ignited, stilling Hux's heart for one solitary moment before jabbering away again: this lightsaber was a crossblade. With his free hand, Darth Vader touched his mask at the protruding chin and lifted it, revealing sharp features, plump lips, and hard brown eyes with a scar angrily cutting across his right one.
Kylo Ren extended his lightsaber out to Hux, the heat from the blade so intense Hux could feel the hairs in his nose singeing and roasting his bare flesh. Hux looked from the laser blade to the man who yielded it, sweat pouring down his temples and tears of sheer fear leaking from his eyes.
Kylo Ren's lips curled, revealing a smile, wicked and cruel on the man's face. "Thank you," He whispered.
Hux heaved several times before quivering lips stuttered, "F-f-for what?"
"For binding me with my queen. My destiny."
He lifted the lightsaber above his head, secured it with both hands, and brought it crashing down over Hux's body.
Hux jolted, the white masks of the Storm Troopers clunking against each other as they fought to check his condition.
"Get off me!" Hux shouted, shoving the Storm Troopers off him, his heart still pounding. He jumped to his feet, walking and trying to breathe while staying clear enough away from the ashen mask.
He rested his hands on his knees, commanding himself to maintain steady breathing. He lifted a hand in the general direction of the Storm Troopers, not looking at them. "I don't care what you have to do. If you have to seal off this room, or blast it into oblivion, I don't care!" He straightened and avoided looking at the mask, "I never want to hear about it ever again!"
The Storm Troopers clicked to attention, "Yes, Supreme Leader!"
Hux hurried out of the room, thoughts unable to compose themselves save for one. The second Captain Frees hurried to him, he grabbed her arm. "Are you alright, sir?" She asked he pulled her along.
"No, I am not." He spat, wiping the moisture that leaked into and from his eyes. He pulled her into a conference room and closed the door. In the quiet, he could hear himself panting like a dog.
"Armitage?" Captain Frees's gentle voice cooed, "Please tell me what's wrong."
He closed his eyes, seeing for a painful second the sight of Darth Ren slicing him in half. "Captain Frees, if Ren should return, how could he bring this empire to it's knees?"
"Sir?"
Hux turned and repeated his question.
The captain shook her head, confused yet compliant. "Um, he and the Knights of Ren are the most lethal death squad in the galaxy. They could attack us personally-"
"Not us," Hux interrupted, "The empire." He lifted his head, "The plans for the Central Systems."
"Those were lost, sir." Captain Frees reminded him.
"No, no they weren't." Hux lifted a finger to his chin and turned to begin pacing. "Ren was trained by Snoke, they never told anyone their complete plans lest it fall into the hands of the Resistance." He about faced and paced again, "Ren told me, nay, threatened me about those plans for the Central Systems, said they were for defense. Why?"
He stopped pacing and faced Captain Frees, "He was lying. Those plans were for something else."
Captain Frees's face lifted with realization. "The Vulture was a supply vessel for the Unknown Regions."
"Find me the captain that survived the wreckage," Hux commanded, taking her upper arms in his hands, "Then put all hands to the pump finding where that dreadnought left off supplies, what data was uploaded to the First Order mainframe, all of it." He leaned in and kissed her quickly before leaving the wide-eyed woman alone in the room.
SWSWSW
Rey awoke in her luxurious bed, finding herself tangled in pillows and blanket and Ben's freakishly long limbs. After she had seen him look quite uncomfortable on the more decorative than comfortable sofa, she had invited him to sleep next to her. He had insisted, insisted, on putting the smaller decorative pillows between them as some sort of barrier. But, at some point during the night, those went flying across the room and his arms snaked over Rey's side and under her pillow, prompting a near immediate giggle fit that resulted in a pillow to the face and a deep grunt to shut up and sleep. That happened almost instantly, his warm body cradling her heart to the point where she didn't dream, nor wake suddenly and stay counting the ceiling tiles.
Delicately, Rey pushed his muscular arm off her hip, and pulled from her mouth unyielding strands of hair that she had slung over her shoulder to give Ben breathing room. She inhaled deeply, sleepy eyes adjusting to the elegant room around them.
"Morning," A sleepy, heavy voice mumbled.
She looked over her shoulder, and saw Ben's eyes through his messy black hair peering up at her. She smiled at him, not yet in the mood to speak, and gave a short wave. He exhaled, strands of his hair fluttering before his nose, then flopped over until he rolled out of bed and hit the floor.
Rey lifted herself to see over the edge of his side, a small tightness in her forehead with concern that he actually fell off.
His back and shoulders rose to view, then fell, then rose again, then fell again. Pushups, precisely executed.
Rey rose and moved to a door off to the side, hoping it was a relief room of some sort. It was a full, black marble streaked with white bathroom, complete with an actual bathtub. She looked over her shoulder at Ben's head, watching him huff as he did his pushups. He didn't get that body by just doing one form of exercise. She stepped into the bathroom, and shut the door.
SWSWSW
Her clothes had been freshly laundered and pressed, a welcome relief as she followed Serotti to the hangar bay where the Millennium Falcon was nearly finished with repairs. "I don't know why you don't decommission the thing," Serotti complained, opening a door and revealing a rigorous welding process occurring below the thrusters of the cream colored ship.
"The Falcon was the first ship I ever flew," Rey told her, looking up and smiling at the elderly freighter. "She still has many corners of the galaxy left to see."
Serotti huffed in disagreement, but said nothing, standing off to the side to let Rey enter.
From the interior, the brassy voice of a protocol droid cried out, "Oh, ow! Do be careful with my head!"
"Threepio!" Rey cried, quickening her step inside.
Within the medical corner, the shiny droid sat before a square R2 unit, a large welding rod protruding from it. The droid squawked a command and touched C-3PO's neck again, blue sparks bursting from the metal.
"Is that Captain Rey I hear?" C-3PO cried, his knee jerking upward as the droid continued working.
"Yeah, it's me, Threepio." Rey smiled.
"They were able to salvage him," Serotti's voice purred from below the ship. Rey turned and looked at her, seeing her hands on her hips. Serotti jutted her chin upward, "They should be done in an hour, empress."
"The faster away from this silly droid, the better." C-3PO chided, waving a stiff arm in the general direction of the droid.
"And we'll be gone just as quickly," Ben's voice called. He came into view, dressed in his usual black tunic and cloak, his hair still damp from showering.
C-3PO twitched in his seat, "Is that-"
"Not a word, Threepio." Rey hissed, her eyes hard against his. "Not, a, word."
SWSWSW
The Knights of Ren sent them off with respectful nods and hugs, along with the rather unwelcome feeling of a wicked promise suspended over Ben's head. Rey smiled as best she could, standing beside Ben, but couldn't hide her feeling of relief when the gangplank rose and locked them away from the black-clad spectres.
Ben sat in the co-pilot's seat, clicking what switches Rey couldn't reach, working in perfect sync with her as though he had always sat at her side taking them into space. The trusty freighter powered up, the threatening noises that had been so familiar to Rey shuddered for a moment before fading, the result of detailed repairs and replacements.
"All systems ready, Captain." Ben told her, a smile touching his lips as he spoke.
Rey didn't bother hiding her grin, "All systems ready, let's fly."
The vastness of space opened before them, the stars winking at them like old friends. Rey pushed them into it, watching over Ben as he punched in coordinates to take them into hyperspace. She hadn't told him of any Resistance hiding locations, and where he put them seemed to be a short distance into the middle of nowhere. She nodded at him, trusting him to push the hyperdrive button.
He inhaled, "Launching in three, two, one."
The stars stretched before them in slow, white and blue streaks, before shooting them into a tunnel of white streaked with blue. Rey exhaled, leaning back in her chair to let relief wave over her. She turned, seeing Ben do likewise.
"So, you want to take the left or the right?" She asked, half smiling at him.
He looked at her and returned the gesture, "I'll take the left, you take Threepio."
"Deal."
Within the hour, they found no less than four tracking and recording beacons, including one embedded in C-3PO's skull. He was the hardest to deal with as Rey had to essentially kill the droid again in order to remove his head.
"Sorry, Threepio," She cringed, gingerly setting the shiny plated head aside, beacons in hand. "I promise to make you good as new in a bit."
Carrying the intact spy pieces in the palm of her hand, she met Ben towards the center of the Millennium Falcon, showing them to him. He held out his, small disks of silver and purple, wires hanging from them. Questions caught in Rey's throat, their birth hindered by the sudden anxiety of speaking before live objects.
Ben looked at her, and his eyes glittered, that hungry look she thought she'd seen the last of coming to his features. "Use the Force," He whispered, hardly a sound emitting from his lips.
Rey looked down at the disks, feeling for the Force around her. The peace of space, the chaos of hyperspace. The light found in Ben, the darkness in him, too. Conflict within him. She could feel the hum of the electricity surging in the devices, delicately constructed like a moth's wing. She narrowed her look at her hand, the Force a solid mass around her that she could easily grab. Her disk shivered, then shriveled with barely a spark. Ben chuckled, his own disks following suit all at once in his hand.
"There's one more on the thrusters," He told her, rotating his wrist and letting the pieces clatter to his boots. "We will have to get that when we land."
Ice fell into Rey's stomach and flowed through her veins. "Land… where?"
He looked at her, the question echoing in the vast emptiness of the ship. Where could they go? What could they do?
Hide, the word rang loudly on Rey's ears. They could flee to a system and live together away from the Resistance and the First Order. But where was safe enough? They would both be targets and regardless of who won, someone would come looking for them. As their hands slid into one another, they could feel the same answer dawning: safe was only temporary.
"There's… the Resistance." Rey breathed, a small part of her condemning her offer in case Ben was spying. "I just don't know how its going to work with you, to be honest."
He nodded and pulled her into his arms, resting his chin on her head whilst she rested her cheek on his chest. Ben licked his lips, and inhaled, "When you saw me turning to the Light, what exactly did you see?"
Rey leaned away and frowned, "What do you mean? We saw the same thing."
"Did we, though?"
The question surged through her like lightning. If he hadn't held her, she might have walked away to pace somewhere or start fixing something like C-3PO. His arms kept her grounded to him, her own warm anchor.
She swallowed and looked at him, "How would we know? Could we look again? Is that possible?"
Ben's eyes lowered in thought. "We saw it when our hands touched, on the island."
"No," Rey breathed, "That was the first time we connected. I came to you because you knew how it felt to be so lonely, to seek answers at any length or distance-"
"We were there completely for each other." Ben whispered. "No war, no sides, just us in the galaxy."
"D'you think we can do it again?" Rey whispered, her fingers moving mindlessly on his shoulders. "Bring the vision back to us?"
He searched her face, almost studying her, then looked to his left where the Common Area was, the seats restuffed and resewn so that they were even more inviting than usual. Wordlessly, he dropped his arms to his sides and moved toward it, Rey's feet moving to follow before she could process what she was doing. They sat down on the same bench, not touching, but watching the other's every movement, every breath.
"Just look," Ben told her. "Don't assume anything in the vision. Just tell me what you see and I'll tell you the same."
Rey swallowed and nodded, her thoughts clear. Ben, her body pined. Slowly, hand shaking, she reached out with her right hand, just like she did years ago. He did the same, his hand shaking slightly. Their fingers brushed, a small shock rushing down her spine at his touch.
But otherwise, nothing happened.
"I don't see anything, do you?"
"No, nothing."
Ben dropped his hand and inhaled, mashing his lips together. "Rey, can you remember the moment? What you were thinking? How you were feeling?"
She nodded. She could remember vividly the sight of the dark mirror in the cave on Ach-To, the dozens of Reys lined all the way to the void… to nothingness. Her eyes travelled down his tunic, the hope and love being scratched from her like a tally on a metal wall. Loneliness seeped in, hurried by disappointment. She still didn't have the answers to the questions she had asked; she was still lonely Rey from Jakku.
"I felt alone," She breathed, not looking at him.
"You're not alone," His voice breathed.
Relief surged through her simply hearing those words. No, she wasn't alone. She had only thought his dedication was obligatory, a Force connection that wasn't of their own volition. Now she knew it to be much deeper.
She smiled only slightly, warmth overflowing her. "Neither are you," She told him.
Rey reached her hand out, longing to touch his hand, face, and hair. He lifted his hand and reached out for her at the same time she did, her heart beginning to jabber inside of her. The grooves of their forefingers were the first to connect, sending a wild image into Rey's mind clear and precise.
Ben was quick and latched onto her hand, his own eyes staring into the void. "Tell me what you see," He commanded, "Not what you think, what you see."
"You tell me," Rey ordered. "What do you see?"
"I see a… a room. It's lit like it's on fire. And you're in my arms."
"Its not fire," Rey corrected, holding on to the image. "It's lights. Like on the Nest."
"The Knights of Ren are dead," He breathed, his eyes darting around though Rey couldn't see it. "I killed them, I know I did."
"Just see," Rey told him. "Remember, no assumptions."
"It is a ship, but nothing that I've ever been on," Ben continued. "The bodies of the Knights of Ren are around me. What's around you? What do you see?"
Rey paused, taking the time to see if she could turn in the vision or if it was a fixed picture. She could, and what she saw made her jolt upright and scamper away from him.
"No!" She cried, tears flying from her eyes. "No! No!"
Ben was on his feet just as quickly, his eyes sharpened with focus and concern for the woman before him. "What did you see? Rey, tell me!"
"Finn!" Rey cried, her back hitting a wall. "Finn! And Rose and Poe! I killed them! I know I did, I could feel it!"
"Rey, come here." Ben commanded softly, reaching out and taking her arms to pull her into him.
She wept into his chest, her entire body shaking so much that it was a miracle that she could stand. Ben kissed her forehead, then cupped both of her cheeks and tilted her head back to peer into her shimmering eyes. They were like tidepools near a cloudy ocean, restless and brimming with life unexplored. He brushed her lips with his, tasting salt and warming with the sheer thought of comforting her with his presence. He moved to wrap his arms around her neck, Rey's arms answering by encircling his waist.
Rey looked over his shoulder, and he over her temple, the sight that pushed into them from the Force scarred them to their very core.
SW
Ben stands shivering from the fight he has just endured, his white robes stained red. Around him balls of orange light burst and descend into small stars dying. He moves forward, his hair sticking to his face and neck, his blue lightsaber still ignited. He looks up and sees her, Rey, moving towards him.
Though she is wearing black, the stench of blood and bodily release is upon her clothes. Behind her are the bodies of Poe Dameron, Rose Tico, and Finn. Finn's face is pointed towards them, his hands still clutching a smoking weapon, cut in half from Rey's crimson lightsaber.
They meet in the midst of the chaos, lightsabers spitting and buzzing. Ben is the first to turn off his lightsaber and takes Rey by the waist, taking his time to rub his free hand over her stomach, noting how big it had gotten. They kiss, the colors of their garments intertwining to create one bold color: gray.
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