Author's Note:
Thank you all again for following along and leaving comments. I love reading them. They really make my day.
I'm excited about this chapter, I hope you enjoy it.
Landing on Coruscant always took longer than it should. Traffic and regulations on overburdened government personnel caused backups each day. There didn't appear to be an tenable solution.
Rey sat in the cockpit beside Ben, patiently waiting in silence to land.
"We could just go home, and send a video speech back." Ben suggested again.
"You know that wouldn't be as effective." Rey said gently, as she had before. "We need to get people on our side and expose Phasma for the liar she..."
"We are not going to do anything to Phasma." Ben said firmly, his anger inching up to equal his fear, he wasn't really sure which emotion was which, just then.
"That's not our job, and it's not our place." He finished more quietly, working hard to keep everything under control.
The halls of the senate complex were unusually quiet as Rey and Ben made their way to Poe's office. Ben pulled a large suitcase behind him as he followed Rey down the hall. A door in front of them slid open with a hiss.
Rey fought the urge to skid to a stop when she saw the woman emerging from the doorway. The tall woman was the most imposing figure Rey had ever seen. A shock of blond hair fell in waves over her burn-scarred face where her light blue eyes shot like daggers at Ben and Rey.
"You came, in person, how predictable of you both." She crooned with a patronizing smile etched into her features.
"Phasma," Rey said by way of greeting.
"I suppose you are here to see your old comrade, Poe Dameron. I've just been to see him myself." Her face broke into a disconcerting smile, "Do enjoy your visit."
Rey nodded silently, and she hoped politely, as she stepped past her.
Rey could feel Ben bristle with frustration as he passed Phasma with a minimalistic, formal nod.
Rey held her tongue until the door closed behind them instead giving Ben and knowing look.
"Hey! You made it!" Poe strode towards them from the far reaches of the office spaces
Rey immediately sensed anxiety beneath his jovial greeting.
"It's good to see you," Rey said as Poe scooped her into a hug.
"You look great!" Poe said motioning to her growing abdomen.
Ben stepped closer to Rey, placing an arm around her shoulders. Rey knew it was his automatic response to nerves.
Poe gave Ben a friendly smile.
"Ben," he extended a hand for Ben to shake. The two had come a long way since Poe's interrogation after they met on Jakku but Rey could feel discomfort on both sides.
"We just met Phasma in the hall." Rey got down to business.
"Yeah, she just stopped by to draw my attention to some old First Order records." He answered, motioning to a monitor nearby.
"What kind of records?" Ben asked stepping closer to the monitor.
Poe shrugged, clearly confused. "Personnel records mostly, and these..." He tapped a few buttons, and video logs from six different camera angles popped up on the screen.
Ben crouched closer to the monitor, "Is that the Absolution?"
"Storm trooper training ship...yeah." Poe answered speeding the videos to triple speed all at once.
Rey felt her connection to the Force ripple slightly as the anxiety level in the room rose. Why had Phasma brought this data to them? What was she planning?
"We need to change clothes and get to the Senate chamber," she sighed. Whatever Phasma had in mind, she knew it would all become clear very soon.
"My fellow distinguished delegates..." Phasma's speech began much as her previous address had. Rey actually managed to drown her out a bit in her mind as she silently rehearsed her own speech.
C-3PO stood beside Ben, just behind her. It was nice to see him again in his most natural environment, all protocols and manners.
Her speech played like a recording in her own head.
But then she felt Ben's hand tighten uncomfortably tight around her own.
Her eyes flew up to him. Clearly, she had missed something important. Was it already her turn to speak?
Ben's gaze was trained on the screen above Phasma. Horror rolled off him in waves into the Force.
The screen showed him as Kylo Ren, dressed in black and masked. He was walking down a hallway. He passed a young girl with brown hair also dressed in the all black uniform that would later be covered in white storm trooper plates.
"Is that you on the Absolution?" Rey whispered.
Ben just nodded, his lips parting slightly but no sound emerged.
Phasma stopped the playback and zoomed in on the paused picture of the young girl who couldn't have been more than eight years old.
"This girl you see before you is none other than Rey Solo."
Rey was suddenly intensely aware that every eye in the chamber was now focused on her. She shook her head slightly, her eyes narrowed at the screen. She felt like nothing more than an observer to a play, a performance of some kind. That girl couldn't be her. Rey had never set foot in a space ship until she climbed aboard the Millennium Falcon with Finn.
"I don't understand what this is." She whispered, hoping only Ben could hear her.
When he didn't respond she turned her head to look at him.
"This is ridiculous, wouldn't you remember me? How can she even think this would work? I mean, you're in the same frame." She gestured to the screen.
Ben just stared at her silently, the horror turned to fear on his features.
"What is this?" She whispered again, but Phasma was going on.
"You see, while I had believed, as all of you had, I'm sure, that Rey was the child of gutter snipes from Jakku, there is evidence here that she is not who she has claimed to be."
Rey shook her head, confused and irritated by the charade. She grabbed the microphone droid in front of her and pushed the activation button harder than was entirely necessary.
"Phasma, this has gone on long enough, what are you getting at here, exactly? This isn't me." Rey waved her are in the direction of the screen with gusto, "I have no memory of being on a First Order ship and my husband doesn't remember this either."
Rey heard Ben suck in a breath at her words.
Something about that sound made her afraid.
Phasma's eyes made a very slow blink. Rey realized suddenly, without grasping the whole picture yet, that she had just played directly into the woman's hands.
"If you would be so good as to provide a DNA sample, we should be able to ascertain if it is a match with the old First Order personnel records." Phasma's mouth drew into a pout that if Rey hadn't known better, she might have taken for genuine. "As for what your husband remembers, that's really between the two of you. The important thing for this diplomatic body to know is who the two of you really are, as you apply to take impressionable children into your care for training purposes."
Rey exhaled suddenly in frustration and looked up at Ben.
"This whole thing is absurd," she quipped as she signaled to C-3PO to open the door for her.
She passed through to the hall outside the large chamber and lifting her hands to her hair in annoyance she turned on her heal to face Ben just as the door closed behind him.
"How could she think this would work? Of course the DNA won't match...is this a stalling tactic? Why didn't you speak up and say you didn't remember me." She didn't wait for him to respond, "Come on, let's find Poe, he'll know where I should go to get the sample taken."
"Rey, stop."
The tone of his voice made her blood run cold.
Slowly, she turned to face him.
"The DNA would be a match," he said quietly.