The Redemption of Ben Skywalker

by AngelofTartarus

Reylo AU. While the fight against Palpatine is over, the war is not finished. The First Order has regrouped and its generals have seized power in the absence of Kylo Ren and are continuing their mission to conquer the galaxy. Rey, Ben, Poe, and Finn must overcome their differences to defeat the First Order once and for all. Pairings: Reylo, Poe/Finn

16. Ah, My Old Nemesis

Chapter 16 - Ah, My Old Nemesis

---

"Not many inhabitable planets have that sort of view. Quite unique," said the woman Rey now knew to be the new Supreme Leader. It could only be Rokrisa Kandia, per Ben's previous descriptions of the woman. Her lips curved up in a shark-toothed smile. "Ajara in the Cademimu Sector. The base is on one of the satellite moons."

This couldn't be happening. Rey could hardly speak or move, she was so horrified. Who was this woman that she had identified where the base was by looking at a few planetoids? Rey's mind raced as she tried to think of something to do, of where they could go to escape the coming invasion force.

Kandia harshly reprimanded one of her officers who'd dared to question her orders. Rey's stomach dropped as Kandia focused a wrathful stare on the hapless officer. It was like looking into Snoke's soulless eyes again. Ben let out a tortured scream and his body involuntarily convulsed. Rey gasped as she felt the effects of what Kandia was doing to him reverberate through the dyad to her. It would have been kinder of Kandia to cut her way into Ben's stomach with a dull, rusty knife.

"Rey, what's happening?" Finn was in front of her, worried beyond belief. "What's wrong?"

But Rey couldn't answer him, looking beyond him and lost in the scene provided to her by the dyad.

The officer quailed before the Supreme Leader and backed off, stuttering apologies and racing to do as his commanding officer had ordered. The sight finally allowed Rey to find her voice.

"Order an evacuation," she said, not even trying to keep her horror at bay.

The situation was dire and they had little time to act. It might already be too late.

"What?" Poe asked. His back straightened and he looked upward as if expecting to see a dreadnought in the sky.

"Order an evacuation!" Rey raised her voice. "Now!"

She shoved Poe and Finn, spurring them toward the command center. She could tell them the reason for it later. Right now, they needed to get everyone off the planet!

"Too little too late, Miss Jedi," Kandia taunted, digging her fingernails into Ben's cheeks until red indentations formed. "You can't get everyone out before we arrive. All we need to do is to get in the vicinity of Ajara to determine which moon holds your pitiful little base. It'll be like D'Qar all over again, but this time the First Order will obliterate you."

Rey knew that Kandia was speaking the truth. It would happen if she couldn't get everyone out of here before the First Order arrived.

"Rey, go!" Ben shouted in a gravelly tone.

"But-" Rey shook her head. She wouldn't leave him!

"GO!"

Rey took a step back toward the base at his forceful plea.

"No, do stay," Kandia sweetly suggested. "It's just about to get interesting."

Kandia did something to Ben that caused his breath to stop for several seconds. A sickening lurch in her gut cued Rey that something abnormal was happening.

"Stop it! What are you doing to him?"

"I learned this little trick recently," Kandia leaned in close to Ben's face as if she was going to kiss him. "I wish you could have been there when I did this to Hux. He practically wilted."

"Hux is alive?" Ben croaked, growing paler by the second.

"That's a matter of opinion," Rokrisa shrugged in disinterested satisfaction. "Let's see if you fare any better. I doubt you will."

Rey felt an odd tugging sensation and for one terrifying second, she couldn't feel Ben. Then the bond was re-established and she felt Ben's panic first and foremost. He was trying to resist as Kandia pulled energy from him as easily as taking candy from a baby.

"No!" Rey shouted as she realized what Kandia was trying to do.

She pushed all she had through the dyad, imagining interlocking shields forming around Ben and deflecting any attempt to penetrate it. She felt Kandia dancing around the armor, testing it for weaknesses. Rey smugly knew she would find no chinks to exploit.

"Oh, that's nice," Kandia said with delight.

Rey gasped as the bitch didn't even try to break through the armor. She just placed a mental hand against it and absorbed the shields before latching back onto Ben's lifeforce.

"I swear, I will end you," Rey vowed, meaning it in her very core. "There's nowhere you can hide from me, you bitch."

"That's Supreme Leader bitch to you," Kandia replied immediately, her stormy gray eyes dancing with amusement. "Please, stay. You won't want to miss this."

Rey clutched at her chest as she suddenly felt bereft of energy. It was being pulled through the dyad straight into Kandia. Rey scrambled to cut the connection, but her attempts were useless and met with mild disdain from Kandia. She gasped as she couldn't breathe anymore and she fell to her knees, skinning them on the hard-packed dirt. As her vision was dimming, Rey felt Ben stop fighting Kandia. No! She wanted to tell him to keep fighting, but she couldn't make herself form the words. Ben was resolute and filled with a protective determination. Before Rey could question it, she felt something within her snap and the wretched pain sent her sprawling forward. Her nose smashed into the ground as color and light flooded back. She dry-retched and her breath came fast as she tried to reacclimate herself. When she looked up, the vision of the dreadnought had disappeared and Ben was nowhere to be seen.

"No!" she called out. "Ben!"

Despair filled her as she realized what Ben's aim had been. He had saved her but at the cost of his own life. She grappled for their link, but the frayed end floated in the ether, not leading anywhere. It was gone.

Her holoemitter buzzed rapidly, and Rey answered it even as she blinked back tears and withheld cries of grief. Lando and Wedge popped up as holograms, looking extremely concerned.

"We saw the evacuation command code was issued for your sector. No one else is answering our calls," Lando said hurriedly, sounding uncharacteristically harsh. "What is going on?"

"The First Order is coming," Rey told them, feeling wooden inside. "She killed Ben to discover the base's location."

Lando and Wedge were speechless at her pronouncement, unable to comprehend what she was saying. She could hardly believe it either. She wanted to curl into a ball and scream as she said the words, but she couldn't just yet. She needed to save everyone – her friends, her fellow fighters, the children.

"I'm sorry."

Rey looked at Wedge, hardly believing her ears.

"I'm sorry, Rey," he said earnestly. "I should have done something to prevent this."

"We all should have," Lando's voice wavered and he looked sick. "Han and Leia will never forgive me for this."

"We'll grieve later," Rey suppressed a sob. Could someone die from a broken heart? "We need to leave. Poe and Finn are leading the evacuation efforts."

"Leave all the non-essentials behind," Wedge cautioned her. "You need to get everyone off the planet and into hyperspace before the First Order arrives."

"Worry about the destination later," Lando agreed. "Just get everyone out of there."

Rey nodded curtly, grateful for the direction they were giving her.

"Do we need to start evacuating our bases as well?" Wedge asked her.

"I don't know," Rey shook her head. "I can't remember if anyone uttered the bases' names in Ben's earshot, but the Supreme Leader was only interested in Ajan Kloss. I don't think she got anything from his memories."

"She?" Lando asked curiously.

"Yes, the new Supreme Leader. Her name is Rokrisa Kandia," Rey nodded numbly. "She used to be an officer under Ben's command."

"I don't remember hearing any intelligence reports about her," Lando frowned in concern. "I'll look into it."

"You better get going, Rey," Wedge prompted her. "Protect your people."

"I will," Rey grabbed onto the order with desperation, making it her new purpose so she wouldn't dwell on the last few moments she'd seen Ben. "We'll contact you when we're clear. The codeword will be 'firefly'."

"For the spy Maz had?" Lando noted. "I like it. We'll await your transmission."

Rey closed the holoemitter and got moving, running as fast as she could back to the base. Organized mayhem had ensued. Every single person was running as they worked to get things packed, and Rey spread the word to only pack the essentials. The comms tower was being disassembled with blazing speed and the crucial components were being carted to the shipyard. Rey helped them by levitating the larger parts. She left them next to a large scout ship for the comms team to load onto the starship.

A loud commotion sounded near the tree line where Sek'min and Zala were congregated with the children. They were in half a panic as they anxiously surveyed the jungle for something.

"What's wrong?" Rey asked them seriously.

"We were playing a bird-finding game when the call for evacuation started," Zala's fangs were extended, responding to her panic. "Three of the children didn't come back when we called. The new kids who came to us from Canto Bight."

"We told them not to go out of our sight," Sek'min reminded her. "They must have gotten trapped."

"Or worse," Rey couldn't help pointing out.

A jungle was full of predators and a small child was easy prey. Her heart hurt at the thought of anything happening to the inquisitive Temiri and his friends.

"Oh, please let that not have happened!" Zala clutched the children at her waist close to her.

"Pack your things and the children's belongings and get onto a starship. I'll search for them," Rey promised and plunged into the jungle.

If Temiri, Arashell, and Oniho had indeed kept within sight of their caretakers as they'd played the game, they shouldn't be far. But as she searched the trees and the underbrush for the children, she found nothing. She called out for them, but there was no answer. Where could they have gone? They didn't have the time for her to do a meditative search. Her thoughts went to an old war vid where a missile with heat-seeking technology had gone after a target. Could she employ the same strategy here?

Without even doubting if it would work, Rey raised her fingers to her lips and blasted a long, shrill whistle. She closed her eyes and let her mind follow the sound waves as they spread out. Small animals fled and vegetation leaves fluttered as the sound reached them. One wave dipped suddenly and Rey immediately moved to go investigate. Thirty paces from the base, there was a deep crevice that one could hardly see until they stepped onto it. If Rey hadn't known it was there, she would have fallen right in. The edges were comprised of a mass of broken rocks and earth and were crumbling even as she watched. The nearby vegetation was flattened as if someone had stepped on it recently. She unclipped her lightsaber and ignited it, using the glow to see into the fissure.

"Temiri, Arashell, Oniho!" she called out.

"Rey! We're down here!" called out a faint high-pitched voice.

Temiri was clutching onto a bit of rock with both hands while Arashell and Oniho were holding onto his legs. She couldn't see how deep the crevasse was. The kids were lucky to have found purchase on the walls at all to stop their fall. Temiri was strong to have held himself and the other two for many long minutes.

"Don't move!" Rey ordered.

She breathed in deeply, centering herself and gathering Force energy. Remembering the times she'd woven baskets together to hold machined parts on Jakku, she wove the energy strands together into an unbreakable net that could hold the three. In one fluid move, she gathered the net around the children and envisioned the energy moving upward as if pulled by a rope. The children squeaked as they were caught in the flow and safely returned to the surface.

"Any broken bones? Any deep cuts?" Rey looked them over with a critical eye as she moved them all a safe distance away from the crevasse.

"No, just a few scrapes and bruises from when we fell," Temiri reported, showing her his shaking hands which were marred from the fall. "We were trying to get close to a flock of purple-beaked birds to count how many there were. We didn't see the pit until it was too late."

Rey nodded and pushed healing energy into the wounds to get the process started. She gave him a little extra to combat the strain his muscles had undergone from supporting not only his weight but his friends' weights too. She helped Oniho and Arashell and then ushered them all back toward the shipyard. She didn't have the time to fully heal them yet.

"Why are all the alarms blaring?" Oniho asked.

"We're evacuating the base," Rey responded as she urged them to hurry. "The First Order has discovered our location."

"How can we help?" Arashell asked, her downtrodden face showcasing her guilt for pulling Rey away from her duties to track them down.

"I need you three to look after each other and the other children," Rey told them as they stepped into the shipyard. The caretakers were relieved as they saw her reappear with the missing kids. "Stay with Sek'min and Zala and do as they tell you."

The three nodded their understanding.

"Rey?" Temiri tugged on her sleeve, getting her attention. "Everything is going to be okay."

Rey swallowed hard. "I hope so." She conjured up a smile and straightened his cap for him.

"It will be," he bobbed his head. "You'll see."

Temiri rejoined the group, following Zala's direction for them all to board a freighter.

"MOVE THOSE FUEL CONVERTERS!" Baso shouted nearby at full volume, gesturing where she wanted her mechanics to store parts. "LEAVE THE CLEANING SOLUTIONS. WE CAN GET NEW BATCHES!"

Baso's attention was diverted as she saw a Resistance fighter struggle to keep a stack of containers upright as they wheeled it up a ramp. Rey ran to help as the chief put her shoulder against the column to stabilize it.

"I hear we have you to thank for the evacuation alert," Baso grunted as she pushed the overweight containers into the starship.

"And Ben," Rey nodded.

"So he did have something to do with it," Baso remarked in surprise. "I'll have to thank him when we get him back."

Rey ducked her head, fighting back hot tears.

Baso cursed under her breath and then thumped Rey's back in a comforting manner.

"Don't assume anything until you see a body," Baso said bluntly. "I learned that lesson the hard way."

Rey nodded, knowing the chief made a good point. After all, Baso had been around a lot longer than she. But Rey knew what she saw.

"I'll finish up here. You might want to go help the healers," Baso suggested as they went back down the ramp. "I heard there was some issue with getting Tawna out of her tent."

"On it," Rey acknowledged.

She passed by Rose who was directing the breakdown of the rehydration machines and gathering of the food stores. That was one thing that was hard to come by no matter where they went.

"We can't knock her out."

"It may come to that. We don't have the time to coax her from the tent."

Rey heard the debate raging as she joined the group outside the tent that had used to be Ben's before Tawna had claimed it. She checked her wristwatch. It'd been twenty minutes since Kandia had given the order for her dreadnoughts to travel to their sector. They didn't have much more time to spare.

"Commander," Mixa greeted her as she emerged from the sea of tents. "We would welcome your insight. Tawna has yet to exit her feral state."

"We can't use knockout gas," Larma brought her up to speed. "It could harm both her and the baby."

"She's not going to leave the tent for any reason," another healer argued.

"Her daughter," Rey offered, thinking quickly. "Would Tawna leave the safety of the tent for Ava?"

"Perhaps, but if we have Ava call for her, Tawna is going to assume she's in danger," Mixa said thoughtfully. "We'll need to cordon off part of a ship so Tawna won't maul anyone."

"The children are already on a freighter," Rey told him and Larma. "I'll let you work out the details with Zala."

Rey went back to the shipyard to check on the evacuation progress. There were still a few things they could have packed, but she urged the dawdling fighters to abandon the items they were fiddling with and get onto a starship. The shipyard was getting quite crowded as everyone prepared to flee the planet. The pilots were in full flight gear in case they needed to go into battle. Crates and crates of weapons and supplies were being pushed onto starships. Captains maintained order by directing supplies and Resistance fighters onto ships. She made eye contact with Finn on the other side of the clearing and he nodded, indicating the evacuation was going well.

"Rey!"

She turned to see it was Rose calling her. Her friend tossed a bulging pack into her arms. A quick check showed it was stuffed with her belongings from her tent.

"Thanks," Rey nodded in gratitude. She hadn't even given a thought about collecting her things.

"Everyone is either on a starship or in the shipyard. Zala and Sek'min have prepared their freighter to welcome Tawna and the baby on board," she reported. "All they need is a pilot to get the ship over there."

"You and me, then."

Rey led the way to the freighter. A path had been cleared to a side room and filled with blankets and some food. Ava was sitting on the blankets, holding Zala's hand tightly.

"We're going to go get your mother now, Ava," Rey told the girl. "I'm sure Zala has talked to you about it, but once we give you the signal," she nodded at the comlink the girl was holding tight. "We need you to call your mother to you."

"I can do it," Ava nodded seriously.

"Brave heart now, little one," Zala hugged her. "We'll see you soon, but use the comlink if you need to talk."

The adults left the little girl in the room and hopped over the barricades to get to the portal leading to the rest of the ship. They sealed it firmly and climbed up the ladder to the second level. Zala joined the parents and children and a few random fighters in the main area while Rey and Rose continued on to take seats in the cockpit.

They worked together seamlessly to fire the starship's engines. Rey lifted off carefully so she wouldn't bump into any of the other ships taking off straight up. They would stay in orbit until the rest of the fleet joined them. Rose engaged the stabilizers as Rey guided the ship over to the tents. With a crunch, she set the ship down on the tents near the feral Jixiti's shelter, flattening the masses of canvas and support limbs. As the ramp lowered, she saw the healer team running over and coming on board.

"Larma, is your team in position?" Rose spoke into a comlink.

"We're ready," Larma confirmed.

Rose switched frequencies to Ava's comlink.

"Ava, we're ready for you to call your mother. Make it loud," Rose added the last as she heard the cacophony coming from the shipyard.

"Okay," Ava timidly replied.

They heard her take several deep breaths. A wailing cry rose in the air, giving them goosebumps. Rey felt the call for help sinking into her cells and urging her to go to the child's aid. She fidgeted and had to force herself to stay seated. She could only imagine how it would affect Tawna.

An answering screech rented the air, a call of rage and a promise to hurt whoever was to blame for hurting her child. Rose switched back to Larma, waiting for confirmation.

"She's in the starship with the baby, but she's not entering the room," Larma reported in a mere whisper. "Standby."

Another wail rose into the air, but it wasn't coming from Ava. Rey cursed as she recognized the sound. It was the long-distance proximity sensors that were configured to go off when unregistered starships were approaching.

"Damn it," Rose cursed as she heard the new alarms too. She switched her comlink to speak with Ava. "One more time, Ava. Give it all you've got."

Another call from Ava sounded, a noise of panic and fear that urged her mother to come to her. Tawna growled protectively and rustling could be heard as she entered the makeshift nest. Then there was a loud clang and the yowl of an angry, trapped Jixiti.

"Tawna is secured in the room," Larma reported with a sigh of relief. "The rest of my team is onboard. Go, go, go!"

"Engaging the thrusters," Rey said as she pushed the freighter upward to join the other starships in orbit.

Poe's voice sounded over the comms and they turned up the volume to hear him better.

"I repeat, everyone get into space right now. The First Order is approaching."

Poe's X-wing fell back to join Rey at the end of the pack so he could make sure everyone made it to safety. The navigation dashboard lit up as information was pushed to it.

"Enter these coordinates. Prepare to jump to hyperspace in five seconds."

Every starship engine fired up as they prepared to follow Finn in the Falcon at the head of their fleet. With a flash of blue, the Falcon disappeared. One by one, the starships followed him and entered hyperspace. At the back, Rey was one of the last. As she flipped the toggle and the starship accelerated, she saw two dreadnoughts materialize on the far side of Ajara near the white moon that was at the apogee of its orbit.

"That was cutting it close," Rose's eyes widened as she'd also noticed the dreadnoughts before they left the sector.

"Too close, but we made it," Rey let out a bark of laughter. She gave a thumbs up to Poe who was flying close to them in the hyperspace stream. She could see him laughing with a hint of hysteria. "Thank the stars. Their navigators messed up the exit coordinates."

They wouldn't have a repeat of D'Qar. They'd evacuated in time and the First Order had come out of hyperspace just far enough away from Ajan Kloss where any tracking technology should be useless. If only their accomplishment hadn't come at the cost of losing Ben.

-oOoOoOo-

Earlier

"You look like you've seen a ghost," Hux reached out a hand to steady Ben.

Ben blinked in surprise as the hand made contact with his shoulder. He'd half expected it to go through him, as befitted a figment of his imagination. But no. Hux was alive and he was helping him for some reason.

"Five minute warning. Prepare to jump to hyperspace."

"We need to get moving," Hux told him as the warning repeated. "Otherwise, we'll miss our chance to get off the ship."

He hauled Ben to his feet, supporting his weight with one arm. Ben grimaced as his reanimated limbs were forced to move. He couldn't help the cry of pain that emitted from his throat and he blacked out for a few seconds.

"Why are you helping me?" Ben rasped after the black spots faded from his vision and he felt like he could speak without throwing up.

"I'm a friend of the Resistance," Hux replied.

"Bullshit," Ben retorted, not even trying to hide his suspicion.

Hux was many things, but he wasn't a friend to the Resistance. Even when he'd provided intelligence to them the previous year, it hadn't been because he'd had a crisis of conscience. He'd done it because he was a self-absorbed, petty asshole.

"Why are you really doing this?"

"I know I don't look like a Resistance supporter, but you're just going to have to trust me," Hux beseeched him with earnest eyes. He grabbed a blaster off the floor and held it out for Ben to take with his good left hand. "Here, take this if it makes you feel better. We can talk after we escape this hellhole."

Ben grabbed the proffered blaster and shrugged off Hux's attempts to help him walk. He wouldn't accept his rival's help even if it meant he would eventually collapse onto the hard, shiny floors. He lurched into an uneven gait, following Hux down one of the many corridors.

"Why are you trying to escape the First Order?" Ben asked, unable to help his curiosity.

"If you're not an officer, they don't treat you very well," Hux said as he entered a code to open a door. "For a technician like myself who's been relegated to sanitation duties, you can see why I'd want to leave."

A technician? Ben gave Hux a searching stare. There was no doubt about it. This man was his old nemesis, General Armitage Hux, the die-hard fascist who'd been at his side since he'd joined the First Order. Yet he was so different than the man that Ben had known. What the kriff was going on?

"Besides, I'm shit at taking orders," Hux said with a small chuckle. "I would have programmed a starship to take me away on autopilot, but they keep a sharp eye on every ship that enters and leaves."

"Two minute warning. Prepare to enter hyperspace."

The warning triggered a memory and Ben gasped as he recalled the danger to Rey and the base. He grabbed Hux's arm and pulled him to a stop. His nemesis turned to him in concern and reached out to steady him, thinking he was going to topple. Ben impatiently smacked it aside.

"The First Order is going to attack the Resistance base," he informed Hux. "We need to stop the invasion, or at least delay it."

"We're not really in any position to stop a hyperspace jump," Hux gestured for him to keep moving. "But don't worry. As it so happens, I managed to adjust the navigation charts. The Vespira will arrive on the far side of the planet away from the inhabitable planetoids. That should give our friends enough time to flee."

"How did you accomplish that?" Ben wondered. Hux had never shown much interest in data consoles besides figuring out which missiles to fire.

"Hacked into the main computer," Hux motioned for him to stop as they heard a squad of officers approaching. They remained quiet and out of sight until the group passed. "I was downloading data to take with me when the attack order was issued. The only way I could see to help and not get caught was to adjust the coordinates slightly."

"And you managed all that as a lowly janitor?" Ben asked sardonically.

Hux hesitated, looking uncertain.

"I used to have a command code," he muttered, like it was a secret. "It was child's play for me to reactivate it to my biosignatures. But it was a one-shot thing, so I only used it once I was sure I could escape."

The ship vibrated and Ben grabbed onto a console to hold himself steady as the dreadnought entered hyperspace. He stared at Hux, hardly believing this was the same man he'd known for more than a decade. Something traumatic must have happened for his whole personality to change, and it seemed like most of his memories had been suppressed or wiped. What other reason was there for Hux not recognizing him?

"Dammit," Hux uttered and checked his watch. "It won't take long for the Vespira to get there. We really need to hurry. Our ride is in the main hangar and if we don't get there before we exit hyperspace, we'll miss our chance when the fighters are deployed."

"Then how were you planning to escape before?" Ben asked in exasperation, trying to make Hux reveal his hand as they passed through corridor after corridor. "I don't think another invasion was scheduled."

"A scouting trip to survey a moon for Dedlanite resources was planned for today," he replied as he used a control panel to extend a bridge between ship sections. "It'll be harder to defect during this strike, but we'll manage."

"There he is!" shouted a commanding voice.

They looked down the hall at the squad of stormtroopers that had stepped through a set of blast doors. The lead one was pointing at Ben. There was no time to backtrack as the bridge had already retracted, so Hux grabbed him firmly by the arm and shoved him sideways into the closest room, which turned out to be a small observation deck. There were floor-to-ceiling transparent walls that allowed them to see the beauty of hyperspace.

"She wants him alive! Kill the redhead!"

"Well, that doesn't bode well for me," Hux muttered sardonically.

"I wonder what made Kandia change her mind," Ben speculated, doubting that she'd had a change of heart. She would actually need a heart to do that. "Options? They don't have blasters, but we're sitting ducks in here. Nothing to hide behind, nothing to form a blockade."

"We'll have to take them out," Hux surveyed the sparse room quickly. "You get on the far side of the room and draw their attention. Take down as many as you can with your blaster. I'll subdue the rest."

"With what?" Ben raked his eyes over Hux's form, not seeing a single weapon or where he could have hidden one.

"Stop arguing," Hux nudged him as stormtroopers thundered down the hall towards them. "Get over there!" he ordered, expecting the command to be followed.

Ben huffed and stumbled across the room to take up a defensive position while Hux plastered himself flush against the wall. The first stormtrooper foolishly charged headlong into the room and Ben fired at them, his haphazard aim making his shots sporadically hit them in non-lethal spots. His vision was still fuzzy and his grip unwieldy from the hypothermia, but he did his best to keep their attention on him instead of Hux. The stormtroopers pushed their way into the room, aiming their laser electrorods at him.

When the entire squad had breached the room, Hux peeled away from the wall and slipped behind them. There was a split second where Ben thought Hux was going to abandon him like the coward he was, but then there was a startled scream and a stormtrooper fell to the floor. The others whirled around to address the new threat, giving Ben a clear view of Hux. He'd drawn silver daggers seemingly out of nowhere.

In close combat range, the stormtroopers didn't stand a chance. Hux slashed with the silver weapons in quick strikes, moving from soldier to soldier with astounding prowess. Each one cried out as they tried to shield themselves and failed.

"Just a technician?" Ben said sarcastically in the silence that fell. What a liar. "You're a soldier. Don't deny it."

"I do deny it," Hux said with a darkening expression as he wiped the blades clean. "I'm not a fighter. Far from it, in fact."

"Then what are you?" Ben asked in disbelief.

Hux wielded his blades very well for someone who claimed not to be a soldier. That kind of speed and skill took years of training to develop.

"I'm first and foremost an inventor," said Hux as he shrank the silver blades and stored them in his jacket. "And then a mechanic. I like building things."

"So you claim."

Ben knew otherwise. General Hux liked to destroy things: lives, careers, planets. He wasn't particularly picky. Hux must be faking this personality change. This had to be a trap to get Ben to lower his guard and reveal confidential information. But no, Kandia already had the upper hand. She wouldn't think up this convoluted subterfuge as she had nothing to gain from it. Ben didn't know what to think anymore.

"Who are you, really?"

The bright white in the room that came from hyperspace travel dimmed suddenly and the starship vibrated as the view inverted and became a broad expanse of space. A large gas giant with double rings filled up half the window that Ben recognized with a sickening lurch. They had arrived at the location of the Resistance base. Ben and Hux looked at each other in defeat, knowing they were still several minutes away from the main hangar and wouldn't make it before the invasion forces deployed. The dreadnought steadily moved towards a bright green planet on the far side of the gas giant. A few stars twinkled by the moon, a trick of light.

The comlink on Hux's utility belt started clicking and he quickly answered it.

"I'm here."

"Where the kriff are you? You were supposed to meet me twenty minutes ago," responded a male voice.

"I ran into some trouble."

"Well, deal with it and hurry up," said the man with no small amount of irritation. "The fleet is going to get the order to deploy any minute now. It's been delayed only because something went wrong with the exit coordinates. We came out of hyperspace too soon."

"There's been a change of plans," Hux explained. "We have an extra passenger. The captured Resistance fighter."

"What? No, this wasn't a part of the deal. I didn't sign up for this," The man freaked out, his voice agitated. "I took a chance, agreeing to help you escape, but this is too high of a risk! We're going to get caught and Kandia will rip us apart! We have to call it off."

"Calm your shit," Hux cut across him sharply, channeling his previous persona of a First Order general. "Follow the plan."

"In case you forgot, I need you in order to defect without a trace. So unless you can teleport to my starship, you won't get here in time."

"I can still salvage this escape plan," Hux assured him.

Over the comlink, they heard an order given to deploy and the pilot uttered an inaudible curse.

"I can stall for a minute, maybe two," the man said. "What's the plan?"

Hux stepped out into the corridor and looked around for something. His gaze caught on something and he smiled.

"Escape pods. We'll eject in an escape pod," Hux told his co-conspirator. "Keep a lock on my signal."

"You're crazy," Ben muttered.

"My best plans are crazy."

Hux wrapped an arm around him and helped over the fallen bloody stormtroopers. They half ran down the corridor towards the escape pod bay.

"Security will notice… that the escape pods are firing," Ben huffed and puffed as he forced his limbs to move. He felt like an old droid whose parts were rusting and becoming unhinged.

"It'll take me a few more seconds, but I can make it seem like a system glitch," Hux assured him as he opened the door to one pod.

Ben climbed into the cramped space and shielded his broken arm as Hux followed him in and tried not to lie on top of him as he situated himself. They were both large men and it was a severely small space they were trying to share. Hux entered a sequence on the door panel and the hatch closed. Seconds passed as Hux coded something.

Ben was about to ask him what was taking so long when the pod ejected with a jolt. Through the small window, Ben could see other escape pods from the section had also been expelled from the dreadnought. They were freefalling through space and the invasion force jerked around them to avoid a crash as they continued toward the jungle moon. Some ships slowed down and pursued the floating escape pods; they must have gotten an order to retrieve them.

"Fuck," Ben groaned as he saw their plan falling apart before their eyes.

"Relax, this is all a part of the plan. Retrieving the escape pods gives us the cover to escape without suspicion," Hux told him.

Ben wanted to argue that his logic was weak. They could just as easily be recaptured.

"Have you got a lock on us?" Hux spoke into his comlink. He entered a sequence into the console panel as one starship approached them. Their escape pod gently maneuvered out of the way and the retrieval vessel began to turn around to come back at them. "I can't evade them forever."

"I have you," confirmed their pilot.

A larger starfighter that had been lagging behind approached them before the other starship could. The escape pod rocked as a harpoon pierced the secondary hull and reeled them in. Once they were secured against the starfighter, it flew back toward the dreadnought. As they passed under the belly of the super star destroyer, a blind spot, the starship jumped into hyperspace. The walls rattled around them, but Ben couldn't care about this new peril as he succumbed to his weariness and dropped unconscious.

It took Ben a moment to reorient himself to his surroundings as his consciousness materialized in an officer's quarters of a dreadnought.

"I fail to see the benefit in our alliance anymore, Kandia. Your failure to follow my orders is unacceptable."

"There's no need to be hasty, ma'am," Kandia paced in front of a large hologram emitter on the floor. "We still have much to offer each other."

"And yet, I am the one giving more than I am receiving."

Ben's form had taken shape behind the emitter, so he could only see Kandia's face. From what he could see, she was speaking to another high-ranking officer. They were both cloaked in an eerie gray aura that shouldn't have been visible to the naked eye.

"You had no right to order his execution," said the life-size hologram of the mystery woman. "I told you I wanted him alive. He's of no use to us dead."

Who was this person, Ben wondered, and what did she want with him? He didn't recognize her voice.. at least he thought he didn't. He wished he could move around the table so he could see her face, but his legs were like lead weights.

"The stormtroopers I left him with aren't answering their comlinks and there's security footage of him going across one of the connector bridges with a technician," Kandia reported with a hint of relief. Ben wondered who could rattle her this much when she was already the leader of a powerful organization. "He escaped. So there's been no harm done."

The unknown woman raised an open hand and swung at the First Order leader. The pixels reached Kandia's cheek and the slap actually made contact. Kandia twisted with the force of the blow and let out a surprised cry. She straightened and raised a hand to her face. A vivid red mark was already forming on half her face and some strands of her fine, baby-blonde hair had come loose from its tight bun.

"You fool. You got lucky," the other woman spat. "If your soldiers had been less incompetent, he would have been lost and then I would have seen the First Order obliterated."

"Do not dare to threaten us," Kandia said sharply, her eyes going cold with poisonous intent. "I can destroy you and your organization without a thought if the fancy strikes me."

Her words were choked off as the woman raised her hand and fashioned it into a closed fist. The eerie gray smoke that surrounded her in the spiritual plane slithered its way to Kandia and wound tentacles around her neck. Kandia clutched at the invisible force and her eyes widened with growing panic as she gasped for air.

"Your forces are fragmented and depleted. All that remains is a shell of a once mighty army," the woman calmly stated, unrelenting in her grip. She raised her hand slightly and Kandia's toes left the floor. "Your superior numbers mean nothing without a unified leadership and my resources. As you can see, it wouldn't be hard for me to decimate you and your generals. There's nowhere you can hide from us, so I suggest you lose the attitude and show some humility."

The woman released Rokrisa with a suddenness that sent her sprawling to the floor of her quarters like a marionette whose strings had been cut. Kandia jerked upright, forcing herself to unbend from the submissive position. She rose to her feet and faced the hologram emitter again. She bowed her head in a show of deference, but Ben could see a spark of spite in her eyes. He wondered if that came through on the hologram as well. If it did, the other woman said nothing about it.

"You will issue new orders for no harm to come to Ben or Kylo or whatever he is calling himself these days. If you cross paths with him, you are to capture him alive and deliver him to me immediately… unharmed. If you dare to creatively interpret my orders or cross me again-"

"I will find him and deliver him to you," Kandia vowed, her posture stiff and cowed. "As for the other part of our deal-"

"You get nothing else until he stands before me," the woman hissed and harshly grabbed Kandia's wrist in a scarily tangible grip and forced her to look at the ornate, dark silver bracelet she wore. "Until then, this is all you will receive."

"Yes, ma'am," Kandia said with a hint of bitterness.

The mystery woman turned away, done with the conversation. In doing so, she revealed part of her face to Ben. She blinked in surprise as her eyes met his and her lips twitched up to form a smile that could have been predatory or in relief.

He knew her. He didn't know from where or how he knew, but he did. Ben struggled to memorize her face, but he had a feeling he would forget this vision the moment he woke up. Kandia was moving to turn off the emitter as the woman opened her mouth to call out to him. But in the next second, she disappeared and Ben woke up with a gasp.

"Steady on," murmured Hux as he finished splinting Ben's broken arm with the odds and ends available in the escape pod and strips of fabric from the hem of his shirt. "You're safe."

The walls of the escape pod still rattled alarmingly around them, making a huge racket. Hux motioned for him to sit up so he could fit his arm with a sling.

"We're still in hyperspace?" Ben asked, sitting up and allowing his formal rival to help him secure his arm.

"Yes, we need to get out of range of the Vespira and the Retribution before we can board the starship," Hux explained. "You weren't out of it for long. Five minutes or so."

Ben nodded and relaxed against the vibrating hull, trying to block out the pain from his wounded arm. Honestly, everything hurt. No wonder he'd blacked out. Something teased at the edge of his mind, reminding him something important had happened in his dreams. But as always in such cases, he couldn't remember what he was supposed to remember.

The escape pod rocked and the hardened metal creaked, drawing his full attention. It wasn't built to withstand the pressures of hyperspace travel and it was buckling.

"Don't worry, it'll hold," Hux said, noticing his unease as he adjusted the length of the sling. "Probably." He whispered under his breath.

"How reassuring," Ben said sarcastically.

"We'll get out of this safely," Hux said simply. "You can trust me on that."

"Can I?" Ben voiced his concern before he could stop himself. The inquiry was loaded with a thousand unspoken questions.

"Of course," Hux said with a charming, roguish smile. "In the time that you've known me, have I steered you wrong?"

Ben just stared at the former general, not knowing what to say. In a nutshell, the answer was no, he did not trust Hux. The man he'd known would have taken the opportunity to shoot him if he lay unconscious before him.

Hux's eyes flicked up to meet his gaze and his smile dropped as he read the emotion in Ben's eyes.

"Fuck. We know each other, don't we?"

"That's the understatement of the millennia," Ben said with a huff of laughter.

"How… how is that possible?" Hux's eyebrows met as he frowned. "You're a Resistance fighter. I've never had much face-to-face contact with the Resistance."

"I wasn't always with the Resistance. It's a recent development," Ben found it ludicrous that he had to explain this to Hux. "We served the First Order alongside each other. I probably know you better than anyone."

"I doubt that," Hux said in rebuttal, shaking his head. "I haven't let anyone know my true self since I was fourteen."

"People change," Ben stated. He certainly wasn't the same person as his fourteen-year-old self.

"Not me," Hux said earnestly. "If I worked for the First Order at your side, then I was a traitor waiting for my chance to do the most damage."

"I don't know about that, but you certainly got in my way the majority of the time," Ben smirked. He considered the man in front of him. "Your memory must have been wiped or suppressed after the final battle at Exegol."

"I don't remember what happened at Exegol," Hux confirmed with a nod. "In fact, I'm drawing a blank for the past fifteen years. The first thing I remember is waking up on the Vespira in a detention cell. I was covered in cuts and bruises and my chest ached with what felt like the fire of a thousand suns. I must have been…"

"Tortured," Ben said, recognizing the symptoms. Hell, he'd better since he was going through it right now. "If they found out you were feeding intelligence to the Resistance, they would have done anything to extract information from you."

"I don't know. I sort of got the feeling it had been done simply because of who I was," Hux rubbed a phantom wound on his chest. "For whatever reason, they decided not to kill me. I was assigned to all the worst sanitation duties. I suspected it was revenge for something, so I took the time to heal and then I went searching for information. I found my command codes and the basics of who I was." He looked sick to his stomach. "The things I've had to do…"

"How do you know you didn't come to enjoy it?" Ben asked. Hux would have been an amazing actor if he hadn't thrown his lot in with the First Order.

"Because I wouldn't have let myself enjoy it. I may not remember the past fifteen years, but I remember how I joined the First Order," Hux said darkly. "They conquered the planet I was living on and my mother and I were brought before the commanding officer. He killed my mother in cold blood and I was conscripted as a soldier. I vowed to destroy him and the First Order no matter what it took."

"Oh," Ben said lamely. "I never knew."

He'd known little about Hux's backstory. He'd heard rumors about his fucked up relationship with his father, but he'd never cared to know what had happened to Hux's mother.

"Obviously, something went wrong if my memory has such a huge gap in it," Hux lightened up as the topic shifted away from his mother. "I've been planning my escape ever since I woke up and I finally got the chance after you were captured. So, in a roundabout way, thanks."

"I wouldn't say it was my pleasure, but you're welcome, Hux," Ben rolled his eyes.

"Call me Zari," Hux – now Zari – insisted. "That's who I was before I became General Armitage Hux," He extended his hand. "Zari Hatalan."

"Well met, Zari," Ben shook his hand. He liked this version of the man better.

"Remind me who you are?" Zari asked with a slight blush of embarrassment.

"Right," Ben wondered how best to reintroduce himself. He had amassed quite a few monikers in his time. "I'm-"

They exited hyperspace with no warning whatsoever and Zari was thrown bodily onto him. Ben screamed in agony as Zari elbowed him in the lightsaber wounds on his leg.

"Kriff, sorry," Zari disentangled their limbs and threw himself back to the other side of the capsule. He activated his comlink. "What the fuck! Give us a warning. He is injured, you know."

"Had to exit a little early," the pilot replied. "The clamps were starting to fail. Didn't want you to disintegrate in the hyperspace stream."

"Yeah, we don't want that," Zari said. "How long until you can get us on board?"

"I'm cutting into the hull now." The pilot's statement was accompanied by a flurry of sparks above their heads with the smell of burning metal.

"Bloody hell," Zari brushed the flaming metal out of his red hair. He extended a hand to Ben. "Come on. It won't take long."

Sparks not from the breach flashed in Ben's eyes as he stood up. He wobbled as a wave of dizziness swept over him.

"Hey, are you okay?" Zari tightened his grip on him. "We have to move fast once the hull is breached. The pod won't last long."

"I'll be fine," Ben grumbled. "Worry about yourself."

The walls of the pod turned a cherry red and the incisions were white hot as a large hole was formed for them. The excess metal fell away from them into the starship and a blaring alarm sounded that a pressurization failure was happening. A gloved hand gestured at them rapidly.

Ben was the first to climb through the portal at Zari's urging. He banged his knee on the cooling metal as the pod jolted and bit back a yelp. The pilot grabbed fistfuls of his shirt and unceremoniously yanked him through.

"One of the clamps is gone! Hurry!" shouted the man.

Ben rolled away from the entrance and Zari clambered through after him. The pilot rushed to seal the hatch. And not a second too soon, as they heard the clamps pop, followed closely by the sound of the escape pod detaching and imploding.

"Stars above, another close call," Zari laughed and gave a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness that's all over. I've had my fair share of close calls today."

Ben hoisted himself into a sitting position and relaxed against the cool metal wall. He sighed in relief, feeling like he wasn't in peril for the first time in days.

"What the fuck!"

Ben tensed as he looked up at the pilot who had defected. The man was rapidly backing away. He couldn't tell what the man looked like. His features were completely obscured by the black helmet he'd put on to protect his face from flying sparks.

"You said he was a Resistance fighter!" The man pointed a shaking finger at Ben. "He's not a Resistance fighter! He's the furthest thing from one of them. He's… fuck!"

"Calm down. It's fine," Zari insisted.

"It is not fine!" He gestured with his hands furiously. "That's Kylo Ren! I am not going to transport him! He'll kill us both and if by some miracle he doesn't, then Kandia will!"

"Does he look like he's in any state to commit murder?" Zari rolled to his feet and came to help Ben. "Besides, Kandia was torturing him and trying to execute him."

"Good. He deserves it," said the defector with satisfaction.

"I don't know why he switched sides, but he has. We have to help him," Zari censured him.

"I will not. I know what he's capable of," The pilot refused to relent. "You may have a messed up memory, but I don't."

"Our interests are currently aligned. Don't antagonize him and you'll be fine," Zari reasoned. He took a small box out of his pocket and pressed a button. After it emitted a beep, he handed it to the pilot. "Now get the ship back into hyperspace. We need to keep moving."

"I don't believe this. You're going to get us killed, Hatalan," the pilot muttered and fled to the cockpit.

Ben hobbled to the passenger cabin with Zari's aid.

"How'd you gain his trust?" Ben grunted as he took a seat on the floor just as the starship rumbled and entered hyperspace again. "You were just as bad as I was."

"I helped him conceal the evidence when he shoved his commanding officer into a trash compactor."

Zari held himself steady with one hand and grabbed a med kit with the other. He ripped open the package for a bacta spray with his teeth and aimed the bottle at the lightsaber wounds on Ben's legs. He grunted as the cold spray hit. He hadn't realized the cuts had opened up again.

"So you're Kylo Ren," Zari said, his voice devoid of emotion.

"I don't go by that name anymore," Ben stretched his legs out to reduce the irritation that came from muscle and skin knitting back together.

"But you were him."

"Yes," Ben confirmed.

Zari administered the spray efficiently, getting every patch of ruined flesh on his legs and chest. He applied a numbing agent to his shattered arm. Ben wondered what he was thinking.

"I didn't make the connection," Zari finally said. "I suppose I should have, given that you said you know me better than I know myself. There's no other First Order officer I would have spent enough time with for that to make sense."

"Regretting your decision to help me?" Ben knowingly asked. It had only been a matter of time.

"I don't know how I feel," Zari said honestly. " I read about you when I went searching for answers. There were no pictures, but there was plenty of information about your life and dealings with the First Order." He paused and a hint of unease flashed across his face. "Obviously a lot has changed since the events of Exegol."

"I defected before the final battle and helped Rey defeat the last vestige of the emperor," Ben told him.

"Rey," Zari drew out the syllable of her name a little bit. "She's the new Jedi the Resistance has, correct?"

"Yeah," Ben smiled, drawing a picture of Rey in his mind, giving him a moment of peace.

The air in front of him shimmered for a second and then solidified. Ben recognized the glimmer of a Force connection and he smiled. Their dyad was frayed and battered, but it was powered down, not gone.

"You two must share a very strong bond," Zari noted. "For you to abandon everything you had, the power you'd amassed."

"I won't lie," Ben told him. "It was mostly for her. But I suppose I also did it to save what was left of my soul."

"As good a reason as any," Zari smiled humorlessly. "If we still have souls after everything we've done."

Minutes passed awkwardly as Zari finished patching Ben up. He gave him an ingestible bacta formula to drink. It was for general healing and should counteract the worst of the hypothermia he'd experienced.

"So, where are we headed?" Ben asked, eager to break the unnecessary tension. "Or is the plan to just fly aimlessly?"

"We're going to Corellia."

They both looked up to see the pilot at the cabin threshold. He was still wearing an opaque helmet. His hand hovered near the knife on his belt.

"We'll get there in five hours," he informed them. "What you do after we get there, I don't give a damn."

"Thank you for agreeing to fly," Zari said earnestly. "I know a lot didn't go as planned, but we made it out of there. Thank you, P-"

"No names!" yelped the pilot, snapping his head at Ben.

Zari sighed and nodded in understanding, his gaze sliding to Ben as well.

"We better get some sleep," he said as the pilot left in a huff. He wriggled, getting comfortable on the floor. "Who knows what trouble we'll be getting into on Corellia."

Ben scooted back to lean against the wall. It was a more comfortable position for his broken arm and his healing legs than lying down could provide.

Corellia. The planet his father had spent his early years on. Han Solo had never voluntarily talked about his time there. When Ben had asked, his father had given one-word answers or declined to respond at all and then looked pensively off into the distance. Ben thought it might have had something to do with someone he'd lost.

"So what do I call you?" Zari asked, his eyes still closed.

"I go by Ben now."

"Ben… it suits you better."

Ben smiled and leaned his head back. He dozed and his thoughts drifted as he tried to ignore the lingering pain long enough to fall asleep. His old nemesis was snoring softly when Ben finally dropped into a dreamless sleep.

-oOoOoOo-

"Rey?"

Rey blinked rapidly as her shoulder was jostled. Adrenaline raced through her system as she braced herself to face the potential threat.

"Rey, did you hear me?" Larma asked gently as she pressed her back in her seat.

"No, sorry," Rey rubbed her eyes as the brightness of hyperspace made them sore. "What did you say?"

"I said it's time to take a break, honey," Larma guided her up out of her seat and Mixa slid into her place. "You were nodding off and almost smashed your face into the switches."

"Oh, I didn't realize."

Rey yawned as Larma led her to the side room housing a bunch of sleeping alcoves. Rose was already fast asleep in one of them. She had her crescent pendant clutched in her hand positioned close to her heart.

"How are Tawna and Ava?" Rey quietly asked as she climbed into an alcove and dimmed the overhead light.

"Tawna's starting to exit her feral state, but she's not ready to communicate yet. Ava is going a little stir-crazy, so Zala is talking with her over the comlink to keep her company. It shouldn't agitate Tawna now."

Rey nodded and moved on to her next concern. "Have you done a check-up on Temiri, Oniho, and Arashell? They fell into a crevasse just as the evacuation calls began. Temiri's hands were pretty torn up."

"Yes, Sek'min told me all about their mini adventure and the kids were busy recounting your daring rescue of them to the rest of the children when I went to tend to them," Larma chuckled with amusement. "They're a hardy bunch and there's no lingering damage. Now you get some rest. I expect this is the only time you'll get any sleep for a long while."

The healer took the blanket from the foot of the cot and draped it over her.

"I need to stay awake in case Poe calls a meeting," Rey struggled to keep her eyelids from drooping.

"I already spoke with Poe. Barring any further emergency, he won't call a meeting for a few hours yet," Larma sternly said and turned off the alcove light. "I'll wake you if he does convene the leadership team before you wake up."

"Has he decided where we're going yet?" Rey snagged Larma's sleeve as she turned away.

"Poe told Finn to lead everyone to Beltrix III for now. It's an old Rebel Alliance headquarters that was used for recruitment purposes back in the day," the healer told her. "Now, get some sleep, young lady, or I'll jab you with a sedative."

Rey giggled. "Yes, ma'am."

Larma went back to the cockpit to help Mixa fly the ship.

Rey dreamed of a First Order starship following the same path as the fleeing Resistance. It was unusual since it was just the one ship; it wasn't a starfighter either. She watched it drop out of the hyperspace lane and noticed a misshapen lump attached to it. She idly pondered what it could be when the lump detached and crumpled in on itself. The starship floated beside it for a minute and then the hyperdrive engines engaged. Rey was swept along in the flow. She swam in the hyperspace stream for endless minutes. At one time, she was joined by shapeless creatures who were also traversing the river of light. They flew gracefully around her, curious about who and what she was. When they'd satiated their curiosity, the creatures moved on, leaving her alone with the starship again. Rey's curiosity about the vessel was piqued again. What was the ship doing so far from its dreadnought?

The starship slowed and exited hyperspace. A blue-gray planet loomed in front of them. Starships of varying makes and builds were entering and leaving the planet's atmosphere. The First Order vessel joined the mass of ships descending toward the largest gray landmass.

Ah, it was here on a mission! Rey was satisfied as she determined its purpose. She followed it to a ground station on the surface and took a vantage point above the ship. It had a bit of a struggle docking because one of the clamps was absent. The station technician assigned to the section jumped to help, riding aboard a rusty but serviceable droid. The starship finally settled and the ramp descended. The technician sported a sour expression as they started spouting curses and gesticulating angrily. The droid supported them with flashing lights on its port that translated to angry cheeps.

A man in a black flight suit and his head encased in an opaque helmet walked out to meet them. His face was obscured by the one-way face shield, but it was clear he was trying to placate the irate operator. Rey ignored the credits changing hands as her gaze fixed on another man exiting the spacecraft with a slight limp. She didn't need to see his face to know who he was. His familiar raven-black hair and bulky build were enough to jog her memory. It was Ben. He was alive!

Her deep-seated relief morphed to worry as he turned to talk to someone still in the starship and she was able to take stock of him. Ben looked worse for wear after being in the First Order's clutches. Under the cloak he'd obtained, she could see his clothing was slashed and bloody. The skin showing through the holes in the fabric was deep pink and shiny with freshly applied bacta. His right arm was secured to his chest to prevent excess movement. Despite his injuries, his eyes were bright with awareness, a welcome contrast to the dullness and pain when she last saw him.

His companion in the opaque helmet finished bribing the technician and walked away without a backward glance, disappearing into the crowd of merchants and workers. Ben did look surprised or worried and just gestured for someone on the ship to hurry up. His eyes tracked something and he reached up to catch the length of cloth thrown at him. Rey could read the question he asked, whether they really needed the disguises. He rolled his eyes as he received an answer and he wound the strip of cloth over the lower half of his face, hiding it from the populace.

A person with an analogous but slighter build than Ben emerged from the starship, clad in a similar shapeless cloak. Their face was covered by another strip of cloth and their hood was pulled low to hide their face. Rey watched as they reached out a hand and flipped Ben's hood up and pulled it sharply into place. Ben slapped the hand away and arranged the hood so he could see where he was going. The person pointed at the next starship station and Ben visibly sighed before starting the trek across the marketplace. The person hovered close but didn't touch Ben, perhaps sensing that any aid would be unwelcome.

Rey wanted to follow them to make sure that Ben made it to his destination. She wanted to find out who his mysterious companion was. But it was not to be. Waves of black fog rolled over the scene and covered her. She woke and gave a start as she saw three pairs of bright, curious eyes face-level with her bunk.

"You were speaking in your sleep," Oniho said.

"I was?" Rey sat up and rubbed at her bleary eyes. They felt like they'd been open and subjected to bright lights for the past few hours. "What'd I say?"

"You were talking about Ben," Temiri said animatedly. "You were happy he was alive and safe!"

"I had a vision of him," Rey couldn't help beaming as latent emotions surfaced and filled her to overflowing with joy. "He escaped the dreadnought and he's making his way back to us."

"How is he going to find us if he doesn't know where we are?" Arashell pointed out the problem.

"He's special. He'll figure out a way," Temiri told her.

Rey smiled at the boy. He was so optimistic and truth be told, he was probably right. Ben did have a knack for tracking her down and his limited connection to the Force wouldn't stop him. And she would use her abilities to track him down in turn.

"How are you three doing?" Rey asked, examining their hands and arms.

"We're fine now," Temiri told her.

"A few bacta gel patches and we're as good as new!" Arashell nodded emphatically.

Rey was glad to hear it. She stood up and stretched, reaching up to the ceiling. The kids laughed as they heard several pops. Rey chuckled with them and herded them out of the room. She didn't want to disturb the people still sleeping. Zala murmured and flipped to her other side as they passed by her alcove.

"So what are you three doing up here with me?" Rey asked curiously.

"Zala and Sek'min had to get some sleep and we all wanted to ask you a question," Oniho explained as they entered the main chamber.

One of the children's parents who had managed to make it on board the vessel was watching over the group with tired eyes. The youngest child was fast asleep on them while the older ones were playing together, reenacting a story. Rey slapped a hand to her mouth to stifle her laughter as she heard the tale they were recounting.

"Outnumbered a thousand to one, but that didn't stop them!" Jax said animatedly. "Poe and Finn stole aboard a TIE-fighter and boldly flew it out the main hangar of the star destroyer!"

He pointed at the twin girls and they mimed sneaking into an imaginary TIE-fighter and sat down back-to-back on some chairs. The other children ran in circles around them, pretending to fire blaster cannons at them. The girls dodged dramatically, twisting joysticks this way and that.

"They almost made it to safety when they were hit!"

The children gasped as Jax pointed a finger gun at the twins and shot them point-blank. The twins flailed their arms as their imaginary ship was hit with the ventral cannon missiles and started plummeting.

"Their ship disintegrated around them as they fell back toward Jakku," Jax pointed at one of the kids who raised their hands to form a circle and walked toward the 'ship'. "It broke apart in the atmosphere and they were forced to eject!"

Bazil and Sylvie jumped out of their chairs, miming the ejection. They reached out for each other as they approached their friend who was miming the planet. Their hands barely touched before they were pushed apart by the planet. They pretended to crash into the girl playing the planet and she let out a chorus of giggles.

"Finn knew he had to find Poe, so he headed across the desert to the nearest outpost to find help," Jax continued the story.

Bazil trudged across the room, shielding her face from the hot desert sun. Damary's daughter, Telli, had taken a seat in one of the discarded chairs and Sylvie was crouched next to her in a ball. They looked up as 'Finn' approached.

"He came across a young woman at the outpost," Jax said and Telli stood up. "She had a familiar droid at her side." Sylvie gave a convincing impression of BB-8's greeting. "And Finn instantly knew she was someone special and went to plead his case."

Rey almost blurted out her laughter. She'd almost taken Finn's head off, thinking he'd killed BB-8's friend and stolen his jacket. Finn's expression at the time had most definitely not conveyed an instant trust of her and he'd run away from her as a result.

"She said her name was Rey," Jax said and the children cheered quietly. Rey blushed. "And that she would help him find his friend. But first, they had to find a starship."

Bazil and Telli shook hands to formalize the agreement and then Telli turned to tug Bazil into a run. Telli locked eyes with Rey and she stopped and blushed, turning her head down and shuffling her feet self-consciously. The other children turned to see why she'd stopped and they giggled in embarrassed laughter as they saw Rey standing there.

"That was wonderful!" Rey praised, applauding lightly so she wouldn't disturb the sleeping kid. "As good as any holovid."

"You really think so?" asked the twins, coming to her.

"Definitely," Rey nodded. "You'll have to perform it for Poe and Finn sometime." She giggled to herself. Oh, her friends were going to get a kick out of this. "I hear you all wanted to ask me something?"

"We want to check on Ava," Jax said and all the children bobbed their heads in agreement. "We're worried about her."

"Mami says we can't see her yet," one of the boys told them. "But I don't want to wait!"

"I don't think we can go in the room yet," Rey told them seriously. "But let's go see if Ava wants to talk over the comlink. I'm sure she's missing you all."

Rey motioned to the parent that she was going to take the kids belowdecks and they nodded, leaning back in their seat and clutching the sleeping child closer. The kids chatted excitedly as they climbed down the ladder into the bay. The healer on duty jolted as they drew close and crowded around the door housing the Jixitis.

"How are they?" Rey asked.

"Tawna is still transitioning out of her feral state, but she's calmed down enough to sleep," he reported. "Ava has been getting some sleep on and off and the baby seems like it's doing fine."

"The children want to keep Ava company," Rey held out a hand for the comlink he was holding. "They're concerned for her," she added in a whisper.

The healer smiled and nodded, handing over the device. Rey pressed a button and it activated with a crinkle of static.

"Ava, it's Rey. How are you doing?" she asked.

The children crowded around her and waited with bated breath. Blankets rustled and then Ava's voice sounded.

"I'm fine, just bored," she complained. "Mummy is really sleepy and doesn't want to play."

"Well, I've brought you some company," Rey winked at the kids and handed the comlink to Jax.

"Hi, Ava!" Jax said brightly.

The other kids tossed in their greetings in a jumble.

"Hi, everyone," Ava giggled, sounding happier already. "Are you all outside?"

"Yeah, we're right here!" Bazil said, pressing her hand to the door. "We miss you. When can you come out?"

"When Mummy says we can," Ava said simply, knowing the drill.

"How's the baby?" Telli asked. "No one told us anything."

"Baby is a boy!" Ava said excitedly. Rey could picture her bouncing giddily on the nest of blankets. "His scales are turning yellow like my favorite flowers!"

The kids cooed as they speculated just how cute the baby was and Ava enthusiastically confirmed their thoughts. Rey smiled to herself. She'd been the only one to guess the baby's scales would be sunshine yellow.

"Rey."

She turned to see Larma stepping off the ladder. The healer nodded a greeting to her subordinate as she entered the room. Larma smiled as she saw the children crowded around the comlink and chatting with Ava.

"Poe has convened a meeting with the leadership team," she reported. "We need to decide where to go."

"I'll be up in a moment," Rey nodded in acknowledgment. She turned to the children. "Stay here until Zala or Sek'min come to get you, okay?"

"Yes, miss," Jax agreed for all of them. His face lit up as he got an idea. "Let's do the story of the Battle of Starkiller Base!"

The children whooped with glee and debated which parts they were going to pantomime.

"Ava should get to choose first," Bazil said, raising the comlink for them all to see.

"Umm, I'll be Chewie!" Ava said spiritedly.

Two of the boys groaned in disappointment as their first choice was taken off the table. They divvied up the rest of the roles as Rey made her way back to the cockpit.

"I can be Kylo Ren!" she heard Temiri offer as she reached the top of the ladder.

"He's an interesting lad, isn't he?" Larma noted with a slight smile.

"Unlike any other child I've known," Rey said admiringly. It was curious, the immediate connection she felt with the boy.

The leadership team was displayed on the holoemitter. The image ratio was a little skewed with so many people on the call.

"We made it past Hosnian Prime, which puts us beyond the First Order's radar," Poe was saying. "We have some time before we need to refuel, but we can't keep flying forever."

"We're three hours from Beltrix III," Commander Trodun said. "It already has an established infrastructure and leftover resources from the Rebel Alliance days."

"It would be a bold gamble to land there, even just for a few hours," Finn cautioned them, his eyebrows turning down as he frowned. "First Order protocol during a pursuit is to consider the target's past affiliations in addition to the statistical likeliness of where they could go."

"So that rules out Beltrix III as the site for our new base," Rose said with a sigh. "Still, I would hate to forgo the resources available there. Our stores have taken a harsh depletion."

"In the next system over from Beltrix III, there's Thyferra," Larma pulled up the navigational charts and sent the data to everyone. "Home to the Vratix and abundant in bacta. And we're close enough to Beltrix III if we need to make emergency supply runs."

"The idea has merit," Poe commended her while Finn nodded in agreement.

"How dense is the population?" Rey asked, unfamiliar with the planet in question. She didn't want to put innocent bystanders in harm's way.

Mosla was talking with someone offscreen. She turned back after she concluded the discussion. "Tattara hails from Thyferra," she reported. "She says there are about 117 million people on the planet, mostly Vratix. There are still some remote areas that have cave networks we can lay claim to and settle the base in. It won't put any innocents in the direct line of fire. As long as we offer the ruling council a tribute, they will permit our presence and disregard our comings and goings."

"That will serve our purposes for now," Poe nodded decisively. "Mosla, work with Tattara to determine a proper tribute from our remaining supplies. Finn, take Shipwright's Trace when we reach the hyperspace lane crossroads. I'll inform our people of the plan."

With that, the conference call was over. Rey leaned back in her seat, relieved they had a concrete plan now. Rose smiled at her from the co-pilot seat as Poe's voice came over the encrypted frequency to relay the new trajectory to the fleet. Larma's comlink beeped to get her attention.

"Yes?" the healer said as she answered the call.

"Commander, Tawna is regaining her ability of speech. She's asking for you."

"Wonderful, I'll be down to speak with her in a moment."

Larma silently bid Rey and Rose goodbye and left the compartment.

Rey's mind wandered after she made sure the starship was still on the right trajectory, turning to her shared bond with Ben. She carefully reached out along the dyad, feeling for the slightest trace of him. It still felt cut, but the frayed ends were less jagged and were growing out into the unknown. Maybe the dyad was healing itself and restoring their connection. It was a distant hope, but she had cause for it after her dream vision. Ben was out there in the galaxy and free of the First Order. And she would bring him home to her.

-oOoOoOo-

"Push the button!"

"Bloody hell, which button do you want me to push?!" Ben roared as he was rocked off his feet by the explosive force of blaster fire hitting the starship hull. His broken arm screamed in protest as it was jostled, despite the numbing agent. "There are over a hundred buttons here. Be more specific!"

The starship was old and as such, it had too many buttons and not enough automation. The floor beneath their feet seemed to jump as someone shot at the ship's belly.

"You're the one with piloting experience, you figure it out!" Zari screamed back at him, his face flushed as he wrangled the controls inexpertly. "I swear, if I weren't already occupied, I would smack you upside the head!"

"You're not really flying us anywhere, so come over and do it!" Ben hissed at the former general. "Get a swing in before these pirates shoot us down!"

"Don't be an ass!" Zari retorted. "I'm doing the best I can here!"

"Well, it's not nearly good enough!" Ben gestured out the windows where another pirate was flying straight at them, trying to get a lock on their ship.

They'd managed to find a new starship easily enough and they'd gotten lucky that it came with a stock of food and medical supplies. But stealing it from its owner was easier said than done. Corellia was a dangerous place and the denizens were even more so. The pirates had taken exception to them stealing one of their ships and had pursued them as they tried to make their escape. They'd formed a protective shield above the planet before Ben and Zari could fly away and they were trying to drive them back down to the surface.

Zari jerked the controls and managed to avoid the next blaster cannon discharge, but the resulting barrel roll had Ben cursing his name.

"That's it. I've had enough of this," Ben smacked the man's head, ruffling his red hair. "I told you I could fly the ship with just the one hand better than you could. Get out of the chair."

"Gladly!" Zari huffed, dropping the controls like they were red-hot.

Ben slid into the seat and pressed a sequence of buttons he recognized would increase their maneuverability. It was a good thing his father had held a fascination with old relics like this and had passed on that knowledge to Ben in his younger days, otherwise they'd be in massive trouble. The starship swayed wildly as Ben put it through its paces. It was difficult without the use of his right hand since all the different controls were set far apart.

"What can I do to help?" Zari asked as he held on for dear life.

"I think you've done enough," Ben rolled his eyes and concentrated on navigating the starship. His reaction time was impacted considerably with just the one arm.

"Come on," the redhead scowled. "Just tell me what to do."

"Hit that button with the 'C' on it," Ben nodded towards the panel that was just out of his reach. If memory served, it would help. "I need the compensator online so we don't burn through our fuel with these maneuvers."

"I got it," Zari clambered around the pilot's chair and slammed the button.

But instead of the compensators whirring to activate the fuel valves, the communications system crackled to life.

"Shit," Zari muttered as they heard the pirates talking over the comms about them.

"No kidding. Turn it off," Ben snarled at him. There was no mute function and both sides would be able to hear everything the other one said.

"Hey, fuckwads!" shouted a pirate over the comlink. He sounded young and angry. "I don't know what you think you're doing, but that's my ship and I'll shoot you down before I let you take it! No one steals from Thral Etrers!"

"Who?" Ben asked, wracking his brains for the pirate's name, but he didn't recognize it. "Oh, great," Ben rolled his eyes again and glared at Zari. "The starship you decided to steal belongs to some young idiot. You know they tend to hold more vengeful grudges than the older mobsters." He couldn't believe their poor fortune. The last thing he needed right now was for some fool hellbent on revenge coming after him.

"How was I supposed to know?" Zari retorted, hitting the button to turn off the comms system and cutting off the pirate captain's yelp of outrage at being called an idiot.

"Just find the compensator modulator, will you?" Ben told him as he wrenched the starship into an attack series.

They sluggishly weaved between the young pirate captain's forces, avoiding the cannons but clipping their wing on the lead ship's hull, taking out one of their guns.

"Kriff, are you trying to piss the guy off?" Zari was astounded as he hit random buttons labeled with the Aurebesh character for 'C'.

"I could fly better if you got the compensator working!" Ben shot back as he searched for another gap in the blockade.

Zari hit another button and they finally heard the compensator whir and beep. The starship felt smoother in Ben's hands and he found it easier to twist and turn it to his needs. The age of their starship finally came in handy as Ben found a gap and drove the ship into it. Their bulkier armor made them slow but allowed them to barge their way through, crushing the lighter material of the pirates' ships.

Upon reaching clear space, Ben flipped the toggles to activate the antique hyperdrive engine. It grinded and Ben wondered what was going on until he saw a blinking red square above Zari's carrot-top.

"Hit that button, would you?" Ben tipped his head up at it.

"Which button?" Zari asked sarcastically as he searched above his head for the button in question and pressed it. "Be more specific."

Ben quietly seethed at having his words thrown back at him, but he focused on getting this tin can into hyperspace and away from the pirates. It took twice as long to accelerate, but the starship was able to enter the hyperspace stream. The control stick vibrations made Ben grimace as the movements aggravated his injuries.

"Here, take the controls again," Ben urged his companion.

"So now you want me to fly," Zari muttered under his breath and he placed his hands on the controls and took over.

Ben suppressed a growl of frustration and staggered to the medical supply boxes to get a painkiller. He was going to need something to take the edge off if he was going to stomach traveling any further with his former rival. He popped a bacta pill and relaxed as it took effect. He unwrapped a nutrient bar next and hungrily ate it. The grainy substance tasted horrible, but it quelled the rumbling of his stomach.

"Pass me one of those, would you?" Zari requested as he made minute adjustments with the flight controls.

Ben tossed one of the bars to him, but his aim was off and the food packet thwacked him on the back of the head instead of landing on the console. Zari turned slowly and glared at him before picking up the bar and opening it. Annoyance twisted inside Ben and before he could think about it, he raised his arm and closed his fist, visualizing the breath leaving the man's lungs.

Of course, nothing happened because of the suppressor cuffs. Then Zari choked and turned around, the chair making a squeaking noise. Ben lowered his hand quickly and affected an expression of innocence.

"Did you just try to Force-choke me?" Zari bitingly asked, eyebrows drawn up in disbelief. "No, don't act innocent with me. I saw you in the panel's reflection!"

"Don't get your knickers in a twist," Ben huffed and flipped a seat out from the wall. He couldn't believe what primitive technology this ship had. "It didn't work in any case."

"That's not the point! You still tried to choke me," Zari brandished the food bar at him accusingly. "Unbelievable! I save you and you try to stab me in the back! And for what, because you're inconvenienced and irritated? Is this how our relationship has always been?"

"More or less," Ben said with a nonchalant shrug.

"Unbelievable," Zari swung around and ignored him.

Ben grinned. He knew the General Hux persona was in there and just needed some coaxing to come out.

"How are we going to get in touch with the Resistance?" Ben asked. "I don't have a beacon or know any rendezvous locations." And he sure as hell wasn't going to bring up the dyad connection. Not until he could use it to contact Rey.

"I know someone who might be able to help us re-establish contact," Zari told him curtly.

Ben raised his head and narrowed his eyes. "I thought you didn't remember anything."

"I don't. This is from before," Zari flipped a switch and the vibrations lessened. "She helped me once when I was in a tough spot and I'm hoping she's willing to help me again." The navigation screen lit up with the new trajectory and destination.

"Takodana," Ben breathed.

The place where he and Rey had first laid eyes on each other. Well, this would certainly be interesting.

---

A/N: So the two nemeses are back together and they can't help but bicker. Can they stop long enough to work together and make it back to the Resistance?