Chapter Text
Time passed as Ben and Rey planned in silence.
He’d fly her off-ship for regular medical check-ups (with living, breathing doctors) to keep the progress of her condition out of First Order records and so that they could discuss their… situation… away from the prying ears and eyes aboard the Finalizer.
Snoke knew, by now, that she was pregnant. Ben hadn’t told him, but that was never really necessary. He had a kind of back door into Ben’s mind, one that Ben was able to barricade from time to time but never fully lock.
He knew, and he’d met with Ben again since they found out, but had not brought it up.
“The longer I wait to tell him, the angrier he gets with me,” Ben told her one evening. They’d spent the day abroad on a local planet, sitting in a field of tall grass, scheming (amongst other things). “I can feel it. But I think he’s willing to wait until the birth to do anything.”
“You think?” That wasn’t especially reassuring.
“It’s the best I can do, sweetheart.”
She knew that. It wasn’t as if he could just come right out and ask him, of course. He had to avoid the subject of her as best as he could to keep from giving up their game.
“It’s not very much time.”
“No, it’s not.”
Days turned to weeks which spread out across months and, eventually, their secret became public knowledge. Rey’s stomach swelled larger and larger until, soon enough, even the loosest shirt was unable to hide the little bump she kept underneath.
The knights knew before she began to show. She and Ben had pulled them into the fold of their plan in the very early days, but even before that, they could feel it.
The small spark of energy in the Force that resided within her. The glow that was not quite hers and not quite Ben’s and not quite just a combination of the both of them, but also something else entirely. Something more.
The knowledge made them much more protective of her, which meant that, frustratingly, they all sided with Ben when he forbade her from sparring - even though her doctor said that light exercise would be beneficial during her pregnancy.
“Getting hit with sticks isn’t ‘light exercise’, Kira,” Kuruk had snorted at her.
And, unfortunately, there was simply no arguing with any of them. She’d tried.
She didn’t let it all sour her mood too much though, she couldn’t, not when she knew that the knights were on her side. On her child’s side. On Ben’s side.
Their loyalty, above all else, was to their Master and the knighthood.
“And to you,” Vicrul said.
“To each other,” added Ap’lek.
Ushar nodded. “The Knights of Ren were around long before the First Order and we’ll be kicking up shit long after it’s gone.”
Nothing could have soothed her more. She rubbed the small swell of her stomach and agreed. “We sure will be.”
🐍🐍🐍
The first phase of their plan involved a lot of waiting, which was maddening but unavoidable, as they had absolutely no control over when the next phase would begin.
That, regrettably (and unknowingly, on his part), was left up to General Armitage Hux.
He’d be furious if he knew. Or maybe a little flattered to play a role of such importance. Possibly a good mix of both.
It was agony, knowing that such a crucial piece to the puzzle lay in the hands of someone else, that their future depended so wholly upon someone Rey so detested, but there was nothing to be done for it.
They needed to escape the First Order and that was quite a bit more complicated than simply stealing a ship and flying off to parts of the galaxy previously unknown - at least, it was for Ben.
He was bound to Snoke, somehow. They shared a one-way connection; a hook in Ben’s brain that had been there since before he could remember. The only way, he suspected, to free himself from it was for one of them to die.
Preferably, that would be Snoke.
The only way to kill him, of course, was face-to-face, and they couldn’t just pop by the Supremacy for a quick chat with a little murder on the side. That would be suspicious.
Ben had only ever been welcomed onto the ship before with a direct invitation, but they couldn’t exactly wait for that either. Especially since it was very likely that Snoke’s own plans would be well underway by the time that happened.
What they needed was an excuse to board the Supremacy - unannounced and, most importantly, undetected - for a surprise attack.
The only (potential) opportunity for that looming on the horizon was the unveiling of Starkiller Base, the First Order’s latest weapon - and Hux’s big, murderous baby, according to Kuruk.
It had been in its final stages for the last few years, so it was really only a matter of time.
🐍🐍🐍
They did everything they could to prepare, but when the announcement did finally come, when Hux proclaimed in front of a sea of stormtroopers in a emptied-out hangar aboard the Finalizer that, in a week’s time, the entirety of the First Order would gather to witness the dawning of a new age, it still felt a bit like the rug had been pulled out from under them.
To Rey, at least. Ben seemed calm enough. He stared straight ahead at Hux’s podium and released her hand only when the speech had concluded.
“Come along.”
The Night Buzzard was the only ship he trusted for their personal missions. The knights maintained it themselves, leaving few opportunities for any spies to slip recording devices onboard.
They could place trackers on the outside, of course, but that was the least of their worries.
He dragged her off to the ship and, together, they flew it out into an empty patch of space one star-system over.
The next phase of their plan had always perplexed her a little. Ben said that they needed allies and that the enemy of their enemy was, for a short time, at least, their friend, but still, why in the world would the Resistance of all people be willing to help them?
“They’ll be helping themselves too,” he told her as he set about shutting off every system on the ship besides life-support and long-distance communication - an extreme measure, but he was unwilling to take any chances at all. “It’s not like I’m asking them to fly down here and whisk us away…”
“I know, Ben,” she set a calming hand on his arm and he stilled. “I’m just saying that our history with them isn’t exactly the best.”
He looked up at her, his fingers turning the dial on the ship’s comm. “History is exactly what I’m hoping will help us.”
He slumped back into the captain’s seat and beckoned her to him. She approached as the call continued to ring out, connecting them to - whomever - across stars and thousands of lightyears, and stood beside him.
He took her hand and mumbled, “I just hope she listens,” against her skin.
Rey didn’t get a chance to ask who he meant before a holo flickered to life in front of them.
A woman came into view on the other end and, instantly, there was something Rey recognized about her. It was in her eyes, mostly. The hologram had tinted them blue, but they were clearly dark in real life, and the shape was familiar.
More than familiar. They were Ben’s eyes - or, more likely, his were hers.
The coronet of hair atop her head was similar to the one she’d worn in Ben’s memory, but she didn’t smile now. She stared in clear and obvious shock, first at Ben, then at Rey, and then back again.
“Ben?” His name was a whisper. One that trembled around the edges, delicate and liable to break.
“General Organa. I’m contacting you because I have information I believe the Resistance - and, therefore, the New Republic - will find useful.” Ben’s voice, on the other hand, was hard. Stiff. Monotone. He wasn’t wearing his helmet at the moment, but he might as well have been. “You may want to record this message for posterity. You won’t be able to contact me after this.”
The woman nodded and with trembling, frantic hands, she pressed something on her side.
“The First Order has just completed the construction of a new super-weapon they call Starkiller Base. They plan to reveal it to the galaxy one week from today, and when they do, their sights are set on the Hosnian system.”
“The whole system?”
“Yes,” Ben confirmed shortly.
“What is its current location?”
“It was constructed on a planet called Ilum in the Unknown Regions; an old Jedi kyber mine. I’m sure you’ll find it on a few starcharts in your archives.”
“Alright. How quickly does it travel? How long, exactly, do we have?”
“I told you already, you have a week.” Confusion tinged with terror dawned across the woman’s face as Ben spoke. “It doesn’t need to travel. It will once its system’s star has been depleted, but it can take out Hosnia from exactly where it is.”
The woman closed her eyes and sighed. When she looked back up, her features had been schooled into a neutral kind of mask of her own - a familial feature, perhaps.
“Why are you telling me this, Ben?”
“I have my reasons.”
“Such as?”
“Will this go on your record?”
“That depends.”
“The First Order expects a sitting duck. I want you to give them a fight.”
“And this would suit your needs?”
“It would.”
Ben and Rey needed a distraction. The First Order was planning a celebration of their achievements and an attack wasn’t part of those plans. They’d be sent scrambling.
“Where will you be during all of this fighting?”
“That’s none of your concern.”
The woman had a very powerful glare. It was set directly on Ben but even Rey’s stomach dropped at the sight of it.
“You know that it is.”
A muscle in Ben’s jaw twitched. “Not on their side.”
“But not on ours, either?” The woman intuited. Ben rubbed his thumb across Rey’s knuckles, drawing the woman’s attention back up to her. “No,” she continued, her expression softening. “You’ve got a new side.”
“I do,” Ben agreed. “I don’t have plans for you or schematics or a map. I can promise a half-hour of compromised shields, but that’s it.”
“That’ll be enough.”
“It’ll have to be.”
Something shifted then. Invisible masks and titles were tossed aside and the woman, at least, seemed ready to address the proverbial happabore in the room.
“How have you been? Well?”
Ben looked away. “This - it’s not a social call.”
“I know.” The woman - his mother - was still smiling softly. “We will have one of those - later. I plan to meet my grandchild, I hope you know that. Stay safe, Ben.”
He bowed his head and nodded. Rey felt his back rise and fall with each slow, measured breath. He was trying for calm, she knew, for cool and impassive, but his voice still hitched when he spoke.
“You too.”
🐍🐍🐍
Ben was quiet as they returned to the Finalizer. He was quiet as they docked and quieter, still, as they both retreated to the relative privacy of their room.
Rey had a thousand questions, but she didn’t dare ask one of them. Ben would answer, she thought - he did that for her now - but he wouldn’t want to, and she didn’t want to put him in that position if it wasn’t necessary. Not right now, at least.
He sat on the bed, shoulders heavy, and she stood between his legs, carding her hand through his hair.
“How are you feeling, love?”
He pulled her closer. Nuzzled her bump. Kissed it. “Fine.”
That wasn’t quite true - for either of them, really, but for him especially right now. Still, she didn’t push it. He was under a lot of pressure. They both were.
“I was going to go check on the knights and get some lunch. Would you like to join me?”
He hummed against her stomach and smoothed both hands up her hips. “I would, but I need a minute. You go,” he kissed her again. “I’ll join you later.”
“Okay.”
Later never came. When Rey returned to their quarters later that evening, she found Ben fast asleep on their bed. Still dressed, but the circles under his eyes were a little less dark, and he seemed a bit less low in the morning when he woke, which spirited her.
He’d just needed a bit of rest.
🐍🐍🐍
The wait for the announcement felt like it took several years. The week that followed passed in the blink of an eye.
Before Rey knew it, it was the night before their arrival at Starkiller Base. The Finalizer was still in hyperspace, cruising along toward the Ilum sector, and she was struggling to sleep.
So was Ben. Everytime she shut her eyes, some worry (belonging to one or the both of them) would lodge itself inside of her head and refuse to leave until she’d spoken it out loud.
“What if he knows?” She asked, fingers clawing the sheets.
Ben found her hand in the dark and laid his on top of it. “He doesn’t.”
“How do you know that?”
The lights overhead flicked on and she startled, certain that, somehow, they’d been found out. That stormtroopers were rushing their room, ruining their freedom before they’d even had a chance to try for it.
But that didn’t happen.
Ben sat up, pulled her toward him, and positioned her between his legs. He combed her hair with his fingers, something he knew she loved, and, slowly, she allowed herself to relax back against him.
“How do you know, Ben?” Her voice was tight, even as he gently massaged her scalp. Tears stung her eyes. She’d been able to hold back so much fear for so long but now she felt as though she might drown in it.
“If he knew, I would be dead already, sweetheart.” He pressed a kiss just behind her ear.
She wouldn’t be dead, of course. Snoke still needed her. For a few more months, anyway.
That reminder made her cry harder.
“Don’t worry,” he cooed. “Nothing is going to happen to you. I promised, didn’t I? When have I ever lied to you?”
She sniffed. He never had, at least, not that she could recall - and Rey never forgot a lie. He preferred not saying anything at all over being dishonest.
Her eyelids were heavier now, like her lack of sleep was catching up with her - and fast. She yawned, but even that felt like it took more energy than it lent her.
“I’m going to keep you safe,” he whispered, kissing her shoulder over and over. Her skin was wet. Was he crying too? “No matter what it takes.”
He was holding her close to him, now. His arms were the only thing keeping her upright. Her body felt like it was made of lead.
Somewhere deep inside, something within her knew that the exhaustion overtaking her was unnatural. That small part of her tried to fight it off, tried, desperately, to understand what was happening, but it was no use.
The last thing she heard before sleep took her somewhere cool and still and dark, was Ben begging her to forgive him.
🐍🐍🐍
When Rey woke, she was no longer in her room and Ben was not there.
She was on a ship still, that much was obvious, but it clearly wasn’t the Finalizer. The walls were grimier, stained yellow with age, and though the sheets on her berth were clean, they definitely weren’t new. They’d been washed and re-washed a hundred times which had faded them to a dull blue.
She stood (as quickly as she was able to at nearly six months pregnant) and reached for her lightsaber, but found that it was gone.
That was when panic really began to set in. She reached out for Ben across the bond but got no response. He was alive, but that was all she could tell.
The door to the room she was being kept in was not, to her surprise, locked.
She snorted as it slid open. Some captors she had. Even Ben had been better than this, and he’d been actively training her to kill him in the beginning.
Reaching out with the Force showed her that she was not alone. There were two other beings on the ship, at least, which was good. Depending on their species and size and if they were together, she should be able to take out both without any kind of weapon at all.
She crept through the halls as quietly as she could, but tip-toes on grated floors could only do so much. Eventually, one of the beings - an older human male with silver hair and a bit of grey scruff, poked his head around one of the corners.
He smiled when he saw her, but she barely registered that. Her body snapped quickly from defense to offense and she rushed to pin him against the far wall, one arm tight across his throat.
“Woah, woah,” he coughed. “Hold it there, kid. We’re friends.”
“No you’re not. I don’t know you.”
The man’s smirk faltered a little when she grabbed the blaster from his belt but didn’t fade completely. “We’re friends of Ben, then.”
That gave her pause. She didn’t back off completely or release his weapon, but she did lift her arm a bit, allowing him to breathe a little easier.
“Thank you,” he said, hands held high. They were calloused and stained with grease. Some spots looked so old, they might have been permanent.
“Who are you and how do you know Ben?”
“Han,” he responded easily, that too-charming half smirk back in full force. “Han Solo. Ben’s my son.”
“What?” Rey gasped. “You’re… no,” she shook her head. It was impossible, right? “You’re telling me that you’re the Han Solo? Of the Millennium Falcon? ”
Something in his eyes dimmed and he huffed a small laugh as he shrugged. “Once, maybe. A long time ago.”
That was a strange answer, but Rey had far too many questions left to focus on it too much. “And you’re Ben’s father?”
That Han seemed to have less trouble with that one. “I am.”
She took a step back, releasing him (but she kept the blaster). “Where is he?”
Han’s expression soured. He frowned and rubbed his hand across his mouth - and in that moment he looked so much like Ben, it was striking. How had she ever doubted? Even for a second? How had she not known instantly?
“I tried to get him to come with us, you have to believe me. I practically begged him to come. But he’s as stubborn as his mother - and me, too… sometimes.”
Rey’s blood ran cold. “Where is he?” She repeated, slower this time, more frightened than angry.
Han looked away from her, his eyes and frown heavy. He didn’t have to say anything. She already knew.
Ben was back on the Finalizer - or maybe on the Supremacy already. The plan was still on, he’d just cut her out of it.
He was going to get himself killed. Or maybe she was going to kill him - she hadn’t made her mind up on that quite yet.
“We have to go back.”
“I wish we could, but I made the kid a promise - and I’ve broken too many of those in his life to go back on this one now.”
Rey sighed. “I think you’ve misunderstood. I wasn’t asking.” It was a command, not a request.
Maddeningly, Han laughed. There was some sadness there, still, of course, but surprise seemed to break through that. “I can see why he likes you. You know, you remind me a little of -”
Rey never got to hear who she reminded Han of. She applied the same trick Ben had used to sneak her onto this ship (against her will) and he was out cold on the floor before he could finish his sentence.
The Wookiee was harder to take out - his mental shields were a little hardier than Han’s and, of course, he was much bigger - but she still managed.
The tallest hurdle she came across was trying to pull the ship out of lightspeed by herself. She didn’t know what class of freighter Han Solo flew nowadays (because this certainly wasn’t the Falcon), but, whatever it was, it was massive.
She did it, of course, with no small help from the Force. A little thing like only having two arms wasn’t about to stop her now.
The ship being as large as it was meant that there were quite a few escape pods attached. A few of the ports were already empty and she wondered what emergency had necessitated that, but didn’t allow herself to linger for long. Time was not on her side.
The pods were fairly spacious (for what they were) and capable of hyperspace travel, which was a relief. If they hadn’t been, she would have had to fly the whole ship back on her own, and a freighter of this size was hardly ever inconspicuous.
She made sure to turn on whatever security systems she could find before leaving. She didn’t have all that much experience with deep space travel but she did know desperation and greed. A ship sitting dead probably looked like a portion left in the sand to a pirate. She’d give Ben’s father the best chance of survival as she could, but there wasn’t much else she could do.
He wasn’t her priority. Ben was. Always.
🐍🐍🐍
By the time she returned to Ilum, the action had already begun.
X-Wings and TIE Fighters zipped past her at speeds her little craft couldn’t even dream of keeping up with.
The weapons system available to her was extremely basic, so she focused her attentions solely on defense. On dodging incoming fire and making it to the massive ship in the distance casting a shadow over the planet below without being blown out of the sky.
No one tried to stop her as she entered one of the large ports on the side of the Supremacy, and in the absolute chaos that had descended aboard, no one paid her any mind as she dashed off towards the main turbolift hub.
She and Ben had gone over their path through the ship at least a dozen times - more than that, probably - and it always ended with a meeting in front of the lifts. A chance to rally and prepare before the battle to come.
He was still alive. And close, she could feel him.
Could he sense her? Did he know just how furious she was with him? Well, he would soon.
“Ben Solo!” She growled through gritted teeth when the small army of gathered knights came into view.
A squadron of stormtroopers raced by as she spoke but, luckily, they all knew better than to stare at anyone with Ren in their name for too long.
Ben whirled around and she ripped his helmet off with the Force. He wasn’t allowed to hide from her. Not now.
“What is wrong with you?” She seethed. The Dark licked at her periphery, delighted by the anger growing in her gut. “You thick-headed, slime-sucking, moof-milker!”
“I told you she’d be mad, boss.” A’plek chuckled nearby. He seemed amused by her rage - or perhaps just the way it had been directed at Ben - but took a sizable step back when she leveled him with a dagger-filled glare.
“You all knew about this?”
“No,” Kuruk said.
“Not until today.”
“Would you have tried to stop him if you did know?”
Silence. They were all moof-milkers.
Ben grabbed her shoulders and turned her back to face him. He looked stricken. Pale. Sick with fear. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh,” she snorted, still enraged despite his obvious panic - maybe in spite of it. “Upset shipping me off didn’t work as you’d intended?”
“I wasn’t -” he closed his mouth and rolled his jaw. “I was trying to protect you. Rey, if anything happened to you, to either of you, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.”
He placed a hand across her stomach and the little beam inside fluttered excitedly. It glowed brighter whenever he was near, like it knew, like it felt the love he had for it.
“Stop it,” she pushed him away, tears stinging her eyes. Damn him for making her cry (that was so much easier to do that these days). She was supposed to be angry with him. “How do you think we would feel if we lost you? I won’t let you sacrifice yourself for us, Ben. I can’t do it without you either.”
He pressed his lips together and tried, in vain, to blink away the shine in his eyes.
Rey felt the things he didn’t have the words to say. The love, the devotion, and the blinding fear of loss that encompassed it all.
She pressed his hand to the center of her chest to show him that she understood. That she felt it, too.
Eventually, he seemed to understand that she wouldn’t bend, not on this, and nodded.
“Where’s my dad?” He asked.
“Oh, um, he’s fine. Probably.”
Ben’s eyebrows shot up. “Probably?”
“Hopefully. He was fine when I left.”
His lips flattened. “Okay.” They weren’t going to get much more information than that, not until all of this was over, at least. “Ushar, Vicrul, you watch her. If she gets so much as a scratch, I’ll kill you both myself.”
🐍🐍🐍
The lift was cramped on the way up to Snoke’s throne room. It probably wasn’t a great idea to shove a handful of giant men (and one fairly pregnant Rey) into such a small compartment all at once, but there was really nothing to be done for it.
They couldn’t head up a few groups at a time, so they made do.
Rey was particularly unhappy that she’d been shoved to the back. She understood the reasoning, of course (because, despite her earlier indignation at being left behind, she did know that her current state made her more vulnerable than the others), but that didn’t mean she had to be happy about it!
She wanted to be next to Ben. To hold his hand as they rose to meet their fate - together - but he was at the front, poised and ready.
While not as massive or vacuous as the projection deck aboard the Finalizer, the Supremacy’s throne room was still very large.
The black floors gleamed like they were polished every day. Rey could see her own reflection stare back at her as she took her first step forward, still surrounded on nearly every side by knights.
Red curtains hung from every wall, bright and clean. One had been pulled back to reveal a viewport and, thus, the battle currently raging outside as well.
A tall being swathed in gold stood before the inky black of space. The Force around him trembled with unbridled rage which he focused into a blast of white lightning as he turned to face his attackers.
Ben blocked the blow with his lightsaber, but the force of it sent him skidding backward, the heels of his boots squeaking against the shining floor.
“Traitor,” Snoke seethed. “This is a mistake - one you will pay for dearly.”
“No,” Ben disagreed through gritted teeth. “Joining you in the first place was a mistake. Staying was a mistake. This is the first clear-headed decision I’ve made in a long time.”
“Let’s see how you feel once this is through.” The red-clad guards lining the room - the ones who nearly blended into the curtains behind them - raised their weapons in perfect synchrony. “Go,” Snoke commanded. His eyes, full of fire and malice, swept across the room until they landed on Rey. “The girl is your priority. Kill her at any cost.”
“What? No!” Ben roared - but the sound was nearly blocked out by the rushing of blood in Rey’s ears.
They’d miscalculated. Snoke might have needed her alive for his plan, but he was willing to throw that away to get to Ben. To punish him.
The group of knights tightened around her and, soon, Rey found herself surrounded by a wall of wide backs. They jostled her as chaos desenced, as grunts and the sharp clash of weapons filled the room, but she tried to hold her ground.
“Look out,” Kuruk called out nearby. “Kylo, behind you!”
The sudden stench of ozone and burnt flesh filled the room and, for a moment, blind as she was inside of her human cage, Rey was struck utterly still with terror.
She realized quickly that Ben was fine - or, that he was still alive, at the very least - but that did very little to calm her. What if something happened to him while she was just standing there, cowering behind her guard?
Well, she wasn’t going to allow that to happen.
Every so often, as the fighting continued, the knights around her would part - whether to dodge a blow or deal one - and she took the next opening she saw and ran with it. Literally.
She sprinted through the slim crack between Ushar and Vicrul’s arms and slid her way out into the madness.
“Kira, stop,” Vicrul called out after her.
“If you get hurt, it’s our heads,” Ushar added.
But she didn’t care about that - well, she did, because she cared about the knights, but she had to get to Ben. She had to stand by his side for this. Something within (the Force or her love for him or both) told her it was the only way.
A red guard had him pinned, a weapon to his throat. Ben was holding the cracking electricity of the vibro-blade away from his flesh, but only just. His lightsaber had been knocked away at some point during the tussle and Rey grabbed up from off of the floor.
“Ben,” she called out, tossing the hilt over to him so that he could free himself.
He didn’t look happy to see that she’d left her protective huddle, but, luckily, he didn’t have time to express that before they were set upon again.
A guard swung their ax at Rey’s head. She ducked - just in time, too - and picked up the same vibro-blade staff that had been threatening Ben’s life just moments before.
She used her new weapon to take out their attacker’s ankles and stood back as Ben dealt the killing blow.
There were only two guards left and both were already engaged by groups of two or three knights. Rey let out a shaky laugh. They were going to live, they -
She was raised into the air with such force that she dropped the staff. It fell and skidded across the floor toward the being whose power currently held her aloft.
Ben charged for Snoke but stopped when his former master flicked his fingers, sending a powerful jolt of pain through Rey’s body.
In any other instance, she would have fought to stay quiet, to not give Snoke the satisfaction of her screams, but her focus was elsewhere - on the child growing within her, small and fragile. She used her power to protect it against the attack as best she could and hoped that it was enough.
“Look at you,” Snoke taunted. “Kylo Ren. So weak. You will die by the same blade that felled your grandfather. Love,” he sneered. “Compassion. Tenderness. You were full of his poison from the start. I should have known better.”
“Let her go,” Ben begged. “You can have me. Let her go. You need her, right? Let her live and kill me instead.”
“Ben, no!” Rey cried out.
She had to do something, but what? She was trapped. Helpless. A tear streaked down her cheek when she closed her eyes.
Almost unbidden, a memory surfaced. It wasn’t Snoke’s doing (he was otherwise occupied), so it must have been her own, though why she’d want to relive one of the worst moments she’d ever had on Jakku right now, she wasn’t quite sure.
She’d been out scavenging and, growing bolder as her body got bigger and stronger, she’d found herself atop a steep ledge overlooking one of the engines. There were valuable pieces in there, ones that would net her two or three portions each, at least, but they were hard to reach.
But she was hungry and tired and so very tired of being hungry, so she had tried for it. And fell.
She didn’t even realize that her footing had failed until her back hit the sand with a thud. There was no air in her lungs - or anywhere, it seemed, from the way she was gasping desperately for it. Her limbs hurt. Her whole body hurt. She couldn’t move.
As she’d blinked up into the darkness, she had felt hopeless and certain that she would die right there, in that spot.
But then something had come over her. Something hot and insistent that refused to go quietly. It gave her the strength to pick herself up, broken leg and all, and hobble her way back to her shelter.
It gave her the will to ration her emergency portions and water so that she would live.
It forced her to never, ever give up, despite how out of favor her odds seemed.
“No,” Snoke said, pulling her back to reality. “I am going to destroy everything you care about, force you to watch it all whither and die, and then I will kill you, but not a moment sooner.”
Rey had gotten stronger since their last meeting, but Snoke hadn’t anticipated that. Ben was a very good teacher. Snoke underestimated him, just as he underestimated Rey - a mistake most beings only ever made once.
Because Ben was right. She was a viper. She could strike quickly and quietly, and her venom was deadly when she needed it to be.
She couldn’t move much in Snoke’s hold, but she could move a little. He wasn’t looking at her, so he didn’t see the fingers on her right hand turn. He didn’t see the weapon beside him rise in the air, as if on invisible strings. He didn’t see the vibro-blade as it cut him in two, right through the middle.
He only saw Rey as she was falling - as he was - as the light slowly left those awful, cold blue eyes.
She was the last thing he saw.
“Rey,” Ben rushed over, catching her in the air before she landed and setting her gently on the ground. “Are you okay?”
“I am.” There was a small ache, a muscle-deep exhaustion remaining, but that was nothing she couldn’t handle. “We both are.”
The baby was fine as well. Its light shined just as brightly as ever, seemingly unawares of the panic its parents had just been through.
Ben looked back at his fallen master, now lying dead on the ground.
Something in his features changed. His eyes grew darker and he released a shaking breath. He walked away from Rey, approaching the corpse, and stopped just before it, his hands balled together in tight fists by his sides.
The battle outside continued to rage. There was no telling who was winning from where they stood, but Rey knew that neither side would take very kindly to finding them now. They needed to leave.
“Ben.”
He glanced back, the shadows surrounding him thicker than ever.
“He’s dead. I can breathe,” he said. “It’s like he’s been stepping on my chest for thirty years and now I can finally breathe. And this,” he looked around - not at the carnage littering the floor or the fire rapidly spreading between the bloody curtains - and then at her. “We did this. We defeated him.”
He stepped forward.
“We need to leave,” Rey said, trying for firm and failing a little.
“Why? We could stay. All of this could be ours.” The ship shuddered beneath their feet and the lights flickered overhead. Ben didn’t seem to notice. He didn’t see that the empire he was offering was falling apart as he spoke. “The galaxy could be ours.”
“No, Ben. We can’t stay here.”
“When I’m the Supreme Leader, no one will be able to touch us. No one will ever hurt you again. We’ll be safe.”
“Was he safe?” Rey asked, nodding back at Snoke’s lifeless body.
Ben ignored her question. “You’d be my empress,” he continued, his voice going soft. “I’ll put a crown on your head and jewels around your neck, just like you deserve.”
He placed his hand around the base of Rey’s throat, loosely, like it was a placeholder for the diamonds he promised. Like he was worth less than a few shiny rocks.
Rey took Ben’s hand, removed the glove, and kissed each fingertip.
“No, Ben. I don’t want all of that. I want this,” she pressed her lips to the center of his palm, to his warm, calloused skin, and smiled. “I want you. That’s all.” She moved his hand to the swell of her stomach. “I want our family to be safe and happy. You said that no one here was free, being the Supreme Leader wouldn’t change that.”
She watched him struggle with what she’d said - with the Darkness that was all too eager to feed his lust for power with empty promises. He blinked and the shadows faded.
“Okay,” he breathed, taking one last look back at the past he was leaving behind; at death, itself. “Let’s go.”
🐍🐍🐍
Naboo was a beautiful planet. Rey’s favorite out of all the places she’d ever visited.
There were rolling green fields and deep blue lakes and bustling cities filled with beings from all over the galaxy.
Of all the places they could have chosen as a hide-out, they’d picked well.
Much of Ben’s rationale behind the choice was, in part, owed to Leia. Or, more accurately, to her cousin who still lived on the planet and whose granddaughter was the current reigning Queen.
They’d promised both Ben and Rey safe haven and the keys to an old familial estate in the planet’s lake country.
The last bit had actually been Leia’s doing. The home had been left to her years ago but she’d had such a complicated relationship with her biological family that she’d simply let it sit, unused and unoccupied, for years.
Ben was asked to make some oaths to stay out of galactic politics and away from military operations for the rest of his days. He’d only been too happy to agree.
The rest of the Knights of Ren were given no promises of protection by the Nabooian government.
That meant, of course, that they couldn’t stay, but they didn’t seem to mind all that much. Rey missed them when they left, of course, but she understood. It wasn’t in their nature to be grounded.
The house she and Ben had been given had seen better days. Some of the locals told her it was haunted, that a lamenting spirit wandered its walls, but if that had ever been the case, the ghost must have fled when she and Ben arrived because she’d not seen it or heard its cries.
Maybe it wasn’t mourning anymore and decided to head wherever it was spirits were meant to go. She hoped that was the case.
While there were no apparitions, there were plenty of cobwebs and dust bunnies. Some of the walls were crumbling and a few of the floorboards weren’t fit to stand on, but even if the ceiling leaked, they had a roof over their heads - which wasn’t something Rey had always been able to boast.
They got to work immediately after moving in, cleaning and repairing and making the home suitable for human occupation once again.
Rey, unfortunately, wasn’t a useful partner for long. Eventually, she grew too round to do too much - which Ben was very pleased with. Overly pleased. He’d put her on bed rest for the rest of her pregnancy if he thought he could get away with it, waiting on her hand-and-foot in-between bouts of spackling and scrubbing.
As her expected due date drew closer, Rey became more nervous, and the pain of birth was only part of the reason.
She didn’t know how to be a mother. Her own had hardly been the best role model, and what if she ended up just like her? What if she had been born with the same defect that kept her from loving her own child?
Next to dying by Snoke’s hand or losing Ben, that was the most terrifying fate she could imagine.
As it turned out, she had nothing to fear. The moment Eeva was born, Rey fell immediately, utterly, and hopelessly in love.
Ben was worse off. He had been devoted to the little girl they made from the day he found out she was coming, but now that she was there, he was totally lost. A goner. Completely head over heels.
But Rey understood. They had the best baby ever.
A lucky one, too, because she had so many people who loved her.
Her grandparents visited often, always bringing gifts along with them - toys and clothes and trinkets. Sweets too, as Eeva got older - ones that would be given under tables with a wink and an understanding that Mom and Dad didn’t always need to know everything.
The Naberries were also frequent guests, as were Ben’s parents’ friends, but nothing excited Eeva half as much as when her uncles were planetside.
The Knights of Ren adored the little girl, offering piggyback rides and games of dejarik that she, somehow, always won. They had the best stories, too - at least, that’s what Rey had been told. Her bedtime stories weren’t quite up to snuff when Cardo or Trudgen were around, it seemed.
She didn’t mind.
Her daughter was happy. A little princess surrounded by doting knights.
At the age where her mother was scavenging in the sand and her father was plagued by voices in his mind, Eeva played in tall grass. She danced and sang and laughed in the warm sun. She splashed bubbles in Ben’s face during bath time and stole fruit from across the table with the Force (a trick taught to her by her uncle, Ap’lek).
She knew nothing but joy and contentment and love. Her life was wonderful, and so was Rey’s.