What She's Worth (Reylo)

Chapter 33

"Come on, come on," Luke muttered under his breath, his eyes moving all over the controls of his X-Wing's console. Outside, R2-D2 continued to beep frantically from the droid port on one of the wings, as though he could sense his master's turmoil.

It was no use. This was the fastest the X-Wing could travel even in hyperspace and it would still take several more hours before he reached the academy.

He tried to calm himself but failed miserably. He had pictured several scenarios in his head, none of them good. The results of this revelation—this public revelation of the Skywalker lineage—were bound to be disastrous, not just for Ben, but for the entire academy.

That was when he felt it—a disturbance in the Force. The darkness stirring, of lives violently ripped away, of terrified screams before all was silent.

And Luke knew then he was too late.

Far too late.

He felt nothing. No pain, no fear. Only...peace.

Was this what it was like to die? He didn't know. All he knew was that he had never felt so calm, so free from pain and suffering, from all the tumult he had experienced these past several years.

He opened his eyes and found himself floating. Floating in oblivion as light shone down on him from up high.

The light...the warmth...

"Come back..."

He blinked. That voice. It was coming from the light.

"Come back to me, Ben..."

"Rey..." He raised his hand then, reaching out to the light, to the warmth until...

He gasped when he felt the full force of pain welling up from his chest, the wound from Casthre's plasma blade throbbing...

...and healing?

"Ben!"

Ben sputtered as Rey lifted her hands from his chest and threw her arms around him, his still healing wounds pulsing with pain. "Oh, Ben...I...I thought I lost you..."

He groaned in response. That he felt pain and discomfort was a good sign. He was alive. Exhausted, wounded, but very much alive. And he knew without asking that it was all thanks to Rey.

Rey...

Mustering the strength, he gently pushed Rey off him so he could look at her eyes, relief washing over him when he found them to be the same hazel colour he had always known them to be. They weren't the eyes of someone who had tapped into the Dark Side. So perhaps she hadn't...

Rey shook her head and looked away, tears coursing down her cheeks.

"R-Rey...what...is it?"

It took a while before Rey answered, and when she did, it was in a voice so small, Ben had to ask her again to repeat what she had said.

"I killed them," she blurted, and Ben froze. "I killed them all."

He started to shake his head. No. Not Rey. She couldn't. She wouldn't. This was just one of his many nightmares. It wasn't real. And yet even as he tried to deny it, the scent of blood and cauterized flesh was thick in the air. From the corner of his eye, he could see lifeless bodies...bodies upon bodies, toppled pillars and fires coming from the distance...but he dared not look.

Looking would make it real. Make the nightmare real.

"It's true, Ben. I killed...everyone," Rey sobbed, her fingers tightening around the black cloak he still wore over his shoulders. "When I saw Casthre stab you...I lost control and I...killed them. All of them, even...even Kreio..."