The Chosen One: A Reylo Story

Chapter 18: Legacy

The ship rocks violently, up and down, side to side, as high-speed winds roar turbulently around it.

Ben navigates cautiously, descending at a slow, methodical pace. He can't see anything in front of him except for whirling grey wind and the occasional flash of electricity. He has to rely on the radar system, tracking the best path to the base.

Of course, Zax would choose to hole up in an uninhabitable planet like this one. It's brilliant, really. Rey never would have found him. Who in the galaxy would expect a living thing to even attempt surviving here? It's a giant orb of gas. No land. No bodies of water. But what's worse is the atmosphere. It's toxic and locked in an interminable storm with winds so powerful they would rip most man-made objects to shreds.

But the floating structure on this planet was not made by humans. It was constructed by the Chiss, one of the most reclusive and technologically advanced civilizations in the galaxy. Apparently, this particular base was commissioned by Jer'ah's father as a hideaway should he ever need to flee and take his family with him to safely. Unfortunately, Snoke's betrayal of the man was too swift to give him that opportunity.

Suddenly, the engine cuts out and the ship drops. Ben acts without hesitation, quickly rerouting power to the secondary engine. Then he turns to look behind him.

Despite the roar of the atmosphere, Jian is still out cold. Ben strapped him on his back to a lounge seat. He looks almost angelic, his chubby-cheeked face serene as if lost in a peaceful slumber. But he's not really sleeping, at least not organically. Ben knocked him out the moment they boarded the ship on Cantonica.

He looks back in front of him, resuming his slow crawl to the base.

He's close. Not five minutes out. He'll be landing soon. Which means soon he'll present Jian to Zax and the Knights. Which means soon all of this will be over... Today. Maybe within the next hour.

Ben hasn't felt this certain of anything in quite a while. It feels good. It feels better than good. It feels like finding himself for the first time.

He grunts.

Part of him can't believe he's fallen back into this lunacy. The Force as anything more than a cold, apathetic energy, an energy that allows itself to be harnessed and used indiscriminately. Over the years, he's grown increasingly contemptuous of the idea of the Force as any sort of intelligence or guide, a conduit to one's destiny.

But he can't deny what he experienced in Rey's mind when she pulled him into her connection with the Force. A map of the future, of sorts.

"Map" is the wrong word. It implies a clarity that's not at all like what he experienced. It can be difficult to read these things. After all, he's seen the future through the Force before and found that reality turned out quite differently than he'd expected.

But something about this was different. This wasn't touching Rey's hand on Achc-To. This wasn't like peering through a window as a passive observer. It was like being in a different mind, a mind that sees time all at once. This mind communicated to him, through sensation more than sight, a sequence of events as they could unfold should he choose to set them in motion.

And if he does, the result would give him something he didn't realize he wanted, but now that the opportunity's presented itself, is something he aches for...

A chance to reclaim his legacy. To remake it.

The thought makes him nervous, afraid even. But it also fills him with a sense of purpose. This is it. This is his chance. A way to pick up the broken shards of his past and build something he can be proud of. This future... it's within his power to bring it to being.