Star Wars: A New Beginning (Reylo Paring)

Chapter 12: The Calm

The Millennium Falcon's engines droned as Rey piloted the old ship over the vast empty ocean of Ahch-To. The ferocious storm had passed and the dark grey waters now listed lazily beneath their feet. Ben Solo sat quietly adjacent to Rey in the co-pilot seat keeping his eyes forward, zoned out, and lost in thought. The message dropped by the probe droids replayed over in his head. Hux's face stayed at the forefront of his mind, his lips moved wordlessly to the message Ben Solo knew by heart. We are close. We will find you. A pang of fear touched Ben's mind. The sudden shift in emotion caused Rey to peer over at him, slightly taking her sights off the flight path before her. He was still, his chest rose and fell slowly. One arm rested limply on the curved armrest of the chair with a large hand grasping the edge of the arm in a relaxed position. The other arm stood erect from the elbow. His fist was closed except for a thumb tucked underneath his chin and his forefinger resting on his temple. She could read his thoughts. They were blaring in the quiet.

"I know," She said, breaking the silence that hung heavily between them, "We will figure something out. For now, we need to get back to base and call a meeting. We need to go over strategy." Her eyes turned back to the calm waters in front of her. Ben Solo was pulled out of thought at her sudden statement. His head rotated in his hand's hold, looking at the young woman. She was calm and collected on the outside. On the inside adrenaline coursed through her veins as she flew the ship. Her eyes seemed still, but her mind raced. Her posture was stiff, and her hold on the yoke was rigid. Their Force-bond rippled Rey's inner turmoil violently back at him.

Beside them, a small personnel shuttle drifted over the ocean's surface. Leia was careful in her planning. Explaining the new individual she and Rey were bringing back to the main island was something she had to consider wisely. She sat on a cushioned bench of the shuttle, waiting for her arrival to base. It was a basic room. Nothing lavish styled the room. It was mostly rows of hardly bolstered benches and blank white walls. Leia's lightly liver-spotted hands sat overlapped in her lap. Her richly colored robes creased at the weight of them. She stared at them as she thought about Ben Solo. It had been fifteen years since she sent her son to her brother's school. So much time had passed since she had seen any semblance of him. The closest she had been to him was reaching out through the Force, but it only allowed her to feel his energy. Nothing more. Leia did this from time to time as a way to check on her son, but she had always been deeply saddened by what she found. Her mind was always overloaded with hatred, pure hatred. But there was also deep sorrow that plagued Ben. It broke her heart every time.

The shuttle's engines began to whine as it slowed down. A dampened mechanical hiss sounded through the floor of the ship as the pilot deployed the landing gear. Leia's head lifted from her hands as the ship rebounded when it settled onto the main island. She knew now that she had to resurrect her son. Long ago, it's true she did mourn her son when Kylo Ren was born, and she told everyone that her son had been slaughtered like the other Padawans on Yavin 4. Back then, only Luke, Leia, and Han knew the truth of Ben Solo's unmistakably obvious turning to the Dark Side and the countless innocents he cut down in his rebirth. A brief memory of her waking up violently from a deep slumber played in her mind. Her heart cried, screamed in sorrow for the souls that wailed through the Force. But above all else, her heart wept for the death of her boy.

The poised general stood from the bench and turned, walking out from the aisle, towards the back of the shuttle. The door hissed open simultaneously with her arrival. Her view opened to a small airfield that was sparsely filled with ships the Resistance had left. The sight panged at her for a brief moment before movement caught her attention. She turned to watch the ramp of the Millennium Falcon lower to the ground. Out came Ben followed by Rey. Ben was dressed in dark-colored slim-fitting pants tucked into tall boots and a loose tan shirt. His curls sat laxly around broad features. A small smile found the corners of her lips as she watched her son take in his surroundings. He looked so much like his late father she thought.