Authors Note: Thanks for surpassing 100 views! It means a lot. Hope you're enjoying the story.
*briefly inspired by 'End Game' by Taylor Swift*
"From where?" Ben asked cautiously.
"The origins are unknown, Supreme Leader." Thanisson replied. "We are tracking it as we speak."
As the Comlink operators tapped away, the blinking red dot of the transmission continued to blip across the holo screen.
Hux burst onto the command bridge.
"I want this transmission traced!" Hux ordered, pointing angrily at the operators.
"We are already tracing the signal, General." Thanisson sighed, rolling his eyes at Hux. Hux glared at him.
"You better be." He snapped.
The whole room was awaited the results with anticipation. Ben kept clenching and unclenching his fist as the seconds passed by.
"Sir!" Officer Milligan said. "The message is coming from Cloud City."
Ben let out a small sigh of relief. Hux looked disgusted at the results.
"Cloud City? Where was it headed to? Transcribe the message!" Hux badgered.
The operators tapped away at their computers.
"The destination and contents have been blocked. It needs to be de-coded."
"Well find someone to UNBLOCK it!" Hux yelled.
XXX
"Who is it from?" Finn asked as everyone scrambled around the computer.
"I'm trying! I'm trying!" Connix said exasperated, as she reached for the Comlink headset.
"It's..... It's coded." Connix said.
"Let me see that!" Rose said, shoving her small frame towards the front of the communication module.
Rose started typing away quickly, clicking here and there as the computer continued to beep.
"There!" She said with a flourish.
Everyone squinted at the screen.
"Cloud City?" Rose read. "Who do we know in Cloud City?"
Connix did some typing at the console.
"A Bloom Calrissian?" She read aloud. Poe went pale.
"Shit." He whispered. Rey and Finn looked at him.
"Do you know him?" Finn asked.
"She." Poe corrected. "And she's my ex-girlfriend."
XXX
Rey made her way back to the Falcon. It was very late at this point, and she was surprised Chewie hadn't come looking for her. As she turned to walk up the ramp, she stopped.
"Rey." Said a stern voice from behind her. She whipped around, reaching for her saber in the process and igniting it.
The pale blue ghost of Luke stepped into view, standing in the clearing Chewie had made for campfires.
"Master Luke?" Rey gasped.
"Rey." He continued. "I am very disappointed in you." He said.
"What did I do?" She asked, turning off her saber and putting it away.
"Rey...." Luke said, with a warning tone. He folded his arms and gave her a pointed stare. "I saw you and Ben."
Rey felt her face become warm.
"He is using you Rey. He is seducing you to the dark side. Literally."
"He is not." Rey said defensively.
"You are the last hope for the Jedi to be reborn. You can't involve yourself with him."
"You said yourself the Jedi needed to end."
"That I did." Luke said nodding. "The old Jedi order ended with my death. It is up to you to bring forth a new Jedi order."
"I never asked for this." Rey said. She turned to go up the ramp but her feet were froze in place.
"Let me go." Rey told him.
"Not until you listen." He replied.
"You're not my father!" Rey shouted. "You can't tell me what to do!"
She felt shocked at the words that had come out of her mouth. She knew Luke sensed it.
"See what I mean? His darkness is beginning to affect you. Let him go."
"No." Rey said firmly. "I'm not giving up on him like you did." Rey said. She pushed back against the Force hold he had on her, breaking free and running onto the Falcon.
Rey slammed the button to raise the ramp, startling a sleepy Chewie awake. He groaned softly.
"I'm fine." She snapped before huffing off to her room.
XXX
It was past midnight and the Comlink operators were still unable to decode the destination of the message and its contents. Ben went to his room, not looking forward to having to be up early for the combat training. Hux had continued to stay on the bridge. Another reason Ben wasn't looking forward to the morning. Hux was horrible when he was cranky. Which, ironically, seemed to be most of the time anyways.
Ben changed into a black short sleeved top and a matching pair of pants. He shut the curtains to the wide window, dimmed the lights, and slid into the red silk sheets of his bed. As he tried to fall asleep in the darkness, a soft snuffle of breath broke through the silence of the room. He turned over to find Rey fast asleep next to him.
He allowed himself into her thoughts. She wasn't sleeping well. She was frustrated and torn over something Luke had told her. She was remembering when she briefly fought against him in the rain on Ahch-To.
"I'm not giving up on him." She was telling Luke, as water poured down from the sky.
"Let him go!" Luke yelled at her. Then he heard his own voice in her head.
"Let go!" He was yelling.
Ben gently placed a hand on her shoulder and she jolted awake.
"It's just me." He whispered in the dark in an attempt to calm her. She sat up.
She wasn't in her bed this time. She rubbed the sheets between her fingers, staring off into the darkness of the room. The fabric was soft and cool, not scratchy like the kind she had on the Falcon. She shuddered. All the years in the Jakku desert had left her feeling uncomfortable when it came to the coldness of space. She laid back down, facing Ben. He was staring up at the ceiling, his hands behind his head.
"Can't sleep?" She asked. He shook his head.
"I was dreaming when you woke me." Rey said.
"I saw it." Ben answered. It grew quiet between them. He could sense she felt bothered.
"You're cold." He told her.
"Are you in my mind again?"
"No." he lied.
The little spunk. She had begun thinking about their kiss in the field on purpose.
"How about now." She asked. Ben broke away from her thoughts. He went back to staring at the ceiling.
Hux's words on how he shouldn't be having feelings for a woman echoed in his mind. This was all very wrong in many ways, too many to count. She had called him names. He hurt her friends. He was a killer. He had issues and chips on both his shoulders. His reputation proceeded him. He was past knee deep in the Dark side. He had made mistakes and choices that were hard to deny. But yet - she hadn't rejected his kiss, she had reciprocated it. The fact she was in a bed with him without her screaming her head off this time was nice. It was easier to go on ignoring the truth, that she was slowly turning him from Kylo Ren.
He peeked over at Rey, hoping she hadn't been listening to his thoughts. She was asleep. He reached an arm over to her, wrapping it around her side, and pulled her in close.
He woke up to his alarm startling him awake. His bed was warm for once. The connection had stayed intact through the night. Rey's hair sprawled across his pillows. He laid there for a moment, watching her sleeping figure. He traced a finger down the length of her curves, careful not to wake her. He longed to kiss her again, but he didn't want to chance waking her up again. He got up and went to take a shower, his chest pinching when he returned to find her gone from the bed.
Down in the training quarters, Herrera was waiting for him with the new troopers already lined up in their squadrons. Ben noticed the number of troopers seemed fewer than last weeks.
"We are short a sector." Ben said to Herrera.
"Yes, Supreme Leader. General Hux took a squad to Cloud City early this morning."
"HE WHAT?" Ben shouted.
"The operators couldn't decode the message recovered last night, so he set out to do some interrogation."
Ben angrily gripped his saber.
"I want every blaster polished and recharged before I get back." Ben ordered through gritted teeth.
"Yes, Supreme Leader." Herrera said. Ben stormed off, headed for the command bridge.
XXX
Ben's alarm had woken her up. She had continued to lay there, pretending to be asleep. It must have worked because she felt him run a finger from her shoulder to her waist, politely stopping at her hip. He got up and exited to the bathroom, where she soon heard the shower turn on.
As soon as she stood up out of the bed, she was almost knocked back as she felt herself snap back to her room on the Falcon. She looked at the clock. Not even Chewie would be awake at this time.
She got dressed and hastily put her hair up in a single bun, grabbing her bag and saber and heading towards the ramp.
Once the ramp had lowered, Rey peeked around cautiously. There was no sign of Luke. She hurried down the ramp and out of the swamp, eager to return to the hangers.
"We told you not to intervene, Luke." Obi-Wan said, appearing at the swamp edge along with Luke and Yoda. They watched her trot down the hill.
"Pushing her away to him you are." Yoda agreed.
"No I'm not." Luke said. Yoda whacked at Lukes legs with his cane again.
"Would you stop that?" Luke asked, flinching away.
"Meddle you must not. Guide them, the Force will."
"Trust in the Force, Luke." Obi-Wan chimed in. Luke sighed and watched as Rey's figure continued to grow smaller in the distance.
"Remember, lose Rey we must not."
"Yes Master Yoda."