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“Rey, I want you to join me.” The words echoed in her mind. It was a dream, a memory. One she knew all too well.
"We can rule together and bring a new order to the galaxy.” He spoke calmer than she ever thought possible.
“Don’t do this Ben.” There it was again. Ben. Such a kind name for such a broken boy. “Please don’t go this way.” It was desperate. She didn’t care.
“No, no you’re still holding on. Let go!” She didn’t flinch as he yelled. She knew this was the only way he knew how to plead. “Do you want to know the truth about your parents? Or have you always known and just hidden it away?” This brought tears to her eyes. Of course, she knew. But how could she face the truth? “You know the truth. Say it.” Say it. He did not want her to deny what was holding her back.
“They were nobody.” Her voice shook.
“They were filthy junk traders who sold you off for drinking money. They’re dead in a pauper’s grave in the Jakku desert.” There was sympathy woven between his words. Almost as if the sentences directed at her drew back memories from his own life. “You have no place in this story. You come from nothing. You’re nothing.” He was not wrong. Of all the tales she had ever heard the hero was never someone like her. Always the son of a queen, or the daughter of a knight. Never a nobody.
Then his voice came out softer than anything that had ever touched her before. It was unexpected. “But not to me.”
This made her eyes snap up to his as he said, “Join me. Please.”
She did not jolt awake as Rose had when she came out of her deep, injury induced slumber a few days ago. Her eyes opened slowly, and she continued to lay on her cot curled in fetal position. As tight and small as she could get. A habit from her days on Jakku she doubts she would ever be able to break. She lay thinking, looking at the dull grey wall she had pulled her cot against in her small rectangular room. It had been 22 days since he had offered her his hand. It seems she had stopped counting the days since her parents had left her and instead started counting the days since she left Ben. Another habit she doubted she could ever break. However, their force bond hand not broken despite her closing the door on him. She saw him in fleeting moments. Felt his feeling. Heard his thoughts flitter across her mind. The force never connected them long enough to speak. Not even long enough to look each other in the eye. Maybe it was a blessing. Maybe it was a curse.
A light knock at the door brought her to a seated position. Legs thrown over the side of her cot.
“It’s Finn.” Silence. “She- she wants to see you.”
Rey closed her eyes tight and griped the edge of her cot. She knew what that meant. Feeling rushed, as she had every day since joining the Resistance, she dressed and laced her boots. Opened the door and followed Finn to Leia’s room.
Leia’s room was dark and quiet and triple the size of Rey’s with only a few people spread throughout the space. Rey only recognized Poe among them. He was kneeling at her side as she lay in her bed gently holding her hand. When Rey walked into the room Leia opened her weak eyes and smiled at her. Behind her many of the room’s occupants shuffled out of the room. Poe being the last after he gave her a soft kiss on her forehead with silent tears running down his face. Leia had been dealing with health complications ever since she had been blasted into space nearly a month ago. And despite the healer’s best efforts nothing had truly cured her, and she eventually insisted they stop trying. Leia had claimed there was no reason to delay the inevitable. After she had made the decision not to continue with any treatment she had steadily been preparing Poe, Finn, and Rey to lead what was left of the Resistance. Their numbers were dwindling every day and Leia wanted the three of them to share the load. To help make the burden easier and balance each other out. It made sense to Rey, but still made her sad.
Leia reached out to take Rey’s hand, “Thank you for coming.”
Rey smiled kneeling by her bedside as Poe had done moments ago. “There’s no place I’d rather be,” she whispered.
Leia smiled back, her eyes slightly out of focus, “I don’t have much time,” sensing what that sentence did to Rey she added, “Don’t you worry about me. My time here had been well spent and I’m ready for what will come next.”
Rey nodded, “I just never imagined it would be like this.”
“I know,” Leia reached up with her free hand to touch Rey’s cheek, “There are great thing’s ahead for you Rey. I’m excited for the full life you’ll live, and I’ll be rooting for you until it’s your time to join me, but that’s not what I want to talk to you about. I need to ask you a favor.”
“Of course, anything.” Rey responds.
Despite Rey’s protests, Leia slowly shifted into a sitting position and pointed to the desk adjacent to her bed. On top of it sat a thick envelope. “When you see my son again. I would like you to give that to him.”
Rey’s mouth dropped open, “I- I don’t plan on-”
Leia cut her off, “I know you don’t plan of seeing him again, but something tells me you will. I know you don’t want to see it right now, but I there’s light in him. I can feel it.”
Rey nodded and grabbed the letter tucking it into one of her pockets. She looked at the ground for a second at a loss for words when Leia gently lifted her chin forcing Rey to look at her. She had a glint in her impossibly tired eyes. Like she knew something, saw something Rey could not. “Never forget that you are not alone. There is so much for you to do here Rey, but please remember to ask for help along the way. No one is meant to walk the path of life by themselves.” Rey’s throat constricted and she could only find it in herself to nod.
“Thank you. Now please send Finn in so I can give him his final orders as well.” She said softly.
Rey again nodded, stood, and smiled down at the Princess. “Thank you, Leia. For everything.”
She walked out of the room without looking back and nodded to Finn, who had been waiting outside, letting him know the General had requested his presence.
Rey walked around the facility for a while. Aimlessly wandering, and before long she felt it. She wasn’t sure how to react. She wanted to cry and scream and crawl into a hole, but she didn’t seem to have the energy for any of that. So, she walked back to her sad excuse for a room and fell asleep.