AN: This is the second installment from The Unspoken Betrayal. If you have not read that story, stop here, please go back to my profile and read the 40 glorious chapters of that story before even diving into this one!

That being said, for all of you coming over from TUB, welcome! I promised not to keep you waiting and unlike some other people we know...I keep my promises.

Part I

Ben didn't know what to expect when stepping off his Command Shuttle on Dantooine, but it wasn't this. He could hardly believe that the smoldering ruble used to be a Rebel base, let alone where Rey lived for the past year and a half. Cave-ins of duracrete only hinted at where the underground hangar used to be and smoke billowing out of random areas up a slight hill indicated the locations of air shafts, venting the ruin from within.

All around him was the stench of death, the twisted and dismembered bodies of both Resistance and Stormtroopers littered the tarmac. Taking in the utter deviation around him, Ben thought it must have been an act of the Force that she was able to survive such an attack. A quick scan of the base read back that there were no salvageable life forms within the ruins. There would be no search and rescue, and he ordered a recovery mission, where each body found would be identified and properly honored and laid to rest within the Force.

The sweltering summer sun beat down upon him on the black tarmac and he tasted the thick and humid air as if he could decipher if Rey was still on the planet or how long ago she had departed. But in the pit of his heart, he knew she wasn't here. She was a survivor above all else and this place only harbored death and decay now.

Walking across the grounds he saw a break in the trees and for some reason, he was drawn to it. "Emperor," Alister called out in a one-word question of whether the Knight should follow or not.

Ben just held up his hand to stay his guards and ventured between the trees.

What he found was a small clearing and as sweat dripped down the back of his neck, he knelt down and dug his bare hands into the dry soil. There was power in this place, latent and fading, but power none the less.

He remembered the night Rey completed her saber, he had followed her outside and they sparred as the world's one moon shone down on her already glowing features. Back then, when he secretly left his declaration of love on the hilts of her sabers, he never thought that they would end up like this. How could she ever doubt him when he had written his vows on her weapon of the Force and encased his very soul, that only ever existed for her, within a kyber that he prayed was still hung around her neck.

Thinking of the kybers, and taking his mother's advice, he slid into a more meditative position and used the lingering power of the clearing to ground himself into the Force.

It was strange reaching out for one's own essence when the largest part of their presence was in fact, where they were physically situated. It was another humbling experience to have to think beyond his person, to consider this hulking part of himself small and inconsequential so that the tiny pieces of his self would shine brighter in the Force.

There, he gasped but then lost the track. She was moving too fast, she was in hyperspace racing away into the unknown. He would have to wait until she made planetfall somewhere, stayed put long enough for him to get a read on her. But even then he would have to approach her with caution, knowing that if she was truly running, if she saw any of his Knights, any of the guards, she would go deeper into the Unknown Regions and possible never surface again.

Within moments he had drained the area of her essence and he was once again left hollow. There was nothing left for him here and he walked back out to his ship, "We will rendezvous with the Serenity and make a strategy from there to find and bring home our Empress."

As they raced back through free space and Ben sat alone in their…his quarters, he thought about the last time he had done this. It was after Crait, after she had turned her back on him and fled, and just like five hundred and twenty-seven days ago, he tried to calculate where he had gone wrong.

But Dantooine was not Crait and the Serenity was not the Supremacy. Rey was not just the scavenger that was scared of a future with him, she was his wife, his crowned and confirmed Empress.

The catalyst, he mused, for both events, for both times now that she had closed the door on him, closed their bond, was the death of her friends. If he could bring Hux back to life long enough to cut him in two again, Ben would be thoroughly satisfied. But was his treacherous General really the only one to blame?

Ben thought about his mother's warning on Ahch-To and at first, he had thought it would be someone to attempt to hurt them, a person from the Resistance that discovered them before the treaty signing or a double agent from Snoke's rule. He had thought that whatever it was, whoever it was, that both Rey and himself would face it together, thinking, perhaps with hubris, that their bond, their love, was unbreakable.

Never in a million years would he have thought that part of the betrayal would come from Rey herself and he cursed the stubborn and choleric woman who whispered her love one day and then sneered her hate the next.

He understood her pain, he wished for nothing more than to wrap her small body in his arms and comfort her for the loss of her friends. Begrudgingly Ben admitted to himself that Dameron would have made a damn good flight instructor for the Imperial Navy and for Maker's sake, how could Rey think her husband so heartless that he would murder a man with a child on the way?

Perhaps that is what hurt him the most, the fact that Rey was so easy to doubt, that she was so quick to forget. He had begged her on countless occasions too, no matter what, trust in the Force, trust in their bond, their love, and never question his devotion to her. He had worked tirelessly to prove to her that he was worth believing in, and in one grand fuck you gesture from a maniacal ginger, the past five hundred and twenty-seven days seemed to have been washed away.

With a grief that he attempted to keep at bay, he thought of his poor abandoned girl, whose parents cast her aside for drinking money and were dumped unceremoniously into a pauper's grave in the Jakku desert. Scraping and begging for just the barest needs of survival, before being used as yet another political ploy by his mother…Rey didn't stand a chance at learning to deeply trust in such a short amount of time. Especially when the very few that she had grown to deeply love, were reportedly killed by the man she trusted her heart with.

Ben was not guiltless, he had hurt her in the past, had connected with her on Ahch-To just to put her in chains and deliver her to Snoke, let his Master penetrate her mind and her Light. But he had acted with retribution and later gained her forgiveness and started down the path of redemption with Rey finally at his side.

He wanted to rage, draw his saber and slash at everything in the room that reminded him of her. Walking to their closets, he pulled at the door, seeing her clothes within he dropped to his knees, gripping the blue silk of the dress she wore on Naboo and sobbed into the billowing folds, not caring that he was staining the fabric with the salt of his tears.

Pain, his mind flashed and the haunting echo of the voice that plagued his youth rang in the dark corners of his subconscious. You must use this pain, Kylo Ren. Draw strength from it and trust in the Darkside of the Force.

Ben shook the voice from his head as a shiver coursed through his body. Ever since Rey came back into his life, somehow her Light had kept his old Master's Dark musings at bay. Ben couldn't fall back to being the Kylo Ren that laid waste to the small village on Jakku. He needed to heed his mother's words and continue to strive to be the man that Rey would return home to…one day…soon…hopefully.

Standing, he pulled the knife from his boot, the same one that he had used to rid his bride of her wedding dress on the pinnacle of Ahch-To, were they had made love for the first time as man and wife, and he scratched a single tick mark into the gray-coated metal of her closet door.

He felt as if he was back at the beginning, back to getting Rey to trust him, back to convincing her to willingly come to him, willing to love him again. On the Supremacy she had misunderstood his need…his purpose for her, and he saw now that asking her to let the past die, to allow the Resistance, her friends die with that past was wrong. But now that her friends were dead, it appeared that it was, in fact, their future that was the lamb led to the slaughter. Ben was not to be her past, to be left behind, he is her now and always, the Force had promised that to him.

But in times like this, he was finding the Force cruel, fickle, and wanting.

They landed on the Serenity and Arlan and Tyris were anxiously waiting in the hangar for their Master's orders.

"What happened?" Arlan asked as they paced down the halls and entered the same conference room that was to be used for the treaty signing.

Ben placed his hands along the glossy surface of the table, closing his eyes, he could still see Rey laid out before him, all flushed skin and glossy folds, and he wondered if she would ever look at him with such love and longing ever again. With this thought, he finally drew his saber and hacked the table into splinters.

"Hux ordered an attack on the Resistance base on Dantooine. He wanted to continue this war…he wanted Rey dead." Ben's breath came in gasps, not only at the physical exertion of destroying the furnishings but also at the emotional toll of thinking about an existence without Rey, and how even now, the pain he felt without her signature ever present in the pulsing just behind his ribs, he knew that she was alive and for this moment, that would have to be enough.

Arlan sucked in a breath, "Is the Empress…" she couldn't even bear to say the words.

"She got away, but for now at least I fear she is lost to us…to me."

Still not understanding, Arlan looked around at the other guards and Knights, but it was Alister who spoke, "The Empress believed that our Master was the orchestrator of the attack and has gone into hiding."

"The Force," Arlan pleaded. "Your bond…"

Ben looked down at the still smoking wood of the table, "She turned away from our bond, from the Force. I can't sense her anymore."

Arlan felt just as lost as her Master. She remembered when Rey turned off the Force last time, how Ren was inconsolable, how he screamed of the pain, begged her for death. She couldn't fathom how he was managing to remain in such a stable state as she let her own emotions get the best of her and fat tears ran from the guard's pale eyes.

"What of her friends? The girl, Rose…" Arlan thought back to their brief meeting on Orinda.

"We don't know, but presume that they are all dead." Ben looked as if saying the words was causing him even more physical pain. "I only know Rey survived because she came to me in the bond before closing herself off to it."

Coving her mouth and attempting to stop the tears from rolling down her face, Arlan thought about the happy, spunky, and a clearly pregnant woman and her heart hurt for her Empress, for her friend, who after so much work and sacrifice, had just lost so much. "Maybe she just needs time to grieve and then she will come back," Arlan tried to comfort herself.

"She was in so much pain," Ben mused, remembering the suffocating agony that he felt through the bond as she hissed insults at him before turning her back on everything.

Sadly, Ben wanted to believe what Arlan was saying, that Rey just needed some time and if he allowed her some space, she would come back and they could pick their relationship back up. At this point he was hurt but he knew that he could forgive Rey, they would need to have some very serious conversations and she needed to know that running should never be the first choice when they have issues, but he was just so desperate to have her back in his arms, that he would tamper down her betrayal for the sake of his sanity.

After taking a calming breath, Ben, his guards, and his Knights set to work to devise a plan to search for Rey, find her, and bring her home safely. He would use all of his contacts, all of the alliances that he had made across the galaxy, to find her. He would make sure that she was not to be harmed, or even approached. Ben needed to be the one to tell her the truth, to show her in the Force that he had no hand in the massacre on Dantooine. He needed to be the one to bring his wife home.

So as if time had reset itself, on day one Ben sent discreet messages to all of the sectors in his Empire.

As soon as Rey broke atmosphere off Dantooine, she entered the Veragi Trade Route and headed further into the Outer Rim, making a wide sweeping flight path around Akuria where she knew the Serenity was awaiting the arrival of the Resistance for the treaty signing. But there would be no treaty because there was no more Resistance. Kylo Ren had seen to that.

The other thing that Kylo had been sure of, was teaching Rey how to run. All the practice runs getting off-world on the MK3 kicked in and she was in hyperspace in under a minute, leaving the destruction and First Order Destroyer in her wake.

Rose had sobbed to exhaustion and now she curled up in the co-pilot's seat, deep in a restless sleep. In this moment Rey finally let her resolve crack, pulling her legs up to her chest and crying into the soft fabric at her knees. Somehow, though everything that happened that day, her clothes still smelled like him and a place deep in her chest felt ripped open once more.

Rey felt hollow without the Force, without the bond, like the constant threat of nausea that had no relief. This was nothing like the last time she turned off the Force with the intent to surprise Ben, this time she wasn't just turning against the Cosmic power, she was turning against the very feelings that were so embedded in her very soul that it almost felt like when Snoke had ripped memories from her mind.

Each time she breathed, the thin knife of betrayal inched closer to her heart and she wondered how long she could live like this. Her mind was at war with her heart and she felt that no matter what, there would be no victor in this battle.

She tried in vain to comprehend what she had come upon on Dantooine. How this could have happened and how Ben had kept these plans from her for so long. The troopers were clearly First Order and were not shy about stating their objective as passed down by the Supreme Leader, a title that she thought Ben had abandoned long ago.

There was obviously more to her husband than she had never known, and she shivered thinking that the man she married, who would whisper love and promises into her heated skin was the same man who would order the execution of men, woman, and children just days before he had promised her peace and a lifetime of happiness.

Poe's final words echoed in her mind, 'We had no chance…' They had been lulled into a false sense of security with peace just within their grasp, just for it to be yanked away by the cruel hand of Kylo Ren.

When Rey had told Ben, all those months ago, that he would never be her Supreme Leader because he was a better man than Snoke could ever aspire to be, she had never been so wrong and she cursed her heart forever giving him a second chance.

But now she raced away from that life with the new life that was growing within her. For a fleeting moment she had been wanting to be rid of the child, not wanting a piece of that monster to be within her, but she wouldn't…could never judge the future intentions or worth of a child by the blood that flowed through its veins.

One of the most devastating parts of turning her back on the Force was that she was no longer able to feel her child. The special bond that she had with her little Light was now also lost and it made the void within her more vast. Through readings with Rose, Rey knew that within a few more weeks she could possibly start to feel her baby move in her womb, but the connection through the Force could never be replicated by slight flutters.

Rey yearned for the Force, for her child…for her husband, but the man that now called himself Emperor was not her Ben, for her Ben could never command such an act. She had to believe that there was no Light left in him, that Kylo Ren had taken hold of her husband's body and the man she gave herself to was gone.

She had to believe this, otherwise all of this pain, all of this loss was for nothing. So with a heavy heart and shattering breath, Rey tried to forget the last five hundred and twenty-seven days. She would find her own peace, her own balance, without the Force and without Ben.

Walking into the main hold of the ship, she pulled the necklace out from between her breasts, unlatched the chain and as the cool gold came away from her body, another sob racked her body. She had to cut ties, close this part of her life and keep moving forward, keep surviving.

Holding the rings in her hand without the Force was an odd sensation. While normally she could feel Ben's signature pulsing though, his Light was warm and embracing, but now Rey just felt nothing and the kyber looked dull and muddy in her palm. His Light was truly gone and she locked the reminders of their broken vows aways in the wooden box with the rest of his lies.

The box of Ben was stowed away in the back of a compartment, behind the Jedi text, and hidden away from view and thought. That chapter of her life had burned hot and fast, but she and Ben were like fire and starship fuel, volatile and guaranteed to ignite with a savage explosion.

So with shaking limbs, Rey limped to the hull door, scratching a single line into the durasteel, longingly and dolefully running her fingertip over the solitary mark that signified the start of another life.

Within a day they were following the Celanon Spur to Botajaf before turning onto the Hydian Way and making it all the way to Telos IV on the next solar cycle before needing to refuel. The world in the Kwymar Sector was heavily populated, by Dantooine standards that is, and without the Force, Rey wasn't able to tell if there was danger lurking. So she made sure that Rose had her blaster and with her saber strapped to her back, under the cover of a cloak, they ventured out into the large port as their ship was refueled.

The limitless credit cards that Ben had given her could only get them so far as she was sure they were traceable, but their ship would be refueled and stocked with supplies before they could be tracked to the Outer Rim planet. They would have to find a remote world soon to settle on, find work and earn their own credit.

Reaching down to rub her hand along the still flat expanse between her hips, Rey knew that they would need to find a world with medical care, especially with Rose further along in her pregnancy. Rey was far too familiar with the dangers of labor, on Jakku woman would often have to sell their bodies for water or portions. Unwanted pregnancies were common and without so much as a midwife within a hundred miles, many women lost their babies or their own life in childbirth.

Back on Naboo, in the royal catacombs, Rey had made Ben promise to raise their children in the Light if Rey was to follow Padmé's fate and die while giving birth, but Ben had broken more promises than she cared to count. He had killed children in the attack on Dantooine, just has his grandfather had killed younglings in the Jedi Temple, there was such Darkness in the deed that Rey couldn't…wouldn't trust him to not lead their son down the same path.

She had to survive, she had to fight. Rey now had a responsibly to both her unborn child, Rose and her daughter to come. It was Rey's fault that Finn was dead just as much as it was Kylo's. Both of their children would grow up fatherless because of the secrets that Rey kept from her friends and the secrets that Ben kept from her.

It was a burden that she would take to her grave, knowing that Rose would surely hate her if she was to discover the truth.

They drifted in free space in sector Q4 for a few days, they cried and planned, ate rations, and attempted to sleep curled up together on a single bunk. They found comfort in each other but Rey's heart still broke every time she heard Rose talking to the baby in her womb, telling stories of Finn's bravery and how much her daddy loved her and how Rose wished that he could have met their beautiful daughter at least once.

There were eleven tick marks on the hull door when they moved from free space into the Listehol Run, connecting down to the Shaltin Tunnels which led them to Lianna in S6.

Lianna was another populated world and Rose and Rey easily blended into the dense city. A quick scan on her datapad showed that the planet's main economy as built around technology firms and with both Rose and herself being mechanical inclined, Rey was hopeful that they could hide out here long enough to plan their next move.

Another fact that reassured her was that she had never seen this world's name on any of the documents for the New Order. Lianna was a democratic and prospering planet that needed little intervention from the New Republic or the New Order and being this far out in the Rim offered them some anonymity from the Core run governments.

Such a populated world also offered them access to medical facilities and Rey didn't know how long she would be able to hide her own…condition from Rose. Better yet, Rey wasn't sure how she was going to explain it to Rose and she spent many sleepless nights debating the future fall out from lying or telling the truth.

Sleeping on the shuttle saved them credits on lodging and also gave them access to a quick get-away if needed, but within the week, both girls had found work at Santhe/Sienar Technologies. Rose worked in-line manufacturing, standing on her feet all day made her ankles swell, but she wasn't stuck under ships or around dangerous chemicals. Rey was in fitting and testing, and she had to admit that having grease under her fingernails again felt good.

At the first chance she had, Rey went out and bought some blue paint, coving BB-8's distinctive orange markings in case there was also a bounty out on the droid again. The astromech had tried to argue in binary, but when Rey had treated to not let him off the ship until he also had another identity, BB finally conceded and allowed Rey to meticulously paint his sphere body.

Around the thirty day mark, Rey had to start letting out the ties on her tunics and blamed the slightly rounding of her hips on lack of training as she had not ignited her saber since that day, when she held her unstable blade to her husband's neck, posed and ready to end him and his reign of tyranny.

The cool metal of the hilt still sat at her back, but she was scared to light it, first at the sack of detection as lightsabers were very uncommon, and secondly, she feared that she would feel something…that she would be tempted to split the hilt, look down upon his words, the star and the home, when there was only a gaping black hole and a pile of ruined in their place.

Normal felt like a foreign feeling after everything they had gone through, but with caf in the morning, work during the day, simple rations for dinner, and nights spent laughing at Rose's frustration as she attempted to learn how to knit…Rey thought that this could almost feel normal.

But Rey's first reckoning came forty-four days after they fled Dantooine as they entered the woman's clinic in Lianna City. At twenty weeks pregnant Rose was overdue from another check but they dare not attempt to get her records from Orinda and weeks ago they started going by made up names as a safety measure.

"Paige Fel," Rose said to the woman behind the check-in desk.

Rey bit at her lip, still anxious about revealing her secret, but it has been over a month since she heard her baby's heartbeat and even her body continued to change around his growing body, without the Force connection, she had to know that he was healthy and alive.

So she stepped up next to Rose, "And I'm Kira Revan…" she slid a quick glance to her friend. "I scheduled our visits together."

Not wanting to cause a scene in the middle of the waiting room, knowing that any unwanted attention could mean their capture and possibly their deaths, Rose sat next to her dearest friend, looking at her as if she could pull the meaning of all of this from her mind, but Rey just stared ahead, twisting her hands in her lap and avoiding direct eye contact.

Looking over Rey's body, Rose saw the slightly bigger bust and lower abdomen pudge that Rey blamed on lack of exercise. When they came home from work, Rose often shed her jacket and tunic, much more comfortable lounging around the shuttle in just her breast band as she told Rey that her stomach needed to 'breathe'. But Rey always changes in the fresher or in the bunk room, never showing a sliver of skin more than she needed to and now Rose knew why.

What she couldn't fathom was why her friend through that she had to hide her pregnancy. They had been through so much over the past few years and Rose almost felt insulted that Rey had hidden this. Rose felt less alone now, knowing that her best friend would be going through all of this with her, that they would have each other to rely on, and Rose also became giddy at the prospect of raising their children together on the rolling green hills of a peaceful world.

It was only when they were back in the exam room and the strong and steady heartbeat of Rey's baby sounded over the monitor that Rose crumpled, throwing her arms around her friend's shoulders as they wept together.

"Why didn't you tell me," Rose said through glassy eyes.

"I didn't know how," Rey tried to reason. "I only found out the day…" she had to stop herself from saying the words, both because of the pain that they caused her but also they never mentioned Dantooine around strangers. "The day we left and I've been so scared."

"I know sweetie," Rose stroked at Rey's hair. "I'm scared too, but we have each other. We can do this together…we have to do this together."

Rey nodded, looking back at the monitor where now her little bean had grown, his tiny nose, full lips, and ever wiggling hands were on full display. She didn't know she could love him more, but as she watched him move within her, she wished she could feel him through the Force, but that was impossible and this would have to do.

"Kira," Rose used Rey's cover name as she reached out and grabbed on to her friend's hand. "You and your baby…you are not alone."

Those words…those simple but profound words that were spoken across the bond and across the stars made Rey weep in this moment, unable to utter back her response. Those three words belonged to someone else from another time.

So she just gripped Rose's hand and nodded with a teary smile.

AN: Y'all know that I love your comments and they keep me going. I am killing my Muse/Beta with all the ideas for this story and I wish I could take the plot from my head and just throw it on the screen...but you know...typing.

So I hope to maybe be able to do a chapter a week, maybe more if the mood strikes so make sure you get the alerts!

Love all of you and thank you for following over to this story from TUB!