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Chapter 12

There's a beat of heavy silence.

"You're serious?" Leia all but whispers. The look of horror on her face is one Rey's all too familiar with. Everyone had been wearing that same face that fateful day years ago. Han and Luke are much the same, having lived through Palpatine's reign so they understand the terror at the mere idea of him actually still being alive. Karé has more of a slowly dawning horror as she realizes just who exactly they're talking about.

"Very," Poe confirms grimly. "As was pointed out to us, the Sith have cloning available to them and secrets that we wouldn't even begin to imagine delving into. Just because it isn't something we'd ever bother attempting doesn't mean they wouldn't."

"He made Snoke, after all," Ben mutters with a sneer. Rey feels her own lips curling back to bare her teeth in a wordless snarl. "Told me himself the first time I confronted him. Also informed me that he was behind every kriffing voice I've ever heard in my head."

"Explains why I couldn't get you to hear me," Anakin grumbles from where he's still standing off to the side. "My former Master always was a possessive and slimy individual. Doesn't surprise me in the slightest that he made it so that his was the only voice you could hear."

Obi-Wan sighs from the other side of the room. "Must you still call him that, Padawan?"

Anakin just growls right back, his Force presence rumbling like a waking volcano. "I kind of had it beaten into me for twenty plus years, Master, so excuse me for having a bit of a hard time shaking said habit!"

"Skyguy, cool it!" Ahsoka Tano snaps, appearing between the two glowering Jedi ghosts. She fixes Anakin with an unimpressed look and doesn't let up until he somewhat calms back down. Then she turns and does the same to Obi-Wan. "Kenobi, you know just as well as me how brutal Sideous was. Don't harp on my Master about him. He beats himself up over that enough on his own."

Obi-Wan awkwardly shifts his weight. "Yes, of course. My apologies, Anakin." His former padawan just grunts, temper still simmering for all that it's no longer liable to explode at the next provocation.

"You confronted him?" Luke interjects, voice heavy with alarm. "You confronted Palpatine? You actually saw him?"

Ben clears his throat. "A year after I killed Snoke and took control of the First Order, a message went out to the entire galaxy. It was from Palpatine, basically proclaiming his return, that the work of generations was completed, and that the day of victory was at hand. I panicked, very correctly guessing that his return was a threat to my rule, so I went to Mustafar to find the Sith wayfinder that Grandfather had stored there."

"Wait, Father, you had a Sith wayfinder?" Luke sputters almost indignantly, and Rey's reminded of the myriad of notes that Luke had taken while trying to find Palpatine's before anyone else could get their hands on it. No where in his notes had he mentioned the possibility that it was his father who had had possession of the second. Rey isn't really surprised, given that Palpatine isn't one who would ever share anything he doesn't have to.

Anakin inclines his head. "Two were made, and Sidious entrusted me with the second one, insofar as he ever trusted me with anything, because we were the last of the Sith at the time for all that he had various Force sensitive youths at his beck and call during those twenty three years. He decided to keep his close at hand when the second Death Star was built, but I left mine on Mustafar. Protected, of course, Sidious would've punished me otherwise, but I had no desire to find Exogol."

Rey sucks in a sharp breath at the shiver that slides down her spine when the planet's name is spoken. She tries to shake off the feelings of dread and despair that threaten to drown her. She is not there and Ben is no longer lost to her. She will not let those prior feelings consume her. Despite her best efforts, though, she can still feel her throat tightening as tears start to gather in her eyes.

Leia's spine straightens. "Rey, you mentioned Exogol back when we were dealing with Starkiller base."

Her breath stutters in her throat. "I did."

Regardless of the fact that Ben has her wrapped up in his arms, making Rey feel safer than she's ever really felt before, Poe still reaches out to lay a hand on her leg. "We'll get to why she did that eventually," he murmurs, and Rey's so grateful for that because he still doesn't know what happened there and yet he's still supporting her.

"You were at finding my wayfinder," Anakin gently points out.

"Right." Rey feels Ben's chest rise and fall as he just breathes for a moment and centers himself. The telling of this story isn't pleasant for any of them, Ben most of all. She just hopes she doesn't completely lose it when they get to the end. "Using the wayfinder, I was able to navigate through the energy storms surrounding Exogol. I found Palpatine in the underground part of the citadel, hooked up to numerous tubes and wires to support his failing cloned body. Because he'd taunted me during my arrival, now faced with his obvious decline I asked what he could possibly offer me. He said he could give me everything." Ben pauses here, dipping his head down to bury his face momentarily in her hair and breathe her in. Fortified, he continues. "A new empire with me at the head as Emperor, manned by Xyston-class Star Destroyers and under the banner of the Final Order. All this would be mine to command, I just had to kill Rey and end the Jedi, to do what Grandfather had failed."

"He specifically mentioned Rey?" Leia asks sharply, eyes darting between the two of them with a shrewdness that terrifies Rey for all that she's also impressed. Very little gets by General Organa, good and bad.

Ben inclines his head, chin brushing the top of Rey's head as he does. "He did. I asked why and he said that she wasn't who she seemed to be. I asked who she was and he told me."

"Wait a minute, you know where Rey's from?" Finn demands, leaning around Poe to level a glare at Ben. "Did you ever tell her?"

"He did," Rey says hoarsely. "On his ship above Kijimi, he told me."

Finn blinks, the indignant fire in them dimming only to be replaced by confusion. "But that's when you told us that Palpatine had ordered your parents killed. You didn't mention anything about who they were."

"Because I couldn't face the truth then," she chokes. "Finn, it took me years until I was willing to acknowledge it, but I've never had to tell anyone before."

Finn rears back at the slightly unhinged tone in her voice, while Poe just looks sadly understanding. "That bad?" the pilot asks even though he already seems to know the answer.

"Palpatine was the one to tell," she spits out through clenched teeth, "and he used it to try and drive a wedge between Ben and I even though we were already at odds with each other. What do you think?"

The clearing of Obi-Wan's throat has all their heads whipping around to stare at him, even Anakin and Ahsoka. A silent, intense conversation passes between former Master and Padawan before Anakin solemnly inclines his head to Obi-Wan. Rey watches in befuddlement as the Jedi Master approaches and kneels down in front of her and Ben. "We—I did not tell you this before, as it was only just discovered as you were starting to fade," Obi-Wan murmurs, "and we all thought that it would be better to wait until you joined us in the Force as it was becoming clear that would be rather quickly."

"Tell me what?" Rey croaks, apprehensive even though all of the Force ghosts have been nothing but kind to her in her years of wandering. The lessons they taught might not've been the most enjoyable, but at least they taught her despite her Dark heritage.

"You know your father's bloodline, but you never thought to discover your mother's, so I went looking. It's why I was not around quite as much as the others. However, your parents were smart in death just as they were in life. They knew there was the possibility that they could be used against you even in death, so they hid themselves away. When I finally did find them, and managed to convince them of the truth of the situation, I found not just your mother but also unexpectedly my daughter. I won't go into all the details concerning her right now, but suffice to say I had no knowledge of her while either of us were alive."

Rey feels Ben's sharp intake of breath, but she doesn't quite follow where Obi-Wan is going with this. Her emotions are too jumbled up to figure out what he's implying. "You had a daughter?"

"I did, but that isn't the truly important thing I learned." Obi-Wan reaches out to rest a glowing hand on Rey's knee as he gives her a fond smile. "My daughter, Yries, ended up having an amazingly talented little girl that she had to leave behind on Jakku because her husband's father was hunting them and they ended up being unable to return to get her because they gave their lives to keep her safe."

Rey makes a strangled noise in the back of her throat. That can't be true. She's not this lucky. Anything given to her is eventually taken away or torn down. She's finally made peace with the fact that her family history is Dark and nothing more. Now, to learn that there is Light as well? And not just any Light. The Light of Obi-Wan Kenobi, one of the remaining few who'd stood against Palpatine? She's teetering on a dangerous edge.

Obi-Wan continues, even though he's most likely well aware of the raging storm he's stirred up inside of her. "So while I know that you will eventually take on the Skywalker name again if young Ben has anything to say about it, I want you to know that you are free and welcome to call yourself Rey Kenobi in the meantime with my full blessing."

Rey shatters.

She sobs out her fear of having to go back to just being a scavenger girl from Jakku whose past is riddled in mystery and the terror of having to hide her heritage from people she's desperate to be accepted by. Only as it all washes away does she realize just how heavily it's been weighing on her mind because suddenly everything is light. A feeling she definitely isn't used to. She's used to the weight of things pressing down on her. She can't ever recall a time in her life where she's felt like this before, even after the war. Probably because the truth of her heritage was still something she'd been wrestling with.

And through this all, Ben holds her firmly in his arms. He says no words, just rocks her back and forth in a soothing motion while keeping up a steady stream of love and acceptance and comfort through their bond.

It's this that truly helps her pull herself back together so quickly. As much as the support from all the Force Ghosts had helped last time, to have Ben in her mind with his unconditional acceptance and love is far more powerful. When her tears are spent, she presses her face into his throat in wordless thanks. His hum in return rumbles reassuringly through her. Scrubbing at her still wet cheeks, Rey turns her attention back to the room at large.

Obi-Wan is still kneeling in front of her, though Finn and Poe are standing behind him with worried faces. She reaches out and he meets her halfway, power singing between them as their hands touch if only briefly. "Thank you."

He squeezes her hand once before letting go. "My dear girl, for all that you have done for my brother's family, I would've offered my name to you even if we didn't share blood." He stands and steps aside, leaving room for Finn and Poe to scramble forward.

Finn immediately takes her hand in his, and Rey can feel the bond that's been slumbering in the back of her mind start to wake up. Of course, even without it, she'd still be able to feel his panic because he's practically shouting it via the Force. "Rey?"

Swallowing around the lump in her throat, Rey makes herself look at both Finn and Poe, the two people whose opinions matter most to her right now, and whispers, "I'm a Palpatine."

Both men blink rapidly as they process this information, before Poe flatly says, "A what?"

Ben answers for her, a hand running soothing circles up and down her spine. "Besides Kenobi, her other grandfather is Palpatine. He hunted her as a child, probably to try and mold her into a Sith under his guidance and then later pit the two of us against each other." He sighs as both men's faces twist unpleasantly. "I wonder what he would've done if he'd succeeded and discovered our bond that way."

Rey trembles at the mere idea. It'd been horrifying enough on Exogol to feel the power of their bond draining away to restore Palpatine's failing body. And then not having the strength to protect Ben from being thrown away like trash had been even harder.

Finn's nose wrinkles even in the midst of his obvious anger. "The dyad thing you mentioned back on Jakku?"

"You're a dyad?" Luke yelps, forcibly reminding Rey of the other people in the room. That they're supposed to be telling a story, which they've strayed from numerous times now.

"They are," Anakin interjects, "and it's what ended Snoke and Palpatine last time."

"There hasn't been a dyad bond in generations," Luke breathes almost reverently.

Anakin snorts. "Not for lack of trying. Sidious failed horrendously when he tried to make one with me, and I think his Master tried similarly with him. Seemed that way from the amount of cursing said failure produced at any rate."

"Luke," Leia barks before anyone else can speak further, "explain to me what exactly this dyad bond is and why it's so important."

"I don't—" her brother sputters, suddenly at a loss for words. "I never—"

His father takes pity on him. "A Force dyad is a bond between two Force sensitive beings. It makes it so that, should you look at them via only the Force, you would see one person not two. The connection spans space and time, and as Sidious discovered, strong enough to restore a failing body to its former glory if harvested."

"Does it hurt you?" Poe immediately wants to know.

Rey shakes her head. "No it's wonderful." She never would've said that when they'd first discovered the bond, given that they'd been on opposite sides of the war, and then it'd been ripped away from her after so little time when she and Ben were united in purpose, but now she can treasure and cherish it in its entirety. Ben's embarrassment at this pronouncement trickles through and when she twists to look at him, his cheeks are pink.

"I honestly have no idea who you got your proneness to blushing from," Anakin murmurs. "Neither Padme or I were prone to it, and unfortunately I don't remember enough of my mother to make an educated guess there."

"Do we really have to talk about that now?" Ben grumbles, and Rey gets the feeling that he'd gladly sink into the ground to disappear if given the ability.

Anakin grins. "Your father was correct that you didn't do this much last time. It's vastly amusing seeing it everytime Rey compliments you."

"That's because I can feel how much she means them," Ben bites out, cheeks now bright red, and Rey can feel her own cheeks warming to match because it's true. Everything is open between the two of them, so they both feel the sincerity and truth and weight of every single word said to each other. In the few days it's been since everything upended, Rey hasn't once considered shielding herself from Ben, too giddy at having him back.

"Wait, wait, wait, you had this during the war?" Finn demands. "This connection between the two of you?"

"I couldn't use it to really spy on her, if that's what you're worried about," Ben throws back wearily, and Rey bristles when she realizes what Finn's implying, even though they'd been on opposite sides and that would've been helpful on occasion to the both of them. "We were both denying it in some way, so it only connected us sporadically over that year. And even when it did, I only ever saw her in my surroundings, never where she actually was."

"Is that why you were in such a rush to leave on Pasaana?" Poe asks, "because I've always wondered about that."

"It is," Rey says. "One of the locals had given me a festival necklace and Ben took it a few minutes later when our bond opened up. I knew he would use it to figure out where we were, so we had to leave quickly."

"He took it?" Finn repeats indignantly. "How?"

"We can pass small, physical things between us via the bond," Ben explains softly. "I took the necklace on Pasaana and she gave me Grandfather's lightsaber on Exogol."

"It was very dramatic," Anakin comments blandly. "Sidious was furious at having his plan thwarted, but you both already knew that."

Rey shivers, because Palpatine's anger and it's destruction has haunted her nights for the past fifty years.

"He's the one who shot all that lightning that fried our ships on Exogol, isn't he?" Poe states, and although it's phrased like a question, it's obvious he already knows the answer.

Rey swallows the sob that's building in her throat. "He did. He wanted me to kill him so that I could become a Sith like him or to be a host for him, I don't really know, but Ben came for me so I refused, and like Master Skywalker said it infuriated him, so he took the power of our dyad bond to revive himself and then he threw Ben away and I couldn't do anything and—"

"Easy there," Anakin murmurs at the same time that Poe yelps and says, "Whoa!" while scrambling to grab hold of her like she's about to fly away. She sort of feels like she might. Ben's the one anchoring her, keeping her from flying into pieces, and now she has to talk about the fact that he died. She's going to have to relive the horror and the heartache of losing her other half.

Hands cradle her face and then she's looking up at Ben's determined expression. "Breathe with me, cyar-ika," he instructs, and she can't do anything but obey. So they breathe in sync and the world falls away around them as Rey centers herself on Ben's heartbeat until her own beats at the same steady tempo as his. It helps, but the bitter tang of fear still haunts her thoughts because it's Ben and she can't lose him. Not again.

"Rey," Anakin says softly but firmly, drawing her attention when she's somewhat calmed down. "Believe me when I say that I understand the panic and terror and pain you feel every time you relive that moment. However, before you can face Sidious again, you have to master those emotions because he will use them against you like he did with me."

"I don't know how," she sobs even though she knows that Anakin is right. "I've only ever lost things, and it hurts."

"I know, and while I don't know exactly how to best help you conquer your fear, you have so much more support than I did. He forced me to watch as Padme, my angel, died in childbirth night after night until it was driving me mad with desperation, and then he was the only one I felt I could turn to because Padme just dismissed my worries and Obi-Wan, as far as I was aware, knew nothing about my secret marriage let alone my unborn children."

"You were both horrid at hiding it," Obi-Wan interjects blandly, "but that is most certainly a story for another time."

Anakin rolls his eyes. "Yes, thank you Master, I'm well aware of that now."

"Skyguy, I would've—" Ahsoka starts.

"Snips, not now," Anakin stops her. "Just know that I haven't blamed you about anything that happened after you left for years. Unfortunately, there's still a story to finish that we've deviated from drastically."

"I can't—" Rey chokes on the rest of her sentence, because she's been doing most of the telling, and she's not sure she can continue. She'll have to, eventually, when they get to her part on Exogol, but knowing it's coming makes the before even harder to say.

"Rey," Poes says, voice tinged with exasperation. A hand on her knee has her peering through tear filled eyes at him. "I made Finn a General as well because I didn't want to lead the Rebellion alone. I couldn't do it alone. We stood by you back then, and we're still standing by you now. You said it yourself to Ben earlier. You're not alone. So quit acting like you are. We're here to help carry your burdens, big and small. If that means telling the story so you don't have to, then we will."

"What he said," Finn adds, voice rough with worry and regret.

Instinctively, she already knew this.

Unfortunately it's a battle against years of ingrained instincts to ask for help from someone other than Ben, and that's only because he's settled inside of her so securely that asking him seems like asking herself, which is just odd. However, now that she's no longer running, she has people she trusts nearby. People who won't judge her for her failings. Still, even the asking is hard for all that Poe just offered to do what she can't.

"Please," Ben requests in her stead, and Rey presses herself more firmly against him in wordless thanks.

Poe nods briskly. "Right, so, where the kriffing hell were we?"

"For you, Sidious' first message to the galaxy," Anakin informs him.

"Right, right." Poe clears his throat. "So, we verify the authenticity of Palpatine's message, discover that he's really back and that he's going to be leading a new armada, the Final Order, from Exogol, which none of us had heard of before. Rey pulls General Organa aside to inform her that while reading the books she'd taken from Ahch-To she'd come across Skywalker's notes concerning the Sith planet and how to get there. Given that we didn't know about this wayfinder on Mustafar anymore than Luke did, we headed to Pasaana where Skywalker and General Calrissian had been searching for the bounty hunter Ochi." Here Poe fixes a deadpan look on Luke. "The reason you didn't find Ochi anywhere near his ship is because he's dead."

Luke blinks, befuddled as if the thought hadn't even occurred to him. "Dead?"

"Yeah, dead. You and General Calrissian ended up being stupidly lucky not getting sucked down into the sinking sands around his ship like we did. We found his bones down in the tunnels, along with the dagger you'd been looking for, and then managed to get out when Rey used some Force healing mumbo-jumbo on the vexis snake we found down there as well and it opened up a path for us back to the surface. We couldn't go back for the Falcon, not with Stormtroopers specifically looking for us, because we were on a bit of a tight schedule."

"I arrived planetside right around then," Ben murmurs. "I wanted to test Rey, to see if Palpatine was telling the truth about her, so I had Chewie captured but brought two ships down. We fought to bring the decoy down, and then Rey destroyed it with Force lightning. Blew it up right out of the sky." Rey shivers at the reminder, and Ben sends a wave of apology through their bond. It's nice, but she already knows how sorry he is about everything from before.

"That was cruel, by the way," Finn mutters.

"I'm aware," Ben spits back, bristling like Rey had earlier. "I still wanted Rey to Fall to the Dark side at that point, remember?"

"Finn, back off," Poe instructs sharply. "Whatever it is that's bugging you about Ben, work it out later. We're almost at the end of this kriffing story, and I'd like to finish it today." Finn flinches minutely and crosses his arms over his chest, glaring mulishly at the floor. When he doesn't say anything further, Poe decides that that's good enough for now. "So, given that Rey felt that Chewie was alive later, I'm going to assume that the grief at supposedly killing him kept her from realizing the trick on Pasaana. Regardless, Chewie was the one who had had the dagger, so that was annoying and a major stumbling block, given that I think we only have less than half a day left to find Exogol before the Final Order launched. When C-3PO informed us that he had the translation of the runes on the dagger stored in his memory banks but couldn't tell us what it said since it was in ancient Sith and his kriffing programing wouldn't allow him to talk, we decided to go to Kijimi because I know a black market droidsmith who could do a complete memory bypass to get it. We were followed, obviously, but that's when Rey discovered that Chewie was still alive, so we staged a rescue. A very poorly executed rescue, but a rescue nonetheless."

"I got to shoot Hux, I was happy," Finn mumbles, a grim smile on his lips.

Ben's surprise shoots through Rey, startling in its intensity. "You're the one who killed him?"

Finn immediately protests. "What? No! I shot him in the leg!"

"I guess it was General Pryde who did it, then," Ben muses.

"Wait, Hux was killed?" Poe demands.

Ben scoffs. "He was a spy, of course he was killed. The First Order doesn't keep traitors alive unless they're useful, and by then Hux wasn't."

Poe rolls his eyes, but doesn't comment further on that particular subject. "Anyway, with having rescued Chewie, retrieving the dagger, and also getting the Falcon back because the First Order wasn't stupid and didn't leave it on Pasaana, we headed to Kef Bir where the wreckage of the second Death Star is. Incidentally, there's probably a group of former Stormtroopers already settled on the ocean moon who might be willing to join the Rebellion if we swing it the right way."

"I'm not forcing Jannah and company to do anything they don't want to," Finn interjects.

Poe sighs heavily. "Buddy, I'm not about to make them do anything either. I've seen you in action, I've trained with you. I have no desire whatsoever to piss off anyone with Stormtrooper training, regardless of whether or not they still answer to the First Order. I just think we should offer the opportunity to join if they so wish."

"Good." Finn nods decisively, settling back down.

Poe gives his husband a long look before continuing. "So, we had a bit of a rough landing on Kef Bir, meaning we had to scramble to get the Falcon back up and running in time because we were starting to cut it really close and the only other way out to the Death Star at the time was via the water, which had kriffing huge waves that would be insane to try and sail on."

"I went ahead anyways," Rey interjects, voice hoarse. "The dagger showed where in the ruins the wayfinder was, so I took one of the skimmers and went by myself while Poe and Finn were repairing the Falcon. I climbed up the inside of the Death Star to the throne room. I found the wayfinder, but a vision of myself as a Sith startled me and suddenly Ben was there."

"I took the Emperor's wayfinder and crushed it," Ben continues in a quiet tone. "I wanted to be the only way she could get to Exogol."

"We fought," Rey whispers. "I was fighting to deny who I am, and Ben wanted for me to just accept it and join him. He wanted to kill Palpatine and rule together. I didn't want that anymore than I wanted to be Palpatine's granddaughter. And then, in the midst of our duel, Leia reached out one last time." She has to pause, the sudden loss of her mentor nearly just as painful as the loss of her partner. Ben is trembling, and she'd love nothing more than to be able to comfort him because this is his mother who died, but if she truly stops she won't be able to start again. "I didn't understand it right at first, the disturbance, so I grabbed Kylo Ren's fallen lightsaber and stabbed him through the chest. Only afterwards did I realize what had happened."

"Thus killing Kylo Ren," Ben murmurs. "She left me there after healing me, drenched to the bone and confused beyond belief."

"You ran away, didn't you?" Finn softly asks her. "I didn't want to think about it, because you gave us what we needed in the end, but you ran away."

"I did," she chokes out. "I wanted to do what Master Luke had done, so I stole Ben's TIE whisper and tried to strand myself on Ahch-To. But when I tried to throw Master Anakin's lightsaber into the burning wreckage, Master Luke appeared and scolded me." She turns her head just enough to be able to look Luke Skywalker in the eyes because she wants him to hear and know the truth his other self discovered. "You told me that you were wrong to hide away. That confronting fear is the destiny of a Jedi, and that I had to face Palpatine like you'd faced your father. You also told me that Leia trained me despite already knowing that I'm a Palpatine by blood because she knew my heart." Her fingers curl around the fabric right over her heart at the reminder that at least one Leia never judged her. "You gave me Leia's old saber, and told me to bring both it and Anakin's to Exogol with me."

"So that's how you knew where to find it," Luke muses. "I take it you completed her Jedi journey?"

Rey bows her head and squeezes her eyes shut. "I did. He died for me. And then I lived for fifty years with a broken dyad bond."

Ben sighs and Rey knows what he's going to say even before he says it. "I stand by what I said on Jakku. The galaxy needed you far more than it needed me."

"And I needed you," she bites through clenched teeth. She has a feeling that this might be an ongoing argument for the rest of their lives. And while she'd rather have him admit that she's right, just being able to have an argument with him is enough for now. "You were the only one left who would've had any hope of understanding having Sith heritage. And it kriffing hurt, Ben. I could've lived for years longer than I did, but by the end it hurt too much to reach for the Force to bolster myself."

"She faded quickly," Anakin says. "We stayed with her as much as we could, but what she really needed was you, Ben, and you were sleeping inside the tattered remains of the bond."

"I felt you die too," Ben throws back indignantly, even as he wraps her up tighter. "While I was climbing up out of the hole Palpatine had thrown me down, I felt the entirety of the Force be channeled through you and then I felt your life force wink out."

"Wait, wait, wait, you died?" Poe demands. "You flew Skywalker's X-Wing off the Exogol!"

"Because I saved her," Ben states. "Had she been anyone else, there would've been nothing I could do. However, because we're a dyad, I could give her all that I was and all that I could be to bring her back."

"How did you even die in the first place?" her friend wants to know.

"I turned Palpatine's Sith lightning back on him when he tried to kill me," she says softly. "It ate through him and then the citadel broke when he finally fell."

"Her body wasn't prepared for the strain of the power needed to accomplish that," Anakin explains. "We all tried bolstering her as much as we could, but growing up on a desert planet isn't kind. One single year of better eating and care definitely couldn't fix over ten years of hard desert living."

"Wait a minute, how did you get to Exogol?" Finn interrupts, pointing a finger at Ben. "Cause Rey said that she took your ship from Kef Bir and we sure as hell didn't have you on the Falcon when we left."

"I salvaged a TIE scout from the Death Star after getting rid of my Sith lightsaber."

Finn blinks rapidly. "You went to Exogol without a weapon?"

Rey feels Ben's shoulders rise and fall in a shrug. "I had a blaster, for all the good that it did me. Like I said earlier, Rey ended up having to give me Grandfather's lightsaber."

"I think," Leia suddenly interjects, making all heads whip around to stare at her, "that we've heard enough for today. You've told us of the dangers still out there and that they can be beaten. Anything else can wait, as it's gotten late and I doubt any of you are in any condition to really continue in depth." A fond yet weary smile spreads across her lips. "We'll probably go certain things more closely at a later time, but for now rest and recover." She stands and crosses the room to press a tender kiss to Ben's forehead. "Rooms are ready for you on the Raddus if you want, but I'll understand if you feel better staying on the Falcon." She straightens back up. "Captain Kun, you're dismissed."

A very shaken Karé gets to her feet. "Ma'am. Commander."

"See you tomorrow," Poe offers. The woman's expression shutters shut, but she dips her head in acknowledgement before she leaves. "Well that's going to be lovely to deal with," he says blandly.

"Tomorrow," Finn mutters, scrubbing a hand over his face. "We'll deal with it tomorrow."

"Obviously," Poe drawls, heaving himself up. He sways, steadying himself momentarily by placing a hand on Finn's shoulder. "Well, I for one am definitely planning on taking the General's advice. Feel like I could sleep for a week." Rey offers a weak smile, feeling very much the same. "You staying on the Falcon?"

"I don't think I should be near most people tonight," she whispers. Having really dredged up Exogol for the first time in years, she knows there's going to be nightmares tonight. This'll just be the first time Ben's with her, and while it might help, she doesn't want to take any chances.

"Then we'll see you in the morning," he returns, hauling Finn up next to him before herding his grumbling husband out of the room. "Come on, grumpy pants, let's see if you can sleep off this mood of yours."

"I'm not in a mood, Dameron."

"Sure you aren't, sure you aren't."

Leia watches them go with a bemused expression, then turns to her husband and brother. "Han, Luke, with me. Chewie, you're more than welcome to join us if you want."

/You good for tonight, cubs?/ the Wookie asks.

Rey swallows around the lump rising in her throat. "We're good."

/Then I'll join you./

"Kids." Leia waits until she has Rey and Ben's full attention before continuing. "The Falcon is yours for tonight, but if you end up needing anything, even if it's just someone to vent to, know that my door is open to you whenever."

Ben's breath hitches in his chest at the offer. "Thanks Mom."

"I'll see you both in the morning." She fixes an expectant stare on the two men, who obediently get to their feet.

"What your mom said, kid, same goes for me," Han says gruffly. "You need me, just say the word and I'll be there." He reaches out a hand to muse Ben's hair. "See ya in the morning, son."

Ben ducks his head down once Han's done, breath tickling Rey's throat, but she can feel his delight through the bond at the gesture despite his embarrassment. "Night Dad."

Luke clears his throat, shuffling awkwardly from foot to foot. He focuses mainly on Ben when he speaks. "I realize that I've severely broken your trust in me, but if there is anything I'm ever able to help with, know that I won't refuse you. And should there ever come a time where you feel comfortable telling me how I failed you as a teacher, I will listen." Now he turns his gaze to Rey. "Thank you for seeing what I failed to see."

Rey inclines her head to him, too tired and worn out now that the telling is done to say much more than she already has.

A jerk of Leia's head has the four standing heading for the door. Once they're gone, it's just Ben and Rey and the Force ghosts who are still lingering. After a few moments of just breathing, Anakin snorts under his breath before drawling blandly, "Well wasn't that fun?"