The Legend of the Jedi Queen

19. The Silent Force

For the majority of her life, Rey had awakened alone in her bed. The sensation of someone else being in the bed beside her was still so unfamiliar, her heart skipped a beat when she realized Ben was beside her. Their limbs were tangled in a comfortable embrace, her head nestled in his chest. Even in dreamland, he held her close, as if afraid she would leave him before the morning came.

Not wanting to disturb him, Rey gently slipped out of his grip and sat up. She ran a hand through her dark hair, loose around her shoulders, and pondered the images that lingered from her dreams.

Bad dreams weren't foreign to Jedi. As Rey glanced to her husband's face, she was reminded of what he had told her. Snoke had haunted his dreams since before he was born.

As for Rey, many nights she had awakened in the hammock on Jakku to hear the eerie shifting of the sands outside the Hellhound Two with nightmarish visions in her mind's eye. They were less frequent as she grew older- until she was pregnant with Nellith.

She remembered waking up in the sheets, and longing for Ben to be by her side, to feel him in the sheets, to feel his presence entwined in hers, as it was when they were together. Rey didn't miss those days in the slightest.

This dream, however, she had relived many times during the pregnancy. To see it all again meant something. Destiny was ticking closer, and would come for them all, soon.

Rey heard a shuffling in the sheets, and looked to see Ben Solo prop himself up on his elbows, his sleepy eyes drifting up his wife's body before resting on her hazel eyes.

"I didn't mean to wake you," Rey said.

"You didn't."

"Nellith takes after you- she's also a terrible liar," Rey said, an affectionate smile curling her lips upward.

"I could feel it- you're afraid," he said, sitting up. "I thought we were done with the lonely nights."

"We are," Rey said. "But old habits die hard."

"What happened?" Ben asked. "Tell me."

"I'm having the same dreams I had when I was pregnant with Nellith," Rey said.

Dark recognition gleamed in Ben's eyes. "You don't mean. . ."

"The one with the throne," Rey confirmed.

"I've dreamed it, too," Ben admitted. "But I never realized it before. . ."

"You recognized it too," Rey stated. It was no question.

Visions of the future were murky. Silvery mist shifted the shapes of the future, nothing like the strong and clear vision Rey had once had of her future with Ben. There was still so much unclear, but unlike before, some parts had solidified.

But the ideas had never changed. Rey saw first the throne, the center of it all. Ornate and strange, it exuded a power she could not divine. All she could tell was that it was old, and existed not on a planet, but in an in-between place. The surroundings had changed from vision to vision. But this time it was in a forest. To its left was the fixture of the fountain, charged with an energy both alluring and wicked. To its right was the pool, serene and so clearly light.

There was the girl, with blonde hair, and Nellith's face- Rey had not seen it so clearly before. She walked between scenes across time and space, all having come long before Nellith's time. Her daughter strode through time with calm and grace beyond what Rey could fathom.

Nellith approached the throne, but standing beside it was a dark stranger. He offered a hand, covered in blood to Nellith. She hesitated only a moment before accepting. Rey had never seen the dark stranger's face before, and she would not have recognized it when she first had the visisons. She did now.

Tallis's face belonged to the dark stranger.

"He is Palpatine's great-great grandson," Rey said. "But we can't assume that means his future's already decided. I'm training the boy- and he has great potential. I'll die before he lets that be his fate."

"For him, or for Nellith?" Ben knew he shouldn't have to ask. But something in him still did.

"For Nellith," Rey whispered. "Always."

"And if he did go dark?" Ben's voice was breathless.

"I would make sure he could never make my daughter's future go dark," Rey said. Her voice held a promise of vengeance only a mother could fulfill. "There are alternate ways it could go— the one where she's surrounded with her friends, where she's alone. All would be preferable to the dark."

The two nodded, an understanding passing through their bond. They would do whatever it took to preserve their daughter's future.

They sat there, in the darkness of their bedroom in the Imperial Palace. During their conversation, the light pink moon had passed to where it shined directly over their window.

Rey glowed a beautiful pink in front of Ben, and his hand glowed with the moon's light as he first took her hands into his, and then embraced her fully. She wrapped her arms around his neck as if he were an anchor in a stormy sea.

Touch was foreign and a luxury to both— to be inundated with each other's embrace was surely one of the seven heavens the Corellian religion spoke of. It was more intimate than just physically— their souls were one, imprinted together to where sometimes even Rey couldn't tell where she began and Ben ended.

That was how she wanted.

That way, they would never be alone, never again.

That was their promise in their world that transcended space and time, so many years ago.

Except this time, Luke Skywalker wasn't going to tear them apart. As far as Rey was concerned, nothing would.

Ben slowly reclined, but neither loosened their grip, neither let go. They adjusted the sheets over themselves, and fell asleep in each other's arms.