No one's gonna take me alive
Time has come to make things right
You and I must fight for our rights
You and I must fight to survive
Knights of Cydonia- Muse
Blaring alarms jolted Rey from sleep and out of Ben's arms.
What broke on the Falcon this time? she wondered, her mind still not caught up with the situation.
Ben sat up next to her, equally confused. "The Hell?"
"All pilots report to the hangar, this is not a drill!" a voice blared from a speaker somewhere nearby, jolting Rey to her senses.
She and Ben shared a quick look before springing to action. Something was terribly, terribly wrong.
Rey dressed in record time, quickly throwing on leggings, boots, and a tunic, discarding the jewelry she was still wearing haphazardly in the process.
Ben, unfortunately had only his formal clothes to scurry back into.
She was pulling her hair back into her signature three loops when a frenzied knock broke through the sirens.
"Rey! General wants us all in her suite, now!"
It was Poe.
She and Ben looked at each other awkwardly. No way was he getting out of here without someone seeing.
Busted.
"I'll come too," he promised, intertwining her fingers with his in a gesture of comfort.
General Organa-Solo was on her balcony with Poe when the rest of her crew, plus, to her great surprise, her son came barreling into the luxurious suite of rooms.
"What's going on?" Ben demanded from the seating area.
"Like you don't know," Poe turned on him from the balcony, hatred flashing in his eyes.
"I don't!" Ben spit back at him, prepared for another altercation like the one on Varykino.
"Poe, that, that's not one of his...." Rey said from the balcony next to the Resistance general.
This couldn't be good.
Leia held her composure as Ben skidded onto the now crowded balcony, never taking her eyes off the Star Destroyer that hung over the planet like an executioner's axe.
She heard her son inhale sharply next to her, her worst fears confirmed.
It had begun.
Despite what Rey had said, it was Rose who rounded on Ben next, beating her tiny fists against his chest in what was the most futile attack anyone had ever mounted against him.
"You lying bastard!" she shrieked.
Finn pulled her away as Ben stood there, shell-shocked.
"That's one of Palpatine's ships. I saw them on Exegol, thousands of them."
Rey stepped in between Ben and friend, creating a wall between them. "Rose," she began gently, "you know the specs of Star Destroyers better than any of us. That one is completely different from the Resurgent- class ships used by the First Order." Rey paused to look again, tilting her head slightly as she considered the menace floating thousands of miles above them. "In fact, it looks more like an old Imperial-class."
Rose looked up again and then at the ground, shuffling her feet. "You're right," she sniffed, her voice uncharacteristically quiet. Finn pulled her in even more closely.
"He's made his move then," Leia announced.
It was Ben's comm going off that broke him from the trance, Mitaka's hysterical voice on the other end.
YOU ARE READING
Confronting Fear
Fanfiction"When I offer you my hand again, you'll take it." What if Kylo Ren had been right? What if Rey had taken Kylo Ren's hand when he offered it the second time, deciding her best chance at defeating Palpatine and saving the galaxy was with him? But can...
