Negotiations to Arkanis

The Sith

When they next woke up they were still entangled soundly in each other's arms. Ben woke up first, when his pain became bad enough to wake him up. He didn't have another nightmare since Poe came to comfort him, but that did not stop the pain faced now. He stayed where he was though, staying as quiet as he could. Not wanting to wake Poe and ruin what remained of the moment.

It got worse, gradually, and Ben felt tears soak his cheeks and he couldn't stop himself from clinging to the front of Poe's shirt. Giving off soft whimpers every now and then. Usually the pain faded after a minute, he was able to get it under control, but it only seemed to be getting worse.

By the time Poe woke up, Ben was curled into his side more. His shirt was damp from tears and he was shaking excessively. Poe was  alarmed, to say the least, not knowing what the cause of this pain was. He grasped Ben around his arms and looked at his face stroking Ben's face and trying to survey him, looking for any reason that might be causing the boy's distress.
"What's wrong your majesty? What can I do? I'll do anything to help!"

      Ben couldn't speak, the pain had become too intense for him to bear, so all he could do was point towards the bag that would contain his medicine. Poe seemed to get understand him, somewhat and rushed over to the bag, pulling out its contents. There was nothing that he thought could help the Queen, until he got to a capsule containing some pills.

"Is this it?" He said, looking back towards the boy, who had doubled in on himself and was holding his knees. The boy nodded, reaching out desperately towards Poe. Whether he was begging for the pills or Poe's comfort, he did not know.

     Poe unscrewed the container and took out a pill, grabbing a glass of water that was on Ben's bed-side table, and gave the pill to Ben. The boy took both the pill and the water greedily, quickly gulping them down so they could help as soon as possible.

     It wasn't long before the pain started slowly diminishing. And while it took him awhile, he eventually re-composed himself till he could sit with a straight back on top of the bed.

"Thank you, Poe. You helped me a lot. I am sorry if it was an inconvenience to you, or if it scared you."

"Hey, it's all alright your majesty. It did scare me, I can't deny that, but it's hardly your fault, right? It's not your fault it happens, so you don't have to apologize to me."

"But. It is my fault," Ben said, his head cast downwards, seemingly ashamed.

"What do you mean?"

"The force is strong in my family. Everybody on my mother's side of the family has it. Apparently, I'm very powerful. But I can't be, I have to take the pills. I have to do whatever it takes so that I don't get turned to the dark side. It's my own fault, I have to make sure I don't use the force. But it hurts, it fights back, and I can't hold it in on my own." At this point he seemed more aware of the tears slowly falling down his face, and reached for his veil, intent on covering up his face. But as he reached for it, his hand was stopped by the pilot. He kept his head down until the pilot spoke.

"Will you please look at me?" Ben did so, reluctantly.

"This is not your fault. This will never be your fault. Do not blame yourself for your pain," he brothers the young Queen into his arms, hugging him tightly to his chest. Ben grasped the front of his shirt, still working through the pain

"I can't say I understand what your going through, and I'm sorry I can't help more. But just know this," he pulled back slightly, stroking the hair from Ben's face, "this pain is not your fault. And while I don't know too much about the force or the dark side, I don't think you could ever be evil, your majesty." He wiped a tear from the Queen's face."

"But. I could turn to the dark side, I've seen it. Every night I have such terrible nightmares," Ben realized that this was the first time that he had told anybody about his nightmares, and the first time anyone would listen, "I see myself, I am older but it is still me. I commit such terrible crimes, if you saw what I witness, you would not hesitate to call me a monster."

     It hurt Poe to see the Queen blaming himself for whatever pain the boy had to endure. And while he held the highest respects for General Organa, he could not help the wave of anger at the thought that she would let her son become so afraid of himself.

He opened his mouth to protest Ben's claim. However, as he was about to comfort the boy, he heard a bang, and the ship lurched. The Queen and Pilot shared a startled look, before Poe ran out of the room to the cockpit.

Rey did not have any trouble finding the ship that the boy was traveling on. She could sense his emotional turmoil from light years away. Could almost feel the agony he was in.

She decided to fire on the ship, as a warning. Then opened a com. Putting on her sweetest voice, though it probably came out as more mocking, "Hello, is anyone there?"

She waited for a minute, before someone responded.

"Umm, hi, would you mind telling us why you fired on our ship?"

"I heard you have a very special passenger, captain. Correct? And don't try lying to me, I'll be able to tell."

"...yes. It's true. We're on a very important diplomatic mission. So if you could kindly let us be on our way, that would be appreciated."

"Mmm. No can do I'm afraid. You see, I need you to hand over the boy to me. Or I'll destroy your ship. Either way is perfectly fine with me."

Poe took his hand off the com, turning back to see the Queen (who had followed Poe out of worry).

"Don't worry. I won't let anybody harm you."

He hurried with the panel, going to warp speed as quickly as he could. Making sure the Queen was at least sitting before engaging it. Anything to get rid of this new threat.

They did manage to get away from the strange ship, Poe thought it was pretty weird that they were able to get away as quickly as they did. But he was pleased none the less.

Once they returned to normal speed Poe checked back on the Queen, who looked somewhat shaken. But he was otherwise completely fine. He walked over to the boy and helped him out of the seat, "I guess we'll have to be more careful from here on out."

He hugged the boy once again, and ran his hands through the Queen's hair(in his haste he had forgotten his veils).

"I promise that everything will be fine, my queen."