•LEGACY - A Reylo Story•

EPISODE XXII - SPLIT UP

Hux watches as Jakku burgeons in front of the Finalizer. The fastest Star Destroyer in the galaxy, and it still took almost two weeks to get to this junkyard. He has no respect for its inhabitants. Hux came from wealth and prestige, despite his father's constant insinuations he'd fit in more on a junkyard planet.

I'll be someone someday, you watch! he recalls screaming at his father. And he was. He manages his father's stormtrooper program.

Except, his father would never be able to see. He died at the incompetent hands of the New Republic's minions. And Hux has a sneaking suspicion his father would still find fault with him-under your leadership you had a deserter! A traitor! That's on you!

Hux grimaces. In Kylo Ren's disdain for him, he sees his father.

His opinion never mattered anyways, Hux reminds himself as he radios the Supreme Leader to receive his final instructions.

Retrieve the girl. Leave Ren.

Hux beams as he boards a smaller ship to descend to Jakku.

/////

If Ben weren't so certain, Rey wouldn't have guessed this place used to be a village. She watches Ben place the final stone atop a small pyramid-like structure he built.

"Do you think Lor San Tekka would approve?" Rey asks, wishing she knew the face of the man who apparently sacrificed his life protecting her. "Of us?"

Ben casts her a withering glance. "Maybe. He liked me well enough as a kid. Though I was always a little too... emotional. And apt to give up."

Rey snorts. "Well, I think he'd like you now."

Something rumbles from above them. Rey peers up at the sky moments before Ben grabs her and throws her to the ground. An explosion rings out.

"Who?" she screams, ears ringing, but she knows even before Ben answers.

The First Order.

"Let's go!" she shouts, scrambling to her feet and grabbing Ben's hand like Finn grabbed hers last time. I am never coming back to Jakku again, she thinks.

The hopelessness of their situation slams into her as they dive behind the remains of a hut. We're miles from the nearest ship, and ours doesn't even work.

"We know you're out there," a slick voice says from some sort of speaker. "Hiding. We only want the girl. Ren, if you want to live, you'll give her to us and maybe the Supreme Leader will be forgiving."

Ben clutches her arm and she hears his answer in his mind: never.

"Why me?" she hisses. "What do they want with me? And not you?"

"I don't know!" He shakes his head. "They're not going to get you."

"We need to make it back to the transporter," Rey says. "If we get to Niima Outpost, there'll be chaos-maybe we can steal another one of Unkar Plutt's ships." They won't be able to, though. Not with all the extra measures Plutt's taken. She knows it, but her brain is still scrabbling for solutions.

What would Han Solo do?

Not give up, she knows. "Now!" Seizing his hand, she flies towards the transporter, powering it up with the Force before she leaps on. A cannon shot misses Ben by mere millimeters.

"Keep your head down!" Ben shouts.

"It's you they're shooting at, not me!" she screams. Why can't the Force make things go faster?

With a whoosh, Rey knows that a ship has landed, and whoever possesses that disdain-soaked voice has arrived. And he will chase them down. More ships fly overhead, chasing them.

Ben gasps, and Rey turns around to see blood seeping from his side.

"It's just a graze!" he shouts. "I'll be fine!"

She doesn't know what to do. She wishes Luke were here, wishes her grandfather would appear like Ben's had, because she does know what to do and doesn't want to do it.

Although, knowing Luke, she suspects he'd tell her to do what she needs to do.

"We should split up when we get to the outpost," she yells. "Make it hard for them to track us."

"They're tracking you, though!"

"They also think you'll be with me! You keep this transporter, go through that downed Star Destroyer, get to our ship-I'll meet you there!"

"Where are you going?"

"Past the quicksands! The ones on foot might-" She pushes her thoughts into his mind, and he's so trusting he doesn't even realize it. "You will follow this plan!"

"I will follow this plan," he repeats as they veer into Niima Outpost.

Rey leaps off the transporter amid cries and enraged shouts. She throws an arm around Ben and kisses him. With her other arm, she shoves her lightsaber inside his belt. "We'll be able to communicate. Don't worry. And don't ask questions."

He nods, face dazed with her mind trick. And he's gone, and she's running too, towards the quicksands, even though she knows she won't make it.

Rey! She hears him break through her mind trick.

Get to D'Qar. Come back for me, she says before she harnesses the Force to block him from her mind.

She pauses where she is, raising her hands as stormtroopers swoop in around her. She's shoved to her knees, manacled, dragged past a smirking redheaded general. Despite his smirk, his eyes are cold.

The ship takes off, and Rey breaks her block for just a moment, and the anguish she feels strewing through Ben doubles her over.

Fear hits her.

What will happen to me now?

/////

"Rey!" Ben screams, the black ship carrying her shrinking as it flies towards open space. "REY!"

She left you.

Get to D'Qar... Come back for me.

No, she didn't. She sacrificed herself for you. To keep you alive.

Ben races back to the speeder, throwing his legs over it and taking off. He's gasping, but tears won't come.

She loves me.

I'm coming for you, he vows. I'm coming, Rey. I won't leave you.

Ben waits, stilling his mind, hoping for a response. None comes.

When he gets to the ship, he jumps off and rushes towards the hatch, staring at the jumble of parts Rey's been so painstakingly piecing back together again. She'd said it was almost finished. The blaster graze wound burns. Sand's likely gotten inside, but he can't worry about cleaning it now. He feels an unfamiliar object in his belt and pulls out his grandfather's lightsaber.

You've never fixed a ship in your life. What makes you think you can do this?

You're Han Solo's goddamn son, he tells himself. You can fix this ship.