The Balance Between Us - A Reylo

Chapter 22

Poe

Failure. That mission lied on failure. The ground team managed to take out the communications tower but at the cost of Wyn's life, many others and very nearly Rey. The flight squadrons also suffered heavy losses in the dog fight but from reports it would seem that the Imperium could not operate properly.

I sat at my desk with my head in my hands. Tiredness gripped me and my muscles ached with tension: my body had only just started winding down the adrenaline and so I was really feeling the effects of everything that I had ignored most recently.

"You did good, General Dameron." My eyes snapped up to see Leia stood before me leaning on a white cane staff. She hadn't been the same since the explosion on the bridge of the cruiser.

I snorted and dropped my hands, palm flat on the desk. "We lost so many. How the hell did I do good?"

Leia smiled warmly and sat on the chair opposite me. Her face was humbled and seemed wiser than her years ever showed. "You gave people hope! You helped rekindle the spark of our rebellion."

"But at the cost of Wyn, Drax, Mel, Carrow and almost..."

"Rey, I know." Leia placed her wrinkled hand atop mine, it was warm and bursting with life even with her fragility. "But Rey will be safe now. She has done all she can for this fight. More than you could possibly know."

I furrowed my brows. "The intel from the insider you mean?"

Leia gave a fatigued chuckle, "That intel came from my son."

Hold up, the source of all the inside information we had been getting for nigh on two lunar cycles was from Kylo Ren?! I pinched the bridge of my nose, Rey had been so off and defensive when we first retrieved her from Lothal after the encounter with Kylo Ren. "Kylo Ren has been feeding Rey information!" I was incredulous, surely there had to be some mistake.

"No," Leia started with an authoritative tone, "The information Rey has been receiving was from Ben Solo."

"How do you know all this?"

"Mother's intuition let's call it." Leia replied lightheartedly. My lips curled into the smallest of smiles, I had always looked upon Leia as a mother figure and always trusted her judgement. I surmised that she looked upon me as a sort of surrogate son where Ben should have been. Our parents were close and I had met Ben Solo a couple of times before he was shipped off to the Jedi Academy. But he was never heard of after that, only Kylo Ren appeared and it wasn't hard to put two and two together.

Leia broke through my reverie before I could travel any further back in time down memory lane. "What's next?"

My eyes met hers again and I pondered the question, "We head for Coruscant and target the head of the snake."

Leia nods in contemplation but before she can give her input, Connix bursts into my office. "Generals, a report just came in from our scouts that the capital of Ryloth has been destroyed."

"What?" My mouth gapes.

"Suspected rebels were gunned down using the new weapons. It was a demonstration from the new Supreme Leader!"

"Zira Ren." I mumbled under my breath. "Send a rescue team for any refugees and bring them here, they will have valuable knowledge about the weapons used and the numbers in that squadron."

"Yes General." Konnix dismissed herself from the room.

"Wrong time for Rey to leave us." I lamented.

Leia smiled solemnly and said, "The Knights won't rest until she has been found. The same goes for my son. It was better that she left to recuperate or she may have led them straight to you."