Captive: A Mini Reylo Fic

Contemplating Forever

By the time she returned, he had found his composure and he sat in a chair, placidly awaiting either her arrival or his execution, whichever happened to come first. Despite his self-assurances he would be fine either way, he couldn't entirely suppress the relief he felt when he sensed her outside the hut. But his stifled elation was short lived as he recognized her evident distress the moment she entered.

"What is it?" he demanded, rising to his feet and ready to inflict considerable harm upon whomever had upset her.

She held herself tight, unable to meet his gaze though he could clearly discern the remnants of tears tracking down her cheeks...a lot of them. He clenched his fists tight, resisting the overwhelming need to strike out at her offenders as she struggled to gain enough equilibrium for coherent speech.

"Command..." she choked, her voice immediately failing.

Ben nodded, knowing they must have ordered his immediate execution, as they should, though the greater part of his consciousness was centered on the extent of her distress. Refusing to be moved by her emotional response, he gestured, encouraging her to continue.

"They contacted the First Order."

Now that surprised him, and suddenly he was in unfamiliar territory, which made him distinctly uneasy.

"You were right," she said, though it brought him little comfort. "Their fight is gone and they want to negotiate peace."

"What do they want?" he prodded when she hesitated.

As she had since her arrival, she continued to avoid his gaze by looking everywhere except where he stood. But, abruptly, she met his gaze, revealing the great, welling depth of pain in her eyes as her tears renewed.

"You," she moaned. "They want you. Alive. They know you killed Snoke and Hux, and they want to... They want to..."

She turned aside, weeping into her hands. Instinctively moved by her misery, he took two steps toward her before he managed to stop himself. This was just what the Resistance needed. Yes, a battlefield death by her hands would certainly have been far more merciful than what surely awaited him at the hands of an angry and vengeful though admittedly weak First Order. In fact, he was quite certain that his "execution" would first entail untold years of torture and misery in a deep, dark dungeon somewhere. But if the war was over, if Rey could stop waging never ending battle and live in peace, it would be worth it. That knowledge alone would sustain him through whatever miseries his former compatriots could devise even though, unfortunately, he knew they could be quite imaginative in that arena.

"This is good," he murmured, his voice pitched soft and low, though such precautions nevertheless resulted in a violent shuddering of her shoulders as she continued to weep. "This is what all this was for. You have a chance at peace."

She didn't respond, only her soft, stifled sobs punctuating the silence between them.

Shifting uncomfortably on his feet, he tried a different tack. "I've known my fate for a long time, and it was my choice what to do with the time I had left. I don't regret killing Snoke and Hux. They were evil men and the galaxy is better off without them."

Seeing her yet unmoved, Ben sighed softly, wishing he knew what to say to help her, for the fact was that it had been all about her for so very long.

"It doesn't matter what happens to me," he whispered. "I don't matter. Rey... I'm inconsequential."

To his surprise, that got a reaction from her. With a choked sob, she turned and rushed at him, gripping folds of his tunic in her fists as she peered up into his face with her beautiful but misery-laden eyes. She studied him for a moment, her moist eyes flittering restlessly over every detail of his face, and he stared back in frozen shock.