Shared Vision

Chapter 14 "United"

BEN:

Ben's days were a blur of activity. He had frequent meetings with his generals focused on the distribution of Enforcer Moons. Since Hux had been effectively running this operation, Ben delegated planetside negotiations to him. It appeared that giving Hux this assignment had been a wise choice; all his energy had been put into the task. His usual belligerence had been kept in check. This was invaluable, as it was not a good time to have to deal with insolence in his high ranking officials. His afternoons were a mixture of halo conferences with First Order ruled planets, and finalizing mission details with the Knights. He had to coordinate with various regional officers on each system in order legitimize the operations. It took more time than necessary, most officials were surprised that the Supreme Leader was making a civil request rather contacting them with threats and criticism. It took several days, but eventually all nine groups had a commission. Finally, Ben made a speech to the students. The Knights would accompany them planetside, but only as observers, the missions would be handled entirely by the students. A few teams had to share an instructor, but preparations had been made for seperate tasks to be carried out on the same system in those instances. Once the formal address had ended, objectives were distributed to team leaders and students were dismissed to prepare for departure. They would be leaving in two days. Ben felt drained, but he gathered what was left of his strength and went to the auxiliary ship to train with Rey. And so it was when an immodestly important bit of Intel lathargically deposited itself in front of the Supreme Leader's com supervisor, he was nowhere to be found. The staff member was near hysterics when he stumbled across General Hux.

REY:

Rey's days were an entirely new experience in disgusting. She ended each one grateful that the majority of these tasks were done by droids and cursing the fact that she had to do them for a month. She and Finn had been doing their best to train in the evenings, but spending all day scrubbing unholy filth left them much less enthusiastic than usual. Rey especially had trouble feeling motivated. Ben had intensified her private training, pushing her to the point of complete exhaustion before ending the session. The training was immensely beneficial, she could feel herself becoming more effective and proficient. But the sessions had taken on a note of urgency, and Ben, for all his expositing on the lessons, had neglected to explain why. It made Rey nervous, and their nights together had lapsed back into near silence.
Finn was doing well with what exercises they did manage to hack out at the end of the day. Moving objects with the force had become second nature to him and he was a natural at diversion and entrapment tactics. They had both improved at communicating with one another through the force, though it was never as clear and instinctive as it was with Ben. Together they could surmount any obstacle the halo program could invent, and they could even do a decent round or two of sparring against each other. Rey had been attempting to increase Finn's ability with mechanics. Using the force to pilot the transport had nearly broken him. It was slow going, but it was less taxing than the drills Ben had been putting her through.
One night Finn came to the training arena accompanied by Rose. Rey had noticed that she had been sticking close to Finn ever since they got back from Carida, and it was obvious that she wanted to stay tonight. But once they were inside, Finn made a polite dismissal, Rose's cheeks turned pink and she said goodbye and made for the door. They stood in silence watching the door until she was safely down the hall, then Rey turned to Finn, a sly grin spreading across her face.

"I think she has a crush on you."

Finn smiled back, looking smug.

"Well she did kiss me and tell me that she loves me, but she was also near death, so that might have been an exaggeration."

Rey snickered and looked at Finn appraisingly.

"Well?"

"Well, what?"