Divided (a Reylo fanfic)

Untitled Part 5

LEIAS POV:

Rey takes a deep breath, hopefully what she's about to say about my son is positive. I know something is going on inside him, I can feel it through the force.  

"I-I... Ben and I have this connection through the force..." a connection what does she mean by that? my expression alters to a mixture of confusion and fear... It can't be, she's not being pulled to the dark side, like her grandfather?

"What do you mean?" I whisper harshly, this can't be happening, I can't lose Rey to Snoke too. Why didn't Luke and I try to protect the innocent Palpatine girl from the terror of the dark side instead of exiling her on Jakku? 

"Well, since I visited Atch-To, the force has been connecting us. I've been able to observe and hear him and his surroundings, meanwhile he can only see and hear me. Although, Snoke, in his throne room he claimed that - " I stopped her. She's seen Snoke? oh no, this can't be happening. My fingers begin to tremble. 

"Y-you-ve v-visited Snoke?" why was she there? I hope this was just in her and my son's 'force bond' - whatever it is. The feeling of trepidation starts to cloak me. 

"Well yes, he's dead but I'll get to that later -" Snoke is dead? How? The trepidation begins to battle with the hope in my mind.

"Yep Ben killed him but that comes in a bit, it's complicated" I'm confused right now but for some reason hope surges through me. Does this mean my son will return?

Rey places her left hand on he forehead "Now, where was I... well, Luke explained everything that happened, at the academy, but claimed that Ben had failed him" I nodded in agreement and sighed whistfully. 

"I know, my son failed him - " She cut me off instantaneously.

"But that wasn't the case, we connected, later on and he told me the truth" Where is this going... I know exactly what happened, Luke said - or no... did my brother lie to me?

"Luke failed him, when I encountered your brother later, he said that he went to check on him one night and saw the darkness welling up inside him. For a brief instant he thought he could stop it - so he lit his saber, but by coincidence, Ben awoke and looked at him, not with eyes of a malicious monster, but eyes of a frightened little boy who's master had failed him" . My hands flew to my mouth in utter shock. Tears begin well up in my eyes. I look up at Rey's innocent face, clouded with concern, then out the window at the endless cosmos.

What do I believe, did my son lie to her? did my brother lie to me? has the truth I've known all along been a lie? "Rey..."

"Don't you see Leia? It wasn't his fault, he didn't turn himself, Ben was petrified so he only turned to what he felt would protect him" she says with her soothing voice.

A single tear rolls down my ageing cheek. Suddenly a cocktail of guilt and anguish pours down onto me. My son turned to the dark because he didn't feel safe, why couldn't my Brother, Han and I of protected him. "So... He was frightened of us?" suddenly I snap and look Rey directly in the eye. "How do you know that this is all true, how do you know my son isn't lying for sympathy, Snoke could of been trying to trick you Rey".

"I could feel it in him. " the calm, astute tone she says this with makes me instantly believe her.  "It's not that he was scared, Snoke was manipulating him. After Ben told me this I knew it immediately, he will return" I joyful smile widens across my face, hiding my bubbling rage at Snoke. I give her an eager nod to carry on. 

"Later, I was training with Luke on this rock which hosted the most magnigficent view of the ocean in the galaxy!" the childlike glimmer in her eyes as she explained that warmed my heart in a way that hand't been done in a long time. " But something happened, this dark place under the island was calling me, I couldn't resist it..." She looks away in shame then looks up again. "Luke looked at me in fear, he said that he'd only seen this sort power once before, in Ben. At that moment I-I'd never been more frightened in my life - I felt as if Luke had lost faith in me and that it was inevitable that I'd turn, so I wen't to confront this dark place".