Star Wars: Edge of Hope

Chapter Thirty Five: Finding Home...

"It was the passing of an Age of Hope, The Old World married into the Beginnings of a New One with a breath and gone just as fast, There have been so many stories, but all are the same and all are true...from a certain point of view, But the most important thing to remember when recounting the Legends of the Skywalkers...Nothing can ever be certain, No one is prepared for the path the Force will ask them to tread, And No One is EVER really Gone...But I would ask you to remember them in a simpler form, not in ballads or tenious symphonies...but by lighting a candle and holding it up to the sky so that the when they look out across the Galaxy....they know they are remembered. And that We will keep the Spark of Hope they gave us to Light us on our paths burning...And we will remember what they taught us, what they sacrificed for us, and that when the night grows dark...We will Always Remember to Look for the Light and it will lead You where you're meant to be...It will bring you home again...to your family. May the Force be with Us, Always."

After a few moments of taking stock and making an agreement on the next steps in the plan. Poe, Maz Kanata, along with Rose were elected to give the news to the rest of the anxious members of the Resistance about Leia's passing. Zorii and Lando would be on stand by to handle the necessary preparations and to help explain many of the new developments, and to put their decision for a plan of attack to the fleet. Ben quietly walked away from the group, he let the sounds of the beautiful words, the familiarly exchanged phrases, and sentiments of how this loss was shared by them all fade away from him. And as grateful and proud as he was, there as still a part of Ben that couldn't feel that connection to this vast varied collection of people. To him this was something that belonged to him, while he could feel their sorrows and their hearts breaking as they saw the dimming of the brightest light and unwavering Hope the Galaxy had ever known, he couldn't help feeling lost himself. It was a feeling that he had shut off, turned away from, and buried deep down where pain became power and fueled his vision for who he was meant to become. Ben had never seen himself as a member of the legacy of the Force, only a stain on the history that had ahunted him for over half his life, and while he'd struggled silently he still felt it rising inside of him. The anger at time, at the Will of the Force, and at himself for confusing wisdom with envy, truth with fiction, and possibility with certainty. Ben walked out into the bright sunlight, the warm breeze brushing his face, and the smell of the world surrounding him, he could feel it's energy moving around him. Inside him.
Through him.
He hadn't done this in a long time. He hadn't allowed himself to connect to anything other than the black bitterness that Snoke had nurtured in his mind. But now everything was so much clearer...he could feel the Force in a way he'd forgotten was possible. He could hear the voices drop into the low melodic symphony of the Force he could feel the presence.
Then he saw her.
The ship was beginning to show her age, but she still looked as beautiful to him. The closer he got, Ben could see the old paint changed by years of traveling through the galaxy, not to mention the odd pock mark of laser fire. He reached out feeling the rough texture of the hull under his hands from spending too many years in the Jakku desert being blasted with frequent sand storms and the harsh dry heat. Walking up the ramp into the old stale scented hallways, he could see the rickety metal ladder leading to the gun turrets. He smiled remembering his dad letting him rock back and forth pretending to fire the quad guns, as he reached out allowing his hand to curl around the rung he could hear them, he could hear him saying his name. Oceans of time away from that moment where he stood there, but he could see them in his mind, hear them in his head, and feel them in his heart. He opened his eyes and for a moment he could see his dad leaning in the open door leading to the cockpit, and as he moves closer a ghostly vision of his mother walked past him. He watched her siddle up next to Han, who reflexively lift his arm pulling her in closer as they stand there the glow of the setting sun streaming in around them, until finally hands locked together they walk through the doorway. But just before she disappears his mother turns her head and looks straight at him, she nods and smiles then leans in through the doorway out of sight. Ben followed the twisting hallway following the ghosts into the cockpit, he pauses his hand inches from the sleeping indicator switches, as he flicked the switches and listened to the sounds of the machinery powering up. The stuttering sounds of the ship coming back to consciousness, the sharp whines and low droning of the boards heating up, and the systems debating the idea of working. She always did hang up a bit when she'd been sitting powered down for a long time. He thumped the side of the wall just like he'd watched Han do a thousand and one times over his lifetime, and as the thought landed it stung him. Then he took his hand rubbing the worn fabric. Ben listened to the voices speaking to him, reminding him of moments that he had forgotten, but no lost. He could hear his mom shouting at his dad as he covered in grease began to chase her through the crew quarters. He could even make out the sound of his own voice bouncing off the old innards of the ship. Ben stood watched the memories roll past him reflected in the aging, yellowing glass of the windows of the cockpit. He squated bending down on his knees becoming a child again. Ben saw the small freckled figure climb down out of the pilots chair, as he turned he looked deep into Ben's eyes, almost as if he could see him there now. Ben slowly reached out his hand, which the younger version of himself did as well, their hands breaking the streams of light pouring in through the Falcons frosted panes, their fingers touched and for a second Ben felt all the old memories spring to life. And he could see in that childs eyes, a New Hope igniting in the Universe, the possibility of a life he had never believed within his grasp. The small black mop headed child giggled running past him out into the open cargo bay to begin playing hide n' seek with Chewie. Ben watched on as his dad wandered past the small kid hidding in amongst the shuffled floor tiles to the smugglers compartments tossing him a sideways wink.

Han Solo: One day, kid...You, me, and Chewie will give mom the slip, and I'll take you flying...then I'll show you what she can really do.

Young Ben: When can I fly her? I promise I'll becareful, I won't get a single scratch on her, so can I sometime, dad?

Han Solo: One day she'll by all yours and then you can fly her anytime you want.

Han Solo: Ben...Ben..

Han's voice fades only become Rey's, Ben looks past her as he watched the honey colored light break all about their shadows as they too fade from view.

Rey: Ben? Are you alright?

Ben turns his gaze away from the bright light, as he faces Rey his eyes full of glassy rememberance, and happiness Ben looks at her in a new way. He sees her, but he also sees so much more. It had been here there the entire time, but he hadn't realized what she had come to symbolize for him.

Rey: I saw you come in...Well, actually Lando saw you come in. I think he was worried you might run off with the Falcon.

Ben Solo: Why would I leave? I'm home, Rey. I'm right where I want to be...

Rey: Well, then...If you're going to be sticking around...I think you'll be needing these back.

Rey took hold of Ben's hand, stretching it out and open, she drops something into it. The item was so small, it was gold, and felt rather weighty in the palm of his hand. He knew what it was without even looking, but he did anyhow....the memory of Crait still fresh in his head.

Rey: For Luck....

Ben took Rey by the chin and brought their faces closer. Even from this distance he couldn't help but marvel at the simple beauty she was. She was completely one of the most beautiful things he'd ever witnessed in his life thus far.

Ben: I don't know how you do it...

Rey: Do what?

Ben: Surprise me. Just when I think I've got you figured out...you change all over again and it...it surprises me.

Rey: Well, your mother did tell me that Solo men tend to take their time. We've got time, Ben, an entire lifetime's worth of it...I don't know about you, or how you feel...but I'm not going anywhere. To be honest, I've gotten used to waiting for...

Ben pulled Rey in gently, softly kissing her lips. Rey pulls back only once....

Rey: Took you long enough...

Ben: Well, you know me...

Rey: Yes, I do.

They stand in the glow the fading sun through the tired and time weary eyes of the Millenium Falcon....They were HOME. Both of them had found their family...and they had all the time they needed...
And for them that's enough.
No matter what lay ahead of them, Ben and Rey, would face it together.
As One.

As golden dusk set Ben and Rey, sat across from each other each taking turns battling on the holotable, laughing, joking about how who was cheating, and smiling at each other. Then when the night time sounds of the jungle blew their soft wild tenor winds in Rey tucked in closer to Ben as sat talking about everything they hadn't had time for before. Ben told her stories growing up and leaving for the training house, there were marks and scars to share and he did freely. He told Rey all the same stories she'd heard growing up on Jakku, but she still sat there enthralled to the sound of his voice. The versions may have differed quite a bit in their retelling, but she knew everyone's story is different. But she also knew it was what bound them to each other, what bound them all together by the same invisible thread, a thread that we each follow....
Hoping it will lead us true...Hoping it won't break or fray....Hoping at the other end there will be someone holding onto it as tightly as we are.
And that when all is said and done, that it will bring us to each other....bring us HOPE....bringing us HOME again...