Saving the Monster

Chapter 44

Hux had left soon after, promising to continue to provide inside information as and when he could and then Leia had called everyone into the main control room.

Rey was sat at the front, her eyes down, not wanting to see her friends confusion. They believed in her and she was about to let them down, all of them.

Leia sighed loudly next to her and then raised her hand to quieten the chatter. "This will be hard for some of you to hear and hard for me to say. Rey was the one that informed the First Order of our plans"

A gasp went up and Finn shouted out in surprise. Rey kept her eyes down, tears stinging them.

Leia continued, "In light of this we need to vote, do we allow Rey to stay or do we want her to go?"

Some of the newer resistance members began to chant, calling for her to leave, but Finn rushed up to her, his hands landing on her knees where she sat, his eyes pleading, shiny with tears, "Come on Rey, tell me that's not true, it can't be, I won't believe it..."

Rey's hand found his, "It's true" she said in a voice that was barely audible over the chanting. Finns hands lifted from hers and Rey watched the tears fall down his cheeks. He stumbled away from her and Rey realised in that moment that Poe and Rose had been just close enough to understand what she'd said, as their faces were cold and their eyes even colder as they looked at her.

"Ok, all those for Rey staying, raise your hands" Leia said. Rey raised her eyes, just enough to see that the only hand raised in the entire room was Chewbaccas. He grunted sadly and Rey smiled at him through her tears. It didn't really need to be asked, the evidence was overwhelming, but still the General's voice came, strong and true, "Those who wish for Rey to leave, raise your hands now"

The noise of so many hands raising without hesitation pushed a sob from Rey's throat and she kept her eyes down, not wanting to see the look on her friends faces.

"Rey I'm sorry" came Leias voice at her side, no longer strong and steady, but choked with emotion. Rey nodded, passing the baying crowds, her eyes fixed to the floor as she left, breaking into a run as soon as she made it outside.

Leia decreed that Rey be banished, free to go wherever she saw fit, but not to come back to them, to the resistance, to her family. She was afforded an x-wing, one of the few they had now, a little food, water and a few belongings, but she had had to return the legacy saber to Leia.  An act which somehow carried a great deal of shame with it, and an admission that she wasn't  worthy, that she hadn't made the cut.

Chewbacca hugged Rey and the droids whistled their shock and sadness as C3PO muttered in despair. No one else came to see her off and as she lifted into the sky, blinded by tears, she felt a hand on her back, moving in slow circles and a deep voice in her mind, soothing her, she knew that she had to go, she had to be with him, with her bonded. There was no other way.