Confronting Fear

Father

Disarm you with a smile
And leave you like they left me here
To wither in denial
The bitterness of one who's left alone
Ooh, the years burn
Ooh, the years burn, burn, burn

Disarm - Smashing Pumpkins

Rey was disappointed as she exited the Star as she'd taken to calling it, carrying the chest she'd received from Myim. She'd expected Ben to be there to greet her, but it was empty. Both the Upsilon shuttle and Dark Star were there so it seemed unlikely she'd beaten him back.

"Do you need some help, Princess?" a pleasant voice asked.

She turned to find a short man in what she had come to recognize as a pilot's uniform with a lieutenant's insignia on the chest, watching her from near the Upsilon shuttle.

She smiled back. "No, it's not heavy, I was just surprised the Supreme Leader wasn't here. Do you know if he's gone?"

"No, my lady. He's been back for an hour now. I'm his personal pilot." The man was clearly nervous about something. She had a feeling as to why.

"Is something wrong?"

"No, Your Majesty. I just wanted to say I'm happy you're feeling better, after what happened." the man stuttered.

"How do you know about that?" Rey asked, more tensely than intended, gently probing the man's teal aura, sensing no ill will.

"I'm his pilot. I was flying the ship when we picked you up." The man stared at the floor as he shuffled his feet. "You looked pretty rough. I helped him take care of you."

Rey smiled. "Then you have my thanks Lieutenant...."

"Shiro, m'am." the man blushed. "I should be getting back to work."

Ben still hadn't come to see her. Reaching out through the bond she could feel him there, but something felt off. She shook her head with a grin. Ben had fallen asleep.

Lt. Shiro watched the Princess levitate the strange chest she had taken off the ship and leave the hangar. He finally exhaled. He hadn't blown it! He was still alive! And she smiled at him to boot. The boys would never believe it.

Rumors had flown around the ship and throughout the Order as a whole the second she'd arrived and had only gotten stranger and more frequent as time went on. Admittedly, strange things had been happening since she arrived, such as Lord Ren's mysterious injury, her time in the medbay, and that strange incident involving an Upsilon shuttle that no one believed was actually a training excercise.

It didn't help that everything about her had been kept so secret. A few people had seen her as she and the Supreme Leader marched between their private floor and the throne room, but beyond that she may as well as been a ghost. And so the rumors had started. Some thought she was the Jedi that had assassinated the former Supreme Leader while others believed she was someone else entirely. It had been said that she was beautiful and that she was ugly. A medic had spread around that was she very nice and apparently afraid of water, while a stormtrooper claimed she was meaner even than Lord Ren. Some believed that she had the Force but others did not. There were as many different theories as to what happened to the Supreme Leader's shuttle as there were stars in the galaxy and just as many as to what happened to his hand. The one thing everyone seemed to agree upon was that there was definitely something going on between her and the Supreme Leader.

Well, he, Lt. Shiro knew the truth about at least some of them. True to his word he had kept his mouth shut about what had happened on Bracca for fear if his life but this was outside that. He'd known before she was pretty but now he knew she was very nice, at least to him. She obviously had powers like the ones the Supreme Leader had. And it was also obvious that the Supreme Leader was in love with her. He'd known that when he stepped in to help save her so he couldn't tell the boys that, but still! This story had to be worth at least three free drinks at the onboard cantina!