Darkness Within

Cooperate

"Kira let's go!" Rey yells from the front door that is wide open behind her. Turned towards a mirror on the wall right inside the front door, she fixes her hair, securing it on the back of her head and pulling a few small chunks out to frame her face. The woman staring back at her is more weathered and matured, a couple of small grey hairs sprinkle the brown color.

The sounds of footsteps echoes through the house followed by Kira yelling something at Zyan and the sound of a lightsaber being ignited.

"Hey! No sabers in the house!" Ben yells as he steps back into the house past Rey and storms down the hallway to their bedroom. Rey watches him, noticing his hair that is starting to sprinkle with grey as well, slowly causing him to look more and more like his father especially as the lines and wrinkles on his own face become more pronounced.

"Dad come on!" Kira protests as Ben exits the room, a black hilt in his hand that he passes to Rey. "That's not fair, Mom never gives it back until we get to town!"

"Exactly the point. Now get your cloak on, we're leaving," Ben orders and hands her the heavy cloak which she fastens around her neck.

"Mom," Kira turns to her, clearly having turned on the puppy dog eyes, her hazel, almost green eyes opened wide and her bottom lip jutted out a touch.

"No," Rey cuts her off while clipping the extra saber onto her own belt behind her. "I'll give it back to you when we reach the town."

"Fine," she groans and rolls her eyes.

"Zyan!" Ben yells again.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," he mutters as he walks down the hallway, still shrugging his jacket on and fastening it in front.

"He gets his blaster and saber?" Kira asks, noticing the holster on his hip that secures around his leg and is partially covered by his coat holding both.

"Stop it," Rey scolds, and ushers the fighting teenagers out the door, locking it behind her.

Kira grabs the blaster off of Zyans belt and runs ahead into the trees, Zyan yelling for her to give it back as he chases behind her.

"When will the fighting end?" Rey groans as Ben joins her in stride and takes her hand in his, the warmth of his hand traveling up her arm.

"They're teenagers, I'm sure we have a while," Ben laughs and squeezes her hand before shoving it into his pocket. "It's normal. I know neither of us have experienced that, but it is."

The sound of a saber slicing through something echoes through the trees from down the hill, followed shortly after by a large tree falling to the ground and Zyan laughing.

With an exasperated sigh, Ben jogs ahead of Rey to investigate how much trouble they've gotten themselves into. "I've got it," he assures and leaves her behind.

The distant sound of him scolding them and the protests of their still young voices which haven't matured fully quite yet, especially Zyan's who has been in the squeaky faze of his voice dropping.

As she continues down the path alone, a figure walks back towards her, backlit by the rising sun, and she can tell by his gait that it's Zyan instead of Ben this time. "What did you do?" Rey asks.

"Dad told me to give you this until we get to town," he mumbles his eyes downcast from hers, and hands her the saber.

"What were you doing?" Rey asks him as she clips the saber next to Kira's, the weight noticeable now that she has three sabers and a blaster all hidden under her cloak.

"Kira told me she didn't think I could do that special move she was practicing yesterday and I wanted to prove her wrong," he explains, falling into step next to Rey and she loops her hand through her son's arm.