Darkness Within

It's Okay

Walking up to the house with Gables still gripping her bicep a little too hard, an immediate sense of relief rushes over Rey as the life force of Ben, Zyan, and Kira all come back into reach. A trooper holding a blaster opens the door for her to enter and she resists the urge to knock his knees out from under him, it's her house after all.

"Mom?" Kira sobs from the sitting room at the end of the hallway as soon as Rey steps foot into the house. Ripping her arm away and leaving Gables behind, Rey rushes down the hallway, immediately pulling Kira and Zyan into her arms at the end. She holds them close, fighting back the emotions that are a result of her knowing her children are actually okay, burying her face in Kira's messy hair and pulling Zyan's head against her cheek.

Ben walks over slowly, and places his hand on Rey's back, breaking up the reunion. 'We have company,' he says silently and Rey lifts her head.

In their sitting room, there are multiple troopers and officers for the First Order, but the most noticeable is the frailer version of General Pryde who stands with his hands held behind his back in the center of all of them.

"And what do you owe this pleasure?" Rey sneers at him, letting the teenagers go and pushing them to stand behind her and Ben.

"You were impressively hard to find," he muses, a small hint of a sly grin on his lips, and Rey rolls her eyes at the second person saying that to her today. "Clearly, it took us nearly sixteen years to track you down."

He steps forward with a black metal cane that clicks on the floor, his blue eyes nested in his worn and aging face scanning over all four of them.

"What a beautiful family you have," he muses, stepping next to Rey, his eyes trained on Kira with a sly grin. "So much like her mother." Pryde reaches up to grab Kira's jaw, causing Ben to instinctively move in defense but Zyan beats him to it by grabbing Prydes's hand that holds Kira's jaw with the force and twisting it back in an unnatural position, causing Pryde's face to contort with pain. Pryde lets out a small groan of pain and step back from the kids, his attention now trained on Zyan.

"And force users, how excellent," he musters with a strained chuckle as he walks back in front of Rey and Ben, massaging his forearm through his uniform. "What's your name son?"

"Don't call me son," Zyan responds, his voice the most aggressive Rey has ever heard it be, the edge that Ben's voice can possess also present in Zyan's.

"Ooo angry like his father," Pryde jabs and Rey can sense the confusion in both the kids at the mention of Ben being angry and she glances up at Ben out of the corner of her eye, meeting his. "But that doesn't answer my question."

"Zyan," he mutters to appease the stranger.

"Ah, like the color?"

"Yes but with a Z."

"Charming," Pryde purrs and grins to himself as he turns his attention to Kira. "And you?"

"Kira," she snaps, maintaining direct eye contact with him between Rey and Ben's shoulders.

"Kira and Zyan, what powerful names."

"Where's Vale?" Kira asks, interrupting Pryde's moment.

"She's been sent back for reconditioning already. We don't take to runaways very kindly."

"She wasn't a runaway," Ben argues. "The Knights brought her here without her consent."

"How adorable, Kylo trying to protect that girl once again. How did that go for you last time?"

"Kylo?" Kira whispers from behind Rey and both of them tense at the sound of her voice.

"Ah, your parents never told you who they really are, did they?" Pryde looks at Kira who still just stares at him in challenge. "How ironic that Empress Palpatine and Emperor Ren hid their identity from their own children."