Let the Light In

Chapter 69: Suffocate

Chapter 69: Suffocate

Rey approached the trio with hesitancy, as if verging on a skittish animal. She wasn't quite sure whether it was them who would get spooked by any sudden moves, or herself. The clenching in her gut was for nought, however, as Leia met her gaze with red, swollen, but dancing eyes.

Leia opened and closed her mouth, trying to say words that simply wouldn't form. She resorted to pulling Rey close in a vice-like embrace, and Rey returned it whole-heartedly. The mother in Rey's arms gasped with each breath she took, saying everything she couldn't articulate, even though she still tried.

"It's alright, Leia. It's alright-"

Leia clasped Rey's shoulders, holding her out and pinning her with a crystalline stare. She seemed to find her voice.

"It- Alright? Alright? Rey, you've given me back my son! My son!"

Just like that, Ben was at Rey's side, a hand on his mother's shoulder and his other arm wrapped tightly around Rey's waist. He gripped Rey like a lifeline, a support, as if she wasn't real. Leia's hands slipped from her shoulders, and her eyes flickered between her son and Rey. A multitude of expressions warred for her features, but none of them were ill.

Rey?

Ben's voice in her mind startled her, particularly with how timid it was.

I'm here.

I need you.

There was an edge there that she knew very well. He was frightened, and floundering; unsure and grappling.

I'm right here. She pulled him close with an arm around his waist as well, and felt him flex the fingers that clutched her.

Luke had moved to stand by his sister, and there was a smile on his face the likes of which Rey had never seen before. Most certainly, she could see bitterness, regret, and pain in his eyes. Those were but ghosts, however, and hope had taken deep root within the previously despairing Jedi.

"For as long as I can be, Ma. I promise. I'm here."

It warmed Rey in an odd way, the manner in which he copied her tone and words. Ben was drawing on her just as much as she had taken strength from him.

Both Leia's and Luke's faces fell at that comment, and Rey's heart sank heavily at the look of unwanted remembrance they bore.

"Leia?" Rey asked softly when the General pursed her lips and hardened her features.

"As much as I long for hours to spend with you- the both of you-" she said, her voice back to its typical authoritative timbre, masked by professionalism, "The situation here has only deteriorated since you left, Rey-"

Rey spent only a moment in simultaneous wonder with Ben at how his mother could seize detachment so effectively before she focussed on the General's words with horror. There was a twinge that lingered on, reminding Rey that Ben's wonder had been coloured with wounded recollection, his mother's shift familiar to him.

"-I, uh," Leia took a deep breath before wiping her hands over her face then clasping them, "I am no longer in control of the Resistance's army. Senators Braam, Kla-Or, and Dask have taken over with the new mobilisations of the First Order happening around the Galaxy-"

Rey felt Ben stiffen next to her, and she held her tongue.

"-I am no longer in direct control, but the soldiers are for the most part still loyal to me. Unfortunately, orders are orders and I can't change any now. That does not mean I won't do my utmost to help you two to safety."