Chapter Text
Ben
The holovid indicator activated an all-channel hail during the Supreme Leader’s morning briefing, its insistent buzz interrupting Armitage Hux mid-rant. Kylo was hopeful that it was something important that would preclude him from returning to the tiresome necessity of listening to his second in command wax diabolical about the First Order war machine. The man was wily but boring as all hells.
General Hux, seated to his left, was practically vibrating with delight at the message summary, rushing to check his datapad for the reserve credit balances available in any number of First Order banks so he stood ready to authorize payment of the bounty for Leia Organa Solo when it was demanded. General Hux had long since memorized the bounties of each of the key players in the Resistance, the largest of which belonged to his mother and Rey.
Since the battle of Crait, Hux had been obsessed with locating the remaining diehards of his mother’s army, itching to execute their most famous figureheads in front of a subservient galaxy. It looked to their resident ginger dictator that at least half of his wish was about to come true.
Though his outward appearance was one of bored disinterest, the man who masqueraded as Kylo Ren watched and listened intently to the phlegmy grunts of the Hutt language as the leader of the re-formed Grand Hutt Council announced the kidnapping of his mother from the Resistance. The holotable in front of him translated the speech as the slug-like warlord gloated about his prize.
“The so-called Hutt Killer has, at long last, been brought to answer for her crimes against my uncle, the great Jabba the Hutt. Let this be a warning to anyone who thinks to undermine the long dynasty of rule that our kind has enjoyed for millennia. The widow of Han Solo, the once-great princess, and scion of the Republic, has grown old, but the great Hutts live for hundreds of years and enjoy long memories.”
“Get on with it!” Hux intoned, willing the unnamed Hutt leader to get to the point of his announcement. For once, the Supreme Leader was inclined to agree with him.
Suddenly the holoimage switched to a view that chilled his blood. His mother was chained to a wall, slumped and hanging from both wrists, her head bowed, her face bloodied, and her mourning braids hanging around her shoulders. A fury unlike anything he had ever known overtook his body, making his limbs tremble. His saber jumped on his belt. Ben could feel the Darkness calling him, begging him to unleash it.
The image returned to the Hutt. “Let this be notice that The Hutts once again claim dominion over Hutt Space, our ancestral birthright. We will stop at nothing to refill our coffers and reclaim our palaces for the honor and prosperity of all Hutts.
‘We are eager to partner with the First Order and we entreat the Supreme Leader to grant the bounty of Leia Organa Solo…and…”
The image switched again to another woman and another cell, this one inhabited by the unmistakable form of…
No.
The Supreme Leader abruptly rose from his chair, appearing to the generals around him to be moved by fury at the sight of the one who had murdered his predecessor. They would be correct, but not for the reasons they believed.
The Hutt’s voice continued with unabashed delight and deep, belching chuckles. “…the famed Last Jedi, Rey of Jakku.”
The abuse of his mother was enough for him to burn down the galaxy, but this…his bond mate…his Rey. He could not bear it.
Ben thought about the moments before she had shut the ramp of the Falcon and spirited the few survivors of the Resistance away from Crait. He remembered her conflict, her desire to have him with her. The anguish that matched his own as she found herself, once again, alone with the Force.
The Force took that moment, as the Hutt droned on in the background of his consciousness, to show him a vision of the moment before Rey fled the Supremacy. She had not abandoned him without assuring herself that he was still breathing. He could feel the ghost of a small hand running itself through his hair, the press of a small kiss just above his ear. “I’m sorry, Ben,” she had whispered before gathering the broken pieces of his grandfather’s lightsaber and running for Snoke’s escape pod.
As he beheld Rey curled up in a ball on the floor, trembling and sick, he was no longer Kylo Ren, Supreme Leader of the First Order. He was simply Ben Solo and regardless of what had been broken between them, he had knelt before her in front of a sacred fire, held her hand, and made her a promise. Though she might not know it, that action alone constituted a simple and legal union in much of the galaxy.
Rey was his to protect and avenge.
The image remained on her for several more seconds, allowing Ben to catalog the damage to her person. Her hair was unbound, tangled. It covered most of her face except for a large, dark bruise that was visible on one cheek. Rey had clearly struggled and been struck by her captors. Dried blood and dirt were stuck to every other part of her and pooled under her mouth where it hovered above a filthy floor. Her hands and feet were shackled with heavy, rusted chains.
Rey moaned softly, opening one swollen eye to look at the holocam, before moving her head to look at something positioned behind her. Ben’s focus shifted, knowing through instinct that she was trying to show him something. That she was aware he would likely be watching. His heart dropped to his stomach when he realized what guarded Rey. A ysalamiri lizard, its forked tongue darting out to test the air, lounged in a cage nearby.
Fucking hell. The Hutt was going to die by his hand.
The effort it had taken to lift her head toward the famous Force-suppressing amphibian must have drained the reserves of Rey’s energy. Her head fell to the floor with a thud and she was unable or unwilling to prevent the whimper of pain that escaped her when she did. Ben tried to reach for her through the bond but knew that she could not feel him. He had never felt so angry or so helpless. He wanted to climb out of his skin.
“General Hux,” Ben hissed, “prepare my ship and inform the Hutts that I will be coming to award the bounty myself and collect my prisoners. Immediately.”
Had he taken the trouble to notice, Ben would have seen Hux’s face break into a rare broad smile.
“Yes, sir,” he responded with demonic glee. “I shall assign our best detachment to escort you. In the meantime, with your permission, I shall prepare the primary hangar for…well…a hanging as it were.”
Unable to think of a reason that would make sense to Hux for his mother and Rey to remain alive once they were in First Order custody, Ben simply nodded and strode from the room. He would figure that out later.
Mother…Rey…I’m coming.
He knew they couldn’t hear him, but if nothing else, Ben Solo needed to reassure himself. He would get them back.