Senator Benjamin Organa-Solo and Rey

Senator Benjamin Organa-Solo of Chandrila was sulking. Of course, he had the manners and discipline to not do so when in company, but now that he was alone on the Grimtaash, the sulk was truly on.

He couldn't understand why his mother insisted on him making the trek to these Force-forsaken Outer Rim territories every year to meet the old man. Han Solo wasn't making any effort, and Leia herself hadn't seen her so-called 'husband' in years either. But for some utterly infuriating reason, she insisted on a pact they decided upon almost twelve standard years ago. Every year, Ben would make his way to the outer rim to meet with his 'Father' and spend one standard week with him and his walking carpet of a partner, catching up.

He'd managed to avoid this dreaded trip for the past few years because of Han's inability to plan and inconsistency in wanting to be a parent, but somehow, this year things had worked out and the old man had agreed to meet. And that was why Benjamin All-Those-Names was enjoying such an almighty sulk.

His ship had just pulled out of light speed above Jakku's atmosphere, the dustbowl of the galaxy, when off to the horizon, he spotted a small skirmish between a light Corellian freighter and three First Order TIEs. A very familiar cargo freighter: a YT- 1300 model that looked to have achieved its true state of a floating junk heap.

Seeing the ship that had featured in so much of his childhood, the ship that he'd dreamed of one day piloting when he was a youngling, Ben understood why Han had asked to meet in this area. The old man must've finally figured out where his junk heap had gone and decided to use their father-son trip to find it and run some game on someone with it. Typical Han, always looking out for himself.

Even as Ben watched, the Falcon swooped and dropped into a series of complicated maneuvers trying to evade the TIE fighters. The flying, if nothing else, had him convinced that the crazy person piloting the Falcon had to be his father. But if Han was flying the Falcon, he surely had Uncle Chewie with him, so why weren't the TIEs evaporating into space dust yet? Ben watched carefully and found what seemed to be a malfunction with the gun turret. It was stuck in forward position. Of course, even after years of bleaching in the Jakku sun, the junk heap would try to kill its pilot every chance it got.

Shaking his head in resignation at his father's typical behavior, Ben maneuvered until the three errant TIE fighters were in sight and within a couple of seconds, they were space debris. Gritting his teeth to get it over with, he opened the Falcon's comm channel, using the family frequency codes to bypass the need to hail the ship and gain permission to communicate.

"How is this junk heap still space worthy?"

If he'd been hoping to hear Han Solo's gruff tones or Chewbacca's familiar growls and trills, he was disappointed and intrigued at the same time to hear a young woman speaking.

"I have no idea, but if you're the one who shot those TIEs, thank you! That was some great shooting."

Ben felt something unfurl in him at hearing that voice. It was like an echo in his soul, some part of him clicked open. It was like being in the sun after a long period of darkness and the voice, with its hint of an Inner Rim accent, had his mind trying to construct a vision of what the speaker might look like.

While his mind was contemplating some poetic turn of phrase, his mouth apparently hadn't gotten the memo.

"And who are you? What are you doing with this ship?"

"Rude much? You could at least acknowledge what I said. But we found this ship on Jakku and needed it to escape the fighters you blew up. Who are you?"

"I don't need to tell you who I am. But I do need to let you know that ship is mine."

"Is it? And how exactly is it that you came to find it just now? This ship has been on Jakku for years, no one came for it and now, you just show up and claim it is yours?"

There was a liberal amount of scorn in her voice that translated even through the crackly comms.

"I could prove it to you. But first, are you piloting alone? Do you have anyone onboard with you?"

"Why should I tell you? I don't know who you are and I don't know what your interest was in blowing up those fighters. Thank you for that, but we'll be going on our way now."

"So it is a 'we' then. You'll be going nowhere, because that ship is mine."

There was forced patience in her voice when she replied.

"You keep saying that, but you offer no proof."

With a sense of enjoyment that he hadn't felt in a while, Ben grinned before answering, like he knew the correct answer to the million credit question on some galactic game show.

"There's a pair of aurodium plated golden dice hanging above your head. They have symbols that are used in a Corellian version of Sabacc. I know they're there because they belong to my father, just like the ship. And in turn, they both belong to me."

There was a long silence following Ben's words.

'Uh… the dice are there. Just like you said. I believe you about the ship. Do you want us to... leave?"

The sudden change in her tone made Ben feel sad for some reason, and of course, he couldn't let this girl who had single handedly piloted the Falcon in such a glorious manner leave without meeting her first. Maybe Han would like to meet her as well, if he ever made it.

"Actually, I would like to come onboard and meet this 'us,' if you don't mind."

"And how do you propose to do that?"

"There's a special docking bay specifically made for my ship. If you can follow my instructions to extend the bay, I can dock my ship." 

At her affirmative noise, Ben explained the steps to extend the docking bay on the Falcon. In a few minutes, the Grimtaash was docked successfully, and Ben made his way through the bay doors into the ship that he fondly referred to as a junk heap. His first view of the insides proved that time had definitely not been kind to the freighter. Everything looked dirtier and older, on the verge of falling into disrepair. His mother's words about the Falcon being held together by sheer force of will, seemed truer than ever now.

That was all Ben could think about before he found himself facing the business end of a blaster. Holding the blaster was a man trying and failing to look threatening accompanied by a girl dressed in sand colored clothes. Ben's eyes skipped over the man, deciding that he wasn't an obvious threat considering the blaster's safety was still on. The sight of the girl -- no, woman -- behind him had Ben struggling to draw a lungful of air. She too seemed to be having a similar problem and before either of them could react, Ben was assaulted by flashes of a vision. The Force had brought them together and they were being shown why.

Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber, the one thought to be lost, in her hand, emitting what looked to be a silvery white beam instead of its famous blue.

A deep purple crossguard saber in his.

The two of them back to back, against red clad sentinels.

The thing that called itself the Supreme Leader of the First Order, lying dead near its throne with its body hewn in two as if cut through with a lightsaber.

The Knights of Ren on a battlefield.

Lightning.

And a chill-inducing voice he unfortunately knew very well saying "At last, my child," followed by evil laughter.

When the visions passed, Ben blinked back into the present and found that not even a couple of seconds had passed. Deciding on a whim to not delve into this development at the moment, he was saved from any further contemplations by a familiar orange and white BB unit rolling on to the scene. Ben glanced at the young woman and was thankful when she too appeared to not want to discuss what he was sure she'd seen too.

"BB-8! What are you doing here? Is Dameron here too?"

He had to step back when his ears were assaulted by three separate voices yelling out questions together

BB's plaintive beeps about Poe's situation penetrated the jumble of words the fastest. Ben could only stiffen in shock at the knowledge.

"You know this BB unit?"

"You know Poe Dameron?"

Making his way to the droid, Ben crouched down and rubbed the little one's rounded head, straightening an antenna that tended to become crooked while murmuring his sympathies. Without turning, he answered both questions.

"I do know the droid. BB-8 belongs to an old friend of the family, Poe Dameron. We grew up together."

At that, something passed between the two who had questioned him, making Ben confused. The girl seemed to distance herself from the young man, who now looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there.

"What happened? What did I say?"

The girl's eyes turned flinty as she looked the other man up and down before turning to Ben.

"This guy found me on Jakku and told me he was working for the Resistance. Said he worked with Poe Dameron. Now you say you know this Dameron, but you don't seem to recognize this guy. The droid knows you, but I found it with him. I don't know who or what to believe."

Ben turned back to BB-8, whose rapid fire beeping in response only seemed to be understood by Ben and the girl. The young man was looking at all three of them in turn, trying to figure out what was being said.

"BB here says that you were escaping from the First Order when Poe found you. Says you helped Poe escape but you both crash landed on Jakku and Poe… he…"

"He didn't make it."

Those were the first words the young man had spoken since Ben had come onboard the Falcon. His voice sounded genuinely distressed, and he looked like he was barely holding it together.

Before Ben or the girl could say anything, the Falcon's controls started beeping, and Ben found himself and the young woman responding to it in unison, dancing around each other flawlessly, as if they had been doing the same for years. Hitting the beeping comm signal, Ben was simultaneously gratified and irritated to hear his father's gruff and carefree tones. 

"Ben! Is that you?"

At his affirmative grunt, Han continued.

"You found her, huh… You found the Falcon after all these years. Where was she? Hold on, Chewie and I will come onboard and we'll talk. We're having some… let's say logistical issues here at the moment."

Without giving Ben any time to respond, the comm cut off and Han was gone.

Trying to control his irritation, he took a deep breath and let it out slowly, but felt his temper dull much quicker than anticipated. A strange calm was spreading over him, something not of his own doing. Ben's eyes widened as he turned to look at the girl. Rey. Somehow, without her saying it, he knew it. He knew her. He also knew that she'd just tried to calm him down through the Force. For someone who had no training in the Force, someone who probably didn't even know what the Force was, Rey was exhibiting a startling amount of innate talent in its manipulation.

He could see a sort of awakening in her eyes too, as if she'd been living in the shadow for far too long and was finally able to come into the sunlight. Without even making an effort, he was able to reach her through the Force, something that used to be hard work even with his mother and uncle, and to his astonishment, she reached back to him with the same ease.

An unspoken understanding passed between them to set this revelation aside for the moment and figure it all out later. But even as he turned to the docking bay to meet his father and honorary uncle for the first time in years, Benjamin Organa-Solo knew one thing for sure. Life with Rey was going to be very exciting. They had a destiny and they would do everything possible to fulfill it. And he wasn't even a little surprised to feel a rising excitement from Rey as she turned to catch his eye and grinned wide, her dimples showing, her face glowing from within, like a small sun. His own little ball of fire.