To the End: Reylo {Complete}

Nine

AN: Yay a new chapter! :)

The ships were swarming in the sky like bugs from a hive, appearing and circling like vultures before they dove toward the planet.

The villagers were screaming, running from the caverns that would trap them. Ben ran right into them, yelling at them to make it to high ground, that the ships were trying to block off the exits with their fire.

One exit crashed down. Ice exploded like needles and shot into the air. He turned them around.

"This way!"

A second exit down. The people were screaming and crying and he pushed them onward, out of the caverns at last and into the cold morning.

He could feel Rey somewhere, gathering the troops for the fight. The cannons were already shooting at the metal vultures, the creatures soaring toward the planet. An enemy ship exploded and the shrapnel fell to the snow. Fire danced.

He herded the people away from the fire. "Against the wall! Stay hidden!" 

A ship full of troopers was landing, but Rey had already seen it. She was pointing at it, yelling at the soldiers to be ready. Ben was stuck with the villagers.

"You have to stay!" He told a woman, who was crying and trying to get back to the cave.

"No! My daughter, my Ira!" The woman was crying. She collapsed and someone, a friend perhaps, caught her and held her close.

The woman looked at him, eyes bloodshot and afraid. "She's only four!"

Ben's heart cracked. Was it possible this was the yellow girl's mother? Oh, he hadn't noticed in the commotion, hadn't realized the yellow girl wasn't with the group.

"When it's safe, I'll go get her," he promised.

The woman cried. "She's all alone! She needs me!"

Ben nodded. He knew. He knew. Rey! He watched her win against a trooper, and a second. Keep them away from here!

I'm trying, she sent back as she fought.

* * *

Rey saw another ship land quietly, in a place a good distance away from the fighting. She struck down a trooper and waved her hand.

"With me!"

Soldiers followed her without question, dodging the blaster shots as they ran through the snow. The ship before them was opening and a group of troopers was emerging from its dark doors.

The ship had landed too close to the caverns, close enough to put all the villagers at risk. Ben had gotten most of them out, but some, Rey knew, were trapped inside, crushed when the exits had been destroyed.

Her troops were brave. They ran at the troopers when they landed and shot desperately at them. Rey cut an armored man down and looked up.

She saw what no one else had seen.

* * *

"Please!" The woman kept saying. "That ship will kill her! Please!"