To the End: Reylo {Complete}

Twenty

AN: Yay! An update! Enjoy:

Rey saw his sharp accusation, and her heart wilted. She realized of course what was happening, that he was accusing her just as she had accused him. It didn't make it any easier to see his eyes, see the mistrust and wonderment at her supposed command.

The flagger lay stretched out in the rubble in a pool of blood as red as the wilted flag still trembling in his hand.

Ben had shook the alliance member with the blaster, shouting and asking him why he had done it.

Rey had watched, and for a moment had done nothing. It was a moment of terrible weakness as she fought for footing in the crowds. She could have pushed forward. But she chose not to.

She was looking at the body. She was paralyzed with shock, just for a moment.

Moments were long enough. It took only that moment for Ben to turn and face her.

Rey knew he could feel her guilt; it was simmering like boiled water through the bond. She also knew he was misplacing it, misunderstanding its cause.

She hadn't given the orders.

She was being devoured by guilt for a thousand other reasons. There was the war, there was the deaths, and there was, of course, Ben.

People screamed and ran from the alliance man with the blaster.

When Ben's eyes pierced her, the moment of stillness broke and her limbs started to work again. She moved her marble legs, elbowed people aside with her statue arms. She escaped the crowd and went to the man whose thin arms had just been gripped.

Rey didn't look at Ben, wouldn't meet his wondering eyes as they followed her movements.

"Explain yourself, soldier," Rey demanded, and ignored it when the skeleton soldier failed to salute.

"Orders to my terminal, ma'am," the soldier said, and stood taller, stiffer than bone.

"You report to me, do you not?" Rey asked.

Ben was watching the interaction. His wonderment crept violently through the bond. It tiptoed through her heart. It pounded in her toes.

"I do, ma'am," said the chapped lips fearfully.

"Did these orders have my signature?"

"Yes, Commander," the soldier replied, but Rey could sense his hesitation, his curiosity at why she was angry.

"From now on, consider any orders coming through your terminal as coming from the traitor," Rey said.

She felt it when Ben realized. Then she felt his guilt, and recognized it because she had been carrying the same guilt around for days.

"The only orders you are to listen to are ones I tell you from my own mouth. Is that clear, soldier?"

"Yes, Commander," the skeleton man said.

"Good. Now help me move this body."

* * *

When the townspeople had been eased, and the soldiers were told to stop listening to orders that came through the computers, Ben continued to look for Rey. She had disappeared after moving the body with the skeleton soldier.

He had been guiding the townspeople back to the streets. Meanwhile someone had been cleaning the stain the flagger had left in the street, was covering it with rubble and bricks.

He eased the people, and he had managed to speak, but his mind had been elsewhere.

His mind and his heart had been with Rey.