"Tell me again," said Leia.

Ben scrubbed his hands over his face in frustration. "I've told you twelve times. What else can I say?"

"Again. Exactly as it happened."

"Why are we doing this?"

She arched an eyebrow. "Because I want to understand it, in order. And it's easy to leave things out. Tiny details. I need to know everything."

"I might not have that information. I was afraid. And everyone but Rey was trying to kill me. Can you remember everything when you're trying not to die?"

"Your brain retains information you aren't conscious of in the moment. It filters out unimportant events. But it does recognize them, and remember them. Think."

"Mother. Please stop torturing me."

"Three more times, and I'll stop. I promise."

Leia hadn't started fading yet. She never crossed over. Ben eyed her, wary of her motives.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm listening to your story, dear. Tell it again, please. Last time you mentioned something I hadn't heard before."

"What's the point of having just my side of this? Rey was there, too. She did more than I did."

"I'm going to talk to her after we're done."

Now he was suspicious. "What's going on? You're all trying to pretend like you aren't plotting, but I'm not as stupid as I look. You still can't trust me? We're all going to disappear soon and you still don't think it's worth letting me in on your plans?"

"Oh, Ben." She placed a hand on his cheek. He would never admit it to anyone - well, maybe to Rey - but not anyone else, that he liked this time with his mother. She had sent him away when he was young to train to be a Jedi with Luke, and they hadn't spent much time together since. "We are trying to help Rey. We have several plans, and are hoping one works. I know you're frustrated and don't see the point."

After three more recitations, which had become rote and brainless at this point, she nodded that she was satisfied.

"I'm going to talk to Rey now."

"Wait a minute. I'm coming with you."

"You act as if you don't trust me with her. Isn't that an odd turn of events."

He trusted Leia with Rey. Sometimes he thought Rey might actually like Leia better than him.

"You're going to cross over?"

She straightened her spine an held her head in that imperious way that had never quite allowed her to shake off the 'princess' title. She was a tiny woman, but he could see how so many had accepted her leadership. "I am. Else how will I interview Rey?"

"I'll see you on the other side, then."

Of course, Leia emerged in the land of the living before he did. His life provided endless fodder for the portal to torture him with. He had been a cold-blooded killer, but she had been a politician. Certainly there wasn't that much difference in their damage to the galaxy.

Rey was beaming at Leia, and Ben had to remind himself again not to be jealous of his dead mother. Then Rey turned that brilliant smile on him, and he exhaled in relief.

"Tell me about what happened after you breached the debris field on Exogol," said Leia.

Ben stood behind Leia, easily watching Rey over his mother's shoulder. Rey's eyes flicked to his, her brows drawn together.

"OK," said Rey.

"What plan?" said Ben.

Just like that, Rey trusted Leia. Rey didn't need to know why she had been asked to give the information. Maybe that's what happened when everyone around you wasn't evil and always trying to kill and usurp you. Maybe the Rebels really did trust Leia explicitly.

Rey's first telling was clinical and succinct.

"Again, please," said Leia. "This time, tell me how you were feeling."

"You don't have to do this," said Ben, his arms crossed.

"I do," said Rey.

And she started over, this time pausing after each event to discuss what she was thinking and feeling. Ben hadn't been aware up to this point that any one person could think and feel so many things at one time. No wonder women were difficult to understand. He hadn't been feeling much during the encounter with Palpatine and the Sith other than 1) don't die until you help Rey kill Palpatine 2) don't let Rey die. He would have been a slobbering, twitching mess if he had experienced half of the emotions Rey did. Leia seemed to understand completely.

"Very good," said Leia. She turned to face Ben. "I'm done here. I'll leave you two alone for a bit."

Leia vanished. Ben gaped after her.

"Do you have any idea how many times she made me go through that?" he asked.

Rey smiled and shook her head. "More than you wanted, I'm guessing?"

"Fifteen times. Fifteen."

Rey laughed, a bright burst of sound he could listen to all day long. "Sorry. I've spent a lot more time talking to her recently. We are more used to each other's communication. And, you had already given her your account fifteen times, so she didn't need it as many from me."

"She's plotting. I don't know what, but she's planning and scheming. It's what she does."

Rey shrugged. "What can it hurt?"

"You."

"Leia would never hurt me. She wouldn't hurt you, either."

That was true. It sounded true, anyway. He had left Kylo Ren behind, but some of his traits still bubbled up on occasion. He had no reason to be suspicious of Leia or any of the rest of them.

"Go back, Ben. Please don't waste the rest of your time here."

"This is where I want to be. When my time is up, I want to have spent as much of it with you as I was able."

"Master Yoda and Luke are planning something, too. They've been spending a lot of time with Little Yoda. I hadn't realised how much until I talked with him. He's good at Cloaking. He's actually good at quite a lot of things. I wonder if it's the species?"

"What have they been teaching him?"

And as Rey relayed what the child had told her, Ben began to see the faintest sketch of a plan. A crazy plan, one that had no chance of success. None, whatsoever.