Ben looked down at his defeated master as a feeling of freedom gathered in him. He then looked up to Rey while she waited for an answer. He brought his attention to the nearly doomed Resistance fleet ahead of The Supremacy. As he looked on them, he felt the same presence as before during the initial attack on the Resistance capital ship. With the relief that his Mother was still alive, he looked back to Rey again and quickly pulled out his communicator. "General Hux! The Supreme Leader is injured. Get the ship out of the system immediately."
"What!?" Hux hollered from across the massive destroyer. "We have only a few of their transports left until we finally snuff out these apparent fools!"
"Now, General!" Ben replied, "Cease fire and get us out of here."
"As you wish… commander."
As the guns of the ship fell silent, Rey looked out to the remainder of the fleet as they finally made their escape to the planet below. Ben joined her at the viewing screen, nearly unable to process the decisions he had just made.
"Thank you." Rey said as she turned to face Ben. "You've saved them."
"No. Thank you." Ben began as he looked down to her, "You saved me. If it weren't for you, I'd still be Snoke's slave. You freed me from his grasp. From the darkness. "
Rey looked into his eyes, seeing the sincerity of his gratitude. The room glowed bright as the ship began into hyperspace, illuminating them both. Quickly, though, she became distracted.
"What now? What do we do?" Rey asked.
Ben stepped closer to her.
"Ben, it won't take long for the First Order to be after us." She said, as he quickly gained a serious composure. "As soon as they see what happened here, they'll send the entire ship to kill us. Can we get to a shuttle from here?"
"The nearest hangar is a long way from here." Ben quickly replied. "But my chambers aren't far. They're heavily fortified. We can at least stay in there for enough time to come up with a plan. We need to dispose of that, though." Ben pointed to the fallen leader. The two quickly gathered the butchered remains of Snoke and his guards onto a few pods, then jettisoned them out into space, lost to the First Order forever.
The two began back to the lift. Ben quickly reached out with the Force, pulling the handcuffs from the throne room floor behind him, just as the doors closed around he and his new partner.
"Put these on." Ben held the restraints out to her, as she looked at him in confusion.
"In case we run into any trouble on the way, we'll say you're my captive."
Rey sighed in relief and grabbed them from his hands, beginning to equip them.
"Wait." Ben said, reaching to his waist, "You might want this back." he said as he held out her lightsaber to return to her. She smiled to him as she grabbed it and quickly attached it on the belt hidden under her dark robes. She then loosely put the restraints around her wrists. The lift doors opened behind the two new allies. They exited, quietly and quickly proceeding down the seemingly endless hallways of the enormous ship.
"I thought you said we weren't too far from your chambers." Rey said, questioning Ben's earlier statement.
"Believe me, we took the shortcut." He said back to her. "I don't usually come this way."
The two turned a corner and were quickly being stopped by a security officer at a checkpoint ahead of the restricted area that housed Ben's personal chambers.
"Commander!" The officer exclaimed as she quickly jumped to stand in attention. "Where are you taking this intruder?" she asked.
"I… I… Uhh…" Ben stumbled in his words as he tried to come up with an answer, surprised by the Officer's presence.
"To his quarters." Rey quickly indicated to the young woman of authority. Ben's eyes shot down to the young Jedi, shocked at her quick answer.
"Apparently your impenetrable flying fortress has been infiltrated by some friends of mine and your so-called 'Supreme' leader ordered this wretched snake to keep me under his personal guard."
"Sir?", the officer looked to Ben.
"Yes, Snoke said to keep her under my eye. Get everyone else on this level down to take out the Resistance filth that's boarded the ship." Ben ordered.
The officer stood for a moment, looking at her commander in question. He gave her back an intimidating look before she quickly left to thwart the apparent incursion. Ben looked down at Rey, admiring her quick wit. She smiled back to him, pleased with herself. They finally rushed to his chambers at the end of the hallway. They entered the large living space, while Ben locked the door behind him.
"Lights!" Ben said with a raised slightly voice, activating the dim lighting of the room.
"Take a seat. Catch your breath." He said, pointing to the black sofa at the opposite end of the room.
Rey walked slowly around the room, her boots tapping on the solid, shining black floor. She looked around at the dark walls, and then to the exhausted Ben Solo. She finally took a relaxing seat and removed her restraints. Ben stood there, finally catching his own breath after the excitement they'd just shared together. He rubbed the sweat from his forehead before removing his hot constrictive overcoat, lazily tossing it to the floor. He looked up and saw Rey looking on him. He walked over and slouched in seat next to her to settle his tense, overworked muscles from the battle just before.
"I can't believe we did it." He said. "He's actually dead."
She placed her hand on his shoulder.
"It was by your hand, Ben. His overconfidence was his weakness and you stood up to end his tyranny."
Ben looked to her again, an intimate and proud smile on her face. He felt a sense of pride in himself, not just for killing Snoke, but for having someone at his side who could truly see the light in him again after so many years. He then looked down to Rey's shoulder, quickly changing his feeling of pride to concern.
"You're injured!" He said, pointing to her wound from the fight against Snoke's guards. "Droid!" he shouted, quickly standing up and racing to the next room.
"Come on, my medical droid can patch that up easily." he yelled from the other room. Rey stood up and joined him as a small hovering droid flew over to her wound, immediately starting to numb and treat it.
"Doesn't look too bad. It's certainly not the worst cut he's treated." Ben said, turning his face to better show the scar from their duel on Starkiller Base.
Rey's heart sank as she looked at him, feeling regret for the long scar she'd given him down his face.
"Ben, I…" she began, unsure of how to tell him how sorry she was for inflicting such a wound.
"No, please don't." he quickly stopped her, seeing the regret in her eyes. "I know what you want to say, but you shouldn't feel any remorse. Kylo Ren was going to kill you if he didn't get you to join him." He paused for a moment, turning away from her. "He deserved this."
Rey looked to Ben's turned back as he momentarily contemplated his past.
"When the droid is done, you can clean yourself up if you like." Ben pointed to the shower hidden behind the dark curtains in the room. "I'm going to secure the chambers before anyone comes around asking questions." Rey looked to him and nodded in appreciation for his hospitality as he left the room.
"General," Ben spoke into the communicator, "I've delivered Snoke to the infirmary. The girl. She's still here on the ship." He proceeded to close the inner blast door to seal the quarters from anyone that may come around.
"I will deploy the garrison to hunt her down!" Hux asked.
"No!" Ben replied, "I've taken her to my chambers for questioning on the intruders. I'll tell you when we're done here."
"Right, I'm preoccupied enough with this bloody incursion. We had two of them about to be executed before you gave the order to depart the system. We've moved them to the central detention hall. Among them was FN-2-"
"General!" Ben interrupted, "I do have my own prisoner to question here. I suggest you find out what you can from yours and leave me to my work."
Ben shut off the communicator. With his living quarters secure from any outsiders, and he and Rey safe for the time being, he began to remove the remainder of his hot, sweaty clothes, down to just his trousers. Finally he felt the calming, cool air around him.
"Ben!" Rey called from the next room. He stood up quickly and raced over to her. The motion-sensitive door opened swiftly. Directly in front of him stood Rey, her bare back to the door, wearing only her own long grey pants, hair down and flowing over her shoulders. Ben froze in his footsteps.
"I can't seem to get any water flow here." She said, turning around to face him, her arms crossed over her breasts. Ben's eyes widened as he promptly averted them away.
"Yeah… that's… I'll…" Ben muttered nonsense as he finally broke his paralyzed stance, walking to the shower controller. With a few taps on some buttons, the water began to flow behind the curtain next to him.
"Right, the panel freezes sometimes." He indicated. "It shouldn't act up anymore."
"Wonderful. I've been looking forward to a cleaning after all of this." Rey said as Ben walked back toward the door, still trying not to peek at her.
"If anything else comes up, I'll be in the next room. The chamber door is sealed and the General's troops are distracted, so we have time to spare." Ben insured her, before finally walking out. The door began to close slowly behind him.
"Thanks again." Rey called back to him. He turned his head back around to acknowledge, but was again frozen where he stood. As he peered into the room for just a short second, he caught the briefest glimpse of Rey's completely bare backside while she dropped the rest of her clothes to the floor. He gazed on her young, fit body as she stepped behind the curtain while the door closed in front of his inadvertent voyeurist eyes.
Stunned at her beauty, Ben stood there for a moment, unsure of what to think now. He already admired Rey for her strength and ambition, as well as gratitude for the faith she had in him. Now he contemplated a deeper feeling he had for her that was previously hidden behind the darkness. He walked to his bedroom, thinking of the connection they had on the island. As he sat at the edge of his bed, he thought back to the intimacy of the moment before they were interrupted by his Uncle. He thought of the glow of the fire reflecting against her pure skin. The soft touch of her fingers. The warmth he felt in her peaceful presence.
A tender smile started across his face.
While he lay back on his bed, Ben spent some time pondering his new future. With the darkness now finally purged, he knew the possibilities would be endless. The First Order would collapse without its powerful leadership, leaving the Republic to emerge once again to maintain peace in the galaxy. He wondered not only of his own future, but of that of the young Jakku scavenger who had pulled him from the shadows, as well. She had no one to go home to. Perhaps he could continue her teachings of the nature of the Force.
She did stand with me just now against Snoke. Ben thought. I'd be nothing now without her. He knew that he owed her all he could spare after she saved him from the darkness. As he laid back, enjoying the fantasy of their companionship moving forward, the door to his room swiped open. There stood Rey, wrapped in a loose black robe down to her knees.
"I don't mean to intrude." She said to him.
Ben couldn't help but stare again as she stood in the doorway, so refreshed. So beautiful with her damp hair flowing smoothly down. She was almost shivering in the relatively cold air of the room.
"I just don't care to be alone in this place." she continued.
Ben nodded. "Of course." he said, waving his hand to beckon her into his room.
She approached the bed, taking a seat at the edge as he sat up against the headboard to give her room. She let out a breath, admiring the soft bed and clean room around her. She laid back, her legs still dangling from the edge.
"You must have the most luxurious living space on the ship." She started to say, as Ben looked down to her at the foot of the bed.
"I'd never stayed in such a place growing up on Jakku." She leaned over, propping herself up on her arm, looking back to him. "And even though we're locked in here, I still feel more free than I did in the open lands of that desert." She smirked.
"I suppose anything would be better than old walkers in the hot desert." Ben said back to her. He paused for a moment, almost afraid to say what was truly on his mind. He finally continued, "And if I'm to be locked up here with anyone... I'm glad it's with you."
Rey turned to look down to the dark covers of the bed, hiding her face away from Ben's heartfelt gaze, which promptly disappeared at her reaction.
"I… I didn't mean…" Ben cut himself off, unsure of what to say now. "It's just, I was thinking of the peace I felt in your presence, while we connected on the island."
"Ben," Rey looked up to him again, blushing, with a more intimate smile now on her face. "I know."
Ben didn't know what to say, but she went on.
"While I was there in the next room, I thought about my future." She now looked right into his eyes. "You're the first person to truly bring me out of my shell in my whole life. I couldn't think of a future without you at my side."
Ben sat for a second, stunned at her words of compassion, spoken with her soft, angelic voice.
"I don't know what say." Ben began, looking back into her eyes, "I've never felt these feelings before."
"Me either." Rey said softly. "But I'm glad I feel them with you." Her smile growing.
Ben tried to hide his fond smile, looking to the viewport that lit the otherwise dark room with the intense blue glow of hyperspace. Rey moved herself to his side, resting her head on his shoulder. He inhaled a fast breath, almost scared of what might be implied in her move.
"As long as you don't mind." Rey said, looking up to him. "It's a little cool in here, I would like the body heat." Ben nodded in approval. He placed his arm around her, drawing her a little closer.
"We should get some rest." he said quietly. "It's been a long day."
Rey slid her head over from his shoulder to his warm chest, curling herself onto his lap, his arm supporting her. Her hair draped down over his bare skin. As she began to drift off to sleep, he brought his other hand to rest on her thigh. He laid his head atop hers, closed his eyes, and finally rested peacefully. Something he'd not been able to do in a long time.