A/N: I posted chapter 8 a few minutes ago. If you didn't read it, go back! haha. Anyway, here's a nice long chapter. Enjoy!

Chapter 9

"I'm going mental on this island, Ben. I don't know how much longer I can manage this," Rey said. "We've been sitting out of the fight. We're the two most powerful people in the entire galaxy and we're sidelined. We train and we read books and for what? We're not in the fight!"

Ben was hurt that she'd minimized their time together like that but she was right. He couldn't stay in this dream with her forever. It was time for him to choose a side. But he just couldn't. The pull from both sides was still tearing him apart. When one side seemed to be winning, he'd be yanked in the other direction. He didn't know which way to go.

"What do you propose we do?" Ben asked, annoyed.

"Help me defeat the First Order," Rey pleaded. "I think you could be forgiven if you help."

"Forgiveness isn't what I'm after."

"Then what is?" Rey asked.

"You. I thought I'd made that clear," he said.

Rey was taken aback for a moment. But she made her way over to him and took his hands.

"Then come with me. Let's fight, side by side. I've never felt so charged then when we fought together. Not against each other. We could have that feeling all the time."

"You want me to defeat an entire army?" Ben asked. "I think you overestimate my power. This war is decades older than us. You think that if I ask the Order nicely to stop then they'll stop? You're naive."

"I'm asking you to try. That's all any of us can do," Rey replied. "Don't be like Luke. Don't run away from your mistakes. Just try."

"You ask too much!" Ben said loudly. "I already offered you the world. I offered you myself, the galaxy, the entire universe. I offered you everything and you said no. You don't deserve to ask anything else of me. I jeopardized all that I've built for you already. I won't do it again for you to just leave me. Again. I told you I've waited for you since I was a boy and I'm still waiting for you now. Let go, Rey. Just let go!"

Rey let go of Ben's hands. He mourned the sudden loss of her warmth.

"I don't intend to beg," Rey warned. "If you aren't with me then you're against me. And when the moment comes, I won't hesitate."

"The moment to what? Kill me?" Ben hissed. "Maybe you've never been loved because you don't know how to accept it."

Something in Rey switched off.

"You're a vile creature," Rey snapped back. "You've been telling me yourself this entire time and I chose to ignore your warnings. You're in my head! Get out!"

Ben's anger surged in him and he stretched out his hand towards his lightsaber which came flying towards his palm. But Rey deflected it and it flew into her hand instead. She ignited it and Ben backed away towards the wall. She began swinging wildly, destroying everything in her way. Ben just watched her in awe. He'd never known a woman to be so strong and so fierce. When she fought, she fought with pure strength and power. She was ignoring their training in that moment and she was acting on pure emotion and rage. But Ben liked that about her. She was powerful and she didn't hold back. That's the way she was with everything. She loved and she hated with equal ferocity and all he wanted was to be loved by her.

"Stop!" Ben yelled finally after his chamber was mostly in tatters.

Rey stopped abruptly and pointed the lightsaber at Ben instead. He tried to summon her blaster but Rey flicked it out of his hand with a motion of her wrist.

"I should kill you now." Rey said coldly.

"You're being pulled," Ben said, finding his calm. "The fear of loss is a path to the dark side."

"Fear of losing what? You?" Rey asked defiantly.

"You told me, when we were in the caves, that you finally had something to lose. Were you talking about me?" Ben asked, delicately as not to anger her.

"No." Rey lied.

"You don't want to hurt me but I do believe you will," he said. "You're stronger than I am, Rey. Fight it."

"You said I shouldn't let my emotions get in my way. If you're my weakness then you should die. You taught me that," she said, venom in her words.

"I shouldn't have taken you to the caves," Ben said. "I'm sorry. Just calm down. You're losing control."

Ben was scared of her. He'd never seen her this way. He'd seen waves of darkness pass through her a few times but this was terrifying. And he didn't have the passion or the conviction to match it. He had surrendered. Not to the side of the light. But to her. Their light and dark were melding into each other and it was hard to know where one stopped and the other started. Had he had too much of an influence on her? Had he been turning her to the dark this entire time without realizing it?

"The caves whisper to me at night. They make me feel alone and then I wake up in your bed. It's you that's seducing me to the dark side. Not anything else," Rey cried.

"Then do it." Ben dared her, uncertain if she actually would. "Kill me if you must. If it'll make you who you want to be then do it."

She approached him with the lightsaber and drew it closely to his face, illuminating it red. It was inches from his throat. She could do it. It'd be too easy. She'd be a hero.

"Do it!" Ben repeated.

Rey hesitated and Ben was able to win the upper hand. He used the force to send her smashing into the wall behind her. She winced at the pain in her back but she still held the lightsaber. Ben had her pinned to the wall with the force but she was still able to move her arms slightly. When Ben walked over to her, she brandished the lightsaber. She caught his shoulder slightly but it was only a flesh wound.

He knocked his lightsaber out of her hand and he seized her by the throat just firmly enough so she couldn't move but not hard enough to hurt. His force hold on her was still in place. She couldn't believe how strong he had gotten during their time together.

Rey tried to break the force bond and flee back to Ahch-to but she couldn't. She couldn't escape.

"I hate you!" Rey yelled.

"You don't. It's the dark side calling to you. This is my fault. I'm sorry," he said. "I don't want you to go through the same pain as I have. Fight this, Rey."

She started to slowly close her fist. The metal walls of the ship started to crush and bend around them.

"You're insane. You'll kill us both!" Ben shouted.

"I'm not really here," Rey said as she continued to crush the ship like it was a tin can.

"Stop!" Ben shouted at the top of his lungs.

He couldn't believe the power he was sensing off of her. He could almost see the force rippling through her and crackling through her brown eyes. She let out a pained yell. The effort was killing her.

"You're killing yourself! Stop! Please!" Ben pleaded with her.

She wouldn't relent. She meant what she had said. If he wouldn't fight with her then he had to die. But she was prepared to die too if it meant destroying him. It didn't matter how much she cared for scared her that she was willing to kill the very thing she was afraid to lose. Ben was right. She was being seduced by the dark side. Fear of loss is a path to the dark side. Where did he gain this wisdom?

"I can't stop, Ben. I don't know what's happening," Rey said, tears streaming down her face.

Ben didn't know what to do. In a moment's time the cabin pressure would drop and he'd be sucked out into space. He looked at the woman in front him, wise beyond her years and more powerful than a million dying stars. He could see her fighting with herself in her mind. This had been boiling for quite some time. But she was strong enough to keep it at bay for so many years. Something he'd failed to do from his very first flirtation with the dark side. She had a destiny and it hurt her that he wasn't willing to join her on the journey. She didn't want to fail but she also didn't want to lose the only person she'd ever had a genuine connection with. He was the family she'd waited for all her life.

The metal of the ship continued to creak and bend and grind around them but she couldn't stop. Her emotions flooded out of her like a dam had broken. All of her strength and all of her self discipline seemed to float away as she looked at the man before her.

"Stop, please. Rey. Stop!" he said more fearfully this time.

"You've made me weak," Rey said through her tears.

He leaned down suddenly and placed his lips on hers. He kissed her so gently that she wasn't even sure he'd actually done it. It was brief but enough to break her concentration. She was unable to maintain her hold on the ship.

He moved his hand from her throat and slid it down to her waist, pressing his body up against hers which was still pinned to the wall. He used his other hand to cup her face gently. Her breath was ragged and uneven. They didn't break eye contact once. She didn't know how to react to the sudden change in energy.

"Ben," she whispered.

He took her hand and placed it on his face. He forced her fingers to feel the deep scar she'd left there. He dragged her hand down the entire length of it and then placed it on his heart. She didn't know why she was surprised to feel it beating. Its beat was fast and erratic.

As though she'd snapped out of a trance, Rey quickly recovered her wits. She was horrified at what she'd done. She surveyed the deep cuts in Ben's face and chest and she was horrified at the way her anger had manifested. She'd hurt him before with no intention of killing him but this time she almost couldn't stop herself.

"Ben, I'm sorry. I-" she began.

Tears formed in her eyes and she fled back to Ahch-to leaving Ben behind on his own holding onto her ghost.