The walk to the spot he thought Rey might have been was the longest quarter of a mile of his life. Every step ached through his spine and his skull, and every step he thought would have to be his last while he stopped to rest. And yet he continued.

Soon, he saw, in the distance, a transparisteel canopy. That ignited a spark of hope – so she did eject somehow!

He wondered to himself why he was trudging through the landscape to find the Jedi that brought him such pain. Instead, if he let her die, the Jedi would die with her, and he would win.

Something, though, continued to eat at him. He couldn't decide if it was some sort of fascination with her, a selfish desire to gain power, or…some sort of affection…

Affection. That brought with it a spark of annoyance. He had worked very hard in his transformation to Kylo Ren to kill the part of him that felt affection. Of course, he knew he had failed the moment that he and Rey had killed Snoke in the throne room. He remembered the moment Ben Solo's heart had reached out to her as Kylo Ren's arm stretched to her – Please.

He reached the canopy, and yet, there was no sign of Rey. He scanned the horizon, with his eyes, with the Force. Motion tickled his vision… There was something, but where?

He realized he was seeing the billowing of a parachute off in the distance, on the horizon. Her seat!

A surge of adrenaline brought strength to his legs. He stumbled forward, quickly. He tried to call out to her, but couldn't find his voice. He scanned the ground for footprints as he ran. He reached out with the Force, trying to feel her presence.

As he neared the wreckage, he saw the silhouette of something. Finding his voice, he called out.

"Rey!"

There was no answer.

Finally, he reached her. She was still strapped in the pilot seat of her fallen plane, and she was very, very still. He fell to his knees, trying to ascertain if she was still alive. He could hear his own blood rushing in his ears. And then, a breath.

His hands trembled as he worked to unfasten her restraints. There was blood matted in her hair. Her fight suit was covered in burns. But she was alive. He stroked her face, trying to wake her, but she remained unconscious. He looked around with wild eyes, realizing that he could not carry her to safety; he was too weak.

An idea came to him in a rush: The parachute.

Struggling again to his feet, he tore off a piece of the parachute. With the help of some nearby sticks, he created a litter of sorts to drag her. Gently, he used his remaining brute strength to pull her onto the makeshift stretcher. If either of them had any hope of getting off this planet alive, he was going to have to find some medical supplies.


Rey felt like she was drifting. It was a strange feeling, similar to the weightlessness of space, but different just the same. Voices echoed in the emptiness, familiar voices. Rey struggled to reach out to them, to hear them.

Occasionally, words and even phrases would come through to her. She heard Luke: It's time for the Jedi to end. Then, she heard Ben: Let the past die. Kill it if you have to. She heard Finn: We came back for you.

None of it made sense to her. It was as if those words, those people were from a different life. And then, Luke's voice rang out clearer than the others: It is not your time yet, Rey.

Snatches of a grand battle played out in her mind. There was a planet. There were X-wings. There was a Star Destroyer. In a sickening rush, Rey saw a TIE silencer racing towards her. And then, there was burning yellow light.

Poe. Where was Poe? Her mind struggled to bring back consciousness. There was a crash. She was not dead. She was alive. So why couldn't she wake up?


Kylo Ren had not felt such joy in a long time. It had come upon him the moment he had seen abandoned First Order outpost on the horizon. His long, agonizing trek was at an end.

The outpost had probably been abandoned less than a year ago, when the First Order decided there were more important places to dedicate their personnel. A generator still stood on the campus, apparently in workable order. A rush of relief washed over him when it roared to life with barely a repair. Enough fuel had been left to run the outpost for days. The amount had been considered too unimportant to dedicate resources to remove. Never in his life had Kylo Ren been so grateful for the First Order's efficiency.

The main access door opened easily. He realized instantly that he knew the layout well. The First Order often recycled plans rather than creating new ones, and he had been to this outpost on several planets before. It was for this reason that he knew there was a medical bay just down the hall to the left. Even if the droid had been taken or was not functional, there were bound to be supplies there.

He stumbled into the room and was not disappointed. Shelves of medical supplies had been left there, untouched. He reached gratefully for an analgesic and injected himself with a trembling hand. Warmth and numbness trickled through him almost instantly, and he sighed.

When he turned to look for wound care kits, he was startled to see the med droid in the corner, deactivated.

His fingers fumbled as he accessed the control panel. He looked at the chip and the display, his thoughts jumbled. Somehow, the droid was still functional, and it turned on with barely a jiggle of the activator switch.

Another surge of strength hit him, and he lifted Rey onto the table. The med droid continued its warm-up sequence, and Ren collapsed into a chair.

The med droid was surprised when it looked at both of them with its photoreceptor. Kylo Ren did not wait for it to speak before he said:

"First the girl, then me."


Rey opened her eyes to find herself in an unfamiliar medical bay. She was artificially numb under the influence of some medication. Her mind felt sluggish, and things came back to her in pieces.

The battle. The Star Destroyer. The TIE silencer. The crash. Kylo Ren.

She was dizzy as she tried to sit up. A medical droid appeared suddenly at her side.

"Don't try to sit up," it told her softly, in a computerized approximation of a soothing female voice. She ignored it.

She looked over at the bed next to hers. It was occupied by none other than Kylo Ren. She didn't know whether she was surprised or not. The medications made it hard to think.

The med droid's voice had woken him, and he looked at her, slowly sitting up. For a long moment, neither of them said anything. She looked at him, at the scar she had given him, at the bandage on his head, at his burned and tattered clothing. His hair was unkempt, and he had a large gash on his right arm.

"You're alive," she said, unable to think of something else to say.

He laughed shortly, soundlessly. "So are you."

Silence, again. She examined him, his eyes, his lips. She couldn't help but remember where those lips had been, and what they had done, together. She wondered what he was thinking, as he stared at her in return.

"Where are we?" she asked, instead of the thousand other, more accusatory questions that ran through her mind. Was she in the custody of the First Order? Of him?

He shrugged. "Fuel Station 71894. More specifically, we are in First Order Outpost FS-71894.1."

She paused. He had answered her question, she supposed, but he had not given her the answer she wanted. Her hand fell to her hip, where she kept her lightsaber. It was still there, underneath her flight suit. He had to know she had it there. Why had he let her keep it?

He watched her, his eyes falling to her hip when she moved her hand. He looked back into her eyes. "FS-71894.1 was abandoned, maybe a year ago," he said, matter-of-factly. "We are alone."

Alone. Again, her mind flashed to what had happened last time they were alone. She looked away from him as her mind remembered every inch of his skin, every contortion of his face.

"You saved me," she said, as the realization struck her. If she hadn't been taken into custody by the First Order, someone had gotten her from wherever she had crashed to this medical bay. If truly they were alone, it had to have been him.

He looked away from her as well, this time. "Yes."

She stared absently, unseeingly, at the shelf of medical supplies on the wall to her left. What did all of this mean? What did he mean by saving her? Was this another attempt to get her to join him, in his master plan to take over the galaxy?

She changed the subject, unwilling to further explore the answers to those questions. "I suppose the First Order will be here any moment, to save you and arrest me."

She could feel his eyes on her, but she couldn't look back at him again. Her fear would be apparent in her eyes if it wasn't already apparent to him through the Force. His eyes fell away, and her heart skipped a beat.

"The Star Destroyer is gone," he said. "They sent no one to the planet after us. We are really and truly alone."

She looked at him earnestly for a long moment, the wall behind her eyes down. She wanted to see what he was feeling, what he was thinking.

Irritation prickled in his dark brown eyes before he spoke again. "Hux has no doubt declared himself Supreme Leader by now, following my 'death.'"

"My condolences," she said darkly.

Again, he laughed shortly. "I'm sure you've been declared dead by now, too. The last Jedi, no more."

She bit her lip, looking down at her lap. Poe had undoubtedly delivered the news to the Resistance by now. She remembered, finally, forcing his X-wing to return to the Resistance base just before she fell unconscious, knowing that he would have gone after her if she hadn't. If the First Order hadn't announced her demise to the galaxy, certainly Poe had told Leia and Finn.

This time, she met his eyes, and that same magnetic gaze locked them together. "Why did you save me?"

His expression did not change. He remained dispassionate, even as he sighed. "I don't know," he admitted finally. "But you have to admit, we have a certain…tension."

Rey's laugh surprised even her. A smile broke across her face, and she laughed, struggling to stop. "Tension?" Tears stung her eyes as she breathed between giggles. "I think we are past that, Ben, officially."

They both looked away. It was the first time either of them had addressed their tryst out loud. Rey was embarrassed, but tension? That was absurd. Whatever tension they had they had broken when they had orgasmed in each other's arms.

Finally, Ren spoke again. "I wonder if the only way we can trust each other is to…" He trailed off, second-guessing his thought.

"Read each other's minds?" Rey finished for him, bristling. Her amber eyes flashed to him, and her gaze was sharp with accusation. "So you can 'take whatever you want?'"

He sighed. He deserved that, he supposed. "No. Besides, we have proved already that when it comes to you, I can't."

She considered, and he felt that her eyes were trying to probe his soul. "Fine, Ben. I will if you will."

They paused, staring at each other as if trying to see which one of them would back down first. She expected him to go back on his end of the bargain almost instantly, and yet… Hesitantly, she reached out to take his hand, and he reached out in return.

Their hands moved almost in slow-motion. Again, it was as if they were playing chicken. Who would drop their hand first?

Suddenly, Rey froze. "What does it matter?" she said. "Even if our intentions for each other are pure, if we work together, where do we go? I want to go back to the Resistance, you to the First Order. How do we settle that difference?"

Kylo Ren considered that for a moment, working his lips slightly. "I don't know," he admitted. Rey dropped her hand to her lap, and a long moment later, he did the same. He looked away, and off into the distance. "My offer still stands, you know. We could create our own order, together."

A pained frown crossed Rey's face. "I can't, Ben. Everyone I love, my new family, is the in Resistance. I cannot be party to anything that would result in their destruction."

Ren swallowed, but before he could speak, Rey spoke again: "I know you are conflicted, Ben. I know you don't agree with all of the First Order's methods." Her voice dropped to a low murmur; she was afraid to speak the last words aloud in case they triggered his rage. "I know you are just looking for a place to belong."

He stood sharply, turning away from her. "You think that's all I am? A child looking for a place to belong? That that's the only reason I'm with the First Order?" She watched the back of his head, hearing the contained fury in his tone. "What about you, Rey? You were looking for a family, a place to belong, and you found the Resistance. How are we any different?"

Rey laid back on the cot, exhausted. She studied the ceiling, looking at every imperfection in the tiles. "We aren't," she said, and he glanced back at her. She continued to count every pore in the ceiling tiles, unwilling to risk more fear by meeting the fire in his eyes head-on. She imagined him igniting his lightsaber at any moment, slashing her and the rest of this medical bay to melted pieces. She took a deep breath and spoke anyway. "The only difference is what side we ended up on. Ben, can I be honest with you?"

He scoffed, walking over to the far wall. "Weren't you being honest already?" he asked, turning to lean with his back against the wall. She could feel his eyes on her, but, still, she refused to look at him.

She didn't address his question. "I think the only reason you turned to the First Order, to the Dark side, was to rebel against your parents. Especially your father. I think if you didn't feel like you had to prove something to them, you would've ended up with the Resistance."

He met her statements with silence, and she was suddenly acutely aware that her own lightsaber was at her hip under her flight suit. If she had to get to it in a hurry, she would have quite a struggle. She held her breath, all of her senses on high alert, waiting…

He turned on his heels and strode out of the room. The door shut behind him. She finally broke her stare at the ceiling and looked at the wall where he had just been standing. The room felt larger, now that she was alone.

The med droid rolled over to her, blocking her view. "You should get some rest," it said, in that false, soothing female voice.

She turned over onto her side, ripples of pain shooting through her ribs and arms with the movement. She shut her eyes determinedly. If he wanted to kill her, he would have done so already. Since he hadn't, she might as well get some sleep.