Notes: Rey invades an enemy stronghold to rescue a prince. No, I don't own anything from Star Wars, but Ben's going to start addressing his Darth Vader issues soon.

Mustafar

The world Rey found herself on was burning hot. Molten lava burst from the ground in huge geysers and the sky was a sulfurous black. In the distance, a dark, crumbling fortress loomed menacingly over a river and waterfall made of fire.

"Ben?" she called, hesitantly, but there was no reply.

The bond had never before pulled her to a place where she could not find him right away.

One hand went to the lightsaber at her side while she looked carefully around. This was once probably an old mining outpost. She could see scattered detritus and droid parts strewn about the volcanic ash. She shivered and felt the back of her neck tingle. The Force was in turmoil here; great grief, and rage, and death hung over this place, as well as a darkness from which no light emitted.

Rey tried to shut her mind to the darkness, reaching out into the Force and searching for the familiar, and strangely comforting, presence of Ben's Force signature.

There.

She looked where the Force told her to.

Of course. Inside the bloody fortress of evil.

She gripped the hilt of her lightsaber more firmly and headed towards it. The ash was unstable and hot under her feet, burning through the soles of her boots and drifting up into the air around her, causing her to cough.

Sparks of fire and frequent sprays of lava made the whole place extremely dangerous. As she got closer to the castle she noticed that its squat lower part and the two elongated towers which rose above it looked like a ship at rest, specifically Ben's hug shuttle when the wings were folded up.

And suddenly Rey knew where she was.

Mustafar.

Leia had once told her that this was where Darth Vader had had his personal, private residence. The emperor had built it atop the very place where Vader was injured so badly he required his infamous suit in order to just survive.

"The Emperor wanted him to constantly relive that pain, humiliation and loss associated with Mustafar," Leia had explained, "in order to feed the darkness and imbalance within him. That was the way of the Sith."

That was what Rey felt as she reached the looming archway which led to the black interior of the fortress. The doors had long since been ripped away and looters had obviously been here.

Old bones, mostly disintegrated by Mustafar's harsh climate, lay in the entranceway. Rey wondered if foul play or a more malevolent force was to blame. She ignited her lightsaber to see – as well as for the comfort it gave her – before she plunged into the darkness looking for Ben.

The silence and shadows lay thick and heavy and Rey did not call out to him again, but she went down every corridor and up every staircase observing and listening carefully.

It was seated on a winding stone staircase, far up in one of the towers and highlighted by the red light from a huge hole in one of the walls, that Rey finally found him. His black hair and black clothes looked sinister bathed in that red glow and for a moment Rey hesitated, uncertain.

She took in his familiar features – those full lips which had kissed her back – and steeled her resolve. "Ben?"

He was staring fixedly at an old silver lightsaber held loosely in both hands, but he glanced up at the sound of her voice. He looked utterly lost, dark eyes bottomless pits in a pale face. A far cry from the regally-handsome prince she had danced with days before. "You found me," was all he said.

Rey sat next to him on the step and pulled him into her arms. "Of course I did." It was a promise as much as it was a declaration of fact.

Sometime later, after Ben felt calmer, she asked him about the lightsaber.

"Obi-Wan Kenobi's," Ben said in a curiously detached voice, "my grandfather's Master."

There was a long pause while Ben continued to stare at the lightsaber. Rey looked at it too.

"It was in his…in his private chambers." Ben sounded almost scandalised and Rey tried not to laugh. Ben shifted within the circle of her arms. "Where he could always look at it," he continued, "always feel it…"

And now Rey really did laugh. The kyber crystal within the lightsaber was blinding in the Force, luminescent and golden, despite the darkness infesting this place.

"It's not funny," Ben said sulkily, sounding like a 5-year-old child and Rey laughed even harder.

There was a faint susurration in the Force around them, and then an elegant, lilting voice said, "Hello there."

End Notes: Who could it be?