Notes: My favorite character has made an appearance in this story! Thank you so much for all your lovely comments and kudos. I read and appreciate every single one of them.

Negotiation

Rey stared at the shimmering figure of the handsome, bearded man who had just spoken and vaguely wondered if she had hit her head somewhere along the way and was actually dreaming.

The man grinned at her – a wry, whimsical smirk – and from beside her, Ben sighed in aggravation.

Guess not then.

"Hi, I'm Rey." Well, she did try to be polite. Even to ghosts. The man's smile grew until it reached his eyes; blue-grey and intense.

"And I am Obi-Wan Kenobi. I was just trying to have a talk with my namesake here, but he is being rather difficult." Here the copper-haired man shot an exasperated look at Ben. "Like his grandfather."

Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi? Rey's eyes widened. "But aren't you dead?" After she asked, she realized the words were probably not polite.

Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi stroked his beard as he contemplated the question. "From a certain point of view, perhaps," he conceded, "but if you mean whether or not my consciousness has passed on, well then it becomes a bit complicated."

Ben buried his face in his hands. "It does?" Rey asked.

"And here in this place, with young Ben holding my old lightsaber, and Snoke finally gone, I have been able to…reach you both," the Jedi Master explained.

"Here," Rey echoed, looking around at the dark, ominous stairwell and the flickering red light from the burning planet outside. "Mustafar."

Mustafar. The hell where Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi dueled Anakin Skywalker for the redemption of the fallen knight's soul.

And lost.

"I prefer to think of it as not winning at the precise moment," the ghost offered, sounding slightly aggrieved.

Rey stared. "Can you read my mind?"

Master Kenobi looked mysterious.

"Perhaps. Or perhaps your face gave your thoughts away, young one."

Ben groaned.

"Are you always like this?" Rey asked curiously. She remembered Master Luke and wondered if all Jedi Masters were slightly eccentric. Was it a prerequisite? Would she have to do that too? She shuddered. She was not drinking that green-ish milk.

"He's been like this for the past hour," Ben grumbled.

Rey liked Obi-Wan immediately, especially when the Jedi Master winked at her.

She giggled.

Ben's head shot up and he glared at them both, furious and betrayed. "You don't understand," he snapped, and Rey could feel the coils of his anger beginning to burn bright in the Force.

"That may be true," Master Obi-Wan agreed calmly, "but as I told you before, you are not alone. And this fight is not yours alone."

A burning flash of rage coursed through Ben. "If not mine, then whose?" he demanded, voice cold. "I am the only one who can stop what is coming."

Rey leaned a little further into his side and attempted to send peace and serenity to him through their bond.

"You have looked, but have not seen," Obi-Wan said, voice soft but with an immovable aura of command at its core. "Others fight beside you, yet you are convinced the road you walk is the only path."

"Cease speaking in riddles old man," Ben demanded harshly.

The Jedi Master's eyes narrowed and Rey elbowed Ben sharply in the side. Be polite, she ordered through their bond. He's trying to help you.

"Do not sacrifice your soul," Obi-Wan Kenobi said. "Not even to save the galaxy. Or you will end up losing everything, just as Anakin did."

Ben stood up, fury an almost physical manifestation in the Force around him. Master Kenobi's lightsaber was clenched in one hand, but Rey knew he would not listen to the man who had wielded it.

Ben's voice was ice. "You know nothing, Jedi Master Ben Kenobi," and his mocking words were intended to wound. "You are as archaic as the Order you served. That is why you failed, and the Jedi are gone. I know what I have to do, and I will do it."

Ben strode away, back stiff, without looking back.

Obi-Wan sighed. "Always on the move."

"Master Kenobi," Rey asked, and the legendary Jedi Master looked back at her. "What should I do?" She meant about everything – about the war, and becoming a Jedi, and helping the Resistance – not just Ben.

Obi-Wan's smile was kind and encouraging. "You already know what to do," he reassured her. "Listen to the Force, young one, and you will find a way."

His blue-edged image began to flicker. "There are others, Rey."

"Others?" Rey tried to reach out to the Force to hold him in this plane even as he vanished. "What others? Other Jedi?!"

His voice came from far away, echoing. "Find them, young Jedi. You are not alone. And I will be with you both. Always."

And he was gone.

Rey's eyes closed, reaching out to the Force even as her hand drifted down to her lightsaber. Anakin's lightsaber. She knew his voice; he had spoken to her the first time she had ever touched this lightsaber, back in Maz's place. She could feel him still within the weapon – elusive, gentle – an echo of the bond between him and Anakin Skywalker.

Like the brilliant reverberation in the Force which connected her with Ben.

Rey opened her eyes. And then she ran as hard as could after Ben.

The air burned her lungs and it was too hot amid the scorched and smoking landscape, even for someone raised in the desert wastelands of Jakku.

"Ben," she yelled, grabbing his arm and pulling him around to face her. The stark lines of his shuttle were visible in the distance.

His eyes were dark, bottomless pits and anger twisted those full lips into something almost cruel. His dark hair blew in the hot, dry air. There was no softness in him as he looked down at her.

"Don't – " Rey began and stopped. Those aren't the right words.

His eyebrows rose. "'Don't?'" he asked, "Don't what?" His voice was low and dangerous, and Rey silently cursed herself as a jolt of desire pooled deep in her stomach. Dangerous and powerful and hers.

She licked dry lips and tried again. "Don't die," she ordered instead. Come back to me. Don't do anything you can't come back from. Don't make me have to kill you.

A flicker in those midnight eyes.

"This must be done," he promised her, and Rey knew better than to ask what. His eyes were fixed on her, drinking her in as he had aboard Snoke's ship, as though it might be the last time and he wanted to remember every detail about her face.

Rey reached up and dragged him down into a bruising kiss, lips hot and insistent upon his. Her hands tangled greedily in his hair as she arched her body up to press against his long length. She sighed as his arms closed around her, drawing her close, and he began kissing her back, just as frantic. Perfect.

And then he was wrenching himself away from her, all but running back to his ship.

Rey watched as the shuttle screamed for space, fists clenched and the ghost of Ben's lips still on hers and waited for the Force to take her back home.

End Notes: Obi-Wan was being more Obi-Wan than ever. Lol. And yes, there were hints of Obi-Wan/Anakin. I see so many parallels between them and Ben/Rey and I just couldn't help myself.