Jeyna comes to in Ben's arms, the pain vanishing as she hears Luke's voice warning, "That's enough, Ben."

Her eyes open to the sight of Ben's face above her, bruised, distraught, but otherwise perfectly alright. Relief floods her at the same time his eyebrows lift, eyes searching hers in disbelief. "You're alive," he says in awe.

She senses their connection flicker back into being and gratefully reaches out to feel him in the force. She's surprised, detecting pain and despair beneath his shock. He isn't bothering to hide it, his grip tightening on her as if afraid she'll slip away.

"Yes?" she says weakly, confused.

"You weren't a moment ago," Luke explains bluntly. She shifts, attempting to sit up and fix the old Jedi with an alarmed stare. But Ben moves, pulling her into an embrace. She forces her chin up over his shoulder so she can breathe, even as his arms encircle her very firmly, locking her into the hug.

"I'm sorry, meaning I was dead?" she asks stupidly, brain sputtering. She turns her head as much as possible to look at Luke, crouched down by Ben's side. Ben stays silent, holding her to him.

"Yes, you were definitely dead," the older man confirms nonchalantly. Her mouth falls open in distress, and he adds, "But only for a little bit, if that helps."

"And how am I now not dead?" she presses, stunned.

"The kid nearly drained his battery bringing you back," Luke explains. "Probably would have, if I weren't here."

Ben finally relents, pulling back to take hold of her face, his large hands dwarfing her features between them. "Thank you," she mumbles immediately at the sight of his honey eyes. He still looks astray, as if he's having a hard time processing. Jeyna had no idea he was powerful enough to do something like bring a person back from death. She's in awe at the thought of it.

He ignores the gratitude, gaze clouding over. "That was a stupid thing you did," he says, voice so faint it's barely audible.

"Did it work?" she asks, struggling to see over him towards the throne. She can only assume the Sith Lord is defeated, remembering Luke's lightsaber passing quite unopposed through his chest. "Is he dead? Sidious?" she asks.

"As dead as dead can be," Luke confirms.

"Who was he?" Jeyna continues with her swarm of questions, desperately trying to make sense of everything. She looks to Ben, but his eyes are still stormy with repressed emotions, the chaos of them leaking through the connection and making her feel dizzy.

Luke answers when Ben doesn't speak. "He was what remained of Emperor Sheev Palpatine. And his Master, Plagueis. And his master before him, so on and so forth." He waves a hand dismissively, and she both sees and hears his exhaustion. He looks drained.

"But they didn't… you're still…you, right?" she presses. "I mean, what he was going to do to Ben-"

"It didn't work with me, because I wasn't striking out of anger. I did what I did to protect, the same way my father protected me from him," Luke explains. Jeyna falls silent, content with her expanded understanding of the events that have occurred. Luke sighs, standing. "I hate to rush things along, but I need a ride. My X-wing wasn't in the best of shape, and I had a rough landing."

On Board

They let Luke pilot the ship, Jeyna following a still silent Ben into the dormitory. She watches as he drops the shattered remains of his lightsaber onto the workbench there. Guilt fills her chest at the sight of the broken pieces. It is mostly the metal of the handle, nothing left of the kyber crystal. It must have been completely disintegrated.

"I'm so sorry," she apologizes. "I didn't mean to destroy your lightsaber."

He turns from her, his hands clenching into fists. She feels the anger travel through the bond between them, even as he pulls it away from her. He's stretching the link as taut as it will go, without entirely severing their connection. But she can feel the pain throbbing in his chest regardless, echoing in hers, and her mouth falls open at it.

"Ben, I'm sorry-" Jeyna tries again.

"I can build another lightsaber," he says lowly.

The parts rattle and shake on the workbench. "How could you do that to me?" he asks.

Her mind reels with confusion. "Do what to you? I was only trying to help!"

Ben turns on her, and her mouth clamps shut at the sight of him as he loses his grip on control. "Risking your life is never going to help me!" he shouts.

She recoils at the loudness of his voice, hurt filling her that he doesn't understand. "But he was torturing you, I didn't know what else to do!" Jeyna argues. Tears prickle her eyes.

"I've endured worse! I can handle anything, anything other than that! Do you know what it felt like? Do you know what it was like holding your body, empty, like a shell?!" he asks, the fury in his voice giving way to a trembling tone. His chest is rising and falling erratically as he turns from her again. She's shaking, taken aback by his anger directed at her.

"There was nothing in the force," he continues, voice dropping lower and lower. "Nothing where you should have been. Your energy just slipped away, and I couldn't feel you, I couldn't hear you…"

He trails off, and she sees his hands shaking as he clenches them again, working them in and out of fists. She waits for a few minutes, letting him focus, trying not to push him. But when she reaches out in the force, and weakly tries to strengthen their connection, he rebuffs her. The sensation of him blocking her feeble attempt snaps her own control, sadness taking over.

The tears overflow from her eyelashes, as she fights back sobs. "Ben, please, I'm sorry," she cries out in distress. He flinches, finally looking back at her. His face falls at the sight of her crying, anger vanishing. "I didn't mean for that to happen. I only meant to destroy the holocron. I didn't know it would do that," she continues quickly, voice quavering.

He crosses the small space and pulls her against him in a crushing hug. She cries against his chest, and after a while he relaxes his hold. His hand lightly rubs a now familiar circle on her back as he tries to sooth her. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you," he says after a few minutes. "I'm sorry, Jeyna."

Ben combs his fingers through her hair, and she backs away from his shirt to look up at him. The air leaves his chest in a rushed exhale when he sees her eyes, and he drops his lips to kiss her splotched cheeks. "I'm sorry," he murmurs again.

Jeyna breathes more calmly when he lets the connection between them come back to full strength. He isn't trying to hold back anymore. "I love you. I just wanted to help," she says. Doesn't he know she would never hurt him intentionally?

"I know," he assures her. When he kisses her lips, she tastes the salty remnants of her tears on his skin. He pours his energy into their bond again, the power of it never failing to take her breath away.

She can perceive something, tied between them. There is a knot in their energies, linking them. While his energy is a raging storm, there is a fixed point to him, centered on the smaller, quieter energy that is hers. She doesn't know when it developed, and she can only feel it now that he's amplified her connection to the force for her.

Ben keeps the kiss gentle and slow. His fingers caress her cheeks, and drop to stroke her neck. What's happening between them is building, both physically and in the force. Her heart races with his, their bodies pressing as close as possible. She pulls from his tempting lips, trying to catch her breath.

She knows they will get carried away if they continue, choosing instead to rest herself against him. Jeyna presses her ear to his chest, listening to the fast thump of his heart beat as his body warms her.

"Can you please just try to be more careful?" he asks hesitantly.

"Yes," she agrees seriously, before adding, "Next time I have to destroy an ancient evil ritual, I know to not use a lightsaber."

She feels his chest heave in a sigh at her attempt at lightening the mood. "I'd rather we assume there won't be a next time," Ben complains.

Somewhere in Hyperspace

Jeyna feels better when she is clean, but groans when she immediately hears the sounds of an argument as she steps from the refresher. She finishes wringing out her damp hair before heading out of the dormitory, and towards the main hold.

"All grown up, and you're still just as dense as a bantha!" Luke shouts as Jeyna joins them. He's near the cockpit, and she quickly spots Ben near the comms room, fists clenched in anger.

"I'm not joining the Resistance again," Ben grinds out. "I'm done being a pawn in other people's games."

"You could at least see your mother while we're there!" Luke persists. "Just hear her out-"

"I said we will drop you on Endor," he snaps back. "I never agreed to a reunion with her."

"Drop me there, right, and fly off with your father's ship? I promised Han when he came for me that I'd get this back to him," Luke growls with irritation.

"Tell him I'll leave it for him on Nar Shaddaa," Ben retorts. "In pieces."

"This is a productive conversation…" Jeyna mutters, eyes bouncing between the two disgruntled force users. She wonders if they always butted heads as much as now, or if the tension is a result of their barely existent truce.

"Can you talk some sense into him? Maybe he'll listen to you," the older man suggests, switching his focus to her. Jeyna gives him a slight shrug.

"It's his choice," she says uncertainly.

Luke gives a groan of frustration, storming out of the space. A moment later she hears the garage bay door shut. She looks to Ben, his eyes narrowed, jaw tense. "We should decide what we're doing," she says cautiously. "I was really hoping you didn't want to go back to the First Order…"

She's relieved when his expression softens. "I won't make you go back there," he assures her.

The answer soothes her, until she realizes he hasn't spoken for himself, only her. She chews her bottom lip nervously. Surely he isn't planning on returning to the First Order alone? They were enough to each other to assume they would stick together, weren't they?

Baseless doubt fills her, as she suddenly longs for him to reassure her. A relationship is uncharted territory in her life, and as strongly as she feels for him, she is unsure how much she can safely assume.

And then there is the topic of the map. They've collected the last piece, and have yet to determine where it leads. Do they even want to pursue it, after the horrendous discoveries of the Ritual of Nathema and the Infinite Engine? Do they still need to find whoever called to her in the force, or has the threat passed with the death of Sidious? Is the galaxy safe now?

Her head aches with the questions, and she forces most of them aside for the time being.

Jeyna approaches him, stopping to search his eyes, wondering what is going on in his thoughts. Sometimes she wishes she were as strong with the force as he was. She can feel his confusion, but nothing more definite than that. "But where do you want to go?" she asks eventually.

His gaze flicks away. "I… I don't know."

She wonders why he doesn't want to see Leia. Is he still holding a grudge against her, for agreeing to send him to Luke? Or is it something else?

Ben sits suddenly, letting his weight fall into one of the flight seats. He slumps forward, his head falling into his hand. Jeyna frowns, kneeling in front of the seat to take his free hand in both of hers. She traces his long fingers before turning his hand over, examining the lines of his palm.

"Just ask what you want to ask," he orders, avoiding meeting her gaze.

She strokes her thumb along where his palm meets his wrist softly. "Why don't you want to see her?"

His hand spasms, as if he were about to curl it into a fist before forcing himself to leave it relaxed. She bends down to press a kiss to his knuckles. He takes a deep breath before releasing it slowly.

"I don't want to see what I've done to her," Ben admits quietly. "I don't want to see the way she looks at me…"

"It might hurt," Jeyna agrees honestly. "But Ben… She loves you. Nothing would matter more than that to her. I think that's what you would see, when you look at her. Love."

He finally looks up, his eyes full of trepidation, highlighting his uncertainty. "I don't know my path now. I don't want her to hope…"

"She's your mother. I don't think she can stop hoping for what she thinks is best for you," Jeyna reasons. "But that doesn't mean she will stop loving you if you choose something different than what she hopes for."

She can't tell him Leia won't be disappointed if he rejects the Resistance, or returns to the First Order. But she hopes he can be brave enough to face it and still see her. She remembers Leia's sadness when talking about him, the guilt she seemed to harbor over making poor decisions for her son.

It causes a tightness in her chest, as she realizes how envious she is that he still has family, regardless of their poor relations. She has spent her life alone, disconnected. If it were up to her, she'd drag him back to his mother. But it isn't her choice to make.

"You'll be there?" he asks suddenly, pulling her from her thoughts.

"What?" she asks, confused.

"You'll be there? No matter what I choose?"

His eyes lock onto hers as she nods immediately. "Of course. If you want me there."

"All I know for certain is that I want you there," he replies. His hand grips hers, pulling her gently to her feet. When she's standing, he buries his face into her stomach, arms winding about her to lock her in place.

"Well at least we've got that figured out," Jeyna replies, smiling softly down at the mess of his dark hair. If that was the only question she could have answered for the time being, it was enough.