Chapter Twenty-Seven: Coruscant: Union

Rey took deep breath, trying to steady herself. The pure, unadulterated rage that had swept over her at the sight of Jade about to strike down Ben had passed. She didn't regret her decision to kill the woman, but she knew her anger had taken over. She felt the tendrils of darkness sweeping through her.

She didn't allow herself long to linger on the thoughts. Ben was still laying flat on the ground. Rey stepped over the corpse and fell to her knees beside him. "Ben..." He had been cut. He was bruised. She saw the needle deep in his leg. She pulled it out, but knew it wouldn't be enough.

His eyes were closing. "Lecepanine," he managed to murmur before his eyes closed and he went completely rigid.

Rey pulled out her datapad and typed in Lecepanine. It caused muscle paralysis and sleep. It wasn't lethal. Jade had wanted to do that with her own lightsaber. She probably had a cure on her, in case she wanted to rouse her victim.

Rey crawled over to the corpse and began to search her. She found a pouch on her belt containing similar darts. In another pouch, she found ones that looked different. She scanned it with her datapad. Yes, they were an antitoxin.

She injected it into Ben. He groaned and began to move, but wasn't quite awake yet. She needed to get him out of the street. She needed to get him somewhere she could treat him.

Carrying him was out of the question. Rey was able to carry a lot, thanks to her years hauling scrap from down spaceships, but Ben was built like a brick. She rose to her feet and grabbed Jade's lightsaber- better to keep it herself than leave it for anyone to grab. She then held out her hand to levitate Ben with the Force. She guided him carefully back to Jade's house.

Rey levitated Ben all the way up the stairs, bypassing the horrific prison the children had been in and to the room down the corridor. Jade's room. She carefully laid Ben on the bed. He was beginning to wake.

"What-"

"You're going to be alright," Rey insisted. "I just need to find some things to patch you up."

"The Younglings," Ben asked, looking around groggily. "Are they okay?"

"They're fine," Rey replied. "I've sent them back to the Ghost. BB-8 will take care of them. Captain Syndulla and Poe are already on the way back to the ship with General Calrissian. I heard it over the comm."

She knew she should've commed them to tell them what had happened with Ben and Jade. They would need to get transport back out. But for the moment, Rey was more concerned with making sure Ben was bandaged up. He was badly injured from the fight.

Even if she horribly mistreated the children in her care, Jade had to keep some sort of medikit. She wouldn't have wanted the children injured permanently. Rey went to the fresher and found a kit. It wasn't as good as they could get on the Ghost, but it would do for now.

Rey went back to Jade's room and sat on the bed next to Ben. She took out a bactapatch and gingerly applied it to the underside of his jaw. "That doesn't look like a lightsaber cut."

"Vibroblade," Ben replied, his voice still rough.

More anger at the woman flared up inside of Rey. "Come on, sit up," Rey urged. She helped Ben up with tender hands. She stripped off his coat and began to unbutton his shirt. She hissed in a breath as his broad chest was revealed. Would there ever be a time when she wasn't affected by the sight of it? Once he'd been stripped of his tops, Ben laid back down on the bed. His red kyber crystal dangled from the leather rope around his throat. Angry welts had developed on his chest. Rey had briefly seen the carnage left by their fight. Ben had been pelted with bricks. She gently ran her hand over his pectorals. "Are your ribs broken?"

Ben swallowed visibly. He shook his head. "I don't think so."

Rey retrieved a bacta bulb and began to apply it to the welts and bruises. Ben probably would've been best treated in a bacta suit, but beggars couldn't be choosers. He had closed his eyes and was letting out puffs of air, small relieved sighs with each application.

"My leg..." He groaned. "I think she snapped some tendons."

Rey slipped off Ben's boots. She then placed a hand on Ben's hip and looked up at him wordlessly. He nodded and grimaced as he lifted his hips. She unsnapped them and slid them down his long legs, revealing his thick thighs and calves. She tugged the pants down all the way, abandoning them on the floor. He was now just in his underwear. Despite the seriousness of the situation, she did smile at the tight black pants. They were most likely the one clothing he still wore from his Kylo Ren days. Of course Kylo Ren wore black underpants.

Rey gently touched his knee and he hissed, grimacing in pain. Rey soothed her fingertips over the bruised flesh. She didn't know how to heal it with what Jade had in her medikit. But there might something she could do. She closed her eyes and reached out with the Force. She bit her lip as she let herself drift inside of Ben. She gasped as she felt his pain and his worry. She also touched onto his feelings for her.

It was so dangerous. The last time they'd done this, they'd nearly blown up the Ghost. Still, she needed to press forward.

Rey settled her mind on his knee. She could feel the throbbing pain as if it were her own. But she could see the torn sinew. She concentrated on the ragged flesh, stitching it back together piece by piece. Slowly, she felt the pain lessen. It would not be gone completely, but it time would heal the rest.

When Rey finally opened her eyes, she saw Ben was sitting up and watching her wide-eyed, utterly frozen. She stared back at him, just as still.

It was as if they were drawn together magnetically. She lunged at him and he caught her up in his arms. They mashed their mouths together frenetically. Rey slid a hand into his thick, dark locks. She needed more. She could feel their connection. This was not a bond. This wasn't a string attaching them. This was a floodgate spilling open. She didn't know where she ended and he began. She didn't want to know. She didn't want the sensation to end. She wouldn't let the sensation end.

Large hands began to tear at her clothes. Rey eagerly helped, pulling them off of her. As more of her flesh was revealed, Ben pressed hot kisses to her skin. She had never done anything like this before... The Bond told her that neither had he. It didn't matter. They were acting purely on instinct.

Even if she hadn't been able to feel his arousal pressing against her, she could have felt the sensations through the bond, almost as if they were her own feelings. As far as she knew, they were her own feelings. She had known she wanted Ben, but in the moment she realized she was starving for his touch.

With a groan, Ben flipped them over so Rey lay back on the bed. He looked down at her, his brown eyes wide. "You're the most perfect thing I've ever seen," he said plainly.

"Are you-" Rey started to speak.

"I'm fine," Ben assured her. He leaned in, kissing her deeply. His large hands roamed over her body. A part of her felt like it should be distressing to be covered by such a large body... But it felt... Safe... Reassuring... Unbelievably erotic.

Rey let her hands wander over his back. She tried to be careful to avoid any of the injuries he'd sustained in his fight with Jade. Through the Bond she could feel that Ben had forgotten about any of his trauma, both the physical from his fight and the psychological of his years of torment.

There was no one in the world- no one in the galaxy- except for her.

One more piece of clothing and they were completely and utterly naked... Skin-to-skin... Soul-to-soul.

Ben's body quaked as he looked down at her with questioning eyes. His lips were parted, taking in small, excited breaths. The kyber crystal dangled down, rocking back and forth. Rey nodded briefly in consent. There was no way they could stop now. She needed Ben like her next breath of air.

She didn't know how to describe the moment it happened. It felt so new, yet somehow so familiar. Rey was reminded of when they first touched hands through the Force in her hut on Ahch-to. She hadn't realized it had been missing, but now that it was here, she didn't know how she'd lived without it.

Her other half.

She felt the damp tears on her face. As she looked up into Ben's deep brown eyes, she saw similar tears sliding down his reddened cheeks.

Rey was lost in their bond, in Ben. She didn't know how much time has passed. It could have been a second, it could have been a million years. Nothing mattered except for the two of them, locked in that intimate embrace.

Ben was shaking as he leaned down, pressing warm kisses to her neck. His torso pressed against hers. "I love you," he whispered into her ear. "I love you, Rey."

She clutched to him. No one had ever said those words to her, not that she could remember. "I love you, Ben."

She felt the warmth in her chest. No... It wasn't in her chest. It was on her chest. Ben jerked back, rolling off of her abruptly. He looked down. He had felt something too.

Rey reached out a shaking hand. "Ben..." She slipped her fingers beneath the kyber crystal, turning it over in her hand. The blood red hue had disappeared, leaving the crystal a deep amethyst. Even more unbelievable, the halves of the crystal- gulfed by the large crater between them- had melded together, leaving the crystal flawless.

"How did that happen?" Ben asked, his voice shaking.

"You know how it happened," Rey replied.

Large hands came up to cup her face. Ben pressed his forehead to hers. "I knew it was you." He still cried as he held her close. "The moment they told me a girl was with the droid. I knew... I was so angry. I'd seen you in my visions for as long as I could remember. It wasn't clear, but... I knew... Somehow I always knew..." He let out a ragged breath. "We were always going to end up here."

Rey nodded. She hadn't wanted to admit it, but the moment she'd seen his face on the Finalizer she knew him somehow. What had just happened between them had echoed through the Force, through time, all the way through their lives. Ben was her destiny. What had just happened proved it. No matter what they were going to do, they were going to do it together.