The next morning, they would find Leia's robes, lying on the forest floor like the shadow of a fallen angel, because that's exactly what she was: An angel.
Fallen.
They would frantically try to salvage and search the forests for her, shouting for medics and running faster than legs were ever meant to run. Seeing all the blood, they thought her wounded.
But she wasn't, she was so much more than that and they weren't enough.
She was nothing.
A tear rolls down Ben's cheek.
It should've taken a miracle for both Kylo and Rey to make it back to their ship, but somehow they do. Hallelujah.
They aren't unlike magnets, drawn to each other the way they are, arms linking as they pull towards each other in an embrace. Kylo buries his head in the crook of Rey's neck, as she runs her hands through his hair and Oh, it's grown out, hasn't it?
"Kylo," she whispers, just to say something, anything. "Kylo, Kylo Ren."
He answers with a short, choked sound of assent. It's raining, but something else is dampening Rey's neck, and she knows exactly what it is.
Rey opens her mouth to ask about Leia, but hastily changes her mind. It is a sensitive subject, perhaps the most sensitive of all. She remains silent and runs her hands down his back.
She changes the subject. "I saw Finn and Poe." She's not even sure what she's saying, she's just talking, talking to chase the demons away. "… But I couldn't speak to them. I couldn't"
Kylo raises his head just a little, enough to bring his lips away from Rey's neck so he can reply. "They're still out there. You'll find them," he says, and a silent, But I can't find my mother anymore, follows. Rey hears it all too clearly. She presses her head to his chest, just to check if his heart is still beating.
It is, but is it really?
He captured closure, captured success, captured everything, and yet— he is a poor man. There is nothing left for him (not a single fucking thing). He killed it all and watched it die.
So Kylo Ren's heart, beating? Maybe not.
Rey lets Kylo's hair slip through her fingers— every strand feels like a memory, letting go— and she looks up, meeting his broken glass eyes with her darkening ground ones.
"How do you feel?" she questions in a whisper.
"… Like the last person in the world."
