The wind around the temple raged, the thunder shaking the stone as if the elements were enhanced by the Force rift beneath.
But even the storm was dull compared to the intensity with which Ben watched her.
He stepped closer and reached out to cup her cheek, his thumb passing over the skin there.
"Can I kiss you?"
She nodded and closed her eyes when his lips descended on hers, and his other hand pulled their bodies flush. Rey hissed as the cold cloth of his tunic pressed against her and he jerked back, mumbling a quick apology before yanking the thing over his head and tossing it with a wet thwack against the wall.
There was an undercurrent of something slightly unhinged swirling in the bond between them as he returned to her, burying one hand in her hair as the other pressed against the small of her back.
Does it feel this way for everyone? Rey wondered but found it difficult to hold onto any thought for long when his hands were in her hair and his lips were pressing feather-light, slow kisses down her neck, warmth blooming under her skin at each touch. She trailed her palms over his torso, cataloging the scars by texture and length.
Could these have been prevented if I found you sooner?
She brushed her tongue against his and slid down the hands that had been lightly touching over his ribs. The muscle beneath them twitched and there was a low groan from the back of his throat she could feel all the way to her toes. Emboldened, she deepened the kiss, pouring herself into the act, hoping he would understand even a fraction of what she was feeling.
The wall that held their most inner thoughts strained and thinned.
Taking his hand, she stepped towards his bed and climbed onto it. He hesitated briefly before moving again, his shadow falling over her as he joined her on the bed, his body covering hers with one of his knees between her legs. She ran her hands down his chest, bringing them to rest on his lower back as he ducked his head and started to kiss her collar
Though she had roamed, his hands so far had remained steadfast in only her hair and at her hip.
She dipped into their connection, feeling his thoughts, and honed in on the faint undercurrent of fear and caution there.
"Ben?" she whispered and he lifted his head to look at her, waiting.
"You can touch me," she reassured, moving her own hand down his side, then up again over his chest. His eyes closed and he trembled under her hand. She could feel his relief, his overwhelming gratitude and she felt a surge of tender melancholy for this complicated man.
Leaning up, she pressed small kisses down his jaw and neck before sucking hard over his pulse.
You are not unworthy.
His head moved sharply to catch her in a kiss, the ferocity of it taking her by surprise, his desire raw and powerful, with an undercurrent of sweetness that stole her breath. The hand at her hip squeezed once before it slid over the thin fabric that covered the curve of her thigh. He made a noise, a quiet needy thing in the back of his throat and he pulled her closer while bearing more weight down on her.
And Force, it felt wonderful being pressed down into cool softness by his warm, firm body and her skin hummed as she arched her back to press her breasts more firmly against him, the pressure giving minute relief to the tension in her own body, and she felt glorious satisfaction when his hips involuntarily ground against hers.
This time, he deepened their connection, and Rey felt as if she were inhaling his very essence, lost in the glide of his tongue against hers and the feel of his hands on her skin. She could feel the bond binding them tighter together to one another, not unlike the melding of a lightsaber.
She gasped, overwhelmed by the soaring feeling in her chest and the certainty that she would do wonderful or terrible things to protect this.
His fingers dug into the flesh of her bottom, squeezing and pulling her close and she arched against him and the heat that radiated from his body.
Losing any sense of unease that lingered from her inexperience, she moved her hands to his hair, slowing their kiss into something more languid, slow, and sensual.
Closer. Please, be closer. I need you closer.
He tore his lips away and buried his face in the curve of her neck, his breaths coming out in quick pants.
"Rey, sweetheart, you're going to kill me," he finally managed and let out a gusty sigh. "Just give me a minute."
She bit her lip and let her fingers slide soothingly through his hair, delighting in his endearment. "Sorry."
He laughed against her skin, and pulled away, a grin on his face. "You shouldn't be. Don't ever be sorry for this."
She had never seen him smile like that before, wide and open enough to crease the corners of his eyes and Rey couldn't help but smile back.
She was happy. So incredibly happy and despite the storm and the darkness outside, there was nothing but light in the room.
He rolled to the side, taking her with him, his fingers carding through her hair as she rested her cheek against his chest.
"What I saw earlier, in your mind after the lake... Where was that from?"
It took her a moment to catch up, her mind still in a haze. "Oh..." Her hand froze where it had been skimming over his abdomen. "It was a vision I had when I touched one of the tsils. "
The fingers in her hair stilled. "Did you see anything else?"
"There were some things from the past, but others I didn't recognize and were less clear. I saw the Falcon in battle on a planet with a dark grey sky." She scrunched up her face, trying to recall the details of the less defined parts of her vision. "And... a house on a warm planet, with open windows and sunlight streaming through. Someone was singing."
"What was the song?"
"I didn't recognize it and didn't get to hear much. About mirrors and the moon, maybe? "
"Mirrorbright," he replied softly. "It's an Alderaanian lulluby."
Rey lifted her head to find him looking at her though he seemed far away.
"What? What is it?"
"Maybe it was the future," he murmured. "Your future."
A home. A family.
She rested her cheek back on his chest and whispered against his skin.
"Our future."
Calrissian clicked the notification on his datapad, his brow furrowing when he saw the sender. He sighed as he opened the message, his mouth thinning into the grim line he wore frequently as a general in the Rebel Alliance. It was an uncomfortable role for him, his actual nature much closer to the glib, boastful rogue he embodied completely in his youth. And honestly, he never expected that out of Han, Leia, Luke, and himself that he would be the last one holding the line.
The Force is a bastard with a twisted sense of humor.
He did a quick run through his ledger to count their resources and hoped it would be enough.
Lando Calrissian gave the datapad one last look, taking a second to soak in the moment before the war began again in earnest, his knuckles whitening over the head of his cane.
He could do this again.
He would do this.
For his oldest friends and their family that remained.
First, he would find Chewbacca and tell him about Hannah and Liarah. And if the Wookie didn't rip his legs off, he would then find Dameron.
Exiting the screen, he rose from his desk.
Where the hell is planet Mortis anyway?
Rey awoke slowly, squinting into the beam of light that she usually managed to avoid in the large bed. But this morning there was something big and rather warm blocking her usual route of retreat. Groaning she tried to turn over but was hemmed in by the heavy weight of Ben's arm. She squirmed and tried to shimmy down to escape but he just rolled over, caging her in and practically burying her face in his chest. Rather than risk suffocation, she jabbed him, hard, just under his solar plexus, and startling him awake.
"Kriffing hell, Scavenger," he coughed, one hand rubbing at the red mark on his chest as he rolled away from her. "Couldn't you wake me like a normal person?"
"It was life or death."
"I highly doubt that."
"Yes, well, you weren't the one being smothered by a chest."
The disgruntled expression on his face fell away as his eyes flicked down past her neckline and she caught a glimpse of the image that flickered across his mind.
"Ben!" she chastised with a combination of shock and delight. She half expected his scowl to return but was instead treated to a boyish if slightly embarrassed smirk.
"I'm only saying there are some people in the room who are not opposed to the idea."
That sent her into a fit of laughter that made her snort and scrunch up her nose.
"The consecrated eremite of Jakku snorts when she laughs," he mused, one brow lifted.
"And the last Skywalker is a boob-man," she countered crisply, this time startling a laugh out of her companion.
"We'll insist that gets remarked on if our story is ever passed on to future Jedi. I would pay good money to see a Master have to transcribe that over and over in new texts."
She returned his grin as he turned to look out the window. "It's mid-morning," he murmured to himself and scrubbed his face with his hand as he got out of bed. "Come on, we need to get to work."
When Rey didn't move he turned back to her, expectant.
"When this is all over, can we just go somewhere, you and I, for a while?" she asked hopefully.
His expression softened, and he nodded before clearing his throat. "I'll meet you down there."
Rey stretched out against the sheets, sighing in satisfaction as a few of her joints popped. A few minutes and a change of clothes later, she was squaring off against Ben in the courtyard.
She ignited her saber, the comforting hum traveling from her fingertips to her core as she readied her stance.
Ben shifted his feet, the hilt of his blade twisting in his palm as his thumb rolled over the switch and his chest dropped with a release of his breath...
And nothing.
He blinked, his gaze shooting down to his hand and he stared at the black metal, his brow furrowing and he firmly pushed down again. His arm went limp when again there was no response and he looked at his arm like it was foreign.
"Ben?"
His eyes flicked to her and back down to his weapon and his throat bobbed in a swallow.
"My crystal... it won't bend."
Rey attached her own weapon to her belt and stepped forward until she was close enough to touch his arm. He looked at her then, a ripple of genuine fear passing from him to her in the bond.
"I don't have a weapon. Without it, we can't… I can't fight."
Rey had only had her saber for a short time but still, it felt like a part of herself in a way that Luke's never had. It was protection, confidence, and assurance all in one.
"How did you do it last time when you bent it to the dark?"
"I meditated, focused on the crystal down to its molecular level like when I first assembled it and forced it to respond to the dark side. "
Rey was silent for a long moment, the implication and what it meant for Ben washing over her.
"Could you do it again and turn it back to the light?" she asked finally.
He frowned deeply and extended his hand, palm up and his saber levitated above it. His eyes closed in concentration as his other hand waved over it and Rey watched the sections of it whirl then separate, exposing the crystal within.
She stepped closer, her frown mirroring his as she took in the deeply fractured crystal with the fissures crisscrossing over its entirety. it looked as if a mere breath would send it shattering.
"I don't think it will survive another transition," He replied quietly. "But we don't have time to retrieve a new one."
"I have the modification kit you left on Yavin 4 on the Falcon. Maybe something in there could help?"
He nodded bringing the separate pieces of his blade come to rest in his hands and they both headed through the forest toward the Falcon.
Rey left him in the cockpit while she retrieved the kit from where she had stashed it under her bed and returned to find him staring at the communication panel.
"What is it?"
He looked up then back to the screen. "It was message from Hannah," he replied, his eyes meeting Rey's. "The Knights of Ren have taken her daughter. She's funding the Resistance and she's going to push them into a confrontation to get her daughter back."
He slid the box from her hands and left the Falcon, his long stride not slowing until they were in the water garden. He opened the box and frowned, pulling out a few pieces and returning others before kneeling on the ground to lay them out before him.
Rey backed toward the wall until his voice halted her.
"Stay," he said, "Please."
She nodded and moved closer, lowering herself to mirror his position so that they were facing one another, and gave him one last encouraging smile before they both closed their eyes and opened themselves to the Force.
She expected the stone to feel much like he did when they first met, a crackling live wire snapping at any who dared to come near, but instead it was something else, a sickly, murky signal that cut in and out of her awareness. Ben cloaked it with his signature, pressing his will deep into the faults and fractures. It shook violently, resisting the change, and the lines started to spread and connect. Much as he had done with her construct and fearful the crystal would break, Rey joined her will with his until the violence subsided.
Then a new signal emerged, low and resonate.
He quickly assembled the rest of the saber as she withdrew, and Rey opened her eyes in time to see a new silver casing meld to its surface just beneath the twin emitters. Ben reached out to wrap his hand around the floating hilt.
"It's right," reassured Rey, squeezing his shoulder, "I feel it."
He inhaled a sharp breath and pressed down on the switch. The central beam hummed to life, solid, steady, and calm while the exhaust ports hissed violent plumes. They were all the color of light ash.
"It's time, Rey," he said, twisting the beam to better examine it.
She moved her hand down and slid her fingers into his free palm and squeezed.
"I know."