Rey woke in a puddle of her own drool. Her cheek was glued to Ben's sleeve, and her neck screamed with stiffness. She lifted her head, turning it from side to side to loosen up her joints, and wiped an embarrassing amount of saliva from her mouth.
There was still a dark stain on Ben's sleeve, though. She dabbed at it with the end of her tunic, to no avail. "Well, I tried," she said. "Sorry for being disgusting."
Someone cleared their throat, and it wasn't Ben. Rey nearly jumped out of her boots in surprise, scrambling to her feet and facing the source of the noise: a group of people gathered at the entrance to the cave. Poe, Finn, Chewbacca, Jannah, Rose—a handful of Resistance fighters she respected and called friends were standing there, gaping at the scene in front of them. Rey's jaw worked up and down several times as she mustered the courage to speak.
"This isn't what it looks like," she began.
"He's dead, right?" Finn stepped forward from the line, a familiar intensity igniting in his eyes. "Tell me he's dead. If he was alive, you wouldn't bring him here. Right?"
"Finn, I can explain."
"Can you?" Rose said. Judging from the look on her face, Rey might as well have betrayed them all. Rey didn't know the other woman well, but from what she had learned about her, she had an impenetrable sense of what was right and what was wrong.
"Yes," Rey said, hoping she sounded more confident than she felt.
"That's Kylo Ren," Jannah said softly. "The Supreme Leader of the First Order."
"Not anymore," Rey said. "Please, let me explain."
"We're letting you," Poe said. He walked over to her, turning towards the others. "I trust Rey with my life. If she brought Kylo here, it must be for a reason."
"Ben."
Poe looked at her. "What?"
"His name is Ben Solo," Rey said. "Not Kylo Ren."
Chewbacca let out a long, unhappy yell.
"I know," Rey said, lower lip trembling with the threat of tears. "I know he did, Chewie. And the act destroyed him. Ben is different now, he's—he's changed. We've been connected through the Force—" now didn't seem like the time to explain the term dyad, so Rey glossed over it "—for a while now, and I've seen what killing Han did to him. He's been haunted by it since the moment it happened. I'm not asking you to forgive him, I'm . . ."
"What are you asking?" Finn demanded. Poe waved a hand at him as if to tell him to settle down, but he studied Rey keenly, eager for the answer, too.
Now that it came to it, Rey realized she didn't know. She hadn't even talked to Ben since the throne room, unless you counted one-sided conversations. She didn't know what he wanted, or if he'd be furious when he woke up. If he would even still be Ben.
No, she told herself sternly. You can't lose your resolve now. Ben needs you to protect him.
"All I'm asking is for you to give him a chance," she said. The words hung suspended in the cave, the others staring at her with a mix of disbelief, curiosity, and anger.
Finn shook his head. "No," he said. "No. I'm not doing this."
He turned and strode from the chamber. With an uncertain glance at Rey, Jannah went after him. Rose paused for a moment, said, "I hope you know what you're getting into," and followed them. Only Chewbacca and Poe remained with Rey and Ben.
Poe sighed and put a hand on Rey's shoulder. She leaned into his support and before she realized what was happening, he had pulled her into a hug. She burrowed her face into his shirt and began to cry.
Seeing her distress, Chewie ambled over, patting her on the head with a big hairy paw. "I'm sorry," Rey said through her tears. "I'm just so tired."
Poe drew away, holding her at arm's length to inspect her. "You've looked better," he said.
"Thanks."
"What happened down there, Rey? Why is he suddenly so important to you?"
Rey looked up into Poe's face, marred by scratches but still as earnest as ever. "I died, Poe." She watched the color drain from his cheeks. "Emperor Palpatine killed me. I was there, beyond the stars, with the ancestors. Ben brought me back. He spent a great deal of his own life force to do it. He nearly died in the process."
Poe let his hands fall from Rey's arms, scanning Ben's face uneasily. "I thought he was on the emperor's side. He was the Supreme Leader of the First Order. So many people dead—by his hand."
"I haven't forgotten the gravity of his actions. I don't expect anyone to pardon him, or trust him, for a long time. But I think I understand him now. Ben Solo was lost, and it took me—and his mother—to find him."
"What do you mean? What does Leia have to do with this?"
"She reached out to him with the Force," Rey said. "When we were on Kef Bir. I don't know what she said to him, but I felt it—I felt it when she died. She gave everything she had to speak to him one last time."
Chewie gave a mournful groan. Poe scratched his stubble, his own grief and confusion agitating him.
"She never gave up on him," Rey pressed. "And neither will I."
There was a long pause. "Okay," Poe said finally, nodding like he was psyching himself up to do something he was scared to do. "Okay, yeah. For Leia. But I'm putting guards on this room, and when he wakes up, he's going to have a lot to answer for."
Relief melted the tension in Rey's shoulders. "Of course," she said, but she couldn't keep the smile out of her voice. "When he wakes up."
