Author's note: Hi, my lovely readers (if someone's still reading this), I'm so sorry that I haven't posted for so long! It's been more than half a year, I'm so sorry! Life was hard and stress kills creativity and motivation, so...also I'm a lazy piece of human being...
Anyway, here's the new chapter; it's not long but the next one will be posted not long after it, if everything goes well!
Enjoy! :)

Big, fat thanks to my beautiful beta-readers Everren (AO3) and Megara (AO3)!

Rey fits perfectly into Ben's arms, her body - warm, soft, and yet so solid - is pressed against his as he pulls her even closer. He doesn't care that it makes his whole body hurt, that her arms press against the cuts and bruises covering his skin. She's finally with him.

Her arms close around his back, then she moves one hand up to slide into his hair and pull him even closer. His heart leaps and begins to hammer so hard in his chest that he begins to wonder whether she can feel it against hers. Drawing a deep breath, he buries his face in her neck. She smells wonderful.

Like home.

What had he been doing, fighting for, all these years? He had been a fool, blind and arrogant, believing that all he needed was power. But he'd been wrong.

All he wants, all he needs, is Rey.

Her hair, loosened from the fight, tickles his nose, and a smile tugs at his lips. It must be fate, he thinks; it feels too right to be anything but meant to be.

She's the only one for him. He finally found someone he belongs with, and he won't ever let go of her again. Never before has he felt so strong, so invincible. Together, they can do anything, nothing can stop them now, and they-

His muscles tighten automatically when Rey slackens and begins to slip from his embrace. Her head falls back, revealing her face. Every feeling of triumph evaporates in an instant. She's awfully pale, and her lips have turned sickly gray. Then her arms fall uselessly to her sides, and Ben stumbles, trying to keep her from crashing to the ground.

"Rey?"

Only a small moan escapes her, then her legs give way completely, forcing him to carry her entire weight as she continues to slide down. He kneels and lowers her down with him, supporting her head and keeping her upright against his chest. His breath hitches when his fingers touch her skin. It's ice-cold.

"Rey."

Her eyes flutter, gaze unfocused, and her lips begin to tremble. Ben's throat constricts painfully, and he calls her name again, shaking her. She groans weakly but doesn't answer him.

"Rey, Rey. Look at me." His hands tremble as he touches her face, her cheeks cold under his fingertips. "Look– look at me. Everything's…" He chokes, then takes a shaky breath, cupping her cheek gently. "Everything's fine. You're going to be alright, you-"

Ben feels her presence dim down dramatically, growing smaller and more faint in his mind, as if her life was not only trickling out of her, but out of him also.

"No. No, no, no. Rey, stay with me." His hold on her tightens as her eyes flutter closed, and he shakes her again. Her hazel eyes focus on him for a moment, then roll back. "Wake up! Talk to me!" His shout echoes loudly, his desperation reflected from the cold and uncaring walls. "Don't leave me, Rey. Please." His voice wavers. He has never seen her so helpless and fragile, so lifeless in his arms. She was always so strong, always had that unwavering optimism, this flame burning in her.

But now that spark is fading. Ben whispers her name, his voice failing him this time. A tiny shred of her presence brushes his mind before her eyes close for the last time.

'Ben.'

And then there's nothing.

Just emptiness.

Ben tenses and waits, eyes desperately searching her face for any sign of life. Any kind of movement. A tiny breath. A twitch of an eyelid. Anything!

But there's nothing. There is a hole in him, an emptiness in the wake of her absence, like she tore something from his chest, a part of him, and took it with her. The agony takes his breath away.

He looks at her lifeless body, willing her to wake up again. But she doesn't. She won't. He whimpers and brushes a strand of hair out of her face.

"No…" he chokes, "not now. Not like this!"

He wails and presses his face into her shoulder, muffling his sobs as he clings to her limb body. He's trembling, openly weeping now until his voice grows hoarse, but there's nothing that could relieve this pain tearing through his heart. Dry heaving sobs wrack through him as he kneels on the ground, rocking her body, not daring to let her go.

This isn't right. It's wrong. It's cruel. His tears are seeping through the fabric of her clothes, staining the white material. Is this his punishment? Is this the price he has to pay for all he has done?

Why kill her then? It's not fair! He growls, his voice raw and muffled in Rey's clothes. He's the one who deserves to die, not Rey! She's supposed to live, was always meant to survive from the very beginning. She survived despite every obstacle thrown in her way, never lost hope despite the cruelty of this world, because she had something to live for and saw beauty even in the darkest places.

For Ben, there's no sense or any reason to live with her gone. He lifts his tear-stained face and looks to the empty sky. There are no ships, no battle. Just smoke. He looks around, desperately searching for something in the shadows. For what exactly, he doesn't know.

But there's only darkness staring back at him. No answers. No help.

He looks back at Rey. She looks so fragile in his arms, so thin and pale, lifeless without the light he has come to crave so much radiating from her. No, this can't be, he can't let her go like that. Another sob erupts from his lips. If he could trade his life for hers, if-

His breath hitches when it hits him.

A memory. Tears streaming down Rey's face. Her trembling hand on his chest, the feeling of flesh growing together. Of course! Relief rushes through him as he realizes that he can save her. He can give his life-force to her, just like she had done for him. He can bring her back and then they can-

Ben freezes when it dawns on him. There will be no 'them' after this.

He stares at the woman in his arms, the woman who had fought for him, believed in him despite everything. She was the only person who really saw him, understood him, knew what he did and was capable of, and yet accepted him. She had seen his deepest fears, his demons, and made him see that the darkness in him did not define him, that it didn't have to be his destiny. She understood his loneliness like no one else, because she was lonely too and knew what it was like to be abandoned.

He didn't deserve her, and yet...and yet she fought for him, against all reason, against all odds. And they had found each other again.

But now he has to let her go and leave her, with no way of return. This time, there's no coming back because he'll have to give her everything. Stars, he doesn't want to die. He wants to live and be by her side, hold her, love her… No, he doesn't want to leave. But she will live. And that outweighs anything else he could want for himself.

Imagining a world without Rey is too painful. What kind of life, what kind of existence would that be? The agony tearing him apart in just this moment is already too much to bear.

Ben blinks away the tears that constantly blur his vision, and gently strokes her cheek. Rey deserves to live, deserves all the happiness in the world. She deserves love and joy and everything that she had been denied growing up.

His death is a small price, one he's glad to pay. He carefully places a hand over her abdomen and takes one last look at her face, memorizing every one of her freckles, the curve of her lips, her hair. Then he closes his eyes and takes deep centering breaths, calming his churning emotions. Then he takes hold of his memory, remembering the feeling of her life-force streaming into him.

He knows what he has to do. She showed him how.

Ben concentrates on Rey's body under his hand, sending out tendrils of his consciousness through his fingers into her abdomen to reach the extinguished heart of her life-force. He focuses his whole attention on it and draws a deep breath through his nose, then pulls from his own living Force. He exhales slowly, pouring his energy into Rey. The Force steadily streams through his arm into her, and he opens himself up even more, giving and giving, all of it, all of him.

Her ribcage expands, then something warm touches his hand. A soft gasp.

Ben's eyes fly open. A small and bruised but warm hand closes around his. His eyes snap to Rey's face, and he forgets to breathe for a moment.

Rey is staring back at him, lips parted and tinged pink. She pulls herself up into a sitting position and blinks in confusion, but she doesn't pull away from him. The warm hum of her presence reaches his mind, and Ben almost sobs with relief. It worked. His chest swells with a bright feeling, almost bursts with it. Hope.

Rey is back. She's alive.

Ben turns her hand in his and gently closes his fingers around it.

Rey is alive. And that's the only thing that counts.

Author's note: Thank you so much for reading! Please leave a comment if you liked it :-)