Ben stepped through the threshold of the judgment hall where the co-generals waited with their inevitable judgment. Poe was at the lead, arms crossed over his chest with his shoulders squared in a poor attempt to make himself appear a little taller. Had it not been for Ben's current situation, he may have just laughed at their difference in height. Comical, he decided, but not something worth the risk to mention.

It wasn't the almost foot that he held on him, rather the notion that Poe knew that Ben was a threat, and did whatever he could to appear to be the bigger man anyway.

At his side, anxiety emanated from Rey, awaiting the final decision from who she had once referred to as her friends-family. Their relationship seemed strictly professional to him, but even he could sense the underlying care they so obviously held for her, one more painstakingly prominent than the other.

"We've had time to think about this." Poe's wary gaze flicked between the pair skeptically before settling on Ben. "But I can't wrap my head around it. What the hell is going on, Rey? Why is he even here?"

"I understand your apprehension to trust me-" Ben tried, but Poe silenced him with a quick flourishing hand wave, dragging that intense stare over the female Jedi instead.

Ben refrained from force choking him right then.

"I know it's not because of some sort of bullshit redemption attempt. I want to hear from Rey first," Poe exclaimed coldly. "Not you."

BB-8 whistled low from his place at the general's left, breaking the tension in the room in half. Their sides had been made abundantly clear, and Ben and Rey could not have been more secluded from the rest if they tried.

Rey composed herself, and went on to once again explain everything. The day that she faced Darth Sidious-though noticeably remained silent about the truth to her lineage-her intentions of going into exile just as his uncle had done, arriving to Exogol and standing with Ben in the final battle, him choosing the light side over the dark, the in-between and the promise that she had made to Leia. All of it with only one miniscule detail held barred. "It isn't bullshit." She pressed. "Leia gave her life to save Ben. You knew her, and it is not a decision she would have made if she didn't believe that he was beyond redemption!"

Finn bristled, standing as equally defensive and matching Poe almost identically. He wanted to speak, Ben knew. To join in the protests that the previous leader of the First Order should simply be discarded.

"There is a reason that we both returned from Exogol alive when neither of us should be." Rey finished, meeting their hardened expressions unflinching.

Finn was the one that broke the uneasy silence between the four of them first, tossing Ben an appraising look, judging in nature but not entirely disapproving. Not for his own benefit Ben assumed. "If he wanted us dead, we'd be dead." And he was right in every form of the phrase. After taking a dip in the tank, he held the upper hand on them physically, both generals still not fully recovered from the previous battle.

Despite their celebrations, grief still hung heavy over the resistance.

Poe stood idle, piecing it together, but the mention of Leia was enough to snatch his attention back to the debate. All heads turned-Ben's included. Rey's mention of her demise, her sacrifice for her son. He left a mental note to ask her about the conversation later.

"You did." Poe yielded, features pinched into a scowl. His head shook, a tick working itself underneath a rigid jawline. "You're both here, but it's a risk. The resistance isn't happy with it, and we can't let him stay with the assurance that they can just forget about it. You know what he's done and I'm glad that you can offer him forgiveness, Rey, but the rest of us aren't ready."

Rey deflated, but he wasn't finished.

"And that's final. I just see a coward who killed billions trying to surrender because he finally lost. There is no sort of atonement for that."

"I understand your conviction." Ben stood idly by no longer, taking a step forward, holding out his arms to his sides, palms up to further prove that he was no threat to them. Besides, his capabilities far exceeded their own, and he wouldn't put it past them to think that he could wipe out everyone with a mere flick of his wrist. Only because he could. By their rigid stances, that seemed to be what they were waiting for. "I understand that you can't forgive what Kylo…" He paused, correcting himself. "What I did."

Looking over his shoulder to Rey, he decided then whether his next course of action was the correct one to take.

He took a deep breath.

"Rey and I defeated Palpatine together. While a part of me will always hold a piece of him, I am Ben Solo, the son of Leia Organa of Alderaan, and Han Solo of the rebellion."

"You tortured me." Poe spat. "You nearly killed Finn, murdered your own father when he was trying to help you. No good man is capable of committing the atrocities that you did. Nobody in the resistance will stand for it!"

"Kylo Ren is dead." Ben went on despite the hostility, squirming underneath a locked jaw. He felt himself shaking, itching to succumb to that voice in the back of his mind that knew how to get them to listen, to gain their respect out of fear, but he didn't. "I was brought back to the light by my mother, and by Rey. And you're right. I have to answer for what Kylo Ren did. All of the grief caused by the First Order."

"And is that why you're here? You come crawling back with your alter ego asking for ways to apologize?" Poe challenged, stepping forward with a fiery purpose.

"No," Ben's tone dropped an octave, dripping with contempt. "I came back for Rey. If you want to hand me over to the Republic Courts or exile me to the farthest reaches of the galaxy, then I'll accept it."

"This man-this republic scum-" Poe started.

"Doesn't belong here." Ben finished for him-eyes filled with a suppressed sense of regret and sadness at the ultimate truth. "I know, but I'm not asking for forgiveness. Kylo Ren was beyond that redemption. I like to think that Ben Solo was more misguided, cast out and manipulated by Snoke, but ultimately that is not up to me to decide. You can accept me as Ben Solo, or punish me as Kylo Ren. My purpose was to see Rey home and I've done it." He then turned to face the generals one last time, offering a small helpless shrug, a small quirk reminiscent of his father.

He was calm, although the tension in his muscles betrayed any notion that he was fully relaxed. "I didn't come back for you-for the resistance, but if you believe me to be an asset then I will offer whatever I can."

"We can use him." Finn interjected suddenly, even if it hurt to admit that Ben could be useful for anything that wasn't purely to cause grief. He couldn't have meant that, not unless he was doing Rey a favor guided by some buried infatuation. Finn was, but everyone's nerves were strung, taught over this situation alone, let alone the preparations of what they were going to do next.

Everyone settled to listen and Finn stepped forward once he had the floor, again ready to deescalate the situation. "We lost a lot of people," He offered a gentle prodding reminder to the other general. "We will need all the help we can get to eventually relocate to Ajan Kloss. With the right precautions… maybe he can be useful." There was a shift of energy in the room, almost lulling and overcome with a sense of calm.

Ben and Poe had stood almost nose to nose during the exchange—If Poe's difference in height to Ben wasn't so drastic. Poe shifted in his defensive stance, brows pinched together and glaring at Ben with a look of complete and utter disgust. The words did very little to sway the general, but despite Ben's lame attempt at convincing him, he stood equally as rigid, his hands at his sides and his fingers scratching against his palm, resisting the urge to lash out, to delve back into the dark place only Kylo Ren would go.

Ben's calm composure was carrying him far, but how long would that last? Only Rey's protest and Finn's abrupt input turned both of their heads sideways—at first they still didn't back off, even with Ben reaching instinctively behind him for Rey's hand. There was a hesitant lilt in Finn's words, the unsureness that Ben could be useful for anything that wasn't fighting a war. He noticed it, but let him speak, a twinge of hope digging into his chest, unfortunately followed by a pricking sensation of guilt as his hand wrapped around his companion's once again finding its home there. She accepted it without a second thought.

He felt a sudden guilt for his constant chastising that he would leave her behind—after all she had done to get him to stay.

"By the force…" Poe scoffed. "What do you mean we can use him? There's plenty of people around the galaxy that we can use and you want to use Kylo Ren?"

Ben grimaced.

"You know what, you're right." Poe said suddenly, nodding in acknowledgement and... a sudden smile with a dip in his head that suddenly bled acceptance. "We lost a lot of people. We will need all the help we can get to eventually relocate the base to Ajan Kloss." Poe reiterated Finn's words. "With the right precautions, he will be useful. Good thinking, Finn."

Ben looked to Rey skeptically, a slight arch in his brow, asking a silent question only the two of them would understand. She didn't seem to care, at least not at that moment, too invested in the notion that he would be allowed to stay.

"Right." Finn seemingly hadn't noticed, beaming faintly with a sense of pride and tilting his head up a little higher.

"I mean there will be restrictions of course. Monitored comms, no weapons, eyes on him at all times. And if he so much as steps out of line-" He didn't need to finish the threat, an encouraging beep from BB-8 finishing the threat for him. "So we're settled then." Poe agreed to his own conditions, his face twisting into one of confusion, as if genuinely curious of his own change of mind. "Anyway... I think we can call that dismissed. I want a report every hour to two hours." Casting one quick quizzical look over his shoulder, and with a befuddled shake of his head, he squeezed past them then was gone.

Ben on the other hand couldn't find it in him to be content with the terms as the two were left alone and BB-8 rolled over his foot to catch up with the others. A prisoner, and no more part of the resistance than he was as a child growing older. He was cast out, before then and even now.

Some things never changed.

"I guess you will have to keep my saber safe for me." Ben chided, making a mock attempt at some sort of humor. "I didn't have it for very long. I think I was just getting used to it."

Perhaps it was at least better than being cast out to he knew not where. At least, not again. Alone. And once again, he was left with the realization that at least Rey was there, with him. At his side and going nowhere. The force tether connected them, wove around them until he felt himself moving closer—but that was purely a decision of his own.

"Thank you!" Rey called after Poe, the excitement emanating from her undeniable. Finn was the one to stop albeit briefly, casting one look over his shoulder and mouthing something to Rey that Ben was sure was no more than a simple "You're welcome" and with a gentle smirk he followed Poe through the threshold.

"It will always be yours. I will just hold onto it for when you can have it again." Her fingertips nimbly unfastened the saber from his belt, placing it on her own with its partner. The next string of words came out more soft, and sheepish. "You wouldn't have to leave me if it came down to it. I meant what I said before."

With that, she turned on her heel and left the office. "Come on, I'll see if I can get us some food in my quarters."

They left the halls within the Tantive IV. The sun cast a final golden hue across the clear skies, orange and yellow cascading over the horizon. The light barely illuminated the inside of the cave, the majority coming from bulbs of machinery whirring inside.

Ben's fingers subconsciously grasped for his weapon as they neared the others, but he certainly wouldn't rely on having it if it came down to it. Rey was the only person he trusted to keep it safe-only because she had promised, and it'd become clear in their time spent sharing visions and disputing over wishes of the future that she had never broken a single one.

You're not alone.

Neither are you.

And those words still rang true, stronger than ever. Even still, as the pair walked through the base, Ben found his steps wavering a few behind, his eyes boring into the back of Rey's head. Through their force bond-their dyad, he could see the darkness in her heritage waiting in the very depths of her soul for just the right moment to strike. A subtle darkness that was peeling away one small layer at a time.

Nonetheless, it was blinded by the light that seemed to so easily follow her around, one that he constantly sought out for the warmth and comfort he was otherwise deprived of. Briefly he wondered if there would ever be an instance that would finally bring that darkness forth. Because of that, Ben wouldn't leave her alone.

They maneuvered past the mouth of the cave where the resistance members crowded outside by a fire. The smell of food being turned over a fire wafted toward them and making his stomach churn. Inside was more quiet, a few stragglers hurrying toward the thought of devouring a meal. It smelled vastly different from what Ben remembered from his meals with the First Order, almost raw, but his growling stomach prodded him eagerly, and he realized there was no room to be picky. Not here.

Rey didn't stop to partake. Instead, she continued on to a secluded area on the other side of the base. Obediently his steps were in tow with her own. She would send for it, he assumed.

Once inside Rey's quarters, his eyes took in the blandness of the room. It was small, he noted. With how many members there were in the base, it was no surprise that they had to consolidate in order to make room for enough beds. He had to rotate carefully in order not to bump into anything, and being as large as he had to step carefully to avoid knocking anything over.

Ben refrained from asking how she could sleep in such a cramped space. Instead, he carefully lowered himself down onto the floor, and pulled his knees to his chest mimicking how he managed to squeeze into the X-Wing several hours prior.

No, he wouldn't take her bed from her, unless he himself were to squeeze into it to make room for them both-something he wouldn't take the first step to try. His room had been pristine, spacious, made up of sharp corners and polished surfaces, and the size of their rooms in comparison was comical but he offered himself a gentle prodding reminder that was Kylo Ren's life.

Ben Solo's life was here with the resistance-more importantly Rey-squeezing into the room of her quarters and being scowled at by First Order despisers. Barely cooked food, tacky clothes and all.

Ignoring the nagging sensation in his stomach, he began the conversation with something else-a gentle tugging curiosity since she had mentioned it to the generals.

Images that she'd shoved into his mind's eye that he'd been working tirelessly to remember, to hold onto and absorb. Only because it had been a long time since he had actually seen her. Well, since she had whispered his name into the force and passed on. "You talked to my m-" His chest heaved. "General Organa? In the in-between?" And only then did he look up at her from his spot on the smooth stone, equal parts sorrowful as remorseful. "What did she say?"

At his inquiry, a small curse escaped her when she knocked aside some pointless trinkets, unequipping both lightsabers and gingerly placing them aside with much more care. They were near to them and within reach, much like everything else.

Their knees grazed one another — his legs folded once more to compact his lanky frame. He looked so out of place; even dressed in color and void of weapons, he still seized an air of intimidation around him that left the others unsettled.

"I did," Rey confirmed, her eyes crawling across his form. "She told me to not give up on you, that there was still a light in Ben Solo. I can show you... if you want."

Ben stretched his legs out, still slightly bent at an angle but he could rest his hands in his lap comfortably. His mother hadn't given up on him-a thought that stuck in his mind for what that was worth now. She had believed him to be of redemption, that there was a reason that he could be saved. He kept a hold of that thought, placed it in the darkness that clouded his heart and reminded himself that perhaps there was a reason that neither of them had died on Exogol.

If Leia knew then surely it was meant to be. Granted, Han had also thought that Kylo Ren could be redeemed, and that was before he had a lightsaber driven through the chest and been thrown into a darkened abyss. That thought was shoved to the back of his mind, the reminder an ever growing pain that sowed doubt into what he already knew to be true. Kylo Ren had killed his father, but Ben had been a willing participant in the backseat of his mind, knowing what he had done, and until recently held no regret.

Ben turned slightly so that he could face Rey, his hand trembling as he held it out to her, warming up to her invitation to see. He seemed almost a little too eager, as if wanting to hear the words that he was worth something come from his mother himself. Palm up, he hesitated as his hand lingered closer and closer to her own before finally making a connection.

Willing himself through the force, connecting to her through the thread that kept their destinies woven together, he willed the images to him, the memory. In that memory, he saw his mother. Her face relaxed and akin to something of peace. Even if translucent he felt as though he could see her smile clearly.

The words reverberated in his mind, echoing as he closed his eyes in order to feel it. Feel Leia's touch through Rey's hand, the promise that she had made in not giving up on him. He felt the warmth, the light and life. Something akin to happiness that he hadn't felt in a long time, of relief emanating from his companion as she made the promise. Don't give up on him Rey. And she hadn't.

Tears threatened to overflow in his eyes, but he forced them back. Refused to let her see them, his stomach twisted and his heart ached. There was still hope for Ben Solo. There was something that he could do.

"Hey, you guys?"

Both immediately yanked away from each other at the sudden intrusion, equally startled. Turning his head away, he coughed and cleared his throat, not realizing how tightly his free hand had clenched in his lap until he relaxed.

"I'm coming in, okay? Please don't be doing anything weird." Rose appeared through the makeshift curtain after a moment of pause, two trays of food in hand stacked high. Rey stood to assist her, stumbling over Ben but managed to find her feet enough to take some of the burden. Both trays were set down with a loud smack as Rose flexed her wrist.

"Rose! It's good to see you." Rey greeted her. "Th-Thank you. For, well, all of this." She gestured vaguely to the food, a slight heat to her cheeks, rubbing her palms against her grimy leggings.

"I wasn't sure what to get the two of you, so I just got all of it." Rose grinned. "I don't know what kind of food Ky... I mean, Ben ate in the First Order, but I mean take what you can get." It was a lame attempt at a joke, to make Ben more comfortable even if he were not looking at them and instead struggling to process what he had seen. Not so much the reality of it, but the fact after everything, his mother still had an unwavering faith in him. Enough to keep Rey alive, to keep him alive.

How could he ever thank her for that?

"Anyway," Rose went on, pulling him back to his current reality. "I also have some spare blankets sitting outside here. There's no room for a cot so..." She trailed off, eyes cast out across nowhere in particular. "It should be better than nothing. Poe needs to see you first thing in the morning Rey for a briefing. They're wanting to move base again. Go figure, but the resistance is apparently doing a lot more now that everything is said and done. Poe is wanting to go and meet with other resistance groups, take care of some First Order sympathizers which by the way we're not to mention the K name just in case..." The woman continued babbling on, speaking directly to Rey now as opposed to Ben, but at least she was not looking at him with pure scorn. Pure hate. Just an innocent curiosity, and a knowing look as Ben sat there catching his breath.

"Poe's taking the initiative in all of this, I see." Rey shifted her weight from one foot to the next, wringing her hands. A silence befell the three of them.

A few moments of silence passed between the trio.

"So-" She started at the same time as Rose, both girls laughing in unison before pressing on. "See Poe in the morning, no using the K name, extra blankets outside, I think I've got it."

Rose nodded. "Right. Don't forget, because then he'll yell at me if you don't remember." She hovered for a few more moments, a wide smile fixed on Rey before her eyes darted over to Ben still sitting hunched over on the floor-downright accusatory in nature. "Cool. Well, enjoy. I'll see you guys later. Bye, Ben." She waved before dipping out through the curtain. Ben could only offer a curt nod, one wary smile that didn't quite reach his expression before disappearing immediately upon her exit.

Once she was gone, Ben exhaled. They were left there once again together, in the quiet of her very cramped space. There was someone else standing outside, their presence very much known despite the ability to hear a pin drop on the cave floor. His hands gripped at the fabric of his pants tight until his knuckles turned white. His breathing took a considerable amount of time to steady, the pounding of his heart roaring in his ears as he struggled to calm down. A fit of anger rose up in his chest, but he fought it back, willed it to go away.

With a painful throb in his chest, it did.

"You should go get cleaned up." He said at last, one hand bracing against the cot to stand and retrieve one of the plates of food. It was somewhat heavy, and he had to balance it in order to keep all of the food on its surface, but none of it looked very appetizing either. Still, his nagging hunger fought through his picky appetite, and without hesitation he plopped down on the edge of her cot again and dug in. A slow chewing to use the taste to distract from the visions they'd shared.

He felt everything that Rey had at that moment. The hope, the happiness, the warmth and it mixed with his own. Sadness, regret, remorse until it blended and suffocated him. He didn't know what he felt; what was his and what was Rey's, but it was overwhelming. For the moment, he couldn't directly speak, couldn't offer any words of what exactly he may have been feeling.

Only because he didn't know what to offer her that could accurately explain. Gratefulness? Sorrow? All of the apologies and thanks that he wanted to give her? The promises made that Rey wouldn't so easily just give up on the legacy that was Kylo Ren turned Ben Solo? All it meant that in his parent's eyes he had been worth something, he had deserved a second chance and through his mother's touch he felt that sincerity.

The resistance was giving him that to an extent, Rey had always held that out to him, but the fact that he was a prisoner still didn't settle well in his chest. A part of him wanted to atone, the other wasn't so sure Kylo Ren deserved that even if Ben Solo might have by a small sliver of chance being just a lost child that had felt betrayed by those closest to him. Taking control of the Dyad and seizing whatever destiny lay before them. His mother's image ever so clear in his mind, it willed his grief forward, and he furiously blinked them away, one hand wiping across his eyes.

Ben found himself... angry.

Angry that he had allowed Kylo Ren to take a hold of him, allowed the dark side to so easily manipulate him-and Snoke. He'd spoken with his dad on the cliff. He'd taken his place at Rey's side and fought Palpatine. It was a chance at redemption, and now being alive and somewhere else, he was faced with the trouble of allowing himself to try, willing everyone else to trust him enough to try. It was overwhelming, the balls of his fists digging into his eyes as his plate of food sat in his lap, for the most part consumed. What was he meant to do? What did Leia want for him? "I'll be here when you get back." He assured her, his tone carrying a heavy lilt that it often did when he was upset.

Rey withdrew, averted her gaze away from him and nodded.

"I won't be long," she assured him, retrieving an outfit from within a storage chest that had been used as a makeshift table. "If you need anything, I'm sure you can just yell and everyone will come running," her voice rose to stretch to whoever had been stationed outside. There had been an uncomfortable shift that came in response that made Rey roll her eyes.


Her sandaled feet plodding across the stone announced her approach. She pulled back the curtain before slipping inside, squinting through the lack of light that had settled in the cave by then, the artificial rays barely sweeping through the curtain and the lamp dimming itself in the corner. "Sorry, I ran into someone. I would have been back sooner, but they never cease to be anything but a conversationalist."

Ben had finished his meal by the time she had returned, discarding the plate to the floor—and carefully out of the way so as to not get broken by unsteady feet. He nodded stiffly in greeting to Rey, having taken the time she was gone to compose himself before her return. Remaining perched on the cot, he slid several inches over so that she could sit and eat as well.

Within two steps, she had collapsed onto her cot, rattling the dishes of her dinner that she eagerly pulled into her lap. If Ben had been a picky eater, spoiled by his time spent in the ranks of the First Order, Rey was a ravenous savage that would sooner lick a bowl clean than waste a crumb.

Rey ate like she was trying to get it over with and with no intentions of sharing. The piece of bread she was eating had to be strangled before she could ingest it but surprisingly managed to keep her Jedi robes clean. He dismissed that sight for now, turning his head away.

"Are you alright?" Her fingers worked at the meat of an animal, picking it apart off the bone, her eyes downcast and focused on the task at hand, splitting it apart.

"I-" Ben shook his head, finally acknowledging the truth. "I don't know." Truthfully, he didn't. "I've been thinking about what Leia said to you. That I was supposed to join my family in death. I guess I'm just wondering what would have happened if I had." Except that wasn't the full truth. Ben's gaze was downcast, his hands sitting in his lap, hair draped in front of his face like a curtain and hiding his uncertainty.

"Everything I set out to do was done. I didn't come back to atone for the resistance. I came back because you asked me to. I probably should have died back in the caves." Except that wasn't it. He was spared for a reason, something destiny believed was left undone. It most certainly wasn't doing Ben Solo any favors. If it was, it could have at least make people see that Kylo Ren was really dead, that Ben could somehow make up or at least do better than all the damage his alter ego had wrought previously.

Destiny had a sick sense of humor sometimes.

His voice was barely above a whisper, gaze fixed on his fingers as he wrung them endlessly. "I'm not Kylo Ren of the first order, I'm not a member of the resistance, I killed the Skywalker bloodline. Leia gave up her life to pull me back, and I refuse to believe it was only because I am her son... was her son."

Only then did he finally lift his head to look at her through her ravenous eating, and it baffled him how someone so small could eat... so quickly and so much. Still, she was slick from her shower, her hair soft and washed and still drenching, wearing fresh clothes and looking as if fighting the way they had that day hadn't happened at all. Her refreshed form sat relatively close to his on the cot, so close that they were brushing, but their hands still to themselves. Rey was beautiful. In his eyes, she always had been since he noticed their similarities when first coming face to face-that fear and loneliness and loss.

"I guess I just wish I knew what to do next."

"I think-" She started, placing the trey down and halting her ritual of scarfing down anything and everything she could manage long enough to listen to Ben speak. "I think she wanted you to have the life you were supposed to have. As Ben." Her lashes lowered as she took in his open display of vulnerability painted so cautiously across usually stoic features.

Exhaustion dug deeper into his limbs, his emotions hitting him all at once. It'd been an emotionally draining day as it was, and although he slipped into an almost comfortable state in the Bafta tank, nothing could beat actual rest, even if his would be a restless night on the floor of the cave. It wouldn't match his quarters on the first order by any means, not even slightly in the ways of comfort, but her comforting presence would be much closer as opposed to reaching out through the force to feel her and lull into sleep, she was right there.

"Being alive in itself is a purpose. Living in peace, finding happiness is a purpose," she tried to reassure him.

...To have the life you were supposed to have, as Ben. Ben Solo seemed like an entity that he hadn't yet figured out. Only aside from the obvious truth of his lineage, the emotions he was feeling that he had snuffed out as Kylo Ren, his thoughts, his hopes and his dreams all felt like ones belonging to a stranger.

Someone wanting more than to see the norm of the galaxy wiped out and started fresh, someone with a renewed hope for the future than destruction seeking Ren would ever have. Something that finally didn't equate to revenge, something spurred by not hate, but stronger. A new feeling he had refused to acknowledge, only because that feeling thrummed around someone from the enemy side.

Rey's head coming to rest against his shoulder brought his attention back, except he didn't move so as not to disturb her, looking down at their hands instead. Their fingers intertwined and came to a rest on her lap. He had to slouch to accommodate their height difference, but the fears plaguing his mind were snuffed out in an instant.

The warmth and light that Rey emanated so easily passed through the thread tethering them together and soothed his anxiety. And he listened. Listened to her talk of waiting, being alive, living and finding a happy existence somewhere in the galaxy. She was so... good. Always speaking from the heart, and through their connection he knew she meant every word.

Her journey to happiness, even on an alternate path was a reminisce of the endless wait for her parents, whom the truth of he had thrown right in her face before she'd come to discover their deaths. No doubt that had affected her in some way, similarly to how the deaths of his parents were hitting him now. Coming to terms with the fact that they were really gone, even if he'd managed to find peace with both-and the pride on his father's face when he threw his cross saber into the ocean was one he held tightly in his mind's eye.

"Your blankets are outside the door—" Rey said drowsily, a deepness in her tone while she parted from him and righted herself. Sitting up to rub the sleep from her heavy eyes, the gesture was followed by a yawn. She moved to kick off her sandals and press herself as small as she could against the furthest wall of her cot, leaving a sliver of space for Ben beside her.

Rising stiffly, wincing as he stretched out from the awkward position, he nodded in acknowledgement and stepped around her to retrieve the blankets from outside the room. Notably there was someone else there this time, likely rotating shifts, he thought with a grimace.

The new guard shifted uncomfortably as their gazes met, but he wasted no time in retrieving the blankets and moving back inside. The space left on the cot was what captured his attention first, but it was a silent invitation he hadn't any intentions of taking; not now.

Ben took a place on the floor, draping the cover over himself and recoiling as the cold stone pressed against his back. Above him, the cot squeaked and groaned as Rey shifted back, seeing her outline through the dark, turned with her back to him.

Suddenly he missed his bed back in the first order, a bed much larger with a comfortable mat and long enough that he could stretch out his legs comfortably. The darkness enveloped them as the lights outside dimmed one by one, drowning out any chance of being able to see her.

"Goodnight, Rey." Ben murmured, his eyes fluttering shut as the small room became nothing more than a blur. It wasn't home, but at that moment it was. A place so foreign to him simultaneously felt like a paradise.

"Goodnight, Ben." She whispered in return.

If only by the company that slept a few inches away was enough of a definition.

If he had to place a definition of what a home was, this may as well have been it.