Zorii and Ben crept to the entrance to the cell blocks, keeping to the shadows as much as possible. They encountered no stormtroopers, though the door had shut since Zorii had left only minutes before. When they reached the door, Zorii went to the keypad and punched in the number she had used to leave, only to be met with a red flash and a negative beep.

"Either they changed it since I walked out or it's a different code to get in," she said, putting her hand on her hip and huffing. "You wanna give it a try?"

Ben was already raising his hand. She watched, fascinated in spite of herself, as he closed his eyes, took a breath, and then shoved his arm forward. The door wrenched from its frame and tumbled back into the hallway, clanging and screeching.

"Well done, now everyone knows we're here."

Ben shot her a black look before stepping over the threshold.

"Wait!" she whispered. He turned, clearly irritated, and she said. "You go get Rey, I'll go for our weapons."

He nodded, then turned to go.

"Rey's that way," she added, pointing to his right. "First cell."

Turning his back on her, he jogged down the hallway, summoning his saber into his hand. Zorii bounced her blaster in her hand and looked around uneasily. It was too quiet. They had definitely walked into a trap. It only remained to be seen if they could walk back out again.

Ben peeked around the corner just outside Rey's cell, expecting to see stormtroopers guarding it, but there was no one. It had to be a trap, but at that point, he didn't care anymore. Rey needed him, and that was all that mattered. He swiftly stepped across the hallway to her cell door, briefly frowned at the keypad to his left, then ignited his lightsaber and stabbed it into the door. He shoved it up and over, then down, then over again to make a shaky circular opening he could only hope was large enough for him. As he cut through the last bit, he caught it with the Force and pulled it out towards him, laying it on the ground beside him.

He stepped through the hole and looked up to see her, suspended from the ceiling by her arms, her feet, chained to the floor, dangling. Her chin rested on her chest, mouth gagged, eyes shut, and there was a burnt hole in her trousers where a blaster had hit her. His jaw clenched, he clipped his saber to his belt and went to her. Holding her body against his with one arm, he reached up and snapped the chains holding her arms, then the ones holding her legs. Gently, he laid her on the floor, her upper body supported in his lap.

He loosed the gag, then placed his hand on her leg near where she'd been shot. Closing his eyes, he allowed his energy to flow into her, knitting her flesh closed until all that was left was the hole in her trousers. She stirred, and her eyelids flickered open.

"Ben?" she said groggily.

He smiled softly. "Hey,"

He helped her sit up, and she rubbed her face with one hand. "I think they must have drugged me or something," she said, her words slurred.

"Let's get you out of here," he said, getting to his feet. She leaned heavily on him as she stood, blinking hard and swaying a little.

"Wait," she said as he began to usher her out. "Zorii."

"She already got out," he said, placing his arm around her waist and looping her arm around his shoulders. "She's on her way to get your weapons."

Rey nodded, her head almost dropping to her chest again. "Good," she replied.

"Come on," he said, nudging her forward.

She shuffled forward, her head lolling a bit from side to side. He held onto her firmly, worry in his eyes. What did they give her?

As they passed through the hole, he gently pressed her head down with his free hand to make sure she cleared it. Her toes scuffed against the threshold, but she made it through.

"I feel awful," she murmured into his shoulder.

"Let's get you somewhere you can rest," he replied, squeezing her a bit.

Zorii rounded the corner at that moment, the stormtrooper's blaster discarded and her own blasters in their rightful places at her hips. Her helmet rested in the crook of her elbow, and Rey's lightsaber was clutched in her hand. She took one look at Rey and shoved the lightsaber in her belt.

"She's in no shape to be using that right now," she said. "Ready?"

Ben nodded, then said. "Can you take her? I'm guessing there are going to be a lot of stormtroopers waiting out there for us, and I want you to get her out."

She narrowed her eyes. "I'll do it, but then I'm coming back for you. You're not about to die on my watch, especially not at the hands of your former cronies. The irony of that is just too tragic." She smirked a little at him as she stepped to Rey's other side.

Rey's head lolled to look at Zorii as Ben shifted her weight onto her, and she smiled. "Zorii," she said. "How lovely to see you."

"What did they do to her?" Zorii asked, looking past Rey to Ben.

"I have no idea," he replied, his brows furrowing with concern as he looked at Rey. "The sooner we get her out of here, the better."

"Agreed."

Zorii shoved her helmet onto her head one-handed and took a blaster in hand. Ben in front, the three of them crept forward. Ben looked around the corner, then motioned them forward. Slowly but surely, they approached the corner past which lay the entrance. Ben looked around it, then snapped his head back. "There's at least sixty of them between us and the door," he whispered. "I'm going to get them out of the way, and then you take her and get her out of here as fast as you can."

Zorii nodded, her helmet totally obscuring her face.

Ben turned back to look around the corner, summoned his lightsaber to his hand, took a breath, and stepped out. Clumsily, Zorii inched forward to peek around the corner, nudging Rey's head back.

Ben approached the stormtroopers slowly, saber gripped tightly and the Force thrumming at his fingertips, waiting to see how they would respond. One by one, their heads turned to look at him, flashes of recognition and shock crossing their faces. He heard murmurs of "Supreme Leader," and he relaxed his hold on his saber.

"I see you have remained dedicated to our cause in my absence," he said, desperately hoping they would believe him, but painfully aware of the lack of conviction in his tone. "You will all be rewarded when the First Order is rebuilt."

The leader stepped forward and knelt on one knee. "Supreme Leader, we are honored by your visit."

"As you should be," Ben replied, his heart thumping in his chest. "Now, explain all this."

Standing, the leader glanced back at the gaping hole, then back at Ben. "We, uh, had a prisoner escape, Supreme Leader."

"Who?"

"We captured the girl, the one you were always after, along with one of her friends," he said. "The friend is the one who escaped."

"Then why aren't you out looking for her?" Ben shouted, reaching for the explosive heights his temper had reached as Kylo.

"She has returned to rescue the other, Supreme Leader," the trooper replied, bowing his head a little. "We set a trap for them."

"By waiting around for them to fall into your hands?" Ben roared. "Search the building! They will have found another way out by now!"

Nodding, the trooper gestured at his men, who scattered, breaking into their platoons, and march-jogged off, leaving two platoons to stand guard at the door. One platoon approached the hallway where Zorii and Rey hid, and Zorii shuffled backwards into the shadows, readying her blaster. I was a fool to trust him, he's betrayed us.

"Stop!" Ben's voice rang out. "There's no need to search that hallway, I just came that way."

"Yes, Supreme Leader," one trooper replied, and Zorii heard the footsteps stop and then move away from her. Letting her breath out, she adjusted her grip on Rey, who was growing heavier by the second. She glanced over at her and realized she was unconscious. Gently slapping her cheek to wake her, she thought, Hurry up.

"The rest of you, search the woods! I will guard this entrance myself."

"Yes, Supreme Leader," they said, and obediently headed out into the blustering wind.

Zorii inched forward again to look around the corner, and she saw Ben give a slight nod. Gripping Rey's wrists, she hoisted her onto her back, holding her there with one hand and brandishing her blaster with the other. Taking a steadying breath, she ran out into the open, Rey's dead weight pulling at her. As she stepped over the threshold, she raised her blaster, prepared to shoot her way out, but as the troopers turned to look, Ben raised his hand and sent them flying. Hefting Rey once more, she steeled her legs and jogged up the hill.

Ben watched them go, then turned his attention back to the stormtroopers, who were slowly getting to their feet.

"You let them escape!" he shouted at them, the old rage beginning to bubble up in his chest.

"Forgive us, Supreme Leader," one said as they approached him, heads bowed. "She caught us by surprise."

"Kneel!" They knelt.

He felt a vicious satisfaction at their subservience.

He pulled one closer using the Force until the trooper's helmet was within inches of his outstretched hand.

"Why did you choose to stay after the Final Order fell?" he spat out, probing the trooper's mind. He sensed his mind twisting and writhing to escape him, but he stabbed down into it mercilessly.

Flashes of memories splintered through his mind: a young child torn from his mother's arms, crying himself to sleep in bed, training to fight, putting his helmet on for the first time, his first kill, arriving on Mygeeto, laughing with his brother stormtroopers.

"I had...nowhere else to go," the trooper gasped.

Ben recoiled, his hand snapping back, and the trooper fell to the ground. His chest rose and fell with quick, shallow breaths, and then fury surged up in him, white hot and searing. He ignited his lightsaber and stabbed it into the trooper. The other troopers flinched away as he turned on them, tearing his lightsaber out of the dead body.

"Ben, come on!" Zorii shouted from the top of the hill.

HIs head snapped up as a blast of cold air from outside washed over him. He sheathed his saber and looked down, seeing the dead trooper and the others cowering at his feet. Then he heard marching feet from behind, and he whirled around to see the other troopers returning from his search. He looked back at Zorii, who waved her arm at him. With the last shred of his presence of mind, he growled, "I'll go after them myself," and ran off towards Zorii.

"What were you doing?" Zorii shouted as he approached her.

"Nothing," he replied, scowling.

Zorii had laid Rey against the landing gear of her X-wing, and Ben went straight to her, kneeling beside her. She was unconscious, but alive. "We need to get her out of here," he said.

"She can't fly her own ship, and neither of us have room for her," Zorii replied.

Ben looked down at Rey, brow furrowed. Then, without looking up, he said, "I'll stay with her. You get out of here, go back to the Resistance. When they come to attack, Rey and I will get out with them."

"I'll make sure they know," she said. "Keep her safe."

"I will," Ben said, locking eyes with Zorii.

Zorii turned and vaulted into the cockpit of her ship, powering it up. With one last nod at Ben, she took off, buffeting Ben and Rey with the exhaust. Ben's chest rose and fell rapidly, his stomach churning. What did I just do? He clenched his shaking hands and forced himself to focus. The stormtroopers would come after them eventually, and he had to make it look like they'd escaped.

He lifted Rey's body from the ground and laid her down a safe distance away at the foot of the hill. Then he turned to face the two X-wings and raised his arms. Taking a deep breath, he reached through the Force and seized the ships, hands shaking as he lifted them off the ground. His muscles strained with the effort, his breath huffing in and out. He pushed harder, raising them until they hovered above the trees, and sweat stung his eyes. Stepping forward, he drove the ships back inch by excruciating inch, by now gasping for air. His arms began to ache, his hands trembling as he pressed on.

The barren trees opened up into another clearing, even smaller than the one he had left Rey in, but just big enough for the two ships. Grunting with effort, he lowered his arms as slowly as his shaking muscles could manage, feeling the strain now in his back and shoulders. One touched the ground, then the other, the tips of the laser cannons waving slightly from the impact. His arms fell to his sides, trembling, and he rolled his shoulders, wincing.

He turned and walked back to where he could see Rey's white form curled up in the dirt. Shaking some feeling back into his arms, he bent and scooped her up, her weight feeling like nothing in comparison to the weight of the ships, but still, his muscles struggled to bear it. Her exposed skin was dotted in goosebumps, and her teeth chattered slightly. Glancing up at the grey pre-dawn sky thick with clouds, he knew he had to find a way of keeping her warm until the Resistance arrived.

He set her down gently, then popped open the cockpit of his X-wing. Hefting her limp body clumsily with one arm, he clambered into the cockpit. He sat, then arranged her body across his so they could both fit inside. Then he sealed the cockpit shut against the whistling wind. He heaved a sigh of relief. His legs and Rey's lay awkwardly in the space under the dashboard, and if he shifted at all, her head would bump into the glass, but at least they were safe.

He chafed and blew on his icy fingers to warm them before wrapping his arms around Rey. Semi-conscious, she shifted a little, worming herself deeper into his embrace. The tight pocket of tension in his chest released, and he smiled softly down at her peaceful face. Her presence completed him in some way he could not name, made him whole in ways he had never felt before meeting her. He buried his nose in her hair. I never want to be away from you again.