Ben fell in step with Rey as she sprinted from the stale air of the war room, flying through the haze of dust lingering within corridor after corridor, until they reached the tropical air of Endor's moon. Warmth rushed Ben's cheeks, and it took but moments for a sheen of sweat to form at his brow and the space between his spine and the fabric at his back.
He moved his shaky fingers to the cowl and cape weighing him down, unclasping them and letting the torn fabrics fall to the ground below him, exposing the dark, long sleeved tunic that remained.
"Here," Rey murmured, passing Ben a metal earpiece as they moved from the concrete walls that no longer held a modicum of protection.
As he fastened the communicator over his ear, weapon fire and war cries overwhelmed him from multiple avenues, and the sheer amplitude of what he could feel and hear threatened to drown him below the waves.
Amongst the chaos, he homed in on shouts between Finn and Poe as they lined up a stormtrooper transport. As Ben's eyes roamed the sky, he saw dark metal erupt into flames, sending fireballs shooting to the ground below them as Poe lined up another target for Finn to destroy.
A clearing expanded before them, an overgrown expanse that may have once held a landing deck, but was now entangled with the dense thickets of green, and the illuminations of lasers as stormtroopers attempted their assault.
Another explosion ricocheted through the air, distant now, as an x-wing fell dead from the sky and plummeted into the forest.
The flames that licked the trees called his attention, bringing him back to a night carved forever into his memory, where flames and the rotting within the force fell hand in hand.
His eyes cast further than the flames then, to the toxicity that beckoned them.
"They are waiting for us." Rey looked towards the greenery of the forest, searching beyond the stormtroopers and the rebellion to where Ben's gaze fell.
"What is our plan?" She begun fiercely, and Ben could see that she was hyperaware of the sheer number of stormtroopers that had managed to make it to the surface. "We need to neutralise the Knights and figure out a way to disarm that vessel. I can feel something with them, Ben… It is wrong. I don't know what it is, but our chances are…"
"I can feel it too…" Ben begun, moving further from the alcove of the complex.
"I have an idea… If we can kill the Knights without alerting the personnel aboard that vessel, we may have a chance at taking whatever vehicle they have brought to the surface, and disarming the former under false pretences…" Ben looked to the sky, where he saw the vessel for the first time, holding steady in the upper atmosphere. It's length would be no less than double the expanse of the Guillotine, without question. His breath caught in his throat, before Rey's words softened his fall back to the ground below them.
"Why do I get the impression that when you say 'disarm', you really mean 'destroy?'"
"It worked last time, did it not?" Ben raised an eyebrow at her, a smirk beginning to form at the corner of his lips.
"I seem to remember you almost dying and needing to be rescued." Rey reciprocated, the smirk much more at home on her features. He had but a moment to imagine what their lives might look like if they were to live beyond this night.
Would it be like this forever? Would it be sly remarks and playful banter each moment that they spent together? Could he imagine ever leaving her side again?
Just like that, the fantasy disintegrated before his eyes, as fresh screams from the clearing filled his ears.
"We need to kill the Knights first. Do not underestimate them, and do not let them come between us. Whatever we are walking into will be a trap. The only edge we have will be our force bond, and our attuned-"
Ben stopped mid-sentence. Amongst all the chaos, had he forgotten that Rey had not finished attuning her completed lightsaber?
"Rey, your lightsaber-" was all Ben made out, before a quick grin of pride broke across her thin lips.
"I finished it. Like really finished it."
"You…" Ben was shocked, and Rey was not oblivious to his response.
"Despite my initial inability to understand the mechanisms, I caught on quickly. Don't look so surprised." Her brows furrowed deeply as she held her gaze steadily locked on him.
"No, I never doubted your ability to encase it… But you attuned it?"
"Oh… Yes. The way it glows, Ben… I have never seen anything like it." The curiosity within Ben's chest rose with force, until the question he desperately longed to know the answer to almost burst from his lips. Biting his tongue, he simply shook his head at her in wonder, knowing they did not have enough time.
There was never enough time.
"Our chances of surviving this just increased. Come on," Ben whispered, gripping her hand tightly as they jolted from the alcove and darted straight towards the green of the forest before them.
Their movements fell either unnoticed or disregarded by stormtroopers and rebel soldiers alike, as they slipped into the dense folds of the forest. Moss blanketed each surface, and ferns fell lazily across their faces as their sprint fell to a slower and more cautionary creep.
Ben knew that they were close.
"Rey," he whispered lowly, bending so close to her that he saw her body shiver as his breath lightly brushed her ear.
She nodded once, unwilling to speak as they approached what felt like the venomous heart of what was pummelling through the force.
"If I… If I'm never afforded another opportunity to say this, I… I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for everything." He tried to capture all he meant through their bond, knowing words were not enough to encompass all he felt. The amber within Rey's eyes melted as she felt the warmth of his gratitude flowing through her, and she smiled then, a sad, longing smile as she returned to him her own adoration.
Rey parted her lips as if to murmur her reciprocation aloud, but the movement was frozen by a hollow laugh that echoed through the trees before them.
Her body shuddered at the sound, frigid electricity and anxiety shooting through her nerves as her wide eyes turned slowly towards the source of the sound.
Ben did not need to feel through the bond what was coursing through Rey, as he could see it all too clearly in her terrified eyes.
She had heard that laugh before.
Thank you so very much to BrokenMentality, Dw618 and RedPandaJoy for the reviews on my last chapter! I really appreciate your feedback and support! xx I am currently on holidays, finishing this story in between bird watching, and I won't have much service the next couple of days so the next chapter may be out the start of next week. I cannot tell you how excited I am to write the ending to this story. I hope I can capture it in words in the same way it plays out in my mind! Thanks again for your support and stay safe my pals! xxx