Chapter 3: Freed with a Kiss Farewell

It was the next night, in the midst of a pounding and driving rain, when Rey appeared before the jailhouse in Master Luke's old black cloak. It helped that she had thought to mind-wipe the guard who was meant to be stationed here tonight, brainwashing him into abandoning his post for the evening. From her pocket, she procured the stolen set of keys that she had swiped from Poe's desk that afternoon. To be a good scavenger meant sometimes that you had to be a good thief. She felt a pang of guilt at being so deceitful after the kindness the pilot had shown her. But after the close call with Beaumont and his ilk, she would not risk Ben staying captive another day longer. She could not protect him forever, and neither could Poe and Finn (no matter how much their protection was being granted to Ben for her sake).

Breaking into the jailhouse and holding the lantern high, she unlocked the door to Ben's prison cell.

"Get dressed. Quickly," she whispered in a rush, pecking him firmly on the lips in greeting.

Ben did not need to be told twice. In moments, he and Rey were out of the jailhouse and rushing to the hangar bay, the darkness and the storm concealing their movements. The Millennium Falcon was parked just outside the hangar doors. Lowering the gangplank, Rey finally turned and set to work unlocking the ion cuffs still around her sweetheart's wrists. With a clatter, they fell away.

"You're free!" Rey cried to him. "Go!"

"Come with me!" Ben pleaded, taking her hands in his.

Holding back tears, Rey shook her head. "No. Not yet. They'll suspect immediately if they find us both gone." They'd likely suspect anyway, but she didn't give a damn. Besides, there were a few people to whom she would like to say goodbye. "Go to Ahch-To and wait for me. I'll come for you."

Ben stared at her for a moment. Then, with purpose, he cupped Rey's face in his hands, tilted her head back and kissed her firmly on the lips.

The kiss was fueled with more passion than Rey had ever encountered before, and it made her gasp in surprise, her eyes bulging as she staggered back a step. But then she swooned as she closed her eyes, looping her arms lazily about his neck as she returned the kiss with fervor.

After several minutes of openly kissing in the pouring rain, Ben and Rey dreamily broke apart. She was staring at him, eyes wide and speechless, still dazed over the magic he could wield in every kiss. Ben took the opportunity to sweep Rey into a dip, tipping her back as he ravaged her mouth again in another fierce kiss. Rey sagged into the embrace, closing her eyes again and parting her lips for him as his tongue demanded entrance. "Mmmmmmm..."

Several more minutes of deep kissing later, Ben gallantly swung Rey out of the dip and released her. She was swaying on her feet now, a besotted and dopey grin on her face. Smiling into each other's eyes, the couple embraced and kissed one last time.

"I love you," Rey whispered into his lips hoarsely. "See you soon."

Ben gave her a dashing grin. "See you soon, my love." Stealing one last kiss, he turned and ran up into his father's ship, stirring it to life and lifting it off into the sky.

Poe and Finn suspected Rey immediately, and when they confronted her about it, she confessed to the key theft. She came clean about all of it, begging her friends to keep her secret and not let any word leak out. For the first time since returning with Ben to Ajan Kloss, Rey sensed understanding from her two friends, compounding the sympathy that had arisen in recent days.

Bidding her found family goodbye, when Rey finally lifted off quietly from the jungle planet in a borrowed Y-Wing, Poe and Finn looked the other way.

Rey was reunited with her love on Ahch-To. They conducted a small and intimate wedding ceremony, presided over by the Force Ghost of Luke Skywalker and witnessed by Leia Organa. Ben and Rey tenderly kissed when pronounced husband and wife, and there the newlyweds stayed, in exile on the island planet, where they would soon make love and have babies in the start of their journey to rebuild a balanced Jedi Order.