Four:
Maybe this was it like just to be Force sensitive, rather than a master of directing and controlling the power. No matter how much he tried, there was nothing there and no amount of concentration could compel the energy to flow. So Ben Solo, formerly Kylo Ren, had to resort to prying the wall panel off by the door, ripping a deep cut in the palm of his hand in the process, and trying to bypass the locking circuits.
In truth, it hadn't been too difficult for someone who had spent the first half of his childhood in the Millennium Falcon, watching his father and Chewie tinker with the sometimes capricious and often malfunctioning circuits of the modified freighter and who had learned the theory of and then built his own LightSaber. Door locking circuits were pretty much the same whichever side you were on after all. The trick was choosing the time to open the door when someone wouldn't be passing or watching, so he had been reduced to trusting his feelings, listening very hard and praying silently that someone was looking out for him. But he had paused for a few moments before poking his head round the door, ducking in case a blaster tried to take it off, and then he had emerged, checking both directions and then touching the panel to close the door behind him. There was no guard, something that troubled him, for Poe had promised. But maybe they had assumed he was secure in the cell...or maybe they trusted that their own people would respect the wishes of their commanders in keeping him alive-for now.
He wasn't exactly designed for stealth, he realised as he tried to stay in the shadows. He was really too large to sneak around and the base seemed a little light on handy nooks and crannies that could be used to conceal himself-or even much in the way of shadows at all. The natural cave system was utilised skilfully to provide as much space as the Resistance required but the corridors were wide with almost no cover.. Pausing, head bowed, he listened-and then managed to cram himself behind a bank of fuel pipes as two guards marched by, avidly discussing a meeting...about him. Rolling his eyes, he listened without surprise that both were in favour of shooting him-the sooner the better. Taking another quick breath, he ducked towards the clearing that functioned as the hanger…
...and then he stopped. There was something tugging at him, a strong feeling that he needed to go in the opposite direction. He gritted his teeth. His life was in imminent danger and if he was found escaping, he was pretty certain someone would use it as a convenient excuse they needed to blast him-but despite all rationality, he had been trained over the years by Luke and Snoke and both had emphasised that he should listen to his feelings. Growling in his throat in frustration, he turned and ran back down the corridor past his cell and left at the intersection, heading further back into the base.
It was only when he arrived in a silent, cool chamber containing a stasis chamber that he understood. Before him, softly lit and preserved against the corruption of time, was Rey. Her white lips were slightly apart and her eyes closed but she looked almost as if she was sleeping. Only her absolute stillness and the fact he could feel nothing over their Bond confirmed to him that she was gone and this wasn't some horrible nightmare.
Slowly, he walked forward, still limping slightly and never taking his eyes off her peaceful face. He could still recall the last moments through their bond as he hung from that ledge in the pit where he had fallen, her steely determination a beacon as she crossed the Sabers across her body and thrust Palpatine's Sith Lightning back at him, scorching his malignant presence out of the Universe. But the backwash was always going to be too much for one person, the strain overwhelming her systems and granting her only a few moments of peace, of realisation that she had finally won before she, too, died. And he had been too weak, too late, too useless to save her.
He had failed her. As he had failed everyone in his life. Luke, Snoke, Dad. Mom. And now Rey.
Not even aware that he had walked to the side of the stasis chamber, he rested his hand on the smooth plass, feeling the slight hum of the energy that preserved her against the ravages of entropy. Closing his eyes, he reached out for her, straining to try to feel her one last time through the ruptured fabric of their Bond. The blackness seemed to burn the inside of his eyelids, the effort throbbing through his head. But under his hand, the throbbing of the stasis field grew a little more obvious, as if it was having to strain to maintain everything as it had been.
"Rey," he breathed. "Rey. Please listen. I'm sorry. I tried. I tried. I should have been there. I should have been able to bring you back instead of me, And if there was any way I could bring you back, I would. I just wish you could give me a sign that you understand. Please…"
-o0o-
"Rey."
Her head snapped up and she peered into the fractal walls that surrounded her, the iridescence shifting and darkening slightly. She squinted at the crazy patterns and then her breath hitched, eyes widening.
The tall, dark shape of a man, head bowed with black hair framing his face.
Ben.
"BEN!" she yelled.
"Distracted you must not be," Yoda warned her to her left side, his grasp on her hand growing tighter. "Persistent the Dark Side is."
"But it's Ben!" she protested, pointing at the shape, mirrored in every fractal surface so a million Bens all swirled around her. "He's trying to reach me."
"I'm sorry. I tried. I tried. I should have been there. I should have been able to bring you back instead of me, And if there was any way I could bring you back, I would."
"BEN! I hear you. And I-I know! It's okay. Luke and Master Yoda are helping me figure it out. Don't give up hope! I will come back to you!" She reached out and slammed her hands against the suddenly solid surface. "BEN! Don't give up!"
"Rey! You can't reach him!" Luke told her, pulling her back from the crystalline surface. "This region of the Force is a barrier, slung around an area of deep Darkness and Evil that we tried to prevent from polluting the rest of this system. He won't hear you."
"BEN!" she shouted as she saw his head bow more. "Be with me."
His head snapped up.
And then everything was chaos.
-o0o-
The generators were really struggling, the throbbing almost painful through his hand as he splayed his fingers on the gentle curve of medical plass above her face. His head was exploding with the effort but he ignored the pain: that, at least, was familiar from his training under Snoke. And he had complied, straining his body and mind almost to breaking point to impress a creature that was the tool of Palpatine and who had bent and broken the remains of Ben Solo to create Kylo Ren.
His head snapped up as he saw her coalesce from thin air just the other side of the stasis chamber from him, dressed as he recalled from Exegol. She was staring at him, her hands raised and beating against some unseen barrier-though she was flickering in and out and he could clearly see the far wall of the chamber through her. Her lips mouthed his name over and over as she fought to get to him.
But there was no sound, no warmth, no link at all. The Bond remained severed and that was even more disturbing that seeing her ghost, fighting and struggling to get to him against some barrier he couldn't even imagine. A sharp dagger of guilt stabbed his heart and he stared at her, redoubling his efforts to reach her.
"Rey. I will reach you," he repeated. Her head looked sideways briefly, as if listening to another person-and then she turned back to scream his name again. "Somehow, I will find a way to get you back…" he promised.
She shattered into unbearable light and the backwash tossed him across the room as if he was nothing. The stone of the wall met his head and he slammed to the floor and slumped, dazed as she vanished. His ears were ringing, his vision was whited out and he could feel the sticky sensation of blood on his forehead. For long moments, he lay helpless, blood smeared on his pale skin before he finally raised his head and peered at the stasis chamber. And then he scrambled to his feet in shock. For the stasis chamber was now empty, not even the clothes that she had worn remaining as they always did when a Jedi became one with the Force.
Rey was gone.
Blinking, head still spinning, he turned and sprinted down the corridor, ducking into doorways and finding another entrance to the hanger clearing. But there were a lot more people suddenly milling around, discussing the meeting and he had to duck back innumerable times until he saw a way, dashing behind a large container and then inching along until he could get a clear view of his target: the familiar white freighter that he had known as long as he had lived, the shape that had been pretty much omnipresent since the destruction of the New Republic, always there thwarting the First Order. The Millennium Falcon.
He felt the jab of a blaster between his shoulder blades and he stiffened, taking a shuddering breath before he slowly turned to look into Finn's face.
"I could ask how you managed to get out but really, I shouldn't be surprised," the former Stormtrooper said grimly, backing away out of reach.
"Your security leaves something to be desired," Ben commented, remaining still.
"Thanks for the head's up," Finn shot back sarcastically. "You know I should shoot you."
"You and everyone else." The words were bitter.
"Hey! You don't get to feel sorry for yourself!" Finn hissed. "Most of these people have lost family, friends-even their entire worlds-thanks to you!"
"Me personally?" The retort was dry. Finn wavered.
"Maybe not all you-but you're Supreme Leader…"
"Was."
"For about half an hour before the end," Finn corrected him, his brows dipping. "The rest of the time…well, we know you deserve everything you get. And then some. So what are you doing, Ren?"
"I am Ben Solo," he said, repeating the words to try to convince himself, to remind himself of the new reality of his situation. Of the choice that he had made. He gestured towards the Resistance members beyond and then held his fingers a millimeter apart. "And I think we both know I am about this far from a firing squad."
"Yeah- and escaping is gonna really convince them that you're trustworthy and should be given any sort of a chance."
"I saw her," Ben said, the words tumbling out of his lips as he leaned slightly towards the shorter man. Finn pointedly aimed his gun straight at Ben's face. Forcing himself, the prisoner raised his hands slightly. "I saw Rey."
"Because we both know that I'm her friend and she's a sore spot," Finn growled "That's a cheap shot." Growling in his throat, Ben took a deep breath.
"It's true," he ground out through his teeth. "I found her body. I spoke to her. And I saw her...ghost. But I couldn't hear her. At all. I tried to reach her...but there was feedback, an explosion. And she was gone…" Finn frowned.
"Your head is bleeding," he pointed out. Automatically, Ben touched the point of impact and stared at the red smear on his fingers.
"I suspect other parts of me will be bleeding if I don't get out of here!" he hissed. "Rey's body has gone. But she was yelling to me. She's in trouble. I know it." He paused and swallowed. "I need your help."
Finn stared at him in shock.
"You are seriously asking me to help when you almost cut me in half on the Starkiller Base?" he asked incredulously.
"Well, if you could find someone who doesn't want to kill me outright for everything that happened before my mother and Rey reached me, then I'll happily ask him," he said sarcastically. "But you are here and now and if I don't get off this planet, I am dead. And Rey will never be able to come back." Finn's face twisted into a scowl.
"I can't believe I'm saying this," he muttered. "You really think you can help her?"
Ben nodded.
"I have to," he admitted. "She is bonded to me, she spared my life and without her, I pretty much have nothing else worth existing for. When she spared me, she told me she had wanted to take my hand…take Ben's hand. She used her own life force to save me. And I tried to repay her on Exegol. It didn't work then. If there is one chance in a million that I can try again, that I can save her, then I have to try. No matter the cost." He paused and gave a slight, grim smile. "And without her, I have everyone in the galaxy on my tail."
"I could just shoot you now," Finn told him and then lifted a com. "Rose. I've had a strange feeling. Can you do me a favour and check on Rey please?"
"Of course, Finn," the woman said calmly over the link. Ben huffed.
"We're going to stay here until your friend checks out my story?" he asked.
"You think I'm going to let you out of my sight and get onto a ship out of here?" Finn shot back. "I know you can fly. I can't. And the way you're looking at the Falcon, I'm pretty sure I know which ship you were planning on hijacking."
"And you aren't about to be shot by everyone here?" Ben hissed back. He ducked behind the container as a couple of pilots swung past, waving at Finn who managed a sheepish grin and just managing to hide the blaster behind his back. He waved before glaring back at Ben.
"Nope-just spent a year almost being shot by you," he retorted.
"Finn?"
"Rose?" The young General lifted his com.
"Finn-she's gone! Her stasis container is empty. Someone has stolen her body!" Her voice was distraught and he couldn't help the accusing look he shot at Ben. The former Supreme Leader shrugged.
"You're welcome to search me," he said dryly.
"Rose-calm down," Finn said slowly. "Check the area. She may have woken. Or someone has moved her. Check with the Medical techs first and then tell Poe!"
"Okay," the engineer said in a shaky voice and the connection closed.
"How do I know you didn't just vaporise it?" Finn asked Ben and the prisoner rolled his eyes.
"So you believe she's gone?" he asked, ignoring the inference. "Why would I vaporise a dead woman when I could be light years away already? And by the way-I could have gotten that blaster off you about a dozen times by now."
"You could have tried," Finn growled. "So what did happen? You have some explaining to do!" Ben shook his head.
"It's not like I know myself," he confessed. "But I was going to find out. I have to. I'm the Galaxy's most wanted man-and Rey is literally the only person who would speak up for me."
"Not sure even she could save you," Finn retorted.
"She already did once," Ben murmured. "And she's amazingly stubborn."
"So how do you plan to find out what happened to Rey?" Finn demanded. Ben ducked back behind the container again as a couple of maintenance techs wandered past.
"Could we just get to the ship?" he hissed. "Any minute, someone is gonna find out I'm not in my cell."
"How?" Finn insisted and Ben clasped his hands together, as if praying.
"There is a legend about the planet Dathomir," he murmured. "The legend says the line between life and death is non-existent there." Finn stared at him.
"You expect me to go chasing after some crazy legend?" he asked incredulously.
"You went chasing after Luke, didn't you?" Ben shot back and Finn felt like he'd been punched in the gut. "So either shoot me or I am boarding that ship."
Finn glared at him for another moment then lowered his blaster.
"I'm coming with you," he said as Ben ducked behind two more containers that shielded his escape from the main entrance to the Resistance Base and then he dashed up the ramp of the Falcon. Shaking his head and muttering that he really couldn't believe that he was doing this, Finn ran after him. Blinking at the familiar interior of the Millennium Falcon, he found himself recalling Rey's face when they first got on board the old freighter...and then he rounded a corner and stared at the sight of Kylo Ren choking, his feet a few inches off the ground with Chewbacca's hand tightening around his throat.