When Rey wakes, she's chilled. It takes her a moment to realize where she is and who the warm body is next to her.

Ben…

The fire has died down, mere embers now, and she's lying half sprawled over him, naked and cold and a little sore. She snuggles closer in to him, but that doesn't seem to matter. The rain, at least, has stopped. She no longer hears it hitting the hut they've holed up in. There are blankets, she knows, up in Luke's hut. Blankets they didn't dare go looking for earlier as they would have ended up as wet as everything else.

She pulls away from him and he grumbled in his sleep.

"Ben? I need to get up."

"Why?" he murmurs, his arm tightening around her. "I like you where you are."

"Ben."

"You said we'd always be together."

She sighs. He's strangely adorable in his sleep. "And we will. But I need to relight the fire. And I need to…take care of other things."

He's awake then, eyes finally opening to stare at her.

She nods.

"Oh," he says and his arm loosens. "I guess you can take care of that on your own."

She lets out a small laugh.

"You'll be back?"

"I'm going to find us some blankets."

He looks down at himself and for the first time seems to note his undressed state and the goosebumps on his arms. "Alright."

She slips out a moment later.

He sighs as she disappears out the door of the hut, and pulls himself to his feet. The least he can do while she finds them some blankets is get the fire going. He's a little dizzy as he gets up, and shakes his head.

He feels different.

He doesn't know how, though he supposes he knows why.

He's felt bonded to Rey since the moment he'd met her. But now, here, after that, he feels everything. He can feel her shivering in the cold, damp air outside the hut. He can feel her as she curses as she steps on a particularly sharp rock. She'd left without even putting her boots on.

I wasn't thinking too well, comes Rey's voice in her head.

Then you feel it too? he shoots back at her.

The bond is stronger, is all that comes in his head.

Can you feel this? he asks as he reaches out and touches himself. He's half hard already, thinking about Rey out there, the naked goddess of the island world of Ahch-to. He'd put a crown of flowers on her head, declare himself as her unworthy suitor.

She doesn't respond for a moment and he wonders if she's disgusted. But then her voices is back in his head a moment later. I won't be long. And he can feel the amusement trace down the line connecting them.

He laughs.

They're going to be okay.

They're going to be just fine.

And he feels almost giddy with the joy of it all.

Rey returns as quickly as she can, to find Ben sitting by a relit fire. She stops for a moment, her breath stolen from her at the site. He's a pagan god there, naked, hair wild about his face. The fire casts him half in shadow, half in light and she thinks that's appropriate. Ben will never walk completely in the light. There are dark parts of his soul, but she can see that those are the pinpricks now. He shines so bright in the Force she almost closes her eyes against it.

"You came back," he says, his voice deep and a little scratchy.

It sends a shiver up her spine.

"Always," she says, and holds out one of the blankets she's carrying. He wraps it over his shoulders as he huddles near that fire. When he reaches toward her with one arm, she wraps her own blanket around herself and comes to sit next to him.

They're quiet for a time, both just watching the fire, letting it warm them, enjoying the closeness and the lack of needing to talk. Their bond is flowing freely between them and she catches glimpses of elation, happiness, satisfaction. But coloring them are worries, anxieties.

"What comes next?" he finally asks.

She says nothing for a moment, but then finally gets the words out. "We go back?"

"Back?"

"To the Resistance?"

"To your friends," he says, the words a little dull.

"To your family," she points out.

"My family is dead," he whispers.

"Chewie's not."

He shakes his head. "I don't think he'd want to see me."

"He'd want to see Ben. He wouldn't want to see Kylo Ren."

Ben hesitates there, closes his eyes. "Kylo Ren is dead."

"I know. But Ben Solo lives. And people will come to understand that."

Ben reaches out and touches her chin, and she looks up to meet his eyes. "Will they? Do you really think they'll ever accept me? Do you think Poe would? I ripped into his mind with all the subtlty of a rancor and tore out the information. Do you think he's going to forget how he was tortured?"

She starts to respond, but he goes on.

"Do you think Finn will? I damn near killed him. I wanted to, you know. He was a traitor to the cause. And more, he had you. And I didn't want him to." Ben grimaces. "I punched him."

Rey blinks once. Twice. "What?"

"He didn't tell you that, did he? There I am, with something the Jedi used to call a 'civilized weapon' and I punched him. Like I was some street brawler."

And she can't help it. She smirks. It's not funny, not really. But at the same time, imagining Kylo Ren in a street brawl is one of the more amusing things she's imagined.

"It's not funny," he points out.

"I know," she says. "Do you think Finn would forgive his fellow Stormtroopers? Do you think he'd forgive the officers who were over him?" She's not honestly sure he has, if he would. But she thinks that Finn would…if given enough time.

"I don't know."

She puts her hand over his. "They will, Ben. With time. It's what your mother would have wanted."

He sighs then and lowers his head to his chest. Her hand comes up automatically to run her fingers through all that lovely thick hair of his. It's dried now, though it still hangs fairly limp around his face in the dampness of Ahch-to.

"They will," she reiterates.

After a moment, he nods and then pulls her tight against him. "I'll go back."

She smiles into his chest. "Good."

"There's only one problem."

"Yes?"

"I flew here in a TIE fighter. You flew here in an X-Wing. They're both single-seater ships and while I do enjoy being close to you, it's a long trip back and that's going to get might uncomfortable."

"I doubt two people can fit in the X-Wing anyway," Rey points out. The TIE, maybe. But the X-Wing is most definitely not designed for more than one person and a droid.

"Exactly. And then there's the other issue."

It takes Rey a moment to realize what he means. "You just have the shirt."

"And no pants."

"Kriff." And then she laughs. Ben lets out a small bark of laughter and she finds she loves the noise. She wants to make him laugh more, wants to hear this bit of joyfulness from him. It's still strange, seeing him that way, seeing him smile. Kylo Ren had worn Ben Solo's face like a mask. Only his eyes gave away his emotion, and those had been roiling with them. Anger, terror, love, lust. She'd seen it all there in his eyes, but his face had remained stoic. Now free of those trappings it's like he's a different person.

He's the person he's meant to be.

"I'll go back alone," Rey says. Ben's head shoots up and he looks alarmed. She puts a hand on his forearm and he almost immediately relaxes. "I'll find some sort of clothing for you. At least a pair of pants. And I'll return with a small shuttle."

"And then we'll go to the Resistance." He gives her a sad smile.

"We'll be fine, Ben. I promise." He still looks worried and so she does the one thing she can think of doing. She leans over and kisses him. "So while we're naked…"

"Yes?" And now he looks a little happier, the worry lines melting off his face.

"We should take advantage of it…" She lets her voice trail off.

Ben doesn't move for a moment, and when he does it's sudden. He twists and she finds herself on her back with his lips on hers. "I like the way you think," he mutters against her mouth. And then he's kissing her again and all thoughts of the Resistance or what will happen once they return fade in the face of their passion.

They had made love long into the night, there in the hut on Ahch-to, finally falling into an exhausted and wrung out heap. Ben is pretty sure there are parts of his body that are going to protest when he tries to get up off the dirt floor of the hut.

When he finally wakes up, Rey is already dressed and kneeling near him.

"Rey?" he murmurs, barely cracking open an eye.

"I hate to leave you here." The words are like music to his ears. He hates it too, if he has to be completely honest. He'd rather they stay there. Forever. But he also knows he can't run away from his life, from the life that his mother wanted him to live, that his father wanted…even after…after…everything.

"I'll be fine."

"I've left you half my rations. It should be enough to get you through until I get back. If not…"

"If not, I'll make do." He smiles up at her then, reaching out a hand to squeeze hers.

"Are you sure? You're not…"

"A scavenger? I'll be fine."

"There's always blue milk," Rey says and he watches her shudder.

"I'm not sure I want to know about…" She sends him an image through their bond, of strange sea creatures lounging on the beach and Luke milking them. "I did not need to see that."

She smiles. "I'll be back. Soon. I promise."

He nods. "Go," he says. "Now, before I pull you down for round two."

She raises one eyebrow. "Round two? I think we're far past that."

He laughs at that and she smiles, reaching out to ruffle his hair. "I love you, you know," she says, and then she disappears out of the hut. He doesn't watch her go. He refuses to. She'll back. This isn't goodbye. This is just a see you soon.

She promises.

"I know," he whispers to no one in particular. He knows from the smile that comes across the bond that she's heard him.

Rey lands on Ajan Kloss in the middle of the night. She supposes it's better that way. She's not sure she wants anyone to see her. She's terrified they'll do something stupid if they find out she's been with Ben. She's reassured him that they'll forgive him, that they'll understand, but she doesn't really know.

Rose, maybe.

"Rey!" comes a voice almost as soon as she's out of the X-Wing.

"Finn?" Kriff. She slides down out of the X-Wing and finds him coming out of the shadows. "How did you know I was here?" It can't just be sheer luck.

Finn shrugs. "Poe kept a tracking on Luke's X-Wing. It pinged us when you entered the atmosphere."

She looks around. She's really not sure she wants to deal with Poe. Finn, she has some sort of chance of explaining things to. But she's pretty sure that Poe will be a harder sell. They barely get along as is.

"He's not here," Finn says. "He thought it might be better if I went alone. I know how well you two get along." He flashes her a smile. She can't make out his eyes in the dark, but his smile shines brightly. It disappears almost as soon as it appears. "Where have you been?" he asks.

"I don't think you'd believe me," she mutters.

Finn crosses his arms over his chest. "Try me."

She takes a deep breath. "I found Ben."

He says nothing and she wants to pull the words back. "Ben who?"

"Solo," she says and waits for the invetiable.

"Solo? Han's…oh, oh Force." She cringes. "You said he was dead."

"I thought he was. I saw him die." She shudders at the memory, of his body collapsing after their first kiss, at his fading into nothingness in her arms. "I saw him become one with the Force."

"Only Jedi can do that," Finn says.

Rey starts at that, brows lowering over her eyes. "How do you know that?"

Finn looks strangely proud as he puts his hand to his chest. "I've been studying. Me and Jannah, see. She's Force-sensitive too. And we've been studying."

"The old Jedi texts," Rey surmises.

Finn nods.

"Those were in my quarters."

He shrugs. "You left them there."

"So I did," she says with a soft smile. She wasn't sure she'd return, but she had hoped to. Someday. These people were her family. Brothers and sisters, all of them.

"Did you know you were going to him?" Finn asks after a moment.

"Ben? No. I…" How does she even explain it? She supposes plain words will have to be enough. "I really did believe he was dead. I could no longer feel his presence in the Force. The bond was gone, like he was."

"Bond?"

"Kriff. There's a lot to explain. I went back to find that scrap of clothing you found me holding onto. It was all that I had left of him."

Finn doesn't say anything for a moment. "Why would you want his ratty old shirt? Unless…" She knows Finn is far from stupid. He's not only Force-sensitive, but empathetic and quick to be able to put the pieces of the puzzle together. "Oh Force, Rey no."

"Finn…" she starts to say.

"You're in love with him. Oh, kriff. Rey…how?" He reaches out and puts his hands on her shoulders.

She's not even sure what to say, how to explain. There's so much she's left out, so much she's never told her friends. About the bond they'd formed, how they communicated in their times of greatest need. It's more than just sensing him in the Force, as Finn can do. And they don't know that.

She hears a noise off to her right and she's just about to draw her weapon on the person, when Poe steps out into the small bit of light from her ship. "Rey!" he says.

She hushes him.

"Where have you been?" he asks. Before she can even respond, he steps closer and narrows his eyes on her. "You've been naughty, running off like that. You scared Finn half to death." He points a finger at the man in question.

"Have you been drinking?" Rey asks.

Poe leans closer to her. "Have you been having sex?" He sniffs. Actually sniffs the air near her. "You smell like sex."

She looks back over at Finn and his eyes meet hers. "Oh kriff, Rey, you slept with him?" His voice is at least an octave higher than usual.

"Slept with who?" Poe asks, looking from Finn to Rey. "Who's the lucky guy, Jedi gal?" He narrows his eyes on her. "Are you even allowed to do such things?"

Rey really should just walk off. Find the transport she needs and get out of here. Maybe never ever return.

Poe looks from Finn to Rey and back to Finn. "Slept with who?" he asks again.

"Kylo Ren," Finn says. The name drops heavily into the silence, and they both turn to look at her.

"Is he serious?" Poe asks, and his voice sounds far more sober than it had a moment ago. "Kylo Ren?"

"Ben," she says. "Ben Solo. I did not sleep with Kylo Ren." She wouldn't have. He wasn't the one she wanted, all steeped in the darkness of Snoke, of the Emperor. It's Ben Solo, the light within that darkness, that she sought out time and time again until, like a skittish dog afraid of his own shadow, he stepped out into the light on his own.

A furrow forms between Poe's brows. "Aren't they the same person?"

"Exactly," Finn says.

"They're not. You have to…you need to understand. They're not. Kylo Ren was a construct of the Emperor. He was always there inside his head, twisting his thoughts, pushing him into the darkness, trying to extinguish the light." Her eyes are fierce as she looks from one to the other. "And even so, they couldn't. He cast it all aside. And he saved me. I would be dead if it weren't for him." Rey turns on Finn then, reaches out one finger to poke him in the chest. "You felt me die."

"I…" Finn starts to say, glances over at Poe, and the back to her. "I thought I was mistaken."

"You weren't. I did die. Ben Solo gave his very life for me. To bring me back. And then disappeared into the Force."

"But you said he's…"

"Alive? He is. I don't know how. He went somewhere, the world between worlds he says, and they allowed him to come back, to have a second chance at the life he was always meant to live. His mother sent him back." She has no idea if she's doing very well with the explanation. Finn still looks skeptical.

But Poe looks like he's considering it. She knows that he, of all people, was close to Leia. Closer than anyone else save perhaps Rey herself.

"His mother," Poe says. It's not a question. His voice is flat, sober all of a sudden.

"She came to him. She came to me. I think she sent us to…" She pauses there. She's not sure she should tell them where they've been, where he still is. Finn looks like he's ready to send the entire Resistance after him, drag him back, execute him. And she won't pretend that that worry isn't there. It is.

"To?" Finn asks.

"I went back to Exegol," she says instead. "And when I got there, the TIE fighter was gone. And then Leia was there, pushing me toward the conclusion I couldn't believe. I'm sure she guided me to him." It had to be Leia. She had felt her presence, there in the X-Wing, even as she drifted off. The coordinates she had entered hadn't been of her own doing.

"Why would she send you to him?" Poe asks.

"Yeah," Finn chimes in with. "She had given up hope."

"She hadn't. She never had. And I didn't either." She reaches out then and takes one of Finn's hands. She takes one of Poe's too, pulling them closer. "He turned, there at the end, threw off the shackles of the Emperor and came to me. He saved me." She looks them both in the eyes. "He saved us all."

They're all silent for a moment.

"And so…" Finn starts to say, clears his throat, glances over to Poe for a moment. "You're bringing him back here."

"I would like to," Rey says. "But only if you're not going to…" She waves a hand in the air.

"Execute him and stick his head on a pike for all to see?" Poe offers up.

"Something like that."

They all watch her for a moment, and then Finn nods. "I wish the bastard had kept that mask on," Finn says. When Rey and Poe just stare at him, he shakes his head. "If no one knew what he looked like, we'd have an easier time of explaining his presence."

"Leave that to me," Poe says, and then he releases Rey's hand to clap her on the shoulder. "Go get him, Rey. I'll worry about the rest."

"Really?" It's too easy, and she worries about what Poe will do in the morning after he sobers up. Will she return with him only to have him taken into custody? Executed before she can even stop them? The thought of losing him terrifies her and for one moment she thinks maybe she should grab the shuttle and run.

Disappear.

Find some place where they've never heard of Rey, the last Jedi, or Kylo Ren, the Jedi Killer. Some place where they can just be Rey and Ben and live out their lives in relative obscurity.

But she knows that won't happen. One or both are bound to be recognized. And this is her home. These are her family members. They won't betray her.

She hopes.

"Yes," Finn says. "Go. There's a small shuttle that's just been repaired still in the hangar. Take it." He pushes her slightly.

Rey steps back, but then rushes forward and hugs her friends, one arm around each of them. "Thank you," she murmurs. And then she's off, racing toward the hangar they've set up for ship repairs. She'll be back with Ben in just a couple days and then they'll be together, no matter what happens.

"This is crazy," Finn says, leaning slightly toward Poe. "You know that, right?"

They're gathered in front of the whole of the Resistance. The last time they'd been standing up there, they'd gone to face their deaths at the hands of Palpatine and his Sith Fleet. The Final Order was in shambles, most of their fleet dead, and others running for their lives.

The Resistance members look up at them curiously. Finn can feel the worry coming from some of them, the terror and the fear that it was all for naught, that there's something else to fight, someone else just as frightening as the Emperor, just as well-armed as the First and Final Order had been.

"Absolutely," Poe says, and then he grins.

"I think it's kind of romantic, really," Rose says. "He saves her from death and they're bound together for life." She shrugs and Finn smiles at the tear that leaks from one eye.

"Oh yeah," Finn says with a roll of his eyes. "Romantic. That's exactly the word I would use to describe Kylo Ren."

What the kriff are they doing, anyway? Rey has commed them and said they'll be back within the day. Kylo Ren…Ben Solo…coming home.

Rose shrugs, and Poe takes that moment to step forward. Finn steps up next to him. "Good morning!" Poe says as they look around at the gathering. There are so many people, so many more than had been there when they'd first left for Exegol. Lando returned and he's brought so many with him. Some of them had returned to their own worlds, disappearing as quickly as they'd appeared. Some had come to join them.

Others…well, they hadn't made it home, and Finn mourns for each and every life that was snuffed out that day.

"You might wonder why I've called this meeting," Poe continues. A murmur goes through the crowd. "It's nothing bad. There have been no further attacks since the defeat." He holds up his hand when a cheer starts. "But there is news. Rey is returning."

More applause. Here it goes…the other shoe is about to drop.

"She'll be here within the day." Poe pauses. Finn almost rolls his eyes. One thing Poe is good at it is the dramatic pause. "She will not be returning alone."

Another murmur.

Finn wants to step forward and just put the group out of its misery. Poe shoots him a look though and he gives him a half bow and a little wave.

"When Rey was on Exegol, she was not alone either. Someone came to her aid. Someone helped her defeat the Emperor, combining his strength with hers."

"Get on it with it," Finn mutters.

"I am," Poe shoots back, then addresses the crowd again. "That same person brought Rey back from the dead. She's returning with him and I expect people to, if not be welcoming, to at least steer clear of him and let he and Rey figure out their next steps."

"He's enjoying this way too much," Rose says, leaning toward Finn.

"You think?" Finn shoots back. Poe is nothing if not dramatic. He loves an audience, he loves being in front of everyone. He really was the appropriate choice to succeed Leia. Finn is happy enough to be considered a general alongside him, but he prefers to take a place somewhere behind Poe. Support, not the person who needs to drum up excitement.

"Ben Solo is returning," Poe says and the silence that follows the words is almost deafening.

Finn can here muttered comments going back and forth, can feel the moment many work out just who that is.

Ben Solo?

Leia's kid?

But isn't he…

"Kylo Ren?" someone says, their voice cutting rather stridently through the whispers.

"Not anymore," Poe says. "With Snoke and the Emperor both dead, he's had his mind returned to himself. He's Ben Solo again. I know," he says, holding up a hand. "You don't know what to make of it. To be honest, neither do I. But I trust Rey, and I expect you to give her the same amount of trust that Finn and I do."

Some of them look like they're going to protest, but Finn stands then. "Poe's right. You've all trusted Rey with your very lives. Please just trust her."

"Dismissed," Poe says.

He walks off and Finn follows a bit slower. He can see Rose watching them all.

"There are some you don't trust out there, aren't there?" Finn asks, leaning closer to her.

"You probably know better than I do," Rose says.

Finn nods, watching as the crowd disperses. "But Rey and…Ben…kriff, it's going to take some time to get used to calling him that."

"I know," Rose says and he appreciates the sympathy on her face. "And yeah, they'll be able to keep an eye out for any issues. But keep an eye out anyway?" she suggests.

"Absolutely."

"You coming, Finn?" Poe shouts.

Finn squeezes Rose's shoulder and races off after Poe. He's not really sure where any of this is going, what it's going to be like seeing him again. But he's vowed to support Rey, vowed to trust her, and he'll do his damnedest to keep those promises.