One month later…

Rey moaned deep in her throat, a wave of pleasure rippled through her accompanied by an intense pulsating surge of Force energy that she could feel all throughout her body.

"Yes!" She gasped in awe. "Ben!" His name was a cry on her lips

He couldn't help but smile, the joy he found inside of her was like a caress to his soul. "Beautiful." He murmured.

Her wildly excited eyes and the breathless way she said his name made his bones melt. He still couldn't look at her without wanting to be inside of her- mind, body, heart and soul.

They had discovered so much about each other over the course of four short weeks.

Through the communion of their minds he had learned of the destruction of her light saber, her complete lack of knowledge of how to activate her massive reserve of Force energy, and he'd learned of her efforts to translate the ancient Jedi Texts.

He couldn't do anything about the Texts besides giving her unfettered access to the First Order data banks, linguistics weren't his strong suit.

He'd taught her to activate the well of Force energy within her during one of the numerous times they'd shared a single conciousness while exploring their connection.

And now, as he watched her twirl her newly built weapon he felt a deep satisfaction for having guided her through the process.

"It's perfect!" She exclaimed with joy.

She twirled the double bladed light-staff expertly. He became entranced by the fluid grace of her movements as she danced around the center of the floor flipping and twirling the staff this way and that. It suddenly occured to him to be thankful that she hadn't had this weapon when she'd wanted to kill him. Her skill with a saber might be lacking but, clearly, her skill with a staff was not.

"So are you." He said loud enough to be heard over the buzzing hiss of her flourishing blades.

She stopped playing with her staff, dropped it on the rumpled bed and sauntered over to where he sat tapping away on his datapad, putting the finishing touches on the presentation he intended to present at the Correlian Conference tomorrow.

She could feel how much he wanted to have that meeting done and over with so they could get on with their lives together.

"I was thinking…" He said with an air of nonchallance that she didn't buy for a second. He tapped a few more times on the data pad then set it down on the desk beside him. "Correlia has some absolutely beautiful places on it."

"I've heard that, too." She said, draping herself across his lap with one arm around his shoulders.

"We should take a trip to one of them, after the conference tomorrow." His voice crackled as she kissed his neck.

"Mhmm." She purred as she moved her lips to his bare shoulder.

He groaned. "I can't think with you doing that."

She cupped his face with her free hand and kissed him hungrily.

"Rey!" He gasped, pulling away from her just enough to look into her eyes.

She reached out to his mind with the Force and frowned. He was closing her out. She couldn't access him without forcing her way inside, which they'd both agreed not to do to each other. "What is it, Ben?"

He took a deep breath and opened his mouth to speak but then closed it again quickly. He tried to speak again and failed.

"What's wrong?" She was flooded with concern.

"This is harder than I'd imagined." He said with rueful twist of his lips.

"What is?" Her frown deepened.

"Asking you to marry me." He said soberly.

She gaped at him for a moment before recovering the ability to speak. "Take your time, then." She teased, beaming a smile at him. "I can wait."

Her words shattered the tension inside of him and he let out a bark of laughter. He kissed her briefly on the lips "Will you marry me, Rey?"

She tilted her head and chewed her lip. He might have thought she was considering it seriously, if not for the twinkle in her eyes and the way she was broadcasting her emotions to him with the force of a hurricane.

"Is right now too soon?" She asked soberly.

"It's not even soon enough." He countered and kissed her passionately.

"There is something I need to do first, though." He said pulling back from their kiss.

"Besides putting some clothes on?" She teased.

"Yeah, besides that." He chuckled.

"What is it?" She asked.

"It's a suprise." He said mysteriously as he stood up with her in his arms. He carried her to the bed and tossed her on it.

He stepped into the refresher and emerged again a few minutes later fully clothed and looking every inch the Supreme Leader of the most powerful military in the galaxy. "Stay here. I'll come back for you." He said, crossing the room toward her.

"Where are you..?" She began before he cut her off by kissing her soundly.

"I'll come back, sweetheart. I promise." He said with a wink and ducked through the doorway, into the corridor.

She frowned. Those words were familiar to her, though she couldn't quite place where she'd heard them, not with her heart pounding and her head spinning from his kiss.

Several moments passed and she grew restless from not being able to figure it out. With a sigh she climbed off of the bed and dressed carefully.

She picked up her staff and twirled it idly. She'd used the crystal from her broken light saber and with instructions from Ben, she had been able to make the blade split itself into two smaller blades, one at each end of the telescoping four foot handle. The process had caused a change in the coloring of the blade, instead of a pale white/blue her blades glowed pale lilac. The twin blades ignited with a snap-hiss.

His words drifted through her mind again with a sudden tickle of spinechilling fear as she realized that she had heard those words the first time she'd touched the light saber. She reached out to join her mind to Ben's, seeking the comfort of his presence. She felt a rush of fear flit through his mind. A hot lance of pain exploded into his chest and then she felt nothing. She snapped back into her own mind and screamed at the pain of feeling their souls being ripped apart. Her mind, body, heart and soul was wracked with waves of pain so intense that for a moment pain was all that existed in the universe. She could feel every nuance of his soul being ripped away from hers.

It was a pain that had no equal...