She's startled awake by something next to her shifting. And then a voice… "Rey?"

Her eyes open and she almost falls off the metal pallet as she tries to put some distance between Ben and herself. He reaches out a hand to steady her and it keeps her close. She can feel the heat coming off his body, can see the flecks of gold in the darker irises of his eyes as she tries to stop from glancing down at his full lips. They're close, too close.

She pulls herself away and gracelessly slides off the pallet.

"What happened?" His voice sounds distant, still muddled with sleep.

"What?"

"I came in here to rest and then…this…"

"You don't remember anything?" She watches as he shudders and she's sure there's something to that.

"Not much," he admits. She reaches out to him through the bond and finds it unusually quiet. There's usually an energy there, aggressive, angry. But now it's gone, replaced with a sort of strange emptiness.

"We should," she starts to say. We should…do something. What were they supposed to be doing? "What's going on here?" There's a fuzziness to her mind, like there's a blanket wrapped around her memories, her thoughts.

He watches her, eyes large, lips slightly parted. And then finally he blinks. "I don't know." With a shrug, he gets up and walks away. She follows. She's not sure what else to do really. Whatever is going on, they're in this together.

"We need to do something," he says as he pulls out a couple rations and tosses her one.

"What exactly do you expect us to do?"

"We need to get off this planet." There's a tightness to his voice, an unease that she's felt since the moment she landed.

"I know."

"Can you fix the shuttle?"

"There's nothing…"

"There's something wrong." The words come out fast, forceful. "There has to be. It doesn't work."

"Well, gosh, Ben, I had no idea," she shoots back. She's so damned tired. "I guess I hadn't noticed."

He doesn't say anything for a moment and then turns from her, taking a bite out of the ration bar and grimacing. They're tasteless things, dry, entirely uninteresting to eat in both texture and flavor. But they'll keep them sustained for a little while at least. "We need to fix this thing."

"Fine, Ben, you win. I'll do my best."

They set to working on it together. Rey pulls out wires and checks them for electrical impulses, makes sure the connections are working. Electricity flows through each connection. She runs diagnostic after diagnostic on the shuttle, and each one comes up negative.

Ben suggests checking the engine itself and disappears into the engine room. Rey bangs her fist on the dashboard and follows. She knows what he'll find there. The shuttle worked fine upon landing and unlike his, there was no crash, no damage of any sort. It just simply stopped being able to do anything but the most basic of functions. The fresher works, the lights work, but nothing will allow them to get airborne, to leave the planet.

She stands in the door and watches him work. He strips the layers of his thick black outfit off as he does so, revealing toned arms that she well remembers from that one encounter on Ahch-To. He wears a sleeveless shirt beneath it and it clings to him as sweat drips down from neck to chest. She should look away but it's really quite mesmerizing. When he lets out a growl of frustration and punches the side of the hyperdrive, she jumps back.

"Don't damage anything," she says and rushes at him. Her hand is on the lightsaber at his waist before she can stop herself.

"Why does it matter?" He's breathing hard when he looks at her and she releases the lightsaber, backing up a step. He's close…too damned close, and it's too damned hot and too damned small in that room with his overly large frame taking up so much damned space.

"There's nothing wrong." His voice is deep, still a growl, and she shivers as she backs up against one of the walls, tries to find her way out of the room.

"I…"

"Yes I know." One hand slices through the air and she's almost sure that he wishes he were holding his lightsaber. She can feel him just a hair's breadth away from breaking, teetering on the edge of some precipice. It would take so little to push him over and for him to take her with him.

"We need to get out of here," he mutters again and punches the wall nearest him. Then punches it again, the crack of his knuckles against the durasteel loud in the otherwise silent shuttle. Three times, four, and Rey realizes he's not going to stop until he's exhausted himself or until he breaks apart from the rage, the helplessness they both feel.

She rushes forward and tries to put her hand on him. He shrugs her off. "Ben!" He hits the wall again, again, again, grunting with each blow. She calls his name with each blow. Louder, more frantic. And then… "Korgano!"

He stops.

Silence.

He turns to look at her.

All she can hear is the harshness of his breathing, the creak of the shuttle as he moves.

He says nothing, just stares.

"I don't know why I said that," she murmurs. She doesn't even know what it means. It's like that other word. Masaka. Nonsense words. But this time it comes from her mouth and she's certain it's meant to be a name.

But whose?

He takes a step closer to her and she almost…almost…steps back. There's a look in his eyes. Intent, a predator stalking his prey.

She stands her ground.

He comes another step closer.

She shivers.

It's not even cold in the stuffy confines of the shuttle. But still she feels the shiver trace its way up her spine.

"You're afraid of me," he murmurs.

"No," she says quickly.

"Then…" His voice trails off and he cocks his head slightly to the side. His eyes never leave her and she's reminded of their last confrontation. They were filthy junk traders. There had been something there behind the words. She was never quite sure what. Disgust, maybe. But at her? At her parents? Maybe both? She well remembers his insults. You, a scavenger…She was sure they'd moved beyond that by that point, but…

"I…" She takes a deep breath. "I don't know. Something's not right."

His eyes soften a little at that, and he moves closer to her until she's forced to look up at him. She knows he's tall on some sort of superficial level. But here in the confines of the shuttle she realizes just how far she has to look up to meet those piercing eyes.

For a moment, no one moves. They simply share space, breathing, the bond ebbing and flowing between them. She's sure she breathes in as he breathes out, a sort of rhythm that forms between them.

And then his arms wrap around her, tight bands pulling her close against his chest.

Hers wrap around him and there's a heady feeling of something that overtakes her.

This is right.

"We'll figure it out," he says and she can feel the rumble of the words in his chest, can feel the ghost of his breath across the top of her head.

"I don't know," she whispers against the expanse of his chest.

"I do." He is resolute. "We're survivors, you and I. We'll find a way off this planet." He releases her a moment later, stepping back a pace from her.

Not wanting to break the contact, she reaches out and grasps his hand. He glances down at where her hand holds his much larger one and a ghost of a smile traces across his lips.

She's never seen him smile, she realizes. Never seen such a quirking of his lips. He's always serious and smiling looks almost unnatural on his features. Not like Finn or Poe, who both smile easily. Life has beaten down Ben Solo, turned him into something he never was meant to be, and made him far too serious at such a young age.

"We should get some rest." He squeezes her hand and leads her back toward the pallet. It feels like it's been ages since they woke up there.

"There's only one…"

There's that small movement of his lips again. "You're safe with me." She's surprised to see that his cheeks have turned a bit red. The tips of his ears, which she finds endearingly over-large and almost ridiculous on his narrow face, have turned red as well.

"I know."

And she is.

She realizes this now. There are few who would consider Kylo Ren safe, but she knows that no matter which side of the war they're on, she's safe here with him right now, on this strange planet in the middle of nowhere.

Nodding, she releases his hand and he gets down on the pallet, back to the wall. "You'll be more comfortable this way," he mutters, patting the bit of space left in front of him. There's not much. Enough that if she lies on her side and he wraps his arm around her she might not fall off onto the floor.

But she manages, laying down with her back to him, squirming until she is flush against him. He lets out a small groan as she situates herself and she comes close to opening her mouth to apologize until she realizes what this whole thing must be like for him. For her, if she's honest. She's never shared a bed with anyone, never wanted to. And here she's curled up front-to-back with the man who should be her mortal enemy and who more and more feels like someone she lost along the way and finally found.

He wraps his arms around her and keeps her close, tucking his long legs up underneath hers. One of his hands comes up and briefly touches her hair. "Sleep now. I'll keep you safe."

The sun is past its zenith in the sky. She's not sure how she knows this, tucked up inside a shuttle with no window to the outside. But she feels it deep in her bones, in her soul. The sun is waning and she with it.

She nods drowsily against the arm she's using as a pillow.

And then she's sucked down into sleep. Whether she wants it or not.

And just as you were really enjoying this…

Her eyes open.

All is darkness around her. Turning her eyes to the heavens she sees…nothing. Some pinpricks of light, stars of distant worlds, distant galaxies winking in and out of existence.

He should be here.

She can feel him.

Close.

So close.

"Korgano." The word is half sung, a sort of Sprechstimme. It takes her a moment to realize the word comes from her.

No one appears and she finds herself walking.

She is sure-footed.

Of course she is. She is a goddess. And even though it is night, the world is still hers.

"Korgano," she sings out again.

Silver light pierces the darkness in front of her, tumbling out of the sky as if lit up by some sort of shuttlecraft. But it's not a shuttle. She looks up to find the source. Nothing. It comes out of nowhere, a strange cone of light, as if the moon were shining down through the trees.

And then he is there.

Stepping into that light.

He wears little more than a loincloth that covers only those parts that one might consider indecent to bare. His chest is sculpted alabaster, his hair wild about his face, legs long and muscled as he stands with his feet wide apart. He crosses his arms over his chest as he watches her.

He is beautiful.

There are no other words that fit.

Beautiful and otherworldly. She wants to look away and yet she can't. He is somehow more beautiful than the sculptures of the masters. His scar, her mark, is a line down his face and the side of his chest that stands out in dark relief to the silver of his skin.

"Korgano," she says again and she realizes that yes. This is Korgano.

She steps forward and is bathed in golden light. When she looks down, she realizes she is not dressed so differently from him. Her dress is pinned at one shoulder, draping across her breasts and down to brush the tops of her thighs. She wants to hide, wants to cover herself, but he's watching her and the look in his eyes says do not hide.

She is a Goddess.

She is his Goddess.

He steps closer and this she remembers. This she recognizes, knows from somewhere deep inside her.

She lets him come close.

And then he's on his knees before her in supplication. Her worthy subject come to worship at her feet. "Masaka…I am yours…" And in his voice is everything she could have ever hoped for.

Adoration.

Commitment.

Love.

She comes awake with a gasp, reaching out her hands blindly.

Behind her, he's awake too. She feels him scrambling for purchase, pushing himself off the pallet. She almost falls before rolling to her knees. Ben is on his feet before she can even make sense of what's going on and then he's turning on her, grasping her shoulders.

He shakes her hard enough that her teeth clack together and she shoves at his chest.

"What are you –"

"We have to go to Masaka City." The words come in one breath, rushed, frantic.

"Where?"

He shakes her again. "Masaka City. Now." He's off and away from her before she can say another word, rushing down the short hallway and out of the shuttle. It's dusk, she notes, and feels strangely weighed down at the thought. They've been asleep for the Force knows how long and all she wants to do is curl back up on the pallet and sleep the night away.

But no, he's turning back toward her. "We have to go. Rey." There's a strange almost-whine to his voice. "Now."

She follows him. She's not sure what else to do. He's the only one there with her, the only one she can rely on besides herself. And there's no I there, but a we right now. He wants her with him and she can't understand why or what's going on or even where Masaka City is, really. "Ben!" she shouts after him, but he doesn't even respond to the name. She shouts it again, racing after him as he disappears into the edge of the forest. "Kylo!" she calls in a last desperate hope.

Nothing.

"We can't go yet!" They need supplies. Rations, water, his cloak for bedding. There are knives and a firestarter on the shuttle. "We need to bring something with us. Just…" She runs further into the woods, afraid she'll lose sight of him in the dim light. "Just give me a short bit of time!"

He turns, finally. "The forest will provide." And he's off again, his long strides taking him further into the forest and quickly beyond her line of sight in the thick trees. With a huff, she realizes she has two choices: return to the shuttle and let him go off alone or follow him with no supplies and only the hopes that the forest will indeed provide.

She stops. Indecision is not usually her thing. She's woefully impulsive, as Luke had warned her multiple times. But this time she hesitates.

And then there's a tug, a strange plucking of a string that's the bond she shares with this enigmatic man.

She has to follow.

She has no choice.

And she's not sure if it's her heart telling her that or the Force or something else. Something she can't define, some nebulous thing on this planet that calls to her, to him.

She heaves a sigh and runs to catch up with him. At least they're in this together, whatever this really is. She knows she has to see it through to its end.