They had plunged back into the woods so long ago that Rey barely remembers the city they had found themselves in, barely remembers the Temple. She remembers the woman though, and can hear her laughter on the wind as Masaka hides behind trees and dips down ravines, always just one step ahead of Korgano.

He almost catches her once, his hand coming out to grasp at her sleeve. But she twists and is off again. She's agile here and with the sun still in the sky, she is at nearly full strength.

Korgano trails behind her. He's weak, foolish if he thinks he can catch her. Korgano can't catch Masaka. He just can't. But she hears the sound of his boots as they hit hard on the dense underbrush and occasionally hears a word muttered in a language she knows she should understand and yet doesn't.

The sun has gone past its zenith and she can feel it, that small bit of niggling doubt in the back of her mind. She wants to rest.

You can't rest.

She presses on, but she knows he's gaining on her. And there's nothing she can do about it. Korgano will catch her. Hide, Masaka. Hide and live to run another day.

Another ravine.

Another hill.

She's climbing it when she comes out into a clearing and there she sees it, just beginning to rise up above the trees. Korgano.

"Masaka!"

Korgano is right behind her, rushing into the clearing not more than a handful of seconds after she does. She stops when she hears her name and turns. He stands just outside the tree line and he is glorious.

He stands before her beautiful and proud and sculpted of moonlight. He feels familiar and strange all at the same time, as if she should be turning away while she wants to draw closer.

"Korgano," she says instead and draws herself up to her full height.

He stalks closer and she doesn't give ground. The sun is dipping below the treetops.

"I will destroy you," he murmurs as he steps in front of her.

"You need me," she shoots back at him. "You wouldn't exist without me." And there's a truth there. She has nourished these worlds, has nourished Korgano, all these years.

"I would not," he confirms. "And yet…" He shrugs one of his pale shoulders and moves his head, knocking the hair that had fallen into his eye out of the way.

"You can't."

He takes a step closer. She's forced to look up at him.

"I will," he whispers.

"You…" She's forgotten what she intends to say as one of his hands comes up and tangles in her hair, pulling her head back and tilting her face, her lips up toward him.

"You're mine," he growls and for a moment she's Rey. Rey who is about to give herself to Kylo Ren in the name of…well, not entirely in the name of the ritual they need to enact. She's still Rey. And he's still...She's not sure what he is. An enemy? She doesn't think so anymore, not with you're not alone. A friend? Hardly.

Maybe defining it isn't the best thing right now.

"I'm yours," she murmurs. "You know what you must do."

"Yes." He hesitates and she feels the bond flare inside them. This is new for both of them.

When he reaches out a hand to trace down the side of her face, she turns into the touch. He steps closer. She does the same, until they're nearly chest to chest and she's forced to look up into his to meet his eyes. Are they really going to do this?

Yes.

She feels Masaka beating at her mind, trying to push through, take over. She fights back, pushing her away but then Kylo Ren cups her face with his hand and he dips, his back bending awkwardly to come down to her level. And then his mouth presses against hers.

It's not much of a kiss, so far as she can tell. Just a soft brushing together of those perfect lips of his against hers, close-mouthed, gentle. It's not what she expects when it comes to him, her imagination often painting him as someone who takes and doesn't hold back. Her hands come up to tangle in his hair and then…then…it's everything she's wondered about, dreamed about. This man, once her enemy, knows her soul.

She throws the bond wide open and for a moment she's both. Masaka, Rey. But she feels him there. And she's not sure whose thoughts and whose emotions are whose anymore. There's need, want, crashing through her and laying waste to any sort of hesitation that she might have had.

There's an answering need in him and it rises as his hand traces down her neck, down her arm, reaching for her hand and interlacing their fingers.

"We don't have to," he says and she realizes he's Ben at that moment, not Korgano. He's broken through and his eyes look dark, haunted. "Rey – " He shakes his head and brings her hand up to his mouth, pressing a kiss to where their fingers are joined.

"Ben," she whispers. "I want to." And there's the truth that she'd denied for so long. The truth she's needed to say. She wants to. She squeezes his hand, maybe a little tighter than she means to, and the pinch of it brings his eyes up to hers. She lets him in then, her consciousness tangling with his, the bond wide open. There are some things she can't quite find the words for, but she can show him, and she does, letting him see the images as they play out in her own mind.

He draws her in for another kiss, soft and slow, and this is how it's going to go. A shiver works its way up her spine at the slide of lips and tongue and the feel of his fingers deftly working her hair out of her buns. He's skilled at that, even if he can't seem to find the right angle to kiss her at first. Their noses bump and he laughs into her mouth and she finds herself smiling back.

It's strange, she realizes, touching her lips to someone else's. His are soft and almost plush, pliant and gentle against hers. His teeth worry at her lower lip and she's surprised to feel his tongue press against the seam of her lips. Is this what it's all about?

And yes, yes it must be, she realizes as his tongue gently enters her mouth, sliding against hers and making her knees feel like jelly. Her hand releases his and she rests both on his broad shoulders, anchoring herself there against him, keeping herself upright when all she wants to do is fall back and draw him with her.

"Ben," she murmurs and he growls as he takes her lips in a fierce kiss. His hands wander down her sides until he's reached the base of her shirt and he doesn't have to ask twice. She pulls it off her over head, tosses it to the forest floor and presses herself against him. There's just her breast band now to hide her modesty.

And why does she even care?

This is Ben. What does she have to hide from him? His gaze on her is steady and she shivers at the way his lips part, the way his tongue comes out to run across them. He stands still and straight as he watches her and she thrills to have so much of his attention focused on her. The bond flares around her, lit up from the inside with want and need and an emotion she's not sure she's quite ready to name just yet..

Masaka slips in then, pushing past the barriers she's erected to keep her out, her mind going dark for a moment, fuzzy. Then the world around her comes back into focus with a crystal clarity her eyes have never seen before. There are colors there she's sure didn't exist a moment ago, shades of purple and green and blue. Korgano's looking at her and his eyes are almost black, pupils blown wide. But in their depths she can see flecks of gold and a shade of green that's not quite one she's imagined before.

He's beautiful, her Korgano.

He wants Masaka, she realizes, needs her.

Every night, Korgano chases her, kills her, and sends her reeling from the night sky in a blaze of shooting stars.

And so she does what she must do, reaching behind herself to find where one part of the band is tucked into another and unwinds it slowly. Korgano watches, breathing heavily. Ben watches, awed and a little overwhelmed at the feelings flowing through their bond.

Did he ever look so enthralled with her before?

She doesn't remember his looking like this, teetering halfway on the edge of madness and need. It has always been what is expected of them, a simple exchange and the day is over and the night begins.

But here, now, he's reaching out to her and pulling her close, cradling her face in his large hands, sending tremors down her spine as he lightly touches her neck. She moves it to the side, inviting him, and he reads her like some sort of ancient textbook. His lips press against her neck briefly, before they find the pulse point where her neck meets her shoulders and he suckles there. His teeth worry the skin, but never so hard that he bruises her.

He's delicate with her.

She's not sure she wants delicate.

Have they ever done delicate before?

"Korgano." She growls his name and he looks up, meeting her eyes. Her lips meet his then, harsh, forceful. Her hands are on his tunic and he helps her as he shrugs it the rest of the way off. It's not an easy thing to undo, too many fastenings and the sleeves aren't even connected to it. With another impatient growl, she tears at the sleeves.

He laughs.

She's never heard such a thing.

Has she?

But they're stripped off in a moment's notice, tossed aside like so much garbage. He doesn't give her much time to study him, though she has hazy memories of seeing that chest much like it is now. Do you have a cowl or something…She…no…Rey…Rey hadn't wanted to see him so bared, so human.

When he presses back to her, feeling of all that hot skin against her own can't compare to the dreams she's had about this moment. For a moment Rey is there, pushing Masaka out, reveling in the feel of him, reveling in the way his strong arms tighten around her, the way he picks her up as if she weighs nothing and lays her down on the soft grass they're standing on.

"Masaka," he says and there's reverence there in his voice. "Let me worship you."

"I was made to be worshipped," she responds with.

He lets out a strange almost-whimper, somewhere in the back of his throat and leans over her. Her legs part of their own volition and he crawls in between them. She feels wanton like this, laid out half-bare in a clearing on a foreign planet. She's the sacrifice here, about to be taken by this man, this God. She can't stop the breathy little keening noise that comes out of her throat and he smiles at that, the corner of his mouth turning up.

"Yes." And she's not sure what he's even responding to anymore. "Yes, you were." It doesn't matter. Why would it matter? It certainly doesn't when his lips are on her neck, on her collarbone, dipping lower to lick at the underside of one of her breasts.

And those he does worship, with tongue and teeth and fingers that pluck at the nipple until she's writhing beneath him. Wanting more. Needing more.

"Korgano," she murmurs, a breathy sigh that she never could have imagined coming from her own mouth.

But you are not Rey, are you?

You're Masaka.

She doesn't know who she is anymore and she's not sure it matters. Korgano – Kylo Ren – Ben...he's moving down her stomach, pressing open mouthed kisses along the hard planes of it. She should be embarrassed. She's not a soft woman, her body honed in the Jakku dessert and from years of fighting to retain what's hers. She's alternately been nothing more than skin and bones and all well-honed muscles.

But he doesn't seem to care. No, instead, he nips at her belly, just above where her pants end and she can feel the want flowing through the bond. He finds her body attractive and it's a heady feeling, knowing that someone wants her for her. Not for what she can do, not because she's the only scavenger who's old enough to approach. No, this one finds her attractive.

He traces one finger under the band of her pants and she knows what he's asking. There's no going back from here, no returning to who and what they are. You're Masaka. It's like a mantra in her mind and she's not sure if she's trying to convince herself or if it's just that voice talking to her.

Masaka.

Sun Goddess.

And he is her Korgano.

She nods, once, and he hesitates. When she looks down at him, the eyes she meets are not Korgano's and she feels thrown out of the moment. "Ben?" she whispers.

"I haven't…"

"Me neither," she answers.

Her hands reach down and tug lightly at his hair and with a growl he is back. Korgano. He has done this. She has no doubt of it. The fiery look in his eyes, the way his lips draw back in an almost-feral smile as he tugs her pants down, taking her underwear with it. She's bared to him and she wants to press her legs together, cover herself up, but he won't let her. No, her Korgano presses her legs apart and leans down to nip at her hip bone, the crease between her thigh and abdomen.

And then he's hovering over her and he pushes her legs even further apart. He doesn't look up at her, his eyes completely focused on the juncture of her thighs. She finds she wants to press her legs back together, but no, she lets him pull them wider apart and reach out a hand to lightly touch her.

It's like electricity has gone through her, like he took all the power of her lightsaber and touched it to the moisture pooling in her core. Her back arches up automatically and she wants to just get closer to him, to spread her legs and draw him in until their hearts meld together, until they're the same person.

He does little else for a moment, just taking that one finger and pressing it through the slickness he finds. She watches him. His eyes so focused, lips slightly parted, as if he can barely believe that this is where all of this has led. "I need to…" He shakes his head.

She knows what he needs to do.

She feels the blush start at her cheeks and work its way down the rest of her body. "Yes," she whispers and her hands come up to tangle in all that thick black hair. She's not even sure what she's agreeing to, but she trusts him.

Her Korgano.

Her Ben.

He'll take care of her.

She trusts him.

She pushes up on her elbows to watch him and when he leans down closer, her legs spread a little further apart. His nose touches her and she realizes he's breathing her in. She wants to feel embarrassed at that. Do people do this? Really?

But then he presses a tentative kiss to her and her hips buck, almost violently. He pushes back away from her and she almost apologizes. But the slow smile that forms on his face stops that apology before it can get any further.

He leans forward again, this time holding her hips down, and she almost laughs at that. His large hands dig just a little bit harder into her hips as he steadies her. Then he's pressing open-mouthed kisses to her core, those soft lips encircling her clit. They're made for this, she realizes, made for this sort of pleasure. Plush and soft and perfect as he drags his lips across her slick folds.

Back and forth.

Over and over.

She's practically sobbing, her hands in his thick hair, as she presses him toward something. She needs more. This softness is not enough.

And finally he laps at her with his tongue and she knows that this is what she needs. His lips suckle at her clit; his tongue presses against it, swirling softly against her most sensitive part. She lets out a noise she wasn't sure she could even make, begging for more. More. He pauses for a moment and she looks down at him.

He releases one side of her hips, allowing her to throw her legs as wide as she can. And then one of his fingers, those lovely thick fingers that she's only begun to truly appreciate, presses inside her. She's experimented on herself, pressed her own slender fingers inside herself to see what it feels like.

But this?

Oh, this.

This is like nothing she's ever imagined. His finger slides in and out of her and then he adds another and she feels so wonderfully full that when he brings his mouth back to that small bundle of nerves, it takes almost nothing to send her over that edge. Her whole body tenses; she lets out a strangled cry and she's not sure if it's his name, if it's Korgano or Kylo or Ben, or just something completely incoherent. And then it all lets loose as the world goes completely white around her, a rainbow of colors behind her eyes as they drift shut.

Her consciousness slams back into her. She feels Masaka flee and opens her eyes to see the sun has dipped behind the horizon and it's turned to a purple twilight around them.

Ben is motionless where he still lays between her spread legs. And she leans up again to look at him. He's staring at her, his mouth almost obscenely wet with her juices. His fingers are still inside her. But he's just staring, his mouth open in a small "o," his brows drawn low over eyes half-squinted shut.

"Ben?" she says and it seems to break the spell over him. He pushes back, his fingers sliding out of her and leaving her feeling bereft at their absence. He's up and on his feet, turning away from her. She can see he's breathing hard as he paces in a circle before striding away from her. He reaches one of the nearby trees, leans close to it, head down, forehead against the rough bark.

When he slams his fist into the tree, she's on her feet and after him, pulling him away from the unfortunate trunk. "What are you doing?" Her voice is breathless as she reaches out to him and as he turns back, she's keenly aware that she's not wearing a stitch of clothing.

"I…" She's surprised to see the blush that starts on his cheeks and goes right up to the tip of his over-sized ears. He brushes back his thick hair and closes his eyes.

She moves a step closer to him and is surprised to see him jump back, his arms going around the expanse of his all too naked chest. He's still flushed and she finds herself trying to focus no lower than his collarbone for the moment.

"Ben?"

"I shouldn't have." The words are mumbled. "You wouldn't have wanted…"

She reaches out to touch his arm and he flinches back.

"I don't understand," she murmurs and now she feels self-conscious. He's very pointedly looking everywhere but at her.

"You – " He cuts off there with a huff of frustration, hand forming into a fist.

"You think I didn't want you." It's a statement, not a question. She knows. She can still feel the churning of his emotions through the bond. It's half-closed now, as if he's trying to shove himself out in anticipation of some sort of hurt.

"How could you?" The words explode out of him.

"Ben, look at me." He turns his head toward her but he still can't meet her eyes. She reaches up and lightly touches his cheek. "Do you really believe that?"

"I have no reason not to." There's a bitterness behind the words, all sharp glass and self-directed hatred. His arms cross even more firmly over his chest.

"Then I don't think you know me at all." She turns away from him and tries to pull her wayward emotions into herself. She needs to gather up her clothes. This is over, she realizes. She plumbs the depths of her memories, pushes through the fog that had tried to obscure her mind. Masaka is gone. She feels it, deep inside. Her duty to her has been released.

Standing there in the moonlight, she realizes that Korgano has done his duty as well. He has "killed" Masaka and risen to take her place.

But where does that leave them? She takes a shaky breath and tries to push the tears away. Back where they started? Enemies? But she remembers that he can no longer go back to the First Order. And she's not sure about going back to the Resistance, though she's certain they'll accept her.

Will they? comes the unbidden thought.

Will they take you back, knowing what you have with Kylo Ren? What you've done with Kylo Ren? Rose knows and she knows she'll accept her however she comes. But everyone else? That remains to be seen and she's not quite sure she wants to address this with them.

She's picking up her breast band when she feels a tentative brush against her shoulder. There's an equally tentative brush into her mind and she opens up, lets him feel everything in there.

Behind her, she hears him let out a small strangled noise, somewhere in the back of his throat.

"I told you," she says and hates the way her heart half-breaks on the words. "You don't know me at all."