10. Chapter 10

Rey woke with a needle in her arm. A haze of confusion hung low around her head. She blinked a couple times to clear it, vision sharpening and following the IV plugged into her arm down to a hydrotank. A medic must have come in to tend to her while she was sleeping. Shanvuras, more likely than not. The suggestion of a smile crossed Rey's lips. The Twi'lek may have had a hard exterior, but she was plenty soft inside.

Rey turned her head; the smile became more than a suggestion. Ben was still sleeping on his cot, chest rising and falling in a regular rhythm. Color had returned to his cheeks. His face was angled towards her, and for a moment Rey could imagine another life-where they were lying not on cots in a dreary cavern, burdened and broken, but in their own bed in a sunlit home on some verdant planet, their window open to the morning and the sound of running water drifting in through the casement.

A soft, throaty cry interrupted her fantasy of domestic bliss. She sat straight up, relaxing only when she saw Chewbacca sitting on a crate a few feet away, watching her with his usual earnestness.

"Hi, Chewie," Rey said, smiling. "You startled me. How long have I been asleep?"

The Wookie replied in a series of complex, guttural noises.

"Three days? Why didn't anybody wake me?" Rey swung her legs over the edge of the bed, IV tugging at her arm. She yanked the needle free without finesse, causing Chewie to growl a protest. "I'm fine. Has Ben been asleep this entire time?" Chewie nodded, them jumped up to grab her as she rose and swayed dangerously on her feet. "Really, I'm all right." She waved him away. "What about everyone else? Is the fighting over?"

"For the most part." Rey looked over to see Poe enter the cave. He'd cleaned up since the last time she saw him, scrapes dressed and hair combed back from his face. He smiled at her, but it was tired. He may have cleaned up, but he hadn't rested. "We destroyed all the starkiller guns and wiped out most of the Final Order's fleet, but there were just too many of them for us to be as thorough as we would have liked."

"Some got away."

He nodded. "A few. We're getting ready to send some teams out after them. They've had a head start, but I'm betting we can catch up pretty quick."

"I'm sure you can."

"Finn's raring to head up his own team," Poe said. HIs brow furrowed. "Rey-he's torn up pretty bad about this." He jerked his chin towards Ben. "You should really talk to him before he leaves. He's flying out tomorrow."

"I want to," Rey said. "And I will, I promise. But I . . . I need to make sure Ben's all right, first."

"Shanvuras has been looking after him. Says he's healing nicely."

"It's kind of her to do that. I know it's complicated." Poe let out a huff of air, like he couldn't decide if he was more amused or annoyed. "But I think there's something else wrong with him, something she can't fix."

"Let me guess: it's something mystical?"

Rey laughed, despite herself. "Something like that."

"Well, I'll leave you to it. I just heard Chewie talking, and I figured you were up. I'll have some food sent in, and maybe Shanvuras to check on you-she asked me to let her know when you woke."

"Thanks, Poe. I mean it."

"Ah, you'd do the same for me." Poe clapped her on the shoulder on his way out.

Rey wandered over to Ben's cot, dimly aware that Chewie was mirroring her movements, so that they ended up one on either side of the bed. They studied his sleeping face together in contemplative silence.

"You knew him," Rey said after a moment. "Before . . . before. What was he like?"

Chewie whirred softly.

"Yeah. That's what I thought."

Delicately Rey found space for her to sit on the edge of the cot, lifting Ben's hand and pressing it to her heart. He did indeed seem much improved, but Rey couldn't shake the nagging feeling that she was missing something. Shanvuras's words echoed in her ears. If the damage was done by the Force . . .

"Chewie," Rey said, "I'm going to meditate for a little while. I don't know how long it will take, but I don't want you to worry. Unless blood starts coming out of my eyes, I'm probably fine."

The Wookie hummed his concerned understanding. Rey smiled, hoping he could tell how grateful she was just for him being here with her, and then she closed her eyes.

The Force was waiting for her. It was easier than it had ever been to slip past the thin veil that kept her from living always in this realm, the realm of pure consciousness, the realm of starlight. The murmur of voices rippled all around her, incomprehensible unless she listened harder, or reached out to pluck one from the cosmos.

Ben? Ben, are you there?

The voices hushed at her call, the question hanging unanswered in the liminal space.

Ben Solo!

His name came back to her in a hundred whispers, the spirits of the Force echoing her summons. But among all the voices, she did not hear his. If he was only sleeping, then he should have been quick to respond-quicker still to respond to her, considering their inviolable connection as a dyad. Even if Ben died, Rey did not believe he could pass beyond her reach.

Then where was he?

She began to range further out among the stars, the shapes of the spirits that dwelt here parting for her more corporeal form. It was both unlike and like the moment she had died-the place was the same, but she was not. She was too solid, too mortal for this realm. She could sense her own body, back on the cot, waiting for her to return.

She had been searching fruitlessly for some immeasurable amount of time when a familiar voice brought her to a halt.

"He isn't here, Rey."

"Leia!"

General Organa shimmered before her, more splendid than Rey had ever seen her, dressed in a long white gown and silver headpiece, her long dark hair cascading in lustrous waves over one shoulder. Her face shone with youth and peace. No, this wasn't General Organa-it was Princess Leia.

"Hello, Rey."

Rey moved forward as if to embrace her, but stopped herself just in time. "Oh, Leia. I'm so sorry for what happened."

Leia's wry smile was heartbreakingly familiar. "I'm not."

"We're going to miss you something awful. We already did."

"Well, as a wise man once told me, no one's ever really gone."

"He really was a wise man." Rey smiled through the sheen of tears that had sprung up in her eyes. "But what did you mean, he isn't here? Do you know where Ben is?"

"I always know where my son is," Leia said. "He's been wandering. He needs someone to call him home."

She stepped aside. Behind her glowing form Rey could see now that the landscape of the Force changed here, darkening into twilight fields where only the loneliest, farthest-flung stars lingered. The feeling that crept over her when she peered into it reminded her of the pit on the island where she trained with Luke. It was not evil, but it might not be safe, either.

Rey looked to Leia uncertainly. The princess nodded once. Bracing herself, Rey moved past, and felt a frost fall over her skin as the dusk engulfed her. She glanced back, but Leia had vanished, the susurrus of voices fading in her wake.

She was alone. She stood at the edge of a smooth, infinite, unblemished body of water. No wind ruffled its surface, which stared like a haunted mirror at the gloaming sky. The few stars that hung overhead seemed at once impossibly distant and close enough to grasp. It was as cold as a tundra planet, so cold that the water should have been ice. Rey exhaled, and her breath burned white in front of her.

As it cleared, it revealed the far horizon, where a dark silhouette threw a shadow across the water.

"Ben," Rey said. "Ben!"

The figure stood still, unmoving. Rey hesitated, lifted one foot, then touched it lightly to the water. Her boot met solid ground beneath. The water was scarcely an inch deep. Rey began to walk, slowly at first and then picking up speed, towards the horizon. After a few moments she noticed that something strange was happening: nothing. Nothing had changed in her surroundings; she still stood at the edge of the water, the horizon and the figure were no closer than they had been before.

Rey started to run. Her breath pierced her lungs with spears of frigid air. She ran for five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen, before she had to admit to herself that she wasn't making any progress. Ben was just as far from her as he had always been.

"Ben!" she cried, knowing it was useless. She came to a stop, catching her breath, trying to shuffle her thoughts into order. What had Leia said? He needs someone to call him home.

She planted her feet and grounded herself as best she could where there was no ground. She lifted her face to the sky that was not a sky. She felt the cold air against her skin. She closed her eyes, and in her soul, said: Ben.

Their bond blazed between them, bright as a brand in this twilight realm, so wild and undeniable that it nearly lit her on fire. Every synapse in her brain sparked at once. Her blood sang with the renewed connection that illuminated this strange limbo that they occupied together.

She felt him turn.

She opened her eyes to starlight like no other. The dusk of the world had fallen away, the water had faded, and they were suspended among the stars, blazing bright enough to blind them both. The distance between them had collapsed upon itself, and they were only a few feet apart.

Ben Solo stood before her. Here, in the heart of the Force, he was healed of wounds to body and spirit. His hair was impossibly dark, so dark it hurt to look at, and he wore a simple black robe that made him look like a padawan again, young and unhaunted by his own sins. His eyes caught hers and held, and for a moment she saw no recognition there, and her heart sank.

But then he smiled, and her world broke open.

"Rey," he said, and she ran to him. He opened his arms and she fell into them, sobbing. The wreath of stars around them dimmed in reverence. He pressed his lips against the crown of her head and she felt his own tears slide into her hair. They stayed like that for a long moment-it could have been a century, for all either of them knew-before they drew apart, still clasping each other at the forearms, unwilling to lose contact now that they had made it again. "Rey, what are you doing here?" He was crying and grinning at the same time, and somehow the combination of the two made him seem even more boyish and innocent.

"I came to bring you back," Rey said. "Just like you did for me."

He lifted a hand to her face, brushing her tears away with a thumb. "We can't keep bringing each other back from the dead, you know."

"You're not dead," Rey said. "You're just unconscious. Your body is in the real world, with mine. It's just your soul that's been . . . getting distracted."

"Distracted by you."

Rey laughed, ducking her head shyly. "Saving me. But you did that already-you can come back now."

Ben lifted her chin so she was looking up into his face. "I'd go anywhere with you, scavenger. Just lead the way."

He bent down and kissed her, setting the stars on fire.