All is still. The night is dark, and the road is empty. A single tumbleweed blows lazily across the pavement, and in the distance, the lonely cry of a wolf is heard. But now–the earth is shaking, the sky is rattling, the road is cracking, and–what's this? What's that falling down from the sky? It's something no one here thought they'd ever see again–it's a bird, it's a plane, it's–it's a new chapter!

Rey blinked awake, her eyes growing round as she didn't recognize her surroundings. She immediately looked down at her wrists as she found them trapped. Metal cuffs gripped her forearms, and as she attempted to jostle her legs, she realized her ankles were in the same predicament.

Ben...she thought, drowsily. Where are you?

She closed her eyes hard, the side of her forehead throbbing. She wished she could attempt to rub the pain away. Opening her eyes again, she took in her surroundings: metal shelving, buckets, and containers. It appeared that she was in a storage room of some kind. Her gaze caught on a white, bulbous object: a stormtrooper's helmet.

So she had been captured. But where was she?

Rey? Is that really you?

Ben! She smiled as she sensed his thoughts in her head. I don't know where I am. I-I don't know what happened–

It's okay, we're coming to get you, Ben replied hastily.

'We?'

We're planning it out now, as soon as I can–Ben seemed to cut himself off, his thoughts pouring into her mind. Rey, I know where they're taking you.

And that is? Rey questioned, shivering and rolling her sore shoulders back against the cold metal chair she was strapped to. She pressed her tongue against the roof of her dry mouth and swallowed, wishing desperately that she had some water. Her forehead throbbed again, and she felt dizzy. She only barely made out Ben's response as she drifted back into unconsciousness.

Mustafar, Ben said. Rey, they're taking you to Mustafar.

….

"I can't hear her anymore," Ben informed the faces surrounding him, his gaze drifting down to the table he sat upon. He shook his head, his hair sliding down over one eye. "She must not be conscious."

"We'll get to her, Ben," Luke said, clearly doing his best to sound reassuring.

"Alright, well," Finn announced as he reentered the ship's central room, taking a chug from a thermos. "Here goes nothing."

Luke scowled at Finn, then eyed his drink. "What's that?"

Finn raised his eyebrows as he looked down at the thermos. "Well, it was supposed to be for him, but I decided I could maybe use some too…" he trailed.

Luke released a heavy sigh and turned back to his nephew. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"It's my only choice," Ben asserted.

After taking a long swig of the alcohol, Ben thought of Rey, only Rey as he laid back down and Finn stepped up to the side of the table. He let his awareness of his surroundings grow lax as Luke helped Finn ready the medical tools. He fixated on the ship's ceiling, imagining Rey's face before him, her bright eyes, her stunning smile, the tiny freckles that dotted her nose.

He cringed and hissed as Finn wiped a cold, stinging substance along his upper arm.

"To clean the area," Finn explained, but Ben was barely listening. He shut his eyes hard as the others continued to talk.

"And we're sure there's no anesthetic or anything?" Luke asked, and Chewie grumbled in response. "I'd have thought with all of his injuries from smuggling, Han'd have kept something like that here."

"Alright, 3PO," Finn stated.

"Me? Oh, my."

"C'mon, just–get it over with. I'm going up front," Luke grumbled. "On second thought, before I do that, is there any of that left? Thanks."

Ben hissed in pain as a cold metal hand pressed his shoulder down flush to the table. "My apologies, Master Ben," 3PO said. "This–this shouldn't hurt a bit…"

Ben's breathing sped up as he heard Finn fiddling with the medical tools nearby. Too nervous to keep his eyes closed, he focused on the ceiling light above him. He was reminded of his and Rey's first kiss, her face bathed in the light of the fire. He remembered his initial shock as she pressed her lips to his, then his wanting more as she pulled away.

A glint of silver at Ben's left distracted him from his reverie.

"Even after what you did to me on Starkiller, I still don't want to do this," Finn explained.

Ben huffed out a breath, meeting Finn's sympathizing eyes. He gave him a brief nod. "We have to do this. For Rey."

Finn nodded resolutely back. "For Rey."

Ben managed to close his eyes again, drifting back into the memory of his first kiss with Rey: her leaning towards him, her eyes focused on his. His conscious realization that he loved her, thoroughly and irrevocably, before their lips even met.

"Hold his shoulder still, 3PO. Just like that."

Chewbacca let out a worried mewl.

Ben remembered his astonishment at the softness of Rey's lips against his, the warmth of her breath. The silk of her cheek on his fingertips as he cupped her face. He flexed his two functional fingers on his injured arm in response to the memory, for the last time.

Ben's eyes shot open at the heavy, wet crunch of severance. The pain was delayed a silent moment, but it came in a white-hot shock.

"Maker!"

….

Rey jolted awake, her breathing heavy. She felt like she'd been asleep for hours–maybe she had been. Her right shoulder was throbbing with a vengeance. She blew air up at her forehead, feeling cold sweat beading at her hairline. What happened?

She turned to the side as she heard a crackling voice over a radio communicator. A stormtrooper, armed with a blaster, stood against the storage room's door.

"Got it," the trooper responded to his communicator. His helmet swivelled in her direction, and he brought the communicator to his helmet again. "The prisoner is awake. I've got my eye on her."

There was a hint of familiarity to the trooper's voice, but Rey couldn't pinpoint it. She groaned as her forehead throbbed again, and she shut her eyes, trying to recall everything that had happened. Her heart rose to her throat as she remembered Ben sprawled on the ground on the island, one of his arms a bloody, mangled mess. Luke was crouched by him, protecting him. The last thing she remembered was being dragged away, and now...now she was strapped to a metal chair, not unlike the interrogation chair Ben had strapped her to when he'd initially kidnapped and interrogated her.

Ben, Ben, she called through the Force.

Rey! I'm here, I'm here. Please, tell me you're alright!

I'm fine, she responded, eyeing the trooper to her side. They've got a stormtrooper watching over me, but I should make quick work of him. She let out a long breath. You're okay too, right?

I–I've been better, but I'm alright, Ben answered. Don't worry, Love, we're coming for you.

I'm not worried, she assured matter-of-factly, scanning the room again. If I had to guess, I'd say I'm on some sort of old transport ship. The tech looks out of date. And this storage room is way too small to be on something like a star destroyer.

Well, you would know, Scavenger.

Are you still on Ach-To with Luke? Rey asked. With no ship to communicate through, it could take days–weeks–before the Order of Organa would know to come and rescue them.

No, we're on the Falcon, Ben explained. Your friends brought it here to save us, they had pilots tracking the Empire ships as they came to attack. He paused. I'm so sorry, Rey. So sorry. I couldn't– Another pause. I can't believe I couldn't protect you. Kriff–

Ben, stop, Rey urged. You did your best, more than anyone else could have done. You dove off of that the cliff, knowing I couldn't swim–you saved my life!

Rey grimaced as something heavy and intruding seeped its way between their connection.

Ben?

Rey, I think–

Their connection seemed blocked, fragmented. Rey felt a rising well of anger, and she grit her teeth, seething. She waited a few moments, sucking in a breath as she finally heard Ben again.

It's Snoke–Don't–reach...to me for now, it's not safe. I–

Rey couldn't hear the rest of his thoughts, and she groaned in frustration, knocking her fists back against the chair as much as he was able. She sighed in resignation, looking down at her strapped wrists and ankles. Snoke would have to wait. Her first order of business was getting herself out of this chair.

….

Ben sat patiently as Finn and Luke fussed with his new metal arm. Luke noticed that he was staring at the wall ahead, refusing to look at it.

"No, no, like this," Luke said, focusing his attention on what Finn was doing. Luke tugged a wire at Ben's metal wrist with a pair of clipping tools. "There. You learn a thing or two about prosthetic mechanics when you live with one for long enough."

"My, that looks splendid!" 3PO chimed.

"Because it's your own metal," Finn retorted, rolling his eyes. "Alright, Ben. Try the arm. Let's see if it works."

Luke met Ben's gaze for a moment, still taken aback by his nephew's self-sacrifice, by the fact that he would forever be burdened with the loss of touch in his right hand and arm. Luke shakily lifted his own metal hand, trying to wrap his mind around having his entire arm gone. He looked back across at Ben, who was watching him intently, questioningly.

Luke nodded reassuringly.

Slowly, Ben turned to look down at his new metal limb. He stiffened and lifted his right shoulder, inspecting the contraption.

"Go on, try it out," Luke encouraged him.

Ben's mouth opened as he lifted his metal hand and flexed his new fingers. "This is…"

"Weird, right?" Luke asked, and Ben nodded. Chewbacca released a noise of curiosity and stepped closer to inspect the arm, but Ben seemed to lose interest and slid from the table.

"We need to be on the lookout for Empire ships. How close are we to Mustafar?"

"Kylo–sorry, Ben–you need to rest and let everything heal, you need to let the wiring set," Finn explained, but Ben waved him off.

"I don't have time for that," he said, holding his metal arm out away from his body awkwardly. Luke looked down, seeing that his remaining human hand was trembling. "We need to get to Mustafar, and we need to get Rey. We need to make a plan. We need to–"

Ben was cut off as Luke stepped forward and pulled his nephew into a tight embrace. Slowly, shakily, Ben wrapped his arms around his uncle.

"We'll get her back, I promise," Luke said gently. He felt Ben release a heavy sigh against him. "But one thing at a time, okay?" He felt Ben's moistened face nod against his shoulder.

….

He saw the girl struggling against the prisoner chair in frustration.

"How are you holding up in there? You sure it's okay that I go on break?" DR-390's voice crackled through his communicator. He lifted the device to his helmet modulator.

"Everything's under control. If you're worried, you can come back, but it's fine. The prisoner is still asleep."

The girl swivelled her face to glare at him. "No I'm not," she seethed.

He watched as she focused her gaze on him, her fists tightening and her expression turning from anger to concentrated focus. He grimaced, sweat trickling down his face in his claustrophobic helmet as the girl attempted to break into his mind. He grunted with effort.

"You can't...do it," he asserted.

The girl stopped her mind-probe, giving him a perplexed expression. "What?"

He gathered his breath, pressing a gloved hand to the forehead of his helmet. "Only...a weak mind...can be broken," he recited, panting. He leaned against the side of the door frame for support.

The girl stared at him blankly, blinking. "How do you know that? Who told you that?"

"It's what I heard from the other troopers about Leader Snoke," he explained, straightening again.

Rey narrowed her eyes, focusing on him, but this time, not with the Force. "Do I know you?" Her gaze lowered, and she studied the ground, thinking. Her eyes widened as she looked back up to meet his through his helmet. "The stormtrooper that was stationed outside of my cell when I was being held on the Finalizer. AN-838. That's you, isn't it?"

"No." He pressed his hands to the side of his helmet and slid it off. "I'm Allan." He stepped to the control panel at his side and pressed a button, releasing the clamps from Rey's wrists and ankles. "And we don't have much time, but I'm going to get you out of here."

Rey stared down confusedly at her now-freed arms and legs. She looked back at Allan with a puzzled face. "But...why?"

He gave her his best smile, remembering the word she'd used to describe him after he'd saved her from that awful General Hux many months ago.

"Because," he said, "you're my friend."

To quote the master George Lucas himself, "Allan is the key to all of this."

Okay, maybe I misquoted, but I'm pretty sure that's what he said. Let's see if team #Rallen can manage to get out of this #strugglebus.

Meanwhile, looks like #newarmwhodis Ben Solo will be struggling to come to terms with his metal appendage. Good thing he has his uncle's experience with the #skywalkerspecial to help him on his way. He definitely takes after his mother's side of the family, but next chapter we might just dig a little into his paternal influence. #smugglersolo

Side note, the story's this close to being over. I think I keep saying that, that this time I mean it. So, hold tight. And as always, THANK YOU for being patient. I know I'm so bad about posting at regular intervals, and you're welcome to throw tomatoes at me from the comment section if you feel the need.