She ran toward the shelter of the temple, her steps kicking up water from the rapidly forming puddles, and her senses heightened.

-the cadence of rain against the leaves, the cold sheen of water on her skin, and Ben, his signature in the Force as complex as ever but bright, oh so bright -

She slowed to a stop on the stone steps as she realized...

She had seen this moment before.

"Rey?"

He was a few steps lower than she when she turned to face him, their clothes still bunched in his hand and his scars starkly visible against his pale skin.

And Force, he was beautiful to her too.

His eyes widened, and Rey was certain he had heard her.

"You asked me once what I saw when we touched hands." She paused, flattening her palm over her heart as the enormity of her realization overwhelmed her. "It was this. I felt this."

Slowly, he ascended the steps and the echoing chasm in her soul that had broken open the day of her abandonment quieted.

The belonging you seek is not behind you. It is ahead.

A peel of thunder rolled in the air and the stone under their feet hummed, as if the world had stopped to hold its breath.

"Why are you here, Ben?" she asked softly.

All she could see were his dark eyes, the intensity within them threatening to swallow her whole.

Surely, you must know by now…

A multitude of reasons flitted across her mind - Palpatine's machinations, the war with the rebellion, his family's legacy, a desire for revenge - and fell away just as quickly, replaced by the memory of a freezing cave on a dim planet.

"On Nom Chorios, I asked you to stay," she whispered into the space between them, her eyes closing. "You didn't leave me."

He had come to her in the Force, thousands of lightyears pushed through in an instant, to be by her side.

He won't leave me.

"No, I won't," he confirmed aloud.

Three words, three simple, unadorned words nearly staggered her. With their connection open and flowing, the gravity of his declaration was clear.

He intended to stay by her side to the end of this and beyond, if she wanted.

How had she earned this loyalty, this… care from him? How was it possible?

They had met on the outskirts of a battlefield and encircled one another on opposite ends of a war. He, the legacy of Queens and Legends in the Force and she, a desert rat from the sands of Jakuu, so forgettable, her own father could walk away without even a look back.

Nobody, nothing.

His side of the bond was a torrent and she waited for him to pull away, to make some excuse to depart, but instead he cupped her face between his palms and leaned forward, unbothered by the beads of water running down his face.

"You have no idea," he murmured, his expression pained before her side of the bond was flooded with a barrage of images and feelings.

Her, in the duel lights of their sabers.

Awe.

Her, bruised and battered after Ilum.

Admiration.

Her, smiling as she showed him her newly made construct.

Affection.

Her tear streaked face in the throne room.

Desperation.

Her voice in his head as he fled the First Order.

Hope.

Her body pressed against his on the beach during their stalemate.

Desire.

You are Everything.

She gripped his shoulders to steady herself and pressed back against where his forehead rested on hers.

"I know you, Rey. And you, me."

Her very soul seemed to tremble with relief that for once, neither of them were pulling away. It was terrifying, exhilarating, to finally admit how badly she wanted this, how close she had been to taking his hand on the Supremacy.

Her fingers splayed over the scar on his shoulder and she could feel a fine tremor under her hand as he exhaled, stunned that she affected him so. Her mouth opened and closed a few times as she struggled for her own words to convey what his promises meant, and cursed her lack of formal education to find them.

But Rey had always been more comfortable with action, showing over saying.

Deciding, she tugged his shoulders gently down as she tipped her face up. There was no hesitation on his part, like he'd been waiting for the barest hint and he brought his lips down on hers. The physical contact heightened the link between them.

It was disorienting, to feel him in the Force at the same time, flickers of thought, excitement, and anxiety giving her the strangest sense of vertigo. He was marveling at the softness of her lips, that she was finally, finally, allowing him to really touch her, and yet he still wanted to be closer. She was in turn distracted by the way her breasts brushed against his chest with every breath and the silky, slippery slide of his hair through her fingers.

It was sensory overload, a sparkling crackling wire, before it calmed, leaving a slow molten warmth unfurling from her chest throughout her body.

So much light, so much dark within them both.

Never could find one without the other.

She pulled away, and suppressed a thrill that threatened to make her shudder from the intensity, their minds still intertwined as their hearts raced in time.

"I should have gone with you," he murmured, the pads of his thumbs sweeping over her cheekbones. "I should have left with you that day."

She could see it in his mind, connected as they were, his offer back on the Supremacy, and his churning horror that he was so close to missing her, missing this, that his world would have continued on, bleak and dark and so alone.

And what's more, that he might have condemned her to the same.

The regret in the memory tasted sour and cold and she yanked him back down to her to chase it away.

You're here. You've found me. We've found each other.

In her urgency, she pulled harder than intended and they both stumbled, Rey towards the wall, and the contact elicited a grunt of surprise. But then he pressed against her, the hard planes of his body against her slight curves, creating a wonderful pressure and she gasped into his mouth when a knee slotted between hers. He pressed further into her, deepening the kiss and she could feel the ebb and flow of the Force around them, the pulse of life that thrummed down to her very core. The closeness between them, his skin against hers, chased away the lingering chill, and yet, he still did not feel close enough.

Maker, I want…

Her own mind brought up the vision she had seen of the two figures naked, limbs entwined, only it was the two of them in their place.

It was Ben's turn to pull away, his eyes wide and lips parted.

He had seen it too and was deeply affected, a heady mixture of need and desire flooding the bond.

Lightning flashed just outside their alcove and the wind rushed between them, Rey's skin pebbling in the sudden chill. She felt suddenly exposed, and raw, standing in the shadow of his form.

"I'm cold," she blurted, more out of desperation to say something, anything. His gaze flicked from her face down her body before coming up again to rest briefly on her lips. With a nod, he stepped away, handing her tunic to her which she hastily put on.

The muscle in his jaw twitched before he spoke. "The book, the translation, I mean… We should-"

"Yes, I'll just change and meet you in your room."

His body was stiff as he seemed to nearly lurch back into her space before he stopped himself, clearing his throat and nodding.

Quietly, they continued down the hall towards their rooms, side by side, Rey hyper aware of every time their hands brushed, and repeatedly glancing over to his impressive physique.

Cor, she liked the way he looked, liked how seeing him and touching him with so little clothing made her feel flushed and alight. It was intoxicating and terrifying and she was a little relieved to shut herself behind a door after they parted, reassured that he seemed to feel it too.

The rain continued to fall while she dressed, thick heavy sheets that did not allow Rey to see much farther than a few feet through her window.

She'd just turned away from the impenetrable grey and back to putting on her shoes when Ben's voice boomed across her mindscape, startling her with the near edge of hysteria in his tone.

Rey!

Without further thought, she called her saber to her and sprinted until she got to his room, weapon raised and ready to fight.

Water was pouring in through the shabby remnants of the roof in his room while Ben rushed towards her, his arms weighted with the Jedi texts.

"The key! Grab the key!" he shouted, jerking his chin to the desk that was still blessedly dry.

She sprinted through the deluge that tore through the ceiling, grabbing the scrolls and scooping up the calligraphy set. She found Ben already in her room, examining the books one by one for damage.

"Dammit!" he cursed with a sigh when he reached the last one, flipping it open to the most waterlogged pages.

"At least it wasn't the written one," she mused and though he grunted his agreement, she could feel his displeasure, the young academic within him horrified at the ruination of something of such historical value. He extended his palm over the book and closed his eyes, the Force stirring as the pages of the book rippled. Slowly, water beaded to the surface and lifted into the air, churning into an undulating ball before he flicked it away with a frown.

"How did you do that?" she asked, incredulous. Moving solid objects was difficult enough, but liquids...

He glanced at her then back at the text, thinking. "It's like catching the plasma bolt. You focus and pull on the water but you have to bind it tightly or-"

"It will fall out of your grasp," she finished, understanding.

"I can't manage more than a small amount, so it's rarely useful," he continued with a shrug as he lifted the book for closer examination. "I think it's salvageable, in this case."

"Well, your room isn't."

He stiffened, glancing over his shoulder at her and then away.

"It's fine," he replied, running his fingers over the text, ignoring her scoff.

Rey frowned, thinking of the waterfall she had seen cascading onto the floor and his soaked pallet. "Stay with me. Here."

It seemed like an eternity until he turned around, his eyes darting from her to the bed and then back again. "Are you certain?"

She remembered how his body felt pressed against hers in the darkened alcove, the baritone of his voice as it reverberated through her, and felt her cheeks warm.

"Yes."

"Ma'am?"

"What is it?"

"Several of our contacts have reports of a disruption in communications in the outer rim, in the Bosph sector."

"Of what nature?" asked Hannah, taking the datapad.

"Loss of ship locations on radar, abrupt cessation of communications-"

"All communications?" she interrupted, her brow raised. "Complete black out?"

The man nodded, his lips twisting in a concerned grimace. "Cargo ships, smugglers, First Order squadrons… anything that goes behind this veil," he jabbed the dotted line on the data pad, "hasn't come back."

Hannah could feel a headache brewing behind her eyes. This had something to do with the Force, she just knew it. Liarah had been acting strangely the past few days, distracted and withdrawn, frequently pausing mid-sentence as if responding to stimuli only she could sense.

Ben. She needed to tell Ben. Her half-brother was a weighty topic, the practical and shrewd part of her personality warring with the splinter of familial longing Qu'ira and Liarah created. Regardless, she needed his strength in the Force for Liarah's sake, for her future. But first…

"Anything else, Tamin?"

"More children have disappeared. This time from Drall."

Hannah suppressed a flinch.

That planet was one jump over. Close. Far too close.

She quickly punched out a message to Lando Calrissian, notifying him of the Outer Rim anomalies, and was just about to dismiss her subordinate when she saw a red flash in her peripheral vision.

The perimeter alarm.

Tamin glanced at the light, then back to Hannah. "Probably just some kids trying to sneak into the bar," he tried to reassure her but she was already across the room, her hands gripping the back of the chair facing the security monitors.

The bar was mostly deserted with just Malo, the bartender, putting away the clean glasses.

But then her blood ran cold when she saw them, the figures cloaked in black

Lunging forward, she slammed her palm down on the alarm trigger. "Evacuate. Now," she barked and turned, her peripheral vision catching the scene as Malo was lifted and thrown.

"Wha-"

"The Knights of Ren," was all she had time to reply as she shouldered past him, one hand pulling her blaster from her side to deactivate the safety. The soft whine of the weapon was comforting and helped to calm her fear as the sounds of blaster fire and explosions rumbled throughout her hidden compound. She reached up, tapping the comm in her ear just in time to hear horrified screams with the spitting of a lightsaber. She broke out in a run.

Liarah.

Her daughter's room could withstand all manner of blaster fire, but a lightsaber…

The comm on her wrist buzzed insistently, reiterating the evacuation order she had just put out, and Hannah ignored it as she turned a corner, her boots squeaking against the floor and she pushed past the people starting to escape. A relieved breath rushed out from between her lips when she found the entrance to Liarah's room intact.

He steps slowed as she neared the control panel, a sinking feeling settling in her gut when she spotted the alert light flickering as if it too was trying not to die.

"No, no, no, no," she muttered to herself as she quickly bypassed the security and fell to her knees when the door slid open.

The wall on the far side of the room was gone, as was Liarah, with only sparking wires and burned, twisted metal remaining.

Footsteps behind her had Hannah spinning on her knee, blaster extended before her.

Mikel stumbled to a stop, his hands lifted. "Boss, it's me," he wheezed before he bent over, his hands resting on his knees as he caught his breath.

"I know who you kriffin' are," she growled, rising to her feet. "They've taken her. They've taken Liarah."

He nodded in confirmation, falling in step behind her. "They've just jumped to hyperspace."

"How do you know that?" she asked rounding on him, her patience and tolerance resting on a thin wire.

A sly grin twisted on Mikel's face, reminding her that though he was frequently a pain in the ass, the man was one of her most valuable assets.

"I put a tracer on their ship."