Rey awoke coughing, coughing so violently it felt like her chest was going to explode. She struggled to turn over, maybe laying on her side would be less painful. She couldn't know but it had to be less painful than this. The ground was mossy and wet on her shoulder. She couldn't feel it before. She couldn't feel it when she was on her back. She coughed and struggled for breath. The ground was so beautiful. It never looked like this on Jakku. She wished so deeply that she could just sit and looked at it, maybe by herself, maybe with Finn, maybe with Ben.

"Ben?" she uttered weakly as she collapsed face first into the wet, mossy ground.

"Rey!" he had called desperately as he watched her eject from the ship amid a fireball of destruction. Just before he had admitted almost everything to the infuriating girl from that junk yard world. He did not think he would regret anything more in his entire life.

"Oh really, kid? That's your biggest regret? Telling some girl how you feel? Thanks for the compliment. Your mother would be proud. Also, I don't think she's all that interested in you."

"Get out," he muttered at the voice as he awoke, his limbs and parachute entangled with a tree branch somewhere in the Verdanth rainforest.

He slowly pulled himself up and untangled the parachute and tossed it onto the forest floor.

"Rey?" he said, slowly closing his eyes. "Please. Show yourself to me." He drove deep into the force, into the connective power of the universe. Between all living things on this world, between all worlds, and between him and Rey.

He saw her laying helplessly on the ground. She almost looked weak and fragile. He had never thought of her like that before.

"Rey?" he repeated as he jumped down from the tree branch. He started running toward her. He could see her, but she couldn't tell where she was. The entire rainforest looked the same to him. But he could feel himself growing closer to her.

Rey felt the damp from the soil seeping into her forehead. For a moment, that was stronger than her connection to Kylo and the force. It was just so overwhelming and so cold, and she couldn't get her body to stop shaking from it. She placed the palms of her hands on the ground, closed her eyes, and took a deep calming breathe.

She could do this. She could feel the life in the universe and she could draw on its energy to heal herself. She wasn't even sure how she was injured, everything was just so painful.

"Rey!" Kylo shouted as he saw her, actually saw her laying face down on the forest ground. Something about the curvature of her shoulders, the position of her legs made he realize she was more injured than he could have ever imagined. He ran to her and placed his hands on her back. She didn't even flinch, which worried him even more. He squeezed his eyes shut and called out to the force with all his strength.

"No," she weakly and desperately called up at him. "Let me do it."

He peered down at her. She looked broken, too broken. "You can't do this alone."

She pressed her hands harder into the mossy, wet ground. "Let me for as much as I can. It wouldn't hurt me, like it will you."

Kylo held his hands on her shoulder blades but it wasn't anything more than touch. He did not understand what she meant but she sounded serious.

After a few minutes of little grunting and wincing, she started to scream in pain. She screamed like she had when Snoke pulled information from her. He couldn't handle it anymore. He moved his hands down until they touched her exposed skin and extracted energy from the force more than he ever had before. She started to scream in a different, less painfully sounding way. He grunted violently through his clenched teeth. It felt like he was being ripped apart, but he didn't care. He needed to save her. He only wanted to save her.

"Rey," Kylo muttered softly as he slowly awoke. He felt slightly nervous. Everything smelt different and felt different from the last thing he remembered. "Rey," he muttered again.

He felt sunlight beaming down on his face. He opened his eyes and saw it was coming through the slates of glossy looking wood that made up the roof of whatever dwelling he was in. He sat up from the cot he was on. He had pushed the blankets off himself. He peered at them crumpled at the foot of the cot. Rey must have done that. She must have put him here. The last thing he remembered was trying to heal in the Verdanth rainforest.

The dwelling was small, just the cot and a rickety looking table and chairs. The whole thing was made of wood. Vines and plant life coming in at a few places. Water dripped through the slates in the roof. It had to be on Verdanth. Kylo was not sure how he felt about that. He had not thought about where he would wake up. He had not thought about much of anything. Rey had to know. That must be why she was not there.

He heard a loud crack from what sounded like a fire. When he looked closely, he could see the glimmer of a fire coming from outside the thin wooden door. It did not properly fit inside the doorframe. He stood off his cot and walked toward it.

Rey sat crossed legged with her hands placed on her knees near the small fire. Her eyes were closed, and her breathing was slow and steady. She was at peace with the force. It felt…well truly she didn't know how it felt. It could have been new and different, but it wasn't. It felt like it always had, maybe just more open. And lighter. It felt so much lighter. She had touched the darkness just once and nearly scared Master Skywalker away forever. She could understand why he was so scared. She hadn't felt the force then, not like this.

She felt a slight disturbance and opened her eyes.

"Ben," she replied at him pleased as she got to her feet with only a slight struggle.

He didn't say anything for moment. He just stared at her with a mixture of confusion and that sad look like he might cry.

"I didn't expect you to wake up so soon," Rey stated to fill the silence. "Are you feeling alright?"

"You didn't leave," he replied matter-a-factly.

"No…I," Rey shook her head nervously. "I was worried," she admitted.

"Why?" he demanded of her.

Rey raised an eyebrow at him. "You helped heal me."

He shook his head and took a step toward her. She didn't step back. That still felt new. "No," he pointed out. He knew she was hiding something. "There is something else."

Rey attempted to be coy but then shook her head and sighed. "Fine," she answered. "I didn't get a chance to read that much but using the force for healing can be…dangerous for dark force users."

"That's why you said that," he connected. "That it would hurt me more than you."

"Yes," she said, motioning toward him. He could feel her excitement rising. "But, it didn't. Because you didn't. You didn't use the dark side. You used the force. The light part of the force." She was smiling and had taken a few steps toward him. "I don't know how you did it, but you did."

He was quiet. He had not thought about how. He only knew why.

Rey walked toward him and took his hand. She led him closer to the fire. "I believe you can do it again. Do you want to try?"

She was about to sit on the ground again but stop when she sensed his hesitation. The awkward motion seemed to hurt her back and shoulders, but she attempted to hide her discomfort. To her credit, he could only feel it, not see it.

"What do you want me to do?" Kylo asked.

They were standing, facing each other with the fire blazing beside them in the damp rainforest, illuminated by the setting sun.

"Nothing," she stated simply and slyly as she sat down. "Just sit here with me."

He obeyed and sat in front of her. She held out her hands to him. He took them. She closed her eyes. He stared at her. He was not sure what to make of any of this. She had not mentioned his confession on the stolen ship. She had not even thanked him for healing her, not really. He would be angry with her if he was not so relieved that she was still there.

"Just focus on the force, Ben," she instructed him. It with an air of condensation, like she could hear everything he was thinking.

He did as she said.