Rey woke up in dark and frighteningly familiar surroundings, but the first thing she noticed was the cold. She had grown so used to the hot, humid nights on Ajan Kloss that the cold air blowing around her was almost strange, but she knew this cold. She knew it like she knew hunger and broken bones and dirt under her nails.

Silver-blue moonlight shone through the opening not too far from where she lay that served as a doorway. The ice-cold hand of panic gripped Rey's chest as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. She could see it all now – the hundreds of thousands of tally marks on the wall, the sad dying flower in the corner, the handmade doll wearing scraps of a rebel fighter's uniform. Her breathing became erratic – this was a nightmare, it had to be – or, had everything else been a dream?

The last thing she remembered was the Emperor falling victim to his own lightning, falling to pieces and scattering to the wind like leaves. She recalled the Sith temple crumbling around her, huge chunks of it falling from the sky and crushing the acolytes that surrounded her. The last thing, the very last memory she had, was Luke and Leia's lightsabers falling from her hands as everything left her, as she left herself. That could not have been a dream, it was too real.

Her mind and heart racing, it was difficult to center herself, but Rey reached out with the force. She could feel it still, though her connection was muddled by the emotions swirling inside of her. She felt the balance, the life and death of the planet around her – Jakku. She shuddered at the thought. How had she ended up back here? Had someone brought her here? Had Ben… where was Ben?

As she thought of him something familiar tugged at the edge of her perception. The air around her seemed to buzz with energy, a sensation she had come to recognize and, at one point hate, though now all she could feel was relief.

Her relief was soon washed away when the figure dressed all in black materialized in front of her, sitting on a piece of old machinery half buried in sand. This was not Ben, it was Kylo Ren – mask and all, looking just as he had when she had first seen him in the forest on Takodana. Rey scrambled back, reaching instinctively to her side for her lightsaber, but it wasn't there.

"Rey," The modulated voice said. Rey's heart lurched at the sound. "Wait, please." He said, throwing his gloved hands up, palms out, in a placating gesture. Reaching up, he removed his mask with a hiss – a mask that, Rey now noticed, was completely intact and without the red cracks that had run through it the last time she saw it. Dark curls framed a familiar pale face, now scar-less, his dark eyes were softer that she remembered, and it was difficult to tell in the low light but she could swear that she saw tears forming.

"Rey, it's me – I'm not – It's Ben." His voice wavered as he struggled to choose his words. "Do you… do you remember?"

Rey nodded slowly knowing what he had meant immediately, and she allowed herself to relax some. She could see Ben's shoulders relax as well. They were silent for what felt like a long moment.

"Where are you right now?" Ben asked, his eyes never leaving Rey's face.

"I'm on Jakku." Rey said. "In my old – where I used to live." Rey refused to call the overturned AT AT a home. "I'm not sure how I got here, I don't remember leaving Exegol. At first I thought that you... but you didn't… did you?"

"Did I what?"

"You didn't bring me here, right?" Rey could hear the desperation in her own voice and it sent a shiver of shame through her. Flashes of a ship flying away and a little girl crying out swept past Rey's vision. She was not that little girl abandoned on a desert planet anymore, she was all of the Jedi.

"No, Rey, of course not." Ben's head was bent but his eyes were still on her. He lifted a hand as if to reach out for her, but then thought better of it. Rey wished that he had. She wanted to feel his hand, feel that he was real, that she was.

"Where are you?" Ben flinched slightly at her question.

"It's – you won't believe it…" He sighed. Rey was about to tell him to try her anyway when he continued. "I think I'm on Starkiller Base."

It took a moment for the words to hit Rey. At first, they were meaningless sound, only two words sticking out in her mind Starkiller Base. She'd been there, the name drummed up terrible memories, fighting in the snow, Han – But had Ben just said that he was there now? That wasn't possible.

"That's not possible." Rey breathed.

"It's not, but here I am." Ben said, burying his face in a gloved hand. "Trust me, I remember my quarters very well." He said, looking over to something in his room that Rey could not see. He sighed solemnly.

"Your mask," Rey said, her voice barely a whisper. She could not get her mouth to form the rest of the words, but Ben seemed to understand anyway.

"Yeah, I noticed it too." He nodded.

"What's happened, Ben?" Rey asked, her voice quivering in a way she hated. He looked up at her and opened his mouth as if to say something and closed it again, his gaze dropping to the floor.

"I have a theory, but it's a little out there." He said with a small huff of breath that, if Rey hadn't known better, she would think sounded almost like a chuckle. He looked up at her, eyes as wide and intense as ever, reminding her so much of how he looked when he had asked her to join him in ruling the galaxy on the Supremacy. "I think we've traveled to the past, or our consciousnesses have at least."

"That's -" Rey wanted to laugh, she wanted to tell Ben that it was ridiculous, impossible, but she couldn't. How else could she explain waking up back on Jakku. She could not see Ben's surroundings, but he had never lied to her before and why would he lie about this? "How?" Was all she could manage to say.

"I don't know." He sighed again, running gloved fingers through his dark hair. "I just – there's no other explanation, unless we're both dead and in some bizarre afterlife."

"I think I did die, Ben." Rey whispered. Ben's head shot up at that. "What happened to you on Exegol? I felt you were alive after you fell, but it was so faint."

"What do you remember?" He asked, resting his forearms on his knees and leaning forward.

"I remember Palpatine… dying, I guess. I remember falling, I felt so weak, I thought I was dying, and then I woke up here." Ben stared at Rey intensely for a moment after that, his mouth screwed up as though he were chewing on the inside of his cheek.

"So you don't…" He started but then stopped himself. "I died too, I remember that, and then I woke up here in my quarters. But I don't think we're dead, I don't feel dead."

"Neither do I." Rey agreed. She wondered how Ben had died and nearly asked but figured that he would have shared had he wanted to. Perhaps he died alone and broken at the bottom of that pit on Exegol, the thought made her shudder.

"So, when do you think we are?" Rey continued.

"From what I've gathered, I think we're about a week and a half out from when Starkiller will destroy the Hosnian system." Ben said, looking to something on his left that Rey could not see.

"A week and a -" Rey stopped short. She shot up in her shelter, causing Ben to fly back in shock. Her heart was racing again, but the fluttering was from hope – joy, not panic. "Ben," She turned to look at her doorway, moonlight still streaming in from the quiet desert night outside. "We can stop it. We can – we can prevent all of it. The Hosnian Cataclysm, the Emperor's fleet. We can…"

Rey turned back to Ben again, worried what she would see in his face. He had been a major player in so many off the disasters she wanted to prevent. Would she see shame or, worse yet, anger? A smile spread across her face when she saw something closer to hope swimming in his eyes, his mouth set in a soft line that was not quite a smile, but not far from it.

"Where are you?" He asked, standing. Not for the first time in her life, Rey was impressed by Ben's sheer size. "You said Jakku, but where are you exactly?"

"Not far from Niima outpost, in an overturned AT AT walker." Ben's face twisted into confusion for a moment.

"Alright, I'm coming to get you."

With that, the connection was severed. Rey plopped herself back down on her bed mat and hugged her legs back into her chest. She felt real and true hope for the first time in a long time.

When the connection severed, Ben Solo was on the move. He quickly placed his mask back on, hating the newfound claustrophobia it stirred in him. He made for the door to his quarters and paused, turning to look back at the melted mask on the pedestal to his right.

He brushed his fingers tentatively over the warped metal, not in reverence, but maybe in understanding. Something clutched his heart as he realized for the first time who his grandfather really was – not Darth Vader but Anakin Skywalker. He sighed realizing that he had been calling out to the wrong person the whole time. He had been wrong about so much, but maybe there was time to fix some of his mistakes now.

The door slid open with a soft whoosh. Starkiller Base never really slept, there was always activity no matter what time it was. A couple of officers had been walking down the hall just outside of Ben's room and stopped with a flinch when he exited.

"Prepare my ship." Ben said, his voice low and distorted by his mask. Without waiting for a response, he strode down the hall in the opposite direction from his ship, the train of his cowl billowing like a cape behind him. He didn't need to wait; he knew that people feared Kylo Ren enough to follow his orders directly and immediately.

Ben swiftly made his way to the nearest data center on the base. There were a few of them, Starkiller was a huge base after all, but he should be able to find the information he needed in any of them. The door flew open in front of him, startled officers looked up from their work and stared, wide-eyed.

"Out." He commanded.

The officers sat still, shell-shocked no doubt. Ben started at them for a moment, tensing his shoulders. No one moved, no one spoke, the few officers just started at him with eyes like saucers. He pulled at the rage inside of his chest, something that was always there and, he feared, always would be. He ignited his lightsaber which screamed and crackled to life by his side and struck a communication terminal to his right.

"OUT!" He roared.

The officers did not need a third prompting, which Ben was glad for as Kylo Ren would never have given it. He took a moment to compose himself, to pack away the rage and shove it back down deep inside. He looked back at the communication terminal, it's metal frame now covered in molten red slash marks. He felt a sharp pang of shame but did not dwell on it.

It only took him moments to find what he was searching for. The partial map to Skywalker salvaged from the Imperial databanks, the plans to Starkiller base, a few military positions and plans, anything Ben could think of that would be relevant and useful information. Thankfully, he had clearance for all of this information, one perk to being Kylo Ren, he thought dryly. He then deleted the map. They would notice the missing information and when they went through the logs they would see that he had done it and the manhunt would be on, if it wasn't already. Ben could feel Snoke, or was it Palpatine, on the edge of his mind, but he just strengthened his mental barriers.

His custom TIE-Silencer was fully prepared for flight by the time Ben reached the hangar. People kept their distance from Kylo Ren which suited Ben fine, that way no one could see him nervously fiddling with the data stick in his hand. He left the base and jumped to lightspeed without issue or interference.

Once Ben entered hyperspace, he allowed himself to relax, even if just a little. He could relax fully once he could see Rey, once he knew that she was safe. She didn't remember him bringing her back to life, but he did. He remembered the watery look in her eyes, the way she gently touched his face, the kiss. He remembered it all, especially the pain at finding her cold and lifeless on the floor. He would never let that happen again.

Something like fear tugged on one of the loose threads of his composure. It frightened him how easily he had slipped back into the role of Kylo Ren, how easily the mask had fit, how easily the rage had come. His father, or Ben's memory of his father, had told him that Kylo Ren was gone and that Ben Solo lived, but was that really true? Could the two ever fully be separated? Ben pushed that train of thought to the side.

When Ben arrived on Jakku he knew where to go, almost as if he had been there before. He flew over Niima Outpost, most likely scaring the residents and scavengers milling about below, he imagined them turning their heads up to watch the screaming TIE soaring above their heads.

It did not take long to arrive at the overturned AT AT walker and Ben recognized it instantly. He had seen it in Rey's mind – it felt like so much time had passed since that fateful interrogation, had it really only been just over a year? He vividly remembered the small shelter turned not-quite-home, though it was the closest thing to a home it's small resident could remember. He remembered her loneliness, her dreams of family and of the ocean.

His glimpses into her life, her dreams, her loneliness had so painfully reminded Ben of his own past. They touched a part of him that he had tried so hard and for so long to destroy. He had imagined a boy holding himself in the dark as his parents argued loudly about his future. He had imagined a boy crying in a small hut, so afraid of the voices in his head telling him everything he feared was true. He had imagined a boy old enough to be a man kneeling in front of a twisted hunk of metal, fear twisting his chest, the fear that he would never be as strong as he needed to be, never as strong as his grandfather.

Landing the TIE ripped Ben from his reverie. From the position of the sun above his head he guessed that it was mid-day. It did not take long for the intense desert heat to make Ben instantly regret the many layers of thick black material that covered him. He stripped the cowl from around his shoulders and threw it over the side of the TIE and let his mask fall into the sand beside it.

"Rey?" Ben called from outside of the AT AT's foot. His heart hitched when there was no response. He ducked his head inside, surprised at how much of a difference in temperature the shelter gave. "Rey?"

The shelter was dark and empty. Ben took a moment, his attention captured by the many thousands of marks scratched onto the metal walls. Each was a day, he knew that, he had seen her scratch them. He felt tears threaten his eyes as her pain, now his, became more real than he had ever imagined. He had been the one to tell her of her parent's fate, he had called her nothing which he knew was one of her greatest fears. He hated himself for that, but he hated himself for a great many things.

"Ben!" Called a voice from outside; Rey.

He turned in the doorway just in time to see Rey descending from a junk-heap of a speeder. The wind whipped the sand into a maelstrom around her, making it look like she was caught in a storm, but Ben knew better. Rey was the storm.

She had rushed into his life, an intoxicating mixture of fury and compassion – though some would say it was the other way around. She had turned his life upside down, threatened to destroy every lie and fabrication he had built himself upon. The idea had terrified him, even if she, herself, had enticed him. She was his equal and his opposite in every way, but when he was near her it was like being in the eye of the storm – it was balance and peace amidst swirling chaos.

"You left." Ben pointed out in a way that was distinctively not a question. He wanted to ask her why she had left. His heart was pounding heavily against his chest. He wondered if she had been trying to give him a heart attack; kill him for good this time.

"Did you think I was just going to sit around waiting for you?" She asked, turning her back to him to rummage through a mesh bag of junk strapped to the speeder. "You took forever."

"You do realize that space travel takes time, don't you?" Ben asked, hearing the unwarranted annoyance in his own voice. He crossed his arms and let his anxiety wane.

"I do, yes." She said turning to face him again, narrowing her eyes. "If you'll remember I've done quite a bit of it myself, but I can't just sit still."

"I understand." Ben said. He really did understand. The adrenaline had not stopped pumping through his veins since he woke up in a past version of himself that he would have liked very much to forget. "What now, we head to the Resistance Base? Do you know where that is?"

"Of course, I do." Rey said, rolling her eyes. "We should probably find another ship though, your TIE is nice," Ben noted the sarcasm in Rey's voice and did his best not to seem wounded. It really was a nice ship. "But it's quite small and I'd rather not sit on your lap on the entire trip to the base."

Ben was glad for the mixture of the desert heat and his far too warm, far too thick clothes as his face was most likely already a bright red from overheating.

"And I can't imagine the Resistance leaders being happy about a TIE flying right up to the base, not to mention it would be easily tracked." Ben added.

"They would probably shoot it out of the sky on sight." Rey agreed with a small laugh.

"They might try." Ben added humorlessly. Rey rolled her eyes at him yet again, but then she perked up, her eyes going wide, a smile forming on her face.

"The Falcon!" She exclaimed.

"What?" Ben asked, confused as to what the old ship had to do with anything.

"The Millennium Falcon," Rey explained slowly, as though Ben had no idea what ship she was talking about. It was his turn to roll his eyes. "That's how we escaped Jakku last time, Plutt has it we could take it and then… Han will find us! He's got a…"

Ben could not hear anything over the rushing blood in his ears. The realization came crashing over him like a wave. Han, his father, was still alive and Ben could not breathe. The full implications of their situation had not fully caught up with him until this moment. His father, his mother - both of his parents were still alive. For the first time since realizing that he could go back he actually had something to go back to.

"Ben?" Rey had drawn closer, a concerned look on her face. "Is everything alright?"

"Yes." Ben knew that he could not speak much right now, or his voice would be a wavering mess. "That's a good plan."

Before they left, Ben returned to the TIE to gather his mask and cowl. Rey shot him an inquisitive look but said nothing, hopping on the speeder and patting the spot behind her for him to join her. Rey covered her face with some scraps of fabric and a pair of dusty goggles, to protect herself from flying sand, Ben realized, placing his own mask over his face. They sped away from the abandoned shelter and First Order ship and Ben's mind was too lost in thought to be flustered about Rey being in his arms.