Rey felt him fading, it was like that warm light inside her that he filled was growing cold. Her finger dipped into the dimple that she just discovered and smoothed over the skin where his scar used to be.
“No, Ben…” she begged, she could hear her heartbeat or maybe it was his either way she felt the beat in her bones.
“It’s okay...” he rasped, still smiling, still looking at her like she was every star in the galaxy. She could feel his strength filling her but she could feel him fading away.
No, she thought. Not when she just got him. Not when she just tasted him and felt his hand on her neck and saw him smile at her like he’d never been happy before he saw her face.
Rey closed her eyes and reached toward that void, the one he pulled her back from. She saw him there, transparent and sinking and she reached out her hand. Sunk through that cold nothingness until she felt him grasp it.
With the force, with the strength he gave her. With the strength of all the Jedi before her whispering in her mind. And with her own power she pulled him back. The bond pulled tight, her chest ached, her skin felt tight but still she pulled him back from that dark void.
Rey felt him crash back into himself and back into her, into that space in her soul where he lives now. When she opened her eyes he was solid again, looking down at his body with surprise.
He smiled again, and ‘God’ Rey thought she’d never seen anything so bright. He crushed her to him, thick arm banding around her waist and she gripped the fabric of his black tunic in her fist holding him close.
“Rey…” he breathed into her neck, his breath warm and so utterly alive. She clenched the fabric of his shirt even tighter in her fist, afraid to let him go. Her name on his lips felt like a thousand ships launching into hyperspace.
“It’s okay, I’m here sweetheart…” She realized she was crying, her chest shuttering against the breadth of his. His reassurances vibrated against her and she took a deep breath and pulled back, looking in the face of Ben Solo again.
“Let’s go home,” she said. He cupped her face, thumb running along the dirty trails of her tears.
“I already came home,” he responded, flashing that dimple and those eyes and that space inside her carved out just for him flared with warmth and she’d finally fought for the belonging she’d been seeking her entire life. She’d found it right here on the floor of a Sith temple with Ben Solo in her arms and she thought. Maz was right.
