Chapter Text
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All through the night
This precious time, when time is new...
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"Rey Skywalker."
Up until the second the words left her mouth, Rey had never put them together, even in her mind. But it felt right to say them. Skywalker was such a powerful name, so singularly tied to the destiny of the galaxy that she couldn't bear to see it die off. She wanted it to live on. She owed that to Luke and Leia.
And Ben.
The woman who'd asked her name asked no more questions and once she had ridden off, Rey was alone again, facing the setting suns, with BB-8 by her side.
"Take him with you," Poe had told her as she'd prepared to leave Ajan Kloss. "He'll keep you company. Plus..." He grinned. "If you take him, then I know you'll be back someday to bring him home. You can't just disappear."
Shaking off the memory of Poe's grin, Rey shielded her eyes against the brilliant sunset. Night was coming fast.
One look around Luke's home was all it had taken her to decide that she would be sleeping in the Falcon, but she waited until the very last shimmering bit of sun disappeared behind the horizon before she reluctantly made her way back to the ship.
The Falcon was quiet, now that the last Porg had been repatriated on Ahch-To. It was just her and BB-8.
Rey reheated some rations in the small galley and ate them standing up, wandering the small living space. After she finished, BB-8 followed her down the corridor and into the sleeping quarters.
Although she had her pick of rooms, she'd already decided to sleep in one of the smaller bunks. The biggest room had been Han's once upon a time, and it was where Leia had stayed after their escape from Crait. Rey could still remember passing by the door and hearing Leia quietly crying inside.
She'd hidden her grief over losing her husband, her brother and her son, and she'd done so for all of them, for the remainder of the Resistance. To keep them from losing hope, she'd mourned alone.
Rey stood in the doorway for a long time before she worked up the courage to go in. Maybe she was imagining it, but if she closed her eyes, she could almost pick up the faintest traces of Leia's perfume. She might have been a general, but Rey's master had never quite lost all the traces of the princess she had been.
The bed was neatly made, a sign that no one had been in the room since the Resistance had relocated to Ajan Kloss. Rey gingerly sat down on it, perching on the edge like a naughty child.
BB-8 chirped, asking if she was going to sleep and whether he should power down.
Rey smiled at him. "Go ahead. I'm not far behind you."
With BB-8 powered down, the Falcon was even quieter. Outside the dusty window on the ceiling over the bed, Rey could see that the blue of twilight had given away to the dark of night.
How many hours had Han lain on this bed, looking up at the stars watching over his ship? Had Leia done the same after Crait, perhaps remembering the times when she might have had her husband beside her?
Maybe Ben had napped under this window as a child. Before he'd changed. Before Palpatine....
Rey's throat felt thick. Ever since Exegol, she'd done everything in her power not to think about Ben and their final moments together. Distracting herself had worked, but now there were no more distractions.
A single tear slid down her cheek as she hesitantly touched her lips. No matter what happened for the rest of her life, her first kiss had been with Ben and she was glad for that. That kiss and the smile it had brought to Ben's face--they were hers now; they existed entirely in her memory and no one would ever know about them if she wanted to keep them all to herself.
But the kiss had also woken up something inside of her, something she'd never even known was there until the Force had brought their minds together, made them see each other across light years.
Ben's body had been a far cry from the glimpses she'd tried not to see of men at the outpost on Jakku. She knew Ben hadn't covered himself in order to throw her off, to unnerve her, and it had worked. The side effect was the ache she could feel every time she remembered that moment.
Still, Ben was gone. And like Leia, she had to mourn him alone. She was the only one left who had known Ben Solo, who had seen the good in him.
Who had loved him.
"Ben," she whispered. "If you can hear me...if you're out there, I want you to know..." She paused. "I won't waste the life you gave me. But I don't know what I'm going to do. I was hoping I might figure it out here, but..." Rey shook her head. "It's just sand and silence."
"Rey, you can go anywhere now."
A shiver ran down Rey's spine as she remembered Poe's words, but it wasn't the sentiment itself, but rather the memory of how he'd shifted closer to her as they sat before the bonfire.
And how that simple movement had created a new ache. For Poe.
She swiped at her tears with the back of her hand. Poe was her friend. Nothing more. Besides, she'd seen him with his friend from Kijimi--she liked Zorri Bliss and she was glad that she'd escaped before the planet was destroyed. There was history between her and Poe. History that, no doubt, would probably repeat itself now that the war was over.
Rey didn't know what her future held, but as for romance...no. That possibility had died with Ben.
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TBC