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↞४— 35 ABY: Six Months After the Battle of Crait —४↠
The longer Rey stared up at the colorful maze of wires, the blurrier her vision became.
When Poe had sought her help on fixing the aircraft earlier, Rey had agreed in a heartbeat. “It’s just a T-70 X-wing, I’ll have it patched up in no time!”
Now, she was regretting her naive overeagerness, her confidence waning with every passing second.
But there was no way she’d ever admit that to Poe and his smug face.
Rey peered at the bundle of wires again. Many had fallen out of place, rerouted into incorrect circuit ports; others were tangled in incomprehensible knots; the rest just hung loosely, dangling without any hint of its original purpose.
The desert climate of Tattooine only strengthened the difficulty of her task at hand, unbearable ripples of heat licking her skin with the ferocity of a blazing fire. Dense, wave-like fumes swayed in the air, blurring her vision, forcing Rey to adjust her goggles and squint harder.
Suddenly, the howling desert winds vanished into silence, ceasing their relentless slaps onto her face. A familiar, yet haunting, click echoed in her eardrums—a sound Rey hadn’t experienced in months.
“Rey.”
She inhaled sharply, staring even more intently at the circuitboard as she shoved down the instinctual yearning to turn her head to see him. “I’d… rather not do this right now.”
“Right.” She could sense him shifting nervously from side to side, his mind churning with a cacophony of emotions. “I don’t control this, you know. I… I thought you severed our... connection.”
His final word came out in a choked whisper, soft and crestfallen. Rey finally pulled out from the underneath of the aircraft, lifting her goggles to glance upwards. Her eyes widened as she drank in every detail of the sight before her.
Impossibly, Ben looked even more broken than he did during their last Force Bond meeting, on Crait. His scar had faded into a shimmery pink, thin line—barely visible but still present, contrasting against the sickly pale of his skin. His eyes, a darker, duller brown, were surrounded by wrinkles and deep bags of exhaustion. He donned an outfit composed of one shade of black, complete with an obsidian cape, but the attire did nothing to cover his slumped shoulders.
“Well, I didn’t,” said Rey. “I don’t understand how it works either.”
“I… I see.” He swallowed thickly, fingers shakily raking through his wildly unkempt hair. “What are you doing on the ground?”
“Fixing an aircraft,” she sighed. “But the wires are an absolute mess . It’s going to take me ages to sort through them all.” She brushed strands of sweat-matted hair back, wiping her palms on her jumpsuit. “The heat’s not helping either.”
His eyes roamed over her body. “Is that… sand? Are you on a desert planet?”
“Yeah,” replied Rey bitterly. “Is it… is it strange that I miss the green and the blue already, when I lived most of my life on a desert planet?” She folded her lips in thought. “I’ve only been away from Jakku for barely over a year, but I can barely withstand the sight of more sand dunes now. I miss the blues and greens of Takodana, Ach-To, and some of the other planets we’ve used as temporary settlements.”
“It’s not strange,” Ben answered with genuine conviction. “You’ve been so used to one sight—and not a very beautiful one—for your whole life. It makes sense you want to see and experience different places.”
“If we weren’t in a war, I would go explore the galaxy. Go visit as many lakes as I can or something,” she stated with a wistful yearning.
“I promise you, one day, when this war is over, I will take you to see the most beautiful planets in the galaxy.”
Rey glanced up to meet his unwavering gaze. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” she snapped, ignoring the rapid hammering of her heart against her chest. “We’re in a war right now. Who knows how long that would take. Not to mention, we’re on opposite sides of the war…”
He pressed his lips together. “The war will end,” he said, “It will.”
Before she could ask about his cryptic remarks, Ben faded into nothingness with another click , leaving Rey alone with the wailing gusts of the sweltering desert winds.
↞४— 37 ABY: Two Years Later —४↠
The war ends two years later.
Those same two years pass without any Force Bond interruptions. Rey is initially grateful, glad to not have any distractions that would entangle her conflicted emotions further. Over time, however, the aching hole in her heart grows, longing for some communication with the one person who truly understood her.
Not that she doesn’t know what the Supreme Leader was up to though. After their last conversation, the First Order’s violent invasions of the Outer Rim planets significantly decreased. Instead, they increasingly turned their focus to strengthening the infrastructure of those planets, working with the civilians rather than terrorizing them.
She wouldn’t admit it aloud, but Rey was proud of what Ben was doing. She still didn’t agree with Ben’s decision, but at least he was leading the First Order in a much better direction.
A month prior, the Resistance received a transmission from the First Order requesting a meeting. Poe and Kaydel were skeptical, but consented to one—a meeting that Rey, as the only individual with Force-Sensitive abilities in the Resistance, was asked to attend.
Little did they know, that meeting was the first of many—a string of discussions that negotiated a peace treaty. A comprehensive document that finally signalled an end to the war that neither side wanted to continue.
“So, esteemed former Supreme Leader,” Poe asks with a smirk while signing his name with unnecessarily loopy flourishes, “what are your plans now that you don’t have a galaxy to lord over?”
Rey halts her movements and glances curiously at Ben, whose eyes fall on her at the same time.
“A long time ago, I made a promise to someone that I never fulfilled,” he states slowly, his burning gaze never leaving hers, “so I plan to follow up on it.”
Her eyes widen when she realizes what he’s referring to. She bites the inside of her cheek, partially hiding the smile threatening to blossom. He returns her gesture with one of his own, a crooked, close-lipped smile that lights up his entire face.
Poe’s eyes dart between the two of them, glimmering with confusion, but he knows not to inquire. “Well, I wish you—you both, I guess?—the best.”
“Thank you, Poe.” The former commander wordlessly turns to depart, before Ben parts his lips to hurriedly speak. “One last thing, actually—could we borrow the Falcon?”
↞४— Takodana —४↠
They travel to Takodana first.
Ben’s rationale is that they should begin their holiday with somewhere they’re both familiar with, a planet that she would be happy to visit again. That Takodana is perfectly wedged in between the Inner and Outer Rim is a bonus.
It’s quite fitting that their first destination is also the location of their first meeting.
The Millenium Falcon soars over the lush forest, a seemingly boundless canvas of greens and browns overlain atop each other. (Fortunately, Ben is piloting, giving Rey ample time to admire the sights without distraction.)
They slow down when they pass over the remains of Maz’s castle. Though the First Order offered to pay for reparations of the fortress, Maz decided to keep it in its current state—gray rubble, half-demolished walls, charred furniture—as a reminder of the destructive power of war.
Finally, the Falcon touches down on an empty patch by the shore of Nymeve Lake, its wheels smoothly rolling to a halt on soft tussles of green grass.
Rey eagerly jumps off the aircraft to gaze across the mile of royal blue, the ripples glistening under the radiant sunlight as though each wave is encrusted with diamonds. In the distance, the air surrounding the mountains hangs with a heavy fog, beaming rays of yellow light caught in its slur.
“My first time here, I couldn’t believe that this much green existed in the galaxy—much less on one planet alone.”
Ben’s eyebrows furrow at her statement, just as they always do when she brings up a reminder of how her life on Jakku unfolded, but he tactfully never mentions it. “I’m glad you could come here again.”
“Me too,” Rey whispers. “Thank you. Thank you for bringing me here.”
They turn their focus back to the lake, watching ripples wash over each other in looping circles, quite the calming sight to soothe their burdened souls. Silence stretches between them, one of comfort and tranquility.
↞४— Felucia —४↠
Ben decides to take Rey to the planet of Felucia next.
“Felucia is a very vibrant place,” he remarks. “Quite unique in its own way. I think you’ll like it.”
“...Vibrant?” She raises an eyebrow at his peculiar choice of vocabulary.
He merely shakes his head. “You’ll understand once we get there.”
Rey leans back farther in her seat, ruminating over his words silently. In her mind she concocts possibilities of what the “vibrant” planet could look like. A sky that looks like a canvas splattered with blotted streaks of bubblegum and violet? A buzzing, bustling city center with flashing lights? Rolling hills covered in blooming flowers of every color?
None of them, it turns out, yet “vibrant” is the most perfect word Rey could use to describe Felucia.
The planet is an explosion of life and color, overrun with a lush jungle composed of more plant types than Rey could count. Tall, thick stalks of bright emerald stretch high up into the air, interweaving between houses. Enormous rancors roam the crop fields, pressing their webbed hands into the golden earth. Trees of purple, orange, yellow, and blue dot her vision as the Falcon glides over the greenery.
When Lady Dusk descends upon the planet, her long fingers wrapping the jungle in a cooler, darkened grip, Rey and Ben decide to take a stroll in the less humid climate.
Impossibly, Felucia exudes even more grandeur at nighttime, emanating bright lights and colors. The bulbous plant leaves glow alight, beams of seafoam and turquoise guiding them on their walk.
“It’s just… so beautiful,” Rey whispers, a dream-like breath that leaves her lips parted as her eyes continue to draw in the scenery. She reaches out to stroke a crimson plant stem with the barest brush of her fingertips, still marveling at nature’s wonders.
“Yeah...” Ben trails off. Unbeknownst to Rey, his eyes fall on her, tracking her every expression of childish delight and admiration. “Beautiful, indeed.”
↞४— Coruscant —४↠
Rey is grateful that Ben doesn’t have his lightsaber on him when she admits that she has never visited Coruscant.
“I was thinking we could visit Chandrila next? The nature there is stunning, and you seem to enjoy that. Many people like to visit urban planets like Coruscant and whatnot because they’re fancy and rich, but I always found them loud and overwhelming—”
“I’ve never been there,” she interrupts.
“To Chandrila? I’m not surprised, it’s a small planet—”
“No, Coruscant.”
His mouth falls open, eyes widened and trained on her face. He closes his mouth, then opens it, before closing it again.
“What do you mean, you’ve never been to Coruscant? ” exclaims Ben, cheeks flushed and fists clenched. With how angry he looks, he might have slashed three control panels by now, Rey thinks. “It’s kriffing Coruscant, basically the center of the galaxy! Everyone’s been to Coruscant!”
She stares at the floor with rapt attention. “I haven’t.”
“You’ve never been? Not even for the Resistance?”
“Nope.”
“Oh.” His voice turns tender, but his hands clench into fists. “Well, let’s change that.”
From the outside, Coruscant is a dark planet, sangria clouds swirling around its obsidian surface. Upon entering its atmosphere, however, Rey is blinded by the light.
Lights of all colors dot every inch of Coruscant’s surface. The sky, a dim magenta waning against the midnight blue in the wake of the setting sun, is brightened by the flickering lights of the air traffic. They reflect off the metal of the sleek, transparisteel skyscrapers that tower over the city in what seems like a never-ending sea of glimmering stars.
“There’s the Senate Building,” Ben points out. “The Senate Office Building is right next to it. And over there, you see that in the distance? That’s Monument Plaza, the last remaining mountain peak on this planet...”
Rey nods at his descriptions and explanations with rapt curiosity. One building catches her eye—a small rectangular trailer with an olive, metallic shell standing alone amidst tall skyscrapers and sleek architecture.
“What’s that?”
Ben pauses his rambling to glance at where she was pointing. Then, his eyes brighten.
“Of course that’s the one you notice,” he says. “It’s an eatery called Dex’s Diner.”
She instantly sits up straight. “A diner? Like one with real food?” Her stomach rumbles at the thought of having something richer in taste than solely ration packs, coaxing a hearty chuckle out of Ben.
“Yeah, it has real food,” he replies, while preparing the Falcon for landing. “Let’s go.”
“This—is—really—good,” Rey comments in between enormous bites of her Shawda club sandwich. “The bread is warm and toasted! I’ve never had something like that before.”
Ben glances at her mouth, which is smeared with crumbs and sauce remnants. “Uh—” He pulls out a black silk handkerchief from his pocket, gently wiping it over her face, taking special care to trace over her lips delicately. “You’ve got a little something here.”
“Er, thanks…” A soft, dusty pink blossoms across her cheeks. She’s unable to meet his eyes, not after such an… intimate gesture from him.
“Here, have the cake.” He slides over the silver tray holding a cake cut into clean slices. Its white outer layer is adorned with tiny blue geometric patterns, with a cylindrical crumble laying atop each slice. “It’s the Sic-Six-layer-cake, Dex’s specialty.”
Rey blinks. “There are nine slices.”
“I know you can eat them all.”
Her neck bends forward as she openly stares at him. “I don’t know if that was an insult or a compliment,” she states with a crooked smile, dimples on full display, “but I’m going to take that as a challenge!”
She sinks her fork into the dessert, marveling at the soft texture of the cake. Then, she slides it into her mouth.
“Mhmm,” Rey moans in delight. “This is heavenly.” She shovels more mouthfuls, savoring every bite; in no time, the first slice has vanished into the cage of her happy stomach. “I think Coruscant just became my favorite planet.”
“I should have known that food was the swaying factor,” he says with a loud, exaggerated sigh, but the corner of his lips quirk upwards into a fond half-smile. “Beautiful architecture and so much rich history on this planet, but a slice of cake is what skyrockets Coruscant into your number one spot.”
“Yep!” Rey exclaims in delight, now finished polishing a third slice off the tray. “Fine, you nerd. Tell me about Coruscant’s history then. I’ve only heard of its importance as a trade center.”
“Coruscant has always been the political and economic center of the galaxy,” Ben explains. “Its location in the Core Worlds places it in the path of many trade routes, and it became the Republic’s capital. And it remained so for most of the millenium.”
“But it’s not just the typical Senate stuff that makes this planet interesting. Both the Jedi and the Sith have long histories of being present here.” He pivots his head to peer out the window. “See the building with the five tall spires? That used to be the Jedi Temple.”
“Jedi Temple?” Rey repeats. “I didn’t even know that was a thing.”
“Yes, Coruscant was the home to the Jedi Order until the end of the Clone Wars,” Ben replies. “But now it’s repurposed as an Imperial Palace. Before it was a Jedi Temple, it was actually a Sith shrine.”
“The Jedi were always known as the universal peacemakers, guardians of justice,” he says with clear disdain. “But, as you’ve probably learned, their notions of peace gradually became more twisted and deluded as the Order stayed rooted in tradition.”
She nodded, recalling the stories of the Jedi Order’s failures that Luke had told her as a Force Ghost.
“During the Clone Wars, the Jedi broke their stand of not being soldiers by being instated as military commanders to defend the Republic.” A wistful shadow clouds over his eyes. “That’s actually how my grandfather and grandmother got together—he was assigned to be her bodyguard.”
Rey raises an eyebrow. It’s rare for Ben nowadays to mention his grandfather; it’s even rarer for him to reference his grandfather in a non-Vader context.
“Palpatine manipulated everything to go his way to form the Empire, causing the Jedi Order to disintegrate.” His gaze once again drifts to the window, staring distantly at the former Temple. “In one of his final acts that turned him to the dark side, Vader killed all the Jedi younglings and burned down the monastery.”
“Wow.” She pauses her eating, contemplating these new revelations. “That definitely is a lot of history on one planet.” She had known bits and pieces of the history between the Jedi and Sith prior to this moment. Now, the puzzle pieces finally click in her mind. “Where did Vader go? Surely he didn’t stay on Coruscant after that, right?”
“He went to—” A light flickers beneath Ben’s eyelids. “Actually, why don’t we go see for ourselves?”
They don’t leave until Rey finishes the last slice of cake, of course.
↞४— Mustafar —४↠
“Mustafar isn’t exactly what I would call a beautiful planet, but it definitely has its own sense of beauty. In a haunting sort of way…” Ben says hesitantly, rubbing the back of his neck. “Truth be told, I’ve never been here. Only rumors and holos.”
She grasps for his hand, a gesture that makes him jump in his seat. “Don’t worry,” Rey speaks with a quiet yet commanding tone. She draws a light circle on his palm with her thumb, over and over and over. “As long as we stay together, we’ll be alright.”
He whips his head, peering at her from under long, dark lashes.
She doesn’t notice, too fixated on the rapidly approaching gas giant. The planet is a literal fireball; scarlet flames spit and lick along the surface of the enormous sphere.
Rey feels an unwelcome tingling, a foreboding boil in her blood as the Falcon inches closer towards Mustafar. “Do you… do you feel like something’s—well, not wrong —but… different somehow?”
“Yes.”
She glances over at Ben, realizing that he didn’t need to speak to answer her question. His whole body is as stiff as a wooden plank, joints rigid and muscles tense. “I think…” The muscle underneath his left eye twitches noticeably, a sure sign that Ben is deeply uncomfortable. “There’s a lot of Dark energy in the planet. A lot. ”
“Okay, okay,” she breathes out. “Take a deep breath, Ben. You’re going to be fine.” His breathing starts to quicken, and Rey can feel waves of panic rolling across their Force bond. She winces; of course she made the situation worse. “How about this—I’ll land the Falcon. Are you okay with copiloting for a bit?”
He bobs his head rapidly, unable to utter a word.
“Alright.” They switch seats. Rey braces herself for the aircraft’s entrance through the dark, cloudy atmosphere. “Keep breathing, all the Dark energy is probably affecting you worse than me. Remember, balance is key.”
He nods again. The wild shadows in his pupils have settled into a calm, soulful brown, coated with a sheen of determination.
The Falcon penetrates the tempestuous atmosphere, swerving through fog, ash, and smoke. Finally, it pulls into a clear view of the planet beneath them.
“Holy kriffing hell,” Rey breathes out.
“No kidding, it really does look like hell.”
She looks away from the view to glare at him for his joke. He conjures a smirk in response. The tiny upward quirk of his lip is gone in the blink of an eye, but her heart is still fluttering moments after.
Ben may have been joking, but if Rey had to draw an image of what hell may have looked like, Mustafar would be the perfect depiction. The volcanic earth, dark as charcoal, is split into large cracks. Scorching, heavy lava spill out of every splintering of the planet’s crust, pouring forth into crimson rivers that seem to glow with gold.
“Over there,” he wheezes, arm outstretched toward the left. “I think that’s where the source of the Dark energy is.”
Rey cautiously steers the Falcon over a glimmering pool of lava, coming into view with a narrow waterfall of molten liquid that rains down from a massive building. “Is that—is that a castle?”
“Vader’s Fortress…” Ben breathes out, gripping his chair’s handles hard enough to whiten his knuckles. She gasps at the revelation, a sharp intake of breath squeezing her chest. “I didn’t think it was still intact. But I guess no one comes here anymore…”
The former Sith’s abode is every bit as grand as it is haunting. Looming over the edge of a cliff and perched above a cave, the fortress stretches into the hazy gray clouds. The towers are strong beams of obsidian, every edge sharp and flawless.
“That cave… It’s screaming with the Dark side of the Force,” she observes, “and the castle seems to feed off of it.”
Ben nods. “Vader ended the war here, by murdering all the Separatist leaders in cold blood. Right after that, my grandmother came here in a last attempt to save him, to convert him back to the light. But she failed.” He inhales deeply to calm his shaking voice. “Kenobi emerged from her aircraft, so Vader thought she had betrayed him. He choked her, injuring his very pregnant wife, who soon died right after childbirth.”
Rey claps her palm over her mouth, her hazel pupils bulging.
“Then, Vader and Kenobi duelled. Obi-Wan cut off all of Vader’s limbs and left him burning on the ground. Palpatine rescued him, but Vader returned here to bleed the kyber crystal necessary for his lightsaber and built this as his permanent residence.”
“Because there’s no better fuel for darkness than the place that caused him the most pain,” Rey murmurs, her words soft, barely above a whisper.
“Exactly.” Ben lowers his head. “My grandfather was a cruel, twisted man. Just like me.”
“No,” Rey immediately snaps. “You’re nothing like him.”
“I am ,” Ben growls back. “I’m every bit of the monster he was. I’ve killed people. Hurt people. Innocent people. For many years, I practiced and perfected the art of using other people’s pain to make me stronger—”
“Stop!” Rey releases her grip of the steering wheel and controls, eyes blazing with flames brighter than the lava flowing beneath them. “Don’t say that.”
“It’s true though. All of it.”
“No, it’s not !” She prods her finger at his chest. “You are not Darth Vader. For one, he chose the Dark side. You didn’t.” Rey carefully brushes the scar on his cheek, now a narrow and faded line, with the side of her thumb. “Snoke had his claws in you before you were even born. You finally broke free of it—a monumental task within itself—and walked the path to balance on your own.”
She cradles his face in her palm, peering up at him. His eyes are glassy, a glimmering sheen of unshed tears staring back at her.
“Vader didn’t do what was right until the moment before he died,” she continues forcefully. “You still have a lifetime ahead of you, Ben.”
↞४— Chandrila —४↠
As haunting and bonechilling Mustafar and its rich history is, Rey must admit there is a certain beauty about its unstable, rumbling nature. But the darkness gets too much to handle, rattling uncomfortably within both their skulls, so they leave the planetside soonafter, not deigning to stay any longer.
Rey pilots the Falcon to head to Chandrila next—the planet Ben seemed to show an inordinate amount of fondness for.
“So you said Chandrila is a small planet?” Ben nods in affirmation. “Then how did you become so well-acquainted with it?”
“Well…” He brings a hand to the back of his neck, scratching it nervously. “I was born on Chandrila.”
Her eyes bulge outwards. “What?” She imagines she looks like a fish, mouth falling open and closed in a stuttering rhythm. “You… I thought you were born on some fancy, grand planet!”
“No,” he murmurs, eyes darting around the Falcon’s dashboard, “I was born here and grew up here.”
She frowns at the realization that there is still much about him she doesn’t know about. Rey doesn’t understand why that discovery affects her so much, but she is determined to unravel the enigma that is Ben Solo.
Chandrila is a cozy planet, a never-ending view of soft blues and warm greens. For almost everyone, the weather would be considered perfect—not too hot and not too cold, a soft summer breeze whisking one’s hair under strays of warm sunlight.
For a woman who lived the majority of her life in a scorching desert, however, the mild climate veered closer to slightly chilly.
“Are you okay?” asks Ben, frowning with concern.
“I’m fine,” she gritted out, trying to not reveal her real feelings. A strong gust of wind blew into the bare skin of her forearm; her teeth began to chatter, destroying all illusions she had attempted to put up.
“No, you’re not,” he insisted. He shrugs off his ink-black cape with the grace of a gymnast—one quick wrist movement, and the cape is neatly draped over Rey’s shoulders.
“What—” Ben steps in front of her to wrap the cape around her in a tight embrace, tying a knot at the hollow of her neck. “What are you—”
“Are you warm now?”
She closes her mouth. His cape is lined with velvet on the inside, warmly rubbing against her bared skin snugly. She hates to admit it, but she is much warmer. “Aren’t you cold?” Rey directs at him instead.
He doesn’t answer; the corners of his lips quirk upward in a tiny smirk, his eyes gleaming with a knowing twinkle.
She turns away from him with a mumbled harrumph, but they both know she’s thankful for it. Her eyes finally zero in on the view ahead of them—and quite a grand view it is.
Golden beams of sunshine have chased away the hazy effluvium of fog to pull open nature’s curtain, revealing the stunning body of water before them. The water, a breathtaking azure, is perfectly still—a flawless mirror for the rows of trees to gaze into.
A soft earthy scent, mixed with the sweet aroma of pine, fills her nose, and the pleasant humming of bees form a harmonious chorus to her ears. A gentle breeze rustles the trees, their rough bark imperceptibly moist, the dark green foliage trembling excitedly.
“This is…” She is rendered speechless from awe. “This is absolutely beautiful. You really grew up here? I’m so jealous.”
He nods, but not with the eager delight she was expecting. “It is beautiful,” he agrees, “but I stayed indoors for most of my childhood, honestly.”
“You expect me to imagine that Ben Solo, history buff and calligraphy extraordinaire, wasn’t an outdoor-loving kid?” chuckles Rey. “Color me surprised.”
He breathes out through his nose, lips curving in a flash of a smile. “Yeah,” he says, head bowed down. “That, and my parents weren’t home often. Between my dad being a smuggler and my mom being a Senator… I was monitored to stay inside the house all the time.”
“Oh,” she breathes out. “I’m so sorry, that must have been terrible.”
“I haven’t been back here in… a long time.” His forehead wrinkles with pain. “Not since… It’s been at least ten years to Chandrila. Maybe twenty years to out here specifically.”
“Well then,” replies Rey with a genuine smile of hope and emotion. She leans into his side, and his arm comes around to bring her into a tight hug. “Welcome home.”