"So we're both jedi now..." Rey said as she climbed down the ramp, and into the light of dawn.

"So it seems. Who would have imagined me being a jedi?" he smiled.

"Me. But that won't stop my feelings." She said as she approached him and took his hand. "As you said before, there has to be a way."

  And at the same time, they leaned forward and kissed. Ben's hand went up to cup Rey's cheek, the other around her waist. She did not know why she did that, yet she had felt the need to.

   "What are we, Ben?" Rey said as they broke apart, and placed her forehead against his.

   Her voice was small, thin, as if she could voice all the uneasiness he felt.

   "I don't know, Rey." he caressed her cheek. "But we'll figure it out, I promise."

   She closed her eyes. She knew just too well what she wanted; to have a family, to go somewhere and live far, far away from troubles and dangers. But there was more to do before that. She could always feel Ben's remorse, his burning desire to make up to his parents, to all the people he had wronged. And she would help him.

   Suddenly, both of them were caught in a big, furry embrace.

   "Raaaawwrghh!" Chewie roared as he held the two people he loved close.

   Rey laughed in his chest as the wookie pressed her harder against him and Ben.

   "We're sorry that we can't take you, Chewie." She said.

   And then a different sound interrupted them as BB-8 hit against Rey's legs.

   "Ah, little one. You're to stay with Chewie u til we're back."

   He made a disappointed beep.

   "But it's a mission we have to go on alone." Ben completed for her. "And someone needs to stay with the ship in this place full of thieves."

   Chewie nodded and let them go, and BB-8 finally approved, visibly upset. Rey smiled one more time at him, before she and Ben headed for the forests they were going to walk through as they climbed the mountain.

   It was cool under the thick roof of the leaves that shielded them from the sun. And green. Rey looked up at the sun that protruded through the green cover like molten gold.

   And Ben couldn't help but notice the same nuances in her eyes. They deflected that bright green, and gold flecks borders them.

   "When the war is over, and if I make it out alive, I want to live in a place like this." She said.

   "You will."

   "But how long does it take to the caves, Ben?"

   "Nearly a day, if we take our speeders." and saying that, he stopped all of a sudden. "Rey, we forgot the speeders."

   She rolled her eyes. "Good it isn't too late."

   They hurried back and mounted the two speeders. It was true that Rey would have preferred to walk, had it taken them even a week. Being there under them trees made her feel like home.

   "Ready to go, Skywalker?" Ben joked.

   "Sure, Solo!" she smirked back and flew away, with Ben right behind her.

   Her hair snapped in the wind against her neck, and the flaps of cloth strapped at her waist flew in the wind.

   She glanced back one more time to look for Ben. Good, she thought as she saw him and gave him a warm, gentle smile. And she increased the speed even more, but he caught up.

   "Thought you could beat me, sweetheart?"

   "Who says I can't?" she snapped back.

   But after that they finally decided to enjoy the ride. There was no hurry.

   The only sound was the rustle of leaves and the song of branches in the wind. There was such a pleasant silence, until two sounds that brought shivers down Rey's spine broke it.

   "Pew! Pew!"

   And she dodged her head in time to avoid the two blasts that sang right above her head.

   "Ben! Look out!" she yelled as two more blew in his way.

   She squeezed her eyes as if shielding herself from the danger, and as quickly as she could, drew her own blaster from her belt and shot back.

   And Ben did the same. Only their enemies were hidden in the forest, behind the trees. Now it didn't matter that those who had seen them now knew that Ben was alive, knew their whereabouts. But they had to make it out alive to the caves.

   "Rey!" she heard Ben yell, drowning the noise made by the blasters. "Stay close to me!" he blurted out as his blaster hand shot in the air at a white soldier that was aiming for him.

   "I'm trying!" Rey yelled back, but her voice was drowned by a groan as she was about to hit a tree as another soldier mounted on a speeder veered her into it.

   And in all that blur, she realized what it was. Stormtroopers. But how the heck did they find us? She couldn't explain it.

   And she could feel Ben's anxiety coming in waves toward her. But the presence of the white armored soldiers only meant that the fears of the resistance members were founded, and that the Final Order was rising, placing sentries and spies through all the galaxy. And that the only way for them was going to war for achieving a peaceful life.

   Now there were two stormtroopers cornering her on both sides. Rey gritted her teeth as she pushed the speeder. But one soldier closed the space between them and pushed her to slam into the other. She let out a frustrated growl and almost slipped to one side, but managed to cling to the handle.

   And she couldn't see Ben at all. It must be that he was cornered somewhere as well.

    "Yield!" one stormtrooper sneered at her through his mask as he held a blaster to her head.

    "No!" she snapped angrily.

    And with all her might, she veered brusquely around a tree, the stormtroopers crashing into one another. She had given no hint of it.

   "Ha!" she exclaimed as she threw a glance back, only to see sparks falling down from the place of the crash, and wisps of smoke rise.

   She smiled at her work, but now she had to find Ben. Because he was nowhere to be seen, and not even a sound of blaster to be heard.

   Ben! she tried through their connection, but received only silence. And as she closed her eyes, only a faint sound of a blaster rang hollow in her ears.

   Not even thinking about it, she gripped the handles and flew her speeder in the direction. She could feel where it was coming from, and as she neared it, she could hear the shots too, and the screams.

   She plunged straight into a fight, where Ben was trying to keep off four or five stormtroopers at least. They have thrown him off his speeder, and his only weapon was the blaster he had taken when he left the Millennium Falcon. She watched as he received one punch in the gut, but got up quickly. Then before he could even get up, another white soldier hit him in the back of his head.

   "Surrender, turncloak!" she heard a stormtrooper say as she plunged straight among them.

   "Leave him alone!" she yelled as she fired a few blasts at Ben's captor. She managed to knock him off his speeder, but at the same moment, all the blasters were aimed on her.

   I'm done, she thought defeated. If she turned around and fled, she was more than certain that they would fire all their blasters on her.

   "Rey, why!?" Ben asked.

   But she could make out their next move, so she began to back down.

   "No!" Ben yelled and lunged forward to choke one trooper as their weapons fired on her.

   But Rey had it all planned down to the last detail. Even before the shots reached her, she was down and rolled on the ground far from her speeder that was now the troopers' main target.

   She stopped with her belly flat on the ground, and tilted her chin up. And her eyes met Ben's. She had expected them to be angry, mad at her lack of wits, but instead warmed immediately. You would have done the same, have you been in my place.

   That's true, I must say, he answered.

   They wasted a good moment reveling in each other's presence. A moment in which the stormtroopers were all around them.

   Rey jumped up to her feet quickly, and snatched her staff. Sneering at the soldiers that closed in around them, advancing menacingly with their blasters drawn, she twirled her old wooden staff with both her hands, and snatched the first one in the his helmet, at the same time wheeling around to avoid a shot aimed at her head. It grazed her hair as it flew in the wind, but that was all.

   Behind her, Ben was shooting and punching the troopers at their back. But it was ten times harder without the force. He yanked one to himself and threw him to the ground.

   Rey moved quickly as a snake,  twirling her staff around her. And it reminded her of the old days when she used to fight for her life in Jakku.
   A soldier grasped her around her waist from behind and lifted her off her feet, but Ben's shot made him fall heavily to the ground. Rey threw him off her, and thanked Ben from a single look.

   "... We found them, they're on Lothar." Rey caught a stormtrooper communicating to the base. So after all the First Order had known they were not dead.

   And before she could react, Ben fired in his direction. But there were two more, and the two jedi without the force were exhausted. Ben lunged for the first one, but Rey's scream rang in his ears as a sudden searing pain in the leg made him fall to his knees.

   "No!" Rey growled asher blaster fired at the stormtrooper who had hit Ben.

   Her face was twisted in a snarl as she lunged with her staff for the second one, knocking him down.

   "You stay away from us!" she yelled through gritted teeth before she killed him.

   Then she remembered Ben had been hit. She hurried to his side and dropped to her knees next to him, her staff fallen carelessly to the ground.

   "Ben, are you alright?" she touched his face as he tried to stand up, but fell back.

   "Yes, I think I can manage." but as he made to plant his leg in the ground and stand on it, a hot dagger burned his wound and his face twisted in pain.

   "Stay here." Rey placed both hands on his shoulders and made him sit lunged on the ground. "Let me take care of it."

   "Rey." he tried to speak. "There can be more, it is not a safe place."

   "Fine, then." She said as she looked around for a larger tree, a boulder, something they could hide behind. But her hand was laying on his shoulder protectively. "Can you stand?"

   "I'll try." he said as he made an attempt to sit up and Rey placed an arm around his shoulders to support him.

   He limped to the closest boulder, where he slumped down again.

   "It will hurt, but it will be over soon, I promise." Rey looked him intently in the eyes.

   He looked at her as if he really wanted to believe it.

   "Can I start now?" she asked, and he nodded.

   Her hands moved to his ankles and deftly began to roll up his pants. She felt a little weird doing this, to be honest with herself, but she needed to reveal the wound somehow.

   As his leg was bared up to the knee, she could see it whole now, a gash red and swollen, dug deep into his flesh. His pants were soaked with blood, and now her hands were slick with the red liquid.

   "It's bad isn't it?" he asked. And she could do nothing but nod helplessly.

   She grabbed his flask with water and poured it on the wound. She could feel him winch in pain, so she grabbed his hand with her free one, and held it tightly.

   The water removed part of the blood, and revealed the wound. It wasn't long, but deep. She ripped a small cloth from the flaps of her tunic and began to brush his skin clean.

   "I'm sorry if it hurts." She said softly. "Now I'll put some alcohol to clean it properly."
  
   Fot some moments she let go of his hand and uncapped the small bottle with blue liquid she wore in her satchel.

   "Hold on." She told Ben as she took his hand again and poured a part on his wound.

   She cleansed it too, and then sat up. Ben's gaze followed her as she grabbed a thick branch from the ground.

   "Bite it down." She told Ben as she placed it in his mouth. "I'll need to do some stitches now."

   She would have promised him it was going to be over soon, but couldn't, for she had never been in the situation to sew on a being.

   She could feel how intrigued Ben was as she took a needle and a thread from her satchel. She glanced at him and answered "It's a first aid kit."

   I hope I can do it, she thought as she placed her gentle hands on his leg. She waited for his permission, and saw him nod.

   But it was her who was not ready. Her needle hand kept trembling, and she feared she would lose all her will at his first scream. But it was the only way.

  Be with me, she sent a thought to the force ghosts. Even though she was afraid they would not hear her.

   But somehow she got the courage she needed, and plunged the needle in his flesh. He squeezed his eyes as tears threatened to pour down from them, but she did not look at him.

   "Sorry, Ben." was all she could say as she gritted her teeth and made another thread over the wound.

   Two more, she counted. She almost cried with him, for somehow, she could feel a faint pain in the same place too. Which was good, it meant their connection was not completely gone.

   And when she was done, she stripped another fresh cloth from her tunic, and wrapped it tightly over Ben's wound.

   And when she finally looked up at him she realized he had been looking all the time. She approached him and retrieved the stick from his mouth.

   "I had to do this." She smiled before she placed a kiss on his forehead.

   "Rey, you're amazing." his voice was filled with admiration as she let her eyes fall to the ground, visibly embarrassed.

   But he would not give up now. Sliding his hand under her chin, he tilted her head up so she would look him in the eyes. "I don't I would have had the strength, Rey." his thumb gently stroked her chin and jaw.

   "It was necessary."

   "It was an act of strength." he insisted.
  
   Then she helped him up and washed  the blood off her sticky hands.

   "We can go back." She said.

   "We're almost there. And I think I can do it."

   "As you wish."

   They gathered all the thing they got with them, including Rey's staff and their blasters, and set back on the path they have come on.

   The way was now steep and rough, making Ben halt way too many times.
We won't make it tonight, Rey thought.

   They have halted again, sitting on a flat rock as Rey was stroking Ben's back.

   "We can stay somewhere, and arrive tomorrow." Rey said as she searched his eyes, her hand patting his sweated hair.

   "They know we're here. The faster we get done with it, the better."

   And she couldn't deny it was true. And chewie was alone with the ship.

   As they stepped into a bright valley bathed in sunlight, with grass and flowers, that overlooked the mountaintop, they noticed that some great animals started to surround them. They looked like the Bantha Ben had adopted back on Takodana, but they did not have that fur, nor they had horns at their mouth. But their ears were long, and clapped at their heads as they ran. She remembered Finn and rose to have talked to her about something like this. And how they have ridden one.

   Suddenly, a plan flashed in her mind. She turned her face to Ben.

   He was coming closer to her, limping and wincing each time he put his weight on the injured leg.

   And something soft brusquely touched her cheek. She started and jumped away, taking three steps back as she realized it was a fathier. And she didn't stop until she bumped into Ben, and he stretched his arm to stop them from falling.

   "It's alright, he won't hurt you. It is like the Bantha." he smiled at her.

   "Finn and Rose have told me about something like this."

   The large animal tilted it's head to the side, and got out a purr, as if he were now afraid of Rey, as she was of him.

   Ben took her hand in his and outstretched it toward the fathier.

   "It seems that he likes you." he said to Rey as the big animal nuzzled her palm. Then she ran her fingers across his large ear.

   She suppressed a small laugh. "I was thinking we could ride him to the Crystal Caverns. It's too hard for you with your leg."
  
   "That's a very good idea." he admitted.

   And he waited for her to make the first move.

   "I'll go right behind you." he assured her. And he placed his hands on her waist and lifted her up as she placed her hands flat on the back of the fathier. She did recognize a difficulty this time, while when he had lifted her to mount the bantha, she had been like a feather in his arms.

   Then she waited to feel him behind her as she clung to the animal's neck.

   "Should we go now?" Ben asked.

   "I think I'm ready."

   He kicked lightly the fathier and it broke into a gallop from the start. Rey almost jumped when it rose on its hid legs, but his arm was wrapped tightly around her waist.

   At first, the speed dazed Rey. Because it couldn't compare to the bantha's steady run, but this fathier was rather jumping.
  
   They rode past valleys, and past lakes; Rey would have liked a little bath there; and back into the forest.

   And when they passed the forests, and only a steep, rocky path remained for walking,

   Now they were riding to a steady pace, and Rey could only guess they were almost to the Caverns. She watched the sun drowning behind the  rocky tops of the mountains, casting red and orange and pink lights across the cobalt blue sky.

   And righ when Rey was about to lean her head back on Ben's shoulder as she felt she was drifting off to a sleep, the fathier stopped, and she could make out the large padded terrace of a dark gallery in the mountain.

   "We're here." Ben said softly as he tugged at her sleeve. "Inside, you won't be tired, you'll see."

   He swung down and helped her after him. Then he went over to pat the animal of its head.

   "Thanks for bringing us here." Ben said. "We'll be right back."

   And then he turned to Rey, and noticed she was staring at the dark cave ahead.

   "I've always wanted to come here." She said as she felt him approach.

   "You won't even know when the time will pass inside. And you'll get to meet people you've never imagined you'll see."

   She looked up at him.

   "Do you trust me?" he asked as he held out a hand for her.

   "Always." She said as she took it, and they advanced until the darkness engulfed them.

~*~

   A/N: This chapter is the preparation for all the great things to come. I know it is long, but it took me almost a day to write. I may have written it in a haste, but criticism is welcome :))

   Don't forget to vote if you liked it! And thanks for reading!

   A little warning, the next chapters are essential!