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The first thing Rey saw when she woke up was a dark ceiling of Millenium Falcon. She could hear soft breathing and low snoring from either side of her, a sign that people were asleep. A little glance proved her right: comrades were lying all around, weariness shown on their face. She could spot Chewbacca slumping beside the door, chest heaving up and down consistently.
Rey stood up then tiptoed to the door, trying to be silent as to not bother their sleep. Fear of First Order finding and slaughtering the rest of Resistance had been keeping them anxiously awake, especially now that they were low on fuel and forced to stay in Hoth for an unforeseeable time. Thus, they needed to rest as much as they could.
Chewbacca let out a groan when she opened the door, but not moving further, so she continued to walk through the hallway.
Outside, Poe was sitting on the empty swath of ground. Opposite of him was Finn, curled up in thick jackets and pants, already passed out with his head on top of a log. They are taking the first guard together, even though weariness got to Finn first and Poe’s mind was clearly elsewhere.
When Rey descended the boarding ramp, BB-8 made a beeping sound from Poe’s side that jolted him to turn around—Finn was still asleep. He immediately relieved when he saw her, a tired smile tugging at his lips. “Hey, Rey. Just woke up?”
“Yeah.”
Rey came closer, patted BB-8’s head, and it made a string of happy beeps. Poe turned to watch past the trees, and she did the same. She could make out snowstorm far, far away, outside the forest. It had been only their luck to fall on the place that wasn’t as cold nor snowy as any other area of this planet, or else they would be frozen to death.
Somehow, it felt like the trees were beckoning her to come.
“I’m going to look around,” Rey said. “It won’t be long, I promise.”
He nodded. “Let me know if you feel something is wrong.”
“Sure.”
Moving forward, Rey went past rows of desiccated trees. She didn’t have any destination in mind, since she was just following where the pull would bring her; there was something familiar about it, though she couldn’t figure out why.
Something white was moving down in her peripheral.
Rey stopped. It was snow.
Looking up, white dots were falling slowly from the navy sky. They weren’t much, and the wind didn’t pick up, so it was safe. Most of the snows stuck to branches or met the ground, while few landed upon her. That was nice, although a little sticky.
Then, Rey heard a faint noise. She swivelled her head back and forth, but nothing unusual appeared. The noise stayed, before it grew louder and louder and louder until she recognized it as a scream—
No. Not a scream. A lot of people were screaming. She could also hear guns being fired, clashes of swords, the screeches of metal against metal. The loud stomping of hundreds of feet. The cries. They got louder, harsher. They were everywhere: reverberating off one another, surrounding her, crawling their way inside, scratching beneath her skin, pulling every inch of her sanity. Weariness suddenly took over, pain bloomed, slowly tearing down her body from head to waist to toe and something is wrong, please stop, ENOUGH —
“Rey.”
A voice. A voice, calling her name, cut through the cacophony. A voice that was foreign, but the immediate warmth seeping into her body was not. It that chased away the noises until they faded to background, and her head didn’t feel so heavy anymore.
A thud of feet caught her attention. Cautiously, she raised her head.
And, she understood.
Because there, few meters ahead of her, stood Ben.
As Rey stepped closer, she started to take note of his state of disarray: hair sticking everywhere, tattered clothes, blood and dirt splattered across his face and visible skin—some already dried—along with multiple gashes. His lightsaber was gripped loosely in his right hand, while the other covered his side—even with the dark clothing, she could see stream of blood slipping through his fingers. His breath came short and fast, like he had been running for a long time. He was the image of war .
Stopping in front of him, fear and panic immediately lodged themselves in her throat. She knew now all those noises and pain before, and that’s why she also knew that he was worse than he looked.
Before she could say anything, he explained, "I’m fighting Hux and his troops. He wants me dead, so I ran to Chandrila and he chased me here with the troops. I’ve dealt with some, but they kept coming. I evaded them and found a place to rest.”
Her mind whirled, working through the possibility of going there to help him—but it was impossible. The distance between Hoth and Chandrila were too far to reach, even if Millennium Falcon had enough fuel to do one hyperjump. Furthermore, she couldn’t leave Resistance in this vulnerable moment. They didn’t even have proper equipment to fight; the old base had nothing left, most were rusty or broken beyond repair.
“Can you just—” her voice trembled, “—run away again?”
“To where?”
Her hands twitched, itching to do something, anything . Pulling her hair out, probably. Or screaming. Or healing those wounds and hugging him. “I—I don’t know, there must be something you can do—like take their ship. Leave them there. Run to another planet.”
“To hide and wait to be chased again?” He shook his head. “No, Rey. It’s already time for me to fight Hux. End this once and for all.”
“Don’t be stupid, Ben!” she snapped. Her sight began to get a little blurry. “You should know when to fight and when to retreat!”
“Even if you say that, my decision has been made since they arrived here,” he gritted his teeth. Distress showed in the inward curve of his shoulders and frustration bleeding into his next words, “I must do this, even though I’m not sure how far I can go.“
Rey sighed, resigned. Having already understood that it was pointless to argue, she took a moment to compose herself then moved forward to cradle his face between her hands. Tracing the scratches and cuts on his cheek, she relished in the heat under her palm before pushing on her tiptoes and pulling Ben down to a kiss.
In those few seconds, Rey closed her eyes and pushed all the energy she could give to him through her chapped lips.
And when she pulled back, slowly coming to a view of Ben with his mouth slightly agape and surprise written all over his face, there was a sense of liberation. Contentment. The feeling that everything would be fine, that Ben would be fine.
“For good luck,” she whispered, smiling. “Please be safe.”
Ben, breaking from his daze, schooled his expression into a hardened resolution: jaw tight, brown eyes sharp but soft as they met hers.
“I’ll come back for you, sweetheart.” He placed his hands atop hers. I promise left unsaid, but Rey still heard it loud and clear.
She believed him.
So, she kept the curve of her mouth up and stepped away, their arms falling to their own sides. She saw him smiling, small but confident, before she was left with the silence of the forest and hope in her heart.