Rey had never felt more free.

She could feel it in her veins like a second pulse as they stepped out of the Millennium Falcon and onto the hard packed sand of the planet they had landed on to resupply.

"Rey." Finn spoke from beside her, both of them having decided to head out together while Leia and Poe remained behind to strategize.

After what had happened to the Resistance, all that they had lost, they had a lot to figure out now. Rey had told them about what had happened to Snoke, and she could only imagine that the First Order was in a similar state of disarray after losing their Supreme Leader.

What had occurred between her and Ben she had saved for Leia alone. The General had taken the news well, but then again Leia was not one to share her emotions unless she really wished to.

"Rey, come on. We have to be back to the ship as quickly as possible." He said, BB-8 rolling past him down the gangway.

She nodded, shouldering her pack as they walked down into the marketplace. Multi-coloured cloth provided shelter for those selling their wares. Rey was used to such an eclectic group, but Finn still stared as they passed by all sorts of individuals selling things he had never seen before.

Rey took his arm as he began to lag behind. "Don't stare. You never know who you might attract attention from." She warned, marching him through the crowded alleyway.

Finn looked to her with wide eyes, "Right. Yeah. Of course." He frowned and nodded, as though he had known already.

Rey let go of his arm, stifling a laugh at her friend. She caught sight of a scrapper selling his wares and with a pat on Finn's shoulder she directed them over to his table.

After a bit of bartering with the toad-like creature selling the parts, Rey packed the items she had needed away into her bag. She looked up to find Finn had wandered off. She turned, scanning the marketplace to find him and spotted him standing a few feet away, gazing down a smaller alleyway behind the row of stalls on the main street.

A kernel of panic settled in her stomach and she shouldered her way through the crowd of colourfully dressed aliens. She narrowly missed slamming into an Ishi Tib, the creature letting out a grunt of irritation before Rey was past it and almost to Finn's side.

BB-8 was with him at least, so she wasn't too worried. But he had begun to venture down the side alley and Rey was unsure what would be waiting for him there. It was not as though he was helpless, but he wasn't used to such places and she needed to watch out for him as he did for her.

She started down the alleyway, following the familiar figure until she broke into a jog and caught up with him.

"Finn!" She hissed, the narrow alley much quieter than the market so she lowered her voice to match. "You can't just go wandering off." She muttered, her eyes scanning their surroundings.

"I'm fine. I have BB-8 with me." He said, gesturing to the round droid who let out a beep from his side.

Rey rolled her eyes, "BB-8 isn't exactly the best protector, Finn."

The droid let out an indignant beep. Yes, I am.

Rey didn't even try to argue with him on that. It would get nowhere.

Finn sighed, "Look, we need to get fuel and I thought I saw a stall down there selling some." He turned and pointed down the alley.

She followed his finger, her eyes drifting over the stall selling fuel to the one opposite it. That symbol in the front. She had seen it somewhere before.

"Okay. Let's go." She nodded, starting off down the alley ahead of them. These shops were not just stalls, she could see, but were rooms within the sand coloured buildings lining the alley.

Finn and BB-8 followed after her, coming to a stop outside the stall. Finn turned to her, even as Rey stared at the stall with that familiar symbol. "Let me handle this." He said, mustering all of his bravado to face down the store owner and bargain for the fuel.

Rey felt comfortable leaving him to do so. For she had realised where she recognised that symbol. It was in the cavern in Ahch-To. That symbol within the little oasis of water. One side light, the other dark, two sides of one individual who sat meditating.

Her feet carried her into the store before she could think to go in. Whatever connections to the Jedi and the Force she could find would be a help now that she had lost her only teacher. Rey felt a wave of gratitude sweep over her. Luke had taught her much. But still, she had not had enough time with him.

She entered the empty store, noting the keeper in the back crouched over a book. The small grey woman did not look up when she entered and Rey didn't mind that at all. She would like some privacy anyway.

The store was lined with shelves of eclectic items. Crystals and old, aged books. Sketches of Jedi, painting of lightsabers. A jar of sand, which confused Rey to no end as she slowly made her way around the store.

A lightsaber. She needed one after what had happened with Ben.

She silently cursed herself. Where was she going to get a lightsaber from? She let out a sigh, picking up a pendant with the symbol from the oasis on the end of a silver chain.

"That's fake."

Immediately, she knew whose voice that belonged to. And she could feel that strange fuzzy feeling in the back of her head. It was familiar to her now, after it had happened so many times between them.

She turned to see Ben, standing in the middle of the cluttered store and staring at her. She met his eyes, that heavy gaze still felt like it was boring into her soul. It scared her how well he could see her. How well he could know her.

"Ben." She whispered.

He stared, then blinked and looked to the necklace in her hand. "That pendant. It's fake. Sold by fanatics who claim it brings you power over the Force. It's supposed to be for good luck."

Rey looked to the pendant and set it down on the shelf. The alien script scrawled onto a card above the necklace did say exactly that. If only it were true. She would need all the good luck she could get if she had to face Kylo Ren everyday in a Force connection.

She looked back to him and was unsurprised to find him watching her.

He had that look in his eyes. The one she had seen as she had boarded the Falcon. When he had been kneeling at the bottom of the gangway.

Tears in his eyes.

His eyes were clear now.

"I thought Snoke said that he did this." She said.

Ben shrugged a shoulder, his eyes lingering on the bag at her shoulder. He was trying to get as much information about where she was as he could. But all he could see was her.

He wore his usual attire, his dark hair swept back from his head. He looked clean and put together. Not at all the mess he had been on Crait.

"He did say that. And it seems he was mistaken." Ben replied, that soft voice now familiar to her. Rey didn't know how to feel about that.

"You were meant to turn." She said, taking a step towards him.

She watched him tense, his jaw clenching.

"Haven't you given up yet, Rey?" He asked. A note of vulnerability entered his voice then. She watched him register his mistake, the expression on his face - carefully constructed - faltered for a moment. He had called her by her name. It was an intimacy that he did not want to play into, it seemed.

"I have." She said. "I won't waste my time with someone who isn't going to change, Ben."

She watched him swallow, his throat bobbing with the motion.

"I can't be him."

"Who?" She frowned, taking another step towards him.

"Ben Solo. He's gone."

"I don't believe that." She shook her head.

His eyes flickered to the ground. The only hint of resignation in his face. For that was what it was.

"You won't ever let go." He looked to her, gaze sharp. "Will you?"

Rey opened her mouth to respond, but the sharp ring of a bell distracted her. She looked to the threshold of the shop and found Finn standing there, in his hand a small golden bell. She looked back to where Ben had been and found him gone. That fuzzy buzzing in the back of her head faded slowly as the connection broke.

"Rey? What's this?" Finn asked her.

Rey shook her head, shaking the remnants of her conversation with Ben from her mind. "Come on. We should head back." She left the store, Finn and BB-8 following behind her.

As they approached the Millennium Falcon, Rey lagged behind. That feeling of freedom that had been so strong before had been left behind in that store. Or perhaps it had been left behind wherever Ben was.

Rey had never felt more trapped. She wondered how trapped Ben Solo felt, wherever he was?

So far from her and yet so close.