Just as he'd promised, as the sun began to sink below the dusty horizon, the base appeared ahead of them, wavering mirage-like in the late evening heat. Rey walked beside him, lost in her own thoughts as her boots grit into the parched landscape with every blind step.

Silently, he reached across and grabbed her arm to pull her to him as he took a few paces back, glaring the place down before it could get any closer. Rey looked up at him questioningly before her eyes focused and narrowed in on the structure in the distance.

"I need to wear the helmet." he declared, sucking his bottom lip into his mouth in thought without looking at her. "Before they see me…I have to."

Rey frowned and glared down at the piece of armor he gripped tightly against his side.

"Why?" she asked pointedly.

"It's hard to explain."

"Try me," she insisted. He winced.

"Because," he began, finally looking down at her, "if we walk into that and it isn't what you expect…"

He trailed off, his lips pressing tightly together. "I just want us to be ready," he finished, eyes searching her face. They seemed to trace over her, memorizing her, and something about it scared Rey. She covered his hand on her arm with her own.

"I can't believe that they would…" she started before stopping herself, looking down and unconsciously pressing closer to his side. His other hand grabbed at the fabric of her wisps tentatively between two knuckles before brushing his fingers lightly against her back.

He tilted his head down to look at her as she stared at the ground in thought. She didn't want to think they could actually shoot them down, but he felt slowly as her mind worked through the scenarios.

When she looked back at him with wide eyes, he tried to give her a small smile.

"It'll be alright," he murmured, and although she watched him with worry marring her brow, she said nothing more. He let her go, lifted the scuffed metal between his hands, and with one last slight smile, settled it back over his head.

"Let's go."

Rey tried not to shudder at the sound of that familiar vocoder but, steeling herself, she nodded. She looked down at his open hand and slipped her own into it. His fingers slowly wrapped around hers firmly, and with one final glance, they started forward.

She didn't know when their hands slipped away from each other, contact replaced by bumping shoulders as more and more of the base came into focus- along with all of its soldiers patiently lying in wait for them. They were rows deep along the entrance, and many, many more in the hidden battlements secreted along its broad, low-profile dome. Rey made sure to breathe.

It'll be fine…

Soon she could make out individual faces, and in the crowd her friends. Her friends. Her hopes rose, a small smile daring to spread across her face, until Kylo's head suddenly quirked upward. With a jolt, he gripped her roughly by the arm and flung her behind him, his posture bent to spring as, with one swift move, he grabbed for the saber at his belt and ignited it, its red plasma spirals bursting to life at his side.

They have their weapons trained on us, he pushed towards her but Rey wasn't listening. Her eyes were wide with incredulity as she tightly gripped the fabric covering his back, unable to look away from that damned weapon.

"WHERE DID YOU GET THAT?" she hissed at the back of his helmeted head, anger and annoyance suddenly curling through her.

Although she couldn't see it, she knew he was smirking. The idiot was pleased with himself. His arm pushed back and tucked itself around her, holding her firmly at his back as his attention shifted forward again. She felt his muscles tense and she huffed.

"DISARM YOUR WEAPONS," Kylo's distorted voice projected at the gathered assembly.

Silence.

"Rey?" a familiar voice called out. Poe shifted to the front of the line but didn't break rank in the face of an armed Kylo Ren. Kylo pointedly ignored him.

"Deactivate your weapons!" he ordered again. "Do it now."

Rey was still at his back as his arm pressed into her. She could feel her own anxiety licking at her, along with her friends' distress. They thought something terrible had happened, that—

There was a rustling, distant chatter, when an older, commandeering voice called out above the rabble.

"Call off the guns!" General Organa shouted, quickly pushing her way to the front. She brought her transmitter to her mouth. "Call them off!"

Rey's chin dug into Kylo's shoulderblade, torn between trying to look over his massive form and staying hidden. He could feel her growing worry and his hand spread against her back.

"Lower your weapons, I said! My god!" Leia snapped in irritation.

Finn, his eyes narrowed and blaster aimed impeccably at his former leader's helmeted head, dropped his gun with a grunt and a twitch of his lip. He stared angrily at the man ahead of them, and Poe watched him sadly before discretely reaching over and hitting the safety on his friend's weapon.

Rey could sense Leia at the front of the mass of soldiers and she swallowed hard. Gripping at Kylo's tabard, she slowly, carefully pulled herself up, peeking cautiously over his shoulder.

Leia stood unafraid, confident in her place among the masses of armed men and women, her face determined and set as she stared down her son. She seemed to size him up, his posture ready to strike and lightsaber flickering dangerously as he held the object of his protection firmly behind him when she saw the girl catch a glimpse over the hulking mass of her child.

Leia rolled her eyes before arching her brow and looking straight past Kylo.

"I see you found him, Rey," the General called, ignoring the drama exuding from Kylo Ren.

Rey's eyes widened as she gripped his clothing tighter, giving a small hop to look more clearly beyond him.

"Um," she jumped a little higher, trying to hoist herself up. He grunted. "Yes! I did, yes…" she replied, before giving up and pressing past his arm to look at the crowd.

Leia's mouth turned up in a small smile as she looked at the young woman, but her son…her son would not back down.

Finally shifting her gaze to him, she fixed him with a look. Really? she sent towards him. Still?

Rey felt him start slightly beneath her hands when, slowly, he straightened and, little by little, his grip on her became less like iron. With one last moment of hesitation, his thumb found the weapon's switch and he flicked his saber off. Rey breathed in heavily and sighed, plunking her head against his back in relief. Carefully, he let her go- his arm brushing against her, fingers trailing as she finally came around to stand beside him and his hand disappeared to rest at the small of her back as they stood closely together.

Finn watched with a guarded expression, and his eyes followed Kylo's other hand as it reattached his saber to his belt. Two weapons rested there now, almost identical save for a diagonal slash rendering useless the first…

Leia led the crowd in coming forward, and as Rey subtly nudged closer to his side, he broke away to raise up his hands, disengage his mouthguard, and pull the helmet away from his head. He took in a breath of the hot dry air, a curl clinging to the side of his face, when he finally looked down at her.

They'd made it, somehow, she mused to herself. There wasn't an all-out shoot-out, no one was screaming anything terrible at them. They'd survived this damn planet a second time- again because he'd forced them to, her mind helpfully added, but she brushed that thought away. What mattered was that the General was getting closer, the General wouldn't hurt them, and because Kylo had actually done what he said he would, that had to count for something.

Rey's mind was spinning- the past full week alone was enough to make her exhausted. But there was that familiar tug, again, and a warmth curled through her that made her sigh. Her eyes lowered, and discretely she gave his hand a gentle squeeze. Something about this, this path, felt like the right one to be on, and suddenly Rey was beaming at him. Drawn by her attention, his eyes met hers and her smile widened as big as he'd ever seen it. He looked back at her knowingly until he realized her smile wasn't going away and the corner of his own mouth quirked up despite himself. He brow marred in surprise as his own expression grew. She then gripped his arm, and when Leia finally reached them, they both turned to see the diminutive but no less powerful commander of the Resistance looking up at them both with tears in her eyes.

Poe and Finn pressed their way to the front and Rey found herself sniffing back her own tears as Finn strode forward and pulled her into a tight hug.

"We were so worried about you….are you alright?"

"I'm fine!" she said with a grin, holding him close until he finally relented. Poe in turn grabbed her arm in welcome.

"The General wouldn't let us send patrols…" he continued, eyes flitting almost imperceptibly in the direction of the man looming next to her.

Kylo moved with Rey as the crowd drew the circle around them in tighter. His hand rested protectively at the small of her back as she spoke animatedly with her friends and his eyes seemed to glaze over as he looked away and tried unsuccessfully to tune their conversation out. She'd been gone for days- what did she see out there? Why would she leave without ever leaving a note? They had all assumed the worst…

"I have so many things to tell you…" Rey beamed.

His hair hid his eyes from view as his hand never left its spot at her back, keeping her close. He tried to contain himself, but even as he felt the relief flooding through Rey, he couldn't help but wait for this entire thing to backfire. Was it really so easy to infiltrate the Resistance by cooperating with a single mission? He wouldn't even accept it. He'd still slap him in cuffs. He'd still drag him kicking and screaming back to that useless, claustrophobic cell in the bowels of their hobbled-together base.

A twitch of his hand as he unknowingly pressed his fingers more firmly against her back drew Poe's attention.

Her.

The rush of people around them stirred the still air, but every now and then the scent of her would drift towards him. Part of him knew, somehow, that…whatever was between them now was infinitely sturdier than it had been before. Just reaching tentatively for that connection revealed a heartier thing. He felt her more, they could hear each other- a phenomenon they seemed to be able to slip into and adopt easily in the past solar day, as if they had always communicated that way. Nothing like the crass clawing through the Force he had continuously attempted when all this started

No, it wouldn't kill him to be away from her again like it had in the past. Even so, the idea that, after all this, after the exquisite 12 hours where she'd been all his with no Resistance, no Leia Organa, no anybody, that he might not be allowed to cage her in, run his hands where he pleased, hear her beg for him, and repeat her name like the prayer it had come to be….that he wouldn't be able to bury his face against her neck that night and breathe her in….it viciously clawed at him.

Poe carefully arched a brow, glancing at the tall man who appeared lost in thought, until he found Kylo suddenly meeting his gaze. The pilot's look was laced with skepticism, expression twitching slightly, but Kylo stared back, face morphing into perfect blankness, giving him nothing.

Fuck this.

They were talking about leaving, going somewhere to catch up, and Rey was being pulled away. Finn was eager to hear everything over food and drink- eager to get her away. She smiled and started to get swept up with them, when the crowd parted like the sea, and they came. The soldiers moved forward with raised guns as Kylo's fingertips nearly dropped away from her. Rey's good mood struggled to distract her until her mind snapped back into place and panic suddenly washed over her, pulling Kylo out of his reverie along with her.

"No!" she cried out, pulling away from her friends. She pushed her way to stand in front of him, and Leia looked on with a torn expression- as much as this was her base and her command, there were rules for a reason. Her son's crimes were so large…

Finn looked distraught as he tugged as his friend's arm again.

"Rey," he half pleaded, but she wouldn't budge.

"No," she said strongly again, glancing over at Leia, looking for some sort of back-up. Kylo stood at attention, caught in mild confusion as Rey stood between him and reincarceration.

'Rey…' his mind whispered towards her. His hands itched to reach up and touch her shoulders…

Rey shook her head suddenly, as if trying to flick something away.

The captain of the guards approached her, dividing the ranks of guards as he came.

"Rey, please move," he asked not unkindly.

She stared up defiantly at him. "There is no reason to arrest him again," she declared.

The man sighed. "Kylo Ren is still—"

"Kylo Ren took care of the First Order camp. Isn't that what you were worried about?" she half shouted, looking around at everyone gathered. Somewhere at the very back she spied Caluan Ematt looking on with a skeptical but careful expression. She swallowed hard, reaching back to rest a hand against Kylo's arm.

"The camp's been taken care of. Diverted. Because of Kylo Ren."

When she was met with nothing but silence and stares, she could feel her irritation spike. "Isn't that what you wanted? He did exactly as he said he would, did he not?"

The man closed his eyes briefly, taking in a breath. "Rey—"

"He escaped his cell," she enunciated. "This whole time he could have broken out, done something…" she paused, brow wincing with emotion. "Done something horrible!" she finished, looking around at them all.

"But he didn't!" she declared. "He stayed where you left him, stayed willingly! And I know you know that the cuffs are no good either, that you saw him get free of them."

At that, Kylo's eyes widened as the crowd began to murmur amongst itself. Kylo studied the impassioned woman in front of him. Wasn't she the one who had…?

Somewhere, Leia coughed quietly as she looked on. His eyes snapped to the General with a curious frown until the captain of the guards sighed heavily. Rey could feel his mind turning her words over, considering them. She could feel him admit to the truth of what she said, that perhaps they could make a reinforced cell to keep him in, but it could take weeks to accomplish. What were they to do?

"Put him in my custody!" Rey declared suddenly. The corner of Kylo's lip twitched up.

Protests rose immediately but Rey held her ground with defiance despite the nervousness she felt. Kylo peered around at her, arching a brow. Amusement was written clear across his face- was she serious? But the moment she shot him an angry look, his brows went up in surrender, and with a neutral expression he just as quickly looked away again. She wanted to do this. He'd leave her to do it.

Shifting her attention back to the exasperated captain who was desperately trading looks with a concerned Ematt, she sighed.

"Look," she began. "You have indicated from the beginning that you feel only a Force user can contain another Force user. That's why you restricted access to his cell, correct? Well….."

She took in a deep breath as she looked at the poor man plaintively. "Here I am! I brought him back. And he's done his mission as it was proposed. And as 'keeper', so to speak…" she continued, pushing the idea home, she glanced up at her would-be ward and tried to give him a hopeful expression. "I believe he's ready to be debriefed. Aren't you?"

Kylo stared at her in shocked silence for a moment before she prompted him with a widening of her eyes. He swallowed hard, trying to push down the reflexive disgust at having to answer to these people again. These idiots who could have made this so much simpler if they had just listened to him…

'And they will listen to you now…if you really want this…' she pushed to him. She was pleading.

Kylo looked back down at her with a mix of indignation and resignation. His eyes, briefly, flicked down to her lips, before focusing back on her eyes but the movement wasn't lost on her. He could feel the shift of feeling in her, physically present as a light blush against her cheeks. His face softened. There had to be some perks to this…

"I am," he said finally, barely registering the words as they came out of his mouth. He didn't look away from her as she smiled and turned back to the crowd.

"There," she said matter of factly. "See?"

"Rey isn't wrong," chimed a new voice as Leia cut through the din, causing a wave of quiet. "And if anyone decides that isn't good enough, they can come to me. Two Force users are more than enough of a guard."

She was lying, Kylo knew it. Why. Why would she lie? This was getting exhausting.

"You all know me," she continued. "You can rest assured that despite the circumstances, my objectivity will be absolute in any issues that may arise."

Her eyes drifted toward Ematt who stood there, arms crossed, looking decidedly put out as she smiled in his direction. "And frankly I'd rather be debriefing our new asset instead of standing out here in this awful heat."

She arched a brow in the older man's direction, and observed as he heaved a sigh and marched off, back to the base.

Guess we've won this round, Leia mused to herself. For now…

Leia nodded to the guards. "Documents will be worked up as to the transition of a prisoner to legal asset. You'll receive them in 48 hours, captain."

Resigned, he saluted her, grateful to have reached some sort of solution, and, taking the rest of his troops with him, departed.

Rey seemed to physically deflate as people started to slowly break away- the show was over. She wearily looked up at her new, looming responsibility with a tired smile.

"That was very reckless," he mumbled.

"But it worked," she replied, grinning widely, before bending over and resting her hands on her knees, trying to calm her racing heart. He wanted to touch her, but she wasn't as close and there were too many people still around. He didn't want to give them any reason to question her guardship of him, to try and separate them.

So he clenched his fists. He held them tightly as he looked down at her as the General crept close and that incessant friend of hers came back, carefully avoiding him and resting his hand on her shoulder to get her attention. He tried not to resent the fact that Finn could in this moment, and he couldn't…

Rey lifted her head at his approach and nodded happily to her admittedly less enthusiastic friend. He tried to even out his breathing as Rey finally turned to him and rested her hand on his arm.

"Will you be alright?" she asked.

"You abandoning your post already?" he asked, daring to brush his gloved hand quickly against hers.

She smirked up at him. "You get to debrief now, remember?" she said, glancing at Leia waiting patiently. "There's two of us, here for you."

He couldn't help wincing slightly at her words and nodded towards her, silently urging her to go on with them. She smiled in return as she started to move away, her hand trailing down his arm until it reached his hand, squeezing it in her own, before her fingers left his. As he watched her move away, Leia drew closer, looking with cautious optimism into the placid face of her son.

He was too distracted watching Rey laughing with her friends to see her standing in front of him. The woman smiled up at him, determined to hold back any tears.

"Ben…" she called quietly, and as if 15 years had fallen away, his head snapped back to look at her with that same teenage petulance she never forgot- that same embarrassment at being called after by his own mother when he was trying to be an adult.

Her smile widened, and reaching up, she flung her arms around his neck (maybe pushing him towards her with a little help of the Force), and pulled him into an embrace.

He nearly choked in surprise, sputtering before a broken but no less scandalized, "Mom!" burst out of him as he half-heartedly tried to pull her off.

In the distance, Rey spun around, the sound as well as the undisguised shock radiating out of this man grabbing onto her, and she looked on as he seemed to give in, and his hands tentatively found the back of that diminutive but no less imperiously strong woman. Rey couldn't help it, the tears, as they clouded her vision and ran their way down her cheeks.

"Ben…" Rey echoed back almost silently, and soon her friends were stopped, too, engrossed in the scene as the warlord held his rebellious mother.

"Well I'll be…" Poe trailed off, scratching in wonder at the stubble appearing on his chin. He watched mother and son, before turning back to see Finn's conflicted face and Rey….Rey's face, shot with tears and a surprisingly heartfelt smile.

The smile was contagious, despite its cause, but all the same, he wondered….

With one last pleased glance, she turned away, and once safely back inside the Resistance stronghold, away from the hot and the dust, their laughter echoed down the corridors towards the canteen.

"You hungry, Rey?"

Rey smiled up at her friends as she wiped her face clean. "Starving."