It's Kylo who wakes up first.

The smoky smell of burning flesh overpowers his senses and it's suffocating around him, a heavy cloud swirling through the room. He slowly sits up, head still spinning from...what exactly happened? He remembers Rey, then Snoke, then Rey, then red, pain head Snoke fight red blue lightsaber grandfather Ben R e y.

Fuck.

A short distance away, Rey is passed out on the ground, messy hair obscuring her face, but he thinks he can see streaks of blood running down the side of her face. He crawls over to her, cradling her body in his arms.

He reaches out with the Force, searching for that light he knows is hers, and breathes a sigh of relief that he can still sense her Force signature. It's somehow both faint and the strongest it's ever been, burning bright as if magnified in his presence. Through the bond, he's only ever felt glimpses of it, but having her here, in person, it's a steady, humming energy that feels in tune with Kylo.

He brushes the hair matted with blood away from her forehead, examining the wound. It's not that bad, nothing a medical droid or a bacta patch can't fix. He was never good with Force healing anyway.

He looks around. Snoke's once glorious throne room is in ruins, bodies of the Praetorian Guard littered everywhere. His grandfather's lightsaber...ripped in half. Snoke's bisected body by the throne. He and Rey did that. Together. If she would just let him train her, they could become unstoppable, rule the galaxy just like grandfather wanted with grandmother they could be together finish what he started-

Rey stirs in his arms, and his attention is drawn back to her. In his arms. She's really here, living and breathing, not just a cold shadow, an incorporeal being haunting him, haunting his dreams.

"Rey?" He says gently.

Slowly, her eyes open, blinking a few times before looking up at Kylo.

"Ben." She breathes, looking oddly relieved to see him, like she didn't reject him and rip his heart out of his chest, like she didn't try to take his grandfather's lightsaber from him. Again.

"Kriff—my head is killing me." She shuts her eyes and presses two fingers to her temple, gently massaging it.

"You're bleeding. I can take you to the med bay." He hooks his arm under her legs and stands in one smooth motion. He's glad he didn't stumble or wobble, that would've been embarrassing.

"No, I'll be fine. I—what happened?" She presses a hand to his chest to stop him from taking her anywhere, and he can't help but lean into her touch. He hopes she can't feel his thundering heartbeat pounding in his chest. Even through the fabric of his tunic, he can sense the warmth radiating from Rey's hand. The hand that he touched back on Ahch-To. Where he saw their future. Together.

"I," He takes a deep breath. "I killed Snoke." Saying it makes it real. He finally did it. He really, really did it. Killed the Supreme Leader of the First Order. He did it for her.

"You don't remember?" His eyes scan her face, while subtly skimming over her mind with the Force to see what she knows and doesn't know. He finds gaps in her memory, missing pieces of a puzzle that was only constructed mere moments ago.

She doesn't remember. After fighting off the Praetorian Guard, there's just empty space where a memory should be.

"I don't—we fought the guards, and everything went white, and then I woke up to you." She shakes her head, brow furrowed as she thinks.

"I came here to—to—I was supposed to—" He can feel the waves of confusion radiating off of her. And then he has an idea. "I'm sorry, could you just put me down first?"

He reluctantly does, letting his hand linger on her arm far far longer than necessary. If she notices, she doesn't comment on it.

He thinks carefully about what he says next. If he says the wrong thing, Rey would be lost to him, maybe forever. She'd go back to her stupid Resistance. No more second chances.

"You thought you had no place in this story, that you were nobody. But you're wrong." He says. "You are somebody. To me. You belong here, with me."

"What, as the First Order slaughters countless of innocent lives across the galaxy?" She snarls. A flash of anger in her eyes as she takes a small step back.

"No." He stops her. "The Jedi, the Sith, the First Order, the Resistance, let it all die. Let go of the past, that's the only way you can be who you were meant to become."

"And what is that?"

"To be...with me," It's painful, the empty feeling vulnerability leaves in him, exhausting and draining. But he steels his resolve, and pushes on. He has to get it right.

"You're nothing. You come from nothing." He finds himself saying. Again. And again she has the same reaction. And again he says the same thing. "But not to me."

He thinks he can see tears swimming in her eyes, but maybe it's just his own blurry vision playing tricks on him.

"But what about the Resistance? I can't just abandon them, Ben. Your mother—"

"—none of that matters anymore." He swallows, pushing down the feeling of doubt rising in his chest. "You saw our future. Together."

"I did. I saw...something." She nods. He can feel it through the Force, her slow if hesitant acceptable of what he's saying.

"Imagine it, the two of us, bringing balance to the Force. The darkness and the light. We can start over, forget this, forget everything if you join me. You're my equal, Rey." This is it. "Please."

He extends his hand, hoping wishing praying she'll take it this time. He doesn't think he can take another rejection.

Like before, she reaches out.

And this time, she takes his hand.