You can do this, Rey, she told herself as she stood in front of Ben's floating figure, eyeing her surroundings for anything that could help her further, something that could tell her how to get him out of the circle that was keeping him from her because it didn't seem like he could get out himself.
But she was alone. Utterly alone. Just like on Jakku.
And she had to figure this out in her own.
Just like on Jakku.
Yet, even though she had been alone almost all her life, there was still something that had always been there.
The Force.
The Force had always helped her survive. It had helped her find the best scraps to trade in for portions even when she hadn't known she was strong with the Force, so maybe it could help her now.
It had helped her get here in the first place.
Rey reached out her hand and whispered, "Please," anxiously praying the Force could show her a clear sign on how to free Ben, just like it had with her visions or when it had showed her the pathway she should take to get here.
Yet nothing happened. No glowing, no vision, nothing.
Instead, when Rey glanced from her outstretched hand to Ben again, she noticed a change in him and fear began to nestle itself in her chest, pumping through her body like venom.
He was starting to vanish again. She was starting to lose him again, and there was no way to know how to stop him from leaving this time.
But Rey couldn't bear to lose him once more. There was no way she could let that happen. She had come all this way to get him back and she did not plan on leaving without him.
And Rey was so close to him, so close to getting him back, she could almost feel him.
Desperation and loneliness overwhelmed Rey as she felt like her knees were about to give in while she stared longingly at Ben with desperate tears blurring her vision.
"This can't be how it ends," Rey whispered as all hope seemed to abandon her.
She had come so far to find him, to bring him home and she was so close to finishing what she had started.
So close.
Rey let herself glance over her shoulder to where her parents had been moments before, the memory of simply reaching through the circle to pull her parents to her still buzzing in her mind. They had also been so close to her she could almost feel them, almost feel the Jakku heat through the vision.
It had seemed so simple.
Rey quickly turned her gaze back to Ben's slowly dissolving figure as if she were asking for his help. But she knew he wasn't going to answer. She knew he couldn't help her.
But she may be able to help him.
The idea was risky, but Rey had nowhere else to turn to look for guidance, so she let the fear of losing Ben forever and being so close to him take over her body as she reached out to touch him, to break the surface and grab him to pull him to safety. She didn't think it was possible, that it could be that easy, yet when her hand wrapped around his wrist, she could feel his presence in the Force again, she could feel him again.
She could feel hope again.
Rey's heart began to pound against her rib cage as she wrapped her second hand around his lower arm and pulled him out of the circle with all her strength, watching his body become less transparent again when he broke through the surface with her help and as soon as she pulled him out, she carefully laid him down, cradling his upper body in her arms as she stared at him and waited for him to wake up.
And Rey waited for a while as she searched his face with yearning that at any moment he would open his eyes and look up at her, but he didn't wake up.
He was still comatose.
Rey began to rock him back and forth, pleading, "Please, please wake up, Ben," and tears began to trickle down her cheeks while silent sobs escaped her lips as she thought of the possibility that she might have messed up, that he might not come back.
That she wasn't able to save him after all.
"Ben, be with me... please," Rey begged and held him closer. She didn't want to let him go, she wasn't ready to live her life without him.
She couldn't.
Rey began to sob, her heart aching in agony as she felt like she had gone so far only to lose everything again when she heard her name being uttered in a raspy, deep voice. A voice that was forever branded in her mind. "Rey?"
She felt a familiar presence shine brightly in the Force again, a presence that matched her own perfectly, completing it like a puzzle and she immediately glanced at Ben to see him looking up at her in disbelief, his brown eyes glistening softly as they wandered around her face just like he had when he had brought her back to life on Exegol.
"Ben?"

He hadn't known how long he had been gone, but he knew it had been too long.
He knew because he had seen her on Tatooine, training Jedi, adjusting to her new life. It had seemed like he had been forced to watch her from afar since they had been torn apart from each other on Exegol while she tried to find him every day.
And there was nothing he could have done to help her guide her to him.
Ben knew he hadn't been dead, he could still feel his heart beat, he could still feel it yearn for Rey, but no matter how hard he had tried, Ben couldn't reach out to her, couldn't feel her, let alone open his eyes or move.
He had been stuck somewhere far from her reach and had to watch her try to find him day after day.
And it had been torture for him not being able to help her, to send her some kind of sign through the Force to tell her where he was, that he was alive.
That he wanted to be with her.
Yet when Rey had set foot on Ahch-To with her friends, Ben had lost sight of her and was surrounded by darkness for the first time since they had parted and he had begun to believe that he was going to be stuck lingering in a void forever.
Until now.
The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was her frail figure holding on to him, her body shuddering with silent sobs as she pleaded for him to wake up.
He thought he was imagining lying in Rey's arms, that his mind was showing him what he wanted to see to keep him from fearing the darkness surrounding him.
But this was different from when he had seen her before. This time, he could feel her, her presence, the light inside her, her soul. He could feel her touch as she held him in her arms.
"Rey?" Ben uttered in disbelief staring up at her, his eyes wandering from her wet, brown hair falling to her shoulders to the tears running down her face to her trembling lower lip before she opened her eyes and he could see the relief in her glistening hazel eyes.
"Ben?" Rey whispered and a small smile spread across her face while a tear trickled down her cheek and his heart twisted longingly. If this was just a fragment of his imagination, it sure was cruel.
All Ben wanted to do was touch her, to brush his fingers against her cheek and feel the warmth of her skin.
He wanted to hold her, even if it meant she might vanish and leave him alone in the darkness again.
Ben slowly reached out with his right hand to touch her tear-stained cheek, his chest aching as he imagined her fading away under his touch. But to his surprise, she didn't disappear at all.
Ben's breath hitched as his fingers brushed against her soft skin, showing him that she was here, that he was in her arms. That she came here to get him.
He grinned softly and wiped a silent tear from her cheek. "You came," he uttered caressing her face, unable to hide his own whirlwind of happiness and relief as he felt his insides shake with the need to suppress unshed tears.
Rey wrapped her hand around the one Ben held against her cheek and squeezed it tightly. "So have you," she whispered.
She helped him sit upright and he flinched, his ribs and leg still hurting from having been flung into a pit by Palpatine when they had been on Exegol.
It was strange that after what seemed like a long time to him, his wounds still have not healed. Yet again, this place was strange.
Wherever they were, it was nothing Ben had ever seen or heard of.
They were surrounded by darkness, yet there were pathways leading to huge circles framed by a white light, and despite the darkness, this place had a strong presence. A very strong presence.
"Where are we?" Ben asked Rey, still eyeing their surroundings in awe.
"This is the world between worlds," she began to explain, her hand on his back and the other still in his hand. "It's a place that exists in the Force between time and space. When you... when you..." she struggled with what she wanted to say and Ben turned to face her again and nodded softly, showing her that he knew what she meant causing Rey to sigh relieved. It was only now that Ben realized how close they were to one another. They were so close he could feel her warm breath sting against his lips and could almost feel her heart beat in sync with his.
He swallowed hard and looked into her glistening eyes as she continued to explain, her voice softer and quieter than before, "When you vanished I expected you to have become one with the Force because I could no longer feel your presence around me. It was like someone had torn half of my soul from my body and left me incomplete. So I tried reaching out to you with the Force, but with no success and I nearly lost hope. It wasn't until your mother told me about this place that I believed you could be here, that our bond wouldn't let you die as long as I was alive. And I was right," she concluded with a subtle grin that still reached her eyes, letting them shine with pure happiness.
"I felt it too," Ben muttered squeezing her hand, "that emptiness inside my soul. I felt it. But I also saw you, watched you reaching out to me, but I couldn't do anything to help. I wanted to come back, Rey. I wanted to come back to you."
Before Ben could say more about how much he had wanted to be with her, Rey pulled him into an embrace, her fingers nearly digging into his shoulder blades as if she were clutching for her dear life.
She had never held Ben like this and at first it had taken him aback, but it didn't take him long to let himself give into her warm embrace and wrap his arms around her waist as he pulled her closer to him, nearly closing every open space that existed between them just to have her as close as possible to him.
"I missed you so so much, Ben," Rey said against his shoulder before slowly parting from their embrace, her arms still around his shoulders.
"I missed you too," mumbled Ben, his eyes tracing the shape of her lips as he was utterly mesmerized by her whole being and the fact that she had yearned for him just as he had for her.
When Ben was able to tear his gaze away from her lips, he noticed her staring at him with an expression he remembered from when they had been on the elevator in the Supremacy, when she had told him that she would help him turn, and on Exegol shortly before she had kissed him.
He hesitated, wanting their lips to meet again, yet Ben feared that she might not want what he wanted, that maybe their kiss on Exegol was a one-time-thing.
Yet before he could push away the idea completely, Rey uttered words he had said to her a long time ago, "Don't be afraid," causing Ben to scoff and shake his head lightly with a small smile upon his lips before slowly leaning into her, his eyes fluttering shut shortly before their lips met so he could take her beauty in to the fullest.
The kiss they shared was soft and tender with their emotions flowing through each other for both of them to feel what their other half felt.
Sadness, relief and happiness were swirling through them as they held one another so close while their lips and souls were intertwined.
Ben's hands found their way to Rey's hair and his fingers were tangled up in her moist brown hair like a child hiding in a safe haven as her arms were wrapped around his waist, clinging on to him while their kiss lasted.
Once their lips parted, Ben's hands slowly fell from her hair to her shoulders and then to her wrists until he held her hands in his, their bond still running through them, more present than ever before.
They both chuckled softly as their foreheads rested against one another's while they seized the moment of finally finding each other for a little longer before Rey whispered, "We should get going."
Ben nodded brushing strands of hair out of Rey's face before she got up and held her hands out for him to take.
Yet before she could help him up, they heard a deep, menacing voice surround them and a huge dark, animal-like creature with intense yellow eyes and massive horns appear in front of them, staring down at Rey, "I see you found what you were looking for. Your dyad in the Force, your soulmate."
Ben felt a wave of panic surge through him as he glanced at the creature in front of them and at Rey, knowing that there wasn't much he could do. He couldn't fight off the monster with his injuries. He could hardly help Rey in his state.
And what was worse was that Ben could feel a sense of devastation in her Force presence.
Don't worry, Ben. Everything is alright, he heard her speak inside his mind and stared at her astonished. How could she tell him that everything was alright when he could clearly feel it wasn't?
She straightened her back and raised her head to look back at the horned creature with a dignified stance, but even though Ben couldn't see her face he could tell that she was fighting off tears.
"Rey, what's going on?" he asked worried, his heart pounding inside of his chest.
"It is time, Rey Palpatine," the creature spoke.
"I know," she uttered with her voice fainting and the monster raised one of it's clawed hands, pointing it at her chest.
Ben tried to push himself off the ground to rush to Rey's side and protect her from danger, but failed and fell back on his rear end with a grunt. "Rey? What's happening?" he urged afraid.
She glanced over her shoulder to him, her fair hazel eyes glazed with sadness. "It's ok, Ben. You're back and that's all that matters," she whispered as a single tear ran down her cheek before she turned back to face the creature again.
"Rey! Whatever you are doing, please stop!" pleaded Ben, but she didn't listen, so he thought of taking matters in his own hands. He raised his hand, channeling the Force to freeze the horned figure before it could harm Rey, but it realized what Ben had planned and froze him instead, forcing him to watch Rey without being able to do anything.
Again.
Ben tried to fight it's grasp as his eyes were fixed on his other half before he realized what was happening as the creature proceeded what he had tried to do before with a raised claw.
It was taking away Rey's Force abilities.
Ben wanted to scream, to loosen the hold the creature had on him as he watched her Force energy slip from her body into it's fingers, cutting their bond off again and leaving him with a hollow feeling in his own presence.
As soon as the deed was done, Rey fell to her knees and covered her face and Ben felt the pressure holding him still vanish, making it able for him to move again.
But he couldn't feel her presence anymore. Not in the Force.
Ben crawled to Rey, biting his teeth together from the pain caused by his wounds until he was able to reach her and placed a hand on her shoulder. She turned to face him, revealing her tear-stained eyes to him and took his hand into her own while painting a smile on her face.
"Why did you do it?" Ben asked her softly, caressing her hand.
She sniffled and squeezed his hand. "Because having to live one more day without you is far worse than living without the Force. When you aren't in my life, I don't feel complete, but I do now, even without the Force. The Force was awakened in me only a year ago, but our bond? That has always existed, and it always will."
Ben pulled her into his arms and held her tight. "I'm sorry you had to do this, Rey."
"Don't be," she told him brushing hair out of his face. "I would do it again if I had to."
Rey helped Ben get up alongside her and he wrapped one arm around her shoulders while softly leaning against her for support as they stared at the creature who had taken Rey's Force abilities away.
"We are ready to go," she told it determined, masking her loss.
It nodded and with a swift movement of it's hand, a portal appeared behind it and Ben could see his father's ship through it.
He inhaled sharply, remembering Han and the many times Ben had hidden on the Falcon from his duties and how he had wished he could become a pilot like his father, how he had secretly wished he would fly the Millennium Falcon one day.
Rey helped Ben make their way to the portal but as they passed the creature, she turned to look over her shoulder and said, "Thank you. For letting me bring him back," before they walked through the portal together.