With Kylo Ren's darkness encasing her like a safeguard -a dark swirling mass of power with the density of deep space- Rey's bright gold Force-essence exploded to life with the radiant illumination of solar flares and stars.
Luke's face shot back to...
The thought of losing her again weighed Kylo down. He couldn't breath. He was losing himself and he couldn't find his way back. It triggered a memory that he thought he'd left behind with the boy he use to be. It took him by surprise and it pulled him deeper into his subconscious...
He saw himself running from room to room but she was no where to be found. He'd searched shuttle after shuttle, temple after temple, all of their special places and anywhere else he could think to look. Even Lana hadn't seen her and since he'd taken them both in, the two we're inseparable when he wasn't around. She couldn't just disappear... she couldn't just vanish... and then he heard his uncle. Of course! His hope nearly burst from his chest at the sound of his uncle's voice. Of course she'd be with him!
He ran to his uncle happier to see him then he had been in years. His feet stopped ahead of the Master Jedi before him and scanned the area around him with frantic eyes. When he didn't see her tugging at his robes or following at his feet with wonder in her big hazel eyes, his rushed breathing quieted and his pulse died down in his ears. Confusion filled the place where his hope had been. Nausea turned his stomach as his panic churned like heavy waves. His uncle froze just in front of him.
"What is it Ben?" He calmly asked the young man.
The young version of himself slowly moved forward. He passed his uncle's heavily robed form to peek behind him, thinking maybe she was playfully hiding from him, but she wasn't there either. He gently squeezed the little stuffed Wookiee that his father had given him as a small boy. He'd come back from being gone for several months and the plush version of his uncle Chewie had been a consolation prize of yet again, another missed birthday. He wanted to hate his father but the combination of the doll and the miniature version of the Millennium Falcon that he had presented him with showed more thought then he'd received from his father in what felt like years. They'd spend hours playing with the silly toys, narrowly escaping one threat after another, conquering good over evil one harrowing space mission at a time and all in the comfort of the safety of their imagination.
The only other time he'd ever held his father's attention that long was while he taught him to pilot the ship he loved more then his family.
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Ben had given that doll, the most valuable possession he owned, to Kira shortly after they met. He'd found her curled up and laying on the floor of the cockpit of her parents shuttle. She was clutching the pilots char and crying into the bends of her arms. They hadn't even known each other long and yet he felt more hurt through her heartache then he'd ever felt over his own abandonment.
She missed her family and he'd completely found himself in her pain. He could understand her feelings of abandonment and the lack of belonging that cane with it. He'd given her the only thing he'd secretly taken with him to the academy, the only thing that ever brought him comfort, until she came along.
She said nothing as she accepted it and she didn't need to. Her small hands wrapped around his neck and she clung to him, crying out all of her pain in his arms. It was the second of the only two times he'd ever caught her crying and she'd fallen asleep like that, wrapped up in his long awkward arms while curled up in a broken little ball. There after, she'd woken up with a new light in her eyes. He became her belonging and his gift was her most valued treasure. She took it everywhere with her, always hiding it in her robes. She would never leave without it, so she had to be here somewhere.
