Be With Me

Chapter 8

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?"