Permanent Mark

Chapter 28

This love is good
This love is bad
This love is a life back from the dead
These hands had to let it go free
And this love came back to me

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He follows Rey into the Falcon. His head spins with sights and smells that he never thought he'd ever experience again.

All he can do is try to process that Rey is here.

He didn't know her an hour ago and now it's like a door that was closed in his mind is now open.

He remembers everything about her. Suddenly, just like that. It's all there.

Except she's not nine anymore.

He doesn't know what to do with that.

If she wasn't pulling him by the hand, he's sure he'd be frozen in place.

Kylo!!!

He slams Snoke out of his head. He knows it won't be for long. Snoke will force his way back in, eventually.

He cannot let Snoke find out where he is. Because where he is, she is.

Somehow, he knows Rey was removed from his mind. He knows it because he's seen Snoke do it. He'd watched Snoke erase memories from those he manipulated. Memories of spouses, parents, even children.

Snoke would've seen Rey as a liability. Kylo hated his parents by the time he arrived at Snoke's feet, heartbroken and utterly alone. Betrayed by his own family.

But Rey was his light, even at her young age. Snoke erased light. By force, if need be.

Kylo stumbled along behind Rey, vaguely aware of the chase outside of the Falcon. He could hear gunfire, explosions and the hoops and hollers of FN-2187 and his father.

He had no doubt that the First Order was giving them chase, probably sent by Hux to blow them out of the sky.

He supposed he should be worried but he knew Han Solo would get away. He always did.

Plus he couldn't take his eyes off of Rey long enough to realize the danger they were currently in. If he thought her light was bright back then, it was almost blinding now.

He's never been so captivated by anything in his life.

Rey pulled him into the captains quarters, shoving him down on the bed. She simply sat next to him, unsure of what to say.

"This is...crazy. You're alive. How?? Why are you...Kylo?" she asked, more in a whisper than out loud.

"Rey….I don't know what's going on. How could I not know you? I don't understand what's happened."

"The last time I saw you...you were very angry. Then you were gone."

He's staring at a spot on the floor, numb all over. Trying to process what just happened, what he's now done and what he's remembering from ten years ago.

"They took you away. They wouldn't let me have any say in it. Then there was Like and he told me to leave…. without you."

Rey sits next to him. She shifts, shoving her hands under her thighs, afraid to look at Ben. It's like she's in a dream and any minute she'll wake up. Her minds skips and jumps over parts of those few months they were together daily. She smiles a small, timid smile and laughs a tiny laugh. He looks over at her.

"Remember Nimaa? You know, the good part of that day? The sweets stand?"

Ben smiles. He's smiled more in the past few hours than in the past few years.