Of the listed abandoned Rebel bases Leia listed for her, Cyra picked a random one, halfway down the list, and chose that to be her new hideout. At least, for a little bit. She wasn't sure if she could continue a life of solitude, or of staying in one place.

For now, Cyra flew the X-Wing into the opened entrance door of the Rebel base. She slowed as she slipped underneath the massive opeeing, then landed it just after the door. Cyra punched open the cockpit and tossed her bag to the gravel floor. She slid down the side of the plane and jumped down.

She reached to grab her bag, cursing as it had busted open from the top. She crouched down, shoving the odd items at the top of her bag back in. She turned her head as the last item remained on the gravel. She reached for the lightsaber, but something paused her hand as it reached.

Cyra lifted her chin, and subsequently froze in place.

"You don't have to worry. I can't see your surroundings," he said.

Cyra's lips split. Her ultimate shock glossed over anything other feelings that were bubbling up to the surface. But her brain shocked her back into was necessary and she grabbed the lightsaber from the ground, igniting it the moment it was in her hand. She was aware of how wide her eyes were as she stared at him. Her hands were not shaking, solely from how hard she was gripping the lightsaber between her fingers.

The last time she saw him, she had hit her head, and barely believed it was really him, if it wasn't for her feelings and how truly it was to her heart. But he was now right in front of her. She had been cleared by the Resistance doctor to be okay. She felt far from okay.

Ben was standing in front of her. It was only him. Whatever the Rebel base looked like behind him, she did not know, because his presence was blurring the physical world around him. The longer she looked at him, the more color bled out of her surroundings. Black was starting to surrounding him, and reaching to engulf her, too. It was forcing her to focus on him.

Cyra could not form any words. Her head started to shake the longer she looked at him. All she kept hearing in her mind was 'no' over and over again.

They spent what felt like several minutes staring at one another. He was right. Her hair had grown long, almost down to the small of her back, wild in its curls. Her face had grown longer, skinnier. Her nose was small in contrast to her face, her lips were cracked and pink. Her skin was no longer as dark as he remembered it, probably due to living on Ilum. She was skinny in her torso, though he barely saw her shape through her baggy button up shirt. It was thin. She was shivering, not from fear, but from the cold around her. Despite his thoughts, knowing he should not think so anymore, he could not deny her beauty.

They had both grown older. He grew into his face, she noticed. His ears, which almost made her smile. He grew his hair out, just as she did, but it suited his face. He was still tall, towering over her, though he was no longer the lanky boy he was when they were kids. His black clothing was tight to his body and defined the outline of his figure. She found her eyes tracing down his body, the shape of his arms, but quickly realized what she was doing and raised her eyes back to his. She hated how she was speechless to his presence and she had no idea if it was from seeing the beautiful boy she loved after six years or if it was because she feared what this confrontation meant.

"I needed to see you. You're alive."

"I've been alive."

"Not to me," said Ben. He shook his head, trying to soften his face, as he knew how hardened and unwelcoming it became if he let it. "Days after you left me on Mandalore, I stopped feeling your presence in the Force. Why?"

"Does it matter?" she asked, raising her eyebrow.

"To me," he muttered. "Does it not to you?"

"You chose the Dark Side and I told you you would lose me," recalled Cyra. "I gave you up that day. I left you behind, I forgot you."

"You could never forget me," disagreed Ben.

Cyra huffed. She rolled her eyes. "Always the arrogant."

"I haven't felt your presence in the Force for six years," he continued, ignoring her. She was intrigued by his exact count of the years since they saw each other; it pointed to a possible truth that he still cared for some part of his former life. "And I find out that not only have you been alive for all these years, but you've been on the same planet for some time. Why Ilum?"

"Is that from the Forest?" Cyra asked instead, nodding at his face. She was peering at the healed scar instead of his eyes for a long moment. He was lucky to have survived a lightsaber strike to the face and only walk away with a scar that, somehow, accentuated his looks.

Ben nodded once. "You've met the Scavenger."

"I did. I saw your mother as well. She told me you killed Han," said Cyra. She held in her breath, nervous, as she watched for a reaction from Ben. She saw nothing but a twitch of his lips, an acknowledgement, but no visible sign of remorse from him. She exhaled, shaking her head.

She wondered what she was doing, looking for a response from him. Some part of her wanted to keep trying to find some redeemable trait in him to latch onto. Her lifelong lover was standing in front of her. All she wanted to do was run for him. But her mind, her knowledge of who he was now held her back.

"I don't know why you're here. I don't want any part of this, that's why I ran from all of it," said Cyra.

"You're apart of it whether or not you want to be. What we had makes sure of that. At some point, you have to choose." he disagreed, shaking his head. "I felt you that night.  You would've joined me, if it wasn't for your father—"

"Don't talk about my father," Cyra snapped, rage still fresh in her heart.

He raised his hands in surrender. "I'm not responsible for what happened to him."

"But you know, don't you? You know what Snoke did to him," she said.

"No," said Ben, and Cyra shook her head, not believing him. "I've never lied to you. I won't start now. Snoke was in my ear that night, you know that. I wasn't lying to you when I said I wasn't strong enough to stop him from whatever he was going to do. I felt your father's presence in the Force not there anymore, same as you. Snoke said that you died, too. I believed him and he lied to me. I thought he killed you and your father, all these years, Cyra."

"Then why did you stay?" she snapped.

"Because I had nothing left when I lost you."

Cyra recognized his attempt to pull pity from her heart. "Just stop," she said. "Stop."

"Stop pretending like I can't feel your heart anymore," he shot back. "You can pretend you don't still feel it, but I know you're lonely. You started to lose everything from the day Luke denied you, until you lost everything after your father died. I feel you, Cyra, clear as day. You're trying so hard to fight the fact that you don't want to be alone anymore, especially after seeing Leia, seeing me."

He had kept her hanging on his words long enough to enter her mind without her noticing. Cyra pushed him out quickly as soon as she felt his presence, to which his face twitched slightly, but he said nothing of it.

"I won't give you or Snoke a thing about the Resistance," snapped Cyra.

"You didn't have to try, Cyra, you were my own navigational guide to their new Base," said Ben. His brow raised when her face fell. "Did you not know you were the reason we found the Resistance?"

Cyra tried to remember he was only speaking so arrogantly to her to provoke a rise. She tried to remain calm, steady. How oblivious she had been, Cyra cursed herself, that she unintentionally brought the First Order to the Resistance. It was her fault they were forced to evacuate so soon; it was because she let up on her presence in the Force, because she underestimated his interest in her. He tracked her from across the galaxy.

"I want to know how you hid from me," he demanded.

Cyra watched him. He was unwavering in his stature, his facial expression. She watched for his old tells, of him lying, of him joking, but it only further solidified to her that he was different. The truth was he was different from the boy she knew, and she knew nothing personal about the man he was today. He was Kylo Ren, Jedi Killer, Murderer. He built the First Order with Snoke, he killed his father, he murdered thousands—that was what she kept telling herself.

But he did not feel that way. He didn't feel rough, or scary. She ignited the lightsaber out of fear, at first, but he made no moves to harm her during the duration of their talk. As she looked at him closer, he wasn't even wearing his lightsaber. He saw her as no threat to him, which was an unfortunate truth they both knew, though it meant only that she could not overpower him. It did not mean she held no option to run. He deliberately chose to use this medium to speak with her, despite how easily he could track her through the Force. This meeting was some type of olive branch towards something new, Cyra was gathering, with the longer it went on.

Cyra looked for a sign of someone else speaking into his ear, controlling him. She looked for hesitation in his body, a sign that this was not him speaking so she could find one last thing to pry herself away from his seduction. She was desperate to not believe in his words, despite the pull of her heart towards the familiar boy from her past.

"I'm not your enemy," Ben said.

He raised his eyebrow when she scowled, acknowledging he was in her thoughts. She was forgetting to continue blocking him. Her thoughts were too loud.

"I don't want you to be alone in the galaxy anymore. I've hurt you enough in our past by not choosing you. I've had six years to grieve over you, to cope with the idea that you were gone. I know what I want now, clearer than ever, and it starts with you, by my side. I just want you," he told her.

His words were piercing through the link in her mind and in her heart. It was as if her work to emotionally detach from her past meant nothing, as soon as he started to speak truthfully. And it was true. Seeing Leia had only brought Cyra a sense of peace that she was missing when she was alone. It hurt to leave her behind and to leave what familiarity the woman had brought to her life in such an abrupt and short amount of time. Returning to a taste of love with Leia made it hard for her to want to continue staying out of the fight.

And Ben was trying. Cyra was trying to remember how he looked in the forest, with Rey, when he was in combat with her, how fierce and defying he appeared. She was trying to cycle through her mind what she knew about him these days, that he was a senseless murderer, he was evil, he was cold. But he wasn't, to her. It was in his relaxed body language, his absent lightsaber, the subtle shyness in his tone, as he pleaded for her to be with him. He was being the boy she knew, as he stood in front of her, and she could not see a relation between him in the moment and the stories his mother told her.

She closed her eyes to hold in her tears. She didn't want to cry. She didn't know why she was crying. She took a breath.

"Does Snoke know about this?" she asked.

"No," Ben said. "He trusts me enough to not be in my head anymore. I've proved my loyalty to him."

"He let you find me, then?" asked Cyra. "He knows I'm alive?"

"I did convince Snoke to let me persuade you," he answered. "He's not thrilled I found a distraction from my tasks, but we figured out where the Resistance was because of you, so he won something out of all this."

"And you win by trying to get me back?" guessed Cyra.

"I don't have to try," said Ben simply. He crossed his hands behind his back. "Skywalker saw it in his vision years ago. I've seen it. You will turn to be with me, because it's me. Our paths may have veered for a small while, but you and I are meant to be along the same road. You can't stay out of it any longer. The Resistance is on its final leg. The First Order will control all of the major systems. They will destroy planets if provoked. The safest place you can be is with me."

Cyra believed his words. Despite the Resistance foiling Starkiller Base, the sheer mass of people needed to build a machine like it, and the fact that they powered the weapon more than once, said enough. The First Order was a machine, recovering already from a single setback, and the Resistance were merely struggling to stay afloat. But it was barely about survival anymore. If she agreed to be with him, she could never condone the actions of or submit to the Order, but she could likewise bring nothing to the Resistance except a body. Her possible Jedi days were over. She brought nothing of importance to either side, seemingly.

"If I chose Leia," she muttered, watching his reaction. Unsurprisingly, there was none. "If I chose the Resistance, would you let me be?" asked Cyra.

"You won't."

Cyra could not help how hard her eyes rolled. "You arrogant son of a bitch," she said, dropping her arms to her side. She eliminated the bright glow of the lightsaber. "What do you think you're offering me by asking me to join you? You're not the boy I fell in love with. What we had was in the past. All you're offering me is the chance to not die a little bit earlier than everyone else."

"You're still her, to me," said Ben softly. His hands fell back to his sides. "I'll love you for my life. Things have changed, Cyra, I know that. But if I lose you, this time, truly..."

Cyra could not pull her eyes from him. His vulnerability to her was not on purpose. He looked shrunken, shy, as he was honest with her. She did not miss the clear trailing of his words. He didn't even know what he wanted to finish the sentence with, as his eyes were searching within hers for someway to continue, his lips were split, but Cyra didn't need him to finish. He wasn't sure. He wasn't sure what he would do if she was dead and it was real. It was a cry for help.

It was then Cyra realized her refusal was not his final push to the Dark Side all those years ago. He refused her not because he did not love her enough to renounce his call to the Dark, it was because he wasn't strong enough. As he stood in front of her, taller, muscular, confident, he was not the scared boy she left on Mandalore. He was a well-trained, trusted follower of the Darkness, but he was struggling to stay bound to it. His faith broke significantly more the minute he felt her alive again.

Cyra had a chance. Maybe, she thought, this was her way to helping the Resistance. She was not strong enough to be the Jedi Leia wanted or needed, but standing in front of the boy she loved, as he stood masquerading as someone he was truly not, Cyra knew she had the one thing of importance necessary to possibly end all of this, and that was Ben Solo's love.

"I stay out of it because I don't think I can be what anyone wants me to be," said Cyra softly.

Ben raised his head. He watched her, hopeful in her words, wondering if they were true, and Cyra nodded slightly. She was taking his outstretched hand, not grasping it, but attempting to try. She needed to commit to the step she was taking. Any wavering, any anxiety in her act, and Ben would feel it immediately. He could read her like no other.

"She wanted you to train with Rey, with Skywalker," guessed Ben. When Cyra tilted her head suspiciously, he said, "Rey and I did this...Whatever this is. I know she's with Skywalker. Where, I don't know. I won't ask you."

"I stayed out of it as I heard the whispers of war through these last years because I don't win regardless of what side I'm on. If I choose you, like you keep insisting I will, I become complacent with the First Order. I won't condone the killing of innocents. I won't participate in galaxy-wide terror, or whatever it is you do—"

"If you choose me, you choose me," he told her. He took a few steps forward toward her, but he paused when she didn't flinch, or move away. She stayed connected with his dark brown eyes. "Snoke lied to me about you. He let me think you were dead."

"What are you saying?" asked Cyra. His distaste for Snoke was beginning to become obvious.

He shrugged, shaking his head. "The minute I felt you, none of it mattered anymore. Not Snoke, Skywalker, Rey, the Resistance. I wanted you back. That's all."

"Would you leave?" asked Cyra. She needed to know, before she assumed that was what his words were implying. She knew his love for her was reckless—it had been since they were children—but she wondered if it be enough to subdue him, to pry him from it all, still. "If I asked you right now to come with me, would you?" she continued.

She searched his eyes as he stared at her, shocked at what she was so bluntly asking. He reached for her, which caused a startled hum from her as she realized they were able to touch each other. He placed her hand on his heart, his fingers intertwined in the cracks of her own. His entrance into her mind was done with a quick push, while she was stuck over the fact that they could touch through this strange medium.

Search, he dared, speaking in their minds.

She found nothing of Snoke's influence. She looked into his eyes, she felt his heart, his anger, his grief. For what specifically , she did not fully know, but she felt regret alive in his heart. She felt mainly his fury at Snoke, but the continuing relief of knowing she was alive. His arrogance aside, his words and his heart were true. He wanted nothing more in that moment than her.

"Meet me," he whispered. There was no need to speak at a normal volume. They were close. Within an arms distance. Their fingers were locked over his heart, her arm reaching upwards, her chin raised up, to combat his height.

"Where?" she mumbled.

"You're somewhere cold," he guessed, nodding at her fingers. Cyra blushed and tried to pull her cold hands away, but he kept them tight to his chest. "If you send a distress signal out and it's from a cold planet, I'll send a transport."

"I have a ship," she said.

"Don't tell me it's that A-wing. I won't have you risking your life in that old—"

"It's an X," she interrupted, rolling her eyes. "I don't want to meet you anywhere near the First Order. I'm not there yet. Not convinced."

"Convinced that?" he wondered.

Cyra squinted at him, suspicious. He knew precisely what she was talking about. She guessed he just wanted her to admit to what she was considering. She wouldn't. She had to consider this all, everything he said, when this connection they were surrounded in was over. His words were making her head spin. She needed to think.

"You can find me," he mumbled. "Through the Force. It'll lead you to me, and me to you, if that's what you want. Just let me know you're coming. I'll need to warn the Bridge not to shoot down any X-wings they see."

"That would be bad," muttered Cyra.

A twinkle of laughter flashed through Ben's eyes, but he only lifted a corner of his lip, for a brief moment. A blink and she would've missed it.

Ben released her hand. He leaned forward and bent his knees, pressing a kiss to her forehead. When she opened her eyes, he was gone, the darkness with him, and she was faced with an corridor that left her alarmingly cold and alone.