Skywalker Rises

Bindings

Rey opened her eyes. She was in an infirmary, laying on crisp, white sheets. A tube sprouted from her wrist, connected to a bag of fluid on a pole beside her head. She rubbed her eyes, and sat up with a jolt.

Ben. A guard stood at the foot of the adjacent bed, blaster in hand. The person in the bed was hidden completely beneath a white blanket, save for a mess of black hair poking out at the head of the bed.

"Is he..." Rey asked the soldier, squashing down her panic. They wouldn't post a guard on a dead man.

He nodded. "Alive last time the nurse came in. He hasn't moved since my shift started."

Rey extracted herself from the blankets and swung her legs over the side of the bed. When the dizzy spell passed, she slid off and waited to see if her legs would hold her weight.

The guard eyed her unhappily. "The nurse said you should stay in bed, sir." Flustered, he corrected himself. "Master Jedi. Ma'am."

"Do you have orders to stand watch?" asked Rey.

"Yes, ma'am."

"You should wait outside the door and give us some privacy," said Rey. "Let me know before you let anyone in."

The soldier frowned, and for a moment Rey thought the mind trick hadn't worked. Then he nodded. "I will wait outside and notify you if someone tries to enter." He left.

"Thank you," said Ben, his voice sleepy.

Rey grabbed her pole and wheeled it over to his bed. She tugged the blankets back and crawled in with him. He circled an arm around her and and pulled her close.

"I promised myself not to do that unless my life or someone else's was in danger."

"My sanity was in danger. That guy took his orders to 'not take his eyes off of me' literally."

She kissed his cheek. "How long have you been awake?"

"A few hours. I was waiting on you. Or some other high up to come in."

When Rey's hands were warm, she gently slid one down his bare chest, searching for the wound. She found a neatly stitched line. "You're OK?"

He chuckled. "As you will likely hear, the doctor was the real hero of the day. He managed to stitch up the still bleeding wound and single-handedly save our lives. I played a small role when I repaired a major blood vessel, many layers of guts, and re-knit muscle."

"I'll make sure to thank the doctor for his brilliant expertise."

"They've been giving us blood and fluids. I didn't fix any of that."

"Mm." Just moving from her bed over to his had worn her out. She might need a little more blood.

"Thank you for not intervening up there."

"That was awful. Don't do it again."

"I promise not to become a murderous madman and be sentenced to death again."

Poe stormed in, his voice preceding him with sharp words to the soldier. Rey tried to sit up, but the dizziness was back. Ben lifted her, slid her legs over, and sat beside her. His arm around her was warm, firm, and gloriously alive. Poe leaned against Rey's empty bed and frowned, arms crossed. He was angry.

"Explain," said Poe.

"Don't look at me," said Ben. "I was dead. And then I was almost dead again."

They both looked at Rey.

"I can't explain it," she said.

"But you did it," said Ben.

"Are you sure?" said Poe. He was suspicious he'd been tricked on the rooftop.

"I'm sure she did it," said Ben. "I just don't know how."

Ben took a lancet off of the bedside table and stabbed the tip of his thumb. A fat, red drop of blood welled up. The same drop appeared on Rey's thumb.

"Poke yourself," said Ben. "New finger."

She did, and watched the same spot bleed on his finger.

"What is this?" asked Rey. She was scared. Ben was probably right that she had caused it. She just didn't know how she could have. She certainly hadn't done it on purpose.

"Tell me about what you did to bring me back from the dead," said Ben.

Rey recounted the story. She hadn't told Poe, and his expression was just as incredulous as Ben's had been when she first told him.

"I think that makes sense," said Ben.

"How?" said Rey and Poe at the same time.

"She altered the Dyad Bond," said Ben. "Tightened it. And that makes a lot of sense, though I believe you when you say you didn't do it on purpose. I think you were so afraid of failing, of losing me again, that whatever you did with the Force to restore my life went above and beyond your intentions."

"Oh," said Rey.

She couldn't decide if this was good or bad. Bad if one of them sustained a major injury. Good because she'd never live while he died again. It was morbid and lovely all at once.

"So basically, this weird Force Bond thing protects Kylo Ren from execution, unless we are willing to sacrifice Rey, too?"

"It protects Ben from execution," said Rey.

"Undo it," said Poe.

"That's not how the Force works," said Ben.

"Give me some options, here," said Poe. "Honestly, I don't care if they want to execute you or not. I don't think civilized people should engage in capital punishment. It's barbaric and punitive. But they have a point. You have so much blood on your hands you're drowning in it. Help me out of this. What do I tell them?"

Rey understood the Council's position. She thought the odds of Poe approving her death in order to rid the galaxy of Ben Solo was very unlikely. Neither Ben nor Rey responded.

"Is it possible to contain you in a prison?" Poe asked Ben.

"You can try asking me nicely to stay in a prison cell," said Ben.

"No," said Rey. "No prison you build can hold a strong Force user. He could have easily left the one you had him in here." At full strength. But Poe didn't need to know that.

Poe sighed. "Great."