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“Rey. Forget the past. Snoke, Skywalker… Let them go and join me.”
Ben Solo’s outstretched hand reached towards Rey, who stood rooted to the spot. Conflicting emotions clashed inside of her like the waves crashing against the island.
Life. Death. Growth. Cold. Warmth.
Rey’s lessons from Master Skywalker echoed throughout her mind, so fresh in her mind yet also feeling so long ago from now…
Light. With extreme darkness. Between this all?
“... Balance.” Rey whispered underneath her breath.
“What?” Ben stared, confused, but unyielding.
Rey looked at Ben’s gloved hand, weighing the options. She could take Luke’s lightsaber and leave, or she could submit to the Dark Side just as Ben had forseen. Her fingers twitched at her side. She glanced back up into Ben’s eyes, staring deep into the depths of the brilliant brown that told her everything.
His eyes gave away everything. His fears, insecurities, anxieties… Anger. Respect. The atrocities he had witnessed, the pain he had experienced. It was all there, like an open book, in front of Rey.
The past days, nay, mere hours before felt like an eternity ago. The Ben Solo she had conversed with, pleaded with, seen every insecurity in the battle hardened man… was still in the monster before her. A Knight of Ren stood before her now, power hungry and deceptive. He had tricked her, fooled her young, naive mind into thinking she could turn him.
But the touch they shared hours earlier… felt like something much more than an act. Rey truly felt as if Ben, the true Ben Solo, was reaching out to her, pleading for help, crying for liberation from his binds.
Every time he appeared before her in the past days became a more and more welcoming feeling, even if he had tried to kill her before. She was flustered when she thought back to the first time, when she had been sleeping. The big, bad monster, Kylo Ren, watching a nobody scavenger girl sleep. But what he said before, too… About her parents…
“Rey.”
Ben’s husky voice cut through her thoughts. His hand was still outstretched, shaking, as if hesitant. “Will you join me? We can create something new. No more Jedi Order. No more Sith or Dark Lords. Just the Force and raw power.”
Rey looked once more at Ben’s hand, and grabbed it tightly. “I will join your cause, Ben Solo.”
Ben’s face brightened slightly, and his hand stopped shaking. “Thank you, Rey. For trusting me.”
“Anything for a man who shamelessly displayed his body to a young woman who requested he put on a towel or something.”
“Ah…”
Rey tugged Ben’s arm and drew them closer together. There was still light in this young man. Perhaps… He needed to be believed in.
Rey brought her arms up around his neck and squeezed him tight. Ben reeled back slightly, surprised, before smiling softly and wrapping his arms around her back.
“Thank you… Rey.”