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The rebels have done it! They’ve finally taken down the First Order once and for all! The final explosion that ultimately secures their victory is so devastating it throws Kylo across the room and knocks him unconscious. Once he comes to, he tries his damndest to get up. He vision may be blurry and breathing labored, but his mind is crystal clear. He has get somewhere safer than in the middle of his throne room! The Resistance won’t rest until his head is mounted on a stake and broadcast for the whole galaxy to see!
He moves to push himself up and is stopped by a searing pain in his chest. Something primal kicks in and tells him not to look down; he does anyway and immediately has to squash the urge to vomit. “Oh, stars no” he thinks to himself as he sees something he’ll never be able to forget.
A fifteen foot pipe is sticking out of his chest and a small glance over his shoulder proves his worst fears has been realized. The pipe has run him through completely and is pinning him to the floor. While he checks if he can still move his fingers and toes, he lets his arms and legs hang lifeless as he’s too scared to move them out of fear that he’ll injure himself further. He reaches into the Force for comfort as he attempts to control himself, listening as the sounds of blaster fire get closer and closer. He wants to thrash, to scream, put up a barrier with the Force so they can’t get to him, to pull the pipe out with the Force and run, literally, for his life.
He loses himself for a moment in the realization that he’s going to die without having made amends with his mother, with Chewie, with...Rey. He lets out a whimper, as best he can since he’s 99% sure his left lung is collapsed, when the hears the sound of his given name echo through his head. “Ben? Oh no!” He can feel her Force signature wash over him like a warm blanket on a cold night. Though he knows why she’s here, what’s sure to soon happen, he sighs happily at the feeling. There’s no sense in lying to himself now, no sense in putting up a mask. She could always see through him anyway.
Suddenly, he hears multiple pairs of boots quickly running over rubble then “Rey! Are you…” Dameron’s voice had always grated on his nerves, but no more so than in this exact moment. “Oh man! Stars, this is too perfect, we couldn’t be luckier guys! He can’t even run away!”
Kylo involuntarily shivers at the man’s words. He knew his death was more than for what he had done, but… he wasn’t ready. Determined not to show weakness, he picked a spot on the ceiling and stared at it while more and more Resistance members made their way into the room presumably to gawk at him. Dameron of course, was the first to come over to get a good look at his plight. The pilot smiles brightly, mischievously; one Kylo is sure he uses to charm his followers, one that mimics Snoke’s before lightning struck. The pain of being jostled after Poe kicks in his ribs is enough to have him holding back a scream. He’s glad to still be wearing his helmet so they can’t see him start to cry.
Rey is horrified, stunned into silence by the display as the rebels around her laugh and cheer Poe on as he moves to Ben’s other side and does the same. Rose comes up on her left and takes her hand while Finn puts his hand on her left shoulder and squeezes. She can barely feel it over the phantom pain in her own ribcage. She’s been wanting to hit her knees ever since she stepped into the room. There’d been adrenaline coursing through her, and she’d been geared for a fight, then she’d seen the pipe, thinking it odd to be sticking up like that, only to follow with her eyes where it led. Now she wanted to scream, to cry, to pull the pipe out, heal him and run. But they’d only brought her for one reason and one reason only: to kill Kylo Ren. Now, it seems, she wasn’t needed. She chances another glance at her comrades and has a burning desire to separate Poe’s head from his shoulders.
The General has invited any rebels who want a crack at Kylo Ren to go ahead and take their revenge. Three men run over and jostle the pipe holding Bens chest in place. When Ben starts screaming for them to “please, stop!” Poe mocks his cries then rips Bens helmet off his head. “Aww, poor Kylo. Are you in pain? Good.” The pilot then looks down at him and sneers. “Stars, you’re an ugly bastard, it’s no wonder you wear a helmet. I wonder, if I break your nose, will it still be that bulbous at your funeral or will it be normal? Let’s find out, shall we?” he smirks then stands up. When he raises his foot to stomp on Kylo’s face, Rey has had more than enough.
Surging forward, she charges for Poe, pulling at the rage inside her as she goes. The rebels that had been playing with the pipe dive out of the way, scurrying back to safety with the rest of the fleet, but Poe remained, not seeing Rey until she was upon him. The pilot was lifted off his feet, choked within an inch of his life before she threw him across the room and into a wall. The three men that had been playing with the pipe, Rey began pulling them out of the crowd, dragging them across the floor, over the rubble filled with shattered glass till they were all bleeding enough to soak through their uniforms. When she was done, she threw them down, enjoying the fear in their eyes. She’s in the middle of choking every single one of the rebels that had been laughing at Kylo’s pain when a furious roar shakes the ground, quickly followed by a voice screaming out, “Rey, stop! Stop, it’s okay!”
Rey looks over to see Leia standing next to a worried looking Chewie. Rey shakes her head at them and takes a breath. “You knew what they would do! You knew they would torture him before they made me kill him! You both knew! You knew!”
Chewie cries that out that he didn’t know, that torture is not the way of the Resistance; Leia moves closer, hands up in a placating way. “Rey sweetie, you need to calm down. He’s not dead, not yet. We can save him. You just need to let us look at him, okay? He’s going to be fine.”
The rage inside is suddenly too much for Rey to bear and she sees red. “LIAR! YOU’RE GOING TO KILL HIM!” she goes to take her frustrations out on Leia and Chewie when she hears a sound behind her.
“Rey… don’t.” His voice is but a mere whisper, but she hears it clear as a comm alarm through their bond.
She pauses and turns to look at him, the longer she looks, the more the rage inside of her is slowly replaced with a wave of exhaustion and anguish she can’t describe as he smiles at her. “You saved me. I’m so proud of you... but you have to let me go now, sweetheart.”
Rey drops to her knees and stares at him, his smile blinding her even though he’s starting to cough up blood, the red staining his teeth. She shakes her head frantically and fights the tears gathering in her eyes. “No! No, no, no, no!” she repeats, getting a little louder each time.
She watches as tears roll down his cheeks, listens to how badly his chest rattles when he takes a deep breath. “You have to. I’m sorry. I’m so very sorry. In another life maybe we could’ve…. I’m so sorry.”
Rey hears an agonized cry and turns to see Leia being held up by Chewbacca, the older woman barely holding on. She looks back at Ben to see him reaching for her with a sad smile. She grabs his hand and grips it tight as he joins the Force moments later. When she feels the bond between them shatter, she screams till she blacks out.
Leia and Chewie have barely taken their eyes off Rey since Ben’s death. Leia may not be practiced in the ways of the Force, but she was still Force sensitive; the moment Ben’s body joined the Force, something happened to the young girl that Leia couldn’t put her finger on. For weeks after the First Order had been overthrown, Rey had horrible insomnia. Many rebels had come to her complaining of Rey walking up and down the corridors all night. From there it was severe mood swings. One moment she’d be laughing and the next, running away to cry. Then she’d taken to skipping meals, especially when Dameron decided he was going to eat in the cafeteria. When she’d asked Finn and Rose if they’d noticed any changes in their friend, they told her that they hadn’t seen her much; she kept running away to meditate even though they hadn’t seen her spar, attempt to fix her broken saber or even translate the Jedi texts since that fateful day. Leia had initially thought it was from guilt due to the pilots (now healed) injuries, but when she called upon Rey for a social visit and seen how gaunt and sickly the girl had become, she’d sent her straight to the med bay. The med droids had admitted her immediately.
That was three days ago, and Rey had done little but sleep for very long periods of time in between taking meager sips of water. When she called for a med droid’s opinion, she held Leia’s hand as they spoke of Rey’s diagnosis. “Medically, she’s perfectly healthy. For reasons we can’t explain, we’re losing her.”
“She’s dying?!” Leia said, shocked to her core. Chewie let out a confused whine.
“We don’t know why” the droid continued, “she has lost the will to live.”
Leia shut her eyes and breathed in deep, though it came out shaky on the exhale, she thanked the droid and it went about its business. When it was gone, Leia turned and rested her forehead against Chewie’s arm then looked back through the window at Rey.
“What is it? Do you know?” Chewie asked sadly.
Leia nodded stiffly and didn’t even attempt to hide her tears. “She’s dying of a broken heart. We’re going to lose her.”
A day later, Rey smiled brightly as Ben pulled her into his arms, leading her away into oblivion. Chewbacca’s wail of misery echoed through the halls of the base for all to hear.