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“NOOOO!!!”
Up until now, they had been fighting him together. In their training with Luke for this final showdown with the sith to save the galaxy, they had discovered how when they touched their powers exponentially increased. They knew then the only way to destroy Palpatine was the two of them together.
Together they perfectly balanced the force.
Together their power was unmatched.
Palpatine only called on the dark…but together they had the light and the dark…the entirety of the force.
It had been working, too.
Really well...until they thought they had him.
He was on the ground, heaving and gasping for breath. They were sure just one more bolt and it would be done. Their hands slipped apart for just a moment to catch their breath…
...and in that moment they heard his horrible cackle and the energy they didn’t know he still had as he lashed out at Rey.
Then, a strange thing happened.
Until that point, he had been Kylo with shades of Ben, or sometimes Ben with shades of Kylo…but seeing her lying on the ground after the attack, something happened in him. His countenance changed. It was like he embodied all of the force but in an unnatural way.
He slid in front of her, taking the bolts from Palpatine himself, then shoving it back on him.
With one last cry…it was done. Palpatine was finally...finally...destroyed.
Anakin's grandson had finally achieved what was prophesied to come through him.
But…it was too much for one person to bear, the entirety of what he did.
She felt the moment too…when he did it. She could feel when he realized what it would mean...what it might cost...but he charged ahead anyhow, not caring.
It was one of the most Han Solo things she had ever seen him do.
And he did it for her…for the memory of Leia…for him...for them all.
So now here he laid, with his head on her lap, with them both knowing he was breathing his last. He couldn’t even talk…it was all he could do to just look at her with those dark, feeling eyes of his.
Her words pushed out, punctuation really to her heaving, painful sobs.
“Ben…no-no-no…you…you can’t. You promised me, Ben. You told me I wasn’t alone. I saw our futures…and this wasn’t it. This isn't what I saw, Ben. I saw us happy…and whole. We had a normal life. I saw our…our chil…”
She felt him slipping away. She leaned down, raining tears and kisses across his forehead. Hoping for a different way.
Why couldn’t there be a different way? How could they have the power they had and there not be some way? What good was it all?
“I love you, Ben Solo. I will always… always love you.”
And he was gone. A guttural yell ripped from her mouth as a tsunami swell rose in her soul.
No, no…this could not be. She would not accept it.
The wave inside her crested and her hands pressed forcefully over his heart. One final roar felt as if it came beyond her.
Suddenly shards of light pulled from the heavens and met her hands clasped over him. Beams began to emanate from there as well in rippling, shimmering waves of incandescence.
It felt like hours, but really was just seconds, then the light stopped.
And then there was silence...
...peaceful, purposeful silence.
She felt a cough, first. The kind where people got the wind knocked out of them then struggled to catch their breath once it returned.
Her eyes were closed. She couldn’t look…she couldn’t bear it if it wasn’t true. But then she felt his gloved hand on her cheek. Tears streamed down onto it as she opened her eyes and looked into his.
Those feeling...loving eyes...
Ben Solo rose.