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Ben gripped the top of the ridge, broken body screaming agony he didn't have the strength to voice aloud. What tore a whimper from his lips was the sight of her, the girl that had haunted his mind for as long as he could remember, lying lifeless in the dirt.
Ben forced himself upright, shattered bones scraping against each other, nausea overwhelming him even more than the unrelenting pain. But she was all that mattered now, not him. He scrabbled with all the strength he had, staggering, falling, dragging himself up again. The pain was too much, too much, but he HAD to get to her.
"Rey... no..." he choked, almost silent, his voice could scarecly make a sound.
Her body was cold when he touched it, strength failing him as he tried to hold her, something in him giving him just enough to drag her onto his lap. Her eyes stared blankly off, somewhere past his shoulder. Ben searched his surroundings in desperation, looking hopelessly for anyone to help him, someone to save her.
There was only the silence of a heartbeat that should have been there but wasn't.
He pulled Rey to him as if he could envelope her in his very ribcage, keep her safe and alive with his own heartbeat. Greif swirled like a raging storm inside him, sorrow and pain and loss. He didn't notice tears that fell onto her, only knew the soulcrushing despair of true lonliness, an empty feeling that a part of him was gone. That he hadnt been strong enough to keep her safe.
But maybe he could.
Maybe he could save her.... and if he couldn't, at least they would die together.
In his ear he heard a voice he remembered. A hundered voices all at once, of everyone who should have supported him, but that Palpatine had shut out. Finally here to help him now that Palpatine was gone, and he was free.
"Hey kid. You got this. You are not alone"
Ben lay her back on his lap and took a breath through broken ribs, but the pain seemed cold and distant, like it was happening many miles away. In his mind, he saw only the woman he'd realised he loved, the woman, no, soulmate he was willing to die to save.
He poured all he had, all the energy and soul and strength he was, every single thing, into her body. More and more he gave her, feeling himself grow cold, shaking in exhaustion but refusing to give in.
Until he felt a heartbeat stutter back to life, and her chest rise and fall beneath his fingertips, and her delicate hand found his, a simple word echoing there- "stop".
The cold that tugged at his limbs and sapped what was left of him away didn't matter anymore. His once ferocious and feral drive to survive had leeched from him, and he felt ready to die, purpose complete.
He looked at her, watched life as it bloomed beneath her skin.
Watched her as she looked at him with a look so full of love and happiness he felt like he could drown in it. He knew he was about to break her heart, he'd given too much, taken too much damage, he could feel his heart stuttering in his chest as it desperately clung on for a few seconds longer.
"Ben..." She whispered a smile gracing het lips, her voice like music in his mind.
God, he loved her. More than anything. She rose her hand to his cheek, a warm hand that thrummed with life, yet had been cold and still moments before.
He wished he could say it, but he didnt have the strength to waste on words. Certainly not words he knew she knew already.
For the first time in his life, he was truly happy, truly content, and filled with love. Her eyes, her touch, was all he knew, and all he knew was good.
She leaned in urgently and met her lips with his. He gave in to her, with every ounce of energy he kissed her back, drinking in her love and one last time wrapping his arms around her perfect frame. His strength was almost gone and pain- both physical from his ruined body and mental at the thought of losing her again- threatened to destroy him now.
Yet when the kiss broke, he smiled instead. He loved her more than anything, knew that she loved him too, and this, he was happy to die feeling. He felt his heart beat for the last time, and the last dregs of life faded from him as he fell limp in her arms.
"Ben?" Rey gasped, down at his side in an instant. She shook his shoulders, her hands came back covered in his blood.
"Ben..." and now the greif that he had felt slammed into her, and she too felt alone.
This wasn't fair. He had finally won, finally beaten everything that he had fought against for so long, to die saving HER.
It was HIS life force that flowed through her veins ans HIS life force that allowed her heart to beat. She looked down, and whimpered a 'no!' as his body began to fade from her.
She reached out with all of herself, and kept him where he lay.
"No. I can't let you do this!" She cried, but she didn't know how to save him. If he brought him back, like he had with her, it would kill her. Then his last act would have been undone, and he would have nothing and no one to help him navigate this world alone. Rey thought back to the resistance, to the friends and family she had made, yet still felt alone and hollow.
"Leia help me!" Rey called out in anguish.
A hand on her shoulder told her she was not alone. A hand on her shoulder of a woman who had given life once to the man who lay before her.
A hand who would do so again.
"Leia please, I can't lose him..." her voice was wracked with sobs.
"I will help you" Leia answered, a force ghost, she stepped around Rey to lean opposite her, a hand on her son's chest.
"Heal his wounds, so his soul may return to a body that isn't broken, and I will bring him back" Leia told her, voice strong, commanding and wise as it was in life. This was her final task, her final step, to redeem herself and her son, to fulfill the Skywalker line.
"You will never live again, will you? You'll be completely gone" Rey whispered, doing as Leia had told her, mending the worst of Ben's broken bones. She didnt have the strength to heal all of him, but enough to heal what would kill him again if he woke.
"Yes. I will be 'gone'... but this is my legacy." Leia said quietly, then smiled a sad smile to her, and her deep brown eyes rested on her son. Leia leaned forwards to kiss her son on the forehead- a moment Rey averted her eyes for- it seemed too private for her to witness. As Leia faded away, a crackle of electricity surged from her fading form and Ben gasped a breath he was never meant to take.
"Mom?" Ben opened his eyes just in time to see his mother's kind face fade away from him, and an amulet that had been around her neck materialised and fell onto his chest.
A tear fell down his cheek, and he looked at Rey, knowing what had happened, and knowing they were both alive- but his mother had made the ultimate sacrifice to pay for his life debt.
Ben slowly rose to a seat, clutching the amulet in his hand, looking at Rey with loss in his eyes. She wrapped her arms around him and held him close, their force bond reignited as they breathed together.
"It worked" Rey breathed in his scent, a smell that had never graced her yet she knew as well as anything else.
"We are one, you and I. I will never hurt you again..." Ben told her, then moved out of the embrace.
"You never did. It was Kylo Ren who hurt me, and he is dead" Rey answered, eyes drinking in the man she loved.
"I love you, Rey" He rose a hand to her cheek, and she half laughed half cried in response.
"I love you too, Ben Solo"
For the second time, they kissed, but this one was not desperate, or pained, or greiving. This kiss was full of love, passion and hope, and the knowledge that they would never be alone again.
No, never again.