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“Ben.”
They’re both smiling. They’re both bloody and exhausted and drained. But they’re together. They did it. They won.
He had brought her back from death. She could feel it. She could feel the bond they shared pulsing through them both, more powerful than it had ever been before, warming her insides, calming her mind.
She reaches out to touch his face, the place where she once scarred him, but she can barely see it now. Her fingers prickle where it connects with his skin. He keeps looking at her. She knows he can feel it, too. She can sense his thoughts like they are her own. She looks at his lips and feels his delight encompass her mind.
“Yes,” she hears but he does not speak. She moves forward and connects their lips. He grips her tighter and whatever remaining boundaries they had collapse under the weight of this chaste kiss. His mind is hers, her thoughts are his, they are wholly together at last.
They break apart. He smiles and they know that they are loved. They are not alone anymore.
And then… he’s falling back, his body weakened by the effort of everything he had suffered and everything he had sacrificed. She feels him as strong as ever through the bond.
“It’s alright,” She hears inside her head. She holds his hand as his body disappears.
“No,” she whispers. They’d done it, they’d won, they were together! He can’t leave.
“I haven’t left.”
Her body stiffens. “Ben?”
“I’m still here, Rey.” She hears his voice in her head, just like all the voices of the Jedi before her, except clearer, more profound. She closes her eyes and looks within herself. He’s still there, she realizes with a start. The bond never broke.
Her eyes snap open. “Ben!” She nearly laughs. “How-”
“I… don’t know. The Force…” She feels him hesitate. “It binds us together. Has been, ever since we first met.”
She feels him thinking, or is it her thoughts?
“When I healed you, I gave my life for you, my energy became yours… You became a vessel of my soul.”
They let that settle in. Ben was still with her, the acceptance made her heart soar. Ben seemed to be equally as elated.
“You’ll stay with me?” she asks, her voice small in the cavernous dark of the Sith temple.
“Always.”
An image of her taking his hand lights up her mind. Finally, at last, they can be as they were always meant to be. Together, as one, two sides of the same coin.
Her mind is abuzz with possibilities. They could go anywhere, do anything. She feels Ben smile.
“Go see your friends.”
Rey smiles. She gets up, dusts off her hands, and calls both lightsabers to her side and turns her back on the dark throne. They will never return to this place.
-------------------------------------------------
She climbs out of Luke’s old X-Wing and looks around. She’s never seen such delight. Ben hasn’t either. She feels him drinking it in, every embrace, every kiss, every happy tear shed. She stands still and opens her senses for him. The shrieks of joy are thunderous. She can feel everyone’s need to embrace their friends, clap each other on the back, and grip each other’s hands so tight it hurts because they’ve done it, they made it through. The energy of it all makes her tremble, like adrenaline coursing through her. It’s almost overwhelming. She closes herself off a little.
She starts moving again in search of her friends.
“Thank you,” Ben says. He is enraptured by the scene before him. She feels him wondering what it would have been like to be a part of this, if he had never been manipulated into the dark side. She quells those thoughts quickly, there is no changing what happened before. They can only be grateful for what they have now.
She looks around again and she feels Ben reaching out to try and sense her friends too. There. She sees them. Finn and Poe are alive. She thanks the Force they made it through the fight. She feels Ben’s curious appraisal of them both. She wraps both in the tightest hug she’s ever given. Tears leak out of her eyes, but for once they are not from pain.
It’s over. She can rest now. They can rest.
She hugs them for what seems like an eternity. Ben, to his credit, patiently waits without saying a word. When they finally break out of the hug they are all holding each other’s hands.
“I… need sleep,” she says and lets go of their hands. She holds Finn’s gaze and they reach an understanding. They will talk later. Poe tightens his grip on Finn’s hand.
“Sleep sounds great.” The pilot smiles at his friend. “Care to join me?”
Finn raises his eyebrows at him.
“Come on.” Poe tugs his hand and Finn takes one last look at Rey before following his Co-General to find a place to sleep.
“You lied to them,” Ben says, curiously.
“Not really,” Rey defends. “I do need sleep I just am not going to do it now.” She starts walking in the direction of her meditation spot.
Ben searches her feelings. “ Because you want to talk to me?” She’s almost there now.
Rey smiles. “Yes.”
“What do you want to talk about?”
Rey looks around. This will do. She lays down on the forest floor and closes her eyes. She can still hear the celebration going on far away.
“Anything."