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Rey could feel the anger building up inside her. The fury she held inside twisted her expression and drove her hand towards the hilt of her new lightsaber by instinct. She briefly wondered if the blood of Palpatine that coursed through her veins now fed the rage she felt, but the thought only frustrated her more.
The young woman had returned to Ahch-To in search of guidance. When Rey faced the Emperor, the voices of the Jedi came to her and aided her in that final battle. When she visited Tatooine, she glimpsed the spirits of Luke and Leia smiling down on her from the afterlife of the Force. Yet at the very site of her initial training and the origin of her bond with Luke, she felt nothing. She could no longer feel his spirit or the spirit of Leia at all.
The mystery and wonder that coated Luke’s island fell away against her rage. Where she once relished in the rain of Ahch-To, now its icy touch soaked into her clothes and made her shiver beneath the hood of her robes. The beautiful quiet and ancient power of the place no longer moved her. Now, with the island shrouded in night and the sky torn open by a powerful storm, she remembered only her duel with Luke amongst the huts of the Jedi village. How she loathed him then.
In that moment, it felt to her as if the galaxy had left her alone again. The memories of long days spent by herself on Jakku came flooding back. The solitude of training on the island before Luke instructed her. The loneliness of racing towards the final battle with the Emperor. And then the kiss. His smile. The belonging she sought.
All gone. All ripped away from her as some kind of cruel trick played on her by the Force. All at once, the anger inside her overflowed and she let the Force burst from her body like a shockwave. Dirt and sand erupted into the air. The rocks around her shattered and flew apart. Great cracks emerged where she stood on the island. She unleashed the Force and for one blissful moment, she felt in control.
But the feeling did not last for more than a heartbeat. Rey stared at the devastation she caused and shook her head.
“I’m alone.”
“You’re not alone.”
Rey’s eyes widened in surprise and she twisted her head in search of the voice’s source.
“Behind you.”
With a start, the young woman whipped around on the spot and drew her lightsaber in one fluid motion. Bathed in the yellow glow of the blade, Rey roared her fury at the voice.
“Show yourself!”
The voice waited a moment before responding. When it returned, it sounded entirely unconcerned by Rey’s anger or her ignited weapon.
“Okay.”
Though the rain-soaked darkness of night made seeing anything difficult, Rey could perceive a shape forming out of light directly in front of her. The glow remained indistinct for a moment, then coalesced into a form she knew all too well.
Ben Solo. Though bathed in a warm blue light, the young man’s kind face and strong figure stood undiminished. He wore the ceremonial robes of the ancient Jedi Masters about his shoulders. The only remnant of his time as Kylo Ren remained in the form of a facial scar that Rey dealt to him during their first duel. She deactivated her lightsaber as soon as he appeared and extended a hand towards his face.
“Don’t.”
She recalled her hand to her side as if struck.
“I’m sorry. I just-- I don’t need any reminders right now.”
Rey let a puzzled expression play across her features.
“Reminders of what?”
“That I’m-- That I’m part of the Force.”
Ben let out a sigh and Rey could see his posture fall. She smiled at him and placed a hand over her own heart.
“You’re part of me as well. Doesn’t that make you happy?”
For the first time since his reappearance, Ben smiled. His joy spread across his whole face and Rey could see his eyes light up as he stared back into hers.
“You have no idea, Rey.”
The sound of him saying her name thrilled her to her core. With her hand still over her chest, Rey could feel her heartbeat accelerate to lightspeed and she let out a quick breath. Before Ben could comment on her obvious attraction to him, she asked him another question.
“How are you here?”
The young man shrugged his massive shoulders and raised his arms in a perfect, if accidental, imitation of his father.
“The will of the Force? Our bond as a Force dyad? I have no clue. Master Skywalker always told me that appearing in the Force after death could only be achieved through discipline, study, and self-sacrifice.”
His smile dimmed a little but remained as a grin.
“I got the self-sacrifice part right.”
Now Rey’s expression fell. After their battle with Palpatine only days prior, Ben gave up everything so that she might live. He poured every bit of remaining vitality he possessed into her and for one moment, she gained his thoughts and felt his emotions. A singular image of the fallen Jedi emerged in her mind in that instant of total connection. As he cradled her in his arms and her strength returned, Rey had realized that the Dark Side did not turn Ben Solo into Kylo Ren because he desired power. He desired belonging, just as she did.
Rey didn’t know if she loved Ben. But in that moment just before Ben’s disappearance, she felt more bound to him than anyone she ever previously met.
“There must be some way we can fix this.”
Ben looked down at his own body and then looked back at Rey with a sarcastic air.
“Fix death? That’s a Sith way of thinking, Lady Palpatine.”
The young woman shot him a venomous look from beneath the hood of her robe. Ben raised his hands in front of his chest in a motion of surrender.
“Alright, alright. I won’t bring it up again.”
Ben backed up a few paces and, to Rey’s silent astonishment, sat down on a half-shattered rock. Despite his spectral form, Ben actually shifted his weight slightly as if still corporeal.
“Seriously though, you won’t find anything on infusing spirits into bodies in the Jedi teachings.”
Rey returned her deactivated lightsaber to her belt and glanced down the island towards where she landed the Millennium Falcon. Her mind raced ahead of her words as she began plotting where the two of them could begin their search for a solution.
“Then we’ll find another way. We will, Ben. The galaxy keeps taking from me. It stops now.”
The young man cleared his throat and turned his eyes towards the ground. Rey returned her gaze to him as he spoke.
“My grandfather once felt the same.”
The anger she felt earlier briefly returned to Rey. She admired plenty of things in Ben, but his obsession with the past, particularly his grandfather, grated on her.
“Are you saying you won’t help me? You want to stay like that forever?”
A long moment passed before Ben answered her questions. When he did, he turned his head upwards and looked back into her eyes.
“I’ll help. But Rey, you need to understand. The power you’re seeking… It’s almost always destroys the seekers.”
For the briefest moment, Rey perceived a change in the image of Ben’s spirit. It flickered like sand blown across the dunes. The mask of Kylo Ren enveloped the scarred head of the seated figure. Before Rey could react at all, the image disappeared and the spectral vision of Ben Solo returned.
“I won’t fail. I won’t-- I will not lose you again.”
Ben rose and stepped towards Rey. As he neared her, he extended a ghostly palm towards her chest and lay it there. The sensation of touch never reached Rey’s skin but she still felt his presence through the Force. Then, without warning, the vision began fading into nothingness. Rey briefly panicked, seeking purchase on Ben’s ethereal robes before he disappeared completely. A rush of despair filled her for a moment before she heard Ben speak again.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
She smiled at the presence of Ben speaking to her through her mind, though she wondered just how much he could see into her thoughts and feelings. Perhaps she would revisit the Jedi texts on meditation and control. For now though, she let her joy come freely and she raced back to the Falcon.
She saved the galaxy and now she would save Ben. Together, she knew they could accomplish anything.