Chapter Text
The wind whistled through Ben’s hair as he fell.
He called up the force. Rage--so quick to answer his call as always—burned through him.
*Palpatine laughs*
No.
He twists the energy towards serenity. He must slow his fall he must…
He hits his shoulders on a ledge which sends him spinning.
Fear and pain.
NO.
He rips the fear from him and focuses it into a burning point of clarity. Breathing out, he flings the force around him, clawing to the sides of the cavern. It slows him down but it isn’t enough. He crashes onto a ledge.
He feels and hears his leg shatter beneath him. White hot pain shoots like lightning up his spine. His body feels as though it is compressing and exploding all at once. He wants to scream but instead tries to breath in short bursts as the pain ricochets around his body.
The adrenaline and purpose that had him sprinting into the Sith temple turns sour in his mouth. With rising bile he realizes he has failed. Both he and Rey will die here. What a fool he was thinking he could be the hero. He was still just a broken boy ‘playing’ at being a Jedi.
*Palpatine laughs*. What a fool. Thinking you could change. Thinking you could help when all you do is destroy and fail. Rey is mine.
His voice feeds into Ben’s despair, frustration and shame. As he lies there on the ledge, broken and impotent he begins to weep.
“Its over.”
Be with me.
Rey?
Be with me.
She is still alive!
Be with me.
There is still time. Hope burns in his chest- Rey's hope and her resolve. With a groan he sits up. And then he stands. He staggers- his head dizzy with pain and relief and he begins to climb. Every misstep and pull of his shoulder is agony. His mind is muddied by the pain. Unable to properly focus he flings the force above him like a cudgel: madly scrambling up the wall.
He can feel rather than hear the ghosts arrive. They flutter down like so many leaves. Unlike the crackling, burning heat of the dark side they are cold, bright and clear. The world around him eases. The pain of his body does not disappear but it releases its tyrannical hold on his mind.
Everything will be alright.
He continues to climb. Suddenly the air around him seems to pressurize. His ears pop. A powerful surge of dark energy nearly pushes him off the wall. He has never felt power like this before. He clings to the wall for a second, shaking. This is abominable hatred. This is a sucking, grasping energy that feeds off of anything in its relentless pursuit of power.
He continues to climb. He cannot give in to fear, not even as the world above him is ripped apart in the battle between dark and light. He feels the dark, sucking force of Palpatine fade.
But then Rey’s life does too.
No.
NO.
He feels her life fade just as the ghosts also dissipate.
NO!
A fear more powerful than he had ever known pulses through him. He flings himself up the last ledge and staggers towards her. His mind aches. Her familiar constant presence that always danced on his periphery is gone. He feels a vast emptiness- an unmooring of her tether. Her body on the cold stone is the only thing he sees. It is the only thing in the universe. He gathers her into his arms.
Her heart had stopped. Her eyes stare blankly into the stars.
A dyad in the force. Two parts of the same whole. He knows what he has to do. Rey had taught him that to heal you had to love. You had to love with absolute abandon in order to rip a piece of your life away to end someone else’ suffering. Ben breathed slowly and focuses. He begins to empty his life-force and push it into her. She had given him a piece of herself to heal him, now he was pouring himself into her. He could feel his own heartbeat slow. His breath began to shake.
Be with me. He pleaded.
He could feel her, the familiar tether, that pull of her mind and energy begin to flicker under his hands.
Her hand touched his.
His whole body was burning as he felt her's rush back to life.
“Ben?” She smiled up at him. All the redemption of the world was in that name, all the past was forgiven with that smile. She pulled him into a kiss as his heart stopped.
Without hesitating she deepened the kiss and poured her life back to him. They passed the kiss and their life back and forth, like the petals of a blooming flower. Neither one took it all as they shared their life.
They broke finally and laughed. Relief and life made their heads spin. They lay back, hand in hand on the stone floor and watched as the fleet of star destroyers fell.