Chapter Text
He felt cold, but a pleasant kind of cold.
He was floating on a soft and sweet wave, with his eyes closed, not feeling anything at all. All the pain caused by the injuries sustained while falling into the pit and climbing back up, scared since he could not sense Rey anymore, was gone.
He remembered the excruciating feeling of ache all over his body when his hand finally gripped over the edge of the chasm he had been thrown down by the greatest foe of his family. But then, the sight of a slender inanimate body a distance from where he was hardly standing, made him use any lingering energy he had to move any way he could to reach to Rey.
He clearly remembered the despair he felt when he finally got to her what it felt like ages later, and took her body in his arms but she was unresponsive. He looked all around him, the Sith temple empty, looking for a sign of hope that could help him get Rey back.
He knew he should have been there, defeating Palpatine aside her, he knew it was so unfair that she had to die after being just a mere vessel of the Force and all of the Jedi who helped her defeat the greatest Sith but didn't seem to care her life was taken in the process.
Her eyes were lifeless and seeing it was actually way more terrifying for him than facing the whole Resistance, who would not doubt to ask for his head for all the crimes committed as Commander and then Supreme Leader of the First Order.
He then remembered what she had done for him when they were fighting over the ruins of the second Death Star, and focused all his Force to bring her back. He realised that, with all he had been through, the effort might as well kill him; however, for many reasons, he knew it was the right thing to do, especially because he could not think of anything worse than to live in a galaxy without her.
All of it was gone. He felt almost as pleasant as when he finally felt her hand reaching his own, and opening his eyes he saw hers looking at him, and heard the sweetest sound he could hear, his real name on her lips with relief. Suddenly everything was right when they finally kissed, and he smiled, feeling such a strange feeling as if smiling was a foreign gesture for his face.
But he wasn't there anymore. He didn't know where he was now.
All he remembered was falling over the ground and closing his eyes, like his living energy was drained out of his body.
But was he a Force-ghost now?
He knew Anakin and Luke were, and probably his mother would be a Force-ghost now too. But would his crimes allow him to become part of the Cosmic Force once dead?
He had no idea if a Force-ghost would feel his body as solid as he felt now, he realised he could feel his body lying over a cold surface, but his eyes would refuse to open.
One thing he didn't know is that Exegol was actually a place where a portal to the World Between Worlds was located, and that he was not actually dead.
His body had disappeared from sight, and all Rey had been left with were the garments he was wearing.
But his body was taken somewhere else.
Unable to resist any more, he opened his eyes.
He had no idea where he was now.
It looked like the insides of a temple, an enormous structure with pillars around him, with walls covered with a hundred hues of red, yellow, gold and orange.
For a moment he thought he was inside the Royal Palace of Theed, where his grandmother Padme had ruled as the brave and loved Queen Amidala of Naboo.
A female figure approached to him, all dressed in red robes, with red hair and blue, piercing eyes.
"Who are you? Where am I?". He felt his voice was hoarse for lack of use.
"My name is Kinvara, welcome to Volantis."