One-Shot: Till the Force Do Us Part
The shadows of the rapidly setting sun cast a purple glow on the rocky hills and plains, with particular emphasis on the rock bridge connecting two cliff faces... and two sides of a galactic war.
On one cliff sits the Resistance. On the other sits the First Order. The silence is tense and palpable, only adding to the uneasiness everyone feels at the temporary white flag of truce that has just been called.
The battle had started off violently, with First Order and Resistance fighters alike refusing to give an inch. After hour upon hour, it became clear that the two forces were at a pretty even match. So, a temporary ceasefire and white flag of truce has been called.
Now, as everyone looks on with trepidation, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren and Jedi Master Rey - the two opposing avatars of the Light and Dark Sides of the Force - cross the rocky bridge to meet in the middle.
Rey gazes at the man before her. He looks more broken than she has ever remembered him being. His face is etched with pain, terror even. It is he who speaks first. And what he expresses leaves Rey feeling elated with hope and utterly speechless.
"I don't want to be like Vader anymore, Rey. I'm tired of running, tired of killing. I just have to know that you won't leave me again."
Rey knows of what he speaks. When she fled from him, off the Supremacy after the death of Snoke. But if Kylo... Ben is opening himself up the way that she thinks he is, she has to make that promise. So she steps closer, her eyes full of compassion. "I won't."
"I just..." Ben can't finish. He lets out a strangled choke of a sob and then yanks Rey into his arms. In the next moment, he is crushing her lips to his in a desperate kiss.
Rey has always vaguely wondered when the tension would break, when they would admit their feelings at long last. Getting over the initial shock of being in Ben's arms, she winds her arms lazily about his neck, fisting his scalp in her fingers and pulling him in ever tighter. Closing her eyes, she deepens the kiss. All about them, she can hear the Force singing like a choir of angels, and she bashes her tongue down Ben's throat before sliding back more gently. An easy give-and-take. Their Force Bond is exploding in triumph all around them, and were Ben's mouth not sealed around hers, if she had any voice with which to speak, she would scream with glee. He wants her here, wants to kiss her. Her! And it feels so, so right. She clutches at him almost painfully.
"I love you," she whispers into his lips, her voice strangely hoarse. And she can feel Ben tremble almost violently, as if he is weeping. Or maybe her touch is what makes him shake so, as if he cannot believe this is real. She simply holds him anyway, until their bodies are one and it is almost impossible to tell whose limbs are whose. The kiss becomes so heated, that the pair of lovers stumble back into R2-D2, who has faithfully been waiting behind his mistress. The collision jolts the kiss for only a moment, but just so that Rey and Ben can smile into each other's eyes. They kiss again, and all the while, the rest of the world falls away...
The Resistance and First Order both look on in equal disbelief. The leaders of their factions are... openly kissing. In broad daylight. What is this madness?
For Armitage Hux, he does not know, but he does not like it one little bit. From his place in front of the commanding AT-AT, his one eye visibly twitches, almost like a wink but not quite; the eye does not close all the way, at the sight of his Supreme Leader's jaw muscles flexing as they dig into the mouth of that little... Jedi whore! It is as if Hux's entire facade is made of glass, ready to crack at any moment.
Then, it does.
Casting his gaze to the shadowed stone, Hux spies the cross-guard lightsaber Kylo Ren left behind as part of the truce. And he realizes: this is his chance! To overthrow the bratty little Prince and consolidate power for himself. Seizing the weapon, he charges at the Supreme Leader from behind, where he can see the little Jedi bitch closing her eyes and cradling the face of his superior, the kiss becoming more and more involved.
It is at this moment, that the sudden flash of red washes over Rey's closed eyelids, prompting her to open them and see...
Her eyes widen in horror and she yanks herself free of the kiss abruptly. "BEN!" And she throws her lover behind her, swinging him around the narrow slice of the rock bridge. But the motion happens so fast that the bumbling Hux never really sees it, and his thrust continues, deep into the chest of the last Jedi.
Rey grunts at the impact and falls to her knees. A horrified Ben quickly devolves into a vengeful Ben in less than a parsec. His Force essence roars in animalistic outrage, giving him all the encouragement he needs to cast Force lightning right at his insolent, traitorous Armitage. Hux is lifted off his feet and slammed into the leading AT-AT, the blue sparks encasing him in a gory inferno from which no one can look away. Mixed in with these sparks are Hux's screams. Horrible, hideous, human screams. Then there is only finally CRACK - not a CRACKLE, a CRACK - as Hux's neck is snapped and he collapses to the earth with a sickening THUD.
Relieved to be rid of the cursed ginger coward, Ben now focuses his attention on his lady love, with his lightsaber still in her chest. Gathering Rey in his arms, he can already feel her Force essence flickering away, weaker and weaker. Can already feel her precious blood staining his clothes. He daren't try to pull the lightsaber out, or even deactivate it, for fear that either action would only aggravate her injuries. Yet just leaving it there is just as bad, if not more so. Thus, he elects to deactivate the cursed thing and cast it aside. Away with it! Ben cannot bear to look at it again, and all the pain it has caused!
"NO! Rey... RE-EY!" He bellows her name in a wrenching scream of protest. Already, she is shaking, her breathing becoming more and more labored. If something is not done quickly, she will soon be choking just to intake any air. My poor darling, Ben thinks, and he cradles her in his arms, just as he did in the forest of Takodana oh so long ago. She saved my life. His tears fall in a deluge on her upturned face. "What have you done, Rey? Why?"
Rey's eyes are wide as she gazes up at him adoringly. "The Force has guided you... to the Light. Back to me."
Ben shakes his head fervently. The Light is meaningless if she is not there with him! "Please," he begs, sounding just as he did in the throne room. "Don't die."
Rey begins to shake even more violently, almost as if she is freezing, and perhaps a part of her is, in the rapidly fading light of day. Slowly, she reaches a hand up to cup his face, and calls back to her the words that she would now and again here on Jakku... rare though they were but meaningful in that moment nonetheless.
"I, Rey of Jakku, promise to love and cherish you and honor you. I... take you as my husband, and may I be faithful until the sands of Jakku are washed away."
Ben's eyes widen at the realization of what she is doing. A wedding vow. Likely traditional amongst her people. Although why anyone would get married on that sandy rock of a planet is beyond him. Feeling her Force essence gargling, sputtering, he quickly moves to reciprocate, awkward though he may be.
"I, Ben Solo, take you to be my wife. To honor as a treasure greater than all the riches of the Outer Rim and all the stars in the sky." Then he adds an improvisation of his own. "And may we be together till the Force do us part."
Rey beams as much as her dwindling strength will allow. "Where... where did you learn that from?"
Ben smiles down at her gently. "It's a Coreillian wedding vow. My father said those words when he married my mother... well, except for the last part."
Rey's smile broadens. "Just so. Although, I don't know if your father was the type to be all... romantic."
Ben actually chuckles. "No, indeed."
Rey's body suddenly seizes and Ben clutches her closer, whispering soothing words of comfort and begging her to stay with him. But as much as he wills it not to be so, the Force is telling him quite clearly: she cannot be saved. Ben begins to panic. "MEDIC! MEDIC!" he bellows, but nobody from the First Order or the Resistance moves.
Rey gazes at Ben tenderly, her eyes prickling with tears. "Kiss me," she begs. "One more time..."
Ben sweeps her to him and bestows upon her the softest kiss imaginable. Their wedding kiss.
When they break the kiss at last, gently, Rey actually smiles peacefully, nuzzling her face close to his. "We're married," she whispers. Her Force essence radiates bliss, peace, contentment - all odd sensations in this melodramatic moment. She is at peace with herself. Ready to become one with the Force...
"Rey... don't..." Ben pleads.
"I... love you... my Ben..." Rey whispers breathlessly. And then she fades away at last, her signature in the Force petering out. Dying like the flicker of a candle.
Ben recalls once how, when he was a boy, the Millennium Falcon accidentally became untethered at a space port. For a few, terrorizing moments, the freighter went spinning into space, directionless, until his father managed to retake the controls and return them to the docking bay. That is how Ben feels now, without purpose, without direction, without meaning. And ironically when he feels he had only just gotten meaning back... just gotten Rey back.
Weeping bitterly, Ben clutches Rey's face to his, burying his tears in her cheek. What to do? Where to go? How to go on? He can feel his Force essence - nay, the very Force itself - buckling under what is now unequal weight. The Force being thrown out of balance once more, despairing. Will it ever be in balance again? Can it?
That is when Ben realizes: Yes. It can. It will.
With purpose, fueled by defiant anger, Ben reaches out his hand. The lightsaber staff that once belonged to his new bride flies into his waiting palm, ready to obey a new master, if only for just a brief moment.
Ben does not even hesitate as he presses the staff up against his abdomen and ignites the golden blade, impaling himself on the weapon.
There are screams and roars of shock and horror, as fighters from both sides are roused to rush forward. But it is too late. Smiling in smug victory, Ben lies down beside his wife of only a few moments and lets the Force envelop him in a warm embrace. Lets death take him. Despite his beloved's vow, the Force will never part them. Never... not if he has anything to say about it.
Darth Vader was wrong, in a fashion. He thought the Dark Side, living trapped in the darkness, was the only way.
No, it's not the only way. The Light Side, dying free in the sunshine is another path. It is a path that Ben Solo now gladly takes, to be with the woman he loves.