Disclaimer: No copyright infringement intended. For entertainment purposes only.
Description: They have reached the end. The end of this saga has come. It has all led to this.
Balance
It had to be here. There was no way it should have been anywhere else.
As she touches down on the platform of Mustafar, in the midst of Darth Vader's castle, she cannot think of a place more fitting. She races down the loading ramp and gasps as the swell of heat fills her lungs. Lava flows and hisses angrily all around her and she can feel the immense heat in the stone beneath her feet. She takes a short moment to take in her surroundings as the ground begins to tremble. The already unsteady landscape is becoming even more tumultuous. The planet has become unstable in a matter of hours.
Finn's voice reaches her just barely over the fury around her.
"You don't have much time before that entire place crumbles."
"I hear you," she replies, before putting the communicator into her belt and starts to run.
She's never been here before. She should not know where she needs to be, but like many things in her life now, she just does. The force almost feels like static here, the further inside the castle she goes. There is a sizzling sensation running along her skin but it does not burn. Who knew that the Dark Side could be warm too? The heat and violent tremors intensify with every forward step she takes. It does not scare her. If anything it makes her run faster because that means she's going in the right direction. What's happening now is not the planet trying to cast them out and she knows she does not have a lot of time.
The sleek black walls of the castle begin to crack now and the tremors are more like shakes, but she cannot focus on that. Instead she reaches out, trying to grasp on. Her heart feels ready to burst and her veins strain from her efforts. Then, she feels it. The void of soundless echoes that should not be possible but somehow feels like home. The connection has been made. That cherished string has threaded together. Her breathing begins to echo in her ears and at last she reaches the throne room and the tall, dark form facing away from her.
"Ben!" she cries and her desperation feels as if it bounces around them.
He does not turn to look at her. His gaze is fixed out of the giant opening he stands beside. Those dark eyes are taking in the destruction happening all around them in resigned consideration. Another shake rattles the room and she stumbles a bit in her attempts to get closer.
"It's dangerous here, Rey," he says without turning around. "You need to leave."
The low octave that his voice always takes when speaking to her makes an ache start in her chest. Why did she not realize sooner that he always spoke so gently to her?
"Not without you," she says sternly.
"Still think you can save me?" he asks, turning his face further away from her.
"I will," she replies confidently. "Because only you can save me."
He does look at her then. "What?"
She continues her approach until she stands directly in front of him. His eyes follow her progress but he makes no move to come closer or move away.
"It's over now," he states simply. "The Rebels have won. The First Order is gone. I've failed."
"You did it. I know you did. You always knew it would end so you sabotaged it yourself. It's fall is not your failure, but your success."
He lets out a short breath before his gaze roves around them at the crumbling room. "I can stop the earthquakes long enough so that you can make it back to your ship, but you have to leave now."
"Don't send me away," she whispers, stepping even closer.
"I'm trying to save you," he says while his eyes take in the features of her face. "I'm making the way for you to balance the Force."
She shakes her head at him. Because he's wrong. He's so very wrong about that.
"What does all this look like to you?" she asks, gesturing to the destruction all around.
"This is all nothing," he shrugs. "A relic of a failed legacy that deserves to die. Just like everything else, including me."
She takes in the various expressions that cross his face and can finally understand why he tried to hide behind his mask all those years. His face could not hide anything. All these years. All this loneliness. All the disappointment and rejection. Her eyes swell with tears for this battered soul. So misused. So misunderstood.
"You're so devoid of color you don't know what it means to be red or blue."
His eyebrows furrow.
"There is only white and black and all they can be is grey. Ben, can you not see through me the vibrancy of all that is around us? Can you not see past the haze that you have been living with for so long?"
"The haze...," he trails off, looking away to stare almost blankly. Then his eyes snap back to hers angrily. "The only thing I've seen with clarity... is you. You," he hisses, as his body begins to tremble with all that bottled emotion that his form seems barely to contain. "You. A shining beacon that I can't ever grasp. I've asked. I've pleaded. But you are always out of my reach."
"I'm right here!"
"It doesn't matter because what I really want is your spirit," he says, closing the remaining distance between them.
She's hit with the impact of his words and his emotions through the Bond and nearly staggers back by the weight of them.
"I want all of you," he hisses. He reaches up. One hand grasps the side of her face and the other grasps her waist. His need to crush her n his embrace is evident in the way his body shakes, but his touch remains light. "And that's something I can never possess. You," he says almost accusingly, his hands spasm with the efforts of his restraint to keep his hold on her gentle. "You who should be nothing but are everything."
"Why, Ben? Why does it seem that way?"
"Because...," he struggles to get the words out past a throat full of emotions. He looks away from her and takes a step back to turn his back to her. "Because... I wouldn't be lonely! It was with you that I did not feel so alone. Then you were gone!"
"Ben, offer me your hand again," she urges.
"No."
"Please!" she begs, tears running down her cheeks.
He does not turn around, his tall form hunched down in resignation.
"I know you're tired. Tired of all the fear, the uncertainty, the pain," she continues to plead. "I wasn't ready before. I am now."
There's a subtle shift in his posture, but he hears her. He's listening.
"Ben," she whispers, reaching out with the Force as much as she is with her voice.
Slowly, he half turns and she catches his face in profile.
"Please," she begs brokenly, much like the way he had.
Proving how much more forgiving he really is, he turns around at her plea and slowly, hesitantly reaches out to her. She releases the pent up emotion that's been clogged in her own throat as she reaches for his hand. Grasping his hand tightly, she uses it to pull him towards her so that their bodies crash into each other. She reaches up, taking his face in both of her hands and presses her lips against his.
His jolt of surprise almost dislodges his lips from hers but his hands immediately pull her closer still as he deepens their kiss. She can taste his desperation. She can feel his very essence flow through her body, centered where they drank each other into themselves in every way possible. She feels the Bond seal itself and knows he feels it too.
"Don't you know I need you just as much?" she breathes into his mouth when they separate. "Surrounded by people that I love and still having this hollow ache inside me that makes me feel so desolate? Because it's you who is missing? Dying here would tear everything down again."
She looks into his eyes and sees the turmoil in those dark eyes increase.
"I didn't win. You didn't lose. We only lose when we are no longer one. It's not the divide of good and bad. It's the acceptance that both must be. It's not about me coming with you or you coming with me. It's us coming together."
"Not fearing the dark as much as you should not fear the light. Accepting that both are present," he reasons as he studies her face before settling on her eyes.
"You were right," she admits with her hands still holding his face and presses her forehead against his. "It's time to let the past die. No more Sith. No more Jedi. No more Republic. No more First Order. Only we are not the ones to rule them."
"But guide them," he whispers, following her thoughts.
"I'm okay with not being a ruler," she admits.
She watches his eyes narrow as he thinks it over. Her heart seems to stall in her chest in anticipation of his reply.
"Yeah, me too," he admits and even in a moment like this, he can sound sheepish. "Because we would be the balance."
"True balance," she adds. "Something our predecessors never achieved."
"And somehow, it can be us," he says slowly, but it still sounds like a question.
"It can't just be me," she says. "It has to be us."
"There is so much between us," he reminds her. In the eyes of everyone else, he is the enemy. "You can forget it all that easily?"
Her finger traces the scar along the side of his face and rests against his chest. "Can you?"
"I don't know," he says honestly. "You will need to help me with that."
A smile forms on her lips because it's a step forward from an angry no.
"Say you will be with me," she urges.
"I think we may have a problem leaving," he states, just as the flooring around them cracks open and the planet's core begins to swallow the room. "I cannot make it stop."
"Good," she says. "Because this place needs to be brought down."
"Rey...," he whispers softly.
"You started this and you're right about that too. It needs to be destroyed," she says leaning her face towards him so that his lips rest against her forehead. "Let me help you."
Together they close their eyes and seamlessly connect as one with The Force.
The castle completely crumbles at last. Boulders, rocks, shards and dust come raining down. The surrounding lava rushes towards them, no longer restrained. Everything then slows down to breathes. Two hearts beating as one and two minds working in sync. From the ground beneath them, water flies up to collide with liquid fire and steam bursts in an explosive reaction. It feels like a cleansing with fire and water mixed together that leaves them both free. The dense wall of moisture pushes back and leaves them both standing on the edge of a precipice revealing the skyline that had been hidden by the sea of red.
On the horizon a sun rises, it's rays shine against the mist and envelopes them with millions of colors. Red, Blue, Yellow and there was white and black too. Every shade. Every combination. Every tint. All at once to greet them when they both opened their eyes.
She gasps in delight at the majesty of what the Force has done for them both. This new beginning only possible by its power.
"Ben, look at all of this color!" she cries, looking up to find his gaze fixed on her face.
"I see it," he whispers. "I see it through you."
She can see it too. The haze of conflicting emotions is gone from the depth of his eyes and what remains is more beautiful than the view before them.
A small, genuine smile forms on his lips and she takes that into her soul. That smile feels like her greatest accomplishment. It's made even more sweet when he leans in to kiss her. All she can hear. All she can see. All she can feel is the man in front of her.
"I feel the same way," he says when they part.
Above them, the mist blows away from the descent of the Millennium Falcon.
"Rey!" shouts Finn.
She looks at Ben.
He offers her his hand and she takes it without hesitation.
His hand squeezes hers before they walk together to greet the future.