CHAPTER 1:

The Walk From the Battle

The walk to his TIE fighter and her X-Wing was quiet.

Palpatine had been defeated. The battle was over. The light side won.

The quiet was endless.

The voice that once resided in his head, that old, bitter voice - Snoke, Palpatine, and the Sith before him - was now gone. His head was empty. There were no whispers of evil, no call to the dark side, no promise of ultimate power.

All he could hear was one word.

Ben.

That word had saved him from what would have been his demise. Rey had saved him. As he had seen the darkness in her, she had seen the light in him. Every time they were together, that light had been tearing at the seams of his darkness, whispering, pulling him.

He thought it was pulling him backwards, towards the father he had slain, the mother he never cared about, the mentor that had betrayed him, if only for a moment.

But the light was pulling him forwards. Towards her.

All he could hear in his head was her voice.

Ben.

As if she could sense his feelings, Rey glanced over at the former Commander. His shoulders were tense, his sweater swaying lightly in the shadowy darkness of Exegol. The scar on the right side of his face shone with sweat. His mind was clear, but his feelings seemed to cloud around him. She could sense it as well as she could sense her own emotions. The battle had worn him down to his very last strand of morality. He was shaken.

"Ben?"

His head snapped up, and his dark eyes locked with hers. She flinched at the intensity. He truly cared for her - he did - but his presence still seemed to scare her. He couldn't blame her. He was the creature in a mask that had hunted her down for the past year, broken into her mind, and carved at her illusions of the light side until they were nothing more than broken shards of glass.

Yet she saved him.

Why she kissed him, he had no idea.

"Why did you save me? Back on Kef Bir?" He looked away. She was obviously still conflicted over their encounter back on Endor's ocean moon.

"You know why, Ben."

He knew why. He just wanted to make sure it wasn't a mistake, some fluke in judgement on her part. He absentmindedly brushed the healed wound on his abdomen.

The sound of crashing Star Destroyers began to meet their ears as they continued walking. Shouts and whoops from the sky were distant but clear.

Ben couldn't believe he had ever chosen the dark side.

Without warning, regret slammed into him. It was as though a saber had sliced through his middle, burning and bleeding. He was doubled over, heaving with sobs, trembling as he collapsed to the ground. Rey crouched next to him, looking for a wound to heal. There was nothing that her Force powers could mend.

All the emotions that had been bottled up since Snoke had crept into his mind that fateful day at Luke's training were released, bubbling up within him.

Sadness and guilt were different from anger. Anger broke things, anger harmed. If he had been as angry as he was sad, Rey would have been hurt from this outburst. But the sadness broke things inside him. He felt as though his heart was seizing up, his mind was closing. How could he forgive himself? How could she forgive him? There was nothing that could take away this pain in his chest. Not even Rey could save him from himself.

"I'm here. I'm here, Ben." Her voice was calm, and though he could sense her concern, he was glad she didn't show it. He didn't want to be responsible for one more person's pain today.

He cried for a long time, huddled under that slab of solid stone, with Rey beside him, holding his hands in hers.

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Hey guys! This is my first time writing fanfiction. I will probably be uploading more chapters soon, so bear with me. I have't decided whether I want to make this series Reylo centered yet, because personally I'm not a huge fan of Reylo. They will definitely have a strong bond nonetheless, whether or not they are romantically involved. Anyways, thank you for reading!