"Let it in, Rey! You must let it in!"
"No!" she screamed. "It's too much!"
She pushed him back, the force knocking him several inches away. Luke dug his fingers into the dirt to stop his movements. He pushed himself back towards her as a Rey struggled to push the Force away from her mind. Her eyes turned black, then back to normal and black again. The Force rushed through her with such strength it knocked her backwards. She fell on her back as visions flowed through her mind like a raging waterfall. Ben. The cave. Palpatine. Death. Life. Laughter. Pain. She would go mad before it ended.
She was sucked into a vision. She saw a place she had never seen before, dark and light mingling together. Voices rising… voices silenced. She grabbed her head and screamed, yet the Force did not relent. More images, more pain, flowed through her. Weeks of feeling nothing at all had seemed to anger the Force. This was its revenge.
The cave on Exegol grew from the darkness of this new place. She watched it rise from the ground, the world around her shaking. Suddenly, she flew towards it at breakneck speed. She held her arms up to shield herself, fearing she would crash into the cave, but something stopped her at the entrance.
Rey jerked to a stop, a gust of wind pulsing around her… through her. She wanted to turn away from this place, fearing it so, but she couldn't move. This was the cave of her nightmares. This was the cave where she'd lost Ben. She could hear Luke yelling at her somewhere in the distance, but she was in another place. She was far away from the island of Ahch-To.
Something pushed her forward, but she dug her heels into the dirt. The Force was stronger, ripping her from the dirt and pushing her inside. She screamed as she entered the large room where Ben had died. She slammed her eyes shut, not wanting to relive that moment.
"Let me go!" she screamed.
"Let it show you," Luke whispered somewhere in the distance.
Rey slowly opened her eyes. The cave was gone, but in its place there was nothing at all. Darkness surrounded her everywhere she turned. Had she finally lost her mind, and she could live in the blissful world of nothing?
As the seconds rolled passed, she noticed tiny lights beginning to grow all around her. They danced and floated, millions of them as far as the eye could see. She let out a small breath at their beauty. They reminded her so much of her and Ben's stars. If she counted them would she get to fifty-two or fifty-three? Her fear melted away as she watched them dance all around. She wanted to reach out for one, but feared they would disappear.
They began to gather before her, floating slowly as if some invisible force was pulling them together as one. She watched, her eyes wide, as arms formed and legs formed. A torso and head formed by the tiny lights. Soon, there was the shape of a person slowly reaching its hand out for her. Rey felt compelled to reach for it as well.
"The belonging you seek is not behind you… it is ahead," a voice whispered in her mind.
The lights pulsed brightly with every word spoken in her mind. As if a gust of wind hit the light-shaped person it slowly began to fall apart, but the light built and built until it flowed all around Rey. The darkness fell away, fleeing from such power. She was transported further into her visions.
Above her, a bright sun burned, brighter than any she'd ever seen. Surrounding her were lush greens and bright flowers. A large house sat at her back with a sparkling lake in front of her. Rey had no idea where she was, but it was the most beautiful place she'd ever seen. The very breath in her body was taken by its beauty. A sound captured her attention, making her look away from the magnificent flowers lining the house to the lake.
Rey took a few steps towards it, her eyes squinting in the light of the sun. She could hear laughter, could feel the sound pulling at her lips to form a small smile. The laughter was happiness, was joy. The laughter was life itself. Above her head, a cloud covered the sun, causing its rays to fade away. She gasped at what she saw.
"B—Ben," she whispered, tears forming in her eyes.
She saw him, as if he were alive and well. His body was whole, his hair flapping gently behind him as he ran. His laughter floated to her ears, like the music of the angels. Rey fell to her knees, not able to stand in the midst of what she was seeing. He wasn't alone. Running behind him, with the most beautiful smile she'd ever seen, was a small little boy. His hair was like Ben's. He was already tall for his age… like Ben.
"Daddy," the little boy giggled.
Rey let out a staggering breath, her tears streaming down unabashedly. The boy slowly stopped, his face turning towards her. When their eyes met the boy's smile grew. Ben turned to see what held his son's attention. He looked straight at Rey, his smile like the very breath she needed to live.
Ben walked towards her. There was strength in his strides, life consuming the space around him. Time seemed to slow as each step he took toward her was like a heartbeat. She couldn't move, having no strength to meet him halfway. He was within inches of her, but he didn't stop. Ben walked straight through her, as if he were made of mist.
Rey sucked in a sharp breath as she felt something pass through her very soul. Her skin prickled, as the hairs all over her body stood on end. She had felt him with every ounce of her being.
"Rey…" his voice whispered.
Suddenly, the world around her shifted as she was pushed back with a mighty force, back onto the island of Ahch-To. Her eyes shot open and all around her were the tiny lights she'd seen in the cave. She slowly crawled to her knees, her eyes wide in awe. They formed a circle around her, their movements slow and in sync.
"Rey, do you see it?" Luke asked, his voice strangled.
How could she not see them? They were all around her. Before she had time to answer, they shot into the sky and disappeared. There was silence that felt as if it stretched on for eternity.
"What did the Force show you?" Luke asked.
A… A child," she whispered. "Our child. Why...why would it show me that?"
Luke's eyes went wide, a look of understanding crossing his features. How cruel was it that she saw visions that could never come to pass? There was no child. There was no Ben.
"Because it needed your attention. It needed you to listen to what it's been trying to tell you for weeks. You shut your mind to the Force, to the truth. It wasn't just by chance that Leia sent you back to me. She could feel what the Force was telling her. Do you know the real reason I stayed on this island, Rey?
"You didn't want to fight," she answered for him.
Luke chuckled. "No, I wanted to fight. I wanted to fight badly. But, I fought Palpatine before and I lost. This time would have been no different. This was always your war to fight, Rey. Everything that happened had to happen the way it did. You had to defeat him, and you had to give your life for it."
"And Ben? Did he have to give his life as well?"
Rey didn't have the strength to keep her voice steady. She didn't want to talk about his death. It was tearing her apart.
"Yes," he whispered.
She jumped to her feet, her anger and pain surging. She'd heard enough, didn't want to believe this was all some arranged way of things. He was supposed to have lived! "I've heard enough," she seethed. She turned to leave but he stopped her.
"Balance, Rey. The Dyad has always been about balance. Darkness rises and light to meet it. Two that are one. You died. Ben brought you back. Ben died in your place, making it so that both of you met the same fate. Death's price was paid with Balance."
She slowly turned back to him, her eyes wide. There was more. She could feel it. The visions. The child.
"You've been so blinded by the loss of him that you've forgotten how strong the bond between the two of you is. You've forgotten that something binds the two of you together… in life and in death. Your fate is his fate. His fate is your fate. Nothing is as strong as the Dyad. Death was paid for... but life…"
"Life is unbalanced," she whispered.
"Can a person live without their other half? Can the two making up the Dyad exist without the other?" Luke asked, taking slow steps towards her.
A memory of a different time swept into her mind. Luke had asked Ben that same question weeks ago. His answer had been…
"No," she breathed.
"And yet you live. Your eyes blink with life, lungs full of air. You walk and you talk. You feel. How's this possible when your other half is dead, when the Dyad is unbalanced?" Luke whispered.
The cave. The child. The dreams. The visions. Ben's body disappearing, leaving no trace that death ever existed, a price that was paid to balance the Dyad. She exhaled a long breath, the truth hitting her right in the chest.
"Because.." she started, but her voice failed her. She didn't want to say it aloud, didn't want hope to be born when she could be wrong. But, she knew she wasn't. She could feel it. She saw Ben running by the lake. She saw their child with him.
"Say it," Luke commanded.
"Because, Ben isn't truly dead. Because I live, he is still tied to life."
"Life needs to be paid for, Rey. The Dyad needs balance. If you live.. so must he."
She fell to her knees, as if a great weight landed upon her shoulders. The entire world around her shifted, and for the briefest moments she thought she felt his presence in the back of her head. She thought she felt his warmth, his touch so feather-like it caused her to shiver. If he wasn't dead, where was he?
Luke knelt beside her, tilting her chin up to look at him. "Now, you will understand why I stayed behind. I had to survive this war, had to remain hidden, for my role in all of this was to guide you."
"I—I don't understand," she cried. "Ben's… Ben's alive?"
"Ben isn't dead, but neither is he alive. If it would have been me that had given my life, I would be dead. But, the Force is unbalanced. It doesn't understand how you are here and he is there. It's kept him in a world between worlds, Rey. The Force thinks a part of him is still living, so he hangs in limbo, it's power giving him life in death."
"The cave," she whispered, her eyes growing wide. She saw the cave clearly in her mind. All of this time it had been reaching out to her, pulling her towards something. It wasn't because she would face her grandfather there, but because that is where Ben remained. He'd never left the cave, dangling somewhere between her world and death. She'd had the answers from the start.
"Where, Rey? Where is Ben?" Luke said, pushing her on.
"The cave alway had something that I wanted… something that I needed. Ben's in the cave on Exegol," she breathed.
"Can you feel him?" Luke asked.
Rey opened her mind, reaching for a connection that she thought wasn't there anymore. She searched with her mind, pushing it past the island through the galaxy. She pushed her mind all the way to Exegol and through the cave. Something tried to stop her, but she pushed past it, desperate to feel any trace of him.
Something tickled the back of her mind, causing her to gasp. Suddenly, she felt warmth surrounding her, felt it soak into her cold skin and alight her bones. She reached out further for the warmth as something wrapped itself around her. Arms held her close. Lips kissed her forehead softly. The smell of Ben became the very air she breathed.
"There you are," he whispered, his voice faint and weakened.
Her eyes slid open as Ben's breath fanned her face. He was there, his face inches from her own. She couldn't breathe, couldn't move for fear he'd disappear. Where her body was solid, he was transparent with a blue light surrounding him. Still, she could feel his arms around her. She reached towards his face, her fingers skimming over his skin.
"B—Ben?" She choked.
"I told you I'd pull you back to me," he whispered, his smile like that of the sun.
Rey cried out with a brokenness beyond understanding. She threw her arms around him, holding him as tightly as she could. "Come back to me," she whispered.
Ben squeezed her, the blue light pulsing bright and dark. "I don't know the way back, Rey," he said softly, fear etched in his voice.
She held him tighter, feeling her mind slipping back to her body. She wasn't ready to leave… not yet. Ben was here. He was scared. "No!" she breathed, harshly.
"Stay with me, Rey!" He begged.
"Not yet!" she screamed. She tried to hold on, tried to bring her mind back to him, but she was slipping away.
"Don't… don't leave me here," he cried.
Something pulled her back, Ben's arms shaking to hold on to her. They slipped slightly, and she struggled to grab him. Again, she was pushed further away.
"Rey!" he screamed.
His hold slipped more, and she was ripped from his arms. She flew back to her body, her eyes snapping open. The warmth remained, the smell of him lingering on her body. She slowly looked down at his shirt, the one she kept with her at all times. Even when it had lost his smell she never let it go. But now… now it was as if he had just taken it off. His smell was all over the black fabric. It hadn't been a dream. He was so close.
Her haunted eyes lifted to Luke. "You found him," he breathed, as if in relief.
"You knew. All this time, you knew," she breathed.
Luke slowly nodded his head. "I knew," he whispered. Luke stood to his feet as Rey watched him in shock. "I knew I was training Ben for something big one day. I watched him grow, hoping he would be something special… someone like me." Luke's eyes looked out across the ocean, unfocused in some long ago memory. "The truth is that he grew up to be a better man than I could have hoped to be. I wish…" he stopped, swallowing his emotions. "I wish that I could tell him… tell him…"
"He knows," Rey whispered.
Luke looked back at her, tears welling in his eyes. "It's up to you to bring him back, Rey. I can show you the way, but I cannot take the steps for you. You are the only one who can reach him in the place that he is, but your journey will not be easy. You will have to crawl through the very things that terrorize you. That place doesn't want to give him up, and it will fight you at every turn. This time, you'll be the one to have to crawl through the darkness to reach him."
"Tell me how!" Rey said, pleading.
Luke walked towards her, kneeling. He touched her face gently, a small smile playing upon his lips. There was sadness in his voice, a look of slight fear too.
"You will have to face your demons to get to him."
