AN: Thanks as always for reading and reviewing.

"The Pull to the Dark"

By EsmeAmelia

Chapter 20

Snoke could only let out a loud gasp before he collapsed. The apprentice stared at him, panting as if she couldn't believe what she just did. She extinguished her lightsaber and threw it on top of his body, swallowing repeatedly.

Then she collapsed too.

"NO!" Ben yelled, crawling up to his daughter, ignoring the pain as he gathered her into her arms.

She was coughing, her body trembling. "I-It's . . . it's all right, Dad. I think I'm going to be born soon."

"Born?" Ara exclaimed. "You're not due for a month!"

Their daughter snickered a little. "I guess I'm already surprising you."

The rest of the family was gathering around them – Ben supposed he shouldn't be surprised that Snoke's influence on them vanished with him. "Snoke . . . did you kill him?"

"I-I killed him here. He's alive somewhere in the physical world, but he's gone from our minds."

Leia ran her finger through her granddaughter's hair. "I'll make sure the Republic tracks down Snoke and the First Order he leads. He won't win, I promise."

"The dark Ben," Ara exclaimed as if she only now remembered him. "What happened to him?"

The daughter swallowed. "I merged into him when Snoke took over my mind. He's gone too." She flinched, sucking air into her mouth. "You . . . you all need to wake up soon so I can be born."

Rey swallowed too. "Will you remember this when you're born?"

The daughter gave a pained smile. "Of course not, silly – I'm a baby. But you will all remember this." She closed her eyes, leaning back into her father's torso. "It will be an interesting story to tell me someday . . ."

"Sweetheart!" Ara exclaimed, grabbing her daughter's hand.

The daughter's eyes opened slightly, as if the action in itself was a struggle. "There's . . . there's something I'd like to know before I'm born, though . . ."

"Yes," said Ben, "anything."

She took in a large inhale. "What's my name?"

Ben gulped, looking around at his family as if one of them would have the answer. Though he and Ara had known their daughter's gender for weeks, they hadn't yet decided on a name and they eventually planned not to name her until they actually saw her in person.

Then his eyes rested on Han, who was stroking his granddaughter's cheek.

Han, who had always believed in Ben when Ben didn't believe in himself.

Han, who had sacrificed several years to live with Ben during his Jedi training.

Han, who had discovered that sharing dreams was possible.

Han, who had stood up against Snoke to defend his son and granddaughter.

"Hanna," Ben murmured, quickly looking at his wife. "Ara, what do you think of Hanna?"

Ara grinned. "Well, I like it if her namesake agrees."

Han was glancing downward as if slightly embarrassed, but there was no mistaking his huge grin. "Are you kidding? Of course I like it!"

Now their daughter – Hanna – was grinning as well. "Hanna . . . yes, that's a good name." She gave her grandfather another pained smile. "Remember, you promised ice cream trips and pod races."

"Absolutely," said Han.

She flinched again. "Now hurry, you need to wake up . . ."

Ara quickly leaned over and kissed her daughter's forehead. "I'll see you soon, Hanna, my sweet little Hanna-nanna."

Ben planted his own kiss on Hanna's forehead, already feeling this world starting to peel away, the waking world hovering above him, as if he were holding his breath underwater and would need to surface in a few seconds. "I love you Hanna, I can't wait to meet you in the real world."

Then everything dissolved into blackness.

. . .

Ben's eyes slowly blinked open, a yawn escaping his lips, his mind in a daze. The smell of antiseptic filled his nostrils, reminding him of where he was. Snoke, Ara, his family, his dark self, his dark daughter . . .

The baby!

Hanna.

[Ben! You're awake!]

It was only a second before Chewie gathered Ben up into his arms, pressing him against his big furry chest. The familiar thick Wookiee smell helped calm Ben's nerves, if only a little bit.

[Are you all right?] Chewie asked.

"I think so," Ben murmured. "I think we all are, but . . . wait, she said she was going to be born soon – is Ara awake? Is she in labor?"

"Mrs. Solo is awake, Dr. Solo," said one of the medical droids. "She also appears to have had her first contraction a few minutes ago."

With that, Ben pushed himself out of the embrace and leaped out of bed. A quick glance around the room revealed that Han, Leia, Luke, and Rey were also awake, though their eyelids were still drooping and a few yawns were escaping.

And there was Ara, sitting up in the bed, her hand on her pregnant stomach, blinking slowly, but smiling.

"Ara," Ben exclaimed in a relieved voice, giving his wife a quick kiss on the lips. "Are you all right?"

"Better now that you're awake," said Ara. "Those droids are about to stick an IV in me and I'd much rather you do it."

Ben found himself snickering a bit as he nodded. "Of course." He turned to the droid who was pushing an IV stand up to the bed. "I can do that," he said. "I'm not trained as a maternity doctor, but I can help you with things like taking her temperature and blood pressure and setting up her IV."

"Of course, Dr. Solo," said the droid. "We would be pleased to have your help." The droid pulled a hand-sanitizing wipe and a pair of rubber gloves out of his body compartment and handed them to Ben, who immediately sanitized his hands and snapped on the gloves, not caring if he didn't look the part of a doctor right now. Whether dressed in pajamas or a doctor's coat, this was his life, caring for those who needed it.

Ara took a deep breath as Ben swabbed up her arm. "Hanna was right, she wants to be born now . . . wait, you were actually there, right? That wasn't just a weird dream I had, right?"

Ben smiled at her as he pressed down on her arm and gently inserted the needle, making her flinch only slightly. "It was a weird dream all right, but we all had it."

Ara smiled back at him. "Then let's get ready to properly meet our Hanna."

. . .

Hours went by. Hours of the family pacing, trying to keep Ara comfortable, waiting on edge for the next contraction. Even though the droids had urged Ben to get dressed, his clothes were still beginning to gum up with sweat despite the coolness in the room.

Leia and Han told stories about how nerve-racking Ben's birth was, how Han jumped at every little noise Leia made and his constant attempts to keep Leia comfortable only stressed her out even more, which made Ara laugh, but it didn't exactly make Ben comfortable.

"Come on, honey, lighten up," Ara said. "After all, Hanna's mind is gonna be blown when we tell her the story of her birth."

"True," said Ben.

Later on, Luke and Rey led Ara in some basic Jedi breathing exercises to help keep her calm as the pain increased. Ara was skeptical about how helpful it would be at first, but in the words of Han, "You don't need the Force to know how to breathe." And sure enough, she did seem to relax a bit after the exercises.

The rest of the family went to the cafeteria for meals, but Ben had his meals brought to him so he could stay with his wife. Of course, the droids and Ara still had to encourage him to eat since he was so preoccupied with his wife's labor.

Finally, the droids informed him that it was almost time. Ben wrapped his arms around his wife's torso, wiping her pale, sweat-drenched brow. "Are you ready?" he asked.

"I'd better be, because this HURTS LIKE HELL!" shouted Ara before crying out in pain.

"You must push, Mrs. Solo," said one of the droids.

"I am, I AM!"

Ben kept his arms on his wife as she pushed and pushed and pushed. "Hang in there, sweetheart," he murmured. "Hang in there." Secretly he was telling himself to hang in there too. Even though he wasn't specifically trained for childbirth, his days in medical school had still taught him how fragile the human body was and how there were a million things that could go wrong . . .

But then . . . a baby's cry.

"Congratulations, it's a girl," the droid announced.

Ben held his breath as he slowly turned his head. The tiny girl the droid was holding was soaked in bodily fluids that another droid was cleaning off, she was giving an ear-piercing wail, her shock and confusion from leaving the womb flowing from her through the Force, but to Ben she was one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen.

"Hanna," Ara gasped with a happy sob.

A smile burst onto Ben's face, perhaps his biggest smile in a long time. "Hanna."

AN: There will be one more chapter, so stay tuned.