The Pivotal Moment

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A/N-thank you for the kind reviews!

Chapter Twenty-Eight-Rey Solo and Kylo Ren

Adrenaline flooded Rey's system. Her heart pumped hard like it was threatening to escape from under her ribcage. She risked a glance at Ben. He stood rigidly, his brown eyes riveted on Kylo Ren, only the slight quiver of his chin telling her how much he was struggling with being confronted with the mirror image of his former self.

"Ben." Rey reached out to him through their bond. "I'm here. We have to stay strong. We can defeat them…together."

"Together!" Ben's reply came back strong and firm. "I love you, sweetheart."

"I love you, too."

Reassured that he was managing to hold it together, Rey crouched into a defensive stance, her weapon raised steadily in front of her. She saw Ben do the same. They were in synch. Two that were one. A dyad. Rey called upon the force, to the intense connection she shared with him. She felt it flow around her in calming waves, allowing her to focus, to concentrate her gaze on Rey Palpatine, waiting patiently for her next move.

"Look at them, lover." Rey Palpatine sneered derisively as she watched their synchronised movements. "Pathetic."

Kylo Ren didn't respond. His attention was all on Rey, his gaze brooding and thoughtful. Dark Rey flashed an angry glare in his direction, seeming slightly perturbed by his lack of response. She stepped forward, skilfully twirling her double bladed lightsaber in her hands so fast that the red blades hummed like a vicious swarm of angry bees. The crackling red light from the twin plasma blades burned the back of Rey's retina's, causing a shower of red sparks to overtake her vision. She panicked. She couldn't see. She felt the heat from Rey Palpatine's wicked weapon as it burned a path toward her face, but it didn't reach her as Ben deflected it, before launching a counter attack of his own.

"Ben!" Rey cried through their bond. "I can't see you!"

"Re- "Ben's answer was cut off before he had even finished saying her name. To her horror everything went quiet in her head. She tried to reach out to him again, but she couldn't connect with him. It was like he had fallen completely out of existence.

The red sparks faded from Rey's eyes and she was finally able to see again, but then an impenetrable darkness descended, so thick, so suffocating that it stole the breath from her body. She coughed violently as she struggled to breathe, her blue saber shaking in her hands as she tried to draw air into her burning lungs. Then just like that the darkness rolled backward like black smog being blown away by a strong wind. Rey lifted her saber defensively, staring wide eyed in front of her as Kylo Ren stepped out of the shadows and into the small circle of blue light cast by her saber.

Rey felt her adrenaline surge so fast it made her want to vomit, she tasted the saliva thickening in her throat and the beads of sweat trickling down her brow. She desperately tried to reach out to Ben again, but was met with the same wall of silence. She felt like a boat adrift in a wild storm. She couldn't survive for long in the cold waters without her other half, she could only drown.

"What have you done with Ben?" She screamed at Kylo. "Where is he?"

Kylo Ren's response was to shut down his own weapon. The impassive look fell from his face only to be replaced with one of sheer longing. "I'm here. I'm right here. We've finally found each other again, Rey."

Rey emitted another feral scream and attacked.

Kylo gritted his teeth as his hand thrust out and called upon the force to stop her saber cutting him in half. Rey pushed back against it with all her strength, just like she had done on the ruins of the Death star in Kef Bir. Frustrated when he managed to push her saber off its intended path, she swung at him again. Kylo was forced to ignite his own saber to deflect her vicious swing. She saw an impatient look cross his face as he parried her, pushing her backwards with his brute strength in order to create some distance between them.

"Why won't you just listen?" He growled in irritation.

Rey refused to engage with him. She attacked again, her saber swinging in a wide arc as she aimed for his midriff. He deflected it again, but stepped back, refusing to continue the pointless battle. His unwillingness to fight just increased Rey's frustration. This was like Kef Bir all over again. It seemed he felt the same.

"We're wasting time, Rey. I didn't want to fight you then. I won't fight you now." Kylo's deep voice echoed inside her head, frightening Rey into slashing wildly at him. "Rey, stop it!"

"Get out of my head!" Rey sobbed. "Ben! Ben, where are you?" She summoned the force to help her find that special connection with Ben, but the same wall of silence blocked each and every desperate attempt to reach him. It was only Kylo she could hear inside her mind as he tried to forge his own bond with her. She pushed back at Ren, mentally and physically attacking him until she was shaking with exhaustion.

"Enough!" Kylo's tone was surprisingly gentle when she fell onto her knees in front of him, her saber falling from her nerveless fingers. He towered over her, just like he had on ruined Death star, but his saber wasn't poised to cut her down. He held it loosely in his gloved hand, his dark eyes unreadable as he stared down at her. "Rey, you need to stop fighting and listen to me. Or are you planning on stabbing me again if I get distracted."

Rey felt like her bones had no more strength and her muscles were all out of power when those words came out of his mouth. Because it was exactly what she had been planning on doing. She blinked furiously as she stared up at him, the perspiration rolled down her hot skin as she breathed raggedly. She tried to make her brain function, to demand solutions instead of the crazy making circling anxiety which made her unable to think clearly.

"Why are you doing this to me?" Rey demanded in despair. "Where's Ben?"

Kylo sighed heavily as he hunkered down in front of her. He ran his gloved fingers through his sweat soaked hair. "I'm right here, Rey. Look at me. Really look at me…"

Rey stared at him as he drew closer with those damnable eyes that looked so deeply into her own. "Its me, Rey. Its me. I'm Ben-the Ben from your world. The one who gave up the last of his life force so you could live, the one you kissed, the one who smiled at you afterwards like you had given him the most precious gift in the galaxy…"

"No…that's not true. You're lying!" Rey shook her head in denial. "This is some kind of sick and twisted game you're playing with me! Where's Ben? What have you and that crazy witch done to him? If you've hurt him, I'll kill you."

Kylo scowled as he withdrew from her. He was shaking, with anger or something else Rey wasn't sure. She took advantage of his distraction and quickly climbed to her feet, calling for her saber. It flew to her hand and she drove it toward him, her hazel eyes gleaming with a mixture of fury and contempt. Kylo spun around; his own weapon raised as he blocked her lunge with his own saber. They duelled furiously for a few minutes, before exhaustion once again forced Rey to withdraw.

"Stop fighting me, Rey." Kylo's pleading voice pushed into her mind. "You know deep down what I'm saying is true. I'm Ben. When I felt myself slipping away after we kissed, I heard you, Rey. I heard you begging me to come back. I didn't want to leave you, I fought hard to hold onto you, just like you fought hard to hold onto me."

"Get out of my head." Rey's protests were weaker this time. She was feeling so tired, so completely drained

"Rey, listen to me and believe." Kylo continued on relentlessly, knowing that she didn't have any energy left to push him out of her head anymore. He had her full attention now, whether she wanted to give it or not. "Something went wrong. We got displaced. Instead of coming back together in our own universe, we were separated. You were flung into his world and I was flung into hers."

"You're not my Ben." Rey whispered. "You're not."

Kylo flinched at her continued denial, but he carried on regardless, knowing that his small window of opportunity was closing rapidly. He felt the looming darkness of Rey Palpatine's power hovering over him like an angry cloud. It meant that the other Ben Solo was languishing. She would overcome him soon and kill him. She was wielding the power of the Sith. Not just any Sith, but the most powerful Sith of them all-Darth Sidious.

"What happened created a ripple effect through time." Kylo continued hurriedly. "It's the reason we've been able to skip from one universe to another, each time drawing closer to one another, but it also allowed them to follow us…."

Rey remembered when she had felt herself fading away in Snoke's throne after being fatally wounded by one of his Praetorian guards. She remembered hearing her Ben calling to her desperately, how hard she had fought to come back to him, only to find herself in limbo, until they had come together again in this universe. This perfect, perfect universe where her Ben was already a hero. Where Han and Leia were still together, united and in love, where Luke Skywalker wasn't the broken man they had come to know, but was a leader, a true Jedi master, leader of the Resistance with his sister, Leia. This universe where she had pledged her love for her Ben, where she had married him, made love to him…

Image after image replayed in her head like a movie put on fast-forward. It spilled out of her and she couldn't stop. She was barely aware of the pain etched on Kylo's face as he was forced to witness all that she had experienced without him.

"Stop!" He pleaded thickly. "Just stop!"

Rey came back to herself, her breathing shallow, her heart pulsing weakly in her chest. "If you are who you say you are, then why ally yourself with her?" She demanded.

"She was already lost when I tumbled into her world." Kylo's breathing matched hers. The longer they were together, the more synchronised their movements became. The Force flowed around them, drawing them together, though Rey continued to fight it all the way. "I found myself climbing back out of the pit again like some sick and twisted déjà vu."

"Then what?" Rey asked tremulously.

"She had done what Sidious wanted. He had goaded her into striking him down in order to initiate a Sith ritual that would transfer his spirit into her, his granddaughter, thus "uniting" them and guaranteeing the continued legacy of the Sith. When I managed to crawl out of that pit only to be confronted with her, I knew that everything was lost. I had to use my wits to survive. She offered me a place by her side, not as an equal, but as her servant…"

"She was offering more than that. She called you lover!" Rey cut in bitingly.

"I did what I needed to do in order to survive so I could find you again." Kylo retorted bitterly. "Much like you did it seems." He reminded her pointedly.

Rey's eyes glimmered with moisture as she stared at Kylo Ren in despair. His emotional pain hit her like an open wound, leaving her raw and bleeding. There was no telling what fresh hell he had endured under Rey Palpatine's manipulations.

"Conquering the galaxy was no longer enough for her. Her evil ambition was greater than that. She saw into my mind, and into my heart. She knew that the only way to secure my total obedience was to destroy the last bit of light inside of me…you." Kylo's eyes widened slightly as if reliving some fresh horror. "She was too powerful with the Force for me to hide anything from her. She learned how I had ended up in her world and she used that knowledge to her advantage. She would use the Dyad bond to cross from one universe to another in order to find you. Each time we got close, you moved on again…until she pre-empted you and we all ended up here together."

Rey's hazel eyes turned to liquid gold as she watched Kylo Ren slowly take off one of his gloves and hold out his hand toward her just like he had once before. "It's too late for him, Rey. The other Ben Solo is already dead. Join me." He asked, his voice wavering slightly with suppressed emotion. "Join me and we can defeat Rey Palpatine together." There was a momentary pause before he uttered the fateful word that broke her heart. "Please."

A/N-thank you for reading! Phew, I know this is all super complicated. I hope it made sense!?

In the next chapter we'll be seeing Ben Solo's perspective as he confronts Dark Rey (Rey Palpatine)!

Please review and let me know your thoughts. Even if you think this whole story sucks, let me know, LOL