A/N: This won't be very long and will not cover all of the events of the Rise of Skywalker. I just got this idea in my head and I had to write it down and share with the fans.
He ignored the demands of General Hux as he paced meaningfully down the hall, the other man following close behind him, practically jumping down his back.
He had gone with the Knights of Ren without a word to Exegol but the missions and his discovery, he decided, was not information his inferiors needed.
As he approached his quarters, he did not even give Hux the satisfaction of seeing his rage.
With a sharp wave of his hands, his door slid open and then with a flick of his fingers it closed behind him, silencing the incessant General.
The information he had learned on Exegol was swarming inside his head, like flood waters that beat heavily against rock in a raging storm.
He discarded his armor, throwing it to the floor, which did not ease any of the weight that sat upon him.
He had came face to face with Emperor Palpatine, Lord Sidious himself, and yet it was nothing like he ever could have imagined.
He growled as a burning rage ripped through him.
Breathing heavily, his eyes burning, he stood in front of the destroyed helmet of Darth Vader.
I am every voice you've ever heard in your head.
He first fell upon Snoke for guidance, for training and then upon discovering his grandfather's pyre and recovering his burned helmet, searched the Force for him.
A voice had responded to him. A voice that had been a lie.
His fists curled tightly, resisting the urge to destroy what remained of the burned mask. His grandfather lay not in that old relic, he hadn't for over thirty years, but he could not bring himself to destroy it for good.
Instead he turned and stalked over to stare out the window, peering out into the blackness of the galaxy.
Along with the truth about how he had come to be, came the truth about her.
Rey.
The last vision of her flashed across his mind, the way she looked upon him with hate in her eyes as the door of his father's ship closed on her.
He hadn't felt her since, across whatever it was that bonded them. He tried, but she was keeping him out.
"It's time you knew the truth, Ben."
The sudden unfamiliar voice that came from behind him was jarring.
He withdrew his lightsaber, igniting in a flash of red as he whirled around to face the intruder.
What stood before him briefly startled him. A ghostly figure, a young man in Jedi robes who wore a smirk on a face that was oddly familiar.
"You can use that if you want but I'm afraid it won't do much good."
His chest heaved sharply as he stared at the strangely familiar figure in bewilderment.
"Who are you?" He demanded, his grip tightening on the hilt of his saber.
The figure's smirk only grew as he walked slowly across the room. "I'm who you have been trying to talk to all along."
His brow twitched as he followed his movements, his shoulders tense but he finally withdrew his lightsaber.
He growled. "What?"
The Jedi continued to walk, almost float, until he stopped in front of the Vader helmet. His face flickered for a moment in what seemed like pain and regret but then slipped back to calm.
He glanced quickly between the helmet and the figure and his mind raced with a flurry of thought.
A Jedi who wore similar clothes to his uncle, a Jedi who looked like his uncle, a Jedi who looked even more like his mother.
"Grandfather?" His voice got suddenly caught in his throat as the realization struck him.
The Jedi lifted his head and looked at him and he felt a strange but strong pull in the Force around him.
"Anakin Skywalker." He confirmed and moved to stand in front of Vader's old helmet, blocking it completely from view. "Good to finally speak face to face. You've been very hard to contact, Ben."
His eyes focused on that spot behind the ghost of his grandfather and he winced as Palpatine's voice ran through his head.
I've been every voice in your head.
"It wasn't Vader I was talking to." He didn't look up at his grandfather but his voice was resigned with that fact fully sinking in.
"That mask is nothing but that - a mask, an armor that kept me trapped inside of a literal horror shell that fueled Darth Vader. Upon my death, Darth Vader was destroyed and I was brought back to the light side of the Force." Anakin explained.
"How come you have never come to me before now?" He tried to hide the accusation and bitterness in his tone but it seeped through unwittingly.
"You wanted to talk to Vader but that is not who I am. I tried to reach out to you, many times, but you weren't open to it."
"And I am now?" His voice was dripping in mocking but his question was honest.
He had felt something different since leaving Exegol but did not want to lean into it.
"Yes, with the truth revealed your mind is opening to what you have always known, Ben."
"Stop calling me that!" He hissed in rage.
"It is the name your mother gave you." Answered Anakin and stared at him pointedly.. "My daughter."
That made him pause, thoughts of his mother always made him pause and reflect, second guess every decision he was making. His heart thudded in his chest as the Jedi, not the Sith Lord he had been worshipping, claimed her as his daughter and therefore him as his grandson.
"So why have you come now?" He asked finally, his voice frightfully calm.
"Because you know the truth…."
He held back an eyeroll and sighed. "So you keep saying…"
"I know you have sought for nothing but the truth. You thought you were connecting to Vader but you were wrong."
His lips twitched at the harsh reminder.
"She kept you from me." He hissed, his mind returning to the moment he found out Darth Vader was his grandfather. "She suppressed the truth!"
"Yes." Anakin admitted. "She was afraid, ashamed of what my legacy would hold for her and her legacy and more importantly, for you and yours." Anakin paused and looked around at his quarters, at everything he collected and then back to him. "It seems you have made your own."
His upper lip twitched slightly and for a moment he felt a sweeping pride but it was then followed by an odd crushing regret.
"You sought acceptance Ben. So did I and you fell victim to the same manipulations I did."
"I am not a victim." He snapped, his eyes flashing. "I am not weak."
"Palpatine is using you, Ben." Anakin took a step closer to him, his intense eyes imploring his. "You know this to be true and I am coming to you now so you can learn not to make the same mistakes that I did."
His face softened and his fists curled at his sides. "You're too late." He whispered.
"No...i'm not and that is why I'm here. I spent twenty years doing my Master's bidding but I was not his apprentice, I was his servant."
"I am the Supreme Leader," He declared confidently, "there is none higher than me." Even as he spoke the words he knew them false and he could see it reflected in his grandfather's eyes as well.
"Except him." He finished in a hard whisper and Anakin gave a small, sad nod.
"And you are doing precisely what he wants you to do but you still have a choice now. To be able to rise above him."
"How?" He asked, taking a small but eager step towards his grandfather.
"Leave it all behind." Anakin answered simply.
"I have." He shook his head. "I killed the past."
Anakin pressed his lips together. "I know you think you have but you know that side of you still lives and is more dominant than you want to believe. I see you Ben. I see you constantly on the edge and like me, you grabbed for what made you feel you could be in control. But you're not in control."
His words cut like the fierce blade of a lightsaber into his soul. His first instinct was to lash out at him in rage, contradicting him but he knew it was fruitless, because it was the truth.
"The dark side controls your mind.." Anakin continued as he stood there in silence, seething. "...with the Emperor always whispering and weaving his seeds of destruction inside of you. But there is light and hope in our family. Your mother still holds onto it."
He looked up once again at the mention of his mother. The leader of the rebellion, of the resistance, always fighting, always preserving, always believing.
"Hope that peace will be restored to the galaxy but even more so that you will return to her."
His chest tightened and his face contorted in the pain he wouldn't let anyone else see. "I can't."
"Can't you?" Anakin countered softly.
"After all I have done? How could she accept me?"
"She loves you."
He scoffed harshly. "She tried to erase you from her entire lineage."
"I was nothing to her." Anakin shrugged lightly. "I was her enemy. She knew nothing of Anakin Skywalker."
Anakin approached him slowly and he gasped when he felt a shock in the Force as Anakin placed his hand on his chest, right over his heart.
"She knows you, Ben."
He stared into the eyes of his grandfather. The actual human face of his grandfather, the great Jedi Anakin Skywalker, who had fallen hard to his fears and then returned to the light at the end.
There was no mask, no pretenses, no lies.
His throat tightened and his knees buckled with the weight of new emotion and revelation.
A tear rolled out of the corner of his eye. "What do I do?" He whispered.
Anakin's hand moved to his shoulder and he looked intently into his eyes. "Go to them. You can't let him win."
"I…" He tried to speak but no words would come out.
His grandfather gave him a smile, a smile that reminded him so much of his mother, nodded and then without another word, faded away.
He could still feel his presence and he reached out his hand toward him, grasping nothing but air.
He stood in silence for a long moment, hearing nothing but his labored breathing and his own heart rate pounding against his ears.
And then Ben Solo collapsed to the floor with the weight of the guilt and the pain of regret. He wrapped his arms around his chest...he felt like he couldn't breathe.
He felt like the scared teenager back at his Uncle's temple and he hated it.
Yet he knew his purpose lay not with the darkness that had filled his world but the light that had been beckoning him back. The light that until this point had been fighting a losing battle.
He buried his head between his knees, a swell of nausea twisting his stomach as he thought of his father, of all the innocent people that he had destroyed as Kylo Ren, at the way he had let Palpatine take his mind and warp it to darkness.
Ben took hold of his lightsaber and gripped it weight of it was heavy in his hands. He ignited the saber and the bright red shone like the fury of the hate and rage it was forged in.
It had killed his father.
He felt the bile rise in his throat.
No, he had killed his father, with the weapon in his hands.
Hot tears blurred his vision and he turned off the saber. Then with a scream of rage he hurled it across the room.
It collided heavily with the stand that held Vader's mask and it rattled and fell to the floor.
Tears streaming hot down his face, his chest heaving, he stared at the empty, burned mask of what belonged to Darth Vader.
He felt a new sense of resolve and purpose.
He knew what he had to do and the strength to do it pulsed inside him, rising to the surface with every heartbeat.
His thoughts fell upon his mother and her undying devotion, of the forgiveness and the plea in his father's eyes before he was so viciously betrayed.
To the kindness and understanding in his uncle's eyes as he projected himself from Force knows where, protecting the last of the resistance.
To the hope and drive that still lived in every member of the Resistance.
He held tight onto those new but strong emotions and rose to his feet, knowing precisely where he was going to go next.