Part Three: Darth (Grand)Daddy Lends A Hand

Hands, reaching and heaving him up. He saw over the wall of rubble and dirt, just barely. He staggered forward. Trying to stand up straight, but he found this impossible, as his leg had been broken in the fall. It wasn't just a fall, he was thrown, thrown away like nothing. Like he didn't matter at all, perhaps he had not. Who was important to Palpatine? Nothing, no one, only his own thrust for power. His insane ability not to just...die. But finally his brain felt lighter, as if something had been cleared of it. Almost like he had a headache that just had cured. He had been the voice in his head, the one putting all the dark thoughts there. And to think, he had always thought something was wrong with him, but no...it was all Palpatine. Alright...maybe not all of it, but a lot of it.

He struggled forward, trying to take a step, on a broken leg, he found it rather hard. Rey lay just ahead, motionless, and he had to reach her. He stumbled, weak and broken. Falling onto his knees, he paused there, bracing himself, before pushing up and started forcing himself to walk again. He only manged to get to her before he fell, unable to stand anymore, not for another second. But what he saw, horrified him to his very core. She lay there, eyes wide, unblinking. He huffed a breath, not sure if from the pain in his ribs, his whole body, actually, or the pain in his chest, his heart...from seeing her lifeless form. He reached out to her, barely able to keep himself up right, touching her arm, checking for a pulse, nothing. His hand slid up the side of her arm, it was cold as ice.

Breathing hard, from either panic or pain, he moved himself into a sitting position, he struggled, taking her into his arms. He looked into her face, the reality of it settling in. How could this be? How could this happen? It didn't feel real, it didn't feel right. The girl who became, almost unstoppable to him, lay dead in his arms. He couldn't sit still with the pain, panic was over taking his lungs, his mind. Clear of Palpatine but now full of remorse and regret. He looked around, almost for help, for answers. There had to be something...anything, to stop this from happening. Anything.

Suddenly, as if in a gust of wind, he could hear it, very quiet at first, but it grew louder, like the thing was behind him. A slow rattling of breath, in, like through a fan, out like through a vent. This noise, this sound, he had heard it in dreams, in nightmares, when he was told he wasn't good enough. A sound that should have died along with Palpatine. He felt the hair stand up on the back of his neck and he turned his head. He would not leave her, he would not leave Rey. Whatever...whoever it was would just have to kill him, because he had made his choice now.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw it, at first it was large, dark and shadowy, but then it was white and bright and coming closer and closer into view. Closer to him. Out of instinct, he supposed, he held onto Rey tighter. Though, he didn't think, now, that this thing was going to hurt him.

Before him stood a young man, not much unlike himself, with shaggy hair and a bit of a smirk on his lips. He watched him, without word, as the ghost moved around, coming to stand in front of them now, looking at both, him and Rey.

"You know," said the ghost, his voice was echo-y and far off, but then very strong and there at the same time. "I once loved a woman so much I would do anything to save her and our unborn children..." It wasn't as though he didn't know who this was, it was just that he didn't know what to do, or why this was happening. And most definitely not what to say. Was this a trick? An image of his imagination? But how could it be? He had never met his grandfather before, and the only stories he knew were the dark ones. "I was scared, so much that I even joined the dark side, just to protect her."

He had only ever heard the voice of Darth Vader, so this man, here now, speaking as if they were two just passersby, it unsettled him. He found he could not form words, not properly. "I..." he started, but fell silent.

The man let out a laugh, leaning down, on his knees, in front of him. "You and I, we're not that different. They compared you to me?" He made a sort of 'Hm' noise, in a yes, and looked away. Almost ashamed, and he did not know why he felt this way. He supposed because he had failed, failed not only on the dark side, but he failed trying to prove he was good, too, he had allowed Rey to die, he hadn't tried hard enough to save her. 'But they compared you for the wrong reasons, you were not meant to carry on the name Darth Vader, you were meant to carry on the balance. The dark...and the light. You cannot have one without the other. Of course...you weren't meant to do it alone."

Anakin's eyes traveled down to Rey and his followed. "It doesn't matter now," he said, finally speaking for the first time. "She's dead."

"Didn't you listen to what I just said?" asked Anakin, bringing a little more...what was that? Irritation, into his words. "You can NOT have one without the other." In his arms, Rey suddenly took a breath, astonished, he looked up to meet the smiling face of his Grandfather. "Have you not wondered why you were connected in this way? Why the Force chose to make you a dyad? You each were born from the two most powerful Jedi and Sith families known, and together...make a living balance."

Shocked, not by the words his Grandfather said, he already knew this much to be true, but it was by the warmth and slow rise and fall of Rey's chest, he looked up into his Grandfather's face and nodded. "Thank you," he said, simply enough. Anakin nodded, stood and took a step back.

"I hope you have learned from the mistakes I have made, and your own..." He took several more steps back, and he watched him go, with longing and understanding. "Always remember who you are, Ben...not the grandson of Darth Vader, but a Skywalker...and a Solo." Ben let a small smirk form at his lips at this, the idea that his grandfather appropriated his father enough, to add his name. Anakin smiled, in farewell. "May the Force be with you...both of you."

And with that, he faded from view, Ben watched him go, eyes glued to the spot he had vanished from. In his arms, he felt Rey begin to thrash and he looked down, right as her eyes blinked and opened, once more, this time, showing the life she was given back.

XXX

Ben watched, through the thick of the trees, no one had noticed his ship land, after all of theirs had, everyone was too busy celebrating to notice anything. Rey was greeted by many, the BB-Unit, her friends who always seemed to get in the way at the worst possible times. He watched them hug and cheer, and now, more than ever before he felt alone. He took a step closer, wobbly, and off balanced, falling into a tree and stepping on a fallen branch as he did so. Everyone, though they did not notice the ship, noticed this, and stopped, turning toward the brush. He was too out in the open now and the party all stared, he started back, not sure how to react. Run away, fight them...these were his thoughts, but foolish ones, he knew this. The two Rey liked so much seemed to take his appearance as a personal offence and rushed forward. Guns, knifes, bows and arrows and any other weapons you can think of were facing him now. He was weaponless, defenseless. He did nothing.

"NO!" came a shout, and then suddenly, between him and the brigade, stood Rey, hands up, in defense. The lot stared at her, as if she was truly crazy, and he could tell, not because he could see her face, but because he could feel it. She was staring them down, willing them to do as she pleased. They dropped their weapons, slowly, some slower than others, and soon turned their back on him, and Rey, after casting a dark look over her shoulder. She had told him to stay in his ship, she continued through the masses, where her two friends engulfed her. In questions, Ben was sure. Probably asking if she was being manipulated, or hit her head pretty hard on a rock. He watched them, almost envious. This was going to be hard. A long road lay ahead of him, with darkness just fingertips away, would he be strong enough to resist it this time?

The BB-Unit rolled near to him now, unfrozen in fear apparently. It made beeps and rolled around in a circle at his feet. "Go away," he told it, simply enough. It continued to beep loudly. "Alright, fine...stay, but your friends won't like it." the Droid beeped once more, before opening a compartment and lightening a lighter, as possibly a greeting or an act of kindness."...sure," he offered in return, with a nod. Which only made the Droid beep more. Hmmm...wonderful.

XXX

Ben walked into the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon, he took a seat in the co-pilots chair and lifted his stinted leg, onto the dashboard. BB-8 had followed him back inside, after watching Rey bury the lightsabers. It was a sort of burial for his Mother and Uncle he supposed, but beyond that, they didn't need the lightsabers anymore. Rey had her own and and Ben decided he needed not to worry about a weapon right now, but instead focus on...other things.

BB-8 beeped and booped next to him and he looked down, with a raised eyebrow. He picked up a loose tool Rey had been using earlier, before they had left the base, to tune this old ship. He pointed it at the Droid. "What are your thoughts on sand?" It beeped long and loud and Ben shrugged. "I think so, too." Rey entered the ship, after several more minutes of waiting and came up and sat down in the pilots chair. Ben looked over at her. Much like he had at the Droid, he raised an eyebrow at her, too. "...Skywalker?"

She blushed red for a moment, and then sat up straight, giving him, in return, a challenging look. "What?"

"Nothing," he retorted, calmly, a smirk forming on his lips. "I just prefer Solo."

"You would," she retorted, as she started the ship and before taking off, looked over at him, in question. "Foot, down."

And he had thought he was bad before, she was very bossy. But he listened, wincing a little, as his leg jerked, it still hurt quite a bit. "Where to now?" he offered, as she took flight.

"Well, since you've been exiled," she paused, thinking for a long moment, before saying, "Somewhere...very far away."

(A/N: I decided to just post the last chapter of this now and get it over with, um...I am still quite...not annoyed, because that is a strong word, but bothered by the comment I got on this story. I don't want to put off the idea that I hate Star Wars, or even the writers of Star Wars, I just want better for the characters I've grown to love over time, no matter how much time I HAVE loved them. And you might say, well his death was meant for this and this, and there was nothing else you could do with him, and in your opinion, or whoever thinks that, that's fine. But being a writer, not just in Fanfiction, but also stories that have no copyright characters in them, I find when you have a character you don't know what to do with, the best thing isn't to kill them off. For me, I think that's taking the easy way out. I will give you an example with just my fanfiction stories, I will use my main source of material, which is from a show called Merlin, I believe, within my VERY soul, Merlin and Arthur are in love, I have believed this for seven years, however...Arthur is married to a woman named Gwen, who often...in my stories, causes me a lot of issues, just existing. Yet, I would NEVER kill her off, because to me, that is a cop out. As for Star Wars, it's not that I need a happy ending for Ben, because honestly, death is more happy than what I want to give him, which is pain and let him come face to face with what he has done. When I say I think we as viewers, or even Adam Driver, deserves a better ending, I don't mean I want Ben running off into Space Marriage with Rey and having lots of babies, I want diverse story telling about dealing with all he has done, dying is kind compared to what I want to see,. Eventually I want him to have happiness, yes, but we need to see the remorse, the hurt, the pain...and we saw nothing of that. If they really wanted to be different and tell a different story than the main trilogy, they would have tried harder, which is why I say it's lazy writing. I really do enjoy Star Wars, I love it, actually, I watch it all the time. Not just the movies with Kylo/Ben in them, but all of them. So in the end I wrote this, not only for myself to heal a little bit from the tragedy I found in the wasted opportunity, but to show everyone how easy it would have been to keep him alive. AND, I did add extra at the end, I added him into the final scenes in the movie, and although, yes, I want his story to be dark, I didn't want to end, what would be the trilogy, on a sad note, so instead, I let what I thought Ben's, not Kylo's, because we saw that, but what Ben's personality might be like. Anyways, I hope you did find some enjoyment in this, I really did, in writing it.)