Author's Note: This is a Bendemption story that takes place after the events of The Last Jedi. As I'm sure you are all aware I do not own Star Wars anything, because you know I would have some things to alter in The Rise of Skywalker, as much as I did enjoy it.

The Payment Comes Due

They had finally found him.

After almost a year of searching, they had come upon him at last. Well, more specifically, they had come upon the rebel base that he'd been staying on for the better part of that year.

For the best part of his life.

He watched the command ship and its attendant TIE fighters descending upon the planet, just out of range of the atmosphere, but coming closer every moment.

The sky was a clear, cerulean blue, and the breeze coming in through the hangar gateway smelled of sweet yellow flowers that grew at the base of the woods just beyond. They would always smell just like her.

He closed his eyes and let the breeze wash over him. The sounds of scurrying, of X-Wings being readied, of troops amassing, of droids beeping, even the distant whir of the TIE engines, all faded from his mind. In this moment, there was nothing but the sweet, cool breeze, and the knowledge of what he had to do.

He inhaled deeply, and then turned back into the hangar. He would allow himself this one selfish act before…before he did what was necessary.

She was hurrying around one of the planes, Finn, Poe, and Rose at her side, shouting orders, answering calls, and preparing to fight. Her eyes were darting left and right, and finally locked upon him, her face shining with relief.

"There you are, I couldn't find you, what are you doing?" She said all of this in a grateful rush. "We've got to get in the Falcon and try to distract as many of those fighters as we can from the X-Wings." She turned to BB-8 and issued an order. The droid beeped compliantly and zoomed off. "Chewie, I'm going to need you as co-pilot. Ben will fly the Falcon, and I'll man the gun." The wookie answered in his deep tones. She finally looked up at him again when she realized he had not moved an inch. "Ben?"

He stared at her openly. There hadn't been anything he'd needed to hide from her in a very long time. If he hadn't already done so, he would be using this moment committing her face to memory. As it was, he stood there drinking her in, trying to use the time to allow her to read his face and understand everything that was written on his heart.

"Ben, what are you doing?" Now she sounded slightly scared, and he hated that the thing he had to do would cause her pain beyond belief. "We need to go."

He smiled at her, and she seemed to read the many layers it contained. She always could see right through him. "No, Rey."

Her brows furrowed. She looked upset now. "Ben, this is no time for games." The quiver in her voice belied her calm exterior.

He approached her slowly, and extended his right hand, taking her small, soft fingers, the hand he had held so many times, within his own.

"We are not going Rey. You are."

She blinked, and stood silent for a few seconds. "What?" She shook her head, as if the movement could erase his words. She fixed his eyes with a steely gaze. He felt what she was doing and made no attempt to stop her. He showed her his full intent, his vision, the action that was required. The balance that the Force needed. The atonement for his sins.

The bond hummed with their shared connection before she violently shut it off.

"No!"

"Everyone around them halted in their tracks, heads swiveling around to find the source of the vehement yell she had just screamed into the air.

"No, no no no no no! Don't you dare! Don't you dare do this Ben Solo. This is not the way things are going to go. This is NOT the answer! You didn't come all this way for it to go like this. We'll fight, we'll—" By this time, tears were streaming freely down her cheeks. She wiped them away impatiently, refusing to let them take a hold of her.

Other Resistance fighters were now surrounding them, wondering what all the commotion was about. Chewie, Finn, Poe, Rose, and others gathered around them.

Ben stepped closer to her, still holding her hand, and found her other one. He enveloped them within his own, and his heart began to tear as he looked down into her face, felt the fury and denial and grief rolling off her in waves.

Dimly, he was aware of people asking questions, of confusion, of halted preparations, but they made no difference.

"I have refused to pay for my past actions," he spoke softly, only to her. "And now the payment has come due."

She shook her head. "No, you've already paid it, you've already proven yourself, don't do this. It's not what the Force wants. It can't be."

He looked at her steadily, even though he could feel the tears welling behind his own eyes. He let them fall.

"It is what the universe requires. I have felt it in my bones, and so have you. You know that this must happen."

She began sobbing. "Ben. Ben, please."

"What's going on? What's happening?" Poe's yell broke through their conversation.

Rey rounded on him. "Ben's going out there to face the First Order. He's going to let them— let them—" She couldn't get any more of the sentence out. "Tell him he's wrong!"

"What? No, it doesn't have to be that way, c'mon." Poe ran a hand through his hair. "Listen, Ben—" It still felt infinitely strange for the pilot to call him by his given name. He'd only stopped with the derogatory nicknames about a month ago. Ben found he would miss that. "We've got plenty of planes, we can take them down no problem. We'll find another base, we'll survive. It's what we do."

But Ben was shaking his head. "They're here for me. They'll never stop hunting me. When I go out there, it will give you time to vanish. Get as far away from here as you possibly can." He still spoke directly to Rey. Her face had gone from stricken with agony to disbelieving within three seconds.

"No," she said yet again. "No, I won't listen to this. Chewie, get him on the Falcon, I don't care if you have to pick him up and drag him there!"

Ben looked into her eyes, and then up to Poe, to Finn, to Rose. He turned back to the pilot. "I need you to order everyone to evacuate. And I need to go out there."

A moment of silent communication passed between them, in which Ben said how grateful he was that Poe had finally accepted him into the fold of the Resistance, how he had trusted that he loved Rey and would never harm her, how Poe had been at Leia's side, fighting for hope, and had been the son that he never had been. Poe's expression said that he understood it all, understood the burden that Ben now took upon himself, and understood why it had to be done. He nodded stiffly, once, and then pulled Ben into a hug. Ben released him, clapping him on the shoulder.

He turned to Finn and Rose, both of whom he had gotten to know so well over the past year. He locked eyes with Finn.

"Take care of them, Finn." Take care of her, please.

"I will," Finn said stoically, even though his eyes shone.

Chewbacca shouldered his way through the crowd and stood in front of Ben, looking ready to carry out Rey's order. Ben looked up at him, remembering all of the times he had done so as a small boy, all the times Chewie had given him a hug when his father had not, all the times he had provided a warm lap to sleep in on long nights on the Falcon. The wookie's eyes shone with tears, and Ben's continued to fall.

"I have to do this," Ben whispered. "Please Chewie. For him. For my father." Chewie gave a loud cry and embraced Ben lovingly. He put his arms around him and held him tight, and for one shining moment he was five years old again, with no cares in the world greater than convincing his mother to let him get his own pet fathier for his birthday.

He let Chewie go slowly and turned to face Rey once more. She was looking at him like her entire world was ending.

"I can't believe this is happening. I won't believe it. Why?" she whispered brokenly. "Why are you doing this Ben? Please?" She stepped closer, her hands wrapping around his wrists, to lock him to her. "Why are you leaving me? Do you—do you want to leave me?" Her voice was so shaky and broken that he couldn't help it. He stepped into her embrace and wrapped her in his arms. His face buried in her soft hair, his hands wrapped around her small but powerful form, her face against his chest, her hands splayed on his back, around his waist, like an anchor. He inhaled, and she smelled of yellow flowers.

He never wanted to let go. Ever since the day he had come to the base and had taken her in his arms, he knew he would spend the rest of his life by her side. She was the woman he had been waiting for, the woman who had helped him listen to himself, had shown him there was more than the darkness, more than the legends, more than the destruction and pain.

She had shown him hope.

She was warm and soft and strong and he couldn't imagine loving anyone else in the entire galaxy as much as he loved this woman. She was his heart and soul, and he would protect her to the ends of the universe.

It tore him apart now to know that she felt the same about him. He knew if she were in his role, he would never allow this.

But she must.

She had to be the braver one of the two of them, just as she always had been. And let him go. Live on without him.

He drew back and looked into her eyes. He could see by their expression that she had heard all of what he had said in his embrace.

"I will never leave you, Rey. Not a day will go by when I am not by your side, thinking of you, longing for you, and loving you. I never deserved you, and I never will, but I have been blessed to receive your love, and blessed to have been allowed to love you. Nothing can change that. Ever. You saw me when I could not see myself. Now, I must make amends for decisions I made long ago. I go knowing that when I do, you will finally be safe forever. I will protect you and I will love you, in this life, and the next, and the next, and the next, forever. Because I am yours, Rey of Jakku."

He took her face in both of his hands and kissed her. Her lips were so soft upon his, so longing, so loving. The kiss tasted of sweet innocence, of salt tears, of wild fire, of desperate desire, of the bitter root of anguish, and the intoxicating passion of true love. Her hands came up to caress his face, and they knew not how long they stood there, exchanging a vow that had been begun long ago, and was sealed with this promise.

No one is ever really gone.

I love you, Ben Solo. Always.

Slowly, ever so slowly, he drew apart from her. His hands slipped from her cheeks, and hers from his. He backed away slowly, his eyes never leaving her beautiful, grief-filled face, her brown eyes shining with soul-crushing pain and soul-restoring love. He walked backwards, keeping his eyes on her face, until he felt the breeze at his back once more. Then, through the tears flooding down his cheeks, he gave her a light, innocent smile. His lips curved up at the corner, and in that moment, surrounded by a halo of the glowing sun behind him, she could see Ben Solo, washed clean of his sins, his soul pure as the white linen shirt he wore, billowing freely around his form, dancing happily in the shedding of a burden, a weight lifted, a soul no longer straining under a massive stone.

He turned into the setting sun and walked out of the hangar as the TIE fighters descended.

The members of the Resistance would share many stories of what they had seen that day, but Rey knew that only one of them was true. For as her love went out to face the First Order fleet, as he stared into their guns armed with a pure conscience and a clean soul, she saw the glimmer of three figures surrounding him. They stood by his side, and he turned to face them, taking courage from their presence. Echoing across the bond of the Force, she could hear him asking for their forgiveness. One, for not heeding his lessons, and for carrying the anger with him for so long. One, for not returning to her before she had left this world, for not realizing his mistakes sooner. And one, for a father's forgiveness of a mistaken son's fallen soul.

All three reached out to embrace him, to take him into their care, until she could return to him once more.

Watch over him. Watch over Ben Solo.