How Rise of Skywalker should have ended…
Ben climbs the ledge with his strength waning. Pulling himself up over the ledge take almost everything he has. He stumbles towards Rey. She isn't moving and he cant feel her through their force bond. His hope is fading as he gets closer. Collapsing next to her, he feels the tiniest spark inside of her and realizes the only thing he can do is return the favor she gave to him.
The ground is trembling as the tomb is coming apart around them with tremendous shaking every couple of minutes as what Ben can only theorize is the Sith fleet breaking apart and crashing down. Ben pulls Rey into his arms and through the force, he can feel the last strand of her life fading. Putting his hand on her stomach, he focus's on Luke's training so long ago, hearing his words that once Master Yoda said to him.
"Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you."
Ben pulls at every fiber of his force training to push energy to Rey, to help her rebuild those strands that had broken. Seconds feel like minutes as he stares into her sullen eyes and sees nothing.
Despair starts to set in. He had to make this work, he had too! She had given him the chance to come back, and he could lose her. He needed her. Right when Ben thought all hope was lost, he felt a spark. A small one, but it was beginning to glow brighter. At the same time, he could feel his fire extinguishing.
His mind ran through everything he had done wrong. His father. His mother. All the hatred he had burned across the galaxy in a vein attempt to be better than his grandfather. Ben looked at Rey just as her beautiful eyes started to track her surroundings. She inhaled dramatically as the life force inside her had awakened.
Ben knew this was it. He had to atone for all the wrong he had caused and reviving the one person he loved was the answer. Their bond had tested them both, showed them the path, and she was the only one who could leave this tomb.
Rey gathered herself and looked at Ben.
"We did it, together we did it"
"You did, I was just along for the ride." Ben tries to smile, but only accomplishes a lop sided grin that was half a grimace.
"It doesn't make up for my past. Leave me here, I don't deserve to leave this tomb. The Sith die with me."
"No Ben! Kylo is dead. He died on that moon. You came back for me. You saved me"
Ben smiles and runs his hand down her cheek. His hand wraps around the back of her neck and he pulls her in for a kiss. The kiss sent shivers down his spine. Their force bond had already interlocked them but the physical touch of someone he had been so intimate with for so long was intoxicating.
Rey feeling the same rush as Ben also felt something else. She felt him fading and fading fast. She abruptly pulls away and stares into his eyes alarmed.
"You cannot die! I need you Ben."
"Like I said, I am not leaving this tomb Rey. You are their hope, their future. Go. I will always be with you"
Rey panics. She finally feels complete and this cant be it. She runs through hundreds of scenarios in her head. Realizing all that she is doing is wasting time, Rey settles her mind and reaches out in the force, trying to find someone to come and help them. Pushing her essence out as far as she can, she feels a familiar mind. A smile crosses her face, she realizes what he had been trying to say all along.
Looking to Ben, feeling the last bit of energy leaving him, she puts her hand on the back of his neck and pulls him close, foreheads touching.
"I just brought you back, I am not losing you."
Rey focuses her mind on her force healing, but instead of giving her life, she reaches out and pulls energy from everything around her. This tomb was built on death and the darkside, there is not much to draw from.
Pulling everything she can and combining that with her energy, she balances what she has in-between them. Its not enough to keep them conscious, but enough to keep them alive. She feels the balance she needs attained, a perfect equation to keep them both alive.
At that moment, a warm, familiar presence runs through her energy, escaping Ben as if saying goodbye. A flicker of the woman who had taken her under her wing and finished her training. Rey's heart feels an instant prick of pain, but it is washed away by the presence.
-Scene with Maz looking over Leia as her body disappears into the force—
"Leia" Rey whispers.
As the black dots start to get larger in her eyes, she musters a smirk. Her last thought as she passed out was that she finally understood what Luke had been saying on that cliff of Ahch-To.
Finn stood in the cockpit of the Falcon behind Chewy and Lando. Looking through the viewport, the Sith fleet was almost wiped out. Ships were crashing down onto the surface at a dramatic rate. He couldn't believe they had pulled this off. Just as he was about to congratulate his saviors, he felt a wave of panic roll over his senses. A scream for help, but not one he could hear, only that he could feel. It was Rey, but she was not alone.
All at once, he understood what she needed.
"Rey's down there, she needs our help!"
"How do you know?" Lando askes as he studies the wreckage falling to the planet below right where they would need to land to rescue her.
"I just know, land!" Finn yells. Chewy howls in agreement.
"All right, all right." Lando reaches for the commlink.
"Poe, Finn says Rey is down there, we are going after her, we are going to need cover for this." Lando pushes the ship down violently.
"Hope we don't get killed in the process" he mumbles as he whips the ship around to set down as close to the entrance to the tomb as possible.
"All right fleet, Rey is down there, and the Falcon is attempting a rescue. We need to keep the debris off of them so they can do it. Form a protective cover and don't let anything through!" Poe flips off the commlink. Looking through his cockpit, hundreds of ships are breaking apart and falling with no reason to their trajectory. He swings around as his fighters fall in behind him.
"Break into groups of 3 and blast anything getting close to them!"
Poe gets so many confirmations he loses count. He shuts out the voices over the comm as he needs to focus. He steers toward piece after piece falling, blasting them away with a precision he has never had before. Suddenly, his cockpit darkens, and he pulls his attention away from the debris to look up. His focus's back on his comm as it flickers to life with the nasally voice.
"We have this General; you pick up the small stuff"
Poe looks up and sees what had darkened the sky. Mon Calamari cruisers had formed a blockade over them, with various other frigates and smaller ships in-between them. In a burst that would have put Starkiller base to shame, all ships opened fire simultaneously and began vaporizing the wreckage over the Falcon. What was left falling past the bulges of the capital ships was so small that it was no threat to them below.
"You are set General, save our girl!" Poe exclaimed to Finn as he pulled up to search for stray enemy fighters.
Finn had just come down the boarding ramp as the bombardment commenced. He could not believe what he was seeing. A thought runs through his mind that if he had not saved Poe that day and escaped above Jakku, that would be him up there being vaporized. He shrugged off the thought and started running towards the tomb entrance, Chewy not far behind. Coming to the ledge, they realize they have no way down.
"What do we do? I cant jump that far!" Finn says to Chewy in a panic.
Chewy grumbles an idea and Finn looks at the space wondering if is going to work.
"Poe we need you down here, you're the only one I think that can pull this off."
After explaining the plan to Poe, Finn ran back to the Falcon for tow rope and something to haul them down on.
Poe drops his X-Wing to ground level, hovering centimeters above the ground.
"This is going to be tight" he whispered to himself and he slowly engages his thrusters to push his fighter to the ledge. His hull makes shill scrapping sound. Annoyed, he pushes the throttle more. He has already screwed up the paint job, there is no nice way to do ths. His BB unit behind him screams in agony as the top of his dome smashed into the ceiling.
Poe arrives with a smirk as his fighter is smoking at certain points. Finn starts latching the cable to the nose of the X-Wing.
"Slow and steady Poe, I don't want us falling off this thing" Finn yells to him over the hum of the engines.
The only thing he was able to find on the ship was 2 med stretchers that he had quickly strapped together with cabling from the ship. Chewy climbed into the basket followed by Finn and Poe nuzzled them off the edge/ He flipped the snub fighters nose down and lowered them down the hole. His thrusters groaned at the unnatural maneuver, but Poe held it steady and lowered them to the bottom.
Finn jumped out of the makeshift basket before it was lowered and started running deeper into the tomb. He was guided by the bodies, towards a large chamber. Stopping the in the middle, he pauses to take it all in. It was massive. Chewy lumbers up beside Finn. Chewy roars which snaps Finn out of it and looks to where Chewy is pointing. 2 bodies on the floor. They take off towards them. They skid to a stop over the bodies and Chewy lets out a snarl that would have frightened a Rancor.
Finn grabs Chewy knowing why he is upset.
"Rey said no! That isn't Kylo, that is Ben!"
Chewy is upset, but he looks at Ben with a frustrated curiosity. Could this be the boy he held in arms when he was tiny? It didn't matter Chewy thought to himself. If he woke up Kylo, he would rip him arms off and beat him to death.
Chewy bends over and picks up both Ben and Rey, throwing one over each shoulder. They start running back to Poe and their lift.
Poe sees Finn and Poe making their way back to him through the dust and sees 2 bodies on Chewy's shoulders. When they get closer, Poe calls out to Finn.
"Is that?"
"Yep"
"But wh…"
"No time, explain later, we need to get them back"
Poe nods in acceptance. He will add this to the list of questions Finn needs to answer. After all 4 are loaded onto the basket, Poe reverses thrust and starts to climb back up the hole. The noise the thrusters make is far worse than before, but there is enough room to level off his X-Wing so he pulls the nose up to its correct position, much to the delight of his BB. He hovers at the top and lets everybody unload. Finn out first to help Chewy move the unconscious bodies then to remove the basket from the nose as Poe will not make it out of here with the dead weight.
Finn slaps the nose of the fighter when complete.
"See you soon" Finn nods to Poe who nods back.
Poe turns the ship and starts the trek back towards open atmosphere.
Chewy and Finn arrive at the boarding ramp to find Lando waiting for them. Noticing the two bodies, he runs back up the ramp to get the other medical bed ready. Chewy lays Rey down first, gently, and brushes her hair off her face. Finn comes beside him and starts hooking her up to the equipment. Chewy turns and tosses Ben onto the other bed, frustrated and sad. He killed his Father, Chewy's partner and whom he owed a life debt too that he failed when he couldn't protect him from Kylo.
Lando grabs Chewy's furry arm.
"You got this, I need to do something I have always wanted to do."
Chewy growls and acceptance. His emotions had to wait as they needed to get out of there. He turns and makes his way to the cockpit to take off. Lando looks to Finn finishing up Rey's bacta infusion.
"You did good kid, see you up there"
Finn looks at him inquisitively but gets a feeling of excitement from him so just nods and goes back to work.
Lando steps off the boarding plank just as it starts to lift and the Falcons engines power up. He takes a couple steps away and watches the ship rocket away. So many memories on that ship, he is glad he got one more adventure with her. With the Falcon out of view now, he turns his head back towards where she once sat and now you can see Luke's X-wing.
Lando clasps his hand together in glee.
"I have always wanted to fly one of these!" as he jaunts towards the fighter. He climbs up like how he always saw Luke do it and realizes, he is getting too old for this. Laboriously he makes settles into the cockpit and realizes something; the cockpit is a lot tighter than he imagined it would be.
After getting comfortable, he grabs the helmet off the dash and slides it on. Starting the warm up sequence he realizes how excited he is. The Falcon is fast, but she is not a fighter. Powering thrusters, he pulls up like he would in the Falcon and the nose shoots up towards the stars. He is pushed back in his seat as the armada above is beginning to break formation. He hears Poe over the comm that they had won, the Sith fleet was destroyed and to report back to base.
Lando follows the fleet back the path that brought them here. Finally, black, open space appears in front of him. Typing in hyperspace coordinates for base, Lando looks around at the fleet he helped put together and realizes that his place was not in this fighter. Deciding at that moment, he will serve the New Republic however they need to make sure this doesn't happen again.
"Time to get off the sidelines" He says to himself as he pushes the level to hyperspace.
The space around Ajan Kloss was crowed. Almost 3000 ships had made their way back. Lando is steering his way through the crowd, enjoying every second of it. He spots the Falcon and falls in behind her who leads them to a couple of landing pads adjacent to the command center. Lando opens the cockpit screen. People everywhere are celebrating. The wave of euphoria flows over him like it did so many years ago on that moon after they made it back from the second Deathstar. A mechanic pushes a ladder next to the fighter and Lando climbs out, thankful he doesn't have to repeat the same process he did before.
Walking towards the Falcon, he sees medical personal bringing Rey and Ben off the ship. Ben has an armed detail surrounding him. Finn runs up and gives him a hug, Chewy is not far behind. The embrace is almost two much as the damned Wookie never realizes his own strength. Finn has enough and pulls away grumbling about how Chewy is trying to kill them all.
Finn looks around at the crowd, so many smiling faces, yet no Rey, no Rose, and no Poe. He had never had a family before, and now that he does, he yearns for them. He gets a feeling and looks left to see Poe looking at someone in the crowd. It looks like Zorii, but there are so many people. He yells Poe's name.
Poe hears his name being called. He has been trying to make it to the Falcon which was easy to spot over all the fighters that had landed, but the massive amount of people celebrating had made it difficult. Before hearing his name, he caught a glimpse of Zorii. Poe being Poe, gave her the glance that he knew would get a reaction. Getting what he wanted, he turned to see Finn across the platform and started pushing his way across to him.
After what seemed like an eternity, he reached the group and embraced Finn. They release and smile to one another, then salute.
"Great job General!"
"You as well, General!"
Their smiles fade as Maz appears with a solemn look. Finn feels there is something wrong, Poe looks at her waiting for her to speak.
"Good, your all here. I need you all to follow me." She says as she turns back towards the command center.
Chewy, Finn, Poe, and Lando follow Maz through the command center where the celebrating is still going on, but it has a bit of a cloud hanging over it. Everyone was still feeling Leia's passing. Next to where Leia's body once sat is Rey and Ben's bodies. They have cables running to all parts of their bodies. Rose is standing next to Rey, holding her hand. Finn walks up next to her and looks over Rey.
"How is she doing?"
"She is bad, but she is strong. We just have to wait."
"What about him" Finn askes quietly nodding towards Ben.
"I don't care, he can die as far as I am concerned" she replies angerly.
"Rey told me she wanted him with her, that he was not Kylo anymore and he had saved her. If that's true, we need him as much as we need her" Finn replied, trying to calm her down.
Her anger doesn't diminish so does something he has wanted to do, but there hasn't been the right time yet. He grabs her hand and turns her towards him, placing his other hand on the side of her face.
"I would not be here without you. You caught me and rescued me when I was at my lowest. I don't know if I have ever told you that. Thank you Rose" Finn said ever so softly to her as he moved his thumb across her cheek.
A tear forms and drops down her face as she chokes back her emotions.
"About time dummy" she says. She doesn't care anymore; she has been holding back her emotions for too long. Pushing her face forward before Finn can react, she kisses him deeply. All the feelings and all the thoughts she has had about him pour into the kiss. Finn is startled but settles into the kiss.
Everybody around them looks at them in confusion. Poe looks at Chewy and shrugs with a smirk while Lando smiles and looks to Maz who has a approving look on her face.
Rose pulls away then gets an embarrassed look on her face. Finn smiles at her, assuring her that she is ok.
"Sorry, just wanted to do that for a long time, never knew when to do it though"
"You have great timing" Finn replied and pulled her back in for a kiss.
Poe turns to Maz and looks at her as if waiting for orders.
"What do we do know?" He askes, first looking at her, then looking at the others.
"I don't know General, you are the boss here" she replies playfully.
Lando steps forward with a confident smile on his face.
"First thing we need to do, is find a new capital and get a government running. People are going to be in disarray, and we now have a fleet to wipe out what's left of the First Order. They need someone to lead them."
"You volunteering for that General?" Poe asked.
"I think I am. With your blessing, I will start working on getting the government back online." Lando liked having a mission again. Made him feel youthful.
Poe looked around the room for approval with everyone looking back at him for his. Turning to Lando, he held his hand out.
"You have my blessing and any support I can provide. You got a lot of work ahead of you"
"Exactly what I am looking for, I'll be in touch" Lando says as he takes one last look at everyone and turns to walk away but pauses. He turns back to C-3PO who has joined them with R2.
"C-3PO, going to need a good translator droid, you know one?"
C-3PO looks around and moves his arms very matter of fact.
"I can recommend many Master Lando, how many languages would you like it to speak?" It askes completely oblivious to the question.
Poe turns to C-3PO with an annoyed stare.
"I think he means you."
"Oh my!" the droid exclaims.
"I don't know if I can do that Master Lando, I have many responsibilities around here that require my attention!"
R2 slams into him from behind and makes some toots and boops that sound like encouragement.
"I know R2, but I just got you back, I am not sure I am ready to leave"
R2 beeps some more and C-3PO looks at the group.
"What do you say my old friend, ready to help me finish what Leia started?" Lando asked again.
"Well if you put it that way sir, then yes I am in"
C-3PO turns to R2 and puts his hand on his dome.
"I am going to miss you my friend. Take care of them all in my absence"
R2 beeps back an acknowledgement and C-3PO turns and follows Lando to the hanger. Rose, Maz, Finn, Chewy and Poe are all that remain. Poe needs to go do a check up on the fleet, so he nods to everyone as he takes off, but not without looking at Finn and Rose.
"Take care of our girl, we are going to need her" He smiles and turns before anyone can respond. Watching him walk away, Finn turns to Maz.
"So what's next?" he askes.
"You need her to wake up so she can begin training you" Maz replies matter of factly.
"How did you kn…?" Finn replies but is cut off by Maz's look.
"Honey, I am hundreds of years old and I know more than most do. I knew you were sensitive when I handed you the lightsaber."
Finn takes a second to digest that.
"I guess all we can do is wait then" Finn says with dismay.
Maz looks at Rey's and Ben's Vitals as Finn puts his arm around Rose. The celebration continues around them and they hear planets checking in from all over the galaxy. The First/Fallen Order are no more. Planets are standing up to end the tyranny.
A figure in a brown hooded cloak appears in the doorway. After a second, they approach to put their hand on Rey's hand. Finn looks at this new person. The hood is tall, and their face cannot be seen.
"So this is the disturbance in the force I felt" a female voice stated.
Finn looked at her. Even though he had not been trained in the force, he could feel her presence.
"Who are you?" Finn asked
The hooded figure pulled back her hood to reveal an older Togruta face. Her skin was orange with white stripes, and looking at her, you could tell she has seen her share of battle. Her hood barely goes over the top of her head which featured two striped, tall fleshy horns that continued down her chest under her robe like hair. She puts her hand on Rey's forehead and has a moment of concentration. She turns to Ben and does the same thing.
Finn looks at her again, and this time, more frustrated as he did not get an answer, askes who she is again. Maz looks to him and gives him a trusting look, trying to calm him.
"My name is Asoka Tano. A long time ago, I trained under Anakin Skywalker. Now I am an ex Jedi who is following the path the force has put me on. I had a premonition from my previous master that these two needed my help"
Finn had so many questions. He couldn't ask them all, so he held out his hand.
"My name is Finn. This is Rose, and this is Maz" gesturing towards them.
Asoka bowed her head at each of them.
"I am glad you are here, we need all the help we can get" Finn said confidently.
Finn was now noticing her companions behind her. One was in a similar Jedi robe. He was a male midway through life, and the other was a woman in very colorful armor. Both had the same look that Asoka had and both had a feeling emanating from them that they were friends. Finn thought to himself to add that to his list of questions just as Asoka turned to him.
"I have passed some of my energy to both of them. They will be ok, they just need time though. I sense you have questions, and I will answer all in time. Right now there are some old friends that I need to see. I will be back Finn" She said as she turned and started walking into the crowd towards the ship, her companions flanking her.
Finn had not been this confused in a while. He looked to Rose who had the same look, then to Maz who had a smile on her face.
"If you are going to be apart of this world, you are going to have to trust the force."
Maz looked around for someone, darting around the room until she spotted Chewy in the corner, talking to a gentlemen he obviously knew based upon his body language.
"You two watch over them, I am going to get my boyfriend" Maz said and turned towards Chewy.
Rose laughed, thinking about that situation.
"So what's next?" she asked Finn.
Finn looked at his friend on the table, who looked noticeably better than she had 10 minutes ago.
"We wait, then we ask her." He replied.
The celebration around them has only gotten bigger. Finn wraps his arms around Rose and they just feel the energy around them. Whatever is going to come next could not even hold a candle to what they just went through. They were ready whatever that might be.
-FADE TO BLACK, 5 SECOND PAUSE, FADES BACK IN TO A JUNGLE PLANET.
-This planet looks familiar. Camera pans over the lush Jungle to a very familiar temple off in the distance.
-Jump to a child about 8 running through the forest in athletic looking robes.
-Quick scenes much like Rey's training scene's earlier in the film.
-Child is leaping across a ravine, grabbing a vine and swinging into a tree. He jumps down. At this point you can see his lightsaber. He lands and rolls out of the fall. Runs to a wall and starts climbing what looks like ruins. They are about 100 feet high. Looks daunting, but the child swiftly makes it up the wall.
-Top of wall, the child's small hand grabs the top and he pulls himself up to reveal his face. He is about 8, dark hair, brown eyes, very handsome. He stands up, near the edge and dusts himself off.
"Quicker than yesterday" a familiar sounding voice exclaims.
"Told you I would. Can I have my helmet so I can finish training?" the boy askes.
"Nope, your Mom has a surprise for you, and she wont even tell me, and I can read her mind"
-Camera pans back to reveal an older Ben Skywalker eating a fruit of sorts, sitting on a crumbled stone pillar. He is wearing a darker brown jedi garment.
"Come on Dad, just a quick session? I need to practice deflection!" the boy askes with a hint of whining in his tone.
"Nope, last time I went against your mom, I regretted it" He laughed.
Ben wraps his arm around his son and guides him towards the temple that is now in full view.
"Come on Anakin, if we are late, she is going to make us balance rocks as punishment"
Camera pans back to show the temple grounds. We are on Yavin 4, at the old rebel alliance base that has been transformed back to its original use, a Jedi Temple.
Various sessions are going on around them.
Shot of Master Bridger is leading a lightsaber training course.
Shot of Master Finn is leading a history session.
Cut back to Ben Skywalker and his son walking down the train toward the command center.
The path brings them to pass Master Tano, who is going over the Jedi Code with her students. Ben stops for a second and looks at his son. Anakin is saying the code with the rest of the class who is much younger than him without the words leaving his mouth.
There must be both dark and light.
I will do what I must to keep the balance, as the balance is what holds all life.
There is no good without evil, but evil must not be allowed to flourish.
There is passion, yet peace; serenity, yet emotion; chaos, yet order.
I am a wielder of the flame; a champion of balance.
I am a guardian of life.
I am a Jedi.
Ben smiles and thinks back to how it used to be. Both the Jedi and the Sith had insanely ludicrous rules that made them polarizing towards each other. Rey decided to build the Jedi order again, the old code would have to go. History had repeated itself too many times because of it. That's what she learned from his Uncle. Jedi, Sith, they were no different from each other when it came down to it.
Ben nudges Anakin's shoulder and they continue down the path. They are about 1 klick away when they see a shuttle landing. Ben looks up and sees a New Republic Assault Frigate in the sky, and realizes he has no idea what day it is. He prod's Anakin with his mind and takes off at a sprint. Anakin passes his father and laughs back at him which only makes Ben try harder, but his son is much faster than him.
Anakin come's around the corner, Ben hot on the heels of his son and almost run right into Rey speaking with Admiral Dameron and Rose. Ben smiles sheepishly, knowing his wife is annoyed his is late.
"Forgot what day it was" he says casually, but a bit of playfulness in his voice. She gives him a slight scowl and nods.
The Admiral and Rose were going on about some shipping lanes that had a pirate problem and a Jedi influence would be greatly appreciated. Rose agreed to send Master Bridger to investigate. They continue talking about other affairs between the New Republic and the Jedi.
Ben has drowned them out, all he is doing is looking at his wife. She knows it and is trying to ignore him. Their bond has only grown stronger since they got married. Ben's mind is wandering into the past when he feels a mental ping from Rey, alerting him to pay attention.
He sends a mental image of a picnic on the bluff overlooking the academy. This was the place he asked her to marry him, and when they decided to take their family name. Rey ignores him.
His playful banter is not going over well today, so he decides to give it a rest and tune back in. Just as he does that, Finn comes around the corner and grabs Poe by the shoulder and gives him a big hug which throws him off. Rose is annoyed.
"Finn, I asked for an hour with the Admiral before you took him to have an ale. We need to cover all this before he leaves tomorrow. Chancellor Calrissian is expecting a full report on the academy." Rose says knowing she just lost both of their attention.
Poe smiles back at her.
"We can just go all have an ale together and finish this there!"
Finn gives his wife a "pretty please" smile. She succumbs with a laugh and they head into the complex to the relaxation bar.
Its now just Rey, Ben, and Anakin. A New Republic Officer walk's into the room.
"Shuttle is ready Master Skywalker" he said in a very crisp military tone.
Anakin looks at his mother waiting for her to tell him what she this surprise was.
"Shuttle is ready for what Master Skywalker?" Anakin says with intrigue with to his mother using her full title hoping it will get him bonus points.
She looks at Anakin and smiles. Putting her arm around him as she bends down next to him.
"You get to spend the night up there!" She points at the Frigate in the sky.
They could both feel the excitement swell through Anakin. He was always wanting to see the big ships up close and in personal. Rey had been asking Poe to grant him an evening on the ship and this time he obliged. His First Officer was going to spend the evening with him and show him all the systems on the ship. She knew that was the only way she was going to have some time with Ben who was equally as shocked by the surprise. She shot a thought at him.
"You're not the only one who wants alone time."
Ben's smile goes from ear to ear as he shooed Anakin to get his things.
Anakin is to his room and back in less than 5 minutes. Rey leans down for a kiss, Anakin goes to shy away, but Rey gives a small force nudge to bring him back. He is not impressed. Ben tussles his hair and tells him to have a great night.
Anakin takes off towards the Officer and they make the walk to the shuttle. Ben moves behind Rey and wraps his arms around her waist. Resting is face in her hair he whispers in her ear.
"I love you."
She smiles because she can feel his essence wrapped around her.
"I know" she says wryly.
He squeezes her harder, she loved that story. Lando had told it to her one time when they visited the capital.
As they stand there, looking at the sunset and watching the shuttle take off, they both are happy. They won. All that they had fought against each other and for had come to fruition. They had a fully fledge Jedi Academy teaching the new ways of the force, a government that was ran in the ways of the old, and peace through-out the galaxy.
They had truly brought balance to the force.
-Fade to black
-Credits