Twenty Six.

Finn and Poe could see the white-armoured shapes advancing amid the twisted spiny vegetation, blasters raised and ready to fight. There were about a score, more than enough to overwhelm them and as he watched, Poe felt a miserable chill of deja vu. In fact, ever since Rey woke, the whole time he had this strong sensation that there was something important that he had forgotten.

"These guys never give up, do they?" he asked Finn as the former stormtrooper sighed.

"Always taught to carry on until the enemy is defeated or you are dead," he murmured. "No such thing as retirement or an old stormtrooper. Sometime, sooner or later, they all get killed. No wonder they have to kidnap all those kids. No chance a stormtrooper family-if such a thing could even exist-would suggest their own kids would go into the family profession." Poe stared at him and he began to chuckle.

"I have a feeling, buddy, that your kids aren't gonna be looking at stormtroopering as a career option," he grinned. Finn chuckled.

"No likelihood of kids," he murmured. Poe sighed.

"Plenty of orphaned children out there," he reminded his friend. "Including the latest ones stolen from their families by the First Order. We still gotta find them and bring them home." He rested a hand on Finn's shoulder. "And I'm with you every step of the way." Finn managed a wry smile.

"How do you feel about taking on about fifty stormtroopers with just three of us?" he said, hunkering down.

"Four," Poe reminded him. "We've got Rey." Finn raised his blaster.

"And she's busy fighting Ren," he murmured. "Who knows how long that will last?"

-o0o-

Rey stared in shock as she pulled back. the energy blade deactivating and leaving the seared hole in his body. Kylo Ren's eyes widened, his face taut with pain and eyes dark with…relief.

Appalled, ashamed, horrified, Rey backed away, her hand dropping and her lightsaber clattering to the ground. Her breath was freezing in her throat and she felt drained, the powerful surge of anger that had fuelled her assault leaving her drained and feeling…awful. But his eyes lingered on her with no recrimination. He clicked his lightsaber off and let the device fall to the rocky ground as his legs buckled and he collapsed back against the ruins of the altar. His head dropped to his chest and she could see the colour draining from his face and lips as his life ebbed.

Wet. His hair should be wet.

She dropped to a crouch by him as his dark eyes flicked up to meet her face.

"I'm sorry," she said stupidly. He was her enemy, the monster who had stalked her since she became embroiled in the Resistance after meeting BB-8, the monster who had tortured her and fought her in the snows of Starkiller, the monster who had tried to exterminate the Resistance on the salt flats of Crait…

…the monster who had killed the other, worse monster aboard the Supremacy…

…how had she gotten away again? All she came up with was…blackness…

He raised his hand and gently rested his palm on her cheek, his eyelids drooping.

Han, touching his cheek with a look of mingled shock, pain and forgiveness before falling away into the pit.

"There was only one way this would end," he breathed gruffly.

"It never needed to," she whispered. "You offered me your hand. Twice."

When was the second time? She couldn't recall it at all…

"You were filled with light and I was never able to overcome the darkness."

Seeing him standing at her side, their sabers raised in synchronicity, facing a rotting corpse that was thick with evil, lightning flashing overhead.

"Leia always wanted you to come home," she said, a nagging wrongness tugging at her memory.

"But she's gone," he breathed, his lips white now. "But thank you."

Snoke's eyes filled with shocked as the lightsaber carved him in two on his own throne.

What had happened next?

His hand slipped away. Kylo Ren's eyes fluttered closed and a final juddering breath left his body. And then he was still.

Pain stabbed through her chest, a sudden sense of loss far worse than when her parents abandoned her, when she held the dagger and realised what had happened to her parents, when she ran from Kef Bir…

She had killed Leia's son. The son she had always hoped could come home. The son she…

Why couldn't she remember? Had returning from the darkness damaged her memory? Some things were clear and others…missing…

I wanted to take Ben's hand.

She had…she had…

"REY!" Rose's voice cut through her desperate struggle to fight through the memories, to catch the elusive mist of whatever had been there. She looked up, rage surging through her body. What she was doing was important. More than important. Something felt so very wrong and she had learned to listen to her feelings…

"Go away," she breathed.

"The First Order stormtroopers. They're coming!"

Rey found herself breathing hard, anger flowing through her veins. Something was wrong, making her feel unbalanced, skewed…as if she had been abandoned all over again. Rose appeared over the edge of the plateau as BB-8 gave an urgent warble and rolled forward.

"Get away from me!" Rey yelled, gesturing. The little droid flew through the air and hit Rose, leaving the woman breathless and the BB unit beeping frantically. But Rey was on her feet, striding forward and glaring down to see the trooper carriers hovering over the dozens of stormtroopers, advancing inexorably across the hostile ground. She could sense Poe and Finn hunkered down, facing hopeless odds.

And Ben was dead.

No…Kylo Ren was dead. Ben Solo died many years earlier.

But Leia never gave up hope,

She stretched out her senses, ignoring the fact that there seemed to be a gaping wound in the force by her, current tugging at her, and sensed the life within the transports. The rage was building within her, red misting her vision as she glared at them. All three were empty save their pilots, shadowing their troopers.

…a desert planet with a Silencer screaming in towards her. A leap, lightsaber in her hand. A precise blow, separating a wing from the main body and sending it spinning into oblivion. Seeing him walk from the wreckage towards her, unharmed…

Why was she relieved?

…the ship, rising from the planet. A tug of war, her power singing as she hauled it closer. His power opposing hers…

…lightning destroying the vessel…

She flung her arm forward, palm towards the vessels and troopers, fingers splayed as she exerted all her strength. Rage was thrumming through her body, unreasonable anger at her resurrection, the loss of her friends by his manipulations, her fractured memory, the fact she had killed him when it felt so wrong, the fact that everything seemed out of kilter, the fact that there was a gnawing pain in her chest and heart and soul.

Something immeasurably precious had been lost and she couldn't search for it with all these distractions!

Lightning arched from her fingers, slamming into the nearest hovering transport and after a few second of resistance, blasting it apart. The lightning spread across the sky, arching to the other transports and blasting them apart, the burning wreckage dropping on the helpless and vulnerable stormtroopers below. Screams drifted up and she lowered her hand-but every eye was on her now. She could sense the anxiety, the fear emanating from her friends and from the white-armoured troopers who rapidly withdrew.

Shame washed over her again, leaving her empty. Her temper was all over the place, raging one moment and filled with remorse the next as she turned back to her friends. Rose was crouched down, eyes wide and scared of the woman facing her while BB-8 was beeping in a distinctly anxious manner. Rey's eyes filled with tears as she dropped her hands to her side and fell to her knees.

"I am so sorry," she whispered. "Rose, BB-8…are you okay…?" The shorter woman nodded slightly, eyes still huge with fear.

"What was that?" she asked sharply, ignoring the attack on herself.

"Force lightning," Rey whispered.

"Is that normal?"

"…no…" she whispered in a tiny, broken voice. BB-8 looked between the two women…and then slowly rolled forward, beeping warily. A sob wracked Rey's body. "I'm so sorry," she sobbed, tears streaking her face. "I am so sorry." The little droid nudged her, a stream of anxious beeps distracting her.

"I know," she whispered. "I don't know what happened…"

"What had to."

Her head snapped up and the glowing translucent shape of Anakin appeared a few feet in front of her. Absently, Rey straightened out BB-8's antenna which had gotten bent as he landed on Rose.

"What do you mean?" Rose and Rey spoke simultaneously. Anakin sighed.

"Answer her first and then send her to look for your friends. She can't see me and she may think you're crazy." Rey looked at him with teary eyes. "Crazier," he amended. Rey nodded.

"Force lightning is rare," Rey explained quietly. "It's the mark of a very strong Force User." She swallowed. "Mostly on the Dark Side," she added.

"But not exclusively," Anakin told her.

"But not exclusively," she added aloud. Rose nodded.

"You are a Jedi, aren't you?" she checked suspiciously. Rey nodded.

"Yes," she sighed. Though I'm not sure what I am now. I mean, half my memory is faulty, I've been dead and I'm manifesting a Dark Side power… "Could you get the others. I need to speak to you all." Stealing a glance at the body of Kylo Ren, still resting against the ruins of the altar, Rose scrambled up and nodded, then set off. "She doesn't trust me."

"She doesn't know you," Anakin told her as Rey huffed in annoyance, wiping her face on the back of her hand.

"I thought what Ren did to them would wear off when he died," she said as the Jedi and former Sith Lord rose and walked to stand by his grandson, an unreadable look on his face.

"He didn't do this," he revealed. "They did."

"What?"

"You were dead and contrary to popular belief, Jedi don't have limitless powers," Anakin said, his eyes never moving from the slumped shape. "He never gave up. He chased across the Galaxy to find what was needed, risking his life. And when he found out what would be necessary, he knew it would cost him his life. Among other sacrifices." Rey rose and walked to his side, the droid rolling along beside her.

"Sorry-you're saying that Kylo Ren brought me back?" she asked, incredulously. "Why?"

Anakin finally looked up, his gaze pitying.

"I could tell you that it was to atone. That when you died on Exegol, you weren't meant to. He was meant to give you his life force and die in penance for his crimes. You were supposed to live. But when he tried to bring you back on Exegol, he failed. So he was captured by the Resistance and eventually, he escaped, looking for you and a way to bring you back. He will explain why you have lost so much in the action." Rey frowned, rerunning his words.

"You said it was atonement but the way you said it… indicates something else," she told him. He nodded.

"He loves you," he said simply as she reeled in shock.

"That…monster?" she spat as he sighed.

"Once. But since you were joined via your bond, he has been sliding into the Light."

"Bond? With Kylo Ren? Surely, I would have remembered something like that!" she challenged him. He chuckled.

"What do you know about him?" he asked her directly.

"He's Kylo Ren, the Jedi Killer. Apprentice of Snoke who killed him and took his place as Supreme Leader. He's ruthless and vicious. A monster who captured me and chased me and ransacked my mind. He was Ben Solo, son of Han Solo and General Leia Organa. He was Luke's apprentice and he tried to kill Luke and destroyed his temple, killing the other apprentices. He tried to destroy us. he killed his father. He killed Luke. He killed Leia…" She blinked and her voice softened. She felt unbalanced as she continued to speak.

"Leia died when she tried to reach out to him, to distract him to save my life. She was injured after being exposed to space when the bridge of the Raddus was blown out. He had the bridge in his sights but he couldn't pull the trigger. No matter what Snoke said, she was still his mother and that bond survived all the training, conditioning and punishments Snoke tried to turn him into a soulless monster. Snoke had pursued him throughout his life, always whispering in his mind, seducing him, isolating him. Feeding his anger and paranoia. Using him as his enforcer and assassin. But he was lonely and conflicted, riven by the guilt of killing his father. He told me what happened, that Luke stood over him with a lightsaber, planning to kill him. That he defended himself and collapsed the roof on them. That a lightning strike set the temple ablaze and that he did not kill the apprentices. That he had nowhere else to go. And I thought I could reach him, that I could turn him. He killed Snoke to save my life. We fought together against his guards and he asked me to rule with him. I refused and ran. We kept fighting and finally, on Kef Bir, I defeated him."

She backed away and stared at him, appalled.

"How do I know that?"

"A Force Bond, a Dyad is unique and cannot be sundered, even by death," Anakin told her. "You know Ben as yourself. And no matter what he tried, the Bond was lost because he closed it. When he died, it opened once more and all those memories dammed back by the ritual were released."

"But…" Her eyes drifted to Ben's slumped shape. "But I killed him…" Anakin gestured as BB-8 rolled forward, beeping urgently. This time, Rey crouched by him, offering her hand. After baulking for a second, he nudged against her again. "I am so sorry," she repeated as BB-8 looked at her, then glanced backwards as the other three appeared. And then he activated his holographic projector to show an image of Kylo Ren…except that the man facing her clearly wasn't the Supreme Leader. There was concern and urgency in his expression and a vulnerability that was missing from the monster. Ben ran his hands through his raven hair and looked into the camera.

"Rey," he said, his voice gentle. "If you are seeing this then I have succeeded…but also almost certainly lost. I will have brought you back to life…but that brings huge risks. The Sith Holocron I used to bring you back demanded that your friends gave up their memories of your friendship-so they won't recall you. It has to be voluntary so they will have willingly surrendered their friendship to give you a chance of life. You surrendered the memories of our Bond and I…had to surrender the Light." He gave a small smile that still lit his face. "And this is why I am recording this. Because I have once again become the monster you feared, and that was what met you when you rose again. And I know…I know how I will have behaved because I was that person, not so long ago. But I also know that now, you are more than strong enough to defeat me. Without the light, I am incomplete and I know in my heart…that my life was really what was required to bring you back. And it's a price I pay gladly."

Rey found her eyes prickling with tears.

"Rey…I have done terrible, unforgivable things. I know no penance can repay the harm I have done. But I knew that I had to bring you back-and your friends have supported me on this quest. Finn and Poe stood by me on our journey-even though Poe can't forgive how I treated him. And I understand that, having suffered a First Order interrogation myself and felt the violation when you inadvertently looked inside my mind. Poe…I am sorry, though I know words can never put right the hurt you suffered. Finn was brave and loyal…not the traitor I thought him because it took courage to leave such an evil organisation as the First Order. Rose…has been like a sister. Though she had so many reasons to hate me, she helped me when I was at my lowest." He took a deep breath. "I am sorry, Rey. I am not sorry I gave you another chance at life, because you deserve it. But I am sorry that doing so robbed you of your friends, of the past you shared that they no longer recall. And I am so sorry that I have left you. Severing the Bond was the last thing I wanted-and I never wanted to leave you alone because I, of everyone, knows how lonely you are. But you have people who know you, who can support you. Who will come to love you again as much as they did before."

He smiled once more into the camera.

"May the Force be with you-always."

As the image vanished, she heard steps as her friend closed to a few paces away. But Rey could only stare at the body of the man who had given his life for her and sob.