Part XXXV

The Force blazed and pulsed around them, both Rey and Ben almost drunk on power but he was able to take a step back from his wife…he had to mentally pinch himself to know this was truly real, and he turned to Alister and nodded.

The Knight and Davin crossed the temple at the same time, moving to a dark corner where the guard carried a low tufted bench that was covered in the same velvet of Ben's cape. He set it before his Master while Alister held a gray wooden case at chest height.

"Kneel." Ben's voice was commanding, and a chill ran through Rey thinking back to her quarters when he had dominated her, shoving his cock in-between her rosy lips as penance for her lie about Dameron.

But she complied, thankful that she wouldn't be ruining her dress on the wet stone floor of the temple. When she was situated before him, her face upturn to look upon her husband and she couldn't help return his boyish smile even though she knew that this should be a serious moment.

Alister pulled open the lid to the case and Ben reached in, pulling out the crown that would sit upon his Empress' head as she ruled at his side for as long as the Force allowed and the galaxy needed.

If the rings that sat upon her finger now didn't hold so much sentiment and literally a piece of Ben's soul, Rey would have thought them mere trinkets when compared to the piece that her Emperor held in his hands.

It was made out of the same cords of dark and light gold, twisted among themselves but they had been hammered to mimic a more natural shape of branches. Twelve kybers were spaced along the front of the crown as it appeared that it was made to be woven into her hair and not encircle her head like Ben's.

The kybers were left more naturally shaped and glowed hues of pink, blue, and purple in the early evening suns. Silver filigree warped each crystal helping them stay erect and around their base were delicate roses carved from pearls, opals, and other precious stones. She even saw purple crystal beads strung together to look like springs of lavender tucked among the garden of carved jewels that the kybers appears to be sprouting from.

"These kybers come from each corner of your Empire," Ben started, holding the crown down so that she could get a closer look at it. "The worlds of Christophsis, Ilum, Jedha, Lothal, and Mygeeto are honored for their crystals to sit upon their Empress' head."

Reaching out, Rey felt the power of each planet swirling within the kybers and for a moment she almost felt small and unworthy to be bestowed such sovereignty. Sensing her wavering confidence, Ben caught her gaze and held conviction in his expression, "Our people will love you just as I do."

Lowing her hand back to her side and nodding with her lips tight in determination, Rey looked up at her husband, her Emperor, and through their bond showed him that she was ready for the final commitment to him, to the Force.

"Will you solemnly promise and swear to lead the people of our Empire, according to the laws set at the hands of the Emperor and Empress and with guidance through the Force?"

As if her mind had always known the words, Rey spoke, "I solemnly promise so to do."

"Will you use your power within the Force to uphold law and justice, in mercy, to be executed in all your judgments?"

"I will."

"Will you uphold your vows made earlier this day to your Emperor, forsaking all others, and be his equal, his counsel, and the Light that he will be pulled to til the end of his reign?"

"Always," Rey said almost in a loving coo.

Four hundred and eighty-seven days ago aboard the Supremacy Kylo Ren asked Rey to join him, to stay, but she had not. Many nights he lay awake wondering if she had stayed would their relationship, their love be as it became, or would his hastiness have caused her to hate him.

Their time apart and then their gradual time together has allowed them to grow, Ben as a man and sovereign and Rey within herself and the Force. Instead of growing distant, they flourished under the tender care of their love for one another and the ever guiding hand of the Force.

So after almost a year and a half since leaving each other bleeding and broken on Crait, Ben placed the crown upon his wife's, his Empress' head. He observed her eyes closed as the cool metal was set upon her quaffed hair, but not because the weight was too much or uncomfortable, but because she was connecting to the kybers that steeped in her Light and would shine with her benevolence until the end of days.

"Rise Rey, Empress of the People, Protector of the Light, and Wielder of Balance, Mistress of the Knights of Ren, equal only to her beloved, Emperor Ren of the New Order."

As he spoke, Ben extended his hand again, but this time it was his left and Rey did the same, letting the brilliant wedding rings slide together with a solidifying click. The air around them seemed to pulse as if time itself had been waiting for this moment when everything in the galaxy would finally be as it should.

Since opening her eyes at the end of his speech, their gaze had not broken and now that she stood before him, Rey gave him a coy smile, "So you have achieved the unthinkable." When his brows pinched together she took her hand from his grasp and placed it upon the right side of his face, her rings felt like a balm to his scarred skin. "I have fallen in love with you, married you, and been crowned your Empress."

Ben couldn't help the satisfied smile that creased his cheeks. "The journey to this point has been indeed…invigorating," he quipped back.

"Yes," her pupils dilated. "It has, but what are you to do with me now, Emperor," she bit her lip, "Now that you have everything you have ever wanted?" At the end of her question, Rey's long lashes fluttered for just a moment as she dipped into a shallow curtsey.

Catching under her chin with his fingers, Ben brought her gaze back up to hers and his dark eyes burned for her, "You bow down to no one, especially not to me." As she stood tall again, Ben sank to his knees upon the tufted bench that still sat between them. He wanted to show his guards, his Knights, the trusted circle of people that he knew would keep his wife safe, that it was she that sat at the center of his universe. It was Rey who was all of their salvation and she was to be honored, protected, worshiped, be the beacon of hope and Light that was her destiny.

All around them the six others also sank down to one knee, each dipping lower than their Emperor in a gesture of homage and loyalty to the Empress.

Even with him kneeling, Ben was just a few inches shorter than Rey and she took advantage of this by gripping the sides of his face and bringing him in for a searing kiss. On instinct Ben wrapped his arms around her back, cupping at her hip and rear.

Cale was the first to raise his gaze from the stone floor of the temple and upon seeing his Masters locked together in an intimate embrace, he nudged the Knight next to him, "I think that is our cue to give them some privacy."

The newlyweds barely gave any notice to the footfalls exiting the temple, too enraptured with each other, as if they created their own forcefield to block the outside world from interrupting even a moment of their bliss.

As Rey raked her fingers through Ben's hair, one of the obsidian thorns of his crown caught her finger and she pulled away from him with a sharp inhale of breath. Still knelt before her, he captured her wrist and inspected the injured finger, one crimson droplet gathering on her pale skin.

"Blood of my blood," Ben whispered as he pressed a kiss to her finger, gathering her life source upon his full lips, tinting them an even darker shade of pink than they naturally held. The almost feral growl that sounded in the hollow of Rey's chest shocked him just as much as her lips hungrily moving against his again.

The tang of copper spread across both their tongues, but as they parted Rey gave his lips one more lick to clean them of not only her blood but also perhaps the countless other's that he had spilled in his dark days. Her gaze was hooded but true when Rey reached up and carefully removed the crown from Ben's head, setting it in the still open case at their feet.

Next, she removed her own crown, resting it next to the Emperor's, thrones tanged with roses, the perfect balance of pain and pleasure, their sorted pasts and their bright future kept safe in a case as gray as they were in the Force.

Turning her attention back to Ben, Rey ran her hand back along her mark across his face and through his hair, "I don't need an Emperor…I just need my husband. I will always only need you."

He groaned in pained frustration and he wished there was some spell within the Force that would leave them unclothes and seated together in the quickest manner possible, even though he was wearing enough layers that he was sure to go mad with lust before Rey could even lay a single warm hand upon his flesh. But he would try none the less and with a quick flick of his fingers, the clasp of his cape was open and he shrugged the heavy fabric off his shoulders. All the while his lovely wife worked at his coat and it too was soon on the glistening store floor.

Rey was no stranger to his dark tunics and to both of their reliefs, his chest was bare in what appeared to be less than a minute. With another joined assault on the other's lips and as Rey's small but determined hands roamed over his shoulders and back, they seemed to radiate heat into the large cavern, and Ben finally moved his hands under her skirts enough to cup the rear of her thighs and bring her to be wrapped around his torso as he stood.

The train of the dress still touched the floor as he carefully walked forward, needing some leverage before he went about lavishing the pale skin of her neck. When her back came to rest against the temple wall, Rey whimpered with need and Ben wished to never deny her any desire for the rest of their days.

With an intentional grip, Rey pulled at his hair and tipped his chin up slightly so that she could lick along the cords of his neck, tasting the sharpness of his cologne mixed with his natural musk and groaning at the way her body reacted to him. "Need you…what you…" she panted into his ear as she took the lobe between her teeth and pulled.

This time he growled lowly at her as he frantically looked around for a ledge of some kind that he could use to prop her against just long enough to free his straining erection from the black dress pants. The settings suns shining through the opening in the temple wall was like a sign from the Maker and Ben moved towards the precipice. The chilled ocean breeze was almost welcome on their heated skin and in a few striding steps Ben was draping his bride over the rock that sat at the pinnacle of the ledge.

Finally releasing him, Rey laid back across the meditation rock and just like she had, what seemed like in another life, she splayed her fingers along the rough texture and closed her eyes, reaching out with the Force and feeling the complete balance of the island. "Do you feel it?" Rey asked as she opened her hooded eyes to look up at her husband.

"I do," Ben said as he placed a kiss against the inside of her calf.

Crooking her finger at him, Rey needed Ben's lips back on hers and he settled his hips into the cradle of her thighs as he was helpless to oblige. They kissed for a long moment, all tongue and teeth, Rey seeming almost desperate to draw a drop of his blood as hers had been drawn.

When they were both panting and in need of air, Ben worked his way back down her neck and nibbled at her lace covered collar bone. "Want to feel you," he muffled into her neck.

"Yes," she almost hissed with the perfect mix of soft lace and sharp teeth against her skin.

Ben lifted his foot at the same time that his hand reached down and he pulled the blade from the cuff of his boot. The simple flip-out knife had been a gift from his father on his sixteenth birthday. His mother had forbidden Ben from constructing a lightsaber, but his scrappy father thought that every man should have a means of protection.

At the time Ben had scoffed, thinking back to the time during his first year at boarding school where the prince from Pavia had questioned Ben's royal birth right, which had not angered him much, but the comment about how his mother was a whore for low hanging fruit was what sent him into a rage. He had thrown the prince through a window without laying a single hand upon his physical body.

From that day forth, no one at school bothered him, which unfortunately perpetuated his loneliness, he was a Skywalker-Organa-Solo…he was meant for greater things than friends, or Maker forbid a girlfriend. None the less, his father said that every young man needed a blade, whether made of plasma or Mandalorian steel.

So now feeling the warm steel in his grip, Ben would suffer dozens of disappointing birthdays, thousands of times watching Han trot up the ramp of the Falcon without looking back at his son who waved helplessly on the tarmac, and countless lonely night while his mother was out driving the galaxy into ruin, one vote at a time…he would live a hundred sorted childhoods just to always end up under the loving gaze of his Rey of light.

With a roll of his thumb, the dark blade flicked out and if Rey was shocked, there was no evidence of it on her face. "Hold very still," he commanded and he smirked when her chest started to heave more drastically. Gripping the pleats of lace at the base of her breast bone he pulled the bodice of the dress away from her skin just enough to easily pierce the gauzy fabric.

Rey sucked in a breath when she felt cool steel against her stomach and she almost wanted to beg him to flay her open and take her heart because it would always belong to him. Her chest almost quivered as she attempted to calm her breaths and at a slow and agonizing pace, Ben started to move the knife up her sternum.

Not only could she feel, but also hear each delicately woven thread give way and crystal beads popped around her, falling from the cliffs and to be forever lost to the dark sea that raged below them. As he reached the center of her chest, Rey tipped her chin up giving him access to the high collar of the dress.

Feeling the blade ghost along her throat she almost wished that he would mark her as she had made him. Perhaps not with a scar that would bisect her face, but a physical manifestation of their belonging, their bond, a mated mark. When the final stitch was broken, she keened for his touch, but he just leaned back and single-handedly twisted the blade into the handle and slid it back into his boot.

"Husband," she pleaded softly, helpless to try rubbing her thighs together and bite at her lip.

This got Ben's undivided attention and he was once again pressed against her, his large hands running up the sides of her ribs as his thumbs ghosted over her pebbled nipples. His palms traveled all the way up until they were pressed on each side of her throat before he let them drift under the now splayed lace of the dress.

She arched up into his touch and rolled her hips, groaning when instead of rubbing up against his hard length, she was met with the softness of billows of her dress. "Wife," he replied back into the pulse point just under her ear.

Rey found his lips again and to her blessing, Ben moved his right hand away from her chest and run it up her leg, gathering her dress on the way and when he reached the apex of her legs, her cursed, "Fuck Rey," when he was met by only her glistening folds.

Dragging his teeth along her jaw again, he dipped two fingers into her waiting heat and she breathed out her own curse or maybe it was a prayer, but he knew without a doubt that she would strangle him with the Force if he were to stop now. Normally he would take his time, bring her to a quaking peak with his mouth or fingers first, but she was yearningly ready for him as her slick gathered in his palm.

Unfastening his trousers with his left hand was awkward and the extra seconds had Rey reaching up to assist him when the trusting tempo of his fingers faltered. Her chilled hand was wrapped around his hot and ramrod hard flesh as soon as he was within reach and Ben hissed at the contrast, but he timed his fingers with each pump of her fist as he lay wet open mouth kisses upon her breastbone.

"Sweetheart," he panted.

"Please," she replied.

As seamlessly as possible, Ben pulled his hand away from her long enough to coat himself in her slick before he was diving into her up to the hilt. Their skin slapped together and they both whimpered with the connection.

Time seemed to slow down and it wasn't just the physical joining of their bodies, it was the way the jagged edges of their souls clicked into place and their very essence, all soothing cyanine and provoked crimson swirled, blending into a brilliant violet that painted the sky behind the pair of setting suns.

It was as if the foundation of the temple, the foundation of the Prime Jedi, half Light and half Dark, existing and drawing power and guidance from both sides of the Force, flowed through them purely and without judgment. They were two parts of a whole that were bound completely and everlasting.

All of this passed between them, through them, to and from the balance in the Force that the island held, in mere seconds as they both gasped for breath. "Incredible," Ben remarked, just as awestruck by the feeling he doubted any other soul had ever experienced, as he was by the flushed and wanton woman under him.

His fingers lingered on her chest as her nails dug into the flexing muscles of his abdomen, unsure if they were asking for a reprieve or begging for their partner to move. Both of them were answered when Rey rolled her hips and Ben pivoted forward at the same time, creating friction so deep that it became unclear where each of them started and ended.

Rey's head tipped back, hanging off the edge of the rock and she basked in the light of Ahch-To's suns as her husband started to move within her. His hands gripped at flesh and lace, a warm throat and a quivering thigh as her pleasure filled cries mixed with those of the porgs that were once more coming home to roost upon the sides of the cliffs below.

While this joining was not their most romantic or tender, both still half clothed, her dress in ruins and his pants bunched around his knees, it was fueled by the purest of passions. It was as if she had been fighting her whole life against this moment and was unable to fathom why. In his darkest time, Ben dreamed of this, not fucking his wife in the first Jedi temple, but being loved and accepted fully by someone who shone more brilliantly than the brightest star in their galaxy.

So for them, this raw rushed, and almost ruthless lovemaking was perfect. They would have the rest of time to move slowly, whisper affirmations into the other's skin, and peak with hushed whimpers and sighs, but at what felt like the climax of their existence, there was only heat and a driving need of vindication.

As Ben ran his thumb along her lower lip, Rey tilted her head up, taking the digit within her mouth sucking on it before biting down when he started rhythmically stroking the spot deep within her that made sparks fly from behind her eyelids. His other hand was tucked within the cut lace, gripping her breast or shoulder to keep her from sliding off the rock platform with each of his brutal thrusts.

Licking the pad of his thumb once more, Rey eased up her jaw so that she could start panting his name and begging him not to stop. Her body felt alight, thinking that perhaps steam could be seen rising from her heated flesh and up into the rapidly cooling dusk air. Ben's face was beaded with sweat and some of his dark locks stuck to his forehead, but he showed no evidence of fatigue, keeping pace as he started to hear her breaths coming in sucking gasps.

The smaller of the two suns was already overtaken by the deep sea and the larger, brighter star blazed and cast them both in orange light. Ben could feel his beloved start to quake, quickly rushing for her peak, and he was always amazed at how his body was so eager to follow.

Just as the latent sun touched the horizon, Rey's body constricted and a slur of cries and breathless gulps rack her throat. A warmth set deep in his gut at the pride of bringing his bride to such heights, but he also felt his body start to chase her pleasure. His cock was being squeezed so tight that it was almost painful to move, but he was helpless but to continue his thrusts.

Finally when her inner walls started to flutter, pulsing and pulling did Ben tip over into ecstasy with Rey.

They were not strangers to the intense feeling of falling into bliss together, consistently endeavoring to never leave the other wanting, but there was a noted distinction to this moment as their bodies stilled before their hearts and lungs started to work in tandem.

The first time Rey had rested upon this precipice, engaged in the meager and seemingly conflicting lessons of the Force from Luke, Rey had reached for the Darkness when it called, the stone ledge had cracked and the unbridled power she showed scared the old Jedi. But now instead of feeling as if the world was crumbling around them, it was as if what was once broke was now mended.

Long after the waves of pleasure ceased to crash within them, there remained the feeling of healing, hope, and renewal. It was as if everything they had been fighting for, working towards, living for, was finally coming to fruition.

Both of their expression were slack with wonder, having the sensation as if they were being graced with a second awakening, seeing beyond sight, shrouded by a Light that neither would ever be able to put words to, but also would never be able to forget the feeling of.

Tears started to slide from her eyes, even though she was unable to place the exact emotion that was causing them. She was elated, eager, and sated, while also being nervous, apprehensive, and downright terrified of what this new power meant.

"Don't be scared," Ben whispered down to her, catching her tears with his fingertips.

"Do you feel it too?" She searched his large dark eyes and was desperate for understanding, to know that this new Light, this new Force, was something they shared.

He smiled and stroked her cheek again, "Yes Rey. It's the beginning…the belonging…the balance…the Force."

She swallowed thickly and nodded, tears now being held at bay. "Yes," she said not only to him but also to convince herself, even though she felt within her very being that there was something much bigger and life-altering at work here.

Seeing Rey start to shiver now that the moon was providing more light than the rapidly dipping sun, Ben pulled free of her, righting his pants before lowing the skirt of her dress back over her legs. "Come," he held out his hand and smiled when she quickly slid her fingers against his palm.

They walked back into the temple and he picked up his cape, placing it around her shoulders, proving some warmth but also some modesty from the cut bodice of her dress. He pulled on his tunic and handed his coat to Rey as well, watching her hold is close to her chest and inhale the smell of him.

Lastly, he gathered the chest that held both their crowns, closing the lid and snapping the latch, he thought about the next time she would wear the jewels would be when she was presented to the galaxy as his wife and their Empress. He buzzed with pride and ever in awe of her.

The walk down to the small stone huts was quiet, the bliss of their union, both in matrimony and also intimately, hung between them. Rey still had an inkling that the Force was trying to tell her something, something that Ben was not yet privy to and it made her feel both special and alone in equal measures.

Feeling the foreign weight on her left hand, Rey looked down and inspected the gold and stone that encircled her finger. "Tell me about our rings," Rey asked, knowing there was more behind them than just his kyber.

Ben reached out and grasped her left hand, running the pad of his thumb over her bands. "My mother's ring that you brought to me after she died," he heard her small gasp and stopped his forward motion, setting down the case so that he could lay both his hands upon her. "That was when you came to me, not to save me but to love me, which saved me all the same. That was when we first made love, when I knew that this day would come."

Tears were back in her eyes again and he kissed each of her cheeks before she looked down at the rings, the glowing kyber causing the other stones to shift with pearlescent colors. "The nebula opal," she mused.

"Yes," he lovingly smiled down at her. "I had pieces of the stone reset into the same gold," he twisted his ring around his finger, still amazed at Malkolm's craftsmanship, how he was able to so seamlessly meld the raw edges of the stones with the dark gold. "The rest of the opal was ground into dust and return to its people."

Rey remember Ben saying that the ring was part of the Alderaan crown jewels and when they had flown to the edge of sector M10 and he showed her his Kingdom of nothing but stardust, she found it fitting that not only was he returning a part of history, but also a piece of his mother to their rightful place. To Ben, it had been a welcomed closure, a burial for the mother that he never got to say 'good-bye' to.

Touching his face in the loving way that only she could, Rey expressed her approval wordlessly and he bent to kiss her upturned lips. "She's at peace…" he exhaled. "I saw my mother in the Force and she's at peace."

With a shocked and almost anxious expression, Rey gripped at his tunic, "Luke…your father?" She asked frantically, searching his face for reassurance that there was serenity in the beyond for all those they have lost.

"They are together," he answered before looking down at her hands that were still fisted in his shirt and he snorted a laugh. "Fighting as only Skywalkers can, but they are together."

Rey visibly relaxed her posture, relieved by the news and almost felt that their passings may not have been in vain if only in death could they be a family again.

"Padmé likes you," he cooed down at her.

"She does?" Rey asked in wonder.

"I told you she would." Ben smiled down at her again, kissed her lips and then started their walk back down to the village.

He kept his mother's warning to himself, not wanting to upset Rey on their wedding night. Tucking the small blip of foreboding behind the walls of overconfidence, sheer power, and desire to keep her safe, Ben listened to his bride prattle on about how she always felt that she would be dear friends with his grandmother and she wondered if Padmé was anything like Irris before coming to the conclusion that the galaxy would be unable to handle two women like his cousin, even if they lived generations apart.

Beyond any vow that he made that day under the watchful eye of the Prime Jedi and the Gray Force, he would move worlds to ensure that his bright and joyful girl would never again know hardships, that he would work tirelessly to ensure her happiness, and that he would love her til his dying breath and then into the beyond.

AN: I don't even know what to say here...I know what I have to do but I don't know if I have the strength.

Will you all help me?