Rey

The guards were brutal fighters. They forced themselves into every opening she left for them and jabbed at her with twisted, razor-sharp blades, laser-imbued whips and long, spear-tipped staffs that might have been scythes or axes. She already had a nasty cut on her right arm with droplets of blood flying from it every time she swung around. But she couldn't feel the pain – too much adrenaline for that. Her training had served her well, she'd already cut down two guards and was locked in combat with her final opponent. But she was drained, the guards had been outmatched by her skill and speed but they had had numbers on their side, and it was telling.

The guard she was facing had manged to lock her lightsaber in an awkward position with his intricate, cortosis-forged weapon, slowly melting under the heat from the lightsaber but not fast enough to allow Rey to yank it free. She was trapped, and the guard was forcing himself closer to her, soon he would be able to strike at her face with his free hand. Calm. Feel. Reach out.

The solution came to her at once. Gripping the hilt of her lightsaber she pressed her thumb down and in an instant the blue blade vanished. The guard stumbled as the lock he'd held the saber in gave way to nothing. Rey let go of the hilt. Dropped herself to the floor. Feet from the floor she grabbed the saber hilt, pressed down, a brilliant sword of blue erupted forth. She spun round on the ground, slicing through the guard's lower legs. Maintaining her motion she spiralled round, rose up, and gave another swing of her blade at the guard this time slicing through his neck. The stunned guard fell backwards and disappeared into the abyss between the floor and the wall of the throne room.

Rey spun round, as she'd fought her last guard she'd been dimly aware of a disturbance, a constriction, though not of her own body. Turning, she saw Ben on the other side of the room, he was on his knees, the guard behind chocking him mercilessly. Rey deactivated her lightsaber and flung it towards him.

"BEN!" she yelled.

The hilt sailed over to him in an arc, reaching out he caught it one handed. The saber ignited. Erupted into the head of the guard chocking him and out the other side. Ben closed off the blade and the guard dropped, a charred black crater smoking from either side of his helm where his eye socket ought to have been. Ben gasped for breath. Rey ran over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. Almost reflexively his own hand went up and held the back of hers, even as he lay coughing and gasping for oxygen. Slowly he looked up at her. His deep dark eyes stared up into her own. His long black hair was soaked in sweat, dripping down into his face. She moved her hand from his shoulder and held it out to him, mirroring their positions at the start of the battle.

Before reaching up he pulled the black leather glove from his hand, let it drop to the floor. Slowly he opened his hand and grasped her own. For a moment they stood, gazing at each other. An electricity seemed to pass through Rey's body, a pulse that set goose bumps all over her body and chills deep down her spine. It was the same as when they had touched hands in the hut, except now there bond was reinforced with blood and fire. All around them the throne room barely stood, engulfed in flames, the floor deeply scarred and cracked and littered with hacked corpses.

Ben stood over her, a head higher, staring down. His face was inches from her own, she reached up and gently ran a finger across his face, tracing the scar she had given him in the woods on Starkiller base. She remembered his blood on the snow. His hand came up, large enough to cover one side of her head. His fingers were warm against her cheek. She stared into the deep black eyes, he looked nervous, unsure. Slowly their faces came together. Rey looked down at his big, rouge lips. They met her own. He was warm and moist, the sweat from his face mingled with that on hers. His hand gripped one side of her face gently and hers ran through his long, black locks. Time stopped. An age could've passed before they finally broke apart. Something in Rey's heart told her this was right, she'd never been more sure of anything.

They broke apart and regarded each other once again. Ben's hand went down from her face and he finally turned away, looking over at the great throne. He walked over to it, Rey felt his hand caress her own as he let it slide from her grasp. It made her feel oddly sad.

Ben was drawn over to the supreme leader, whose head and torso lay lifeless on the ground, the rest of his body in several pieces still lounging on his throne. Rey watched Ben staring down in disbelief at his old Master, as though checking he were actually dead. At the same moment she glanced over at the looking-glass where Snoke had shown her the resistance fleeing and being picked off like sitting ducks. She ran over to it. For a moment it was clear and then a flash of green and an explosion burst across the glass. The attack was still occurring, this wasn't over.

"The resistance!" she said suddenly, turning away from the looking-glass to look at Ben. "We have to save them, order your men to stop firing."

He slowly turned to her, looking triumphant now as he stood over Snoke's remains. Then his face changed, conflicted, as though registering that she'd spoken but not comprehending the words.

"Ben! We need to help them, they're being slaughtered we have to act now!" she repeated. What was wrong with him?

His eyes found hers and finally he spoke.

"Let the past die."

Rey stood staring. Now she was the one who didn't understand.

"All of it," he continued. "The resistance, the Jedi, Skywalker. Let them all die."

"Don't do this Ben," the words came to her unthinking, she was shaking her head in denial.

"No….No! You're still holding ON, let go!"

Rey took a step back as he lost the composure in his voice.

"Always clinging on to the past so hard, holding on to your parents. But you know, don't you? You've always known. Say it. Tell me who your parents were," he said it so casually but the words were knives to Rey's heart. Tears swelled in her eyes, she was strong, she was tough but he couldn't do this to her, it was too much.

"They were no one."

Her voice broke as the words came pouring from her mouth, tears running down her cheeks.

"Exactly. Filthy junk traders who sold you for drinking money, dead in a pauper's grave in the Jakku desert. You were nothing to them Rey," the words smacked her like a punch in the stomach, it was too much to hear him tell her the truth she'd always known in her heart so thoughtlessly. "You have no place in this story Rey. You come from nothing. You're nothing."

He paused, the silence pressed in on her, tears still swam in her eyes but he waited until she looked up at him again before adding: "But not to me."

Her heart thumped faster in her chest. The carnage still surrounded them, standing before the semi-occupied throne. His arm extended towards her and he opened a gloved hand.

"Join me," he said, simply.

The flames around the room glistened off the black onyx and danced in his deep, black eyes, bathing half of his face in bright orange light. When they were together Rey had felt undefeatable, elated, Queen of the Galaxy. Now that was exactly what he offered her. The Force had meant for them to be together, abhorred by conflict between them it had cracked Starkiller base asunder to stop them fighting. Surely this was the way forward.

"Please…"

She knew what this meant to him, she could hear the plea in his voice. He wanted this badly, he needed her to take his hand. He was suddenly Ben Solo again, not the fierce warrior with the crucifix blade but the frightened little boy who's Master had turned on him, whose family had abandoned him. All he needed was someone who understood him, someone to tell him he wasn't alone. Rey looked down at his open hand, the gloved hand, the ungloved one that had held her face so gently was down at his side. She made her choice. She reached out.

The lightsaber hilt sprung forth from his belt at once. "NO!" he cried, reaching forward with his already extended arm. The lightsaber came to a stop mid-air, directly in between them. Rey was already grasping it with the Force but it wouldn't move any closer to her, she stared fiercely at it, willing it towards her with all her might. She could hear Kylo Ren struggling too, trying desperately to pull the weapon back towards him, his gloved fingers clawing at the air, his arm tensed.

The stalemate went on and on but neither could let go, the galaxy depended on it. The metal began to emit a terrible grinding, screeching sound. White-blue light erupted ferociously from the hilt, but not as a perfect blade of energy instead streaming from cracks all around the metal. There was a blinding white explosion, Rey's ears rang as she was hauled off the ground, the air slamming out of her, feeling as though she had smacked into a concrete wall. The ground rushed up to meet her back and skull. Everything went black.