The great tomb of Exegol had grown unsettlingly still, as silent as a grave should be.

As he had been scrambling his way back up the crevasse that Palpatine had flung him into, Ben Solo had felt the strongest surge in the Force that had ever graced his body and mind.

Something had happened above him and he couldn't climb fast enough to see if any of the conclusions swirling in his rattled head had indeed come to pass. For there wasn't any rushing in the Force anymore just out of sight; not the collection of black hate that had been Palpatine, nor the storm of conflict that had been Rey.

There was nothing, and that was a frightening thing indeed.

Finally, his gloved hand slammed on the edge of the pit he had fallen down at the behest of the dark power he and Rey had been previously powerless to stop. With a great effort and a gasp of pain, he pulled himself back into the cavernous room that stretched around him like the never-ending maw of an Exogorth though one quite larger than any Ben had ever seen while scouring the universe for then Luke Skywalker and more recently, the newly revived Darth Sidious. But now, while it still encompassed him, there were great chunks ripped from the roof thousands of feet above him that now littered the ancient floor around him from pieces the size of astromech droids to ones further away the size of Corellian cruisers. He sensed the emptiness behind him, indicating the seemingly endless horde of Sith worshippers who had borne witness to their battle of wills had either vanished or perished following whatever cataclysmic event had just transpired.

But Ben hadn't a concern in the world for any of those hooded figures. Nor did he spare much of a thought for the fighters that he knew must still be above him in atmosphere, Star Destroyers versus the Resistance's fleet and whatever else those stubborn fools had managed to conjure up through pleas that echoed of hope and finality. He hardly even thought of Palpatine who no longer stood before the cracked and broken throne in front of him.

His eyes and feelings only extended to the young woman who lay on the ground just ahead of him.

A young woman he could no longer feel in the Force.

With a bout of panic blossoming within, Ben attempted to run to her before finding that a very possibly broken leg was not going to let him move with such speed. The pain of it burned incredibly and he had to reach through the Force to steady himself and hold his balance as he limped his way over to where he had stood not minutes ago.

Please… after everything, don't let it end like this.

Whatever that was that Palpatine had been, whatever resurrected tidal wave of dark side energy had struck at him and Rey had disappeared from any perception he had, and he knew that she must have done it. How she had done it, he didn't know.

How could she have? How could she have even come close?

But he knew the answer as he collapsed next to her battered form and pulled her to him, cradling her head in his arms. The warmth he felt from her body seemed no more than an echo of life and the eyes that looked up at him, blank and empty made this infinitely more apparent.

Rey was dead. She had died doing what he could not, what he should have tried long before this day.

Emotions began to wisp and swirl about him, gathering in the Force as manifestations of his will. Ben shook with denial, anger and fear as the ground quaked around him; denial that everything he had come to accept had been for nothing, anger that despite having known, having KNOWN, what they were doing was right, she was still dead and an overwhelming fear as he refused to consider what would come now that she was…

"I WON'T!"

Bearer of his will, the Force blasted away from him, repulsing everything within a hundred foot radius of his mourning, from the largest pieces of destroyed Sith architecture to the barest dust particles that still drifted lazily towards the floor. He barely noticed this as tears clouded his vision. The Force was cruel, truly, granting him the light to see clearly what had been before him all along, only to then snatch away the very catalyst of that return to the same light. Despair flooded him then and he became what he was at his core, a broken and defeated young man who had nothing to hold onto now; his parents had left him, the Force mocked him and the girl who had done everything to restore him was gone.

As grief began to disassemble his mind, however, he DID feel something. Something that wasn't his own personal typhoon of misery. Through the Force, impossible though it was, he sensed… her.

As a child might, he looked up and spun around wildly, his dark hair whipping about as he looked for the nature of this presence. Rey was with him? How could she be? The only thing he had of her was her body, a tortured husk of determination and good. But he knew this was real, he had sensed this too many times to even consider otherwise. It was oh so faint, but it was Rey.

He knew then, with all the clarity of a sunrise on a cloudless morning. And he knew what he had to do.

Pressing a hand against her side just as she had to him on the gnarled skeleton of the second Death Star, he inhaled, and as he inhaled, he pulled from everything he could possibly reach in the Force. He didn't distinguish between Dark and Light, whether it was a deep basin of energy or nothing more than a thread of power left behind thousands of years ago; everything within his grasp, Ben gripped and pulled to him like a tractor beam.

But he didn't hold it. He used his body as a conductor for this energy, letting it flow into him and then out just as quickly. He directed the Force with more will than he had ever used in his entire life, and when the Force had nothing left to give, he bestowed his own energy, everything he had to give. A great pressure seemed to be building within him as though his body were about to implode and collapse upon itself. He remembered how much it had cost Rey to heal him those days ago of the wound inflicted with his own lightsaber. There was nothing to allow validity to the assumption that what he was attempting was even possible; despite years of research into all the chasms of ancient dark side teachings, nothing he had read even came close to insinuating what he was attempting. Deep down, he knew what he was doing was impossible.

He was going to do it anyway.

'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

This must have been the peace that Luke had felt when he had passed into the Force. As Rey felt as though she were drifting off to sleep, there was a great ease that came with every solitary moment of her being. Her physicality now seemed properly abstract, as though it had never been to begin with, and every thought she had was nothing short of calm.

We did it… he's gone. The Emperor is gone.

She seemed to be drifting gently through a very powerful light, but it wasn't blinding like looking directly at a star. It rather felt cleansing and pure, a feeling she wish could remain forever.

She thought to her friends, what Finn would think, what Poe would say, how Chewie and BB-8 would feel with her passing. Sadness, she supposed, just as she had felt when Han, or Luke, or Leia had moved on. Pain surely, she was no stranger to that awful feeling of losing someone close. She offered one final request to the Force before it took her, that they would know she had died halting this terribly strong evil from plaguing the galaxy any longer, that she had done it to protect them and ensure their safety. This was her hope.

And maybe this way… I can see Ben again.

Rey believed that since she was beyond feeling anything physical, this was why she only felt like what was a smile. Then, for the first time since she had begun drifting, she felt unease.

Ben?

In those climactic and unstoppably intense moments, she had seen through her blurry gaze that Ben had been flung down one of the pits that had opened within the Exegul temple. And while she had drawn on the power of the Jedi before her to guide her strength and aid her in defeating her grandfather, she hadn't even noticed that she had felt nothing.

Nothing at all at the passing of the person she had rapidly found was the most important in her life.

Ben!

She cried out in the Force, hoping to feel him, to be granted some sort of assurance that he was waiting for her, but a terrifying nothing remained. Rey began struggling against the peace she had only recently been embracing, feeling as though she were in a dream she couldn't wake from. Though no tears came from this luminous form, she felt them as she had felt the smile. The peace of the Force surrounded her, but she was no longer one with it.

She didn't want to be one with it.

Then, as if summoned by her very fear and discomfort, a lance of chaotic energy exploded through her reality. The light became a sway of tones and feelings, overpowered rapidly by this thrust into the Force. Rey reached into it without any hesitation and recoiled at the power of what she felt. Despair, anger and fear twisted around this spike in the Force, culminating in a violent point that seemed to pass through both her and Force. And at the very center of it, was sheer will. Will that knocked aside everything in its path to reach her, will that shouted of denial and frustration.

Will that seemed to overpower the Force itself.

Rey felt a great rush as though she had been pulled into a whirlpool that was sucking her into one of the great sinkholes like the ones she had seen on Malastare and Utapau. She was moving all too quickly, as though a great deal of time was being rewound in her mind and she screamed silently for it to stop before…

"Ben?"

She was no longer drifting. No longer floating away. Now she was aware of every bruise, cut, every punishment she had been dealt in her fight with Palpatine. She felt the cold and emptiness of the yawning grave within the Exegol temple. The breathing her body as she sucked ancient air in and out. Her hand that had moved on its own to grip the gloved one on her side.

And the face above her.

Rey had spoken his name seemingly without even knowing it; she heard her voice echoing around them rather than the spoken name. She watched as the annunciation of his birth name broke the face of the once monstrous Kylo Ren and he became exactly who she had just asked for. He had brought her back from the edge, somehow, through some miracle of the Force that she would never have imagined possible. Ben had achieved it, for her.

The Force urged her desires and she reached out to caress his bloodied face. The streaks of tears that left clear tracks in the dust and dirt of his face sent the most awful, beautiful pang through her now beating heart and as it pounded a roaring tattoo against her chest, she moved to meet him as he had surely been feeling the same.

It was the best kind of kiss, one that may have been a bit clumsy and looked somewhat awkward to anyone who might have happened to seen it, but for Rey, it couldn't have been further from her mind. This was her victory, and Ben's; the defeat of the Emperor had merely been prelude. This was their culmination, what they both had felt coming for the longest time, but had never truly acknowledged. Love, in its purest form, sealed their bond through the Force.

He pulled away gently and spoke at just barely a whisper.

"Rey… "

She smiled at him as strongly as she ever had, but as he pulled away, she felt something else too. Some great tremor as though something was slipping away. And as Ben's grip loosened and he moved away from her, she realized what it meant.

"No, no, NO!"

He had already fallen away from him and their positions had now reversed, her holding him as she felt him slip away, not in her grip, but in the Force. Rey yelled in fear and tried to draw on the immense power that had aided her in defeating Palpatine, but it was nowhere to be found. Even her own power seemed drained and incapable of returning to her in any measured way.

"Ben, you can't leave us, you can't leave ME, not now… " Rey resorted to begging as she realized she had nothing else. She pressed her lips to his forehead and hurled a silent, furious prayer to the Force that it wouldn't do this to her.

How could it bring her back and rob her like this?

But as she felt the final vestige of life from Ben Solo rush away from her, she let out a wail, just barely willing to accept that perhaps the way of the Force truly could be this uncaring.

'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

Ben Solo stood between worlds.

Or that's how he perceived it anyway.

He seemed to be standing on nothing, surrounded by nothing and looking into what could have been a scene from a holofilm. It was beneath him and yet behind him. Or perhaps that was just how it felt to him in this odd plane of existence.

Rey was there, holding his body and sobbing over it and Ben found himself wanting nothing more than to rush at the scene and reassure her that everything was fine, that he had never left. The Force told him otherwise though and he unclenched the furious fists that had formed at his side. He had made the choice to bring Rey back and he was now understanding the true cost. She truly had meant everything to him there at the end and so it had cost everything to bring her back.

Even himself.

It hurt, badly, to know that this was how it had to be, that in the end, only one of them could have walked from the Emperor's chamber; he cursed the Force and lowered his head. If possible, he didn't want to watch anymore. The memory of her kiss and the murmuring of his name would have to be enough for him before he went… on.

"You don't have to, you know."

The sound of another voice was enough to startle Ben into an old defensive stance that had become nothing short of instinct for him. He spun on his feel, bending his knees slightly and reaching for a lightsaber that wasn't there. He didn't know what or who he had expected to see, whether some villain or otherwise, he hadn't even considered that attacking a being of a higher plane then the one he had come from would be pointless.

But when he saw who had spoken, he found shock would have numbed him into near paralysis anyway.

He recognized the old Jedi robes from the holocrons he had studied under Snoke for years; the man who stood just a couple meters away was tall, broad-shouldered and with a mane of brown hair that was handsomely untidy. A scar over his right eye put the contrast of his easygoing smile into full effect. He stood straight and calmly, with hands clasped at his front, lightsaber absent from his side.

The Force whispered a name and Ben knew this to be Anakin Skywalker.

He found himself unable to say anything, but this didn't seem to bother the spectral image of his grandfather whose smile widened. He paced forward and to the side slightly, seeming marvelously at ease.

"I suppose it is your right though, if you want to move on. You've definitely earned it."

Words finally found Ben and the infinite number of questions that spun chaotically in his head chucked one out of his mouth unceremoniously, "What does… this mean?"

Anakin laughed, an unmistakably pure sound. "You did it. You came back. It doesn't happen with everyone who takes the path we did, actually, it's exceptionally rare. But you've earned the right." He gestured and smiled again.

Ben found himself feeling the burning sensation of tears and resentment pulled the words from his mouth. "I called for you. So… MANY times. My parents and Luke and everyone always said the good in you had come back, but Snoke said that Vader was still in the Force. So why… in all those years, didn't you say ANYTHING?"

The last word of his question broke pitifully off and he swallowed down what might have been a sob of his own. Anakin's smile faded at the edges and he looked down. Slowly, he paced over next to Ben and looked past him, looking to be deep in thought.

"I wanted to. Many times. But perhaps you've noticed that the Force has a funny way of working things out."

Ben lowered his tone grudgingly. "The Force… "

Casting him a sideways look, Anakin spoke in a slightly chiding tone. "Oh, don't be like that. This must have been how Obi-Wan felt… "

Raising his hands, he made a broad gesture and the world of pure white dissolved into faces. They faded in and out over each other, some were human, some alien, some wore pilot helmets, some looked frightened, others seemed to be speaking.

"You have touched all of these beings through the Force. Most you will never meet or even see. But because of the choices you have made your entire life, they will be able to live, to prosper. The Force allowed their lives to become that what… "

"Then why did it take Rey?! Why didn't you ever help?!"

Anakin turned to face him now, his expression now pitying and melancholy. "Rey followed her own destiny. She denied the path that was her blood and chose to protect what was important to her."

The multitude of faces faded into that of Rey's. Ben's heart ached to see her smile, the energetic look in her eyes.

"You touched her through the Force as well. Not just by saving her life, but by being what she needed to deny the path to the dark side."

Ben stared at her, wishing he could reach out and touch her and Anakin's hand pressed gently down on his shoulder.

"Nothing lasts forever, Ben. Even stars burn out."

This verbiage sent a chill through Ben that he couldn't quite put a finger on and he turned back to his grandfather who gave him a knowing look. "I have been with you through every event of your life. Every choice you ever made I watched you struggle with. I know that you never were really able to define what you wanted out of the Force and out of life."

"But in the end, you didn't need my help. You had what you needed the whole time. Your mother, your father… "

The haze of faces faded and the visage of Rey holding Ben's body returned.

"And her."

For a while then, silence stood between the two Skywalkers as they pondered what they saw. Then Ben, in a much more reserved tone, asked quietly, "How was I able to bring her back?"

Anakin gave him another sidelong glance and Ben saw the glow of playfulness in his eyes.

"It may have had some help."

The silence returned then and Ben contemplated what was before him now. Not just what he saw, but the path forward.

"I have to move on."

"That's up to you."

Ben turned to look at Anakin carefully. What he had just heard was generating a powerful feeling within him, something he hadn't felt in a long time.

He believed it was hope.

"What do you mean?"

Anakin shrugged and let out a long sigh. "Well, I think if you decided it would be best, you could follow me and we could go take a trip."

Ben found he didn't need to ask where they were going. "Or?"

Anakin's look told him everything he needed to know; the choice wasn't really a choice at all. Silence returned for a short time before Ben asked one last question.

"Will you stay with me?"

And in an instant, Anakin was now accompanied by his own son, his daughter and Ben's father. They all greeted him with warm smiles and when Anakin spoke, he heard the voice of not only him, but of Luke, Han and Leia as well. Their words gave him the peace he had desired just before he felt a great rushing feeling and they faded from his sight.

"The Force will be with you. Always."

'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

Rey screamed as Ben bolted upright from her grip, sucking in the moist air of Exegol's atmosphere. His eyes were wide and looked around quickly as though if he didn't reabsorb everything around him visually, he would never be able to again. Rey fell back on her hands and sat there with eyes just as wide, breathing shakily until his eyes found her again. Ben locked onto her gaze and tried to control his own breathing for a long several seconds just before returning the favor she had granted him just minutes ago.

"Rey."

Hearing him say her voice was enough to break her all over again and she threw herself at him; reaching out with the Force, she fell against Ben and they both fell to the floor, the Force a cushion of her will. She wrapped her arms around him, savoring his warmth, his breathing and the beating of his heart against her head.

"I… I thought you were gone."

"I couldn't leave you. Not after that."

Rey pulled up to look at him and saw that his eyes were both passionate and serious.

"Rey. I saw… I saw them."

Before she could even ask who he meant, he continued. "I saw my grandfather, Anakin. I saw my parents, and I saw Luke."

Ben looked around the hollow cavern that now seemed to house the two of them as its only inhabitants. "They were here. With us."

Rey stroked his face and smiled, clear and as beautiful as the plains of Naboo. "I know, I heard them." Ben looked at her in surprise and she gave a reassuring nod.

"They were the reason I was able to defeat Palpatine. They gave me the strength to control the Force and to… help me realize what I could be." A burning pride shone behind her eyes.

"Then… you ARE a Jedi."

Ben looked perplexed, almost as though he had forgotten something. "And I don't really know what I am."

Rey surprised him then with another kiss and laid her head against his chest once again.

"You're free, Ben."

He absorbed this and then hugged her back fiercely as they rolled to a sitting position and held each other tightly before Rey spoke softly against his ear.

"I knew you would come."

He surprised her then by offering a low chuckle; Rey didn't think she had ever heard him laugh. "I almost didn't make it."

"The Force would have given me the time to hold him off before you arrived."

"I wish it didn't always cut things so close."

It became her turn to laugh and she found herself content to lay against him and let his breathing be the only thing she needed to hear. Maybe ever.

"I don't know if I can go back with you."

She pushed him away and took his shoulders, looking at him intensely and with worry. "Why not?" He swallowed and lowered his gaze.

"I've done horrible things to them. Horrible things to YOU. I've taken lives of those close to you and can't expect to be taken in now."

Rey considered this and lowered a hand to take his in hers.

"Maybe not at first. I don't really know what will come of this. I suppose we'll have to see." She took his chin and lifted his gaze to meet her eyes again.

"But whatever comes of it, I'll be right by your side. No matter what comes of it."

Ben Solo took his turn to consider what had been said.

And then at last, he smiled back at her.

'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

Ben and Rey would remain in each other's arms for several minutes longer before finally standing and working their way to the front of the massive temple. With an arm over her shoulder, Ben limped along, cursing his current predicament and Rey laughing at how glum he was over such a small thing. They reached the outside as darkness was settling on the planet, looking over the TIE-fighter and X-Wing that had landed only a dozen meters or so apart.

It became apparent that neither one of them wanted to leave each other's touch, but with a last kiss and hug, they both moved to their own ships, Ben reaching into the Force to help him walk, not admitting he had only maintained his limp to keep close contact with Rey and Rey smiling as the climbed into her cockpit, knowing full well his façade and its reason.

With a roar of contrasting engines, both craft lifted into the sky, wrecked Star Destroyers lying as far the eye could see around them. A quick swapping of clearance codes allowed the X-Wing to transmit hyperspace coordinates to the TIE-fighter and both ships accelerated before becoming streaks of light that faded against the atmosphere.

All became still within the Sith temple of Exegol again; any being stumbling upon it would likely have not any idea as to the rapturous conflict that took place within less than an hour ago.

The figure however, who slipped from the shadows and made their way to where the two luminous beings in the Force had lain, cried and held each other very recently, was hardly just any being.

Its skill with the Force had masked its presence perfectly and none had been aware of it as it had watched the proceedings within the temple. Tanned robes swept around the figure as it paced to where the Force had performed quite the extraordinary miracle in restoring life not once, but twice, and looked around. Reaching out into the Force, it listened to the echoes of what had happened, doing all in its power to absorb every piece of knowledge possible. Then, it opened its eyes and walked over to a particular piece of ruin that caught its eye.

The destroyed machinery in particular had been the device that had been sustaining the shadow within the Force that the grandchildren of Anakin Skywalker and Sheev Palpatine respectively. They hadn't been supposed to emerge triumphant, but it was sure that its master would take this in stride. After all, what had Sidious been when compared to the being's master?

The figure would depart Exegol itself shortly after, in pursuit of the two heroes of the New Republic. But before leaving the planet, it allowed itself a slight modicum of satisfaction and spat on the ground where what was left of the late Emperor Palpatine had stood.