Author's note:

This fic was written quickly entirely for therapeutic purposes so it's not perfect, it has some holes as I don't remember in detail, second-by-second the whole movie and I refuse to watch it again for now...

So, here's a fix-it fic, the way it should have been, the way Ben Solo was supposed to rise and live happily ever after. Thanks for reading.

He knew what he had to do but he didn't know if he had any strength to do it. His father assured him that he did have what it took and so he grasped the accursed lightsaber that he both loved and hated and threw it into the raging water, not even giving a second look.

Kylo Ren had ceased to exist entirely at that moment. And Ben Solo had just been reborn.

When he ran to his TIE whisper, intending to follow Rey wherever the hell she had disappeared to, he couldn't find it and then it hit him. She stole his ship. Panic seized him at first and it deepened when he realized one more important thing.

The Sith Wayfinder. It was in his TIE whisper. Rey can get to the Exegol and face Palpatine all by herself.

There was no time to spare, so he immediately went to seek anything, even a piece of junk, just to get there before her or at least on time. She couldn't face that Sith Lord alone, he wouldn't allow it.

Once he did, he put a strain on his brain to memorize the way to Exegol, stripping his wet clothes off not only because they were soaked with water and heavy, suffocating him. They were the garments of someone he no longer was. For a fleeting moment, he stared at the hole made by his former lighstaber and then he threw them away.

Once he arrived above the Exegol, he was afraid that he might get instantly detected by Palpatine's forces. To his pleasant surprise, there was a good distraction in Resistance fleet fighting against the Final Order one. The sky was full of ships so no one would surely be interested in his.

He scanned the planet with Force, looking for a specific life trace and momentarily caught the last dying breath of General Hux. In a way, he felt sorry for that man but his pity was immediately swayed away when he recognized the imprint of the woman he was looking for.

Rey.

After he landed right next to ship she had apparently arrived in – was it Luke's old X-wing? – everything became a blur. The realization that she was already there, most likely fighting the Emperor on her own, made him worried sick as he hurried after her to join her in the battle.

Eliminating any threat in his way in the best possible manner as he felt naked without any weapon that would resemble to the lightsaber, he managed to get through quite far until the Knights of Ren he had used to command encircled him.

He could hardly defend himself without a weapon but Rey had finally sensed him, too, gifting him a lightsaber he made the right use of. Getting rid of the Knights of Ren in Ben Solo fashion, he sped to help to the woman he felt so much for.

But battles like this couldn't be won easily, the tables turned in a blink of an eye and he ended up falling into a pit he had to crawl up from with difficulty. When he found her lifeless body, he felt absolutely incapable of anything, seeking desperately for any kind of help he knew that would never come.

He had no choice but trying healing her, having zero idea whether his redemption was worth enough to muster so much Light in the Force. But had to try, her life was at stake and the only thing he could do was to at least repay what she had done for him.

He couldn't believe his eyes when she reached to touch his hand, looking up at him with life and something far deeper in her own eyes. Hearing her saying his name – Ben – while she beamed at him, was a reward he would love to receive every single day.

Then it was her tentative touch on his face as he contemplated the thought of kissing her, a thought that was way too often present in his mind whenever he saw her. But he was afraid, afraid that she would turn him down despite giving her what she apparently desired – Ben.

But in the next second, her lips were on hers and he couldn't believe she initiated the kiss and made him the happiest man across the Galaxy, his arms wrapping around her to make sure that he had really healed her and he was holding a real person in his arms.

By the time they pulled apart and he smiled at her with a smile that was genuine and full of happiness, not at all similar to the smug smirk he had been used to as Kylo Ren, he knew everything would be alright, no matter what happened in the future.

The quick stumble towards Luke's X-wing was done in the haze as they supported each other in order to disallow their exhaustion to take over them. She pointed to the co-pilot seat, refusing to let him fly the ship for obvious reasons as he was more battered and tired than she was.

He didn't argue with her but before climbing up to the seat, certain shadow of a doubt washed over him and so he turned to her and swiftly swept her into his arms, silencing her surprised yelp with a deep kiss. She relaxed in his arms, letting her lips brush over his for a longer moment than she first wanted but she couldn't get enough of the sweet feeling and the life-giving power they were able to produce together.

"Rey..." He rasped as he leaned his forehead against her, his throat too constricted as he hadn't spoken a word in what felt like forever. "The Resistance..."

He tried to explain to her why it would be better if they just left somewhere else for a while, to kill their past and let go of it, being together on some deserted place without the need to face anything – both consequences and celebrations.

However, she wanted to return, it was her home and she hadn't spent the last few years of her life building finally something concrete just to abandon it. "The Resistance won't harm you while I'm there with you, Ben. They will see you've changed and forgive you, I promise." She assured him and maybe if he had more strength to prove his point, he would but like this, he just nodded and climbed into his seat.

Arriving to the Resistance base, he was surprised to see that celebrations were in full swing by that time. Listening to her instructions, he stayed in the X-wing, trying not to think much into the weird looks people were giving him once they saw his face.

Rey left the ship and he had to watch as she met with the ex-stormtrooper and the pilot, hugging them tightly like her best friends. A pang of jealousy immediately restarted his Dark side but the Light within him she had inserted into his skin squashed it at once. Nevertheless, he couldn't just sit and stare so he eventually broke his promise and started to get off of the ship.

"What the hell?" Poe exclaimed once he registered Kylo Ren's figure climbing out of the X-wing Rey had returned into.

Rey didn't have to guess twice what he had seen, so she pulled away from her friends and looked at them pleadingly. "I know it's a shock but he's good now, you have to trust me. He's been redeemed. This isn't Kylo Ren, anymore. This is Ben Solo." She explained, knowing that she would have to go deeper in details sooner or later anyway to defend Ben from the justice for his war crimes he had committed against Resistance as Kylo Ren.

"He saved my life. I wouldn't be here without him." She added as she looked straight in Ben's direction and sent him an encouraging smile, her heart breaking seeing him standing at the X-wing so lost, unsure what the people around him would think about his presence.

Finn and Poe exchanged glances and then Finn turned to Rey with serious look on his face. "I know he is good. I can sense it." He confessed, looking at Rey emotionally while Poe shook his head in confusion.

Rey had a very similar reaction, furrowing her eyebrows together, urging Finn to continue with her gaze. "The thing I wanted to tell you earlier..." he took a deep breath, flashing one more glance at Ben, "I'm Force sensitive, Rey. I'm not sure how much and if I can ever control it in some way but I do feel the Force."

While Rey hugged him in an instant, Poe stared at them for a little while and then rolled his eyes. Exactly what they needed – another Force sensitive person. But he kept his thoughts to himself for the moment, rather expressing his pleasure that Finn had apparently accepted it.

"So, will you help me?" Rey asked them both after she ceased the hug with Finn, seeking their approval with desperate glances.

Poe looked at her and then set off his way towards Ben, the people of Resistance making a way for him since they waited for their General to give them the hint how they should treat the person they knew as Kylo Ren.

He stood in front of him as Ben straightened up, no longer that intimidating as he once was but still quite broad and large because he was born that way. They stared at each other for a long minute and then, Poe extended his hand. "Hey, Ben. I'm Poe. Poe Dameron." He introduced himself, refusing to see the person that once tortured him for Rey and the good of the Galaxy.

Ben took his hand and shook it, a gesture unfamiliar to him but one he found very likeable. "Hello, Poe. Good job up there. My mother would be proud." He appreciated Poe's performance in the sky battle against Final Order fleet and smiled back unsurely when Poe beamed at him.

"And I'm Finn." The former ex-stormtrooper stepped in and took Ben's hand fearlessly. "It's good to have you back where you belong."

Ben was stunned beyond imagination with the warm welcome, other Resistance members suddenly losing any interest in him when they saw their prominent leaders to accept him there. He certainly didn't expect to get such a forgiving introduction scene in which the people he had met before and harmed them were willing to forget about everything and let him live a new life.

It all felt like a dream he had used to have but had never dared to fulfil for the fear that he would have ended up in prison, executed as an example for everyone else who toy with the idea of running away the First Order and joining Resistance.

But with Rey suddenly by his side, hugging him around his middle – well, at least she attempted to wrap her hands around his whole torso and failed in it – he finally started to believe that happy endings were real and he was the main character in one of them. It was time to turn the page and start anew with a woman he loved.

Kylo Ren was dead. Ben Solo lives.

The End

I guess I have nothing more to say to this than that this is one of my visions of how the movie should have ended. So yeah... #BenSoloLives #BenDeservedBetter