Rey felt her heart crack and shatter apart as Ben Solo's head fell, crashing onto the ground. She tried to catch him to soften the impact. His body went limp. His life Force was weak and fading. He wasn't fighting. He had returned the part of her life Force, which she had given him in order to save him earlier from her lightsaber blast. Tears raced down her cheeks as though even they were trying to distance themselves from the tragedy unfolding in front of her eyes. She hadn't placed her last hope in Ben Solo for him to die in front of her.

"Ben. Ben Solo. No, not like this. You listen to me. Not here. Not now. You said I wasn't alone!" She choked on the words, broken by untethered sobs. She gasped for air denied to her. Her noises of distress echoed so loudly in the empty lair of the Sith. Darkness and coldness only filled the air in response.

She grasped onto his cold, larger hand and concentrated. With the discipline of a Jedi, she steadied her frantic breathing and connected to the Force, the source of all life. Suddenly, the apparition of Ben Solo was in front of her, as he had appeared to her in so many of their Force bond meetings.

Bathed in light, he smiled at her. It was completely different than anything she'd ever seen on the angry, power hungry face of Kylo Ren. This must have been the Ben Leia knew, who she had placed her enduring hope in. Rey knew she was looking beyond the mask - not the Kylo Ren helmet, but the mask Ben Solo wore to conceal his conflicted nature when he had been Kylo Ren. The one which had never come off, until now. A sight few in the galaxy ever had the privilege to see.

"Hi, Rey." He spoke. The gentleness in his new tone made her shiver down her spine, as if being touched too lightly. There was a brightness in his eyes, brightness that Snoke had stolen so long ago. The sun which she and Leia had believed still existed, though they could not see it.

"B-Ben Solo." She choked, struggling to maintain her calm meditative composure. His true self was more beautiful than anything she had ever seen. She blinked rapidly to take it in. No island view or starry galaxy could compare.

"Ben, I need you. Now more than ever. You're my family. You said I wasn't alone."

"You have never been alone, Rey. And you never will be." His smile was a bit solemn now with the heaviness of his words.

"Ben! Please! I need you to come back. It's so cold." She shivered. She felt that cold, icy draw to the darkness again. It was like static in the air around them. She felt hatred at Snoke and Palpatine. Anger at Kylo Ren for shutting Ben Solo away for so long. Fear for being alone, for losing her soulmate in the Force before they'd even got a chance to be together.

Ben sadly looked down at the dark, rough, cold ground. Her heartbreak and longing for his presence by her side were so strong. Then, he looked towards his fallen body, clothed in all black. The face of Kylo Ren. The thought made Ben shudder.

"Rey," He was choking on his words now. Tears pooling in his desperate, dark eyes. "You know I can't. I can't come back. I can't go back. I can't undo what I've done - taken. It's a debt far too high for me to ever repay. There's no place for me in this story, going forward. There's no place for me in the future - your future."

"No! You're wrong! There is no place for Kylo Ren in this story going forward. There is no place in our future for Kylo Ren. He deserves to die for what he's done. ….But there is room for you, Ben. There is light. There is redemption on the other side. It's bitter and hard work, but you're not alone in this. The burden of Kylo Ren's destruction may be too great for Ben Solo to bear alone, but not together. We killed Palpatine together. We can do anything together. We can even bear the weight of your past together. I will never ever leave you alone to pick up the pieces. I promise, Ben."

Confusion washed over his face as if cold water had been poured over him. "Why? Why Rey? After all I've done to you, why fight so hard for me?"

"Because I believe in Ben Solo. I always have. The light I felt when we first touched on the island. A light even the mighty Kylo Ren couldn't kept concealed forever. Ben Solo gave me hope when I had none. ...Gave me warmth and companionship when I was all alone, defeated, in that cold cave."

He thought hard. "But, even if I could come back after all I've taken... My physical body is far too weak for that."

Rey looked over at Ben Solo's broken body, tired from too many battles - both outwardly and internally. She breathed and connected to the light in the Force. After several minutes passed, Leia, Han Solo, and Luke Skywalker appeared around them. Ben took them in with wide eyes and a frozen tongue. Shame swept across his face.

His mother, of course, was the first to approach Ben and put the warmest hand on his shoulder. "It will be okay, eventually. As much as I have missed you all these years and want you here with me, you need to go back. You need to repent, and work to fix what you broke as Kylo Ren. Your work here isn't done. Plus, I think you have a lot to make up for to Rey." She winked at her son, lightheartedly.

Ben Solo looked down in thought. Han and Luke stepped forward. In unison they spoke, "We think you deserve a second chance, Ben. We both failed you in our lifetimes. Let this be our amends." They focused their force into Ben's body. They joined Rey and Leia as they did the same. All of them poured their endless light energy into Ben. He could feel his spirit being slowly pulled back to his body.

"Mother, I'm scared to go back. What if I mess it all up again?" His breath was husky and frantic. Ben's eyes were cloudy and stormy again. Fear.

She leaned down to where he was kneeling beside his body and placed a kiss to his forehead. There was the most loving smile on her blue outlined features. "You won't. A younger, less experienced and less wise version of yourself shut us out." She gestured to herself, Han, and Luke.

"That dark wall is shattered now. Stay connected to us, we'll be with you every step of the way, always. Then, you'll never be who you were again - who Snoke and your dark feelings led you to be." She placed a hand over his. In that moment, they shared years of missed warm moments. Ben could feel his mother's love, beyond a shadow of a doubt. He instantly was overcome with how wrong he had been to think he was ever too far gone to come home to her and that he'd ever lost a place in her arms and her heart.

In an instance, the physical body of Ben jolted awake with a rough startle and the blue apparitions of their family faded away in a whisper. The awaken physical Ben Solo did not appear nearly as collected as his apparition had been. He was frantic and tears spilled from his eyes. Looking away from Rey, still somehow afraid of appearing weak in front of her. The weight of everything he had done, every innocent, defenseless life he had taken or ordered taken - and there were so many - came crashing down hard over his fragile soul and he couldn't bear it. He no longer had the shield of Kylo Ren. It blasted him. It ripped him straight down the middle of his being and he screamed out in unfathomable agony, clawing at the ground for some sort of anchor lest he be swept away.

Immediately, Rey was by his side. His first instinct was to pull away but her light and warmth eased him. She willed her energy to be calm enough to balance his. He let her cradle him in her arms, just as he had done to her body when she died. Finally. Finally. Ben Solo was back, the shield that was Kylo Ren blasted away forever, and he couldn't stop himself from coming completely undone in Rey's understanding arms. Every part of him broke into a million tiny pieces, he was sure he could never collect.

Each sob took his breath away, only regaining it when he was sure he would suffocate. He felt everything. Panic, shame, foolishness, regret, failure, pain, and just so much guilt. He felt the weight of millions of innocent lives taken slamming down with a vengeance, crushing his newly brightened soul.

Rey looked down with pained eyes full of brightly shining love and kissed down into the lush black hair on his head. She was doing all she could for him, but, even with all the power of her love and their bond, she could not erase what Ben had done as Kylo Ren. The planets of blood he had spilled threatened to drown him, with as much mercy as he had shown to his victims. He clutched to her, shaking like the tiniest leaf in a full force hurricane, and he shook his head in her stomach. He wanted all the years of Kylo Ren to go away. He pleaded with the Force to undo those years of ruthless torture and seemingly countless lives stolen. How many lights had he stomped out? How many lovers had he carelessly left to mourn for a lifetime? If killing his father had split him so deeply, what would the full weight of so many more deaths do?

"No, Rey. No! You shouldn't have brought me back. I can't do this. This weight is too much. It's too heavy. It's cutting me down to the very core. It hurts so damn much. I can't survive the crushing force of everything I've done." His words came out sporadically. He caught breath when he could. He was hyperventilating. Years of feelings, of conflict, of guilt, of suppressed light, of foolishness, of regret, of shame, of insecurity, of lostness, of confusion, of longing for his mother but feeling too ashamed to come back, of loneliness, it all came flooding out in crashing waves, which tried to pull Ben Solo down into the abyss like he deserved, to drown his light out as he had done to so many in the galaxy.

She held him tighter, so much tighter. Rey focused on the light with all of her energy, warming his frigid body. "Shhh. All of that's over now. We'll ride through all of this together. That's how you'll survive this. You're strong, Ben. You must do this."

He clutched onto her, as if she might fade away if he didn't. He let out a few choked gasps and screams when the burden was too much to bear and his soul demanded crying out. She had saved his soul, and now it was tattered and laid bare for her to see.

After many moments passed, with no more words spoken, his breathing started to find a more steady rhythm - just out of sheer exhaustion. Screams and gasps had become winces and whimpers which barely escaped his painful throat, as memories of his cruel atrocities kept coming to him in a relentless, steady pace. Tears slowed their burning assault on his cheeks, if only to save any hydration he had left in him. Rey's clothes were soaked through and through as if she had been out in a rain storm on the island, not that she minded. The strongest man in the galaxy has just utterly unravelled before her and he had trusted her enough to hold onto as his soul was tortured in a fiery storm caused by Kylo Ren's legacy of darkness.

"Come on. Let's get out of this awful place." Though she rode out Ben's breakdown patiently, she was more than ready to leave this cold empty home of the greatest darkness in the galaxy.

She was the first to rise and though she was badly hurt herself, she helped Ben stand and supported him. He was now physically leaning on her too. His breathing and heart rate had calmed down modestly, but she sensed his mind was still wild with pain. Through their bond, it made her hurt. She felt just a touch of the pain and it made her gasp as if she'd been struck in the stomach. The raw, fresh, gaping wound inside of Ben, where such massive guilt had ruthlessly ravaged his mortal soul. She cast just the briefest concerned glance at Ben, as he winced at another wave of guilt and the nausea that followed. She was now reassuring herself that Ben Solo and her could endure the weight of years of the most vile deeds committed by Kylo Ren and the First Order he had led. Their sun of hope was gone, but together they could still get through this darkest night and see it again.

He turned to meet her face for the first time since coming unglued. His tired gaze landed softly on Rey. Taking in her beauty, he gained a small jolt of energy and kissed her. She pressed forwardly gently and kissed him back. They savored each other's taste as the finest delicacy they had ever had the pleasure of tasting. The blood and dirt mixed in just reminded them of how much they loved and how hard they fought for each other. When they finally pulled away, he breathed out a husky, "Thank you… for saving me." His eyes searching her face, as if still afraid she would come to her senses and walk away.

She grinned her smile that had always pulled at the strongest sense of light and desire in Ben Solo. "I'm not done saving you." With that, she pressed her lips to his broken ones with so much warmth and passion it acted as a temporary bandage across his shattered soul. He pressed back into her lips, searching for the strength and light she freely offered him. Finding the strength to stand on his own, he wrapped his strong hands in her hair. Somehow, even in all of this torment which swirled around him, this was the single best moment in his life.

She reluctantly pulled back. "Save your energy." He nodded. His dark eyes stormy with fear and pain and confusion about where to go next from here, but with more light in them than she'd ever seen. Ben Solo's eyes were her stars in their darkest night.