The lightsabers fell from Rey's trembling fingers, and her knees buckled. She collapsed to the ground, the dust gritty against her skin. The Sith throne faded from view as her vision went black.

Ben dug his fingers into the cold, jagged stone, dragging himself over the edge of the cliff. His entire body aching, he glanced up and made out Rey's body through blurry vision. Please let her still be alive. He staggered to his feet, stumbled a few steps towards her, then fell to the ground again. There was something wrong with his leg, he knew it, but he couldn't stop to find out what. Not when Rey needed him. So he crawled. He managed another few staggering steps before collapsing to the ground by her side.

Her eyes were closed, her lips parted. He took her body into his arms and held her tightly to his chest, willing her to still be alive. His shaking fingers sought a pulse at her neck. For a moment, his own heart nearly stopped. But then he felt a flutter. Her chest rose and fell against his, ever so slightly. She was alive, but only just. He could sense that she was fading fast.

So he shifted his grip, closed his eyes, and breathed deeply, reaching out for the Force. It entered him like a flowing stream, and he willed it into her. The Force hadn't felt like that to him for so long. He watched her face with bated breath, praying he hadn't been too late.

Her eyelids fluttered, a breath passed between her lips, and there she was. She had returned to him. She sat up, her keen eyes searching his. A smile touched her lips, and she whispered, "Ben."

His name had never felt more like his own than in that moment when she spoke it.

And then she leaned in and kissed him.

Her lips were softer than he had expected, softer than her hard-edged scavenger persona would have suggested. He found it hard to breathe as she pulled gently away. He grinned, almost giddy with disbelief. She smiled back, her eyes sparkling. Then a wave of fatigue swept over him, and his vision faded into darkness, a roaring in his ears and a numbness in his body. He could hardly feel her hands on him, supporting him, but he knew that she wouldn't leave.

"Ben?" Her voice sounded so far away. "Ben, are you all right?" It seemed to fade in and out of existence. He sensed the Force surrounding him, pulling him gently away from her. He felt a profound sense of peace, of calm, of serenity. He had given up all he had left for her. That was enough for him.

"Ben, please." Her voice cut through the silence again. "Don't leave me." He could hear tears in her voice, a crack in her hard exterior.

Slowly, shapes formed out of the darkness. Luke appeared, then his mother, then his grandfather, in the prime of his youth as Ben had only seen in holograms from the war. Leia stepped forward and held out her hand.

"It's time, Ben. Come and rest."

He dropped his eyes from her gaze and bowed his head. "I'm so sorry, Mother." Tears gathered in his eyes. "I don't deserve this, I did so many things wrong. I turned my back on you, on all of you."

"Your story is my story," Anakin said. "You have redeemed yourself, Ben."

Ben looked up, into each of the faces before him. They seemed entirely in earnest. No resentment from Leia, no fear from Luke, and no disappointment from Anakin. They actually seemed to want him. "I don't understand:" he said, his voice almost choked into silence from tears.

"There will be plenty of time for explanations," Leia replied.

He took a step towards them, where the Force seemed to be leading. They would welcome him with open arms, he would be remembered as a hero, Rey would go on--Rey. Rey would be alone. She was alone. The vision of his family blurred and flickered for a moment, and he saw the Sith throne and her white figure bent over his body in flashes.

"What is it?" Leia asked.

Ben shook his head, trying to clear his vision. Still, all he could see was her tear-stained face. Her voice broke through again, just his name, over and over again. His name. Ben. He had left it behind for so many years, but it finally felt like his own again.

"I can't go," he said finally. "There's so much I still need to do. I'm not ready to go yet. I need to fix my mistakes, I need to be better than I was. I have to prove I can change."

"You've done enough," his mother replied, taking his face in her hands. "You can rest now. You helped Rey to bring balance to the Force and to fully embrace her identity."

"But she still needs me," he said, sensing it was true as he spoke the words. He felt a tug at his heart, a tug that wanted him back in her arms.

"She's stronger and more resilient than you know," Luke said. "She can do this on her own."

"But she shouldn't have to. I want to go back, I want to face what I've done. I have to." Ben said, his gaze centered on his mother's face.

A pained smile crossed her face. "Very well," she said, then pulled him into a hug. "I'm so proud of you," she whispered into his ear. "I'll still be here when you decide you're ready."

And then, in a blink, he felt the gritty stone beneath him, all the pain and aches returning, and her arms. He opened his eyes and saw hers staring back at him, glassy with tears.

"Oh, Ben," she whispered, and held him tightly. "Thank you for coming back."