Star Wars- In another Life.

Chapter 38- Rise of Ben Solo

Ben needed to stop descending the lightning-filled shaft before he hit the bottom, wherever that was. He recalled how Snoke had thrown him off a cliff on Dagobah and how he had saved himself from being speared upon the rocks. He called on the Force, and it answered, and he stopped himself from spinning, allowing himself to slow down. He could sense a ledge below him within the Force, but he failed to slow his descent enough before he hit the unforgiving rock with an excruciatingly painful thud, and the world went black.

Silent darkness unbroken, no sense of time, no sense of anything- no sound, no light, no below or above. The sensation of being within deep water surrounded and encompassing.

"Ben, Ben, come on, son, you gotta wake up. She needs you."

Ben's eyes flickered, "Rey," he mumbled groggily as he stirred.

He couldn't feel her, no sign of her presence in the Force, nothing. Fear struck his heart, and his eyes shot open, and he sat upright with a start. What he saw was not what he expected; only darkness greeted him. He expected rock and a shaft unending to the depths of the planet Exegol's core to the heights above from which he'd fallen. Instead, he saw blackness, eternal as far as the eye could see, scattered with stars, nebula and constellations. He appeared to be on glass, firm and solid but clear with no discernable edge or depth, indistinguishable from the space around him. It was beautiful and terrifying; he felt insignificant but not alone. 

Ben turned to the voice owner; a man was crouched at his side dressed in dark Jedi robes. His face was shrouded in the depths of his hood. Ben stared at the owner of the voice, openly questioning and confused. A mechanical hand, ungloved, reached up and removed the hood. A handsome young man looked back at him with a smile. He had a scar running down the right-hand side of his face across his eye, much like the one Ben had owned. This young man had an easy, playful smile, a devious twinkle that lit his blue eyes alive from the shadows in which they sat, hinting at a willful streak. His dark-blonde hair curled about his handsome face, stopping at his shoulders, and his eyes held secrets and a formidable power within the Force.

"You need to wake up, go back. She needs you."

Ben looked around, confused, "Am I not awake?" He looked down at his hands and felt his body, "Am I dead?" he asked the young man.

"No, but you're not where you should be?"

"Where am I? This isn't Exegol. I can't feel her."

"You've been here before."

Ben thought hard, "In my dreams, Crait, the bacta tank. The place between. The space between."

"The world between worlds. There's a doorway on Exegol."

"That's why he's there."

The young man nodded before rising to his feet; he paced as he spoke. "Palpatine knew a portal was on Exegol, though it had eluded him. It's not something you find by digging for it. It's a presence of mind. Rey found it; the Jedi past have come to her.  You've found it, and so I've come to you."

"Who are you?"

The man smiled, "You've begged me for guidance and help for years."

Realisation dawned on Ben: the man before him, this smiling, amicable young man, was his grandfather, Anakin Skywalker.

"Anakin. Grandfather?"

The man smiled again and stepped closer to him, his long Jedi robes trailing in his wake.

"You need to wake up; she needs you. You have to succeed where I failed."

"To kill Palpatine," Ben answered.