What Should Have Ben - A Reylo Fanfiction

Chapter 2

BEN HAD BEEN DEAD. SO WHEN HE GASPED HIS WAY BACK TO LIFE, HE was more than a little confused. He felt Rey's hand in his and then found her leaning over him, her face cut and bloody but still with an anxious expression on her face.

Ben's eyes found Rey's, and he smiled. Somehow she had done this.

Somehow she had saved him. 

Again.

She seemed to have been saving him a lot lately.

"Rey," he managed. Just that. Her name. But it brought tears to her eyes as she smiled down at him.

Wordlessly she gestured over her shoulder to where Ben could make out a blue shape. Once he focused more clearly on it, he could see that it was Luke's ghost.

"Thank you," he gasped. 

"She told me to," Luke shrugged.

Ben looked at Rey again. 

"Well, I couldn't just let you die, now could I?" she teased. 

Despite how weak he was, Ben smiled again. He'd been doing that an awful lot more in the past ten minutes than he had in the past ten years. Then again, he supposed, being around Rey would do that to him. 

Rey kissed him again, more gently this time than her initial kiss had been. Once more Ben returned it, grateful that he finally had the chance to do this, even as the First Order crumbled around them. No, Ben corrected himself, as the Final Order collapsed around them. 

Rey pulled away bushing despite her wounds. "I just remembered Luke was here. Watching us," she whispered.

Ben managed a weak laugh and then immediately wished he hadn't. It hurt. "You know, at this point I don't care. We won. We're together. Palpatine is finally dead."

Rey winced at the name and Ben reached up a hand to run his thumb across her cheek gently. "I'm sorry, Rey."

"It's okay," Rey said. "I have to accept that I'm related to him and move on. I'm better than him by a long shot. I just turned around the Palpatine legacy. And besides, I have you."

Luke cleared his throat rather obnoxiously behind them. Both Ben and Rey glared at him. He raised his hands in a mock surrender.

"It might be a good idea to get out of here," he said. 

"Yeah, but how are we both going to get back? It's not as if Ben can fly the stolen TIE fighter back, the Resistance would shoot him on sight. And we won't both fit in your X-Wing," Rey replied.

Luke grinned. "I have an idea about that."

Rey helped Ben to stand. He did so, wincing. Every part of him hurt from the confrontation with Palpatine. Which wasn't surprising, considering Palpatine had nearly drained him of his life force and then thrown him off a cliff. With his arm around Rey's shoulders and the latter supporting a good deal of his weight, Ben followed the ghost of his uncle as he led them back to the moving platform in the center of the Sith temple. Once on the platform he attempted to stand on his own and almost fell off the side. Rey caught him.

"Oh, no you don't," she said. "I'm not losing you again."

"I'm not planning on being lost," Ben said, glancing over the side fearfully. He wasn't afraid of heights, having lived among the stars virtually all his life, but in his weakened state he found a new reason to be afraid. If he fell off this thing, it was over.

They reached the surface and were rewarded with an image of a huge fleet of Resistance ships. Not all of them were even Resistance fighters. They were just...people. People who'd gotten fed up with the First Order, people from the Core worlds. And the destroyed Final Order Sith fleet as the Star Destroyers continued crashing into the planet was a satisfying sight.