Alternate Ending for The Rise of Skywalker

Hearing the Story from a Different Perspective

Ben's POV:
Though she had been gone for a matter of minutes, I still missed the warmth of her presence. Leaning back on my too-small bed, I lightly traced over my lips, where minutes ago, Rey's own, small lips had been.

My heart still pounded from our encounter, making me smile. No one had ever made me smile this much before, this was something I could get used to.

Closing my eyes, I tried to fit in a nap before one of the nurses came in to check on me, to make sure all the wires and such were still in place. Though around half of them had been removed from me when I became conscious again, there was no shortage of them protruding from my arm; which turned out to be a major inconvenience when the Force-Bond session occurred with Rey.

I began to hear an indistinct chatter come from somewhere nearby. Assuming it was one of the nurses, I ignored it, my eyes still remaining closed. However, they shot open when I was able to make out who was talking.

It was the traitor, FN2187, he had arrived, like Rey had mentioned, and he was talking to her. Curious now, I sat up. Even though I knew that eaves- dropping on Rey would probably only result in infuriating her, I still closed my eyes in concentration to hear the muffled conversation occurring nearby.

"Yeah, of course, Finn. What's up? Rey said in response to something I was not able to make out.

I noted a slight edge of panic in her voice, and wondered if the traitor, or Finn, I supposed now, noticed it too.

"I'm force sensitive," Finn began.

I must admit that I was not entirely surprised, but I sensed that Rey was.

"Not anything major yet," he continued, "but I can sense different things. Like on Exogol, that's how I found you. I sensed your presence, Rey. I actually thought you had died, but that's clearly not true."

Snickering softly, I shook my head softly, pondering what could have happened if I had not been there. We both would have been dead.

Tuning back into their conversation, I heard Rey say,

"Finn!! This is incredible!!"

There was a small pause before either talked again, but Rey broke the silence after a minute or two had passed.

"Actually, you weren't wrong about me dying," she started, the funny tone entering her voice again.

"What? And why was Kylo Re-" Finn started but was interrupted, but not before I could flinch slightly at the pain my former name brought.

"Let me finish, it all ties together, just let me finish."

I heard her take in a deep breath, and then she began to relay the events on Exogol.

"On Exogol, I went to go kill my grandfather. I found him, but I was almost turned. I almost turned to the Dark Side, Finn, after 40 seconds of him talking to me. He told me the only way I could save you guys was to take up my name, to become Empress. I could only imagine what Ben has been through, all those years on his own, all of those years, forced to listen to his lies," Rey paused here.

I could tell she was upset, her voice was strained more towards the end, filled with the emotion she had restrained these past days. It brought pain to recall the memories of my past. She was right, as usual. I was forced to listen to the lies. But, as she had felt a small gravitation to the Dark Side, so did I, but with the Light. It's what kept me from becoming truly evil, from truly turning. What I once considered weakness, I now embraced. Also, the old man on Jakku was correct, I could not deny the truth that was my parents. No matter how hard I tried, I could not deny that they were both a part of me.

I was snapped out of my momentary distraction with a sniff, and a "Sorry," from Rey. Concentrating again, I sat up straighter, and she started to speak again.

"I was about to do it. Kill him, that was, and take my grandfathers place. But then, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I looked over, and there was Ben. He had come back for me. He was in trouble, though. He had fought off the Knights of Ren all by himself, no weapon. So, I Force-Handed him a saber, and he fought them back off. When he was done with that, he came over to me, and we were going to fight my grandfather. But, he somehow sucked the Life-Force out of the both of us. It nearly killed us both. When Palpatine had the strength he needed, that's when all the lightning started coming out of the sky. But then the craziest thing happened, I asked the Jedi to be with me, and they gave me strength. I've never felt the Force flow through me so hard before; the feeing was indescribable. I used both of the lightsabers, and was able to kill my grandfather. But, I had used up all my strength and Force in the process. I knew I was going to die. I did die. But Ben brought me back to life. He saved me, Finn. I've denied it in the past, but I can't anymore. I love him, Finn,"

She loved me.

A feeling, stronger then what I had ever felt before, stronger the Force that thrummed through my body currently, racked through me.

A warm feeling in my chest spread, and a smile, so big it hurt, made it's way across my face. She loved me.

I thought of the irony in our story. How we both should have been our greatest enemies, how I should have hated her since the first time we met; but I could never bring myself to.  The tension between us, especially when we had Force Bond sessions. I thought about how much I had wanted to kiss her, that day in the elevator, before I killed Snoke. How I wanted to kiss her even before then, when she was talking to me by the fire, at least before we were interrupted by Luke. I always wanted to make her happy, to take away the all the pain she had ever felt. But I knew that was impossible.

We were both broken, still trying to put up the pieces. Still trying to fix ourselves from the damage from the past. But i don't think we need to do that anymore. We are both broken, individually; but together, we were one.

I remotely heard Finn's response, and was genuinely surprised and happy to hear that he wasn't upset. He did, however, mention something about interviewing me to make sure that he approved of me for her, which earned him a punch on the arm ( or so I'm assuming, judging by the, "Ow, Rey!!) and a laugh, from both her and I.

I wanted to be with her for the rest of my existence. I decided that as soon as we get out of this wretched hospital, and after a little more time, I was going to propose to her. I knew that Jedi weren't supposed to get married, but Rey wasn't really one to follow the rules much.

Still smiling, I leaned onto my back, and drifted off to sleep after a nurse came in to check up on me.

Authors Note:
Hey you guys!! Sorry this one isn't very long, but I wanted to do something from Ben's perspective, and how I would have imagined him reacting to Rey's conversation with Finn. Anyways, WE HIT 400 READS?? W H A T? are you kidding me? You guys are SO amazing!! Thank you for all the support, you guys could never comprehend how much it means to me!!