Stargaze [Star Wars Sequel Trilogy] ✔︎

XLVI. Duel of Fates

Ben examined the wayfinder as our eyes met. Rey extinguished her lightsaber. Ben glanced at her and lowered his hand.

"Look at yourself." He finally said. Rey and I took a few steps forward with my hand resting on the saber at my hip. "You wanted to prove to my mother that you were a Jedi but you've proven something else." Rey just sneered at him. The gold flecks of her eyes shining bright. "You can't go back to her now. Neither of you can. Like I can't." I just shook my head. Of course he could come back. Leia would accept him with open arms with little hesitation. Rey then glanced at the wayfinder.

"Give it to me." She said angrily. Ben just shuddered and his lips formed a fine line. "The dark side is in our nature. Surrender to it." Rey just ignored him. "Ben, please." I said. "Lillian." He began. Rey then interrupted. "Give it to me." She gritted through her teeth. "Lilly this is the moment we stand together, all of us." He said. "It's not that moment." I replied, extinguishing my lightsaber as well. "Are you working together?" Rey asked. "No." I replied. "Yes." He said. Hie treating suddenly got ragged and panicked. He then looked to Rey again. "Liar." Rey said to me. "The only way you're getting to Exegol is with me." Ben said as he crushed the wayfinder in his bare hand.

"No. To the both of you!" Rey shouted as she swung her saber at me, slicing my shirt across my stomach. She then charged at Ben who dodged and slid past her blows. I just stood there confused, why did she attack me? I then realized the gold eyes. She was under control of Palpatine now. Ben could see this as well as he finally switched on his lightsaber to block her attack. He then spun in my direction and grabbed me, he took a few steps back and we plummeted down to a lower level and landing on the wet metal of the death star outside. Rey was there a few minutes later, swinging her saber at us again. I wasn't even sure what side I was on. Ben effortlessly blocked her attack each time. I attempted to wedge my saber in-between theirs but it didn't work. They just kept fighting. They continued backwards as the waves crashed around us. I then head footsteps behind us. Finn and Jannah were now running towards us.

"REY!" Finn shouted. Rey then spun around. "No!" She shouted as she force pushed him back a few feet. I glanced at the fight and then Finn. I ran to help him up with Jannah.

"Aren't you supposed to be with them?" She asked. "I don't even know anymore." I said. Then a massive wave towered above us. Ben saw this as Rey catapulted herself over the water and landing on the other pier of wreckage. Ben followed. We just sat and watched. I groaned, knowing I needed to go after them. I got up and took a running start to jump but my foot slipped. I expected to fall into the water, the salt filling my lungs. But I didn't. I stayed hovering in midair. I glanced over and saw Finn with his hand outstretched. It was him. He had the force and he used to to save me. Finn then flung his hand back. Pushing me to the other side.

Rey and Ben's sabers clashed as I heard Finn shouting above the waves. I then brought my green saber beneath their clashed ones and pulled up in an attempt to break them apart. They did but then Rey raised hers again as Ben brought it down, pushing hers against the cold metal. Rey gritted her teeth and broke away, swiping at his legs and backflipping over a smaller wave.

"What's going on." I asked him when she was gone. "The usual I guess." He said as we walked through the mist of water she leaped over. Rey seemed to ready herself as her hair now hung free and blew in the wind. Ben attacked first this time. Rey blocked his attack by stretching out her hand and and stopping his in air. Red streams came from it as Ben broke from her hold as he then did the same to her saber. Rey gritted in confusion and broke free from his grasp. The clashed again, swinging their sabers almost clumsily at one another. I blocked their attacks but it was clear I should have no involvement. I then stretched out both of my hands and stopped both of their sabers in the air and then swung at me in annoyance as I dodged the blow. Ben slashed at her and then they stopped.

"You don't know me, no one does" Rey mentally shouted at him. Rey attacked him but then she stopped. "But I do." He mentally spoke back. Their voices seemed to speak in my mind. Ugh, couldn't they just get a room already. As Rey and I charged at him, our sabers clashed as we then pushed apart. Ben then pushed her backward with his blows. I was pushed behind him as Rey stumbled to the ground. Landing on her knees in exhaustion. 

She tried to stop his attacks from there but she was now too tired to even fight. Ben then raised his saber above his head. I seemed frozen in place to even attempt to fight him off. He then stopped, lowering his saber as if he sensed something. I could sense it too, well her.

Leia almost seemed to stand on the wreckage behind us. I knew she wasn't really there as the pieces began to click. She was force projecting which meant... no.

"Ben" she softly said. Ben slowly turned to face her. Shock forming across his features. She then began to lean back slowly, at peace. Ben shook his head as if he didn't want to believe it. I just can't loose Leia, she's the only one I have left. His saber slipped from his hand as he stood with shock and grief. Neither one of us noticed Rey stand and grab the falling saber and ignite it. I then noticed as she swung it back. "Rey no!" I screamed as she drove the saber through her dyad. I could see the red of the saber and blood sticking through his back. Rey then gasped, her eyes turning back to normal.

"Leia." She whispered as she turned it off and my cousin fell backwards. I ran to him and knelt down. Our eyes met in an unspoken apology. Rey just now looked on confused. Her eyes fell to me and Ben. "Ben, Lilly." She said. "I'm sorry." Tears began to roll down her face as she let out a choked sob. I looked at Ben as he seemed to begin to be at peace and accept his fate. Rey shook her head and knelt down. She grabbed my hand and laid it on his chest and she laid hers over the top of it. I understood what she was doing as we began to give a bit of our lives to him. The wound in his gut began to heal itself as I glanced at his face. The scar began to disappear as well. I gasped. His breathing steadied as he met her eyes. Rey stopped and almost collapsed in weakness. Rey fought through her sobs and looked at her feet and then back to him.

"I did want to take your hand." Rey said to him. Flashes of the throne room, and earlier on the star destroyer formed in our minds. "Ben's hand." She said tucking a strand of lose, wet hair behind her ear. She then stood and ran to Ben's tie fighter, now seen on a piece of wreckage in front of us. She climbed in and took off, possibly to Exegol or somewhere else.

Once she was gone I weakly stood. Ben said nothing as he looked up at me. I felt deep in my soul that now it was that moment, for us to stand together and defeat Palpatine. I sighed as he and I shared a glance. We were the last of Anakin Skywalker's bloodline. The 2 remaining Skywalkers but yet I couldn't shake a horrible feeling. One of us wouldn't come out of this fight alive. We both knew that. I then turned, to see Finn running towards me. I glanced at him one last time before running to Finn and back to where the Falcon was now waiting on the wreckage.

Poe glanced at me as we boarded. I collapsed into a seat as we took off. I was now very, truly alone.