Chapter Text
Kylo Ren was dying, killed by his own lightsaber at Rey's hand.
Cold salt water surged around the Death Star wreckage, plastering wet hair to Rey’s and Kylo's equally shocked faces. Rey dropped to her knees by Kylo. He trembled, struggling to breathe through the pain of the charred hole through his gut. He met her eyes, wide with horror and some emotion he couldn't identify. He wanted to tell her it was okay. It wasn't her fault that the darkness pushed her so far. He knew how hard it was to resist that anger. Besides, it was always going to end like this. He deserved to die.
Rey laid her hand on his torn body, closed her eyes, and breathed. Warmth and light filled him. He breathed through his teeth as his insides knit back together, responding to the Force flowing through Rey. The scar on his face tingled, skin shifting back into place as even that mended into perfect, whole skin. Soon, every trace of pain vanished, healed using a Force technique he'd only read about and had never seen even from Master Luke.
He wasn't dead. And he was no longer dying. He looked up at Rey, wondering if all the water on her face was from the ocean or if some was–like the water on his face–from tears.
"I did want to take your hand. Ben's hand."
He stared at her. Ben Solo, the scared, weak boy he'd been running from for so long, was the man Rey wanted. Not the Supreme Leader. Not the Master of the Knights of Ren. Just Ben.
She stood and walked past him. He heard his ship taking off as she left with the Wayfinder. As she left to face Palpatine alone.
He didn't know how long he stayed there, letting the waves slam into him, before he pushed himself to his feet and walked to the edge of the wreckage. The water foamed and surged in the vast ocean before him, as unsettled as he was. Who was he now that Kylo Ren was dead and unwanted.
"Hey, kid."
His spine stiffened, imagining for a moment the voice of his father. But when he turned, he realized it wasn't Han Solo at all. A tall man with thick, wavy hair wearing the dark robes of a Jedi master stood there in the pounding waves, shimmering with blue light. A scar marked the man's right eye, mirroring the scar that had until so recently marked Kylo Ren. He knew the man at once, though he'd never seen him before.
"Grandfather. I've failed."
The man stepped forward. Though he shimmered like a translucent hologram, not all the water that hit him passed through the image. He was really here.
"No, Ben. It's not the end for you. As it wasn't for me."
Ben stared at the man he'd revered as Vader, the most powerful of the Sith Lords, standing there in a Jedi's robes. "I don't understand."
"I know what it's like to have Palpatine's voice in your head. But he wasn't the only one there."
The sea spray on Ben's face hid the tears that filled his eyes as he realized why he knew Anakin's voice. "The call to the Light."
His grandfather nodded. "It's about balance, Ben. Always has been. Dark, Light. You, Rey. If you want to finish what I started, you need to help her keep the Dark Side from blotting out everything else."
Ben looked down at the cross-guard hilt in his hand. "I know what I have to do, but ..."
His voice trailed off, choked by the memory of when he'd last said those words.
"I should have died."
"Let Kylo Ren die. Rey killed him, like she had to. So the last Skywalker could rise."
Ben looked up to see a smile on Anakin's face. A mischievous twinkle lit his eyes as he nodded toward the lightsaber hilt.
"My master was always cross with me when I lost a lightsaber, but in this case I think it would be a good idea."
Ben's hand tighter around the heavy hilt with its fractured, bleeding crystal. He'd needed it, once. A way to lash out. To protect himself. To prove he was worthy of Darth Vader's dark legacy. No more.
Spinning around, Ben threw the lightsaber. It arced into the waves and sank from sight.
"There's another blade I'd rather see you wield. I'm sure she'll let you have it."
Ben turned around in time to see the pride in his grandfather's eyes fade to a look of sadness as Anakin's thoughts turned inward. The Jedi Master looked into him with such understanding that Ben knew, deep in his soul, that his grandfather felt exactly what it was like to carry the burden of unspeakable horrors you could never undo.
"Use my lightsaber better than I did."
Ben nodded. "I will."
A smile, this one tinted with sadness, returned to Anakin's face. "I know. And Ben? It's a lot easier to pass on what you've learned from this if you're not dead. I couldn’t save the woman I loved, and I wasn’t there for my children. But you still have that chance.”
Rey. The thought of her jolted through Ben like an electric shock. She was going after Palpatine. Ben started to sprint toward where he'd left his ship, then stopped. He didn't have one anymore. He looked to his grandfather.
Anakin smiled. "I'm sure we can find you something."
"I don't have the Wayfinder anymore."
"You won't need one. Just follow her. Finish what I started."
With that, the image of his grandfather faded from view, but Ben Solo no longer felt alone. He could feel his grandfather’s presence. He could sense his mother, looking over him as he shed his waterlogged outer tunic and headed into the wreckage to find a ship.
He left Kef Bir in an old Lambda-class Imperial shuttle and set the coordinates for the unnavigable stretch of space surrounding Exegol. He still didn't know he would get through it without a Wayfinder, but the restless feeling that would have normally accompanied such a problem was gone. There was calm, purpose, and focus such as he could never remember. It nestled around his mind like a shield, finally clearing it of the dark whispers that had plagued him from his earliest memories.
The shuttle dropped from hyperspace with a shudder that reminded him of the Falcon, the ship where his father taught him to fly. His throat tightened as he felt the memory-ghost of his father's hand touching his face the last time he'd seen him. When Kylo Ren killed him. Ben would have to confront that. To live with the deed that had torn him apart instead of sealing his path into darkness as he'd meant for it to do. But he couldn't let his thoughts go there now. Now he had to find Rey.