Conflicted: A Reylo Fanfic

Epilogue

Rey watched as the starlines outside the viewport receded into distant points of light, a pale grey planet hovering directly ahead. She felt Ben sigh next to her and she looked toward him sympathetically.

"I hate this planet," he moaned, complaining yet again that Crait had been designated the official meeting site.

"Are all the memories here really that awful?" she asked slyly.

Ben smiled at her, taking her hand and pressing it to his lips affectionately. He didn't answer the question, but Rey didn't need him to. She knew his thoughts on the matter and it wasn't the first time that she'd reminded him that not only had he saved her life, but she'd also fallen in love with him here. Nevertheless, she understood those weren't the first memories to assail him when he thought of the planet. It had taken some doing to get him to agree to this location, and Rey had finally had to ask him if his reluctance was really worth the risk of losing the progress they had made.

It had been just under a standard lunar month now since the Battle of the Force, as it had quickly come to be called. A bit melodramatic for Rey's taste, but she supposed the title had its merits. After much discussion, she and Ben had concluded that their children's primal access to the energy that binds all life in the galaxy had drawn some sort of consciousness from the Force itself inside Rey's body, inhabiting her for the time it took to dispel the soul that occupied Cerisse. What had proven more fruitless a quest was determining the actual identity of that soul she had dispatched. They knew it was the same that had lain within Snoke's body for countless years, but they also knew that it was not the essence that had originally inhabited him. They didn't know who Snoke had originally been, nor who the soul was that had manipulated Ben to the Dark Side from within his form. These details were simply lost to history and time. But, clearly, whoever it had been, the Force itself had had enough of its machinations, and taken advantage of the opportunity Rey and her unborn children presented to eradicate it.

The story of what transpired in Cerisse's throne room had spread quickly, and quite deliberately. Recognizing the precarious hold Kylo Ren now possessed over the throne of the New Galactic Empire, it had been necessary to act swiftly to secure it. Thanks to Phasma and Li'iria and a few well-placed rumors, the story of Rey's triumph over Cerisse soon became common knowledge. Every now and then, stories came back to either Rey or Ben that evidenced the tale had taken on a life of its own, acquiring new and ever more terrifying details that further heightened the god-like status Rey had attained in many eyes. This potent rumor mill, along with a few unfortunately necessary demonstrations of Rey and Ben's mutual power and refusal to endure challenges to their authority, had done its work. Now, less than thirty standard solar days later, their mutual hold on the Imperial throne was absolute.

Which was important, since the next step was to dissolve it.

Rey knew that Ben's Dark Side had tempted him more than once to suggest that they needn't rid the galaxy of the Empire altogether, that they could in their well-intentioned benevolence create a powerful and peaceful society. While she knew his heart was in the right place, she also knew it was far too great a risk, and the stern looks she threw at him when he started thinking such things clearly conveyed her thoughts on the matter. In the end, Ben never voiced the suggestion, knowing it to be a deeply faulty idea. Even if they made such a commitment and adhered to it devoutly, they would not live forever. The prospect of someone after them taking advantage of such absolute power was simply something they couldn't risk. They didn't know what the right solution was yet, but they knew Imperial rule wasn't it.

The cease fire established by both the Empire and the Resistance that day had held, but not without its wrinkles. Both sides had experienced minor uprisings in protest of the proposed peace, fringe elements who were so committed to constant strife that they could not imagine any other way. Ben had been forced to put Hux down permanently in one such event. But in all cases, Ben and Rey had maintained open communications with Poe and other Resistance leaders. Although tensions had at times risen quite high and the prospect of peace occasionally seemed unobtainable, they had managed to work through the various difficulties. But, until now, all their interaction had been remote, delivered from their respective sides of the galaxy, separation being the safest bet. The agreements to be hashed out here, already dubbed the Treaty of Crait, would lay the foundation for the political structure of the united galaxy going forward.