The leaders of the First Order and the leaders of the Resistance gathered in the council hall.
Ben and Rey came to join them. Ben saw his mother standing at the table and froze.
"Ben," Leia said softly.
"Mother." He whispered and walked toward her. She wrapped her arms around her son. The last time she had held him like this, he had looked up at her. Now she had to look up at him.
Rey smiled as she watched them reunited at last.
But they didn't have much time to be together, as the leaders of both sides began to fill the room. Rey stood on one side of Ben while Leia stood on the other.
"We may have stopped fighting." Said Hux. "But I will not join sides with the filthy Resistance."
"There are no sides." Said Ben. "I am the supreme leader, and I say that this war is over. And they are not filthy."
"And I am the General of the Resistance, and I also say that this war is over." Leia said looking meaningfully at a Resistance leader who had opened their mouth to agree with Hux that they could never live in peace with the First Order.
"Today marks the end of this war, the end of the First Order and the end of the Resistance. But it also marks the beginning of peace and balance for the galaxy." Said Rey.
"You are right, the time for peace and balance has come." Said an old man from the Resistance. "But we have had those things before, but they never last."
"What we need is a new form of leadership." Said Leia. "The Republic didn't work, the galaxy is just to big for everyone to agree all of the time. And it is too easy for evil to find its way into the council. But the Empire didn't work either, ruling the galaxy by oppressing the weak and innocent. What we need is someone who will rule the galaxy with compassion. Someone who can bring not only the First Order and the Resistance together. But the Light and Dark Sides of the Force together." She looked at Rey and Ben. "Rey and my son." She said.
Everyone nodded. They had been the one to bring peace in the first place, maybe they could keep it.
"Together you can rule the galaxy and keep peace and balance." Leia told them.
"But I can't rule the galaxy." Said Rey. She looked at Ben. "You're royalty and I'm no one." She told him.
"Not to me." He said, softly.
Rey smiled slightly.
"But how do we know that we can trust you? How do we know that the First Order isn't just trying to trick us?" One of the Resistance leaders asked Ben.
"Because Rey is your greatest warrior. The fate of the Resistance rests on her shoulders. And I love her. I love everything about her, including the side she has chosen, the Resistance. On the field of battle she and I are enemies. But because of a bond we share in the Force, we were able to spend time together off the battle field. We found that while we are very different in some ways we are also the same in others. We found that we could be friends. We encourage members of the First Order and members of the Resistance to come together off of the battlefield. You will find that you are not as different as you think."
He looked at FN-2187 who stood next to two Resistance members, Poe and Rose. "And that you can even become friends."
Finn knew that he was talking about him, and he nodded.
"But how do we know that they can work together. How do we know that they won't start fighting each other again tomorrow?" Asked a member of the Resistance.
"Because we love each other." Said Ben.
"That scavenger scum killed our supreme leader, why should we fallow her?" Hux asked.
Ben stepped toward him, towering over him. "She isn't scum." He said. "And she didn't kill the supreme leader. I did."
Hux's face grew angry. But everyone else just looked on in shock. Ben looked around at the assembled group of leaders. "I killed Snoke to save Rey's life." He admitted.
Finn, Poe and Rose exchanged surprised glances. They had misjudged him, they had never expected him to risk his life to save Rey. They realized that if he had killed Snoke for her, then he must really care about her.
"Then you are a traitor!" Said Hux.
"Snoke was just using us, and you know it." Said Ben. "I was tired of him taking away everything that I love."
"Well how do you know that she isn't just using your compassion for her to get power?" Hux asked.
"Because, after I killed Snoke to save her, I asked her to rule the galaxy at my side but she refused." Said Ben. "If she wanted power, she would have accepted it the first time it was offered to her."
Hux could think of no reply. He was not used to anyone doing anything selflessly. In his world, sacrifices were only made for personal gain.
"I know how to resolve this." Said Leia. "The First Order doesn't trust the Resistance. And the Resistance doesn't trust the First Order. But if form an alliance than we can learn to trust and rely on each other."
Everyone nodded.
"I am sure that I can speak for the whole Resistance, when I say that we all trust Rey." She said.
All of the members of the Resistance nodded their agreement. Poe, Finn and Rose cheered. Rey was their friend and they trusted her with their lives. In fact their lives had often times depended upon her, and she had never let them down.
"And I believe that most of the First Order has a respect for Kylo Ren." She used his title that he had used to help bring the First Order into power to remind all of them what they owed to him.
The members of the First Order nodded, except Hux. They knew that he had killed Snoke, but Snoke while well respected amount the First Order, was not loved by those who were forced to fallow him. And many of them had felt his wrath first hand.
"Then we shall unite the First Order and the Resistance, by uniting your supreme leader and our greatest warrior together in marriage."
Both sides cheered. Rey and Ben just stared at Leia in shock.
She looked at both of them and giggled at their red cheeks. "If they are willing." She added.
Ben took a deep breath. He knew that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. He had known it since that night when they had touched hands. He knew that he could never love anyone the way he loved her. That had been why he had offered the galaxy. But know he knew that that wasn't what she wanted. He turned and looked at her. He wanted nothing more than to marry her and be with her for the rest of their lives. He didn't care where he had to go or what he had to do, as long as he was with her. Even if she wanted return to Jakku and become a scavenger again, he would go with her. He didn't like the thought of living in a desert spending everyday looking for scraps just so he could have a little food. But if that was what she wanted, then he would do it. As long as he could be with her.
He knelt down in front of her, and took her hand. He looked up at her with dark pleading eyes. "Rey, I love you." He said. "I love you with all of my heart. And I don't want to live without you. I don't want to rule the galaxy without you. But if that's not what you want, then I won't ask it of you. I will do anything for you. I will go wherever you want to go. If you want to go back to Jakku and become a scavenger again then I will join you. I will be happy anywhere as long as I'm with you."
Leia wiped tears from her eyes as she realized how much he loved her. He had spent his whole life trying to get power, and now that he had it he was willing to give it up for her.
There were tears in Rey's eyes too.
"Rey, I promise that I will love you forever and I will never leave you. I promise that you will never be alone."
"Neither will you." She answered.
"Will you marry me?" He asked.
Rey looked around the room at all of the faces, they were all waiting for her reply.
"Rey," Ben whispered, and she looked down at him. "This is your choice, your's alone. I want you to be happy. And no matter what you choose, I will still love you. And I will never break my promise to you. Even if you say no, I will always be there when you need me. And when your lonely I'll be there to listen."
Rey looked into his eyes. She knew she couldn't live without him, she just didn't think that she was worthy to rule the galaxy. She was no one. But as she looked into his eyes, she knew that he would love her even if she didn't want to rule the galaxy. "I promise to love you forever." She whispered. "And I want to marry you." She said. Then she leaned down and kissed his lips.
A moment later he stood. He took Rey's hand and led her outside he needed to talk to her alone. They walked hand in hand to a banister and looked out at the water.
"Where do you want to go?" Ben asked. "I will go wherever you want to go."
"I know," she answered. "But I want you to be happy too." She said. "What do you want?"
He ran his fingers through her soft hair. "I just want to go home." He said. "And they say that home is where your heart is. So that could be anywhere in the galaxy as long as you're with me. So wherever you want to go, I will be happier than I have ever been."
Rey smiled at him. Then she looked back at the water. "Certainly not Jakku." She said. "I wouldn't send my worst enemy there."
Ben wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her playfully. "I thought I was your worst enemy." He said smirking.
She smirked back. "That's exactly the reason I can't send you there." She teased.
"It seems the war isn't over after all." He replied, in a joking way.
But Rey's face grew serious. "That's what I'm worried about." She said, in a solemn voice.
"Rey, you know that I will never hurt you." He looked at a cut on her upper arm from their earlier battle and felt a stab of guilt. He tore a corner of his shirt and began to wrap it around her arm gently. "Never again." He said.
Rey watched as he carefully bandaged her arm. She couldn't help but smile slightly. Earlier that day, when his lightsaber had given her the cut, she hadn't imagined that he would be the one to bandage it. He looked up to meet her eyes. "I wasn't talking about us." She said gently.
He looked at her for a moment then returned her attention to bandaging her arm.
"Do you think that the balance will last without us? Will the First Order and the Resistance be able to work together if we're not there to keep peace."
"I don't know." He answered, as he finished her bandage.
She moved to stand in front of him. "I don't really want to rule the galaxy, but I think it's our destiny. Your's and mine."
"Rey, I don't want you to do anything that you don't want to do." He told her.
"I didn't want to leave Jakku, or become a Jedi but it was my destiny. When I first met you I didn't want to have anything to do with you."
"You wanted to kill me." He interrupted.
She nodded, there was no point in denying it. She looked into his eyes. "And now I don't want to live without you." She said. "We don't choose our destiny, Ben, it chooses us. There's been enough death."
He nodded. "I just want you to be happy." He said.
"I will always be happy, as long as you're with me." She whispered, stepping closer to him and slipping into his arms.
"Rey, are you afraid?" He asked.
"Of what?"
"Having the whole galaxy depend on you."
"Yes, but I know that I won't be alone." She answered. She sighed deeply.
"What's wrong?" He asked.
"I don't deserve any of this. I don't deserve to be with you or to rule the galaxy." She answered. "You come from the Skywalker family, you're royalty. Your mother was a princess. And I am just a scavenger. My parents were no ones, they threw me away."
"Rey, you're parents might not have thought that you were important, but you're important to the Resistance, and to the galaxy. And to me you are everything, I never would have come back." He said. "You don't choose your destiny, it chooses you."
Three days later, the courtyard was full of members of the Resistance and the First Order. But this time they were not meeting in battle, they were meeting for the wedding of Rey and Ben. And the union of the First Order and the Resistance.
Spending the happy occasion together, they realized that they were in fact not as different as they had thought.
As Rey and Ben were united, the galaxy and even the Force itself was united.
From that day forward, Rey and Ben ruled the galaxy with compassion, and kept peace and balance. The Force finally had the balance it longed for, and the people had a peace they had never dreamt possible.
Rey and Ben spent a happy life on Naboo, training a new generation of Force users, who were neither Jedi nor Sith.
