Star Wars Episode IX: Force Link ✔️ (Editing)

Because I Love Rey

Later, that night after the celebration had began to die down, Leia, Ben and Rey sat together in the sitting room of the suite that had been given to Princess Leia.
They had been talking about little things, how beautiful Naboo was, the stars, and the celebration. But they all knew that that wasn't what they had come here to talk about.
They all became quite, none of them knowing how to start the conversation. Leia looked at her son's face for a long moment. She hadn't seen his dark eyes in so long, but she had never forgotten them. She had never forgotten the deep sorrow that always seemed to linger behind them.
She looked at the scar on his face and her heart broke at the thought of her son going through such pain. She gently touched it with her thumb. "Did it hurt?" She asked.
"A little," he said, but she was his mother and she knew that it hurt more than he was admitting.
Leia's eyes filled with anger. "Did Snoke do this to you?" She asked.
Ben looked at Rey, she looked away, feeling guilty again.
"It was my own doing." Said Ben.
Leia looked at him puzzled.
"I deserved it." He said. Tears filled his eyes. His voice shuddered. "I...I... k..."
"I already know." Leia interrupted, so that he wouldn't have to say it.
"I killed Han Solo, I killed my father." He whispered, he had to admit what he had done wrong. He covered his face with his hands and began to cry.
Leia rubbed her son's back, gently like she had done when was upset he was a little boy. "Ben, I don't blame you for Han's death. I blame Snoke. He has always tormented you, and filled you with darkness. Even before you were born I felt his presence consuming you. He has always controlled you."
Rey looked at Leia surprised that Snoke had been pouring darkness into Ben since before he was born. She remembered the terrifying feeling of having Snoke inside her mind. Had Ben felt that his whole life? As she looked at Ben, she knew that he had. Now she understood why he was the way he was, he had experienced deep pain his whole life.
If Snoke suddenly appeared before her in this moment, she would kill him for what he had done to Han, and to Ben. She tried to push the dark thoughts of what she would do to Snoke if she saw him now out of her mind, but it wasn't easy. She looked over at Ben, at least he was free from Snoke now.
"But, I wasn't strong enough to overcome him. If only I had been stronger." Said Ben.
"Ben, Snoke would have killed you if you didn't obey him. Your father knew that, and that was why he sacrificed himself to save you. He loved you enough to give up his life. The only thing you can do now is live on the Light Side and live a life that would make your father proud." Said Leia.
"I don't know if I can do that." Said Ben.
"You already are." Leia replied, hugging him. "You came home to me. That's all Han would have wanted."
Ben nodded. "I'm sorry that I wasn't strong enough to do it sooner." He said.
"You just needed someone to pull you out of the darkness and into the light." Said Leia, as she looked at Rey.
"Yes, I did." Ben agreed.
"So, how did you bring Ben back?" Leia asked.
"My whole life, I have felt a connection, a bond, a link to someone far away. Someone I had never met, but who I knew because of the bond we shared. I used to have dreams and visions of a boy." Rey began.
"Ben?" Leia asked.
Rey nodded.
"I had dreams and visions of her too." Said Ben.
"Is she the girl you told me about, the one you always spoke to in your dreams?" Leia asked.
Ben nodded. "We are connected through the Force." He explained, even though Leia already knew it.
"And I remember hearing a voice speaking to me, while I was alone on Jakku." Said Rey.
"What did it say?" Leia asked curiously.
Rey looked at Ben, who was blushing. "I'll come back sweetheart. I promise." She said, shyly.
A smile touched Leia's lips. She looked at Ben, about to ask if he had said that to her. But as she saw the embarrassment on his face, she knew that he had.
"When I came to Takodanna with Han Solo, Kylo Ren captured me in the forest." Said Rey. "When I regained consciousness I found myself in an interrogation room, strapped to a chair knelt before me was the dark masked figure of Kylo Ren. He tried to get me to give him the map to Luke, because I had seen it."
She looked at Ben who was looking down. She could tell that he was feeling guilty about the time that he captured her.
"But he didn't torture me." She added, she too could sense his guilt. "I wouldn't give up the map, so he looked in my mind."
"But when I did, I didn't see the map. I saw how lonely she was. I saw that she was as lonely as I was." He said.
"When he went into his mind, the Force awoken within me. It was almost as if his training became mine." She said. "But I also saw his greatest fear, that he would never be as strong as Darth Vader."
Leia looked at Ben, who was staring at a wall in order to avoid making eye contact with her.
"That was when our connection began to grow stronger." Said Rey.
Ben nodded. His whole life he had been searching for Rey. He had promised her that he would come for her. And he tried, but he had been searching in all the wrong places. When he first met her in the forest, he had thought that she might be the girl he had always dreamed about, but he wasn't sure, not until he saw her wield his grandfather's lightsaber, just as she had in his dreams. He was glad that he had finally found her, but it broke his heart that they had to be enemies. Now they were on the same side, just as he knew they were always meant to be.
"Before star killer base was destroyed, Kylo Ren and I had a duel. That was how he got the scar, I gave it to him." She admitted.
"It was Kylo Ren's doing, not your's." Ben told Rey.
She nodded, she knew that he didn't want her to feel guilty.
"Then I went to find Luke on Ach-to. I woke up one morning, and felt his presence, as if he was actually on the island with me." She said. "Then I actually saw him sitting in front of me."
"So she blasted me," Ben said, with a smirk. "But the blast went straight through me."
"I went out of the hut, and turned to find him standing there." She continued.
"You never answered my question." Said Ben. "Could you see my surroundings? I couldn't see your's, just you."
"I couldn't see your surroundings either," Rey admitted.
Ben smiled. "I thought it was just because I didn't want to see anything but you." He said.
Rey blushed. "Maybe it was." She said, she didn't want to admit it, but deep down she wanted to see him to.
Leia looked back and forth between them. She smiled, she could tell that they had feelings for each other. Ben was her son, and he couldn't hide it from her. And Leia had been young and in love just like Rey, once. She could see the same look in her eyes when she looked at Ben, that she had in her eyes when she looked at Han.
"Later I saw him again." Said Rey. "I called him a monster, but when I did he agreed with me. And when he did, he had sadness and honesty in his eyes. It made me want to understand him more."
Ben looked at her, surprised. He had never known that.
"Then we had another Force connection." She looked at Ben, who began blushing. Despite herself, she started blushing too.
"I was trying to understand him, so I asked him why he hated his father. But he said that he didn't hate his father, and I could tell that he was telling the truth. He said that you never stop needing your parents, I knew then that he still needed you, and Han. But that he also knew that I needed my parents, too. That was the thing that had always haunted me. They left me and never returned."
"I wanted to know who my parents were, so after our Force connection ended. I went into a dark hole on the island.
"I climbed down into the dark hole. I saw a row of reflections of myself. I knew that they were leading to what I had come to see. So, I followed the line of reflections, until I came to a mirror. I asked it to show me my parents. Two shadows appeared in the mirror and walked towards me. But as they came closer they merged into one, and I saw only myself. I have never felt so alone in my life.
"I climbed out of the dark hole and went to my hut. But after a few moments, Ben appeared to me again. I told what had happened to me and how lonely it had made me feel. He told me that I wasn't alone."
"And you told me that I wasn't alone either." Said Ben a small smile appeared in the corner of his lips. "She reached her hand out to me."
"I was trying to reach out to him, to pull him to the Light Side." She explained. "And I wanted to prove to him that he wasn't alone. But I also needed him."
"I needed you, too." He admitted.
"When our hands met, we could actually touch each other. Feel each other." Said Rey.
Leia was surprised, she had never known a connection in the Force to be so strong.
"When I touched Rey's hand it felt like nothing I have ever felt before, I hadn't expected to actually be able to touch her. I thought that our hands would just go right through each other, like the blasts did." He said.
"I thought the same." She agreed. "I only hoped that I would be able to feel you in some small way." She added shyly.
Ben nodded.
"When our hands touched, I saw Rey's past. I saw her parents. They abandoned her, sold her for drinking money. I never felt more anger towards anyone in my life. I realized how much pain she had actually went through." He said.
"I saw your future. I saw you as you are now, as Ben Solo." He smiled at her.
Leia had never seen her son smile so much, not even when he was a boy. She was grateful to Rey, not only for bringing her son back, but also for helping him to be truly free and truly happy for the first time in his life. She knew that Snoke had been tormenting him his whole life.
"I saw you and I fighting side by side." Rey continued. "And we have done just that."
"And we always will." He added.
She nodded. "After our Force connection ended... well more like got interrupted by Luke, I decided that no matter what I had to try to save Ben and bring him back to the Light Side." She said. "So I left Ach-to and headed for the First Order fleet. Once I arrived, Ben was waiting for me."
"I knew you were coming." He explained.
"While we were riding up an elevator, I told Ben that I saw his future and that I knew that he would turn." She went on.
"But I thought that she would be the one to turn." Said Ben.
"Then he brought me before Snoke. Snoke looked through all of my memories, as if he was flipping through the pages of a book. It was very painful." She said.
"I couldn't bear to watch, seeing you tortured by Snoke was far more painful than any form of torture he had ever given me. I would have gladly taken the worst form of torture he could have given me, just so that you could be free of the pain that he was causing you."
She reached over to grab his hand and gently squeezed it.
"It was then that my eyes were opened to how evil Snoke truly was. I had planned to save you since we touched hands. But in that moment, I knew what I had to do, I knew that I had to kill Snoke to save you, and to avenge my father." Said Ben, glancing at his mother. "Snoke knew that I cared about Rey, and that is why he ordered me to kill her. But I couldn't. I could feel Snoke in my mind, and I couldn't let him know my true intentions. So I thought only of destroying my true enemy. He thought it was Rey, but it was really him. As I moved the lightsaber in my hand, I twisted my wrist behind my back and moved Rey's lightsaber which sat next to him, and ignited, cutting Snoke in half."
"And as he drew his last breath, I felt his hold on me end." Said Rey.
Ben nodded. "I felt his hold on my mind end too." He said. "I had never felt so much freedom in all of my life."
"But our freedom didn't last long. Snoke's guards moved to surround us." Said Rey. "But we fought them together. It was almost as if we were one in that moment."
Ben nodded. "After we defeated Snoke, I asked Rey to join me... I'm sorry Rey. I only knew that we were meant to be on the same side, and I wasn't strong enough to leave the First Order, so I thought that meant that you had to join me."
"It's okay Ben. You were right, we are meant to be on the same side." She answered. "And I'm sorry that I left you. You don't know how guilty it made me feel because you almost died to save my life, and I just left you there. I promised myself that I would never leave anyone behind the way my parents left me. I became just like them."
"No you didn't Rey. You came back for me, you never gave up on me." Said Ben. "Besides, I deserved to be left behind, you were just an innocent little girl. The most wonderful person in the galaxy, and they sold you. But... to me you're worth more than all of the money in the galaxy. I don't understand why your parents couldn't see that."
Rey reached over and hugged him. "Thank you, Ben." She whispered.
When they broke their hug, Ben turned to look at his mother. "After I defeated Snoke, my nightmares stopped. But only briefly. They returned worse than before, every night I would dream that I killed Rey. Or... well, Kylo Ren did and I couldn't stop him."
"I had the same dreams." Said Rey. "I was angry with Ben, or Kylo I should say. I thought that he was causing the nightmares, but when we had a Force connection he told me that he had the same dream. I could see that he was just as afraid as I was, more so in fact."
"I didn't want to loose you Rey. And the fact that your death was caused by me was almost unbearable."
"It wasn't you Ben." She assured him. "It was just a dream.
"It just... felt so real." Said Ben.
"I know," Rey said gently. She didn't want to tell him that she had actually felt physical pain every time he killed her in one of their dreams. But Ben sensed it as she spoke the words. Their bond continued to grow stronger and she couldn't hide things like that from him now.
Ben gasped and his eyes grew wide. "You felt it didn't you? The pain, you felt it as if it was real."
Rey didn't know how to reply without making him feel guilty. "I..." She began.
He looked into her eyes, he could feel her emotions as if they were his own. "You did." He said. "I caused you to feel that pain."
"No you didn't. You had no control over those nightmares Ben. I don't know what caused it, but it wasn't you."
"I think I know." Said Leia and they both looked at her expectantly. "The Force. I think it was trying to show you what would happen if you didn't come back."
Ben nodded. "I think you're right." He said. "I saw my grandfather, Anakin Skywalker. He told me that he dreamt that my grandmother, Padme died. He tried to save her by turning to the Dark Side, but his actions only caused her death."
Tears poured down Leia's cheeks. "I never knew that."
Ben shook his head. "No one but Anakin and Padme did." He said. "My grandfather told me that the only thing that was strong enough to save Rey, my love for her. I turned to the Light Side because I love Rey." He looked down shyly.
"I know." Said Leia.
"You do?" Rey and Ben asked in unison.
Leia smiled. "I could see it in Rey's eyes. I have had a suspicion for a while that she had feelings for you. But after Rose told us that she thought the only way we could win was not to destroy what we hate but to save what we love. Rey told me that she hated Kylo Ren, but she knew that destroying him wasn't how we would win. She said that she had to save what she loved and I knew that she was talking about you."
Rey and Ben both began to blush, neither of them were really used to showing affection.
Leia came over and wrapped one arm around Rey, and the other around her son. She smiled and pulled them both close to her in a tight hug.
Rey and Ben were surprised, but they quickly return the hug.
"I'm happy for you." She said. She looked at Ben. He smiled back at her. "Nothing could make me happier than to see you smile." She said.
She turned to look at Rey. "Thank you Rey. You brought my son back, but you did so much more than that. I have never seen Ben so happy in all of his life."