Be With Me - Reylo (TRoS alternate ending)

Chapter Two

"Ben?" Rey breathed, unable to believe it, her mind sluggishly catching up to the reality she was seeing in front of her. She threw her helmet off so it landed beside her in the seat. "How?"

"Good question, one that I only partially know the answer to myself." He seemed so much lighter in his stance, in his eyes, everything about him seemed to have lost so much tension. It was truly wonderful to see. She smiled at him, and he bounced his back off the X-wing and smiled up at her.

"My mother, she was dying." His gaze and his voice softened.

"Leia," Rey whispered.

"Like Luke did all that time ago, she was pushing herself across the universe to say goodbye."

A tear slipped from Rey's eye. She hastily wiped it away. She had cried too much recently. Ben climbed the still lowered ladder until he was centimetres away from her. "She did more than that. She stayed with me, in my head the whole time, and then when I- well, you know..."

"When you gave me your life force?" She smiled, still looking down at him. It was strange looking down at him like this.

"Yes," Ben said, never looking away from her face. "When I gave my life, she gave me hers. I'd already faded at that point, and it took some time to fully happen, what with being so far away. So I called to you, and you wouldn't listen."

So carefully, so gently, as if he had all the time in the world and there wasn't a planet collapsing around them, he reached out a shaking hand to tuck a loose hair behind her ear.

"And then suddenly I could see you running at the ship, and it was like dying but backwards. And then I was here." His hand had slowly traced down her cheek, brushing away dirt and blood. It was the tiniest breath of touch, barely even there, but it crept its way down her face, and he looked at her, really looked at her, and the smallest of smiles crossed his face, and Rey was happy. At some point he must have climbed another few rungs on the ladder because his hand was under chin and he was closing his eyes and tilting her head up and she was closing her hers and-

BANG!

An explosion sounded directly above their hands, making them jump away from each other.

"Get in that fighter," she shouted over the crumbling and fire around them. He was already leaping off the ladder. He turned to look at her as the ground shook and more debris fell around them.

Rey tried to say something but no words could begin to say what she needed to. He seemed to understand, though. That small, new smile of his appeared again and he nodded, and then she was in the air, up, up and away from that terrible place that so many good things had come out of.

Dodging flaming remnants from both First Order and Resistance ships, she made it into the air. She connected to the comms, hearing Poe's voice telling them all to get out of there now that she was in the air.

Looking down, she didn't see Ben's fighter.

~~~

She landed smoothly on the ground, the bright, clean sunlight such a relief after the flashing blue light of the Emperor's chamber. Her grandfather's chamber.

No. I won't think about that now.

She pulled the helmet off and watched hundreds of people rejoice in their freedom, hugging all their sorrow and pain away.

People were kissing and throwing themselves at each other, wounds and loss forgotten as the Resistance basked in its final victory.

She jumped from her ship, knowing that she would now have to mask her feelings as she greeted those around her, pretending to be overjoyed when all she wanted was to curl up on the ground somewhere quiet and not feel anything at all.