The Force of the Dyad

~Chapter 3 ~ A Renewed Hope

"Ben! Ben!" Rey gasped. It WAS Ben, and he seemed to be a force ghost; yet, not like any force ghost she has ever witnessed or heard tale of. He was solid and clearly defined, exactly himself, with his own coloration, dark hair and sparkling eyes, except for his overall faint blue glow. He was tangible, she could feel him, touch him! Her mouth agape, she slowly tried to process the evidence of his presence before her, cradling her as they lay upon her bed. His firm chest, his broad shoulders, his muscular arms... she looked up, into his dear face and met his intense, penetrating gaze. He was wearing the black sweater he had on when she had seen him last, but clean and fresh smelling, like his skin... what he had worn when he had vanished in her arms... How was he here?? She wrapped her hands around his neck, and looked with loving disbelief at the smiling, tender expression on his face, into his passionate eyes, inches away from hers.

"Rey, my darling! Rey, I'm...." He could say no more, as she pulled him in for a kiss, entwining her body with his. For a long time, all that was heard between the soft sounds of their kissing was their tremulous, emotional voices whispering "Ben!", "Rey!", "Ben, my dear Ben!", "My sweet Rey!"

His lips and body were pleasantly cool, which was a good counterpart to her feverish heat. Finally, she pulled her lips gently away from his, and looked up into his face; her head resting upon his arm, his arms wrapped around her, his hands upon her waist and entwined in her hair. She lifted up her own hands to tenderly stroke his cheek and brush back his thick waves, and simply said, "How?"

"How am I here? Nothing could keep me away!" Ben smiled into her eyes. 

"But I can feel you, kiss you, although I saw you go, just three days past! There is nothing at all like this in the Jedi Texts!" Her voice was shaky and rushed, as her words came out faster and faster, "I know Master Skywalker was able to use the force, even in his Force Ghost form... but he wasn't like this! How is this possible? How can you be YOU?! How long do we have, is this like our bridged minds of the past, one moment together and the next alone?!" Rey finally stopped to catch her breath. Her mind was a tumultuous jumble of mixed up half thoughts and alternating feelings. At her last words she clung to him tightly, shuddering, worrying that he would disappear any moment, as he had done in her arms just three days ago. Tears started in her eyes and trickled down her cheeks, pooling on Ben's muscled blue bicep.

"Rey, this isn't like anything that has ever happened before," Ben's deep, comforting voice replied, wiping away the trace of a tear off her cheek gently with his finger. "I can't fully explain to you how I know, but you and I are unique. We are a force dyad... true soulmates. This bond would have been strong enough for me to visit you easily in force form from time to time, if I had passed on before you... but Rey, when you transferred some of your life force to me at the ruins of the Death Star, you became PART of me. And when I gave you my remaining life force on Exegol so that you would live, I became part of YOU. I live IN you so I cannot fully die. You live in me so I'm here, tangible and clear to you. Nothing like this has ever happened in the history of all the galaxies. As long as you are alive, I can be with you, but in this form." He held her close, and they lay there, breathing together, deep in thought, for a few moments, before he continued. 

"It took me three days to make my journey through the force, and even begin to understand it... three days for you, but it felt like an eternity to me. Eventually, I met many Jedi who had become one with the force before me." Ben paused, and his face grew solemn, "Rey... I saw my grandfather. The visions I had experienced in my youth, of Darth Vader, were the mind tricks of Snoke. Anakin Skywalker was not what I expected, elegant, refined... good. He was a passionate man who knew more struggle than I. What passed between us is to stay in the realm of the Force. I was so deluded and blind, during my time as Kylo Ren... the thought is bitter to me. Yet I am at peace! How else could I be? I still don't understand it all. It is impossible to explain in its entirety, you won't be able to comprehend it until you go through it yourself... death... and until that day I am here with you, living with you, and through you."

"So you won't leave me again, suddenly, alone?" Rey tearfully asked. "I'm afraid you're stuck with me Rey," he tenderly said. "You are not alone, and will never be alone again. I am a part of you; and a part of both worlds. Not fully here, my life force has been too damaged and broken, but because of you my darling, the force has filled in the broken cracks of my soul, to keep me here. I can pass into the force, at will... even if I do go, willingly, into the force for any reason, our minds will stay connected, you will be able to hear me and I you."

Rey was still speechless in her happiness, she felt she was in a dream, she just held him, listening, pressing her lips into his neck, his shoulder, breathing him in. He paused again, sorrow furrowing his brow. "Rey... during the three days that passed for you, I heard you when you cried out for me, as if I was in a never ending nightmare, with you calling out my name in such heartrending tones. Your tears soaking me like rain. Time for me dragged on and on, endlessly. It seemed I had never known anything but the pain of losing you. I felt you wanting me. I knew you couldn't sense me. I thought it was my hell, my punishment, for what I had done, and maybe it was. Your cries and your tears, constantly in my head, with the memory of our kiss, remembrance of that fleeting moment when you were mine, it was torture Rey.

After what seemed an eternity, the Jedi found me, and explained it all... then showed me the way to come back to you. And here I am." He leaned in and kissed her forehead, leaving his lips there, eyes closed, at peace. Rey finally was starting to believe that this was real, and Ben was really back; she sighed and closed her eyes as well.

After some time, Rey looked up at Ben, a gentle smile in her eyes. "So how does this work exactly? Can anyone else see you? Or only me? People will think I'm hallucinating, talking to the air! I'm not positive that I'm not, this may be nothing but a crazy, beautiful, fever dream." Her smiling eyes filled with tears as her lip trembled. Ben kissed away her tears, then the trembling off her lips. Finally, looking thoughtful, he replied to her question. "I believe, if I understand this right, no one will see me but you, unless I allow them too. It may take some effort on my part to reveal myself to others... with you, it's as effortless as breathing used to be... but I haven't tested that theory out yet." He drew her closer,  solemnly pledging, "Rey, I'm here, you are my savior, I'm part of you forever, and I love you with all my soul."

"Ben..." Rey spoke softly. "I never confessed to you just how deeply and for how long I have loved you.  I've been yours for so, so long. Ben... it tortured me to see you looking at me, wanting me, and not being able to respond... Ben, even at the first moment I saw your face, when you removed your mask in the interrogation room...." As she said this, Ben winced a little at the memory, regretful for some much of the past, and looked at her broodingly, with sadness in his eyes.

"From that moment Ben, I was shaken to my very core. I expected to see the hideous, ghastly face of my worst enemy, and instead I saw my own self. I'm convinced my soul knew yours, that I had seen your face often in my dreams. I tried to fight against it as long as I could, I was in denial; but the way you looked at me...! Oh Ben...! I didn't know until much later, how much I truly loved you."

Ben kissed her then, a deep, long, reverential kiss, and pulled away slowly. He had never felt so free, raw and vulnerable, and he relished the feeling of ecstasy it gave him. They were both truly themselves. "Rey... I was wrong then, in almost every way," he confessed. "I shudder and abhor myself when I remember..." Rey interrupted him then, covering his lips with her fingertips.

"You kept telling me to let the past die, to let it all die Ben. And although you may have been severely misguided in so many ways, brainwashed by the evil ones who had been shadowing your entire life since your infancy, your advice then is useful now... let us agree to only remember the parts of the past that is a pleasure to think of, and to let all the rest of it die, and drift away into oblivion."

She then placed her cheek upon his cool, blue chest and felt his very real sounding heartbeat steadily pound against her face, reassuring her. Ben rested his chin upon her head and they both lay there for a long, long time, inhaling the scent of each other, their grateful hearts overflowing with emotion.

... to be continued.