Be With Me

Chapter 2

"Leia," Rey whispered sitting up as the former Resistance General made her way to her, her blue, transparent figure lighting up Rey's dim room.
"Rey, what's wrong?" she asked, her brows furrowed. "I sensed you were distressed, so I came to talk." Leia stared at Rey, waiting for an answer as she struggled where to start.
There was so much Rey wanted to tell Leia. She wanted to tell her about her bond with her son Ben and how Ben had saved her from Snoke, how Ben had turned to the light after years of struggling on the dark side and how he had rushed to her side when she had faced Palpatine.
But even though there was so much to say, Rey couldn't help but replay that one fatal memory in her head that had torn her apart in the first place.
Ben's death.
The sight of Ben fading in her arms was branded into Rey's mind. Every time she shut her eyes she saw him fall back and fade away. And it never hurt any less than when she had to witness it not so long ago.
Tears began to trickle down Rey's cheeks as she took a deep breath to tell Leia what had been on her mind ever since she left Exegol. "It's Ben."
"What about Ben?" Leia asked searching Rey's face, concern breaking through the softness of her voice.
Rey tried to steady her breathing as she told Leia in between soft sobs, "He saved me, Leia. He brought me back when I died after killing Palpatine, but... I couldn't..." she paused shaking her head at the memory burning behind her eyelids, "I couldn't bring him back. And I've been trying to talk to him like we are right now, trying to reach out to him so he could find me, but he won't come and I'm starting to believe he does not want to see me because I couldn't save his life like he had mine. Because I hadn't noticed his life fleeing from him. I hadn't noticed his life slipping through my fingers."
Leia softly shook her head, staring at Rey's hands and then into her eyes. "Rey," she began sadly, "Ben isn't with us. He isn't among the Force Ghosts."
"What?" Rey asked in disbelief. "But he faded away. I saw it. And I can't feel his presence in the Force anymore like I always could."
Leia eyed Rey, contemplating. She knew her son hadn't become one with the Force, she knew because she hadn't felt him either, not like Luke or their father, and she also knew that if Rey could not sense her son's presence anymore, that he wasn't among the living. But Leia also knew there was another place she had heard about in stories where Ben could be. A place that would explain why her son wasn't dead and why Rey could not find him.
Yet she didn't want to be too hopeful. After all, she didn't know if that place even existed.
"Leia, what's wrong?" Rey asked concerned.
She sighed, looking at Rey's tear-stained face. "There's a possibility that Ben isn't really gone."
Rey's eyes lit up with curiosity at Leia's words. "What do you mean?"
"I'm saying that it may be possible that Ben is stuck in the Vergence Scatter, the world between worlds,"  she told her.
"I've read about that place in my journals," Rey mentioned hopefully, "It's a place that exists within the Force and serves as a collection of doors and pathways that existed between time and space, linking all moments of time together. The entrance is a painting in the Jedi Temple on the planet Lothal. And you really think Ben could be there?"
"I think there is a possibility, but the temple has been destroyed a long time ago, meaning that the entrance to the world between worlds doesn't exist anymore either," Leia pointed out.
Rey frowned and furrowed her brows, clearly frustrated. "But... there has to be another way. There has to be another way to bring him back. Another way to access the Vergence Scatter. There just has to be."
Leia shook her head, frowning. She was sad that she couldn't help Rey any further. "Rey, I know you want him back, but please don't get your hopes up. I have always wished that Ben could live a happy life, get married and possibly have a family of his own, but if there is no way to get him back through the world between worlds, then there is no other way other than to wait until you are both reunited in the Force," Leia said with a sad smile.
Rey nodded, understanding what Leia was telling her. "Thank you, Leia, for your help."
"Always," Leia responded, placing a transparent hand on Rey's before vanishing into the Force again, leaving Rey to recap what Leia had just told her until she came to a conclusion.
Even though Leia had told her to not get her hopes up, there still was hope.
Hope that she could get Ben back.
Ben, her dyad in the Force, her other half.
Ben, the man she loved.
And Rey needed to try her best to bring him back.
With her mind set, Rey grabbed her journals and started her research on other possible ways to gain access to the world between worlds.
And she wouldn't stop until she found a way to bring him back to her.