The Return of Ben

Chapter One: "He is not here with me..."

Crushing silence.

Rey listened for the wind, which always blew across the deserts of Jakku, but tonight each grain of sand rested. Not even the night insects could be heard. Or had she lost her hearing?

Rey shifted in her small cot. The sound of her thin blanket and her scavenger clothes rubbing together filled the silence. So she hadn't lost her hearing. She closed her eyes to shut out the soft moon glow coming in from the small round windows. Coming back to Jakku had felt like the right thing to do, a way to start over, from the beginning and erase everything that had happened since she'd met Kylo Ren. It was a silly thought, but she wanted to pretend she could just continue where she'd left off, a scavenger girl on a desert planet. It was the one thing she knew well. But the dreams and regrets had followed her home.

Rey's chest constricted at the thought of Ben. It was a pain as much physical as it was emotional. She had seen him, for the first and last time, for such a fleeting moment, when the facade he'd created, the intruding personality of Kylo Ren wrought from the hardships of all he'd been through, had fallen away completely and Ben had appeared, smiling. Smiling at her as though seeing her for the first time. There, in that smile, she'd seen her other half, the partner who had always been waiting, and asking her to join him this whole time.

"We are a dyad in the Force. Two that are one..." Ben's voice filled her thoughts. His voice always seemed to fill her thoughts now, at unexpected times, but especially at night when things became too quiet, too still. She remembered everything he had ever said to her, etched in her brain like ancient prophecies.

"When I offer you my hand again, you'll take it."

Rey clutched her thin blanket tighter. She now understood what he'd meant. He'd meant that he would do what he'd not had the strength to do before, renounce the dark side and join with her. And then, she would finally take his hand. But now he was gone.

Rey's chest tightened even more and this time she let out a small sob, waking D-0, who was recharging but still alert to potential danger. The little robot tilted it's duck-like head up, assessed her with an unseen eye behind the grate in front of his tiny face, then, satisfied that she was fine and there was no danger, shut back down again.

Tonight the presence of her tiny new friend didn't offer the comfort it had the previous nights since she'd arrived. The darkness that threatened to overtake her with grief crushed her. It was never Palpatine, or an army of flying storm troopers, or a space battle, that would end her, but this, this regret, this sadness, this hurt. She'd lost her true family, when she'd lost Ben. They really could have been a dyad in the Force, as he'd wanted.

A shifting of the curtains.

Rey sat up.

The curtains made no sound and Rey held her breath. There was no breeze. The tiny round windows of her rented place remained closed, as did the make-shift door at the front of the cabin. Yet the curtains moved as though someone had set them aside to step into the room, and the scent of cloudflower soap drifted through the cabin.

"Leia..." Rey's voice sounded dry, desperate; but she knew Leia heard her. The dark mood in the room lifted and relief washed over her. 

A tear rolled down Rey's cheek. Leia was here, somewhere between this reality and the next. But Rey couldn't see her, she could only sense her healing presence, a Force energy similar to the one Ben had used to heal her, from death itself.

The light from the moons outside filtered in through the curtains, which had now stopped moving. Leia came and left. If only there was a way to communicate with her, when needed, to hear her voice, the way Rey had heard Luke when she'd been in Palpatine's throne room, when she'd needed help the most. She'd heard all of the Jedi voices, clearly. And their words had strengthened her. They all continued on in the Force. A Jedi never truly ended. The Jedi's of ages past were still to this day invested in the goings on of the living, who were still stuck in this reality. But bridging that gap seemed to be random, or when in dire need.

Was she in dire need now? Rey listened for a moment longer but even Leia's sent had disappeared now. 

"Is Ben with you now?" she whispered into the still night. Now that the black hole in her chest had lifted, she was free to finally sleep and her body instantly grabbed hold of the opportunity. As she drifted away, she heard these words, whispered through one realm to the next, "He came here with me, but he is not with me now... perhaps he is still with you."

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Author's Note: Hello everyone! I'm back <3  Feel free to discuss the details of the latest movie in comments throughout, as the topics from The Rise of The Skywalker appear in the story. I've only seen the movie once so far, so some of my details may be off and if they are, I will try to fix them later (or you can let me know). I'm excited to take this journey with you guys!

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