Belonging. Star Wars story. Episode 10 X. Sequal to TROS.

15. Monsters

Finn touched and turned some of the pieces trying to fit them together. He looked up again.

"This definitely comes from the ledge. Just how to stick it together.." Finn looked around. There really was nothing to use, he couldn't even reach so high up. "It is the place where the Jedi will come back. I know it is." It wasn't even a feeling anymore, it was certainty. And the stalagmites around the place wasn't the best place to land.

"Maybe he will levitate down. Maybe..
No. He will fall and stick on one of these stalagmites if I won't think of something." There was small panic that started somewhere inside. Finn quickly walked around the cave one more time looking for something - anything that could help him. There was nothing except the the lighting bars.

-"Please, please, something... Help me.." Finn let the breath out.

-"Ok, ok. I have to calm down. Rey would try to calm down. Help. How can I get help." Finn tried to slow his breaths. And then he remembered one of the things, Rey had told him.

"Most of the things you can imagine are possible.
Force is everything you need to make them true."

-"Force! Of course! Force!" Finn smiled.

Finn walked back to the place in front of the ledge.
"I can do it."

He concentrated on all the pieces of broken ledge on the ground. For some time nothing happened but then some of the dust and smaller pieces started to move. They slowly floated up. Finn didn't get excited. He knew it will be hard job to stick everything together.

He tried to recall everything that Rey had told him about the Force. How it flows and surrounds everything, how it flows through him and her, and everyone, and everything. He tried to channel strength in him that Rey would be proud of. And slowly he succeeded.

There was not much time, but Finn knew he had to be patient. Rey had told him that in everything he do, he must try to be mindful, patient and calm, because chaos won't bring any positive results. And so he tried his best. He sat down on the floor, crossed his legs and concentrated on the pieces that were still on the ground and slowly, one by one, every single piece levitated up to the place of the ledge and started to putting themselves together.
The star pattern, that now without the light of the saber was invisible, put itself together. Every single piece slipped in its historical place, even the dust fitted in the cracks of the ledge.

Finn closed his eyes. He sat and waited.

"I'm here. I'm ready, Rey."

It was impossible to tell how long Finn sat like that, only that it couldn't be that long, because his muscles didn't yet ached. Around him air shifted and something changed in the tune of the Force. It seemed that it grew more dense. Little breaths of air blew through Finns hair, moving them.

Something was awakening. For a moment Finn got a terrible feeling, that something was wrong, that the darkness from his meditation had broken through, but he tried to ingnore it and kept concentraiting on ledge.

And just like that there was ligh everywhere. The light would blinded Finn if he had opened his eyes. It shone from all around, from the cracks in the wall, in the floor and in the ceiling. It came as if from another space and time. It felt as life itself.

Finn didn't yet open the eyes. He concentrated on the ledge and Force around him. And then he felt a presence. Someone who he didn't expect.

There was light and darkness around Ben.
He knew she was here and he had to come to her. Like she had come for him.
-"Be with me." He said.
-"Be with me!" He heard the answer.

Finn opened his eyes and looked up to the ledge.
He never could have imagined that the real monster here will be the one, that he was supposed to bring back from the dead.

-"Well, this is unexpected." Finn said and slowly let the ledge rock land on the ground. Rock slowly disintegrated in it's previous form- pieces of rocks and dust. Finn felt tired. As if he had ran a marathon. Or fought monsters. Or Banthas.

Ben stretched his hands through the dust beside him. "They're real. I am here." He took a handful of sand and lift it up and let it slide through his fingers.

-"Look, eeee... man.. Take my cloak." Finn got up and walked to completey naked Supreme leader of First Order that now sat in the dirt. Finn handed over his dark cloak. "These caves are shithole and you will want something on when we face the Gundarh, that's sleeping in our path out.
And one more thing, Rey told me to give you the message: she takes it now. You should know what it means."

-"Thank you." Ben answered and got up, slowly looking around and smiling inwardly "She takes it now. The hand that I gave her and that she rejected for too many times."

Finn felt confused. "Thank you!? Thank me? Wasn't this the guy who killed his own father without blinking the eye.."

When he had put the cloack on, Bens eyes landed on Finn.
-"What's up with you? You're different..
Why Rey sent YOU here?.. you are..
Force sensitive now." Ben quickly got to the conclusion. "I have a feeling I have missed much. How much time has gone since Exegol?"

-"Little more than a year. But we should be more quiet."

-"It is no use. He is already up." Ben was referring to the Gundark that was now starting to roar in the distance.

Ben had a strong sense of belonging. Something that this ex-Stormtrooper had was calling to him now. And when Finn turned and walked in front of Ben out of the stalagmite cave, Ben saw what could be the reason of this feeling.

"He have Reys lightsaber."

///

When they jumped into hyperspace Ben went to empty cargo hold and sat on the floor. He concentrated on the memories of their bond opening.

Like the time when Rey called him a monster and he asked her if Luke told her what really happened on the day, when he destroyed the Jedi temple. The rain from Ahch-To on his face after the bond closed.

He switched his thoughts to next time they met.
The first time they touched through the bond. How surprising and at the same time destined it had been. How Ben couldn't quite believe that it was possible. He remembered how he searched every accessible empire archive file looking for anything similar to what they had. And he found the little bit of information just before Exegol, just before he denounced Kylo Ren and threw his cross blade saber in the ocean on Kef Bir.

He thought about how he had chased her for such a long time. Actually since he had met her. From the first time he was bested by a girl with a lightsaber, a scavanger.. a girl who came from nothing, but turned out to be everything.

"Rey. Can you hear me?!
Rey.
I am back.
Rey.."