Force Destiny

Threads

Rey felt the Force surrounding her, guiding her, showing her the answers she desperately sought. It was tranquil there, cradled by the lulling vibrations of the Force. There were no mortal restraints on physical corporeality; her mind was one with the energy around her. There was no sudden enlightenment, nor answers to all of life's questions. There was no judgment passed by an omnipotent being. There was no one else with her. Not her parents, not Han, or Leia, or Luke. Not Ben. There was only the Force. It was pure energy, neither light nor dark; she shared her energy with the cosmic universe, born of the very essence of stars.

She wondered in detachment if she was dead, but there was no fear or despair. The emotions reeling from Ben's death had dissolved. There were no emotions in the Force. Her mortal experiences of a state of consciousness were inconsequential in the eternity of the Cosmic Force. She knew if she were "dead," if Ben were "dead," there was nothing to mourn. If this was death, then she knew they were where they were supposed to be. She was at peace. Drifting in a sea of energy, she was able to see the very fabric of interwoven destinies connected to her soul. Following the threads deeper, a thousand lifetimes passed before her eyes.

Following one thread, she realized how one small choice could drastically alter fate. It all changed when Poe chose to walk away rather than Rey after Leia's funeral. Rose confronted Rey after she discovered Ben's identity, rather than confiding in Finn. Finn never interrupted their intimate moment in bed together, Poe never accused her of treason. She never left for Ilum. Ben never left the Finalizer. But as soon as the Knights of Ren arrived, Ben was usurped, tortured, and imprisoned on the ship. News of the new leadership spread to the Resistance, and Poe coordinated an attack. Chewie died helping Rey, Finn, and Rose infiltrate the Finalizer to drop the shields.

No one knew Rey's true reason to be drawn into the war was to save Ben. No one knew of their love. She tried to save the galaxy first, failing to lower the shields, because the Emergency Bridge did not fall. By the time she made it to Force Destiny, Hux was waiting for her. He stood behind the beaten and bloodied Ben, holding the fallen Jedi's lightsaber. As she entered the room, he mortally wounded her bondmate, thrusting the lightsaber through his back. She was helpless to stop him. He allowed Rey to hold Ben as he died, before strapping her into the Force Destiny machine. Without the fractured Kyber crystal in her satchel, her life was ended by the machine when the soul of Sidious took over her body. Her friends were caught and killed. She became the new face of the First Order. The First Order eventually fell, but not without years of tyrannical rule and a great loss of life.

Rey followed another thread, curious as to how a different choice would change their fate. When confronted with the treason on Barkhesh, she admitted to her feelings for Ben when manipulated by a smooth-talking Poe. He betrayed Rey, then locked her in her temple room after she provided him all the information she knew—with the sole intention of luring Ben into an ambush. In his desperation to save her, Ben abandoned the First Order and flew to the Resistance base, falling into their well-organized trap. Poe released an entire shipment of Ysalamir lizards on the base, obtained from allies of the Resistance on Myrkr. The Ysalamir repelled the Force, and, when grouped together, could create entire Force-neutral perimeters.

Why Poe had ordered the shipment weeks before he even suspected the connection between Ben and Rey was never revealed.

When Ben arrived to save her, he went onto that base essentially blind to the Force. Poe was waiting. Ben never had a chance when he crept into her room in the dead of night. And Rey never had a chance to warn him before Poe fired the fatal shot. That was a particularly traumatic death. Betrayal was the final emotion that flashed across Ben's eyes as he heard Poe congratulate Rey on her "great work," as if she were more than an unwilling pawn in his plan.