Us Against the World

30

I felt a warm breeze brush my cheek, caressing it softly, directly contrasting the harsh winds that bit at my body. It gave me hope.
"Keep fighting, Lowla. Help is on it's way." They were words spoken by a woman I had never met but heard so much about. I knew it was her voice. I knew it in my heart as the lightsaber on my right was pushed into my hand. Ahsoka never stopped fighting, even in the most hopeless of situations. If I was pure enough to fight with her saber, if I was worthy enough to talk to her through the force, then I could fight Palpatine now. I closed my eyes, replaying her words over and over in my head, thinking of Luke. Leia. Han. Anyone that had died in this war because the shrivelled soul in front of me refused to die. The large ceiling above opened, revealing the resistance fighter flying around, fighting hopelessly to gain the upper hand. One look at Rey and I knew she had agreed to strike down Palpatine to save her family, and to try and save me.

With only the few fighters we had, the battle wasn't looking good, cementing Rey's sacrifice. Taking my eyes off the sky, knowing that help will come eventually, that she had promised that help was on the way, I focused on getting Palpatine's grip to loosen so I could stop Rey. I closed my eyes, relaxing my body. At first, it caused a great spike of pain and I was pretty sure Palpatine smiled, thinking I had given up. Then I pushed back, with everything I had, opening my eyes to look the old man in the eye as I forced him out of my mind and forced every bit of energy he had directed at me away, feeling my feet hit the floor again. Shocked, Palpatine tried to lift me as I stood, fighting back.
"You should have learned by now, Old Ma." I began, watching his glare return as he continued to mentally fight me. "The light will never allow the dark to swallow it. We will burn brighter than any star in the galaxy so that every being on every planet can stand up to Sith scum like you!" I shouted back to him, letting whatever force he drew from the dark side to suddenly rush towards me. As I felt the darkness, I crushed it with my own force, turning it away from me and back into the planet. Palpatine stopped when he realised what I was doing. I was liberating the force, sending it back to a place where it was no longer abused.

As I stood straighter, I felt my true help arrive.

"Ben." I whispered, sensing his presence nearby but also feeling the danger he was in. From the look on Rey's face, she felt it as well. I ignored Palpatine as Rey raised her saber, instructing her to strike him down to ensure the rebirth of the Sith. She looked at me as she raised it. I then felt Ben's presence behind me, the same way it was when he used our force bond.
"Draw your weapon." He told me, slowly, and I agreed, pulling both blades and igniting them as I kept my eyes trained on Rey, wondering what she was about to do. Rey placed her Saber behind her back and I watched it disappear. She gave it to Ben. Suddenly, I was pulled back and I knew Ben had pulled me through our force bond.

When I looked around, I saw that the knights of Ren surrounded us.
"What have you got me involved in?" I asked the moment I saw three of the knights staring at me. I heard his laugh, not the one that reminded me of heold Ben, but one that was the old Ben. With my two white saber's in hand, I swung them around to hit against whatever weapons they held.
"Since when do you have two?" Ben called over the clash of weapons as he attacked with his saber one of the knights. I almost laughed as I blocked the attack from one of the knights with one saber and then slashed at another with Ahsoka's. Both weapons were equal in weight and responded to me in the same way, like they were sisters. They were extensions of my arm, manifestations of my force.
"Are we really doing this now?" I questioned as we swapped targets, spinning around each other to hit at a new enemy. I heard his laugh, and I couldn't help but love that my Ben was back, that we were once again fighting side by side.

Every movement we made had been rehearsed a million times before with training droids. It seemed that against a real enemy, we had no more trouble. Despite our situation, we were both smiling at each other, catching eyes between each blow. Maybe we were just happy the other one wasn't injured yet, maybe we were just happy to see the other. Whatever the reason, the Knights of Ren stood no chance against us. We were unstoppable.

Ben leaped over the me and the last knight who were locked in battle, stabbing him behind. We had won. We took a moment to take a breath before hearing the sound of Rey's saber in the distance. I shut off my sabers and returned them to my belt. Ben took my hand, pulling me through the building knowing exactly where Rey would be, and I was thankful he had been here before.

When we ran over to her, she had managed to take now nearly every Guard, leaving one left. Before she had a chance to do anything, I lifted him up with the force, throwing him into the wall behind me and letting the gravity pull him back to the ground. Ben then pulled me towards Rey, and I was back where I was before he had brought me to him, helping him fight the very students I had once trained with. Exchanging a brief nod, our attention turned to the man who very much needed to learn how to stay dead.

Ben and Rey held their sabers up, him dropping my hand so I, standing between them and their blue sabers, drawing my white blades and glaring to Palpatine.
"Stand together, die together." Palpatine screamed, and I couldn't help but notice the way the lightning illuminated his whole face. His eyes were pools of grey, no sign of life hiding inside them, his skin was sickly pale. If it wasn't for the metal contraption behind him and numerous pipes that came from him.

He held his hands up, pushing us all into the air like he had before, sending our sabers to the floor. He then forced us to our knees in front of him as I began to start fighting him. When our knees hit the floor, an energy, a force, travelled from our bodies and into palpatine's hands. Instead of them being white, the skin began to burn away, eating at his hands as the skin blistered and peeled in an angry red. "The lifeforce of your bond..." Palpatine said, but I knew that energy didn't just come from Ben and I, it came from all of us. Could it be that what started as a forged bond, based on the one of Ben and I, had evolved into one cementing their friendship? Could Rey, as my apprentice, connect to my bond with Ben and make one between the three of us? Someone that was the light side, me; someone that was somewhat part of the dark side, Ben; and someone that could bridge the gap between both, Rey. Palpatine brought his hands up to his face, "A dyad in the Force." Ben and I's bond was rare, but a bond of three, one that showed our friendship, was even rarer. As we watched, his hands that had disintegrated, began to die, started reforming, growing back as if nothing had happened. "Unseen for generations. And now, the power of three restores one, true Emperor."