A Song Of Light and Darkness - Book One: Dawn Of New Force

Prologue

Author's note: I'll put it here because I didn't make a chapter for it, and I'd like to introduce you to the main purpose of this rise of skywalker sequel.
   This story is mainly a study in Ben's character, as we needed to see how star wars would have been after he had turned. But aside from that, more characters as Rose and Poe also have some realistic arcs.

   Why I wanted to see Ben after his return?
   Well, because we have seen what happens when a character goes from light to dark many times, but never the other way around. So I think he would have been a good example for that.
   I think his survival was necessary, for one that had tested the dark would never fall to it again. And he would serve as a lesson for the next generations.

  * This chapter contains the events that happened in tros because it was necessary to add them. The story will take its own course at its end! *

~*~

All Ben could see now was darkness, and all he could feel was pain. An excruciating pain so sharp and terrible, but not from his broken ribs, nor from his twisted ankle. But from his ripped soul.

He could not sense her at all. And it felt like a dark pitch too high to climb. Yet somehow, something gave him the strength he needed to get to the top of that pit.
Rey. She was the light at the end of his dark tunnel, she had always been. But he, he had been too blinded by power to see it.

He made his way up, hauling himself over the sharp ridge. But as steady ground felt beneath him, he collapsed, the hard stone slapping hard his jaw. He grunted as the pain shot up his back and legs, like a rain of burning daggers.

His vision swayed and shifted as he lifted his head up. Where am I? He wondered for a moment. But he knew, somehow he knew.

I must save Rey, was all he could think about. And, as he crawled across the ruined hall, he could see her...collapsed on the ground, helpless...

No, it cannot be, he thought. Out of nowhere, tears were beginning to form in his eyes. She was the bravest person he had ever met, she was light... Darkness could never defeat the light. And yet, there she lay, still as a stone, her empty eyes aimed to the ceiling, as if in a deep prayer.

Still, Ben refused to believe it. He sniffled his tears away, and hurried as he could, dragging himself across the hall to her limp body.

The light that protruded through the ruined roof was falling right on her, as if trying to claim her, to make her one with the force.

And in that eerie silvery gleam it looked as if she wore a glittering silver mask. He approached her and stroked her hands, her fingers with the gentlest touch. As if he still couldn't believe she was dead.

Dead. The word rang so odd in his head. His sweet Rey could not be dead.

With the last strength he got left, he hauled her on the side and somehow managed to sit upright, with her in his arms.

Then he experienced something he had never done before. Tears splashed his face as he brought his hand up to Rey's lifeless one and caressed her cheek. He would never have thought that this would be the only time he had got left to spend with her. And there was so much he would have loved to tell her.

Instead he found himself hugging her tightly to his chest. And in that moment, he knew he never wanted to let go of her. But he had to. He sobbed in her hair, and inhaled her sweet smell. A smell he wanted to carry with him to the other world. A smell of warmth, of sun and sand, of home. She had been his home all that time.