#han being uber protective of rey

[rainintheevening]

Okay, as per this poll I will now explain...

Yes, I ship Reylo (Rey/Ben Solo[Kylo Ren]), but...

In an AU.

To be clear up front, this is not a hard and fast ship, even in the circumstances of my AU. Sometimes I like them as a ship, sometimes I like them better as platonic soulmates. It all depends on what mood I'm in, and if I made the sequel trilogy my way, I would make it ambiguous. Maybe. Unless the actors felt it should be otherwise.

ANYWAY, after seeing a bunch of sweet Reylo fanart, I wished for a way I could ship them, and also a better explanation for Rey's unexplained ability to use the Force. So I thought, what if Rey was one of Luke's students, and she and Ben were super close, but somehow her memories got messed with, and what if that happened with Ben too, and that's why he turned to the Dark Side?

So I rewrote the entire sequel trilogy in my head, and have only written one part of it down, (go read it here), but basically the gist is: Rey's memories only got pasted over, while Ben's got rewritten (think Peeta and the highjacking). That's why Ben thinks Luke tried to kill him, and that he tried to kill the other padawans, and that Rey is dangerous.

Rey was an orphan, found and brought in by Luke, who became as a father to her. She and Ben were inseparable from the get-go, and he taught her how to fly the Falcon, how to do all her katas. He was like a big brother to her, her hero, and he promised to be her master when he got knighted.

Everyone thinks Ben Solo is dead, but after they discover he's not ("You killed my son!" "No. I was your son."), that he and Kylo Ren are actually the same person, Rey is dead set on saving him. So is Luke, as he feels certain it's his fault for leaving Ben to fight off so many, even though it was Ben who told him to take Rey and run.

Luke hopes to restore Ben's memories the way he did Rey's, but in his face-off with Kylo Ren, he takes a mortal strike to get close enough to reach his nephew. Rey witnesses this. The shock cracks through Kylo/Ben's memories, and he realizes what he has done, killing Luke. He flees, while Rey stays with Luke, who gives her his lightsaber, tells her to save Ben, tells her he was proud to have a padawan like her, maybe even says the 'you were as a daughter to me' bit out loud?

Anyway, after Ben flees, he has a total breakdown, off on some planet somewhere. But his grandfather shows up to give him some advice, yes! Anakin would be there!

Rey and Ben find each other, go off to kill Snoke and end the war (but it's Leia who gets to shoot Snoke: "That's for my son!")

Yes, Rey and Ben would have a particularly strong connection in the Force, but that wouldn't be the main point. That wouldn't be her 'superpower'. No, that would be her love for her family, which even when her memories were hidden, she missed, and it's her mission to piece her family back together again—helping Luke and Han reconcile, fighting to save Ben and the other Knights of Ren, who all turn out to be Luke's former students, making new family out of Finn and Poe. It's her love and determination that save the day, not her 'bringing balance to the Force'.

Yes, Ben will have to face consequences for his actions, even with the caveat of having his memory twisted. But Rey, and his parents, and Chewey are all with him.

Just... Rey remembering everything kind about him when they were kids, every time he apologized for the dark moods that sometime took him, how loving and careful he always was with her, and believing to the depths of her heart that that man was still in there somewhere, and that man could be restored... and Ben choosing to accept her forgiveness, to trust her when she says she'll go with him to find the truth, finding the strength to fight down the warped memories and the idea that he should kill her, and letting her lead him back into the light! Arghhh, yes.

Yeah, there is an age gap, but as they would be both adults by this time, I could 100% ship it, and am doing so right now. (Aka imagining them kissing in the last scene of the last movie...)