#i'll be over in denial and pretending most of tros never happened

[buddiebeginz]

The Light and the Dark fought over Ben Solo as though he were a trophy to be won. His family’s fear of him was greater than their love and it pushed him away, into a corner he felt he could never get out of. Palpatine, through Snoke, preyed and prodded and used that fear, that isolation, against him. Until he felt like he had no choice. He was dragged, kicking and screaming into the dark. But the light never left him. It was always there. A glimmer. A spark that never went out.

And all along, there was Rey. They didn’t just meet on the forest on Takodana — they were in each other all along. A dyad. Soulmates. Connected, but apart. They came together under the worst of circumstances, but even then, they knew, on some level, what they were. It was soul recognition. “It is you.” “That voice.”

But Ben was still lost. He still believed he couldn’t turn back, couldn’t step out of the shadows because he was the shadow. But the light in him was too strong and love — his mother’s, Rey’s — was the catalyst that ignited the spark in him, illuminating every corner of his heart.

He was born to defy the stars and he did. He defied the entire universe to bring Rey, his soulmate, back to life. He climbed out of the pit, broken and bruised, for her. The pit on Exegol, but also the pit he fell into when he joined the dark side, the one inside him. He came back for her, in every sense of the word.

In each other, they found home. Oneness. Completeness.

And here’s how SW becomes a horror story: after all of this, after finally being reunited with the other half of his very soul, Ben Solo wasn’t allowed a chance at real, lasting happiness.

And Rey, strong, resilient Rey, who had never actually been alone — because Ben had always been with her, connected through the bond, in her heart — was only allowed a moment with him, as fleeting as a heartbeat.