Preface: I am a *dyhard* Reylo fan. I just wasn't finished with Rey & Ben and the dyad concept. This is my version of how TROS should have ended. I hope to continue it as a story post TROS and explore Rey & Ben's relationship along with their force training and eventually training other new Jedis. Please R&R and let me know if you want it to continue!

Disclaimer: I own no rights to Star Wars, unfortunately. Maybe if I did, we would all be happier.

***Everything happens exactly the same, EXCEPT Ben Solo DOES NOT DIE. He simply passes out for a moment and Rey revives him, since their bond literally GIVES LIFE. Story continues right after this big Reylo moment, with Rey & Ben leaving the Sith temple. I did not rewrite the same Resistance scenes, as everything is exactly like the movie on that front. Thank you! And I hope you enjoy!***

Ben Solo and Rey Palpatine exited the Sith temple shoulder to shoulder, holding onto each other for support. Both were so exhausted and elated that they did not speak. They did not need words to express how thankful they were to the other for being alive this very moment.

Above, they could hear the battle ending. Rey silently hoped her friends were okay. She didn't feel that Finn or Poe or Rose or Jannah had passed, but then again, she was quite weak herself.

Ben winced audibly and Rey felt his towering form shaking against her petite body. His left leg was severely broken and shattered. She instinctively gripped his side tighter.

"Let me heal it," she whispered fiercely.

He shook his head and exhaled violently. "No, you're too weak. It could kill you." Shuddering, he apologetically squeezed her shoulder tighter for support.

Tears began to form in Rey's hazel eyes. "Let's rest for a moment." Ben wanted to disagree, but he hung his head and let her ease him down onto his good hip.

They were almost to the odd, round entrance. Rey could see the circular rock that lowered them down here up ahead. Now, if it would rise to the surface again, that was another story. She tried to plan ahead if it didn't rise. How would she get Ben out of here? Could she pull the X-Wing below? Or would it fit through the entrance to fly down to get him?

Nothing seemed plausible, and Ben was growing paler by the second. She didn't feel so good herself. A drink of water or a cool rag would be heavenly right now. She felt awfully hot and shaky.

The ground shuddered abruptly, and a strange rumble, dull and low, coarsed underneath them. Their eyes met, panic stricken.

"We need to go," Ben said, taking Rey's hand as she hoisted him to his feet, both of them almost falling over in the process. She steadied him and their eyes met again; the sense of longing that was usually present in both of their visages was no longer there. It was replaced with something else entirely. Contentment, happiness, hope, uncertainty, shyness, along with a fear of losing everything they had gained only moments ago as their surroundings began to crumble around them. They had to make it out of here alive. They no longer had to be apart, driven away from each other by light and darkness. No, they could be together - two halves of a perfect whole.

Loud cracks and crashes urged them on, awkwardly half walking, half running on fumes, desperate to get out alive. Soon, they stumbled onto the rocky disc engraved in Sith symbols. Ben fell over immediately and turned to lay on his back with his eyes closed.

Rey looked around impatiently. It wasn't moving.

"Is it moving?" Ben asked breathlessly.

"No," Rey replied grimly. The sky above was at least a hundred feet away.

Ben sighed. "Maybe we can lift it."

She nodded and stretched out her hand, feeling the Force, almost electric, as it coursed through her. Something was preventing it from flowing through her uninhibited. What was it? She asked herself and found the answer to be foreboding. Her body and spirit were just too weak at the moment to support very much power. She pushed harder, gritting her teeth, willing the stone to rise. It began to shake and teetered in the air a few inches off the ground before Rey felt as if her head would explode. Collapsing next to Ben in a pant, the giant disc settled back onto the ground.

He gingerly pushed a strand of hair out of her sweaty face. "Let me."

"No, there's no point wearing ourselves out further." She shook her head. Below them creaked and groaned as more stone gave way. "Let me think."

Ben nodded, trying to control his panicked facial expression when a familiar voice called out to them.

"Now, this looks like a job for a general," a calm, direct voice called from the shadows as General Leia Organa's force ghost emerged before them.

"Leia!" Rey stood shakily, delighted to see her master and friend. Leia's ghost approached them calmly, much too perfect and gentle in this dark, decrepit place of the Sith.

"My dear Rey and my dear son." Leia smiled proudly at both of them.

Ben sat up on his elbows, tears in his eyes. "Mom?"

Leia beamed. "My sweet boy, let me help you." She leaned over and placed her bright hands over his leg. Ben cried out as the bones clicked back into place correctly. Breathless and in pain, he lay back down.

"Would you believe that was the first broken bone he's ever had?" Leia murmured to a grinning Rey.

"Mom?" Ben called out between deep breaths. "Thank you...I … I -"

"I know," the general smiled softly. "All is forgiven, my Ben."

Ben Solo laughed, like he had right after Rey had kissed him, and grinned broadly.

"Okay, that's enough sappy," another familiar voice echoed around a corner and Luke Skywalker appeared again. "We need to get these kids out of here."

The columns behind them promptly crashed. Rock and dust fell from every direction. The entire place was collapsing around them. Shaking, the stone disc they were on, cracked in two, separating Rey and Ben from Luke and Leia.

"I would say so," Leia agreed. Together, they raised Ben and Rey to the surface using the Force only moments before the entire temple collapsed into ruin.

On the surface, the battle had ended. Rey could see many ships she knew, including one very special one, along with hundreds she had never seen before, circling the Exegol system in jubilee as hundreds of Star Destroyers crashed into the planet.

Ben stood, his leg healed but battered, and took her hand. She turned to look at him, and they both coughed a laugh. It was a miracle they had lived and a miracle the Resistance had won.

"Time to celebrate," Leia appeared beside them. "There's still much work to be done."

"None of this would have been possible without you," murmured a thankful Rey. "Thank you, General."

"No, Rey. Thank you for saving my son."

"And for proving me wrong," snapped a snarky Luke, as he appeared beside Leia. "Ben, I'm sorry I failed you. I failed both of you."

"As I failed you," Ben sighed, looking down at his feet.

"No, Ben. You were seduced and manipulated. I was scared of you, as I was scared of you, Rey. You are both impossibly, naturally, immensely powerful, even more so together - a true force to be reckoned with. Take care of each other. Teach each other. Guide each other. You two are the future of the Skywalkers and the future of the Jedi."

"I'm so proud of you, both of you," Leia said to them. "A force to be reckoned with, indeed. Take care of the Resistance and take care of yourselves. And send my love to Poe and to Finn."

"Yes, masters," smiled Rey, her eyes full of tears. Ben squeezed her hand tighter.

"The Force is more balanced than ever," Luke continued. "The Sith are completely eradicated. The Force has called you both, a dyad, two halves of a whole, completely in tune with each other and the Force, to lead the next generation. Use your power wisely."

"Yes, master," Ben and Rey answered together.

Overhead, the Millennium Falcon flipped out of the atmosphere into the dark unknown regions on its way back to the Rebellion base.

When Rey and Ben looked back, Luke and Leia were gone.