AN: SPOILERS! SPOILERS! I liked TROS (relatively...) but I refuse to accept the bs that is Ben dying like that. Fudge that, I'm saving him.

A blinding light consumes Ben as he falls onto his back, barely feeling the ground but still feeling the tingle and joy from Rey's lips when they kissed.

The words, a slow mumble, but slowly growing louder as Rey's scream of his name fades come to the forefront.

"We're with you."

Then, he's gone. Rey is no longer holding his hand, and an ache blooms with a coldness he's all too used to.

"Ben," a warm voice says behind him. He sharply turns and sees the vibrant, shining image of his mother. She looks as he last saw her: graying hair, lines beginning to hold their shape on her forehead from her constant creasing, but a light of life that will never diminish in her eyes.

"Mom?" he croaks out weakly. He feels his lips tremble, but he doesn't care how vulnerable he looks now. He hasn't seen her since he was a teenager and he loves his mother.

Han stands next to Leia, younger looking than when Kylo killed him, but not nearly as tired as he last looked when Ben saw him after fighting Rey.

Ben staggers, his transgressions against his parents, his hate he forced himself to feel towards them in attempt to renounce the Light, come back to mock him now.

'I don't deserve to see them!' his conscious yells at him. Then he realizes, he killed his father. He felt his mother pass.

"Where am I? Is this the afterlife? I can't be allowed here, can I?"

Leia laughs heartedly, tears in her eyes as she looks at her beloved grown son and hears the little boy she missed grow up.

"Kid, you're as much allowed here as I am, " Han assures as he walks towards his ridiculously tall child.

Leia cuts in then, with more important reassurance.

"Your dad is right, Ben. You both belong here, but... Well, you don't belong here yet."

Ben scowls, confused, as he processes her words. Both his parents grab his hands and rub his shoulders then.

"Son," Han says, his voice cracking as it did the first time it hit him he was really a father, that this little boy before him counted on him to live and to be taught how to have a better life than the one he knew growing up.

"Son, I—"

Before he can speak further, Ben throws himself onto his father's shoulder, scrunching down in a way clearly uncomfortable in a normal situation, but one that makes more happy tears come to Leia's eyes.

"Dad, you don't have to say anything. I know."

A flood of tears leave the elder Solo then and the two embrace fully, not wanting to let go. Leia rubs their backs soothingly until, without warning, both her loves pull her into their tight embrace. It's a warm moment that feels like an eternity. One they would gladly have last forever. However life has its reasons for making things go, and it's a deep voice that grabs the attention of the Solo family and makes them each try to pull the others defensively back.

"Leia..."

A man in a hooded robe stands before them, his face is blocked from view. His hands tremble as he pulls back after seemingly attempting to reach out. Recognition calms Leia down, but she keeps her hands on her family. Now more so for support than fear.

"Hello, father," she says. As she does her form changes. A white gown falls loose around her form, as do the long, normally tightly drawn tresses of her hair. Age disappears from what can be seen physically, but her eyes darken, becoming older as sadness engulfs her.

The man before them pulls down his brown hood when, and there, in his ever-changing form is Anakin Skywalker. Ben inhales deeply, recognizing him without ever seeing the real face beneath the mask. It's a recognition that comes from a feeling rather than sight and suddenly he realizes what caused the stirring in him towards the Light.

"It was you, " he breathes out, almost in relief but still in pain. Here he suffered thinking he couldn't be strong like his grandfather, but the reality is his grandfather was what kept shaking his strength.

And thank goodness for that.

"I... what... I mean," Ben falters, trying to find his thoughts as words already begin to escape.

Anakin steps closer, a blue glow surrounding him and beginning to strengthen his parents'.

"Ben, I saw myself so much in you. I saw your weaknesses and struggles, and mourned when you fell as I did."

Leia's hands tighten around Han's, guilt stabbing them both painfully remembering their failings. Try as they did, they weren't equipped for parenthood. Leia had responsibilities as a leader, had been groomed for leadership since she could remember. It was never a choice, only an inevitability.

And Han? He never really had a family. At one point, he considered Qi'ra family, and loved her the best he knew how. But he was naïve to the world in all its lovely beauty and pure joys. Naïve until Chewie, his brother regardless of blood, fell into his life. Until Luke, younger brother and man full of heart showed them both a new way to look at and face life.

And Leia...

Dear Leia. Amazing Leia. She had her faults, and he had his. But they pushed each other, and grew, and accepted one another. Their hearts were bonded in ways neither thought possible, but yet, they were unprepared.

Loving someone is one thing. Living a life where each partner has vastly different goals, and different ways of handling hardships... Communication could be difficult for both at times, especially with parenting.

Leia was leading and helping resolve issues planets over. She tried to be a mother to Ben, but was stretched thin. And Han, he didn't know where to start. His insecurities and fears caused him to pull away, retreat, to separate himself and put up a barrier between his son and himself.

"But you had love," Anakin continues, looking pointedly at the duo besides Ben. It's not a mean look or judgmental look. Simply an acknowledgment that he knows how much they loved and continue to love their son.

"You were sown in love, shown love, and were shown to recognize it. Snoke may have tried to stop it from existing, to stop you from accepting it. He may have caused you to hate yourself, but you know love."

"And hope cannot exist without love."

"Love gets you through struggles, even if it's simply love for life."

"Love is what reminds you of your worth because of all people to love, you cannot forget to acknowledge and respect that you too deserve to love yourself."

"And to continue and share hope, love must be shared. For a person's value to the universe as much as your own life."

"And Ben, you love Rey. And she loves you."

Leia takes a shaky breath in, so moved her father came to help her in her time of need. In her son's...

They each lay hands in Ben as Anakin continues to speak.

"The Universe has spoken, and Balance is needed. I was prophesied to bring balance to the universe but it looked like all I did was wreck it further."

"But as you learned, Rey and you are a dyad," Leia says lovingly, proudly.

"You two complete each other, kiddo. Literally!"

" And you bring balance to the universe as well. I shall finally bring the prophecy to fruition."

Another voice joins in, and a relief, a knowing he is forgiven comes over Ben as he makes eye contact with his uncle Luke.

"But it won't just be dear old dad here. It'll be the entire Skywalker legacy."

With that, the resounding voices of earlier come back again. A reminder that it's not only the Skywalkers but the whole universe here to help.

"We are with you."

The blinding light from before comes back, but it isn't jarring. It's welcoming and loving. The sort of feeling one thinks of when imagining what entering paradise should feel like.

The unexpected noise that comes when Ben opens his eyes is the sound of sobbing, muffled by something he can't quite place. He looks up, slowly getting onto his elbows as he looks at the slim figure crumpled before him.

"What are you holding?" He croaks out, wincing as the pain from the battle reawakens in him.

"Kriff, I'm hearing him now!" Rey yells between sobs, disheartened as she cries out up to the sky. Ben makes out his shirt in her hands, clutched against her heart. He becomes accurately aware of his bare chest, but he won't take it from her.

He tries to sooth her out of her heartache slowly, feeling the warmth of his parents, trying to emulate them when they tried to speak the other's love language.

He scoots over to her, placing his hand gently, slowly, over hers as he quietly says, "Well... I do want you to hear me if we're going to talk..."

Rey's eyes shoot open at his touch. They're red and puffy, and so lost until the reality that yes, this man holding her hand, that she feels against the palm of her hand as she cups his cheek, as they search each other's eyes to confirm they understand each other, is really here .

Wetness pushes against Ben as once again Rey pushes her face against his. Her tears from before aren't yet dry, and sobs still rack her body as she tries to comprehend, 'how?'

He holds her, pulling her into his chest. Rubbing circles over her back, he whispers, "they're with us."

And as such, they are with each other. The way it is meant to be.