What if the climax of Rise of The Skywalker ended with Rey and Ben killing Cloned Palpatine, but then his spirit enters Ben?
All of the Jedi have joined Rey to summon the power of the Light Side to vanquish Palpatine...destroying his last cloned body in the process. But Palpatine's spirit latches onto Ben in a desperate attempt to cling to consciousness.
Rey and Ben-patine fight...as Ben's internal struggle continues. But this is the struggle he's been preparing himself for a lifetime. He momentarily regains control of his body. He tells her she must kill him while he is in control so his spirit will be bound with Palpatine's in The Force...and once his life of crude matter ends, he will bind Palpatine with him in the the madness and choas of the Dark Force spiritual maelstrom...forever vanquished. He realizes this may be an eternity of anguish for him, too, but it is a sacrifice he's willing to make.
Rey says she can't do it. He says she must hurry...it is taking all of his Light to hold Palpatine at bay. The spirits of Luke, Leia and Anakin appear and enter Ben's body to give him enough strength to hold Palpatine within. Ben's body begins to struggle a bit less as a calmness starts to fill him. But the strain is still clear.
Rey cries out that still can't do it. Ben says she must. He tells her it is the only way to bring balance to the Force.
He says, I'm being torn apart. I want to be free of this pain. With tears, pouring down her face, she tells Ben, "I know what I have to do, but I don't know if I have the strength to do it. Will you help me?"
Ben composes himself solidly, stands up proudly, leans forward and gently kisses her. "Anything."
Rey presses Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber to his chest and he wraps his trembling hands over hers. He says, "I love you." She says, "I know, and I love you, too."
They both breathe deeply...both begin glowing with the Light...and together ignite the blade. His eyes go wide and then his face is flooded with peace as his body slumps to the ground, Rey holding him in her arms as they both collapse to the ground. The pulsing glow rises from his body. Rey holds him as she gazes at the spectacle. It begins to separate into five distinct focii of energy.
As the energy takes more familiar shapes, at the center, two glowing forms begin to circle one another...a red form and blue form swirling entity becomes recognizable as the writhing spirit of Palpatine wrapped in a struggle with Ben.
Surrounding them is a triangle with Anakin floating above and Luke and Leia forming the base below. All three reach out towards the center, pulling them apart. Palpatine flails with rage and anguish. Anakin pulls Palpatine upwards and the two merge into one until they dissolve into nothingness...balance finally restored to The Force.
Luke and Leia pull Ben's spirit down towards his body with Rey, still in tears holding him. As his spirit re-enters his body, Luke and Leia surround the body with the glowing warmth of The Light Side and Ben awakens with a gasp of breath.
Luke and Leia start to fade peacefully into The Light, both looking content. He says to them, "Pass on what you have learned. The Force will be with you." And as Leia fades, she tells them, "We will always be a part of you as long as you have hope."
And then, together, Rey and Ben Solo rise to begin their destiny...together.
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(A critical acknowledgement...
...this was inspired from key events in the legendary 1995 Empire's End comic, written by Tom Veitch and Mike Beidler produced by Dark Horse comics. In Veitch's saga starting with the 1991 Dark Empire series (set 6 years after the destruction of the 2nd Death Star), he and Cam Kennedy introduced to the Star Wars narrative that while Luke was recruiting Force sensitive survivors of The Dark Times, the Emperor's dark spirit, which had been ripped from its decaying form by Anakin Skywalker on the second Death Star, re-animated itself in one of the many waiting clones of himself.
Eventually, Luke confronts Palpatine and destroys the other clone bodies. Palpatine is shot and killed by Han Solo. As his final clone body dies, he declares his intention to embody Anakin Solo, Leia and Han's youngest child. But before he can transfer his evil essence one more time, one of Luke's apprentices who was mortally wounded in the fight uses the Force to bind Palpatine's spirit with his own. He forces Palpatine to spend eternity swirling in the madness and choas of The Dark Side even though he would share that same fate...a sacrifice he's willing to make to rid the Galaxy of Emperor Palpatine once and for all.)
