Antigone

REYLO ANCIENT ROME AU

"Animae dimidium meae" by antigone0000: CHAPTER 18 OUT NOW ON AO3!

"Before her eyes now, Rey no longer saw the powerful, muscular back of a young man, heir to one of the greatest empires ever to exist, but instead found herself face to face with the thinner, smaller back of a teenager, trembling and wracked by uncontrollable sobs, who had just embraced the mangled corpses of his family members. Ben hadn't moved an inch from his position, his face fixed on the wall before him, far from the gladiator's gaze. Yet, with every nuance of his voice, every crack in his tone, Rey had visualized in her mind rapid, bloody brushstrokes painting the pain-torn face of the man she loved.

She closed the brief distance between their bodies with a leap, and in an instant her slender arms, covered in reddish scratches, tightened in a desperate grip around Ben's rigid chest. Rey rested her right cheek against his tense back, and the frantic beating of his broken heart echoed terrifyingly in her ear. A strangled sob tore free from the painful recesses of his chest, and instinctively Rey tightened her grip on his torso, crushing him as if to wring from every fiber of his body all the drops of pain and sadness that had soaked him for the past six years."

THE GREAT DIVIDE: A REYLO MODERN AU

"And I’m finally aware of how shitty and unfair

It was to stare ahead like everything was fine."

Ben and Rey met at the end of a complicated adolescence: a long history of depression for him, a silent but oppressive eating disorder for her. United by their passion for writing, the two spent entire days poring over the books at Luke's house, Ben's uncle and a world-renowned writer. However, the silky balance they had learned to walk seems inexorably shattered following a sudden turn of events, and Ben decides to abandon the city he detests and completely erase his past, enlisting in the Air Force under the name of Kylo Ren.

Ten years later, on the verge of turning 29, however, a dramatic event forces Ben to return to his hometown and confront all the ghosts of the past he thought he had put to rest forever. Yet, everything's still.

THE GREAT DIVIDE, by antigone0000 on Ao3!

"What we do in life, echoes in eternity."

REYLO ANCIENT ROME AU

In 84 AD, the Roman army defeated the Celtic Caledonian people in a bloody battle; the survivors, torn apart by trauma, were forcibly taken to Rome as slaves. Among them was Rey, a young Caledonian woman who, filled with anger and resentment, was sold as a gladiator for the games in the arena. Meanwhile, in Rome, Emperor Snoke has adopted the young Ben Solo, now Kylo Ren, as his heir. Seduced by the evil usurper, Kylo Ren has turned his back on his family and his past. But when the Caledonian gladiator, the petite rebel seeking revenge, steps onto the sand of the arena, the balance of the Empire seems destined to be upset forever.

ANIMAE DIMIDIUM MEAE by antigone0000, out on Ao3.

REYLO ANCIENT ROME AU

"Their bodies fit perfectly. That was the constant thought that echoed in her temples for long, long minutes, and as their rhythm intensified, Rey couldn't help but feel her head spinning, her heart imploding in her chest, and her spirit detaching from her body to ascend to the stars. But what hovered above their panting, heated bodies was not her soul alone; Ben and Rey were inseparably fused, and as their spirits raced toward the heavens, it would have been impossible to distinguish the end of one from the beginning of the other, for they were now one, two beings in a single entity.

From the Olympus, the gods would have admired that golden union that would create a double star in the sky, two celestial bodies so close that they actually seemed one. Hundreds of years later, Alexandrian astronomers would discover that marvelous star and name it The Dyad; Hypatia of Alexandria, a woman of science devoted to the gods, would have defined it, within her circle of students, the perfect catasterism, and a tender smile would have curled her full lips at that statement."

ANIMAE DIMIDIUM MEAE, by antigone0000: CHAPTER 17 OUT NOW ON AO3!

"ANIMAE DIMIDIUM MEAE" a Reylo Ancient Rome AU, by antigone0000 on AO3!

I'm open to comments, kudos and everything like that: I hope you enjoy this Reylo journey into the dusty and glorious streets of Imperial Rome. You can reach for me here on Tumblr!

REYLO ANCIENT ROME AU

Stories don't always tell the truth; however, they can sometimes offer irrational consolation to that part of us that can't accept so much pain in life.

“Maybe it’s because he’s in the Elysium.”

(...)

“The Elysian Fields are a pleasant, bright, and happy place, where the zephyr blows lightly and where dwell the virtuous souls of those who have proven themselves worthy of such a reward.”

He distinctly felt Rey hold her breath, struck by his words, and so he hurried to continue his story.

“Here, meadows and woods abound, watered by the abundant flow of the river Eridanus. Those destined for this place, after death, find themselves walking on soft grass beneath a clear sky that no cloud obscures, with peaceful hills and shady valleys, variegated rocks, and fragrant woods, lush with fruit and flowers. Here the blessed lead their lives in peace, and the sun never sets, and they know neither night nor darkness nor cold.”

ANIMAE DIMIDIUM MEAE by antigone0000: CHAPTER 16 OUT NOW ON AO3!

REYLO ANCIENT ROME AU

"Poe now seemed so different from how he had always looked. Gone before her eyes was the mighty, courageous soldier who had taught her to fight; in his place, for the first time since the day she'd met him, Rey saw, a few meters away, a small boy, frightened, anguished, and terrified, struggling under the unbearable weight of an expectation everyone had always thought they'd place on his shoulders, without caring if he was truly ready to embrace it. A shiver of terror ran down her spine, along with the thought that perhaps Poe had always truly been what no one, not even she, had ever seen, too blinded by the adoration of a younger sister before her idol."

A REYLO ANGST AU.

"You inched yourself across the great divide."

"The great divide" by antigone0000; you can find it on Ao3. This isn't just a story of pain, but a journey of self-discovery, inner recognition, mistakes, misunderstandings and struggles, but most of all, it's all about love and sharing emotional burdens, cause what is love if not making the other's weight a little lighter by staying side by side, not being scared to ask.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/76684356/chapters/200711456

ANIMAE DIMIDIUM MEAE, an ANCIENT ROME REYLO AU by antigone0000: CHAPTER 14 OUT NOW ON AO3!

Rey felt her head spin incessantly, and the blood pounding in her temples, as she recognized in the blacksmith's speech the truth that had been killing her for hours. Because she really wanted to know Ben. The boy who night after night had revealed himself before her eyes was nothing more than a timid glimpse of what his soul must truly be, and Rey already loved that single glimpse of Ben so much, that the mere thought of spending an entire lifetime uncovering every single hidden corner of that man made her knees weak and her heart explode in her chest. Her life had been filled with injustice and pain from a young age, and the heartbreaking epilogue now unfolding before her seemed like the macabre culmination of a scaffold that had lasted barely eighteen years. The gods had always deceived her: they had given her Poe, and taken him away without allowing her to mourn over his corpse; they had given her Ben (...) and just when she had finally accepted that she could allow herself to love him, he was torn away from her with the violence of a devastating hurricane.

So yes, Finn was right. She had longed to know Ben. And the thought of not having the chance to do so was what tore her most of all.

In 84 AD, the Roman army defeated the Celtic Caledonian people in a bloody battle; the survivors, torn apart by trauma, were forcibly taken to Rome as slaves. Among them was Rey, a young Caledonian woman who, filled with anger and resentment, was sold as a gladiator for the games in the arena. Meanwhile, in Rome, Emperor Snoke has adopted the young Ben Solo, now Kylo Ren, as his heir. Seduced by the evil usurper, Kylo Ren has turned his back on his family and his past. But when the Caledonian gladiator, the petite rebel seeking revenge, steps onto the sand of the arena, the balance of the Empire seems destined to be upset forever.

OUT ON AO3