The giant ceiba forests of Altarrn loomed large and black before a single upsilon-class command shuttle came to land. In the moonless night, shuttle lights peered out like two glowing beams in the rain-laden clouds, leaving silver contrails in its wake.
The night was still but not quiet. The forest was alive. High-pitched howls of spidery night-gliders, insects murmured and the constant rumble of an approaching storm filled the rich night-air.
Kylo Ren's ship came low above the canopy as the trees thrashed and scattered leaves below. The black durasteel wings of his ship rose up like a sleek bird of prey as it landed in an open clearing. A ramp lowered to the ground with a loud hiss and Kylo marched out of its steaming mouth. Lashes of rain pelted the shuttle. He reached the sodden ground below and mud oozed and squelched beneath his boots.
The Knights of Ren awaited him, their outlines shady and faces darker yet.
"Supreme Leader," said the first, bowing. "It is done. We have destroyed the Resistance."
Kylo was silent, his face blank behind his featureless mask. He knew they were watching him - searching for some kind of response, or weakness. He gave them nothing.
The field before him was layered in bodies — burnt, broken, twisted corpses. His head sweeping this way and that, searching for something or someone, he reached out with his mind, seeking… her.
He exhaled slowly. Rey was not among the dead.
And yet, there was something. A feeling. A tremor in the Force.
Kylo could feel their connection. He could feel her fear as though it were his own. He could feel it seeping coldly through him and, lastly, he could feel her hope, faint, fluttering, like a dying star.
"The girl?" he asked.
Eoin Ren, his oldest and tallest knight, stepped forward and threw a body at Kylo's feet. It began to move slowly and Kylo breathed again, unaware he had even stopped.
Rey rubbed her hands, raw and red where they were once tied. And then she faced him, Her wild beseeching eyes almost pulled him from his purpose —almost.
Her leg was bleeding and the wrist of her left arm couldn't sustain any weight. Even still, her face was locked in steely determination.
She would not be owned though all hope was lost.
She shivered as pelting hammers of freezing rain beat down upon her. Her fingers caked with mud as she probed the ground searching for some kind of weapon, a rock, a stick, anything she could fight with. He came closer and she looked at him with narrow eyes. No! she wouldn't take this without a fight. No matter how much pain she was in. He saw her getting ready to pounce, to tear at him with her bare hands if she had to. Even now, in the end, he admired it.
Kylo stepped closer once more but quick as a Mon Cala eel she lunged at him and froze. Trapped within herself. Four of the knights had their hands extended, forcing and an impenetrable hold on her. Kylo activated his lightsaber and the fiery red sword blazed to life. The blade snarled and he felt the heat from his kyber crystal burning and hungry in his hands. The dark side of the Force fed his resolve. It made him strong, tearing away his hesitation, his weakness… his sentiment.
"Ben! Please don't do this!" Rey cried out to him through their bond but her words echoed in an empty void.
Raising a gloved-hand, the saber lifted to her neck, burning her with spitting fire in the waiting silence. Their eyes met briefly before he swung his arm back and then skewered her with a killing blow.
The thread of life snipped from her eyes and Rey fell, lifeless, into the killing fields of Altaarn, alongside her friends and the last of the Resistance. In the fleeting moment of her death, Kylo saw the dawning horror that she had been wrong about him.
There was no light left in Kylo Ren.
—-
"NO!"
A shrieking buzz woke Kylo Ren with a jolt. He lurched forward, eyes blinking in the darkness of his chambers. A hand-held pager vibrated loudly on his bedside table. Kylo reached for it and sent it hurtling across the room, smashing against the wall.
His breathing was fast and hurried and even now his heart throbbed heavily in his chest. Running his tremoring hands through his hair he tried to bring his thoughts to centre. It was just a dream, a nightmare… or was it?
This nightmare had been growing and changing for some time. Each week the edges of that dream grew sharper and more visceral until he could no longer deny three things.
It was a vision of the future.
A warning.
A promise.
Kylo wrung his hands together and swallowed hard but his mouth was dry. His eyes fell to the disfigured mask of his grandfather's mask lying in a pile of ash. Vadar gave him no answers now. His voice had stopped the moment he stepped over Supreme Leader Snoke's disgusting sheath of a body. Now he was truly alone. There was no one else to twist and malign his mind now, except himself.
Breathe . He focused his mind on the word. His bare chest rising and falling as the Force around him quietened to a gentle tidal flow.
His bedroom was dark and empty. A light above the window flickered erratically and popped, plunging the room into grey.
Outside the window, pinpricks of stars sharpened as his eyes adjusted to the light. Leaning his head against the cool transparisteel window he gazed out at them, searching for that part of the Force that had once connected him to Rey.
Rey… her name caught in his chest like an insect trapped in a web. He sunk further into the window, refreshed by the ice-cold feeling of space against his face. His eyes squeezed closed.
Rey… He tried not to even think of her. Not now. It had been six months to the day since Rey had shut him out of their bond. She had chosen her side, it hardly mattered what side that was. It was not his side.
He pinched the bridge of his nose, trying harder not to see her proud and resolute face as she looked down at him kneeling in the dark pit of his failure. The Falcon's door shut and he flinched at the memory.
The events surrounding Crait, even the battle itself, were largely a blur now. From the moment she had turned him down, a thick blanket of rage had crushed him. His thoughts had come fast, his actions faster.
Kylo had also tried to close himself off from their bond but now he wanted to let the fingers of his mind reach out to her. They did so hungrily, fasting for too long. He shouldn't do it. She wouldn't let him in. But still, he had to try.
The irony of it all was not lost on him. For the past six months, almost every available resource under his command had been tasked with the job of hunting her and the Resistance.
And yet here he was, alone in the quiet of his bedroom, searching the stars to make sure she was safe. He didn't care how crazy that seemed. There was no one left to sift through his most private thoughts, he could have his secrets, buried deep in the tomb of his heart.
He wondered if he could re-open the bond from his his end. Then he might see her, speak with her, maybe even touch her, it was ... overwhelming.
The Force opened like blank canvas before him and he focused on the memory of her energy within the Force, bright and pulsing like a living sun. The warmth flowed through her in the light, unceasing and bright. There was something calming about it, like a clear blue sea with the whisper of a breeze.
Kylo held the memory of her as an anchor in his mind and searched further still. He found small distant lights around him, signatures of other force-sensitives throughout the galaxy but none of them belonged to Rey.
"Where are you?" He asked into the void as casually as he could. But, even the sound of his voice was a facade.
The door of his chambers opened with a mechanical hiss. BB-9E whirled around towards him until a red light fixed itself on Kylo's chest. A mix of sharp beeps and low growls reverberated from the droid.
"What is it?"
The droid spat out a collection of long and short beeps. Kylo considered the droid quietly for a moment before grabbing his comlink.
"Hux!" he said. "What is this about?'
"Supreme Leader, we tried to page your earlier. We've received reports from Veros. They have been approached by the Resistance. It is reported a Corellian YT-1300f light freighter carrying the general and some other key Resistance members have arrived — including the girl."
Kylo clenched his fist and drew it to his chin, swallowing slowly, thoughtfully, assessing the situation that was now before him. He had been waiting for this intel for half a year and now he had it, he didn't quite know what to with it.
"Supreme Leader — are you there?"
Kylo thought about the last time she had seen him, how cold she had been? What would she do now if he captured them? How far she would go to save her friends…
"Supreme Leader, shall I send out a crew?" said Hux, interrupting the flow of his thoughts.
"What?" Kylo jumped. "They're still there?
"Yes! They're on planet. My contact in the court of Veros is stalling them until they hear from us."
Kylo Ren sprang to life, his eyes alert and bright as he paced back and forth giving orders to Hux.
"Prepare the ship to leave. I want ground crews prepped and ready to go. Tie fighter pilots on standby and notify the fleet to be ready to converge on our location…"
"The fleet!?"
"Do it." His voice was low and threatening like a thundering storm, threatening to destroy everything in its path.
"But Supreme Leader—"
"Have your pilots enter the coordinates for Veros immediately," Kylo cut him off. "That ship is not to leave, they are not to escape. When you find them, pull all their records. Take whatever resources they have. No mistakes. We will get that piece of junk once and for all. Do you hear me?"
"What of the prisoners?" Hux asked.
"Interrogate them."
"We can use the mind breaker…" Hux's voice went up an octave at the thought. Kylo sickened at his psychotic amusement at using such a device. It was Hux's idea but Snoke encouraged him in it. Kylo had often heard the screams of Hux's victims from Snoke's chamber. The previous supreme leader liked to listen,,, and watch.
"And what of Snoke's murderer — the girl?" Hux asked. "Shall I order the men to shoot on sight. We cannot risk her coming aboard."
"Leave her to me!" he hissed.
A long silence followed and there it was, Kylo straightened, a small smile edging onto his lips. He was ready to face her now. He was stronger, and more than ever resolved to the dark.
He would not be seduced by her.
Not this time.
Not ever.