Burn it All
The Supreme Leader walked across the flight deck of the Radiant.
Not literally of course – he wasn't a child who walked willingly into a rancor's lair. No. By 'walked,' that action referred to a holo-droid scuttling along the deck on its six legs, carrying the image of the Supreme Leader for all the dissidents to see. Through an intricate system of photoreceptors, the Supreme Leader saw what his hologram did. A shining interior. Fighters of various classes ready to be launched. Techs of all manner of alien species looking at his image, before being sent back to work, or looking away in fear. And across the deck came his counterpart, or at least, the closest thing the Radiant had to the counterpart of the Supreme Ruler of the Galaxy. The Light in the Darkness. The Torchbearer. He Who Brings Order. The Fist of the First. So many titles for one man. More than even he could name.
His counterpart was simply called Captain Dazu Lowanda. A man twice his age, commanding a Republic cruiser that was less than half the size of the Star Destroyer he had parked on the outskirts of the Cellis system. By himself, Lowanda was no threat to him, nor his ship. Considering what men like Captain Lowanda represented however…that was something different. That was why he (or rather, his hologram) was here. To communicate. And as the holo-droid came to a stop, as did Lowanda and the scruffily dressed soldiers beside him, the Supreme Leader took a breath. Communication. Diplomacy. The game had to be played once more.
"You made it," Lowanda said.
Played in an informal way perhaps, but played all the same. "I have. You didn't make it easy for me."
"My subordinates think I'm wasting my time."
You are, thought the Supreme Leader, but he didn't say that, nor did he think that he and Lowanda had the same idea of what constituted "wasting time." Instead, he said, "you may check again that the Syrax remains within the system's heliosphere, and that no other ships are within the system."
"And you can hear again that if you want to kill me or destroy my ship, it won't matter. My fleet isn't here. If you came here to spring a trap, all you have is me."
Which could be enough, the Supreme Leader thought. Cut off the head, let the body die.
"So what are you here to talk about?"
"The future," the Supreme Leader said. And how the body keeps squirming.
"And what future is that?"
"One where you submit to the rule of the First Order, and bring your fleet to heel. Bend the knee, and receive amnesty. Refuse, and I'll-"
"You'll what?" Lowanda asked. "What could you do that's worse than you've already done?"
The Supreme Leader winced. Part of him wanted to point out that the worst excesses of the First Order had not been at his behest. But that would be weakness – give ground to a wolf, and it would never stop. Stand your ground, and the ground was yours, provided you were strong enough to hold it. So instead he said, "much worse than what you or anyone else could imagine."
That seemed to catch the captain off-guard. In his eyes, the Supreme Leader could see the sparks of fear. Fear that could lead to fire, should the sparks ignite. Fire that would destroy Lowanda and his ship, unless properly cultivated. So with that in mind, the Supreme Leader continued to speak.
"Lowanda, let us face the truth – you are no admiral, you are a captain. Your fleet is a group of Republic Navy dissidents who by chance weren't in the Hosnian system when the New Republic's capital was destroyed, and by foolishness or ignorance, have not yet accepted reality. Now, I could spend time hunting you all down. I could destroy your ship here and now. But I would rather bring you into the fold. At the least, your mind is capable of devising stratagems of slaughtering thousands of loyal disciples of the First Order. I would hope that your mind is sound enough to understand that there is no going back. The galaxy has to be rebuilt. It is time to start over. It-"
"No."
The Supreme Leader blinked – no? He wasn't expecting that. He'd thought that he was making Lowanda see sense. He could feel that he was getting through to him. But "no?" Why now?
"No?" the Supreme Leader asked.
"No. Not from you."
"I am the Supreme Leader of the-"
"Your name is Kylo Ren, and you're a boy parroting what better men than you have already preached."
On a starship called the Supremacy II, the chamber of the Supreme Leader began to shake. His honour guard, the Knights of Ren, beheld their master in a mix of admiration and concern. For before them was two men – one, the Supreme Leader of the Galaxy. The Master of the Dark Side. The one whose power they could feel through the Force, nourishing them. Feeding them. Strengthening their connection to the Dark Side of the Force – power. Control. Freedom. An elixir of might they could not relinquish.
The other man they saw was a scared boy about to have a temper tantrum. Ready to rise from his throne and smash his holo-projector to pieces.
"Better men." The Supreme Leader spoke slowly…so slow, that by the time his words ended, he was no longer the Supreme Leader who spoke, but Master of the Knights of Ren. One both in control, and without it. "I will grant you age, Captain, but not wisdom. You saw the rot of the Republic, did you not?"
"Darth Tyranus did as well."
Dooku? Kylo Ren frowned. "What of him?"
"The Clone Wars. The Confederacy of Independent Systems. Men who believed the Republic of old was beyond saving, and began a war to prove their point."
"And failed, even if validated in defeat," Kylo said. He knew his history – history imparted from a coward, but history nonetheless. "The Empire arose."
"And fell in less than three decades," Lowanda said. "How did that go for Palpatine?"
Kylo didn't answer. He didn't say anything.
"And now you come again," Lowanda said. "The First Order. Fanatics who claim that the galaxy is past saving, and that the only way is to burn it all and start over. Well, I'm old, Kylo Ren. I've seen many like you say they're saving the galaxy while burning it to the ground. I'd rather save what's left and work with the rubble, before sowing the field with salt."
"Then you'll die, like all the others," Kylo whispered.
"From what I hear, 'all the others' are growing by the day." Lowanda smiled, but not in mirth. "Ever hear the phrase 'death by a thousand cuts?'"
"What a thousand cuts may do to me, I can do to you in one."
"You could, but you'd have to swing your laser sword a lot."
Kylo Ren sat there. His hologram stood there, as did Lowanda. As did the Knights of Ren. As did legion upon legion of stormtroopers, ready to be dispatched to wherever they were needed in the galaxy. Which nowadays, was everywhere. 'Death by a thousand cuts'…replace "thousand" with "a million," and that might have come close to the number of knives that were pointed out him.
"Why are you talking with me?" Kylo whispered. "You obviously have no intention of seeing sense. If you want to die, so be it, but these fools you lead by the leash deserve the choice."
"They've all made their choice," Lowanda said. "Look around the deck, if you dare, Ren. See the face of your enemy. Of the enemies you made the moment you turned away from the Light."
Kylo's eyes narrowed. "Do not presume to lecture me on the ways of the Light, Lowanda."
"The Light has given us hope. You don't."
"I offer you stability, purpose-"
"You offer us nothing. The legacy of Luke Skywalker does."
In the depths of the Supremacy II, the chamber of the Supreme Leader began to shake. The chamber filled with masters of the Dark Side...and a boy whose fear, anger, and hatred, erupted into the universe. The boy who said nothing. The boy who could not give voice to the words that the people of the galaxy…his people…refused to hear. Luke Skywalker wasn't a hero. Luke Skywalker was a coward, and a fool, who had refused to even meet him on the salt flats of Crait. Luke Skywalker was a failure who had fallen before him not once, but twice. Luke Skywalker was worthy of nothing but scorn.
And yet the lie had become the truth. Luke Skywalker, who had stared down the armies of the First Order and lived. Luke Skywalker, who had faced the Supreme Leader in single combat, and gave time for the Resistance to escape. Luke Skywalker, whose name was spoken in every corner of the stars, whose image shone in the eyes of every child, whose name was on the lips of every soldier of the New Rebellion. Luke Skywalker, the Jedi who bridged the worlds of the old and new, who had ensured the Light did not die. Luke Skywalker, who had brought the Supreme Leader to his knees.
Lies. All of it. But lies would always be more appealing than truth to some people. Likes that Kylo Ren had long since given up trying to combat.
"Is there anything else you have to say to me?" the boy asked eventually.
"No," Lowanda said. "Only that by my hand or another, the First Order will fall, and…and…"
He began to choke. Reach for his neck, struggling to breathe. Fighting against the invisible hand of the Dark Side, as the life was choked out of him. The soldiers beside him looked at their captain in confusion, then horror.
"We're done here," said Kylo Ren.
Lowanda gestured to his guards, trying to get them to understand. Trying to get them to shoot the droid, so that the connection would be lost. Kylo Ren saw them finally get the point, and raise their rifles.
"And before you die, know this – Luke Skywalker was a coward. And you'll be seeing him soon."
The blaster rifles fired…a second after Kylo Ren snapped Lowanda's neck, leaving his body on the floor of his cruiser. A second after that, the feed was terminated, and the Supreme Leader was left alone, bar his knights. His guards. His centurions.
"Alert the fleet," he said. "We move on the Radiant and surrounding systems."
The knights understood, departing for their stations. Search and destroy. Find any trace of Lowanda's fleet, and reduce it to atoms. Hundreds would die this day. Thousands if they were lucky. A victory in the making.
And yet…as he sat on his throne, he felt…what, he wondered? Regret? Guilt? Emotions both unwarranted and unneeded. Emotions that nonetheless stayed with him. Worming their way to his heart, surrounding it in light…tightening it…whispering to him…whispers of a father, who had died loving his son. Whispers of a mother, dead not long after his ascension. Whispers of an uncle, who even now, refused to leave him, be it in the waking world or his dreams. Whispers of a girl, unknown to him, who now felt nothing but pity and contempt. Whispers of trillions of beings who hated him more than anything else in Creation. Whispers of a lie that refused to die…because so much of it was based on truth.
Kylo Ren, the Supreme Leader of the First Order, Ruler of the Galaxy, sat there.
And Ben Solo began to cry.