PAINTED IN ALL MY MISTAKES
Prologue
Hey everyone! This is my first story in the Star Wars fandom. I've been a fan of Star Wars since I was a kid, but I've only recently become interested in the fandom (follow me on Tumblr: mystormpilotsoul)! I haven't written in a while, but I've tried to keep everything free of grammar and spelling errors. Anyways, please review and enjoy!
Poe Dameron glanced up once again, watching General Organa pace back-and-forth anxiously across the command room. The general was usually very kind, but she had never been a patient woman, and so it was unsurprising to everyone that, over the course of the week, nearly every member of the Resistance had been snapped at by the irritable woman. Poe himself was beginning to worry for Rey, even while he kept reassuring himself that the girl was accompanied by the legendary Luke Skywalker. After bringing Skywalker back from his self-imposed exile, Rey had undergone intense Jedi training to strengthen her connection to the Force. Though the Jedi Master claimed to not know her parentage, Rey would later confide to the Resistance pilot that she could sense him lying to her. Nevertheless, Rey had become quite a powerful Jedi - even constructing her own lightsaber, which she used alongside the Skywalker lightsaber, which was revered as something of a relic in its own right. Having completed her training, Rey had gone with Luke to confront Kylo Ren and Supreme Leader Snoke in a covert mission. In order to maintain secrecy, Luke insisted to his protesting sister that neither side communicate with the other. Thus, the past week had gone by in silence and anxiety, with everyone on the Resistance base fearing for the safety of the Jedi.
"They should've been back by now!" General Organa's voice rang out. "I knew this was a bad idea. What was Luke thinking - sneaking into the enemy base with no backup or communication?"
"I'm sure they're fine, General." Poe reassured her. "If Master Skywalker is as powerful as the legends say he is, then I'm sure we have nothing to worry about. Besides, he taught you how to communicate with him through the Force if there's an emergency."
"I've tried so many times." Leia shook her head. "I can't sense his presence - it feels... shrouded. Foggy."
The dark side.
Rey had described the dark power to him after one of her training sessions had gone horribly wrong. Luke had told her to concentrate with the Force while she was in a handstand; several minutes later, Poe was carrying a screaming Rey to the medical bay. After several days of unconsciousness, Rey awoke and spent another week recovering from her Force-induced vision. Poe was about to respond, when the intercom alarm rang on the command console. General Organa immediately rushed to the console, practically smashing her fist onto the button for communications.
"General Organa, a ship has just come out of hyperspace - a Corellian light freighter."
"Clear the docking bay and give them permission to land immediately!" the general said.
"Yes, General. But there's something else: our scans show that there are two life-forms aboard the ship - both of them appear to be in critical condition."
"Send a medic team at once." Leia ordered. "Hurry!"
"Yes, General." the intercom said before silencing.
"Dameron, come with me." General Organa said.
"Right away, General." Poe said, following Leia to the docking bay.
The Millennium Falcon had already landed, but it appeared to be severely battered and covered in carbon scorching from blaster marks. The landing ramp extended, and a bloodied woman emerged from it. Supporting herself with the landing gear, she limped a few feet ahead before collapsing.
"Rey!" Poe cried.
The medic team had lifted her onto a gurney and were taking her to the medical bay. Poe and Leia immediately ran to her side, looking at her broken form with extreme shock and concern. Her face was stained with crimson. Her clothes, normally free-flowing and loose, were torn and appeared to be slashed at with a lightsaber. Several of her ribs looked broken as well. But perhaps what was most shocking was her right hand - or rather, the stump where it used to be. The wound appeared cauterized by the extreme heat of a lightsaber, but was unevenly done, as though the plasma beam which sealed her flesh was erratic and inconsistent. Feebly blinking her eyes open, the Jedi apprentice looked with dimmed eyes at the two figures walking with her. With a great effort, she raised her stumped arm, wincing in pain as she did so, and pointed toward the Falcon with insistence before her hand dropped in pain.
"Rey, just relax. You're gonna be all right." Poe said firmly, more to himself than her.
"K-Kylo...Re..." Rey said feebly.
"Shh. Save your energy." Leia said in a maternal, yet pained, voice.
"Master... S- skywalk..." Rey breathed in pain.
They had reached the medical bay. The doctors quickly removed her tattered garments and placed an oxygen mask over her, before carefully lowering her into a bacta tank. Medical droids were running scans on the battered girl, gathering data on her various injuries. The droids pushed the two humans out of the room, sealing the door to prevent them from entering. Poe began banging on the door, demanding to be let in, when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to find Leia frowning and shaking her head at him, signaling him to take a seat. After a few minutes, the chief medical droid came out of the room.
"How is she?" they both demanded immediately.
"Her condition has been stabilized. However, our scans indicate that she has six broken ribs, one of which has punctured her lung. We are currently operating on her, but we cannot guarantee that she will survive. The wound to her hand has already been cauterized, but we will not attempt to replace it until she makes a full recovery."
Poe made a movement forward, but was blocked by the droid. "I am sorry, but we cannot allow any organics into the room while the patient is in such a critical state. We will provide consistent updates on her status until the surgery is over." it said, before reentering the room.
Just then, a young woman ran into the waiting room and approached General Organa.
"Jessika? What happened?" Leia asked.
"General, the medic squad just went inside the Falcon to retrieve Master Skywalker, but he wasn't there." she said.
"What?" Leia cried. "That's impossible. There were two life-forms scanned aboard that ship."
"There was, but it wasn't Skywalker." She took a deep breath and said, "It's Kylo Ren."
"Are you serious?" Poe demanded. "Then what are we waiting for? We have to kill him - now!"
"No!" Leia thundered. "Jessika, is he unconscious?"
"Yes, General. We had him sedated and searched him. There were no weapons on him except for this." she said, handing Ren's lightsaber to Leia.
"Very good, Jessika. Bring him to the medical bay. That's an order!" she yelled upon seeing the pilot's hesitation.
Jessika immediately ran out the medical bay, the door closing behind her. Leia slowly sank onto a chair, burying her face in her hands.
"What was Rey thinking, bringing him with her?" Poe fumed. "And what were you thinking, General? He's too dangerous to remain on this base! We need to terminate him before he wakes up!"
"He's my son!" Leia shouted. "And we are not going to kill him, no matter what he's done."
"He's a war criminal. He tortured me - he tortured Rey! He's the reason Finn's been stuck in a coma for the past two years!" Poe cried.
"Whatever he is, whatever he's done, I'm not going to have him killed." Leia said firmly. "And we have bigger problems to worry about. Luke didn't come back with Rey and I can't sense his presence anywhere."
"But he's not dead, right?" Poe asked. "I mean, wouldn't you have been able to feel it if he died?"
"I don't know. I know I was able to feel... Han's death, but now... the Force feels completely out of balance. There's only the dark side now."
Poe didn't know how to respond to this. It was one thing to understand the loss of a friend or a family member. It was concrete, relatable. What he couldn't understand was something so abstract as the eternal darkness he kept hearing about from General Organa, Rey, Luke, even Kylo Ren. It was probably a Force thing. "And not important right now." he reminded himself.
"I, uh, I should probably go help Jessika." Poe said. "If you need anything General, don't hesitate to ask."
Leia silently nodded without even looking up at the sullen pilot. Poe walked out the room, looking solemnly at the distraught general one last time, before closing the door behind him. With no one else in the room, Leia began to sob uncontrollably. She had never allowed herself to appear as anything except the controlled, charismatic leader of the Resistance that everyone knew her as. She only allowed herself bring down her walls when she was alone.
But she rarely felt alone - in fact, there were only three times that she ever felt this broken. The first time was over thirty years ago - she was a 19 year old ambassador from Alderaan, and she watched in horror as the Empire took the lives of millions in one fell swoop - her friends and family - all incinerated by the Death Star. The second time was much more recent - but it was possibly the worst moment of her life. It was the day that Snoke succeeded in turning her son against her - the baby she had tenderly held in her arms at birth. The little boy who squealed with joy as his father threw him up and caught him. The irate, pained teen who became increasingly cold and distant with her. The dark young man who slaughtered dozens in cold blood, destroying the Jedi once more like his grandfather before him. That night ripped away everyone she ever loved - her son, her husband, her brother. And today, she was again about to lose everyone she cared about - Luke, who was again missing without a map to find him. Rey, the girl she had come to love as her own daughter, on the brink of life and death. And her son had returned, twisted and corrupted, to her at last.
She reached out with the Force, feeling the waves of darkness emanating from him - he was coming closer, closer than he had ever been to her in so long. But amidst the blackness, she sensed a feeble light in its center. It continued to burn, refusing to be smothered by the darkness around it. She concentrated harder upon that small sunspot, willing it to grow brighter. She could feel it pulsing, like a heart, beating faster with each second. A picture began to form into her mind - it was shrouded by the darkness, but she willed the light to illuminate it. Slowly, the fog cleared and she began to see a young man's face: he was pale and had a large scar across his face; his eyes, dark brown, were closed shut; his lips were swollen and tinged red with blood; his nose was strangely protruded and angled as if broken.
Leia opened her eyes to see Poe and Jessika reenter with the medic team, which was transporting a robed figure on a gurney. Kylo Ren's face was exactly as Leia had seen in her vision. His body was completely limp from the sedative injected into him, making him appear harmless - even vulnerable. Her solitude disrupted, Leia quickly recomposed herself, putting up her commanding, assertive persona of 'General'.
"How is he?" she asked.
"He's not looking too good." Jessika said. "There's a wound in his chest - looks like it's gone straight through his heart. We sedated him, but unless the medical droids work a miracle, I don't see any chance of him waking up."
"Doesn't seem like such a bad thing to me." Poe muttered under his breath.
Jessika gave Poe a severe look before dragging him away by the arm. "Call us if you need anything, General." she said.
The medical droids immediately took him into the operating room, shutting the door behind them. Leia made no attempt to follow them. She closed her eyes again, reaching out with the Force toward her brother. She already knew it was futile - Luke's presence was far too masked by the dark side. She would question Rey, once the girl had recovered enough to speak with her. But for now, Leia opted to return to her personal quarters. She closed her eyes, but she already knew that she wouldn't sleep at all tonight.