SUMMARY: She was the last, the final beacon of light in a world succumbed to darkness. Most will call it the end of the Shadow Age in coming centuries, the rebirth of Promethean fire among the diminishing stars, ignited again by the most unlikely love... the love between a unicorn and her savage beast.

STORY AESTHETIC INSPIRATIONS: The Last Unicorn, Legend (1985), Adam Hurst, J. R. R. Tolkien, Adrian von Ziegler, Amy Brown, Peter Gundry, Lucas King and Luis Royo

SONG INSPIRATION(S): Accursed Existence - Adrian von Ziegler / Tainted Heart - Adrian von Ziegler

OVERALL PROJECT WARNINGS: explicit sexual content (eventually), gore, violent action sequences, mentions of past abuse and characters witnessing abuse

A/N: I was not expecting this AU at all, but my muse doesn't take those things into consideration. This AU is based somewhat loosely on The Last Unicorn with quite a bit of liberties taken. Also, I'm not entirely used to writing in 3rd person past tense. I've mostly written in present tense for the last few years, so there will be mistakes.

**Updates for this project will be slow!**

.

"End, begin, all the same. Big change. Sometimes good, sometimes bad."

- Aughra / The Dark Crystal

.

SPELLBOUND

PROLOGUE

~ - . O . - ~

It will be said that a man-turned-beast was saved by the most unlikely creature in the harrowing years of King Snoke's reign. A unicorn, the last unicorn. It might even be said that such a unicorn came to love this mortal fiend...

Could a thing truly happen?

Before his fall the quiet and reflective prince, Ben Solo, had known a life of tumult and building hostility. The war against the Empire had ended; the Rebellion claimed victory, though that seemed not to matter to either side. The vanquished threw themselves onto enemy swords where they found them, slit unsuspecting throats of Rebel soldiers when they could and tried for his own life on many an occasion.

He was the son of Princess Leia Organa, icon of the Rebellion and political lioness of the free peoples of the Republic, and Han Solo, notorious pirate turned war general for his princess' cause. Ben Solo was the son of prestige, of destiny.

One day the prince had found himself trapped within a mountain cave, captured by the terrifying immortal, Celaeno, harpy and fabled seer of The Great Clash of Swords, the war which had taken place thousands of years before his time. It was said that The Great Clash of Swords claimed so many lives the seas ran red with blood. This story terrified him as a child and he had suffered dreams, terrible dreams.

And there was a face in those dreams, too. It visited often, whispering to him from its pale, twisted mouth. Serpentine words. Dangerous words, his mind had warned.

The harpy saw these dreams, flickers of dark and fire, like a candle in the shadows and she coaxed him to look into her cavernous gaze. At once he fell away, relaxing into the twisted roots which bound him. Celaeno first told him she had contemplated eating him, for his inward Eye carried great power; however, she hesitated. She had also looked into his future and saw the hell that was to follow him.

Intrigued by this she offered to play a game with the little lord. Three riddles, each answered correctly, and she would reward him three prophecies.

Ben Solo agreed.

The first two riddles he unraveled easily, answering them without pause, though the third proved much more difficult. He struggled, eyes distant with thought and brow furrowed, but after a time, he ground his teeth in frustration and glared at the stone floor.

This did not surprise the harpy as she sat watching him, her outer skin reflecting in the cold sunlight which filtered through the cave's entrance and her lips twisted in a demure smile. She marveled at him, enticed by the working of his shoulders as he breathed and his throat muscles as he swallowed. She considered very seriously licking him there. He would no doubt taste like the smoke of his coming destruction, she mused offhandedly.

As for the third riddle...

It was a trick. There was no answer that could be given, at least not by any mortal other than Ben Solo himself and he could not know the answer. Not yet.

She repeated the riddle once more, adding a final line that made the boy's breath catch in his throat:

"She is both innocent and wise,

A daughter of moon and sunrise,

Prideful, radiant and free,

She is but one of many.

Though to you, dear prince, she is destiny."

Ben Solo left the harpy with his three prophecies, confused and lost. They weighed heavily on his heart and, some years later, he fell willingly into the darkness promised.

Cities burned, blood was plenty and the sun turned a black lidless eye in the orange heavens, the fires of the cities seeming to catch in the clouds, razing all to ash and smoke. The ones who loved their prince fell to their knees, gnashing their teeth at the gods, desperate and driven mad with sorrow.

"Why?!" they demanded. "Why our prince?!"

Not long after this new darkness crept over the land, coiling up from the deep, secret places, Ben Solo remade himself under the tutelage of his new master, the wandering necromancer from beyond the Forest of Faces. It was said this sorcerer traveled the endless hardpan of the Pit all the way to the land of the Republic, all the way from the fabled Black Sea of the east, which no mortal had set eyes upon in centuries.

King Snoke. Murderer. Usurper. God.

The night Ben Solo died the dreaded demon, Kylo Ren, was born. He was a beast shrouded in darkness, a falling star willing to catch the whole world ablaze, bearing a massive sword that beat with a life of its own, like a dancing fire; pulsing, twittering, as if a naked heart.

King Snoke had no desire to conceal his pleasure as the prince knelt at his feet, eyes downcast.

It was after Kylo Ren attained his title, Master of the Knights of Ren, that King Snoke sent his eager pupil on his first real mission: capture every last unicorn of the realm and drive it into the sea.

"Fret not, my young apprentice. Vengeance will be yours in time." the king said. "But first, we must address a more pressing matter. As long as these immortal beings of light are free, the full extent of our power cannot be achieved. They pose a very clear and present threat."

"Why not kill them, my king?"

A low, grinding chuckle. "Still so much to learn. You will see soon enough, Kylo Ren."

So the dark prince drove them one and all into the sea for his master, a master who, at times, took more delight in his servant's suffering than the sparkling prisoners trapped in the ocean waves.

All but one.

When entering her forest, Kylo Ren could not have known what destiny awaited him there. He and his knights tracked the lovely creature to an open meadow, though she was not to be captured. She bested his knights, nearly dispatching three of them into the afterlife, and he was forced to pursue her alone.

Snow fell around them in the height of spring as they clashed, sword and horn unrelenting, sparks flying as the stars above watched on. She fought as fiercely as did he and in the end she overcame him, damaging his helm and cutting a burning scar down his face with her horn. Yet her victory was not due to his lack of skill, but the stirring of reverence in his heart. How could he capture such a creature? This one... this one was different.

And that was how he left her, triumphant and free in her wood, never to be driven into the sea, never to suffer at the whims of his master, unknown to the world beyond her forest.

A secret, his mind whispered. My secret.

In the coming years thereafter he never thought to question why she was the last. A proud and defiant creature willing to kill—he had no doubts as to why she remained unconquered. He came to treasure the memory of their battle in the quiet moments away from King Snoke's eyes. Her ferocity, her quickness, the shine of her silhouette in the darkness.

But none could have foretold the conniving minds of the Fates and their tangled tapestry of possibilities. They foresaw a quickening, a weary creature roused in the night, called to the road of Man... and a fateful contest of enemies.

.

.

.

.

.

.

PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW! I LOVE HEARING FEEDBACK!

THANKS FOR READING!