The Lady of the Lash

by Lady Fenrir Unchained

Before there was a Kylo Ren, Snoke had another student, one who failed to become what he required of her. When the Supreme Leader leaves his new apprentice in her care will she train him as ordered or destroy him out of spite? Or will having known him end up destroying her?

The Lady of the Lash

Prologue.

The newest in the line of Dark Lady's, Mordae stood on the barren shore of what was once a great lake or a sea, she didn't know which. She had no memories of this world before its destruction, before Snoke found her. She knew only what she'd been taught of it, that the Jedi had caused its death along with that of all her people, making her the last. Her species had been a near human, perhaps an off shoot like so many in the galaxy, like a pestilence she thought sourly, humans were everywhere after all.

Standing at five foot ten she was tall for a human though short for her own and evolution on her lower gravity planet had cause other subtle changes to her people. Such as their grey tinted skin and large opalescent eyes suited to see in the gloom of red permanight caused by the dying sun, hers had once been violet she thought she recalled. It had been sometime since she'd even seen a mirror but the reactions of her soldiers told her all she needed to know, she was as much a Sith now as any Darth in the past. Pale skinned with eyes of flame, the Dark Side marked its own. Other identifying marks included her tattoos, each marking a stage in her training though most could not be seen under her black and red armoured robes. Wind blew the hair from her forehead to show one of the few that could be, fine red inked lines, as she looked to the sky.

Her hair was a mix of blood red and black that was nature despite the look, growing in dark but lightening as it grew out and aged. Her research indicated for most her kind the ends had been varying shades of white, grey and tawny brown. Those with red had been considered either blessed or cursed and she suspected the gene associated with it was also one that gave force sensitivity but she was no scientist and no others of her race remained to study. She kept it short, above her shoulders and often shaved parts of it in traditional Sith styles, currently it was the left side bare.

She turned as the First Order shuttle began its descent and moved forward to meet the occupant. She bowed low at the waist as the ramp doors opened and remained so until he came alongside her. "Supreme Leader." She greeted.

"I have a task for you." He moved past her and she straightened, seeing now that her master was not alone but with a young man. No not a man, a boy, she decided. Though he looked only a few years younger than her physically his haunted eyes made him appear much younger. Dark hair was cut short in the style of Jedi Padawans and her lip instantly curled up as if she could smell something rotten. It was an uncontrollable reaction that her Master had often rebuked her for allowing, a weakness that could be exploited. Turning her back on the unknown intruder she waited for Snoke to explain.

Ushering the boy forward with a small motion of his hand, Snoke placed a hand on the boys shoulder in a fashion Mordae found too familiar. Who is this child? "This is Kylo Ren, who will become the leader of the Knights of Ren."

Her eyes flashed in instant anger. "What? But I am your apprentice, why do we need this…boy?!" Almost before she finished speaking she felt her master strike her in the sternum with a solid fist of force and it was all she could do to stay standing as she stumbled back on the loose dust and rock.

"You are unsuitable for the task in which I raised you, for all your strength you've become too brittle to mold properly. You have failed me. You should be thankful for the care I have given you and do as you are instructed Dark Lady. Train him." With that the Supreme Leader walked back to the ship, leaving the two in silence until long after the shuttle lifted off, returning to space.

The muscle under her right eye twitched as she fought to control her anger. "He wishes me to train my own replacement, is he mad!?" She whirled back to the boy, snarling. "I should kill you where you stand!"

Kylo Ren didn't as much as flinch at her rage, in fact he didn't even look up at her but stared down and off into the distance as if seeing nothing. It seemed as if he could not only care less if she did just that but she sensed he'd have welcomed it. Weakling!

She strode over to him and grabbed his chin with unneeded force, wishing only to hurt him, something about his defeated look enraged her all the more. Jerking his face up to look at her, she froze. Something about his soft brown eyes made her anger simply vanish and she felt not only pity but an unexplainable kinship. Shaking her head she violently flung him away from her, smothering such feelings as quickly as they came. Who is this boy, her inner self asked, WHAT is this boy. "Get up." She growled. "Let me see your weapon."

Scrambling to his feet he did so without word, holding out another clue, a Jedi saber.

Reaching out she waited as it flew from his open hand to her own, turning it on she examined the dark green blade. "You didn't make this, who did?" Still, silence from the boy. She pursed her lips as she flipped the too obvious trigger and the blade vanished back into the handle. Only a fool places the real trigger outside the casing let alone so clearly, made for a child then. "Your old Master I suspect? Hmm, well that will not do. You'll make a new one and do so on your own." Using the force more than the strength of her hand she crushed the weapon hilt in her palm, smashing it entirely, even the valuable crystals inside. Letting the pieces fall from her hand she finally saw the first emotion on his face and she smiled at his obvious distress.

He looked up at her on his own this time, angry.

"Good, channel that anger, that is your strength and only with it will you survive what I will teach you here. You want to kill me don't you?" She smirked as she noted with surprise how truly upset he was and nodded as he dropped his chin. "You might get the chance. You could well be the death of me Kylo Ren." As soon as she said it she felt the chill of precognition and from the way his face jerked back up in surprise he'd also felt it. She shook off the feeling she'd just prophesied her own end and changed the subject. "Welcome to the world of my birth, my death and my rebirth. So it will be for you."

The boy looked around now for the first time, seeing what he hadn't before, lost as he was in his own personal misery. He saw the strange stone spires, depressions and hammocks of rock for what they really were. Lost cities tumbled into the dirt, bomb craters and dried river beds full of blood coloured dust, death on a massive planet wide scale. Focused on it now she knew he could feel the echo of it as well as she always had. Such places festered with the Dark Side.

"Yes." She confirmed when he looked back, face shocked at the revelation. "An entire world killed by your precious Jedi." Disgust and rage flashed across his face at her words and she nodded, turning her back and walking away. "Come along boy. It's time to start your true training."

1

She watched Snoke's apprentice from the shadows of the training chamber, he'd recently returned with an injury and worse, a failure. A dark cloud seemed to follow him, one most would mistake for the Dark Side but she knew better, she had known the Dark Side since she was a child and this was not it. What it was she couldn't say, something about the young man had bothered her from the first day he'd been placed before her with the instructions of "Train him."

He'd easily mastered the skills she taught him but lacked in the strength to use them correctly. That's not true, she mused, he has exceptional force power, he just somehow lacks the ability to use the Dark Side properly. But why? What am I missing? At first she'd thought she'd done something wrong in his training but more and more she realized the problem was the student, not the lessons. He's still too attached to the Light. She'd informed the Supreme Leader just that and had been ordered to remedy the flaw by any means necessary.

Though she was loath to admit it even to herself, she had not done as Snoke had ordered and she considered the reasons for that. Maybe I want him to fail, like Hux I don't think he is worth the effort. Do I just like to watch him struggle with it? Yes, I have to admit I do. Perhaps I don't want to see him lose that. She frowned at that last thought, unsure of its origin and shook her head, turning her attention back to Ren.

Currently he was so deep in whatever his trauma of the day was he hadn't noticed her, that self-absorption she was sure would one day get him killed. Or me. She thought with a frown. Finally she moved forward. "Ren."

She was rewarded with seeing him jump up and whirl to face her and for a moment he looked like a wounded animal and she felt what might have been sympathy, a feeling she quickly drowned with a sneer of disgust that she knew would convey to her eyes even if he couldn't see her lips. How does he always do that, create feelings of empathy in me? It's repulsive.

"Dark Lady." He greeted with a bow of his head, not so much out of respect as to hide his face from her, his dark mid length hair falling to cover his eyes. "How may I assist you?"

Eyes that were as clear and unblemished by the Dark Side as the day they'd met. Yet another reason she couldn't trust him and it made her angry. To know the only true companion she'd been given in life was a man she couldn't believe in.

It made her think of the old man her Master had sent her to learn from as a girl, an exiled Jedi. She'd killed that man once her training was complete. Not because he was a Jedi or because her Master had order it, no, those were things she could have forgiven. He'd suggested her true power didn't lay on the path she was walking, he'd looked into her eyes and said there was another life she could live, a better one. And he'd believed it, truly, she could see it in the old man's eyes when he spoke to her. And he made her believe it as well, it had given her hope that she could be better than being the tool her Master had shaped.

And for that she'd killed him. An outcome she knew her Master had foreseen, which made her despise them both for it.

Even at the thought rage filled her at the old man's betrayal, because she knew there was no such hope, not really. And this idiot boy reminds me of him. She mentally snarled at the thought and she fell still and silent for a moment as she let the anger pass over her. The only sign of it a slight twitch of her upper lip, as if she could smell something rank. Thankfully the mask that covered the lower half of her face hid the weakness from her apprentice.

She started a slow circuit around him, spiralling closer with each pass; she looked him up and down. "You've failed the Supreme Leader Kylo Ren." Mordae looked him over carefully as he stood stock still, feet and chest bare save for the bandages around his midsection. He was covered in smaller wounds she now saw as she got closer, some shallow, some not, the signs of a hard fought battle. Just who is this unknown girl who seemingly beat my student? Even with his disadvantages he should have been more than a match for even a trained Jedi. So why is she not dead? Did he purposely allow her to best him? If so, why? "But of course you already know that don't you, why else would I be here? Why would he call me but to re-educate you?" She was nearing arms-length from him now.

His chin raised and he stood a little taller, looking off above her head she could see him brace himself for what he knew was coming.

Reaching a hand out as she passed him to the side she let her sharp blackened nails contact his shoulder and to his credit he didn't flinch. And nor did she press, simply let them trail across the skin as she continued to circle him, angling them down across his back, not cutting into his skin but leaving red marks none the less. "It concerns me you would make that necessary; you know how much I despise to repeat myself Kylo Ren."

Mordae came around to stop directly in front of him, clawed hand resting lightly at his waist as she examined his face. He didn't move as he stared over her head and she narrowed her yellow eyes slightly at the healing slash on his face. That will scar. This may not be a bad thing, gives him needed character. She turned her attention to the larger wound in his side and felt the beginning of anger now. That's no blaster or saber wound; she snarled internally, that's a bowcaster.

Both surprised and oddly angry to know the Wookiee would have actually attacked him was combined with a growing suspicion. It's also not a mortal injury, due to the skill of my student or because the beast purposely missed him? "You're wounded." She murmured to Kylo in shock and concern, acting as if she'd only now seen it though they both knew that was not the case.

The Sith lady raised her other hand now and placed it carefully over the bandage, slowly looking up as she jabbed her thumb into the bandages. She managed to get a grunt of pain out of him and as she watched the muscles in his jaw clenched to contain the sound. I shouldn't have even been able to get that much, you should have expected and been prepared for that apprentice. She thought in disappointment. Dropping her hands she stepped back again. "Lucky for you that is not why I am here."

His eyes twitched downwards for a moment to look at her now only for him to take a deep breath and raise his chin again, looking back at the far wall like a good soldier.

But we both know you're not a good little soldier don't we Ren? She thought but out loud said. "I'm here to continue your training; Snoke seems to feel you are ready for the next step though I find myself disagreeing."

"Supreme Leader." He interrupted to correct her, causing her brow to raise but made no further comment.

After a moment of mutual silence she went on. "Tell me, what makes you or the 'Supreme Leader'," She worded the title as more of an insult. "Think you are ready for what I have to teach you?" She slow and silently started to circle around him again, examining his face and body movements. She noted how even standing still he favored his wounded side and shook her head almost imperceivably. Fool. She thought.

He looked down at her finally and almost snarled under his breath. "I have murdered my father."

"Oh!" She exclaimed with false surprise and clapped her hands together once in enthusiasm. "You killed a sad old man who trusted you with his last breath. How daring you are, how powerful you must feel little Jedi!"

"I am no Jedi!" With a movement he may have thought sudden he lashed out at her with the force, igniting his saber. The Dark Lady was more than ready and deflected the first blow with a wave of her hand and the second by simply ducking to the side. "Oh yes, I can see how you must have taken him with such finesse."

She smiled as his crackling saber flew past her two more times before she unhooked her own weapon from her belt, letting the lash uncoil and with a sharp snap of power; it lit up the room with lurid yellow lightning of the Valmorite crystal in the hilt. A light whip was a rare and dangerous weapon and she was a master of its use, as were the Dark Lady's before her. They could be hard to control and had many disadvantages to a blade, meaning one had to have even greater skill to wield one successfully against a strong opponent. Part of what she liked about it, that and sheer intimidation the lash could invoke.

Easily holding him at bay she watched him closely, conflicting emotions raging across his pale features. Why she so enjoyed teasing him she couldn't have said just then but this was supposed to be training not fun. Can it not be both? She laughed to herself, the sound causing a renewed attack from Ren, thinking she was laughing at him instead. He was fast, he always had been she couldn't deny that but still it seemed he held back as he always had. It was infuriating. How am I to train him properly if I do not know his full strength? And more importantly, why does he hold back? What does he hide from me?

With that frustrating thought she decided to end the game and lashed out one more time, catching his saber around the top of the cross hilt and with a sharp jerk of her arm, sent it skittering across the floor. He fell still as a statue the moment it did and she repressed the urge to use the force to throw him across the room by turning her back on him, pulling her half mask off as she did. "I take it back, I can honestly not see how you could have possible beaten even a frail old man. Are you sure you killed him and he simply didn't just fall dead of old age?" She deactivated her whip and glanced back at him.

Too late she saw as the weaponless Kylo Ren lunged at her with a wordless cry of rage, with shock she found herself pinned against the chamber wall. One hand around her throat and the other around the wrist that held her lash, he snarled and smashed her hand off the wall until she was forced to release it. Clutching at the wrist around her neck she began to laugh openly, her armour protecting her from any attempt to choke her. "Finally! Some true passion from you!" Perhaps Snoke is right, she considered, killing old man Solo has done him good.

Anger warred with another emotion as he glared down at her, self-disgust she realized. She did something utterly impulsive in that second, one she later excused as a tactical distraction upon questioning herself why. Moving her hand from the grip on his wrist she buried it in his now sweat soaked black hair and pulled him down, kissing him with unfeigned fervor.

Kylo jerked his face away from hers, shocked and confused and just for a second, his hand twitched and let go of her neck. That was all she needed as she sent him flying backwards with a sharp force push to his diaphragm. Sliding on his back for only a moment before using his momentum to roll back to his feet, he looked around frantically to find his vanished opponent.

She was behind him already, catching the back of his head by his hair she tossed him down again, standing over him now she didn't bother to hide her smirk. It quickly vanished as she felt him use the force to grab her ankle and pulled her down to the ground with him, knocking the air from her lungs as they rolled, grappling for positions. Weapons and force forgotten they fought like animals until he had her pinned down. In a split second the goal of their fight changed as this time he kissed her and both appeared to forget they'd been trying to literally claw each other's eyes out only a moment before. Tied up together as they were, blind to everything, it was like an electric shock when the voice boomed with the power of the Force behind them at the chamber door.

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?"

Kylo jumped back and away so fast she was sure he'd used the force to move himself, prostrating himself on the floor before the new comer. "Supreme Leader, forgive me!"

Sighing, she hitched herself up on an elbow to look at him, rolling her eyes in disgust. For a time she thought he'd shown signs of something more than the crawling Jedi snake she'd so often thought of him as in the past. What a waste.

Snoke glared down at his apprentice a moment before looking to her. "Mordae?" He demanded.

"Yes father?" She smiled sweetly from the ground.

"Stand. Up. And. Explain. Yourself." He clipped each word off entirely before saying the next.

She moved slowly to illustrate she was rising because she wanted and not because he'd ordered it, she dusted herself off. "You said to train him, I was training him."

"Is that what that was?" Snoke narrowed his eyes at his daughter. "Leave us, I will speak to Kylo Ren about his…failures and how he might make it up to us. You are to meet with General Hux; I have another task better suited for you than this one obviously was."

She glanced at the Knight on the ground then to Snoke. "And what is that? I'm not a boot licking worm and have no use for those who are." Mordae sneered as she saw the barb hit home with the smallest of twitches in his shoulder muscles.

Snoke however mistook whom she spoke of. "You would do well to become fond of the General; you may well be spending a great deal of time with him in your future. He's more than indicated his willingness to take you off my hands."

Her head twitched towards her father in understanding of his words, if she did not do her part, a part would be picked for her. The idea of being married off for influence was not a path that appealed to her and she bowed her head. "Of course father, as you wish." She reached down to pull her rebreather mask on and turned on her heel to leave the chamber. As she passed him he stopped her and growled so low that only she could hear. "I have allowed you to remain despite your flawed nature but should your continued weaknesses become a distraction for him I shall have you removed. Are we clear?"

She didn't look at him as she inclined her head. "As always, I live at your sufferance Supreme Leader."

"Do not forget that, daughter."

2

Kylo Ren watched as the Dark Lady left and despite what both thought, heard her father's words to her. He felt his heart go out to her and immediately closed it off, she may not be his enemy but she was no less dangerous to him than if she was. He couldn't afford fond feelings for anyone let alone Snoke's failed former apprentice. One he knew he would one day have to kill, a fact he'd known before she'd even spoken it out loud at their first meeting. And yet even as the Supreme Leader began to speak he had trouble focusing, his thoughts returning again and again to their spar. It wasn't the first time her words or actions had suggested they were more than teacher and student, or could be if he'd had the courage to make it so. Or the weakness, he thought, just as Snoke had suggested.

"You've done well to put an end to Solo my Knight of Ren but it is not enough." Snoke's pale, watery blue eyes seemed to pierce Kylo, using skill honed by years of being an Inquisitor.

Kylo closed his walls to keep his Master out, knowing it a test of his strength. "Anything you ask of me."

"Hmm." The Supreme Leader hummed. "We shall see. For you have failed me as much if not more than pleased me. This child, Rey, her powers are too great to be a wild talent, she has had Jedi training. You missed one Kylo Ren." The tone was an accusation, had he done so on purpose?

Considering his options he stayed silent, deeming no response was better than the wrong one, he clenched his jaw. He buried all memories of Rey, her identity or leaving her on Jakku, thinking her safely believed dead by all. He thought momentarily of the sight of the poor girl in the interrogation room only for the scene in his mind to slip back to Mordae, imaging her in such a helpless position. Cease this! He ordered his thoughts from chaos, his mind shying away from the mixed and disturbingly confusing feelings the mental picture had caused him.

Snoke narrowed his eyes at his student. "I feel your confusion, true confusion." He nodded, mistaking Ren's feelings for honest confusion of Rey's origins. "Very well. You will hunt this girl down, before she can find Skywalker, if she hasn't already. Should you find her with your former master, kill him and bring her to me, alive."

…

Mordae strode through the palace, ignoring the salutes of the First Order members as she went, in truth not even seeing them. Fool, she thought, utter fool. He is right; you are both weak and flawed. You always have been even before he dropped the boy at your feet. It is the reason he did, you failed him before you could even start your true task.

"My Lady!" She heard the General all but purr at her as she reached the command center.

She forced down her revulsion, she found Hux's unabashed lust for her distasteful at best. Or more likely for the power having me would gain him, sneering at herself mentally she thought, instead you think of the spoiled tantrum throwing child who finds you as disgusting as you find this worm. And why was that she wondered, because she knew he would one day kill her? Did she have a morbid fascination with her own mortality? Or was it simply that unlike Hux, he treated her with the same distain her own father did. She was sure that either case said something unpleasant about her as a person and quickly dismissed the entire train of thought as pointless. "General." She smiled. "I understand we shall be travelling together."

He took her hand, though she had not offered it and raised it to his lips. "Yes my dear, he wishes us to retrieve something for him." Hux smiled at her as he bowed over her hand.

Her skin crawled as she felt not just his lips touch her skin but his tongue, she didn't move and her smile didn't so much as waver however. "And what would that be?"

Hux rose, seemingly disappointed by her lack of reaction and released her hand. "If the Jedi have shown themselves it means they plan to make their move and we must be ready to make ours. There is a crystal we are to fetch, for a weapon I think he said." He replied off handed, deeming it as unimportant.

Not fooled by his feigned ignorance Mordae narrowed her eyes, something that would have caused others to step back from her, Hux instead leaned in closer. "A crystal? He wishes one of us to make a new blade?"

"I cannot say for sure my dear Lady but I do not think Kylo Ren will need his current one much longer let alone a new one and all your assets seem in well working order." He let his eyes trail down to her feet and back with a greasy smile.

"Why would Ren not need his blade?" She felt the sudden unease of what she knew was anxiety though she could not place its source; she reached out with the force to attempt to find it. Am I under attack? But she could sense no use of the force near her at all let alone focused on her.

The General waved his hand dismissively. Raised from birth to be a loyal Imperial leader she knew well his dislike for Ren, son of rebel scum as far as he was concerned. Someone who never should have been raised so high within the Order, so his next words didn't surprise her. "We both know he cannot come back from such a failure as the Starkiller. He will fail in his next task and when he does, the Supreme Leader will have to look to us two to fix the fools mistakes. The Knights of Ren and their leader will fall."

Her own reaction to them however did as without warning, even to herself, the Dark Lady's hand shot out and closed his airway off. "Perhaps he will not be the only one to fall General."

In contrast to his dire situation his eyes seemed to light up and with what air he had left he suggested. "Tighter my Lady."

Snarling she dropped her arm. "You are a twisted little man Hux."

Taking a deep breath he smirked. "Yes. We're perfect for one another don't you think?"

…

Somewhere in the Outer Rim Territories;

With his hood pulled over his head, Kylo moved through the crowd, willing them not to see him. A handy, though little used trick he'd learned as a child, he'd once used it to steal snacks from the kitchen servants. He found it both strange and refreshing to be allowed to move without a troop of soldiers at his back. This was the first time since joining Snoke's forces he'd been allowed out of sight on his own. Previously the closest he came was travelling with Mordae during the first few years of his training. Again his thoughts went to her and again he snarled under his breath, causing stares as he slammed his fist into a nearby wall, causing the stone to fracture. Nice, he thought, very subtle.

He knew this was a test, perhaps even a trap, could she be out there even now watching to see what he'd do? Wouldn't be the first time she'd played such a game. He reached out to sense his surroundings, he felt sure if she were near he'd know. Nothing. He shook his head and kept moving. His goal was Rey; he had to focus on that and only that. Reports put the Millennium Falcon on this world, in a hanger in this sector. The area wasn't much to look at; just another hive of scum, the galaxy was full of countless such places. Places my father had loved to hide. At the thought he stumbled, almost doubling over, unable to catch his breath. Han's last moments flickering in his sons mind, he felt sick and willed himself to stand straight. NO! He denied to himself. It was necessary, all of it was. I will not dwell. I cannot. He quickly shifted his feelings by funnelling them into anger as Mordae had often instructed him too. I don't have time for anything else.

He saw the bay ahead and waited, watching from the darkness. It was an hour before he finally saw movement, not at the hanger but from the street beside it. A small sleek shadow moved from between the lights and through the door with the ease of movement usually reserved for the nocturnal predator. Or the long practice of their prey, he smiled as he saw Rey's fearful eyes dart from her hood before vanishing into the hanger.

With no hesitation he followed immediately, striding into the open and ripping the door clear off the wall and passing through the now clear egress as the durasteel rang off the ferrocrete alley behind him. Ren frowned as he looked around, not seeing Rey, the space between the door and the ship was too great for even a Jedi to make the space before he entered. There were no other escape routes she could have taken, he made sure of it hours before.

Before he could consider it more a weight landed on his shoulders, driving him down and knocking his saber from his hand before he could even switch it on. He heard it skitter across the floor into the darkness but was too busy to look for it.

The weight on his shoulders shifted the second his knees hit the ground and as his hands connected it rolled off entirely. He looked up in time to see Rey come to her feet and ignite the blue saber he'd seen her with before, a saber he knew well. Part of him was bothered to see her with it but he had to admit even if just to himself that she had just as much right to it as he did. Perhaps more.

Kylo got to his feet slowly, not taking his eyes off her. He knew he had to handle this with care, he didn't want to harm her even if it hadn't been an order from the Supreme Leader. At the same time he knew all too well the price of holding back and taking her lightly. "Rey…" He held his hands out at the sides cautiously, his voice coming out through the mask electronically muffled.

She didn't give him time to continue, she attacked first with an aggressive style he couldn't identify for a time.

It's not a style. He thought as he jerked his head out of the way and dodged to the side. It's just instinctual movement, that's what makes it so unpredictable.

Rey made a running dash at him baring the blade high before dropping to one knee and sliding in low, reversing it so the hilt came in under his guard. As soon as it hit she dropped and rolled out of his reach.

Kylo gasped as it hit with unerring aim directly into his recent wound with all the force of her movement and he doubled over. Without thinking he instantly channeled the pain the way his Sith instructor had literally beaten into him and he felt a surge of strength. For the Sith Juggernaut there was no pain, only power.

With it came a nearly overwhelming anger, fuelled by the Dark Side power enrage that he'd drawn on to supress the pain. He looked up at the girl, growled and shot forward with force enhanced speed, using a move almost identical to the one he'd used to take his Sith master by surprise only a few days prior.

One hand closed on her saber hilt but instead of the second one connecting he caught only air as Rey let go of her weapon and again dropped down and away, rolling across the ground.

Her sudden move made him lose balance and he fell forward onto his face like a rank novice. Pushing himself up to his hands and knees he snarled at the girl who dared to wield the saber of his grandsire. Drawing the force to him and readied himself to attack, forgetting that once he'd risked his life to save her.

He hauled back and slammed his fist into the ground sending a shock wave through the stone at the same time he threw the saber at her, sending it spinning through the air to catch her between the two.

Rey's eyes went huge as she fell to the ground, unable to move or flee she threw up her hands in a useless gesture of defense. After a moment nothing happened and she opened her tightly closed eyes to look, finding the saber floating in the air in front of her face before it turned off and dropped harmlessly to the ground.

"Enough Ben, stop."

Still on his knees he whirled to face the ramp of the Falcon, standing silhouetted by light and a hulking Wookiee shadow was Luke Skywalker himself. Terror froze him in the spot, dread as he'd never felt his entire mission filled him. I've failed, now I have to face it all, everything I did, all for nothing.

"It's done, the mission cannot continue, it's time to return." Luke took a step towards his nephew.

"No...No!" He shook his head in denial, ripping off his helmet and throwing it down. "It's not done; I am close Master, so close!"

Sadness washed over Luke's face. "Oh Ben I am so sorry, I did not consider what this would do to you, what you would truly have to do to accomplish it. It was not just foolhardy of me but cruel. I should have foreseen what he would demand from you to prove yourself to him."

"Snoke doesn't trust me enough, not yet but this is a sign he has begun too." Looking down at his hands the young man shuddered. "My father…..he cannot have sacrificed himself in vain! The other students…" His gaze drifted to Rey in horror as he realized he'd almost truly struck at her this time before shifting back to Luke.

"We both know Han was sick Ben, he was dying and he made it his choice to help you when you asked." Luke soothed his nephew. "And the others were not your fault but Snoke's, he is the one who orchestrated their attack, you defended yourself."

"Snoke's daughter…Mordae." He seemed to recall suddenly at the mention of the Supreme Leader's name. "She's close to his plans and I know she is starting to trust me. You can't call me back now Uncle; I am so close to the truth!"

Open mouthed, Rey looked back and forth between the two, slowly realizing the truth behind who and what Kylo Ren really was.

"I just need more time." He pleaded.

"I do not know if we have it. Come, we can't discuss it here, we must leave this world. If you found us here so will the others. Once clear we will talk more on if we can safely allow you to return. I fear it would be a death sentence now." Luke frowned as he looked around, then shook his head and motioned them to both follow.

Rey scurried after, leaving Ren to follow.

He stopped at the ramp, unable to look up, knowing one who helped raise him stood there waiting and unsure of his reception. It was almost too much as Chewie reached out and with one arm pulled him close, he was suddenly a small child again as the massive Wookiee gurgled the words at him. "You're safe now."

He collapsed, only Chewie's arm kept him standing and pulled him into the ship, closing the hatch behind them both.

…

Watching the ship rise out of the hanger bay and vanish into the clouds, the silver armoured Captain stepped out of the shadows where she'd stood guard since the ship docked. Nudging the dropped saber with the toe of her boot she grunted. "Traitor." She leaned down to pick it up, turning it over in her hands. If the boy had bothered to come after it she'd have been found out, as it was her mission was a success and the General would be pleased. She walked across the hanger to pick up the discarded helmet as well, smiling behind her face mask she left, she had a report to give.

3

"After you my Lady." Hux didn't hide his leer as Snoke's daughter walked off his ship and he moved to follow. "I am sure your father will be well pleased with our trip." He tossed a crystal into the air once, caught it, toss it again.

The second time however it returned not to his waiting hand but the Dark Lady's, as she scowled back at him from the deck below. Nothing but her eyes showed over her red and black Sith half-mask but they were enough to show her utter distain.

Vicious as she was beautiful, he thought, not some weak willed rebel mongrel throwing tantrums like that Kylo Ren, a true heir to the Sith Empire, a born and raised predator just like me. His own thoughts turned dark as a third joined them to interrupt.

"General Hux." The filtered voice of Captain Phasma cut through his musing.

"Not now Captain." He snapped, sparing her only a cursory glance. That second was enough however for Mordae to be half way across the hanger before he looked back.

"You will want to hear this General, I assure you."

Internally snarling he turned to give her his full attention. "I had better." His sharp tone a promise of pain and suffering if he didn't.

"I followed Kylo Ren on his assigned task as you instructed." Her tone was respectful but she didn't hide the twitch of her helmet to follow Mordae with what he swore was distinct disapproval, though how he could guess at that from the blank stare of her mask he couldn't be sure.

"And?" He demanded. Speaking of disapproval, the Supreme Leader's daughter seemed entirely too fond of her pseudo apprentice of late. Hux felt the oaf was already too high in Snoke's esteem, he would be damned if he rose higher through Mordae's. He'd see him dead first.

"You were right. He's not just a traitor but a spy. He was sent by Skywalker himself to infiltrate the First Order." She held out the dropped helmet complete with saber hilt inside it as proof.

Hux began to laugh. He wouldn't need to kill Ren, he'd just killed himself.

…

Mordae entered the chamber of the Supreme Leader after having been called unexpectedly from the lab where she'd dropped off his precious new crystal. She had not even had time to return to her room and after her time in close quarters with the General, Mordae felt the need for a long sonic shower. She frowned to find the General and Ren's pet trooper Phasma already in attendance but not Kylo Ren himself. Odd, was all she could think, moving past the other two with a raised brow. She could feel the smug demeanor of the Captain even through the shielded armour. Hux looked grave as he inclined his head but swirled with elation just under the surface. Very odd, she decided.

Knowing it would be expected before others she dropped to one knee before her father. "I have been summoned Supreme Leader." It was a statement and not a question.

"Yes." Was the only reply for a time.

She stood but refused to rise to the bait and simply waited, either he would tell her what he wanted or not, she'd not play his games or pander to his ego, not even in front of others.

"Kylo Ren has failed." Again, silence after the announcement.

It felt as if her heart leapt into her throat. What do you mean he failed? Is he dead? No, she knew, after all the time we've trained together if he had died I'd have felt it, she was sure of that much. Breathing slow and steady she did not allow her thoughts to show. I am sure this will somehow be my fault and not the boys though.

Like the Dark Lady, Snoke also didn't allow the frustration at her continued refusal to answer show as he went on. "The Jedi Grandmaster has shown himself finally, no longer content to pull the strings from the edges of space. You will do as Kylo Ren could not and kill Luke Skywalker once and for all."

Her thoughts flew in several different directions at once, questions died unasked upon her lips as she knew she'd get no answer from Snoke, he enjoyed his riddles too much. If Kylo had tried and failed to kill Skywalker, where was he now? A prisoner? Am I also to rescue him? She decided; Yes, that must be so. A test to see if I will leave your prized possession simply to rid myself of him, if I'll let personal jealousy ruin your goals. "As you command Supreme Leader." She rose, looking at him closely now. If only you knew the truth old man, I've never been jealous of the boy, I pity him. "Is that all?"

Snoke nodded and dismissed her. "Your ship has been refuelled and the hyperspace coordinates of Skywalker's last jump have been added. Do not return until you are successful." He warned in a dire tone.

Turning on her heel she left, knowing the only sleep she'd be getting would be in a pilot's seat on route, she sighed. What trouble have you gotten us both into now Kylo Ren?

…

With a frown Hux turned and inquired to Snoke. "You didn't tell her?"

"No, I did not." He confirmed.

"Might I ask why?" Hux glanced at Phasma who shrugged so slightly he wasn't sure anyone but him even noticed the movement.

"You may, that does not mean I will answer." Snoke slowly stood and left the chamber.

4

The Mid Rim world of Kashyyyk;

Mordae stretched her legs out, crossing them at the ankles as she focused on the small blade she cleaned her talon-like nails with. Seemingly unconcerned about the height of the tree branch in which she lounged overlooking a swaying walk way belong. She knew he was there just as he knew she was and for a time both ignored the other, it was like a game or a dance, one that had started generations ago.

As the hooded figure moved directly below her she spoke, not looking up from her work. "For someone in hiding you are unusually easy to find old man."

He paused, also not looking up as he replied. "Perhaps I am not hiding."

"I thought that might be the case." She said thoughtfully, putting the blade away to look down finally. "But that would have to make you the biggest fool I've met and such fools do not live as long as you have."

"And why would wanting you to find me be foolish?" He angled his face up to look at her with eyes entirely too similar to his nephews despite the difference in colour. "Mordae I assume?" He asked pleasantly.

She felt a surge of sudden anger, most of the First Order did not know her name, only her title, so how did this old hermit know it? "I think you will find I am not as easily bested as Kylo Ren was, he was after all only an apprentice."

"Yes." He agreed. "But he was my Padawan for far longer than he was your apprentice."

Again she become unquestionable angry at his words, to all but a few Kylo was officially Snoke's apprentice, that she was in fact his real teacher was a secret to even her own people. How had this helpless looking old man got such information from him? What kind of torture did the Jedi have that could get past defenses even her own father had never been able to break? Kylo himself was becoming a master of the Sith interrogation, what secrets did this hermit have to force him to speak?

Before she knew what she was saying she snarled at the old Jedi master, her voice echoing threateningly in her mask. "If you have harmed him…" She cut herself off as his brows went high in surprise, if at the vehemence of her words or the suggestion he'd have harmed his own nephew she wasn't sure. Shaking it off she instantly changed tactics, taking a calming breath she removed her mask and returned a defusing smile, accepting the old man's statement with a gracious nod of her head. "That is true. He was your student longer but I suspect your training was not as…" She paused as if thinking for the best wording before she smirked. "Intensive as mine."

The Jedi's brows shot up at the suggestion in her tone and that's when she made her move.

Pushing away from the tree she unfurled her lash, striking at his face. She landed on the walkway and found to her surprise her whip had not only missed him but was now tangled up in not just one blade but two. The old man had ignited a main green blade and a smaller secondary one in his off-hand that he'd used to catch the backswing of her whip, catching her attack mid-air between them.

She arched her brow at the distinctly red hue of the half blade and her shock turned to delight. Now here! Here finally is a truly worthy opponent! Her smile widened as she looked into Luke's eyes. "Oh my, someone has done his homework."

He frowned slightly at her obvious enjoyment of the situation, not expecting such a reaction.

Shooting forward to wrap the lash further around the second blade she looped it around both the hilt and his hand, pausing as she drew close. "You're going to make me all hot and bothered aren't you Master Skywalker?" She winked and then pulled back with both hands, forcing him to pull back in the opposite direction to keep the weapon. That move he had anticipated but her next one wasn't as she purposely let go of her hilt, letting the lash freely fly at her opposition as he pulled it towards himself.

Expecting the lash to pull tight as she fought for it and not let lose, he was forced to throw both secondary saber and whip over the edge to save himself another replacement hand. He narrowed his eyes at the Dark Lady as she smiled at him.

Her hands open at her sides she gave an exaggerated shrug. "Oops!" Mordae's eyes glittered with amusement. "Sweaty palms. Meeting celebrities makes me so nervous."

She's more dangerous than I expected. His frown deepened. No weak fighter allows themselves to be disarmed so easily.

Mordae reached over her shoulder and grabbed what appeared to be the top of her armours spine piece and with a click it disengaged. Swinging it up and over she held the forearm length item in her hand and he realized what it was a second before the air thrummed with not one but two blades. A staff weapon of blood orange lit up the growing darkness of the forest. Her foot edged back into a Niman style start and she held out her leading hand and invited him forward.

Luke looked on in surprise. Her first moves were in the aggressive Vadpaad style, which he expected from a light whip wielding Sith. The more reserved defense of Niman was not. An opponent not to be underestimated he knew. He took an Ataru stance as she would expect for his age and saw from her eyes it was too obvious a choice and thus a trick. But you don't know what the trick is. He smiled back. "Shall we?"

He drew on the force to enhance his light saber and strengthen his physical body in preparation. Being a wise old man had its benefits but Obi Wan had failed to mention the muscle aches and joint pain. Dueling is a young man's sport. He thought to himself wryly.

His opponent waited patiently though he knew she could sense what he was doing, she herself had yet to do anything that he could sense. That concerned him far more than it should have and he couldn't place his unease as she smiled at him from across the walkway.

Then as he finished she seemingly vanished, he got only the barest suggesting that she had slide to the side before she was gone. Assassin! His arms came up just in time to catch her blade as she reappeared from the darkness beside him.

She spun the staff back around and he force leapt up and over, back flipping right off the swaying walkway.

Mordae couldn't help but smile as she walked over to the edge to look down. "Want to play in the trees do we? I love trees! Must be a novelty for you Master Skywalker." She effortlessly jumped over and landed light as a cat in front of him, she didn't wait before she attacked again.

Luke was careful to keep her at bay, knowing she would be far more dangerous in close quarters. For her part she seemed content to let him as he used his telekinetic abilities to throw the trees themselves in her way.

Mordae didn't attempt to fight these objects, she simply moved herself from their path.

She's testing me. He realized. Or playing with me.

As if hearing his thoughts, she launched a new attack from the distance in which he'd kept her. He felt a pressure was building around his head as a trickling of fear began to build. Losing focus for a moment he shook his head, it was enough time for her to move in like blur crashing their blades together again. Drawing on his will power he pushed at the unseen cloud around his head, trying to dislodge whatever it was.

Mordae twisted one of her wrists on her saber hilt and with a small click the handles came apart. She jerked her now free elbow up and smashed it solidly into Luke's face, making him stumble back.

Reaching up, Luke's hand came back bloody where her bracer had cut into his skin and he frowned. Overhead the growing gloom of the onset of night became suddenly darker and a fierce wind picked up, signalling a storm.

Looking up for a moment, Mordae had to wrench her now duel sabers up into an x block in front of her to catch the attack she sensed coming, she blinked at her now charged blades. "Why Master Skywalker!" She sounded affronted. "Did you just throw lightning at me?" She threw her blades out to the side, discharging to static build up into the tree trunk below. "Now that's just plain rude."

The weather punctuated her words with a clap of loud thunder and she smiled widely. "Are you doing that? I've heard of Jedi who can control the weather, that is something I'd love to learn."

Luke bringing his saber to guard, he raised his brows but refused to engage in her banter. Before she could say anything else the sky opened, drenching them both with sheets of water.

"Woo! Now this is atmosphere!" She shouted over the pounding of the rain, holding her arms out as if welcoming the rain. "What better for a fight to the death, am I right?" Laughing Mordae dropped her arms and tilted her head to the side. "This is a fight to the death isn't it? Or am I just being overly dramatic? I can never tell."

Luke did his best to ignore her as he spun to slash in low, trying to take her by surprise. He failed as she spun with him, catching his blade between the scissor of her own two.

They also both found themselves hopelessly wrapped up in their now sodden robes and he heard her laugh under her breath. "Robes." She sighed wistfully. "So fashionable, so impractical."

Looking into her eyes thoughtfully he found himself nodding in unison with her unasked suggestion and they both unlocked blades to back up from one another a distance.

Once there they both shed their heavy over robes. He was as surprised to find her so willing to fight fair as he was by her sense of humour that he finally broke his silence. "You don't act like any Sith I have fought let alone one clearly trained as an assassin."

She took her time to click the handles of her blades back into a staff before answering. "Perhaps I'm not a Sith."

Luke frowned as their blades met, sizzling in the rain. "Then just what are you, Dark Lady?"

Mordae's eyes went wide and she bat her lashes at him. "Perhaps I am just lost and alone and need a Jedi Master to love me." She pouted at him. "What do you say Luke, can I call you Luke? Do you want to be my guiding light? We could travel the galaxy together and you could warn me when I do something bad. Blink once for Dark Side, twice for Light."

Blinking water from his eyes, Luke just stared back at her.

"Oh come on, really?" She shook her head, pushing off the branch she threw herself up and back into the trees. "I quote Revan himself and I get nothing but a blank stare?" Mordae sighed theatrically. "Jedi these days! No culture what so ever. You know this is why you lost. Very well, I can see there is no point in attempting to have a civilized conversation with you." Using the force to modulate her voice, Mordae opened her mouth and let out a sonic scream.

Luke saw her take a deep breath and felt the draw of force at the same time and barely threw up his blade in time to block the attack. Most of it went around him but his feet skidded backwards and the sound of the rain stopped. Ben. He reached out for his apprentice. You could get here anytime now. Luke didn't receive an answer so much as the impression of trees going past at speed in the dark.

From her vantage above Mordae felt him reach out as blood started to run from his ears. Now who are you talking to? She began to open herself to feel the forest around her.

He didn't realize how much he relied on his senses until one was gone but he was soon thankful as he wasn't sure he'd have noticed her probing otherwise. He reached out and grabbed the branch she was crouched on and with gritted teeth he pulled the entire thing off the tree. Dislodging and distracting her.

Old and shrewd she thought, dodging to the side as she fell, what he lacks in youth he more than makes up for with experience. It might have become a draw if he had the time but she saw as he backed away that he didn't. He was tired and there was only so much focus he could put on using the force to ease his exhaustion and each time he did the Katak crystal in her blade simply drained it away again. Fighting other force users was the very reason the staff had been made with one instead of the more common synthetic stones.

She felt a surge of power that came with the realization. I am stronger than he is. I am more powerful than the near mythical Luke Skywalker! She laughed out loud as she continued to batter at his ever lagging defenses until finally his foot slipped on the slick bark of the now soaked tree limb where they stood. Father will not be able to call me weak now.

She attacked with her staff and at the same time kinetically pushed at his chest, she added the trick Kylo had used on her of yanking his ankle from behind with the force. Unable to fend off all three and focused on only the two obvious frontal attacks, the old Jedi went down against the tree. And she pulled his saber from his hand and into her own; with a smile she deactivated her staff and placed it back along her spine.

As he lay prone she raised his own blade to slash down, finishing him off. If you kill him, how will you find Kylo? A voice in the back of her mind quietly questioned and for a split second the blade hovered before it fell. The hesitation was enough for another blade to come between her and Skywalker, jade green sparked off the distinctive purple of a Hurrikaine crystal.

Mordae's eyes flew up the shaft to the handle and the one holding it and all movement stopped. "Kylo."

Wearing a simple white shirt and spacer pants he looked more smuggler than Sith, his normally messy hair pulled back into a short warrior's tail. His hazel eyes fixed on her intensely, face resolute. "Mordae stop."

He seemed more grown up than she'd ever seen him, no longer the boy but finally a man. Perhaps due to the facial hair he's apparently taken to growing since I saw him last. "What is going on Ren?" She demanded as she cut off the seized Jedi blade and stepped back in confusion. He doesn't look like a prisoner.

"You need to listen to me." He lowered his blade but didn't turn it off, he stood wary, sliding between her and her former prey. "You can't kill him, I won't let you."

"Let me?" She almost laughed. "Kylo you haven't the strength to stop me and it has been ordered by Snoke himself."

"Believe me, there is a reason and you have to trust me." His eyes didn't flinch from hers as he spoke.

She pursed her lips and stared back and for the first time in all the years they'd trained together she found she actually did believe him. She completely believed he was speaking, perhaps for the first time, the truth. "And what am I to tell the Supreme Leader?"

Sensing her thoughts he finally turned off his blade and moved to help his uncle up, bracing his weight he turned and started away from the Dark Lady. "Tell him nothing."

"Where do you think you're going Ren?" She demanded in surprise, stepping towards the two. "You are to return with me apprentice."

Kylo looked over his shoulder. "You have to let us go. I can't explain it now." He said quietly, firmly but without any power. He was making a statement and not trying to use his considerable mind powers on her.

And he could, she knew, why didn't he? "I don't understand." She said just as dumbly as if he had.

"I know and I am sorry."

Jaw clenching and unclenching she finally growled. "Go." The two paused to watch her carefully, clearly expecting more of a fight. "Now before I change my mind!"

…

Back on their ship Ben lowered Luke into a seat and began to treat his wounds.

"You took a chance allowing her to go free." Luke admonished his nephew.

"Not as much as she did allowing us to do the same." Ben focused on his work, refusing to make eye contact.

"Ben, she is too dangerous, possibly more so than Snoke. His motivations at least we know, can you say what hers are? You must be ready to fight her, to kill her if need be."

"No!" He shouted without meaning to, taking a deep breath he steadied his hands and spoke more calmly. "No. We will not need too, she's not our enemy."

"Oh? I certainly didn't feel that earlier and my wounds indicate otherwise." Luke pointedly held a bandage to his split brow. Though I suspect it could have been far worse. I am far too out of practice for this sort of thing.

Ben finished binding one of those wounds and frowned. "I need her." He said almost inaudibly and then louder. "We need her Master; she's the key to all our work with the First Order."

Luke stared at the top of Bens head and said simply. "You have feelings for her." He recalled his surprise when she'd snarled at him, believing he'd somehow harmed Ben for information. It seemed those feelings could be mutual but that didn't make the Sith less dangerous, just the opposite.

Anyone who knew the force as he did knew there were no such things as coincidences, this woman and her link to his nephew had come to be for a reason, but what? Was the force working for or against them? Not for the first time he felt himself wondering if he was truly on the right side.

The young man didn't answer as he continued, reaching over to put medical supplies back into their case, turning his face away to do so.

"You think there is still good in her don't you?" Luke pressed. "That she can be redeemed?"

Ben stood, taking the left over bandages and replacing them in the cabinet, closing it he kept his back to Luke. "I have to believe that." He lowered his head until his forehead pressed against the cool plasteel door. "Because if there is no hope for her, what hope is there for me?"

Luke sighed and rested his bearded chin in his hand thoughtfully, worried he thought. And if you're wrong about her, there will be no hope for any of us.

5

Her father's earlier words echoed in her mind as she knelt silently before him, having finished her report. Do not return until you are successful. Well success was a broad and objective term; she had after all beaten Skywalker. I have the old man's saber as a trophy of that, she thought smugly.

"Fool!" The Supreme Leader boomed as he came to his feet, the chamber echoing with the force of his exclamation.

Mordae involuntarily twitched as it bounced off the walls, assaulting not just her ears but her mind, though she could tell the second part was more accident of anger than directed attack. She was a master of the Sith Assassin arts but suspected if her father decided to turn his own skills on her intentionally she wouldn't still be standing.

"You found not only Skywalker but Kylo Ren, together and they, escaped?" Snoke came down the stairs at her, voice and movements belying he seeming frail appearance. "Do not lie to me girl, you let them go, do you think I do not see it? You had them, could have easily killed them both and simply allowed them to walk away unharmed."

Mordae felt more than saw the others in the room take steps away from her, distancing themselves to what they are sure is her immanent end. She barely suppressed a smirk and thought. Well I wouldn't say "unharmed" exactly.

"Supreme Leader…" Hux cleared his throat.

"Silence!" He didn't even glance at the General but the man scuttled back, thinking better of intervening. Mordae was sure she heard sounds of amusement from inside the masked helmet beside him. Mordae felt she was going to have to do something about that woman someday. "Weak, flawed foolish little girl, you don't get it do you?"

She bit down on the retort that bubbled up in her throat as she fought not to glare back up at him. She was sure she'd somehow gotten in the middle of some sort of game her father was playing with Skywalker and was now about to hear how she'd ruined it because he hadn't deemed it necessary to tell her about it. If I ruined Kylo's cover somehow it's your own fault for keeping secrets you selfish old goat.

Shaking his head in disgust her looked up and ordered. "Captain, your report."

Catching the light as she moved Phasma stepped forward, saluted and did just that. "Supreme Leader." She started respectfully. "When you sent Kylo Ren on a recent mission to find and kill the Jedi Rey, General Hux sent me in the place of the Dark Lady to watch over his movements. Though Ren himself was not aware of it."

Mordae shot the soldier a dark glance as she spoke, her bravo of a second ago faltering as she wondered what her not being with Kylo had to do with it. Oh yes, whatever it is it's clearly going to be blamed on me, either I wasn't there when I should have been or was when I shouldn't have or both. Typical.

"While staking out the hanger bay in which the rogue ship was docked I witnessed a fight between Kylo Ren and the girl Rey, one in which your Knight bested the Jedi even after being disarmed by her."

She smiled to herself with pride. Of course he did, he would not lose to a half trained child a second time, not my student.

"Only to be stopped by Luke Skywalker."

And taken prisoner, Mordae thought sourly, we already know this, why you didn't help him if you were there is what I would like to know. She glared openly at the Captain now. But perhaps that was part of the plan, the reason he was still freely with the Jedi. Why he couldn't explain to her at the time, being in the old man's presence.

"The two spoke as old friends," The helmet tilted to the side slightly as if rethinking her words. "As co-conspirators." She amended. "They spoke openly of the mission to infiltrate the First Order to gain knowledge of the Supreme Leader's plans. Skywalker said it was over and it had failed while the traitor Ren disagreed, saying he was close."

The faceplate turned now to return Mordae's direct stare. "That he was close to breaking the Dark Lady, that she trusted him." Phasma now threw two items onto the floor at Mordae's feet.

Face blank in sheer shock, Mordae stared down at the helmet and saber in silence; it lasted only a moment before Snoke spoke again.

"Do you see now child?" He demanded of his daughter. "Kylo Ren was a fake. A spy. Do you think your…feelings for him were real?" He said the word feelings with disgust. "None of it was real, he tricked you, none of it was true and he used you to get to me. Was your little play thing worth betraying your own father for?"

She felt such an overwhelming feeling of a physical blow that at first she believed her father had struck her in the middle with the force and fought not to double over in pain. The air went out of her and she struggled for breath, her vision blacked out and she was surprised to find she still stood when it returned only a few seconds later. No…that can't be, it's not true…she mentally denied it but suddenly years of memories started to play in her mind. Little things that made no sense when they had happened, her feeling of distrust and finally the last one, the first time she had truly believed him. When his façade had been stripped away though at the time she did not know it, somehow hadn't seen it. Why didn't I see it?!

In a flash she was consumed with a rage like she'd never felt and the room seemed to brighten in her sight and she knew her eyes had begun to glow with flame-like yellow light.

"Now you see." Snoke affirmed with a nod, his movements returned to his slow careful self as he moved back to reseat himself.

Bowing her head to hide her face she knelt down again. "Let me go after them. I will not fail you this time. I will kill them all."

Snoke watched her mutely for a time before nodding again. "Very well. But you will bring Kylo Ren back alive."

"Alive!?" Was her strangled reply.

"And you will take Captain Phasma with you." He concluded. "To ensure my orders are properly carried out."

"That is hardly necessary."

"Your actions up to now make it clear that it is very much necessary!" He bellowed back, crashing his fist into the arm of his chair and causing her to flinch and bow lower. "Go." He pointed towards the doors with a claw-like finger.

Blind to all but her rage the Dark Lady whirled and nearly ran out the door. Followed at a more sedate speed by a smug Captain.

As Phasma moved out of the chamber she heard Hux call her to wait a moment. "Yes General?" She inquired.

"I have a gift for you Captain. In thanks for your always exceptional service." He motioned a trooper standing to the side forward and he raised a case. The General opened the case and lifted an unusual appearing blaster from it. "It's a prototype, made from the crystal the Lady and I fetched for the Supreme Leader." He explained.

She turned it over in her hand to examine it. "What does it do?"

"In theory it can bypass even a Jedi's defenses. It can blast through any shield or force power they may erect to stop regular blaster energy."

Phasma made a pleased sound of obvious interest. "That could come in very handy."

"Yes." Hux agreed, then leaning in added in a low tone. "Kylo Ren is NOT to return alive. Understood?"

"Perfectly."

6

Finn walked with Chewbacca behind Rey and Kylo Ren. No, he reminded himself, Ben, his name is Ben. He shook his head, still finding it all hard to grasp that the one who was his enemy a short time ago, who killed the legendary Han Solo was now his ally. Stranger still is that after Luke explained Ben's mission that everyone just seemed to accept it, no real questions asked. Finn had plenty of questions.

He thought back to sitting on the Millennium Falcon listening to the Jedi plan their next move. Heavily bandaged from his recent fight with Ben's evil Sith girlfriend? Finn made a face, at least that was the impression he got from the way everyone avoided the entire topic.

…

"We need to draw the First Order out." Luke examined their charts and information. "Ben won't be able to return as Kylo Ren now, on that I think we finally agree." He glanced at his apprentice for confirmation.

In contradiction Ben shook his head and yet said. "Agreed. I can't return to the Order as Kylo Ren but that doesn't mean that option is closed to us."

"That is too dangerous!" Rey cried. "Your faith in that woman will get you killed."

"Or you know…ALL of us." Finn muttered and Chewie made a mournful sound of agreement. "Yeah, see, he agrees." Finn pointed and nodded, as if he had some clue what was going on or what the Wookiee had said.

"Agreed." Luke echoed Ben's words pointedly.

Choosing not to argue it Ben changed the subject. "So instead we need to get more information for the fleet to use. That we can do, just the five of us." Looking to his uncle. "Well four. One of us needs to remain with the ship."

"And I suppose the injured old man is the best choice for that?" Luke sighed but accepted that.

Rey began to protest but Luke held up his hand to stall her. "He's right I would well be a liability right now, I don't even have a weapon. What do you propose Ben?"

He pulled one of the schematics from the pile and placed it on top. "This is an unmanned satellite station at the edge of First Order space, it doesn't look like much and it's not supposed too. It was designed to blend in and look like any other early warning sensor array. It's not however."

Leaning forward Finn frowned. "Then what is it?"

"It's a secret research think tank. The individual scientists don't know the true purpose of their work, each working on only a small part of the whole. All their data from around First Order space is transmitted to this station where it is combined for Snoke's personal use."

"I've never heard of such a thing." Finn scoffed.

"Yes," Ben glanced at the former trooper. "Well it's not something that requires drainage."

Finn opened his mouth to retort only for Rey and stop him with a hand on his arm and a slight shake of her head. Subsiding he sat back in his chair once more, crossing his arms rather sullenly.

Chewie quietly gargled a question from behind Luke and Ben glanced up and nodded. "I know. If she reported back to Snoke then everything I know may now be wrong, if it wasn't already. But it's a chance we need to take. He was researching something important, something he wouldn't even trust me with. The answer could be here."

"Alright but you will stay together, all four of you. No lone wolf, no heroics, in and out." Luke looked between the three youngsters at the table and watched as Rey and Finn exchanged a look and then looked pointedly at Ben. His nephew pretended to be absorbed in the plans but Luke knew he'd noticed it and sighed. He feared their ability to work together would be a larger problem than anything the Order might throw at them. "We're going to need one hell of a pilot."

…

That had been two standard days ago, now they were in the station and so far Kylo had been right. Ben. Finn corrected himself for the hundredth time since the trip had begun. The station was completely empty, not even a droid. Downright creepy if you ask me, not that anyone would. Finn bit the inside of his cheek and wondered what he was even doing here, not for the first time.

The four of them moved in silence, making it all that much the worse. The few times he'd attempted to speak Rey had shushed him like a child. She walked now close to Ben's side, too close, Finn gloomily noted. Considering they'd tried to kill one another not so long ago they seemed too chummy. That's called jealousy. Finn narrowed his eyes at the point of fact voice in his head. Shut up. He told himself.

Ben stopped at a console that looked no different than the countless others they had passed thus far and said. "This is it."

"And you know that how?" Finn muttered, too quiet he thought to be heard but blushed when both Jedi turned to frown at him. Super hearing, perfect, may as well read my thoughts while you're at it! He froze as he thought it, glancing around suddenly paranoid but the two had already turned back, ignoring him.

Chewie patted him on the shoulder consolingly.

Working on the console Ben stopped. "Huh." He grunted.

"Huh?" Rey demanded looking over his shoulder. "What do you mean huh?"

"Nothing" He shook his head. "Just a password change, I expected that. I can splice it, hang on."

Chewie looked over his shoulder and let out a nervous sound.

"Yeah," Rey nodded in agreeance with the Wookiee. "Something is wrong, can't you feel it Ben?"

The former Knight of Ren hissed in a breath as the screen in front of him flashed off and back on. Finn rushed up to look and cursed as the entire thing had been replaced with bold red lettering that said only. "GOT YOU."

"Run!" Finn spun only to run almost head on into a line of blasters. The entire corridor behind them was now full of troopers. He turned to other way to see on a catwalk above them Captain Phasma and worse, the Dark Lady herself. "Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap."

"There you are lover!" Mordae called from overhead. "I was starting to worry you wouldn't show, you know being stood up makes me very cranky."

The four circled together protectively as Ben moved to the forward of the group to address his former teacher. "Mordae, what is this?"

She raised a brow but it was Phasma who answered for her. "We could ask the same of you, Kylo Ren." She spat the title. "But it seems like to like answers that. Such traitorous company you are keeping these days."

Finn poked his head around the Wookiee and waved. "Oh hello Phasma, looking notable uncrushed. Good for you!"

"Silence." Mordae's command was quiet but carried with it the power of the force and Finn suddenly found his mouth feeling glued shut. Then without any more words both she and the troopers moved as one.

Before Chewie could get a shot off both he and Finn were face first on the ground, disarmed and pinned down. "Ok we give up!" Finn sputtered, earning him a face full of rifle stock. He looked around in panic trying to find Rey, seeing the remaining troopers closing on her he tried to warn her but just spit blood.

"Hold!" Phasma ordered from above and the troopers stop mid-step. "Leave those two for our Lady."

Instantly all the soldiers retreated to a safe distance, behind the now bound Finn and Chewbacca he couldn't help but note. Life as a human shield, how fun. Well for however long we continue to live anyway.

Glancing back Rey looked fearful, not for herself he realized but for him and he felt suddenly happy. Really? He asked himself dryly. Is this really the time to be happy she's concerned about you?

That was all the time anyone got to think about it before the sounds of multiple saber weapons igniting at once filled the area. Rey's blue, Ben's violet and a very red looking orange Finn had never seen before. He'd only ever seen the Dark Lady use a yellow whip-like weapon, this two sided orange was new to him and he could see from the look Ben gave Rey, to him as well. That alone scared Finn more than anything and he thought, Ben knew everything there was to know about the Sith Lady, why not that!?

Mordae also saw the look and smiled. "Yes, seems we were both keeping secrets weren't we." Showing even more teeth in a grimace she moved, almost too fast for him to see it.

What ensued was a battle he could hardly follow, flashes of light and crashes of sound, waves of heat and cold and something that made his hair stand on end washed over him in waves. Half the fight he realized wasn't even the deadly dance of blades and he also saw the troopers had backed up further, leaving Chewie and him alone in the middle of the walkway.

Finn gathered himself to move only for Chewie to snarl at him. He didn't speak Wookiee and he didn't need too, the order of "Stay." was loud and clear. He settled back, lost in the realization there was nothing either of them could do to change the outcome but sit tight and wait. He'd never felt so helpless.

7

Ben felt sweat trickle down into his forehead and shook his head to dislodge it before it got to his eyes, he couldn't afford to be blinded now. Mordae moved with a ferocity he'd never seen from her before, always her movements had been off handed, seemingly bored. Even the fight his uncle had endured was tame in comparison, a cat playing with a mouse.

Now it was a cat fighting another cat and it was unexpectedly vicious, Rey he saw was already burned out and struggled to keep her blade up, falling back into sheer defensive stance to conserve what energy she had left. There was something about the orange staff weapon that he could feel draining strength from Rey. He felt the Dark Side imbued in it and wondered if that was why it didn't seem to have the same effect on him.

She appeared stronger than he remembered and looking into her eyes he knew why. Sith gained greater power through harnessing emotion, something he'd been struggling to perfect in himself during their time together. Until he'd murdered his father however, he'd lacked the true rage to even begin to master it.

His former instructor had unparalleled knowledge of Sith techniques, ones he was sure even his grandfather had never known but had hardly if ever used them as far as he'd seen. Despite Snoke's assertion that his daughter was nothing but darkness, Mordae had never seemed interested enough in anything to have the sort of emotion that pushed a Sith to their true power. Until now.

Because of me, he realized, I gave her something to truly hate by first giving her something to care about. Something her father had never even considered trying to give her while attempting to mold her into the perfect weapon. And she's going to kill me for it.

Before he could finish his thought he saw his grandfather's saber cut in two with a backswing of the staff and it felt almost like a physical blow. The next hit was as Mordae hammered both her opponents with a man sized fist of the force into the floor plate below their feet, pushing them apart and buckling the floor itself with the force of the blow.

Rey collapsed in front of Finn and Chewie, she struggled to rise once before failing and falling still against the other captives.

"Just you and me now Lover." Mordae purred. To hear those words sent a shiver down his spine and not in a way it would have a short time ago. Those words promised him pain now, not the kind he'd even dream of enjoying he knew.

"My Lady please." He tried to catch her eye as she circled. "Listen to me"

"Listen to YOU?" She laughed darkly. "Why should I listen to you, Jedi." She spit the end like a curse. "You are all full peace and hope and love, and all of it lies."

"You have to know by now the Jedi didn't destroy your world. Snoke did for some reason, perhaps just to get to you." He carefully reasoned throwing up his blade as she swung in, then spinning it to catch the back stroke as she reversed the staff weapon.

She sneered at him, were her teeth sharper? "A dead planet I have no memory of, do you think I care that it's dead let alone who made it so? You really were self-absorbed weren't you."

Ben's thoughts ran ahead of him, he needed to find something to reach her with but what? "So you fight for Snoke why? Because he's your father? He's never cared for you, he pushed you to this, to the Dark Side."

"You think Snoke did this to me?" With a scream she renewed her attack. "YOU DID THIS TO ME!"

"I know." He conceded as their blades locked again. "But this isn't the way Mordae, fighting us, the Dark Side, you don't need to do either. Join us…join me, turn away from the shadow that threatens to engulf us both!" As he pleaded with her he didn't see her reach for her belt and gasped as the small blade he often saw her sharpen her nails with slashed across the back of his hand, making him drop the hilt. It clattered to the floor and she kicked it across the ground, suddenly at her mercy he clutched his wounded hand.

"That is easy for you to say!" She snarled, closing in until the only space between then is that of her blade as it angled across his throat and shoulder, buzzing next to his ear. She leaned in until the blade almost burned them both. "You betrayed me! This isn't just a game I am playing like it was for you, it is real and it is my life!"

He knew in an instant if he did or said the wrong thing now he would not only lose her forever but also his life and that of his friends. With his unwounded hand he reached up to touch her face, leaving a bloody hand print on her cheek. "No." He said. "I never betrayed you, you know that is true. You can feel it. You and I, that is life, the two of us together, that is real." His eyes searched her face and he knew he was right, he could see his words finally reaching her.

"You're nothing but a spy, you lied about everything from the very beginning." He saw her start to waver.

"I never lied about this, you know I didn't. You know I'm not now." She started to pull away from him, physically and mentally, he could see it in her eyes as she began to close herself off. He did the only thing he could think of and lunged forward to catch her, burning his shirt against her saber in the process. "You need to trust me."

"Trust you? Why should I trust you?"

"You did before, when you could have killed Luke and I both, I saw it in your eyes you knew I was telling the truth just like I am now!" He insisted.

She stopped moving and looked down as he let the blade burn him, causing a wound to begin to open but still he didn't move back. "Using the one time in all the years as my companion that you didn't lie to convince me to trust you?" She paused but before she could say more or even begin to make a choice it was made for her.

Ben gasped as he heard Phasma above shout out the order. "Kill them, all of them! Kill the traitors!" None of us will leave alive, I've failed, he knew as the blaster shots fired, even I can't move fast enough to defend myself let alone the others. But instead of the burning feeling of bolts ripping through him he heard them ricochet back at the troopers and spun to see what had happened.

Chewbacca and Finn still knelt on the floor, bound, Rey sheltered between them and around them shimmered a large transparent shield, blocking not just the three of them but Mordae and himself from the line of First Order troopers. He looked back to see Mordae concentrating on it, holding her free hand out she held the shield in place. Shifting her attention to a nearby console she held out her saber wielding hand towards it and then flicked two of her fingers back in the direction of the troopers. The console ripped from the wall like it was made of paper and flew through the air, crashing into the line of firing soldiers, sending them scattering.

He looked down at her with surprise and smiled.

She glanced back up and gave him a self-depreciating half smile, almost a smirk and looked as though she were about to say something. She spun before she could, alerted to something she put her hand up to deflect a blaster bolt fired from above.

Ben felt her slam back into him, stumbling as she dropped her staff and saw her look down at her own chest. Frowning he caught her and looked over her shoulder, seeing her hand still held out in front of her he realized something very wrong. In the middle of her palm was a small, very precise hole, too small to be a regular blaster. "No!" He saw it had continued through her shield and her hand, directly into the middle of her chest. That's not possible, his mind scrambled, no weapon can do such a thing, not to a force user as strong as her.

He felt her take a shallow breath and with it felt her take in more than air, it seemed all the energy around them drained, he felt his own join the flow and the light flickered as even their power drained into Mordae. With her next breath the shield around the others shattered outward in a deadly shower of force spikes, killing troopers as they went. She looked up at the walkway where Phasma stood now, strange weapon still held smoking in her hands. "Retreat!" The Captain ordered what was left of her regiment and she herself was already in movement.

Mordae reached out physically as if grasping something with both hands and began to twist. At first Ben thought Phasma was the target, that she planned to twist the woman's head clean off her body. Then station shuddered suddenly, at first groaning and then screeching as layers of thick durasteel began to tear, her target it appeared was much, much larger than a single woman.

Rey, having freed Finn and Chewie during this time cried out to Ben. "You have to stop her! She's going to rip the whole station apart!"

Ben blinked as her words registered but it all happened too fast. The sound became almost deafening as massive rend appeared between where Phasma has been and where they stood, a blast of wind almost took him off his feet as the internal atmosphere vented into the now open space. He caught a hold of Mordae and pulled her down to the deck, creating a powerful force bubble to protect them. He saw from the corner of his eye Rey do the same for the others.

All at once the lights went out and the chamber lit up with nothing but the pale blue of emergency force fields turning on to cut them off from open space. The whirling sound of struggling air filters trying to replace the lost air came muffled through the shield. Ben gasped and dropped his shield as the air remaining in it failed, thankfully the filters had done their job. "Mordae! You have to heal yourself."

"Can't." Was all she said.

"I know you can, I've seen you do it before." He carefully shifted her to sitting position. It was one of the skills Snoke has forbidden her to teach him and an order she'd been usually compliant to follow. Somethings are better left unlearned. He recalled her saying to him once when he'd demanded why.

She smiled up at him and shook her head. "There's nothing left." She sighed tiredly. "I knew you'd be the death of me."

"No." He said forcefully. "I will not allow it to end this way."

"Oh Kylo." Mordae shook her head sadly. "Death isn't something you have the power to disallow. Somethings cannot be fixed. Should never be fixed."

Rey eased towards them carefully. "We need to go."

"What is left of this station isn't going to stay floating for long." Finn agreed.

Ben nodded and stood, picking Mordae up. "Then we go."

"We need to go fast." Rey ventured, unwilling to say it.

"And I will slow you down. Leave me Kylo." Mordae agreed.

"Please don't call me that anymore, my name is Ben." He started moving, leaving the other behind. "I thought you said we had to go fast, so let's move!"

The others didn't argue and they all started to run as explosions started to shake the floor, buckling it under them. It seemed to take far longer to return to the ship than it had to leave it but they made it. Chewie slamming the ramp shut he pushed past them all to make for the cockpit.

Poe hit the wall as Chewie went by. "What the hell was that?! What is going on!?"

"Fly! Now!" Finn yelled, grabbing his friend and shoving him after the Wookiee.

Dameron buckled himself in and scrambled for the controls, Chewbacca having already started the takeoff. Chewie turned and yowled something at Finn who just looked confused. "He says get to the guns."

"I think the First Order has their own problems!" Finn breathed but turned and left. Too many cooks in this kitchen.

As they blasted out of the bay the ship came about sharply to make her jump to hyperspace and Poe gasped. "What in god's name?" The station looked like a child's toy made of foil, crushed and torn apart as if by giant hands.

Chewie growled and started to slam the navigation computer with his fur covered fist.

"What do you mean god had nothing to do with it? What happened down there?!"

…

In the passenger compartment Ben fell back against the wall and slide down with Mordae in front of him, Rey catching hold of a seat when the ship rocked as blaster fire or debris hit the hull. She was forced to grab it again as the momentum of the ship turning so suddenly even the dampeners couldn't handle it tried to toss her across the room.

Then just like that they felt the jolt of hyperspace and he let out the breath he hadn't know he was holding. "Woo!" He cried. "We made it!" Laughing he shared a triumphant look with his fellow Jedi.

Rey's eyes lit up with joy as she turned to return the look but vanished just as fast as she looked down. She looked back up to Ben and her mouth opened and closed a few times as if trying to speak.

He shook his head, pulling Mordae closer to his chest. "No." He focused on Rey. "Shut up. Don't you say it!"

He could see the words on her lips as clear as if she had voiced them out loud. "I'm so sorry." Unable to avoid it longer he followed her look down to the woman in his arms. Pale violet eyes stared up at him, the ghost of a sad smile on her lips and he swore he heard the sound of her amused whisper saying. "I told you so."

Such beautiful eyes, he thought, they suit her so much better than the way they were. Almost the same colour as my saber, did I leave that on the station? I did didn't I. He wasn't sure why he thought that. His nostrils flared once, twice, slowly he started tremble like a leaf caught in the wind.

"Ben..." Rey whispered, reaching towards him only to snap her hand back as he roared like an animal, when he did the ship began to shake and things began to fly violently around the room. "Stop!" She cried, covering her head with her arms from the maelstrom that was more than the physical items.

"What is going on back there?!" Poe's voice crackled over the intercom, Chewie roaring in the background.

Then as if by magic Luke was standing there as if he'd always been, his hand on his nephews shoulder, "Ben please." was all he said and it stopped just like that, everything in the air dropped straight down and the ship levelled off.

Rey watched wide eyed as the apprentice curled himself over the Sith body, entirely too late to protect her. His shoulders hunched and though she could hear only silence she saw him gasp in ragged breaths, like a fish out of water.

"I've got him Rey."

She needed no more urging and was scrambling out the door and in the corridor before she even reached her feet. She ducked into the cockpit and slammed the door behind her, bolting it. As if doing so she could lock out the pain she'd just felt pour out of Ben, that she could still feel. She suspected as she cowered in the corner, blind to the confused stares of the two already there, that there was nowhere in the galaxy that would be far enough away to not feel it.

8

She was right.

General Hux jumped as his Supreme Leader cut off in the middle of a sentence and slammed his hand down on the table before him, smashing the surface and startling all at the meeting into utter silence.

"Supreme Leader." Hux ventured. "Are you unwell."

"Fetch my shuttle."

Hux opened his mouth to speak and was cut off.

"NOW HUX."

Clearing his throat he nodded. "Our destination?"

"We must retrieve the Captain Phasma."

"And the Dark Lady of course?"

"My daughter is dead General. " Snoke stalked around the table, past the shocked Hux. "We're going to find out why."

…

With Poe and Chewie in the cockpit, Rey moved back to the main compartment to spare them her strained silence. She peeked around the door and noted both Ben and Mordae's body were gone, only Luke remained sitting at the main table. She moved to sit down across from him. "Is Ben…is he…" She floundered.

"Alright?" Luke supplied with raised brows.

"Yeah." She looked at the table, knowing it was a dumb question even as she'd voiced it.

"No. But he's calm, for now." The Jedi Master steepled is hands and touched his finger tips to his lips thoughtfully. Alright is something he'll likely never be again. What I've done to him, sending him to Snoke, can never be undone.

Jumping at a voice from the door Rey wheeled, ready for a fight. Though he'd managed to finally shut down his mental walls, she didn't think for a second what she'd felt earlier wasn't still raging in him. And she'd seen firsthand after Han's death what he did when he lashed out in pain.

"Uncle." Ben didn't look at Rey. "I have a request."

"Of course."

"There is a world I wish to go to. It's Mordae's birth planet and I believe it's where we should return her now…now that…" He seemed unable to finish.

Luke stood and moved to the door. "As you wish Ben." He reached out but dropped his hand as Ben shrugged it away, vanishing back towards the cargo bay.

…

Rey looked across the desolate landscape and shuddered. Even Jakku didn't feel the way this world did and countless deaths had occurred on that desert world, it had still felt alive though, this place didn't. What had happened here to create the feeling that overwhelmed her? Something beyond awful. Out loud she asked. "He wants to leave her here? This place…it's…"

"Yes" Luke confirmed. "A wound in the life force of the galaxy. Something horrible happened here and not very long ago." He nudged an uneven hammock of dirt with a toe of his boot and she gasped as bones appeared.

She looked with new eyes at all the strange shapes, bones, millions of bones everywhere. She covered her mouth with her hands, her eyes tearing up involuntarily. The entire planet had been murdered all at once in some cataclysm, not a natural one she knew as she now saw craters and crumbling towers in the distance across cracked landscape.

Ben appeared in the hatch above them now, carrying the carefully wrapped body of his former Sith instructor. He walked down the ramp and past his fellow Jedi, not seeing or carrying about them or the world in which they stood. He found a table of stone, perhaps part of some toppled building and placed her there.

"We should burn her." Rey said from behind her hands, staring still at the bones under her feet. "We can't leave her like these people."

"They are her people." She heard him say and her eyes widened further.

She looked at Luke, silently begging for help.

Master Skywalker was looking into the horizon. "It's the Jedi way Ben."

Rey smiled at his support. She did not feel even a Sith should be abandoned in such a place, her home world or not.

Ben spun on them both, abruptly angry. "She is not a Jedi!"

Taken aback Rey looked between the two, shocked at his tone. Luke's brow furrowed in the face of his padawan's sudden, unexplainable anger.

Turning back Ben spoke to the air over the body. "She once told me her people built grand tombs to their dead. Many of their greatest monuments where no more than houses of the dead. I can't give her that but I can do something." Stepping back he began to telekinetically move stones from all around, piling them around the table.

After no less than a minute Chewie came forward and began to pick up large rocks by hand, adding them to Ben's pile. In silence the two Jedi bowed their heads and joined in building a structure around the body.

They finished just before sunset and stood silent as Ben moved to stand on a rocky outcropping. "This is where I first saw her standing." He spoke not so much to them as himself, though they listened. "I was on a shuttle with Snoke and I was terrified, what if he found me out? What if I failed? I was suffering heavily under the thoughts of what I'd already had to do to earn his trust in getting this far and what further I would have to do in the days to come. I looked out the window and saw her standing here in profile, staring off over this dry seabed. She looked distant and in control and all at once I felt calm."

Ben held his hands out and stared down at them. "I can't say why seeing her made me feel that way but she did, like if she could endure in such an awful place I could as well. She was harsh but almost never cruel even when he ordered her to be, is that odd for a Sith?" He curled his fingers into fists. "That first day we met she saw this future you know, she knew I would be the cause of her death and she let me glimpse that through her eyes. She accepted it almost instantly and yet I couldn't, not then, not now. She was my greatest enemy and my most valued ally among the Order." He dropped his hands and without another word turned and walked back to the ship. "Let's go."

Staring incredulously at Luke, Rey's eyes silently asked him. Is that normal?

Luke shook his head slightly and followed Ben. Even Rey senses it, something is very wrong with him. And I am to blame.

…

As the sun rose over the barren wasteland the First Order shuttle set down with a muffled crunching sound, blood red ash swirling in the repulsor back wash. Before it was even done the hatch opened and troopers jumped to the ground, spreading out with weapons at the ready.

Captain Phasma at Hux's side came down the ramp as it descended, both searching the ruins.

"Do not bother, they are gone." Snoke walked past them fearlessly, all signs of hunched back and frailty gone. He went right to the newly erected cairn and undid hours of work with a wave of his hand, exploding the carefully stacked stones outwards in all directions in mere seconds. Upon uncovering the pedestal inside his scared face twitch into a smile. "They didn't burn the body."

Hux moved forward enough to look at the shroud but no further. He was unclear why finding the body was so important, Snoke knew the second she had died and Phasma had confirmed it should it have been required. This struck him as both excessive and macabre.

The wrappings didn't so much as unwrap as disintegrate and Hux's lip curled in distaste, he had no wish to see her that way. Snoke's eyes narrowed. "This is not the mark of a Jedi weapon." He turned to fix Phasma in his sights.

Her helmet bowed. "I apologize Supreme Leader, I was aiming for the traitor Kylo Ren."

"Neither of them should have been in your sights!" He raged at her before turning to the General. "But nor should she have had a weapon capable of killing them!"

Hux swallowed and took a step back. "I can explain."

"Don't bother. I think I know well your degenerate motivations in regards to my daughter General." Snoke's anger went as quickly as it came and both let out silent sighs of thanks.

Even so neither stopped their urge to back up as the blood tainted ash at their feet began to move, like snakes it coiled and slithered towards their Leader and the stone pedestal. As it reached up the stone towards the body it appeared to change into liquid fire of crimson, black mist rising off the surface. Hux felt the sudden need to be sick though he wasn't sure at first why.

Like a lightning strike the blood snakes struck at Mordae, sinking into her flesh with a sickening sound. The black mist stayed outside, surrounding her in a miasma of darkness until two things happened at once. The body jerked violently and made a sound like ripping flesh as it inhaled, breathing in all the mist.

Now Hux didn't bother to hold it back and turned to the side to be sick. Glancing down at him, he heard Phasma make a sound of disgust. "Rodent." He heard her say, moving away from him.

A scream that sounded far away like an echo built in volume as if something were being dragged literally kicking and screaming towards them. It grew louder until the corpses eyes flew open and the sound issued from her mouth. She jerked and rolled off the stone to writhe at Snoke's feet before falling still, ragged breath gasping in and out. Once her eyes rolled forward and she saw Snoke she smiled, deranged looking on her blood and ash covered face. "Oh." She said between breaths. "Hello." Gasp. "Father." She glanced around with eyes so bright violet they stood out in contrast to her surroundings. "How nice to see you. They didn't burn me I see…..that's unfortunate."

"Did you think you'd escape me that easily?" Snoke crouched down over her.

"Well….for a moment there….."she laughed, a dry barking sound that ended in racking coughs. Falling back, arms splayed she finished her sentence. "Yes."

Standing he waved at two troopers. "Take her!"

9

"Master Skywalker"

Luke looked up as Poe Dameron knocked on the frame of his door less room. "Yes?"

"We have a problem." Poe held up a holocron. "This just arrived here. Addressed to Kylo Ren."

Brows going up in surprised, Luke rose from his meditation position. "How did they know any of us were here let alone Ben?"

"Exactly." Dameron tossed it into the air to the Jedi. "It's possible hundreds of them were sent out all across known resistance space."

"But you doubt it." He watched as the pilot nod. "I do as well."

"So we need to leave, now." Poe turned and Luke stopped him.

"If that is the case, they already know exactly where we are. If they wanted us dead, we would be." He turned the cube over in his hands. "I suppose we should find out why they haven't."

Luke and Poe found Ben where he'd spent the entirety of their stay on the planet, sitting in the darkness of an abandoned temple. Everyone had dismissed it as mourning but Luke feared that was not the case, what he felt from his nephew was more akin to anticipation. He's waiting for something but what? Looking at the message in his hand Luke mused. Perhaps this.

Rey nodded at them as they entered, either she or Chewie never went far from Ben since their arrival at the ancient Jedi outpost. Suicide watch, Finn had called it. Though none of them expected Ben to harm himself, however going off without them for revenge was always a possibility.

"Ben." Luke held out his hand to display the holocron. "This just came for you."

Eyes opening, his nostrils flared upon seeing the cube and he jumped to his feet. "Let me see it." He demanded, already reaching out.

Snatching his hand back Luke stopped him in his tracks. "What is it?"

Ben frowned and crossed his arms. "You'd know better than I, I'm sure your spy watched it already." He leveled Poe with a dark look.

"Seriously? You are calling me out for spying?" Poe replied with sarcasm.

Rey sat down at their feet, placing a holoreader that she'd apparently been carrying with her, causing all three to raise their brows at her. Blushing she looked at the floor and backed up. "Scavenger habit." She muttered as she did.

Poe outright laughed and carelessly threw himself down on a crumbling stone wall. "May as well get comfy." He patted the stone beside him and she hopped up with a smile.

"Go ahead and play it then." Ben remained standing where he'd stopped, appearing overly unconcern about the cube or the audience.

Taking a deep breath Luke sighed through his nose. These kids will kill me. He internally winced at the thought, fighting not to look at Ben. Clearing his throat he crouched down and placed the cube and turned it on, stepping back as an image flickered to life.

"I believe this was addressed to Kylo Ren and not to you Master Skywalker. But spying does seem to be a Jedi past time so I am not sure why I am surprised."

Luke however was surprised as he glanced around the room. Not a message at all, a live feed. "Snoke, Supreme Leader now is it? What can my padawan and I do for you?"

If possible the man's face looked even sourer as his lips puckered. "You mean my apprentice, the one you will return to me."

"And why would we do such a thing?" Luke folded his hands in his robes.

Snoke nodded his head curtly to someone out of view and the holo pulled back and spun, showing more of the room, including someone on their knees with hands chained behind them. A hand entered the scene and grabbed the prisoner's ragged hair, jerking their chin up to the holocam.

Ben shoved forward now, pushing Luke roughly to the side. "What have you done to her?!" His eyes wide he examined every inch of Mordae. Dressed in rags, she was covered in dirt…or were those bruises, he couldn't tell. She had always been fastidious in her cleanliness and knew she'd cringe to see herself in such a state. Assuming there is anything of her left inside there to care, speak to me Mordae.

"What did I do to her?" Snoke roared unexpectedly. "I rescued my daughter from the cold dead world YOU left her on! I saved her from the death YOU caused her!" He calmed as suddenly as he snapped. "You will return to the Order Kylo Ren. Alone. Or I assure you, you will all wish I'd left her there."

Ripping her head away from the gloved hand that held it Mordae glared through the holo directly at him. "If you return here, I will kill you myself Ben Solo." The hands reappear as Phasma stepped into the scene, backhanding the chained Sith who proceeded to snarl at her in response.

"You both really are made for one another, for are there any children as ungrateful to their loving fathers as the two of you?" Snoke sighed sadly as Mordae spit at him and the holo cut out with a flash of lightning that must have fried the projector at that end.

Luke had to rush to catch his nephews arm. "Where are you going?"

Trying to pull his arm from Luke's grip he said. "I have to go get her."

"It's so obviously a trap I am bothered I even have to say that it is!" Poe threw his hands in the air.

"And she just said she'd kill you." Rey said with huge eyes. "I don't think she's…herself."

Shaking his head Ben smiled. "Of course it's a trap, I knew it would be and she's herself, she let me know it by calling me Ben instead of Kylo. It was among the last things I said to her before she died." He was jubilant. "I knew she was strong enough to survive it intact."

"Survive what?" Rey demanded.

With a sick, sinking feeling Luke sat down hard, watching as Rey slowly put it together and came to the same conclusion he had. Such a thing was the darkest of Sith sorcery and often twisted those it was used on. Luke shuddered at the idea, it was the reason Jedi burned their dead, to protect them from such a fate. I thought all such knowledge was lost long ago in the hyperspace wars.

"Wait…you knew this would happen!" Rey pointed an accusing finger at Ben. "That's why you freaked out at the idea of burning her, why you left her there of all places. So that Snoke could find her and raise her from the dead!"

Dameron had finally caught on if not to how horrid a thing it was to allow happen then at least to the fact Ben has purposely placed them all in a position he knew they would be discovered. "You endangered us all."

"Yes. I did all that, I would do it again." That silenced the room, Ben was suddenly breathing hard as if he'd been running. "I would do much worse if I had too."

Yes, Luke knew looking into his eyes that he would, that is what scares me.

Ben turned once again to leave.

"Wait." Rubbing a hand over his face Luke stopped him. "I know I can't stand in your way but I won't let you go alone. Rey, you and Finn go with him, he will need your help."

"Fine but I leave within the hour." Ben swept out of the temple. "I will not wait."

As soon as he we out of sight Finn stuck his head through the door. "Hey now wait just a minute, I didn't agree to go with crazy-eyes to pick up his undead Sith crush!"

"How long have you been there Finn?" Poe smirked from his spot on the wall.

"Oh….you know…not long." He coughed.

Rey shook her head and took Finns arm, dragging him across the sandy floor for several feet before he stumbled along with her.

"Rey, Finn." Luke called after them and they paused to look back in question. "Ben will face a choice on this journey and he must make it on his own. I have to ask you not to interfere in what will happen."

"Well that's typically cryptic of you." Dameron rolled his eyes. "Jedi."

Finn looked confused but Rey nodded. "I understand Master Skywalker."

"And us?" Poe asked after they left. "I know we're not going to just sit here and wait."

Luke smiled to himself. "I think it's time I go have a talk with my sister. If they are to be successful it would be best if the First Order had their attention elsewhere."

10

Frustrated, Ben slammed his fist into the ships console, causing Rey to frown.

"Oh come on man!" Finn jumped. "Stop that, you'll break something."

Slowly turning to glare at the former trooper Ben suggested. "Or someone?"

"Stop it both of you!" Rey cried in exasperation. "Can the two of you stop bickering?"

Ben sat back with a sigh. They're both right, my outbursts are not helping anything. "The best way to track them would be to return to her world and follow their drive signature, this random searching of old abandoned outposts is getting us nowhere."

"Being dead won't get us anywhere either." Finn muttered.

"We have discussed it, that is exactly what they will expect and will be waiting for us there. We'd never even get a scan off before they shot us down." Rey agreed with Finn. "You of all people should know that. That you risked taking us there once was bad enough, we are not going back."

"Well what do you suggest oh great and mighty chosen one?"

Rey pursed her lips and struggled with the urge to hit Ben with something. Though older than she was, there were times she had no idea how Luke had trusted such an emotionally unstable child with so important a mission. You're assuming he was like this before his time with the Order. Good point. She conceded to herself.

"Use the force." Finn suggested with mock helpfulness.

Ben took a deep breath and opened his mouth as if to lecture Finn on how the forced worked yet again but Rey cut him off.

"He's right."

Both fell silent in bewilderment. "I am?" Finn gave a lopsided grin.

Ben turned his entire chair around to look at her, brow furrowed in question.

"I know the Dark Side blocks our ability to sense Sith. Makes us blind to one another, some cosmic evening of the score." She put up her hand to stall any words from either of them. "But not only are the two of you close from training together but am I the only one who saw her eyes? They aren't yellow anymore."

The men looked thoughtfully at one another before Ben shook his head. "No matter how close you think we are, even I can't sense her at this distance. I'd have to be closer and for that I need a direction to go in."

"But I can." Rey smiled brightly.

"What?" Finn and Ben said at the same time.

She looked slightly embarrassed. "Find a direction that is. I saw for years the vision of an island in the sea in my dreams but it wasn't me who was seeing it at all but Master Skywalker. I think it's a special ability, one that I could expand if I can focus it. I can't find Mordae, I don't know what her mind feels like but I can find the silver trooper. I was able to get a good read on both of you from Maz cantina."

"Phasma." Finn said the name as if it tasted bad.

Ben looked at her with careful consideration. He recalled all too well the island she spoke of; he'd thought at the time she had already been there, that it had been a memory. He'd been confused about the origin because as far as he could tell she'd not left the planet since the day he left to meet Snoke. A vision tied to Luke, the only other living Jedi she'd known as a youngling explained that. "Do it."

She smiled and nodded, jumping up from her seat to go back of the ship to begin her meditation.

…

Holding his breath he counted the time it would take his companions to get into position, knowing if any of them moved too soon Phasma could kill one or more of them. The guards outside the shuttle had already been taken care of but soon those inside would come to see why they didn't respond to their coms.

If the force were with them the shuttle would only have a crew of four, meaning only the Captain was still inside. If it were a trap, almost a dozen more could fit inside and be lying in wait.

Now. He knew it was time and he swung down from the top of the shuttle, gripping the edge as his feet shot forward into the door way, connecting solidly with an armoured chest plate.

He heard the air rush out of the one inside at the same time a loud metallic boom rang throughout the entire courtyard where the ship sat.

"What are you doing?!" Finn hissed as he came running. "Everyone is going to hear that!"

"We weren't in place." Rey breathed as she came along side Ben.

He shrugged. "She was."

Finn threw his hands up in disgust. "Oh well that's ok then."

"Take up guard positions." Ben ordered as he strode towards the fallen foe.

"Whatever man." Muttering to himself, Finn left the shuttle.

"Are you sure?" Rey glanced between Phasma and Ben.

Turning his back on Rey he answered her with silence and waited until he felt her presence move away a distance. He watched as Phasma slowly began to sit up, just new registering what hit her. Before she could reach for it his hand shot out and the odd blaster at her hip flew into his hand. Eyes narrowed and nostrils flaring he demanded. "Is this what you used to kill her?" To his surprised the trooper started laughing. "Did I say something amusing?" He snarled.

"You're ever bit as predictable as he said you would be." The mirrored helmet shook. "I always thought just the opposite, that you were selfishly volatile and dangerous and yet here we are."

"Where is she?"

From her now sitting position Phasma held her gloved hands out to the side as if to say, no idea.

With a growl Ben darted in, pulling the woman's helmet off roughly and glaring down at her, giving her nowhere to hide, not even behind a thin face mask.

But instead of looking afraid she smirked at him, bright blue eyes twinkling in amusement. "Do you think that changes anything? I am in no more or less danger in my armour than I am out of it and there's nothing you can do to me to make me talk either way."

Grabbing her by the front of her armour he jammed the blaster under her chin. "We will see about that Captain."

Again she laughed and shook her head. "I do not know where she is you fool. I couldn't tell you if I wanted too."

"I will find her with or without your help." He warned.

"You misunderstand me Kylo, no wait, Ben is it?" She smiled at him. "I WANT you to find her, I really do." Ben narrowed his eyes at her which only made her smile even wider. "Even as we speak Supreme Leader Snoke is busy, hmm, shall we say…re-educating his daughter? I do not think you will like what you find if you go looking. But don't worry, even if you don't go, eventually, she'll come find YOU."

Flinging the blaster away Ben surged forward with a roar, closing both hands physically around Phasma's throat, cutting off the sound of her laughter.

"Ben!" Rey shouted from what seemed like very far away. "What are you doing?"

Suddenly arms caught him from behind as his two companions pulled him bodily off the trooper, dragging him down the shuttle ramp. Before he knew it he was on his back in the dirt and all he could hear was Phasma's laughter.

Punctuated with short burst of coughing now she renewed her mirth, on her hands and knees she looked up and grimaced at him below her. "You're as unworthy of the Supreme Leader as the Dark Lady is of General Hux. Neither of you deserved the home you were given among us. You are both nothing more than animals and you will both die as animals."

Crouching to scoop up the prototype blaster Finn joined Rey as both once again caught their friend by the arms, stopping him mid-lunge. "Forget her."

Avoiding being dragged away Ben shrugged them both off and stalked back towards where their own ship was docked. "She doesn't know it but she just told me where they are."

"Are we just…leaving her?" Rey frowned.

"You just stopped me from killing her so you figure it out." His voice called back from the shadows.

"No trash compactors this time." Finn held out some binders. "Guess this will do."

…

Finding him already sitting in the cockpit Rey stormed in and demanded. "Just what did you think you were doing out there?"

"Getting answers." He replied dryly.

"No you were not." She put her hands on her hips to block him as he stood and tried to leave. "We're not done talking."

He stared down his long nose at her. "You plan to stop me?"

"If I have too." She clenched her jaw stubbornly.

Finn's hand dropped onto her shoulder and he quietly whispered to her. "Remember what Skywalker said..."

"Master Skywalker is wrong!" She asserted over her shoulder then back to Ben. "You're going to the Dark Side Ben, more now than you ever did with Snoke, this is what he wants."

"You don't get it!" He shouted back. "I'm not strong enough! I wasn't strong enough to save her, she sacrificed everything for me I can do no less in return!" Breathing so hard he seemed about to hyperventilate he pushed past them both.

"The Dark Side isn't the answer Ben, don't you see that? She turned her back on it and you need to do the same."

"She did and she died for it." Ben moved like a whirlwind. "I will not let that happen again and I need to be stronger to do that."

"Even if you do save her using the Dark Side then what? You won't be the same man she gave her life to save, the one she's even now fighting to protect!" Rey pleaded desperately. "You won't be Ben anymore, through all this you were always able to keep that part of yourself and that is the part she cared for. Don't you remember what she said? Somethings should never be fixed, she warned you this would happen if you didn't accept her fate. She saved Ben Solo's life on that station, not Kylo Ren's."

He looked away quickly. "You don't know that. You don't understand I have to do this."

"No." She denied. "You don't understand."

Finn reached out and took Rey's hand, not sure why but knowing she needed his support for the decision she was about to make.

She squeezed his hand in thanks and went on. "If you go down this path, if this is the way you insist on doing it….we…we can't go with you." She let out a shaky breath as she finished.

"Agreed." Not looking back Ben walked out of the Falcon and into the night.

Rey stared open mouthed down the ramp for several minutes before looking at Finn, panic in her eyes.

"He'll…..he'll come back?" Finn's eyes went huge. "I mean of course he will….right?"

Rey opened her mouth to answer but just shook her head, indicating she didn't know. Not long after the ships sensors picked up the First Order shuttle lifting off but even so waited a few hours just in case it was somehow Phasma who had taken it.

"He's not coming back." Finn stated matter of factly.

"No."

"Skywalker isn't going to like this."

"No." She repeated sadly.

"We better go tell him."

"Yeah."

11

Snoke fought his frustration as he tried yet again to break her defenses. His interrogation techniques were flawless, passed down through generations of Inquisitors from the days before Darth Bane, to the time of the ancient Sith themselves. Only one other had been able to fight him like this, Kylo Ren. Ironically he'd also shown a strength for its use, one Mordae had never possessed for all her other powers.

The Supreme Leader reached for her again, both physically and mentally. Her mind was like smoke each time he tried, he could sense her but each time he focused on it, she vanished like a fish in the ocean, disappearing back into the darkness. He didn't understand it, she'd never shown such ability before. Did the boy teach her this?

Dropping his hand he hissed through his teeth and opened his eyes to glare at Mordae. She could have been asleep she looked so peaceful strapped into the interrogation rig, as if she hadn't a care in the world. He gritted his teeth and kept with great reserve from lashing out to hit her in the face. One thing he'd learned years ago was that pain didn't daunt her and would get him nowhere.

Though she had specialized in the skills of the assassin she'd mastered all the holocrons he had on the skills of the juggernaut as well, skills she'd then taught to the boy over the years. Physical suffering had no power over one as proficient in pain endurance as she was.

That bloody Jedi did this. He thought. She never had such focus, such power. Not before training that boy… The thought came to him like lightning and he peered at her closely. No…could it be that simple?

He reached out once more; closing his eyes he looked with his mind and finally saw it, a flash of light in the darkness. As unmistakable as it was unexpected, he hadn't considered even looking for such a thing in his daughters mind but now that he knew it was there it could no longer hide.

He focused and as he did it grew and he reached out with his own mind like a claw snapping shut to catch it. Memories, all the memories she had of the apprentice, that is where she'd been hiding from him. He mentally sneered and at once she became aware of his presence.

Get out!

Ignoring her he began to rifle through the memories indiscriminately while at the same time she began to snatch them back, hiding them away where ever and how ever she could. Angry he lashed out and grabbed one. It opened before him and he saw the boy telling her he'd never lied about his feelings. "This is real." Snoke heard. Ah yes, this one will do perfectly.

"NO!" Mordae's scream of outrage echoed both in his ears and inside his mind.

Feeling himself stumbling back his eyes flew open in time to see a shield flare to life around her, it shimmered blue upon red, both a physical and mental barrier.

Her eyes were now open as she glared at him.

Snoke laughed and clapped his hands together with enjoyment. "Look how powerful you've become, how powerful he has made you. Perhaps that is all I really needed him for, I thought my weapon flawed but you just needed tempering by another hand."

Her upper lip twitched but she made no other move.

"I could not be prouder of you my child." He smiled, his scarred face twisting grotesquely. "You learned all the knowledge perfectly but there was always something missing wasn't there? You understood the words, went through the motions but you never truly understood the teachings. Now you feel it don't you? It has perhaps made you even more powerful than I but you still lack one thing my dear daughter. Experience."

Mordae's nostrils flared and her eyes began darting back and forth, looking for some avenue of escape but he knew she'd find none. He moved to the edge of her shield, only half an arm's length before her. Violet eyes fixed on him, going huge as she watched him slowly begin to push his decrepit hands right through both barriers, as if they were no more than water.

She fought her bindings now as she hadn't previously, tossing her head back away from his grasping fingers. "Get away from me!" She snarled uselessly.

Snoke just continued to smile as his hands closed on her temples.

Outside the chamber door the troopers jumped at the scream that echoed off the walls, more than simple sound it was almost a shock wave. Standing with them Hux looked ill and without a word to either of them, fled down the hallway.

12

Ben's First Order shuttle floated as if dead in space, all but the lowest life support turned off to lower the power emissions. Looking just another rock or piece of space junk floating around, he waited.

Phasma's shuttle shouldn't have been reported stolen; no one should have been able to do so after he'd left the infuriating woman stranded without ship, weapons or even her signature armour. He couldn't trust that alone to get him inside the compound however. As angry as he'd been when he'd left Rey and Finn he'd left them with one thing, the location of Snoke's hideout. Phasma unwittingly gave it away when she said we didn't deserve the home we were given. Home. He thought, it made him sick to think of this place as that but it was what Snoke had always called it. Now he sat floating among the rings of a nearby gas giant waiting for the attack he knew his uncle would launch. In the confusion he'd fly the shuttle down to the planet

Silent alarms went off across the shuttles control panel when multiple sensor hits returned as ships began dropping out of hyperspace all around him.

Ben shot up in his seat, grabbing for the harness. That was faster than I expect. He thought, knowing that the fleet must have already been ready to leave when Rey and Finn arrived. Smiling he shut down his immediate urge to send Luke thanks for having done so, it would give away not only his presence but his position. He nodded his gratitude to the arriving fleet and lit up his sublight engines, making what appeared to be an escape run ahead of them.

Ben laughed as two of the forward scout ships spotted him and took several shots at him as he fled, making it look even more real. He slammed forward in his harness as one of those shots connected. A little too real, might want to take this seriously Solo.

Taking a deep breath he made a few evasive maneuvers and pushed the shuttle full out, to avoid being cut off from the fleet the pursuing ships fell back. With only the most cursory exchange of codes his shuttle was flagged through to not only land but to Snoke's own compound. Well that was even easier than I expected.

Ben frowned. Too easy? He wondered. Too late now. He felt the ship rock as the repulsors cut out and made contact with the stone courtyard. Already wearing Phasma's armour Ben picked up the helmet on his way to the hatch. This fits surprisingly well. He noted with amusement.

He strode down the ramp and stopped, frowning behind the chrome-like mask. He brought up the helmets internal sensors and confirmed what he sensed even with his power dampened, nothing. Not a single guard came to meet him; in fact this entire wing was near deserted. Well that was the plan right? They're too busy.

He pushed down his feeling of unease and moved, he didn't have time to waste at marvelling at a plan that was working the way it was supposed to. He had to get to Mordae and get out before the fleet started bombarding the planet.

Ben checked his sensors again and frowned, three possible hits on life readings but which one was she? Could he check all three and get out in time? No, you can't. He couldn't take the chance of opening himself to the force this close to Snoke, the Supreme Leader would sense him in seconds. If he hasn't already.

Two of the life signs were near to one another and one further away and alone, two not moving at all. The third had begun to head in his direction and Ben bit his lip in frustration as he realized it would get to him before he could get out of the corridor. He turned away from it and started down the hall and away from the moving life form, it seemed the least likely to be Mordae.

"Captain." He cursed to himself as the sound of Hux's voice called after him but didn't even slow his pace let alone pause. The General's footsteps hesitated and then stopped mid-step behind him and his tone changed. "Ren."

Ben froze without meaning too, not moving, not turning, not even breathing. How had he known? The man has no force abilities.

The hallway was deathly silent for a time before Hux spoke again. "You're going the wrong way. She's back the way I came."

Finally turning he stared at the General in mute disbelief. Was this a trap?

"If I was lying you'd know correct?" He tapped a finger to his temple to illustrate. "I don't want her in his hands any more than you do Solo. Get her out and get as far away from here as you can." Hux turned and continued down the side hall he'd been walking down, calling back over his shoulder. "Or you can keep going that way and discuss it with the Supreme Leader. I could care less how you want to die. Personally I'm taking my leave before he completely loses his mind and kills us all."

Instantly turning he moved in the direction Hux had indicated. I don't know what is more disturbing, that he is helping me or that I honestly believe him. Try as he might he couldn't stop himself from starting to run, if someone saw him he was just in a rush to get to the battle after all. Nothing suspicious about that.

The door opened automatically and he almost stumbled in surprise as it did, pausing only a second to ensure the room was empty save for his target he went right to her. Strapped into one of Snoke's inquisitor racks, she looked asleep.

Ben recalled how he'd once pictured her like this but the feelings actually seeing it were far different than his imagined ones. He felt sick, rushing forward he released the restraints and shook her awake with his hands on her shoulders. "Mordae."

Eyes opening only to the barest of slits she stared at him silently and he cursed, pulling off Phasma's helmet so she could see his face. After having General Hux know him almost instantly he hadn't thought she wouldn't. "It's me my lady. I've come to take you home." Not here though, this is not home, it was never home, not for either of us.

Mordae squeezed her eyes shut before looking around, disorientedand groggy. "Kylo?" She looked back at him clearly confused.

He clasped her shoulders tighter, ignoring the way every instinct screamed at him as she called him by the wrong name. "It's ok, I've got you." Ben assured her, leaning in. "I love you."

The words were like a violent catalyst to the bewildered Mordae who screamed like an animal and shoved Ben away, he stumbled with the force of it and tripped, falling backwards. "NO! IT'S NOT REAL!" She snarled in rage, eyes blind as she chased ghosts around the room.

As fast as the anger came, it snuffed out like a candle and she looked confused again, she stared to rock back and forth slightly. "It's not real, it's not real...what's not real..." Her head jerked to the side as if talking to someone not there. "I'm not real? You're not real! Or was that not real...is anything..." She looked around, eyes crazed.

Ben's breath caught in his throat, he'd never seen her look so lost, so wounded. What did that monster do to you? He silently cried. "Mordae…" He whispered, slowly reaching out to her as he would a wild beast he was trying to tame, a thin thread of force testing ahead of his outstretched hand. He felt her presence but it was all wrong as it flickered in and out of his awareness like a candle being snuffed out by wind.

Her head whipped around, sensing his mental probe, she bared her teeth at him like a cornered animal.

Before he could struggle to his feet or she could leap at him, Snoke was suddenly there in the shadows behind her. Ben wasn't sure if he'd been there the entire time or if he'd come in while he was distracted with Mordae.

Snoke's hands fell on his daughter's shoulders gently, freezing her in place. "Shh my child." He soothed her.

Confusion set in again and she asked. "Father?"

"Sleep." The order was so strong in the force that even Ben felt his eyes droop for a moment as he saw her eyes go blank as glass, staring off at nothing over his head. "She's still rather adrift." Snoke smiled at Ben as he explained in a friendly tone. "She's stronger than I would have ever thought her to be, thanks to you it would seem."

Climbing to his feet Ben glared frankly at the Supreme Leader and knew he'd finally found the hate he'd been seeking all this time. The self-loathing killing his father had caused was nothing compared to the strength he felt from this and he finally understood.

Snoke's smile widened as he sensed it. "Yes and you have a choice to make. Either rejoin us and you can be together again or refuse and all she will remember is how you betrayed her. Then you can watch as she destroys everything you've ever loved, the last thing you will see is her face, despising you to your last, painful breath."

Ben took a sharp intake of breath, he knew Snoke wasn't bluffing and he felt torn as he looked at Mordae. But knew as he did that she would rather die than live as her father intended, no more than a puppet to his will. His nostrils flaring defiantly he mutely shook his head, refusing the Supreme Leader.

As fast as a snake Snoke's hands moved from his daughters shoulders to the sides of her head, clawing tight like a vise around her temples.

Mordae gasped and shuddered before he released her, letting her drop to the ground on her hands and knees at his feet. Smirking maliciously he stepped back to the shadows, holding his hand out to Ben, silently saying "Be my guest."

Calling her name again Ben took a single step forward before stopping dead in his tracks.

Her head snapped up at the sound of his voice and her eyes flashed not just the yellow he'd come accustomed too over the years but streaked with red, like blood. As she stood her father reached out to her and Ben looked shocked as Snoke handed her a light saber. My saber.

His was able to bring up his blade just in time to catch his old one, red hit the cyan of a powerful Pontite crystal. He'd known when he made the replacement blade from the rare Adegan crystal that he would need its ability to cool tempers though the idea now seemed ludicrous. Looking into her eyes he didn't think even such a thing would help him now. To say she looked unhinged would have been putting it mildly.

Ben was thankful his creation of his Sith saber had gone as wrong as it had, with the force she brought it to bare if the crystal had been flawless it could well have broken his own.

Mordae's face was set into an animalistic grimace as she continued to attack, so far thankfully only with her blade as he knew she was capable of much more.

He wasn't sure why but that bothered him almost as much as her silence, her fighting style had never been this blunt, it was like she wasn't even in there anymore. But she was, I saw it, she's still in there somewhere. This creature that wore her skin now was a whole different opponent that the one he could have expected. Not that is makes her any less of a threat. He thought as he dodged a swipe aimed directly at his face. All the subtly of a rampaging rancor and just as dangerous.

As soon as he had the thought it brought up the memory of his first meeting with General Hux, though he had not yet been a General at the time, he had come down to watch him in the practice ring. Moving to stand as he always did, entirely too close to the Dark Lady, who for her part ignored it as she always did. "So this is the one? He reeks of mediocrity."

"The Supreme Leader does not seem to think so." She didn't even glance at him as she spoke.

Hux made a huffing sound of distain. "He isn't one of us. He's a cretin, born and bred scum."

"One does not need the force to sense you do not approve of my apprentice, your petty jealousy is not becoming my friend."

"The two of us were raised together to leader the First Order, to be the right and left hand of the Supreme Leader. So what does that make this buffoon? A third leg to trip us?" He scoffed.

"I don't know." She said thoughtfully. "The Yagai seem to do alright for themselves."

"Be serious Mordae."

"Oh I am!" A ghost of a smirk twitched at the corner of her lip and her tone dripped with sarcasm. "Have you ever seen one run? Very graceful."

Ignoring her comment he went on. "I do not see why we should require him and he certainly lacks your sublime elegance my dear Lady." Hux lean in to sneer towards Ren. "Or any for that matter, he fights like the ill-bred rampaging rancor that he is."

Ben had known at the time she agreed fully with Hux's assessment, she'd said as much herself when she'd scornfully informed him he'd never be suitable for the style of the inquisitor and begun instead training him in the brute physical lessons of the warrior class. Even so it seemed she did not take kindly to others saying to, not taking her eyes off her student she arched a dark brow and replied quietly. "Say that ten times fast."

Hux chuckled politely at her apparent joke.

Finally she turned her whole attention on the First Order officer and with power in her tone repeated. "No, really Captain, say it ten times fast." Mordae narrowed her eyes to slits.

Raised since birth to resist the powers of force users, Hux was able to clench his jaw to keep himself from doing as she ordered and it clearly took every last bit of effort he could manage to turn and stride away from the Dark Lady.

Glancing back she spotted her student watching the exchange, catching his eye she smirked and winked before following after Hux, he'd suspected at the time to torment the man some more.

Her sense of humour was without a doubt a twisted one but it had been an ever present part of her, even when she'd attacked him on the station, even when she'd died. Looking into her dead eyes now he could see no sign of it. Snap out of it! He reached out to her again only to hit a mental barrier, a wall that he could feel originated not from her own mind but from Snoke's.

"Mordae." Snoke's voice echoed from somewhere off to the side and Ben started, he'd foolishly forgotten the Supreme Leader's presence. As she paused and looked towards the sound he ordered. "You may cease holding back, I've changed my mind and you do not need to take him alive. Kill the traitor. By any means necessary."

She straightened and looked back at Ben, he felt like she was finally seeing him for the first time and for a moment she didn't move.

"Did you forget the lies he told you! How he used you?"

Instantly her nostrils flared and her lip curled up and she brought the cross guard blade up, turning it over in her hand, the damaged synthetic crystal used to build it fluctuating loudly. "A weapon as flawed as the one who made it." She mused, looking at him now. "Fitting to destroy you with it."

"Mordae…"Ben started.

"Do not speak my name betrayer!" she shouted, simultaneously striking with the saber and the force.

Ben gasped and dove to the side as lightning shot down the length of the charged blade and across the room. She's trying to kill me. He knew without a doubt and his anger rose, not at her but Snoke. I need to harness that or I'll never beat her now.

Using the Makashi form to fend off her blows he thought hard. As a specialist of the Sith assassin skills she'd stop at nothing to win and as Snoke had ordered, use any means. I'll have to do the same if I expect to survive this. Thankfully Phasma's armour didn't slow him as it might others, all Sith juggernauts learned to move in heavy armor and build extra energy to perform what would be spectacular feats even for some force users.

Drawing on the force, he did just that, charging into the thick of the fray with his former teacher. They'd spent years sparring and he'd believed she'd pushed him to his limits many times, now he saw she'd never once pushed herself to her own.

Twisting his handle he triggered the duel phase of his new saber and the blade became both longer and wider to give him better range and defense from her greater speed.

Mordae was at a disadvantage, not having her own double bladed weapon but it didn't show at all as she flashed in and out of his vision, using darkness and speed to mask her movements. She slashed at him over and over, targeting the week points of his suit, cutting into the mesh between the plates.

Several times only the distinctive sound of the ruby blade gave him time to block or parry her attacks and Ben hissed under his breath as a ball of lightning struck him directly in the back when he thought for sure she was in front of him. Faltering he dove forward and rolled to avoid her follow up with the charged blade she'd used to fling it at him.

As he came to his feet he felt the shadows moving in and the feeling of building pressure. Stop holding back you fool! She'll kill you if you don't! Ben opened himself fully to his anger, using it to create a sonic barrier, stopping the encroaching darkness at the edges but also distorting his view. Where is she? One way to find out.

Face set and grim he channeled the dark side into a massive shock wave, sending it out in all directions, seeing it bounce off a shield in the corner of his eye he smirked. There you are! He reached out with the force to shatter the shield which collapsed with surprising ease and Ben yelled in shock. "No!"

He rushed to the crumpled form he'd unintentionally crushed with his attack, dropping to his knees he turned her over and realized his worst nightmare. She can't be dead, not again. Not by my hand. He felt as if all his strength fled him, draining out the same way he watched her blood pool on the floor around his knees. A red glow caught his eye and he turned to see his saber coming down to finish him off. Why move? What's the point. It's over.

Ben watched the blade come and with a shock he realized the truth, seeing Mordae behind it. A nightmare, she created my worst fear and made it real, she was never there. At the last second he managed to not so much dodge the blow as fall backwards, feeling the blade cut across his armoured chest even so.

He scrambled to his feet and threw his blade to fend her off as he regrouped. She parried it with ease and Ben grit his teeth as he caught it, pulling on the Juggernaut enrage skill to ignore the pain of his wounds. Shooting forward he began to pursue her with the same single-minded fury she'd first attacked him with.

Snarling, he stumbled back as she easily deflected the blows yet again; his anger now no longer directed he found it hard to think as she battered at him with waves of crushing darkness and fear.

Shifting his cerulean blade to his other hand he noted how cool the hilt was for the first time since the fight started and it was like being dunked under ice cold water. Guess that crystal came in handy after all, he thought wryly as his anger evaporated and he was able to focus once more. As he shook off the Sith mind tricks and his thoughts cleared a voice echoed in his head. The Dark Side isn't the answer Ben.

No, you're right Rey, it's not. I do see it now. Fighting fire with fire will only burn us all.

Ben closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trusting in the force to guide his hands. He locked his eyes on Mordae and stood at guard, waiting her next attack, he didn't have to wait long.

When she came at him next he didn't just drop his guard he switched off his saber and threw it away from himself, into the darkness, holding his arms out welcomingly. Her eyes went huge as she ran directly into him, not expecting for his resistance to so suddenly end.

As she stumbled into him, Ben closed his arms around her, grunting in pain. "My lady please." He spoke directly into her ear, placing his forehead on her shoulder he willed her to remember.

13

Mordae swam in darkness, drowning in it. It was without end, no matter which direction she struggled or how hard or how long she couldn't escape it. Choking, she curled into a ball; wrapping her arms around herself she sobbed once and fell silent.

How long have I been here? Five hours, five centuries? She sighed and closed her eyes, didn't matter either way, she was never leaving she knew.

"My Lady please."

Her head jerked up and her eyes darted. Ben. But where?

She stretched out, straining into the darkness and yelled with all her might. "BEN!"

No answer.

Why isn't he answering me? She thought desperately. There! She saw it, a tiny speck it seemed impossibly far until she focused on it and it grew slowly, a light in the dark it wavered as if through water. She did all she could think to do and swam towards the glimmer of hope, it opened like an iris for her to enter. She stared in shock to find it was her memories.

She could see Ben standing in front of her, sneering with open disgust and speaking with purposeful malice. His words spoke of how their time together had been nothing but a lie, he'd never cared for her. Mordae shook her head. That's not right. That's not how it happened! THIS is the lie. She lashed out at the memory, shattering it like glass.

Mordae shuddered and gasped for air as she broke the surface, blinking in shock as light blinded her and shaking her head to clear the overwhelming noise. She could feel a weight draped around her shoulders and she turned her head to try and see what it was only to end up with a face full of dark hair.

Confused she looked down to realize the noise she was hearing was Kylo Ren's flickering saber in her hand. She couldn't seem to understand what she was seeing at first as the blade ended short just past the exhaust ported hilt. Not short. Her thoughts ticked slowly. It's stuck in something.

She pulled back to see better what it was. Mordae cried out in horror as she saw it was not what but whom, dropping the blade from her shaking hands. "Ben!" One hand went under his arm to steady him as he swayed on his feet, the other covering the wound, a wound she'd made she now knew. "No...nonono." She began to chant as she felt his knees give out and drag them both to the ground with his weight. She pulled at the strange armor he wore, not even recognizing it, not caring.

Ben's hand grabbed and held hers. "Don't" He stopped her as she tried to get at the wound. "It's done, don't waste the time we have."

Looking up at him she shook her head in denial of both what she'd done and his words.

He smiled back. "Do me a favor and tell Rey she was right." Causing her to let out a sound of despair and began to rock back and forth. Ben covered her hand with his own and closed his eyes. "When I'm gone remember that, it was never the Dark Side that saved either of us."

Leaning forward she touched her forehead to his, she didn't try to fill the time with any empty words or promises of the future, just closed her eyes and took in his presence.

You have to heal him. Mordae started at the voice in her mind, it wasn't her own thought. She tentatively reached back towards the mind that sought her own. Only together can you fight Snoke.

She knew the voice now. Skywalker? She demanded of it and felt a mental assent. I can't, she spoke back to it, that power requires not the Dark Side but a life to trade, too much of it.…enough to drown us both in. Ben had said it himself, not the Dark Side, never the Dark Side. Would you be the life I take for his? I can't go there, not again, not now.

The feeling of a soft smile soothed her and she heard Luke reply. Do not demand the force do your will, ASK it.

Unable to keep from blurting out loud she demanded of the thin air above Ben's head. "ASK?! How am I supposed to ask?!" But she could sense the old Jedi Master was gone as quickly as he'd come, likely distracted by his own battle above.

Looking back at Ben she bit her lower lip so hard she almost broke the skin. Ask he says! Just ask. Pushing down her fear she closed her eyes again and focused on her hand and the wound it covered, feeling Ben's hand on top of hers she calmed herself and did exactly as she had been told.

Opening herself to the force she spoke. "I know I do not deserve your help…" She faltered. "But please…he does." Nothing happened. Mordae slowed her breathing and emptied herself of everything but the focus on Ben's life force. "Please." She whispered.

Her hand seemed to warm and she slowly opened her eyes, seeing a pale glow emitting from under it. She raised her head and looked into Ben's eyes and smiled, her heart soaring as he returned it.

…

Watching from the darkness Snoke felt a cold as such as he'd never felt in his long life and took time to assess what it was. Dread. Intense and mind numbing, for a moment he began to panic before he regained control of himself. Without looking away from the pair he screamed to the troopers who now formed a ring around the room, his voice surprisingly high pitched. "Kill them! Kill them both!"

He stepped back as the soldiers moved in, raising their weapons.

Snoke smiled as ten blaster rifles fired simultaneously, ending this problem once and for all. He'd failed with both of these experiments but with what he'd learned he would find a new student and start again. Like that girl, Rey. Mordae was too young, Solo too old but that one might be perfect. He thought, already planning his next move as he walked to the door.

His thought cut off as suddenly as the blaster fire had and like everyone else in the room, he stopped to stare as all ten hung motionless in the air. That's not possible. Turning away from the bolts he blinked his huge eyes. Kylo Ren had proven strong enough to slow a single blaster shot but to stop it entirely? No. And ten at once? Never.

Inside the ring of pulsing red the couple sat motionless, looking only at one another.

He felt more than saw them suddenly nod in unison and the truly impossible happened. The frozen bolts reversed direction, each and every one of them striking at the very trooper who had shot it. Ten soldiers dropped instantly, dead before they hit the ground.

Mordae and Ben stood as their would be executioners fell, turning together, their movements too fluid to be of a single mind. Snoke didn't deny his fear this time, seeing his two most powerful apprentices linked so thoroughly with some form of Jedi battle meditation. He couldn't have even started to imagine what sort of combined power they would have.

The moved as one, no words passing between them but he could sense the link, so strong was it that he felt he could almost reach out and touch it. As they moved in opposite directions he slammed his fists down in the air, causing massive fists of force to crash down around them.

But none of them connected, if his attack was a boulder they were water and air, flowing around and away from him. They didn't attack or even counter him so much as simply avoided him. A tactic he soon tired of. Creating a wall of pure force around the room he drew it in like a net, closing them in.

Instantly their movements altered in response. Mordae swooped in to pick up Ben's previously tossed saber and she moved to advance on Snoke with a whirl of blades. The two moved so fast they combined into a violet glow, as if a single purple blade came at him.

He countered easily by throwing up multiple moving shields, at least he thought he had.

Between one step and the next she vanished and as she did he felt the distinctive burn of many saber cuts across his arms and legs.

Gasping in shock he spun and saw before he could move to follow her she'd somehow managed to pass the blade off to the boy and vanished from his sight again. How is she moving so fast, where is she?!

His's scared face grimaced as he watched the apprentice, now with both blades, take up a typical Jedi Guardian stance and began his own attack. Drawing on his well of power to heal the wounds his daughter had inflicted he focused on the new threat.

Unlike Mordae who struck lightning face with many small attacks, Ben instead focused on fewer strikes that hit harder but it wasn't long before Snoke realized what he was really doing.

He's fighting defensively. Snoke narrowed his eyes in confusion. He's redirecting my attacks onto himself. Why?

As if to answer him he felt Mordae attack again, a powerful force stun that would have taken down another opponent, to Snoke he felt it bead off like water.

"Do you really think that would do anything?" He shook his head, disappointed. "I would expect such weak attacks from a Jedi but not from you."

As he spoke, Ben moved out of his defensive stance and change to the more aggressive Juyo form often used by Jedi Sentinels. Using his blades in tandem he began to weave a web of slashes that became almost impossible for Snoke to evade.

The old man cursed out loud now and he was forced back. Mordae's attacks he couldn't see, Ben's he could but avoiding either was just as difficult. Curse them both!

Snoke reached out and saw now what they had done with their mental link. Mordae was the one directing the attack by manipulating the force, she saw the holes in his defense as well potential flaws in their own techniques and was using that information to allow Ben to plan for both.

Where did she learn that? He frantically searched his memories. Did the boy teach her? No, he'd be directing it. Skywalker? No time for him to have.

Mordae stood behind Ben now and smiled at her father as if she could hear his thoughts. "Honor is a fool's prize. Glory is of no use to the dead."

Revan. Snoke felt himself go cold. He'd spent countless years searching for the man's holocron once possessed by Bane. What better teacher to show the path they needed than one who had been a Jedi and fallen as a Sith only to rise again in the light? But I never found it…it was lost….

His daughter winked and seemed to vanish again as Ben moved to attack, forcing Snoke back again.

Enough! His mouth a rictus he pulled once again on his reserves to heal himself. This is finished now.

His footing slipped and he almost fell as the wound he'd just healed opened back up and he stared down incomprehensively. What?

Mordae flashed into his vision and waved the fingers of her hand as if in greeting, her eyes clearly amused.

You! He snared inside his head. How?!

Snoke drew on more and more power, healing his wounds as they were inflicted. The drain from his daughters' use of the force was beginning to wear on him and he cursed. This isn't the same as the skills I taught her, where did she learn this? Is this more of Revan's lost skills? Revan in myth was said to have been so powerful he'd killed the Eternal Emperor and taken his place. But I know that is not true, I know he died that day. So what is this?

He had no way to defend against it because it wasn't an attack on his life force like Sith sapping, instead she was simply funneling the force he was using to heal herself and her partner. Even that was not enough to kill him, only weaken him, he'd lived too long to fall to even such an unforeseen trick.

Air caught in his chest as he seemed to hit a wall of air that snapped closed on him like a fist, immobilizing him. Eyes darting he saw the boy had caught him off guard while he'd been distracted but laughed. "You can't kill me!" He sneered at Ben then shifting his gaze to the girl as she strode confidently towards him. "Neither of you can, no one can!"

Mordae tilted her head thoughtfully and placed her hand on the Supreme Leaders arm. "I'm not trying too Father."

Snoke's brow crinkled in incomprehension.

"The Force requires balance." She explained calmly. "All I am going to do is take back what you stole from it."

Now he understood the power she'd been using and what she planned to do with it. He began to struggle, spittle flying as he screeched at her. "If I die you will never know the truth! Why I needed either of you! You'll never find your reason for existing!"

She smiled at him sadly. "That's what you didn't understand even from the beginning; I never needed that from you." She looked towards Ben. "I have found it already."

"Something far worse is coming! The galaxy needs to be unified to fight it, the Light and the Dark Side must be as one, you need me or you will all die!"

Ben hesitated as he felt the truth of the old man's words and glanced at Mordae with concern.

She shook her head and without another word she reached out with the force, not attacking but to carefully unbind the life forces he'd trapped and used to heal himself, one by one she cut the strings, setting them free into the river of Force that had awaited them for centuries.

She stepped back quickly, brows shooting up in surprise at just how fast it happened. In seconds Snoke's form not only withered and cracked but within less than a minute fell apart entirely. Mordae looked down at the pile of ancient bones and dust that drifted across her boots. How long has he been using this power to renew himself? She thought in disgust, looking up she saw the same look on Ben's face. Just how old was he, who was he really?

Stepping over the remains of the Supreme Leader Ben took her hand and the two turned and left, not looking back.

…

Epilogue.

Long after they left the planet something in the dust stirred, at first no more than a drifting of particles as if by a non-existent breeze. Slowly they shifted and emitted a faint red glow, a tiny blood red tendril poked out, testing the air. Finding the chamber empty the glow turned serpentine, slithering away unseen into the shadows.

I will not die that easily.

A faint menacing laugh echoed into the night.