A year had passed on Astoria. It was a cold year, a year that hit an assured record breaking -49 degrees on the coldest night. Over the course of the year Elle had built a green house inside the ship, she had found a massive bag of seeds and was enjoying a daily helping of fruit and potatoes. Along with her exploration of the planet, this was her top priority.

Elle currently sat in the cockpit, an area of the ship she found most calming. She looked out into the shimmery whiteness and held a soft, contented expression.

She wrote in her journal this day, like many days before. She had forced herself to include the activity in her daily routine. She marked today as the one year anniversary of her arrival to Astoria. "A good year," she wrote.

Could a year really pass if one truly never sees the sun? She thought comically to herself. It had been a year since she'd seen the sun, and honestly Elle didn't miss it. She had become completely acclimated to the cold, her body even craved it some days.

Like today.

The cold helped remedy her headaches, that were as frequent as they were random. At any point in the day over the past year she would expect a blinding pain, that would cripple her. And she would push back mentally, taking a hold of whatever solid object or form was beside her and used it as leverage. It seemed the harder she pushed back the harder they came, but eventually the pain would lift if she kept at it. And she had yet to revisit the location displacement she had experienced during the first episode. It was a fluke, she assumed her mind was just playing tricks with her. Jedi minds tend to do strange things like that.

Elle had no way of explaining these headaches, or resolving them. She had no medicine, only tea which helped very little. Currently she was enjoying a large mug, it warmed her insides and she hoped to whatever gods existed that she wouldn't have to deal with a headache during her trek up the mountain.

Suddenly a pot crashed onto the ground and Elle leaned forward to see BB-8 hastily picking it up. She had awoken to the sound of BB-8 bustling about in the kitchen this morning, an action which it was still doing. Pax barked at the droid from his bed, obviously in efforts to get it to settle down. Elle smirked and went back to her journal.

"Today, I was awoken by my trusty droid BB-8 rustling in the kitchen since dawn. The droid is currently still doing so because today is the day we finally make the trek to the top of Colt, Astoria's tallest mountain."

Elle closed her journal and began to get herself ready for the day ahead of them.

Before heading out Elle took up a light pack, boots laced up her shins, a thick sweater and a thick coat. She triple checked everything, just to make sure she wasn't forgetting anything. Then she paused at the exit door, and turned around to find BB-8 gesturing for her lightsaber, in a box where she kept it on the highest shelf in the ship.

"No BB, I don't need it."

But what if you do? It beeped.

"Then I'll find some other way to defend myself." BB-8 stood ground, not budging. After several moments Elle sighed, and held out her hand, "All right you big baby. I'll do what you want, as always."

The lock to the box flipped open and the lightsaber flew into Elle's palm. The metal was cold and hard—but familiar. She hadn't held it in months and she felt it call for her.

Elle quickly removed her blaster and slid the lightsaber in its place, as she rushed out the door in mild frustration.

It took the trio six hours to hike up the mountain in the snow, stopping for a break every now and then. A few hundred yards from the peak Elle began to feel a dull pain in her head.

Not now, please not now. She thought to herself and tried to push it away but it only came harder and Elle fell into the snow, groaning out. Pax ran to her and started to lick her face in some form of assistance but she pushed him away softly.

The pain was crippling, numbing, paralyzing. Elle could not move, her hands stuck in her hair as she breathed out, the wind stinging her face like needles.

But suddenly, the wind stopped. Elle opened her eyes and felt the ground beneath her no longer soft, but cold and flat. Like before. She looked around and did not see the mountain, but a long and narrow hallway. Foot steps echoed and she heard the sounds of engines near by. Still unable to move she closed her eyes again and pushed harder, yelling out.

She began to hear BB-8 buzzing in panic and Pax barking softly. Then she felt the cold wind on her cheeks again. She opened her eyes and the pain vanished, along with the hallway.

Pax nudged his head underneath Elle's back and pushed her up to a sitting position. Elle held onto the dog as he pulled her up to a stand. BB-8 beeped at her and she nodded.

"I'm alright now." She said, mostly to herself. She took a few breaths and looked up to the steep slope above her. "Come on, we don't have a lot of light left."

Elle took a calculated step and then another, just to make sure she could walk. And so they continued but, all the while Elle could think of nothing else but that hallway.

Soon they reached the peak, and the first thing Elle did was take a long, full rotation view of the planet from this rare and distant vantage point. Astoria was beautiful. She could see her ship, small as a pebble below. She stood there for several minutes, admiring the view when she suddenly felt her thoughts becoming cloudy and a darkness spread over her. She turned around and walked toward the middle of the summit.

Elle spied a hole in the mountain, as though it was not a mountain at all, but a volcano. She felt a coldness that differed from the cold she was used to; a deep, dark cold—wet and ominous, a raw insidiousness. A deep howl echoed from the hole, the wind cutting through the peak of the mountain, a pirouette of pressure ebbing and flowing. Pushing and pulling.

She recalled the tales of the black diamond in this planet's core but never really believed in them. Until now. She could not see the diamond, but she knew this is where it was. Deep down where the snow could not reach.

Elle pulled her lightsaber out from its holster but hesitated to ignite it. This was darkness, the Darkside. How could she have been so naive, of course there was a dark force on this planet. She'd felt it since day one. It had to be the source of her headaches. The closer she got the worse they became.

A conundrum suddenly affronted Elle then, like it had many times before. The problem of the dark and the light. She felt the darkness pulling her in, after all this time away from the war, from all of it, she still always felt that pull. The nudge of the Darkside.

Quickly she put her lightsaber down and turned. She then, with shaking hands, pulled out her survey notebook and began taking notes, vigorously to distract herself.

The Force was strong within her, but she must remain neutral. A breeze caught a whisper from her memories, the words of her mentor: "Your training as a Jedi is never over."

Elle recognized this concept but refused. The best she could do for now was train herself to resist. Her neutrality was what earned her a purple lightsaber, the color between red and blue, the mix. Her brush with the Darkside in the past ached within her memory, when she was pulled from it faster than she gave into it—all the while knowing exactly what she was doing and why. Death is a funny thing, and can make people do even funnier things, in moments of crisis.

This planet, this forgotten, frozen planet was indeed her: frozen in this fight.

BB-8 beeped at her feet and she sighed. Snow was coming soon. Peace was coming soon too, it told her.

"It's what I chose for myself, more or less." BB-8's head moved and nuzzled against her leg. Elle smirked gently. "I didn't ask to be a Jedi…"

BB-8 buzzed, refuting her statement. She is still choosing to remain a Jedi.

"Am I though? Choosing to remain one with the Force? I think it's all nonsense at its deepest."

BB-8 was having none of it. A lawful neutral was what this galaxy needed, in fact needed now more than ever. Elle rolled her eyes and sighed. In many ways she still felt guilty for leaving the Resistance, if she had the option to leave this planet she might consider going back. She was happy here and the Resistance always found ways to put her into the worst possible missions that hit their door. She was distrusted amongst the ranks for her rash and calculating personality, often herself acting alone to get things done. Which is why she refused to fight any longer. It was just too hard.

"It's a little late to join back in, don't you think?" She mused to the droid. But instead BB-8 beeped and whirred.

It's never too late.

There was hardly any light out when the three returned to the ship. Elle quickly disrobed of her half frozen, half covered in snow clothing. She kicked her boots off and settled into her bed. She stretched out her aching limbs and sighed as her body settled into the mattress.

Instantly her body stilled and her mind quieted, Elle was fast asleep in seconds.

That night Elle had a dream. Which wasn't unusual, she had dreams most nights. But this was different. This dream was so vivid she could feel it in her bones.

She was in her room, the fireplace lit and it was warm—hot even. And another person was there. A man, dressed completely in black.

At first it seemed like a memory to her, but she did not recognize the man. The man stepped toward her, the fire casting a deep contrast against his face, the left side eloped in darkness. He touched her first, his skin like tiny petals, smooth and light. He touched her jaw, and he was hardly a breathe away from her face, his body against hers.

"I need you." He said, his deep voice echoing in her mind but reverberated off her skin like a droplet of rain. His breath was warm, stinging her skin and thawing out the chill in her cheek. "I need you." He said again, his hands in her hair, his fingertips budding the soft flesh of her neck.

Elle's mind was foggy and she felt her eyes close and open slowly. Her hands went up to his chest and she felt a double beat from his heart. The warmth of his body flooded her mind, and her skin. It muted her concept of reality and blurring the lines of what she needed and what she wanted, her concept of what was real and what was merely fiction, being dreamt inside her mind while she slumbered.

The man held her hips in his large hands, slow like molasses pulling her to him. She closed her eyes, a moan deep in her throat and a beat of sweat dripped from her temple.

Her lips where under his chin when she whispered back, "I need you."

Elle jumped awake and sat up, gasping for breath. Her body was completely covered in sweat, and not a cold sweat. Her heart raced and she was burning up. Quickly, Elle jumped out of bed and ran through the ship and out the door into the subzero night.

She fell to her knees in a pile of snow, her bare and exposed skin hardened as thick snowflakes fell on her shoulders and back. Still heaving for breath she looked into the sky and saw the ribbon of light, green and pink shimmers. And it seemed so calm, but her insides were on fire.

That dream it…it seemed so real. It seemed too real. Elle touched her own jaw and felt the sweat rub off onto her fingers. She felt exposed, and scared, her head felt dizzy—unable currently to discern whether those touches were real. Or whether the Elle in that dream was real, it seemed like a complete out of body experience, where Elle was not in control even in the slightest since of the word.

But she liked it. Oh did she like it, that lack of control—the feeling of deep and rich passion filled her memory from the dream. In her subconscious, the Elle that had full control felt a deep and strong connection with this man and in turn began to feel it herself, in reality.

She just had no idea who he was.