The Jedi Master led her down a winding corridor that hugged the side of a particularly steep cliff. The path was just wide enough for one person at a time and there was no railing. If either of them slipped, the fall to the jagged rocks below was several hundred meters.

"Master Skywalker? Where are we going?" Rey asked over the whistling wind.

"The next step," he called over the roar. She could barely make out his words.

After several minutes, Rey realized that the path they were on was slightly sloped downward. They were descending the side of the island. The salty spray of the ocean tickled her nose and she almost thought she heard another voice on the wind. It was faint—so brief that she was certain she was imaging it.

Glancing up ahead, the walkway grew narrower as the proximity to the sea had eroded the rock. Skywalker came to a stop just before the mossy seaweed carpeting began. Before she could ask what they were doing, he turned to her.

"Be careful where you step. Some places have been completely washed away."

The seaweed squeaked and squelched as their boots trod over it. Rey could see several crustaceans scurry away from them as they disturbed their home. The further they got, the more they had to angled themselves to continue along the rapidly narrowing path. The vibrant green of the flora started to darken and brown. It was not long before the wet sounds of the healthy life-filled plants gave way to the crackle of desiccated husks. Where they walked, the dead seaweed crumbled to dust and was carried away by the wind.

The salty air, too, seemed to change. The brine was still there, but it felt smothering—as if the oppressively moist air was pushing in on them. Rey was about to ask when Skywalker called out that they were nearly there.

Opening into the side of the island, the darkened stone looked almost black in the midday sun. So dark, Rey suspected it was impossible to distinguish this was actually the mouth of a cave. There was nothing here—not even the dead plants that lined the path. The black stone appeared matte, as if it absorbed the very light itself.

"Where are we?" She asked.

Skywalker shifted so that his back was against the far wall. From this angle, Rey could see he was making sure to keep both her and the cave in his line of sight. "To master the Force, you must master yourself," he explained. "The first step to doing that is to confront your own darkness."

"But what is this place?" Rey shivered as a small breeze of icy air seemed to wrap itself around her.

His eyes looked at the blackness before them. "The ancient Jedi sought to make this island a beacon of light in the universe. They thought they could push back the darkness, but they didn't."

As if sensing her discomfort, he laid a hand on her shoulder. Warmth spread throughout her body, chasing away the cold that had been there moments before. "All they did was push the darkness down," he continued. "The brightest lights cast the darkest shadows. That's what this place is—the first concentration of the dark side. A wound created by the Jedi in their hubris."

"And you want us to go inside," she guessed with a grimace. "It doesn't sound safe."

"There's nothing in there that we don't carry within ourselves every day. You don't master anger by suppressing it; you do so by confronting it and accepting it, but not letting it control your actions." His eyes twinkled in the blazing sun. "And we aren't going in there—you are."

The look she shot him made it pretty clear what she thought of that idea. "You can't be serious."

"Your darkness is unique to you. What might tempt you would be easy for another to resist. The dark side preys on everyone in a different way." He looked her square in her eyes. "The strength is within you, you only have to call upon it. Now go."

Skywalker crouched down in a meditation pose, his back still to the wall. He looked like he was about to add something, briefly glancing at the lightsaber clipped to her belt. Instead, he kept silent. With a single glance back, Rey stepped into the darkness.

The first thing Rey noticed was the temperature. She'd expected it to be as cold as it had been at the entrance—colder. What she found was a pleasantly warm tunnel that echoed her footsteps. It took a few moments, but her eyes began to adjust to the darkness. What had once seemed an inky abyss now held the faintest outline of rocks and walls.

She turned a corner and paused. A faint light illuminated a small archway in the distance. Beyond that, it opened up into a massive cavern. The light she'd seen came from several deep pools circling the edges of the room. Reflected sunlight from the sea floor. It played and danced along the walls and up to the ceiling. Upon further inspection, Rey noticed that the walls weren't merely grey stone. A mosaic pattern of dark grey and glossy black sparkled in the dimness.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

Spinning around, lightsaber already in hand, Rey rounded on a short man with greying hair. Watery blue eyes seemed to sparkle in the dull light. His smile was kindly, though his robes were what she'd imagine a wealthy noble to wear. The appearance of the weapon didn't seem to faze him.

"Who are you?"

He tilted his head to the side, eyes crinkling with laugh lines. "I'm just a traveler, much like yourself."

"Are you serious?" She asked curiously. Somehow, she expected something . . . more.

"Whatever do you mean?"

Rey carefully lowered her weapon, still unignited, but kept a firm grip on it. "Skywalker told me what this place is. You can't expect me to forget just because it doesn't look exactly like what I expected."

"Ah, I see what you mean," he said jovially. "Have you considered that the Force isn't just about light and darkness? That we are all a rainbow of the Force with hues and shades as intricate as existence itself?"

"I've seen the darkness in action," she pointed out. "I've seen what it does to people. It twists them—makes them do things they wouldn't otherwise do."

"You sound pretty certain of that." He raised an eyebrow. "Did it force you to throw that stone at your Master? You had no choice in the matter at all?"

"I—it wasn't like that." Rey faltered a bit. After all, no one put a blaster to her head and ordered her to do it.

"It's okay," he reassured her. "I'm not judging you. It just appears to me that you are putting a lot of blame on this 'dark side' when you were just angry. And even that wasn't your fault. You didn't ask to be put in that situation, did you?"

"I asked to be trained to be a Jedi."

"And that gives someone permission to toy with you—to make you look foolish and humiliate you?" His blue eyes furrowed. "It doesn't seem right to me."

Shifting her stance slightly, Rey shook her head. It was starting to dawn on her how tired her legs were. "It didn't justify what I did."

"I never said it did, merely that the situation wasn't as black-and-white as it may appear on the surface." He tucked his hands inside the ample sleeves of his dark sapphire robe. "I knew beings who thought about such things in extremes, but I never agreed with them. I always took a larger view on the Force."

Drawing closer to the tiled wall, Rey could see parts of her face captured in the tiny reflections of the obsidian stonework. "'Good' and 'evil' are just words we use to describe those who we agree with and those we don't. Everyone wants to see themselves as 'good,' don't you think?"

"No, no I've seen evil. Kylo Ren is evil." Rey said with conviction. "What he did—there's no way he didn't know it was wrong."

The aged man shrugged. "Perhaps you're right. Who am I to judge?" He turned back to her and quirked his head again. "What do you think should happen to him?"

"He needs to be brought to justice," she said with steel in her voice. Whatever her companion would have said would forever remain a mystery.

"The only justice in this galaxy is that of the First Order," a synthetic voice called out from behind her moments before she heard the familiar snap-hiss-sizzle of a lightsaber.

In a singular smooth motion, Rey fell into a fighting stance Master Skywalker had shown her days before and ignited her own azure saber. She could feel the ground beneath her feet tremble as she heard the tell-tale rumble of cannon fire in the distance.

"I must thank you," Kylo Ren gave a mock-bow as he casually let his blade score the ground. "We never would have found this place without your help."

"What are you talking about?" Rey demanded.

"Did you really think we wouldn't put a tracking device aboard the Falcon?" Even though the mask, she could hear the condescension dripping in his tone. "You led us right here and now the last traces of the Jedi will be swept away."

Rey heard a scuffle behind her. As she shifted her stance, she saw two stormtroopers forcing the elderly man she'd been speaking with to his knees. When he didn't move as quickly as they liked, one used the butt of his blaster to send him sprawling to the floor. "Leave him alone!" She cried.

Ren laughed. "And what makes you think you're in a position to make demands, girl?" He causally flicked his blade around his wrist and brought it up. "You're outnumbered and outclassed. We will find Skywalker and erase the last of the Jedi from the galaxy."

"You'll have to go through me first," she ground out.

"Gladly," he said as he spun towards her, his lightsaber being dragged along to build up maximum velocity for his opening strike.

Ducking under the attack, Rey closed the distance and lashed out with her leg. He might have more dueling experience than she did, but she knew how to win a brawl. Instead of dodging the sweep, as she'd expected, Ren reared back and landed the heel of his boot on her shin. There was a crack and screaming—her own.

"Pathetic," the sneer in his voice audible. "You were more of a challenge in the forest. Where is that raw power you possessed? You can't win by holding yourself back."

Raising his gloved hand, Rey was thrown back against one of the mosaic walls. Little bits of debris rained down on her after she impacted. "Perhaps you need motivation," he mused as he stalked over to the cringing old man. Hauling up by his collar, Kylo Ren brought his lightsaber up to the man's face.

"Please don't," the man begged.

"I wonder how many parts I can cut off before he stops screaming," Ren tilted his head. "Care to make a wager?"

"Stop!" Rey shouted as the blade was being angled against an ear. The grip holding her in place vanished. "I won't let you kill again," she snarled.

"You couldn't save Han Solo, what makes you think you'll be any more successful now?" He asked. "You're weak. And everyone you care about will perish for that weakness."

She fell on him with a fury she hadn't felt since that day on Starkiller base. She needed to stop it here. She would stop it here. It was as if the world was moving in slow motion. Rey rained blow after blow in quick succession. Ren threw the old man back to his Stormtroopers as he parried.

No more death.

No more killing.

No more weakness.

His defense seemed sluggish. Rey just felt herself going faster. She didn't just want to end this. She wanted him to suffer. He killed her friend—the closest thing she ever had to a father. He didn't just deserve to die. He needed to suffer. It was in that blindingly brilliant epiphany that she understood that she could make it happen.

Instead of a conventional attack, she speared her blade at a downward angle. The trajectory took the azure plasma just under the hilt guard exhaust. Pulling back slightly, she sliced through the emitter. Ren's saber exploded in a fountain of light. The black-cloaked enforcer of the First Order fell backwards, clutching his smoking glove to his body.

"You did it," the old man cried out in relief. Before the Stormtroopers could react, Rey slammed them against the wall. They slid to the ground unconscious.

Kylo Ren was half-sprawled on the ground breathing heavily. Rey pointed the tip of her blade at his throat. "Get up."

With visible effort the creature that haunted her nightmares pushed himself to his feet. After a moment, he was no longer gasping. "You haven't won," he said. "Beating me won't save Skywalker."

"Call off your forces," she demanded.

"No."

"Call them off!"

"You don't have time," the old man said, coming up behind Ren. "You said you wanted to bring him to justice. This is your chance: kill him."

Rey took her eyes off of the duraplast helmet to frown at the man. "What?"

"He won't stop the attack," he explained reasonably. "You're the best hope for your master now. You can't very well go traipsing the island with a prisoner, much less one as dangerous as this."

"He's unarmed."

"He has the Force. That in itself is a weapon, isn't it?"

She shook her head. "It isn't right."

"You said you wanted to bring him to justice," the old man pointed out.

"Killing in cold blood isn't justice," Rey snapped.

"It's what he did to Han Solo, isn't it? And he just tried to kill you." He was closer now, just behind Ren slightly to the left.

"No, I can leave him here with you," Rey felt her lightsaber waver—just a bit.

"What can I do to stop him?" the man asked. "He could kill me with a mere thought. You have to choose. Don't you want your master to survive?"

"I—just—"

"It's okay," he soothed. "You don't have to be afraid. Just give yourself permission to do what you know needs to be done. This man—this thing—is a blight on the galaxy. Killing him is the right thing to do."

"I can't—I'm a Jedi—"

"You know it needs to be done," the man reasoned. "What prison could hold him for that matter? He wasn't able to hold you and you weren't even trained."

Rey raised the lightsaber. It was true. She couldn't trust Kylo Ren. As soon as she let her guard down, he would kill her. And then who would save Master Skywalker? He was trapped on the side . . . of the island. It hit her like a ton of durasteel. The cave. She was still inside it. This—this might not be real.

"No . . . "

"He deserves it," the old man's sympathetic eyes quirked in concern. "Doesn't he?"

"This might not be real," Rey breathed to herself, the softest whisper giving voice to her fear. Skywalker would have called out to her, wouldn't he? He would have sensed Kylo Ren long before now. "I won't kill him—I'm a Jedi."

She was lowering her blade when she heard the snap-hiss of a lightsaber. Flinching back, she saw a blood-red blade burst from Kylo Ren's chest. The helmeted figured groaned as the crimson plasma sliced its way up his body. Then, with a small flick, the lightsaber decapitated her adversary.

The helmet clacked against the ground as the corpse sagged to the floor. Shoving the body aside, the old man stepped forward. His face was drooping, as if the flesh beneath his skin was melting before her. The kind blue eyes were now a radioactive yellow. His clothing was no longer an expensive weave, but a zeyd-cloth robe in pure black.

His voice nearly unrecognizable, mouth curled into a sneer. "So be it, Jedi."

Lightning flashed and she screamed.

Author's Note: I might not have explicitly said who it was, but there are more than enough clues. As well as Darth Vader worked in the Dagobah cave or Maul did for Anakin in Illum (EU), I always saw him as the embodiment of the dark side. He doesn't just have the power, but also the seduction and temptation that draws the unwary in.