Past

A dark room.

A ship, humming with machinery.

Humming with the lives of tens of thousands through the Force.

A dark room.

A flicker of... light.

A quiet whimper.

He and Savat stood upon a hill above the battle, TIEs screaming far enough overhead that they could hear each other.

But neither spoke.

They watched as their ground troops pushed back against the Resistance terrorists, slowly rolling the latter back towards their outpost.

They hadn't been needed for this battle; not even to redirect troops to places where they would be better utilized. The troops had done well today. Soon, however, they would be called upon to look through the base; to take charge.

A twig snapping behind them had them both whirling around, his red saber and her orange saberstaff unclipped and unfurling light before their attack-ready postures.

Rey's wide eyes were zeroed in on Kylo's mask, twitching slightly as she tried to gauge exactly where his eyes were.

His eyes followed every twitch.

Savat took a step forward, placing herself slightly ahead of her commander. "Sir?" she questioned in her lilting alto.

Kylo had been silent too long. The three of them were standing still, waiting for one or the other to make a move. The two of them, he and his second, were powerful in the Force, and could have taken Rey on. It may not have been easy, but they could have.

"Master," Savat intoned again, her query this time a little sharper, a little harsher – even perhaps a little concerned. Her half-mask hid everything but her eyes, but even those were crinkling in consternation at Kylo's silence and stillness.

Kylo raised his saber another inch, took a step for—

Suddenly, he was on his knees, drowning in sensation. Cool, silky cloth brushing against his cheek, fresh grass filtering through his nostrils, then swiftly changing to woodsmoke from a fire.

Savat's angry shout brought his head up from where it had fallen forward to rest upon the ground. She had placed herself fully between Rey and his stricken form, saberstaff locked against the younger woman's blue one.

And then—

Then Savat was on her knees, just as he was, pulled into another memory. His memory.

But she wasn't supposed to be there.

He knew, just as she did, that she didn't belong there, and yet still there she was…

...watching him spin those four apples, watching him laugh alongside his mother, watching as she turned towards him with her blazing smile, her shining eyes… watching as she reached forward and touched her fingers to his cheek… And then she spoke, her words ringing like a bell, resounding through both their minds:

"Oh Ben, you have your father's smile…"

"...and my expressive eyes."

Kylo came to, whispering the words of his mother, helmet cast away from him and saber deactivated beside him. He lifted his head and met the warm brown eyes of the older Knight of Ren. His eyes were wide, scared at what she had seen. Scared that she would go running to Snoke, running to another Knight, or running him through for the thoughts which betrayed him.

Instead, her eyes were sympathetic… understanding. "Oh Kylo…"

He hung his head, shoulders quavering, after realizing that the girl was gone. Savat placed a bare hand on the back of his neck, her fingers curling in his hair reassuringly.

"What happened to you…"

"What happened to us?" Kylo whispered.

"What did you do to him?" Savat growled at the brown-haired girl. She had her knife pressed up against the jugular of the girl, who had gone absolutely still.

"Truth," the girl – Rey, she knew her name was – replied.

Savat drove her knee into the small of the girl's back, forcing her to the ground carefully so as not to unintentionally slice open Rey's vein – Savat hadn't gotten to where she was without being careful. She might be the enemy, but that didn't mean she couldn't still be useful.

She knew to keep a close eye on this one, though. She had bested even her Master in combat. At the moment, however, Rey was cooperating. Calm.

Too calm, whispered a part of Savat's mind.

But she shoved that part aside, instead choosing to listen to the cool logic she had always relied upon over the years. The girl had had chances, time and again, apparently, to strike Kylo down. Instead, she had chosen to leave him alive, even where Savat would have let no enemy live. She didn't appear stupid, so perhaps there was another reason…

"You knew I was here, and yet you still allowed me to come up behind you – why?" she asked.

"I…" And now there was hesitancy in the girl's voice. "I don't really have a good reason," she admitted.

Savat was quiet another long moment as she chased after a thought that was trying to hide within her own mind. Finally, "Who was that in my Master's mind? The vision. The one with the apples."

"His mother," came the succinct reply.

"Impossible!" Savat barked out, and yet… And yet. "His mother cast him out. She did not love him." But even she could hear the unasked question in her words.

Rey sighed, her shoulders trembling on the exhale. And then, within an instant, Savat was sucked into a vision.

The girl! The girl must have—

Oh.

Oh.

There was a boy – a small baby boy with a shock of red hair upon his scalp much the same color as Savat's – being bounced upon a smiling blond man's knee. His name… the boy's name…

Her boy's name was Movyn.

And he was her boy, as sure as she knew her own na—

"Fyora!" the man called out to her, giving her a little wink before turning back to their boy. "You'll never guess—"

"No!" Savat wrenched herself out of the vision, blade clattering to the ground as she brought both hands up to scrabble at her chest. She couldn't get rid of the feeling inside of her – she couldn't escape—

Suddenly she felt hands upon her head and she realized that her cheek was pressed against the abdomen of the girl – of Rey. For surely this was Rey – the one who was whispering to her, telling her that everything would be okay, if she just breathed – and not the girl.

She knew, deep inside her, that everything she had seen was the truth – and finally understood what she had meant when Rey had told her she'd shown Kylo the truth.

"Is none of it real?" she whispered bleakly, feeling the new memory like a jagged edge, ripping against everything else within her mind.

Rey simply held onto her more tightly, carding one hand through Savat's mane, and unhooking her half-mask from behind her ears.

"Show me more," Savat mumbled into Rey's shirt.

"Are you sure?" whispered Rey, never ceasing her motions.

Savat simply held on harder.

Within moments it was all she could do not to scream – and then even that was taken away as her memories ran slick with blood.

She had her past back, never having known it was lost, and Savat knew she could never be Fyora again while the blood of her family – of her sweet boy – was upon her skin.

Present

He fought hard. He fought for Ben. He fought for Rey, and even for little Breha. But most importantly, he fought for his own family. Their whispered words of love and adoration when they found out he was alive, was free of Snoke's rapture, were enough to see him through. He wouldn't have known they were still alive, or even where they were, if it hadn't been for Kylo… Ben… and if it hadn't been for Rey.

Oltyn Ren fought… and he smiled.

She couldn't reach the charges in time. There were too many of her foes – her former allies – between her and them, and she did not have the Force to assist her – not like her Master, no, but he had never treated her as lesser… Never.

For that, and for more than she could ever repay, she raced towards the engine room instead. If she couldn't reach the charges in the weapons room, she would set the star destroyer adrift.

For the chances he gave her, the home that was wherever her Knightly brethren were… Nova Ren checked her weapons… and ran as fast as she could to the engines.

The corridors were completely consumed in darkness, yet he and his partner were able to navigate them by memory.

There was no one ahead of them, and now, with the last gasp of their former bond-brother… now there was no one behind them.

He and his bond-sister were now without half of their souls, it felt like – yet it had been necessary for them to sever the close ties which had bound their small family together.

Their bond-brothers, family in all but blood, more than the other Knights had ever been, had not needed the shadowed shackles of false memory to sway them to Snoke's side. When he and his bond-sister had been freed from their own minds, and their brothers had… not… they'd always known that this day would come.

Mathas and Kara Ren moved forward, clothes whispering in the darkness, grief wrapped around them like a shroud.

It had been necessary – yet that didn't mean it didn't already hurt.

She grimaced as a Stormtrooper scored a glancing blow on her calf. That was the third one in as many minutes, though she had lasted a while before the first hit was dealt. The calf, however… she was the walking dead at this point, if her brother didn't show up within the next – she ducked a blast by barely an inch – minute.

She screamed as she kicked the 'trooper into an officer, and then threw the both of them down the hallway and into the command center of the outpost.

"Stupid! Fucking! Asshole!" she yelled out her rage.

"Who – me?" came a voice, and she nearly sagged at the sound. "You trying to escape me already, dearest sister?" Her twin brother affected an aggrieved tone. "And after we were only just reunited!"

"Can it, Naseer," Anath Ren sighed, though she couldn't help but to let out an exaggerated sigh. "Unless you wish to join our dear officer over yonder."

Naseer Ren could only laugh as they fought side by side – she, however, chose not to point out the manic edge to it.

The light was fading, and darkness filling her vision.

She could hear footsteps coming up to her, thumping along with the pounding of her heart in her ears. She tilted her head in the other direction, resting her ear on the cool metallic surface of the deck, and smiled as she saw that her mission was not a failure after all.

The flames were approaching at a rapid pace – she had brought destruction to the Tenacious, and soon… soon she would be with her family.

Cisley Ren closed her eyes, and felt the heat rush towards her.

"He knew you would not be trustworthy," a voice said calmly behind him.

Uhur Ren.

Without turning around, without taking his eyes off the readings in front of him, the ones that showed the collapse of everything Supreme Leader Snoke had built, Yuy Ren spoke into the silence that followed the pronouncement. "I am loyal to the Supreme Leader, Uhur."

"I am not speaking of Snoke the betrayer, Yuy," Uhur replied serenely.

Yuy stiffened, but before he could turn around, he felt a searing pain in his chest. As he collapsed, he could just make out the sound of the doors opening… and then shutting.

There was silence once again.

And then there was nothing at all.

She snarled.

Her eyes narrowed on the dark-haired general, who had been able to overcome her far quicker than she'd expected, and then she spat upon his face.

She snarled again, and then she let it turn upwards into a vicious smile as the man's face reddened in anger.

She laughed when he slapped her, just to spite him.

Perhaps she wasn't getting out of this in one piece, after all, but she had tied up all of her loose ends when her memories – oh, her precious memories – had been returned to her. How had she ever lived without them?

She had made peace with her life, with the injustices done to her… done by her… and had set aside a trust for her daughter. For the daughter she hadn't known was still alive, a decade after she had been taken.

Maker forbid her daughter ever found out who her biological mother was… but if she did, she would know that Jalana Ola… that Jalana Ren… had paid for her sins threefold.

That her mother – she would always be her mother through the Force, by the Maker – had died to make the world a safer, happier, better, more fair place… for her.

Rey hunched over, her shoulders shaking with the force of the sobs wracking her body. Luke gathered her into his arms, pressing her face into his chest as his metal hand ran continuously over her hair, and the other held her tightly – reassuringly.

She felt Luke move after endless seconds of pain left her quivering, her mental shields shredded and disarrayed, and then there was—

—there was Breha, being pushed up against her mother's chest, and Leia's arms supporting Rey's as she wrapped the younger woman's around her grandchild.

"Breha," she breathed, inhaling the calming scent of her child, and shuddering as she released the immediate terror within her.

She had never asked these souls to die for her daughter. Rey would never do that. And yet… and yet every last one, whether they be on a ship or at an outpost, or even on escort detail…

…every last one of the Knights she… they… had trusted to be saved from the morass made of their minds by Snoke…

Every last one had volunteered to go once more into the darkness, to bring light and life, revenge and retribution, terror and truth…

For Breha, and everything she represented.

For their family, their children, whether alive or dead.

All this, and more… for the future.

Ben Organa fluttered his eyes shut, threw a thought and a prayer into the darkness of space and the Force all around him – and breathed.

Note:

I did a fun little thing on my Tumblr ( juuls) and invited people to create their own Knights of Ren for this! I didn't and won't stick exactly to what I was told for the characters, as that won't really work, but I tried to make them fit with my already-existing script as best I can!

As always, Savat Ren/Fyora is my own. (As are Yuy, Mathas, and Oltyn Ren.)

Jalana Ren is the property of thedarkside-and-thelight / MissHarper

Anath and Naseer Ren are the property of cuthian / Annaelle

Cisley Ren is the property of grlie-girl /grliegirl

Uhur Ren is the property of chaoticsentiments

Kara Ren is the property of tenderhearthufflepuff

Nova Ren is the property of ns0241

We will see more of these Knights of Ren in upcoming chapters! Though of course the main story will focus on our dear parental couple. ;)

Thank you everyone! And thanks so much for everyone's love, support, and patience while I visited my dear perrydowning in Cali! I had a blast, and she's simply awesome. *hugs*