****Wowie it's been about two months! Sorry guys, laptop broke and I don't have a phone so that made this impossible. I'm back now though! I'm sorry to the few of you who were keeping up with this for not updating. I will get back on it regularly now I swear!
Anyway, here's a short one to get back into the mix.
Chapter 7
Ben Kenobi was burning. Not in the literal sense, though it felt as much. The air around him was heavy with the scent of skin and heated breaths. His lungs felt as if they might burst, and as he stared down at the dark girl he thought they would. Her breath was calm now, however. Her eyelids were shut and her skin was bare.
She looked very peaceful, much as she had when he'd seen her previously in the sleeping hall. Kyla Ren was different here, calmer and less refined. The girl lying on the floor in a puddle of clothes was not the same woman that had stabbed Han Solo through the chest. This woman was endlessly broken, and Ben knew when she woke that would prevail. A lapse in judgement is what caused this, and he supposed that he should not be around to see her next.
Ben dressed slowly, staring at Ren the whole time, ensuring that she did not wake. Pulling on his trousers, he could feel his throat growing heavy. This was a terrible mistake, it happened too quickly and now there was so much to lose. His sanity, for one, and also his life. He felt cheated, and endlessly ashamed. Gathering the books he had been studying, he crept towards the doorway. His eyes never once strayed from the dark girl, who never woke. He left the room with a dull ache in the pit of his stomach – anxiousness.
Stepping outside was a bad idea, the weight of the atmosphere hit Ben once more, though with less malice than the last time. His head pulsed dully for a moment, and he stood in the doorway of the library to collect himself. Distantly, he wondered if she ever planned to leave here. It had felt like months, though it had only been around a week or so that Kyla Ren had trapped him in the library with no means of leaving. Still, he had no means of leaving, but he would cross that bridge when he came to it. He stood there for a long moment, looking out over grey rock and seeing a red tinge he had not noticed before. The red seeped through cracks in the rocks, though it was a dull color, washed away by hundreds of years of rain and sediment.
As Ben stepped forward, he willed his thoughts away. Though his mind strayed on Ren, he willed her away just as well. Walking and meditating wasn't something he'd tried before, but he supposed he'd better try if he was to leave here without Kyla Ren catching up to him. He concentrated on what he'd studied again, reaching out with the force as he had before. The stars spanned out before him, as they did every time he meditated and he tried once more to grasp ahold of one of them. He thought of the stories of Luke Skywalker – of Han Solo's rescue from Jabba the Hutt's Palace. He thought of a green lightsaber, striking boldly. He thought of his vision on Takodana, where he'd seen a man with a metal arm and a blue and white droid.
Luke. He repeated the name over and over in his head, and like before, he swore he felt his mind wrap around a single star. This star was dim, though it had a burning color to it. Bright yellow, with a hint of green. I don't know if you can hear this, but please – My name is Ben. I need your help. Your niece has me trapped on Moraband. She wishes to train me in the dark side. Please. Help me.
The star snapped away from him just as he'd finished his thought, and Ben's feet halted. His eyebrows furrowed, and he stared at the ground for a long moment. His head pulsed, and he tried once more to sift through the stars, repeating his thought over and over.
After a while, he sighed. The stars swirled around him, and he lost track of what part of the Force he was looking at. His mind reeled at what else he could try – he'd read the book, over and over and there was no determining whether or not Luke had gotten his message.
There must be something else, he thought. There must be.
Ben walked for a long time, sometimes repeating the same method of reaching out to Luke, other times just taking in his distance from the library. It was only a speck in the distance now, and he had no idea which direction he should take. So he merely walked straight. Eventually, he hit Ren's ship. His stomach flipped at the thought of her, and he pushed that away as well.
Peace. He repeated this to himself over and over, willing away thoughts of their time together. He would deal with the feelings later, when he felt much less inclined to run for his life. It was almost absurd, and distantly he wondered if it even happened. He wished it was a figment of his imagination, and if he wished hard enough he felt it true.
He continued past the ship, towards whatever lie on Moraband's horizon.
It was a long time before the solution hit Ben – and it hit him like a ton of bricks. He had just spent quite a long time with a certain Solo, and before that a few days with another.
He knew the Solo family, all besides one. And that one could send a whole battalion of ships to his aid.
With a new sense of perseverance, he shifted himself back into meditation. Ben ran through the stars, looking left and right – feeling for her. Leia Organa. She was a force sensitive, and Ben had slept with her child. He had much more knowledge of her than of Luke Skywalker. Desperately, he thought of what he knew of her. He thought of Alderaan, and the stories he'd heard of its destruction. He thought of Kyla Ren's face and how she might look like her mother. Ben thought of BB-8, who had mentioned her in passing once. Then Han Solo, who had told Ren that her mother missed her.
After what felt like forever, a star shot towards him. This one was also dim, however tinged with purple. It held no restraint as the green one had, holding onto his mind as he was holding onto it.
General! Please! If this is you I need your help! My name is Ben – Faye may have told you about me. I am on Moraband, where Kyla Ren has me trapped. I've managed to run off, however I have no idea when she will find me. And I am certain she will. If you can hear this, please send help!
And unlike the last time, Ben felt something in response. He felt understanding. A swell of pride went through him.
I am sending a ship right now – Poe Dameron will come to pick you up. Ben gasped aloud, for he did not just receive these words within the vast chasm of stars – he heard them. We will have to do this quickly, Moraband is not a safe place for any of the Resistance to dwell. Approximately two hours, find a way to start a fire five minutes before for a signal. We will be there-
The voice cut off, and the star snapped away from him.
Enough had been accomplished. As Ben left meditation, a wave of vertigo washed over him and he realized just how hard his mind had been holding on. Leia had heard him. Hope rushed through him along with dizziness, and he fell to his knees.
Tears leaked from his eyes as he thought of being free from this – from her. Free from the hold she had on him and free from whatever wrath lay in the aftermath of their insufferable physical connection. Ben would never let that happen again. As much as he'd lusted the woman, and as beautiful as she was he knew that she was still the same woman that had killed Han Solo and a whole academy of young Jedi. Human nature had taken ahold of him in a rush, and now he would never let himself succumb to her again.
Ben would be free of this mess. He would get to Luke Skywalker and he would destroy the thing that tethered Ren to the dark side.
Maybe then, he could worry about whatever phenomenon had happened in that library. That was all it was – Kyla Ren was in no way appealing without her beautiful face and porcelain skin. So fragile, but not weak. She was as hard as stone and as terrifying as any nightmare.
Ben was running before he knew it, his long legs carrying him as far away from the library as he possibly could. He was only walking for about an hour now, and the sun was starting to set in the distance. He doubted that the dark girl was awake, for he was sure that if she had woken up he would feel it very significantly within the force. She would search for his signature and make chase, to capture him again and force him to live with her in that library until she saw fit. They had already been there longer than necessary, and he knew that Snoke would be incredibly unhappy when Kyla Ren emerged.
Ben did not want to be the brunt of her shame, did not want to look at the woman who had so deeply felt hours before. He did not want to train with her as if nothing happened, and he did not want to look at the dark girl and only see Rey Solo. He wanted to get away. She was running from Snoke, hiding in the library and he refused to run with her.
He ran for a very long time, and the sun had already set fully behind the horizon. The grey stone beneath his feet was grittier than before, with much more red poking from the cracks in the ground. He could no longer see the library in the distance. On every side of him, he could see nothing for miles.
Nothing to start a fire with either.
Quickly, he dug into his pockets. It would not be long now before Leia's pilot – Poe, BB-8's master – would be flying over the skies of Moraband in search for him. Maybe less than three quarters of an hour. Ben's chest was heaving having run as long as he had, and he had trouble for a moment getting his hand into the pouches on his tunic.
With luck, he found his handkerchief. He had last tried to give it to Ren within Snoke's throne room, and now he would use it to signal Poe Dameron of his location. It was good that it was dark, because he wasn't sure of another way this would work with such a small fire that this handkerchief would achieve.
Slowly, he lowered himself to the ground, ensuring that he caught his breath before he picked up two rocks on the ground beside him and got to work.
It was only a few moments after that he felt a burst of something in the Force – red hot and flashing into his field of consciousness. Anger, pain, shame, regret, dizziness. He received all of these feelings at once, and knew immediately what had happened.
The dark girl was awake, and she was furious. It was different this time, he thought, though he was far away these feelings were so much more intense. He felt weight on his shoulders, and a terrible ache in his head – a mixture of the ozone and Kyla Ren's plight.
You idiot.
This was all he heard in his mind before he got back to work, now rubbing the rocks together quickly in hopes to ignite a flame. He knew this would not work well without kindle, but it was his only hope. For miles, all around there was only red sand and grey stone.
Imbecile. Scavenger. Traitor. Kriffing hell where did you go?
Ben continued to rub the two rocks against each other – desperately now that she was searching for him.
Why would you leave? Don't you understand? We can be together in the darkness, Ben. Who cares about anything else? Supreme Leader will be pleased with this – our shared power. Come back.
With a final crash of two stones against each other, a spark hit the handkerchief. Though it did not ignite, it filled Ben with hope. Kyla Ren was lying to him. He could feel it in the way the Force trembled along with her words. He could feel how angry she was, and how desperate she was to have him return.
Her life literally depended on it.
Suddenly, there was different sort of heaviness in the air. This made him gasp aloud, and he continued to rub the rocks together. Kyla Ren had stepped outside, it seemed like. Or, Snoke had caught on to what was happening – felt his presence maybe. The air felt as it had in the Sith Temple, and he almost choked on his breath.
With another clash of the stones, the hand rag caught flame. Quickly, Ben moved to crouch over it, willing himself to meditate. For a long moment, he stared at the small flame in desperation. He did not know what he could do to keep it burning, but he had to try. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a short moment and willing the flame to be larger. He used all he could – all the pent of frustration and sorrow he felt that he had not let himself feel. His family, Kyla Ren, Han Solo, Faye. He thought of them, thought of seeing everyone he loved again and he felt a swell of power in his chest.
The Force responded to him as it never had, and the flame burst in front of him. It kept itself burning now, large enough for someone to see from overhead.
Ben!
The dark girl's voice in his head was in anguish now, but he willed it away. He could feel it now – she had stepped out of the library, and Snoke had been there to meet her. He felt the same pain she'd suffered in the temple during his audience with the goblin-like creature.
Still, Ben stayed resilient. He could feel Kyla Ren's pounding footsteps on the stone, toward his direction and the presence of Snoke himself trailing alongside her. He wished now that he'd properly learned to enter her mind. They were coming for him, and though he was miles away he sensed danger still.
With their experience in using the Force, they could easily get here within the next half hour.
Instead, Ben concentrated on keeping the fire going.