TRIGGER WARNING: THIS CHAPTER WILL CONTAIN REFERENCES TO SEXUAL ASSAULT. I TRIED TO MAKE IT AS SUBTLE AND AS UNDERSTATED AS POSSIBLE, BUT I WANTED TO GIVE FAIR WARNING TO ANY READER.

What a stupid way to die.

She hadn't anticipated the bolt. Hadn't thought that the legendary Captain Solo's equally legendary partner Chewbacca would be present with him. She had been so wrapped up in Ben's presence she had forgotten everyone else- everything else- and now she was paying for it. The bolt barely grazed her side, but it was enough to knock her off balance, to send her stumbling towards the edge of the bridge.

I'm going to fall …

But she didn't.

Just as she started to fall, just as Kyla Ren was going to be lost to the same dark pit that had claimed his father, Ben Solo desperately reached out and grabbed Kyla's arm, pulling her back from the edge. Without even pausing he swept her up into his arms as if he meant to carry her away.

She looked at him with wide, frightened eyes. The same hand that had threatened Han Solo touched his son's cheek. "Why?"

"You're worth saving."

They stare into each others eyes.

"Ben!" Chewie roared. "I've got to detonate the bombs! You have to get out of there! I have to get to you!"

"Do it! I'll get out on my own! Get back to the ship!"

As if their words broke some kind of spell, the Stormtroopers immediately began firing at Chewbacca. They didn't fire at Ben because he was holding Kyla, but they were making their way down towards him. And there were a lot of them.

Chewbacca cried out in anguish a second time. Please let him escape. I can't lose Ben too! I can't!

And he triggered the detonator.

The explosions caused the column to explode. The Stormtroopers ran for cover. Chewie retreated to make his way back to the Falcon.

Above them, almost forgotten, Finn watched Ben retreat with Kyla Ren nestled in his arms like some dark bride.

He doesn't understand how much danger he's in! I've got to get to him before she kills him!

He knew this complex. There were other exits than the ones that Kyla Ren would show Ben. They would take longer, but they would get him where he needed to be. He knew where they would be going, and he knew that he could find them.

If only he would be in time!

..*..

Kyla Ren wasn't used to being saved.

It was a strange sensation to be held so protectively in a man's arms. It impressed her that Ben could carry her so long without resorting to the Force. She was not a large woman in any sense of the word, but she was heavier than she looked.

If it had been another man, if it had been another circumstance, she would have angrily demanded that he put her down. Instead, she relished the feeling of his arms about her.

Finally, after she had successfully led him through the maze of the tunnels that brought them safely out into the forest, she told him, "You can set me down now, Ben. I'm okay."

"Are you sure? When Chewie fired I thought-"

There was something else she'd seen before- not even in Father's eyes.

Concern. Worry. For her.

"I'm fine." She took his hand and led him into a small grove. The trees broke the wind and gave them some respite from the cold. "It just barely grazed me. Look." She raised her tunic enough to show him her side.

"You have so many scars," Ben murmured, his hand tracing the ridges of one of them just above the blaster wound that Chewbacca had given her.

Kyla sighed. Even though he kept his Force connection almost completely muted, she could feel the Force crackling through his fingertips … feel it as touched her. "It's how I know I'm alive. I'm stronger than the things that try to kill me. As long as that's still the case, I'll stay alive." She hissed as his fingers brushed the fresh wound. "Be gentle, Ben."

He withdrew his hand as though he had burned his fingers. "Sorry-"

"You saved my life. I don't mind a few liberties." She reached out and touched his face, cursing the glove that kept her from feeling his skin beneath her fingertips. She looked at him with half-closed eyes. "Ben?"

"Yes?"

"This is when you kiss me."

His lips brushed down lightly against hers … she felt him start to withdraw … but she grabbed his head to force him to stay close. She attacked his mouth with her own, pressing her lithe body against him until she felt the heat start to rise in him.

She started to fumble with his trousers with her free hand, reaching in to touch him... but Ben forced her away with gentle, but firm hands. "No, Rey. We shouldn't. We don't have time for this. We have to get off this planet before it explodes."

"No?" He was going to reject her? Did he really think she would let that stand? "I take what I want, Ben. When I want it."

She reached into the Force and gestured, pinning him against a tree.

"Rey! Let me go!" She felt him struggle, but it only seemed to make her ardor burn hotter.

"You could try to break free if you'd just accept your power. If you really wanted to stop me, that's what you'd do, Ben. But you won't. Because you're afraid of what you will become if you unleash what's inside you."

"Don't do this, Rey." His eyes were pleading.

Part of her wanted to stop now. Part of her knew that she was crossing a dangerous line. But the other part of her just wanted.

She kissed him hungrily, pinning his head into place with the Force when he tried to twist away. "You want this, Ben. You want me. You wouldn't be reacting like this if you didn't. You want it, but you're just too afraid. I'll take care of everything. You just have to … relax."

Her eyes were golden.

Ben closed his eyes so he wouldn't have to look at them. He kept them closed as she pulled down his trousers. He kept them closed as she lifted her robes and straddled him.

"Yes," Kyla hissed. "Yesss."

"You're a monster," Ben whispered.

It tore at Kyla's heart.

But she didn't stop.

..**..

It didn't take long.

She licked his face when she was finished, stumbling to her feet. Her side ached, but she was filled with a savage exaltation... and twisted regret. She felt the Dark surging in her, and she knew that Father would be pleased with her. "That wasn't so bad, was it, Ben?"

And then she looked into his eyes.

The way he had looked at her before … the way he had looked at her when he had carried her to safety … was gone. She didn't like what was in its place. "You wanted it too."

Ben said nothing.

"You wanted it too!"

Ben said nothing.

A wild rage filled her. She drew her light saber and activated its blood red blade. "Tell me you wanted it too!"

Ben said nothing.

I'll take his hands, she decided coldly. When he's properly respectful, I'll give him prostheses.

"Get away from him!" Finn screamed as he burst into the grove, the light saber of Anakin Skywalker blazing in his hands. He lashed out at Kyla. "Get away from him!"

"That blade... calls to me. I will have it." Kyla Ren moved away from Ben Solo and stalked towards Finn.

Anakin appeared beside his grandson. "Ben, you have to fight."

"If I fight her now, the Dark will eat me alive. I can feel it calling to me, Grandfather. I can feel it so strongly ..." His eyes flickered golden for a moment and then resumed their normal hue.

"Ben, Finn is going to die if you don't help him. He can't beat her. He's no Jedi. He's going to die, Ben- your friend is going to die. Just like they did at the Temple. Just like they did at the Temple!"

The Force.

It bound him to every living thing. Light and Dark warred within him as it always had. He tried to kick the Dark away, reaching forth with a desperate hand for the Light … and grasped a thread of it.

He shrugged off Kyla's hold on him and stood to his feet.

Meanwhile, the Master of the Knights of Ren had enough of Finn's valiant- but ultimately suicidal attack. She broke through his desperate defenses and slashed him across the chest.

The ex-Stormtrooper landed in a heap at her feet, the light saber falling from his limp hands.

Kyla held her hand out to call the weapon to her.

It rose into the air- and zoomed past her and into the hands of Ben Solo.

Kyla stared at him, her blood red blade making humming noises as she spun it in the air. "Don't try it, Ben. You're no match for me. Give it to me and maybe I'll let him live."

Ben looked at the light saber as though he had never held one in his hands before. He fumbled and found the activator. The blade sprang to life.

And he rushed at Kyla.

Even with her wound, she danced around him, dodging his clumsy attacks. "You're still afraid of what you are. Still at war within yourself. Still divided. But you've given me so much clarity, Ben. So much strength. You know I don't want to destroy you. Stop fighting."

He did not answer. He swung at her again.

She lashed out again, her blade striking his face as she swept his feet out from under him. "Ben, you are no match for me. You're no Jedi Knight. You'll never be Luke Skywalker. I marked you. Don't make me do any more."

He struggled to try to rise to his feet.

"I'm sorry, Ben." She drew her light saber back to hack off the hand that held the light saber of Anakin Skywalker.

And time froze.

Kyla Ren stood frozen in mid-strike. The snow itself seemed to be frozen in mid-air.

"Ben. Ben, son. We were wrong."

Han Solo was there. Looking as if he had never been injured at all. Looking as young as he had in the days when he first held his infant son in his arms. "Dad? You're not Force Sensitive. How are you here?"

Han Solo winked. "I cheated, kid. I do that."

"Same old Dad." Ben chuckled wryly. He could feel the blood flowing down his face. The wound was deep. "I can't beat her, Dad. I'm not strong enough in the Light."

"She's right, Ben. You've been at war with yourself since before you were born. Every day of your life, we told you the Dark was evil and you had to stay away from it. But we were wrong, Ben. All of us—Leia, me- even Luke. When we were trying to keep you from evil we were telling you that part of you was evil. That there was no middle ground. Sith or Jedi. Luke or Vader. That if you could not be wholly Light, you would become a monster, another Darth Vader.

"We were wrong, son. You've proven us wrong. It's time to let go of old fears, Ben. The Dark is part of you, but my son is not evil. You have a choice- no matter where your power comes from- you have a choice."

"But the rules of the Jedi-"

"Son, that Skywalker blood you got from Leia may have given you that power, but you're my son too. A Solo straight down to the bone. Do you know what that means, Ben? Do you know what Solos do?"

"Break the rules," Ben whispered. "Break all the rules!"

He opened himself up again. He kept one hand on the Light, feeling it flow into him with pity and compassion. And with the other, he reached out for the Dark. The Dark was strength, it was anger, it was passion.

But it was power.

His power.

And for the first time in his life, Ben accepted himself.

He was not Luke Skywalker. He was not a Jedi. He would never be wholly of the Light.

But he was not Darth Vader. His strength would not be weakened with pride. His passion would not be rotted with rage.

He was Ben Solo and it was time to fight.

His left eye went golden but his right remained the same. Human.

"That's my boy," Han Solo whispered as he faded away. "I love you, Ben."

"I know," Ben replied.

And when time started, Ben blocked Kyla's blade with his own and Force pushed her away as he scrambled to his feet. The blade of his grandfather sang in his hands as old forms were remembered, old skills

"About kriffing time," Anakin murmured as he watched.

"That's impossible!" Kyla cried out. "How are you doing that?"

"Balance," Ben whispered.

This time, Ben was the aggressor. His blade was everywhere at once, challenging Kyla as no one else ever had. He was a whirlwind in human form. Everywhere at once and nowhere her blade struck.

And Kyla fell back.

And she knew fear.

This was a battle that she could not win. She knew that. But she was Kyla Ren, and she could not- would not back away from a fight. She made one last desperate charge...

And Ben cut off her sword hand at the wrist.

Kyla stared at her cauterized wrist in astonishment. She fell to her knees.

Ben called her light saber to him and ignited it. He placed both blades around her neck. One stroke... one flick of the wrist and it would be over.

"Do it," Kyla Ren- or Rey of Jakku- whispered. "I just want it to be over with. Do it, Ben."

"She cannot be saved, Ben," Anakin warned him. "Strike her down now or you will have to face her again- and Force only knows how many others will die in the meantime. Jedi revere life, but not all lives can be saved."

The planet shuddered beneath them.

Kyla Ren looked at him with fully human eyes. The eyes of a lost little girl from Jakku.

Ben deactivated the light sabers. He tossed hers away. "Rey."

She looked up at him, still crying.

"You're not lost yet. It's not too late. There is still Light within you." He kissed her forehead. "Do better. Be better."

He walked over to Finn and carefully picked the wounded man up. "And, Rey?"

"Yes?" she whispered hopefully.

"Live."

The Millennium Falcon arrived just as he reached Finn.

..***..

Kyla Ren watched them leave.

Her wrist hurt like kriff. Her side ached, and Ben Solo's final rejection—and the bitter fact that he had left her behind- filled her with darkest despair.

Father will be ashamed of me.

She stumbled to her light saber and attached it to her belt. She turned and made her way to the hanger bay. If she was lucky, she would still be able to board a shuttle before the last one left.

"Kyla Ren!" Phasma cried. She was leading a small contingent of Stormtroopers in her direction. "You're hurt!"

"I'll live," Kyla said grimly. The same won't be said about Ben Solo when I meet him again.

She knew that was a lie, but it made the pain a little more bearable.

She noted the stained armor that Phasma was wearing but didn't comment on it. "You came back for me?"

That was surprising. She had never hated Phasma- not like she disliked Hux- but they had never exactly been friends.

I don't have friends, Kyla thought sadly.

Phasma gripped her shoulder. "As women of power, I think we have a common cause, Kyla." It was an overture of friendship, and Kyla Ren took it as such.

"I believe we do, Phasma. I believe we do."

Author's Note: Whoa. This was a hard chapter to write. Have to update the rating for it. I hope you enjoyed it!