"Absolutely not," Kylo Ren commanded, irritation lacing his voice. It was the most anger he had expressed since their initial escape from Yavin 4 on the Millennium Falcon. Rey glared at him.
"Excuse me," she scoffed, "I don't think you have a say in this matter."
"It's dangerous," Ren countered.
"I'm not afraid. It's what I must do—"
"—there are other ways," Ren said, trying to subdue his frustration. "We could infiltrate the base…locate him…all three of us…we'll attack him together."
"He's no doubt expecting that," Rey said, shaking her head.
"Then I'll go," Ren offered. "He wanted me to become his apprentice. He said so on Coruscant. I know the dark side. I can fight against it."
"But if you've already refused his offer he'd be suspicious," Luke said, finally able to get a word in.
"And you're a prisoner," Rey commented. "You'll be in captivity again the minute we return to the Resistance."
"I haven't forgotten." Ren looked away from her, clenching his jaw in frustration, doing everything within his power to keep himself from exploding in anger. The thought of her risking her life like this sickened him.
"You have to understand," Rey said, trying to reason with him. She sensed him struggling against anger. "I have to do this. Maul's taken so much from me."
"This can't just be about revenge, Rey," Luke added. "If you act out of anger—"
"Master," Rey said, turning to look at Luke, "this is about me proving to myself that I'm not a product of the dark side. That it won't control me again."
"Rey, you could get hurt," Ren spat. "You could…" He couldn't say it. Even the thought of her possibly dying pained him.
"And suddenly you care about what happens to me?" Rey asked, feeling frustration boil within her against her better judgment.
"You know I care," he sputtered, words of empathy still feeling foreign to him, feeling awkward. Luke's eyes grew wide in realization. Ren scrambled to clarify his statement. "If I'd let Snoke kill you—if I had killed you—it would have been the end of the Jedi Order—"
"What you did made a difference, Ben. I'm not denying it," Rey said, staring at him.
"Then you know I can help—"
"What are you talking about?" Luke interjected. Rey looked over at her master.
"Maul revealed that Ben helped me defeat Snoke."
"Is that true?" Luke asked, looking at Ren.
His nephew remained silent. Luke couldn't believe what he was hearing; he knew his nephew had the capacity for light—he had seen it in him before, and certainly saw it in him now—but he didn't know the change had occurred long before his imprisonment.
"If I die, there'll still be hope for the Jedi," Ren said after a few moments of contemplation. "If Rey becomes his apprentice—and if she…if she isn't able to succeed, everything's gone. And if I don't die fighting Maul, you can kill me afterward." Ren wanted to die knowing he did something useful, something of lasting power.
"Ben, you have to understand…this isn't about what's safe. This is my destiny." Rey's eyes searched his. "It was never my destiny to defeat Snoke—that was yours. And now you're free from the dark side. This is the only way I can defeat what has controlled me my entire life."
Ren finally understood. He still wasn't happy about the idea, but he understood. But the understanding was laced with bitterness; she had said it: you're free from the dark side. How he wished she hadn't said it. Luke decided to add to Rey's statement.
"The Force led us here. It wanted us to find the solution in Lor San Tekka's journal. If Rey is meant to become Maul's apprentice, it'd be foolish to try anything else."
"So what do we do next?" Rey said.
"We'll meet up with Rebellion. You go to the planet I discovered and turn yourself in. When you're ready, turn on him. But it has to happen before he decides to launch an attack on another Resistance base," Luke said.
Suddenly, Ren felt the strong urge to destroy. He knew if he stayed in the hut, he wouldn't be able to control his anger.
"Excuse me," Ren stuttered, standing up and storming outside, feeling the need to put as much distance between them as possible. He couldn't be near Rey anymore. He felt so utterly helpless, so ashamed for letting this chance mission he'd gone on momentarily erase the reality that there was no place for him in the future of the galaxy.
Rey looked over at her master, confused. She moved to follow him.
"Stay here," Luke instructed, standing up. "I think it's best if I talk to him." Rey nodded and sat back down, trying to reason through everything that had just happened.
Ren walked until he was far enough away to feel his anger subsiding and his breaths slowing. He stopped abruptly and just stood there, watching the sky change from burnt orange to purple as the suns sink lower and lower in the sky.
Moments later, Ren heard footsteps. The nephew looked over his shoulder at his uncle, but he didn't say a word. Luke trudged through the sand and moved to stand next to Ren.
"It's strange," Luke said. "When I was a boy, all I wanted to do was leave, but now…sometimes I wish I could go back to the days before it all happened and just be able to have innocent hope again. You get to be my age and suddenly you realize that your best adventures are behind you. You realize it's childish to dream of peace in the galaxy."
"I never knew the hope you speak of," Ren remarked, staring at the sandy ground beneath him. "I suppose the dark side had always controlled me."
"It's because I expected too much from you," Luke admitted, a tear forming in his eye. "But you were only a child."
"There's no one to blame for who I am," Ren said. "There was nothing you or my mother and father could have done. Snoke had been speaking to me, guiding me, my entire life." Ben admitted. His memories began to haunt him once again. "When I—when I killed my father I thought I'd be free from the voice that was tempting me. By then I realized the voice controlling me didn't belong to the light—it belonged to Snoke. In that moment, I wasn't Kylo Ren. I found Ben Solo again. But it was too late."
"It's never too late," Luke said. "Even Anakin turned back to the light before he died."
"Only the Skywalkers know the story of his redemption. The galaxy still remembers him as a villain. A tyrant." Ren said. "Though I no longer belong to the dark side, it doesn't make a difference. When I die, I'll die a monster."
"You underestimate the power you have," Luke said. "When, generations from now, the galaxy faces a new threat, there'll be another young Jedi tempted towards the dark side. It'll be your voice, your presence in the Force reminding them that it's never too late to turn back to the light. Your story—and Vader's—will be the ones that remind the future generations of Jedi that light prevails even in the darkest places." Ren thought about what Luke implied. Luke assumed they would succeed in rebuilding the Jedi Order. And from this new order, there would be many generations of Jedi.
And Rey would be the first. She would be the one telling the story of how Ben Solo returned. She would tell her Padawans how Kylo Ren betrayed his master and conquered the dark side. The thought of her telling his story long after he was gone anguished him. He would be gone, but somehow they would still be connected.
"What good is it if Rey dies as Maul's apprentice?" Ren asked, turning his attention back to their current situation. "She's the only hope, isn't she?"
"As far as I know, yes. But Rey's strong in the Force," Luke replied. "And because she is, she has to fulfill her destiny as a Jedi. If she evades it, the dark side will only seduce her in the end."
"But if I kill Maul, and if I die shortly after, there won't be any Sith left in the galaxy. The dark side will be eradicated," Ren argued, trying to disprove his uncle's logic.
"Ben, your sacrifice would turn her to the dark side," Luke stated.
"No," Ren said in disbelief. "I'm going to die either way. Killing Maul is a noble and memorable act. It would only demonstrate how much more powerful the light is."
Luke didn't reply to his nephew's words immediately. After a few short moments of silent contemplation, of watching the sky become completely covered in pink and purple light, Luke decided to respond to Ren's argument.
"If you search your feelings, I believe you will find the answer you seek." With those final words, Luke turned to walk back to the hut, leaving his nephew alone to contemplate what he had just revealed.
Thanks for reading my story :) I'm so appreciative that you've taken the time to read this far! Also, thanks for the follows and reviews. Let me know what you think of chapter ten!