Having Rey locked away downstairs is far more of a temptation than Kylo had anticipated. Resolutely, he has avoided seeing her again. It's been weeks now since that ugly morning with the lawyers. And Kylo doesn't really have a pretext to justify another meeting anyway. So now and then when he's feeling especially lonely, he takes peeks at her using the camera in the cell. But mostly he tries to avoid thinking about her.

It will get better with time, he tells himself. Things usually do. But days like today, it seems like a lost cause. Because Rey's words from that first day in the hallway wander into his mind at odd times. I'll be your Light again. He wishes he could unhear those words. Because her Light so close and yet so far is like a siren's call to his mind. Beckoning him. Tormenting him. Comforting him. Grating on him. More and more, he thinks Rey's proximity is a mistake. Because she is on the edge of his mind constantly.

He complains to Nestor about it when they are drinking together one night after he's sent Titus off to bed. "This is not a good situation."

"So change it." Nestor, as always, wants to solve the problem. His friend is practical like that. Like Rey.

"Yeah," Kylo hedges. "I've been thinking about moving her to the facility on Chandrila. But I kind of like keeping her around."

Nestor takes another drink of his beer and asks with feigned nonchalance, "You guys talking?"

"No," he gripes. "I haven't seen her in weeks now. And then she called me a fucking asshole Sith."

Nestor chuckles. "Hey, bro, if the shoe fits . . . "

Yeah, Kylo thinks, that whole divorce meeting hadn't been his best moment. He had thought that hurting Rey would make him feel better. Revenge is a Sith thing, after all. But it hadn't helped. Every time he had clicked on the camera feed from her cell later that day, Rey had been sobbing. And that sight didn't satisfy him. More than anything, it had made him want to stomp down to her cell, take her in his arms, and let her cry on his shoulder. But he had resisted the urge. She had been crying over Cade Biggs, after all.

Kylo drinks some more. "The kid keeps asking for her," he reveals.

"Of course, he does," Nestor responds. "That's his mom. The kid loves his mom. That's a good thing."

"Yeah, I guess. It's just . . . this is never how I wanted it to be." Kylo sighs in frustration. He had never wanted Rey to be his prisoner. But he's not sure what else to do with her. Because he's afraid to let her go again. But every time they meet, it's a bitter scream fest as he and Rey hurt each other some more. He can't live with Rey, but he's not sure that he wants to go back to living without her either. All in all, it's fucked up. Kylo shakes his head and looks away. "This isn't working."

"So change it. Have you thought about letting her go back to Biggs?" Nestor suggests tentatively.

"I think I kind of ruined that for her."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I ruined it."

"Okay, so let her start over here on Coruscant on her own. Then she'll be close by to see the kid. You know-she can live like your ex-wife. And you guys can work out some sort of visitation and custody arrangements."

Kylo is annoyed at this suggestion. "She stole my son, remember? And she knew enough to know what that meant to me. To me, to the Force, and to the galaxy. Separating Skywalkers usually results in a lot of collateral damage, Nestor."

"Is that why she left? Because she was pregnant?" The moment the words leave his mouth, Nestor instantly thinks better of his question. His friend backs down, mumbling, "Forget that. I withdraw the question. I'm not trying to bring up bad stuff. Water under the bridge, I know."

Kylo shakes his head. "That's not why she left. She didn't know at the time. She found out afterwards."

Nestor thinks a moment. "So she didn't really steal your kid then," he concludes.

"Yes, she did."

"Oh, come on, Kylo," his friend and Senate Chancellor calls him out. "Were you expecting her just to appear one day with your kid after you ordered her killed? She probably figured you would take the boy and finish the job right then and there."

Kylo grits his teeth. "She should have told me."

"How are you so sure the Force didn't save your kid with a little help from Rey? All so they could live so you could find them later. That sort of stuff happens in your family, you know."

"That's the point! She knew precisely what was a stake. And are you forgetting that she cut my hand off?"

Nestor shrugs. "You tried to kill her," he points out. "Call it even, Sith, and move on. Let bygones be bygones. Come on, Kylo, it's not just about what you want anymore. Put your differences aside for the kid's sake."

It's good advice. But hard advice. "I don't know if I can," Kylo admits. Because having Rey around has dredged up regrets and disappointments he had buried long ago. And years later, they feel just as raw. But having his kid around feels like a second chance he can't afford to blow. Titus raises the stakes considerably. Because he's his kid, he's his chance at an Apprentice, and he's the future of the Force. Nestor is right. It's not just about what he wants anymore.

Kylo makes a face and then chugs some more on his beer. "It's weird seeing her again. No one talks to me like she does."

Nestor grunts. "You might need more of that in your life. You get too much bowing and scraping these days. Maybe it would be good to have someone other than me call you an asshole every now and then."

"Yeah. Maybe."

Nestor gives him a look. "Is she still in solitary?"

"Yeah." He avoids Nestor's side eye.

"Have you let the kid see her?"

"No." Again, he avoids his friend's reproachful look.

"Shit, Kylo, you're making me regret that I ever told you about them. The goal wasn't to make all of you miserable. I did it for you. So you could find your son. And not because he's a magic Skywalker but because he's your son. And if I had a son, I would want to know him and to help raise him." Nestor always gives him straight talk and tonight is no different. "Look, Boss, the first rule of kids is 'Do no harm.' In other words, don't fuck them up. And keeping their mom in solitary in the basement sounds like it's gonna fuck your boy up. Careful, Sith, or in a few years you might find him stealing your sword to bust out his mom."

That's actually a realistic scenario, Kylo knows. For hadn't his grandfather become a war hero at age nine? Who knows what Titus might be capable of at age twelve. And it's partly why Kylo feels like a failure in all of this. Because he can't see a good solution and he fears that over time everything will just spiral even worse. "We were supposed to be the generation without all the drama," he says softly. "I wanted us to be happy."

Nestor takes this lament as his cue to change the topic. "Well, you've got the kid at least. How's it feel being a dad?"

"That's weird too."

"It's new. Hey, at least you missed the up-all-night-screaming and potty training phases. Those are the worst."

"Yeah, I come in the picture just in time for puberty," Kylo complains.

Nestor laughs. "Hey, I've got girls. I let their mother handle that stuff."

"Yeah, well, Cesi's not in a cell in a basement."

"You control that," Nestor reminds him.

"Yeah, I know."

Rey's proximity is worst at night when he spends an hour or two with Titus. Kylo has begun teaching his son meditation, not wanting to rush things but more to give his boy a firm foundation in the Force. To nurture the boy's innate connection with the most basic teaching. For the Force is like a muscle, and it must be used and conditioned to strengthen. So that it becomes unconscious like an instinct or a reflex.

But the hour nightly Kylo spends immersed in the Force with his son is the worst time of all. For when Kylo is relaxed and drifting in the Force, all he senses is her. I'll be your Light again.

Titus senses it too. "Mom," he breathes aloud that first lesson, catching Kylo's attention. "She's here!"

"Yes," he confirms, unable to repress his proud smile. For these are his boy's first steps into a larger world.

In a way, Kylo is grateful for his son's complete ignorance. His boy will have no Jedi dogma to unlearn and no bad habits to break. He is a blank slate ready to learn. Kylo sees immediately that Titus takes after his mother in the Force. He has the same effortless and unconscious connection. Most of the time, the kid doesn't even know he's using the Force. And so, when Titus makes a conscious effort to try, he has trouble focusing. It's nothing that time and practice won't cure, Kylo knows. He resolves to be patient, for his boy has amazing potential.

"Everyone has their own unique imprint in the Force," Kylo teaches now. "The closer you are to a person-either in emotion or proximity-the easier it is to recognize them in the Force. With some focus, you can even speak to another Force-user's mind."

"Why have I never noticed this before?" the boy wonders aloud. "And how come I don't feel you in the Force, Master?"

Ah, Titus has noticed this. "The Sith cloak their Force imprint," Kylo explains. "For defense and for stealth. It is a longstanding tradition from the Old Republic era when the Sith were surrounded by hostile Jedi. Titus, hiding in the Force is the first lesson of being a Sith. One day, when you are my Apprentice and we begin your formal instruction, I will teach you."

He watches as his son closes his eyes to concentrate. "Yes, that's definitely Mom. Can I see her?" Damn, the kid sounds so hopeful.

But Kylo shoots him down. "No."

"Why not?"

"I said no."

Then the kid starts to pout. "I want my mother."

"You're not a little boy any longer."

And now the kid starts to whine. "I want my mother."

"She lied to you, remember?"

"I don't care if she lied. She's still my mother. That's not a lie. I want to see my mother."

This is the same frustrating exchange that father and son repeat several times a week. Is his son's forgiveness the Light in him showing? Or is his insistence on his mother a possessive streak of Dark? Kylo isn't sure. But one night Kylo gets the bright idea to make this conflict a teachable moment. "You may speak with your mother in the Force," he permits the boy, feeling very pleased with himself like he's the Sith Master Father-of-the-Year.

Titus instantly perks up. "You can do that?"

Kylo nods, channeling Snoke as he says, "With the Force as your ally, all things are possible."

"How?" The boy is excited now. "How do I talk to her?"

Kylo considers a moment and then decrees. "Figure it out."

"You're not going to teach me?" Titus looks dismayed.

"You can do it. Figure it out."

The kid needs a challenge, Kylo reasons. And unlike the Jedi with their rigid dogma and rules, the Sith approach the Force intuitively. Snoke had taught by doing, not by talking. The Force is to be experienced, his old Master would say. It is a mystery to be discovered. Find your natural talent in the Force, Plagueis had urged the young Kylo Ren. We all have differing strengths and weaknesses. Young Kylo's strength had lay in mind reading and telekinesis. He's betting that for Titus it will be the same. Because, you know-like father, like son.

He and Titus are just playing around right now anyway. Kylo is not actually teaching his son the Force yet. He's only introducing some preliminary concepts. Old Snoke had always cautioned against rushing the Force, complaining that the Jedi had stunted many of their most promising padawans by beginning their instruction too young. The raison d'etre of that cult was control, Snoke had jeered. Yoda and his brethren feared uncontrolled power in the Force and so they adhered to rigid traditions and limiting dogma to brainwash Force-strong children from a very young age. That's why the Jedi declined to teach older children, even nearly rejecting the nine-year-old prodigy Anakin Skywalker on grounds he was too old. But the real reason, Snoke maintained, was that older children are more independent and less accepting. They are more inclined to ask why than to seek to conform and please.

In contrast, the Dark Side extols the virtues of the individual. There is no conformity here, Kylo assures Titus. He teaches his son that the Sith prize power and ambition. It's why we are aggressive, Kylo explains, why we like to control. We can be obsessive and relentless too at times. For those characteristics are a natural consequence of powerful emotion. We Sith harness the passion of our desires to focus our power. But we are logical and methodical in achieving our goals. That is why the Dark Side has such majesty, Kylo tells his son. The Shadow Force combines the head with the heart, it allies reason with emotion, it embraces the full range of human experience and desires. From love to hate, from anger to sorrow, from pride to shame, from power to helplessness, the Dark Side accepts it all as a means to empowerment. It lets you own who you are and glory in it.

What about the Light? His boy is as interested in the Light as the Dark, he sees. It's probably because Kylo has told him that Rey is the Light. But whatever the reason for the boy's interest, it pleases Kylo all the same. For Titus is a Skywalker born to tread the uneasy line between Light and Dark. The ancient Sith of old had disdained the Light, but his wise Master had warned against this folly. He taught that you can be Sith and still admire and appreciate the Light. And Kylo now passes on this wisdom to his son.

The Force is a continuum from Light to Dark, he instructs. People are like that too. We are each a mix of Light and Dark. The two sides coexist in the universe and in ourselves. None of us is all Light or all Dark. But you call yourself a Dark Sith, his boy points out as he tries to understand. Then Kylo reveals that in his younger days he had more Light. But Darkness had overtaken it as he matured. Titus thinks a moment. Master, can you find your Light again? And the unexpected question stumps Kylo for a moment.

That is his opening to discuss the riddle that even old Plagueis could not explain: the balance of the Force. His Master could sense it, could yearn for it, but could never truly achieve it. And now, that task falls to the next generation. To us, he tells his earnest looking son. Solemnly now, Kylo reveals the insight that his wise Sith Master had discovered: that Jedi or Sith, in the end, the Force defaults to balance. In the aggregate and in an individual. When you get too far to one extreme of Dark or Light, the Force will call you back towards the center. In time, he assures his son, you will learn to recognize the impulse. The pull to balance is why a Dark Sith like myself is moved now and then to mercy and to compassion. Maybe even to forgiveness and absolution. And it's why the purest among the Light are drawn to show compassion for those in Darkness. Find any prison or slum, and you will find agents of the Light ministering there. Social workers, teachers, the religious, the do-gooders among us. They are compelled to try to help, to forgive life's worst examples, to save souls and soothe hurts. It's a fool's errand, for the sins of the world persist. But hope springs eternal for those in the Light. And we are all better for it, he teaches.

Old Plagueis had hypothesized that the greatest of all Force-users would be the Sith who could step into the Light with ease and then rejoin the Darkness, a man who could transcend the distinctions of Jedi and Sith to bring balance to the Force. Looking at his goofy kid, Kylo wonders if it's him. Will his son be the one to fulfill the prophesy long foretold? If so, then Kylo worries that he is not up to the task of teaching. Not for the first time has Kylo wished his old Master were still around. That Darth Plagueis himself might be the one to teach his boy. For though Kylo has resolved not be his uncle spouting endless long-winded lectures, he finds himself doing it anyway. And he worries this just means that when it comes to teaching, he is doing it all wrong.

"If you can teach me the Dark, then who will teach me the Light?" Titus asks.

The very question brings home to Kylo how innocent his son is of all the bitter Force war that has come before him. The boy has no appreciation of how revolutionary his question truly is. It had taken the complete destruction of the Jedi Order and the loss of many great Sith to get to this place. A place where a former Jedi Padawan turned Sith Emperor looks to the son he will one day take on as his Apprentice. A place where a Skywalker finally gets to rear another Skywalker so that one day they can rule the Force and the galaxy as father and son. This moment upends everything the old Sith Rule of Two contemplated, it flies in the face of all the dogma and limitations the Jedi taught, and it defies three generations of patricide among the clan of the Chosen Ones. Damn, Kylo wishes his Master had lived to see this, for young Titus is unwittingly every bit the iconoclast that old Plagueis had been.

This boy is the promise of the future, Kylo sees clearly. And perhaps, he will be the redemption of us all.

Taking a deep breath, Kylo once more admits to his boy an uncomfortable truth. "Titus, I had hoped that your mother could teach you the Light. That she would be the counterbalancing influence to me. I wanted you to learn from her too."

"I can't learn from her if she's in jail."

"I know. Try to reach her in the Force."

"Okay."

Later that night, Kylo is in bed with his new girl getting busy when hears Titus awkwardly calling out to Rey in the Force.

Mom? Are you there, Mom?

It repeats. It's distracting. Finally, the boy falls silent and Kylo thinks he's given up. But no. He hears his son again and this time there's no self-assurance. All confidence has fled. It's the voice of a worried kid who wants comforting.

Mommy? Are you okay, Mommy? I miss you, Mommy.

Fuck. That pretty much killed the moment. Kylo rolls off his new girl and sighs aloud. "Rey . . . "

Now he's thinking of another needy boy who had wanted his mommy. Only his mommy had been too busy building the New Republic to pay much attention. Not like Rey who sits locked away in a cell downstairs pining for the son she desperately wants to see. Fuck. This isn't the way it was supposed to be. Not for him or for his son. But this is good for the kid, Kylo reminds himself. Spare the rod and spoil the little Sith, after all.

Mommy? Are you there? I need to talk to you, Mommy.

Fuck. He doesn't want to hear this. But night after night, he does. And Kylo can barely take it. Maybe mind reading and mental connections will not be his kid's talents. Oh well. If that's the case, then maybe he should just move Rey to a maximum security prison off-world and be done with her. It's tempting. Very tempting. But now Kylo has to give his kid a chance to learn the skill first. Ugh, he wishes he had never had this bright idea.

The kid is frustrated and stuck. He comes to Kylo to complain for help. "I can't reach her. I've tried, but I can't reach her."

And worn down from listening to his son's anguished pleas in the Force, Kylo decides to offer some help. "Focus on your mother's Force imprint now. Tell me about how your mother is doing now. What is she feeling?"

And, as usual, his boy has difficulty focusing in the Force. "I can't do it!" he gripes with impatience. "I can't focus."

So Kylo tries a different tactic. "I've seen your school records. I saw all those reports of fighting boys years your senior and hurting them. Tell me, Titus, how does a boy of twelve take on three sixteen-year olds and win? Leaving them bloody with complaining parents."

"What's that got to do with this? Those kids just made me angry."

"I thought so," Kylo nods. "Then get angry now. You're angry at me about your mother, right? Focus on that anger. And then focus in the Force and think of your mother."

"Alright," the boy reluctantly agrees. It takes him a few tries, but it works. Titus has his eyes closed but he's grinning ear to ear as he locates his mother in the Force. "I think she might be talking to someone," he posits hesitantly.

"Yes. Good. It's probably Vanee. He's in her cell twice a day now to visit and I pretend I don't know it. What is she feeling? Focus on her feelings."

"She's worried. It's about me. They're talking about me."

Kylo nods. "Your mother loves you. This is good, Titus. Because once you can sense another's feelings, you are halfway into their head. Go from here."

"Wait—you're not going to teach me the rest?"

"No. Figure it out."

And now, the late-night whining in the Force begins again in earnest. Mom?Are you there, Mom?Can you hear me?I have something to tell you, Mom.

It goes on and on some nights as his determined kid keeps trying to reach his mother. "Rey," Kylo sighs again as once more he gets up from bed too pensive to sleep. "Rey, answer him." Kylo says this both aloud and in the Force. Does she not hear Titus? Why doesn't she answer Titus?

And then, Kylo realizes that he knows why. Rey has always hated anyone impinging on her thoughts. She had tolerated it in bed but no other times. And Kylo had respected her wishes. So it turns out that Rey isn't too good at these mental connections either. In fact, Kylo's not sure that Rey had ever initiated a connection with him, come to think of it. This is two novices—one of them a beginner and the other out of practice-groping for each other's minds in the Force.

Mommy? I miss you, Mommy. Listen, he says that you are safe in your cell unless you try to escape or you try to kill him. So don't try anything, okay? Okay?

Ugh. Kylo can't take much more of this. So one morning, he asks Titus how it is coming, knowing full well the truth of the matter. The frustrated boy looks away as he admits defeat. And that's not good. So Kylo takes a page out of old Snoke's playbook and offers an incentive. Maybe that will hurry things along.

"I tell you what, kid," Kylo decides. "If you connect with your mother in the Force, then I will let you see her." Dangling a reward in front of Titus has the desired effect. As soon as the kid gets back to his room later that night, he starts in earnest.

Mom . . . hear me . . . Mom, please . . . hear me . . .

It's yet another unsuccessful attempt. Kylo girds himself for another fruitless hour of his kid whining in the Force.

Mom . . . hear me . . . Mom, please . . . hear me . . .

And this time, the boy succeeds in making the connection. And now Kylo senses Rey's mind join in the conversation.

T-Titus? Titus, is that you?

Mom! Mom! It's you! Oh, Mom, we can do this! This really works. Wow, this is cool. This is so cool.

Titus, are you okay? Are you safe and happy?

Yeah, I'm fine. I guess. Another new school. Their soccer team sucks. The uniform is itchy. Whatever, Mom, it's fine. How are you? I miss you.

Oh, I miss you, too. I worry about you. I wish I could see you. I miss my Titus. I would give anything to see you.

I miss Dad. He's gone for good, isn't he? I sent messages to Sasha and Malia and they never replied. Mom, they never answered. Are they gone too? I think they're gone.

Probably. Dad is gone, Titus. For good. He's not coming back.

That's what I thought.

I'm sorry. It's my fault, I know. Tell me about you. Are you really okay? Tell me the truth.

I'm fine. Are you fine? Because he won't let me see you-

I'm great. It's actually really nice down here. Well, except for not being able to see you. Now, enough about me. Tell me what you are doing and how you are.

I'm learning the Force. He's so different from Dad. I can't explain it.

I know. Baby, be careful. He's a dangerous man. Don't make him angry. Please don't make him angry. Listen to me-your goal is to survive. That's what matters most. I want you to do and to say what you need to survive. The Force has been with you since before you were born, but you need to protect yourself with good decisions. Search your feelings, listen to your instincts, and remember that your goal is to survive.

Mom, we went to Jakku.

Mom? Mom, are you still there?

Yes.

Mom, I don't care that you lied. About Jakku or anything else. I know I'm supposed to be angry about it, but I don't care. I think I might have lied too in your case. I'm just sorry it means that I have no dad now. And no sisters too, I guess. I miss them. I miss home. This place is really formal all the time.

Titus, I wanted to give you a better life than I had growing up. I'm not sure if that's how it has ended up or not. But I tried my best. It has hurt a lot innocent people. That's sort of how it works in your father's family, I'm afraid.

Look, I get it now.I get a lot of things now, Mom.I'm not mad.I promise I'm not mad.

Thank you. Listen, I can't be with you now but I have not abandoned you, Titus. You need to know that. Whatever happens in life, whatever he drags you into, I will never leave you. You will always be my son. Dark Side, Light Side or no side. I will love you no matter what.

I know, Mom. Mom-

Yeah?

I think you're really brave. But why the Hell did you come to Coruscant for a party? That was a stupid thing to do.

Titus, it seemed okay at the time. A lot of my mistakes seemed okay at the time. Like your father.

He's never going to let you out. He might let me see you, but he's not going to let you out.

It's fine. It's really nice down here. I'll be fine. Truly, it's not so bad.

I can tell you're lying. Somehow, the Force tells me when you are lying.

Mom? Mom?

I'm here.

Will I ever see you again? See you as free, I mean. Not in a cell.

Oh, Titus, what does your heart tell you? Search your feelings and listen to your instincts. That's how the Force will speak to you. Now, be brave and don't look back for me. Make the best of your life now and stay alive. I will do the same. Hopefully, the Force will be with us-

No! I'm not losing you like I lost Dad, Sasha and Malia. Mom, I will get you out of there. I promise! He said Vader choked people with the Force. I'm going to learn that trick and then I will choke a trooper and steal his gun and come find you.

NO! No, Titus!

I can shoot a gun. And I can kill someone. I've done it already. It was way easier than I thought-

NO!

But-

Listen to me-your father is a Sith Master and he owns the Force. There's nothing you can do to help me. This is between me and him. Do not get involved. Do not defy your father.

But Mom-

He's hearing everything you say now. Trust me, he's listening in. Do not underestimate the power of the Emperor or you will suffer my fate. Titus, I want things to end up better for you.

This is all because of him, isn't it?

I'm at fault, too. I made a lot of mistakes. With your father. And then with Dad.

Oh. Well, I don't care. Because if he won't let you out, I will get you out. Mom, I'm going to learn everything I can from him. I will become more powerful than he can possibly imagine. And then when he least suspects, I will strike him down. Right now, I'm just the learner, but someday I will be the Master.

Oh, Titus, no! You can't kill your own father! This is what I feared for you. This is why I hid the Force from you. To protect you from your father and to protect you from yourself. So you would never know that you are part of his cursed clan.

Listen to me, I don't want this conflict! It won't solve anything and it will make things worse. And trust me, your father doesn't want it either. Your father and I have many differences, but on this we will agree. We want no more Skywalkers killing Skywalkers. Whether it's Dark and Light or Dark and Dark, you two are what remains of that family. You and your father have got to learn to live together for your own sake. And for the sake of the galaxy.

But he's keeping you prisoner! And he admits that he tried to kill you!

Titus—

I hate him! Mom, I think I hate him!

Don't say that! There is good in him. I know, because I loved the good in him. There just wasn't enough. And back then there was a war going on and we were young and foolish.

I don't care! I'm still going to kill him if he won't let you out.

Mom? Mom, where are you? Stay with me, Mom.

I love you. But I can't listen to this, Titus. It could get you killed.

Mom? Mom? Mom!

The conversation ends and Rey is the one to shut it down. She's trying to protect the kid, Kylo knows. He recalls now the desperate woman who had propositioned him in a hallway in order to protect her son. Tonight had been yet another example. It's a mother's love like Kylo himself never knew. He's jealous of it a bit. But glad too. For at least in this respect, his son is better off than he was.

Still, he cannot unhear what he has heard tonight. So Kylo ruminates for a long time on its meaning. Thinking of the tales he has heard from Milo who was the go-between when old Plagueis once tried to broker an alliance with his son Vader and his grandson Skywalker. Two Sith had plotted in an uneasy truce to bring home the prodigal Jedi son. By the time it was all over, Vader was dead. Kylo thinks too of his uncle's version of the Death Star throne room fight, of his staunch insistence that at the end Vader had embraced the Light. Old Snoke had scoffed at this tale, telling Kylo that Vader's act of defiance towards his Master to save his son did not make him a Jedi. On the contrary, Snoke had maintained, it had made him a true Sith and a loving father. Just thinking of Snoke now also reminds Kylo of the heartbreaking scene on Crait when his own beloved surrogate father had sacrificed so that he himself might live. His uncle had died in the process.

For a long time after Crait, Kylo had wondered at the meaning of his uncle's death. In killing Luke Skywalker, had Kylo finished what his grandfather had started by ending the Jedi Order? Or had he made meaningless his grandfather's sacrifice on Endor? Kylo still isn't certain. But he is more certain now than ever that the cycle of death in his family must end. Before tonight, Kylo had mostly assumed that the eradication of the Jedi-Sith conflict had largely achieved that goal. But now, eavesdropping on the not-quite teenaged boastings on his only son, Kylo is wary. Because maybe in a Skywalker Sith father-son duo there will be just as much, if not more, deadly conflict.

After all, tonight is not the first time his son has threatened to kill him on behalf of Rey.

And that gets Kylo thinking about the role of mothers in his contentious clan. His grandfather had been sold out of slavery to the Jedi at a tender age, told to forget his mother and to ignore her suffering. Anakin Skywalker had returned ten years later just in time to hold his tortured and dying mother in his arms. How much had that mattered, Kylo wonders. Surely, a lot. But the next generation too had been motherless, with his grandmother dead under mysterious circumstances. His mother and his uncle had each been adopted into stable family units, but even those mother-figures fell as casualties in the end. Kylo knows that he himself is the luckiest so far, since his mother had been alive, if mostly absent, during his childhood. And then, in adulthood, she had been the enemy. Is it worse to grow up without a mother or to grow up with a mother who isn't interested? Again, Kylo isn't certain. But this current generation puts a new twist on the old predicament. For his boy has a live mother who is interested but unavailable. And he himself is the cause.

This is the family dysfunction that has plagued the Skywalkers and left a legacy of death in its wake. This is precisely what Kylo has wanted to avoid for his own children. And it was the obvious outcome of Rey's ruse with Cade Biggs. Since the discovery of Rey and Titus, Kylo has focused on himself as the victim in it all. But now he realizes that the true victim might be his son. The boy who foolish, misguided Rey so completely loves.

Love isn't supposed to hurt. But more and more, Kylo realizes it does.

The next morning, Kylo is the first down to breakfast, where he lies in wait. His son wanders in next before Milo and Vanee. The new girl should be along soon too when she's done primping. But he and Titus are alone for now.

"Any progress?" Kylo asks the boy casually as they wait for the others. "Did you make contact with your mother?"

"No." Titus says this a little too quickly. He's nervous about the lie. But determined too, Kylo sees. For the kid looks him squarely in the eye as he says it.

And this is what he has expected. With a sigh, Kylo raises his hands and blasts his son with a quick bolt of Force lightning. It's not enough to hurt him badly, but it's enough to throw him hard against the far wall. And to get his full attention. Predictably, Titus is shocked.

Kylo stalks to loom over the boy. Titus has slid down the wall to sit sprawled on the floor, looking up gaping at his father.

"Sith do not lie," Kylo admonishes his son sternly. "Don't you ever think to lie to me again. I know that you spoke to your mother in the Force last night. And I know what you told her. All of it. There is nothing you can ever hide from me. Do not think to try."

The boy frowns. "Yes, Sir," he grumbles.

Kylo raises an eyebrow at him. "Yes, what?"

"Yes, Master."

He stares his son down now. "Titus, do not set yourself in opposition to me. You cannot win and in the end, we will both lose. We are father and son, we will be Master and Apprentice when you are a little older, and we will be fellow Sith. We are allies, not enemies."

"Yes, Master."

Satisfied, Kylo reaches down to offer Titus his hand. It is accepted and the Sith hauls his boy to his feet. "What the fuck was that?" the boy asks, curiosity getting the better of him as he straightens his now rumpled school uniform.

"Force lightning. It is an advanced skill."

And now old Vanee lumbers into the room completely unaware of what has transpired. "Master," the old servant intones with his habitual stately morning bow.

"Vanee, tell the droid to set one more place for breakfast this morning. We have a guest joining us."

"Very well, Master. Will the Chancellor be stopping by?"

"Not this morning. The prisoner will be joining us. Do go fetch her, Vanee."

"P-Prisoner?" his son echoes, turning his way. "Do you mean Mom?"

Kylo nods. "Sith do not lie, Titus, and that includes me. I told you that if you made contact, that you could see your mother. Now is your chance."