Plot heavy chapter here guys, and a long one, which was why it took me a while to post. Will be taking a lot of creative liberties from here on.


His hand was a mess. Bruises and cuts were one thing, but taking out the splinters was a painstaking task especially since it was his dominant hand that was injured. Oh, he could have easily gone to the infirmary and had it treated with bacta, but he wanted to feel and remember the pain of the tree trunk's impact against his fist. Wanted to remember the way the bark had torn at his skin, the way the hard trunk split his knuckles and drew blood.

He wanted to remember the pain of seeing Rey being comforted by Kreio.

Clenching his teeth, Ben took some disinfectant and poured it over his wounds, hissing at the stinging sensation before wrapping his hand up with bandage. The pain from punching that tree was expected, but he never realized how much it would hurt to see Rey with someone else. It wasn't that he was jealous. No, never. Not in that way. It was because he was supposed to be the one there for her, and he...but he...

He growled as he tightened his bindings. He didn't know what the kriff he felt then or what he was feeling at the moment. All he knew was that he didn't like seeing her with someone else.

She's mine.

He paused from wrapping his hand and buried his head in his palms. Where in the world did that thought come from? Rey belonged to no one. Not to him, not to Kreio, not to anyone. And maybe...just maybe that was why he felt the way he did. Rey was her own person and should be no one else's.

Feeling a little better at the thought, he finished binding his wounds before he stood up from bed and walked towards his closet. Today would be the initiates' final trial before the ascension to Jedi Knighthood. That was why he had followed Rey into the woods earlier, hoping that they could somehow smooth things over, maybe try his hand at another attempt at an apology, and perhaps have her wish him luck. Instead, Kreio had emerged from the woods first and then...

"You still love him. Otherwise, you wouldn't be hurting like this."

Ben put his injured hand over his chest, clawing at it, pain seeping once more from his wounded fingers. His heart was beating fast again to the point of hurting, and it took minutes before he calmed down enough to search through his closet for a cloak.

The first thing he saw was the black cloak Rey had given him. No amount of cleaning and fixing had salvaged the parts shredded and burnt during the trials. Wearing it would probably make him look like a hungry scavenger in some backwater planet compared to the other initiates who were sure to wear their best cloaks, but he didn't hesitate to grab it and put it on. And for a few brief seconds at least, he was brought back to the first time he slipped his arms into its sleeves, and found it to be a perfect fit.

"You really like it? You're not messing with me, are you?"

"I love it, Rey. Thank you. I love you, you know that?"

"I...I love you too, Ben."

The buzz on his door cut through his musings. Letting out a breath, he wrapped one torn part of the cloak around his neck and pulled up his hood before opening the door, only to find Lennett on the other side, also wearing her own cloak, hood and all. Her smile instantly faded when she saw what he was wearing, but her words began with a gasp at the sight of his bandages.

"Ben, what happened to your hand?"

"Training injury," he muttered and walked past her, bumping her shoulder hard. It seemed she didn't get the message because she was quickly by his side again.

"You do realize that the final trial tests mental fortitude, right? Not physical strength," she reminded, trying to keep up with his long strides.

"Whatever." He made his strides longer.

Still, she wouldn't take a hint. "You should have worn one of the cloaks I gave you. It's more suited for the occasion and definitely made of better quality material."

This time, Ben was no longer able to contain himself and stopped to glare at her. "Look, Lennett. I don't know what you're on, but don't think for a second I haven't heard about what you've been spreading about us. There's no 'us', alright? And I don't want to be seen around you or even talk to you, got it?"

"Would you rather have let the rumor that you're in love with a thirteen-year-old spread like wildfire?"

Ben stilled. "What?"

"Those rumors have always been around. Not really taken seriously," Lennett divulged, then narrowed her eyes. "But that was before you two went to Spira."

Ben's eyes widened as realization hit home. "You. You were the one who told Uncle Luke."

"I just happened upon what you've been browsing back in the library days ago," Lennett explained. "I didn't think you'd go through with it. And I wasn't the only one who saw you two leave in the wee hours of the morning. Did you seriously think you wouldn't get caught?"

"You told my uncle!" Ben bellowed and stood to his full height but Lennett did not appear intimidated. Not one bit.

"I had to. And now I have to let it be known we're together to protect your reputation," she said while pushing a pointed finger against his chest. "Do you know the kinds of things people have been whispering about you and Rey? Vicious things. Vile things. And if you really care about that girl, then stay far away from her. The rumors are far more unkind to her than they are to you.

"Now..." recovering her smile, Lennett threaded her arm through his, and it was all Ben could do not to cringe. "Shall we go to the final trial, my dear?"


He should have known this would be the final trial.

Luke had mentioned it a year ago but he had completely forgotten about it until that moment, and now here he was, trying his best not to hyperventilate from the chapel's stale, stuffy air.

They were back in the Force tree again. One after the other, the acolytes had descended and re-emerged from the dark pits of the tree to face their greatest fears and hopefully come out of the trial unscathed.

Ben doubted he would. He already knew what he was going to have to face down there and even after a year had passed, he still didn't know how he could possibly cope with it.

His injured fingers tightened around his lightsaber, and he hissed just as Herron Casthre emerged from the hole on the wall, pale but otherwise unharmed and standing tall, though he had yet to switch off his lightsaber. All of the Jedi Knight initiates had their own lightsabers now, thanks to the gift of kyber crystals from Luke and the lightsaber building ritual they had performed days before, of which Ben had not needed to participate in—a fact that was obviously not taken too kindly by some of the initiates.

Casthre deactivated his lightsaber and knelt before Luke. Then, just like the acolytes before him did, stated his success. "I did it. I defeated Darth Vader."

It was the same line the other initiates had also spoken, and Ben knew why. These were the same acolytes whose lives had been ruined in one way or another by Darth Vader, so it was understandable that their greatest fear would involve the mass murderer who had once ruled with Emperor Palpatine. What Ben couldn't understand was how Luke seemed to flinch every time he heard the same statement from his students.

Just like he did with the others, Luke activated his lightsaber, moved the green plasma blade over one of Casthre's shoulder to the other before cutting off Casthre's padawan braid and declaring him a full-fledged knight.

Then, it was Ben's turn. He would be the last to go.

"Good luck," Lennett called, but he didn't turn. Hers wasn't the well wishes he needed, but he knew he would need all the luck he could get.

He wasn't going to face Darth Vader. He would be facing something else.

With a deep breath, he stepped into the narrow passage way of roots, lighting his way through the darkness with his lightsaber. It was still the same as before—gnarled, bark walls, low lying tree roots, and the spiral stone steps that would lead down to the cavern suffused with dark energy. He could already feel the sensation of foreboding permeating in the air, and he hesitated for a while before making his way down the steps.

The journey seemed to take much longer than he remembered, and the air around him echoed and sighed as though the tree itself could breathe. And when he finally reached solid ground, the darkness quickly engulfed him, his lightsaber illuminating only within an arm's length from him.

He swallowed hard and began taking tentative steps forward, willing himself to calm down. He knew what would be waiting for him here, so when the voice spoke, it came as no surprise. It did, however, still send a chill right to his bones.

"We meet again, dear boy..."

Ben slowly closed his eyes, gathered all the courage he could before turning around to face his monster.

The creature was human sized, floating inches off the ground and surrounded by a glowing mist of gray. It cracked a smile which seemed to distort its features even more, making grotesque tears and lines crisscross its ashen face. "Come to face your darkest fears?"

He readied his lightsaber, confidence now coursing through his veins. He could do this, he thought. He could defeat this creature. He was not a little boy anymore. He just had to tell himself that none of this was real. This was just a test. "I'm not afraid of you."

"I can see that you're not..." the creature noted. "You have grown in more ways than I can imagine, Ben Solo. You now have...so much light in you. So much bravery."

The creature's words gave Ben a pause. This was not what he had expected. The words were intelligent. Eloquent. As though it had come from an actual being and not simply a manifestation of the dark nexus.

"And yet despite this..." the creature continued, its voice now taking on a menacing tone, "...there is still one thing you fear most of all."

"I'm not afraid of you!" Ben screamed and rushed to attack, only to have the monster dissipate into smoke, its laughter echoing through the dark cavern.

Ben sensed a dark force behind him and spun around, and found the gray smoke materializing into the creature again.

Sense...he could sense it. It was real!

"You're trembling," the creature intoned. "And here I thought you had made such progress. To think I have yet to show you your greatest fear."

Ben's fingers tightened around his lightsaber. He could feel his heart ramming against his rib cage and he felt his shoulders draw up in anger—anger not for the creature, but at himself for being afraid. He shouldn't fear. Fear was the path to the Dark side. "I...I'm not afraid of anything! I'm not the same boy you used to haunt every night!"

"No, you are not." The creature shook its head, its beady eyes luminous even in the dark. "You are a man grown, whose fears run far deeper than mere nightmares. What you fear the most is...loss."

With a slow wave of an outstretched arm, the creature revealed what was hidden behind its long robes, and Ben almost let go of his lightsaber.

The creature was right. This was his greatest fear.

"R-Rey..."

She did not respond to her name, but continued to stare at him, eyes burning in flashes of gold and red, her dark robes billowing around her like the luminescent gray mist surrounding the near-skeletal creature floating beside her.

"You fear losing her..." the creature continued, reaching down with a bony hand to plant its palm on Rey's shoulder. "You fear losing her to your temperament. You fear losing her to death. But your greatest fear is losing her...to the Dark side."

"N-No!" He wanted to run. Wanted to run and take Rey away but he couldn't even move a muscle. This...all of this wasn't real. Wasn't supposed to be real. Why couldn't he convince himself of that? "You can't have her!"

"That's where you're wrong dear boy," the creature cackled, then moved lower so now its face was next to Rey's, both long fingered hands now on her delicate shoulders. "The Dark side has had her from the moment of her birth. Or have you forgotten where she came from?"

"No!" Ben shook his head vigorously, sweat flying off his brow. "This isn't real. None of this is real!"

"Is it?" the creature challenged, tightening its grip on Rey's shoulders. "True, the cavern manifests your fears. But once you emerge...once you get back to the reality of the surface...you will come to realize that everything I say rings true. This girl has always been, and always will be of the Dark side. She belongs to us. We will be taking her. And nothing you do can change that."

Nothing he can...no. There had to be something he could do. Something he could bargain for...

"Take me." Ben lowered his lightsaber. "Take me instead!"

"You..." the creature arched what could pass for a brow, those small luminous eyes seeming to appraise him. "You, who now have so much light in you, would take her place by my side?"

"I can shun the light!" Ben cried out, even though part of him screamed for him to stop, to take this for what it was—a test, but he would not heed. He had to do something. He had to save Rey. "Just...just leave her out of this!"

"If so..." the creature's eyes flashed, and it reached out with a bony hand, "...prove it."

The cavern suddenly came alive with a blaze of artificial blue and red lights, the darkness dissolving into high walls of metal as the ground he was standing on became a steel bridge.

"Ben!"

He spun around and saw through his narrow field of vision, his father, Han Solo, walking up towards him.

"This, my boy, is your real test," the creature's disembodied voice echoed through the vast metal chamber. "Deny the light. Deny your father and accept me as your new master." Then, almost in a hiss, it added, "You know what you have to do...Kylo Ren..."


Something was terribly wrong. Ben was taking far too long down the cavern, and Luke was starting to feel concerned. Even the newly minted Jedi Knights appeared restless, save for Lennett Mha, who was meditating in a corner.

Luke waited for a few more minutes but when Ben still didn't emerge, he made his decision and turned to R2-D2. "Call the med droids, R2. We may have a situation."

Whispers quickly broke out as the droid beeped and whirred its way out of the chapel. Without another second to lose, Luke activated his lightsaber and rushed inside the passageway, taking the spiral stairs two steps at a time until he finally reached the bottom and used a Force Barrier to protect himself from the dark nexus. Still, it would take him minutes to find his nephew's supine and trembling form, deactivated lightsaber by his side. And when Luke managed to cradle him, he found Ben ghostly pale and wide-eyed under the light of Luke's green lightsaber, tears streaming down his cheeks.

"Ben!" Luke shook him. "Ben, snap out of it!"

Ben blinked and stared at his uncle for several moments before he began shook more viciously with his sobs. "U-Uncle Luke...I...I killed him..."

"Killed who?"

"Dad...I killed Dad."

Luke sucked in a breath, his mind scrambling for an explanation. Why in the world would Ben's final trial involve Han Solo? And most importantly... "Why, Ben? Why did you kill him?"

"B-Because...S-Supreme Leader Snoke told me to..."

It was as if a lightning bolt had hit all the way to the dark pits of the tree and struck Luke. He knew that name. Had heard of it in whispers for years, and it made him cold all over.

It was a while before he was able to speak again. "How...how do you know that name?"

"The creature..." Ben shivered, "...the creature from my nightmares...told me...that was his name..."

The creature. The one Ben had spoken of years before. The one Luke had passed off as a mere manifestation of Ben's fears. The claim Luke had brushed off for years.

Suddenly, everything made sense—Leia's stories of Ben's night terrors, Ben's claims of a creature with scars on its face, of Rey's effect on him, and it was all Luke could do to keep himself from being sick.

He had to talk to Leia. He had to reach her somehow to let her know how they had been wrong all this time. How they had all been...so horribly, terribly wrong.

"Did I...fail, Uncle Luke?" Ben croaked.

"I'm sorry, Ben," was all Luke could muster as he took one of Ben's arms and put it over his shoulder. "I'm so, so sorry."


So Luke finally realizes his and Leia's mistake of not listening to Ben. The question is, is it too late?

Anyway guys, I'm going to be vacationing with my family for the rest of the week so the next update, which is also plot heavy, may take a while but I hope you enjoyed this long read. Meanwhile, thank you again for your patience and for your readership! Really appreciate your thoughts on this. Love you guys as always!