Chapter 36

Kylo almost Force slammed the lightsaber away from her hands. Then, he caught himself. He would never raise his hand against her, not after the last time; even if it meant disarming her for her own protection.

Two Jedi were approaching him slowly, cautiously, just playing with their weapons for the time being. The colors of their lightsabers reflected turmoil they brought into the fight. Luke's green fire made him a Jedi, Rey's red branded her a Sith. And yet, never before had a Jedi wanted to take the same life as Sith fought to save.

"Step aside, Rey."

"You step aside, Ren."

He smirked. This reminded him of the time when he wanted her to beg and she refused and fought him to the ground in the temple.

And then, Luke struck Kylo, leaving Rey behind.

They were hitting each other viciously. They delivered their blows with astonishing precision; and missed only when Rey stepped in. One time, she deflected red blade, the other green. They were a holy trinity, engaged in battle to the death. It was so easy to forget who fought who. She was gritting her teeth and boldly clawing at Luke's lightsaber with her own.

"Damn it, stop this! You're supposed to be our teacher. You're my father and more. Master stop!" She screamed, but couldn't talk further.

Kylo was already behind her, striking Luke over her head. Someone Force pushed her aside. She couldn't tell which one, while she was sliding on the metal floor like a sleigh. Her back was burning, she flew so far that only the wall finally put a stop to that passage of fire. The impact flung her back on the floor. She was heaving and scrambling on all four, crying through the intense pain. She lost the lightsaber. While she was frantically looking for it, she caught a glimpse of the battle.

The last Jedi didn't hold back, but his fighting style was refined and fast. Kylo hacked and burnt everything in his way; from the metal pillars to the chemical drones flying above their heads. They were screaming at each other, but she couldn't hear what due to ubiquitous seeping gas.

Rey cried out and tapped into the Force. With one swift push, she sent Ren and Luke flying backwards. "You will not take this from me! You will stop it and listen!"

She couldn't have made more than five steps, and green and red fires were roaring in her face again. Neither was losing time with her, they were so thirsty for each other's blood that they kept fighting, through her pleas or threats, through the poisonous fumes, through the bleeding wounds and dying stars. Their limbs tangled and parted so fast, that the blood she spotted could have belonged to either of them.

"Aaarghh!" Luke fell to his knees. Kylo Ren hacked his robotic hand off, but a metal splinter hit him right under the left eye. He screamed and fell in agony. He covered the eye with one hand, but the other was already looking to connect with his weapon.

Rey sprinted towards them. As quickly as they both fell, they brushed off their injuries and started dueling again. Her red blade joined two others, and they were waltzing in a dance accompanied by humming of the plasma.

"Get the hell out of my way!" Kylo screamed, blinded by pain and anger. "Get out!" He shoved past her.

"Never." She screamed, while Ren's blade deflected Luke's just in time to prevent a direct hit on Rey. "I won't watch you die! If you want, you can watch me, but I won't just stand there."

She would fight, no matter what. Kylo had no other choice than to let her, and to keep watch over her without her knowing. Looking after Rey was like keeping watch over the sun; intense and painful at the same time.

They were twirling their weapons, their moves were ever changing, but always in patterns. Where his blade scoured the hem of her robes, she knew to duck and stretch her willowy back again; giving him the space to cross-attack. He led her and she followed, only to swipe behind him and become the dominant fighter.

They fought only as the lovers could.

Their moves betrayed the intimacy they once shared; the electricity pooled inside their navel just as the magma heated the air. Their moves were risqué and bold. He felt her breaths on his skin before she charged at him – not aiming to attack, only disarm. She became the block between him and Luke Skywalker. Ren's love held him back. Maybe he didn't reach as far as he could; maybe his spin aimed a little too high for her petite stature. Rey paced her steps so he could count them.

Luke, on the other hand, didn't hold back.

He was so determined to end the lifetime of disappointment in his family, that he would pay the blood price. Kylo needed to protect Rey. She didn't want to hear it. She started to hit aggressively, more stealthily for him to follow. Once again, Ren shoved her aside and both men leapt over the turbines bolted to the ground to the other side of the refinery.

"No, no, damn it."Rey blinked, wiping her sweaty forehead. She couldn't follow them over the turbines.

They were screeching and flying around their own axis so fast, that individual blades melted into one giant vortex. Rey was trying to jump over them, but wasn't sure of her abilities. She could always slow the fall from the mountain, but once her tunic caught in that turbine, it would crush her to dust.

Kylo and Luke were fighting more viciously with each passing minute. Gone were the elegant spins and Luke's gallant sparring. He was equally frustrated and weakened like Ben. Rey was going mad with worry. She couldn't interfere. She couldn't watch either. Her eyes were searching for the power source of those ventilators, and once she spotted the sign for the switch box, she raised her hand. What came out if it surprised her.

Massive lightning bolt shot from Rey's arm and fried the fuse in the electrical grid. She should have been dead; she should have been burnt to the crisp. The lightning surged through her and she knew what if felt like to become one with the Force.

"You brought her down like this," both Luke and Ren stopped for a split second, just to look at that spectacular, raw power. "You turned her to the dark side." Luke screamed at his former pupil.

Only the dark side armed the user with such a power and Rey was using it to her full potential. Kylo used this moment and pierced Luke's shoulder. The fight continued.

Finally, the grid switched and the turbines stopped spinning, allowing Rey to leap over. She didn't run, she flew towards them, prodding her muscles to run faster, harder… they were pumping blood into her ears and head, she was screaming inside, but still going.

"You will not take this from me." She screamed again, and Force-slammed three chemical droids into one of the turbines. The explosion separated Ren and Luke; both standing on the opposite side of a crater, panting and snarling. They were angry one could no longer lay waste to another; albeit for a brief second. Kylo mandated his strength into one blow which brought down a small metal plateau connecting two stories of the building. It fell to the ground, creating a makeshift bridge above the burning hearth.

Master could once again reach his pupil; and the pupil got another chance to strike. Rey was watching them crash, collide and throw themselves at each other. They were fighting through a visor of hate. They didn't pay attention to the ruckus of the seeping plasma, nor did they avoid the gaseous fumes choking the life out of people.

Kylo Ren and the Jedi Master were no ordinary mortals. This was a fight of the titans; the collision led by Force and destined to change it forever.

Luke spun around, when Ren suddenly kicked his shin. Rey froze few feet from them. Luke would have never anticipated such a low, common move from Kylo. He prided himself in being superior, even better than most Force users. He resolved to physical combat out of desperation – or to end his life swiftly. It couldn't be the latter, for he didn't care to ease Luke's suffering.

"I see you don't fight honorably…" Luke was kneeling, still deflecting one hit after another, unable to gain proper balance to stand up.

"Dying at my knees is still greater honor than you deserve."

Ren slashed places old man must have missed – and yet, he didn't.

Rey's hands were trembling. She didn't dare to mingle in such close combat. Any strike would be guaranteed to miss, or she would get herself killed in the process.

But then, something caught her attention, something she only heard of in the tales and holocrons. As Kylo's arms strained like two chords, his eyes gleamed red. His lightsaber was hacking down, aiming to dismember Skywalker, so it couldn't be the source of that incandescence.

No – something was changing in him.

He raised his lightsaber and Rey knew. This would be the final blow… this swing would take her Master's life. She felt his life force balancing on the edge of the precipice, the same she once chose to fall.

Kylo struck with a primal scream. His blade didn't hit green. It hit red. She knelt before Skywalker and shielded him.

"No," Ren whispered. She couldn't go against him – again… she wouldn't choose Skywalker's life, because this time, it would mean she forfeited his. "Don't do this," he pleaded, still pushing into her with all his might. They weren't playing, he wasn't holding back anymore.

Time to protect her ran out and Kylo was now fighting for his own life. Skywalker – him he could cast into abyss, but his body didn't know how to respond to Rey's plea for surrender. "One of us is going to die here. You're sentencing me!"

He nearly cried in pain, not from the heat of those clashed fiery pillars, but from another feeling of betrayal. Rey's body was pulsating in the rhythm of his heart. She was prostrated before Kylo, like a wedge between him and Luke. She was kneeling, her back hitting Luke's burnt shoulder, and her arms deflecting Ren's push.

"Step back! There's still time to turn back. Let go…don't do this, Ben." She cried through gritted teeth. Luke was trying to grab his lightsaber, still burning, still melting the floor next to Rey's knee. She was locked between two fires, green and red, while her own lightsaber was the only line sparing both lives.

"You are the line…you keep the balance."

Luke roared in pain, as her weight gnawed at his raw wound; but he couldn't move away. His body gave her traction point, helping her push against the colossus that was Ren.

"Rey, don't make me do this…" Kylo was biting his lip, tasting his own blood rather than having to make a decision. He was hurting her – and she wouldn't budge. There was only so much he could do to alleviate her pain, and still maintain his hold of Skywalker.

"I - am – not – going - to - move!" She bit each syllable into her tongue. "Unless you drive that blade into my heart," she was crying in pain, in misery, in the vision of loss one of them would feel in very short time. "You know what we are to each other. Please, Ben, step back."

He couldn't.

He couldn't stand looking at her dainty hands, her bloodshot eyes, her petite body strained so much, that her nose started bleeding. It was an eerie reminder of their fight during battle of Korriban.

Luke was still inching to get to his own sabre, but these two were a wall he couldn't cross. He could take one over the other, but never together – they were invincible. She was protecting him, and Ben was trying to kill him, and still, they maintained such a delicate balance, that he gazed in awe. Rey didn't mind to kneel before Ben, reason with him, or beg him. Ben could have sliced through both, Jedi and his padawan a long time ago, but he held back. Neither wanted to hurt the other, and he got caught in the middle of it all. They didn't see it, but this battle had to end; and one of them would die.

"Ben…" she took a deep breath, and slid further down on the floor, her knees unable to support such strain anymore. Luke grabbed his lightsaber just in time to push her away, and this time, it was green which clashed with red.

Rey crawled away. She was lying on the floor, hurt and cold.

Kylo Ren locked his eyes with hers.

In one single twirl of his wrist, he could angle his crossguard and slash Luke Skywalker's throat. Old Jedi Master would never see it coming. He never fought with such a weapon, and Ren's opponents often underestimated the exhaust vents.

Why did he hesitate to do it, though? He couldn't bring himself to move his wrist. He could run, he could breathe, every other limb in his body functioned, powered by hurl of adrenaline and pain. Why not that move?

He kept looking at Rey. That one single twirl had sent him spiraling into the void before. In one flick, he sent Rey flying over the mouth of the valley, and she let herself fall. They killed their child. His hands were shaking, and he couldn't defend his life like that.

He lowered his blade in an imperceptible ebb; barely noticeable while it was crackling and spewing fire. It wasn't a grand gesture of surrender; no gaudy act of heroism. He wasn't resolved to stop fighting for good. Caught between two points of no return, he waited. For what, he didn't know. All he knew was that he had to keep looking into her eyes, if he was to die. He would sear her face into his memory, because now, he made the dumbest fucking choice which reduced his life into mere seconds.

Rey saw it.

She saw that recoil and in that inch lay his answer. He chose not to strike. He lowered his blade. He was still waiting, but he didn't take a life that could have already been his.

Luke, on the other hand felt the shift and with a wild cry, he thrust.

Fire pierced chest through the cracking bone, through blood and flesh, it plunged into the torn, beating heart. Kylo was mutely staring at Luke, seeing the sea of red spilling from under the robe. He saw the blood – but didn't feel it. That could not be.

It took him few more seconds to realize, that the blood wasn't his, and that Luke was falling down. The stream of red fire burst through his chest – but whose hand was wielding the weapon?

It was Rey, standing behind him, gripping the blade which ended Luke Skywalker's life. She looked on the verge of breakdown. She was dangerously swaying back and forth, fighting for each new breath, allowing herself to let go, but she couldn't.

"You stepped back…"he heard her say, and let out a loud breath, which he had been saving as his last. She spoke – she lived. "I begged you and you did it. You lowered your weapon. You tasted the anger, hatred, and power. You were almost there, you wanted to kill him, and you stepped back. Luke didn't."

She had to explain herself, she had to tell him that it wasn't a cold blooded murder.

Rey was still clutching that handle, with the crackling blade buried in the chest of already dead man. Ren slowly approached her, and gently placed his hand around hers. He brought her entire weight on him, holding her tight.

Together, they let go. The handle clicked and the red glow disappeared. "I… I had to. He would have killed you. The guilt would have destroyed him. Dark side preys on the weak. Then, that spirit…that thing would have taken him and…"

He slid them both carefully on the floor. Rey was no longer using her limbs. He locked her in a tight embrace and rocked her gently back and forth, kissing her hair, her temples, all while breathing, just breathing. The more he pulled her closer, the more her torso shook; the more pain she released and he took it all. She was crying silently into his robes.

"It's all right, shhh, you're all right," he was lulling her into a calm trance. "I did it for you, always for you." He would have her cry and hurt now, and he would go through it with her. He closed his eyes and simply held her.

She chose him. Again, and again; in the temple after he saved Sirah, in the shuttle where she gave him her body; even on that mountain; though if he failed to see it back then. She always chose him.

"We are equals, now."She said when she was able to form words. "You killed your father while he was trying to bring you back to light. I killed mine when he was trying to take you to the darkness."

She was the line, the keeper of that cursed bloodline.

The Force had finally found balance. The son of the light side and the daughter of darkness restored it. When he was struggling in the darkness, she fought him to the light. Then, he stepped back to the light, and she fell into darkness. He decided to spare Luke's life for her– and she took it for him. Not one was righteous above the other.

They could destroy, or built, they could love or fight – but together, they stepped back. He held her while she was barely treading water. She pulled him from the fire of his mad ambition. When he craved power, she tamed it. When he loved only her, she was most giving of that love to others. They found each other despite their opposite legacy. They came back to each other when the earth split in two; when she fell and he didn't, when her Master would see him dead, and his would enslave them both.

The era of Jedi and Sith found its demise in two bleeding hearts; in the pale boy and feisty girl, who loved each other through the pain.

A/N Three more to go, this isn't the end yet. You know me – a lot can happen till you see 'the end'. This was a very close shave, but after careful consideration, I'm convinced this is exactly how it would pan out. In that second, I knew exactly how Kylo felt, truly ready not to do it for her. I write angst not only for the sake of it. Everything these poor souls went through played out, they learnt and made damn sure not to repeat the same mistakes. It determined the outcome of this battle. Thank you lovelies for reading and comments.