Okay so uh disclaimer…I did not in any way plan for a particular area of this chapter to go the way it did, it kinda just got written that way…but like…I kinda liked it a lot, so I kept it. Sue me. It's not canon, I don't ship Hux and Kylo (clearly) but writing this was just so much fun and I was laughing so much and I hope you enjoy xD

-Xero

Chapter 16

Ben felt sick as he entered back into the hut.

This felt wrong. Like he was breaking a rule or cheating fate. It felt like a mistake.

But he had no choice. There was an evil person who wanted to hurt Rey. He was trying to find her.

Master Luke didn't have a reason to lie. Deep down, Ben knew what he'd been told was the truth. This was the only way to save her.

He gently scooped her up, blanket and all into his arms, holding her close to his chest. He'd been so swift and light she hadn't even stirred.

His senses were assaulted once again with the smell of sunlight and ocean breezes.

Some sand still lingered in her hair.

Luke looked at the both of them.

Even though he was so young himself, and Rey just a youngling, Ben had the glare of a protective lover or husband.

He'd seen the same look in Han's eyes so many times, protecting Leia.

Like father like son, he thought to himself. "It's time, Ben."

Tears still pinpricked at the corner of his eyes, but he had to be strong for her.

For her, he could be the man he was supposed to be. But only for her.

He clung to her for a few more precious seconds, clenching his eyes shut, burying his face into the little nape of her neck, committing her scent to memory. Then finally, with a trembling jaw, handed her over to Master Luke.

As if sensing the transfer of ownership, the little youngling blinked open her eyes, still drowsy from sleep. "Ben?" She mumbled almost unintelligibly.

The sound made Ben's body tighten and his heart race. It called to every instinct in him that screamed to protect her. He might as well have been trying to fight his own genetic code. Every fiber of his being ached to answer that small little call.

He opened his mouth to speak. To say goodbye, to tell her how much he loved her, to promise he'd find her again, when they were both old enough to decide their own destinies. To tell her everything was going to be okay.

But Luke spoke first. "You will forget all of your training," Luke waved a hand gently over her small head.

Ben's eyes widened in shock and outrage. "NOOO!" He cried, lunging for his little bundle of light but he fell into the sand as Luke moved out of the way.

It wasn't fair. Master Luke couldn't do this. It was cruel, it was heartless! How could he do this to a child?!

"You will forget my face," Luke said, waving his hand over her once again. "You never knew Ben Solo."

"NOOOOOOO!" Ben howled, a sound that decades later, would still haunt Luke's dreams.

"I never knew Ben Solo," she repeated in monotone, before slumping over in Skywalker's arms.

~.~

It had been days. Days of just following Luke through what Rey imagined to be his…daily rituals. He'd said he was mourning. And under normal circumstances, Rey would've wanted to give Luke as much time as he needed to come to terms with Han's death.

But despite herself, the young force user was filled with a sense of impatience, and urgency. These weren't normal circumstances. They were in the middle of a war. And although they'd just destroyed one of the First Order's most important weapons, they were losing.

The Resistance was desperate. They needed Luke Skywalker; the hero that helped win the war in the old days.

Her initial intentions had been to tail Luke and badger him until he relented and agreed to come back with her. That is…until she felt this gentle tug of energy.

She heard ocean waves, but not like the ones crashing around her.

Gentler ones, that gently lapped at the shore, like it was tickling the sand. And the smell of flowers.

The soft tinkling of laughter, and these voices she could barely discern.

Ghosts.

She turned around, to see where the wind wanted her to go.

Between two rocky hills, there stood the top of some dark structure, shrouded in fog.

Her curiosity outweighed her fear.

She made her way along the rocky cliffs, balancing her body against the wind that threatened to blow her off the cliffside.

The whispers became louder, and clearer.

Until at last, she came to the base of what she saw at the top of that cliff.

An archaic, knotted tree, long dead for eons. It stretched and clutched at the sunlight above it, as if it were a giant, primordial hand, grasping for something it would never touch.

At the base of the tree, there was an entrance.

It was dark, and cold, and ancient. But she wasn't afraid.

Some part of her knew; she'd been here before.

She held her staff close to her side, but more out of habit than actual fear.

As she followed the long, windy corridor of knotted bark, she saw at the end of the way was a tiny shelf filled with archaic texts. A single beam of sunlight shone down on them, like they'd been waiting for her, patiently and obediently.

She reached out hesitantly to touch one, the ghosts' echoes overlapping over each other excitedly.

But her concentration was shattered when she realized she wasn't alone.

"Who are you?" Luke asked.

~.~

The girl had been set on a ship with her parents, people she trusted. She would be taken to someplace remote. Someplace even Luke didn't know of. It had to be that way, to ensure that if what remained of the Empire did find them here, and someone was strong enough with the force to interrogate Luke's mind, they wouldn't be able to find her. The chances were slim, but they weren't worth taking.

Rey could never know who she really was. Even her parents would keep the truth from her. It had to be this way, for the sake of the entire galaxy.

To his surprise, as the ship took off far into the stars, he looked back down and saw none other than his sister standing before him.

"Leia," he said. Why did he suddenly have the feeling he was about to be reprimanded?

"What you did was wrong, Luke," she said firmly, walking towards him. She was dressed in Jedi garb, probably so as not to arouse suspicion from the other students, as the sun was beginning to rise. "She deserves to have her memories."

"I had no choice," Luke insisted, sighing exasperatedly. "I saw what she could become."

Leia scoffed. "Could?! You erased three years of memories because of what she could be? What happens if she remembers? What if she comes back here with a red lightsaber – "

"– She won't," Luke interjected. "She's going to be taken to a place where no one will know who she is, where not even Empire supporters can find her."

"She'll be all alone," Leia said, her frustration mounting. "She's only a child!"

"We grew up in the dark, too," Luke said, trying to reason with her. "We were raised on opposite ends of the galaxy, and yet we still found each other. In the end, we became who we were meant to be."

Leia shook her head. "Then if the same rings true for the girl, she'll become a Sith anyway. No matter what we do, the result will be the same."

"I had to try," Luke said, putting his hands on Leia's shoulders. "Even if my actions amount to nothing, and our future is the same, I can at least have faith in knowing I did everything I could to change it. I couldn't just…stand by and let it happen."

But Leia's eyes were disappointed. "What happened to you, Luke? The war is over."

"I know," he said, but she continued.

"And yet you let fear guide your actions more than ever before." Her gaze searched for understanding in his. "The Jedi I know would never have done what you did."

"It was for us, Leia," he assured. "For my nephew. For your son. His obsession with her would've led him down the path of darkness."

"We don't know that for sure," Leia snapped, pulling away from her brother. "This could be the very thing that causes us to lose him." She turned away from him, to begin her way back to the Cruiser. But before she left completely, she said over her shoulder, "And if that happens, Luke, I won't forgive you."

~.~

So she'd been pulled to this place. Luke's best attempts at clearing her memories had been for naught.

"Who are you?" He asked, no doubt startling Rey from her trance. She'd been about to reach for an ancient Jedi text, not that she'd be able to read it. Any knowledge she had of the old runes had been wiped away, like footprints in the sand.

Despite this, she'd been drawn here anyway.

"I know this place," she admitted.

But how much did she know?

Luke approached slowly, and with each step, he saw Rey reacting to each time the wood of the tree creaked as the wind beat against it from the outside. It whistled and howled like an energetic beast.

"Built a thousand generations ago," Luke explained., as he approached the books. "To keep these." He gingerly pulled one from the shelf, a heftier book bound in leather hide, dusty from lack of use. "The original Jedi texts. Just like me, they're the last of the Jedi religion." He looked down at the book, stroking his gloved hand past the very symbol that once decorated his Rebel Pilot Helmet. And for a moment, he allowed himself to remember the past.

But he felt the girl's eyes on him. "You've seen this place," he accused. "You've seen this island."

He turned to gage her thoughts, but she seemed in a daze, like him.

Was she lost in the past too? Is that why she was here? To punish him for taking her memories?

But she wandered gently around the tree's dwelling, gazing up at the ceiling in wonder. "Only in dreams," she said.

He had to know. "Who are you?" He asked again.

Did you come here as Rey Palpatine, granddaughter of the Emperor? He wondered, still regarding her with a menacing grimace.

She turned away from him, her back to Luke as she said, "The resistance sent me."

"They sent you," he affirmed, but it still didn't make any sense. "What's special about you?"

Say it. Say you're here to avenge the death of your grandfather. For sending you away. For taking you away from Ben Solo. Say You're here to destroy me, the last of the Jedi.

"Where are you from?" Where did they send you?

She glanced at him briefly, but still didn't meet his eyes as she spoke. "Nowhere."

"No one's from nowhere."

Finally, she turned to face him. "Jakku," she said.

So that's where they sent her. Makes sense. Jakku was a dump even by Tatooine's standards. "All right, that is pretty much nowhere," he admitted. She genuinely didn't seem to remember anything. "Why are you here, Rey from nowhere?"

"The resistance sent me," she began as she did before, like a rehearsed monologue. "We need your help, the First Order's become unstoppable – "

"– Why are you here?" he said again, cutting through her lie.

She paused for a moment, as if debating whether or not to answer. But finally, with fear in her eyes, she said, "Something…inside me has always been there."

Luke stiffened. She was sent to the farthest reaches of the galaxy, and somehow, the force had still found a way to bring her back to him.

"But now it's awake," she continued. "And I'm afraid," her voice cracked on the last word. "I don't know what it is," she panicked. "Or what to do with it! And I need help."

He couldn't believe it. It came down to training this girl. Again. The Palpatine spawn that had somehow sprung from the pit it had been sent to. "You need a teacher," Luke admitted, turning his back on her. "I can't teach you."

"Why not?" Rey asked stubbornly, briskly moving so she was in front of Luke. "I've seen your daily routine you are not busy," she stated flatly, taking him aback.

This girl is just every bit the stubborn adult that she was as a youngling, he thought to himself. "I will never train another generation of Jedi," he said firmly, looking her directly in the eyes. "I came to this island to die."

Luke shuffled tiredly out of the sacred tree, as if he was burdened physically with the weight of his failures. He leaned on the entrance of the tree for support. "It's time for the Jedi to end."

He could hear the shock in her voice. "Why?" she whispered.

She was ignorant of the Jedi's history. How could he begin to explain that the Jedi have existed before, and they never succeeded in maintaining balance any more than the Sith did?

"Leia sent me here with hope," she said firmly, cutting through his thoughts. "If she was wrong, she deserves to know why. We all do."

~.~

Kylo Ren wallowed in his sadness privately in his chambers.

He felt his mother's life force fading to a dull hum. In the end, he couldn't bring himself to take his mother's life.

So a bit of the light lingered in him still.

And Snoke had done everything short of disowning him to add to his growing number of wounds.

His mother's death, the rejection of the only person in the world who mattered to him, and the patricide he'd committed that had done nothing to ease his suffering all contributed to a stinging agony that pulled him down into depression's depths.

He'd tried to hop into his Silencer, get out into the fray with everyone else, and take out the resistance fighters himself, and he couldn't even do that. He'd failed The Supreme Leader in every way.

At this point, the best he could do was stay out of the way.

But he was not afforded that luxury. General Hux entered into the room via the mechanically sliding door Kylo had forgotten to disable for the night.

He was smirking from ear to ear. "I've tracked the last of the Resistance cruisers through light speed and we now have them pinned. It's only a matter of time before they run out of fuel. And what exactly, have you accomplished?"

Once again, Hux was baiting him. Kylo didn't answer.

"Oh, right. You received a good whipping, had a tantrum, and shot up a resistance hanger. Well done."

Kylo chuckled softly. He was blaringly aware of his failures, he didn't need Hux reminding him. It was almost comical the way Hux had stormed in thinking he'd be reporting new information, like had some edge over Kylo.

This chuckle didn't seem to amuse Hux, however. "I don't see what's so funny. We still don't have the Jedi, and you're sitting here sulking like a child."

"I'm older than you," Kylo retorted, smirking.

Hux colored slightly. "And yet The Supreme Leader has chosen me to lead the final strike against the resistance."

"Of course," Kylo said nonchalantly, shrugging. "You probably needed something to do. You clearly have too much free time if you're able to come to my personal quarters and whine at me."

"I am not whining," Hux stammered, very clearly getting agitated. "He didn't choose you because at every turn you've failed to deliver anything of consequence to our cause."

Finally, Kylo stood up, face to face with Hux, sanding just a bit to close to him. "Do you think I'm an idiot?" he asked softly.

Hux glared at the Knight of darkness with resentment and frustration. "Generally, yes," Hux admitted, not wavering from Kylo's gaze.

"You think I haven't figured it out, General Hux?" He said, letting his eyes run slowly up and down Hux's body before meeting his eyes again.

This small, seemingly harmless action made Hux gasp despite himself. "Figured out what?"

"Why you enjoy tormenting me," Kylo said, continuing to use that gentle, deep tone of voice. "Why you exhausted every effort to take the girl away from me."

Suddenly, Hux's face paled.

Kylo half-smiled, once again chuckling to himself. The sound visibly affected the young General. "The Supreme Leader did what he could to teach you how to block your thoughts…" he leaned in close, so that his breath would tickle Hux's ear, "But even the strongest of minds can slip."

Hux clenched his jaw as shivers ran up his spine. For once, he was silent.

Kylo stayed by his ear, knowing he had more of an effect on him this way. "When you forced the scavenger to strip down to nothing, right there, in front of you…you really didn't get any enjoyment out of it, did you? You said so yourself the only pleasure you felt was due to the pain it would cause me."

To his amazement, Hux still said nothing.

He had every opportunity to just leave, or at the very least take a step backward, away from Kylo.

But he didn't. The General was frozen where he stood.

With the lightest whisper, he said, "It's because you don't derive pleasure from women." Kylo finally pulled away from Hux, who'd been holding his breath.

He noticed the General was trembling and his cheeks were flushed. He was very clearly ashamed. "So, you've been in my head. You've seen all the…fantasies. How long have you known?"

Kylo, for the first time in Hux's presence, gave a smile.

It was the most terrifying sight Hux had ever beheld.

"I didn't," Kylo admitted. "But I do now. Thank you for being so forthcoming, General. I'll make sure to report that you were always eager to…further your relationship with me…through any means necessary."

Hux physically held back a gasp but his eyes were practically popping out of his head, filled to the brim with fear. "You wouldn't. No one would believe you."

Kylo's smile disappeared, and he sauntered menacingly towards Hux, forcing him to take steps backwards. "I would advise staying out of my way, General," he said. "And I would suggest not performing any more stunts like you did with the FLDT cell."

Hux swallowed, staggering outside the entryway to Kylo's room.

"If you ever," he said, his tone darker than even Snoke's, "Do anything to put her in harm's way again, or taunt me, or cast me in a bad light to the Supreme Leader…I'll ruin you."

"No one will believe you!" Hux exclaimed once more, starting to panic.

He laughed. "No one has to. The rumor alone would end you. Imagine…General Hux letting his desires dictate his actions…towards Snoke's apprentice, no less. Even letting it interfere with my training by attempting to seduce me."

"I have never – "

"– It's your word against mine," Kylo snapped, his teeth clenched with fury. "Why else would you be entering my chamber, in the dead of night? The cameras would see you coming in, and going out, looking exerted, blood risen to your face, your body clammy and sweaty – "

"– Supreme Leader would know it to be a lie!" Hux growled back.

Kylo laughed. "He'd know you went behind his back to kill the scavenger, attempting to drown her. He'd know about all the wicked, delicious things you want to do to me – "

"– SHUT UP!" Hux said, shoving Kylo Ren backward.

But the contact didn't even anger him. He knew he'd won. "You know the consequences now," Ren said. He got right up into Hux's face, the picture of darkness, the teeth of his smile gleaming in the dark hallway. "Don't try toying with me again. I'll make it look like an accident."

Hux scowled in response. "Excuse me?"

Kylo stepped into his room. "I'll make it look like an accident...General."

He pressed a button, sliding his door shut and locked for the night in Hux's face.

A Mysterious Connection Soundtrack

Andrew W.K. – Ready to Die

I Just Died In Your Arms – Hidden Citizens

Avenged Sevenfold – Almost Easy

Bishop Briggs – Like A River

Bring Me the Horizon – Throne

Christina Aguilera – Fighter

Evans Blue – A Cross and A Girl Named Blessed

Halestorm – Bad Romance

Fall Out Boy – The Last of the Real Ones

Kelly Clarkson – You Found Me

SVRCINA – Meet Me On The Battlefield

Lindsey Stirling feat. Lizzy Hale – Shatter Me

Styx – Come Sail Away

Van Halen – Why Can't This Be Love

Ariana Grande feat. John Legend – Tale As Old As Time

Daughtry – Learn My Lesson

Journey – Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)

Lindsey Stirling – Carol of The Bells

Taylor Davis – Star Wars Medley

Queen – Who Wants to Live Forever

Zendaya & Zac Efron – Rewrite the Stars

Rise Against – Satellite

Jaroslav Beck feat, Summer Haze – Escape

Apocalyptica feat. Lacey Strum – Broken Pieces

Ursine Vulpine ft. Annaca – Wicked Game

Miley Cyrus – When I look at You

Perfume Genius - Slip Away