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"The Pull to the Dark"

By EsmeAmelia

Chapter 14

"This is all my fault," Ben muttered as he paced back and forth in front of the hospital bed. "This was a stupid idea – I never should've suggested it."

"C'mon son, don't go blamin' yourself," Han said.

Ben abruptly stopped pacing and pointed at his father's broken wrist, now wrapped up in a cast. "And how was that not my fault?"

"Look . . . I could've just rolled over on it wrong."

"You don't believe that."

"Okay, I don't, but it still ain't your fault. We had no way of knowin' this could happen."

"And that makes it okay?" The dark circles under Ben's eyes stood out against his glistening pale skin. "The thing's onto us and if it can do that, who knows what else it can do?"

Before Han could answer, Leia and Ara entered the medical ward, Leia with her arm around her daughter-in-law's shoulders. "It's all right," Leia was murmuring, "it's all right, it's going to be fine."

Ara, meanwhile, was staring ahead, her face pale, her body trembling, silent as Leia helped ease her into one of the beds.

"Ara?" Ben shouted, rushing up to his wife. "Ara, what's wrong? What happened?"

Ara remained silent, staring ahead at nothing, scarcely blinking.

"Sweetheart, talk to me!" shouted Ben, grabbing her limp hand. "Talk to me!"

Still she stared, giving no indication that she'd heard him.

"Ara!" Ben repeated, pressing his finger into her cheek, but still she gave no response. "What happened to her?"

"I don't know," said Leia. "I heard her screaming, but then when I got to her room, she was like this."

"She appears to be in shock," said the medical droid. "Allow me to examine her."

"Let me examine her first," said Ben. He closed his eyes, raising his hand over his wife, ignoring his mother's exclamation of "Han, what the hell happened to you?" Calling on the Force, he focused on Ara's energy flowing through her body, searching for what was wrong as he did so often with his patients.

Her heart rate was elevated, but still within normal range. Blood pressure: normal. Breathing: rapid but normal. Brain waves: normal.

Then he brought his focus to the little soul in her womb . . .

A jolt of pain and a vision in his mind's eye of a dark presence enveloping the child.

"NO!" he screamed. "NO, NO, LEAVE HER ALONE!"

Some part of him was aware that he was still in the medical ward and felt the stares from the others, but the rest of him took no notice. The real world in front of his eyes wavered and blurred, replaced by the world in his mind. The baby, his baby, squeezed by those twisted, evil hands.

"Ben? What's happening? Talk to me!"

He heard his mother, felt her arms wrap around his shaking body, but he couldn't acknowledge them. The baby was crying in his mind as clearly as if she were crying into his ear. "It's all right, sweetheart," he whispered. "Daddy's not going to let him hurt you."

"Ben?" There was Han's voice, but again he couldn't acknowledge it. "Ben, what's goin' on?"

The baby kept screaming, screaming, screaming . . .

"Her pupils are dilating normally." The medical droid shining a light in Ara's eyes seemed to come from a distant reality. "Her brain wave patterns also indicate that she is fully conscious. I cannot figure out why she is unresponsive."

Unresponsive. Behind his blinks he saw his wife desperately reaching for their child, but unable to save her. Did the dark presence have them both now? "Let them go!" Ben shouted. "Let them go NOW!"

Now Han was by his side as well, embracing his son with his good arm. "Son, what is it? Tell us!"

Again Ben couldn't respond to the embrace. He too reached out, his hand grasping at empty air, yet the child was still there, wrapped in gnarly fingers, just out of her father's reach. "No . . . it's all right . . . I've got you . . . hang on, sweetheart . . ."

"You don't have the strength to save her."

The voice. That voice. Ben's insides turned to ice. "No . . . no . . . not you . . . we got rid of you . . ."

"My boy, did you really think the choice your family made long ago wouldn't have consequences?"

"STOP IT!" His body collapsed out of his parents' arms, convulsing once it hit the floor. "You're gone, you're gone, YOU'RE GONE!"

"I offered you strength and you chose to be weak. If you had accepted my teaching, you could protect your family, but now your daughter will be mine instead."

Ben's teeth were chattering and his body was shaking as if he were lost in a blizzard. "It's me you want," he gasped, "not her."

Maybe his parents were calling his name. Maybe the medical droid was asking what was wrong with him. Maybe Ara was still staring lifelessly at nothing. Maybe there was a frenzy in the real world, but Ben couldn't grasp it. All he could grasp was the child and . . . the voice. The voice he once knew as "the Guardian of the Dark," the voice that he once thought was a secret friend inside his mind, the voice he thought – hoped – he would never hear again.

"Why would I want you now, when you've wasted all your potential on broken bones and surgeries? You're worthless now, but your daughter . . . yes, she is full of that same raw power that you once had. She will make a powerful apprentice."

"NO!"

. . .

The next thing Ben knew, his mother was slapping his face in quick, successive motions. "Ben! Wake up, wake up! Come on, WAKE UP!"

Ben slowly opened his eyes, only to squint from the ceiling lights. It took him a few moments to realize that he was still on the medical ward floor, Leia kneeling by his side and Han and the medical droid towering over him.

"What happened?" he mumbled, vaguely hoping that the whole thing was just a dream, though he knew that was a feeble hope.

"You were screamin' bloody murder at something, then you passed out," Han said, a worried look on his face, his breath uneven.

"Is Ara all right?" Ben asked.

"Mrs. Solo's condition is unchanged," said the medical droid. "Mr. Solo, do not move until I have examined you."

Ben wanted to protest, but he resisted the urge to do so. After all, he would say the same thing if he'd observed this. "Mom?" he asked as the droid kneeled by his side.

"Yes?"

"Go wake Uncle Luke. NOW!"