Last On: Ben and Rey attend a Ball, and except for a few prejudices and political commotions, they enjoy their time. Towards the end Ben and Rey take a stroll through the gardens, only their "moment" was interrupted by an assassin.

Chapter 36 - Trapped

Ben flinched when he saw Rey's eyes go wide. Before he could think of what he might have done wrong, he got an image from her mind. The image was clear, and for a second it was as if he were seeing out of her eyes. As Millard ran up behind Ben and swung his knife toward his head, Ben pulled his body to the right, avoiding the blade by mere inches. He turned around in an instant, his arm already reaching up, prepared to force-freeze Millard, when a blaster shot went off from over the hedge. Millard fell uttering only a single groan.

They could hear storm trooper boots approaching, and Ben backed closer to Rey, so she was behind him. He was glad she didn't fight him on this, instead she put her arm on his shoulder.

Ben activated his lightsaber, and prepared with his mind to use a force-push on whoever came through. In a moment two stormtroopers came around the hedge. One was a locally stationed white trooper, the other wore the Resistance's brown armor. It was Finn. Ben sighed in relief and deactivated his lightsaber, while Rey came out from behind Ben.

"There's trouble," Finn said without taking a moment to breath. "Commander Boche and his guests have taken hostages inside." It was only now that Ben realized that they were no longer hearing music playing from the palace. "It would seem they're not all as loyal defectors as they appeared. I've gotta go back in there, but I want to get you two as far away as I can get you. This is KL-1533." Finn motioned to the other stormtrooper. "He'll show you a way out."

"Shouldn't we stay to help. Rescue the hostages." Rey eyed the now quiet building nervously.

"That's what they're hoping for. Poe and I've got a plan, but it hinges on you two being safe and out of here." Ben was surprised to hear Finn break protocol to call Poe his given name. He must trust this KL-1533 a lot, then.

Ben put his arm around Rey and turned to look at the trooper in question. Finn took the opportunity to disappear behind the hedge again.

"This way, Supreme Leader, Ma'am." KL-1533 motioned them towards a small gate near the back of the property.

On the other side of the gate there was a very old road. Looking right it wound up into the nearby mountain, carving a very deep indent in it's path. They turned left, but though the road was going away from the mountain, their path was still carved deep into the ground. So deep, in fact, that in places buildings were built on top of the road, and they passed right underneath them.

"This is Withrafisp road, built to evacuate the Satrap in an emergency." Their trooper guide told them when they stopped to catch their breaths. "Is it true, sir, that troopers in your units are given real names?" As he asked his eyes dragged across the ground, though there was a twinge of hopeful energy in his voice.

"Um, yes." Ben thought the question must be from Finn's earlier reference to Poe. "Though it's still early in it's testing phases. You're ordered to keep it under wraps, for now."

"Yes Sir. Of course Sir." KL-1533 said.

"What name do you want to have?" Rey gave him a sympathetic smile.

"KL One Five Three Three is all I know, Ma'am."

"Kay ell five." Rey seemed to be mumbling under her breath, before she announced loudly. "Ooh, I know, Klive!"

"Klive, I like that." the trooper said with a brief chuckle, that was then rescinded and followed by obedient silence as he stood with his hands pulled behind his back.

"Very well then, Klive it is." Ben almost broke in a smile when the trooper looked up again. Though they could not see his face, they could feel a bright smile from Klive at the pronunciation of his new name.

"Take off your helmet then, Klive," Rey suggested.

Klive looked to Ben, who nodded his approval, before reaching up and pulling off the helmet. Underneath, Klive's head was shaved bald. He had thick eyebrows, a large nose and big fat lips that broke into a broad smile immediately on exposure to fresh air.

"Nice to meet you Klive." Rey gave him a friendly tap on the shoulder, before they continued walking.


After walking a ways, they started hearing a buzz from the helmet Klive now carried at his side. He stopped walking and rubbed his finger over a part near the bottom of the helmet. The buzz got louder till it became a female's audible voice.

"KL-8893 here, requesting backup at Satrap's Palace. I repeat, requesting backup at Satrap's Palace. Ahhhhh." The comm was cut short by her ear pitching screech.

Klive pulled his eyebrows together, and frowned as he turned to look back the way they had come.

Rey put her hand on his shoulder. "I'm sure they have it under control. Poe has a plan."

"Go." Ben waved his hand pointing back towards the palace. "I can find out way out from here. We'll head down to the lower city then go to the hanger where our ship is docked. Go, save your girlfriend."

Klive nodded and turned to run back to the palace.

"How did you know she's his girlfriend?" Rey placed her hand into Ben's as she asked.

"Ooh, I recognized that look." Ben closed his fingers around Rey's.

"I thought Finn said fraternization among stormtroopers was against regulations." The cross in her eyebrows was contradicted by the curve threatening to pull at her cheeks.

"Love can happen in surprising places," Ben teased back.

They ran the rest of the way down Winthrafisp road. When they were near its end, Ben motioned Rey to get behind him as he approached the gate. Peering thorough the bars, he saw white stormtroopers on the street outside. They seemed to be doing a sweep, searching civilians and their belongings as they went. By their rough handling of several townspeople, Ben could tell these weren't his men. Dilly had seen to it that all local troopers were trained in new, less harsh methods earlier in the week.

The troopers were about to continue past the alley he was looking out through. 'It'll be tough, but we'll have to sneak out and across a few roads from here.' Ben used their bond to share his plan with Rey.

Instead she grabbed his hand and pulled his focus behind them. 'The Uugteen,' she thinks at him. Behind Ben sees an entrance into the old catacombs. There's another gate in the wall, now dilapidated and falling off its hinges. Behind the gate is a set of stone steps going down into darkness. And then Ben sees movement behind this gate. A shell of a droid is moving across the floor, when it turns to him. Carved out of the shell there is a hole for the face of a young child. She has pale skin and no nose, but very large bright eyes. She's only there for a second before she runs to the stairs, disappearing into the darkness.

"Leia wanted us to meet the Uugteen while we were here," Rey whispered.

"But the ship. We've got to evacuate," Ben whispered back.

"There are a lot of troopers out there. Even if you could guarantee that's the last team to sweep this street, and get us to the shuttle, there's no way you can know we won't be met by an army of them in the hanger. We have to get away from the troopers, whats more away than the last place they'll go," she said this pointing to the darkness of the catacombs. Ben sighed in resignation and Rey grabbed his hand and pulled him with her.


In the pitch darkness below Ben activated his lightsaber which filled the space with a pulsing red light. They were in a tunnel, with large grooves carved into the stone walls on either side. They could hear the pitter-patter of little feet which made clear the direction they were to go.

They followed the child through what felt like a maze of tunnels. Most of these tunnels were simple stone tunnels with cavities built into them which once housed the dead. There were a few arches and walls with carvings, but as intricate as they were, Rey and Ben had no time to stop and examine them.

Their trek ended with a sharp turn in the tunnel when they saw another Uugteen near another carved archway. This Uugteen was much older than the small child they had seen earlier. Instead of the droid pieces the child wore, this old man wore a tattered brown robe woven from natural materials. There was a dim light coming from the room behind him, so Ben deactivated his lightsaber.

Rey held her arms out pacifically in front of her. "We aren't here to hurt anybody. We want to talk."

The man ran back through the archway and Ben and Rey ran to catch up with him. Behind the archway was a small room. It's walls were made from a different stone than all the others had been. Those walls were a dirty brown, while these walls were a very light grey. Neither Ben nor Rey could tell where the light was coming from. The most startling thing, however, the room was empty. On the other side of the room was another archway, and past it were more dark tunnels of the same brown stone.

Ben and Rey ran into the room, intending to go out through the second archway to continue searching for the Uugteen they just saw. When they passed under the first archway, they both stopped, looking around and at themselves.

"That felt weird," Rey said.

Ben didn't wait for long. He ran towards the other archway, where he seemed to hit an invisible wall of some sort. As Ben fell back from it he yelled from a combination of pain and frustration.

"Ben!" Rey ran to him.

Ben looked up at the walls around them. "It's a trap. Built to protect some ancient Jedi temple, probably. They only allow wielders of the light side of the force to pass through." Ben began to laugh. "When I was with Luke he found an old tablet the emperor stashed away. It said there was an ancient Jedi temple under these catacombs. Luke and I were actually preparing to come here and look for it. Only then we found a Jedi Holocron that stated it was a Sith trap here instead. The old buddy thought it must've been a legend. Wrote it off entirely. Shows you!" Ben kicked small loose stones on the floor as he yelled. "You should be able to get through though. Meditate, clear your head of the dark side, then walk through." He motioned to the archway.

"So come on then. Meditate with me. We'll do this together." Rey's voice bore her determined spirit.

Ben shook his head. "It's too late for me. I've been using the dark side far too long. It's ingrained."

Rey looked up at the archway with a pained expression on her face. "I can't just leave you here."

"We don't have any other choices." Ben looked away from her pained eyes. "Maybe beyond, in the temple, there'll be a way to shut it off." Ben doubted this very much, but he wanted her to go through, and he knew her best bet was to find the emergency exit of the temple. It likely went past the city walls and out into the jungle.

Rey turned again to look at the archway with hope. She knelt on the floor and closed her eyes. Entering a meditative state she reached down to the force within herself. She used the skills Ben taught her to still the flame to only a small flicker within. That last flicker, she had a purpose for.

When she opened her eyes, she saw Ben had sat on the floor in front of her. He sat in a meditative pose, though his eyes were open.

Rey leaned forward, catching his lips with hers. The kiss lasted longer than she planned. Ben's lips grabbed hers when hers went still, then they were off again. Rey leaned forward, on her knees to better reach Ben and she leaned her arms against his chest to support herself. When she opened her eyes and pulled back Ben had a faint smile on his face.

After she was done, she returned to her meditation. She noticed that last flame had not diminished, but grown. Though its energy did not feel dark to her, she ended its feed as she had been taught.


"Yahoo!" Anakin lept for joy from the other relm where he had been looking down on our relm.

"What's gotten into you?" Luke was startled by his father's antics.

"They kissed!" Anakin threw his body around dancing in his victory. "They kissed, they kissed, they kissed," he continued in a sing-song voice.

"Oh, you are so embarrassing. Obi Wan, where's my mom. I need a DNA test. This man can not be my father." Luke walked off, leaving Anakin to continue dancing.


Hello again,

Thank you to everyone who has been leaving reviews on my piece. I know I haven't gotten to reply to everyone, but I've been trying to.

This is the first kiss scene I've written, so if you could be so kind as to let me know what you think, I'd appreciate it. It's a rather difficult thing to write, as it turns out.

My next chapter may take some time. I want to try to finish a first chapter to my next piece before this one is done. But I already know, more or less, what's going to happen for the next two chapters. It will probably finish in two or three more chapters, we'll see.