The battle had turned brutal. What started as a small mission to interrogate a village had turned into all-out war. I had been across the village from Kylo but I felt the shift in the force before the first blaster shot streaked across the sky. I pulled my blaster out and fired back, using the force to help guide the shot at the intended target.

"Commander! Follow us! We will get you to Lord Ren!"

I fired off a few more shots before running with the storm troopers towards Kylo's force signature. I glanced to my side as I saw one fall to the ground. I hesitated but I could feel his life force was gone. I didn't have time to recognize my men were dying. I couldn't afford it.

We turned the corner and two more troopers dropped in front of me. I fired back and we moved forward. I could see Kylo fighting with his saber and using the force to stop the blaster shots. He fired back a slew of shots and my ears were met with the shrieking of whoever he hit. He turned his head towards me, his mask hiding his face from everyone.

"Now is the time to choose, Commander. You either worry about your troops or you worry about yourself."

I looked at him and fired off a few shots before he grabbed my wrist.

"You won't survive this without the force."

I looked up at him and wrestled with my own mind. I had trained hard to become a Commander. I was given this chance to lead and the troopers were counting on me. From the corner of my eyes I saw a few more fall in the battle. My eyes shifted slightly as someone was running up on Kylo trying to get him by surprise.

"This isn't the time to second guess yourself, Aurora. Now choose." He hissed.

I snatched my saber from my waist and ignited it. I lunged forward bringing myself incredibly close to Kylo. One of his arms wrapped around my waist and pulled me closer as my saber pierced through the fighter coming at his back. His other arm came up, blocking my view as I felt him stop blaster shots at my back.

"I knew you'd come back to me."

The moment felt tender even with the world blowing up around us. It felt endless as we were pressed against each other. I looked up into his helm and could feel the intensity of his stare. The saber thrummed in my hand as the power flowed through me. Regardless of anything Hux wanted, fighting by Kylo's side felt right.

"Are you ready?"

I nodded and he spun me outward, letting me slice through more of the enemy. The small voice in my head telling me to stop killing was drown out by my adrenaline. Kylo and I danced around each other as we fought. We didn't need to see each other to know where we were or what to do. Our connection and familiarity with each other made us unstoppable.

They didn't stand a chance.

As they brought in more troops explosions and screams rang out around us. I found myself lost in the flow of the force and exhilaration of battle. I had gone from the clumsy Jedi padawan to a powerful force user wielding the darkness that had always followed me. Kylo and I had trained together for most of my life, but it had never been like this. It was effortless. It was easy.

Two x-wings flew close above our heads, but I anticipated them coming. Kylo moved forward so our backs were together as he used the force to protect me from shots screaming through the air. I reached my left hand up in the air and shot lightning into the two ships. They paused then exploded, raining down fire and sparks around us. I took a moment to look up at it in awe. I had always felt so weak but with even just one hand the darkness enabled me to do so much.

This allowed for a break in the battle as transport ships for the First Order landed on the edge of the village. Kylo and I both noticed them and started running towards their location. We still deflected the shots coming at us and taking down anyone in our way. Kylo jumped, using the force, into the first one and turned around with an outstretched hand. I looked behind me and saw that there were still troopers fighting.

"You go! I'll take the next one!"

"Aurora!"

I sprinted back to the battle and helped what few troopers were left. One of the men had his blaster shot so I tossed him mine without a thought. It flashed through my head that Kylo had told me to choose. I did, but I knew he wouldn't be thrilled I also chose to help the men that looked to me for guidance. I saw a break in the fighting and yelled for my men to run back to the sole transport shuttle. I deflected stray shots as they retreated and helped each other into the shuttle. It started raising off the ground quickly, so I used the force to propel myself upwards as I jumped. I was able to grab onto the shuttle ramp with my hand, though just barely. Before I could pull myself up, a gloved hand shot out to help me up.

"Commander."

I looked up and smiled at Hux. He was looking down at me with a small smirk on his face. I beamed up at him and went to throw my arms around his neck but he stopped me, glaring at my hand.

"What is that?"

I looked down and realized I still had the saber in my hand. His hand shot up and took my wrist, looking at it with pure disgust. His other hand grabbed at where my blaster should be, and he snarled when he realized I no longer had it.

"How dare you lead my troops with such disrespect for myself!"

"No! Hux, it isn't like that!"

"He has poisonedyou. After all that work I put into you! You were NOTHING and yet I did everything I could to teach you!"

"No I-"

His hand let go of my blaster holder and gripped my chin roughly, forcing me to look directly at him.

"It's such a damn shame that you let him into your head like this. I warned you that I get what I want. If I can't have you, no one can."

Before I could try to explain myself again, he shoved me backwards violently. I tried desperately to reach out to him in the force as I fell backwards, but I couldn't feel him. The connection that had been there between us was gone. The precious moments that I scrambled to connect with him stopped me from using the force to lessen my impact with the ground.

I screamed out as I felt my hip shatter and my ribs snap from the pressure. I clung to my saber trying to stop the pain from overwhelming me. My eyes went in and out of focus from the impact of my head meeting the hard ground. I struggled to breathe as I watched the transport shuttle leave me behind.

"Don't move!"

I wanted to snap at them that there was no way to move even if I wanted to. I wanted to fight and take all of them down. I wanted to scream for Kylo. Instead I just laid there clenching my teeth trying not to scream out in pain again.

"Is that the Commander?"

"No, it can't be. She has a lightsaber!"

"A lightsaber? Are you sure? Call Poe. Tell him we found her. That's got to be her!"

"Found who?"

"Aurora. Tell him and the General we found Aurora!"

I tried to pull myself up off the ground but screamed out again in pain. I was panicking. I couldn't let them take me. I snarled when two gentle hands were placed on my shoulders.

"Don't move! You have to be in some serious pain. It's okay now. You're safe."

Before I could fight back a sharp pain hit my neck and I started to feel weak.

"I gave you some pain medication. It should knock you out so we can get you to medical."

The last moments I was awake I spent trying to will myself to run. I couldn't let the Resistance take me. I needed to get back to Kylo. I needed to find Snoke. I needed to make Hux pay.

I felt like I was floating. It wasn't a heavenly feeling or even a comfortable one. I was stuck in never ending darkness and pain. I couldn't tell you exactly what hurt but every part of my soul felt like agony. My mind tried to wrap around what was happening, but nothing was clear. I could almost make out sounds and voices but just as I started to cling to the words they were ripped away. I felt so utterly alone.

It felt like I had been floating, abandoned, for an eternity. There was nothing to grasp onto. No one around to center me. I wanted to remember something.

Anything.

There was a nagging presence in my mind that I needed to remember. I needed to hold onto my thoughts because there was something was something I needed to do in response to this pain. There was a reason I was feeling the way I was, but I just couldn't remember why.

Frustration started to grow but I had no outlet for it. Nothing felt real except for the darkness. The more my frustration and pain grew, the more I noticed it wasn't just darkness around me. There was a thread swirling and twisting around me. I focused in on it and saw it was a deep red. It reminded me of blood.

Blood was real.

I watched it swirl and twist in intricate patterns. The more I focused the more I could see it. It pulsed, ebbing and flowing, with my pain. I felt like my soul was following it further and further into the darkness. I couldn't feel a physical form that I had but I could feel the dark. The red forcearound me pulled me deeper and deeper.

It was like a single moment and an eternity that I was pulled deep into the dark. It started to feel more familiar allowing me to let go of my fear and the nagging voice telling me to just rememberhow I ended up where I was. The pain felt like I had always lived with it. It felt like home.

Embrace the darkness, child. You can feel it now. It isn't something to fear. It is something to control. Use it. Let it become one with you.

The voice sounded so familiar to me, but my mind couldn't focus. Everything was so dark but even with the pain, it felt so comforting. I didn't have to think. I only needed to exist, if I was existing at all. Nothing mattered, just that dark red swirling around me.

It occurred to me that I should be fighting. I should be trying to figure out what was wrong. But nothing feltwrong. Pain was relative to feeling your body and I had no idea if I even had one anymore.

My mind flashed to the stories of the in-between. Force users would go to an in-between state that they were not alive but not truly dead either. The World Between Worlds. Eventually they could move back to the living plane if they held enough light. I wasn't seeing light though. I only saw darkness. Was I dead?

No, I was sure that I wouldn't be feeling so much pain if I were truly dead.

Flashes of a youthful face with ginger red hair flashed through my mind. It brought my focus from the dark to wondering about his face. Blue eyes and smiles. Soft touches and pleasure. There was a feeling of belonging and kinship. I felt protected and cared for. The darkness around me started to fade into light. The pain was still there but I was able to focus on more. I kept coming back to blue eyes and warmth. The red swirling started to drift away from me the more I focused on the warm feelings.

You're letting go of what is important! Love means nothing, girl! No one has loved you. No one has ever put you first. Hold onto the darkness because it is the ONLY thing that will EVER truly be there for you!

All of it started to shift to unease and conflict. Blue eyes turned angry and then I felt like I was falling. The further I fell, the darker everything became. I was slammed with the pain again as red swirled around me. I cried out but my voice was swallowed up by the darkness around me. I felt like I was drowning as flashes of unease and betrayal flitted through my mind.

That's it! Remember!

I couldn't stop the racing thoughts. No. I guess they were memories. A cold table. Searing pain. Broken bones. Fear. Not fear, terror. Feeling the force but it just seemed muted and manipulated. Connections. Bonds. Infatuation. Wanting to belong so badly ithurt.

I cried out asking the voice in my head to make it stop. I screamed for it all to stop.

No. Listen to it. Feel it.

Memories of killing flooded my mind. Endless faces and eyes. A surge of power would hit me, and the light would leave the eyes. None of them meant anything to me. None of it meant anything to me but the power.

Power properly manipulated, child. Let your mind shift to the darkness around you. You have held onto the light for so long, Aurora. You look for it in everyone around you but find the truth. Let your mind find the truth. Stop running from it.

The darkness faded to a scene that seemed so familiar. The field was on fire and it burned my lungs. I started to remember this vision I had before. This time my hand was no longer mangled but metal and the sabre I held was the one Kylo and I had repaired. My side felt like it was on fire. The pain was so much more real to me this time. My body was in agony. The further I walked the more it hurt, but I needed to keep going. My feet carried me forward even though I wanted nothing more than to collapse.

"You made it back to us, Rorie."

My eyes met Leia. She was smiling but it didn't meet her eyes. It made her look feral.

"Now you can turn your back on the darkness for good, Aurora. It isn't something to find peace in. It will destroy you."

Luke lacked the compassion that I remembered his voice always having. He looked every bit the monster that Kylo saw him as.

"We finally got you away from them. You'll see that this is better."

Finn looked robotic when he spoke. It wasn't genuine but almost rehearsed. Brain washed.

"Now you can pay for the crimes you've committed, murderer."

I snarled at the pilot.

"And how many have you killed? All of you! None of you are innocent. You've all murdered to get your own way. None of you can act like you're any better."

"What has the First Order ever done for you?"

I was so focused on Leia that I didn't feel anyone behind me. I wanted to scream at her. The First Order had saved me. Snoke gave me the very life I had in every way possible. She had let her own brother try to kill her son. I had been killed in the aftermath and she had the audacity to speak against me.

"Go ahead, sweet girl. Tell them just how much we have given you."

Hux's voice rang through the air as a gloved hand wrapped around my throat. I was pulled backwards so my back was flush with his chest. His other arm wrapped tightly around my waist, effectively trapping me.

"Go ahead and tell them how you tried to cling to the light while Ren and I destroyed you. Tell them how you begged for me and wore the First Order insignia against them. Tell them!"

I tried to pull away from him. I wanted to face him. I wanted to ask him why he was being so cruel to me. We were bonded right?

"You're still so blinded by the force. We were never bonded, Aurora."

"Force bonds don't happen between force users and non-force users."

I heard Kylo behind us and Hux chuckled darkly.

"That's right. Even I know that. You played right into it. You fell for it. All of it."

His hand tightened on my throat making it even harder to breathe.

"I just wanted to control you. I needed you obedient. My obedient little slave girl."

Hux and Kylo both chuckled at the same time. Leia and Luke looked disgusted.

"I told you what would happen the moment you weren't useful anymore. I never lied to you, but you were so easy to manipulate. You're so broken that all I had to do was show you a little attention."

"You said I wasn't broken."

My voice was weak between the constricted air and the heartbreak slamming through me.

"No, I said Ren didn't break you. He did lay the foundation for me though. You hold onto ideas of love and light. You just want to be loved right? Leia and Luke failed you. Ben failed you. Ren was incapable of loving you. Can you fault me for monopolizing on that? Oh, and how much fun it was to twist you around my fingers. I plucked you like a string."

"Was I every anything more than a joke?"

"Yes. You were a tool. A useless one now."

His arm unwrapped from my waist and snatched my saber from me. Before I could react, it was running through my chest. I cried out and fell to my knees, the feeling of the hot blade far too familiar. He tossed the saber at my feet and kicked my back, knocking me onto my hands.

"I warned you. I warned you from the beginning. Do you still find me that much less cruel than Ren?"

I heard his footsteps as he walked away from me, leaving me bleeding and in agony in front of Leia. She walked forward and knelt down in front of me. She gently put her hand on my face, helping me backwards onto my knees again.

"You should have never given into them."

"They would have killed me."

"And now I have to."

She stood back up and the pilot walked over, slapping binders onto my wrists. With a wave of Lukes hand, everything went black. I was back in the darkness with the red thread around me.

Do you see now? The light will only bring you pain. Embrace the darkness. Embrace the true power.

Without me being able to pinpoint my body it was impossible to form words. I wanted to ask the voice what to do next. Not just a voice, Snoke. It was Snoke leading me through the darkness.

Find your way back to me through the darkness. Then your life can truly begin.