Force Dyad
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A/N-thank you very much to everyone who kindly read and reviewed the last chapter.
Chapter Fifty-Finally Free
The fear travelled in Ben's veins but never made it to his facial muscles or skin. His complexion remained pale and matt, his eyes as steady as his heart beat as Snoke, Supreme Lead of the First Order, breached the last of his mental barriers and fully infiltrated his mind.
"You think you can beat me. Foolish boy, I warned you I cannot be betrayed. I cannot be beaten. I see into your mind. I see your every intent. You want to kill me. It cannot be done. I am stronger now than you could possibly imagine. You will fulfil your destiny…. I have seen it!"
"I am the master of my own destiny." Ben retorted desperately. His breathing turned shallow, and his eyes blurred as he bravely fought off the unwanted vision that Snoke was determined to force upon him.
Snoke snickered, his evil laughter sending chills down Ben's spine. "I have seen it." He repeated again, enunciating each word slowly. "And now so will you. Embrace your future, young Solo. Become the man you were always meant to be…."
Ben had thought himself awake but he couldn't be. This was a nightmare of sorts, more vicious than most he'd ever had, more lucid. His reality distorted and he was confronted with the monster others had always perceived him to be….
"What is the truth, my friend? What is your true name?" Snoke's insidious voice ricocheted around inside his mind. "You will need to own it. It is the way of the dark side. When we embrace it fully, we become our truest selves."
"I am Ben Solo." Ben yelled into the void.
"Wrong!" Snoke thundered in response. "I need more from you. I need you to find your true power. Your true potential."
"I am Ben Solo." Ben said again, his fists clenched and his eyes squeezed shut in silent agony.
"Wrong again!" Snoke roared. "Rise above what's holding you back. Strike. Strike against the light side that is within you."
Ben experienced a vison of Skywalker, saying that he didn't want to fight him. Ben heard an echo of his own voice retorting that he didn't care and ignited his lightsaber. A short duel ensued between the two, Ben was able to kill the vision of his uncle, by utilising the anger festering inside of him toward Skywalker.
Ben flinched in silent agony. It was time to get out of this strange reality before it broke him. Ben tried to command his eyes to open but they remained firmly shut. Every tiny movement was costing more energy than it should, like someone just turned gravity the wrong way up.
But the vision had only just begun…
Ben experienced another vision, this time of his parents, begging him to stop. He heard himself bellowing that Ben wasn't his name, Kylo Ren was. He heard his mother's voice, insisting that Ben was his true name and that he was still their child, whom they loved.
"I'm Ben Solo." Ben cried resolutely.
Snoke appeared from the shadows of his nightmarish visions, revealing himself in all his hideous glory. Snoke's elongated face was pale, with heavily scarred skin, and pale blue eyes. In Ben's mind, he appeared exceptionally large, standing over seven feet in height. Nevertheless, Snoke didn't need his size to intimidate, the mere sight of his appearance was terrifying enough. He sported a large scar from the top of his head, all the way down to his brow. A scar or burn on his right cheek caused his mouth to be contorted. Snoke's left zygoma was malformed. His twisted build and extensive scarring confounded Ben's valiant attempts to identify his species. This, this twisted, narcissistic individual was the monster that had been trying to groom him all this time and he had so nearly given into it…if not for Rey…. his light.
"Come, Kylo Ren." Snoke coaxed. "It is time to embrace your true name. It is time for you to see yourself as you truly are…."
Ben's heart was pounding fit to burst and his limbs flexed in shock as the vision turned to one of death as his alter ego, Kylo Ren, swept into view: clothed all in black, his face hidden beneath an intimidating mask, Kylo Ren and his bunch of masked marauders were killing many people.
Then the vision shifted and Ben found himself transported to the middle of a snowy forest, where he saw Kylo Ren ignite his unique cross-guarded saber, the fiery red blade humming like an angry swarm of insects. Ben watched as Kylo stalked toward a terrified young woman whose face was hidden in shadow. She was clothed in the rags of a scavenger. Kylo had frozen her in place using the Force and was now striding toward her purposefully. It was only when he moved his weapon toward the young woman, the red blade casting a sickly crimson glow across her pale skin, that her face was revealed to Ben.
It was Rey.
Not his Rey.
Another version of her.
A scavenger.
Just like Kylo Ren was another version of him.
This was not his reality. This was Snoke's version of it. The one the brutal tyrant had held onto all these years, believing in his arrogance that it would always come to fruition. Only the cunning and cruel darksider's will had been thwarted when the Force, in its infinite wisdom, had drawn him and Rey together so much earlier, in a way that Snoke could never have predicted, and set things on an alternate course.
"Be with me!"
From far away Ben could hear Rey's gentle voice calling him home. The nightmarish vision of Kylo Ren melted away and Ben was left looking up at Snoke's twisted visage. "I am Ben Solo." He said loudly, firmly embracing his true name. "And you have no power over me, Snoke. I warn you, when we next encounter each other, I will kill you."
Snoke's terrifying form melted back into the shadows as Ben found the will to finally eject the monstrous individual from his head forever. Powerful light eclipsed the powerful dark and he found he was finally able to open his eyes. The first thing to greet him was the sight of Rey's lovely face hovering over him. Her hazel eyes were the softest brown infused with green, as if she held the new spring growth inside. They were the forest floor and the gentle flowers, somewhere to rest and breathe. Her hands were resting gently on either side of his head.
"Hi." Ben's voice sounded husky with disuse.
"Hey." Rey answered shakily.
"I heard you calling."
"I was scared, Ben. I thought I wasn't going to be able to reach you this time." A lone tear streaked down her face.
Ben reached up and lightly traced its path down the curve of her cheek with his forefinger. Rey's breathing hitched slightly as he captured the droplet on the pad of his finger, the tiny teardrop glistening like a small jewel in the weak light. "I was scared, too."
"I saw him in your mind, Ben."
"Saw who?" Ben's warm brown eyes flicked to hers again anxiously. Had she shared his vision? Had she seen Kylo Ren? His throat tightened and the lone tear suspended on the edge of his finger splattered to the floor.
"That hideous, twisted monster…." Rey faltered.
She was talking about Snoke. Ben breathed a sigh of relief. He wished he could banish the image of Kylo Ren threatening the alternate version of her with his saber from his mind, but he knew it would be ingrained there forever, a timely reminder of what could have been.
"Why did you never say anything about him?"
"I couldn't. You were so young…and I wanted to protect you."
"I'm older now. I can protect myself." Rey replied testily.
"I know." Ben managed a weak smile as he pulled himself into a sitting position. He was surprised to see he was still in his quarters. He wondered how much time had actually passed. He felt as weak as a kitten. His throat burned, a sign of how thirsty he was. "How long have I been out of it?"
"I don't know." Rey unconsciously bit her lip. She barely remembered the fraught journey back to the base from Kashyyyk. In her desperation to reach Ben as quickly as possible, she had sabotaged the Falcon's propulsion system, causing an energy flux in the hyperdrive motivator resulting in a fuel backup. Han and Chewie had been forced to leave her in the cockpit to pilot the Falcon alone while they hurriedly tried to fix the problem. It meant that Rey now had total command of the ship, which had been her intention all along. Sealing the doors to the cockpit so Han and Chewie wouldn't be able to get back in to stop any reckless manoeuvres on her part, Rey had pushed the Millennium Falcon to her limits, nearly breaking the ship apart as she resorted to hyperspace skipping, also known as lightspeed skipping, a technique that could be used to quickly jump to hyperspace in a starship. However, hyperspace skipping was dangerous, and could put undue stress on the ship, as well as place it in a dangerous location when it exited lightspeed.
It was a technique she had heard Poe Dameron boast of on several occasions. Rey hadn't believed it was actually possible, believing the hot shot pilot was exaggerating his prowess. But desperate times called for desperate measures. She was just lucky her gamble had paid off. She just hoped that Han and Chewie would forgive her for her stupidity once they learned the truth.
Ben saw Rey worrying her lower lip with her top teeth. She was radiating anxiety and guilt. It suddenly occurred to him to wonder how she had managed to get back to his side so quickly. "Rey, what did you do?" He asked.
"Nothing you wouldn't have done if the tables were turned." Rey muttered. "I'm sure Han and Chewie will…"
"Chewie's here?" Ben exclaimed in shock, unintentionally interrupting her.
Rey groaned in disbelief that she had let that secret slip. "It was supposed to be a surprise for your birthday." She said in defeat. "I've ruined that now. Just like everything else."
"That's why you didn't want me to come?" Ben felt his heart sink as he realised what a fool he'd been. He had let his hurt at her perceived rejection cloud his judgement and it had nearly ended in disaster.
"It was Han's idea. I wasn't comfortable about keeping it a secret, but I liked the idea of the surprise. I'm sorry, Ben." Rey apologised.
"Don't you say sorry. This is my fault. All of it." Ben responded bleakly.
A stillness fell between them as they both reflected on what had happened. Ben felt much calmer now that he was free from the chokehold of Snoke's evil influence. His thoughts were finally his own. In a way he was glad it had all happened; it may have been brutal but the mental confrontation with Snoke had been a long time coming. He had stood firm and reclaimed who he was. The Supreme Leader would never be able to manipulate him again. He sat opposite Rey, their knees touching slightly, both letting their bodies unwind and letting their thoughts flow free.
Rey was the first to speak. "You need to tell them, Ben." She said earnestly, raising her eyes to his. "You need to tell your parents about Snoke."
A/N-thanks for reading! Please review.
