A/N: Hi everybody! Sorry it's been a minute since I've posted. This summer kind of got away from me, but I am officially back:) I hope you all are doing well and staying healthy and have had a fantastic few months! I also have some good news: part of the reason I've been out of action for so long is that I've been trying to get the last few chapters (basically all of Act 3 or whatever) of this story ironed out. I didn't want to post anything for fear that I would write myself into a corner and I'd have to go back and fix a lot. (I still had to go back and fix a few things anyway, so chapters 23 and 24 are very, very slightly different). That being said, I finally have gotten everything straightened out and I am tentatively planning on posting a chapter every day until this story is complete (approximately 6-7 chapters if I'm counting right XD). Thank you all for being so patient and for continuing to read/review/follow/favorite, and a big thank you (as always) to FenrisInside and Leona2016.

Alrighty then. Without further ado, here's chapter 52 at long last! I hope you all enjoy it:)

-Emmeth

"He is mine."

Ben whirled to come face to face with a figure cloaked and hooded in dark robes. He startled backward, tripping to sprawl across stone. His head cracked against something hard on the way down, and his ears rang with the impact. He rolled over to see what he'd struck, only to find himself kneeling at the foot of a great throne, staring up at the halo of stone spines radiating out from it.

Without warning, a hand grasped the back of his neck. Ben struggled against the freezing grip, trying to free himself, but the hand squeezed tighter, pushing him down until his face was pressed to the cold stone of the floor.

"They will both be mine," hissed a voice in his ear; fetid breath washing against his cheek. "What hope do you have against me, my young apprentice?"

Ben writhed, palms flat against the ground as he fought to push himself upright. But it was all in vain. The hand simply curled a little tighter around his neck, nails digging into his skin until he felt warm blood welling up around them.

"Pathetic," scoffed the voice. "You were always weak. Disappointing."

"I killed you, didn't I?" Ben asked, barely able to form the words around the knot of terror in his throat.

There was a harsh, maniacal cackle of laughter and the pressure of the hand on his neck lessened by a fraction. Ben used the moment to push himself onto his hands and knees and scramble away from his old master, his hand going to his belt for his saber.

"Do you think I was so blind that I couldn't see your thoughts?" Sidious asked, pale eyes shining beneath his hood.

"I-"

"Fool," Sidious laughed. "You can hide nothing from me. I know all that you think you are strong enough to conceal from me. I saw my death in your eyes the moment your plan was birthed in your mind. I know of the ships and the children you and your knights are so careful to guard. I would have killed them, but leverage is leverage, and you forged the blade that kept you in check. I simply had to hold the sharp edge against your throat."

Anger gave him courage, and Ben grasped the hilt of his saber in a fierce grip, pulling it from its sheath and igniting the blade in one smooth motion so that it hovered inches from Sidious' face. A slow, cruel smile curved the man's lips, and he let out a low chuckle that sent fear coiling like a snake in Ben's stomach.

"I am coming, Kylo Ren, and you, least of my apprentices, will not stop me."

Ben lurched out of the nightmare to a darkness that was almost as deep. He sat up with a gasp, cold to his bones and clammy with sweat. Beside him, Rey lay stretched on her side under the blankets, unmoving except for the rise and fall of her chest. She didn't stir as he dragged in several deep breaths, waiting for his heart to slow.

He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck, feeling the ghost of Sidious' fingers curving around his spine. Fear stirred in him again, and he shuddered, pushing back the blankets to edge himself around Rey's still form to the side of the bed. She rolled over as he stood up, only half awake as she squinted up at him.

"Ben?" she mumbled, "Where…?"

"I'm just going to check on Col," he said, leaning down to kiss her. "Go back to sleep."

But her eyes had already flickered closed again, and her breathing had shifted back into the long slow breaths of a sleeper. Ben gazed down at her for a long moment before creeping across the room to where Col lay nestled in a small shipping crate that served as his cradle. The dark hair that Rey insisted was like Ben's own stuck up at odd angles; the little brow so often furrowed as if in thought now smooth in the depths of his sleep. Col stirred, then settled again with a sigh, his fingers flaring once before curling back into fists. A smile tugged at the corners of Ben's mouth and he knelt beside the sleeping boy, reaching out to run a finger over his cheek.

He froze as his skin prickled, a sudden chill running over him. There was a pain at the base of his skull that reminded him of the pain of Sidious' grip, and something warm trickled down his back. He raised a hand to the place, pulling it away again to find blood on his fingertips. Even as he watched, the scarlet stain spread until it was running down his fingers to coat his palms and wrists. The copper smell of it pervaded the air, growing stronger and stronger until Ben was gagging on it.

"He is mine."

Ben turned his head to see the shadowed form of his dreams, the dark hood hiding the face but unable to conceal the greedy way Sidious was gazing into the cradle. Ben struggled against the grip, stretching out his hand. His saber flew across the room and he snatched it from the air, igniting the blade and swinging it in a wild arc at the arm of his foe.

Even as he struck, the grip on Ben's neck vanished and Sidious' form melted away into the air, a low chuckle rumbling in his ears. Ben flinched and blinked, turning his hands back to front before his eyes. His skin was clean. The smell of blood had disappeared with Sidious. The voice was gone, but the echo remained.

He is mine.

The red glow of his crackling saber cast the room in an eerie light, stirring the shadows so that Ben kept imagining that he saw Sidious' cloaked silhouette creeping about the room. He pressed his thumb over the ignition switch and the darkness descended once more to blind him. As his eyes adjusted, Ben found himself staring down at his son; the boy seemingly untroubled by the phantom that had visited his father. The boy that Sidious wanted to devour.

"I won't let you," Ben hissed into the darkness.

There was no answer, but Ben couldn't help but remember the cold laughter of his dreams. Restless, and knowing he wouldn't be able to go back to sleep, he began to pace the room. His mind spun with his thoughts and fears, an idea he'd been pushing away for the last few days growing louder and louder.

He had managed to attach one of the wayfinders to the Silencer's navigational system, calibrating it until the ship had finally accepted the grafted technology. That had been two days ago. Two days ago, when his promise to Rey still held him in check. But the dreams had pressed closer since then, bridging too often into waking life now for him to pretend that they were just the products of his own fear.

Sidious was coming.

Ben glanced over his shoulder to the bed. Rey hadn't moved. She was so tired; worn down by the months of searching for the wayfinders and the unending fear. And there was now the utter exhaustion of a mother as well; Col's wails of hunger waking her every few hours. How long would she be able to stand against Sidious?

He looked back to Col, thinking of the rusted shell of the AT-AT on Jakku and the thousands of silver scratches along the walls. An orphan. He knew that if both he and Rey fell, his knights would care for Col. But how long would they be able to hold out against Sidious? In the end, they would fall, and Sidious would stride through the carnage to claim Col. But if Ben went alone…

"They might have a chance," he murmured.

Rey could not go with him. There was simply too much at risk and Ben had the best chance between the two of them. He knew Sidious as only an apprentice could; the strengths and weaknesses of the man he'd called his master. The chinks in his armor. There weren't many, but Ben knew of one that might be his destruction; Sidious was arrogant. Ben could only hope that it would make him careless. What more could he hope for when his old master held every advantage?

His mind made up, he closed his eyes and let Rey's peace wash through him as he tried to find his courage. Where he was going, he would need every last shred he could gather. At his feet, Col made a soft sound and began to suck on a fist in his sleep. Ben knelt, running his fingers lightly over the boy's face, trying to memorize his tiny features.

He stood again and crossed to Rey's side, crouching at the edge of the bed to press his lips gently against her forehead, inhaling the scent of her hair for what he was afraid would be the last time.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

He stayed there a moment longer, wishing with everything in him that he didn't have to go, before he rose and strode to the doorway. With nothing more than a backwards glance, he slipped into the corridor beyond, his face set in determination and his mind bent on Exegol.

...

The cockpit of the Silencer looked as if it had been bathed in blood. The red light coming through the viewport seemed thick and sluggish, even as the TIE darted among the clouds of dust and gas that formed the red nebula. Ben kept his eyes fixed ahead of him, using the chirps and beeps of the navigational system to guide him. He was flying all but blind now, relying on his instruments to show him the path to Exegol.

And, as suddenly as it had enveloped him, the red light was gone. He shot out of the nebula into the darkness of space, trailing dust. Before him, a planet had appeared as though from nowhere. It was dark; thick clouds obscuring its surface so that Ben could make out nothing of what lay beneath. Blue-white lights flickered up from the depths, and Ben realized that he was going to have to pass through a storm.

Easing the yoke forward, he accelerated as the drag of Exegol's atmosphere began to slow the Silencer, using the pull of gravity to orient him. Lightning flashed next to his wing and Ben rolled the TIE out of the way, a rising shriek reverberating through the cockpit as the ship cut through the air. The comm crackled at his elbow, static electricity building up on the steel. Ben cursed, hoping it wouldn't fry the electronics.

The thought had only just crossed his mind when the navigational system began to blare out a proximity alert. Ben barely had time to jerk on the steering yoke when something dark and angular loomed up from the clouds. The Silencer was past it in another second, spinning away to continue its plunge. Ben spun in his seat, trying to get another look even though he knew it was already gone.

That looked like a ship!

Another warning began to sound from the computer and Ben whirled to face the viewport. In that moment, the TIE punched through the clouds and he got his first view of the surface. A surface that was approaching far more quickly than he'd calculated. Ben glanced at the flight computer and sent a few choice curses in its direction as he hauled back on the yoke.

The Silencer slowed, leveling out above the barren landscape. The ground blurred beneath him as he followed a course now set not by the wayfinder, but by his instincts. Ahead of him in the distance, he could see an oddly shaped structure rising above the plain; a pyramid without its apex, inverted so its base rose high into the air. A chill ran through him when he looked at it, raising the hair on his neck. Something about it seemed familiar and pulled at memories that he couldn't manage to bring to the surface. It drew him like the holocron drew him. Like the dark side. If Sidious was anywhere, he would be there.

Ben edged back on the throttle as he approached the strange monolith, sending the Silencer into a gentle glide to ease the ship into a landing. The engines died with a whine and he unbelted himself to climb through the hatch and out onto the wing, sliding down the side of the TIE until his boots struck the ground.

He gazed around him, with one hand on the hilt of his lightsaber. Exegol was even more desolate than it had seemed from inside the Silencer. Though above him lightning branched across the sky, there was no rain falling, nor was the scent of it carried on the gusting wind. Dust blew in great clouds over cracked earth that was gray from lack of water. It was a lonely place. Deserted.

And yet he could sense the currents of the Force that churned and seethed around him, their very movement a betrayal of a strength he could feel, but not yet see. There was a familiar presence here. One he knew all too well.

"Sidious," he hissed.

The unexpected cracking and rumbling of breaking stone propelled his heart into a frantic rhythm until he could feel it hammering against his ribs. The ground trembled under his feet and he spun just in time to see a distant section of the earth heaving upwards as if a mountain were being formed all in a moment. Rock split and tumbled outward and Ben's blood ran cold when he caught a glimpse of the monstrosity beneath.

A great starship was rising through Exegol's shattered surface, its hull glittering with the reflection of the lightning. Smaller ships swarmed around it like flies and Ben could feel the thrum of the great engines in his chest even from such a distance. He watched the slow ascension of the destroyer, marking its every feature. It was nearly twice the size of the Finalizer, but Ben immediately saw the likeness to the battleships the Empire had deployed during the days of the Galactic Civil War. But instead of the six spoked wheel of the Imperial crest, or the many rayed sun of the First Order, this ship was emblazoned with an emblem Ben had never seen before: a thin circle of blood red, overlaid with a strange angular shape of the same color. He craned his neck to keep it in sight as it rose higher and higher, its shape fading into the darkness. Still he watched, a dread he did not understand twisting his gut until it cramped. Still he waited.

A bolt of lightning split the sky above him and Ben's thundering heart seemed to stop beating. In the bright flashes of illumination his eyes caught glimpses of shadows. Dark shadows against the clouds. Ships. Hundreds of ships hovering like carrion birds. So, this was where the resources funneled from the First Order had gone. To build a secret armada. It didn't take long to guess the purpose for which it had been constructed. Even if he hadn't come to Exegol, his brief time as Supreme Leader was at an end.

Sidious was coming.

Ben tore his eyes from the sight, scrambling back into the cockpit and flicking the switch for the comm. There was a sharp buzz, then static.

"Please," he whispered. "Please, she won't know this is coming…"

He flicked the switch again. Nothing. Ben swore softly, striking the dead electronics array with a fist, his panicked thoughts flying to Rey and Col. He couldn't go back and warn his own fleet- not when the Silencer had most likely raised an alert on every single one of those ships holding vigil above him. There was nothing he could do now but what he had come to do and pray that it would be enough to stay the attack. Climbing out of the TIE once again, he stood gazing at the dark structure before him. He had come this far, and yet the last steps before he passed into the shadows were the hardest of his life.

"Help me, grandfather."

One step. Ten. Then one hundred and he could sense the weight of black stone pressing down on him, though it hovered half a dozen meters above his head. It wasn't until a flash of lightning cut through the darkness that he realized that there were no support pillars. The edifice was simply floating above the surface of Exegol, held suspended by the dark side. He tried not to think of the power required for such a task.

His stride lengthened as he went on, though his courage still wavered, and he soon found himself standing in the middle of a patch of bare rock. By some unknown phenomenon, the wind had swept away the dust; pushing it outward until the stone beneath was visible. Ben could feel the swirling air currents lifting the hair on his forehead and tangling his cloak around his legs. At his feet, a deep crack had been carved into the ground in the shape of a large octagon. A door.

Taking his saber in one hand, Ben stretched out his other and gave a gentle push against the Force. There was the grating of stone on stone and he nearly stumbled as the ground lurched beneath him. The platform began to sink into the earth, carrying him along with it. Ben watched the rim of the world slide away above his head while the darkness around him grew. Even underground, the blue green flashes of lightning still flickered; the ever-present dust collecting energy on the shifting drafts to release it again in violent bursts of light.

It was in those brief moments of brightness that he first saw the statues. They stood in a half circle, carved from the rock walls that rose up around him. They were many times the height of a man, with heavy hoods drawn well over their faces and robes that fell to the ground. Ben shrank back from the edge of the platform, retreating to its center under the weight of those empty eyes. He recognized the carven forms from his studies: Felkor, with his one gnarled hand wrapped around the stone hilt of a lightsaber, Mindran, Naga Sadow. And there were more, all of them overshadowing the wide hall that stretched away into darkness. Vitiate, whose stone expression was cold and proud in the dim light, Andeddu, his cheeks sunken and his features skeletal, Nihilus, Bane, Desolous, Noctyss, with the deformed creature Sanguis at her feet, Freedon Nadd, Locphet, Exar Kun, Sissiri. He could name them all.

The platform shuddered as it came to a halt and Ben crept forward under the impassive eyes, feeling them on the back of his neck. He clutched his lightsaber harder, fighting down the raw terror threatening to engulf him. The air grew colder around him, the chill of it an almost living thing. A hungry animal that gnawed at him until his bones crusted with ice and every breath seemed an agony. It had been a long time since he'd been this afraid. Not since he'd first met Sidious, though the Sith had then been hidden under the guise of Snoke.

A bitter current of air rushed past him, piercing him with its cold, and Ben thought it carried a faint chuckle. His head whipped toward the noise and he ignited his saber in a burst of red light that drove the shadows back in a wide circle around him. He turned, eyes sweeping over the ancient stone of the walls, searching for the source of the sound.

At last…

The whisper hissed around him with the dust that shifted at his boots. Ben went still, straining his ears against the silence. He waited like that for a long minute, to no avail. The voice was gone. With a hesitant step Ben began to move again.

He began to see a faint light ahead of him, shining from between two statues. He edged forward, picking his way over a crack that opened before his feet, until he could peer around the base of the first. What he saw reminded him of the laboratory Rey had discovered on Coruscant, except that this one wasn't dark and dead.

Robed figures milled about several enormous tanks like those he had seen in Rey's memories of that other laboratory. But it was what was inside the tanks that drew his attention. A part of him knew what to expect, but his stomach still churned with a nauseating horror when he saw the curled, half-developed forms. Sidious. Snoke. One and the same, and yet different. His skin crawled just looking at them, and he quickly passed into the shadows of the next statue, trying not to be seen. Trying not to see.

The dread growing in him drew him onward, deeper into the citadel. The lines of statues came to an end at a wall of rock. A fissure split the face of the stone from the floor of the cavern to the ceiling that arched high above his head. He hesitated there for a long moment, staring into the utter blackness.

With a deep breath, and his fingers clasped tightly around his lightsaber, Ben stepped into the shadows. It was a narrow passage, barely broad enough to admit his shoulders. There would be no room to turn around. He moved on, forcing himself not to think of the darkness and the cold of Exegol, but of Col's tiny fingers wrapped around his thumb, of the soft noises he made in his sleep, of Rey's brown hair strewn over the pillow, of the warmth of her at his side. Of the light she carried.

Above him the wind howled among the rocks, and several pebbles clattered down to fall on his head. Ben flinched, his saber arm jerking instinctively, before he realized what had happened. He shook off the dust and went on. He had just begun to think that the tunnel might be leading him straight into a trap, when the rock fell away on either side of him and he found himself standing at the edge of an enormous chamber, at least an equal in size to the hall of statues.

He stopped, gazing around him while a warning began to scream in his mind. Everything in him cried out to turn back. To hide. Sidious was near, and the weight of the darkness that surrounded him nearly sent Ben to his knees. He gathered himself, locking his legs to keep them from shaking as he took an unsteady step forward.

His eyes fell on several more statues, carved into the walls at regular intervals. In the shadows between, he could just make out what appeared to be rows and rows of benches that rose like stairs toward the roof of the cave. He was standing at the bottom of a basin, in something that reminded him of an arena. It all seemed familiar. He turned slowly, afraid of what he would find even as he guessed.

The throne he had seen in his dreams stood before him now in waking life, the scarred black stone radiating out from the seat like the twisted rays of a dying sun. He stood, trembling, waiting to feel Sidious' cold hand on his neck.

But instead of a hand, a low voice came from behind him, rumbling with a cruel laughter.

"At last," it grated, "my wayward apprentice returns."

Ben turned slowly, his heart sinking into his stomach. Sidious hovered before him, suspended several inches from the floor by a strange device. A mass of cords dangled from the mechanical arm, and Ben saw bottles of turbid fluid and silver bands of metal glittering in the brief flashes of lightning. The Sith's features were obscured by a deep hood, but as he looked up, Ben caught a glimpse of his face. Old eyes, white clouded and blind, in a face that looked as if the skin might slough off at any moment. Indeed, Ben thought he could see the pale white of exposed bone in one or two places. The sour smell of decay assailed him, and he backed several steps in fear and disgust.

"Sidious," he rasped, his voice coming through the constriction in his throat as little more than a harsh whisper.

"Kylo Ren," came the reply. "I had such hopes for you, once. No longer. But you serve your purpose, as you have from the beginning."

"I know about your purposes for me."

"Do you?" Sidious mused, a ghastly smile spreading over his pale lips. "But I see into your mind, and I know that you do not. Not fully. Not yet."

Ben didn't answer. He simply kept his eyes locked on Sidious as the Sith's crumbling form drew nearer, the stench of him almost enough to make Ben gag. He thrust out his saber before him, leveling it at Sidious' neck. In the same instant, a ripple ran through the Force and Ben threw himself sideways just as he heard the sharp bark of a blaster. A bolt of red fire cut through the air where he had been only a moment before, extinguishing itself against a far wall of rock in a shower of sparks.

Ben whirled, hand outstretched, just in time to stop another bolt of plasma in midair and send it to the floor with a twitch of his fingers. He stood, facing a figure dressed in scarlet armor, the barrel of a blaster rifle pointed at his chest. From the corner of his eye, he saw several more circling closer with their weapons drawn; long electrostaffs thrust before them, and even a few more of the blaster rifles. It reminded him too much of the battle he'd fought with Rey in the throne room.

But Rey wasn't here now.

A prickling along his spine warned him even before he heard the sharp bark of one of the rifles behind him. He flung out his arm and the streak of red veered off course to strike one of the armored guards in the chest. The figure crumpled to the ground, the weapon it held clattering on the stone. But Ben didn't have time to look. He flicked his saber, deflecting another blaster bolt as he twisted at the Force. Two guards stumbled and fell as he shoved his hands toward them, his fear and anger rising in a dark tide around him. They didn't get up again. He cut the next down with a wild swing and caught another by the arm, launching himself up and over the man in a high arc only to turn just before he landed to drive his saber between the red armored shoulder blades.

There was a muffled gasp of air from within the helmet as the breath left the man's lungs for the last time, and Ben pulled his blade free. He was about to lash out again as another guard darted in from his flank when something clipped his leg. The warning from the Force came too late. Pain lanced through him, and his muscles locked even as the acrid scent of electricity burned in his nose. He fought to stay upright, but the jolt sent him to the stone, where he lay jerking and twitching even as he tried to draw on the Force.

His mind clouded, and he could no longer sense the movement of the Force around him, or even the cold of the dark side. All he could feel was pain. Hot and sharp and scorching him from the inside out. When it ebbed, he was left lying on the cold floor of the cave, drawing short breaths into aching lungs. He realized then that his hand no longer clutched the hilt of his saber and he glanced around him, searching the stone for a glint of metal. It was nowhere to be seen.

"You won't need that," Sidious said, and Ben looked up to see his weapon clasped in the Sith's mangled hand. "I want you alive."

"Why?"

"All in good time, my young apprentice. But for now, we wait."

"For what?" Ben snarled.

"For the light to descend into the darkness," Sidious said, the sickly smile still twisting his face. "For my granddaughter."

Rey.

He tried to stand. He tried to stretch his hand out to call his saber, but a scarlet gloved hand seized his wrist and twisted it behind his back so hard that Ben couldn't stop the gasp of pain that left him. Together, the guards hauled him upright until he was kneeling before Sidious, his shoulders screaming with the discomfort of being pulled backward.

"She won't come," he retorted. "She can't. She doesn't know how to calibrate the wayfinder."

"Oh, but she can," Sidious said. "And she'll find a way. Depend upon it."

"You can't know that."

"I can and I do," said Sidious, a low laugh rebounding from the walls in echoes that seemed to take on a life of their own. "I ought to thank you for that."

"What do you mean?" Ben breathed, dread making him suddenly nauseous.

"It's through your mind that I can reach her," Sidious chuckled. "Through you, my foolish apprentice, though she resides in the light. Or didn't you suspect when she began to see the same visions as you?"

Ben didn't answer. Guilt stabbed at him; a knife sunk deep in his stomach. This was worse than the electricity. Worse than any pain Sidious could have inflicted.

This is my fault.

He should have been stronger. He should have kept her at a distance. But what hope had they had, really? His connection with her had begun as something so innocuous: a small glimpse into the life of an enemy to remind him what it was to be human, and the ability to share that revelation. And how it had grown from there. They hadn't stood a chance. She hadn't stood a chance.

"I'll cut myself off from her," Ben said. "You won't-"

"It's too late for that, my boy. Even now, she dreams of a fleet of ships above a dark planet, readying themselves for the attack. She sees you, here, and she fears for you. She will come."

"No…"

"She will do as her mother before her," Sidious continued. "She will abandon her child in an effort to save him, leaving him in the arms of another, as once she was abandoned. Thinking he is safe. And she will come to find you, bringing the First Order with her. Only then will the trap be sprung."

"She won't-"

"You have handed me my enemies, boy. Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen."

Ben bared his teeth, struggling to throw off the restraining hands of the guards. They held him fast, jerking his arms harder behind him and giving him a quick jab with the electrostaff. Ben grunted in pain, fighting harder against their grip. In the corner of his eye, he saw Sidious gesture toward the dark crack in the wall from which Ben had emerged. Several figures robed and hooded in black separated themselves from the shadows, drawing close to kneel in a half circle at Sidious' feet. One of them spoke soft words in a language that Ben did not recognize. He stilled, drawing quickly on the Force before he heard Sidious answer back in the same language. The words were strange to him, but the meaning came clear in his mind even as Sidious spoke.

"Go," he said, nodding to the hooded figures. "Events have been set in motion. Bring me the child."

"No!" Ben roared, surging to his feet. He stretched out his hand before the guards could react, calling his saber. It tore itself from Sidious' hand, settling against Ben's palm with the briefest sting of pain. The blade erupted from the hilt as he swung, opening the throats of the two guards behind him. He spun, catching the smooth metal of the electrostaff in an open hand, holding it fast and driving his saber between the next guard's ribs.

Ben was already turning away as the man fell, fingers spread as he flung out his arm. The last of the guards toppled backward, and Ben heard the sharp crack of the scarlet helmet shattering as the man's head struck a rock. He didn't stop to look. Instead, he strode forward, lightsaber raised and crackling even as he felt the power of the dark side coursing through his veins.

"I won't let you take him," he growled. "You'll die first."

"I have died before," Sidious replied, his voice deceptively mild.

Ben recognized that tone. An alarm sounded in his head as he watched the mutilated fingers twitch against the metal of the harness, curling into claws. Without warning, his saber ripped itself out of his grasp, falling to the ground and rolling away from him. He tried to reach out to snatch it up again, but his limbs wouldn't obey him. He stood frozen to the earth, panic sending his heart into a wild rhythm.

Sidious' arm came up lazily, his fingers flexed in a gesture Ben knew all too well, and something like a cold band of steel closed around his throat. He coughed, instinct driving him to try to reach up and claw away whatever was cutting off his air. But he knew it would be useless, even if he had been able to move. Sidious' grip went tighter, and Ben gasped, trying to drag air into his lungs. Black edged in from the corners of his vision, spots dancing in front of his eyes.

He couldn't breathe. He had to get air. But the merciless grip on his throat only seemed to grow tighter and his head began to swim. His lungs burned in his chest, aching with the need to expand. The world was dim around him and growing dimmer still.

Rey.

The memory of her face was clear in his mind. The one clear thought in a thousand muddled images. His thoughts blurred and became indistinct: a thousand voices and faces all running together into a background of chaos. But as quickly as they came, they faded, the voices going silent one by one, and the memories fading. All except the image of her face. Rey. Rey still needed him. She didn't know what had happened. She wouldn't know what was coming.

The world had gone dark. Black. The cold sea was closing over him now, drawing him down into the depths. Into Chaos. His heart stumbled on a beat, then another. Tripping. Staggering. He had to warn her. Desperate, he gathered the last shreds of himself and reached out toward her, praying that she would somehow hear him.

Don't follow me, Rey. Don't-

It was his last thought before oblivion rolled over him like a wave.