Chapter Eleven
Consequences
There have moments throughout history that the galaxy had deemed as universe-altering, and the second that hive-mind rippled between Rey and Ben's physical bodies was no different.
A wave that hadn't been felt for more than three thousand years thundered through the Force. It had a kinetic fire with the ability to unmake any lifeform unfortunate enough to be caught in its path. But the blood that coursed through both Ben Solo and Rey was that of legends and couldn't be so easily exercised from existence. Their combined lineages had enveloped them in a shield that contained both of their spirits and their immense power.
An overwhelming wrath wove through the Force and at the center was the hive-mind. There was such a focused intensity that it nearly demolished Ben's own spirit. His entire soul ached with barely contained rage; it was exploding from within him in torrents of violent intent. The young man's innate ability to access the Force had created an excruciating despair that overshadowed every other moment in his life. The tiny part of him that was still able to comprehend anything at all, wondered if this was how it would all end? Had the dyad between him and Rey unleashed an evil that the galaxy wasn't prepared to deal with?
Digging past excruciating pain, he desperately reached for something to ground himself before he was absorbed by the power crucifying him from the inside out. Thrusting his mind into the Force he scoured it for anything to latch onto, any type of anchor that would allow him to stay present in this moment. The presence that extended toward him was not one he'd expected.
His father's spirit flowed through him providing the boost of power Ben needed to root himself inside his own body. The staggering sense of devotion that melted along that connection nearly stole his breath and made his heart ache. He'd always believed that his father had simply tolerated him. It was that assumption that had allowed him to take that final step in claiming his father's life. Han Solo had been very self-concerned and having a small boy follow him around with a case of hero-worship had been fun until Ben had grown older and expect his father to actually interact with him. At that point his legend of a father had been frustrated by Ben's constant desire to be wherever he was.
That aggravation had bled along the link and poisoned his relationship with his father. Unlike Ben's mother, he'd never had the Force to base his feelings on where Han was concerned. Misery blossomed inside him and Ben felt the loss of his father all over again. He knew that he'd been forgiven for his part in that death, but he hadn't absolved himself of that momentary blindness in his heart.
Ben was trapped inside his own mind; the darkness was surrounding him in a bleak future. The presence had locked him behind the iron hard cables inside his head; it was almost like he was the interloper stealing away moments from someone else. Everything hurt, but nothing was more painful than his broken spirit. In the last year he'd found something to fight for and then had it stolen away. He wasn't ignorant to his part in Rey's loss. She'd offered him something he couldn't ignore.
He had felt it as her light wavered beneath the malevolent hive-mind. Yet it felt as though she'd willingly brought that mind with her from the other side. The vile hatred of that mind was even worse than the glimpses Ben had seen into Snoke's head. What he couldn't understand was why? Why would Rey have allowed that thing to hitch a ride back with her soul? While they didn't know each other really well, he couldn't wrap his head around that decision. And yet he also hadn't forgotten that she had died, so how could he ever comprehend what she'd been exposed to on the other side.
Fair or not, Ben was feeling a certain sense of betrayal. The idea that she would knowingly allow him to be overpowered by the hive-mind shattered things inside him that he wasn't sure could be healed. Without meaning to, Ben had allowed her past all of his emotional defenses. And now she occupied a place that only his parents had ever occupied previously.
Rey was everything he'd never known he wanted. She was so powerful, incredibly smart, driven beyond sanity and she was impossibly beautiful; his head swam with everything he'd believed they could be. No, I still believe we can be all of those things.
Ben felt the slither of that cold presence as it ground through every part of his leaving fiery torment behind it. The worst part was, that it wasn't just his mind; this thing was inside every single cell of his being. When Rey had touched him, the power transfer had been so intense that Ben had been unable to fight the hive-mind as it peeled him apart; stealing what was his by birth. It ransacked his secrets and riffled through his thoughts; his very feelings had been torn from him with a ruthless efficiency as it searched for something. Ben wasn't even sure if the entity had found what it wanted; he'd been blinded by the blast of electrifying agony that had preceded its transference to his body.
A piercing agony unlike anything he'd experienced, since learning of Rey's death, penetrated him, searching out his weaknesses and playing upon his fears. He had felt the precise moment when he lost control of his body, it felt as though he'd been stuffed through a meat grinder. Or perhaps it was closer to spending weeks locked away with one of the interrogation drones? Either way, those feelings were something he hoped to never experience again. The residual effects of having his mind clawed open were still rippling through him with a fierce vengeance.
He tried to focus through the darkness, but he couldn't even see where the hive-mind was taking his body. He had to assume that it was nowhere good. Blackened chaos swirled through his very essence like a dark companion that he couldn't quite rid himself of. Out of that endless spinning vortex it occurred to him to wonder if this was what it had felt like when he'd used the Force to ply information from the unwilling minds of his enemies? If it was, Ben actually felt bad for the heinous act. It wasn't something that he'd experienced personally, it was terrible.
Snoke had never seized control of his consciousness, he'd never had to. The supreme leader had always been able to take anything he wanted from his apprentice's mind. He'd seen the second-guessed decisions and the conflicting emotions that had been a constant struggle for Ben.
Exhaustion was weighing him down as he tried to fight against blinking darkness at the edges of his consciousness.
XXXX
Ben Solo's body moved through the resistance base with a sense of purpose and authority that kept others from approaching him. Well, almost everyone. Watching the former supreme leader move, she immediately saw the differences. This wasn't the man she'd seen before.
Maz watched from a distance, her eyeglasses were sitting firmly in place and her mouth hung open with shock. She didn't understand what had happened, but she did recognize that the man before her wasn't the same one she'd spoken to the other day. Her eyes twitched with uncertainty and she picked at the sleeve of her jacket. The rain started and she pressed further back into her space.
She watched as a young woman, Yara Jaystar, worked on the ramp of a small cruiser ship. The girl's bhead and hands were buried inside the lifting mechanism, so she didn't notice the stalking presence of the approaching figure. He must have finally said something because she spun around so fast, she nearly lost her balance. A small welding torch went flying, which he deftly caught in his right hand.
The taller man reached out and grabbed her shoulder with one large hand. Maz was just about to rush out of her dark corner when both figures locked up like they'd been electrocuted. Their combined expressions informed her that neither one of them had expected what was happening. But it was Ben Solo's face that was pinched with a torturous agony that didn't seem to be dissipating no matter how long they trembled.
Yara's face had been frozen in one of acceptance and was slowly shifting from pain to nothing at all. Her body straightened up and her eyes shifted from dark brown to a burning yellow-red.
Everything happened so quickly that Maz didn't have a chance to react. There was a burst of intense light, it flashed between Ben and Yara's bodies right before he collapsed to the ground in a heap of shivering flesh. And she turned toward the ship with a stunning speed that wasn't human. The young woman leaned down toward Ben's inert body, grabbed something and then disappeared into the ship she'd been working on.
There was no warning, the ramp closed, and the engines started to spin up.
Maz slipped from her corner, gripping her small blaster just a bit tighter before hurrying toward the unconscious man. The engines of the shuttle flared and within moments the ship was lifting into the atmosphere and quickly disappearing into the skyline.
Kneeling down, Maz reached out and placed a gentle hand against Ben's neck. She released the breath she'd been holding when she felt the strong steady thump of a heartbeat. While she hadn't known the princess well, she had seen the immense toll losing Leia's only son had taken on her. And knowing the sacrifice that had been made to save this man, Maz couldn't let him to die. Her dark eyes lifted toward the sky and she sighed at the loss of the girl.
Not knowing what had actually happened made it difficult to determine if Yara was truly lost to them or not. But if past dealings with the darkside were anything to go by, chances weren't great for the girl.
Pounding feet and increasing cries of confusion rang out behind their position. Maz left her hand resting on Ben's chest as she turned to wave Finn and Poe toward them. To her incredible surprise they were followed by the stumbling form of Rey. She looked out of sorts and her eyes were guarded.
They all skidded to a stop when they spotted her…and Ben's limp form. The combined looks of shock on their faces might have been comical if the situation hadn't been so tragic.
It was Poe that recovered first. Shaking off his surprise, he rushed forward sinking to his knees. His dark eyes were full of concern as he stared over at Maz and the blank landing pad behind her. With a twitch of his eyebrows, he allowed his gaze to drop to the unconscious man at her side.
"What happened?" He slipped a peek back at Rey and Finn. Neither of them had moved yet.
Shaking her head, Maz shifted so she could see him better. "A transference. I think."
"A what?"
Sinking back onto her haunches as Ben lay completely still, she crossed her arms. His chest shuddered with a deep breath and his eyelids twitched. Rey moved with a suddenness that caught the other to off guard. She dropped to her knees and started to touch him, pulling back before her fingers could make contact. The naked fear on her face broke Maz's heart.
Rey swallowed and leaned forward to simply feel his breath against her cheek. She was still trying to understand just what had happened. She'd felt Ren when she had reached out, but the moment her fingers had brushed his, she'd realized her mistake. Whatever had been seducing her hadn't been the man she'd reluctantly let into her life; no, it had been something treacherous and evil. As soon as the hive-mind had begun to seep into every part of her, Rey had wanted to take it back.
She couldn't. And the next thing she knew, she was kneeling in a room with Finn leaning over her. His face a mask of worry and his arms wrapped loosely around her. She'd blinked away the burn of tears as comprehension worked itself into her mind. She'd brought the very evil they'd been fighting against back with her.
No, I did something far worse. I brought the entire history of the darkside back with me. And then she had handed Ben's body over for its use. It was that thought that struck her like a dagger through the heart. She'd fought so hard to get back to him and then she'd let something else separate them.
Rey could still feel the malevolent mind inside her. It had done what it promised, she was indeed alive; but at what cost? In her selfish haste to return to Ben, she'd set the hive free upon the galaxy. She didn't yet know what that meant, but if the Sith had been worried about this mind, then the rest of them should be terrified by it. And between her and Ben, they had been the key to its release. She was starting to wonder if would have been better if she'd just let him give his life for her Perhaps, they wouldn't be in the position they now found themselves in.
Her eyes dropped and she felt a pang of shame at the last thought. The Force had a plan for them, and it would appear that that plan didn't involve either one of them dead. She could only hope that Ben could forgive her for the choice she'd made. And pray that he hadn't been destroyed in the process of her resurrection.
XXXX
The combined minds that had been trapped inside the dark places of Exegol coalesced into a single voice. Havoc, as it preferred to be called, stared out into space feeling a sense of freedom that it hadn't felt for thousands of years. It reached into the Force and pulled at the threads of darkness feeling the flickering presence of Ben Solo. His mind was unprotected at the moment, which meant it was vulnerable to attack. Rage at being forcibly ejected from its chosen body; Havoc gathered the nearly limitless power of the Force.
With a smile that was every bit as cruel as what it was about to do to the unconscious man, Havoc rolled every single emotional death at Solo's hands into a ball of pulsating, tormented energy and propelled it toward the unprotected mind. The attack wouldn't kill him, but it would certainly slow him down. And by hurting him, Havoc knew that precious time was being bought. The intricate plan that had been thousands of years in the making was about to reign down terror on the galaxy; they would bow to the Hive or they would all die.
TBC…
Author's Note: There is more to come on the Ren/Ben front. For those who will wonder, yes it really was a version of Kylo Ren that Rey was speaking to. The Hive had used that part of the darkness to gain access to her. Access they wouldn't have had otherwise. Rey never would have submitted to something like this if it hadn't been for someone she loved. But now she will have to face the consequences of that decision and Ben will be forced to deal with the reintroduction of the darkside, in the form of Kylo Ren, back into his heart and soul. And no, I am not turning him back over to the darkness (so he will be fully redeemed by the end of the story). Rey will know just how strong she is and what she can endure and that she can come out on the other end so much stronger.
Thanks for reading, Review if you have a moment…
