Author's Update: Just a brief interlude before the battle truly begins...
Disclaimer: I do not nor have I ever owned Star Wars. I simply play in their world.
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Once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away...
"How is it that a dream of such nature
could hang here in my heart, suspended here-
twirling, turning, blinking-like eyes in the sun?
A once shadowy dream-now more real
than my own flesh, more real than
my own beating heart?"
-Segovia Amil
Kylo Ren
Crimson and shadow before me. The colors of a Sith or so I was taught. Crimson, for passion. Shadows for the darkness that dwells within.
But I no longer believe that to be true.
Crimson for the blood we spill, shadow for the reminder that no light may be allowed to exist.
The mask that I destroyed on the Supremacy, in my anger and my defiance of Snoke, now whole again.
The Alchemist did well in reforging the fragments. No longer what it once was, veins of crimson now lace through the black, but it serves my purpose.
This mask will no longer be a symbol of my servitude, my submission before a master.
Instead let it be a reminder that I no longer serve...I lead.
But I haven't put it on. Not yet.
My hand hovers above it and I can hear her words from so long ago...
"...you feel being hunted by a monster in a mask..."
I drop my hand, clenching my fist hard and turn away from it.
I have already sent out the order that she is to be captured, unharmed and brought before me.
Already my Knights scour the corners of the galaxy looking for her.
She is their prey now and they will not stop until they have her.
All is going as it should...in less than twenty-four hours a new empire will emerge and this war will finally end.
Peace will come to the galaxy.
Yet I am still hesitating.
Because of her. My Rey.
I leave the mask where it lay on my workbench and stand over the broken, charred remains of my grandfather's mask.
Sightless eyes stare back at me and I hover my hand over it, reaching for the Force.
"Grandfather I seek the truth," I murmur, Palpatine's words and Rey's haunting eyes both clamoring inside my head, "where does my path lie? Show me..."
My senses expand...my breathing calms...and I reach for the spirit of Darth Vader...
A scream of rage...of fury...blasting across my mind...
I stagger, losing my connection with the Force beneath the chaotic wave of emotions pouring into me. That was not my grandfather I felt...that touch was utterly feminine...
Rey.
Her emotions were bleeding through the Force, into our Bond.
I close my eyes, using my grandfather's mask as a focus...and I reach again...
...the sting of a laser cutting across my arm...a snarl of rage as I miss yet again...another sting, this time between my shoulder blades...anger churning in me...
Her thoughts flowing through me...she's training...and doing a poor job of it.
She is letting her anger take control...and the more she feels out of control, the deeper her rage.
The Force cloaks me and the galaxy shifts between us...
… "Ah!"
A startled cry that is distinctly female and I snap out my hand just in time to stop her saber from impaling me.
"Ren!"
Hair in her eyes, a glimpse of stunned amber looking at me, her braid trailing bits of green and I see more than a few stains on her clothing.
She is still the most beautiful woman I have ever looked upon.
Need, hard and demanding, rushing through me.
I will never stop wanting her.
"I could have killed you!"
I shake my head at her.
"Not like that you won't."
The training sphere comes at her again and I move instantly, turning the droid away from hitting her.
"That's my job!"
"A poor effort you're making then."
A soft growl from behind me and I turn back to her. She has her saber off and her eyes gleam like amber flames.
"What are you doing here?"
"You seem to be struggling."
She blows out a breath and shoves the saber back into the holder at her side, snatching up her staff from the ground.
"I can handle a stupid training droid!"
Again that sweep of her anger across my senses.
"Not like this you can't. Anger can be useful...but only if you focus it."
I had to learn that lesson the hard way.
"I'm not angry."
Her tone implies otherwise but I refrain from pointing that out. I do have some sense of self-preservation.
But I can't stop my brow from lifting anyway and she rolls her eyes at me.
"Look if your here just to point out how badly I seem to be doing, you can just leave!"
I have no intention of leaving. Not yet.
I had sought guidance from my grandfather's spirit for my true path...and it led me to Rey.
I believed in few things but coincidence was not one of them.
"Why are you upset?"
"I'm not!" She stabs her staff into the ground and takes a deep breath. "Alright...maybe I am...but how can you..."
I lean up against the tree. She is training in another forest.
Naturally.
"Do you really need to ask...after everything we've shared together?"
I watch her skin turn a delicate shade of red but she doesn't drop her gaze from mine.
"Fine. So you sensed me in the Force. That still doesn't explain why you're here now."
"Your emotions are in chaos Rey...and I am not the only one who can sense you now."
The stain across her face pales at my reminder that Palpatine was back among the living.
"I...I can handle it. You don't need to worry about me."
She's right, I shouldn't be worried about her...but I am. I can see the dark circles beneath her eyes, the hollow of her throat where her pulse beats rapidly.
I move from the tree and stand before her.
I can feel her body trembling with the strain she is putting herself through.
"What nightmares are you running from now Rey?"
Her eyes widen and I know I've guessed correctly. She turns her head away...but makes no attempt to leave my side.
Without thinking I reach up to cup her face...and her memories become my own...
...the sun, burning my skin...I'm screaming as the hand that grabs my arm is hurting me...a ship taking off without me...and the echo's of a woman's broken voice calling out my name...
I stagger beneath the weight of her memories...her terror my own...her despair...
"Don't!"
She pulls away from me, wide-eyed and fearful.
"You're starting to remember more of your past before Jakku."
She is shaking her head at me. "No...no...I don't remember anything..."
She's lying. I've seen her thoughts, the memories that haunt her nightmares...and I know why she is running from them.
"Rey, let me..."
I reach for her again but she pulls her hand up at the same time...as if to ward off my touch...and a vision sweeps over me...
...The throne of the Sith before me...cold obsidian that whispers to me of destiny...but I am not alone.
I turn...and see a woman both strange and familiar standing below me.
A cloak of sweeping darkness that covers her face, the fall of her gown that reminds me of my own armor but far more sensual.
Long, graceful fingers pull back the hood...revealing golden eyes and lips stained crimson. Her sable hair falls in loose waves around her shoulders and even the dark of this place cannot conceal the hidden strands of fire I know are there.
Her lips curve upward, sensual and just a touch cruel.
It is Rey as I have never seen her.
She no longer speaks to me of sunlight and sweet flowers...but shattered moonlight and roses dripping thorns...
A dark and divine creature who stands in her place...as my equal.
"My Emperor." She whispers to me, holding out her hand for me to take.
"My Empress." I call out to her...reaching for her hand so that she might join me...
"No!"
Rey's scream of denial shatters the vision and I am left reeling from what I just witnessed.
I look up at Rey and she has both terror and desire at war within her eyes.
"It's not real...It can't be true..."
I will not let her deny this vision...deny what we will be together.
I capture her wrists, exerting enough pressure that will not allow her to escape me.
"I will take your nightmares from you," I tell her falling once more into fractured amber, "do not fear the darkness Rey. It is a part of you...as you are a part of me."
Her lips open in protest and I slant my mouth over hers.
I taste her fear and her desire and I want all of her.
Her darkness. Her light.
I will take it all back.
This is my path.
Our lips part and I know that I will never be satisfied by anyone but her.
"Rey," I let go of her wrists so I can gently I push back the strands from her eyes, "stop running from me. You want me...just as much as I want you."
"I...I..."
Dazed eyes staring up at me and I lean down to press another kiss to her mouth...
"No!"
She shoves against me and I stumble backwards at her violent push.
"I won't...I can't...not like that..."
She is shaking and she now holds her staff across her body...as if she would do me harm.
"I will find you, I always do. It's only a matter of time. You can't hide from me forever Rey."
"Stop it...just stop!"
Tears slip down her face and my heart clenches in response to her pain.
"Why won't you stop haunting me? I told you...it's over between us."
I brush the fallen leaves off of my arms and my lips twist at her ardent denial.
"It is never over between us," I tell her, "you and I...we belong together. When we see each other next...I will tell you the truth about your nightmares."
"What truth? What do you know? Ren? Ren!"
But our time is over and the galaxy shifts once more around us...
...and I pull my hand away from my grandfather's helmet as plumes of smoke rise gently from the charred remains.
I came here seeking my truth path...and I've found it.
Rey is my destiny and I will make that vision a reality.
An Empress needs an empire to rule...and that is what I will give her.
I move to my workbench and this time I do not hesitate when I pick up my reforged mask and settle it over my face.
It is a familiar weight and my eyes adjust and sharpen to the darkness that closes over me.
I have now become who I was meant to be.
Kylo Ren, Leader of the Knights of Ren and the First Order...and soon I will take my place as Emperor over the galaxy.
But first I must go and claim my Empress.
