Author's Note: Yay! An early update! Your comments and encouragement help us to crank out these chapters! So thank you all so much!

Thanks again to JenniferLadyBug who has to suffer through some horrible first drafts in order to have her illustrations finished on time. She's also had the most amazing suggestions on how to make this story better. So thank you to the best illustrator/beta reader in the galaxy! Remember, you can see links to all of the illustrations on Tumblr - I'm erickawrites, and the illustrator is JenniferLadyBug

Now don't everyone panic after this chapter... I do want to remind you all that I did guarantee a happy ending... eventually...

The next chapter should be to you in one week, so by Monday! As always, please leave your comments and suggestions, we both treasure them all!


Rey staggered to her feet, trying to make sense of what had just happened. Anger clung to her like a second skin, squeezing too tight and pressing against her chest with a suffocating weight.

How could he do it?

Ben had actually pushed her through the gateway. How dare he make that decision for her?

She'd already decided to sprint back through or die trying, when something prickled the hairs on her neck and she turned to find its source.

Darth Malak.

It was just as she'd feared when she watched him walk through the gateway. Dark Force churned around him, so much blacker here outside of the In-Between, as he pointed the tip of his saber at Poe's heart, pinning him against the stone wall. Her friend's eyes were sharp and accusing, reflecting the scarlet glow of Malak's saber as he stared hard at her. With Malak's other hand outstretched, he held Rose and Chewie in a simultaneous Force choke. Their fingers clawed helplessly at their throats, eyes wide with terror as they struggled for air.

But Malak wasn't even looking at her friends. And he wasn't looking at her. He was focused on something else completely. His Force was reaching for it.

Where was Finn?

Her eyes darted around the dim space of the inner temple until she found him near the Mortis Mural. His hand was pressed against the Daughter's palm, his eyes closed. The circle around it was already illuminated gold, as was its mirror around the Son's hand. Rey knew in that instant what Malak had been focusing on. She glanced toward the portal, farther down the stone corridor. The Loth-wolves were already slowing their rotation, shaking their golden heads, and retreating back to the mural single file along the stone wall.

The realization that Ben would be trapped again was like a bucket of ice water dumped over her head.

"Finn! No!"

He glanced back at her, but didn't remove his hand, which was still pressed firmly against the Daughter's. How could Finn do this to her? Why wasn't he listening?!

"Stop!" A wave of darkness erupted from her hands, slamming into Finn. It struck hard, hurtling his body limply against the mural and he slumped down, dazed.

Tears stung behind her eyes as she stared blankly, attempting to process what she'd just done. She tried to swallow, but her mouth was suddenly drier than the Jakku wastes.

She turned to glance at Malak who had a predatory gleam in his gray eyes. He had her. With her three friends in his grasp, she'd never be fast enough to help them. She needed to pull on the Bond if she had any chance of saving her friends. But that was impossible.

The gateway was closed.

The cold was everywhere again. Her eyes stung with it, mixing with the burn of her tears, as she turned her gaze back to Finn. The angle of his body seemed wrong as he lay crumpled at the foot of the mural. She had done that. With her own hand. But she'd had no choice, with their decision to close the portal they'd forced her to choose this path, pinning her like a trapped animal with no other means of escape.

"Finn, why?" she screamed desperately. "Why would you close it when Ben was right there?"

"He asked me to," Finn managed through clenched teeth as he clutched his battered ribs in pain. Oh kriff, she'd forgotten about his injury and she'd slammed him against the wall anyway. "He didn't want to risk more Sith entering and said to close it as soon as you came through. He said we should destroy it, that he'd find another way."

The shock of his words caused the darkness to swell in her again and there was no choice but to ride the immense waves, even though Rey could easily sense the inevitability of being taken under. It was like navigating the oceans of Kef Bir on an undersized sea skiff. It was only a matter of time before one of the swells hit just right, plunging her into frigid waters. She didn't fight it, instead, preparing for it.

Frozen rage seeped from every pore and she shook with the effort of containing it. It hadn't been Malak's influence on Finn's mind that had closed the gateway as she'd first thought. Ben Solo had ordered himself to be locked in. The stupid, heroic ass. He'd demanded to be trapped in the World Between Worlds to keep Nihilus, Maul, and the other Sith from coming through.

How could he leave her, when he knew what it would do to her? After everything she'd sacrificed to set him free?! He'd left her. And it ripped a fresh wound in her soul, right across the one he'd left when he died.

"He threw you away, didn't he?" Malak said, his voice dripping with a sympathetic honey that repulsed her.

His words curdled her blood and twisted at some festering, rotten wound deep inside of her she thought she'd locked away. Because in that place, buried in the depths of her soul, she knew Malak was right. Just as her parents had abandoned her, in an attempt to save her, so had Ben Solo. Again. And in that moment, Rey realized that it wasn't love or sacrifice that could save her. Those things had only ever brought her pain. Rey did not need to be saved, she needed to find the power to save herself.

"You couldn't even open that gateway alone," he drawled. "You couldn't speak to the Daughter. You're already too far gone to the Dark Side, Rey. You've tasted its power and you can't go back. That's why you could speak to the Son to help open it. Just as I spoke to him to close it. You and I are the same, Rey."

The only thing worse than the truth of his words, was her friends' hopeless expressions as they, too, understood that the Sith Lord was speaking honestly. Rey recalled the helpless feeling of being unable to unlock the gateway without Finn, the immediate response of the Son to her Force.

"The problem is, you don't know how to harness the Shadow like I do," he said. "You need a teacher if you want to truly realize your power."

Gods. Her blood was ice in her veins now, panic swirling like a blizzard as it clouded her vision, her very thoughts.

Ben was trapped. With the Sith. And he'd asked for it himself. He'd pushed her away and doomed them both.

Panic bubbled over, washing away all reason, all control. She would not be an instrument for the Force to use as it willed. No. She was tired of being the helpless victim. She'd spent her life waiting. And for what? For the inevitable moment that the Light would punish her for doing the right thing? No more.

The Force was going to be hers.

She would defeat Malak, make Finn open that portal again, and destroy all of the Sith herself if that's what it took.

She would not be separated from Ben again.

That was when the looming swell of darkness finally overtook her. She'd ridden on that tiny skiff of light for so long, grasping desperately for control, but in that moment, she surrendered herself to those dark, icy waters. She pulled it into herself completely, breathing it, tasting it, feeling the Shadow envelop her completely, drowning deliciously in its power.

And with a scream of raw passion, she threw herself at Malak with both sabers blazing. As her blades struck his, spitting and hissing their protest, something shifted around her. She recognized the unfamiliar way the Force responded as she demanded it to do her bidding. She was no longer simply a part of the Force, an implement of its destiny. The Force was her weapon now and she wielded it alongside her lightsabers.

Power surged through her and Malak was forced to shift his attention from her friends to block Rey's assault. Unable to keep his focus, Rose and Chewie collapsed nearby, rubbing at their throats.

Malak blocked her overhead attack, drawing closer with sabers crossed, speaking over the vicious buzz of the weapons. "If you kill me, there will be no one to rescind the order to destroy the Millennium Falcon and all of its crew."

Rey narrowed her eyes into slits. "Your Sith Fleet can't hear you from way down here. You were stupid to close the gateway and trap yourself where the other Sith can't help you!"

She lifted both sabers quickly over her head before crashing them down together in a double strike against his side. He blocked her. He was an incredible duelist and without the power of the Bond, she realized with a creeping sense of dread, that she might not win this battle. She needed more power, more strength.

"You're wrong," Malak said. "I've been communicating with the Acolytes for years. They can hear me just fine." He sucked in a long, wheezy breath. "And I'm not trapped. You'll be the one to help with that."

Was he telling the truth? Maz had said the Sith Acolytes used artifacts to connect with the spirits of the Sith. Should she call his bluff?

With a flick of his wrist, Malak found just the right leverage to push both of her blades away and she was forced to step back to keep her balance. He pressed his advantage, striking again and again at her weak side, each of her parries becoming slower and slower until finally, he jabbed at her opposite shoulder, cutting into flesh and she stumbled.

He held his blade over her, his chest heaving, eyes wild. "Offer the power of the Dyad. If you do, we will let Solo pass through and your friends will be spared."

She darted a glance farther down the corridor. Rose, Poe, and Chewie had scrambled away to gather near Finn at the base of the mural and now leaned awkwardly, nursing wounds and looking desperately in her direction.

Pain pulsed in her flesh and she drew it in, along with the Force, until it ran black and cold in her veins. She relished the sensation, letting it vibrate against the energy around her, magnified by the Palpatine saber in her hand. She harnessed that pain as pure power, unleashing against Malak in a storm of Darkness.

"If you want it so bad," she hissed between frenzied attacks, "try and take it!"

She was a creature of passion now, blades arcing in uncontrolled sweeps over and over again. But even with pain fueling her strikes and rage pulsing in her ears, her arms began to ache with fatigue as Malak parried blow after blow. She was so close, she could almost feel her saber slicing through his body as she pushed him back. But eventually, her attacks slowed and her swings became more clumsy as her connection to the Force began to wane.

Malak's eyebrows raised in satisfaction. He was toying with her, wearing her down as he held back, blocking and sidestepping. His body tensed the moment he realized he had her, and before she could react, he sliced down with his blade.

Fire flared in her leg and the sickening smell of her own charred flesh rose from the wound he'd opened along the front of her thigh. It wasn't a fatal blow, but it was enough to cloud her vision and affect her stance. She readjusted her weight, drawing on the pain to fuel her next strike.

Darkness surrounded her, consuming her senses. Fear and fury sent shivers of power through her and she swore she could see her breath, puffing frozen in the air, as she crashed her blades against his. She would not lose Ben like this. She would get back to him.

In that moment, a deafening blast echoed through the inner chamber of the Temple, followed by a wave of heat that prickled against her exposed skin. An enormous cloud of dust and rock rained down from the upper spire onto their heads as she and Malak turned to look at the source of the explosion. Chewie and Rose were nearly through the door of the temple, with Poe helping a limping Finn in the same direction, not far behind.

The walls shook around them and the Force screamed a warning into her mind. The Temple would be a pile of rubble in a few very short moments.

Malak must have sensed what was happening, too, because he was already running. Before Rey followed him, she took one last look to where the The Ones had stood offering a way into the In-Between. The only remaining evidence of the Mortis Mural were charred streaks scoring the walls and dust billowing from the core of the Temple.

The gateway had been completely destroyed.

Rey fought against the numbness spreading out across her limbs, somehow finding the will to sprint toward the crack of light coming through the temple's entry. She gulped the chill Lothal air into her lungs as her legs buckled and she collapsed in a heap outside the Temple. Rey watched from her knees as the whole structure folded in on itself, mushrooming into a cloud of dust into the Lothal Sky. The heavens continued to rain destruction for a few unbearable moments, and along with the shower of falling stone and earth came the punishing barrage of fear and loss. Because as the Temple fell, so did any hope Rey had held for happiness.

The wind picked up, carrying dust across the empty grasslands and clearing the haze that had blotted out the light. Suddenly the Lothal sun seemed much too bright and Rey lifted her hood over her head.

Ben was trapped with two full-bodied Sith in the In-Between, along with an entire army of Sith spirits. He would surely be tortured until the Sith got what they wanted.

He was alone once again, and so was she. And it was his fault.

As if to mock her, the gash in her thigh burned with new, excruciating intensity, pulsing with a biting pain, like a Nexu sinking razor-sharp teeth into her flesh.

The searing agony of her wounds mixed with the rising anguish of losing Ben and she pounded her fists against the ground, a cry ripping from her throat. Her everything. Her kriffing soul. Gone! And the world fell away before this all-encompassing pain. She didn't see, didn't hear anything for what could have been seconds or hours. With the weight of the grief pressing in against her, there was no sense of time. There was only a soul rending ache.

She could have been back on Tatooine and been better off. At least then she'd had the Corellian whiskey to keep her company and dull her pain. Here, all she had were memories.

Memories of his touch, of his Force, of his feelings for her through the Bond. Memories from across millennia. He was her soulmate and he'd ripped himself away leaving…

A void.

Oh Gods, that void. From the vision at the Great Tree. She was there again, clinging to a shred of what remained of the Bond, only this time it was not just a vision, it was real. That black weight of nothingness shifted, creeping closer to blot out the sun, to take up space in her mind. That void was the hole carved out in her soul when Ben had thrown her away, pushing her through that gateway. The emptiness left inside of Rey had become that dark, fearful abyss, pulling pain and fury into her with the same intense gravitational pull of a black hole.

The dust settled in silence before she became aware of someone screaming her name.

"Rey, let's go!" It was Poe's voice. Poe. The fog in her mind cleared as her brain slowly worked out what had happened. Poe, who she knew always carried a thermal detonator clipped to his belt loop for emergencies. She clenched her teeth against the anger seething uncontrolled through her body, joining her pain, mixing into a bitter cocktail that tasted like bile in her mouth. She wanted to vomit. To scream. To destroy.

Poe was responsible. Probably at Finn's request, or maybe even Ben's. Her friends had demolished the gateway, and with it, the only shred of light left inside of her.

She lifted a tear-streaked face to see them waving her over from where they stood on the Falcon's loading ramp. In the sky, a triangular shadow loomed too close overhead. The Derriphan. With one blast of a turbo-laser, they could all be wiped from existence.

The whine of a TIE cut through the silence and her friend's screams grew more insistent.

Through the haze of darkness encapsulating her, she saw a figure sprinting across the field.

Rose.

Her hair whipped wildly out of her ponytail and her eyes were red-rimmed. As she approached, Rey saw her face tighten, her body go rigid as she looked down at Rey, still on her knees.

"Rey, what are you doing?" Rose's voice quivered like a frightened child. "We have to leave! We – "

But when Rey raised her chin to meet her eyes, she watched the words stick in her friend's throat. Rose's hands shook like the Lothal shrubs quaking in the breeze as she took a tentative step forward, presenting something to her.

"Rey," she began, her voice now trembling just as violently as her hands. "Finn told me what happened. You know Ben must love you. We'll get him back some other way." Then she pushed a ball of black fabric into Rey's hands.

Rey looked down at the tattered shirt. Ben's shirt. And she knew it should mean something to hold it, but the fog of darkness was so thick in her mind, the memory was a fleeting shadow. She turned it over in her cold hands before clenching the fabric hard and letting it hang limply in her fist at her side.

She leveled a steely gaze at Rose. "Love won't save anyone now."

Rose darted a glance back at her friends on the Falcon. She pressed her lips together and leaned in closer. "What are you saying, Rey? Come on, we've got to go."

"They're not going to just let you go, Rose." Her voice echoed hollow in her ears, lifeless like the leeched tundra all around.

Rose's eyes drifted to the Star Destroyer hanging ominously above, and she swallowed hard.

"Get out of here," Rey commanded. "Take the others with you."

"Rey! Rose! Look out!" Finn's panicked voice carried from across the field.

The sizzle of a lightsaber's plasma blade issued from behind her just as Malak's shadowy fingers broke through into her mind.

Come with me.

The effort required to summon enough frozen Force to push Rose away, toward the Falcon, seemed ten times what it should have been. Her limbs were heavy, her mind foggy, like the exhaustion of dehydration after a hard day of scavenging.

A thick sense of inevitability hung in the Force around her and she lifted a heavy gaze toward Malak.

He dragged his saber in the sand behind him, leaving a scorched trail in his wake as he strode to stand before Rey, where she knelt at his feet. "We will board the Derriphan and work with the Acolytes on a way into the World Between Worlds. With the power of the Dyad, it is possible. It is the only way to save your friends…" Each metallic word cut like a durasteel blade, lodging itself into her very being, magnifying her pain. "It's the only way to save your Bondmate."

She couldn't stop herself from flinching at that, the memory of peering through their connection across time to see the power of their Dyad. But in seconds, it was swallowed up by the darkness, disappearing like every other feeling in the void of her heart.

"You know, at times, I can even see the physical resemblance. Revan's spirit is so strong in him. And you, Rey… you have both Bastila's strength… and her stubbornness."

Malak lifted his cold stare to the Millennium Falcon. "Do you see the way they look at you now? They're afraid."

Flashes of that truth played like a holo-vid in Rey's mind. Rose's trembling hand, Finn's anxious glances, Poe's accusing glare, even Ben had seemed afraid when she'd caught him talking with Finn back on Corellia. Gods. What was the point in trying to preserve the light when all it brought was ruin?

Her eyes roved over the devastation left by the collapse of the Temple before settling one last time on her friends. Their faces twisted in desperation as they called out to her. Suddenly, the grassy field between Rey and the Millennium Falcon seemed to widen into an impassable chasm as she realized there was no way she could return with them.

Pressing her lips together to keep them from trembling, she raised tear-filled eyes toward Darth Malak who took a step forward. His saber bathed them both in its crimson light as he reached out a gloved hand to help her to her feet.

With Ben's shirt gripped in her cold fist, she drew from her pain to strengthen her wobbling legs, and stood to grasp the hand of the Sith Lord.