Star Wars: A dyad in the Force Chapter 5: In the aftermath of meeting Chewbacca, a star wars fanfic

Warning: Major Spoilers of TRoS.

Note: This is a Reylo FanFiction (slow-burn)

「Act 5: In the aftermath of meeting Chewbacca」

Kylo Ren stood in front of the Wookiee. He had to face his past again, even if he tried his best to kill it. There it was once more seeking him. Chewie means nothing to me. He thought. And the thought burned him. He was wrong.

He stood his ground and withstood the fury eyes of Chewbacca. Kylo Ren was through more painful and heartbreaking moments. He would not yield now. He was not wearing his mask. It was rare to find Kylo Ren without it these days. But after his encounter with Rey and the knowledge that he had to face Chewbacca. It was forgotten and ignored. He tried to push his mind towards another memory. The Wookiee had wounded him. That wound had resulted in a defeat at Rey's hands. If he had been at the top of his fighting form, the scavenger never would have gotten the best of him. That thought seemed to ease his inner pain for now.

"I have not forgotten that you shot me!" Kylo said as he took a few more steps towards Chewbacca.

With a wave of Kylo's hand, the Wookiee's shackles opened and clanked to the floor. The view of having Chewie cuffed made his stomach twist. He was not sure what was wrong with him lately. He removed his lightsaber from his belt and dropped it into the ground.

"Kill me," Ren tainted."I'm unarmed. Now's your chance. Have your revenge for Han Solo."

Ren's words were hiding a small truth. Indeed he stood unarmed in front of his father's dear friend. And for a nanosecond, he accepted his defeat. Suppose Chewie would take at that moment his saber and stroke him down. He would allow it. He was not seeking to die. He still had other plans for him and Rey. However, for a moment, it seemed promising. It surely would ease his pain and suffering. Yet, deep down, he knew he shouldn't be allowed to have the permissive escape from his wrong-doings.

The Wookiee was never arrogant. He made no move. He growled dark and low. His heart was broken. He was suffering from the loss of his dear friend Han Solo. And he seemed in despair, witnessing what Ben Solo had become.

"Feel that?" Ren asked him, trying to show no mercy. "It makes you feel alive, doesn't it? That burning. The dark side. It makes you powerful. You understand that. The scavenger will understand it, too."

He sensed a stab of fear from the Wookie, on Rey's behalf. He cared about the girl and loved her. Ren already knew he would love her as much as he'd love Han Solo. However, he felt a bitter feeling as well, on behalf of Ben. Ren rose an eyebrow in disbelief. Snoke had been the one to show him that no one cared about Ben. He knew Chewie would never really love Ben that way, at least before he became Kylo Ren. Back then, when he was only a lost boy.

Ren's voice crackled with rage. After so many years, how could his past hold him down? "What was her mission?" he demanded to know, "Where is she going? Give me the answer... or I'll take it myself."

It should have satisfied Ren to watch his father's close friend breaking down in fear. He should have felt pleasure in reaching out with the Force, inserting himself into Chewie's mind, ripping away his memories.

However, it was exhausting and painful. He saw old memories of Chewbacca laughing with a much younger Han Solo than he could remember. He felt his joy when his best friend married the woman he loved, and Chewie thought of as a sister. He even saw the Wookie cuddling a younger version of himself, a toddler, teaching an older boy to fly a speeder, target practicing with a young man, and he even recalled his promise. 'I'll share with you the odds of how to win...Tonight, after dinner,' he remembered his young self promising. Uncle Chewie, he'd call him back then.

Ren stepped back as he had found out where Rey was heading. He almost threw up as he pulled himself away from the Interrogation six. He felt sicker than before. The memories were so vivid they had shuttered him to the bone. He pushed the pain away. He ensured himself the sense of triumph would follow soon.

Hux and Pryde joined him as Ren strode from the hanger bay and the interrogation rooms. Ren noted, "I want all the Wookiee's belonging brought to my quarters."

Hux seemed pleased with the outcome. He never liked Supreme Leader Kylo Ren. He observed Ren and hint that seeing the Wookie had done something to Kylo Ren. He seemed paler than usual, and he was not thinking clearly.

His attention was caught when General Pryde informed him that the Knights of Ren had tracked down the scavenger. Hux interrupted, "Shall we destroy the city.."

Ren stuck a long finger across Hux's face. "Set a crouse for Kijimi. I want her taken alive." He dismissed them all, and Kylo Ren hurried off alone. If he needed, he would fly over to Kijimi himself to find her. Like always, he could not trust anyone to do as they were told.

Though before he would follow that plan, he reached his private chamber. The white surroundings need and clean. It was not revealing anything personal. Only the melted mask of Dark Vader, hinting a personal belonging around the empty chamber. This time he ignored it and strode into the bathroom. He leaned his large form over the toilet seat, emptying any remaining thing from his stomach. He was not sure when his stomach started upsetting him. But for days, he felt sick to his bone. He could not eat. He could not rest. He didn't want to name the new sickness that was disturbing his being.

The sickness showed no sign of shifting, no hint of lifting to a milder form. If anything, the chills were intensifying. He shivered violently in his private room. Now that his stomach had stopped lurching, he merely felt bruised inside. Curling up on the ground for a moment before he would pull himself together. He would not let the past keep him down. He was done with his past. He let it died. He killed it. He wasn't vulnerable. He would follow his plan now and find Rey. He should be focusing on turning her to the Dark Side. He had no time to play games with his consciousness. And truth be told, he was sure he had no conscience.

He had gone as far as he could on this path alone. He had learned how to walk alone in the most disturbing ways. He was taught how to carry others, how to cope with, and solve his problems alone. After all, loneliness didn't scare him; it gave him time to grow stronger than he had ever been. Time to fall deeper to the dark side. The Emperor was right. Snoke had taught him well. He was damaged in so many ways. That even now, when he was free from his old master. He was still a slave to the dark force. He was so damaged that any little hope that would rise to reach for Ben Solo would die in an instant.

There was hope before. Just a tiny flicker against the wind. He was a child back then. With the open eyes of a child, he reached out, fingers extended. At that moment, he had a choice of kindness or cruelty; it took no time at all for him to decide. He could see that dying ember and brought the winds to a cold howl. How was his thinking so different from the one when he was a child, so alien? How that although he was seeing the suffering and choose to make it all the worse?

In his intense silence, he somehow screamed with his whole body. The eyes wide with horror, the mouth rigid and open, his chalky face gaunt and immobile, the fists clenched with blanched knuckles and the nails digging deeply into the palms of his hand. He had enough of this nonsense. He picked up himself finally and stepped outside of the bathroom. He grasped his mask and wore it, letting any thoughts that dared to rise to die. And if they wouldn't die on their own, he knew the way to kill them.

A fainted figure watched him disappear from his chamber. Ren never noticed his presence there. Yet he was next to him every day and night, try to shield him from the darkness he was following. He tried to raise the conflict inside him. To keep the light burning in him. With the hope that he would keep a tiny sparkle of Ben Solo alive. Watching him at moments like those tore through him like a great shard of glass. It pierced the brain and ignited some primeval pathway. He knew better than anyone what he went through. His past was a bit similar likes his. Only he knew it; Ben had a chance to turn to the light before it would be too late.

Though he recognized that Ben's life had a raw quality, the realness of a person consumed by a pain that knew no end or limit, he could withstand it quiet, just panting. And although he had been there at his side, he had still been alone in his torture. It felt so familiar and strange at the same time, as Ben, instead of walking away, remained there ready for the next round as he was clearly unable to bear it. Anakin shook his head how much more his human body would hold off and resist. Until now, his grandson was smart enough and used the force and shielded his body whenever it passed its limit. And he had seen him reaching beyond his breaking point and still holding. And sometimes it even confused him. Was it the Skywalker legacy or the Solo that kept him solid and sane?

Snoke was right about one more thing; he had many of his father's heart in him. Ben was more of a Solo than a Skywalker. And he proved it daily in all those little details that most missed, but Anakin had learned to notice. He still believed Ben Solo wasn't lost. Yet, it would take a lot of effort and pain to bring him back. His implausible deed of killing Han Solo, his own father, had robbed Ben Solo's existence. And the wrongdoings he kept adding were only heavy his existence to nothingness.

「Upcoming Chapter: Act Six」

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