Star Wars: A dyad in the Force Chapter 51: Imperial Palace - Exploring the Palace, a star wars fanfic

Warning: Major Spoilers of TRoS.

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

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「Sequel Trilogy」

「A dyad in the Force」

「Episode XI」

「Star Wars: Duel of Fates」

Based on characters created by

George Lucas

「PART I」

「Act 51: Imperial Palace」

「Exploring the Palace」

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…

Falcon, 37ABY

And so it began, their journey to reach the Empire Palace; the hours had turned into days, days into weeks, and weeks into months. They have been crossing for months now the Galaxy with the Falcon, the year had changed, but their course remained the same. For the group who lived within the Falcon, the evening meals became communal ones. Like small fests, it would be held beneath the stars as the Falcon flew in the open space; meals were eaten together and shared stories. Mainly, life inside the Falcon became a happy break from the reality that Ben would eventually face.

The mornings were easy passing and checking the Falcon, updating the system, and getting damage reports. Most mornings were busy like that, with everyone being assigned to a task. And again, Ben couldn't complain; he was piloting his Father Light freighter as he always dreamed as a kid. Spent the rest of the mornings playing with Chewie the Holochess, as he had promised him to show him his 'secrets' how he won. Although he didn't have any hidden moves, the Wookiee still believed it.

The afternoons were busy; he would have a duel with Rey in the training area from time to time. True be told, the Falcon didn't have its training area, but being bored, Rey and Ben created such a place. They managed to activate a shield around it so that they wouldn't cut the Falcon in two, and there they spared. Ben would call it a duel, but Rey received it as training because she would end up always learning something new from Ben.

And the remaining of the time would be occupied in arguments between Poe or Finn, even the droids. For an unknown reason, BB-8 every day would pump against Ben multi times until Poe had to drag the little droid away. Anakin and Luke became a necessity for Ben. As they showed up once in a while, whenever they wanted—in a way, trying to outline that they would face new darkness. Ben had already read through the lines. But as always, they were talking in riddles. He had no comment about that.

The nights. The nights were the most difficult ones. It was then when his past chose to hunt him down; pain and sadness drained through him rather than skating over his skin. It traveled through every cell to reach the ground. He filtered it yet, strangely enough, he kept what he hadn't pay eventually. Sometimes he was filled with hollowness and emptiness as he fell asleep and fell into an unknown black world. There he relived his misdeeds, memory after the memory was hunting his sleep. Many were the nights he would jump from his rest, crying and feeling his soul burned to its core. And many were the mornings, he would wake up in sweat, red eyes from crying, and sorrow was overwhelming him.

However, Ben never complained; he knew the price he had to pay would be higher to atone for what he had done. Just a trouble sleep was nothing compared to the terror he had unleashed compared to the lives he had taken. He even felt lucky, as many of the nights he would wake up screaming, Rey, sweet Rey, would run to his rescue. She would hug and comfort him the rest of the night, turning his nightmares into pure dreams. At first, Ben appreciated her actions, losing her sleep to be with him, to guide him through his troubled nights.

But later on, something changed.

Since no punishment was given to him for all his wrongdoings, no accusations hunting him down, the only thing that remained to remind him what he has done were those thoughts and his nightmares. And Rey, kind Rey, was trying to take those away from him; she was trying to heal him. But he was not supposed to be healed; he was not supposed to forget because he didn't have paid yet. That argument had started a new conflict between the two. Rey wanted him slowly to begin healing, and Ben still wishing to hold firmly to his pain.

Confusing times.

The scene was quite unbelievable, shocking. Her mind was sent reeling, unable to comprehend or process the images it was being sent to her mind. She was awake, now gazing at the enormous ceiling above her. She cursed her name and existence as she was trying to read through them. Ben used to send her all kinds of memories when he was not building up walls for her to keep away. But Ben slowly got used to the dyad they shared, Rey as well, now it was part of them. They were not trying to fight it or hide from it.

Though those memories and nightmares that were brought late to her dreams, those were different. Those weren't surely Bens. Maybe they were only awful dreams, but she had the odd feeling that those were memories. Her memories? But unlike her older nightmares, those were as they were alive. If dream one called it in the darkness of that dream, the mind would conjure up magical moments, some dark and some so unreal. Those dreams would move in unnatural ways, maybe severely hunched. Most of the time, her breathing would increase rapidly and become gasps of breath. On awakening, despite the nightmare ending, a nauseous feeling of being watched by invisible eyes prolongs an uneasy feeling.

Not all was spoken, and Rey kept those worries hidden deep inside her unconsciousness; as the day became alive, her nightmares were slowly trying to find a way to hide. But so far, trouble had not come, mostly worries that her mind was creating. And she had her close friends, her family all around, that made her worries calm down. Her fear was her challenge to slay, for it would come until Rey would find a way to make it stop, unannounced and gnarly. The only way out was to order this brain to function, to demand solutions instead of this crazy-making circling anxiety. So though it felt as if her bones have no more strength and her muscles were all out of power, she still had the option to remain still, to be quiet enough to choose how to fight.

It was then when the nightmare or memory reached it high-pick, and it would alert Ben. Sometimes it blended with his sufferings and caused him to jump up in terror. However, worries as he would leap down his old room and storm over to Rey's, he would forcefully wake her up from her nightmare and wrap his strong arms around her. Because if someone would know about bad dreams that could hunt you down, it was Ben Solo. And he would never want to see Rey suffer through nightmares and awful memories.

And Ben Solo was enough to shift the tide of the nightmares to something brighter and colorful. The colors of a thousand saris would swirl in her mind like so much water going down a celestial plug hole. His awareness crushing through the darkness, as they billowed and spun in the unseen breeze, they left colors behind until all that was left was a world like a beautifully painted page in a children's picture book. No black, no darkness, it was washed away. Each color she touched sang with its sweet sound. And inside her mind, she held out her arms complete and spun like a child's spinning top so that the music encased her like a soft fleece blanket.

That's how great it was to share a dyad with Ben Solo.

Imperial Palace, Galactic City, Coruscant 37ABY

Light shone through the wintry branches, shadowy arms stretching across the ancient ruins. What was left stood despite itself, defying gravity in its precarious way? Yet, this place kept so many secrets forgotten through time. It had faced modern man's destructive touch and so had become a sanctuary of ruins. The Palace was bold on the black beyond. It stood there as if conjured from the storybook of a forgotten history book. It was perfect. Every stone was even and square as if those who built were set on perfection as if they loved what they made. They were walls constructed to protect a community, to echo with laughter, and to be the shelter they needed for the millennia to come.

It was a perfection lost in time and darkness.

The Falcon had finally landed in an open area in the Galactic City, also known as the Imperial City, the city used to cover the planet Coruscant's surface levels. It had comprised the entirety of Level 5127. Areas of the city included the Senate District, The Works, and CoCo Town. Built over thousands of years, Galactic City had been home to over a trillion individuals. Underneath the Galactic City used to be the thousands of lower levels of Coruscant collectively called the underworld.

The underworld was the location they would find the Sith's Soulstone.

They scaled from the Falcon -Ben, Rey, Poe, and Finn, followed by the three droids- as they ran through the streets of Coruscant into the Imperial Centre. They had agreed to take this high-risk mission to the planet alone. They had just stepped into the new ground, and they felt the years of history surround the Galactic City. It was dark; the stars could barely be seen hovering in the night sky over the city, walking through the Imperial City streets, aiming to reach the Imperial Palace.

From the streets, the Imperial Palace looked smaller and almost hiding its previous glory. In those streets, the party of seven were the only beating hearts, the only beings of warm blood and flesh. The walls around them were doubtless home to many in the relatively recent past, yet now it was an unfamiliar maze to all. The nightlight fell on the words that spoke to nobody, unaware that their audience had vanished, or that the streets lay silent beneath no boots at all, save theirs. It was as if someone had stopped time, removed all the distractions so they could see it for real, see how it was, what it was.

In a way, the Imperial City was as it was before, just devoid of the warmth that made it worthy of that term. It was a collection of buildings, roads laid like a carpet for a queen that would never come. Banners hang with slogans to be read-only by the dust-laden wind. The market was all set up as it awaited the citizens. A spooky feeling orbit around the group looked at each other, but they continued their way towards the Palace.

Ben sped on up the stairs as the rest followed. Now and again, he paused and turned to make sure the rest were following. Poe was right behind his heels, followed by Rey and Finn, and behind them the droids. Not far from the top, a spring crossed the path, and in front of them stood an enormous entrance, the main gate to the Imperial Palace.

'I read the signs aright' Ben thought to himself the darkness that was orbiting around the Palace was one of a kind. 'I can feel it too,' Rey suddenly spoke inside his mind through the force. They wondered what could cause such disturbance against the Force. But they didn't inform the others, not wanting to scare them. Ben hesitated at first to ender; he let his hand rest against Anakin's lightsaber, the one that Rey had lent him, "Be careful," he prompted in a lower tone, "we don't know what evil might lay here."

As they followed Ben inside, the seven-desired party to explore the Imperial Palace was hit with wonder. The vastness of the place struck them as an exercise in excess, the luxurious materials with which it was built as more of the same. Even in fallen in its doom, the Imperial Palace revealed its past glory. Many floors appeared utterly vacant, but it was not possible to bypass them all at once. Some elevators would lead to the uppermost floor and the Throne Room. The Throne Room, Palpatine's Throne Room, an area they would want to explore as well, but time was pressing.

There was an odd current in the Force, something he could not quite identify because when he focused on it, it seemed to recede as a mere echo. Ben shook his head; that unfamiliar darkness was somehow troubling him. They had to hurry, find what they are seeking, and escape from that forsaken place. "See-Threepio, where were Plapatine's private chambers?" Ben questioned.

C-3PO frequently found himself directly involved in pivotal moments of galactic history and aided in saving the galaxy on many occasions; Ben knew the protocol droid would have a map to guide them to Palpatine's private chambers. Even if his memory was wiped out many times, he should have that information.

And Ben was right.

C-3PO searched into his database, and it didn't take him long to locate Palpatine's old chambers, "Sir, I want you to know that I found the Emperor's private apartments; follow me." he said. "Artoo, If we don't make it, You should know: You have been a superb friend. My best one, in fact," C-3PO added as he took the lead and was now navigating them through the Imperial Palace to find Palpatine's private chambers.

R2-D2 responded with a sorrowful whir. He had lost many of his old friends, from Luke, Leia, and Han; he couldn't go through another loss. Especially one that might include C-3PO, one of his best friends indeed.

"I thought we were his friends," Poe noted as he leaned closer to Ben. "After all the time we spent together, R2-D2 is his best friend?"

Ben rolled his eyes. "Are you jealous now of See-Threepio and Artoo's friendship?" he puzzled, striding at a slower pace so he can interact with Poe. "And to be fair, those two know each other for decades; who can win against that?"

"It turns out you can," Poe assured Ben as he suddenly lifted his armed and messed Ben's hair. "Look at us; how did we start and know we are such good buddies!" Poe smirked and gave Ben a light hug only to irritate him further. Lately, toying around with Ben, like that, was Poe's favorite game. It would annoy Ben to his core, but he simply let him have his fun feeling guilty of what he had done to the pilot.

"I'd not call us buddies exactly," Ben pointed out, but Poe ignored him.

"We should keep going," came Rey's voice low and soft as she felt uneasy as they were getting closer to their destination; she leaped forward and ran ahead, trying to layout that they should be focused on their mission and any dangers that might appear.

C-3PO navigated quickly through the central area down to more private corridors, their boots tapping against the glittering marble floor as the protocol droid disappeared around the corner, guiding them to darker passages. The lights were getting dimmer as they were walking deeper inside the palace. A light change around Ben's and Ren's awareness caused them to settle over the Force. It was like someone was waiting for them in the lower levels of the Palace, someone who had not quite the skill to completely conceal their presence.

Suddenly, the crystal doors slid open, and the abandoned private chambers of the Emperor were revealed. Rey pulled out Leia's lightsaber, activated it, and offered a bit more light to their dim surroundings, and Ben repeated her action, drawing Anakin's Lightsaber. They intentionally strode through the main hallway that took them closer to that dark feeling. From afar, they looked; wandered as if lost, though in truth, all the Palpatine's champers' levels followed the same floor plan, and now they had figured out where they were going. They were reaching the entrance to the Palace's lower level, where his private Sith temple should be located.

'That isn't ordinary draw towards the darkness, and you know it,' his thought sprang inside Rey's mind through the force. He wanted to argue with himself, but he knew better. Some kind of darkness was at work here—it had cloaked itself to slip through the defenses they'd thrown up against it. 'But was the darkness a promise? A warning? Or both?'

"Things are about to change. Something's coming." Rey uttered vehemently as she stepped next to Ben, "Be ready!" she advised everyone.

Their heads were down and their hands clasped against the blasters. Ben could see them stealing looks at him and one another. Just as he could foresee the way, they shifted uneasily from foot to foot. Something was coming, and they knew it. And they were worried that it might be beyond their abilities to fight it.

Ben noted an up-normally against the glassy dusty walls deeper inside the room, the crack would have appeared to others as discomforting and sinister, but it was placed there as a doorway to the darker lower parts of the Palace. He stepped closer and let his hand touch the uneven matter. "I think this is the entrance," he revealed. He was sure that was the passageway; he could feel all the darkness alluring behind the closed forgotten door.

"How are we going to open it?" Finn asked as he appeared next to Ben, "There is no switch or button?" he added as he searched around.

Ben smirked as his gaze dropped at Finn, who was still looking for a reliable way to get inside. But Ben already knew it wouldn't work easy like that. He recalled Anakin's words that it might need part of Palpatine's blood. He gasped and suddenly looked at Rey, her blood. 'The door only opened when the Emperor needed it to open; it somehow recognized the bloodline.' Ben's thought reached Rey, a bit worried.

Rey paused, gazing at Ben, wide brown eyes met dark, and she nodded. She took a step closer towards the wall and lifted her hand, touching it. She slowly brought all her awareness around it and ordered it "Open!" Nothing happened, then she tried it again and again. And after a few more tries, the wall shuddered into small pieces revealing a black opening.

The group of seven gazed at each other; Ben stepped inside. First, Anakin's lightsaber was enough to make the dark surroundings bright, next Rey followed, and then the rest. Blackness came with such completeness it obliterated the area around them into more resounding silence. Ben seemed alerted like something was waiting for them in the shadows, but he could not name it. Rey felt it too. They bravely went on, steady and slow steps into the dark forgotten corridors of the underworld.

The blackness had come slowly, stealing their ability to navigate further, but Ben related to the Force and stepped further, with Rey next to his heels. In that blackness, everything seemed possible; their imagination could easily create any monster, Ben hissed, reminding himself that the old trick wouldn't play on him, as he used to be the monster.

The corridors seemed darkened, and the world around them dim and remote. They turned from the North back again to North and saw nothing in the far distance. But he felt it now. There was something there. Because the secret Temple of the Emperor should be filled with traps and guarded well, he stopped now as there was a presence trailed behind them, smugness emanating from it as it prided itself about its lack of detection.

Even as he gazed, his quick ears caught sounds in the deepest of the corridor below, on the west side. Ben stiffened. There were voices, and among them, to his horror, he could distinguish the harsh voices of men familiar to him. Then suddenly, with a deep-throated call, hollows were heard, rising in a mighty shadow ahead of them.

"Be ready," he sprang down the steps and away, leaping down the path. Rey followed behind him; she heard the sounds, too; they terrified her being. Poe, Chewie, and Finn pointed the blasters ahead; something was waiting for them. He ran now, as the voices came louder, Fierce, and shrill the yells of the unknown presents. Ben raced down the last corridor, and before he had reached the beginning of the previous passage, the voices died.

The silence grew around them, suffocating silence. Drawing his lightsaber and crying out, "Show yourself," he crashed through the corridor and landed in the center of an open dark area. Rey and the rest followed him. But again, they didn't see or hear anything. "They are here; I can feel them!" Ben warned them.

After only a brief moment, they stared at each other; all were eager to get the journey over as quickly as possible before the morning came, and life would return to the streets. And even if the old ruins weren't inhabited, the rest of Coruscant was, and although that wasn't a real problem, they couldn't be sure if some of them might be a threat.

Ben walked in front of them as before. He held up Anakin's lightsaber in his left hand, the light of which just showed the ground before his feet; in his right side following Rey. The opening twisted around a few turns and then began to descend. It went steadily down for a long while before it became level one again. The air grew hot and stifling, full of dust, and at times, they felt currents of cooler air upon their faces, issuing from half-guessed openings in the walls.

Ben glimpses of shadows slowly surrounding them; it was bewildering beyond hope of remembering. Those shadows started to feel familiar; he had felt that awareness before, coming off a known source. "Stand close," said Ben; he took a pause longer than usual, "Knights of Ren?" he whispered as the other crowded behind him. The company looked at each other confused, and fear started to rise between them.

"They are back?" questioned Rey in a low tone as she kept her lightsaber closer to her. "Didn't you kill them in Exegol?"

"Dead," muttered Poe. "I knew it; it wouldn't be easy."

"No, you didn't," offered Finn gazing alerting in front of him. "Aren't those your Knight's? Just tell them to go!"

Chewie roared, complaining as these dangers became more frequent, their march becomes slower, already feeling that those shadows were seizing around them.

"Yes," said Ben, "Kylo Ren used to be their leader. But they were not my Knights exactly."

"This seems confusing," Finn responded. "They were called the Knight of Ren, Ren's Knights? So how aren't they yours?"

Ben stepped forward cautiously, and the other filer behind him. It was not the right place or time for the History lesson, but Ben didn't mind giving him an answer. "The Knights of Ren, who served Kylo Ren, are dead. I killed them in Exegol," he exposed. "The Knights emerged from the Unknown Regions in the aftermath of the Galactic Civil War. They are no Jedi or Sith. Ren used to be their master."

"Then they had another master called Ren?" Poe said, baffled, remaining close to Ben.

"Exactly, I was one of the Knights, who rebelled again Ren, fought him and won the title as their master," Ben continued in the same low voice. "I took the name, Kylo Ren, influenced by the Knights of Ren, and not the other way around. They were slain in battle by me, but those here aren't the same Knights. They could be older members serving another cause."

"Why can't anything remain dead?" Finn questioned miserably, fearing that's those strange things would crawl up suddenly against them. "This time, make sure they remain dead!"

"The Knights of Ren follow a code, to which they were flexible in following: living life the way they wanted, taking what the galaxy gave them, and consuming what the dark side sent them." Ben said, "the Knights had fought alongside Kylo Ren and those that once considered faithful brothers were never truly loyal, but even when their hatred towards me rose, and they were Darth Sidious men, it isn't easy to take a life without dealing with the aftermath, especially with those who you spent a great amount of time with."

Rey agreed, "I don't like it. It may have nothing to do with how we treat our friends, but probably sometimes even the Dark Side follows some code." In deep thought, she was trying to recall every memory of Ben's encounter with the Knights of Ren and considering anxious how bitter, and sad Ben was when he fought them and ended up killing them.

"What do you mean?" suddenly asked Finn. "They are the bad guys; we kill them, we win! Or are you going to tell me you as Kylo Ren didn't have fun while doing all those killings and torturing?"

Ben stopped, enraged, he glared at Finn upon his shoulder. "Anger and so much wrath, that's what I felt. Giving everything to the Dark Side, being torn apart, taking a life wasn't fun. Why would it be? I never took pleasure in torture others; I just needed information and refused to give them to me. I killed to make a point, not for fun! Never for fun. Those are lives we are talking about; even Kylo Ren knew the weight of taking a life." Ben paused there; he already said enough. Those were his thoughts, his thoughts he didn't share with anyone, even when he was Kylo Ren. But Finn's words brought so much anger in him. And he said more than he should have.

Finn gazed at him without understanding. Bad guys were supposed to be killed. He couldn't grasp Ben's point of view; a Villain was having his code sounded ridiculous to Finn. The framer stormtrooper didn't get the full picture; maybe that was why he ended up killing other stormtroopers without even blinking and even having fun doing so.

"You should be more aware of your actions," Ben finally added, "The line between light and darkness is thin, Finn." His words came like a warning, as Ben spotted Finn's thoughts. Though it was not his place to judge him or guiding him through. When he first crossed path with Finn, Ben sensed the Force around him, and he noted his inner thoughts. Finn wasn't troubled for taking a life; that was not the point. Finn was scared of the battle of losing his own life.

The rest listened to Ben's lines, and they noted that Kylo Ren wasn't precisely the villain they thought he was. Indeed he was a monster, a dark leader that brought war upon the galaxy, but there was more beneath him. Kylo Ren had his plan that no one knew back then under his anger and conflict. After all, he didn't only fight against the light side, but with his actions, he was opposing the dark side as well.

Nothing more as heard for several minutes, but then there came breaths and gasping sounds. It seemed a thousand years ago in that dusty opening under the Imperial Palace and on that other side of the universe. They panted heavier now, the feeling of the enemy getting closer; Ben hardly spoke a word when there came a great noise.

Boom, that seemed to come from depths far below and to tremble in the stone at their feet. The awareness rose Ben and Rey felt it, and they looked at each other; the others sprang in alarm. Their blasters ready to fire, but the enemy wasn't showing itself yet.

Boom, Boom it rolled again as if giant hands were turning their weapons and slowly appearing in front of them.

Then again, there was silence, that kind of silence that made them only more nervous. They knew what they were dealing with, or at least some of it; they knew they would get attacked. But why did they enemy toy with them? Their anticipation was worse than fighting the enemy.

Boom, Boom came the next-beat and the walls shook.

Another harsh sound and thrilling cries rang around them. Feet were coming towards them, and the blackness around them got dimmer before it would get brighter. Glamdring shone with pale light and more optimistic at the edges. "Wait," Ben warned them, and a second later, his voice came loud and reliable "Now!" Next, his lightsaber followed as he stroke first.

「Upcoming Chapter: Act Fifty - Two」

Okay, guys, that's all. I hope you enjoyed reading the 51st chapter.

Thank you all so much! Stay awesome! Stay sweet!

And be nice to each other, see you soon, in the next chapter!

Feel free to Review and Follow the story!

Feedback is always appreciated!

Adelgado28: Yup, yup, I love those moments as well. I just cannot have enough of Ben and Rey's sweet moments. ^_^

vista friendly: Thank you for liking the story. ^_^ It means a lot.