Ten

Rey found herself swathed in ice and fire, battered by a hurricane of power. Around her, the air was poisoned by the malignant presence of Snoke, clammy and viscid and foul with cruelty and evil.

"Young Rey," he breathed, his voice sending shivers down her spine from the memories of those minutes in his evil presence. Alive, he was a black maelstrom, more treacherous and dark than the dark space below the Jedi Temple but dead, he seemed even more dangerous, a powerful current dragging her closer and closer to his sphere, tainting her with his very proximity. Just feeling the edge of his toxic presence reminded her of those agonising moments as she matched herself again the Supreme Leader-and was found wanting. He had sifted through her mind with complete ease, uncovering every corner of her memory and she had been utterly powerless. There was no resisting him as she had Kylo Ren: Snoke took it all and as brutally and painfully as he could. He had sensed her potential, categorised it and taunted her with the loyalty of his instrument, Ren…but in the end, he had lost. His own manipulation had undone him because their Bond had made them stronger, made them closer…and had allowed them to make their own decisions. Kylo…Ben…had saved her and slain Snoke.

"What are you doing here?" she hissed, drawing every ounce of calmness into herself. Since those moments on Exegol, she had felt connected far more closely to the Force, felt the power of every Jedi flow through her. It was there, just a thought away, filling her with light and warmth and belonging…and even amid Snoke's ferocious attack, she was able to call the light to her and cause him to pause.

"I believe we share a purpose, child," he said patronisingly, dark tendrils of Force wrapping themselves around her and she felt bile rise in her throat. She had never felt this constricted by the Darkness, even when she had faced the Emperor but as she centred herself, forcing the tension from her body and drawing on the Light. But despite that, an attenuated humanoid shape coalesced from the fog. The pallid blue eyes were colder than the depths of space, the scarred and deformed head looming over her.

"But you…" she mouthed.

"Oh silly girl, you have no idea," the former Supreme Leader chuckled, moving towards her and extending his talon-like hands towards her. Her body stiffened, rejecting his attack. "My powers far transcend anything that you have experienced or read…"

"Snoke," Rey managed to utter in pure astonishment as she felt another sickening tsunami of the Dark Force energy pour over her. "But I thought the Darkness…when Palpatine…"

"And here I thought you had more brains than my foolish apprentice," Snoke said haughtily. "Not even the Emperor's granddaughter is that smart it seems."

"You knew?"

"Girl, I've known all along!" Snoke laughed and his laugh felt so sickening. "I could smell him on you. It was laughable, watching you being so weak, so pathetic when all the time, the Galaxy was your birthright. Scavenging scraps of metal from the wrecks of your grandsire's fleet? Pathetic!"

"How can you still be this strong! Palpatine said he made you!" Rey retorted as she tried to move back.

"There are more ways to make someone child," Snoke smirked. "Surely you can feel it…."

Rey had goosebumps as she tried to take a step back. Snoke took a step forward while saying "The reason I wanted you….."

"You tried to kill me!" Rey retorted.

"It made you stronger didn't it!" Snoke shot back. "Child, haven't you felt that familiar feeling…" For a sickening second, she felt his cruelty and manipulation enswathe her, his lies and half-truths and inferences seeking to confuse her and manoeuvre her to where he needed her to be…but she closed her eyes and a small smile lifted her lips.

"No," she said calmly. "Palpatine is gone. The Light remains."

"And I am the strongest left," he taunted her. "I know why you are here, girl. You seek to return-as do I." He gestured. "We hover at the breach, by Dathomir. Here the walls are weakest…but Dathomir is a Dark stronghold. My powers will be strongest while yours diminished."

Though I defeated the Emperor, the Lord of the Sith on the Sith Homeworld, Rey thought, inspecting the shape facing her. He chuckled.

"Your body will be waiting, child-but yours may not be the soul to occupy it," he taunted her and her eyes widened. The vision flashed before her eyes once more-of the spectre she had faced on the ruins of the Death Star II on Kef Bir. Of a Dark Empress with sharpened teeth and red eyes and a double-ended red lightsaber, her soul a pit of cruelty and hatred and evil. The being Palaptine would have made her, the future she had baulked from when she rejected Kylo Ren's offer to rule at his side…the future Snoke sought.

"No," she said. "No. I will not allow it."

"Child…you will have no say. The ritual asks for what you cannot give, what your friends cannot offer and the sacrifice which no one will be able to complete…" Snoke sneered.

"What?" she breathed. He waved his hand through the fog and she screamed, dropping to her knees. White hot daggers lanced through her mind, tearing and slicing with utter mechanical cruelty. She felt blinded and almost insane with the agony…and yet she knew instinctively that it wasn't her pain. It was resonating down the Bond that Snoke had probed and pried open once more.

"Ben," she breathed. Snoke laughed scornfully.

"My failure of an apprentice," he scoffed. "He was riven in two by the death of his father and his conflict consumed him. He could have ruled…but instead, he turned away from his destiny. And now…he can't help you, Rey. Because he can't even help himself. The First Order have him…and they will tear him apart!" Head snapping up eyes blazing, Rey gritted her teeth and reached out, trying to touch him, to offer him comfort and strength-but just like that, the Bond was snapped shut once more.

Snoke is keeping us apart, she realised. He fears what we are together.

But another, more pressing thought swirled through her mind as she staggered back, away from Snoke.

What is happening to Ben?

-o0o-

He awoke slowly, welcoming the dim lighting of the cell where he was still strapped to the interrogation chair. Automatically, he tensed against the restraints and struggled but he knew there was scant chance he could break free. So he let his head slump back and closed his eyes.

He hadn't talked. That was for certain because he would not betray those Rey had given her life for. But he had screamed because no one could resist with the pain the machine had caused him. Worse than Snoke, worse than Palpatine, worse than anything he had endured, all he could do was focus on Rey, on the memories of their bond, on her Light. Clinging to the memories of their bond, of the compassion and hope she had spent on him, over and over when he was so undeserving of anything other than hatred and disgust, was his only armour against the agony that shrouded him. The Imperial Interrogator was a brutal device that was the antithesis of his own abilities, designed solely to scarify and cause pain, setting the prisoner begging to spill his secrets and betray whatever his captors desired. And yet, they had failed. Even with every possible variant, at maximum setting for what seemed like the entire length of the life of the Universe, they had failed to break him. He knew that he had only failed once-with Rey. Otherwise, he had been able to tear what he wanted from his victims, rending information from memories and smashing down every attempt at resistance. And he knew he had caused untold pain as well.

But he thought he had felt her brush against him, felt the faintest caress of her Light against his tormented psyche and the deepest stab of pain had wracked him. There had been something else as well, an acrid edge to the contact that he recognised from years of hating and fearing and answering that mind. Snoke. Somehow, his former master and enemy was near Rey-and that only redoubled his anxiety that she was in peril.

The door hissed open and he tensed. It was automatic because he was in pain and he knew he was vulnerable. Two Stormtroopers and the smug shape of Lieutenant Mitaka entered, inspecting him.

"It's obvious that you are awake," the Lieutenant said. "Good. It makes matters easier." Ben opened his eyes and fixated the man with a hard glare.

"You're wasting your time," he said in a low voice.

"I was given an order and I obey my Commanding Officer," Mitaka told him. He nodded to the Stormtroopers and they walked forward, one fisting his hair and then jabbing a needle into his neck. "You are to be sedated and then taken for further examination." He nodded and the troopers unlatched the restraints then snapped binders around his wrists. He was hauled to his feet.

"It's over," Ben told Mitaka.

"For you," the Lieutenant hissed, his eyes suddenly flaring with repressed anger. "You think there isn't a man on this vessel who isn't waiting to witness your execution? Everyone knew you were a rabid dog, a monster that translated any failure into destruction-on the ship, on those who served you, on anyone stupid enough to be within a mile of you when you threw one of your tantrums. You were an affront to us, those who served and actually maintained the First Order's dominance. And now you turn like a coward, betraying us in our hour of triumph. I'm just glad you didn't break, Ren, because now we get to repeat the process."

"And you'll fail again," Bem told him, feeling his vision blur.

"Your sorcerer's powers won't help you now," Mitaka hissed and nodded. One of the stormtroopers lifted his blaster and the butt creased Ben's skull. He slammed to the ground once more and his head spun...but as he curled up just before he was hauled up, he felt a sudden trickle of power. Not fighting, letting them shove him forward, he felt the faintest brush of the Force breathing through him. Not the symphony of power he had effortlessly wielded before Exegol but perhaps the first signs of return.

It was maybe the first flicker of hope he had felt since she died, since he had cradled her dead body in his arms and felt his heart shattered. When she died, when the bond severed, part of his soul was taken too and ever since, he had laboured in his private hell…but now, perhaps, there was a chance he could get out of here and try to save her. Maybe.

They shoved him forward, driving him through the blue-lit corridors, the reflective surfaces darkening as his presence passed. At every intersection, there was a little nudge with the butt of a blaster or a shoulder that sent him stumbling. It was petty and pointless but seemed in character with the men who were imprisoning him, taking their revenge on him at every possible opportunity. As they walked, he felt the anger begin to build, the seductive surge of power calling to him as he was escorted through the corridors.

These insects think they can end you. You are Kylo Ren. Embrace your birthright. Crush them.

The Darkness was calling him, the surging power there more than enough to allow him to break free and wreak terrible vengeance on Peavey, Mitaka and everyone else here who had betrayed him…

...and just as swiftly as the thoughts surged forward, they were dismissed as he had ever since Kef Bir. Ben Solo had made the conscious decision to reject the darkness and though the swirling desire for revenge, the hatred and fear and anger were seductive, they were the antithesis of what he had become. At the end, he had turned to the Light. He had rejected the negative emotions that had controlled him, that had destroyed him for years and years. Quietly he reached within his mind and grasped what power he could muster, slowly insinuating it into the binders and clicking the lock open-just a fraction but enough.

He was pushed into an elevator, the door hissing closed and he stared straight ahead-and then sprung into action, ripping his hands free and grabbing the nearest blaster. Two shots dispatched the two guards and then he flung his hand out, the power of the Force freezing Mitaka. The man's eyes widened, his mouth slack with shock and sudden fear.

"Im...possible…" he breathed. "The drugs...the machine...you shouldn't be able to…"

Feeling as if lasers were slicing his head open, Ben narrowed his eyes. It would be so satisfying to tighten the power around Mitaka's neck and squeeze, to make the man feel the terror and pain and helplessness that he had felt under the machine...but he knew that revenge would be a betrayal of Rey. And it would make Snoke proud, that he was slipping back towards the darkness...

"You cannot comprehend what is possible," he managed through his teeth as the doors of the elevator opened. Crushing the desire for revenge, he slammed the Lieutenant back against the far wall of the corridor and then collapsed to his knees as the man slumped, unconscious. Chest heaving with the effort, he found his whole body trembling but he forced himself to his feet and grabbed the blaster. "And that shouldn't have been that hard." He checked both directions up and down the corridor and then ran off in the direction of the hanger.

He needed to get off the ship-and fast. Because if Rey was anywhere near Snoke, then she was in gravest danger. Snoke was old, powerful and far more knowledgeable than Rey-and as such, even in the Force, he still possessed the power to destroy her.