Nineteen.

The planet Mustafar glowed in the inky night, the lava flows forming throbbing orange scars on the planet's surface, reminding him of the joins in the last iteration of his helmet, discarded in his Silencer before he faced Rey that last time on Kef Bir. And of the scar she had given him as she had bested him in that snowy wood on Starkiller. Unconsciously, he touched his right cheek, feeling the unmarked flesh and recalling the searing instant when she had slashed him across the face and shown him that she was a power to be reckoned with. Even amid the collapse of the planet, all he could think of was her.

Last time he had come here, he was too distracted, too focussed to just stare at the orb as he approached, marvelling in the unique beauty of the world. Instead, he had been feverishly reading intelligence reports and meditating, clearing his mind of all distractions except his fury and determination to crush any opposition to his rule. He sighed. After killing Snoke and losing Rey on Crait, he had been single-minded for a period of time, utterly convinced that his vision of the future was correct. That she would turn and come to realise that her destiny was to rule the Galaxy at his side. But the Darkness had been so strong, so all-pervasive that he had never realised how desperate he truly was. Every time he repeated the mantra was to convince himself. He had been a pretty good actor, he acknowledged, because his return to the monster had been spectacular and had succeeded in quelling all overt opposition in his ranks and in crushing opposition.

He walked to the cockpit and found the Generals bickering. In fact, everyone had been bickering. Tamini had emerged from the cabin to treat his wounds, shot an enormous tirade of pretty impressive cussing at him and then had locked herself back in because they hadn't turned round to take her back to Kineva. In addition, Zorii had been exceptionally pissed when she had realised that her ship was stranded on D'Nolos along with the rebel ship and it had taken Rose and Jannah a lot of calming down to stop her punching Poe and seizing control of the Falcon. And then Rose had needed to contact D'Acy and Kaydel to organise pilots to collect both ships from the planet while everyone had blamed each other for the catastrophic plan.

And tacitly blamed Ben for everything.

"Looks like a pretty hostile place," Finn commented as he slid into a seat.

"Are those lava flows?" Poe asked, checking the screens for a thousandth time.

"Yes," Ben admitted. "Though last time I was here, I was the most dangerous thing on the planet." They stared at him. "I came here to find the Sith Wayfinder from Darth Vader's castle."

"I presume you succeeded," Finn put in.

"Yeah," he admitted. "I found Exegol, didn't I?"

And I slaughtered the entire membership of a Cult of Vader who tried to protect the Castle from me. Dozens dead-all by my hand. And all I can recall is red rage, fire and blood. The screams, the hiss and spit of my saber, the exultant feeling as I thrust the blade through body after body, the smell of burning meat, the coppery scent of blood, the sudden silence as the last one fell. My breaths, harsh amid the silence and the approaching tramp of the Stormtroopers, slowly catching me up…

"Yeah…that really worked out great," Poe muttered, unable to help himself. But Ben found himself smiling very slightly at the pilot-turned-General's comment. Poe Dameron, the best pilot in the Resistance, had shown no fear or uncertainty when he had been captured by the First Order and he remained confident and smart-mouthed now.

"Not so much for the First Order or the Emperor," Ben murmured. "Or Rey."

He closed his eyes, the images sleeting through his memory.

…running across the uneven ground of Exegol, under the floating monolith, hearing her in danger, feeling her despair and anger and resignation as she faced the foul malevolent pit in the Force that was Palpatine…

…launching himself into the abyss, angling his body to hit the massive chain and impacting so hard his body jarred down to his bones…

…sprinting through the Temple, trading shots with the defenders, feeling freer than he had for years, fighting for once with a clear mind and whole heart, not conflicted or ambivalent any more…

…surrounded by the Knights of Ren, fighting with everything he had to get to her, to protect her and help her end the foul presence that was radiating the smothering Dark. Losing, being beaten and bloodied, dropping to his knees, their bodies closing on him, their weapons raised to end their traitorous fallen master…

…feeling her brilliant light through the Bond, feeling the assuredness of the plan, the single-minded trust, the brush of her hand on his as she handed off the lightsaber and the gentle brush of her psyche against his….

I'm glad you're here.

…seeing them all take a pace back as he brought the saber from behind his back. Feeling the surge of triumph that zinged through his veins at the smell of their fear. Armed with a blaster, he was dead meat. Armed with a lightsaber, they were dead. And he had proven that, ripping through them all with the skills that he had won over years, a walking army filled with the Force and bloodlust and so much brutal determination. Impaling the last one and ending the final Sith Guard to get to her side…

…scarified by the Dark Lord, sabers flying from their hands as they writhed in the lightning. Sucked almost dry by the monster as he fed of their Bond, their life force to regenerate his rotting corpse and stand before them once more. Falling into darkness, his existence flickering uncertainly on the blink of oblivion…but knowing that she was there, mere inches away…so he hung on. He hung on…

…waking first and being tossed aside like a piece of trash by Palpatine. Flying away from her unconscious shape, impacting on the rocks and falling, falling…

…lying there in pain, dying. Feeling her call, her despair and sorrow…

Be with me. Be with me.

…and feeling them finally come. Knowing she heard what he never had: the voices of the previous Jedi, sustaining and nurturing her. Knowing they would support her when he could not. When he had been inadequate…

I am all the Sith!

And I…am all the Jedi.

…the explosion, searing the Sith from existence finally. The sudden lightening of the oppression of the Darkness. The scents of cooked meat and decay and dust. The gentle flicker of the light. Then silence. An almost silent sound as she fell. And nothing at the other end of the Bond…

…climbing, despite his fearsome injuries. He would have ripped the remains of his body apart to be with her. Because she needed him and he needed her. He had discarded everything to be with her. She was his soul…and now he was torn in two. Scrambling over the uneven, shattered ground. Seeing her lying there. Cradling her lifeless form in his arms, feeling his heart shatter at the sight of her grey lips, her sightless eyes. Knowing he would never see that smile again…

…failing her one final time…

"Ren?"

He was on his knees tears flowing freely down his face, his hands fisted against his chest. He couldn't breathe, couldn't do anything except see her die, over and over. And then, there were hands on his shoulder, gentle touches that were nothing like anything he had felt before. Someone was crouching at his side, an arm flung awkwardly across his shoulders and a hand kindly rubbing his back.

"It's okay."

Rose? Could this get any worse? But she was leaning close and murmuring reassurances and she was being kind to him which just made him feel like he wished the ground would swallow him up. He swallowed and struggled to breathe, forcing the images away and pressing his fists to his face to try to hide his eyes, though his choking, sobbing breaths were loud in the quiet compartment.

"Why?" he rasped.

"You were thinking of her, weren't you?"

It wasn't really a question and he shamefully nodded.

"Whatever the Bond you had, it went beyond simple communication, didn't it."

He nodded again, slowly mastering his breathing.

"I could feel her thoughts, her emotions, her light…"

"Did you love her?"

Rose's voice was soft and he looked up into her dark eyes. Slowly, he nodded.

"Yes." Then he gave a bitter laugh. "The Dark Side is all about anger and hatred but in the end, I'm brought down by her light. Her kindness. Her love. And I…I dreamed and hoped and for an instant, as we stood side by side, sabers raised as we faced the Emperor, I felt a kind of peace because I was where I wanted to be, at her side, as one…" He swallowed again and swiped his face dry with his sleeve. "And I would have given my life to bring her back because she deserves life so much more than I do. I had it all-a family, a home, people who cared- and I allowed them to be destroyed. I destroyed them myself. She had nothing but she rose above it and forged a new life by doing the right thing. Against me." Rose gently got up and inspected him, then offered him her hand. He allowed her to pull him to his feet.

"I told Finn that we wouldn't win by destroying what we hated but by saving what we loved," she told him. "That was what Rey did, wasn't it? She did it all to save us. she fought the Emperor, gave her life…for us."

He nodded.

"And you are doing this to save her. The woman you love, who you are linked to by some weird bond I can't begin to understand…" He managed a wan smile.

"I think you've demonstrated pretty astute understanding of what we are," he said quietly. "And what I am." Rose gave a sigh.

"You cannot change the past," she told him and he felt his heart sink. "But you can change the future. You can change the person you are, the person who faces that future. You can change what you do. You can do everything in your power to correct the mistakes of the past and make reparation."

"How can you forgive the unforgivable?" he asked her quietly. She wrapped her arms around herself and her eyes unfocussed.

"Do the impossible," she murmured. "No one can bring my sister back. No one can restore Paige to life. But Rey…if that is even possible, then it is something you have to try. And I will do everything I can to help you."

His eyes widened, feeling the aura around the young woman facing him. She wasn't Force sensitive but she glowed with the same light that had blinded him in the presence of Rey. Hardened by battle and tinged by loss and sorrows, she was still essentially all light. Quietly, he slid onto the seat and looked up into her face.

"Tell me about Paige…please?" he asked her softly. Her eyes widened and for a moment, he wondered if she would yell at him that it wasn't her business, that he was the reason she was dead, that he didn't deserve to know. But instead, she sat opposite him and gave a brilliant smile, her eyes glowing with love. And then she began to speak.

-o0o-

The landing was hard, the heated winds battering the Millennium Falcon as they found a suitable landing site amid the iron-hard trees. Shaken and not at all embarrassed, Poe closed down the engines and glanced at the crew as he walked into the main crew quarters.

"So how's this gonna go?" he asked, looking at the assembled passengers. Ben was standing to one side, his gaze flicking over the others. The moment they had entered Mustafar's atmosphere, he had gone quiet, the incessant buzzing of the Dark growing louder and louder in his head.

"I'll go in alone," Ben said immediately. There were cries of protest.

"No way!" Finn snapped.

"Absolutely not!" Poe added.

"I'm coming with you," Rose added.

"Ya think we're leading Kylo Ren out of our sight after everything we did to get you back?" Zorii added. He gritted his teeth, hearing Chewie add his protest.

"Not happening," Jannah added while Beau shook his head.

"Gotta be kidding," he added. "Leaving you alone of a planet where you could contact your allies or get your hands on Sith weapons…"

"Mustafar is a Dark locus," he said shortly, trying to explain while suppressing the whispers in his head. "There are things here that are dangerous."

"Apart from you," Finn snarked. The former stormtrooper's mood had changed and he wondered if the man knew he was Force-sensitive…or if he understood that made him far more vulnerable in this place.

"You shouldn't go," he told Finn and he felt the flare of anger.

"I don't-and neither do you," the dark-skinned man snapped. Ben stamped down on his rising temper.

"Finn," he growled through gritted teeth. "You are Force sensitive. This place reeks of darkness. You don't have the shields or the experience to filter the Dark Side out. It could smother you."

"And you? Won't you just go back to the Dark?" Jannah asked sharply. He winced.

"I…have a lot more experience in resisting the Darkness," he explained grudgingly.

"Yeah-you were doing such a great job of it up 'til the time Rey kicked your ass," Finn snarked. Fists balling, Ben lurched forward a step and found Poe and Zorii had levelled their blasters at him. Instinctively, he flung his hand up and slammed them back against the walls, the weapons flying from their numbed hands.

"This place…preys on your fears and insecurities…" he growled. "Every slight or injustice you have felt is magnified. You have to keep a clear head just to walk through here unscathed. I can do that because I spent years under Snoke's tutelage and I never fully accepted the Darkness…though I wanted to. But the doubts I had, that last tiny ember of Light saved me. And now I have a purpose, to save Rey. I can do this. But I cannot if you all want to shoot me in the back on the trip. STAY HERE!" He gestured and Poe's blaster flew into his hand, even as he sprinted for the ramp. Leaping down as the exit lowered, he was out of the ship and running across the uneven ground even before they could respond.

"ENOUGH!" Rose snapped, glaring at everyone. Most of them had weapons in their hands and almost everyone had turned to start the chase. "Enough! Everyone take a break and sit down. That's an order!"

"I'm pretty sure a General out-ranks a Commander," Finn growled at her as her eyes widened.

"And I'm pretty sure the Finn I know wouldn't ever dare to say that!" she snapped, looking over at Poe. The Pilot-turned-General was eyeing his fellow General with a very thoughtful expression.

"Buddy-what are you feeling?' he asked calmly, seeing Finn rigid with anger.

"That I want to get my hands on that treacherous bastard and watch him die slowly and painfully," Finn said in a cold voice.

"And Rey?"

"Rey's dead," Finn told him, slowly turning back to face his friend. "Ren killed her…"

"You know, I think he may be right," the former pilot sighed. "Finn-you were the one who persuaded us to help Ren. You were the one who got him off Ajan Kloss. You were the one who insisted that if there was any way we could get Rey back, we had to try."

"You know what he's done? How many people he killed on his own? And how many more he ordered murdered?" he spat.

"No," Rose murmured. "And here and now, that doesn't even matter."

"It should," Finn snarled. "Just outside this ship, there are bodies strewn all over the ground. Dozens and dozens. And pretty much all of them died on his lightsaber. And you say it doesn't matter?"

"Rey matters," Rose insisted. "And he knows what he's looking for."

"We have to get him back!" Finn insisted.

"And we will, buddy," Poe told him. "But we need to choose who goes…"

"And it can't be you," Jannah sighed, popping up behind him and jabbing an injection deep into his neck. His eyes widened and he collapsed to the ground. She sighed. "He'll wake with a bad head and probably even more grumpy," she explained, shrugging her shoulders. "I'll stay with him."

"Rose, Chewie and I will go," Poe decided.

"And me," Zorii insisted.

"And Zorii. And also BB8," he decided. "Then at least one of us will be immune to whatever got in his head. I need a blaster and then we need to get out there. Jannah, Beau-can you make sure the ship is ready to leave at a moment's notice? This place gives me the creeps." Beau handed him a comm.

"Keep in touch," he advised the General. "And we'll watch Finn. Now go!" Weapons gathered, they sped down the ramp and out into a bleak forest, the trees skeletal and scorched, the ground uneven and blackish grey from cooled lava flows. Detritus was strewn around, slightly softening the desolate lines of the terrain. Ahead, just visible amid the trees, there was the black outline of a fortress, halt-tumbled and ruined. Poe jerked his head.

"That's our direction," he decided as they trotted forward, BB8 rolling gamely along, his little beeps the only sounds in the dead environment. But it was when they topped the rise that they met the horror that Finn had described. There were a couple of fallen stormtroopers, discarded like the insignificant cogs in the First Order machine that they were considered-but far outnumbering them were others. Defenders. Rose felt her eyes trailing over the corpses, partially rotted amid the sulphurous fumes of the planet. All were cut down with slashes, the edges charred by the energy of a lightsaber. Several had been impaled, the holes seared shut. Others were decapitated or hacked apart. Every death was violent and brutal, evidence of a warrior expending his rage and hatred in every stroke. And the bodies stretched on and on, over the rise and into the next little valley.

Rose gasped, her mind sliding back to the man she had comforted, a man who had been broken by loss and pain and a broken heart. The dichotomy was stark and she realised that this was what Rey had tried to explain to her before: the slaughter before her was the work of Kylo Ren…but the broken-hearted man she had gently hugged on the Millennium Falcon was Ben Solo.

A blaster shot sounded up ahead-and then another. There were yells and shouts and the group shared the shortest of glances before they accelerated over the next small rise into another shallow valley-to find Ben facing a couple of dozen shapes wrapped in dark robes who looked uncannily like those worn by the corpses behind them. Dashing in, the group fired on the robed shapes, ducking returning fire and hunkering down behind the iron-hard trees. There was scant other cover and they heard Ben mutter a soft curse.

"Damned cultists." Poe looked up and stuffed his hand in his bag, feeling the heavy metal shape within. He had taken it from Finn's berth as he collected another blaster, hating himself but knowing it was of use to only one person. Closing his hand on the weapon, he pulled it out.

"REN!" he shouted and threw the lightsaber. An arm shot up and his hand closed on the cool metal, thumbing the activator with practice. The blue blade hummed into life as Ben felt the surge of energy flow through him, the urge for battle singing in his blood. Leaning forward, balanced perfectly with the blade pointed directly forward and the blaster in his other hand, his eyes narrowed as he looked along the blade and the corner of his mouth turned up a fraction.

To the watching others, it seemed as if Kylo Ren had suddenly come back to life. The shape and movements were eerily familiar from the battle against Luke Skywalker they had witnessed outside the base on Crait, the motions purposeful and powerful, the certainty back. As one, the strangers attacked, coming at Ben from all sides. Frozen, they watched as the lightsaber swept round, taking two out immediately, their dying shapes seared with the cut of the energy blade. Ben blasted two with his blaster before slamming another back, flying to impact into a trunk behind the others.

"Any time you wanna join in, feel free," Ben grunted, snapping them out of their shock. Poe shot the nearest attacking shape and nodded.

"Come on!" he yelled and launched into the battle. Ducking down, the foursome fired fiercely at the attackers, clearing a path between themselves and the looming ruins ahead. Ben was a swirling, powerful one-man battalion, slamming the defenders aside, deflecting blaster shots with the saber or with his hand. Zorii ducked and fired, the blast a few feet to Ben's side. He spun, his eyes narrowing and his blaster swung up, the shot missing her by a whisker. She flinched-and then heard a body fall behind her. Snapping her head round to see the defender who had raised a vibro-axe behind her fall, she afforded him the slightest nod before blasting away another. Until suddenly, they were alone, surrounded by a sea of corpses.

Breathing hard, Ben slowly lowered the lightsaber and his blaster.

"I guess…you can see how the last visit here went down," he commented, the blood lust still zinging through his veins. Consciously he deactivated both weapons and stared ahead, reminding himself that they were his allies. Rey's friends.

"Who were they?" Rose asked.

"Cultists," he murmured. "Cult of Vader."

"As in…" Poe clarified.

"Darth Vader," Ben confirmed, hearing Chewie yowl in distress. "My grandfather. And yeah, I know. But until Kef Bir, I wanted to become the new Vader. To correct his mistakes and rule as he should have done."

The others shared a glance but remained silent. He nodded.

"And now…Castle Vader awaits," he said and headed off. Zorii glanced at the others and shrugged.

"Doesn't anyone else think this is a horrible idea?" she asked.

"Oh yeah," Poe agreed. "But we're going anyway. Even though he doesn't believe it, he needs our help. We've come this far so…anyone wanna go back to the ship?" Rose glared at him and walked past, followed by Chewie and Zorii, who pointedly holstered her blaster as she passed. BB8 gave a series of pointed beeps. "Yeah, I thought so as well," Poe conceded as he trailed along after them.