Finn grabbed Maia and hauled her up. They ran out into the cold, Finn kept a firm grip on her upper arm. It was going to be rough getting back to the Falcon with Maia stumbling as much as she was. The sound of a lightsaber made them stop.
Maia had fallen in the snow as soon as they paused and was muttering and clutching her head. The only weapons they had were blasters and Finn knew how well those would work against Kylo Ren. His hand brushed against the lightsaber he had been carrying since Takodana. Something in him said to give it to Maia, then she wouldn't be weaponless.
"We aren't done yet." Kylo Ren said. "Han Solo can't save you."
Ren blasted Rey back and that seemed to snap Maia out of it. She crawled to the girls' side and gave Finn a look. He made a small motion with the lightsaber in his hand and she shook her head and closed his hand over it.
"Traitor!" Kylo wasn't sure exactly who he was talking to in this moment.
Finn turned and faced Kylo Ren with his grandfather's lightsaber
Maia watched them fight, and stood up. There had to be something she could do. She walked towards them carefully, she could fight him this time. It wouldn't be like last time. I can do this, I can do this. She repeated to herself with every step she took. They weren't dead yet, she could protect them. It won't be like last time.
There was a cry and the lightsaber flew out of Stormie's hand and right at her feet. She heard his pain, it stabbed her right to her core.
She picked up the lightsaber. It sang a soft swelling song of balance, it was a song she knew well. She looked up and met his eyes for the first time in a long time. He was older and taller. She wondered how she looked to him, if she still looked like the young woman who glowed gold in the sunlight, at the top of a distant hill.
Kylo Ren turned off his lightsaber and held out his hand to her, "Maia, bring it to me. I spared your life once, I can give you a better life than what they are giving you now."
"What color is the sky today?"
"It's black." He stated the obvious, as per usual.
"Black like it was when you left me with blood on my hands and a hole on my soul that I've never been able to fill. The sky used to be golden and so was I." Tears were filling her eyes. Her grip on the lightsaber was becoming painful but she couldn't bring herself to push the button.
"What have they been doing to you? Why are you like this?" His voice was strained with anger. He beat at his wound then held out his hands again, "Maia, come to me."
They had been here before. She remembered now.
"Come with me Maia." He held out his hand.
"Ben, help me."
"I can't leave here without you Maia. He's asking for you."
She looked down at the child in her arms. He was fading into the Force, she couldn't help him. "You killed him."
"I had to kill him."
The darkness swirled around him and tried to invade her. It whispered promises of revenge to those who harmed her, power beyond the limits of the light. And Ben Solo.
"No, you didn't." She hugged the body of the dead boy, "they all could have lived."
Ben tried to separate her from the boy but it was like the Force couldn't move her. He grabbed her shoulder and yanked her away. She started hitting him and he felt everything she was feeling, loss, betrayal, anger, hate. It swirled around inside her and it was destroying her. "Maia, let go." He grabbed her wrists to stop her from hitting him. She slipped on the mud and fell, taking him with her.
She was still fighting him. He straddled her and forced her to be still. "Maia, stop struggling and let me help you." But she was crying and he could read her mind, she was breaking. She was far more fragile than he had thought. "Maia, I can help you."
"Kill me."
"No, Maia, I am supposed to bring you to him."
"I'm already dead." She struggled beneath him.
He tried to stop her, from fighting him. He tried to just knock her out but he couldn't. She was fighting him with every ounce of her strength, but she wasn't strong enough. He knocked down all of her walls, everything that was holding her together. He drew back, he hadn't meant it to go that far.
There was nothing left of her worth taking with him.
She remembered what he had done, the things she had been hiding from herself for so long, the part of her she denied. She looked down at the lightsaber. She should be able to push the button, to attack him, end this, end everything that he had done. But she couldn't, she wasn't supposed to.
"You used to be a king, but the sword has changed allegiance." She held out her hand with the lightsaber, "Only the one true king can pull this sword form stone."
Kylo reached for the lightsaber with the Force, but it wasn't budging. Next, he tried to move Maia, but she was equally unmovable. He cursed, this shouldn't be possible, what was she?
The lightsaber flew from her hand and right into Rey's. The force of Rey's pull on the saber had made her stumble to the ground, scraping her palms on the dirt under the snow. Kylo Ren seemed to have forgotten she was there as he charged at Rey.
She stumbled to her feet, nature was collapsing around them, even the Force wouldn't be able to hold this planet together for long. She had to find Stormie and get off this planet. The fear rose in her throat and she had to fight it down. She could save them, she had to save them.
Stormie had a deep gash in his back. She placed her hands on him and started healing him. This would take too long, the creature in his chest was destroying faster than she knew how to heal.
Her heart wouldn't stop beating in time with the Force as the light and the dark clashed around her. The fight had moved far away from them but she could feel it like it was happening above her head. She paused and yelled in frustration, her head touching Finn's chest. It was too much, this was all too much again.
Something reached out and touched her. It was the queen, she was asking for help. Maia felt her heart calm and she sent the queen every ounce of strength, every scrap of knowledge she could remember from her training. It wasn't nearly enough, but she hoped that Rey could use it better than she had.
The ground shook beneath them, Rey stumbled out of the forest and fell to her knees beside them. "He will be fine." Maia assured her. "Chewie is coming."
True to her word, the Falcon appeared in front of them. Chewie carried Finn and Rey supported Maia as they ran onto the ship.
"Can you heal him more?" Rey asked when they were on the Falcon and safely away from the exploding base.
Maia didn't ask how she knew. "No."
"Why not?"
"It's not my choice to make." She whispered. The Force assured her that Finn would be just fine with out her interference.
"Who are you?"
"When I have a good answer to that, I will tell you."
Rey did not like that answer, she stormed off into the cockpit and left her with Finn. She touched his forehead tentatively. He would be fine, she was sure of it, she just didn't know how to make sure Rey knew too.
Rey followed Finn and Chewbacca out of the Falcon. Maia flew past her in a flurry and threw her arms around an X-Wing pilot who was waiting for them with an older woman. He picked her up and twirled her around as she chatted to him excitedly. The woman watched them with a small, sad smile and then turned to Rey. Rey didn't know this woman, but she felt her sadness and knew, just knew that she needed a hug as much as she did.
Maia ran into Poe like a crashing X-wing, practically jumping on him and throwing her arms around his neck. He took her momentum and spun her around. She was talking at lightspeed and he couldn't quite follow what she was saying. He was beyond relieved that she was back alive and unharmed. His heart swelled and threatened to burst out of his mouth as he kept his arms around her as she talked.
"Let's go check on Finn and you can tell me everything." He led her inside. She was barely in the base before she collapsed against a wall. "Maia!"
"I'm fine Poe, just tired. Stormie was missing a lot of things and the creature in his chest was trying knots in everything."
"Let's get you to bed."
She waved him off, "I can do it myself, go check on Stormie, he'll know if you aren't there."
"Fine." He helped her up and made sure she was on her way before going to the med bay.
She was at the top of her hill. Today the sky was moss and lava swirled together with clouds of dark brown eyes.
"This is what you dream?"
The Old King's eyes were missing but he looked around as though he could see. Part of his face was missing, the red half, not the blue half.
"Well, this is disturbing."
"As the king of disturbing I thought you would like it."
He smiled half a smile, "Maia, I can make these dreams go away. Come to me."
"With the saber?"
"No, just you. Your connection with the force, it's even more than I ever thought it was. You can't just shut it off, can you? I want to help you."
"Are you sweet on me?"
"You haven't changed, have you?" His voice was soft and cloying. "You always were funny. A funny Jedi, who would have thought?"
"I see what you are doing, I see things more clearly than you think I do. This isn't my decision to make and it's not yours either."
His face morphed, it became disfigured, elongated, part of his skull was missing. He spoke with a different voice, raspy and ancient, "I had you in my clutches once girl, you will be again soon."
She woke with a start. The creature he had morphed into, the monster that had haunted her, he was back. The shadows started creeping in on her in the already dark room. They whispered, they promised and laughed. They tried to sing as sweet a song as she had known as a child, but it just sounded like screeching strings to her. She covered her ears and yelled for it to stop, but it was in her head.
It's in my head. It's not real, it's in my head.
The door opened and Leia came in, "Rey is about to leave to find Luke. Do you want to go with her?"
The shadows retreated as soon as Leia entered the room. She is real Maia thought firmly and with as much conviction as she could.
"Maia?"
"I. . . don't know. I don't think it would be a good idea." The monster was still haunting her, he couldn't go near Luke. The Force was silent on Luke, as if it also didn't know what to do about it's lost Jedi either.
Leia placed an arm around her, "If that's what you want, you don't have to go."
"It's for the best if I stay here."
"I'm sure Poe will appreciate you sticking around." Leia had a hint of teasing in her voice.
"Not if I repaint BB-8. I always thought he would look good as kind of a drab brown."
Leia chuckled, "You don't have time for that now. We are evacuating the base, you are on the shuttle with me, grab your clothes, the Raddus is in orbit waiting for us."