Rey screamed as a red hot bolt of fiery energy slipped past them both and caught her in the left upper arm.
Ben bellowed in rage and attacked even more ferociously, taking out five enemy combatants in quick succession. Forward progress was slow even as both Jedi had to move like lightening to avoid dozens of bolts of killing energy directed at them. The longer they fought the more they could feel their enemies' uncertainty and fear grow. The only upside was that the more fearful the troopers became the worse their aim was.
Even in the narrow confines of the four meter wide corridor bolts began to dart wildly off course until even the Force couldn't fully anticipate their paths.
Ben roared as seering pain sliced through his hip, reflexively he looked toward the pain and his heart skipped a beat. He wasn't injured.
All thoughts of the four dozen or so remaining enemies fled his mind and he whipped around to find Rey leaning heavily against the wall, her teeth clenched, her skin pale, blood gushing through her fingers where they clutched at her hip, inches from disaster. Then pain seered through his shoulder, causing him to drop his weapon.
'I'm so sorry.' He thought towards her as another bolt caught him squarely in the thigh.
She shreiked at his pain and hers too as another bolt grazed her ribs.
His anger and shame at having gotten her and their children into this mess far exceeded his pain. But the sight of that bolt leaving a black furrow along her ribcage, inches from her heart, completely undid him. With a mindless rage-filled roar he turned back toward the enemies and hurled a wave of Force energy down the corridor, knocking the troopers several feet through the air. In a blink his pain was gone, his saber back in his hand and he was slicing through troopers left and right. Before they could even scramble to their feet half the remaining enemy gunmen were lying in pieces on the floor. Still more died before they could raise their blasters.
Rey watched in a mixture of awe and horror as her husband's inky dark eyes flashed yellow and he turned away from her. In the space of a few short panting breaths she watched him throw nearly fifty men a good three meters down the hallway simultaniously and leap into their midst, a blur of crimson and black. She felt terror sweep towards her down the hall as Ben's saber flashed and whirled with an inhuman speed, through more than twenty men in a matter of seconds.
His blade moved through some of them so fast that it didn't even cauterize the wounds. Blood sprayed against the walls soaking the floor and the man who was creating the carnage like a whirlwind of death.
For the first time in a long time she felt suffocating fear as she watched the love of her life completely unleash his full dark potential upon their enemies. She feared that he might not be able to find his way back as she felt his soul singing with an almost joyous abandon.
This, she realized, this is what Snoke saw inside of Ben Solo. This is what the evil bastard had tried to coax out of Kylo Ren... Pure -unadulterated, unthinking, unapologetic- violence.
Somewhere in the back of his mind Ben felt Rey's fear and realized that it was not fear for him, but of him. He had to end this now, he recognized. With an almost regretful reluctance he scooped the remaining men into a giant Force fist and crushed them with such fervor that most of them exploded like Hux had.
Panting, blood mixed with sweat rolling down his face he turned back to look at her.
Rey's eyes were as wide as saucers as she looked at him. His shaggy long hair was plastered to his head as if he was just stepping out of a shower, but it was dripping blood, not water. The end of the corridor was completely painted in red, even Ben's black clothing had a red sheen to it… but the eyes staring back at her were far more terrifying than the blood and gore... She'd never imagined that such a happy, soothing color -yellow- could be so sinister. "Ben." She said weakly and slipped painfully down the wall into a puddle of her own blood.
In a flash he was scooping her into his arms as conciousness fled from her mind.
"Finn," Poe whispered, holding his finger against the golden dot behind his earlobe. "Finn, can you hear me?"
He prowled around the tiny detention cell. "Damnit, Finn, remember the gold dot." He growled.
"Chewbacca, can you hear me?" He tried a different tact.
"Yeah, I hear ya." Chewie replied in his strangely accented common-tongue translation.
"I can't reach Finn." Poe raked a hand through his hair. "We've been here too long, Rey said to give her an hour, it's been twice that. Something's went wrong, we need to get them and get out of here."
"Where are you, exactly?" Chewie asked, keying up a holoimage on the Falcon's computer.
"Section 1138, prisoner block T-K, cell 4-2-1." Poe reported.
"Ok, I'll think of something, sit tight." Chewie assured him then looked around the otherwise empty cabin of the Millenium Falcon. He had his bowcaster of course, but that wouldn't do him much good considering that every person who saw him would automatically know that he didn't belong here. He shrank the holo image and stared at it, thinking hard. The detention block where his allies were being held was easily fifty clicks below center and ten clicks deep inside the main ball section of the Soul Reaper. It could take days trying to sneak there. The Falcon was down to one gun, and no gunners so he couldn't blast his way in. He had Poe's astromech but it wouldn't fit through the upper hatch. He flopped down at the gaming table and dropped his head into his hands with a mournful sound.
'Han would know what to do.' He told himself. Han always seemed to have an idea for any tight spot the duo had found themselves in over the years... and in more than four decades they'd found themselves in hundreds of tight spots.
He needed a human. 'Ooor…' He thought to himself and lurched to his feet. He hastened to the tiny sleeping alcove where he'd left 3PO powered down lying on the floor after the droid had annoyed him while Chewie had been trying to sleep.
"…can sleep at a time like this." C3PO finished his sentence.
Chewie roared at him.
"You need me? Whatever for?" 3PO sat up, looking around in confusion.
