The Bombing Thwarted
(Synopsis: Ben warns Leia of impending danger. Leia manages to escape in the eleventh hour. Luke faces Snoke.)
They leave Luke's X-wing in a secluded place outside the Hosnian Prime and proceed to the nearest communal shuttle station. Wearing plain gray and olive-green hooded coats, they draw as little attention as possible and Luke sends a low energy of the Force to make their appearance even less conspicuous – the school teacher and his young colleague, or a senior clerk and his apprentice: that's how they appear to the public.
Long time has passed since Ben was out in the open and in the public. His natural timidity always kept him away from the crowd, but nevertheless he feels nervousness and simple delight at being so close to this rustling, unaware life on the streets of Hosnian Prime.
The whole city was a great construction site and a city of great promise – buzzing and bustling with life and with commerce. A lot of chaos and of criminal, too, as in any city that exploded economically and demographically after any war. The New Republic did its best (and Ben wrinkled his nose at this sort of relativity) to uproot corruption, poverty and disease, but still they permeated here and there: beggars on the streets, orphans like Irin too numerous for their democratic comfort.
And her. Probably born into the life of slavery to begin with.
The early morning holds the promise of a day bright and fresh – markets are just being opened, and the city wakes up. Still, as they progress to the center where the Senate resides, Ben feels a sort of disturbance in the Force. A signature eerily and uncomfortably similar to the creature's – he knows it well, that hum. It followed him for as long as he can remember. He tenses, knowing that if he feels it, Luke probably picked on it as soon they entered the orbit.
Luke even names the source of the disturbance.
„The Amaxine warriors", he utters the name of the illegal faction associated with smugglers and black market. „They're already here. I thought we had more time, but of course they would be here as soon as Senat opens".
Luke whips his head in the direction of the Senate, worries mounting on his face. Another's energy, but now that of the light, permeates the air like a sunbeam – it's Leia. Ben's heart trembles – the child in him would run to his mother and take her away from here, back to Hanah City and to that time when none of this has happened. But he knows he can't – he's practically a Jedi now, and on a mission. Emotionally unattached, at peace with himself... oh, the burden they demand from padawans: no surprise half of them fails short like Rennek, Dorn and Irin. Their advantage is that they don't even care. Ben, however, does.
„What do they plan to do?" Ben asks, trying to sound and appear cool.
Luke frowns. „They have their orders", Luke utters. „But they will go against them – whoever finances them is in Senate and doesn't even begin to fathom to sort of men he has business with... or she".
One can't play with fire and expect he won't get burned: or play with the Dark Side and expect to remain untainted.
Panic grows at the back of Ben's head and he's again at the verge of telling Luke everything when the Master interrupts him.
„Come, Ben", he says. „We must hurry".
Luke has an unsavory habit of disappearing when he's most needed and re-appearing when he's wanted the least.
He left Ben alone 2 hours ago. The Senate prepares to resume its presiding. And the Dark Side hums against Ben's ears like a drum.
Luke has strictly forbidden Ben from interfering and from using the saber that shivers in his rucksack at this point – it is maddening.
"Just wait for me here, Ben", he said, visibly agitated and then disappeared with swiftness that far surpassed his years.
"I'll be slouching here while she is being hurt or even worse", Ben has barely enough focus to think with the Dark Side murmuring around him in its dead language, its intonation betraying mockery and disdain. "Gods damn you, Luke".
Ben glances over the hedge behind which he's hiding – senators and senatorial candidates streaming to the conference building situated in the extension of the Senate. He's been obedient for so long – and even Luke isn't infallible. He can't just stand here while…
He focuses in the Force and against the orgiastic noise of the Dark Side – he feels drops of sweat forming and dripping from the sides of his face, down his neck and back.
It's a bomb. The Amaxines are planting a bomb in the Senate.
Gods damn you, Luke, where are you?!
He hates this – this helplessness shoveled down his throat. He has all this knowledge and powers and he is prohibited from using them. And the innocents will pay for it – it's just insanity. He will tolerate this no more.
Ben springs from behind the hedge and mingles with the catering staff. Probably his Force cloak wasn't strong enough (the strain of focusing in the Force was perhaps too much), because a senior manager yells at his face:
"Where have you been for so long?! The napkins are still missing at tables 50 through 60! Go there in an instant and see they're settled, or I'll make sure you lose your job!"
Ben frowns for a second, irritated to his last nerve by the fact everyone in this galaxy finds him an easy target to yell at.
But then he sees an opportunity opening and quickly mumbles a sheepish response: "Of course, I'll see to it".
He disappears into the dining hall with a bundle of paper napkins in his hands. His eyes lock on the table his mother will soon occupy.
He has to make haste.
Using the fact that the rest of the staff is preoccupied with final preparations, he takes his pen set from his rucksack and writes as clearly and as visibly as he can (he hates large letters, but now he has to go against his high standards) a word of warning on a paper streamer:
"RUN".
Ben tucks the paper streamer within the folds of a napkin and leaves it at his mother's place. He lays his hand on the napkin to straighten it up – or to leave an energy signature strong enough for his mother to detect. He shivers. Gods, how helpless he is.
Force, help her, he thinks as he rushes out of the building, with first senatorial candidates coming into the room.
"Why do you hide in the shadows?" He exclaimed, his own voice coming back at him like a growl. "Show yourself".
The darkness before him, the same deafening darkness that protects its Amaxine agents, tenses and thickens. That darkness regurgitates a voice, full of scorn and of hatred.
"Master Luke Skywalker", the voice hisses. "Finally, we meet. I knew you would come to your precious Princess's aid".
Luke reaches out with his hand to the shadows. He absorbs something of that energy and reads it like he would a Jedi text.
The creature is ancient, and its age is vertigo-inducing – it had a myriad of different names in the past, but the dead nations called him: Snoke.
"We both know", Luke says, his voice lowered to a growling whisper. "It's Ben you're really after. You won't have him, Snoke".
The voice of the darkness comes back, snickering.
"Oh, won't I?" He mocks him openly. "Oh, yes – that's that old Jedi arrogance and blindness. You fool, you think you can affect his decisions? You think I made him do something, see something?"
Snoke chuckles ominously, genuinely amused.
"The boy is already half-way to the Dark Side. Even you are not foolish enough to believe that the darkness that is embedded in his bones can be so easily subdued. No, Luke Skywalker – the Darkness remembers everything. It remembers your rage, your fear and your hatred. They were enough to replenish us for decades, and now… we're back".
Luke shudders. Dagobah, the Cave of Evil; him, facing Vader for the first time; him, almost succumbing completely to his own rage before the Emperor, almost slaughtering his own father even though he felt, acutely, the last remaining glimpses of Light in him. He thought destroying the Sith was enough, but it wasn't.
"Who are you?" Luke utters, breathless.
"I am the power, Skywalker", Snoke exclaims, triumphantly. "I am the sort of power you have never encountered before. I am as old as the galaxy itself and have seen many Sith rising and falling, as I have many Jedi. All of you are nothing compared to me – every single thought you have, every single weakness, every single grief – I know it even before you do. Empire was nothing compared to the new order I will establish. And your precious nephew will help me build it. But first – we will destroy everything you strove to build and everything you hold dear, Skywalker".
"No!" Luke shrieks and a lightning, materializing out of nowhere, strikes the darkness in front of him.
"You cannot harm him", he says to the seemingly silenced darkness. "You don't have the strength".
"Perhaps", the shadow replies with a low roar. "And perhaps I really don't need to do anything, for now - it is the hubris of the Jedi that will be your downfall, like it was already under your father. Your human weaknesses work against you and to my benefit – imagine what will happen the moment boy finds out about his true heritage. If I was foolish, like you, I would've told the boy the truth already – but I didn't. Want to know why? Because when he sees all of your weakness, arrogance and cowardice right in front of his face, he will come running to the Dark Side. You prohibit power and rage – I will encourage him to dive into it like into an ocean. You prohibit passion and bloodthirst – I will feed him until he's full. He knows it already. It's only the matter of time now, Skywalker".
"Enough", Luke exclaims and with the blast of Force, the darkness is quick to disappear.
Muffled explosions draw his attention and almost immediately, roaring alarms set off. Distant yells and panic flush over Luke like a tide. Master Jedi tenses. He won't leave Ben alone, ever again. That thing found him everywhere – in the temple, in Hanah City, even in his mother's womb; and Force knows, he tried to approach him here, as well.
For the first time in his existence, Luke feels mortal dread.
"Where have you been?" Ben exclaims, panting. "The Senate has been bombed! The senators escaped only narrowly!"
Luke is weary. Suddenly, his sister's life falls to the second place and for a fleeting moment, he's glad Jedi religion prohibited marriage and family.
Part of him expected to see Ben already turned – and meeting with the boy as he left him lifts his spirits a bit. He may be young and impetuous and over-sensitive and even foolish, but he's no servant of the Dark Side with his doe eyes, cheeks blushing in agitation and his plain Jedi clothes.
Something akin to a smile forms on Luke's face.
"What?" Ben almost barks and his face becomes red up until the tips of his ears (of which he was so overly self-conscious, Luke knew).
"We'll stay in Hosnian Prime for awhile", Luke tells him. "Just until we're sure Leia is safe and out of the planet".
The prospect of not coming back immediately to the grueling routine of the temple apparently delights Ben, to the point that he can't even hide his joy. But he is soon to recompose himself and frown.
"I went there and left a warning note", he grunts, pointing in the direction of the damaged building.
"I know", Luke replies. "You did well. You did exactly like a Jedi should do".
He pats the young man on his back – he held him too harshly and too cautiously, he admits to himself, to the point where he failed to see the true danger as it towered over Ben in all its monstrous size and form. They actually share so much in common – the quick-temper and the rage, timidity and lust for knowledge, but sense of humor and empathy too.
And Vader – but he won't tell Ben of the man, not yet. He sees Ben is visibly startled and delighted because he received so many commends on his master's part. He can't crush boy's spirits, not while that menace is still around.
He fought off Snoke's attack, but the creature didn't vanish altogether – for some reason, Luke's intuition tells him the monster is looming over Jakku now. Luke knows the lightning hurt him, but not enough to destroy him. Why the junkyard planet? It's abandoned by the Empire years ago. Luke is somewhat puzzled. But still, the energy is indestructible and imperial influence is probably still alive there, at least spiritually: there can be no other reason for the creature to scurry off there. He won't go after him in a goose-chase: you can't destroy evil. But you can protect what you love and hold dear. He'll protect his nephew. It still isn't too late.