"Young Solo."
Kylo Ren was in the middle of an unpleasant dream. In it, the ghost of his dead uncle had come back to haunt him, and promised to send more ghosts after him.
"Mm. Wake up young one, wake up you must! Much to see, there is. And little time to see it."
What was worse was the nagging feeling that it wasn't a dream at all.
Wake! Up!
Ren was suddenly rocked from his slumber by the thud of a blunt object. After his eyes adjusted, the dark haired boy found the source of the attack. A wizened green creature, perhaps 2 feet tall and leaning on a small wooden cane, was standing at the foot of his bed with a bemused look in his large eyes.
"The Supreme Leader, lazy he is! Up and dressed, Young Solo. Places we must be!"
"Don't call me that. What... what are you?"
"What! What he calls me! Who! The question is who! Tell me child, did any of your masters tell you of an old Jedi? Yoda, his name was."
He blinked. "You... you're Master Yoda?"
"He I am! And I am he," the tiny spirit smiled. "Surely Master Skywalker spoke fondly of his time with me."
"He said Master Yoda was wise and powerful beyond belief."
Yoda's ears twitched. "Yee hee hee! Indeed. But small and green also, am I. This is often surprising, I think. Hmm."
"Did Skywalker send you? Are you here to convert me to back to the Light Side?"
"Such a request would be asking much of the Dead on behalf of the Living," Yoda shook his head. "I am here to only to show. Images of the past, I bring."
"My past? Your past? Does anything you say make sense?"
"Mm. Your past, you have already seen. Think about it, yes? And my past is very far away indeed. Old was I long before even your grandfather was young. But perhaps it is easier if I show you."
Yoda closed his eyes and nodded his head. Kylo Ren leapt from his bed as the room faded into darkness. When the light returned, he was in a large, dimly lit room. Looking at his arm, he realized that he now possessed the same bluish glow as Yoda, and of Skywalker. He supposed that this wasn't a real place, more like an illusion. Ren was at the top of a thin metal staircase, before a great circular window. Beyond the window he could tell that they were in orbit over a green planet. In front of the window was a tall chair on a swivel. Yoda's spirit appeared on the seat of the chair.
"What do you think, hmm? To my tastes, it is not. But this is no ordinary chair. The throne of Darth Sidious, this is. From here he intended to watch the Galaxy fall under his sway, within his ultimate creation. The Death Star, this is. The second one, to be precise."
"This is the Death Star," Kylo repeated, taking in the scope of the room. "Then that's Endor down there. This was the turning point in the Civil War. Where the Empire lost."
"Mm. Lose they did. And lost, they were. In disarray. Away from the known Galaxy, they fled. In Snoke, a savior they found. Perhaps the story is not as simple as that. But when emerge from the Unknown Regions they did, the First Order they had become." He tilted his head at Kylo. "Well known to you, this story is? I would imagine so, yes."
Ren snorted. "Of course. Everyone in the First Order knows our history. The Emperor instructed his officers that, upon his death, the first order of business was to re-establish the Empire in his stead. That was how we got our name."
Yoda nodded. "And in that way, this room is where your story began. For in a short while, the Emperor will enter this room. But leave it, he will not."
He vanished from the chair and reappeared near a large opening in the floor. He beckoned the taller spirit over.
"Watch your step, Young Solo. A long way down, it is."
An understatement, to be sure. As Kylo Ren peered down, he saw no end to the chute.
"Why does the Emperor keep a bottomless shaft in his throne room?"
"A very good question, that is. Curious about that was I, as well. But bottomless it is not. Down to the core of the station it leads. Tell me, Young Solo. Did you ever hear of how the Emperor died?"
"I know that he was defeated by Luke Skywalker when he confronted Darth Vader. He turned Vader against the Emperor and they destroyed him together."
"Hmm. Perhaps that story is correct enough, for now. Accomplish much, the Emperor did. Toppling the Republic. Destroying the Jedi. Much success, yes. But his ultimate goal eluded him. Eternal life. An everlasting empire of the Sith. These things, he did not find. Wasted his life, he did, in pursuit of these things."
"The Galaxy still feels his legacy in the First Order," Kylo retorted. "His life was not wasted. We've seen to that."
"Mm. Or perhaps you all continue on in his folly. Continue, we should."
The scene faded, and when it returned to focus, Ren felt intense vertigo. They were on the edge of an impossibly tall skyscraper, extending far down past the walkways below. The buildings stretched in every direction, and beneath them there appeared to be yet more, stacks and stacks of urban sprawl crowding each other out like shrubs under a forest canopy.
"Ah, Coruscant. Never expect to return here, did I. Miss it, I did not."
An explosion sent flames rising up from the distance. "What's going on here?" The boy asked.
Yoda kept his eyes closed. "In the shadows, the war to create the Empire was fought. Untouched, Coruscant was. This is the war to unmake the Empire. In the light, it is fought. Three weeks ago the Empire was defeated at Endor. Over, they thought the war was. Emperor dead, Vader dead. Celebrations, they had. Wrong, they were. On Coruscant, the war was only beginning."
Below the shapes and flashing lights of police cruisers darted by, heading for the source of the blast.
The old master turned to Kylo Ren. "Even here in the center of the Empire, Sidious failed to capture the hearts and minds of his subjects. In this way he lost long before he set foot on the Death Star."
"Where they might have celebrated freedom from tyranny, others mourned the loss of their security." Ren shrugged. A lot of people felt safe under the empire. And that was enough. The republic represented uncertainty. The First Order rose out of that uncertainty."
"Rule the First Order, you now do," Yoda tapped Ren's hip with his cane. "Where will you fit into it all?"
The boy thought a long time. "I don't really have one. I don't follow the First Order because I care about their politics. I outgrew the Jedi Temple, and they were the next step in my path."
"Mm. A path. A perilous path, your family walks. Near to the border of Light and Dark, always choosing one side, always tempted by the other. For this reason, I think, is the Skywalker bloodline is so strong with the Force. Perhaps. But I am old, and it is time for me to rest."
Ren tilted his head. "You're leaving already?"
"Oh? Miss me, will you? That effect on people, I have. Yee hee hee!"
"Stop giggling. What was the point of all this? This was all before I was even born. The crushing of dissidents, the military conquests, that's all Hux's world. I wanted to reach my full potential in the Force, and once I've destroyed the Light that will be possible."
The sky over Coruscant slowly began to go blurry again. "A question for you, I have," Yoda sighed. "What comes after? When destroyed the Jedi are, when alone in the universe you are? Where will you go? Will you sit on your throne and rule an army you don't believe in? If not, who will you go to? Like poetry, it is. Everything rhymes. What does the past show you about your future?"
Before Kylo Ren could answer, he lost sight of the green alien in a dense cloud. As it parted, he found himself back in his room.