Only one chapter left to go. This is my complete vision of how Episode IX would look like. Some general ideas are: Snoke is not dead - he is a sort of vampire-sque figure who keeps re-emerging in time. He is the Prime Jedi, which is a very poignant point I hope they will explore in Ep. IX: what's more interesting that the fact that the very first Jedi was also the Fallen One? Rey will re-model Luke's sabre instead of making a completely new one - I opted for this symbolism of the old transformed into something new rather than a radical change. She is the opposite of Kylo Ren - he wants to kill the past, and she wants the balance. In the end, Resistance will have new and unexpected allies. I vote for Mandalorian female warrior, somebody similar to Bo Katan and Satine. I made her humanoid here, but hey, as far as there is another powerful female character, I'm happy. Call me biased, but I think there is not enough strong female leads in SW still.
This chapter was hard to write - emotional. Dear boy Ben dies here, sacrificing himself for the greater good. And Rey makes a desperate pledge in the end.
I wanted to leave it at that, but I just couldn't bring myself to let him simply die leaving Rey heart-broken and - pregnant.
Yes, I'm just that kind of a sappy idiot.
Chapter XV.
The Redemption.
Synopsis: Rey and Ben make the last desperate stand against the Dark Side.
They were charging at them. They could feel their mindless rage from the orbit. The whole planet reverberated with their greedy howls.
The temple was overrun with them – the half-life, the undead.
Men possessed and stripped away of their identities. Mindless beasts rushing to attack the two Jedi, with the sole purpose of gnawing on their flesh until their bones are turned to ivory.
But there was a leader there – intelligence so brutal and so superior that it stood like an obelisk towering its armies with a devilish sneer on his face.
"Iavaomir", Ben uttered, his green saber active, roaring in his hands.
Snoke had his old saber – of course he did.
Don't be afraid, he said in his mind.
I'm not, she said. And she truly wasn't. The Force between them and within them was roaring and swirling like a thunder.
They had to plough their way through the undead when a lightning stroke in perfect middle between them and Iavaomir, killing the mixed hoards of Praetorians and troopers possessed.
It was Luke.
Ben bludgeoned those closest to him with Luke's saber. His powers were soaring near her. They touched with their backs – him, towering her and slicing through their enemies like a ripper through high grass; her, moving swiftly and with precision, clearing the space beneath his imposing height.
Just a patch of brutality in both of them made them efficient and strong. They were not Jedi – not really. But you can't send a Jedi to defeat the Prime one.
Rey understood it now, perfectly.
She noticed the armies recoiled in her presence. She was harming them. She was so full of light and hope that felt insufferable to the enemy – an enemy who waited at the top, patiently.
Another set of lightings hit the staircase time and time again, clearing their way. They hit Iavaomir and around Iavaomir – but he deflected every one with his blade.
He frowned, but then he sneered.
As the noise of the dying started to wane, Ben could clearly hear him scream:
"Skywalker! You damn fool! You think your petty Jedi tricks work against me!"
Rey noticed her Master mere feet in front of Iavaomir, his robes floating in the tainted air, his hair electrified.
"You will not harm them", Skywalker said, his bright eyes set ablaze. "You are underestimating me, and them. And it will be your undoing".
Iavaomir descended slowly and laughed cruelly.
"Oh, Skywalker", he said. "You amuse me. You always were a funny buffoon. But your antics seem to keep repeating themselves, don't they?"
Luke used the Force to stop the possessed body from moving. But he knew it was futile. He was up against a ghost trapped in physical reality: a powerful Jedi ghost supported by the energies of many dead Sith lords buried there – a deity.
Iavaomir frowned again. The wind between them swirled like a physical manifestation of the disturbance they created. The temple trembled and the remaining creatures howled in pain, blood gushing through their mouth, eyes and ears.
Ben and Rey used this tremble to fight their way through and up the staircase.
And as they rushed to their Master's aid, his ghost flew up and stopped midair, some 5 feet above the staircase.
He struggled – he gurgled. Can a ghost be killed twice? Rey thought and howled, attacking Iavaomir with all her strength. It was enough for the hold on Luke Skywalker to subside, but she was met with most hateful and vicious opponent.
"Rey", Ben yelled and flung himself over the staircase. She used her lightness and speed to precede him – he told her not to engage without him. But she was too impetuous, too loyal, too much of a Jedi. She saw her Master's plight and she reacted on an instinct.
Iavamoir glanced at her with disdain and a hint of – panic. She exerted the same effect on him as she exerted on his ghouls. He was frightened of her. She was toxic to him.
The light that never goes away, he thought proudly of her as he attacked Iavaomir from the back. I am no Jedi, he thought. I was the Knight of Ren. I know all your doctrines.
This thought didn't go unnoticed. Iavaomir looked at him with utter hatred.
"You vain, stupid boy", he growled at him as he dueled with both of them all at once.
Their sabers crackled, howled and roared like three wild beasts, like dying stars caught in each other's gravitational fields.
Rey yelped. She was strong, but she took too much passion in with her. She wanted this to be ended. She wanted the peace, the restoration of balance. She wanted him beside her, inside her, forever. Memories of Lothal transiting through her soul like visions of paradise.
She was losing strength and all of this amused Iavaomir and horrified Ben.
Ben pressed against the foe harder, feeling she was losing her grip.
But it didn't seem to stop Iavaomir – on the contrary, it only made him stronger. With a quick gesture and mixed fear and disgust, she pushed Rey far away from them. She flew away with a scream and fell some distance away from them on the platform.
"Rey!" Ben howled, looking back at where she fell with outmost horror. Not all ghouls were obliterated. She was injured. She was surrounded. Her saber flew away from her and she tried to summon it to her side again. She succeeded, but he could sense her confusion.
He had to save her. This was his doing – he will undo it.
He attacked Iavaomir again, and this time, the kyber crystal in his former saber murmured to him.
I want to help you.
I remember you.
Claim me.
Take me, boy.
He could clearly hear her struggling. Where was Luke? Why is he always absent when he is needed the most?
Never mind – he doesn't need the old Jedi. He doesn't need anything, save for her. And he'll do anything to protect her.
The temptation was too great – he used the Force to pull the saber to his other hand. To his amazement, it yielded quickly. Like her flesh, like a lover's embrace – that's how swiftly it clung to his hand.
Iavaomir made surprisingly little effort to reclaim the blade as Ben strode forth to slay him.
It will end soon. It will end now. He'll end all of this. He will be greeted as a hero. All his transgressions will be behind him. His burden will be forever lifted.
Iavaomir took a step back. But he wasn't afraid. He was mocking him.
"Good boy", he hissed at him. "Well trained dog you are".
Those words sent him in a downright frenzy. He swung blades high, the crimson red in his left hand howling, and the green in his right hand crackling and fizzing.
"Ben", a broken and weak voice behind him said. "Don't do it. It is a trap. He is trying to subdue you".
"You can't kill him", Ben yelled. "Only the living can".
Rey yelped somewhere behind him and it distracted Ben to his very core.
"Ben, focus", Luke was struggling to hold Iavaomir at the safe distance, but the Force was sipping from him like sand. "Remember your training. Disengage now".
"This is getting tiresome", Iavaomir sighed and with the tip of his finger, pushed Luke back again. He strode past confounded Ben as if he didn't care about the sabers in his hands the slightest.
Rey, he's coming for Rey.
Ben howled and tried to stop him, but the fierce Force grip stopped him where he was standing, his hands high above his head with both sabers howling.
Iavaomir was stalking away, uninterrupted and without the haste.
"When I'm finished with her", he said. "There will be no one to stop me. You fool – you thought you could run away from me so easily? You thought I could be so easily killed?"
He laughed back at him, genuinely amused.
Ben was left paralyzed.
"Ben", Luke whispered, now his voice nothing more than a light breeze. "Let go of the Dark Saber now".
Ben obeyed his former master this time – for the first time in ages. But the saber wouldn't budge. It was glued to his body. It was mocking him.
"Let me teach you the last lesson, boy", Iavaomir was slowly descending down the stairs. "That saber was designed and forged by Darth Traya herself. Powerful in the Dark Side, powerful in the Light – all knowledge contained in a single powerful being. She was the mistress of treason, the artist of deception, and nothing escaped her refined Sith vision".
Iavaomir snickered.
"It suits you well, you traitor", he said. "You were the traitor from the beginning until the end. And when I'm done with her, you'll serve your purpose. You'll fulfill your destiny".
Now he was openly laughing.
Ben, Rey cried in his mind. Don't listen to him. I can defeat him. I can see him. Just hold on.
No, he replied, panting and howling under the strain. He's too powerful. He defeated Luke. You can't take him down on your own.
His eyes widened.
You're hurt, he cried out.
The rage exploded in him like a tidal wave. Killing this fiend from behind allured him. He prayed to everyone and to no one to help him save her.
Miraculously, the grip loosened. This time, Iavaomir looked genuinely surprised.
Ben stopped him with the Force grip so vicious and so powerful that it made Iavaomir begin to tremble and suffocate. His body was being pulled up high above the staircase and towards Ben.
That powerful Chiss was the best vessel Snoke could find, but it was still failing him.
Ben relished in the sensation of his enemy's bones crackling under his grasp like glass.
"You will not harm her", Ben snarled. "You will not harm anyone anymore".
Iavaomir struggled to speak. Snoke struggled to get away. He coiled in his host like a snake.
Ben did this for too long – he felt the tingling sensation of his enemy caught and defeated. Finally, soon it will be all over.
With only his mind and no physical effort on his part, he left Iavaomir levitate in the air before him for some time. He wanted everyone to see it. He wanted her to see it. Not even Darth Vader was this powerful.
She was rushing up the stairs, her screams muffled.
And in the next moment, Ben slew his enemy. Again, right in the middle, using both blades – the mutilated body falling heavily against the marble.
But the release lasted for a nanosecond – in the next moment, throbbing pain in his head, in his hands, in his whole body folded him in half. He felt struck down by an invisible force. He felt poisoned.
The Dark Side – he let it in. He invited it. He failed. He failed in the most basic of all senses. A padawan could see through this deception, but not him. He was stupid, weak, torn, and useless.
In his mind, dying Iavaomir whispered viciously.
"You can't kill me, boy".
Ben was on his knees, howling, the Darth Traya's blade still glued to his hand, still mocking him. But then his eyes saw her – not the whole of her, just her legs and her waist as she was running to him, the figure bathed in bright light, air between them sucked away, time slowed to a standstill.
It dawned on him. His lips curled into a faint smile.
Darth Traya's saber fell from his side and went mum on its own.
"I can't" Ben replied simply. "But she can. And that's all that matters".
Iavaomir died with an expression of shock, disappointment and discontent on his face. Was it truly Iavaomir's face that permeated in the end, a face of a creature that finally saw the truth behind the power he was so loyally serving? Or was it Snoke – Ben couldn't tell.
The bond that was severed between him and the dark saber sent a blast of energy that shook the temple and hit Rey straight, sending her on her back. She was rendered unconscious. He was hurting her, over and over again.
But it will stop now.
His body felt frail and torn. He felt as if he had two hearts all of a sudden – one was his own, and that one was slowly dying. The other one pumped black putrid blood through his veins and was violently taking over him and his life.
He tried to reach out for the Darth Traya's saber – however, he was so weak. And he was too much in the light, at least for now. By the time he regains his strength, that strength will not be his strength anymore, but Snoke's.
His mind was solely fixed on Rey. She will soon regain consciousness – she must. His poor love – always pushed around to do the will of the Force. Distant roar of the engines startled him – Hera, Chewbacca, Finn and Poe would be here soon. Those damn loyal fools! They risk everything for no gain.
"Stop", he gurgled, and warm blood rushed to his mouth. He spat it out and started rising to his feet with outmost effort. He howled, but the howl stopped in his dry and injured throat. Amidst all the mayhem that they left behind, he saw Rey lying motionlessly on a platform some 100 meters down from him. It was an impossible task. He strode down to her and miraculously didn't stumble. Everything around him became grey and with a red hue.
He was dying. He felt the terrible inner struggle and the insurgence of a powerful malignant voice, murmuring to him in a dead language he heard on Coruscant. Snoke was gaining power, feeding of his rage, his regret, his pain and his yearning to be bound to this life and to her. Snoke was right – he was desperate and he was weak and foolish. He was desperate to cut any deal with any Dark Side user if it could only make him love her and live with her forever – pathetic fool. He was going down the exact path Anakin took. He was becoming his grandfather, Darth Vader – the thing he so coveted. Now it all looked like a sick joke. He grinned bitterly.
He felt the overwhelming, dizzying guilt – he put all of this into motion, a long time ago. And he sealed all their fates by falling in blind, imperfect and idiotic love for this girl. Then he pulled her down with him – as he predicted every Solo and Skywalker would eventually do.
Well, he surpassed all of them now – and by a long shot. He grinned again; this time his mental state was starting to crumble rapidly.
His uncle was nowhere to be seen and it didn't surprise him at all. He was standing on his own, now and always.
"I have to stop this", he thought and tried to summon Luke's green saber. It flinched and trembled, but remained by Rey's side. The Dark Side in him was slowly taking hold. What an irony – he was again stuck at the very beginning, in the very middle between Dark and the Light, without any meaningful help from any side. She was far away from him – even her.
He grinned, half-insane.
Eventually, he stumbled and fell next to her. Her very presence breathed new life in him, time and time again. But the evil that nested within him only subsided for a brief moment. He could feel it boiling with barely contained rage deep inside him. Rey's light burned the creature like fire, but his own soul fed it with new life. It was completely hopeless, so he just made the outmost effort and suppressed it all.
"Rey", he said in a hoarse voice. "Rey, my love, please – wake up".
She remained there in front of him, completely still.
He gently lifted her head and put it on his knee. She had an open wound on her head, but she was strong. She would heal. He knew it. Only if she would wake up now, he thought.
"Please, Rey", he whispered, feeling soon even the effort to speak would be too much.
He pulled her even closer to him. This is the last time, he thought – the last time to hold her. He felt his mother's ring on her finger and it felt like a touch of fresh mountain stream on his scorched lips. He felt the two seeds of life inside of her and it made him howl in pain. The pain of not experiencing that life with her split him in two.
"Please", he cried once again.
"Ben", she uttered and his heart jumped with the last moment of joy.
But she didn't realize it at first – she only saw that he was alive, and smiling at her. She embraced him tightly, her eyes languid and groggy from the blow.
He had to unglue her from his body. It hurt like he was tearing his own flesh and skin down to his very bones.
"Rey" he said, trying to distance himself from her. "It is time".
She looked at him with her bright, clear eyes and a question in them. The realization was quickly dawning on her.
"Oh, no", she uttered. "No. No".
"We don't have the time", he whispered. "I have no more strength. I am torn apart… again. I can't do it myself. I'm too weak. Forgive me".
"No", she cried again, refusing to listen.
"Summon the saber, Rey", he said, feeling that he was holding on with his last remaining atoms of strength. "And do it. It won't last long. I would just fall asleep. Time means nothing in the perspective of the Force. There is no death, there is the Force. You'll release me. You'll defeat Snoke. Do it, please".
That "please" – gods, if only she could punch her fist right through that most terrible of all words in existence.
"No", she shrieked back at him, blind with tears and with rage. It made him only weaker.
"Do it", he made a low roar. "Do it, scavenger. He's tearing me apart. He's too powerful. And once he wins, he will be unstoppable. Rey…"
He felt his own sanity was slowly subsiding. Something else was coming in, and it was terrifying. It was Snoke's true form.
The air around them changed. First it seemed to thicken, and then it decompressed. Ben's breathing became lighter, but only for a moment.
"Rey", Luke said softly. "Only you can end this. Release him. End his suffering".
The appearance of an old, frail man was settling in. This time, it looked as if it is here to stay – the time for Jedi to end.
Rey looked at him with eyes full of despair and contempt. She had no compassion for this man's errors. She felt the cruelty and cry for justice building up inside her like a typhoon. But she couldn't keep those feelings for too long. Ben fell backwards, already barely conscious.
Rey shrieked again. But she knew. There was no escape from this. She was caught in a reiterating nightmare, in an infinite reality that always led to this precise moment.
Saber made a howling sound as it turned up in her hand.
Luke stopped the small alliance at the bottom of the stairs with a stern gesture. It was too dangerous. Snoke was still alive. The infection might spread to them. And then everything would be lost. The light of the galaxy would turn into eternal darkness and to death of all deaths.
She pulled Ben up and placed him sitting on the staircase. There was still a faint recognition in him. He tried to speak and smile, but his thought remained voiceless.
I love you, she said in her mind. Even mentally, she was sobbing, the corridors of her mind echoing with endless grief.
I know, his mouth twitched, but no sound came out. He was dying, his suffering only temporarily sedated by Luke's and Rey's presence.
In silence, focused like the Jedi of the old, she pierced his heart swiftly with the single activation of the blade. He died simply, with a small sigh that resembled relief.
The moment it was over, Rey flung the saber as far away from her as she could. She fell to her knees and released a long, inhuman howl.
The acid rain again began falling on Korriban temple. It was cold and damp. It was blood red, mixing rain drops with the acidic dust in its atmosphere. But other than that, there were no explosive manifestations of the great victory the Light has waged. The rain was falling softly, releasing its toxic content on the stained staircase and the ancient temple. The entire planet was a sole tomb – dead Sith were asleep, like gods who couldn't die, but had no need for worship or memory any more.
"Rey", Luke said softly.
She raised her gaze and saw, as far as eye could reach, thousands upon thousands of Jedi masters from eras gone by. A litany of ghosts surrounded her in what appeared to be a silent memorial.
They whispered the ancient Jedi code, their whispers only slightly higher than the breeze that swept over Korriban:
"There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no chaos, there is harmony.
There is no death, there is the Force".
But the words, spoken in myriad of different dialects, most of them long extinct, brought no peace and no balance to Rey.
She had but one code, but one credo.
Her soul turned into a single desperate thought.
"Please", she whispered. "Bring him back".
The spirits stood around her, frozen in time. Their faces were saddened, but impenetrable.
"Rey", Luke said in a broken voice. "It is impossible. The cycle of life and death is natural. Jedi welcome the transformation into Force. It is something to be celebrated, not to be despaired over. He died a heroic death. He gave his life so that all of Galaxy may live. The ultimate enemy is defeated thanks to him".
He tried to reach out to her with his hand, but she flinched and tensed like a wounded beast. The green and golden dust in her eyes sunk into deep black sea of hatred and opposition.
Something inside of her was broken. Something that broke within her became hardened like obsidian.
"No", she said with a dark, low tone. "No. You failed him. You betrayed him, each and every one you. Everything you ever did has led to this, and you knew it. You knew it, and yet did nothing to stop it. He surpasses each and every one of you. He surpasses all of you together. You sacrificed one boy's life for – what: for absolution of your own sins, for absolution of your own Jedi vanity?"
The clouds above condensed and a near-by thunderstruck made the temple tremble.
"Kanan", Hera exclaimed, frightened. "Stop her. She'll hurt herself".
"What is it, Masters?" Rey howled. "Do I scare you? Do you ponder whether I'll turn to the Dark Side now? Turn to the powerful Sith that reside here? Don't you think I can't feel their presence in the Force: their knowledge, their immortality and their power? Do you deliberate right now who could take my life so that the prophecy might be fulfilled at last? Do you want to aim straight through my womb, so that all the danger might perish at once? Is that emotionless enough? Does that satisfy you enough?"
Luke looked at her, broken and silent – he looked like he was aging by every second.
"You should be afraid", she said with that same low roar. "I am the light that never goes away. If I extinguish that light, then all hope is lost. I am that raw, untamed power. No one precedes me, no one except for him. And he's gone".
And as the reality of that fact again hit her, that thing inside her broke once more. She looked down on his dead body and fell to her knees again.
"He's gone", she whispered. "He's gone. And he is not coming back. He was weak. He was foolish. And he was mine".
Rey lifted him up and placed him gently in her lap, kissing his forehead and cradling him in her embrace.
Hera, Poe and Finn flexed for a moment.
"Let her grieve", Hera said. "There is no wisdom in the universe that could make this go away".
Luke was sitting near her still when they heard her talking again:
"I break all my ties with the Jedi. From this point on, you do not exist. When he is buried, so will you be. I have your books. I am the warden of your knowledge. I am the last remaining Jedi. And I will let the knowledge die the same way you let him die. Without this power, no one will ever be corrupted again. You wanted for the Jedi to end. Well, they end now".
Ghosts started disappearing in the dense atmosphere of Korriban slowly and silently, like a water-color painting washed away by rain.
Luke looked at her with a deeply weary, depressed gaze, but said nothing. She was now deliberately oblivious of him. She had that single-mindedness in her and once it was awaken, it was terrifying.