Kylo used the Force to protect them from the full impact, but it still rattled their bones.

It also left a massive bloody red circle around them.

Ryan Reynolds was right. Super hero landings really hurt the knees.

Who the kriff is Ryan Reynolds? Never mind. I've got more important things to worry about.

The First Order was in front of the old Rebel base where his mother had fled for his life. He would not let them get her. He could not live with another void in his life where one of his parents existed.

Beside him was Luke Skywalker, the Last Jedi. The most famous man in the Galaxy. The one man that Snoke had feared more than any other.

The man who had set Kylo Ren on this path.

That's bullshit, Kylo. Even if Luke tried to kill you, you still had a choice. You could have left the Jedi. You could have gone to your parents- they would have come for you if you asked them to.

They sent me to him! They wanted me dead!

Bullshit. Han didn't look he wanted you dead-

Don't talk about him. Don't. And then the mental voice became less fierce and more pleading. Please.

All right.

"Ben …?" Luke Skywalker stared at him in amazement. "I'm sensing another mind-"

Kylo pointed his sword at Luke. "Go back into your hole, old man. I will deal with this."

"Ben-"

"Go!"

"You'd do better if you'd stop shouting at people, Kylo. Luke- Um, Master Skywalker?- my name is Dex. I'm Kylo's friend. It's a long story, but he left the Order with Rey- to protect Rey- and his mother. I promise you that he's only here to save his mother."

"I am here to kill Hux!"

"Well, that too." Dex quailed at the thought of being party to murder, even second hand. "But right now you need to end this before you die. We'd like to talk to you when you're not trying to get yourself killed."

Luke stared at the two of them for a moment. "I will wait for you. And Ben?"

"Yes?" Kylo didn't even realize that he had accepted his birth name from his old Master.

"Welcome back. Be seeing you, kid."

And he faded away.

"Kylo … there are a lot of bad guys out there. Lots of guns. Including a big gun. A very big gun. I know you can stop regular blaster bolts, but somehow I doubt that you can stop that."

"What are you worrying about? You told me you're already dead."

"Yeah, but it's not an experience I want to repeat."

"I have a plan."

"Is this plan rushing towards the giant gun with drawn light saber? Because I don't like that plan at all."

"No. Not that." Kylo held out a black gloved hand.

And the salt began to rise.

Tons of it.

Kylo stretched his arm and pointed it at the First Order.

It was a blizzard of salt and the red ore beneath it. White and red surged at the equipment, at the men.

"It's not sand," Kylo murmured. "But it's coarse and it gets into everything."

"You've waited all your life to say that."

"Maybe." The ghost of a smile touched Kylo's lips.

"A sense of humor! You're becoming more human every minute." Dex paused. "So when do we retreat and join Rey and the others?"

"We don't."

"We don't?"

"I can't keep this up forever. As soon as Rey gets Mother and her Resistance friends-" the ones she chose over me "-I'll drop the salt storm. With luck, I'll reach Hux and cut him down before I'm overcome."

"That does not sound like a good plan for long term survival."

"It's not. I told you. The First Order will hunt me down. The Resistance will kill me. Rey … There is no future for me. The only thing I have left is to choose how I die."

"This isn't how your story is going to end, Kylo Ren." Dex smiled. "Hear that? You know that sound, don't you? How often did you want to get on that ship with your family and go off an adventure?"

"They left me. They always left me behind."

"Not today. Not this time."

"Ben!"

He knew that voice.

"Ben!"

It was the first voice he had ever heard. The one that told him stories and tried to soothe his fears. The one that had tried to protect him from his nightmares- not realizing until it was too late that his nightmares were real.

"Benjamin Chewbacca Solo, get your ass on ship right now!"

"Your mom is calling you, Kylo." Dex resisted the urge to try to take over their shared body. He knew Kylo well enough to know that he would resist anything he was coerced to do. "It's time."

"Ben ..." And the proud general of the Resistance … the indomitable Leia Organa who had survived the destruction of her homeworld … the rise and fall of the New Republic … the death of almost everyone she had ever loved... stood in the hatch of the Millennium Falcon and said, "come home, son. Please."

And she held out her hand to him.

His mother was on that ship.

She wanted him.

Rey was on that ship.

And whatever there was between them … and Force if he knew just what any longer … there was something.

"You're not ready to die, Kylo. Go home. Believe me, I'd give anything to have the chance you do right now."

Slowly, Kylo Ren let the storm dropped … he stumbled towards the Falcon. He reached out for his mother.

Her eyes flickered towards the light saber that was still burning in his hand.

Dex shut it off for him and attached it to his belt.

Leia reached out to and pulled him onto the ship. Each step was harder than the last. Leia's eyes bled tears. "Just one more step, Ben. Just one more ..."

Finally they were in far enough for the hatch to close.

Leia smiled almost as though she were unable to believe her good fortune.

And that's when the shock of everything that had happened... the energy he had used in maintaining the storm … his mother not hating him … hit him.

"Mother, I'm sorry ..."

And he fell into darkness.

Author's Note: Next up: Dex and Kylo meet face to face … sort of.