"Where is the female now?" asked the Supreme Leader.

"In binders, drugged, and in her cell," replied Aldo Ren as he knelt before his master, not the hologram of his master, but his true physical presence.

"Good, but I do not want her drugged for long. I need her to bring Kylo Ren to me."

"If she is allowed to fully awaken, she would use the force to escape."

"When the time comes you will bring her to my holochamber. I will not allow her to escape."

"As you wish, master," conceded Aldo Ren as he bowed even lower.

"There is one other thing I need you to do for me, Aldo Ren."

Aldo Ren raised his mask to look upon the tall shadowy form of his master.

"I want you to tell that scavenger the truth about her parents."

The beast is running through the snowy forests. He stops to sniff the wind, but she is not there. He bounds over hard packed snow, faster and faster, until the trees pass him in a blur, but she is not there.

He stops on a ridge to survey the land around him, his heart still pounding violently in his chest. The moon glows brightly above, and he raises his muzzle to the sky and lets out a long howl into the cold night air, calling for his mate, yet there is no answer; she is not there.

He senses something in the distance and bounds back into the depths of the forest. He finds himself in the place where he used to meet his grey beast. He sniffs the ground when he hears a rustling in the trees…and suddenly shadows descend upon him.

"Ben?" called Luke Skywalker, and suddenly he was awakened.

Ben had fallen asleep sitting up in the medical ward on Yavin 4. His mother had been in surgery for hours.

"Is she?"

"She has survived the operation, but it's not good, Ben. She's in a coma. They have submerged her in a bacta tank, but there is nothing else they can do for her, but wait," replied Luke, and Ben could hear the emotion breaking through his voice. He had never seen his uncle so distraught before. The old Jedi Knight usually did his best to calm his emotions and avoid attachments, but Leia Organa was his sister, and she meant the world to him.

Ben did nothing to hide the tears the streamed down his face. He had failed. He had failed them both.

Rey was captured, and worst of all, he could not feel her through their bond, and his lack of connection with her was tearing him apart from the inside. He knew she was alive, or she would not have been taken, but he feared what Snoke would do to her. On top of losing Rey, his mother's life lay in question. Every waking moment he felt the panic growing within him. He had to find her.

"Can I see her?" he asked his uncle.

When Ben entered his mother's room, he found she already had visitors. Chewie and Ashani sat together on one side of the room, and Ashani was doing her best to calm Chewie who appeared to be distraught. She patted the large furry Wookiee on the shoulder as he moaned his sorrows. Poe and Finn were also there, paying silent respects, their hands clasped tightly to each other. They turned their heads as they saw Ben walk in, then rose to give him privacy with his mother, who floated motionlessly within the bacta tank.

"She'll make it, Ben. Your mother is the toughest woman I know," offered Finn on their way out. Ben simply nodded his head in agreement.

Ashani followed Finn and Poe, and Chewie rose and wrapped his arms around Ben and cried in his Skyriiwook about his regrets that he and Luke had not found her sooner.

"You did your best, Uncle Chewie. I should have been there," he replied to his distraught uncle, who only replied with another hug before leaving Ben alone in the room with his mother.

All his life growing up, his mother had never seemed weak to him. Now, seeing her attached to so many tubes and hoses, her heart monitor beeping a slow rhythm next to her breathing apparatus; he felt she was the frailest she had ever been. He gently reached out and placed his hand against the cool surface of the bacta tank.

"Don't die, please! You're the only parent I have left to see me get married," he confessed before he broke down and sobbed.

He swore to the force – he would bring them both back.

That night, there was a gathering in the new war room. The First Order had dealt a considerable blow against the resistance, and they had lost over half of their forces, including most of the commanding officers and General Organa.

The room was filled with a mixture of people who were grieving for those that were lost and those who were panicking about what was to come. Eventually Luke Skywalker stood before them, and called the room to silence.

"The Resistance has not fallen! Not Yet! Not while I still live and breathe!"

"Will you lead us?" asked one of the pilots from Red Squadron.

"I am no leader! I think my sister would have wanted someone who understood the importance of diplomacy and strategy as well as she did. I nominate Finn," he offered.

All eyes fell on Finn, who was sitting next to Poe looking mortified. Finn had worked tirelessly for the resistance since they had taken him in and accepted him as one of their own. He had contributed both strategy and leadership whenever it had been asked of him, but he had always doubted his abilities as a leader. Poe wrapped a comforting arm around him and just gave him a knowing look before announcing: "I second the nomination!"

Finn was shocked when he heard voice after voice call out; "Here, Here!" and he was even more surprised when he noticed that one of them was Ben Solo, who had remained very silent since leaving the medical ward.

"I…I'll do my best to serve the Resistance," he said as he rose to stand in front of everyone. "I'm honored that you all have such confidence in me, and I swear I will do my best to lead us until the day that General Organa returns."

He was met with thunderous applause.

Her head was throbbing when she finally woke up in the dimly lit room, and found herself restrained.

She felt her heart jump within her chest as panic gripped her, but the spike in her blood pressure caused spots to form in front of her eyes, and she knew that she was drugged.

Ben?

She called for him through their bond, but when she tried to access her force abilities the swimming in her head only worsened until she was forced to stop.

"You're awake…good," came a distorted mechanical voice, and eventually her vision focused enough to where she could see the unmistakable form of Aldo Ren looming before her.

"You!" she practically snarled at him.

"Struggling is futile. You are a prisoner here."

"What do you want from me?"

"What I want is to see you suffer. And the Supreme Leader also wants this. He wants you to suffer, and he wants Kylo Ren, and you're going to bring him here."

"I would never!" she said with defiance.

"Oh, one way or another, you will. In fact; I'm here to make sure your suffering begins. You're a scavenger aren't you?" he asked her.

She looked at him with burning eyes, not wanting to participate in whatever games he had in store for her.

"Yes…you are…or…you were. But not always! You weren't born on that rock of a planet, Jakku. You were born on Dandoran."

"Shut up! I don't care! I don't want to know!" she shouted at the knight.

"But you need to know. You've always wanted to know about them, haven't you? I sense the curiosity within you…as well as the hatred. Kylo Ren wasn't the Supreme Leader's lead interrogator at that time, but I was. Oh, I got that information out of them. I knew that there was a daughter. They both had the force, and they wanted help, but they feared the First Order's eyes upon Luke Skywalker's Jedi Academy, instead they thought they could turn to the Church of the Force for help. They had left instruction for you to seek out Lor San Tekka, and tried to perform a temporary memory wipe, but being improperly trained, your memories were wiped permanently instead of temporarily as they should have been. I suspect they didn't want you being interrogated for information if you were found too soon, and they didn't want you going to the Church of the Force right away, knowing I would look for you there first, but your memories never came back, did they?" he asked.

She said nothing but trembled in anguish and rage as her tears nearly blinded her eyes.

"They promised you they'd come back for you, but they couldn't, not after I captured them. Your father fought valiantly to protect your mother, and she held out the longest when I tortured them both for the information about your whereabouts. When I landed on Jakku to find you, you had already wandered off into the desert. I was foolish to believe the elements would take care of you for me. You were more of a survivor than I thought. Perhaps they'd have been proud?"

She sobbed uncontrollably as suddenly something triggered in the back of her mind. She could see their faces. Her father was tall and had sandy light brown hair, and deep green eyes. Her mother had the same smile she saw within her own face, her eyes were warm and brown and her hair was short and chestnut. She could see them each holding one of her hands as they walked beneath lush green trees. She could hear their voices as they called her name. They had risked everything to protect her…and he had murdered them both.

The old Rebel Alliance base on Yavin 4 had fallen into disrepair in the years since it had been abandoned. Vegetation was growing through the walls and necessary structural repairs were in operation. Ben stalked through the base, pacing like a caged animal, not knowing where to go, or what to do, but knowing that he needed to do something, anything.

"Ben?" he heard a woman's voice call him from behind, and turned to see Ashani Calrissian running to catch up with him.

"Ben, please help me!" she begged.

"What's wrong?"

"It's Rando. I'm frightened for him. He hasn't been himself since Takodana. He won't speak to anyone, not even me! I sense a great amount of darkness in him. He won't tell me what happened! You could probably reach him easier than Luke Skywalker. You have more experience with the darkside of the force. He needs your help!"

It occurred to Ben that he really hadn't seen or talked to Rando since Takodana, and he hadn't been to the meeting in the war room. He had been too wrapped up in thinking about Rey and his mother to notice at the time.

"I'll see what I can do," he offered.

Rando had locked himself in his quarters since arriving on Yavin 4, and had refused to open the door for anyone, not even his own mother. Ben gently knocked at the door, and waited patiently for several moments. He knew Rando would know that it was him. After a long and uncomfortable wait, he finally heard a slow shuffling, followed by the door unlocking, and the sound of shuffling moving away from the door. He allowed himself in.

As he walked in, Rando was sliding back down on the floor against the far wall; in his hand he cradled a nearly empty bottle of Corellian whiskey.

"I'd of unlocked it with the force, but I'm a little drunk, sorry," he apologized.

Ben could sense a torrent of agonized emotions coming from Rando.

"What happened?" he asked.

Rando simply looked down at his bottle and sat still for a moment before finally answering. "I watched her die…Jess. I watched them kill her. There was a chrome armored stormtrooper…"

"Phasma!" said Ben, knowing all too well who that would be.

"Yeah…I showed up too late…and they just…" he had to stop himself as tears began streaming down his face. Ben watched as his friend painfully struggled to regain control over himself.

"I killed her…Phasma. I killed just about all of her platoon too…I liked it. I liked it a lot! It felt good to kill them…to cut them to pieces. I know I gave in to the darkside! I know I shouldn't have, but I couldn't help it! I wanted them all to pay for what they did," he explained.

More than ever Ben wished that Rey was with him. She could explain the Grey Path better than he ever could, and that was what Rando needed most.

"I'm sorry about Jess, and I'm sorry Rey and I weren't there with you, not just on the field, but before, we should have been teaching you the Grey Path all along."

"I heard about what happened to Rey…and your mother. I'm sorry too. War is a hell of a thing. What will you do?" asked Rando.

"I have to find her, and rescue her…I just don't know how. They could have taken her anywhere," answered Ben.

"This doesn't make me evil!" blurted Rando. "You've been in the darkness, so has my mother, if you two can come back, I know I'm not damned. I know this…but I have a hard time believing it," he continued.

Ben crouched in front of his friend and gently took the bottle from his hands. Rando surrendered it without protest.

"Vengeance is dangerous. You can't act purely out of vengeance and expect to be able to call on any power from the light. You're not evil…but you are Grey. There are other things to fight for, other things to live for, you'll find them again."

"I don't want anything to do with the darkside! I don't want anything to do with the First Order, or whatever makes them who they are. They're everything evil that I've come to hate. I'll do whatever it takes to not become like them…anything," confessed Rando.

"Help me, Ben. I don't want to feel darkness like that ever again!" he continued.

Ben stayed with Rando for another hour, doing his best to explain the Grey Path to his friend, hoping to give him something to believe in, something to fight for.

"I know she's alive, but I can't feel her. Every moment that passes something terrible could be happening to her. What am I going to do, Uncle Luke? I don't know where she is!" pleaded Ben as he paced back and forth before his uncle who sat in the forest clearing. It was morning, and Ben had not slept. He had lain awake the entire night, trying desperately to call to her through their bond, but she had not answered him, and he could feel himself unraveling more and more with every passing moment.

Luke had also been thinking about where they could have taken Rey. To him the most obvious answer seemed to be the Finalizer, but another rescue mission seemed impossible after the success of the last, and they would expect such an attempt.

Ben, on the other hand, had reason to believe that she would be wherever Snoke was hiding.

"What makes you believe she would be with Snoke?" asked Luke.

"He took her because of me, he'd of killed her otherwise. It's me he wants. He's only ever wanted her alive to punish me for betraying him. He'll torture her, if he isn't torturing her all ready!"

"If this is true, he'll use her as bait to recapture you. We must be extra careful."

"I don't care! I would gladly trade my life for hers! But, I know Snoke; he would never make it that easy, and he'd never let her go, even if I did go to him. He wants to punish us both. I have to kill him! There is no other way!"

"If we can find Rey, we can find Snoke," mused Luke.

She was still slightly groggy from the drugs when she was forcibly dragged from her cell. Aldo Ren clenched her arm painfully as she struggled to not fall as he pulled her along several endless corridors. At last he dragged her through a series of large black doors into an even blacker room. It was cold, and the ceilings were so high she could hear the echo of their footsteps. With a violent shove he pushed her ahead of him and she landed painfully on her hands and knees. And that was when she saw it, the massive flickering of a translucent hologram. It was him – Snoke.

The ominous hologram sneered down at her with death-like eyes. She would not be intimidated. She would give him nothing.

"I sense much hatred in you. Good. You want to kill me…I sense it. I sense you want to destroy Aldo Ren. So much hatred, you should give in," he spoke down to her.

It was true. She had been filled with blind rage from the moment Aldo Ren had told her the truth about her parents. She wanted them both dead, and she was struggling to regain control of her emotions. She knew giving into her hatred and blood lust was exactly what Snoke wanted from her, and she would give him nothing.

"The drugs are wearing off I see. I also see that you are struggling to block out Kylo Ren from the bond you share," he said in a deep voice that sent shivers down her spine.

"I know you want me to call for him. I refuse!" she asserted and glared up at the hologram.

"Oh, but you will call to him. You will tell him that you are here, aboard this new incomplete Starkiller Base, currently in orbit around the Dagobah system. There are no shields, and there will be no armed guards to get in his way, all he has to do is come to me."

"I will never let you use me as bait just to get to Ben! I'll die before I let you get your hands on him again!" she shouted up at the looming figure in defiance.

"That can be arranged," he threatened, and suddenly she felt her mind being attacked. She dropped to the floor and writhed in agony, instantly losing hold of the barrier that shielded Ben from her mind. She tried desperately to fight back, but the harder she fought the more Snoke punished, and she let out a scream that filled the chamber.

Ben let out a blood curdling scream as he grabbed his head with both hands and fell to the forest floor before a startled Luke Skywalker.

Luke had seen this before, he had seen it when Snoke had been torturing Ben, and Rey had felt it through their bond. Now it was Rey who suffered.

"Ben!" cried Luke.

Ben thrashed as he struggled to reach through the now open connection, it would be his only chance.

Rey! Rey…where…are…you?

He struggled to connect through his agony.

Ben…stay away! STAY AWAY!

She shouted through her own torment.

Tell me…where you are.

No, Ben…please…it's…it's a trap!

Suddenly the pain stopped, and he could breathe again. He struggled to sit up through the horrible nausea that gripped him, his body trembled all over. He could feel she had put up the barrier between them again, but he knew Snoke would torture her until she relented.

Luke stared at him in concern as he tried to help his nephew to sit up.

"I felt her. She's alive!" he finally said.

"Did she tell you where they are?" asked Luke.

"She wouldn't. She knows it's a trap," he explained, when suddenly it occurred to him. He knew now that she was no longer drugged, and if she wasn't drugged, maybe there was a chance.

"Even if she won't tell me where she is, I may be able to find her through our bond now that I know she's not being drugged anymore."

Luke had some base knowledge of force bonds, but he had never encountered one as powerful as the one Rey and Ben shared, and there was still much of it that was a mystery to him.

"I've never tried it over such a distance before. We once practiced finding each other just by our force signatures. I'm going to try!"

"Be careful, Ben. Searching for her over such a great distance could require a lot of power in the force. It could drain you!"

"I'll do whatever it takes," replied Ben as he sat again on the forest floor and closed his eyes.

He carefully paced his breathing and felt through the force, until he could feel every living thing around him on Yavin 4; the people on the base, the animals in the forest, his uncle standing right beside him. He could see every life, down to the tiniest of microbes. Gradually he began to pull back, further and further until a great darkness began to spread between him and the life he had just been surrounded by. He could feel his mind straining as the force flowed through him in greater and greater magnitude as he expanded beyond Yavin 4, and reached beyond, deep into the outer rim.

Everything seemed to speed past him, as though he were piloting through hyperspeed, but it was not stars that flew past his vision, but the multitude of life forces throughout the galaxy, he reached for her, imagining her in his mind, her light, her force signature. And then – he felt her.

His eyes shot open, and once again he found himself in the forests of Yavin 4, with his uncle looking at him expectantly.

"I know where she is!" he said, and felt himself grow dizzy from the great exertion he just faced.

Luke gently helped him to his feet. "Where?"

"Orbiting within the Dagobah system. I have to go - now!"

"Wait a minute, Ben. I'm coming with you," replied Luke.

A note from your humble author: Getting close to the big show down!

Thanks again to everyone who had stuck through the story so far. I hope you guys are enjoying it, and if so please please please let me know what you think. Comments and reviews make me the happiest author in the world!