"I found you."
The words rasped through his mask, easily carrying through the plain vault of the temple with a smug confidence. He raised his light saber, pointing the blade accusingly, "You can't run away forever."
The old man rose slowly and faced him, but Kylo paid him little attention drawn to the figure behind him.
The girl.
Her green green eyes on him, wide but not scared. Never scared.
Defiant and sharp and piercing him through the mask, his scar- her scar- burning under her scrutiny. Her gaze a physical heavy thing that rested on his shoulders, his chest. Awareness of the blood pounding through his veins slammed into him, his breath catching.
A prickling ran down his spine and-
"Ben."
Kylo snapped his attention to the old man, his face was weary but cautious and resolute, his stance protective, "I am called Kylo Ren now," he replied conversationally, his earlier indiscretion fading as the next step in his task came closer and closer, "But you wouldn't know that… hiding like a coward. Hiding while I grew stronger and finished grandfather's plan." mocking.
But Skywalker just shook his head, "Ben-"
He cut him off, not needing to hear his feeble lies again, "I don't answer to that name."
"Your father-"
"Solo!" he spat out, his face twitching, "Solo is dead and so is Ben and you-"
A snap-hiss of a light saber igniting, blue, "You killed him!" she shouted, lunging forward.
"Rey!"
But she was quick, a lifetime of surviving on her own making her lithe and strong, and her blade crashed up against his. He held, his new saber not rattling in his hand like the one she had destroyed, but the blade still rippled from the force of her.
The red and blue blades crackled between them, sparks where they met. She was so close, her muscles pushing against his through the single point of contact. He was taller, wider, but did not tower over her did not conceal her. No, nothing could shroud-
"You killed your father!" her face tensed, teeth starting to show between her lips, "You put Finn in a coma!"
The traitor? Who cared about him? "Solo was weak," running from anything he couldn't point a blaster at, running from what he couldn't understand, "So weak he helped me kill him," he had held the grip, one hand over his the other reaching…
"I am stronger now," Kylo growled, bringing his mask closer to her, "I excised the weakness, the Light. Now only the Dark remains and the Dark grows more powerful."
"It didn't let you beat me," she whispered, piercing and brutal.
He shoved her away, memories of snow falling around him and hissing as the flakes struck his blade. Staggering out from the bridge, hot blood running down his side from a familiar bolt he didn't recall hitting him. Kneeling on the metal grate, watching the abyss below.
The clarity he sought never-
No, he was stronger now, "Then allow me to demonstrate it to you!"
Kylo barely heard the old man addressing the girl, he was unimportant. No, she had to see the Dark side, had to witness it's strength firsthand like he had like he did. Only then would she turn.
He had to prove it to her.
Then she would see, would understand and join him.
The girl took up Skywalker's flank, the pillars of the vault cutting between them as they both maneuvered slowly. She still had her- grandfather's- light saber lit holding it out towards him. Sky walker had not lit his own, holding it rather loosely in his hand.
"Han would not have wanted this, Ben."
"I am unconcerned with what Solo would have wanted," a clap on the shoulder, sitting in a co pilot's chair.
Kylo raised his saber in front of him, defensively, his gloved hand tightening on the grip as he tracked them through the slit in his mask. The temple was not that large and with the thick pillars swinging a light saber side to side would be difficult, thrusts would be better.
"Leia is still hoping you will come home, Ben."
"Foolish then," an embrace, walking through a door.
He widened, stabilized his stance. Skywalker would be an easy target, the weak and old were always purged from the herd. Then he could give all his focus to the girl, give his consideration.
A bound forward and a vertical swing down onto a brown robe.
Skywalker held out his flesh hand, catching the blade.
The blade stopped.
Kylo flinched back, but worn fingers held tight and he was unable to move away. He pulled, eyeing the unlit saber still in Skywalker's other hand. His armor could not protect him with a direct hit at this distance, he needed to get free.
Lowering his hand to his side slowly, Skywalker took the saber blade with him, trapped almost casually in his grasp, "Ben…"
And Kylo looked up at his unwavering voice, some long buried habit unearthed.
"Ben-"
A shout cut him off and they both sprung apart, Sywalker going to where the girl was leaning behind a pillar. Blaster fire striking the stone in little puffs of sparks and smoke.
He whirled around, storm troopers were filing through the temple entrance, laying down cover fire to keep Skywalker and the girl in place. He quickly moved out of their line of fire towards the entry. Hux must have sent them behind him, his faithlessness apparent.
Kylo strode through the thick of them, they knew to get out of his way well enough, to the commander, "Hold-"
"FIRE!" the shouted order ringing through the stone vault, the heavy troopers launching their explosive rockets into the ceiling.
The ancient temple was no match. The rock face cracked and splintered under the onslaught, the pillars buckling inward and then crashing down in massive chunks right over Skywalker and the girl.
They could hold it, suspended over them to save them from being crushed. But it would leave them open, exposed to the blaster fire raining down.
A fittingly unglamorous end for Skywalker, entombed in ruin.
But, the girl…
It would be a waste, she could be turned, be a powerful ally. To rule over the weak. But this was something he could do himself, after all he had been the one charged with grandfather's plan- not her.
She would be crushed on this backwater- forgotten. Her fire extinguished, the tether severed, his detachment restored.
And yet, something in him constricted-
No- Skywalker would die and with him the last of the Jedi, just as he was tasked. Just as he dreamed, just as he waited for. His next step out of Vader's long shadow.
The jagged rock fell. Skywalker held out a weathered hand, the girl following suit. Their fingers outstretched.
His gloved hand joined them.
The rock stopped, suspended. Bolts of blaster fire hung in the air, nearly vibrating in place.
And Kylo's eyes widened and he froze for a very long moment, staring at his hand like it was someone else's. Like it had betrayed him of it's own volition. He could feel the storm troopers attention on him, helmets turning in sync- his other hand shot out, sending their armored bodies so hard into the walls that cracks appeared where they hit, their limp forms falling to the floor.
Skywalker and the girl stood, the rubble settling around them gently, dust billowing. He could feel them better than he could see them, the old man's weary expectation, the girl's cautious hesitation. Recoiling, Kylo dropped his hand and backed away, unable to… it couldn't…
"Ben-"
He turned away and ran.
A/N: Happy New Year!