Past

Kylo opened one bleary eye at the sound of shuffling. No one should be allowed in the throne room anymore. The fact that he was there, draped over Snoke's erstwhile throne, did not matter. He shifted, vaguely aware of the bottle sliding off his lap and hitting the solid floor with an echoing clink. No wonder he wound up there, he thought begrudgingly, it was just like himself – cold, empty, and dark. Only it seemed, it was not so empty, as there was something peering back at him over the arm of the throne.

Kylo jolted back at the sight of the creature, wincing at his own voice when he yelped. "What—who are you?" he aimed at the pointy-eared interloper.

"Hmph," it replied, shuffling around to view him better. The green thing's—person's—ears drooped as he shook his head at Kylo disgustedly. "Smell, you do. Drunk, you are."

"Drunk last night, I was. Hungover now, I am," Kylo mocked bitterly, his entire head feeling like the Starkiller was detonating right behind his eyes. He had the worst case of dry mouth, and here this thing was… he looked around sharply, not seeing him at first. Had he disappeared? Was Kylo hallucinating? Then slowly, dimly, Kylo realized the tiny being was now hovering over the ground and emanating a vibrant blue light.

"Sarcasm, you have. Much pride as well." It harrumphed again. "Much Skywalker in you, there is. Pride and pridefulness. Weakness is it. Many lessons in humility, you have yet to learn."

The creature waved a small cane that he clutched in a three-fingered paw, and suddenly before him, Kylo could see images reflected in the polished black surface of the walls beyond.

There was tiny Rey in a sandy village, crying as she was hauled away from a fleeting ship. He had seen this scene before, just a short glimpse, but he stood there with the strange little ghost watching solemnly. Turning back to the great Crolute, a brutish thug who seemed to run the village, Kylo watched as he backhanded her to the floor, growling that if she didn't stop crying she would not see dinner or breakfast the next day. Little Rey only wailed harder.

The scene shifted, and she was a few years older, swatting at groping hands that reached for her from one of the open tents. She tried to bolt, only to wince as the dirty hand vised on her spindly arm and yanked her into the tent. An older woman suddenly darted in and swept a large staff into an arc, glancing a blow off the male slave's temple, yanking Rey back as he hit the ground with a thud. She took Rey back to her home in an old AT-AT, whose markings told Kylo it was designated as Hellhound 2. It struck him how old the battle was that felled this particular vehicle, but at the same time, he saw the woman give the small girl a short pipe about her size and start teaching her to parry and jab. "You'll need to know this, girl, if you're ever to keep from being corrupted. Be stronger, be faster, or be mincemeat. They don't care for your tears. They don't care if they hurt you. You're nothing to them, but another tool they can use."

The scene shifted again, and Rey was older yet. Nearly the age she was now. She lived alone in the AT-AT, far from the rest of the village. She had the larger staff, which she still carried, and poked dismally at a loaf of bread as if trying to savor it and make the paltry loaf last longer. In her lap she held a musty mold old tome that he recognized as an ancient flight manual she struggled relentlessly to read. Had she taught herself? Her bedding was raggedy, her clothing tattered, and her rations meager. All of it tugged at him. He'd offered her galaxies. Would she rather go back to this than rule with him? She was capable of so much more… who wouldn't want that kind of power?

Rey's feet crunched on the gravelly embankment of the ridge on the mainland. It was almost tomb quiet up here, but she liked the solitude. The trees were sparser on the ridge, younger. But the entire forest spread out below, standing thick with evergreens and bracken. It was crisp out and she shivered slightly, her body still unused to feeling a chill. Despite that, she wanted to revel in it. Rey loved to feel the cool breezes and watery mists she'd never been exposed to on Jakku. Now that she was away she didn't miss it at all, and though she had initially wanted nothing more than to make it back, she knew now that she would never go. Not there. It may have been the only home she'd ever known, but there was nothing for her. Maz was right.

She stopped to lean against an outcropping and pulled her canteen out of her pack, propping her staff against the rock. Only it was an oddly shaped thing, this rock, she realized as she took in the bulky squared off shape of it. There was some light growth on it, she thought as she started brushing away at the loamy soil, but the soil and vegetation there concealed the lines that she could now see were that of a man-made object. The more she brushed and scraped, the more excited she got, until her fingers rapped against the hard metal underneath. A laser turret. Her face aglow, Rey slipped and slid down the cliff face, which she now knew was a façade that covered the long lost rebel Ghost base turned Imperial stronghold. She leaped the last five feet to the forest floor and stood facing the crest of the thing. Somewhere there had to be a gate. Leia described the place in detail just the night before.

As she stood there trying to figure a way inside, a rock suddenly dropped and rolled down, about five feet above the ground and clinked on something metal before rolling off and hitting the ground. Rey scooted over to it quickly, brushing and scraping again, revealing a keypad. She huffed out a dejected breath, knowing she would never come up with the combination on her own. Maybe Leia would remember…

"It is relatively easy," said a stilted voice from behind her. Rey gasped and spun, swirling her staff into a defensive grip.

A clink and a hiss had her spinning again, this time toward a doorway which was opening in a fissure of rock next to the keypad. The gate was opening. But who opened it?

"Young padawan you are…but why did you not accept training from the Ren?" Rey almost yelped this time, as the voice was almost right behind her.

She refused to jump, but instead turned slowly, gauging the speaker now that she could view him. Her heart caught in her throat at the bluish glow emanating from him. Here she was, worlds from her home and face to face with a ghost. Her only consolation was that this spirit seemed to be dressed as a Jedi warrior. With his olive-skinned face unlined and his long thin beard still dark, he looked like he had died in his prime. His eyes looked kind.

"Wh-who are—"

"I am Echuu Shen-Jon, taught by Mace Windu. It is I who secured the Rebel Alliance in these walls and here where I cornered and murdered General Tann, thus embracing the dark side."

"You—embraced the dark?"

A tingle of fear crept in, replacing the calm she had just reached.

"Everyone is tempted. Everyone is tested," he stressed. "All are met with the choice to embrace the dark side or turn from it. In my desire for revenge, I succumbed, yes. As Luke Skywalker did when he attempted to murder Ben Solo. As Ben Solo did when he slaughtered a village to find the map to Skywalker to exact revenge. Many have succumbed, but few have turned back, as I did at last. All, however, have that option. Redemption is never far for those who choose to do it. He promised you much power and you refused."

"I don't want power," Rey replied stiffly.

"No," Shen-Jon smiled. "He thought you would. He saw how powerless you were before. He misjudged your motivations and desires. He knows you not well enough...yet."

"I have power thanks to the Force."

"Yes, and you realize that it is all the power you need. Kylo Ren craves more. He thinks it is more power he craves, that it is power which will fill the void in him. But…he is wrong. You know this, don't you?"

Rey felt herself flush under his gaze.

"I was powerless before, but it is not power that fulfills me."

"And what does?"

"I belong." Her voice cracked.

"He never belonged either," Shen-Jon nodded. "Both of you were alone in many ways. Though his family and parents were exalted, he felt subsumed by their presences and alone at every turn. No one saw him as himself, only his parents' child, and his desire to prove himself only triggered fear in those who stood in awe of his strength. But you…saw him, refused to fear him, and were every bit as lonely and lost as he."

"But I tried to get him to turn—"

"You tried to force him to take a path that must be his choice, and in doing so made him fear that you did not in fact want him. People have tried to mold him his entire life. Tried to push him and prod at him to be and act a certain way. He has to find his way. As did you."

"But he can be saved."

"He can be helped. But he must save himself. It is that you should have tried to do—help him, not make him turn."

"What's the difference?!"

He merely smiled and disappeared.

More info on the spirit who visited Rey:

wiki/Echuu_Shen-Jon

And more about the planet they escaped to:

wiki/Krant