Chapter 11
The rain fell in sheets as Kylo Ren and the Knights of Ren looked with satisfaction on the bloody glade, the dead scattered throughout. They waited. Kiam became impatient and shifted his feet as he said aloud, "How long will this take?"
"Not long," Kylo Ren replied. "I feel him coming."
A moment later, Luke came running down a hill from the east, where he had withdrawn for another of his retreats. His shoulders dropped once he had seen the carnage. He ran to one of the dead Padawans and bent over her.
"I knew you would sense this and come," Kylo Ren said from behind his mask.
Luke stood and looked at him with righteous but fatherly displeasure. "What have you done?"
"Only what I needed to get your attention," Kylo Ren said. "Had you been here instead of always running off, they may not have had to die," Kylo Ren said spitefully.
Luke lowered his head. Rain dripped down his face and off his chin. His fist clenched his lightsaber tightly.
"I'm not finished yet," Kylo Ren replied and held up his cross-bladed lightsaber and then advanced toward Luke.
"I know that is you, Ben," Luke said.
"Ben is no longer," Kylo Ren said. "There is now Kylo Ren."
Luke did not appear surprised. "I understand. So you have finished exactly what Ren had started."
"No, what your father had started, and it isn't finished yet."
With that Kylo Ren charged Luke, holding his lightsaber with both fists, ready to swing with all his might.
Luke lit his green saber and deflected the attack, the red and green blades spitting flares of electric sparks as the clashed. It was a powerful blow but Luke managed it. He side-stepped and then back-stepped away. Kylo Ren pressed the attack further, swinging across.
Luke made a vertical block, then stepped into the attack and rammed his shoulder into Kylo Ren's chin. Kylo Ren staggered back, a little stunned from the hit to his jaw, even with his mask.
The Knights of Ren jumped into action when they saw Kylo Ren pitch back. First Lura fired. Luke whipped his blade, wiping the blast away as if it was an insect, then held out his left hand. Lura's rifle flew from her fingers. Luke caught it midshaft and broke it over the head of Kiam who was running toward him in an attack. Kiam bent over from the blow, floundered with his steps, and then fell to the side. Lura, having no weapon, turned to run from the battle.
Tanut, right behind Kiam, swung an angled attack from the upper left toward the right. Luke caught it with his lightsaber and stopped the swing high. He then lightly touched Tanut's chest with his left hand. Tanut was thrown twenty feet into the air and backward, over the head of the fleeing Lura.
Jax fired his Z-6 jetpack and flew thirty feet over Luke in order to fire down. Gabo barrelled toward Luke from the front, holding his right fist high, ready to pound Luke into the ground with his electro-knuckles.
Luke Force-leapt into the air toward Jax. Jax fired. Luke deflected the two shots as he ascended, and grabbed Jax by the collar. Using the Force and the firing jetpack, he spun in the air whipping him back down toward the ground. Jax plummeted down on top of Gabo.
Luke, as he was falling, held both hands downward and pushed with the Force. Rainwater exploded around both of the Knights, and the ground under them sank a foot as if a giant foot of an invisible walker had stepped down. Luke landed beside the shallow crater he had made. Jax and Gabo could be heard moaning over the heavy rain.
Sakiah, with her double-bladed baton, came from behind and tried to take off Luke's head with high attack. Luke ducked and spun. He hooked her forward leg with his foot and pulled it in. She swung her lightsaber down on him as her body fell backward. He blocked, causing her to further lose her footing and fall back. Her lightsaber still lit would have injured her in the fall. Luke could sense it, and as if time slowed for a moment, he reached with the Force and removed her baton from her hand. She collapsed on the wet ground. Luke threw her baton away and aimed his lightsaber at her.
"Run away, Sakiah," he said. She just looked up at him, her fearful face hidden by the mask.
Kiam, now recovered from the blow to the head, charged from Luke's right. Luke turned quickly and met his first strike with his lightsaber. Then he blocked the second swing of the electro-staff. Luke held out his hand, and the electro-staff fizzled out. Kiam still swung, but Luke sliced the unlit ends from the staff and grabbed the back of Kiam's neck. Kiam slammed face-first into the mud, the Force dropping him. Luke held out his hand and pushed him with the Force back into the darkness, dragging him through the mud.
Luke turned back to Sakiah who was still on the ground. He aimed the lightsaber at her again. "Run away, Sakiah," he said. She got up without a word and ran toward the woods.
Kylo Ren watched the fight, which lasted a minute at most. "This is all your fault, you know." Kylo Ren said. Lightning flashed. Luke looked at him. The thunder roared. "They are all dead because of you, and now the only students you have left are your enemies."
Luke's face filled with anger but it was obvious Luke was trying hard to suppress it.
"For what?" Kylo Ren taunted. "Were you trying to save us when you killed Ren and Darren? Or were you just afraid of losing control?"
"I was trying to do the right thing," Luke replied.
"But you were unsure," Kylo Ren replied. "And I think you know now whether it was right. I can sense that in you."
Luke did not want to admit that, and the pain of it angered him. Luke knew the dangers of anger and the path to the dark side, but still, he clenched his lightsaber and ran at Kylo Ren. "No!"
Kylo Ren charged as well, full of hatred and rage. Their lightsabers crashed into each other and sparked into their faces. Luke was more skilled with a lightsaber and pushed Kylo Ren back again. Luke then started into a series of violent and relentless attacks, his blade accurately darting a specific path. Kylo Ren blocked each, but could not put any space between him and Luke as he stepped back.
Luke reached out and with the Force and wrenched the lightsaber from Kylo Ren's hand. Luke kicked Kylo Ren in the midsection. Kylo Ren fell backward over a dead Padawan and splashed into a shallow pool that had formed. Luke crossed the lightsabers around Kylo Ren's neck and stared down at him with an irresolute composure. Kylo Ren did not move a muscle.
"Anger and fear," Kylo Ren said. "You do know it." Luke's face showed the struggle.
"You must kill me, Luke," he said. "I will not stop hunting you. I will never stop. I will finish what your father could not."
Luke furrowed his brow, and his teeth clenched for a moment. Then he closed his eyes and breathed deep. The lightsabers extinguished. Luke threw Kylo Ren's lightsaber into the water.
"You will leave this place," Luke said with a calm and earnest voice.
"What!" Kylo Ren said. "Are you trying a Jedi mind trick on me! I am stronger than that."
"You are deceived, Ben," Luke said. "The dark side has made you strong; but you are also weaker for it, although you are not completely lost. However, I am more powerful than you can now understand." Luke raised his hand toward Kylo Ren and waved it before him. "You will leave this place."
"Stop trying. It's a waste of time."
"You will leave this place."
Kylo Ren's shoulders lifted up. He bent forward and picked up his lightsaber. He stood up before Luke. "I will leave this place." With that, Kylo Ren turned and walked toward the woods.
….
The darkness was pierced by Ben Solo's yellow lightsaber which illuminated a gloomy spherical room with a walkway that led to a center platform. The walls were inky and difficult to see.
"They won't be able to follow us in here," Rey said. "That door only opens with the Force."
"What is this place," the injured soldier, Sayah, asked.
"It is Snoke's meditation chamber," Ben replied. "It is best that we do not delay here."
He appeared uncomfortable but led the way across the walkway to the platform and then beyond toward the door at the opposite end. Using the Force, Ben opened the exit, and everyone walked out single file.
The next room was a massive room, also dark and cold, but filled with small waterfalls and fountains made to look natural. A dull red light from glowing crystals in the roof and walls lit the room. "The Room of a Thousand Fountains," Ben said, noticing that the others would soon ask what this room was. "It supposedly was a greenhouse long ago. Now it is just dead rock. But what we want is at the end. A mountain at the center of the old Jedi Temple."
They weaved their way through the pools and fountains until they came to a huge rock face of the interior mountain, full of interlaced cracks. There appeared to be no obvious entry through it Ben held out his free hand and closed his eyes. He strained, this obviously a more difficult door to open. The rocks at the center moved concentrically outward, filling each gap until each rock was flush with each other and an opening large enough for a human to enter formed.
"We're here," Ben said. "Only Rey and I go in here."
"I'm going," Finn said.
"No, you're not," Ben said. "This is a Sith Temple. Only those with the Force should enter."
"Should," Finn replied. "You said should. That settles it. I'm going."
Ben stepped in front of him and stood proudly adamant. "You cannot go in."
Rey angled between them and pushed Ben back with her forearm. "If he doesn't come, neither do I."
Ben appeared upset and studied her face. "Why do you want him to come?"
Rey looked sternly at him and replied, "You don't need to know. You only need to know I won't go without him."
"I know what you have in you," Ben said without anger but as a matter of fact. "I know you have the heart of a traitor, like your father. You may have deceived him." He directed a gaze at Finn. "But you have not deceived me."
"I could say something similar about you." She glared directly at him. "But as it is I will not go in without Finn," Rey said. "And you need me."
Ben huffed and turned to enter. Rey nodded at Finn and then followed Ben through the narrow door. Finn turned toward those following him and said, "The four of you and BB-8 wait here. Defend the door if needed. But like I told Poe, if their forces are too great for you, you must surrender. And if Snoke comes . . ." He paused a second to think. "Then run."
The soldiers agreed. Finn turned to follow Rey and Ben.
It was not a deep entrance; and soon after entering the door, they emerged into the great colonnade of the Sith Temple. Giant ten foot diameter columns supported the tall cavern. Its roof seemed to move in the dim light; dark-side creatures crawling and maneuvering over its surface. Scattered throughout there were almost a hundred skeletons, some complete skeletons still clothed in robes, others incomplete. A few had ancient lightsabers still grasped in their bony hands.
They stepped over the bones as they ventured across until they came to the large portcullis of the inner Sith Temple. Here Rey used the Force to open it. The large gate lifted up and slid into a holding groove to remain open. The ground shook as it locked into place, and small pebbles fell from its archway.
"Are there any doors in here that open normally?" Finn asked. Rey smiled at him. The second of levity did not last long as the ground rumbled again. "That wasn't the door, was it?" Finn asked.
"No, it wasn't," said Ben, his apprehension mounting.
Dust began to breathe out of the inner temple. The wind blew Rey's hair back, and Ben took a step back in anticipation. From within it the dark and hooded image of Snoke emerged. Finn immediately lifted his blaster and began firing. A dozen shots rang out, well aimed, but useless. Snoke had held out his hand, and the blaster fire seemed to disappear before any had injured him. The blaster then flew out of Finn's hand, and Snoke caught it. He glanced at each of them with cool shrewdness. The blaster seemed to incinerate in his hands and disappear. "I have been waiting for you," he stated. Finn, Rey, and Ben said nothing. Ben fingered his lightsabers. "Did you suppose you would have some heroic battle? Good versus evil?" Snoke hissed. "That I might fight you, and you would prevail or die as heroes?" Snoke's narrow eyes pierced through Ben. "How fitting it is that all of you that come to stand against me are all traitors yourselves. You have all learned one of my commands."
"It was you that betrayed me first," Ben spoke up, referring to the moment that Snoke had ordered Rey to kill him. It was that battle in which Rey had defeated Ben and his knights, killed Luke Skywalker, and joined the dark side.
"Did I not tell you the last time we were here, that when you exited this temple you would either be my loyal subject or my enemy? Do you think I was so blind to know what was in you? I had warned you what I was, and still, you defied me."
Snoke's stare moved from Ben to Rey. "But it is no matter. You will die. All of the galaxy. For to me, none survive. Not to an immortal. Your lives are like a mist that fades."
He then studied Finn. "In fact, you are not even aware of what your own Resistance is planning, so small are you. How even now the Resistance is attacking Coruscant." Finn looked surprisingly at Ben and Rey. "Ah yes, the stormtrooper has fear," Snoke said, not looking at him. "Your Resistance will fall. You had noticed the army being prepared. Not for this battle. Your presence here has made your General desperate, and she rushes to attack. My army will adequately defend this planet. But this army was originally intended to attack an unnamed planet in the Moddell sector."
Ben tried to maintain his calm, even though Snoke was referring to the hidden Resistance base.
"Now how did I know where the hidden base was?" Snoke goaded. "Irata?"
Rey stood still and emotionless this entire time. A bead of sweat dripped down her temple. Finn stared at her, but she would not look.
"Rey, what is he talking about?" Finn asked.
Rey did not answer. She took a half step toward Snoke and stopped a moment.
"Rey, you didn't?" Finn questioned.
Rey closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then walked toward Snoke. She took her place at his side. Finn looked crushed, his eyes wide and mouth half opened in shock. Ben remained calm.
"Betrayal." Snoke smiled. "A tool the two of you have not learned to handle well—and like I asked before, did you think that you would entertain a battle of Good versus Evil? As if true Evil would condescend to that."
With that, Snoke reached out his hand and touched the back of Rey's neck. Her eyes immediately turned red and yellow. "When one uses the rage of the dark side, they use my power. My will. Death is my will."
"The puppet does not know what it is," Ben said.
Snoke replied without emotion, "Neither did you." He reached out his hands toward the colonnade around them. The ground shook and the columns shed broken fragments of stone, having been weathered through the millennia. The lifeless bones began to quiver and shake. Disjointed bones snapped together and arose, quickened by the dark side. The skeletons of many different species rose, a green haze in the eyes of those with heads. A few with lightsabers attempted to light them; a smaller number effectively producing a red blade. There were at least forty that were complete enough to stand and approach Finn and Ben.
"My children. Kill the ordinary human," Snoke smiled on them. "And Irata, will you fail me again? As I had told you once before, kill Ben Solo."