Anakin, Lando, Chewy, Han, and Luke said their goodbyes and all made their way into the Millenium Falcon. Rey stood hidden by the fueling and had to hype herself up just to get near the ship. "Control my fear," she whispered to herself, "I can do this. It's just sitting inside a ship and staying hidden until I see Ben again." She took a deep breath and went for it before the doors could close.
She snuck around the halls and quickly went behind a door to see Anakin facing away from her and putting on a breaking mask. "Oh, I'm so sorry-I-" she stopped herself and saw his hearing aids weren't turned on. He had no idea she was there. He hadn't sensed her yet. She turned into a closet and hid in there.
Meanwhile, in the bridge, Lando and Han steered the ship and Chewy sat in the backseat.
"You really think something bad is happening to your nephew?" Lando asked.
"Leia and Mara have been worrying about it for weeks," Han answered, "and now that terrifying old man back there claims this was a big slave colony back in the day. Even that stormtrooper has no idea what's going on beyond the base. It's all too convient if you ask me."
Lando shook his head and replied, "I hope it's nothing serious."
The Zygerrians bought the story of the shipment of bricks as Lando and Han landed the Falcon within the capital city's borders. It was much more built up than the last time Anakin remembered being there. Rey hid within the back of the ship until it landed softly on Zygerria.
Lando stayed with the ship and held an important looking tablet, pretending to look official, while Luke, Anakin, Chewy, and Han moved to the base at the capital.
"What are we going?" Han asked, "They're never going to let us in the front door."
"We'll sneak in around the side," Anakin assured him, "guards always get lazy when nothing happens."
Luke said, "According to Finn's map, if we move this way we'll be able to get to the backside where all those strange hallways are quicker." He led the way down a back alley and around the outside of the wall.
Rey on the other hand struggled to find the courage to leave the ship. She watched as Lando spoke with a Zygerrian on the loading platform and tried to ease her mind. The force told her which direction Luke and Anakin went in. All she had to do was follow them and they'd lead her directly to Ben. Easy.
She took a deep breath when no one was looking and took the leap. She kept her footsteps light and no one noticed as she darted across the landing platform.
As she followed the trail around the outside of the walls of the base, she noticed they were only getting taller, and the solid ground was only getting further and further away as the wall grew. The ledge she was on turned narrower and narrower. She didn't understand, it felt as though Luke were right there a moment earlier.
Then, she saw it. A ladder. It went up the entire hieght of the wall, a good 20 feet, and she was already 10 off the proper ground.
"Why?" she asked herself.
Rey grabbed onto the rung at eye level but she couldn't do it. She couldn't climb it. "Oh come on!" she shouted at herself.
It took everything she had to start, and then add one more, and another, and another. She swore she could feel the ground disappating out from under her.
"Deep breaths, deep breaths," she whispered to herself as she forced herself up higher.
Just when she thought she was nearly there, she looked down and realized she had only climbed 4 rungs.
Inside, Luke stopped just as they entered a side entrance of the base. "The signal is breaking apart," he said anxiously, "it's giving several homing devices at once somehow."
Chewy growled.
"You're right Chewbacca, someone is messing with it," Anakin said, readying his lightsaber.
Han warned, "If this is a trap, anything could have happened to Ben."
Luke said, "Let's split up and take different halls. It looks like I'm now picking up 4 signals." He paused. "It's like someone knows there's 4 of us."
Anakin said, "I sense the dark side this direction." He walked off without warning.
"Wait!" Luke said, "This is a team decision!"
Han said, "Let him be, I'll go this way, Chewy you go that way. Luke, have fun with the last choice." They both moved out away from him, all of their tracking beacons ready.
They unknowingly walked down the same maze of halls Ben did when he was new to Zygerria. Anakin made the best progress the quickest. He didn't like what he was sensing at all. This dark side energy didn't feel like the empire or the emperor, it was more like it was when he was a child and the clone wars were ramping up. Something wasn't right.
Han meanwhile cut across a few different paths. He didn't know which way to take and simply hoped for the best. Something that didn't seem right to him however, was there were no first order soliders around or storm troopers. It was as if this part of the base was off limits.
Just when he thought he was finally getting somewhere, he turned and saw the red parts of Anakin's suit nearly glow in the dark while the lenses covering his eyes showcased his cold blue-eyed stare.
"AH!" Han yelled, nearly jumping out of his skin, "I didn't see you there!"
"You can't see in mild darkness?"
"Not all of us have specialized night vision old man," Han snarked.
Anakin turned and continued down his path. The lighting only got worse. It was as if whoever created the base had something to hide and wanted everyone to know it.
Luke came out from around a corner, "Han?"
"Three out of the four of us met up in the same spot?" Han asked, "Something isn't right here."
Anakin turned around to see them and said, "It must be the force."
As he turned back, he nearly ran into a bacta tank and had to stifle a scream of shock. Han shined a light on it and said, "That must be the guy that stormtrooper claimed it freaked him out. I don't see it."
"It's me!" Anakin exclaimed, horrified.
Inside the bacta tank was a floating Anakin Skywalker. His hair was long, longer than he ever wore it growing up, passed his shoulders in length. It was tinged dark blond, and he donned a short robe that ended before his knees and had short sleeves. Somehow this version of him had muscle tone. He had all his limbs intact, and there wasn't a scar over his left eye, yet he looked to be about 30 years old.
Han exclaimed in shock, "The First Order cloned you!?"
"This isn't a clone," Luke said, confused, as he brought up the scanner on his wrist, "He has no brain waves and the breathing apparatus is forcing his lungs and heart to work. It's as if he's not a real person."
Anakin said, "Not a clone."
"I don't understand," Han said, "he's not alive?"
"From what I can tell," Luke answered nerviously, "he is, but he isn't."
Anakin asked, "Where is Ben?"
"The signal is scattered," Luke said, "we'll have to use the force. Split up again. Han try that way." The three of them went in different directions.
Inside Snoke's chambers, Ben waited impatiently as he messed with his homing beacon.
"They're actually here," he said, surprised, "you were right."
"Attachments can be quite useful, Kylo," Snoke assured him from across the room, "it is why the jedi of the past feared it so. Have paitence and your family will be here soon."
Chewbacca found the room first, but from one of the walkways above far away from Ben and a strange man he didn't recognize. He roared and growled loud enough for the entire base to hear.
Han ran into the room second after him from a side entrance, blaster ready for action. "Ben?"
"That isn't my name, Uncle Han!" he shouted back, "Not anymore! I'm Kylo Ren for real now, whether or not you can accept that."
"Ben I don't know what's gotten into you," Han explained, moving in closer, "your mother is worried sick."
He answered, "I wouldn't expect you to understand, Uncle Han. My entire family has been able to carve out their own piece of the galaxy? Why can't I do the same and go down my own path away from you and your victories!"
Anakin finally made his way to the room and entered from behind his grandson. He couldn't believe his eyes. It couldn't be. "Palpatine!" he shouted at Snoke.
Chewy roared from above.
"I thought he was dead too," Han said, "you're sure it's him?"
"My old friend," Snoke said in his signature dark voice, "you do recognize me after such a long time and at an age where we didn't know each other."
Anakin marched toward him and said, "I recognize you from my nightmares. You're also the only man who stands like this." He showed him his signature foreshortened arms and hands.
Palpatine quickly dropped them and explained, "I 'm back, Anakin. As I told you long ago, the dark side is a pathway many consider to be unnatural."
Of course Anakin remembered. How could he forget how easily he trusted the wrong man?
Confused, Kylo asked, "You're the old emperor? But how?"
"I died that day my precious death star was destroyed," Palpatine explained, "however, before that I managed to unlock the power Plagius had be so desperate to discover before his unfortunate death."
Anakin interjected, "You killed him in his sleep like a coward."
While they spoke, Han readied his blaster toward Palpatine. He wanted to shoot but he was too curious to see if what he spoke was the truth.
"I ensured his death," he continued, "you see my old friend, there is a way to reproduce a copy of yourself without making an entirely new clone. That's the trouble I had with Jango Fett all those years ago. A clone isn't a perfect duplicate. Once they develop their own experiences, it changes them into their own person. What I did was create a new lifeform with no soul, and once my original body died, I used the force to channel my own consciousness into the soulless lifeform I had incubated."
Kylo turned and said, "Grandpa, you can do it too! You must have passed that younger version of yourself on the way in here. Snoke made it just for you!"
Anakin asked, "Palpatine you want me to turn into that clone monstrosity? Why?"
"Don't do it!" Han said, "It's a trap for sure!"
"How?" Palpatine asked, "How could I possibly trap the greatest force user of all time? The only thing I would have done is given you your life back. The one the jedi stole form you."
Anakin prepared his lightsaber and commanded, "Get out of the way, Ben!"
Instead, his grandson took out his own lightsaber, and the color gleamed red. "No! You're not supposed to take a life, Grandpa. It'll go against your oath!"
"You don't know how to wield that," Anakin said, horrified to see a red lightsaber for the first time in 30 years.
"I've had training since you've last seen me," Kylo insisted, "I can fight on my own like a real man!"
Anakin used the force to push him aside, but Kylo twisted around and jumped back in front of him, closer than ever. "I can take it!" Kylo shouted.
"You want a fight like a man?" Anakin taunted.
The walkway they were on was a bridge over the empty lower parts of the base. Anakin took it with the force and shook it violently out from under his grandson's feet. He had no choice but to put his saber away and try to stay upright. He couldn't and fell over instantly.
"Get up!" Anakin shouted, "Get up and fight like you claim you can! Where is your training now, Ben?!"
Meanwhile, at the same time, Han didn't hesitate to start blasting Palpatine. Chewy joined in from the walkway above. Palpatine took out his own red lightsaber and delflected every blast with ease. Then, the purple lightning came out. They both had to duck in cover to avoid getting electrocuted to death.
Anakin knew he had to do something. He cut through the railing of the walkway holding Kylo up.
In order to hold on, Kylo grabbed it tight and dangled off the side. Anakin ran for Palpatine head on, knowing he was breaking his oath to his son and wondering at the same time why Luke didn't show up in the same space.
Luke, meanwhile, was on his own adventure and making a new horrific discovery.