Chapter 3: Lore of the Desert

SUMMARY: [ABY 18]  Brushing shoulders with the prickly Jakku natives, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker and Padawan Ben Solo meet with a trusted informant near the bazaar of Niima Outpost. The man doesn’t have what Luke seeks but may offer what the Jedi needs.

“Hey, kid, wanna buy some spice?”

Padawan Ben Solo wrinkled his nose at the scruffy Crolute. The alien smelled like rotting fish and pond scum. “No,” Ben told him flatly in Basic.

“Ben!”

For once, the kid was glad his uncle was calling him. It gave him an excuse to bolt from this particular specimen of galactic slime.

Luke reached out a hand as his nephew drew near — excited and breathless, trilling in the hustle of Niima Outpost — and drew him in. “This place is worse than Mos Eisley,” the Jedi Master warned. “Stay close, all right?”

The boy nodded solemnly, taking an interest in one of the washing stations as they elbowed their way through the cluttered market stalls. Was that a fuel injector from a Star Destroyer positional thruster?

Luke suddenly stopped and sighed. “I honestly thought it wouldn’t be this hard to find him. I thought he’d be waiting for us.” He took in a deep breath and let it out, scanning the throng for a familiar face. “I don’t sense anything’s happened to him. I guess he’s just late.”

“Doesn’t he have a commlink?” Ben asked helpfully.

Watching the alien passersby, Luke absently shook his head. “There’s a warrant out for him. He’s gathered a lot of intelligence some folks would just as soon let die in Imperial graveyards.”

Ben leaned against the side of a booth selling what looked like desiccated hands — some with two fingers, others with up to eight. He cringed and groaned, “Great. Why do we always have to hang out with bounty-fodder?”

“Some times they’re our only hope,” Luke reminded him with a resigned chuckle as he thumbed through images on the datapad he’d removed from his pack. “There aren’t even any recent holos of this guy. He’s really good at laying low.”

“What did he look like?” Ben craned his neck, peering at the old images as they scrolled by. He saw a young human male — a soldier, by the looks of him, but neither Imperial nor Rebel.

“Here.” Luke handed him the pad. “Keep your eyes peeled…although he’ll probably find us before we find him in this gundark nest.” Luke always felt he had a sign on his back: That’s right. I’m Luke Skywalker. I’m here to rescue you.

Ben watched his master walk up to the Crolute — known as Unkar Plutt — standing now behind a wire screen in a prominent trading stall.

“Have you seen any mercenary types here today?” Luke said casually. The junk dealer was an unpleasant sort, but so was most of the population on Jakku, no matter what the species. That didn’t deter him from pressing for information. “A human male…with greying hair,” Luke guessed.

The junkyard boss regarded the shorter human, pursing fish-like lips. “This ain’t no tourist welcome booth, human,” he growled, brushing sand off his apron made from salvaged hull plates as surely as he’d like to brush the offworlder away.

Luke tried again, sensing that the dealer knew something of value. “Yes, but you’re important here,” he coaxed, appealing to the Crolute’s ego. “You know things.”

Unkar Plutt snorted. “I know an idiot when I see one!”

The Jedi Master sighed. Weak-minded. That could be useful, but he wouldn’t resort to using the Force yet. “Can you at least tell me where we can get….” He broke off as Ben tugged at his sleeve.

“Over there!”

Luke’s gaze followed Ben’s pointing finger to a man standing at a washing table, chatting with one of the scavengers. He glanced about the throng for a moment and then his eyes met Luke’s He smiled — a knowing smile.

“Good job, kid.” Luke patted his padawan’s shoulder and led him through the crush of hustlers and dealers to where the veteran traveler stood. “I didn’t think we’d ever find you.”

Lor San Tekka took the Jedi’s outstretched hand. “I never doubted it for a moment,” he returned amiably. “A mind in need calls to its kin, as the saying goes.”

Luke grinned down at his young charge. “This is my nephew Ben.”

San Tekka’s gaze grew distant but warm. “You have your mother’s eyes,” he told the boy with an air of fondness, “and your father’s heart.”

Ben gave him an embarrassed smirk, his attention already averted to the man’s wardrobe. For a mercenary, it was odd that the man carried no weapon. Not even a crude knife. And he wore a strange amulet around his neck. Ben was about to ask what it was when Luke came right to the point.

“You have information for us?”

“Indeed.” San Tekka waved them out onto the baking sands. All three of them drew up their hoods against the blistering sun. “I apologize, bringing you out in the heat, but this place has more ears than a maelog. My own hut is not much better.” When he was certain they were out of earshot and beyond range of recording devices among the market stalls, he continued in a low tone. “I brought you here because we’ve identified a Force-sensitive girl. Her parents are still unaware of her powers.”

Luke let out a long breath. There had been no way he and San Tekka could communicate — even on secure channels — about anything related to the Jedi. The Purge was still happening in some areas of the galaxy, despite the Galactic Senate’s efforts to stop it. The information about the girl was important, but not the lead Luke had hoped for. “I can’t take on students without a safe place to teach them. Do you have any suggestions?”

The other man started to shake his head but stopped himself, considering. “There is a system of caves beneath Carbon Ridge, but it’s controlled by the Dead-Enders.”

Ben cocked his head. “Dead-Enders?” They sounded exciting.

“Old Imperials — abandoned and barely scraping by. Most people won’t go near them, say they’re crazy. Rumor has it what they’re guarding is an Imperial lab. But if you could reunite them with their people, they’d probably let you have the place.” San Tekka’s eyes darted to a booth on the edge of the bazaar. He nodded in its direction. “There’s the little one I was telling you about.”

A ragged and thin woman scolded the girl — Ben recognized the waif as the urchin who had picked up his journal — for grabbing at a piece of dried meat on a stick. The girl began to cry when it was pried from her tiny fingers.

“She can’t be getting enough to eat,” Luke said, unable to keep the sadness form his voice. He suddenly clutched San Tekka’s sleeve. “Can you keep an eye on her while we check out the caves?”

The Jedi-follower nodded.

Luke patted his arm with gratitude and turned to his nephew. “We’ve got work to do, Ben.”

As they parted company, the hungry little girl — Rey was her name — reached out a hand toward the meat-stick and summoned it into her grubby fist as if by magic.

No one noticed except Ben.

 

@MyKyloRen   29 January 2018

 

Chapter 2: You’re Nothing

SUMMARY: [ABY 18] Jedi Master Luke Skywalker embarks with his nephew Ben on an intelligence mission he hopes will lead them to the first Jedi temple. But what they discover on a remote desert planet in the Outer Rim is not what either of them expected.

“I’ll miss you,” Leia pulled back from the awkward hug to look her son in the eye. At thirteen, Ben was already ten centimeters taller than she was and she had to look up. “You know I always do,” she told him, giving him a firm but loving look before patting his chest and turning him loose.

The boy nodded once, solemnly. “I know.” And turned to follow his uncle up the ramp of the Millennium Falcon as his father called after him.

“Tell your uncle to stay out of the asteroid fields this time.”

Luke, the uncle in question, caught the remark where he fiddled with an adjustment to the exterior lighting controls. He gave Han a half-hearted wave of acknowledgment.

Han drawled, “I’m only letting you have her because I owe you one!”

“More like fifty-one,” Leia muttered at his side.

“Hey,” Han protested, “I get around to paying my debts…eventually,” he added when she folded her arms and gave him an I-know-you smirk. Han ignored her and raised his voice again to Luke, “I want her back in eight standard days without any scratches.” How he hated loaning out the Falcon. He’d sooner cut off his own arm.

Luke Skywalker, Jedi Master, finished his tinkering and gave his brother-in-law a two-fingered salute before turning to follow Ben inside. The boarding ramp of the Millennium Falcon closed with a hydraulic hiss. In the pilot’s chair, he wasted no time starting the departure sequence. R2-D2 cheerily rolled past and extended a data probe to plug into the ship’s nav system as Ben turned to make his way down an access corridor.

Luke broke off punching switches to call over his shoulder, “What, you’re going to let R2 copilot?” He’d expected his nephew to flop down in the copilot’s chair next to him in the cockpit. Han had taught the kid advanced nav skills at an early age and he was good at it. Piloting was the only thing father and son had in common.

“I thought I’d man the forward cannon,” Ben called back down the passage.

“Cannon?” Luke chuckled, turning back to his consoles. Why did kids always think every jump through hyperspace was going to involve a laser battle along the way? Holovids. They watched too many holovids. Luke smirked, remembering his own rampant imagination at that age. “We’re not going to need to blast our way out of here,” he yelled from the cockpit. “We won’t even need it to get us through small asteroids,” he said ruefully, more to himself. Where was the challenge in flying if you couldn’t zip and zag through an asteroid belt?

“Then why won’t you tell me where we’re going?”

Luke gave a start as Ben jumped into the copilot’s chair and spun around in it. I’m going to need to learn to connect with this kid through the Force sooner than I’d thought, he told himself. It was unnerving how Ben could creep up on him — almost as if he’d learned to hide his presence from the Force. “Because until now I wasn’t exactly sure where we were going. I just knew it was in the Western Reaches.” He thumbed a switch and fired up the sublight engines.

“But in order to file a flight plan,” Ben countered, lifting his chin, “you have to tell them what planet you’re going to.”

The Jedi Master sucked in a deep breath and let it out. This was going to be a very long trip. “That’s right,” he allowed. “Our contact is sending through the coordinates now.”

Ben lurched his attention to the nav computer. “Jakku.”

Luke’s eyebrows arched. “You know that from the coordinates?” He stared at the numbers on the readout. They meant nothing to him.

Between their chairs, R2-D2 emitted an impressed beep.

Ben shrugged as he strapped in and donned the copilot’s headset. “I didn’t have much to do in lockdown, so I spent it studying the galaxy.” Of course, he’d continued his schooling, but he didn’t consider that “much to do.”

Lockdown. The three years the boy was confined to wearing a precise movement tracker. He was able to stay out of a juvenile correction facility by being transferred to the custody of a court-appointed psychologist. After Ben had accidentally caused the death of a three-year-old through manipulating the Force, the tracker was deemed necessary to monitor his fine muscle movements. The device was so precise, it even reported when the kid had a bowel movement.

The court’s tracker was gone now and Ben was the Jedi Master’s responsibility. Luke hoped he was doing the right thing. Was he ready to match wits with his nephew? What about the kid’s incredible Force abilities? How would he control those?

“Why would anyone want to go to Jakku?” Ben was saying as Luke cleared their take-off and brought the ship into orbit.

“Your mother’s friend is there with information, I hope,” Luke revealed, “about the location of the first Jedi temple.”

Ben shook his head. “It’s not there.”

Luke almost snorted. “How would you know?” The arrogance of this kid.

“It’s not a place that’s strong with the Force,” Ben told him matter-of-factly, checking the readouts from the sensor array.

“I see.” Luke pursed his lips and prepared for the jump to hyperspace.

 

Niima Outpost was a hive of activity. They had been warned that collectors and salvage companies from all over the galaxy were converging to reap a profit from a new relic that had surfaced after a major sandstorm — a Imperial Stardestroyer. Luke and Ben pushed their way past stall after merchant stall, lingered for a moment to watch the auctioning off of parts, and pressed on again to the designated rendezvous site.

Ben gawped around him at the buzz of sights and sounds and was nearly knocked off his feet when his shoulder collided with a mean-looking Kyuzo.

“Watch where you’re going, brat!”

Glaring after the alien, Ben stumbled over another native — this one much, much smaller. A human girl-child, malnourished and dirty, held up a leather-bound notebook. He instantly recognized it as his own. The collision must have jarred it from the folds of his tunic. He reached down to take it, giving the girl a smirk, but when their fingers touched, something odd happened.

You come from nothing, a man’s voice echoed in his head. You’re nothing. But not to me.

The girl’s eyes went wide as if she heard it too. She dropped the journal at once and scampered off.

 

@MyKyloRen   22 January 2018

Author’s note: Contrary to popular opinion, Snoke did not create the bond between Kylo and Rey. The Force did.

Chapter 1: The Belonging You Seek

SUMMARY: [ABY 18] Thirteen-year-old Ben Solo is about to be released back into the custody of his parents after spending three years with a court-appointed psychologist who served as his guardian. The accident, caused by Ben, which led to the death of a toddler, is fresh on everyone’s minds. Leia Organa asks her Jedi brother Luke to take Ben under his wing.

“Leia, I can’t take him.” Luke Skywalker’s tone was apologetic yet oddly resigned. “I’m not ready to take on any students.”

Leia Organa folded her arms and gave her brother a stern look over her cup of caf. “If you had waited until you were ready to face Vader, we wouldn’t be having this conversion. If you wait now to start your training academy until you’re truly ready, you’ll be a decrepit old man.”

Luke took a sip from his own cup, sighed, and leaned back in his chair. It had been two years since he’d seen Leia and Han. His nephew, Ben, was thirteen now and could already look him in the eye. It was Ben they were discussing now, the reason for the Jedi Master’s aborted trip to the Mirrin Sector.

“Have there been any more incidents?” he asked abruptly, diverting his gaze from the Hosnian cityscape beyond the window-wall of the luxury apartment.

Leia shook her head and met his gaze with a soft reassuring look. “You know he didn’t mean it.”

“I know,” Luke quickly returned as their minds touched upon the accident that had occurred three standard years earlier when Ben had been left in the care of C-3PO for a couple hours. “The court decision to remove him from your custody was so swift, I was afraid he might have acted out.”

“He’s been fine.” Leia’s smile was genuine. “He misses us, of course, but it’s not like we can’t see him. Dr. Snoke says Ben’s growing like any normal boy, but he’s curious and has questions only another Force-sensitive can answer.”

Luke sat up, reached across the table and took her hand. “But you have this ability too. I’ve seen it! I’ve heard your most desperate thoughts. That’s why I was able to come so quickly.”

“The senate needs me,” Leia demurred. “We have so much to rebuild.”

“Let me train you first,” Luke pressed. “That’s always how I’d planned it — after I find the temple site. When the courts release Ben in a few weeks, he’ll need his mother. You’ll be a big comfort to him.”

She emitted a little sound that was somewhere between a chuckle and a snort, squeezing her own small fingers around his. “What he needs is a father who’s Force-sensitive.” She let go of her brother’s hand and rose from the table to gaze out on the majestic skyscraper silhouette for a moment.

“Where is Han?” Luke glanced about the senatorial living quarters and down the corridor that connected the adjoining bedrooms. He saw very little of the flotsam and jetsam that was Han Solo. There was a bottle of Corellian brandy sitting on a sideboard and a chess set on the coffee table in front of the spotless white sofa. An antique framed print of a Kesselian star chart hung on the wall.

“He’s refereeing the Shantipole Races again this year, but he’s promised to be back in time for Ben’s release.”

Luke sat back and threw one arm over the back of the chair, his gaze growing distant. “Ben’s here now — close by — isn’t he?”

“He’s with Dr. Snoke. They’re on the terrace down there.” Leia could just make out their forms — a tall, thin blonde woman and the dark-haired lanky boy that was Ben — eight floors below in the building across the courtyard. They were, no doubt, enjoying the unseasonably warm weather. Leia wondered why she and Luke weren’t having this conversation on her own balcony. The light and fresh air were too great a distraction, she told herself. Too many eyes, even at this height.

“She’s done wonders for him,” Leia continued a little sadly but with genuine hope, speaking of the child psychologist who’d been assigned custody of Ben after the trial. “She’s given him courage and confidence.” Leia turned from the window to face her brother. “But Ben’s a teenager now.” She pressed her knuckles on the table as her voice took on a diplomatic urgency. “He needs an uncle to take him under his wing and show him what it means to not just be a man but a servant of the people, just as a special man once did for you.”

There was no arguing with that, Luke thought, letting out a long breath. Other Force-sensitive children had been located in the Gomar Sector. Distraught parents had reached out to him, asking for help guiding their young ones. Luke had promised he would, but he hadn’t even found a proper site yet, or funding, let alone staff to assist him with a proper academy. The place needed to be secluded and protected. Force-sensitives were still cruelly hunted, shunned, and feared in many places.

He rubbed his eyes. It was overwhelming. “Have you told him about his grandfather?” Luke asked in a subdued tone.

Leia stepped close and laid a hand on his sleeve, sitting down in a chair next to him. “You turned Vader from the dark side. Ben should hear that from you. When he’s ready.” Her smile was sad, but her eyes were full of hope.

Eight floors below, Ben Solo looked up.

“He doesn’t want me,” he said more to himself than to his guardian.

Dr. Amanda Snoke came to stand at the railing with her young charge. “What do you mean?” She followed his upward gaze.

“My uncle.” The teen’s eyes were full of hurt and longing. “He doesn’t want to train me.”

Amanda eyed him closely and laid a gentle hand on his back. “And you know this how? Did he tell you?”

The boy shook his head, the light breeze combing its fingers through his dark hair. “I see his mind. He’s afraid of me.”

She turned him to face her and gave him and encouraging smile. “When I found you after the accident that day, I saw raw, untamed potential and beyond that…something truly special. He sees it too. Your uncle’s never trained anyone before. He’s afraid of failing.” She stroked his cheek with her thumb. “That’s all.”

 

@MyKyloRen    8 January 2018

AUTHOR’S NOTE: I thought about starting this series with the one-off vignette I wrote in 2016 about the accident, but I didn’t feel most readers would be interested in a 10-year-old protagonist. Ben Solo’s social and psychological development (based on what we’ve seen of Kylo Ren’s behavior in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi) stopped in his teens, so I felt that was an appropriate place to start — and with Leia’s monumental decision to send him away.

Don’t Fear the Reaper

SUMMARY: [ABY 34 and 31]. Imprisoned within interrogation chamber, Rey endures a mind-probe from the mighty Kylo Ren…and discovers his weakness along with some startling memories. Ren, too, is visibly shaken. Something between them is unlocked and turned loose.

Rey awoke with a gasp of pain and instinctively flexed muscles to reach a hand up to her aching head, except that her arm wouldn’t move. It was trapped at the wrist by a restraining device. She tried her other hand but met the same restriction. She thought for a split second she had been taken to a Resistance med center – that Han Solo had carried her back to the Falcon and flown her there. Then she remembered the monster in black, the gloved hand reaching for her face in the forest, ripping the thoughts from her mind.

That monster was regarding her now from where he crouched a few paces away. The beast said nothing as she quickly assessed her surroundings in the interrogation chamber. They were alone and she was immobilized. She didn’t care to consider the various instruments at hand used to inflict intolerable pain, and she was sure the restraining platform contained an electroshock conduit.

Was she aboard his ship?

“Where am I?” she heard herself say and instantly regretted it. She sounded so timid, so afraid.

The creature in the mask didn’t move, didn’t breathe, didn’t say anything for a long moment. Then in a tone that was unexpectedly civil, the disembodied voice from the helmet’s vocabulator said, “You’re my guest.”

The voice unnerved her, but she pushed her immediate fear aside as a new one gripped her.

“Where are the others?” she managed to ask in a stronger tone.

She didn’t know why she’d said it. She expected him to pounce at any second. He still didn’t move, but she could feel him stiffen.

“You mean the murderers, traitors, and thieves you call friends? You’ll be relieved to hear I have no idea.”

Traitors. Her thoughts turned to Finn. Where was he? Was he alive? Then to Han, Chewie, and BB-8. Thieves, yes. But murderers? Her fear turned to anger as she met his gaze with cold hatred.

He didn’t need to read her mind to read her face. “You still want to kill me,” he observed almost sadly.

“That happens when you’ve being hunted by a creature in a mask,” she spat defiantly.

She gritted her teeth, steeling herself against the pain he was sure to inflict on her.

You’ve done it now, Rey, she told herself. Your mouth really got you into trouble this time. This is how it will end.

She was surprised to find her mind churning back through the years of her short life as he rose to his feet.

And took off the mask.

She stared.

The face looking back at her was long and chiseled and…sensitive. The dark hair that tumbled from the helmet was soft, but the eyes that met hers were intense – intensely familiar, with a strange kind of…sadness.

She blinked.

He slammed the helmet down in something like a brazier, sending up puffs of ash.

In two strides, he was hovering over her. His presence filled more than the room. It filled her soul.

She shut her eyes and looked away. When nothing happened, she glanced up at him.

“Tell me about the droid,” he asked in his own voice.

It was higher than she’d expected from such a tall man, but it didn’t make him any less menacing.

Her lip trembled, but she adopted the attitude of a Resistance pilot she’d so often pretended to be as a child. “He’s a BB unit with a selenium drive and thermal hyperscan vindicator….”

He cut her off. “He’s carrying a section of a transgalactic navigational chart. And we have the rest, recovered from the archives of the Empire, but we need the last piece. And somehow you convinced the droid to show it to you – you, a scavenger.”

What was it she felt through his smoldering anger? She didn’t want to know, but she couldn’t help but sense something deeper. Disdain? No.

Curiosity.

She turned away.

Think, Rey, she admonished herself. How can you use that to your advantage?

“You know I can take whatever I want,” he told her in no uncertain terms.

She turned away and braced herself for the penetration she’d felt on Takodana as he bent and reached a hand towards her face. It was almost as if his gloved fingers were poking around inside her head, probing behind her eyes. Her attempts to block him were awkward and he easily pushed them aside.

He drew closer and bent lower, so low that she could feel his breath on her cheek. “You’ve been so lonely,” he said softly, “so afraid to leave.” He probed further, curiosity growing. “At night, desperate to sleep, you imagine an ocean.” He nodded to himself. “I can see it….I can see the island….” His voice trailed off as he looked deeper.

Tears streamed down her face with an increased effort to block him. She expected him to laugh at her childish fears, but instead he almost snorted.

“And Han Solo – you feel like he’s the father you never had.” His voice turned sharp with disgust as he looked away. “He would have disappointed you.”

At the mention of her new mentor, she suddenly grew bolder. She didn’t know how, but she perceived a weakness in her captor.

“Get…out…of…my…head!”

He straightened and backed away. If he was surprised at the mental parry, he didn’t show it. His tone turned cold but remained confident. He stretched out his hand with greater determination. “I know you’ve seen the map. It’s in there. And now you’ll give it to me.”

The pull began again, stronger this time. She gasped and let out a short breath.

“Don’t be afraid,” he said in an oddly gentle tone. “I feel it too.”

She knew he was talking about the map – that he’d located it in her mind – and if she’d just yield to him, he’d go easy on her. Instead, she began to burn with a rage she’d never felt before and clenched her jaw against his pull. “I’m not giving you anything!”

His eyes narrowed. “We’ll see.”

She felt his splayed fingers wrap around her mind and pull with a force that took her breath away. She pulled back.

He tried again, reaching for a better grip, and tugged harder. Her body strained against the wrist and ankle clamps. She wondered if he’d rip her from the platform, but she met his gaze unblinking. All her muscles tightened in the effort to resist him.

One by one, images flashed before her eyes as if he were rifling through them and flinging aside the ones that didn’t interest him. The escape of the rathtars aboard the freighter, chasing Finn through the market stalls, her refusal to sell BB-8 to Unkar Plutt, a fight with a Teedo over salvage scrap, the day Lor San Tekka came to Niima Outpost and bartered for her freedom. The doll she’d made from the cloth of a Resistance pilot’s uniform.

Then all of a sudden, there it was again – the frightened little girl crying, “Come back!”

Ren paused at this image. He’d seen this little girl before – outside of the scavenger’s mind. But where? Why did he care? He shifted uneasily, amazed at his own wonder at this new distraction. Rey was conscious of the image too. Her thoughts reeled and tempted to reform, to redirect. He was touching something raw and unbearable deep inside her.

Ren felt a tug on his outstretched hand as the image was torn aside. He fought to get it back. He would see more. He’d find the map later. He pushed again but felt an inky black numbness rush up his arm into his head to latch onto a painful memory that was always bubbling just beneath the surface.

ABY 31. He’d done it. He’d laid waste to the hateful Jedi academy and those who sought to murder him in his bed — all because he studied the dark side. Studied and learned what he could from it. There was real knowledge and power there — just as his grandfather had known. But they would keep it from him — because of their fear of what he would become. Well, he showed them the dark side! And afterwards…as he watched the temple complex burn to ash, he…cried. For a long time, the tears wouldn’t stop. He should have felt pride in his strength and abilities. He should have felt avenged! But instead he’d felt the grief of loss and…remorse. He was ashamed.

The scavenger’s face had become a mask of fierce determination. Ren gritted his teeth and pushed back against the blackness, but an inkling of doubt crept into his mind. He desperately wanted to invoke the name of the one he sought to become – to gather the strength of the Dark Lord’s mantle about him. But to do so would openly display his weakness.

“You!” he heard her growl in accusation. She’d seen his memory.“You’re afraid…that you’ll never be as strong as Darth Vader!”

The shock of her probe sent him off balance, although outwardly he looked little more than confused. No one except Supreme Leader Snoke had ever probed his mind. He released his grip on her at once and stood breathing hard for a moment, regarding her with wide eyes.

Then he turned and fled the room.

 

@MyKyloRen     6 April 2016

_____________________________________

Author’s note 24 December 2017: I wrote this story because I felt this important scene was glossed over in Alan Dean Foster’s novelization. I wanted the audience to know what was going on in both character’s heads during their dueling mind probes. Revising it today allowed me to bring in Ben Solo’s memories that are brought into play in The Last Jedi.