Hard Trials (Book Five of the Into the Fray series)

Chapter Eight

      Now that everyone but two people are dead, Ben takes in a deep, shaking breath, and closes his eyes. He reaches out for Armitage. Easily he picks up on his signature, and he walks to where the feeling leads him.

Ben pushes the red button to the room, and the door whines open with a hiss. The situation that greets him is not what he expected. His stomach immediately lurches and his extremities go numb.

Armitage is strapped in the upright position to a torture table. He's completely limp, his chin on his chest. His one eye is completely swollen shut, the other closed. Armitage's skin is a pale ashen, the color no one's skin is ever supposed to be, the color of death.

"Armitage?"

It's then Ben notices his right leg. It's clearly broken, sticking out at a disgusting, severe angle. Ben rushes forward and begins to unstrap him immediately.

"No. No no no no no no no."

Armitage slumps forward onto Ben. Ben gently eases him onto the ground. He puts Armitage's head in his lap and begins to sob.

"Armitage--no, please."

Ben reaches out with the Force. He feels Armitage's pulse. It's weak, fluttering, sporadic. And then it stops.

"Armitage?"

Nothing.

The upright table is ripped from where it's bolted to the floor, flying against the back wall. A burst of raw power blasts out of Ben like a sonic boom, the walls crumpling inward where it hits. His clothes begin sparking. After a moment, lightning explodes out of him, frying any and all electronics that were in the room.

Spark reign down on him. Gently he puts Armitage's lifeless body onto the floor. He stands, igniting his lightsaber, and sweeps out of the room.

As he walks hurriedly down the hallways, he feels like a God. He realizes this is what his full potential is. This is what Luke saw and feared. This was why he could never full shake the Dark Side, could never purge it from his body and soul completely.

He was part of the Dark Side. And now...Now, he had given himself fully to it.

He knew he had just become literally the most powerful Force user in the universe. It wasn't a matter of pride--it was a fact. He wasn't using the Force. It was using him. He felt nothing but pain, rage, revenge, and pleasure from the death surrounding him. He was barely even cognizant of his surroundings. He saw and felt everything--literally everything. At a pace that made him feel slightly sick to his stomach, his mind expanded throughout the entire universe. He saw all the stars, the moons, planets, spaceships. He saw people. For a second he paused, passing over Rey. Clear as day he saw her, felt her, was her. Then he allowed his mind to keep going.

By the time he reached Tethrall he was laughing. Laughing because he had become omniscient. The second he laid eyes on her, he could read her mind. He didn't even have to try. It was like she was verbally speaking to him.

As he engaged her in combat, her story whispered to him. She had been looking for Kylo Ren for a while now, hoping to form an apprenticeship with him. At the same time she had taken up the bounty put out by the First Order, joining their search for Armitage. She had been pleasantly surprised when the Force revealed to her that finding Armitage was also the key to finding Kylo.

She had reported their relationship to the First Order, and they adjusted their plans accordingly. They would use Armitage to draw Ben out. This served a dual purpose; get the Resistance base location from Armitage, and to lure away the Resistance's best defense line--Ben. Afterwards she was to hand over Armitage, and she could do with Ben whatever she pleased.