Allegiance | Kylo Ren

XCII

I glanced around, alarmed. "Should I go get the others?"

Ben shook his head. "Soon they'll sense him, too. They'll come to us."

My heart began pounding uncontrollably. "Where is he?"

"In the training room." Ben cast me a worried look. "There are others with him—I can sense multiple presences."

"He arrived with four guards." I confirmed. "I saw them earlier."

Ben ran his fingers through his hair, exhaling slowly. The door to the training room loomed at the end of the hall. I stared at it nervously, suddenly very conscious that the most evil presence in the universe was currently behind it.

The pounding of footsteps behind us made me jump. I turned to see Rey and Finn arriving breathlessly.

"I sense him, too." Ben spoke before Rey had the chance to catch her breath. "He's in the room at the end of the hall. When Luke arrives, we will all go in together."

At the mention of his name, Luke stepped from around the corner. "I'm here."

Ben swept his dark gaze over the group, lingering on me for a moment. "Are we ready?"

"As ready as we'll ever be." Finn muttered darkly.

We moved together as a single unit down the hall. With one hand I unclipped my lightsaber from my waistband and with the other I grasped the hem of Ben's shirt. He flashed me a knowing glance as my hand made contact with the material.

I love you. His voice sounded as clearly in my mind as if he had spoken aloud.

I love you, too. I gave him a small smile that he did not return.

When we reached the door, Ben's hand hovered above the button for a heartbeat. I bit my lip as I stared at the door, certain that my heart was beating loud enough for everyone around me to hear.

He pressed the button, and the door slid open.

Inside, Supreme Leader Snoke was standing calmly on the training platform, watching us with an expressionless face. His guards stood protectively in front of us, each as terrifying as the next.

But none of them compared to Snoke. He was shorter than I had expected, his black cloak billowing around him as if it possessed an energy of its own. Power seemed to roll off him in thick waves—even I could sense it, and I didn't have the Force. His skin was pale and wrinkled, his face split in what I assumed used to be a scar. It left a deep indentation in his skull-like appearance. He watched us with beady black eyes, and I shuddered to think that he once looked human.

"It took you longer than I expected to find me, Kylo Ren." His voice was unexpectedly deep, with a rasp that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. "I must say I'm disappointed."

Ben didn't respond, instead electing to glare up with the leader with a hatred I had never seen from him.

Snoke's black eyes slipped past Ben to me, and I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. "I knew right away that I sensed a traitor inside the base—the trooper in the window. I wouldn't have guessed that it was the girl who ruined Kylo Ren, though. How interesting that she's here."

Ben took a protective step in front of me, shielding me from the view of the dark lord.

"You could have been a great leader." Snoke spoke to Ben now, not seeming to care that Ben didn't respond. "But instead you were a waste of training, a waste of time. You let yourself become consumed by love—weakness." His black eyes seemed to pierce through Ben's body to see me, and I shrunk further behind the man in front of me.

"I was strong enough to leave you." Ben snarled.

"You left out of fear, not strength." Snoke growled. "You feared for your own life, so you abandoned the only institution who ever saw your true potential."

Snoke's guards shifted slightly, their hands hovering over what I suspected to be lightsabers.

"I left a corrupt and brutal system that committed countless atrocities." Ben countered, his eyes flickering over the guards. "Even when I was here, I could tell that what we were doing was wrong."

Snoke's lip curled. "You're pathetic. You will never be as great as your grandfather."

In one smooth movement, Ben had his lightsaber lit in his hand. His chest heaved with anger, his hands shaking with rage.

Snoke observed his challenge calmly, then spoke to his guards. "Kill them."

The room was filled with whirs as multiple lightsabers were unsheathed. Rey and Finn stood on either side of me, ready for a fight. Even Luke had his green saber in hand, calmly watching the scene unfold in front of him. With a shaky hand, I lit my own saber, its scarlet glow illuminating my skin.

Snoke's guards were the first to move. They lunged forward, each engaging with a different member of our squad. Ben easily dodged a forward attack by one of the guards and slipped past him, running at Snoke instead. I didn't have time to watch him, because as soon as he was gone, the guard turned on me. Our sabers connected with a crash, the two crimson blades emitting showers of sparks.

My training returned to me quickly, the rust falling away from my movements as I fought for my life. The guard was highly skilled, keeping me moving and dodging continuously. She was slower than Luke or Ben, though, and I was soon able to go on the offensive. My blade made contact with her upper arm and she let out a furious cry, her movements becoming fueled by anger. As our sabers became locked in place, I caught a glimpse of Luke sending his green blade through the chest of the guard he was fighting. The guard fell to the ground with a gurgle and Luke quickly turned to help Finn, who was obviously struggling in his own fight.

I heard Rey let out a pained cry behind me, but I had no time to turn and help before I was once again locked in vicious combat with the woman in front of me. Beads of sweat rolled down my temples and my muscles began to burn as I fought continuously without breaking, knowing that if I paused it could mean my death. The guard I was fighting took an ambitious swing at me and I was just able to dodge it, feeling the heat of her blade as it narrowly missed my face. The move left her off-balance, though, and that mistake cost her life. I used her delay to drive my scarlet saber through her abdomen, watching as she screamed and fell to the ground. I retracted my blade and cringed, purposefully avoiding looking at her corpse at my feet.

Only two guards remained. Finn and Luke had one of them cornered, working as a team to drive him backward and rapidly closing in.

Rey seemed to be in control of her own fight. There was a gaping hole in the thigh of her pants, revealing a bloody gash across her skin, which I assumed had been the cause of her cry earlier. She didn't seem overly phased by it, though, so instead I turned to the last pair in the room—Snoke and Ben.

My heart plummeted as I took in the view. Ben was clearly struggling against the older man, each movement made in desperate defense. I watched in horror as my love stumbled and then fell backwards, landing on his back as the cloaked man approached him with his saber raised for the kill.