Wayward [Kylo Ren]

Epilogue

Epilogue

Kylo Ren was beyond flustered, beyond angry. He was a nuclear bomb inside, and it was about ready to explode. Sure, he'd had bouts of anger, but he felt nothing so powerful or extreme before.

And it was all because of her. Her refusal to join him. Her refusal to be with him. He had been so close to making her see reason. So close to converting her. So close to teaching her and unlocking her true potential.

A missed opportunity, that's what it was. One which Kylo Ren would never get back.

"Something on your mind there, champ?"

Kylo turned, almost instinctively lunging, but he stopped when he saw her. But she's dead. She chose her fate. Was she a Force ghost? Luke told him once he saw former mentors, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, and even his father (Kylo's grandfather), Anakin Skywalker, the man before the Sith Lord.

Was this the same case?

"Sorry, not a Force ghost," she quipped. She sounded just as he remembered her. It was spooky. "Just a guilty conscience reminder." She smirked, a perfect mirror of the woman he had cut down. "Do the Sith have anything about feeling guilt?" She slowly paced in the room with him, and he couldn't take his eyes off her.

She walked, and talked, like Kaida Quinn. But it wasn't Kaida; it was the last image Kylo had of her before they dueled and she lost.

"Either you're real lonely, or that guilt is pretty heavy on you," she continued. "Because I don't see why I should be here otherwise." She stopped, raising a curious brow to him. "Did I leave you speechless?"

What was Kylo supposed to do? Talk back to it?

"I'm not an 'it', thank you very much." She crossed her arms. "I have a name. I am a person."

"Was," he muttered. "You're not her."

"Sure, I'm not physically her, but I am her. It's a confusing concept." She shrugged. "But you didn't answer me from before. How come you want to see me?"

"I don't. Go away."

She snorted. "Unless you will me to, I won't leave. I'll become the imaginary friend that you never wanted, or needed." Kylo watched as she circled his mask. "You were trying to be like your grandfather."

"Better than him. I want to finish his work."

"How's that coming along?"

Kylo turned away from her, but she appeared feet in front of him. It was enough to make the Sith jump in surprise. Nobody got the jump on him, ever.

"Did you think turning your back on me was going to make me leave?" Imaginary-Kaida scoffed at him. "You don't understand how these things work, Benny boy."

Kylo cringed.

"Oh, did that hit a sore spot for you? Good. You wanted to change, but you lied to yourself. You cut her down because of it."

"She didn't understand her abilities."

"She did. You tried to change her. Well, you did, and it backfired on you. Are you proud of that, Ben?"

"Stop calling me that."

"I wouldn't be if you didn't like it. You miss hearing the name despite your numerous demands to not hear it. You fool yourself."

"The Light can do nothing for me."

"It could have, if you had let her in. You were, for a brief second, serious about leaving the Dark. But then you backed out, like a coward. You lost her because of your choices, Ben."

Kylo lashed out, igniting his red, unstable saber. Instead of cutting Imaginary-Kaida down, it went right through her without a scratch. Her green eyes were amused, and she chuckled at his attempt.

"I'm not real, Benny boy. If I were, we wouldn't be having this conversation," she snickered. "I'll give you points for effort, though."

Kylo heaved like a rabid animal, his eyes held angry fire. "I'll give you one last chance to go away."

"And I won't take it," Imaginary-Kaida said stubbornly. "You can throw as many tantrums as you wish, but it won't change anything. It won't resurrect her. It'll only give you me, which apparently, I am nothing like the original Kaida Quinn herself. You loved her, you seem to really dislike me."

Kylo remembered the smallest moment from the game he had played with the Quinn twins. How Kaida had hugged him. He had felt something different with her around him, with him around her. It thawed out feelings that he had iced out from a long time ago.

But the thaw hadn't been enough, because his love for Kaida Quinn had been frozen again. It was the thing that made him able to kill her. He had been able to kill her twin brother, Axel, with ease. He didn't know the man well, he'd only heard mentions of him from Kaida. He might have even seen him once when he had been training.

Axel had been a sacrifice, the push Kaida had needed to realize she, like everyone else, had an inner darkness.

Unfortunately, and Kylo would not admit it to Imaginary-Kaida, his attempt to bring the two together backfired. She refused to join him. She instead fought him.

Kylo realized, in hindsight, that he really hadn't wanted to hurt Kaida. Or kill her. That hadn't been his goal. It was never his intention. He wanted her at his side—he did openly admit to himself he missed her company. Missed the familiar face. He hadn't even been thinking about rekindling their romance, he had wanted to see her unlock her true potential.

He'd seen it, and her potential was wasted.

His mind brought him back to her last moments, how he had felt her slip away in the Force. A presence he would no longer ever feel. One that he had become, once upon a time, so attached to.

All of this inner conflict was grating on his nerves and giving him a serious headache.

"There's still time," Imaginary-Kaida told Kylo. "You can still return to the man that she loved."

It wouldn't matter. She's gone. Why return when there would be no one to greet me? Kylo had fleeting thoughts, though very temporary, about pulling himself from the Dark. But Kaida's death did the final straw for him. He wasn't going back to the Light, he was going to remain in the Dark.

It was what he deserved for all that he did to her. All that pain he caused her. All the betrayal. All the hurt looks on her face, a face that he had almost forgotten the longer they had been apart. She had wanted to help him, to restore him to Ben Solo.

In turn, he turned (or tried to turn) her to the Dark Side, killed her brother, and then killed her. Some gratitude for a Jedi, a former lover, only trying to help someone she cared about.

**Originally, chapter 13 was gonna be the epilogue. But then this gem of an idea came to me, and I couldn't resist.

You know, I kind of feel bad for Ben/Kylo, kind of. He killed the love of his life, who he wanted back, but on his own terms, not hers.

It's really tragic, in a way.**