Restoration of Light (Star Wars/Kylo Fanfic)

Chapter XXV: It's a Trap!

*Hey friends, it's been a while! If anyone is still reading this ;) I just saw The Last Jedi! While I absolutely loved the movie, I started this story with a plan and it may be ending in a way that doesn't match up with where The Last Jedi Starts. I suggest going back and skimming the last chapter to refresh since it's been so long! I'll be updating regularly for the next couple weeks, and I'll try to put extra out before break ends. Without further ado, here is chapter 26 :)

Azalea waited in silence. Before she left, the shadow had propped the doors open. It would be easy for Kylo to find Azalea, and even easier for him to walk into the woman's trap. Azalea stared at the doors to the main entrance, where she'd been led in earlier. The only other door was a smaller one on the side of the room opposite Azalea. It led out to an overgrown garden courtyard, from what Azalea could see through the arch.

Sweat trickled down her forehead, and she swallowed down past a lump forming in her throat. She focused on her breathing. On the force. She had no doubt that Kylo could best this woman. That is, in a fair fight. Azalea didn't think Açade was the 'fair fight' type. Luckily, Kylo wasn't either. The Illustria stone continued to glow, not letting her forget that He would be here at any moment.

About twenty minutes had passed since Azalea was tied to the column and she shifted her arms in an attempt to wake them up. Not a minute later, her eyes snapped to the far side of the room. She could sense something coming.

Suddenly, a small bird flew in through the courtyard entrance. A brown pipit. Azalea's mind turned as the bird flew around the room twice before landing on the floor near the center of the grand room. It ignored her and hopped around before setting a small object on the floor. The light caused the object to glint. Azalea's breath caught when she was able to see what the bird was guarding.

A cry of anger rang out behind her. The shadow came out of hiding and approached the chipper little bird in the middle of the room. It hopped back over to the stone and picked it up in its beak. Before it could fly away, Açade snapped her fingers and a thin metal band encased it, trapping its wings to its body. The bird screeched and dropped the ring, falling as it tried to hop away. Azalea couldn't take her eyes off the stone.

Once Açade had the stone between her fingers, she turned her golden gaze toward Azalea and held it up with as much contempt as a person could physically contain in a glare.

"It looks like Kylo Ren is every bit as much of a coward as I thought." Her eyes pierced into Azalea as she stalked toward her. "He's thrown away the ticket to finding you." She laughed, though there was no joy behind it. "Only to be picked up by an animal like a piece of worthless trash." She snapped her fingers once more, releasing the bird. It flew past her, through the courtyard door, and past Kylo Ren. Kylo Ren.

Azalea held her breath and kept silent. She returned her gaze to Açade. The shadow's back was turned away from Kylo and just past her cloak, Azalea saw him remove his hood and hold his light saber hilt out. Açade halted her steady approach toward Azalea. She lowered the hand that held the identical ring to the one that glowed on Azalea's chest. Kylo ignited his saber and Açade smirked back at Azalea.

"I believe I've found something of yours." She pivoted toward Kylo and tossed the ring carelessly at him. He caught and pocketed it without taking his focus off of Azalea. Something soft touched the edges of her thoughts, searching for something: confirmation. Azalea nodded, assuring him that she was unharmed.

"You've blocked communications with the outside. Why?" The woman winked, and Kylo stood unfazed, watching Azalea.

"All for you, master of the Knights of Ren." A question crossed Azalea's features, and Kylo took his focus off of her to meet Açade's cold glare. "Do you remember when you came to Dathomir, about eight years ago?" The crackles of his unstable blade littered the air, but he didn't respond. "Let me remind you." She traced a circular pattern, first with a swivel of her wrist, then her whole arm. Smoke trailed from her movements and an image appeared in front of them of a woman. Her features were similar to Açade's, but the markings on her skin were different. She looked content.

"You came searching for a boy, Jedi killer. Perhaps one of the students you skipped over at the temple. When you couldn't find him, you found her instead. You questioned her." The image shifted to one of what looked like the back of Kylo Ren facing the woman. "When she didn't give you what you wanted, you killed her." As she spoke, these events played out in pictures. Kylo's saber pierced the woman's stomach, and she fell to the ground. Kylo faded from the image. "I came back from the market and found her taking her last breaths." The scene shifted to a younger looking Açade leaning over her mother.

Açade from the present waved her hand through the illusion of her past and it dispersed. Her hands moved to her hips. As she moved her cloak back, the strange hilt clipped to her belt was revealed, and she grabbed at an identical hilt on her other hip. She unhooked them and pointed them down and away from her body.

"You will pay for her life with your own."

When her dual weapons flared into existence, Azalea took in a sharp breath.

Whips.

Two bright red whips that ignited just as a light saber would trailed across the patterned marble floor. Azalea guessed they reached about 8 feet long. Each.

Kylo raised his sword up in front of him and rushed forward. The best way to reach her would be to get in close. She must have known this too for as soon as Kylo started toward her, she snarled and leapt back. Raising her whip, she slung it at him. He ducked and it cracked just over his head, showering him is small sparks. Azalea struggled against the ropes that held her, wanting desperately to be free of the bonds. Focusing her energy on the knot, she attempted to loosen it with the force. It only got tighter. Azalea gritted her teeth in frustration. There's a spell on it.

Kylo yelling caused her to return her attention to the fight. His right sleeve was barely hanging on, and a bright red burn wrapped around his forearm. With a heated stare, He flourished his light saber in a circular motion with one hand and prepared to charge at the shadow again. She glanced back at Azalea.

"Depending on what I'm in the mood for, I can make you see who you least want to see, or who you most want to see." The air around her rippled and Kylo halted his approach. Her cloak whipped up as if there was a gust of wind, and then it vanished. The figure of the woman was gone, and in her place stood a man with grey hair. Confusion flickered across Kylo's face, followed by what looked like conflicting emotions. But it soon turned back to determination, and he raised his saber once more. "Or in some cases both." The voice that came out was gruff and had a hint of mischief laced in it. When he... or she, turned around, Azalea saw someone she'd only met once or twice before at the base, but she remembered his face. His name was Han Solo, Leia's husband who was never around.

Azalea's thoughts swirled around why Açade would choose a rebellion hero to show him, until a faint memory of Leia talking about someone she cared about snuck its way into her thoughts... all at once, it was clear. Kylo's eyes flicked to hers and held them as the realization took hold.

"Ben..."