Darkness Rises & Light To Meet It

Kill It If You Have To

"You have compassion for her."
Snoke's words echoed in the darkness of his mind. The Supreme Leader has sensed something within himself that he did not dare consider.

Compassion was something the weak minded Ben Solo had and he, Kylo Ren, had destroyed Ben Solo. Broken him down, killed him with the cruelest stroke. If he was to gain power he had to erase the past.

To become one with the Dark side he had to eradicate Ben Solo from the universe. Snoke has seen this. Snoke had ordered him to kill the legendary Han Solo. The man that had abandoned Ben Solo and his mother. Left him to comfort his mother who in turn sent him away. She had been to busy in the senate rebuilding what had been destroyed. The New Republic was more important than family. They had both failed him. Left him alone with Luke Skywalker. The anger was building within him and it made him feel...empty.

Flashbacks of the moment his father had called out to him on Starkiller Base had haunted his mind.

"Ben!"

The voice of his father stopped him in his tracks and he turned slowly around to face him. No one had called him Ben in years and it angered him.

"Take off that mask, you don't need it!"
Kylo Ren let the anger boil upwards within him, he would need it for what was to come.

"What do you think you'll see if I do?" The mask changed his voice making it sound mechanical and sinister.

"The face of my son." Han's voice wavered. Ren had not seen his father in years. Not since he left.

Slowly, Kylo lifted the mask away revealing his now grown features to his father. Han looked startled to see him. They boyish features he had seen last were replaced with those of a grown man. No longer the innocent child he had abandoned long ago.

"Your son is gone. He was weak and foolish like his father. So I destroyed him." Ren struggled to maintain a flat tone. This confrontation was going to be harder than he expected. In fact he'd hoped to never see hi-Ben's father again. Snoke had insisted that killing Han Solo was essential to his training and gaining power through the Dark side.

"That's what Snoke wants you to believe." Han cautiously closed the gap between them.

Kylo didn't move. With every step Han took he felt something pull at him.

"But it's not true." Han continued, "My son is alive."

It pulled at him again, harder this time. "No. The supreme leader is wise." A response but also a reassurance to himself.

"Snoke is using you for your power. When he gets what he wants he will crush you."

The look Han was giving him cut him to the bone.

"You know it's true." Three more steps and Han had closed the gap between them fully. Another pull, stronger this time. Silence was all that stood between them until finally words escaped his lips.

"It's too late." Broken. He could no longer restrain himself. All he had ever wanted was for his father to come back to him and here he was trying to pull him back with him. An impossible task. Nothing could change that now. Even if he did go with him.

"No it's not. Leave here with me come home. We miss you."

The battlefield that was Ben Solo's mind pulled him back and forth. Could he really go home? Was there actually something for him there?

"I am being torn apart."

No. Things had gone too far this time. Even if he wanted to he couldn't. Only one of them could walk away from this bridge. There were dire consequences if they both walked away separate or together.

"I want to be free of this pain. I know what I have to do but I don't know if I have the strength to do it. Will you help me?" His voice cracked and tears fell from his face. Ben Solo was shattering to pieces in front of his father for the last time. He could not save his father or himself. They would both be doomed to the same fate.

"Yes, anything." Han was eager. Ben could tell what he was thinking. This wasn't going to go the way he thought.

Ben took his lightsaber from its clip and held it out to him looking into the eyes of his father. Time stood still. Ben took the image of his father and committed it to memory.

After was seemed like hours he took a breath and Ren ignited the lightsaber. It cut through Han Solo easily. The shock, confusion, and disappointment in Han's face broke him to his knees. As Han fell so did Kylo.

From that moment on he had become weaker than ever before. Kylo could feel it, surely Snoke could sense it, and now the issue still remained. The Scavenger girl. Rey. Plagued him as well. Something had connected them long ago. He had seen her in his dreams and then to see her in the flesh in the forest ignited something else within him.

He felt that pull again.