•LEGACY - A Reylo Story•

EPISODE III - JAKKU, AGAIN.

Ten days later, Rey, Luke, Chewie, and R2 depart in the Millennium Falcon.

"Almost like old days?" Rey teases her master.

Luke doesn't return her smile. "Almost."

Han.

Chewie growls, and Rey leans against her co-pilot's furry arms. She missed him, too, despite only knowing him for a brief period of time.

You feel like he's the father you never had.

Rey glances at Luke. He, too, has become like a father to her. Who would be a father figure to that monster? Snoke? She snorts.

Within days, they land on the planet. Rey rushes off the ramp, eagerly looking around as if hoping to see something, anything, that would jog her memories.

But all she sees is a typical market street, with customers bobbing in and out of stalls. Other ships line up besides the Falcon.

Someone coughs at her side. An old man. "Excuse me, missy." He shoves past her.

The sun sets in the distance, casting everything in indigo shadows.

"We should find a cantina," Luke says. "Someone might be willing to talk there. Although we'll need to be careful..."

/////

There are no moons on this planet. Only stars.

Kylo watches as a wizened old lady, wrapped in a midnight blue cloak, enters the cantina with his money already stuffed down her pockets.

Order one drink. Tell the girl next to the Wookiee she looks familiar, but insist she follow you outside for more details. Alone. And then leave, and you will not remember a thing,

He could have just used the mind trick, he knows. But for the trouble the woman would surely get from Luke Skywalker and Chewbacca afterwards, he felt guilty not paying her handsomely.

Luke Skywalker. His uncle is here. He can use Rey to lure him out.

But the Supreme Leader had not said a word about capturing Luke, or killing him. Perhaps he assumed it was understood. Then, the girl will have no more options but to turn to the Dark Side.

But, Kylo reasons, if he kills his uncle, who's to say it won't have the same effect killing his father had? Weakening him.

Another time. Wait for another time. Perhaps Rey will be the one to do it.

Kylo flinches as he remembers his father's last look of horror, as if he were looking at a monster, frozen on his face.

But the touch... the way he'd grazed his cheek... that wasn't horror. It wasn't repulsion. It was love.

Love.

Your son is gone. He was weak and foolish, like his father, so I destroyed him.

Was it weakness, when Han caressed his face? Was it weakness when he tried to bring him home?

Snoke's voice interrupts his thoughts, the last sentence he said to Kylo Ren when he ordered him after the girl: if you fail...

The sentence hangs unfinished. Kylo envisions Hux's face, the General laughing and taunting him. "Defeated by an untrained girl? And that traitor?"

Fail him again, Hux said before Kylo boarded his ship, and see if he's so forgiving. Maybe you fail because you don't want to succeed. Because you don't really believe in our cause.

Kylo had flung Hux across the room and stormed onto the ship before anything more could be said. I believe in it. I do. Help me, Grandfather.

Murderer.

Kylo doubles over, the weight of the word-truth, it's true, that's what you are, it's what you've been for a long time before your father-bludgeoning him.

Rey emerges, her cheeks flushed and eyes alight with hope. Guilt assails him. But he has to do it.

"Where are you going?" Rey calls after the older lady as Kylo slides up behind her.

"Rey."

She whirls around and he freezes her effortlessly. His uncle's training was always so ineffective.

It's not as easy as it was on Takodana, though. He grabs her, carrying her towards his ship when she fights back, snapping out of the state he put her in and socking him in the chin.

Shock and pain shoot through his skull towards the back of his neck. Kylo tumbles to the ground, feeling the loose stones and pebbles scraping his gloves. Rey leaps to her feet, opening her mouth to scream.

He freezes her again, but her eyes-they tell him she's fighting, and in another second she'll be free and Luke will come running, Chewie will come running, and Snoke will never accept him if he doesn't kill them.

And, strangely, he doesn't want to kill them. He's so afraid of failing. Failing to kill them. And he's even more afraid of succeeding, and failing Snoke.

"Come with me now," he shouts. "And I won't touch your friends."

The hilt of a lightsaber glints from her waistband. As her fingers start to twitch, he lunges and snatches it from her.

The lightsaber is rightfully yours.

It's mine, her voice snaps in his head. Kylo flinches, because the only voice he ever hears inside of his head is Snoke's.

Not anymore, he thinks back with triumph.

You're a monster.

"I'm sorry," he says, feeling strangely sincere-but not sincere enough to let her go. The need to please Snoke, feed the Darkness-it wins out. It always does.

Does it?

Thank you, he said to Han, feeling less thankful than he'd ever felt.

Kylo freezes her a third time and drags her aboard the ship.