Two Sides

Interlude #12

"Pick.up.your.weapon," Ben grated through clenched teeth. "Now." 

Rey crossed her arms glared at him. "No." 

"Rey, what the hells are you doing?"

"Testing the boundaries of this stupid game." 

"What?!" 

"Are we valuable enough that he'll let one of us die? We haven't been here very long. Besides, I'm not going to let these children get hurt." 

"They'll get hurt no matter what you do. We're both going to die. That's how this ends. He won't keep his word." 

"How do you know?" 

"Because he's an evil man. And so am I. I wouldn't let us go if I were him." 

Ben lifted her lightsaber and floated it in front of her. That shut the crowd up. He rotated it slowly, waiting for her to take it. Of course, the stubborn Jedi just stood there, arms crossed tight. Another child in the line screamed and dropped. Rey's glance flicked to the fallen girl, but she didn't move this time. Perhaps she realized that Carias wouldn't kill these kids, just hurt them. 

The lights above the arena flickered, and Ben blinked. When his eyes open, Force Ghost Luke stood between the two of them. He pressed down the urge to growl.

"Pay attention, you two," said Luke. "Count your kids." 

After a moment of gaping at him, they looked behind each other. There were six in Rey's line. She sucked in a sharp breath. 

"Five. One of yours is gone!" 

The lights flickered again. Ben recounted. "Now one of yours is gone. Luke, be helpful for once in your death." 

"Rey's friends are here. If you want out of this mess, you better make a distraction. They'll grab the kids. You keep the audience busy." Then he vanished. Worthless fool of a ghost. 

Rey finally grabbed the lightsaber and tucked it into her waistband. Then she pressed her eyes closed and scrunched up her face in concentration. Sand lifted along the glass enclosure and began to swirl around the wall, obscuring the audience's view of the arena. Booing ensued. Ben clipped his own weapon onto his belt and scrambled frantically for something to do to help. 

He clapped his hands together and resisted the urge to cringe at the pain. Rey might be OK with with distracting this despicable audience, but he was not. A few tinges of pain shot through his arms before he had it. He'd thought about Force lightning at length, but had never been able to create it. Today, he needed something more. Chain lightning. It needed to hit the first of these rich, amoral bastards and spread through the crowd, to whip them into a frenzy and make them cry for their mothers. 

Hands outstretched, the first of it discharged. He missed the top of the glass entirely, sending electricity ricocheting off the surface and slamming into the sand behind him. The grains hissed and melted together, forming jagged, molten structures. Satisfied that he had the method down, he dug deep and harnessed an emotion he was all too familiar with, but had feigned ignorance of his entire life - fear. 

Fear of being abandoned by his mother. Fear of his father rejecting him because he wasn't like the rouges and smugglers Han respected so much. Fear of Snoke, his twisted face and even more twisted soul finding him lacking. Fear of losing the only friends he'd ever known, the Knights of Ren. And fear of Rey seeing who he really was, and walking away because of it. He had always thought rage to be the strongest of emotions, but he was so, so wrong. Fear was more powerful than all the rage he had ever channeled. 

Lighting arced out of his hands and shot over the glass, clearing Rey's sandstorm, bouncing off the stone wall of the mountain, and scattering into the crowd. Men and women shrieked in response, and Ben flicked his fingers to spread the lightning. The arena became a maelstrom of chaos. He didn't spare a glance for the children. He let his eyes settle on Rey, who held his intent gaze. She was afraid. Of him. He pressed down his despair and continued to send scatters of chain lightning into the crowd. He was a tool of destruction. He acted in accordance with his created purpose. 

Someone yelled his name, but he heard it from a great distance, so caught up in his desolation. It came again, but wrong. Why was it wrong? 

"KYLO REN!" Not Ben. And it was a male voice. . . 

He jerked his eyes from Rey, watching her stumble across the arena floor with the traitor, FN-2187, supporting most of her weight. 

Poe Dameron, the pilot, stood in front of him, a look of deep distrust on his face. Ben snapped his attention back to the present. The arena smelled like burnt skin. He gagged. 

"Rey says we have to bring you, but honestly, if it was my choice, I'd leave you here." 

Ben sagged, allowing the rest of the electricity to discharge into the sand. Poe jumped back, then hesitantly approached, stabbing him in the chest with a testing finger.

"If you fry me, I'll be pissed. Now move, soldier. Else you die here in this pit." 

Ben allowed Dameron to sling his arm over his shoulder and they followed behind Rey and FN-2187. The Wookie waited at the end of a long corridor, settling the Force kids in amongst what looked like nests of porgs in the Millennium Falcon. Ben shook his head, wondering if he'd managed to fry himself as well as half the audience. 

Dameron dumped him in an unceremonious heap on the metal grating as the vessel sealed and prepared to depart. He was sure he should be dead, but the pain coursing through him indicated otherwise. How much Force energy had he used? Far too much. He had paid no attention to any of his training, just reacted. Hells, he was as bad as Rey. 

"Rey!" He frantically searched for her, casting out in every direction. 

"She's fine, Supreme Leader." It wasn't Dameron. FN-2187, then. Ben groaned. "When you're better, we're going to have a serious conversation about your life choices and how much I hate you. Until then, rest."

Ben felt his mind slipping, and welcomed the blackness and separation from his pain-wracked body. Rey was safe. That's all that mattered to him.