What Could Have Been

Ben Solo

"Ah!" I sneered in frustration. My body hit against a stone floor and echoed pain throughout my nerves. Any farther of a fall and I would have been dead. Oh, not dead, but rather injured? No, what am I saying, I am dead.

I staggered to my feet, my teeth grimaced in response to the sharp pains. I knew this place. Yes, I had been here before. Palpatine's throne room. I walked across the chunky, damp floor to where I had held Rey months ago. I knelt down, sending shattered glass up my knee, and felt the ground. The memories flashed by so rapidly my mind could not keep up with them. My eyes twitched, shifting vigorously back and forth under my closed eyelids.

"My child." I whispered as I envisioned myself healing Rey and gifting her the child. My sweet child was the only thing I could ensure would change the galaxy and make it right again.

"Kid, that isn't yours." I whipped around left then right to see the face of the one who spoke dear to me-the one who interrupted such an unfathomable moment.

"Uncle?" I called like a frightened youth. A mixture of sweat and water from the room trickled down my face then dripped from the ends of my hair. My eyes were forced open in a blunt burning originating from the back of my eyes. The air choked me, how thick it was with the sour taste of death. I gasped for fresh air, for I was drowning. Feeling ill, I collapsed to the floor again.

"The kid, Ben. He's not your child." Luke pointed to the memory I was sensing.

"I do not understand." I crawled to my feet and swayed where I stood.

"You will now." Palpatine whispered into my ear so delicately that it hurt.

"She was mine." Palpatine whined.

"Show yourself!" My face tensed in anger at the thought of him.

"Now, now. I thought you were Ben Solo? Anger does not consume you, unless you will become the true Sith you were meant to be."

"Where's my child?" I hissed with hate.

"My child," Palpatine chuckled, "the child is not yours. I had planted the new generation of the Sith. It is not my child, but I indeed had planted it. He was supposed to be a healthy, strong boy. Now look what you did, fool. You got the thing killed!" Palpatine croaked.

"The child it . . . He's dead?" My mouth gaped open, the rim of my eyes grew pink.

"Of course! And now the age of the Sith is no longer!" Palpatine appeared in the depths of the dark.

I did not know what to feel. Numbness overcame me, clouding my mind.

"Rey had bore a child of great importance to me!" He stepped forth in his cloak. I did not know what to do but stare in half disbelief and half disgust at the figure before me.

"Ruined!" Palpatine held out a fist in hate, his disorganized teeth crammed inside of his smile.

Something felt different inside of me. I turned purple with strain on my body until I eventually collapsed to the floor. I stared up at the cave ceiling, my phalanges twitched and ached. Grunts came from my throat as I fought to stay part of this world. I heard a demonic laugh then saw black.