Force Destiny

Telos

The Telos Holocron.

Kylo had heard tales of the information-storing holographic recording device long before he had fallen to the dark side. More legend than anything else, he had heard stories of the device that held five thousand years of knowledge from the Sith Empire. He had spent many a night with Jacen and... others, studying ancient texts for clues to its whereabouts. The pursuit to find it had called to him. At the time, he had believed it was calling to more than just his darkness.

After all, if a Jedi were to find it... perhaps that particular Jedi could have proved himself worthy to his family. That Jedi could have made a name for himself, could have been remembered for doing something good for the galaxy, could have broken away from the shadows of legends. Perhaps that Jedi wouldn't have been viewed as a monster anymore. But those were the fantasies of a weak little boy. The pursuit of the holocron had called to him because he was the grandson of Darth Vader.

As the darkness within him grew, however, his desire waned to find the best-kept secret in the galaxy. His master had originally been a creature interested in his strengths in both the darkness and the light. The teachings of the Sith were "incomplete," according to "Snoke." And Kylo tended to agree. The Jedi Order failed him because it forced him to forsake the darkness within him—to deny a part of himself. He had no desire to suffer that conflict again.

His master was no Sith; there had been no Sith in over thirty standard years, since the fall of the Empire. The Sith died with Darth Vader. Or at least he'd thought they had. But then he discovered Snoke was Sidious. Perhaps the Sith and their beliefs were not as far gone as everyone had believed; perhaps Sidious had been stoking the same conflict in him that Luke had been all along. He had just been too blind to see it. But even if he allowed his hatred and fear to drive him—an admittedly Sith concept—he had meant what he said in the throne room. He desired to see an end to both the Jedi and the Sith.

The entirety of his time spent with the First Order was driven more by the desire to destroy the Jedi, rather than subscribing to any particular dogma. It had always been revenge against Luke that had aligned his loyalty with Snoke, or in actuality, Sidious. In Sidious's absence, he realized that the whispers in his head still influenced his beliefs, but the causes he thought himself loyal to no longer held his resolve. He found himself drifting further from the ideologies of the First Order or the dark side.

Especially as Supreme Leader, he had never had an interest in finding the thousand-year-old doctrine of a dead religion. That is, until Hux revealed Force Destiny. If Force Destiny, a Sith invention, could restore life to his former master, then the Telos Holocron could be the only device in the galaxy with the knowledge to rival such a weapon.

There was the book Science of Creating Life, but he couldn't come within star systems of Rey without risking her life from both the Resistance and the First Order. They could pass it over the bond, but after the incident in the war room, it would be foolish of her to risk being caught providing the Supreme Leader with significant intel. Even if she would do it, even if they could ensure she wasn't caught, Kylo refused to ask her. That would not doubt require him to talk to her and every interaction he had with her threatened to destroy his resolve. He couldn't lose focus. The Telos Holocron was his only hope.

That was how he found himself contacting Lando Calrissian, a man with unlimited connections, after he had learned of the new weapon. It was a struggle, speaking with his father's close friend after what he did. He was too much of a coward to do it again, lest he accept the man's offer.

That was why he had contacted Bazine, the First Order's highest-paid resident mercenary, to handle it for him. He had directed Hux to task her with summoning the Knights of Ren, as even he – or perhaps especially he – had not been made aware of their mission locations. Kylo needed a reason to maintain regular communication with her that Hux would suspect—because Hux always suspected—but would focus him on the wrong threat. He let Hux concern himself with the arrival of the Knights, and Kylo had the opportunity to obtain the information for the one object capable of exposing the core vulnerability of the Order's newest superweapon.