Force Destiny

Knights

A clone, Rey realized. When Ben created the clone army, he must have cloned...himself.

A question Kylo had asked when he had first discovered that she had given the vial to Poe replayed in her mind. He didn't tell you, did he? What those clones looked like? She had wondered why it mattered, but now it made sense. He wanted to know if she knew Poe had killed his genetic copies. The Kaminoans required DNA to create the clones, of course, and, in his attempt at secrecy, he had used his own. Then, under his instruction, they created the virus to attack the clones' DNA; his DNA. That vial could have killed him, too. He had trusted her with his life, and she had willingly handed it over to a man who would have gladly used it against him. Poe did use it against the clones, but he must not have killed them all. This clone must have been the First Order's contingency plan if Kylo ever deserted or...died.

She stared at the prone body of the former Supreme Leader. His likeness to the man she loved made her stomach turn, as crimson leeched into the snow around him. She couldn't stop the thought from forming, this is what Ben would look like dead. It could have easily been her bondmate lying there in the snow if he hadn't chosen to leave the First Order.

It could easily be Ben now, her dark thoughts further convinced her, he could be dead in the snow just like this because he made the choice to leave the First Order. If the clone had been telling the truth, the man she knew was dead, no different from the lifeless body at her feet. Staring down at his familiar face made it all the more real. She had to find him. All she knew was the bond was pulling her back toward his father's ship.

Focused on formalizing a plan, the strike to the back of her head came as a surprise. She was able to remain standing due to her grasp on the Force, but the world tilted and whirled around her. "Can you handle the girl this time, Corran?" A modulated voice behind her huffed as he wrapped his arms around her waist, immobilizing her.

"I don't know, can you, Kyp?" A Knight stepped up into her peripheral vision, wrestling her hands into shackles. The second the shackles were around her wrists, the power flowing through her disappeared. She attempted to call the blaster that lay abandoned in the snow, but it didn't so much as twitch from her will. In a split second, they had effectively cut her off from the Force. As long as the shackles suppressed her sensitivity, she was at a great disadvantage against them.

The third Knight, the one who had lied to her before, circled around in front of her. His eyes were hidden behind his mask, but she felt them studying her, searching for her greatest weaknesses. She quickly discerned he was the leader. "She won't be going anywhere this time if she wants her friends to survive the night." In one sentence he had placed the fate of friends solely in her hands. Anyone else would comply. She knew the shackles would impede her escape and the potential rescue of her bondmate. Venturing out into the storm came with heavy risk, even without the hindrance, but she knew that if she and her friends were taken back to the Finalizer, their chances of survival were slim. She wouldn't leave any of her friends to die out there alone; she wouldn't allow Kylo to suffer that fate either. The Knight could threaten her all he wanted, but she wouldn't go with them willingly.

"Master Caedus, is that...Kylo Ren?" Kyp nodded in the clone's direction. The others turned, but she was more focused on the name. Kyp, Corran, she knew those names from his memories, but Caedus? How many Knights are there? Sidious could have had an entire force-sensitive army I don't know about. Has he brought back more than Maul for his Dark Army?

A chuckle rasped through the vocoder in Caedus's helmet as he turned to find the clone sprawled in the snow. She imagined if there were creatures from Hell, that laugh was what it would they would sound like. "Perceptive," he said. "How did you know it wasn't your Ben?"