Star Wars: Edge of Hope

Chapter Ten: Collison Course..

Kylo Ren feel the spray on his face collecting in his hair and clinging to every strand as it slides towards it's obvilous course. As he opens his eyes he feels the salty water stinging him as it bleeds to mix with his warm tears. The sound of the communicator on his belt pinging a horrible pitched tone that reverberates off the floor beneath him. Rolling over half propped up on the old steps leading to the dias Kylo Ren reaches to answer the summons.

Kylo Ren: What is it?

General Hux: Sir! Your signal dropped off our scan, sir. We were concerned you might have...that you were...

Kylo Ren: As touching as your concerns are, General Hux. I believe we had other more important matters to focus on.

Ren looks around blinking hard against the sting in his eyes and the sour taste in his mouth. He knew he was alone again...but like always never really alone. He'd always felt someone there just on the edge of visiblity and perception. Someone watching him..someone whispering to him...when he'd found Rey he thought perhaps it had been her all along. But recalling the vision of her tangled up in twisting shadows curling viciously around her, he knew it couldn't be her. It was something else. Some device of the Force using their connection to tap into his mind. Rey had been reaching out to him, but he'd never reached back. When Ren had been younger he had always thought of the Force as a single thread of consciousness between himself and the Force. But the more he learned and grew in the power of the Darkside, he was beginning to understand there are more connections than we realize. Other branches that shoot off leading us to different people, different places...even different times. It was a single consciousness that stood at the crossroads of all things bound together in the power of the Darkside. The energy always flowing and ebbing, but it was also always listening and watching. That's why he pushed away any thoughts of her...or his Mother. He knew he couldn't protect them, not even in his mind, his thoughts...his feelings would betray them. And although he wasn't sure...after the stark warning of this most recent ghost...Ren had begun to believe that he wasn't the only one searching for something.

General Hux: Supreme Leader? Supreme Leader Ren? Are you still there sir?

Kylo Ren: Yes, I'm here. Stop shouting...you're...I can hear you.

General Hux: I..I am sorry, Supreme Leader. I beg your pardon...I didn't...Were you able to aquire the homing beacon's coordinates, sir?

Kylo Ren: I'm coming back. Prepare the ship for the next jump...and Hux...

General Hux: Yes, Supreme Leader.

Kylo Ren: I trust I won't have to explain myself to you...a second time. I am in command of the First Order, not you...and in case you have forgotten...I am not a weak, old man like Snoke. And I will not tolerate any insubordination...remember your place, Hux and stay in it. Or I will find someone who can do what I need, when I need it...without questions. Do we have an understanding, General Hux?

Ren raises his hand and watches as a small discarded chunk of broken console begins to shake and whine. Then as he tightens his grip on it he can hear Hux gasping for air over the open link.

General Hux: No, sir...My apologies,sir. I assure you it won't happen again...

Ren waits, he wants to hear him say it. But it was becoming harder and harder to control the flow of energy. The metal once folding in on itself begin to dip and makes no new sounds under the crushing grip of Ren's hand. The harder he focused on it the harder it became to hold onto it. This was new...Kylo Ren had never had to focus this much before when calling on the power of the Darkside. He pushed harder and harder until the slightest thin line of red began to streak out of his left nostril. He kept pushing until he could feel the surge of his power return. And the lump of twisted metal began to get smaller until the crying of its metal skin scratching against itself had no more room to shrink. There wasn't any sound from the other end of the communicator as Ren finally released his grip on Hux. The mangled debris fell and Ren heard Hux hit the floor at the same moment with a slick sliding thud. Switching the communicator off he took his time straightening himself out. He felt every bruise and scratch that would plague him for a week or more.

Kylo Ren: This is not how I saw this day going..Ugh...

Ren reached into his pocket and pulled out a small rectangular device. It was old tech and scarred with black runes all over the shealth that contained within it the secrets he'd come to breathe new life into. Holding the device in his hands Ren turned to gaze at the desicrated throne, he stood there on the steps looking out across the vast heaving sea of Kef Bir...and tasted the salt on his tongue. There was an ocean of time between where he stood now and where his grandfather had kneeled, and when the rebellion should have taken its last breaths. To the Rise of the New Resistance against the First Order, a sea of time and even more between the nightmares of childhood, and the nightmare he had become as an adult.

"Loyalty is gained one of two ways, Ben. Through love and compassion and understanding...or through dominance, fear, and pain...For a Jedi the Force is what shows us a different path other than those that would seek to dominate or harm others. More can be accomplished through bonds of friendship and understanding, and common goals...than if you impose your will on another. Time is the most precious thing to people, stealing it is one of the greatest crimes imaginable, because in stealing a persons time...you steal their life. No one person is meant to rule all, to be a slave to the whims and will of anyone, is to commit yourself to the path of least resistance. To the Darkside. Not everything in life is going to be easy, Ben. But then again, most of the things that makes it worth living are most times the most challenging. You need to remember that even your grandfather turned to the Darkside of the Force...Not for power and fame, and greed...But to protect the ones he loved. And that in itself was how even a person capable of horrible darkness, could find the light again...because he loved us, me and your mother."

Young Ben Solo: Then why did grandmama still die, Uncle Luke? If grandpapa Anakin sacrificed hisself to protect her, why did she still die?

"Because no one except the Force has the power over Life and Death. Not the Sith, nor the Jedi...We all live and we die, and become One with the Force. And that's how we are able to learn the wisdom of those passed on before us. Your grandmother was a strong, kind woman...she always led people by her heart over her head. But just because she's not with us Ben doesn't mean she doesn't see you. I like to think she sees us, and that she watches over us...all of us."

Young Ben Solo: What did she look like? Mom says she doesn't have any pictures of her...or grandpapa.

"I have an idea of what she looked like. But I never knew her...neither did your mom...not really, it's more of a feeling a first imprint of one soul on another. But you know, I think you're mom was right...She would have been a beautiful woman and as for your grandpapa...Well, some day when you're ready...I'll show you how to talk with him, and maybe then we can ask him about her. Sound good, Ben?"

The small things were always hardest to remember, the way he had described her to him when he'd been a kid...the way his grandfather had spoken of her...so soft and quiet, the memories he shared were happy, but always tinged with a sadness evident on his face and in his tone.

"Always looking to the past, young Solo...Always looking into the shadows, you are. Echoing voices you should not heed, to your ruin the will lead you, young Solo. Trust the Force, trust in the voice you hear in here..."

Ben could still feel the knock of the lumpy cane on the side of his head. As instructive as Yoda's cane had been Snokes chains had been subjecting and unyielding, but now he was free....There wouldn't be anymore chains for him...no one to hold him...No one to stop him.

"No one but me..."

He could hear the words.
But the voice of the person that spoken them didn't exist anymore; he was too far gone.

"No one's ever really gone..."