Heir to Skywalker ⤇ Finn

Chapter 22

Chapter 22

She took the falcon. Han knew she would return. And even if she didn't, he would find it soon. Trackers worked like that.

It was going to be a long trip, and Padme was alone. After all the ships had left, she decided to go back for her broken droid, try to fix her. She walked back to her in the rubble of the old castle. Aliens everywhere were struck with terror at the sights in front of them.

She recognised some of them. Bounty hunters, rogues, even First Order defects that had been on the resistance's radar for years. She also saw Maz, starting to clean up her kingdom. But Padme didn't say hello, she just kept walking.

Everything was a haze to her. Not much was in the air anymore, most of the dust had settled. It was her mind that was foggy.

She arrived to the sight of her friend's scrap metal remains. Her head was laid neatly on the stone next to the carnage. She picked it up and examined the underside. The head seemed okay, it was the body she feared would never be repaired.

She looked down at the body. Dents in the shape of the wall that had fallen on it. Deep inside, she was grateful she moved it earlier, if she hadn't, it wouldn't have ever been moved. Her heart ached too much to use the force right now. She was exhausted.

She had seen enough when she saw BB-7's main controls panel, snapped in half. Wires were frayed, metal bent and already beginning to rust on this wet planet.

She grabbed Sev's head and began the trek back.

She had let the darkness in. She had betrayed her father. It was only fair, her father had betrayed her first. Padme wasn't the vengeful type, but fair is fair.

Rocks stood in her way to the falcon, but they didn't faze her. She just walked around them. Rocks weren't going to stop her from leaving.

Though they should have.

Padme stood in front of the steps of the temple she had once called home. It wasn't home anymore. She didn't have a home anymore. At least, that's what she felt.

She remembered the day she warned her father of the impending doom. The day she realized Ben and Luke's relationship would never be mended. The last day she saw her cousin.

Whoever inhabited his body now was someone new. The man that had greeted her on the steps before their last day of class was gone. Permanently? She wasn't sure.

"I'm sorry, Ben. I'm so sorry," she mumbled, falling to her knees. All she wanted was to ask him why. Why he had turned. Why he had to kill them all. Why he hadn't killed her too.

"I could never kill you."

She stayed still. She knew. She had called him.

"Ben," She stood up and turned to look at the man who she once knew. "Why?"

"Why what?" He asked, placing his helmet on the bench next to them.

She only looked at him. "You could have told me."

"Then what?" He looked at her.

"I didn't hear you come in," She changed the subject, despite the fact that she had brought it up in the first place. "And honestly, I didn't think you would come."

"Why not?" He asked, looking at her. She knew those eyes. She hadn't seen them in too long. Maybe Ben wasn't gone after all. Only shrouded by the dark side.

She stepped forward and looked down at his clothes. "What have you become, Ben?"

"Ben is dead," He shot.

"Are you trying to convince me, or yourself?" That struck a nerve. She saw it, his jaw tensed, just like it used to when he was stressed.

"I am Kylo Ren," A tear fell from his eye.

"Then why are you here?" She played along. All she wanted to do was hug her cousin. Bring him back to the light, back to his family. She knew she could do it, she knew it. But she wasn't so sure that was the best thing.

"Join me."

Okay.

He held out his gloved hand for her to take. "I sense the darkness in you growing. Join me, and we can rule the galaxy together.

I want to, but  "I can't." She stepped forward. "You join me. Join us, come back with me. The falcon is waiting. Your family is waiting."

Neither moved.

"Why did you call me here?" He asked, putting his hand down with his eyes. Down to his mask.

"I don't know," She said. She remembered her friend. Rey. He has Rey.

"Don't worry about her, I won't kill her. I just need information," He explained, stepping away and grabbing his mask.

"Let her go," She started to get angry, but she was too weak to fight him. Her body had shut out the force.

"Then give me the map," He stopped and spoke to her, facing the wind.

"You know I can't do that," She was disappointed.

He started to walk away again.

"Why aren't you taking me back too?" She asked.

He shouted to her. "You were gone when I got here."

He walked away, leaving Padme on the steps of her old temple. Their old temple.

She shrunk to the ground again and began sobbing. She couldn't do this anymore. She had lost too much.

Kylo walked back, situating his mask back on his head. He had to pass the Falcon if he wanted to get to his ship.

He meant to do that. No matter how much he tried to impress his master, no matter how much darkness he forced inside, he would always have a weak spot for Padme, and he hated it.

He had a weak spot for his father, too. And his mother. The people that had been with him for his entire life, never once betraying him.

He knew what he had to do, but he didn't have the strength to do it. He needed to extinguish the light, kill it. He had to.

He just put it off until his master told him to.

As much as he embraced the darkness, a small slice of him feared what he was becoming. And it drove him mad.