Star Wars Episode X: The Shroud of The Dark Side

Chapter 1:Ben Solo

There was war on the Flagship of the First Order. The Supreme Leader Kylo Ren had his unstable crossguard lightsaber in front of him. The girl Rey was on the floor, helpless and wounded. Her lightsaber was across the room and when she tried to call it to her he quickly slashed it in half before she could grab it. He walked at her, saber raised. She screamed for help but it was too late. Her head rolled across the floor as Ren quickly and swiftly decapitated her. Kylo Ren walked toward it and when he saw it his heart filled with regret. He looked at her stomach and noticed it was bigger than usual. She was pregnant. He killed her and her unborn children too. "No.." he whispered. "NO!!!!"

Ben Solo woke up with a start. He was sweating heavily. He looked to his right, and let out a sigh of relief noticing that his wife Rey was still sleeping peacefully next to him. He slowly got up so as to not wake her up and moved to the living room. He was sick of this place. He had been stuck in his Uncle Luke's old home in Tatooine, a planet on the outer rim for 2 years now. He was safe from the law there, since Ben Solo was presumed dead or missing by the entire Galaxy after his crimes he commited as Kylo Ren. Even then he was still a wanted man, just in case someone did see him. Everything that he had done for the past 2 years was in secrecy. He wasn't allowed to help Rey and their friend Finn with the construction of the new Jedi Temple on Yavin 4, He wasn't allowed to be there for Rey when she got an award for her service to the New Republic. That was a weird name for Ben, considering the Galaxy had already had a New Republic before this... That he and his First Order helped to destroy.

But most upsettingly of all the wedding that Rey and him had was kept in secrecy and no one knew she was married. Everyone assumed that Rey and Finn had something together. When Rey found out she was pregnant last week those who know her think that the baby will be Finn's. Ben was incredibly annoyed by this. Finn was a nice guy, nice enough to forgive him for wounding him quite badly about 3 or 4 years ago. But Rey was HIS wife, not Finn's. Ben wasn't the only one unhappy with this situation. General Poe Dameron also wasn't happy that Ben was in hiding. Although he wanted Ben behind bars. Unlike Finn, Poe hadn't forgiven him as easily. In fact, if Poe didn't owe Finn a few favors Ben didn't think that Poe would have kept this secret for them.

Ben went over to a sand mound and using the force with his outstretched hand pulled a small brown pouch from deep beneath it. He looked to make sure that Rey was still sleeping before unwrapping it and pulling out the lightsaber of Kylo Ren. He sat at the table and examined it. It was an incredibly poor design, with a cracked crystal on the inside. He had toyed with the idea of trying to purify this crystal and continuing to use this saber on the secret missions he was allowed to go on. However the unstable and cracked crystal meant that there was a good chance of it blowing up in his face instead of working correctly. Plus this saber wasused to slaughter many innocent people in the time of the First Order. He wrapped it back up and hid it back in the sand.

Ben would continue to use his grandfather, Anakin Skywalker's blue lightsaber. For a while he had Darth Vader's but tossed it aside after the last confrontation with the revived Emperor Palpatine. He walked outside and looked at the rising Suns. It wasn't a bad view but it was a bad planet. Tatooine was known for being a disgusting planet where criminals and nobodies came to. This made it the perfect place for someone who didn't want to be found to hide. His heart sank watching the Suns come up because he knew as soon as it came up Rey would have to leave to go across the Galaxy back to training her students. Rey used to come back here every couple nights until a few padawans followed her to ask some questions about their training and almost noticed Ben. Since then Rey had decided to only come back to Tatooine a few times a week. Ben felt an arm go across his waist.

"What are you doing up so early?" Rey asked him.

"I couldn't sleep. Plus last time I slept in you left without saying goodbye." Ben Responded.

Rey sighed. "I didn't want to wake you. Could you not sleep because you were having nightmares again?" Ben didn't respond. "Ben. It's natural to have these nightmares. You were tormented for years under the boot of Snoke and Kylo Ren a-"

"I was Kylo Ren. I did that. There wasn't anyone forcing me to. I was tested by the dark side and I failed." Ben interrupted. "I killed my father. I let my mother die. I led Luke Skywalker to his death. I killed innocent people and held the Galaxy hostage."

Rey took his hands. "You fell from the light. But you're back. You're with me. You're doing things to help make up for your misdeeds. Helping me train the new Jedi to restore order to the galaxy is a GOOD thing to do. A good thing from a good person"

Ben closed his eyes and sighed. "I need you. Can you come back later at any point this week before it's over?"

"I'll try. Maybe I can try to pretend to have pregnancy problems or something and put Finn in charge." Rey leaned onto Ben's Chest. "I'm sorry you're stuck here. Poe said he's working through the laws to see if he can find a loophole for you."

Ben laughed, "Poe hates me. But with you and Finn helping me, I trust you'll find something." Rey kissed him "I have to go now. I'll be back when I can. If we need any stealth missions on the outer rim, I'll send you a message through the comlink."

Ben looked at her "Be safe."

"I will." Rey smiled at him and grabbed her bag and lightsaber and left in her X-Wing.

2 days went by with nothing for Ben to do. He meditated, practiced saber work and wrote down tips for Rey and Finn's students as well as Finn himself. Finn was doing great with the Lightsaber, partially from his training with the First Order before he left. However, Finn was having trouble focusing on the Force. Meditating was hard and Finn couldn't focus enough yet to move things exactly where he wanted it to. Calling things to himself had worked great but when Finn and Ben went on a mission to stop drug smuggling and Finn needed to force push a bountyhunter away he accidentally threw the man off of a cliff and Ben had to grab him to save him. It almost blew his cover. Ben knew why he had to stay hidden, but he also knew that he needed to do something soon. Ben went over to Rey's desk and pulled out all of the data she had on where the drug smuggling and human trafficking rings are. Finding one that he thought he could take alone he grabbed the Skywalker saber and took the spare resistance ship Rey had here from when her X-Wing was broken. Starting the ship he took off for the planet of Onderon to take on the Black Sun and the dangerous creatures they had there.