Where Light and Darkness Meet (Part One of the Pallona Saga)

VI

Chapter VI
Pallona

It feels like years have passed before someone opens the prison block door. I rush to my feet and grip the cold metal bars, hoping Ben has returned, but it's only a Stormtrooper. He sets a plate of food in front of the bars then draws his blaster before saying, "I have orders to shoot if you so much as bat an eyelash."
He types in a combination on the keypad outside my cell, and pushes the tray of food in as soon as the bars slide away. Before I can take another breath, the bars are back in place and the trooper is gone.
I don't eat, I don't drink, I barely even move. My last discussion—if it can even be called that—with Ben was utterly unsuccessful, and my confidence is waning. One moment I'm completely sure that Ben will turn, but then an instant later I have visions of him killing me like he did the other Jedi and taking over the galaxy like he promised earlier. I don't know what to do next, so I simply sit and wait.

Ben comes back hours later, sparing no time for introductions before interrogating me again.
"I just tortured a Resistance pilot in hopes of locating Skywalker. His pain would have been spared if you had told me where you were hiding with him."
"I told you," I say calmly. "Skywalker and I parted ways after you destroyed everything. I have no idea where he is."
"Then maybe you know this Resistance pilot?"
I roll my eyes, playing my part well. "I also told you that I was exiled on Zeffo for the last six years. Has the dark side impeded your hearing abilities?"
There's a long pause, a pattern I'm beginning to notice with this new Ben.
"You forget yourself. You are my prisoner." He sounds unsure, so I press my case firmly, not caring about what he could do to me for saying this:
"I am your friend. Do you forget about our training together, our nights spent laughing in our group's sleeping room? Have you already forgotten who you truly are, Ben Solo?" I give him just a second to take in my words before continuing on. "You are not Kylo Ren. Ben Solo lives on under that mask you wear. Come home, Ben. I'll help you escape this awful place and we can go anywhere you'd like. We could join the Resistance to fight against the First Order and Snoke. We could go back to Master Skywalker. For goodness sake, Ben, you could disappear and—"
"Ben Solo is gone! You forget your position, Evangeline Pallona. You're lucky I haven't killed you already or torn through your mind to find the truth. You aren't a very good liar, Evangeline. You never were."
I haven't heard the name Pallona in a long time. I never had a family name growing up, I was always 'Evangeline' or 'Lina' for short. The last time I used it myself was before Mother died, and when I found Skywalker, Solo was at his hip. Luke had asked me who I was, and when I simply said, "Evangeline," Solo asked me what my real name was. I explained that I never had a family name, so he asked me what my father's name was. I couldn't tell him, being that I'd never known my father, so he asked for my mother's instead. I told him of course, and he declared that 'Pallona' would henceforth be my real name. I was always proud to be named after my mother, not only because she was the strongest woman I'd known, but also because Ben Solo was the one who gave it to me and said he liked how it sounded. I'm surprised he remembers it, which gives me hope that he's not as gone as he claims to be.
"Why haven't you?" I whisper.
"I just might."
And with that, he marches out of the prison, leaving me with hope rather than fear.

In my dreams, I watch my mother lay in bed, coughing and wheezing as the disease consumes her body. I see myself clinging to her hand, thinking that the Force was a type of magic that would heal her. I see her crying, telling me to leave Zeffo after she's gone and make a new life for myself. And then I see Ben as a young boy, looking down at me and calling me Evangeline Pallona.
I wake up sweating. My Jedi robes were meant for cold nights and windy days, not sitting in a prison cell waiting for Ben to come back. I have to change tactics. I'll never truly reach him trapped behind bars. I scan the black metal cell for any crevice, any imperfection that could play to my advantage, but there's nothing. I instinctively reach for my lightsaber in hopes of cutting through the bars, but then I remember that Ben's troopers took it from me. Not having it makes me feel bare, useless, even. But of course, there's one weapon Ben can't take from me.
I reach out, feeling for the familiar buzz of the Force coursing through me. The bars bend easily, giving me just enough space to squeeze through. I don't know the key combination that activates the sliding door leading out of the prison block, so I slam my booted foot into it until sparks fly from the keypad. With an extremely sore foot, I bolt out of the prison, trying to remember the passages Ben took.
"Hey! You there!"
I spin around and throw a Stormtrooper against the far wall. I don't care about being cautious anymore, the base will figure out soon enough that I'm here, if Solo hasn't already alerted everyone. I continue to mad-dash through dark metal corridors, slipping multiple times from how clean the floors are. I reach out for Ben, feeling a faint trace coming from a higher level of the base. Luckily, there's an elevator opening in front of me. I slide into it, taking it all the way up. I get out on the same narrow corridor where the commander's private quarters are. Solo won't be expecting me to hide in the same place as before, and if it really is a commander's rooms, I could ask for information about Ben's whereabouts.
I don't expect to run into him as I descend the stairs. His massive frame throws me back, and I hit my head hard on the stairs behind me. My vision spins, blinding me. Solo grabs me by my robes and hoists me off my feet, our faces inches from one another. His mask reveals nothing about his expression, making it impossible to discern his thoughts. I look down, seeing a glimpse of my saber under his cape. Of course he has it. Nothing is easy in this place.
"I thought you would come here again," he says, calm as ever. "You were always predictable."
"Was I now?" I gasp, trying not to let fear seep into my voice. I thought he wouldn't find me here, but I was wrong about him yet again.
"Why are you here?"
"I told you. I came to turn you, Ben. I see your future, and it doesn't involve you and the dark side."
He drops my robes, letting me fall to the hard floor. He puts his gloved hands over his mask, and pulls it off his head.
His black hair is still the same, his face is the same, but those brown eyes reveal just how much he's changed. There's anger, fear, but also a mist that covers how he really feels. His mouth is in a permanent frown, the skin around it turned down from the lack of smiling. He probably hasn't smiled in years.
"I keep telling you that Solo is dead. But in true form, you refuse to believe what you see or hear. You were always the same with Skywalker. When he told you you were second best, you blamed it on mistakes of your own, not on Skywalker's own cruelty. When he left you six years ago, you continue to believe that it was because he thought you were dead. He never cared about you. He never cared about me, either. It's why he tried to kill me, and he was probably going to kill you, too."
He pauses, letting the words cut my skin before speaking again.
"He might have trained you to be a Jedi, Evangeline, but I'll show you true power. Join me, and we can make Skywalker pay for what he's done to us. You know where he is—"
"Ben I—"
"And yet you refuse to tell me. Why protect him when he never protected you?"
I want to cry. I want to tell him to stop torturing me with my own doubts, my own fears that Luke has never been as saint-like as I've always believed him to be. I'm angry at how much he's changed, at how much he knows about my mind, and most of all, how hard he resists my efforts to turn him. I use that anger as fuel for my throbbing head and weak limbs. I stretch my hand out, pulling my lightsaber to my hand. I stand up, igniting it at the same time Ben reveals his weapon. The green and red blades clash and I feel the blow all the way up my arms, but my anger makes me stronger.
I swing my saber over my head, bringing it down hard towards Ben's head. He blocks me easily, using his other hand to grab my wrist. I drop my saber, catch it in my other hand, and strike him across the thigh. He steps back just enough that it only slices through muscle rather than taking his entire leg off. He falls back against the wall, sinking to his feet. I haven't fought like that in years, making me pant heavily. Ben sucks in short breaths of air as the gash in his leg bleeds all over the white floors. It takes me a minute to recover my breath before I can speak.
"Am I still too predictable?"
He only stares at me with those brooding brown eyes, so I sheath my lightsaber and walk over to Ben, holding my hand out to him.
He hesitates for a moment, then takes it. His hands were always much bigger than mine, but they feel larger than before since I haven't been around him in so long. As I help him up, I take his crossguard saber and throw it up the stairs. It's not like he's much of a threat in this state, but that little duel made me more tired than I'd like to admit.
"You forget yourself, Ben. I might be a prisoner in this place, but you're a prisoner in your own body. When will you finally decide it's time to escape?"
"I am not a prisoner."
"Fine. If you refuse to turn, then I refuse to spend another moment in this awful place. What's it called anyways?"
"Starkiller Base will be your home from now on, so I suggest you learn to like it."
"I will not stay here if there is no hope for you, Ben. So I ask: is there hope?"
He thinks for a while before answering, "I don't know if I have the strength to do what you're asking of me, Pallona."
My heart prickles at the name, but I press on.
"You do. Let me help you. Please."
I gingerly place my hand on his shoulder, and he shudders under my touch.
I pull away as four Stormtroopers thunder down the stairs.
"We heard commotion in your quarters, sir."
Wait. His quarters?
"Take her to the guest chambers down the corridor." Ben limps towards the troopers, retrieving his lightsaber with the Force.
"Are you sure, sir? Perhaps the prison block would do her more—"
"Take her to the guest chambers. Now. And have two guards posted outside at all times."
As the Stormtroopers shove me up the stairs, my lightsaber flies off my belt and into Solo's hand.
"I'll be guarding this more carefully from now on, Pallona."
I look at him over my shoulder only to find a once again masked boy.