Star Wars: Edge of Hope

Chapter Forty Six: Old Grudges & New Enemies....

Rey and Ben stood there the silent voice of the groaning stones as they exhaled their glass tears to run down their weather ravaged cheeks. Rey had been here before, but this time...things felt very different than they had before. Now the cavern felt instead void of prescence it was as if it were filled with it. With the last fading light glow of the Ninex leaving the darkness below to fly in the inky sky above them, Rey felt as if the air around her was growing thicker and the sensation of someone watching drew her hand closer to the saber on her hip. Ben noticed her disquiet as she moved by him brushing the side of his arm with a reassuring touch. Her eyes were big and wide almost as if she were walking through a dense fog. Rey was indeed searching for something, but what she didn't know was they were not the only ones looking. Ben moved along side her clipping the saber to his belt and moving cautiously never less than a foot step away from Rey's side. Rey could feel something there in the darkness ahead of her, it was calling to her, and somehow she felt powerless against the sound of the echoing voice in her mind growing louder as she approached the ghostly white eye of the BLIND GATE.

Rey: There's someone here...

Ben: I know. I can feel it too. It's a presence I haven't felt before...could it be the gate? I mean you said before you'd felt it call to you when you were training with Luke. Perhaps it's trying to show you something new.

Rey was far more skeptical and while the voice was luring her ever closer to the gate, there was something inside her ringing a warning. The urge to stop had battered around in her head before, but now it was nearly her whole self sending off signals to ward her off from her set course. Rey was afraid....the quiet outside made the voice in her head badgering her to submit louder...but she kept herself pulled back from whatever may have been probing her mind for weaknesses. Ben couldn't begin to breach the barrier rising between them. The farther she walked ahead of him, the farther he felt from the light, something was pulling her from the otherside.

Ben: Rey? Are you alright?

She pulled away from his hand as it stretched out to touch her shoulder. The way she looked at him the wild nature of her expression made Ben unsure if perhaps this trap hadn't been for him after all. The sad bleak eye of the BLIND GATE grew broad and wide as Rey approached it. She stood before it her face looking deep into the foggy reflection. Ben stood behind her watching, gageing what her next move would be, and slowly cautiously Rey's shaking hand reached out to run it's quivering fingertips along its surface.

Ben: Wait! Rey! Don't touch it...

The icy breath of the dark water hung around them as Rey turned away from the foggy eye of the mirrored stone. She shook herself almost like recovering from some state of nowhereness to glance at the bewilderment on Ben's face as he looked not towards her anymore. But rather at the slowly growing shadow emerging from behind the white eye of the gate....moving towards Rey. There came a hiss like hot air escaping some buried vent or submerged geyser. Instinctively, Ben reached out catching Rey by her wrist and pulled her over next to him. And while she moved voluntarily the look she cast backwards at the blind gate made Ben sure up his grip on her waist firmer. He brought the hilt of his saber round in front of him preparing himself for the inevitable confrontation.

Darth Maul: We've been waiting for you., Ben Solo.

Maul came out of the shadows the scarlet red blazing through the black as he passed behind them, his protective shadow crawled across the surface of the mirror, but not a reflection. Maul had long surrendered his entire being to the Darkside. There was no soul left to reflect back, the Darkside had left a hole inside Maul, there was nothing there...the only reflection that could be seen were those owned by shadows. Rey and Ben put some space between them and Maul, Maul looked them up and down, a menacing smile on lips.