Darkness Within

Dream

*time jump: three months*

The air is thick, moisture weighing his hair down so that it sticks to his forehead. The ground squishes under the soles of his shoes, the dirt and moss matted down from the rain and the humidity that never allows it to fully dry.

There's no sound present, not even the sound of the wildlife or roar of engines in the hangar bay, just eerie silence.

A presence appears behind him as he walks and he turns towards it, his eyes taking a moment to adjust in the low light, revealing his mother. She's smaller than he remembers, her frame shrunken in size since the last time he saw her in person, her hair grayed and wrapped in a bun around her head.

"Ben," she says with a soft smile, her voice comforting as it always was.

"Mom?" He questions, taking a step towards her and putting himself in arms reach. "What are you doing here?"

"My boy," she says as she cups his cheek, running her thumb across it and he melts into her touch. "Look how grown-up you are."

"Mom," Kylo says again, this time in a whisper as he fights back tears.

"Come home," she says simply.

"It's too late."

"It's never too late," Leia says and kisses his other cheek before fading away. Kylo grasps frantically for her unsuccessfully until she is no longer visible and he wakes up with a start, sitting up quickly in the bed.

With his arms propping him up behind him, he works to calm his breath, his chest slick with sweat, and the blanket pulling off Rey from his movement. She's unbothered, her mouth still hanging open slightly and her face smushed into a pillow, her dainty shoulder illuminated by the moonlight from outside. After his breath is calmed, he ruffles his damp hair, sneaks out from under the covers making sure to cover Rey back up, and pads out to the balcony of their living quarters.

The desert beyond the base stretches for miles, a faint light visible where the next town over from Canto Bight lies. Below him, a couple of stormtroopers stand guard, engaging in hushed conversation with each other to keep themselves occupied during the early morning hours when there's no activity.

"Ben," a voice says from behind him. He freezes, not wanting to turn and see her again because there's no doubt that it's his mother's voice. The voice that had haunted his thoughts and dreams for years, used against him by Snoke in his downward spiral into the darkness.

"Benjamin," she says with a little more force and he turns slowly, coming face to face with his mother again, but a younger version of her this time. Her frame is stronger, more filled out, her face almost free of wrinkles beside the worry lines he remembers she always had on her forehead and her hair that is draped in a braided bun is back to its brown color.

"You're not real," Kylo mumbles, crossing his arms over his bare chest in the presence of his mother who hasn't seen him for nearly twenty years. "I'm still asleep, this is a dream."

"You're very much awake, and while I might not be physically there, Ben, it's me." Her voice is soothing, reminding him of the times as a young boy she would sit on the end of his bed and tell him a bedtime story.

"Why are you here?"

"I had a vision that I need to tell you about," she steps forward and looks out over the desert, her hands hovering where the railing is as if she's physically here with him.

Kylo leans his hip on the railing, trying to keep his arms crossed over his chest while he waits for her to continue.

"I saw your demise," she says quietly, her hands clasped and pulled back up in front of her. "At the hands of your daughter."