Through A Barren Eden: A Kylo Ren Fanfiction

Prologue

     The fire crackled never-silently through the seemingly endless corridors of the temple.  Each recognizable face that Isabel Kenobi could see through the smog served as a reminder that she was too late, and the lack of the presence of her master, Luke Skywalker, was a deafening truth that he had been even later to the massacre, if he hadn't chose to completely evade it.  There were screams, but none were as deafening as that truth.  Luke had either died, or abandoned the temple and his students, and Isabel's closest friend, Ben Solo, had been the basis of the attacks.  That is why she was far too late.  It wasn't the mission she was returning from that was to blame.  It was her, for having seen the conflict rising in Ben and not doing enough to draw him back to the light, and her, for not being smart enough to expect him to wait to attack the temple when she was far away from it, safe on a mission with his mother, Leia Organa.  She deserted the mission as soon as she was no longer needed, because she could feel that something was wrong at the temple, but her insight could have never prepared her for the treachery before her.  
    Large and advanced groups of masked strangers appeared to be clearing every hall of its students and structure.  Some of the weapons they wielded spat fire, while others fired lasers upon those too distracted by the flames to protect themselves from them.  The fight of the students was valiant from what Isa could see, but the annihilation already caused by the invaders proved too effortless, and soon enough, there was nothing for the remaining students to fight for.  The time to retreat was now.  Isa made her dash for the training rooms, silently praying that she wouldn't be detected by any of the ruthless strangers, but when she turned the corner, her body collided with another, leaving her momentarily stunned by shock until she could hear the other person's voice. 
    "Isa?"
    "Kattaya!" Isabel exclaimed with relief.
    "You're alive," Kattaya breathed, reaching out a hand to touch Isa's face, as if she had to touch her to believe that she was truly there.
    "For now," Isabel pointed out, grabbing the girl's hand, "we need to move.  If we can get behind some blast doors, it might buy us some time to climb up and through the ventilation shafts before they fill with smoke.  It's our best shot out of here now."  She began to pull the girl's hand to guide her in the direction she had been going, but Kattaya resisted.
    "Isa, wait," she started frantically, "I've been looking for Cardo.  Have you seen him?  Ben asked to speak with him this morning and... and I haven't seen them since."
    Isabel's face fell momentarily, but she tried to hide her expression from Kattaya with a more serious one.
    "Trust me," Isabel contradicted, "he'd want you to focus on yourself right now.  Not him."
    Kattaya nodded slowly in solemn agreement and understanding.  She knew it was the truth; she only wished that she wasn't forced to make the choice to go on without him.  She finally allowed Isa to start navigating them through the rubble, but just as they made their way to the entrance of the training rooms, a thundering of footsteps approached them quickly, along with the sound of shouting and blaster fire.  Isa pulled Kattaya through the parting in the doors and used the internal control panel to close the blast doors behind them just as swiftly. 
    "We made it," Isa huffed, "now lets cut our way into these vents and--Kat?" she froze the moment she realized her friend wasn't responding.  She spun to look at her, only to see crimson liquid dribbling from her lips and panic in her glazing eyes.  Kattaya's hand finally slipped from Isa's, and she immediately fell back onto the marble floor, staining the opal surface with the blood that pooled from her lips.  Isa could now see the extent of Kattaya's wound.  A cauterized hole through her midsection, left by a blaster's laser.  Isa rushed to sit beside her, carefully positioning the girl's head in her lap while brushing the hair from her face.  Kattaya's eyes were glossy and filled with tears as the pain shuddered through her. 
    "Kattaya, no!  No, no..." Isa whimpered, her own eyes welling with tears.  She was utterly helpless to saving Kattaya now, but she refused to move from her side, even whilst hearing the enemy outside the doors trying to break through.
    "Isabel... go," Kattaya commanded, her voice weak.
    "No!  No, I won't leave you!  I won't--"
    "You have to!" Kattaya's voice raised, followed by harsh coughing and more blood staining her paling lips, "you have to be the one to make it out of here.  It has to be you."
    "It's supposed to be both of us!  You're not supposed to die!" Isa cried in protest.
    "This is the way of the Force, Isabel, my journey is ending, but I need you to complete yours," Kattaya spoke, her breath becoming more shallow with each word.
    "I don't understand," Isa's voice broke as she stared down at Kattaya.
    "You'll understand your place in the Force one day.  I've seen your future now," Kattaya sounded more certain and wiser than ever, "now go... and if you ever see Cardo again, tell him I... loved him," her final wish was so quiet, Isa wasn't even sure she had heard her correctly, but when Kattaya exhaled her last breath, Isa's tears rained down and she internally promised Kattaya that she would make sure her wish came true.  The adrenaline of the moment suddenly returned and the banging on the door seemed amplified, or rather, was amplified as the first set of doors were forced open.  Isabel finally dove towards the vent, but before she could even attempt to open it, the blast doors were blown open, sending rubble and smoke flying as they were.  She had breathed the smoke in too deeply, or had been hit with a piece of rubble too hard, but either way, she could feel her consciousness fading and see between flashes a group of men enter the room, but rather than going after Isa, they tore through the books in the room, almost as if they were searching for specific ones.  Isa couldn't see much in her moments of being alert, but when the group seemed to have found what they were looking for, they gathered around her.
    "Sir?  What about the girl?" one of the men asked, his voice unidentifiable.  The voice that answered, however, was a voice that Isabel could have recognized anywhere, and the way that he answered so quickly, not giving the others any time to even consider what would be done with her only concreted her guess.
    "Leave her," Ben ordered sharply, though it sounded much more willed towards protecting her before he added, "for the flames."
    Isa finally lost her strength when she heard the footsteps retreating, and everything faded to black. 

                                                                     ***

    The fluorescent lighting of the med-bay was the next thing to greet Isa.  She sat up quickly, pulling an oxygen mask off of her face despite the nurse-droid urging her not to do so.  Her breathing was still erratic as she searched for signs of where she was, and her panic was only slightly subdued when Leia Organa entered the room.
    "Sit down," Leia instructed calmly, and surprisingly enough, Isa complied, settling back down on the examination bed. 
     "I'm sure you're very confused, and all of your questions will be answered as soon as--"
    "He's gone, Leia," Isa spoke suddenly, "Ben is gone."
    "No, Isa," Leia sighed softly, "he's not gone yet.  He will come home," Leia promised gently, squeezing Isabel's hands to assure her that Ben was not entirely lost.


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Author's note:
Hello, hello, hello!
I hope you all enjoyed this prologue and continue to read this story.  More will be discussed, such as why Isabel is a Kenobi, how she and Ben were before the temple was destroyed, some of my own personal bedazzle on the history of the Knights of Ren, etc.  As I stated in the summary, this isn't going to follow canon very closely, (there will be new characters as well and some canon characters won't be present) but I hope you enjoy anyway.  
I'm going to try to update this every other day, because I'm also going to be working on an original story titled "The Key to Not Forgetting" (feel free to check it out) so if "every other day" ends up being more sparse, I apologize. 
Don't forget to vote, comment, and follow if you'd like!