Star Wars: Edge of Hope

Chapter Fifty One: Battlefield of the Fallen (Part One) ....

"I'm not going to do this..."

Ben stood resolute as he gazed across the blasted out desiccated carbon scored floor of the Emperor's audience chamber. Umbra glared across at him as she flicked and twirled the old lightsaber in her hand, from time to time, Ben caught her twist her head as if trying to shake away a voice in her head. But then she glowered back circling, watching....gaging the resolve and searching for the chinks in the wall he had built between them.
Ben could feel the air being sucked out of the room through the large broken window. When suddenly he felt the hulking wreck rock as he fought to keep his footing steady, Umbra smiled raising her face into the dimming glow of the sun behind the onslaught of each new wave. Ben felt the old wreck shiver and creak, with every surge and pound. The air was filled with mist which was seeping into his clothing freezing him to the bone. Ben every now and then would have his footing slide as the floor became damp and coated with water. As uncomfortable as it made him, he still fought against the fear of the nightmare the groaning of the shell beneath their feet brought back to the surface.

Umbra: You feelings betray you. Did Rey ever tell you what her greatest fear was? When were young...our mother was taken away from us...she was killed and left in the middle of nowhere. And Rey...little Rey...she felt it...she screamed and called out in the dark for her. She lunged out of bed her tiny hand grasping at the empty black around her. It took me some time, but eventually...I understood what she'd felt. She always was softer than I was, so open and unafriad, until the moment we found our mother laying dead in the sand. She couldn't...accept that she was gone...her mind refused the reality. She's always feared being alone. Being left behind...being incomplete you could say, she never realized we were what made each other whole. But then she found you...

Ben Solo: We found each other. Tell me Umbra..what upsets you more? The fact that Rey has surpassed you in every possible way or the fact that you'll never be as powerful as she is? Rey uses her gifts with consideration and out of the desire to do good, she would never harm someone she loved. Can you say the same?

Umbra: You really are besotted with her aren't you? Yet still so naive. Do you really think it'll last this...romance you two have? Jedi aren't permitted to take a wife, to have families....to love. It contradicts the teachings of there is NO SELF...there is ONLY THE FORCE. What makes you believe that history won't just repeat itself? I mean, after all...it is the same story as before...

Ben Solo: You don't know what you're talking about.

Umbra reached out across the floor pulling Ben from deep inside. He could feel her icy grip wrapped around his spine as his boots skidded against the old rusted metal. She reached out and stabbed the blue blade into the floor beside her, the saber hissed and began to glow white hot. Umbra took hold of Ben's hand where it was tightly clenched around the hilt of his crossbar saber. The atmosphere around him shuddered and rippled as if he were shifting the very fabric of the energy between all living things. His hand froze right in front of her face the tri beams of the saber so close her image looked distorted as the heat from the blade wafted around her in the cool misty air.

Ben Solo: Don't you....

Umbra: Shhh. You don't have to worry about my damaging the wrapping. Well, at least no more than it already has been for that matter. No, I think it's time you faced some of the hard truths you've been avoiding. You think any of this matters to me? Do you think I care which mask you choose? Be honest with yourself, you miss it don't you? The power. The way people would move and bow, and wouldn't dare oppose you. You miss the control, the prestige, the glory...things BEN SOLO has never experienced at any time in his pathetic life. There's Darkness inside us all...there's still darkness inside you....it's in your blood. It's just a matter of time until you realize Kylo Ren gave you everything you could have ever dreamed of. What has being the Fallen Son ever done for you? You cower and hide, and apologize and try to be the good boy all you like....But the both of us know the truth...that deep inside...right down to your core....

Umbra's words began smashing against the glassy energy barrier she held him in. The sound of her voice and the screams of a thousand voices all at once ringing out in his ears. Ben watched as from the tips of her fingers bright crimson flickers of light began to lash out agains the brilliant blue hue of his sabers blade. The harder he tried the more the light began to receed from him. As Ben looked down into the broken fragmented face of the woman he loved the red over took the blue. Only then did Umbra release him letting him fall hard on the uneven floor. Standing over him Umbra motioned the bright blue blade of the ancient Skywalker saber into her hand.

Umbra: You see? There's no point fighting it, this is who you really are, but that doesn't mean...You have to be alone. We could set things right, we could restore the True Balance of the Force, you and I...together.

Ben rolls onto his back the sickening growl of the old dark saber laying beside him. He lets his thumb switch the saber off and pushes himself up to stand. His gaze falls on the girl with the brown eyes and the blue light on her face standing in front of the black hole in the middle of the room, the ancient throne on which true evil sat in judgment. Ben blinks and sees himself seated in that chair, the red glow of the Praetorian guards as they line the room, and her the dark angel seated on his lap, her lips moving closer to his...a wicked grin seductively moves across her face.

Rey: Ben...Ben? Be with me...Be with me....

He watches as his face turns away as if the shadow had hear her calling to him from a distant grave.

Ben Solo: There is nothing you could offer me that would change my mind, Umbra. Or my heart. You might have been something worthy of loving and redemption...once. But now you're dead inside.You've let the anger, the hate, and the pain eat away at you until there is nothing left of the woman you were. You could never replace Rey...you're nothing compared to her....you're just...a shadow. A pale imitaton of what she is and what you never could be, you're alone. You'll stand alone. And you'll die alone, Umbra. I've made my choice. And I choose Rey.

As he spoke he held her eyeline but carefully took small steps back towards the edge of the ledge. When he could hear and feel the vortex of air surge up and bristle the back of his hair against his neck he stopped. Before he took the last step of into the open air below...he felt her whisper into his ear....

Rey: I choose you...always.

And with a smile Ben stepped off the edge and fell out of view...