Let the Light In

Chapter 52: Impasse

Chapter 52: Impasse

Rey didn't quite know what she expected to see when she saw Supreme Leader Snoke for the first time other than glimpses of twisted skin, hollow eyes, and lanky, cloaked figure in Ben's mind. The flickering, towering hologram was a far cry from what she imagined, and confusion beat out all the fear she had felt.

Was this collar not for his convenience? Was it not meant to keep her docile while he meted out his judgement or attempted to turn her where Ben had failed?

Then seething outrage boiled in her, filling her senses and almost succeeding in drowning out the constant pain of the collar.

Coward, she thought venomously. Snoke was a coward. He pulled at puppet strings form relative safety wherever he was, and held the threat of death over his subordinate's heads. He was no different from the Republic she had read so much about, and no different from their enemies either. The Trade Federation, the Empire that had grown as a parasite then overtook them. He was no different from the Jedi Council and the Sith Lords.

Snoke was just like them. A being of immense power surrounded by mysticism that struck enough fear or respect into their underlings to keep order, and letting other people do the dirty work while they were comfortably removed from the fallout.

It made her sick.

The mangled face bore crooked, sharp teeth in a mockery of a grin as the sunken sockets appraised the debilitated girl before him, in the arms of his strayed apprentice.

"Rey Kenobi," Snoke spoke evenly, but with a keen undertone that had Rey leaning into Ben with its assuredness, "How I have been awaiting our acquaintance. A pity, indeed, that it is under such trying circumstances-"

Rey did not miss the heightened tension that stiffened Ben's body. He was startled, and suddenly far more terrified than before. It did not surprise her that Snoke knew her lineage-hell, it seemed that everyone did now- But Ben was no doubt so tightly strung that it would make him fear what else Snoke knew.

"-Unfortunate, that my apprentice could not persuade you before it came to this. It is an odd sentiment indeed, persuasion," he mused, a wistful edge to his ghostly voice as it appeared to emanate from every edge of the room, "The Jedi, you see, stole their followers while they were but infants and had no choice in the matter. Sith numbers grew out of willingness to join, whether it be as a result of being shown the power of the Dark through torture, or out of already-existing primal lust for that power. Persuasion was a very rare tactic indeed, as it relied on independent thinking, which was not common amongst the religions of the day-"

Rey didn't even try to stop the rage from surging in her chest when one lazy gesture from Snoke had Ben trembling beside her as he slowly let her go, taking several steps back. She stood on shaky legs, but she held her weight nevertheless, and held a defiant gaze with the giant figure.

"-Now, Rey Kenobi, I intend to make the Galaxy a much simpler place, and set the cosmic score, if you will, of the Force back to zero. Wound it, cripple it, so that it might reinstate as something that is in more solidarity with its children. It is not a universal energy. It is a genetic propensity native to this Galaxy and perhaps a few beyond it, and it has gotten far out of hand since the time of The Builders-"

Reset the Force? Re-write the Force? Was it even possible to effect the Force so?

Memories of the emptiness of Malachor rose from the static in Rey's mind, and she balked as the dots connected. The scale of death...The war. Snoke was insane. He was insane and he was genuinely orchestrating the desire of his madness...