Losing the Force (7/?) - Four Prompts
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puzzlepromptsTitle: Losing the Force (Part 7 of ?)
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wicked_jester
Fandom Universe: Star Wars: The Sequel Trilogy
Characters: Ben Solo/Kylo Ren, Rey, Luke Skywalker
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 2,550
Summary: The months have passed since Starkiller Base, and Rey now trains with Luke Skywalker in the ways of the Force. In spite of their bond, Rey does not share everything with her mentor, and Luke seems to be keeping secrets of his own. She's been dreaming at night about Kylo Ren, but they're nothing like she expects, and she can't bring herself to reveal them to the Jedi Master. Are they simply dreams or do they mean something more?
Prompts: Creature Feature: Magic User, Geology Rocks: Crystal, Random Descriptor: Complicated, Visual Stimulation: Darkness. (See: Author's Note.)
Chapter VII: The Surrender of the Knight
TATOOINE — 6 YEARS AGO
Ben Solo contemplatively examined and turned the cracked red Kyber crystal in his palm. It was damaged, he saw, missing a small piece that had been shorn away during some struggle; still, he could sense the raw, unstable energy burning within, sending a tremor through his fingers that was at once unwholesome and irresistible. Only a lightsaber constructed from a specific design could hope to contain and harness such volatile power, he knew.
“How did you come by this?” he asked with wonder and suspicion. He had raised his eyes finally from the relic in his hands to survey the hooded figure seated across from him at the small, dusty table. The secretive meeting took place openly by a crowded street. There was not much to physically appraise of the mysterious trader, as layers of flowing black robes obscured the appearance of the person underneath.
“We are explorers and relic hunters,” answered the Acolyte of the Beyond in a strange hissing voice that was scarcely human. “Many artifacts of the Sith and the Empire were scattered across the galaxy. Their true worth slowly forgotten to the passing of years, some were fully destroyed or lost forever. We seek to gather these remnants of the past so that they might be restored to their former greatness and returned to their rightful possessors.”
“You boast of a noble cause.” Ben Solo glanced around, slightly unsettled.
The marketplace of Mos Eisley at midday bustled with such movement and noise that he was not much concerned with the insignificant possibility of being overheard; rather, it was the darkness, seeping insidiously from the damaged artifact, that tempted and troubled him. Whispers seemed to surround Ben now, a swirl of distant voices that told a shadowy history and heralded a dire future.
Ben hardened his resolve and resisted the instinct to heed the warning in those whispers. He suspected that his true destiny lay ahead on a dark and lonely path. The need for ancient power and knowledge had always been there, coursing through his veins not unlike the Force itself, and he had never understood why until recently.
For twenty-three years he had believed in a lie, the truth of his family concealed from him by those he had trusted most until it had been spilt like blood across the galaxy itself.
“This once belonged to my grandfather,” murmured Ben as he studied the flawed angles of the Kyber crystal with a knowing hunger; jealousy flared in him at the mere fancy of anyone except him wielding a weapon powered by it. “By rights, it is mine.”
The Acolyte of the Beyond then lowered her hood, revealing a shock of pallid skin and colorless eyes and hair that looked strikingly alien in the desert world of Tatooine, where the twin suns blazed in the cloudless skies above with scorching intensity. Yet she was human, or had been once, before some corruption took hold of her body and mind. The woman rose suddenly, and Ben Solo touched the hilt of the lightsaber on his belt in alarm, but all she did was bow deeply before him.
“It is an honor to return to you what has always been yours, heir apparent to Lord Vader.”
AHCH-TO ISLAND — NOW
Kylo Ren grasped the hilt of the lightsaber that he had reclaimed from the shore of the lake. The blue radiance of its blade lit the dark passages of the underground labyrinth. His movements were slow and ponderous, owing to the numerous wounds inflicted upon him by the monstrous wyrm that had risen from the deeps. The creature had come close to killing him. Its size and strength should not have mattered to a master Force user, but that ability had been drained from him to near nothingness. He was having difficulty commanding what little of that raw strength remained. Never could he remember feeling so weak and defenseless.
The lightsaber of Anakin Skywalker felt strange but good in his hand. The crossguard sword of his construction had been unmade before his eyes; there could be no recovery of the red crystal that had finally shattered from its own volatile power. Curiously, its destruction had felt more as a release from a terrible burden than a true loss for Ren.
Drenched, bleeding, and stiff with pain, Kylo Ren peeled away the outer layer of his ruined armor, letting the shredded pieces fall abandoned to the damp floor of the cavern. The wide belt around his waist was relatively unharmed, and he felt certain that its tracking device remained intact and functional. The tracker had allowed General Hux to find him after his string of failures on Starkiller Base, but Ren was unsure whether he wanted to be found this time. His mind was plagued with doubt and uncertainty since Rey had warned him about his master seeking a new apprentice with which to replace him.
It must be a lie, he had assured himself. Yet his conflict gathered and grew as a looming storm.
He tried to cast the vexing thoughts of the scavenger from his mind without avail. Loathing simmered within him, but beneath it churned a sea of emotions more complicated than mere hatred. It left him reeling in confusion. She was the reason that he still lived, and he wondered why she would do something so foolish.
Rey would have paid with her life for that mistake, if it had not been for his own moment of weakness.
Kylo Ren instinctively tried to shield his thoughts from Snoke then, but the prodding whispers that had been there his entire life had ebbed into silence with the theft of his powers. It was a strange new freedom to have the contents of his mind completely concealed, to not feel the shadowy tendrils of his dark master probing his secrets. Still, Ren felt lost and almost afraid without this connection that had always existed until now. He knew that he would face severe consequences for the loss of it; yet, the unprecedented quiet in his mind offered a depth of peace that he had never known, not even before as Ben Solo.
His thoughts strayed again to the tracker hidden in his belt, and he stopped, hesitant as he considered what to do. He thumbed off the lightsaber and set it aside; a thin shaft of white sunlight from a crevice in the ceiling illuminated the contemplative and troubled look etched into his pale, scarred features. At length, a decision formed in his mind — one made freely, without the whispered influence of Snoke. His hands, bare after the black gloves had been shed like an old and constraining skin, trembled slightly as he worked to remove the belt. It slid free from his waist and fell to the ground with an unnatural heaviness.
Picking up and reigniting the lightsaber, Kylo Ren ran the blade through the belt to render its tracker inoperative before moving onward without it.
The mouth of the cavern lay ahead, curtained by a glittering stream of clear water that poured from some unseen spring in the deep recesses of the mountain. Within the ring of light awaited the familiar form of Luke Skywalker, the beam of his weapon filling the tunnel with an eerie green glow. Ren froze in horror. His grievance with Skywalker had often clashed with his better judgment over the years, leading to critical mistakes in strategy and insurmountable losses for the First Order. The man now stood within his reach, bristling with stolen power, his gaze as cold and fiery as stones of amber.
“What have you done with Rey?” asked Skywalker accusingly. “I sensed her slipping into an abyss.”
Kylo Ren ignored the question. “My knights—”
“They’re gone. Dispatched. Not unlike the fate of my own students.”
Ren clenched his fists unconsciously in bitter resignation of what he understood to be the truth; his knights lay dead on the grassy highlands where he had abandoned them to wage a futile battle with the Jedi Master. His men gone, his strength in the Force nearly depleted, he had never felt more lost and desperate. Surrender was a concept that he could not allow himself to consider, not to Skywalker, not after the way a similarly unavoidable confrontation on Starkiller Base had ended.
“Finish it, then,” hissed Ren. “I destroyed your new order of Jedi, and you have slaughtered my knights. Now it is only us.”
His rage boiling over, Kylo Ren shifted into his trained combat stance. Tears burned in his eyes as he raised his weapon toward his uncle; every muscle in his form tensed, his body like a tightly coiled spring. Focusing on his anger and pain to fuel the remnants of the Force within him, he charged forward with a feral cry. The Jedi Master then lifted a hand in a simple gesture and Ren found suddenly that he could not move. He had been immobilized with the Force, just as he had himself once done with ease to capture a young woman in the lush green forest of Takodana. Another gesture, and the lightsaber flew from his grasp and into his captor’s.
“How did you discover this planet?” asked Skywalker as he regarded his nephew with close scrutiny. “Are there others coming?”
It was an interrogation. Ren knew he was defeated, but still he did not want to reveal anything useful to the man that he hated and wished that he could destroy. He struggled against the Force paralysis with all of his might but could not reclaim control over his body. “Kill me, old man,” he barely managed, his mouth nearly as frozen as the rest of him. “Or I swear that I will never stop hunting you, so long as I draw breath.”
“Your words invite death, yet I sense the fear in you, Ben.”
“Do not call me that,” Ren gritted out, his attempts to speak a painful exertion.
“No?” His former master raised a brow curiously. “Who are you, then? Who is the Master of the Knights of Ren without knights to command? What possible use are you to Snoke now without the strength of the Force? Your men lie dead and your ship is in ruins. Let us dispense with this nonsense about names. Titles are meaningless on this island. Perhaps in time you will see that.”
Kylo Ren said nothing to that. The burdens of the universe had been lain upon his shoulders for an age that seemed to span centuries, his implacable need for power having turned into an exhausting and joyless pursuit. On his numerous expeditions across the galaxy, he had procured ancient and profound knowledge that offered greatness and despair at once. The mere concept of freedom from that enormous weight on his mind and soul was an almost unbearable temptation.
For the briefest of moments, Ren contemplated the possibility of surrender, his hurt and malice in conflict with the simple desire for reconciliation. It did not last long, this fleeting wisp of a dream. The light was ever seductive with its promises of balance and peace, but such fancies were lies to be mistrusted and destroyed.
Luke Skywalker deactivated and belted the two lightsabers, then raised a hand toward Ren’s face and began skimming his thoughts. Kylo Ren fought with renewed ferocity against the intrusion, tried by sheer will to push the probe from his mind, but it made no difference. He did not have enough of the Force, and could do nothing as the Jedi Master started to pore through his recent memories, deepest fears, and innermost desires. Skywalker seemed unsettled by what he found there. “Snoke is not the only reason you sought to possess my apprentice.”
“Master Skywalker! Stop!”
Ren felt the probe withdraw at once from his head. Perspiration coated his brow in a fine sheen from the useless battle of wills. He shifted his gaze over to regard the young woman who had overtaken them at last. She looked verily as one who had drowned and nearly succumbed to the darkness beyond. Pale, wet, and shivering, Rey stared at them both with a troubled light in her eyes.
“Don’t do this,” she pleaded with Skywalker. “Don’t pry the answers from him. I know what it’s like, to have my thoughts taken from me.”
“Mind your place, Padawan,” rebuked Skywalker, his attention diverted for the moment although he did not lower his hand or release Kylo Ren from the immobilizing effect.“I know from only a glimpse into his mind that he found this world through the bond that you share with him, and that he still intends to destroy us all one way or another.”
“You removed that bond when you took the Force from him,” argued Rey. “He is powerless now and no longer a threat to us.”
The girl kept glancing between them as she spoke, her expression worried and uncertain. Kylo Ren considered inwardly that she had probably never dared to question or disagree with her mentor until now. He could not comprehend why she should desire to help him, for was he not responsible for inflicting the mind probe on her as his unwilling captive on Starkiller Base? Why show him any mercy?
“No, Rey,” said the Jedi Master. “I have taken his powers, but he remains dangerous and unworthy of trust — too dangerous, I fear, to be kept prisoner. His presence will be a constant threat to every inhabitant on this island. His absence from the First Order shall be noticed and it will draw them here. Only further death and destruction will follow if he is spared.”
Rey then drew forth a length of black cloth, still wet from when he had gone into the lake to retrieve her from its depths. She glanced down at it thoughtfully, then looked at him in a way of such openness and trust he had never seen before, except in dreams. For they had indeed shared dreams together. He had cruelly and vehemently denied it all, for reasons that he felt she would probably never understand. In the untouchable dream realm, tender promises were spoken softly between them, and she had tentatively reached out to touch first his hand, then his face, fingertips lightly tracing the scar that she herself had made. There was no fear or shame; only warmth, curiosity, and intrigue, in a place that was safe and unreachable by the First Order and the Resistance alike.
“It would not be right to kill him,” countered Rey steadily as she seemed to master her nerves. “That—that isn’t what you taught me in the lessons. It is not the way of the Jedi to murder an unarmed prisoner.”
“Is Kylo Ren to be your prisoner then, Rey?” questioned Skywalker, turning toward his apprentice and carefully scrutinizing her. “Will you be responsible for ensuring the safety of ourselves, the island natives, as well as the sacred contents of the ancient temple while keeping a hostile dark sider among us?”
A long silence, and then—
“Yes,” came the firm reply from Rey, and suddenly Kylo Ren found that he had been released from the Force paralysis. He could move freely once more, but he did not dare to attack his captors or attempt an escape.
Not yet.
Author's Note:
Creature Feature: Magic User: All Characters
Geology Rocks: Crystal: Kyber crystal
Random Descriptor: Complicated: Kylo's feelings for Rey
Visual Stimulation: Darkness: Luke struggles with the dark side (Artist: Gilberto Japeth)
Author:
wicked_jesterFandom Universe: Star Wars: The Sequel Trilogy
Characters: Ben Solo/Kylo Ren, Rey, Luke Skywalker
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 2,550
Summary: The months have passed since Starkiller Base, and Rey now trains with Luke Skywalker in the ways of the Force. In spite of their bond, Rey does not share everything with her mentor, and Luke seems to be keeping secrets of his own. She's been dreaming at night about Kylo Ren, but they're nothing like she expects, and she can't bring herself to reveal them to the Jedi Master. Are they simply dreams or do they mean something more?
Prompts: Creature Feature: Magic User, Geology Rocks: Crystal, Random Descriptor: Complicated, Visual Stimulation: Darkness. (See: Author's Note.)
Ben Solo contemplatively examined and turned the cracked red Kyber crystal in his palm. It was damaged, he saw, missing a small piece that had been shorn away during some struggle; still, he could sense the raw, unstable energy burning within, sending a tremor through his fingers that was at once unwholesome and irresistible. Only a lightsaber constructed from a specific design could hope to contain and harness such volatile power, he knew.
“How did you come by this?” he asked with wonder and suspicion. He had raised his eyes finally from the relic in his hands to survey the hooded figure seated across from him at the small, dusty table. The secretive meeting took place openly by a crowded street. There was not much to physically appraise of the mysterious trader, as layers of flowing black robes obscured the appearance of the person underneath.
“We are explorers and relic hunters,” answered the Acolyte of the Beyond in a strange hissing voice that was scarcely human. “Many artifacts of the Sith and the Empire were scattered across the galaxy. Their true worth slowly forgotten to the passing of years, some were fully destroyed or lost forever. We seek to gather these remnants of the past so that they might be restored to their former greatness and returned to their rightful possessors.”
“You boast of a noble cause.” Ben Solo glanced around, slightly unsettled.
The marketplace of Mos Eisley at midday bustled with such movement and noise that he was not much concerned with the insignificant possibility of being overheard; rather, it was the darkness, seeping insidiously from the damaged artifact, that tempted and troubled him. Whispers seemed to surround Ben now, a swirl of distant voices that told a shadowy history and heralded a dire future.
Ben hardened his resolve and resisted the instinct to heed the warning in those whispers. He suspected that his true destiny lay ahead on a dark and lonely path. The need for ancient power and knowledge had always been there, coursing through his veins not unlike the Force itself, and he had never understood why until recently.
For twenty-three years he had believed in a lie, the truth of his family concealed from him by those he had trusted most until it had been spilt like blood across the galaxy itself.
“This once belonged to my grandfather,” murmured Ben as he studied the flawed angles of the Kyber crystal with a knowing hunger; jealousy flared in him at the mere fancy of anyone except him wielding a weapon powered by it. “By rights, it is mine.”
The Acolyte of the Beyond then lowered her hood, revealing a shock of pallid skin and colorless eyes and hair that looked strikingly alien in the desert world of Tatooine, where the twin suns blazed in the cloudless skies above with scorching intensity. Yet she was human, or had been once, before some corruption took hold of her body and mind. The woman rose suddenly, and Ben Solo touched the hilt of the lightsaber on his belt in alarm, but all she did was bow deeply before him.
“It is an honor to return to you what has always been yours, heir apparent to Lord Vader.”
Kylo Ren grasped the hilt of the lightsaber that he had reclaimed from the shore of the lake. The blue radiance of its blade lit the dark passages of the underground labyrinth. His movements were slow and ponderous, owing to the numerous wounds inflicted upon him by the monstrous wyrm that had risen from the deeps. The creature had come close to killing him. Its size and strength should not have mattered to a master Force user, but that ability had been drained from him to near nothingness. He was having difficulty commanding what little of that raw strength remained. Never could he remember feeling so weak and defenseless.
The lightsaber of Anakin Skywalker felt strange but good in his hand. The crossguard sword of his construction had been unmade before his eyes; there could be no recovery of the red crystal that had finally shattered from its own volatile power. Curiously, its destruction had felt more as a release from a terrible burden than a true loss for Ren.
Drenched, bleeding, and stiff with pain, Kylo Ren peeled away the outer layer of his ruined armor, letting the shredded pieces fall abandoned to the damp floor of the cavern. The wide belt around his waist was relatively unharmed, and he felt certain that its tracking device remained intact and functional. The tracker had allowed General Hux to find him after his string of failures on Starkiller Base, but Ren was unsure whether he wanted to be found this time. His mind was plagued with doubt and uncertainty since Rey had warned him about his master seeking a new apprentice with which to replace him.
It must be a lie, he had assured himself. Yet his conflict gathered and grew as a looming storm.
He tried to cast the vexing thoughts of the scavenger from his mind without avail. Loathing simmered within him, but beneath it churned a sea of emotions more complicated than mere hatred. It left him reeling in confusion. She was the reason that he still lived, and he wondered why she would do something so foolish.
Rey would have paid with her life for that mistake, if it had not been for his own moment of weakness.
Kylo Ren instinctively tried to shield his thoughts from Snoke then, but the prodding whispers that had been there his entire life had ebbed into silence with the theft of his powers. It was a strange new freedom to have the contents of his mind completely concealed, to not feel the shadowy tendrils of his dark master probing his secrets. Still, Ren felt lost and almost afraid without this connection that had always existed until now. He knew that he would face severe consequences for the loss of it; yet, the unprecedented quiet in his mind offered a depth of peace that he had never known, not even before as Ben Solo.
His thoughts strayed again to the tracker hidden in his belt, and he stopped, hesitant as he considered what to do. He thumbed off the lightsaber and set it aside; a thin shaft of white sunlight from a crevice in the ceiling illuminated the contemplative and troubled look etched into his pale, scarred features. At length, a decision formed in his mind — one made freely, without the whispered influence of Snoke. His hands, bare after the black gloves had been shed like an old and constraining skin, trembled slightly as he worked to remove the belt. It slid free from his waist and fell to the ground with an unnatural heaviness.
Picking up and reigniting the lightsaber, Kylo Ren ran the blade through the belt to render its tracker inoperative before moving onward without it.
The mouth of the cavern lay ahead, curtained by a glittering stream of clear water that poured from some unseen spring in the deep recesses of the mountain. Within the ring of light awaited the familiar form of Luke Skywalker, the beam of his weapon filling the tunnel with an eerie green glow. Ren froze in horror. His grievance with Skywalker had often clashed with his better judgment over the years, leading to critical mistakes in strategy and insurmountable losses for the First Order. The man now stood within his reach, bristling with stolen power, his gaze as cold and fiery as stones of amber.
“What have you done with Rey?” asked Skywalker accusingly. “I sensed her slipping into an abyss.”
Kylo Ren ignored the question. “My knights—”
“They’re gone. Dispatched. Not unlike the fate of my own students.”
Ren clenched his fists unconsciously in bitter resignation of what he understood to be the truth; his knights lay dead on the grassy highlands where he had abandoned them to wage a futile battle with the Jedi Master. His men gone, his strength in the Force nearly depleted, he had never felt more lost and desperate. Surrender was a concept that he could not allow himself to consider, not to Skywalker, not after the way a similarly unavoidable confrontation on Starkiller Base had ended.
“Finish it, then,” hissed Ren. “I destroyed your new order of Jedi, and you have slaughtered my knights. Now it is only us.”
His rage boiling over, Kylo Ren shifted into his trained combat stance. Tears burned in his eyes as he raised his weapon toward his uncle; every muscle in his form tensed, his body like a tightly coiled spring. Focusing on his anger and pain to fuel the remnants of the Force within him, he charged forward with a feral cry. The Jedi Master then lifted a hand in a simple gesture and Ren found suddenly that he could not move. He had been immobilized with the Force, just as he had himself once done with ease to capture a young woman in the lush green forest of Takodana. Another gesture, and the lightsaber flew from his grasp and into his captor’s.
“How did you discover this planet?” asked Skywalker as he regarded his nephew with close scrutiny. “Are there others coming?”
It was an interrogation. Ren knew he was defeated, but still he did not want to reveal anything useful to the man that he hated and wished that he could destroy. He struggled against the Force paralysis with all of his might but could not reclaim control over his body. “Kill me, old man,” he barely managed, his mouth nearly as frozen as the rest of him. “Or I swear that I will never stop hunting you, so long as I draw breath.”
“Your words invite death, yet I sense the fear in you, Ben.”
“Do not call me that,” Ren gritted out, his attempts to speak a painful exertion.
“No?” His former master raised a brow curiously. “Who are you, then? Who is the Master of the Knights of Ren without knights to command? What possible use are you to Snoke now without the strength of the Force? Your men lie dead and your ship is in ruins. Let us dispense with this nonsense about names. Titles are meaningless on this island. Perhaps in time you will see that.”
Kylo Ren said nothing to that. The burdens of the universe had been lain upon his shoulders for an age that seemed to span centuries, his implacable need for power having turned into an exhausting and joyless pursuit. On his numerous expeditions across the galaxy, he had procured ancient and profound knowledge that offered greatness and despair at once. The mere concept of freedom from that enormous weight on his mind and soul was an almost unbearable temptation.
For the briefest of moments, Ren contemplated the possibility of surrender, his hurt and malice in conflict with the simple desire for reconciliation. It did not last long, this fleeting wisp of a dream. The light was ever seductive with its promises of balance and peace, but such fancies were lies to be mistrusted and destroyed.
Luke Skywalker deactivated and belted the two lightsabers, then raised a hand toward Ren’s face and began skimming his thoughts. Kylo Ren fought with renewed ferocity against the intrusion, tried by sheer will to push the probe from his mind, but it made no difference. He did not have enough of the Force, and could do nothing as the Jedi Master started to pore through his recent memories, deepest fears, and innermost desires. Skywalker seemed unsettled by what he found there. “Snoke is not the only reason you sought to possess my apprentice.”
“Master Skywalker! Stop!”
Ren felt the probe withdraw at once from his head. Perspiration coated his brow in a fine sheen from the useless battle of wills. He shifted his gaze over to regard the young woman who had overtaken them at last. She looked verily as one who had drowned and nearly succumbed to the darkness beyond. Pale, wet, and shivering, Rey stared at them both with a troubled light in her eyes.
“Don’t do this,” she pleaded with Skywalker. “Don’t pry the answers from him. I know what it’s like, to have my thoughts taken from me.”
“Mind your place, Padawan,” rebuked Skywalker, his attention diverted for the moment although he did not lower his hand or release Kylo Ren from the immobilizing effect.“I know from only a glimpse into his mind that he found this world through the bond that you share with him, and that he still intends to destroy us all one way or another.”
“You removed that bond when you took the Force from him,” argued Rey. “He is powerless now and no longer a threat to us.”
The girl kept glancing between them as she spoke, her expression worried and uncertain. Kylo Ren considered inwardly that she had probably never dared to question or disagree with her mentor until now. He could not comprehend why she should desire to help him, for was he not responsible for inflicting the mind probe on her as his unwilling captive on Starkiller Base? Why show him any mercy?
“No, Rey,” said the Jedi Master. “I have taken his powers, but he remains dangerous and unworthy of trust — too dangerous, I fear, to be kept prisoner. His presence will be a constant threat to every inhabitant on this island. His absence from the First Order shall be noticed and it will draw them here. Only further death and destruction will follow if he is spared.”
Rey then drew forth a length of black cloth, still wet from when he had gone into the lake to retrieve her from its depths. She glanced down at it thoughtfully, then looked at him in a way of such openness and trust he had never seen before, except in dreams. For they had indeed shared dreams together. He had cruelly and vehemently denied it all, for reasons that he felt she would probably never understand. In the untouchable dream realm, tender promises were spoken softly between them, and she had tentatively reached out to touch first his hand, then his face, fingertips lightly tracing the scar that she herself had made. There was no fear or shame; only warmth, curiosity, and intrigue, in a place that was safe and unreachable by the First Order and the Resistance alike.
“It would not be right to kill him,” countered Rey steadily as she seemed to master her nerves. “That—that isn’t what you taught me in the lessons. It is not the way of the Jedi to murder an unarmed prisoner.”
“Is Kylo Ren to be your prisoner then, Rey?” questioned Skywalker, turning toward his apprentice and carefully scrutinizing her. “Will you be responsible for ensuring the safety of ourselves, the island natives, as well as the sacred contents of the ancient temple while keeping a hostile dark sider among us?”
A long silence, and then—
“Yes,” came the firm reply from Rey, and suddenly Kylo Ren found that he had been released from the Force paralysis. He could move freely once more, but he did not dare to attack his captors or attempt an escape.
Not yet.
Author's Note:
Creature Feature: Magic User: All Characters
Geology Rocks: Crystal: Kyber crystal
Random Descriptor: Complicated: Kylo's feelings for Rey
Visual Stimulation: Darkness: Luke struggles with the dark side (Artist: Gilberto Japeth)
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Volume One Hundred Sixty-One, Issue Nineteen
Date: 2018-07-20 03:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-07-20 03:58 am (UTC)sex slaveprisoner, bwahahaha! That should be fun. For us, if not for them ;)Another excellent chapter. I particularly like the reference to the light side being seductive. So often we hear about the temptations of the dark side, it's nice to see that flipped -- and it makes perfect sense. No one is 100% good or evil.
Nice work! Oh and nice artwork there too!
no subject
Date: 2018-07-21 12:52 am (UTC)Thank you for your kind words and feedback. Unfortunately, I think I might not continue this fic... I've been wanting lately to write something that's more canon compliant. Also, this story doesn't seem to generate much interest on the fanfic sites. I get maybe a handful of views each time I update, but other than that it's crickets. It's pretty discouraging, but I do kind of understand why. I personally like stories that are set after the most recent movie which explore the possible future of the characters, and I'm thinking maybe that's how most readers are too.
As far as the light side being seductive, after TLJ I still think that's how Kylo sees it. He was personally betrayed by a light sider, someone who was considered legendary for saving and forgiving a dark lord of the Sith. So, even though Kylo feels drawn to the light, he probably views it as a temptation of something false and harmful since that's been his experience. I have thought about Kylo and Luke quite a bit after seeing the movie, and I believe Kylo needs to forgive his uncle and the rest of his family before he can turn back to the light side. So, him leaving with Rey was not really possible at the time that she offered it in the movie, he had to confront Luke and his past first for closure.
no subject
Date: 2018-07-21 02:13 am (UTC)Ahhhhhhh bummer! But I understand. I mean, I understand your desire to write something canon-compliant -- I don't understand the crickets! This is very well-written... I suppose if you went the sex slave route, you'd get lots of attention even if it was piss-poor writing, lol. Since you HAVE put such thought into Kylo and Luke from TLJ I'm sure you'll come up with something satisfying... I'll follow you on AO3 if you can link me! I do want to get back into reading SW fic. Not a lot right now, but I could keep up with you, at least :D
no subject
Date: 2018-07-21 04:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-07-21 05:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-07-21 07:38 pm (UTC)And oops, I assumed AO3 was probably like FF.net when it comes to subscription notifications but I guess it isn't. I don't think I've gotten any either.
no subject
Date: 2018-08-02 03:21 am (UTC)I am behind on your story, so I need to go catch up. So very sorry for my neglect :-/ Thank you so much for still sharing with us :-)
no subject
Date: 2018-08-08 03:47 am (UTC)I am discontinuing this story but plan to write other fics for this community. So, no hurry in reading the last two chapters and don't worry about making banners for them. :)
no subject
Date: 2018-08-10 12:46 am (UTC)I'm very glad to hear you still plan to write for us, though.