**for previous chapters, please refer to the Table of Contents**
The Mortis continued to shimmer and shift and change around them. Rey had long stopped trying to keep track of how much time, exactly, she'd spent here. Plus, as Luke and Yoda had assured her, she could sense that that was an unimportant question. Nonetheless, after the visions she had had and the encouragement the Masters had offered her, she slowly began to think on the battle that must be raging around Coruscant. Not that she didn't trust Poe, Finn, Rose, Lando, or Leia to handle themselves, but sooner or later Kyle Ren would appear (if he hadn't already), and she had to be the one to face him. No one else could do it.
Yes. It was time she figured out a way back. She turned to Obi-Wan first. "Master Kenobi, when I first arrived here, you said that the Mortis would guide me back to where and when I need to be. Well...-" it felt awkward phrasing something this way to a Jedi Force ghost, but she couldn't think of any way to say it- "...how do I do that? If I'm to face Kylo Ren, then I need to return to Coruscant somehow."
It was Yoda who spoke up. "Face him, yes. But where...not so sure, I am." He looked around slowly at the scenery around them, which at that moment was once more shifting from glaring sunlight to the dim gray of storm clouds. His face and voice took on a depth and gravity it hadn't had before. "Hm...wait much longer, you will not, I believe. A true storm...about to finally arrive, it is."
"Indeed...." now it was Qui-Gon who spoke, his voice equally grim. "I can feel it too."
It was at that moment that a series of sharp, cracking sounds began to build behind Rey, and a red glow starting to creep into her periphereal vision. Suddenly apprehensive at what was about to happen, she slowly turned around.
***
A brilliant, flourescent sheen of lightning surrounds Kylo Ren. Stemming from the Holocron seated before him, wave after wave of every color imaginable streams over his body, concentrating in the center of his forehead where it sears its way into his being, unfiltered exposure to the dark side rending his mind, body, and soul. Whether the sensation was one of pain or ecstasy, he couldn't tell. He may have screamed- he knew his mouth was open- but he was beyond physical senses, hearing nothing, feeling nothing, seeing only the light.
It was but a moment in time.
It was a lifetime.
It was generations.
It was the birth, expansion, and heat death of the universe itself.
It ended, suddenly and without warning, and Kylo Ren found his sense returned to him, gasping for breath on the cold, broken ground, his head bowed towards his heaving chest. The Holocron sat dark and silent for a moment, before the lines of energy formed once again and the figure of Palpatine re-appeared.
You strength and fortitude is to be commended, Kylo Ren, the voice rumbled, that you could even survive exposure to such raw power is a further sign that you are indeed worthy of the mantle of the Sith. Now, Ben Solo truly is no more. Kylo Ren is no more. Rise now as... and here the voice paused for a moment in contemplation before continuing, Darth...Sidereas.
The one now named Sidereas slowly contained his breath, feeling his body calm and muscles finally unclench. When he felt in control again, he found his legs beneath him and slowly pushed himself up off the ground. What pain he had been feeling was slowly fading, with the exception of his metal-filled scars, which continued to ache. Though slowly filling with a sense of true triumph, he was astonished at how calm he was able to remain. His inheritance was, at long last, in his hands.
Before he could respond to Palpatine, however, a whisper in the Force suddenly reached out from behind him and touched his ear. He turned in the direction of the broken entryway and his ship, and a series of images began to flash soundlessly through his head; his ship's console flashing with messages; a great battle in space; riots and pitched street battles in Coruscant; Rey entering the Jedi Temple...
The figure spoke again, having apparently sensed or seen the same things he had, the voice rising with a passion it had rarely expressed before, Yes, Lord Sidereas; the deciding hour is at hand. You are now the bearer of my legacy, of Vader's raw power! Go, achieve our final victory, and fulfill your destiny!
For a moment, Sidereas didn't move, his eyes refocusing on the shattered and rotting temple walls around him. Then, he turned back to the Holocron and the image of Palpatine, the last ghost of the old order, darkness in his eyes.
"You destiny....your legacy....nothing but ruins and ash." Again, he felt a detached wonder at how even his voice and his emotions remained, even as he felt the full might of the dark side swirling within. "I am beyond you. I am beyond Vader."
The figure tried to speak, the voice now hissing with contempt and danger, How DARE you, you ungrateful...
But Sidereas immediately cut him off, "I am a new Sith Lord, beholden to no one, especially not you. And I will create my OWN destiny." And without waiting a moment more, he struck, reaching his right hand out and sending out a shrieking blast of Force lightning. The shadow struck back, belatedly, desperately, but Sidereas was far beyond the strength of a memory now. His attack was held back for only a second before overwhelming the defenses of the Holocron.
A terribly grating sound rang out and the last image of Darth Sidious, Emperor Palpatine, last Lord of the Old Sith, screamed an unholy sound of fury and terror before vanishing in a flash of fire. The Holocron itself then burst out, each one of its innumerable shards disintegrating further until nothing but a spread of burning dust remained where it had once stood. Silence descended once more within the wreckage of the ancient temple, where Darth Sidereas now stood alone.
He allowed himself a moment to savor the sensation of ultimate triumph before turning back to the entrance to return to his ship. As he passed the threshold to the barren wastes, however, a strange shimmer suddenly passed across his vision, sending ripples of colors around him that washed out the sights of Exegal's landscape. Unsure of what sort of Force power he was encountering now, he paused, his lightsaber held at the ready in the grip of his right hand.
After a few moments, the shimmer began to fade and his vision settled once again. Instead of the dry ground and red skies of Exegal, he found himself standing in a lush and absurdly green field that contrasted starkly with swirling gray clouds above him. Before he could even consider reaching out with his sense, a powerful sense of the Force, beyond anything he'd ever encountered, rushed into him; wherever he was now, it was a placed pulsing with deep, ancient, pure power.
He started to wonder how he could determine where he was and how he got here when he heard a sharp intake of breath behind him. He turned.
Rey had felt a deep apprehension the moment the eddies appeared in the air before her, knowing without needing to think that the final trial was now before her. She'd expected Ben- knew it could be no one else- but even then, she wasn't prepared for the battered visage that she now saw, the face of Ben Solo pockmarked and rimmed with deep red scars, burning as if something molten had been poured into his body. His clothes were bloody ruins, his body seeming almost emaciated. Yet there was nothing dimming the fierce power that burned in his eyes as they focused on her.
Sidereas could no longer even feign surprise that the Force had drawn him to Rey once more, though her obvious disquiet at his...changed...appearance did give him a small measure of perverse pleasure. What did shock him, though, were the images of a host of Jedi around her; the one with the long, bound hair and short goatee was not familiar to him, but he immediately recognized Luke, Yoda, Obi-Wan, and even the pre-Vader visage of his own grandfather, Anakin Skywalker.
For a moment, no one seemed able to speak. Sidereas found his voice first; "This isn't a vision this time, is it."
Rey, still with that strange look in her eyes, shook her head. "No...we've both been brought to the Mortis."
The name immediately rung a bell in Sidereas' head. He looked around, re-examining the ever-changing landscape around them with new interest. "The nexus of the Force...so it is real..." he then turned to the apparitions of the other Jedi. "I suppose it figures. That the last Jedi failures would flee here after death. Is that what you're here for? To try and join forces against me?"
It was Luke who spoke, slowly shaking his head, "Our fights are long over, Ben. Whatever the future holds, it will be decided between you and Rey. And for what it's worth...I am sorry it's come to this."
Sidereas snorted derisively. "Cowards to the end. Fine..." he raised his saber into the guard position, igniting all three blades with a snap of the wrist. "It had to happen anyway, so it might as well be here. Draw, Jedi."
The look in Rey's eyes turned to one of sad pain. "Ben...please...it doesn't have to be this way..."
"Enough," he sharply cut her off, "your sentimentality is sickening. Ben Solo is dead. Kylo Ren is dead. I am Darth Sidereas, the new Lord of the Sith. And once I've killed you, I will finish what the Emperor and my grandfather failed to do. I gave you your chance to join me, and you threw it away. Now you pay the price. Draw. Your. Blade."
With a resigned air, Rey finally raised her blade and released its twin arcs of clear blue energy. "Very well then."
The man who was once Ben Solo lunched, and the swirling skies forked with sparks of light both white and black.
No comments:
Post a Comment