54. Chapter 54
The Last Jedi burns with power, a bonfire in the confines of the shuttle. The Force clings to Skywalker, bright and strong, and his presence calms the fighters. The familiarity of his Force signature goes bone deep. Kylo wants to be put off by it, but he has no hatred left for Skywalker, for anyone but Snoke. Skywalker’s eyes meet his and Kylo doesn’t flinch. As he moves farther away from Rey, the ache in his chest returns accompanied by rising dread as they approach Snoke. Kylo senses the proximity of his old master, like a stormcloud on the horizon growing closer and more threatening as the shuttle speeds on.
At the mouth of a narrow range of canyons, the shuttle sets them down as the pilot deems it unsafe to continue by air. Kylo leads the squads off the shuttle, sweeping for danger and finding none. The Groundies file past him, armor painted with a riot of orange and black slogans, names picked out along their shoulders in precise letters. A few flash tight smiles at Kylo and some pat his back as they go past, giving sharp nods or grunts of acknowledgement. Skywalker follows, leaving his outer robes behind in the shuttle. Kylo can feel him reaching out with the Force, checking and rechecking for the threats. Gun leaves the shuttle last, coming up to grasp Kylo’s arm, mirroring their first moments of friendship, before breaking off to divide the fighters up into teams.
Once the troops are in formation, they follow Kylo and Skywalker, who track the impending sense of foreboding like hounds on a scent. Snoke is ahead, moving further into that labyrinth, but they’re getting closer. Sick fear tickles Kylo’s mind as they progress and he hates that. He hasn’t felt truly afraid of anyone but himself since they landed on D’Qar. The fear makes him angry again and that anger lets a hint of darkness seep into his mind, rage and disgust and impatience making him grind his teeth.
Skywalker feels the troops ahead in the treeline a second before Kylo does and the master stops short, signaling for everyone to halt. Their enemies hide in the shadows, lying in wait. Kylo quests out for their minds and finds them blank, chained together like Ajani’s troops on Capza. He pulls at the chains, testing their strength, but he can’t break them. “A welcoming committee,” he murmurs to Gun and Skywalker, “and at least one Knight.”
Gun drops back for a quick, heated conference with his fellow lieutenants before turning and shouting the infantry into position. Skywalker unclips the saber from his belt, weighing the hilt before igniting it for a few test swings. He falls into the opening moves of the Shien variant of Form V, comfortable and at ease, and Kylo follows suit. His saber crackles in his hands, hilt vibrating, eager to work. The infantry fans out behind Kylo and Skywalker in staggered ranks as Gun jogs back to the front and the other two lieutenants run to the sides to anchor the lines. Ahead, their opponents make no move to advance.
With a glance at Skywalker, Kylo leads the charge. The older man pulls on the Force to power his sprint and Gun runs with them, rifle spitting as it picks out targets amongst the trees. Master Skywalker, a blinding light to rival Tatooine’s twin suns at high noon, flicks a hand upward before their enemies can attack, and the blasters of the front line fly skyward and back to land well behind their lines, out of reach. The disarmed ‘Troopers die where they stand as the lines close to firing distance. Kylo mirrors Skywalker’s motions, deflecting the blaster bolts that stray too close or threaten the soldiers around him. Skywalker’s metal hand glints as he bounces bolts back into the enemy formation and Kylo is, for a fleeting moment, in awe of the man’s mastery. He moves like water, all grace and finesse and easy power. They leave Gun and his men behind to advance on the line of Stormtroopers in whorls of scarlet and azure, sabers slicing through flesh and plastene. As Kylo spins, blade hissing through a line of ‘Troopers, Skywalker raises a hand to send a wave of concussive energy rippling outwards, hurling fighters back against the canyon walls.
Kylo feels the soldiers behind him die as the Stormtroopers open fire. He’s not connected to his people quite like Rey is to her troops, but he knows the feel of them through the Force, and he recognizes each Groundie who falls. Enine, who laughed through his crooked teeth like a snake hissing, goes down first. Nestor, who sometimes sat and sketched birds with Finn in the evenings. Dub’tee, who spent every free minute in the library, looking up everything the First Order had kept secret and sharing it with the others at mealtimes. Tears sting his eyes and Snoke’s laugh bubbles up in the back of his head. He isn’t sure if the sound is real or imagined but it mixes with the anguish at the death around him, threatening to push Kylo into a fury. Only Skywalker’s silent fortitude helps him maintain his control. Rey is in his mind, hard and unyielding against the foe she faces on the killing fields he left behind. She doesn’t let her strength waver, so neither does he. He takes all that he feels through them, through the Force, uses it to make himself sharp and alert as two Knights of Ren emerge from a gap in the line of ‘Troopers.
With a growl, Kylo runs at the pair, slashing away the vibroswords that swing up to meet him. The Knight on his right comes back with a yell, and Kylo shoves against him, muscle to muscle, Force to Force. The man on his left stumbles as a bolt sears into his helmet, knocking him sideways, and Gun roars nearby. Kylo kicks at the other’s knee, driving him to the ground. Blue flashes in his peripheral vision as Skywalker slices through the first Knight’s neck. The second Knight’s helmet smokes as he jumps back to his feet, vibroblade on guard, and his unprotected mind spins in distracted rage, the pain and anger that could be used as fuel nothing but a hinderance. Kylo feels no remorse when he shears the man’s leg off at the knee with a swing, nor when he stabs down through his chest, snuffing out his life as the blade of his saber chatters and cackles.
Gun lopes up, rifle at the ready as the infantry finish up the remaining Stormtroopers. “Ten Groundies down, boss.” Kylo’s heart clenches. So many of his people, already dead. The darkness inside him roils, demands blood for blood. Gun’s voice is tight and professional, and his eyes scour the surrounding area for imminent danger as he reports. “Tokki got shot in the head. I’m folding the rest of his men into my unit. We have multiple wounded, but,” he frowns at the heaps of enemy dead, “it could be worse. What now, sir?”
Kylo follows Gun’s gaze to his soldiers’ bodies among the corpses of Snoke’s ‘Troopers. He considers telling Gun to take everyone, the wounded and the rest, back to help Rey, or just to find shelter and to wait, but Gun speaks first. “We keep pushing, right? Find that bastard and finish this?”
“Gun, take the wounded and get the back to the shuttle, then-”
The giant shakes his head. “Not to be insubordinate, sir, but I’m with you til I’m in the ground.” Before Kylo can argue, Gun is shouting over his shoulder, directing the wounded to retreat to the shuttle. Many injured Groundies resist, but Gun allows only those who can run to stay.
As they reform into ranks, Kylo feels Snoke’s continued retreat. Skywalker senses it too. “He’s trying to find a defensible position. We have to get to him before he can dig in.”
Kylo nods. “He’ll have more troops with him, but he’s the one we need to kill. Get close and do it fast. Rey cut off his hand with a well-timed leap, so he’s not invincible. He can die like anyone else.” This is the most he’s spoken to Skywalker in decades, and it doesn’t hurt. A thought occurs. “Don’t let him touch you. You’re better off dead than under his influence.” Then Gun signals that the squads are ready to move, and Kylo jerks his head in the direction of the tainted energy. “This way!” He raises his voice and sets off at a jog.
Skywalker and Gun keep pace easily at Kylo side as they move into the shadow of the canyon, leading the column of soldiers into the maze. The valley twists and turns, the way scattered with fallen stones and tiny rivers. Shaking his head, he grits his teeth to contain his temper as Skywalker flings the fifth boulder out of their path. Snoke is moving further away. He considers calling the pilots in, but Dameron is about as Force sensitive as that rock, and Kylo couldn’t give him accurate coordinates for a bombing run through words. Besides, he chides himself, they tried that once before, and even a collapsing cavern hadn’t taken Snoke down. He must do this with his own hands.
The walls of the canyon loom high overhead, casting the valley in perpetual twilight, walls drawing in tight as they advance in twos and threes, formation broken down by the terrain. They move quietly, creeping up on the mass of dark power that looms around the next bend. The back of his neck prickles and Skywalker tenses as a disturbance ripples through the Force. Three small objects stand out, silhouetted against the bright strip of sky overhead. Skywalker shouts at the soldiers behind him and Kylo catches the projectiles in his power. His muscles bunch as he thrusts them back along the trajectory they took, and they explode, fire blooming as shrapnel and rocks rattle down from the heights.
Kylo throws up a shield to deflect the bolts of red plasma shooting down from the edge of cliffs as the ‘Troopers above reveal themselves. He hadn’t felt them before and neither had Skywalker. Snoke must have concealed them. Their numbers are daunting. Focusing his power into the shield, Kylo sends a panicked thought to Rey as it flexes under the bombardment. Grenades, missiles, and blaster bolts thud into the barrier as Snoke draws closer in a swirl of terrifying, sickening power. The cruel amusement curling around his mind is not imagined now. He would know that cold caress against his defenses anywhere, lived with it as his constant companion as far back as he can remember.
Rey responds and her voice in his head is a tonic against the terror. She’s under fire, and through her he touches the minds she holds, scared and tired and dying, but their lines are holding and the tide is turning. She promises to come with Kess and Finn as soon as she can with reinforcements. We’ll be there soon! A quick, frantic kiss presses against his mind before she pulls away.
He uses the energy of that kiss to yank hard at faint shimmers of life, grinning as three bodies plummet from the cliffs. His squads fire up at the faint outlines of Stormtroopers peeking over the stone ledges as screams and gunfire fill the air. Snoke is just around a bend, and Kylo’s heart thumps in his chest as he advances with Skywalker and Gun, reaching out for the darkness seething beneath his skin. Skywalker shoots him a sharp look but Kylo ignores it, rounding the curve of stone to face his old master.
Lord Snoke is a roaring void of darkness that slams against Skywalker’s bright heat. He dwarfs the twenty Knights of Ren who stand around him like an honor guard, a constellation of dead stars orbiting a black hole. Kylo rounds the corner and they come up against another rank of Stormtroopers as Snoke and his Knights turn on their heels to push deeper into the canyon maze.
Kylo snarls, darkness rising as the need to pursue overwhelms him. He pulls strength from the boiling pool in his head, uses it to bowl back the lines of ‘Troopers as Gun picks them off with steady, measured shots, shouting orders to the Resistance fighters engaging the snipers. Skywalker is at Kylo’s side and together they launch themselves into the infantry, hacking and slashing a path to the retreating Knights. The ‘Troopers fall by the score, and their deaths are right and good and proper , a fitting tribute to his lost Groundies, a prologue to what must still be accomplished. Skywalker’s Light shines bright against his senses, but he has no time for it now. That power is strange to him and the darkness is a comforting friend, a good ally.
The Force responds to Skywalker with an eagerness Kylo recognizes from his years as a padawan. It bunches around him as the man leaps, launching himself at Snoke. Landing with a roll, he scythes through the legs of a Knight who falls with a scream. The other Knights clustered around Snoke whirl to face the new threat and Gun open fires from over Kylo’s shoulder. A few flinch back as Kylo distracts them, allowing Skywalker’s saber to lick out at Snoke unhindered. Skywalker’s form is impeccable and he slides between styles without hesitation, but his attacks all rebound off Snoke’s shields.
The Knights of Ren are torn between attacking the Jedi and defending against Kylo and Gun. They split into teams at a mental command from Snoke that whispers against Kylo’s thoughts. The Groundies and the Resistance forces battle Snoke’s ‘Troopers behind them, and as his men fall Kylo allows more darkness to flow through him, bolstering his defenses against Snoke’s insidious presence.
As he parries a swing from a Knight’s vibromace, Rey’s thoughts shoot through his mind. We’re on our way! Then she’s gone, pulled back to her own people.
Lightning crackles through the air and through the press of opponents he can just see Skywalker bracing against the attack before throwing it off to lunge at Snoke. The huge figure retreats as Skywalker slashes at his defenses, slowing when Skywalker rips the stones from beneath his feet, but Snoke doesn’t fall and he doesn’t waver. Then the Knights around Kylo attack again and he can spare nothing for the Jedi.
The Knights are savage fighters but he can hold his own against them. They are nothing, just obstacles to be removed. The darkness pumping through him makes him strong, his anger makes him sharp, and his people give him courage. Gun is by his side, rifle blazing, and he gets two good shots in, taking one Knight in a knee and another in the shoulder, before Kylo calls him off, taking down the wounded Knights with rapid strikes. “Help Skywalker!” Gun nods and turns to unleash a steady stream of plasma slugs at Snoke’s chest. They bounce off, but anything that weakens the old monster is worthwhile.
The Knights operate as a unit, their minds connected with those same chains linking them back to Snoke, but unlike the ‘Troopers, they have some semblance of independent thought. He attacks one and another foils his strike, and his Force snares are unraveled. He’s stronger than any of them, but he’s outnumbered, four against one, and this is all a waste of time . He’s here for Snoke. He lets his temper free and lashes out, snaps the neck of the strongest Knight. The man falls, head lolling, and Kylo enjoys the sight so much he misses a parry. Electricity crackles along his side and that’s fine; the pain is just power. Three Knights left, easy prey before he moves on to their master. They fall to his blade, one beheaded, another eviscerated. He pushes the third into a rain of blaster fire that throws her back into the churning black mud.
There is sweat and blood and mud on his face and Kylo grins, raising a hand to send a gale of power at the Knights going after Skywalker when something tears in the Force. Skywalker staggers, one hand clutching at his heart, the other on his saber, locked with two vibroblades. The air is knocked from Kylo’s lungs as Rey’s screams echo in his head. Her vision swims before his eyes as Chewbacca’s blood courses over her hands and her horror fuels the blast that explodes from him, knocking the figures around him off their feet. Kylo feels one of them die with a snap of bone, but he doesn’t care. The floating notes of the Sleeping Song filter into Rey’s ears and shatter his heart. A flash of his mother’s face, his father’s laugh, a baby’s, his , burbling. Then, the light in those brown eyes goes out and Uncle Chewie is dead.
Kylo stands, and he might be screaming but it doesn’t matter. He might be moving, but it doesn’t matter. There is nothing but the tearing absence that fills with darkness. Uncle Chewie is dead. Kylo’s body twists and jerks, strikes and destroys, propelled by instinct and the Force alone, but he isn’t angry. A dull, decrepit part of him knows he should be angry, that he will be angry, but he isn’t there yet. Decades of training keep him alive and killing as he’s consumed by the blank oblivion of his grief. Then Snoke laughs and that sound pierces the insensibility. Hot on the heels of awareness comes anger, a scorching, phosphorescent rage that peels his lips back in a snarl as he seeks his old master out. He spits blood from a tongue he doesn’t remember biting, but the blood tastes good, and he wants more.
Rey’s mind mirrors his own, slick and red with the need to lash out, to take and take as payment for what’s been lost. He can feel bruises blossoming on her fists, fresh from pounding on something hard, in the flesh of his own hands. Her throat is raw from screaming, from sobbing, but she’s close. As he turns, spinning and slashing until he’s back to back with Skywalker, fighting off two more Knights, he glances up to see the shuttle circling overhead before disappearing over the cliff to land. Rey scrambles down the ramp, almost turning an ankle as she vaults over the uneven ground to catch up to the infantry, tearing a sniper from his bolthole with a vicious, claw-handed gesture. She skitters down the canyon wall as Kylo slams his saber to the hilt into the chest of a Knight. Skywalker ensnares Snoke in a momentary lock before the Supreme Leader throws it off, swiping with open hands and blasts of Force energy at the Jedi. Rey shoves through the bloodied ranks of Groundies and Resistance fighters until she’s at his side, her teeth bared, tear tracks cutting through the dirt clinging to her flushed cheeks. Finn’s silhouette peers over the lip of the canyon and his assault cannon takes off a Knight’s leg at the hip with a belch of plasma as Kess shouts behind him, her twin pistols ringing true, and a ragged cheer goes up in response.
Rey stands between him and Skywalker, radiating power, Light and Dark, to both men. She holds the contrast in perfect balance as the blade of her staff whistles through the air, slashing and hacking at arms, heads, torsos. She fights like a maelstrom and opens great gaping wounds that spurt blood or expose bone and glistening organs. Gun’s rifle cracks in steady harmony with Kess’s pistols, forcing the Knights out of formation as the infantry continues to chip away at Snoke’s forces. The Knights retreat to circle their master as Snoke staggerers back under a hail of slashing blows, Skywalker’s footwork pressing him to the opposite wall of the cavern as Finn’s cannon booms.
The first ball of plasma splatters against Snoke’s shield with a hiss. He catches the second and holds it inches before his huge white palm. With the other hand, he sends a jet of lightning at Skywalker, then flings the plasma back at Finn. The projectile catches Finn in the chest, melting through the plastoid armor and sending him to his knees. Releasing the lightning to deflect Skywalker’s saber with his free hand as Finn falls forward, Snoke’s fingers crook and Finn is dragged, clattering, over the broken ground until Snoke shoves him into the opposing cliff. The rock face collapses under the impact in a shower of stone and debris.
“ FINN!” Rey screams, her pike buzzing as it snags against bone in a Knight’s shoulder. She kicks the Knight, ducking under a crushing blow that Kylo parries for her, sweeping away the attacks at her exposed side. He doesn’t think, doesn’t let himself feel the death of his co-captain, his friend . He has to protect Rey and the fresh wave of darkness eating him from the inside out fuels him, makes him better . Rey is all fury now, the Light bleeding from her as the Dark moves in. With a jerk, she pulls her pike free from the Knight, raising the blade and throwing her weight behind it to split his head before smashing his neighbor’s knee with the follow through. Rey wipes a hand across her brow as tears roll down her cheeks. Her sorrow at Finn’s loss radiates through the bond, icy despair and fiery rage, but he’s gone, and there’s nothing either of them can do except keep fighting. Together they reach out to push against Snoke’s will, slowing his movements as Skywalker attacks again.
Across the battlefield, Kess fights in front of a pile of infantry corpses, dead faces he recognizes from Finn’s Firsties mixed with First Order strangers, her two long hand cannons blasting against two Knights of Ren who move to corral her. One holds a crackling spear, the other swings a wicked, jagged vibroblade. Worry stabs at Kylo and if he had a heart left after Chewie, after Finn, it would stop at the sight of the blood shining almost black against her ruddy skin as she darts back to avoid the spear. He tries to divide his attention and help Kess, but as soon as he pulls his mind back from its focus on Snoke, the monster slashes at Skywalker and Kylo has to redouble his efforts to slow his old master again.
Tossing one pistol aside, Kess grabs the spear’s haft and tugs, rolling forward between them, tearing it from the Knight’s hand and firing into the black-clothed back as she rises out of the tumble. Surprised, the Knight jerks, turning as blood seeps down from the wound, and jabs Kess in the jaw and the throat, pounding with armored fists. Kess’s head rocks back and she gags but she lifts her arm as she recoils, shooting again, point blank into the visor. The Knight falls back as Kess coughs, moving to face the other attacker. She reverses the spear, spinning it in her hand to bury it in the Knight’s neck, shoving until the tip pokes out just under his helmet. He gurgles, but the spear doesn’t stop the momentum of his attack on her unguarded back. There’s nothing Kylo can do. The cruel blade slams into her, slicing through muscle and bone to protrude, bloody, from her chest.
Rey screams and Kylo drops his hold as Skywalker rips the ground from beneath Snoke’s stumbling feet. Kylo had never noticed before, but Kess’s eyes are a bright, beautiful blue, and they widen in shock as she gasps for a breath that won’t ever come. Then the Knight behind her falls dead against her and there’s nothing holding Kess up so she crumples, the light inside her fluttering as Kylo powers his saber down and he runs too late too late too late through the fighting, skidding to his knees at his Captain’s side.
“Kess,” he breathes, eyes swimming as Rey protects his back and Skywalker presses his advantage. Kylo lifts the Captain up, cradling her head in his hands. “Kess, no. Not you, too,” he pleads, begging her not to go. “You’re going to be an Admiral. We’re going to-” Her eyes find him through the pain and her lips flicker up into a red-flecked smile.
“Ky-”
Her light goes out. She dies in his arms and all he can do is sob. Her first name was Zesha, he remembers. He wishes he’d gotten the chance to use it. He would have. He should have. They were supposed to have years together, her and him and Finn and the Firsties and the Groundies, all together, all strong, all free. They’re gone now. Uncle Chewie is gone, too, and with them Kylo’s dreams of purpose, belonging, being part of something good.
He hunches over her limp form and the darkness blots out his mind as the battle continues around him. It’s Snoke’s fault. Snoke killed them, took them from him, another injustice, another reason to tear him to pieces and erase him from history. Kylo raises a bloody fist and power curdles around his fingers. Rey picks up on his thoughts and opens their bond as he stands, wet with Kess’s cooling blood, and launches himself, unthinking, at Snoke, saber crackling to life as he swings.
The saber sizzles against Snoke’s shields for a moment before it sticks, frozen in place. Panic overtakes his rage as Kylo freezes, too. He struggles against the binding, frantic, and Rey’s voice in his head shrieks for him to move, but he’s petrified, suspended mid-stride. Snoke places a tender, clammy hand against Kylo’s face and bowls Skywalker back through the last of the Knights.
Snoke’s power is absolute. It’s been three months since he last felt this agony, and his dreams were nothing compared to this visceral reality. How could he have forgotten? It floods his veins, his mind, his heart, the broken-glass-razor-wire torment an old, familiar flavor. The hooks sink back into flesh, reopening old scars as though they never healed. His mind bleeds red and black, oozing and raw as Snoke picks through his memories.
My apprentice , Snoke coos in his head, drowning out Rey’s pleading litany as he lingers over certain recollections - Rey’s lips on his skin, Gun’s hearty laugh, Kess’s blue eyes, glowing with pride. How busy you have been. A lover, friends, even a future. I’m impressed. They believed you were changing, that you could be anything but a murderer. Dimly, Kylo registers a grating of stone as somewhere nearby a cliff collapses, torn down by Snoke’s power, crushing soldiers, the Knights, and Skywalker, burying them under tons of rock. Rey screams again but it’s muted and far away, their connection muffled under the weight of Snoke’s will. The whole world is quiet, slow. Blaster fire seems to take an age to pass through Kylo’s vision and the explosions that should be deafening are just dull thuds.
His body isn’t his, but his mind is intact, and Snoke exults at that, strokes against his panicked thoughts as Kylo turns, eyes staring down at the crackling beam of his saber as it slashes the air, then up at Gun. At Rey.
Save her for later, for last. Snoke rasps, delighted, and Kylo’s lips peel back into a grin of his own. All those dreams, all that practice. Art waiting to be made. The words are Snoke’s but they sound with his voice now, like in all of his dreams. He’s doing this. He can’t stop it. His nightmares flash before him in vivid, grisly detail. This was always going to happen. This is the destiny you deserve. His eyes are wrenched back to Gun and the muscles in his legs shiver to life. Him first.
Rey shouts to Gun but the words don’t penetrate Kylo’s trapped mind. As his body moves, the infantry freeze, looking to Gun for guidance and his eyes widen as his mouth moves, startled instructions slipping past Kylo’s ears as he sprints forward, saber raised to kill. He doesn’t want this, but he is just a passenger now, clawing at the inside of his own head, fighting with all he has to break free of Snoke’s control. Gun’s jaw sets as he raises the rifle to his shoulder and something burns the side of Kylo’s leg, slowing him. Snoke’s voice overlaps with his own, rippling through his hazy mind. He thinks you are his friend. So foolish . Kill him . Kylo raises the saber and its weight in his hand is perfect. He’s still smiling.
The Force flexes and Gun dodges away, throwing his rifle aside to snatch a riot baton from a fallen ‘Trooper. In Kylo’s mind, Rey’s small voice shouts for him to stop but he can’t. He kills three surprised Resistance fighters with the backswing from his attack on Gun, but their lives are immaterial and he doesn’t pause to see where they fall. All that matters is the kill. Once Gun is dead he can move on to Rey, then to Skywalker, and his destiny will be fulfilled. This is your last chance, Kylo Ren.
That thought stirs something in him, and the caged Kylo, the part of him that doesn’t doesn’t doesn’t want this, renews its struggle. That isn’t his destiny anymore. That isn’t his life. His life is with Rey, with Kess, with Finn and Gun and the Groundies. The memory of Kess, her glinting teeth as she smiled at him one last time, her blood painting his hand in sticky crimson, fuels him and he hacks a chunk out of Snoke’s control as he swings down at Gun. Rey gets louder. Fight him, Kylo! Come back to us!
He had made a promise to never leave her, the only promise that has ever meant anything to him. Her fear trickles through the fractures in Snoke’s power. Without him, she’ll be all alone again. Finn is dead - who will take care of her, of the Exes if not Kylo? He thinks of Reef and Bate wrestling, of the dead ‘Troopers strapped to the chairs in the reconditioning facility. Gun’s face, bearded and laughing, almost matches the Gun he’s fighting, but the Gun before him is bleeding. That isn’t right. Gun is his responsibility, his man, his friend. Finn is gone, Kess is gone, but Gun is alive. His hand hesitates and Snoke wracks him with a splintering wave of pain. Blood flows from his nose into his open, smiling mouth and the saber comes crashing down on the baton again.
Rey is growing louder as she batters against Snoke’s control over Kylo while attacking his monstrous form, slashing his back and sides, her pike chipping against his weakened shields. She grunts in his head as Snoke flicks her away like a buzzing fly. His back aches where she impacts the canyon wall and then she’s back on her feet, dodging the arcs of lightning hurled at her. Her pain chops another piece out of Snoke’s control, and Kylo pushes every ounce of his will against those crevices, widening them enough to gasp a panting “No!” as he slashes down at Gun. Rey feels the fissures in Snoke’s control and uses their connection to pull up more memories. The first time he sparred with Finn. Poe’s delight at the Upsilon. Kess laughing in the briefing after Capza. Rey’s own face turned up, her tongue out to catch her first taste of rain. Gun looking down, calling Kylo “some fucked up version of heroic.” The Groundies cheering his name.
There’s a ringing in his ears. There’s blood in his mouth and tears in his eyes and his body is still slashing at Gun. A voice screams ragged words in his head and it is is his voice, thoughts squeezed through the gaps of Snoke’s control. Protect Gun. Protect Rey. The Groundies are gone. Kess is gone. Finn is gone. Chewie is gone. Dad is gone. Protect what is left. Kylo exerts his will, shoving back against Snoke, and slows a downswing so Gun can parry it with the baton.
Then Gun attacks, locking his weapon against Kylo’s saber, holding his own as Kylo battles himself in his mind. Gun’s boots slide in the mud as the exhaust ports of Kylo’s saber rotate against the energy field, burning the plastene over his chest. Gun growls, smashes the flat of his forehead against Kylo’s face. That pain brings Snoke’s attentions back to Kylo. The cracks in his control begin to seal, but Rey, no longer under attack, pours everything she has, Dark and Light, good memories and bad, every ounce of strength, into their bond, and the sheer power of it energizes Kylo’s trapped self. He fights the pain Snoke sends, lightning and mental anguish, nerves flaying and aflame, and pulls back from Gun. The man staggers forward, eyes bright, and releases one hand from the baton to grip Kylo’s saber arm, the same gesture of friendship and trust he always uses as a greeting.
“Come on, man!” Gun’s mouth is bloody and his breath comes in scarlet bubbles as he shouts. “Fight it!”
A hand raises, still under Snoke’s control, and Gun flies back, stun baton clattering from his grip, but Kylo pulls back on the explosion of Force as hard as he can, reduces it to a gentle launch instead of a cannon blast. Gun turns in the air, twisting like a cat, and lands in a crouch. Righting himself, he grabs the closest weapon to hand, a standard blaster, and starts squeezing off shots at Snoke as the rocks behind him shift. The bolts pound in to Snoke’s weakening shield, but don’t penetrate.
There’s a pause and Snoke turns his head as the rubble moves. Kylo and Rey link their minds and combine their efforts. The connection ignites as they exploit Snoke’s distraction, slamming their united wills against his to finally break the control encasing Kylo’s mind. The rush of sentience, of freedom , is like coming up from underwater, like breathing for the first time. Kylo rolls his shoulders, shaking the last of the fog out of his head, and as he squares himself for battle again, the detritus bursts outward, huge rocks hurtling straight for Snoke. Luke Skywalker, bleeding and battered, emerges from the landslide in a tectonic eruption of power. The explosion knocks everyone but Snoke off their feet and Kylo tumbles backward, his head cracking on stones as he falls.
Gunshots echo through the canyon from the mouth of Skywalker’s cavern where Gun stands, a new blaster at his shoulder. Kylo struggles to stand as Snoke shakes under the impacts, fighting to deflect the barrage, roaring like an animal as power crackles from the stump of his wrist. Skywalker throws boulder after boulder and Rey is on her feet, running at Snoke full tilt. Kylo follows her as Snoke turns his attention to Gun. His stomach drops but he keeps running. This is their chance. The lieutenant’s armor clatters as he is lifted into the air, blood from a broken nose painting his lips and chin crimson. Snoke pulls Gun through the air and his eyes go blank as the Force twists . Snoke is putting on a show for Kylo now and he screams again, tries to throw his own will over Gun’s mind, tries to stop his hand, but his friend is held fast. With a terrible, slow certainty, Gun reverses his grip on the blaster, raises it so the barrel presses right between his eyes, and pulls the trigger.
Gun’s death, needless and cruel and just for him, snaps the last of Kylo’s fragile control. There is only the darkness. He bellows and Rey roars with him, battle mad and savage. Their fury melds, the death of Chewbacca, the loss of Finn, the theft of Gun, pool between them in the connection like blood, hot and sticky and red. They launch themselves at Snoke, stones battering into his failing shields as they close on him. Kylo gets there first, slashing down as one of Skywalker’s boulders finally breaks through the last barrier. The cackling saber cuts across Snoke’s back, tearing robe and flesh. Snoke shrieks, then screams again as Rey’s pike slices into his torso and she twists, her arms shaking with the effort to pull the lodged weapon free. She dances away from Snoke’s one grasping hand. Kylo heaves another crushing blow, pulling Snoke’s attention away from Rey, and lightning crackles up his blade, white against the red. He holds it, wills it down, saber shaking in his grip as Snoke advances. Kylo can’t hold it down any longer and the lightning reaches the pommel of his saber and his hands, his arms, his chest, burn with the pain of it.
A shield materializes, the burning bright power of Luke Skywalker a bulwark against the aphotic darkness as the Jedi funnels all his power into protecting Kylo and Rey. Kylo bellows again, freed from the onslaught. He pushes forward and around the shield as Rey slices down at Snoke, cutting deep into his shoulder as the beast twists in desperate evasion, lightning still pumping from his empty wrist. Kylo doesn’t think, doesn’t breathe, just jerks and swings with all the grief and all the rage of twenty long years of suffering. He severs Snoke’s scarred, deformed head from his narrow neck. Rey screams as the head rolls away, hacking down hard with the pike through cracking ribs and crooked spine, splitting him open like a ripe fruit. The Force shudders around them and then reforms, pure and bright and uncorrupted by Snoke’s awful taint.
The lightning crackles out as blood gushes weakly from the stump of the neck, the cleaved torso. Snoke is dead. Kylo should feel victorious. He has walked the path of the Sith, destroyed the monster from his nightmares, but instead he just feels empty and hollowed out. The Force does not ease his exhaustion or the cavernous void in his chest. He clicks his saber off and drops it into the spreading pool of ichor, reaches for Rey. She clings to him, electropike dangling from her hand. She’s shaking, bloody and exhausted, and so is he. He can’t look anywhere but into her eyes or he’ll see the devastation around them, so he kisses her and she kisses back, desperate and sobbing among the broken bodies of the people they loved.