The Ashes of Empire
In which the ghosts of Jakku’s past reach out for Kylo.
Kylo kept the Silencer low, Jakku’s brown, broken landscape slipping past below.
Rey bumped in the seat, apparently trying to see out the viewport. “Where are we going?”
“The Empire had a secret base here,” Kylo said. “There were computers, maps to the Unknown Regions. I want to see if it’s still accessible, if there’s anything we can use.”
“Wait, that’s true? People talked about it, but always I thought it was just a wild story!”
“It’s true. What do you think all those warships were doing at a place like Jakku?”
“I knew there was a big battle. No one really seems to know what it was about, though.”
“It was about protecting that base. The Emperor planned to destroy Jakku, the fleets orbiting it and the Empire itself when he died.”
“What? Why? That’s crazy!”
“He was a Sith. The Sith didn’t leave things to posterity.”
She was quiet a few moments. “You’re not a Sith. Are you?” There was the hint of a plea for reassurance in her voice.
“No. Neither was Snoke. The Sith are as dead as the Jedi, thanks to my grandfather. Now there’s a chance.”
“For balance.”
“Yes.”
“The Force…” She trailed off.
Kylo waited, sensing her disturbance.
“We…you and I…are we just…tools…?”
This wasn’t the conversation to have while flying back-to-back in a starfighter. He wanted to hold her hands, look into her eyes and assure her she wasn’t with him only because of the Force. Instead, he opened the bond so she could fully sense him.
“Rey, we aren’t tools, or instruments, or puppets. Do you remember the ocean on Ahch-To? The way the waves pushed and pulled? That’s the Force. The waves may wash us up on the same beach, but we decide what to do, where to go next.”
“The Force isn’t…making us do anything,” she said doubtfully.
“No more than anything else in our lives,” he said, thinking of how Snoke had spent all of Kylo’s trying to push him into the dark in his own lust for power.
“Is that what you were taught?”
“No. It’s what I feel through the Force.” He paused as more dark thoughts bubbled to the surface. “It was a point of contention with Luke. He tried to convince me to surrender my will to the Force. That my willfulness was a path to the dark side.” He considered. “Maybe he was right.”
“No,” she said fiercely.
He turned his head, enough to see she’d turned toward him in her seat. “No? Why not?”
She heaved a sigh. “Ben.” Through the bond, he sensed her annoyance. “After everything, you still have light. And you’re trying to tell me that using your brain leads to the dark side? What’s the point of having a brain, then?”
He gave a huff. “You’re right. It doesn’t make much sense.”
* * *
The air at the bottom of the ravine where he landed the Silencer was unexpectedly cool and still. Broken rock rose all around, giving way to a sky almost white with heat and light. The only sound was the soft scrape of Rey’s feet as she descended the boarding ladder and a light patter as the hassash scuttled across the rocky ground.
Kylo turned his head, sensing outward. “We’re being watched,” he said quietly.
“The dead-enders,” Rey said just as quietly.
He gave her a questioning look. He saw as a thought came to her—her eyes widened.
“There really was a base!”
“I told you there was.”
“The dead-enders—they’re just crazy old men, but they wear bits of stormtrooper armor. I never believed the story about them guarding some Imperial base. Unkar Plutt did, enough to send a bunch of his thugs to find it when I just a kid. A couple of ’em didn’t make it back, and the rest came back with junk even Unkar had to throw away.”
Kylo narrowed his eyes. The minds he sensed were drawing closer. “How are they armed?”
“They’ll throw rocks and homemade spears at you. I heard boobytraps got Unkar’s men.”
Kylo looked at the broken rock rising around them, perfect for boobytraps. “How close have you gotten?”
She shrugged. “Shouting distance. I thought they were probably guarding an old wreck, but it wasn’t worth the risk of getting bashed in the head with a rock. I can find enough wrecks that aren’t guarded.”
“You could find,” he corrected her absently. She wouldn’t be searching for any more wrecks. “They won’t attack us. Not seeing the Silencer.”
“They’ll think we’re Imperials,” Rey said.
A head bristling with wild white hair and a snarl of grizzled beard popped up from behind a rock. “Six six two oh three!” The cracked voice echoed from the ravine’s sides.
Another head popped up on the opposite side, then another above it, both as wild and grizzled as the first. The point of spear, wickedly sharp despite its obviously scavenged origins, swung in the hand of one of the dead-enders.
“Three seven five five nine!” one shouted.
“One oh six four eight!” called the one with the spear, his voice high and broken.
“That’s what they always do,” Rey said. “Yell numbers at you.
Kylo cocked his head. “Registration numbers. Like the stormtroopers.”
Her lips parted in realization. “Oh!”
“Six six two oh three,” Kylo called. “Report!”
There was silence for the space of a few breaths, then rock rattled and slid as the dead-enders came out from cover—the three they’d seen, the nine he’d only sensed. They ranged around him, stiff at attention, armed with stone-headed cudgels, crude spears and knives, wearing, as Rey had said, bits and scraps of stormtrooper armor.
The hassash quietly spidered across the rock above the dead-enders, positioning itself for a jump. Wait, Kylo thought at it.
“Tell me the status of the installation,” he said.
“Inaccessible, sir,” 66-023 said.
“Where is the entrance?”
The dead-enders all exchanged glances. “That’s classified information, sir,” 66-023 finally said. “I’ll need your codes.”
His gaze roved over the skinny, battered old men in their rags with their primitive weapons. It would be simple enough to take the information from their minds, or command them to show him.
No. He wouldn’t abuse them any more than they already had been, abandoned here to guard a base for deserted thirty years.
Kylo reached for the Force, sensing outward, delving through uncounted tons of tumbled scree. There, a slab of bent and crushed metal, a hollow beyond it. He pulled back to find Rey watching him curiously.
“I found it,” he said. “Can you sense it?”
She glanced at the dead-enders, clearly not wanting to leave them unwatched. “A door, underneath the rockslide. Some kind of space behind it.”
“I’m going to uncover it.”
Kylo stretched out a gloved hand, drew deep on his power and reached out.
With a grinding slide, rock began to shift away. The dead-enders gasped and scrambled backward.
Kylo calculated. It was going to take a while. He pressed on, moving blocks the size of TIE fighters, forcing all of them to back up as rock left the slope to fill the ravine.
Rey’s hand slid into his and her bright energy twined with his. The Force shivered, and with a deep, threatening rumble, the entire rockslide rose into the air. He glanced over to see a look of intense concentration on her face, her opposite hand outstretched in a mirror of his.
Admiration swelled in him. Perfect, he thought. She’s perfect. This is where she belongs—here. By my side. Always.
Together, they raised the rock above the lips of the ravine and flung it outward. The ground shook as it fell back to earth. A few loose pebbles came bouncing down the slope.
Kylo lowered his hand and found the dead-enders creaking down to their knees.
“My Lord Vader!” 66-023 stammered. “Forgive me! Without your helmet—I didn’t know it was you!”
Kylo jerked as if he’d taken a blaster bolt. “No. I’m Kylo Ren. I—” Sudden, inexplicable reluctance seized him. “Darth Vader was my grandfather.” The words were unexpectedly dry in his mouth.
Rey’s hand tightened on his. Her eyes searched his face. He couldn’t begin to guess what she felt through the bond. He didn’t even know what he felt.
“Was?” 66-023 ventured. “Lord Vader is…no more?”
“He died with the Emperor,” Kylo said.
He quickly turned back to the revealed bunker, a smooth, sloping wall set into the bedrock. The massive door in it was bowed outward, as if from a blast within. Crooking his fingers, he yanked back his hand. A howl, a screech, and the door flew and struck the side of the ravine with a resounding clang. He approached the maw opening into darkness.
Cool air breathed out, smelling of dust and explosives, and some old, indefinable scent that brushed a cold hand up the back of his neck. Rey stopped, tensing.
“This place doesn’t want me here,” she said in a tight voice.
“It’s strong with the dark side.”
Not simply the dark side—the dark side twisted and foul, as if the will that had been determined to destroy the galaxy for power had tainted even the Force. Kylo turned his head, sensing the malevolent currents spilling out of the bunker.
“Wait here,” he said.
Rey’s eyes snapped to his. “And let you go in alone? No.”
Apparently, she didn’t trust how far he could resist the dark. He bristled, anger rising.
She stepped close, took his hand again. Her fingers worked at the fist he didn’t realize he’d made.
“I promised you weren’t alone, remember?” she said fiercely. “I won’t go back on that again.”
He blinked, pulling free of the undertow of darkness. Her words snagged his attention: Again? He drew breath to ask what she meant, but she tugged at his hand.
“Come on,” she said. “The sooner we finish, the sooner we can leave.”
He hesitated a moment more, then nodded. “Open yourself to your darkness. That should let you enter.”
He could feel she didn’t like it. She set her jaw, raised her chin and nodded. Fear unspooled through the bond, and anger at being afraid. It felt old, well-worn, familiar, a tactic used again and again. It took him aback. How had she managed to stay in the light?
Her hand in his, their energies still twined together, they stepped into the darkness. The hassash scuttled past, cocking a grin up at Rey as it did. Kylo ignited his lightsaber. Rey let go of his hand to ignite hers, the weapons’ combined glow throwing strange, double-hued, double-shadowed light into the corridor ahead.
Shards of shattered glass glittered from beneath a shroud of dust and grit. The walls were broken and crumpled, probably by the same explosive force that had burst the door.
The scrape of footsteps came from behind—the dead-enders following, their stone-headed and scavenged weapons held tightly.
“My lord,” 66-023 said quietly, “Sentinels guarded the base.”
“Yes,” Kylo said.
They moved down the shattered corridor, stepping over toppled pillars and sprays of broken glass. A collapsed section narrowed the hallway. The hassash scampered around the obstruction. Kylo edged through next, senses stretched ahead. Nothing. He nodded and Rey followed, the dead-enders shuffling through after.
A pentagonal doorway opened into darkness. Kylo had taken a few steps toward it when a sharp clatter echoed. The dead-enders shouted.
Lightsaber raised, Kylo spun to the right the same instant Rey spun to the left. Formations of droids appeared out of the darkness on each side. The blaze of his lightsaber reflected from the blank screens of their helmets. They raised their blasters—
The dry tack-tack-tack-tack of dead power cells echoed. And from behind him, the sharp whine of a single live round.
Rey gave a wild scream and the bolt ricocheted away, deflected by her blade. He caught the flash of her astonishment, as if she couldn’t believe she’d done it. He raised a hand, sensing her hand come up in a mirror image of his. His Force blast went out the same instant hers did. Droids went flying, crashing against the ruined walls, spinning across the littered floor. Relentless as the machines they were, they dragged themselves to their feet, began advancing once again.
Brandishing their homemade weapons, the dead-enders scrambled to put themselves between Rey and Kylo and the droids.
“Stop!” a harsh voice commanded.
The droids froze. In unison, their blasters raised, pointing at the ceiling lost in shadow.
Lights blinked on overhead, stuttering and uncertain, throwing more jumping shadows than light. A red-robed figure glided out of the darkness, a shimmering holo of a sagging, ruined, yellow-eyed face displayed on its glass faceplate. Kylo knew that face.
Darth Sidious. The Emperor.
The dead-enders went to their knees, cowering on the rubble-strewn floor.
“It’s a droid,” Kylo told them.
They still babbled in terror.
The sentinel stopped a little distance away. “Do you come from the Unknown Regions?”
Kylo calculated. He didn’t like dealing with a droid. There was nothing to sense through the Force, no mind he could probe.
He dipped his chin in a nod. “Yes.”
Technically, it was true—he’d fled to Snoke in the Unknown Regions, had spent years there until Snoke deemed it time to unveil the might of the First Order.
“You bow to the dark side,” the droid said in its creaking facsimile of Sidious’ voice. “Why then does a Jedi accompany you?”
Rey shifted. The aggression that prickled through the bond wasn’t her usual masking of fear, but something darker and more violent.
“Look at her weapon,” Kylo said. “She’s no Jedi.”
He couldn’t sense the droid’s attention, but the holo of Sidious’ yellow eyes roved over Rey. The sunken lips curved in a cruel smile.
Aggression of his own burned in Kylo’s chest. It’s a droid, he reminded himself. It didn’t help. The urge to destroy remained just as strong.
“What kind of bastard thing is she, Jedi with a dark heart? Is that how she escaped Order 66? Sold herself to the darkness, to be its plaything?”
Kylo was going to raze this planet flat when he was finished here. He pointed his lightsaber at the sentinel. “I don’t care if you were the Emperor himself. You will not speak of her that way. If you have a message, deliver it. If you don’t, I have no use for you.”
The droid cackled. “The Emperor commanded that the Empire die when he did. You come too late. The message is void.”
“The Empire was rebuilt in the Unknown Regions,” Kylo said. “I was sent to ensure its rebirth.”
Breath hissed through Rey’s teeth. He tightened his grip on his lightsaber, waiting for her to erupt, wondering distantly what he’d do if she did.
“Without the Emperor?” the droid said.
“As the Emperor decreed.”
“Ah,” the droid said in a tone of oily satisfaction. “Then I offer you this.”
It withdrew something from its robes, held out a red-gloved hand. On it rested a pyramidal-shaped object that appeared to be made of obsidian.
Kylo caught his breath. A Sith holocron.
He hesitated only a moment, then stretched out a hand. The holocron flew, smacked into his waiting palm.
The sentinel waited, watching him. Kylo had no doubt his trial wasn’t over yet, but he’d had enough of this game. He reached out with the Force again.
He couldn’t Force-choke a droid. He could crush it.
The glass faceplate shattered, sending a rain of shards that glittered red in the light from his weapon. The helmet crumpled in a spray a sparks, then the rest of the body with a screech and wail of metal, bending and twisting down, smaller and smaller until it was only a sparking lump on the floor.
The other droids’ weapons snapped down in unison, leveling on them. The next instant, they pitched forward, sideways, their limbs jerking and flailing, their vocabulators screeching. In a few moments, all that remained was the occasional spit of sparks and twitch of metal limbs.
Kylo lowered his hand, curving his fingers around the holocron. “We’re going on,” he told the dead-enders. “Guard our rear flank.”
“Yes, my lord,” 66-023 said, glancing white-eyed between the jerking, sparking droids and Kylo.
Rey lowered her weapon but didn’t relax, her eyes darting everywhere. He searched her through the Force, the bond, with his eyes. “How are you?”
She rubbed a hand up and down her thigh, still scanning the flickering dimness around them. “I don’t know. I feel…strange. Angry…but I don’t know what I’m angry at. Angry enough to kill something.”
Kylo glanced at her. He didn’t think she’d turn, didn’t believe she could. She’d also shifted into her darkness to be able to enter this place.
“Raise your shields.”
“Why?” she said, suspicious.
“Because I told you to,” he snapped.
Her eyes narrowed.
Once again, he shook free of the anger that had seized him. “The dark side is more than strong here. It’s almost distilled. It affects even me. I don’t trust what it will do to you.”
She studied his face a long moment, then she disappeared from his perception, there yet not-there.
Hand-in-hand once more, they continued on. The corridor disgorged into a huge chamber. Angled walls suggested a polygonal shape, but the decades-past disaster had collapsed many. A bank of alien computers stood at the room’s center, most damaged, many completely crushed.
Kylo extinguished his lightsaber. Rey guarded him as he touched an intact computer’s controls.
A star map sprang into existence, spitting, blinking and broken with static. Kylo recognized it. He especially recognized the red dot at one edge.
His fists clenched. “Snoke.” His voice echoed strangely in the ruined chamber
Rey studied the map, blue light flickering over her. “That’s where he was?” Her hand ghosted through the red dot, the system Snoke had drawn him to all those years ago. A line appeared between her brows. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“What?”
“Everything. Why destroy the Empire only to rebuild it?”
“Palpatine meant to destroy the Empire and the Republic, leaving chaos behind. After rebuilding the Empire, it would be easy to step in and take over. It was easy.”
“Kylo,” she said, as if pointing out something blindingly obvious. “The Emperor was dead. Why should he care?”
He stopped, taken aback.
“And why look for Snoke?” she went on. “Did he expect Snoke to help him?”
Kylo frowned, uneasiness breathing over his skin. “The Emperor had been searching for a dark power in the Unknown Regions,” he said slowly. “You’re right. Sith don’t form alliances. The dark side is about domination…” He trailed off, his uneasiness growing.
“But he was waiting for someone from the Unknown Regions to come.” Rey pointed at the holocron he held.
But who?
Kylo turned the holocron in his hands, studying the Sith glyphs engraved on its surface. When he was young, his studies had included the Sith language, though he’d made sure to keep that fact to himself. His radical ideas of the Force had gotten him into enough trouble. There hadn’t been any point of adding worse accusations.
He raised his head and looked at Rey. “Jedi aren’t supposed to react well to Sith holocrons.”
She waved her lightsaber. “I’m not a Jedi, remember?”
He studied her a moment more, then brushed gloved fingers over the glyphs. “Vexok, taral. Ja’ak,” he said, then translated, “’Wake up, protector. I am free.’”
The holocron began to glow, bright red-orange lines illuminating the glyphs first, then spreading until the whole device looked like it glowed red-hot. As the holocron rose off his palm and into the air, a fan of blue light unfurled from its peak. The light gradually coalesced into a form. Rey’s breath hissed between her teeth as she recognized that form the same moment Kylo did.
Darth Vader.
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