Star Wars- In another Life.

Chapter 8- New Paths

Luke had felt something in the Force, something he couldn't explain. It was similar to when Ben was born, and Ben had awoken to the Force, but this was different. Luke then felt something else, something dark. Luke felt a familiar disquiet; this disturbance felt familiar somehow. It seemed to centre around his nephew, so he'd gone to his nephew's hut. Luke had found Ben asleep, curled up on his bunk like a little boy, but it had been long since his nephew had been a little boy. Around Ben's sleeping form, Luke sensed the Force swelling and rushing; there was light, but there was that darkness he'd been sensing, and it was rising. Luke reached a hand towards his nephew's sleeping form, reading the Force within. What he saw scared him; perhaps it always should've Luke considered as he read deeper and deeper more and more. Anger, fear, questions and secrets locked tightly away in the recesses of his mind. Luke saw death in Ben's future, including the death of those Luke loved- Han and Leia.

Something was twisting Ben's heart, and Luke failed to see it, as Obi-Wan and the Jedi past failed to see his father's rise to Darth Vader. Luke should never have agreed to train Ben and should've known he wasn't strong enough. He'd considered himself a legend and allowed himself to really believe it, and now he'd failed. Luke heard a sound, and to his right, he saw the green glow of his lightsaber. He looked at it, slightly surprised. As he'd been reaching into Ben's mind, he'd reached for his lightsaber and ignited it. Luke's eyes flitted from his weapon back to his nephew and saw that Ben had turned from the corner of his bed and was staring at him, his eyes looking fearfully from the weapon and back to his face. Luke realised too late what Ben believed was happening, and he saw the change in his nephew's face as he made a decision and called his own lightsaber to his hand.

"Ben no!" he'd cried but too late, the hut had come tumbling down upon his head.

Luke woke in darkness to a familiar whirring sound- R2. He groaned as he recalled where he was; beneath the stones of his nephew's hut. He'd managed to protect himself from the full weight as Ben had brought it down upon them both, but he'd still been buried. Reaching out with the Force, Luke lifted the rocks from his body and eventually stumbled out from beneath the remains, dusty and bruised. R2 stood next to the rubble, whirring and rocking; Luke placed his metal hand upon his astromech droid friend's head as he stared in horror at his temple ablaze. The burnt embers of his padawan's bodies lay strewn amongst the stone and wooden debris of his temple.

Tears streaked Luke's first stricken face, and he held his head in shame. He could feel the heat of the flames as they burned before him.

"What have I done? What have I done?" he cried.

He'd failed his family, Leia. Leia's son. What had he done? The consequences of this moment would be dire.

-X-

Snoke was right; Ben had known how to find him. It had been easy. He fled Ahch-To, and reaching into the Force; he'd found his friend. He'd killed his Uncle, destroyed the temple, killed his fellow padawans; he could go nowhere else after what he'd done, nowhere but to Snoke. Within the Force, he found his friend on a space station in an area of the Galaxy that Ben had never been to. It felt different to anywhere else he'd been. It felt similar to the dark cave on Ahch-To, cold but not unwelcoming. It consisted of a central sphere encircled by rings. Entering the space station, Ben found what appeared to be a hothouse; the space station's exterior was a lattice of glass and inside was a jungle of incredible plants. Every colour of flora was exotic and beautiful, though it was evident as Ben searched for Snoke that these plants were deadly. S skeletal remains were hidden within their boughs and beneath their petals interlaced through their viny limbs and roots. 

Ben found Snoke upon a blackened throne in stark contrast to their tropical and vibrant surroundings. He had never seen Snoke when they had spoken through the Force. His appearance was much as he had anticipated. Humanoid but not human, he towered over Ben as his father might have once. Snoke's face, however, was as Ren's torso had been: deformed. His skin looked like a candle might when the wax dripped down the sides from the heat of the flame, as though his very flesh had melted and merged incorrectly. Ben felt no fear, though he knew that presence and it was comforting. Snoke's brilliant blue eyes had twinkled joyfully at the sight of him, and he had greeted Ben with open arms and just as he'd promised, he offered Ben a new path.