Stronger Together (Kylo Ren x Reader | Maia)

Snake's Nest

Kylo

I was growing frantic, having trailed Maia for more than twenty minutes, when I finally felt the darkness she had spoke of. A cocktail of rage, fear, and regret shook inside me as I followed it. It was clear as day—how had I missed it? I began walking slowly, cautiously. Luke's footsteps were not far behind mine. I tried to block them out. Wind turned over leaves and rustled tree branches.

It was another agonizing minute before I saw her. She was digging in the dirt...

I fell to my knees, immediately aware that Maia had found something because whatever it was, was sucking me in too. It felt as if my soul was being sucked from my body, leaving me with an empty feeling that rocked me to my core.

———

Luke

When Maia first told Leia something was wrong, I believed her. I searched the Force from every angle I could see—but there was nothing to be found. Whatever Maia was feeling, I had thought, must be in her exhausted mind.

Or so I told my nephew, who, to my later dismay, believed me.

And though I felt her anxiety rise, especially when she gripped onto the Force, it was not until she begged Kylo to listen to her that I realized we'd been wrong to assume Maia could not discern the training course from the darkness. But it was I that was foolish for assuming because I was older and more experienced, and sensed nothing, that there was nothing.

When she ducked away from Kylo, I followed. When Kylo showed up behind me, I foolishly guided him slightly away from her, in hopes she would discover whatever was causing the disturbance before we caught up to her. I still couldn't sense anything, and I hadn't wished to distract her.

Once again, I had made the wrong decision. As the feeling of dread grew within me, I laid eyes on Maia—and knew something was about to happen. She was digging in the dirt with her hands, her face contorted with pain, when she stopped.

I watched her face fall to the ground, a half second later Kylo dropped, and then I felt myself following swiftly behind.

I knew what this was. It was a dark spell. It wasn't real—I tried to reach out to the kids, to tell them to remain vigilant.

But my eyes shut just before my face hit a tree root jutting from the ground.

It was Exegol. Somehow, I knew this. I also knew that it was no vision. This was a deception. A lure. And likely one that I was not supposed to be a part of.

As I focused on the scene, I seemed frozen to the ground. Maia was walking slowly up to a bunch of machines, Kylo calling out to her. The scene was dark, and there was a rumble that seemed to vibrate through the floor.

It was like time skipped, and I was standing closer to the pair. I blinked, and they were fighting. Maia had my father's saber, but she was angry, her strokes long and powerful. Kylo's back was mostly to me, but his strokes were not wholly defensive.

"Stop!" I called out, fear gripping at me, digging its talons into me and not letting go. Despite my fear of Maia's turn to the dark side, it felt so wrong for them to be fighting. It didn't make sense when I had just watched them connect on a deep level.

It happened so fast, a mere instant. If I had blinked, I would have missed it.

Maia turned at the sound of my voice, and Kylo's blade slid smoothly through her abdomen. She made no noise. The cry he let out, however, pierced my soul, the very embodiment of anguish. I thought it would rip me in two. He retracted his blade and gripped her as she fell, mumbling 'no' repeatedly. I was frozen to the spot, watching him fall to his knees, his pain cutting into my chest as if I had been the one impaled.