Hunted

XXI. The Reconditioning

Whispers seemed to echo all around him as Kylo knelt in the ostensibly empty throne room with his eyes closed in meditation. Each one seemed to say something different.

Come back to the Light.

The Darkness holds the key to your power.

You know the way in which you should go.

Forsake her, she is nothing.

Make the right choice for your child.

On and on they went, yammering and jostling for attention in his mind as he tried to block everything out and listen for the Force, hoping it would speak to him clearly as it had all those years ago.

"So... my young apprentice, you have chosen well."

Kylo opened his eyes to see the hologram of Supreme Leader Snoke materialise in front of him.

"Yes, Master."

"How did the girl take it when she saw Kylo Ren in all his glory for the first time."

His heart swelled with unconscious pride at the word glory, but he responded minimally. "Not well."

"I see. And were you convincing? Did you make it abundantly clear that she has no chance for survival outside converting to the Dark?"

"Yes, Master. I left her without any doubt about it."

"Good," Snoke smiled genially, the expression looking foreign and unnatural on his grotesquely misshapen face.

"What next, Master? When do I start my reconditioning? When can I be free of this pull toward the Light that she causes in me?"

"Soon, my young apprentice, soon. Your reconditioning must take place over many phases. The next time you see her she will hold no sway over you, and her power will begin to diminish over time. Both with you and overall. Gradually as she is surrounded here by servants of the Dark side, her strong power in the Light will begin to sap away, and then you will be ready to convert her once and for all."

Kylo looked up at Snoke's face and for the first time saw him as he really was, a powerful, evil man bent on corrupting all who crossed his path in his quest to rule the galaxy. When Kylo was younger and struggling with the pull of the Dark, Snoke had found him, sought him out and used a young boy's loneliness and confusion against him, manipulating his emotions and promising power and glory, giving him a sense of place and purpose in the midst of feeling like just another would-be Jedi under his uncle's tutelage.

Why now though, did he sense these things and finally begin to feel anger at this tyrant's manipulation of a little boy? Why not sooner? He had been angry with his parents when they sent him away against his will. His mother had been busy with her role rebuilding the Empire, and his father with her. His childhood had been a happy one, all until he had been sent away from them, left to process all the things a son should have his father to help guide him through alone, or with his uncle.

Luke had seen the evidence of his corruption early, he had sensed it almost from the start. Kylo knew it by the way Luke had looked at him, watching his every move as you would a snake in the grass, readying yourself for when it would strike. He had been 18, still almost a child when Snoke had instructed him to take the Knights of Ren and massacre all his uncle's padawans, down to the very last child, and Luke Skywalker last of all.

Kylo had failed in this final piece, and now that girl Rey had undoubtedly reached his uncle, cooking up some plot for which he needed to be prepared, but how could he be when suddenly he was accosted by all these doubts and regrets, threatening to swallow him whole?

"I have been remiss in my failure to address the situation between the two of you sooner," Snoke articulated, "But you are not so far gone from the Dark as to be lost to us forever my apprentice. You have come here of your own free will, which means you recognise the problem and wish to rectify it, isn't that so?"

Do I? Kylo's mind asked him, looking figuratively over that wall he had crossed long ago back towards the rising sun, whereas the direction he was headed it was always setting. His old life had been the Light; he had chosen this Dark path, again and again. Serela awoke feelings in him he had long thought dormant which had been enjoyable to relive, but he told himself, that is not who you truly are. You are Kylo Ren, Master of the Knights of Ren. You possess more power than any Jedi since Darth Vader. Your skill is matchless, your talent limitless, only you can complete the work of your grandfather. Only you can finish what Darth Vader started.

"Yes, Master. I submit myself to you fully, tell me what I must do to be completely one with the Darkness, and I will do it." A niggling suspicion in his mind remained, but he crushed it. There was no going back to the past or the Light, the only way for him was forward, and that was further into the Darkness. Serela could join him if she wished, but he had come too far to be turned back now.

"Good, good," Snoke nodded, "I have devised a unique reconditioning method with the cooperation of General Hux. Report yourself to the medical bay immediately for further instruction.

Nervous at the idea that Hux had something to do with anything else to do with him or this situation, Kylo nevertheless rose and bowed to Snoke. "Yes Master, your bidding is my command."