Connections

Chapter 1

It was late, Aris sat at the small workspace in her room, taking apart and putting back together her lightsabers aimlessly. Using the force she seperated the two sabers into halves and removed each of the crystals, one blue, one purple. Aris had yet to change from her training clothes, long pants and shirt, she was lost in her own thoughts. Something changed, Ben had been distant lately. He barely spoke to her and he left the temple often when he thought no one would notice. Only a few weeks ago had it happened, Ben got into another fight with Master Luke. He was filled with anger and it scared Aris to see that darkness within him, a darkness she had always know to be there but she had sensed its growth inside her friend recently. Ben had left shortly after the fight and hadn't returned since.
Her thoughts were silenced as she felt a disturbance in the force and an all too familiar presence returned to the temple, yet it was different, changed in a way she always feared it would. She swiftly put both her lightsabers back together and stuck them on her belt at her sides, she ran out of the room and chaos surrounded her. She heard screams of anguish all around but felt a particularly dreadful pull towards the younglings quarters. She turned left and right through the numerous halls, running as fast as she could towards the padawans, her long brown curls flying in the wind and her pants billowing from the rushing air. Her room was quite far from the younglings and her bare feet were aching by time she arrived.
Aris came to a halting stop and opened the double doors, ready to fight. But, as she feared, she was too late. Her hand flew up to her mouth and she took only a few steps before she fell to her knees. She reached out through the force to others in the temple but she felt each and every person slip away until there was no one left. The situation filled her with so much pain and anger, anger towards the person who slaughtered these innocent children, who slaughtered all of her friends, every last Jedi in the temple. She tried once last time reaching out to Master Luke, she sensed he was alive but he was gone. That's when she felt his presence enter the room.
She stood up slowly, tears spilling from her eyes, her back facing him. Aris moved to grasp her sabers but the startlingly deep electronic voice stilled her movements. "Don't," he spoke. "How could you," she whispered. "They trusted you, they loved you Ben," she stated her voice growing louder. "Ben Solo is dead," at this she turned to him, "he was weak and foolish, so I destroyed him." "Then who are you?" "I am Kylo Ren, master of the Knights of Ren." Aris' heart sunk at this, her worst fear becoming a reality, she became bitter and couldn't contain herself. She stepped closer to him with each sentence she spoke. "You're a coward, that's what you are," her tone was harsh and venom dripped from her words. "Hiding behind a mask, killing innocent children. But you were right about one thing, Ben Solo was weak. He was weak enough to turn to the Sith." By this point she was but a few steps away from him. "I see now why Master Luke was hesitant to train you. You're a failure, and you'll never be as powerful as Darth Va-." She was cut off her whole body frozen, unable to even move her finger, she wasn't surprised, Ben's obsession with his grandfather was something she was all to familiar with, she knew it'd get to him.
Kylo Ren closed the distance between them and slowly removed the helmet from his head. He stared into her eyes and he saw the burning fire of anger that mirrored his own, something he'd never seen before in the girl he once called a friend. He'd done this, and he didn't once feel a thing until he saw her and heard the harsh words she spoke. He knew that if Aris was there he might falter, stray from his task. So, he planned and waited until she was supposed to be gone on a mission. He began to regret everything he'd done, he felt the pull to the light and this brought him back to reality. He remembered his grandfather and the dark side, the power it could bring him and the pull slowly started to fade away. She saw one last flicker of light in his eyes as he brushed the tears away from her cheeks, then his eyes turned cold and Aris knew she'd lost him.
He removed his hand from her face and reached for his lightsaber. The cold metal pressed against her stomach. It became eerily silent. He leaned down close to her ear. "I'm sorry," he whispered so lowly she wasn't even sure if she'd heard him correctly. Then the sound of a cracking lightsaber igniting cut through the air, and Aris was released from the force hold Kylo had on her. She gasped at the pain seering through her stomach, and felt the tears sting at her eye once again. He turned off his lightsaber and she fell to floor next to one of the fallen padawans, holding her stomach and feeling the blood gush out her body.
Ben looked at his friend one last time, then picked up his helmet he'd dropped on the floor, placing it back on his head. Kylo walked to the doors before stopping. "You shouldn't have come," he said, though in Kylo's voice, Aris knew it was Ben who was speaking. She watched him walked out of temple leaving her for dead.

Aris turned to look into into the eyes of the fallen padawan next to her. They were so pale and cold compared to the once lively green color that he held in them before. His name was Mason, he couldn't have been any old than 7. Aris and Ben had asisted in his training, the young boy grew especially attached to Ben. She could only imagine the fear the boy had gone through during his death, and she felt the tears fall harder than before. She was furious with herself, why hadn't she run faster, why hadn't Master Luke called for her, why hadn't she felt their presence sooner. Aris was going to die and she'd accepted her fate, in a way she felt comforted to know that in the end nothing could've saved them, not even she could save herself, made her feel less guilty about her faults. She continued to gaze at the boy as she felt everything slip away and eventually fade to black.