Star Wars- In another Life.

Chapter 9- Rise of Kylo Ren

Conditions training with Snoke and the Knights were not as with Luke. Ben's abilities had been superior to the others with Luke, and no matter the particular skill, he'd succeeded. Ben was not used to struggling or failing; he was not used to being beaten physically. Snoke expected him to survive in the extreme cold or burning heat, forcing him to move beyond his physical world. With Snoke, all these things were required without excuse. Snoke's demeanour soon changed from his pseudo-friend to his master- harsh, cruel and unforgiving. Ben's feelings regarding Snoke's fake smiles soon proved true; he was brutal and callous. He often questioned Ben's resolve and his abilities, forcing Ben to try harder to suffer more. Often, Ben sat at night unable to sleep, his body aching from Snoke's physical chastisement, his bones broken, his flesh bruised, burned and bleeding. Snoke's merciless verbal torments and mental ostracism added to Ben's nightly terrors and subsequent sleeplessness.

Ben's new path was set, and his confusion was resolved during an expedition to Mimban, a minemoon in the Mid Rim. During this mission to acquire an artefact known as the Mindsplinter, murder, torture, and using the dark went from something Ben tried to avoid to necessary and second nature. The rigid rules of the Jedi no longer held him back. He did as he pleased, and with it came fluidity. Rules made one weak; true power came from the ability to do whatever it took to survive, and death was a release to those too weak to survive. 

Within a section of the mining plant, Ren stood over the Mimbanese natives, his violent methods having failed to acquire what Snoke desired.

"You know, I think I'll just kill him."

"Wait," Ben called out, "There may be another way."

He reached out with the Force to the pitiful miner who knelt before him, reaching into their mind. The native worker was defenceless against his probing as he searched through the creature's thoughts and memories.

"The artefact is three levels down, in a sealed chamber to the southwest. The entrance is marked with a carving of a red snake," Ben offered as he released the miner's leader from his probing. The alien slumped, exhausted by the violation.

"Nice move, Kid," Ren replied appreciatively before turning to the Knights positioned around them. "Boys, if you'd be so kind as to release these fine folks."

The Knights Moved rapidly amongst their prisoners, their brutal weapons leaving a string of corpses in their wake. Ben looked in horror at the defenceless civilians' brutalised bodies on the floor.

"But, Ren, you said you would release them."

Ren turned to him, cooly, "I did. Death is a release. A release from the pain of living. I freed them."

Ben wasn't sure if Ren truly believed that life was pain from which death was a release. Surely, for some, life was a joy, one worth living. Ben didn't believe that sentiment, and Ren took far too much enjoyment from such things to believe it to be done for their own benefit.

The mining shaft was a cylindrical tube interlaced with sharp shards of blue crystal, the base sitting in a small pool of water. Standing in the water were more Mimbanese miners brandishing weapons, poised and ready to stop the Knights from stealing their relic. Their weapons, like the Knights, were archaic, but unlike the Knights, they could not defend themselves with them.

"Get in there, cut them all down," Ren demanded, and his Knights obliged, silently leaping from the platform down into the shaft. 

Ben did not follow, frozen, watching the fight commence below. Ren turned to him unimpressed, Ben's earlier help forgotten.

"Don't tell me you're scared, kid. Get down there. You're Jedi-trained. This should be easy for you."

Ben stared back at him without speaking a word; there was nothing easy about chopping down creatures like trees.