Follow me, follow me
As I trip the darkness
One more time
Follow me, follow me
I awake from madness
Just in time
Trip the Darkness- Lacuna Coil
"So, that's Lake Natth." Rey asked Ben trying to keep her ration bar in her stomach where it belonged. The Dark-Side rolled off the glassy black lake in thick waves turning her stomach.
They'd been hiking the better part of the day after making the thankfully uneventful climb up the canyon wall on the opposite side of the waterfall than they had come down. The winds had died down overnight, leaving instead a chill in the air that had little to do with the actual temperature of the planet.
The hike had been quiet as the pair individually considered the visions they had in the night, neither sharing their experience with the other. Rey didn't want to give Ben the idea that she was agreeing to join him and Ben didn't want to scare Rey with the idea of starting a family. Not now, not when they had so much else to do. The weight of the consequences should they fail was already enough to shoulder, there was no reason to add to it.
The Darkness of the planet and this place didn't affect Ben as badly as it did Rey, a result of his having trained for years in it. But Rey wasn't exhibiting the signs of one normally in the throes of its seduction as she had on Mustafar, a sign her own training had paid off.
She plunked down on a nearby boulder, eyeing the lake with interested disdain. It didn't look like much, just an expanse of black water about a mile in diameter with jagged spikes of rock emerging from the depths in no apparent pattern. But, to one strong with the Force, it was a well of liquid Darkness that seemed to absorb all the light from the space around it, the ripples on its surface caused by the movement of Dark creatures and spirits moving through its fathomless depths.
How do you hide a holocron in that? And how did you find one?
Ben cast out his senses around and under the lake, feeling for something, anything out of place. He'd seen a lake like this before, on Mustafar while looking for the Sith Wayfinder. Then he had met a creature that had guided him to it. There was a chance, however small, that something similar could be guarding the holocron.
His Force picked up on nothing though, nothing that could be considered alive like the Eye of Webbish Bog had been. He grounded himself in his body with a sigh. "Looks like we're going to have to go down. You ready?"
"No, but I don't really have a choice, so let's get this over with." Rey answered cranky.
Her unease and pain were filtering through the semi-closed bond making Ben's own head spin. He removed his lightsaber from his belt but didn't ignite it, gesturing downward. "Let's go then."
Rey removed the two halves of her staff from her belt, locking them together. Her gazed lingered on the igniter afterwards, the buried shame resurfacing in the crimson of her cheeks. The last time she had used it, she had tried to kill Ben with it. With a flick of her wrist she banished the thought to the depths of Lake Natth where it belonged. The past was over, time to move on.
Their pace was slow as they picked their way down the precarious scree that led to the gray rocky shores of the lake, neither wanting to risk becoming a victim of the water and whatever was in it.
The red sun was lower in the sky than Ben would have liked by the time they found a relatively flat piece of shale on which to stop about a half a mile from where the foothill met the water. So far nothing had happened and he was starting to become impatient for whatever it was that was supposed to happen to happen. He was so sick of this Force-forsaken place that if it was his destiny to die here then he was ready to get it over with.
Rey stood next to Ben on the shale gazing out into the distance of the lake looking for movement of any kind when the Force screamed of danger in her mind, breaking through the haze of Darkness that had enveloped it. In pure instinct she jumped backwards narrowly avoiding the black reptilian head of sharp teeth that emerged from it snapping at the spot she had stood less than a second before.
Ben, was not so lucky.
The creature managed to snare a mouthful of Ben's cape in its jagged teeth, dragging him into the black waters before Rey's wind chapped lips could even form a scream.
Ben took a shallow breath, careful to conserve the small pocket of air trapped inside the helmet as he grounded himself in the Force. Ben would later marvel at how surprisingly clear the water was under the black surface of the lake, but at the moment was too busy fighting for his life. He managed to get a glimpse of the monster dragging him through the water, Darkness permeating its signature. It was reptilian, at least nine feet long and a fucking good swimmer as it dragged him through the water by his cape. His finger found the igniter switch on his lightsaber, the unstable red blade sputtering to life. With a careful flick of his wrist he severed the cape somewhere near the middle of his back, freeing him from the giant man eating lizard.
He'd been so focused on getting free he hadn't heard Rey screaming frantically into his mind until the moment the he was loose.
Rey, hold on.
Rey's screams quieted as his voice sounded through the bond, her relief washing over him. The fight wasn't over yet though, as the beast realized it was dragging around a piece of cloth with no meat attached to it. It circled back towards Ben with its maw opened and taloned feet outstretched to ensnare him. He was so not in the mood for this and there was no fucking way he was going to get killed by a damned lizard. First a spider, now a lizard. A huge lizard imbued with the Dark-Side and a spider with Dark infused venom, but still! Apparently the Maker not only wanted him dead, it wanted to kill him in the most embarrassing way possible; by way of some inferior life-form. Hell, getting shot down by that cocky, loudmouthed Resistance pilot wouldn't be as bad as this.
His Darkness beckoned at the edges of consciousness and he let it through, let it grant him power through his hatred of this abomination that had dared to try and kill him and tried to snare Rey....
Rey.
Ben used the Force to thrust himself forward, with a silent roar he cleaved the beast cleanly in two, from the edge of its pointed snout to the tip of its spiked tail, black blood spilled into the water in a cloud around the two halves of the reptile, blood that would draw anything else living in this fucking lake straight to him. He sucked in the last tiny bit of air he had left as he wrapped the Force around himself, propelling him to the surface.
It was pure luck that he saw it, saw the glimmer through the water. Something, was glowing near one of the black spikes of stone, its red shine barely visible in the distance. He could feel something too, something emanating through the Force from monolith of stone.
Sweet air flooded his lungs in gasps as he broke through the glossy surface like a whale breaching. It was twin to the relief flooding his mind through the bond.
Rey, had spotted him from the shale.
Ben, what do you need me to do?
Hold on, there's something down here.
Ben, what are you doing?
He had realized he could no longer feel the pulse in the Force once he'd surfaced and he had a thought as to why. He let himself be pulled down by the dead weight of his armor and boots until his head was completely submerged. As soon as it was the pulse returned, rippling through the water straight to him, as though beckoning him to come find it. Whatever it was that was there, the water was absorbing its signature before it could break to the surface.
Smart.
Ben Force pushed himself back to the surface, this time breaking the surface in a much less dramatic fashion. He turned to face Rey where she stood on the bank of the lake, far enough to see another one of those monsters come at her before it caught her.
I think I found it.
Really, Ben?
Yes, or at least there's something here. I'm going to look.
Ben pulled himself through the two hundred feet of water between him and the rock by his powerful arms despite the weight of his boots and armor. On top of his impressive physical build that he took extreme measures to maintain, his Force tended to manifest itself in him physically in the same Rey's manifested itself in her affinity for all things tech. He didn't even need to call on it, it just did it on its own.
It took him longer than he would have liked to reach the spike, but nothing had tried to eat him along the way so the local wildlife either had gotten the message that he was the new apex predator in town or was taking advantage of the meal he'd so graciously left behind for his new subjects.
He rested against the rock for a few precious moments, centering himself before attempting the next phase of his ill thought out plan.
With another deep breath he dropped again, letting himself be dragged down to the bottom. He was nearly on top of whatever it was.
"It" turned out not to be a holocron but a doorway carved into the stone, magnetically shielded to keep out water the way a hangar was shielded to contain the pressure inside the ship while allowing items to pass through.
This was almost certainly one of the stupidest ideas he'd ever had but didn't have any other options at this point. With a silent prayer to the Maker he reached out with his left hand until his fingers rested against the shield. He half expected them to be severed or to be electrocuted or some other gruesome thing but they passed through as easily as if it were air.
Emboldened by his discovery, he pressed forward until his arms, head and shoulders were inside the strange pillar of stone. There was breathable air inside the small chamber, a narrow chute with ladder rungs leading down into the depths of pure darkness on the far side of the rocky hollow.
They were in the right place.
He pulled his top half out of the strange room, the black water overtaking him again. With a kick off of the rock for propulsion he resurfaced, relieved to see Rey still safely on the shore. She'd been unusually quiet through this endeavor, which was concerning. Or maybe she didn't want to be distracting. Whatever her current thoughts, she was not going to like what came next.
Rey sighed in relief as Ben bobbed to surface, barely visible against the black water. Rey had sensed through the bond that Ben was concentrating fully on whatever it was he was doing, so she resisted the urge to scream and cry into his mind.
Rey, I found it. But, you're not going to this.
What? Why?
Because you're going to have to swim out here.
Panic engulfed every fiber of Rey's being. There was no way, she couldn't!
Rey, sweetheart, you can. I won't let anything happen to you.
Ben, I, I can't.
Yes, you can.
I don't know how!
Desperation replaced panic. She needed Ben to understand she couldn't do this. She'd grown up in the desert for crying out loud!
Rey, its easy. All you have to do is get in. I'll pull you to me.
Rey stared at the black depths below her, trying to think of something, anything other than this. The faces of her friends flicked through her mind's eye; Finn, Rose, Poe, Chewy.... everyone she was fighting to save. They faced their worst fears everyday. And Ben, he had faced down his own demons for her. She could face hers now. She had to, for them.
Fear hardened into tenuous resolve as she began to removed the pouch containing the Bright Star's remote from her waist.
Hold on a minute.
Sweetheart, I'm not going anywhere.
His wry tone made her smile, just the tiniest bit.
She scrambled back up the scree, bruising her hands in the process to a small boulder about ten feet up. She tucked the pouch into a small crevasse in the rock along with her two blasters wrapped in her black cloak, hoping nothing would be attracted to the small cache.
Good idea.
Next, she pulled a ration pouch out of another, coating her mouth in dry paste as she made her way back down to the shale.
Ben was right where she had left him, only he had pulled himself up out of the water, perched on the rock like one of Ach-To's porgs. She tentatively dipped her foot into the water, the bitter coldness enveloping it through her boots.
Good. Keep going. Ben cooed into her mind, soothing her.
She could do this, for him. With a deep breath and yelp she jumped into the water, feet first, expecting the water to envelope her completely, her heavy gear to drag her down to a watery grave. Instead her head still bobbed above the glassy water. She could feel Ben's Force wrapped around her, pulling her forward, slowly at first. Rey shut her eyes tight, praying for it to be over quickly. Dark shapes moved under the water around her but didn't move to attack. Ben increased the speed of the pull as Rey became more comfortable with the process, comfortable being a relative term of course.
She opened them when her outstretched hands found something solid, the wall of stone right in front of her, Ben still perched upon it. She breathed a short sigh of relief as he took both her hands in his own, hauling her up onto the steep, narrow peak of black rock.
"That wasn't so bad." Ben quipped, his voice even more distorted by the water damaged vocoder than usual.
She barked out a dark laugh. "Yes, it was."
"It's about to get worse." He pointed straight down into the black water. "The entrance is at the bottom."
Ben felt Rey's relief at being out of the water instantly transform into a bone deep fear. Images of her body being dragged to the bottom by some invisible power as the life seeped out of it were projected into his mind by Rey's subconscious. He longed to hold her, to kiss away those fears, to take her far away from this damned place and never look back. But he couldn't, not yet, if he did, then this was all for nothing. Despite the precariousness of their position Ben was able to wrap one arm partially around her shoulders. He wished desperately that he could see her face instead of the blank white mask; the full lips, button nose, adorable freckles and beautiful hazel eyes he'd memorized over the past months. That memory would have to do for now. "Rey, I won't let anything happen to you. I promise. It's not too deep here, the entrance is easy to see. I'll pull you down with me."
Ben froze when he realized just how poorly worded his attempts at comforting Rey were. His embarrassment at the gaff leaking through the bond did seem to help though, her amusement helping her to temporarily forget her fear.
He turned to face the water fully, his wet gloved hand in her equally soaked one. "Take a deep breath." He instructed, following his own command. "Now jump."
They were not in sync as they hit the water as Rey's hesitation resulted in Ben pulling her down rather than of her own agency. They hit the water more horizontally than vertically, water slapping up against Ben. He had hoped the momentum from the jump would help them reach the bottom but that chance was gone now. Rey immediately began flailing in the water, limbs moving every which way of their own accord. "Rey, hold still." he commanded with only the tiniest bit of Force imbued in his words. It was not anywhere near as strong as a full on mind trick, just enough for his suggestion to calm her mind into making her extremities comply. He felt guilty and Rey was going to be pissed when she realized it but she was going to get herself killed at this point if he didn't. He'd take her wrath over her death any day. "Now, take a deep breath and hold it."
Ben let go of the Force energy he was using to keep himself aloft in the water, returning it to the constant flow around them, letting his heavy soaked gear pull them to the bottom.
The shimmering red doorway was right where he had left it, the Dark pulse of energy emanating from the other side as strong as it had been moments ago. He gripped Rey's hands with both of his, yanking her down to his level. With the slightest push he sent her through the red glimmer of light, into the small chamber beyond, following close behind.
Rey skidded dangerously close to the edge of the chute after Ben shoved her through the shielded entrance, catching herself as she stumbled near the edge.
She dropped to her knees, ripping her helmet off as she did, giant gulps of air filling her starved lungs, trying desperately to fill the burning spot in her chest with oxygen. She grasped the helmet in between both her palms as though it were her lifeline back to the surface.
Once her body told her she was going to live, she began to take stock in their surroundings. Ben was splayed out on the ground next to her, his own helmet set to the side revealing his hair plastered flat to his head above his deep brown eyes. He too was panting for air.
The Jedi's relief at seeing her bondmate unharmed turned to fury as she remembered what he had done to her moments ago. "You used the Force on me!" She pointed menacingly at him to emphasize her accusation.
"Yes, I did. I had to." He responded calmly.
His relaxed tone only angered her more. "You should never, ever use the Force on me like that, no matter what!"
"You were going to kill yourself if I didn't Rey. I wasn’t willing to let you drown so I did the only thing I could think of in the moment. I'm not going to apologize because I'm not sorry." He snapped, stunning Rey.
"There must have been another way! You could have talked to me or...." Rey responded, though with less energy than before as if her certainty of the facts of the situation had been called into question.
"There was no time, Rey." He responded crossly. "I didn't want to do it, but I had to... I had to help you. And it wasn't a very strong hold. You could have easily broken it if you hadn't been panicking!"
Rey scowled at him but didn't press the matter further. Ben laughed inwardly. He'd almost forgotten this side of Rey, the girl who's temper frequently crested and ebbed with the force of a tidal wave. This Rey had been notably absent from Ben's life since he had nearly killed her on Bracca. She'd been angry with him over the secrets he kept, but it was a different kind of anger, one that was fed by the Dark-Side. This was pure Rey, stubborn, hot tempered,and strong. It was good to see that firey spirit was still intact after everything they'd gone through.
They simultaneously glanced towards the shaft and then to each other. "Nowhere to go now but down." Rey remarked dryly.
Ben pulled his boots off, emptying them of the half inch of water built up in the bottom. "Let's rest a bit, then head down. I feel like a drowned lothrat."
Rey followed suit, pulling off her own boots. "Agreed."
A/N I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Let me know what you think of Ben and Rey's latest adventure