albinomilksnake | STAR WARS: possible spoiler warning

[Strange to think a Jedi so old and so fragile could have escaped Vader's grasp, aiding Luke and the rebellion for so long-- that he'd lived far beyond what seemed possible even for the best kept human lifespans, helping to train a new order when the last one had (supposedly) slipped through his fingers. There was a sort of irony in it that only Ben could grasp, apparently, and it had little to do with the name they shared: weakness breeding weakness, always afraid of the shadows.

Wary. Wary was how the Jedi described it. Concerned, sometimes, but never 'afraid'. That adjective was reserved for the Dark Side, no matter how keenly it came to them or how often they meditated on it by cliffs spattered with salt.

He knew the truth.

And when he tore into the foundation of their new order under Snoke's guidance he made sure they made no mistake about it, stripped of all pretense in the wake of their own, aching loss. His lightsaber (his lightsaber, shaped by his own hands and not a dull tool meant to gently coax him into knighthood) spitting hatefully against the rain-soaked air, steam and sparks as crimson as the blood under his heels.] it's over.

I'm finishing what he started.

[ Obi-Wan is tired. Very tired. He has lived longer than he thought he would. When he had met Luke again on Tatooine, he had been old already, nearing sixty. Now he was even older, nearer ninety. Not impossibly old, especially with the Force to guide him. To support him. Hadn't Yoda lived to be over nine hundred years? Hadn't Luke helped Anakin to come back to the Light, even at the end of things?

And now he was seeing it all come crashing down again. Luke's efforts to reignite the flame of the Jedi were sputtering in the darkness, snuffed by the very boy they had both seen as the hope of a new generation. The other padawans were dead (the younglings bodies lay crumpled on the floor of the temple where Anakin had cut them down) in the mud behind the man who called himself Kylo Ren. Ben's hand touched the lightsaber on his belt, hefted it in thin fingers. It felt heavier now than it ever had been before. At least Luke was not here. At least Luke would survive. He forced himself to stand taller, a flickering, fading flame against the
darkness as rain soaked the hood of his robe. ]

This is not what the man your grandfather was wanted.

[ Not Darth Vader. He had never thought of Anakin and Vader as the same, even after all these years. He spoke words that seemed in one instant familiar and yet strangely distant. He stretched out, drawing on the Force to help steady himself.]

You can't win, Ben.

[ Ben. A name he had used. A name passed on by Leia. At least she wasn't here to see this. The words that the boy speaks pain him so. He's failed Anakin again, failed him in the way that mattered the most. ]

Even if you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.

[ Yes. Strike him down, let him leave this crude, failing matter and join the Force at last. ]

Edited 2015-12-27 18:32 (UTC)

[Nostrils flaring, Kylo curls his lip back in contempt for the old man that saw him as a second chance; for the idea that somehow, in some way, they were family. As if the word ever carried meaning beyond blood - the notion nothing but a stopper against his true birthright.

Here, he'd only ever be stifled. Smothered and unsatisfied, and even with the pain that came with cutting down the apprentices he'd once trained alongside, he feels...free. No dulled senses, no pause in his step for reflection or control: like waking up for the first time, reveling in the smallest sensations. He tastes color and light, inhales the sound of a distant, beating heart, wires all crossed in his head without caring beyond lapping up the high of his own power.

The promise Snoke carried where everyone else failed.]

Good. [He growls, rolling hunched shoulders as he paces (albeit temporarily) within the boundaries of his own space.] You could use a little power, old man.

[A jab brittle enough that his mouth pulls up sharply when he says it; a joke only he finds hilarious, and only for a weighted moment.] Maybe then I wouldn't have looked somewhere else for real training.

The Dark Side is the quick and easy path, Ben. It only seems more powerful.

[ He does not let the pain show. Lets it pass through him and beyond him as best he can. He has failed Anakin again and this time... This time it almost feels worse. But there's not time to dwell on the past. He must focus on what must be done in the here and the now. His lightsaber isn't ignited yet, the hilt heavy in brittle hands. ]

You can still stop this. Don't give in to your anger and hatred. Don't give in to your fear.

Edited 2016-01-05 06:04 (UTC)

I'm not afraid. [He snaps, teeth clicking as they scuff against one another from strain. A lie, but a believable one-- if he pins down the whispers in his ears, or the clawing, reaching grasp that's held fast to him for as long as he can remember. Most Force-sensitive creatures don't learn about the Dark Side and its pull until later on in life; for him, it's always been there. Snoke's always been there.

And they have no idea what that's like.

His heels are light when he steps forward, edging in and leaving that weighted tension between them: Kenobi is old, but he's not weak, and striking out at a fully trained master is a far cry from picking off trainees. Still, the blade in his hands is off. That gives Ren the barest advantage, and he'd be senseless not to seize it in the moment. Lunges forward, striking out for the set of his former teacher's arm - hoping to wound him before he has the chance to defend himself.]

But you should be.

STAR WARS: possible spoiler warning

all 4 Kylo Ren

#things Kylo Ren literally has never heard in his life (also an AU!!)

I like this AU c:

Even though it hurts, I so do, too

I'm so late jesus.

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