CHAPTER ONE
the force !

THE FORCE HAD once been the most powerful sickness in the galaxy. Renowned for the very thing it was trying to destory; filled with an unspoken brotherhood that tethered every force sensitive, Jedi and Sith towards a path that seemed to be chosen since birth, and for others, towards the only people they could find a home with in a world that knew far too much. It helped those lucky enough to wield a power greater than that of bones or Phrik, and allowed a special few to finally understand what kept life so subsistant when the creatures within it were only really made to take it away- to kill the things that the generation before them had created.

The ability had started wars, stolen children from the comfort of their beds by the one true prophet and his younger hands- both of whom saw something greater for a universe they could connect to with an invisible string that left nothing but what was supposed to be. But this Prophet was blinded by the parts of the force that drew them from humanity; the hand become tired of fighting a battle that (much like the power that turned him away from his young son and daughter) was never going to end. So they lost, and the last of the Sith's had been thrown towards destruction just like they predicted.

While the rebellion relished in the knowledge of life, the Sith became another extinct life form taken away by a generation that hadn't been there to see it grow. They thought they'd won, but it was never about the battle for the sith, who got plunged into eternal darkness. No- the force was a terminal illness that infected the known system until the end of time, and with it, came the duality of light and dark.

Like cockroaches both sides survived within bloodlines that were created to oppose, and in doing so, spread a new generation of hatrid and sickness supposed to finish what the prophet started; supposed to right the wrongs of Luke Skywalker and his tragically corrupted father. And with it, children unknowingly prepared to replace the heroes, whose names were praised beyond any deal of sense or stature.

But the duality went further than the split in the force- or the fight between the rebellion and newly named First Order after ten or so years of blissful silence. The duality lived in every man; the most powerful creatures only seemed to gain so much influence.

They had an equal load of sunshine and shade in the power that could've shaken apart planets.

For some that shade could be controlled, or the light could be ignored until they were forced to always see white- the lucky few who only battled their demons in private.

For others, that battle of right and wrong would manifest into something horrifying, like the curse that struck a deal with an unwittingly important little girl.

oOo

HE SLEPT LIKE the dead, his mind taken by the very force that had caused a toxic gas to infiltrate the lungs of peace.

It had taken over in a way the boy who looked younger than the years he had lived never quite thought possible, with a sharp call to action from the same being that never seemed to keep him under the hazy world of rest. Instead of the abyss that awaited the black haired boy in life, his dream had convinced him that he was sheltering from a storm cloud he hadn't ever seen.

His long eyelashes fluttered to the same beat as the pelting water even when he was safely tucked beneath blankets made of silk; when he turned his head in his scape of darkness (only illuminated by the lanterns on the room's walls) he could barely catch a glimmer of where he was. In his bed, his lips parted as he smelt the faint aroma of honey and rosemary. He knew better than anyone his skin was stained with the smell of metal.

The boy had never felt the sensation that surrounded him- he hadn't ever felt the echo of noise in his ears that occured when the force lead him towards a new kind of power.

He could only hear the rain. It fought against the white-stone bricks of the temple like an army of water that thought it had a real chance of breaking through. It had a battle cry loud enough for those inside to almost hear the weight of each droplet without straining their ears. It acted like it was loud enough to draw attention away from the work that had to be done before the clouds parted and the usual sun took over; like rain could've taken away the purity that binded the foundation of each and every Zuurmorian around them.

To those outdoors it was almost like the horror the society dodged was trying to drown them and their clothes. It was the first time the weather had truly been violent, but nobody took notice of the changing tides for longer than the time it took for the clouds to clear, and nobody even spared a glanced towards the rather lanky boy with ever growing black hair and darkening eyes.

When three adults (two women flanking a man smaller than both of them) rushed by with a flurry of whispers the boy finally caught the name of the planet. It wasn't one he'd heard before- something about the space he was in made him doubt anything he fixed his eyes to was made from his imagination. It all felt so real; real enough for the boy to reach out to touch the power that worked around his consciousness to create the picture that began to look more and more like paradise.

But the boy didn't believe in paradise; it was the kind of thing he wouldn't ever be allowed to have.

When the dark side called to Ben Solo he never thought it would come knocking on his subconscious with a world more real than his own. The power had been gifted by his ancestors to achieve his salvation- a way to achieve absolute power without being held back by rules or parents that didn't seem to understand- and yet all he could feel was something stronger than himself.

An underlining evil that was far worse than his own lined the walls of the temple. He had been tainted, but the part of the boy's soul that still called out as Ben instead of Kylo could sense just how good the world he was on could be, and how out of character the run in with darkness was to those that knew it was there. He supposed there was an irony in that- his ability to spot the seaping waste that he couldn't stop within himself.

'Or maybe' he thought in a voice that rumbled from his inbuilt rage

'the light had been trying to build something from less than a slither of hope- finally snuffed out by the man who was supposed to help it grow.'

Nobody thought about the rain at all. Nobody but those same three people that had been alive long enough to know exactly what the rain meant. Ben knew that part- even if he had barely taken the dark side in his grasp he was astute enough to see what it was trying to tell him.

But it didn't call to him; the dark buzz of power called to Kylo Ren in waves. Like the flashing memory of a blue lightsaber poised to take his life. Ben was dead. He had to remember that.

The two women he followed looked on with wide unassuming eyes as they waited in the shadows of the planet capital's temple. He didn't know it's name, or that it was always going to be that spot where Eyross beard the burden of the reincarnate, even if he knew enough to wait with the same baited breath as those he kept his eyes on. He didn't know how many times the three had taken the same walk within the shadows. Ren would never truly understand until he felt the real temple against his bruised hands, so all he could do was guess.

He wondered if it was the same every time; it seemed to take an entire 8 months for the next generation of evil to be born onto a planet many considered to be the greatest in the galaxy. They were supposed to be pure- without hatrid or the poison most species got engrained into their very souls- but no planet was completely immune.

The man's golden hair shot away from his tanned face when he first heard a woman cry out, right as Ben's new mind noticed the golden circle that encased his knowing eyes. When he ran ahead and slammed open a set of double doors that had been a steady wall a moment before, he seemed to finally grasp that his dream wasn't real life.

The force called to Kylo Ren once more as it bent the picture to suit it's needs; the boy was being shown something that he was supposed to remember.

It must've been the baby the force was drawing him towards- he knew it as soon as the three he was following earlier sprinted into the east wing of the temple he had pushed himself into. Almost immediately he caught sight of a woman that already looked dead, with a stench around her of rotten flowers and gaunt cheeks stretched as thin as her dewy skin could manage.

'This must of already happened' Kylo thought as he ran his hand over the end of his more prominent nose.

He smelt the blood that came from the woman who was screaming from a table made of some kind of mulitchrome glass, and he heard her heartbeat as it began to slow with each earnest push. The nurses spoke wildly until they glanced towards the three faces with a recognition that seemed almost sombre, and then their mouth became as quiet as Ren's snores from his large black bed.

When he rolled over, his dream-self leaped towards the three so he could try to remember their faces. But they had already pulled up the masks that kept them hidden from the woman giving birth, right as her eyes rolled to the back of her head and the two nurses pulled a silent child from between her legs.

When the baby girl's eyes opened, the boy lost his breath.

He'd felt the sensation each time his master closed his windpipes and lifted him from his training mat, but it had never been like this. The air felt thicker, and his entire throat didn't seem to remember how the human body even let in air; it was like he'd been taken over and played with. All at once his eyes widened and his lips parted to try and suck in any kind of breath, and his bitten nails began to dig at his throat in the hopes of letting out anything other than a singular low scream.

It didn't seem to matter to those around him as they shared a knowing glance that Ren didn't understand. And yet, the force made a point to scream out to Ben when it came to hit him in his chest, and as a thick black tar came seaping out of the cracks in the floor.

Whatever darkness was unveiled by the child who began to let out it's first real cry was heavy enough to weigh the entire species down. Without the light, or the good that surrounded every other person in that hospital room, Ren didn't know if he would've been able to see good in the people at all. It had been so stark- so desperately clinging to brightness that it called to the part of Kylo that he swore had been murdered in cold blood.

So powerful; the kind of thing that could cement the First Order, and kill the ghost of Ben Solo.

He needed to find the girl.

oOo

so, i'm back back
back again. updates
will be slow but i
really want to get
the hype back for
this book (: also
a quick ily to my
love -lxcifer who
remains the goat.