Chapter 13: A Duel

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Rey stood with her feet planted apart, elbows out, as she gripped her lightsaber hilt in her hands. The blue shimmer of light emitting from her lightsaber clashed with the illuminating yellow coming from Snoke's. His was double-bladed, and he held it with his seemingly fragile body. "I look weaker than I really am, don't I? Appearances lie." Snoke said.

Rey felt with her senses and waited to act first. She saw Snoke. She heard the fizzle of lightsabers. She felt the Force clashing in the room, dark versus light. She stepped forward and swung her lightsaber, letting out a mighty roar. "Auughhhhr," she cried, only to met by Snoke's lightsaber. Ksssshhhh. Snoke spun his lightsaber around effortlessly, moving his feet artfully across the floor. Ksshhh. Vuuuuuummm. Ksssshhh. Again and again Rey hit her ligthsaber against Snoke's. She barely noticed the fight going on around them. Snoke's guards fought the Knights of Ren, metal hitting metal.

Rey was blinded by determination. I have to win. I have to. Minutes ticked by. Ben, where are you? Snoke caught her unawares, grazing the side of her leg. Rey didn't look down, but she felt warm blood prickling on her skin. She began to attack even more fiercely. Ksssh. Ksshhh. The stone walls of Snoke's fortress fell away in Rey's mind. It was just her and Snoke. How can this old guy fight so well? She struck out with her lightsaber again and again, always being repelled by Snoke's lightsaber. She had to work twice as fast to keep up with both yellow blades.

Rey became even angrier. Calm down. Feel the force. She took a deep breath. Rey had to keep going, even though her muscles ached and blood was running down her leg.

"The galaxy doesn't have room for you!" Rey cried, dashing behind Snoke and jumping onto his throne. Snoke whipped around, clutching his yellow lightsaber, reflecting into his clear blue eyes. He was about seven feet away. They stood there, staring at each other. Rey was higher than Snoke. She prepared to jump and slice down. Snoke knew what she was about to do. The sound of fighting in the background only intensified the moment. They stared at each other.

Rey lowered her lightsaber. "Afraid to make a move, Rey?" Snoke asked.

"No, what makes you think that?" She was exhausted. Sweat dripped from her brow into her eyes and she blinked. Now or never. She jumped off the throne quickly, as if lifted by the Force, and landed to the left of Snoke. He turned quickly to face her, but he wasn't fast enouogh. Rey's lightaber zoomed through the air and sliced through something solid.

"My hand!" Snoke's right hand fell to floor, his lightsaber with it. Rey jumped out of the way as both sides of his lightsaber spun around on the floor, threatening to chop off her foot. Snoke grabbed his right arm with his left hand, staring. The bottom of his arm sizzled as the flesh turned crisp. A thin red liquid began dripping to the ground. "You little-" Snoke snarled and reached out with his good hand. Rey held out her lightsaber menacingly. "I will kill you for this. I will! You think you're powerful, well, you will learn your lesson. You will learn how weak you are! You are nothing. You were always no one. And you will die that way. Alone!"

Rey took a few steps back. Streaks of lightning came out of Snoke's hand and licked through the air, flickering and spinning towards Rey. "NOOOOO!" Rey wondered what was happening, and then saw a red tip break through Snoke's middle. Snoke fell, narrowly missing his fallen lightsaber, only to reveal Kylo standing behind him. Kylo was holding his lightsaber. He was disheveled and his hair was frizzy, but he had mostly recovered. He looked at Rey. They stared at each other. Not one of them looked at Snoke. Rey broke the gaze and glimpsed at Snoke, whom she'd presumed was dead.

But he wasn't. In lightning speed, he used his remaining strength to pull his lightsaber to him with the Force. "Kylo, look ou-" Rey started to scream. Before either could react, the yellow lightsaber was spinning through the air.

"You have defeated me again, Ren, but I will not die without being satisified with your death as well. I thirst for revenge!" For Rey, the moment was in slow motion. It was an awful moment, She felt her heart beating, heard her screaming voice mixed with Snoke's raging, dying voice on the ground, and saw the yellow lightsaber wizzing through the air toward Kylo. In reality, it all happened in less than a second. Rey wanted to block everything out. She wanted to shut her eyes to stop seeing Kylo's frightened face, unable to do anything because of the lightning speed the lightsaber was rotating in.

Kylo had one second to move. He didn't make it. SSSSSS. The lightsaber met it's mark and hit Kylo's flesh. Rey didn't notice Snoke stop writhing on the floor, a hole clearly burnt out of his middle, dead. She didn't see Kylo's Knights finish off the last of Snoke's guards. Her eyes were on Kylo. She saw where the lightsaber had hit him on the lower right side of his abdomen. "Ben!" she screamed with all of her might as Kylo, shocked, looked first at the slice he had in his side, and then at Snoke's lightsaber on the ground beside him. Realization and pain hit him at once, and he staggered and fell.

Blood had started pooling on the ground beside him by the time Rey had gotten over to him and sheathed her lightsaber. "Ben!" Rey was in disbelief. Kylo looked at her with sad eyes. She knelt down on the cold stone floor next to him.

"Rey." Ben tried to sit up, but couldn't. Rey gently grabbed his head and laid it on her lap, unaware of the pain she felt from the slice on her leg Snoke had given her. Kylo gripped his side, giving no resistance to Rey's gentle hands pushing the hair out of his face.

"Ben, you saved me. Why did you do that? You should have let me die." Tears fell from Rey's eyes and dropped onto Kylo's face, mingling with the sweat coating his face.

"I thought you wanted to kill me." Ben choked out. That made Rey start sobbing even harder.

"If you had let me die, turned to the light side, and killed Snoke, I would have been happy. Please don't die Ben. I'm no one. You are someone the light side could use."

Ben calmly looked up at Rey. "Don't you see? The Force chose you. You were no one. The Force made you into someone the galaxy could trust. You are needed out there. I'm not."

Ben's eyes flickered. "Ben, no!" Rey shook his head, and his eyes slowly opened back up. "Don't leave me, Ben, please. The galaxy needs you too!"

"I'm not afraid to die, Rey." Ben took a hand away from his wound and brushed it against Rey's cheek. He left a streak of blood that mixed with Rey's sweat. "Tell my mother goodbye. Leia. Tell her I'm sorry."

Rey leaned over, choking on tears. "Ben, why did you have to wait until now to turn? Why? Why did you wait until death?"

Ben struggled to get words to come out. He was close to death. His body shook, his black clothes drenched with blood around his waist. "The dark side blinded me, but I think the light side was always close to me. If you hadn't come here Rey, I would have died anyway. And Snoke would have lived."

He gasped for breath. "Rey, why did you care so much about me? Why did the Force connect us....I wish....I wish...I had joined you."

He took a soft breath, and Rey leaned over to kiss his forehead. "May the Force be with you Ben," she said in a shaky voice. Ben didn't take another breath and completely relaxed in Rey's arms. Rey embraced him, sobbing. Sorrow enveloped her. "What will Leia say?" She cried as she had never cried before. She wanted Ben to come back with her to see his mother. She had made it her task to turn him to the light side, or even the grey, and save the galaxy with him. She wanted to practice using the Force with him. She wanted to make him laugh and feel less lonely in his company. She wanted to take away all the hurt he had caused other people. She had seen a lost boy, and had wanted to save him.

The only witnesses in the cold stone room were the Knights of Ren, silently mourning the loss of their leader behind their masks; Snoke's dead body, lying not far from his disemembered hand; and Snoke's guards, lying scattered around the room. The walls hid this scene from the rest of the universe, as it had hidden Snoke for decades. Rey continued sobbing, hunched over Kylo's body with exhuastion.

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