*Warning; Possible triggers ahead!*

"I'll take her from here." Luke told his nephew with a threat in his voice.

Ren scowled. "Why...? So you can finish the job?" He instinctively hugged Rey closer to himself. Her face was half pressed against his bare chest. Her soft warm breath rolled over his skin, still calm as she exhaled against him.

Luke ignored the harsh words and stepped closer to them. "I thank you for retrieving my apprentice, now hand her over and I'll let you go back to where ever it is you came from." He kept his lightsaber low at his side, but his grip was tight.

It took an enormous amount of restraint not to crush the hilt in the grip of his mechanical hand. His anger was towards himself, he'd almost unintentionally killed her... again, but he directed it instead at Kylo Ren. In truth he was really very grateful for the boy's assistance. He blinked at the ridiculous reference he'd just used to describe his nephew. He was a boy the last time he'd seen him, but now he was a man. He'd filled out, replacing his awkward lanky form with a well developed body. He had a warriors physique and his uncovered torso had several angry scars.

His face... Luke couldn't help the gasp in his thoughts.

He gulped as his eyes traced the length of the scar that his student had given him. As far as he could tell, it was the only scar his face donned but it was visibly the most dominant of all of the marks that littered his nephew's visible body. Be... Kylo Ren, didn't seem bothered by his former Master's prying eyes. In fact, his chin lifted slightly when he caught his uncle ogling the scar on his face. He seemed prideful about that one as he showed it off like a trophy.

He looked as capable and dangerous as his visions had made the dark warlord out to be. It was always so hard for him to accept this version of his Ben in his head. He found himself constantly thinking of Kylo Ren as a different person entirely. It was hard to replace the image of the barely pubescent nephew he was once so fond of with the fully grown version of the masked male that his visions had shown him as but deep down Luke knew they were one in the same. Kylo hadn't still looked like that the lanky young teen he remembered him as when he took part in the decimation of his temples but Luke had shamefully only seen him once or twice in-between his teens and early twenties when it had happened.

His young nephew had struggled with the darkness inside of him off and on for years. They had been so close for so long, that Luke had thought he knew the boy better then he did. He underestimated him in every way. More then that he underestimated the darkness that had a hold over him. Luke was so jaded by his love for Ben and he still had so much light in him, that even after everything happened, he still couldn't image his nephew being capable of such atrocities. He could however, imagine the man before him now being capable of such and more. He was so distracted by memories and thoughts that when Kylo Ren's lightsaber flew out from the darkness, Luke was not even close to quick enough to intercept it's Masters call with his own. He didn't drop the girl in his arms as Luke had expected him to. He opened his left hand and caught the saber in his grip while keeping her legs swung into the bend of his elbow. He didn't ignite the blade but he held it as though he were ready to should it be required of him.

Everything in Ren was screaming for him to attack the False Prophet of the Light, who stood before him pretending to care about his girl. He recognized the double meaning that description implied and at this point he wouldn't fight or deny it. He couldn't, especially not while he held her pressed so protectively against his chest and he didn't want to.

She is mine! He thought decidedly and he intended to see to it in every way possible.

Luke was staring at him, eyeing him as though weighing his opponent. His gaze had lingered over the long scar across the right side of his face and Ren did nothing to deter his blatant stare. Instead he raised his head proudly. He didn't care what the hermit thought of him now anyway. Rey stirred in his arms and for a moment he almost forgot about Luke Skywalker altogether.

"ky... Ren?" She breathed out parts of his name through her dazed state and he gave her what he hoped would be a light, reassuring squeeze.

"It's alright sweetheart, I've still got you." He spoke down to her. He put a great deal of effort into keeping his tone soft and comforting even though the rest of him was in battle mode. He cradled her like glass in his arms. For a split second her eyes opened and they fell over his. A memory flashed between them and he couldn't stop the sudden release of it through their connection.

He was still at Master Luke's academy. Lana, one of the other Padawans who he'd taken under his wing while their Master, who was gone again in his several months at a time fashion, had sought out Ben for help to a very serious problem. He was a teen at the time but still the girl had felt the safest with him and so that's who she ran to now. He'd been meditating over his own issues when she had barged into his most recently assigned quarters. Their rooms were always being switched to further encourage the young students away from attachments even for things as insignificant as the rooms they took residency in or the clothes and equipment they shared. The attendants had very few personal items that were truly considered theirs.

The girl was panicked and speaking much to fast for him to understand. He sprang to his feet and took her by the arms. She broke down in hysterics and no matter how hard he tried he couldn't understand her. He pulled her against his chest and held her just like his mother used to do to him whenever something bad happened. She had her arms wrapped protectively around herself and she sobbed into his right arm. When her sharp frantic breaths eased he pulled her back and cupped her cheeks in his hands. She was only a couple of years younger then him but he towered over her as he did to most of his peers and even a couple of his instructors. Her face was puffy from crying but that's not what he noticed first. She had a fresh split across her bottom lip and there was a fresh bruise blooming across her left cheek. His sight flicked over her in search of more injuries and though he found no visible damage, he noticed that the front of her tunic was ripped just below her neckline allowing his eyes access to just a hint of cleavage. He quickly averted his gaze, then stared down at her with an intensity in his brown eyes that didn't help her already frantic breathing. His voice was dark, but calm when he finally asked her what happened. She sniffled and her breath kept hitching in her throat, making it very difficult for her to speak.

"I... I can't s-say it ou-out loud. Pl- Please, just l-look." She begged him through hitching breaths.

"Are you sure?" His brows pulled to the center of his face and he eyed her wearily.

"Please!" She nearly shouted at him. Her hand grabbed at his arm and she squeezed in desperation.

He wasn't very good at what she was asking him to do. He knew it would hurt when he delved into her mind, invading her thoughts and memories as he did so. He held her firmly in place with his hands bracing her for the pain. It didn't take him long to find what she wanted him to see. He wasn't sure if it was because she kept the memory on the surface of her mind for him to see or if it was because she was to upset to think of anything else but it was ready for his viewing the instant he peeked inside her head. She'd been meditating just like he was moments ago when one of the Jedi Masters came to check on her. She seemed instantly pained upon seeing this man. At the time he didn't think anything of the fact that it had been a male but as the memory played through, he quickly realized the significance.

The Master had guided her up from the floor and he led her to the edge of the plain flat cot that she slept on. At first they spoke of things that were common between a Master and the younger Padawans. Then he started touching her. It started off with a light touch on the shoulder, then an inappropriate tug on her top. When she scooted back from him, his hand fell to her leg and he squeezed her thigh painfully. Ben was betting she'd have a bruise there. It only got worse as the memory went on. His hand moved higher and she winced. She had began to refuse him and that's when he'd cracked her across the mouth. She fell back and he tore at her tunic before reaching down the ripped neckline to grab a handful of her chest. She crossed her legs as he squeezed her inner thigh and he struck her again.

Kylo wanted to pull back from the vision but his fellow Padawan, held his hand against the side of her head. Tears streamed down her face and her eyes begged him not to stop. He continued to watch as the man forced her legs apart and started working at her trousers only stopping when he realized that she had finally become a woman. He had called her useless now, said she was to old for him to use. He told her she was disgusting and he threatened her repeatedly. She was told to keep her mouth shut or he'd tell Master Luke about how disgusting she was. He threatened that she'd be forced to leave the academy like the shamed whore that he'd branded her as. At first She watched him leave filled with relief. It seemed her time of being used by him was over. Then a sense of guilt and dread filled her to her core and she realized that he would replace her. She stumbled to the entrance of her quarters and she watched his back intently as he disappeared behind the door to the youngest of the female Padawans' quarters. She panicked, without further thought her mind went to the one male that she knew she could trust indefinitely. The one male that was sure to defend and protect Kira as he always did. Ben. He saw his name in her mind and he pulled out of the memory with such force, that it left her head reeling.

He said nothing as he left her standing in his room. He raced across the grounds to where the females quarters were and he practically kicked down the door to her room. The man was already leaning over her. Her little feet were over the edge of the cot, kicking happily as they usually did. She was so innocent and unaware of how disgusting this fiend was, this coward who would have other wise been her attacker. He pulled his hand from her small leg but not before Ben had seen it there. He sneered up at the young man who dared to barge into the young girl's room. Ben's eyes flicked between her and the unknown Jedi Master next to his friend who'd recently become his self appointed student. He couldn't really call her an apprentice since he wasn't a Master yet himself. Her beautiful hazel eyes smiled back at him and she seemed completely oblivious to the danger she was just in. A warm sparkle twinkled brightly in those innocent orbs as she smiled fondly up at him and he knew he would kill this man. It was the first time he'd ever accepted his darkness. The first time he ever consciously gave into the voice that always whispered in his head. It was the first time he saw red!

His focus fell back to the Jedi who Ben had never given a second thought to before now. He'd come from one of Master Luke's other temples and he was something of a scholar but mostly kept to himself, or so he made it seem. His words were poison as he tried to make Ben feel guilty for entering her room so unexpectedly and so forcefully. Ben strode across the room picking up pace as he went and the man recoiled instantly sensing the threat that approached him. He used the Force to yank the man from the cot and he easily flung him across the room. His body slammed into the wall and there were several snaps and pops before it dropped to the floor. He reached for the lightsaber in his belt but it was too late. Ben was on top of him and his fists were crashing down into the man's face repeatedly. He wasn't sure how long or how many times he struck the man but he didn't stop until her hand fell on his shoulder. By then there wasn't much left of the bloodied broken face to call a man. He was dead, there was absolutely no doubt about that.

Ben had felt it when his heart had stopped beating. It was moments after he'd crushed his eye socket under his fist and that didn't even slow his pace as he continued to bash that part of his skull in. There was a pile of mush where his left eye had previously been and he could see grey matter mixed in with the jelly of his squished oculus. Ben's own hands were bleeding from the impacts. He was pretty sure he had broken several knuckles in his right hand in the process and possibly his left middle finger to. It took him several quiet minutes to recover from what he'd just done and the little girl behind him was mature enough to give him the time he needed to regain himself. He panted over what was left of the man he'd just mutilated with his bare hands. He lifted his head and raised his hands so he could stare at the blood that dripped from his skin. It splattered across his face and soaked into his clothes.

The girl behind him unexpectedly wrapped her arms around his back. He tensed not sure how to respond. She squeezed him and as ridiculous as it was coming from a child nine years younger then himself, he felt comforted. She had a light in her that easily chased away his darkness. She had no idea why he did what he did and yet, with out judgment or fear, she gave her best attempt at holding him. She offered him comfort after witnessing something so horrendous, it would have made most grown men turn on him, flee, or at the very least, heave. His eyes teared but not from regret or guilt. He felt none of that. He'd never known such an unconditional acceptance and compassion as he found in her. There was something between them that was so unbreakable, he could only describe it as a bond and it was far from ordinary. It was greater then blood. It had something to do with his soul. Ben Skywalker-Solo knew then, that in the end, only death would ever be powerful enough to separate them.

He eyed the man one last time before turning his attention to the small child that clung to him. The man that this mess had once been, had made at least one young girl his victim and he intended on making the girl behind him another. Ben had only switched the roles, he had turned the tables on him for the girls who couldn't yet do it for themselves. He kept his head low as he rose to his feet. Her small hands fell away from his back as he stood. He turned and pulled her up into his arms and he led her away from the gruesome scene he'd left behind.

Lana approached them just as he was closing the door and she froze at the sight of him covered in blood. She ran to help him, assuming that it was his, but upon closer examination she realized the only injuries he'd sustained were on his swelling hands. His face was sullen and dark. There was a new seriousness about him that had never been there before and she swore there was something she could only describe as dark, moving in his eyes. She shivered, even after he broke their stare.

"Is she... ok?" She asked Ben as her attention moved to the little girl who clung to his front. She had a few tears in her eyes and her hands gripped tightly at his tunic but she otherwise seemed calm.

He nodded and he unconsciously rested the bottom half of his face against her head, returning the comfort that she was so freely giving him.

"Come on." She said motioning for him to follow her. "She can stay in my room with me."

"No!" He clipped. "She can stay in mine. She'll be safe there."

"But Ben, its forbidden." She started.

"You think I give a damn!?! It was posed as a question but she knew he didn't expect a response. Her eyes only widened and she fidgeted with her hands in front of her. When he motioned for her to follow with a nod forward, she did so with out hesitation.

"You can come to if you want... It's clearly not as safe here as we were led to believe." He said as if she wasn't already following him like a lost, frightened animal seeking shelter.

After he'd closed the door to his quarters, he set the little girl down carefully. He cupped her cheek with his hand and ran his thumb across her face leaving a deep red smeared across her otherwise innocent skin. He pulled his hand away realizing only then that he'd left a large bloodied hand print covering the majority of the left side of her small face. He grabbed the bowl of water from the table side by his door, dumped it onto a clean under shirt and fell to his knees at her feet. He carefully worked at the print left behind. It took some effort to clean the easily smearing substance from her face and regretfully her cheek was a little pink from all of the scrubbing it took to remove the staining color from her skin.

"Were there any others?" His words broke the silence that had filled the room, save for the sound of cloth moving across skin. Not realizing he was speaking to her, Lana didn't answer. He was focused intently on cleaning the small child's face when he froze mid swipe. He turned to her with an anger in his dark eyes that she'd never seen there before, causing her to release a small gasp.

"Were there any others who... who hurt you?" He repeated the question a little more specifically this time.

"Nuh-no." She finally stuttered. He nodded relieved by her answer and turned his attention back to Kira who had sensed his weariness like it was her own. She placed her hand over the one that he'd been scrubbing her face with.

"It's ok, Ben." Where the three perfect words that came out of her small mouth. He looked down at her in fascination. His hand falling to her lap with hers still over it.

"Why ever you did what you did, I know it's because you had to." Her small hands pulled his bloodied pair in hers and she turned them over to examine the damage, wrinkling her small nose at the sight of his swollen, split skin. She tended to the injured appendages with both her eyes and her soft fingers. There was a visible glow under wherever she touched and he found his eyes darting back and forth between her and her hands. He felt a warmth like he'd never known wash over the bruised and broken flesh. His skin absorbed the brilliant light that shined under her touch. It drank the power that she so freely offered him with out hesitation, and he could feel the pain in his hands lessening. After a few short moments his hands were completely healed. She looked exhausted and he gently laid her back on his cot so she could get some rest. Ben watched as her eyes closed then fluttered open again, heavy with sleepiness.

He turned to leave her but her hand caught the tips of his fingers before he even left the bedside.

"Please don't leave me?" She begged him.

He smiled down on her warmly.

"I'll come back for you sweetheart, I promise." Was all he said before he placed a whisper of a soft kiss on her forehead then proceeded to turn back to Lana who was still staring at the pair of them in awe over what she'd just witnessed.

"Watch over her, ok." His words were soft and protective but his face was hard again. He was a menacing force to be reckoned with and she would never look at him the same again. She blushed as he moved past her.
His sharp features were highlighted by blood and his mind was somewhere else. She swore his eyes were glowing with power and she was lost in the torrent of Force energy and darkness that lingered in his wake. He was beautiful.

"Wait, where are you going?" She asked, nervously.

He didn't stop, he never even flinched as he answered her, void of emotion.

"I'm going to clean up my mess." He answered, before disappearing behind the hut door.

*Hey guys n' gals thanks for reading! Please comment and ⭐️ if you liked it. *
            -DarkGuardian-