At the end of Rey's extended arm, her open hand shook. She was staring into the shining complexion of a mask fashioned to a deathly guise and it was reflecting back through her eyes so clearly, that the Knight kneeling under her power could see it himself.

Rey had waited her whole life for the parents who were never coming back to return to her. She'd been Jedi mind tricked into forgetting herself completely. Had that part of herself replaced with the need to wait... And then Kylo Ren had entered her mind. Before that moment Rey had no reason to want for anything more then what she was compelled to desire; no reason for anything more then a family that was never coming back for her.

Her whole life she'd been mentally trapped in that cage and yet, that mind numbing compulsion didn't compare to how entombed Rey found herself right now. No, even the incessant need to wait, to remain steadfast on Jakku, paled in comparison to what pressed upon her now. Something so invasive took up so much space in her head that she felt suffocated in the space.

It was something so violently intrusive that she felt nauseous. She pushed against this foreign darkness but rather then pushing back, the thickening smog engulfed her. A flash of Ben's young face drilled the impulse to find him deeper into her brain, jostling her attention back to the destruction of this Knight's mental walls.

Ben... Find Ben... Reach Ben...

It was all she could decipher through the waves of desperation and pain that was wracking her head. In her mind she was utterly alone. She was drowning in her solitude just as she had back on Jakku and the only thing she could do to breach the surface, was find him. Find Ben.

She was more determined to follow this phantom command then she was concerned with breathing. At some point she'd even tried to fight the urge to sift through this Knight's mind on what felt like an order rather then her own desire, and in choosing to rebell against this compulsion, she'd literally began holding her breath in some kind of juvenile protest. It was all she could do to defy the Darkness that some how seeped in through the bond shared between she and her ... Master? Ben? Kylo?

Who was he supposed to be in this moment? She couldn't remember... Which one of them was she with right now? How was she to know the difference between them... if at all there was one?

Moments ago it didn't matter. He'd been there for her... finally they were on the same side. As briefly as it may have been, he was teaching her and she was learning the best way she ever could; hands on, the way she'd always excelled at learning.

She watched how he'd used the Force to infiltrate her mind in the past and copied it, applied it to the task at hand; the deconstruction of his Knight's mental defenses so that she may not only protect her own mind but also so that she could enter his memories.

There were so many images. The faces of his masked comrades moved in and out of focus. She saw fighting, training, a level of comradery that Rey had never experienced herself. How could she have? She'd almost always been alone and she envied the loyalty these Knights had for each other and for their Master.

She saw sabers clashing in and out of the darkness of the Knight's mind. More training —always training. Sometimes the Knights wore their masks, always during training, but when the days and nights were calmer, they removed their metal bound guises.

But never him. The Master Knight was always hooded or masked.

I need to go further back, She realized, if she was going to find Ben. And that's where this compulsion was directing her, towards Ben. 

There were quick glimpses of more Knights. More training, different and repetitive faces.

And then there was a startling yet brilliant flash of a familiar red, crackling into focus. The malignant blade of Kylo Ren's unstable lightsaber was crashing against one of the strangest red blades she'd ever seen. It was massive for a plasma beam. Long and double bladed but not from two active ends. This plasma sword may as well have been two sabers fused together to produce two blades nearly on top of each other.

She was still watching from a safe distance but even then, when the two competing blades met the flash they emitted against one another was sooo bright that Rey found her arm moving up to shield her eyes.

Kylo was smaller in stature but just as tall as always. He was long, lean power. While dueling his height came with its own challenges, but with his strength and power in the Force, he was quick to counter what should have made him an easy target.

The two combatants fought furiously against one another but by the end it was Kylo who had bested his sparring partner. It was quick thinking when he'd countered what could have been a lethal blow by positioning the blade of his plasma between the double blades of his opponents saber. Twisting his own lightsaber, Kylo spun under the elbow of his rival. He pulled the blades back, dislodging the hilt from his challengers grasp. Within another moment Kylo had gone full circle beneath the torso of the enemy combatant and now he had full possession of both blades, three if you wanted to count the two uniquely attached blades to the single hilt which he now wielded as an off hand, on either side of his rivals body.

The much larger frame of his enemy froze. For a moment neither moved and then, as though finally fully acknowledging Kylo as the victor, the bested warrior took to his knee. His hands raised to either side of his face and while still caged in by the dangerously close plasma blades to either side of his neck, the duelist removed his mask.

A most interesting face angled up towards kylo's mask sending long straight locks of deep blue hair falling across the broad shoulders of a complexion as unique as the blade this warrior wielded. A pale shade of reddish pink skin highlighted the most vibrant set of violet eyes Rey had ever seen and they shone up at Kylo Ren with an eager respect and an equally obvious pride illuminating behind them.

"Master." The unmasked man conceded.

The humanoid was mesmerizing. So close to her own race that at first Rey had to wonder if the off colors were just a trick of her own mind. Maybe this was a strange effect due to lack of skill on her part. A mis-interpretation of what she was able to see through the knight who's memories she was viewing.

After the fight she waited with tight lungs to see if Kylo would remove his Mask but when the now dominant male straightened, disengaged the two sabers, and extended the extinguished hilt of his adversary's weapon, Rey knew it was over.

He was already Kylo here. She still needed to go further back.

And then she found their roles reversed. This strange warrior and Kylo Ren. It was frustrating seeing this duelist again because she knew it wasn't the Knight who's memories she was viewing. Her host was clearly an onlooker in these scenes but obviously this warrior was important to him or why would he be reliving these specific moments between these two men.

In this new memory the fighting had already began. The two combatants were just as aggressive but in a much different way. Kylo fought with blind emotion, mostly rage, and was filled with over confidence from his strength in the Force. It seemed he relied on this more then his skill with a blade. And it was easy to tell even through the layers of his armor, that he was much younger. His opponent towered over him in everything from hight to physical stature. Kylo was closer to the boy Ben here, but still he donned a mask of Ren.

An immeasurable amount of sadness for him filled Rey completely. Only just last night Kylo had omitted that his mask was so much a part of him that those around him likely wouldn't recognize him if he ever went without the piece. She may not be able to identify him as Ben here, but he was clearly still young enough to be considered a boy. Already his identity as Ben was being erased.

He was always surrounded by others, yet he was always divided from them. Always as alone as she had been. Segregated from humanity by the full armor he donned and the mask of cold emotionless lines of steel and carbon.

Rey's insides ignited when the larger warrior landed a damaging blow along Kylo's left bicep. Even through this memory, the attack against her bond mate pulled her from the sympathetic state she was momentarily wallowing in and placed her in an aggressive defense mode.

Outside of this Knight's mind, Rey could feel the peaking of her adrenaline reacting to the rage that spilled out through her unstable Force. She'd stepped closer to the knight who was still kneeling before her and unknown to her in the moment, on the outside of these memories, the knights around her, and their Master, stood entranced as they all watched the untrained girl utilize a most impressive amount of her own Force energy, and even more impressive, her Master's.

It was something these well versed warriors had only ever seen Kylo Ren do before; use another's Force as though it were their own. No wonder their leader had been infatuated with her from the first moment they met. Just her power moving through the room was enough to hypnotize the whole lot of them, not a single set of eyes could look away.

There was an acid eating through Rey from the inside out. A quick stinging pain like the swiping of a blade through her mind.

Deeper... go deeper! The dark voice inside her head insisted, blindly sending her further into the abyss of the Knight's mind.

And then her consciousness was jerked away from her own mind. She could suddenly feel the restriction of strong hands gripping along her arms. Remorseless fingers relentlessly pressing into the bruising ropes of her already sore muscles. Rey tugged against the constriction of the invisible fingers that held her. She fought against their pull until her legs were suddenly kicked out from under her and she fell forward, her face slamming hard into the stone floor beneath her. The world around her blurred into fuzzy greys. There were voices, angry voices. Words spoken in languages she shouldn't have understood, yet through this Knight's mind, she did.

They were discussing it just above her head... They'd caught her sneaking in.

—But why was she here?

She was trying to... to find some one. She remembered.

Yes, she was here for her brother, but she failed when they'd caught her.

The next words they'd spoken were all too familiar. It was the same ruling that caused her to flee from her home world in self preservation. Her people feared the very abilities that helped her find where Zathar had been residing for these last long three years. She knew her kin was close... she could feel him.

But the verdict... it no longer mattered that she'd finally found him because they'd already decided her fate— She was going to be executed!

Rey felt the heat of her own warm blood as it trickled out of her swollen lip. Her mouth had smashed against the floor when she went down and now her face pressing into the stone beneath, was blocking the fluid from traveling any further then this. Instead it was pooling between the seal of her lips. Adjusting her face, she turned her head and the blood smeared along her chin and cheek. She began lifting herself up but a heavy foot found the top of her spine and pushed down between her shoulders. She was flat against the stone again only this time the weight of that foot was pushing down on her, crushing her ribs to the floor beneath.

Her palms were flattened too and she was using them to push herself up, fighting to release herself from the foot against her back. Rey tried with all of her strength to push herself free from the floor even against the much larger form forcibly pushing her down.

She's come so close to finding him... she'd gotten so far... she couldn't die here. Not now!

And then the sound of a weapon she'd only ever dreamed of hearing hissed to life over her head. She and her brother had engaged in pretend duels with the very instrument that would now be used to end her. She supposed it was fitting, she'd come here for her brother and at least now if she closed her eyes, he could be here with her. It was easy to pretend that this was all just a game they were playing, the same as when they were growing together. And when she closed her eyes, she could feel her brother with her. As though he were in the same room, standing beside her, no —above her.

In the same moment that she realized where he was, the heat of the blade came down. Her heart was pulsing in her ears, rushing so quickly she thought she may even pass out before the blade could do its job.

She waited. On the flat of her belly, her hands still pressed to the floor and her own breath bouncing back into her face. Her brother was standing above her, his arm was trembling. Muscles straining from his aching fingertips to the stretch of his upper bicep. She waited beneath his foot with the heat of his lightsaber just above the thin material that protected the sensitive skin of her neck.

All at once she realized the blade had stopped descending and then the adrenaline came. Everything around her became clear and she suddenly realized that she hadn't imagined her brother as the man above her because he was above her. It really was his foot.

And what's more there was someone with him who was so powerful that they were distracting her from him. She could no longer focus at all on the one person she'd crossed the galaxy to find.

When she began her journey to this dark place, she imagined she may come across a few like herself, who were here out of discovery or curiosity. But she only found one... and he was a Force sensitive so powerful that they negated every other being in the room. So strong was this signature that she could feel the waves of it literally repelling the heat of the lightsaber that was suspended only just above the covering material that hooded over her neck.

A pulse of that same power skillfully maneuvered around her, peeling that hood from over her head with only a slight brush of energy across her skin. Light from over her head flooded her field of vision but within seconds her eye began adjusting and the first good glimpse of her surroundings came into view. Already she was determined above all else, to find the only power in the room that drowned out her own.

Her face angled up, drawing the deep red skin of her cheek closer to the humming plasma blade that was still suspended above her neck as though frozen in time.

At her uncovering the foot along her back lifted and the figure belonging to her would be executioner staggered back.

She should have taken the opportunity to bring herself up to her feet, or at the very least, to confirm the number of threats in the room, but she was enamored. Too bewildered by the young face that already had her attention. He stared down at her so intensely that she couldn't even move a muscle further then the tilt that locked their eyes.

Rey thought she may have hit her head much harder then she realized, because it couldn't be possible that the Force which interfered with her execution could come from the human staring back at her. He was too simple looking. Too young. There was nothing but the very power he housed, that suggested otherwise and if there was one thing in her young life that she had learned very early on, it was that power exhumed power. The powerful, the dangerous or wealthy, they always wore their status abroad their shoulders. They wanted the weaker to know where they stood. And this man, who was so young she nearly had the urge to describe him as boyish, he held himself as though none of those claims could be applied to him directly.

It didn't help that he also appeared just as enamored by her as she was by him. He looked at her as though he were shocked or confused. Maybe he couldn't decide between the two.

It was only by the distraction of another voice that she was able to revert her eyes to the stone floor to witch she clung.

"Please, my young Lord, forgive the disturbance and return to your studies. I shall personally see to it that this eavesdropping thief causes no more interruptions." Came an obviously irritated voice from somewhere off to Rey's left side. Notably, she recognized this as the same voice who'd ordered her execution.

The young man across from her made no movements greater then the slight clenching of his left fist and an even less notable twitch along the crease of his right eye. "This boy —bested your defenses well enough to steal from Darth Vader's Castle..." He began in a mocking tone.

"Of course not, my Lord!" The first voice began defending. "As you can see we have caught the intruder and prior to your interference, would have justly punished him." He remarked snidely.

The young man's head ticked to the left but his eyes never broke away from the even younger intruder who'd been donned a thief.

"So they've stolen nothing." He simply exclaimed, ignoring the baiting undertone that laced the first man's words.

"As if we would allow a child to successfully infiltrate and pilfer from our Lord's Castle."

At this Rey looked up, her eyes tearing away from the floor beneath. She glanced at her accuser, smoking of lizard man, for only a moment before finding them back on her original place of fixation, the young Lord, who seemingly held the title of Master over the previous Lord Vader's estate.

His eyes caught hers again only he seemed no longer to be effected by the same curiosity that she was. In an instant he looked away as if bored.

"Release him." The young man casually ordered, and then he dismissively turned from the scene altogether.

Following the back of a young Ben, Rey began the process of climbing to her feet. She needed to follow him. There were questions she had to ask, though she currently couldn't think of a single one in the moment.

"Absolutely not!" The older, red robed man snapped. His scaly hand raised as though he himself had the power to halt his Lord's command.

The young man paused in his once casual retreat. His form tensed and the relaxed air about him became sulfuric. His feet turned, leading his rigid body so slowly back in the direction of the robed figure that it seemed as though he hadn't decided wether or not the challenge made against his authority was actually what had just transpired or if he'd simply imagined it.

"You may be the heir apparent to Lord Vader, but you still have yet to prove yourself worthy of the title. That being said, there are some proceedings which must remain above even your rule." As the older Acolyte spoke he brazenly approached the would be young Lord and he held himself as though he were of higher importance. He reeked of arrogance and self righteousness. It was obvious that he was under the misconception that he was of higher competence, like only he knew best.

"My young Lord," He continued in a patronizing manner. "Your tutelage is progressing ahead of schedule, but you are no Master here."

Eyes blazing in a display of sudden and unbridled power, honed in on the older Acolyte. "—But I will be."

The once confident reptilian dipped his head in immediate submission. "Yes, I'm sure you will be... someday." He smoothed the length of his robe and pivoted back in the direction of his prisoner. "But here and now the intruder must be dealt with." He insisted.

Then he nodded to the figure who had previously stepped into the background somewhere behind Rey's field of vision. Until then she'd forgotten about the threat of her executioner. Three years ago he was her brother, but now he was a man who just attempted to decapitate her. At that disturbing realization, she reacted. She crouched and curled her body in then rolled to the left, repositioning herself between as many of the perceived threats in the room as she could at once.

Her palms planted along the ground and she waited for some one to make the first move. She was frightfully aware of her own lack of combat skills but combat was definitely not her first choice of defense. She was strong in the Force, confident that so long as the powerhouse across from her remained neutral to the fray, she could at least take out one or two threats in the room before they could catch or kill her.

She was ready to fight. Ready to defend herself to the death —until she caught her brother's face. She knew it was him. She knew she felt him here with her but until she actually saw him standing there with her own eyes, she'd thought him only a figment of her desperate imagination. Her heart was more frantic then ever as she looked upon the face of her family, her would be executioner. And though he wasn't focused on her, she couldn't tear her eyes away from him. He was staring at his young Lord, the one who'd intervened before her own blood had the chance to lop her head from her shoulders.

She couldn't help then but wonder... did he even remember her? Did the three years that they'd been apart make so much of a difference in her appearance that he couldn't recognize her as his sibling? Or was he so loyal to these dark monks and scholars, that their shared blood met little to nothing here.

What she was surmising to be the elder of the acolytes marched forward aggressively and it was only then that she looked away from her sibling. The acolyte's red robes swished with each long step he took in her direction and she found the strangest image flashing through her head.

A long faded, red fabric whipping so violently it began shredding at the ends. It was a thinning material. Worn down after surviving the war it came from, likely it was once a proud banner signifying the old republic, but now it was the only thing between her and the ever blowing sand that threatened to fill her home. Blinking stupidly at the rippling garb, she remembered how desperate she'd been to seal the door of her shelter from the sand storm raging around her beat up At-At.

But that made no sense. There was no sand on her home planet. She'd never lived in an junk box like that fallen relic.

Only recently she'd fled for her life from her home world of Zeltros. She wondered then, if this could be some kind of a mental trick? Perhaps an unusual tactic set up to confuse her into surrendering.

Even with the threatening Acolyte approaching her, she redirected her attention once more to the young man who somehow still maintained the most commanding presence in the room. And he was the only other Force sensitive that she could feel. It must have been his mind overlapping hers... but what a strange image to distract her with.

Though everything felt extremely familiar to her, nothing about it made sense. Even her hands didn't look like her own. They were small, dainty, and her arms were heavily wrapped up in a thin cloth, probably to protect them from the whipping sand, and more notable, they were feminine. Even light in color, a sun tanned peach. Not the deep red hue she'd always been.

"Xaurus, what are you waiting for? Dispatch of that intruder, immediately!"

The robed man glowered at her, his eyes narrowing with his disgust.

"—The teachings you offer me here are limited." The young man across from her disrupted the scene, challenging the older acolyte with a composure built of steel and stone.

The acolyte's head whipped around like a snake, his neck rocking from side to side as though he couldn't quite decide which way to lean it. He was clearly shocked by the simple statement. Dumbfounded enough that he changed directions completely.

Instead of continuing on towards her, he turned back in the direction of his would be academic ward. The young man didn't even flinch.

The Acolyte scoffed. "Hundreds of years worth of knowledge and artifacts are kept on safe record within these walls." His angry voice trembled with his barely managed rage. "Your grandfather was amongst the highest seeker and collector of the history of the Force, the first Jedi Force users, and Sith... and you make a statement like that... blasphemy!" He suddenly exclaimed.

The then young Ben Solo took a single step forward, his own brown eyes locking in silent challenge with the much older male, but his demeanor remained completely calm in approach.

"Bendu." He monotonously corrected.

The thin slitted eyes of the angry Acolyte blinked stupidly back at him. "Excuse me?"

"The first form of the earliest known Jedi..." Ben shifted his gaze calmly back to Rey and her lungs nearly burst on the breath she was currently letting out.

The brown in his eyes seemed suddenly so deep. So intense she felt like she could be sucked into them at the slightest tug of his power—and they seemed sooo... familiar.

"They were called the Bendu." Ben finally finished.

"I know what they were called, you condescending... insolent—"

Ben's right hand shot out and in the next moment the Dark scholar went silent. Instead of his viscous scoldings, he was sputtering and gasping.

"The research and artifacts kept here are beyond impressive..." Ben broke eye contact with Rey's host just long enough to survey his surroundings for any threats of retaliation. "But if I am to carry out my grandfather's legacy, I'll need more then knowledge of a time long since past. Order 66 wiped out nearly all Force sensitives within the known regions." Though his body remained lined up with Rey who was still crouched low in a defensive position, his head casually turned to parallel the man who he was Force choking only a few feet away.

"Tell me, with all the knowledge you've gathered on the Force, have you anyway to further my training with it? Can you offer me more in that area then my wayward uncle can?" The intelligence in that one well thought out question astounded Rey— impressed her, even.

His Force released from around the mans bruised throat and at the loss of the supporting constriction, the silenced man stumbled forward. He grasped at his neck, looking from left to right as though waiting for his brothers to assist him. But no one moved. At least not to help him.

"Can you!?!" Ben's once calm voice suddenly boomed through the otherwise deathly quiet chamber.

The dark scholar suddenly back peddled, his hand raising above his chest in an attempt to halt his future Master's inevitable fury. He blinked repeatedly, his brain trying to find away to appease the young hot tempered man before matters became more dangerous for himself.

"You think this thief could be useful to your studies...  in ways that we could not?" He wheezed in disbelief even while bitting back the offense he'd taken.

Ben turned back to the young boy Rey was reliving this experience through. His eyes became dark as he turned dangerously serious.

"You will leave us now, Grand Collector." He finally titled the older male. "The boy will prove useful to me..." His mesmerizing eyes shimmered with power. "Or he won't. Either way, as he is very Force capable and you are not— It will be my decision." He declared.

Rey heard the older male swallowing thickly. His mouth opened and closed twice, but ultimately he remained quiet until he reached the door that led himself free from the room and his young lords attention. "Very well, the boy is now held in your ...most capable charge. Should anything turn amiss, you realize your responsibilities... you will be expected to take appropriate action against the youngli—"

"I'm aware of the consequences" Ben bluntly cut him off. "Everyone out!"

The young man had reached the end of his patience. He could only stare at the even younger intruder that was unintentionally responsible for the thin ice Ben would be struggling on with these acolytes from here on forward. Perhaps he shouldn't have stood so brazenly against their leader but, when he felt the Force in the youngling they were going to kill... he just couldn't allow it.

The boy was desperate, Ben could feel it. He was searching for someone he'd lost and he was willing to die to reunite with them. Ben could relate to that anguish and so he'd intervened on an unplanned whim.

Either his sudden and self imposed level of power over his grandfather's estate and the acolytes within it would be accepted or they'd fight him every step of the way from here out. He supposed time and whatever this, his first venture against their leader, yielded, would tell.

Following the instructions they were given every acolyte retreated, leaving only one other remaining with Ben and Zathar— Xaurus.

*Hey lovelies, expect the next part up in a few days and I really hope you enjoy the glimpse into Ben's past and a humane look at his Knights.*

If you liked it, please ⭐️vote⭐️ and always feel free to comment, I love the feedback! 😍