These Violent Delights

Chapter 55: Love & Light

Kylo jolted back in this strange dimension, turning his head to come face to face with his uncle. He looked at the other Luke, kneeling by R2-D2 and weeping, then back to the version that was side-eyeing him with a small smile on his lips.

He blinked. "Is this real? Are you real?"

"Let me check." Luke looked down at his body, patting his chest and stomach. Then came a dramatic sigh. "Yep, I'm real. Real old, unfortunately," he muttered, glancing around the vision. "Definitely too old for astral projection. Alas, here I am."

"But, but..." Kylo vigorously shook his head. "I, I thought only—"

"You thought only dark Force-users had the power to do this?" he asked, raising his brows at him. When Kylo nodded, Luke rolled his eyes. "Oh, Nephew. You might be powerful, but you still have so much to learn. If only there was a place for people like us to learn things..." he trailed off, pointedly turning his head toward the destructive scene in front of them. The reflection of the flames danced in his eyes, his lips turning up into a flippant smirk. "Bummer."

"Enough. I don't want to be here, and I don't want you here," Kylo erupted, spit flying from his mouth as he closed in on Luke. "All of this was you, wasn't it? You felt me reaching for guidance and saw an opportunity to make me suffer, so you took it. Old habits die hard, don't they, Uncle?"

"No, Ben. Your grandfather took you on this journey, and you should thank him for it. If Palpatine had answered your summons, who knows what type of evil you would have unleashed."

"I won't thank grandfather, not after he disregarded my attempts to connect with him when I needed him the most." Dark, flinty eyes shot up and down Luke's thin form. "But now I know what you did. I know everything."

"Oh?" Cocking a brow, Luke stepped around Kylo. He placed his hands behind his back, and his shoulders slumped down into a lazy stance as he watched the Jedi Temple burn.

The Supreme Leader glared at the back of his head. "Why did you do it? Why did you ruin our lives?"

As Luke watched the apparition of himself and R2-D2 decay into dark matter and cinders, he gave a distracted mutter. "So it's true. You do know everything."

"I know that you stole everything from me!" Kylo yelled, his intensity matching the heat of the blazing chimera. "There was somebody out there that was made for me, somebody that could understand me, this darkness, and you took her away from me!"

"I didn't have a choice," Luke shot back, spinning around to meet his nephew's rancid glare. "I took one look into her head and it was beyond what I could've ever imagined. She would bring destruction and pain and death and the end of everything I love because of what she would become. And worst of all, I saw you," he emphasized, gesturing toward Kylo with hopelessness, eyes rimmed red and crazed, "Ben, my only nephew, my sister's baby boy, my best friend's proudest accomplishment standing beside her throne, watching her adoringly as the galaxy bled out and the darkness between you festered into a sick, damning disease. I siphoned her powers out of pure instinct to protect both of you."

Kylo shook his head in disgust. "Look at you, hiding behind your sanctimonious Jedi rhetoric to justify what you did. Pathetic. You self-fulfilled your prophecy of pain and death and destruction by stealing the Force from her. She had a chance at a home, a life with people that understood her, and you stole that from her. You stole that from us."

"You think I don't know that?" he said, the wind howling as it carried hot, bitter rain above them, doing little to extinguish the raging fire. "I'm sorry, Ben. I thought I was doing the right thing, but I wasn't."

"I don't want your apologies. I want what belongs to her," Kylo said menacingly, taking a powerful step closer and extending his hand. "And now you will give it to me."

At the Supreme Leader's demand, Luke's defeated posture and expression dissolved into stony defiance. "I can't do that. I won't. I'm keeping it safe until she comes to me herself."

"She will never come to you," Kylo flared, rigidly throwing his arm down, clenching his hands into fists by his side. "She will never go to Exegol to fight against me. She hates you."

The Jedi raised his voice over the intensifying storm. "I'm not on Exegol. Neither is your mother. She tried to stop the others, but it was too late. The redheaded string bean gave the trigger-happy morons of the Resistance empty promises about power, glory, and credits, and they caved."

"Fine," he spat, nostrils flaring and eyes wild. "Tell me where you are and face me in person, coward." Luke said nothing, his feeble form outlined by the harsh glow of the smoldering landscape behind him. Kylo stomped a foot into the ground, yelling. "TELL ME!"

"The end is coming," is all the old man said, a haunting ghost of a smile on his lips. "Do you feel it? Do you remember what I told you about these violent delights, all those years ago?"

"NO!" Kylo shouted, lunging forward to grab the last Jedi. But it was too late. With a wink, Luke disappeared before him as the astral plane disconnected them, the world fading to black. The Supreme Leader collapsed on the cold, shiny floor of his quarters aboard the Steadfast, dry heaving on his palms and knees to try and expel the taste of his vision from his mouth. But the dirt, ash, and smoke still clung to him. He could still feel the heat from the fire, the proximity of Skywalker, and, worst of all, he could feel the light. The light side of the Force was all around him, mixing chaotically with the darkness he had accepted so long ago. It was painful, prominent, and infuriating. It left him with no other choice. The Supreme Leader pushed himself off the floor and went straight to his datapad.