Chapter Fifty Three: Don't leave me

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Aerolynns pov
I smirked, lowering my now empty hand, I didn't think that would actually work, but somehow I had felt Ben's distress and knew exactly what to do. We had never transferred things through our bond before, but in the moment I knew it was the right thing to do.
"I haven't come to join your Kingdom, Palpatine. I've come to burn it down." I said, an odd sense of courage running through my veins.
Palpatine's eyes turned into slits and I heard the crowd go silent around me. He let out a long breath as his chair whirled towards me. Finally, after a few minutes of silence he let out a laugh.
"You will become my Empress." He said, as if what I had said before made no impact on him.
"I won't." I said, shaking my head and setting my jaw so that my teeth wouldn't betray me and chatter in front of him.
"So what will you be then?" He asked.
"A wife and a mother. I will be my own hero." I said, clenching my hands at my sides, feeling suddenly very vulnerable without the weight of a saber in my fingertips.
"No. Your hatred, your anger. You want to kill me. That is what you want. Kill me, and my spirit will pass into you, as all the Sith live in me. You will be Empress. We will be one." Fear shook my core and I found it hard to breathe. Could it be true? Would all the Sith really travel into me if I killed this man. I suddenly thought about what I saw at the Death Star, the Aerolynn who had black lightning instead of blue. That wasn't just a fear, that was the future. A vision of what I would become should I kill him.
"Ah." Palpatine said, chuckling, "The time has come! With your hatred you will take my life, and you will ascend." Tears started to spark at my eyes and I pinched my lips together, continuously shaking my head. Electricity streaked up and down my skin and I wondered if every single vein in my body was now glowing blue.
"All you want is for me to hate, but I won't. Not even you." I said, my voice shaky as it had come out. I looked up at the ledge, where I had been before I was brought down here. Where was Ben? Was he alright?
"Weak, like the family your real parents left you with." Palpatine said. Anger stirred inside of me and I let out a slow exhale, making sure my emotions didn't get the better of me.
"My family was strong. They saved me from you." I said, their faces flashing behind my eyes. They would not die in vain.
"Luke Skywalker was saved by his father, Ben was saved by his mother, but you, the only family you have here is me." He said, chuckling to himself.
Panic gripped at my heart as I felt like I had run into a dead end. I felt like I was slowly falling down a bottomless hole, my arms flailing as my stomach dropped and I knew I had no control. I didn't know if there was going to be a bottom and it scared me, the realization that I was in the hands of a monster.
Suddenly, Palpatine raised a finger and the ceiling above us cracked open, revealing the Final Orders fleet of Star destroyers in the sky, I shivered at the sight, feeling nauseous. There had to be at least one hundred of them if not more. With the power of a hundred star destroyers it could not only wipe out the Resistance it could wipe out the galaxy.
"They don't have long." Palpatine said, gesturing to the tiny Resistance ships that were fighting a battle in the air against the Final orders smaller ships. I knew the Resistance wasn't that large, meaning Leia must have gotten the word out to the rest of the galaxy and asked for their help and they had come through. There was still hope for humanity.
But the smaller ships, the ships of rebellion were no match for the Final Order, they were simply too powerful. Every second an X-wing was getting shot down, or erupting into a mess of smoke and fire, and then into nothing but space dust. Tears stung at my eyes as I saw the army, my army, slowly getting defeated.
"No one is coming to help them. And you are the one who led them here, Aerolynn." Palpatine purred, I felt ice creep down my spine, making me shudder. "Strike me down. Take the throne. Reign over a new empire, and the fleet will be yours. Only you have the power to save them. To save your husband, to save your daughter."
I looked up at the dying Resistance soldiers, my cheeks wet. I couldn't do this to them, they were fighting for me, relying on me to end their pain and their suffering and I knew what to do, even if it cost me everything. I looked up at him and swallowed hard, feeling bile start to creep up my throat. I wished I felt numb now.
Reluctantly, I nodded. I had no other choice.
"The ritual begins!" Palpatine yelled to the now cheering crowd, "She will strike me down, and pledge herself as Empress. She will draw her lightning..." I raised my hand in response to his words, bringing my electricity to my palm in a bright blue glow. With a tear stricken face I faced him, shame making my cheeks burn.
"She will come to me." Palpatine chanted, resulting in a rising applause from the crowd around us. I listened to him and took a few careful steps forward, my electricity adding a certain smell to the air, a tang that was familiar in my nose.
"She will take her revenge. In a flash of lightning the Sith are reborn. The Jedi are dead!" I closed my eyes, ready to strike him, but then I felt something. But not just something; someone. My eyes flashed open and I smiled.
Ben.
He ran towards me, a saber in his hand and his hair flopping wildly across his forehead. He didn't even glance at Palpatine as he dashed forward and was at my side in an instant, his hand scanning my face checking for injuries.
And for a moment, just for a moment, we were completely engrossed into each other. The bond around us growing and fluctuating until it took up this entire space, like we were the only two people in the world. My eyes filled with tears and I let out a laugh, I was completely and utterly in love with him.
Ben's eyes locked onto mine and he grinned, he ignited his saber and we turned together, facing Palpatine. His saber raised at his side and my electricity crackling at my hands which were raised in front of me.
"Ah, look at this. Her Knight in shining armor finally at her side!" Palpatine said, mockingly. Ben tensed at my side and I grimaced, I didn't know if having him here was better, because that meant he was in even more danger now.
"Young Solo, I still see potential in you. Snoke trained you well." Palpatine said his eyes focusing on Ben, who was unwavering beside me, his jaw clenched and his hands locked around his mothers saber.
"I killed Snoke. I'll kill you." Ben spat out at him, his muscles twitching as he probably ached to go out and fight him.
"My boy, I made Snoke. I have been every voice inside your head, did you forget?" Ben shuddered at Palpatine's words but his face was still one of stone, unrevealing to his true emotions which I could feel through our bond. 
"The First Order was just the beginning. I will give you so much more." The Emperor purred, his knobby hands gripping at his armrests as he leaned forward slightly. I glanced at Ben to see if he had any reaction to Palpatine's words but he looked like they didn't even reach him.
"You'll die first." Ben said, glancing once at me, before turning his gaze back to the man who had been manipulating him since the moment he was born, who had been twisting his mind by creating people like Snoke and the Vader voice inside his head to turn him into Kylo Ren. I wondered why Ben wasn't lashing out at him, why he wasn't so angry that all he could see was red.
"What could you even give me?" Ben asked, his lip curling in disgust.
"Everything. A new Empire" Palpatine said. Ben licked at his lips, looking intently at the man in front of us.
"It would be yours if you do as I say. Aerolynn is not who you think she is. Kill the girl, end your turmoil. Become what your grandfather could not." Palpatine said, clutching his hands together greedily.
"Never. Aerolynn and I are a pair. And I am not Vader." He said, his voice loud in the silent arena. I grabbed at his hand and he laced it with mine. Palpatine glanced at our interlocked hands his mouth sneering. He stood up straighter in his seat.
"Stand together, die together!" Palpatine yelled, he suddenly raised a hand and something happened, it was like he had meant to harm us, but suddenly a flash of blue came from between Ben and I and struck him, right in his hand.
And then his hand, which had been white and wrinkled, like a corpses would be, was suddenly rejuvenated again, full of life and less pale. Ben shared a fearful glance at me which I returned, my heart thundering incredibly loud inside my ears. Palpatine raised his hand up in the air, twisting it and flexing his fingers. A wicked smile grew on his face.
"The life force of your bond, a dyad in the force. A power like life itself. Unseen for generations. And now, the power of two restores the one true Emperor." Suddenly Palpatine flicked his hand out and Ben and I froze in our spots by an unseen power, we were bent on our knees as Palpatine let out a low and throaty chuckle, and then, he flicked his hand and blue streamed out of Ben and I.
It was a strange feeling, like I was getting something that was so vital to me ripped out, like my soul was getting soaked out of my body. I grit my teeth as the blue which I could only assume was the life force of our bond resonated into Palpatine, restoring him. I grit my teeth, letting out a scream as I felt myself being slowly being taken away, bit by bit.
The world around me became foggy and there was a ringing in my ears as my eyelids began to get heavy. He was killing us, he was killing Ben and there was nothing I could do about it. Bright blue continued in a stream like a river at Palpatine, until he was fully healed, he only stopped once he was satisfied.
And right as his hold on Ben and I was released we fell to the ground, my eyes closing and my heart beating slower and slower...

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