Starter for @empreys Ben w/ Rey
Cold wind swept over barren rock, blanched by the white sunlight. The heel of Ben's boot caught on cracking shale and coarse stone, sending pebble bouncing down the embankment as he skidded along the slope to a lower ledge. The jagged landscape was hushed and quiet, muffled by rolling thunder of distance storms. Dark clouds billowed high, towers of grey and black. The atmosphere of this planet was dense and heavy, like a blanket, the beginning escalation of a run-away Greenhouse Effect. Each breath Ben sucked in through his teeth was heady, almost high on oxygen. Hourly, storms, hurricanes, wind fronts swept over the brutalized surface of the world, churning seas teaming with blue-green, bioluminescent algae and rudimentary life. He had landed in a thin window where the climate was sedated by the turn between day to night, when the heavy cloud cover broke apart enough to fly a ship into the brutal climate. In a short while this mountain would be overtaken by flooding rains and for all his power, Ben would be at the whims of nature. Before then, he would have to find a way into the mountain and into the rumored caves that ran beneath the fault lines that pushed these ancient mountains up, and upwards. There were no winding trails, no ancient entrance; this world had been lost when the Jedi Archives burned. Thus, the Empire never came here and the First Order never followed in their footsteps. Until Kylo Ren arrived, this world has been uncharted. Pure untamed wilds and untapped potential.
At the bottom of a steep cliff, Ben found where the stone sang. A resonance in the force that called to him from beneath the layers of granite, quartz, and shale. An explosive charge, planted against the wall, gave Ben entrance into the cavern beneath. (Such pragmatism reminded him of his father in a way that made his chest ache). Like a cracked geode, the drab rock of the mountain hid a shining treasure in its underbelly. Sunlight caught on the facets and cleavages of crystal, forming like teeth in the maws of a mouth in long stalactites and stalagmite columns. The interior of the cave was cold enough to steal Ben's breath, the air laced with moisture but pure and clean. He crept inside, ducking his head to avoid a low hanging rock. He could feel it, the power residing in this cave: these crystals were alive. Kyber crystals, formed form the husks of ancient microbes. A rare but naturally occurring stone that powered the tools and weapons of the Jedi, and the Sith, alike. This obscure and deep well had long been unconquered by the old Jedi or the Empire, untouched, unblemished: neutral ground, which welcomed Ben with tentative songs. After the destruction of Ilum and Dantooine, then desecration of Mygeeto, planets like this one were rare harvesting places of Kyber Crystals. A resource so valuable that the Empire and the First Order would do anything, kill anyone, wipe out any people to obtain them. Not for this growth, however, this Ben would keep to himself.
At least for now. He was here looking for something, after all.
Traversing the cavern was a slow and hazardous process. Each step slick with algae riddled water, the falls steep and precipitous over deep chasms, and the halls so narrow he'd have to turn sideways to slide through, or duck to his hands and knees. The tunnels were winding, a maze of their own with many off shooting paths, and little indication of which route was safe or led to a dead end. But even when the sunlight vanished behind Ben, the crystals glowed and provided enough natural light to navigate by. Until he emerged into a large chamber of the cavern. The ceiling was so high up that it appeared that the glimmering crystals above him appeared like stars in a dark sky. A natural, underground lake had formed in this chamber, fed by water that dripped down from the ceiling. The pool was so still and calm, that its surface was like a mirror: reflecting with deceptive depth the cavern walls and ceilings.
It felt as if Ben were peering into a holo of an ancient city, something so fantastical it caught on an almost child like wonder within him. For the moment, the open doorway of his skull had closed, silenced by the crystals. It was lonely and yet, harrowing, scooping him out hollow. Moments like these were so rare and profound that he hesitated to leave them, but was almost desperate to escape. Ben did not care for the thoughts that lingered in his own head unattended and he had not felt such clarity since Snoke died. Since his father died. It unsettled him.
Sound on the far side of the beach brought his gaze sharply across the water. To another tunnel entrance, a break in the rock where something, or someone else, was emerging. Instinct led his hand to the saber on his hip but he paused when his hand grasped the hilt. In its current state it was useless to him except as a bludgeoning tool.
The hymn of the crystals had dampened Ben's atonement to the force, and apparently, their connection. But he could only call it fate, if he ever allowed himself to indulge in such a thing, that she would be here. Now. He couldn't hide the surprise and yet, thin hope, that colored his expression seeing her. Crystal dust clinging to her arms and cheeks, scraped off her in the climb of the tunnels. Rage lingered in Ben's blood, tempered by regret.
He had missed her.
"Did you follow me here?" It was a genuine question.
