plotted starter // @liightforce
over the years, ben has had ample time to consider what he might say to blake, if the two ever came face to face again. he’d heard the news of her survival from his mother, who seemed somewhat nervous about informing her rehabilitated son of the existence of someone so closely connected to his past. she needn’t worry however, as ben had felt nothing but relief upon hearing the news. he often thinks of the night his life changed forever, the night he turned from ben so.lo to ky.lo ren. he knows he can never really make up for the trauma he forced her to live through, but perhaps he can make her see that it wasn’t innate evil that turned him. and since hearing the news, he’s run over speeches and words and phrases that he thought might make her understand. he desperately tried piecing the right apology together, writing letters that never made it past the first sentence. he should do it in person, he’d decided. and he’d fully expect her to stomp on his foot, or perhaps challenge him to a lightsaber duel, or scream at him at the top of her lungs until she lost her voice. each of those reactions would be JUSTIFIED. in fact, he wasn’t sure she’d want to speak with or see him at all, no matter his past in the destruction of the first order. so when when she’d agreed to a meeting almost immediately upon his secret arrival, he’d been nothing short of stunned.
now, as he patiently awaits her arrival in the meeting room that’s actually more like a closet with a table and two chairs stuffed inside, he feels overwhelmed by guilt and sadness. he still feels like he doesn’t belong anywhere near the new (new) republic, like he might infest the place with his darkness by simply being there. the realization that he’s close to facing someone he thought he MURDERED is both exhilarating and terrifying, all at once. how many times had he wished he could speak to the innocent souls of those he’d slaughtered? how many times had he spoken to the open air, in hopes that someone he wronged might hear him in their afterlife? now the opportunity is before him, and he feels almost sick to his stomach. the sound of footsteps approaching interrupts his troubled thoughts, followed by the familiar sound of the door sliding open all at once. he averts his gaze momentarily, far too interested in the metal tabletop rather than the company he’d requested. after a moment, he builds the courage to slowly lift his gaze, taking in the girl he once knew, inch by inch. although girl is hardly the appropriate word anymore. she’s all grown up, a jedi knight, his mother had informed him. good. he’d thought, upon hearing the small bit of promising information. the galaxy needs her. he clears his throat then, unable to holds her gaze for longer than a second.
❛ you’re ALIVE. and a jedi, at that. i’ve never been so... elated, to hear of my own shortcomings. ❜