adarkergray | Kenoma

Kenoma

Previously:
Escape From Starkiller Base
At the Monuments of Madness
A Living Weapon

To Jacob's surprise, they made it to Ahch-To's system without incident - but then, it was clear now that the Force was on their side. As per his calculations, they'd dropped out of hyperspace a few hundred thousand kilometers away, just beyond its outermost moon's orbit, and as they headed toward the planet at sublight speeds, he tried to ignore the way his protective instincts were going into overdrive.

However, the closer they got to the planet, the more he couldn't help being aware that everyone there, everyone they were going to see, was someone who'd hurt Kylo terribly, and Force, how could Jacob even begin to justify taking him down there? To put him in that level of danger, in the kind of condition he was in--

He made himself take a deep breath, though the fingers of his free hand were clamped tightly around the hilt of one of his lightsabers. The urge was incredibly strong to tell Kylo that he couldn't in good conscience do this, that there had to be another, better way to defeat Snoke, and they would find it - but, deep down, he knew that if there was, the Force would have shown it to Kylo instead. He had to have faith in his master, and in the Force.

Instead, right now, he had more sympathy than ever for why Snoke wanted to destroy the Force's will - not that he had any sympathy for Snoke himself. That thought was enough to settle his nerves slightly by reminding what they were here for, why it was important, why they could all work together just this once.

Snoke had to die. That was the one thing they all could agree on.

Finally, he calmed his mind enough to push his senses outward through the Force, to see whose presence he could detect. Even this close in, he still couldn't pick up Skywalker, but he could sort out Rey and General Organa from the background energy of the planet. He turned to Kylo. "...Your mom's still here. Do you want me to ask her to leave?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

((No worries! Good luck with everything on your trip, and if nothing else I'll see you when you get back!))

At the vision in both their minds, the realization hit Jacob all over again with dizzying intensity - Force, we're going to be parents soon. The wave of fear and joy that swept over him was so strong that he had to take Kylo's hand to steady and re-focus himself. There were much more immediate things they needed to worry about; finding out whether either of them were truly equal to the task of fatherhood was something that couldn't happen until they dealt with Snoke, and that, in turn, meant not underestimating the resources he had at his disposal.

"...It hurts me to have to think this way, but I would be cautious of anything that comes from them. Snoke still has them firmly in his clutches, and he might use them to try to deceive you, knowing that your guard won't be up as high when it comes to our children. At the very least, he might use them to try to anticipate our strategy and guard himself against it." If Jacob's own visions were accurate, Kylo's children were no more than six years old, and at that age Snoke would have no trouble bending them to his will.

He sighed softly. "We should probably be a little more careful to shield our thoughts completely from anyone who's not on this planet." And while the contents of the passage showed promise as a strategy, and played well to Kylo's strengths, they also needed to be leery of taking a tack that was too obvious. Snoke was wise, after all, and would have defenses laid against anything he could anticipate.

The chapter he'd found spoke of all kinds of comparisons between the supposed light side of the Force and the dark side of the Force, in the days when one was just beginning to distance itself from the other. If not those techniques specifically, then there might be other combinations that required true balance. He felt as though he was on the verge of a legacy he would be honored to teach his children.

One touch is all it takes.

The thoughts played back in his head. As much as Kylo wanted to insist that this was different, Jacob was right. He'd lived a lifetime of Snoke planting far too many memories in his head to truly take this at face value.

Looking at the Force from outside the Force... It sounded a lot like something Snoke would do. And from that perspective, it wouldn't take a lot to metaphorically squish the entire universe between two withered fingers. Kylo gulped, looking back up at his apprentice. Could that vision have actually been a threat?

"If you're right, and if Snoke can reach me or any one of us here, then we have an even bigger problem."

Jacob sat down on his sleeping bag next to the bed, still keeping hold of Kylo's hand as they looked over the text. Even from just the brief glimpse of the knowledge stored here that he'd gotten already, he knew there was something incredible, perhaps even revolutionary, in all of it - and that there had to be a reason why it was making its way out into the galaxy again now, just like there was for Thuban's research. The Force itself was changing, but not in the ways Snoke had wanted nor anticipated, and Jacob knew the time was right to accomplish something incredible.

If only he could figure out how to do more than just go along for the ride.

He sighed softly when Kylo spoke again. "The most important thing to keep in mind is that your children are just as strong in the Force as you are - that's why Snoke chose you in the first place." Not only was Kylo incredibly powerful, but Snoke knew the kind of foundation sire he'd make. "If he can link his mind with theirs and draw off their power the way you and I plan to do with Rey and General Organa, then we're putting ourselves at a great deal of risk by not exercising the utmost caution." The modifications being made to the Finalizer's weapons array told him that Kylo had at least three children, but Jacob was all too aware that it didn't tell him what the upper bound on that number was - Plagueis's research had indicated there would've come a point when Snoke hit a wall in trying to create new Force sensitives by more traditional means, when the Force simply wouldn't allow any more to be born unless it was manipulated in ways that neither Jacob nor Snoke fully understood how to do yet, but gauging where that wall stood was pure guesswork. Was it just the three? Maybe double that? Or maybe even more?

Kylo cringed. “Then perhaps that vision was a threat in more ways than one. And if not a threat... a warning.”

He didn’t dare speak any further words. His thoughts were bad enough. He knew that as a living Force wound, he could drain the energy of everyone and everything around him. And if he were to have any chance against Snoke, that was exactly what would happen. If Snoke could do the same thing (even if not to the same extent), he could easily threaten to drain them dry in order to stop Kylo from attacking. Or worse, kill them and break Kylo’s spirit for good.

Regardless of whether the vision was real or not, Kylo’s children were Snoke’s trump card.

They had to find something to counter that, to cut them off from his omnipresent influence, to keep them safe...

“Do you think there’s any merit to that... wall of light?” he pointed to the reference in the jedi text. It was a power that was well beyond the reach of the dark side, but maybe not to the new generation of Force wielders.

Jacob nodded. "There are a few historic instances of a similar technique being used against fallen Jedi like Snoke - though not always successfully." However, after what they'd experienced in the battle with Thuban, he had more faith in the efficacy of older versions of some techniques; the Sith's Transfer Essence was a weak, diluted version of the attack Thuban had used against him and Kylo, and in that same vein, he suspected - hoped - the Jedi's Sever Force was a degraded version of the technique these texts described.

Having a perfected version of the technique meant that less power would be needed to use it effectively - which was crucial when there was every possibility that they were outmatched and outnumbered. They just needed to refine their own ability with it until they could strike like a snake with it, to hit too fast and hard for Snoke to properly counter it. However, their follow-up would be crucial as well; they might not have more than a few seconds before Snoke's hostages - Kylo's children - managed to figure out a way to undo the containment. Personally, Jacob hoped that having Snoke out of their heads might lead their children to make a bid for freedom instead of helping their captor, but he wasn't counting on it. Children that young were impressionable, afraid of the unknown, and would instinctively follow the only authority figure they'd ever known, regardless of the abuse they'd suffered at his hands.

Not to mention that Snoke was an expert at poisoning even the minds of adults against each other, and there was no telling what he'd led them to believe about their father - or about Jacob, for that matter. The battle that Kylo and Jacob had ahead of them would be difficult in ways they'd never dealt with before. However, it would also be more worthwhile than any other challenge they'd ever faced.

Snoke clearly knew the inherent value in mastering ancient techniques that the Jedi had lost over millennia of complacency. It was part of why they were sent to investigate Thuban’s research, and why Snoke viewed the hellish mutations done to Kylo Ren as a necessary sacrifice.

“If only it could be used to create a small place outside the Force.” Kylo pondered aloud. “A place beyond space and time where Snoke would be utterly powerless... Do you think that might be possible?”

If the Force could pull his essance across the galaxy, perhaps it wasn’t too far-fetched that it could pull it outside of space and time. The vision he’d just experienced used it as a metaphor, but perhaps it wasn’t as metaphorical as Kylo believed. (However, if this was Snoke’s doing, and he was just leading them all down this path deliberately to gain access to something that would make him even more powerful, Kylo and Jacob could still be pawns to his schemes, even now...) No. He had to silence that voice, and look inward. Not outward.

He had to trust in the Force and the Force alone to guide them.

“If so... then perhaps that is where this battle is meant to take place.”
“

Jacob turned the idea over for a moment, furrowing his brow. "...We've seen something like that once before." Inside the monolith built atop Thuban's laboratory complex, there had been that doorway to elsewhere - a pocket reality, an alternate universe, or whatever it was. "How we'd create a space like that, though, or access it through anything other than an existing portal... I have no idea. The sheer amount of power it takes would be comparable to..." Then, the realization set in. "...To what it takes to operate the planet-killer weapon aboard the Finalizer."

Could it be possible, then? To operate that monstrosity remotely, and control its output so tightly as to focus it only on Snoke instead of taking out the ship and anything else within half an astronomical unit? ...No. There had to be another way. Snoke was only one being, and even if he had Kylo's children serving as his backup battery, there were ways to work around his strength that didn't require bending the laws of reality. A mind was just a mind, as their battle with Thuban had proven, and Jacob could find a way to crack Snoke's, whether or not they were completely successful in cutting him off from the Force.

"I think it's too risky. Especially because of the nature of the potential collateral damage." Their number one priority had to be the safety of their children, and that limited their options - particularly since Snoke would probably have those children physically present with him. They were the best bargaining chip he had, after all, should he find himself at a disadvantage.

So much had happened, that Kylo had all but forgotten that. He visibly shuddered at the thought of sharing that man's (if you could still call him that) fate in addition to his power.

"It would take a Force wound..." He touched his chest with his hand, feeling his heart beat against the central line. "But not necessarily the Finalizer itself. Thuban didn't have that kind of weapon. Aside from himself..."

The Finalizer's array was one way to release the destructive power Kylo could build up inside himself. When Jacob first rescued him, they'd encountered others - albeit when he still had some of that serum in his bloodstream.

"Maybe it's not about how big an attack I'd be capable of... But how small of a point that energy could be directed into." Not a planet. Perhaps, not even Snoke. But a single point in space. Tear through that, wall it off with inescapable light and drag him through a black hole.

Kylo sighed. That part was just wishful thinking.

There was no way of knowing what was beyond space and time - if it would aid Snoke or destroy him. And the same could be said for its effect on Kylo Ren, unless he figured out how to project himself the way his earlier visions seemed to indicate was possible.

Jacob sighed softly - they couldn't afford to take any unnecessary chances in this, and it was probably better to make the danger plain sooner rather than later before they started banking their hopes on something that might well be unusable. "Kylo, I'm not talking in metaphors here. I'm saying the literal amount of energy, as in mass times the speed of light squared energy, it would take to punch through the fabric of reality and out into something else is at least equivalent to what it takes to destroy a planet. Possibly more - I'd have to do the math." For all he knew right now, it might end up being orders of magnitude greater. "And we don't know if Thuban was the one who created that chamber, or if it was somehow created by someone who used the site after him, or even if it existed before him and was the part of the reason why he and his researchers chose that planet. We know nothing about how it came to be, or even what it truly was. All we know is that it's possible for it to exist."

It seemed unnecessarily risky and complicated to try on every level, when Snoke was just another being like them, albeit an incredibly, insiduously cunning one, not some ascendant monster like Thuban was. However, Jacob wasn't the one making the final judgment call. "If the Force is telling you that that's the way to do it, then we'll figure it out. But I just want to make sure, first, that we're not overlooking something less dangerous. After all, the Force made us what we are, who we are, for a reason, and part of that reason is that it intends for us to kill Snoke. The skills and knowledge we already possess are part of that plan in one way or another."

"...You're right." Kylo sighed as well. Force visions weren't an exact science (and if there was one thing Jacob was an expert at, it was science). It also wasn't really all that long ago where he would go to Snoke for a clearer interpretation of what he saw.

Now, he wasn't sure what to believe anymore. He'd been adamant that Ahch-To was where the answers lay, but what if they'd taken that vision too literally too? What if they were still just pawns in Snoke's greater plan... No.

He couldn't allow doubt to cloud his vision any more than Jacob could allow any plan, dangerously reckless or otherwise, to be put into action without proper due diligence. They needed to depend on each other.

"It means something. It has to mean something. Maybe it is only metaphorical, but I know it means something..." he tried to focus on it again - this time in a far less literal sense. "A new perspective? Some kind of balance outside of the conflict between light and dark that doesn't have to be forced... just... just touched..."

Jacob nodded. "Beyond light and dark... there's a whole ocean down there that we can drown him in." And perhaps, sealing him off from the rest of the Force while he was in a place he couldn't get himself back from would do their job for them - if that turned out to be the right technique to use at all; it was thousands of years old, and well proven, but that might just mean that Snoke had devised a way to strike back against it, to protect himself if it was rediscovered.

A sudden thought occurred to Jacob, one that he couldn't help flinching at: Maybe whatever is down there in those depths will tear him apart before we need to figure it out. The Force was an ocean, and in its depths, there slumbered a leviathan - the Chosen One - but right now, after everything they'd seen, it seemed unlikely to think that was all that was down there. Plagueis's writings had indicated as much; he was the latest in a long line of Jedi and Sith who had examined the idea that balance between the light and dark sides was guided by a group of discorporate entities who had merged themselves with the Force thousands of generations ago; he had theorized that perhaps there was a way to get past their function as intermediaries, guiding the fate of the galaxy, to accomplish the same thing Snoke wanted.

Which meant that they wouldn't have to - indeed, shouldn't - drag Snoke all the way down, and the Force would tell them when they were just far enough. Perhaps it would be more like how they'd beaten Thuban than he'd imagined. "The Force made us with gills - metaphorically speaking - and this means we need to start using them."

“Dive in...” he muttered thoughtfully. “Breathe. Flow....”

He caught a glimpse of their battle wth Thuban in his apprentice’s mind, and for a moment, thought to consider whether the Force had been preparing them for this.

“Do you really believe we could do to Snoke what we did to Thuban?”

Even boosted with all the strength his Force wound could provide, could Jacob pierce Snoke’s consciousness? Could they find something, like the disembodied Force spirits, to tear him apart? Was there something in his past, or in the Force itself, that he simply couldn’t defend against?

((sorry for lack of tags x_x tonsillitis is the worst and I long for death's sweet embrace))

Jacob took a deep breath, then let it out slowly, carefully considering the question. "I think his mind would be much more difficult to get into than Thuban's, if it were anyone fighting him but you. You know Snoke better than any other living being in the galaxy, and I'm sure that he's shown you his weaknesses many times - he's done everything he can to blind you to them, but you still know what you're after, at least subconsciously." Snoke had the advantage of knowing them personally, of knowing what made them tick, where they were vulnerable, how to exploit it; however, he'd already overused it, making Kylo and Jacob wise to his tricks, without seeming to consider the idea that they could come back with the same trick against him.

As for whether they'd have help, the way they had with Thuban... that was a tossup. Snoke had wronged a lot of people, no doubt some of them very powerful, a lot more recently than Thuban had, but the Force itself had gone through just as many restructurings and upheavals even in that much shorter time. Their best bet might still be to just appeal to the living, and try to get Kylo's children on their side, but that was equally uncertain.

For now, all they could do was focus on what they were here to accomplish, and let the Force guide them. "All our answers are here," Jacob murmured, closing his eyes.

[never had it, thankfully. But it does sound awful! I hope you’re feeling better, or at least start feeling better soon.]

Kylo considered Jacob’s words very carefully. Although Kylo had been on the receiving end of Snoke’s mind probing many, many times, he hadn’t thought much about the connection itself. It wasn’t until Rey fought back, breached his mind and read his own thoughts that he even realized such a thing were possible. Snoke was furious. At the time, Kylo assumed it was his failure that drew his former master’s ire, but perhaps it was simply the first string to unravel.

Of course.

“There’s no such thing as a one-way connection...” he glanced around the hut, before settling back on Jacob’s. “The Force binds us all. You and me. And Snoke. The bridge... it’s already been built... But I have to find it. And find the strength to cross it.”

And if that plan truly did take shape, Kylo would need to hold that bridge up as long as it took for Jacob to dismantle everything on the other side. A wall of light to keep him from using the Force (or Force-users around him) couldn’t hurt either.

((It's hella stubborn, and I'm still sick with the tail end of it, but at least I'm sort of functional finally.))

If anyone could do it, it was the two of them; of that, Jacob was certain. "You know I have faith in you." He gave Kylo's hand another gentle squeeze, then re-focused himself on the Force.

Though they were investigating a few different routes to accomplish it, their overall strategy was the same: cut Snoke off from the source of his power, crush his mind before he could connive his way out of their trap, and then strike the finishing blow. The shock of Force projection might just be enough of a distraction to catch him off-guard so they could strike the first blow, or perhaps a diversion to keep him from recognizing what their target really was - or perhaps it was meant to distract Kylo's children, who, if they were by Snoke's side, would no doubt make some kind of effort to protect their captor. Either way, the Force had told Kylo it was integral to their success. As for the rest...

Jacob let the island's Force energy wash over him, feeling the ebb and flow of the light side and the dark; it took some time for him to find his way back to that place where he could sense the fact that he was only on the surface, that the Force was a whole ocean beneath him. Remembering the breakthroughs that Kylo had made while they were on Xashiri, Jacob didn't try to draw on the power of those depths the way he would the dark or light side, didn't go into it with any expectation of the Force bringing him anything - he just let it come to him. He stilled his mind, as though trying to stop swimming so he could allow himself to sink.

If Kylo was a bridge to Snoke and the connection could indeed work both ways, then it was far more like their time in Thuban’s temple than he previously considered. He couldn’t trust himself. Not fully. Not without his apprentice to parse through what was real and what wasn’t.

Drawing a deep breath, Kylo pushed himself up to sit on the edge of the cot. He was as quiet, careful not to disturb Jacob’s meditation until he had centered himself properly again. He didn’t focus on the light or the dark. Instead, he stayed in the space between, on the edge of the Force wound where energy itself seemed to swirl like stars around a black hole.

“...Feel what I feel.” He whispered. “Let it flow through you.”

He put a hand on Jacob’s back and closed his eyes. Their breath fell into line and their heartbeats synced.

“Don’t fight it. Don’t accept it. Just... just direct it...”

When Kylo sat up, Jacob shifted position as well, moving to lean his head slightly against Kylo's thigh. He allowed his master's energy to spread gradually into his focus, deepening Jacob's awareness of him in the Force. When Kylo's hand came to rest between his shoulders, Jacob let that awareness draw him in further, and he could feel the way the currents in the Force changed around him, the way the wound in it affected them profoundly - not just on the surface, but all the way down.

Deep waters aren't still.

It was a level of power that Snoke couldn't even begin to fathom, yet this was what he wanted to control. As much as Jacob wanted to think that was impossible, he could already feel how responsive those currents within the Force were.

If Kylo wanted Jacob to direct it, then he could direct it, along with everything that implied.

Through Jacob, Kylo felt the Force more deeply than his own meditation had ever allowed. He was there, and yet not there, present but lost, floating yet sinking down through their bodies, though the soil, through the very core of the planet and into the heart of the galaxy. This was what true power felt like.

It was incredible.

And then, more abruptly, Kylo felt something seize him. Strong hands grabbed his shoulders, physically wrenching him away from his apprentice, pinning him roughly against the cot. Their trance was so deep that it actually took a moment for Kylo to register that this wasn’t a vision. Leia and Rey were just inside in the doorway. Luke Skywalker was literally standing over them both, shouting in panic, “what do you think you’re doing?!”

It took Jacob a moment to pull himself free from the depths of that trance as well, but when he did, he came up swinging. "Get your hands off him!" He managed to connect a decent left hook with Luke's jaw, knocking him back, then tossed up a Force barrier around Kylo and himself before the situation could escalate any further.

He helped Kylo to sit back up on the cot, making room for Jacob to sit down next to him - though he'd acted on instinct to protect his master, he was still disoriented from snapping back out of the trance so quickly. Finally, he asked, "When we touched the deeper energy currents of the Force, what happened? What did we do?"

The effects hadn't seemed particularly dramatic - they'd seemed localized, dissipating like ripples through water, and though they had been alarming as a proof of concept for what Snoke was trying to achieve, in and of themselves they hadn't seemed dangerous.

On the other hand, Jacob couldn't help recalling the archetypal illustration of chaos theory - a butterfly flaps its wings on one side of the planet, and on the other, that tiny disturbance builds into a storm...

When Jacob threw the punch, Leia and Rey both ran foward. Leia tended to Luke while Rey put herself between them, her hand pressing right up against the barrier that Jacob threw up.

It took Kylo longer to come out of the trance. The Force wound inside him was active enough that he still felt he pull of those deep currents. He was aware of the barrier first, then of Jacob’s arms around him, anchoring him to the present - at least until he saw Luke’s horrified face.

“All of you, dabbling in power you can’t possibly understand!” Luke spat. Even after disconnecting himself from the Force, he could feel them. And that feeling scared him more than anything else. When Rey turned to him, he narrowed his eyes even more. “You did it too! Against my wishes, when you went into the mirror cave! The Dark Side calls to you and you dive right in!”

It was the same face he saw that night, albeit this time, without the green glow of his lightsaber. Kylo shivered, but somehow found his voice.

“It’s not the Dark Side. It’s not any side! It’s just the Force!”

“I was right about you. You’re a monster.”

Jacob was back on his feet in an instant, moving toward Luke again. "How kriffing dare you!"

He hadn't even made it to the edge of the barrier when Leia - no, General Organa - took control of the situation. "Icarus!" she snapped in a tone of absolute command that was enough to freeze even the Knight in his tracks. Then, she gave her brother a slight push toward the door of the cottage. "Luke, outside. Go cool off." She nodded toward Rey. "Rey, take a step, back, please."

As Rey backed off, Jacob returned to Kylo's side, wrapping his arms protectively around him. After a few moments, once he was satisfied nothing else was going to happen, the Force barrier flickered out of existence. "...Sorry, General."

It was only now that she began to relax as well that he realized how tense the situation had made her, which only made her control over it even more impressive. "...Tell me what you two were trying to accomplish."

Jacob took a deep breath, then let it out slowly as he tried to find the words to explain it to her. At last, he began with, "We believe that the Force destroyed the Jedi and the Sith for a reason - and that reason was that their way of relating to the Force, through the light and dark sides alone, was no longer beneficial to the life, the spiritual health, of the galaxy itself. Those who were born after the great purge, like all of us, even Luke, are able to connect with the Force on a much deeper level, and we believe that power is what it needs now, to rid itself of Snoke and bring itself into true balance."

“We believe Snoke is attempting to access this power... or at least something like it. But he can’t... not yet.” Kylo added. “If he could, he wouldn’t be trying to influence and control so many Force sensitives. He wouldn’t have needed to turn me into... into this...”

He gestured weakly to his chest. The Force wound was a microcosm of a larger phenomenon. The ebb and flow of the entire galaxy was wedged inside his heart and soul. The damage done to his body and mind was extensive, and whether any of it could be reversed was still being researched.

“He’s trying to push the balance of power so far to one side that it will destroy everything. But fighting back from the other side... it’s just going to give him something else to feed off of... the... the answer is balance. Exchanging power for true balance.”

He glanced at his mother, but diverted his eyes again.

“That’s what we were trying to do.”

Jacob gently pulled Kylo a little closer, stroking his back lightly, and as he did, he noticed a faint tinge of pain in Leia's eyes - that she hadn't been there for her son, that she couldn't be the one to comfort him now. Secretly, he found it just a little gratifying, seeing how aware she was of the mistakes she'd made.

Rey's gaze, meanwhile, was unfocused as she hung onto their every word, turning them over in her mind. It was clear that what Kylo and Jacob had discovered was what she'd been looking for, the piece she'd felt was missing from her own efforts to connect with the Force, and Jacob was about to ask if she wanted to train with them when Leia began speaking again, her tone calm and measured.

"How can you be sure that you aren't just playing into Snoke's hands, or that you're not going to do the same kind of damage to the Force you're trying to prevent him from inflicting?" She asked as though she actually expected them to have a reasonable answer to that question, which made Jacob feel a little better.

"We've both already learned to recognize how Snoke's influence feels inside our minds, and we know how to reject it so that we won't fall into his traps again. What's more, the part of the Force we're communing with now is one that he doesn't have access to - which is something that will make it easier to listen to its voice and shut out his. And, believe me, we are listening for it, because attuning ourselves to the will of the Force is the only way to, as you said, avoid the kind of destruction that Snoke is seeking to inflict."

Jacob was far more confident than Kylo in his answer. He deeply feared that, at some level, they were still playing into Snoke's hands. His former master had always known what he was going to do before he did it. Snoke knew Kylo Ren better than Kylo Ren knew himself. This could have been a trap all along...

But he didn't feel that, even if his worst fears were realized, that the end result would damage the Force as Snoke intended.

"If we are playing into his hands, it will be by opening a door that he can't..." he added. "But that is why my apprentice is here with me. I know I am a link to Snoke. He was manipulating me before I even knew how to talk. My apprentice... I trust him to see through my visions and help me parse the will of the Force from Snoke's will."

Kylo found Jacob's hand and squeezed it gently.

"I am a power source. I am a bridge. I... I'm a conduit of the Force. Nothing more."

((Unpacking is even worse than packing x_x but at least it's finally all done except for a few odds and ends I need to find a place for))

Jacob gave Kylo's hand another gentle squeeze in return. "You need to give yourself more credit than that. You were the one who broke his hold over me - if not for you, I would've gone along with his plans despite the disaster they would have unleashed." Snoke hadn't needed to push hard for that, though - it was Jacob's natural inclination to experiment, to try to determine whether things were possible without necessarily considering how good an idea they were. When Jacob was determined to resist, however, it was an entirely different matter; there might still be moments when Snoke would manage to derail him, but they would only be moments. He'd find his way quickly back to the path the Force had laid out for him.

No matter what, he'd be the compass Kylo needed. Nothing his master asked of him would ever be too much.

Jacob turned his attention back to Leia. "Does that answer your question sufficiently?"

She nodded briefly. "I'll see if I can't have a talk with Luke, and convince him to give you the benefit of the doubt. He knows just as well as you do that there's no longer a place in the galaxy for the Jedi - or the Sith - but I think it scares him, not knowing what's coming next."

"We can still do this without him if we have to," Jacob replied. The thought of introducing Luke to a new source of power didn't sit well with him when, once they left here, they'd all be enemies again - but then, a tiny voice was starting to whisper in the back of his mind that, maybe, if they all understood the Force a little better, a little differently, they'd understand each other as well and things wouldn't need to be like that.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject