ladyofleithian | Chapter 32: Lisaris

In which Lisaris and Ben meet for the first time.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

“You think that Haranka’s going to be here?” Poe said.

They were on the strange space station that was, indeed, called Starkiller Station. It was the sort of station that, name aside, really did give Ben a strange, creepy feeling just being on it. “I have a bad feeling about this” was cliche, of course, but here, Ben knew that there was something about the station that already made him feel as if something ominous was lurking there, something they wouldn’t want to uncover.

“It’s our best bet,” Ben said. “I mean, I reached through the Force, I sensed something...he has to be here.”

There was also the promise of finding Snoke, whoever he was, and ending the war. Even that thought was too wonderful to even think about -- the war ending, Snoke being captured and brought to trial, everything turning out all right. Even the letters that he heard from Poe over the course of the war broke his heart. Just the people that Poe ended up killing, just for starters.

“I don’t know,” Poe said. “I just have a feeling that this is going to end badly.” He kept his hand on his blaster. “Best we come prepared, huh?”

Ben nodded.

It was walking further in that Ben sensed a presence -- but it wasn’t Haranka. It was a different presence, pure heat, similar to the presence he had felt as a child, when he had been afraid and needed solace from his parents’ arguments and his father’s frequent departures, but where that presence had been warm

if almost too warm, actually

this presence felt too much like Jakku, and stumbling for water. It was like being back five years and being alone on Jakku.

“Ben?” Annie’s voice. “You feel it too?”

“Yeah.” Was it familiar? Even the idea that his old friend could somehow be involved in the slaving business was enough to make Ben terrified to find out. He almost didn’t want to round that corner. He almost didn’t want to find out the identity of whoever was behind that corner.

But he was a Jedi and so, he had to.

He rounded the corner, and the presence got hotter, all but assaulting him with waves of pure heat. There was a voice in his mind that sounded not deep and resonant but mellow, almost ordinary in nature. These are the Jedi who have come to face me? Their pilot too? Not very impressive...

Ben would show that man impressive, at any rate. At least it wasn't his old childhood friend. The voice in his mind was too ordinary to be that.

And in front of him, a glimmer of gold at first, was a man in a gold mask and dark robes.

Ben could have sworn that he’d seen the man in the golden mask before. In a dream, in a nightmare. He could still remember how, exactly, this came out. A man in a gold mask with a long flowing cape. The long, elegant red lightsaber. He seemed almost like something from a nightmare.

“Hello, Ben Solo.” Even his voice sounded strange, like the vocoder in his mask was damaged. “So you’re the one that the Supreme Leader’s talked so much about.”

“Has he?”

“A great deal, actually. He speaks...quite highly of you.” The man in the gold mask raised his lightsaber. “Why don’t we put that to the test?”

Ben drew his lightsaber and ignited it.

Their lightsabers clashed, and Ben was struck in that moment just by how outclassed he was. He wasn’t exactly what you called terrible at lightsaber combat, but in comparison to this man, he was practically an amateur. There was a certain style to him -- Makashi, Ben knew, from his lessons. In contrast, Ben’s own style seemed to be woefully underdeveloped.

The man in the gold mask sounded scornful as he spoke. “If this is the best that the Supreme Leader thinks can lead us, then I daresay he’s lowered his standards.”

“I would never lead you.” And at the same time, anger roared in Ben’s ears. I’ll show you lowered standards. By the Force, I’ll show you.

Their lightsabers continued to clash, Ben’s saber pressing against the strange figure’s red one, and they pressed into one another, relentless, ruthless, as around them, chaos reigned in the form of lightsabers against vibroblades, blasters against blasters.

Blasters.

Makashi is vulnerable to blasters, isn’t it?

Ben turned to look at Poe, nodded. Poe fired off a whole round of shots towards the man in the gold mask and it took a change in form entirely in order to fend off the bolts. The man in the gold mask hissed as another bolt hit him in the shoulder, yanked it out, pounded against the wound.

“You’re resourceful, I’ll grant you that,” said the man in the gold mask. “But that won’t be enough to save you, I’m afraid. You have hate, you have anger, and yet you’re scared to use them, aren’t you?”

As I should be.

They continued clashing, Ben’s lightsaber ruthless against the other’s, straining to catch the lightsaber before it could get to him. Sparks rose between the sabers, and sizzling heat hissed before Ben’s face along with the smell of his robes starting to char.

The pain of the lightsaber blade burning against his arm was enough to make Ben’s vision go white, the image of the gold mask looming above him even as he lapsed into unconsciousness.