ladyofleithian | For hc

Title: Ghosts

Summary: The death of Alora Danes-Skywalker.

Prompt: Disappearing

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

They had to disappear just to get away from Snoke, Alora knew that much, yet being parted from her husband wasn't what one would call easy. Disappearing, in fact, was the opposite of easy. It was just the matter of taking on the alias of Mara Jade, dyeing your hair, and going to help out in a town that was devastated by the First Order. Helping them rebuild.

Alora still couldn't believe that her nephew had done this. Ben, who was so gentle and so kind, doing something as atrocious as this...

How could he?

We're there any warning signs that he would do it? Even going through her memories, Alora couldn't think of anything. Ben had been so kind, so gentle -- even pressuring himself to work harder after Thomas' death hadn't necessarily meant he would burn down a village.

It wasn't easy, burying the dead, trying to rebuild what Ben had destroyed, but at least Alora could try. She could try, and she could work at building a better life for those people. Force knew they deserved as much.

***

It was there that she met Faith. Faith, only twenty-five years old and having lost her husband of seven years to one of Ben's raids. Alora didn't tell Faith about her nephew being involved in all this. There were some things that it was better to keep to yourself. This was just one of them.

Alora hadn't lost her husband -- her husband had just gone very far away. But there was no doubt she could listen to Faith, comfort her, help out with giving food to the refugees. Even a little kindness, after all, could resist the Dark.

***
It didn't mean that she didn't grieve for her nephew. Sometimes when she woke up in a cold sweat trying not to scream, remembering the bodies, Ben saying emphatically that he couldn't go home after what he had done, that he'd killed them, she grieved for him. It was one day on the job that Faith asked her about it.

"Mara," she said, "Are you all right?"

Alora nodded. "I am. I'm just remembering my nephew. He..." She trailed off. She wasn't the lying type. But how could she explain to Faith what had happened? "He joined the First Order."

"I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault. I do miss him. He was a good man, once upon a time." And Alora began talking about Ben, about his virtues and his shortcomings. And for a moment, she could swear that the man who was her nephew was once again in front of her, the man she saw as a child of her own, the man she still, after all this time, loved.

When she was done, Faith said, "Whatever happened, it wasn't your fault. The First Order...I hear they do awful things to their recruits. Maybe that's what happened to your nephew. I'm sorry, Mara."

"It's not your fault," Alora said. "It never could be."

***
It was one dawn when Alora woke up sharply, feeling a disturbance in the Force. A scorching hot presence, and voices crying out in fear and pain. And she knew that Ben was back. He usually arrived when it seemed that things couldn't get any worse, she heard. When stormtroopers had already laid waste to everything, Ben was sure to follow, just to finish the job.

She grabbed her lightsaber in that moment, ignited it, and ran towards the battlefield that was now the village that she had spent quite some time cleaning up, healing. Stormtroopers were already cutting down civilians, and Alora took out her lightsaber, deflecting every bolt, watching them fall.

She couldn't help but feel sick doing it; she knew they were brainwashed into thinking all these innocent people were evil and needed to be destroyed. But to defend these people, Alora knew that she would do anything she could.

All the while, Faith escorted them towards the hangar, and turned to meet Alora's eyes. She didn't say anything, just a nod. Goodbye, Mara.

Alora could only hope that she would be safe.

Finally, from the shadows, she heard Phasma speaking in her cold, mechanical voice. "Sir. The transports."

Ben's voice. "They're harboring traitors to the First Order and protectors of a murderer," he said. "Shoot them down."

And it was then that Alora came forward.

"Ben!"

Both Phasma and Ben seemed to be surprised at the use of his name, but recovered quickly. "Sir," she said, "Do you need assistance?"

"There is no need," Ben said. "I will handle this Jedi myself. Find the transports and shoot them down."

Alora didn't hesitate. She reached through the Force and froze Phasma. She turned to look at Ben.

"They have nothing to do with it," she said. "Please. Let them go." She knew that trying to reason with a member of the First Order was likely futile, but she had to say something.

Ben tilted his head. "You would be willing to fight for them?"

"In a heartbeat," Alora said.

Ben drew his lightsaber in that moment, twirling it in a way that Alora could recognize too well. There was something odd about his new lightsaber, something that seemed unstable, flickering even, not quite complete. But it wasn't something you could be fooled by. This lightsaber had taken many lives.

Alora drew hers, and the duel began. Ben was...good, she thought, but he still didn't seem to have much training. Not as much as, say, her husband had. And he seemed to be holding himself back. Almost as if, even for all his crimes, he couldn't bring himself to kill his own kin.

"You're hesitating," she said, after she had managed to nick him on the arm.

A sound behind Ben's helmet that sounded incredulous. "You are gravely mistaken, Skywalker." Skywalker. As if they were no more than strangers. Even that word was enough to burn like a lightsaber wound.

"You are. You can do all these terrible things, and yet you can't kill me."

"You know nothing about me," Ben said coldly. "I could kill you with just a swipe of my lightsaber."

"But you wouldn't," Alora said. "Because I think there's something in there that Snoke can't reach. Things like love, compassion, a belief in the goodness of the galaxy. And I doubt he can reach them because he doesn't understand them. There is still good in you, Ben. I can feel it. And Snoke can try, but he can't drive it from you."

Silence. Then, "I...am not a good man, Alora." Ben didn't cry, but there was a certain quiet in his voice suggesting that he wasn't as certain in himself as he thought.

Alora's heart ached for him. "You are better than you believe. Than Snoke believes. Come home, Ben. There's still a chance."

"There is no chance."

"There is." A beat. "Take off that mask, Ben. If not permanently, temporarily. Just so I can see your face."

A pause. "What do you expect to see, Alora?"

"My nephew's face."

Silence. Then, slowly, Ben unmasked.

He was definitely thinner and sadder than he was, Alora thought, but he was very much Ben still. He had a sort of mixture of defiance and vulnerability on his face -- his eyes were too expressive, as always.

"Your nephew is gone," Ben said. "He was weak, foolish, disgusting, and he deserves to be gone."

"No, he doesn't," Alora said. "And he's not dead either. He's alive in you."

"He's dead."

"He's alive in you. You don't want to admit it, no doubt, but he's alive in you. You couldn't kill me because he was still alive in you. Even at the Academy he was alive in you, pleading for help." Alora looked at him, trying to retrieve something from those eyes. "He still lives. And I want to help him, if I can."

Silence. When Ben spoke again, it was quiet, subdued. "You can't help me."

"I can. Come home."

"I've gone too far."

"Your grandfather was redeemed, Ben. You can be too."

Ben paused. Then he said, "That was -- "

"Not that different."

Silence. Finally, Ben spoke. "I was ordered to kill you when I came here. The Supreme Leader doesn't want any surviving Jedi out there."

"No one to oppose him?" Alora said.

Silence.

"He's lying to you, Ben. Whatever he told you, he lied."

Silence. Ben seemed to hesitate. Then he drew his lightsaber again, and Alora sighed, drawing hers again. The duel was back on. She had hoped that she could talk some sense into Ben, get him to realize what Snoke was doing. But it seemed that was not to be.

"Now who's holding back?" Ben said even as they fought.

"I don't want to kill you, Ben."

"Not wise of you."

"I can't kill you." Another clash of saber against saber. "I just can't."

Finally, the lightsaber went through her own, destroying it without much effort. Alora looked up at him, reaching out for her Force powers, knocking him back. He got back up. They struggled, throwing Force powers at one another until Alora was prone on the ground.

Kylo Ren raised his lightsaber.

The lightsaber went through her heart in that moment. And there, she reached out with her last bit of strength towards her murderer, who looked at her with a sort of conflict, as if wondering if he had done the right thing.

I forgive you, Ben.

Then all went black.

***
It was on Jakku that Rey felt it. A woman's presence, loving, warm, and too familiar.

Jaina, you're so very loved. Mom loves you. Dad loves you. You've been so incredibly brave, Jaina. Stay strong. Stay brave. Don't ever doubt what you've done.

Was it for her? But her name was Rey, not Jaina, wasn't it? She knew that much. Perhaps it was just another dream.

Rey closed her eyes, thinking of the island again if only to help her get back to sleep.

***
On Ach-To, Luke already felt his wife, his wonderful wife, fade out suddenly, and he knew that she was gone. Another part of his world had abruptly ended. And yet he could feel his wife's ghostly hand on his cheek all the while.

I love you, Luke. I always will. And even beyond the grave, in the Force, love never dies.

"No." Aloud, to the emptiness of Ach-To, the seemingly endless oceans, Luke spoke. "No, it doesn't."

On Ach-To, from that point on, every day, Luke always listened for Alora, looked for her in the Force. He didn't know if he would live to see Snoke overthrown, or if he would join Alora in the Force before that happened, but he prayed that one day he would see her there, on the other side.