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The Light was a punishment for all of his sins. He found it hard to live everyday with the grace he had been afforded. But just as his heart kept beating—albeit painfully—he found the will to keep living.

 

“Ben.”

He could not raise his head. He knew that he had to, had to at least acknowledge the pleading voice...

“Ben, you must get up. Ben, please.”

You murdered my mother.

“Ben...I need you.”

I need her.

“What have I ever asked of you that you could not do?”

I cannot do this. Dad, help me...I can’t...I can’t...

“Are you calling...for him?” And with that, the boy’s body was wracked with lightning—Dark punishment in light form.

He screamed, but he did not call for anyone. No one deserved to share in his pain; he could not inflict it on anyone. He could not share it...

But Dad knows. He knows anyway...and he is coming...

“You think he is coming for you...even now?” The master laughed mirthlessly. The coldness in his laugh could have hurt the apprentice, but he was far beyond it.

“You think you are beyond this. Oh, Ben...what an apprentice you will be! How the galaxy will tremble at your power!”

“You...”

It was the first he had spoken in a long time. All background noise ceased; the master was listening.

“If you...tremble...that will...be...enough...” Ben Skywalker raised his gashed face and searched for his cousin’s dark eyes.

Jacen Solo stared down at the child at his feet. His eyes smoldered with something between hate and...love. After all the pair had been through, Jacen still loved Ben.

A sliver of Light remains.

Ben’s fearlessly clear eyes matched his cousin’s stare.

And Ben thought, But it is not enough.

Jacen extended his hand, his eyes suddenly warm and welcoming. Red haze danced across Ben’s vision; instinctively, he reached.

As their hands met, no Jedi alive was left in doubt of that moment.

 

And in that moment, Luke Skywalker broke.