Once upon a time, in a kingdom far far away, there lived a beautiful queen named Leia. Queen Leia’s beauty was surpassed only by her intelligence and courage. She and her younger twin brother, Prince Luke, were born with special magical powers. While Prince Luke trained with older wizards to hone and strengthen his powers, Queen Leia concentrated on governing her kingdom and helping to lead its armies. After fighting a long war to win her kingdom back from an evil empire, she decided to settle down and take a consort.
Queen Leia’s consort, Han, had fought alongside her in the war for her kingdom. He was not royal (and refused to accept a royal title), and he did not have magical powers, but he was very handsome and smart and brave, and most importantly, he made the Queen laugh.
About five years after the war was won, Queen Leia and Han welcomed a beautiful baby boy with a head of shiny dark hair and solemn brown eyes. He was born with the same special powers as Queen Leia and Prince Luke.
The queen and her consort loved their son more than anything, but they were both very busy and could not spend as much time with him as they wanted. Prince Ben, as he was called, wanted for nothing material as he grew up. But he was a very lonely boy.
Prince Ben’s loneliness was the reason that he listened to the voice that began to creep into his dreams when he was very small. The voice told the little prince that his parents didn’t love him. Instead, they feared his powers, which the voice told him were even greater than his mother’s or his uncle’s.
The voice, unbeknownst to Prince Ben, belonged to an evil sorcerer named Snoke, who had had designs on the prince since his birth. Snoke saw how powerful the boy was and plotted to use Prince Ben’s powers for his own evil ends. However, Snoke lacked the patience to deal with a small boy, so he bided his time.
Due to Queen Leia and Han’s frequent absences, Snoke had quite a bit of time to speak to the young prince and warp his mind against his parents. Ben grew up into a sulky, moody boy who rebuffed his parents’ affection.
Finally, when Prince Ben was about twelve, the queen and her consort sat him down and told him they were sending him to his uncle. It was Queen Leia’s hope that her brother could train her son to use his powers, which she thought were causing his unrest.
Prince Ben, however, felt that his parents had finally abandoned him once and for all, dumping him off at Prince Luke’s remote castle. Prince Luke was concerned for his nephew, but could not get through to the boy, which saddened him.
Meanwhile, the evil sorcerer Snoke saw his opportunity. At Prince Luke’s castle, Prince Ben was much less closely guarded than he had been at Queen Leia’s palace. So, one night, Snoke sent his wraiths to snatch Prince Ben as he slept. The wraiths brought the prince to Snoke’s stronghold, where he was locked high in a tower.
Snoke appeared to him once he arrived, his apparition hovering ominously near the window. Prince Ben recoiled in horror upon seeing the sorcerer for the first time. Snoke’s wizened, scarred appearance and gaudy gold robe put him off immediately. All at once, Prince Ben knew he’d been lied to by the person he thought would save him from his loneliness. He agreed forlornly when Snoke told him that he was no longer Prince Ben but was now the dark Prince Kylo.
Prince Kylo was alone in the tower, with nothing to do but read and practice his calligraphy. Eventually, he felt his muscles beginning to wither, so he set up makeshift exercise equipment for himself. One of the books in his tower outlined a workout plan. Every day, he did hundreds of pull-ups, pushups, and leg presses.
Despite Prince Kylo’s incarceration, trays floated into the window with well-prepared meals; if he wanted more, he had only to ask. Because he was given all the nutritious food he could eat, Prince Kylo grew up big and strong, and his dark, lustrous hair grew and grew.
Snoke would visit him, and because there were no stairs in Prince Kylo’s tower, the evil sorcerer would stand below the window and shout,
Prince Kylo, Prince Kylo,
Let down your hair!
Let in your master,
With dark knowledge to share!
And, because Prince Kylo had no choice-–he’d learned this the hard way, when Snoke had burned him with lightning-–he would unwind the long braid from his head and let it out the window for Snoke to climb.
After entering his window, Snoke would begin interminable lessons in the dark arts, ranting and raving about how they would conquer Prince Kylo’s mother’s kingdom again and rule together. Snoke had once used Prince Kylo to punish Sir Dopheld, a knight who Snoke felt had become disloyal. Snoke had forced Prince Kylo to use his powers to strangle the poor knight, crushing his throat until Sir Dopheld begged for mercy. Sir Dopheld had lived, but Prince Kylo had gone to bed sick.
Prince Kylo only half-listened to Snoke, thankfully able to take instruction with ease and do the little exercises Snoke insisted he perform.
One day, Prince Kylo heard a disturbance under his window and peeked out. As far as he could tell from the yelling, Lord Dameron, one of Queen Leia’s loyal vassals, had been riding by and had simply snatched Sir Finn, who had been guarding the tower. Prince Kylo only smiled to himself and tried not to appear pleased when Snoke came to rant about the incident later.
That night, as he laid down to sleep, he allowed himself a tiny, private hope. If Lord Dameron had made it home safely, Queen Leia would know where he was, and he might escape Snoke’s tower. He understood now that he’d been lied to, and he wanted nothing more than to see his parents again.
But days and days passed. Prince Kylo had been secretly marking off days in the front of one of his books. So much time had gone by since Lord Dameron’s daring abduction of Sir Finn that Prince Kylo had begun to despair. He’d become melancholy and found himself not wanting to read or practice his calligraphy or do anything that required thought. When he wasn’t exercising, he simply sat before his window. Sometimes he cried when it got to be too much.
Prince Kylo was doing this very thing when he heard a shout below him:
Prince Ben, Prince Ben,
Let down your tresses,
I’ll take you home.
We’ll clean up these messes!
It had been so long since Prince Kylo had been called Ben that it took him a moment. He’d just finished his exercises and didn’t have on a shirt, but didn’t even think of that as he leaned out the window and hurriedly unwound his braid. As he did so, he noticed that the figure was distinctly female and that the horse behind her looked quite a bit like his father’s.
The figure he’d seen wasted no time getting up and through the window. Once she was in, she stood there a moment, and Prince Kylo simply marveled at her.
“Lady Rey, at your service, Prince Ben.” She curtsied deeply, then straightened up. She wore his mother’s colors.
Prince Kylo tried to figure out if the reason he thought she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen was that she’d come to rescue him, or if she just was. More tears flowed from Prince Kylo’s eyes as he attempted to reach a conclusion.
“Are you okay? Don’t you have something you can put on? Were you crying?” Rapid-fire questions came at him as he simply gaped at her.
“I …” was all he could get out.
“Stop your crying,” she ordered.
The prince’s tear ducts immediately dried up upon her command, and, in a daze, he went to his closet to get a shirt. As he pulled it over his head, he came back to himself.
“Is that… Is that Falcon, milady?” he asked.
“No, but she’s Falcon’s daughter, Millennium.” Lady Rey stood up a bit straighter. “A gift from your father, Prince Ben.”
“My parents… they’re still . . still?” Prince Ben asked, breathless.
“Yes, they’re alive and well and they want you back! That’s why I’m here! I met Sir Finn and–-look, we don’t have a lot of time. Is there anything you need to take with you?” Lady Rey’s gaze on him softened a bit.
“No, I don’t want anything from here! Can we go now?” Prince Ben’s eyes were eager; dried of tears, they wanted only freedom. “Oh … but how will we get down?” His eyes clouded once more.
“I’ve got an idea, if you don’t mind too much.” Lady Rey unsheathed the sword at her hip, the ultra-pure metal shining blue in the sunlight. “Give me your hair.”
Prince Ben would have given her anything she asked for in that moment, up to and including the moon and stars. Wordlessly, he offered her his braid. Lady Rey cut it off smoothly, then reached out the window and tied it securely to the tower.
“You go down first,” she commanded, her tone brooking no argument. “If I don’t make it down, you get on Millennium and ride her till you’re home.
“But, Lady Rey-–” the prince protested.
“Enough. I told your mother I’d get you home. I made no such promise about myself.” Lady Rey’s exquisite hazel eyes had improbably taken on the color of steel.
Something told Prince Ben that if he chose to defy her, whatever he’d face in here was far worse than what he’d face if he went out the window and shimmied down his own braid to the ground. His head felt so much lighter, both literally and figuratively, but he couldn’t take too much time to dwell on that as he made sure Lady Rey got down safely.
As she came down the last few feet, Prince Ben simply reached up and caught her in his arms. She rolled her eyes at him, and he pretended not to notice as he carried her over to where Millennium stood waiting. They got on the horse together, and rode home to freedom.
When they finally got home, Queen Leia and her consort Han were overjoyed to see their son and also very happy to see the way he looked at Lady Rey.
Prince Luke volunteered to lead the queen’s armies against Snoke. The evil sorcerer was vanquished once and for all.
Queen Leia and Han ruled happily for many, many more years.
Prince Ben married his fierce Lady Rey.
And they all lived happily ever after.