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A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, there lived a prince.
The prince’s parents were heroes, having been leaders in the fight to save their galaxy from an evil Emperor, who used dark magic to destroy the Republic and its protectors. But even though his heroic parents defeated the Emperor’s great evil, darkness still lived in the galaxy’s Unknown Regions, darkness that wanted desperately to corrupt the fair prince, to use his magical powers in the way the Emperor had.
The prince was frightened, and grew up with nightmares and headaches from the whispers at the back of his mind.
The dark sorcerer did not give up, and finally succeeded in luring the prince away from his family and the Light Side; he was turned to serve evil, believing his family was afraid of him, that they no longer wanted him, that he could never live up to their expectations.
However, darkness rises, and light to meet it.
The evil sorcerer’s actions had far greater consequences than he would ever care to admit or even deign to realize, so arrogant and confident was he since he had stolen the young prince away from his mighty bloodline and supposedly foretold destiny.
On a planet far from where the once good prince was born and raised, a young woman grew tall and strong in the midst of a barren desert, not realizing she had a puissant magical power of her own. Like the prince, hers was a power of the light, of all that was good in the galaxy, but likewise was her power tinged by a deep and powerful darkness, one that grew steadily with each tendril the evil sorcerer extended towards the prince.
The morning after the prince abandoned his uncle’s teachings and his parents, she awoke to find her lithe, human female body was that of a dragon.
She eventually figured out how to make herself human again. She could not explain why sometimes she would become a dragon; the prince could, if he had known the young woman and what her existence could mean for him. If the evil sorcerer had known of the power she possessed, he would have also tried to turn her. He would have haunted her life the way he had the prince. But he was focused entirely on the prince, and neglected to consider those he thought lesser. Less important, less powerful, less worthy of his attention.
His overconfidence would be his weakness, just as the Emperor before him.
While the young woman who turned into a dragon toiled away under the hot desert sun, the evil sorcerer set his plans into motion.
Kylo Ren’s nefarious mission had gone horribly wrong. He and his troops had landed on a desert planet the night prior, expecting little resistance from the small village they attacked; they were now exhausted from trudging through the sand, searching for a small orange and white dog with a leather pouch containing an ancient map about its neck. The creature was both feisty and cunning, and had eluded their grasp for far too long.
Kylo grew impatient. And as all those who pray for patience know, the less you have and the more you crave, the more you shall be mired in situations which call for patience.
Kylo Ren was no different. He and his troops soon found their way blocked by the most mundane of all obstacles: another village. An outpost, to be precise, one which they had marked on their maps as a place to find water and trade. Niima Outpost was the only attempt at civilization in kilometers; the forbidding desert and its unmarked graveyards were dangerous for those who knew the terrain, even more so the rare outsider who happened to descend upon Jakku’s sands.
It was at Niima Outpost that the prince and his troops, all wearing heavy masked armor and weary from their journey, finally encountered their prey once more.
There was but one further complication: a young woman in desert garb, bearing a heavy staff, the pet leashed to her side.
“I will deal with her,” Kylo told his captain, a tall woman called Phasma with gleaming armor and a black cape befitting her rank.
“Yes, my lord,” she replied, signalling her troops to spread throughout the area, collecting supplies forcefully and remaining on guard.
Kylo approached the young woman. As he drew close, however, she seemingly sensed his approach and whirled on him with her staff, her eyes narrowing.
As he met her eyes, he was struck as if physically in sensing her power.
He dodged her strike, but far more slowly than he would have preferred; he had been distracted by the realization that she could be a powerful magic user such as himself.
He drew his blade, and bore down on her. The creature at her side yelped in indignation.
“Who are you?” she asked in a graceful lilt belying her ferocious staff swings.
“I am Kylo Ren, and you have something of mine,” he replied, twirling his blade with particular flourish.
“I already told Plutt the hound’s not for sale. And he doesn’t belong to you either.” She took another vicious swing at him, hitting him square in the face.
Kylo tasted blood, and knew not only was his nose broken, but there was an open gash that would undoubtedly scar. He was thankful for his mask; she was like to cave his skull in with the power of her blows if she were to land another.
He snarled, and lashed out with both his blade and his magic. The young woman fell to the ground; he had managed to slash the top of her arm.
He attempted to hold her in place with his magic, but she eluded him; the beast had long run off, barking and yowling the whole way. Kylo’s troops could handle that. This mysterious girl required his full attention now.
She growled at him, her eyes becoming dark and feral. He could almost see her exhaled breath, so intent were they on fighting.
Their blows met once more, and she turned away, seemingly displaying a long, dark tail now.
Kylo’s vision was swimming; he could feel the blood on his face, taste it in his mouth. His head was throbbing. He called upon his magic once more to sustain him, rather than attack where he perceived the scavenger girl to be.
But she was there no longer. She was no longer a lithe, tall young woman, standing upright on two legs, swinging a staff viciously.
She was a dragon, fierce and majestic, now snarling and bellowing smoke.
He dropped his blade and fell to his knees before her. She now towered over him, her transformation complete.
She roared towards the now setting sun, and the remaining desert dwellers and scavengers at the outpost fled for their lives.
Kylo reached a tendril of his power out towards the dragon woman, to see if he could still find the humanity beneath the scales, the light he had glimpsed and felt behind the ferocious darkness. Her power was akin, a twin to his own, he belatedly realized. A light, twisted to serve the darkness.
While it had been years since his magic training with his uncle, a powerful wizard, Kylo remembered hearing legends of powerful magic users who could transform into beasts at their choosing.
There was no way the young woman would have been able to do so of her own choosing, he realized. She was cursed somehow, like him.
He reached out his power toward her once more, trying to reach her mind, see how she had done it, but she snarled and reared up, breathing fire at him and chasing him out of his mind.
He backed up slowly, still holding his hands up to her as if to surrender, and tried once more.
He saw an island, an ocean, dreams of paradise that she envisioned to lull herself to sleep at night, give herself hope for tomorrow, the next day, the interminable future she had to face alone in the desert.
She had no family. She longed for them desperately. She was angry and hurting, though she swallowed and pushed that down far inside herself, seeking always to be kind to others though she had never received any kindness from anyone.
Had the hound let her see the map? He tried to push and see it, but she threw him out of her mind so violently that in a split second he knew she had breached his own shields.
His own memories swam before his eyes; she could see all of his own fear, anger, pain and frustration, so much like her own.
Their minds and souls were bonded in that instant, and she pulled back from his mind, coming back into her own. Her body became that of a woman once more, and she gained access to her own prodigious magic, a reserve she had unknowingly tapped into over the years when she didn’t have enough food, enough strength to go on.
For a moment, they both sat flat in the sand, breathing heavily, staring at one another.
She was beautiful, the prince belatedly realized. She was beautiful, and powerful, and strong. And he could help her.
“Rey,” came to his lips. He was uncertain of what to say next, but it did not matter, for she replied before he could continue.
“Kylo Ren is not your name,” she said, getting up with her staff and stalking towards him.
“You’re Ben Solo, the missing prince. You had a family who loved you, who gave a damn about you. Why do you hate them so much?”
“I didn’t hate them,” he found himself replying.
“You’re more of a monster than me,” she retorted.
“Yes, I am,” he said, looking down at the ground. He could not meet her eyes. He knew both of them had tears threatening. He would not cry in front of this girl.
“You need a teacher,” he told her. “I could teach you the ways of magic.”
“I will not serve the darkness,” she spat back.
It was at that moment that one of Kylo’s soldiers felt brave enough to approach. “Sir, we must return to our ship. The Supreme Leader has made contact.” He kept a very wary distance from the dragon girl. She knew he was staring at her, his mouth gaping, even under his helmet.
“We will meet again,” Kylo told Rey, and stalked off with his troops, leaving Niima Outpost in a ruin.
The map the orange and white hound, BB-8, carried in the leather pouch at his collar led to an ancient island on a planet none had ever heard of before.
There, Rey found Kylo’s uncle, Luke Skywalker, the second-most powerful wizard there ever was.
And there, he refused to train her until she wore him down with her persistence and energy.
He feared the darkness within her as he feared the darkness within his nephew. But Rey had not become a dragon while she remained on the island; not until Luke discovered her communing with Kylo in her hut.
Luke’s powers blew her hut to smithereens. Her powers caused him to lose their subsequent duel, a dragon towering over him and smoke from her nostrils becoming steam in the pouring rain.
For she had learned both sides of the sordid family history, that which caused Ben Solo, the good and valiant prince, to abandon his family and choose to serve Supreme Leader Snoke, the dark presence that had been haunting him his entire life.
“If I go to him, Ben Solo will return,” Rey vowed when she returned to her human body.
“This will not go the way you think,” the old wizard replied.
They were both wrong. Ben Solo could not return, not as he was before. But he did return to the light, thanks to Rey.
The prince’s master, the dark sorcerer Snoke, was a formidable foe, but with Ben at her back, Rey felt as though she could do anything to which she set her mind and her power. They moved as one, breathed as one, beginning a deadly battle dance of light and dark magic.
Snoke realized his mistake in underestimating both the dragon woman and his apprentice too late. History repeated itself, and the dark sorcerer who sought to control the entire galaxy fell once more.
The prince killed his abuser, his greatest enemy, with the woman he loved by his side, her curse broken with his death.
Their battle was not yet won, however.
Together, they destroyed the evil sorcerer’s guards, one by one. Back to back, they swung their blades, striking each foe with deadly aim. The guards were heavily armored and though not magical, trained in how to avoid and counter the magic arts, but they were no match for Ben and Rey.
Their path afterward was not easy, even though the battle was won. The prince was hesitant to return to his family, and both would forever have to struggle with the darkness within them and feeling lonely, the burden of their power.
But nevertheless the prince and the dragon lived happily ever after, striving always to find the balance between the light and the dark.