*passing you the tissue*

The Jedi Knights and Masters stumbled over the slick mud and shale. Lightning crackled across the sky, blinding them. Fog hung low to the ground, diffusing the bolts into bright swaths of light. The roar of thunder continued for many seconds, tapering into a high-pitched whine.

The Jedi ducked while two TIE fighters roared overhead, within in meters of them. Bright green laser bolts radiated into wide flares.

The Jedi gasped when the blasts struck the academy lodge.

Naluma grabbed onto Kallay and Kalder. The deaths. Padawan . . . dying . . . one . . . two . . . three more.

The Jedi Knights stormed the hill—

Out of the fog, a cadre of dark-masked figures appeared, each holding red lightsabers. Naluma felt it then. The evil. The utter evil. Whatever had been shielding them earlier was now gone. Bile crept up her throat. Another Padawan death weakened her.

"I don't know why we even feared you. This was all too easy," one of the dark figures spoke. "Look at you. Weakened by the deaths of your Padawan. Hah! But for us, each death strengthens, not weakens. Feel the power coming from them. Grasp it."

Naluma narrowed her eyes. "Never." She charged at the speaker, the rest of the knights following her. As one, they struck with their sabers, blue, green, purple, yellow, and white, reacting against the red sabers.

The Knights of Ren outnumbered the Jedi by two-to-one. Naluma wondered where the Ren had come from. She never knew they had amassed so many. She wondered if Luke had known. Oh, Luke, where are you! We need you! We need you now!

Naluma swiveled, blocking a thrust and rebounding at her other attacker. While kicking him off, she reached out and pulled Fraynal's saber to her left hand. The green saber sprung to life. The Jedi Master beat off her attackers and then reversed the tables with the dual blades, her anger swelling in her.

A voice from the shadows emanated through the fog and rain. "Use your fear. Use your anger. Good. Good. I feel it now."

Naluma knew those words were directed toward her. She stumbled, at odds with protecting herself, her child, her children around her and staying in the light. Another Jedi fell—Zeke. Then another. Then another.

Naluma whirled around, flailing her sabers against multiple attackers. Feeling each death. Wei'ahht went down. Then Tandolleau and Jannah, together.

Naluma held off her attackers. Kalder lost his footing, but pulled it up in time. Kallay was knocked to the ground before a saber ran through her from the back.

Kalder dropped to the ground as his twin died.

Naluma counted. Only a dozen of the Ren left.

Eight circled Kalder. It took mere seconds until his life was gone, too.

It was too much for her. Naluma collapsed as the deaths overwhelmed her.

Twelve Knights of Ren surrounded her, their blades held low in a circle. A mocking mirror of the Jedi Graduation ritual.

Naluma waited, her head hung low, her sabers at her side on the ground. "Do it."

A low chuckle came closer, revealing a dark-hooded figure with a malformed face.

Naluma raised her eyes. "Who are you?"

"I'm surprised you don't recognize me, Master Fau." The man—no, thing—cackled.

She glared at him and spat. "Snoke."

"Perceptive." The creature gestured to his men.

Two rushed behind Naluma, pulling her into a kneeling position and holding her face up to look at the Supreme Leader of the First Order. Two others grabbed her lightsabers.

"Why do you wait? What do you want?"

"What I've always wanted—a scion of Skywalker. Anakin was flawed. Your husband denied me. Ben is erratic. Join me, and your son lives."

"That's not life. That's enslavement."

"Join me or die . . . a very slow, agonizing death."

"I'll never join you."

"So be it."

Naluma waited long moments, then minutes, for the strike, but none came. The rain poured onto her face. Her body shivered in the cold.

Footsteps muffled by the rain and thunder approached. Naluma reached out with the Force, hoping it was Luke, hoping it was anyone left. Her hopes crashed when she realized it was Ben, dressed in the robes and mask of the Knights of the Ren.

"It is done, Supreme Leader."

"All of them? Yes, I feel your power, Kylo Ren." Snoke turned back to Naluma. "Oh, you aren't surprised, Master Fau?"

Naluma remained silent.

"Kylo Ren, we must get on with your testing. Kill her."

Kylo Ren raised his saber, the erratic red blade pulsing in the rain, the cross-hilt vents blasting with red and gold electricity.

"Ah, no. You must subdue her first." Snoke twisted his head toward her captives. "Release her. Return her saber. And remove yourselves."

Her captors yanked her to her feet. They shoved her saber into her hand as they backed out of the way. She held her hilt down, blade unlit.

"So, Master Fau, we meet again. I can't say I've missed our little sparring sessions since last year."

Naluma and Kylo circled each other.

"Master Kalder and Master Skywalker are much better instructors than you are."

Kylo raised his sword over his shoulder and struck down at Naluma. She ignited and lifted her purple blade in time to hold off his strike. They circled the area, until they had reversed positions.

"Apparently not. You're still telegraphing."

Kylo broke off the contact, pulling his saber over his head and lunging at her again. Naluma side-stepped the saber and counterstriked at him, moving into a classic Djem-So counter.

Kylo stumbled back.

"And you're still over-reaching. You never did pay attention to your footwork."

He attacked, alternating his blade in a dizzying whirl of left and right strokes, pushing her against a boulder. He held his blade to her throat, her purple blade the only thing between her flesh and his blade.

The cackle sounded over the storm. "Good. Kill her. Kill her now."

Kylo pulled his blade and swung it with both hands at her head.

The Jedi Master rotated away from his swipe, pulling her blade against him from the left side. She now stood about two meters from him. "Don't make me kill you, Ben. It doesn't have to be this way. You can still quit. Join me, and we can finish them off together."

"My name is Kylo. And why would I want to join you? I never wanted to be a Jedi. You always hated me."

Kylo lunged at her again with even more power, beating her back until she fell to the ground, her lightsaber rolling away. Naluma reached out to grab it, but sank back to the ground when she saw it in Snoke's claws.

"So, Aunt Naluma," Kylo spat out with a metallic synthesizer, "have you realized that I am more powerful than you will ever be? All these years, you have held me back." He dragged the tip of his saber down her limbs, her flesh burning but not cauterizing. Blood trickled to the mud. "Now, I am in control. I wield the power. And now, you will die." He extinguished his saber.

Kylo raised his hands, pointing his fingers at his aunt. Electric currents of Force-lightning shot out at her, enveloping her torso.

Naluma screamed as Anakin died in her womb. She grabbed her belly and pulled her legs up, writhing in agony. Screaming. "Luke!" Luke!"

Kylo lowered his hands as her body convulsed. He activated his red saber and sliced designs into her limbs, opening up her veins. His saber pulsed erratically from the cracked crystal he had used to construct it.

Snoke looked on, observing the defeat of the Jedi. "Finish her—now."

As she bled on the turf, Naluma gasped. She knew it would not be long until she would join her baby in death, too. She longed for the release death would bring.

Kylo resisted, lowering his saber. "No, Master. This will be our bait to draw Master Skywalker. Her agony will draw him here more surely than any all-out massacre. Trust me."

"Good, my young apprentice," the creature said. "The hate is flowing through you now. He will come to you, and you will eliminate him. Then your journey to the dark side will be complete. Come with me now. We will await his return on other side of the planet."

The Knights of Ren withdrew to their shuttle, picking their way around the corpses.

Naluma lay on the slick turf and shale, her blood and life-Force creeping out of her. Flames burst above the walls of the Jedi Academy. Not even the rain could quench the fire. The end of the New Jedi Order was only minutes away.