Ben is surprisingly prepared for the journey, but Enis had given everyone a decent idea of what they might have to go through. Nightmares, and worse, was more than enough after being here for so long already. Still, he looks tired. He’s not used to this sort of thing from the ‘intrepid hero’ side of things. It’s taxing, and he’s starting to understand why his family was so revered by the resistance (not that it makes everything better). When the door opens and the lighting is revealed, he pulls out a flashlight (it was the only one he could find) and turns it on. It doesn’t give off enough light to illuminate exceptionally far, but it’s enough if he stands in the front.

Taking the front, Ben makes his way carefully forward. The Force is an advantage for him as his balance is better than most. At several points, the flashlight itself seems to go off, unexplainably and Ben can feel a heaviness in the area, a darkness through The Force. They’re not alone. He wonders if the others can feel it too – he knows Rey does, so he’s not sure if he should say anything.

“Be careful in the dark areas, I don’t think any lights will work there.”

When they enter one of the rooms chills run through Ben; not only from the temperature of the room but because of the man standing there, smiling as if this was all part of 'His' grander plan.

He stands with his neck slightly bent forward as if he’d been leaning forward with interest throughout his life. His face is cracked and wrinkled, cheeks sunken beyond what traditional-age would allow, and his eyes hold a hollow cruelness in their sunken husks. This is Supreme Leader Snoke, the man Ben had revered for decades, the man who had led him down the path of the dark side. Now he knew what the man truly was; a failed clone of Emperor Palpatine himself.

His hand immediately moves to the lightsaber at his wrist, the other, clipping the flashlight to his belt, still on.

“I see you’ve brought friends.” The man’s voice croaks, betraying all the age that the clone had been given. “Do you think that will be enough to defeat me a second time? Before, I was unprepared, naive to the belief that you had the conviction to follow through. Now, I know how pathetic and weak you are.”

As Snoke emphasizes those words, Ben can’t help but wince. He’s right, he’d been pathetic and weak to believe the man, to follow and worship him as he’d done his grandfather. He’d truly followed Anakin’s path in the end – event to the point of being manipulated by the same man. Snoke’s creased face breaks into a smirk, then a smile. “You are mine, Ben Solo, you will always be mine.”

This room is dark and hot. Lit only by a red glow that betrayed a body and face covered in shadows. No, not a face, a helmet covered in red cracks and a body covered in black. Ben knows this man. He’s dead, killed by Rey what feels like ages ago. Killed by a mother who sacrifices herself to save him and the memory of his father who helped him to make one of the hardest choices of his life – the last choice of his life, in fact.

The shadow doesn’t say anything, simply moves forward. Ben can tell there’s a smirk under that helmet, a knowledge that killing him, killing everyone will redeem him for his folly of choosing the light over power.