Where The Shadows Burn

Seleyra moved swiftly through the dense forest, the darkness enveloping her like a second skin. Snow crunched beneath her boots as she pressed forward, her breath sharp and steady through the filter of her mask. Her mind was singular in its focus: find Kylo Ren. Find the scavenger. Each step carried her deeper into the frigid night, her senses attuned to the distant echoes of combat.

A blaster shot shattered the quiet.

Seleyra's head snapped toward the sound, instincts razor-sharp. She adjusted course, her pace quickening, anticipation coiling like fire in her gut. She was close.

The scene unfolded before her in a brutal collision of light and fury. Kylo Ren stood poised, his crimson blade ignited, facing off against the traitor in Resistance garb. Finn. In his hands was a weapon that had no right to be in his grasp—Luke Skywalker's lightsaber.

Seleyra's eyes narrowed as Kylo's voice rang out, laced with fury and possessiveness.

"That lightsaber. It belongs to me!"

But Seleyra's attention was already shifting. Movement. A figure struggling to rise from the snow.

The scavenger.

Rage ignited inside her, raw and blinding. Her hands clenched into fists, her breath turning sharp and uneven. This girl had no place here. Without thinking, her own saber ignited, its unstable red glow snarling to life. She moved—fast, deadly, unrelenting.

The scavenger had barely found her footing before Seleyra struck.

A red arc of fury descended, meant to end her before she could even fight back—

But then it happened.

The saber meant for Kylo flew past him, bypassing Seleyra's strike entirely.

And landed in the scavenger's outstretched hand.

For a single, deafening moment, time fractured.

Seleyra's world tilted. The shock registered in her bones, but it was nothing compared to the white-hot fury that followed.
No.

The scavenger ignited the weapon, its blue glow clashing against Seleyra's unstable red in a violent eruption of sparks. Seleyra pressed down with all her strength, forcing the girl to her knees.

She could feel it—her fear. It sent a savage thrill through Seleyra's veins.

She would break her.

The scavenger's teeth gritted in resistance, her breath ragged. But then—a shift.

Seleyra's vision blurred. A sudden pressure crashed against her mind.

Voices. Whispers. Slithering, insidious.

"Weak. Unworthy. You are nothing without him."

She faltered. Her grip on her saber loosened just enough for the girl to push back. The scavenger's strength surged, her newfound confidence throwing Selerya off balance. And then, in an instant, a powerful force slammed into Selerya's chest. She was flung backward, her saber slipping from her grasp as she crashed into the snow.

Dazed, she lifted her head just in time to see Kylo Ren standing where she had been. His focus was no longer on her. It was on the girl.

"You need a teacher," he said, voice raw yet alluring. "I can show you the ways of the Force."

Seleyra's breath hitched.

A blade to the chest would've hurt less.

The scavenger was nothing. A nobody. And yet he was offering her something he had never offered Seleyra.

Her stomach twisted. Was this what had always been lurking beneath her devotion? The whispers in her mind coiled, growing darker, colder.

Resentment.

A flicker of movement—Kylo's saber wrenched free from his grasp, landing just inches from her outstretched hand.

Her fingers twitched.

Any other time, she would have acted without hesitation.

She would have leapt to defend him.

To protect him.

To fight for him.

But now?

She hesitated.

Her gaze shifted to Finn, still unconscious in the snow. A new thought slithered into her mind.

Traitor.

Her fingers curled around Kylo's saber, and she rose to her feet. Her own weapon lost in the fray, she ignited his, the unstable red glow mirroring her own. Her eyes locked onto Finn. She could end him here. Cut down the traitor. Finish what Kylo started.

She took a step forward—

The ground trembled.

The planet itself roared in defiance, the Starkiller Base tearing apart beneath them. The earth split, snow and debris sent flying.

A voice slithered into her mind, its presence as suffocating as it was commanding.

"Return to the base."

Snoke.

Seleyra stilled.

Her eyes snapped back to Kylo—wounded. Vulnerable.

She could step in. Save him.

But the hesitation wouldn't leave her.

The whispers grew louder.

And then, clarity struck like lightning.

She had followed him for years. Given him everything.

And yet, in the end, she had always been second.

A pawn. A tool.

Not anymore.

Scoffing, she hurled his saber toward him, letting it land uselessly in the snow.. She didn't wait to see if he reached for it. and she turned on her heel, retreating into the shadows.

Let him fend for himself.

Let him see what it felt like to be left behind.