[And Ren dismisses them just as quickly, the image a distraction at the forefront of his mind that's all but unnecessary.]

No. [Features steeled, punctuating his unwillingness to so much as grant the idea even a millimeter of traction.] I was going to hunt them down. I would've made them pay for what they did - the Force would have led me straight to them, I know it.

[There, just on the tip of his tongue— his words— that creeping bitterness that's embedded itself in Ren's heart, coiled and cold and miserable.]

Now I sense nothing. The trail's gone cold, and Anakin Skywalker—