Immune to the Light is a story idea I kicked around for a long time before I actually wrote it. Writing my first fan fic You Need a Teacher this time last year was a great learning experience and I wanted to take another crack at Reylo immediately after I finished that fic. That next fic was supposed to be Immune to the Light. But then Fulcrum happened and it spawned a few more spin-off tales as I kept fleshing out my Sith worldview and history. I never got around to writing this story until now.

There were a couple of reasons for that delay. Chiefly, when you start writing an AU to your own AU, you have to ask yourself as a writer: Have I just run out of good ideas? Will anyone want to read this same old stuff rehashed again? Is this story idea just my own tacit admission that I got it wrong the first time? The truth is that I am rather fully committed to my SW Sith worldview as an author. It keeps coming out in slightly different depictions for different Sith in different tales. But the broad commonalities, conflicts, themes and many of the details remain consistent. But even within this construct, I think there is room for various versions of the same love story. Did I get it wrong in Fulcrum/Part Two? Maybe in some ways, but overall I don't think so. I own those stories, even with all of their gratuitous excesses, at times clunky writing and other flaws. I prefer to think that I got it especially dark in Fulcrum/Part Two. And that there is a Sith version of Kylo Ren and Rey's story that is not quite so bleak but is still believably Dark Side and it's called Immune to the Light.

My concept of this story morphed a bit. Originally, this was to be a Beauty and the Beast tale. The beautiful captive girl meets a beast and falls in love and that love changes her and changes the beast. Yes, readers, this was to be my Kylo Ren redemption tale (vestiges of that idea remain here and there in this tale). And the crux of the conflict was to be for Rey to determine who was the Beast—Kylo or Snoke? I had it all worked out and then I decided to write the shockingly dark and completely unredeemed Kylo in Fulcrum. When I eventually came back to this story idea, I had jettisoned the redemption plot altogether. Now, it was to be a love triangle based loosely on the Tristan and Isolde tale. The knight Tristan brings the fair maiden Isolde to his king for marriage, except along the way the knight and the maiden fall in love beneath the king's nose and begin an illicit affair.

The ending for this fic comes from a short under-the-radar fic I have in progress called A New Hope. It's the story of a frustrated and unhappy man named Skywalker who meets a Sith who tells him 'I am your father. Join me and together we can rule the galaxy.' Think you already know this story? You don't. Because the Skywalker here is Anakin Skywalker and the Sith here is Snoke. In A New Hope, Vader is very interested in finding his daughter (maybe even more interested in her than in finding Luke) and Snoke keeps downplaying Leia. Why? It's not set forth in the story, but you know why-Snoke likes the ladies, especially the ladies with the Light. And he has plans for Vader's little princess that Daddy might not approve of. We all know Snoke doesn't get the girl-Han Solo does. At least, not until many years later when Immune to the Light comes along.

Worried about poor Leia? Well, Snoke isn't going to hurt her. And, if you've read Fulcrum Part Two, you know Snoke is reasonably handsome after Rey heals him. Plus, he's good in bed. This might not be what Leia wanted, but there are worse things than being the sixth wife. Poor Leia Organa came to a very bad end in Fulcrum and all of her scenes were filtered through the somewhat warped viewpoint of Kylo and Rey. Some commenters to that story found that version of Leia to be very out of character because it all felt so dark (Fulcrum is very dark). This time, I wanted to write a different Leia with a better ending.

I don't see Kylo and Leia reconciling ultimately after this tale. It's more like they grow to tolerate and respect one another. Snoke stands in the middle as mediator and his position as Sith Master keeps Kylo in check. This ending puts most of the Skywalker clan back together again on the same side, which is something I have wanted to do in a story. Leia Organa has to be coerced into this role because I can't ever see her doing this willingly. Not after all that has happened. She is a very principled person and won't easy compromise.

I wanted this story to be more romantic and earnest than Fulcrum. So this story uses less profanity. It has none of the snarky humor of Fulcrum and it has less dark material overall. The relationship between Kylo and Rey is less contentious and less sarcastic than Fulcrum. And certainly, less violent. There is plenty of intensity and, I hope, chemistry. But there are no screaming matches or bitter betrayals. When Kylo takes off his mask in private for Rey in this story, he is surprisingly normal. That's part of his charm.

There is no immediate compelling attraction in this story between Kylo and Rey (except for Kylo's attraction to Rey's Light). I'm not big on love at first sight. It's far too physical to be lasting, in my opinion. And, it can be kind of creepy. (That's why I gave Snoke the love at first sight meeting with his Jedi wife Shan in The Fifth Wife. The 'I see you, I want you, I love you, you're mine' seemed to perfectly fit creepy old Snoke). Of course, there can be instant attraction between two people. But I'm of the view that attraction tends to grow over time. The guy you think is cute can become irresistible after you've shared dinner and drinks a few times and realize how much you think alike. And then all the quirky things about him become endearing and cute and not flaws. A few dates in, you're crazy about him. Because knowing the total package of him is way better than just knowing he looks hot. I truly think that a lot of attraction and sexual chemistry is mental.

This is a very different version of Kylo from Fulcrum. He's less cynical and more idealistic. Much less entitled. Like the Kylo of You Need a Teacher, this Sith Apprentice doesn't think he's on the wrong side. He sincerely thinks he's a reformer whose time has come. Kylo believes that he is justified in his war because he is saving the galaxy and helping people in the long run. Yes, the road to Hell is definitely paved with good intentions. And, well, I think a lot of bad guys at least start out thinking they are good. Anakin's speech to Padme at the end of Ep 3 has some of this flavor. He's making things the way he wants them to be, the way he thinks they should be. Here's a bad guy thinking he's going to use the Dark Side to do good things (save his wife, save the galaxy). I wanted to depict Kylo Ren in this same vein. It gives him a heroic quality at least in his own mind.

And because this Kylo is so earnest, he's not the cocky, proud and obnoxious asshole of Fulcrum. This Kylo doesn't lack for confidence, but he doesn't project it as much. Also, his reflexive move is not necessarily violence. The man is cautious and considered for the most part. This Kylo thinks about things, but he wouldn't necessarily draw the same conclusions that you and I would. Is this Kylo a monster too? He isn't completely lacking of empathy or understanding. He isn't exactly evil. More like misguided with the willingness and ability to act on his misguided beliefs.

So . . . how do you make a bad guy appealing? This is the writer's challenge with every dark Reylo tale. In this story, I made the other guys—Snoke and Hux-worse by comparison. Hux is his Force Awakens snarky jerk self in this fic. He's less of a character than a plot device in most scenes. And his relationship to Rey is not as fleshed out and complicated as it was in Fulcrum. Snoke is always my ultimate bad guy and this story is no exception. Snoke is fucking with Kylo at the beginning of this fic. Snoke knows of his weakness for the Light and he's testing him. Snoke does stuff like that.

Another way to make the bad guy more appealing is to muddy the waters about whether he's truly on the bad side. So in this fic, I really amped up the idea of showing the other side/bad guys of the SW universe. Force Awakens does this a bit with the character of Finn to show us how not everyone in the First Order is evil. And I think that's probably not far from the truth in many war situations. Is everyone on the opposing side bad? Probably not. Is it any better if you do bad things believing that you are right? Maybe.

This takes me to the US election allusions that are peppered throughout this fic. These political ideas first showed up in my story Red, the tale of first time Naboo Senate candidate Darth Sidious. They also appeared quite a bit in Fulcrum Part Two, to the catcalls and howls of some readers. But they reached their fruition in this story, written immediately post-election. This past election felt as bitter as a war at some points. Writing the election into the fic was sort of therapeutic. All this US politics might go right past non-US readers, so apologies if you were lost at points.

This crazy election seemed to be the perfect metaphor for the war that forms the backdrop for my story. Honestly, as a writer I just couldn't resist. I'm not saying that Trump is a Sith or Hillary is General Leia or that America is headed for another civil war, but I am saying that the very real differences in world view, in policy and in style that exist between those candidates are the sorts of differences that would form the backdrop for the conflicts that might grow into this war. Some fervent supporters on both sides of the recent election seem incapable of seeing the perspectives of the opposing view. If anything, the post-election rhetoric has gotten worse. More smug, more condescending and dug-in, and generally intolerant of dissent. Everyone is talking loudly and talking past each other. And ordinarily polite and nice people write crazy social media posts that I just ignore. That's how high passions are running for some people I know months later.

And then there's the rest of us. Those of us who are tired of it all and wish the hoopla would go away. We don't have a lot of faith in the promises of politicians anyway so we can't get too excited about whoever won. I can imagine that a galaxy at war for so many years might have a lot of citizens who are similarly weary and jaded. Rey is one of these people. Maybe you are too.

Obviously, the US election is not a perfect metaphor for the First Order and the Resistance. But it is a shorthand way to allude to a real world conflict that conjures up the right sense of passion, frustration and maybe even futility that I want for my story. This is a writing quirk of mine. Anyone who has read closely my fics will notice that I throw around a lot of random anachronistic non-SW references here and there. The goal is to use these allusions to conjure a visual idea or a theme or a concept in a shorthand way. Hopefully, these references are not so jarring as to throw the reader out of the story.

I'll be honest, I also kind of like the political backdrop of SW. I really enjoy the ambition of the prequel movies, even if they weren't that well executed. But the prequels were especially disappointing in their paltry explanation of the complicated politics behind what's going on in Episodes 2 and 3. Regrettably, it's the same with Force Awakens. I don't feel like we know much at all about what's going on in the galaxy between the First Order, the New Republic and the Resistance. So, I just made up my own version. Influenced, as noted above, by the current US political dynamics. Things are not as black and white/good and evil because usually that's how life is. There are two sides to every conflict. And that wily old liar Ben Kenobi is right: truth does depend on your point of view.

The short glimpse we get into the Rebel Alliance in Rogue One supports my view that the Rebellion (later the New Republic and Resistance) is disorganized and messy. And those traits really hamper their effectiveness. I extrapolated quite a bit from those characteristics, of course, but I like to think that there is grounding in canon for those ideas.

This story's version of the Rey character is a bit different than I have written in the past. She's less damaged and has fewer self-esteem issues. She is in many ways far less accepting and trapped than the Mommy Rey of Fulcrum. But she is still quite trapped, and she knows it. Fulcrum's Rey was motivated almost exclusively by her little son, and that led her to make compromises and adopt attitudes that she probably wouldn't have otherwise. That Rey didn't care about the Force, the Resistance and the war, she only cared about her son. And then later on, her Kylo. This Rey has largely been agnostic about the war that surrounded her on Jakku. But the more she learns of it, the more confused she is because Rey is basically the archetype of the First Order supporter. Her vantage point allows her to see sides of the First Order and Kylo Ren that she hadn't seen before. And that makes her less certain of what she thinks.

In all of my Reylo fics, Rey is a version of a damsel in distress. She shapes her own destiny, but she never does on it her own or even on her own terms. Because that's not how life typically is for women. We're just not selfish enough to think only of ourselves. There's always some strong influence from someone else—usually a husband/lover, a child, or just family generally.

I also don't write Rey with a lightsaber in her hand a lot (although, she does almost take some First Order guy's head off with Kylo's borrowed saber in Fulcrum). That's not because I don't want a strong female character, but because I like the idea of strong women shaping things in ways other than the threat of violence. My Rey uses the Force mainly for defense or to help people—she's more Jedi like in that regard. That's not to say that Rey is weak or not capable of holding her own. But she didn't survive all that time on Jakku by picking a bunch of fights she couldn't win. And you don't pick a fight with the Sith lightly. Cresta Cole, Darth Sidious' secret wife, has a speech on this in Fulcrum Part Two—that there are many ways for women to be strong. You don't have to blow things up or be a general in order to live a meaningful, important life. I truly believe that. And I don't always agree that women are empowered by simply taking a male character archetype (a superhero, a super villain, some authority figure role) and changing the gender to be female. That seems almost gimmicky to me. If you have read any of my fics, you know that I always focus on female characters and their relationships to the Sith. I'm so enamored with the idea of the various women in a galaxy far, far away. My women have different goals and personalities, but at their core they are all women. Which means they have to put up with the shit their men do and say and think. Sometimes because they have to, sometimes because they want to, and sometimes because it's just easiest to go along.

And let's face it, the Sith are pretty much the ultimate in patriarchy. That's why Rey gets her girly makeover. Because Snoke likes the ladies, and he likes them looking pretty and feminine. You're not a Sith wife if you don't appear in a fancy dress at least one point in my story. That's pretty much how my Sith wifeys are—deceptive in appearance. Scavenger Rey looks like a princess even if she's from trashy Jakku. Snoke's Shan is a demure trophy wife ostensibly even if she's got her lightsaber hidden in her handbag at all times and she becomes basically a professor of Sith languages and lore. And over time pretty much everything about Sidious' ballerina wife Cresta becomes a secret. Oddly enough, the least controlling of my Sith where women are concerned is Darth Sidious. He pretty much lets Cresta do whatever she wants and theirs is the most modern relationship of all my Sith couples. Snoke, of course, is the most controlling and medieval in relations between the sexes. Kylo fits somewhere in the middle, I think. And that's most powerful, ambitious men, in my experience. They aren't threatened by their woman's success so long as it doesn't rival or impede their own.

The idea of power-who wields it and how-is very important to my Sith AU. All of my Sith wives exert strong influences over their husbands and also galactic events. But it's not just women. Milo, the revived, never aging manservant to Darth Plagueis has a huge influence in my other stories, although his role in Immune to the Light is more like a cameo. He's Snoke's go-between and spy in A New Hope, he's a mentor and friend to Rey in Fulcrum, and he's buddy of sorts/partner in crime to Shan in Fulcrum Part Two. And there are some small characters like Snoke's fourth wife Pilar, a former slave in Red, who make their influence felt even if they cannot be overt about it.

If you are interested in reading more about Snoke's Jedi seer wife Shan Damask who appears in this story in the holochron, you might enjoy The Fifth Wife. That story also includes some of the backstory between Sidious and Snoke. Shan is an everyday Jedi—nothing special in her own mind and in the view of the Old Republic Jedi Order. She's no badass Ahsoka Tano, she's a librarian/historian for the Jedi archives. Until she accidentally meets a Sith lord at a Jedi picnic, that is.

The story of how Darth Sidious came to have a secret Jedi daughter is told in Red. This is the source of the Rey-Emperor Palpatine connection that appears in this fic. I laid the groundwork for this in Red, but I never connected all the dots. It felt right to so it here because you know Kylo would be so into this idea. And because it's pretty clear that Rey is set up to have some important heritage in the movies. And, yeah, I know it makes for a small universe. But still, I went for it.

This story has plenty of my version of Skywalker angst. Maybe I lay it on too thick, but I think it belongs in a Reylo tale because the weight of the family history is the root of much of the conflict. It's a legacy of so much struggle and misfortune. This is the first time I have focused on it as a cycle, on the futility of it all. And this was my initial impression of Force Awakens when I saw it last year. Mr. Blue and Sister Blue loved that movie from the outset but I was very iffy. We came home from the Thursday late night opening show and I remember sitting down talking to my babysitter about the movie. I told her that I didn't know what the point of the whole original trilogy was if this is where we ended up thirty odd years later.

I remember feeling so very sad for Leia Organa. Her marriage broken and then her husband dead, her brother having walked away, and her grand dream of a New Republic lost. You have to wonder how she feels about her life in retrospect-was it all worth it? Leia is a very committed rebel when we first meet her in A New Hope. Who knows if she still has this zeal so many years later. A bit of the frustration of Leia's experience makes it into this story. She is left cleaning up the mess of the galaxy as best she can when our other heroes walk away. There's something so commonplace about that role for women, I think. While we aren't all saving the galaxy, there are plenty of women who struggle through life being responsible at their workplace, raising families on their own, and doing the everyday thankless tasks of life without help because a man left them/died/won't help/is a loser.

In this story, Luke Skywalker has basically checked out of the conflicts that rage around him. I have some sympathy for this viewpoint. He's not a coward by any means so much as he is trapped in a life and a role he doesn't want. Just like Leia, this isn't what Luke signed up for. And that's sort of fitting because I think Anakin Skywalker might feel the same way about his life-his miserable, lonely, pain-filled life as Darth Vader is not what he signed up for. (Isn't that Mustafar castle/bacta tank scene in Rogue One amazing in how much it conveys about Lord Vader with minimal dialogue?) I am very intrigued by what the explanation will be for Luke's absence when we get Episode 8 next year-Luke has some explaining to do in my mind. I really hope the script writers don't gloss over this point and all the hurt/anger that might flow from it.

For all the power and glory, being a Skywalker can be a crappy life. There's something to be said for living a normal, boring life-something Kylo ruminates on a bit in this tale. I believe that Lucasfilm has described the episodic Star Wars films as the Skywalker family saga, and that's how I see my Sith AU tales. It's a story of a family writ large over important events in a galaxy far, far away. Family was a huge theme of Fulcrum but it got resolved differently, as Kylo set about to simultaneously destroy his family and create a new one with Rey. In the end, he succeeds-sort of. I took a different approach for Immune to the Light. The goal was to get the Skywalkers back together again—well, most of them. And this tale preserves the clan-sort of.

You never get exactly what you want on the Dark Side. Sith happy endings look a bit different than your ideal. This is a theme that comes up time and again in all of my Sith AU. My lovers remain together but with battle scars and sacrifices that change them and change their relationship. In my other pairings, one woman gives up a child, another woman loses a child, and one woman loses the Force. In this story, Rey gets an unexpected and unwanted child. Those are meaningful events that have repercussions for them and for their Sith, sometimes far into the future. One of the reasons I wanted to write that little vignette of Snoke and Shan on the holochron was to revisit characters years later after their reconciliation. Snoke and Shan still have plenty of conflict—don't all marriages?—and happily ever after doesn't always mean things are terrific.

I have a lot to say about Star Wars, and my fics are full of all sorts of observations and interpretations that some will no doubt find tedious or wrong. But I hope my writing is enjoyable and adds something to your enjoyment of this genre. I also want it to be a different take on what's already out there. Thanks again for reading!