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Chapter Text

Rey retreated into the cushioned armchair with her hands crossed over her chest, fighting, and failing, to smother the scour on her face.

She glared through the gaps of the First Order hologram.

“They’ll take any opportunity to rattle you. Don’t make yourself an easy target.” Leia had rushed through the do’s and don’ts of war negotiations within the span of the frantic journey from one side of the base to the other. Rey had barely kept up, far too focused on the fact that, not only had the First Order breached Resistance territory just four minutes prior to demand an audience with the Resistance, but they had requested, specifically, Rey. 

Well, “specifically” was a generous way to put it. The ginger general’s petulant request was, to quote it as accurately as Rey could remember it, for the presence of “that feral little teenage desert girl“ at the negotiations. It was safe to assume he was referring to her.

“That means no arguing.” Leia had given her a sidelong glance before adding, “o r glaring.”

Rey had taken solace in Leia’s divided attention, feeling safe enough to say, “ I have no idea what I’m doing.”

To which Leia replied, “none of us do, dear.”

Her two weeks in the resistance had been uneventful, to say the least. A bit boring, truly, considering her first day had consisted of being kidnapped, rescued, interrogated, and thrust into a one-on-one lightsaber battle with Kylo Ren himself.

The weeks following could hardly compare with t hat.

“I believe I’ve made myself clear enough, General Organa.” The ginger’s voice was snively, even across the crackling audio of the clearly once decommissioned, now hastily recommissioned, holotable. It wasn’t just Rey and Leia in the room, either. Chewie sat in the seat directly next to hers, followed by a species she’d certainly never seen before with bugged eyes and orange skin. Leia stood at the head of the table. And across from Rey sat Poe, one of the first people she’d met upon landing at the Resistance base whom in Finn's comatose state, quickly became one of her closest friends. He sensed her stare and returned it through the gaps of the hologram, letting a slight smile curve up his lips as he mouthed something akin to “stop looking so pissed off.”

To which Rey responded with a snarl.

“You have indeed, General Hux,” Leia replied with an uneasy sort of calm. The kind that only came in the eye of the fiercest of storms. “It seems to me, with your reported ability to annihilate us and every system we stand in, you’d have no need to negotiate.”

“Now, Leia, the First Order is nothing if not pragmatic.” Rey saw the woman bristle at Hux’s sudden lack of formality. His tone was teasing now. “I simply explained that we can kill you and every last peasant you’ve ever breathed next to; that doesn’t mean that we will.”

A long silence stretched. Rey narrowed her eyes at the hologram to ensure it hadn’t frozen. 

Leia’s white knuckled grip on the holotable nearly sank divots into the metal. “What do you want.”

This, seemingly, was music to General Hux’s ears.

Thus began a list of demands that seemed far too specific to be truly important. Instead of saving them all precious time by ordering them to simply crawl into the nearest hole and die, he listed, one by one, the planets the Resistance must retreat from.

If she’d had any idea how to navigate war, she’d have recognized his move for what it was: a show of strength. Of having the knowledge of every single resistance operation throughout the entire system. Of knowing all the places Leia was surely planning for the resistance to hide. 

By the look on General Organa’s face, that was normally so stoic it was almost scary, this was no bluff.

“Millions of lives, General Organa, in exchange for your silly Resistance to die. Quickly and quietly.”

Leia’s eyes shot daggers at the hologram. So much for ‘no glaring.’

“Oh, and one more thing.”

Rey was new to the force. New to the concept of sensing the world around her, using some invisible, non-tangible thing to interpret the intents and emotions of others. But when he said those five words in a tone that seemed, to all others, completely unchanged, somehow, she immediately knew this next bit was for her.

Rey sat up. She uncrossed her arms. Dug her fingers into the skin of her thigh, unwittingly catching the attention of the room, including Leia.

And Hux.

He inclined his head in her direction, meeting her eyes. “Listening now, are we?”

Rey deepened her scowl.

“From what I understand, girl, this next part should come as little surprise to you. It is my understanding that Kylo Ren already made this offer to you, and you declined.”

So the bastard lived. Shame. “He didn’t—”

Rey was caught off guard by the sound of her own voice. She shouldn’t be speaking. These were negotiations between the most powerful empire in the galaxy and an age-old resistance that was led by Leia Organa herself: politician, force user, and sister of the great Luke Skywalker.

What the kirffing fuck was she doing here?

Rey looked around, finding nothing but attentive, half horrified eyes. She continued, then, but only because not doing so would’ve been far more awkward than just dooming herself even more.

“He didn’t offer me anything.”

“It’s bad form to lie during such a fragile truce,” Hux admonished her, almost like he was speaking to a child. “Especially when I’ve been nothing but honest with you.”

“I’m not lying.” Great, now she well and truly did sound like a child.

Hux rolled his eyes. It was such an out of place gesture, Rey nearly found it amusing.

Until he looked at Leia, and opened his mouth.

“We want her.”

The other terms had been presented elegantly, with Hux reading lines from a script, carefully crafted in political speech that Rey hardly understood.

This…this was so strangely different. 

Leia’s heated gaze jumped to Rey, along with every other pair of eyes in the room. It seemed no clarification was necessary to identify who ‘her’ was, no calligraphy copied line in a twelve foot scroll that read “ We, the First Order, humbly request the kind presence of Rey from Jakku aboard our cold, lifeless star destroyer, where she will be strapped to metal mechanisms and screamed at by masked men for the rest of her, hopefully short, existence.”

Not that it would’ve made her feel any better.

For her credit, Rey thought she was doing well. Inside, she was screaming. Hurtling trash-bred insults that would’ve made even Unkar Plutt look twice. Outside, she was relatively certain she hadn’t even moved.

“No.”

It was Leia who spoke. Rey knew a braver girl should’ve opposed Leia's rapid rejection, done some heroic gesture like pounding her fists on the table and demanding she be some sort of sacrifice.

But Rey was not brave. So she breathed out a sigh of relief.

“I will not just hand over one of our own,” Leia continued. “You promised no more resistance blood would be spilled. You’re violating your terms before we’ve even agreed to them.”

“No one said anything about spilling her blood.” 

Leia’s gaze caught Rey’s once more. Hux continued.

“Rey would be relinquished to the custody of the First Order for as long as this truce shall last. She would act as collateral, of sorts. Amongst other things.”

The screaming in Rey’s mind had dulled to a quiet hiss, enough for her to speak. “‘ Other things?’”

“The precise conditions of your stay will be determined by Kylo Ren, to be discussed with you upon your arrival. He was the one who requested you be added to the terms, after all.”

Leia leaned forward. “I will not agree to your vague half-promise of her safety, General Hux. If I were to even consider this, I would need details. Assurances.”

“I can assure you she will be safe and taken care of. Pampered, probably, compared to your meager existence here.” Hux accompanied the insult with a wrinkle of his nose, as if he could smell the ragtag group of Resistance fighters from parsecs away. “It is my understanding that Supreme Leader Snoke and Kylo Ren simply wish to…tutor her.”

Poe, for the first time, spoke. “So they can turn her against us?”

“The outcome is for her to decide. They will simply teach her what every,” Rey thought it important to note how he said the next two words with utter disgust, “ force user deserves to learn.”

“I would never turn against the Resistance,” Rey bit out between gritted teeth. She would’ve never forgiven herself if she hadn’t at least said it, seeing as her loyalties were now in question.

Hux clapped his hands together with an odd look of glee. “There, see? Assurances.”

The table was quiet. Deathly so. Oddly, Rey felt quite numb about it all. Of course a healthy mixture of rage and hope and pure, unadulterated loathing swarmed inside her, but truly, these emotions weren’t new to her. In fact, she’d hardly experienced much else in her meager life. 

Rey decided to keep her gaze firmly on the holotable. She could already feel all the eyes on her; she didn’t feel the need to see them. After enough time for her internal monologue to descend into something akin to a spiraling scream session, Leia spoke.

“I wish to negotiate the terms.”

“Which ones?”

“Rey.”

This didn’t seem to surprise Hux one bit. “Unfortunately, that one is non-negotiable.”

“Bullshit, it is,” Poe said at the same time that Leia spat, “This is foul.”

Before Hux could open his mouth and deliver yet another speech about force users getting their due, Rey looked up.

She didn’t know if it was the force that did it or the weight of her stare, but Hux shut his mouth to anticipate her question.

“Why?” she asked.

The two Generals, both on opposing sides of a decades long war, surveyed Rey almost identically in the moments that followed. Only one of them replied.

“You have the unfortunate honor of catching our interest, I suppose,” Hux said, in that dismissive tone that was seeming more and more like an act.

Rey raised a brow. “And by ‘ our ’ you mean Ren and Snoke.”

“ Supreme Leader Snoke,” Hux corrected. “Yes.”

And just like that, the screaming was back. In her mind, of course, as to not cause a scene. Panic laced her eyes as she turned to Leia, wanting so badly for her to refuse.

“I will need some time to consider.”

“You have two hours. You may relay your decision through this line of communication.” Hux’s line was just about to blip away when the man seemed to gesture to someone off screen, ordering them to keep the line open just a moment more. 

“One girl or five million lives, General Organa,” Hux said. “I do wonder what you will choose.”

At that, he disappeared.

Chapter Text

Leia had said goodbye.

For some reason, that bothered Rey.

She didn’t have much hope for her chances in the immediate aftermath of the First Order's offer. But even after Leia had excused herself and disappeared into her office, Rey found herself fighting the incessant little hope in her head that everything was going to be okay.

Rey sighed. She peered at the metal grates beneath her boots, watching them rattle as the First Order shuttle made its approach to the Supremacy.

Despite her sour mood, Rey had nearly scoffed when one of the troopers revealed the name of the Mega-class Star-Dreadnought she assumed would act as her final resting place. The Supremacy. 

Rey didn’t know much, but she knew power didn’t need to announce itself to be considered as such. It all seemed so very…theatrical.

Rey shook her head, fiddling with the seatbelt in her hands. They were trembling, no matter how hard she clenched her fists and took a calming breath. Just like she always did when she climbed wreckages that were just a bit too high, the ones that creaked beneath the precarious handholds she found in the divots of metal and rust.

She breathed again, but it was shaky. Not just scared, but angry too. 

There was so much anger in her that she didn’t quite know where all of it belonged. Most of it was for Kylo Ren and the First Order at large, obviously, but there was some for the Resistance, too. She could hardly blame Leia, who was faced with an impossible decision. But she couldn’t help her heart from sinking when, after hearing the news, Poe simply nodded and pulled her into a too-tight hug. He’d called her brave. Called her a savior of sorts. Rey just grimaced and nodded, plastering on an empty smile.

Chewie at least had the decency to look upset, but he said nothing. Did nothing. They trusted Leia too much to do anything but watch.

Maybe it was Rey’s fault for not fighting harder, but the truth of the matter was that Rey was a child of masters. The kind of child that only fights if the other option is dying. She’s a child of the trade; of people threatening to sell her any time she so much as made a funny face at the dinner she should've been so grateful to receive. 

And she was so grateful to the Resistance for taking her in. For feeding her, clothing her, saving her. How could she not sacrifice her life for them?

At the same time, how dare they make her?

The shuttle jolted to a stop. Two troopers busied themselves with lowering the ramp, while the other two fixed their blasters on her. 

“Get up,” they ordered. Rey figured she couldn’t be too difficult. Though by all accounts she was here willingly, Rey had the feeling that causing too much trouble would get her body sent back to the resistance in a box with a hand-scribbled note from Hux himself that read ‘ sorry this didn’t work out, prepare for death. ’ Phrased slightly more elegantly, she’d hope.

Obediently, she stood. The barrel of the Stormtrooper’s blasters were fixed on her as she moved to the ramp.

Rey stumbled down the gangway, scanning her surroundings as she moved.

The Supremacy’s hangar was colossal and nearly entirely empty, save for the dozen Stormtroopers flanking General Hux. The sparseness of it all made this welcome appear far less intimidating than Hux probably intended. Pointedly, she noticed the absence of Kylo Ren, which struck her as odd, given the prickling feeling in the back of her head that she had felt upon landing. 

One she had felt only once before.

She shuddered at the memory of the interrogation. The intrusion. Rey surveyed the hangar once more, this time paying close attention to the dark corners; the pull to a certain shadowed doorway that seemed to catch her attention. She was new to the force, she knew this. But she had the odd feeling that even though she couldn’t see him, he was here. 

She narrowed her eyes. Before she could do much of anything, the stormtroopers ushered her to a stop directly in front of General Hux, who didn’t even have the decency to attempt hiding the way his eyes raked over her body.

“You’re smaller than I expected.”

Though Rey wasn’t expecting a pleasant greeting, she certainly wasn’t expecting that.

“Funny,” she replied, looking him over much in the same way. “I was thinking the same.”

A sardonic amusement erupted in her mind, one that was far darker than she’d ever experienced before. It made Rey grimace. Just a bit. This place was already affecting her, it seemed.

Hux’s smirk had faded, replaced with a scowl that seemed to suit him nicely.

“Cute,” he spat. “You and Ren will get along swimmingly.”

At that, he turned on his heel and gestured for her to follow.

“I seriously doubt that,” Rey muttered under her breath. The stormtroopers grabbed both of her arms and tugged her forward, a gesture Rey didn’t take kindly to. She ripped both arms out of their grasps and shot them a glare. “Don’t touch me.”

One of them flinched, so to Rey, the interaction was a win. 

The crew of men before her halted, and Hux turned around, gesturing to the stormtrooper on his left. He revealed a pair of cuffs from behind his back and stepped forward.

She glanced at the cuffs. “I thought I wasn’t a prisoner.”

“For appearances sake,” Hux said through his scowl. “We can’t exactly have the light of the Resistance running freely around the Supremacy. I’m sure you understand. ”

The stormtrooper secured the cuffs around her wrists. She sent one last glare to the dark little corner she knew Kylo Ren was hiding in and spun around, following Hux’s ridiculously red hair.

Steel surrounded her. Suffocated her. A chorus of far too many footsteps signaled their journey through the ship, causing more than a few First Order officers to crane their necks as they walked by. Rey swore she could hear the whispers. “Scavenger,” “Resistance,” “Prisoner.” They all followed her until they reached a set of large double doors.

Thankfully, most of the stormtroopers peeled away, leaving just Hux and four others.

The doors slid open to reveal a turbolift. Hux stepped in. Reluctantly, she followed.

“You’ll be restricted to the lower two levels of the combat personnel's living quarters. If you wish to leave, you must be escorted by an officer,” Hux recited as if he was bored. “You will follow the strict schedule Kylo Ren will give you and eat only the meals prepared for you. You may only talk to me, Ren, and whichever stormtroopers are assigned to your floor. If you would like to speak to anyone outside of that, you will need permission. Oh and obviously,” Hux threw her a backwards glance, from her messy lower bun to her brown cargo pants, “you will be provided with a new wardrobe.”

The turbolift jolted to a stop.

“Any questions?”

Rey tilted her head. “Do I need your permission to breathe then, too?”

The doors slid open, but Hux didn’t move. “You can drop the act. We both know you’re not here willingly, which means I know you’ll do everything in your power to make your stay here miserable for us. Keeping you contained is merely a precaution. Again,” he glanced at her over his shoulder, “I’m sure you understand.”

He blinked at her, waiting for a response. 

Rey refused to give him one.

Hux didn’t seem to mind, striding forward all the same. This hallway differed from the other by being draped entirely in black. White light lined the floor on either end, almost as if sunlight was slipping through the cracks. 

They walked in a straight line for a while before Hux abruptly turned, causing the four stormtroopers to turn with him and stop at a metal door.

“You’ll wait in there.”

Suddenly, all Rey could picture was a dark metal cell. Empty. Cold. Hours of isolation. She shuddered,

“What if I don’t want to?” She asked, sounding far less forceful than intended.

Hux all but sighed before pressing a button, letting the door slide away. Two of the stormtroopers grabbed her arms and hauled her forward, pushing her until she stumbled into the room.

“Hey–” she whirled around to shout at the general, but the steel door slammed in her face. 

Rey gave the door a resentful kick before huffing and turning around to survey her cell.

Except, it wasn’t a cell at all.

It was…a lounge? The room was huge, and dare she say, almost…cozy. A large white leather couch sat in the center of the room, which itself was sunken down with two stairs surrounding it on all sides. She hopped down the stairs to stroke the couch. 

Perfectly smooth. Not even a single scratch.

She shook her head, petting a black pillow as she passed it by.

Separate but seemingly comfortable chairs accompanied three sets of white tables scattered around the room, complete with a kitchen and bar in the far corner. Short columns lined the outer walls as well, each with a different item on top. The last thing to catch Rey’s eye, as it at first was just as black as the rest of the Supremacy , was the floor to ceiling window that consisted of the far wall, and the expanse of space that lay beyond it.

Rey nearly stopped in her tracks. Pressing her face so close to the glass she was nearly touching it.

Three weeks ago, Rey had never even stepped foot off Jakku. And now…

Her throat felt tight at the thought of it, so she dismissed it straight away in favor of investigating the odd object on the column next to her.

It was a box. Jet black, nearly onyx. Rey bent down to peer at it, noticing it was seemingly etched out of some type of marble. Or perhaps, a crystal.

Her bound hands reached out, and—

His presence stopped her.

Rey hadn’t heard him approach. Which bothered her, because she’d been listening. Very intently.

He was standing behind her. Just a few paces away. How long he’d been there, Rey had no idea. With a discomfort that Rey wasn’t expecting, she picked up the box and pretended to study it. Pretended to not notice him. Maybe he’d simply leave her be; see she was delivered as promised and go back to slicing through the spines of innocent men or murdering loving fathers. Or whatever it was that he did in his free time.

But no, he seemed to just be…watching her. Studying her. 

Rey bristled. Tilted the odd artifact to catch the light, hoping to whatever star had its sights on her that he would stop. kriffing. staring.

Battling lightsabers under the impending destruction of a blizzard planet was easier than being under the scrutiny of this man’s stare.

After a tense few moments, Rey figured she’d do anything to stop him from watching her in that stiff, bordering on awkward, silence. 

Even if that meant talking to him.

“How’s your face?” she asked, venom lacing her tone. The last she’d seen him he was flat on his back, panting up at her in a bed of bloodstained snow. For a brief moment, she was certain she’d delivered a dying blow.

Apparently not.

“How’s your friend?” he bit back. The modulator made his voice sound inhuman. Stunted, like a malfunctioning droid with broken inflection indicators.

Rey kept her head straight forward. 

“Still breathing,” she said with a detectable amount of distaste. “Despite your best efforts.”

Kylo Ren scoffed.

“You have a rough few months ahead of you if you think that our little spar was my best effort, scavenger.”

She dropped the box, perhaps a bit too forcefully, and moved on to the next column. Sitting atop this one seemed to be a sword split in two. She grabbed the hilt.

“Oh, I must be mistaken, then,” Rey said, picking up the sword. “I didn’t realize letting your enemy nearly slice you in half met victory conditions for the sith.”

“I’m not a sith."

Sword in hand, Rey turned around to finally face him. 

Kylo Ren looked the same as he did the day they’d met. Him, with that ridiculous mask and cloak, jet black from the top of his helm to the dirt beneath his steel toe boots. Rey suddenly found herself feeling wholly unprepared when she spied the lightsaber dangling from his hip.

Leia had forbidden her from bringing Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber, insisting the First Order would confiscate it and it’d be lost forever. Rey had understood then, back when she was boarding the First Order shuttle with a measly four Stormtroopers that couldn’t even shoot straight. 

But now?

Rey tightened her grip on the shattered sword. Even cuffed, it was better than nothing.

“And,” Kylo said to the silence, “you’re not my enemy.”

Rey raised a brow. Bit out her reply like it was rotten meat on her tongue. “You and I have a very different outlook on where we stand.”

“Where I stand you’re simply a rogue fool. And a fraud.” Kylo spat. “But you’re no enemy of mine. Just a foolish girl pretending to be loyal to a cause that she doesn't truly believe in. Not that I necessarily blame you, when all they've done is fatten you up just to throw you to the wolves.”

“Don’t you dare lecture me about loyalty, Kylo Ren,” Rey snapped. “You’ve never been loyal to anything.”

He surged forward, making her jerk back. Suddenly, almost unconsciously, the tip of the sword in her hand was pressed against his gut. It didn’t deter him; he didn’t even flinch. 

“Tell me, scavenger,” he said, the mask making every last syllable sound like a curse. “What has being loyal ever done for you ?” 

She couldn’t see behind his mask, but she could tell he was meeting her glare with one of his own. Rey hated him; she hated him, because yes, loyalty had given her friends, food, and a place to sleep for the first time in her stupid little life.

But loyalty was also the only reason she was currently standing in cuffs, staring furiously into the helm of the monstrous, head invading, father-killing, hostage taking, Kylo Ren.

So she just kept glaring.

His head seemed to tilt, and curse the man for being so kriffing tall, because Rey’s neck was starting to hurt from craning so far up to look at him. 

“Will you please put that down?”

Rey looked at where the sword pierced his gut armor. She shot him one last glare before stepping back, releasing her hold on it and letting it fall. It crashed onto the floor between them.

Kylo Ren’s helm stared blankly at where the artifact fell.

“That blade belonged to the great former Jedi Knight Allya, the creator of the Nightsisters of Dathomir. Many credit her with the origin of the society’s great power,” Kylo explained. He stared at it for a moment longer before looking up at Rey. “It is nearly seven centuries old. Practically priceless.”

Rey looked down. The blade was slightly more cracked than when she’d first held it, and the heavily engraved hand guard was now, effectively, split in two.

“I…” she began to apologize, but stopped herself when she remembered who, exactly, she was speaking to. “I knew that.”

The helm tilted again, and Rey didn’t bother trying to decipher what it meant. She tugged once on her cuffs for good measure before turning around, pacing along the window.

“I’m sure you’re aware of the conditions,” Kylo spoke after a moment. 

Rey grit her teeth, speaking with as much bite as she could manage without the threat of facing Kylo Ren’s temper for the second time in as many minutes. “Yes, Hux was very clear I’m to do nothing without his or your explicit permission.” 

“I meant the conditions of the ceasefire.”

Rey’s feet stumbled a bit. She continued to pace nonetheless. “I stay here and you don’t kill millions of people.”

“You merely existing here is not what I expect from you,” Kylo corrected her. “But you know that.”

This time, Rey stopped. She faced the window, counting the stars as she spoke blankly. “You wish to train me.”

He nodded. Rey closed her eyes. Inhaled. Exhaled.

“And if I disagree?"

“The truce is over,” Kylo explained. Not even the slightest hint of remorse lined his words. “We will fire on the Resistance affiliated systems, as promised.”

Rey opened her eyes. “And me?”

A long beat. A hesitation, almost. It was odd enough for Rey to turn and look at him.

“I’ll return you personally,” he said. “So you can die alongside your precious Resistance.”

“How honorable.” She knew he was goading her, but Rey suddenly found herself too tired to bite. She settled on a snide comment instead. “Maybe there still is some of your mother left in you.”

The barb seemed to hit, for Kylo’s tone was murderous when he spoke. “In my experience, honorable people don’t force others to trade their own lives. Even if it’s just one for millions.”

Rey scoffed. Her breath fogged the window.

“What?” he asked.

“Just you,” Rey spoke quietly to the glass, no longer bothering to add bitterness to her tone. “Speaking of honor as if you’d ever know what it meant.”

Now it was Kylo Ren’s turn to scoff. “And look at you,” he said, “doing the same.”

She let her reply sink back into her tongue. They were too similar. At this point, Rey was starting to think the two of them had such a talent for arguing back and forth that they could do it forever and ever, until every last line that divided them was dust and they were the only two people left in the galaxy.

And then she figured they’d still argue, because he was about as bullheaded as they come.

Rey decided not to ponder what that said about her.

He was quiet again. She preferred him that way. And for a long while, Kylo stared at her as she stared at the stars.

Until he seemed to jolt to life. His cape flared behind him as he stalked across the lounge. He spoke to her as he passed her by.

“Follow me.”

Hesitantly, she obeyed. There were four doors on either side of the lounge, each carved into the stone walls. He stopped at the outermost one that bordered the windowed wall. 

There were no handles. No buttons. No discernable way to enter. Rey stopped just over Kylo Ren’s shoulder, peering at the door.

“I assume you don’t know how to open this?” he asked.

Rey gave the back of his bicep, which was frustratingly at her eye level, a sidelong glance. “Am I supposed to?”

He didn’t reply. A moment later, the metal hissed in release, and the door slid open. Kylo entered, gesturing for her to follow.

“You’ll sleep in here,” he said.

Ironically, it was the most luxurious room she’d ever had. The walls were stone, but there were divots here and there that almost gave the room a haggard sort of charm. A small, metal frame supported a twin mattress with a single pillow and threadbare blanket. 

There was a chest of drawers on the opposite wall which, upon further inspection, contained the very wardrobe Hux had promised. Every garment, down to the provided breast band, was the same shade of black.

An opaque glass door separated her room from her very own fresher, complete with soaps and towels. Best of all was the floor to ceiling window that served as the outer wall. 

Rey refused to allow herself to appreciate any part of it. But secretly, she was in awe.

When she turned to face him, she found that Kylo Ren had been staring at her. He quickly looked away. “You will be contained in this room when not with me or any of the other Knights.”

“Knights?” She asked. He ignored her. Instead, her cuffs beeped before popping open and dropping to the floor. Rey had to jump back to keep them from landing on her boots.

“The door will remain locked until I decide it’s time you learn how to open it.”

What the kriff did that even mean? Rey figured he wouldn’t answer her if she asked, so she didn’t bother.

“We start your training tomorrow morning. I’ll collect you when it's time.” He made to leave before stopping near the entrance, throwing one last comment over his shoulder.

“Freshen up,” he said. “You reek of Resistance.”

The door slammed shut behind him.

Chapter Text

Rey awoke from the most restless sleep of her life with a pounding at the door. 

“Get dressed.” Kylo’s modulated voice was muffled by the steel. “We leave in five minutes.”

She grunted in reply, which seemed to be enough for him.

Rey tossed the scratchy wool blanket aside and rose. The bed was comfortable enough; star knows she wasn’t picky about that. Rey had spent the past five hours of restlessness staring at the stone ceiling, cataloging just how miserable her life had become. How in the span of three weeks, Rey had gone from lonely, to terrified, to overjoyed, only to get boxed up and shipped off, post-stamped and hand delivered back into misery.

She padded to the refresher and flipped on the light. 

The mirror reflected how positively dreadful Rey felt. Fresh bags darkened her eyes. Her hair was a mess of tangles and slight waves after having not bothered to dry it the night before. Her skin already seemed to be paler and more sunken.

She sighed, splashing water on her face before making her way to the drawers.

She rummaged for a while before finding what she assumed would be suitable clothing for training. A light, airy pair of black sweatpants with a tight fitting yet flexible long sleeved shirt on top. She rubbed her fingers along the fabric, in awe of how smooth it felt. Like a second skin.

Rey slipped socks and boots on before tying her hair back into a low bun. Almost as if sensing that she was ready, the metal door slid open with a hiss.

Kylo Ren’s mask examined her blankly before tossing her something. She gathered her wits just in time to catch it.

“Walk directly behind me. If you refuse, I’ll have to cuff you.”

He turned around, expecting her to follow. 

In all honesty, it wasn’t the most unpleasant morning greeting she’d ever experienced. It certainly was better than waking up strapped to a metal chair in a cell with a creepy masked man staring at her.

She exited the room on Kylo Ren’s heels.

Upon further inspection, the object he’d tossed her was some sort of fruit. It had a leathery casing on the outside that she worked to peel away as they walked. Rey was glad for the distraction. Though there were very few of them, she felt the prying eyes of every last stormtrooper they passed.

Rey took a bite of the fruit. Delicious, sweet juice exploded on her tongue. She had just enough sense to hide her glee as they walked through a set of double doors.

If she thought the lounge was big, it was nothing compared to the training room. Her mouth dropped open mid bite, aweing at the cathedral high ceilings. The mile long wall of weapons. A raised circle platform sat in the center of the room, with spectator seats on the opposite wall. The entire room was split into a series of square mats, each equipped with training droids and weapons tables.

Rey blinked at Kylo Ren. He shouldered off his robe to reveal training garments nearly identical to hers. A slighter loose fitting smooth black top, loose black sweatpants. He reached up to his neck and his mask clicked, hissed, and slid off.

Her gaze instantly sharpened. It was the first time she’d seen his face since it was covered in blood, backdropped by fire and snow and an exploding planet base.

A gray threading patched the scar that split down his cheek, starting under his eye and disappearing beneath his shirt. It was bigger than she remembered. Or, perhaps, she just didn’t understand how lightsaber wounds scarred.

“Admiring your handiwork?”

Rey’s eyes flicked up to his.

“I’m not like you, Kylo Ren,” she bit back. “I don’t enjoy causing people pain.”

He shook his head and placed his mask on the table. “The lies we tell ourselves,” he muttered, seemingly to himself. But she heard it.

“I’m not lying.”

“Okay, Scavenger,” he said, making it clear it was only to appease. He pointed to the mat nearest to them. “Up. Over there.”

She didn’t appreciate being ordered around like a pet, so she grumbled as she climbed onto the training mat. Kylo approached from the opposite end, grabbing two weapons from the wall.

“You will show civility to the teachings I provide. You will make an effort, and you will demonstrate a willingness to learn.” 

Rey crossed her arms over her chest and nearly rolled her eyes. 

“If you show no improvement, or a disregard for my teachings, I will consider you in violation of the terms.” Kylo glanced at her. “I’m sure you can imagine what happens next.”

Rey stiffened. Suddenly, a cold, invasive fear clutched her chest. Yes, Rey had understood, to an extent, what her time here would consist of. However, apparently she had been in a quite strong state of denial.

Because now, with Kylo Ren standing before her, weapons in hand, training mat beneath her feet, she understood for the first time how truly, universally screwed she really was.

“Though I have no regard for the Jedi or the Sith, their methods were effective because their masters and apprentices shared one thing.” Kylo climbed up, narrowing his glare at her. “Respect.”

He tossed her a wooden staff. She caught it.

“Do we understand each other?” 

Rey narrowed her eyes. In no universe could she ever respect Kylo Ren—even if her very life depended on it. Which, apparently, it suddenly did.

He raised a brow. “Scavenger.”

It was an almost teasing tone. He knew any concession she gave now was a dying blow to her already crumbling pride. He must know, because he understood.

Because she was learning that Kylo Ren was a stubborn man. And Rey? Rey could argue with the sun.

Instead, she gave a curt, grumbling, nod.

“Good,” he said. “Now. You’re well practiced but poorly trained. You’ve got quite a few bad habits that I intend to break. We’ll start you with what you know.” He gestured to their staves.

“How did you know—”

“You had no problem wielding a weapon. I studied you as we fought. I noticed you weren’t used to welding with your hands close together. Your shoulders flare and you cheat to the right almost constantly, which is common for quarterstaff fighters. But you have to unlearn that, as well as the way you balance your strikes.” He demonstrated the critiques on her form with his own quarterstaff. “You're a street fighter, which means all your momentum goes into your swing. It’s effective, but wasteful in a skilled match. You need to learn how to recover faster, or hold back some of your momentum to anticipate your next move.”

Rey raised a brow. “We only fought for five minutes.”

“You can learn a lot from your opponent in five minutes,” he said. “Especially if you know what to look for.”

And then, he swung.

Rey was thrilled to block his swing. Thrilled to counter with a strike of her own. She wasn’t expecting him to offer up quarterstaves willingly; Rey was prepared to fight tooth and nail just to train in something she was comfortable with.

She landed a strike on his leg, and as she normally did, stumbled out of the swing.

He quickly whirled on her, smacking the saberstaff across her ankles. She hissed, looking up at him.

“You see that?” he said. “That stumble could've been a counterstrike.”

“I was reorienting myself.”

“Don’t make excuses, just fix it.”

Rey huffed, but reset. She struck first this time. His swings were strong, making her fingers ache with every blow he landed on her staff. She twisted away from his strikes, and while he landed quite a few on her, she managed to do the same.

He hit her with an overhand swing. She blocked it above her head, catching his staff and guiding it to the side before stepping into a spin and striking his gut. She let her momentum take her forward.

Before she could get more than two steps, his grip found her bicep and tugged her back. She yelped at the sudden contact.

“What!?”

“You did it again.”

“But I–”

He held up a finger. “Fix. it.”

And they continued like that. For how long, Rey couldn’t tell. Every time she so much as took a single step in a manner that wasn’t completely controlled, Kylo would strike her on her back or ankles, or grab whatever appendage was closest to him, and drag her back to where she began. 

When Kylo finally took a step back and off the mat, Rey was exhausted and aching in every limb. 

But instead of throwing on his robe and forcing her to follow him out of the room, he simply dropped the quarterstaff and picked up a different weapon. He mounted the mat once more and handed it to her.

It was essentially a wooden lightsaber, complete with a notch in the hilt for the ‘activator’ switch. Rey glanced up at him.

“We’ll start you with wooden lightsabers until you’re ready for training sabers.”

“Are you forgetting that I fought you and won while wielding an actual lightsaber?”

“Are you forgetting that the entire time, you fumbled your way through a combat form that you had no business fighting with?”

Rey narrowed her eyes.

“We both know you didn’t win because of your lightsaber technique,” he said. “I’m not doing this to demean you, scavenger. I’m doing this so you can be a capable fighter. Now, show me your stance.”

Rey hated admitting he was right. Hated the fact that he knew so much more than her, especially when it came to this. She secured her grip on the hilt of the wooden saber and stepped into her stance.

She heard him tsk.

All of the sudden, he was behind her. His boot kicked hers forward, widening her stance. Hands pressed down on her hips and guided them forward.

“Point your hips toward where the attack is coming from.” His breath brushed the back of her neck. Rey bristled.

He’d never…touched her before. He’d manhandled her, yes, and had her in a vice grip during their lightsaber battle. But he’d never simply reached out and…touched her.

His hands seemed to linger for a moment before sliding up to her elbows, tucking them closer to her sides. “Center your focus. You should be able to see from your biceps to the tip of your blade.”

He didn’t move until she corrected her stance to his satisfaction. 

Rey suddenly seemed to regain the breath in her lungs. “Don’t touch me,” she said with far less bite than intended.

All she heard was a slight huff before he stepped out from behind her and surveyed her stance. He seemed to nod to himself before picking up his own wooden saber. 

“We’ll start slow.”

His ‘attack’ was laughable. Rey deflected with ease, holding back a scoff. She sidestepped, and Kylo’s gaze shot to hers.

“Keep your stance, Scavenger,” he snapped.

They continued for a while. She lost her stance occasionally, and each time, he snapped at her. Eventually, it annoyed her enough to demonstrate her frustration through her strikes. 

After her third forceful swing, Kylo sighed. “Control yourself.”

Rey purposefully dropped her stance, twirling the wooden staff with a practiced flourish and swinging at his knees. He jumped back.

She grinned. “Make me.”

Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say.

A wild look entered Kylo’s eyes a moment before he pounced, attacking her with three consecutive strikes. Rey was able to deflect the first two, but he landed the last one on her shoulder. 

Rey attacked again, this time aiming low first before faking him with a gut shot. He took the bait, and she landed a strike at his knees.

This continued on and on, muscles aching and bruises forming, until finally, Kylo managed to hook the back of her ankle and push her to the ground.

She landed hard on her back. Rey was so exhausted that she decided to stay there, panting up at the ceiling. She felt…invigorated. Powerful, even though she knew she lost. 

Kylo’s face popped into her field of vision.

“You slipped out of your stance.”

Rey sighed and sat up, rubbing her sore shoulder.

“But only at the end,” he added as an afterthought. “You’re a quick study. But to get to sparring, you need to master the basics.”

Rey peered up at him. Was that a…compliment?

No. No, that would’ve been preposterous. 

“Yeah, well, I think we’ve established that the basics aren’t exactly my forte.”

“Patience is what you struggle with. Your foundations are solid, you’re just too restless.” He stalked away. Dropping from the mat, Kylo threw on his cape, then seemed to hesitate for a moment. He glanced at her before looking away.

“In fact,” he said, “you’re not far from where I was at your age.”

This caught her attention. Rey rose to her feet. “Really?”

He nodded.

She hopped off of the mat, venturing a look at him. “How long had you been training?”

He paused, most likely weighing the consequences of revealing much of anything to her. Rey had learned very little about Ben Solo in her time with the resistance—not for lack of trying. She knew he was sent to train with Luke Skywalker at a young age, and turned against him sometime later. But truly, that was all.

“About eight years.”

She blinked. “Oh.”

“That surprises you?”

“No I just…I assumed eight years of Jedi training would get you a lot further than,” she gestured vaguely at the sparring mat, “this.”

Kylo followed her gaze. “I had the misfortune of beginning my path in the ways of the Jedi, which meant the first few years were almost entirely meditation.”

Almost unconsciously, as Rey had always hated the idea of silently listening to her own thoughts, she wrinkled her nose.

“See?” He said. “Even you agree it's useless.”

“I never said that.”

“You didn't have to.”

Rey rolled her eyes.

Kylo stared at her for a long moment. “Luke’s training was thorough but flawed. By the time I was your age, I knew every last lightsaber form like the back of my hand. I could run through them in my sleep, and I often did. But he was…hesitant to truly teach us to fight,” he said. “I was clumsy. I didn’t win many matches.”

Rey scoffed. “I find that hard to believe.”

“You of all people should know not to equate brute strength with victory. I was strong, but I was taught to fear my strength rather than embrace it—”

He cut himself off, sensing the very same thing Rey did in that moment. A shuttering in the force, almost like an earthquake, but with an unmistakably vile lurch to it. A storm with a snarl. Rey shuttered, peered up at the ceiling, down at the floor.

It lasted for only a moment before fading away.

“What was that?” she whispered.

Kylo Ren didn’t respond. He slipped on his mask, then started toward the door. Rey hurried to catch up with him.

“What’s going on?”

He didn’t look at her as he gruffly replied. “Snoke is requesting our presence.”

Rey stumbled to a stop. Cold fear wrapped around her chest. Kylo Ren slowed a few feet ahead of her, but didn’t turn around. 

“That was Snoke?” It felt so ugly. So cruel. Like a presence that sought only to smother. 

“Yes.”

Rey narrowed her eyes at him. A pair of stormtroopers marched past them in unison, the masked soldiers unsuccessfully hiding the way their necks craned curiously at the odd pair as they walked by. 

She only spoke when they turned down the corridor. “What does he want?”

Kylo was silent for a moment. His helm faced the ground, as if suddenly too heavy for his neck. “Just do as he says,” he all but whispered. “It’s less painful that way.”

He was walking forward again, and Rey was left to frown at his receding back. She considered, for a moment, how disastrous it would be for her to simply run away. Like a petulant child, dragging her heels all the way back to that odd little lounge and refusing to play along with whatever game Kylo Ren was playing.

“He doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”

He threw the comment over his shoulder almost passively. Expecting her to just bow her head and obey, as if she was well and truly a willing participant in all of this.

Stars, what was she even doing? Following Kylo Ren into the belly of the ultimate beast like an obedient pet, answering to his beck and call?

“Scavenger.” Impatience began to lace his tone, finally forcing him to turn around fully and accept that she wouldn’t simply obey.

“Do you always do whatever he asks?”

“Yes.” He answered instantly. “And if you don’t, you will suffer for it.”

“He doesn’t scare me,”

In three quick strides, Kylo crossed the empty hall between them. Shoulders pulsing. Helm just inches from her face. “ He is not the one who will make you suffer, Scavenger,” he said. “That’s what I’m for.” 

Rey glared at the slits in the mask where his eyes supposedly were. “You don’t scare me, either.”

If she could see his face, she knew he’d be smiling. “Liar.”

Her face fell before she could flatten her expression. It seemed to satisfy Kylo, as he straightened and took a single step back. 

“Your protest is meaningless. You will have an audience with Snoke,” Kylo said simply. “It is your choice whether you walk there with dignity, or are dragged like the scum you pretend not to be.”

Oh, she hated him. Hated him. With the fury of a thousand suns.

“I am not scum.”

He sighed. “Dragging it is, then.”

For a man as large as him, Kylo had no right to be so fast. Her upper arm was in his gloved grasp in seconds, and before she could truly process it, her boots were sliding over the polished floor as he, literally, dragged her by her arm down the hall.

She was a stubborn and scrappy thing. He may have been strong, but Rey was sure to put up a fight. Every chance she could, Rey reached out to grab the wall, shouting obscenities that she’d never before been furious enough to say.

“Keep screaming, Scavenger,” Kylo said at one point, only the slightest bit breathless. “It’s music to my ears.”

The dark presence she’d felt in the training room only grew stronger the longer Kylo led her through the twists and turns, deeper into the bowels of the Supremacy. It was stifling, really, as if the air supply on board was malfunctioning. Rey even listened for the telltale whirr of the oxygen scrubbers, and was horrified to discover they were, in fact, working just fine.

Rey took a long breath. The anger was getting stronger. The Rage. Every ugly little emotion in her mind was slowly getting harder and harder to dim. Loneliness. Sadness. Fear. Faces flashed through her mind: Unkar Plutt, Kylo Ren, even Leia, accompanied by the irresistible urge to take a lightsaber to their neck and ignite it— 

She took another series of breaths, glancing down and growling at her shaking hands. The boiling frustration. And then, she grew frustrated at her inability to control her frustration.

One could imagine what that did to her warring mind.

“Stop fighting it.” Kylo’s modulated voice snapped. “That only makes it worse.”

“I don’t even know what it is.”

Rey could’ve sworn she heard him sigh. “It's best if you just find out for yourself.”

Before she could ask what the kriff that could even mean, Kylo slipped through the stone doorway and pushed her inside.

His voice spoke low by her ear. “For your sake, walk this bit alone.”

She shrugged him off.

He must've sensed her hesitation, for his hand found her back and practically pushed her the entire terrifying, and needlessly long, walk from the entry to what Rey could only describe as a massive, luxurious throne room. 

The ‘room’ seemed endless. Deep red walls with dark, cold stone all around them. A nearly golden throne rested at the center of the palace-like space, and within it, sat the creature she assumed was Supreme Leader Snoke.

Haggard, was the first word that came to her head. Misshapen. Deformed. He had a skeletal-like frame that was not nearly disguised well enough beneath his silver robe. A crack split his head nearly in two. Rey dug her heels further into the ground.

Kylo Ren, finally fed up with simply urging her forward, grabbed her elbow and yanked her to follow. “Now is not the time to be difficult,” he hissed in a low whisper. Even if she tried to comply, her feet simply wouldn’t listen. Instead, Kylo Ren dragged her once again, until they were far too close to the dais for comfort, and he let her go.

He dropped to a knee. Rey did not.

Though she somehow had the courage to stand, she did not have the strength to look him in the eye. Regardless, she felt his stare.

Snoke examined her with great interest. Eyes searching every last bit of her as if she were bare naked before him.

“Kylo Ren,” the monster finally spoke. His voice was a gravelly mess, like the stones of a tomb scraping shut. “Well done.”

Kylo dipped his head. “Thank you, Supreme Leader.”

Terrifyingly, Snoke’s gaze shifted to her. “Young Rey.” Her name on his tongue sounded like a death sentence, read out to a breathless crowd with a noose swinging overhead. “Too proud to kneel, I see. Not to worry, we’ll soon fix that.” His certainty made her sick. “My apprentice has told me much about you, girl. He spoke of your inherent power. A gift, of sorts, in the force.”

Rey found safer territory fixing her gaze on where Kylo knelt on the stone floor. His head didn’t shift, although she was certain he sensed her stare. 

“Well,” Snoke continued. “I certainly hope he’s correct. We’ve done so much to acquire you, little scavenger. It would be a shame for all that effort to go to waste.” Snoke lifted a skeletal finger. “Come, child. Approach me.”

Rey’s boots stayed stubbornly still. She wished she could pretend that it was bravery commanding them to stay, but truly, she feared that if she took a single step, her legs would crumble beneath her.

Snoke waited for a moment, outstretched hand beckoning, before he sighed. 

“Fine, then. I suppose I should’ve expected such. Though you seem malleable, girl, it seems the wrong people got to you first.”

His hand flicked, and blinding pain exploded in her head.

She screamed and crumbled in an instant. Kylo seemed to flinch, tightening his fingers into a fist and tucking his mask even further into his chest.

Rey was only barely able to catch herself on her hands and knees before another pulse of pain erupted in her mind, this one like a creature with claws burrowing into her brain. 

“Interesting,” a slithery voice noted above the madness. The agony. It was an instinct for Rey to push back; to plant her palms on the stone and resist. Taking every last bit of strength she had, everything she had, to push. him. out.  

“Oh, delightful,” the voice remarked, and Rey could hear the smile in his tone. “This one's a fighter. And a passionate one, at that.” The presence in her head abated, but only for a moment, before returning even stronger than before. It twisted and turned, finding the unexplored parts of her mind and stripping them bare. “Her power is unfocused, but remarkably driven. It’s almost admirable.”

Too exhausted to hold herself up anymore, Rey collapsed to the ground, stifling her whimpers into her arm. The pain was violating—touching her where she’d never allow anyone to go. Taking the inner workings of her mind and projecting them. Mocking them. 

“Kylo Ren, I think you’ve met your match.”

The presence retreated, but the pain remained. Like a mocking memory, repeating over and over again , I came. I conquered. And you are all that's left.

Kylo Ren, for the first time, looked up. “Master?” He seemed breathless.

“You were right about the girl. I haven’t seen a creature with this much raw power in the force since, well,” Snoke leaned forward, “since you , Kylo Ren.”

“What shall I do, Master?”

“What you were planning to do all along.” Snoke waved a dismissive hand. “Take her, train her, make her loyal to us. Make her lethal. With her on our side, the Resistance won’t stand a chance.”

Kylo Ren dipped his head in a deep bow, and though Rey couldn’t see his face, she suddenly felt the heavy weight of his attention.

 “If you play your cards right, boy,” Snoke grumbled, a beaming pride curling his lips into a sneer, “we could be the most powerful empire in history.”

“Yes, Supreme Leader.”

Snoke’s gaze returned to Rey, who lay nearly curled into a ball on her side. The dizziness was finally retreating, and her stomach was starting to feel like it could finally contain its contents for the time being.

“This truce you’ve concocted with the Resistance won’t last forever. In fact, I’d be surprised if those little rebels make it two weeks without signing their own death warrants.” Snokes comment gathered Rey’s attention enough for her to shift, planting her palms pitifully on the stone and rising to manage a pathetic sit. 

Snoke seemed to watch her with interest before turning back to Kylo. “But, some things are more important than this silly little war. You have four months to turn the girl, Kylo Ren. Four months to make her your unquestionably loyal apprentice. If the time comes and she still insists on singing the song of Resistance, you will execute her yourself, along with anyone who has ever uttered a word of rebellion.”

Rey’s heart dropped into her stomach. 

Kylo seemed to meditate on that for a moment before speaking. “Master—”

Snoke raised an invisible brow. “You oppose to this?”

Kylo was clearly regretting his protest, but Snoke’s mocking stare begged for him to continue. 

“She could still be…useful,” Kylo finally supplied, “even if not entirely loyal.”

“If she is not our weapon, then she will become our enemy’s. We cannot allow a being with her aptitude in the force to walk freely in the galaxy.” Snoke reclined further into his throne. “But your lack of foresight is understandable. You did well acquiring the girl. Though I will not dismiss your insolence, I will allow you this one reprieve.”

For the first time, Snoke stood. His stick-like limbs unfolded nearly twice their size, revealing a man that was twice as tall as any she’d ever seen. The way he walked was disjointed, as if one of his colossal legs was shorter than the other, or perhaps severed by one of his many foes. 

“Now go, Kylo Ren, I will summon the both of you again soon,” Snoke growled, straightening his spine to become even taller. “Make her our weapon.”

Rey was still only semi-conscious, mind overcome with the remnants of pain. Fury. She saw Snoke’s feral grin blurring in and out of focus. Rey had just enough awareness to glare up at him. 

Distantly, she felt a tight grip on her elbow pull. Pinch. Half-drag her a foot or two before clearly giving up. One arm hooked beneath her legs and another grasped her shoulder, and suddenly, she was floating. Flying. 

Rey couldn’t truly gather herself until countless corridors passed her by, when the stifling presence finally ebbed away and transformed into nothing but a slight ringing in the back of her head. Rey lifted her head, winced at the harsh light of the hallway, and looked up.

Directly into the helm of Kylo Ren.

She yelped and instantly squirmed, pushing against his chest. He didn’t put up much of a fight. The moment she began to resist, he simply stopped walking and dropped her.

Rey stumbled away from the circle of his arms. All she could see was his head, bowed and ready to submit. Ready to do anything in the name of his master.

Suddenly, no distance was far enough, and even when she retreated as much as she possibly could, with her back pressed firmly against the steel wall, she still wanted to retreat. 

All the while, Kylo Ren’s blank mask just simply…stared. As always, he revealed nothing of what occurred behind that ridiculous, perpetually vacant, mask.

They stayed there for a long moment, with Rey gathering her thoughts, her breaths, her fury, until she finally had the wits to speak. 

“I will never ,” she spat, “be loyal to you and that thing .”

“I told you fighting would only make it worse.”

Resigned was the only way she could describe the way he spoke. As if simply remarking on a particularly harsh solar storm.

“I won’t do it,” she hissed at him, feeling her anger pulse around her. “Any of it. The training, the force, the truce. I’m done.”

She so badly wished she had a lightsaber, her quarterstaff, even that stupid shattered sword, something in her hands for her to smash. Preferably over Kylo Ren’s head.

“Fine,” he said, again with that blank disinterest. “I will inform General Hux to start the firing sequence. You may inform the resistance that the truce is over and to prepare for immediate attack.”

She almost wanted him to storm away so she'd have a reason to shout after him, but the asshole knew exactly what he was doing. What she would do. So instead, he simply stood there with a vile tilt to his helm.  

Rey shook her head with a snarl. “You’re disgusting.” 

“And you’re ungrateful.” He strode past her, forcing Rey to spin around and rush to follow.

She huffed. “Really? Ungrateful?” 

Kylo slammed on the button to lift the metal door to the lounge and strode in. “Scoffing at an opportunity thousands of force users before you would’ve dreamed of.”

“Oh yes, I’m sure thousands have dreamed to be held prisoner by the First Order and tortured by psychopaths—”

Kylo spun to face her. “To be trained by centuries old Masters, given the key to elements of the force that Jedi and Sith have sought for centuries—”

“Why would I care about any of that when the very centuries old master you covet is ordering me to be executed in four months time!”

“Only if you resist.”

Rey huffed out a furious breath, letting her mind catch up with her anger. She tilted her head 

“So you’ll do it then,” Rey said. It wasn’t a question. “When the time comes, you’ll kill me.”

He seemed to freeze for a moment, either shocked by her statement or considering the repercussions of answering it honestly. 

“Without hesitation.”

A throat cleared.

Rey suddenly felt like she was ripped from a haze. She and Kylo turned around—only to find that their formerly private argument was now of a spectacle variety. Beyond them, scattered about the room in various states of leisure, were six men.

They were all dressed in black. Two sat reclined on their couch with dirty boots propped onto the short table before them. Both had dark hair the color of a starless sector that curled slightly at the ends.

Another one, blonde and almost baby faced, leaned against the far window with some colorful drink in one hand and a curled, rusted blade in the other.

The next two stood on either side of the kitchen, frozen mid bite of a delicious smelling melted pie of some sort. They seemed older, surely older than Kylo, one with peppery gray flaked black hair and the other with nearly red-ish long locks.

The last one leaned on the wall barely two feet from where she stood. He wasn’t a species Rey had ever seen before, with blue, almost scaled skin and red eyes.

“Scavenger,” Kylo Ren finally said. “Meet the Knights of Ren.”

Chapter Text

“She mute?” One of the men on the couch asked. Piercing golden eyes looked her up and down, from the hair stuck to her forehead with sweat to the trembling hands at her sides.

“Quite the opposite actually,” Kylo replied, thumbing his mask and pulling it off. The way he did it each time was so specific, so very… Kylo Ren . 

And Rey? Rey was a creature of habit. She learned long ago, on the sprawling sand dunes of Jakku, to never enter a room without knowing exactly who, and what, to expect. Somehow, a decade of survival skills ingrained in her through blood, sweat, and tears, were erased by one very annoying man. She shot Kylo a sidelong glare and cursed him for frustrating her so much that even her barest instincts were overcome with the want, no, need to argue with him. 

Rey inhaled a shaky breath and exhaled a calm one, sweeping her eyes across the six faces before her. Every one of them was trained on her. Some seemed more menacing than others, while one in particular, she sensed, was purely intrigued.

Rey glanced at the blonde one. 

He winked at her in return. 

Rey forced her eyes away in pure confusion.

The ginger one cleared his throat, then proceeded to speak around a mouth full of food. “I think we’ve frightened the thing.”

Suddenly, she was no longer at a loss for words.

“I’m not frightened,” she shot back, perhaps still a bit unpleasant from her previous conversation—and subsequent abrupt introduction to six very intimidating men.

The baby faced blonde across the room whistled, plastering on an almost sweet smile. “Feisty. I like her already.”

Rey glared at him. It only made the man’s smile grow.

“Can we play with her?” A voice like a sharpened sword pierced her ears, sending an instant jolt to her gut that awoke the feral, cornered animal inside of her. 

Run. 

“Manners, Ushar.” There was an edge to his voice that was new, and the irony was not lost on her that Kylo Ren had the audacity to correct another man’s manners .

 Not that he wasn’t right to do so. The black haired man, Ushar, hadn’t stopped sizing Rey up like a feast since the two of them burst through the door fighting like beggars over bread.

“So what is she then?” Ushar asked, his gaze finally sliding over to Kylo. “If not our new little plaything.”

“A candidate.”

Kylo’s gaze swept across the room to gauge the reactions to his reply. Most of them were of subtle shock—which didn’t surprise Rey. What did surprise her, however, was the snarl she received from the previously silent blue-skinned man. 

Rey took a step to hover near the opposite wall. For some reason, it seemed safer there.

“I didn’t realize you were unsatisfied with our current ranks, Master.”

Kylo turned to the older man with grayish, blackish hair. “I will never be satisfied, Vicrul. Not while there is still so much,” Kylo glanced at her, “untapped power in the galaxy.”

An odd silence lingered then, and though Rey had wanted to flee ever since stepping into the room, the urge was much, much stronger now. 

“She will be put through the trials just as most of you were,” Kylo said to the silence. “And will not ascend as a Knight of Ren unless she fulfills the final test.”

The Knights stiffened. All but Ushar, who narrowed his eyes. 

“And if she fails?”

Rey did not take kindly to being spoken about as if she weren’t even present, but her utter disdain for being there at all won out. She decided that when it came to this room full of murderous Sith, she would rather be talked about than be talked to.

“Snoke himself has tasked me with her training, and unlike any of you, has given her a deadline of four months to succeed; after which I will kill her myself.”

“That’s a long time to dangle a carrot.” The man with red eyes eyed Rey like she was a temptation he could barely resist.

Kylo regarded him as if he very much wished to smother the red-eyed man where he stood. “If you cannot control your impulses you have no right being here, Ap’lek.” 

The creature, Ap’lek, merely shrugged. A long cape unfurled directly at her as the man turned and crossed the room, slamming a button to open one of the metal doors and sealing it shut behind him.

Kylo addressed the room. “Anyone else?”

Silence.

“Good.” He turned and stalked past Rey. “With me, scavenger.”

Rey had never in her wildest dreams thought that she’d prefer the company of Kylo Ren over any creature that breathed. But she was relieved to see he was leaving, relieved to spare one last glare at the room and follow him, so she retreated and took her first full breath in minutes when the lounge door shut behind her. 

Kylo Ren was moving, so she followed. After a short walk down the hall, a door slid open and he entered. 

Rey hesitantly followed. She had the common sense to wait until the door closed, to scan the room and ensure it was empty, before speaking.

“You never said anything about me becoming a Knight of Ren.”

He slid off his cape and dropped his mask onto a metal desk. 

“Snoke ordered me to make you my apprentice,” Kylo explained while continuing to strip off his outer layer of clothing. “You would, by default, become a Knight.”

“I don’t want that.”

“You’ve made that perfectly clear.”

With a huff, Rey turned so she didn’t have to face him, crossing her arms over her chest so they didn’t squeeze into fists at her side.

“What’s the final test?” She asked the floor, telling herself it was because she was angry and not because he was in the process of unlacing his boots—which he had no business looking so normal doing.

“Killing a Knight of Ren.”

Rey whirled to look at him. 

“To earn the honor of ascending into the ranks of the Knights of Ren, one must not just understand power and sacrifice,” Kylo spoke as if he was reciting some sort of kriffed up code, “they must demonstrate it. Earn it.”

She was silent for a moment. Standing there, mouth agape, eyes wide.

And then, for the first time in days, Rey laughed.

Her hands cupped the back of her neck as she threw her head back and breathed out senseless giggles. It felt freeing, releasing this sort of nonsensical scream. 

It felt like weeping. 

So she wept, for her friends. Her loyalties.

Her life.

“I’m dead,” she breathed out between giggles, tears streaming down her face. She took a moment to survey Kylo’s face, which looked just about as confused as it was concerned. “I mean, I already assumed that, but—“ She laughed, deepening the furrow in Kylo’s brow. “The Knights...they’re going to kill me.”

“They’ll certainly try.”

Rey couldn’t stomach him looking at her, so she turned around and finally decided to actually look at the room she’d stormed into.

It was cold, but not entirely unpleasant. The largest mattress she’d ever seen sat on one end, draped in black satin sheets. The room was brighter than hers, with white stained steel walls and red rugs. There were two desks, a holotable, a couch, and a fresher.

Rey wouldn’t call it comfortable, but it was better than hers.

She’d gathered herself now, just enough to breathe out a long, shaky breath and turn around.

At some point in her senselessness, Kylo Ren had taken a seat on the edge of the bed. He was stripped down to a black undershirt and sweatpants, with both of his boots unlaced.

Rey found his gaze.

“I will not kill anyone.”

“How noble of you,” he said with a mocking sneer. “Choosing to die for your stupid Resistance; to ride your righteousness all the way to the Netherworld.” He rose slowly, taking measured steps toward her until he was close enough to touch. “It’ll be a shame, but at least you’ll die valiantly refusing to strike down a couple of ruthless murderers who are worth ten times what you are.”

The odd compliment hit her like a slap in the face, and Kylo’s intense eye contact didn’t help her absorb it any better. It felt like the first time he’d truly looked at her, not to insult or instruct. But simply to look, and have her look back.

The skin around his scar was red. Biting. This close, Rey could see the hints of hazel in his nearly black eyes. She could count every scar and freckle on his far too close face. His scent washed over her—soap, sweat, ash. And, oddly, lavender. 

The observation sobered her enough to huff and turn around, nearly walking directly into the holotable in the center of the room.

Two red lights blinked at the center, surrounding a box that had elaborate text hovering over it. The interface looked eerily similar to the one she’d seen on the Resistance’s holotable during the negotiations. 

She frowned, ran her finger over the metal ridge of the table, surveyed the room once more, and glanced at him over her shoulder.

“Where are we?”

“My room.”

Her eyes widened. “Why are we in your room?”

Kylo joined her beside the holotable. Leather gloves fiddled with a few buttons, activating a switch and producing a blank screen that popped up in front of her.

“General Organa negotiated this as a part of the terms.” He gestured to the blank screen, as if that helped his vague explanation make any more sense.

Rey stared at the holotable, then looked at him. “What is it?”

“A message. You’re allowed to send one message per standard week to a frequency of your choosing.”

Her eyes instantly lit up. “Wha…why didn’t you tell me this before?”

“You never asked.”

“I didn’t know. ”

“It’s not my fault that your Resistance repeatedly lied to you, scavenger.”

“They didn’t—“ She forced a calming breath. “One per week?”

Kylo nodded. 

Her mouth formed an unconscious smile. “And I can receive one back?”

“If they send one, then yes, you’ll receive it.”

“And are you telling me the truth?”

He sighed. “Have I ever lied to you?”

The odd notion made her stop and consider. She supposed that no, of all the minor, and major, transgressions against her, including but not limited to kidnapping, torture, murder, and treason, lying to her was the one thing he’d actually never done.

“Go ahead, scavenger.” He stepped aside and gestured to the keyboard. “Write your message.”

Just like that, her smile, and pride, collapsed.

“It’s not a recording?”

Bored nonchalance tainted his tone. “I promise you, I will send the message to the frequency of your choosing, and you will receive the response. There is no need to prove your identity.” She looked up at him, a gesture he must’ve assumed was an invitation to further explain. “These comms are originating from my private quarters, for security reasons I don’t allow a video feed.”

Rey swallowed and looked back down at the keyboard.

Hot sweat started to pool at the back of her neck. Embarrassment, flushing her cheeks red.

It wasn’t that she couldn't read. Unlike most of the other children on Jakku, it was clear that wherever Rey had been before, she had learned the very beginnings of the Basic alphabet. It wasn’t completely foreign to her; she recognized abbreviations on flight controls and readings on monitors. She knew numbers and letters, and certain meanings of certain combinations of numbers and letters. And that was all.

But Unkar, like every other slave boss, forbade his workers from any sort of education. Which meant that her reading abilities started, and ended, at five years old.

Her fingers dug into the metal of the holotable. She hung her head, took a breath. Let the humiliation wash over her as she prepared to spit out her deepest shame.

“Tell it to me.”

She looked up. With one last odd glance at her, Kylo spun the keyboard to land in front of him and he focused, a bit too closely, on the screen before him. “I’ll transcribe.”

Rey gaped at him. 

“Don’t test my patience, scavenger. If you want to say something, say it.”

She shook her head clear, and the words tumbled out of her mouth. 

As promised, Kylo typed her words faithfully, even repeatedly holding down what she assumed was the ‘delete’ button when she changed her mind and wanted to say “love” rather than “from”.

He forced her to be brief, only allowing her three sentences. But it was more than enough. 

“And I assume this will be sent to my mother?”

The ache of tears stung her eyes, so she nodded instead of answering. 

“Tell me the frequency.”

“I can do it.” Picking up whatever shattered pieces of her pride remained, she shoved him over and stood in front of the keyboard. She worked quickly, some sorry way to prove that she wasn’t entirely useless. Wasn’t entirely junkyard trash.

“There.” 

Without further thought, he pressed a button. They sat there then, watching the blue bar crawl across the screen in complete silence. Her neck burned the entire time. Her heart raced. She hated so many things at that moment—mainly herself. 

“You will start literacy classes tomorrow night,” Kylo said to the holotable.

“I thought you wanted to train me.”

“Training requires study. I didn’t realize you couldn’t…”

He trailed off. Even Kylo Ren, kidnapper, father murderer, and self proclaimed most monstrous man in the entire galaxy, couldn’t bring himself to say it.

“Yeah, well not all of us were raised in palaces as the son of a princess,” she bit out, turning around to pace the room. Properly ashamed now.

“I…realize I should’ve assumed—“

“Don’t.”

He nodded. For once, he didn’t argue. Didn’t bite back when he had every reason to. Rey was horrified to feel the pity radiating off of him. Stars, she was so kriffing angry . 

“I’ll escort you back to your room for the night.”

Kylo made his way to the door, and Rey rushed to speak before the door could slide open.

“I’m not ashamed of it.” She sounded like a liar to even herself. “The only people on Jakku that can read are the slavers.”

“I know,” he said.

“No, you don’t know. How the kriff could you ever understand what it's like?” She crossed the room to stand before him. “You sit up here in your priceless star destroyer, with your finely pressed clothes, and your Knights, and your beggy little Generals, eating meals three times a day, training in arenas that could house entire planets. Using your freshers like kings, yet pretending to know what suffering feels like. Pretending you have a cause worth fighting for.” She sensed a reply on the tip of his tongue, so she held up her hand to stop him. “I understand your family made you feel abandoned. I understand that your perfect little life didn’t work out like you wanted it to. But you have the audacity to scoff at my  loyalties, when if you’ve had to live even a day of my life, you’d understand why I’d choose freedom and the Resistance over the First Order in every lifetime. Even if they abandon me. Even if Leia receives that message and leaves it to rot. Because fighting for something will always, always, be better than being brainwashed into this.”

She exhaled, panting heavily in his face. Well, his chest, more like, given the fact that her eyes barely reached his neck.

And Kylo stared. Blinked once, twice, before grabbing his mask from the desk and slipping it onto his head.

“I’ll escort you back to your room.”

She didn’t know what she expected, but it certainly wasn’t that. Perhaps a slap, or another insult about how a garbage scum like her could never understand the intricacies of the Sith, or whatever the hell he was.

Dumbfounded, she followed him out the door. When they reached her room, all he did was silently gesture her inside before lingering awkwardly in the open door.

“I’ll order you some food,” he said, his blank tone revealing nothing. “I’ll collect you again in the morning.”

Then, he was gone.

Her dinner had come by droid.

The black, bland looking thing placed a steel tray with three different plates on the small desk in the corner. Rey didn’t recognize a single food there, except for a bun that turned out to be like bread but slightly sweeter. A plastic cup with purple goo inside turned out to taste like a chocolatey, fruity pudding. 

In all, it was exceptional. 

The day had exhausted her, and although she knew she should wash and change into more suitable sleep clothing, her bed was calling. So she listened.

Draining the last of the water, Rey crawled to her bed and collapsed over the covers. She was still sweaty; still reeling from the training, from Snoke, from the Knights, from her heated conversation in Kylo’s room.

His room.

So Rey lay there, restless yet somehow still exhausted, and closed her eyes. Eventually, sleep carried her away. Peace. A sun-kissed meadow. A trickling stream. A happiness she’d never felt once in her pathetic little life.

In her dreams, she inhaled a deep breath at the blue, cloudless sky. Fresh air filled her lungs. Found a home there. 

And it stayed.

And stayed.

And…stayed.

She coughed, throat aching. Searching the meadow with a frantic confusion. Panic, clawing at her neck. 

Breathe. 

Why can’t I breathe?

Breathe.

BREATHE.

WAKE UP—

Golden eyes glared from above.

Rey lurched her arms forward, throwing a fist helplessly with both arms, but found them trapped; held down by her wrists on either side of her head.

She turned, finding red eyes and a dark blue scowl.

“Just a little longer, Ap’lek,” Ushar hissed with a sneer. His breath was hot against her forehead; his hand pressing into her mouth and nose so strongly her neck ached.

Rey coughed, thrashed, desperate to take a breath, but their grips held strong. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t breathe. 

“This is taking too long.” The red-eyed one, Ap’lek, reached to pull something from a hilt on his hip. A black ax emerged in the hand that wasn’t already restraining her wrist.

Her eyes bugged, and she released a muffled scream.

“Fine,” Ushar whispered. “But do it quickly, she’s making enough noise as it is.”

Ap’lek nodded.

He raised the ax.

Rey had done it once before: used the force as a vessel for strength. Back in the forest on Starkiller, she had somehow…gathered it from the fury inside her, felt it flood her senses like it was a part of her blood. Her body.

She didn’t know what she was doing when she closed her eyes, the sight of the ax hovering above her neck seared into her brain. Rey just knew that she had precisely three seconds to not die, which meant she had to do something.

Even if that something was doing the same thing she’d done earlier that day when Snoke invaded her mind. She gathered all that fear, all the hopeless remains of her shattered pride, her anger, and absorbed it. Felt it. Gathered it together, and pushed.

The grip on her wrists were ripped away.

Rey heard a large bang, followed immediately by two distinct groans.

Her eyes shot open as Rey jumped up from the bed. The men sat slumped over in either corner of her room. Ushar had been thrown directly into the dresser, which was now split into a couple dozen shards of wood. Ap’lek had landed directly next to her desk—the very desk the man was currently using to pick himself back up.

“You bitch, ” he hissed, wiping his hand across his mouth and spitting a mouthful of blood onto the floor. “You’ll pay for that one, little girl.”

“And here we thought he’d brought us a pathetic little stray.” Ushar was standing now, with a distinctive limp that she was properly proud of causing. “You’re strong, but you’ll never be one of us. Even if we don’t kill you tonight, one of the other Knights will. Eventually.”

“I don’t want to be one of you ,” Rey spat the last word out with clear disgust. “I don’t care about your stupid Knights.” She was cornered, backing further and further into the wall behind her. 

Ap’lek spun the ax in his grip. “Doesn’t matter what you want now, girl. Kylo’s got his eye on you, which means Snoke does, too.”

“And if he tells you to kill one of us, you won’t have the luxury of saying no.” Ushar closed in, now with a shining blade in his hand.

“In truth, we’re doing you a favor.” Ap’lek was close. Close enough for her to see his half shadowed face. “Even the strongest men would choose death over Snoke’s control.”

Ushar sliced, catching Rey’s shoulder as she leaped away, directly into Ap’lek’s ax. He swung down. 

Pain exploded in her shoulder with the sound of a sick crunch. She screamed.

She stood up hastily, and a fist slammed into her already bloody cheek, sending her hurtling to the ground.

Again, all she could do was take all that hate in her heart and push it out. It was a less powerful pulse this time; merely sending them sliding into the far wall. 

She took a breath. Got to her feet.

She could do this. 

Rey grabbed the shattered leg of her desk and swung it to counter Ushar’s knife. It split in half upon impact.

Ap’lek came up from behind her, and she had a split-second of awareness to drop to the ground and roll away from his swing.

She rolled directly into Ushar’s kick. She groaned and coughed, all of the air swept from her stomach.

Two heavy hands grabbed her from behind and hauled her up. They wrapped around her chest, grasping her neck in a vice-like grip. Before Ushar’s other hand could secure her, she tightened her grip on the wooden shard and drove it into the flesh directly behind her.

To her relief, she heard a sick squelch and a scream. Ushar muttered swears into her ear, his lips pressed against her skin.

“You stupid girl,” he huffed pained breaths into her neck. She grimaced and fought to flinch away. “I’m going to make you scream.” 

Ap’lek adjusted his grip on the ax and stalked forward.

Ushar’s other hand secured Rey’s wrists. When he spoke, she swore she could hear a smile. “And I’m going to enjoy every last second—“

“Ushar.”

Rey had never been so relieved to hear that stupid modulated voice.

“Ap’lek.”

Kylo said their names as if merely greeting them in passing. She turned her head as much as she could with Ushar’s hand wrapped around her neck. There he stood, master of the Knights of Ren, leaning against Rey’s door frame.

“Master,” Ap’lek said. His eyes glanced between Ushar, Rey, and Kylo. 

Kylo’s mask tilted. “Have I interrupted something?”

Chapter Text

“Not at all, Master.” Ushar’s lips moved against Rey’s ear. Hot breath tickled her cheek.

Kylo straightened—uncrossed his arms and stepped through the doorway. “That wound looks bad, Ushar. Perhaps you should go to the infirmary.”

“It’s nothing,” he ground out. That stung her pride. Rey could feel the wet, sticky blood seeping from Ushar’s wound where his body pressed against hers—quite certain it was not, in fact, nothing.

“That wasn’t a suggestion,” Kylo said.

Rey took advantage of Ushar’s momentary distraction to slam her boot down over his. He hissed into her ear, jerking her back even tighter to his chest, fingers clamping over her neck.

She yelped. Something tore in her shoulder.

“Ushar…” Ap’lek warned. A few wary steps separated him from where Ushar held Rey on the other end of the room, nearing the doorway as if already halfway from fleeing altogether. 

“So this is your plan, then?” Kylo stalked into the room, helm tilted toward the ground to survey the damage. “To ambush her in her sleep and kill her?”

Ushar and Ap’lek exchanged a look but did not reply.

Kylo shook his head. “I taught you better. Both of you.”

“Master—“

“My Knights would never dare be so pathetic,” Kylo swept his helm from Ap’lek to Ushar, “as to ambush their comrade in their sleep. ”

Kylo ground out the last few words with a fury she’d heard only once before; lit by red and blue, backdropped by a forest and a blizzard. Flames engulfing steel.

“She will never be one of us,” Ushar hissed. “She’s Resistance scum! A weak, pathetic little girl, who will do nothing but bring us ruin. You’re just too blind to see it.”

“I find it interesting how someone so weak and little,” Kylo noted, “can manage to scare you so much.”

Ushar’s hold on her slipped, not enough for her to squirm free, but enough for her wrist to slip from his grasp, wind around her torso and grab the shard of wood already embedded in the man’s gut.

“Let her go, Ushar.”

“You really think your little Scavenger will make it through this alive?” Ushar scoffed a hot laugh into her ear. “Even if she somehow does survive Snoke, she’ll never survive us.”

Kylo's mask twitched, and Rey somehow knew he was looking at her. “I think she’ll manage just fine.”

At that, Rey pulled the wooden stake from Ushar’s stomach. The man roared in pain, dropping her entirely. She spun around.

And stabbed him through the gut once more.

She had contemplated stabbing him in the heart, but she feared what that would truly mean. If killing a Knight of Ren was the final test to join their ranks, she wanted to stay as far away from that as possible.

But she wanted him to hurt. So she pushed the stake further into his chest and twisted it for good measure.

“You’re right,” Rey smiled at the fear in his golden eyes. “It is enjoyable to hear you scream.”

Ushar punched her in the face. He was weaker now, but his punch was still strong enough to send her to the floor. It didn’t matter much to her, so she smiled as she fell. Black spots clouded her vision.

“Let’s go, Ushar.”

Ap’lek led the man from the room, stepping over Rey as if she were nothing. No one. 

She spat blood out onto the floor, heaving weakly in their wake. Her shoulder burned. Her hands shook. Her jaw ached and her tongue tasted nothing but the sharp iron of fresh blood.

“If you can walk out of here on your own I suggest you do so.” Kylo stood a few paces away, staring down at her from above. Not a single ounce of concern bled into his tone. “They’ll be watching.”

Rey nodded.

“Good,” he said. “Then get up. And follow me.”

She did as he asked. Weakly, she braced her elbow on her bed and stood, her head rushing with dizziness. It took a moment for her to get balanced—blink a few times and shake her head clear. 

Rey didn’t realize he was waiting for her by the door until she felt him poke her mind with the Force. She recognized his presence from the interrogation, but this time, it was gentler. A nudge, a permission, almost, to grab her attention.

He nodded.

Rey nodded back.

She walked with a strong limp. Sometime in the fight, one of the knights must’ve landed a blow at her knee.

The lounge was bathed in red. She tried blinking the blood away, wiping the back of her hand across her forehead, attempting to clear it away but effectively smearing the blood even more over her face.

Three Knights were in the lounge as she walked through. Ushar leaned over the counter with Ap’lek examining the two gaping holes in the man’s gut. The third, the man Kylo had called Vicrul, eyed Rey curiously from the couch. 

They locked eyes. There wasn’t a hint of shock on his face when he examined the state she was in; tattered clothes, bleeding, limping, spitting a lob of red onto the pristine gray carpet.

He’d clearly known what Ushar and Ap’lek had planned and was either smart enough not to engage, or simply didn’t care enough to bother.

Honestly, Rey felt comforted. At least not every Knight of Ren was actively planning to kill her. Some, it seemed, were at the least ambivalent.

Still, she glared at each of them, tempted to lunge and kick start another brawl just to add more holes into Ushar’s body. Maybe a matching one for his neck. And for his friend.

“Scavenger.”

Rey hadn’t realized she’d been staring. With one last glare, she followed Kylo to his room.

For the second time, Rey willingly stepped into Kylo’s private quarters. This time, however, when she crossed the threshold, she collapsed.

It was more exhaustion than anything else. Yes, she was in pain practically everywhere, and yes, blood dripped from her eyes, nose, mouth, and just about anywhere else one could bleed.

But she felt victorious. Just a little bit. And proud. 

She’d survived.

“I should’ve known they’d try something.” Kylo slipped off his mask, tossed it carelessly on the desk. Rey decided to continue to lay on the shiny black floor and stare at the ceiling, watching Kylo pace in her periphery. “I just didn’t expect them to do it so soon.”

Rey scoffed, then winced at the jolt of pain it caused. “What did you expect would happen, a welcome party?”

He stopped to shuffle through a drawer, stacking something into a pile on his bed. “I figured they’d underestimate you. That they wouldn’t even bother to kill you as you weren’t a threat to them yet.”

“Sorry to break it to you, but if you build your entire system on people killing each other to ‘ earn their place’ ,” she mocked his ridiculously low voice by putting on one of her own, “it doesn’t exactly build an environment of trust.” She rolled her shoulder and groaned. “Or level headedness.”

Kylo crossed the room to hover above her.

“Can you stand?”

A rogue lock of jet black hair fell into his eyes. It struck her then, with a hint of amusement, that his constant state always seemed to be just a bit unkempt.

“Probably,” she breathed, “but I’d rather stay down here for the moment.”

“If you don’t do something about that shoulder soon then I will,” he ground out, as if he were the one in pain. “And you’re probably not going to like it.”

She threw her head back with a dramatic groan, one that she felt was earned, and forced herself to rise. It didn’t take a genius to work out that “doing something about” her shoulder wound likely meant Kylo taking her by the arm and dragging her somewhere against her will. Which, obviously, sounded like just about the last thing she wanted.

Kylo gestured to the far wall, where a glass doorway stood ajar. “Use my fresher. I’ll get you a…” his eyes strayed to her torso, where her training shirt clung onto her body by sheer will, with a tear running from the neck all the way to the bottom seam. Rey thanked her lucky stars that she had been too exhausted to change out of her breastband earlier that night, as it was all that currently covered her chest. “A change of clothes.”

She nodded, padded into the fresher, and slammed the door shut behind her.

Rey nearly yelped when she saw her own reflection. 

Her left eye was already beginning to darken and swell. A stream of blood leaked from a cut just above her eyebrow, meeting with another below her cheek to nearly entirely engulf the left side of her face in blood.

A nasty ax wound split the back of her shoulder in half, with red threadlike fibers crisscrossing over the split skin and acting as the only pity things keeping the two sides of her muscle together. Peering through the ripped shirt, she could see the purpling bruises on her ribs and stomach.

Rey flipped on the fresher to the hottest setting. She inhaled a deep breath, glaring at herself in the mirror, trying to convince herself she didn’t hurt nearly as much as she did. 

Lie.

That it’ll all be better soon.

Lie.

That she’d survive even one more day in this hellhole.

To be determined. But, likely, lie.

She grabbed the shirt and lifted, and something, something in her shoulder, ripped. 

Rey screamed. 

Fingers found a white knuckled grip on the sink, biting into it until her hand felt like it could break. She heaved out stifled sobs until they were nothing but heavy breaths. I will not cry, she repeated. Not in here. Not with him.

Footsteps bounded across the room, and a moment later, the door flew open.

Her eyes flicked up to the mirror.

“I heard…” Kylo trailed off. She watched him in the mirror; eyes straying from hers, traveling down her body and slowly widening in horror.

“I’m fine,” she bit out between gritted teeth before he could say anything. 

He stepped inside the fresher, hovering behind her; far too close for comfort. Barely an inch of space separated his chest from her back, and she felt it—felt every last centimeter of humid air between them.

“You need to take this off,” he said, so quietly the sound of the fresher nearly drowned it out. But she’d heard him.

Their eyes met in the mirror.

She swallowed. The reply was already on her tongue; the impulse to bite back I can do it myself, or, I don’t need your help, you psychopath. 

Instead, Rey sighed. 

And she nodded.

She’d spent her entire life alone. Refusing help. Refusing trust—convinced that the only way to survive was to be ruthless.

To suffer.

No one else had ever come along to prove her wrong. No one else ever bothered to show they cared. In fact, until a few weeks ago, Rey had been quite certain that there were no good people left in the galaxy at all.

And even now, slumped over Kylo Ren’s sink and bleeding all over the most expensive fresher she’d ever stepped foot in, she still wasn’t sure.

But she was prepared to find out.

So yes, Rey hated herself for succumbing to it; to the inherent want, no, need, for someone to, for once, offer to help.

But frankly, she didn’t kriffing care.

Kylo’s fingers grabbed either side of her already torn shirt into his fists. He looked at her once more in the mirror, offering her a chance to change her mind. 

She held his stare.

His gaze dropped to her back, and he ripped her shirt in half.

Rey yelped at the fabric that had clearly been seared to her feverish skin. She pitched forward, collapsing over the sink.

“Just hang on,” Kylo whispered. He leaned over her to roll the sleeves off of her arms. To bundle them up and toss them into the corner. He opened the sink drawer beside her.

He stayed there for a long moment, huffing frustrated breaths into her ear that traveled down her neck, his hand digging through a drawer.

That was when she started to fade. His touch began to feel featherlight, which she knew couldn’t be true because this was Kylo Ren. Kylo Ren. 

Or maybe it wasn’t him at all. Her eyes flicked up to the mirror. All she could really see was a very tall, very large man standing behind her with a mop of black hair that was tousled in a way she didn’t entirely hate. A scar stretched from his cheek and disappeared under his simple black shirt, but anyone could’ve had that scar.

Right?

Rey felt herself slowly slipping from the sink; meaning for her hands to grasp something but never actually doing it. At her heavy sigh, she heard Kylo hiss out a swear. Then, his body pushed hers forward from where he stood behind her, trapping her waist between his hips and the hard metal of the sink to keep her upright.

Kylo’s arm that wasn’t already digging through the drawer circled her waist and hauled her upright until she was only supported by him. She heard the rustling of plastic behind her. Rey had just enough sanity to look at the mirror and watch Kylo tear a large plastic wrapping open with his teeth, extracting an odd blue patch with his right hand as his left curled tighter around her waist.

“Okay,” he breathed. “This is going to hurt, okay?” He met her eyes in the mirror, but she was too delirious to do anything but blink. “Why am I even warning you,” he mumbled, “you’ll be pissed at me either way.”

Then, he slapped the patch over her wound.

She screamed again. It was like a blaster wound ignited in her shoulder; a searing, freezing cold pain. It sobered her enough to swear a string of colorful insults, mainly aimed at Kylo Ren himself, before slumping over once again.

And still, he held her. Hips flush against her ass, his entire left arm wound across her waist and secured on the side of her stomach that wasn’t completely bruised.

Kriff, she hurt. Hurt as bad as she did when she was ten years old and slipped off of the ladder in the wreckage of a star destroyer and fell directly onto a sliced steel beam. 

She couldn’t walk right for weeks after that.

Rey breathed. In and out. In and out. Strong arms held her up, and a heartbeat surrounded her; one that kept time with hers.

The pain began to slowly morph into numbness, and she began to feel quite light. Light enough to plant her hands on the sink and support herself, gathering her feet under her and standing.

The presence behind her retreated. 

And the room began to spin.

Why is the room spinning?

“That’ll be the pain blockers.” A low voice grumbled. Rey blinked rapidly in an attempt to not sway like an idiot. “You’ll feel better in a moment.”

Rey exhaled shakily. “That…sucked.”

Kylo crossed his arms and leaned against the door. “ That was Bacta. Not exactly pleasant, but it's worth it. You’ll feel better by morning.”

Rey nodded, refusing to contemplate how much pain she would’ve avoided had she been allowed the luxury of Bacta even once in her life.

“Here.” He tossed a small pouch onto the sink. “Use this for the wounds on your face. It wont act as fast, but it’s better than nothing—“

“Why are you helping me?” She whispered. 

He trailed off. Rey refused to look at him, but she saw his body in her periphery. Watching her.

“And don’t,” she cut him off before he could rattle off the lousy excuse she knew was coming, “don’t say it’s because of Snoke’s grand plans. You could’ve let Ushar slice me to pieces tonight and you and I both know your master wouldn’t blink an eye.” Finally, she gathered the courage to face him. “So why save me?”

He crossed his arms. Blinked down at her.

“First of all, I didn’t save you,” he said. “You had Ushar bleeding out from a mortal wound far before I showed up.”

“You know what I meant.”

“I don’t know what you want me to say, Scavenger. If I’d have had  to save you back there, I wouldn’t have bothered. I probably would’ve killed you myself had Ushar not done it for me.” He uncrossed his arms and pushed off of the wall. “I helped you tonight because you have potential. Ushar and Ap’lek did this to weaken you, but you showed them, and me, that you’re far tougher than you look.” He gestured to her face. “And that you’re quite the fighter.”

Rey narrowed her eyes.

“You proved me right tonight.” He shrugged. “I figured helping you was the least I could do.” 

Rey scoffed, and the dizziness hadn’t retreated enough for her to stand, so she leaned back onto the sink and dug her fingers into the metal. “So it’s selfishness.”

“I don’t see how that’s selfish.”

“I’m your brand new toy, and you’re just happy that you were able to show me off tonight.”

Kylo frowned. If Rey hadn’t known any better, she’d have sworn genuine hurt flashed in his eyes. “If you want to put it into such rudimentary terms, then yes. I suppose.”

Honestly, Rey was relieved. The way he’d held her, whispered into her ear, she had been horrified that his interest was something…different. Something far too complicated for her to examine.

His gaze burned into hers. Lingered for a moment before traveling to her chest, where they stayed for a bit too long.

When Kylo’s cheeks began to tint into a beet red, Rey was horrified to come to the realization that she was shirtless; clad only in her breastband that, itself, was threatening to tear at the seams.

She glared at him. “Are you done?”

Kylo huffed out half of a scoff. “Just admiring the view.”

With a near gag of disgust, and a curious, tingly sensation in her stomach she refused to investigate, Rey pushed him out of the fresher and shut the door in his face.

Nearly an hour later, and numerous spells of dizziness that resulted in Rey leaning against the wall and letting the water run over her bloody and bruised skin, she shut the fresher off and slipped out into the cool tile.

Sometime in the last hour, Kylo had managed to slip a folded ensemble of sleeping clothes onto the sink, alongside a bottle of the clearest water she’d ever seen.

Not that Rey needed it. She’d consumed more than enough from the spout of the fresher, and she suddenly had the feeling that drinking from the same water that washed you wasn’t what non-impoverished people did.

She grabbed fresh clothes and inspected them. The gigantic black t-shirt seemed to be a plain, oversized training garment. The pair of loose pants were far too large for her, but the elastic tie at the top made it so they only slightly slipped down her hips. 

After the pants she slipped on the shirt. 

And she froze.

The moment the garment settled on her shoulders, she was engulfed in the scent of Kylo Ren. 

The shirt was his.

Oh.

Rey…didn’t know how that made her feel. She gathered the fabric by her neck and pressed it to her nose.

If anything, his scent humanized him. She recognized the light flowery hints from the soap in the fresher. The leather, the lingering smoke, the sweat…it wasn’t good , by any means. But it truly, frustratingly, wasn’t un pleasant.

Rey shook her head clear and combed through her hair in the mirror. She paid little mind to looking presentable—her eye was various shades of blue and purple, and two gashes split the skin above her brow and across her bottom lip—so she ran her fingers through as much of her hair as she could manage with the throbbing pain in her shoulder and left it hanging loose to dry.

Giving her shoulder one last stretch, Rey stepped out of the fresher. 

The room looked neater than when she’d first stumbled inside. Rey’s lips twitched up in amusement at the thought of Kylo haphazardly tidying up his rather messy private quarters for the likes of her. 

Scum, as he’d so pleasantly called her earlier that day.

Kylo himself was fiddling with a data pad on one of the plush chairs adjacent to the couch. When he sensed his eyes on her he looked up, and she caught the beginnings of his eyes rounding in…shock? Either way, they quickly retreated back to his datapad.

Stars, she must’ve looked horrible.

One of the sleeves slipped down her shoulder. Rey hiked it up with a frustrated growl.

“What happened to my clothes?”

“Your dresser is currently scattered about your room in roughly two dozen pieces,” Kylo spoke to his data pad, not bothering to look at her. “I didn’t have the patience to sift through the wreckage to find suitable attire.” His eyes flicked up. “Mine will do. For now.”

The sleeve slipped down her shoulder. Again.

“Yours don’t kriffing fit,” she mumbled.

“You complain a lot for a girl who grew up with nothing.”

“I was born with nothing. But I earned everything I ever got. It’s hard to go from having complete control over my belongings to,” she trailed off, gesturing to the extra-large ensemble draping her small frame, “wearing your hand me downs.”

Kylo sighed, busied himself with typing something. She stood there awkwardly, waiting to be dismissed. When it was clear he wasn’t going to do it himself, Rey spoke.

“I’d like to go back to my room now.”

Kylo’s finger froze on the data pad screen. “You’ll sleep in here tonight.”

Rey was quite certain her brows shot beyond her hairline. “Excuse me?”

“Ushar, Ap’lek, and Vicrul all know you’re hurt. If there’s any time to strike, it’s now.” He glanced up at her. “You’ll stay in here until you can show them you are not to be messed with.”

Perhaps it was the prospect of sharing Kylo Ren’s room for an entire kriffing night, or maybe it was the broken remnants of her pride that she had refused to assemble since she arrived, but something in her seemed to spark. All she wanted to do was march into that stupid lounge, ignite Kylo’s lightsaber, and burn a hole into each and every one of those sneering Knights’ stomachs. 

“Why don’t I do it right now?”

Kylo didn’t even bother to look up from whatever he was reading on the datapad. “If that's your plan why don’t you save us both some time and throw yourself out of the airlock?” 

Rey glared. Her silence seemed to pull his attention. 

“You’re powerful, but even the strongest untrained fighter wouldn’t stand a chance against five Knights of Ren.”

Rey crossed her arms and fixed her eyes on the holotable, suddenly feeling far too awkward. “Well I’m not sleeping in your room.”

“Then don’t sleep. I could care less how you pass your time for the night, but you will stay in here until morning. Just until I can be sure that your life isn’t in immediate danger.” Kylo went to say something and stopped himself, running his finger along the datapad one more time before joining her at the holotable. “They’ve seen you fight. You pissed them off, but you showed them that you deserve to be here. They won’t kill you unless you give them a reason to.”

“How honorable,” she grumbled.

“I actually do find it quite honorable.” 

They sat for a moment in silence, with Rey pretending to read whatever was displayed on the holotable and Kylo hovering slightly closer to her than usual. After a long moment he turned to face her, lowering his voice. 

“They’ll underestimate you. That’ll be your strength. Even if they see what you can do, they won’t see you as a threat.”

“They already see me as a threat.”

“You have an opportunity here, scavenger, to make powerful allies. To see what it’s like to not simply endure, but to thrive,” Kylo said. “Embrace this, or end up just another bloody stain on Ap’leks ax.”

Rey looked at him. For once, willingly meeting his stare.

“Funny,” she huffed out a humorless scoff. “You almost sound as if you truly care whether or not I die.”

His gaze sharpened, and a muscle in his jaw twitched. Those half hazel eyes traced her falling frown a bit too intensely. 

Kylo inhaled sharply and turned around.

“I’ll be in the fresher,” he mumbled, rushing to the glass door. “Don’t touch anything.

“Wait.”

He froze. Rey frowned at his obedience. “You said five.”

He glanced at her. “What?”

“You said I wouldn’t stand a chance against five Knights of Ren,” Rey said. “But earlier today, in the lounge, I counted six.”

Kylo straightened. She could see the gears turning in his mind, deciding how dangerous the truth would be.

“Cardo is the only one you can trust.”

She’d only heard three of the names, and Cardo wasn’t one of them. Unconsciously, a picture of a roguish smile and sun kissed curls flashed in her mind.

“The blonde?”

Kylo nodded. Rey narrowed her eyes, hoping to coax more information from his brooding pout. Instead, he opened the door.

“Like I said, don’t touch anything. I’ll be out soon.”

Then he was gone.

Rey stared at the opaque fresher door as if she could see through it, still frowning from the interaction. The sound of rushing water hummed from the inside. Unconsciously, the image of Kylo Ren ducking into the shower flooded her thoughts.

“ Kriff.” She shut her eyes and silently gagged, turning around as to put even more proverbial space between them. 

His quarters were far too homely for a monster to have. The couch seemed welcoming enough, and Rey found herself sinking into the cushions, staring at the cold durasteel ceiling contemplating once again how the hell she ended up here.

It must have been comfortable enough to soothe into a somewhat restful sleep, as the next thing she remembered was being startled awake by the slamming fresher door.

She jerked with a start, then hissed at the pain in her shoulder.

“Don’t bleed on my couch,” his low voice grumbled. “It’s the most expensive thing you’ve ever touched.”

He was in a plain black shirt and loose pants, just like her. In fact, exactly like her, except his clothes actually fit his gigantic frame. 

“Are you quite done with your insulting quips about my impoverished upbringing?”

“You can survive being hacked by an ax and beaten half to death.” Kylo folded the black towel and placed it onto a rack beside the fresher. The simple act made him look so…human. He was still a monster, of course. But a monster that folded his towels along a rack to dry. A monster who’s soap smelled the faintest hint like lavender. “Surely you can handle a joke, scavenger.”

“You call that a joke?” Rey scowled at the ceiling. “I find more humor in nearly getting hacked to death.”

“Funny,” he said. “So do I.”

Rey rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. “You’re such a child.”

“Says the actual child.”

Rage erupted in her. Blinding, white hot rage. The instinct to squeeze his neck until it broke. To stalk into Ap’lek’s room, steal his ax, slice his neck with it, then slip back into Kylo's room and slice his neck.

She sat up, and the pain only made her bared teeth more feral.

“I’m not a child.” And oh, she could taste her anger. It was like ash. Like sand. Like the injustice she’d felt all her life.

She wanted to kill him. All of them.

Rey was moments away from pouncing—from fulfilling her angry desires. From ripping his head from his undeserving, pompous shoulders. She rose.

But that very thought stopped her.

She had been on the receiving end of far more abuse than she could count in her life, and never had it made her feel so…vicious. So eager to kill.

And yes, perhaps Kylo Ren was just that infuriating. But this was her mind. Hers. And something about it felt wrong.

So she softened her snarl into a thin line and blinked up at Kylo.

“Why am I so angry?”

The question startled him. He didn’t show it of course, but his head jumped to face hers in a way that seemed more curious than enraged.

“Snoke wasn’t just rooting around in your mind for the joy of it. He planted something there. A…filter of sorts.” He assessed her reaction, and when it was nothing but a blank confusion, he continued. “A darkness filter.”

Rey once again felt utterly invaded. She only just discovered how it felt to own all of herself, and already, it’s been taken away again.

“It’s subtle. Too much at once would drive you insane. I'm sure by now you noticed your thoughts have grown more violent. Musing about murdering my knights. Me.” Kylo ventured a few steps toward her. “I think I even saw my mother in there for a moment.”

“Get out of my head.”

“It’ll only grow stronger with time.” He disregarded her rage. “You’ll need my help to manage it.”

Of course she did. Of course there would be yet another reason for him to control her. She pressed her hands into fists and turned around.

“It’s not fair.” She spoke to the wall. It was easier that way. “I never agreed to this.”

“Snoke does as he pleases.”

The way Kylo said it was so accepting. So resigned. A pliant little pet.

She heard his footsteps grow closer. “You feel violated,” he noted.

“Of course I feel violated,” she growled. “How could I not?”

“You’ll learn to accept it.”

“No, I won’t.”

Kylo sighed. She heard his footsteps recede until they stopped. Then, she listened as blankets shuffled. Bedsprings creaked.

“Go to sleep, scavenger.”

Rey huffed as the overhead lights flicked off. It took all of her control to not release a frustrated scream, maybe even direct a force push in Kylo’s direction. Instead, she took a deep breath and laid back on the couch.

She tried to sleep; she truly did. But the pain was still raging, not to mention the post battle adrenaline that she was yet to shake off. Rey drummed her fingers along her ribs, wincing at the subtle pain it caused. 

Tomorrow was another day. Another day of pain, of Knights of Ren threatening to kill her, of Snoke filtering darkness into her mind, of being the only thing protecting the Resistance from annihilation—

“Relax,” Kylo hummed from the opposite side of the room with a hint of annoyance. “I can hear your racing thoughts. It’s exhausting.”

Rey hissed out through her teeth. “Good.”

His reply came minutes later. Minutes of Rey sneaking looks at the blinking red light near the door, waiting for it to turn green and slide open, welcoming yet another attack. 

“You’re safe here, Scavenger,” he whispered.

Rey shot a glare at the darkness, somehow knowing he received it. With a huff, she turned around, and forced her eyes shut.

Chapter Text

Rey,

I hope you can find it in yourself to someday forgive me for all the pain I’ve caused you. It should be me sacrificing everything for the Resistance, not you. For that, I am truly sorry. 

 I should’ve fought harder for you. 

Finn’s awake and asking for you. Poe sends his regards, along with a crude gesture for when Kylo Ren inevitably reads this message. I’m sure you can imagine which one.

Chewie misses you.

We all miss you.

Be brave, Rey. Contact us when able.

Love,

Leia

Rey cleared her throat and hoped that’d make the ache go away.

It didn’t.

“I want to send a reply.”

“One correspondence per week was the agreement–”

“I don’t care about your kriffing agreement,” Rey bit out. “I want to send another message.”

Kylo looked up at her from across the holotable, face partially obscured by the holographic message. His garb was, dare she say, casual. Hair ruffled from sleep, a black button down haphazardly thrown over his plain black sleep shirt. 

The message notification had ripped Rey from her restless slumber just minutes ago. She was quick to dart across the room to the holotable, hurling force nudges against Kylo’s sleeping back until he awoke with a scour and a force push that sent her flying across the room and landing hard on her ass.

He was clearly not a morning person.

“Fine.” Kylo straightened, the shadows deepening the bags under his eyes. “Impress me today, and you can send a second message.”

Rey raised a brow. “Impress?”

“It’s in your interest. The Knights will be seeing you fight for the first time.” He rounded the holotable. “This is your chance to prove yourself. Impress me, impress them, and you get your reply.”

Rey scowled up at his tired face. “Not just this week. Every week.” 

“ Impress me every week.”

She huffed, threw her hands up in the air. “Why is everything always a transaction with you?”

“Everything’s a transaction, scavenger. You use people and they use you. It’s not my fault you’ve been too naive to learn that yourself.”

Rey shot him a lethal glare.

The edge of his lips twitched in what could almost be called a subtle smile before she spun around and made her way back to her claimed corner of his chambers. 

“You mumble in your sleep.”

Rey froze. She didn’t know that. How could she? She’s never slept next to a person before. Not willingly.

She tried not to let the notion phase her, peering over her shoulder at him with feigned nonchalance. “Plenty of people do.”

He observed her. Very, very, intently. “Not like you.”

She frowned. “Well, maybe if you’d given me a proper bed to sleep in I wouldn’t have been so restless.”

He looked at her as if he could read right through her lie. Or, feel it, perhaps. In the force, or whatever.

“Who is Gar?”

Rey went stiff. Of all the people Rey could supposedly mumble about in her sleep, of course it was the last person in the galaxy she’d ever want Kylo Ren questioning her about.

She swallowed. “Nobody.”

“He didn’t sound like—“

“He’s nobody!”

Her outburst prompted a battle of wills, in which Rey gritted her teeth so hard she was surprised they didn’t break, and Kylo waited patiently for her to burst.

After a long moment, Kylos frustration bled into his normally stone still expression. He pushed the issue no further.

“Freshen up. Replace the Bacta patch on your shoulder and take these.” He threw a bottle of white pills at her. She caught them. “It’ll help with the pain.”

“I’m fine.”

Kylo rubbed his own shoulder with a hiss. “Take it or I’ll force it down your throat myself.”

She shut her mouth.

“Good,” Kylo said. “Now get dressed.”

Rey rolled her shoulder with a wince and glared at Kylo’s back as they walked. 

They were an odd sight, the two of them. Rey’s injuries had healed well over the night, but her shoulder was still sore, and her eye was a deep shade of purple. A light scar split her bottom lip. Though she wore fresh, nonbloody clothes, they swallowed her whole.  

Other than that, however, Rey felt…okay.

That was, until they’d started the walk to the training room that morning.

Two stormtroopers had already been so engrossed in staring at her that they’d marched themselves directly into the durasteel wall. The first one nearly made her laugh. 

The second one pissed her off.

It wasn’t that Rey was ashamed of her injuries. It was either this or lying in a cold, dead heap in the freezer of the Supremacy. Still, it made the bile rise in her throat when the third stormtrooper rounded the corner, so floored by the sight of them that he banged his helmet into the jutted out mechanical bay and landed flat on his ass.

Rey suppressed a growl by biting into her fruit.

“Don’t waste thoughts on third-rate beings, Scavenger.” Kylo responded to her anger as if he could hear it. “They’re so far beneath you that you could spit on them and it would take a lightyear to land.”

Rey glanced at the back of his helm. “You ever stop to consider that your snobby attitude is why you don’t have any friends?”

“I don’t have any friends because I don’t need any friends.”

Rey peeled the skin off her fruit and flicked it onto the floor. “Sounds lonely.”

They reached the double door entrance to the training room. Kylo turned around. “Power makes for good company.”

“So does a pet rock,” Rey said. “If you’re desperate enough.”

Kylo’s helm reared back.

Rey shrugged. “Just saying.”

Kylo seemed to just stare at her for a moment, but it was remarkably awkward without her being able to stare back. After what felt like an eternity, Kylo led her through the door.

Unlike yesterday, the training room was bursting with activity. Each mat was occupied by a dueling pair. The slam of weapons clashing, punches landing, low, guttural grunts, it all surrounded her. Welcomed her. Told her how doomed she truly was. When she passed the first mat, she was greeted by Ap’lek flipping Vicrul over his shoulder and slamming him down onto his back.

The former's head whipped up when he sensed their presence, his red eyes narrowing on hers.

Rey restrained the urge to shiver. 

“The far mat.” Kylo pointed to the empty black square next to where Cardo was grappling with a very stiff Ushar. The latter cradled his stomach when he met Rey’s eyes, like Rey, remembering the sick squelch of his stomach being impaled. “Select a staff along the way.”

“No training sabers?”

“Not today.”

Rey did as instructed. Half a dozen stares followed her in various states of attentiveness, from passing glances to death glares. She felt them all like they were physical weights on her shoulder as she made her way across the training room. If she focused, she could sift through them all with ease. Two of them had already dismissed her as dead meat. One of them, a signature that tasted almost sweet, observed her as one would a caged, starved rancor.

Rey shook her head in an attempt to ignore them and approached the weapons rack near her mat. A dark brown staff looked sleek enough, and nearly matched the weight of her own that she missed so dearly.

She tossed it between her hands.

“Weapon of choice?”

Cardo slipped off of the mat to land before her. Behind him, Ushar was moaning on his back, fumbling around for the weapon that currently took residence in Cardo’s left hand. 

A rogue blonde curl flopped over his eye.

“Sometimes.” Rey felt wholly uncomfortable divulging any strengths, or weaknesses, in a room full of so many prying eyes. And ears. Even to the man who humiliated her attacker oh so sweetly.

“Smart. Never have a weapon of choice.” Cardo nodded toward Ap’lek. “Makes you predictable.”

Rey followed his stare. Ap’lek, just as lethal as the night before, screamed as he heaved his ax down toward his opponent. The red haired knight dodged the attack just in time, but the force of the ax’s strike split the wood platform. Splinters exploded in every direction. .

She shivered. “Predictability doesn’t seem to matter much if your weapon is a vessel for mass destruction.”

“The bigger the weapon, the weaker the fighter.” Cardo gave her back two rough pats. The comorodic gesture made her flinch and whirl at him with wide eyes. “The only thing Ap’lek’s ax does for him is broadcast that he can’t throw a proper punch to save his life. Or use the Force.”

Rey frowned and glanced up at Cardo. “He can’t use the Force?”

“Ap’lek is Chiss. Force sensitivity is rare in his species, especially for the males. He has the Force, but for him it's more like an intuition.”

 Ap’lek had certainly been a tough opponent the night before, but she had noticed even then how little skill his attacks had. How when he should’ve used the force, he didn’t. He swung wildly, and yes, he hit his mark often, but upon further thought, it was due to luck more than any other true skill. Ushar had been the one to corner and pin her, not Ap’lek.

“I don’t understand,” Rey said. “I thought the whole point of the Knights of Ren is that you’re all powerful Force users.”

“Sensitivity to the force is an advantage, but far from a necessity.” Cardo looked down at her. “The only requirement to be a Knight of Ren is to kill one,” he said. “Then you take their place.”

Right. She scoffed and shook her head.

“What?”

“You Knights really think you’re so superior to the world, when in reality, you’re no better than the warring Jakku scavengers who fight over who gets the good scrap.” 

Rey half expected Cardo to erupt in rage. Instead, the man laughed.

“You have a name?” he asked. “Or are we all meant to be calling you ‘Scavenger’?”

“Rey.” It had been days since she’d been called by anything other than that demeaning nickname. She staunchly opposed giving up something as important as her name so quickly, but truly, she was desperate. “Please don’t call me Scavenger.”

“Rey,” Cardo repeated, testing the taste of it. He licked his lips, then smiled. “Well, you certainly are a breath of fresh air, Rey.”

Both confused and far too cautious to let her guard down in any way, Rey starred in half confusion, half suspicion.

“Relax.” The way he said it was so kind, so easy, Rey truly felt like she could. “It was a compliment. We don’t get many fresh faces around here.”

Rey observed his smile. It was sweet. And far too out of place.

“Did you kill a Knight to get here?”

She had no idea why she asked; the words tumbled from her mouth without permission.

Cardo’s smile fell. “I told you, it's a requirement. The only requirement.”

Rey could sense his deception. The non-answer. “Yes, but did you?”

Ushar moaned behind him. Cardo paid the man no mind, instead tilting his head to blink down at her. “Why would you ask me that?”

“Call it intuition.”

Cardo stared. Then smiled.

 “Axes are strong, but notoriously unbalanced. Momentum is the true secret behind the wieder’s strength. Without it, an ax is useless.” Cardo’s gaze lingered on the bundle of shoulder bandages concealed beneath her shirt. “Don’t project your intentions. Close your mind off to the force,” he tapped one calloused finger against her temple before whispering, “In case he gives you any future trouble.”

Rey was too intrigued to say thank you, so she nodded instead. 

Cardo’s gaze flipped up. “Master,” he greeted. Rey felt Kylo’s looming presence approach behind her. The blonde knight gave Rey’s good shoulder another encouraging pat. “Rey, it was a pleasure.”

He spun around and hopped back onto the mat, immediately slamming his boot down onto Ushar’s outstretched hand. He screamed. It was pathetic. 

Rey smiled.

“At least try to look like you’re not enjoying that so much,” Kylo said.

She wouldn’t dare look away from Ushar now—not with Cardo repeatedly slamming his boot into the man’s face. “Now, why would I ever do that?”

“Some might call it distasteful.”

Rey smirked, tearing her eyes from the scene to blink up at Kylo. “Not you.”

“No,” he said, his own smirk curving his lips. “Not me.”

Kylo’s eyes reflected the amusement in his tone, enough for the idea of Kylo smiling with her to slam into her like a high speed shuttle. Her smile fell, and she quickly forced her gaze back on the duel. Watching Ushar get his ass handed to him was fun, but truly, she wished it was her doing it.

Kylo cleared his throat. “I see you’re making friends.” He gestured for her to climb onto the sparring platform, following suit behind her. 

“What, is that yet another thing I’m not allowed?” Rey grumbled and settled into her stance, tugging the shoulder of her loose shirt back into place. “Like clothes that fit? And personal space?”

Kylo swung at her head. Rey ducked.

“Don’t act so helpless, Scavenger.” He twirled the staff with a flourish, his next strike aimed at her knees. She spun away. “Stop dodging me. Counterstrike.” Kylo glanced to the open room, catching the eye of three observing Knights. “Now.”

He swung. Rey’s staff collided with his in the electric space between them. 

“Again.”

They continued to spar, with Rey begrudgingly following Kylo’s instructions. As they fought, Rey was irritated to discover that her momentum had improved from their brief training the day before as she found herself taking more deliberate steps, and falling out of far fewer swings than before.

After Rey ducked under a particularly strong swing, Kylo was able to gain the upper hand by tackling her to the ground and rolling above her. Rey kicked him squarely in the place where every man would crumble.

Instead, Kylo grunted and pinned her good shoulder to the mat.

“Force push me,” he breathed in her ear. His knees bracketed her hips, and their shared breaths bumped their heaving chests together. Rey felt every heated juncture where his body met hers. Coiled muscles, shifting skin. Nerves erupted in her stomach.

Rey lowered her voice to a hiss. “What?”

“Do you want to get attacked again in your sleep?”

“Of course not!”

Kylo moved so his mouth hovered just over hers. He stared at her lips, then her eyes. “Then do it.”

Satisfied to not question it any further, Rey squeezed her eyes shut, balled her fists, and sent Kylo Ren flying across the training mat.

As she stood, adding more than a few new bruises to the inventory, she noticed the training room had grown silent. Eerily so.

Rey turned to face the room, and paled at the sight of every single Knight of Ren studying her.

Shaking her head clear, Rey prepared for his strike and watched Kylo approach. The jet black hair that wasn’t slicked to his forehead with sweat sloppily curled around his ears, the ends just barely brushing his shoulders. Kylo’s muscles flexed when he tossed the staff from his left hand to his right, and Rey cursed the idiot man for not wearing a shirt with sleeves.

He approached her until there was hardly a pace between them.

“You’ve got their attention,” Kylo murmured under his breath. “All of your potential enemies are watching, waiting to see if they’ll devour or respect you.”

He took a step closer. Rey resisted the urge to flinch back, instead finding her gaze wandering up his crooked nose. The battle adrenaline lingering in his eyes. 

“Now,” he breathed, eyes straying to her lips for the briefest of moments before finding her eyes once more, “be a good girl and show them the Scavenger that scarred me.”

His words ignited her fury. Perhaps that was his goal, as he was prepared for her next strike, countering with one of his own. The pattern repeated again and again and again until Rey grew frustrated enough to ditch her staff and thrust her palm into his gut, adding as much of the Force as she could to send him flying across the room.

He did the same to her not a moment later. 

“You’re getting better at that,” Kylo called out as he rose. Rey groaned, feeling the intense pain return to her shoulder. “But using the force in combat takes a lot more skill than just occasionally tossing your opponent around.”

“Worked for me so far.” Rey grimaced and stood, summoning her staff back into her hand. 

And they fought. Again and again, Kylo pushed her to the edge of every limit she had. Through it all, the Knights of Ren watched. She felt it through the force; every changing judgment, every surge of pride for their master when Kylo knocked her on her ass, and every involuntary impressed nod when Rey did something unexpected—like when she disarmed him and successfully twisted him to his knees. He only remained there for four seconds, but Rey was proud all the same.

Finally, when Kylo pinned Rey to the ground for the fifth time, he nodded and tossed his staff to the side. Exhausted and in far more pain than she’d ever admit, Rey breathed out a relieved sigh and released her grip on her own weapon.

That was…exhilarating. Yes, she’d failed over and over again, but she felt so strong while doing it. 

Her shoulder had gone numb two takedowns ago. Kylo gave her one last long look before climbing off of her, the scent of his sweat disappearing with him. He jumped off of the training mat and turned to look at her. His muscles flexed as he crossed his arms and leaned against the support beam of the sparring platform. “Not bad.” 

Still splayed out on her back, Rey huffed at the ceiling of the training room.

“Impressed?” she asked, still breathless.

Kylo shrugged. He had two fresh bruises on his face and neck, courtesy of her, which made her feel far more pride than she deserved.

“Ask me tomorrow.”

She groaned and flopped her head back onto the mat. 

“Get up.” He slapped the training mat. “Before you pass out from the pain.”

“‘M not in pain,” Rey grumbled. It was a lie, but Rey would rather die from excruciating wounds than admit her weakness aloud.

“I can feel it, you idiot. It’s driving me mad.” He bent down to catch her blearily blinking eyes. “Now, get up.”

Painfully, she did as he asked. She followed him from the training room with a limp, forcing her eyes to remain sternly on the tail of Kylo’s cape to avoid the urge to glare at the Knights.

The Knights, however, had no issue glaring at her as she made her escape. She waited until the training room doors slammed shut to speak.

“They’re looking at me like I’m their next meal.”

Kylo’s footsteps echoed in the empty hall. “Only two of them. You managed to win over the rest.”

“Didn’t seem like it.” She remembered the heat of their signatures, the inherent mistrust in them. The hatred. “I felt it.”

“You’re reading their signatures through a manufactured lens of darkness, remember?” Kylo turned the corner ahead of her. “What you felt was misconstrued to make you think they’re all against you. It’s Snoke’s game.”

A flare of anger rose inside her. “Or you’re just telling me this so I’ll put my guard down–”

He whirled around to grab her shoulders. Rey suppressed a yelp. “Never,” he hissed, “let your guard down. Not here.”

His glare bordered on furious.

This was…an odd development. Rey knew she was useful to Kylo, which meant it was in his interest for her to not die painfully under his watch. But the look in his eyes, the near desperate fury, made her lips part with intrigue. 

That, and something else.

“I wasn’t planning on it,” she said.

Kylo nodded. “Good.” He glanced at his hands and quickly pulled them away, as if the very act of touching her seared his skin. 

He led her through more hallways than she cared to count, passing by multiple common areas where she became the unfortunate center of attention. It was hard not to, when the feared Kylo Ren cleared a clean path through the jumping, jittery First Order Officers.

Finally, they slowed. “We’re here.”

He ushered her through yet another durasteel doorway, down an arched hallway that led into a small concrete room. 

There was a mat on the ground similar to those in the training room. The walls were bare, and the only light that illuminated the room streamed through the gaps where the wall met the floor. 

Rey looked back at Kylo. “What is this?”

“Sit down.”

His stern tone sparked something in her mind to finish contemplating what he’d said back in the training room. Something that confused her in the moment, but disappeared into the haze of post-battle adrenaline before she could analyze it fully.

“What do you mean you can feel my pain?”

Kylo glanced at her. “What?”

“Back in the training room,” Rey explained. “You said you could feel my pain.”

Kylo walked past her. Then he sat cross legged on the mat and gestured to the empty space before him. 

Rey complied, as he’d made it perfectly clear she would get no answers without doing so.

He spoke once she settled in. “Have you not wondered how I knew you were being attacked last night?”

Rey narrowed her eyes. “I don’t know, I assumed you just…knew. Through the force or whatever.”

“That’s not how the force works.”

Rey rolled her eyes. “Fine, then how did you know?”

Kylo seemed a bit more hesitant to part with his words. “I woke up with a pain in my chest, pain like I was suffocating. It was dull—I knew it wasn’t happening to me. Then I felt it in my shoulder and face, and the way it hurt…I’d felt something similar before, in…”

He trailed off with a wince.

“In?” Rey urged.

“In Snoke’s throne room. When he dug into your mind, I felt your pain then, too.”

The mere thought of that room made Rey shiver and look away. 

“Is that normal?”

“Two people feeling each other’s pain through the force?” Kylo shrugged. “I’m not exactly sure.”

“I thought you were supposed to know everything,” Rey said mockingly. “ Master. ”

His head jolted up to meet her gaze with a look in his eyes as wild as the day she ripped the legacy lightsaber from the snow.

Rey’s own stomach fluttered in a way it definitely shouldn’t.

Kylo blinked rapidly and cleared his throat. “Which is why I brought you here. There are no distractions here, which makes this room the perfect place to strengthen your force abilities.”

Her excitement immediately peaked. Kylo sensed it. “Slowly,” he added.

“Snoke didn’t ask you to train me slowly. ” His comment had the opposite effect. If anything, Rey was more intrigued. “In fact, I seem to recall that we’re on a deadline.”

“Your loyalty is on a deadline,” Kylo said. “Not your strength. I need the first before I can even start training you in the second.”

“You can do both.”

“So you can use your powers against me?” 

Rey shrugged. “I have to at least try.”

Kylo huffed out what Rey could almost call a laugh. “Even if that was your plan, you could never overpower me.”

Rey glared at him. “We’ll see about that.”

“I’m sure we will.”

Kylo’s stare had a roguish charm to it, a gleam so similar to his fathers. He held out his hands, palms facing up. “Let's start with the basics.”

Chapter Text

“I said focus, Scavenger.”

Rey felt his knife-like presence cut through her mind—the same sick invasion that triggered her abilities, that started this whole kriffing mess three weeks ago.

Stars, how had that only been three weeks ago?

“I am focusing,” she bit out between gritted teeth. It had been hours, and Rey had forced Kylo from her mind over and over and over again. She was getting better each time, but she was never fast enough. He dug deep and cruelly, finding the most private parts of her mind to cherry pick and steal. To project and mock, over and over and over again.

Last time, it was the memory of her first ever friend being sold and sent to the nearest moon. Rey was eight years old. She’d cried for days. 

This time, she felt exactly what memory he was reaching for. 

Rey’s spine shot straight up.

No. She projected the word throughout her mind, ensuring Kylo could hear it.

Her eyes were closed, but she heard the amusement in his tone. “Oh,” he hummed out a breathy sigh. “What is it about this memory that's got you so jumpy?”

“Just leave it.”

“Well, I can’t do that now. ” That snarky tone did nothing but make her want to toss him across the room. Again. “Not when you’ve made it so tempting.”

Finally, Rey forced open her eyes. “Get out!”

Kylo’s presence in her mind stopped cold. Lingered, a breath away from the memory she was so desperate to hide. His eyes flicked open.

“Make me.”

She glared. He smiled. 

“C’mon, Scavenger,” he teased. “You want your mind back?” His presence surged forward, erupting in her mind. “Then take it.”

Rey felt the anger bloom inside her. The frustration of her capture. The pain of her unhealed shoulder. 

So she closed her eyes, and did exactly what he asked.

It was like an engine that finally had enough fuel to ignite. One moment, she was struggling to grasp his presence, fumbling like a clumsy child. The next, she clamped down on the sharp edges of his invasion, indifferent to the pain of it. In fact, she held it tighter, let the proverbial blade’s edge sink into her own presence like a knife cutting into her skin. 

Then, she twisted it, and felt the sick satisfaction of his fear.

Every time before, Rey had pushed Kylo from her mind.

This time, he fled.

In fact, he fled so far that when Rey opened her eyes, Kylo had retreated across the mat. 

“Well?” Rey wasn’t tired this time around. She felt energized. Healed, almost. 

Kylo blinked. His eyes had a measure of madness to them, wide and pensive at the same time. Truly, he looked ridiculous.

He cleared his throat and adjusted so he was across from her, albeit a little further back. “You draw upon intense emotions to focus your power.”

“Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do?”

Kylo seemed to study her as he spoke. “How one harnesses the force is a factor of their training. Those on the light side of the force are taught to harness balance—to only use what the force allows them to use. They are taught to avoid emotions, such as fear and anger, as it would lead to taking more than the force is willing to give.”

Rey could tell he was dancing around something. She just didn’t know what.

“Those on the dark side, on the other hand, are taught to use the force as if they command it. They view the force as something to be controlled. Dominated. To be used as much and as powerfully as their own bodies can allow. Most of the time, this is harnessed through emotions. Emotions like anger and fear.” Kylo’s stare lingered on her shoulder. “Like pain.”

Rey’s heart dropped into her stomach. Every time she channeled the force, she did it through the tempest of emotions inside of her.

“No,” she whispered. “No, no, I’m not… “ She shook her head. “I didn’t know.”

“How could you? No one ever bothered to teach you.”

“But it's not fair. ” She was ashamed to feel the tears sprout in her eyes, but more importantly, she was angry. “How do I fix it?”

Kylo shook his head. “Rey—”

“How!?” She shouted. 

His eyes were sad. Full of pity. Always so full of krififng pity. “I can teach you how to balance it. How to draw from the dark and the light.”

“Why would you ever do that?” She shook her head. And she felt it, then. She didn’t know how to explain it before; the way she sensed the force like it was a living thing. A tangible, pulsating matter all around her. “Isn’t this what you wanted? Me, harnessing the dark side of the force?”

“I wanted you to learn both of them and have the option to choose.”

Rey scoffed out a sharp, empty laugh. “Oh yes, I’m sure that's exactly what Snoke had in mind when he put a darkness filter in my kriffing head. ”

“Rey—”

“I should've had a chance,” Rey said. “I should've had the choice to be good.”

“You need to calm down.”

“But you and Snoke took that from me.” 

The way Kylo had explained it, taking from the force instead of asking permission, made sense now. A part of her always felt that there was something missing; something there that never offered itself to her. Not willingly.

Not when she ever needed it.

Like a tease, the force just sat back and let her suffer through fifteen years of misery. The only times it helped her was when she stopped waiting, and started taking.

Oh, Rey saw it now. More importantly, she felt it. And thanks to Kylo, she knew exactly what to do.

She narrowed her eyes at him, drawing the force into her grasp.

“Rey,” he regarded her like a gas leak next to an open flame. “You don’t know how to control it.” Rey ignored him, shifting onto her knees. Kylo sprung to his feet. “You need to stop.”

Rey smiled. “Make me.”

The door behind her flew open. Before Rey could move, two hard grips seized her arms and hauled her from the ground. Kylo looked as if he was a heartbeat away from force-snapping their intruder’s necks when his gaze caught on something over her shoulder.

“Kylo Ren,” General Hux greeted. “Apologies for interrupting.”

Rey tugged against the stormtroopers holding her as Hux rounded the room, stopping just a pace away from the two heated force users.

Kylo leveled the man with a lethal glare. “Now is really not a good time.”

“Terribly sorry to inconvenience you,” Hux said, lacking every last bit of sincerity. “But something has come up with our dear Resistance friends.”

Kylos glare snapped to her. Still feeling the weight of the Force she’d managed to summon, Rey closed her eyes and imagined the bodies of the two stormtroopers restraining her flying through the air and slamming against the far wall.

A cacophony of armor crashing into the steel wall, cheap weapons tumbling to the ground, and the joint gasps and shouts from the horrified men surrounding her, made Rey smile with triumph.

It was so much easier now.

All too soon, she was restrained by two more stormtroopers. She tried to do the same as before, imagining her intent and pushing it through the force. Unfortunately, when she opened her eyes, all of the pompous men were firmly on their feet and not writhing in pain on the mat.

Shame.

“Bring her to the bridge.” General Hux wrinkled his nose at her and stalked from the room. 

Rey growled and tugged at the men dragging her the entire journey to the bridge. She tried again and again to toss the First Order officers about like they were puppets on her own personal strings, but each time, Rey felt more and more smothered. At first she feared it was her own power weakening, but after her eighth try, Kylo shot her a lethal glare.

He was restraining her power with his own.

How boring.

Feeling utterly smothered, Rey watched Hux stalk into the bridge before her. Every officer inside snapped to attention in response. 

Roughly two dozen officers sat in cushioned chairs and stared at blinking screens. Rey observed them all with fury, feeling their righteousness through the force.

It disgusted her.

Two more men emerged from the walkway of the bridge to stand beside Hux, nodding to the General and Kylo in greeting. 

Ushar winked at Rey.

Cardo shot her a worried glance.

If Rey had any question of how accurate her unlocked Force abilities were at sensing Kylo’s emotions, she didn’t anymore. The wave of discomfort and confusion seeping from the man was so potent that Rey swore she could smell it. She spared Kylo a glance over her shoulder, but the man was far too busy looking just about everywhere else but her.

As was seemingly protocol on First Order flagships, a holotable sat central to the room. This one was rectangular and angled more like the controls in a cockpit than any holotable she’d seen before. 

A moment after she spied it, Snokes terrifying face appeared. The hologram’s eyes found Rey instantly, bringing a smile to such a revolting face. The creature’s head swiveled to survey the room where he hovered over the holotable.

“Master.” Kylo’s voice came out choked. Surprised. “What is this?”

“We’ve been monitoring the Resistance’s evacuation ever since our little deal was struck.” Hux answered Kylo but spoke to Rey.

She attempted to appear bored. “Doesn’t the First Order have more important things to do?”

Snoke smiled. Kylo tensed behind her.

General Hux gestured to someone and a grainy hologram appeared next to Snoke's leering face.

“Have you ever seen this woman before?”

Rey glanced at the picture and quickly looked away. It was an aerial reconnaissance photo; that was certain enough seeing as the woman in question seemed to barely be the size of a flea.

Rey raised a brow. “Am I seriously supposed to be able to make out who that is?”

It was a lie, but Hux didn’t have to know that. In reality, Rey knew exactly who was in the photo. Rey had a special place in her heart for Rose and her sister, who were the first Resistance members who were kind enough to sit with Rey in the mess hall on her second day. They’d even bothered to ask her if she was okay.

Rey had lied and said she was fine. Then she ran from the room and cried in her bunk for an hour.

“Look closer,” Hux ordered. Rey didn’t look at the photo at all.

“I don’t know her, okay? I was with them for two weeks, I hardly knew anyone.”

Kylo shot her a sideways glance. Rey only met his eyes to gauge if he could somehow tell through the force that she was lying.

He narrowed his eyes at her.

Kriff. He knew.

Hux pursed his lips, but pushed the issue no further. “You’re quite a useless hostage.”

Rey smirked at him. “You should have considered that before taking me hostage.”

“Slap her.”

The order had barely left Hux’s mouth when the stormtrooper securing her right arm turned and slapped her across the face. Rey suppressed her yelp by biting her lips until they bled.

Kylo’s gloved hand curled into a tight fist. She saw the man tense even further when Snoke’s gaze flicked to him, observing his apprentice with a keen eye.

“No matter,” Hux sighed. “That woman was just one piece to a puzzle that seems to assemble itself quite nicely.”

Rey grimaced at the pain in her cheek, but squinted up at the holotable. Snoke was grinning.

The photo next to him changed. To Leia.

Then Poe.

Then Finn. 

All backdropped by the same light terrain surface. Not D’Qar where she’d last seen them. It was a new planet. The planet they fled to.

The First Order had followed them.

“We made a truce,” Rey hissed. “You promised you’d stay away.”

“ We promised not to kill any more Resistance fighters, so long as they ceased all operations in the galaxy.” Hux helpfully pointed at the grid of pictures, showing the three known Resistance operatives clearly transporting supplies to and from a hovel in a fissured surface. “Does this look like a ceased operation to you?”

“You have no proof that they’re not—”

Hux cut her off by gesturing to Ushar, who happily slammed open a side door, grabbed a fistful of fabric, and pulled a blindfolded, bloody man across the floor.

Ushar dumped the man directly at Rey’s feet.

“Gentlemen,” Hux announced. “May I introduce you to Gray Paddock, the Prime Minister put in place by the First Order personally to govern Christpohsis and its moon, Leesis.”

Rey had never seen such a powerful man look so pitiful. The so called “Prime Minister” was kneeling in a crumpled mess of rags and blood, huffing sharp breaths from behind his gagged mouth.

“The First Order was hardly concerned with the security of Leesis, seeing as it was an uninhabited moon orbiting a very tightly controlled planet. However, as Mr.Paddock has so kindly informed us, not only has Leesis since become inhabited, its been taken over by warring factions,” Hux explained. “Warring factions that have no issue sheltering fugitives for the right price.”

The General gestured to Ushar, who tore the blindfold from the Prime Minister’s face and ripped the gag from his mouth.

“Prime Minister Paddock, if you could please explain to my men what you told me.”

Prime Minister Paddock seemed like a slimy, squirrely kind of man. Even when the gag and blindfold came off, all the man could do was whimper.

That was, of course, until Ushar kicked him in the gut.

“I didn’t know who she w-was!” He coughed out, then whined. “Sh-she offered me five thousand credits to house her and a few others on Leesis, then handed over five thousand more just to keep me quiet.”

Rey’s glare narrowed on the Prime Minister. Five thousand credits for his silence, and all it took was a kick to the gut to make him squeal.

Hux stalked over to the man. “How many resistance fugitives are you hiding?”

Rey couldn’t help it. This was the resistance. Her resistance. And yes, even though she had some unsettled, slightly resentful feelings toward them, if it was between the First Order and the resistance, she'd choose the resistance. Always.

So Rey dipped into the force enough to sense that Kylo had clearly become distracted from smothering her powers, perhaps by the appearance of his far too observant master. Either way, she quickly stole whatever power she could manage to take from the force before the Prime Minister opened his coward mouth, and put all of her energy into keeping his lips shut.

The man attempted to speak. His eyes bugged, brimmed with tears and fear, when he suddenly found his mouth completely immobile.

He cried out a muffled scream.

For a few precious moments, the room seemed completely baffled. Well, by ‘the room’, she meant ‘everyone but Kylo Ren’, whose eyes, of course, instantly found hers.

Hands still curled into fists at his side, he admonished her with a look. He said nothing, though. Just observed her. Watched her as she watched him, trying to keep the spark out of her eyes at the joy she felt for successfully silencing this man for so long. Snoke’s grainy projection eyed her from over Kylo’s shoulder as well, that all knowing visage observing the chaos with the same smirk Rey found on her own face. She quickly dropped it, shaking her head and turning back to the, now writhing, prime minister.

A full minute passed with more panic stirring within the generals and lieutenants attempting to question the man. Yet somehow, in their frantic haze, no one bothered to assume Rey had anything to do with it.

Until Hux spotted Kylo’s gaze, and followed it to Rey.

“You,” the General hissed. He approached her slowly, shooting a knowing look at Snoke before turning his full attention on her. “Release him.”

Rey tugged at her captive arms. “You have no evidence the Resistance is operating against you.”

 “We don’t care about evidence, you stupid girl.” And it was clear by the look in his eyes that the First Order never had any intention of letting the Resistance go. “Beat her.”

Kylo surged forward. “General—”

Two very shocking things happened at once. First, both stormtroopers holding her began wrestling her to the ground, one of them landing a deafening blow to her cheek. Rey was furious. She growled, flexing whatever bits of the force she could gather and squeezing.

A few more punches landed, each one hurting more than the last.

And then, suddenly, Hux’s coughing, sputtering red face collapsed next to her.

Rey only noticed because the stormtroopers had been stunned into stopping their attack. 

Hux was on his knees directly in front of Rey. Bright blue eyes growing veiny and red, pleading. 

This time, there seemed to be no wonder who was responsible. All prying eyes in the room found Rey where she lay, bloody and even more beaten, on the floor. She hadn’t even realized what she was doing until Hux was suffocating directly in her face. Dying. Slowly.

She was choking him.

And it felt…empowering.

Most of Rey knew this was wrong. No matter how monstrous he was, Hux was, in the end, just a man. And Rey knew she should have a problem suffocating him, but the part of her that knew that seemed far, far away.

“Rey.”

Kylo lowered to a crouch next to her. The voice that had slipped from his lips seemed so gentle, she had to look twice to make sure it was truly him speaking. 

“Let him go,” he said. Rey looked up at Kylo. His face was too human. She preferred the mask that hid his brush of freckles. His endearingly crooked nose. His eyes, that were far more hazel than brown.

She exhaled, releasing her hold on Hux. The man collapsed on his hands and knees, breathing frantically.

“You—”

Hux lunged, hands extended as if to claw at her skin, but instead, the General found himself flying across the room.

“Do not,” Kylo hissed, pinning Hux against the far wall with the force, “touch her.”

Kylo ripped his hand away and Hux’s body crumpled to the ground. The general didn’t seem to have the good sense to stay there.

“I will do as I please,” he spat, blood leaking from his nose to his teeth, “especially with scum like her. ”

“You have no authority to harm her—”

“I have e very authority.” Hux stood. “The girl is a prisoner of the First Order and she will be treated as such. Just because you parade her around like your personal whore doesn’t mean we all have to—”

Without even looking in Hux’s direction, Kylo’s arm punched out and his fingers curled into a fist. Now, it was Kylo’s turn to squeeze the general’s throat. Hux clawed at his neck, face red, clearly not recovered from his previous lack of oxygen.

Hux choked out, “I can do with her what I wish. I want her thrown in the cells and locked up.”

Snoke’s voice silenced them all.

“Release him, Kylo Ren.”

Like the good little obedient pet he was, Kylo released Hux. The General fell back against the wall, but managed to stay upright.

“Get her up,” Snoke ordered. “Bring her to me. I’d like to speak to our little scavenger.”

The same stormtroopers who had moments ago been happily ready to beat her to death, grabbed her arms and pulled her to stand up. They handed her to Ushar and Cardo, who spun her to the door and led her from the room. She heard Kylo’s heavy footsteps behind them.

“ Just her, Kylo Ren,” she heard Snoke say behind her. Kylo’s footsteps halted, along with her own. Rey glanced over her shoulder. “I’d like to speak with her alone.” Snoke’s sharp gaze found hers with a mocking sneer. “Just us girls.”

A jolt of terror ran through her spine. It wasn’t as if she felt safer with Kylo around. Up until now, Rey had felt quite the opposite. But suddenly, the prospect of facing Snoke all alone, or worse, with Ushar, terrified her more than anything else.

Kylo nodded at her, looking utterly unsettled but clearly trying to hide it. He then seemed to exchange a tense look with Cardo, who gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze before Ushar pulled her back around. 

Kylo watched her back as she was led from the room.

“I want the resistance gone for good, Kylo Ren,” Snoke said. “Without violating our little ceasefire, of course. If their protection can be bought on Leesis, then surely their destruction can be, too. Make those providing them shelter an offer they can’t refuse. Let them do the dirty work and rid the galaxy of this pesty resistance once and for all.”

“Yes, Master,” Kylo said.

Then, with one last lingering look at Kylo, Snoke’s hologram disappeared.

The rest of the stormtroopers and officers filed away, quick to carry on past the spectacle. Kylo watched them with a glare.

 “Snoke put you up to this.”

He hadn’t recognized it at first, and he’d been kicking himself ever since Snoke appeared on the holotable. It had been a trap. And Kylo had waltzed right into it. 

He wanted nothing more than to march into Snoke’s chambers with the steel faced bravery to demand for answers. To demand for her.

He quickly let the urge die. He shouldn’t want to do that. This was the Scavenger. He didn’t care what happened to her. Kylo could sense it already; how close she was to falling to the dark. She was already partially there.

Kylo had no idea why that bothered him.

Hux swiped a data table off of the screen, nonchalant. As if the two of them hadn’t just grappled to near death moments ago.

“It suited both of our interests to interrogate her. I got to the bottom of the emerging resistance cell,” Hux glanced at him. “Snoke got to the bottom of your strange little obsession.”

“He asked you to harm her?”

Hux grinned. “Odd, isn’t it? I do wonder what he’s up to.”

“Don’t scheme, Hux.” Kylo swore the man existed purely to torture him. “It makes you look desperate.”

“Only one of us looks desperate, Ren.”

The Kylo Ren of three days ago would rise to the bait. But he had far more important things to do than argue with the idiot general. “Was the intel on the Resistance true?”

Hux was clearly disappointed at Kylo’s lack of reaction. “Yes. These little resistance rats just can’t seem to keep their heads in the sand.” He slid his finger across the holotable until the pictures reappeared. Kylo quickly looked away from the grainy photo of his mother. “They flock and follow. Like lemmings.”

Kylo nodded. “Have the intelligence officers compile a report. I want to know everything about who’s running that moon.”

“Already done.” Hux all but boasted. “The faction currently in control of Leesis is a rogue cell of Central Isopter,” Hux supplied with a knowing look.

That was a name Kylo hadn’t heard in a very, very long time. He raised a brow. “Is it?”

“According to our initial reconnaissance, this batch is even more extremist than the last time the First Order encountered them. I’m sure you’re aware of what they worship.” Hux’s tone had an amused lilt to it. “What they prize most.”

“I am.”

“Then I suggest you bring your scavenger with you.”

The thought alone was enough to make Kylo fume. No matter how correct the man seemed to be beneath it all. “Don’t tell me how to run my missions, Hux.”

Kylo was halfway to sending the man sailing through the air once more when a sickening presence grasped his gut and pulled. 

Kylo grunted and caught himself against the wall.

For all his tactical prowess, Hux couldn’t ever seem to hide utter disgust when it eclipsed his pasty features. “What the hell’s gotten into you?”

Kylo barely even spared Hux a second thought before bolting from the bridge. His boots just breached the hall when a blinding pain took root in his head, tearing through his mind with merciless sharp claws.

He bit out a low grunt and held his head in his hands, panting through the pain. 

Force, it was pure torture. It was…

Kylo paled.

Rey.

His feet carried him without needing to direct them. He thundered past officers and troopers, most of their gazes trailing him with a measured look of fear in their eyes.

Not that Kylo cared. None of them mattered. Not when every corner Kylo turned, a new pit of desperation opened up inside him. Of pain. Of darkness. It was a beautiful darkness, Kylo could admit. Poisonous to the touch, yet so addicting he was practically begging for it. 

Like the Scavenger girl herself. 

He would’ve admired the strength of this darkness were it’s source anything other than her.

Finally, after the pain was so blinding that he briefly considered crawling on his hands and knees the last two hallways to Snoke’s throne room, Kylo turned the corner.

And jolted to a stop.

“Damn.” Cardo stood with his hands crossed over his chest, leaning against the ancient stone doorway as if it were made purely for his comfort. “I hate being right.”

“What are you doing?” Kylo’s own voice jarred him. It was airy and low, drowned in pain that didn’t truly belong to him.

Instead of answering Kylo’s question, Cardo gave him a knowing look. “You can’t go crashing in there, Kylo. He’s already having doubts.”

“Snoke’s doubts about me are none of your concern,” Kylo growled.

“You’re not thinking straight.”

Kylo surged forward. “I don’t care.” With that, he pressed his palms against the stone with every intention to push the doors open and valiantly rush inside.

But for some strange reason, he froze.

Smoke was a creature of curiosity above all. Kylo had no doubt he’d asked Hux to harm Rey just to satisfy whatever doubts he had about Kylo’s willingness to watch her suffer.

And if he barged in there now, Snoke would take it as the perfect opportunity to experiment even more.

Kylo let his palms slide off the door. There was so much pain inside of him, so much of her pain, her loneliness and anger. 

God it hurt.

He closed his eyes and exhaled a long sigh. “You sent her in with Ushar?”

Cardo cringed. “He won’t do anything to her in there. Not with Snoke watching.”

“And why aren’t you with them?”

Cardo was silent long enough for Kylo to open his eyes and look at him.

“Because I had a feeling I’d need to stop you from doing something stupid.”

Kylo would have laughed had a wave of pure darkness not crashed into him and sent him stumbling against the wall.

Cardo jumped to attention. “What was—“

“It’s Snoke,” Kylo heaved. “Hurting her.” He pressed his palm to his chest just to make sure his heart was intact, and not just a black pulsating remnant of the bombardment of darkness.

“And you can…feel that.” It wasn’t phrased like a question, so Kylo didn’t answer. Cardo hummed. “That’s…odd.”

As suddenly as it had appeared, the pain retreated. The muffled sound of footsteps inside the chamber pulled both of the men’s attention to the door.

A moment later, it creaked open.

Kylo straightened.

With the amount of pain he’d felt, Kylo had been expecting Ushar to be carrying Rey’s limp, pale body past the threshold.

Instead, the girl herself flung the chamber door wide open. She stood steady. Strong, even—with a steely expression flattening her features. And though her blank eyes showed no evidence of it, Kylo spied dry tear tracks on her cheek.

Rey stood there for a long minute, staring silently at the wall next to Kylo’s head. When she finally seemed to come back to herself, she gave Cardo and Kylo one cold look each before stalking past both men, leaving them gaping in her wake.

Kylo trailed her until she turned the corner and disappeared, then he faced Ushar.

“You missed all the fun.” Ushar flashed a smile. “I have orders to escort her to the cells.”

“I override Hux’s order—“

“Snoke has ordered it,” Ushar said. “He fears the girl is too pampered in her current accommodations. Although,” the sharp faced man feigned a pensive look, “she didn’t quite make her way back to her room last night, did she?”

Kylo glared.

“Don’t worry. Snoke doesn’t know about that. At least, I didn’t tell him.” He flashed a grin and dipped his head. “Master.”

Ushar dismissed himself to follow Rey. Kylo took off after them without hesitation, gesturing for Cardo to follow.

It took only a handful of strides to catch up to Ushar, who made quick work of stalking down the long hall. Rey had seemingly stopped in the middle of the hallway, and now stood a ways away with her back pressed against the wall while glaring at the durasteel floor—waiting for the men to catch up in complete stillness and silence.

So very un scavenger of her.

Kylo seethed at Ushar. “What did he do to her?”

“Nothing that should shock you.” The three men approached Rey. The girl’s eyes flicked up, meeting Kylo’s gaze with a sharp glare. She said nothing.

It was Cardo’s turn to stare at Rey in horror. “Why is she acting like that?”

Ushar tsk’d, then cocked his head as if just noticing Rey’s odd behavior for the first time. He waved his palm in front of her eyes, once, twice, before his hand retreated.

“Our Supreme Leader has outdone himself, it seems.” Ushar grabbed her elbow and spun her around. The girl did not resist, following his brutal pace with blind obedience.

Kylo started after them. “It seems he did.”

The journey to the prison hold was a tense affair. Despite being repeatedly dismissed, Cardo followed at Kylo’s side, and was there to eagerly receive every furious glare his master sent his way. Ushar dragged Rey with a sick glee radiating from him at every turn. It was clear the pathetic man viewed this as some sort of revenge for humiliating him. Kylo could only hope this haze would obscure her memory as much as it did her emotions.

As they walked, never once did Rey’s expression waver.

Even when they reached the bowels of the ship, the air humid and teeming with the residual steam from the engines. It stunk of sulfur and emitted only the dim lights of a sparse few bulbs. 

Two stormtroopers were awaiting them when they approached, unlocking the main steel door to gesture the four of them inside the cell block.

Ushar placed his palm between her shoulder blades and pushed. Rey stumbled into the hall before him.

“Pick your cell, scavenger,” he spat.

Kylo felt the excitement ignite, expecting that to finally be what pulled Rey back into herself. She was a spiteful little creature, and if anything could force her back, it was the rage of being called the one thing she despised most.

But all she did was waltz forward, and silently walk into the cell to her left.

And oh, Kylo could taste his anger. It was bitter and cold, and smelled a lot like the sulfur currently gathering on his tongue.

Ushar closed and locked the cell door. Kylo came to his senses just quick enough to catch the key his knight had thrown at his head.

“Your girl was easier to tame than I expected.” Ushar nodded at Kylo, then Cardo, before stalking out of the cells. Kylo squeezed the key into his fist.

“Kylo—“

“Leave.”

Cardo’s retreating footsteps slowly faded into silence. He stared at the cell door.

He should be relishing in this. Celebrating. This was all he’d wanted—ever since he’d felt her terrified presence in his mind on Starkiller.

Kylo could sit here and tell himself that the only reason he felt sick at the sight of her like this was because it was Snoke who broke her and not him.

But it was a lie saltier than the sulfur in the air.

Without truly knowing what he was doing, Kylo slid the key into the cell door. It groaned open.

Rey was standing there. Facing the wall. Her head was bowed, back slightly curled. Her light brown hair fell in sweaty, matted pieces down her back.

“Rey?” 

His voice echoed. Kylo closed the cell door behind him.

“Rey,” he said again.

As if his voice ignited something in her, Rey turned around. Tears spilled onto her cheeks, despite the fact that her face was still as expressionless as the moment she’d stepped out of Snoke’s chambers.

Then, Rey’s eyes fluttered shut, and she collapsed into his arms.

Kylo caught her effortlessly. He gathered her in his grasp and carried her to the pathetic excuse for a cot. The Master of the Knights of Ren crouched down, and eased her gently onto the threadbare blanket.

But he did not rise.

He stayed there, his nose barely a few inches from hers. The scavenger breathed steadily, even while tears still leaked onto her cheeks.

He missed her fire. Her rage. It complimented his in a way that was explosive and intense and…exciting.

Nobody else understood what it was like to feel so intensely. Nobody but her.

“Come back to me, Rey,” he whispered, taking solace in her unconsciousness. Tomorrow she will wake up and hate him, and he will look into her fiery eyes and pretend to do the same.

“Please,” Rey choked out. The plea came out broken, whispered in a half haze. Kylo’s reaching hand reared back. “Please let me go.”

Kylo let their shared breaths fill the lapse of silence that followed. Stuttered breathing left her lips in a restless whimper. So far from the furious girl he’d come to expect.

To admire.

The notion wasn’t new to him. He’d known he wanted to worship her ever since she sliced his face in two and left him to die in the molten remains of his fury. An attraction forged by fire and brimstone, defined by his want, no, his need to have her worship him as he did her. 

So no, Kylo could not let her go. He knew it made him the most smoke sputtering monster of all, but if it meant Rey would stay by his side, Kylo Ren couldn’t seem to care.

“Rey,” he breathed out his shame. Kylo reached out and brushed a rogue lock of hair from her eyes. Then he startled.

He had left his gloves in the training room. He had touched her bare skin. Intentionally. 

Rey’s brow twitched at the contact, but her eyes remained closed. 

If Kylo Ren wasn’t the kind of man he was, perhaps he would have allowed fate the chance to stir Rey from her sleep to hear his coming admission. But he was master of the Knights of Ren; Committeer of genocide and patrocide, kidnapper of women and destroyer of any chance at future happiness. So he cupped Rey’s cheek, and forced her into a deep sleep.

“I can’t, Rey,” he whispered. Instead of his touch retreating, he let it linger, rubbing her tear stained cheeks. “I can’t let you go.”

Then he cocked his head, and without any real intention to do so, lowered his fingers to her chin and rubbed his thumb across her lower lip.

He exhaled a shaky breath and whispered.

“I want you all to myself.”

Chapter Text

The first time Rey woke up, Kylo had long nodded off into a restless sleep.

A churning in his stomach jolted him awake. He would excuse it as a spark from the engine reverberating through the ship, and not at all investigate the tether to Rey’s force signature and the fact that the sensation woke him up at the exact moment she did.

The girl was sitting up. Fingers curled over the wire bed frame, stare set sternly on the cell door.

“Rey?” Kylo grumbled. His ass was nearly numb from sleeping on the cement cell floor.

It hadn’t been his intention to stay. He just…hadn’t quite left yet before the exhaustion engulfed him. Kylo shifted to lean forward, repeating her name.

Rey did not look at him. “I hate it here.”

He was relieved to hear her soft voice—to revel in that deep Coruscanti accent that seemed so unfit for a girl as scrappy and stubborn as her.

“I‘ll convince Snoke to let you return to your room—“

“Not the cell,” she hissed. “I hate this ship. These people.” This time, she looked at him. “You.”

Kylo stood, slowly making his way to stand before her.

“I see.”

He counted the breaths in between his words.

“You’ll get used to it.”

“Like you did?”

“Yes.”

Rey shook her head, staring straight through his chest as if he weren’t even there. “You adapted because you were weak. A lonely child who’s journey to the dark was riddled with a happy childhood and loving parents.” She huffed out a dark scoff. “Snoke had to slash my principals one by one just to get me the least bit where he wanted me. It was torture.”

“My parents—“

“Took me in without hesitation,” Rey hissed. “They were so desperate to love something that they loved me . A trash rat from Jakku who'd been sold and discarded more times than most of Plutt’s scrap.”

She flicked her furious eyes up at where he towered over her. He could sense her judgment at his rugged, exhausted appearance and quickly looked away.

At least the emptiness from before was gone, replaced with fuming rage. It still wasn’t Rey— his Rey. The Rey with so much heart it hurt her. With a fight in her eyes that wasn’t the least bit lethal—just desperate with hope. With longing.

But he’d take anything over the blankness in her eyes from before.

“You feel envy,” he noted once he realized he’d been silent for too long. “Trust me, Scavenger, my childhood was not as perfect as it seemed.”

“You had a childhood.” Her voice cracked, but no tears came. “I envy Ben Solo. I envy his upbringing, his birthright, and yes, of course I envy his parents.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “But I pity Kylo Ren.”

He clenched his jaw so tightly it started to grow sore. Rey scoffed and cocked her head.

“Look at you—born into the most powerful family in the galaxy, yet somehow,” her normally soft smile was crooked when she whispered, “you’re all alone.”

He didn’t rise to the bait. This wasn’t Rey speaking. Kylo could feel the darkness seeping out of every inch of her presence. Her words.

Her smile.

Kylo sighed and closed his eyes, leaning into the wall and resting his head against it. He was so tired. For a long while, all he did was feel the ambient engine vibrations through the steel.

“Even Snoke is disappointed in you,” Rey noted after a stretch of silence. “He intends to replace you with me.”

He didn’t bother opening his eyes. “Snoke wouldn’t do that.”

“He told me himself. I understand why you fell for it, he can be very convincing. An offer from him is hard to refuse.”

He opened his eyes, but only to glare at her down the curve of his nose. “What did he offer you?”

Rey pursed her lips and shook her head. “Now, Kylo Ren, why would I ever tell you?”

 He sighed and looked away.

“You didn’t honestly think his interest in me was so benign.” She scoffed, much like he imagined Snoke would. “He doesn’t just want me running around as one of your blithering little knights.”

It was simple to assume that Snoke planted some of these ideas in the darkness flooding Rey’s mind, but truly, it was starting to sound ridiculous. Even for Snoke. “He wouldn’t make you master of the Knights of Ren.”

“No, Snoke is grooming Ushar to take your spot once you inevitably fall.” Rey’s intense gaze slide to Kylo. “But maybe I do want it.”

Kylo picked his head up. There was no more amusement in her eyes. It was empty. Just as it was before.

“Kill a knight to become one.” She raised a brow. “I  assume the same goes for the master?”

“Snoke told you to say this,” Kylo bit out. “The Rey I know would never want to become a Master in the dark side.”

Rey rose. His clothes swallowed her, one slightly torn sleeve slipping off of her shoulder. Kylo lifted his chin as she approached, shifting into a sturdier stance.

“You’re so conflicted, your mind…it's like a maze of mirrors,” she whispered. The girl didn’t stop until there were barely three inches between them. Kylo couldn’t resist his stare from following the line of her nose, down to the pull of her lips. The curve of her neck. “You should thank me.” His wandering eyes were forced up with the gentle touch of Rey’s finger under his chin. “Killing you would be a mercy.”

Kylo focused very hard on not focusing on the feeling of her skin touching his. “This isn’t you, Rey.”

“The only reason Snoke hasn’t done it yet himself is because he needs you to get me .” Her finger traced the curve of his jaw. “But once he has me, once I fall,” she grabbed his face in both of her far too gentle hands and shrugged, hazel eyes finding his, “what will become of little lost Ben Solo?”

“Don’t,” he hissed, “say that name.” 

“Maybe I should just kill you now.”

“Rey—“

He flew back and slammed into the wall. Rey’s mastery of the force had only grown with the darkness taking over her every whim. She bolted for the door.

Kylo grabbed her arm and yanked her from the door. Taking hold of her shoulders, he slammed Rey’s back into the wall and pinned her there.

“Snap out of it.” Ironically, force slamming him into the steel wall was the most Rey thing she’d done since she woke up.

She dug her nails into his forearms, glaring up at him. “You should want me . I’m the pure darkness you’ve been seeking. What happened, Kylo Ren? You were so desperate to see me.”

Rey ducked and spun around until her back was flush to his chest. He had a tight hold around her shoulders when she kicked the wall, sending them both to the ground. He held strong, but she did too.

“Let her go,” Kylo hissed into her ear.

“You’ll never have her loyalty, she hates you . ” She twisted and slipped out of his grasp. With a jarring amount of force, Rey managed to pin Kylo’s right wrist to the ground beneath her boot. He reached up to strike her, but Rey quickly caught his arm and trapped it against his chest with her knee.

There was a wild look in her eyes when she snarled down at him. “Maybe you don’t like her this way. Maybe you’re starting to regret ever forcing Rey to harness the darkness inside.”

“I have no regrets.”

“Say that again,” Rey teased. “Maybe next time I’ll believe you.”

“You’ve got it wrong. I never sought you out. You’re a cheat. An empty vessel no better than a puppet with tangled strings.” He felt the hard intersection of their bodies, in the heat between where her legs straddled his hips. Kylo kicked Rey’s foot out from under her and rolled on top of her. She threw a fist that slammed into his cheek. He caught both of her wrists and pinned them to either side of her head. “I need Rey. I need her spirit. Her stubbornness. Snoke built you from broken pieces,” he hissed. “You’d never withstand the true test of darkness.” 

She scoffed. “Snoke already saw to that. He made sure that Rey’s struggle to stay in the light was met with overwhelming pain.” Rey tugged on her trapped wrists, kicked out her smothered feet. Kylo was too heavy for her to overpower, so she narrowed her eyes instead.

“She screamed for so long, Kylo Ren,” Rey whispered. “She begged. For you. ” 

Kylo blinked away the image of her terror. Of the screams being projected directly into his head. He tightened his grip on her wrists and slammed them onto the floor.

“Stop that,” he hissed.

“Poor thing thought you’d save her.” 

The next image in his head was Snoke’s teethy grin, watching Rey writhe on the polished floor.

“If only she knew the coward she was dealing with.”

“Shut up before I—“

“She was devastated,” Rey said. “That’s when I arrived—once she’d given up all hope. It didn’t take long for her to submit to me. To relinquish control to the darkness inside of her.”

He felt the darkness through his grip on her wrists. It stung like acid. Like death. Kylo frowned at where his skin touched hers, feeling something…odd.

“You’re wrong,” he said. “Rey would never give up so easily,”

The Rey beneath him all but rolled her eyes. “Haven’t you been listening? She’s already gone.”

Kylo huffed, but could do nothing else but stare into the broken girl’s eyes. Fierce anger blazed in gentle hazel eyes. He bit back the bile of regret and tightened his hold on her wrists.

“Snoke wouldn’t—“

“He did,” she said. “And now, I’m more loyal to Snoke than you’ll ever be.”

Kylo Ren stopped cold. Is that what Snoke thought of him?

“I killed my father for Snoke.”

She scoffed. “And the guilt is all you can think about.”

Kylo growled and released Rey’s wrist so he could form a proper fist and drive a solid punch into the metal next to her head. 

She didn’t even flinch.

“What is it about this girl that’s got you so…” she trailed off, biting her lip as her gaze traveled down the length of his scar. He shifted uncomfortably when he felt her prying eyes focus on where their bodies met. Kylo cleared his throat. Her eyes jumped back to his. “Distracted,” she finished.

“She was mine to turn. Not Snoke’s.”

For a moment, her face was set firmly in that obnoxious, smug snarl.

Then, in the time between one of Kylo’s furious breaths and the next, it split into a terrifying, knowing, smile.

She laughed for a long while. Every second inched Kylo closer and closer to committing acts even the dark side would consider heinous, just to flee this mortifying confrontation.

“Oh, Kylo,” she said in the wake of breathless giggles, “you never disappoint, do you?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You didn’t truly think you could hide your feelings from Snoke forever?”

“I’m not hiding any feelings from Snoke.”

“There’s no need to be ashamed,” Rey leaned in to hiss, “ lust is a powerful weapon if used correctly. Strategically.”

Kylo blinked down at her, careful to keep a straight face. “I don’t know what you’re—“

“For God's sake, Kylo Ren, if you want her so bad,” she arched her back until her body pressed up against his, “why don’t you just take her?”

Before the words could fully leave her mouth, Kylo's hand was on her cheek and forcing her into a deep sleep.

Once her breathing grew steady, his palm retreated as if her skin was poisonous to the touch.

Kylo closed his eyes and exhaled a steady breath, ignoring the surge of heat shot straight to his gut. Instead, he stood, looping his arms under Rey’s and dragging her back to the bed.

Once she was settled, Kylo stood, turned his back to her, and slammed his fist into the wall half a dozen times.

The second time Rey woke up, Kylo was applying a bacta patch to his bloody knuckles and glaring at the dent in the wall next to Rey’s bed.

He felt like he’d lived a dozen lifetimes since he’d seen her last. A handful of mission planning meetings, training sessions, and clipped conversations with his knights only half occupied his mind as he went about his routine. His thoughts drifted to Rey far more often than they should have. 

Which was probably why he found himself back in the prison hold of the Supremacy less than a full day after he stormed out of it with a bloody fist and blushing cheeks.

Kylo felt her stir in the force. A little jolt at the back of his neck. He looked up.

Rey sat up in the bed slowly and settled on her elbows. The girl narrowed sleepy eyes at him. “What are you doing?”

Her throat sounded raw.

“Watching you,” he replied.

She blinked slowly. Confused. Wild brown hair haloed her head, and the threadbare blanket slipped down her shoulder. “I feel sick.”

Kylo was, quite frankly, far too exhausted to gauge which Rey he was speaking to. “Go back to sleep.”

Rey blinked at him a few more times before laying back down. He frowned at her obedience, listening to the creaky bed frame squeak as she settled back in.

Kylo watched her for a while longer before turning back to his bloodied fists. White gauze secured the bacta to his knuckles and wound around his bruised and purpling wrist. Kylo traced the jagged pattern it left on the skin, tilting his head like a curious child.

“I liked it.” Rey’s small, muffled voice was barely louder than a whisper. Kylo looked up, expecting to see her sleep-ridden face staring at him. Instead, all he could see was the lump of blankets. The rise and fall of her chest.

He narrowed his eyes. “What?”

“The darkness. It was so…” she trailed off. Kylo imagined her mind grappling with the confession. Or, perhaps, resisting yet another violent outburst. 

He heard her sigh and shake her head. “I felt so free,” she whispered. “For a little while. Always having to care so much, about every damned thing…it hurts.”

Kylo knew exactly what she meant. The absolving of all guilt and shame; taking every last tether to the good inside and snapping it free. An unmoored ship on an open sea. 

In a way, it felt like dying. 

Her small head popped up, appraising him for a moment. He wasn’t much of a sight: sitting in the center of a cement cell that wasn't even his, applying sloppy first aid while hunched over a bloody fist. Rey met his eyes for the briefest of moments before falling back down into the mattress.

He blinked and looked away. Listened to the rumble of the engines.

“I cared about you, I think,” she whispered.

Kylo's head snapped up. All he could see was the dark lump of blankets. “You think?”

He heard her breathe out a deep sigh. 

“In a way. I cared that you were something to Han and Leia. I cared that you were like me,” she said blankly. “I cared that I thought…I thought I could convince you.”

Though he knew she couldn’t see him, Kylo nodded distantly. 

“You don’t anymore?” He asked. For no reason he cared to investigate.

A long silence passed. So long, Kylo assumed she’d fallen back to sleep. Until, of course, she spoke.

“I don’t think I could ever forgive you for this.”

There it was. Kylo was familiar with this. Disappointment and hatred: his constant companions.

 “For taking away my freedom. My friends.” Her voice was far too gentle to deliver the judgment she currently gave. “I think…I think I hate you.”

Kylo could do nothing but nod. It was only fair. Monsters weren’t meant to be unmade. They were meant to suffer. To cause suffering. In a way, all was right in the galaxy again.

“Well,” he said. “It’s a shame I lost you.”

“You lost me long ago,” she replied. “I just didn’t realize it until now. I guess I should thank you for that.”

He didn’t speak again until she was sound asleep. Until the rise and fall of her chest was the only movement in the cell, and the rumble of the engines were loud enough to drown his words.

“You’re welcome.”

Rey awoke with pain ringing throughout her entire body.

Exhaling a breathy sigh, she opened her eyes and immediately winced at the unpleasantness of being alive. A small part of her had been unconsciously hoping that the emptiness was the sweet release of death once and for all. 

But that would’ve been too easy.

She attempted to blink away the haze of confusion and survey her surroundings. Judging by the four bare cement walls around her, the room seemed to be a cell. She tried to breathe in a deep breath, but found herself coughing on the sulfur-stained air.

“It’s the engines.”

The low voice made her yelp and spin to face the other side of the room, where Kylo Ren sat leaning against the wall. “But I’m sure you knew that.”

She had. Sulfuric acid damage was a scavenger’s biggest pet peeve when trying to salvage engines. 

“The First Order designed the ship so the prisoners were kept in the most foul smelling area possible. It was between this or the waste disposal wing.” He wrinkled his nose. “I truly don’t know which I’d prefer.”

Rey gaped at him. “What are you doing?”

Why was he… talking to her? And not how they always did, which was bicker the day away until one, or both of them, either threw a punch or wished death upon the other.

This was casual conversation. Rather, Kylo Ren attempting casual conversation by way of mentioning human waste.

Kylo looked at her. She had sat up, but still braced both of her hands on the bed as if he was moments away from pouncing. 

He narrowed his eyes and apparently decided to ignore her question entirely. “How are you feeling?”

Her head was throbbing and her mouth tasted vile. She was starving, thirsty, and very, very angry. On top of it all, Rey could skate the feeling that she was missing something important.

“…Weird,” she managed to say.

She had no idea why her response prompted Kylo to look relieved. 

He ran his hand through his already tousled hair and sighed. “Good.”

“ Good? ” Rey scoffed. “I feel like Bantha shit.”

“What do you remember?” Kylo finally rose and approached her cot. “From before you fell asleep.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just tell me.”

Rey gave him an odd look, but spoke. “We were training. You were showing me the force and I—“ and I nearly attacked you using the dark side of the force. 

Rey looked up at him in horror. “Oh my god—“

“After that, what do you remember?”

“ After that? I could’ve killed you, I…I wanted to kill you. And Hux.”

“Most people want to kill Hux.”

Rey gaped at his blank demeanor. “Why are you asking me this?”

He paced closer to her cot. “What do you remember happened next?”

She remembered the bridge, attacking the stormtroopers and Hux. It was like watching a stranger wear her skin. But after that…

She remembered hatred. Shadows, bringing her into this life just to leave her. To sell her. Faceless shadows that still had sneers. The maw of an endless loneliness, so deep she could curl up and die in it.

She shook her head and said, “I just remember urges. The urge to fight you. To kill you.”

“And now?”

Rey blinked up at him. The man who stole her away. Who kept her as his captive. “The urge is still there,” she replied blankly. “But easier to control.”

Kylo looked at her for a long moment, watching her every uncomfortable bristle. Her jumping eyes. Finally, either believing her or simply not caring enough to interrogate it, he hummed.

“You’ve been asleep for three days.”

No. No, that couldn’t be true. Her lips parted, but nothing came out.

“You’ve woken up a handful of times,” Kylo ventured, speaking carefully. “But you weren’t…you. Not until today.”

Rey raised a brow. “I wasn’t me?”

“It was Snoke. He…forced the darkness inside you to take control.” He cleared his throat. “But you fought it.”

Rey furrowed her brows. Three days.

“I fought it? ” She could almost feel it physically; the exhaustion in every part of her, as if she’d just awoken from fighting off one of the many infections she’d gotten throughout her childhood.

 “Whatever he did to you, it was too much.  It exhausted you. His influence grew weaker as you slept.”

The vile urge to cover every last inch of herself returned. She felt violated to the very core. “What happened to me?”

Kylo blinked and quickly looked away. “You had this…look in your eyes, it was…” he shook his head. “You were silent. Obedient.”

Rey coughed out a humorless laugh. “No wonder you were so concerned.”

His eyes jumped to meet hers.

“ This is why I need your cooperation, Rey. You need to submit to my teachings fully, as my apprentice, before Snoke loses patience again.”

“It is not cooperation if I’m being forced,” Rey bit out. “Or threatened.”

“Rey—“

She couldn’t have this conversation. Not again. Not when she was still feeling the residual anger and darkness. Rey spied his tousled hair, his red-rimmed, sunken eyes. “Have you been here all this time?”

This seemed to stop Kylo's pacing. He whirled to face her.

“What?”

“You heard me.”

It seemed her extended period of sleep made her more bold. He narrowed his eyes, eager fingers drumming along his thigh. 

“Yes,” he forced out through his teeth. “The medic was at a loss with what to do with you. All she could recommend was close observation—“

“By you? ”

“Cardo helped for a bit too, but the medic recommended he be removed from watching you due to ‘excessive flirting’,” Kylo said, then added under his breath, “whatever that means.”

For the first time in what seemed like ages, Rey smiled. Kylo’s flat delivery made it even more amusing, so Rey found herself laughing. 

Then she observed her small cell, smile falling. “Where did you sleep?”

Kylo made a vague, noncommittal gesture to the cement floor.

Rey’s thoughts trailed off, made a home in a realm of utter confusion. Kylo seemed content not to speak either, as the two of them lapsed into a comfortable silence. That was, until Kylo decided to speak.

“What was the memory you were so scared of me seeing?” He asked suddenly. For a long moment, Rey had no idea what he was talking about.

Until she remembered him sitting in front of her, offering her his hands in the small training room—feeling his force presence dig deeper and deeper into her memories.

No , she had shouted at him within her mind. Her sentiments on sharing that fact hadn’t changed

Rey narrowed her eyes. “Why did you sleep in my cell for three nights?”

Amusement sparked in Kylo’s tired eyes. “An answer for an answer?”

“Only if you go first.”

That seemed to satisfy him enough. He adjusted to sit leaning against the wall perpendicular to her cot. “I made you sleep on the couch the night you were attacked. You were wounded and bleeding out. I should’ve offered you my bed.”

Rey’s brows shot up past her hairline. “I’m not that kind of girl, Kylo Ren.”

“No, not with m—I meant I should have…” when he finally spied the amusement in her eyes, he scowled. “Your turn.”

Rey’s gaze quickly retreated to a laser sharp focus on the scratchy wool blanket beneath her. 

“It was my first kiss.”

She felt his reaction reverberate through the force. She was still new to it, though. That must have been why she sensed his mocking shock as something closer to jealousy. 

Kylo snorted.

Rey measured the distance between her cot and where he sat, and was pleased to discover that her boot was just close enough to kick him in the shoulder. Despite the fact that it was the weakest effort she’d ever put into striking the man, Kylo slumped over and snorted again into his elbow.

“Don’t be an ass.” She kicked him again. “It was in a junkyard piss tent when I was hardly eleven years old with a boy I never saw again.” 

When he lifted his head, there was a roguish glint in his eyes. 

“What?” She spat at his amused silence.

He shrugged. “Nothing.”

“Really?” She raised a brow. “You have nothing to say?”

Kylo sat back against the wall, letting his head roll to the side to meet her eyes. “Junkyards have piss tents?”

She almost laughed. Almost.

“Seems redundant,” he noted.

“You’ve obviously never had to smell the sun frying human waste for months on end.”

To that, he actually nodded and conceded. It was a weak victory, but a victory nonetheless.

After a few moments of comfortable silence, Rey couldn’t stop the next words from tumbling out of her mouth. “You’re being weird.”

He raised a brow, but didn’t look at her. “Am I?”

“First of all, that was the second time you’ve mentioned human excrement in this conversation,” she said. Kylo’s face folded into a playful wince. It was almost more endearing than Rey could handle, so she rushed to say, “And, we’ve been talking for nearly ten minutes and you haven’t threatened me once.”

He scoffed. “Would you like me to change that, scavenger? I could threaten your precious resistance,” he sounded tired, “or perhaps I’ll drag you back into the training room and darken those bruises that have nearly healed.”

Rey reached up to brush her finger over her eye. The swelling was nearly gone entirely. 

Kylo’s words had the intended effect. She immediately sobered. Silence didn’t settle for long.

“How’s your shoulder?”

She rolled it and winced. “I’ll be fine.”

“Using the dark side of the force tends to slow, or completely revert, the healing process.” Kylo rose, then extended a gloved hand. “Get up. I’ll pack extra bacta for you before we leave.”

“Why does the dark side reverse the healing pro-“ her mind was obviously still muddled with sleep, as it took the span of her sentence to register what he said. She froze. “Leave?”

He tucked his hand away, as if confused on why he even offered it in the first place. “I’ll explain later.”

“Where are we going?”

Kylo stood up a bit straighter, features flattening. “Congratulations, Rey,” he said, with no inflection to suggest it was genuine. “You’re about to embark on your first trial to become a Knight of Ren.”

Chapter Text

The turbolift jerked to a stop.

“I won’t do it.”

Kylo stayed perfectly still, facing the steel doors and patiently waiting for them to open. “So you’ve said.”

“Well, I won’t.” Rey crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the back of Kylo’s head. “I won’t hurt anyone. Or kill anyone. Not for you, or Snoke, or anyone .”

“Sometimes you don’t have a choice, scavenger,” he said.

“You always have a choice.”

If Rey hadn’t known any better, she would’ve sworn the man sighed. The doors groaned open. Kylo stormed down the familiar hallway toward the Knight’s quarters.

Cardo and the red haired knight, Kuruk, sat inside when Rey and Kylo entered.

“Master,” the latter stood, completely ignoring Rey’s presence. “Hux was asking for you.”

Kylo crossed to the kitchen and popped a sweet looking pastry into his mouth. “When is he not?”

“There was an explosion at one of our factories on Batuu.”

Kylo’s spine straightened. “An attack?”

“We don’t know,” Cardo answered. “He requested we deploy three Knights to investigate, just in case there was any…” he trailed off, glancing at Rey, “Resistance connection to the attack.”

Rey’s eyes widened. No, the Resistance wouldn’t attack the First Order—not while she was in the belly of the beast. Kylo peered at Rey over his shoulder.

It was clear by his stare that he was piecing together the exact same thought. “Send Ushar, Ap’lek, and Trudgen to Batuu—“

Cardo looked troubled. “Master—“

The lounge door slid open. “Terribly sorry, Master.” Ushar strode in with all the subtlety and grace of a newborn Bantha. “I took it upon myself to contact Snoke. He ordered me to send Vicrul to Batuu with Ap’lek and Trudgen.” He slid his stare to Rey and smiled. “So I can join you on your mission to Leesis.”

Now, Rey understood the dynamics of the Knights of Ren well enough to recognize Ushar’s challenge for what it was. He set the bait, and was now patiently waiting for Kylo to go in for the kill. To challenge this newfound comradery Ushar formed with Snoke.  

As genuinely intrigued Rey was by this odd show of dominance, truly, she had more pressing things to worry about. “What mission?”

Kylo interrupted the lethal glare he gave the man to look at Rey. “There are three trials to becoming a Knight of Ren. The first is completing a mission with us.”

“A mission…” A flash of masked men slaughtering a burning village, slicing weapons indiscriminately towards fleeing civilians. Death and destruction.

“We’re not barbarians,” Kylo growled.

Rey shot him a glare. Stop listening to my thoughts.

Then stop thinking so loud, he replied.

Rey paled.

Kylo did, too.

For a single beat, the two just stared at each other. How did…

Then, Rey scowled. This must have been yet another ability Kylo had that she’d now have to endure. The ability to speak into her mind, to read it. 

How exhausting.

Kylo cleared his throat. “You will play an important part in our mission to Leesis—” 

“You mean your mission to wipe out the Resistance?” Rey scoffed. “I’d rather die.”

“I’d be happy to make that happen, Scavenger,” Ushar said.

In true scavenger fashion, Rey leaned over and spit on the man’s boot. Ushar looked just about ready to pounce when Cardo’s knife went sailing through the air, landing in the wall a half an inch from Ushar’s head.

“Let’s not be dramatic.” Cardo looked almost bored; boots propped up on the coffee table, mindlessly twirling a second dagger between his fingers. “Nobody needs to die today.”

“Still.” Rey crossed her arms. “I won’t do it.”

“I must be mistaken,” Kylo said, turning away from her to pick up his data pad and click on a blinking alert, “I don’t recall giving you a choice.”

“Aren’t you worried I’ll escape and seek out the Resistance? I don’t understand why you’d even want me to go.”

“We don’t want you,” Ushar said with about as much disgust as one could have. “Funny enough, you’re the only one of us who can actually complete this mission.”

Cardo gave a warning look. “Ushar—”

“If we had the choice, you’d stay locked up in your little cell until Snoke finally comes to his senses and decides you’re more trouble than you’re worth.”

Rey was furious. But, more importantly, she was confused. “What do you mean I’m the only one who can complete this mission?”

Ushar sneered at her from the couch.

Rey whirled to Kylo. “What does he mean?”

A quiet trill alerted Kylo to someone at the lounge door. He shot Rey a cold look as he crossed the room to open it, the brimming anger still seeping off of him in waves. 

Ushar leveled his glare at Rey. A playfulness lingered in his eyes—the kind that made Rey shift uncomfortably. Kylo murmured a quiet thank you to the First Order officer at the door and let it slide shut. When he turned, he held a bundle of black clothes in his hands.

He handed them to Rey. “Put these on.”

“These are?”

“Just put them on.” He slid her old bedroom door open and gestured her inside.

Rey obeyed, but only because resisting proved to be more trouble than it was worth. She glared at Kylo until the door slid closed.

The room itself showed no evidence of the brawl that occurred days ago. A brand new dresser was assembled in the corner, and upon further investigation, housed her new wardrobe in its entirety. There was a scuff on the floor next to the desk, but otherwise, the room was, remarkably, untouched.

Rey sighed and looked down at the bundle of clothes.

It was only after the first top and bottom layers slid on with perfect ease that Rey noticed the familiarities in the garments: the fine leather that she was far too accustomed to leering at; the skin tight, armored base layers that accentuated every barely-there curve she had; steel toed boots, and finally, a cloth cape.

Rey caught a look of herself in the mirror and nearly gasped.

She looked like a Knight of Ren.

Rey ran her eyes over the woman in the mirror. Black strips of leather criss crossed her torso, leaving the ends free to flow at her sides. The dark color only accentuated how pale she’d gotten. And yet, she looked…good. Powerful. It fit her well— too well.

This armor had been made for her.

And in one swift, sudden wave, reality came crashing into her. 

She couldn’t do this. She wouldn’t do this. She came to the First Order as a reluctant hostage, meant to waste away in metal interrogation chairs for the rest of her existence. Her whole purpose here was to save the Resistance, not march into battle against them.

There was still time to run. She’d have to fight, of course, but that was a given. Kylo, Ushar, Cardo, and Kuruk would be her main obstacles. But after that…

Most of the stormtroopers and officers had seen her walking around enough. Perhaps they would ignore her, assume she was running an errand for Snoke. She could board a shuttle and leave, with just enough time to warn the Resistance.

Rey glanced at her reflection in the mirror. She straightened her posture, like how Kylo always did when he remembered to look towering enough to intimidate.

She could do this.

What she couldn’t do, however, was best all four Knights on the other side of the door in combat. She liked her odds against Ushar. After all, she’d nearly beaten him before. But she knew nearly nothing about Cardo and Kuruk.

Which left Kylo…

Oh.

A terrible idea fluttered into her mind. One that would be remarkably foolish, and certainly anger Kylo enough to kill her—

“Kylo,” she called.

Rey’s eyes instantly went wide. She slapped her hand against her forehead and spun to face the other side of her room. Shit, shit, shit, why did she do that—

She felt his presence on the outside of her door. 

She was a dead girl.

Rey rushed to the wall directly next to the door and pressed her back against it. Foolishly, she hadn’t quite thought this far, so she grasped for the only excuse that came to mind.

“These clothes don’t kriffing fit me.”

A beat. Then the door rushed open.

She had never attempted to force someone into sleep before. Her rudimentary grasp of the Force told her it was an intention she had to push into the other person’s mind. Kylo normally touched her cheek whenever he forced sleep upon her. 

She would put Kylo to sleep, then take her chances against the other three knights. She’d steal Kylo’s saber, use it to merely wound them enough to not chase her—

Kylo stepped into the room.

Rey didn’t have the time to think. All she could do was take the intention in her mind, repeat it over and over again as she reached for his cheek—quick enough for him to merely glance at her with a confused frown.

Sleep, she repeated in her mind. Sleep.

Her hand brushed over his skin.

And was quickly snapped up into a vice-like grip. Kylo was a fast fighter. He pushed her into the wall, twisted her wrist until she screamed, and forced his forearm into her neck.

For three furious breaths, the two of them simply stared at each other. His fingers flexed near her neck. Rey raised her chin to make herself seem less small.

“I’m offended you thought that would work on me,” he said matter of factly. The fury in his eyes didn’t translate into his tone, which was more intrigued than angry.

“Worth a shot,” she choked out. He was cutting off her air supply just enough for her breathing to become labored, but in a way that wasn’t painful. Frustratingly so.

“Guiding one into a Force sleep only works on minds that are weak,” Kyle cocked his head, “or distracted.” 

Rey should have been far too concerned with her current position, pressed into the wall and choked by her mortal enemy, to have felt so offended. “ My mind isn’t weak.”

“No, but you are often distracted by trivial things. You are not an easy target, but your mind is.”

“Teach me, then,” she coughed out. “To not be an easy target.”

Amusement sparked in his eyes. “I will, once I can trust you not to use my teachings against me.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. He did the same. Kylo swallowed, his gaze trailing down her body to the black leather and armor ensemble.

His eyes flicked back up.

“Your clothes fit perfectly.”

Before she could voice her visible confusion, Kylo’s hand came up, and darkness fell.

Rey was jolted awake by a particularly violent thrust of an ion drive.

She opened her eyes. Her body was stiff—lying on a hard metal bench that hummed with the shuttle’s engine. Rey groaned and rubbed her throbbing head.

“Morning, sunshine.” Cardo flashed a smile from across the shuttle’s gangway. Kuruk was strapped in next to him, sharpening a dagger’s blade.

“It is well into the evening,” he corrected. Rey had never truly spoken to Kuruk, but he seemed pleasant enough. She didn’t trust him, of course. But she trusted that of the people Kylo actually wanted on this mission, Kuruk was one of them.

Cardo playfully rolled his eyes. “We’ll be landing soon.” He scooped something off of the floor and tossed it to her. It landed with a loud bang at her feet. “Try it on. Make sure it fits.”

Rey looked down—

—into the helmet of a Knight of Ren. Rey shook her head and scooted away from it, as if the mask itself was a plasma bomb. “Why won’t anyone tell me what the mission actually is ?”

“Because once we do, you’ll start planning out all the ways you can sabotage it.” Ushar swung in from the cockpit, pleasant as always. “It’s safer to keep you in the dark for as long as possible.”

Rey glared at him. “And how am I supposed to be a ‘key part’ of this mission if I don’t even know what’s going on?”

Ushar sneered. He approached her slowly, leering at the armor covering every last inch of her skin as if he could see right through it. He bent down until his golden eyes were level with hers. “I’m confident you’ll figure it out.”

Rey narrowed her eyes and snatched the helmet from him. Ushar lingered there long enough to tease, the rumbling shuttle forcing a lock of his wild black hair to fall into his eyes. “Or not,” he added with a wink. He spun around and made his way back to the cockpit, throwing over his shoulder, “two minutes until final descent.”

Rey peered at the black helm in her lap.

It was smaller than Kylo’s. Where his was offensive angels and menacing curves, hers seemed far more…practical. She spied a filtration system built into the round mouthpiece, and a mechanism near both ears that enhanced and adapted for sounds. She even noticed a blueish, pinkish tint to the eye piece that filtered out harmful UV rays.

“Huh,” she hummed.

“Have you ever heard of the Central Isopter?” When she shook her head, Cardo continued. “It’s a radical faction of Force worshippers that split from the Church of the Force long ago—“

“It’s a cult,” Kuruk helpfully supplied.

“A very resourceful one. Nowadays they’re less of a cult and more like a crime syndicate with very…radical beliefs.”

Rey raised a brow. “Radical how?”

“That’s not important. What is, however, is the fact that the Central Isopter has complete control of Leesis. No one comes in or out of that moon without the cult’s knowledge and permission.”

Rey sat up a bit straighter. “…meaning they’re the ones sheltering the Resistance.”

Kuruk lifted his blade to the light. “For a price.”

“Which is where we come in,” Cardo said. “Now, officially, any action we take against the Resistance would be in violation of the ceasefire. But if the Knights of Ren were to, say, have a meeting with the Cult’s leader in which we express our disdain for their sheltering of First Order dissenters on Leesis—“

“Which is well within our rights to do,” Kuruk interrupted.

“And we offer them something of great significance in exchange for their cooperation—“

“Something that far outweighs the 5,000 credits the Resistance paid them…”

“They’ll be eager to rid Leesis of all First Order dissenters. Especially the Resistance.” Cardo shrugged. “And what happens next is entirely up to The Central Isopter.”

“But given the cult’s violent history,” Kuruk tossed the dagger in the air and effortlessly caught it, “it likely won’t be pretty.”

The eyes of her mask looked far too accusing, but she looked at it anyway, hoping to hide the way her cheeks blazed with anger. It’s not that Rey wanted their plan to be as simple as busting down the Resistance’s door and attacking them, but it would have been so much easier for her to protect them. But of course, Kylo didn’t even have the dignity to hunt the Resistance himself; he chose to use fake politicking to have others do their dirty work for him. 

The shuttle started to rumble. “Better strap in,” Cardo said.

Distantly, she dropped the mask back into her lap and clicked her seatbelt. Maybe she could still do something; maybe she could destroy the Knight’s bargaining chip. “What are you offering them?”

But neither Cardo nor Kuruk seemed inclined to answer. Rey huffed and shook her head.

The descent was a beautiful thing. There weren’t any windows near the passenger seating, but if she peered up over the pilot and co-pilot seats, she could see straight through the cockpit window. 

Rey felt a surge of jealousy as she watched Kylo Ren guide the shuttle into the atmosphere of Leesis. It had been so long since she’d piloted a ship, and she yearned for it. The taste of freedom given to her all those weeks ago with Han and the Millennium Falcon, it did nothing but mock her now. She’s escaped Unkar, yet once again, she was a prisoner to another man’s will.

It wasn’t kriffing fair.

The shuttle docked with a hiss. Kylo spun around from the pilot's chair and locked eyes with her. 

“You’re awake.”

“Unfortunately,” she grumbled as she stood. Cardo, Ushar, and Kuruk all busied themselves with gathering up the various bags and weapons strapped to the cargo hold, while Kylo crossed the shuttle to her. He had to duck his head to comfortably walk in the cramped space, a fact that brought a spark of joy to her otherwise terrible day.

Kylo grabbed her shoulder and looped a bag across her body. With his other hand, he took her helmet and examined it.

With an approving hum, he grabbed her chin, forced it forward, and slid the helmet on to her head.

It was lighter than she expected it to be. There was no strain on her neck as she tested it by turning her head left then right, up then down. It secured into place easily.

Kylo watched her test it. “How does it feel?” 

She hated that he couldn’t see her scowl. “Like I’m betraying everything I’ve ever stood for.”

The modulator made her voice sound crackled and flat.

“Good.” Kylo tapped the helm’s cheek. “Let me know if it needs to be tightened.” And he stepped around her, scooping up the last of the supplies from the cargo hold and walking down the ramp. Rey hiked the bag up on her shoulder, shook her head, and followed. 

Leesis wasn’t what Rey expected it to be. From the way Hux had explained it, the moon should’ve been ragtag—hastily constructed with tents and scrap, overrun by lawlessness and gangs.

What she didn’t expect was a bustling, thriving…town.

Children darted between the Knights ahead of her, giggling as they ducked under Ushar’s bags. Well built sandstone buildings lined either side of the port and stretched as far as the eye could see. Miscellaneous flags were strung up on either side on haphazard wires, some from planets she recognized, most from ones she didn’t, but all flowing colorfully in the wind.

The fissured surface beneath them only lent a hand to the society built up around it. Through the cracks in the ground below, vendors smoked meats and strung berries. Families huddled around fire pits and rowdy teenagers splashed in swimming holes.

A boy, one who looked to be about her age, happened to turn his head as he was laughing with friends, splashing water into the other boys’ faces. When his eyes found her, his smile instantly fell.

Along with everyone else’s. 

The sea of people before them quickly fell into a chilling silence. All movement seemed to cease, other than the crowd rushing to obey Ushar as he parted the masses with a steely, rough command.

“Keep that helmet on, Scavenger.” Kylo fell back to walk beside her. “If anyone from the Resistance finds you, I’ll make sure they’re dead by dawn.”

Rey had no issue with that. Shame flooded her. Choked her. She was glad for the mask hiding her face as she scanned the huddled masses. The mothers who hid their children’s cries in their skirts.

“I thought this was an outlaw moon.”

Kylo nodded. “It is. Most of these people are hiding from something. Gangs, slavery, the spice trade—”

“Us?” Rey couldn’t bear to see their terror any more. She decided to keep her gaze fixed on the back of Cardo’s mask bobbing before her.

“The First Order has many enemies,” Kylo said. “If your Resistance thought this was a safe place to hide from us, I’m sure others have, too.”

A child’s wail made her wince. “They’re so afraid.”

“They should be.” Kylo’s mask followed a girl that darted across the road, running straight into the embrace of the man Rey assumed was her husband. “We carry a symbol of order. By living in an unregistered settlement, with a leader that wasn’t approved by the First Order, one who is a known agitator no less,” Kylo shook his head, “it’s all grounds for treason.”

Rey whirled to look at him. “These people are desperate.”

“And they can be desperate legally,” he said. “Yet they choose not to.”

Frustration made her fingers curl into fists. Cardo and Ushar must have sensed this, as she caught both men shooting glances back at the pair of them.

“Only someone who grew up with endless privilege would say something so…” Rey fought for a better word, she truly did, but the anger proved to be stronger than her senses. “So stupid. ”

Kylo’s modulator spit out a scoff. “Well said, Scavenger. Remind me to have you sit in on our diplomatic talks. You seem to have as much talent with words as you do with the Force.” 

Rey growled and clenched her fists even tighter. “Are you this unpleasant to all of your Knights? Or is it a privilege reserved specially for me?”

Kylo stopped walking.

Rey spun around. She made to cock her head at him, but wildly misjudged the weight of her helmet. She ended up wobbling a bit before straightening. “What is it?”

“You just called yourself one of my Knights.”

Rey paled. She opened her mouth, closed it, and once again, silently thanked that stupid mask for being on her face. She turned around and rushed to catch up with Cardo, leaving Kylo frozen in the middle of the road.

Cardo’s mask, which was made up of two eerily smooth panels with no discernable way for him to see or breathe, turned to face her.

“It’s easier for him to see everything so black and white.” Cardo lowered his voice to a whisper, one that was enhanced by the mechanisms in her mask. “It’s harder for the guilt to take hold. Guilt lives in the gray.”

They walked the rest of the way in silence. Rey kept her eyes, and mind, open, both hoping to see her friends, yet terrified at the thought. For the first time in so long, they were close. She could feel it.

She had to go to them. She’d escape tonight, hopefully while Kylo and the others were sleeping. She’d warn them that they needed to run and then she’d return before Kylo even knew she was gone.

And they’d be safe.

What would they think of her like this?

They’d be horrified. Disappointed. Leia would gasp. Finn would be disgusted. Poe would cross his arms and shake his head, silently judging her for falling to the dark side so easily. Chewy…chewy would be sad. 

It all made her so angry .

They’re the ones that sent her to the First Order. They did this to her. She never asked for this. In fact, she never asked for anything. Anything other than to be free, and not just some slave for once in her life, and she couldn’t even get that—

“Rey–”

“What!?” She whirled to face Kylo.

He peered at her knowingly, as if privy to every last word running through her mind. “We’re here.”

Rey looked up, watching Kuruk, Ushar, and Cardo all duck into one of the many identical buildings near the outskirts of the town. 

The inside was luxury compared to Rey’s past dwellings. The house itself was two stories high, with a comfortable living room and kitchen area upon entry and a staircase disappearing to the upstairs. A handful of lanterns emitted a low yellow light across the main room, where the Knights were already dropping their bags on the decorative carpets.

A green skinned man popped his head through a side door. He examined the group before calmly approaching Kylo.

“Lord Ren,” he greeted, only slightly trembling. “It is an honor to play host to you and your Knights.”

Rey bristled. Kylo’s mask watched blankly as the man bowed.

“You and your Knights are free to choose whichever rooms you’d like. A-and I’ve prepared a meal.” 

Which was how, just a few minutes later, Rey found herself seated at a small wooden table, with a plate stacked almost a foot high with foods she’d never encountered in her nineteen years, feasting alongside the Knights of Ren.

She was ravenous. Rey couldn’t remember the last time she’d eaten a meal, and the sizzling meats before her were far too enticing to ignore. Cardo and Ushar dug in with equal vigor, while Kuruk regarded the spread with an inquisitive, nearly disgusted, look. 

Kylo picked at an assortment of breads and fruits, steering clear of the meats. And, oddly, oranges.

“Ushar. Kuruk,” Kylo said. Both men paused mid-chew. “Scout the meeting chambers tonight. I don’t want any surprises in the morning.”

They nodded. With that, they pushed from the table and left. Rey polished off a delectable seasoned meat by pulling its tendons off the bone with her teeth. She licked it clean and looked down at her plate, instantly wishing she had savored it more. 

“They requested we arrive unarmed for the meeting tomorrow.” Cardo leaned back, chewing with his mouth wide open. “I took it upon myself to get creative with our weapons.”

Kylo nodded, taking a steaming meat from his own plate and dropping it on Rey’s. She was able to glare at it for only a moment before the hunger overshadowed her pride.

Rey grumbled as she took a bite, glaring ruefully at Kylo as she did it.

“I expected nothing less,” he said, ignoring her completely. “Do you have what I requested?”

Cardo’s eyes flicked to Rey. She stopped chewing.

“Yes.” 

Kylo nodded.

Cardo leaned forward. “But adjustments may need to be made to ensure it will fit—“

“Not necessary.”

Cardo nodded. 

Sensing the meal was over, Rey swallowed the last bits of bread and meat. She snuck two plums into the pockets of her vest for later, eyeing Kylo’s abandoned orange—wondering if she could somehow slip it into the pouch of her bag without him noticing.

She loved oranges.

“That’ll be all for tonight, Cardo.” Kylo pushed away from the table and rose. “Prepare our weapons so they’ll be ready to deploy come morning.”

“Yes, master.” The man bowed and left.

Leaving Rey and Kylo alone.

There must have been a clock somewhere, for it ticked incessantly in the silence after Cardo left. Rey counted it. There wasn’t much else to do, after all.

She rose from the table. Kylo inclined his head, not quite looking at her. 

“With me,” he said before taking off towards the rear of the house. Rey followed him down a corridor and a set of small stairs and stopped before a rusted iron door.

Two rods secured the locks on the outside. 

“You can’t be serious,” Rey groaned. It didn’t take a genius to put together exactly why Kylo would be leading her to a locked cellar.

“You admitted it yourself. I can’t trust you—not with the Resistance so close.” He slid the locks free and the door crawled open with a groan.

“That doesn’t mean you have to lock me up.”

“What else do you suggest I do?”

Rey glared at him. 

He responded in kind. “Exactly.”

The inside wasn’t completely awful. There was a bed, a lamp, and a desk. It wasn’t as if she needed anything else.

A gentle prod at the small of her back guided her inside. She didn’t fight it. Rey stepped inside and huffed.

“Do I at least get to find out why I’m so special for this mission?”

Kylo’s jaw tensed. “No.”

“Do I get to send a message to my friends?”

“No.”

“Do I get to train?”

This seemed to give him pause. “We leave for the mission at dawn. There will be no time.”

Rey hummed. “Dawn.” At least he finally gave her something.

He seemed to turn to leave before freezing mid stride. Rey was already dismissing his presence for the night when something—something that felt like the Force—made her reach up and catch an object that had been hurtling straight toward her head.

She looked down into her palm. It was an orange—Kylo’s orange.

“In the future, just ask.”

Rey looked up. “Stop doing that.”

“Giving you food?”

“Reading my mind,” she said. “And speaking into it. It’s weird.”

Kylo just seemed to stand and blink at her for a moment, hovering in the doorway. Something had confused him—Rey wasn’t sure what.

“It’s not something I can control,” he finally replied, his voice laced with annoyance, “not when you have so little grasp of your abilities.”

“None of the other Knights seem to mind.”

“None of the other Knights have the misfortune of hearing your every thought.”

Rey fumed. On top of being a hostage, she apparently wasn’t even allowed the luxury of simple privacy. Within her own kriffing mind. “Why can you hear me and they can’t?”

He scoffed and turned to leave. “That’s the million credit question, scavenger.”

Rey began to panic. He couldn’t leave and lock her in there—if he did, she’d be stuck there all night.

“Wait,” she called after him. His foot froze above the threshold. He turned to face her. “So, if you’re hearing everything I’m thinking—” 

“Not everything,” Kylo interrupted. “Just when your thoughts are particularly panicked.”

Like earlier that night, when Rey made explicit plans to escape and find—

“The Resistance.” Kylo began to stalk toward her. “Yes, your panic attack earlier made that quite clear.”

Rey backed herself up against the far wall, but he kept approaching until he was close enough to smell the leather of his suit. “You’re doing it again.”

Kylo licked his lips. Bowed his head. “I can teach you how to control it. Once we get back—“

“Teach me now.”

That made Kylo look down at her and scoff. “Such an eager pupil now that you see how useful I can be. Soon I’ll have you calling me ‘Master.”

She glared. “In your dreams.”

Kylo’s eyes flashed. “But I will not teach you now—not when you’ll just use it to escape. Do you think I was born yesterday, scavenger?”

She looked at his lips. They were so close to her face. Rey was quite certain she’d never been this close to anyone before. “I won’t use it to escape.”

Her voice sounded breathy. Light.

“I don’t believe you. Want to know why?” Kylo leaned down, and Rey couldn’t flinch back any more. Amusement danced in his eyes at her attempts to flee. “Because that same connection that lets me listen to your little thoughts,” he whispered, “is telling me that you’ll do just about anything to escape tonight and see your friends.” 

She breathed out shakily. “Maybe the connection is wrong.”

“It's also telling me that being this close to you makes you very,” he leaned closer, gaze wandering from her eyes to her lips and back again, “very uncomfortable.”

Rey kneed him in the stomach. He grunted, reaching out for her, but Rey darted around him and ran toward the door. 

It wasn’t the best plan she’d ever come up with, but it was something. 

Before she could even make it to the threshold, two strong arms looped around her waist and threw her back inside the room. Rey pushed him back with the Force—

And he bolted toward her, faster than she could escape from. He threw her against the wall. She swung, but he caught her wrists and slammed them down over her head. 

They were both panting. She felt his breath fan across her face as he glared at her. At least she winded him.

Kylo’s grip tightened on her wrists. “I’m disappointed,” he said.  “I expected more from you, scavenger.”

“Sorry to disappoint,” she mocked. “Master.”

His eyes went wide. And Rey felt it.

Now.

As expected, the word caught him off guard enough to slacken his grip on her wrists. Free to move, she reached up, grabbed both sides of his face, and crashed her lips into his.

It was odd at first—feeling his lips on hers. Lips that had ordered the slaughter of hundreds. Probably even thousands. The lips that said the last words Han Solo ever heard.

The lips that imprisoned her.

She felt him grunt against her–-probably as taken aback as her that she was actually kriffing doing this. 

But Kylo said it himself. She was prepared to do anything. Even this.

What was it he’d said?

A mind that is weak…

His stiffness slackened, and hands hesitantly grabbed her waist.

Or distracted .

He was so tall that she had to balance on her toes until she was able to force his head down, but then he was pushing her against the wall. And suddenly, any hint of restraint Kylo had disappeared.

His hands tightened around her waist, his fingers pressing divots into her lower back. Her stomach fluttered at the force of his hips pushing her body into the wall and the choked sound he made as he moaned against her lips, his own mouth moving feverishly over hers. It was unexpected and terrifying and exciting and Rey had no idea why she didn’t want it to stop.

Kylo bit down on her lip and she hissed. Because it was him , Rey had to give as good as she got, so she parted her lips and did the same.

It was so much easier than she’d expected—kissing him. Rey was half certain she’d be choking back bile, counting the seconds until she could break away. Instead, Rey pushed back against his pull, sparring as seamlessly as they always did.

It felt…familiar.

Kylo’s breathing stuttered—his hands wound up from her waist, to her lower back, brushing across her ribs. Her heart pounded like it was moments away from bursting from her chest.

And when Rey found herself leaning in for more, more, more—

She forced herself back into reality.

Rey brought her palm up to his cheek, and knowing she only had one true shot to get this right, she inhaled as deeply as she could with Kylo Ren stealing every last bit of her breath.

And she forced one powerful, overwhelming urge into his mind.

Sleep.

Kylo’s lips stilled. Rey closed her eyes tight, preparing for the anger. For the betrayal. This time, he might truly kill her.

His hold on her slackened, and suddenly, Kylo Ren collapsed at her feet. 

Rey was so stunned, all she could do was stare. A man so large, both in power and in stature, looked odd like this. His face wasn’t twisted in a scowl like it always was with her—and now, as she looked at him, truly looked at him, his features were so boyish. So…young. 

She released a small, shocked laugh before stepping around him carefully, as if one wrong move would instantly wake him up. She rushed out of the room, closing and locking the cell behind her.

Almost there.

Rey tiptoed through the hallway, sneaking her way through the dining and living room. She reached the door and quietly pulled it open. The ghost of a smile started to form on her face.

“Rey.”

She froze—foot halfway out the door, just two sweet seconds away from freedom.

Rey closed her eyes, sighed, and turned around,

Cardo looked just about as disappointed as he’d sounded. He held a blaster in one hand, still partially deconstructed from where he was clearly cleaning it, but assembled enough to fire a good shot. 

“Just let me go, Cardo.”

The man gave her a sad look. “You know I can’t do that.”

She eyed his trigger finger, which was still resting with ease along the barrel of the blaster. He didn’t plan to shoot—not yet.

“I’ll come back, I swear.” She took a few steps back until she was no longer in the house, stumbling a bit on the steps leading out of the doorway. “I just need to warn them.”

Cardo followed her retreat until both of them stood on the exposed street, completely silent in the night.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” he said. “I actually quite like you.”

“Yeah, me too,” Rey breathed out shakily. “So let’s just agree that we never saw each other, yeah?”

Cardo raised the blaster. “Kylo would want me to stop you.”

Rey called the Force to her fingertips.

They stood like that for a moment—him, with a blaster pointed at her chest—her, with her hands curled into fists, prepared to fight. A sharp breeze blew a lock of golden hair into Cardo’s eyes. Rey shifted her stance. This wasn’t good—she didn’t have much time. For all she knew, Kylo was already waking up from her lousy attempt at forcing him to sleep—

Cardo’s arm fell to his side. The blaster clattered to the ground, kicking up dust in its wake. 

Rey blinked from the discarded blaster to the man above it, failing to hide the confusion on her face.

“But he wouldn't want me to hurt you,” Cardo said. He opened his palms and held them up, showing that he was otherwise unarmed. “And I have a feeling you’re prepared to fight like hell.”

Rey nearly smiled. She took a hesitant step forward, and when Cardo didn’t tense up, she approached him. L ifting her hand, laying a palm on his cheek, she said, “I am,” before forcing sleep to cloud his mind,

The hurt on his face was brief before his features flattened with unconsciousness.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered as he fell to his knees. “But I can’t risk you following me.” He swayed back and forth before falling face-first into the dirt. She hated the guilt that rose up in her throat—the bile of regret. 

Why did she have to care about him? About Kylo? About these clear monsters that she should have no problem murdering in cold blood?

Why was she so weak?

 Rey gently nudged the man’s face with her boot, huffing a breath of relief when he remained limp. She spun around—

—directly into the path of an old man.

She jolted to a stop.

A gray cloak. Long, untamed peppery locks. A frizzy beard that looked long past unkempt. The man raised a weathered brow, his eyes sparkling with amusement. “That was quite impressive.”

It was well into the middle of the night. Not a single other being bothered to be awake. With the adrenaline still lingering from her escape, Rey crouched into a fighting stance and called the Force to her fingertips

“I…he was…” Rey looked between Cardo’s sleeping form and the old man, “he’s just sleeping, that’s all.”

“Quite a sudden sleep.” The man flashed a smile. Rey found it rather odd.

“Yes, we’re quite tired,” she swallowed, “we had a long journey.”

“Ah, yes.” The man took a step forward. Rey took two back. “I, too, enjoy a long, spontaneous nap in the dirt when I am weary from travel.”

Rey narrowed her eyes. The wind billowed in the man’s cloak, revealing aged and torn robes beneath it. And those eyes—they focused on Rey so intensely it’s like they could see through her.

She hated it.

Despite a little tether in her chest telling her to stay, Rey began backing up. “I’m sorry, I really have to go—“

“Is Ben asleep as well?”

Rey stumbled to a stop. The man’s smile was gone, replaced with a genuine concern. Flicking eagerly at the door she’d emerged from. For no reason Rey could really gather, she nodded.

“Good. We should go, then. Ben won’t be out for long.” The man looked down. “Cardo, on the other hand…well, he’s always been a softer touch. He probably won’t wake until morning.”

Rey felt the breath leave her lungs. The certainty seeped through her blood. The Force.

“Luke?”

The man smiled. “It’s nice to finally meet you, Rey.”

Chapter Text

Their footsteps crunched in the empty night.

Luke was quiet as they walked through the abandoned town, lit by nothing but the nearby planet’s glow. His silence bothered her. Everything about this bothered her.

“How did you find me?”

The man adjusted his raggedy hood to fall further over his head. “The Knights of Ren put on quite the show when they arrived.”

“You were there?” Her heart dropped. Had Leia seen her like that? Had Poe?

Finn?

“No,” Luke said. “We received reports from our contacts in the town. We had a feeling we were on the First Order’s radar, but we weren’t expecting a personal visit.”

She exhaled a breath of relief, although a new wave of anxiety rushed through her chest to replace it. “He has much more planned than just a visit.”

Luke gave a single, solemn nod. “Yes, I imagine he does.”

A long beat of silence passed.

“Has he—” Luke cut himself off. Cleared his throat. Far more uncertain than Rey expected a Jedi master to be. “Are you well?”

Rey’s footsteps faltered. She’d never in a thousand galaxies, a thousand lightyears, dreamed she’d be walking side by side with Luke Skywalker—someone who was more myth than man—more legend than any living, breathing being. She coveted him.

Until now.

He was the one who wasn’t strong enough to stop Kylo Ren. He was the one who allowed the First Order to rise.

He was the one who ran.

And she was the one to suffer.

“I’ve been better.” She bit her tongue, fighting the response she truly wanted to give. Rey had to be resolute. Strong. Powerful people don’t whine to their heroes—even if those heroes have fallen.

“Yes.” Shame laced his weathered stare. But he didn’t look at her—no, his gaze was locked somewhere over her shoulder. “I’m sure you have.”

He was so accepting. So…blameless. Anger bubbled in her chest. 

“Your nephew is not a good man, Luke.”

“I know.”

“Then do something about it.”

“I will, Rey.” Luke gave her a knowing look. “You must be patient. And strong.”

The only reason Rey was able to bite her tongue was because she was so used to doing it in Kylo’s presence. Perhaps she did have something to thank him for.

Rey glared at the ground to keep herself from glaring at him. “So you finally decided it was time to get off your ass and join the Resistance, then?”

“Once Leia told me they’d lost you…” he shook his head. “Well, I couldn’t just sit in exile while my family, and any last hope for the galaxy, was annihilated.”

“They never lost me.” Rey bit back a snarl. “I told them I wouldn’t turn against the Resistance—“

“Rey.”

He stopped. Rey did too, turning her head to face the fractured ground. 

“You can’t fool me.” A cold accusation laced his tone. “I sense it. You’ve already been pulled to the dark.”

“Not willingly,” she spat. “And I fought my way back.”

“You did.” A wave of discomfort, of avoidance, seemed to wash over him. Rey felt it. “But you may not in the future.”

“I’ll fight it again—“

“You’ll try.” For the first time, Rey began to notice how weary the man looked. “I’ve lived this story before. I see him in you, Rey. Just like Leia does,” Luke said. “But I’m not blinded by hope like she is. By love.”

Him.

Ben.

Rey let the cool breeze cut across her cheeks. Let it slice her skin and lay her bare. She looked at Luke Skywalker with empty eyes as she breathed out,

“You think I’ll turn. You think I’ll end up like Ben.”

“I know you will.” He offered a sad, patronizing smile. “But I hope I’m wrong. I hope the Force is wrong.”

And he continued walking.

“That’s why you can’t even look me in the eye,” she whispered, following close at his heels. “Because all you see is how you failed him.”

“Rey—“

“And you’re not even trying to save me. You can’t even imagine for a brief moment that I’ll stay in the light.”

“I know how easy it is to let the darkness’ temptation take hold,” Luke spat. Still unable to look her in the eye. “How alluring it can be.”

This time, Rey didn’t bother to fight the resentful scoff. “The great Luke Skywalker was never tempted—“

“Of course I was,” Luke snapped. Rey flinched. 

She curled her hands into fists, focusing hard on not accidentally channeling the Force to slap Luke Skywalker’s face.

“It’s not fair,” Rey hissed. “You never had to deal with two Sith constantly meddling in your mind. It’s relentless. And they won’t stop—not until I fall to the dark.”

“I know.”

“I don’t understand why I had to be the martyr. I hate having to sacrifice my freedom for the Resistance. I hate having to sacrifice everything,” Rey said. “But I know—I know that if I wasn’t—if the Resistance never handed me over to the First Order—they all would have been killed. And I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if that happened.”

She squinted into the distance of the rocky planet, shaking her head. “And I hate that I struggle to channel the light side of the Force, and I despise that sometimes…sometimes Kylo Ren makes me feel like he’s all I have. That eventually, everyone I love will turn against me. I’m afraid that I won’t be able to resist any longer—“

“Rey—“

“And I feel it. I feel that everybody is afraid of me. Leia.” The wave of relief Rey felt wash over Leia as she was boarded into the First Order shuttle. “Kylo.” The fearsome Kylo Ren, scrambling away from her on the training mat, looking at her like she was moments away from murder.

She turned to Luke. “Even you.”

Luke motioned her down a dirt path in the tiny space between two shacks. 

“I never even had a chance to be good,” Rey said, parroting the all too familiar words she’d said before. It seemed she was destined to discover that in the end, she never truly had a choice. “All I ever wanted to be was good.”

Luke at least had the decency to look disturbed. “Some followers of the Force believe it predetermines our path in life.”

“So if you always knew I was going to end up serving Kylo Ren,” Rey accused, “why even bother bringing me to Leia? Shouldn’t you just kill me now?”

Luke shrugged. “I never said I believed the Force predetermined our paths.”

“You sound pretty certain to me.”

“Nothing can be certain in the Force,” Luke explained blankly. “Like most followers of the light, I only take from the Force what it offers to give. Including guidance.”

Rey scoffed. “No wonder you lot always lost.” 

“You’re right,” Luke said. He led her down a flight of winding stairs. “The Jedi had many shortcomings. Even in the height of their rule, they couldn’t stop the dark from taking hold.”

“Maybe the dark is not what’s wrong with the galaxy,” Rey said. “Perhaps, it’s the notion that the dark must be annihilated.”

Luke half turned around, staring at her with one steely blue eye.

“I mean, look at you now: dismissing me as a lost cause before I can even begin my path. How many others have gotten lost because the Jedi didn’t even bother to try?” Rey continued, letting the resentment coat her bitter words. “Balance. Isn’t that what all you Jedi always go on about? Maybe the reason you fail isn’t because the dark snuffs you out, but because you upset the balance by assuming light and darkness can’t coexist.”

Luke blinked. Let a handful of uncomfortable silent seconds pass. “Just through there,” he finally said, stepping across a dark threshold.

It led into a cold, damp tunnel. They were both silent for the long stretch of darkness they walked. The tunnels seemed to run under the entirety of the town, branching off into dozens of winding turns. Eventually, even though the anger was spilling off of her in waves, a question that had been ringing around in her mind ever since the beginning of the night suddenly took hold.

“How did you know Cardo?”

Luke didn’t reply. 

“Back there, in the street—you spoke about him as if you knew him.”

Finally, the old Jedi’s shoulders sagged. “Cardo was a pupil of mine.”

A pupil…

“He was a padawan at your Jedi temple?”

Luke nodded. “He arrived two years after Ben did. Cardo instantly took a liking to my nephew—who did not feel the same. Ben found most of the other pupils…” Luke trailed off and shook his head.

“Immature?”

“Childish.”

Rey raised a brow. “Wasn't Ben a child, too?”

This made Luke huff out a half scoff. “Ben was always more aloof than most children. Always felt he had something to prove by being more mature.” He ducked under a jutted stalagmite. “I always assumed it was to prove to his mother that he was just as capable as she was at his age. My sister is a hard person to live up to.”

Rey smiled. “Yes, she is.”

It was clear this topic pained Luke greatly. Rey felt it trailing off of him in the Force—a burden so strong it felt like weights on her shoulders.

“But it made him cold,” Luke said. “The other students, me, and even Leia and Han struggled to get through to him. However, after about a year of Cardo following him around everywhere, Ben realized having someone around to worship him and listen to everything he said was incredibly useful.”

The thought of a gangly, even more baby faced Cardo constantly following around a frustrated, teenage Ben Solo made Rey nearly smile. 

“It was clear that Ben was a natural born leader, but he struggled to connect with others,” Luke explained. “Cardo helped bridge that gap, and for eight years, the two of them were inseparable.”

“What happened after eight years?”

Luke stopped. He pretended to survey a fork in the tunnel, with one path far more clearly travelled than the other. Rey could sense his intentions through the Force—he knew exactly which way to go.

“Tell me about Ben.” He chose the path on the right. “I assume he’s training you?”

Unsatisfied, Rey glared at Luke’s back. “He’s trying to. Snoke gave Kylo four months to turn me. If he fails, Kylo kills me himself.”

Luke hummed. “Four months.”

She surveyed his face. The wrinkle lines beneath his eyes. The parts of his beard that had grown so grey they were nearly white.

A worried frown plagued his features. And it dawned on her that to Luke, she had just given him a deadline.

“I won’t turn,” she murmured. 

Luke have a grim nod. “I want to believe that, Rey.”

He turned around and pushed open the door. Behind it was a modest, yet comfortable room etched into the stone of the underground. It was clear someone had taken great care to make it liveable, with colorful lanterns suspended from above and couches, tables, and chairs riddled all around.

Before Rey could fully step through the threshold, a large body collided with hers. 

Two strong arms enveloped her, squeezing so tightly she could barely breathe. Only one person hugged like this. Loved like this.

“I was so worried about you,” Finn whispered in her ear. “Poe told me everything.”

He pulled away, but kept a strong grip on her shoulders as he examined her head to toe. “Are you okay? What happened to your face? Has he hurt you? God, you look so pale and—what the hell are you wearing?”

Rey giggled. Of all the people in the galaxy, Finn was the one she missed most. “I’m all right, Finn. Just happy to see you up and about.”

“Wanna see something cool?”

“Don’t show her the scar.” Poe rolled his eyes behind Finn, coming up to give Rey a hug. She accepted it with a tightness in her chest; remembering how easily he let her get sent away.

Finn brushed Poe aside. “I’m showing her the scar.”

“Nobody wants to see that.”

“Rey does.”

“I do,” she agreed with a smirk. Poe ignored both of them, reaching up to cup her cheek.

“Are you okay?” His eyes were so intense, so…telling. They were the eyes of a man who’d spent time on the business end of Kylo Ren’s interrogation. Rey could definitively say it was one of the worst places in the galaxy to be.

Rey huffed out an awkward half-laugh, half-sigh, knowing the look in her eyes was far more of a plea than anything else. “I think I really need people to stop asking me that.”

Poe’s face fell, but he nodded.

“But really, Rey.” Finn grabbed her hands and held her arms away from her chest so he could fully survey her body. “What are you wearing?”

Rey looked down at her black armor. She had taken off the cape before dinner, leaving her in the leather pants and black criss-cross vest. Beneath it all was a high neck, sleek, nearly skin tight long sleeved top. 

“Kylo disguised me as one of his Knights to get through the town undetected.”

Both men stared at her with an odd, half horrified look on their faces. 

“That’s…” Poe trailed off.

“Disturbing,” Finn finished for him.

Rey breathed out an awkward laugh. “Not as disturbing as having to watch Kylo Ren tear your spine completely in half.” Please change the subject, her words begged. “I’m so happy to see you’ve healed. I was so worried.”

“You were worried about me?” Finn shook his head. “Rey, I haven’t gone a single day without badgering Leia and Poe about a rescue mission.”

“It’s true,” Poe said. “Not a single day.”

“And to what do we owe the pleasure of your visit?”

Leia’s voice made Rey gasp and turn around. The woman looked as regal as always, if not slightly more weary, yet practically gliding in from the far corner of the room. Still, the woman stood strong. 

“He’s here to flush you out,” Rey said. Straight to business. They were short on time, after all. “Kylo Ren plans to bribe the Central Isopter tomorrow with something valuable. Something he’s fairly confident will convince them to hunt you down and kill you.”

Poe looked at Leia. “You said the cult running this place was neutral.”

“They are.” Leia sighed. “That’s the problem. They’re not allied with the First Order, but they sure as hell are terrified of them.”

The faces in the room fell.

“How did the First Order even find us?” Poe asked nobody in particular. “We ran.”

“The Prime Minister of Christophsis ratted you out. Your bribe wasn’t enough to silence him under tort—“ Rey cut herself off, but it was far too late. Leia’s eyes were downcast yet unfazed—far too accustomed to hearing of her son's atrocities. “The First Order’s interrogation.”

“That’s a shame. Gray was a good friend,” Leia said. “Is he still alive?”

The cell block was empty when Rey was there, which didn’t bode well for Prime Minister Paddock. “Last I saw him, yes, but that was days ago. I wouldn’t count on it.”

Grim nods all around.

“Kylo wouldn’t let me send a message,” Rey said. “If I could’ve, I would have warned you sooner.”

“This was more than enough,” Leia reassured her. “Thank you, Rey. We’ll evacuate tonight. With our numbers so low, we should be two systems away by the time they come for us.”

Leia gave her a grateful nod, one that made Rey’s heart soar. Maybe it truly was just the darkness Snoke placed inside making her so angry. Maybe all this frustration was just born from the inherent loneliness of being away from her friends. Maybe she should have been more grateful for her role in saving them—

“Anything else?” Leia asked.

Rey surveyed the faces around her, waiting for someone to respond, only to find all the expectant eyes on her. “What?”

“What other intel do you have?” Poe urged.

Rey looked between Leia and Poe. “Nothing.”

Their faces both fell.

“I didn’t know I was supposed to…” To what? To be a spy and a hostage? To put herself in danger by trying to gather information? “Kylo doesn’t trust me. I have no freedom to go anywhere other than where I’m told. I’m in no position to overhear or collect any meaningful intel—“

“You sent me a message from Kylo Ren’s personal quarters.”

Leia’s interruption made the temperature in the room drop. Either that, or Rey suddenly felt very, very exposed. Finn’s eyes bugged. Poe’s scowl deepend. Luke Skywalker coughed out what she could've sworn was a choked scoff.

“You and Kylo negotiated that privately.” Rey hoped the lie was close enough to the truth, and if it wasn’t, that Leia would have the decency not to push the matter. “He wasn’t going to allow me to communicate with the Resistance on an official First Order frequency—“

“So you have access to Kylo Ren’s personal holotable?”

“Only when he is watching me very, very, closely,” Rey told Poe, the anger rising. “Which is always, by the way.”

Poe spun to face Leia. “That could work.” 

Leia seemed to agree.

“What could work?

“What about Batuu?” Leia asked, ignoring Rey’s question entirely.

Rey narrowed her eyes. “I know there was an explosion. Kylo suspected it was a Resistance attack—“

The room erupted in cheers.

“And Dantooine?” Poe asked.

Rey eyes the room warily. “Nothing.”

He frowned. “At all?”

“I was…indisposed for the last few days,” Rey said. “I only overheard the intel about Batuu by accident. If anything did happen to shake up the First Order, I wouldn't have been around to overhear.”

Poe rushed to Leia’s side with a renewed skip in his step. “It’s not over. I told you we don’t scare that easily.”

Leia replied with nothing but a slight smile and stiff nod, leaving Rey to watch the room burst to life with a sudden vigor that she still didn’t understand. 

Because something was bothering her. 

She didn’t wait for the room to settle down. Leia, Finn, and Poe were already starting to take notice of Rey’s silence. “You attacked Batuu?” she said. “When I was on board their ship as collateral?”

More of the room’s occupance seemed to take note of the growing unsettled air. Thankfully, Leia took it upon herself to usher Rey through a side door. Poe, Finn, and Luke followed.

Leia only spoke when the door slid shut. “The First Order was never going to comply with the ceasefire.”

“Then why did you trade me!?”

“Because they would have killed us all if I didn’t. This was never about a ceasefire for them.” Pity laced Leia’s eyes. “It was about getting you.”

Finn and Poe shuffled awkwardly behind her, although the glare the former was currently giving Leia made Rey believe he had been as convinced as she was of the genuine nature of the ceasefire.

“And you let them.” Rey scoffed. “And then you attacked them.”

“I had trust in my son that he wouldn’t hurt you—“

“Your son has done far worse than hurt me.”

“And if I lay down my army, millions will get far more than hurt,” Leia snapped. “We are all that stands between the First Order and galactic domination. That means millions of worlds and billions of lives, all relying on us to keep the First Order at bay.” Leia softened her fiery gaze. “Even if that means making deals we know they won't keep.”

Rey took a shaky step back.

“I’m truly sorry it had to be you, Rey. I hope you understand that,” Leia continued. “And I also hope you understand that the Resistance cannot stop fighting. Not with so much at stake.”

“Don’t you understand what they’re doing to me?” Rey fought valiantly to curb the waver in her voice. The moisture in her eyes. She never used to care about what people thought of her before. The sands of Jakku had seen enough of her tears to grow a river. 

And yet, she felt the blush of embarrassment when the first tear fell.

An awkward silence fell. A daunting promise that Rey immediately wished she could take back. Now they thought she was weak. 

Poe cleared his throat. “The First Order has blocked all non-authorized communication throughout the entire galaxy. As far as the Outer Rim, not a single frequency can transmit unless it is directly from the First Order.”

Rey looked between them. “How is that possible?”

“Our engineers have been trying to figure it out, but it’s no use. The Resistance is scattered across dozens of systems,” Poe said. “We need guidance. We need to communicate with any members of the Resistance who are still out there. Without it, the First Order will keep finding us and picking us off one by one.”

“We need a rallying cry, Rey,” Leia said.

And with that, Rey knew exactly what they were asking. 

“You want to use Kylo’s holotable to broadcast a message to the Resistance.”

It was insane. Even the sun baked scavengers on Jakku wouldn't ever be so idiotic. So downright suicidal. It nearly made her laugh. “You can’t be serious.”

“The Batuu attack’s objective was to get ahold of a First Order transmitter.” Finn finally pushed past Poe and Leia to stand a comforting distance from Rey. “But their ground forces were too strong.  We just aren’t powerful enough to overtake any First Order installations by brute force.”

This time, Rey did laugh. “And you think a Star Destroyer is going to be any easier?”

“Of course not,” Poe said. “But with you on board…you could do it. You could broadcast a message anywhere.”

“And immediately get killed for it.”

Poe frowned with a frustrated huff.

“Not if you can use the First Order's own security against them,” Finn helpfully supplied. “It’s Kylo Ren’s personal holotable, right? He’ll have top notch encryption. You can broadcast it without the First Order even knowing, use the same encrypted line like he used to communicate with Leia. Then you can erase the data bank, just to be sure.”

Her heart began to beat faster. They weren’t asking her to do this. They couldn’t be. 

“You’re forgetting one crucial thing,” Rey snapped.  “I can’t do any of that.” She shook her head, looked back down the dark alleyway. “I’ve already been here too long, I have to return to Kylo before dawn—“

“We’ll get someone on board, then,” Finn said. “A mole. Someone who can do all of that for you and get out undetected. All you have to do is give yourself an alibi, Rey. So they can’t pin it on you.”

Rey could do nothing but stare at the ignorantly hopeful faces of her friends. Her mentors—the kriffing Skywalkers themselves—and scoff. “That’s…it's just…” How could you ask me to do this after everything I’ve done for you?

How could you all so easily make me the martyr?

Again.

Rey shut her mouth and let a few breaths in and out before she spoke.

“How would they get into Kylo’s chambers?”

Poe shrugged. “That’s for you to figure out, I’m afraid.”

“Wha—“

Leia, who had been uncharacteristically silent during this conversation, finally spoke. “We need this, Rey. Just one message. One swan song.”

And how the kriff could she say no to that?

But Rey would be damned if she didn’t show her disdain this time around. She shut up and boarded the First Order shuttle with a strict soldier’s bearing the first time around.

This time, she didn’t care if they spied how pissed she truly was.

“We’re all going to get killed,” Rey said.

“That’s a sacrifice every member of the Resistance is prepared to make.” Poe eyed her with an intensity that seemed like a cruel accusation. Apparently, the fact that she’d already traded her freedom for the Resistance wasn’t enough. She had to die for it, too.

“Fine,” Rey bit out, feeling the exact opposite.

Kill them. 

Rey flinched, eyes searching wildly at the sharp, splintered voice that briefly entered her mind. 

The people around her noticed her silence. Rey cleared her throat.

“Who’s sneaking on board?”

Poe, once again, gave a shrug of forced nonchalance. “We’ll figure it out.”

“Doesn’t sound like a very solid plan,” Rey grumbled.

“I’ve had worse.”

“I’ve had better,” Leia said. “You should return, Rey. Night only lasts a handful of hours on this moon. Dawn is coming.”

Finn clapped her on the back. Rey winced. “We’ll walk you back.”

The three of them were halfway to the door when a hand grabbed her elbow. Luke’s steel blue eyes flickered in the lantern light.

“If we get through this,” he said, draining every last possibility from the single word ‘if’. If you survive. If you ever make it back to the Resistance. If you don’t descend into the darkest depths of the Sith. “You could become a great Jedi one day.”

He smiled, though it was forced. Leia did, too. And Rey realized that it was something she should have been honored to hear. It should be her purpose, after all: to win the war, return to the Resistance, become Luke Skywalker’s padawan, and eventually, a Jedi herself.

It was the stuff of legends. Of destinies.

And something that filled Rey with absolute…emptiness.

There was no surge of pride. No flash to some fairytale future in which Rey stood proudly at the helm of all the Jedi who came before her. Of a legacy that she willingly carried.

Because you can’t trust them, Rey.

Rey stiffened. She was prepared to hear Kylo Ren’s roar in her mind; yelling at her across miles after waking up feeling utterly embarrassed. She had almost been looking forward to it.

What she hadn’t been expecting, however, was the cold, invading voice of Snoke himself.

Not like you can trust me.

Rey squeezed her eyes shut.

They’ve abandoned you before, and they’ll do it again.

She just felt dread, horror, and the awful urge to run. So she nodded, gave both Skywalker siblings a solemn nod, and followed Finn through the passage.

Kylo Ren will never leave you. I will never leave you, Rey.

“Shut up,” she hissed. She was half-certain that this voice in her head was just that—in her head. But she still had to say it out loud.

Finn’s head popped around to frown at her. “What did you say?”

Rey gave him a stiff nod. “Nothing, just tripped over something.”

He gave an unconvinced nod, but continued on.

Dawn painted the streets by the time their heads emerged from the underbellies of the town. Merchants were just beginning their march into the city center with wagons of goods in tow.

“He’s gonna be so pissed,” Rey muttered under her breath, but apparently loud enough for both boys to hear.

“So how did you…you know,” Poe wagged his fingers in front of her face, “incapacitate Kylo Ren?”

Rey mimicked him by waving her fingers in front of his face with a smirk. “Not by doing this,” she gave his cheek a playful slap, “if that’s what you’re implying.”

Poe laughed. He truly was a handsome man, especially with the light of early dawn painting his face a host of pinks and yellows. “C’mon, don’t be coy. We may need to use it again.”

If either man noticed her face suddenly flush, neither of them commented on it.

“I wouldn’t count on it,” Rey said. “I honestly got lucky. Happened to catch his mind without his guards up and just kind of…forced him to sleep.”

Finn and Poe looked utterly unsatisfied with that answer.

“Well,” Finn sighed, “you better think of something else fast. Hopefully we’ll sneak a man on board within the week.”

Rey shook her head, gaze following a young girl as she lugged a crate of sweet pastries up the sandy hill alongside them. “It won’t work.”

“That’s the fighting rebel spirit.” Poe clapped her on the back. Once again, her wound made her flinch. “The mighty Rey, vanquisher of Siths, inspiration to all who stand against tyranny—“

A tingle erupted at the base of her neck. Something familiar. Something that made her stomach flip. Rey forced them all to stop. “Shhh.”

“--singlehandedly cut the mighty Kylo Ren in half—“

“Shut it!” she hissed.

Finn had the decency to lower his voice to a whisper. “What?!”

Rey.

The tingle turned into a dreadful roar.

Rey narrowed her eyes and scanned the village around her—the storefronts slowly coming to life, the half dozen city folk making their way into the first shops of the day. It was calm. Peaceful.

“He’s looking for me.”

Finn’s eyes grew wide.“Ren?”

She nodded.

“How do you know?”

It was the same feeling she always had when she was with him. A tangle of nerves. A lurch of disgust.

A coiled twist of excitement.

Finally decided to come back?

Her head shot around the market. It was his kriffing voice. In her head. Again.

“I just do,” she said to Finn. “You both need to leave. If he sees you here—“

“No need to convince us,” Poe replied, ever the flyboy; poised and prepared to run. He pulled her into a fast, tight hug. “Be safe, Rey.”

She nodded and endured Finn’s even tighter hug before ushering them away.

“Wait!” She called. Both boys turned around. “Just…whoever they send as the spy, please don’t make it either of you.”

They both smiled.

“Can’t make you any promises!” Poe called. Finn gave her a shrug and a wave, before both of them disappeared into a shadowed winding alley between two stone buildings. Hopefully running as fast and far away as possible.

Because the tingle—the lurch—it was so strong she could almost taste it.

Sparing one last glance at the direction Finn and Poe disappeared, she spun around and marched forward.

Directly into a muscled chest.

It could’ve been the force that caused certainty to rush over her, to tell her without a shadow of a doubt that the body she just collided with was none other than Kylo Ren.

But to be honest, she knew it by the contours of his chest. A pair of muscled pecs. Far too solid abs. Gods, it was so kriffing frustrating.

She blinked up at him, instantly narrowing her eyes into a glare.

“Rey,” Kylo greeted with his usual mirth, so delighted to have caught her unawares it almost seeped into his scowl. Cardo stood a few paces behind him, clearly fighting to stifle an amused smirk.

At her silence, Cardo raised a brow. “Eventful night?”

Rey swallowed. “Not particularly.”

“I’d certainly hope not.” Kylo’s gaze flickered over her shoulder, the same place she’d been watching. The alley Finn and Poe had fled. 

Rey panicked. She needed to grab his focus, keep it away from the Resistance. From Finn and Poe.

“Surely it was less eventful than yours,” she said with enough sass to make both men’s eyes widen. Not Rey’s smartest plan, but neither man was peering curiously at Finn and Poe’s retreat anymore, so…mission accomplished, she supposed.

Kylo’s mouth flattened into a tight line. “I hope incapacitating me by exposing the one skill you managed to learn under my tutelage was worth finding your precious friends,” he said. “I assure you that it will never happen again.”

Rey swallowed. “You didn’t seem to mind it last night.”

Cardo coughed out a string of poorly concealed laughs. There was a wild flash in Kylo’s eyes, yet everything else remained terrifyingly still when he said,

 “I’m sure you didn’t so easily forget the consequences of the Resistance finding you here?”

If anyone from the Resistance finds you, I’ll make sure they’re dead by dawn.

Her breath came out trembling. “Of course not.”

“Yet you sought them out anyway?”

“I never sought—“

“Listen to me closely,” Kylo whispered, face suddenly so close to her that she could count every eyelash. Every pale faded scar. “You’ve not met me in the throes of war, scavenger. Not yet. One thing you should know about me is I never, ever, bluff.”

“When I say I’ll hunt the Resistance down to punish you, that's a promise. When I say I’ll throw you in a cell and leave you to rot for what you did to me last night, that’s a promise.” He leaned back, glaring at her down the crooked contours of his nose. His eyes met hers. “When I say I could make you the greatest warrior who ever lived if you’d just surrendered to me,” he whispered, “that’s a promise, Rey.”

Fear and adrenaline spiked in her chest. A want—a need to know the power he was offering. Just a taste.

All too quickly, the allure slipped away into terror, and Rey stuck her chin up high.

“I was trying to escape.” Rey forced her words to come out with a strong certainty. “I wasn’t with the Resistance—I was looking for pilots to take me off world. That, or a ship.”

Intrigue lit up his eyes even more. “You were looking to buy a ship?”

Rey knew where this accusation was going. With what money? 

“To steal one.”

Kylo’s expression was still as subtly amused as the moment he nearly knocked her to the ground with his chiseled chest, but hiding an anger in his eyes that she could see clear as day.

“And how did that work out for you?”

She gestured vaguely to their surroundings.

“How do you think?”

Kylo leaned back. Glanced sidelong at the very amused Cardo, who returned nothing but a smirk and a shrug, before turning back to her.

“Try again.”

“What?” Rey asked.

“Tell me a better lie,” Kylo said. “You’re capable of it.”

His smugness was so hair pulling that if Rey lacked the little restraint she had, she’d be bald.

“Why should I even bother?” 

Then, Kylo Ren did just about the most frustrating thing he could. 

He smiled, and raked those irritatingly husky eyes up and down her body before leaning in far too close and whispering,

“Because you’re entertaining when you squirm.”

Rey glared at him. “You’re an ass when you think you’re right.”

“I'm always right about you, Scavenger.” Thankfully, he leaned away. “I quite like being privy to every little thought in that tempest of a mind you have.”

“Well,” she made sure to sharpen her glare and not shift uncomfortably like she wanted to. “That’s just unfair.”

“Life isn’t fair.” 

Kylo smirked and grabbed her bicep. She felt every eye in the vicinity focused on her as the man began to drag her up the cobblestone alley. “Thanks to your little excursion, we’re late.”

“Oh no,” Rey feigned a gasp while tripping over her feet and struggling to keep up with Kylo’s brutal pace. “How terrible. The only thing worse than a murderous Sith is a tardy murderous Sith.”

Cardo laughed from behind her. “Might as well let out all that sass now, Rey. Where we’re going, that smug smirk of yours is enough to get you executed.”

Rey prayed Kylo was too distracted manhandling her through the streets of Leesis to see her face grow pale. “And where, exactly, are we going?”

“The mystery is part of the adventure,” Cardo replied, tacking on a grin. “Isn’t this fun?”

With great effort, she shot him a glare. “I wonder, Cardo, how did you sleep last night? I hope there wasn’t too much of a breeze for you.”

“Not at all.” He smiled even more. “I slept like a baby. Was awoken by the birds and the rising suns. It reminded me of childhood.”

Rey’s smirk fell.

The long, tense journey finally ended when Kylo maneuvered Rey to stop. It was an awkward place to linger, nestled in a far too tight alley that left barely two paces between them. A wooden cantina sign above them swayed with a non existent wind on rusted hinges. 

Kylo shoved her back against the wall and pushed a bundle of clothes into her chest.

“Hurry up and put these on. We’re already late for the meeting.”

She looked down at the clothes and up at Kylo. “Wha—here?”

“I’m sorry, does this not suit your standards?”

She shoved the clothes back into his chest. “No, Kylo, in fact, it does not.”

“I’ve been spoiling you,” Kylo smirked. “The Scavenger I stole from Takodana wouldn’t have bat an eye.”

“A lot has changed since then.”

She met his stare. His furious, impatient stare. “Cardo,” he said without looking away from her. “Go prepare the others to begin the mission. We’ll be out soon.”

“Yes, Master.” Cardo bent down and whispered, “behave,” in her ear before slipping out of the alley.

Kylo tipped his head at her. “You’d be smart to listen to him.”

“I’m not changing in front of you.”

“You’re wasting time.” His returning shove of the bundle of clothes doubled as a punch to her gut. “Take those clothes off or I’ll remove them from you myself.”

Rey narrowed her eyes. “You wouldn’t.”

Something flashed in his. “Is that a challenge?”

Yes, she almost volleyed back before her common sense stopped her. She was playing with fire—a very hot, raging fire. One she couldn’t afford to get consumed by. So instead, Rey cleared her throat.

“I’d like some privacy.”

“You had privacy,” Kylo spat, “you gave it up when you attacked me and escaped. Now strip, Scavenger.”

Rey unfurled the cloth. It was a peasant dress—rough, hastily sewed burnt orange fabric formed the underdress. A light brown vest and matching sash completed the odd ensemble.

She looked at Kylo, mostly to confirm he hadn't gotten shot in the head with a blaster.

“This is a dress.”

He was still staring at her. “Very astute observation.”

“I don’t wear dresses, Kylo.”

“You do today.”

She glared, clutching the fabric so tight it neatly ripped holes the precise size of her fingertips.

“Don’t get all shy on me now, Scavenger.”

Rey outwardly gagged. “You’re disgusting.”

“And you’re adorable,” Kylo said, then added as an afterthought, “when you’re nervous.”

“I’m not nervous.”

Kylo grinned. “Then take off your shirt.”

It was ridiculous and outright wrong. Even the Scavengers on Jakku had the privilege of privacy. She lifted her chin and bit out, “at least turn around.”

This seemed to spark an idea in Kylo’s mind. “Fine,” he said. “Answer my question and I’ll turn around.”

Curiosity made her answe come far too quickly. “Fine.”

If he was shocked at her decisiveness then he didn’t show it. After all, this was a game they played not long ago. Kylo stood there, hands shifting awkwardly as if he had no clue where to put them.

“Was any of it—“ he quickly cut himself off. Pressed his lips into a thin line before finally looking at her.

He looked angry, which hardly surprised her as it seemed to be his default expression. But something else, something close to a twisted version of hope, lingered in his eyes.

“What?” She asked, far too uncomfortable with him just staring at her.

Something in her actions seemed to spark him to life. Kylo’s expression flattened before transforming into something she couldn’t determine even if she tried.

Then, his body slammed into hers.

At first, Rey thought it was an attack. Her hands tightened into fists, knees bracing, stance widening. She was ready to dodge, punch, kick, hell, even use the force to fight him off.

What she wasn’t ready for, however, were his lips on hers.

Again.

Her hands flew up to push him away, and he must’ve been expecting that, for his fingers curled over both of her wrists and slammed them on opposite sides of the wall, bracketing her head.

His lips moved over hers hungrily. Angrily. Shoving her hips into the wall with his, forcing her to feel every part of him.

It was all so new, Rey had no idea what to focus on. His breaths fanning over her face, the light groan he released onto her tongue, his hips driving into hers and awakening a beautiful friction. His fingers tightened around her wrists when he groaned once more.

Stars, what the kriff was happening?

And why wasn’t she stopping it?

She moved her lips with his, because truly, she had no idea what was going on, and despite the fact that she loathed every last part of the man currently overwhelming every good sense she’s ever had, she didn’t entirely loathe the feeling of his fingers releasing her wrists and sliding down her arms.

And down.

Until they cupped her ass and kriffing lifted her.

Her legs had nowhere to go but around his hips. He gave her two seconds to adjust, to come up for air and puzzle out exactly what was happening, before he crushed his lips against hers once more.

His hips were moving again, and now, hers were too. It was an easy rhythm, one that was perfectly chasing the growing feeling in her stomach that was half uncomfortable, half dizzying. It grew more and more pleasurable the longer, and rougher, they moved.

Until something hard drove into the spot between her legs, both making her explode with excitement and drown in instant terror.

The terror won.

“Wait—“ she had to fight through the assault of his lips. “Wait, wait, wait, just—“ he pushed away from her as if it was the last thing he wanted to do.  He dropped her to the ground, allowing her to settle on her feet,

“Just…stop, I don’t…” Rey was breathing heavily. He was, too. “Just stop.”

Kylo gazed down at her with a heated pain in his eyes. “I knew it.” 

And finally, it clicked. The confused, almost panicked pace of his mannerisms. His trailed off sentence. 

Was any of it real?

“That’s why you kissed me, just to escape to see your precious Resistance friends,” Kylo whispered. Not in anger, but with an achingly calm dejection. “You used me.”

Rey fought to keep her breathing even, to keep her emotions from spiraling. Instead, she maintained the proximity he refused to break, letting her gaze trace the jagged contours of his scar with her nose just inches from his. 

“Everything’s a transaction,” she whispered. “You use people, and they use you.” His stare jumped up to meet hers, the recognition of his own words flashing in his eyes. “You taught me that.”

A muscle in Kylo’s jaw ticked. “I told you not to use my teachings against me.”

Rey swallowed. Hard.

Kylo bent down. For a brief moment, he was kneeling before her. Too soon, he rose, and gently placed the long discarded dress, dropped into the dirt in the fit of their desperate kisses, into her hands.

“I have my answer then,” he managed to say. Kylo spared her one last look before turning around and giving her his back.

Rey stripped off her armor and slipped on the dress.

Chapter Text

They walked in an awkward silence.

Kylo led her through the winding cobblestone streets. Occasionally, Rey would feel his eyes on her—burning the back of her neck like the heat of the suns that hovered in the crowded sky above. She waited four paces, bit her cheek, and glanced at Kylo—only to discover that he had looked away.

It was odd. Rey had never felt…awkward before.

The fabric of her dress flowed haphazardly around her ankles, getting all tangled up in the space between her boots. Rey kicked it out and murmured a string of swears.

How was she supposed to fight anyone in this?

“Warriors have fought in dress-like uniforms for centuries.”

Rey kicked a loose cobblestone so it pattered along in front of them. “Good for them,” she muttered to Kylo. 

He opened his mouth to speak, closed it, then seemed to contemplate a moment. She felt a soft nudge against her mind; politely, yet wholly unwelcome.

“You fear appearing feminine because you believe it makes you look weak.” Kylo frowned, as if he were reading pages from a book and not her literal thoughts. “It’s a very small minded perspective.”

“Do not call me small minded just because I’ve had different experiences than you, Kylo,” Rey shot back. A few onlookers eyed them oddly. It made her lower her voice, but only a bit. “You were born with every privilege of power one can imagine. To me, I find your perspective small minded.”

For a moment, the two silently pushed their way through the growing crowds of the market. It wasn’t until they cleared the busiest main street and retreated to a side alley that Kylo finally replied.

“I have immense power because I took it.”

“You were given it.” Rey scoffed. “Look at you, with your Skywalker blood, and your body the size of a Star Destroyer. I wouldn’t be surprised if half of your opponents ran away just at the sight of you. You never had to grapple in the dirt for your next meal. And you’ve never had someone presume their power over you because of how you look.”

She huffed furiously, expecting his immediate rebuttal. Something about the woes of growing up in the shadow of greatness; of being raised against unattainable expectations. 

Instead, Kylo was silent again. Rey attempted to probe his mind, but was met with a solid wall of…nothingness.

“Regardless,” Kylo finally ventured—and Rey knew it was the only acknowledgment she’d get that she had proven him wrong, or at least, unable to rebuttal, “you should never fear what you are. There is power in beauty.” He glanced at her. He was clearly still angry with her; every last one of his words were laced with poison. “Power that you have, and I do not.”

Rey must have been knocked out and slipped briefly into the Netherworld. Either that, or Kylo Ren just called her beautiful.

And in the same breath, called himself…not.

She had never looked at Kylo Ren with the intention to gauge his beauty before. In fact, Rey rarely did that at all. A scavenger's mind solely scanned for useful parts. For threats. She noticed his height, but only to measure it against her much smaller frame. She noticed his strength with the intention to counteract it in any way she possibly could. 

For example, she did notice how he had long legs and a steady stride, yet his balance was always a bit…off. (She assumed his adolescent lankiness had something to do with it—almost as if he had hit a growth spurt in his final years of puberty without ever having the chance to properly grow into it.) She noted that as a weakness she could use against him in combat. She was quick. He was, too, but much less balanced.

Either way, she was looking at Kylo Ren with the intention to gauge his handsomeness now. And Rey quickly realized that perhaps it wasn’t the wisest thing to do.

Because yes, his nose was too long and his jaw was too harsh and his hair was as messy as a sarlacc pit. But he had that roguish charm running through his blood, and Rey saw it in the brief flashes of Kylo Ren's smile.

His annoyingly endearing smile.

Rey’s face grew hot. 

Anyway, she projected in her mind, stop listening to my thoughts.

If Kylo knew what she had been thinking about mere moments ago, he didn’t show it. “Then build a vault.”

Rey looked at him. 

“In your mind. Construct it from the strongest materials you can imagine,” Kylo said. Then he added, with a solemn smirk, “you’re a scavenger, so you should enjoy this part.”

When Rey was a child, she met a traveler. A man she innocently thought was made entirely out of metal. It wasn’t until he caught her trying to scavenge his leg in the outpost that he told her it was actually a suit of armor, made of the strongest metal in the galaxy.

Beskar.

“That’s good,” Kylo said. “Use it.”

In her mind, she tore the metal from the man’s body, molded it to her liking. The edges were sealed with the hottest lava of Mustafar, and the hinges were forged in durasteel.

She had expected Kylo to critique her vault, to find some error in it worth ridiculing her over. Instead, he was silent.

“Now what?” 

“Now, you put everything precious in your vault and lock it away. Hide it. From Ushar. From Snoke,” he said. “From me.”

Rey frowned at him. “How do I do that?”

They approached a grove of desert willow trees on the outskirts of town. 

“With practice,” he replied. 

Ushar, Cardo, and Kuruk were awaiting them when Kylo parted the branches and pushed her through.

“Great.” Ushar threw down the pit of a fruit he was eating so it bounced across her boots. “You found her.”

Kylo approached from behind her. “Something to say, Ushar?”

The man, who was lounging against the trunk of a tree, flicked his eyes up and down Rey’s body. Beside him, Cardo shot him a warning look.

“Not at all, Master,” Ushar finally said.

“Good.” Kylo scanned his Knights. “Then arm up. Let’s get this over with.”

The Knights sprung into movement, clipping various weapons to places Rey had never imagined before. Cardo slid a blaster into a holster that ran diagonally along his back. Ushar flipped a dagger into a sheath on the bottom of his boot. Kuruk wound a leather whip up his arm and covered it with his sleeve.

“Lift up your skirt.”

Rey whirled to face Kylo. “You’re joking.”

Something dangled from Kylo’s hand—something that looked like a leather strap with a metal sheath. A sheath with a weapon in it.

He all but rolled his eyes. “Suit yourself.”

He lunged forward before she could even blink, grabbing her shoulders and pushing her up against the tree at her back. One of his hands slid from her shoulder to her thigh, holding her leg in place. With the other hand, he gathered the bottom of her skirt and pushed it up above her thigh. 

Kylo took a brief moment to stare at her bare skin; eyes heating up with an emotion she couldn’t quite place. It was gone within seconds, replaced by his calloused hands wrapping the leather strap of the holster around her thigh and securing the belt through a golden latch. 

Rey was too stunned to do anything but watch. When he adjusted the length accordingly, he stopped, met her eye, and pulled on the leather strap. She sucked in a breath at the subtle pain of it. It was tight. 

He finished securing it in place before he finally let her go. Kylo’s fingers lingered on the fabric around her thigh and slowly slid off as he backed away. 

For a few breathless moments, they simply stared at each other. Rey clung to the bark of the tree at her back, her chest pulsing with her heightened heartbeat. Kylo did the same, eyeing her carefully, waiting for her to do, or say, something. Anything. 

When her nerves calmed, her fingers snuck down to the holster, wrapped around the hilt of the weapon, and slipped it free.

It wasn’t until the steady weight of it was in her hand that she realized what it was. Her heart began to pound.

She ignited the lightsaber.

Rey had never held a lightsaber to someone’s neck before. She had seen other men hold swords to people’s necks, so she knew what it was supposed to look like. When she fisted the fabric of Kylo’s shirt in one hand and hovered the lightsaber above the crux of his neck with the other, she had a feeling she had done a rather good job. 

Kylo’s eyes bugged in a way that was almost comical. He was so much taller than her that he was hunched over by the force of her grip on him. 

Cardo, Ushar, and Kuruk all unsheathed their weapons and pointed them at her. Kylo’s hand quickly came up to stop them.

His eyes traced her furious features. “Well, Scavenger?”

Rey glared up at him. She should kill him. She should want to kill him. He took everything from her. Everything.

Her fingers twitched, aching to swing straight through his neck. Aching to flip off the activator switch and throw it into the nearest bush.

Why couldn’t she do it?

The memory of his lips flashed through her mind. The way he touched her—held her. Like nobody ever had. 

And so, she asked.

Why can’t I kill you?

The cold fear she’d known all her life replied; the lingering loneliness she’d rather die than feel again. As much as she hated to admit it, Kylo Ren was the only person in the entire galaxy who had ever made that fear go away.

It made her feel physically ill.

“I’ll give you one shot, Scavenger.” Kylo ducked to meet her eyes. Fractured blue light danced across his features. “One chance. You better hope you kill me.”

The breath was sucked from her lungs. “And if I don’t?”

He leaned down, lips to her ear, and whispered. “I’ll show you just how monstrous I can be.” She felt him smile against her skin. “You’ll wish the dark consumed you when it had the chance.”

Shivers raced down her spine.

“It’s quite stupid to threaten your enemy when she's got a lightsaber to your neck,” she hissed back, hoping he didn’t notice her tone wavering.

“Not when that enemy is you.”

Rey looked up at him.

“You’re smart enough to know you can't best me yet,” he said. “I know you, Rey. You’re impulsive, yes, but you’re calculated. You won’t go for the kill until it’s guaranteed.”

“You’re wrong,” Rey said. “I don’t kill. Ever.”

He did nothing but raise an amused brow at that and gesture to the lightsaber still crackling merely inches from his skin.

Rey’s shoulders sagged. She took a single step back and removed the lightsaber from his neck.

The Knights lowered their weapons. All but Ushar.

“Well, boys.” Cardo clapped his hands together. “Nothing like a good adrenaline rush before a fight.”

No one bothered to reply. Kuruk returned to rifling through his bag. Cardo collected the food rations and stuffed them in his pockets.

Ushar stared at her along the blade of his knife with a sick smile on his face. And Kylo was standing very still. Looking at her.

Rey cleared her throat, and finally took notice of the lightsaber still alive and crackling in her hand.

The blue lightsaber.

She’d never seen its hilt before. It was clearly worn, yet well taken care of. There was no rust along the metal divots, no dirt crumbling in the cracks between the durasteel panels.

Rey looked up at Kylo.

“Is this—“

“It's old,” he said. “And slightly unstable. But it’ll do the trick.”

Rey listened to its hum. “It’s blue.”

Kylo nodded. He looked away, clipping his own lightsaber to his belt.

“This was yours,” she said, not bothering to ask as she already knew the answer. She felt it. Somehow. “When you were a padawan—”

“Which means it’s very old, and built by a thirteen year old, so,” Kylo reached down, his skin brushing against hers as he flicked the activator switch off, “don't be surprised if it suddenly combusts on you.”

“Why do you still have it?”

“It’s a weapon. Figured it’d come in handy someday.”

She heard the hesitation in his tone. Unlike him, she had the decency not to pry.

Rey examined the saber—imagined a thirteen year old Ben struggling to construct it. He wasn’t quick to mechanics like her—it was a labor for him, an irritation that caused more sleepless nights than the boy would ever admit. 

How she knew all of this, Rey did not know. Regardless, it made her smile.

“Why do I need a lightsaber?” She asked, slipping it back into the holster.

Cardo and Kuruk glanced at Kylo. Wondering if it was finally time, mere minutes before the mission, to tell her what the kriff was about to happen.

“The leader of Central Ispoter, and therefore the man who controls both Christophsis and Leesis, is a man named Bartaugh Thane,” Kylo began to explain. “He’s been a thorn in the First Order’s side for far too long. Sheltering the Resistance was a nail in his already descending coffin.

“His right hand man, however, has our ear. You will kill Bartaugh, so his second in command, a man named Mio Gessup, can take his place and secure First Order control over both Leesis and Christophsis.”

Rey gaped at him. “That’s my mission? To kill some mob boss that you’re moderately annoyed with?”

“Leesis is a powder keg brewing with First Order agitators and potential Resistance recruits,” Kylo said. “Not to mention the vast population of Christophsis that is equally as vulnerable to propaganda. The faster we get their pseudo governments under control, the easier any revolution will be to squash.”

The Knights all gathered their gear and began to make their way out of the desert willow grove and back onto the cobblestone streets.

“You’re forgetting one important thing,” Rey said. “I won’t be your assassin.”

Above them, one sharp mountain jutted up against the horizon. A handful of glimmering structures littered its face. It was the only thing of note in the distance, meaning Rey was relatively certain it was their destination.

“Your mission will be twofold,” Kylo said. “The first objective is to kill him.”

Rey narrowed her eyes. “And the second?”

“To escape.”

A pit opened up inside her stomach. “Escape what?”

At his silence, Cardo chimed in. “What I said before, about the Central Isopter having…radical beliefs—”

“They deal in the illegal buying and selling of Force users.” Ushar interrupted from up ahead. “Specifically females. They collect them, traffic them, use them for…things.”

Now, her heart was truly racing. “ Things ?”

“In the original days of the cult, they were treasured as the vessels for sustaining the Force. Now it's more of an antiquated fetish, I think.” Kuruk, ever the analyst, helpfully supplied. “The syndicates capture and sell the women to buyers. Their buyers, well…I’ll just let you imagine the rest.”

Rey had to keep from physically shuttering in disgust. “That’s vile.”

“It's a black market trade, scavenger.” Kylo glanced at her. “I'm sure you of all people can understand why a powerful man would enjoy the idea of having a Force sensitive under their control.”

“Force sensitives, and more specifically, Force sensitive women, are very rare. They’re a…high value product,” Cardo said. “They probably stumble upon one every few years, and when they do, crime syndicates from across the galaxy get involved.”

The city center was far behind them now. The sprawling, flat rocky landscape was all that surrounded them. Occasionally patches of green and orange flowers poked out from the fissured surface. A critter or two would dart across her view and quickly retreat into a burrow. 

 As the five of them journeyed on the barely tread gravel path, she felt terribly exposed.

Rey struggled to absorb all of the information with the panic steadily swirling inside. The mounting dread. And so, already knowing what the reply would be, Rey asked.

“What does this have to do with the Resistance?”

It was clear Kylo could sense the growing anxiety in her mind. “The Resistance paid Bartaugh ten thousand credits to shelter them. There’s only one thing that Central Isopter would value far more than any exchange of credits,” he said. “Something valuable enough to let their guard down.”

“And luckily,” Ushar grinned at her, “we’ve got it.”

Rey stopped. Kylo was obviously expecting this, as he quickly did, too.

“No—“

“Cardo.” Kylo gestured with an inconvenienced sigh. Her arms were seized. Her Force abilities instantly smothered.

“You’re going to sell me to that psychopath?”

“You’ll kill him before he has the chance to do any harm.” Ushar crossed his arms with a disappointed sigh. “Unfortunately.”

Cardo’s voice sounded sympathetic. “We need Bartaugh, and the Resistance, out of the picture.”

“Then invade them or something.” She pulled furiously at Cardo’s hold on her. “You have an army, use it. ”

“It’s called diplomacy, scavenger.”

“Human trafficking and assassination is not diplomatic. ”

Kylo fished something out of his pocket—a black strip of silk-like cloth. “You still have much to learn about how the galaxy works.”

“Don’t belittle me,” she spat at him. “My morality is not ignorance.”

“No,” Ushar said. “But it’s annoying.”

Cardo slackened his hold on her, but only a bit. “The Central Isopter have made themselves annoyingly relevant, with control of at least one planet in every system—which makes them a very useful ally.”

“If a Knight of Ren murders the head of Central Isopter, we lose any potential loyalty we could earn from them in the future,” Kylo explained with a cold dismissiveness. “But if it happened to be some random girl he purchased, no one would bat an eye.” 

“Bartaugh dies, our man takes the helm, and he officially aligns one of the most powerful crime syndicates in the galaxy under the First Order.”

Rey shook her head. The glimmering mountain was closer now, to the point where Rey could finally notice that it was more of a hill than anything. A hill with a half a dozen golden structures winding up the path, with a large, ornate castle-like building at the very top.

“You weave your loyalties with lies and murder,” Rey spat. “They’ll never last.”

“That’s the rebel in you speaking.” Kylo had a detectable amount of distaste in his tone. He stepped forward and held out the strip of black silk. He reached toward her face.

Rey recoiled as much as she could in Cardo’s arms. “What are you doing?”

“Your next lesson,” Kylo said. He explained no further. “Hold still.”

She supposed she had no other choice, and stood furiously still as Kylo brought the cloth to her eyes and tied it tightly around her head. He pulled the knot far rougher than necessary—Rey hissed at the tug in her hair.

She was completely blinded. Not even a sliver of the planet’s light shone through.

“Kuruk, Ushar, carry on. We’ll catch up.” Then he added, after the two heavy sets of footsteps already set off, “don’t make it too easy for her.”

All Rey heard were the heavy boots continuing down the path, crunching the gravel with every step.

A minute passed. Then another. Kylo didn’t speak until the sound of their footsteps was out of earshot. 

“Follow them.”

Cardo released her.

Rey scoffed. “How—“

“How do you think?” She heard Kylo back away. “Use the Force. Follow them.”

And if that wasn’t the most unhelpful advice she’d ever received. She rolled her eyes, annoyed that Kylo couldn’t see it.

“You know the Force. You know what it feels like. Like you did back on the Supremacy— feel it. Control it. Tell it what you want.”

Rey found herself adjusting her head, as if pointing her ears in a particular direction would make the sound of their footsteps reappear.

“Don’t listen, Scavenger. Make the Force tell you what your surroundings are. Make it show you the way.”

Rey remembered what Kylo told her about using the light versus the dark. How the light patiently waits for the Force to give. 

How the dark does not wait, it takes.

She tried. She truly did. But no matter how open she made herself to the Force, there was nothing awaiting her. Nothing at all.

So, carefully, she grabbed a hold of the Force she felt around her, and started to take.

And oh, how it became so clear, Rey could never understand. Pawing helplessly at an empty wasteland suddenly became as easy as disassembling a decommissioned Lambda class shuttle. 

It wasn’t seamless. It was all blurry at first, as if the Force was unsure of what she was asking. She found it quite similar to an interrogation; she asked politely, and the Force would refuse. She’d ask again, and face even more resistance.

Then she’d sink her teeth into that petulant reply, and the Force would flood her with answers with the desperation of a dying man.

With one single step forward, Rey felt the miles laid bare before her. The landscape took shape in a series of shadows splayed out in her mind. And so, Rey stepped forward.

She didn’t know exactly where Ushar and Kuruk steppped, but she could guess closely enough. She heard Kylo and Cardo following behind her, humming impressed sounds whenever she stepped over a fissure in the surface, or navigated around a dying desert oak tree.

Rey was stupidly proud of herself before Kylo’s voice turned her soaring heart into a plummet.

“You’re not following them.”

She stopped. Toed her boot through the thin layer of sand. “I can sense the landscape, not them.”

“It’s easy to convene with a planet. Most celestial objects have at least a moderate connection to the Force.” Kylo came up closely behind her. “People, however, are far more difficult to pin down.”

Rey closed her eyes, feeling ridiculous for doing it while blindfolded, and searched for Ushar. A man as hulking and enraging as him must leave a strong signature in the Force.

Kylo let out a soft scoff. “He’s hiding from you.”

Rey searched once more. She felt Cardo—he was like a ball of light just behind her, to the left. She assumed that meant Kylo was to her right, but she sensed…nothing.

“So are you.”

A long beat.

“That’s for your benefit.”

Her confusion at his vague answer was overshadowed by an idea that suddenly flooded her mind.

Yes, she could stumble over her rudimentary grasp of the force only for Kylo Ren to taunt and tease her. 

Or.,.

She could use his.

Like most of her abilities, it was entirely unknown to her whether or not she could enter Kylo’s mind, to see through it using the Force.

But for some reason, it felt possible. More possible than tracking Ushar, at least. She felt it in the livewire she always sensed between them. At first, she’d mistaken it for some odd, kriffed up attraction she thought she felt for him. Every time he so much as looked at her it felt like a lightning bolt straight to her chest. 

But maybe it wasn’t attraction or intimidation or fear. 

Maybe it was the Force.

Though he was closed off from her, that wire connecting them wasn’t. Rey entered her landscape. It didn’t take much to locate Kylo–in his effort to hide from her, he effectively  became the only part of her surroundings that was a complete void. Not soil or air or life, just…nothingness. And a dying, sparking wire that led directly from her to him.

Just like he taught her, Rey grabbed hold of that void of nothingness, and burrowed her presence inside. 

It was instantaneous. 

She felt a cacophony of emotions erupt inside her. A blinding joy, smothered by jealous rage and a conflicted betrayal. A flickering ember of hope. Rey saw Kylo–but a version of himself that was smaller and disfigured. His nose was far larger, his ears long and wide, his eyes deep wells of pitch black. Where Rey found his large features endearing and, dare she say, attractive, they were exaggerated to a point of near comedy in this image. Like a sad caricature of the man he truly was.

Rey blinked and suddenly saw herself.

Like Kylo, she looked different–her freckles were more pronounced, her hair was smooth and silky rather than its usual knotted and unkempt state. Her lips weren’t cracked and dry, but lush and pink. Her cheeks weren’t sunken and bruised, but rosy and full. 

She looked…beautiful.

OUT.

The command roared through her. Rey probably flinched, but she wasn’t done yet.

Rey let instinct guide her. She tore apart his mind, not out of ruthlessness or greed, but out of curiosity. If she could use his mind to see, if she could use his Force, she had to know. Less out of a need to complete this pointless task of navigating the desert, but for the want to prove herself. Her power.

And for the briefest, most triumphant of moments, she saw her own blindfolded face in his eyes.

Hands seized her shoulder. “I said out!”

Rey’s presence retreated. 

Furious breaths fanned over her face. She waited patiently—blind to his rage, yet feeling the anger course through his veins as if it were her own. The biting grip of his fingertips, still digging into the skin of her shoulder.

“ Never do that again,” he seethed, tightening his grip to the point of pain. “ Never.” 

Kylo shoved her away.

 Rey breathed heavily—but she’d done it. For the briefest of moments, she had seen through Kylo Ren’s eyes. 

Rough breaths mingled with the roaring wind. She felt Kylo’s gaze on her.

 The anger radiating off of him was so strong, she nearly didn’t notice an odd rumble in her landscape.

“…what is—“

Her head snapped to the side with the pain of a strong, merciless punch. It was enough to send Rey stumbling back.

She cupped her jaw, and opened her mouth to speak before another punch sent her crumpling to the ground.

“Time to put on your big girl shoes, Scavenger,” Ushar huffed from above her. Rey couldn’t know for sure, but judging by the wet string of mucus-like liquid dripping from her face, she was quite certain her nose was bleeding.

Rey reached up to untie her blindfold.

“Stop.”

Kylo’s order made her hands freeze, hovering just above the tie.

There was a long, tense silence. Rey felt the rocky sand digging into the bare skin of her leg. Her cheek throbbed. The blood from her nose pooled at her chin.

All the while, she felt the four Knights of Ren’s gazes burn into her skin.

“We need her in fighting shape,” Kylo finally said. “Don’t compromise the mission.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Ushar replied. 

Rey’s heartbeat picked up. Drumming in her ears.

Kylo’s footsteps approached her. She knew it was him by the heavy presence she felt as he grew nearer. “Get up.”

Rey looked up at where she assumed he stood and, for the first time, projected a thought in her mind solely for him to hear.

You aren’t seriously letting him do this?

A hard grip found her arm and pulled her up.

You have to learn somehow.

Rey swayed with the rapid ascent and ringing in her ears. After a few moments of stumbling, she found her senses, used her anger to pinpoint exactly where Kylo stood, and roughly shoved him away.

He’s doing this for revenge.

Then he won’t make this easy for you, Kylo’s low voice hummed in her mind. Show him no mercy, Scavenger.

Then, his presence was gone.

“Go.”

It was even worse than Rey could have imagined. She was vulnerable everywhere, and had no idea whether to block, duck, jump, or run. It made her tumble into a terrifying frozen panic, in which she focused so hard on finding his kriffing Force signature, that she missed the sound of his kick gearing up to slam into her gut.

She coughed and spun away, inhaling the breath that had been sucked from her lungs.

Find him, Scavenger.

His boot hooked her ankle and sent her ass straight to the dirt.

I’m trying!

She scrambled up. Turned her head left, then right, then helplessly held her fists up to block. Rey felt Kylo sigh and roll his eyes.

Duck.

She ducked, listening to the whoosh of his swing sail above her.

Roll right.

Ushar’s boot crushed the gravel she just barely rolled away from.

Her momentary relief was interrupted by two hands grabbing her shoulders and pushing her front to the ground. 

She felt an odd satisfaction course through her mind at the sight of her bloody and beaten into the ground. Rey knew well enough that it wasn’t her satisfaction. Which meant it was Kylo’s.

Rey’s heart twisted with anger.

“Well, Scavenger.” Ushar kicked her side. “This is just pathetic.”

“Ushar…” Cardo warned.

A second kick made her ribs explode with pain. Rey coughed into the gravel.

“I knew it,” Ushar said. “Beneath it all, you’re just a weak, desert whore.”

He made a choked, gargled noise before a glob of wet landed on her cheek. Rey’s heart stuttered to a stop.

He had spit on her.

Truly, Rey was shocked at how fast it happened; how fast Rey felt the rage flow into her bloodstream, igniting the Force that shot straight to her clenched fists.

Her ears began to ring. She inhaled a sharp breath, taking flakes of sand and dust in with it. 

She didn’t mind it. It burned her nose. Her mouth. But it didn’t matter.

Because she was already on fire.

Gone was the light of the Resistance.

Gone was the girl who bartered for scrap.

Gone was the hope that held her together for the last three weeks, whispering in her ear that she could be something good—something more than what her wasted childhood chewed her up and spit her out as.

The ringing in her ears was insanity inducing, and it wouldn’t. Kriffing. Stop.

Until suddenly, it did.

Silence blanketed her senses. The tundra became her everything. Stale wind. A clear, vulnerable emptiness.

A rumble shook the ground beneath her landscape. A growing, thunderous presence that rolled closer, closer, louder, louder, until it crashed into her like a sandstorm.

The darkness.

It greeted her with a painful sting before crawling up her arms. It tingled the sunkissed hair where her goose flesh bloomed. She felt it’s icy, welcome presence settle around her shoulders and whisper in her ear.

You are not weak.

The voice of the dark side was familiar. Unsettling. It wasn’t a single voice, rather a blend—

Another punch. Rey spit a clump of blood into the dirt.

Show him—

A blend that was mostly Snoke, but she heard the shocking lilt of Luke Skywalker—

Rey began to stand, but a kick sent her to the ground.

Kill him.

Of Unkar Plutt. And—oddly—

Rey’s head snapped to the side. Another punch.

Show him no mercy.

— Kylo Ren.

Suddenly, as if her blindfold was ripped off, she saw Ushar’s fist hurtling toward her face. 

Rey rose to her feet, spun under his fist, and slammed her body into his. They tumbled to the ground in a tangle of limbs. A tangle she saw every inch of—every contour of muscle, every vulnerable piece of flesh. Her nails raked down Ushar’s cheek, taking scraps of skin with them. He screamed.

And Rey smiled. He lifted her up and threw her to the ground, but upon impact she felt no pain and bounced right back up. An adrenaline laced anger drove her fist into his gut. Then his neck. Then guided her knee into Ushar’s groin.

He fought back. Valiantly so. Ushar punched. Rey dodged. Hands grabbed her neck and squeezed. She hooked her arm across his wrists, buckling them and sending his face straight into her elbow.

His nose cracked. 

Her jaw throbbed, her shoulder screamed, and her mouth pooled with irony mucus. 

Still, she fought. Ushar swung, and Rey suffered the blow in order to wrap her arm around his upper arm and flip him to the ground. He recovered faster than anticipated, and before she knew what was happening, Rey was on her knees.

“Ushar—“

An instinct rushed over her. Something so clear, it formed as a coherent thought in her head. A single word.

Lightsaber.

“—Rey!”

She didn’t hesitate. Her bloody fingers scooped the metal hilt from under her skirt, ignited the blade, and lifted it above her head.

Barely a half second later, the hot, crushing blow of two lightsaber blades colliding overhead made her arms ache. Scream. 

Rey breathed heavily. Lightsaber ignited, crossed with Ushar’s. Too terrified to move. She waited for Ushar to retreat, for Kylo to give him the final order of execution. Anything really. 

Finally, his lightsaber deactivated. 

Rey lowered her own, clicked it off, and tore her blindfold from her face. She was halfway to unleashing every insult in her Basic vocabulary, and a couple in her more obscure trader languages, but someone had apparently beaten her to it.

Because before her, currently clawing at his bare neck like a desperate madman, was Ushar himself.

“I warned you not to take it too far.”

Rey whirled to see Kylo Ren’s outstretched hand slowly curling into a fist. Rage twisted his features. 

Ushar gagged. Sputtered. A satisfying fear flashed in his eyes. 

“I—d—didn’t—”

“You could have killed her,” Kylo said, with a cool, terrifyingly calm tone.

Ushar’s panic-laced eyes jumped to her.

Rey understood it now—how the feeling of someone pleading for their life can make a man feel drunk on power. A euphoric warmth rushed through her—dulling the pain completely.

She rose, wiping the blood from her nose. “You gonna beg me for your life?” 

Ushar coughed out a choke. Rey smiled. Men like Ushar had tormented Rey her entire life. Talked down to her. Beat her. Spit on her. Just because the galaxy told them they could. 

Rey decided, right then and there, that she would never, ever, put up with it again. That this power she was growing into, this power that was greater than anything else, was a means of justice. Of righteousness. 

“What do you want me to do?”

 Rey looked at Kylo. “What?”

“To him,” he clarified, as if that was the point of Rey’s confusion. “Tell me and I’ll do it.”

She looked at Kylo. A picture of rage and calm. Of devotion and pride. If she could have his loyalty she’d take it without question, and Rey was just beginning to realize that it had always been there.

So this was Rey, taking what she wanted.

Yes , the darkness hissed.

She approached Ushar until she was only a pace away from where he hovered, tips of his toes brushing over the rocky ground. Blood crusted knuckles cracked as she hiked up her skirt, slipped her weapon from it’s sheath, and ignited her lightsaber.

Kill him.

Cardo stepped forward. “Rey—”

“Release him.”

A hesitation. She looked at Kylo, who frowned in confusion. So she repeated, “I want you to release him, Kylo.”

Ushar instantly dropped to the ground in a coughing, sputtering heap.

See the life drain from his eyes, Snoke’s ugly voice continued, burrowing into her mind like an unwanted pest. Feel the power. The strength of the Darkness.

Rey looked down at Ushar. Laying on his back. Too terrified to move.

And she spat on his face.

Ushar’s expression went from terrified to furious. He gathered his hands beneath him, about to rise to his feet.

But Rey placed her boot on his chest and shoved him back into the dirt, placing the tip of her lightsaber at his neck.

KILL HIM, Snoke roared—

“No.” 

Ushar froze. The other Knights around her were confused, yet silent. 

“I won’t kill him,” she told Snoke. He could hear her. She knew that. “If you want to tempt me, you’re going to have to try a lot harder than that.”

Silence replied. An angry, robust silence. It satisfied Rey enough to look back down at Ushar.

“Don’t you ever,” she hissed, “call me a whore again.”

Ushar glared. “You should kill me.”

“Yeah.” She deactivated her lightsaber. “I probably should.”

Rey made sure to kick sand into his face as she turned around, spit an unhealthy amount of blood onto the ground, and marched toward the hill. 

Chapter Text

The Knights of Ren gaped at Rey as she stormed off.

Her conviction was stronger than Kylo realized. Though he had been merely a child when Snoke began to tempt his mind, he never remembered fighting so hard. He’d had nothing to fight for, after all.

Although, neither did Rey.

Yet she fought. Fought Snoke, fought Ushar. Fought him. It angered him almost as much as it impressed him. 

Of course she is stronger than you, Snoke slithered into his mind. Kylo winced. I’ve sensed her stubbornness from the start. It seems she needs more convincing, wouldn’t you agree?

Kylo tightened his hands into fists.

Yes, Master.

A long beat. 

Bring her to me after the mission.

Kylo did not reply.

A silence lingered in the air. Cardo was the first one to break it by huffing out an admired laugh and glancing back at Kylo. With a shrug, the Knight took off after Rey. 

“Master, I–”

“Kuruk, go back to the ship and pilot it to Bartaugh’s base,” Kylo interrupted whatever groveling Ushar was on the cusp of spewing. “In case we need a quick escape.”

“Yes, Master.”

Kylo turned to Ushar. “Get up.”

Cardo fell into an easy step beside Rey.

Something nudged her arm. She looked down, seeing the familiar bacta ointment pouch in Cardo’s hand. Rey took it and ripped the package open with her mouth.

“You okay?”

Rey sniffed and wiped the blood from her nose before rubbing the clear ointment into her wounds. “Never better.”

Like her, he stared straight ahead at the barren tundra. “Snoke was in your head?”

“Yes.”

“And he wanted you to kill Ushar?”

“He wants me to turn.” Rey crumpled up the now empty bacta packet and handed it back to Cardo. “And apparently, he thinks killing Ushar will accomplish that.”

“And you don’t?”

Rey sighed and turned around. Kylo was a bit further back, walking in step with Ushar. The latter trudged with his head tipped down to watch his feet tread along the cracks of the moon's surface. Kylo was saying something to him—something that made Ushar kick the ground, sending rocks in every direction.

“I’ve known men like him my whole life,” Rey said. “Most people who live on Jakku are stuck there, either by servitude or circumstance. Those who travel there likely had no other choice—just passing through for supplies or ran into a malfunction while traveling the outer rim. But there was another type of man who came through the outpost. My frien—this girl I knew, Tasha, her master was Durese. He’d call these men Tris Bechesmy.”

Cardo looked at her oddly. “What does it mean?”

“Roughly translated, it means a sad wanderer,” she said. “These men traveled to the outpost in search of spice, skin, pretty much any unholy thing you could think of. They came to Jakku by choice. They treated it like their playground—always amused by the impoverished people there, laughing and drunk off their asses. They’d take girls off the street and return them with bruises and burns. There was nothing good about them at all.”

Rey glared ahead. “Ushar is a Tris Bechesmy. No one would shed a tear if he died today. And I sure as hell won’t turn to the dark side over it.”

 “You’re not wrong,” Cardo said. 

Rey examined the man beside her for a few paces; his curly blonde locks, his bright, emerald eyes. She imagined what he was like as a young, hopeful padawan, too kind to realize the friend he’d chosen was going to one day lead him straight to darkness.

It didn’t suit him.

“You’re staring,” he playfully said.

“You were a padawan with B—Kylo,” she blurted. “Under Luke Skywalker.”

If Cardo was shocked by her knowledge of this, he didn’t show it. Instead, he smiled.

“So the old man’s back in the fight? I will say, that is a shock. I thought I sensed something foul back on Leesis.”

“You never killed anyone to become a Knight of Ren. Kylo made you one.”

Cardo shot her a warning look. “You’re too curious for your own good, Rey.”

“I had a feeling. You aren’t like the others—“

“I had a feeling, too.” Cardo’s whisper was sharp and tense. “Back in the town. I had the curious urge to go back to check on you and Kylo in the alley. Just to make sure everything was alright.”

Rey stopped walking. She looked into his eyes—his amused, accusing eyes. Rey paled.

He saw them. Her and Kylo.

Embarrassment rushed through her—turned her bruised cheeks bright red. “I…”

“I’ll keep your secret if you keep mine.”

Rey breathed out a sigh of relief. “Deal.”

It made Cardo laugh and continue on. Unable to find her own feet beneath her, Cardo urged her forward. “Sixteen years I've known that man, and I’ve never once seen him interested in a girl before.”

Rey fidgeted with a loose thread on her skirt. “He’s not interested in me.”

At this, Cardo outwardly scoffed. “Yes of course, my mistake. It must have slipped my mind that making out in a dark alleyway for five minutes is a platonic thing to do—“

“Shhhh,” she hissed. He laughed again, forcing Kylo’s attention to land on them. “Shut up!”

Kylo began to speed up, leveling a sharp, but not particularly cold, look between Rey and Cardo. Cardo’s laughing died off, and he cleared his throat.

“And you’re wrong, by the way,” he said. “I’m exactly like the others, Rey. I like you, so I’m kind to you. But I’m here for a reason. I follow Kylo Ren for a reason.”

Rey examined his face. “You have an odd way of showing it.”

Cardo’s eyes fell at the exact moment Kylo caught up to them.

Rey looked at Kylo, the blush of redness still high in her cheeks. For some reason, the fact that their kisses had been a secret just between the two of them made it all seem less real.

Now that Cardo knew, it was almost as if he’d spoken it into existence.

Kylo looked at her oddly. “What is it?”

“Nothing.” Rey coughed and ducked her head. 

Kylo frowned at her, then glanced at Cardo. What did he do?  

Rey squinted ahead, examining the stone paved path. The clutter of shacks that transformed into golden plated buildings.

Cardo saw us.

She forced every inch of suggestion into her words, so Kylo wouldn’t make her explain exactly what he saw them doing.

Kylo took a number of silent steps at her side.

He won’t say anything.

Rey grit her teeth and shot him a glare. You let Ushar beat me to punish me.

For a moment, there was no reply.

It was not to punish you.

I see your mind too, Kylo. Rey formed the thought with as much resentment as she could. Not as well as you see mine, but I felt it. You were pleased when Ushar beat me. You resent me for using you to escape. For looking into your mind.

His jaw worked back and forth.

There are consequences to your actions, scavenger. You met with the Resistance.

She whirled to face him. “No I didn’t—“

“ Do you honestly think it’s wise to lie to me? Again?” 

Rey bit her lip and stared straight ahead. She chose to ignore the jolt of fear his cold words sent down her spine. 

Ushar took it too far, Kylo said

Rey spat out a scoff. You’re sick.

You’re alive, aren’t you?

No thanks to you.

Never thank anyone for being alive, Rey, Kylo said, a touch more gently. You're alive because you’ve earned it.

His words made her glance at him. He did that sometimes–disguising a complement as a rebuttal in the heat of their tense exchanges. All it did was remind her why she sometimes looked at him with admiration. Why she liked to take his critiques and guidance. He was more knowledgeable than her, after all—no matter how much she hated to admit it.

He reminded her of Luke in that way; cold but gentle. Wise in a way that never performed, only surfacing when it truly mattered. 

Rey only realized she’d been staring when Kylo’s eyes seemed to soften. She quickly blinked her admiration away and transformed it into a glare.

“Never do that to me again,” she finally responded. “The next time you want to teach me a lesson, teach it to me yourself.”

Kylo swallowed and nodded. HIs eyes weren’t quite looking into hers. “Okay.” 

They arrived at the foot of large metal steps that climbed up to the gold plated palace. It was clear it had once housed royalty—whatever royalty this moon could ever claim. It had two spires that reached high into the sky, yet the body of the building was a rather short, unmighty thing.

Kylo’s voice sent shivers down her neck. “I’m going to need you to trust me now, Rey.”

“I don’t trust you.”

Kylo hummed with an amused half smile on his face. Without much warning at all, his hands grabbed hers and yanked them behind her back. He began to tie a coarse rope around her wrists.

“What are you—“

“From now on, you are a peasant we kidnapped from some irrelevant, backwater planet,” he said into her ear. “You are Force sensitive, but not violent. You are not a scavenger or a rebel, you are just a girl.”

The knot around her wrist pulled tight. Rey gave it a good tug, with the helpless hope that he had somehow forgotten how to properly tie it.

He had not.

“I find it amusing that you believe I’ll play along with this.”

“You once again seem to be forgetting the consequences if you don’t.”

Rey’s face fell.

“You will not fight.”

She raised a brow. “How am I supposed to kill—“

“You will not fight until you have found an opportunity to kill him. These men are savages, Rey. You’ll have one chance to kill him before they realize you’re more trouble than you’re worth. That is your mission.”

Kylo slipped on his mask and gave her a deep nod.

Rey hadn’t exactly figured out what her plan here was. She sure as hell wasn’t going to murder someone in cold blood—even though he didn’t sound like a man worth her mercy.

A hand between her shoulder blades urged her forward to ascend the marble stairs. It seemed like they had been climbing for ages before they finally seemed to reach the top.

More ornate marble greeted them, with white and cream colored bricks forming every wall, floor, and door in their vicinity. The brightness made her dizzy.

Before them, waiting at the top step, was a man—a soldier, if Rey had to guess based on the unease she felt radiating off of him.

Sense your surroundings just as you did when you couldn’t see. Kylo responded to her inner musings. Sense the soldiers unease, but pay attention to your environment as well. Where the life forces are.

Is that what you do?

Yes.

Rey reached out the tendrils of the Force, letting them graze the stone beneath her feet, weaving between the Knights.

Why? She asked.

It is in moments like these, when people think you’re not paying attention, where their minds slip.

She let her force wrap around Cardo, sensing the slight adrenaline radiating off of him. The anticipation for whatever they were about to walk into. Then, Rey let her force graze Ushar’s mind and breach it with the slightest, most tender prod.

He responded by flinging her against the nearest wall.

“Keep your toddler fumblings of the Force away from me, Scavenger.” Ushar released his hold, letting her slump against the stone. “Don’t go looking in places you’re not prepared to enter.”

With her hands bound, Rey found it rather useless to reply. Anything she said would likely rile him, and now, after what happened in their brawl, she couldn’t be certain Ushar wouldn’t kill her this time. She looked at Kylo and Cardo.

“He’s got a point,” the latter said. He grabbed her arm and guided her back to the path. Kylo flanked her other side. “I’d steer clear of him for now. He’s always been a bit of a temperamental Bantha.”

“The Bantha can hear you,” Ushar grumbled.

“The Bantha should mind his business.” Cardo gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. 

Rey set her sights back to the path and the soldier leading them. Throughout the journey, Rey continued to analyze the environment around her. The empty buildings, the untrodden road, they answered her calls. Rey found that the moon’s soil itself had the most to say. It spoke to her eagerly. Kindly.

Until it fell away.

Rey stumbled at the sudden loss—the connection abruptly interrupted. It was as if the soil beneath their feet had fallen away completely, replaced with something artificial. Something…

Oh.

She looked around, seeing nothing but polished stone roads and buildings on either side.

“We’re on a bridge.” 

Rey had no clue why she felt the need to share this discovery. Perhaps she was proud of it. Perhaps she just needed to hear that her grasp of the Force hadn’t just been rudely ripped away.

“Good.” Kylo’s voice was low, right by her ear. “What’s beneath it?”

Rey focused her interrogation, now knowing to expand her search to however high the bridge may be. It took her ten paces to both ask and receive her answer, which was presented to her as a hazy vision.

“It’s water but…but it’s red. It’s…” she’d seen this before in the old shipwrecks that wilted with time—the kind that leaked chemicals and rust into the soil and turned the water odd hues of red and orange. “It’s iron deposits from the cracks in the soil.”

A long beat. Six paces long. A firm hand briefly caressed the small of her back, guiding her through a slight turn that Rey was already aware they were taking, before it disappeared.

“Good. That’s good.”

Rey was ashamed at how proud she felt. The Knights shifted positions suddenly. Ushar and Cardo flanked behind Kylo on either side, who led the group into a large set of double doors. Once they entered a large reception hall, Kylo hung back, grabbing a hold of her arm.

“This is the part where you play your role,” he whispered in her ear. “Play it well. This is your first trial.”

“I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do,” she hissed back.

“You’re a Jedi, aren’t you?” He responded by tapping her leg. The one with a holstered lightsaber. “Do what you do best, and slice that bastard of a man in two.”

“I’m not a Jedi,” she whispered.

Kylo hummed. “There’s still time for you to remedy that.”

She turned to look at him, but Kylo had already released her to speak with the two guards posted at the large set of double doors.

“Are your men armed?” the shorter one asked.

“We honor our agreements,” Kylo responded to the guard with an annoyed huff. The guard seemed to ponder for a moment.

“Search them.”

Four other men emerged from nowhere to search the Knights. Rey kicked herself for not noticing them.

A tall, scaly guard approached her with an odd twinkle in his eye. “Who’s this?”

“A prisoner,” Ushar responded. Suddenly, he was next to her. “She’s unarmed. Believe me,” he pet her arm with a sick sneer on his face, “we’ve checked.”

Rey recoiled from his touch. An arm reached out to grab her and pull her into a muscled chest. She exhaled a relieved breath when she sensed it was Cardo.

The guard eyed her warily, but the exchange seemed to have distracted him enough. He turned away to nod at his superior.

The Knights led Rey into the opening of what could only be described as a lavish, under-decorated ballroom. The only ornaments, besides a comically large throne, were dozens of guards posted throughout the space. Guards, apparently.

They finally stopped walking at the far end of the ballroom—just in front of the cluster of men that lingered by the throne. Rey tried her best to examine it through the Force, but found the empty space was not very forthcoming. 

“You’re a real bastard, Kylo Ren.”

The voice came from behind them.

“You’re one to talk,” Kylo responded. A man approached them, flanked by a half dozen guards with an assortment of mismatched uniforms and weapons. As if they acquired each part of their wardrobes from different planets.

The man who spoke wasn’t what Rey expected. In her experience, smugglers were ugly, scarred, slimy men with a persistent sneer. This man, Bartaugh, she assumed, seemed almost…plain. Unlike his posse, he was dressed in a simple tunic and trousers. His hair and beard were peppered with gray but he looked otherwise strong. Healthy, for a man who seemed to be Luke’s age.

He climbed up the two steps of the dais to plop onto the throne. Only one of the men remained at his side on the dias, the man Rey instantly recognized as his second in command.

Kylo continued. “Heard you were dead. It’s a shame—I wasted my best wine in celebration.”

Bartaugh’s lips cracked into a smile and broke out into a loud guffaw.

“Your celebrations weren’t in vain. I was dead, I assure you.” Bartaugh winked at Kylo. “One day, Kylo Ren, I'll make you a believer.”

“It’s not my faith that’s lacking, Bartaugh.”

The man settled back into his throne. “And what exactly is your faith, Kylo Ren?”

The long silence drew nearly every eye in the room to Kylo Ren. His mask was on, and with every passing second Rey understood more and more why he preferred it that way. She could feel Kylo calculating his reply. It came unexpectedly, at a moment when Rey herself was staring at him.

“My faith is my power.”

Bartaugh’s eyes passed over Kylo’s Knights—stiffening at the show of loyalty. Bartaugh’s men outnumbered Kylo’s by nearly two dozen, yet even Rey could sense the fragility of his power over them. She could practically smell the mutiny brewing.

“You should not worship something you could so easily lose.”

“Easily?” Kylo tilted his mask. “Is there something you wish to say, Bartaugh? Doubts, perhaps, about my rule?”

“Of course not, sir.” Batraugh’s finger’s tightened over the arm of his throne, and upon closer inspection, Rey noticed the peeling paint by his fingernails where the man clearly picked up a nervous habit of fidgeting with the loose flakes. “Well, I’m sure you’re not here to exact revenge for wasting your best wine.”

Rey wasn’t sure how, but she felt every single man in the room begin to tense. Well, every single man but Kylo Ren.

“I don't fault you for sheltering the Resistance, Bartaugh.” Kylo’s voice was always commanding, but this sounded…different. More ruthless. It was a wise decision, foregoing asking the man to admit his treason and simply voicing it. “They made you an offer you couldn’t refuse.”

Bartaugh looked shocked enough to deny the accusation, but seemed to decide otherwise. His fingers began picking at the paint. “I’m a businessman. It’s nothing personal—“

“Which is why I come here not to harm you or your business. I’ve come to you with a trade.”

His fingers froze. “A trade?” 

“I respect your principles. Your loyalty is to whoever can offer you what you want most,” Kylo said. “The First Order can rely on someone like you to help us with…special situations like this.”

Bartaugh was smarter than he seemed, as Rey felt the wariness almost as clearly as she saw it in his eyes. “And what is it that you think I want most?”

“First, we establish terms.”

“You say you respect my principles, so you should know. My loyalty is always to the highest bidder. If what you’re offering me is more valuable than the Resistance’s payment, I will kill them personally. My men can raid their little tunnel dwelling by nightfall,” Bartaugh said with a dismissive wave. “They could use the exercise.”

“And I would ask, Bartaugh, as one man of honor to another,” Kylo said, “your assurances that this won’t ever happen in the future.”

“Like you said, I’m a businessman. If the Resistance comes back to me with an even more valuable offering, I can make no promises.”

She sensed a tight lipped smile beneath Kylo’s mask. This man had just dug his own grave. “Of course.”

Kylo motioned and Cardo dragged her forward. 

Bartaugh sat up, clearly intrigued and failing to hide it. “What’s this?”

“We found her on one of our missions,” Kylo explained. “She was about to be executed when I sensed something…intriguing.”

“Executed for what?”

“Have you known me to ever need a reason?”

Bartaugh smiled. “What did you sense?”

“I know the Central Isopter has changed over the centuries, but I heard a rumor that you are the champion of selling female force users on the black market—“

Bartaugh was on his feet before Kylo could complete his sentence. “Prove it.”

Rey glanced sidelong at Kylo. For his credit, Kylo managed not to sound too amused. Bartaugh had gone from calmly commanding the interaction to practically begging on his knees.

Before Rey had the opportunity to even question how this “proof” would materialize, a rough sack came down over her head.

She made a noise of protest.

Behave, Rey.

She rolled her eyes, annoyed that nobody could see. 

Almost immediately, the instincts inside of her jumped back to life. Darkness shifted into shadows, growing more solid by the second. After her third calming breath, she could nearly see the shape of each Knight of Ren surrounding her. Bartaugh’s throne took shape in all of its crumbling glory. His men, disinterest and all, formed clearly in her mind.

As much as she hated to admit it, the spar with Ushar had made this bit—seeing through the Force— far easier than before.

Not that it was easy, per se. 

Using the force to sense surroundings was like crawling up a sand dune—but she was used to that. Taking fistfuls of grains and pushing them to the side, only for thousands more to take its place. It was grueling, and fruitless to just ask the Force what lay ahead—it clearly didn’t care to answer

“Bring one of your men down here, Bartaugh.”

“Why one of mine?”

“So you can be assured that this was not rehearsed.”

Bartuagh motioned to his right hand man. “Mio.”

Mio Gessup, a skinny, tall, pale looking man approached her. Rey felt the anger rise. She would not let these men touch her.

Be patient, Kylo said.

I won’t sit here and be your obedient little bargaining chip.

“What now?” Bartaugh asked. His voice was muffled by the sack over her head.

Think about it, Rey. These are the men that want to sell you and all women like you into servitude.

Mio materialized in front of her. He was about as tall as Kylo but half as wide, with an old scar splitting his bottom lip almost cleanly in two. Rey’s clenched fists tightened at her sides. And?

And I’m serving him to you on a silver platter. 

Rey tilted her head, a silent invitation for Kylo to continue.

You’re about to be in the perfect position to end this sickening practice once and for all. Do you really want to throw that all away now?

He was right. Yes, killing him advanced the First Order’s agenda, but Bartaugh was a trafficker. A power hungry leader with no morals. Killing him could save countless people.

People like her.

Here’s your next lesson, Rey: Patience.

She swallowed. She hadn’t decided—she’d wait to do that later. But Rey resigned to not stabbing through the room with her lightsaber and making a quick escape.

Not yet, at least.

Kylo sensed her decision and finally spoke. “Do something to her. Anything.”

A knife slashed through her bindings and freed her hands. She shook them out at her sides. 

“Anything?” Mio asked.

“Well, for the sake of this transaction I’d ask you not to put a blaster through her eye,” Kylo said, managing to add levity to what was clearly a warning. “But yes. Anything.”

The man in front of her examined Rey like one would an incredibly lifelike statue. She watched his movements clearly, taking note of every twitch. Every projected intention.

Then his fist cocked back, so slow and exaggerated it was like the man wanted her to see it, and sailed at her for a swing. Rey blocked it with ease. She was prepared for his second punch as well, dodging it without even a single stumble.

Mio gawked at her. Rey simply sighed. 

Bartaugh laughed from the dais. “Astounding. Your price?”

“You run the Resistance from this star system by any means necessary,” Kylo said. “Make it clear that this planet is no longer a safe haven for any First Order dissenters.”

“Deal.” Bartaugh laughed once again. “Now, if that’ll be all…”

With a clap of his hands, four of Bartaugh’s men descended upon her. They grabbed each of her arms and flanked her front and back. Panic began to overwhelm her as they led her away. Away from the ballroom. From the Knights of Ren. 

From Kylo.

The connection between them strained tighter, tighter, and Rey nearly turned back and called out for him before her common sense shut her up. The hands on her tightened, overlapping minds, all strange and unfamiliar, tugged and pulled.

“Always a pleasure doing business with you, Kylo Ren.”

Kylo hesitated, watching Rey being shuffled away. He slowly turned his helm to face Bartaugh. “You as well, Bartaugh.”

It was the last thing she heard before her surroundings shrank from a domed ballroom to a cramped cave. Wet, carved rock surrounded her for the long journey down further into the bowels of the planet. For once, the Force replied to her calls. It guided her senses out to the sunlight dozens of meters above and the flows of the copper-stained river rushing both above and below the cave. 

She let the Force soothe her, feeding her with the reassurance that she was still strong. Rey nearly felt comforted before the Force abruptly disappeared.

She stumbled. “No…”

The men led her forward blindly. She tripped this time, falling face first into the guard in front of her.

“Where am I?”

This wasn’t possible. The force couldn’t just disappear.

Metal hinges creaked, groaned, and a firm hand pushed Rey and sent her falling forward.

She landed on her hands and knees. Rey heard a loud metallic slam behind her and quickly tore the hood from over her head.

Four menacing faces sneered at her from behind the metal bars. “Not so smug now, are we?”

Rey lunged at the bars.

To her credit, the men stumbled away.

“What is this?” she hissed. She pawed desperately at the Force, but there was nothing. Nothing at all.

A smothering emptiness.

The men didn’t linger long enough to answer. Moments later, they were gone.

She didn’t have the opportunity to agonize for long. From the time Bartaugh’s men left, Rey had only enough time to pace her small cell ten times and regret her life choices twice that many before a sound startled her.

“Your performance could’ve been more convincing.”

She yelped and spun around.

“We’ll work on that, though.” Kylo approached the bars of her quaint cell and examined them with a curious look on his face.

“Why didn’t I sense you coming?” Just asking him tugged at her panic. Her loss. “Why can’t I sense anything?”

He looped a casual arm through the bars. With a gloved finger, he pointed behind her to one of the many discolored bricks on the far wall.

“It seems Bartaugh has wised up since I last encountered him. That,” he explained, “is Ysalamiri.”

Rey looked at the wall. It was just stones, stacked together in varied grays and tans. “What are you talking about?”

“They’re creatures that happen to be the one thing in the universe that can completely restrict one’s ability to manipulate the Force.” He cringed. “Slimy little things.”

“So I’m powerless?”

“Only within their sphere of influence.”

“Which is?”

Kylo Ren sighed and took a step back. Then another. Then another. He continued like that, so casually it was nearly amusing, before he abruptly stopped just past the threshold of the cave, roughly ten meters away.

He gestured to the ground proudly. “Here.”

Rey groaned and let her head fall into her hands. Kylo returned to his position on the other side of her cell, this time stopping so he was directly in front of her.

“You have three days.”

Her head flew up. “What?”

“After which, we will assume you failed.”

She hated how he held her stare. How even when she was desperate to look away, something in his hazel eyes stopped her. “And if I fail?”

Rey couldn’t stop the incessant hope from creeping in. Freedom. Home. The Resistance. Maybe finally, his obsession with her would end.

Kylo’s gaze softened. He shook his head. “You would not be free, Rey,” he said softly. 

Rey narrowed her eyes. “The Force is gone here. You shouldn’t be able to read my mind.”

“I don’t need the Force to know what you’re thinking, Scavenger,” he said. “It’s your eyes. They tell me everything I need to know.”

That made her blink away and duck her head. She felt the heat blazing in her cheeks. Silently, Rey cursed the Force for making her connection to him so strong.

“Besides,” he cleared his throat. “Snoke would never allow me to let you go. He wants you. I didn’t realize he was…reaching out to you.”

She shook her head and let out a shaky sigh. “What does that even mean?”

“It means if you fail, I come here to collect you myself and take you to Snoke.” Kylo’s fingers tightened over the bars. She heard the leather groan. “His punishment for your failures will be painful. And not quick.”

Defeated, Rey leaned forward and let her forehead rest against the bars.

“And if I run?”

Kylo sighed.

“There is nowhere in this galaxy I won’t find you, Rey.”

“It’s a large galaxy.”

“When I come looking for you, you’ll find it’s not nearly as large as you’d hope.”

She didn’t reply. They stayed there for a long while. His closeness was a reluctant comfort in the absence of the Force. That energy that seemed to follow him wherever he went, the kind that was warm and strong, it enveloped her. Rey would never admit it, but she stayed silent so he’d stay. It seemed that every time they spoke, either one or both of them would end up storming off. Given that only one of them physically could at this moment, Rey decided to make it so he had no reason to leave her. Not yet.

Somehow, Rey had a feeling Kylo knew this.

“I’m not a murderer,” she said after a long while. He was leaning against the bars now, too.

“You don’t need to be.”

“But I can’t kill—“

“You’ve always done what’s right, Rey. It's an admirable trait. Where I—most people struggle discerning wrong from right, it comes naturally to you. I’m not asking you to be anything other than exactly who you are.” Kylo ran his hands through his hair—an action Rey now recognized as him being uncomfortable. Perhaps that was why he preferred his mask so. “But I know that who you are, Rey, is someone with the strength and power to make things right.”

Finally, Rey had the courage to meet his gaze. She bit her lip and narrowed her eyes.

“You’re using me to further your own agenda.”

Kylo, for some reason, looked surprised at her boldness. “Yes, I am.”

“So stop acting like this has anything to do with the kind of person I am,” she spat. “Or that you’re giving me a choice.”

“Sometimes people need to be pushed to reach their potential.”

“A real master would guide their apprentice,” Rey said, adding more than enough loathing to her tone, “not force them under the threat of pain and torture.”

“You sound like my Uncle.”

The mention of Luke seemed to startle them both. Rey went to back away, but as her fingers released the bars of her cell, his hands rushed to capture them.

“I understand that you’re frustrated.” He gathered her hands in his and tugged her closer. “I just…I hope that you can see that this can be good. You could do good. With me.”

Rey studied their joined hands. The leather felt smooth against her palms, and Rey grew curious at the ease in which he touched her. And how, somehow, his touch was no longer menacing and rough, but comforting and…kind.

It let her guard down. Perhaps too much.

“You’d kill your mother? Just like that?” She whispered to their joined hands. “Bartaugh offered and…and you didn't even hesitate.”

His fingers tightened over hers. “Rey…I…”

Kylo’s eyes seemed to search her face before he sighed and released her. A long moment passed.

Then Kylo Ren’s hands reached into the cell to grab either side of her face. It was annoyingly gentle. Unhurried. Rey let him tilt her head up to face him. 

Rey recognized that same incessant hope in his eyes that he must always see in hers. They cringed as if he was in pain. Perhaps he was. 

His lips parted to speak, but the words seemed to die on his lips. Kylo shook his head, and guided her forehead to his.

And there they stood, foreheads resting against each other in the space between her cell bars. He was so close, his slow breaths fanned across her cheeks. Her nose. Though Rey made no move to pull away, she felt him tug harder on her head, telling her—making her—stay.

He exhaled shakily. “I would.”

Rey grabbed his wrists and told herself she’d push him away. Instead, she asked, “And me?”

His fingers tightened in her hair.

“He won’t kill you. Bartaugh is smart, but you're smarter. He’s unpracticed and aging. Once, long ago, he was a strong fighter, but now…you can beat him, Rey.”

She opened her eyes. 

“That’s not what I asked.”

Kylo swallowed once. That power, the humming in the Force that always seemed to connect them, pulsed where their foreheads touched. It heated her skin. Made her heart feel like it was beating a thousand times faster than it should.

Then, he released her.

Rey instantly felt cold.

“Three days,” he said as he pushed away from the bars, refusing to meet her gaze.

“Kylo, wait—”

“Three days, Rey,” he repeated. Kylo turned around and walked back to the point just past the Ysalamiri’s reach. He stopped, lingering there for a moment before speaking over his shoulder.

“Don’t fail,” he said. Then, without sparing her a glance, Kylo Ren stalked down the hallway and disappeared out of view.

Rey raged. She raged at Kylo Ren. At the Force. As she’d done dozens of times before within the past few weeks, Rey wondered furiously why the Force chose her of all people to share a connection with Kylo Ren. Kylo Ren.

And it was then, as she pondered the emptiness she felt at his absence and refused to address it as such, Rey realized the warmth, the energy she’d felt at his touch just moments ago, couldn’t have possibly belonged to the Force. 

Rey turned to face the stones, the Ysalamiri, and felt the dread rush in.

The Force was gone. It had only been them.

When Kylo stormed up the ramp of his ship, Kuruk and Cardo were awaiting him near the cockpit. Ushar, on the other hand, reclined on one of the passenger benches on the cusp of a deep sleep. 

Kylo paused halfway up the ramp and turned around. He knew Rey’s absence in the Force was due to Bartaugh’s Ysalamiri, but Kylo was wholly unprepared for what it would feel like. 

He was used to her constant presence. Always burning. Always complimenting his own inner rage with something both catastrophic and calming. Every moment his heart beat without feeling the companionship of hers felt wrong. As if…

As if she herself was dead.

He heaved a heavy breath and turned around, only to find Cardo and Kuruk staring at him.

“Master?” Cardo said.

Kylo called a discarded sheath into his hand with the Force and hurled it at Ushar. 

Though startled, the man’s instincts forced him to wake up and catch it. Ushar turned to glare at his master.

“Get us in the air,” Kylo ordered.

Wordlessly, the man stood and plopped down into the cockpit.

Cardo approached him. “Is something wrong?” 

Kylo dropped his mask, letting his free hand grab the metal bar overhead. The engine roared to life. 

“Just get us away from here.”

A distant beeping blared from the cockpits speakers. An attempted transmission. Kylo curled his fingers deeper into the metal, watching the ground fall away. The castle.

Rey.

“Master—”

The incessant beeping made Kylo grit his teeth. “Tell Ushar to block the transmission.” 

“It’s the Supremacy, Master. A large fleet of ships is requesting takeoff and lightspeed clearance.”

“I don’t kriffing care about takeoff clearance, Kuruk.”

“One of the ships in the fleet appears to be a Corellian YT light freighter—”

Kylo punched the wall of the shuttle. He punched it five times.

He should’ve known. Of course Rey would tell them to flee. He had told her exactly what their plan was. The only part they left out was her role in it.

But he had made one fatal error. When Kylo found her that morning after she escaped, all intact and fidgety and there, Kylo figured the Resistance would never leave without her–that Rey wouldn’t let them.

But Rey was good. She was selfless.

She never cared about what the mission meant for her. Rey heard the Resistance was in danger, and she told them to leave.

Once again, he’d admire her if he wasn’t so kriffing angry.

“Sir, they’re taking off without clearance—”

“GET US IN THE AIR,” Kylo roared. He stumbled to the cockpit and watched as a half dozen ragtag shuttles took flight. 

“It's the Resistance,” Cardo said.

Ushar flipped through the sequence of switches with practiced expertise. When he pushed the throttle forward and the ship jerked to its top speed, Ushar said, “That little bitch warned them.”

Kylo leaned forward and slammed the thruster, sending the shuttle hurtling towards the Resistance fleet.

“Luckily, they weren’t fast enough.”

Chapter Text

“What exactly is your plan here, Master?”

Kylo’s fingers dug into the cushioned headrest of the pilot's chair. The power of the Command Shuttle’s engine shook the entire cockpit as it raced toward the Resistance fleet.

“To shoot every last one of those ships out of the sky.”

“Might I helpfully point out that we’re incredibly outnumbered.”

Kylo looked at Cardo. The man had too much damned sense. Normally, Kylo found it helpful.

Normally.

“Not to mention they have fighters,” he continued. “And a bomber.”

“We’ll outmaneuver them.” Kylo winced as he said it. Though Ushar was a capable pilot, he’d rather quite literally anyone else be in the pilot's chair. Even the Scavenger.

Especially the Scavenger.

“And if Poe Dameron is piloting even a single one of those ships?” Cardo asked.

Damn him.

“Then we’ll need reinforcements.”

Cardo grabbed Kylo’s shoulder. “Wait, Kylo, just stop and think about this—”

“Command Shuttle to Supremacy requesting immediate air support,” Ushar spoke into the radio.

A crackling voice immediately replied. “Yes, sir. Mobilizing now.”

The fastest of the Resistance fleet was nearing the upper atmosphere of Leesis: a number of X-wings seemingly operating as an escort for the larger, slower ships. Guns primed and ready, they didn’t even seem to notice Kylo’s command shuttle sneaking upon their flank. 

They were lucky. Though the terrain of Leesis was a barren plateau, it was littered with pinnacles  wide enough to disguise their approach. Ushar wove in between them–close enough to blast any loose rocks from the outer edges and send them tumbling to the ground.

The Resistance consisted of five ships varying in class and size all surrounding a large cruiser that sat in the middle of the fleet. Compact enough to be maneuverable yet still hefty enough to slow the entire fleet down, it clearly housed the most important of the Resistance's assets. 

That was Kylo’s target. 

“Ushar—“

“I see it, Master. We’ll head straight for it. Their x-wings won’t even see us coming—“

A barrage of tie fighters came sailing through the upper haze of the atmosphere and raced toward the fleet.

Instantly, dozens more x-wings flew out from behind their cruiser. The escorting ships broke formation and forged their attack. They split off, most of them heading straight into the tie fighters.

And the rest, oddly, turned and headed directly toward Kylo’s command shuttle. Including the Millenium Falcon.

To say the four Knights of Ren in the cockpit were shocked would’ve been an understatement.

“Is this…” Cardo began, but trailed off.

Kuruk finished his statement. “It’s an attack.”

“Why would they attack?” Ushar asked. With the command shuttle’s shields up and at full integrity, the x-wings hurtling toward them posed little threat. So, instead of a panicked shuffle into defense formation, the Knights simply…stood there, curiously watching the battle rage before them.

As predicted, the ships barreling toward them fired a few good shots at the command shuttle, all of which did nothing but harmlessly bounce off the shields.

They sailed past, so close that Kylo was able to watch as one of the x-wing pilots waved a crude hand gesture from the cockpit.

Cardo snorted.

“Master,” Kuruk ventured. “Did that pilot just flip you off?”

Kylo, once again, dug his fingers into the leather so hard a lesser material would’ve ripped. 

“Asshole,” he muttered under his breath. It wasn’t enough that Poe Dameron fancied himself the best pilot in the galaxy, he had to be a prick about it too.

“Stay on course,” Kylo ordered. In the distance, the x-wing sailed higher and higher, disappearing into the upper atmosphere. Kylo glanced at it before looking back toward the Resistance fleet. “These x-wings are just here to intimidate us. They can’t do any harm—“

An explosion rocked their shuttle. Four alerts blinked to life on the instrument panel. A loud alarm blared.

Cardo leaped toward the panel to shut them off. “I thought our shields were up!”

“They are up.” Ushar maneuvered the shuttle higher. “They collapsed that rock formation. The shields protect against blasters, not boulders.”

“Steer away from the pinnacles,” Kylo ordered. 

It was a smart move for the X-Wings to take, but a temporary one. And though it all seemed rather calculated, from the X-Wings hidden behind the cruiser to the direct path they took to attack Kylo’s shuttle, it was ultimately messy. Fruitless, even.

Why would the Resistance mount an attack? The ceasefire was far more beneficial to them than it was for the First Order. Not to mention that, after Rey’s little stunt last night, they were now well aware of Kylo’s presence here—hence his dreadnaught as well, hovering just a few kilometers above.  

Yet still, the Resistance crawled slowly toward the atmosphere. X-wings sailed between the Resistance ships and continued to collapse the pinnacles near Kylo’s Command Shuttle. 

They could’ve engaged lightspeed, abandoned their large cruiser and slipped away in escape pods. But no…they weren’t fleeing.

Why weren’t they fleeing?

“What are you doing?” Kylo whispered. With her so close, he could almost imagine his mother would reply. 

Wait. 

He closed his eyes, and searched again. 

Nothing. 

Kylo opened his eyes. “It’s a distraction.” 

“Master?”

“The General isn’t on board,” he said. He should’ve noticed it earlier. This retreat was reckless. And his mother, even with all of her faults, was anything but. “Tell me, Kuruk, if the entire Resistance was fleeing, would they leave their General behind?”

“No, Master.”

He should’ve known. He was better than this. Kylo reached out and connected with the planet, the town, the people. Unless his mother was coincidentally also in a cell laced with Ysalamiri, she was gone. 

“She’s already evacuated.” Kylo peered at the slow moving Resistance fleet. “Along with most of the Resistance. I’d be surprised if there are any lifeforms aboard those ships other than their essential crew.”

“Shall we take them prisoner, sir?”

“No, we don’t need their scraps,” Kylo spat at Ushar. “Tell the Supremacy to fire up their cannons and get us back to the town. If the Resistance has any wits about them at all, they’ll flee.”

“And if not?” Cardio asked.

“Then kill them. We have the only prisoner we need.”

“Well, had.”

The Knights looked at Ushar.

“She’s on a mission, Ushar,” Kuruk said. “She’s not dead.”

Ushar reversed the thrusters and spun the controls until the command shuttle listed to the side. “Not yet,” he said. “She’s not a killer. She couldn’t even kill me.”

Cardo scrambled to grab hold of the metal rod beneath the starboard window to keep his balance. “Maybe it was your pathetic weeping. Couldn’t fault the girl for not wanting to kick a man while he’s down.”

“Shut your mouth, Cardo. Everyone knows you’re the weakest of us.”

Cardo shrugged, completely unbothered. “Mercy is a gift.”

“One so easily wasted,” Kylo muttered under his breath.

Ushar was about to bite back a reply when an alarm blared from the control panel.

“What now?” Cardo asked.

Kuruk silenced it. “Master, a blocked transmission is requesting to come through.”

“From?”

The man, who normally showed the same level of emotion with his helmet off as he did with it on, raised his brows in shock. Then he turned to Kylo.

“General Leia Organa.”

How Rey used to ever enjoy solitude would remain a mystery for the rest of her days.

Hours passed. Perhaps even a full night. Rey couldn’t be sure with no windows, doors, or Force to tell her what time it was. The only interaction she received was from a droid that threw a stale loaf of bread through the bars. It bounced on the floor three times.

Her gourmet dinner.

Her whole life, up until a month ago, Rey would’ve been overjoyed to have received an entire loaf of bread, no matter what condition it was in.

Kylo was right—she had become spoiled.

Long ago, when she was a young child, she was so terrified of heights that she refused to climb the star destroyer wreckage on Jakku. It was rusty and unstable and creaky—too terrifying for a young girl like her. She’d scavenge the ground floor, the tunneled debris, everything but the upper floors.

Unkar didn’t like this. Even a blind, one armed scavenger could reach those parts of the wreckage, he’d tell her. What she brought him was nothing special at all. So, he decided to punish her. For days, he gave her nothing. No food. No water. At one point, Rey got so desperate that she started to eat the sand urchins. When those ran dry, Rey remembered a dark period of time where she eyed the carcass of a long dead steelpecker. The smell of the rotting corpse alone made the poor girl vomit before she could even get close enough to inspect it.

Rey winced at the memory. 

The food she could handle—after all, dipping the stale bread into the meager supply of lukewarm water in order to soften it just enough to bite felt like second nature to her. 

But this absence of the Force—It was torture. Rey herself considered that she was being dramatic, but it truly was. She never understood how much she relied on the force. Even unconscious habits, like the way she would lull herself to sleep on restless nights by letting her Force reach out across wherever she happened to be, just to listen to the ambient sounds of both nature and machine. Even on the Supremacy, a cold and lifeless place, she found solace in feeling the workings of the complex engines. In feeling the heartbeats around her. 

Kylo’s heartbeat.

Rey shook her head and let it fall against the stones. The rusted cot beneath her was somehow even more uncomfortable than the rocky ground, leaving her both exhausted and sore. 

What was more infuriating was the lightsaber strapped to her thigh. Rey had been hoping Bartaugh would come round to gloat by now. She figured she’d lull him into a sense of safety, get him close enough to the bars, and….

And what?

She couldn’t kill him. Not for the reasons Kylo wanted her to. She could cut off an arm? Maybe a leg? But Kylo, and more importantly Snoke, would see that as failure.

And failure meant torture. 

Rey shut her eyes and groaned. For now, she’d wait. By her incredibly crude estimation, she still had two days to figure out a plan. Two days to either kill this man or find some other way to put Mio Gessup in charge. If she were a smarter, more strategic girl, she’d consider some genius, political way to push him out. 

But Rey was a child of a warring desert where the rules of violence reigned. 

“So sorry to have kept you waiting.”

Rey opened her eyes and sprung to her feet. Kriff, had she lost all of her natural instincts?

“Wow,” Bartaugh breathed. He was in a cloak now. An expensive one, if Rey had to guess. On one hip he cradled a holstered blaster, and on the other he sported a decorative steel sword. His cracked lips formed a disgusting smile. “Hi there, lovely.”

She glared. There was no use to her gritting her teeth and tightening her fists, but she did it anyway. Like she explained: a child of a warring desert.

Behind Bartaugh stood Mio Gessup. The man crossed his arms and leaned back against the far wall. Watching her.

“Do you like your room?” Bartaugh asked. “I picked it just for you.”

Rey raised a brow.

“What’s wrong? Is it the Ysalamiri?” Bartaugh came close enough to the bars to stroke them between his dirty palms. “Now, it’s not that I don’t trust you, love. I just don’t know you. I can’t promise you won’t try something we’d both regret,” he whispered with a wink. “But I promise I’ll be better to you than Kylo Ren ever was.”

Rey sensed something in his tone. Something beneath the creepy suggestiveness. Resentment, perhaps. Maybe even jealousy?

“Kylo Ren gave me a blanket, at least,” she said. “And real food.”

He looked her up and down. “Probably because Kylo Ren wanted to fuck you.”

She paled and didn’t bother to hide her disgust. Bartuagh grinned and leaned into the bars.

“Heard he’s a scarred ugly beast under that helmet. Is that true?”

“No more beastly than any other power hungry monster,” she spat. She glared between him and Mio. “Present company included.”

He laughed. A bit too hard. 

Mio’s expression did not change.

“You’re fun,” Bartaugh said. “Did he like your mouth as much as I do?”

A sick jolt of disgust jumped through her. “You’re vile.”

Bartaugh gripped the bars with the ferocity of a far more desperate man. And he waited, patiently, for a reply she would not give. A few silent moments passed.

“What do you think?” Mio suddenly asked. “Moran? Sara?”

Rey frowned at him. “What?”

“No,” Bartaugh shook his head and looked Rey up and down. “For Rey? Fetch Elsie.”

“Fantastic idea, sir,” Mio sneered at Rey before walking away.

“What the hell was that about?”

Bartaugh released the bars to lean back and take a long moment to examine her. “Kylo Ren claimed he’d just found you a few days ago, but I can smell it on you. You’ve been a slave your whole life, haven’t you?”

“I’m not a slave.”

“And with that sharp spirit I could almost believe you,” Bartaugh said. “Almost.”

“Why do you even care?”

“Know your enemy.”

“I thought your loyalties lie with the highest bidder,” she said. “Hard to have enemies if you claim to be neutral.”

“No such thing as neutrality in this world, girl. Everyone’s got an agenda—if not two. Or three.” He leaned back to sigh at the ceiling. “Eventually it’s all just mud, and everyone’s doin bad things for bad reasons. Reasons they can’t even remember anymore.”

“So that’s your story then?” Rey said. “You don’t remember how to be good?”

“No, lovely,” Bartaugh’s smile was tight. “I’ve never been good.”

Rey had enough sense to not reply to that comment. Instead, she leaned back against the sharp stone wall, crossed her arms, and sighed.

“So, if everyone’s got an agenda,” she said, “whats yours?”

“That depends.”

“On?”

“Whether or not I decide to keep you.” 

This made Rey stand up a bit straighter. She’d been bagged and bartered most of her life, and still, being referred to as one's possession made her blood start to boil.

“You are such a pretty thing,” Bartaugh whispered with a pout. Wide, leering eyes worked her up and down. “It gets lonely down here.”

“Some people deserve to be alone.”

“Life isn’t about what you deserve, lovely. It’s about what you take,” he said. “I can tell by the looks of you that it’s about damn time you learned that.”

“Dangerous lesson to be teaching a girl you’ve locked in a cage.”

Bartaugh reached out and unlocked her cell. Rey frowned as she watched him reveal two metal cuffs from his pocket. They were silver and thin, with a width just about as long as Bartaugh’s thumb.

He stepped into her cell. Rey backed away.

“Relax, love. They won’t hurt.”

“I’m not letting you put those on me.”

Bartaugh shrugged. “It’s your choice. Put on these cuffs and leave this cell, or refuse and stay here.”

Her few hours of imprisonment had nearly driven her insane. And as much as Rey wanted to act like the defiant spitfire the resistance and Kylo coveted, she was kriffing tired of doing things solely for anyone else’s benefit.

So yes, Rey sighed and held out her hands. But it was because she wanted to. 

“Good girl,” Bartaugh said as he slipped the cuffs around Rey’s wrists and they clicked into place. 

“There. Nice and tamed,” Bartaugh smiled at her. “Now come.”

Bartaugh led her from the cell. Rey anxiously awaited the moment she crossed out of the influence of the Ysalamiri. She waited. And waited.

And…waited…

But the threshold came and went, and still, Rey felt nothing. Panic coiled in her chest—making her eyes go wide.

“Ah, finally she catches on.” Bartaugh glanced back at her. “What, you didn’t seriously expect me to let you out of that cell without leashing you first, did you?”

”How is this possible?” Her voice was even. Good. Rey was relatively certain her composure was as absent as the Force. He smirked at her and did not answer.

Dozens of guards lined the caved walls as she followed the man’s winding path from hall to hall. Some she recognized from the ballroom, others were creatures she’d never even seen before—all strapped with more weapons and blasters than she’d ever seen. Each one either refused to meet her stare or lingered on her uncomfortably long.

“Where are we going?” She asked as they ducked through yet another dark, wet tunnel. The ambient buzz of electricity surrounded them—a hum that vibrated the stone beneath her boots.

“You asked what my agenda was,” Bartaugh replied. “What kind of host would I be if I didn’t show you?”

The tunnel opened up—

Into the largest cliff she’d ever seen.

Orange sandstone surrounded her entire vision—a curved, hastily cut out cliff-face covered in scaffolding that hardly looked like it could support a sandflea.

Yet people hurried up and down the rusted iron steps, raced across catwalks that creaked with every step. Not just people…slaves. Hundreds of them. Some looked as old as ninety, while others couldn’t be more than ten. All of them wore dirt covered rags. Laboring until their last breath. 

The sheer amount of noise itself was insanity inducing, let alone the hum of the gigantic machines placed every dozen meters along the cliff-face.

Rey looked at Bartaugh, mostly with disgust, but with a little bit of awe as well. “What is this?”

“Are you familiar with Phrik?”

She shook her head.

“It’s a special alloy. A combination of Phrikite and Tyridium, both of which are mined right here.”

Rey’s eyes traced the scene before her with horror. Her gaze sank down, down, all the way to the bottom of the mine where a large body of water sat so undisturbed it could’ve been glass. 

“What’s so special about it?” 

Bartaugh smiled, glancing at her wrists. “Its more special if you find out organically.”

Rey forced herself to turn away from a little boy limping along the scaffolding. “So, what, you’re exporting these special minerals? That’s your agenda?”

“My agenda is freedom and power. This, and you, is how I get that.”

Rey glared at him, then at the body of water below. It was a long way down—too long. But, if Rey wasn’t mistaken, she could barely make out a small sliver of sunlight spilling through a crack just below the water's surface.

Bartaugh traced her gaze. “What, you’re afraid of heights?”

“Not a lot of water where I come from.” Rey leaned over the edge. Bartaugh examined her face for a moment before doing the same.

“That drop is nearly two hundred feet,” he whispered. “You wouldn’t be the first captive here to try it.”

Rey didn’t bother to hide her intrigue. “Did they survive?”

He gave her a look that implied she already knew the answer. “Good thing is I don’t have to worry about burying the bodies.” He pushed himself away from the edge and grabbed her arm. Rey had no choice but to follow. “The real bother is they tend to float up after a few days. It’s a small price to pay.”

“You’re a monster,” she hissed at him.

“I’m a businessman.”

A scream echoed throughout the cavernous space. One of Bartaugh’s men was dragging a woman by the collar of her dress. He shouted something Rey couldn’t hear before hauling the woman over the rail.

Rey shot forwards, so close to the cliffs edge that her boots dislodged a flurry of tiny red rocks that plummeted to the lake below. 

And she tried. With every ounce of her will, Rey tried to use the Force. She felt smothered, like the air all around her was as thick as molasses, trapping her sluggish mind in a fog. 

Rey spent what felt like hours willing the man to let the woman go. She screamed, fingers clawing at the rocky cave walls, throat aching,

Nothing stopped the man from pushing the woman. She didn’t scream as she fell. She just hit the water with a sickening chorus of snaps, floating facedown in the water.

The work bustle roared back to life. Orders were shouted. Rocks were hammered. Not a single soul stopped to glance at the corpse.

Rey whirled to Bartaugh.

“You could’ve stopped him!”

“I could’ve,” Bartaugh shrugged. “But I wouldn’t.”

Rey huffed down at the metal encircling her wrists.

“What is this?”

“Phrik is unique for two main reasons. The first is being indestructible to every weapon in the galaxy, including lightsabers.” Bartaugh turned and began walking in the direction in which they arrived. Rey had no other choice than to follow. “The second is being naturally composed of just enough oxygen and carbon to sustain the illusion of life.”

“Life?”

“Ysalamiri are useless once they’re killed. Many believe this means their life fuels their power to mute the Force.” As he talked and led her through the tunnels, Rey cataloged every twist, every turn, every last creature in their path. “But what most don’t realize is it’s not their life that fuels their power, it’s their bodies. Like any other engine, the Ysalamiri produces it’s Force dampening abilities by the flowing of a substance through a carbon based mechanism. That substance is their blood.” Bartaugh turned to her and smiled, as if Rey would smile back. “As long as that substance is flowing, the forcefield is sustained.”

Rey glanced at her wrists. “You have Ysalamiri blood flowing through these cuffs?”

“Genius, right?”

He reached a threshold and stepped aside, ushering Rey back into the room with her cell.

“Why do this?” Rey asked, to bide time as much as to settle her curiosity. “Why show me this at all?”

He pushed her into her cell and slammed the door in your face. “If you think you’re special, you’re not. You’re nothing, Rey. I have an empire of slaves. Of indestructible weapons and infallible soldiers. If I want something from you, I will get it,” he said. “You are mine.”

Rey maintained his crazed stare with a calm glare.

“I’ll kill you,” she said, turning to settle back into her cell.

Before she could get too far, Bartaugh’s arm shot through the bars and grabbed her wrist to tug her forward. Her nose slammed into the metal.

“The only thing dangerous about you is your brat mouth. If I don’t figure out a way to shut you up I’ll have to lower your price.” Bartaugh was so close his foul breath stung her cheeks. The sword jostled at his hip. “Then again, it is entertaining.”

“My price?” Rey tugged back, but Bartaugh held strong.

“Your arrival here was quite unexpected, but very, very welcome. I have contacted buyers from across the galaxy to convene here in two days.”

Two days. Two days to escape this hellhole before traffickers and smugglers from across the galaxy come to barter over her like cattle. Rey attempted to calm her beating heart.

“You’ll fetch a fair price for me. And if you don’t, well,” his grip tightened as his eyes grew hot, “perhaps I’ll just keep you all to myself.”

Finally, Rey was able to fight her arm out of his hold and retreat back into her cell. Though Bartaigh didn’t seem too inconvenienced.

“Sleep now, girl.” He backed away, pausing only when he reached the far wall. “I’ll be back soon.”

“Out.”

The Knights looked at each other, then Kylo. 

“What?” Ushar asked.

“OUT!”

Ushar and Kuruk jumped to their feet, exiting through the rear door. Cardo sat completely still–making it known to Kylo that he had no intention to leave. 

He gave his master a soft nod, one Kylo did not return. Instead, he made his way to the control panel and slowly held down the flashing yellow button.

“Patch her through,” he ordered.

“Yes, sir.”

The command shuttle was on auto-pilot stasis mode, hovering over some dead patch of stone and desert. The only sound to be heard was the engine’s hum and Kylo’s heavy breaths.

When his mother materialized in front of him, it took every ounce of Kylo’s control not to rear back. He had expected a radio transmission—not a full body hologram.

His mother looked just as poised as always. Hair impeccably done. Clothes that somehow made her look both battlewarn and regal. 

And those eyes, so piercing and knowing that even though he knew, he knew, they were miles apart, it seemed as if she could still sense every single involuntary twitch of his jaw. Any deception he could possibly attempt. 

She wasn’t saying anything. Why wasn’t she saying anything?

“You violated the terms,” Kylo said.

“You violated them first.”

“Your ships attacked us.”

“Only because you orchestrated a hostile takeover of the planet where we sought shelter.” Her voice was stern, but barely above a whisper. “Your tie fighters killed four of my men. ‘No more Resistance blood spilled’. That was the agreement.”

“Well,” he said. “It seems the ceasefire is over.”

His mother lifted her chin. “Apparently so.” 

A silence settled, then. He watched Leia narrow her eyes. Watched her mouth part slightly to speak and then quickly close. She shook her head and sighed—an action that would look like defeat on anyone else. Anyone but General Leia Organa. 

Finally, she spoke. “We should agree upon a neutral location to exchange Rey back into safety.” 

Kylo’s vision went white. His gloved hands curled into fists. Instead of snapping back, shouting the string of obscenities that rushed through his mind, he stayed silent. Still.

“Ben.”

“Do not call me that,” he hissed.

Leia ignored his demand. “The agreement is over, is it not?”

He huffed. Yes, the agreement was over. Yes, any man, any good man, would honor their agreement to return Rey safely to the Resistance. To lead her back to her home.

Her home. He could nearly scoff. He’d be returning her to a war zone—a near certain death, where no one cared about her worth, or talents, or once in a generation stubbornness—

No. He couldn’t do it. He wouldn’t. 

He was so close. Her loyalty to him was within reach, he could see it in her eyes in the moments she forgets she’s supposed to hate him. He feels her loneliness when he is away—her weak moments when she craves him. Not in the way he craves her, but close. So close.

He couldn’t lose her. Not now. The Resistance traded her away once before, what’s to stop them from doing it again?

Rey was his. 

“Ben…”

“So the terms are null and void,” he interrupted. “She will remain with me. Not as your collateral, but as my prisoner.”

The words felt like razors on his tongue. 

Leia didn’t rage at him like Kylo expected. Instead, she had to remind him of how she was a successful politician in her own right by not allowing a single ounce of anger into her stare. She tilted her head, breathed deeply, and met his eyes through the hologram.

“Is this conversation private?” she asked.

Kylo glanced at Cardo. With one look, the man knew he was being ordered to leave. He slipped out of the cockpit with one final glance at his master.

Kylo waited until the door clicked shut. “It is now.”

His mother visibly relaxed. “You used to love playing in the river,” she said. “On Chandrila. Do you remember that?”

“I am not here to discuss—”

“One morning the waves were rough, and I warned you not to go in. You promised you wouldn’t—that all you wanted to do was sit by the banks and feed the ducks,” she said. “That evening, you waltzed into dinner drenched to the bone, swearing up and down that you didn’t intend to go into the river that day, but you had to.

“You had to because one of the ducks was lame, and though she tried desperately to keep up with her family, they abandoned her.” She smiled at the fond memory. “You told us you swam all the way out to the middle of the river to fetch her. Then you held out your hand, right there, in the middle of the dining room, and there she was. The duckling. You named her—”

“Veré.”

His mother’s eyes widened. “You remember.”

Of course he remembered. He remembered his father’s anger at him for bringing a creature into the house. Kylo had replied with some rude quip about Chewbacca being a creature too, which only made his parents more upset. And Chewbacca. 

He remembered feeling guilty. 

“I fail to see how this is relevant—”

“You cared for her. Fed her. Brought her back to the banks of the river every day so she could learn to swim stronger. Faster.” His mother approached the hologram. “One day, weeks later, her family returned for her. And Veré, now all strong and grown, was finally able to keep up with them.”

Leia paused, seemingly just to stare at the man who was once her son. “But you wouldn’t let her go. Even when I tried to explain to you that you were not her true family, that even though you lov—cared about her, that did not mean you deserved to keep her. But still,” she said, “you refused to let her go.”

Kylo dug his fingers into the leather of the captain’s chair. 

“You’re not her family,” he growled.

“Neither are you,” Leia snapped. It was the harshest she’d been the entire interaction, and Leia must have noticed it. She cleared her throat. “Veré died. She was eaten by a Blackback in our garden.” Leia ducked to meet her son’s eyes. “Perhaps, had she been with her family, she would’ve lived. You cried for days.”

“I was a child.”

“Yes, and now you are grown. You have learned,” she said. “You hold on too tight, Ben. Your heart has always been stronger than your senses. I didn’t understand that before, but I do now.”

Kylo looked away.

“Let her go, Ben. She’s not meant to be like you.”

He worked his jaw back and forth. What did she know about where Rey belonged? What she was meant to be? He knew her better than anyone. He wanted what was best for her—more than Leia ever could. 

She had her chance to protect Rey. Instead, she gave her away. 

His mother had a habit of doing that.

“And what of Vere’s family? The ones who abandoned her—who only came back because she was stronger.” Kylo glared at his mother. “Did they deserve her?”

“You forced our hand. We would’ve never given you Rey had you not made us—”

“I'm not talking about Rey!” he shouted. It startled his mother into silence. The woman seemed to stutter, something he’d never once seen her do, but before she could speak, Kylo interrupted her.

“That’s the difference between you and me, General,” he said. This was no longer Kylo Ren speaking. “I don’t abandon the ones I love.”

She heaved a heavy, solemn sigh. “Ben.”

“Goodbye, General Organa.”

Rey was left to her insanity and isolation for a whole day. Occasionally she would hear the rattling metal of guards milling about outside her cell. Once or twice, she swore she could hear the rumble of those gigantic mining machines Bartaugh had shown her.

Other than that, nothing. No one but that rusted droid whose arm seemed to malfunction at the exact moment it tossed her bread into the cell. The result being said loaf hurtling toward her at light speed and smacking into the bars so forcefully, the steel nearly shattered.

Nearly. Apparently, Rey wasn’t that lucky.

“Rise and shine, lovely.”

Rey startled awake. It must have been the next day. Rey’s fight to stay awake was valiant, but ultimately useless.

Bartaugh stood in the open doorway of her cell holding a black bundle of fabrics.

“What is this?” She rubbed the exhaustion from her eyes and sat up on her pathetic cot. Though time was hard to tell in here, Rey was relatively certain two full days hadn’t passed yet.

“It’s time for your…we’ll…” Bartaugh licked his lips. “Let’s call it a demonstration.”

“A demonstration?”

“Like what you showed me, but maybe with a little more,” Bartaugh waved his fingers around in an odd, exaggerated fashion, “showmanship this time.”

Rey raised a brow. “I won’t perform for you.”

“Oh, but you will.” 

This was it. Her opportunity to kill him. She didn’t want to do it before, but now?

Now she wanted to kill the bastard. Her fingers itched to find her lightsaber.

“Make me,” she replied.

Bartaugh smiled. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

Mio Gessup entered the room. Behind him, dragging her by the shoulder of her dirt and bloodstained rags, was a little girl.

Rey shot to her feet.

“Rey,” Bartaugh said. “Meet Elsie.”

The little girl could barely be older than six years old. Her red hair was matted in a giant mess around her head, with bruises lining her arms and dirt staining her cheeks and chin. She was so slim it looked like a gust of wind could blow her over completely.

“You’re going to listen to me very carefully, Rey.” Mio handed the girl off to Bartaugh, who unsheathed the dagger from his belt and grabbed a hold of the back of the girls neck. “You will not speak unless I tell you to. You will not even look at any of these men without my permission. You will do everything I say without question, or I will hurt this girl in more ways than you could even imagine.”

Elsie whimpered but did not cry—her face twisting into a resolute, yet strong, defiance. Rey knew that face so well it made her heart clench. It made her hand reach down to her lightsaber.

“Let her go.”

Bartaugh frowned. “Did i give you permission to speak?”

Before Rey could reply, Bartaugh sliced the knife across Elsie’s cheek, opening a wound that spilled blood down her face. The girl cried out.

She didn’t even think. The lightsaber was in her hand and ignited before Rey could consider otherwise.

“I said,” Rey hissed, “let her go.”

She expected Bartaugh to look at least shocked. A bit scared, even. Instead, he chuckled. 

“I’ve been wondering when you’d finally use that. I figured you’d use it to escape your cell last night but no,” he slid the flat edge of the blade along Elsie’s neck, “you’re an endgame girl. Didn’t want to break out until you knew exactly where to go. It’s smart.”

“You couldn’t have known—“

He slammed his fist into the iron bars to interrupt Rey, a gesture that unfortunately worked by stunning her into silence. Elsie flinched. “I know everything, lovely. This entire star system belongs to me. Including you. Now hand over that weapon before we do this the hard way.”

Rey glanced at his knife. “I’d love to see you try.”

“I dont want to hurt you, Rey. Any more bruises on you and I won’t get nearly as much as I’d like.”

Men flooded the room behind Bartaugh, spreading across the room. Surrounding her. Weapons pointed directly at Rey. One of the men crept forward, unlocked her cell, and swung her door open. Three men filed in to surround her.

She counted fifteen men total. She could’ve been wrong, but she doubted it.

“Would you like to reconsider?”

Rey looked at Elsie. A single trembling hand reached up to wipe the blood from her cheek. Just another innocent girl who’s childhood was stolen by a powerful man.

She’d kill them. She’d kill them all.

“Give me the lightsaber, Rey.”

She scanned his men one by one, each of them more menacing and ugly than the last. Finally, after Rey had run the last of many scenarios in her mind, none of which she actually survived, she flicked the lightsaber off and threw it at Bartaugh’s feet.

“I’ll kill you,” she said.

Bartaugh grinned as he bent down to pick it up. “You keep saying that.” He tossed the saber between his hands. “To quote you: I’d love to see you try.”

Rey raged. Bartaugh traced her fury with amusement.

“Now come, get those awful rags off and let Elsie make you look all pretty.”

She couldn’t help it. Bartaugh was within perfect spitting distance, and she was a born and bred junkyard girl.

The saliva had barely landed on his cheek before he had her throat in his grasp, shoving her up against the wall. 

“Here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to get all nice and pretty, and when I tell you to smile and give those men in there exactly what they want, you’ll do it,” he hissed. “Am I clear?”

Rey couldn’t breathe. She hated him, and she couldn’t kriffing breathe.

“Am I clear?” Bartaugh squeezed her neck even tighter. Rey began seeing spots.

You will not fight until you have found an opportunity to kill him. Kylo’s words cycled through her mind. Every instinct told her to fight. To kill.

You’ll have one chance to kill him before they realize you’re more trouble than you’re worth.

It physically pained her to close her eyes and surrender.

“Yes,” she choked out. She wasn’t a strategist. Kylo had said it himself—Rey was a street fighter. Accustomed to throwing every ounce of energy into her punches. Every ragged breath into the fight at hand. Street fighters don’t lie in wait. If they’re waiting, usually, they’re already dead.

But, in the end, Kylo was right. Bartaugh had hundreds of men—each of them prepared to kill her where she stood. As much as Rey wanted out of this whole mess, she’d rather get out of it alive. 

So Rey chose to lie in wait. Wait until she had a better escape plan. Wait until the right opportunity to destroy Bartaugh came to pass…

Finally, blissfully, he let her go. Rey coughed, cradling her already bruising neck.

“Good. See?” Bartaugh smiled. “Everything is so much easier when we all get along. Now, be nice to Elsie, I’ll be back to collect you.”

Minutes of struggling and protesting every single garment the poor girl had to wrestle her into led Rey to this horrible moment.

Standing in her cell, unarmed, in another kriffing dress.

This one was a black, tighter fitting ensemble composed of a high neck sleeveless top and a long, silk skirt. At least the skirt was loose, flowing between her legs like a soft breeze. She almost didn’t hate the feeling.

Almost.

“Divine,” Bartaugh said upon seeing her. Rey growled at him. The man smiled.

Kylo slammed the yellow button until his mothers face flickered away. Then his hand formed a fist, and he punched the control panel over and over and over again.

“I take it you’ve finished?”

Kylo thrust his hand toward the intruder. The man flew back into the steel wall of the cockpit. 

“And I’m guessing,” Cardo struggled to speak against Kylo’s Force-hold, “it went well.”

Kylo released him. “Swimmingly.”

Cardo rubbed his chest with a wince and joined Kylo at the Command Shuttle’s helm. “Do you want the good news or the bad news?”

The master of the Knights of Ren sighed. “Why must there always be news?”

”Kuruk received a transmission from Bartaugh’s fortress.” Cardo presented a flimsy sheet of paper with the inky text of a radio message.”It’s an invitation.”

Kylo glanced at it. Then at Cardo.

”Bartaugh was so excited to sell our little Scavenger that he invited every single smuggler he’d ever met to her auction.” Cardo pointed to the sequence of letters on the top of the page. The recipient’s frequency. “Including Han Solo.”

His stomach lurched. Kylo clenched both fists. “I’m sure Bartaugh knows he is dead—“

”Apparently not.”

Kylo examined the paper. It was doubtful that Bartaugh or any of his men had actually met his father. The smuggling community was small, yes, but it mainly consisted of ‘friend-of-a-friend’ —esque relationships. Trust was, at best, a thin concept.

“Its in two days,” Kylo said.

Cardo smirked, knowing that his job here was done. “Plenty of time to contemplate on it.”

“Was that the good news or the bad news?”

“I lied. There is no bad news,” Cardo grabbed the transmission and crumpled the paper.

Kylo closed his eyes and growled. “Cardo…”

“Only that this appears to be a party,” the man grinned, “and you, my dear master, have nothing to wear.”

Chapter Text

Bartaugh pushed her down the lengths of the hallway, indifferent to her struggle. Rey watched her lightsaber—well, Kylo’s old lightsaber, she supposed—rattle against the cruel man’s hip.

Finally, he pushed her into a banquet hall.

It was nothing like his throne room—bare and battlewarn, with the hints of luxury but nothing more. No—everything about this banquet room demanded direct attention, from the rubies and jewel studded chandeliers to the aged paintings hanging from the crudely carved walls. 

Roughly two dozen creatures, some of species Rey had never even seen before, mingled about. A large wooden table was set in the center of the room with enough food to feed every scavenger on Jakku for a whole month. 

Her mouth watered at the sight.

“Welcome, my honored guests.” Bartaugh placed his hand on Rey’s shoulder as the eyes of the room found him. And, by association, her. “Thank you for making the journey on such short notice. I assure you it will be well worth it.” 

Mio came up behind her and secured a chain to the cuff around her right wrist. Rey tugged on it, only to find the other end was securely embedded into the wall.

Her anger was already fragile. It took everything in her to not swing at him. Mio caught her eye with a smirk as he turned away. Begging for her lightsaber to pay a long overdue visit to his neck.

Patience.

Mio slipped past Rey to grab Elsie’s collar and push her toward the side door. He shoved a glass decanter full of purple liquid into her trembling hands. “Start serving them. Now.”

The girl wiped her tears away and nodded.

“Now I will leave you for a moment to enjoy your food and,” Bartaugh squeezed Rey’s shoulder, equally as forceful as it was possessive, “browse the merchandise.”

Rey shoved herself out of Bartaugh’s hold. The creatures in the room seemed to give her various intrigued looks, but nothing more. Most had the air of being quite bored. Bartaugh didn’t seem to mind their disinterest much—now busying himself with catching the attention of a well dressed Rodian draining a glass of wine.

Rey scoffed in disgust at it all. Despite her potent loathing, her mouth watered at the plate of fresh fruits at the table just a few paces away—so much so, it distracted her from the pair of leering eyes above it.

“See something you like?” Mio Gessup adjusted the frayed ends of his tunic as if it were shimmersilk.

Rey glared at him, bared her teeth. The main table was far out of her reach, but a small desk perched next to her was adorned with three bowls of berries—treats to lure her prospective buyers ever closer to her, she assumed. Regardless, she swiped a handful of berries from the plate and shoved them in her mouth.

This was her auction, after all. Rey figured she might as well enjoy it.

Mio leaned closer, eyes fixed on her body. “I certainly do,” he whispered and spun away.

Before Rey could spit out her disgust there was gentle tap on her shoulder.

“Go away,” she mumbled through the chewed berries in her mouth.

The whisper was right against her ear. “I don’t think you want me to do that, Rey.”

She whirled around.

“Wow.” Finn regarded her clothes. “Here I thought the Netherworld would freeze over before you’d ever wear a dress.” He smiled. “You look amazing.”

“What are you doing here?” She hissed, sending frantic glances at where Bartaugh and Mio conversed in the corner. They were chatting up the Rodian with an urgency that should have probably concerned her.

“Bartaugh runs this moon as carelessly as he does his mouth,” Finn whispered. The Rodian behind him began to raise his voice, shouting at Mio in Huttese. “It didn’t take a genius to assume the ‘secret Force sensitive for sale’ had something to do with you.”

Her heart soared. He came back for her.

Again.

She ignored the fight blossoming behind him in order to smile, feel her throat tighten, and immediately lose her hope to crushing fear. “But what about the—“

She was cut off by a scream. The Rodian had one of his gigantic hands curled around Mio Gessup’s neck while holding a butter knife from the table to his throat with the other.  Bartaugh seemed just a tick above inconvenienced at it all.

“If we could all just be civil…” Bartaugh began. He was cut off by the Rodian flinging Mio onto the table. Creamy pudding splattered everywhere—mainly Bartaugh’s cape. 

The Rodian spat out a harsh sentence in Huttese.

Fine frowned at the interaction. “What’s he going on about?”

Rey wasn’t exactly fluent, but her time at Niima outpost gave her a working knowledge of the language. Essentially, the Rodian had been complaining about her price. Apparently she wasn’t nearly as “robust” as he was promised. That, or he was complaining about her attractiveness. Either way the Rodian was feeling cheated.

Rey could almost laugh. If Bartaugh had promised any of these men a robust, sultry, Force sensitive woman, then he was truly a terrible salesman.

“Apparently I’m not the merchandise he was promised.”

“What?” Finn looked far too offended on her behalf. “He’s disappointed by you?”

“I’m not exactly a seductress, Finn.”

“Nonsense. If I saw you at a market, you’d be my first purchase.”

She couldn’t help but laugh. It was all so kriffing ridiculous, and Finn…he was such a relief. She could feel herself tearing up. “Thank you.” She grimaced. “I guess.” 

“So,” Finn ventured above the blossoming brawl, “I’m guessing Kylo Ren sold you out so Bartaugh would sell us out.”

Rey was examining the fight over Finn’s shoulder. The Rodian suddenly locked eyes with her. “Pretty much,” she said.

“And how exactly is he planning on getting you back?”

The Rodian released Mio with a loud grunt and thundered toward them. Rey took a step back, but he kept approaching.

“Finn—“

The Rodian was nearly at them now, growling something in Huttese that she couldn’t understand. He reached for her—

Something flashed across her vision—

She spun away—

And a scream tore from the Rodian’s mouth. Rey looked up to find his outstretched hand pinned to the wall by a shining silver pen that had stabbed a hole through the creature’s palm. The Rodian roared.

Bartaugh turned to the entrance of the room, fixing a glare on the culprit. “My auction strictly prohibits weapons.”

“Most cultures view the pen as quite the opposite,” a familiar voice said. Rey’s eyes wandered from the light soil beneath the man’s steel toed boot, up the simple black trousers and sweater, and landed on the same pair of hazel eyes that had tormented her for the past weeks. 

When Kylo Ren stepped into the banquet hall, unmasked and looking utterly, disgustingly normal, Rey had to blink three times to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating.

“Oh fuck,” Finn whispered. Rey couldn’t agree more.

Bartaugh narrowed his eyes. “Not mine.”

Kylo shrugged and presented his empty, unarmed palms in a sign of surrender—a gesture that only made Rey more certain that he was, in fact, armed.

“Who the hell are you?”

”You sent for Han Solo.”

”You’re not Han Solo.”

”No, I’m not.” Kylo ducked into the room—his head too bloody tall to fit through the threshold normally. Somehow, Kylo Ren made the act of bowing his head to enter the room look prideful.

And intimidating.

“I’m his son. Ben Solo.”

The hush that fell over the room was tense. Kylo waltzed through the silence with practiced ease. Heading to the table, he plucked a round ball of fruit off of the decorative dish and tossed it into his mouth. 

A few errant whispers of Han Solo has a son? and I haven’t heard of Solo’s son since he killed a rathtar at seven years old, flitted across the room. The latter of which made Rey’s brows lift in shock. 

Kylo’s eyes scanned the occupants of the room, jerking to a sharp stop at the sight of Finn. Kylos glare jumped to Rey and gave her a long, lethal look. 

“Well?” He said, only tearing his stare from hers when he was forced to acknowledge he’d lingered too long. “I was promised a prize of great value.”

”You were promised nothing, Solo,” Bartaugh snapped. He clearly had unfinished business with Han. “And the prize is mine. I captured her from the great Kylo Ren myself.”

Gasps echoed from every corner. By the smirk on Bartaugh’s face, he’d been waiting anxiously for someone to goad that out of him.

Rey almost snorted at the way Kylo’s eyes flashed. “You don’t say.”

The gasps and murmurs ceased. Every eye in the room jumped between Bartaugh and Kylo.

Kylo, true to his family despite how much he’d be loathe to admit it, commanded the room with expertise only the son of Han Solo and Leia Organa could manage. Seeing him like this, at the edge of everyone’s attention, conducting the silence as if it were his orchestra, it was easy to see how he could shoulder such a strong legacy.

He was born for it.

“Well, Ben,” Bartaugh said. “Lay another finger on one of my guests and I guarantee you will be the one nailed to the wall.”

Finn cringed beside her, pulling Rey out of the brutal interaction at hand.

”Finn,” Rey whispered, gesturing to the far corner of the room where Elsie stood nervously holding the decanter. “Go over there.”

”Arr you insane?” Finn hissed. “I’m not leaving you alone with Kylo kriffing Ren—“

”I can handle him, Finn, just please,” she looked at him, “look out for her.”

Finn hesitated a long moment before nodding. “I’ll be close by.”

Though Finn retreated to the far side of the room, he didn’t escape Kylo’s glare. The man seemed to slowly make his way around the banquet table, feigning interest in the food in an attempt to not make a beeline straight for her.

“I’ll adjust my negotiating tactics accordingly,” Kylo finally replied to Bartaugh, picking out an orange from the fruit basket. “Meanwhile, you should keep those creature’s filthy hands away from my slave.”

“She’s not yours yet.”

Kylo smirked. “All in due time.”

Bartaugh glared at Kylo but did nothing more. “Well?” He turned and shouted at the guards. “Don’t just stand there, get this creature’s bloody hand off my wall!”

Kylo dodged the half dozen men that jumped to life and rushed toward the still screaming Rodian. Amidst the chaos, he came to a stop next to her with ease.

Rey glanced at him. Kylo wasn’t facing her—likely in an effort to not seem too familiar. It unsettled her, though—being this close to him in utter silence when their default hovered somewhere between light banter and rapid fire fierce insults.

Rey broke the silence with a sidelong glare. “Your slave?”

“I couldn’t resist. Figured I’d put on a good show.”

“You’ve never heard of subtlety,” Rey said, “have you, Ben?”

She added a bit more bite to his name. Kylo watched four of Bartaugh’s men yank the metal rod from the Rodian’s palm with an undignified squeal.

“He was about to tear your arm off.”

“Was he? I hadn’t noticed.”

“You didn’t look like you were going to stop it.”

Rey raised a brow. “And the thought of it pained you so much you couldn’t help but intervene?”

He spied the sarcasm in her tone and clearly chose to ignore it. Instead, one of his dark eyes wandered to where her wrist was chained to the wall.

“Enjoying yourself?” He asked. “It's not everyday you get to attend your own auction.”

“Yeah, well I thought my previous one was going to be my last so excuse me if I’m not exactly thrilled.”

Kylo blinked down at her. 

“I thought you were only sold once,” he said, “to Unkar Plutt.”

Rey scoffed to hide the growing discomfort in her chest. The weakness she was bound to reveal to him. “Who sold me every time I pissed him off.” When she was too injured to scavenge. When she mistakenly thought she could hit him back. When a rich trader offered Unkar a thousand credits for her. “He just always managed to regret it and buy me back.”

Kylo spun the orange around in his hand. “I didn’t realize.”

“Most of the time it just made me appreciate how, though Unkar was a piece of shit, there are men out there who are a lot worse.” Rey glared at Bartaugh, feeling the bruises on her neck burn. “Men like him.”

“And me?”

Rey looked up at Kylo. The act seemed to shock him, as if he expected her to bite back a thoughtless threat instead of truly considering his question.

Which, for some reason, she found herself doing.

She didn’t despise him, despite all logic and sense indicating that she should. He was lost. He was powerful. And for some reason, perhaps known only to the Force and its most annoying of sycophants, he was drawn to her. Just as much as she was drawn to him.

Rey, of course, would say none of this. Instead, she blinked at him once, then turned away. “I’m still deciding.”

His eyes traveled down to her now exposed neck. Kylo’s eyes grew dark. Focused. She felt her heart pick up speed.

“He laid a hand on you and he’s still alive.” Kylo seemed to be having trouble keeping his hands fisted at his sides. “Why?”

“He has my saber,” she whispered. Rey tugged at her chained wrist. “And these cuffs cut me off completely from the Force. I have nothing to fight him with—“

“You’ve got anger,” Kylo breathed. “And the element of surprise. Look at him.” Kylo laid a gentle hand on her chin to turn her head, and though every good sense within her fought to bite his finger and hiss that she was perfectly capable of seeking the man out herself, for some reason, she didn’t. “You've clearly lured him into a sense of comfort. His back is to you. He’s at ease. Laughing.”

“He has men all around us.” In service to her point, five guards stepped through the door. Causal enough to not cause a scene, but clearly surveying the room. “Including Mio Gessup—“

“Don’t worry about them. Just worry about him.”

”When I go after Bartaugh they’ll come after me—“

”I won’t let them.” Kylo’s words carried a finality Rey couldn’t argue with. It made Rey pause. Pause enough to blink around the finely fashioned occupants of the soirée and back at Kylo.

”What are you even doing here?”

He leaned away, blinking as if he was unaware of how close to her he’d come. ”I was invited.”

”Your father was invited.”

”Is it not my duty to answer invitations in his stead?”

”I think you abandoned that duty by killing him, Kylo Ren.”

”Hush now.” He stepped between her and the room, cornering her against the wall. Effectively cutting her off from the other occupants. “You forget that you are one of a very small group of people who knows who I truly am.”

”I guard that secret for your mother’s sake,” Rey said. “Not yours.”

”It’s mutually beneficial.”

Rey glared. The sound of a loud bell ringing made her jump.

“If you’d all please take your seats,” Bartaugh announced from the head of the table. Her lightsaber dangled like a tease from his hip, “our dinner is about to begin.”

This was not good. This was very not good. Dinner meant bargaining, bargaining meant buying. 

”You’re running out of time, scavenger.” Kylo unhelpfully supplied.

”I know.”

”I’ll stop his men from attacking you, but I won’t kill him. That’s your job—“

”I know!” She hissed.

“What the hell is going on here?”

Rey closed her eyes and sighed. She loved Finn, truly, but he had spectacularly horrible timing.

“It’s okay, Finn,” she said. Rey spied a smirk on Kylo’s face. She gave him a pointed look, begging him to just this once not be the arrogant asshole he always was.

Of course, he did not listen.

“No, no it’s not okay, Rey. Obviously, Finn believes something is wrong.”

“Yeah,” Finn spat. He was standing behind Kylo, peering at him above the man’s collasal shoulder. “And that thing is you.”

Kylo turned to face Finn. “I should’ve killed you on Starkiller,” Kylo said matter of factly. Not a single threat laced his tone, as if he were speaking to a bothersome spider that dwelled in his kitchen.

”Better luck next time.”

Kylo growled and stepped forward.

Rey darted in front of Finn, extending the chain as far as it could go. She held her palm up against Kylo's chest. “There won’t be a next time. Right, Ben?”

Kylo tensed his jaw.

“Is everything alright over there?” Bartaugh called. The trio turned to look at the table, only to find all of its occupants’ eyes, oddly, on them.

“Bargaining,” Kylo said dismissively. He narrowed a glare on Rey, grabbing her wrist and throwing it down. Gesturing to the bruises on her cheek and neck, Kylo huffed to the room. “She’s damaged. You better not cheat me out of what she’s truly worth.”

“The auction will come after dinner, Solo. Please sit, gentlemen.”

Finn sent Kylo a glare and moved toward the table.

“Grab the chain,” Kylo breathed into her ear. She wanted to ask why, and perhaps spit at him as she did it, but even Rey knew there wasn’t time to question it. She gave the chain some slack and grabbed it.

She felt the heat of a lightsaber, smelled the molten plasma, before the sensation quickly disappeared. Kylo was gone from behind her faster than Rey could process. 

She looked down to find the chain connecting her to the wall had been severed.

Kylo caught her eye as he sat. His lips formed a smirk.

She was free.

Her Force was still smothered, but she had the element of surprise. Better yet, she had an audience.

And Kylo. 

“Elsie,” Bartaugh commanded. “It evades me how these men’s glasses could possibly still be empty.”

The girl jumped to start, clumsily filling the men’s goblets with wine. Finn gave her an encouraging nod with a smile, but it was clear the girl was far too skeptical to let it put her at ease. 

“Thank you all for coming, gentlemen. I know the short notice was rather inconvenient. But I assure you, it is well worth it.” Bartaugh took a sip from his goblet. Beside him, Elsie fumbled with pouring the wine into Mio Gessup’s glass. The girl’s terrified eyes met Mio’s the moment his hand came up and slapped her across the face. 

He was no better than Bartaugh. A parrot of his ideas, a man clearly interested in power above all else.

She wouldn’t kill Bartaugh just to let another vile man take his place—just to aid in the exchange of power from a syndicate to the First Order. The truth was that no matter who ran this wretched mine, they would profit off of slavery.

In the end, Rey would marvel at how quickly her resolve settled. Kylo would’ve certainly been proud.

If he could manage to see through his fog of anger.

Because yes, Rey resolved to complete Kylo’s mission. She would kill Bartaugh. She would disrupt the Central Isopter.

But she was doing it her way. 

”What would dinner be without some light entertainment?”

Bartaugh’s voice drew her back to the present. The men feasted in their iron thrones, stuffed to the brim with luxuries beyond what most of the galaxy could even dream. Rey saw it in Elsie’s eyes as she traced the pastries with a trance only intense starvation could cause.

Rey knew it all too well.

”I promised you all a show, and a show you shall get.” Bartaugh nodded at Mio, who grabbed the decanter from Elsie’s hand and dragged her into his lap. A dagger appeared at her neck.

Finn’s eyes flashed at the scene, but he managed to stop himself from intervening. Even Kylo gave the man a look of utter disgust that was quickly followed by understanding as his eyes drifted to Rey.

Bartaugh stood, gesturing to Rey. “Do not be fooled by the appearance of this girl. She is a strong Force user—a menace to the First Order.” He drew her saber and ignited it, to the receptive response of two dozen dropped jaws and wide eyes. “But most of all, she is a Jedi. The very last of her kind. A practitioner of the ancient ways.”

Rey frowned, and against her will, shot Kylo a glance. The version of her Bartaugh described was a far cry from the scrappy, illiterate scavenger girl she truly was. Kylo had folded his hands to rest in front of his lips. When their gazes met, his lips lifted into a smirk—as amused, and bewildered, as she was.

But mostly, Rey felt betrayed. She had never been particularly proud of who she was, of where she came from, but she found herself offended by this erasure. As if who she truly was, wasn’t enough.

Rey may not be a Jedi. She may not be a powerful practitioner of the ancient ways, or a beautiful muse to covet and worship. 

She was Rey. She was a scavenger. She was a pilot, self taught and self made. She was born of a suffering, starving planet, and she survived it. She endured servitude and slaughter, fighting tooth and nail to escape the charred remnants of the battlefield that raised her.

But most of all, Rey was a force to be reckoned with. 

And to servitude, she will never, ever, return.

“I will release her momentarily to give a demonstration of her power.”

”Won’t she attack us?” A rightfully wary patron asked. Bartaugh gave a slight nod to where Mio Gessup dug a knife into a child’s neck.

”Rey’s cooperation is guaranteed,” Mio said. “She is well aware of the consequences of her actions.”

Bartaugh approached Rey, fishing a metal device from his pocket. It was a remote.

“Remember what I told you, Rey,” he whispered. “Behave.”

Resolve was all she felt. Her nerves had flitted away into a burning anger, waiting anxiously to be unleashed. Excitement coarsed her veins. 

She nodded, presumably at Bartaugh. At the last second, her eyes found Kylo.

He returned her stare.

Her cuffs clicked. Bartaugh lowered the remote, keeping himself a wary distance away from her.

The Force flooded her instantly. A roaring eclipsed her features, overwhelming her at once. It was like being enveloped into a warm blanket after hours in the freezing rain—like a full feast after a famine.

Welcome back, Scavenger.

And him.

She felt Kylo Ren as one felt the sun on a cloudless day. His presence lingered just on the outskirts of her own awareness. For a moment, it was impossible to imagine he had ever been her foe.

That he was currently her foe.

Ben, she replied, savoring his scowl. Rey resolved to never let Kylo live down his chosen alias. Don’t let them hurt Elsie.

Kylo glanced at the little girl. I assume that’s its name?

Rey nearly rolled her eyes.

”She will demonstrate her mastery in the Force,” Bartaugh said. He gestured for Rey to perform.

Distracting these idiots would be simple enough. Rey used the Force to lift an apple from the middle of the table, already eliciting a host of “oohs” from the crowd. She lifted a few more fruits and cutlery, easing them all into a cyclical movement and guiding them to the far end of the room.

Sneaking a glance at Bartaugh, he was enveloped in her demonstration— clearly too concerned with whether his guests were interested in her display to notice her easing the butcher knife from the large roasted bird. 

Even Finn barely caught her true intentions. His eyes bugged at her. 

Rey added a flare to her main event by throwing a candle into the mix, but she was feeling her concentration start to waver. It was at that moment that Rey realized she had never actually done anything like this before.

How was she doing this at all?

With her confidence, the objects began to sink. They tumbled to the ground—

—and immediately bounced back up, returning to their movements. 

Baffled, Rey blinked at the room, but they were too entranced by the floating objects to notice her blunder.

I’ve got this, Kylo’s voice eased her mind. Focus on your mission.

The cooked bird joined the display, flapping bare muscled wings that were long roasted off. A round of boisterous laughter circled the room.

Showoff, she replied. 

Kylo nearly forgot to smother his smile.

Rey guided the knife to her hand. At this point, she had prepared for the possibility of doubt entering her mind. Halting her intentions. As she adjusted her hold on the knife, Rey felt nothing but ease.

As she plummeted the knife toward his chest, she felt nothing but justice.

Bartaugh did not scream as he fell. He made to scream, Rey assumed, as his open mouth choked out something similar to that sort. His hand came up to touch his chest, to confirm that his eyes were truthful and that the butcher's knife was, indeed, embedded into his heart.

Her cuffs clicked. Her Force disappeared. His bloodied hands confirmed Rey’s betrayal and clawed for her next. Rey made no move to flinch away. 

That’s when the first scream happened.

And, of course, chaos followed. Guards descended upon the room. Rey ripped the knife from Bartaugh’s chest and reached for the remote in his hand. Somehow, between her stabbing him and his rather immediate death, Bartaugh had managed to reactivate her Force cuffs. 

Just as her fingers made contact with the remote, it flew out of Bartaugh’s hand and into someone else’s. With the Force.

Rey locked eyes with Kylo. At first, she nearly smiled. Amidst the chaos of the room, the individual brawls that had started, she was swept up with the sight of Elsie safe in Kylo’s arms.

He set the child down and Rey heard him telling her to run. Elsie did as he said.

Kylo’s attention was drawn to the remote as he turned it in his hand. Considering.

Then Kylo met Rey’s stare, and shoved it into his pocket.

“No.” She rushed toward him, but someone blocked her path. 

It seemed Mio Gessup had quite a few enemies. His left eye shined with a fresh bruise, his mouth dibbled blood, and one of his front teeth, that Rey was quite certain had been there just this morning, was missing.

”Your mission is done,” he huffed with a lisp. Mio shoved her toward the door. “Go, before Kylo Ren hears of the chaos you caused.”

“You knew?” Rey gaped, breathless. “You knew I was here to kill Bartaugh?”

”Of course I bloody knew, you bitch. There’s only one way you rise through the ranks in this business.”

Over Mio’s shoulder, Kylo was true to his word and fighting off the guards that were seemingly headed for her. Some others joined in their assault of him—most likely opportunists with a bone to pick with Han Solo.

Finn wasn’t far away, settled into his own skirmish with the still raging Rodian. 

“Did you contract the First Order to kill Bartaugh, or did they approach you?” Rey didn’t really know why she cared. Both answers would condemn Kylo Ren, and by extension, Rey herself. 

He spit out a wad of blood. It left a trail on his chin. “They approached me. But I wasn’t opposed.”

Curiosity satisfied, Rey flipped the bloody butcher knife into her hand.

Mio’s eyes bugged. “Your orders were to leave me alive.”

Rey approached him. Like a bumbling coward, Mio scrambled away. “Stop!” He yelled. “Stop, Kylo Ren said you’re not supposed to kill me! Those aren’t your orders!”

”I don’t take orders from Kylo Ren.”

As if summoned, Kylo whirled to face Rey. Seeing her intention, he ended his fight with two solid punches that instantly blacked out his opponents.

Why he hadn’t done that in the first place, Rey would wonder later.

”What are you doing, Rey?” Kylo yelled from across the room.

Mio, apparently too skittish to allow her to advance any more, decided to pounce. She dodged his attack easily, building a Force landscape in her mind of the fight at hand. Oddly, it was harder to do without her eyes blinded, as shed only ever done it that way. Still, she built it expertly and soon she could sense Mio’s every attack before it happened. 

Rey teased him for a while. She allowed him three missed punches before Rey kicked his leg out from under him and pinned him to the ground with her boot on his chest.

Kylo reached her side and grabbed her arm. “This isn’t your mission.”

She shoved him off. “He’s just as bad as Bartaugh.”

“Every man in this room is as bad as Bartaugh,” Kylo hissed. “Are you going to slaughter them, too?”

Rey whirled at him. His hazel eyes trapped hers. For a long moment, with the haze of battle lingering between their heavy breaths, they stayed there, both refusing to yield.

A hoard of footsteps. So loud and powerful, Rey was almost convinced she’d imagined it.

”Holy shit,” Finn breathed.

Until she looked up, and saw a mop of red hair.

Behind Elsie, crowding the hallway as far as Rey could see, were hundreds of Bartaugh’s slaves. Everyone, including Bartaugh’s guards, seemed to still.

Rey turned to Kylo. “No, I won’t,” she said. Rey flung the butcher knife at one of the slave’s feet. She was a middle aged woman with matted hair and a scar where her right eye should’ve been. The woman bent down and yanked the knife from the floor.

She examined the blade, then her eyes found Mio Gessup on the floor at Rey’s feet, shaking and bleeding. Helpless.

Vulnerable.

Rey smiled and said, ”They will.”

The slaves rushed the room. The guards broke out of their confused stupor. Four of them went after the slaves. 

The other ten ran straight for Rey.

”Time to go!” Finn yelled. He grabbed the collar of Rey’s dress and pulled her to the door. Kylo corralled her after Finn in an odd show of cooperation that surely made both men furious.

As she stumbled past corpse, she ducked beneath Kylo’s arm and slipped the lightsaber from Bartaugh’s belt. Missing her own weapons belt, Rey stood and clipped it to Kylo’s.

”Wait!” One of the slaves called. Rey looked at the slave over Kylo’s colossal form. He lifted his hand, his palm facing inward. A few of the others mirrored the gesture—Rey assumed it was a sign of gratitude. The slave shouted, “thank you!”

Rey had roughly three steps to calculate her reply. What she said in this moment, with hundreds of freed slaves handling off of her words, meant something. She mulled over the options in her mind, perhaps lingering too long on her anger for Kylo Ren. 

So she shouted the one thing that would piss him off the most.

”Thank the Resistance!”

Kylo was still facing her, gently guiding her out of the door, when his eyes grew wide. His face twisted, and in an instant, Rey was over his shoulder being roughly carried away. 

Cheers and screams erupted in her wake. Rey smiled against the fabric of Kylo’s shirt.

She heard Finn’s protests mingle with her own. Her fists beat against Kylo’s back, which was just about as effective as trying to chip away at a boulder with a chopstick. The guards were close in their heels, and Kylo Ren must’ve finally gotten that into his thick head, as he finally dropped her and let her run on her own.

Reys feet were quick to settle into stride with the boys.

“Where the hell are we going?” Finn shouted. He was running back toward the cells. 

“No, not that way,” Rey grabbed his sleeve and turned them down the opposite cave. A host of blaster shots hit just above their heads, sending Rey and Kylo into a crouch. 

“This way!” She yelled, pulling Finn, who was presently ducking behind a boulder, after her.

There was one other way out that Rey knew of. It was an insane, reckless escape, but an escape nonetheless.

She took a corner too fast and stumbled. Kylo righted her, taking a moment to shove her into the wall and rage.

“Thank the Resistance?”

Rey glared up at him. “Give me back the Force.”

He had something else in his mind—an intention she didn’t understand. Not without the Force. “No.”

She reached for his pocket and he caught her wrist, pinning it to the wall.

“Hey, let go of her—“ Finn protested as Rey hissed, “—we don’t have time for this.”

Kylo was strategic beneath his layers of rage, so he understood their predicament enough to let her go.

With one last glare, she led them around a corner, where one of Bartaugh’s men greeted her with a punch. She saw stars and stumbled away, watching the flash of Kylo Ren rush forward and snap the man’s neck.

“Holy shi—“

Rey interrupted Finn by grabbing his shirt collar and dragging him past the corpse. Kylo followed.

“Please tell me you have an escape plan,” Kylo called from behind her. She sped around the final corner, racing down the corridor until finally, blissfully, the cavernous mine appeared before her.

The scaffolding was empty, likely abandoned by the very slaves that had stormed the banquet room. The bodies of five guards floated facedown in the lake below. Lifeless.

Her momentum nearly propelled her off of the cliff, but she had just enough sense to slide to a stop. Kylo, on the other hand, barreled directly into her. She toppled forward, pitching over the edge. Kylo’s arm circled her waist and hauled her back over the edge.

She heaved exhausted breaths and said, “I have an escape plan.”

Rey couldn’t see Kylo, but she interpreted his long, tense silence well enough. “Okay, let me rephrase,” he said. “Please tell me you have a good escape plan.”

She couldn't, of course, so she said nothing. 

“Woah, woah, woah,” Finn huffed out a nervous laugh. “You want us to jump?”

At her silence, Kylo spun her around by her shoulder, raising a brow.

“Rey,” he said, impatient. 

“I didn’t have very much to work with!”

He raised a brow.

Rey shoved him away. “If you wanted a perfectly executed assassination and escape plan then you should’ve offered yourself up to be sold like cattle.”

“I was busy.”

“You can’t be serious.”

His eyes traveled down the ravine behind her, widening at the lake below. “Yeah, I wish I wasn’t.”

“We’ll die,” Finn said.

“Have a little faith, Finn.”

Rey followed Kylo’s gaze. A slew of blaster bolts rang out behind them. The guards were close—too close. 

“Can you even swim?” Kylo asked.

Rey swallowed and looked up at him. “How hard can it be?”

“Rey—“

“It’s either this or facing fifty of Bartaugh’s men.”

“We could take fifty,” he said. Kylo looked at her. “You and I.”

Rey ignored his faith in her and how it ignited something so neglected, it physically pained her.

“If I had the Force, maybe.” Rey let the words settle heavily. “So give it back.”

Was it a power play? Did he like having her relying on him, in this as in everything else? Rey hated not understanding Kylo Ren. That wasn’t how he worked.

Kylo ground his jaw and returned her glare. “No.”

“Fine,” Rey said with the most rage she’d ever felt. “I will not beg, Kylo Ren.”

Kylo sighed, staring down the cliff like it was his coffin. Rey took a deep breath and spun around.

“Do me a favor, boys,” she said to the abyss, “don’t let me drown.”

Finn clapped her on the back. “I’ve got you, Rey.”

She gave him a tight lipped smile, but it was Kylo she looked at.

His eyes were raging. Dark. Shoulders pulsing as if she’d just wished him a painful death. After a moment he nodded. She nodded back.

She hated him at this moment, but their understanding stretched beyond that. He would not let her die—at least not like this.

Kylo glanced at Finn. “Traitors first.”

Rey rolled her eyes. “Kylo—“

“Nice of you to volunteer yourself,” Finn shot back.

“I’ve never betrayed anyone, rebel scum.”

Rey glanced nervously at the hallway behind them. The shots growing closer and closer by the second. “Guys—“

“Except for your master. Oh, and your mother—“

“Don’t you dare speak of my mother.”

“I will speak of General Organa whenever I please,” Finn hissed.

“I’ll cut that traitor tongue out of your—“

A muffled splash interrupted Kylo’s fury. 

Kylo and Finn looked at each other. Then they looked down—

—into the white, foamy disturbance on the lake’s surface. 

“Rey!” Finn yelled.

But Kylo was already sailing toward the surface. He swore a dozen times as he plummeted to the lake below, cursing every Jedi and Sith master along the way. Every deity that ever claimed to be a God. How the kriff he’d become the kind of man who thoughtlessly leaped off of treacherously high cliffs for a girl, the Scavenger, no less…

Well, he couldn’t ponder much longer, as he was suddenly surrounded by freezing cold water. 

But he did not resurface.

He dove further down, watching the scavengers blurry frame sink lower and lower. She was kicking and flapping her arms in a way that almost resembled swimming —obviously not enough to truly propel her. 

He reached her within moments and grabbed her around the waist. She was light enough to hold with one arm as his other pulled them both to the surface.

They emerged with a heavy, strained intake of breaths.

Rey blinked the water from her eyes. Then she grinned. “Was that so terrible?”

Kylo almost smiled, but he was interrupted by the traitor’s pathetic scream as he splashed into the water beside them. 

The surface almost calmed before Finn’s thumbs up breached the surface. Kylo felt Rey’s giggle through her chest.

His anger roared.

“There,” she said. “We all survived.”

Kylo treaded water with his legs and guided Rey to his back. She rested her hands on his shoulders.

“I saw a tunnel back there bleeding light,” she called loud enough for both Kylo and Finn to hear it, “it should lead us out of here.”

A blaster bolt struck the lake’s surface, barely an inch from Kylo’s nose.

“Go!” Finn inhaled deeply and plunged beneath the water.

“Hold onto my waist,” Kylo calmly instructed. Shots struck the water all around them. “Do me a favor and kick a little bit, yeah?”

Rey nodded.

“Take a deep breath.”

He waited, despite the raining bolts. Despite the shouting of Bartaugh’s men above. He waited until she took a full, deep breath, and nodded.

Kylo plunged below. Rey circled his waist with her arms, holding him tightly as his feet kicked below her. He was fast. So fast that the water felt thick against her face.

Rey was used to admiring Kylo’s strength. It was one of the many things one truly couldn’t miss about the man. But watching his arms effortlessly pull the water, propelling them both forward with remarkable speed…it was breathtaking.

That, and she truly couldn’t breathe. 

Her lungs began to ache and she forced her feet to kick like he instructed. She couldn’t possibly be helping that much, but the muscles in his neck seemed to strain a lot less as she did it. Finally, blissfully, Kylo began swimming up towards the surface, just as her vision was starting to go black around the edges.

They emerged into light. 

Her lungs selfishly inhaled as much air as they could. Rey distantly heard Kylo do the same. Her hands found his shoulders; his strong, offensively muscled shoulders, and let him guide her to the shore.

Rocky bits of sand clumped beneath her palms and knees as she crawled onto shore. She inhaled, coughed, sputtered, and collapsed down onto the sand.

Rey blinked at the sky. “We’re alive.”

“You’re an idiot.”

She glanced at Kylo. “You followed me. If I’m an idiot, so are you.”

Rey could have sworn she spied a grin on his face before he shook his head and hid it away. “You were going to drown.”

“You say that as if it bothers you.”

Kylo blinked up at her. His hair dripped water all down his rather nice sweater. The locs that weren’t tousled about in a way that was annoyingly endearing were stuck to his forehead and cheeks. “After everything we’ve been through, you and I,” he said, “you truly think it doesn’t?”

Perhaps Rey misheard him. Perhaps she truly did drown, and this was that afterlife thing people at the outpost talked so much about. It had to be—because in no universe did Kylo Ren just say something so overtly…kind.

“So—“ Rey was interrupted by a fit of very conveniently timed coughs as she sat up. Kylo silently did the same. “Did I pass your stupid trial?”

Kylo smirked at her blatant discomfort. 

“You somehow managed to complete our mission, kill our planned successor, and send hundreds of new inspired bodies to fight for the Resistance.” Kylo leaned back on his hands and examined the lake’s calm surface. “You rendered your trial completely useless to us, and entirely beneficial to you.”

Rey blinked. “Is that a yes?”

Kylo shook his head. And then, the briefest of smiles snuck onto his face. “Yes.”

The relief she felt was odd. Yes, she was glad to escape Snoke’s punishment. Glad to avoid any repercussions from Kylo. 

But something gnawed at her. Rey frowned at the calm surface of the lake.

“The Resistance gave Bartaugh ten thousand credits.”

For their safety. For their shelter.

“Yes,” Kylo answered, even though it hadn’t been a question.

“They funded his operation,” she said. “His slavery.”

She knew they’d have some excuse that made a morsel of sense. The big picture. The good of the galaxy. The Resistance was a couple hundred souls strong. Leia must’ve thought the trade was worth it.

But seeing these slaves…these innocent people…Rey couldn’t muster up the sense to defend her.

“Everything’s a transaction, Scavenger.”

Rey huffed and scooped up a fistful of sand. They both watched the grains slip through her fingers.

“Was this all part of your plan?” She asked. “For me to see the ugly dealings of the Resistance? That it would leave me crawling into your grasp?”

“Not deliberately.” He was nonchalant in dragging the heel of his boot through the sand. “It did turn out to be quite convenient, though.”

Convenient was the opposite of what Rey was feeling.

“I don’t know what to believe.”

“You feel betrayed,” Kylo noted after a stretch of silence.

She did not reply. Which to Kylo was answer enough.

“Never covet cowards. Make that your first lesson in unweaving your indoctrination.”

“They aren’t cowards.“

“They funded a black market trade—the very one you were sold into indentured servitude through—“

“And I’m not indoctrinated—“

“For kriff sake, Rey, have some fucking respect for yourself!”

She pulled away from him. Eyes wide.

“Sorry, I…” Kylo cleared his throat, throwing an anxious look over his shoulder. “All I meant was you need to free your mind of these notions the Resistance put into your head about good and evil. You of all people should understand how vile the dealings of skin traders can be—“

“Do not use my past to manipulate your narrative,” Rey seethed. “Yes, the Resistance paid off those monsters. And yes that…disturbs me. But the First Order allows its continued existence. Thrives on it, even. You presently have the power to end every ounce of suffering you see, and yet you don’t.” 

She didn’t mean to keep going—but now that she was speaking, Rey couldn’t seem to stop. “Bartaugh knew you by name. You proposed Mio Gessup be placed in charge—a man equally as vile as Bartaugh. You profit off of his slavery. You send thousands of vulnerable people into the grasp of slavers by making refugees of half the galaxy. Most of the people sheltering on Leesis were displaced by your forces. How dare you look me in the eye and pretend you are good for this galaxy?“

She was breathing hard by the time her senses slammed her lips shut. Kylo, on the other hand, hadn’t moved a muscle.

“I never said we were good. All I meant was that the Resistance may not be, either.” He looked as if he wished to say a million different things, and was forced to settle on this. “Unlike your Resistance, I have never tried to hide what I am. And I never will.  Not from you.”

Rey despised that she believed him. “That’s quite the promise”

“It’s the least you deserve.”

”Careful, Kylo.” She meant to tease, but her voice came out sad. “You’re starting to sound like a saint.”

“It’s a war, scavenger. There are no saints here.”

A series of frantic splashes drew both of their attention toward the far side of the sand, where Finn stumbled, soaking wet and limping, up the shore.

“Finn!” She called. Rey clamored to a stand, rushing to meet him halfway. She breathed out her relief and threw her arms around him. “You’re okay.”

He scoffed. “Yeah, no thanks to you. That’s the second time I’ve almost died with you, Rey. I’m starting to think you’re bad luck.”

Rey laughed. Finn cupped her cheek with a look of utter relief. All too soon, his face fell.

”Rey, I need to tell you—“

A hum shook her feet, the roar of engines overwhelming her senses. Finns eyes bugged, caught on something over her shoulder. She turned and watched Kylo Ren’s command shuttle approach, stopping in a hover over the beach.

Kylo stood. The wind whipped his wet hair. Behind him, his command shuttle descended with a loud roar.

“Come with me, Rey,” Kylo said. “Now.”

Rey stepped in front of Finn. “What is this?”

Finn grabbed her hand. “We have to go—“

Kylo’s saber ignited. She hadn’t even seen him unsheathe the hilt. “Stay where you are, traitor.”

“Kylo,” Rey held out her arm, a gesture to stay his hand. “What are you doing?”

The command shuttle landed behind him. The ramp slowly lowered, allowing for the Knights of Ren to spill out onto the beach.

On instinct, Rey attempted to reach out with the Force, only to remember she was still cuffed. Her lightsaber dangled mockingly from Kylo’s belt.

“I won’t ask you again, Rey. Come with me back to the Supremacy.”

Rey furrowed her brows, watching the Knights of Ren place themselves in strategic positions around her. Ushar took Kylo’s flank.

Cardo stopped only a few feet from her side. She was unable to read anything underneath his blank helm. 

“I don’t understand. I have to.” She turned to face Kylo. “I don’t have a choice, the ceasefire—“

“Is done,” Finn said. Rey whirled to face him.

“What?”

“They attacked, we attacked, it doesn’t matter. Either way,” Finn said, “there’s no more agreement. The First Order and the Resistance are back to murdering each other.”

Rey felt the anger rise inside her. The rage. She faced Kylo once more. “You said if the ceasefire was broken I would get to go home.”

“I did,” he said. His saber crackled. Behind him, Ushar and Kuruk advanced.

But Rey was not scared of them. Not anymore. She had killed with her bare hands—left injured men to angry mobs for the slaughter.

“So let me go.”

Kylo took a step toward her. Rey did not retreat.

“I can’t do that, Rey.” His intention was clear enough in his stare—selfish. Thirsty for more than he ever deserved.

She had no weapons. No use of the Force. Nothing but her bare hands. Suddenly, she was a child again, covered in sand and dirt—at the mercy of a man who forced powerlessness upon her.

“Thats why you took the remote,” she said, with a calm power she didn’t even know she was capable of. “You knew I would fight you. You knew that once I discovered the ceasefire was over, I would never return with you. You took away my power so I couldn’t fight back.”

Kylo did not acknowledge her conclusion. He did not need to.

“You’re a coward,” Rey spat. She swept her eyes along the Knights, lingering on Cardo. “All of you follow a coward.”

Kylo’s face twisted into fury. “We don’t want to hurt you, Rey—“

“Finn, run.”

Her friend didn’t move, stepping closer to her side. “I’m not leaving you.”

”Run, you idiot!” She hissed at him.

He hissed back, ”thats not the plan!”

Rey’s stomach dropped. “No,” she breathed, grabbing Finn’s hand. “Please tell me you’re not this stupid—“

“I would, but then I’d be lying.”

“Snoke has plans for you yet. This ceasefire,” Kylo took a step toward her, and Rey forced herself to move away from Finn’s side, “it was always going to end this way. Do not fight it.” Kylo extended his hand. “You belong at my side. As my apprentice—“

“As your prisoner.”

Kylo took a moment to simply sigh. “One last chance, Scavenger.”

The wind whistled between them in a delicate dance. Rey let it build the silence, lifting her chin and holding his stare. 

It was clear enough in his eyes, the eyes that still looked upon her with the kindness and hope that he normally did, that he was pained. The eyes that were so close to fooling her into believing he could ever truly care for her.

Kylo curled his outstretched hand into a fist. “So be it.”

His red, crackling lightsaber rose to meet her. Despite her best efforts, Rey flinched at its smoldering heat—surely one more centimeter and it would melt the skin off her cheeks.

For a few furious breaths, they stayed like this. Kylo, pointing his unstable saber at Rey’s chest. And Rey, as always, refusing to yield to his will.

They were nothing if not predictable.

“You didn’t have to be my prisoner. It didn’t have to be this way,” Kylo said.

“I would’ve never gone with you willingly.”

Genuine hurt flashed in his eyes. “Never,” he repeated. 

Rey leaned closer, cringing at the heat of his saber, unwilling to let it deter her. Just minutes ago, they were existing together, comfortably, sinking into the sand, nothing other than grateful to be alive. 

Alive together.

You were going to drown.

You say that as if it bothers you.

Kylo tightened his grip on the saber.

After everything we’ve been through, you and I, you truly think it doesn’t?

“Never,” she said. 

A muscle in Kylo’s jaw tightened. He lowered the saber. “Take them both.”

The Knights of Ren were too quick to fight. Cardo grabbed her arm, and she spun to swing at the weak spot in his armor—just below the helm. Her aim was true, causing the man to double over into a cough.

She may be powerless and unarmed, but Kylo seemed to have forgotten that this was how she’d existed for the last 19 years. 

Finn was overpowered by Kuruk and led away in cuffs. Rey let her anger drive a kick to Cardo’s knee that send him tumbling to the ground.

It seemed Kylo Ren had little patience for her fight. As soon as Cardo was sputtering, Kylo wrapped his arms around her chest and waist, trapping her arms to her sides, and dragged her to the shuttle.

Finn was already in cuffs. Kuruk and Ushar had made quick work of securing his compliance, leaving him moaning in a ball on the floor of the cargo bay. Kylo stopped, intending to discard her next to him. 

The engine roared to life. The shuttle jerked, taking off into the atmosphere.

“Cardo,” Kylo ordered, “fetch me a pair of cuffs.”

Cardo hesitated. It was a quick act of insolence—one that would’ve been easily mistaken as something harmless to anyone who hadn’t watched the intimate operations of the Knights of Ren. Cardo’s helm glided between Rey and Kylo, settling far longer on the latter, before he reached into one of the supply bags and tossed the metal cuffs at Kylo’s feet.

It was clear Kylo sensed Cardo’s unease. He dragged the cuffs from the durasteel floor and guided them to Rey’s wrists—

—only to discover that they would fail to secure over the existing cuffs. Bartaugh’s Force suppressing cuffs.

”Oh dear,” Rey had no idea where her sudden humor had surfaced from. Perhaps seeing Kylo Ren puzzled made her far more giddy than she ever realized. “I guess you’ll have to deactivate the cuffs.”

Kylo did not find her joke funny. His sharp jaw tensed and he reached over to a loose rope that had been resting atop one of the cargo bins. Grabbing her wrists into his hand, he yanked her to the wall and secured the rope thrice over her wrists, tying it securely around a support beam.

He lowered his face until it was inches from hers. “You’ve made this incredibly more difficult than it needed to be.”

Rey set her jaw to hide the rising anxiety. “Let Finn go.”

Kylo huffed. If Rey hadn’t known any better, she would’ve sworn the look in his eyes was jealousy.

“No. He will be my prisoner. You'll need motivation now that the proverbial gun against your head is gone.”

“It’s not gone. The ceasefire was only one aspect of it.” Rey tugged at her wrists, but the rope was secure. “Snoke’s timeline still stands. You don’t need Finn as leverage when my own death is what’s at stake.”

“I know you, Scavenger. You’d gladly die to ensure the traitor lives.” His gaze passed over her in searing judgement. “You’d die for the ones you hold dear.”

Rey frowned. She knew the cost of a life. Unkar had deemed it worth precisely two hundred portions. 

That meant something to her once. Two hundred portions had been a fortune.

It was shocking, how meaningless it was now. Now that her life had meaning.

She gave her life for the Resistance once, and she found resentment had grown in the space they’d left. But she’d rather her life be taken than Finn’s. Than Poe’s. Than Leia’s. That was no question.

“I would,” came her reply.

Kylo blinked down at her. Marveling, perhaps, at her utter stupidity. “A girl who would gladly die for those who have done so little to earn it.”

“They’ve done enough,” she hissed. “They fight for something. That’s more than you can say.”

“I fought for you, didn’t I?”

Rey hadn’t noticed his sharp glare mold into something soft. He’d breathed it, so quietly, Rey could’ve dreamed he’d even said it at all.

“Haven’t you been listening?” Rey said. “My life means nothing to me.”

In an instant, the rage returned. “You won’t convince me to free him, Scavenger.”

“I will not train with you until you let him go—“

Kylo slammed his fist against the wall, less than an inch from her head.

“You will,” he hissed, “do exactly as you are told.”

Rey lifted her chin. “No.”

Kylo’s burning gaze traveled the length of her face. “You will not only eat your words,” he breathed, eyes finding hers, “but you will choke on them. I will see to that personally.”

“You sound like Bartaugh.”

A lock of hair fell into Kylo’s eyes. “Like calls to like.”

Her heart picked up speed, but Kylo was soon gone, slamming the door of the cockpit behind him. Rey breathed out a heavy exhale, sliding to the floor.

“Well shit,” Finn said, scooting across the floor to her side. Rey glanced at their ‘guard’, Cardo, who swiftly removed his helmet and plopped it on the seat next to him. With a single glance, he made it clear to Rey that he had no intention of guarding her at all.

She would’ve sent him a grateful smile, but he’d arrested her without protest. Instead she looked away, and graced him with the absence of her glare.

“I told you,” Rey muttered, “I didn’t want you anywhere near the Supremacy. I told you and Poe to stay away.”

Finn raised a brow. “Do you think there is any universe in which you can dissuade Poe Dameron?”

Rey smirked. No. No, there wasn’t.

“Still, I wasn’t expecting you to be so eager to return to the First Order.”

“Trust me,” Finn visibly shuddered. “Kylo Ren's personal command shuttle is the second to last place I’d ever want to be.”

“What’s the last?”

“In your shoes.” Finn shrugged. “No offense.”

Rey puffed out her cheeks, staring at the cockpit door. Waiting for Kylo Ren to emerge with yet another outburst. “None taken. In fact, I couldn't agree more.”

An unsettling silence passed. Though beyond angry at Finn and his apparent stupidity, she couldn’t deny the inherent comfort she felt at his side. His presence alone put her at ease.

An ease that shattered as soon as they exited lightspeed.

The Supremacy lurked ahead.

“You should’ve run away, Finn,” Rey breathed. “I can’t—I won’t be able to protect you.”

“Don’t worry about me in there. Just worry about yourself.”

The Knights began to collect their gear, shuffling around Rey and Finn as if they were nothing more than cargo themselves.

“What’s the plan?” She rushed to ask. “What am I supposed to do?”

“Don’t do anything,” Finn whispered. “When we need you, you’ll know.”

This was suicide. She could almost see it—Rey and Finn, together before a firing squad. And that was only if Kylo Ren didn’t kill her himself.

Wait.

“We?”

Kylo chose that moment to thunder out of the cockpit and swallow her whole—igniting his saber just to burn the rope from her wrists.

A tad dramatic, Rey wanted to point out.

The ramp lowered to reveal the usual greeting party of an unnecessary amount of stormtroopers and officers. Kuruk led Finn down, followed by Cardo. Kylo stopped at the top of the ramp and regarded Rey with a cold stare. 

His mask was still off.

He never showed his face on the Supremacy.

“Ushar,” Kylo said without breaking her stare. Rey couldn’t help but let the fear eclipse her face. 

The man appeared at her side. “Yes, master?”

“Escort Rey to the cells. I’ll be close behind.”

Ushar grabbed her arms in an already bruising grip. “I’d be happy to, Master.”

“Hux,” Kylo acknowledged. Odd of him to even notice the officer’s existence. “Send word to Snoke that we have a new guest.” Kylo followed Ushar and Rey until they stood at the bottom of the ramp. “And inform the Supreme Leader that this prisoner will greatly aid in Rey’s…cooperation.” 

Finn shot a terrified look over his shoulder.

“Yes, sir,” said Hux. “Will you be requiring an interrogation chamber?”

Finn’s eyes bugged.

“In due time, Hux.”

Hux nodded, and the officer joined Kuruk leading the path to the cells. Kylo peeled away from the crowd and exited without a single glance in her direction.

The entire journey, Ushar was relentless. While Kuruk merely pulled Finn along in front of Rey, Ushar grabbed the back of her neck and roughly guided her with so much force, she practically stumbled the whole way there. 

At one point, the entourage all crammed into a turbo lift. It was hardly big enough. Rey found herself sandwiched between two of the stormtrooper escorts. 

Finn glanced at Rey.

“You’d think they’d put the cells somewhere a bit more accessible—“

“Shut up, Finn.”

Finn ignored Rey’s warning. “Just seems a bit inconvenient, that’s all—“

His sentence was interrupted by Ushar punching Finn in the face.

“Stop!” Rey shouted, only to find herself shoved up against the wall of the turbo lift with Ushar’s hand around her neck. Choking her. One of the stormtroopers made to step in between them, but clearly thought better than to intervene.

“I’m not done with you, desert bitch,” he hissed. “I’ll make sure you regret leaving me alive on Leesis.”

“I already do,” Rey choked out.

“Good.”

Ushar dropped her as the Turbolift dinged and opened.

Finn was quickly deposited in a cell. A bucket was thrown at him, hitting the man with a painful crash and a loud oof.

Ushar dragged Rey personally into the cell she’d previously stayed in. The rough blanket was still strewn on the cot, discarded just below two large divots in the steel wall. Her memory flashed to the night Kylo Ren had spent watching over her. 

It was not the same Kylo Ren that stalked in now. He and Ushar stood flanking her cell door. Staring down at her. He donned his helmet now. It made everything about Kylo Ren seem so…stiff.

A single stormtrooper, a poor soul with the misfortune of being her cell guard, stood a step behind the Knights.

Kylo tossed a black ensemble of fabrics at her.

“Get dressed,” he ordered.

“Get fucked,” she replied.

Ushar grinned. “She bites back. I see your powerlessness hasn’t made you any less bold—“

“Shut up, Ushar,” Kylo said, as if bored. Rey lifted an amused brow at Ushar. Content with his admonishment. “Snoke awaits your presence.”

“Then he can await me.” Rey kicked the fabric away. “I will not talk to him. Nor will I talk to you.”

“Is that any way to speak to your master?”

“You are not my master. You are my captor. You cannot, in good faith, be both.”

Even the great Kylo Ren seemed unable to counter that. 

“If you’re not ready in three minutes, I will strip and dress you myself.” Kylo motioned to the stormtrooper. “Keep an eye on her.”

“While I dress?”

“We’ve discussed this at length, scavenger. You lost your right to privacy when you escaped on Leesis.”

Then he was gone, taking Ushar with him. 

The silence Kylo Ren left behind was deafening. Rey couldn’t stand it. Her head hurt from the whiplash of the day. She supposed that was the curse of Kylo Ren. A cloudless sky one moment, and a hurricane the next.

All she could think to do was focus on what to do now. She had to escape. Snoke would no doubt be thrilled to hear about her murderous rampage on Leesis, seeing it as a willingness to succumb to the dark. 

She figured she had only been spared from the spiral of darkness up to this point because of the Force’s complete absence. Rey supposed she had Bartaugh to thank for that.

The stormtrooper, who Rey nearly entirely forgot about, took a step forward.

“Touch me and I’ll break your jaw,” she snapped.

The stormtrooper halted. He looked from one end of the cell to the other before peeking through the bars. Then, strangely, he reached for his helmet and pulled it off.

“Rey, sweetheart,” Poe Dameron said with a smile. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

Chapter Text

If Rey had any connection to the Force at all, she’d probably be strangling Poe out of pure frustration. Alas, she could not, so Rey settled on dropping her head into her hands with a groan.

“Don’t look too excited to see me.” How Poe’s brain fit into his head with all the sarcasm in there, Rey could only wonder. “People will think it suspicious.”

“How the kriff are you here?” 

“I charmed my way in.” Poe ran a gloved hand through unruly curls. “What can I say? I’m irresistible.”

Rey glared up at him. “I disagree.”

“You knew we were planning this, Rey.”

It was a bad idea then, on Leesis, so desperate the Resistance was hiding out in the tunnels beneath an outlaw city. And it was a bad idea now. To disguise her anger as much as possible, she snatched the clothing from its heap and began to lay it out. A black breastband. A dark gray training tunic and loose black trousers.

“I knew you were planning a boarding party,” she whispered in a low hiss, “I just didn’t think you two idiots would be dumb enough to do it.”

“You flatter me with your kind words.”

Rey turned her back to him and furiously began to change. Poe had the decency to fix his gaze on the floor as she stripped off the sandy, wet dress. Without much of a choice, she wiped the coarse blanket over her clammy skin, allowing it to soak up whatever moisture it could. 

Rey also noted how the warm comfort Finn and Poe’s presence usually provided was entirely gone, replaced with a frustrated rage. Why couldn’t they have just listened to her?

“I know you’re upset—“

“Upset doesn’t begin to cover it.”

“Like we said on Leesis, we had no other choice.”

“Kylo Ren knows the both of you personally.” She struggled to fit the breastband over her sore shoulders. In fact, every muscle in her body was sore and shaking. “Did nobody in the Resistance think to send someone in undercover?”

“I’m undercover.”

“You’re Poe Dameron! Ace resistance pilot and desirable fugitive.” Rey slipped on the trousers, satisfied she was decent enough to turn and face Poe. “Finn’s a deserter, for kriff sake. Why couldn’t it have been Rose? Or Connix? Hell, even BB-8 would make a better operative than you two!”

“No one else volunteered.”

Her breath stalled. “What?”

“I’m sorry, Rey. Finn and I…we were the only two who offered to go.”

Rey took a moment. 

A long moment. A burning ache rose in her throat. A sting in her eyes that made the shame rush through her body and sober her.

It took a considerable amount of effort to remind herself to pull on her top and say, “Leia could’ve forced someone else to go.”

“You’ve been spending too much time with Kylo Ren.” Poe meant to remark with levity, but clearly miscalculated. His sharp smile fell. “The Resistance doesn’t force people to do anything, Rey.”

“They forced me.”

To this, Poe had no reply. His stare matched hers, and in it contained the multitude of emotions jumping between them. Poe and Finn were her best friends. Her family. They’d proven as much by coming here. By giving a damn.

But it all felt so…transactional. They were here for the Resistance, not her. And Rey knew that if it came down to it, they would struggle to choose which cause meant more to them. 

Poe interrupted her spiraling thoughts by closing the space between them.

“We don’t have much time. Kylo will be back in less than a minute,” he said quickly. “Finn and I will come to you when it’s time to put the plan in motion.” He spied Rey sneaking a nervous glance at the camera. “We can speak freely in this cell—I’ve disabled the audio and video.”

“How long until your plan is ready?”

“I’m afraid I’ve already said too much. With you so close to Snoke and Kylo, we can’t risk them finding out.”

Rey scoffed. “You think I’ll tell them?”

“I think if they’re suspicious, you won’t have a choice.”

Rey gave her forehead an absent touch. Stop being so damned sensitive, Rey. “You’re right. Knowing you’re here is already a risk. Snoke might sense my unease.”

“Then for my sake, Rey, I hope you’re a fantastic liar.”

Rey’s lips lifted in a sad smirk. “I have my moments.”

Poe gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze. Though her injury felt better now, it still made her wince. Her mind still spun circles around itself, weaving the relief between the betrayal and trying to figure out which mattered more. Which was Snoke’s darkness trying to poison her thoughts. 

And within it all, there was an errant thought that Rey almost let die on her tongue. Almost. She revived it just as Poe headed toward her cell door.

“Poe.”

He stopped and turned to face her.

”Did Leia send Finn to the auction to ensure Kylo captured me?”

A beat. He remained oddly still. “Why would you ask that?”

“Because the ceasefire was over, which didn’t guarantee I’d return with Kylo Ren. You had already infiltrated the Supremacy by the time I arrived. If I had escaped from Kylo, back on Leesis, it would have rendered this entire mission useless.”

It hadn’t made sense for Finn to be there at all. He should’ve retreated with the rest of the Resistance, yet there he was. 

“Did Finn refuse to run because he wanted me to fight Kylo and lose? Did he sabotage my escape so he could get captured as well?” She continued.

Poe stood there, as silent as she’d ever seen the man, before he finally cleared his throat. “Leia’s methods are unorthodox—“

“For once, Poe, please just be honest with me. I believe I am owed as much.”

“Yes.” He didn’t talk around the confession. For once. “His orders were to ensure his own capture and imprisonment,” Poe said. “As well as yours.”

Dread flushed her cheeks red. She had to remind herself that she was in a war. That she was no General or Commander. No Supreme Leader or Knight. She was Rey no one from nowhere. And she was now, as she always had been, a pawn.

”But now that the ceasefire is over, we’ll open an escape route for you. Once our mission is complete, you’ll come back with us—”

”Now that the ceasefire is over, I’ll have far less access than you. Kylo wont let me anywhere near his holotable—“

”You have to figure out a way, Rey. He’d much sooner let you in there than me or Finn. The fate of the Resistance lies in your hands.”

”Well I don’t want it!” She snapped.

Poe gave her a stern look. “You don't mean that.”

She didn’t think she meant it. Once, maybe, Rey dreamed of being the galaxy’s savior. But now…now she had blood on her hands. She had darkness in her soul.

”No.” There was no conviction in her tone. “No, I don’t—I just…I‘ll need time.”

”You have some,” Poe promised. “Like I said, I can’t give you details, but we still have some kinks to work out.”

”Thats promising.”

”Have I ever let you down?” Poe’s smirk turned sour in a way that would have made the old Rey laugh. “Actually, don’t answer that.”

When she didn’t laugh, or reply at all, Poe continued.

”This will work, Rey. Then we’re getting you out of here. Just…be patient.”

“Fine,” was her clipped reply. Not to be rude. She was just…processing. A door far away clicked and groaned open. Poe dawned his helmet.

Steeling back into a soldier's bearing, Poe lifted the blaster into his arms as Rey stepped into her boots. 

“I’m sorry, Rey.” Poe’s voice came out through the modulator sounding like a complete and utter stranger. He sank back into the corner of her cell. “I know you didn’t want any of this.”

She didn’t reply. She had just finished lacing her boots when Kylo thundered into her cell.

He stood in the threshold and took in her appearance. Or, at least, his helm did.

And then, it swept across the room to land on Poe. His back was rimrod straight, pressed against the far wall, positioned like any other stormtrooper would. Nothing about him should have caught Kylo’s attention, yet it did.

Rey was grateful for the Force suppression cuffs, because her heart was pounding. Kylo would be powerful enough to feel any panic radiating off of Poe. She just hoped he’d dismiss it as the typical underling anxiety one faces in the presence of the great Kylo Ren.

A long silence passed with his attention on Poe. And thanks to that stupid mask, Rey had no idea what he was thinking. 

He took a step toward Poe. 

“Well?” Rey rushed to say, bringing his attention back to her.

Kylo Ren was such a hulking man that his presence in her cell seemed to shrink it in half. That, and it was starting to feel incredibly crowded.

”Well what, Scavenger?”

Kriff. He knew her too well. Very rarely did she ever goad him into conversation. Probably because she normally found conversation with him to be a rather taxing affair.

”Are you going to keep these cuffs on me forever?”

But, if there was anything she would press him on, it was the Force.

”You’re far easier to control this way. I no longer have to divert half of my abilities to smothering yours.”

”That doesn’t seem very fair.”

“No, I suppose not.” Kylo stepped further into the cell. He had changed and dried in the short time they were apart, and now he was back to wearing black from head to toe. His helm seemed to be observing Rey and her surroundings—mainly the dents in the wall.

“You didn’t come willingly.”

It could have meant a million things coming from him. An accusation. An apology. An excuse. 

Rey took to mean it as all three.

”No,” she said. “But you planned for that.” Her fingers strayed to the cuff on her wrist. The skin beneath it would be red and raw by now. Not that Kylo cared.

”It was a contingency. That is all.”

”Pragmatic as always,” she muttered under her breath. It was clear Kylo heard her, yet he did not reply. Instead he motioned for her to follow.

”Snoke will not be kept waiting any longer.”

Rey waited until he left her cell to shoot one last look over her shoulder. Poe caught it and gave the slightest of nods before she followed Kylo out.

Kylo was looking at her when she emerged from her cell. It gave her a start. She frowned, anxiety flooding her. Had he seen her nod at Poe? Was he suspicious?

Nervousness almost made her say something to once again knock him from whatever train of thought he was on. But then, she realized exactly what he was doing. He was waiting to see what she would do.

Because in the cell to his right stood Finn.

”Rey,” he rushed the bars. “Are you okay?”

If he’d told her from the start that the ceasefire was over, she could’ve escaped. She could be back with Leia by now, in a bedroom instead of a dark cell.

But no. Finn had her captured. Because he knew she’d stay to defend him.

”I’m fine,” she forced a fake smile. “You?”

”Peachy.” Finn glared at Kylo. Rey looked up at the masked man and hoped he’d see in her eyes how much she didn’t want to be having this conversation.

His mask tilted. Then he grabbed Rey’s arm and dragged her away.

”We’ll get you out of here, Rey, I promise!” Finn called after them.

We. A rush of panic coursed through her. As Kylo dragged her, Rey snuck a look to see if he had caught Finn’s slip up. 

All he did was drag her from the cell block. Once they were in the privacy of the empty hallway beyond, Kylo let go, allowing her to walk freely at his side.

Rey released a heavy breath and hung her head. Still shivering, her hands shook as they folded across her chest.

“You’re troubled.”

That almost made her sigh and roll her eyes. Of every colossal thing in her life, Rey could find very little that did not trouble her. 

She did not reply. The hallways lights turned blinding and cold, descending deeper and deeper into the ship. The last time the two of them had taken this journey, Rey had felt the darkness encroaching. It pulsed around her, digging deep into her skin and draining her like a leach.

The Force cuffs isolated her from that awful feeling. Nervousness was the only thing she felt coursing through her, and, strangely, Rey found herself quite grateful for the reprieve. She could almost imagine she wasn’t walking toward the fiercest Sith in the galaxy.

Kylo pushed the doors open with no preamble. He seemed to expect that she’d slow down—to show a slight hesitation near the entrance. Instead of dragging her, though, he placed a light hand on her lower back and guided her forward.

Perhaps Rey surrendered to the inevitability of it. Or maybe, the Force’s absence made her dumb. Or bold. Either way, she entered the throne room with little fight.

The way Snoke was sitting to receive them made her wonder if he ever left this throne at all. A nonchalant slouch. A silver robe. Nothing had changed from their previous encounter.

Not that Rey remembered much of it.

Kylo stopped them both a healthy number of paces away. When he dropped to a kneel, he gave Rey no choice but to do the same—Kylo reached for her wrist, grabbed it, and forcibly tugged her to the ground.

She landed on her knees with a yelp. 

Rey figured she could pop back up and put on the glorious fight Snoke was expecting. But she was cold. Shivering and tired. Just this once, she’ll let him think her tamed.

Snoke’s gaze slithered along the pair with a sneer forming in the space below his split skull. Only when his eyes lingered on her cuffs did the creature finally speak.

“Explain, Kylo Ren.”

“Bartaugh Thane had more sense than we gave him credit for.” A sharp hiss signaled his mask slipping off. Kylo discarded it on the ground. “He placed Force suppressing cuffs on her after the trade, forged from Phrikte and pulsing with the blood of Ysalamiri. I expect he was suspicious of the girl from the start.”

“Likely so. And Bartaugh Thane?”

“Dead. Rey killed him.” 

Snoke raised a brow.

“I saw it happen myself,” Kylo continued.

Rey had her gaze steadily fixed in the steps of the Dias, and now felt both men’s eyes on her.

“Phrikite, you say?”

“Yes, master. The technicians are working on reverse engineering the locking mechanism as we speak. There was a remote to deactivate and release the cuffs, but it was lost on Leesis.” The lie slipped so easily from Kylo’s tongue, she nearly didn’t catch it. Nearly. “Until then, Rey cannot manipulate, nor be manipulated by, the Force.”

“Fascinating.”

Then, the creature seemed to strain. Rey watched his lips twitch. His eyes widen then narrow, before his being settled back into the throne. Whatever he had tried, Rey felt nothing.

“Try to enter her mind,” Snoke said. “As I just did.”

“Master?”

“Do it.”

Without facing him, Rey saw Kylo bow his head out of the corner of her eye. His breaths grew heavier. He strained. Fists clenching. Muscles pulsing. And then, he evened out. 

As before, she had felt nothing. Snoke saw this.

“Touch her,” he commanded, “and try again.”

Kylo edged closer and turned to face her. Rey refused to do anything to ease his path—keeping her body and head forward. He stripped the glove from his right hand and placed it on the floor beside his knee.

Two fingers gently tugged her chin to the side until Kylo’s face was all she could see. The rest of her body followed.

Even with both of them on their knees, he was so much taller than her. He tipped her chin up. She watched with blanketed interest as the other glove notched between his teeth and he tugged it off, discarding it next to the other.

He brought both hands to either side of her face and closed his eyes.

Raw fingers dug into her hair, which was still damp and tangled from her escape. Rey expected to feel at least something at Kylo’s attempt to dig into her mind, but there was just…nothingness.

Nothing but the pulse of nerves coiling in her stomach at his touch. 

Finally, Kylo drew back, but his hands did not retreat. Instead, his gaze met hers. “Nothing, master.”

“Fine.” Supreme Leader Snoke seemed to take a moment to ponder. Then, he stood. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had to resort to such,” he smirked, “archaic measures.”

Snoke was before them now. Rey had almost forgotten how massive the creature was. Seeing no option other than retreating to a stand, Kylo shot to his feet. Either deliberately or not, his hands pulled her up with him. “Master?”

Before Rey could truly process what was happening, Snoke’s ancient hand coiled around her throat. And squeezed.

”You did not do as I asked,” Snoke hissed. Rey refused to show the fear that pulsed in her veins. Her fingers circled Snoke’s wrist and dug her nails into his skin on pure scavenger instinct, but that was all.

So much had happened in the past few days that Rey had half a mind to ask what he even meant. It only took her the space of two breaths to remember his slithering voice in her mind as she stood, triumphant, above Ushar’s body.

”If you want Ushar dead, kill him yourself,” she choked out. 

“Please,” Snoke released her neck and shoved her into Kylo. He must’ve been caught off guard, as Kylo’s hands flew up to her shoulders to steady her. “I don’t care enough about Ushar to want him dead.”

“Neither do I.”

She was rubbing her neck, distracted by inhaling a greedy breath and easing the pain in her throat, when the words flew out of her. Snoke’s eyes caught her own with an intrigue that made her squirm.

”If his life is so meaningless to you then you should have no issues snuffing it out.”

“I refuse to kill indiscriminately.”

The Force cuffs made her bold. She was, in a sense, untouchable. Not physically, as Snoke was quick to prove, but the cloud of darkness she normally sensed with him was completely gone. For the first time, Snoke appeared to just be…a creature.

”You refuse,” he repeated. 

“Your attempts to pull me to the dark are misguided,” Rey goaded. She had an errant thought that she’d regret this later, but Kylo’s incredulous side-eye would have made it worth the risk. “I’ve been beaten and abused my whole life. Men like Ushar and Bartaugh are nothing new to me.”

”Yet you killed Bartaugh.”

”Kylo made it clear I had little choice in the matter,” Rey said. “And killing him was my decision. I am at peace.” 

And she was. She truly was. Maybe there was a way—a way she could delicately toe the line. Rey did not regret freeing the slaves. Without her anger, those people would still be suffering. Not for the first time, Rey found herself contemplating the merits of the dark. 

Cautiously.

”Your spirit was darkened. I was with you on Leesis, I felt it. You cannot lie to me, girl.”

”I feel my own darkness inside me,” Rey snapped. “But it does not rule me. I’ve lived my life biting my tongue. Fighting my own instincts. It comes naturally to me. Breaking me will be a lot harder than breaking him.”

She shot a wild glare at Kylo, who, in return, looked as close to horrified as Rey had ever seen him.

Snoke hummed. ”Your opinion is appreciated. I now understand that I have been too easy on you.”

“Master—“

”Inform me immediately when her cuffs are removed. Your girl’s spirit is admirable, Kylo Ren. What fun it’ll be—to shatter it to pieces.”

Rey fought the fear the only way she knew how. ”Do your worst.”

”I promise you, Rey,” Snoke’s wide, inhuman mouth split into a smile, “I will.”

Without truly waiting for their dismissal, Kylo pulled her out of the room. Rey stumbled after him. She took a deep breath once the pair retreated into the hallway and the massive stone doors slammed shut in her wake.

”Are you completely mad?”

Rey coughed out a wild laugh. “I’m starting to think I am.” 

Because standing face to face with Supreme Leader Snoke, unflinching and fearless, felt so good. She had talked back to him. She had goaded him. 

And she wasn’t afraid.

Was this the darkness? Was it the light? Or was Rey truly just an insane girl with a death wish?

Kylo grabbed her shoulders and pushed her back against the wall. ”Why did you do that?”

Rey took a moment to look into his frantic eyes. “Why do you care? This is what you wanted.” 

“Snoke is going to torture you.”

”All the better for you. Choking on my words, wasn’t that your desire?” She shrugged him off. “If you’re lucky, maybe Snoke will let you watch.”

He backed away from her then. Mask all but replaced with the emptiness that crested his features. 

”Why are you acting like this?” Kylo asked.

He was like the sandstorms she grew up with on Jakku. Sometimes you saw their fury coming, encroaching on the horizon until it blocked out the sun and surrounded every fibre of your being. But it was slow. Stalking.

On rare occasions, a sandstorm would appear out of nowhere. Rey lost count how many times she‘d taken refuge in the ruins of star destroyers. One moment, she’d be picking out a rusted calcinator, squinting at the imposing sun. In the blink of an eye, she’d be surrounded by the assault of the storm.

Sometimes Rey saw Kylo’s rage brewing. Or his compassion. When she had the Force, it was like second nature to her.

It was times like these that Rey was thrown completely, and utterly, into the storm.

”And I ask you once again, Kylo, why do you care?”

A muscle in his jaw ticked. Otherwise, he said nothing.

”I don’t understand you.” It was less for him and more for her. Like she was staring at a miswired droid she couldn’t quite puzzle out.

”There is nothing to understand,” he replied after a moment. As stunned as her that she’d even try. “You goaded Snoke. It was foolish of you.”

“You did call me an idiot.”

His valiant effort to fight the amusement in his eyes failed. “I seem to recall you doing the same in return.”

And here they were. Back to being…not friendly, just not actively antagonistic.

He urged her to start walking. They were silent for the majority of the journey back to the cells. Rey only spoke when they entered the turbolift.

”You kept the Force suppression cuffs so Snoke wouldn’t be able to hurt me.”

Rey was embarrassed with how long it took for her to remember Kylo’s lie. Too wrapped up in her own battle of wills against Snoke to notice the one Kylo had fought right before her eyes.

Kylo exhaled. He was far more interested in watching the display screen’s descending numbers than he had any right to be—especially for someone who had spent the better part of a year living with its unchanged mechanical facade.

Rey could almost laugh at the absurdity. 

They entered the cell block. Two stormtroopers jumped to attention. Rey noted the one with a slightly shorter stature and had to physically stop herself from staring at him.

”Snoke will feel you the moment your Force is restored. It will be suspect if your cuffs are removed too soon.” He led her, oddly politely, into the cell. “We will wait a few days. In the meantime, you should rest.”

”Rest?” She will admit, she was exhausted. Exhausted enough to collapse onto the bed despite Kylo Ren looming just above her. “Are we not going to train?”

“Rest for at least two days. You’re dead on your feet.”

”What am I supposed to do for a whole two days in here?”

Kylo stiffened a bit, eyes retreating to the dent in the steel. “I was thinking I’d give you a datapad.”

She scrunched her nose. “What for?” 

In her short time at the resistance, she’d used one to watch a few holos and take a few pictures, all of which turned out terrible and made her go beet red, but that was all.

“You are familiar with the alphabet, correct?”

Rey once again found herself blankly gaping at him for a long moment before his meaning finally found her.

She flushed and sat up.

”Yes,” she rushed to say. “I mean, mostly.”

Anything you’d find on a ship’s console, really.

”There are certain datapad programs that can begin your instruction. I haven't forgotten the promise I made you.”

”You said you’d teach me to read. Not some data pad program.” She wanted to learn words the way a person would say them. The feeling behind a word, or a phrase, in one’s mind. Rey was a terrible reader, yes, but she knew languages. She knew how important meaning was.

”And I will. This will just be the start.”

Rey refused to show her disappointment and laid back down on the small cot. “Fine.”

”I’ll send you some food.”

”Okay.” 

It was so odd. He’d been so cruel, and now he was being…cordial. Almost as if he felt guilty.

Kylo began to leave. He pushed open the cell door and stopped just before stepping through.

”Oh, and just…don’t be offended.”

She raised a brow at him. “By?”

”These programs are typically made for toddlers. You’ll find it quite infantilizing. And childish,” Kylo said over his shoulder. “In other words, you’ll feel right at home.”

Rey grabbed the stiff pillow from beneath her head and hurled it at him. She spied the beginnings of a smirk on his face as he dodged it and rushed away.

He was right. She was offended.

”Why is there an Ewok tracing the letters with a lightsaber?” Rey was leaning against the bars of her cell, speaking just loud enough for Finn to hear. The data pad program emitted a series of trills as she traced the screen with the pen. “It’s just ridiculous. Are they even force sensitive?”

Finn reclined against his own cell and watched her with masked amusement. “I don’t think that’s the message they’re trying to convey. It’s for kids, Rey. Ewoks are fluffy and lightsabers glow.”

”They don’t just glow. They burn at twenty-thousand degrees and are capable of beheading a man with one blow.“

She traced the next letter. The Ewok leaped in celebration. Rey groaned.

Her sleep last night had been fitful. Rey had never been a great sleeper to begin with—after all, the cover of night was when the thieves and slavers attacked. Throughout her years on Jakku, Rey had woken up to strange men approaching her AT-AT more times than she could count. 

She never slept soundly—always having her senses opened to her surroundings. Looking back on it, she was probably using some subtle form of the Force. She had never been taken, after all. Rey just thought she was more alert than the average scavenger.

After Kylo slipped out of her cell, her meal arrived alongside the datapad. She consumed the former and ignored the latter for the night. She wouldn’t admit it, but the concept of learning to read and write terrified her as much as it excited her. 

What if it was too late to learn? What if she was stuck illiterate forever?

She awoke the next morning feeling more exhausted than the day before. For the first time in months, she stayed in bed for what could’ve been hours. The only thing that roused her was Poe delivering her meal. Rey recognized it was not a prison meal. It was plated for Kylo Ren. She’d seen enough of his dishes to know.

Poe was polite enough to not say anything about that. Rey ate, tossed Finn some of the more throw-able features of her meal, and quickly discovered that, although the tough oval white thing looked and felt durable enough to tolerate being hurled across a cell block, it was, in fact, not. It was an egg.

She’d never seen a whole one before. Nor one that was so white it could blind. The steelpeckers’ eggs were gray and spotted, and almost always cracked into dozens of pieces.

Poe had given them both a masked, yet obvious, glare before dialing up sanitation to clean it up. Finn and Rey suppressed giggles.

And that was how Rey spent her day. Relaxed. Chatting with Finn. Honestly, she felt at ease. Almost as if she were back at the Resistance. Finn updated her on all the drama she’d missed—two new couples had formed and two had broken up since she’d left—and Poe noted how the fact that he knew everything about this and she didn’t was nothing new. It was a conversation she and Poe had almost daily back on D’Qar. 

She was never good at the socializing aspect of being a person. Growing up, other creatures were nothing but a threat to her. Poised to steal her portions or scrap. Anyone who hadn’t seemed like an immediate danger was certainly bound to become one. 

Leia, Poe, Chewie, and Rose were the only people she really spoke to in her short few weeks with the Resistance. She visited Finn almost daily. She talked to him the most. Which was comforting, given that he couldn’t talk back.

Rey was still unsettled by Finn. He was, after all, the reason she was still Kylo’s prisoner. But she was selfish. She enjoyed speaking to him and Poe, and it was obvious that they cared for her. They just cared about the Resistance more.

For now, that had to be fine. She had to be fine. Because if she didn’t have them, then all she had was Kylo Ren.

And that thought terrified her.

”Rey,” Finn said, straightening. He was still picking at the roll of sweet bread she’d given him. As expected, Finn had been fed the exact type of insufficient prison gruel one would expect. “Why does Kylo Ren want you to learn how to read?”

“Learning the Force requires study. He probably wants me to read whatever dull books the Sith follow.”

”And do you plan on doing that?”

”I don’t exactly know if I’ll have a choice. Either way, its mutually beneficial.” It was obvious Kylo had pre-programmed the course, as her name popped up on the screen for her to trace. “Kylo gets to be an annoying know-it-all about something, and I finally get to learn how to read.” 

She traced the letters of her name, watching her fingers as she did it. A swell in her chest fought its way to her throat. Rey had written her name.

She had recognized it upon appearance. It was the only consistent word she’d ever read that didn’t appear on flight controls. But she never really knew how to write it.

Not until now.

“And when we escape?”

Rey’s hand stilled.

She had been nearly giddy with the thought of everything Kylo was giving her. Nice meals. The ability to read and write. Rey would be a fool to ignore the anticipation she felt for getting her lightsaber back in her hands and the training mat beneath her feet.

She wanted it all.

“I’m pretending to play the long game, Finn,” she whispered. The lie felt cold in her mouth. “Like you told me to.”

Poe chose that moment to pace down the cell block. The First Order was nothing if not ritualistic. Despite the fact that Rey and Finn were the only prisoners here, the stormtrooper guards had to pace the entire length of the cell block on rotation every hour. 

To Poe’s delight, his guard partner was a drunkard and a gambler. He often took up Poe’s offer to cover his shift alone while the man slipped away to play Sabacc in the engine room. 

“Learn to spell my name yet, sweetheart?”

Rey scoffed. ”Yes, because I’m sure Kylo Ren’s first objective is to teach me the names of my Resistance friends.”

Poe held the blaster loosely in his hand and leaned against the cell, shrugging. “It’s the least he could do.”

The Ewok did a twirl, signaling the end of her third lesson that day. 

“This is just embarrassing,” she muttered. 

“Embarrassing was Finn face planting off of the Falcon after this month’s supply run,” Poe said with a scoff. “Chewie had to carry his sorry ass to the infirmary.”

”I was knocked unconscious.”

”You tripped yourself unconscious,” Poe supplied, “there’s a difference.”

”Not medically.”

Poe crouched down to hiss conspiratorially in Rey’s ear. “Leia forced him on bed rest for two days—“

”I had a concussion—“

“—Rose had to take over his duties.”

Rey’s smile turned hollow. She always piloted the Resistance supply runs if she could. They happened at the beginning of every week. “How long have I been gone?” 

Poe and Finn’s smile’s both fell. “Just over two weeks,” Finn said.

Rey hummed. It seemed both longer and shorter than that.

Her fitful sleep had caught up to her. That, or the hole in Rey’s chest demanded every waking thought. Switching off the datapad, Rey stood and made her way to the cot.

”I’m turning in for the night.”

Both men were looking at her. 

“Goodnight, Rey,” Poe said, returning to his station. Finn gave her a nod. 

Rey sank into the cot, pulled the blanket up to her chin, and fell, once again, into a fitful sleep.

The next day passed much the same. Rey woke, feeling utterly exhausted and not one bit rested, and ate her food. She did her datapad lessons and grumbled the entire time about the childish Ewok that led her through the program. Finn tried to distract her with more shallow conversation and games like “What gourmet meal will you eat when you’re finally free of First Order gruel?” and “Where is the first place you’ll go once we win the war?”

Rey gave disingenuous answers to both. 

She chatted with Poe, said goodnight to Finn, and went to sleep.

What was not routine, however, was being startled awake hours into her slumber by her cell door creaking open. 

The cell block lights were shut off completely, leaving only the light of the surrounding stars creeping through the small window to illuminate the intruder. She couldn’t use the force to identify who it was—a fact she reluctantly discovered upon trying, in her sleepy haze, and failing to do so.

“Wake up, sunshine,” a familiar voice said. He crept into the cell and flashed her a smile.

”Cardo?” Her voice croaked. “What the hell are you doing here?”

”I’m breaking you out.” He patiently watched her stand up and rub the sleep from her eyes. “Obviously.”

“Could you not have done this at a decent hour?”

”There’s nothing decent about me, Rey,” Cardo said with a smirk. “C’mon, sleepy head, let’s go.”

He grabbed her arm and pulled her from the cell. Poe had, coincidentally, offered to take the night shift that night. He’d begrudgingly done so as part of his and Finn’s escape plan, but Rey was sure to make sure they spared her the details of exactly why.

It was either a very good thing or a very bad thing that it was Poe who startled awake—from where his head was slumped over on the guard's desk, clearly asleep—as Cardo pulled Rey out of the cell block. 

Poe’s helmet tipped to the side, a silent ask of Should I let him do this?

Rey’s subtle nod was enough for him to back down. Poe watched them leave without a word of protest.

Only when they were in the fluorescent lit hallway did Rey speak. “Why exactly did you break me out?”

“I figured you’d like a walk. Kylo’s had you in there for three days.”

”It’s actually quite nice,” Rey said. “Not a single overbearing Sith has barked orders at me for a whole three days.”

Cardo’s laugh was breathy and charming. “It can all be a bit much sometimes.”

”Sometimes?”

”Most of the time,” Cardo appeased. He led her into the lounge area connecting most of the Knight’s quarters. The sight of Ushar and Ap’lek’s rooms gave her an involuntary shiver.

”Ap’lek is still planetside with Vicrul.”

“I'm not worried about him,” Rey deftly snapped. Weakness was bad. Why was she showing it so freely around him? Around Kylo?

But Cardo was Cardo, so all he did was nod. “Ushar will not bother us, either.”

She knew shooting back another “he doesn’t scare me” would just seem petulant at this point, so Rey remained silent and watched Cardo work.

He opened a cabinet and fished out two ornate crystal glasses—the kind with the long stems that people of high importance sipped from. Rey had once sold one for three portions. 

Next, he opened a door and disappeared for a moment before emerging with a huge bottle of wine. He gestured for her to sit at the nearest table, filled the glasses up to their brims, and set them down.

“You want to drink?”

”What,” Cardo slid the glass closer to her, “you dont?”

Rey shrugged. Drunkards ran Nima Outpost. The stale stench of spilled ale always seemed to follow the most brutish, perverted, and abusive of men. “I’ve never really seen the appeal.”

”Well, then call this my attempt to sway you. This is not any normal drink. This,” he held his glass up to the light, “is Port in a Storm. It’s a Pamarthen specialty.”

Cardo took a long, deep sip, swallowing with a sigh. “The best damned wine you’ll ever taste.”

Rey lifted the glass. The sweet smell sent a burning sensation through her nose. “Pamarthen?”

Cardo gestured for her to drink. Rey took a small sip.

The flavor exploded in her mouth, crawling down her throat as she swallowed. It was sweet, yet the burn was enough to feel in her nose. It made her cough, pinch her face, and shake her head.

Cardo laughed at her reaction, but he saw the truth on her face.

It was delicious.

”Pamarth,” he said once she collected herself. “Ever heard of it?”

She shook her head. Granted, she’d never heard of most planets. 

“It’s a beautiful place.”

The way he said it made the glass pause halfway to her mouth. His eyes just a bit vacant. His lips pressed into a thin line.

”That’s your home.” She didn’t need the force to know she was right. When Cardo only took a sip in reply, Rey continued. “Tell me about it.”

And he did. Cardo lost himself in his memories, telling her of an ocean planet dotted with islands. Of clans connected by rope bridges and trees. Of seafaring birds and sea kissed air. 

Of a father with a stern voice and a tender heart. Of a little sister with auburn hair and emerald eyes. 

“You remind me of her, you know.”

”Your sister?”

Cardo nodded. ”She was wild and stubborn. And disobedient.”

Rey scoffed. “That makes sense.”

”But she was kind.” Cardo’s distant gaze found her face. Counting her freckles. Tracing her frown. “Like you, she wanted to see the best in everyone and everything. Even the birds preferred her over me.”

She felt herself flush and blamed it on the wine. “Your opinion of me is far higher than it has any right being.”

Cardo seemed lost in his drink.

”What about your mother?” Rey asked.

”I lost her when I was a child.”

Rey’s glass was half empty by now, and the effects of the alcohol had her mind buzzing. “I’m so sorry.”

“You shouldn’t be,” Cardo said with a sad smile. “If anything, you understand.”

Rey shook her head. “I could never understand having something so perfect and losing it. When I look back in my memories, there’s nothing worth longing for. The faces of my parents are the faces of strangers.”

Why was she saying all of this?

Oh yes. Because she was drunk.

”Still.” Cardo took a long sip.

”So how did you end up…” she trailed off. Rey feared she was far too drunk to word this question delicately.

He raised a brow, ”as a Knight and a pawn to an overbearing Sith?” 

Rey nodded.

”When Luke Skywalker was first starting his temple, he initially sought Force sensitive children from core world planets. It wasn’t until a bit later that he opened his search to the Outer Rim. Mine was the first planet he visited.”

”He went himself?”

”He had to. He’s powerful, so he was drawn to where he felt…whatever he seemed to feel. Luke found me instantly. Just…knocked on my door.”

Rey raised a brow. “Wow.”

”It didn’t take much convincing for my father to agree to Luke whisking me away. Pamarthens are ambitious people. They are pilots and soldiers. They are eager for battle and glory. Most turned to the Rebellion under the Empire, you know,” he said with a slight smile. “We supplied a majority of Resistance fighters. We’re tough.”

”And your father let you go?”

Cardo stared into the wine. “He saw promise. He saw a future where I was some notorious Jedi. Obviously, that didn’t pan out.” He scoffed. “I was nine years old when I left.”

”Where are they now?” Rey asked. “Your father and sister.”

He drained his glass and bit back a sharp hiss. ”No idea. I’ve gone back since, but they were nowhere to be found.”

“They left?”

Cardo nodded.

Without meaning to, Rey found herself parroting the very words she’d been told over and over and over again. “I’m sure your father had his reasons.”

Cardo didn’t acknowledge that. Rey didn’t expect him to; she knew how it felt to be told that same thing. Her reply bounced around in her own mind: What reasons could possibly be more important than me?

“Have you looked for them?” She asked.

”Every chance I get.”

In every face. On every planet. 

Rey gave a sad smile. “Me too.”

Cardo spied her empty glass and quickly remedied that, as with his own. Soon, both of them were tipping back full glasses of potent wine.

”I think that’s why I like you, sunshine. You know what its like to search for something that’ll never be found.”

She knew his words were right. She felt it in her core. But Rey was stubborn, and couldn’t help herself from saying, “You don’t know that. There’s still a chance,” she said. “For both of us.”

”I hope so, Rey,” Cardo said. “I hope so.”

The rest of the night wasn’t nearly as dreary. 

Rey felt the wine travel up her cheeks. She felt it curl around her brain and her stomach, nuzzling it in something warm and nice. Her anxieties flitted away.

Cardo growled In mock frustration and tossed the losing hand of Sabacc onto the table. “Thats it, you’re a cheat!”

”Am not!” She giggled, revealing her own stellar hand. “You’ve just got bad luck.”

”Bullshit.”

Rey laid her hand of cards on the table and spread them out. “If you’re so certain I’m cheating,” she said, and it was so well rehearsed at this point, she needn’t even try, “then lets do another round.”

”No,” he immediately said. Drunkenness had stolen Cardo’s own good senses two hours and three glasses of Port in a Storm ago, but Rey could barely work that out above her own giddy senselessness. “You’ll just cheat again.”

”Maybe I will,” she slurred. “Maybe I won’t.”

Truth be told, Rey had no idea if she had the sense in her to continue this charade. Cheating at a friendly game of Sabacc was second nature to her—after all, it had been earning her money since she was a child, swindling the passing traders of Jakku—but this overwhelming drunkenness spelled nothing good, nor successful, in her future. 

“Let me see.” At that, Cardo slammed the table and stood, pacing until he was directly behind Rey. “Deal us out.”

Rey knew her charade was about to fall. She was just too drunk to care.

She dealt out a game, having already memorized the cards positions in the deck. Rey deliberately started with her own pile as to guarantee the two highest cards went to her.

”Aren’t you supposed to deal to me first?”

”That’s not how we play on Jakku. Every man for himself, right?” 

Cardo hummed at her ear, but the damage was done. Rey counted cards like she rewired droids—meticulously and without any mercy. When the game was over, Cardo was none the wiser that he had, once again, been cheated. 

“This is impossible.” Cardo reached for her hand, and Rey dodged him.

”You’re just a sore loser.”

”You’re a sore winner.”

His foot caught on the leg of the table, and he was still hovering right over Rey’s shoulder, which meant when he went tumbling down to the ground, Rey went with him.

And they laughed. Rey didn’t know what she laughed at. Or what Cardo laughed at. Alas, they laughed. And laughed.

Rey stared at the durasteel paneled ceiling. Her chest shook with the remnants of giggles, until finally, she caught her breath. Cardo exhaled beside her—his shoulder brushing hers.

For a long while, the two of them laid there. Gazing at the ceiling as if it had stars. Their breaths evened until they synced completely.

”Do you love him?”

She knew Cardo seeing them on Leesis would come back to bite her in the ass. Thank kriff she was drunk.

“Kissing someone doesn’t mean you love them,” she replied.

”Normally doesn’t mean you hate them, either.”

Rey rolled her eyes and blinked up at the ceiling. A tingle of unease forced its way into her drunken bliss. Rey refused to interrogate it.

“No, Cardo. I don’t love him.”

”Then why did you—“

”Must there be a reason?” She snapped. The drunkenness took most of the edge off her voice, but not all of it. “People kiss people sometimes. Even infuriating Sith Lords with big noses and messy hair.”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to presume. I just…” His chest sank when he exhaled and grimaced at the ceiling. “I’ve never been in love.”

Rey looked at him. 

“It was one of the reasons I followed Kylo. The Jedi ways were so cold. I felt lonely. I felt resentful. I didn’t want to imagine living a life without love. Without connection,” Cardo said. “When Ben first sat me down and explained how similar he felt, how he saw that I felt the same…it was the most compassionate thing anyone had ever done for me in over ten years.” Rey was almost too floored by the use of Kylo’s birth name to catch the tremor in Cardo’s chin. “People think the dark is unfeeling, but they’re wrong.”

If Rey weren’t so drunk, she’d be scared of how much she agreed with him.

“Loving means trusting.” She didn’t know much about love, but she knew that. She’d seen enough heartbroken souls to know. Women chasing after expensive shuttles with swells in their bellies. Men losing themselves in the throes of whiskey to forget heartbreak. “I don’t think I could ever trust someone that much.”

“You can try.”

“Well,” she scoffed, in an effort to brighten the mood, “I don’t think Kylo could either.”

She imagined him struggling to allow someone else to so little as polish his helmet. She giggled at his inevitable frown as they did something even the slightest bit different than he’d pictured. The storm that would follow.

“If he could love anyone, it’d be you.”

Cardo’s words slammed into her.

“That’s…” Rey fumbled for something to say. “That’s not what I meant.”

“I know.”

”I didn’t mean he couldn’t…I just meant he doesn’t trust anyone—“

”I know, sunshine,” Cardo said. Rey caught his eye as it wandered from the ceiling to the floor. Her cheeks grew red and she looked away.

“I am entirely too sober to be having this conversation.”

Cardo grinned. “I wholeheartedly agree.”

The two of them didn’t bother rising from the floor. Cardo used the Force to direct a brand new bottle of wine to soar across the room and into his hands. Soon, the bottle was nearly empty, and Rey was discovering that Cardo was, in fact, a quite terrible dancer.

When he tripped and fell, they once again descended into uncontrollable laughter, now fueled by much more alcohol. They laughed until their stomach’s hurt. Until tears clouded her vision just enough to not recognize the figure that had appeared in the doorway.

“What the hell is going on?”

Rey turned her head toward the door. Seeing nothing interesting, she promptly lobbed it back against the floor. 

“Sabacc!” Cardo said.

”Why is Rey out of her cell?”

”Boring,” Rey frowned. “The Ewok was boring.”

”I busted her out,” Cardo supplied, evidently more equipped to have simple conversation than she was.

”Why?”

“I wanted a drinking partner.”

”Was Kuruk busy?”

”Kuruk’s a bore. As are you, Kylo. But Rey here,” Cardo grinned at her and took her hand, “well, she’s sunshine in a smile.”

Rey giggled. And that definitely caught Kylo’s attention,

”Is she drunk?”

”She is perfectly fine, thank you very much.” Rey hoped her voice didn’t slur nearly as much as it seemed.

”We’ve only had…”Cardo lifted an empty bottle, then stared blankly at the other empty bottle…and the other, ”three bottles. It’s fine,” Cardo said, sounding wholly unconvinced. “We’re fine.”

“The Ewok doesn’t even speak,” Rey mused to the ceiling. “He just dances when I get things right.”

Kylo gaped at Rey, then at Cardo. ”What the hell is she going on about?”

”Rey would like to lodge a formal complaint against her literacy lessons,” Cardo said.

”Why would he use a lightsaber to trace the letters? Scientifically, it would melt them. Unless, of course, they were made of...” she trailed off, eyes widening at her cuffs. “The letters are made of Phrikite.”

“Only you would have drunken musings about the mechanics of children’s cartoons.” Cardo stood and offered a hand to pull Rey up. She didn’t notice it.

“You’re giving that cartoon a lot of credit by even calling it ‘mechanics’.”

Something grabbed her arm and pulled her to a stand. It was too fast. Rey’s stomach did a flip as she stumbled on uneven legs. The hard grip stayed on her bicep.

”I’ll deal with you tomorrow,” Kylo hissed at Cardo. The blonde man had a hint of wildness in his eyes as he did a mock salute. He turned to Rey.

”Rey, it’s been a pleasure.” 

She stifled a giggle as the man stumbled to his door, opened it with the Force, and disappeared inside with a sloppy wave.

Her legs were suddenly moving. She felt like she weighed a thousand tons with how heavy her feet slammed the floor. Rey was used to being quick. Attune with all of her senses.

Being so clumsy just felt weird.

Kylo pulled her, not entirely caring about how difficult it was for her to keep up.

They stopped far too quickly. They weren’t at the cells.

They were at his room.

His door opened up, revealing the gigantic chamber. It was neater than before. Some dishes lay here and there, and the couch pillows were still as askew as when she’d slept on it. Almost as if he hadn't bothered to call someone to clean it.

She spied his personal holotable and deliberately ignored its presence entirely.

Which wasn’t hard, because he didn’t stop there. Kylo continued to pull her into his fresher. 

Kylo grabbed her under the armpits and lifted her so she sat on the sink. In her drunken state, he may as well have tossed her across the room. Rey grew so dizzy she had to slam her eyes shut.

And that didn’t help at all.

The sink ran for a moment. Something pressed against her lips.

”Drink.” 

He was always so commanding. She wasn’t exactly in a state to deny him. The water was cold and fresh and lovely.

And gone too soon.

When she opened her eyes, he was refilling the glass. He looked up, ostensibly to just make sure she hadn’t lobbed unconscious, and froze when his gaze locked with hers.

She felt his lesson a little more than usual as her eyes searched his. If everything was a transaction, why was he doing this?

What did he possibly have to gain?

He interrupted her thoughts by lifting the glass to her lips once more. But she just stared at him.

”It’ll help you feel better,” he said. “Trust me.”

Because she’s always trusted him, she did as he said. He didn’t let her drain the glass again, something about how too much would make her stomach revolt. Rey had never had an abundance of water before. Watching him pour the rest down the sink almost made her shriek. 

Her head seemed a bit clearer. Kylo Ren was no longer two blurry, muscly shadows rooting around in the cabinets. He was a clear, two eyed, big nosed person. And he was staring right at her.

”How do you feel?”

Despite the impressive amounts of both wine and water she had just consumed, her mouth was somehow desert dry. “Spinny,” was all she managed.

“Spinny?”

She nodded.

”Cardo shouldn’t have done that.”

”I did it, too,” she breathed. “Don’t just blame him.”

Kylo’s jaw worked back and forth. “You shouldn’t have done that, Rey.”

She snorted. “I don’t regret it. That was the most fun I’ve had in years—“

”You shouldn’t have goaded Snoke,” he snapped. “You doomed yourself and it's like you dont even care.”

Oh. They were having two very different conversations. Rey thought her cuffs could be to blame. Without the Force, he was a bit harder to puzzle out.

“Why do you even ca—“

”If you’re going to ask me why I care one more time, scavenger,” he whispered, “I’ll toss you back into that cell.”

”I’m going to ask you,” she said, “until you give me an honest answer—”

***

Her question was interrupted by his lips falling into hers.

She says “falling” because it was the only correct word to describe the way his mouth had been so far above her, annoyingly far, kriff the man was as tall as a sandstorm, just seconds ago. Then it was on hers.

Sitting on the sink, Rey was just a bit taller but not nearly by enough. She was also trapped. His kiss was so intense that Rey had no other choice but to lean back. Kylo leaned forward, chasing her lips, deepening the kiss until her shoulders were pressed against the durasteel. And Rey…Rey didn’t know what to do.

This kiss was so different from their others. Those had been rushed, punctuated by shouting and anger and betrayal. 

There was no one here to betray. Not anymore. Not in the sincerity of her sighing into his lips, and him tightening the hold on her waist. Her stomach looped, sending tingles everywhere his hands touched. And they touched everywhere.

Rey found her arms looping his neck while his hands traveled up her muscled stomach to her chest. They stayed away from anything unseemly—the pads of his thumbs just barely brushed the bottoms of her breasts.

She leaned into it. Wanting him to touch her more. Not caring that he’d feel the most intimate parts of her—

Kylo ripped his lips away. “Shit. Shit, I shouldn’t be…you’re drunk.”

Rey blinked up at him. “I’m drunk.”

”This…” he was breathing heavily. Like her, he’d completely forgotten to breathe. “This is wrong.”

Rey traced his lips. “This is wrong.”

”You can’t keep repeating everything I’m saying.”

”Okay,” she said. So she kissed him.

She’d initiated a kiss with him before. Their first kiss. The kiss she’d used to distract him. To escape from him.

Rey felt him tense as if he were expecting her to do it again. To force sleep to take over him, condemning him to wake up alone yet again. If she had any humor left in her, she’d remind him of her cuffs. Rey was powerless.

But with her lips on his, so was Kylo.

This kiss was slower. Her fingers slipped through the tangles of his hair. Kylo’s hands rubbed down her chest and curved around her waist. Large hands grabbed her ass and pulled her to the edge of the sink until there was barely any room between her legs and his.

He made some kind of groan and sank further into the kiss before he shook his head and pulled away.

***

 “Rey.”

She liked how he said her name.

”You should go to sleep.”

Rey didn’t want to go to sleep. She wanted to feel drunk and careless forever. She wanted to forget the creature who promised to torture her. The friends who betrayed her.

The captor that intrigued her.

Rey blinked it all away. See? It was so easy.

Alcohol was amazing.

Kylo snorted. “Your attitude will change tomorrow morning.”

Oh. Apparently she’d said that aloud. ”What happens tomorrow morning?”

He plucked her from the counter and led her from the fresher to his bedroom. Kylo dragged back the silk sheets of his bed and urged her to slip inside. “You’ll see.”

As she settled into the sheets, she had the fleeting thought that it was the softest thing she’d ever been wrapped up in. Beneath her, above her, all around her was smooth silk. Cool. Light. It felt like slipping beneath the waves of a calm ocean.

She felt a hand press down on her shoulder.

”Go to sleep, Scavenger.”

The touch lingered for a moment before it disappeared. The bed dipped beneath her. Before she could open her eyes to see why, Rey slipped into sleep.

Chapter Text

Someone was pulling her. Dragging her. Frantic feet digging heels into the sand, wiggling out of a too tight grip—

“Shut your mouth and do as you're told,” Unkar’s gravely voice boomed in the echoes of her mind, “or I’ll tell your parents you’re not worth coming back for.”

That shut her up. It always did, and Unkar knew it. He glared down at her as he accepted the man’s pouch of credits.

“I’m sorry it came to this, Gar. I docked two hundred from her price.” Unkar eyed the man holding Rey in a suffocating grasp. “To compensate for your injuries.”

“Pleasure doing business with you,” was her new master’s gruff reply.

Her body, already so bloody and bruised from the men Unkar hired to catch her, slumped in the man’s arms.

“Don’t do too much damage, Gar. This is temporary. I expect her back eventually.” Unkar gave her one last snarl before he slammed the trading window’s steel cover down, clicking the lock.

She was fighting. Screaming. Clawing at the large man’s eyes. Eyes that she once found kind. A face she had confided in just days ago.

His fist slammed into the back of neck, knocking the air from her chest.

“Don’t be more trouble than you’re worth, girl. You and I both know Unkar don’t give a damn how damaged I return you.”

“Let me go!” Her voice was so small. So weak. Nobody ever listened to her. No matter how loudly she screamed.

“I told you I’d keep my promise, Rey.”

She was pulled to a speeder. Then a ship. Fighting the whole way there—even as he climbed up the ramp of his VCX–200 freighter, dragging her helpless body behind him.

She’d spent hours admiring this very ship. Feeling comfort here. At first, Gar was paying Unkar a fine price for Rey’s help installing scavenged parts to his newly disabled ship. It was damaged. Old. Rey was good at salvaging whatever parts she could, and replacing the rest with the best of her scavenged loot. Gar was kind to her, too. Kinder than Unkar. Her days with him were peaceful. Calm. He gave her portions when she looked thin. An extra threadbare blanket for her AT-AT.

Then he got greedy. 

It started when Rey caught him looking at her strangely. It was the third day she’d spent helping him repair his ship. He’d offered her three portions for every day she worked. Gar seemed kind, if not a bit lonely at times.

“How did you end up here, little Rey?” He’d asked her that third day. 

Rey gave her usual noncommittal shrug and replied, “my parents brought me.”

“And where are they?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.”

Gar found this troubling. He asked her many questions about her parents. About Unkar. 

About her.

“If I owned you, I promise I'd never make you scavenge in the sun all day. I’d keep you safe. I’d make you feel special.”

His words made her feel deeply uncomfortable. “I don’t mind it, really,” Rey said. “I like mechanics.”

Gar flashed her a tight grin. “I’m sure you do.”

By the tenth day, Rey began to feel at ease around him. Gar Keskin was his full name. He hadn’t always been on Jakku, he explained. He was born somewhere far away, where rain fell from the sky and plants popped up from the ground.

“You’d love it there.” Gar slid her a portion as she worked away at the torn fuel line. She tried to wipe the smell of gasoline from her nose. “When I was little like you, I used to swing between the trees.”

“I love to swing,” she said, melting the sides of the rip until the rubber fused together. “I tied a rope between two cannons in the wreckage by Kalvin Ridge.”

“Do you ever plan to leave Jakku, Rey?”

She looked up. “Of course. When my parents come back for me.”

“And if they don’t come back?”

Rey grabbed the portion and tore it open. “They will.”

Gar watched her eat. 

“You don’t have to sit with me while I work,” she said. He sat with her most days, asking her odd questions and looking at her with those piercing eyes. Gar wasn’t old but he wasn’t young. She imagined he had far better things to do.

“I like sitting with you,” he replied. “You’re very intelligent. Unkar is wasting your potential.”

“I’m his best scavenger.”

“And you could be so much more.”

Rey looked up at him. For the first time in her life, she lost her appetite and pushed her portion away.

“Don’t you tire of it, Rey?”

There were three more tears in the fuel line. Rey began to inspect the next one.

“You spend all your days controlled by a man who manipulates you,” Gar said. “Who keeps you starved and reliant on him. He treats you like a slave.”

She swallowed and found a tightness in her throat. “He feeds me. He lets me stay here so my parents—“

“I want to buy you, Rey.”

Horrified, Rey dropped the line. Fuel trickled out from the small holes in the rubber, pooling on the metal at her feet.

“Good crew is hard to come by. Loyal crew, nearly impossible. And any other hands I could buy would pale in comparison to yours.”

“No.”

He approached her. “I’ll be kind to you. I won’t ask for much. And maybe, one day, you’ll learn to care for me too—“

“No!” 

The rest of it was a blur. She remembered the gasoline that had been steadily dripping from the fuel line suddenly rushing out in a roar. Somehow, the volume not only increased tenfold, but the trajectory did too. It angled up and doused Gar completely. Somewhere, a spark ignited. Rey was quick enough to flee the flames.

But not Gar.

Not the men he sent after her.

When he shut the door behind them, Rey was forced back to the present. Panicked. It took only three days for Gar to find her, aided by Unkar’s hired crew of scavengers. Gar had purchased her from Unkar, and he was leaving. Taking her away. Her family would never find her again. How could she find her way back? Where was he taking her? And why—

He grabbed her wrist. Tugged her toward—

Not the cockpit. The crew quarters. Through a door. Into a room. His room.

He lifted her up and threw her on the bed. 

“Stay put.” He ordered. Fresh burns reddened the skin around his eye. Weeping. Bleeding. Rey was sporting her own burn on her forearm.

Gar slammed the door shut.

Darkness. Silence. And the most comfortable bed she’d ever seen. It had a mattress and a blanket and a pillow…a real, live, pillow. One that sank when you pressed into it and had its own little blanket around it. Something Rey never truly understood.

She tried to unlock the door but it was useless. The instrument panel was on the outside. Though her heart pounded and her mind raced and her tears weren’t being held back anymore but fully flowing, she was so tired. Rey couldn’t help but crawl into the bed. She tucked herself under the blanket and gently laid her head against the pillow.

A bed. A real bed. Exhaustion eventually pulled her warring mind to sleep. She dreamt of leaping through the ruins of a star destroyer with the wind in her hair and sand on her skin. Of endless portions. Of her parents coming back to save her. They’d swoop her up in their arms and tell her fantastical tales of their adventures. Of fighting pirates and meeting Kings. Of taming monsters and beasts just to get back to her. Because they loved her and missed her and couldn’t bear being away from her for seven whole years. She was thirteen now. She had grown. But that didn’t matter to her parents. They’d know her anywhere—

Touching jerked her awake. Someone touching her. A man touching her. 

“Get up.” 

Gar pulled her from the room and shoved her into the mechanics bay. She looked up at him, only catching a blur of his reddened face, before he slapped her.

“Fix it. Now.”

He was so cruel now. Like he had done for the past few days, he sat and watched as she worked. No more light conversation. No more portions.

Hours later, she emerged. The fuel line was completely intact. Gar looked at it, then at her.

“Unkar thinks I’m loaning ya.” He crouched down to meet her eyes. The skin on the left side of his face was charred. Peeling. She winced. Rey had no idea how, but she had the feeling that the gasoline, the flames, were her fault. Somehow. “But once you fix this ship, I’m taking you, Rey. You’ll be mine.”

He never let her rest after that. He never let her leave. From dawn until dusk, she worked. At night, she slept in that comfortable bed, dreaming that her parents would finally come. The ship would be ready soon. They had to come.

Gar never left her alone, either. He’d ask her strange questions and give her even stranger looks. Sometimes, she woke in the night to him in the room. Watching her.

“Go back to sleep,” he’d whisper to her, knowing sleep was miles away. She didn’t like him being here with her. And he knew it.

One night, a little over two weeks after he bought her, she woke to his touch. One hand circled her wrist and the other stroked her face. She had been sleeping so soundly why why did he have to ruin it? 

“Shhh,” Gar whispered that night, like all the others. “Go back to sleep.” 

His hand found her waist. She felt him behind her. He didn’t do anything…just laid there, right behind her.

Rey never fought him—he struck her easily, which meant he wouldn’t hesitate to hurt her. But this violation was too much. She kicked his knee with her heel. He groaned out a pained hiss, so she did it again.

His hand grabbed her neck and squeezed.

“Behave, or I’ll kill you,” he growled. “I ain’t doin’ nothin’ to ya, I just want to hold ya. Now go back to sleep”

“Go back to sleep.”

“Go back to—

There was someone next to her.

A body—big like Gar’s and dark like Gar’s and reaching for her and Rey barely managed to scramble off of the bed and retreat to the corner before his hazel eyes were on her—

She couldn’t feel the Force to ease her panic. To tell her that the ground was beneath her and there. That the stars were above her like always. That her mind was hers even if her body wasn’t. The panic grew faster as her senses felt smaller. Emptier. She was in that room, on that freighter, whimpering into a darkness that never cared. Never listened.

Rey had never invited someone into her bed before. She had done that with very good reason. Which meant the man in bed with her meant to harm her, or so much worse, and her breaths picked up. Faster. 

Faster.

Rey only then had the awareness to notice that she was on a polished floor, back pressed against a durasteel wall, knees tucked into her heaving chest. There was a couch. A table. Chairs. Floor to ceiling windows with a view of the galaxy.

This was not a small cabin room on a freighter, but a massive, luxurious chamber. Highly decorated. Just a tad untidy. There was a bed a few paces in front of her. Her eyes crawled up the wrinkled sheets to land on her attacker.

The first thing she noticed was that it was not Gar Keskin.

The second thing she noticed was that her attacker seemed to look at her with utter horror.

Even through her panicked breaths, she recognized his black, messy hair. His long nose. Just sitting there in stunned silence, he looked far too regal to be any Jakku junk boss come to take what Rey would never willingly give.

The man on the bed shifted. An animal instinct buried deep within her sparked to life—Rey flinched at his approach. 

He froze.

Rey was too busy trying to tame the beast beating inside her chest to notice the hurt flash in his eyes. It was too distracting. Rey squeezed her eyes shut.

After a minute or an hour, she heard a soft voice.

“Rey.”

It didn’t sound like a monster, but neither did Gar when he first opened his home to her. This voice was gentle.

“Rey.” It breathed. Toeing the line between delicate and stern. Rough hands found either side of her face and pulled it up. “Open your eyes.”

She forced her eyes open. Kylo Ren's face was inches from hers. 

She felt many things wash over her. The first was utter relief.

“I need you to take a deep breath,” he whispered. “Can you do that for me?”

Rey nodded. He was holding her head, after all. There wasn’t much else she could do.

To guide her, Kylo breathed first. With tears in her eyes— tears?— and the threat of sobs breaking through her lips, Rey followed him. He inhaled. Held his breath. Then exhaled. She did the same. Their breaths melted together between them.

His hand snaked down to grab hers. With every inhale, he squeezed—holding tight. Almost to the point of pain. Feeling his callouses scratch against her own. When it was time to exhale, he released her hand, rubbing gentle circles into her skin.

They repeated this many times. Enough for Rey to feel the senses returning to her. To remember where she was. That Gar was light years away. That her force did not abandon her. That the man in front of her wasn’t a monster. Or, at least, not to her. 

Never to her.

One of Kylo’s hands stayed cupping her face while the other fished something from his pocket. There was a click. A hiss. Then her cuffs tumbled to the durasteel floor, allowing the Force to come rushing back in. 

It made her vision swim. Her heart stuttered. The sudden awareness was almost too much to handle—the overwhelming presence of life everywhere. It rushed past Kylo, brushing up against the long dead plant sequestered in a far corner of Kylo’s quarters. Of a small critter that had somehow managed to crawl its way between wall panels. Two stormtroopers on patrol paced just on the other side of the wall. One was utterly bored out of his mind. The other housed a deep, yearning love for his companion. 

Rey blinked, guiding herself back into her own mind. Kylo watched her through this and did not rush her. Patiently. Almost annoyingly so. Kylo Ren was not supposed to be patient. Or kind. Or anything other than an enemy.

The thought nearly made her giggle senselessly. A long, awkward silence reigned.

“I’m sorry,” she eventually whispered. She didn’t mean to apologize, but someone had to say something and Kylo seemed too damn polite to do it himself. “I thought you were—“ No. She couldn’t tell him. He’d think she was weak. Pathetic. She cleared her throat. “I…um…I don’t know what happened.”

“I do,” he said.

Rey’s panic nearly returned. 

“I should not have fallen asleep next to you. It was not my intention, it was…” he trailed off with a wince. His clothes were still on from the night before. Even his lightsaber was still attached to his weapons belt, which Rey knew was far too uncomfortable to fall asleep in deliberately. Come to think of it, when she woke up, his body had been in a partially seated position, slumped atop the covers. “I’m sorry. It was careless of me. I hope you believe me when I say it was an accident.”

Rey’s mouth nearly dropped open. Kylo Ren had just…apologized to her. “I do believe you.”

Panic was still coursing through her. Words would not be plentiful.

“It will not happen again.” Hurt. Overwhelmingly radiating off of him. He communicated as much with his frown, but also through the force. He thought she had woken up in a panic because of him . 

“It wasn’t you.”

“It’s okay, Rey,” he whispered. “You don’t have to lie to me.”

It wasn’t a lie. For some reason, she needed him to know that. “Give me your hand.”

She was in no position to give orders, so she reached out. Palm outstretched. Kylo looked between her hand and her eyes like both were ticking plasma bombs before he finally decided to reach for her.

Rey ignored the electricity that pulsed from where his hand held hers. It rushed up her arm to her shoulder. She cleared her throat and reminded herself how important it was to focus. 

She would not give him everything. Of course not. She didn’t even know how she planned to project these things into his mind. But once Rey began flipping through her memories, the problem solved itself. Like everything with him, it just seemed to…work.

Rey skimmed her memories, lingering on the times she’d slept curled around her bag of portions, sensing the scavengers looming behind her, waiting to steal them away. She flipped to a sleepless night spent in the outpost after a gang had raided her AT-AT. She’d had nowhere else to go but back to Unkar, who laughed in her face at the sorry sight of her. All Rey had managed to salvage were a handful of portions and a felt doll. She cradled both throughout the night.

And, of course, she showed him Gar. Not everything. Just enough. Enough for him to understand.

Sleep was a privilege. One she had never known. 

One she would likely never know.

“That’s not true.”

His voice startled her. Rey tugged her hand away, severing their contact. Opening her eyes once more, she finally seemed to realize that the two of them were sitting on the cold, hard floor of his bedchamber. He had no reason to be down here with her. None at all. 

Yet here he was. Mind muddled from sleep. Bags beneath his eyes. “You didn’t have to show me.”

“I know,” she said. Rey winced as she rubbed her wrists—they were red and raw from the cuffs. They were off now, which meant Snoke would call for her soon enough.

“Not everything has to hurt, Rey.” He watched her hand cradling her inflamed skin. “Things can heal. They can grow.”

“Nothing grows in a desert,” she whispered.

A finger beneath her chin forced her to look up into hazel eyes. Into the eyes of Kylo Ren—the ruthless murderer. The kidnapper. The eyes that should ignite fear and loathing.

He smirked. “Then it's a good thing we’re light years away from one.”

Instead, in his eyes, Rey found peace. Not that she’d ever admit it, to herself or anyone else. 

Rey leaned to the side so her head could rest against the window facing the stars. She closed her eyes and sat with the peace for a while. It was ever so rare. 

Time passed. Kylo’s presence beside her sat unmoving for a long while before his voice interrupted the silence. “I’ll take the couch—”

“Don’t bother,” Rey said without opening her eyes. “I won’t go back to sleep.”

Through the Force, she felt him take one last look at her. One long, analyzing look. If she hadn't been so at peace, perhaps she’d bark at him to stop staring at her. But silence meant stillness meant peace. And Rey was satisfied.

Finally, Kylo rose. She heard his footsteps pad across the room—past his bed—past his fresher—until they landed at the couch. He laid down on the uneven cushions and soon, he fell asleep.

Rey sat there for far longer.

It had been a long time since she’d dreamt of Gar. Since she’d woken up in a haze of panic and dread. Rey hated showing that side of her to Kylo Ren. The part of her that sobbed silent cries into the night. That had been beaten and enslaved. Kylo likened himself to her without truly knowing how weak she was.

Hours later, when Rey began to feel the life forms start to stir for the upcoming day’s work, she finally felt exhausted enough to sleep. She gently rose, crossed to the bed, and collapsed on top of the sheets.

“Scavenger.”

Rey groaned into the soft pillow. Her head throbbed. 

Wake up, scavenger.

“Go away.”

She heard a scoff. Then, a soft nudge in the force. Rey barely felt it over the pounding in her mind. The dizziness. 

She felt like Bantha shit.

“I’d say ‘I told you so,’” Kylo said from somewhere up above, “but your current condition seems to be punishment enough.”

Ruefully, Rey opened her eyes. Kylo stood at the foot of the bed with a smirk plastered on his face. Her head fell back to the pillow with a groan. “What the hell is this?”

Kylo tore the covers from her body, depositing them on the other side of the bed. Rey didn’t have the energy to fight it. “A hangover.”

“A what?”

“It’s what happens when you drink too much, scavenger. Pilots sometimes call it a ‘Brandy Ague.’”

“I don’t give a kriff what it’s called.” Rey sat up, folding her face into her hands. “Just make it go away.”

“Well there is a cure.”

“Give it to me.”

Kylo sniffed, boasting a curious frown. She could only imagine the state of herself; bags darkening the skin beneath her eyes. The exhaustion of a fitful night's sleep, spent partially slumped against the glass. Kylo kept most of this judgement from his frown, but not all of it. “Now,” he said, “where’s the lesson in that?”

“Kylo…”

“You and Cardo both disobeyed my orders last night.”

Kriff, Rey hated when he invoked his pompous rank. “I don’t recall you ordering me not to break into a wine cellar.”

“I ordered you to remain in the cells,” he said. “As your master, you should’ve obeyed.”

“You’re not my—“

“And as Cardo’s master, he should never have released you against my orders.”

Rey narrowed her eyes. “So my punishment for that is having to endure this hangover?”

“No, your punishment is what’s about to happen.” He pulled her up roughly and pushed her toward the fresher. Her feet, still heavy with sleep, barely caught her as she stumbled into the opaque glass door. “ This is just for fun.”

“You’re an ass,” she grumbled. At the threshold of the fresher, Kylo paused. 

“About last night…” he trailed off, waiting for her to speak up. Rey felt her body stiffen. She’d hoped he’d forgotten. Or dismissed it. Last night was the most vulnerable she’d ever been with another human. 

And she hated it. 

“It’s nothing, Kylo. Just forget it happened.” 

Rey slammed the fresher door shut.

“Again.”

She heaved into the training mat. One more round, and Rey was quite certain she’d die.

“Kylo.” Cardo gasped next to her. Like Rey, he was lying prone on the training mat, covered in sweat and writhing in pain. “You can’t be serious.”

“Master,” Kylo corrected. “And I am serious. Again.”

Both Rey and Cardo groaned. They were on hour three of non-stop sparring. Every time Kylo suspected either of them were pulling their punches, he made them both run three laps around the training room.

The gigantic training room.

Upon their return, Kylo would demand a demonstration of all seven lightsaber forms. At first Rey barely knew any, no thanks to Kylo’s own tutelage. By now, though, she was getting the hang of it. 

Her favorite was Ataru.

Kylo looked upon her demonstration with an approving nod. “I want to start you on Juyo. You seem naturally inclined toward Ataru, which is no surprise, but one should not limit themselves.” He reached out to correct her arm positioning, then retreated back across the mat. “Ataru will be your primary, but Juyo will be your secondary. It relies on the channeling of harsh emotions to dominate an opponent.”

Cardo winced as he flowed into the next form, rolling the soreness from his neck. “You suggest Ataru?” 

“You don’t?”

“Most women prefer Makashi or Soresu. Shien and Djem So, too. Though for Rey, I’d recommend Makashi.” With his movement in sync with Rey, he glanced at her to explain. “Makashi relies on elegant, precise movements over brute force. It's the preferred form for smaller, more agile fighters.”

Rey smirked at him. “You might be the first person in the galaxy to ever call me elegant.”

“Ataru is too aggressive.” Now, it was Cardo’s turn to correct her arm positioning. “You’re a good fighter, Rey, but you’re hardly the strongest. You need a form that relies on countering a stronger opponent and beating overwhelming odds using strategy.”

Rey knew well enough not to be offended. This was the brutal truth—she’d never match Cardo or Kylo, or likely any opponent, in physical strength. She had to best them in other ways.

“Strategy isn’t always my strong suit,” Rey muttered. As much as Rey hated agreeing with Kylo, she knew exactly why he didn’t recommend those forms for her. She was emotional and aggressive in her fighting. Relentless. Those other forms would only hinder her.

“She can still master Ataru. It’s aggressive, yes, but it does not rely on brute strength, either.” Kylo stepped forward to roughly tilt her hips the opposite direction she had them in. She flushed at her mistake. And his touch. “Ataru can only be mastered by those who are strongest in wielding the Force.” His eyes flicked up to hers. “Like you.”

Rey ceased breathing.

“It would be foolish to master anything else,” Kylo finished. 

Cardo shot Kylo a glance, but conceded nonetheless. Once they were done, they sparred twice more. Rey lost the last one, but at that point, she was too exhausted to care. The throbbing in her head from before was down to a dull ache, and judging by the way Cardo cradled his own forehead, he wasn’t faring much better.

She plopped next to him on the ground and drained her bottle of water. Rey offered the rest to him, which he gladly accepted.

“Hungover?” she asked. 

Cardo glanced up to make sure his master was out of earshot. “Yep. I’ll admit it, yesterday was a mistake. Kylo wins.” 

“I don’t understand,” Rey said. “The drunks on Jakku never seemed hungover.”

“Probably because they never stopped drinking.”

“Good point.”

Kylo came thundering back, glaring down at his apprentice and his knight where they slumped against the corner of the training mat. “Did I say you two were done?”

Rey leaned over to whisper in Cardo’s ear, “he’s enjoying this far too much.”

Kylo’s glare turned on her. It went from fiery, to amused, before settling on a stiff arrogance within the span of roughly three breaths. “Get up.”

She blinked up at him.

“ Now, scavenger.”

Rey obeyed, gritting her teeth at the fresh injuries on her gut. Her legs. Her face. Everywhere, really.

With a flourish far too fanciful for the exhausted state she was in, Kylo twirled a training saber into view. “Ready?”

“You can’t be serious.” As she protested, Cardo shoved the training saber into her hand. “Kylo, I’m exhausted.”

“Your enemies won't care if you’re exhausted.”

Rey stuck her straining saber into the mat and huffed. “I’m in pain.”

“Your enemies won't care if you’re in pain.”

Rey suddenly saw a snowy forest. Felt the chill of the blizzard and the smoldering heat of his lightsaber. The pain in her chest as she ran from him in the haze of a devastating anger. “You certainly didn’t.”

He saw it, too. Felt it. “I wasn’t trying to kill you that night.”

“Could’ve fooled me.”

Kylo’s jaw twitched. He lifted the training saber, settling his massive shoulders into a fighting stance. “You will train exhausted and in pain, and in return, you will fight stronger. Faster.”

“You’ve made your point,” she bit out, willing to do anything to just get a moment of rest. Her stomach was twisting with nausea. Her head ringing. “I won’t stay up all night drinking myself into a supernova sized hangover with Cardo ever again.”

“A damn shame,” Cardo tsk’d. 

Rey felt his anger brewing. Kylo parted his lips to bite out some obnoxious reply, but was interrupted by the training room door slamming open.

Hux rushed across the room in a flurry of stress and bitterness. His long burgundy cloak swept in his wake, making his hair look even more fiery.

“Ren,” the man greeted Kylo with only the slightest hint of distaste. He gave Cardo a slight nod, and his gaze skipped over Rey entirely. “There’s been a development.”

Rey knew well enough to keep silent after that. Hux led the three of them from the room, through the bustling bowels of the ship, until finally, they reached the bridge. Rey had only been in this room once before, when Prime Minister Paddock squealed like a rathtar under interrogation.

A group of well decorated First Order officers surrounded the main holotable of the bridge. Most of them stood at attention, bristling as Kylo Ren made his way to the helm of the ship. A heavy silence loomed as an officer flipped the controls and typed a sequence into the machine. 

It was clear a very important announcement was about to be made.

She shouldn’t be here. Kylo should’ve known better. Hell, Hux should’ve known better. But whatever this development was, it seemed to distract the good sense out of all of them.

Except for Cardo. He shot a questioning look at Rey. She shrugged in return.

A hologram wrinkled to life. A’plek’s face took form.

“Master.”

Rey sensed Kylo’s irritation as if it were her own. “You’re still on Battu?”

“Not for long. You were right. There was a Resistance cell involved in the attack on our base. Small, but formidable.”

Rey stiffened. 

Kylo had dawned his mask before leaving the training room. His words came out distorted and wrong. “It’s taken you nearly a week to discover this?”

A'plek’s jaw twitched. “We managed to capture five Resistance fighters. It took a few days for them to break under interrogation, but it was nothing we couldn’t handle.”

“I see.” Kylo paced the holotable. “Were you able to glean the purpose of this attack?”

“To acquire a first order transmitter.” Kriff. Rey stood a bit straighter. Clenched her jaw a bit harder. Pretending to not have a single clue what they were talking about was far harder than it seemed. “Apparently the galaxy-wide radio blackout you orchestrated was as effective as we’d hoped. The rebels are scrambling, sir.”

“I suspected as much,” Kylo said. It was odd to see him like this: tactically minded and sure. It seemed like a costume. An act. “Have they been eliminated?”

“Not yet. The interrogations are proving quite useful. We’ve learned of Resistance cells blooming all across the galaxy. If we want them gone, we need to root them out,” A'plek said. “So far, we have intelligence regarding burgeoning Resistance factions on Bespin, Kijimi, and Dantooine.”

Rey hoped her thrumming heart wasn’t as intense as it felt. Whether it was or wasn’t, Kylo didn’t seem to notice.

“We lost contact with Exeter Base on Dantooine six days ago,” Hux supplied. “Our engineers assumed it was a complication with the communications blockade–”

Hux began to choke. 

“Why wasn’t I informed of this?” Kylo growled.

“I-it was t-to be expected with–with an operation of that s-s-size.” 

Kylo released him. Hux descended into a fit of coughs. He wheezed and continued. “One cannot perform a complete communications blockade of an entire galaxy without  consequence, Kylo Ren. We were briefed on the potential ramifications. A temporary radio interruption with a remote base on the Outer Rim was to be expected.”

“Six days is not a minor interruption.”

“We dispatched a repair team two days ago.”

Kylo’s helm tiled. “And?”

Hux turned to a pale officer at his side. The man coughed, adjusted the collar of his uniform, and spoke. “We have yet to reestablish contact with the repair team.”

Kylo slammed his fist onto the holotable. Nearly every creature in the room flinched. “Deploy garrisons to Bespin and Kijimi. I want them combing the local populations for Resistance fighters. Deploy the Retribution to Dantooine. If there is any trace of a Resistance victory, annihilate the entire planet.” 

Hux’s eyes widened with shock and rage. “We are not sending a resurgent class star destroyer to Dantooine on the off chance that a minor technical issue was a Resistance attack —”

He turned to Hux. “I outrank you, Hux. Send the Retribution . I look forward to explaining to Supreme Leader Snoke how you not only lost a First Order outpost, but somehow managed to allow the Resistance to retake an entire planet on your watch. A planet we now have to destroy.”

Rey began to feel faint. The Retribution had the power to level cities. Murder millions. It would annihilate any Resistance fighters, and innocent civilians, on Dantooine in minutes.

With that, Kylo spun to leave.

“One more thing, Master,” A'plek said.

Kylo stopped. Despite his mask completely concealing his face, Rey felt his gaze met hers. It was evident in the way his force signature seemed to widen in momentary shock that he had completely forgotten she was there.

 “Yes?” He said without looking away from her.

“There’s going to be another attack on First Order forces.”

Finally, Kylo turned to the hologram. “When?”

“We don’t know yet, sir. Vicrul and Trudgen are still trying to gather more information from the prisoners.” A'plek seemed to smile as if this was an activity he looked forward to. “All we know is the Resistance is mobilizing to attack another stronghold in order to capture a First Order transmitter.”

Kylo touched a finger to his chin. He paced past her once again, catching her eye. “Were they not dissuaded by their last defeat?”

“Rebels are unwise creatures, Master.”

Once again, his mask did not look away from her as he said, “yes. Yes they are.”

A moment passed. Kylo turned to address the room.

“A'plek, oversee the operations on Bespin and Dantooine. I will send Hux and Kuruk to Kijimi.” Hux bowed his head at this like a loyal dog. “If any of you catch wind of anything that may be a Resistance cell, you contact me immediately.” His eyes traced the faces around him. “I will destroy them myself.”

Kylo Ren stormed away from the bridge, leaving Rey to gape in his wake alongside a couple dozen First Order officers. The room began to blur. The ambient sound of the room softened to a hum.

The first Resistance victory in months, and it was already foiled. Not only that, but the Retribution was prepared to destroy Dantooine. Thousands of people...maybe even millions. She had to warn the Resistance.

She had to. 

You have to.

A vile lurch to her stomach accompanied the disembodied voice in her mind. A voice that was most certainly not hers.

Cardo had to nudge her shoulder to remind her that she was expected to follow the master of the Knights of Ren from the room. It took a whole hallway for them to catch up. Kylo sensed their presence instantly. 

“We're leaving.”

Rey glanced at Cardo. He treated this news as completely natural.

“Where to?” He asked. 

Kylo flicked his wrist, throwing the lounge door open. “Auratera.”

Cardo skidded to a stop so suddenly, Rey ran into his back. 

“So soon?” Cardo asked, at the exact same time that Rey piped in with, “what's Auratera?”

Kylo opened the door to her room and disappeared inside, so Cardo answered. “A planet with a very powerful vergence in the Force.”

“A vergence?”

“We’ll explain later.” Kylo emerged from her room, which she had spent scarcely any time in, with a dark canvas bag. He shoved it in her arms. “We have to leave. Now.” Kylo gestured to Cardo. “You too.”

Cardo nodded and wordlessly swept into his room. 

“What's happening?” With the Force back, she could sense Kylo’s unease as easily as she heard the rushed tremor in his voice. Despite that damned modulator.

“It was the only way I could convince Snoke not to call upon you,” he explained. “I said you were ready for your second trial.”

“What?” Rey shook her head.  She followed Kylo as he collected various objects from the lounge: a datapad, a blaster, a beacon, and more First Order issued trinkets she couldn’t exactly identify.  “I just returned from the first one! I’m supposed to have three more months.”

“Yes, well, thank your lovely Resistance friends for moving our timetable up.”

“ You are the one pursuing them—”

Kylo turned to her and shouted. “There should be nothing to pursue!”

Rey stumbled back. She hated that she did, and flushed with embarrassment. He didn’t scare her. She was just…startled. Kylo’s helm retreated in a slow, measured manner.

“You heard A'plek,” Kylo said softly. “The Resistance’s numbers are growing, and now they’re attacking our bases. Taking over planets. We have no choice but to defend ourselves.”

“You silenced a whole galaxy.”

A'plek had said it himself. The galaxy-wide radio blackout had been his idea. 

Kylo heaved a deep breath. He reached up and pulled off his helm, placing it on the table at his side. Black, wild hair stuck in every direction as he stared contemplatively at the metal face. There was a tense hum in the Force between them. One that almost felt like regret. “People can still speak through the proper channels—”

“You took away their freedom,” Rey said. “And then you took away their voice. What else were they supposed to do?”

Kylo’s jaw tensed. Cardo stepped back into the lounge, bag in tow. 

He didn’t wait for Cardo to speak. “Let’s go.”

Rey began to panic. She couldn’t leave yet. There was a star destroyer headed directly toward a heavily populated planet. She needed to warn the Resistance. She needed to warn the people of Dantooine. She needed time. She needed an ally. She needed... 

“Wait!”

Both men turned to look at her. 

“I need…my datapad.”

Kylo looked at her strangely. “Your…”

“Datapad.” Rey fumbled for an excuse. She had to warn Finn and Poe. The First Order was about to raid three planets, and if Leia was on one of them…Rey couldn’t even stomach the thought. “My literacy exercises.”

Cardo and Kylo exchanged a glance. Then, Kylo said, “I’ll program a new one.”

“No, you won’t.” She sensed his annoyance through the Force. “This may not be important to you, Kylo, but it is to me. I’ll run down to the cell block and meet you in the hangar bay.”

Kylo met her furious stare with one of his own. “Fine. Go with her, Cardo.”

“I can manage on my own—“

“So you can tell the traitor about everything you just heard? Nice try.” Rey paled. Kylo turned to Cardo. “Be quick, we’re leaving in five minutes.”

Rey trailed behind Cardo as they rushed to the cells. Stomtroopers largely ignored them as they trotted past. They passed a command room where First Order officers barked orders at a group of young looking recruits. The whole base seemed to be mobilizing.

Preparing for battle.

Rey took a deep breath. She could do this. Cardo was an unexpected obstacle, one she would have to either overpower or distract. She’d done it once before.

I know what you’re up to, Rey.

She stumbled to a stop. This time, there was no mistaking it.

“Snoke,” she breathed. 

I’m glad those cuffs are finally off, Snoke purred. I’ve missed our little talks. 

“Rey.” 

She jerked her head up. Cardo impatiently waved her along, completely ignorant to the horror on her face. Rey offered a shaky nod and continued. The turbolift hummed. Dinged. Vacantly, she followed Cardo.

It took her nearly the entire journey to the cells to work up the courage to respond. What do you want from me?

A stormtrooper-clad Poe greeted them at the entrance. 

You and your rebellious little mind. Although Snoke was just a voice, she heard the cracked, wicked smile in his tone. I want you to do exactly what you’re planning, Rey. Warn the Resistance. Tell your little lemmings to run.

Poe led them to Rey’s cell. Finn rushed forward as she walked past. 

Rey ghosted her shaky fingertips along the bars to his cell. Snoke knew what she was doing…and he didn’t want her to stop. Was it a mind trick? Either way, she needed to get the Resistance off of Dantooine. Thousands of lives depended on it.

“Staying out of trouble?” Rey willed the tremor from her voice.

“Oh, you know me,” Finn glared at Cardo behind her, “model prisoner and all.” Poe unlocked the door, letting it swing open with a groan. “Where did you go last night?” 

Rey stilled.

 “I was worried when I woke up this morning and you were gone,” Finn continued.

Cardo’s gaze slid to hers. “This morning?”

Kriff. Rey paced to the cot in the corner and collected her datapod from the ruffled wool blanket. “I…went to my room.”

“Strange,” Cardo said, mischief in his eyes. “I didn’t see you there this morning, either.”

Poe, Finn, and Cardo all stared at her. Once again, her cell was beginning to feel far too crowded. 

Thankfully, she was saved from replying by a chorus of bangs and shouts that erupted from the depths of the cell block.

Cardo whirled to face Poe. “What the hell is that?”

“A new batch of prisoners, sir,” Poe replied. “They do this every few hours—“

Metal rang. Crashed. Screams echoed in the distance, mingling with the telltale sound of footsteps slapping against stone.

“They’ve escaped,” Cardo hissed. He pointed to Poe. “You, stay here with her. Don’t let her go anywhere. I’ll call a squad to contain the prisoners. And Rey,” he glared at her, “don’t even think about doing anything.”

With that, he was gone.

The second he disappeared down the hall, Poe’s gloved hand was on her arm, pulling her so they stood in front of Finn’s cell. He ripped off his helmet. “We don’t have much time. Are you okay? Where have you been?”

“I’m fine, I was just…” Getting drunk and making out with my enemy. Spending the night in Kylo Ren’s bed. His annoyingly silky and soft and comfortable bed–

Kriff, she needed to get her priorities straight.

“It’s nothing,” she eventually said. Another scream pierced the air. “Did you release those prisoners to create a distraction?”

Finn grinned. “Genius, right? It was Poe’s idea.”

“Well, Finn suggested that he should break out of his cell as a distraction. I vetoed that.” Poe said. “This new batch of prisoners conveniently showed up this morning.”

“As much as I’d love to talk about that, we have a problem. The First Order knows about the Resistance cells on Dantooine, Bespin, and Kijimi,” she said. “Please, please tell me Leia isn’t on one of those planets.”

Finn and Poe were silent. She felt their fear ignite in the Force. And their eyes.

Dread rushed over her. “No,” she breathed. 

This was it. The Resistance, beaten down to a measly three planets, and she couldn’t even help them. And one with a Star Destroyer on its way…

They were doomed.

It was Poe who finally spoke. “What do they know?”

“They got most of their information from five captured Resistance fighters on Battu. I don’t know how much they revealed about the Resistance factions on Kijimi and Bespin, but they’re suspicious about Dantooine. Kylo is deploying the Retribution there as we speak.”

“The Retribution ?” Finn said, a measure of awe and terror in his eyes. “As in the Resurgent -class Star Destroyer? That Retribution?”

“Yes.” Rey watched the hope drain from their faces. “Kylo thinks the Resistance has successfully overrun the First Order outpost on Dantooine. Exeter Base. If that's true, he's going to take out the whole planet.”

Any joy from the potential Resistance victory was drowned out by the horror that followed.

“Battu and Dantooine were supposed to conduct a synchronous strike that day we saw you on Leesis. Thanks to you we heard news of Battu, but there was nothing about Dantooine. Not even radio chatter intercepted from the First Order. In fact, no one has heard from their fighters since the day of the communications blackout,” Poe said. “We assumed they were already captured.”

She nodded. “But what if the Dantooine attack was a success?”

“And now, a First Order Star Destroyer is headed their way,” Poe said, “with no one to warn them…”

“Except us,” Rey finished. 

Finn looked at Rey, then at Poe. “Before we panic and do something incredibly stupid,” Finn said, “what is the likelihood that the Resistance actually defeated the First Order on Dantooine and occupied Exeter Base? I mean, why haven’t they broadcasted? Exeter base would have a transmitter.” 

Rey shrugged. “Their transmitter could’ve been damaged in the attack. Or, maybe—”

“The moment the Resistance transmits anything, they become sitting ducks. They’d be faced with the wrath of the entire First Order. Kylo wouldn’t just send one Star Destroyer, he’d send them all,” Poe said. “That’s why it has to be us. We have to broadcast Leia’s message. Only Kylo Ren’s encryption can hide the source and override the galaxy wide radio blackout.”

The silence in the cell block was deafening. 

“Any updates on that?” Finn asked Rey. Despite being in Kylo’s chambers far, far more often than she’d ever want to admit, she still had no way to get inside on her own. Not that she had particularly tried. 

Rey shook her head. “I haven’t found a way inside alone. Besides, we’re about to leave. Kylo’s forcing me to go to some planet called Auratera. We have to warn the Resistance on Dantooine as soon as possible, but I’ll be on a ship with no way to…” 

The idea came to her mind in the middle of her sentence. Rey trailed off. Her heart began to race, sweat pooling at her brow. It was insane and stupid but it just might work. No, it would work.

And if Kylo Ren found out, he might just kill her.

“I’ll be on a ship,” she whispered. A First Order ship. With a radio. A radio that could send and receive transmissions. 

Yes.

The slimy, vicious voice that slithered into her mind nearly made her flinch. Footsteps echoed throughout the prison block. Lots of them. 

Kriff, they were out of time. Cardo and the guards were coming back.

Warn the Resistance, Snoke hissed in her mind. I’ll even help you, Rey. See?

At the end of the cell block, right where Cardo and a handful of guards were wrestling the last few prisoners into submission, a large iron door swung shut. The click of the lock echoed. 

Followed by shouts. Cardo’s shouts.

See how gracious I can be?

“Why would you help me?” she hissed. “What would you possibly have to gain?”

I’ve given you precious time. Time you should not waste asking pointless questions.

“I don’t want your help.”

But you need it.

A chorus of bangs later, the sound of iron bars snapping made them all jump.

“Rey,” Poe carefully asked, “who are you talking to?”

Do it, Rey.

SHUT UP. She slammed the thought into her mental safe, the one Kylo helped her construct, and turned back to her friends. She wasn’t a Knight of Ren. She didn’t exist to do Snokes bidding. To sit idly by while Kylo Ren destroyed yet another planet.

She was a Rebel. She was a good person. 

Somewhere in her mind, someone laughed.

She sat there, conflicted. She didn’t understand. Snoke would never want the Resistance to escape. But Snoke wasn’t a soldier or a general. No…he was a playmaker. 

He was a creature who dealt in games. That's all this war was to him; a game. That was the only explanation as to why a man with that much power would sit in a throne day in, day out, meddling in everyone's minds. She just didn’t kriffing understand why .

But, frankly, she didn’t have time to understand.

“Poe,” she spoke between gritted teeth, “does the cell block have a computer terminal?”

Poe raced to the guard desk and illuminated the screen. “What do you need?”

“The radio frequency for Exeter Base.”

As Poe typed, Finn hissed from inside his cell. “But the base has gone dark, they won’t receive the message.”

“Yes, they will. Dantooine is in the Outer Rim, which means one transmitter isn’t enough. We have the same issue on Jakku.” Rey snuck anxious looks at the hall, hearing the footsteps grow near. “Exeter base would need a fortified communications system to maintain contact with the First Order. Even if the primary unit is dark and can’t transmit, any message sent to that frequency will be received and scanned into the—”

“Transmitter’s secondary system,” Poe finished with her, typing rapidly. “Rey, you’re a genius.”

“I have my moments,” she said. The footsteps were close. She sensed Cardo, he was approaching the corner. Rey placed her datapad in front of Poe, swiping to the free-hand practice page of her literacy lesson. “Copy down the frequency here.”

“The message wont reach Dantooine,” Finn piped up once again. “Only a Starship can broadcast a message to other planets and systems—”

“Every First Order ship is equipped with a subspace transceiver, even their smaller transports. Trust me, I’ve taken apart enough of their ships to know.” Rey turned back to Poe. 

“Poe, I need you to write a message I can transmit to them. Make it short—I won’t have much time.”

You’re so concerned with why I’d want to send the message, Snoke chimed in. Why do you?

Rey glared at the computer screen as she replied. To save the Resistance.

No, the voice teased. You’re doing this to save yourself. 

The footsteps grew louder, along with the grunts of the recaptured prisoners.

But what you don’t realize, Rey, the voice said, is you’re already lost.

As Cardo sped around the corner, with ten stormtroopers in tow behind him, Rey jumped away from Poe to stand near Finn’s cell, just as Poe hurriedly dawned his Stormtrooper helmet.

Cardo lifted a brow, glancing between her and Finn. “You’re up to something, aren’t you?”

Her heart hammered in her chest and Rey thanked her lucky stars that it was Cardo standing in front of her and not Kylo Ren. “I’m plotting our escape, of course. After I spring Finn from the brig, I plan to kill Ushar first,” Rey said, feigning a sweet smile, one that was easy to conjure in Cardo’s presence. “Don’t worry, I’ll save you for last.”

Cardo flashed a genuine smile back. He had dimples. “How kind of you.” He grabbed her arm and pulled her to the exit. Poe rushed to intercept them, wordlessly handing Rey her datapad and watching them disappear down the hall.

They didn’t take Kylo’s command shuttle this time. Instead, Kylo led Cardo and Rey to a rusted cargo light freighter that seemed to have been collecting dust in the hangar bay for the last decade. The ship jerked to life, the ramp unlatching from the durasteel body of the ship and slamming onto the polished floor.

“It’s less conspicuous,” he gruffly replied to her silent judgement. “This time, we aren’t traveling as Knights of Ren.”

“Who are we, then?” Cardo followed Kylo up the ramp.

Kylo caught her eye as she stepped into the ship and he did not reply.

Inside, the freighter was far more modern. A modest common room consisted of a couch, a table, and a handful of chairs. There was a kitchen built into one side of the hull, and a fresher on the other. Rey assumed the two sliding doors opposite the cockpit made up the living quarters. 

She ducked into the cockpit, running her fingers over the controls. Odd–she hadn’t recognized the outer shell of the ship, which was highly unusual for Rey, but the cockpit was one she knew well. 

Rey had torn one apart seven years ago. “This is a modified EML-850—”

“Light freighter,” Kylo overlapped her sentence, so the two finished in unison. “Republic era. One of the last of its kind.”

“Apparently it cost a fortune to build.” Rey eyed the sleek durasteel accents of the control panel. “When I found one of these buried beneath a sand dune, bartering the exterior plating alone kept me fed for an entire year.”

“Well, that solves it then.” Kylo plopped into the co-pilot's chair.

“Solves what?”

“There were only two of these left by the end of the war. We acquired one,” he gestured to her, “and you destroyed the other.”

“I didn’t destroy it,” Rey said. At his goading look, she rolled her eyes. “I dismantled it, is all. It wasn’t going anywhere else.”

In all honesty, it had been one of the best days of Rey’s life. Finding an entire ship, almost intact, was nearly unheard of. And a ship like that? Well, there was a reason Rey kept mostly to herself. People have been killed for scrap like that.

“Well, scavenger,” Kylo gestured to the controls, “what are you waiting for?”

Rey looked down. She was standing in front of the pilot’s chair. Through the flightdeck window, Rey watched stormtroopers disengage the fuel line, prepping the ship for takeoff. Beyond the hangar bay sat the expanse of space.

All of it. 

Without wasting a single second, anxious to feel the controls slip between her fingers, the entirety of a ship at her will, Rey slipped into the pilot’s chair and began the ignition sequence with a grin on her face.

Kylo flipped a switch. Radio static warbled through the speakers. “Reaper to Control requesting takeoff clearance,” he said.

Cardo slipped into the cockpit and took the empty seat behind Kylo. The engine roared to life at her command. She felt the mechanics whir beneath her feet. The ship coming alive at her fingertips.

“ Control to Reaper,” a garbled voice replied, “clearance granted.”

Pushing the forward thruster, feeling the ship tilt, listening to the groan of the mechanics, she felt free. It was like being at the helm of a giant beast. Like climbing atop the highest sand dune and feeling the freedom of the wind.

Rey knew she was smiling like an idiot, she just didn’t care. 

Kylo was silent as she guided the ship from the hangar, gliding out of the Supremacy’s sphere. Soon, the massive dreadnought was just a small speck in the expanse of space behind them. 

“So,” Rey prepped the hyperspace jump, “where exactly is Auratera?”

He typed a set of coordinates into the screen. “It should take about eighteen hours to get there.” A mechanical trill signalled that the coordinates were locked in, and the guidance ready to deploy. Kylo examined the route, half of his face alight with the glow of a nearby star. The shadows sharpened his jaw. Deepened the dips around his lips. 

When he turned to her, Rey stopped herself from looking away. “Whenever you’re ready, Scavenger.”

Rey grinned as she shot the ship into hyperspace.

Kylo stayed in the cockpit with her for a long time. The two remained mostly silent, staring at the pattern of hyperspace. Rey was in awe at the sight of it. Kylo, on the other hand, seemed utterly unmoved. She supposed he was the son of a pilot, after all. The bright, flashing blue light of hyperspace must've been as dull to him as sand was to her. 

After what could have been minutes or hours, Kylo abruptly stood and mumbled something about food. As soon as he left the cockpit, Rey fished the datapad from her bag and clicked it open. 

This was it. Her only chance to warn the Resistance.

The cockpit door slammed shut. Rey whirled around with a yelp, just in time to watch the lock engage.

What would you do without me, Rey?  Snoke sauntered into her mind uninvited. Kylo Ren could’ve easily waltzed through the door.

She grimaced at the violation of Snoke in her head, choosing to ignore it. Snoke wanted to deceive her. To make her think this was what he wanted all along.

It’s cute, he scoffed. You think yourself important enough to deceive.

Pushing through the doubt, Rey clicked on the ship’s subspace transceiver. The console trilled to life.

The message Poe had written was short, just three words. 

FO Attack. 

Run. 

She copied the letters as accurately as possible, which was far easier now than it had been just a few weeks ago. For the first time the contours of the letters seemed to make sense. She even knew what some of them would sound like. 

Hesitation tugged at her mind. 

“Why are you doing this?” She hissed at Snoke.

I want to help you, Rey. Like I tried to help you on Leesis.

“By telling me to kill Ushar?”

You will soon see why his death would’ve aided you. He will cause you incredible pain. 

“He already has.”

You think his little games are all he’s capable of? He will be the architect of your everlasting suffering, Rey. Only then, I’m afraid, will you understand my graciousness. My power.

She gritted her teeth and typed in the radio frequency for Exeter Base on Dantooine. Her heart began to race. How could she do this if it was what Snoke wanted? 

But how could she not, and let thousands, maybe even millions, of people die?

“Tell me,” Rey whispered to the empty cockpit. “Tell me why you want me to send this message.”

Her hand reached for the bright, blinking red button. 

Because it will usher in the destruction of the Resistance.

She froze. “What?” 

Your friends on Dantooine will run free. The Resistance will win the battle, Snoke hummed. But I’ll win the war.

Her fingers curled into a fist. Trembling.

And I’ll get you, Rey.

A vile bolt of disgust ran through her.

You will join me.

“You can’t know that.”

Can’t I? All you little creatures are so predictable. Your empathy. Your need to save everyone. Even though I’m telling you exactly what will happen if you press that button, you’ll do it anyway. It’s why the darkness always wins in the end. It's your nature. She felt Snoke’s presence burrow into her mind. His certainty. It made his voice echo, a groaning, savage sound. This is where it starts, you know. The beginning of the end. 

Her finger twitched. If what Snoke said was true, sending the message would kill more people than she would save. Every life that would die without the Resistance there to protect them.

Or Snoke could be lying. 

“How?” she breathed. “How could sending this message, saving these lives, destroy the Resistance?”

Press that button, and you’ll soon find out.

Her breath came out unsteady, stifling a sob. She had no idea what to do. Snoke was likely lying. He was powerful, but no creature, no matter how strong in the force, could know the future. Not with that much certainty.

“ You’re wrong,” she whispered to the empty cockpit. In trying to sway her, Snoke had proven what the First Order could not: the Resistance had taken Dantooine. They were there. Waiting for destruction. She felt the anger rise. “I have to save them.” 

Tears trailed down her cheeks as she willed her fingers to stop trembling. To reach for the button. It blinked.

And blinked. 

And blinked.

While Rey sat there, arm outstretched. Heart constricted in her chest.

Minutes or hours later, the message timed out. The blinking stopped, signifying that the message was no longer loaded in the system, but stored in the transceiver’s queue. All the hope had drained from her chest.

She couldn’t do it. Deep down, something inside her believed Snoke’s words. Rey released a shuddering breath and sank back into the chair.

They were going to die. 

All of them.

“What are you doing?”

Rey froze. Wiping an errant tear from her cheek, she slowly leaned back and swiped her datapad screen clear. 

Kylo ducked into the cockpit. Snoke must’ve unlocked the door sometime in her catatonic state. “You’re troubled.”

“I told you to stop reading my mind.”

“You did invite me in,” he said. “Just last night.”

“That was different.” She turned to face Kylo. He appraised her with an air of suspicion. 

Then he was looking at the console, where her hand had been. The subspace transceiver would have stored the drafted transmission in its data bank. She had to wipe it. 

Kylo crossed to sit in the co-pilot’s chair. Rey heard the leather groan beneath his weight, interrupting the steady hum of hyperspace around them. She glanced sideways at him. Kylo always had an air of power around him, even now, with just the two of them. He sat there with her in silence until Rey couldn’t stand it.

“You ordered a massacre.”

Her voice sounded so weak. Weaker than his. He commanded armies. She could barely command a sentence.

If her statement shocked him, he did not betray that on his face. “I did.”

“Your mother could be on Dantooine.”

This time, a muscle in his jaw twitched. “That’s immaterial.”

Her heart broke for him. For the Resistance, too. “Call off the Retribution,” she whispered. If she couldn’t save them, maybe he could. “There's been enough bloodshed.”

“You know I can’t do that, Rey.”

She didn’t have the strength to look at him for this. Apparently, she didn’t have the strength to do anything. The dull red button on the control panel mocked her. “Please,” she said, letting the silent tears fall. 

“I’m doing this for you, Rey,” he said, and stars, was it horrifying. He sounded reverent. He looked as much, too, as his eyes found her, wide and hazel and true. “I feel your sympathy for them. It's tearing you apart.”

“ You are tearing me apart!” She didn’t mean to raise her voice. Didn’t mean to look at him as she cried. He didn’t deserve her tears, yet here she was, for the second time that day, bearing to him her soul. “I should hate you. I should be fighting you, not piloting your ship. Not training with you, or sleeping next to you, or—”

“Kissing me?” He said. It sounded so boyish coming from his lips. Like they were two children stealing kisses in a schoolyard, instead of mortal enemies repeatedly catching each other in a heated embrace. 

Like last night.

“I was drunk.”

He nodded. Then he glanced at her. “And the other two times?”

She had no answer to that, so she set her gaze on the control panel and wiped away another tear. As she set her hand down on the armrest, Kylo’s palm was there, intertwining their fingers. 

He had slipped from his chair to crouch beside hers. Kylo Ren was a tall man, so even as he all but kneeled before her, his eyes were still nearly level with hers.

“What we feel,” he began, “it isn’t normal.”

Rey scoffed. “I know that.”

“No, what I mean is, the connection we have is stronger than what is normal for two force users. I’ve been ignoring it for far too long.” He hesitated, then turned their joined hands over, examining them. “The ease in which we can speak into each other’s minds, feel emotions, see memories…it shouldn’t be happening. Yet it is.”

For what felt like the hundredth time that day, Rey felt the horror burrow into her chest. “Why?”

“I have a few theories, but I honestly don’t know. I seek an answer in the vergence.”

His palm was rough but warm. She didn’t mean to squeeze his hand to find comfort, but she did it anyway. “Does Snoke know?”

“Likely.”

Rey wished she could say that any of this came as a surprise. She knew what they had was different. Stronger. That pull had been there from the start. The same pull that brought her eyes to his. Then down to his lips.

“Why are you telling me this?” 

“I don’t know,” he whispered. “I feel so much of you. Your fear. Your anger. And I know you feel mine, too.”

She did. She just didn’t always understand it. “What do you feel now?”

She trailed his Adam's apple as he spoke, honing his senses to feel hers. “I’m hurting you. You hate me for ordering a massacre.”

“So stop it.”

He tightened his hand on her own. “And yet,” he whispered. His eyes flicked to look up at her through his dark lashes. 

She waited for him to continue. She frowned. “What?”

He let go of her hand to grab either side of her face. When he pulled her mouth to his, Rey did not protest. Her heartbeat fluttered. She parted her lips with his, deepening the traitorous kiss.

She didn’t reach for him, but she didn’t pull away. Rey hated herself as she felt Kylo’s fingers brush away her errant strands of hair. His thumb trailed beneath her jaw, pressing hard enough to force her neck up. 

He was the one to break the kiss. Leaning away, she didn’t fight the urge to look up at him as he stood, leaving one last trailing touch on her cheek. When his touch disappeared, she felt cold. And wrong.

Sometimes, it felt like every step she took toward Kylo was a hyperspace jump away from the Resistance. From herself.

“One day, this’ll feel right.” He straightened, sensing her immediate unease. “One day, you will understand.”

“I won’t.”

His expression turned cold. “I know you, Rey. I feel you. And I know that you can’t fight this much longer. You’ll turn.”

Rey was too exhausted to have this conversation with him again, so she glared out of the cockpit window. Kylo stood there, watching her for a handful of heated, awkward seconds, before he finally turned to leave.

“There’s food in the lounge,” he gruffly threw over his shoulder before storming out of the cockpit.

She stared, replaying his words in her mind over and over and over again.

You can’t fight this much longer.

He thought her weak. Spineless. And suddenly, all the anger that had been brewing for the past day came rushing back to her in a heated wave. 

“You’re wrong,” she said to the empty cockpit. “I’ll never be like you.”

Rey turned to the control panel, selected the queued transmission, and watched as the red button blinked to life. Sending a furious glare at the open cockpit door, Rey grit her teeth and slammed the button.

A trill rang out from the speaker. 

Sent.

When she took her hand away from the button, her fingers shook.

A sickening laugh bubbled up in the recesses of her mind. A sinister, all too familiar sound.

I promised to tear your soul to pieces, Rey, Snoke said. This is just the beginning.

Roughly an hour of hyperspace travel later, hunger roused Rey to the lounge. Which was how she found herself curled up on the couch, biting into a dish that tasted like chewy grains and melted cheese. Perhaps the most surprising fact she’d learned in her time with the First Order was that Kylo Ren was a half-decent cook.

“So, will you tell me this time?”

“Tell you what?” Cardo asked, draining his vibrantly purple drink. Rey had tried a sip of it and found the taste utterly revolting. 

“What the second trial is. You didn’t tell me the first one until we were halfway to Bartaugh’s compound.”

Cardo and Kylo, the latter of whom had been sitting silently in the corner engaged in a staring contest with the durasteel panels of the floor for the past hundred parsecs, exchanged a glance.

“What is it?” She asked.

Kylo took a deep breath, intertwining his fingers beneath his chin. “No,” he finally said. “We won't tell you.”

“What?” Rey slammed her bowl down on the table. Perhaps it was an overreaction. Or perhaps it was the lingering anger from their encounter in the cockpit. “That’s bantha shit and you know it. I almost died last time—”

“Because we can’t,” Cardo added.

Rey frowned. Then she sat back on the couch. “You…can’t”

“You won’t know what the trial is until we reach the vergence,” Kylo explained. “None of us will.”

It didn’t escape her notice that Kylo was actively avoiding her gaze. Cardo was, too, but that didn’t bother her as much. Kylo Ren, Master of the Knights of Ren, heir to the Sith throne, wasn’t allowed to be coy. Not to her.

“Explain,” she ordered. 

He complied. “Do you know what a vergence is?”

“I know a convergence is when two materials meet and grow more powerful. Like when opposite airflows formed a dust devil back on Jakku.” 

Both men looked at her blankly.

“A sand whirl.” Still nothing. Rey shook her head. “It’s like a…a sand tornado.”

Kylo’s lips twitched to form a split-second smile. 

Rey frowned at his expression. “What?” 

“Nothing.” Kylo was looking at her. Watching her. She felt the memory of their kiss— kisses— and wanted to squirm. She esisted the urge until he finally glanced away. “You’re correct. You are aware that planets have their own connection to the Force. Sometimes, that connection is tipped either toward the light or the dark, as we understand it. Although nature pays no mind to our interpretation of the Force.

“As this varies, so does a planet’s strength in the Force. Some are as weak as a pebble. Others, as strong as an ocean. Auratera is such a place. It is the site of a rare phenomenon, where both the light and the dark side of the Force meet to form what is called a vergence in the Force. A place where the light and the dark do not oppose each other, but make each other stronger. A neutral planet in the Force.”

Rey raised a brow. “Stronger?”

“Some vergences have the ability to amplify certain abilities.” At her rising excitement, Kylo was quick to add. “Not permanently. However, this amplification can lead to insight. To learning what the vergence deems necessary for you to know.”

The way he spoke made it seem as if the vergence itself would…know her.

“The vergence on Auratera is unique. It provides one of four possible trials to any who enter. These trials are said to test one’s character. To shape one’s destiny.”

At this, her heart began to race. “What kind of trials?”

“There is the Trial of Aggression, the Trial of Attachment, the Trial of Fear, and the Trial of Sacrifice.”

“Well,” Rey said. “Those all sound lovely.”

“The Trial of Aggression forces you to face your worst enemy. The Trial of Attachment will force you to lose those you hold most dear to you. The Trial of Fear—”

“You can stop there,” Rey said. “I don’t think I want to know any more.”

“Some may face more than one trial,” Cardo added. “If the vergence deems it necessary.”

Rey stared blankly into her abandoned, half eaten bowl. “Great.”

“Once we reach Auratera, we will journey to the vergence. There, it will present you with a trial,” Kylo continued. “Completing the vergence’s trial will signify passing your second test in becoming a Knight of Ren.”

Nobody spoke for a long while, and Rey felt the insinuation that hung over all of them. Passing the second trial meant the third was soon to come.

Killing a Knight of Ren. 

The whites and blues of hyperspace strobed from the small window above the stove. Still, even after hours of staring at it from the cockpit, it entranced Rey. 

Kylo stood, placing his bowl in the sink. “We should get some rest.”

Rey glanced at the living quarters. There were two doors. Two rooms. 

Cardo looked between Rey and Kylo. “Well,” he stood up, “you two have fun with that,” before waltzing into the room on the right and shutting the door.

The sound of his retreat echoed in the common room.

“I’ll take the couch,” Kylo said.

“You took the couch last night.” She stood. Kylo was right in front of the sink. She had to brush past him to put her dish inside. “I won’t sleep anyway.”

As she went to leave, Kylo’s hand caught her wrist. “You’ll need it.”

“It’s fine.” She tugged her arm from his grasp. He was looking at her in that penetrating way—she felt his attention on her like it was a tangible thing. Like back on Leesis, when they sank beneath the lake, water pressure building up around them. 

She knew the presence. She knew what Kylo Ren felt like when he rooted around in her mind. “I told you to stop doing that.”

“I’m not doing anything, Rey.”

She looked up at him. He was close enough to touch. To reach up and grab his face.

Or slap it.

He winced. “Ok, I did hear that.”

The surge of contentment for being proven right lasted only for a moment. She cleared her throat.

“I’ll be fine.” She spun around and left him in the common room. Rey didn’t exactly mean to make it back to the cockpit, but she itched for it all the same. Flying was her solace. Her peace. It was the only time Unkar never bothered her about scavenging back on Jakku. He figured the better she knew ships, the more effective her scavenging would be.

As she sank into the cushions of the pilots chair, Rey accessed the memory bank of the subspace transceiver. She selected the most recent transmission and deleted it. Finally able to take a relieved breath, Rey leaned back and stared out of the cockpit window.

The transmission was sent. She’d done everything she needed to do.

She curled into the chair and watched hyperspace race by. It was hardly the worst place she’d ever spent the night—that list consisted of First Order prison cells and a very sterile, very cold interrogation chair. Hell, Rey had spent fifteen years of her life sleeping on the rusted steel paneling of an AT-AT. This, in comparison, was luxurious. 

Eventually, the exhaustion pulled her into a meditative state. The nightmares of the night before were far too fresh for her to drop her guard and fully sleep, so this would have to be enough.

A while later, Rey felt a presence in the cockpit with her. She searched the force and recognized it as Kylo. Not too eager to strike up a conversation, she kept her exhausted eyes closed. 

Until a light touch cupped her cheek, and forced her into a deep sleep.

Rey woke up in a bed. 

She was in a small cabin. A blanket hung around her waist, with a stiff cushion beneath her. The room smelled of mildew and metal. It took her mind a full minute to wake up. To remember that she had not, in fact, tucked herself into a bed the night before. Come to think of it, she had no memory of how she had gotten there at all.

Rey sat up in the bed so fast her vision swam. Kylo had invaded her mind. Forced her to sleep.

Again.

“Kylo!” She shouted.

Never mind that she felt more rested than she had in days. Maybe weeks. Never mind that a dozen or so of the aches she’d been harboring for so long suddenly seemed to have disappeared. This was her body, and Kylo seemed to think he could do whatever the kriff he pleased with it. 

Rey tossed the covers from her body and slammed the door open. She thundered into the common area, where Cardo and Kylo sat next to each other on the couch with their feet propped up on the table, both nursing steaming mugs of caf.

“Morning, sunshine,” Cardo said over the rim of his mug. Rey glared at Kylo.

“Stop doing that.”

There was a hint of a smile on Kylo’s face when he replied, “did you sleep well?”

“That doesn’t matter. You have no right to—”

“Did you sleep well?” He asked again, just a bit more insistent this time. His tone left no room for argument. Or evasion. 

She gritted her teeth and spoke through them. “Yes,” she managed. “But you can’t keep—”

“Good.” Kylo rose, crossing to the counter. “Would you care for some caf?”

She analyzed him as he waited for her reply. The ends of his hair were still damp from the fresher, but dry enough to maintain his constant, slightly unkempt style. He wore a finely stitched gray sweater and black cargo pants—a combination Kylo looked, dare she say, rather normal in. He offered her the steaming pot of freshly made caf.

“You’re difficult this morning,” she eventually said. Despite her non-answer, he poured some caf into a mug and offered it as he passed her by. Begrudgingly, she took it.

“Aren’t I always difficult?”

She took a sip and nearly sighed out loud. The caf on Jakku tasted like garbage compared to it. “Fine. You’re especially difficult this morning.”

“I did spend the past two nights sleeping on a stiff couch.”

“You’re one of the most powerful men in the galaxy,” Rey said. “Buy a better couch.”

That elicited a snort from both Cardo and Kylo. The latter seemed to almost flash a smile. “I suggest you freshen up. We’re arriving shortly.”

“Already?”

“You slept for twelve hours.”

No wonder she felt so rested. Rey scarcely remembered the last time she had slept for more than four hours straight, let alone twelve. Taking her caf with her, Rey retreated into her cabin. A quick shower and rough combing of the hair later, one that resulted in her stubbornly gathering it all into a low bun on the back of her head and securing it, she decided to investigate the canvas bag Kylo had packed for her.

The clothes inside were sufficient enough. He had clearly packed for three days worth of travel. Rey was both horrified and relieved to discover that he had packed breastbands and underwear, and hated that the thought of it made her blush. 

He was Master of the Knights of Ren, heir to the galactic throne. Not a schoolboy. Of course he’d packed her underwear.

She chose the only top that had the hint of a color—long sleeved and charcoal green. With no choice but to pair it with one of the three black sweatpants, she laced up her boots and re-entered the common area just as she felt the ship jerk out of hyperspace.

The descent was beautiful. Rey rushed to the cockpit, hoping to catch as much of the open galaxy as she could. As glorious as hyperspace was, it would never be as amazing as flying free between the stars. 

Auratera was a gorgeous planet. Forests of green and oceans of blue painted the landscape as Kylo guided the ship through the atmosphere. Fluffy white clouds dotted the horizon, mingling with the orange clay of cliffs and caverns. Rey was quite certain she gaped at it all.

Kylo landed in a wide open field near a dense treeline. As he completed the shutdown sequence, he spoke. “The vergence isn’t far. Just about four kilometers into the woods.”

Rey glanced out of the cockpit window. The sky was tainted orange. “Should we not wait until morning?”

“There isn’t exactly a night on this planet.” Cardo put a hand on her shoulder and guided her to stand in front of him. He pointed to the sky. “The Auratera system has two stars, but its planets only orbit one of them, Aurell.” He then turned her the opposite direction, where a second, smaller sun took up the sky. “That's the other star. Ryern. The only darkness this planet sees is when the two stars are in a total eclipse.”

She stared into the sky, mouth agape. “The galaxy is so much more beautiful than I could’ve ever imagined.”

Rey felt something tug in the Force. It didn’t feel deliberate, just…aware. Rey glanced behind her to see Kylo duck out of the cockpit.

They gathered their bags and descended from the ship. The grass was up to her knees and in some places, her hips. She reached down and traced her fingers along the blades. As if longing for her touch, the grass leaned toward her hands, coiling around her fingers. 

“You’re very connected to nature.”

Her concentration fumbled, causing the grass to fall away. “I suppose.”

“I noticed it back on Leesis.” Kylo fell into step beside her. “You sensed the moon’s landscape effortlessly.”

“Maybe you would too if you didn’t spend all of your time on lifeless mechanical beasts.”

He scoffed. “I will admit perhaps being on the Supremacy has…stunted your progress.” At her incredulous look, he continued. “It is often theorized that nature strengthens certain people’s connection with the Force. For someone with your tendencies, I should have assumed that pertained to you.”

She scoffed and stepped over a branch. “My tendencies?”

“Well, you are quite…”

“Feral? 

He smirked. “I was going to say untamed.” 

Of course he, the son of Princess Leia Organa, thought her untamed. “Well, we can't all be raised in a castle as royalty, can we?”

His footsteps were much louder than hers. Every step caused a chorus of sticks snapping and leaves crunching. “I wasn’t raised in a castle.”

“But you are a prince,” she said. “Technically.”

He didn’t reply to that. 

They forged their way through an unforgiving forest for hours. Cardo occasionally grumbled at the branches, igniting his lightsaber to slice a path. Kylo stumbled over a rogue root here and a fallen tree there. Rey, unsurprisingly, was by far the most nimble of the bunch. She navigated the heavily wooded path as expertly as she squeezed in and out of the fallen ships on Jakku. 

Finally, as the sky was painted orange, pink, and midnight blue, the treeline broke. Before her stood a massive stone structure. The smooth marble formed what could only be described as a mountain of a building. A handful of windows littered its otherwise featureless face.

It was as tall as the skeletal star destroyers on Jakku.

“The Jedi temple.” Kylo came up behind her. Rey stared in awe. “No one truly knows how old it is, just that it’s not the first structure to be built at the vergence.”

“What was the first?”

He walked away, then. Rey was almost too enthralled to follow. All she needed was a shift in perspective, a walk of about fifty meters down the treeline, until another massive structure came into view. 

This one was a bit more disjointed. The stone was roughly shaped, precariously stacked to form an almost primitive looking monument. An odd marble statue, far too warn for her to identify, poked out from the top. 

“The Sith Pyramid,” he said. 

“That doesn’t look like a pyramid.”

“It was one, long ago. This place has seen war and ruin. Reverence and abandonment. The very sight of the vergence is called Acablas. It has changed hands between the Jedi and the Sith for thousands of years—although, technically, the Sith got here first.”

Without meaning to, her feet carried her forward. Toward the Sith temple. As if it were drawing her in. Kylo followed her faithfully, sending her an odd look.

“Cardo,” he spoke over his shoulder. “You know what to do.”

“Yes, Master.” The man replied, then disappeared back into the woods. Rey barely gave him a second thought.

“The vergence here caused endless brutal wars. After the fall of a Sith Empire long, long ago, the Jedi successfully concealed Auratera’s location. The whole system is classified as uninhabited and insignificant on all official astrogation charts,” Kylo explained as he scanned the scenery around him, marveling at the Sith temple. To him, this must’ve been somewhat of a pilgrimage. “Quite genius, actually.”

The Jedi temple and the Sith Pyramid were located directly opposite one another, separated by a massive circular funnel between them. Stone steps descended what appeared to be a steep amphitheater that narrowed into a single, small tunnel. Darkness hummed beneath it.

“So who ruined it?” Rey asked.

Kylo glanced at her as he began to descend the steps of the funnel.

“ We’re here, aren’t we?” She followed him. “So who revealed the location?”

“Nobody,” Kylo replied. “The Jedi Order were too naive to believe there could still be anyone alive who remembered Auratera and its vergence.”

Rey halted. “Are you saying there's some thousand year old Sith out there who showed you this place?”

“In a sense,” he said, and waved her to continue. Once they reached the bottom, there was a cavernous hole at their feet, at least 10 paces wide. 

Rey stared at it. The darkness seemed to pulse. Thrum. Reaching out tender claws, widening its maw, welcoming her…

“The Cenote,” Kylo explained, not very helpfully. He pointed to the stone steps they’d just descended—the very ones that now dwarfed them. “This is Aca’s Funnel.”

“Okay,” Rey said. She looked around them, then down at the hole. “What am I supposed to do?”

“The entrance to the main chamber is normally through a system of complex caves beneath the planet. Though Auratera’s location was remembered by the Sith, the entrances to those caves were not.” Kylo stepped back and gestured to Rey. “This is where your test begins.”

He had a smug look on his face. The look he had when he corrected her lightsaber forms. When he read her mind even after she begged him not to.

It pissed her off.

“The vergence is down there?” Rey crept toward the edge of the cenote, peering into the darkness.

Come to me.

“Technically we're already in the scope of the vergence,” Kylo replied. “But, technically, yes. The main chamber is the heart of it.”

“Then it's obvious, isn’t it?”

Kylo blinked down at the cenote, then back to her. “I don’t see how this is possibly—”

To wipe that smug look off of his face, and to interrupt him just as abruptly as he always did her, Rey did what she did best.

She jumped.

Chapter Text

“You were never supposed to find out this way.”

Ben Solo sat on the eroding wooden bench in Uncle Luke's hut with his head hung between his shoulders, plucking away at the loose threads of his sleep shirt in an attempt to look, and perhaps feel, completely unbothered. “How was I supposed to find out?”

The finicky hologram of Leia Organa glitched. 

“From me,” his mother said. “I should have told you.”

“When?” Ben was still gathering the courage to look at her—until then, he glared at the wooden panels beneath his feet. Trailed the path of an ill fated bug that was venturing far too close to the fire. 

“When you were ready—”

“When.” Ben was built from quiet rage. He seldom shouted. Shouting, Leia Organa always said, was a path to weak politics. Those who have something important to say never shout. No, they speak calmly. Evenly. With poise and practice. If something was to be said in anger, it was to be a calm and collected anger.

Ben gathered his rage and bottled his betrayal, letting it pour over each consonant as he spoke.

“When were you going to tell me that my grandfather was the most hated man in the galaxy?”

The hologram glitched. Ben did not look at it. Instead, he replayed the broadcast from earlier that night in his mind, over and over and over again. The graffitied posters of his mother, the white background marred with the helm of Darth Vader, being carried throughout the streets of Coruscant. A galaxy betrayed. 

Ben’s shaky breaths as he ran from the Jedi temple’s canteen earlier that night. ‘Sith spawn!’ His fellow padawans shouted after him. ‘Darth Solo!’

“You were such a difficult child, Ben. Your father and I, we…we tried so hard to connect with you. I thought, at the beginning, I was afraid it was because of him . I was so scared, Ben.” Ben looked up. His mother was crying. He’d never seen her cry before. “But then I’d look at you. You, with your curious eyes, so full of hope and longing. And I’d get this surge of pure love. Like right now.” Ben sniffed and tore their gazes apart. “And I’d know, without a shadow of a doubt, that you were good. You are good , Ben.”