‘Rey.’ He was there, probing her again, forcing the walls of her mind like never before. He had he gotten stronger at pushing his mental barriers. Kylo Ren was strong, very strong. This was something he knew Rey would hate to admit. But before that, she could still lock herself in her mind. But Kylo was going to make sure it was very clear she had no place to hide away anymore. She was nothing but a flicker of light in the growing sea of darkness that was surrounding Rey. ‘Rey. Tell me where you are.’ Kylo knew she could feel the temptation. She was quiet, but her heart was pounding against her chest. He smiled sensing she was losing control over it. Frowning slightly as Rey tried to strengthen her mental barriers again. Rebuilding the crackes where he was entering. But apparently, not strong enough to prevent Kylo Ren. Not now. He saw her barrier cracking like glass, making an uneven path for the total break. He was forcing and not caring if it hurt her. Kylo was pushing harder and harder. ‘Would not hurt if you stop fighting.’ By his tone of voice it was easy to tell Kylo was rolling his eyes as if it were all very simple if she would just stop fighting and obeyed. ‘Do not fight, Rey. It's not meant to be like that.’

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She had never wanted to punch someone so much in her life.

Kylo's presence was like cobwebs in a cave; tenuous and persistent, constantly skirting along her skin and startling her with a rush of chills when she least expected it. Every time she felt the brush of his presence her heart would leap painfully into her throat, distracting her from her training and forcing her to take a deep breath and attempt to refocus again. It was a matter of endurance, and with each sharp, brutal swing of her staff - barely monitored by Luke, who contemplated aimlessly on the hill far above her, barely there - her resolve slipped a little more.

'Go away,' she muttered in her own mind, no longer caring if he heard or not. 'You're a rat. A nuisance. I owe you nothing but a swift kick to the-'

Maybe she shouldn't have been conversating with him. The cracks she was presenting to him were more vulnerable that way, she realized belatedly, and with a single misstep against gravel she gasped softly and slipped both physically and mentally, feeling something like ice and a dark, warm blanket all at once.

And it had a name.

Rey grit her teeth, knowing she was exposed now and there was nothing she could do about it as she greeted his presence curtly.

'...Kylo.'

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‘Don't do it that!’ He commanded strongly through the bond, the tone and strength that was sent was enough to make her head ache. ‘How many times I have told you that this is not the way the bond should work? Is your time with the Resistance making you forget that? We created this by accident on Starkiller, but it can no longer be broken or closed for long without us getting hurt, Rey.’ He tried to explain to her again. ‘Stop doing that. Stop trying to shut me out.’ The tone of his voice gave evidence to Rey that he was trying to commanded her. There was a pregnant pause before Kylo spoke again. ‘I feel your discomfort in your back. By your looks, it looks like you are sleeping on a pile of boulders. In your eyes, even your bed in Jakku looked better.’ Kylo’s laugh sounding at the back of his mind. When no response came from Rey, Kylo got serious again. Probing her mind again, wanting to see through Rey’s eyes using the bond. ‘You’re not with the Resistance.’ He concluded quickly. ‘Where are you?’ Kylo asked again. ‘Say, Rey!’ Kylo raised his voice in his last words.

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Rey almost laughed. Of course she knew everything he was telling her was true, but it didn't mean she wanted to believe it or accept it. They were both stubborn, but she stubbornly believed she could out-stubborn the infamous Kylo Ren.

'The circus,' she replied petulantly. Ha! As if she would give in so easily. She decided not to get up just yet; sitting was comfortable, and under the warmth of the sun mixed with the cool mist of the island air it made it easily to talk to him without... straining herself too much. With a sigh, she nosed the end of her staff at some of the stray rocks, and ventured a question his way instead. 'Say, Prince of Darkness... What exactly to do hope to accomplish if you find your way here?'

She assumed kill her, and Master Luke. Maybe even the hapless caretakers that only tolerated her clumsy presence. That knowledge sat in her belly like a cold, heavy stone, and sobered her enough to realize she wished that reality was untrue. But what did she really want? Kylo to appear and leave everyone be? To take her and magically, miraculously change his mind, live happily ever after? She laughed softly, morosely at that one, and swept the rock she was playing with bitterly down the hill. Kriff - he'd heard all of that, hadn't he?

'Even if you find me, you won't win.' She believes that fact in her heart of hearts, and it keeps her inner voice even and certain even if she's shaky. 'Even if you kill all of us, you won't win. As long as there's hope, you've lost - and I can feel the hope in you, no matter how many temper tantrums you throw at me.'

There. See how he liked that response.

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‘You.’ He replied categorically. ‘Tell me where you are and I will go after you.’ He started to wrap his mind around Rey’s, trying to get in more and more, but she was starting to resist again. Blocking certain areas of her mind. What ever secret she kept was something Kylo knew she wouldn’t want him to discover. Which was probably wise, otherwise whole systems would explode. After seeing her thoughts of both death and destruction followed by some fairytale story, Kylo sent images. Images that have not come to pass yet, created by the force, but were possible. Images flashed of times they fought against each other, or of the times they helped each other in the fights, the time she took his hand and accepted his offer or when he gave her the shelter of his black robe. The memories were being seen from his point of view. And then, he sent her his favorite potential memory: Their intertwined bodies doing something purely biological and natural. Sexual movements and sensual sounds. Kylo had a certain kind of appreciation for the sounds Rey made. Suddenly the images stopped. ‘Come back Rey and I promise to let them live, if this is what you want.’ For a moment Kylo thought Rey would tell him. His fist clenched at her smart ass comments. Quickly severing the force bond link, not caring how much pain it caused Rey or himself. He did not fail. He would not fail.

The Resistance ... What had they done to her so that she was not in their custody? Kylo Ren wondered. He knew that the entire Resistance, seeing her away from the First Order, would try to claw Rey. Not only to bring her back to them, but also to probe every information she knew about her time with the First Order. Kylo's mind began to work with possibilities. Rey was fleeing, not only from him, but apparently from the Resistance too, which meant that something had happened to her as she fled. And, she was also hiding something from him. He stirred in the dark sheets of his bed, uneasy. Kylo had been trying to sleep for four months since Rey's escape and obviously, he was making very little progress on getting it. A part of he mind was always working, trying to capture what the next steps of the scavenger would be, to be one step ahead of her. But of course, she had the gift to surprise him and he liked it at first, but he was starting to get frustrated by the attempts and failures. He was not a person who got along well with failures.
The other part of his mind was always open to her by the bond, hoping she would gladly come to him, give him the information of her location, and then he could go to her and they would start from where they had stopped.

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She was thankful, in that moment, for the harsh conditions of Jakku that had steeled her soul. Her body was reeling from the whiplash - the potential, the promise, the pleasure, the pain, all projected vehemently from the man that should have been her mortal enemy. But the longer she dwelled on those words - mortal enemy - the more her heart and mind resisted. Logically, in his eyes, she had seen many times the gaze of a much younger man who toiled from his own traumas.

Fuck.

Rey gathered herself, tried to steady and count her breaths. Meditate. A possibility was blooming inside of her that tasted almost like hope, and she let the Force guide her down the many paths of the future; she felt the fear of him perhaps being dishonest, of trying to seduce her only for answers that would gain him power. But she knew instinctively that was untrue... wasn't it? Kylo- no, Ben. Ben had been painfully honest with her on more than one occasion.

What branded in her mind so badly was his promise, however. And that promise spurned her to her feet with purpose straight to Chewie.

The Wookie chirped at her questioningly when he saw the look in her eyes.

"We're going on a trip," she prompted, firm in her decision. She wouldn't back down now. "I have a plan. And it might just save us all."

There were plenty of planets in the outer rim populated only by outcasts, exiles, and smugglers galore - places the military never set a foot. She need a neutral, safe location to meet Kylo, far from the Resistance and Luke and everyone she needed to protect.

And if he agreed - if he decided to rendezvous with her in secret - maybe... just maybe... they could talk, face to face, without the looming threat of death surrounding them both. Just talk.

The vivid images of his large hands, hot and heavy on her exposed skin, send a chill down her nerves and she avoids looking at Chewie. She has a funny feeling that she decides to ignore that talking might not be all they accomplish if this pans out.

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Kylo Ren took a deep breath, the sound muffled by the emulator of his helmet. He was heading toward Supreme Leader Snoke, accepting punishment under his flaws. Rey should have been lead here by now through the use of the force bond. In the elevator, he twisted his neck slightly, mentally preparing himself for what would come. As he approached, he felt the presence of someone else besides Snoke's personal guards and Snoke himself, with his dark energy.There was only one person who could enter that room.

Hux...

The doors opened and Kylo Ren walked in his usual tone. The tone of authority. Hux and Snoke were talking and when Snoke told him to leave, Hux passed Kylo with a lateral smile on his face. Teasing him.

As the doors closed behind Hux's exit, Kylo dropped to one knee in reverence. The scarlet-colored walls could be seen in the reflection of the black floor. Snoke's personal guards could almost blend into the walls, owing to the color of their identical armor in colour.

"Kylo Ren." Snoke said his name in a way that even made him shiver. "How's your injury?"

"Completely recovered, Supreme Leader."

Snoke rise from his throne. His body lean and gray, almost sick. His face was old and deformed, yet his eyes were filled with anger. Down the steps of his throne, he walked toward Kylo.

“The powerful Kylo Ren. When I met him, I saw what all the masters lived to see. "Snoke was approaching. " Power. Gross and indomitable and moreover, something very special. This 'something' is your progeny. " He reached for Kylo. "The new Vader."

Kylo was silent. Listening carefully to Snoke's words. For now, it was not so bad. He had heard worse. But Snoke's next words began to erode the edges of Kylo Ren's patience.

“But maybe I was wrong. "Snoke continued.

Lifting his face, Kylo stared at him from behind his helmet as he said,

"I gave you everything I have." He paused. "For the dark side."
“Take off that ridiculous thing” Snoke referred to his mask. Trying to offend him.


With deceptive patience, Kylo placed two hands on the sides of his helmet and deactivated the safety beam, removing .

"Yes." Snoke's voice sounded like a somber whisper. Watching Kylo's face, Snoke continued, "You have a lot of Han Solo's emotions, boy."

"I destroyed Han Solo. " He replied. Snoke turned his back to him. "When the time came, I did not hesitate." His voice rose a few octaves.

“And you see, the deed completely wiped out your spirit." Snoke yelled at him. Kylo took a deep breath. "Unbalanced ...! Overcome by a girl I'd never caught on a lightsaber! " Kylo Ren's eyes, lowered before , rose to face Snoke. " You failed!"

Before Snoke continued, Kylo stood, his anger building inside him. As he stood up, Snoke caught him with the Force and threw him away with his lightning. The personal guards moved into position quickly as Kylo slid across the floor after being thrown back.

With a sense of survival, Kylo tried to get up quickly.

“Skywalker lives!" Snoke shouted. He not stopping for pay attention to Kylo and turning away from him. "The hope seed of the Jedi Order lives. And as long as it lives, hope lives." Snoke sat back on his throne and with a gest of his hands, his personal guards relaxed. "I thought you'd be the one to purge her. Unfortunately you are not Vader. It's just a kid playing with a mask. "

Anger was bubbling inside him as he revived permission to leave.

Kylo was holding his helmet, looking at it intensely. Everything he built, all the fights he fought, everything he did, was falling apart in front of him and he couldn’t do anything.
All this because he simply had compassion for Rey. For finally finding an equal after so long. For feeling her connection to the Force to be pure and untouchable.

He wanted to hate her, but he couldn’t. Then he took the hate for not being able hate her it and used the feeling to end the frustration.

Clutching his helmet in his hands, Kylo punched the walls of the elevator with his helmet. Discounting all the anger he had from Snoke moments ago. He had punched so many times that the walls of the elevator distorted with the mixture of his strength as a man and his power in the Force.

Kylo Ren paced and stared at his saber. It was such a small and unassuming thing unactivated. Yet, it and another like it seemed to hold his life and dreams within them. Maybe even his destiny. How could this be? He wrestled with the idea that he could not be the captain of his fate on some days. That there were greater things out there, pulling him this way and that. He struggled against both the dark and light side of the force for that very reason. Where was his agency?

There was only one answer: he had given it up long ago. His father had been right. He knew Snoke would dispose of him one way or another. He was too young, too temperamental, and too much of a threat. He was a wild animal, and there would be no place for him when the First Circle took hold of the galaxy and created a new civilization. Still, he could not pull away. Something pulled him back. On most days he credited this to his strength and loyalty to the First Order. On other days he had to fight the thought that this was some kind of weakness, dragging him back to Snoke. But not just any weakness, a specific kind. It was acceptable to be physically weak, that was something he could push past, but this was a weakness of the spirit and Kylo Ren did not want to admit that he had been broken.

He did not feel like Kylo Ren today. He felt like Ben. Young, quiet, bored Ben Solo. Dropping his helmet he and coving his face with his hands as he fell to the floor. Hoping to muffle the few sobs that he tried to swallow down.

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It came as no surprise to Rey that, upon learning the details of her plan, Chewie was less than enthusiastic.

The cockpit had been filled with much bellowing and arguments loud enough to leave the golden dice on the dashboard shaking, but for all the Wookie's sense and protests they were already too close to the planet Tanen to turn back. They would need to refill on fuel to return to Luke anyway, and Rey was prepared to leave her companion to his own devices the moment they landed.

"This is a terrible idea," Chewie bemoaned.

"Yes, well," Rey hummed, pulling up her hood to obscure her face as much as possible, "with that attitude it may as well be. I'll be back by tomorrow evening with good news."

Chewbacca gave her a sobering look. Rey responded with a cheeky smile.

"Hopefully. See you!"

She skirted off the Falcon with renewed vigor, unwilling to admit how much her plan had her blood racing hot and wild through her heart. She told herself, repeatedly, it was anticipation at turning the tides; nothing more than the Force singing hymns of victory and triumph and hope, sweet, succulent hope. She pictured Kylo with his eyes dark and shadowed and skin warm slowly succumbing, and at the same moment she rounded the corner to come upon the looming, bustling city that contained more illegal activity than most systems put together, she felt a lacerating wave of anguish.

Rey had to slip into an alleyway, pressed against a wall to catch her breath. She clutched at her chest, overwhelmed by the sheer immensity of the pain, and before she could help herself reached out with her mind to search out Kylo and quiet him, soothe him, figure out what was happening.

'Ben?' she murmured unsurely. His mind felt like a marsh right now in the black of night, full of rain; loud and stifling and cold, all at once. 'What's wrong? Are you hurt? Did someone hurt you?'

The urge to protect him was palpable and frightening, but she could deal with that later. Right now, he needed help, and it was all she could do to try and blanket him from afar.

'I'm right here. Let me help you?'

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Kylo in his weakened and vulnerable state of mind had let his guard down as he sat in the corner of the elevator. Only realizing his mistake when he felt something brush past his consciousness. The force bond. It was Rey.

She sounded concerned. Immediately Kylo attempted to reinforce his mind, trying to prevent her from reading anything-especially what just happened with him and his conflicted feelings of the dark and light.

“I’m surprised you have forgotten what you did to me in the Forrests of StarKiller.” He looked up revealing the healed scar across the right side of his face. Of course, now he was always on guard around her. Only a trained master of the force would be able to penetrate his thoughts, but Rey had no training and was capable of doing the same. But she lacked training. It had almost cost him his life last time fighting her. Rey’s fear and pain had also been his, but it had not gone the other way around, and so she'd beaten him back mercilessly. “Don’t deny it! I felt your thrill, and pride, and panic. I’d almost forgotten that I was losing.”

His tone of voice had Kylo Ren and the dark side written all over it. Clenching his fists tightly, until his knuckles turned white. Clenching them so hard, his finger nails dug into the flesh of his palms until they bled. Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes to try to calm down. There was a long pause of silence before he spoke again.

“Meet me here. I know you have a ship where ever you are hidding.” This time when he spoke, his voice was more calm and quite like Ben as he sent a mental image of where he was on Tanen.

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Rey winced as he lashed out. She should have expected as much.

'I'm glad you're in good enough health to be upset with me,' she drawled, tucking herself deeper into the shadows of the alley lest she draw unwanted attention. 'I'll only be coming to talk, I'll have you know. This doesn't have to be a fight.'

Call her sentimental, but she thought Luke would be proud of her for that one. Part of the Jedi code was finding that balance of Light and Dark, and his snarls of her thrill and pride and panic had reminded her that a fight would only serve to scratch the wrong sort of itch in her heart - no matter how much satisfaction she might have found in beating the living daylights out of him for all the misery he'd wrought.

Reel back, Rey, she chided herself firmly, and focused on the flash of his location he'd sent her way. It looked to be a grey, diminutive room, just passable as shelter in this seedy hub. And he was unwaveringly, unquestionably, indisputably alone. Well, at least it wasn't a trap.

Still, just to be sure...

Rey murmured 'don't do anything stupid, I'm on my way,' before wrapping her scarf more tightly around her face and letting herself blur into the crowd. She would have to find somewhere more public to meet him first, a bar or diner, to verify her safety and his. If things went well - if he was receptive, maybe - she might allow them the luxury of privacy.

Dimly, Rey rubbed at her palms, trying to ignore the faint bite of pain that had been borne in them.

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He paced nervously, his right hand resting on his lightsaber. Pausing only when he sensed a presence and turned to see Rey. “To be honest, I’m shocked you actually came. Even more so that you came alone and not with that walking carpet.” Kylo uttered referring to Chewy. His father’s companion and copilot of the hunk of junk. His right hand grasped his saber. Looking at it for a moment before rolling it towards her. It stopped between the pair. “We’re on a neutral territory. For once I agree with you. Let’s not make a reason for us to have to use these,” he said holding both hands up slightly. It was a stupid gesture considering both of their abilities with the force, but he wanted to make it clear to her that he did not invite Rey here to fight. “Just to...talk...”

The force bond took a lot of energy to keep up, so it made sense to attempt to talk face to face. Slowly lowering his hands, Kylo began to speak. “I...I just-how do you-“ he sighed and scrunched his face up shaking his head. “Every now and then I feel drawn to the light and then back to the dark. It feels as if I’m in in the middle of an endless tug of war...I-i don’t know what to do...” he admitted.

“Do you feel it too?” Kylo asked a little shocked and hopeful at what he would say next maybe wouldn’t sound so preposterous. “The potential in you," he reached his right hand out towards Rey’s face as he quickly reduced the distance between them. He did not touch her, he sensed she would not allow it, but he traced the shape of her jaw in the air, " I have the force, and the power in you calls out to the power in me. That is the way of things. It begs me to develop it and bring it forth. I cannot ignore it." He confessed his pull towards her, hoping she’d understand. "I am dark, Rey, but I am not evil. You need me, and not just as a teacher. The only way to win this war is for you and I, dark side and light side, to fight together." Kylo cut her off with a meaningful glance before she could speck sensing she’d refuse to work for Snoke. "I said we must work together. It doesn't matter who we work for."

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[i return from the grave with a computer! :)]

Rey could hardly believe what she had heard.

Together - it echoed in her mind like a promise, real enough to touch and believe in. Light and dark. Him and her. Balance; that was always the way of things, wasn't it? Balance. Rey breathed her way through the throngs of habitants, careful to make herself small and unassuming to all of them as she followed the invisible thread that would lead her to counterpart. The thread grows the closer she gets until it almost feels like yarn spooling from her heart, thick and soft and well-spun.

He shouldn't have stood out much, either. There were plenty of tall species lingering around, many of which dressed in a way to obscure themselves, too. But the moment Kylo came into view he was like a searchlight; he felt miles taller than any other, with that same magnetism that always accidentally left her breathless and wondering what it was about him that affected her so strongly. She hated it, to be sure - but she was also here, wasn't she? She'd sought him out.

Rey approached him with a mixture of trepidation and relief that she didn't care to dwell on much. The moment she was in earshot, able to speak quiet enough not to alert anyone around them, she spoke up.

"Of course I feel it too," she murmured, eyes gleaning over the black shroud of his mask. "But whatever we do, you know you won't kill the Light in me. It doesn't work like that. I... I want a better future. The kind where children don't have to grow up alone and afraid."

She almost reached out to touch him - almost.

"A... trial run, maybe. A test teaching. I-If that's alright. You can't force me to stay if I don't want to but..." Rey steels herself, and swallows the knot in her throat to face him more determinedly, and ignore the way her heart hammers wildly in her gullet. "...I'm willing to give it a try, first."

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