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The Millenium Falcon hurtled through space at break-neck speed, the lightyears sweeping past in glowing blue ribbons. Rey drummed her fingers on the console, shifting in her seat impatiently.
“Come on, old pal,” she murmured “not much longer to go now.”
The Wookie beside her trilled in response. She glanced to her right and gave Chewie a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. What was there to smile about when she was cruising towards what could potentially be her demise?
The weight of that possibility flowed like lead through Rey’s veins, weighing her down. But she had no time to ponder on the dark possibility, for she had a mission to undertake.
Before she knew it, the time had come. With a deep breath, she called upon the force to bring her the willpower to do what she must. Something she had to do to save the galaxy from the chokehold of the First Order, and from… him. She leapt out of the cockpit seat and made her way to the back of the ship, with Chewie right behind.
“As soon as I launch, you jump back out of range,” Rey ordered, surprised at how strong her voice sounded.
“Stay here until you get my signal for where to rendezvous.” she flicked a switch to ready the capsule for ejection and slipped down into the small opening of the pod. Chewie wailed in understanding.
“If you see Finn before I do, tell him…” she stopped for a moment, eyes glancing back and forth as she got caught in the thought again. The thought of never coming home…
Chewie offered a soft cry.
“Yeah, perfect. Tell him that.” she smiled, looking up at the kindly beast.
Rey took a firm grip on her lightsaber, feeling the coolness of the steel against her clammy palms. Before her brain could mull things over any longer, she sucked in a breath, ducking down into the capsule. Chewie hit a button that closed the tiny metal coffin, and it slid down into the capsule shaft.
Rey heard the doors beneath her open, but all she could see was the rusted piping above her through the grubby glass of the weathered capsule. Her final ponder was whether it would be the last she would see of the Millenium Falcon, the first place she began to feel at home.
The ship jerked out of lightspeed, depositing Rey into the vast emptiness of space, shooting back off into disappearance in the blink of an eye.
Rey’s capsule floated aimlessly for a moment, and through a crack in the shutters that covered the small circular window, she caught a glimpse of the impossibly huge First Order ship before her. Sharp, angular, steely.
Hundreds of smaller crafts were dotted around it, a mere fraction of the fleet the First Order possessed. The breath caught in Rey’s throat.
The capsule’s modest rocket fired up, and Rey was shot forward, towards the angular ship that dominated the stars.
A string of TIE fighters tailed the pod, chasing her into the metallic mouth of one of the countless hangars of The Finalizer. The glowing entrance was wide open like the mouth of a whale shark. Rey sucked in a breath as the capsule met the ground with a thud, and squinted at the strong light as the window cover slid open.
At first, there was just smoke, dusty grey plumes that rose from around her, trailing up into the dizzyingly high ceilings of the hangar.
And then the smoke cleared, and Kylo Ren’s brooding gaze cut into her soul.
＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚☾ ☽˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊
Kylo Ren looked down upon Rey, his mind heavy with thoughts of the past. The last time she had come to him, it was not of her own will.
She was a clueless scavenger girl that was yet to even wield a lightsaber. But things had changed, and she now came to him by choice- no longer as that lost soul, but as a Jedi in training. No more a girl, but instead a young woman.
Kylo looked into Rey’s olive eyes and sensed the wisdom of her force training. He watched as her eyes widened, and he suddenly became very aware of the needle-thin scar that mapped his face from neck to brow. The scar that she gave him.
He felt the healing wound prickle at the thought.
Yet still, he stood, waiting for the reaction he wanted, no, needed to see. Not shock. Not fear. Not anger. Ah, there it was.
Rey’s brow sunk downwards, her chest rising as she inhaled sharply. Hate. A part of her still loathed the sight of him, Kylo thought. With that bitterness, he could convince her of her lack of control for her powers.
She needed a better teacher, one that wouldn’t give up on her if her mind became uncertain. Someone that could guide her, and train her with the empathy and understanding she deserved. Someone that could love her, a voice in the back of his head said.
He walked away before his thoughts began racing towards the future.
＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚☾ ☽˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊
Sighing, Rey stepped into the brightly-lit elevator, keeping her head down until she turned around, watching the doors as they closed. She heard the squeak of leather as Kylo Ren shifted on the spot behind her. She couldn’t bear to look at him, but not for the same reasons she had felt before.
After Kylo and Rey had made their force connection, and once Luke had revealed his grave misjudgement, Rey couldn’t help but begin to question everything.
The light side and the dark side, the Jedi and the Sith, and all they were built upon. Was everything truly so black and white?
What if the young Ben’s future of turning to the dark side was just one of many possibilities? And that, with the correct guidance, he would have made the right choice? What even was the right choice?
Despite her turmoil, Rey was determined of one thing. That Kylo Ren could be redeemed. Whatever ‘redemption’ even meant, with the muddled state of her current perspective.
She knew that he wished to do no harm, she had felt it in him. But he had buried it deeply, packing Ben Solo’s grave with dirt to make way for the stone-hearted gravestone of Kylo Ren.
She was willing to claw away at the dirt with her bare hands, just to bring Ben Solo back.
Through their bond, she could sense the brooding energy he was emitting. Even to someone not force sensitive, when Kylo Ren entered the room, you could feel it. He was fierce, powerful, yet eerily calm. He was the eye of the storm, and Rey was caught up in it.
She sensed something deeper from Kylo, an underlying feeling that she wished to explore further, but now was not the time. With a deep breath, she mustered the courage to speak to him.
“You don’t have to do this,” Rey uttered to Kylo, praying that he hadn’t sensed her racing thoughts.
“I feel the conflict in you, it’s tearing you apart,” she added, her voice stronger than before. She turned her head, eyeing him through her peripheral. Her heart dropped at the tiredness on his face, dark circles and sallow skin. He clearly hadn't been getting much sleep lately, and Rey couldn't quell the ache in her heart from the thought of that. Kylo stared ahead stoically, unwaveringly.
“Ben,” softly, Rey called him by his birth name. She turned around to face him, analysing the conflicted look on his face. His full lips were parted, giving way to rattling breaths, as his eyes became glassy. He recomposed himself quickly, mouth forming into a tight line as he blinked rapidly.
“When we touched hands, I saw your future. Just the shape of it, but solid and clear.” Rey took a deep breath and stepped closer to Kylo, realising then the broadness of his torso and his domineering height. She felt a flutter in her heart that travelled up to her cheeks, tinging them pink.
“You will not bow before Snoke,” Rey continued, and her eyes couldn’t help but glance down at his soft pink lips for a split-second. “You’ll turn…” her voice was even quieter now, as the elevator reached its destination, and Rey reached the end of her vital proposal.
“I’ll help you.” she whispered, leaning in so close that their faces were mere inches apart. The breath hitched in her throat then, as he gazed back at her and she desperately tried to figure out what was happening behind those deep, dark eyes.
＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚☾ ☽˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊
He had initially thought that Rey had become a hardy young woman, but as Kylo looked down on her face with her wide eyes and worried brow and mouth ajar, he still saw the naive scavenger girl that she was.
Her words only reaffirmed what he sensed; her ability to use the force to foresee the potential future still needed a lot of honing. He only wished he could be the one to help her with it.
“I saw something too,” Kylo told Rey, leaning in as she had done. He watched the pinkness of her cheeks deepen, her breath releasing in shallow bursts. As if drawn by a magnet, he found himself leaning in closer, revelling in the proximity of their faces.
“Because of what I saw, I know when the moment comes you’ll be the one to turn.” the hope behind her eyes seemed to be all but gone, as her mind refilled with the hate he had seen her staring at him with before.
“You’ll stand with me.” he found himself speaking gently to her then, as if a part of him he couldn't fight wished that she were to love him instead.
“Rey,” Her name left his mouth in a breathy mutter, as if it were a privilege to feel it pass his lips The name he had screamed, he had called, he had spat. The name he had whispered to himself, as he laid in his quarters, alone at night.
With his next words, Kylo's voice became as tender as can be. He knew just how much his words were going to affect Rey, and he wished more than anything to not hurt her with them.
“I saw who your parents are.” he was sending her on an emotional rollercoaster, he knew. But if he were to gain her trust, he had to prove his care for her. Given his position, this was the only way he knew how.
The trembling, bewildered look she gave him told him all Kylo needed to know. Rey crept away from him slowly, as the elevator slowed to a halt and the sliding doors opened. As he watched her step away from him, all he could think about was how nice it would be to have her close again.
＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚☾ ☽˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊
A sickening feeling crept up Rey’s throat as the chilling throne room of Grand Master Snoke appeared before her.
The cold breeze from the room brought goosebumps to her bare arms, but before she could take in any more of her surroundings Kylo ushered her forward, bumping the side of his body into hers and pressing his hand on the small of her back.
The feeling of his large palm was strangely comforting, and she found herself closing her eyes slightly, giving in to the warmth of him. The feeling grounded her.
Her breath began to shallow, though she wasn’t sure whether it was because she was approaching her possible downfall or the physical touch between her and Kylo.
“Well done, my good and faithful apprentice.” The hideous creature Grand Master Snoke called out from atop his stony throne.
“My faith in you is restored,” he added, turning his attention away from his pupil.
“Young Rey… Welcome” Snoke’s hands clasped together and a pleased look spread across his disfigured face, as Rey couldn’t help but flare her nostrils and tighten her fists into balls at the sight of a sworn enemy.
🌌🌑🌌
Rey endured Snoke’s despicable song and dance. There was little else to do, surrounded by people who wanted to kill her or turn her to the dark side.
He dragged her closer, his breath washing over her face sickeningly as he revealed that he’d planted the uncertainty in Kylo Ren’s mind, claiming that Rey had taken his bait.
She sensed Kylo’s alarm for a fraction of a second, but he was fast to cover it up with the usual cold exterior of his emotional mask.
Rey was startled at first too, until she thought back to how Kylo’s uncertainty felt when they made their force connection. She knew in her mind there was no way a being as cruel as Snoke could plant such natural human conflict.
She realised that Kylo’s unease was not over Snoke revealing that he was a puppet master, but was in fact in fear of how much he knew.
How much Snoke could potentially extract from Kylo’s mind.
Did that mean he had something to hide from Snoke? Was he planning on turning against him? Would Kylo Ren mutiny against his leader, as Rey’s vision had predicted?
Or was he hiding his feelings for her? She wondered.
At first, she was so sure that she could be the one to help Kylo see the light, despite what anyone else thought. She had put her life on the line to come here and bet on that.
But after what he’d revealed in the elevator, Rey had lost almost all hope. Kylo seemed so focused on turning her, he didn’t even realise he had a chance to break free. Now Rey’s mind was purely set on getting out of here alive.
Rey was torn from her thoughts as she was thrown into the air by Snoke’s power, and he began probing her mind to find the location of Luke Skywalker.
Her entire body convulsed, as what felt like metallic worms burrowed through her mind in search of what they craved. Rey threw her head back, screaming in agony.
The pain was unbearable, a thousand times worse than when Kylo had searched her mind. Through the crashing waves of suffering, Rey could discern the torment that afflicted Kylo at the sight of her torture.
She was not strong enough to repel Snoke’s search. She came crashing to the ground in an instant, gasping for breath as the Grand Master chuckled mockingly.
And it was back to Snoke’s pathetic performance once more. This time, she had enough. Not once, but twice, she tried to overpower Snoke; using the force to summon both her’s and then Kylo’s lightsaber, her fight and flight instinct booting as adrenaline coursed through her veins and she prepared to fight to the death.
Kylo kneeled in the same place he’d been standing, his movements slow and purposeful. If he has a plan, he’d better take action fast, Rey thought to herself.
Snoke cast Kylo’s lightsaber out of Rey’s hands, and it went sliding down in front of Kylo’s boot. The next moment was a blur for Rey; she could hear Snoke’s voice droning behind her, but all she could see was Kylo. His dark eyes glaring at Snoke, lips pouted.
Through the force she screamed for his attention, begging him to spare her, and then his eyes fell on her. Relief flooded her for a moment, his face feeling like the closest thing to home.
Kylo picked up his lightsaber, stepping towards Rey purposefully. His eyes never left Rey’s, nor hers on him, but his walls were so high that Rey couldn’t sense his feelings at all.
Her heartbeat pounded in her ears, closing off all sounds, all other senses. The only things in the world to Rey was the sound of her heart, and Kylo Ren’s melancholy eyes as he looked down at her.
Snoke had mentioned something about resolve in Kylo, and suddenly she sensed it too. It seeped out of him and filled the room with an energy, an unwavering strength.
“Ben.” she breathed, in one last attempt to reach him. She noticed his expression falter for just a second, giving her a glimpse of what lay under the surface.
His eyes flashed with deep sadness, brows momentarily arching downwards in worry. Did he just look at her that way? Does that mean…?
Whatever will happen is meant to be, she thought, but she couldn’t stop her stomach from lurching as Kylo pointed his sleek obsidian lightsaber directly at her chest, positioning a leather-gloved finger on the trigger.
“He ignites it… And KILLS his true enemy!” Snoke roared from behind Rey, and the sound of a lightsaber activating bounced off the crimson walls.
Rey dropped to the ground on her side, and when she pulled herself up she witnessed Grand Master Snoke being sliced in half with the lightsaber that had laid beside him.
The glowing blue saber flew towards her and she caught it with her open palm, watching with an open mouth as Snoke’s torso slid to the floor and smacked onto the tiles in an undignified thud.
＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚☾ ☽˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊
There was no time to stop and think. Kylo could feel Rey’s eyes on her as she shakily stood up, gawking at him in a mixture of shock, awe, confusion, relief. And so much more he couldn’t sense in such a short time.
He ignited his lightsaber, and at that moment his mind raced with the severity of the action he had just made. Killing his master, the voice that had been living in his head like a parasite for as long as he could remember.
For the first time since he could remember, Kylo Ren was free.
Kylo locked eyes with Rey, and without words, they knew what they had to do. The duo spun around on the spot, standing back-to-back, and raised their weapons to slay the Elite Praetorian Guards that cascaded towards them.
The zaps of saber meeting saber, clunk of armor butting armor, and crunches of bone breaking under skin, filled the blood-red room in a gory choir.
Kylo realised that he didn’t need to put his walls up any longer to protect his mind from Snoke; and so he opened up his mind to Rey, feeling her shudder from behind him as a wave of emotions washed over the both of them.
He sensed her courage the most, drinking up her light energy like a man that hadn’t drunk in days. It was a vibe he hadn’t realised that he’d needed so, so badly. It made Kylo feel whole.
The warmth of Rey’s soul reminded him of the force that bound them together. They flowed like water as they fought, ducking and diving as if they were one, spinning around one another in an elegant dance.
At that moment, Kylo Ren and Rey were truly flowing as the dyad they were destined to be.
But the Elite Praetorian Guards began to get the upper hand, and the two force sensitives were broken apart, forced to tackle the enemies on their own. Kylo could hear the blood surging in his ears, feel the anger coursing through his veins; all he could see was red.
That was when the dignity was all but gone from his fighting, as he resulted to his signature rageful battle tactics.
Kicks, punches, throws, slams, all using his powerful hold of the force to mash his enemies together and leave them lying on the floor, leaking liquid that was the color of the crimson tile.
He could hear the vengeful screams of Rey from behind him, and he knew that she was holding her own. In his mind’s eye he caught glimpses of her movements, moments before she executed them. She has a plan, he thought.
Just when he thought they had the upper hand, he found himself in a chokehold of one of the Elite Praetorian Guards. Their steely metal axe dug into his windpipe, choking him slowly. The words wouldn’t come, so he shouted for Rey the only way he knew how.
REY! He roared through their bond.
“BEN!” she screeched back, throwing her lightsaber to him that he caught, igniting into the Elite Praetorian Guards skull. The body hit the ground in a solid thud, echoing in Kylo’s mind the sound of Snoke when he hit the floor.
And so all the enemies had fallen, and the only thing left was the ashes of the struggle.
＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚☾ ☽˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊
Rey looked up at the endless stars in space. The red canopy walls had been burned away completely during the battle, leaving a seamless view of the galaxy and beyond.
When her eyes trailed back down to the room, she watched Kylo as he walked over to the throne, to the body of Grand Master Snoke, and stood there. She could see him getting angrier; his breath quickening, fists tightening.
“Ben?” she asked, though even the matter of what she was asking was a mystery to her. She just needed… him.
“It’s time to let old things die,” Kylo spoke resolutely, and Rey began walking slowly towards him, drawn like a moth to the flame.
“Snoke, Skywalker,” he turned to Rey, closing the gap between them slowly.
“The Sith, the Jedi, the Rebels: Let it all die.” he stopped in his tracks.
Rey’s eyes widened as she realised he was vocalising everything that had been on her mind.
“Rey… I want you to join me.”
The tears began to well in her eyes, the weight of his words coming to her as if in slow motion.
“Do you want to know the truth about your parents, or have you always known?” his words trickled like honey into her ears, his voice smooth and sweet but the meaning behind them sticky, drowning her. A lone tear escaped onto her cheek.
“Have you just hidden it away? You know the truth.” her heart wrenched, fighting against the reality that she had spent so long running away from. Of course she knew the truth, but she was too afraid to admit it.
“Say it.” Kylo murmured, his lips parted and eyes intent as he waited with bated breath.
“Say it.” he repeated, his voice even gentler than before.
“They were nobody.” Rey choked out the words, and a flood of tears rushed across her face.
She did not descend from a line of Jedi, she did not have heroic parents who fought in wars and travelled across the galaxy.
“They were filthy junk traders who sold you off for drinking money,” Kylo said, sneering at the mere mention of her parents.
“Now they’re dead, in a Pauper’s grave, in a Jakku desert.” he added, and Rey flinched at his words, sucking in her breath and clenching her fists as more tears came.
“You have no place in this story.” Kylo’s words kept adding more injury to insult, tearing down the walls of deceit that Rey had placed up to protect herself. Walls that were crumbling down on her, breaking her bones as the bricks rained down.
She was not a part of the fight against the Jedi and the Sith, and she never would be. But that fact hurt the least to her; there was only one thing that hurt the most, now.
“You come from nothing; you’re nothing.” Rey almost collapsed on the spot at Kylo’s sentence, but she managed to break eye contact and compose herself as best she could. She was nothing, nobody to anybody, with no place to go. Rey Nobody.
“But not to me.” Kylo spoke up, and Rey gazed back at him, the tenseness in her body loosening and lips parting as if she couldn’t believe what he was saying.
“Join me.” He extended his hand, the black-leathered palm facing upward invitingly.
Take it, her mind whispered, begged, as her eyes trailed down to stare at the decision she had to make.
“Please.” Kylo’s voice was desperate, timid, urging Rey to look up at him, staring her fate in the eyes. This was it, the biggest decision she would ever make in her entire life, though in her mind the choice had already been made. It was simply a matter of taking the first step.
She had never dreamed of there being a chance for a galaxy without the constructs that had torn it apart for millennia, for the Jedi and the Sith at nature could not coexist harmoniously.
She’d never dreamed of having a chance for them to be together.
But now, standing before her was a force-sensitive of the dark side. And she stood before him, a force-sensitive of the light side.
Together, they could give the galaxy a new hope. Something fresh, without the destructive restraints of bygone days.
There were no doubts in Rey’s mind, but before she could take the leap, she had to acknowledge the one small question that nagged at her: how had she not realised all this time that Kylo felt the exact same way?
One step, two steps, three-- and Rey crashed into Kylo Ren, arms wrapping around his broad torso and grasping at his cape.
＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚☾ ☽˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊
Kylo couldn't believe it. Rey, the naive scavenger girl from Jakku that had stolen his heart from the moment he’d laid eyes on her, was in his arms.
At first he was frozen, his body unable to move as his mind processed this newfound reality. He had dreamed of this moment over and over, the thought keeping him awake at night, dangling it in front of him tauntingly, making him long for it, long for Rey, more and more and more.
But now it was here, his wildest fantasy was a reality, and he felt whole. From the moment their bodies touched, all the static in his head cancelled out, and his mind and body were calm. He felt at one with himself, with Rey, and with the force.
His body started working again, and his arms wrapped around Rey’s waist, leaning down to rest his head against hers. His eyes were closed, face nuzzled in her hair, taking in the sensation of her silken strands across his skin.
Her wet tears dappled his surcoat, and he could discern the rush of emotions that filled her overwhelmingly: melancholy, joy, relief. And then her face nuzzled into his neck, lips brushing against his bare skin, and Kylo's lungs gasped for air at the intimate touch.
Kylo lifted his head from resting against Rey’s, and the dyad looked at each other as if they were doing so for the first time.
“Ben…” Rey whispered, eyes darting around as she marvelled at him, taking every bit of him in.
A smile spread across Kylo’s face for the first time in forever. He had hated that name for so long, but the way she said it… It gave him life. Rey’s light gave his life a whole new perspective.
“Rey…” Ben whispered back, eyes flooding with tears as his love for her flowed out of his heart, finally free from the choking grip of darkness.
Their faces crept towards each other purposefully, as they basked in this wonderful moment. They both knew what was to come next, and it was something they wanted to savour.
Rey and Ben’s lips met in a kiss. It was soft and sweet, wet with tears and heavy with the weight of longing.
Above all, there was an overwhelming sense of freedom. They were together now, and nothing could keep them apart.
They held each other close again, until Ben got the urge to scoop Rey up, carrying her bridal style.
“Let’s get out of here.” he declared, and began walking out of the destroyed room and back to the escalator that could take them to his private hangar.
“Where to?” Rey’s sweet voice was sprinkled with giggles.
“Someplace we can call home.” Another grin broke across his face. Ben had a feeling he'd be smiling a lot more from now on.