The tiny cabin was dark when Rey returned that evening. Like every evening that kept her away until after sundown, she paused in the threshold to peer cautiously around the midnight corners of her home. Nothing was out of place that she could tell.
Her pack-rat eyes zeroed in on her most prized possession. There, in the corner just barely outlined by the dying embers of her crudely made fireplace, was a small lump bundled in odd scraps of cloth and fur. She heard the soft sounds of sleep drifting from the low makeshift cot and she sighed deeply with relief as she closed the door behind her and unraveled the heavy scarf wrapped loosely around her upper body.
The room was cold but Rey still felt flushed from the hard pace she'd set during her trek through the forest. She'd been eager to return as soon as possible, the thin scratch on her cheek proof enough that she hadn't shown enough care as she picked her way through the thorny bramble on the woods' edge.
Her home was set far away from the bustling trading outpost 23 miles to the north. The journey to and from would have been grueling for anyone else, but her slender legs were strong and in a past life her deceptively slim frame had trudged up mile-high sand dunes whilst dragging scrap metal at least twice her body weight. A brisk walk was nothing much to someone like her, able to maintain one-handed handstands while deflecting boulders hurled at her person as a distraction. She smiled a bit at the memory of her incredulous reaction when her Master had suggested that little training exercise. Her smile faded. Former Master.
With an eye on the little lump that had changed everything, Rey lowered the leather sack perched on her shoulder to the floor. She moved quietly over to the fireplace, taking a moment to rebuild it to a cheerful blaze to cut the chill of the room. She was actually pretty good at this now. She remembered her first attempt at building a fire, when she had known next to nothing about constructing a functioning chimney or how dizzy smoke could make you; her former life as a desert scavenger in Jakku had taught her how to splice and repair circuitry and electromagnetic polarization systems – cooking fires weren't needed when all you had to eat were portions of reconstituted water-bread. She recalled nearly passing out from asphyxiation when she stubbornly tried to fan the smoke out of the rough-cut windows in the cabin, but luckily she saw reason when she heard tiny, heartbreaking coughs behind her, struggling valiantly to endure the polluted air right along with her.
"Mama?" a tired voice rung out in the dark, breaking her from the memory. The furs and cloth shifted, and a pale face seemed to glow from the swath of muted materials by firelight. Her son's dark eyes connected with hers and she was overwhelmed with protective feelings, warring with her dismay that he really didn't resemble her at all anymore. Where she used to see her own stubborn chin and high cheekbones, she now could not help but notice the sharply winged eyebrows and full lower lip of his father. Even his coloring mimicked the paleness of his father, though his days spent in the sunny clearings around their cabin had colored the naturally sallow cast of his skin. He looked like a normal little boy of six years, except for his eyes. His eyes held a wariness that no boy his age should possess, though she imagined her orphan's eyes hadn't been much more of a comfort to anyone daring to look. When anyone you met could be a potential enemy, distrust meant survival.
"You should go back to sleep, Riku. It's late. I didn't mean to wake you."
She watched with a wry smile from her place by the fire as the blankets were thrown back anyway and bare little feet hit the dirt floor. Riku straightened as he sat upright, rubbing the sleep from one dark eye. "It's okay. But I don't want to go back to sleep. I want to hear about it."
"The outpost hasn't changed since the first time I told you about it. I don't know why you're so fascinated by it."
"Please, Mama?" His fingers were gripping the bedding of the cot, his face a mix of eagerness and doe-eyed persuasion. He was becoming rather skilled at that.
She sighed. "Oh, alright. Just let me get comfortable first, and then I'll tell you all about the ore I sold today. It wasn't much, but I got a fair price for it." She removed her outer cloak and was about to begin unlacing her boots when she heard his next question, laden with feigned nonchalance.
"Did you see any ships today?"
Ah. Now she understood. She met and held his dark gaze, her own hazel eyes trying to convey the gravity of the situation. "Riku...we're on our own, now. You know that, right? The Resistance isn't coming for us because it's too dangerous."
"But...how will we know when it's not too dangerous? Won't Poe and Finn fly here in a ship to tell us?" His worried, crestfallen expression prompted her to leave her boots half-laced and move to sit down on the bedding beside him. She pulled him close to her side and rested her chin on the dark mop of hair that so resembled his father's.
"It will always be dangerous as long as the First Order is around. We can't go back until the Resistance wins, and that might not be for a very long time." She gently pushed him back to look at his face and make sure her words registered, lovingly brushing away a dark brown curl when his head lowered in sadness. "We have to move on with our lives, Riku. We can't wait for someone to rescue us. I know you don't love this planet and I'm sorry to make you stay in the woods, away from the other little boys at the outpost, but as soon as we have enough money to buy a ship..." She trailed off as Riku buried his face in her side again.
He'd been so patient, obeying her wishes that he stay near the cabin even when other boys his age would be raging at the unfairness of it all. But he desperately missed his adoptive uncles, the best male role models he had in this war-torn universe.
He undoubtedly missed his Gamma as well. Rey hadn't known what Riku should call the General, so she had attempted to teach him the woman's full title when he was three years old; it had, of course, all run together in his bell-like voice to form the word "Gamma", which earned Rey a shrewd look from the woman. "Gamma sounds like Grandma, doesn't it?" the General had mused. "Han would have never let me live this down."
Later, as Riku got older and stopped resembling Rey, General Organa's shrewd looks seemed never-ending, though it was only recently that Rey had been forced to discuss Riku's parentage.
"I know I make a poor substitute for Poe and Finn-" Riku's head suddenly lifted, shaking emphatically.
"No, Mama, I'm glad we're together. I'm glad you didn't leave me." He looked up at her with wet eyes and Rey's heart swelled. She had at least done that right. They may have been in hiding, forced to move from place to place and live in poverty, but at least she hadn't left him to fend for himself like her parents had done to her.
"Mama...?" He was gazing at her intently, and his little hand stretched out slowly to touch her cheek. She stared at his frowning face in confusion a moment more until she felt a light tingling where his fingers made contact with her skin.
Without warning, she swiftly snatched his fingers away from the scratch on her face. "No, Riku, we've discussed this! You can't do that, it's much too dangerous. No healing, not even to help me. Is that understood?" Her son paled at her sharp tone but nodded his head nervously.
She hesitated, trying to still her suddenly racing heart at the innocent gesture. He had only been trying to help her. "We can't risk being discovered. You have to remember, all Force-users are connected. We know when the Force is being used and we can track people who use it. That's why, no matter how much it might help us, we have to refrain. It will only bring the Darksiders here to capture us, or worse, kill us. You don't want that, right?" She hated to manipulate his fear in such a way, but she needed him to understand the consequences of such a small action.
"No...I'm sorry, Mama. I'll remember, I promise." He once again buried his face in her side, and Rey hugged him tightly. Once he had calmed a bit, she urged him back into bed and finished taking off her boots. She was too tired to do much else besides curl up around Riku on the cot, but when she closed her eyes, she dreamt of the past.
The dark whispers echo around her head, goading, prodding. She clenches her jaw and squeezes her eyes shut to block them out, but they just get louder when she tries to ignore them.
'Come to me, Rey. You're so very tired of running. I can feel it. You want this to be over as much as I do.'
'No. NO!' she hisses, as she feels him pressing forcefully at the edges of her mind. She knows that if she lets down her guard for even a moment, Ren will exploit the weakness so fast that she'll be helpless to stop him. She slows her breathing, centering herself and feeling the Force flow over her like a cool stream over smooth rocks, like the thin tributaries that threaded around Luke Skywalker's modest dwelling on Ahch-To. She fortifies the wall around her mind, filling in the gaps where her desperation to be free of Ren has made her vulnerable. But she can't stop his voice, cajoling, distracting... like a sand viper hypnotizing its prey while making ready to strike.
'I'll spare them, Rey. Your friends. They don't have to die. Come to me, willingly, and they'll live. Even the traitor.'
'You're lying,' she spits, but her mouth makes no sound, her voice only echoing out into an ephemeral mental landscape.
'Am I? Is it worth the risk? What if I told you that I was closer than you think to finding your little den of thieves?'
She falters, allowing some of the Force to slip away from her when she should be pulling it ever closer. 'You wouldn't be trying so hard now if that were true. Leave me alone, stop...doing this.'
'Stop fighting me, then. Submit. Let me show you how things could be.' She feels a slow, lingering caress trace the line of her jaw, skimming gently across her collarbone. Her breath catches and a shudder ripples through her body at the touch. He's changing tactics.
'You know they're using you, Rey. They rest all of their hopes on one bitter old man and pray that he'll look past his arrogance long enough to pass on his dying legacy. You are so much more than that.' The phantom touch inches downward from her collarbone to drag between the hollow of her breastbone. She doesn't breathe at all. 'The Jedi died out for a reason. They are nothing but relics now but I've learned all of their tricks. Let me show you...let me teach you the ways of the Dark Side, and you'll never need to run from anyone, ever again...'
'Stop it...' She can feel herself weakening with every word he utters. Somehow, he's ferreted out her secret fears, the whispering doubts that have led to so many sleepless nights and despairing thoughts. The Resistance treats her like she was supposed to save the universe; Luke Skywalker treats her like a reluctant pet that might turn on him at any moment. She guesses that she has Ren to thank for that.
'Why? I want to help you reach your potential, Rey. I can feel your discontent, your loneliness. You don't have to-'
'STOP IT!' She drops her head in her hands, struggling to tame her emotions and failing. 'You're right, I don't know what I'm doing here. I don't know if I'm strong enough to be a Jedi, or even if I'm supposed to be a Jedi. But I do know that the Dark Side is wrong, evil. I know that you want to use me just like the Resistance wants to use me. Just like Snoke uses you.'
'Snoke is a means to an end. And the Force can't be evil. That's just what Skywalker wants you to believe.'
'Well, Luke Skywalker is right about one thing.'
'Oh?'
'The Dark Side will try to seduce you, any way it can.' She feels the phantom touches reluctantly withdraw, and her breathing evens out just a bit in relief.
'Rey, I know you think you know what you want, but really think about what I've said. Before it's too late.'
'Too late?' She senses his hesitation then and musters the mental energy to grasp his presence, to tease out the truth before he withdraws, 'Before it's too late for what, Ren?'
'Before the choice is taken from you.' She sits in stunned silence for a moment, trying to detect duplicity in his words. Was he really as close as he claimed to finding the Resistance base? In the time it takes to process his words, she feels him retreat from her with a whispered 'Soon...' resonating in the hallows of her mind.
Her eyes open in the physical world, the breeze from the swirling, crashing ocean below gently ruffling the wisps of loose hair framing her face. She unerringly meets the narrowed blue gaze of the robed man sitting crossed-legged in front of her.
Luke Skywalker watches her with the same edge of suspicion she witnessed when she first found him on Ahch-To, with a lightsaber held out to him in her outstretched hand.
"Did you find the peace you were looking for?" Though he is referencing her earlier desire to meditate, she senses that there's something he's holding back. She wonders if he has any inkling of the conversation she just had with his erstwhile student. It is more than likely he sensed Kylo Ren's presence, if not his actual words, through the Force.
She considers the question, and though she knows there is a more diplomatic answer, she settles on, "No," and stands up from her place on the cliff summit overlooking the ocean. "Maybe tomorrow," she throws over her shoulder, and makes her way back to the stone-hewn hovel that she shares with her Jedi Master.
Today is the first day in a long time that she wonders at that line in the Sith code she'd poured over in one of the books Luke thought he'd hidden from her. Peace is a lie, there is only passion. She can still feel Ren's touch on her collarbone, feels the heat that still suffuses her cheeks in embarrassment and something else, and knows that she will not be sleeping this eve nor possibly the next.
Rey woke with a start. Though she now kept her connection to the Force extremely limited, she knew immediately that something was wrong. She scrabbled beneath the furs, trying to lay hands on the warm body of her son who should have been curled up beside her. Several seconds of searching yielded nothing and panic catapulted her up and out of bed in a heartbeat. "Riku?" she called out in a shaky voice.
"Mama, look!" Her eyes alighted on his barefoot form at the window, his handsome little face smiling back at her with genuine excitement. "It's a ship! Poe and Finn found us!"
It took only seconds for her relief to turn to dread. She heard it now, the sound of branches whipping against the trees from a great wind and a low hum that could only be attributed to an aeropropulsion landing system. She raced over to Riku's side and lifted the heavy material covering the windows higher.
Quickly, she backed away, drawing Riku with her. There was no question of what the ship signified - it was sleek, black, and bore the crest of the First Order on the tip of one wing. They had been found.
"Riku, I need you to listen closely, okay?" She leaned down and gripped him by his small shoulders, trying not to squeeze too hard in her panic. "I need to go outside and talk to them. That's not Poe or Finn – it's the First Order. Don't be scared," she added softly when his eyes widened fearfully, "I'll be right behind you. But I need to know you're safe first. When I turn on my lightsaber, I want you to climb out the south-facing window and run to the clearing by the caves. Run as fast as you can. Do you understand?" He nodded quickly and she released him, not allowing herself to indulge in the tears that pricked at her eyes. She needed to put on a strong face in front of him; it might be the last time she ever saw him. She leaned down and kissed his forehead as she so often did when she left for the day, trying to make things appear as normal as possible so as not to alarm him too much. If he hesitated, they would be on him in a second.
The drone of the engines outside began to fade and she knew it was time to face what was waiting for her. She had no idea how many Stormtroopers there might be, but she would fight until she was unable to hold a lightsaber. With a last reassuring glance back at Riku, she opened the door and stepped outside, shutting it firmly behind her.
A hatch was opening at the front of the ship, a metal gangway smoothly locking into place as it slid to the ground. Rey unclipped her lightsaber, holding it out at her side in anticipation. The sooner she could end this, the better chance they had to leave before more came. She was already trying to classify the ship in front of her, mentally calculating the number of thrusters she saw and the chances that a sole pilot might be able to fly it out of the clearing in one piece.
She heard an obscured voice then, deep and mechanized, and nearly dropped her lightsaber in shock.
"No. Stay here and wait for my command," the voice intoned from just inside the ship. It couldn't be...
But sure enough, stalking down the gangway was none other than Kylo Ren, Lord Commander of the Knights of Ren and the new Supreme Leader of the conquered galaxy. He cut an intimidating figure as always, swathed in black from head to toe, his uniform unchanged despite his ascension.
He walked forward a few paces in his normal predatory gait, fists clenched, attention trained solely on her. His hand wasn't yet on his saber. "Rey of Jakku, Jedi apprentice of Luke Skywalker, enemy of the First Order and peace in the galaxy-"
"I thought peace was a lie?" she cut in flippantly.
He merely tilted his masked head and continued in the artificially-modulated voice as if he hadn't been interrupted. "You are hereby found guilty of treason, aiding and abetting criminals of the First Order, resisting capture, and practicing the forbidden arts of a long-dead zealot group. How do you plead?"
Despite the terror stiffening her limbs, she couldn't keep the sarcasm out of her voice. "Oh, I don't know, not guilty?" Timing here was crucial. She couldn't fire up her lightsaber until she was sure that Ren would be distracted long enough to miss any noises Riku made as he dashed for safety.
She tried not to think of her chances of success now that the First Order's Supreme Leader was standing before her, presumably with backup waiting in his ship. It made sense though that he'd asked his men to wait behind; Ren always took every saber fight he had with Rey personally and would likely kill anyone who got in between them, ally or not.
She took a step forward and raised her lightsaber with both hands, squeezing the hilt. In response, one of Ren's hands unclenched, hovering now over his own volatile weapon.
"Yield," was all his artificially modulated voice said but she felt the live wire that was his connection with the Force crackling around them. For the first time in years, Rey opened the floodgates firmly kept shut for so long, feeling the Light side of the Force suffuse her being with lost power. How had she ever survived without this? But she knew the answer to that question almost immediately: Riku. He had been her Light, her warmth.
Breathing as steadily as she could manage, she gracefully arced her body into the first defensive form of the Jedi. She would make him come to her. The second he was close enough to strike, she would turn on her lightsaber to engage him and cue Riku to run. Ren's stance changed slightly then, leaning his weight onto his dominant foot as he readied himself and concealed his weaker left flank.
She knew that tell of his. He was preparing for a burst of energy and speed, and though Rey was still likely faster than he, her control of the Force had suffered in her exile. Even now it felt wild and unfettered as it pulsed through her, but she hadn't slacked on the meditation exercises Luke taught her, even without the connection to the Force and her years away from training. She felt her focus narrow like the viewfinder of a pair of macrobinoculars. She cleared her mind of everything but her opponent standing in front of her.
'So you haven't been honing your strength with the old man, all this time?'
She grimaced as she realized that her thoughts were now open to him again, the odd bond they'd formed back on Starkiller Base throbbing again in her mind like it had always been. "Stay out of my head and fight me, Kylo Ren."
And before she had even finished the sentence, the man in question sprung into action and bolted to his right, not forward like Rey had been anticipating. She stood in place all of three seconds before she came to her senses and dashed in a diagonal to try and cut him off. But his long legs covered so much ground in so little time that she didn't have a hope to catch him with his head start. She didn't trust herself to Force-hold him with her command of the Force still rusty from disuse. Still, she ignited her lightsaber as she chased after him, angry yet puzzled about why he would come all of this way to run, rather than confront her.
The answer became clear as she suddenly became aware of his trajectory and heard the rustling of leaves up ahead. In her panic, Rey made a grave error as she saw the back of her son's raven-dark head bobbing quickly through the foliage, Kylo Ren right behind him and closing in like a snarling rancor.
"Riku!" she cried out, and in that moment she saw Riku pause and turn to look at her, his worried face trying to determine the reason for her distress. That was all the time Ren needed to get close enough to freeze the boy where he stood. And as she skidded to a stop before them, Ren raised his other hand and froze her as well.
He wielded the Force with the ease of a Master. Riku was struggling against his hold, but she knew he had little hope of breaking free. The new Supreme Leader was focusing most of his efforts on Rey because of this; the unnecessary hand holding Riku in place raised slowly to a small device on his collar. Riku's wild eyes connected with Rey's in fear and...something else. Was that guilt she sensed from him?
"Send a squad behind the cabin. And have them bring two sets of restraints." Ren's hand lowered and slowly the black and chrome helmet turned to regard Riku, ignoring Rey behind him. His attention seemed lost in observing her son, and she desperately tried to think of anything, anything, that she could say to redirect his gaze.
"Let the boy go, Ren. He's just a local kid who helps me from time to time, he doesn't deserve to be caught up in this."
She was at least successful in distracting him, because his masked gaze swung over in her direction like it was attached to a ball bearing. He took a couple of measured steps toward her, then began circling her frozen form. 'You would lie to me now, when he is standing before me, wearing my face?' his true, husky voice echoed calmly in her mind.
She was silent then, because now her terror had finally overcome her resolve to make it off-planet with Riku. He knew. Anyone who had seen the true face of Kylo Ren would know if the two stood side by side, but Rey had hoped that Ren's desire to capture her would keep him too occupied to notice.
Behind her, she heard the lumbering, military shuffle of Stormtroopers making their way through the foliage. Ren turned from her and approached the rooted figure of her son, bending down a little to account for the vast difference in height. He still towered over the boy, and the sight of his menacing visage so close to her reason for living gave her chills. But his next words drained every bit of blood from her face.
"Don't be afraid, Riku." His voice sounded almost kind, if you could detect kindness through a voice modulator. "I told you, I would never hurt you. Your mother and I just need to have a little talk. Then, later, I'll show you how to do what I just did. There is much that you must learn. But for now, sleep."
"Wha-" is all Riku managed to get out before Ren manipulated the electromagnetic field in his brain with the Force, causing him to black out. Without pause, he swept the boy up into his arms before he could hit the forest floor, just as the Stormtroopers came into view.
"Sir?" The captain of the squad stepped up, the blazing scarlet of his right pauldron emblazoned with the symbol of the First Order. That was new.
"Take him—carefully—to my quarters on the ship. Restrain him once you've secured him there."
"Yes, Supreme Leader!" responded the captain, unclipping a set of restraints and carefully collecting the boy. Ren tracked the captain's return to the ship silently before he finally turned back to Rey.
"You know him," Rey accused weakly. "How?"
"You told him to stop using the Force, and he tried. But it flows through his veins more strongly than it ever did for you or I. It only gets stronger with each passing day. I felt him, spoke to him, guided him. He was lonely, and you were away. If you had allowed yourself to connect with the Force, you would have felt it." He took a sinister step forward until he was less than a hands width away from her, close enough to hear him breathing softly through his modulator. His hand rose and casually brushed away a lock of hair clinging to her face that had escaped the low bun at the nape of her neck. If she hadn't been frozen stock-still in a Force-hold, she may have embarrassed herself by trembling at the brief touch.
"How long?" she whispered, partly because of how close he was, and partly because fear was still making her heart race.
"3 cycles ago. Shortly after you arrived on this trash heap of a planet. He hates it, by the way." He was still standing so close, and she nervously glanced at the squad of Stormtroopers waiting patiently behind him. There was no one to tell Kylo Ren to hurry things along or to stop playing with her like a rat in a trap; he was the Supreme Leader now, the only authority in the First Order that answered to no one.
"Why didn't he tell me? What did you threaten him with?" she demanded through clenched teeth.
"Nothing. I simply told him who I was, and that I thought he was skilled enough to hide his use of the Force from you. I was right."
"You mean you manipulated him."
"It is better than telling him the First Order would murder him in his sleep. Do you really think I would have allowed that? That I would let anyone lay a hand on my son?"
Until now, the truth of Riku's origin had been kept relatively vague in front of their audience, but Rey noticed that the Stormtroopers didn't even react to the revelation. In fact, they barely moved at all, almost as if they were imitating droids. But she knew for a fact that flesh and bone resided within those gleaming white suits of armor. Her thoughts touched on Finn then, on his warm smile and strong arms as they hugged her goodbye, before they left the protection of the Resistance to protect it from her pursuers.
Suddenly, Ren's gloved hand seized her arm, squeezing painfully. "I'll enjoy killing that traitor slowly," he sneered. There was the Kylo Ren she knew. She'd been waiting for him to start with the anger and the threats, but now she struggled to shield her thoughts from him.
"You'll break Riku's heart if you do. He'll never forgive you."
"He will. Heartache will make him stronger."
Rey's eyes narrowed at that, sure that he wasn't just talking about Riku, but also angry that he planned to teach his broken set of Dark Force principles to a six year old child. "You're a monster. Nothing's changed, I don't care how fancy your title is." She knew she was poking the sleeping rathtar, but she couldn't get over her disquiet. An image flashed through her mind: Riku, dressed in black and wielding a deadly red lightsaber.
Kylo Ren didn't say anything else in reply. He simply held out his hand and a Stormtrooper placed a set of restraints into his open palm. He snapped the metal band around one of her wrists and, deftly manipulating the Force, released her free arm from the Force-hold in order to maneuver it into the other restraint. The warm hum of power that had been such an unexpected comfort when she'd initially reopened the connection was suddenly sapped from her being, leaving her with the feeling of immense loss and emptiness. It hurt just as much as it did when she'd inflicted the loss on herself years ago.
As Ren released her entirely from the Force-hold, several Stormtroopers trained their weapons on her as a precaution. If the situation hadn't been so dire, she would have smirked at them. She didn't put it past them to fearfully react with blaster rounds if she abruptly rushed them in order to escape, but Ren would almost certainly interfere before they managed to harm her. It was ironic; she was so afraid of being at his mercy but knew to the depths of her soul that he didn't really want to kill her. She might rot in a cell for all eternity instead, but she had the small comfort of knowing that she would be alive to suffer it.
"Take her to the hold and lock her in," Ren commanded imperiously and strode quickly in the direction of the ship, leaving the Stormtroopers to reassemble themselves in formation. One urged her forward with the butt of a blaster rifle. Maybe Ren did plan on keeping her in a cell forever.
Rounding the corner of the cabin she had shared with Riku, her threatening entourage steps behind her, she couldn't help the panic that rose up in her throat. As she neared the looming First Order ship, the entryway yawned open like the maw of an ominous beast.
'How appropriate,' she thought dismally as she marched to her imprisonment like a bantha to the slaughter. 'All these years avoiding the monsters at our heels, only to be swallowed whole.'