Hello loyal readers!
Thank you all so much for stopping by. All the World's a Stage is going to be a series of Skip Beat AU one/two-shots that will focus mainly on the relationship between Ren and Kyoko in many different situations and circumstances. In my own head canon, across multiple universes, despite trials and against all odds, our favorite pair are destined to be together.
Please alert this story if you want to be notified of the next installment (Detective/Thriller AU), which should be out in a month.
Please also note that Kyoko and Ren are not as "Japanese" in this one-shot (since this is Star Wars!) and thus are a little more blunt and refer to each other by their first names.
Without any further ado, please enjoy the show…
-x-
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…
One hundred years after Luke Skywalker's noble sacrifice and the fall of the First Order at the hands of the young Jedi Rey, a new evil has begun gathering strength in the Outer Rim. To combat the growing Imperial Regime, the fledgling Revolution sends Ren Tsuruga, an exceptional knight on loan from the still-recovering Jedi temple system, to the desolate swamp planet of Hakara. His mission is to investigate the unspeakable claims that the Sith have been revived and now lead the cruel, totalitarian Regime.
-x-
The first thing Ren notices is that the girl is in trouble. There's a whole squadron of Storm Troopers closing in on her small, brown-cloaked figure, and for a moment, Ren considers staying seated at the cantina's muggy bar, out of sight and out of the line of fire.
However, two more thoughts come to mind: one, the Jedi as a general rule, aim to help the downtrodden and oppressed; two, if this girl has a whole squadron after her, there's a high chance she's of use to the Imperial Regime, and thus doubly useful for the Revolution.
Therefore, he argues in his mind, Master Takarada won't be that upset with him if he blows his cover now in order to intervene. Maybe he'll still have a chance to find the informant before the kriff hits the fan.
The Storm Troopers have the girl surrounded, blasters all leveled at her vital points when the sound of a lightsaber powering up provides an ample distraction. The whole squadron turns on him, but by the time they start firing, it's already too late. In a whirl of green, he's already gracefully sliced through half of them, and as for the rest, he effortlessly redirects their blaster fire. There are yells as the soldiers are struck by their own bolts and fall to the ground.
A heavy silence fills the air. Ren assumed that the girl would break down weeping at her unexpected good fortune, and the Jedi is unprepared for the stony quiet that instead ensues.
"You're a Jedi," is the thing she finally says. Her heavy brown hood stays up as she regards him from the shadows within, her hands still held up in a defensive posture. Ren is a bit surprised since nowadays, despite having over a hundred years to recoup their losses, Jedi are still a bit of a rarity. Most of the locals he's come across are usually awed and sometimes frightened by his powers – if not wooed by his dashing good looks. But this girl states it clearly, as if she were reporting that the climate on Jakku is dry or that Ewoks enjoy eating all manner of meat.
"Yes, I am. You can relax by the way," Ren replies, powering down his saber and using it to gesture at her combat-ready pose. "You're welcome, also. You know. For saving you."
"Oh." The girl pauses, then her mouth makes a comically large 'O'. Apparently she's come to some sort of dramatic realization. She slowly lowers her hands but makes no move to remove the hood. "Thanks…"
"So what'd you do?" Ren asks as he clips his lightsaber back onto his belt, trying to be nonchalant. "Steal the plans for the next Starkiller Base?"
The girl laughs nervously. "Something like that..."
"We can help each other out." Ren gives his best Million-Credit Smile – the one that regularly makes the female Revolutionaries of his not-so-secret fan club swoon. "You might have something that's valuable to the Revolution. And I could offer you protection–."
"Not interested."
Like slamming a door shut in his face, the girl spins on her heel and is three steps away by the time Ren realizes that a female humanoid has actually rebuffed his advances. He has to run after her to catch up.
"Wait. You're in trouble, right?" As he matches her stride for stride, Ren shakes his head, almost disbelieving the situation.
The girl nods and raises her chin up slightly to shoot him a defiant glare. "Yeah. So?"
Beyond the shadow of the hood, the Jedi notices her eyes are a special tint of amber-gold. He's travelled over three different star systems, and he's never felt so captivated by a stare – or a glare rather. The man who once smooth-talked a Hutt into a business deal without any Force-compulsion now stumbles over his next words, "I-I have a ship. I can help you out of here get. Er – Get out of here."
On the inside he's dying. Mentally, he slaps himself. C'mon Tsuruga!
He takes two long strides in the squelching mud path until he's in front of her, blocking the way, and he holds his hand out, palm up. He stares hard into her eyes, willing her to take his offer. "I can help you."
The girl looks up at his face, then down at his hand, then back at his face. Sensing her emotions of uncertainty across the Force, Ren wills himself not to fidget as he endures her scrutiny. But then she sighs deeply, mutters another "No, thank you," weaves around him, and is gone.
The Jedi knight is deciding whether he should try to follow her or give up in favor of his original mission when his handheld unit beeps on his belt. Ren groans and hopes it's good news. Though on a day like this…
"Ren, it seems that our informant has ditched your planet." Yashiro, his Revolutionary contact, speaks over the secured line. "He ran into some trouble on his usual Nerf smuggling route and escaped as soon as he could. I'm sending you the coordinates of his next–"
"I changed my mind!"
Something is yanking at his sleeve, and suddenly he's being dragged along through the swamp planet's sparsely populated marketplace. Through his disorientation, Ren notices that it's the girl pulling him forward, and she has a surprisingly strong grip.
"Wait, what–?"
"I need… protection! Or something. Just take me with you!"
Ren must have been very distracted indeed to have missed this imbalance in the Force. Because that's when he notices the blaster fire zooming past them both and the thunder of a whole platoon of Storm Troopers' boots as they rampage through the village.
"R-Right!"
It's only once they've hopped into his X-Wing and have hit hyperspace, leaving Hakara behind, does he realize he never even properly introduced himself.
"Ren Tsuruga, huh…"
In response to his self-introduction, the girl fidgets with the hem of her hood before pulling it down, revealing a long auburn braid slung over one shoulder and the most alarmingly disarming pair of golden eyes he's ever seen.
"Kyoko" is the name that plays on his lips like sparkbee honey for the rest of the day.
-x-
The informant's new coordinates are all the way across the galaxy, close to the Revolution's main base. Therefore, Ren reasons, it's an efficient use of time if he personally transports Kyoko back to base after rendezvousing with his contact. When nosy Master Takarada inquires as to why his apprentice seems much more chipper during his holo-report, Ren dodges the issue. The highly unorthodox, anti-celibacy Jedi Master would probably become unbearable if he knew his apprentice knight was transporting an attractive and feisty young woman across the galaxy to safety.
The matters of 'from whom' or 'for what purpose' Kyoko requires saving remain a mystery. Even though she boarded Ren's starship, she apparently has no intention of speaking about herself. As Ren tries to fill the silence with conversation and casual-but-pointed questions, the strange girl just stares out the window at the cold vacuum of space. Her lips thin in mild annoyance as the only response to his queries.
Whenever he runs out of topics to talk about or lets the silence run to allow her a chance to fill it, all she does is stare outside. She draws her knees up to her chest, looking like a wounded, hunted animal that would bite if cornered. Even the gentle Force probe that Ren performs from the front seat of the cockpit reveals little. She is feeling afraid, angry, and betrayed, but most of all confused. The object of her emotions remains tumultuous, just out of reach of Ren's mind, and he is loath to press further without her knowledge.
However, even with the hyperspace jumps, the trip will still take them about a standard week to trek from one end of the galaxy to the other. Ren is certain that without the Force, he can tease the information from her at one point or another during their journey.
Though, it takes the entire first day of their voyage to get her to verbally respond. Ren finally gets a break only as he tears a one-quarter portion of polystarch bread open with his teeth and asks his guest if she'd like to share dinner. Her response is absolute horror.
She stares at his hand holding the dusty packet of deconstructed carbohydrate powder in one hand and the tin cup of water in the other before her eyes narrow and she glares back at him. Ren is ready to make the insta-bread and take the first bite to show her it's not poison when she launches into a lengthy diatribe about the importance of nutrition and proper sustenance. It's more than she's said the whole day combined, so Ren doesn't mind when she insists he land on the closest inhabited planet and stalks off angrily to the market to buy some "real food". As he stands by silently holding the basket and watches her fiercely haggle for produce and meat, Ren considers the ice broken.
Apparently among other mysterious talents, Kyoko is a fantastic cook. For a young man who has grown up on the bland rice porridge of a Jedi temple and the freeze-dried portions of flight academy, everything that Kyoko cooks is masterful. Due to his upbringing, Ren typically doesn't even enjoy eating and he cannot eat much, but once Kyoko tunes her dishes to his light stomach, he is hooked.
-x-
They are four standard days away from the smuggler's coordinates, grounded on the isolated forest planet of Kirtania, specifically for the purpose of cooking a decent meal. Somehow, their question and answer sessions have become a game of absurdity.
"So why are you running from the Regime?" Ren asks with a smirk.
"Because," Kyoko replies with a barely smothered laugh, "I obtained their deepest, darkest state secrets by impersonating a humanoid poultry dignitary from Bo'nian."
Ren is internally celebrating that he has finally gotten her to laugh – an innocent yet alluring sound – when the ground starts shaking.
For a moment, the Jedi is concerned that his droid had forgotten to scan the planet for unstable tectonic plate movement before landing when the ground beneath their campfire buckles then erupts. Enhancing his movement speed with the Force, Ren dashes over to Kyoko and picks her up just as claws rip through the ground below.
As the Jedi knight sets Kyoko gently on her feet and draws his lightsaber, he notes that the beast – one he's never seen or heard of before – seems to be a hybrid between a reptilian and mammaloid. It towers ten feet above the two travelers, its six burly, fur-lined appendages melding into a scaly, armor-plated body complete with a spiked tail.
The beast lets loose a deafening roar that reverberates through Ren's bones.
"I'm going to distract it!" He yells in Kyoko's direction. "You run for the ship!"
"But–!" Kyoko voice sounds panicky.
The creature's eyes burn a phosphorescent green as they dart over to its prey.
Ren's eyes widen. He shifts his cloak over one shoulder, freeing his saber arm and taking his fighting stance as he desperately tries to center himself in the Force. "Go now!"
To his relief, as he closes his eyes to concentrate, he hears her scramble away. The six-armed beast charges at Ren – he can feel its bounding steps shaking the ground and feel its rage swell and draw swiftly near.
Exhaling a calming breath, Ren's eyes flash open, and he dodges an instant before the creature's claws can separate his head from his shoulders. Using the Force to push himself off the floor, the Jedi somersaults in the air over the beast, slashing at its back with his saber. Sparks fly as the lightsaber connects but the thick armor plating on the animal's back prevents the sword from melting through it like a hot knife through Nerf butter.
Ren flips again off the trunk of a nearby tree, lightsaber aimed for the empty, unplated space between the beast's shoulder and neck. A quick movement catches his eye.
One of the creature's arms is reaching for Kyoko as she runs for the X-Wing. Ren yells out a warning and quickly Force-pushes her just out of the way. However, his attention diverted, he doesn't see the gigantic arm speeding to swat him out of the air until it is too late.
The burly arm connects with his chest, and Ren hardly has time to cry out in pain before he's slung into a tree trunk. The trunk cracks as Ren's back and head connect with the solid wood, and then he falls limply five feet to the ground.
Coughing and wheezing, the breath knocked out of him, Ren groans and winces at the onslaught of pain. Through the blurriness in his vision, he sees a large, lumbering form charging him.
'Well, that can't be good,' he thinks wryly to himself as he struggles to get to his feet. He reaches for his lightsaber… But he must have dropped it.
Blinking away the rest of the blurriness, Ren staggers, hand on the tree trunk to steady himself, and wonders briefly if Kyoko had managed to get the ship alright. KNH331 would be able to pilot the X-Wing for her to get her to safety.
Then an emotional pulse of righteous fury catches his attention. Ren's eyes dart to the left, watching a brown-cloaked blur dash forward. The small figure grips his green lightsaber as she yells a furious battle cry, her golden eyes glittering dangerously in the low light. Ren holds a hand up and yells at her to stop – or he tries but he still hasn't caught his breath.
But his dread turns to awe as she executes a perfectly timed roll to dodge past the beast's two arms that had intended to send her flying. Her first strike scrapes against the hardened armor on the creature's arms as it blocks her attack. However, Kyoko simply readjusts and leaps away toward the treeline, out of range.
For a Force-insensitive girl, she wields his lightsaber like a natural. In mild disbelief, Ren even reaches out feelers of his mind to ensure that she actually isn't using the Force. As expected, he's met with the blank vacuum of a non-sensitive, but that doesn't make her form any less beautiful as she finally slides underneath the beast, slicing upward through one of the creature's arms into a joint without armor.
The amputated appendage drops heavily to the floor, and the beast roars again, this time a defeated bellow of pain, before it bounds off back to its hole. As it burrows away in search of easier prey, Kyoko sheaths the saber, her breathing heavy.
Ren is about to straighten to walk over and join her when she whirls on him, her golden eyes still fierce and angry. The Jedi swallows nervously as the young woman stomps over to him. For a moment, it looks like she is going to hit him, and Ren mentally steels himself.
But then she deflates and settles for shoving the lightsaber back into its owner's surprised hands.
"Don't do that ever again," Kyoko mutters, glaring at the ground.
Ren cocks his head to the side (then hides the wince of pain from his bruised neck), "Don't do what?"
Kyoko's hands flutter about as she tries to come up with the right thing to say, "You know – Sacrificing yourself to save me – or whatever!"
The Jedi just watches the young woman deflate. She looks off to the side, avoiding eye contact. "I'm… I'm not worth saving."
Frowning, Ren reaches forward to caress the top of her head, but his hand turns coward and settles onto her shoulder. He squeezes comfortingly and gives her a small, genuine smile. "Yes, you are."
Her uneasy silence and the sense that she's about to pull away drive Ren to joke again. A small spark of amusement enters his eyes.
"Another thing…"
Kyoko looks up.
"You're welcome. You know. For saving you… again."
She stares at him blankly for a moment before her cheeks puff into a pout. "Well, I saved you too, so there!"
Ren laughs, the corners of his eyes crinkling. "You're right. Thank you, Kyoko."
She's quiet a moment, as the amusement fades from her eyes. She stares down at their ruined campsite.
"Thank you too Ren," Kyoko finally replies, her voice barely above a whisper. Ren has a distinct feeling that she's not talking about saving her from the beast.
-x-
"So why are you doing this – on the run from the Regime?"
"Because I once wore an outfit so unbearably pink that it offended the Empress of the Regime from two star systems away."
-x-
Two standard days from the endpoint of the trip, the duo stop to refuel on some lush tropical planet that Ren can't pronounce in Basic. While some droid technicians are paid to take care of the ship, the Jedi and his passenger venture into town. The plan is for Kyoko to buy more food and for Ren to gather information.
Ren has been chatting up a particularly talkative Mon Calamari merchant who trades near the Regime's fleet when a scantily-clad Togruta woman sidles up to the bar next to him.
He's still trying to see if his previous conversation can be salvaged before making his escape from this obvious temptress, when he sees Kyoko standing stiff in the doorway. Her eyes are as wide as a Gungan's and grow wider still as the Togruta leans in and runs a titillating hand down the front of his robe. Before he can step away, however, the woman seems to lean forward a bit too much out of her seat and pitches to the floor.
To Ren's brain, the physics don't quite add up, but the rest of him is thankful for the out as he quickly steps over the fallen Togruta and out the door.
But Kyoko is gone, and for a scary moment, Ren fears that she has taken off in his ship. Then he rounds the bend, and the X-Wing is still in the bay, Kyoko sitting in the rear seat. She welcomes him back with a smile before they take off again.
Ren isn't fooled. Her smile may be warm but her eyes are empty and pained.
Gently, carefully, and without any mind tricks, he asks and pries the memories from her.
There was a boy, a childhood friend, her betrothed. She gave her heart to him, and time and again, he threw it away like trash. Many a time though she were his promised bride, she caught him with other women, and he showered them with an affection and physical warmth he'd never shown her. Eventually, he convinced her to run away from home with him so he could live a life of adventure. She told herself that this invitation meant she was special to him. But as soon as he'd had what he wanted, he had left her, all alone in the galaxy.
As Ren makes the jump into hyperspace, he's careful to handle each memory like a crystal vase, fragile and precious and weighty. However, during her story, the Jedi senses a sudden surge in pained rage – a dark feeling – before it's gone, whipped away like a sheet in the wind.
There is silence for a bit, the blue and white lights of hyperspace flashing by, as Ren thinks and Kyoko settles back from her tale.
Then Ren says suddenly, his voice low and heavy with conviction, "I wouldn't abandon you, you know. I could never throw you away."
She doesn't respond, but when he gathers the courage to turn and see her expression, she is staring out the window of the craft, a light blush dusting her cheeks. Her lips twist into a small, melancholy smile.
-x-
"So, why are you doing this?"
"Because some pushy guy insisted on dragging me halfway across the galaxy for my own protection."
-x-
The planet of Yanibar has an entire star system named after it, because the planet is the only thing of consequence in its own vast vicinity. On the far border of the Outer Rim, Yanibar is the last sign of civilization before Wild Space and thus, despite the planet's harsh, unforgiving weather and barren wasteland of a surface, it's a frequently trafficked stop for smugglers, outlaws, and fugitives.
After confirming with KNH331, Ren touches down the X-Wing about 15 klicks south of the main trading port, essentially in the middle of nowhere. But this is where the coordinates from Yashiro direct him – and it makes sense. A Nerf smuggler is unwelcome even in a rough-and-tumble port like Yanibar's. This informant would not be a particularly pleasant acquaintance to make, but a small price to pay for what he had claimed was invaluable intel on the Empress and her rumored Sith apprentice.
The landing thrusters have a difficult time fighting against the gale-force winds whipping across the slate-gray surface, and Ren watches in discomfort as the wind batters debris against the cockpit shield. He turns back to Kyoko who seems even more hesitant than he is. She has grown silent over the past several hours, withdrawing more and more into herself. Now, the young woman stoically gazes out into the rocky wasteland, and a flash of far-off lightning reflects off her golden eyes before darkening again.
Ren suggests that it would probably be best if she stayed in the X-Wing. No use in both of them getting soaked to the bone by the approaching storm. It'll just be a quick errand, then they will be on their way to the Revolution's base. Kyoko merely nods and draws the hood of her cloak up, hiding her face in shadow.
On the surface, Ren trudges forward, clasping his brown cloak to his body and feeling his large frame battered every which way by unforgiving winds. Eventually, about a hundred feet from the ship, he hears the high-pitched whine of a swoop bike over the roar of the storm. In the distance, a speck grows closer and closer.
Finally, the swoop parks, and its occupant, a tall rakish humanoid with blonde hair, dismounts off the anti-gravity bike. The man shakes his blonde hair out and raises the goggles off his brown eyes, which narrow at Ren with immediate dislike.
"You the Jedi?" The smuggler yells over the boom of thunder. Rain starts coming down in sheets as the storm arrives. Ren merely steps forward and removes his hood in reply.
"Sho Fuwa," the Jedi has to holler his stoic greeting over the wind and rain, "Let's make this quick."
The Nerf smuggler's grunt is lost to the noise of the storm, and he reaches behind his back. Ren feels uneasy but senses no deception from the blonde. Finally, Fuwa produces the object that had been hooked onto his belt.
"A lightsaber?" Ren yells, perplexed. Then he feels the shadowy energy tendrils of the Dark Side beckoning to him through the Force. His heart falls. It's a Sith lightsaber. The rumors are true. The Sith have risen again. "Where did you get this?"
"The apprentice." Sho shuffles nervously on his feet and waves the sheathed saber at Ren as if eager to rid himself of the sword. "The Empress' apprentice came after me on Hakara. That's why I had to bail on you the first time."
"Why?" Ren demands. So the Regime's Empress is, as feared, a Sith Lord after all. "Why would the leaders of the Imperial Regime be concerned about a Nerf smuggler?"
"Because," Sho snaps and waves the saber again, offering it to Ren. With his other hand, he offers a small holo-screen. "I know who they really are."
The holo-screen buzzes to life, the blue hologram wavering and fritzing out over his palm in the torrential rain. But the picture is clear enough to take Ren's breath away.
She's smiling in this picture, her face radiant and pure. Beside her sits a reluctant younger Sho, clearly uncomfortable with the hug she is giving him.
"Kyoko?" Ren can't seem to look away from the hologram, his hammering heart trying to desperately deny the image his brain is processing.
Sho's voice is confused. "How'd you know her name?"
"Because she–" Ren finally tears his eyes away and glances up. He breaks off. Something is terribly wrong. The Nerf smuggler's mouth is open in an unfinished scream, his eyes wide and unseeing. It's as if he's frozen in time, and the air thrums with the Force.
The lightsaber in Sho's hand wiggles, and Ren hopes for a moment that the wind has merely worked it loose. But then it flies, zipping through the air, straight into the awaiting hand of the cloaked figure standing behind him.
The Jedi knight whirls as the woman he had previously thought a non-user powers on the blood-red saber with an ominous hum.
The shock must show on his face, because as she tilts her head to the side, a malicious smirk on her face, she offers an explanation. "Your Force sense isn't failing you, Jedi. I was born with the ability to disguise my Force use. I can be anyone or anything I want to be."
The hooded woman blinks and like a bulb switching on and off, Ren feels the Light surge from her and just as suddenly, all he senses is a thick, oppressive curtain of Dark. The Dark Side is so strong that he feels nauseated.
How could he have missed this?
Taking advantage of his distraction, the Sith apprentice leaps forward, lightsaber striking a wide slash aimed at his torso. Moving on instinct alone, Ren powers on his own saber and just manages to parry the blow, green clashing against red.
The parry leaves his guard wide open and the female Dark Sider uses the opportunity to pivot and kick him soundly in the gut. Ren stumbles back, unable to fully recover from the sudden flurry of attacks, but manages to block the attack from above as his opponent somersaults in the air, aiming for his neck with a downward stroke of her saber. The lightsabers buzz and hum angrily as they meet, hissing as the rain strikes the swords.
Finally recovering enough to counter, the Jedi Force-pushes her up and away, then he dashes forward to reengage her before she can quite regain her footing on the slippery rock. However, her small size lends her greater agility, and she easily dodges his saber slash, leaping away with a spry back handspring.
"Why?" Ren shouts across the distance and over the raging storm. He grips his saber tighter as the two foes begin to circle each other, trying to find an opening in the other's guard. "Why are you doing this?"
The young Sith apprentice laughs, a harsh and bitter sound so vastly different from the sound of her laughter before that Ren feels a chill go up his spine.
"Are we still playing this game?" She asks wryly, whirling her red lightsaber through the air, raindrops sizzling against the superheated surface. "Because my Master ordered me to kill the Nerf smuggler, and now that I have a chance to kill a Jedi knight, she will be even more pleased with me!"
An inconsistency – half a shadow of a doubt – tickles at the back of Ren's mind, but he has no time to dwell on this feeling because he has to focus his all on parrying a furious series of lightsaber strikes from his former companion.
Her rage is palpable in the air, feeding her connection to the Dark Side, but as the two lock sabers, the thunder booming and the swords humming discordantly, Ren feels fear. Her fear.
The Jedi senses that this is his only chance. Trusting the Force, Ren closes his eyes and follows the current of Kyoko's emotions into the core of her being. It takes a great deal of strain, but eventually, he pushes past the protective barriers into her mind.
It's like being caught in a maelstrom ten times the storm outside. Ren briefly wonders at how talented this young woman must be in order to be so powerful in the Force while still this conflicted on the inside. Then he is swept away in a riptide of memory fragments and inundating emotions.
"Sho-chan!" A young voice calls. A swell of happiness as a young blonde boy in silk noble's robes turns and frowns at her.
And another.
An austere woman with night-black hair scowls down at the young girl with the bloodied arms and knees. "Such a disappointment," the noblewoman says archly as she Force-pushes a lightsaber back into the girl's hands. "Again. But actually try this time."
And another.
"How useless. You're such a plain, boring girl," a familiar voice smugly states. The rugged blonde, no longer in aristocratic clothing, sneers down at her. "You should just go home, Kyoko."
And yet another.
"So much hatred… So much darkness…" The cold looking woman clasps the broken girl's chin tightly, turning it this way and that as if looking at an item she's about to purchase. "Maybe you'll be more useful this time."
And finally.
The swamp planet of Hakara. The young woman snarls, a surge of rage propelling her forward to strike at the smuggler's neck with her lightsaber. But the saber stops a millimeter from its mark, hovering and humming dangerously. It's a test. Her mother has one final test for her, and if she kills him, then… She'll be accepted. She'll be wanted. She'll be loved. Sho looks at her, fear rolling off him in waves. She loves this. She hates this. She wants to. She can't. Then the smuggler's hand moves and she hears the sound of blaster fire. Her last thought as she falls unconscious from his stun blast is that her mother will not be pleased with her failure. Fear spikes through her. Then nothing.
A small string of thoughts.
I don't want to hurt Ren. I don't want to be hurt again, but I don't want to hurt him.
Abruptly, a screaming, crying, clawing grip of energy wrenches him desperately from her mind.
Ren's eyes flash open the instant before Kyoko Force pushes him away. His arm shoots up to counter it, and he grabs her wrist, twisting it to the side. Their lightsabers stay locked at their chests.
"You're lying," he growls, struggling to overpower her. "You don't want to do this. You still have Light in you!"
The wind whips Kyoko's hood back, revealing her frightened, wide-eyed stare. Desperately, she presses back with her saber.
"No!" she gasps. The rain spatters against her face, her expression contorting as she fights tears. Ren senses the curtain of Darkness flicker, Light poking through. "I have to. I have to kill him. If I don't–!"
She won't love me anymore.
"I love you," Ren declares boldly, yelling into the rain. "I love you and will love you more than she ever could."
A stricken look passes over Kyoko's face. The tension of her lightsaber on his lessens and her wrist goes the slightest bit slack in his grip. Then she shakes her head, renewing her efforts against him. Her voice is insistent and panicky. "No! You're lying. Just empty promises. Just like him. Just like–!"
"Just like your mother?" Ren asks gently, his voice scarcely audible over the dying wind. Her eyes grow wider, and she can't seem to look away from his intense gaze. "Who do you really have to pretend around, Kyoko? Who are you really?"
The only sound is the whisping whir of the dying breeze and the spattering of raindrops as the storm passes. Finally, her tears fall. Her lightsaber powers down, and Ren disengages his as well.
She stares up at him, the tears glistening in her eyes. The mask of the Dark Side crumbles as more and more Light pours through. Not entirely Light, some parts still pockmarked in Darkness, but after his damaged past, neither is his soul wholly Light either.
"I'm scared," Kyoko rasps. Her voice is small and afraid. Her golden eyes search his for answers. "I'm so scared that no one will ever love…me."
Ren looks down at her, a small joyful smile on his lips. "I already do."
"Do you…" Her voice wavers. "Do you really…?"
Ren nods down at her, and opens up the barriers of his mind so all his emotions and thoughts are laid bare for her to peruse. He watches as she closes her eyes and feels as she meanders through, picking up and mulling over each moment he's shared with her.
After several moments, Kyoko's eyes flutter open and she smiles, joyous and bright. A heavy blush dusts her cheeks. The dark-haired Jedi slides his hand up from her wrist to intertwine their fingers. His lightsaber drops to the ground as he uses his other hand to gently tip her chin up toward him.
The two share a kiss. A mixture of Light and Dark. The Force in perfect balance.
-x-
OMAKE
"So… What do we do with this guy?"
"I guess I can't just leave him frozen like that…"
Someone grunts as if he has just fallen to the floor unconscious.
"I'm amazed you were even able to sustain that maneuver while fighting me."
"It wasn't that hard. What has your Jedi master been teaching you?"
"That it's ok to break celibacy and that the old Jedi order is antiquated and in need of more 'love.'"
"…"
"I think he'd enjoy meeting you."
"As long as he doesn't stick me in some cheesy reform group, I'll be just fine."
-x-
Please don't forget to leave a review, a fave, and add an alert to get notified when the next installment of this series gets updated! Also, if you aren't here from it already, check out my long-running fic, Spy Beat! It's nearing its climactic end and is updated on a monthly basis.