Notes: Shoutout to my amazing betas Deep Poetic Girl and Next to Something for all their help. I'm putting you ladies through the wringer with this one. VERY spoilery details on the warnings can be found in the notes at the end of the chapter.
Warnings: Graphic violence, dub-con, domestic violence, emotional abuse, physical abuse, spousal abuse, sibling incest, underage sex. These warnings apply to the story as a whole, not to each individual chapter.
.
.
PHASE 1.00 : DARK MATTER
.
.
matter that cannot be seen
detectable only by its gravitational effects
on subject bodies
OR
the Force moves through every living thing
.
.
She dreams of a desert at dusk. It's too fair to be Jakku, beautiful in its bleakness. The landscape is flat, no golden dunes in sight, the sand as pale as sun-bleached bones. Binary suns dominate the sky, hovering over the horizon, equal in size but uneven. The higher star shines blindingly white, the other a dull red. Both sink into the sand—first the dark sun, then her brighter brother—as twilight fades into the dark.
Rey wanders through the wilderness, and she can sense that she's alone, the only living thing to brave this place in centuries. Her warm breath stirs the cold desert air, and her steps leave footprints in the sand. Surreal marks imprinted on this dreamscape, proof of her existence.
The heavens look down, bearing witness to her journey. Luke taught her how to find patterns in the night sky, first on Ahch-To, then on Ynthica. Now she sees figures shaped out of a thousand distant stars, and she feels like she's being watched. A poor, lonesome creature walking an endless wasteland without direction.
Rey knows this is only a vision, maybe a glimpse into a past long dead or a future that will someday be. It doesn't much matter, whether she's visiting a time long ago or a time yet to come. To a primordial thing like the Force, which moves in circles more than lines, time means very little.
Come, whispers a soft voice. Familiar as the mother Rey has nearly but not quite forgotten, whose sweet lullaby is imprinted on her heart. She can't remember the lyrics anymore, but she occasionally hums herself to sleep with the melody on her tongue.
Come here, says the voice again, stronger this time. Come to Tatooine.
.
.
He dreams of a desert at dawn. Golden light breaking over the horizon, slowly bringing color back to a dark world. Sibling suns rise, one after the other, the morning born twice over.
I'm home, Kylo thinks, before he can push that traitorous thought away.
Because Tatooine belongs to Ben Solo, not him. Kylo is a living weapon, an instrument of the Supreme Leader and the Force, and weapons do not need homes.
He can feel the warmth of sunlight on his face, and Kylo realizes that he isn't wearing his mask. Alone in this familiar desert, he walks across the dunes, bare-faced and aimless. Drifting but not lost.
.
.
I'm not your teacher, Luke always insists, but he's the closest thing to a master she's got. (If not her only option, but Rey prefers not to think about Kylo Ren's offer to instruct her in the ways of the Force.)
After two weeks of wandering Tatooine in her sleep, she finally works up the courage to say, "I've been having strange dreams. Visions, I think."
Luke was already perfectly still because she interrupted him in the middle of meditation, but his stillness changes from peaceful to tense in a moment. Without opening his eyes, he asks, "What do you think the Force is trying to show you?"
Rey sits across from him, nudges his crossed legs with her booted foot, and says, "No mystery there. The message is pretty clear. I'm supposed to go somewhere—alone."
That catches his attention. Luke looks at her in the way that always makes her feel like she was caught doing something wrong. "You're not going to, of course," he says. "That would be hugely reckless. Even for you."
"Aren't you always saying I should listen when the Force tells me something?" Rey asks. "Well I'm listening for once. You should be proud."
"I'd rather be disappointed in a living apprentice than proud of a dead one," Luke says.
Rey smiles, because he actually called her his apprentice. "I'll be fine. If the Force wants me there, it can't be for a bad reason, right?"
Luke isn't smiling, though. "The Force plays a much bigger game than you and I do, Rey. The welfare of one human girl means very little in the face of the galaxy's fate. And you're forgetting something crucial: the Force may be good, but its darkness is inseparable from its light."
.
.
Kylo tries to hide his visions from the Supreme Leader, terrified that if his master discovers he's been dreaming of Tatooine, of the truest home Ben Solo ever knew, that he'll be punished. But his mind is always open to Snoke's, no matter how Kylo tries to keep his thoughts to himself, and it doesn't take long for the truth to come out.
Now he kneels before his master, biting back cries as Snoke pets his face, cold fingers brushing his cheek as he probes Kylo's mind. One touch gentle, the other violent.
"You were planning to sneak away," the Supreme Leader accuses. "To go back to that desert without my permission."
Kylo squeezes his eyes shut against the pain. A sharp, invasive push behind his eyes, a violation of what little privacy he has left. He's been stripped to the skin before, but that kind of nakedness is nothing next to this.
He remembers Rey, bound to an interrogation chair, struggling and fighting tears as he sifted through her memories.
I hurt her just like this.
Snoke withdraws from his mind and Kylo whimpers in relief. "Your weakness is sickening," he says.
Kylo bows his head. "I'm—I'm sorry, Master."
"Don't hide from me again," Snoke warns.
"I won't," Kylo swears, but this is a lie, and he can only hope that his master doesn't notice.
.
.
No one from the Resistance knows her whereabouts, because this off-world venture hasn't been sanctioned by either the general or her master. Luke and Leia, for all the love between them, rarely agree on anything, but they were both certain that she should stay on Ynthica. Listening to them would be safer, more sensible. She can't, though. Not when the Force is calling to her like this. Singing to something in her blood, in her bones, impossible to ignore.
Maz once told her that the belonging she sought was ahead, and staying behind now won't help her move forward.
.
.
He's going to be punished when he returns to his master, but Kylo refuses to think on that just now. If he dwells on his fear, he'll lose the courage to do this.
He arrives on Tatooine in the middle of the night. Without quite meaning to, he picks out the constellations Uncle Luke taught him in another life—here is the Krayt Dragon and there is the Scurrier's Horn, Little Sister holding Big Brother's hand. Kylo walks all night, until the stars give way to rising suns, his uncle's lessons fading with the burgeoning light.
A glowing ribbon appears out of nowhere, running across the ground in a white line, twisting too far ahead for Kylo to see its destination.
.
.
Dawn is just breaking over the desert when Rey lands. She wanders the dunes, carrying nothing but her lightsaber lance and a canteen of water, following the whispers of the Force and her own instincts.
Then she sees it: a scarlet string, running across the sand in an impossibly long and convoluted line, disappearing over the horizon.
.
.
The white lead vanishes as abruptly as it appeared, and in its place stands Rey.
She grabs her lance and ignites it—a fine weapon, as bright and beautiful as its owner—and rushes toward him, just as he draws his lightsaber. Their blades meet, beams of white and red locking together, and Kylo smiles, because now he understands why he's been brought here. His long search is finally over.
.
.
Notes: Warnings may change, so please look over them as well as my notes with every chapter if they're of concern to you! Several will be important to pervasive themes, and so we'll be dealing with them right out the gate, starting with the next chapter.
Extremely spoilery details ahead!
Please note that the warnings for dub-con, domestic violence, and emotional/physical/spousal abuse are all descriptors for Rey and Kylo's relationship in this fic, so if reading Reylo in this context could be harmful to you, this probably won't be your cup of tea.
The premise for this story is essentially that the Force draws Rey and Kylo together for the welfare of the galaxy without concern for their health or happiness. To be frank, this is a story of dysfunctional, abusive love. And like such relationships in real life, there will be good times and bad times, moments of tenderness and moments of great hurt and violence. This is not black and white. If anything, this is a worst-case scenario, but hopefully one that speaks some difficult truths.
Regarding the incest: this is a multi-generational story, and yes, the incest tag is there for a relationship between the Reylo son and daughter. As we used to say: don't like, don't read.