Chapter 1

Kylo Ren had just finished another training session with Supreme Leader Snoke, if you could call it that. Kylo could barely see straight after the series of mental assaults the supreme leader had made him endure. "you have to learn to take the pain, you can't run away from it like your Uncle" The supreme leader had reasoned, he wasn't allowed to put up any barriers against Snoke's attacks and that was all thanks to General Hux.

Hux had informed Snoke that Kylo had called off an attack after discovering a village didn't have what they were looking for, Snoke said the village should have burned anyway. Ren cursed at himself for letting that little sliver of light in him shine through, but a small child had caught his eye and for some reason he felt something and couldn't bring himself to allow the troopers to make an example of the village. As Kylo made his way to the lift, General Hux stepped in beside him a smirk glowing on his face nearly as much as his hair.

"So what did Snoke think of your mercy surrender?" Hux taunted, but Kylo bit his tongue for once, it took all his strength not to punch the ginger general in the face. The lift came to a stop at the floor Kylo's chambers were on and he stepped off. "Oh by the way, enjoy your gift" Hux called laughing as the lift doors closed. Kylo was now confused on top of being exhausting, but he continued down the hall to his room, opening his door with the force he pulled his helmet off and threw his cape off onto the small sofa that sat in his living room. He grabbed himself a glass of water chugging it down quickly. He was going to need a shower before he could attend any of his regular duties. He pulled his shirt off and entered his room opening his closet, when he heard a little whimper.

Kylo turned around to see a small girl cuffed to his bed. He completely blanked on what to do, or even say. The child was cowering in the farthest corner of his bed pulling away from him, desperately trying to pull her hand from the cuff on her wrist. She was bleeding, she rubbed both her wrists raw trying to get the out so she could escape. He stepped towards her and she let out another cry. He did a quick scan around the room and found a small card with a key on his dresser. How sick they left the key in plain sight, the child could see her freedom but she couldn't reach it. He picked up the Key and the card.

Enjoy this little scavenger Ren. Don't play to rough!

"Hux" Kylo growled out. He turned back to the small child and for the first time caught her eyes. It was the same girl from the village. "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm going to unlock those cuffs okay?" He spoke slowly and tried to make his voice soft. The little girl only gave a curt nod holding one of her cuffed hands in his direction while keeping her body as far back as she could. The lock clicked and her wrist was freed, he moved to the other one and her trust seem to have grown a little because she didn't make any moves to back away from him. Once both her wrists were free she wrapped her arms around herself in a tight hug. "Can I see your wrist?" Again doing his best to be soft and slow Kylo held out his hand wanting to inspect the damage, but she shook her head. "I want to make sure you're okay, please?" he tried again but got the same response. The dark prince let out a groan in frustration when an idea popped into his head. He went into his refresher and pulled out his emergency aid kit and brought it back kneeling beside his bed in front of the little girl he opened it pulling out two little bacta patches.

"Do you see this?" He asked holding the patch up to show her. "This is bacta, you put it on your cuts and it will make them heal faster." The small child crawled forward slowly inspecting the little patch and after a couple minutes of staring she held out her wrist to him. Kylo couldn't help but smile, he'd earned her trust! He wasn't sure why it felt so satisfactory but it did. Gently he wiped the girls wrist clean with a little gauze and applied the bacta patch. She had quite the gouge on her left wrist and Kylo was willing to bet it wasn't just from her pulling on the cuffs, he had a feeling she'd been dragged and yanked. The thought filled him with fury, she was just a child.

She held her open palm out to him like she wanted something but Kylo didn't know what it could be, until she pointed at the other bacta strip he'd taken out of the kit. She pointed at it and then opened her palm and closed it, like she was saying 'Gimme'. He was curious so he obliged and handed the clean patch to her thinking she was going to put it on her other wrist. He was shocked when she reached up and put it on his forehead.

"Better?" The first word he'd heard her say, he was speechless. This tiny child nearly had her village butchered, was taken from her family and then forced in his chambers and she had just tried to take care of him.

"What is your name? I am Kylo Ren" He wasn't great with kids he thought, so he didn't know really how to talk to her.

"Reyna, I'm 7 years old. I work at the Niima Outpost" The girl said it like she was scripted. That was when Kylo realized he couldn't feel her presence with the force. Usually he could sense different beings, especially if they were close but this little Reyna had no thoughts coming from her, no signs of life in fact if he'd closed his eyes he wouldn't even be able to tell she was there at all. This was a first.

"Rey, you work at Niima Outpost? On Jakku?" He had come across the business at the village. The man who operated it was cheap and wouldn't even pay for the part he received with credits, he paid in food portions which in Kylo's opinion shouldn't even be considered food. Rey just nodded in agreement to Kylo's questions.

"Plutt said if you want to eat, you have to work" He was appalled he didn't like Plutt but he hadn't thought the man would be so cruel to force slave labor on a child, especially one so small. "Plutt says I am the perfect size for fitting in places adults can't go and since I'm so small I don't need to eat as much" The innocence of her statements surprised Kylo yet again, she spoke like what she was saying was no big deal but even in the First Order there were age restrictions on young workers. Wait a minute…

"Why did you say that?" She had answered his thoughts exactly, and he thought about the bacta patch on his forehead. She placed a tiny hand on his forehead over the patch.

"I can tell you are hurting in your head, you said this will make it better faster." She didn't understand why he was confused.

'Can you hear my thoughts?' Kylo really doubted that this child could be force sensitive. Force sensitive children were rare finds now and how would one just appear in his room.

'But I didn't just appear here, the man in the white armor brought me with the clown man' Her little voice echoed in his mind and he couldn't believe it. She didn't appear to struggle or have a hard time hearing him or talking back to him.

'Where is your family?' Surely she came from a long line of force sensitives like he had, that was the only way she could be so fluid with her talents. She looked down as her hands inspecting the cut on her right wrist.

"I don't have a family" She spoke it aloud refusing to look at the tall dark man's face. "Plutt is my owner" Kylo was furious, this child was a slave, he would have to find out more information on her. He would make a trip back to Jakku and speak with Plutt himself, probe his mind for any memory he had of the child in front of him. Kylo wanted answers, his thoughts were interrupted by growling sound that erupted from Rey's stomach. The child's tan cheeks turned pink from embarrassment.

"i'm sorry" She whispered looking back down to her hands again, she was ashamed. Plutt always told her how disrespectful it was to show you are hungry after getting your portions for the day, he would cut her portions in half if she made any complaints.

"Are you hungry? Lets get you something to eat." Kylo instructed walking back out to his kitchen area, he didn't keep much in his cupboards but he showed her the datapad filled with different options she could order.

"I shouldn't, I haven't worked today" The brunette stood beside him now and Kylo really got a good look at her. She was small, way too small for a 7 year old, she looked more like she was 4. He knew it had to be from her lack of nutrition, she wasn't growing properly.

"As long as you're with me, you will never have to work to earn food." Kylo's voice was stern and he bent down on one knee to come face to face with Reyna. "You're not going back to the Plutt"

"But I have too" Kylo tilted his head, never had he encountered anyone child or adult who wanted to go back to being a slave. "He said my parents won't come back until I work enough to pay off their um debt I think he said" Kylo's eyes hardened, Plutt wasn't just abusing this child with lack of food he'd filled her head with some Ludacris story that her parents wouldn't comeback unless she worked hard, he clenched his fists.

"I will pay off the debt and make sure someone contacts us if they come back. You can't stay there Rey it's not safe for you" His mind wandered to what would happen to her if someone else found a force sensitive child in the middle of a desert planet. She would be picked up by someone else and sold, the best case being she'd end up with the resistance the worst case would be in a brothel. "I'm going to look after you, and I can help you learn about the force too, the force is what lets you read my mind" He tried to be mindful of her age even though he could tell she knew to much about lifes hardships already he wanted to protect her from anymore, that meant keeping her secret from Snoke.

"Is Snoke your owner?" Her innocence shined again, in her mind everyone had an owner. Everyone had to work to earn their portions. She couldn't remember a life before being left with Plutt so her whole world was working to help her parents come back.

"He is my master but not my owner." Kylo didn't know how to explain the difference, in truth the more he thought about it the more the two things felt the same.

"He scares you, I don't like him" she made an odd grimace and Ren couldn't help but laugh. She stared up at him confused, but then handed the datapad back to him. "I don't know what any of these things are"

Kylo looked down at her and took the tablet. "I'll order you a few things to try" He said tapping away at the tablet. She had wandered to his couch and picked up his helmet inspecting it. Kylo watched her for a minute curious about how she would react. He watched her poke and prod at the different parts of his helmet, she stared at the inside studying the mechanics of it before she put it on her head. The helmet hung loosely on her and she looked up at him through it in an instant she let out a horrible scream and ripped his helmet off throwing it across his living space. Her eyes were dripping with tears as she pressed her hand to her temples tightly.

"Are you okay? What happened?" Kylo bent down to her again dropping his datapad putting his hands over hers on her head and he saw it. Replaying in his mind was the last hour he had spent with Snoke in training, worse than seeing it he could feel the pain all over again of his mind being violated, torn apart from the inside out.

"You let him hurt you" She was crying, and that was when Kylo had realized it wasn't his memory but the vision of the memory that she was showing him. The pain he felt wasn't his, it was her.

"Sometimes it takes pain to make us stronger" Again he didn't know how to talk to her, how to explain why he did what he did.

"You're not like him." Kylo was confused again, what was she talking about? Of course he wasn't he wasn't strong enough yet, but he would learn. She shook her head and put her hands on his cheeks. "You're not bad" She showed him her memory of his time at the village. He had broken into the minds of many of the people there and he saw himself from her eyes. She was studying him, he could feel her emotions and hear her thoughts.

'He's broken' Her voice was a whisper even in her own mind. He could feel her fear, fear he would see her, fear he would know she wasn't like the others at the outpost. Her fear didn't stop her though, she followed him through the village keeping her distance.

He felt her confusion as he inflicted unnecessary pain on a few of the men, but when it came to the children he showed more restraint, and when it came to old lady Kanda he even could have been considered kind. She felt it then, a tiny ray of light peeking through the darkness of his force signature. Then he turned and saw her, as their eyes met her heart started to beat faster. He couldn't feel her fear but felt something else instead, a familiarity. It took a moment for him to understand what she was doing, but she was pulling on the light inside him, he didn't even think she was meaning too but her light was attracted to his and they pulled on each other like a magnet.

"We're done here" His mirrored self said to one of the troopers not taking his eyes from her. "Leave these people, Their lives here are punishment enough" With that he went back to his ship.

The memory didn't stop there though, Rey had been intrigued. She kept a few paces behind the troopers as they left but her curiosity had the better of her. It wasn't until someone grabbed her upper arm that she was forced to stop.

"What are you doing you stupid child, get back to work" Plutt shoved her into the sand and she landed with a quiet 'ooph'. It was then that Kylo Ren turned and looked back at her and her eyes met his again. This time Plutt took notice of their exchange and grabbed Reyna again this time dragging her back to his stand. "What was that girl?" His grip tightened on her as he stared at her. "Are you some kind of freak like that Kylo Ren. He turned back to look at you, why?" He gave the girl a shake but she stayed silent and just shook her head.

Plutt narrowed his eyes down at her and he pushed her into a chair and grabbed something off his desk, cuffs. He cuffed both her hands together and demanded she stay quiet and still he had to make a call. The crolute left her sight but she could hear him talking with someone.

"I have something that may interest you General" At those words a panic coursed through Rey chest. A General? What had she done wrong?

"I have a girl here who seems to have the attention of one of the Supreme Leaders knights" there was a pause. "Kylo Ren"

The memory flashed forward to a knocking on the door of the small stand that Unkar cheated people from and he opened the door. Ren felt the ice bath of emotion that trickled through Rey's veins, there stood a tall man with red hair in a long black coat a storm trooper by his side.

"You'll be well paid for her" Was all that was said as the trooper entered and grabbed the center of the cuffs that held her wrists together and yanked her forward. There was silence until they were on a small shuttle heading back into space.

The red haired man forced her to stand in front of him as he evaluated her. She didn't want to know what he was thinking, it was bad enough she knew how he was feeling. Pleased with himself and powerful Hux ran a hand along the girls cheek almost gently before he grabbed hold her chin forcing her to her to look him straight on.

"You'll be a nice surprise for that idiot." Hux laughed tightening his old on her face until she winced. "And if he doesn't want you, I'll keep you for myself" She felt his desire to have her and it left her feeling sick. She had felt the desires of men before and even had to fight them off on a rare occasion but even most of the scavengers had enough decency not to think such things of a child. She felt his want to hurt her, to touch her. She hadn't meant to express her fear but she knew by the generals laugh that it traced through her eyes. As they entered the Supremacy she felt a darkness and she shrunk back away from it, but the trooper pulled her forward forcefully and dragged her from the hangar into a long corridor.
The darkness felt suffocating, she'd met bad men through her short life but none who had felt like this. She compared the force user Plutt had called Kylo Ren to this new dark presence. As she showed him the difference Kylo could feel it, his darkness was black but littered with holes, she compared it to the night sky littered with stars but this new presence had no holes, no light to escape it was like having a blanket wrapped tightly around your face. Even the memory sent her into a small panic as the vision ended.

Kylo blinked rapidly clearing the vision from his sight and seeing Reyna sitting with her arms wrapped around her knee's holding herself tightly. He could feel her presence now, her fear. She wouldn't look at him. Kylo didn't know what to say, when showed his force signature like that he hadn't realized how much light really lived in him and then he recalled further.

"You brought the light out of me?" He didn't mean to ask but it came out like a question, Rey just shrugged. "Why did you follow me around the village?" Ren tried to keep his voice calm but his anger was seething through.

"You're different from the others" She still didn't look at him, her face buried in her knee's. "I was just curious" Her voice was quiet and muffled but he could understand her. "I could tell you were like me and I wanted to know more."

"You could feel my force signature? Why couldn't I feel yours" His aggression was getting the better of him, he wanted to shake the truth out of the child, he wanted to understand her but he wouldn't lay a hand on her. He refused to hurt her. She looked up at him tears streaked down her cheeks.

"I don't know what a force signature is, but I could tell how lonely you felt. I just wanted to fix it" His anger and frustration melted away to nothing. This child had power that people dreamed of but she had come to him because she felt his loneliness. She felt a coupling with him because she was alone too.

"These powers you have, who taught you to use them?" His voice was soft again his curiosity leading him in his investigation now. The girl had some control to much power to be untrained completely.

"An old man came to Plutt for me once. He wanted to take me but Plutt threatened him, the man had the same power and made Plutt forget." She pulled the memory to the front of her mind but didn't share it with him and Kylo wasn't going to push her. "He wouldn't take me but he stayed for a while and helped me learn to build walls to keep myself safe. He said it was to dangerous for anyone to know I exist and never to use the powers if I could help it." She tried to recall the man who helped her but all her memories with him were blurry, and she couldn't remember his name. It was weird the more she tried to remember the more she seemed to forget. Kylo invaded her thoughts lightly after seeing her confused expression. He probed to the memory and found the same blurry pieces and people as he pushed further into the memory it became even more unclear so he backed off.

"So even now you're hiding your power, keeping your walls up" Kylo asked standing back up, and Rey nodded. "Good, keep them strong"