Summary: Kylo Ren and Rey find themselves on a desert planet. Rey is mistaken for a slave, and Reylo ensues.
Word Count: 1505
"Where are we?" his voice is deep but his face is young.
Rey looks out over the sea of sand. The suns beat down on the desert and a compound on the horizon is barely visible.
"Is it Jakku?" she asks.
He turns toward her.
"Jakku?" he asks, incredulous. His curls are already beginning to droop. He is clearly uncomfortable in his dark, thick clothes, designed to look commanding.
"How did we get here? What did you do?!" he is suddenly Kylo Ren, a mask of rage overtaking his face. He is towering in front of her and Rey remains calm, confident in her ability to subdue him if necessary.
"What did you do?" he repeats softer, and he is Ben again.
"I was wrong, this isn't Jakku," Rey points up at the twin suns, shielding her eyes from their glare.
"But then where . . ." Ben trails off.
"I don't know," Rey says. She hefts her pole over her shoulder, just now realizing she is in her old Jakku clothes without Luke's lightsaber. She suddenly feels vulnerable and glances nervously at Ben. Ben is outfitted very much like he was on their first meeting, complete with the abomination of a lightsaber and mask probably stowed somewhere.
"But I intend to find out where we are and why we are here," she finishes, and starts trudging through the sand to the hazy building in the distance. Ben hesitates and follows her.
This is more than the force bond they shared. This is real, and Ben feels that acutely. There is sand in his boots and sweat in his eyes. Rey is in her element and Ben admires her stamina. She is unaffected by the heat and the sand and does her best not to look behind her.
The sun glints off of Rey's back. The heat of the sand rises and distorts Ben's vision. Suddenly Rey trudging ceaselessly in front of him is his mother and Ben stops and stares in fascination. It is General Leia Organa, but there is something not quite right. Suddenly Leia turns and he knows what is wrong. Leia is young again and is so much like Rey. Ben is filled with a seething hatred. Why couldn't she stay with him like she promised? Why did she have to side with Han Solo instead of her own son?!
"Well," she says, "are you coming? Or are you just going to abandon us again?"
Leia pierces him with such a strong, accusing gaze that his hatred turns to a mush pile of guilt, shame, and self-loathing so strong that he mistakes it for loathing Leia.
And then she is Rey again.
"Are you coming Ben?" Rey asks, "because I can leave you."
He shakes himself from his reverie. Rey looks at him with some concern, curiously taking in the mist in his eyes.
"Ben?" she asks again. She steps closer to Ben and Ben can feel the Force through and around her. Leia flickers in and out of view, accusingly silent.
Ben lifts his head up.
"I'm fine," he says, "and even if I wasn't I wouldn't need your help."
Rey recoils back as if struck.
"If that's the way you see it," she snaps, and spins on her heel to continue marching into the desert.
Ben berates himself, but is too prideful and stubborn to admit guilt.
It is another hour before they reach the bustling, sandy marketplace.
Aliens of all different kinds buzz, hop, and stride purposefully around them.
Ben hears a thousand different languages spoken in a thousand different tones: angry, happy, and sly.
There aren't many things in this compound that stay the same. There is the oppressive heat of the twin suns, the muted, yellow color of the walls, and of course, the sand.
Ben and Rey now walk next to each other, not at all out of place in the sea of different cultures and species.
"Do you understand anything?" he mutters to her. For all the languages he knows, he cannot understand a single word being spoken except for some galactic basic.
Rey cocks her head.
"A little," she says, "most of it is gutter-language though. A little Toydarian, and even some Huttese for some reason. I thought Huttese died out twenty years ago."
A large alien bumps into Rey and scowls.
"Watch it," Rey scowls back. It growls something at her and turns away.
"Wait!" Ben calls. It doesn't even glance back.
"I think I know where we are," Rey breathes. Ben turns at her and she points at a large slug-like creature being carried on a litter held by gasping humans, Twi-leks, and Rodians.
Minds still reeling from this revelation, a Rodian approaches Ben and Rey.
He folds his webbed hands across his chest.
"My master, the great Jabba the Hutt, would like to inquire how much she is," he speaks in a gurgling voice with vocal chords barely wrapping around the short vowels and sharp consonants of Galactic Basic.
"Excuse me?!" Rey is incensed. She takes a calming breath and says clearly and loudly, struggling to keep her voice even "I am not for sale."
The dull green-scaled Rodian merely blinked and said in a mild voice, "That can change."
He turns to Ben, who is still speechless.
"However much she cost, my master can triple, quadruple it," the Rodian is getting nervous now. His inner eyelid blinks furiously and he keeps looking over at Jabba the Hutt.
Ben finds his voice and sense of command.
"She is free," he says, "and she is definitely not for sale."
Ben something's wrong, Rey speaks in Ben's mind.
Besides the slavery? he responds dryly.
"That doesn't matter," the Rodian is saying, "the only law around here is Jabba's. Maybe we'll have two new slaves instead of one."
At that the market explodes into action.
Rey is already on guard, but Ben has been ignoring his senses and the alarms going off from the Force.
Ben feels a little tug in his mind and ducks, and a stun-bolt zips above his head.
He looks to Rey, but she is too busy fighting off her assaulters, including the Rodian. He sees the subtle ways she uses the Force in her beautiful, whirling dance, and can't help but admire it.
He pulls himself back to the moment and thinks there is a better way to use the Force.
Kylo Ren smiles a dark, ugly smile and calls upon the Force. The Rodian's neck snaps. Someone rushes up to Kylo, intent on subduing him, and the attacker goes flying. He dies, impaled on a pole.
All of Rey's attackers collapse from crushed windpipes. They scream as blood comes out of their mouths.
Rey turns to him, in shock. He can feel her resolve building and he knows how this will end.
Kylo Ren readies his lightsaber, deflecting blaster bolts. Before Jabba wanted them as slaves. Now he wants them dead.
Kylo Ren sees a figure running and lifts his hand to choke him, but is prevented by Rey's force presence. He looks at her and her eyes are shining. Briefly he sees Leia, looking at him sadly.
Ben, he hears. What had he done?
He ignores Rey's voice and prepares for the assault of blaster bolts.
Ben, this time it's more insistent.
Ben is tackled to the ground by Rey and the bolts fly harmlessly above them. Rey rushes Ben out of the marketplace and into a house.
She looks at Ben with conflicting emotions: frustration, sorrow, yet compassion as well.
"I was just protecting us," Ben grunts out.
"I know," Rey says, "but you didn't have to do it that way."
"I was protecting you; he had no right," he retorts.
Rey leans closer.
"But you shouldn't have done it like that," she says, "they were trying to kill us, but not out of their own will."
After a long silence, Ben finally gives in.
"But I shouldn't have done it that way," Ben admits.
Rey stares at Ben and then shrugs.
"Close enough for me," she says, and kisses him solidly on the lips.
Ben kisses her back, taking in the sand, and grit, and most of all, her.
Ben breaks away from the kiss and he is back on Coruscant, the planet of skyscrapers. The loss of Rey hits him.
He stares out the window and reaches his mind out for Rey. He needs to know if it was real.
Rey stares at the desolate, winter world that is a Resistance planet. She opens her mind.
Rey, she hears. It is a whisper with both longing and hope.
Ben, she replies in the same tone, we're not on Tatooine anymore.
She feels relief from Ben wash over her.
I have to go, she says. She doesn't know what to do. Ben is intrinsically her enemy, and she needs to push him away.
Don't- and Rey shuts him off.
She returns to the winter landscape, just now noticing the hints of green poking out of the snow.