"The bombers will reach the Resistance position in nine minutes," General Hux told Kylo Ren, swelling with ruthless excitement. "There shouldn't be much left for the ground troops to mop up."
"Eliminate these villages as well," Kylo Ren ordered, pointing to some neutral positions marked on the screen. "Their sympathies are with the Resistance. I feel it." He broke off and frowned to himself, his gaze moving to the far wall of the flagship bridge as though something there had caught his attention. General Hux followed his look uncertainly. The General sometimes suspected that Kylo Ren was on the verge of losing his mind, an eventuality that Hux would welcome eagerly.
"Sir?" Hux asked, unwisely. "Are you alright?" Kylo Ren flung out a hand to send him sprawling across the floor.
"Carry on," Kylo Ren ordered brusquely, striding from the bridge.
He swept through the corridors to his quarters, barely noticing the troops who leapt aside and bowed, so focussed was he on the distinctive presence calling him. Rey. She inspired such a confused cacophony of conflicting emotions he wasn't sure how he felt. However, he knew what she must be here for. She would be here to appeal to his better nature, to ask for mercy for the Resistance. She would leave disappointed.
He knew the presence he felt was just a projection, but still when he opened the door of his quarters and saw her there a thrill of emotion washed through him. He took a moment to take in her bruised and bloodied appearance. The smear over her cheek was not her blood, Kylo Ren realised, and was angry with himself for feeling relieved.
"I have come to discuss terms," Rey told him stoutly. Kylo Ren turned away from her lest his thoughts betrayed him. He crossed the room and poured himself a drink.
"There are no terms," he informed her darkly. "The Resistance dies today." He felt her anger, her pain, her disappointment in him. It cut him, but he was determined not to let her see. If only she would embrace that anger she would turn, he was sure of it.
"I won't leave them," Rey told him flatly.
"I know," he said quietly. Though as always he was bewildered why she chose inevitable death over the fantastic power they could wield together. The energy between them was almost tangible.
Rey took a deep breath.
"I have a proposition," she stated firmly. "One month. Delay your assault for one month and come with me somewhere far away from all of this. I'll show you the Light Side, you show me the Dark Side. We can try and turn each other. At the end of the month maybe things will still be the same. Maybe it will end like this after all. But maybe it won't."
Kylo Ren considered her offer, considered it carefully as she stood there staring him down without a trace of fear. If he didn't accept it she would die today, perhaps within this very hour. And everything they could have become would be lost. A glorious future leading the First Order as Supreme Leader stretched before him. No one would pose a challenge or threat to him once she was gone. It was madness to accept, and yet…
"What makes you so sure I wouldn't just order the fleet to destroy the Resistance while we're away?" he asked coyly. "They won't stand a chance without you to protect them."
"You wouldn't do that," Rey stated confidently. "I would make you promise." Kylo Ren smiled mockingly.
"You don't know me very well." Rey squared her shoulders.
"What makes you so sure I'm not just trying to lure you away from your fleet so the Resistance can take you out?" she quipped sharply. Kylo Ren snorted with laughter. Perhaps they did know each other well after all.
Rey became serious.
"If we continue on this path, it will end with one of us dead and one of us alone. I don't want that, for either of us. What do you want?"
Kylo Ren strode onto the bridge, black robes sweeping behind him.
"Cease the attack," he ordered General Hux brusquely.
"What?" The man unwisely turned to challenge him and Kylo Ren hurled him across the room with the Force. One day Hux would outlive his usefulness, and Kylo Ren enjoyed sometimes fantasising about the options for disposing of him. Possibly flaying would come into it. And some kind of arachnids. Kylo Ren sensed the man had a phobia of them.
"Cease the attack," Kylo Ren ordered Hux's deputy. He had no idea of the man's name and didn't particularly care.
"Yes sir, right away sir." Kylo Ren watched with some satisfaction as Hux picked himself up resentfully off the floor and limped over to make his simpering apology. Definitely flaying would come into it somewhere.
"Fall back and set up a blockade around the planet," Kylo Ren told Hux loudly enough so the whole bridge could hear. "A Resistance shuttle will take off shortly and you will let it meet with my shuttle. But after that nothing gets in or out until I personally give the order to attack." He crooked his finger at Hux and strode off the bridge. "I am going on a strategic mission," he told Hux as they walked together to Kylo Ren's personal shuttle bay. "I'll be away for a month." As so often happened, General Hux unwisely demanded to know more, but lucky for him Kylo Ren needed him in one piece to give an appearance of leadership and continuity while he was away. They reached Kylo Ren's personal shuttle just as Hux was getting into his stride about the utter devastation they could wreak on the Resistance in a matter of minutes.
"Do not forget my orders," Kylo Ren said meaningfully, hitting the button to pull up the ramp. "I will hear of it." He flung out a hand and ripped Hux's ears from his head with the Force. He knew the medic droids would sew them back on easily, but the man's scream was gratifying nonetheless.
Kylo Ren suspected that Rey would demand he leave his shuttle somewhere after they met up, in case the First Order could track it, but he thought he could persuade her to let him keep his lightsabre. After all, she would want to keep hers. As the shuttle's autopilot guided it smoothly to the hanger doors, Kylo Ren pulled open a secret compartment behind the control panel and selected from inside a smooth, thick disc. It attached snugly to the end of his lightsabre, indistinguishable from the rest of the handle.
"The activation code is 'Last Jedi'," he said clearly, and a row of tiny lights flared for a moment around the disk as it beeped in acknowledgement. He spent the next few minutes ordering his thoughts to bury the secret of the micro-droid deeply. He didn't want Rey plucking knowledge of his secret weapon from him in an unguarded moment.
If Rey wouldn't turn to the Dark Side, Kylo Ren wanted to be sure of victory.
Rey rested her hands on the stones of Luke's old house, soaking in its peace and harmony.
"What is this place?" Kylo Ren asked warily, coming up behind her. He was tense as if expecting an attack, Rey noticed, but not from her. Rather, he seemed to sense the presence of the many Jedi who had lived and died here over the centuries.
"Somewhere we won't be bothered by the First Order or the Resistance." Rey turned and smiled reassuringly.
"I feel his presence here," Kylo Ren grumped.
"Master Luke won't bother us." Rey waved to BB-8 to watch her shuttle and then set off through the stone buildings.
"I'm not sure he would approve of your plan," Kylo Ren pointed out sourly as he followed her.
"I can handle him," Rey assured him archly.
A bizarre creature loomed suddenly out of a doorway. Kylo Ren was beside Rey in a moment, his lightsabre drawn, and Rey flung out an arm instinctively and threw him back with the Force, sending him sprawling across the stone path.
"He's just a bit hasty," she assured the squat guardian, whose eyes were bulging in alarm. "Don't worry. I'll make sure he doesn't hurt anyone. Or any walls." Kylo Ren pulled himself to his feet and brushed the dirt from his robes with a scowl. "Yes, I know I don't have the greatest track record on that. No, we don't want any milk."
When she had managed to calm down the guardian Rey motioned Kylo Ren to join her at the stone altar in the centre of the village. She placed her lightsabre inside a snug alcove in the stonework and looked meaningfully at Kylo Ren until he did the same.
"Either of us could break that open in an instant," Kylo Ren pointed out sourly.
"Don't you have symbols on the Dark Side?" Rey challenged with a smile.
"We take things quite literally to be honest," Kylo Ren replied sardonically. "Join me or die, that kind of thing."
"Well lucky for you, you have me as a teacher," Rey said sweetly. Kylo Ren scoffed.
"You? You were never even properly trained!"
"And yet I still beat you." She flashed him a cheeky smile. "Anyway, I don't need a teacher. I've got secret Jedi texts."
"Secret what?" Rey raised a smug eyebrow and walked off up the hill.
"Well I've got secret Sith texts!" he yelled after her sulkily. He caught up with her a minute later. "You're lying."
"Am not. Anyway, Jedi don't lie."
"Yes they do!"
He stalked after her as she climbed the jagged peak that rose above the buildings. She clearly knew the path and raced eagerly ahead, but Kylo Ren took his time, feeling for threats. He trusted Rey not to play him false, but he didn't trust Luke or the other phantom Jedi he sensed here.
When he reached her again she was planted on the summit, breathing in the sea air with her eyes closed and a look of peaceful concentration on her face. Deeply in tune with the Force. He could sense her strength.
"It's cold," Kylo Ren muttered, wrapping his black cowl more tightly round himself.
"Ray of sunshine aren't you?" Rey observed, opening her eyes.
"I thought we were here to show each other the Dark and the Light?" Kylo Ren complained.
"We are. Can't you feel it?" She gestured over the gleaming sea. "Every living thing. In harmony. How can you want to destroy this?"
Kylo Ren frowned as he considered her question.
"I don't want to destroy it. I want to master it. Bring order."
"You want to dominate it," Rey suggested without rancour, trying to understand.
"Yes. I deserve to. All the beings here are weak. I am strong." He looked across at her. "Like you."
"You don't need to dominate to be strong," Rey insisted. "There is strength in harmony and balance." Kylo Ren cocked her a condescending smile.
"This is your grand strategy?" he asked mockingly. "You'll turn me by… what? Appealing to my better nature?"
"Something like that," Rey replied, matching his mocking tone. "Except you'll do the hard work for me. Your deepest instincts draw you towards the light, I feel it. All I have to do is get you to listen to yourself."
"You will be disappointed." Kylo Ren looked out over the vista without really seeing it, concentrating on the patterns of the Force that underlay everything. "There's something else here," he realised suddenly, and Rey felt his mind's eye move to that dark pool in the centre of the island. Kylo Ren was drawn there powerfully, as she had been. Unable to resist its magnetic lure. But unlike her he wasn't seeking answers, he sought power.
"Ben!" she shouted, clambering down the hill after him as he scrambled away. Kylo Ren waited for her on the lip of the drop to the pool. "Don't!" she urged him.
"You said we would explore both sides of the Force," he pointed out. "You've shown me the Light. Let me show you the Dark." Rey bit her lip, but she felt drawn to the fairness of his argument and nodded unwillingly. Kylo Ren held out a hand to her with a compelling smile, but she shook her head.
"I promised to let you show me the Dark. I didn't say I would embrace it." Kylo Ren's expression closed. Without further comment he turned and leapt into the dark pool.
"Ben!" she shouted, leaping after him. There was no thought in her mind except to make sure he didn't come to harm, but when she clambered out of the water and found him in the dank cave staring into the rock mirror he seemed unharmed.
"What do you see?" she asked, joining him.
"My father." Kylo Ren had been reaching for the mirror but his hand now balled into a fist. "Such as he was." He looked aside a little, staring at something which clearly caused him pain. "And my mother. I was born to hurt her."
"No." Rey clasped his shoulder, and at her touch Kylo Ren's face twitched, his conflicted feelings ringing clearly across the space between them.
"What do you see?" he asked her quietly. Rey shrugged, unwilling to say. "You promised we would explore both sides," he chided her gently, raising an eyebrow in challenge. Rey squared her shoulders and took his place in front of the mirror. He stood close beside her, watching her face pale as she stared into it.
"Only me," she whispered. The words hung heavy around them. Kylo Ren resolved that if he ever found her scum parents he would tear them limb from limb for abandoning her on that godforsaken planet.
He took her hand gently.
"You don't need to be alone anymore," he told her. "Embrace the Dark and we will rule, together." Rey turned away from the mirror to look at him levelly.
"Never," she replied firmly.
"We'll see." He smiled a small smile. "We have a month, after all."
"You lived on this stuff for months?" Kylo Ren asked in disgust, spitting out a mouthful of green milk.
"Luke lived on it for years!" Rey smiled. "Which probably explains a lot, actually."
BB-8 whistled in agreement as it turned a skewer of fish over the fire. Dusk had fallen over the island and they were set up in one of the stone huts, a bedroll laid either side of the fire. Rey spooned some stew into a bowl and handed it to Kylo Ren, who peered at it doubtfully.
"Sorry it's not the high imperial cuisine you're used to," Rey drawled sarcastically. Kylo Ren lifted a spoonful of the stuff and watched it gloop ponderously back down into the bowl.
"No wonder the Jedi died out," he observed dryly. Rey snatched the bowl off him and began eating his stew with exaggerated relish.
"It's this or a lovely glass of milk," she reminded him sweetly. Kylo Ren raised a hand and drew the bowl from her using the Force. Rey resisted, and for a moment there was a tug of war, the bowl hovering between them before she suddenly let it go and it clattered into Kylo Ren, splattering his chest with stew. Rey roared with laughter while Kylo Ren mopped himself up sourly.
"I'm cooking tomorrow," he snapped. "I'll make you a Sith speciality." His tone wasn't entirely serious.
"Let me guess," Rey smiled. "It's something black."
"You mean something strong." Kylo Ren smiled a little as he dug a spoon into the remains of his stew. He liked this atmosphere between them. It wasn't something he was used to, but it felt safe, honest, accepting. It reminded him of Leia, he realised suddenly. She knew his power too, she knew his evil, but she still loved him.
Kylo Ren felt confusion and anger crowd his thoughts. He wasn't here to indulge in sentimentality. He was here to turn Rey. And the route to that was clear in his mind. She had been stranded alone on that planet for so long, of course she had latched onto the Resistance the minute they came along. But he could offer her an alternative. He would be a true equal, a true counterpart to her powers. They would achieve stupendous things together. And she would never be alone again.
Neither would he. And that thought warmed him in a way he recognised but refused to indulge. Until he knew he wouldn't need to kill her, he couldn't afford to let his attachment get the better of him.
"Are we sleeping here?" he asked her, nodding to the bedrolls either side of the fire. He let just a hint of suggestion creep into his voice. Not enough to put her guard up, but enough to tease.
Rey threw a spoon at him.
"Not everyone's taken in by your lost boy look, you know," she told him archly. Kylo Ren just smiled. He knew her better than that, but he would take his time. He needed to get this right. For both their sakes.
Kylo Ren woke suddenly in the darkness and for a moment lay tensely, testing the Force to locate the threat that had woken him. When Rey murmured again though he rolled over and watched her. She was uneasy in sleep, turning and muttering as she dreamed. Curious, he reached out with the Force. He meant only to get an idea of what troubled her, but was unprepared for the complete absence of mental barriers. Without meaning to he pitched straight forward into her dream.
Hot sand hit him in the face and he rolled over, coughing. A pitiless sun glared down on him, and pulling himself to his feet he found himself gazing upon a featureless desert. Emptiness stretched in all directions. Not a breath of life. Except… There, in his shadow, a girl sat hugging her knees in the sand. Her face was streaked with tears but her eyes were clear as she took him in.
Kylo Ren crouched down slowly beside her. The keenness of her abandonment cut as deeply here as on the day Rey had really experienced it. The loneliness and rejection infused this place. Did she come back here every night?
"You are not alone anymore," he told the young Rey gently, reaching out a hand to her.
A black shadow fell over them both. A masked figure loomed in front of the sun. And before Kylo Ren could say or do anything a burning red beam pierced through his chest.
He woke with a yell at the same time as Rey. They sat in the darkness, collecting their wits for a moment.
"Don't spy on my dreams," Rey growled.
"Tell me your parent's names," Kylo Ren replied shortly. "I will send my best assassins to find them." He clenched his fists.
Rey flopped down again and there was a long moment of silence before she spoke.
"Ben? Does Kylo Ren often kill you in your dreams?" She looked across at him.
"I am Kylo Ren," he told her, staring up at the ceiling. "And I rarely dream." Rey sighed deeply.
"I'm never going to get back to sleep," she groaned, rubbing her eyes.
"How about a nice glass of milk?" he offered, grinning across at her in the darkness. He could feel her smiling back.
Kylo Ren dumped his head into the water barrel and came up gasping from the cold. The bright morning light was streaming over the island and as he towelled his hair dry he could just make out Rey jogging along one of the paths that criss-crossed the peak above the stone huts. He stood watching her for a moment before pulling on his shirt.
"Any excuse, eh?" a dry voice commented behind him, and Kylo Ren's hackles rose as he recognised the phantom presence.
"Still skulking here, Master?" Kylo Ren asked sarcastically, casting Luke a glare. He wasn't afraid of the Force ghost, but he sensed the dead Jedi still had power, so kept a wary eye on him as he pulled on his cowl over his shirt. Luke looked more peaceful, he thought. But there was still that sense of bitter regret.
"This isn't going to go how you think it's going to go," Luke drawled, leaning his translucent form against a wall.
"We'll see," Kylo Ren replied lightly, giving nothing away. But as always, Luke made him angry. In the Jedi's eyes, he would inevitably betray Rey's trust. Luke didn't understand he was trying to save Rey, to show her the magnificent path they could walk together.
"So hasty," another voice chided, a cracked and smiling voice. "Always so hasty, young Skywalker." Kylo Ren turned in irritation to see the Force ghost of yet another Jedi. This island was infested with them! He had expected Luke to bug him, but surely the others had better things to do?
"Master Yoda." Kylo Ren nodded to him, recognising the squat green figure from pictures in the imperial archives. Such a legendary master deserved his respect.
"Hmmm." Yoda gazed at Kylo Ren eagerly as he leaned on his stick. "Think you, Luke, that already decided his future is?" Kylo Ren's jaw set at the implication.
"I have chosen my path," he told Yoda with a flare of anger.
"Hmmmm. Yes. Yes. Again and again. Always at a crossroads you stand." Yoda leaned forward, his eyes bright as he looked beyond Kylo Ren to the paths he might walk. His next comment had the timbre of prophesy: "Uncertain, your future is."
Kylo Ren absorbed this in silence. He had no reason to believe Yoda's words, but they spoke to a truth in him, and he allowed himself to accept it.
"Like her," Kylo Ren observed quietly to himself.
"No." Yoda shook his head gravely. "Clear, her path is." He pointed a knarled green finger at Kylo Ren. "Know this, you do."
Kylo Ren gripped the sides of the barrel, his rage building, until with a bang the barrel exploded outwards, spraying them all with splinters and freezing water. Luke forgot he was already dead and ducked, but Yoda seemed unperturbed.
"Then she will die," Kylo Ren spat, breathing heavily. "Like all the others."
"Hmm." Yoda's voice this time was non-committal. "Difficult to see."
Kylo Ren kicked the remains of the barrel in disgust. Then he kicked them again. Luke watched him with arms folded as he stormed off.
"She doesn't see him for what he is," Luke told Yoda for the umpteenth time. "We need to help her defeat him."
"Our help, she does not need," Yoda replied firmly. His essence began to fade in the brightening morning light. "Come here to learn, he has. Like many before." Yoda gave Luke a somewhat chastening look. "Failed him, we did. But a wiser teacher, he has now."
Luke shook his head as Yoda faded. If his old master wouldn't do anything, he would.
[End of part one, to be continued in part two!]
[Comments welcome]