A wrinkle in space.
The new Force-bond between Rey and the man she despises most in the world might tip the balance as she discovers how much the light and the dark are intimately entwined.
Starts at the beginning of the Last Jedi and explores the ramifications of their secret conversations.
Rey leaned her staff against the stony wall of the hut and passed a tired hand over her face. She'd spent the day exploring Ahch-to, discovering the island's intricate pathways like one greets an old friend. A part of her had always been here. But why?
She'd come to this island to find answers. To find purpose. What she hadn't expected to find was an old grumpy hermit.
Luke hadn't budged one bit, even after she'd asked Chewbacca to bang down his door. If anything, the fresh grief of Han's death had only made him more obstinate to send her back to where she came from.
She needed rest to form a new plan, and a shiver ran up her spine as she lied down on her cot, the humidity jarring. Cold she was used to. Jakku and space were cold, especially at night, but both were incredibly dry. The rhythmic thuds of the rain against the millennial stone hut fascinated her. So much water.
Her thoughts drifted off. Her eyes twitched behind her eyelids, and, right at the edge of unconsciousness, she felt it. A presence.
A shadow.
She awoke with a start, drawing in a sharp intake of breath, and squinted at the darkness. The presence was gone, but she hadn't imagined it. It had left an eerily familiar taste of hatred and shame on her tongue. She reached for her flask and gulped in a few mouthfuls of water to wash down the sourness.
A flash of red light in the corner of her eyes made her jump to her feet. She grabbed her staff and held the weapon to where the flicker had just vanished, but there was nothing there.
Bloody hell.
On the other side of the galaxy, Kylo Ren's body was branded by vicious quakes, his fingers cramped around what was left of his mask. He paid no mind to the chunk of flesh missing from his side where Chewbacca had struck him, or the pulsating burn across his face. His wounded pride was the only cross too painful to bear.
He'd let himself be bested by a lowly scavenger. Worse than that, he'd been humiliated.
The girl had refused him. Him! The offspring of the most powerful Force-sensitive dynasty the world had ever known. He closed his eyes, and his mind returned to the edge of the cliff, where he could have so easily flung her into nothingness.
Why hadn't he?
Now, the triumphant killing of his father Han Solo had been discounted by his master, Snoke.
Kylo begrudged the truth in his master's words that the deed had left him weakened. How could killing Han Solo not be a resounding victory? Why was he so weak when it came to his family?
As he marched through the empty halls of Snoke's mega stardestroyer, he felt a ripple through the Force. He extended his mind out to find the source of the intrusion.
There it was.
A presence.
A glimmer.
Her.
He screeched to a halt, grabbed the saber on his belt, and whipped around to face the empty corridor behind him. The flicker of his blade casted a red glow over the polished floor, contrasting with the black and white of the ship's barren décor.
How did she—?
Why did she come?
The possibility that she'd come back to accept his offer made him heady.
Her increasingly familiar energy was so close, he could taste it on his tongue. He closed his eyes, trying to pinpoint her exact location, and his brows crunched in confusion at the answer the Force gave him.
She was here. Right beside him. So close that if he just extended his hand…
As suddenly as her presence had invaded his mind, it relented, and he was alone once again.
What in the blazes…?
A droid whizzed in his direction. The robotic voice scrapped at his eardrums. "Med bay is waiting for you, Sir. You should hurry along, Sir. My sensors approximate your blood loss to be around 37.6%. At this point, your body is trying to compensate with a faster heartbeat to speed oxygen to tissues. You're dangerously close to hypovolemic shock, Sir."
Well, that explained his hammering heart and the cold sweat running down his back.
He checked the corridors again, turned off his lightsaber, and tucked it back to his side.
The anomaly had spooked him more than he wanted to admit, but the lassitude taking hold of his body would not be ignored any longer.
He followed the droid to Med Bay, his thoughts swimming with flashes of her body bent over the cliff as their sabers were locked together, his face so close to hers he could count the freckles the Jakku sun had branded on her skin. He'd dreamed of this girl for years.
A part of him had always known she was real.
Please review if you want more. Elmo13