It had been months since Crait, months since she had closed the door on him literally and figuratively.

When he reached out for her in the force he felt a wall up blocking him out. He was shocked at her raw ability, how she could instinctively weld such power with almost no training whatsoever.

His little scavenger.

He knew she wanted nothing to do with him and yet he could only think of her as his. He was drawn to her in ways that none of his training could have prepared him for. It took every ounce of self control he possessed to not simply break down her wall.

He could if he wanted to, the cracks in her defense so clear to him. He could take anything he wanted from her but he had already shown too much vulnerability when he had pleaded with her to join him.

He almost couldn't bear to think about how pathetic he must have looked.

Now the Supreme Leader, he said please to no one. He commanded people with almost no effort whatsoever and it was boring.

If he was truly honest with himself he was obsessed with the girl. His thoughts constantly returned to her and his desire to possess her.

He spent far too much time going over every sentence, every action, painstakingly analyzing what had led her to leave him.

He wished on some level that he had actually blown her out of the sky so he could be finished with this new kind of torture.

He knew that if he appeared to her, she would know that he had put effort into breaking through her defenses.

She would know that he was a worthless sentimental sap.

And in the best case scenario where she didn't try to kill him, she would always come back to her plea to turn him to the light.

He didn't want to turn to the light or return to the Resistance. Surely she understood that he could never go back. They would never let him just get away with everything he had done, no matter that he didn't even know if the First Order was where he wanted to be anymore.

All he wanted was to be with her.

She was the only one left in the galaxy that could understand him.

The more he thought about it though, the more he was filled with rage.

They were the only two force users left in this forsaken reality and she had the audacity to shut him out?

Who does she think she is?

She would be lucky to be his apprentice and this radio silence had gone on long enough.

He was tired of playing this game with her.

He saw the vision of her at his side and though he could no longer see it clearly as he did before, he knew they were destined to be together. The Force had connected them. Whether or not Snoke had created the bond, or if that was a lie, the fact was that it remained now.

What he knew about Force Bonds said that they only grew stronger over time.

Her shutting him out was madness!

It occurred to him that it must be taking an incredible amount of effort for her to be holding her wall up all day every day and night.

Was being connected to him so terrible that she would cut herself off from the Force entirely to escape from him?

He didn't think so. From his perspective he had murdered the evil bastard that had been mind fucking both of them, him for years and offered her a chance to start anew.

Why must she cling to a way of life she barely understood?

Before he could even register what he was actually doing, he effortlessly lowered her mental defenses and all at once he was with her. He couldn't see her surroundings only her and she gasped at his sudden arrival. She was sitting cross legged in what appeared to have been deep meditation.

All of a sudden her eyes shot open and her face took on a look of shock mixed with anger and betrayal. She reached out a hand and summoned what looked like his old lightsaber and activated it at the same time jumping from her meditation spot and into her battle stance.

"How did you find me?" she asked him "I've been working on my mental defenses"

He looked at her somewhat irritated and responded with "I noticed the cracks from the moment you put them up"

She took a step forward and practically spat out "So what makes today different?"

"I realized that this charade you're putting on is ridiculous" he stated simply as though it were the most obvious thing in the world

"Charade?" she scoffed angrily and swung her saber to attack him, but he was fast enough to summon, activate and meet her with his own.

She held it there for a moment before sighing heavily, pulled it away, deactivated it and hung it at her hip. He did the same but remained quiet.

"What do you want from me?" she asked him somewhat defeated

"I want the same thing I wanted so many months ago when he fought side by side in Snoke's throne room. I want you by my side"

She looked confused by this, as though she never considered such a thing a possibility.

"You know I will never join the First Order" disgust dripped from her voice as she struggled to keep herself even when discussing her enemy

"Forget the First Order. Don't you see Rey, that you and I are the last of a dying breed?" he posed the question with his usual intensity because it was true, and now more than ever he believed that she was what mattered.

"Search my thoughts and you will see my feelings are true."

Her face was filled with apprehension and doubt as she struggled to believe anything that came out of his mouth but he opened his mind to her anyway.

The original vision of them ruling side by side in the dark and then it was shifting and in flux, he showed her a vision that he wasn't sure he felt comfortable with of them clearly on the light side with children surrounding them.

He showed her a vision of them sparring and training on some planet neither one recognized.

A vision of Rey by his side as they fought some unknown enemy.

A vision of them separated by time and space withering away with the galaxy falling apart.

He as Ben Solo, never turned to the dark side, still meeting her on his quest to find Force Sensitive people. He as Kylo Ren, finding her on Jakku before she found BB-8 and taking her with him to train – in that scenario he was a hero to her.

Countless visions of them together in some shape or form and chaos reigning when they were apart.

By the time she was done looking there were tears in her eyes "How can this be though? We live on opposite sides of a war that is raging all around us!"

Her voice was raising a little as she stalked towards him.

She reached out as if to hit him but he grabbed her arm and stopped her before she could. It felt strange. The moment they touched he felt her body vibrating in the Force. Their energies connected as best they could when they were so far apart.

This is what he had been missing.

He laughed to himself a little when he thought about how long it took him to simply take what was his. He should have shown up months ago. She would not be able to resist this forever.

"Why are you torturing yourself this way? For some Jedi Code you barely understand?" He was so tired of the black and white attitude of good and evil.

"Stop fighting this! Long after this war is over you will realize that I am the only one who will ever understand you! The only one who can help you! I can see the strain on your body from trying to block me!"

She stood defensively with her arms wrapped around her body and snapped back at him "It hasn't been that bad!"

He smirked as he replied with "I haven't attempted to breach your defenses until now and it took me no effort at all. If I wanted to I could break down that wall and assault you all day long until you relented to me"

She gaped at him then with more rage than he had ever seen her possess and reached out her hands and sent a burst of Force energy his way.

It shut down their connection almost instantly and he was sent flying into the wall of his bedroom where he had been communicating with her.

At first he was shocked but a small grin emerged as he remembered the look of darkness on her face as she sent that wave of energy his way. He reached back around to his head and was fascinated to see blood on his hand from the blow.

Yes, she was much stronger when she was channeling the dark side.

His scavenger was such a beautiful mess.

She was his and she would stand by his side, no matter how it happened, it would eventually happen.

He could feel her on the edge of his awareness trying to see if he was okay. He could feel guilt coming off of her in waves, but instead of responding, he simply put up his own wall that he knew she would never be able to break through.

Let her see how it felt to truly be shut out.

He knew he wouldn't be able to keep her out for long, his own desire and obsessive nature would prevent him from being patient.

He needed her like air. It was only with her that he felt any kind of peace. And he needed peace.

The conflict had been inside him for as long as he could remember, and the past year had only made it worse.

The absence of Snoke whispering in his ear left him with a quiet he wasn't sure what to do with. He knew that he would drop the First Order and run away with her if she agreed. He would destroy it all if that made her happy.