Apologies to everyone who has already read this first chapter prior to this author's note, the urge to write hit, and I let it take me where it may. I'll put some of the stuff that I put here in the A/N for chapter two, so no one misses anything.

Note on spelling: I know grey looks weird, but that's how I was taught to spell it. You might see a few extraneous u's floating around. If it bothers you greatly, please pm me, and I'll try to find a beta quickly.

I have a loose idea of where this story end up, but if there's anything you guys want to see in particular, event- or ship- wise, please let me know, and I'll endeavor to work it in to your satisfaction.

Thank you and please keep the reviews, favourites, and follows coming! xNBS

"I saw your future. Just the shape of it but solid and clear. You will not bow before Snoke. You'll turn. I'll help you."

As his mind tried to process her words, it ground to halt. He knew she was strong in the Force, as strong as himself, if not more so. His own connection with it had been cloudy for weeks, ever since killing Han then watching his mother's bridge get destroyed. His turmoil, further exacerbated by this girl, this scavenger, no one, picking up a lightsaber and besting him, in any condition, had affected his mental clarity. Snoke had felt it, ridiculed him for it.

He felt her through the Force, pulsing and alive, her strength and surety, and the Force showed him something too - her bowed before him, then two figures hooded and cloaked in a desert wasteland, one with a bundle in its arms, and her again, face red and contorted in panic, the light in her eyes slowly fading.

Ren had felt a rightness in her words and felt somehow that his vision was the furthest thing from solid and clear, like so much of his life had been. Those scenes had felt like possibilities, what might come to pass.

He impulsively twisted the vision, saying what he knew would wound himself the worst, would probably throw her, unbalance her, give him back the upper hand, get her before she got him any worse, "I saw something too. I know that when the time comes, you'll be the one to turn. You'll stand with me, Rey. I saw who your parents were."

For a moment, her eyes shimmered, the answer was close, right here, at hand, but the shimmer began to take another form, strangely he saw her own face reflected in her eyes.

"It doesn't matter who they were. I came here for answers, but I got the truth instead. The only thing that matters is the choices we make now. The past doesn't have to define us. That only leads to an endless cycle of pain and emptiness. The only way out is forward, Ben. Don't live with the ghosts of your past, move on, with me." She reached out her hand, the tanness of it stark against the black and white of the elevator, despite being on the run in ships and off Jakku for weeks now. Idly he wondered if the sun was as strong as Jakku's, wherever she was, and if she was tan all over or if she had a scavenger's tan. He realized belatedly that his hand had risen to be level with hers, only a few inches between their outstretched fingers.

The hiss of the elevator door preparing to open interrupted him, breaking his concentration, and she was gone; the tenuous connection broken. The helmet that had been forgotten in his hand fell to the floor with a loud clunk, he absentmindedly crooked his elbow slightly, flattened his hand, palm towards the floor and parallel with it, and brought it down a few inches, using the Force to crush the relic to the floor.

He ordered the inferiors waiting outside the elevator to prepare his ship. Her words ran through his mind over and over endlessly cycling, but he could feel the truth and hope in them resonating in his body, causing shivers. He felt so angry that she was the one the Force spoke transparently to, she was the one that was driving him away from his destiny, from the Darkside.

He let all his conflict and anger roll along their Force bond. It was her fault and when she wasn't standing in front of him, with the damnable light sparkling in her eyes, he no longer felt centered, connected with the Force, confident in his actions. He let his need to break something leak to her too.

She felt his emotions and intentions pressing against her mind, spilling over from his side. How could he feel so right when their bond opened enough for them to see one another but turn so toxic as soon as it closed up again? Living with such constant turmoil must be exhausting. She would know. Everytime she thought she understood what she had to do next, what her place was, it got all turned upside down.

After defeating Kylo on Starkiller Base, she thought she had to go to Luke to train to kill him, but after the bond had revealed itself to her, she felt that there was still goodness in him. Intending to kill him would only drive him further to the darkness. And after the disappointment that was Luke, she had no idea what the next step was.

She idled on Ahch-To, watching Luke, hoping he would decide to train her. Whenever she meditated, she could feel Ren, the Light, and the Dark. Her meditations started becoming a blur of white and black and red until everything was grey.

Luke eventually took her to the outlook and walked her through understanding the balance of all things. When she connected to it, her mind drinking in the sunlight soaking into her skin, she felt darkness calling to her out of the hole. As her body reveled in the light, her mind was drawn down to the darkness.

Luke had sensed her mind being drawn to it, even as her being achieved balance. It scared him.

Later, after exploring the seaweed strewn hole and receiving that bizarre vision, she returned to the promontory, this time she noticed the pool she had seen there last time, but this time, she really payed attention to it. It was a meditation pool, lined with black and white pebbles in the shape of a cross-legged Jedi. There was something about it that made it easy to miss. Now, however, it had her full attention.

The figure was evenly depicted with both black and white stones. It reminded her of that moment right out there on the outlook. She sat cross-legged at the base of the pool facing the opening in the rock. Her reflection lined up with the shape in the pool. She let her eyes close, and her Force connection open to island and everything on and around it.

The Force reached back to her, but it was different. It felt complete, yet it scared her because it wasn't the pure white light she expected. It was the grey of her other visions. She stopped struggling to understand it, and let it come to her.

Some of the grey was becoming lighter, and some darker, until an outline of a shape appeared. A man's shape.