Author's Note: This is now the full version of Chapter One. Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed even while it was still in its teaser form!


"You were no one. But you're not no one to me. Join me. Rule the galaxy at my side. Stay with me... Please."

Kylo Ren holds his hand out to the lonely scavenger-turned-Jedi from Jakku.

Rey's eyes are bright with tears as she looks from the extended hand to the screen still showing the slaughter of the resistance ships and finally to the dark eyes of Ben Solo, while maybe not brimming with tears but every bit as emotional as her own. She reaches out her hand, hesitating with their fingers only inches from touching.

Rey purses her lips and gives a jerky nod, then quickly closes the gap between their hands.

A small smile actually cracks Kylo's face for a split second, before Rey says, "But you have to save my friends."

Kylo's face darkens in anger and indecision. He fixes the girl before him with a long cold stare.

Until he relents. As decidedly unhappy he is to have to allow the meddlesome resistance to linger on for even one more day, he is not yet willing to give up his new ally. He gives a curt nod of his head, and Rey lights up with relief.

Before Kylo Ren could take even a single step towards the monitor to order the onslaught to cease, the ship is rocked by a massive explosion. Fire erupts from the walls of the dying ship, Rey and Kylo are wrenched away from one another, and their world goes dark as destruction rains down around them.

Kylo groans as he slowly opens his eyes. He lies face down on the floor where he was tossed by the crash. He pushes himself up off the ground and surveys the scene around him. The room is a mess of fire and debris. The sliced up corpse of Supreme Leader Snoke still lies where he fell. Kylo staggers to his feet, and with a roar of exertion and years of pent up anger, he uses the Force to rip a mass of damaged panels and mechanical components from the ceiling above his former Master and send it all crashing down on top of the body. As long as no one looked too closely, who could say the Supreme Leader had not met his fate at the sharp edges of the displaced ship interior.

Kylo is still standing there, breathing heavily, when he hears footsteps come running up behind him. He looks over his shoulder to see General Hux stumbling to a stop behind him, the general's mouth hanging wide open with shock at the gruesome display in front of him. "What- What happened? The- The Supreme Leader... is dead..." He looks to Kylo Ren in horror. "We must order the fleet to fall back. With the Supreme Leader gone-"

"We have a Supreme Leader."

"What?"

Kylo turns a piercing stare on the general. "With the Supreme Leader gone, we have a Supreme Leader. But go ahead. Give the order to fall back. It will give me the chance to regroup my forces. Let the pathetic Resistance cling to life a little while longer. It will make no difference soon enough.

Hux meets Kylo's stare with a long and calculating one of his own, weighing his options, deciding whether or not to follow this man he has been at odds with for so long now, wondering about his chances if he went for the blaster at his hip. But then he nods and spits out a stiff "Right away, sir."

General Hux spins on his heel and stalls towards the door, until something off to one side catches his eye. He pauses and turns to see the troublesome Resistance girl they had arrested earlier. Now he reaches for his blaster, scowling as he advances in the unconscious figure crumpled in the floor.

"Touch her, and die."

The general suddenly finds himself unable to move, mid-step, blaster half-raised. And then he is tumbling backward through the air, to land unceremoniously on his backside by the door. He throws an accusatory look at the Sith responsible. "She is the enemy, or have you forgotten?"

"Your outdated information betrays you, General. Before the Resistance pulled their ridiculous stunt, the Supreme Leader had just convinced their little hero here to join our cause."

Hux eyes him with disbelief. He casts a final hate-filled glance in Rey's direction, before picking himself up and storming from the room. "This isn't the end of this, Ren."

Kylo Ren ignores the barely concealed threat; he's hardly threatened by the likes of the bumbling General Hux. He scoops Rey's limp form from the floor and, with her in his arms, makes his way to his shuttle, ready to leave behind this dying ship and its decrepit Master.