Author's Note: This fanfiction is available to read on my Reylo/Stormpilot tumblr sideblog (shared with my sister) no-stars-to-walk. As this pairing is as hated as it is loved, I will emphasize more than once. If you do not like this pairing, do not read this fic, and don't review.
Warning: Reylo, Rey x Kylo Ren, it's actually not even fluff, I'd only call it Reylo because I ship it, and view it as a shipping snippet, but if you don't that's totally understandable. Don't like don't read.
Disclaimer: Apart from bought and paid for merchandise, I do not own Star Wars in any shape or form
The Promise
They stood on opposite sides of the room. Finn and Poe would be looking for her, desperate to make sure she escaped before they left, but there was something Rey needed to do first. She had a promise to keep. To both Master Luke and General Leia.
Kylo Ren eyed her lightsaber, the one that had belonged to his uncle, and his grandfather before him. Rey kept it at her side, there was no need to antagonize him just yet. Her heart beat faster, terror, excitement, desperation, and knowing that one wrong move was all it would take to make her fail.
"Kylo Ren." She said, glad that she was able to maintain a calm, strong voice despite her trepidation. His eyes flashed up to meet hers, and she felt his conflict more than she could see it.
Just like Master Luke had said.
He stepped closer to her, and she to him."So, my Uncle has taken the time to give you some training." His voice was calm, and calculating as ever, but Rey wore she could almost hear his longing,"I've seen you in action, and you're more than Snoke anticipated, but don't think that makes you a Jedi."
He glanced down to her weapon again, and she to his. He'd constructed a new Lightaber since they'd last met, but she hadn't seen it used yet, and had no idea if it was any more stable than his last one. If he attacked first Rey would only have a few seconds to prepare herself.
She had to keep talking, keep trying to reach the boy beneath the man. "And you may have trained more with the Dark Side, but you're not a Sith yet." His eyes shifted to hers again, they were close enough now that she saw the flash of terror in his eyes.
He was afraid of what he was becoming. She had to choose her words carefully.
"It's not too late." Rey said gently, and although she shifted her arm closer to her lightsaber, it was only a precaution, ready to grab it in case Kylo drew his. "You can still stop this. You can come with me. I'll take you to the resistance, back to your mother and that will be the end of it."
She'd promised Leia she'd try, and she promised Luke she'd never stop trying."There's good in him. I feel it. I think you do too." That's what they'd both told her, Rey wasn't sure she believed them until now.
"It won't be that easy." Kylo replied, staring hard at her but his eyes flickered, revealing all she needed to know. "I betrayed my family, killed my father, as I killed countless others. I know too much about what will come…Snoke will never stop hunting me. Neither the First Order, nor you precious resistance would risk letting me live."
His aura radiated with fear. But it wasn't the Resistance he feared, Rey could feel that much. What then? Facing his mother and uncle after what he'd done? That Snoke and the remaining Knights of Ren would come after him, and what they would do if they ever caught him? She remembered how terrified Finn had been of the First Order, terrified enough to want to run far, far away from it all.
Still, despite the fear, Rey also felt the conflict in him shifting a little. Desire to leave it all behind outweighing his fear for now. She was winning him over bit by bit, all she had to do was say the right thing."That's not true." She tried to assure him, lowering her hand away from her weapon to ease the tension, "You said it yourself, you know what Snoke is planning. If you come back, the information you can give us- you- youwill be too valuable to be taken away."
The conflict shifted again, wanting more than anything for this to be true, but Rey also sensed a growing anger in him. What ever Snoke had done to him, told him, it had clouded his judgement for far too long and made him wary of the people she was asking him to trust. Wanting to believe what had driven him for so long was more than jut a lie.
"Snoke's deception runs deep," Luke had told her, "We all underestimated him, and that's why we lost Ben."
His eyes were on the floor now, struggling to decide what was the right thing to do. The weight of this moment bared down on her heavily. Kylo Ren was a his breaking point. What Rey said next would determine if she succeeded in saving him now, or pushed him further away. She had to say the right thing, so much depended on it.
"Come home," She whispered, and offered her hand to him, as if promising to guide him the whole way."Please, Ben, come home."
His eyes snapped back up to her the moment she said his name, and Rey knew she had failed. There was only seconds to react, to pull her weapon free and block the sudden assault of his Lightsaber. This one was more stable that his first, but it still cracked and hissed as it collided with hers.
"Don't ever call me that!" He roared, "Ben is gone!" His voice rang with rage, but his eyes were filled with sorrow.
"Rey!"
They'd both been too distracted to notice Poe and Finn in the hall. The shot of a blaster took Kylo Ren's attention off her enough that she could strike his arm and make a run for it. Deep down, Rey could feel that it wasn't the blast that let her escape, but the fact that she had been so close to reaching him, that Ren had let her go.
A scream of fury chased them down the hall. Finn fired off his blaster again and again, knowing he'd never kill their pursuer with it, but trying to slow him down at least. Poe used his com-linked to call BB-8 and Chewbacca, instructing them to ready the Falcon.
Rey saw a control panel ahead of them and concentrated on it with her mind, willing with her Force powers for a few buttons to press.
"Hurry!" She declared, pushing herself and her friends to run faster. The door ahead of them started to close, a few more steps and they'd make it through, but Kylo Ren was too far behind, the door would close on him.
Finn had to leap through to make it, but when he did he blasted the controls on their side of the doorway, which hopefully, would make it even more difficult for Ren to get through. The three of them continued their flight through the base. With the battle raging outside there weren't many obstacles between them and their ship, which the droid and wookie dutifully had ready for take off as soon as they were aboard.
Almost.
The ship was still having some problems, Rey ran back and forth from panel to panel, trying to figure out why it wasn't taking off. At last the engine roared to life and she sighed with relief. Kylo Ren was close, any longer and he may have caught them before they could escape. Still, despite her friends' whoops of victory, Rey was being crushed by the enormity of her failure.
She'd been so close. So close. And one word- one name- had ruined it all. The Millenium Falcon blasted through the sky, then seamlessly into hyper space, but Rey could still sense Kylo Ren as if he were still in the room with her. And she could feel his despair, the conflict, the anger and torment. All at once he wanted to fight and destroy it all, but also run home to his mother and uncle and find forgiveness.
Rey almost wanted to give him up. It was so hard for him, not knowing who to trust and what was right, Kylo Ren was probably better off on his own succumbing to whatever fate he led himself to. But even as she thought this, Rey felt a tremor in the Force. Hope. Despite his inner turmoil Kylo- no, Ben- was suddenly surging with a newfound sense of home.
She closed her eyes and pictured him. Luke and Leia had said that bounds made by the Force were so strong that users could hear and understand each other even at great distances. "I won't give up." She said to him, wondering if he could really hear her,"I promise, I'm going to bring you home."