She was moving down a white corridor following not so far behind a man wearing a black cape, his long black hair brushing against his shoulders. She knew the man; knew his form, his gait, the handle of the weapon he kept at his hip, even though she could not see his face. He began walking quickly, as if to try to shake her but still she followed, her pace quickening in time with his. Yet, she did not feel as though she were walking exactly, it was as though her body was moving but she registered no actual sensation of her feet touching the metal floor of the corridor or the air passing across her flesh. She was being pulled by his movement like a tether was attached between them. The man, tired of this game, turned his sallow face upon her, and, with a single sweep of his arm the scene vanished. Rey shot up from her bed with a start, breathing heavily, her body drenched in sweat.
She walked over to the sink and splashed water on her face. It was the third time this week she had seen him in her sleep. At first, she had attempted to dismiss it as bad dreams, but there was something about them that felt so real she now began to wonder if the connection that Snoke had created between she and Kylo Ren had truly died with him in the throne room or if it still lingered on, triggering when the mind was least resistant.
The last time the dream had occurred she had found herself in a control room of some sort. Ren was reviewing some sort of plan with General Hux and another man she did not know. She had listened for a few minutes before Ren turned to her and scowled; with a wave of his hand she had been banished from the scene. He was getting more powerful, she could feel it, and he didn't appreciate her just dropping in.
But it wasn't just her who had bridged the divide. Twice in a fortnight she had felt his presence, just slightly behind her, watching from where she could not see. When she turned to look, he was nowhere to be seen but, still, she knew she had felt him. She wondered if he ever slept anymore or if the link was merely a result of failing to guard his mind. It was strange, if there truly was a link, why did he resist it so? Was it fear that indulgence would only cause it to grow stronger? Or was it something else?
There was a knock at the door to her quarters. "Rey, is everything alright in there?" General Leia Organa's weary voice asked from the other side. So she had sensed the disturbance as well. Rey had not told the General of her nightly sojourns. At first she had thought to, it would be a useful tool for the resistance if she could infiltrate Kylo Ren's Star Destroyer – with training, she might even be able to avoid his awareness. But there was something about the connection that silenced her, something that felt too personal to be shared, even with Leia.
"I'm fine," Rey called, staring at her own reflection in the mirror. "Thank you."
She was still tired as she took her breakfast in the dining hall. She had failed to fall back to sleep, visions of the corridor and Ren's face haunting her.
"Rey? Rey? Did you hear me?" Finn said from across the table, jolting her from her reverie.
"Oh, I'm sorry. No, I didn't." She looked at the path her vegetable stick traced through her rations. She hadn't even realized she had been doing it.
"I was just saying- Rey, is there something wrong? You look really out of it."
"I just didn't get much sleep last night." She attempted a reassuring smile, though, from the expression on her friend's face it had rather the opposite effect.
"It's going to be another day or two before Poe and the rest of the fleet return, perhaps you should get some sleep."
"No, I'm fine. It's nothing, really."
"If you say so, but if you start spacing out during the Falcon repairs and electrocute yourself, it's going to be me who gets stuck carrying you to the medical bay."
"As I recall it's usually the other way around," Rey said, taking a bite from her vegetable stick.
Finn puffed out his lips as if searching for a retort but found himself at a loss. He returned to his food. After a moment he muttered, "Remind me next time when I see a woman in distress on a planet, just to leave her there."
"Excuse me? I was in distress? As I recall you were the one who required rescuing," Rey said. It was an old argument, hashed out dozens of times. It always seemed to come up whenever one of them needed cheering.
"Only because I tried to help you."
"I didn't ask you to. I had everything under control until you showed up." Rey was now smiling for real, her attention fully back to her breakfast and her friend.
Rey wiped her arm across her brow, leaving a pale mark where the dirt and grime had been, and surveyed her work. The repairs to the Falcon had been legion in number. The chase through the salt caverns had hardly left it unscathed. Once they had managed to get to the Ghost Base on Krant it became apparent how close a call it was. The Millennium Falcon had landed and promptly dropped a few dozen parts to the ground. Chewbacca easily persuaded a number of the local Wookies to help in the repairs, aid which was infinitely helpful given the rebels' small numbers.
"Alright you stubborn machine, let's see if that did it." Rey pushed the button on the navigational system she had been working on. It flared to life, buttons lighting up and beeping. "Yes! There we go," she said clasping her hands together with excitement.
Suddenly, there was the sound of an explosion and a puff of smoke from the panel and it went dark. A large cylindrical part was expelled from the interior of the unit to land with a heavy clunk at Rey's feet. She kicked it across the floor, upsetting a porg who scolded her bitterly.
"Sorry!" she said, striding away from the still smoking unit.
"Rose?" Rey called out. "Rose?"
"Yes?" The mechanic, Rose Tico's, upside-down head popped out from above Rey.
"Oh there you are. I need a pulsar converter."
Rose lowered herself from the ceiling, flipping down to the floor. "There should be one in that pile behind the sensors," she said, leading the way. She dug through the pile, tossing parts left and right, until she found the part similar to the one Rey had kicked. She handed it to Rey. "It's from an old X-Wing fighter, but it should do the trick if you adjust the calibration and remove the L-flange."
"Thanks." Rey said, taking the part. "Remove the L-flange," she said to herself as she walked back to her station, turning the part so she could see the flat, L-shaped piece sticking out from the pulsar converter. The flange had black scorch marks on it. She attempted to move it but whatever had caused the scorch marks had fused the flange to the unit. "Remove the L-flange she says." Rey looked around for something she could use as a tool, like a torch of some sort. At the moment, she missed BB8 acutely. The round little droid always had whatever it was she needed, but he was not here, he was with Poe responding to a message from Naboo about potential aid.
Seeing the discarded Pulsar Converter she had kicked across the floor, she picked it up and slammed it, like a rock, against the L-flange. The piece flew across the room, clinking as it bounced off the wall. Rey allowed a smirk of satisfaction. She was just about to kneel down and replace the part when she had the sudden sense someone was watching her, not in some malevolent way, but more as one examining something with keen interest. She spun on her heel to catch the interloper, but there was no one there.
"Supreme Leader," General Hux said, jolting Kylo awake. The meeting had been an especially dull one Kylo assumed Hux had called to once more reaffirm how much the general was in love with his own voice. Even then, it was highly unlike Ren to fall asleep during a meeting. But he had not been sleeping well, or at all if it might be helped; and it was all on account of that girl – that junk trader's daughter.
He could not stand to see her. To so instantly recall that which he had felt in the throne room, that which had compelled him to ask her to join him, to rule with him. It had been manufactured by Snoke - he had told himself many times - that sense of connection, of deep connection unlike he had ever felt before. And that terrible sense of loss when she had rejected his offer – as though half of himself had been ripped from him, the half he had only just found.
He could still feel the touch of her fingers on his. The moment their consciousnesses had joined. A burning warmth rushed to his fingertips at the thought of it, tickling his mind with the infection of their memory. He hated her for it. Hated her for what she had done to him. For leaving him with this great emptiness inside him. Then returning, not so that he might see her, but he could sense her near him. Taunting him.
But only a moment ago, there she had been on the bridge of his father's ship. Standing in front of him. Her form and silhouette precisely as he remembered. He had caught just the quickest glimpse of her face just before he had awakened.
Kylo Ren yawned from his place at the meeting room table, pretending not to be the least bit perturbed by the vision he had just seen. He waved his hand dismissively at Hux. "Yes, go on."
"As I was saying, we have noticed a suspicious drop in rations as of late."
"How many?"
"Ten have gone missing."
"Are you certain they were not simply miscounted?" Ren asked. The rebels were in the wind. The tale of Vice Admiral Holdo's sacrifice and their escape had once more galvanized the movement. Planets that had been firmly under First Order control were now hearing rumblings of uprisings. Sympathizers were joining the rebels by the day, some sabotaging First Order manufacturing plants before leaving. And General Hux was concerned with a few missing rations?
"Yes sir, I counted them myself."
Of course he had.
"What do you want to do?" Ren asked wearily.
"I believe we may have a stowaway on board. I would like to take a contingent of Storm Troopers and search the ship."
"Fine," Ren said. If nothing else it would keep the man busy for a while. He was in no mood to tolerate Hux today. There were more important matters to be addressed.
Poe Dameron and his fleet had been sighted en route to Nal Hutta, but had disappeared from sensors somewhere behind the moon. Ren wanted to follow them, but he had known Poe far too long to be taken in by these simple feints. Dameron had no business with the Hutts. They certainly were not sympathetic to the rebel cause. Therefore the only reason Dameron might have to fly so close to the planet was to be spotted by the First Order in hopes of sparking the very thing Ren was resisting, a First Order attack so close to Nal Hutta that the Hutts would view it as an act of aggression. And, while the Hutts disgusted him, he found it was better to be on their good side.
Rey collapsed into her bed, exhausted. She had spent hours working on that navigation system. Still, it gave her some pleasure to know that it was once more beeping away. She reached over to turn off the light. Would she see him tonight? She wondered. She was surprised to realize that the idea of it did not repulse her. Perhaps it was the idea that she might overhear something that could prove important to the mission. But she knew that wasn't it even as she tried to convince herself it was. She turned off the light and the room descended into darkness but for the stars twinkling in the distance.
"What are you doing here?"
She was staring at his back again, but this time there was something different. The world around them felt strange. She knew this place from before, it was Ren's quarters, but there was a quality about it that still felt unreal, like when she had woken up in Ren's Star Destroyer, the first time they had met. When he had used the force to knock her unconscious. But Ren was very real. Even as he room shifted slightly, she could tell he was solid.
Kylo Ren turned, his face contorted with rage. "Why do you keep seeking me out?"
"I am not seeking you out!" Rey protested.
"Yes, you are!" Kylo Ren took a step forward, his hand hovering above his lightsaber.
Instinctively Rey stepped back. She felt the hard floor beneath her foot. A thrill of terror shot through her. She was not just interloping, she was in his quarters, on the Star Destroyer. This was real!
"How did you bring me here?" she demanded.
"I didn't bring you here. You chose to come. And I want to know why." Ren's eyes narrowed.
Rey quickly scanned the room for something she might use to defend herself with. The lightsaber flew from Kylo Ren's belt, but he easily caught it. Throwing out his hand he slammed Rey against the wall, holding her almost a foot above the floor by her throat. Rey clawed at the invisible hand's steely grip.
Ren regarded her with some amusement. "That was a bold move. I wouldn't have expected it from anyone else but you." The lightsaber flashed on, he held it at the ready by his side as he approached her. "Now then, tell me why you are seeking me out and I will make this quick."
"I tell you, I'm not!" she managed.
"I have sensed you almost a dozen times, watching me. Spying on me."
"It happens when I sleep. I cannot control it."
"Yes, you can. You choose to come to me. To taunt me."
"How can I choose what my mind does when I sleep?"
"I do. You choose not to. And now you will tell me why."
He was now only inches from her, his hand wrapped around her bare throat, he could feel the air from her raspy breathing vibrating beneath his palm. "You're trembling." he said, a strange realization dawning upon him. "But not with fear." He lowered her to the floor.
"I'm not afraid of you," she said. The words less defiant then daring. Daring him.
His hand traced the line from the front of her neck to the side, his fingers tangling in her dark hair behind her ear. His head tilted almost of its own accord, pulled closer by some irresistible force he had not before known. She did not shrink from him, but stood, her eyes flashing. He could feel her trembling, not with terror, but anticipation.
"No. But you should be." he whispered, his lips almost touching hers. He leaned to press them against her own, rising up to meet his.
Then he was gone. Vanished.
It took Rey a moment to realize what had happened. "No!" She shouted into the empty room.
She awoke with a start, throwing off her covers. She had to find him, to contact him. They had been so close to that moment of connection, of balance. She hadn't even realized how much she yearned for it again until it had been taken away. She had to have it back.
"Supreme Leader," General Hux's nasal voice from the intercom jolted Ren awake. He hadn't even realized he had fallen asleep at the console. Had Hux been in the room Ren would have flung him across it for waking him; and if it broke the man's neck, well so much the better.
"This had better be important," Ren growled into the intercom.
"Yes, sir. We found the stowaway. Should I bring him in?"
Hux was probably right outside the door, waiting eagerly to be called in.
Kylo was tempted to deny Hux the pleasure, but then thought better of it. Any person who had been able to avoid detection on their ship for so long was worth personally attending to. "Yes."
The door slid open and General Hux stepped in, followed by a man whose face had been covered with a cloth bag of sorts, and another stormtrooper. The man was dressed shabbily, all in black, and covered with dirt from head to toe. It was difficult to even determine his build from the overly large coat he wore.
"We found him in one of the empty habitation pods near the storage facilities. We also found these," Hux threw a pack of computer hacking tools to the ground at Ren's feet.
"Hey! Watch the mer-erchandise." The man's stutter was almost like a mechanical whine.
Kylo picked up the pack, surveying the contents in a dispassionate manner, "So you are a slicer?"
"It depends who's as-king."
"How did you fool our security systems?"
"Now, who s-ays I did?"
"You stole food rations from the First Order," Hux said.
"It wa-s fair payment. I gave y-ou tho-se two rebels, you give me a place to stay."
"Funny, I don't recall agreeing to that deal," Hux spat in his self-important way as he strutted in front of the man who could not see Hux's theatrics for the bag still on his head.
"Quiet, General Hux," Ren ordered. "This man has done the First Order a great service. We might have use for his talents again. Give him some proper food and take that stupid bag off of his head." He had no intention of letting the man live, but they needed to know the weaknesses that had allowed him to infiltrate their ship, and if it meant spending a few more rations, that was a far better price than letting Hux talk him to death.
"Now you're talking," the man said.
Hux pulled the bag from the man's head.
All at once Rey, who had been watching the scene unfold, felt the hot blast of sand and wind in her face, felt an arm slide from her tiny grasp, saw a face turn back, looking at her as he walked away. His face.
"Father!" the child inside Rey screamed, though her own voice came out as scarcely more than a whisper.
Kylo Ren turned his head just in time to see Rey vanish, her concentration broken.
Rey jolted back to her room where she sat on the bed, meditating as Luke Skywalker had once shown her. She stared in disbelief. "Father."
