"Did you do anything to fix the lightsaber?"

This catches Rey off guard. The tingling sense that a bond connection was forming had led her to seek privacy, but now it has snapped into place. Kylo's dark clad figure is now present. His question causes her to consider. It was important enough for her to gather the pieces before she fled the Supremacy. She has stored the broken saber in a box, but the crystal is shattered. There is nothing she can do until she replaces the shattered power source.

"No. I don't know much about the crystal."

"I do."

Rey feels Kylo Ren puff with the knowledge he can impart. He's well educated, trained, sophisticated, and yet he craves respect. If she cuts him off he'll sulk. She's learned to let him run with these moments. The many months since Crait has softened the edges of their exchanges, and while still sometimes volatile, they have formed a secret relationship that none of her Resistance friends would ever understand.

"Fine," she rolls her eyes. "What do you know?"

"It's a regular pilgrimage Jedi undertake: endure the climb, harvest the crystals, and build their weapon."

"Pilgrimage to where?"

"I'll meet you there."

"I cannot go someplace I'll be…"

"Stop being dramatic, Rey?" He is impatient. "I said I'd meet you, not capture you. I could find you if I tried."

"What?"

"Your power is detectable. I could find it if I mediated and searched. I know something about the world you're hiding on. Probably enough with some time."

She shakes loose and rises abruptly. She's worried she's revealed too much. She's endangered everyone and there are not enough of them left. She is ready to run when he catches her hand and freezes her attempt to vacate the room. He looms over her.

"Calm down. I haven't done that."

"You could," she is staring into his eyes and they are dark pools.

She can struggle and work her way free. He'd deserve a swift kick in the balls for his tactics. He might have more sophistication, but he frequently resorts to bullying. She's gotten further with him when she isn't scrapping for fights in ways he is likely to win. He's telling her to calm down. He should be less handsy about it, but the message is not to run down the hall stirring panic. She takes a deep breath and stills. She expects him to let her up. He hesitates longer than he should. Her expression sobers up that flash from him that was hoping for a welcoming reaction.

"Fine," she relents. "You are not coming to bomb us to dust."

"The First Order," he corrects.

"You are the First Order."

"Obviously I am not. I am commanding, but it is not me."

"What were we talking about? And could you back off?"

Kylo Ren moves and gives her a hand up. "Sorry."

"You are not," she calls him on it.

He gives a hint of a smile. "Ok, I'm not exactly sorry, except that I still owe you an apology for treating you that way."

"I'd rather you were sorry than just observing the formalities."

"I'd rather we dispensed with a lot of formalities," he still gives her space. Despite his words he's moved back to a respectful distance.

"You need a Kyber crystal. You shouldn't go hunting for them alone. I'll send you the coordinates. We can meet there in three days. We can go, maybe work through the part where you need to get a better handle on your power and you can come to realize the gap between what you are capable of doing and what you can manage without guidance."

"Stop being dramatic."

"I'm not," he doesn't wink, grin or otherwise hint this is a joke. "You have a tremendous potential. You have to cultivate the practices needed to control it. It is stronger than you realize."

"Why would you help your enemy?"

She focuses and knows that she's strengthened her projection. "Our connection is so strong we can touch," she makes the point by placing her hand on his. His fingers curl around to hold hers so they cannot withdraw.

"You are not my enemy," he says firmly.

He doesn't revisit what happened in the throne room. Their worlds are upended and no one in their respective camps would understand how they can find common ground. The bond enforces their interactions and they've managed to release unceasing hostility. They are both prickly about revealing anything that might be repurposed by the opposition, but it turns out that neither Rey nor Kylo Ren are strictly their jobs. There are things they can confer about without endangering their colleagues.

"Do you ever meditate? I never catch you meditating."

"I meditate," she grouses

"Force meditation. It's not as simple as just relax and breathe deeply. You have to open the currents and connect to them."

"I'll try," she frowns. He has infinite confidence and it translates as arrogance. "Why does it matter?"

He shakes his head. "You are an instrument of the Force. Your fellow rebels are counting on you to cultivate your abilities. They expect you to be their weapon against me."

"They also want peace and prosperity. That is not the results of a light saber."

Kylo tsks and her immaturity. "Peace and prosperity take diligence and protection. It requires weapons."

"Only because…"

"If it wasn't me it would be some alternate figure. You know the First Order is your primary concern because you don't have the bandwidth to contemplate the minor aggressors."

Rey isn't so dumb that she is inexperienced with the idea that strength deters violence. She's always sustained an aggressive posture to discourage casual violence in the public spaces on Jakku. Her alternative was to take refuge in the isolated desert space away from the outpost.

"Does General Organa know how?"

She softens her tone because Leia is a sore spot with him. He feels she abandoned him. He will no forgive her, except he knows it will change to regret when it is too late.

"You can ask her," he withholds the sarcasm. "I don't think she'll know."

"It's not warm on Ilum. We have to go up into the mountains. You need to dress for the cold."

"I don't think I can..." She still leans closer so their shoulders touch. He gives her the location.

"Three days, from today," he repeats softly.

"Do you want to repair Luke's saber or build your own?"

She's always felt awkward about Luke's weapon. It wanted her, it came to her, but she never wanted to possess it. She shivers. All the same, she feels strongly she cannot offer it to him. It is not his.

"I always wanted Luke to take it back. He wouldn't. It got stuck with me."

Kylo Ren remembers the object responding to her summons. He resents the pull. "My grandfather built it. Luke inherited it. He made another, later, of his own design."

"You are still angry it is mine, not yours."

Kylo Ren's breathing is relaxed. He's had time to reflect on this. It isn't as simple as she took it from him. There is more at work given how the weapon has responded. "I'm not angry. It should be mine. I don't understand."

"Neither do I," she reminded him.

"Three days." The connection dissipates suddenly.