Six months.

For six months Kylo Ren had searched for Rey across the great expanse of galaxy that lay between them. Even with all the considerable resources he now possessed, finding the tempestuous scavenger was proving to be a frustrating and almost impossible endeavour. Kylo Ren had lost count of the number of times he had come within a hare's breath of capturing her, delayed intelligence and brutal twists of fate had continuously facilitated her escape. At times he thought she was deliberately taunting him, fully aware of his desperation to separate her from the Resistance and relishing in the chase.

He was certain Rey was deliberately trying to distract him at vital moments to allow the rebel scum to slip through the First Orders fingers, to delay the inevitable crushing blow which would end their fight. Rey eluded him at every opportunity, driving him to the brink of insanity, his sole focus no longer killing the past but on claiming her for the dark side. He would rip apart the whole universe and burn it to ash to end this game of cat and mouse. No mercy, no quarter for those who hid her from him. /p

Not that Kylo knew what he would do with her once the wily girl had run out of chances with the gods of war. What would he do once he had her in his grasp? Hux would more than likely expect a public execution for her crimes, to make an example of her. Kylo could never allow that, but anything but death would cause inevitable consequences. /p

The Supreme Leader's fixation on find the lowly born scavenger had not been lost on General Hux or the rest of the First Order High Command. Their patience and loyalty wearing thin as their leader's cloudy judgement forced them to make tactical mistake after tactical mistake. All agreed strategy and plans were universally overruled in mere seconds to give way to heedless and reactionary orders. The iron fist of Kylo Ren would bend, not listen to reason or consider diplomacy when it came to dissenting voices within his leadership, even at the cost of securing the war. His obstinate nature knew no bounds.

Since the embarrassment at Crait, the balance within galaxy was tipping more and more in the direction of their enemy. Each new minor loss to the Resistance was chipping away at the First Orders dominance, shot by shot, piece by piece, until whole systems turned from red to blue. Hope and defiance in the Galaxy spread like a cancer, killing the First Order from the inside out. There were rumours on some of the smaller vessels in the Outer Rim, the navy was starting to hemorrhage stormtroopers in great numbers, casting aside their armour to align with the rebels. The rumours were bolstered by the traitor FN-2187's transmissions on the HoloNet, demanding they throw down their weapons and join the light. It was a call to arms the First Order was increasing finding hard to ignore. The reality of the situation was they were sinking under Ren's leadership.

General Hux knew what had to be done, he knew they had to eliminate the young fool, but he also knew in this he had to be patient. The chance to excise the tumour that was Kylo Ren was drawing near, but he would just have to have wait for the opportune moment to seize it. Just as Kylo had been in killing Snoke. Hux was under no illusions the old demon had met his death at the hands of his apprentice. And so the cycle would repeat itself. All old things would die to make room for progress.

The truth of the matter remained, Kylo Ren had no real affinity for creed General Hux upheld and propagated. The tenets on which Hux wanted the Galaxy to operate held no interest or significance for him. Not anymore. The whole Galaxy would bow to him, but only to help him find Rey of Jakku. She was all that mattered now.

It was the quiet moments in his quarters that Kylo really understood it, the real reason behind his drive to find her. As much as he tried to convince himself it was simply self-preservation, he knew this was just another denial of reality. It was accurate to say he would be stripping the rebels of their most potent weapon and asset. But the truth, he realized, was much harder to swallow.

The was nothing he could do to control the pull he felt towards her, to the light and sense of peace she brought to him. Now in their separation it felt as if he'd lost a limb, this phantom pain of something missing aching dully in his chest. For he knew now what it was to have her, even for the shortest of moments. The sheer power they possessed when working in unison was like a drug to him. Together they had been unstoppable in the throne room, a true balance of furious strength and skill and yet strangely harmonious. It was as if they had always fought alongside one another. Linked by some unfathomable power.

Kylo had been so high on that feeling of connection and kinship with her, he had offered her the entire Galaxy, a gift only his equal would ever be worthy of. His whole body had shaken with anticipation as he had reached his hand out to her, never wanting anything more in his life than for her to join him and save him from the lonely desolation that surrounded him. In those briefs breathes before she had tried to summon the lightsabre, he had seen his own longing mirrored in her eyes. That deeper want inside them that exceeded simple companionship and understanding. If he had been one to hope, he would almost have mistaken it for desire. But alas, Rey was as lost to the light as he was to the dark, torn in separate, irreconcilable directions. Her choice was one he recognised, it was the choice his uncle had made all those years ago too. Tearing his soul in two.

When he had awoken after his grandfather's lightsabre had fragmented into pieces, he was dejected to see her gone, the ghost of her haunting every inch of the throne room. Kylo's anger and confusion had gotten the better of him after that, the battle with Luke and failure at Crait a rage induced haze until he'd seen his father's dice on cavern floor. At that moment, he'd felt that long buried pull of Ben Solo inside him. The pull of grief, loss and regret. The desperate pleas of his mother to come home just one last time. His past would never be killed no matter what he did. And in that moment Ben Solo had felt the unmistakable hum of their force bond bursting open, a bond he thought extinguished when Snoke had fallen. And yet, there she stood hesitating by the door of his father's ship, a look of yearning but also disappointment etched onto her face.

Kylo Ren had been struck dumb in her gaze, in awe of the power and light that radiated around her. He'd been a fool to think for one second her could destroy her. He worshiped her.

Before he'd had a chance to plead her to stay, to beg her for her forgiveness, Rey shut the door on him. Abjectly refusing to let him cloud her thoughts again. He'd felt the snap of the bond shattering as he sensed her force signature move rapidly away into the sky. Rey had made her choice, just as he had.

Even in this heartbreak there lingered an unanswered question that plagued his mind. In the throne room she'd had the chance to kill him while he lay unconscious. To fully end this war before it even really began, but had chosen to grant him his life. He had hoped her reasons were the same as his. That she would never be able to truly ever take the final swing and put an end to it all. Driven by an understanding that something greater was at play.

This was the reason Kylo Ren chased Rey across fire and ice, land and sea until the outer reaches of existence. He needed her in ways he did not fully understand and they were meant to stand together.

It seemed however, Rey was not as willing to cooperate with the will of the Force when it came to their connection as he was. Somehow, she'd found a way to block him out, whether it had been shutting herself off from the Force entirely or some new Jedi mind trick she'd learned by some miracle. Somehow, he guessed it was the second, her mark in the Force growing brighter by the day. Her strength so formidable he could not seem to find a way through. Rey defences built so deeply he could only watch from the outside in desperate isolation.

Kylo had only received flashes of her face since they had parted, like the flickering of a candle in the wind. Moments which at times took his breath away. Her bright smile at some unseen entity in the distance was the one which hit him hardest, he had never earned such a gift from her. The flashes he received became so brief he had come to accept he may never experience her presence again through the bond. Even the shortest of seconds, however, gave him comfort that their bond could not be broken. Her resistance was like trying to hold back the unrelenting tide on the shore, eventually the water would find a way through.

And when that day came, Kylo would be ready.