Once upon a time there was a handsome prince named Ben Solo who lived in a beautiful castle.

His mother was a beautiful princess with long brown hair twisted into elegant knots. His father was a handsome, rogue smuggler who found creative ways to supply the castle with lots of money. The princess and her rogue husband were often away. She was busy governing the land and he was busy running his business. During their absence, the prince would often throw elaborate parties.

One such evening, the prince was entertaining an elite collection of guests. There was music and dancing and the most decadent foods anyone had ever tasted.

There was a knock at the door, a very persistent knock.

The prince himself made his way through the crowd and slowly opened the door.

There stood a haggard man with grotesque features. He offered the prince a rose in exchange for shelter from the cold outside.

The prince was repulsed by the man's appearance. He tossed the rose out into the snow and ordered the man to leave at once.

The man smirked and shook his head, his smirk turned to a laugh, and he laughed until the sound bellowed through the castle. The shocked guests stood behind the prince as he watched in horror as the man's beggar clothes fell away to reveal a golden robe. The man stood to his full height and reached with his spindly hands toward the prince.

Before the crowd's eyes, the despicable man transformed their beloved prince into a monster. His face was covered in a black metal mask and his fine suit was replaced by a black robe with rough, ribbed sleeves and a wide, binding belt. His hands were concealed in leather gloves and a dark, hooded cloak fell onto his head and shoulders.

The man didn't stop there though, one by one, as guests fled from the house, he transformed each servant into a common household object.

The man left the rose that was once carelessly tossed into the snow in the prince's gloved hand. He told the prince, who had been so proud and vain, that unless he learned to have compassion and love and earn another's love in return by the time the last petal fell, he would forever be cursed and would forever be known as Kylo Ren.

oOo

Rey was a beautiful and uncommon girl. She lived not so very far from the castle but to the south, in a low valley. Her home was in the desert filled with broken weapons and vehicles of war. Forced to exist on meager food supplies bartered in exchange for salvaged parts, she grew strong and brave.

Rey lived with a friend named Poe Dameron. He always dreamed of being a star ship pilot. Really, he claimed that in his younger days he had been a pilot. He told fanciful tales of being a daring leader of a rebellion against the crown. The people of the village mostly just regarded him as harmless but odd. He spent his days practicing on a flight simulator Rey had salvaged from a crashed Star Destroyer.

Rey sped through the dessert on her orange speeder, loaded with the day's scrapped parts, toward Unkar Plutt's salvage tent. She sang a little tune to herself...

"There go the makers in the fray like always

The same old tread and tools to sell

Every morning just the same

Since the morning that we came...to this little desert town..."

"Good morning, Rey!" Somebody shouted to her. She waved back casually.

She heard a few other scrappers singing...

"Well, it's no wonder that her name means sunshine

Her smile has got no parallel

With a brave and far off look

Her bow staff and a book, what a puzzle to the rest of us is Rey..."

She chimed back in herself as she began scrubbing her finds...

"Ohhhhh, isn't this amazing" she said holding up a partially cleaned item, "it's my favorite part because..." but her voice trailed off as she saw a fair man striding toward her.

Rey recognized him instantly.

Hux.

His appearance was striking and difficult to miss. His fiery red hair blazed in the bright desert sun. His skin was white in spite of the sun's harsh rays. His cheek bones were sharp and angled on his thin face. As always, his tall, chrome-clad friend, Phasma, followed just behind him. Rey often heard him refer to her as "Captain" but she was never sure why.