Author's Note: I do not own Star Wars! This one-shot is similar to the beginning of my other story 'Your Silence Angers Me', but this is a different take on it.


Ever since she had met him, he had plagued her mind. Despite everything he had done to her, and she had done in return, her thoughts always returned to him.

Her solution was to meditate as Master Luke had showed her. To simply meditate the thoughts of him away would relieve her turmoil for a few hours, a day at a push. But they always returned. They were never far away.

That is how she found herself sitting at the edge of a cliff, the sea crashing in to the rocks below. As she crossed her legs beneath her, she began the meditation, drowning out the sounds of the other rebels on the beach. They had found refuge on a jungle planet, with a large mountain at its centre.

It had been several months since the battle of Crait, and the rebels had still managed to evade the First Order, staying on any uninhabited planet they could find. It remained in their best interests to keep their supplies as full as they could, especially since the First Order could find them at any possible moment.

They had faith in Rey to warn them if such a thing should occur. She had not told them about her force bond with the Supreme Leader, but when the First Order was close, she could feel him. It would just be a slight tingle in her fingertips, the very ones she had touched to his on Ahch-To, causing her to tighten her hand in to a fist, as though a reflex. She would warn the rebels and they would evacuate whatever planet they had been on, her fist only relaxing once the tingle was gone. They had presumed that it was due to her understanding of the force, but they didn't need to know the more intimate details.

The connections were the more difficult to face. In the first one, a week after she had closed the door on him, he had stepped towards her, only for her to step backwards and shake her head. She had bumped in to Poe, and he had placed his hands on her shoulders, asking her something, with a smile on his face, but Rey couldn't focus, all she could feel was him, the Supreme Leader. She simply excused herself, and went to meditate. Therefore, during every connection, she meditated. Meditated all thoughts and feelings of his presence away, until eventually he stopped trying to speak to her, trying to coax her out of her avoidance of him. He would look at her, and if she were to look back, she would see the regret and the loneliness in his glassy eyes. But she never did.

However, during this particular meditation, she was doing it just to rid her mind of any trace of him. She found it amusingly ironic that the force chose that very moment to connect them. She felt his presence, as she was focused to ignore it.

"Rey."

Despite her deep meditation, his voice still managed to get through, causing her focus to waver.

"Rey," he repeated, sternly.

Letting out a sigh, Rey continued to meditate but much more shallowly, so that she could hear whatever was to come next.

"I know you're listening."

Releasing another sigh, Rey opened her eyes only to roll them, and return to her meditation.

"I know you're upset with me," he continued. "For the things I said, the things I did, what I asked you to do."

"Clearly," was her only response. Truth be told, she was upset. He had wanted her to choose him or her friends, the friends that became the only family she had ever known. If she had chose him, it would be at the cost of the lives of all the other people she had cared for, the only people who had ever returned that care and concern for her. She could not do that to them. She could never do that to them.

"You said I was nothing," was all she could say, following his silence at her blunt reply.

"But not to me," he repeated, his voice cracking slightly. She could feel his regret and sorrow through their bond, bringing tears to her own eyes.

In an abrubt moment, she rose from her meditation, lightsaber drawn.

"Then what am I to you?!" She yelled.

In a reaction of complete vulnerability, he took a step back, away from her aggressive stance.

"Rey, please-"

"No!" She yelled again, her subconscious praying that the rebels on the beach couldn't hear her, for they would only see her yelling at the breeze. "You wanted me to kill my friends, kill the only people who have ever been family to me!"

"I thought that I would be enough for you," he replied, calming, his jaw clenched.

"You would be!" She shouted in reply, tears streaming down her face. "But not like that, not at the expense of their lives."

"Rey..."

"I'm done talking."

With that final statement, Rey attempted to hit him with her lightsaber, but he still managed to grab her wrist, the buzz of the lightsaber close to his face.

"I can feel your anger through our bond," He whispered.

With her scavenging history, she had been able to piece it back together, adding a few alterations of her own. His lightsaber had crossguards, due to small cracks in his crystal, but the crystal from Luke's lightsaber had been cracked in half. Due to careful positioning, Rey had made it work.

"You'll feel it much more in a minute," she snarled back, before activating the other end of her lightsaber. Due to the crack in the crystal, she had fashioned a double ended lightsaber, her wielding of the weapon being much more comfortable, due to her years of practice with her staff on Jakku.

Seeing his eyes widen at the lightsaber, she took the opportunity to push him backwards, causing him to stumble but catch himself before he fell.

In the split second that he remained in shock, his eyes drifting from the weapon to her, she could feel his understanding through the bond. He knew she needed this, needed to let her anger out.

Activating his own lightsaber, they only stared at each other intensely for a second, before the duel began.

To the rebels on the beach, it would appear that she was having a very enthusiastic sparring practice.

As they fought, multiple colours blurred in front of her eyes.

Blue.

Red.

She could have even swore she even saw magenta, as their lightsabers struck each others.

Blue.

Red.

Grey.

Grey?

As soon as Rey froze, he froze too. They were close enough, that his brown eyes captured the majority of her central vision.

"Rey?" He asked in confusion.

That's when she felt it, the trembling of the ground beneath her feet. He wouldn't have been able to feel it, for he wasn't actually here.

As the clouded focus in her mind faded away, she heard the shouts and screams of the others. Stepping back, she turned swiftly to find the origination of the distress. Seeing the other rebels evacuating to their ships, Rey's confusion over took her, until she heard the explosion.

Turning her attention to the island, Rey's confusion soon transformed in to dread.

It wasn't a mountain, she thought. It's a volcano.

During their duel, their anger and power had caused the volcano to erupt. Now lava swept down its sides, and molten rock fell from the sky.

At the strength of the emotions she was emitting through their bond, Kylo began to panic.

"Rey?" He asked, his concern seeping through.

Grasping her shoulders, he turned her towards him, as her gaze continued to flit around her.

"Rey, what's going on?!"

At his shout, she met his eyes, during their duel they had ended up at the treeline of the jungle.

"The volcano has erupted."

"Volcano?" He questioned. "What planet are you..."

At his realisation of what planet she was on, he could see the pleading in her eyes.

"You need to evacuate."

Letting out a sigh of relief at his response, Rey nodded before looking back towards the beach.

All of the ships were off the ground now, heading for the planet's atmosphere. The island they were on was the only land mass on the planet, and the volcano's eruption would destroy all of the viable supplies. They had nothing to stay here for anymore.

Trees began to fall over in the distance at the strength of the lava coursing through the jungle, as mroe molten rock began falling from the sky. She could hear him distantly calling her name, shouting it, as she began to panic.

As her eyes locked on to his again, he saw the mix of fiery orange and black in the reflection of her eyes.

"You need to go," He spoke sternly again, tears beginning to falling from his eyes at the fear that he could lose her. "Please, Rey."

The ground began to tremble again, much more violent, causing Rey to fall in to Kylo's chest.

"Rey," He whispered, as he tighten his hold around her. "You must go."

At the sound of a ship, Rey turned her eyes towards the cliff edge.

"The Falcon!"

Finn was standing by the opened door of the ship, beckoning Rey to join them urgently.

"Go."

The pleading in his eyes, caused her to forget her surroundings, if only for a moment.

"Thank you," she whispered, her eyes flickering between his intense gaze and his lips, focusing on the latter a second too long.

Catching herself, Rey licked her lips, as she looked at the trembling ground beneath her. As she heard Finn's urgent calls once again and the jungle falling at the lava's strength, much closer than she had liked, Rey came back to herself and the situation she found herself in.

As she placed a tender kiss to his cheek, precisely on the scar she had inflicted upon him, he took in a sharp breath, tears beginning to fall once again. The salty taste of his tears remained on her lips, as she pulled away. With a nod, she ran.

He watched her run away, running from the volcano's inflictions, before he began running with her.

As they ran beside each other, they shared a look, an intimate look of understanding. A look like the one they had shared in the elevator on Starkiller Base.

"I need to tell you something!" She shouted, as the cliff edge must be close for he could feel her anxiety.

"What?!" He shouted in return.

"I love you!" She shouted in reply, as she jumped from the cliff edge and in to the open door of the Falcon.

As he stumbled to bring himself to a halt at the edge where she had jumped, he couldn't help but think how beautiful she was, as she bravely jumped. He saw her land in to the safety, of what he could only presume to be the Falcon, before the door shut, ending the connection.

Letting out a sigh of relief at her safety, his vision returned to focus on the surrounding room, the Supreme Leader's throne room, as he breathed heavily to get his breath back. Thank the force that he was alone in the room, during the connection, the guards stationed outside the entrance door.

He throught of the words she had said.

I love you.

It caused him to smile, a true smile filled with happiness, something he had not had the pleasure of emitting in over a decade, perhaps longer, ever since his drift in to darkness. The thought brought tears to his eyes, a few falling down his cheeks.

I love you.

"I know," He whispered to himself.

He never was good with words, not after all of the hurt and betrayal he felt in his life, but he would tell her one day.

I love you too.


Thank you for reading! Please review.