As she was wont to do Rey paused in her morning jog to drink from the fresh spring that gurgled from one of the rocky crevasses of the island. The stream was cool and wonderfully refreshing, and she wiped her mouth and gazed out over the vista of the sea, feeling the peace of this place nestle deeply in her bones. She hoped Ben felt it too.

A presence resolved itself behind her, drawing form from the energy of the life around them. She frowned and took another drink.

"Not even a hello?" Luke asked sarcastically.

"I know why you're here," she said shortly, filling her water bottle. "You're wrong." She stuffed the bottle in her pack and set off on her jog again.

"Hey!" Luke shouted irritably after her. "I was a Jedi master you know!" Rey jogged to a rope bridge that crossed a deep ravine on the island. Luke's ghostly form was waiting for her, leaning on one of the bridge posts.

"I used to think I was omniscient too, you know," he pointed out acerbically. "Then I grew up."

"You gave up on Ben years ago," Rey told him defiantly, jogging past him. "I won't make the same mistake." She made her way up to the island's peak and was unsurprised to find Luke waiting for her at the rock she usually sat on for a few minutes to catch her breath. Luke wiped his forehead with a handkerchief in exaggerated exhaustion.

"Phew!" he exclaimed. Rey threw herself on the rock beside him and took a swig from her water bottle.

"You know, sometimes I understand why he tried to kill you," she said irritably.

Luke became serious. "Please," he appealed quietly. "I can't watch him destroy you like the rest of my students." Rey took another drink and said nothing, but she didn't walk away again. "Can't you see what he's doing? Deceit and manipulation are the Dark Side's way."

"I know there's that side to him," she admitted honestly. "But it isn't the only side. He has a choice. And so do I. I choose to trust him. It's the only way to bring him back."

"The Jedi Order was known for their trust too, Rey. They responded to violence with understanding and compassion. And they all died. All of them." Rey stood and looked down at him calmly.

"You see only the past," she countered quietly. "But I see his future and a different path is possible. For both of us." Luke started to argue again but Rey was done with the conversation. "Maybe you don't know as much as you think you do." She turned away and continued with her run.

Luke watched her go angrily. Why did no one else see the danger? The fate of the whole galaxy hung in the balance and Yoda was prepared to trust in this little girl's crush! Luke's face hardened. He was going to have to take matters into his own hands. He had failed to destroy Kylo Ren during his lifetime, but death had given him a second opportunity.

The sun was warm on Kylo Ren's face as he threaded through the crevasses of the island looking for Rey. They had lived together in this ancient temple for more than a week, and on each morning she had started the day with a jog around the island. Today, she was late back.

When he had reached out to check she was alright he had sensed she was angry about something and was regaining her focus through some kind of practice. He had set off to find her, curious to know how she honed her skills. Cresting the hill he found her deep in concentration as she practiced moves with her staff. For a moment he closed his eyes and just felt the Force moving with her. It leant power to her blows, resilience to her blocks. She was as much a part of this island as the twisting wind and the solid bedrock.

Kylo Ren sat down heavily. The power that the Dark Side gave him came from the burst of fury and hate that usually underlay his attacks. It was nothing like this. His fury was not endless, but the balance that Rey could tap into was. Perhaps that was why she had beaten him when they had crossed blades in the past.

Rey finished swinging her staff around and wiped her brow, noticing him for the first time.

"Come to pick up some tips?" she teased. "That's cheating you know." Kylo Ren rose, smiling to hide his thoughts.

"Maybe." He held out a hand and summoned a staff from the village. "Would you indulge me?" The staff flew into his hand and he pointed it at her, the wind sweeping over the grass between them.

Rey looked doubtful so he baited her a little.

"Perhaps you can land a blow or two to avenge the Jedi I've killed?" Her expression hardened and her stance lowered. They paced in a circle, watching one another closely.

Kylo Ren expected she wouldn't attack first. Her naïve wish for harmony would hold her back. That was his first mistake. He had barely any time to react as Rey suddenly leapt across the space between them with a yell, her staff cleaving the air. She landed a glancing blow on his head and he stumbled backwards, dazed.

Rey stepped a few paces back and leaned on her staff, lips pursed in a satisfied smile. She had the feeling that somewhere a bunch of ghostly Jedi were punching the air.

Kylo Ren shook himself and gathered his strength, his anger rising in a tide of darkness. With a roar he leapt forward, whipping his staff at her head. They fought then in earnest. The Dark Side stormed through his every blow, while the Light leant strength to every block and parry of Rey's. On and on, evenly matched, matching blow to blow, until finally they broke apart and both retreated a few steps to catch their breath.

"You would be even stronger…" Kylo Ren managed, breathing heavily. "With the Dark Side." Rey cast him an angry look.

"How can you say that?" she demanded, unconsciously dropping her guard. Kylo Ren surged forward and swept her feet from under her. The tip of his staff pressed against her throat.

"That's why you will lose," he prophesied grimly. "No strategy." Rey burst forward in a fury, throwing his staff aside and whacking him with her own. Kylo Ren sprawled back on the grass and looked up at her in shock.

"That's why you will lose," she returned hotly. "I'm just stronger than you." She threw her staff down in disgust and walked away from him. If he had wanted, Kylo Ren could have attacked then, could probably have killed her. But instead he pulled himself to his feet and set his own staff aside before going to join her.

She was sitting cross legged on the grass, the sea spread before her and her eyes closed as she meditated to replenish her spent energy. Kylo Ren threw himself on the grass beside her and thought back over their fight, trying to work out how he could have beaten her.

"Do you know why I'm stronger?" Rey asked quietly, sensing his thoughts. "When you fight me, you're also fighting yourself."

"Maybe." But his train of thought then took him down a path Ray hadn't anticipated. "But once you are turned and the Resistance is destroyed there'll be no more conflict. I will reach the greatness I was born to reach, and fulfil my destiny."

Kylo Ren burst into the hut that evening in an icy blast of rain and wind.

"That storm's as fierce as a rancor in heat," he complained to Rey, pulling off his dripping cowl and hanging it by the door. Rey handed him a raggedy blanket to dry his hair but said nothing, and Kylo Ren sent out a questioning tendril of the Force, scowling as he sensed Luke in her thoughts. "Whatever he said about me is probably true you know," he observed darkly. Rey dumped a spoon in the pot of stew and stirred it angrily.

"I know you far better than he ever did." Kylo Ren smiled a little at her anger. He poured some tea from the pot into two cups and handed her one, enjoying the flush that passed through both of them when their fingers touched. "He said I shouldn't trust you," Rey sighed. "He thinks I can't see you clearly."

"He's right. You shouldn't trust me. And you don't see me clearly."

"Have you kept your promise?" Rey asked suddenly. "One month's reprieve for the Resistance while we're here."

"I have kept my promise. You would feel it if they died." But he couldn't quite meet her eye, and she sensed that he was hiding something. She sent out a questioning probe with the Force and he blocked her solidly. For a moment their eyes met, both tensing for the explosive fight that must come.

But then, astonishingly, Rey drew back.

"I will choose to trust you," she said quietly.

"How can you be so foolish?" he demanded angrily. Would she let him destroy her without even a proper fight?

"Why are you all so sure that I'm the foolish one?" she snapped, glaring defiantly back at him. "You live in conflict with your deepest feelings every day. You tell me to kill the past but you let yourself be defined by it. If it were up to you and Luke then history would just repeat itself over and over. Neither of you are willing to see there is another path!"

She rose to her feet, angry with herself for the tears that were threatening, and stormed towards the door.

"Rey!" he stood up quickly and blocked her way. "There's a storm out there."

"Who am I kidding?" She sat down heavily and dropped her head into her hands. "You've chosen your path. You've killed so many people. You killed Han!" She rubbed her eyes angrily.

Kylo Ren came and sat next to her.

"There is peace to be found in the Dark, with me," he suggested quietly. "You are in conflict too, I feel it." Finally, she met his eye, and for a moment he felt her acknowledge the searing energy that drew them together. He opened his mind a little, let her see the deep longing she drew from him, let her realise how much he wanted to draw her into his arms and feel her strength merge with his.

"Wow…" she breathed, and he felt her embrace that knowledge, tip head first into it. She longed so much for closeness, for belonging, for family, and she knew he could give her everything she craved. Kylo Ren let her fall into his mind, deeper and deeper. She was turning! She had to be!

Rey's expression hardened and she pulled away from him. For a moment she just gave him a deeply cold look.

"I guess Luke was right," she said finally.

"No," Kylo Ren insisted. "You know what you mean to me."

"So this is your strategy," she realised, bitterly. Kylo Ren didn't see any point denying it, but he felt she was purposefully dodging the deeper truth.

"There is nothing contrived about the way I feel," he insisted. "We are two sides of the same coin, we were born to rule together. You have no idea of the power we could wield."

"And you have no idea how completely uninterested I am in that!" Rey yelled at him.

"No," he shook his head, smiling slightly. "I know you better than that. There's a part of you that wants power. You want to feel safe, you want to see how strong you can become. And we would rule well, Rey. You could rebuild the galaxy in your own image."

"You just have no idea," she sighed, shaking her head. "How can you not understand?" She looked him in the eye. "I am never going to turn to the Dark Side, Ben. I'm never going to help the First Order rule the galaxy. I'm never going to command an army that terrorises and destroys wherever it goes. How can you not understand that?"

Kylo Ren sighed heavily. She wasn't the only one who was beginning to think things were hopeless. He needed a new strategy, he realised. He needed to make her angry. Really angry. She would turn, he was sure of it, if only she would channel the fury he sensed inside her. He began to work out a strategy to unleash that supressed rage.

Kylo Ren shook the cool water from his face and towelled his hair dry as he watched Rey jog away over the brow of the hill.

"Do you ever actually wear that shirt?" Luke's voice sneered behind him. Kylo Ren sighed inwardly and pulled it on. "So, those secret Sith texts you told Rey about," Luke drawled. "Did you read them before or after you chose your look? Because I have to tell you, black on black has been done a lot, and I mean a lot."

"Is there a reason you're here?" Kylo Ren asked irritably, setting off up the hill. Rey had taken her staff with her and he wanted to watch her practice to see if he could determine any weaknesses in her technique.

"How many books are we talking?" Luke persisted, following him doggedly.

"Just when I didn't think you could be any more annoying," Kylo Ren snapped, "you died."

"I just have more time to devote to it now," Luke said brightly. "I don't need to sleep, or breathe." Kylo Ren stalked away.

"Can you loan me those books?" Luke shouted after him. "I've got some time on my hands."

Kylo Ren had the feeling Luke rather liked being dead. It held limited responsibilities and gave him ample opportunity to be condescending and sarcastic. Once he'd left Luke behind, Kylo Ren slowed his steps up the hill. He didn't want to arrive before Rey had finished her run and started her fighting practice. His thoughts turned to Luke's words.

Secret Jedi texts. Rey had mentioned them a while ago, but he'd seen nothing on the island like that. Perhaps they were hidden from him?

He cast his mind out, searching not for the darkness as he usually did, but for a concentration of the light. There was Rey, bright in his mind's eye. And shifting pulses that marked the phantom Jedi drifting in and out of this place.

Oddly, it looked like some of the Force ghosts were concentrated in a particular area. He focussed on it. It was on the far side of the island, well away from the stone huts. Kylo Ren set off eagerly, feeling his way towards the concentration of energy.

The trail took him to a cavern right on the coast. It looked like it had been formed naturally, he thought, but right in the centre hung a pile of… books! Kylo Ren raced forward eagerly. All the power of the Jedi! He would learn their secrets! No one would be able to stand against him!

He raced across the rock floor, but his hand passed straight through the books just as his feet passed straight through the illusory floor beneath them. Down he tumbled, into the darkness. Rock walls scraped past. He flung out an arm to slow his fall with the Force, and landed in complete darkness on a cold, gritty rock floor.

He stumbled to his feet, gazing blindly into the pitch darkness all around. He could hear whisperings, catcalls, threats right on the edge of hearing. Just as he tried to scan his surroundings with the Force a burst of freezing sea water slammed into him from the darkness, throwing him against a wall. Dazed and soaking, Kylo Ren floundered blindly, his hands scrabbling for purchase on the rock wall until he manged to regain his footing. He could feel the freezing water subsiding around his knees, but the sound of pounding waves was there still, echoing through the darkness.

"Did you think we would let you murder another one of us?" a shrill voice called suddenly from next to his ear. Kylo Ren flung a blast out with the Force, intending to hurl the speaker backwards, but his power hit straight into a solid rock wall that he hadn't known was there. It rebounded and threw him painfully into another rock face. He crumpled to the ground, groaning, just as another wave blasted through the darkness, whacking into him and crushing him against the unseen rock wall. Coughing and choking, Kylo Ren managed to drag himself back to his feet using the wall. He tried to orientate himself in the darkness, to work out where the waves were coming from, where the walls were, but before he could concentrate enough to use the Force another voice screeched suddenly in his ear:

"You are no match for all of us!" Kylo Ren whirled around and flung out a hand to hurl away the speaker, but again his power hit a solid wall. He smacked back painfully into a rock face, falling heavily to the ground just as another wave crashed in on him. This time he struggled to come up again. His limbs didn't seem to be working properly. His head rang. Dazed and soaking and blind, he had no idea which way was up or down. The freezing water spun him around, banging him into unseen walls until it subsided. Sopping wet and head ringing, he spluttered weakly on the rock floor.

He was going to die, he realised. His great destiny was gone. Luke and all his little sycophantic pawns would be his undoing.

No. His grip tightened on the gritty rock floor. He was Kylo Ren! He was not going to be killed by these insignificant fools. How dare they even try! His anger leant him strength and he gathered his wits. They were using his power against him, he realised suddenly. They had none of their own, only their own stupid voices and projections. Well he knew how to deal with that. He would ignore their wretched taunts and find his own way out of this place. And then they would pay. Oh, how they would pay.

He stood up full of burning anger, the power of the dark pulsing through him. He raised a hand to scan with the Force and another wave roared straight into him, smacking him against an unseen rock wall. His head burst with stars and his thoughts blurred. He was coughing and spluttering, floundering in the freezing water. The wave took much longer to subside this time. He had barely time to cough up the water he'd swallowed before another unseen wave smacked into him, slamming him against wall after wall in a pitch black whirlpool. He had to go upwards, he thought desperately. He had to get out of the path of the waves. But that was okay, he thought suddenly. The entrance was up there!

Sodden and groaning with pain he managed to pull himself partly out of the water by scrambling blindly up a rocky wall. Gazing upwards, he spied with triumph a distant circle of light. The entrance he had fallen through! Kylo Ren gathered his powers. He would show them! He would get out of here and destroy them all, all over again.

The darkness around him thundered suddenly with an approaching wave and he gathered his strength, channelling his anger to give an almighty push, a leap with the Force that would send him soaring back up through the hole he had fallen down. He took a deep breath and leapt from the floor with the Force, barrelling upwards towards the distant light - straight into a rock ceiling.

Consciousness filtered back in painful, confused waves. He groggily realised he was being whirled around, his limbs and head smacking into things. It was cold, he thought. He couldn't move. He was drowning. He was drowning but couldn't lift a finger to save himself.

So, he thought dully, after all that effort everyone had been right all along. He was useless. Just as his father and Snoke had always said.

A blast of light made him blink stupidly. There was movement above him, noises and colours. He was being dragged out of the water. It was painful. He tried to say something but he was coughing, coughing. It was suddenly bright all around. And he was clasped close against someone warm and dry. A flow of energy ebbed into him, warming and healing him, and he came to his senses gradually to find he was clutching Rey tightly, his sodden clothes dripping into the grass as the wind swept over them.

"Are you okay?" Rey examined his head to check her healing had worked. Her fingers in his hair felt wonderful, like she was a protector of infinite strength and gentleness. "I'll kill Luke!"

"You should have let him kill me," he managed. "You should have let him kill me, Rey."

Rey shook her head angrily.

"When are you going to understand?" she demanded. And then she was kissing him. He sank under her kiss, lost himself. She was everything to him. She held all the power, all of it.

Back in the hut Rey hung his wet clothes beside the fire and tried not to look at him with only a towel on.

"The tea'll be ready in a few minutes," she said brightly, busying herself by the fire. "You need to warm up."

"Rey." Kylo Ren caught her wrist and drew her next to him. He looked her in the eye. "Please. Run. Everything he said about me is true." Rey shook her head stoutly and Kylo Ren gritted his teeth in pain. Why couldn't she see what was blatantly obvious? "I'll destroy you!" he shouted. "If I can't turn you then that's the only way this will end!"

"You think so?" she asked coolly. "You didn't do too well the last time you tried."

"Take the shuttle and go. It might be years until I find you. There are plenty of remote planets where the First Order has little power. I promise not to look for you too hard."

He smiled wanly, and Rey took his head in both her hands and leaned her forehead against his.

"Can't you see that you belong with me?" she urged gently. "Not in darkness, but in light." Kylo Ren's whole face screwed up in searing pain as he felt his soul almost split in two. Everything light inside him yearned desperately for her. And much of the dark too, but for the wrong reasons.

"I can't walk that path with you," he managed, forcing out the words through gritted teeth.

"You can." She leaned forward and kissed him again, kissed him long and deep, and for a moment he let himself go, drowned in her as he wanted to so desperately.

But then he pulled himself back.

"You're doing the same thing I did," he muttered bitterly.

"I'm really not," she sighed. She took his hand and held it between her own. "Take a look," she offered. Kylo Ren blinked, not believing her. But when he cautiously probed her mind he felt no barriers. She let him in.

And his breath caught in his throat at the well of raw emotion he tipped into. Overwhelmed, he would have collapsed if not for her hands holding him up.

"You love me," he murmured, utterly floored. "Why?" He stared at her.

"It's okay Ben," she sighed. "I know you love me too." And she kissed him again.

Kylo Ren woke with a jolt, and for a moment froze as he tried to locate the threat that had disturbed him. But then Rey murmured in her sleep again and he turned over and drew her close. She had fallen asleep close against him after their kisses last night. Even through her layers of clothes he could feel her heart beating, feel her warmth, her life.

Rey murmured again and shifted uneasily. He knew she didn't want him to trespass on her dreams so he just held her close.

"You're not alone anymore, Rey," he whispered in her ear, hoping it would penetrate to her dream.

"Neither are you," a cold voice sneered in his mind. A shot of fear raced down Kylo Ren's spine.

A few moments later he was out in the night, wrapping his cowl tightly against the cold. The presence was easy to locate, so darkly did it taint the ancient peace of the island.

"So weak…" Snoke sneered, his ghostly form seated in a ghostly throne above a high cliff. Kylo Ren absorbed the insult in silence, but it burned. Snoke had always known how to wound him. "Everything you might have become, you will let this nobody take it from you. You were always such a disappointment. I'm only glad I didn't live to see your mediocrity reach its final pitiful conclusion." Kylo Ren's rage crested.

"I am more powerful than any Sith who ever lived!" he yelled, not believing it for a second. "I killed you!"

"Yes. Your one moment of blind luck. And then you turned your back on everything that is yours by right," Snoke sneered. "You could have ruled the galaxy. Instead you'll end as the whipping boy of some mongrel scavenger." Kylo Ren burned with anger.

"Don't call her that!" he spat.

"Why not? It's true." Snoke faded. "Why did I ever waste my time on such a useless, spoiled, mummy's boy."

Rey woke from her usual nightmare and realised Kylo Ren wasn't lying beside her. She sat up, frowning as she searched for him with the Force.

Her footsteps were loud in the dark cavern, waking Kylo Ren from his reverie as he stared into the stone mirror.

"Ben?" She reached for his hand. His fingers twitched at her touch but he didn't move.

"I thought it was worth reminding both of us who I am," he said tightly.

"I know who you are." Kylo Ren shook his head slowly, steeling himself for what must come.

"You're not enough, Rey. To turn me. Us. It's not enough." Rey dropped his hand and stepped back. Something in her reaction got through to him and he blinked. A wash of conflict spilled across his face. "I'm sorry."

Rey took a deep breath.

"It's okay," she said softly. "I never thought it would be. And for the record." She smiled thinly. "You aren't enough either. I'll never join you if it means joining the Dark Side."

Silence stretched between them. Just a couple of paces separated them, but it seemed now a wider gulf than ever before.

"So that's it," he said dully. "We fight."

"What? No." Rey frowned. "We still have two weeks of the truce left. I'm not giving up on you yet."

"Rey…" he sighed.

"I didn't mean that. Even if I can't turn you with my amazing good looks," she grinned, "I know you can turn yourself. It's them." She pointed to the mirror. "They're the key, aren't they?"

Kylo Ren sighed in exasperation.

"Don't you ever give up?"

"You know the answer to that!" She grinned, and Kylo Ren smiled unwillingly back.

"For the record," he said dryly, echoing her earlier words. "I can see your path to the Dark too. All you need to do is channel all that anger you have."

"I'm not angry," Rey protested. Kylo Ren broke out into a bitter peal of laughter. Once he had started he couldn't stop. Painful mirth forced its way out of him, breaking the rigid tension he'd been under since Snoke's visit.

"If you're quite done?" Rey growled after a while.

"Sorry." He wiped his eyes. "It's just that you hide it quite well, but you're just one of the angriest people I know."

"You can't know many people," Rey grumped as they walked out of the cavern into the bright morning sunlight. "I mean, you're not exactly mister sociable."

"I'll have you know I have loads of… minions," he teased, as they walked down the hill towards breakfast.

Rey smiled at him, and Kylo Ren felt the heat underlying that look. The energy still pulsed inside them, snapped between them, drew them inexorably together. It was madness to give in to it unless they were on the same side. Madness. And yet… Kylo Ren honestly didn't think he could resist it for much longer. And he didn't think Rey could either.

[End of part two, to be continued in part three!]

[Comments welcome]