Battles were fought. Some were lost, some were won, both sides played their dance of war and power.
Rey grew stronger in her Force sensitivities. Not so much in her control of it. It was a slippery slope towards the dark side and she had no clue.
Her relationship with Poe waned long before it waxed again. It took him months to get over and accept her crying out their enemies name during their love making. The hit had been harder as it was one of the first times they had been together in that fashion. Eventually he decided to believe her after finally confessing to Finn his feelings and, bless him, in his eyes Rey could do no wrong and he believed her entirely.
By this time Leia also knew as well as everyone else that Rey had a connection to Kylo Ren that no one could explain. As much as there could still be a fibre left in the tyrant of her son she hoped it wasn't bad.
She knew it was.
There had been many discussions between Leia and Rey that Rey should always avoid him and try to close her mind when the Force connected her to Kylo. Rey promised she would, and for the most part, she did.
But it was so hard.
He wasn't Kylo Ren when he sat there so deeply saddened that he didn't cry. The pain and the torment in his soul ripped him so asunder that a human mind couldn't comprehend it in to an emotion. Through the force she could feel his misery and his pain. Yes, there was ambition and rage and plans. But they were so swamped in the black hole of his depression she always felt pulled in against her will.
It happened most when she tried to meditate. Every time she reached out to the Force or tried to calm it inside her there he was. Every time. Every. Damn. Time.
She knew every time she would open her eyes he would be standing there or sitting there quietly observing her. Reading her like a book while letting his emotions crescendo over her sinking control.
Rarely did he speak.
He didn't need to.
The blackness of his soul, if it could be imagined, was a black inky billowing thing. Blackness blotted out any flicker of light that tried to ignite. In comparison Rey's was bright, slightly tinged, and vibrant. It wavered and flickered like a feeble flame. When the energies connected slowly the light was being engulfed by the dark. Like the terror in the galaxy of a black hole sinking everything in to itself.
He fed off of it like a parasite. The light, it was so warm and delicious. Refreshing like a dash of cold water against a sweaty face. It was sweetened even more that he could watch her drowning in it and wanting, needing, to fight it off. But she was as an infant unable to swim. She gasped and swallowed even more every time.
"Rey."
He spoke her name quietly. But his voice was so deep she could feel the vibration of it through her core.
She stood up from her meditation pose and stalked up to him. Heavens, she was full of rage and hatred and turned it on him full force. Kylo licked his lips and inhaled deeply, exhilarated, this drug that could not be replicated.
"Why can't you go fuck off?" She seethed.
"We're at war." He replied flatly.
"Not now! Not while I'm meditating! Not while I am looking for peace! Your presence is too thick to breathe through…" She trailed off as he could see the light around her dim and sputter - yet the dark hadn't yet completely enveloped her.
"You find it hard to breathe in my presence?" His eyes squinted momentarily as he turned his head. The corner of his lip ticked.
The anger. Mmmm.
She was so mad she couldn't even form a sentence. He closed his eyes and inhaled again.
"STOP!" She screamed and punched him square in the stomach.
Though they were only connected through the force he could still feel it, just like she had blasted him. The pain was more than physical and it hurt him more than he cared to admit. He grunted and placed a gloved hand over the wound.
"Your rage is beautiful." Again his voice was so flat.
She gasped and stepped a few paces away from him. No…Is that what was happening? Was he still winning even though she left him on that ship nearly a year ago?
"I told you…I won't follow you in to the dark." She quivered and started to tremble.
"Girl, you don't have to follow me. I saw what happens and you stand with me. Every time the force connects us it brings us closer to that destiny."
"I saw something different." Her eyes welled up.
"Yes, you are strong in the force, but so very untrained. Whatever you think you saw wasn't the truth of the matter. Visions can only be interpreted by a master."
"You're not a master..."
"I'm a monster. Isn't it the same thing?" His eyebrow quirked.
...What you wanted to…
They both started in unison and looked around. This had been the first and only time they had heard someone outside of their force bubble since Luke's demise. Instinctively she knew it was a trick, but his guard had been shaken down, she could feel inside of him the startled reaction and slice of fear the same as she had.
He quickly composed himself and slowly looked towards her again as if nothing happened. That flat, dead, expressionless face.
"Who was that? He is even stronger in the light than Master Luke." Rey inquired.
"I don't acknowledge it. I have meditated and reached in to the force looking for my grandfather, but I have not found him, and this energy is wrong."
Rey got a queer look on to her face as her energy flashed out as she felt through the force. Momentarily the black was pushed back like a wounded tentacled thing and shrunk deep inside of him. Coiled around his heart. Her eyes closed and the delicious rage and frustration ran out of her like water being poured from a bucket. He scowled and forced his own energy back out towards her but it refused to listen.
Then a crackle of blue force lightning shot out of the air itself between them. The intensity of it and the suddenness made them both cry out and stagger backwards. Rey fell to the floor while Kylo bumped in to his bed and was forced in to a sitting position.
A man stood there between them ethereally. He was young with unruly curly hair much the same as Kylo Ren's. But everything about him was lighter…the eyes, the fullness of the lips, his hair was brown shot through with streaks of blond. The clothing he wore was that of the old Jedi order and his hood was resting against his back.
He turned first to Rey and bent down to offer his hand. Completely enamoured by the power of the light emanating from him she autonomously placed her hand in his. As soon as their hands connected she screamed out in what sounded like a mix of euphoria and extreme pain. Her body nearly disappeared through a blinding flash of white light.
Kylo screamed as well, "NO!" and made a mad dash towards the figure ready to strangle it's ghostly neck. The man's face materialized through the light and turned to Kylo and it stopped him face to face…He was even taller than Kylo by at least an inch or two.
The light dissipated ever so slowly and Rey was standing beside while slightly behind the man. No one said anything and Kylo seemed almost stuck in to place as the hazel eyes of the man bore deep inside of him like only Snoke's ever had.
Then it hit him.
Kylo Ren immediately fell to his knees in sublimation and nearly grovelled at the crackling feet.
"Don't go down the path I did for love, Ben. You've let fear and loss take control of you like I had." The man's voice sounded so youthful yet so eternal.
"I do everything to honor your great name, grandfather, your great vision for the galaxy. To bring peace and harmony." Kylo wept as he said these things and trembled like a berated child.
"But I was wrong. My son showed me how wrong I was. I was deaf to reason until he came back in to my life too late."
"Luke? I HATE HIM!" Kylo smashed both of his gloved fists in to the ground at his knees.
"I felt the same way about my master. Feeling as if I was always held back instead of seeing it for what it was."
"Please tell me…"
"Those that love you hold you back from destruction. No one being can be all powerful, all knowing, no one being can control the universe or bring peace to it."
"Luke murdered you!" Kylo Ren roared like only he could.
"Luke saved me. But by the time he had turned me back to the light my body could handle no more of that existence."
"No, this is a trick, this…this is wrong."
Suddenly the connection was gone. Rey and Kylo were left in their original surroundings alone. Kylo to curl up in to a pathetic ball on the ground and weep while Rey stood there full of electricity and decadently positive feelings vibrating through her every cell.