A/N: Wow, thank you for all the positive feedback so far! 3

Lay your head down child, I won't let the boogeyman come

The quarters to which Kylo Ren was escorted were likely some of the finest in the base, though he didn't much care. What he did care about was the expanse of most of the base between them and the Supreme Leader – was that fool Hux also kept at a distance? He reasoned that he didn't know where Snoke was when he wasn't in the audience chamber, and maybe that was closer to his present location.

In any case, the Stormtrooper who had led him here was relieved to go, and he was as relieved to be left alone. After inspecting the space briefly, he settled himself on the floor of the main room and closed his eyes. Meditating had been an important aspect of his training on both sides of the Force, and he always found it helpful. It was just unfortunate that finding the time to do so was a challenge in the field.

But here was safe, and no one would be interrupting him to report problems. No one would tell him that his simple orders couldn't be followed, or that there was a new complication in the form of an extremely Force-sensitive girl. He shook his head to dispel that line of thought and focused instead on the Force itself. Snoke would help him, guide him, on how he should have handled the girl later. Right now he needed to prepare himself for the training process. His current state of frayed emotions and lack of direction were not conducive to learning. And he had a lot to learn to keep from letting down his leader again. Snoke could encourage the skills he would need the next time he faced something as unpredictable as the girl had been.

So he kept his eyes closed and let everything slip away.

Some unknown length of time later, he came back into himself, a feeling of calm filling his mind. It had been a long time since he'd been in his leader's presence, and he'd forgotten how it always made him feel less conflicted. Getting to his feet, he headed for the bedroom, grateful that he might actually get some sleep for the first time since – well, since things hadn't worked out the way he wanted them to. Since he started seeing a familiar face near his whenever he closed his eyes.

He was awoken abruptly, drenched in sweat, the faces of those he'd killed still clouding his vision. With a hiss, he surged to his feet to pace, running his hand through his hair in agitation, an attempt to drive the faces away. What would the Supreme Leader say? He'd remind him that they were at war, and casualties were a necessary part of any crusade. Kylo was just doing what needed to be done to make the galaxy a better place. He shouldn't allow himself to be so haunted by it. Everyone would come to understand, in time, the good work they were doing.

Only somewhat calmed by the imagined reassurances, he forced himself to sit on the floor again and close his eyes. To let go of everything. To forget who he used to be and the weakness he used to have. His eyes had been opened and he couldn't go back. Whatever was left of Ben could not be allowed to trouble him anymore.

He did not manage to let go to the point of time passing unnoticed, but was able to steady his jangled nerves. The nightmares had always been a greater problem when he had been idle, so he would have to leave his rooms and keep himself occupied. Though he had thought the tension of the last few days would have kept his mind busy enough to avoid tormenting him at night, but he wasn't going to dwell on it.

Instead, he got up and dressed in light-weight clothes before heading toward the training rooms. The facility was only somewhat familiar to him, but he found what he was looking for without getting lost. Not that he ever got lost – one of the perks of Force-sensitivity. Another was being able to move across the base without being noticed and find a place to train that was empty. He didn't like the thought of any of the Stormtroopers or officers seeing him without his customary clothes. And not having his helmet was already troubling enough – several people had seen him without that. He probably needed a new one soon, ostensibly because it might save his life in battle, but really because he didn't like to see his own face, let alone have others do so.

Pushing those worries away, he got to work. It had been a long time since he'd been trained, and many things were rusty. It was a necessary skill to be able to use pain and exhaustion to feed his powers. The Light Side taught self-healing, but the Dark Side taught its students to focus on the animalistic instincts that kicked in when pain was extreme and use it to defeat their opponents. Greater injury would, conversely, often be the mark of the victor. The fact that this was not the case in his most recent battle was just indicative of his own inabilities to properly channel agony into power.

So he used the equipment available and worked his muscles until they screamed. Until the scars on his chest felt as though they might rip open. Until the pain was to the point that he couldn't stand anymore. Dropping heavily to his knees, he closed his eyes and pressed on the alarm bells going off in his head until all of it narrowed into a single point. Then he stood up. With a wave of his hand, every piece of equipment scraped across the hard floor and crashed into the wall, sparks flying. The anger filling him was hard to tamp down, to keep from causing more destruction, but he managed. His temper could be more of a weakness than a strength if he let it make him act rashly.

Taking a deep breath, he controlled his rage enough to move all the equipment back more or less where it came from with significantly less violence. Before he could consider what to do next, there was a knock at the door. His brow furrowed at the interruption, and staying in control was a challenge, but he waved a hand to open the portal.

"Sir, Supreme Leader Snoke requests an audience," a nervous Stormtrooper stated, carefully keeping his gaze straight ahead and ignoring both the state of the room and its occupant.

"Fine," Kylo Ren replied, and waved his hand again to shut the door abruptly.

He surveyed the room briefly before leaving, the coldness of fear replacing the rage. Moving unobserved back his rooms was again not a challenge, and he spared only a small part of his mind for that task. Mostly he considered what the meeting might entail. Though he was expecting to be further trained by their leader, he did not expect another interview so soon. If anything, he'd assumed Snoke would come to him when he had the time. Not summon him.

Which is why he was going back to get cleaned up and change into what he thought of as a uniform. It wasn't like the other officers', of course, but he understood better than most the importance of proper attire. The Stormtrooper who'd delivered the message had been nervous and uncomfortable because he'd seen his superior in the midst of a moment more private than was preferable, not because he was afraid. And that was a problem.

Once he'd dressed, pulled on boots and gloves and hood, he felt much better about walking down to the audience chamber. He allowed himself to be seen this time, though he had some trepidation given his bare face. But the new scar he was sporting almost made up for the lack of a mask. The cauterization of lightsaber wounds gave immediate scars, so any passerby would not necessarily assume it was new. They might think it was why he'd covered his face in the first place. But he pushed the thought aside – it didn't matter what they thought of him. What did matter was what Snoke might ask of him. That was worthy of his focus.

Just outside the chamber, he paused to take a deep breath, then went in.

Han Solo's face was bathed in red light and staring at her intently, beseechingly. Her hands were on something – a lightsaber. With horror, she felt herself ignite the blade and recoiled.

Now she was sitting in front of a fire. It was strangely familiar. Her hand reached out to touch the droid – R2! – next to her. Her hand was robotic and she marveled at how real it felt. But her gaze turned toward the ashen ruins straight ahead, which she somehow knew had been a temple. Everything was destroyed and she felt despair more intense than she ever had, in all those years of lying awake on Jakku.

It was enough to pull her back to consciousness and she sat up quickly, staring at the darkened room around her. She was alone. There weren't any other thoughts in her head besides her own. What was haunting other people shouldn't be haunting her. She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, wondering if Luke could teach her how to suppress all of this instead of increase her abilities. She had always enjoyed the stories of the Rebellion and the magic and adventure they entailed, but preferred the second part. For a lonely scavenger on a desert planet, adventure had seemed like enough of a stretch from her day-to-day. Now to be part of all this… Could things ever go back to how they were before?

A claustrophobic feeling overwhelmed her, and she got to her feet to rush out of the room and the house. The night air was a relief and she paused to catch her breath – certainly not lost because of her running. Pressing a hand to her chest, she listened to her heartbeat until it slowed to a more reasonable level, pacing across the ancient paving stones. She wasn't cut out for this, she thought a little frantically. Who was she to be a student of the Luke Skywalker? To be sent by General Organa to find him? To be piloting the Millennium Falcon after watching its original pilot be murdered? Worse still, to be able to see the act through the eyes of the murderer – was it because she'd killed him that she had to endure his thoughts? Or had he survived and was tormenting her?

"Rey?"

She whirled around and stared at Luke with wide eyes. He looked haggard and worn as he tentatively approached her.

"What did you see?" he asked gently.

His insight shouldn't have been so surprising, but she was greatly relieved that he understood her distress. "I saw… I saw when Han Solo… when he was killed," she said haltingly, wrapping her arms around herself.

Noticing the action, he motioned for her to come back inside. "I'm sure it's cold compared to Jakku," he said with the same smile he'd had when talking about his own upbringing. She didn't know where he was from, but moisture farms were common on Jakku, so it was reasonable to assume he was also raised on a desert planet.

"I'd rather not," she replied with vehemence that surprised herself, glancing almost fearfully at the building.

"Alright." He walked closer to drop a cloak on her shoulders, then passed her to sit on the steps a few meters away. "It'll be easier if you talk about it," he called back.

Talking did usually make her feel better, even if it was just to herself. So she followed, some of the tension leaving her as she settled down a polite distance from the legend. "Did you get them, too?" she asked softly.

He cocked his head at her, then looked out across the water. "Still do. But now it's just the same one, over and over." Clearing his throat, he turned his attention back to her. "But I didn't for a long time. Just at the beginning, when I was unable to control what was connected to me."

"So it can stop?"

He smiled at the hopefulness in her tone. "Yes, once you've had some formal training. It should be easy for you, given your natural aptitude."

"Can you teach me now?"

A laugh escaped him, but it was gentle, not mocking. "Maybe not. But why don't you tell me what you've seen and I may be able to help. Is this the first time you've seen things like that?"

"No," she whispered, staring intently at her feet.

"Take your time, Rey."

How nice it was to have the chance to get her bearings before acting or speaking. Taking a deep breath, she decided she'd better tell him everything – she didn't know what most of it had meant, but he might.

"When I was on Takodana, in Maz's castle, I heard a child screaming. I followed the sound and found your lightsaber in a box. When I touched it, I was… somewhere else. It was some kind of hallway, there was mechanized breathing, and maybe someone else screaming. I started to run, and then it twisted and I fell. I saw R2 and – and a figure by a fire." She looked up at him. "He had a mechanical hand. Was it you?"

"It's possible," Luke said distantly.

Frowning a little at his response, she focused on what she could remember. "Then it started to rain, and there was a figure above me. Someone grabbed him and stabbed him with a lightsaber. It was… It was Kylo Ren, though I didn't know at the time." She paused, glancing up to see the dour expression on Luke's face.

"Continue, Rey," he said with a reassurance that didn't reach his eyes.

She looked down again, feeling chilled. "He had men around him, six or seven, I think. It was dark, so I'm not sure. I stood up and he looked at me – and – and it seemed like he could really see me. He started moving toward me and I hurried back. Then I was on Jakku, being left with Unkar Plutt. I could see him holding my arm as my family left." She pushed past that one without looking up and moved on. "Then I was in the woods and the snow and suddenly Kylo Ren appeared from behind a tree, with his lightsaber. I recoiled and fell out of the vision, I guess, because then I was in Maz's castle again."

Luke was silent, processing what she'd described. He knew what some of it meant, she was certain. She waited anxiously for him to tell her something, anything. Anything that would make her feel better.

Finally, he stood up to pace. "You saw all of this after touching the lightsaber?"

"Yes," she answered, puzzled by how this seemed to worry him.

"There is a power, it's very rare, almost unheard of. It's call psychometry, and it lets a Force-user see what has been done with an object."

"What's wrong with it?" she asked sharply when he didn't continue.

Shaking his head to dispel his thoughts, he turned to focus on her again. "Two things about this are troubling. One, psychometry is … frowned upon for Light Side users because it gives the user visions that make them more susceptible to the Dark Side." He paused to put a hand on her shoulder. "It is a valuable skill, and I'm sure you can learn to control it enough to avoid danger."

She nodded shortly. "What's the other reason?"

"Because you saw things that were not related to the lightsaber. What were you seeing when you woke up tonight?"

The intensity of the question disturbed her and she clenched her hands at her sides. "I saw… I saw Kylo Ren kill Han Solo. But I was… I was him. My hands were on the lightsaber. It was… horrifying. I think…" She cleared her throat and Luke looked encouragingly at her despite the concern on his face. "I think I was feeling his horror, not just mine. Then I pulled away and saw… saw the fire again from the Force vision. Except this time I was looking at it, and R2 was next to me. I was… you?" The expression on his face convinced her that this was part of the nightmare he had over and over.

Luke swallowed hard, looking around in thought. "I think we should leave this place. Immediately. Wake Chewie and R2 and I'll get packed."

"But, Luke," she began, confused.

"Questions later, Rey. We need to go."

With a nod, she ran to do as asked.