Chapter 2

The wind howled, making the canvas walls of the tiny tent beat furiously. The three moons were hidden by dense cloud, making the night pitch black. Not that Rey needed to see to know the only thing out there was a field of white snow and ice, surrounded by white, jagged mountain peaks.

Inside, Rey huddled under her blankets next to a dull gray box that stood about a foot tall. It gave off a comforting orange glow accompanied by an even more comforting amount of heat. Across from her lay Kylo Ren on his back fast asleep. He had the comfort of sleeping. He knew that she had saved him just a few hours before and that he would be safe with her watching over him. Rey could not say she felt the same. He was injured and weak, to be sure, but after all he had done to her and her friends, could she really sleep peacefully mere feet away from the man?

Bloody Jedi robes sat near the heater. There was blood from a wound she received in the crash. Rey managed to stitch up the wound just to the right of her belly button and was just grateful that she had only been slashed and not impaled in the crash. She had spent the day getting the two of them to safety from the crash site and setting up there tent in time for nightfall. Now that she could rest, Rey couldn't bring herself to do it. Under the blanket, where she sat huddled and cross-legged, she clutched the pair of lightsabers. Her anxiety was getting the better of her, she knew, but it had been a rough day, after all.

Eventually, despite all her efforts, exhaustion overcame the Jedi apprentice and she dozed off. When she awoke, there was a salty smell in the air and the sound of grease popping as bacon sizzled. Rey shot up with cat-like reflexes causing her blanket to slip down, exposing her bare breasts. Kylo Ren looked up from the frying pan that sat over the heater with wide brown eyes. The bacon continued to sizzle and hot grease flew up at his good, left hand.

"What in the galaxy do you think you're doing?" Rey quickly wrapped herself in the blanket again. "How long have you been awake? What have you done?"

"I cooked breakfast. That should be obvious," he said coolly. "The rest of the rations are protein blocks, so we should enjoy what may be our last good meal for a long time." There was a strange sense of satisfaction in the way he said that. It was almost as if he were happy to be there with the threat of starving and freezing to death looming over the two of them.

"I suspect the First Order will be here soon," she replied. "I'll be ready for them when they come to rescue you. They'll trade me their ship for you and you'll order them to do so."

The smug man laughed at that. "You won't get the chance to ransom me, Jedi. I have been keeping all my movements secret. It was the best way to catch you. The First Order has no idea where I've been or where I was going." There was mischief in his eyes. He was enjoying this twisted state of affairs. "They have no idea that I captured you or that I was on my way back to Supreme Leader Snoke. We may be here for a very long time before anyone comes looking for us."

Kylo Ren removed the pan from atop the orange light of the heater and set it on a metal tray to allow the fried meat to cool.

"So, what will you do now?" He was still so cocky. He was just like Han, she realized. "Will you kill me? You could, you know. I would put up one hell of a fight, but you could do it. Is that what you want? Tell me."

"I don't know, honestly."

The two of them ate in silence. Rey savored the greasy, salty meal. If the man across from her was not lying, then she should take his advice and enjoy real food while she had it. The protein bars would nourish the two of them for a week or two, but they would not be enjoyable.

When the meal was done, Rey ordered Kylo Ren to lay back down and not to make any sudden moves. He protested, though, and told her he needed to relieve himself. They crawled from the tent, Kylo Ren in front with his right arm in a sling and the index finger of his right hand in a splint. Rey wore her Jedi robes once again with dark grey jacket and pants from the emergency kit on top of them. She stood behind him with two lightsabers in hand. It took him a long time to undo his belt and pants with one good hand, but she was not about to help him with that. Rey tried her best to ignore the sounds of liquid hitting the snow as she turned her head to the side.

After the two had squeezed their way back into the tent, Rey again ordered Kylo Ren to lay down. This time he did as he was told. That should have made her feel a little better, but it only made her more suspicious of him. But he was weak and needed to heal much more than she did, so perhaps it was him just being selfish again. If Rey hadn't woken up, he probably would have claimed the bacon for himself.

Rey sifted through the contents of the emergency kit again. There were items for desert and jungle environments. Insect nets and water locators would not be very useful on Hoth. The snow gave them all the drinking water they needed and insects could not be that bad in the frigid landscape. Other items proved more useful, like goggles and binoculars.

Finally, Rey found the rescue beacon near the bottom of the sack. The only problem was that the beacon would only send a general distress signal to the entire galaxy. Anyone who might be monitoring emergency frequencies would be aware. The First Order could investigate if they chose. Or slavers. Anybody. And in the Outer Rim, as they were, there weren't very many benevolent heroes to be found. But, from what Rey had read on the portable navigation device, help from outside was their best hope of rescue. Hoth was absent of civilization. The most recent inhabitants had been during the days of the Empire when a handful of Rebel bases were active for a short period.

"I am going to check out the wreckage," Rey declared. She took the empty sack that had been the emergency kit and put the rescue beacon inside. Kylo Ren might have decided to activate it while she was away and Rey still wasn't sure if that was the best course of action, though it appeared to be the only one at the moment.

"I don't know what you expect to find. I remember the ship being a burning pile of trash the last time I saw it."

"You were half-conscious the last time you saw it. I grew up as a scavenger. That ship was much better off than many I've seen. I can find plenty of useful things to use." She scooped up a respirator mask, just in case there were any dangerous gas leaks.

Rey had dragged Kylo Ren much farther than was probably necessary. When she left the tent and looked out toward the crash site, only a small black speck was visible. But it was better to be at a safe distance than to be too close to burning wreckage and who knew what sort of explosive materials onboard. The chill of the wind bit against her cheeks. Whoever had planned out the emergency kit knew they needed to put in some cold weather gear, but forgot to include anything to cover her face.

She crawled back into the tent and began wrapping the blanket around her head. It was awkward and bulky and she doubted it would stay secured. Then she heard a voice say, "Take this."

Kylo Ren held out his black cloak with his one good arm. She studied him carefully. His face seemed honest. More honest than it had a right to be.

"It will keep the wind off you," he announced.

"You're using me," Rey glared at him, still offering the cloak. "You're trying to win my trust, but I know what you'll do once you're strong enough. I know how you will be when you have the First Order behind you."

"I'll take you prisoner again. I'll take you to Supreme Leader Snoke, just like I planned to before you brought here. But right now I need you." He fixed his eyes on her. "You can take it or leave it." He tossed it down in her general direction.

The decision was more difficult than it ought to be, Rey knew. The cloak was exactly what she needed to trek through the windy tundra back to the ship. It was not that she didn't trust Kylo Ren. What harm could a black cloak possibly pose? But this felt like more than eating the rations she needed to keep herself going. This was wearing something of his. It was bad enough that she held onto his lightsaber, the same one that killed Han. But she needed to do that to keep it out of Kylo Ren's hands. This felt much more personal. It was a choice she had.

In the end, she took the blanket she had been trying to make a scarf and used her lightsaber to cut thick strip from it. She tied it up and around her head and face. The sulky man with the mop of black hair just stared at her lifelessly as she went about the work. In the end, her face was no longer visible beneath the goggles and makeshift scarf.

Kylo Ren looked up at her wordlessly as she kicked the cloak back to him. "Jedi scum!" And then he took his left arm and slammed a fist into his right arm hanging by the sling. "Ungrateful!" Another blow. Tears welled up in his eyes and his face was red. "Just go! Leave me in peace!" He fell backward clutching his mangled arm.

Rey marched toward the crash site, still dumbfounded by the event. Up until then, she could explain away all of his helpful actions as a way of keeping her, his prisoner, safe and helping himself. That last dramatic, frightening display was something else. He was offended that she hadn't accepted his help. His reaction to it was scary and mentally deranged, but definitely sincerely disappointed.

What bothered her more than his reaction was how she felt afterward. Going against everything she knew she should feel about him, Rey wanted to apologize. She was here once more. Knowing that Kylo Ren was despicable and downright evil should have made it impossible to feel any sort of sympathy for him. But she did. Was it because she was a good person or because she was weak? Before she rescued her enemy from certain death, she would have believed it took more strength to feel sympathy for one's enemies, but now she wasn't so certain. When it came down to killing an injured man, she couldn't manage it. In the heat of battle, she had killed to defend herself, but this was not a fight. Killing Kylo Ren would be an execution at this point.

She wouldn't think about it. It was a piece of clothing. There were no executions or anything of the sort to worry about at the moment. If he was offended, that was on him. Rey had chosen to keep him safe and alive, but that didn't mean she needed to make him happy, too.

Daylight on Hoth lasted about ten hours. Rey had not been awake when the sun rose, but she still had plenty of time to trek to the ship and back. There was a nostalgic feel to her journey across the white wasteland. And having spent half of her life in the same colony, on the same planet, she did not get to feel nostalgic often. She was travelling across an empty landscape to scavenge for usable parts from a ship beyond repair. This time it happened to be cold and snowy instead of hot and sandy.

At first she came passed scraps of twisted, black metal. Then, a heap of droid limbs. Then a massive black wing sticking jutting vertically from the ground. Finally, the main body of the vessel half buried in the snow and rock. Rey climbed in through the hold that she had escaped and began her search.

The cockpit's radio was damaged in the crash. Rey studied for twenty minutes, trying to make heads or tails of it, but she had become most familiar with engines and other systems that just kept ships in the air. She knew a few things about weapon systems, too, but communication devices weren't very important at the market. The beacon was still her best hope for rescue, it appeared. There were some blasters in a small armory she decided could be used for hunting. She didn't know what a tauntaun or a wampa tasted like, but she might soon find out. In a maintenance closet, there were some fuel cells the heater could use, which was the best find by far. There was no telling how long the heater had been sitting there, so its fuel cells could dry up sooner than expected.

Rey eventually discovered what had been Kylo Ren's cabin. It was a small, cramped thing with an uncomfortable cot and a small chest tucked under it. Inside there was a multitude of black garments. If the pair ran short of fuel cells for the heater, they would need as many layers as possible to survive the nights. On the floor, near the bed, was a palm-sized communicator, or so Rey initially thought. On closer inspection she realized it was a voice recorder. If it was Kylo Ren's then he may have recorded secrets that could aid the Resistance against the First Order.

A tiny display let scroll through the device's archives. Rey picked a date at random and played the recording.

"Hux blames me personally for the defeat. He's taken away all of my Stormtroopers. Supreme Leader Snoke is out of contact. Hux won't take any of my threats seriously. He's too damn smart. He knows the Snoke would punish me severely. For now, I need a new plan."

It was hard to feel sorry for him. If Rey had to choose her favorite person from the First Order, this Hux would be it. She clicked the next recording.

"I have found an old Separatist droid factory from the days of the Clone Wars. The surviving droids were in a zombie-like trance when I first arrived. They weren't in low power mode; they were active, but they just stared into space. When they realized a person had arrived they swarmed me. I had to destroy a dozen before they stopped. They begged to serve me. I had never given it much thought, but droids are built to serve and if they don't have a job, then they apparently become depressed."

Rey had a fondness for droids. It was a sad story, though the voice that told it didn't seem to have any emotional reaction to it, though he had witnessed it personally. The most interesting bit of the tale was that she had been lied to while she was held prisoner. Kylo Ren had led her to believe he was using droids so that she could not use her Force mind tricks against more Stormtroopers.

Then, Rey clicked the most recent recording.

"That woman is infuriating! She thinks she knows me. She shuns me and the dark side. I must convince her to join me. Snoke will order me to kill her if she doesn't join us. I will do it if I am ordered to, but I don't WANT to. I am trying to SAVE HER! But how do I do it? She thinks the dark side is only about murder and power, but she's wrong. It is about fulfilling one's desires. It is about embracing the strength of all one's emotions. She holds back. She's holding so much back. She could be so much stronger if she only knew how to harness that pain and loneliness inside of her... Wait. What is that?"

The recording ended. He must have been recording it right before she caused their ship to crash. She stood in his quarters for a long time staring at the recorder. How odd that he wanted to "save her." He was a man who barely flinched when killing his own father. She had seen him hesitate, yes, but he did it all the same. Why should he care so much about killing her?

Strangely enough, she felt a lightness in her chest thinking about it. Why should that make her feel so happy? She was embarrassed of herself in that moment and threw the recorder at the floor. There was a loud clanking of metal against metal and she observed the device and split in two, exposing its electronic innards.

When Rey emerged from the ship once again, she could tell night wasn't that far off. She needed to hurry with the bag of supplies or be caught in deadly temperatures. As it was, she could feel the bite of the wind through all her layers of Jedi robes and the set of jacket and pants from the emergency kit. She tightened the scarf and wiped fog from her goggles before jumping down to the snow covered ground.

From afar nothing seemed amiss at the tent. She could only make out the dull brown of the canvas through her tinted goggles, but she knew it was there. However, as she approached closer, she saw that the tent was lopsided and stakes were missing. Hastily, Rey rushed to the campsite.

There was a puddle of water and ice where the heater had been knocked into the snow. The protein blocks were tossed about and a few showed signs that someone or something had tasted them. Then, she saw the blood. The bright red streak went in a line across the snow where something had been dragged away from the tent.

This was bad. What was she going to do? What happened? Where was he? Was he dead? Should she follow the trail with night fast approaching? No, no, no, no, no! What was she going to do? She had to decide soon.

She was hesitant and uncertain, but in the end, Rey followed the trail in the snow that Kylo Ren had made as he had been dragged off. They might both be dead by morning, she reflected, but she had an inexplicable need to save him just as strange as his desire to save her.