Chapter 3

"I will ask you again. Where is the girl?" Kylo repeated. His voice was dangerously low now. The stormtroopers that had been walking past hurried their steps, hoping that Kylo Ren would release his anger on them.

"I said," General Hux took a step forward, his face unchanged and absent of fear, "that she is on her way to Supreme Leader."

Within seconds, Kylo's lightsaber was out. But he didn't slash anything. Not yet, at least. He knew better than to lose his calmness now. He needed a plan, quick, before it was too late to take back the girl.

"Why, I am beginning to think that you have feelings for this girl, Kylo," General Hux smirked. He curled his lips in a detestable way. Kylo glowered at him through his mask. "I wonder what Supreme Leader will think of that."

Kylo decided it was best to ignore this comment. Suppressing his urge to use his lightsaber on General Hux, Kylo whipped round and marched to the elevators. As he went up to the 4th floor — the floor where all the flights were being monitored — his mind whirred with thoughts. What should he do? How could he rescue the girl? What would he say to Supreme Leader Snoke? None of his plans seemed reasonable.

"You there, how long ago did the most recent ship leave?" he asked once he arrived.

"Oh! Um, let's see…it was approximately five minutes ago."

Five minutes. If Rey wasn't on that ship, that would mean she had left even more long ago.

"Prepare my shuttle —"

"That will not be necessary," General Hux appeared from behind. "Supreme Leader made it clear that the girl's destination should be kept a secret. Supreme Leader had already sensed a disturbance in the Force. He saw what effect the girl had on you, Kylo. That is why the girl is NOT going to Supreme Leader, but elsewhere, where she will be taught the power of the Dark side."

General Hux paused to let the news sink in.

"Let me ask you something, Kylo. What are you worried about? Rest assured, the girl will be in trustworthy hands. Or perhaps were you thinking of…" He raised one eyebrow. "…bring her to the Light?"

"You know where the girl went," Kylo growled, ignoring General Hux's question. "Tell me where she is heading."

"Ooh, how terrifying!" General Hux chuckled. "Well, why don't you use the Force and find out? Hm? You always say that you can get anything you want, don't you?"

Kylo was very, very tempted to do exactly so, but something in General Hux's smirk told him not to.

That's when Kylo knew what Hux was doing. Supreme Leader Snoke was watching. Snoke wanted to see what Kylo would do. If Kylo went after the girl, Snoke would be convinced that he had felt the calling of the Light.

Hence, Kylo's only option was to stay and let the girl go.

x X x

"Where…where am I?" Rey muttered. She looked around drowsily and noticed that she was no longer restrained. However, this room wasn't the same interrogation room she had been in earlier. This room was much, much larger. And darker. The only bit of light came from the massive statue of a strange, alien-looking creature.

"Hello, Rey," the statue spoke.

Rey shrieked and jumped to her feet.

It took her a moment to realize that this wasn't a statue, but a hologram! A humongous one, at that.

Rey backed away instinctively. The seated creature didn't move. It only leaned forward so that its black, glazed eyes were looking into hers.

Rey felt all the hairs on her body rise. There was something about those soulless, giant eyes that both horrified and allured her. She forced herself to look away.

The creature leaned back again.

"I've been looking forward to meeting you for a long time, Rey," it said.

Rey couldn't hide her surprise. Who was this creature and how did he know who she was?

"Ah, of course you are wondering who I am. I am Supreme Leader Snoke."

Rey's eyes widened. She recognized the name. This was the evil villain the Resistance was fighting!

"What do you want from me?" Rey demanded. "I have nothing you need."

To Rey's astonishment, Snoke threw his head back and laughed. His laughter sounded even more terrifying than his voice.

"Nothing you need? My girl, do not underestimate your worth!" Snoke paused. "People like you are rare. You are special. You are truly one of a kind."

Where was Snoke going with this? Rey wondered. She glared at him with apprehension. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, she couldn't hate Snoke.

"With the right training, you can become a…masterpiece. All you need is a skilled teacher."

Her mind flashed to the time she battled Kylo Ren on Starkiller Base. Those words were similar to what Kylo Ren had said back then.

"I would never turn to the Dark side!" Rey yelled angrily.

Snoke responded calmly, "You have misunderstood, Rey. You need not go to the Dark side. What you are — what you have inside you — is already more than enough. You have the perfect balance of both Dark and Light. What you can do is conquer both."

Rey stared at Snoke, stunned. She didn't know it was possible for one to be both Light and Dark at the same time… Or maybe it wasn't, and Snoke was just lying. She wasn't sure.

Snoke clenched his fingers into a fist and went on, "You can learn of great power. You can become unbreakable…invincible."

"Never!" Rey shouted. "I don't want that. I would NEVER want any of that. I don't care having power."

"Rey, you must know that the Force is strong with you," Snoke said. "So strong, in fact, that it would be a shame if you weren't to use it well."

"So? There are many others who are Force-sensitive like I am." Frankly, she didn't know if this was true or not. All she knew was that Snoke was evil and manipulative. She had to be careful of what he said. "Find someone else to teach."

Snoke's lips were pressed into a thin line. He hadn't expected the girl to be this stubborn.

But Snoke wasn't completely displeased. He liked the girl's ferocity. She had potential to become a true masterpiece if he succeeded in training her.

At that moment, Snoke had an idea.

"Rey, do you have a lightsaber?" he asked calmly.

"...No."

She had given the lightsaber back to Luke.

"Then I have a gift for you. Look into the black box that is in front of me," Snoke ordered.

Rey looked up at the hologram uneasily. She wasn't keen on getting anywhere near Snoke, even if he wasn't physically there.

"Go on," Snoke said, nodding his head encouragingly.

Gingerly, Rey walked over to the black box Snoke was referring to. She opened it slowly.

She gasped when she saw a lightsaber. There it was again, the feeling of déjà vu. But this lightsaber was different. This one was much bigger than Luke's. It was nearly twice as long.

Without thinking, Rey reached in and grabbed the lightsaber.

Suddenly, the ground beneath her disappeared and she found herself falling to a different landscape. Rey screamed and landed with a thud. She looked around. Though it was nighttime and she couldn't see very well, Rey knew that she was back in Jakku. This time, she wasn't alone. Standing not so far away were three hooded figures.

"We must leave her," one hooded figure said in a hushed voice.

"No!" the other one hissed. "She is much too young to be alone."

"It is better for her to stay here," the one who spoke first said. "We will come back for her when the time is right."

"She has no one who can take care of her. Let us take her," the second one almost begged.

The third hooded figure, the one who had remained silent until now, turned around and looked directly at Rey. Rey felt the air inside her leave. The third man was no other than Luke Skywalker.

"Leave her here," were the last words she heard before the landscape changed again. Now, Rey was lying on a wet ground. Rain was pouring down. It was accompanied by lightning.

Rey sat up quickly. Next to her were bodies. Tons and tons of them. She leaned forward to look at them closely and immediately wished that she hadn't. They were dead. Rey was too shocked to scream. All she could do was scoot away as fast as she could.

Through the rain Rey could make out a tall, black figure. Even though his back was turned to her, Rey recognized this person as Kylo Ren. There was no mistaking it. What in the world was he doing here? Had he slaughtered all these children?

Rey tried to scramble to her feet and ended up slipping. This noise caused Kylo Ren to spin around. He started walking towards her with his red lightsaber. Rey attempted to get up again, but this time, she tripped over someone's body. She looked back up and, to her horror, saw Kylo Ren towering over her.

"You're a sick man," Rey spat.

For a moment, she thought Kylo Ren would use his lightsaber on her. He didn't. Instead, he went on one knee, and took off his mask. Rey blinked, confused, and watched as Kylo Ren ran his fingers through his curly, now damp, hair.

"Run."

The next thing she knew, Rey was back in the dark room with Snoke's hologram. The long lightsaber was still in her hand. So many questions were running through Rey's head that it hurt. Who were the two hooded figures? Why did Luke Skywalker tell them to leave her at Jakku? Why was Kylo Ren there? Did he really kill all those children? Then why had he told her to run? Nothing made sense.

Neither she nor Snoke said anything for a long time. Snoke was on the edge of his seat and was looking at Rey intently.

"Those memories," Rey finally said, breaking the silence, "aren't real. I know that they've been manipulated. I saw my real memories back in Takodana."

"How are you so sure that those memories were real?"

"I…I don't know…" Rey admitted. "But how do I know if the memories YOU'RE showing aren't real as well?" she challenged. "How do I know if you're tricking me?"

"You don't," Snoke said. "It is up to you to decide what you believe."

Rey wasn't sure what to believe now. She had never felt so confused before.

"Your lightsaber." Snoke nodded towards the lightsaber in Rey's hand. "Turn it on."

She looked at the lightsaber, then at Snoke, and then back at the lightsaber. There was nothing wrong with turning on a lightsaber, right? It was just a lightsaber. It didn't mean anything.

The lightsaber came to life.

Rey had never seen anything like it before.

This lightsaber was double-bladed. One end of the lightsaber was blue. And the other, red.

A/N: Thank you for your encouraging follows/favorites/reviews. They constantly remind me that I need to write, and that I have people who are actually waiting for new chapters.

Please let me know if you find any mistakes or grammatical errors. And please do let me know if any of my sentences are weird (i.e have a weird sentence structure). I'm constantly trying to improve my writing, so any suggestions or criticisms are welcomed.