A/N: Hey dudes *dabs*

So, I wanted to give a shout out and thank you to Villiangirl for her reviews so far. Thanks so much for the support! I'll try not to let you down :)

Also, go back and read the author's note at the beginning of chapter two, if you don't mind. It's been changed from when I originally posted it (10/19). The change was made (10/24). Before that, the author's note revealed some of my plans for the story, and was also kinda vague and confusing. I changed it, lol. So now it makes more sense, I hope. It also leaves part of the story as a mystery.

I've been thinking about this story a lot today (10/24) so you should know that I have more concrete plans for this story, and plan on updating again soon.

Update: Hey, so I totally almost forgot about the scene where Kylo Ren talks to the helmet of Darth Vader, and decided to go back and add that scene to chapter one (10/27). So if you guys read that chapter before the 27th, please go back and read it again! Just that part, at least, before he learns that Rey and the droid have been spotted on Takodana.

Thanks guys! Please enjoy!


She looked peaceful as she rested on the containment slab. And Ren felt a little creepy to be staring at her like this, but he was anxious for her to wake up. He didn't want her to wake up alone in this room and begin to panic.

"Sure, and waking up to see a man in a mask staring at her should ease her nerves," Ren thought to himself.

There was so much he wanted to tell her. So much he needed to ask. What did she remember? Would she even be able to tell who he was? Would she care?

Twelve years... So much time had passed since he last saw her. If only she could know how much he always thought about her - she was always on his mind, no matter how long it had been. In all honesty, there were those nights that Ren wondered if she were even still alive. He didn't know if she'd been adopted by another family, or left to fend for herself somewhere. Were there people looking for her now? A family that she'd left behind? He pictured her smiling at a mother that wasn't her blood. He imagined her in the arms of another man, looking up at him dreamily.

Ren shook the thoughts away. She was right here, after all. He could reach inside her mind and answer these questions for himself if he wanted to. She was completely defenseless, and wouldn't be able to fight back like she had in the woods. Ren reached out with the Force, and felt her presence with it. She was afraid, but mostly calm, for the time being. He sighed. Could he really violate her, now that he finally had her back? Ren had told himself earlier that before he could earn her love, he would need to win back her trust, and invading her mind now wasn't going to get him any progress.

Suddenly she woke with a start, gasping and jumping against her restraints. First she looked at her bound hands, then her eyes focused on the dark figure knelt before her. "Where am I?" she asked, her voice full of fear. Her breath shuddered, but she was trying to appear calm.

Ren was frozen for a second. He hadn't thought about how he would conduct himself, or what he would say. "You're my guest," he finally replied.

She quickly responded, "Where are the others?"

He rolled his eyes under the helmet. Why did she care about them, when she hardly knew them? A lifelong friend was kneeling before her, and all she could think about were those strangers. "You mean the murderers, traitors, and thieves you call friends?" he all but spat. She stared at him, expectantly, curiously, not denying any of it. "You'll be relieved to hear I have no idea," he told her. He was hoping that this news could help relax her, but it didn't. He could feel her anger, even without reaching into her mind. "You still want to kill me?" He was a little shocked at this. Rey had never been a violent person, so where was all of this hatred coming from?

Her voice trembled slightly as she stated, "That happens when you're being hunted by a creature in a mask."

Ren stared at her. Creature in a mask? He knew that the helmet would make her uneasy, but to refer to him as something less than a person? Without a second thought, he was taking the helmet off and standing before her, seeing her with his own eyes for the first time in over a decade, and he was taken aback. She was even more remarkable this way. Her breath hitched as well as she stared at him. He felt a little embarrassed. Was her surprise at the fact that he was, indeed, human? Or did she simply like what she saw? He wouldn't let himself hope for the latter.

He put the helmet down, feeling her stare at him the whole time. When he looked back at her, she regained her composure, putting off an air of defiance once again. Ren approached her, and now she stared forward, refusing to even look at him. He held back the urge to take her chin in his hand and force her to look at him. "Patience," he reminded himself. "Tell me about the droid," he prompted.

She took a deep breath before telling him, "He's a BB unit with a selenium drive and a thermal hyperscan vindicator-"

"He's carrying a section of a navigational chart," he responded, looking away in annoyance. This passed, and he continued. "We have the rest, recovered from archives of the Empire. We need the last piece." He came a step closer, and heard Rey hold her breath. "I know you've seen the map," he told her. "In the forest, I searched your mind, and I saw pieces of it. The droid showed it to you. It trusted you." Her fists clenched, and she closed her eyes, as if holding back tears. Ren's jaw tightened. "You know I can take whatever I want." She looked at him with wide eyes. "You know that I can reach into your mind, and see whatever I want to see. Nothing would be secret."

She pulled against her restraints now. "Let me go," she pleaded quietly.

"Tell me what I want to know, then."

"You said it yourself," she snapped, looking into his dark eyes, "the droid trusted me." Her eyes were begging.

Ren paused, then sighed. "I know." She looked a bit confused, then frightened when he raised his hand. "You can resist as much as you like," he assured her. "You don't have to betray your friend for my sake." He reached into her mind with the Force, and they both tensed. "Don't be afraid of me," he asked, but he knew that she wasn't listening. Her mind was frantic, scrambling as she tried to hide everything from him.

He decided not to go for the map right away. Instead, he'd do a little digging - for intimidation purposes, of course. He looked into her life back home, eager to find out if there was a family waiting for her on Jakku. He saw...nothing. Nothing, but Rey scavenging during the day, staring at the stars at night. "You're so lonely..." He saw the tallies on the wall. She was counting the days, but for what? Ren saw her at the age of seven, being dumped on Jakku, screaming at a ship as it flew away, and his heart sank. The worst part, was that she had always expected them to come back for her. "So afraid to leave..." If only he could've told her that they had never planned on coming back for her. Did she remember who had left her there? Ren saw her laying on her ramshackle bed at night, her hands folded over her chest, staring at the ceiling. "At night, desperate to sleep..." He uncovered a vision of an island he hadn't seen before. "You imagine an ocean," he stated, a little smile coming to his face. "I see it... I see the island," he told her. Ren could imagine birds cawing, waves crashing. He could smell the salt in the air, feel it on his skin. Tears began streaming down her face. He wanted to stop, but he knew he couldn't, and even worse, he wanted even more to keep pressing her mind for information. Not just for the map, but to see what she remembered.

He reached further. He had to know if she remembered him and the others. Ren thought he was uncovering a memory of her childhood, but instead saw...his father, wrinkled with gray hair. He tensed. This was a recent memory, not what he had meant to see. He saw them together, his father teaching her how to aim a blaster on Takodana. Gritting his teeth he mumbled, "And Han Solo. You feel like he's the father you never had. He would've disappointed you."

"Get out of my head," the girl commanded, tired of this game.

Ren pulled away. "Don't be afraid," he whispered, unsure of himself. "I feel it too." There were no memories in Rey's mind before the one of her being dumped on Jakku, but even so, she felt the same pull that Ren did. He knew she felt it. "You don't remember me," he said quietly, "but I never forgot you."

She stared at him, confused and scared. "What are you talking about?"

"Rey, come with me." He was saying it before he could stop himself. "I can help you remember; I can teach you about the Force, just like I did when we were young." He was so close to her now, she was caught between panting and holding her breath in fear.

"You're lying," she murmured. "I...I never met you before. I don't know you. Get away from me!"

Then, there was a huge shift in the Force, and it knocked Ren back. He stumbled, almost falling over. He practically growled at her. "Why are you being so stubborn?! I'm offering to help you!" He was so blinded by his need for her, that Ren had hardly realized that Rey had just used the Force to push him away.

"Leave me alone!" she shouted, tears pouring out of her eyes as she gasped for air. "You're just trying to trick me, get inside my head again! I've never had anyone, didn't you see that?!"

Ren was speechless, but seething. Not only didn't she recall their childhood together, but she refused to believe it could even be possible. Of course she wouldn't want to associate with a creature in a mask. In a fit of rage, he stomped out of the room, calling to a stormtrooper, "Guard her! Don't let her out of your sight." Then, he was gone.


A/N: Hey guys, have a great Spoopy Day! Be safe! Thanks for reading :)