"Ben."

Kylo could hear Rey's whispers calling to him throughout the night, but when he turned to where her voice emanated from, she was not there.

He was not even sure that is was truly her calling to him through the bond, or whether it was just his imagination, but he was certain he had never felt more alone in all his life.

Her voice echoed through his mind and would not relent throughout the night nor through the following day. The loss of his mother fuelled a façade of rage and control towards those he encountered through meetings and strategy preparation, especially Hux, whose eyes seemed to flicker with a quiet arrogance.

The façade was just that, though; he felt emptier and emptier by the moment, the rage just a hollow motion of old routine.

His mask also seemed to be a glass panel to Hux, who pressed Kylo with snide comments and attempts to assume command over particular plans. Kylo felt something take hold within him, especially since his recruitment of the Knights of Ren, something that seemed to grow in strength with each passing moment. Even his threat and use of violence seemed to do little to deter the parasitism of the General.

Kylo could snap his neck so easily, with only an afterthought in his mind, but he needed to pry the information from him first, to find out exactly what it was he was planning.

The strange tugging within a corner of his mind that whispered hesitation at such a callous action also gave him a pause on the action.

"You're growing weak," Kylo spat as he paced within his quarters. He threw his blood-stained gloves across the room and dug into his hands again, needing to feel the pain to help devise a plan to stave off Hux and the Knights.

Only three days until they exited hyperspace.

Only four days until the Knights of Ren would arrive from the Ilum system.

The Ilum system…

"You are not weak."

Kylo sighed as the familiar sensation of light filled his mind, though it was mingled with the even more familiar emotion of grief. He turned to face a drowsy Rey, her eyes bleary as though she had only just woken from sleep.

He frowned slightly at her words before turning his attention to the more pertinent issue. They did not have enough time.

"You're already in the Outer Rim, aren't you?" Rey's bleary eyes widened in response, her grief turning quickly into anger as she came to her own conclusion about the source of the information, the darkness beginning to writhe within her chest and through the bond at the thought of yet another betrayal.

"How… Are you tracking us? Are you using this bond to track us down?" Rey stiffened and turned to run, but Kylo crossed the distance between them and grabbed her hand before she could sever the link.

He couldn't let her believe that this was his fault. He couldn't stay silent as he did after Luke became one with the force.

He couldn't let her believe that he was still the monster.

"Stop, Rey. Please." Rey had begun to shrug out of his grasp until he pleaded with her, letting his walls down so that she could see and feel the honesty behind his words.

"Your transmissions were analysed from the base on Crait. I… I assumed you had already arrived due to the lack of humming engines and the fact that it looks as though you have just woken up… It must be morning there now." The scepticism on her face told him that he wasn't doing well enough, so with a deep breath, and a shaky voice, he continued.

"I know that I have given you nothing to allow you to trust me. I know that I have done nothing to deserve anything you have given me… But you must trust me now… You and I, and your… Your friends… We are in far more danger than you can imagine. I am trying to thwart the attempts of the First Order reaching you… Reaching my mother… But I failed her, just as I have failed everyone else… I cannot fail you."

There it was; the tide swelled and breached his defences, spilling his deepest fears from loose lips.

Kylo's fear of failure was rooted deep within his core. As a child he felt as though he had failed his mother and father when they didn't spend time with him, when they sent him away. As a teenager he felt as though he had failed Luke, and Snoke, as though there was something wrong within him that neither thought was good enough for them.

Then he met her, and he hadn't done anything but fail her. But something was different. Something told him that he would take as many chances he was given to keep trying to prove himself to her.

He hadn't realised that he had closed his eyes until he felt Rey's palm against his cheek, and through hooded lids he saw her stand to reach him and brush her lips against his. He was hesitant, the fear of rejection blazing through his chest until her reassurance doused the flames that threatened to burn him to ash.

As their energies mixed together once again, his lips melted into hers, the fear no longer smothering but entwining with hope and fuelling their determination and strengthening their bond.

Rey snaked her hands around the back of Kylo's neck and through his thick hair, her erratic movements becoming more and more urgent as she moved against him. He could taste and feel her longing, her passion, her desire, and he so desperately wanted to give in to that, to feel the warmth of her spread throughout him, but he couldn't.

They were in immediate danger and they needed to think of a plan.

Pulling away from her was the last thing he wanted to do, especially when he saw the confusion within her eyes. Kylo placed a hand against her jaw and strained his neck to press his forehead against hers, to reassure her of her own doubts that had begun surfacing through the bond.

"Rey… We cannot, not now… You're in danger, even as we speak." She exhaled, nodding her head reluctantly, but letting the darkness of her desire simmer well below the surface once more.

"I need you to tell me everything, Ben, so we can work this out together."

"I will. I think I even have the beginnings of a plan."

I didn't mean to breeze over Leia's death in this chapter, it will DEFINITELY become more of a focus within the next few chapters! There are a lot of things starting to happen and shit is going to start hitting the fan!

Also I am the worst at uploading new chapters I am so sorry pls forgive me!

Review/favourite/follow if you feel so inclined! :D