A/N: Well it's late but here's chapter seven! Time to focus more in training Rey woohoo! Once again thank you for all your reviews! Really it's those that keep me pushing to get the chapters up as quick as I can. Just a warning the next chapter might not be up until Thursday. I have a doctors appointment in the morning and an evening function to attend to so there is a good chance I woke make it tomorrow. But let me just say I have a feeling the next three chapter are going to be good!
Chapter 7
Rey didn't know what to expect of her training she was a little nervous but also excited. Ben told her that Snoke knew she was here which meant she didn't have to keep her walls up anymore. Kylo was surprised to feel how blinding her light really was as she let her walls fade away, turning her would be harder than he'd thought.
He led her to his training room telling her to follow the same rules he'd set for her before. Just because Snoke knew she was on the ship now didn't mean she could let her guard down. She was powerful yes, but she still didn't have the knowledge she needed to defend herself.
They sat on the floor of his training room him across from her as he folded his legs crosswise, she imitated him move for move.
"We're going to start by reaching out in the force. You do this already but I want you to get a handle on it and push farther." She nodded and took a deep breath closing her eyes. She envisioned her force energy a white force field of sorts growing and expanding until she could feel the energy of the other people on the ship. She began to wonder how far she could spread her energy so she kept pushing and soon she covered the whole ship. Another moment passed and she felt her light engulfed by a black veil her eyes snapped open and as she lost focus her connect closed.
Kylo opened his eyes and raised an eyebrow at her. He reached out to her again without breaking their eye contact and she felt his dark energy all around her. She let his darkness consume her, it was so different from where she found her solace in the light. She knew that he thought the darkness was stronger but something about it to her was intimidating. The darkness in him spoke to the shadows that live in her own soul. The man who'd trained her had told her that the light was safe and the darkness was bad, but she couldn't understand how something that was in her naturally could be bad.
She remembered the dream she had with Ben's mom, even that woman had told her to hold onto her light. It only brought more questions to Rey. What happened if she didn't hold onto the light? Maybe that meant the darkness really was more powerful after all. The constant talk of the light made her question herself she could even feel the conflict in Ben over his own light, he wanted to destroy it cut it out of himself if he could.
Ben surrounded in darkness he wanted to know what she would do, what she would think of it. Her natural curiosity surprised him, she was receptive of the darkness. Even with what he knew was Luke Skywalker telling her to avoid it and even his own mother goading her into the light he felt her pull to the darkness, she wanted to absorb it experience it for herself. He knew that was his mission but her willingness startled him. What if she became so lost in it she never found her way out again? What if she become exactly what Snoke wants?
He pulled the darkness back into himself and looked at her intently as she stared back. "Why do people think the darkness is bad?" He wasn't sure how to answer her question. The darkness is bad because that is what he was taught, that is what Luke was taught. It was what the galaxy had experienced.
"I don't think it's bad, just different" She said finally. Then he felt it, she reflected the darkness he had shown her back to him. Just like that she had captured the dark energy and mirrored it like it was nothing.
"Maybe the force isn't good or bad, maybe it's the people who use it" Her explanation seemed simple but he was appalled. He remembered his uncle mentioned once a group of Jedi who had left the order and embraced the force as it was no light or dark just the force. Gray Jedi Skywalker had called them.
"Maybe you're right. The Jedi believed that the force would push us towards our fate and it should be trusted to always be right. They use the force to support peace. The Sith used the force for themselves, they let their emotions tap into it. The jedi believed that emotions would cause corruption and lead to far into temptation."
"I don't understand that. If Jedi can't use emotion does that mean they aren't allowed to feel happy?" She was smarter than he gave her credit for, he nodded agreeing with her. She huffed and crossed her arms. "I don't want to be a Jedi then" He laughed and she looked at him confused.
"It is the dream of many children across the galaxy to have the power of the Jedi" But of course she wouldn't know that. She didn't have to dream about it, she could do it.
"But dreams come from hope, how can you be a Jedi if you have hope" Her quick wit countered him again, and she giggled sensing his own sudden conflict about what she was saying.
"You know, I don't think you can be a Jedi" He said seriously looking at her and her face fell. "You're too smart!" He leaned across and tickled her sides, she squealed in surprise. "Oh yes you're right, definitely too much happiness to be a Jedi" He noted as she laughed her light seemed to shine brighter. She was right, how could one tiny child understand what a council of old men never got? Something he himself never considered until she said it.
"Rey, soon we have to go down to the Star Killer base" he didn't really want to tell her the Star Killer was or that General Hux was there.
"We get to go outside again?" She was excited, she missed the blue sky and fresh air, Ben nodded.
"Yes but the base isn't hot like Jakku, it's going to be very cold and it snows there" Her head tilted, she didn't know what snow was but she didn't like the cold. She shrugged maybe she would like this planet. "Okay lets get back to training."
Ben stood up and went to the cabinet of weapons pulling out something small and walking back to her. He sat down across from her again and placed three little marbles on the floor between them. "We're going to work on levitating" Ben raised a hand and twirled the marbles around before setting them back on the floor.
Rey took a deep breath focusing on the marbles trying to make them move but it was difficult for her. After a few minutes of trying one of the marbles managed to roll about a foot to her left. She let out a sigh of frustration. "Why is this so hard?" He hadn't seen her look so annoyed before. "I can read minds easy but I can't move this tiny marble"
"It takes practice, it's like growing a muscle. It takes time and patience" He force pulled the marble back beside the other two and let her try again. He watched her concentrate and let himself into her mind guiding her towards her goal and after a few minutes one of the marbles was floating a good inch from the floor. He sensed her frustration with herself still and guided her to stop.
"Hey, just because you can read minds easily doesn't mean everything will come easily for you. Some people can control some aspects of the force and not others, these are just the basics" His kind words didn't ease her frustration any. "Why don't you practice this for a while, I have something I need to check on" She nodded and he stood and left her to work with the marbles.
Rey focused all her energy on one of the marbles as she slowly lifted off the floor. As she gets the one marble stabilized she tries to add the second marble with a few minutes of hard concentration she was able to levitate them both. She spent a good amount of time raising and lowering the marbles getting used to their weight the more she practiced the easier she found it. Finally deciding to give the marbles a break she stood up picking them off the floor and went to return them to the cabinet Ben had gotten them from. She decided to pull out a quarter staff and practice some motions to give her mind a break.
She practiced her forms and a few of the things Finn had taught her when her mind wandered, how was he doing? Was he being treated well? Did he stay with the resistance? She couldn't help but wonder and worry for him. They hadn't spent much time together but she'd learned a lot about him from their short time. Plus he was willing to risk his own life to try and save her even if she didn't need the saving the thought meant a lot.
Rey let her mind wander to the resistance. She had heard of them from other people on Jakku but she'd never encountered someone from the resistance before. She knew the resistance fought in support of the republic but she'd never met anyone form the republic either. She wondered more about Ben's mother, the woman had been filled with light and her light felt similar to the light should could find in Ben, but the darkness didn't match anything about his mother. She wondered where the darkness in Ben had come from? It felt similar to the Leader Snoke Ben spoke of, but not as cruel. Ben was filled with more loneliness than anything and she wanted to fix it.
After practicing forms for a good hour she was beginning to get tired. Ben hadn't returned yet and she was wondering if he'd forgotten about her, he hadn't wanted her walking around without him but she was getting hungry again along with her exhaustion. She decided she could make it back to his room on her own. She put her staff back in the cupboard and ventured into the hall.
She made her way down the corridor passing doors left and right as she rounded the corner towards his room. She looked down the hall and realized that none of the rooms were labeled and she didn't remember which one went to his room. She shrugged her concern away as she started walking, she knew his room would be empty so she felt out with the force and eliminated any doors that had someone on the other side and that left three. She knew his door was on the left side of the hall so now she was down to two. Rey approached one of the doors and put her hand on it reaching out she tried to detect any history of Kylo's presence. She wouldn't feel him or any familiarity to she moved to the next door. This felt familiar she could feel remnants of Kylo's presence and her own. She found a whole knew problem when she tried to open the door and discovered it was locked.
Letting out A huff in frustration she knew what she had to do. She had to use the force. She reached out and tried to open the door from the inside. It took all her concentration and effort but she did it and the door slid open.
She raised her hands in a victory celebration as she entered his room. She was even more tired now but after spotting the jogan fruit on the counter she wanted to keep her momentum going, using the force she focus on bringing herself one of the fruit. It took her a few tries but she managed to grab the fruit from the air and she celebrated again by taking a bite from the purple flesh in victory.
Rey laid on the sofa and practiced moving small objects she could find around Ben's chambers. Ben stormed into the catching her eyes, she could feel the worry in him pulsing into anger.
"What do you think you're doing?" The anger he felt now was different from the last time there was concern but not rage. "You can't be out in these halls by yourself. Snoke may know you're here but that doesn't make you safe!" He was yelling at her now.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you" She spoke quietly looking down at her feet. Ren bent down in front of her and lifted her chin gently so she was looking in his eyes.
"Hux may not be here but there are still people like him." His voice was gentle now. "We are going to Starkiller base in the morning. I am having some winter clothes brought for you, you will be able to go outside there alright?" He saw a light in her eyes that hadn't been there in a while as she nodded. "Okay why don't you get cleaned up and I'll order us something for dinner and then we can practice reading again." She nodded and she went to his room to get herself a pair of pajamas and she went to the refresher to shower.
Rey was relaxing under the warm water as she cleaned away the sweat from her earlier workout when she was struck with a vision.
A vast ocean sparkling under the sun. A rocky island with vibrant green grass. A familiar man standing on a cliff at the water edge calling her name.
'Rey'
"Rey"
"Rey?" Ben's voice broke her from her dreamlike state and she shook her head to clear it. "Rey are you okay?" His voice was getting worried, he must have been standing outside the bathroom door.
"Huh yeah fine" She called back her mind lingering on the vision she'd had, the man was calling her. The man that had trained her had been calling for her, but why? She hadn't heard anything from him in years, he hadn't been seen or heard by anyone.
She finished her shower dryin herself off the best she could pulling on her pajamas. She looked at herself for a several minutes in the mirror. Her hair was getting so long. She'd never let it get long on Jakku Plutt would use it against so she always cut it off, but now it was well past her shoulders. She had a flash back to Hux pulling her head to the side with her hair and she shivered.
She left the refresher and found Kylo standing by the door giving her a concerned look.
"Can you cut my hair?" The question caught him off guard.
"Your hair is beautiful Rey, why do you want to cut it?" Her sudden desire puzzled him. She'd never made any comment of her outward appearance other than their height differences.
"I just don't like my hair being long" She didn't want to tell him, she didn't want him to know that something he found beautiful about her had been a source of her torture once.
"If you would like it cut I can take you to get it cut, you don't want me to do it trust me" He laughed off her concern and they sat at the table in his room together. He didn't always have time to dine with her but she liked it when he did, he told her this is what families do, she'd never had one but she liked hearing stories about how normal families behaved.
"Ben what happened to Luke Skywalker?" Another question that caught him off guard.
"He was a coward and ran away" Ben was willing to say anything else but Rey knew there was more.
"What did he run away from? Why?" She wanted answers.
"It's really not important Rey" But she shook her head and gave him her best serious look which appeared more cartoonish due to her tiny features.
"It is important" She countered looking him in the eye. She pressed her mind towards his and in the briefest flash she saw blood and fire. The ruins of buildings and the bodies of children and she gasped.
"Enough!" He stood angrily looking down at her. The darkness in him was stirring impatiently as his temper got the better of him. "You know that isn't appropriate" He was right, one of the first lessons he'd given her weeks ago was on reading the minds of others. He told her if she was going to do it always be prepared to see something she shouldn't and that she should never read him mind without permission. "You wouldn't like it if I read your mind" His anger was more with himself than it was with her, but unfortunately she was the only target in the room.
He forced his way into her mind taking a path the wouldn't cause her pain only discomfort and he pressed to find what was causing her sudden concern over Luke Skywalker. He should have taken his own advice.
He saw her vision of the island and the man, the man he recognized immediately but he pushed farther. He saw her memories of Unkar Plutt dragging her through the sand by her hair. The vision of the first time she cut her long hair herself just a tiny child dragging a dagger through it making it as short as she could. The vision of Hux pulling her hair, cutting her with the scalpel putting his lips on her neck and Ren had to stop pushing her away.
He'd seen to much. He hadn't been prepared for what he saw and as he looked back to her face in front of him he saw her in tears on the floor. He hadn't just pushed himself from her mind he had forcefully shoved her to the ground.
"Rey I didn't mean too" "I'm sorry" She cut him off. He was confused. "I'm sorry I should have told you I remembered now" What was she talking about. "When you brought me back after Snoke found me there were things I could remember that I hadn't before and it was Luke Skywalker" He didn't know what to say. Should he tell her that he knew, Snoke had ripped those memory from somewhere in his mind or should he fain surprise?
"What else do you remember?" The vision of her mother, Ben didn't want her to see that.
"Do you really think a Jedi killed my father?" Of course she remembered.
"I don't know" He didn't know what else he could tell her.
"Do you think it was Luke Skywalker?" Ben hated his uncle but he shook his head.
"I don't think so, it wouldn't make sense for him to come after you" Ben thought about her age now and how many years ago the assault on her family must have taken place. "No Luke would have been at the Academy still" he said it finally.
Rey was propped up sitting on the floor now, her tears were falling at the memory of her mother falling at the hands of a greedy crolute who thought he could use Rey to make a quick buck.
"I think I'm ready for bed" Was all she said for the rest of the night as she picked herself up drying her eyes and going to his bed.
