First blood: 1) The first shedding of blood, especially in a boxing match or in dueling with swords, 2) the first point or advantage gained in a contest.

The problem with never wanting to see a (particular) thief again in his entire life came into sharp relief when Kylo stormed into work and was assaulted with a myriad of photos and files featuring said thief littered all over his office.

Growling with frustration, he snatched the pictures off the wall and shoved them into a manilla folder, which he then banished to his desk drawer. The drawer, true to how this week was going, refused to shut all the way, and Kylo was soon engaged in a battle of wills by slamming the drawer closed over and over again as it continued to pop open.

"Stay closed! You stupid, stubborn, piece of junk motherf-"

"Ren."

"What?" He bellowed, turning to glare at Hux, who simply sniffed at his tone.

"There's been a robbery."

"Did someone steal the stick up your ass?" He snapped, finally kicking the drawer into submission. "Because by all appearances it's still there."

Hux narrowed his eyes. "Snoke wants you to make this a top priority. The police have requested that we come down to the scene in person."

"Why? Do they need someone to read the little mocking note for them?" Kylo sneered, knocking over his trash can for good measure.

For once, Hux didn't rise to his bait. "There's no note. But there is a body."

Kylo looked up with shock. "Murder?"

Hux nodded solemnly.

Standing, Kylo shrugged on his coat and set his jaw. "Let's go."

Wending their way through traffic and a coterie of cop cars, they arrived at the gallery in short order. The coroner's van drove away as an officer waved them under the yellow tape and they approached a grim looking detective.

"Detective Peavey." Hux greeted.

The older man nodded brusquely. "Hux. Ren."

Kylo crouched down, staring at the tacky red puddle on the concrete floor. "What happened?"

"We've got at least three different sets of footprints, so it's a group of them, but that's about all we've got. Whoever it was cut the power, then tried to grab as many Egyptian artifacts as they could before the lights came back on." He motioned his chin at the blood spatter. "Security guard came in, maybe tried to stop them, maybe tried to call for help, and they slit his throat for his trouble."

Hux swallowed reflexively, putting a protective hand to his own windpipe.

"They ran off before the cameras came back on, so we've got damn near nothing to go on." Peavey turned pensively. "Thought it might be the work of your Scavenger."

Kylo jerked his head up in surprise. "What?"

"Word is she's running with a crew now. Maybe one of them has a penchant for violence."

He stood and shook his head. "This isn't her style. Classic, quick, and clean. That's how she does things."

Hux raised an eyebrow at Kylo's tone while Peavey shrugged. "Wouldn't be the first time a criminal made the jump from thief to murderer."

As he took a breath to mount a defense, a voice suddenly echoed in his mind.

"He was right. You are a monster."

His mouth snapped shut. "Fill me in. Then I'll find who did it."

Two weeks.

It had been two weeks and nothing.

Well, not nothing. Whoever it was had broken into a rich woman's house a few days ago and stolen most of her insanely valuable jewelry, bashing Ms. Earnshaw's gardener on the back of the head and nearly killing him while they were at it.

So nothing good, anyway.

Which was why he was here, at the Niima Art Restoration Center's warehouse, picking through the dark storage shelves on a rumor provided by his least favorite informant.

Officially, DJ was his least favorite source of intel because he would rat out anything to anyone, so none of Kylo's own activities were discreet for long, and because the man believed in quantity over quality - sputtering on and on about any gossip or half-heard conversation he thought could be even the tiniest bit true.

Unofficially, something about the man's darting eyes and constantly shifting stance made Kylo think he had probably made up at least half of any tips he passed on. After sorting through the unreliable mountain of information DJ had dumped on him, Kylo had reluctantly chosen to check out the Restoration Center on the off-chance that DJ's assertions of a potential theft were accurate.

On top of investigating what was probably a wild goose chase, Kylo's mood was further soured by the memory of the last time he had been in a warehouse.

The sting of Luke's treachery. The simmering anger from his childhood boiling over as he watched their precious trophies burn to ash. Snoke's whispers about how no one had come to see him. To talk to him. To help him. How his family had completely abandoned him.

As always.

Put that together with the vision of the sticky red stain on the concrete, the underlying fear of this new gang, whoever they were, and Kylo was more than a little on edge.

The cool presence of the gun tucked in at the small of his back did little to assuage the spike of adrenaline that came at every sound in the too-dark, too-quiet warehouse. Car horns from outside, crow calls from above, the scurrying of rats from below-

Wait.

Not scurrying. More like… shuffling. Like someone trying to walk softly. Trying not to be heard.

His heartrate kicked up a notch as he slowly eased the gun out and pointed it in the general direction of the noise, glancing around to make sure that no one was attempting to bash his head in like the poor gardener.

Creeping forward, he heard another sound, possibly a pallet shifting, and a small muffled curse, as if the person had stubbed their toe in the darkness. Stepping gingerly over to the wall, Kylo felt around for the light switch he knew was there, took a deep breath, then snapped the lights on before immediately gripping the gun's base again.

The person over by the pallets let out a surprised yelp, then swivelled around and met his gaze.

Maybe it was his fear of the unknown gang, maybe it was that haunting stain of someone's lifeblood, maybe it was the brittle, anxious tension of waiting for the warehouse to burst into flames, but his finger curled around the trigger-

(And maybe, maybe, it was because even after he recognized her three buns, her plump lips, her round cheeks and soft chin, the overwhelming sense of betrayal from that photo of Luke's office, from her admitting Luke trained her, drowned out the small voice in his head that shouted warnings about repercussions, consequences, that fact that she would never forgive-)

-and pulled back, firing a shot across the room, grazing her arm as it shattered part of the concrete wall behind her.

The ringing echoes gave way to deafening silence as both of them stared at the hole in the concrete. Rey's head slowly turned towards him, clutching her arm, mouth open, eyes wide, and hissed in a voice of pure outrage, "You. Wanker."

Kylo blinked in surprise. He had expected… shock. Surprise. Fear. (He was waiting for fear. Dreaded it. The same fear his parents had when they glanced at him, whispered about him. The same fear Luke had in his eyes that night.) What he had not anticipated was her wrath.

"You bloody shot me!" She shouted, livid with anger.

As Kylo stood there, taken aback by her fury, she reached down, grabbed a piece of concrete, then chucked it directly at his head. He ducked just in time, and when he looked back up, she was gone. Tires squealed outside and he rushed to the window to catch a glimpse of taillights before the car disappeared around the corner.

Wisps of smoke coiled in the darkness as he wondered what the hell he was going to do now.

"-and then the twat took a shot at me!" Rey ranted as she pulled out a bandage and some antiseptic from Poe's backseat first aid kit. "His aim was off, so it just grazed me, but still! It was almost like he was actually trying to hit me!"

Poe chuckled as he turned down an alley. "Not to rain on your parade, sunshine, but he probably was."

Wincing as she cleaned the wound, Rey looked up with a frown. "What?"

"Look kid, his job is to get back the stuff you stole. He wings you, great. He slows you down, that gives him more time to find everything. He grabs you, even better. Makes you tell him where your stash is, he returns the paintings, lands a nice commission, and his life gets a hell of a lot easier."

She paused, the bandage halfway around her arm, and murmured softly, "He really was trying to shoot me?"

Poe shrugged. "Happens now and then. God knows I've been shot at plenty of times. Key is, you can't take it personal. It's just business."

Tying the bandage off, Rey sat with that for a moment, then set her jaw. "You're right."

She yanked the knot a little tighter than necessary, determination and steel in her eyes.

"It's just business."

"Everything?!" Finn squeaked, nearly spitting out his coffee.

"Everything. I want it all gone." Rey waved her hand for emphasis. "If it can be traced back to me, I want it out as soon as bloody possible."

Wiping his chin with the napkin Rose handed him, Finn canted his head. "Okay, but why? What's the rush?"

Rey shifted a little. "I just… don't want anyone to find them. There's a lot of heat and I want to stay ahead of it."

Finn narrowed his eyes. "By 'anyone', do you mean Kylo Ren?"

After sipping her own latte, Rey shrugged. "Maybe."

"Oh, like what happened with the Pollack?" Rose asked sympathetically.

Rey fiddled with the sugar packets on the table. "Yeah. Exactly like that."

"Alright. I'll see what I can do." Finn sighed. "But if you want top dollar, it'll take time. I can move them quickly, but we'd lose a good 20 to 30 percent."

"That's fine. I'm not planning on keeping most of the money anyway."

Shaking his head, Finn smiled fondly. "Ever the hero, Rey."

"Well this hero needs her carbs," she jibed as she swiped one of Finn's croissants. "Later!"

As she returned Rose's wave, Rey pushed through the coffee shop door and nodded decisively to herself.

"There's that temptation dealt with."

"B-b-but Boss, haven't I always given you good information?" DJ whined, and Kylo had to force his fists to unclench.

"Good information?! One of the thousand rumors you told me happened to be true three weeks ago. Everything else has been completely worthless, and I'm sorely tempted to let the police know about the little side projects that go on when you're not giving me useless tips." Kylo hissed, slightly gratified as DJ cowered a little.

"L-l-look, just because thieves are unreliable, d-doesn't make it my fault, Boss," his informant wheedled, then waggled his eyebrows. "I do know about something good though. S-something big."

Kylo furrowed his brow in suspicion. "How big?"

"That new gang everyone's looking for? I know their next move."

Interest piqued, Kylo narrowed his eyes. "You know who they are?"

"S-sure. For the right price."

Sighing, Kylo pulled out a few bills and shoved them into DJ's grabbing hands. The snitch counted the money with a greasy smile, then stuffed them in his pocket.

"They're planning on using exchange as set-ups. Grab the cash and the loot, leave the grifter in the lurch."

"I said I want to know who they are. Not some vague gossip about what they might do next." Kylo told him, turning to walk away, rolling his eyes at what a colossal waste of time this was.

"S-s-sapphires!" DJ called after him, a hint of desperation in his tone. "The next exchange is for sapphires and gold bars!"

He paused. Gold and jewelry. Why did that ring a bell?

"Eh?" DJ pressed eagerly. "Th-that's good info for you. Sapphires, gold bars, a pigeon blood diamond-"

Kylo's mind screeched to a halt as a list came to mind.

"Over a million dollars in gold and jewelry stolen. Items include a set of sapphire earrings, a pigeon blood diamond necklace, gold bars-"

The Canady job.

Rey.

DJ droned on, oblivious to Kylo's realization. "...it's a pretty decent haul for whoever pulled that off. Maybe you can catch them t-"

His eyes bulged as Kylo spun around and all but hoisted him off his feet, fists pressing close to his windpipe.

"When?"

"I-I-I d-don't-"

"Tell me now or I will turn you in myself," Kylo growled, shoving DJ up against the wall.

"T-t-tonight! A-a-at seven near the old theater!"

Kylo stepped forward, adding more pressure. "Who are they? I know you know."

"J-j-j-just know the leader," DJ sputtered hoarsely.

"Name!"

"Un-un-unkar P-plutt."

Rey sighed and refocused her binoculars, bouncing her crossed feet off of the brick building as she perched on the edge. Despite the fact that there was no movement on the street below, the nervous knot between her shoulder blades tightened. It's not that the buyer was late, because it would be another fifteen minutes before they were even on time, but something in the air, in her gut, told her to put every precaution in place.

The faint sound of rushed footsteps echoed from behind her, and she whirled around to stare at the door to the abandoned rooftop. As the footsteps grew closer, she got to her feet and readied herself to jump.

The door slammed open and she gathered herself to fly before she heard a low baritone call out across the roof.

"Rey! Wait!"

Halting, she slowly turned to stare at Kylo Ren as he stood, panting from his mad dash up the stairs, a small part of her mind noting that this was the first time he had ever used her name.

"Why?" She challenged with a defiant jerk of her chin. "So you can shoot me again?"

She was gratified to see shame and embarrassment color his cheeks as he shifted on his feet. "Look, I just want to talk."

Enjoying his discomfort probably too much, Rey placed her hands on her hips and prodded him again. "About how you tried to shoot me?"

He hunched his shoulders and frowned irritatedly at her. "I didn't mean… I just... It was in the dark, and I didn't… It was an acci-"

"Oh no. You knew exactly who I was, and what you were doing when you pulled that trigger. Bye Ben!" She gave him a sarcastic wave and stepped towards the edge.

"It's a trap!"

Rey stopped, looking back with a raised eyebrow. "What?"

"The exchange for the Canady jewels. It's a-"

"A set up?" She finished for him, then watched him blink in surprise.

"You know?" He ventured finally.

"Of course I know! God, you think I don't know a set up when I see one? No one's ever heard of the buyer before, they were in a rush to agree to all my terms, and didn't care that I picked the time and place." Crossing her arms, she regarded him with an affronted stare. "Who do you think I am? Some green sharper fresh on the lay? Some amatuer who can't-"

Her rant was cut-off halfway by a sudden, surprising, almost unbelieving thought.

"Wait. How did you know?"

Kylo scoffed in derision. "One of my mostly unreliable sources finally proved to be of some use. There's a new gang in town, one that's not afraid to kill if they have to, and they're-"

"No, no, no. Why are you here?"

He glowered. "I just told you! These are dangerous people, Rey, and you shouldn't get mixed up in-"

Taking a thoughtful step forward, Rey canted her head and interrupted, "Are you here to warn me?"

Kylo's entire body stiffened, as if he hadn't actually considered that possibility. "I…"

Intrigued by the fact that he was frozen in shock (or perhaps panic), Rey took another slow step towards him. "You came here to warn me," she confirmed softly, to both him and herself. "Why?"

She could see his Adam's apple bobble as he swallowed nervously. "I… I don't…" He forced himself to breathe, then stated uncertainly, "I want my company's things back. Can't find them if you're dead."

Her next step brought her close enough to reach out and touch his chest (if she wanted to, which she was (mostly) certain she didn't). "No. That's not it," she mused aloud, watching microexpressions flicker across his face. "There's something else."

Tilting her head, she leaned closer, basking in the heat radiating from his body and the unsettled way his amber eyes darted between her lips and her gaze, and whispered curiously, "Why are you here, Ben?"

He let out a shaking breath that ghosted over her face.

"I don't-"

"Well, well, well," a self-satisfied oily voice interrupted, turning Rey's blood into ice. "Look at what we have here, boys. The little lost bird, ready to come home to the nest. Miss us, darling?"

Kylo furrowed his brows at Rey's sharp intake of breath. An overweight man (who bore a striking resemblance to a blobfish) stood in the middle, five thugs smiling menacingly behind him. Turning his body to face the group and shield Rey at the same time, Kylo sneered in contempt.

"Who the hell are you?"

As he intended, that drew the leader's leering attention away from Rey and onto him.

"Oh, you'll find out soon enough, boyo." He laughed cruelly. "Tell you what, you give us your money and a moment alone with the little lady and we'll let you go."

"Fat chance." Kylo called out, already hating the way the man's eyes kept slipping over to Rey. "No offense."

The leader, who hadn't considered the first statement to be offensive until Kylo mentioned it, swiveled his gaze back.

"Last chance. Step away from the girl, and we'll let you live to tell about how you survived Unkar Plutt at only the cost of your wallet," the fat man growled, and Kylo's dislike increased exponentially.

"Last chance for you." He challenged mockingly. "Leave now and I won't call the police about an attempted mugging."

Plutt and his cronies burst into irritating laughter.

"A mugging? You've got it all wrong, boyo. Me'n Rey are just going to have a nice, civilized conversation, aren't we?"

Kylo blinked at the use of her name, and glanced behind him. His hackles rose as he saw naked, overwhelming fear etched onto her face.

"Rey?" He asked softly, his alarm growing as her only answer were shallow, gasping breaths.

"That's right. Me'n Rey go way back, don't we darling? All I want's a few minutes to chat about what's due me."

"Due?" Kylo repeated suspiciously.

"Yeah! I rescue the runt from the streets, I do, teach her everything she knows, take a little cut here and there to survive, and how's she repay me? By pulling a disappearing act for the next ten years! Ungrateful, that's what she is."

Unkar's complaining tone suddenly became sharp with interest. "But then I come to hear about this Scavenger, about her impressive skills and her incredible hauls. Once the FBI and IYS start poking around, all sorts of information starts popping up, and imagine my surprise when I find out it's my little Rey, all grown up. All's I want is my share of the profits of my hard work. Some respect."

A small, trembling, but rebellious voice shouted from behind Kylo. "Y-you're nothing but a murdering, low-life, worthless coward. You don't deserve any respect."

Any facade of reason was immediately replaced by violent anger as Unkar Plutt bellowed, "You're a selfish, deceitful liar and you will give me what's mine or I will make you regret it!"

"Can't get anything if you kill me!"

Plutt's eyes narrowed. "Fine. We'll start with your boyfriend. See if that makes you any more cooperative."

As Plutt snapped out orders to his thugs, who gleefully advanced with a series of nasty looking weapons, Kylo heard a whisper that just barely reached his ears.

"Now'd be a good time to pull your gun."

"I didn't bring it," he muttered out the side of his mouth.

"What?!"

"I didn't want to scare you."

"Oh sure, now you think of that!" Rey hissed sarcastically, then let out a tense breath. "Can you use a knife?"

Kylo jerked his head back towards her. "To do what? Calculate the odds of us dying at three to one?"

Rey rolled her eyes, and the knot in his stomach loosened a bit at the familiar gesture. "Fine. If it's too hard, I'll take four. You take two."

"I didn't say-"

"Catch!"

A silver knife with a glistening edge rose into his view as Rey tossed it up. He caught it and looked over just in time to see her step around him, pull a small cylinder off her belt loop, and hold her hand straight out in front of her, glaring at the approaching group in defiance.

About to ask drily if she intended on stopping them with the power of her mind, his snide remark died unspoken as the cylinder instantly transformed to a five foot long metal staff.

Rey widened her stance with a loud stamp of her feet, spinning the metal rod until it blurred through the air, shouting in wordless challenge as she charged, striking the first man in his solar plexus, then sliding the staff down through her other hand to crack the small bones in the second man's foot.

It took a full five seconds for Kylo to realize he was staring with his mouth open in pure awe.

God, she was beautiful.

Suddenly aware of the thug moving in to his left, Kylo gripped the knife firmly, one finger resting on the flat of the blade, and just barely dodging the man's wild stabs with an evil-looking serrated edge. He retreated, watching his opponent grow overconfident, then, using his superior reach, sliced precisely at the tendons in the crony's hand.

The man screamed and dropped his weapon. Kylo kicked the knife and then its owner out of the way as he faced the next thug, who was a bit more knowledge about defense than his fallen colleague.

Giving way before the older man's swift movements, Kylo peeked over at Rey, who blocked her attacker's two blades on her staff, but couldn't guard against the following kick. She stumbled backward with a whoosh of breath, keeping him at bay with her spinning staff and eventually sending one knife flying to the side.

Both of them suddenly found themselves next to each other, breathing heavily and blinking at the electricity sparking along their gaze. He wasn't sure who nodded first, but in an oddly instant synchronicity, they both spun back to back, facing the next wave with the powerful reassurance of the other's presence.

Rey's opponent was joined by the one she had hit in the stomach, while Kylo narrowed his focus to the older man who was skillfully avoiding his attacks. In one fluid motion, Kylo saw an opening and slashed down, nearly dropping his weapon at the sheer heat of Rey's hand steadying herself on his thigh as she parried one man's strike and kicked the other one back.

The next few seconds blurred together, coming into sharp clarity as he saw Rey trapped by the bigger man's armlock, her staff too long to get adequate purchase or movement, the same moment the last thug sliced at him with a machete-like knife, rending Kylo's superior reach useless.

Their eyes met again, and the same unspoken connection moved him to toss his knife up in the air behind him as he held his arm to the side, waiting as the metal staff landed with an authoritative thunk into his hand.

Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Rey catch the knife with her free left hand in a deadly reverse grip and slash across her attacker's chest, just as he spun the staff around and landed the point directly in the center of his opponent's forehead.

Stepping away, they both slowly looked up at each other, a gleefully triumphant smile appearing on Rey's face as she took in their fallen foes. Kylo was nearly tempted to return the smile when an awful, excruciating pain abruptly appeared in his side and a large arm wrapped around his throat.

Rey's grin vanished as horror and rage filled her eyes. She ran two steps before Unkar Plutt drove the knife deeper into Kylo's torso and knocked the staff away.

"That's far enough," he warned, the fat folds of his arm nearly suffocating Kylo as his fingers scrabbled for a grip. "Now, you're going to come with me, calm and quiet-like, and I might not leave your boyfriend here to die."

"Let him go, Unkar." Rey pleaded, and Kylo wasn't sure how to take the genuine concern in her voice. "Just let him go, and I'll come with you."

"No!" Kylo tried to shout, but the pressure on his windpipe crushed his voice and the fire spreading from under his ribs limited his resistance.

"You take me to your treasures, then I'll think about it."

When Rey did nothing but bite her lip, Unkar yanked the knife out of Kylo's side and pointed it at her menacingly.

"Now!" He demanded.

In the blink of an eye, Rey threw the knife toward Kylo, who summoned the last of his strength to catch the blade and jam it behind him, collapsing to the ground the second Unkar's grip loosened.

Rey bolted to his side, pausing only to grab her staff off the ground as she grabbed him under his arms, gripping the staff across his chest, and pulled him away from the screaming Unkar to the edge of the building.

The throbbing in his side was making it difficult to concentrate on his surroundings, but Kylo forced himself to keep an eye on Plutt, who was raging incoherently as he held both hands to his face. Rey's momentum stopped, and Kylo wasn't sure if that made his pain better or worse. He also wasn't sure if he was imagining the variety of metal clicks and clinks echoing in his ears, or that the staff had disappeared.

He had to blink a couple times, but now he was sure that Plutt had kicked and shouted enough at two of his fallen men to get them back up on their feet and head cautiously their way.

He should probably tell someone.

Tell Rey.

Opening his mouth, he was surprised to hear Unkar's jeering voice come out. Wait. No. Not out of his mouth. Into his ears.

"Where are you going, Rey? There's nowhere else to run. What are you going to do now?"

Rey's grip tightened across his chest as she pulled him against her, baring her teeth at Unkar.

"Fly."

And then they were falling.

Weightless, silhouetted against the moon, Kylo tried to scrape together words. "Rey, I don't-"

"I'm sorry." She whispered in his ear, the rope snapping taut and leaving her tears floating in the air. "I know. I'm so sorr-"

Glass shattered as they crashed through the window of the next building.

No, He wanted to say, couldn't say over the pounding of blood in his ears, the shadows creeping across his vision, the fire burning in his side.

He wanted to answer her question. To tell her why he came.

I don't want anything to happen to you.

I don't want you to get hurt.

I care…

I...

Darkness swallowed him before he could finish.