Every nerve in Hermione's body became alight, though they seemed conflicted on whether she should be excited or terrified. So she froze for several seconds, her brain unable to make a choice as to her next move. She could feel Kylo in front of her, a mix of nerves, desire, and confusion, and gradually she felt her body relax, and she gave into the kiss, leaning into him as her arms snaked cautiously around him.

When he pulled back there was something in his eyes, something new and alight, and she could feel a little of his connection to the Dark Side start to waver. And she realized, in that moment, that her mission had never been grandiose. She had agreed to help others fighting the Darkness, and in her mind that meant being on the forefront much as she had during the fight with Voldemort, but it was so much simpler than that. She only had to help one other fight the darkness, and that was the man standing in front of her. She felt certain that in helping that one person fight the darkness within himself that it could impact the war as a whole.

"You're smiling," he murmured.

"Would you have preferred it if I were frowning?" she raised an eyebrow.

"I wasn't sure how you would react," he admitted.

"Lucky for you I rather enjoyed that," she replied cheekily. "Though if you were looking for advice springing that on a woman won't always end so nicely. Best ask permission in the future."

"I'll remember that."

"So..." she muttered, backing up to put some distance between them. "What does this mean?"

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"I am not naive," she replied. "I don't believe in fairy tales, where the boy kisses the girl and suddenly all is well. I'm assuming that the last five minutes didn't turn you completely away from the First Order."

His face dropped and he looked contemplative, but he didn't respond.

"I'm realistic, Ky... Ben," she corrected herself, and his eyes shot up to meet hers, though she couldn't tell how he felt about her using his given name over his chosen. "I know I would be a fool to let my guard down because of this, and I would be a fool to think that this would turn you from your path. But I also know that there's a limit to how far I'm willing to let things go while you're still running around, acting as Snoke's attack dog. I don't expect any grandiose changes to happen quickly, you're still my prisoner and we're still staying here until it is either safe to return or unsafe to stay. Trust is something you earn, and just because we kissed doesn't mean that I am going to trust you any more than I did five minutes ago." She tensed as she finished, preparing herself for him to confess that it was a ruse, or get upset that she wouldn't trust him, but he looked at her and nodded once.

"That seems logical," he replied.

"Good," she smiled. "Though you won't hear me objecting if it were to happen again."

He let off a soft chuckle. "Am I forgiven for...?" he trailed off, making a motion towards the outside of the tent.

"It's really hard to say," she bit her lip. "I don't like what happened out there, but until we can prove otherwise that's the only reason I'm here, and it's hard to be upset about not being dead," she replied honestly. "But I must know; Why were you so intent on saving me? Up until that point we barely seemed able to have a civil conversation, let alone being to the point where you would attempt to save my life."

His face hardened as he thought in silence for a moment. "I don't know what was going through my head at that moment," he finally replied. "When you hit your head I, at first, had every intention of leaving you there to suffer your consequences. To tell the truth I kind of enjoyed seeing you work yourself into that state. But I realized that if you were to perish that would leave me in a very precarious situation, so I did what I had to in order to help you. And when I touched you... those things I saw. The things you did, what you were willing to do, for your cause, they horrified me and awed me all at once, and there was no time to process those thoughts before I saw your death. And in that moment I panicked. All I knew was that you were dead in front of me, and in that moment the thought of that was unbearable. So I did the only thing I could think of; I tried to heal you. But healing, especially for those like me, usually comes at a price, but right then I was willing to pay any price."

"But... you've said it yourself several times. I'm a threat to you, and to everything the First Order stands for."

"That didn't matter to me, not then. I didn't think of the First Order at all. The only thing I thought about was losing that voice that had called to me."

"If you saw all that, you do know why I can never switch sides, why I could never bring myself to fight for the First Order."

"I know. But that doesn't mean you must fight against them."

"That would leave me in a very difficult position if I were to choose to fight," she pointed out. "Or maybe we both step away from the fight. I've had enough with giant battles and light versus dark, good versus evil type fights for my life. I'd rather not be pulled into another one in a place I know so little about. You and I, we're powerful. We can keep them away. We don't have to fight, and we don't have to stand with either side."

"You don't really believe that, do you?" he scoffed.

"Maybe I do," she shot back. "I came here to help others fight the darkness, but the First Order isn't using dark magic, they're using military tactics. And here you are, and 'fight the darkness' has a very real connotation when it comes to you. Maybe I wasn't brought here to help a galaxy, that's an overwhelming thought that makes me see there isn't much future for me. Maybe I'm here to help one person fight their own darkness. Because I can feel you, Ben," she reached for his hand as he winced when she used his name. "I can feel you're not all dark. And you still have a choice, you always will until your very end. And maybe that choice is run with me, get away from all this, and let those who actually want to fight have their battles."

"I wish it were that simple, but I know them. Snoke will not stop looking for me, and if he finds out you've been holding me here he'll demand that I bring you to him, at which point he'll either kill you or hold you until you crack and agree to join him. And we don't have enough supplies to last forever, someone is planning on bringing you some. Do you trust them enough not to tell if they see something happening between us? And if they do tell, what do you think the Resistance is going to do to you? Do you think they'll celebrate you as a hero, or will they see you as a traitor? No matter what happens there will be someone unhappy with this, and there's a good chance you will be targeted because of it."

"An entire galaxy around you and you're telling me there's nowhere we could hide?"

"Not forever," he shook his head.

She bit her lip and thought a moment. "What if we do fight? We could join the Resistance during a battle, that way you could prove your loyalty to them."

"And then what, exactly?" he snapped. "Unless that battle is taking down Snoke and much of top tier of the First Order making such a public statement will still cause us to be targeted."

"Even if we both went our separate ways now we'll be targets," she retorted. "You can't tell me the Resistance wouldn't kill you if this arrangement fails, and I am a known sympathizer with abilities beyond what most can do. It would be a mistake for the First Order not to try to kill me if they have the chance. And knowing their methods I fear for any planet they may find me on."

"Starkiller was destroyed," he reminded her.

"Are they really going to give up that easily?" she raised an eyebrow. "Because, from what I have read of Leia's diary and some historical texts, this is not the first time something like Starkiller has been constructed. Yes, it dwarfed its predecessors, but no one so far seems very keen not to keep building these bloody giant weapons and blowing planets out of the sky."

"They were decimated, but so was the Resistance. The First Order may have lost many of their ranks as Starkiller was destroyed, but they are nothing if not organized. I would not be surprised if Hux has the survivors collected together and is preparing them to go after my mother and her base. It's just a matter of moving them to a different ship and making a few quick plans."

Hermione's stomach tied in a knot at the thought of Poe and Leia at the base surrounded by aging equipment and a rather ragtag version of an army. In her mind's eye a large ship, sleek, powerful, and efficient, was preparing to come for them, and she wasn't sure how they would make it out of that alive. She wondered if Leia and Poe had decided to evacuate, to abandon the base and go try to hide somewhere a little safer until they were no longer being hunted or until the First Order forced them from that hiding spot to go scurrying like a rabbit trying to evade a hawk. Part of her mind wondered how much of the First Order's resources were going to try to find Kylo. Did Snoke care that his apprentice was missing, or did he sense an opportunity to deal another devastating blow to the Resistance and felt that it was too good an opportunity to let pass?

"Maybe we should run," she said softly. "If you and I were to expose ourselves, then to run, maybe we could draw their attention long enough to let the Resistance escape..."

"No," he interrupted firmly. "As you said, our allegiances are not going to suddenly shift due to our current circumstances. I am not willing to be hunted in order to let a few rebel fighters scatter off. It's war, Hermione, and sometimes leaders must live with the consequences of the decisions they have made. The rebels went after Starkiller..."

"To prevent it from going after them!" she snapped. "They were being targeted, and they were seconds away from being destroyed before Starkiller was destroyed first."

"There are still consequences. You don't need to know much about this war to know that when one side attacks the other side will retaliate."

She took a deep breath, but realized he was right, especially considering that the rebels seemed to be very outgunned even after the destruction of the First Order's main weapon. And she knew she now had decisions to make. If her mission really was to help Kylo turn away from the Dark Side she was first going to have to convince him to turn away from a very powerful organization headed by someone for whom he still held some level of reverence. Without knowing much about the First Order, and even less about Snoke, this would be no easy feat, but she felt sure that this was why she was here, why they were connected in a way that even he didn't seem to understand. To turn him she would have to gain his trust, and, more importantly, unseat Snoke as his main motivator. She tried to keep her breathing as even as possible, lest he feel the panic starting to bubble up inside her, but the way he tilted his head gave away that she hadn't been as successful as she hoped.

"You're afraid," he noted. "Not of the fight," he continued, eyes squinting as she felt as though her every thought was suddenly written upon her chest as bright and large as a theater marquee. "You've been through fights, by now you know how to use any fear that they cause to your advantage. No, you're afraid of something else." He stepped towards her, reaching towards her face, gently pressing the pads of his fingertips to one side. "Failure," he said softly.

"I've always been afraid of failure," she admitted. "We have this creature where I'm from, a boggart. No one knows what it really looks like, because it always takes the shape of what you fear the most. And mine always showed me failing."

"You think that if you fail to help me, to save me, that you are going to cause the Resistance to lose the war," he murmured.

She swallowed and nodded.

"Do you really think that what side I fight for will be the deciding factor in this war?"

"I feel like I have to have a purpose here," she replied. "And I think I know that purpose, but if I'm wrong I fear that I will watch the Resistance fail."

"Are you really that invested in them?" he questioned, then his brow furrowed as a few images flashed through her mind. "You care for some of them, especially that pilot."

"Besides you they're the only people I've known since I got here, and they've shown me kindness. It's hard not to care for them. But they aren't the only ones here I care for," she said, reaching up to take his hand. "I want to help you, Ben. I want to give you a future, but I can't see you having much of one if you return to Snoke and the Dark Side, because I've seen what the darkness does to people. It consumes them, twists them into some perverted version of who they once were, and once they're far enough in it's nearly impossible to return."

"Nearly impossible?"

"Would I even be trying here if I didn't think there was some possibility that you are not completely lost to the Dark Side? Do you think I ever would have taken those wards down if I thought you couldn't change?"

She could feel his emotions flickering, from joy, to fear, to excitement. She decided to press her luck and gently press her lips against his again, and she felt him relax into her. The road to trusting each other would be long, and she knew with their personalities it would be volatile, but in her heart she knew that if she stayed the course that he could still turn from the Dark Side, and that his turning could change the bleak looking fate of the galaxy.

XXXXXXX

Later that evening Kylo offered to cook. Hermione, wanting to be able to sit outside without feeling guilty, decided to start the monumental task of cleaning up what she could of the dead things. She moved through the forest, vanishing piles of insects and animals, her stomach turning with each wave of her wand. She found herself apologizing to the creatures under her breath, saying she had never meant for their lives to be taken for hers, that she was horrified at what had happened, but inside her head she still couldn't place the blame on Kylo for the act. Hadn't she felt a moment, once she had thought Harry had died, where she would have done the same thing in order to bring him back? Hadn't she wished that she could pull life from anywhere, from everywhere, including herself, and give it to him? Had she grown up learning to use the Force rather than magic might she have tried the very same thing, not thinking about what might happen to the living things around her, just hoping to save her friend?

She wondered how different magic really was from the Force. She and Kylo had some similar abilities, though she mostly relied on her wand for things like summoning whereas he could do it with just the wave of a hand. He didn't seem able to conjure things or make them disappear as she was able to, merely manipulate the things around him, including people's minds. She knew when he had touched her face earlier that the gesture was not tender, he could feel him intruding her thoughts, trying to find answers that she might not be willing to say aloud. She had let him then, not put up the occlumency shields she had started constructing when she learned Harry was supposed to be learning the subject, because she had been curious to see what he could see, how far he was willing to push her mind, and how he used the information, but also in that moment she had seen the limits of that very power, seen him using it to enter unwilling minds with the force and finesse of a charging bull, forcing memories and thoughts to come to him and taking them despite their owner's attempts to keep them away. She saw his frustration that he was unable to force Rey's mind to bend to his, felt his twinge of fear and doubt when they wouldn't. She wasn't sure if he knew the information he was giving her though their connection as he worked on her mind, and she felt no need to alert him to the fact that their connection went both ways. If he tried it again she was determined to nudge back, to see if she could enter and manipulate his mind in the same way he did hers merely through his physical or mental connection.

As she became lost in her thoughts the motions she made with her wand became automatic, clearing bodies from her path without a second thought, and giving the edge of her wards a healthy berth. She was sure when she came here that she had warded their transport well enough, and that Snoke was still distracted enough, that she had essentially caused Kylo Ren to disappear without a trace. That was evidenced by the fact that no troops from the First Order had shown up to come fight for him, no ship had even flown over indicating that he knew the planet if not the exact location. But she was aware that enough time had passed that her guard must be up, that a wrong move may spell disaster.

It happened as she was contemplating moving the wards closer to the tent to give the forest a chance to recover. The smell of fresh water overtook her, and she could see a beautiful stream just outside the boundaries. Just on the other side of the wards everything was still alive, lush and green, just the quick hints of movement indicating that there were animals close to the stream who were aware of her presence and trying to keep from her sight. She stepped up to the very edge of the wards, trying to put as much of the brown tinged scene of death surrounding out of her sight as possible, wanting to revel in the beauty of the planet for a moment. The rocks she was standing on were uneven and slick with rotting moss. She lost her footing and fell forward, though the wards, landing on a soft blanket of thick grass within arms reach of the stream. She froze, torn between scrambling back through the wards, and enjoying the scene for just another moment more. When nothing happened immediately she cautiously stood, looking around as though she expected an ambush, and stooped to put her fingers into the clear running water. A few blue and green fish-like creatures came to explore her wiggling appendages, and she played with them a moment before she smiled as she straightened, ready to return to the safety of the wards. But just as she stepped forward she heard the voice.

"There you are, child," Snoke's wretched voice echoed inside her head and sent ice through her veins. She ducked into the wards, and immediately his presence disappeared, but she knew the damage had been done.