It concerned him how little he understood any of his actions since his training had restarted. As his thoughts flashed across his mind in a rare moment of lucidity, he wondered if he hadn't become completely unhinged after the Supreme Leader had begun the finishing touches on his mind. But it hadn't been all Snoke, had it? The Force had intervened, too. He had felt it at the time, although had no space to contemplate it, but the Force, in all its ambiguous glory, had made several very active intrusions into his fragile mind at the time. It was utterly unheard of.

In their last moments, she was screaming at him, begging him for an answer to all this, wanting to at least have some sort of reason to justify the insanity. But he had had none to give. He felt the bitter sting of treacherous tears come into his eyes as his lips twisted into a confused expression.

"You ruined me," was the best he could come up with. And it was true. "This is all your fault."

Ahh, the old mantra. He'd been telling himself this so much lately he was starting to believe it now. Maybe a part of him actually did believe it. After all the lies, all the betrayal, all of the false futures promised and shattered at his feet, he believed in nothing now. Maybe he believed in her. Believed in her existence. Because it was indisputable. Her. Rey. The Girl. Strong in the Force, just as he was. Capable of so much she didn't know.

In his deadened state of mind, the idea was like a small piece of foam left floating in an ocean to cling to when all else suggested he should just go ahead and drown.

So he clung to it. Clung to her. But even that made him angry for some reason. In a move he could only describe a split second later as "rash", he slammed his hand down on the eject button despite the high altitude and was flung into the sky and away from her and the impossible conversation she was so desperate to have.

The air was so thin, but thanks to his helmet he could still manage to suck in several gasps. The lack of oxygen made him light headed, drunk even, but as much as it disoriented him, he never passed out. After what seemed like forever in free-fall, there was a jolt and he felt himself lifted again into the air and looked up to spot a silver parachute billowing above him. He looked detachedly at the barren landscape around him and thought dully of how it stretched forever into flat, dusty nothing. No oases, no lakes or oceans. He thought briefly that he'd have to go back and try to find his ship once he landed. How far away would he end up?

He turned his head, but doing so was a mistake. His brain swam, but as he struggled to focus into the distance, he saw not too far away another chute like his own and he couldn't help but smile as the darkness closed in around him. So she made it.

—

Rey awoke to find herself upright and with a split lip, the dingy land of the cracked planet shrouded in early dusk. She pushed her elbows away from her body and nearly screamed. Her skin, burned raw from the heat of the atmosphere-skimming ship and burned again from the sudden icy cold of high atmosphere, sent unimaginable signals of pain to her brain. Every inch of her seemed to suffer. Sucking in several deep breaths and trying to clear her mind of the altitude-induced haze, she slowly, carefully, brought up her arms and reached up to undo the harness clasp. Her fingers tugged at the buckle, and when it didn't give, she dared to tug a little harder despite the sharper sensation of pain it elicited. It was no good. Her harness was jammed.

Rey sighed and plunked her head against the headrest. In her boot, she knew, she still kept her knife from Jakku, but could she reach it? She strained against the straps and realized that where she was covered, her clothing had mostly protected her, and so she carefully reached down, risking the rub and hissing as sparks of pain flew along her forearm. She whimpered as her raw fingers brushed against the rough material of her boots to finally fish out her rough-hewn weapon. Easing herself back up, it took about 15 minutes to cut through the sturdy material of the harness straps before she was finally free.

The jammed buckle of the harness made a loud clang as it dropped against the bottom of the seat, and as she stepped away from the pilot's seat, her head swam and she reached out to steady herself.

The planet looked as cracked and broken as she felt. There were no signs of any plants or life in any direction. She took in an uneasy breath. Was the Resistance's new base really here? If not….

Her eyes scanned the horizon until they spotted just what she had hoped- smoke. Supplies, water, rations- the age old list came echoing back into her head. These were her priorities now, and gingerly, mindful of her exposed and protesting legs, she began the journey to the wreckage.

Would he be there? she suddenly thought.

She stopped, looking around again. "You ruined me," she heard him say in her mind again as she replayed their last few moments. "This is all your fault."

She squeezed her eyes shut. She knew what he was saying was ridiculous. What he was, what he'd spent years making himself to be, had nothing to do with her. Nothing was her fault.

"You should have stayed on Jakku."

She clenched her fists at the recollection and a scowl marred her face. How dare he. He knew nothing. She sucked on the broken skin of her swollen lower lip and started to make her way, despite the pain ripping through her, with gusto. Whoever gets there first is the one who will survive. I will survive. And I'll cover myself in whatever bacta is left on both ships. First to the wreckage goes the spoils.

—

Kylo remembered briefly pulling at the release on his harness before tumbling down from his ejected pilot's seat and being embraced by dark oblivion once more. When he finally came fully to, it was to find the world shrouded in night and his body veritably screaming.

Everything hurt, and for all his several seconds of trying and failing to figure out why, as clarity began to return to him, he realized it was probably a combination of, well, everything. When he'd fought the bounty hunters and the tavern vermin, he'd used every muscle in his body to do it, and it had felt good at the time. Now, coupled with lack of sleep, the crash, the impact, he wondered if he was dying.

Digging his gloved fingers into the dirt, he tried to push himself off of the ground before his arms gave out from under him and he tumbled back down. Everything was stiff, heavy. Nothing obeyed his commands. As he twisted to roll over onto his back, a sharp and deep pain radiated through his entire core and he yelled. Gripping at his side, it was the bowcaster wound.

He couldn't think about that, about why it was there or why it was suddenly hurting him again. Still couldn't bring himself to contemplate anything about it. Clenching his jaw and fuming through his teeth, he rolled back onto his stomach and willed himself to his feet. He cried out, his face still locked in a sharp grimace, and he stumbled a few paces before finally evening out. His breathing was heavy through the pain and as he looked up, directly in front of him was a dim glow in the distance. He stilled, considering it, and then carefully scanned the rest of the horizon. The planet was beyond desolate, and as the glow was the only substantial thing in range of him, he clenched his arm around his abdomen, tried to make his shaky mind pull the force close, and went towards it.

—

Rey was raised by the desert, but this wasn't the desert. This was something else entirely. Something that sucked the very moisture from your pores and left you a withered, burnt husk.

It had taken her hours to reach the source of the smoke, the flatness having been misleading as to how close it had been, and the only thing that kept her guided in the right direction were the flames licking at the sky. She was right, it had been the crash. 'Had' being the operative word. By the time she reached the wreckage, it was happily aflame. Nothing was salvageable.

Rey felt the overwhelming urge to cry. Standing there in front of the small inferno her shoulders slumped and her head hung down in front of her. Stop that, she felt herself think. This is the reaction of a child. But she couldn't help it. If only one of the ships had remained somewhat intact, then she could have gotten rations or water or something instead of nothing on a planet that had nothing.

Unsure of what else to do, she just stood, staring at it. Maybe if she waited for the fire to end, maybe in some random compartment….

There was an explosion and a large lick of fire shot up suddenly towards the star-speckled sky. Her lips wavered, and although logic told her there would be nothing to find in even the smallest corner of these two twisted ships in such a raging fire, she couldn't help herself. She sat down where she stood, crossing her legs in front of her, and the respite from standing, from walking at least, washed over her as she watched it all blaze on.

She didn't know how long she sat there, or when she began to doze off.

—

He kept his arm plastered around his midsection, mildly afraid that if he moved it, the pain would come again and he would actually have to think about that damned wound and what to do about it. To keep himself going, he had emptied his mind, focused only on the dim light in front of him when, like light, airy seedlings on the wind, the thoughts came wafting towards him.

He saw a small girl with three even smaller buns pulled into her hair. He saw as she scaled dangerous derelict ships. And he saw as she lay shivering, fighting back tears, as she clutched a newly handmade doll formed from the orange of old Rebel fatigues.

He sighed, never wavering in his pace, but he didn't block it out- he let the images hit him one after the other, and suddenly the girl was a bit older now but still not yet reaching maturity.

He saw her stronger, more sure, as she lept over large metal chasms, and watched as she sucked on the tiny cuts that peppered her hands when she couldn't yet afford new gloves to help her wrench out parts still hidden in ships. He saw her resting in a new place, her own place he sensed, but her eyes were colder. The tears and worry came less to them now, but when they did, they overtook her, and her entire form would shake and shiver in despair and loneliness.

He wasn't sure when he'd stopped walking but his breath had quickened by the time the images faded.

What was that? he wondered.

When he reached out for the only person those images could have belonged to, he found her asleep.

Quietly, silently, he withdrew from her mind.

Digging his boot into the ground, he resumed his former pace, and with what whispers of the projection he could still grasp, he tried to discern the direction they'd come from but it was to no avail. Silently he cursed, and he clutched tightly to the fabric of his dusty tunic.

He couldn't have been the only one to see the light on the horizon. It was the only place to go.

—

A prickling sensation like needles against her skin or cold water suddenly hit the back of her neck and she flinched upright, opening her eyes to the dim promise of dawn and a gross, smoldering mass before her.

She gasped. The fire was finally out. But as she rose to her feet, the sensation at the back of her neck- perhaps cold water was more apt after all- didn't go away. Her mind chose to ignore it, and instead her instincts kicked into action as she surveyed the damage and began combing her way through the burnt ships.

In all her years as a scavenger, she'd never seen anything like this. The two ships, between her maneuver and the subsequent fire, had literally become fused, and sat before her as one nearly impenetrable mass of melted metal. Compartments were welded shut, and what few she could pry open gave up nothing but charred lumps of what had once been their contents. All of Rey's provisions had been destroyed, her water canisters burst. If Kylo had brought anything with him as well, she couldn't find it. At least not anything intact.

The feeling at the back of her neck caused the hairs there to rise. Kylo. Climbing out of the wreckage and looking off into the distance she could just make out a tall black figure slowly making its way towards her and her heart began to beat furiously.

At least there's nothing for him to take.

Somehow, even though the same applied to her as well, that idea was comforting.

Planting her feet on the ground, she stood there and watched him. He was still distant, but close enough for her to make out his obviously pained gait. He was clearly wounded, but surprisingly she didn't relish much in the idea. This wasn't a desert, but it was close enough, and the ill-provisioned adrift in such an environment, especially injured, were always to be pitied.

A searing heat, a flash of anger charged across her mind at the conclusion of that thought, accompanied by a feeling of disdain. She frowned. Had he heard her thoughts? Exhausted as she was, she tried to check through her mental defenses but found no obvious holes. She would worry about it later.

Now that the ships were definitely impossible it left only one option- finding the Resistance base. Wherever it was.

She sighed.

With no physical markers and nothing at all to distinguish itself along the horizon, Rey closed her eyes and reached out for any signs of life she could find. She breathed in, felt the dry dust beneath her boots, and breathed out, feeling the arid atmosphere drying out her throat.

There. Out towards her left, in a north-westernly direction. Something living. Perhaps several somethings living. She dared to let a small smile creep along her lips.

Glancing back behind her, she saw Kylo coming steadily closer, and, turning her back on him, she followed the pull of life.

—

He no longer felt the burn of his muscles after that first hour of walking, but his side was still almost unbearable. Something was definitely wrong. Too bad he didn't have time to worry about it.

Following the flames had been wise as his mind was too noisy after the visitation of the scavenger's dream-thoughts to truly focus on anything more complicated than 'see light, follow light'. As day started to take hold, he could make out the massive burnt out hulls of both their ships and a lone figure picking around it like a carrion fowl around a corpse.

Rey.

He let go a sigh. She had clearly survived the landing better than he had. His side prevented him from moving faster, so instead he tried reaching out only to be met with sturdy walls at the edges of her mind. Scowling, he looked on and watched as her small figure climbed out of the wreckage and looked towards him.

Yes, I'm right here… he thought, and was instead met with a wave of impersonal pity emanating from her. His eyes flared and he bared his teeth. The last thing he needed from her was that.

He thought he saw her move back a bit and he readily took a small bit of satisfaction from it, but sighed loudly as she turned around and started walking away.

Where the hell is she going? he growled to himself, and watched as she left, carrying nothing more than herself and a very familiar metallic gleam shining at her hip.

This was unacceptable. He sucked in a breath and forced himself to quicken his pace- pain meant nothing.

A/N: Soo, a little bit more setup. It's lonely out in the wastes, after all.

THANK YOU to Atiama Amisl, bluejustice13, SilverclawRose, River Fox (as absolutely always), Starry-Eyed Bex, firerosedreamer67, and chinrichs2018 (why? are you worried you're already sucked in? Don't worry, I'll hold you close *lick*...) for your reviews on the last chapter! I realize it'd been a bit of time since the last update, and I was pleased to read you guys' thoughts.

I've been really worried over this and the next chapter, worried that they might be dragging or that if I don't do them just right the rest of the story won't work. x.x So please do let me know what you think, because next chapter...