Ren
"WHERE IS SHE?"
The moment he regained consciousness, every emotion came rushing back. He could taste the sterile, dry air of the med bay on the back of his tongue, indicating that he had been there for at least a few hours. There was a strange lack of personnel around, mainly droids. Cowards. Too afraid to face him, the weak commander.
Within moments of awakening there was the sharp salt of blood in his mouth. He jerked his arm to find that it was tied down.
He roared.
"Sir! Please sir, you must-!" A med officer had rushed towards him, hands out to try and push him back to the mattress. He did not even get close before Ren had knocked him against the wall.
"GET ME HUX!" He yelled, breaking the arm restraints quickly. He heard the crackle of a trooper's radio and whipped his head to the door.
"Easy, Ren," Hux said, stepping neatly through the door, not a bit out of breath. "You've barely begun to heal from your little tussle."
Ren glared at him, his black hair stringy and strewn across his face. They had stripped him of almost everything but his pants, but his chest was so covered with bandages that it was hardly bare. His chest heaved with exertion and rage at the pristine general, even his stance military.
"Where is she?" Ren asked, his dark gaze daring Hux to tell him what he already knew.
"She escaped," Hux replied calmly.
The room was filled with Ren's roar, and he lunged at the general.
"Lay back," Hux snapped as two troopers restrained Ren. "You are so very delicate."
Hux would die. The moment Ren's arms were free, he would die.
"I want her!" Ren screamed, fighting against the hard plexi armor of the soldiers. "Bring her to me!" Hair clung to his wet lips and he ignored the tearing pain in his side and cheek as he thrashed. He would have her. No one, no one would stop him. He would taste her flesh once more, reveling in its softness. He would hear her murmur his name, see her smile at him, because of him.
Hux's boots clicked against the floor as he circled the prostrate commander. "Your incredible ability to focus only on your personal interests has caused quite the damage, Ren."
Ren bared his teeth. "She was an asset for the First Order. I was under orders from the Supreme Leader!"
"The Supreme Leader cares more about the galaxy than the girl," Hux snapped. Ren fell silent, his heart thudding in panic for a moment. Was the Supreme Leader angry? Ren would be punished for his weakness. In the end, he would beg for it.
Hux raised his chin so his sharp eyes looked down on Ren's usually towering frame. "The Supreme Leader is displeased. He had ordered me to collect you and deliver you to him to complete your training."
Ren sat up sharply, and the troopers jumped to push him back down but he shrugged them off, eyes only on Hux. "He stated this to you?"
Hux gave a dangerous little smile—he knew he had Ren now. "Yes."
Ren laid back against the damp bedsheets, eyes staring blankly up at the ceiling. Finally, the Supreme Leader had summoned him, in person, for this. He had though this was just another setback—another reason for Snoke to push him to the outer rim with assignments and withhold his presence, his training. Somehow, Leader Snoke had changed his mind.
Ren sighed, letting the idea wash over him. He remembered his Master's tireless, ruthless, training. There had been many times he had thought he would die. And now…now he would finally complete what he had begun, the deal with the darkness he had made long ago.
"One rule," Hux said, interrupting his thoughts. Ren's tired eyes met the General's, his eyes glittering with something dangerous.
A small smile played at the thin lips, and for a moment all that could be heard was the soft beep of Ren's heart monitor.
"You must kill the girl."
Rey
Today was the day; the day she would meet Luke Skywalker. In her absence, it had been discovered that it was RT-DT who held the rest of the map. Rey met RT and the famous C3PO herself, and was charmed by the smaller droid instantly. He was different than BB-8, with a feisty answer to anything. C3PO was not what she expected at all, but was pleasant enough. However, seeing BB-8 again was the best.
He had rolled right into her legs when he had spotted her until she knelt down and put a hand on his round little base.
"BB-8, I'm so glad to see you!" She had cried.
"You escaped from that place! I thought you wouldn't ever come back!"
She grinned at him. "You think so little of me? Think the First Order would beat me down?"
BB-8 beeped his protests, but she laughed him off. "Thank you for telling them what you saw, and for getting away safely. He couldn't get a thing out of me, but I'm sure you would have been taken apart!"
BB-8 shrieked his alarm. "He didn't take you apart, did he?"
"He couldn't of. Not even if he had tried."
BB-8 rolled back and forth a little shyly. "I'm sorry I couldn't help you. I wasn't fast enough."
Rey frowned at her little friend. "Oh hush. You did the best you could. And it was…better this way. Trust me."
BB-8 questioned her statement, but she just shook her head. She couldn't tell anyone about her and Ren. Only Leia and Han knew. Leia had asked her if she could tell Han, and Rey had agreed, secretly relieved that she would never have to tell him. But she could immediately tell when Han knew, because he looked at her different and clapped his hand on her shoulder in the mess hall.
"That job offer stands, kid. If you ever get tired of Luke, just give me or Chewie a call."
She had nodded, breathless at the look in his eyes.
But it had already been decided that she would train with Luke. Chewie and Han would drop her off there since the Falcon wasn't tracked on their way to try and patch up Han's last botched job. Rey didn't get why he, a war hero, wasn't working with the resistance anymore. But after seeing Leia's face when he announced his plans, she knew better.
And now, on her last day at the base, Rey had one last string to tie up.
Finn lay quiet as the snowfall on Starkiller. His healing skin was a gentle pink-brown from the multiple bacta treatments, but he hadn't awoken. Yet. The doctors assured them all that he would wake, that he was still in there.
But not yet.
Rey knelt beside him, took his hand. It was warm, just like it had been on Jakku, on the Falcon. On Starkiller.
She opened her mouth to say something. But then she swallowed hard, licked her lips. Took a breath to try again. But nothing was right.
"I'm sorry, Finn," she finally said. "It's my fault you're hurt. You got caught in Ren and I's crossfire…Something you didn't even know about."
She squeezed his hand, pressed her lips together. "I don't know how to make this right. I want to. You are…you're my friend. I never wanted to hurt you. I'm going to find Luke, and I'm sorry I haven't come sooner. But I'm going to become stronger, strong enough to protect you, and Han, and Leia, and the whole resistance. I know you were against all this, against fighting the First Order. But I've been there, and I've seen it…There's so many people like you, Finn. Troopers who deserve real lives. And…Ren. He's…complicated. I love him. I can't hide from him, or from anyone."
Rey touched Finn's cheek without thinking. "I'll come back soon. I hope you hear me, somewhere. I hope you understand. I hope that when you wake up, you'll join us."
She closed her eyes, trying not to cry. She wished he would say something, something that challenged her and helped her. Finn understood her, somehow. Without Ren, she felt so alone.
After she dropped a quick kiss onto Finn's forehead, surprising herself with her own tenderness, she headed towards the hangar, where Chewie waited for her.
Ren
He was desolate.
The Supreme Leader had drawn the line in the sand, had given him the choice now: him or her. The power of the dark side, or his…his love. Ren wanted her, wanted to know she was safe and that she still thought of him the same. Like his beating heart had been ripped out, he was nothing but a cold, empty shell. At night, he couldn't sleep; so he stood, resting his forehead against his arm on the glass of his large window, watching the endless sea of black until the stars blurred and stabbed at his vision. She was out there, living, laughing. His Rey.
The darkness was all that was left beside the longing. With Rey, he had still felt so much, still got angry, but it was as if her presence lifted them. The highs of his feelings were joy, not fleeting moments of power. His lows were better than the ones he felt alone.
But she was gone. And he had been ordered to kill her.
His mind fought hard against him, telling him again and again that she wouldn't return to him. That she was happy to be free of him. That it all had just been a game, a ploy for her freedom. That she found another, found her love and happiness in that traitor of a soldier.
"He could never love her as I do," he whispered to himself as he stared out into the endless void of space. "Never." If that was the truth, then perhaps he could kill her out of anger.
"What do I do?" He murmured to his grandfather, who said nothing anymore. "What do I do?
Laying in his rooms, recovering from the severe injuries that had left him scarred, he finally decided.
He could not kill her now. He would go, find her. Capture her. He knew her; she would be with Luke. He would present Luke's head and Rey's hand in his to his master, and hopefully that would be enough.
And so, he was exactly where he was months ago, before everything. Before her. Starkiller was destroyed, the Republic was no more, and Rey was gone. And once again, Ren took his ship back and set the course to find Luke Skywalker.
Rey
The island was just like the one in her dreams. All green and grey, stone and grass. Beautiful. A pathway of rock was imbedded in the long side of the island, leading up to where she already knew she'd find Luke. The Force thrummed quietly, almost like ripples in the pond. She could feel his subtle, quiet presence. Her stomach was knotted with nerves and tension so she was sure her arrival was broadcasted to him and any other Force-sensitive creature on the planet.
She had said goodbye to Chewbacca and began her trek up and up, around and around. The warm sun that fell on her shoulders was welcome and only made the island feel more familiar. The air was wetter, heavier than Jakku, but not jarring.
The sun was low in the sky when a lone figure rose into her view. She trekked up the hill in larger strides now, so eager, yet so afraid. Luke. Luke Skywalker, in front of her.
He turned and his arms went to draw his hood down to reveal the face of an old man. The only thing that was the same as the stories were the piercing blue eyes, like piece of the sky. Yet even in their lightness, there was an exhaustion she saw too often in the faces of the old and starved on Jakku.
She hesitated for a moment before her thoughts connected, and she hurried to extend her gift to him that she had brought: his father's lightsaber.
There was a long, long moment of stillness and quiet. His eyes did not stray from hers, not even to the saber. He knew what it was. And then, finally his voice echoed from his throat into the air.
"I don't train padawans anymore."
She swallowed and felt a swell of rejection. But she had known, somehow, that he would be reluctant.
"You know who I am, then?" She asked.
A low hum came from the back of his throat. "No, not really. But I feel what you are, and I have seen you in a vision."
She nodded slowly. "Well, then I will not be a padawan," she looked up to meet his eyes again with a confidence she didn't know she had. "Let me be a friend."
He stared at her again with the silence. She frowned a little and pushed her arm a little closer to him. Finally, he slowly reached out and took it.
"Friend," he repeated, and she nodded. "Then I suppose this is a gift."
Rey nodded, buns bobbing against her scalp. "Yes…but not really from me. From Leia."
An eyebrow was raised, followed by a small sigh. "You better come in and tell me how she got it, then." He told her. "Because the last time I saw this it was in my own hand."
She glanced down at the outstretched limb and realized that his forearm was mostly gone, all metal now. Her brow furrowed, for the prosthetics she had seen were much less…primitive, at least in the resistance.
"The hand you lost to Vader?" She asked, and he nodded before turning to lead her away.
"The lightsaber passed from him to me," Luke said so quietly she could almost not hear him as they walked. "When it was lost, I knew it was a sign. I would practice the old Jedi ways and not pass on any of my sabers. The line would not continue. It was too dangerous. But Leia…She always has done things her own way. And we had hoped…we had hoped to triumph the darkness in our blood with nurture…but we three all failed at that, as I'm sure you know."
Rey swallowed. He did not know about her and Ren. He did not really know about her at all. Yet he spoke with such familiarity, sort of…like he did know. It troubled her. Only Ren and her had ever spoken that way, and that was because they had peeked into each other's mind and knew what the other knew and could speak without assumption. Ren had told her Luke was powerful—was he powerful enough to look into her mind without her knowing?
"You are afraid of something that is impossible. I may sense your feelings in the force around you, but I do not force myself into other's heads like a darksider," Luke cut in, his voice a little accusatory.
Rey flushed and replied, "I know very little of Jedi." She had been holed up with Ren this whole time, how was she to know?
Luke did not reply as he ducked into a stone and wood hut, built into a cave. It was all shadows inside until Luke lit a lamp with fire. The lack of electricity surprised Rey; did he not have any solar panels?
"Who are you?" He asked, and Rey jumped a little, casting him a cautious glance.
"Rey…of Jakku." In front of a legened, a Skywalker, she was never more aware that she had no last name.
"Sit."
She sat on a stump stool and leaned forward onto the rough hewn table.
"Will you train me?" She asked.
He said nothing, only stirred something that had already been cooking on the stove. She grew impatient.
"Please," she said. "I have to become stronger. I have to—"
"Save him?"
She was surprised at the sadness in Luke's eyes.
"No. I just…" She couldn't think of anything to say and instead ducked her chin down to look away.
Luke sighed and turned his body away to fetch two dented metal bowls.
"Here, you're safe from the war," Luke said. "You can do what you need to do. You're troubled, full of fear. That leads to the dark side."
He set down a bowl of soup in front of her and nodded towards a crude door Rey hadn't noticed at first. "You are welcome to stay here for as long as you need."
Rey shoved a few spoonfuls of the stew into her eager mouth before answering. "But you won't train me?"
Luke met her gaze. "The way of the Jedi is over. I will train no one."
She set down her spoon unhappily. What was she to do? How could she improve without a teacher? Should she fight him on this? If he was as stubborn as his nephew, it was not promising. But he interrupted her thoughts before she could decide.
"Tell me, Rey of Jakku. What have you seen?"
She was in Naboo again.
She was standing on the balcony, waiting. Wanting. For a moment she was alone, and then she turned. There was no sound, no indication he was there, but she knew.
He was all in black, and his face was just as she remembered then; calm, observant, hesitant. When their eyes met, his shoulders relaxed and his relief was obvious.
"Rey," he sighed, stepping towards her.
Her arms went around her as if to hold herself together. Something jumped and struggled in her to go to him, but she kept getting flashes of crazed eyes and pain, so much pain.
"Rey," he said again, almost to her now. She caught the sight of his eyes, tender now, and let go.
She was in his arms, burying her face into his shoulder, holding on tight. "Ren…" she murmured. There was no gash on his face, no evil present now.
"My love," he mumbled into her hair. "Here you are."
She nodded, surprised at the tears stinging her eyes. She pressed them into the material of his shirt.
"Are you alright?" He asked.
"Yes." She whispered. "I'm…I'm ok."
He brought her face back with his large hands in order to look at her closely. He laid gentle, light kisses on her cheeks and lips, and she held back a sob.
"Tell me you love me," she asked. He looked surprised, and then concerned. His thumb stroked her cheek and his head tilted.
"I love you, Rey. Have you forgotten?"
She shook her head and dove back into the crook of his neck.
"Sweet Rey," Ren murmured. "Precious, precious Rey."
Her body was trembling, she could feel her legs shake so she clutched him all the closer.
"You're different," he muttered, confused. She shook her head again, the buns brushing against her sun-warmed neck.
"I'm not," she insisted.
He pulled back to look at her again. "What's wrong?"
Realization flooded through her as she looked at his concerned eyes, and she wanted to laugh. Of course this wasn't real. Again, she was torn. She was home here, in his arms. He even smelled the same, lovely and comforting.
She stared up at him.
"Kiss me."
His lips on hers was as familiar as falling into sleep. She felt heady with his touch, his love that she had been so denied in the days before. He crushed her to him, but his lips were only eager, not demanding. She nipped at his lip, begging entrance, and their tongues caressed sweetly. His fingers threaded through her hair to cup the back of her head, his thumb gently brushing the nape of her neck.
Again and again they kissed, only parting for gasps of air. She didn't want to leave the high place of warmth and safety she was in. There was no war, no fear, no pain. There was just them, their love, and a gnawing hunger.
She was weak with the feeling, or maybe lack of air. When her lips began to still, he pulled back, his expression devoted.
"What did you eat last?" He asked, and she laughed a bit breathlessly.
"Berries," she said, dimly remembering a dented bowl of purple and red fruit in a dimly lit cave.
"I can taste them."
She suddenly felt numb. Her little smile slipped from her and she swallowed hard.
"No," She replied softly. "You can't."
The look he gave her hurt, hurt so badly she awoke with a gasp.
Alone in a hard cot, the only sound she could hear was the crackle of fire from the other room. Although she was covered in a sheen of sweat, Rey clutched the scratchy blanket to her body. Just a moment ago it had been him.
Wetness on her cheeks proved too salty to be sweat. She wanted so badly to be there, back in her dream. It had been so real. She hated herself and held her dream as a secret in the dark. She couldn't want that. She wouldn't want that.
The man she wanted was just a dream.
A/N
Hey guys, sorry this took two weeks to put up. Been super busy and this is a "dry" part that I hadn't written before now. I hope it's not too bad. Our lovers are never apart for too long though. I will update again soon, you guys keep me going! Thanks for all the reviews and stuff, y'all are awesome.