Chapter 14: Bedlam

Just as quickly as the headiness of sleep overtook Rey, so she awoke.

She was disorientated and sluggish, similar to how she had awoken after Takodana.

Slowly, she tried to lift her hands to wipe her face and rub her bleary eyes, only to find that they would not move.

Rey stiffened, cold metal cutting into her forearms and ankles.

No.

No, no, no!

Her eyes flew open to find that, just like after Takodana, she was in an interrogation room and strapped back in place on that infernal contraption. Terror flooded through her body, causing her heart to race, its beat drowning her senses.

This was another Force Terror. It had to be. Luke was right when he said they would be back. She should never have fallen asleep.

Rey screamed wordlessly, struggling violently against her restraints, her entire body rising off the palette in a desperate arch.

"Rey!"

His voice was so soft, had she not breathlessly slumped back against the machine at that moment, she would have missed it.

Instead, Rey snapped her eyes to the man in front of her. Maskless.

This was all she could make out, however, as her eyes were blurred with panicked tears that she refused to let spill. Rey hung her head and whimpered helplessly, bracing herself for whatever torture the terror would dish out by his hands next.

But she would not cry. Though her body quivered with the primal dread of being in this position once more, she would not cry.

Rey waited for the scene to play out as it had in reality, scrunching her eyes tightly closed and praying whatever came after would pass quickly.

There was a jostling at her legs, and rather suddenly they were free. This was not what usually happened. Still, she did not move. It had always been futile to run before.

Lightning.

Choke.

His bare hands.

Just let it pass soon, she silently begged.

His hands… Rey realised they were gently clutching her shoulders.

"Rey, look at me. Look at me, please." He was pleading.

"You never say that!" Rey blurted out past trembling lips, "You never, never say that!"

"Rey, look at me."

She shook her head vehemently, feeling his hands trail down her arms, rubbing soothingly as he went.

"You don't do this, you never do this." It came out whispered.

"Rey," His voice was tense, and his hands were at her wrists, "Rey, it's no nightmare."

Her arms were free, and she pulled them against her chest as soon as there was no longer resistance, hugging herself.

"Rey-"

"Stop saying my name."

Rey curled into herself on the contraption and away from him, unable to chase the panic away and comprehend what this phantom was telling her. She heard him sigh, and sensed his hesitation.

She had never been able to sense him in these dreams before.

Her mind was abuzz, her heart beating at an alarming rate, and there were drums in her ears. Rey still kept her eyes tightly clenched.

Then, there was a warm pressure around her body, encircling her, and pressing her arms tighter around herself.

The pounding in her ears gradually lessened, along with the pace of her heart.

Tentatively, Rey cracked open her eyes, only to be met with the shoulder of Kylo Ren's robes. He was holding her, his head tucking hers against his shoulder.

Kylo Ren was holding her.

No, Kylo Ren was comforting her, the hand on her back ever so slightly flexing in the semblance of a stroke.

Rey was torn between shoving him away with everything she had, and wrapping her own arms around him.

The impulse of that last thought startled Rey, but even as she shied from it, and knew she should have thrown him across the room, she realised she was already leaning into him, and he had shifted her closer ever so slightly.

It was absurd, almost sacrilege. Rey had fully intended to draw on all possible fury when dealing with the Dark man.

It felt so natural, and that alarmed Rey. This was entirely problematic.

When he spoke, his chest rumbled with his deep baritone, "This is not a dream, Rey. Don't be afraid. Please."

She shuddered, still unaccustomed to this side of Kylo Ren. She was still apprehensive how far 'this side' extended, or even what side 'this side' was.

"Not a dream?" She asked shakily, edging away from the offending metal underneath her. It was the root of so many of her more horrible nightmares.

He hauled her rather unceremoniously from the interrogation vice, and set her lightly on her feet.

"Not a dream," he repeated grimly, taking a small step back with his hands now back on her shoulders, "And trust me, I've seen those dreams of yours-"

Rey flicked her eyes to his face at the break in his voice, and finally she could see him clearly. He was just as striking as the first time she had seen under the mask. Not even the pale burgundy scar that ran across his face from just below his hairline, off centre a fraction to the left, to his lower right jaw could do anything to mar his features.

The scar she had caused.

His full lips were slightly downcast, and his sharp brows were similarly slanted in consternation. He looked at her with all the intensity of a man starved, his gaze flitting all over her face.

Rey knew he should have intimidated her. She should be afraid, harried, or anguished. She should not feel the sure refuge that instead beset her person as he treated her so. This man was her enemy, Rey knew this. Kylo Ren undoubtedly knew this. Yet the way he was contemplating her, it spoke of only the contrary.

He struggled with his words, his face faintly inflicted with different affectivity as he sorted through his thoughts, and then again when he noticed her studying him. A muscle jumped in his jaw.

"-Those dreams. I will not do that to you, Rey. I will not use the Force on you in such a manner, nor will I ever attack you outside of a completely fair battle." Kylo's words shook as he spoke them through clenched teeth.

She averted her eyes, and winced when her gaze landed on the chair.

"Not very Sith-like of you, is it."

He let her go, and with a wave of his hand the chair was gone. Rey was left staring at the floor, blinking back to reality when Kylo strode past her eye-line and came to rest on the other side of the small room.

He crossed his arms and cautiously regarding her from a distance, having come to some decision Rey was not aware of.

"Perhaps. But now, you are my student."

Rey could only look at him, words making a mess of her mind, but not culminating in enough sense to be spoken aloud.

Kylo shifted on his feet, mouth twisting into a small smirk, and gesturing around the room, "Better than a Force terror, isn't it?"

Rey breathed a sarcastic laugh, "Only slightly-" But oh, was her curiosity peaked. "-What is it, exactly?"

His eyes never left her, even as she wandered around, hand skimming the cold walls.

"A kind of Force Meditation, apparently. An illusion, a corporeal manifestation of our bond in the Force. We can manipulate it as we see fit."

Rey pinned him with a quizzical look. 'Apparently'? As in it was a skill he knew nothing about? Did he recently learn-?

He sighed, completely aware of what was going through her mind.

"Yes, Rey. I learnt it specifically to contact you for this purpose-"

Her eyes were wide now, and her stance was indignant.

"-Must you look so surprised?" He was amused now. "You knew I would pursue you for some reason or another."

"You're very honest about it."

He shrugged, and the smirk was still firmly in place. "Well, you're here aren't you?"

Rey turned to face him head on, a challenging expression painted on her face.

It was all that was necessary, and her cry of surprise died in her throat as Kylo lunged towards her and pinned her to the wall. He had his hands on either side of her head, effectively trapping her. When Rey had recovered, she firmly shoved against his chest to get him off.

He didn't budge. Neither was he hurting her, however. He was just standing there, invading her space, while she glared at him with all the fury of a small star.

He leaned in when she shoved harder, speaking in a low tone near her ear, close enough to feel his breath wash over her neck, "You're going to have try harder than that."

"Get off me!"

Kylo actually chuckled, and Rey only grew more irritated when the sound actually charmed her. "You're really going to have to try harder than that, Rey."

She braced herself against the wall and shoved with all her might, but he had positioned himself far too well. Beating on his chest further, Rey did not miss his pained wince when she landed a particularly hard punch on his left shoulder.

Oh, right.

The wound she had felt, he must still have it, and he must be preventing her from feeling it. It would be a lie to say the thought didn't twist her heart even the slightest bit.

As Rey continued to struggle, she liked to think she avoided hitting him on his shoulder just in case it broke through and she felt it again.

The man had the audacity to roll his eyes at her efforts, before roughly grabbing her arms and pinning them to her sides. Still, he did not actually hurt her.

"Fight me, Rey. Push me off. Make me. It's not that hard, you just need to mean it. I know Luke taught you peace, serenity, and all the rest of that Jedi bull. But here, here you use the Force. And the Force is energy."

She was kicking against him now, as he was far too close to her. Rey was struggling to breathe. He was overwhelming her with his much larger frame, goading her, and hounding her. It was working.

All it took was Kylo shaking her against the wall once- not enough to knock her head, but enough to give her a scare- and he found himself collide with the wall on the other side of the room.

Slowly but surely, Rey's mind cleared of the panic and frustration, and she watched him pry himself off the floor.

He was smiling at her. He was laughing.

"Finally. It's been so long..." He trailed off, his smile fading, but he still regarded her with almost reverend anticipation.

"So long?" Rey asked him once she had caught her breath.

He shook his head, and Rey was instantly on edge once more when he pulled his saber out of nowhere. It had not been on his belt.

"H-How-Where-?"

He gave it a swing, an impressed look on his face, "The holocron wasn't lying about the realism of this illusion."

"Kylo-?"

"The illusion, Rey, we create it, we can manipulate it. Call a lightsaber to you. Make it so."

Rey stood inactive in her bewilderment.

Kylo cocked a brow nonchalantly, "No matter, I'll be attacking you in the next few moments, I'd say you get a handle on calling a saber."

"What-?"

"At least nothing that's done in here leaves any physical damage in reality."

This was all too much far too fast.

"Kylo what are you doing?" Rey asked as he shifted from foot to foot, fear colouring her voice.

He stalked towards her, an almost feral air about him. Rey backed right into the wall when he raised that crossed, red saber above his head.

"Teaching you."

He swung his saber down, and Rey jumped to the right as sparkes showered the area where the blade had connected with metal. Again, he repeated the move on her right, so she dodged back to where she began. They danced back and forth, and Kylo continued to toy with Rey in the same manner. Then he caught her across her stomach, and she did not miss the flicker of concern ghost over his face as she fell to her knees, but her recovery was quick.

Rey could see Kylo becoming impatient with her.

"Call a saber." He eventually growled at her, as she barely managed to duck under an overhead swing.

"I don't know how!" Rey was scared, and she was on the floor, having lost her footing.

"Pretend to hold a weapon and make it SO!"

He brought his saber slicing down in a heavy two-handed hold. Rey raised her hands on instinct, as she would with her staff, holding her breath in anticipation for the agony of the blow.

But none came.

And she was holding something.

A brilliant double-bladed yellow lightsaber. The saber she had fantasised about.

Kylo was smiling at her again, the wild gleam from before no longer in his eyes.

He deactivated his saber and stepped away, watching her fall back against the wall and gasp for air, her inactive saber dropping into her lap.

"Well done."

"Well done?" She echoed questioningly, "What was so 'well done' about that?" She was clutching the burn across her stomach.

"You learnt the first lesson of training to use the darker side of the Force. Acting on impulse. Emotion. Feeling. Feel angry? Act on it. Have pain? Use it to fuel your emotion."

She cringed at the sensation of her latest wound.

"Can I toss the pain of this burn over the bond and we call it even?" Rey groused, glowering up at Kylo. Her anger lost its edge when she saw his sombre expression.

"I'm sorry," he knelt next to her, placing his hands over hers, "I did not know that the Force Bond would have that effect. Truly."

Rey relented to his hold, letting him pry her hands from the burn, and pivoted her head as it lay on the wall to fix him with a puzzled stare.

"I though you said that physical wounds here don't make a difference out there."

He stopped examining the burn, his hands frozen.

"Excuse me."

Instead, he moved to sit beside her.

"Is it true, though? That it won't."

"More or less." The exhaustion she had heard earlier, when he had convinced her to go to sleep, was back. "You won't actually have the wound, but your mind will make it as real as you wish. If you think it hurts, it will hurt."

Rey groaned, "Great."

They sat in silence, just blankly staring at the room.

It was almost surreal.

Rey had been so incredibly scared at a few points earlier, but now? Now she felt satisfied. She felt content. The burn on her abdomen was comforting. She felt like, finally, she was making progress.

This concept of letting your energy, you excess emotion, translate to the Force…

Rey could see why it could be dangerous. But then again, she could also see why Darksiders favoured it so. Rey felt, for the first time since discovering the Force, like it was containable. Or at least able to be directed.

"I am sorry that the setting had to be this." Kylo's voice pulled her from her thoughts. "I foresaw distress, but not..Not that much." There was deep regret weighing his words down, but also resignation.

Ah, the room.

"Why, though? Why this room?"

"The holocron clearly stated a powerful mutual memory was required-" If he had not looked melancholy before, he certainly did now, "-A memory that was held equally in both party's minds. What it didn't say was that no other beings were to be present in the memory, and it had to be enclosed-"

When she looked at him, his face was drawn.

"-I assure you I tried every memory I could. But this was the only one the effect grabbed hold of."

"So it will have to be this every time?"

He nodded, almost looking fearful.

"Well," Rey breathed, "Just you make sure you get those restraints off as soon as possible, and we won't have a problem."

The timid look disappeared, and was replaced with one of careful hope, "You're fine with doing this again?"

"I took your offer didn't I? Teachers usually give more than one class."

Rey decided she rather liked the way delight looked on Kylo's face.

But not fatigue.

"You're dead tired, what do they even put you through?"

One glance from him killed that question. It said she did not want to know.

"That, and this method takes a lot out of the person carrying it. I was going to start Force techniques but-"

Rey reached out for him, softly cupping his left shoulder, weary of the wound.

"You go rest," she said, "Just let me know how to get out of this illusion."

His expression was unreadable, eyes flicking from her hand to her face and back, before he settled on her face.

"Close your eyes, I'll send you back."

She did as he asked, and before long, that weighty feeling had swallowed her once more.

What was different this time around, was she awoke with an energy unlike any she had ever experienced.

Astonishingly, it was morning.

Luke was knocking on her door.