Kylo took his lightsaber from Asarla's hand and knelt down beside her, examining the Togruta. Rey got to her feet, her hands trembling as she held her hand out for her own lightsaber. "What happened to her?"

He shook his head, his dark eyes looking up at her. "I'm not sure. I thought she was only being tortured." His jaw clenched as he stared down at Asarla again. "She's certainly not doing this out of her own free will."

Rey turned to the pilot's controls and sighed, slowly pushing up a lever to pull them out of hyperspace. "We overshot our stop, and the navigation controls are gone." She looked back at Kylo when he did not respond and watched as he pulled off one of his gloves to press two fingers to Asarla's neck. As his bare skin touched the Togruta, he fell back as if he had been shocked. He looked down at his hand with a strange expression and then let out a horrible scream.

Rey ran to him in alarm and dropped to her knees in front of him as he shut his eyes. She reached out to touch his shoulder tentatively and spoke quietly so as not to anger or panic him. "Kylo?"

A softer yell escaped his lips, and the Knight's face twisted with pain. His eyes opened to her, and Rey read indescribable agony in the dark depths as he gasped out, "He's furious…"

She immediately realized that Asarla was under Snoke's control, and somehow when he had touched her, the Supreme Leader's influence had invaded his mind again. Without thinking, Rey wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled him close, intertwining her fingers in Kylo's dark hair. His forehead rested against her shoulder, and she could feel him trembling against her as he groaned softly in pain.

Even the several times he had been shot around her, she had never seen him express this much pain. Physically, he could handle a great deal, but mentally, he was vulnerable. Rey's heart ached as she knew that she could not do much for him except hold him as he endured. She realized he had likely experienced more acute pain in Snoke's actual presence, and he had not had anyone to help him.

His gloved hand had fallen onto her arm, and she felt his grip tighten on her for a moment. Rey paused as she remembered his invasion of her mind on the Starkiller Base. Slowly, she reached out with the Force toward his mind and slowly entered it. Mental fire – for that was the best she could describe it as – raged at her among the confusion of thoughts. She experienced his torment and anger, and flashes of his memories with her continuously came to her mind. She could feel rage inside herself at Snoke for torturing his already fragile mind, and she shoved back at the pain with as much of the Force as she could.

She distantly felt Kylo's trembling subside, and she left his mind before she invaded anything private. He was still leaning against her but lifted his head as she left his mind. His dark eyes searched her face for a moment, his expression a mix of relief and confusion. "How did you…?"

Rey shook her head and brought the hand that had been interlaced in his hair to press gently against the scarred side of his face. "I'm not sure… I…"

Kylo cut off the rest of her explanation by pressing his lips against hers. He kissed her desperately, and Rey could sense his gratitude through the Force as she kissed him back. Several minutes passed before he finally pulled away, and she looked into his pale face, frowning as she noticed that her hand had left streaks of red on his face. She glanced down at her fingers and finally realized that her hand had been in his hair, and he was the one who was bleeding.

Kylo frowned and pressed his own hand to his head. It, too, came away with fresh blood. He looked at it with an almost strange fascination. "That would explain why I can't concentrate…"

She pulled part of his hair back gently to look at the wound, seeing blood dripping slowly down to his ear. The fact that he did not stop her told her he was not thinking as clearly as usual. "Has it been bleeding since the attack?"

He finally pulled her hand away from his head and shifted his hair back over the wound. "No. I must have reopened it against the wall when Asarla pushed me off." He glanced at the unconscious Togruta before looking back at her, seeming to not notice or mind that they were still sitting close on the floor. "Are the communication systems still working?"

Rey moved away from him regretfully as she looked at the console, trying not to let her thoughts linger too long on their kiss. The lightsaber had cut through over half of the controls. "No, and I have no idea where we are."

Kylo peered through the shuttle's window, pressing his hand to his head briefly again. Rey saw they had traveled near a planet with large green landmasses and swirling yellow clouds. "If I'm right, that's Felucia, so we're still in the Outer Rim."

Rey checked to make sure they could still control the shuttle and breathed a sigh of relief as it turned toward the planet at her command. "Is Felucia habited?"

Kylo leaned against the co-pilot's chair, fingering the lightsaber that now hung at his hip. "It's mostly unsettled, but fortunately for us, one of the Knights of Ren lives there."

()()()()

Trees covered nearly every square meter of Felucia. Rey watched in wonder from the co-pilot's chair as Kylo eased the vessel over the treetops and slowly into a small clearing. The landscape reminded her of the planet Maz Kanata's castle, but as they stepped down the ramp, the humidity like she had never experienced enveloped her in an unbreakable web.

She held onto his black helmet with one hand and her lightsaber in the other while Kylo had his lightsaber at his right hip and one of the blasters on the other side. Kylo carried Asarla carefully in his arms as he led Rey around the side of the shuttle. For a moment, she thought the Knight was going to lead her into the surrounding forest, but she soon gasped softly as she saw where they were headed.

Woven into and around the trees was a small dwelling. Six large trees made up the exterior, and Rey could see carvings of stairs wind up one of the trunks to end at a cloth-covered door. Branches from each tree wove through each other to make natural windows. Rey guessed the house was about three stories tall.

Kylo climbed the stairs and stopped at a small landing at the top. Rey realized what she had taken for a cloth door was actually textured metal that stood next to a small display. Kylo shifted to support Asarla's legs with the back of his forearm before his pressed his palm to the display. It flickered green as it registered him, and Rey heard a male's voice through the display. "Ren? Where the hell have you been?"

The textured door parted in the middle as both sides slid open, and Rey stepped inside behind Kylo. The small, round entrance hall gave off a woody scent from the trees, and Rey guessed the wooden walls were reinforced with steel. An open archway stood on the left almost opposite the entrance, and another opened to more carved, wooden stairs.

A man Rey presumed was the Knight descended down the last few stairs and approached them. He was around her height with close cropped, light brown hair. He wore all black, and Rey noticed his movements were that of a warrior's, like Kylo. His blue eyes widened as he saw his fellow Knight with the two women. "You couldn't give me a fair warning, Ren?"

Kylo gave a small laugh and shook his head. "I'm afraid I couldn't. The communications in my shuttle were damaged."

"You've been off the grid for over a week. We weren't sure what happened to you after we found Acamar and Nesan at your home." A dark expression crossed the Knight's face. "We didn't know what happened, so we decided to lie low for a while until we found you. Hux killed them, didn't he?"

Kylo nodded once and glanced down at the Togruta in his arms. "Let me lie her down, and I can tell you and the others."

Rey walked beside Kylo as he followed the Knight toward the open archway. The blue-eyed man glanced back at her as they walked. "Two girlfriends, Ren? I didn't think you had the time."

She watched Kylo roll his eyes, and she felt his demeanor relax with his friend. They entered a small room with a few chairs and couches that rested around a cooling unit. Rey decided the slight chill in the air was preferable to the humidity. Kylo lay Asarla down on one of the couches and took a seat on one adjacent to it. Rey tentatively sat next to him, keeping a respectable distance from Kylo. "Rey, this is Ragnos."

The Knight grinned and held out a hand. His grip was tight as she shook it. "Call me Avin." He winked at her, and Rey got the impression she was meeting another Poe Dameron. "You're too pretty to be hanging around this scarred mongrel."

Kylo's eyes narrowed as he leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees. His voice hardened into one of a commanding officer's. "She gave me the scar, Ragnos. And I would ask you not to speak of me in such a way."

Avin held up his hands in surrender, but his eyes lingered on Rey. "Sorry, sorry, Ren. You burst into my house unannounced. Forgive me if my tongue slips a little."

Kylo's mouth tightened slightly, but he gave a slight nod. "Just go contact the others. See how quickly they can get here; I don't want anyone to be able to spy on our meeting."

Avin ducked out of the room, and Kylo glanced at Rey. "You should contact the Resistance so they can pick you up."

She frowned at this and glanced at Asarla. "What about you and Asarla?"

Kylo clasped his hands together. "I am not a member of the Resistance, nor do I agree with what they are doing. I will not go back with you."

Rey scowled as she shook her head. "You're going to go back to the First Order? After what Snoke did to you?"

He hesitated for a long moment. "I will remain with my Knights until we take care of Hux. But yes, I will return to the Supreme Leader. He is the only one I can learn from."

She moved closer to him, shaking her head again as she resisted the urge to slap his foolish face. "You can learn from others! From old manuscripts! Hell, why do you need to learn more at all? You're already a master with lightsaber combat, and your Force powers are unmatched!" Her voice rose steadily in her fury at his ridiculous decision. "You'll be hurt far worse than you were on the shuttle, especially since Snoke won't believe your loyalty until you kill me, and I don't plan on that happening anytime soon!"

Rey was ready to admit that she cared about Kylo too much to watch him willingly walk into more torture. What in the galaxy was he thinking? He might still be in denial of their developing relationship, but she could not believe how selfish he was being. They were irrevocably connected now; anything he did would affect her no matter how much he tried to leave her out of things. She did not care if he remained with the Dark Side, just as long as he never voluntarily went back for more of that mental agony they had shared together on the shuttle.

Kylo stared at her with wide eyes, his expression unreadable. Rey wondered if he was reconsidering his decision because of her words or if he was planning the most painful way to kill her with the objects available to him with a short reach. Before he could respond, she decided that he needed to know that he would be giving her up if he freely went back to Snoke.

Rey pressed her lips against his and hooked her finger around the neck of his shirt, pulling him closer to her. She kissed him hard and passionately, trying to convey her fury and compassion for him. Kylo responded by kissing back just as roughly, and she sensed a hint of self-loathing through the Force. His hands moved up to either side of her neck, and she tangled her hand in his hair again. He pressed her slowly back against the couch, and Rey moved her free hand on his chest, feeling his hard muscles through his thin shirt as she slowly slid it down. Her hand maneuvered underneath his shirt, grabbing onto his side just above his hip.

A throat cleared behind them, and Avin's voice sounded uncomfortable as they finally parted their lips. "Er… Ah, everyone should be here by morning, Ren." The Knight paused, and although Rey could not see him past Kylo, she imagined him holding his hands nervously. "…You two can have a guest room if you like…?"

Rey felt Kylo's side tremble as he suppressed a laugh. "Thank you, Ragnos." She got the impression that the two Knights were close friends. That, or else Kylo had caught Avin in the same situation at least once. Probably both, she decided.

She heard Avin practically flee the room, and Kylo kissed her briefly, his voice a low whisper. "You are far too distracting."

AN: What's this? A lighthearted ending to a chapter? Also, I apologize for the sloppy proofreading. I'll try to fix it in a day or two. Thanks for reading!