Well, here we go. I do want to say that the majority of this chapter was written LOOOOOOOOONG before TRoS premiered. Like nearly 11 months before it premiered. So, much of what you are about to read has nothing to do with the canon that was established in TRoS, but with my own ideas of where the story should have gone.

So just a little synopsis. Rey had left the Resistance. Her friends have seemingly turned their backs on her when they found out about her Force bond with Kylo/Ben. Ben brings her to Mustafar where he and the Knights of Ren are planning their next move, and keeping 'Hugs" ;) at arms length. Rey is having a very hard time dealing with the Dark Force locus on the planet and Ben is having a hard time having to be Kylo Ren to his knights and the First Order, and shedding that skin to be who he wants to become with Rey.

In this house we believe in a well thought out character arc, Rian Johnson, and Reylo. We believe that anyone can become a hero, even a nobody from nowhere. We believe that redemption can happen . We believe that family is what you make it. We believe that hope is the source of our greatest strength. And we believe that love can change even the darkest hearts.

:Chapter Thirty:

The sky seemed to bleed. Even the dead of night could not erase the smudged carmine of the clouds. She could not sleep. But she dared not move. He was finally sleeping peacefully. His one arm holding her to his bare chest, his other thrown carelessly wide on the expanse of bed. His face was softened in repose. The anger he held onto during the day, no longer pulling down the corners of his full mouth, or creasing the space between his brows. He looked younger in these moments. The weight of his choices and the burden of his role lifted in these dark hours.

She lay still, trying her best not to toss and turn as was her instinct. She had given up on trying to sleep. In sleep, her defenses were lowered and she could not fight the darkness that crept into her dreams. But she was so tired. Her body ached to sleep. To fall into the death-like slumber she had experienced for the first time aboard the Falcon. To forget, if even for just a little time, the weight she carried.

With a deep sigh, he rolled, pulling her with him. She held her breath, praying he didn't wake. Slowly, she slid from beneath his arm. Laying it gently across his muscled chest. Slipping from their bed, she dragged the billowing robe up her arms and wrapped it across her chest. Gliding to the wall of windows, she slid down one and propped her back against the adjoining wall while her shoulder and side was snug against the transparisteel.

Her gaze remained on him as he slept. He was exhausted. She knew what this ruse was taking from him. Knew what his descent into the darkness cost him. And she knew he needed her help. But she had no idea how to help him.

Her presence only caused more challenges for him among his knights. Those that tolerated her were few and the rest despised her. She represented everything they had revolted against when they had destroyed Luke's temple. But she had showed him another way, and somehow she needed to show them too.

Rising, she silently dressed, and made her way from the bedroom to the lift that would bring her to the main floor of the castle. Stepping from the enclosed space, she wandered through the obsidian halls until she found herself in the throne room staring at the monstrous throne she knew Ben hated.

"So the little pet has escaped her cage?" came the vicious voice from the blackness behind her.

Turning her head slightly, she watched as Varon Kell seemed to materialize like a shadow from the dark, but did not move.

"How quickly you seek to flee your master," he purred as he came up behind her.

Rey did not flinch as his heated breath brushed over her ear. "No man is my master."

Varon released a soft chuckle. "You are a Jedi, you have a master."

"I am no Jedi," she said softly, turning her gaze back to the throne. "Leave me be Varon."

"Then leave this place. You do not belong here. You cannot help him. All you are doing is tearing him apart," he growled into her hair.

Breathing deeply, he lifted a strand with his fingers, holding it to his cheek.

"I am the only one who can help him," she turned, watching the sable lock slide from his fingers.

He sneered at her, his handsome face contorting into something cruel. "You are nothing. No Jedi. No Sith. All you can do is offer him confusion and chaos."

"Perhaps chaos is exactly what he needs. Perhaps confusion will bring him a new clarity," she challenged, nose to nose with this seething demon.

"He had clarity before he met you. He knew his course and never deviated. Not until you appeared did he question his path." Disdain dripped from his words.

A smile barely lifted the corner of her lips. "If a nobody like me could deter him from his great purpose, then perhaps it wasn't meant for him."

Varon growled low in his throat. "He has known nothing but doubt and pain since you have appeared in his life. You were the reason he betrayed Snoke. You were the reason he betrayed the First Order. You are the reason he has pulled away from us. His brothers in arms. The only ones who know what he has been burdened with."

As she listened, burning with anger at this man, she suddenly heard what is was he hadn't been saying.

"I would die for him too."

The words came out softly, as it dawned on her that Varon was protecting his family. Someone he had grown to love and respect through the years.

Varon tried to cover his startled expression quickly, but she caught it before he could. His eyes narrowed, looking down at her.

"You know nothing," he spat the words at her.

"Perhaps," she shrugged. "And perhaps... I know everything."

He scoffed, "You speak in riddles, like Skywalker. And you deny being a Jedi."

"I know what I am not. I need to discover what I can be." The last was said softly to the throne before her.

She glided away, ignoring the seething presence behind her.

"You cannot save him," he called to her, his anger palpable.

"Then perhaps I am meant to destroy him."

Varon did not answer her, nor did she turn around to judge how her statement was taken. She just roamed the silent castle until she found herself at the stairs to the underground catacombs. As if in a trance, she settled her foot on the first step, a whisper of a memory brushed against her her mind. Shaking her head she continued into the darkness she had traveled only once before.

The pressure began as she descended deep into the catacombs. The barely heard whispers, the agonizing screams bombarded her senses. She stumbled out of the steep stairwell into the dim black and rouge light of the first lava tube. Falling to her knees, she clutched at her head. Tears of pain welled in her eyes. She needed to stop this before he sensed her distress and woke.

"Perhaps there is a lesson to learn Rey." The voice was soft spoken and held a hint of a Corousanti accent.

With a gasp, she fell backwards to her bottom, glancing up startled at the man who stood before her. He was older, with light brown hair that hung past his shoulders. He wore the robes of a Jedi, but his energy didn't read like Master Luke's had. It was more balanced, and yet it held a hint of something she couldn't place. His image glowed a silvery blue and was ever so slightly translucent.

"Who are you?" she managed to get out from her parched throat.

"My name is Qui Gon Jinn. I was a Jedi Master long before you were born. Long before your master was born."

"How do you know me and why are you here?" she whispered.

"There is much about the Force you do not yet know. I am here to help you understand. And you, Rey, are known to all of us."

"Us?"

"Yes. All of the Jedi Masters who have come before. Those of us who are still able to return to advise and guide, and those of us who can only observe."

Rey frowned. "And why have you, Master Qui Gon, taken an interest in me? Why not a face I know?" she asked, thinking of Luke.

"Your master has another path he must focus on. You have learned everything you can from him. But perhaps I can help in ways he couldn't."

"Can you make it stop?" she clutched her head, the pressure, whispers and screams nearly unbearable.

"No. But you can."

Glancing up at him quickly, her eyes wide with surprise, she blinked, trying to focus.

"How?"

"You need to open yourself to them." Qui Gon offered simply.

"Open my- But they are the Dark Side."

He looked at her intently; studying, judging, before he spoke. "It is all part of the Force. The Dark and the Light. One cannot exist without the other. Neither is good nor evil. It is what we do with them, our intent and actions that choose our path. They are what decide how we use it. The Jedi refuse to see the benefit of the Dark. The Sith refuse to see the path of the Light. To walk the finite line between both is what needs to be accomplished in order to bring balance. To accept both Light and Dark. To reveal not only the bright parts of ourselves, but also the shadows."

Rey frowned. "The texts."

"Yes, the texts speak of this balance. But the Jedi and Sith took paths that were extremes of the original teachings. They have forgotten where they came from and what the Force means to so many in the galaxy. But you, Rey, you can remind them. You can help bring the balance back.

She shook her head. "I can't. I don't know how. I can't do it alone."

He gave her a soft smile. "You can, Rey. And you are not alone. That is why you were drawn to him. And he to you. Two halves of one whole. Together you will find balance. But first you have to be willing to open yourself to the darkness."

"What if…"

Qui Gon shook his head. "You cannot doubt, Rey. A great Jedi Master once said, do or do not, there is no try. The choice is yours."

"But how do I control it? The Dark?"

He shrugged. "You don't. Just as you don't control the Light. That is where your intent and actions come in. It is through those that you will wield the Force for good or evil."

Rey played his words around in her head. They were not so far off from what Master Luke had told her. That the Jedi had lost sight of the true purpose of their order. That the Sith were not wholly lost to the Darkness. Perhaps there was another path to take. A path where both sides that were at war inside of her could exist together.

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes, and placed her hands flat on the ground beneath her. Slowly, she opened up her senses to the Force around her. At first, the touch of the Darkness was like some slithering thing, brushing its slick tentacles along her mind. The whispers grew louder, telling her the stories of their long dead owners. The screams grew softer, showing her the torture they had endured. The pressure lessened, as she allowed herself to open to both sides of the Force. Accepting the Dark with the Light.

Taking a deep breath, she released a sigh as the pain lessened. She could feel the emotions of anger and hate, emotions she had been trying to supress, rise to the surface.

"It's okay to be confused. Your emotions are valid, Rey. It is not the emotions that lead you to the Dark Side, it is the action you take because of those emotions that set you on that path."

"So being angry isn't what brings you to the Dark Side, but acting on that anger in a negative way does?"

Qui Gon nodded. "Exactly."

"But why now? Why come to me here and not before?"

"Because now is when you needed me. And now is when he needs you. Remember, you will find the balance together. He will need you to remind him of the light he still carries within himself. Just as he has shown you the darkness buried within yourself. You must find that balance within yourselves first, then you will be able to find it together."

Rey stood, brushing the reddish black dirt from her pants.

"He needs you, Rey. Just as you need him. But he has one last secret he still needs to reveal. One he is hiding from everyone. One he believes only he can accomplish. Show him he is not alone."

Rey watched as Qui Gon Jinn slowly faded from view, leaving her alone in the catacombs. She struggled between understanding and anger at Qui Gon's final revelation. She had shared everything with Ben and he had still kept secrets from her. What could be so important that he kept it from everyone, including her. Taking a deep breath, she turned, glancing at the stairs behind her, and then turned and moved further into the catacombs.

She followed the twisting and winding honeycomb of rooms until she finally came to the room that Altair had brought her too. It was as if the altar was waiting. Reaching out, she ran her hands and brushed them along the slab, letting the force signatures rush into her. Their stories, their torture, and their end. But she also found something she hadn't expected.

She had never felt a Force signature so dark. So full of anger and hate.

"It's you," she whispered, almost expecting an answer.

There was only silence. She bit her bottom lip stifling the whimper, before she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. The Dark Force that flooded into her had her falling to her knees. She gasped, instinctively trying to push it out. Qui Gon's words echoed in her head, "You need to open yourself to them." Breathing again, Rey tried to relax her mind and allow his force signature to flood into her.

And suddenly, visions of his life were flashing through her mind. From childhood up until his death, she witnessed all of it, the intense smothering love, the seething choking hate, the eternal self loathing, the acceptance that it would be his own child to destroy him. Her hands splayed on the altar, she breathed deeply and let it all wash over her. It filled her, trying to blot out all of the light. She struggled, holding back the light to see where this would go, until Master Luke's voice echoed in her memory.

"There must be a balance."

Slowly, she released her hold on the light, allowing it to do as it willed. But the battle she had been prepared for did not come. The dark and light seemed to settle within her, like two halves of a whole finally coming together. She breathed deeply and opened her eyes. Nothing had changed. She was still in the catacombs on Mustafar. She could still hear the whispers left behind, but she found she could bear them now. She struggled to rise to her feet, leaning heavily on the altar, she took another deep breath, and steadied herself.

And that's when she heard it. It was ever so faint, but clear as a bell. It couldn't be called a laugh. It was more like a chuckle. Deep and ominous, it echoed through the catacombs, reverberating off of the stone, becoming louder the closer it came to her. Her hand instinctively moved to her hip, where Luke's lightsaber had hung. Grasping air, fear blossomed in her chest. Taking a step away from the dark opening the sound came from, she came up against the solid form of someone else.

With a cry, she spun, throwing her hands up and with the help of the Force, slamming the body back against the jagged wall. As the world around her came into focus, she found a man perhaps a bit younger than Ben lying stunned on the ground. He moved slowly, raising his hand to the back of his head as he sat up.

"I was not told you were so powerful. Forgive me for startling you." he groaned.

Her right hand still held before her, she shuffled backwards. "Who are you?" she growled.

Shaking his head as if it clear it, he answered, "Master Kylo has not told you about all of us? I am Thane Vos. One if his Knights of Ren."

He brought his hand away from his head, and they both saw the blood that coated his fingers. He groaned once more and glanced from his bloody hand to her.

Her eyes widened, "Gods!"

Rushing to him, she fell to her knees and placed an arm around his chest pulling him to her. Her other hand she placed on the bleeding gash on the back of his head. Closing her eyes, she took a steadying breath.

"Open yourself to the Living Force. Feel it and draw it in." she whispered, repeating the lesson Altair had shown her earlier that day.

"Let it weave into your own Life Force. Now gently, let your power flow into the being you are healing. Let it meld with them. Focus it. Focus on healing, on imbuing the cells with life. Coax them to join back together. To heal the wound."

Her words were barely audible, but Thane listened, studying her as she worked her way through his healing. He had to admit, she was lovely. But there was no doubt in his mind why Kylo was drawn to her. He could feel her power filling him, healing his wound, and knitting the flesh back together. He could feel it skittering across his skin. Feel it pulsing from her like a living thing. She had no idea just how powerful she was, and he was sure Kylo had not divulged his knowledge to her.

Suddenly she slumped next to him, catching herself before she fully hit the ground. With and extreme force of will, she pushed herself to her feet and stumbled from the cavern and out of the catacombs. Tripping up the stairs, she used the wall as purchase to keep herself upright. Managing to make it to the lift, she collapsed onto the floor and finally reached out to Ben through the bond. She felt him startle immediately awake and bound out of bed. When the doors of the lift opened into his rooms, he strode into the lift and swept her up into his arms. He immediately noticed the smears of blood on her light clothing and her hands, but after a quick scan he realized it wasn't hers. Curling his large body around her, his cheek brushed her ear.

"Rey? Rey, are you alright?" he asked softly.

"I'm sorry. I'm just a bit tired. I think I can walk." she whispered, barely able to open her eyes.

"You can barely keep your eyes open, darling. What happened? Where were you?"

"I was…" she started as her eyes fluttered closed.

"You were what, Rey? Tell me."

"...in the catacombs," she whispered before she finally fell asleep against his chest.

Laying her in their bed, he tucked the blankets up around her, and watched as she slept for the first time without nightmares to disturb her. The beep of the lift door startled him, and he tore himself away from her to meet his guest.

"Come," he said as he stopped before the lift door.

As the door opened into the yawning reception room, Ben master visibly tensed as he watched Thane step through. The blood on his cheek mirroring the blood on her hands and clothes.

"What happened?" Kylo asked, his voice deep and accusing.

Thane stepped into the room, and paused at the anger he felt emanating from Kylo Ren. His empty fingers flexed.

"I asked you a question, Thane," Kylo advanced on him.

He shook his head. "I found her down in the catacombs. I must have frightened her, and she threw me into a wall with the Force. I hit my head and became disoriented. I think she healed me, because when I came to, the wound was closed and she was gone."

"What was she doing down in the catacombs?" the accusation was still there.

"I don't know Master. I thought I heard a voice down there and I went to investigate. I found her looking frightened and then she threw me."

Rey groaned, shifting on the bed. Her eyes fluttered open, fixing on the two men. Ben moved to her side, laying a large hand on her abdomen.

"Rest, Rey. I'm going to leave Thane with you. I need to attend to some matters with Hux. I will return as soon as I can." He brushed some hair from her cheek.

Glancing again at Thane, and then to Ben, Rey closed her eyes and slowly rolled her head back and forth on the pillow.

Ben frowned. "It will be alright. I'll come back for you."

Opening her eyes, she gripped his wrist, trying to pull him towards her. He obliged and rested his forehead against hers.

"Please, don't leave me…" she could barely whisper.

Ben closed his eyes, not wanting to leave but knowing that it was a necessity. The two sides of him pulled, tearing him apart. Linking their bond, he tried to soothe her. Watching as she seemed to relax slightly.

"I'll come back for you, I promise."

She barely nodded, placing her hand against his cheek.

"Altair…"

He nodded. "I will send him to you. Rest, darling."

Closing her eyes, she released his wrist. Ben turned, motioning for Thane to follow him out of the room. Thane followed, taking one last look at the woman asleep on the bed. Upon entering the receiving room, Ben spun on him.

"I will be sending Altair to relieve you. I want to know the second anything changes with her. Do you understand?"

A muscle in Thane's eyelid twitched, but he nodded. "Of course Master Kylo."

Turning, Kylo stalked to the lift and entered, the door closing behind him. Thane took a deep breath, and settled his thoughts, before he returned to Rey's side. He stood above her, studying her sleeping form. She was everything they had fought against. Everything they had tried to erase from the galaxy. And now she was here, with this unfathomable power, and a hold on Kylo Ren. And yet, in sleep, she appeared as just a girl. A nobody, from nowhere. And maybe that was who she was, but perhaps that wasn't the case at all.

Stepping closer to her, he knelt next to the bed and laid his hand upon her abdomen. Closing his eyes, he pushed his Force into her tired mind.

"What are you doing, Thane?" the gravelly voice asked from behind him.

He spun, standing, breaking the Force connection he had with the girl, coming to find Altair before him, his tattooed face looking concerned and none too happy.

"Altair. I didn't hear you enter." Thane ignored his question.

"Master Kylo wants you down in the throne room." Altair's gaze moved from his brother in arms to the girl in the bed.

With a nod and a last look to Rey, Thane walked past Altair and from the rooms. Altair moved closer to the bed, his eyes scanning Rey for anything Thane could have done. He found nothing. With a small release of breath, he knelt facing the bed and began his watch of the girl he had come to think of as more than just 'the scavenger'.

.

When Thane entered the throne room, Kylo's attention was immediately drawn to him. He can not help himself, Thane mused. She has bewitched him.

"Has anything changed?" Kylo asked, cutting off the holovid speaker.

Thane shook his head. "All is the same."

"Good. Continue Commander Wendin."

Kylo's focus was back on the First Order Commander, and Thane was dismissed to the ranks of the silent Knights of Ren, standing sentinel around the room. As he moved to take up his position among the knights, he tried to control the rogue muscle from twitching again.