A/N: This picks up after Rey and Kylo Ren defeat Snoke and the Knights of Ren. It ignores anything from TLJ and TROS that take place after that scene. Any and all feedback is most wanted…I hope you enjoy it!

Chapter One: Epiphanies

She looked at Luke's lightsaber, laying broken on the floor of the capital ship. Death was all around her, the bodies of Snoke and the Knights of Ren scattered in pieces. Kylo Ren still had not regained consciousness from the force of their clashing powers, and she stared at his face. With his eyes closed, and his hair strewn around him in a tangled mess, he looked almost like a child. Even in sleep his face was cinched in a permanent frown.

She felt the small tug of someone searching for her, a familiar sensation. Finn was reaching out, trying to use the force to make sure she was ok. Every time he had done this in the past she made sure to send a reassuring nudge, but this time she kept herself hidden from him. When she had decided to come here she knew she had come for Ben Solo. Their connection had shown her the man that Ren could be, the man he was before he changed his name and embraced the dark side.

Her eyes traced the bridge of his nose, the curve of his lips, settling there for a moment to imagine how they would feel on her own. She had only been out for a few moments, the majority of the blast hitting Ren, and she felt compelled to make sure he would awaken.

She should have left, fled the ship and returned to her friends. They needed her help, and she knew that she could possibly be their only hope against the First Order. All of this she knew…yet she stayed. When Ren had offered her his hand, she had known the answer immediately: no. Yet as she stared at his face, she found herself feeling regret in that decision. As the regret seeped in, nestling deep in her thoughts, a voice accompanied it. A slithering, serpentine voice that wrapped itself around her deepest, darkest desires.

You know what you want, Rey. You know what you need. It whispered, all around her yet nowhere at all. He will never leave you. He will never let you down. You will be safe, loved…understood. You know what you want.

She shook her head, as if that could oust the intruder. It persisted. You are nothing. No one. You will never be a true Jedi, and you will never be what your friends need you to be. It seemed to spit out the word "friends" as if it were poison. Kylo Ren is the only one that can give you what you need. He is the only one that can fill the void in your heart that has been there since you were a child. Not Leia, not Finn, not even the entire Resistance. Nothing and no one can make you whole…except for him. We know you, Rey. We have watched you for your entire life. We have helped to shape you, given you strength in anger when you have needed it. Its tone changed to one of urgency and persuasion.Put out the light…and step into the dark with us. With him…

She felt the truth in the words that echoed in her head. She could never be the hero that Leia needed, that the resistance wanted. The presence that had invaded her seemed to dissipate, leaving as quickly as it had appeared. She felt herself conceding to it, her hands shaking with fear, and her heart racing as she considered the words that she could not ignore. The dark wanted her, it always had, but she had never considered the possibility of accepting it. The pull to the light had always won out, a perpetual tug of war that she had been subjected to her entire life. She was tired…tired of fighting for a cause that she had been forced to figurehead. The person that she had been molded into by Leia was not a person she felt she knew. She could not, and would not, be that person anymore…the game was over. Dark had finally won.

Kylo stirred, slowly regaining awareness. As he pushed himself off of the ground, he saw Rey. Confusion and anger swept over his face, and he reached for the saber of a nearby knight. Rey put her hands up, signaling surrender.

He approached her, saber drawn and ready to kill, "Why are you still here. You are a stupid, stupid girl and your mistake will cost you your life."

"I want to accept your offer," she said it as fast as she could, knowing she didn't have time to elaborate as he cocked his arm to strike.

The anger departed, leaving behind confusion mingled with shock as he managed to mumble, "What?"

She took a step forward, emboldened by her resolve, "I stayed because I changed my mind. I want to stay here…with you."

Kylo Ren disengaged his saber, his arms falling to his sides. He looked around at the carnage, playing over the moment that he decided he had to save Rey from Snoke. It had been a glimmer of light in what had been a sea of darkness for so many years, but one that was expelled immediately after he assassinated his mentor. The fight against the Knights of Ren had been sanguinary and savage, his body and mind melding with Rey's as they tore through their assailants. He had felt so connected to her in those moments, and he knew that together they would be unstoppable…but she had told him no.

"Lies. Just another trick to make me vulnerable. A trick that I will not fall for!" His voice rose to a yell as anger bubbled over once again.

How dare she mock him! How dare she throw his offer in his face yet again! He was humiliated, fuming in anger and resentment. He reached for his saber, intent on finishing what he had started just moments before, when Hux and a deluge of stormtroopers entered the throne room.

Rey looked from Kylo Ren, to Hux, to the bodies around them and acted quickly, raising her hands and falling to her knees, "I surrender as your prisoner."

Kylo was astounded, more perplexed now than before, "Take her away."

Hux looked at his fallen leader, then to Ren, wordlessly demanding an explanation, "She killed our Supreme Leader, along with his guards. You now answer to me, the new occupant of the throne. I will not repeat myself again. Take her."

Hux was dumbfounded, and his gaze shifted around the room as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing. He was not a stupid man, and he knew that this story did not make sense, but he also knew that Ren was a man he could not best by force.

He signaled for the troops to stand down, ordering two to step forward and the others to return to their previous posts,"Your Supreme Leader has just given his orders. Take the girl to a cell."

Rey looked at Ren, pushing a thought into his head as she was lead away from the room, This isn't a trick. I stayed here for you.

As the stormtroopers marched out, Ren walked toward the throne where the lower half of Snoke still sat. Using the force he cleared the seat for himself, falling into it as if it were made for him alone. No matter what Rey's true intentions were, he would get it out of her. She was now his prisoner, and the Resistance had lost its only hope. He could see all of his plans falling into place, and couldn't help but wonder if she were telling the truth. He could sense a shift in the force, a shift toward the dark, but only time would tell.