I do not own Star Wars or the characters.
I realized that April Fools Day was coming up like four days ago. So this was written in a hurry. I am almost certain *absolutely certain* that I have used past and present tenses. (Ugh! It is so hard to not do that.) I apologize for the inconsistency.
So here you go. My first attempt at an April Fools fan fic.
I will go back through and edit some more at some point with fresh eyes.
Read and enjoy,
thereisaredeemer.
She woke before dawn. It was a habit that she could not get rid of, no matter how hard she tried. She was awake but that didn't mean she had to get up. So she stared at the ceiling.
An hour past in that way and the stars were beginning to fade when she felt it, the tug of a door being opened and the rushing draft of memories and foreign emotions.
He was here, that was the only thought that hammered in her brain. But she willed her heart rate to slow and her breath to even. She closed her eyes and waited for him to disappear.
He didn't. Instead his stepped closer, till she was breathing in his strange scent. The scent which smelled of blood and sweat and smoke and metal, with a little leather mixed in as well. It would always remind her of a battlefield, of death. But in start contradiction, she felt safe whenever she smelled it. She felt like she was home, even if home was a mine field.
He had been leaning over her for a while, so long as she was beginning to wonder what was so interesting. Then she felt it, the soft, tentative touch of his hand as he brushed her out of her face. "Sleep a while longer, dream of peace, Rey. Be happy a while longer - smile. Don't wake, it will only hurt."
The hand traced her eyebrows slowly. It took all she had a lot to grab it and press it to her lips. "I… You asked me to concede once, asked me to join you once. I don't expect another offer. But I have, and I wanted to, but I can't. I'm sorry."
The hand stroked her cheek. Something warm and wet dripped onto her lips and a thumb quickly wiped it away. But she still recognized a tear for what it was. She had shed many enough herself.
"I concede." He murmured before soft lips captured her own. A millisecond later the pressure was gone.
She sat up quickly and looked wildly around, but she already knew he was gone. She lifted her hand to her lips. Then shook her head. The sun was rising, it must have all been a dream. He wouldn't have said, did those things. She shook the memory (now compartmentalized as a dream) off and started readying herself for the day ahead.
Only when her fingers met with air when she reached for her staff did she see the note. She picked it up and unfolded it. The stokes were elegant and slender. She didn't want to recognize the hand, but she did. After all she had spent hours of her childhood copying it.
She scanned the message quickly, but her eyes caught on the last sentence.
"If you want your staff back, bring me the beginning of eternity and the end of space and time. You know what I mean. I'll be waiting for you where we first met. You know the hill.
Kylo."
Her fingers trembled but she wasn't certain if it was from rage that he had dared take her staff, or from the fact he had kissed her, or because of the memories that the sentence dredged up (those memories were best left undisturbed) or if it was a combination of all three. Probably all three.
She stormed into the mess hall and made a beeline to Finn and Poe. "Forget Breakfast!" She snapped slamming the note down on the table. They stared at her. Then Finn picked it up, glanced at it then passed it to Poe. "Can't read Shiriwook." He explained.
She turned her eyes on Poe. His eyes widened as he read, finally le set it down."How did you get this?"
"He left it in my room! Now come on we have to go!"
"First thing first," Finn interrupted, "what does the note say, who is it from, and where do we have to go?"
"If you remember what day it is then you'll under stand. I do hope you remember how to read shiriwook, it has been quite a few years. But if you're almost continual conversation with that walking carpet is any indication, you at least can speak it. So as you always said it was easier to read than to speak, I will not lose sleep over your not understanding this note.
Come alone. If you want your staff back, bring me the beginning of eternity and the end of space and time. You know what I mean. I'll be waiting for you where we first met. You know the hill.
Kylo." Poe translates.
"How?" Is all Finn can manage.
"I can't explain how or why. Maybe he's decided he has a death wish."
"You're not going anywhere, Rey. Not to any random planet-"
"Maz's planet." Finn interrupts. "That's where she first met him."
She doesn't bother to correct them. She isn't planning on telling them just how long she has known the Supreme Leader.
"Yeah, anyway you're not going anywhere without the fleet and the fleet's not moving. So no."
"Guys that staff is special!"
"You would risk your life for a staff?"
"It means a lot to us... it's a signal."
"Us? And what do you mean a signal?"
She sighs and then says, " you might as well come to my quarters. It's a very long story."
They followed her through the base till the reached her door. She opened it and lead them inside.
"Ever since I can remember, Kylo's been there. Though then he was Ben.
"He was there the night my parents left, he was there the night of the sand storm came and covered my hut, he's always been there for me.
"When I was scared he comforted me when I cried he wrapped his arms around me and listened to me. He was the only one who stayed when I fell and broke my leg. He was the one who made me laugh at night with his jokes and stories after a hard day.
"And I was the one who listened to him rant about history and geometry and trigonometry." She smiles at the fond memory.
"Though that didn't last very long, because I convinced him to let me study with him. And so we both learned together. He was the one who taught me how to read." Finn and Poe stared at her like she was a foreign object.
"It was hard because we had to be touching each other at all times or else I couldn't see what he was doing..." She paused.
"Then came the time when at night he read aloud to me from some history book...
"But... he translated it into shiriwook before he said anything out loud. And no matter what I said or did for three months it was the only language he would speak. I learned the language, as you know, as well as a stock of creative oaths. (I might have become very creative with my pranks and punishments)
"Later I retaliated by only speaking in Twedoo. He tried to learn it, but his accent is horrendous.
"Each night we narrated our day to the other. After that we would study. But most of the time we sat silently and wished for something. Not anything in particular, just something. Then one night everything changed." She stoped talking as memories flood out of the places she had hidden them.
Ben and I had talked for an hour or so. But I'd been tired so we're separated. I had gone to sleep in his lap. But in the middle of the night I had woken. He was gone.
I felt fear and anger rolling off me in waves. But I knew the emotion ms weren't mine. They were Ben's. Something had happened to him.
I reached out to him I was not prepared for what I saw.
He was covered with blood and dust and sweat, and there was a wild look in his eyes. His green lightsaber was blazing in his hands.
He whirled on me but the look in his eye softened. He held out his hand and I took it. My surroundings disappeared immediately, like always.
But the scene that appeared around me made my knees buckle. "Rey!" He called, worriedly. Death. Blood. Fire. All surrounded us. Then I saw them, the men in black cocks. I recognized them for Ben's descriptions. They were the Knights of Ren.
At first I thought his rage was aimed at them, but a moment later I realized I was wrong. It was aimed at the corpses upon the ground. His fellow students, he had murdered them. "What have you done?" I ask heartbroken. He had bought each of these dead boys and girls to life for me with his stories. They had been my friends. I might not have ever met them, but I had still loved them.
"They had started it." He answered evenly.
I yank my hand away from him and curl in on my self. There is slight relief when the image disappears. But he grabs my wrist.
"Come with me Rey. You always wanted to. Now-"
"Never! Do you see yourself? Do you see what you have become?"
"Rey..." he tried.
"You're a monster!" He drops his saber like it is red hot. But I don't care. "I don't ever want to see you again!"
"You won't!" And I slam the connection shut. But not before I retrieve his saber from where he dropped it. I don't know why I did it. But it was done and I don't plan on returning it.
He tries to reach me but he might as well be pounding on the hull of a Star Destroyer. I was determined to never see him again.
I had rejected him.
She took a steadying breath before continuing, "I don't know what happened but...without warning, he...he stopped being Ben. He wasn't Kylo, but he wasn't Ben. I... it is probably my fault that Kylo Ren exists, I pushed him away. Rejected him." Silence follows her story.
"Ok, that is a lot to process." Finn mutters. She looks down at her lap and fiddles with the leather bracelet on her wrist. It had been a gift, from Ben, on her fourteenth birthday.
"Let me get this straight, you were friends with Kylo Ren before he was Kylo Ren through some weird Force thing." Poe asks.
"Yes." She confirmed.
"And you want to go to Jaku to get your staff back."
"Not Jaku. But yes."
"Ok, but what is 'the beginning of eternity and the end of space and time'? And why does he want it?"
"It doesn't mater. And I don't know. I haven't even decided if I'll give it to him."
"So why is this staff important?"
She ignores the question. "If you won't go with me I'll go alone." Reluctantly they follow her to the hanger.
She set the Falcon down on one of the numerous rocky plains on Lah'mu with a sigh. She closed her eyes as memories threaten to overwhelm her. But she had a mission. She stood and made her way to the hatch and looked out at the endless dirt and rock and grass.
Home.
It smelled like home.
Poe and Finn followed her as she trekked up and over hills. She heard them complain about the hike, and wonder why she hadn't just set the Falcon down at the destination. But she didn't answer, she was far too caught up with the memories the trail is seeped in. Poe and Finn deserved to know that Kylo had asked for her trust exchange for the staff but she doubted that they would be any more eager than they were now.
Less probably, she thought.
But just because she had brought her trust with her doesn't mean she has to give it to Kylo. Trust is one treasure that he cannot steal from her.
She stopps at the top of the ridge. There was a familiar itch at her consciousness. He is close.
She glanced around quickly. Then she sees him, standing on the next ridge. He is looking right at her. She turns away. "This way," she calls behind her.
Kylo had been standing alone but she had felt the presence of many others. It wasn't a trap, or was it?
Had he known she was awake the entire time, had it all been a ruse to get her here? He had said to come alone.
But… she knew deep within her that he hadn't been faking. What he had said had been true but…
She also knew he had said it while he thought she was asleep for a reason. She was nearly at the bottom of the slope, so she let herself slide the last few feet. Then she started jogging up next. Suddenly she stopped halfway up remembering something.
"Kylo Kenneth Ren, you had to choose this hill!"
"Yes I did, and that is not my name." His voice floats down from above her.
She started climbing again. "Why? I didn't call you Ben or Solo." She shouts.
"You called me something they called me. Don't do it again!"
"Do you dislike the name because you don't like it's meaning? No one even remotely related to your family is called that."
Finn calls to her, something about knowing Kylo Ren's middle name and not telling him. She ignores him. "It has a meaning?" Kylo asks. The tone of his voice is decipherable.
"Yes, Your Excellency, it does. Roughly translated it means 'royal gift' or 'royal oath'." She stops at the ledge she had been dreading.
For a moment she debates using the Force to haul her self up but Kylo's hand is already there. She glared at it for a moment before she takes it. He lifts her up gently. "I thought I asked you to come alone and bring the beginning of-"
She raised an eyebrow cutting him off, "I brought it. You never asked for me to give it to you though." He sighs and mutters something that sounds suspiciously like 'stubborn girl'."
But she still turns her back on him as she hoists her friends up.
"Ok, so we came to get her staff back. Can you hand it over." Poe asks as he glances repeatedly from Kylo to his blaster.
"You mean we're letting a perfect opportunity to capture the Supreme Leader go?" Finn hisses to her.
She sighs. May this wasn't the best idea. Bringing Poe and Finn with her. They both hated Kylo.
"Now this is why I requested you come alone." Kylo growled as gestured at them.
"And you didn't?" She asked.
"What do you mean?"
"You didn't come alone, did you?" She clarifies.
"I told you to bring-" he began.
"I brought it. Now hand over my staff!" She snappes.
"It's in the cave." He sighs and stalks off towards the opposite side of the hill.
"I'm not stupid Kylo. I know you're planning something." She grumbles as she keeps pace beside him.
"But you're following me, so I think you d trust me...at least a little." He looks at her and she remembers that morning. She bites her upper lip.
"We're seriously going into a cave with Kylo Ren when we know he has a squad hidden in there?" She hears Poe ask Finn loudly.
"I guess so," comes the answer.
Kylo stops and she followed suit. Her eyes find the horizon and stay as memories slip through the cracks in her mental armor. She remembers the time when she was just four years old. She had stood with her parents on this ridge and he had materialized.
She hadn't been scared. No she had smiled and introduced herself.
Someone bumped her arm. She tore her gaze away and to the man at her side. Kylo.
"Memories?" He asks. She nods. He offers her his hand and this time she takes it without question. He lowers her to the ground before springing lightly down himself. He takes her elbow gently and leads her to the yawning mouth of the cave.
"Come." He murmurs.
"Even though there are currently sixty people in there?"
"Yes Rey... yes. If one of them even so much as touches you, I'll do the honors." He smiles tightly.
"You call beheading someone an 'honor'?"
"Just come already!" He grumbles. She shoots him a sidelong glance that conveyes her dwindling patience.
Then she followed him into the cave. Kylo's grip on her arm tightened as darkness enveloped them and her heart rate jumped suddenly as she remembered his words from the morning. She bushed.
She could feel the press of bodies around her, but as he had promised, none touched her. He stopped and she bumped into his side. She heard his sharp intake of breath and felt him tighten before she stepped away, glad suddenly for the darkness.
She heard grumbling from the direction of the cave entrance. She realized then that while the crowd had parted for Kylo they had not payed the same curtesy to her other companions.
She heard a sharp snap from Kylo and slowly a light appeared, dim at first but growing stronger by the second. Soon she could make out the silhouettes of the people surrounding her. Soft music suddenly thrumef from a corner. She spun quickly, a human quintet played a variety of instruments. All around her people began dancing and laughing and talking.
She felt his breath hot on her neck as he whispered, "You don't remember do you."
She turned her head to meet his eyes, and he's close. So close that she can see the hint of sorrow hiding in the depths of his eyes.
"No," she answered confused as she tried to place all of this.
"It's April Fools today, Rey." A smile curved his lips.
Understanding lit her eyes."I hate parties, Ben. You know that." He doesn't contradict her when she uses his name and she notices.
"I know. That is the point, in case you have forgotten." He holds out her staff, "You brought it, but...do I have it?" He asks softly.
She reaches out and takes hold of the staff, her hand rests just below his. "Tonight." She whispers meeting his eyes.
He nods and a sudden smile lights up his face. "Then dance with me." He draws his lightsaber and activates it. But he doesn't advance.
"No! You'll destroy it!" She cries.
"I might have taken the opportunity to-" He reaches out and thumbs a button on the handle. A button that wasn't there that morning. The staff springs to life with a greenish glow. "Add some adjustments."
"You used the crystal." It wasn't a question.
"Yes."
She grins at him as she lowers her stance. A moment later they were dancing. Two bodies moving together as one, always in sync. Two weapons flicking in and out but never connecting to flesh, always blocking in sync with the other.
They laughed as they fought. Laughed as they danced. And in that moment they weren't friends, they weren't enemies, they were a dyad.
Two that were one.
What do you think of his middle name? How did I do?
This is an Edit. Something I forgot to add yesterday (because I had not yet posted the chapter) if you are looking for more of this story, my What Ifs fic has a chapter related to this.