Rey let out a gasp when she found the cliff Kylo showed her.
Looking down, she saw four distant figures fighting at the base on the cliff. Kylo was easy to identify because of the crackling red emanating from his lightsaber. The other three figures had him surrounded. They were only a few of the Knights of Ren. More were coming.
Her heart raced.
She climbed down the cliff as fast as she could.
...
The cliff wasn't easy to descend. Despite the many grooves, it was difficult to get a foothold. Rey went as quickly as she could, only needing to get close enough to the ground to jump safely.
She was close enough to hear what they were saying.
"–a traitor," one of the knights said.
"Ap'lek," Kylo said, grunting, "I didn't know you cared so much about the First Order."
Rey winced at Kylo's tone. He didn't need to provoke them further.
"I don't," Ap'lek said. "You're a traitor to the shadow–"
Needing to see what was happening, Rey looked down and saw Kylo fighting a knight – Ap'lek she guessed – who had a long vibro-ax. The other two knights were on the ground.
She doubted they would stay down.
"–you don't deserve the name Kylo Ren," Ap'lek continued. "You aren't a Knight of Ren anymore." He swung his ax at Kylo, and was stopped by a powerful Force shove.
"That's too bad." Kylo strode towards him, looking unconcerned about the threat he posed. His swagger reminded her painfully of Han.
Ap'lek stood up. "Sad about losing your power?"
"No," Kylo said, "I was talking about you." He flipped over Ap'lek with a grace a man his size shouldn't possess. "You're not going to live to regret turning on me." He pointed his lightsaber at the knight's back.
Rey was getting closer to the ground.
A second knight swung at Kylo with a large vibrocleaver. Rey's mouth dropped open. She hadn't noticed he was up.
Kylo blocked the swing with his lightsaber, giving Ap'lek the opening he needed to get away.
The third knight joined the fight.
Rey let go of the cliff and landed with a thud that wasn't loud enough for Kylo or any of the knights to hear. She took out her lightsaber and ran towards Kylo.
"Even if you manage to kill us, you're going to die today," the third knight said. "You're injured and more of us are coming." His weapon was a club, but he wasn't using it. "The First Order is coming." He reached for another weapon–
–and there was an explosion.
...
Rey's ears rang. She was far enough from the blast that it didn't knock her over, but the debris obstructed her vision.
The moment the explosion had hit, she stopped breathing, and reached out with the Force. Kylo's presence in the Force was strong, so she felt a profound relief. Him not surviving wasn't something she had allowed herself to consider, but now it felt like a real possibility.
Too real.
Rey knew he survived the blast, but she didn't know how injured he was. She listened to the Force and sprinted towards him.
The debris started to clear, and she saw Kylo laying on the ground. She knelt next to him and put her hand on his chest to check his breathing when he opened his eyes and sat up.
"I'm fine," Kylo said, between coughs. "I got far enough away from the blast radius." He stood unsteadily. "Ushar didn't use his usual baradium charges."
Rey's eyes widened. Some bounty hunters had baradium thermal detonators with a radius of up to twenty meters. She scanned him for injuries and saw mostly bruises until her eyes reached his thigh. There was a series of cuts that didn't look like they could have been caused by an explosion.
Kylo looked down to see what she was looking at. "Ah," he said, looking up at her, "that was from the plant."
Before she could respond, the knights approached. Rey ignited her lightsaber, and Kylo ignited his. They stood with their backs to each other and faced the threat together.
...
The three knights surrounded them. Rey and Kylo were patient, waiting for the knights to make the first move.
They must have seen Kylo as the bigger threat because Ap'lek and the knight with the vibrocleaver attacked him together. Even two-against-one, Kylo had the advantage. He didn't fight like he was injured. Kylo kept them back with a combination of blows from his lightsaber, Force pushes, and the occasional punch.
That left her with the knight who set off the explosion.
Don't let Ushar get too close, Kylo said. He usually carries more weapons than his club and explosives.
Good to know, she said.
Rey blocked the blow from Ushar's club and spun away. "This isn't a fair fight," she said.
Ushar advanced. "Scared, little girl?" he taunted.
"I meant for you." Rey knocked him back with the Force.
...
Ushar would be out for a while, so Rey joined Kylo in fighting the other two knights.
I'll take Trudgen, Kylo said, blocking a swing from Trudgen's vibrocleaver. You take Ap'lek. He's the one with the–
–ax, she finished for him, already advancing on the knight. Ap'lek was on the defensive. He was barely able to keep up with her strikes.
Ap'lek gasped.
"Trudgen's dead," Kylo said, making the source of the knight's distress clear.
Good, Rey thought. She looked over and saw Kylo take his lightsaber out of Trudgen's stomach. Trudgen fell to the ground.
"Who's next?" Kylo asked.
"I'm going to make it hurt when I kill you," Ap'lek promised, still on the defensive and showing signs of fatigue. "You will–"
Ap'lek's jumped away from the vine that jumped out at his side.
The vine had five heads with many sharp looking teeth. Rey remembered what Kylo's thigh looked like and realized his injury could have been so much worse.
Kylo pulled Rey away from the plant.
She watched, tense, as Ap'lek chopped off two of the plant's heads and raced away.
...
Ushar ran towards Rey and Kylo, but his movement drew the plant's attention. A head larger than the rest stood between them.
Ushar's mouth dropped open. He swung his cub, but the plant easily knocked it out of his hands and took a bite out of Ushar.
Rey winced.
There wasn't enough of him left to be alive.
...
I'm not going to let us be killed by a plant, Rey thought, pulse racing.
She looked at Kylo, and he nodded in agreement.
He attacked the plant from its front, and she attacked it from its back. Working together like this reminded her of fighting the Praetorian Guard. Without words, instinctually knew what the other was going to do.
...
Rey's whole body ached from exertion. They did enough damage to scare off the plant for now, but Rey knew they needed to get out of there before the plant returned.
But first they had to deal with Ap'lek.
...
Ap'lek didn't attack. Instead, he dropped his ax and went down onto his knees.
Kylo stepped towards him, favouring his uninjured leg, blade ready. "What's it going to be?" he asked, slightly out of breath.
Ap'lek put his hands over his head and stayed silent.
Kylo stared at Ap'lek like he was weighing his options.
Rey wondered what he was going to do. Would he kill an unarmed opponent? Rey didn't like the idea, but she didn't think they had a choice. Letting him live was too high risk, and they had nothing they could use to to bind a prisoner. They needed–
Ap'lek grabbed a knife – it must have been hidden on his back – and threw it at Kylo.
Rey was the first to react. She froze the blade with the Force, and before Ap'lek could move out of the way, threw the blade back at him.
The blade stabbed Ap'lek in the chest.
Rey let out a huge breath.
...
We won, Kylo thought.
Rey was by his side, and they won together.
During the fight, Kylo hadn't used the pain in his thigh to draw on the dark side, but the adrenaline had masked some of the pain. His wound was throbbing, and he knew it would become infected without treatment.
Knees weak, Kylo stumbled back a step.
Rey was at his side in an instant, steadying him. Then she did something unexpected: she hugged him.
Kylo gasped at the contact and wrapped his arms around her tightly. He felt her heart racing. "We need to get out of here." Kylo said, enjoying the feel of her in his arms.
"Agreed," Rey said, leaning back and looking up at him. "We need to find Poe."
Kylo furrowed his brow. "Poe?"
Rey took out a comm and smiled. "He's getting us a ship," she explained.
...
Poe told Rey he found a ship, but needed more time to check for trackers. He asked them to meet him at the ship's hanger.
Soon they would be off this planet.
Part of him wondered if any of this was real. Could he be hallucinating? Did the plant poison him after all?
But then Rey smiled at him, and he knew this was real. His mind would never have conjured something so unbelievable – so good. Rey was really here.
But for how long? he asked himself.
...
At the top of the cliff another knight – Vicrul – was waiting for them. Kylo ground his teeth.
"Change of plans," Rey said into her comm.
Time was running out. Even more knights and the First Order would arrive soon.
...
Kylo admired the way Rey used her whole body to fight. Vicrul lunged with his scythe, and Rey knocked him off balance by kicking him in the stomach and elbowing him in the face.
Rey retreated and Kylo attacked Vicrul from behind. Vicrul barely managed to pivot in time to block the lightsaber swinging at his head.
The arrival of a light freighter distracted Vicrul.
It gave Kylo the opening he needed to run the knight though.
...
Kylo followed Rey onto the light freighter Poe had stolen. It was nothing like the Millenium Falcon. The freighter was made up of clean lines and sharp edges. It was significantly smaller than the Falcon, but also newer. It was a nice ship and the owner was likely to come after it.
The boarding ramp closed.
Rey laughed. "We made it," she said, smiling at him.
Kylo's lips twitched I to a slight smile. "We did," he said, walking over to Rey and stumbling only a little. "You came for me."
Rey clasped his arm. "I couldn't leave you."
Kylo leaned in and pressed his lips to hers. What he found so difficult to say, he showed her. He put everything he was feeling – gratitude, relief, adoration – into the kiss. He didn't know how long he would have with her, and he didn't want to waste a moment.
She kissed him back with the same amount of passion and wrapped her arms around his neck, running one hand through his hair.
This was where he was meant to be.
...
Kylo lost track of time. All he knew was Rey. He lost himself to the softness of her lips, the press of her body against his, and the sounds she made. Her tongue brushed against his and he moaned.
"I have a medkit," Poe said, causing his eyes to open.
Rey backed away from him, and Kylo groaned at the loss of contact. He looked at Poe who was grinning at them.
Poe tossed the medkit to Rey. "It doesn't look like anyone is following us, but I'm going to jump to hyperspace a couple more times to be sure." He stared at Kylo. "Are we dropping you off somewhere or are you coming with us?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.
"I…" Kylo trailed off, not knowing what to say. He glanced at Rey who was looking at Poe. Her face didn't give away what she was thinking. He hadn't considered going back to the Resistance, but if Rey–
"I'm good on my own," Poe said, saving him from answering. "You two should patch yourselves up and talk." He gave them a pointed look and then started walking back to the cockpit.
"Wait," Kylo said, surprising himself.
Poe stopped and slowly turned towards Kylo.
Kylo felt Rey's eyes on him. "Thank you," Kylo said to Poe, "for helping."
Poe smiled. "You can thank me by proving I made the right decision."
"I'll try," Kylo said. His throat felt dry.
...
Rey focused on tending to Kylo's wound. They had found a small lounge with a tacky green couch and a bar. He had initially wanted to patch her up first, but she pointed out that they needed to clean up his thigh before it got infected. She sat him down on the couch and got to work.
In order to see what she was working with, Rey exposed the injury on Kylo's thigh by cutting some of the fabric off his pants. The scissors from the medkit had difficulty cutting the thick fabric of his pants, so she resorted to ripping them.
He gave her a look that made her blush. She could guess what He was thinking. He seemed okay with her ripping off his clothes.
Kylo wasn't bleeding, and the cuts weren't as deep as she feared. She used a clean damp cloth to gently clean the area around the cuts.
He winced when she got too close to one of the bigger bite marks.
She apologized and continued cleaning. Rey looked through the medkit and didn't find any bacta patches big enough to cover everything, so she took out a few of the smaller patches. She glanced up at him and saw that his jaw was tense. She put the first bacta patch on the deepest cut. He kept himself from wincing, but he did suck in a breath when the patch touched his wound.
Rey didn't comment on his reaction and applied another bacta patch. "Poe said we should talk," she prompted, wanting to hear what he was going to say. She put the last bacta patch on his thigh.
"He did," Kylo agreed.
Rey kept her eyes on his thigh. "Where do you want to go?" she asked, afraid of the answer.
"I want to stay with you," he said softly.
Rey stopped what she was doing and looked up at him. "Good," she said, swallowing, "I want you to stay with me." She sat next to him on the couch. "Where should we go?"
Kylo tilted his head. "I thought you'd want to go to the Resistance."
"I do," she said. The Resistance was important to her, and she believed in their cause, but she also believed in Kylo. He showed her that she was right about him – that there was still light in him – and she didn't want to leave him. "But I want to stay with you more."
His mouth dropped open, and he looked stunned, like he had never considered that she would want him too.
Rey wanted him to know how important he was to her. "Nobody has ever known me the way you do" – Kylo opened his mouth to respond, but she pressed her finger against his lips – "and I have never known anyone the way I know you."
He swallowed. "The Resistance will be disappointed."
Rey shrugged. "They'll get over it," she said, knowing it wasn't entirely true, but not caring. This was something she needed to do for herself.
"What if they didn't have to?" he asked, hesitantly.
Rey's heart sped up. "What do you mean?"
Kylo leaned towards her. "What if we went to the Resistance together?" he asked.
Her eyes widened. "You're willing to go to the Resistance?"
Kylo took her hands. "I don't know if there's a place for me there, but there's a place for you," he said without looking away, "and I don't want to take you away from your friends."
Rey leaned her head on his shoulder. "Thank you," she said, wanting to be close to him.
Kylo brushed his lips against her forehead. "They won't be happy to see me."
"Then we'll leave," she said, squeezing his hands. "If it gets bad, we'll leave."
...
After Rey was done with all of Kylo's wounds, he was adamant about checking hers. She was more bruised than anything, but there was one cut that he covered with a bacta patch. The gentle way he touched her caused her to shiver. His touch wasn't clinical. It felt good to have someone care for her in this way.
...
Rey should have informed Poe of their destination, but she didn't want to move away from Kylo. Every time she thought to leave his lips pressed against her, or her lips pressed against him.
He was trailing his lips down her neck.
"Kylo," she moaned.
He stilled.
"What is it?" she asked.
He leaned back. "I'm no longer a Knight of Ren," he said, brushing his thumb against her lips. "You can call me Ben."
"Are you sure?" she asked. At one point this moment would have meant everything to her, but so much had changed. It no longer mattered to her what name he went by because Kylo Ren and Ben Solo were the same man. They always had been.
He nodded. "When I took the name Kylo Ren, I tried to fully immerse myself in the dark side. I did horrible things, but the light side always tempted me."
"The light side was always part of you," Rey said, cupping his cheek. "Once I saw it, I couldn't hate you." She caressed his face with her thumb.
"When did you see it?" he asked, covering her hand with his.
"The moment you took off your mask," she said, remembering how surprised he was that he was the man behind the mask.
His breath hitched. "That soon?" he asked, letting go of her hand.
Rey lowered her hand from his face and took his hand in hers. "As soon as I saw your eyes, I knew." It made sense to her then, why he wore the mask. It was hard to be afraid of someone so human.
He pinched his brows together. "I thought you saw a monster when you looked at me."
"I wanted to," Rey admitted. "Seeing the Light in you – that was part of the reason I was so angry."
"The Light is part of me – I know that now – but the Dark is also part of me," he said, squeezing her hand.
"I know, and I think it's part of me too." Rey bit her lip. "Luke said I reminded him of you."
He shook his head. "You're nothing like Kylo Ren."
"Maybe not," she agreed. "But I might be something like the man Ben Solo grows into." Rey leaned forward. "If that's what you want to be called."
"It is." He nodded. "I want to learn who I am as Ben."
Rey gave him a soft kiss, her lips barely brushing his. "Ben," she said, kissing him more firmly. "I want to learn with you."