Chapter Sixteen: Lies

She was to be his pupil. Yes. That was it. He wanted only to pry her from the Light, making up for his blunder in leaving the BB-unit on Takodana. When he was sure she'd be a credit to his name and not a disgrace, he would present her to Snoke. A fitting tribute.

Having settled on his reason for keeping Rey alive – one easily assessed at least – Kylo led her from the ship in a forceful drag, hurrying her past the precautions he'd put in place. They descended the shuttle's ramp together, Rey going almost willingly, save for an occasional yank where she tested the strength of the durasteel cuffs circling her wrists.

Stepping into a cold night filled with frost, Kylo immediately remembered why he'd disliked his original stay on Rakata Prime. It was an icy, wintry world – not as harsh as his parents' nostalgia-seeped Hoth, but in the same dismally-bleak, snow-strewn scale.

Rey shivered, watching with wide eyes as her exhales left her lips in white clouds. She moved to touch one as it disappeared, forgetting the restraining bolts and unyielding hold keeping her arms immobile.

She scowled as she met resistance. "You haven't thought this out at all," she muttered, staring as the statement made thick, round puffs between them. "Are you going to keep me in shackles forever?"

"Are you going to admit you need a teacher?" Kylo returned. "That power you feel – those whispers – they were quiet for a long time, weren't they? They'll grow louder. Stronger. You need someone to show you how to overcome their din."

Rey huffed, and he wondered if it was to articulate her disbelief, or just to make another cloud. He supposed the dune-filled expanse of Jakku rarely had such atmospheric conditions. How small her world had been; how big he could make it.

"There is already great conflict in you," Kylo pressed. "I can help you still its churn."

"Through the dark side?" She tested the phrase, uncertain she'd spoken it correctly.

This girl knew nothing. Nothing. She would succumb swiftly, serving up all she knew of Skywalker and joining his Knights without reserve.

"Your choice will be your own," he lied. "It's why I've brought you here, free from all influence."

Rey lifted a brow, preceptive and unimpressed. "Except yours."

"Mine isn't so bad," Kylo countered, trying to lace his words with rarely-used charm.

Such artifice may have worked for others of the Solo-line, but Rey wasn't convinced. "Except that is comes with threats," she said. "And images of me battered under multiple tons of metal."

"Threats I haven't acted on," Kylo reminded, seeing his earlier errors and regretting them. This one responded to patient coaxing, not bludgeoning dominance.

Her gaze drifted down his monochrome attire. "A man who hides what his face betrays doesn't sound like an expert on mastering conflict to me."

Her insight took a moment to matriculate, and shock once more superseded his rage. Releasing her wrists, he lifted hands to his helmet, opened its seal and removed it with a duck of his head.

Rey gaped at the gesture, and Kylo suppressed a satisfied smirk as he looked at her without his mask's visor.

Yes. Wile was the way to turn her.