I gave you my music, made your song take wing. And now, how you've repaid me, denied me and betrayed me.


Kylo is in a meeting with his advisors when the Steadfast lurches beneath his feet. Alarms begin to ring out, warning lights flashing above his head. He races from the room, lightsaber in hand, his mind consumed by only one thought.

Rey. He must find her.

Reaching for the connection that binds them, he calls out to her through the Force, desperate to know if she is safe. But the familiar hum of their bond has gone silent; Rey seems to have disappeared completely. The emptiness Kylo feels in response is staggering. Terrifying.

If something has happened to her, he does not know what he will do.

That is a lie. He knows exactly what he will do to those responsible.

Kylo races to the last place he saw Rey: his personal training room. He bursts through the door, assessing the chaos before him. The air vents in the ceiling are open, ropes trailing down from above, their ends brushing the black matting that makes up the ground. An unmasked stormtrooper grips Rey's arm, while another man — this one wearing the telltale jacket of a Resistance fighter — points a blaster at Kylo.

Kylo allows himself a moment of relief. Rey is here. She is alive, and she is unharmed.

He springs into action.

He takes a step further into the room, twirling his saber —

Then falls to his knees on the mat. An immovable, crushing weight presses down on him, knocking him breathless. The Force rushes out of him, leaving him with nothing but a cold, sickening feeling.

Kylo recognizes this. Snoke had been adept at Force suppression, and used it often as punishment for a young Ben Solo. Who could possibly know this tactic, and use it against not only himself, but Rey as well? For surely that is why he could no longer sense Rey through the Force.

Though it is a struggle, Kylo lifts his head, making eye contact with the stormtrooper. Ah. FN-2187, renowned traitor, gone two years now from the First Order. Rumor had it that he joined the Resistance when he fled the abandoned Starkiller Base and became a pseudo-Jedi. Kylo had brushed those rumors aside, confident that the traitor's Force sensitivity would mean little in the face of his strength.

He had not counted on the traitor learning Force suppression.

Kylo makes a sound that, through his mask, sounds like a snarl. "Release her."

FN-2187 frowns, but he does not address Kylo. Instead, he turns to Rey, his expression becoming determined. "You know what he is, Rey."

"A murderer," the man with the blaster chimes in. "A monster. You really think he cares about you?"

Rey's face falls, her gaze darting to Kylo. She looks so uncertain, so wounded, that his heart aches.

"Poe," the traitor scolds. His grip on Rey's arm shifts, turning gentler. "He wants you for your power. He'll try to turn you, Rey. He'll take your light and make you as dark as him. Rey…" He glances back at Kylo, then leans close to Rey, lowering his voice. "Your parents are so worried about you. When they heard that Kylo Ren had taken a girl from Jakku, they knew it was their lost daughter. They're waiting for you back at the base."

"Liar!" Kylo roars. Their words shocked him into silence at first, but now, he cannot stay quiet. He has seen Rey's past. She might have hidden the truth from herself, but he uncovered that truth. Her parents are long dead, buried in a pauper's grave in the Jakku desert. How dare they use this painful memory against her?

But how can he make her see the truth? Without the Force, he cannot show her that they are lying.

Gritting his teeth, Kylo pulls his helmet from his head, letting it fall to the ground at his side. He needs her to look into his eyes. "They are lying to you, Rey. Whatever you believe, this man — this traitor — he does not know your parents!"

The Resistance fighter — Poe — takes a few steps closer to Kylo, leveling his blaster at Kylo's chest. He opens his mouth to speak, but before he can say a word, Kylo growls, "If you take her from me, there is nowhere you can go, no place for you to hide. I will make you and your friends suffer. Disasters beyond your imagination will occur. You think that I am cruel now? You have no idea what I can do."

Kylo knows he is frightening Rey, but he doesn't care. Let her see the monster again. Let her understand just how far he will go to protect her.

"Do you see, Rey?" FN-2187 asks. "He isn't good. This thing that he feels for you — it isn't love. It will never be love." He tilts his head so that Rey is forced to look away from Kylo and meet his eyes. "Come with us. You'll be loved. You'll have a family."

Kylo wants to scream. He wants to stand up and run the traitor through with his lightsaber. He wants to crawl to Rey and beg her to stay. But with the Force stolen from him like this, he can do nothing but kneel across the room from her, and watch as his last hope for happiness is taken from him.

Something in Rey's expression hardens. "I want to see my parents."

The traitor smiles. "Then let's go."

He turns to the ropes hanging from the ceiling, indicating that they will have to climb back out to escape.

"Rey," Kylo says, desperation clear in his voice. She can't leave him. Not now, when they have finally found each other. It doesn't make sense.

Was it all a lie? Was she pretending? Did she tolerate the man within the monster these last few days because he was better than the nothing she came from?

It's too much. He feels as if his heart if being ripped from his chest. Rey is leaving, she is climbing away from him, he will never see her again —

"Rey!"

She flinches, but she turns back to him, her eyes full of unshed tears.

Kylo is certain that his expression mirrors hers when he brokenly whispers, "Stay. Please."

A tear rolls down Rey's cheek. Without another word, she disappears into the vents above his head. The traitor and the Resistance fighter go with her.

Kylo can sense the moment that they leave the Steadfast, for all at once, the Force rushes back into him. Instead of setting things right, though, it only makes Rey's absence harder to bear. It feels like a gaping hole in his chest, an awful pit of darkness and loneliness that threatens to consume him.

Alone in his training room, full of rage and grief, Kylo howls.