Author's Note: So I decided that I'm going to release my chapters several at a time and see how that works since I seem to be falling behind with my updates. I may take a little longer to release but I hope it will be worth the wait. Just remember that I am an amateur writer honing my craft.

Disclaimer: As always I don't own Star Wars. Never have, never will. I simply play in their world.

Reviews: Like it? Hate it?

"You look at her like

she is the sea

at the end of a cliff,

You look at her like

the leap into her depths

will either kill you,

drown you,

or set you free."

-Nikita Gill

Kylo Ren

My head is spinning and it is well that I'm lying on the ground because I would have fallen over if I had been standing.

I feel Rey's hand beneath mine, my fingers brushing the pulse at her wrist. It beats steadily and I inhale a shaky breath, trying to clear my head.

I haven't felt this weak in...I don't remember. Starkiller base maybe when Chewbacca shot me and Rey laid open my face.

I shake off the disturbing thought and get to my knees, opening my eyes. My stomach heaves and I quickly shut them again.

The nausea recedes but it leaves a metallic aftertaste in the back of my throat. If this is the side effect of being a mind-healer I think I'll pass.

The hall is too silent. The only sound is what I'm making and that's wrong. I snap my eyes open and look at the woman next me.

She's on her side, eyes closed and breathing but not awake.

"Rey."

I can barely get her name out, my throat burning as my scar throbs from where that dark apparition touched my flesh.

She isn't moving and my heart, that wretched thing, is making my body shake as I crawl to her side.

"Rey," I gather her into my arms, "wake up."

She may as well be dead for all the response I'm getting and a snarl echoes across the room. My hazy mind takes seconds to realize I'm the one making that inhuman sound and I grind my teeth in an effort to stop.

I know she's not dead but my heart refuses to calm.

"Rey," I press my fingers to pulse on her neck, "open your eyes."

Her pulse spikes and I hold my breath as I wait for her to look at me.

Dark lashes remain closed and that small spike settles back into a sluggish rhythm. She's breathing but for whatever reason she is in some kind of stasis.

Her tormented cries from earlier reverberate loudly inside my head and my hand shakes as I push hair away from her face.

"No," I whisper, "you don't get to do this to us. I know it hurts but you can't run anymore. You have to come back and face this."

Her pulse stutters and her breathing turns shallow. Her body is alive but her soul is nothing more than a flicker of light.

"Rey," perhaps it might be kinder to let her sleep, to allow her to hide from the cruel truth that her life has become but I am selfish man and I refuse to let her go, "Please don't make me do this. You have to wake up sweetheart."

Again I feel her pulse jump and I know my voice is reaching her but she won't wake. I grit my teeth and place my hand over her eyes.

I didn't want to do this but she's left me no choice. If I have to drag her screaming back to life then so be it.

Not even death will take her from me.

"Rey, wake up!"

Lightning dancing beneath my fingertips as I shove the power through her system, shocking her into consciousness.

She thrashes in my arms and I lose my grip. Her eyes open and I stare into pitch-black darkness.

"Stop!"

Her hand pushing at my chest and the Force hits me like a tsunami before I can defend myself.

My back slams into the wall and the breath rushes out of my lungs. My head cracks against the surface and darkness veils my vision.

Something hot and wet slides down my skin, the scent of iron in the air.

At least...she's awake...

It's the last thought I have before I black out...

...gentle probing around my head and it hurts like hell. I groan trying to pull away from whatever is causing me pain and I hear a feminine cry.

"Ben. Look at me, please."

Rey. Calling for me.

I've never heard her speak like this, pleading anguish and I can't bear to hear it.

I roll over and look up into liquid amber, tears making her eyes shimmer. Her hair tumbling around her shoulder, casting her face in shadows.

She is the most beautiful creature I have ever seen and I die a little each time she looks at me with those haunting eyes.

"R-Rey."

My chest feels tight and it hurts to breath.

A tear slips down her face and I swear she really is trying to kill me. Doesn't she know by now that I can't stand to see her cry.

I reach up and wipe the moisture from her cheek. I want to ask her why she is so upset but right now it's all I can do to keep air in my lungs.

That sucker punch knocked the wind out of me and I'm still recovering from the unexpected blow to my head.

Her hand covers mine and it's warm now. No longer chilly and some of the tension holding me rigid eases.

Her lips press into my palm and the throbbing in my head is a distant ache next to the fire running a river in my blood from that single caress.

"Don't...don't you ever scare me like that again."

I blink and I think I must have heard her wrong. I scared her? She was the one who wouldn't wake up.

Before I can say anything her mouth captures mine, hair falling like a curtain around us, shutting out the world.

Her lips ravage my soul and I ache for this woman. My fingers tangle in her hair and I feel her tremble and I want more.

Her tongue sliding against mine and flame turns into an inferno beneath my skin.

A breathless, needy moan from her lips and I groan to hear such desire. She holds me captive and I am more than willing to be her prisoner if only she will stay like this forever with me.

Her fingers tunnel in my hair and brush the open wound and I flinch as pain overrides pleasure for a fraction of a second.

Her head snaps up, limpid eyes wide with horror.

"We...you're hurt! How..."

Now she remembers when I had all but forgotten about it. Her mouth, I am realizing, is the best drug to cure my pain.

She looks so bewildered that laughter escapes before I can hold it back. After all she's the reason I'm like this in the first place.

I touch my temple and feel blood on my fingertips. I wince, not at the pain, but at the way she so easily cast me aside.

"A reminder to keep my distance when I try to wake you up next time."

A blank look in her eyes as they go out of focus and a spike of adrenaline in my blood that makes my heart run a painful rhythm.

Seconds later a look of disgust as she gazes down at me.

"I...I did this to you..."

She jerks her hands away from me before I can stop her, using her hair as a shield to hide her face.

I can feel her misery, her guilt through our bond.

I sigh and realize I should have chosen my words with more care. She has such a tender heart, my Rey.

"Rey," I lift my hand to brush back her hair and see the stain of red across her cheek, "I'm fine."

Her lips tremble and she won't look at me. The guilt in her is like acid in my veins.

Does she think that I am so weak to be done in by a simple Force shove?

"Open your eyes and look at me."

For a moment I don't think she's going to listen but then I see her eyelashes lift and once more I stare up into fractal amber.

She looks so woebegone, so bewildered that I am hard pressed not to laugh again. It's rare I catch her this off-balance. Normally she's the one making me feel that way.

"Don't."

She sounds miserable and I don't understand why. I'm fine.

"Don't what?"

She pushes my hand away and I am not willing to let go so easily and tangle our fingers together. The press of her hand against my heart is comforting.

"Don't pretend that you're not in pain! I hurt you..."

Ah. So that's what this is all about, the fact that she injured me. Well I won't deny that it didn't hurt, but it's more my pride than my head that took the beating.

I've been alive longer than her, trained more than her and still she took me by surprise.

I sigh, knowing I should get up and prove to her that my injury is superfluous but it doesn't escape my attention that she's allowing me use her lap as my resting place.

The warm heat of her thighs is doing wonders for my mood.

"It was an accident sweetheart." I know that look, she doesn't believe a word I'm telling her, "I've taken far worse beatings than a simple knock to my head."

Maybe that will convince her.

She shaking her head and that stubborn streak of hers is not helping right now.

"I...it doesn't excuse what I did. I should be more in control of myself-"

"So make it up to me."

Her eyes widen when I cut through her tirade. Why would she believe for a minute that I'm going to lay here and let her beat herself up over an accident?

It seems she doesn't know me half as well as she think she does.

"I-what?"

Once more I've caught her off guard and I feel that tickle in the back of my throat. I had better not laugh otherwise she may well do me serious harm.

Since she can't go anywhere with my head in her lap, I might as well make use of it.

"If you feel that bad about it then make it up to me."

Bewilderment quickly turns to suspicion and I can practically see her brain trying to figure out if I'm leading her into a trap.

Of course I am.

"How?"

If I say anything more she's going to put up her defenses and that will be the end of this.

I pick up her hand and suspicion melts to concern as she shifts her weight as if anticipating me moving.

I press my lips to her wrist, stroking her fingers. Warm, silken skin beneath my mouth and I wonder how she keeps it so smooth. There are callouses on her palms from the lightsaber training but that's all.

I trace my lips over each indent and feel her shiver.

"B-Ben..."

"Hmm?"

My name no more than a breathless gasp and I nip at her wrist for distracting me. Since she deprived me of her mouth earlier I'll take her hand in recompense.

I feel her trembling, the heat of her body cradling my head and hear the hitch in her breath when I nip at her skin.

She liked that.

"I-B-Ben!"

I slide my mouth up her palm, the salt of her skin an addiction I have no intention of giving up.

Languid heat in my veins, I forget the reason why I started this. There is only Rey and myself.

"Is...this what you meant," I nip at her skin, her lilting voice a pleasurable distraction but I prefer those tiny little moans she tries so hard to suppress, "by making it up to you!"

Shock mingling with pleasure and I can't help but laugh. I thought I was seducing her but here I am, half-seduced out of my mind just by touching her hand.

I want to taste her, all of her.

Her fingers curl and my lips find her nails instead.

I blink at the sudden obstacle.

"Rey?"

I know she likes what I'm doing so why is she stopping me? I can feel her trembling, hear the frantic beating of her heart.

I look up and see the scarlet tinge sweeping across arched cheekbones. Her eyes have that sleepy, glazed look that I will kill any man to see except me.

She shakes her head as if trying to wake up from a dream.

"I...I think that's enough."

There are times like now I hate her practical nature.

I sigh and drop her hand. I might have been able to push her past her limits but that's not what this was about.

"Well that was...disappointing."

I thought she would at least let me get to the tips of her fingers before pushing me away.

"That's not what I thought you meant when you said I should make it up to you!"

I glance up at her and see the flash of amber fire in her gaze. I've stroked her temper again.

I wonder...is this what playing is? Do all lovers feel this way?

I want to make her smile and yet there is part of me that revels in the way I can spark that delicious temper of hers.

"Oh?" Languid heat still in my veins, I let it slip into my words, "What did you think I meant?"

I watch her charming blush spread and wonder what hidden thoughts sparked that reaction.

"I...I don't know! Maybe to heal you or...something..."

Her words trail off and she's looking at me as if remembering something vital. Amber darkens to topaz and I am held captive by the shifting colors.

"Don't move just...stay still."

She extracts her hand from mine and I don't like it.

"Oh? Why sho-"

Her hand over my mouth, pressing down hard enough that I nearly bite my tongue. I glare up at her for that little trick and she returns my glare with one of her own.

"You. Be quiet and let me concentrate."

I'll be quiet when you lift your hand so I can breathe.

"Mhmpmm."

This is ridiculous.

"No I'm not going to lift my hand until you promise to be quiet and stay still."

Well that was unexpected. I didn't expect her to understand me.

I wonder what she is up to and unless I behave I doubt I'm going to find out.

I don't like being coerced into anything but for Rey...

I sigh and nod my head, closing my eyes when the motions makes my head swim.

Perhaps I did hit it harder than I thought.

She lifts her hand but I can still scent her skin, sunlight and midnight blooms, directly above me.

I think she's waiting for me to break my word but her lap is comfortable and I am...enjoying having her fuss over me.

Odd, I never liked being fussed over by my parents even when I was sick.

I feel her fingers at my temples, lighter than a whisper.

What could she-

A sharp, flash of heat like being kissed by fire inside my head and I gasp as the Force flows into me but it quickly transmutes into a gentler energy, like stepping into a warm bath after being out in the cold.

The pain in my head and that slightly sick feeling is gone and I relax completely.

Rey is healing my wound.

The small aches of my body are healing as well and I drown in her warmth, utterly open to her ministration.

Sinister laughter creeping through my mind.

Rey whimpers and her fingers jerk away and I snap my eyes open. Amber ringed in gold look down on me in horror.

I'm out of her lap and on my knees, keeping her in my sight.

That laughter I heard...there is no doubt what it was.

But the question is did Rey hear it or is this something else entirely?

"What is it Rey?" Fragile eyes look at me, "Talk to me."

"I was healing your wounds and I heard a voice," she's no longer looking at me but her hands, "a child's voice...but it couldn't be..."

Her eyes are glazing over as if once more lost in the labyrinth of her memories.

"What did the voice say?" she doesn't respond and the chill of a shadow crosses my soul, "Rey."

I snap my finger inches from her face, the sound echoing harshly and it grabs her attention.

She blinks and the ring of gold recedes from her eyes.

"Tell me what you heard."

I need to know if the dark side of the Force is awakening or if this only a momentary aberration.

"It...it said 'you won't let her forger me will you Ben Solo'," her voice quakes and the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, "but it sounded like...me...when I was younger but it wasn't me..."

Golden eyes veiled in black, cruel and cunning. A mouth with needle-sharp teeth and a feral smile. A single, trailing finger down my cheek.

So cold that is burns the dead flesh of my scar.

I sit back on my heels and run a hand through my hair, anger burning the last bit of pleasure from my mind.

I knew she was going to have to face what happened when I took her to the heart of her nightmares but I had hoped to give her more time.

To give us both more time. But it seems the universe is conspiring against me and once more snatching away the small vestiges of happiness that we find.

"Rey how much do you remember?"

It was time to face her past head on so she could finally look ahead instead of always looking behind for something that was no longer there.

"I-"

A tremble in her voice, the echo of the frightened little girl that I held when I walked through her memories and I'm already regretting my actions.

I reach for her but she is on her feet and I see denial blazing in her eyes.

"No! No! It's not true!"

A note of hysteria and I'm on my feet, grabbing her wrist before she can give into her fear and run.

"Rey!"

She halts and looks down at my hand. I have myself grounded and she isn't going anywhere until I let go.

Slowly she lifts her head and I see the horror, read the silent pleading for me to tell her that she's wrong.

That she is not related to Palpatine.

But I can't. I wish, more than anything, to spare her this pain but denying the truth doesn't make it any less real.

My silence is her answer and fear swiftly turns to burning rage. She does a deft twist of her wrist in my grip and she's free.

I should never have taught her that particular trick. The skin on my palm burns.

"You...you already knew didn't you?"

She flings the question at me like an accusation, backing up and holding her arms around her in a defensive pose that I have become all too familiar with.

She does that when she expects to be hurt and trying to protect herself.

Regret is a dagger twisting my heart to see the distrust gathering in her eyes.

No matter what I say now it will only sound like an excuse.

"How long have you known? Tell me!"

Her anger a whip against my senses, laying open wounds that go beyond the physical.

A bitterness in the back of my throat as I shove my emotions back where they belong. Locked deep inside where they cannot be used against me.

Ben Solo's weak soul cannot defend against her anger. But Kylo Ren can easily deflect anything she throws.

"Since my return from Exegol." A flicker of surprise but I'm not done, after all she demanded answers, "After I met with Palpatine."

She turns her back to me, her shoulders hunched and now we play the waiting game.

"You...you kept this a secret from me." Soft, whispered words that instantly make me wary of a trap, "This entire time you knew..."

I've indulged her mercurial mood long enough.

"Would you have believed me if I told you the truth about where you came from?"

Her spine straightens as if I pressed a hot brand to her skin. My words are ruthless, stripping away any vestige of kindness that might have softened the blow.

She doesn't need coddling. She needs to wake up and face the reality of her situation.

Screaming and crying how the world isn't fair is not an option. It never was.

"I...how?" Anguish, a grief of the soul that threatens to destroy my resolve, "I'm a monster-"

"Rey you're not a monster."

The words slip out before I can censure them and yet if I had a chance to answer differently I know they would still be the same.

Rey. My beautiful, stubborn compassionate woman is no monster.

She turns, the flash of her hair obscuring her face for a brief moment before I see the hard, angry contempt in her eyes.

"Yes I am! This..this is Palpatine!" Hands clenched tight against her hips, she screams her rage at me, "The man who decimated an entire galaxy, the enemy of every Jedi...of the entire Resistance! I carry his blood, so don't stand there and tell me I'm not a monster."

Her breathing is ragged and her eyes flash dangerously.

"You don't know how I feel!"

My temper loosens the chains of my control and I've suffered her tirade long enough.

"You forget I am the grandson of Darth Vader." She takes a step back, eyes wide and I know that she forgot that little fact in her self-pity, "So yes, I do know how you feel."

Before I embraced the power that my grandfather chased after, I felt exactly the way she did now.

I remember the looks from the senators as they visited my parents house. The whispers, the murmuring. I know what the other Padawans thought when I could manipulate the Force that was far beyond their understanding or capability.

I was different. I was dangerous.

I was born a Solo but I had the tainted blood of Skywalker in my veins as well.

"No you don't!" She lashes out at me and I have to wonder if she has ever allowed herself to be this angry over anything, "Darth Vader was saved by his son Luke Skywalker, everyone knows that in the end he was redeemed. But no one, not a single person, could redeem Palpatine!"

I turn my head and I can't deny some of the truth she speaks. Yes Darth Vader was turned back to the light side of the Force. Inside him was that single, spark of love he carried in his memories of his dead wife.

Luke Skywalker was a manifestation of that love.

I hear the soft sound of leather on metal and look to see Rey pacing in agitation. An angry flush to her face as she shoves her hair behind her ears.

"How he could have had a child...no one could love Palpatine...my father-"

Tormented words that I need to put a stop to before she loses herself in another tirade.

"He didn't."

She stops and stares at me from across the room. The lights are minimal but I have walked in total darkness before and my eyes can see her perfectly.

Not all of her anger has abated but some of her composure has returned.

"You're not making any sense." She speaks calmly and I take in a silent breath that she's no longer flinging her words at me, "Of course he had to have a child. Drystan said that Palpatine was his father."

"Your father wasn't..."

I stop my explanation abruptly, realizing what I'm about to reveal. She can hardly stand to think that she's related to Palpatine, I have no idea if she can handle any more surprises.

"Tell me everything you know."

Not a request but a demand.

I turn away so that she cannot see the war going on inside me. I want to tell her everything, to be done with all the secrets I've kept until now.

I haven't lied to her.

But I've not been completely open with her either.

"Tell me Ben!"

Fingers digging into my arm and I turn back in surprise. I was so caught up in my own thoughts that I never heard her approach.

She's shaking and its not from fear. I see angry, flecks of tears on her cheeks and her small fists pound against my chest but there is no strength behind them.

"Please, I have to know the truth, all of it!"

I did this to her. If I had been honest from the start would she be suffering as she is now?

She looks up at me through spiked lashes and her lip trembles and the fault lines in my soul crack deeper.

"Do you want me to beg?" Chocked words and I wonder how much of her pride she had to throw away to ask such a question, "To get down on my knee's to you? Because I will-"

Her fingers let go and I grab her before she can do such a thing.

"No! Rey I don't want you on your knee's, you don't beg anyone for anything!"

No one has the right to strip her of her pride.

Especially me.

The fact that she thinks she has to ignites my temper as nothing in this universe could. But my anger is not directed her, but myself.

She is only in this position because I forced her with all of my secrets.

"Then tell me what you know."

She may not be on her knees but she's begging me all the same and I'm done.

I'm so tired of the secrets, of hidden agenda's and truth's wrapped up in lies.

I let go when I realize I'm gripping her arms tight enough that I leave red hand prints on her arms.

I turn away from her so I don't hurt anymore than what I'm about to.

"Your father was a clone. Palpatine's clone."

There. I've said it.

"I-no that's not possible-"

I open my eyes and stare at her, letting her see the truth, all of it.

"It is. I've seen them. On Exegol, the 'discards'. At least a dozen of them."

Her mouth opens but no sound emerges and I continue even without her asking me any questions. I already know what she would ask without being told.

"Your father...," no, he wasn't a father at least not in the way he should have been for her, "Drystan. Palpatine considered him a failed experiment."

I watch the light die in her eyes.

"How do you know all of this?"

Again she strips my soul bare with nothing more than whisper.

"He told me shortly after I learned that you were his granddaughter."

I remember the malicious glee as he revealed these facts. Drystan was nothing more than a tool to him. Something to be used and discarded when no longer viable.

In many ways Drystan and I were not so different. I knew when I went to Snoke after leaving Skywalker that I was being used. Just as I was using him for my own means.

"And my mother?"

I look down at Rey, see her fists clenched so hard that I can see her knuckles straining against her skin.

"Was she a cl-clone as well?"

I shake my head. This at least I can offer some solace.

"No, as far as I can tell your mother was human." I've sent my spies to dig up information on Amirah but Drystan hid her past well enough that I can only make speculations, "She somehow met your father, fell in love...and they had you."

Whatever her parents might have been, who they were, I have to be grateful to them. If nothing else they had Rey and without her...

She's closed her eyes to me and her misery is chains around my soul, a heavy weight pulling us both under.

"You're not a monster Rey."

A harsh sound from her lips, as if something has broken inside of her.

"You can tell me that as many times as you want but it doesn't alter the fact that I am a Palpatine." Wretched words spoken through trembling lips, "I was born a monster."

I never realized, until now, how self-destructive she can be.

She has the rare ability to see the best in others and only the worst in herself.

"Then, by your own definition, so was I."

She snaps her eyes open and I see suspicion swimming in her gaze as if I'm trying to trick her yet again.

But I am not in the mood for jokes and I am growing quite angry at her constant referral that she is a monster.

I move away and lean up against the wall, the cold press of the glass doing little to slow the burning rage I feel at this moment.

"You're not making any sense."

Again with the accusations but the whip of her temper leashed.

I am not the least bit mollified.

Rey is a pragmatic creature, logical to the point of being almost narrow-minded and I use that side of her without mercy.

"No? You just set the parameters on how a monster is made, so let me redefine them for you."

Her fists loosen and now I see the caution that should have been there long ago finally catch up with her.

Too little and too late for such measures.

"To be a monster you must carry the blood of one correct?"

I don't bother to wait for her to answer me, it was a rhetorical question from the start.

"So, by that standard, I too was born a monster. My grandfather is Anakin Skywalker, who the entire galaxy knows as Darth Vader." Most believe that I followed in Darth Vader's footsteps to prove I was just as powerful as he was. But that was only part of it. "The man who murdered by the millions, who destroyed worlds and hunted the Jedi to extinction. A monster by anyone's definition."

Rey takes a step back and that part of me that hunts in the darkness, smiles.

But I'm not done yet and it's time to shatter her preconceived notions of what makes a monster.

"Also by your definition that would make Leia Organa Solo and Luke Skywalker monsters as well."

Her eyes widen and that last bit of self-loathing she was clinging to disappears.

"That's different!"

There she is. My warrior. The woman who would spit on fate itself.

"Really?"

I'm well aware that I'm antagonizing her. Better for her to be angry for the right reasons than self-destruct for the wrong ones.

"I-my father said it was my blood that I carry-"

I sigh and leave my spot and go to her. Her stubbornness is admirable but right now its only doing her more harm than good.

I slip past her defenses and cup her face and she looks up at me with a mixture of longing and broken rage.

"Rey you don't get to choose your parents." She's listening and I pick my words carefully, "You don't get to decide what life you're born into. But that doesn't mean you can't decide your own path, your own fate." I, more than anyone else, know what it's like to turn away from a predetermined path, "Haven't you been doing that this entire time?"

Hot, wet tears splash onto my hand and I wonder if I've finally gotten through to her.

If I have managed to fix, even a small amount, the distrust I caused.

"What happened to them?"

She's closed her eyes and the tears are gone but her voice is not the broken whisper or the screaming rage from before.

There is a cold chill emanating from her and my senses are screaming that something is wrong.

"What?"

Where is this coming from all of the sudden?

"I asked," soft words spoken with a razor's edge as she opens her eyes to me, " "what happened to my parents Ben Solo."

Golden, metallic eyes stare up at me.

There is beauty reflected but also a sinister cunning that is not Rey.

I drop my hands when her skin turns chilly, cold enough that is burns my unprotected skin.

"I...," oh they were killed long ago, I sent my assassin to hunt them down and bring the girl to me but he failed to find my granddaughter in the end, "don't know."

I dare not speak the truth, not now.

"Liar."

I flinch as she speaks with a poisoned sweetness, dark gold veiled in shadows and I wonder just who is in control now.

"Rey?"

Her lips mimic that of a smile but it holds the edge of pain, a cruelty that I am not unfamiliar with.

I take a step back as the darkness in my own soul rises.

I not afraid of Rey but I no longer trust myself to maintain control.

"I called you a liar, Ben Solo." Crooning words that send a shock of heat through my veins, "You know what happened to my parents and you will tell me."

The command in her voice, the enticement to submit beats at my will and I grind my teeth not to bend my knee to her.

This is my nightmare and my dark fantasy come to vivid life before my eyes.

I take another step back as I feel the dark side of the Force pounding in my veins, whispering that this woman is my true equal.

A flash of metal as my boot hits something hard.

Rey takes her eyes off of me at the distraction. It's the dagger she brought with her that I translated.

She's not looking at it like she was from before. As if it made her sick to her stomach just be near it.

No...this is a thoughtful, almost curious contemplation and I don't like it. I know the duel-edge of her gift and if the dark side of the Force is taking over then whatever she is planning is dangerous.

"Rey, whatever you are thinking, don't."

She tilts her head, the fall of her hair sliding down one shoulder. Sleepy, sensual eyes measure me and it's all I can do to hold myself back.

I want to scream at her to wake up, that this isn't her.

I want to drag her into my arms and claim her mouth, taste the sharp edge of her cruel pleasure.

"If you will not help me then I will do this myself."

The Force stirs and I react but I'm too late.

"Rey, don't!"

The dagger is in her hand and I hear her scream, vivid amber swirling against veiled darkness and I catch her just as she crumples.

"Rey!"

Her body is limp, her eyes open and unseeing.

She has given herself over to the memories that live in the dagger and I have no idea if she is going to survive the experience.