The falling rock and sand filled the dark chamber with heavy dust that stung Rey's eyes and forced her to cough every time she opened her mouth to berate him.

Kylo took no notice of her and instead seemed to frantically be searching for something. He waved his flickering saber back and forth in long arcs, briefly illuminating stone walls marked with deeply cut symbols and an uneven floor of hard-packed dirt.

"What… are you… doing?!" she demanded, finally able to gasp the words.

"Light," he growled. "We don't have much time."

Rey froze, holding her breath. She could hear her own heart, beating fast and hard, and the faint sound of an occasional loose pebble skittering down the slope of fallen earth—and though she couldn't actually hear the sound of something approaching, she could feel it. Something big… something hungry and ancient.

She was on her feet immediately. Whatever inhabited the tomb lived in the dark. It would have no trouble finding them to attack. They were at a disadvantage without light.

Rey saw it before her frantic companion. By the light of his blade she saw the shadows bend at an odd angle near the ceiling of the room, and realized that there was a ledge running the length of the wall. Her eyes followed it to the end where it bent to follow the passage into the darkness beyond the entry chamber. Against the wall beneath the ledge, a row of tall, sealed jars caught her eye. Rey had seen jars like these before. Quickly, she leapt up and caught the ledge, confirming that it was shaped like a trough. Dropping back to the floor, she smelled the tips of her fingers, and smirked.

"Over here," she called.

As he turned, she lit her blade and touched the tip of her light saber to the trough. Instantly flames leapt from the trough and raced down the wall and into the passageway beyond them.

"Light," she snapped.

His dark eyes moved from the flames to her face and she could see in them the reflection of fire. She scowled and looked away from his intense gaze.

"Clever little Rey," he murmured.

"What is it that's coming?" she demanded. "I can feel it. It's big, isn't it?"

"Terentatek. They guard the tombs and caves throughout this valley— they are powerful creatures, force-sensitive predators bred by the Sith lords of old. Avoid the tusks and claws at all cost, they're extremely venomous."

Rey took a deep breath and glanced again at the slope of earth which buried the door. If she attempted to blast it clear with the Force, it might only cause further rockslides, burying them deeper. There would not be time to dig out, though part of her was demanding she try. Her friends were out there, fighting the First Order. Perhaps one of those pilots had even been Poe—

"Focus!" Kylo Ren hissed, abruptly turning away from her to face the passage.

"You need my help," she realized, noting the tensing of his shoulders at her words. "This isn't about training at all. Whatever you're trying to get from this tomb, you can't do it alone."

When he didn't answer, she nodded to herself.

"I'll help you," she said.

At this, he turned and his eyes found hers, and for a moment as she gazed into them, she saw the boy from her dreams again. His eyes were large and deep, and though his brow furrowed in an expression of pain, she thought she saw something a little like hope in them. How long had it been since someone had willingly offered him anything? Rey almost felt churlish for the words she knew she would say next.

"But once we find what it is you're looking for, our agreement is over. I will no longer be your apprentice. I will be free to return to Master Luke."

A thundercloud of rage crossed his face and his hand tightened around the hilt of his light saber. He opened his mouth and a loud roar echoed through the chamber- so loud that it set her ears ringing and the flames leapt and danced wildly in its wake.

Confused, she stared at him. Wondering how such a sound could have—

He whirled, raising his flickering blade, and she saw it charging toward them… the terentatek.

The beast was massive, lumbering quickly on two feet, with a head that was almost too large for its body, crowned as it was with long, thick, spines. It had a wide mouth, with sharp tusks that grew out from the corners, and when it opened its mouth to roar again, Rey saw row after row of razor-sharp teeth.

Kylo crouched and struck out with his blade as he dove out of the way. The saber cut the creature across its legs, yet it barely stumbled as it spun to chase after him. Without hesitation, Rey leapt forward and landed a second blow against its back. The terentatek reared back, snarling. Horrified, Rey noticed that the blow she had landed had only managed to slightly scorch the creature's thick skin.

It turned and came for her, swinging one heavy, clawed fist with a speed that belied its clumsy gait. She only managed to dodge it, by rolling to the side. Before she could get to her feet, it charged at her, but reared back again as a flicker of red slashed at it from behind. As it turned, Rey managed to scramble to her feet, leap forward and bring down her blade against its shoulder.

The terentatek roared again, taking another swing. This time it caught her fully, sending her crashing against the wall.

Rey heard Kylo shout, drawing the beast's attention away from her. He was backing into the corridor beyond the entry chamber and the beast was following. The terentatek's movements would be hindered in the narrow passageway due to its mammoth size, but so too would Kylo's. He would have far less room to dodge out of the way.

Rey rocked to her knees, and rubbed her forehead. She was dizzy, and her entire body hurt, but she had to think of something, fast! The beast's hide was so thick that their lightsabers were barely drawing blood, but it had to have a weakness, everything had a weakness.

The beast roared again, and beyond it, she could just make out the red glow of Kylo's lightsaber flashing quickly, as he swung.

Gripping one of the tall jars that lined the wall, Rey used it to steady herself as she stood.

And then it hit her—

She focused, pulling in her fear of the beast, and her rage at being confined in a tomb while her friends fought outside, and hefted two of the tall, sealed jars into the air. With all her strength she force –threw the jars into the passageway. The jars smashed against the beast's shoulders and head, drenching the creature in a black, pitch-like substance.

As though he could read her mind, Kylo dove to the side of the terentatek, striking its shoulder with his light-saber. The pitch immediately caught fire, which raced across the beast's back and head, engulfing it in flames.

The beast let out a piercing, shrieking howl as Kylo struck again. Rey was at his side in an instant, her blade ready as the creature turned.

"The neck!" Kylo shouted.

Both struck the flaming beast at the same time, Rey cutting across its neck while Kylo drove his blade through its jaw. Black blood spurted from its wounds as it collapsed to its knees with a last shrieking cry, and then, fell forward. The ground beneath their feet shook when it hit. Though it still burned, the beast was dead.

Rey staggered backwards, breathing heavy. Her head still hurt from where it had struck the wall, and she felt drained. Kylo nodded his head once, before holstering his light saber, grabbing a torch from the wall and lighting it from the beast's corpse.

"Come on," he ordered.

"Are there more of those?" Rey panted, stumbling after him.

"Very likely," he agreed.

"Great," she muttered.

After a few minutes, the passage ended at a large, arching, open doorway. The light from the passage did not extend beyond the threshold. Kylo paused a moment, and then took a few cautious steps, holding his torch aloft. Rey could hear the sound of running water. Their footsteps echoed in a way which suggested that the new chamber was large with very high ceilings.

"There," Rey whispered.

The torchlight had fallen on an irregularity in the stone wall. He saw where she pointed, and when he touched the flame to it, fire raced across the wall, following another trough.

The chamber's ceiling arched high overhead, and a pair of tall, needle-like obelisks framed another doorway at the far end of the chamber. A statue of a giant, seated, human-like figured glared down at them from beneath its stone hood, and, perhaps strangest of all, the room was bisected by a quickly flowing stream, which flowed down the wall on one side, rushed through a trench in the floor, and then disappeared into a large grate in the opposite wall.

"I suppose that's Naga Sadow," she guessed, glancing up at the stern, hooded, stone face.

"Perhaps," Kylo shrugged. He did not seem to be interested in Sadow's likeness, and instead surveyed the room with a pronounced frown, as though it held some sort of puzzle to be solved.

"Are we looking for something?" she pressed.

"Mmmm," he agreed.

"Is that something the secrets of the Dark Moon?" she guessed.

"No," he replied shortly.

"How am I supposed to help if I don't even know what—"

"The dark moon is a ship. It once belonged to Naga Sadow."

"That would be a very old ship," Rey remarked, glancing around the chamber.

Kylo let out his breath in a long frustrated sigh.

"You don't understand. It isn't a ship in the traditional sense. Not like the Falcon, anyhow."

"Bigger?" she guessed.

"No. Smaller. Much smaller."

"How small?"

"Have you ever seen one of the old TIE fighters?"

No!" Rey scoffed. For she had seen one what was left of one of the planets which had fallen under the Dark Moon's shadow. There was no possible way that a ship which was only big enough to carry one person could ever cause such devastation. "Not possible."

"It is. During the Great Hyperspace War, Sadow's ship was infamous. He barely needed his army. He destroyed everything in his path—"

"How?" she demanded.

"Do you remember the meditation chamber on Baudere?"

Rey felt her face grow hot.

"Yes," she hissed.

"Sadow's ship was a meditation sphere with both living and mechanical parts. From his ship, he would perform his battle meditation which would cause mass hallucination and hysteria. Armies would turn on themselves and attack each other. The Dark Force was especially powerful in him."

Rey drew in a quick breath at how simply the mystery which had driven both her and Master Luke from planet to planet was solved.

"And now the First Order has it?" she guessed.

He did not answer.

"And you want to know… what? How it works? Perhaps how you could use it yourself?" she guessed.

"I want to know….whatever there is to know about it," he muttered, studying the river now, he seemed to have lost interest in the conversation.

"And you think this Naga Sadow was buried with its secrets. Very well… then I suppose we're looking for a coffin or a sarcophagus of some sort—"

"Not at all. Sadow was never entombed here. He died in exile on Yavin 4."

"Then who is buried here?" she wondered.

"No one. The tomb was used as a storehouse for many things. Old star maps, ancient droids… other treasures long since looted. For many years, due to the fact that it was infested with terentateks, it was used as a sort of proving ground for the students at the Sith Academy. At any rate, we are not looking for a body here."

"If it's already been looted the how—"

"There," he said and crossed quickly to the side of the room where the stream flowed out through a grate in the wall. He waved his torch in front of them, and Rey could see that the stream continued past the grate and through a tunnel.

"You want to go in there?" she asked.

"Don't you feel it?" he asked.

Rey paused and closed her eyes, listening, reaching out with the force. The only thing she felt was the throbbing in the back of her head.

"Nothing," she confirmed.

"It's there," he whispered. It's faint, but it's there."

"I suppose you mean that we're to go crawling through this tunnel," she sighed.

Rey lit her saber, intending to cut through the grating and made to step down into the stream, but was snatched back so abruptly that she let out a little shriek. The torch clattered to the floor, burning at their feet.

Kylo held her firmly, pressed against himself so tightly that she almost couldn't breathe. She looked up to see his eyes wide and horrified.

"It's Maccawater—not water at all, but an acid that will eat through flesh in less than a second," he murmured.

"You… you… c-could have told me that before I…"

He was still holding her, and was staring down at her now with a ferocity and a hunger that made her stomach contract into a tight knot. She swallowed once, hard.

"You… you can let go. I won't go jumping in or anything," she mumbled.

The corner of his mouth twisted up into a smirk that had become very familiar to her.

"And if I don't?" he taunted.

"Then I suppose we'll make an easy meal for the next terentatek that wanders in," she replied cooly, though with his abilities, he could surely sense the effect that his proximity was having on her.

He dropped her immediately and turned his attention to the far side of the room.

"I have an idea," he said, striding away from her. "Clear out that grate, but keep your feet dry."

Ignoring him, and giving her head a little shake to clear it, she moved closer to the tunnel entrance, kneeling down at the edge of the stream with her blade lit. She was able to carve through the grate on the side closest to her, and even halfway across the top, but she couldn't reach the other side, nor the bottom which was submerged in the maccawater.

Rey set her blade aside and took a deep breath. Drawing in the energy around her was more difficult this time, like trying to suck thick mud through a tiny straw. She thought of the way he had looked at her while they were lying in bed on the island—how he had taunted her for wanting more than just sex to fill a need. Which was undoubtedly why he blew so hot and cold, wanting her for a moment, and then immediately returning to his cold and callous ways.

The grate shook perceptibly. She grit her teeth and focused harder, and with the groan of bending metal, the grate broke free and splashed backwards into the quickly flowing stream, born away into the tunnel.

From the other side of the room came a resounding smash which shook the floor. Rey gasped, suspecting another monster, but instead looked up to see that Kylo had cut through the base of one of the obelisks and felled it to the ground.

Before she could ask if he was trying to alert every Terentatek in the tomb to their presence, she saw the great, needle-like pillar, lifted into the air and floated gently toward her.

"Stand back," he ordered.

As soon as she leapt back, the obelisk splashed down into the stream, and Kylo jumped onto it. He extended a hand to her, which she caught, and he yanked her up beside him as the stone floated down toward the tunnel. Quickly, they both threw themselves flat on the stone, giving them just enough clearance as they passed through the gaping hole where the grate had been and on into the tunnel.

In the sudden dark, with her cheek pressed against cold stone, and the deadly water lapping beneath her, Rey shuddered. He had, of course, forgotten to bring the torch.