Lineage

Disclaimer: There is a strong swear word that has been censored *

Light. That was Rey's first thought when she entered Kylo Ren's quarters. Almost everything was white, the lights cast a faint blue cast on the shiny surfaces. It was as if everything had been meticulously cleaned and tidied so not a speck of dust was out of place.

Rey didn't find that surprising but she was surprised by his choice of color. It was very different from his old quarters, and him, in general. She had glimpsed his surroundings at some point during one of their sessions, or she had at least seen his bed which was entirely black, which seemed to be his motif for clothing, as well. Well, except when he wasn't fully clothed when his fair skin contrasted sharply against-Rey's cheeks burned when she realized where her thoughts were going. She tried to clear her head, but to no avail, the memories of all the times she had seen him shirtless-which happened quite a bit, now that she thought about it-were flashing through her mind.

It was broken quickly by a cold sensation that ran down her spine and spread throughout her limbs. She suddenly found it very difficult to move, as if her body was weighed down by lead, but she forced her head to turn behind her. Her eyes widened and her breath caught. She slowly approached the dais as her eyes fell on the helmet of Darth Vader. Darkness emanated from it and Rey could feel the temperature around her drop noticeably as she got closer. She was strangely drawn to it, but she planted her feet and refused to move. This had been Kylo's grandfather, one of the most powerful and feared Sith lords in history. Reality came back to her and she turned away from the mask.

She caught sight of Chewie's bowcaster and the dagger. She hurried to the desk and let her staff rest against the edge. Her hands made quick work of the strap to the beige bag she carried and she began to put the items inside. But when she touched the dagger, she hesitated.

Rey's fingers gripped the handle tightly as she picked it up, the cold metal glistening hungrily in the light. Memories of her vision came rushing back to her.

She could hear a woman screaming, shortly followed by a much younger voice. The sound of the ship's engines was drowned out by the little girl's screams, begging them not to abandon her. "No!"

"No…" Rey whispered as the memories became too much for her to bear. It was as if missing pieces of a puzzle were slowly falling into place. Rey had always wanted to know what happened to her parents, but now she felt her stomach sink. Maybe it was better if she didn't know…

"Rey."

Rey instantly whirled around and ignited her lightsaber on instinct. She felt the rush of all the familiar symptoms as they enveloped her entire being. A prickling sensation at the base of her skull, the tremor in the Force, the vacuum of sound, and the slight echos.

Kylo Ren stared back at her, his mask hiding any indication of his emotions. His boots were muddy and she could see the snow on his cape. He was on Kijimi, she realized. He must have just missed her.

At first, Rey had been trembling, her fear taking over her. But now that she'd had a moment to process, her anger returned swiftly and vehemently.

"Wherever you are," Kylo said, "you are hard to find," His voice held a touch of amusement and sarcasm that suddenly reminded Rey of Han. Pain twisted in her chest before her anger came back to hide it.

"You're hard to get rid of," she snapped. She began to turn away from him. She could not let herself get distracted. Not now.

"I pushed you in the desert because I needed to see it," he said in that infuriatingly calm voice of his. "I needed you to see it. Who you are." A beat of silence hung in the air as the echos of his voice reflected between them. "I know the rest of your story." Rey kept her back to him, so he couldn't see her face. So she couldn't see him. Her hand gripped her lightsaber so hard that the ridges were digging into her palm, her knuckles turning white. She hated that he knew more than her, that he could tempt her with this. The temptation of him by himself was bad enough, it tormented her every day. Rey didn't want to be at his mercy.

"Rey…" His voice had sunken dangerously low. Rey whirled around to face him, brandishing her lightsaber.

"You're lying," she hissed through clenched teeth. Her vision blurred with angry tears and her voice was shaking. He just looked at her calmly.

"I never lied to you," he said, softly. Maybe he hadn't, but didn't his words always have some other meaning behind it?

Not all of them, his voice spoke in her head. Her eyes widened and she realized that she had lowered her mental barriers. Before she could shut him out, he showed her what he meant. Most of his words were honest, genuine even. What surprised her where the subtle remarks, actions, glances, and everything where they had felt that tension between them or those awkward moments of intimacy that made them want to pull away and come closer to each other at the same time. All of those held no trace of deception, just raw and honest vulnerability.

Rey stood still, stunned for a moment as the memories flashed through her head. Then she snapped out of it and threw her mental walls up, shoving him out of her mind. Get out of my head!

He was walking towards her, and it was as somehow, he was in the room with her.

"Your parents were no one. They chose to be," he said, out loud this time. "To keep you safe."

"Don't!" Rey seethed. Her voice was tight, strained, and her face twisted with pain that got worse as every second passed. She was trying so hard to bury her emotions, but she could feel them rising to the surface, ready to explode. Her chin was trembling, her hands shaking, and her eyes watering.

"You remember more than you say," Kylo continued, ignoring her pleas. "I've been in your head."

"I don't want this!" She was reminded of Snoke's throne room but was a different kind of heartbreak. So much anger and rage came along with the pain this time. If only he would just stop.

"Search your memories," he said, and then Rey snapped.

"NO!" she screamed and while she was still holding the dagger, she swung her lightsaber towards him. He dodged once and then ignited his own but only to parry her strike. The crackling red blade hissed as it met her blue one. She pushed with all of her strength but he was as unyielding as a mountain, using his physical size to his advantage.

She glared at his helmet, where his eyes would be. The angry, broken, red lines of his mask reminded her of blood, and suddenly her thoughts turned to the dagger. She was beginning to realize that someone's blood was on that dagger.

"Remember them," Kylo said. "See them." Rey gasped as a vision filled her mind.

A beautiful woman with a blue hood over her head ran into a tent holding a child in her arms, just like her vision on Ajan Kloss. She was beautiful, but it was obvious that she was terrified, attempting to be strong for the little girl in her arms. As her hood fell back, Rey could see that the woman's brown hair was tied up in the same way as Rey's. Rey was nearly a spitting image of the woman, except Rey had freckles, and her jaw was sharper. Mother?

"I know," she murmured as she hugged her child tightly, tears leaking out of the corners of her eyes. She took the girl's face in her hands. "Rey, be brave," she said, and pulled her back into a desperate hug, crying as she rocked back and forth. Rey saw herself hug her mother back, her younger self not fully aware of what was happening.

Then, a man came inside the tent. His hair was lighter, and he had a light stubble on his face. Father? Her father's blue eyes were filled with tears as he knelt next to them. Rey could see her lips and her jaw in him and it felt like her heart was breaking all over again when she noticed that her father had the same crinkle between his eyebrows as she did when she got scared.

"You'll be safe here," he said, rubbing the girl's back, looking at her with an overwhelming sense of love and devotion. "I promise." He hugged her and her mother tightly.

Then the hauntingly familiar image of Ochi's ship taking her parents from her filled her mind. She heard herself screaming, "Come back! No!"

Her vision cleared and she was back on the Steadfast, her lightsaber locked with Kylo's. She flung his blade away and tried to put as much distance between them as possible. She was still reeling from the vision, as they circled each other. Rey could feel the cold air on her skin and saw the snowflakes hiss as the neared her blade. The ground underneath her changed from smooth tile to rocky earth. Even though she couldn't see it, she was on Kijimi with him.

"They sold you to protect you," he said.

"Stop talking!" Rey shouted.

"Rey, I know what happened to them." His voice was steady and unwavering, and it only infuriated her more. Rey yelled fiercely and suddenly they were back in his quarters, as she swung her saber towards him again. She felt her saber hit something and then blood-red berries spilled out of nowhere onto… Kylo's floor? It was as if they were in the same space, despite the fact that they were in different locations. Separate, but together... Before she could think much of it, Kylo drove her saber into the ground.

She pulled her blade free and swung at him again and again. It infuriated her that he was doing nothing to attack her. Just doing the bare minimum to keep her at bay.

"Tell me where you are," he said. "You don't know the whole story." Rey ignored him and he was forced to parry, again. Because of her fury, Rey's strikes were sloppy and uncontrolled, so her momentum pushed her forward farther than she had meant to go and she stumbled into Kijimi. She quickly regained her balance and turned around to face him.

"It was Palpatine who had your parents taken," he said as he turned to face her again. His voice lowered ominously. "He was looking for you. But they wouldn't say where you were." They were back in his quarters again. "So he gave the order."

Rey's chest was heaving, trying to get air into her lungs but another vision filled her mind. Black-eyed Ochi, carrying the dagger that Rey held, stood before her parents on his ship.

"She isn't on Jakku, she's gone," her mother said, determinedly. Ochi's face held no expression before Rey heard the horrifying sound of the dagger plunging into her father's gut.

"NO!" the horrified scream of her mother lingered in Rey's ears as Rey was forced to watch her father die. Her mother backed away quickly but there was nowhere to go. Her screams of terror and anguish were suddenly cut short as Ochi stabbed her, too, murdering Rey's mother.

"NO!" Rey screamed as the horrifying images replayed in her head over and over. She swung wildly towards Kylo in blind rage and pain. Rey let out a yell as their sabers collided and suddenly they cut through the black pedestal that held Darth Vader's helmet. The pieces were glowing, red-hot from their blades as they exploded across the room. The helmet fell, too, but instead of landing on the floor, it vanished.

Kylo looked down, presumably at the mask, and said, "So that's where you are." Fueled by her anger, Rey swung her saber again and again until it locked with Kylo's.

"You know why the Emperor's always wanted you dead?" he said, red and blue light reflecting off his helmet.

"No," Rey whispered, as a horrifying possibility began to surface.

She could hear the satisfaction in his voice as he said, "I'll come tell you." And just like that, he was gone, leaving Rey alone with the black remains of the pedestal strewn across the floor. Her breathing was loud and it felt like she couldn't get enough air into her lungs. She was reeling from what had just happened and then she stumbled backward as she realized what she had done. Kylo knew where she and her friends were. Kriff, she had let her emotions damn her and her friends again.

As she rushed to grab Chewie's things, she remembered the dagger in her hand. The metal was still cold, and it seemed to taunt her. This had been the blade that had killed her parents, murdered her family. Rey wanted to melt into the floor and cry, but then she remembered her friends, she remembered Leia. Shoving the dagger into her bag, she sprinted for the hangar as fast as she could.

Finn, Poe, and Chewie stood in a line in the execution room. Finn recognized it instantly. He had always hoped that he would never be assigned to execution duty, and he remembered his comrades weren't too fond of it either. He hated feeling helpless, and it stung even more so at the hands of Hux. Ugh, he hated that man. Finn heard the whine of the blasters as they charged up, ready to kill. He braced himself but then a nasal voice cut in.

"Actually," Hux said. "I'd like to do this myself." Finn could hear the contempt dripping from his voice, and Finn fought the urge to roll his eyes. A stormtrooper handed his blaster over. So this is how he would die. At least he was among friends. He didn't have any regrets, wait, no, he had one. He wished he had been able to talk to Rey one last time. He had been starting to feel things, her presence, and others. He hoped that she was ok.

Poe looked at Finn and then leaned over and whispered, "What were you going to tell Rey, before?" Finn shot him a look with a raised eyebrow.

"You still on that?"

Poe turned to glare at him.

"Oh, I'm sorry, is this a bad time?" he asked, sarcastically. Chewie roared that he was going to die hungry but Poe and Finn were too busy arguing to notice.

"Yeah, it sort of is a bad time," Finn retorted.

"Oh, I guess later is a much better option, right?"

Finn rolled his eyes as Poe continued, faintly aware of the blaster powering up behind them.

Poe continued, "I mean if you want to get something off your chest, maybe now is not the worst time to-"

The blaster went off, once, twice, three times. Finn, Poe, and Chewie all flinched, but they opened their eyes a second later, and they weren't dead. Confused, they turned around and their jaws dropped.

The stormtroopers lay dead at their feet, their armor smoking. And their savior was none other than...Hux?

He straightened, still clutching the blaster, and said, "I'm the spy."

"WHAT?" Poe shouted in utter shock.

"YOU?" Finn exclaimed, and Chewie roared his confusion behind them, too.

"We don't have much time," Hux said.

Poe paused for a moment and then stuck his finger in Hux's face, grinning.

"I knew it!"

Finn looked at him incredulously and said, "No, you did not!"

Rey sprinted into the hangar and caught sight of a stormtrooper questioning C-3PO. For an instant, she was glad of the droid's memory wipe.

"What's your operating number?" the trooper was asking.

"Ich ee a da wan da blip-" 3PO responded with a series of random sounds.

"That's not even a language!" the trooper said. Before he could say anything else, a blast hit him from behind. Rey fired Chewie's bowcaster until all the troopers were dead. Han was right, she thought with a sad smile, the bowcaster was an excellent weapon.

"Oh, dear!" 3PO said. "My first laser battle!" Rey hurried over to the golden droid and quickly handed him Chewie's bowcaster.

"Where are the others?" she asked, quickly.

"They haven't come back!"

Rey's eyes were pulled away from the droid and she squinted against the bright lights of the hangar. The roar of a TIE fighter filled her ears and her blood chilled when she realized that it was Kylo Ren's ship landing. Kriff!

"Find them!" she said, frantically handing all of her things to 3PO. "Go!" Once she was sure that the droids were safely on their way, she turned back to the roar of the engines, to Kylo Ren.

"Friends ahead!" D-O said, eagerly. BB-8 beeped excitedly in agreement.

"Oh, yes!" 3PO exclaimed. "There they are!"

Poe caught sight of the droids and breathed a sigh of relief.

"BB-8, come on!" he shouted.

"I shut down the impeders, you've got seconds!" Hux said as he opened the door to the hangar. Chewie and the droids hurried through the entryway, but not without a growl from Chewie towards the red-headed general. It took every bit of Hux's self-control not to flinch. Poe paused for a moment to look at the Millenium Falcon.

"There she is," he said, with a smile. "She's a survivor." Finn went to follow, but Hux stopped him.

"Wait! Blast me in the arm. Quick!" he said.

Finn gave him a look of confusion. "What?"

"Or they'll know," Hux explained and then Finn realized what he was saying. He raised his blaster and the idea of killing him was tempting. He had done horrible things to Finn, to his friends, and Finn knew that Hux had been the one to order the Hosnian system destroyed. He hated him, but Finn didn't like killing. He didn't even enjoy Phasma falling from the burning deck of the Supremacy. Finn aimed his blaster at Hux's arm but then decided if he wasn't going to kill him, he was going to make this hurt. At the last second, he lowered his blaster and shot him in the leg.

Hux shouted in pain as he fell to the floor.

Finn kept his blaster trained on him before asking, "Why are you helping us?" Hux hated the Resistance, hated him and his friends. All of it.

Hux gave him a condescending sneer and said, "I don't care if you win." He spat through the pain and continued. "I need Kylo Ren to lose."

Kylo sensed her as he stepped out of his ship. She was like a beacon. He remembered after the Bond had closed, he had ordered the stormtroopers to ready his ship, not even bothering with the mask. Rey was more important. He wondered why she had been in his quarters, it did something strange to him. It weirdly excited him, but he couldn't dwell on it for long.

He could see her slim figure in the distance, her white wrappings blowing in the wind. His boots were heavy on the floor, while her steps where light. He could feel the pounding of her heart, or was it his? He couldn't tell anymore.

Rey's heart was pounding in her chest, and she was vaguely aware of a crowd of stormtroopers forming behind them as if to watch. But she didn't take her eyes off Kylo. She couldn't look anywhere else. It was as if his gaze was a magnet pulling her close to him. Rey consciously had to stop herself from going to him. Instead, they circled each other, neither one backing down.

Eventually, they stopped where Rey's back was to the open hangar door, with Kylo in front of her. She wished he wouldn't wear the damned mask. It was just a front for him and they both knew it. Rey studied the red cracks in the metal and thought it ironic that he was the one saying to kill the past, and yet here he was, trying to literally piece it back together.

Kylo looked at Rey, he watched as loose strands of her hair danced across her cheeks, he studied her face that was bathed in blue light. He hadn't been this close to her in person for a long time. Without any barriers between them. He studied her right cheek and looked at the small scar again that cut a small divot in her skin. He remembered noticing it when they had seen each other last before Pasaana.

"Why did the Emperor come for me?" Rey's voice cut through the air and echoed across the hangar. She nearly flinched at how loud it seemed, everything else was so quiet. Rey swallowed hard and continued. "Why did he want to kill a child?" She stared at Kylo with a pleading expression on her face. "Tell me." Rey hated that her voice shook, and she clenched her fists in an attempt to steady herself. She just wanted an explanation, a confirmation, even though she suspected that she already knew.

"Because he saw what you would become," Kylo said, his voice low and steady. "You don't just have power," he said, and Rey felt her blood go cold. She knew what he was going to say. "You have his power. You're his granddaughter." Kylo paused before delivering the devastating final blow. "You," he said, "are a Palpatine."

Rey felt all the air leave her lungs, her blood froze, her limbs filled with lead, and she felt as if she had just taken a blaster bolt to the chest. She stumbled back slightly, nearly falling to the ground. Her breath came in rapid pants, her eyes were wide with horror, and her heart was beating so fast it felt like her chest was going to burst. Kylo began to step toward her.

"My mother was the daughter of Vader," he said softly. "Your father was the son of the Emperor." Kylo stared at her face, at her shocked expression, and then continued. "What Palpatine doesn't know, is we're a dyad in the Force, Rey." He could see her body freeze at that word, as he felt a similar chill go through him. It had taken him a long time to figure out what their Bond was, but when he had discovered it, it made so much sense, and it felt so right. He looked at her again, this time her eyes meeting his. "Two that are one."

Rey felt as if every nerve in her body had been stimulated when he said dyad. It was as if that single word was the missing piece of a puzzle she had been looking for all of her life. Something clicked in her, something felt so right about it. It made so much sense, why they could be in perfect sync at times, their connections, everything. But it was terrifying, too. She was still reeling with the reveal of her lineage, and now she had to process this, too.

It was as if an electric current ran through her entire body, and somehow she knew that Kylo had felt it, too. For a moment, she forgot about the stormtroopers watching. She forgot about the Resistance and the First Order. She forgot about the Sith and the Jedi. Right now, the only things in the world were her and Kylo, a dyad. It was as if she had forgotten how to breathe, how to think, how to speak.

She glanced behind her to meet the gaping void above Kijimi. It was too far down, maybe. But she felt frozen in place. Her lips were parted in shock as she drew shaky breaths, and she realized that her body was unconsciously beginning to lean towards him.

"We'll kill him. Together," he said, his voice was softer, quieter. "And take the throne." Rey allowed herself to consider it, just for a moment. Whenever they were together, the Force seemed to amplify around them. When they had fought together in Snoke's throne room, the power that they felt had been electrifying. Together, they were nearly unstoppable and capable of astonishing feats.

Rey heard the hissing sound of the release on his mask. He lifted his mask off, a gesture of vulnerability, and trust, that he reserved solely for her. Her chest tightened when she saw his face. On the outside, it looked unbreakable, unyielding. But she knew better. She knew him better than anyone. Rey could see the conflict and desperation in his eyes. His raven locks of hair had grown longer since she'd last seen him like this, and the scar had faded slightly. But his eyes, his soul-piercing, devastating eyes were the same. Her breath caught as she stared into his gaze. Usually, she would have been able to avoid getting lost by now. But she was distracted, and his eyes had her caught in his grasp.

"You know what you need to do," Kylo said. He was only a few feet away from her, now. "You know." Once again, he held his gloved hand out to her. Her gaze flickered to his hand, then back up to his eyes. Kylo looked at her face and he realized that she was wearing the same expression she'd had when he had asked her to join him on the Supremacy. It was the same look she held in their various moments of intimacy and electrifying closeness, just before she would pull away. Conflict, sadness, confusion, longing.

Rey felt her heart twist painfully as she regarded his outstretched hand. She didn't want to take it but at the same time, right now she needed someone. To help process all of this. But the one person who could, the one person that she wanted, was the one standing in front of her, asking her to do the impossible.

Rey felt torn back and forth until she felt a familiar presence behind her, and she could hear the faint roar of engines. The Falcon.

She looked at Kylo, and said, "I do." Rey turned and squinted against the roar and the blinding blue light of the Falcon's engines. Stormtroopers began firing, laser blasts flying by her. She could sense Poe spin the ship around as he hit the thrusters, sending everything in the hangar flying backward. Stormtroopers, ships, and crates alike toppled over.

Rey braced herself, and she could feel Kylo doing the same behind her. Then she saw Finn on the landing ramp, wearing a breather.

"Rey! C'mon!" Finn shouted. Rey spun to look at Kylo one last time, feeling a strange, but familiar pull in her gut. She was going to go with her friends, but some part of her just wanted so badly to be with him. A dyad …

Wrenching herself away, Rey turned and ran to the edge of the hangar, her hair whipping her face. She called on the Force and leaped out, caught Finn's arm, and swung onto the ramp safely on the Falcon. Once inside, while Finn went to go check on Poe, Rey collapsed to the ground and slumped against the wall. The shock of everything was catching up with her and her whole body was trembling. Her breaths were shaky and her heartbeat was erratic. Allowing herself one moment of privacy, she pulled her knees up to her chest, buried her face in her arms, and cried.

Kylo Ren surveyed the destruction and carnage around the hangar. The losses they'd suffered were small prices to pay to see Rey again. Kylo's helmet was back on, and his gaze was fixed on where Rey had stood. He kept seeing her face, her reaction when he'd told her the truth. Her small body had been bathed in a blue light that seemed to radiate from her. Her hair had been whipping around her face in the wind of the atmosphere, with her wide hazel eyes and her parted lips. He could see the desire in her face, he could feel it. When he'd said dyad, the way she reacted had told him that. She had frozen, but he had seen the recognition and realization that washed over her face. Her body had begun to subconsciously lean toward him. Bathed in the halo of blue light, she looked like an angel, she was beautiful.

Thinking of this, Kylo realized that he could no longer deny the pull, the attraction he felt for the scavenger. It had always been there, but it was increasing in intensity each time he saw her. The Bond between them was powerful, but he knew not all of his feelings were only because of the Bond. He felt something for her, he knew that much. And he knew that she felt something for him, too, even if she tried to deny it. He knew her better than anyone, and he knew that she was trying to deny it, trying to escape her feelings. He could see it in her face, in her eyes, in her mind.

He turned and went to prepare to go to Kef Bir, where the dagger had said. As he walked, he clenched his fists in anger. If the damned Millenium Falcon hadn't shown up, she may have taken his hand. Damn it.

Kylo really hated that f*cking ship.

Author's Note: Haha, this was a long one! I really liked the dyad part in TROS and I had a lot of fun writing Rey and Kylo's reactions. But not as much fun as I had writing the scenes with Hux omg those were so funny in the movie XD. Hehehe, Dark Rey is next!