Hello! I am sorry about such a late update, I got halfway through this chapter and scrapped it because I wasn't happy with it. I am much happier with this version and I hope you enjoy it too!
Just a quick note: If I have made any errors in terms of the lore within the canon content of Star Wars, please let me know! I have only been a casual fan up until recently and I am sure to get things wrong, so please let me know in the reviews if I can improve anything!
I have also updated the summary of this story to better convey what it is and will become.
"Our fleet has taken heavy losses, Supreme Leader… The Supremacy, our only other functioning Dreadnaught, the Finalizer and half a dozen Star Destroyers were rendered non-functional during the assault on the Rebels… We have another Dreadnaught due for completion within the next four weeks, however…" Hux hesitated, shifting his feet slightly and jutting his chin upwards as though he were bracing himself for impact.
Kylo stood on the bridge, facing out towards the vast expanse of space, contemplating. He could feel the fear creeping from Hux, but there was something else simmering away beneath the surface, something that he could not quite grasp.
Not when his thoughts were consumed with her.
Kylo turned to face the General, his bored expression settling on him as he walked towards the control panels of their much smaller Imperial Star Destroyer, one of the only remaining within their fleet.
"Get to the point, General." Kylo's air of indifference caused Hux's composure to crack for a split-second as his brows knitted together in surprise.
"Well, Supreme Leader… We only have a dozen Imperial Class Star Destroyers until the new Dreadnaught is ready for hyperspace. We need more ships, however our contacts have been… Spooked… By the destruction of over half our fleet, Snoke's death and the rumours circulating about the filthy scavenger…"
The Last Jedi, Kylo thought, rolling the title around within his mind as though he were deciding whether he liked or despised the taste. After a few moments he expelled the bitter flavour from his palate, rejecting it just as he had rejected his training as a Jedi all those years ago.
Images of himself as a frightened teenager filled his mind and he crushed them as quickly as they surfaced, refusing to allow that pain to swallow him once more.
He quickly forced his attention to the words he spoke only days earlier, the words that he still clung to, using them to fuel his strength and feed the darkness within him in the presence of Hux.
The Empire, your parents, the Resistance, the Sith, the Jedi… Let the past die. Kill it, if you have to.
Kylo turned away from the control panel and growled to Hux as he stalked away from the bridge.
"I want the Dreadnaught within the week. As for our contacts, I will find the rebel scum and quash any doubts of the First Order's abilities myself." Without further elaboration, Kylo entered the lift and made his way down to his quarters.
Entering his room, which was also considerably smaller than that on the Finalizer, he inhaled sharply when he saw her sitting on the edge of his bed, her face cradled within small hands.
Kylo hesitated for several moments before he removed his gloves and slowly stepped further into the room to avoid disturbing her. It was in vain, however, as their connection meant it was impossible to ignore the physical and mental presence of one another.
She wiped her eyes as discreetly as she could, her reluctance to roll belly up and show the soft underside of weakness rippling through their connection. Standing from the bed, she turned away from him as though breaking the line of vision would break the connection.
Much to her dismay, the connection remained.
Kylo opened his mouth in several attempts to speak, but each time he closed his lips taut.
What would he say? What could he say? Her eyes, full of rage and hatred the last time they connected had dictated where they stood. Her eyes, writhing with the shadows of the dark he had become so accustomed to, had told him what they meant to each other.
But not her, he thought miserably. She should not be accustomed with that darkness.
"Could you keep your thoughts to yourself?" She made out angrily, finally turning around to face him. The skin beneath her eyes took on a pale grey and purple tinge, further accentuated by the bloodshot of her eyes and the swollen red of her usually sun-kissed cheeks.
Right now, her skin was reminiscent of the blood and snow colouration of a recently disturbed surface on the planet of Crait.
She looked as though she had not had a decent night's sleep since living in the harsh desert of Jakku, where the demons of the world were unable to drown her.
Now, it appeared the innocence and naivety she had used to shelter her against the storm had been blown away somewhere along the line, and she was unable to rebuild and withstand all at once.
"Can you feel it?" Kylo whispered, the question forming only as the words left his tongue, something within him needing to know.
"Feel what?" She shot back, though the sting was cushioned by her surprise at the tone of his voice. He took a step closer, slowly, as though he were scared she would close the connection shut before he found his answer.
"The dark? Can you feel how it is radiating from you, enveloping you?" Her eyes flickered with realisation before anger settled in its place, and within her answer he knew that she did not know what was happening to her.
"Is that what you are hoping for? Do you still think that I would turn against almost everything I hold dear for the dark side?" She strode closer to him as she spat the words, the fear and anger and pain flowing freely from her, tangible within the air that surrounded them both.
Kylo quirked his eyebrow at her in interest despite her rage, her statement unlocking the cage where he had resolved to imprison his hope for their futures after the Supremacy.
"Almost everything?" Her eyes widened, and her cheeks turned a darker shade of red in her embarrassment. He saw a memory rise unwillingly from her mind across the connection, before she closed it off to him.
It was the briefest glimpse, but he saw the moment their hands met for the first time, and he felt the relief, the belonging and the affection that had set her soul ablaze.
Something shifted within Kylo's chest then, a small seed of warmth expanding slowly, mingling with the cold and creating what he had begun to feel only once before.
It felt like twilight; the moment the sun retreats over the horizon as night extends its reaches to meet the remnants of day. The deep blues blend with the golds and the yellows, lapping at the edges and creating pinks, oranges, purples and there within it all; grey.
The dark rising and light to meet it.
She moved to storm past him, but he brushed the palm of his ungloved hand against the inside of her upper arm, holding her gently in place.
She looked up to him with a fury in her eyes, the darkness rising like a tide. His own words echoed within his mind when he saw her on Crait, when he first saw the perforation of her light and her hope.
No.
A question rose within her mind and before she could verbalise it, Kylo let her feel the answer, the truth of what had begun to stir within his soul and the realisation of what he asked of her on the Supremacy.
Fear. Hope. Death. Life. Sadness. Happiness. Rage. Peace.
A tumultuous river, cascading and flowing, supplying sustenance and wreaking destruction.
A fiery star, providing life and creating death.
The dark rising and light to meet it.
Her eyes were wide, fixed on his as the force flowed through them, around them and within every single particle of life within the galaxy.
But there was a resistance within her heart, the pitch dark of pure fear clenching around her and digging its nails deeper and deeper with every shallow breath she inhaled.
The fear of loss, and a flash of his face in the Throne Room, the dread that what was flowing through them both was just a trick in order to sway her or to kill her.
Kylo could feel the hurt pass over his expression, before he uttered the words he was once certain he would never say aloud to anyone.
"I should have never asked you to join me. I can see now, I could never destroy your light as you could never destroy my dark. Rey, I'm sorry."
Her name leaving his lips shocked him more than the apology. He had tried to distance himself from her, never uttering her name, not so much as even thinking her name.
She had always been the scavenger, the girl, the rebel scum. She had never been Rey until he relinquished his control and realised that their existence had and always would be interlaced, wound within the constant conflict of light and dark.
As he felt the darkness begin to release its grasp on her heart and the connection begin to fade, he heard her words within his mind clearer than he saw her speak them, like a scorching breeze on a warm desert's day;
Not conflict, Ben. Balance.
Thank you so much to love of escapism and AngelfromBeyondBelow for your reviews and advice! I really appreciate your comments, follows and favourites, it really is a great feeling to get love on a story you have so much fun writing!
Enjoy the rest of your week ya'll! xx