Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars or any of the amazing characters

Kylo

Exactly three days later, Rey and Kylo were landing on the planet known as Mustafar. The heat was searing and only the protective suits Kylo had thought to bring allowed them to even step foot off of the ship that they had borrowed from Falbell. The ever erupting volcanos and flowing rivers of lava reminded Kylo of the hell described in many of the ancient books he'd read.

Kylo had set the ship down right outside of the Darth Vader's castle but even the short walk to the castle had him regretting this mission.

As they got to the entrance, Kylo looked to Rey who was looking around with a sort of horrified curiosity.

"I don't understand why he would want to build his stronghold in the place where he was defeated by the man he looked at like a father," Rey said as the massive doors opened.

"Darth Vader didn't see it as the place where he was defeated, he was born here. Anakin Skywalker is the one who died here," Kylo explained. "Plus, right under the castle is a cave full of dark side energy. It was the perfect place for a Sith Lord to form his power base."

Even as Kylo said it he could feel the dark energies trying to get inside his head and drag him back down into his own personal darkness. He glanced over at Rey again, trying to gage her reaction. As usual, the bond was shut off up to the point where he could feel her but not what she was feeling or thinking.

"I guess that makes sense." She was looking around at the place like something might jump out and get her at any moment. "So why exactly are we here," she asked.

"There's supposed to some ancient Sith texts around here that can help us. At the end of the day Zoroyais is just another Sith Lord. It doesn't matter if he's from this galaxy or the next."

"Okay. So where do we look," she asked.

Kylo paused as he thought.

Where would his grandfather have kept sacred Sith Texts, things from Sidious and his master Plagueis before him?

"I suppose we could try his private chambers and then work our way from there," Rey suggested after a moment.

I think we should stick to communicating through the bond until we are sure that we're alone, Kylo said.

Rey nodded in agreement.

Kylo walked forward a few steps before he felt the Force tugging at him. He turned left and together they went down a long dark hallway, using only the glow of their light sabers and Force sight to see their way through the darkness. Along the way, they keep their guard up just in case someone or something had taken up residence in the years the castle had been empty.

You think my mother would have accepted this as our new base? He asked through their bond with a laugh.

Rey shook her head, laughing and replied with, I think we might have had a full blown mutiny on our hands. I think Leia would have been the first one to take up arms against us too.

They came to the end of the hall where there was a button for the lift. The power was out so; the lifts weren't an option.

True. I wonder if she was ever curious about her father, though. Probably not, right, Kylo asked.

He was tense. He hadn't gotten a chance to talk to his mother about all the things he never could before Rey had come into their lives.

I'm sure she was at one point Kylo. She might still be to this day. All orphaned and unwanted children wonder about their parents at some point in their life, Rey said sounding sad even in his head. Didn't you ever wonder what your parents were up to while you were away at Luke's or even once you went to join Snoke?

Kylo pulled Rey passed the door that would have taken them to the next floor up and continued to the next floor.

No… Not when I was sent to Luke's. I knew what they were doing; attending meetings and galas with the other senators and him… my father was somewhere holed up in the Falcon with that fur ball. And once I joined with Snoke, the only thoughts I had about my parents were filled with hatred and pain.

He felt terrible even saying it in his own head, let alone within their shared consciousness that was the bond.

Rey took his hand in hers and he felt better.

You know I won't judge you for speaking your truth, Kylo. I love you and nothing can change that, she told him.

Thank you, Rey. I really mean that, he said and stopped in front of a set of black doors with the red inland designs.

They shared a look and then Kylo pressed the door open. The couple relinquished each other's hands and prepared themselves but when they stepped inside; it was clear by the inch of dust on the floor that no one had been in these rooms for a very long time. Kylo looked around checking the corners of the room, under the bed and beneath the desk.

Room is clear, he said moving to check the bathroom off to the left of the door they had come through.

Rey nodded and started looking through the drawers of the desk with one hand, while keeping her light saber held up high enough to provide light while not destroying anything around her.

Kylo looked around the bathroom quickly. There was nothing out of the ordinary, so he headed back into the bedroom to check the closet. One look at the rows of black cloth and Kylo instantly felt his connection to that part of his past strengthen.

Not exactly the dark side that he and his grandfather had been drawn to, but it was more the fact that he wasn't just some freak who ruined his family's good name. That with his mother's Skywalker blood he'd inherited some of the darkness that had lived in her father even while she and her twin were still in their mother's womb along with the insane amount of power that had likely driven young Anakin Skywalker to the dark side in the first place.

Kylo, I think I found something, Rey's voice broke him out of his reverie.

He went over to where she was staring at a roll of blueprints. They were for a factory located there on Mustafar. Kylo looked them over quickly.

I would like to check this out before we leave, Kylo said.

Do you think it's still intact, Rey asked looking up at him.

He shrugged.

It can't hurt to take a look, he answered.

Kylo kept looking through the desk until he found what he'd been hoping to find. In his hand Kylo held a pyramid shaped objected. He took it over to Rey and she frowned for a second.

This is the Sith version of a holocron. This is what I came here looking for.

Rey nodded.

Now that he had found one, Kylo was more than confident that they would find more. It was unfortunate that they were mostly searching in the dark, even with the aid of the Force.

A map would also be nice, Rey thought at him.

Kylo shrugged as he continued to search the nearby shelves.

He hadn't ever planned on coming here. Snoke had made him feel weak for his desire to know his grandfather, his family. And because of that Kylo had turned away from anything to do with the old Sith ways as Snoke had called them. The only way to power was forward in Snoke's eyes. Or at least that's what he had told Kylo over and over. Because of that, he wasn't as well versed on the planet or the even just the castle.

I thought you would have brought a light with you, scavenger girl, he teased lightly.

You're the one who came up with the plan to come here. I figured you had it all covered because you usually do, Rey said, and it was her turn to shrug.

He tossed a half smile at her over his shoulder. She grinned back but there was an uneasiness to it. He wanted to go over to her, but his fingers skimmed another holocron at the back of the topmost shelf behind the desk. He called to it with just enough of the Force to pull it into his palm but not enough to activate it. He tossed it into the bag with the other one.

This was a little more spontaneous than the trips I usually plan for us. You must allow me to make this up to you once things are settled more, he said.

I think I would like that, Rey said.

Come on. I think this is the top floor since the stairs wouldn't take us any higher. Let's start searching this floor and then we can work our way down, Kylo suggested. We're looking for an ante room kind of like an inner sanctum of a Jedi Temple. Or maybe a library. Holocrons are good but texts would also be nice.

Kylo, why are we looking for Sith artifacts, Rey asked. What could they tell us about Zoroyais that we couldn't rip from Ozoroth's mind?

Long ago, a Sith Lord was thought to have discovered a way to cheat death. Hux said that Snoke was an unperfected, unfinished being. It just got me thinking that maybe the Sith had found a way to cheat death, and that is how Zoroyais knows so much about us and the resistance, Kylo thought at her as they checked rooms on either side of the long hallway.

None of them were the types of rooms they were looking for. Though in one they found blaster rifles and various parts for making and fixing on light sabers. They filled their packs with the parts and took as many weapons as they could before making a trip back the way they came to take everything back to the ship.

"I think it safe to say that there are no locals around," Rey said as they made it back to the stairwell.

"True. The dark energies probably keep anyone from getting too close," Kylo said.

This time they went to the second floor and started looking again. They found a training area with practice dummies and wooden practice swords. The two of them looked around, nostalgia taking them in and making them pause.

Rey sighed.

"One day soon we will have all of this again and not in a castle on dreary old Vodran. I want to take you somewhere with the sun and the beach and the grass. Somewhere our students can learn of the light and the dark in peace and our children can grow and become even stronger than we are now," Kylo said.

He moved toward her and lifted her face up to his.

Suddenly the last time they were training together flashed through his mind and Rey blushed. He moved closer to her and leaned down to kiss her slowly.

"Not here, Kylo," she said in a breathy voice when she broke the kiss.

"You can't blame me for trying. I doubt that we will have much alone time until we can figure out our next move beyond finding the knights," Kylo said and shrugged.

"You're right," she said moving back through the door they had come in.

She opened the door across from the training area and was pleased to find a library like room.

"In here," she said.

Kylo came in and immediately felt one of the many books call out for him. He reached his hand out and a red leather-bound book landed in his palm. The writing was in basic and Kylo scanned the book quickly, smiling at the various hand-written notes around the edges of the pages.

One set of handwriting in particular caught his attention. He put the book away in his pack and started searching the shelves. He didn't find anything else in the room, but Rey found some books bound in weird black leather. She couldn't read the language, but he could.

"This will be a task," he said. "It's been a very long time since I've studied Huttenese. My mother might help us with it, but I don't know if she's going to like the subject matter," Kylo said.

…

Rey

The dark energy of the planet of Mustafar had not been good to Rey. Every second they spent inside the castle was like trudging through thick sludge. The little voice in her head was so much louder than it had been on Olara. The energy called to Rey and when she tried to fight it off, it attacked her energy.

It took all of her energy to keep Kylo from sensing the depth of her internal struggle while still allowing him to wander freely through her mind.

"I think we've found everything of worth inside the castle. Let's head to the Sith cave," Kylo said.

Rey sighed and followed Kylo out of the castle. The whole time the dark little voice in the back of her head told her terrible things. Holding her golden lightsaber and concentrating on the pure light that resided at the center of her soul helped but every now and then she slipped.

He doesn't love you, Rey. He's just using you for power. To further elevate the Skywalker bloodline above all other Force users, it told her. He wouldn't love you if you weren't a Force user either. If you gave up the Force and decided to live the way Luke did on Ach-To he would leave you in a heartbeat.

Rey's chest caught as she thought about what her life would be like without Kylo for the millionth time since she'd gained her own darkness. Just like every time before, her heart constricted in her chest and she had to stop walking to try to breathe in the stifling air. Kylo looked back to her but Rey just shook her head.

The closer we get to that cave the worse I feel, she finally admitted when they were near the yawning maw of the cave.

Rey why didn't you say something before now, Kylo asked in a stern but concerned voice. He came over to Rey and checked her over before telling her, Go back to the ship. I'm gonna check over the obsidian inside.

No, I want to go with you. This is where Snoke got the black obsidian ring from right, she asked.

Yes. I believe he collected the stone from this site because it's where my grandfather defeated the ancient Sith lord who had preserved his consciousness in an artifact and was able to resurrect his physical body in this place. I think that man was the first Sith Lord to defeat death, Kylo said.

The one thing Snoke was obsessed with, Rey said quietly.

The one thing all Sith Lords are obsessed with. To live forever is to forever learn, forever grow, forever amass power, forever overindulge in one's hatred and others' pain, Kylo said like he was longing for the days when that was the only thing he had to look forward to, to hold on to.

Rey moved up and took his hand to remind him that there were infinitely more important things than power, pain and hatred. She shoved her darkness down as far as she could and put on a brave face for Kylo while she held a death grip on her light saber. She felt like they could face anything as long as they were together.

The inside of the cave was nothing like Rey had expected.

The walls were the same black stone that the castle had been made of but there were etching done in a strange grayish white color as if the inner stone was much lighter than it's hard outer shell. The room was empty except for a large rock that Rey realized served as both a table and an alter to the dark side surrounded by six large pieces of obsidian with red etchings in them. The large, hollow chamber was lit by the river of lava that flowed through the cave and down in a lava version of a waterfall.

"Wow," Rey said out loud as she looked around.

She had expected it to be like the cave under Ach-To, but this wasn't cold, and not just because they were in the belly of the planet with a river of lava flowing just off to the right. The darkness there had been the chilling cold of loneliness, fear and regret, maybe amplified by Luke's own feelings. But the darkness here was the warmth of anger and hatred.

The feelings tried to take root in her soul, but she was more adept at fighting these feeling. She closed her eyes and washed the feelings away with a wave of pure light.

When she opened her eyes Kylo was kneeling in front of the table. His large form seemed to absorb some of the darkness around him. He reached out and laid his hand on the stone.

"This is where my grandfather bled his Kyber crystal to create his iconic red blade," Kylo said in a quiet voice.

"And there is where Snoke gauged out the stone to make his ring," Rey said touching one of the slates of obsidian.

"Lord Momin used my grandfather to create the specific environment he would need to resurrect his physical form by adding these dark energy inducting pieces of Obsidian."

"You said Lord Momin put his soul into an artifact, do you think it was made of the obsidian from this cave?"

Kylo paused to consider her words.

"It's possible. I will have to look over the books and notes we've found to be sure. Maybe even one of the holocrons belonged to Momin and could give us some real insight into how he managed to perform such a task," Kylo said after a moment.

"Do you think Snoke had figured that out already, and that's why he made the ring," Rey asked.

"Another very real possibility."

Rey searched his surface thoughts. She was trying to figure out what any of this had to do with Zoroyais.

Kylo shook her out of his thoughts as he went over to one of the slates and used a side vent on his light saber to slice off a small hunk of stone.

"Kylo, what did you do that for," she asked.

"Gear can study this stone. If it did have something to do with Momin's resurrection then that would be the reason Snoke took the stone too," Kylo explained.

"Do you really think that Snoke could be Zoroyais," she asked as they headed back to the ship.

"I don't think so," Kylo said. "But we can't dismiss the possibility that a resurrected Snoke could be either helping Zoroyais or pulling his strings while he regains his strength after I killed him," Kylo said.

Rey nodded. That was a very rational line of thinking, but she had a feeling that Kylo feared that she was right just as much as she did.

"Besides the implications that the dark side had developed a way to cheat death, while the light relies purely on the ghosts of the dead to continue to pass knowledge to the later generations is absurd," Kylo said as he lifted the ship off of the surface.

"The light honors death as a part of the cycle that keeps balance. To cheat death in such an unnatural way would bleed us beyond the grey and into the dark side, Kylo," Rey warned as she felt his mind going over the many possibilities in his mind. "We are better than that."

"I know Rey but sometimes there has to be compromise," he argued.

"Like killing innocents or torture," she asked, folding her arms over her chest.

"Like falling in love and protecting the weak," he threw back.

"Those aren't bad compromises, my love," she said to him.

"They aren't because the light is all you know. The dark side shuns soft emotions and only makes room for those who are strong enough to survive the darkness," he told her as they passed over the ruins of a mining complex. "So much for Sidious' factory," he said almost wistfully.

"We need to get back anyway. There is no way that they haven't noticed that we are gone yet," Rey said.

"Maybe they think we're just holed up in our room, acting out on how grateful that we are alive and only look small losses when fleeing Olara," he said with a small smile on his face.

"That would have been preferable to that hot, smothering planet," Rey said as they dropped into hyperspace.

"We still could act on those feelings."

He put the ship on autopilot and stalked over to her.

Rey blushed a little as he swept her hair away from her neck to lay a gentle kiss over her jugular.

"How can you think about sex at a time like this?"

"As little alone time as we've had lately, I'm surprised you aren't thinking about sex too," he said kissing down her neck.

Heat curled in her stomach as he slipped images of what he wanted to do to her into her head. Her blush spread down to her chest as he slowly began to undress her right there in the middle of Bell and Nik's ship.

"Don't worry about them. They owe me for all the times I covered for them when we were back at Luke's," Kylo said, kissing her collarbone as his hands went around to undo her breast band. "It's only me and you here Rey," he said.

As the scrap of cloth fell to the floor, her nipples stiffened in the chill of space. Kylo lifted her up, and she wrapped her legs around his waist. She dug her hands in his raven tresses and moaned as he nibbled on her flesh. She was surprised when her naked back was met with soft sheets.

Kylo leaned back and pulled his undershirt and tunic off in one smooth motion, showing off the long, powerful lines of his body as he did so.

Rey took in the sight of him hungrily and found that she wanted him just as much as he wanted her. He leaned down to kiss her, and she reared up meeting him halfway. Their lips met in a clash of passion that was all lips and tongue. She pressed her breasts against his hard chest, throwing her arms around his neck to keep him close to her.

He pulled back to undo the laces on her leggings and capture her nipple in his mouth. She moaned for him and Kylo responded by giving some attention to her other nipple.

Rey helped him out by wiggling out of the confining garments and reaching forward to help him out of his own pants. Once they were both naked in the bed, Rey let Kylo do to her everything he wanted and then she got to return the gesture relieving some much-needed tension on Kylo's part.

How quickly the time passed and before the lovers knew it, they were back to Vodran.