Rey managed to snatch only a few hours' sleep and they were fraught with nightmares. The mirror in the fresher next morning displayed the stark evidence of her encounter the night before – heavy bags under her eyes and an angry looking love bite on the left side of her neck. Even pushed as high as it would go, the collar of her tunic wouldn't hide it.

She skipped breakfast, arriving outside the conference room at the appointed time with seconds to spare. Poe checked her over and shook his head but the doors were opened before he had a chance to disapprove. She refused to look at him – sanctimonious Ben Solo, who, despite being a genocidal mass murderer, had the gall to yell at her and accuse her of being a whore. She kept her eyes on the floor, resolutely ignoring the three men on the opposite side of the table.

His droning, monotonous voice spoke first. 'Having considered the offer made by the Resistance overnight, the First Order has decided to decline. We will not be surrendering to you today. These discussions are over.'

Rey heard the clatter of chairs being pushed back before Poe remarked silkily, 'How much consideration did you give our offer last night, Supreme Leader? I hear there were some further negotiations in Rey's room. From where I'm sitting it looks like those negotiations were rather more intense than we were expecting.'

There was a short, shocked silence during which Rey felt the pressure of a pair of dark eyes.

'I gave your offer the consideration it deserved. The negotiations you refer to were unsatisfactory and quite frankly, General Dameron, I am astonished you allowed them to happen at all. My mother would never have consented to such a thing. You are a disgrace to her memory, and to the Resistance.'

'I'm a disgrace to her memory? You were only interested in seeing her when she was dead. And that was only because Rey was kind enough to set up a meeting. You took advantage of her good nature then as well, I believe.'

'Rey is liberal with her good nature. I wonder upon whom else she has bestowed it. You perhaps? You do seem quite upset. Or maybe you're just annoyed because I marked the merchandise.'

There was a bang as a chair hit the floor. 'Come on then asshole, let's see how tough you are without that fancy torch.'

'That's a clear violation of the truce protocol,' yelled Rose. 'All use of the Force is forbidden. Stop choking him.'

'Stand down, Supreme Leader.' This was Hux, by the sound of it.

Rey passed a hand across her face. 'I call a truce,' she said, resigned.

'We already have a truce, can't you tell?' General Pryde was the only one to answer.

Glancing up, Rey found Poe halfway through the process of choking to death while Rose fluttered around, trying to help him. Across the table, Ben's face was fixed in a snarl, one hand outstretched and General Hux was tugging on his other arm in an attempt to yank him back.

'Let him go, Ben,' she tried again. 'I will give you what you want.'

He broke his assault for a fraction of a second. 'You have nothing I want.'

'We both know that isn't true. I will give you what you saw in that vision, the part of it you said you wanted last night. I'm too tired to fight. Stand down.'

He was vulnerable to a certain kind of persuasion. He was vulnerable now, and maybe he'd been vulnerable all his life. He so desperately wanted to be loved, wanted someone to care about him he'd come running the minute the offer was put on the table.

His fingers lowered, and Poe staggered backwards coughing, which eventually resolved itself into a warning. 'Don't do this, Rey. You don't have to give him anything.'

'I agreed to give him a second chance Poe, and I haven't done very well at that so far.'

Ben met and held her gaze and the warring parts of him were apparent in his face. 'I'm listening,' he said, and seated himself opposite her, flicking a hand at his generals to leave.

She nodded at the Resistance. 'Go,' she ordered. 'I'll be fine. Don't worry if you don't see me for a few days.'

She hadn't forgotten the need to buy time to destroy the fleet, but, with her eyes fixed on the man across the table, that no longer seemed like a primary motivation. Nor did saving Poe, or making up for her ill thought through seduction the night before. It was the mark on her neck that prompted her to act, and the happiness that had caused him to put it there. No one had ever felt like that about her. He was furious and insulting precisely because his feelings ran so deep.

She let the silence last until everyone else had vacated the room and then she began negotiating. 'I don't know you,' she said. 'We were never friends. All we've ever done together is fight and argue. Last night I made a mistake, I should have just asked for your help, but I misjudged you because I don't really know who you are. You don't know me either. You don't know if I'm the sort of person who could make you happy, not really. I propose we find out. I propose we spend two days together without fighting, or arguing – we call a truce between us and we see what happens next.'

'I know you better than you think,' he said. 'And we've done more together than fight and argue, much more. What are the conditions of this truce?'

'Only one,' she replied. 'Complete honesty. Can you accept that?'

The conflict in him was apparent, suspicion and hope flying across his features but in the end, he simply nodded. 'How do we begin?'

He'd asked her that before, but this time she had a proper answer.

'Breakfast,' she said. 'I'm starving.'

The hotel restaurant was staffed only with droids, superintending a mammoth display of all the finest morning produce any inhabitant of the galaxy could possibly desire. Rey marched straight for the plates, taking one for each hand and loading both with a selection of tempting looking items, tucking some baked goods and fruit under her arm. Then she turned to see where he'd chosen to sit, finding him perched rather primly at a table set for two, a small silver cup steaming in front of him.

She swallowed down the urge to smile. It was so unusual to see him doing something so ordinary – he was all about swirling capes, extreme situations and the clash of giant cosmic forces of light and dark – so the vision of him sitting in a restaurant having breakfast was almost comic. Added to which, he was slightly too large for the crystal filigree chairs which were all the hotel had to offer and he looked decidedly uncomfortable.

'Are you really going to eat all that?' he asked as she set down both plates in front of her, and tumbled the rest of her booty out on the cloth.

She picked up her cutlery and prepared to tuck in. 'Probably. I grew up poor and it's free so why not? Don't you eat breakfast?'

'Never.' He took a small sip of whatever he was drinking.

Rey shrugged, wolfing down a couple of quick mouthfuls. 'This relationship is doomed. So, what do you do all day when you've finished skipping breakfast?'

'Work. Train. Sleep.'

'Who do you train with?'

'People.'

He must have done this before, she reasoned. There must have been a time in his life before Snoke, before Luke and the ruined temple, before everything had gone wrong, in which he had sat across a table and had a normal conversation with someone. He must have been ordinary, once upon a time, even if he was struggling to remember it.

She shovelled something egg based. 'The Knights of Ren? I've seen them on HoloNet. Do they have names? Are they Evil Ren and Scary Ren and Bad-Tempered Ren, or do you just call them Ren One and Ren Two?'

He scowled at her. 'That's no business of yours.'

'I'm just making conversation. If we're going to have children together I think we should at least talk first. '

The lines on his face grew deeper. 'I said nothing about children.'

'Ah,' she waved her fork, splattering egg all over her lap. 'You've changed your mind about the twins.'

His cup came down with a clatter. 'Could we just leave our children out of this? For once.'

She beamed at him. 'Then tell me about the Knights of Ren. How did you meet? Why did you join? Are all of them men? I'm interested.'

'I don't have to tell you my life story.'

She considered that for a while. 'I think you do, actually.' Loading her fork, she extended it towards him. 'Do you want to try this, by the way, it's delicious?'

He eyed the offer with disdain. She shrugged and continued to eat while the silence lengthened. He gave in before she did.

'When I was training I ran a few missions with Luke. Just small things, not dangerous – investigating reports of Force sensitive individuals, tracking down holocrons. But once we were travelling in wild space and we ended up in a fight with the Knights of Ren. They were a brotherhood of military fanatics, heavily armoured, highly skilled and led by a trained Force user with a red lightsaber. His name was Kylo Ren.'

Her mouth fell open, revealing quite a lot of breakfast. 'But I thought…'

'That was my name?' His smile was thin. 'It's a title. A prestigious one, in the right circles, but a title only.'

She swallowed with a gulp. 'You and Luke killed him and you took his title?'

'Not then. Luke and I lost, the Knights overwhelmed us – it was very early in my training – and we ran. But after I joined Snoke, I encountered them again.'

'Why did you join Snoke?'

'Stop interrupting,' he ordered. 'Snoke knew I had been bested by the Knights so he set me a test. Beat them, and their master, and prove my worth.'

'And you did.'

'I nearly didn't. I wasn't permitted weapons, so I fought them hand to hand and their leader nearly chopped off my arm before I managed to overpower him. He chose death rather than surrender and I took his place as leader. Now the Knights of Ren are loyal to me, and only me.'

She considered that over another mouthful. 'Why weren't you allowed weapons?'

He picked up his own fork, reached out and scooped up a tiny piece of breakfast from her plate. 'It was a test.'

'Were there a lot of tests like that? The sort that could have killed you?'

He chewed, swallowed and she edged her plate into the middle of the table.

'Snoke pushed me off a cliff once, said I had to catch myself before I hit the ground if I wanted to live.'

'He was joking, right? He would have caught you.'

He took a slightly larger mouthful. 'No. I would have died and he'd have found another apprentice.'

'But instead you learned how to fly.'

'I learned how to float,' he corrected. 'It's a useful skill when you're on a Dreadnaught and it suddenly starts crashing into a planet.'

She remembered that occasion with a flush of embarrassment. That had been the first time she'd kissed him – that had been her first kiss full stop, and she wondered again why it was she had initiated that kiss in the first place. Her hand raised to her neck. She also wondered why it was she'd been so eager to start undressing in front of him last night instead of having a conversation like a normal person. Maybe it was because he wasn't a normal person and this was the longest sane conversation they'd ever had, but that didn't feel quite right.

He nodded in the direction of her fingers. ''I'm sorry about that. I got carried away.'

She pulled a face, dropped her hand. 'So did I.'

'Has anyone taught you how to heal?' he asked, having finished most of the remains of her breakfast. 'It's a light side power.'

'Your mother taught me,' she replied. 'But I didn't think to do it this morning. Can you heal it for me?' She was curious to see how far his turn from the dark side extended.

He gestured at his face, to the place where she'd cut him. ''I haven't been able to heal for years.'

She raised her hand again, preparing to slip into the right frame of mind.

'Don't,' he said.

There was something in the way he was looking at her that made her pause. It brought to mind the words he'd whispered before he'd kissed that mark into her neck – about how long he'd waited. She remembered the first time she'd kissed him, how everything else around her had disappeared, and she recalled the safety of his arms and the jump of his chest when she touched him. She dropped her hand.

He cleared his throat.

'Are you planning on training today then?' she asked, breaking the moment.

'Probably. Do you want to watch?'

'I want to join in.'

'That might be…problematic.'

'Not necessarily,' she replied. 'Master.'

His eyes widened. 'We'd have to do something about your clothes.'

'And I have to fetch my lightsaber. Shall we meet in your shuttle in an hour?'

'It's a date,' he said.

There was a bundle on the co-pilot's seat when she arrived and she opened it as he took off. The hotel had done a good job of estimating her size by the look of it and she was even more impressed when she swished the skirts of her new ensemble in the mirror as they traversed open space. Black leggings were covered by a long black dress, split down the front and sides and fitted with tight but flexible sleeves for ease of movement. The cloak was also black with a wide hood and it shimmered slightly in the artificial light. She clipped the lightsaber to the utility belt and made her way back to the cockpit. The pilot said nothing, but he spent most of the rest of the journey sneaking sideways glances when he thought she wasn't looking.

She followed him out of the hangar bay and out into the bustling corridors of his flagship with the hood covering her face and her head bent low. She spoke to no one, and the forbidding nature of his mask seemed to discourage anyone from speaking to him; they reached the training hall without incident. The room itself was wide and high with several distinct sections. The majority of it was given over to a blank, empty floor space with racks of weapons hanging on each of the walls. There was a separate area which had padded sides and flooring and a third which housed a collection of fitness equipment.

Four armoured figures stood ready in the centre of the fighting space, summoned by some signal she hadn't seen. All of them bore archaic bladed weapons of one kind of another, and given that their helmets clearly admitted a very restricted view, Rey was confident that with the lightsaber she could take them all. At the sight of their black clad leader, each of the Knights gave a respectful bow of the head, but when their attention fell on Rey there was no such courtesy. A ripple ran through them, just a slight flex of a muscle here, the clang of a blade there, but enough to indicate their hostility.

Ben felt it too, because he said in a pompous tone, 'She is mine. Lower your hood, apprentice.'

'Yes, master.'

She complied, keeping her head bowed and a docile expression pinned on her face, conscious that the mark of ownership he had placed on her throat might be a more convincing subterfuge than a simple change of clothes.

'You will fight the Knights of Ren,' he ordered and her hand dropped eagerly to her lightsaber. 'Without weapons,' he continued, extending a finger and calling her blade.

She hesitated for a second before convincing herself that he wouldn't let her be harmed – this was supposed to be training after all – it was more likely he'd decided to compare her performance to his own in similar circumstances.

Her four opponents moved together, fanning out until they had enclosed her on all sides, and then the fight began. Rey didn't think she'd enjoyed herself so much in her life. The initial lack of anything with which to defend herself was swiftly remedied by a flying kick to the neck of the nearest Knight, coupled with a Force assisted disarm while he was distracted, which left her with an axe and little idea how to use it. Her lack of skill with their weapons didn't seem to matter though, because she'd specialised in the more acrobatic forms of combat over the last year and speed was on her side. She spent most of the battle attacking in a blur from the air, while dodging their clumsy swings and ponderous strikes. She didn't have to hold back either, she'd seen these merciless warriors in action and there was no hesitation in the way she went in for the kill – they would do the same to her, given half a chance.

They were strong, but slow and she ran rings around them while Ben looked on, a silent audience. She made only one mistake – a commandeered mace bounced off the helmet of one of the Knights, damaging it beyond repair and when the person inside flung it away with a grunt, Rey realised she'd been fighting a woman. She threw Ben a suspicious look, and her opponent took that opportunity to try severing her leg; Rey jumped back only after a long gash had opened on her thigh. In too short a time, all four Knights were disarmed, injured, unconscious or too winded to continue and Rey bared her teeth in triumph, hunting for someone else to fight.

'Dismissed,' Ben ordered from the side-lines and the minute her opponents had left the room, Rey summoned her lightsaber back from his grasp.

'That was magnificent,' he said, his eyes alight as if he shared her triumph.

She circled her blade and assumed an opening stance. 'Now I have to defeat Kylo Ren and take his place.'

The excitement faded from his features. 'I don't think I want you to do that,' he said, slowly.

'I wasn't giving you a choice.' She waved her lightsaber at him.

'You have a very tenuous grasp of the meaning of 'truce,' he observed. 'I'm not going to fight you.'

She pouted. 'Then what are you going to do?'

In response, he gave her a look that ran from her head to her toes and lingered on all the important points in between. She blushed when he stared at her lips, turned a darker shade as his eyes fell to her neck and by the time he began exploring her chest she was hot all over; when his attention dropped lower still she could feel herself breaking a sweat.

He took two paces forwards and fell to his knees, his head level with her waist, his mouth within kissing distance of her groin. Her body gave a sudden throb of heat, and she bit her lip. He was going to do it. He was going to turn his head and press his face between her legs. Her trousers would come off and she'd feel him, the tip of his tongue exploring her, his hands spreading her open as she thrust her fingers into his hair and gasped his name. He'd lick her, his mouth warm in a place that had never felt such heat and she'd groan when his fingers found the space between her thighs and filled it, once, twice, over and over until she came crying and shouting, impaled on his hand.

It was starting right now, his fingers were on her knee, her thigh, creeping upwards, so close and he was saying something. She was aware of the flush on her face, the heat in her cheeks, the readiness between her legs.

'I said, this needs healing,' he repeated, giving her a quizzical look.

He knelt at her feet. She found she couldn't look away from the sight of him kneeling although it made her heart race and her breathing falter in her chest. Abruptly his eyes widened and a dull red spot of colour stained his cheeks. He dropped her leg and scooted away, regaining his feet and she realised rather belatedly that he'd been scanning for injuries before, rather than anything more personal.

Attempting to brush off her intimate reaction to his scrutiny she slipped in to a meditative trance to heal her leg and stayed in it longer than was really necessary. She was breathing normally when she came out, finding that he had tidied the training room and was preparing to leave.

'What do you want to do next?' The words were deliberately neutral and he couldn't quite meet her gaze.

'I want you to show me the dark side,' she said.