A/N: Thank you for all of the supportive comments! You readers make writing this fic worth all of the time and effort!
***
Ben felt her presence long before he gathered enough strength to crack open his heavy eyelids.

Contrary to their previous, perilous circumstances, there was no immediate sense of danger clogging the atmosphere. So, for the first time in many years, he allowed his body the rest it so desperately cried out for.

Rey was awake and somewhere close by. Even as his conscious self had been pushed far under the waves of blessed nothingness, he hadn't been worried. Upon feeling the depth of Rey's concern and compassion for him as he drifted into unconsciousness on his father's blasted ship, he had been certain that she would provide security as he slept.

Her consciousness seemed to him a bright, steady flame, drawing him ever closer into the pleasant depths of warmth that was distinctly her.

Still, as deeply as he longed to bask in her comfortable light, he stayed in the shadows. Excruciating memories of being harshly burned by a warmth that felt much like hers held him back, wary of the consequences should he creep too closely.

"Ben?" Tendrils of soothing thought shot sparks into his shadows, brushing them away and exposing the outer realms of his mind. "Are you awake?"

The sudden surge of hope in her mind temporarily blinded his senses.

"Now I am." He reassured her, sinking back a bit into his own mind to shield his groggy consciousness from the onslaught of her optimistic emotions.

Rey responded in kind, likely sensing that the forceful brightness of her very self was overstimulating him at the moment.

Withdrawing from her felt deafening. It was as if a thick, woolen blanket shrouded him, dulling his senses.

The caverns of his own mind echoed ominously, so he stuck to the path clearly marked out in front of him. Glancing around, he noticed with an odd sensation of loss that much of his mind remained in shambles. The effort it would take to rebuild would be astronomical.

His thoughts looped strangely in places - memories taking forms that he instinctively felt were wrong. Without taking the time or effort to properly examine each memory, he couldn't be certain which portions were true and which were false.

Surprisingly, his most recent memories remained largely intact. Though, upon closer inspection, he realized that there were strands of white light binding the images together. The work had been done hastily, much like the work of a surgeon on a battlefield.

Looking around more carefully, Ben picked out the silky constellations of bright starlight dancing around his mind. He was absolutely certain none of that light had been there before.

Rey.

So this is what she was doing when she rifled around in my head. She had been trying to put him back together. The thought made him smile.

Contrasting with Rey's starlight, thick, grey clouds drifted aimlessly.

Out of habit, he wandered closer to the clouds, pulling on the dark side energy pulsing from within. Drawing on the power, the wildfire swept through his mind, clearing out some of the cobwebs and restoring a bit of his mental fortitude.

As if from a vast distance, he could feel two opposing forces clashing hostilely, neither side willing to retreat an inch.

Apparently Skywalker was still holding back the majority of Snoke's power at bay.

"Ben?" Rey tentatively called out, her airy voice bouncing playfully down the shaded corridors of his mind.

Turning away from the sounds of battle, Ben pulled himself from the wreckage of his less recent memories and moved purposefully towards the sapphire glow at the edges of his consciousness.

"Is something wrong?" He questioned, sensing restrained tension curling underneath her calm exterior.

"You need to wake up," Rey commanded, tone stubborn and hard.

Sighing wearily, he complied, knowing that she would continue prodding at his mind until he did as she ordered.

Blinking slowly, Ben was relieved to find that the only light in the room came from a small, elegantly-carved lamp in the corner. The orange light cast eerie shadows - it's light extended out only in a short radius from the source, draping much of the room in welcomed darkness.

His eyes picked her form out almost instantly.

From the dim lighting, he couldn't make out much of her figure other than the dark outline.

"Sorry," Rey whispered, breaking the silence. "You had been out so long...I was starting to get worried."

"How long have I been asleep?" he spoke softly, matching her tone though he had no idea why. His throat was rough with disuse but, considering he had been largely unable to verbally form words last time he had been awake, the scratchiness bothered him less than it normally would.

"Almost a week." Though she fought vainly to keep the exhaustion from her voice, he picked up on it instantly. "I thought you were waking up a few days ago because you responded to me, but then you drifted off again."

"A few days ago?" But that happened just minutes ago. Surely it hadn't taken him a couple of days just to sift through his deconstructed mind.

"Anya kept telling me not to worry so much, that the Force was helping you heal, but...well, your consciousness kept fading in and out and it was getting harder to sense you." Her form shifted slightly, as though she was uncomfortable.

"How long have you been sitting in that chair?" he asked.

"Um…" Even in the darkness, Ben should tell she glanced away, "ever since we got here almost a week ago."

"You haven't slept?" he demanded. The thought made his head spin.

How could she so recklessly endanger her health? Hadn't she been poisoned?

"I've slept!" she insisted, much too quickly for him to fully believe.

"In the chair."

"Well, yes." she admitted, finally turning back to face him.

Relying more on his mental sense of her than on what his eyes could make out in the darkness, he could tell she was fighting to stay awake. Though for what possible reason, he was unable to glean.

Had she really just been watching him sleep? The thought was both comforting and disturbing.

"I don't trust them."

Ben blinked again, pulling himself from the mixture of confusing emotions he felt at the image of her watching over him. "...What?"

"Your knights - I don't trust them."

"My -" he froze. Reaching out through the Force, he quickly canvassed the entirety of the ancient structure they were residing in. Sure enough, five achingly familiar Force presences glowed nearby. Apparently, two were still on assignment.

Breathing a sigh of relief, he allowed his eyes to flutter closed. "We're on Korriban," he commented.

Rey's concern still hovered at the edges of his mind.

"Don't worry," he said, opening his eyes to look at her, "they won't hurt you."

The very thought was comical.

"How can you be sure?" she asked, clearly unconvinced.

"Because," he responded confidently, "they know that if they even look at you with a hint of disrespect, I'll chop them into a thousand tiny pieces."

If her recoiling presence was anything to go by, his reassurance didn't seem to have its intended result. "You would kill your friends for me?"

"They aren't my friends," he replied, racking his brain to try and solve why she wasn't comforted by the fact that his knights wouldn't dare hurt her. "But, yes, I would kill them. They're expendable."

"Not your -" Rey stuttered, appearing taken aback. "Please tell me you wouldn't actually kill them."

"I absolutely would."

She huffed, displeased. "I don't like the thought of you killing people for me."

He would later blame his next words on his grogginess. "You didn't seem to mind too much when I killed Snoke." Or the Praetorian guards. Or the stormtroopers. Or Phasma.

"That was," she stammered, picking up on his thoughts as he mentally listed the numerous people he had killed to protect her. "Those were incredibly different instances."

"How so?" he asked, genuinely confused as to how her mind failed to connect that death was simply death.

Unless you were powerful enough to become a Force ghost. Then death was never death. But that lesson hardly seemed relevant to the current topic.

"Because they're your friends!" she responded, insistent.

"Not my friends," he repeated. Why was this a hard concept to grasp?

"Well," Rey demanded, her frustration pricking at his confusion, "what would you call the people who seem ready to die for you?"

"That's easy," he answered without hesitation. "Subordinates. Minions. Lackeys."

Even in the dark, Ben could feel her eyes piercing him, could almost see the way she frowned at his reply.

"That's not the same thing."

"Exactly."

She huffed, crossing her arms in defiance. "I still think you're wrong."

"Of course you do," he replied, the realization hitting him as his thoughts raced to catch up. "You see people as individuals, each with their own unique personalities and quirks. In reality, we're all just flecks of dust. Ultimately useless. Expendable."

"Well that was morbid."

"It's the truth. Just ask anyone. No matter where on the spectrum you fall, the answer never changes, just the way you choose to respond."

'I have no idea what you're talking about," Rey cut in, sighing deeply. "You can explain it when I'm not so tired."

The mental walls she had constructed slid apart, allowing him to peek in through the cracks.

How is she still even awake? He wondered, feeling the weight of her physical exhaustion drop on him suddenly.

"Didn't they give you a room to sleep in?"

Fabric creaked as she shifted in the chair again. "Yes."

"Then go there and get some rest." At her hesitation, he started to push himself up on the bed. If she was going to be so idiotically stubborn, then maybe he'd just put her in a Force-induced coma until he was positive she was well-rested.

"Fine, I'll go to sleep!" Rey insisted, standing. "You don't have to knock me out," she mentally berated, having heard his intent.

Confident that he had won the pointless argument, Ben leaned back into his pillow and closed his eyes - grateful that he hadn't had to put her to sleep. What would he have done with her - left her on the floor? The floor might have proven to be more uncomfortable than the chair.

The unexpected dip of the mattress immediately halted his retreat back into the recesses of his consciousness.

Eyes snapping open, his brain refused to compute the fact that Rey had apparently decided to lie down on his bed. "Um - what -"

"You told me to go to sleep," she muttered, sounding annoyed as she burrowed under the pile of blankets.

"Yes- but...here?" What is happening right now?

"You wouldn't let me sleep in the chair," she answered, turning so that her back was to him, "and I certainly wasn't sleeping on the floor," he winced - she wasn't supposed to have heard that. "So, yes. Here."

"But-" he stammered, utterly confused. Is this still about her not trusting my knights? "I told you, no one is going to hurt you."

"Maybe not," she replied, voice already heavy with sleep, "but I might hurt you if you keep talking."

He let the matter drop after that, recognizing that nothing he could say would change her mind. Plus, he held no doubts that Rey actually would injure him if he continued the argument.

Even after he had purposely shifted his position so that a wide expanse of empty space rested between them, he still found himself uncomfortable with her close proximity.

When they fought together, he had no issue with her being close by. In fact, the closer she was, the better. If she strayed too far from his side during a battle, then the chances of him reacting quickly enough to keep her safe dropped drastically.

Just like when she had recklessly charged at Phasma.

He had seen the trajectory of Phasma's blade, had noticed that Rey's footing was too off-balance for her to properly block the strike, but he had been too far away to do anything. Short of shoving Rey aside with the Force, he had had no other option than to continue mercilessly cutting his way through the stormtroopers stupid enough to try and halt his approach.

If Rey had been trained enough to know how to correct her stance, then he would have pushed her out of the way. As it was, the action would have placed her in more danger by throwing her completely off-balance and confusing her surroundings.

So he had been forced to watch the blade rip her skin, spilling her precious lifeblood onto the sterile floor.

As Supreme Leader, he understood why Phasma had rebelled against him. As she was a valuable ally, he had been prepared to punish her and move on, leaving her alive.

But the second her vibroblade had come in contact with Rey's flesh, Phasma had sealed her fate.

Now that Rey was safe - and apparently healed, though he still desired an explanation as to how that had occurred - he had no idea what to do.

Protecting her in battle was easy, it was natural. Escaping from the First Order had been exhilarating, though he never would have tried if she hadn't seemed determined to get him away.

But knowing she watched over him as he slept was disquieting.

He had been vulnerable - completely open to attack and she had done nothing to hurt him. Again.

Weren't they technically enemies? Shouldn't she be trying to kill him, not breaking him out of a cell and saving him from certain execution?

What was he supposed to do with the knowledge that Rey was trying to keep him safe?

Oh - that's what she meant…

Turning his head on the pillow, Ben glanced cautiously over at the woman sleeping soundly in his bed. The faint light from the corner lamp did little to illuminate her features, but the relaxed slouch of her shoulders reassured him that his thoughts weren't drifting over and waking her up.

She wasn't worried about her own safety.

When Rey had first brought up her doubts about the loyalty of his knights, he had assumed that she had been too concerned with making certain she stayed alive to sleep peacefully. It made sense, then, that she would stick as close to him as possible, knowing that none of his knights would make a move against him - especially not while he was unconscious.

The realization that she had stayed to act as sentry and keep him safe struck a chord deep within his heart.

While it was nearly impossible for him to imagine any of his knights causing him harm, Rey couldn't possibly have had the same assurances that they hadn't fallen into a trap.

After all, she had just rescued him from a different group of people who were supposedly loyal to him.

Ben exhaled slowly, desperately trying to work through the confusing tangle of emotions bombarding his brain.

When was the last time someone had protected him, not because they had to, but because they had wanted to - because they cared?
***

Harsh red sunlight burned his skin, but Ben hardly noticed - it had been too long since the last time he had spent any considerable time on the surface of a planet without fighting for his life.

Even though the cracked, dry surface of Korriban wasn't particularly inviting to gaze upon, he found it invigorating to simply stand still and let his eyes drift across the broken planet.

Once hale and flourishing, Korriban had long ago succumbed to the destructive nature of the dark side. Where many thousands of years ago great forests had stood strong, now only rocky hills remained.

The planet itself hummed with energy, calling out to the power he possessed. He had chosen this planet as headquarters for his knights many years ago because of that ever tangible presence of dark side power.

Though the planet had once been a mighty Sith stronghold and temple, those ages had vanished with the rise of Darth Bane. Sith tombs which dotted the planet's surface held nothing of great importance, only fatal traps left behind by their creators - everything of value had been stolen eons ago.

Yet, the Force had remained strong, overflowing from the core of the planet, ensuring that nothing grew.

The Jedi loathed the place. Perhaps that had been another reason he had chosen it, knowing that his uncle would never dare come near the planet.

Staring out now at the cracked, obsidian spires and mounded tombs of bygone eras, Ben couldn't help but make comparisons between the planet's surface and his present mental state.

The dark side had corrupted both.

"It is relieving to see you standing." Reflexively, Ben reached for the lightsaber clipped to his belt.

He had not sensed her approach.

Though, now that Anya stood before him, he could feel the Force pulsing brightly.

"What are you doing here?" Folding his arms behind his back gave his hands something to do. The action made him seem more in control - more like the leader his knights thought him to be.

"It seemed irresponsible to allow Rey to board an enemy starship alone." Anya's voice was as calm and soft as it had ever been. It was unnerving.

"How prudent," he replied, attempting to keep his voice from betraying any of fatigue and weariness he was feeling. "But why were you with her in the first place?"

Anya cocked her head, a slight frown pulling at the edges of her composed expression. "I was responding to your urgent message."

A flicker of memory called to him, though it quickly lost its luster and pulled away before he could recall the images and sounds associated. "What message?"

Anya reached into a tan belt hanging loosely on her belt, pulling out a worn, rusted transponder.

Identical to the one he always carried, except his had remained pristine.

"Oh," confusion swirled through his mind, "that message."

"Do you not remember?" she asked, hints of concern cracking through her soft, even tone.

"Of course I do," he lied. What in the blazes is going on? Krillien should have that transponder, not her.

"You've been training Rey," the words tasted of sawdust.

"Of course," she responded lightly, "you asked me to."

Korriban's heat suddenly seemed unbearable.

"Since when do you do as I ask?" You ran from the conflict - you abandoned your brother. Where is he now?

"I traveled to Dxun to assist Rey, not because you asked it of me. My conscience would not allow me to ignore a young Jedi in need of training. "

"Dxun? Why were you on Dxun? Don't tell me that's where the Resistance has been hiding.

"I lived on Onderon for the past three years," Anya stated, dark blue eyes watching him carefully, "so I felt her arrival on Dxun when the Resistance landed. Likely, I would have gone to her whether you asked it of me or not."

Years of habit were difficult to ignore. "Is the Resistance still on Dxun?"

"Yes."

Learning the location of the remaining members of the Resistance sparked in him a desire for action. What action? Obliterating them? Sending his knights to cut them all down?

Rey would not be pleased.

But he could end this pathetic war once and for all.

Anya stepped closer, her heeled boots striking discordently on the rocky surface. "What will you do with this information - Kylo Ren?"

Her calculated tone paused his wild thoughts.

What would he do? He no longer had the backing of the First Order - that bridge had been utterly destroyed.

Could he step aside, pretend he didn't know where the Resistance was hiding, and let them live?

Could he push away years of effort?

Stepping past Anya, he rushed inside, desperate to get away.

If he did anything, Rey would hate him.

If he did nothing, he might hate himself.

I have no idea what to do.
***

A/N: Okay, so I promise that you'll get to meet more of the Knights of Ren next chapter - it seemed odd to introduce them in this chapter since Ben/Kylo already knows them.