Rey awoke with a start. She had been dozing on the Falcon, her face dappled with drying tears. But all her worries were suddenly pushed from her mind.

She had just felt something wake. Something black, something dark. Something deep. What was that?

Without thinking, she reached with her mind out into the galaxy. Where are you? she asked, angrily. And what have you done?

Moments later, she felt him connect with her. The feeling was unmistakable. It was as if another person, another voice, had suddenly appeared in her mind.

She turned, expecting to see a vision of him, wherever he was. Doing whatever it was he had just done. But instead, he simply appeared before her, fully formed. Though - was it him?

A tall man stood in the Falcon, with a loose, black scarf tied around his head, face and neck. His body was draped in the same black fabric, and around his waist hung the unmistakable hilt of a lightsabre. He wore loose trousers, and no shoes. He turned, and gazed at her with a calm pair of golden eyes, rimmed with black. He pulled the scarf away from his face.

Kylo Ren.

Rey exploded with rage. "What have you done?" she cried. "What was that?" Then she looked at him again, standing in her ship. "And... what are you doing here? This...this isn't how it works."

"No." he replied, looking around him, taking in the Millennium Falcon. "My father's ship," he said, gently. And then he smiled. "Ha."

"Ha?" she jumped to her feet. "Answer me...killer. What was that thing I just felt? What did you do?"

He spun to face her again, in one smooth movement. He pushed back his scarf, to reveal his long, raven hair. It tumbled around a bronzed, suntanned face. He glowed.

Rey looked at him, and her mouth fell open. This is bad. He looks... powerful.

"For a start," he replied, his eyes calmly regarding her face, before moving instantaneously down her body, and then back, "It's not me. But that's not relevant right now."

She looked at him, incredulously.

He smiled. Smiled!

"What's relevant. Is that you reached for me. While you were awake. And that I answered. And... I am here."

She took a moment to register what he had said. Then she looked at him again. He was, it appeared, actually in the Falcon. She wasn't seeing him in whatever black dungeon he was actually skulking in right now. Suddenly, it struck her.

"You've..."

"Projected," he replied, nodding. Then he smiled again. She knitted her eyebrows in consternation.

What is happening here?

"And I'm...awake?" she murmured, still processing.

"Yes," he replied, moving closer towards her. He moved with an easy grace, and his arms hung loosely beside his body. He made no attempt to reach for either her, or his lightsabre. "Normally, you only reach for me in sleep."

Rey's neck started to burn with embarrassment and anger. "Don't be ridiculous."

Had she done that?

"It's okay," he replied. "You're pleasant to look at, while sleeping. Very peaceful. Calming."

Rey just shook her head. She was speechless.

He moved one step closer, and lowered his head to better face hers. She knew that he was an astral projection, and wasn't really here, but she could actually smell him. He smelt warm, and smoky, as if he had just stepped out from an open fire. He gazed at her again with she realised almost orange-golden eyes.

"What have you done?" she asked again, in a smaller voice. "You're much more... powerful. Something's changed."

He just carried on looking at her. She noticed something flicker in his eyes.

"You really are..." he murmured. But then he stopped himself. "No. It's too soon for me to do this."

"Do what?"

"This," he said, and gestured to her, and then himself. "I'm not ready."

"You're ... not ready? "

"Look, I know," he continued, shrugging his large shoulders. "I felt it too. Something's happened. It may be Hux. I don't know. But what you need to do right now is get back to your people."

"My people?" she asked.

"Your people," he echoed. "That ex-Stormtrooper? And that pilot..."

"General," she retorted.

"General," he repeated. "Ah. So he's my mother's heir. Well. Either way. It's time to fight."

He looked at her then, and for a moment she thought he might touch her. But almost as soon as she thought it, he waved his hand, and disappeared. The Falcon was once again empty, save for herself and the distant bleeps of BB-8.

Rey's jaw was hanging close to the floor. What just happened? Was that Kylo? Or Ben? Or... someone else?

Absent mindedly, she reached for her comm, and hailed Poe.

"Rey?" his voice immediately shot into the room, crackling with interference. "You okay?"

"Fine," she said, but her voice trembling. "I'm coming home. We need to prepare. It's...coming."