Ailsa was not able to recover much in her new predicament. It was cold, her breath was shallow, and every fiber in her being cried out for sleep. She felt as if she could sleep for days, that if unbound she would just lay upon the floor and begin a dreamless rest there.

In the distance Kylo Ren and Hux stood before Snoke, one masked, the other unmasked in anger. Hux did not wish for the girl to live. He did not wish for her to go unpunished and for her information to go unmined. Yet two who were strong with The Force knew of her life now, they felt her power and knew she had a talent for staying hidden. She had been invisible for years, she had been a ghost, a mere memory. Now she came to the story with information of a force they did not know of, with news they had not heard, and with abilities they had not thought to utilize.

She was grey. She could be turned. Her heart already looked into the darkness to find another she lost there.

Snoke was hard on Kylo Ren. He had not gone into her mind; he had held back and not wished to look at the past. He had wasted an opportunity, but perhaps in doing so had opened up another.

The girl would live – if she was still alive.

When the pair of commanders returned to the interrogation room she had fresh blood upon her lips, breathing shallow and mind only halfway conscious. A trooper undid the locks that held her and she crumbled to the ground like an ancient tree after a fire, limbs simply giving up as her body focused simply on keeping itself functional rather than mobile.

A storm trooper was commanded to lift her, but the action pressed her torso inward, scraping broken bones together and rubbing their jagged edges into a aching lung.

The pain was so sudden in Ailsa's mind that she reacted on instinct, sending out a blast of The Force that threw the trooper back and had her hit the floor with a heavy thud. A groan left her, a hand somehow managing to flatten on the ground, the other cradling her broken side as she looked up at the figures before her.

Hux looked extremely pissed off. Kylo Ren looked like a black statue and little more. The storm trooper moved, stretching to attention. Ailsa was still a captive, she was still theirs and still in no shape to do anything. Weakened, pained, exhausted; she was in the perfect shape to mould to their purpose.

They put her on a stretcher and took her back to the medical wing, the commanders vanishing with all bindings and intentions of tying her still once more. The medics took over, finally moving to repair the damage done all those days ago.

A massive blast, a misplaced defense, and a whole lot of snow. It seemed so familiar and so new all at once. Her heart felt just as raw.

The woman did not realize she had been asleep until she woke. She did not realize she had been dreaming until her eyes met those of Kylo Ren. She'd been dreaming of Ben. She'd been taken back to simpler times; to days basked in warm autumn light, to the spring, to all those exercises they had been made to do at the height of summer…always smiling, always finding a moment to be together.

"You must not call me Ben." He said without emotion, staring at her with a lax expression. "That is my first rule."

She breathed without pain for the first time, wondering briefly how long she had been asleep before realizing that she did not care. "Did I agree to a game with rules?"

"You will have to if you wish to survive this. Do not pretend you are not afraid of death; I watched you fight it. I have watched you come back from it. You are not ready to die yet."

"I do not think I am ready to join The First Order either."

"You will not be joining The Order." Kylo leant back in the chair he had placed at her bedside, hands hidden behind gloves, posture rigid, guarded. He had been in her mind. He had been watching her dream. "You will be joining The Knights of Ren."

"I already have a job."

He let his head cock to the side, eyes thinning darkly. She did not know this man. She did not know this façade. "You have two choices, Ailsa. Either you join me and allow me to teach you a new method, or I find everything about what you have been doing all these years and I finish what was started on Skye."

She stared at him, jaw tight, grey eyes resembling a storm more than they had at any other point in her life. "That is not a choice and you know it."

"The fact that you believe that means you have made a choice about your options."

"Who are you?"

"No one you know."

Ailsa realized that her hands were free then and she sat up, twisting to look at the man from a new vantage point. He had looked different at their last reunion, but they had changed from children to young adults. He did not move, he simply kept his eyes on hers and offered a silent challenge.

The woman ran a hand through her hair. It was dirty, bits of her own blood still lay upon dried strands. "How do you know I will not betray you? How do you know I will not take all I learn of this place and run?"

"I don't, but you know the consequences if you do. You know what I can do, and you know what this base can do. And you know that I am fully aware of your connection to Skye."

Ailsa clenched her jaw, gaze hardening. "Who are you? What have you become?"

Kylo let out a scoff, a single laugh that possessed no humor. "That answer would frighten you."

"I think it would, but not for the reasons you think."

"And what reasons would frighten you most?" He leant forward a small way, peering at her with a coldness she had never encountered.

The woman searched his features. They were still the same. The light fell on him in the same way, his voice moved in the same manner, his hair still parted as it always had. "You have not cast off one man for another. You've just…split yourself in a half and decided to live with only one side of yourself."

"Oh, so it's grey Skylander theories you're using?" He mocked her.

"No, it's reality. You can call yourself whatever you want, it doesn't change who you actually are."

His gaze turned into a glare. Either she read him better than anyone, or she assumed she did. Neither were good. Neither were welcome.

"Join me or watch Skye burn." Kylo stated simply. "Shall I wait for you to speak the answer or shall I pull it from your mind?"

"You know the answer." Ailsa swallowed, feeling stuck at an impasse. The Force moved her, shaping her into a fluid to fit throughout the universe. Now it asked her to go to a desert with no path.

Kylo Ren gave a nod and stood. He seemed so much bigger in those robes. So much taller. "If you cross me, if you run…"

"I don't run."

"No. You hide." He locked himself up in shadows, he grew angry. "You hide and you stay silent and you cower."

"No. I vanish and I survive."

"You will not survive me if you betray me."

Ailsa sat up a little further. "And what of your betrayal?" She offered the question so honestly. "What of that night at the Temple?"

"What of it?"

"Do you not owe me for that, just as you suggest I would owe you should I wrong you?"

Kylo peered at her curiously for that question. He had not considered it a betrayal; he knew it had been one but he had never heard those words until then. "You died that night, and so did Ben Solo. The slate was wiped clean."

"And now you have marked it again, and you have marked it first."

It was his turn to clench his jaw. He was furious with her, with the words, with what she brought up. She spoke her mind, and her mind was a place he had not ventured. He knew what he would find there and he knew that the tugging strings of light would only latch onto those images.

"Finish healing. I will come for you." He walked hard to the door. "Your re-training begins soon."

-.-.-.-.-.-

Within a few days Ailsa was mobile. They had fixed her body and confined her to a locked cell with only a single bed and a single window to view the outside universe. It was quieter there than it was in the medical bay. She had space to gather her thoughts, to think on an agreement she felt she had been forced to say yes to.

She was loyal to the nameless group that floated through space; to the untold who somehow managed to turn a war of two into a game of three without anyone realizing. Perhaps it still was a game of three and she was caught in the middle, sandwiched in tight with nowhere to go.

The Skylander resumed some slow training, stretching her body out with long exercises, breathing and elongating her limbs again, feeling each muscle and ligament, ensuring all was in the right place before she was no doubt summoned before Kylo Ren to begin training for The Dark Side.

Surely he knew that she would not agree to such a thing. Surely he knew she was not one to be moved to a world of absolutes. The Light and The Dark; so black and white and bland. Power came from both; or so she had been taught. Power was gleaned by looking into both sides.

Through the door came a few meals, each bland and made en masse. She was left there with herself until Kylo Ren finally came. The presence of another almost felt like a relief at that point.

"You're blackmailing me." Was all she said, figure standing by the window as she watched the universe rolling by.

He was silent. Blackmail. The thought made him scoff. She could think that. Had he targeted some other planet, not Skye, she might have thought he was trying to save her life. How easily people were manipulated. How easily they believed what they wanted.

"I suppose your methods worked." Ailsa turned to face the man. He was unmasked and armed, his lightsaber at his hip. She knew that lightsaber. She knew what colour it glowed; she knew its unstable hiss. In his palm lay her two weapons. Her hand reached out for them instinctively, calling them back to her.

He closed his grip and lifted a finger to her. "No. You get these in the training room and nowhere else. You get them when I say you can have them."

"Are you afraid I'll use them to melt the doors down and run away, just like in the old Jedi stories?"

"You still believe in those stupid stories?"

"From what I remember – you were the one who told them to me first."

Kylo clenched his jaw. "Come." He turned on his heel, leading the way out of the room.

Ailsa followed cautiously at first, and then with great curiosity. The Star Killer Base was huge, but now she was within it. Within the belly of the beast. It was a sprawling mass of military power. A planet made for force.

She was led to a training room; a vast chamber with a padded floor and walls that been made plain; stripped of weapons. It was a room for her. One where she could find nothing to do but train, nowhere to go but the path they opened for her.

The door shut and locked behind them, a guard standing there. It was obvious that she was not trusted. It was very evident that she was not free.

Kylo Ren set her lightsabers in the middle of the room and stood back, watching the girl as she examined her environment and the setup he had created. She stood by the door, he directly opposite, her weapons in the middle.

"Get them." Ren stated flatly and nodded at the dual lightsabers.

Ailsa lifted her hand, using The Force to call the blades to herself. As soon as she did she was met with a blast of energy from the man across from her, sending her spiraling into the wall. She looked up at him. He seemed so distanced, so disjointed. It was like looking at a broken mirror.

"Get them." He repeated.

This time she rose to walk to the pair, standing over them to pick them up manually. Just before her fingers brushed the weapons she was thrown once again, this time skidding across the floor. She sent a glare at the man opposite, one hand out to call one saber, the other lifting to send a blast back at him as he attacked her. The air around them exploded briefly, sending each person's hair back, but Ailsa stood with one weapon in her hand.

"And the other one." He stated flatly, nodding at the final piece laying in the middle of the room.

This time as she approached it he drew his own lightsaber and attacked her hard and fast. The Skylander barely got her defense up in time, the glow of her blade hissing as it met the unstable red of his. She bowed under the pressure of his strike, leaning back as his weight came down hard upon her. He was taller, far stronger, and he was proving it.

Ailsa turned her saber off and felt him tip forward with his own weight, her own slipping out from beneath his force and back into the open. She brought the partner of her weapon to her hand and lit both up, giving them a casual swing.

"This is training?" She asked.

"This is finding out where you are." He was so nonchalant about it. He was somewhere else; somewhere far away. He was doing his job. He was doing something for Snoke. "You accepted the offer, but that doesn't mean you're strong enough to survive it."

Ailsa exhaled slowly. "You know I'm recovering from a rather decent injury."

"That's an excuse. Never make an excuse with me." He was firm on the end of the sentence, eyes blazing. She'd been speaking to him as she might speak to Ben. She saw Ben's face, she saw his posture, she saw his movements and instincts. He was sharper, more raw, driven by power and vision; but his body was much the same.

Kylo Ren reached out with his free hand and gripped her mind as she stood, latching onto her in a moment when her guard was down. Instead of searching for an image he showed her one. He showed her that night; the trees as they burned, the Temple as it fell. All those bodies, all that blood. He showed her the one thing she had not seen that night; he showed her her own face. She had looked so confused and afraid, and yet he had continued to choke her. He held tight, lifting her from the ground, squeezing the life from her before throwing her into that river to drown.

Ailsa felt a great anger at the intrusion. She felt a fury burning in her and she unleashed it upon him, casting herself at Kylo Ren with a yell. She was quicker than she had been, but he had fought her already. He had been there on that lonely little planet. He had battled her now once as she was. This time she was driven forward by emotion, not careful training and skill. The aim was different. The aim then was to kill Hux, now she wanted to show him her wrath and shed the weight of betrayal.

He fought her back with ease, her quick motions and sharp strikes something new to deal with but not impossible to evade. With a deft motion Kylo Ren cast her back, gripping her with The Force by the throat and tossing her across the room as if she weighed no more than a leaf.

"You're not as bad as I thought you'd be." He stated.

Ailsa got to her feet and regripped her hands about her weapons. She faced him again, the image of that night fresh in her mind. She advanced upon the man again only to be caught in his grip again and pinned to the wall. He approached her with ease, holding her there with The Force, giving her air but little else. She threw her own power at him, letting out a yell of anger.

"Good. Get angry." He stated as he stood nearer, just beyond the reach of her lightsabers. "Anger is good. Feed of it."

There was a fervor in his tone that unnerved her, that set her on edge.

"What are you angry at?" He insisted.
"You know what I am angry at."

"Say it."

"You."

"Good. Use it. Embrace it. Feel how dark it is, feel that power."

She pushed against him, getting a hand up to defend herself only to be thrown back to the wall. He grit his teeth with frustration, his lighsaber hissing at his side.

"Are you afraid of the dark, Ailsa?" He taunted.

"No."

"Are you angry with The Dark Side?"

"…yes."

"Use that as a weapon. Use it against me. You'll only get free if you use the same power."

"No." She shook her head, feeling like she might cry and scream all at once. She'd relived that moment over and over and over – the plunge into the water, the knowledge that Ben had died, the way her heart ached and mourned as she drowned and was then sparked back to life as she reached for the surface. It made her tremble, it made her feel a spiral of emotion.

"You're wrong." She insisted. "Anger is not darkness. Anger is natural, it is human. Despite all of this, you are still human."

His grip tightened, pressure on her airway, robbing her of oxygen for a moment. He watched her gasp silently for a breath and offered her just the smallest amount, enough to make her uncomfortable and feel as if she might suffocate in the slowest manner possible.

Ailsa found a power in her to return the favour; found the memory of what had happened strong enough to lift her hand and strike at him. The blast on Kylo Ren had him stagger back a few steps, his grip on her dropping and his eyes growing dark. She stood with a hand at her throat, her weapon off and held within her palm as her fingers explored her skin. She was panting, exhausted.

"You sacrificed a lot for this." Ailsa called him back to that night, touching his mind without invading it. Doing what he had done without pressure.

"Yes." Kylo Ren straightened, pushing his hair from his face with a composed motion. All a mask without wearing one.

"You sacrificed your family."

"Yes."

"Your history."

"Yes."

"Your old name. Your old life."

"It was an easy choice to make."

"Was it?"

"Yes."

"And me? Was giving me up an easy choice to make?"

A pause. A silence. "Yes."

This was not training. This was truth. If the Dark Side knew anything it was that looking deep within yourself is where you would find the greatest darkness. It was where the blackest parts resided and where they could be grown. The same went for light. All inward. So connected to The Force, so linked to the universe, and so selfish.

"I don't believe you." Ailsa turned her lightsabers off. For the first time he was speaking as a man with a past, not as someone who was born that night at the temple.

"Then you are a fool and I cannot train you."

"You know you can train me. You know I'm good."

"I just had you pinned to a wall. I threw you about the room like a doll." His voice rose a bit, anger personal. "I should have left you to die."

"You did that once already and you failed to do it again." She was furious with him now, yelling at the man with an anger he had inspired. "You murdered me. Did you feel nothing then?"

"I felt relief." He answered. "You were gone. You were a weakness in my path."

"And now I'm on your path again – and by your own invite."

Two people, one bare room. Loud voices, ever raising. "You know nothing of my path!" Kylo yelled at her. "You are a stupid girl who loved a weak boy."

"You were not weak." She answered him. "You were courageous and bright and your skill was greater than anyone I'd ever known."

"And it is greater still! I am greater now. That boy is a shadow. He is gone. He is dead. You need to do the same thing if you are to survive this."

"To survive what?"

"Me."

Ailsa turned her lightsabers on again and struck at him without another word, fighting Kylo Ren and what he had done in equal measure. She attacked him with the full extent of her training, and he returned the favor in equal measure. They both left bruises on the other, they both came close to losing a limb and ending a life.

He was better than she was. He had more power, he had greater skill, but she was fierce and she had a lot to vent. In the end Ailsa was exhausted. They had fought for a long time, the hours seeming to slip away before begin replaced by a brutal muscle ache and a sting in the scar tissue of a damaged lung. He got the final hit, leaving her laying on the mat staring at the ceiling.

He took her weapons from her and turned his own off, moving to leave the room in silence. Nothing more was to be said. Much more needed to be let out.

"Do your remember that night?" Her voice broke the silence as he reached the door.

Kylo Ren paused, half listening over his shoulder. He thought she meant the night the temple burned. But she didn't.

"I remember it. We laughed quite a bit. It was awkward, it hurt a bit, you were more nervous than I was."

He half turned to her, about to tell her to stop but pausing when she sat up to look him in the face.

"It was the most embarrassed and exposed I've ever felt. I'm sure you felt just as vulnerable. But…uh…it was lovely. It was really good. We got really good at it too." Ailsa mentioned. "I know Ben is gone, but those moments live on. You live in a body that I loved, and that loved me. Whether you like it or not, I'm on you like a scar. I'll be there forever; and he'll be with me."

Kylo Ren was silent. Completely, utterly silent. He locked himself down, he shut her out. He said nothing and did nothing except turn away and head for the door.

A small group of Storm Toopers escorted the worn out woman back to her room. They left here there. She believed she would be left there; that he would not come back, that he would just…leave her now. That day had been more truthful than any she had encountered in a long, long time. She'd never felt more in touch with her past, never really had a chance to look back on it with open eyes and really embrace what had unfolded. She had not yet taken it in her arms or cast it aside, but Ailsa could look at it now.

She could stare into that darkness and into the strings of light that had burned so brightly leading into those moments. So many pieces of light. So much shadow. Neither would ever exist exclusively within her. Neither was ever supposed to.