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Dancing beams of bright red. That was all Rey could make out as she slid along the coarse wall away from where Kylo Ren fought viciously against the gigantic creature that had materialized out of the darkness. Deep moans filled the cavernous space every time Ren's lightsaber pierced through its harsh skin, reptilian in texture and slickness. With a wide swipe of the blade he managed to sever off one of its upper limbs, causing the beast to shriek in anger and pain.
Rey felt her way past a rocky protrusion on the wall of the canyon, her hands and her fingertips nervously probing the rough surface in search of some place to hide or, at the very least, something she might be able to use as a weapon. Rattled by the constant grunting and growling from which she attempted to escape, she rushed down the gorge, eventually tripping over a mass on the ground that caused her to almost lose her footing. It took her a second to realize it was a storm trooper, one of the fatalities from their unfortunate crash. She quickly searched the body for the weapon she assumed the guard must have carried, and was relieved to find a blaster just a few feet away from where the dead trooper lay.
She didn't hesitate to take it and run back to the spot where Kylo Ren kept struggling to subdue the resilient beast. Rey squinted into the red tinted dimness, barely able to outline the silhouettes of the two figures engaged in battle, and took aim at the giant's head. Her finger pulled firmly on the trigger and the blaster spat a bright, whitish spear powerful enough to momentarily light up their surroundings, but the animal shifted at the last minute and the blast missed its intended target. Once again she fired the weapon, this time hitting it square on the neck. Stunned, the massive monster turned to her, its intention to attack. The fleeting distraction gave Ren less than a second to push his lightsaber right through its heart. With a deafening screech, the creature opened its menacing jaws, losing momentum on its downward strike, only to collapse to the ground with a loud thud a second later.
Dead.
Rey wasted no time. Without a trace of uncertainty, she raised the blaster once again and took aim at Kylo Ren. Panting from the recent exertion, lightsaber still fired up and glowing a menacing red, her nemesis merely grinned.
"You wish to kill me, Scavenger. I can feel your anger," he said hoarsely. "Now is your chance."
She didn't answer. The burning desire to avenge Han's death and pay him back for what he did to Finn was overwhelming. It would be so easy. All she had to do was…
"Pull the trigger," he dared. With a reptilian smile, he added, "We both know how much you want to."
He stepped closer, offering her a better target, openly provoking her. She knew his gesture was intended as bait, could already feel the all familiar pull stirring within her, so powerful, so unbelievably tempting.
"Don't fight it," Ren challenged, inching closer. He looked mean and menacing, his damp hair sticking to his forehead in disarray, his eyes dark under the fiery glow of his saber. "Give into it, Scavenger. Allow the dark power flow through you. Let it take over…"
Rey's finger tightened on the trigger.
God, how she hates him!
Kylo Ren kept walking towards her, undeterred. "The memory of Han Solo haunts you." His voice was deceivably gentle, reminiscent of the tone he had used on that cold interrogation room not that long ago. "You should've seen the look on his face when my blade sliced through his heart. His eyes…" he hissed darkly. "So full of shock, so full of… pain."
Before she even realized what she had done, Rey had pulled the trigger three times. And, three times, Ren had deflected the blasts with his saber. She felt the wild rush of excitement and satisfaction coursing through him, saw his smile broaden under the reddish glow.
Horrified by her own actions and how easily she had given into the anger and the hatred, Rey threw the blaster as far away as she could and let out a scream of frustration.
Please, Master Luke, show me the way to the Force. Don't let me succumb to the Dark Side. Please…
"You assume he cares about your inner conflict," Ren told her as he got even closer.
By the time Rey realized what was happening it was already too late—he had entered her mind. The impulsiveness of her emotions had given him access. She tried to fight it, to close up to him, but for some reason her resolve was traveling fast down the slope of surrender.
Why is it so difficult to tap into the Force? Is it Ren? Is it the canyon?
Rey continued to back away from him until her back hit the wall, and then she was trapped. She watched as he lifted the hand that still held the saber, heard the crackling of its unstable blade above her head as its glimmer lit the area around them. The imposing figure of Kylo Ren stood before her, dwarfing her, encasing her between his tall frame and the jagged wall.
"You are so naïve," he spoke intimately, his face just inches away from her own. There was something hypnotizing about his voice, terrifying and alluring at the same time. It made her heart jump with fear, with something else she couldn't quite identify, much less explain. His dark eyes bore into hers, pinning her to the spot with a power that had nothing to do with the Force.
"Step away from me," she warned with as much fury as she could muster.
He wandered easily inside her head, invading her memories, her thoughts, her feelings... Oddly, his intrusion wasn't as invasive as the last time he'd attained entry. She sensed a twinge of curiosity in his trek as he sailed through the images her mind was unable to conceal.
The vastness of the ocean, Ahch-To, the mystic island, Master Luke…
He dove yet deeper, his probe gentle but intense. Rey held his unwavering stare, unmoving, unable or unwilling to fight him, she wasn't quite sure.
The comforting structure of D'Qar, a sunset at the base, a convoy of droids, a group of pilots, Finn…
Ren swam across the expanse of her consciousness with minimal effort, and for some strange reason she was giving him access, allowing the incursion without so much as a fight.
The Millenium Falcon, Chewbacca, General Leia Organa…
In an instant Kylo Ren pulled back. Rey could no longer feel his presence inside her. She might have imagined the slight shift in her captor's expression as he exited her mind, the spark of light that had flashed across his eyes, the slight clenching of his jaw...
Looking at him now, she was sure she had imagined it.
His scowl had deepened and he was now glaring at her with open scorn.
"You had everything," she quietly accused trying hard to hold back tears. "A family, a home, a mentor… Why did you do it? How could you?"
"You know nothing!" he snarled.
"I know you allowed Ben Solo to turn into a monster!"
A crooked smile gradually formed on Ren's face and she was rattled by the faint, unmistakable shadow of Han Solo shining through him. "A moment ago you didn't think of me as a monster."
Rey blushed, her pulse quickening. Unable to withstand his physical proximity any longer, she pushed him away, practically extricating herself from the tight space between the wall and his much larger frame.
"We need to find a way to get out of here," she said, trying hard to ignore the biting chill of the moon's atmosphere, and how his body had been shielding her from it for the past several moments. "How did we get to the canyon after the transporter got hit?"
"Short range shuttle," Ren replied evenly. "It got nearly destroyed upon landing. We managed to eject before it hit the ground."
Rey could not remember the crash at all. Had Ren made sure she ejected safely? Probably. Like he said before, she was only worth anything to him as long as she was alive. That, at the very least, bought her some time. "Where is it?"
Ren pointed his lightsaber towards the cavernous darkness and made a curt gesture prompting her to follow.
They walked past the dead storm trooper and encountered his partner's inert body just a few yards from the shuttle. The small craft rose up in a heap of metal a short distance down the narrow stretch of canyon. It would have been visible to the eye all along, had there been a bit more light along their path.
It was an easy climb to the top of the shuttle where the entrance to the cockpit was located. The latch that lifted the tempered-glass chamber was unfastened, and Rey found her way into the pilot's seat under the glow of Ren's saber, where she began fiddling with a series of buttons and switches. Standing on the metal casing of the ship, Kylo Ren watched from above, following her every move through the concave window that encased the small space, enough for just four passengers.
The shuttle appeared to be as dead as the two troopers sprawled at the foot of the canyon.
"You've worked on other models similar to this one," Ren spoke with certainty. He had probably seen a glimpse of it during the exploration of her mind, which made her frown with unease. The scrapyard on Jakku was plagued with a fleet of old shuttles similar to the one where she currently sat. She knew them intricately, had pulled them apart piece by piece in exchange for a few portions a week.
"I trust you'll be able to fix it," he presumed.
"In other words, you expect me to perform a miracle," she sneered without bothering to hide her disdain. But, the truth was, their situation was indeed dire.
Rey pulled on a lever and a beam of light shone straight out from under the ship's lower casing, illuminating a section of the canyon. Her face broke into a small, triumphant grin. At least the electrical system was working. The problem had to be mechanical.
"I'm surprised you don't know much about aircraft mechanics," she commented while testing the ignition switches. "The Falcon alone is a remarkable piece of inventive engineering." Ren didn't say anything. She wondered if he was even listening to her rambling, so she continued talking, if anything else, to keep the unnerving silence that rose between them from driving her crazy. "The ship has grown on me, actually. It has personality. Plus, I've managed to maximize its performance without the need to upgrade its original circuits. When the Resistance finds it they'll come looking for me." Her optimism was what had kept her going on Jakku, and she would lean on it for as long as it took for her to get off that frigid rock. "Didn't you ever work on it as a child with your father?"
Rey thought he was going to ignore her question altogether, when he finally said. "You are making a lot of assumptions about Ben Solo's childhood. There is a lot you don't know."
"I know Han loved you and you betrayed him," she said tightly, taking her anger on the knobs that regulated the side thrusters.
There was a noticeable shift in his mood. She felt it—an intense shade of red seeping through the blackness of his soul, a powerful surge of an indefinable emotion, strong and overpowering. Rey didn't quite know how to interpret it, but it scared her. It scared her to the core.
"How serious is the damage?" he demanded, his voice as dark as their surroundings.
"It is probably the catalyzer," she informed trying her best to keep her voice steady. Her trembling fingers ran over the status display, keeping them busy was her only distraction from the torturous grasp of her perception. "If that's the case, we're in trouble. It's not the easiest of things to fix, but I'll try…"
"Try?" Ren scoffed derisively. "Either do it, or don'tdo it."
Rey's fear turned into anger. "Oh, do the almighty Knights of Renfind everything so simple? Is life so black and white, do or die in their dark little world?"
She half expected her teasing to anger him, but instead he seemed… amused? No. Exhaustion and stress had probably diminished her ability to accurately perceive other people's emotions, and yet, the feeling that lingered around her was a mixture of puzzlement and gratifying incredulity, though she couldn't think of one precise word to describe it.
"You do realize that even if I manage to repair it, this thing won't be able to fly us off this rock," she sighed.
"We just need to make it to the top of the canyon," Ren said. "Once out there, we can send out a beacon."
She turned her body to look up at him. His lightsaber had been long extinguished, and all she could make out was the outline of his shadow, a bit more defined as he stood just outside the frame of illumination provided by the ship.
Then, she was struck by an idea.
"You can do it," she blurted out. "You can use the Force to lift the shuttle to the top of the canyon. Once there, I'll send out the beacon."
"That is not an option," he replied at once.
"It's our only chance!"
"I don't trust you."
Rey couldn't really blame him. Once at the top, she would find a way to get as far away from him as humanly possible. Run first, think later.
"I can't do it myself," she reasoned. "My training has not been completed. I went as far as getting a decent sized rock to levitate a few feet off the ground, but an entire ship? I… I'm not ready yet."
Observing her from above, Kylo Ren considered her words for a moment. What he said next, actually surprised her.
"I will train you."
[TBC…]