A presence hung in the Force, completely in control, never wavering in the rush of other souls racing past, tugging with incessant thoughts and whispers. The presence belonged to a man, or perhaps a boy, who wasn't nearly as steady as his control would suggest.

Kylo felt everything and nothing. He was aware of every tendril of thought passing him, but he dismissed them all. They weren't important, weren't the one he was searching for.

Here, in the current, it was so much easier to sense the bond to the girl. It practically glowed. Outside, he could almost forget about her. Almost. No chance of that here though. In this phantom realm, where nothing could be seen, it blazed like his saber before his eyes, shifting constantly from red through purple and back again, thickening and coiling.

His body sat up straighter, wiping his search from his mind just as he located her presence on the outer reaches of his perception. Her approach was steady but sent ripples through the current. As each thought tried to tug her away, she pushed it aside forcefully, sending a small shockwave out. She had no discipline, no sense of how to move as part of the current, rather than barging through it. Skywalker was truly being neglectful in her training.

Kylo watched as she hung a little way back, perhaps thinking him unaware of her or maybe just considering what to do. With a patience he never had in the real world, he waited for her to decide on her next move.

Ever so softly, he examined her presence, probing around the edges, not trying to gain access to her thoughts, but merely examining the shape of them. The outer edge pulsed, a soft breathing like a constantly changing cloud but underneath he could feel the iron hard shield. He'd encountered it before, when he'd tried to break into her mind to find the map to Skywalker. How things might have changed if he'd succeeded. Too late to speculate.

In one sudden rush of movement, she was beside him, and though he'd been waiting for it (not hoping, of course, but waiting), he still flinched a little.

For a moment, they simply existed. Each was aware of the other's attention on them, but neither spoke. Kylo could sense her conflict, seeping through the shield around her inner thoughts.

"You have no stealth," he commented, breaking the silence.

A few others' thoughts turned towards them at his words, but he pushed them out with ease.

Her emotions flared instantly, anger rippling across her aura. "What's that supposed to mean?" she shot at him.

He hesitated, letting the emotion fade before he replied.

"It means anyone with a shred of sensitivity will be able to feel you in the current," he explained. "You send ripples in every direction. You'll never be able to find someone, or approach them without their knowledge."

There was a moment's pause that seemed to stretch on for a long time.

"What do you mean?" she asked eventually.

There was another long pause as they both realised the roles they had fallen into. Offer made, offer accepted, in actions if not in words.

"You push through everything," Kylo explained.

"What else am I supposed to do?" the girl asked him. "It stops them pulling me away."

"It also sends ripples," he countered. "Don't try and stop them catching you, just make sure you're more anchored than their attempts to pull you away."

"But there's nothing to anchor myself to!" she pointed out.

"Everything is an anchor. Anchor yourself to your body, your memories, yourself, and you can't be swept away. Then let everything else flow over you, past you."

Her confusion was palpable.

"Like this," he said, without only the faintest hint of a sigh.

Drifting away from her, he hung, just as he had before she had arrived. Motionless and calm, a stone in rushing water.

For an instance, Rey's attention was captured by an errant through rushing past, and when she looked back, for a second she couldn't locate him in the stream. It was with a slight smugness that he shifted, drawing her attention back as he moved through the water. Not a single one of the people whose thoughts he touched noticed his presence.

In the real world, he was a dark giant, leaving cowering figures in his wake. Here, he was a ghost, slipping unnoticed through the world, and the minds of its inhabitants.

"It's not about holding yourself apart from them," he said softly, the words only just strong enough to reach her. "It's about being a part of them. Being one with them."

We are all one within the Force, Luke's phrase resonated through her. Was this what he had meant?

Kylo was back in front of her in seconds, and she wiped the thought of her absent teacher from her thoughts. If he hadn't been avoiding her, she wouldn't have come here at all. Or so she told herself.

"Being a part of them," Rey repeated quietly to herself.

Seemingly forgetting about Kylo, she contemplated the current around her. It was relatively shallow here but still, she hesitated, her aura tinged with fear.

"Let go," Kylo urged her gently.

"I can't," she said. "I'll lose myself."

"You won't, I've got you."

Still, she hesitated.

"I caught you before. I can do it again," he reminded her.

Instead of calming, the fear around her intensified, and he cursed silently. Why had he reminded her of that? She'd nearly been lost. Hardly a reassuring memory.

But even as he tried to think of something else to say, she surprised him again.

The fear was gone, not eradicated perhaps, but shut down behind that iron will, replaced by determination. Her presence wavered slightly, then softened in an indescribable way. Kylo recognised the change at once. She was no longer disrupting the flow, but slipping through it, under it. He could sense the thoughts rushing past her, but they weren't pushed aside anymore. With a shudder, as if the process had cost her, she surfaced again, solidifying in a rush, flinging out tendrils to steady herself.

"Not a bad start," Kylo acknowledged, though in reality, he was impressed. She'd managed that faster than he'd expected. "This is the basis for tracking people. The key is not to let them know you're watching. People can't resist, can't hide, if they don't know you're coming." It was also the basis for breaking into someone's mind, but he didn't think she needed to know that.

"You need to be able to move through the current as well. Try to approach me without me noticing."

"But you know I'm coming."

"That shouldn't matter," he said. "There are very few people who would be able to sense you coming like this." After his fruitless searching, Kylo was starting to think Skywalker might be one of them. Snoke definitely could. He may not have a lightsaber, but his mastery over the Force current was unparalleled.

"Okay," the girl said slowly. The word was laced with uncertainty, but she retreated beyond his direct perception anyway.

Knowing she would hesitate and dawdle for a few moments, Kylo turned his attention away, sensing others moving past. A group of children playing with a ball, one of them so much strong than the others. That one would be worth watching.

She came faster than he expected, but without any of the subtlety he'd hoped for. It was like watching the fish in the shallows of the lake close to where he'd grown up. They were under the water, but that didn't stop him seeing them. She was a fish. She should have been the water.

Slipping out of her path was too easy.

Expecting to catch him, she overshot and went tumbling past, quickly throwing out tendrils to steady herself as she turned back.

He drifted over to her.

"You felt me coming," she said. It wasn't a question

"Only, a lot," he said. "You're still moving through it, not with it."

"And fish?"

"What?"

"You thought something about fish."

Kylo clamped down hard on his thoughts. She shouldn't have been able to see that. "When you think about this place, what do you call it?" he asked her, turning the attention away from himself.

"A current," she said, after a moment's pause.

"Exactly. A current. A river. Like water. But it's made up of people, their thoughts. The people are the water. You need to be the water too."

"Not a fish."

"Exactly," Kylo confirmed, with a flash of amusement.

She was quiet for a few moments, considering.

"Watch," he said. Again he drew away from her, moving in fast circles. It was a mental effort not to become part of the current now, after so much practice, but he held himself apart with an effort. Everywhere he moved, he left ripples. Once he was sure she was watching, he relaxed, slipping back to become one with the river.

She moved closer, following his movement.

"Do it again," she said, her focus on his so acute it was like he could see her eyes boring into him.

Regardless, he obliged, pulling out of the flow then gliding back into it. This time, she followed him, falling into place with only the barest sign of her presence, not just moving in the current, or riding along with it. She was part of it, as he was. It wasn't a perfect transition — she still held back a little — but it was progress.

"Now what?" she asked eagerly, sensing her own success.

"Keep up," he said and was gone.

She was after him in seconds, bulling through the current again.

"Not a fish," he reminded her, shaking his head silently.

She quickly realised her mistake, correcting it to skim along with him, barely discernable from the current around them. He could still feel her, the thread connecting them ever-present.

"This is so fast!" she said, then pulled up a little, concerned. "But won't we leave our bodies behind?"

"There's no space here. You can't move from where you started. You're just as close to your body as when you first entered."

"But..."

"Don't think about it too much," Kylo advised. "Gives me a headache. Come on."

He sped up again. If there was no space though, how could there be speed? And how could her presence be out of his reach? Surely if there was a distance between them, there was distance in all directions, so he should be able to move beyond the limits...

Shaking his head, he pushed aside the mystery he'd thought over a hundred times before.

"Watch," he said, then slipped from the current into the first thoughts he found.

A gambler, ready to place a bet. It was the end of the night, his last chip. Black or red?

'Black,' Kylo urged silently, and the gambler did as he suggested. Kylo slipped out before he saw the outcome of the bet.

"Most people who are Force-sensitive will be able to tell if they're being influenced," he told the girl as he dissipated back into the current, "but anyone will feel something wrong if you bull into their heads. You need to be there without them knowing about you. Get in without even intending to."

"Show me again," she instructed.

He slipped into a different mind.

A child, running, chasing. Without fear. A ridiculous game, without purpose.

He was about to retreat when one of the other children in the group suddenly looked around at him, a wide grin on their face.

Withdrawing, he just caught the waft of her presence leaving the other child but instead of returning to his side, she dove into another of the group, running with them.

"Come on!" she laughed and was gone.

Bewildered, he followed, watching her flit from one little life to another, laughing as she directed their steps, playing the ball between their feet.

"What's the point of this training?" Kylo asked, as she transitioned to another child.

"Training?" she scoffed. "Not everything has to be for training. This is just for fun?" She was gone again.

"Fun?" Kylo echoed. He remembered watching fish in a lake, a still board in the evening with no one on the other side, groups of children who looked at him and drew back, whispered his name behind their hands.

He remembered running down twilit streets, chasing a tiny slip of a girl, fleeing from guards.

Cautiously, he slipped back into one of the children, feeling their emotions. Heart pumping, blood racing, whoops of joy. Fun? He watched the girl jumping between them. Why not? Giving himself over, he joined her, giving himself over to the game and forgetting everything else just for a moment. He let go.

.

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A/N: Hope you enjoyed! I had lots of fun writing this chapter, which was much longer than I expected. Not sure how long the next one will be, but this one surprised me, so will have to see.
Feel like I'm struggling with sentence starts, writing in 3rd person for the first time. I also know I switched POV for a couple of paragraphs in here, but hey ho.
Let me know what you thought!