Two presences hung in the Force, completely in balance, neither wavering before the rush of thoughts that surrounded them. They were part of the current. They were the water, not the fish.

Aware of each thought that passed by them, they exchanged observations that sometimes bordered on jokes, neither noticing the thread between them growing slowly thicker.

"You've done this before," Kylo observed, after a period of silence.

Rey hesitated. "Yes," she eventually admitted. "With..."

"Skywalker."

"Yes. He showed me how to skim people's thoughts. He says..." Rey hesitated, but if there was a chance at all that he might know the truth, she had to try and ask. "He says that all the great Force Users of the past are in here. That they're part of it. And they watch over us."

Kylo was silent, but she could feel something building in him, and her own anxious excitement peaked.

"I wonder if Vader is in here."

Her disappointment was nothing compared to her shock and she turned to him with new focus.

Seemingly sensing her attention he suddenly went stiff, his own surprise bleeding into his usually blank aura. For a second they were both silent and motionless, then he was gone, and she finally felt the ripples he'd mentioned earlier, the sudden lack of his presence sending shockwaves through the current. Rey could still feel him though.

With a breath, she opened her eyes, blinking against the sudden light. Ahead of her, a dark figure stood, emblazed against the sea, staring out as if he could see it too.

Carefully, she stood up, walking closer and stopping just behind his shoulder. The bond between them was rippling with his suppressed emotions.

"I was told," he said eventually, "that there was a darkness inside Vader that he couldn't escape. The same blood is in me. The same... darkness. Luke could see it." There was a bitterness in his tone that chilled the air.

"What happened?" Rey asked quietly.

For a second, it seemed like he wouldn't answer, then he took in a deep breath and a memory that was not her own filled her mind.

A dark room, a green glow. Turning over. A face she knew but younger, and twisted with hate. Dark eyes burning. A lightsaber, raised in anger...

"He sensed my power," Kylo's bitter thoughts overlaid his memory. "As he senses yours. And he feared it."

She felt it all. Felt his sudden fear coupled with anger and a bitter, twisted fury that someone else had been right all along. Someone who had been whispering in his ear for a long time. She felt his instinctive reaction, how easily the Force acted on his will.

His lightsaber leapt into his hand as if it had been waiting for him to call. He rolled, whipping it through the air to defend himself, blocking Luke's down-stroke. The sabers crashed together, sparks flying inches from his face and he reached out again, ripping power from the waiting river, the walls crumbling over them.

The vision ended as quickly as it had begun, but not before Rey felt a sudden flash of anger, egged on by that other presence. Far stronger, however, was the final surge of hurt and anger, of betrayal. Again.

Her cheeks were wet.

"You..." she broke off. She wanted to brush the story aside as lies. Memories could be fabricated, but the emotions that went with them could not be, and there was too much emotion here.

"I'm sorry," she said, reaching out and touching his arm without thinking about it.

He didn't pull away, but sucked in a sudden breath, eyes closing.

Rey didn't know what else to say. The contact only enhanced their bond; she could feel the tug on her wrist where he'd first pulled her out of the current.

Eventually, he moved, but it wasn't to shrug her off. He pulled off one of his ever-present gloves and took her bare hand in his.

Their skin connected in water and flames. Ice and sparks. Steam and fire.

They both stared blindly into the distance, looking at things only they could see.