The campfire was reduced to smoldering embers. A glow on the horizon announced the coming of dawn. The light that could steal all his joy away. The end of a dream.

He held her warm body closely, breathing in the scent of her hair; they were wrapped snugly in both their cloaks. He could feel her heart beating next to his, still the same rhythm. But he was still Kylo Ren, now a man with nowhere to go. He could not return to the resistance, his crimes were too many, too heinous. He could not return to Snoke, the deceiver. And, most of all, he knew he could not let her go.

She awoke to find him staring into her eyes, and she instantly felt the pain and fear in his heart. "Snoke will kill you if he knew," she said referring to all that had just transpired between them.

"Killing from him would be mercy; he would make me pray for death first. You've felt what he can do," he said as he gently brushed his thumb along her jaw. "You belong with me now. Leave with me, let's run away. To hell with this war, with this whole damn galaxy. We need to leave, now, quickly," he said jumping up and beginning to pull on his clothes.

"No," she said, sitting up and wrapping his cloak around her to help compensate for the sudden loss of his warmth.

Then he looked at her as one stricken. "Rey, you can't mean that! We belong together. The force meant for us to be together, you feel it too!"

She could feel the rise in his anger, worst of all, she could sense him feeling betrayed. "We do belong together, but running isn't the answer," she explained as she reached for her torn tunic, and pulling it back on against the morning chill.

"What? Do you want me to go back to the resistance? You above all people know what I have done!" he argued in furry as he laced up his boots and picked his cloak up off the ground.

"Yes, that's exactly what I want!" she nearly shouted as she pulled up her leggings, fastened her belt, and put her light saber holster back on.

"Rey, please," he said, reaching for her and taking her hands in his. "They will not understand. You are the only one who understands. There is no forgiveness for what I've done. I'm a dead man to the First Order and I'm a dead man to the resistance. I don't belong anywhere now. There is nowhere for me…all there is is you!"

"That's not true!" she countered, feeling her own anger rise, as she struggled to close her vest and pull on her cloak.

But before either one of them could say another word a ship roared overhead. She watched as his already pale face grew even paler. "No…no, it can't be!" he yelled in anguish as suddenly he was peeling off his gloves again, examining them over. Next he tore loose his belt, and then he stopped and noticed an almost imperceptibly small button on the inside of the leather. Someone had planted a tracking device on him. Snoke knew he had been betrayed.

He tore loose the small device and chucked it into the trees. "We have to leave, now!" he said as he grabbed her arm and yanked her to follow him back into the forest.

"Stop, what is this? I can't!"

"Rey, listen to me, please. We have no time! We have to get to my command shuttle, there won't be room in your X-Wing for the both of us, and if they catch us they will kill you," he pleaded, his dark eyes begging. She could feel him pressing his fear and urgency into her mind through the bond.

Suddenly she felt them. Like dark wraiths materializing out of the shadows under the trees. The six Knights of Ren.

She had only seen them in images from Kylo Ren's memories, now they stood around them, regarding them through their death-like masks, circling them, trapping them in, their vibroweapons humming with menacing intent.

The larger of the six stepped forward. "Master Kylo Ren, Supreme Leader Snoke was wondering where you wandered off to on such short notice. He was quite displeased to hear that you accepted a top secret mission without notifying him first."

Rey tried to suppress a shiver. It was a similar mechanical voice as the one Kylo spoke with in his mask, but deeper. She could sense it; there was true darkness under that mask, and nothing else.

Trust me.

She heard him plead across the bond.

"Supreme Leader Snoke has tasked me with capturing the Jedi scum and bringing her before him," he said as he painfully tightened his grip on her arm. "As you can see, we were just on our way."

"Ah, your prisoner? Curious that you would let her keep that weapon," he said nodding his helmet towards her. Her saber staff still clearly in its holster.

"I asked him to take me," she interjected. "There is darkness in me, surly you can feel it? Luke Skywalker has pushed me away. Where else would I go?"

She could sense the darkside of the force in all of them, most of all in the big one who was addressing them, but she also sensed that they were not as strong in the force as she or Kylo. She hoped they were not able to sense the deception.

"Well then, in that case. You will not mind us taking her off your hands. The Supreme Leader gave us very specific orders that whether she was in your custody or not, we were to either capture her or kill her. If she wants to go peacefully, then this shouldn't be a concern for you."

Kylo pulled her behind him, a useless gesture seeing as they were surrounded. "And why should I surrender my prize to you?" he demanded, and there was no mistaking the rage and panic that she could feel growing within him.

"I sense deception in you, Master Ren, and so does our glorious leader. He feels that your judgment when it comes to the matter of this girl is…compromised. Now, you will hand her over to me. I will take her to our leader, and the other Knights shall be returning with you on your shuttle."

Kylo seethed with hatred. This was Aldo Ren, the older knight he had had to defeat in combat to rise to the position of Master of the Knights of Ren. Aldo had been the master before him, and he had hated Kylo furiously ever since, always grasping for any attempt to rise in Snoke's favor and resume his place as Master. None of the Knights of Ren were exactly on good terms with the other. They only ever all assembled as one at Snoke's direct order. The fact that Snoke had summoned all six of the Knights of Ren at once, for the first time in over a decade, warned Kylo that Snoke was no longer gambling on his loyalty. He had already been judged as a traitor, and the sentence would be worse than death.

"We can do this the easy way, or the hard way," Aldo Ren threatened.

"Good," he said cocking an eyebrow. "I like it hard."

His snapping cross-guarded saber thrummed to life and before Rey could even grasp it all, he had charged Aldo Ren.

She wasted no time switching on her own saber staff, and managed to get her weapon up before two of the other Knights of Ren came down upon her with their vibroweapons. One was Cend Ren, who wielded a vibroax, and was probably the tallest of the six Knights of Ren, but not taller than Kylo. The other was Fresza Ren, she was shorter even than Rey, but fast as lightning and malicious as she swung her vibropike.

Aldo Ren was of average height, but very muscular and broad, his weapon was a vibro long sword.

The other three knights were Ereus Ren, who was fat and carried a vibro short sword, Hiji Ren, who wielded vibro double daggers, and Nezgul Ren, another female knight who was almost as tall as Cend Ren, and who wielded a vibro double-blade. These three immediately beset upon Kylo as they saw Aldo Ren struggle to hold him off.

Kylo fought with the rage of a berserker, not for his life, but for hers. He would see every last one of their heads severed from their shoulders before he would let a single one of them take her from him. Even with four against one, they were no match for his darkside fueled attacks. He had always dreamed of fighting with Rey by his side, but he had never imagined that they would be pitted against his own Knights of Ren.

Rey was holding her own against her two opponents, but she was worried for Kylo, she could feel him beginning to tire as he rained blows upon the other knights. They stood back-to-back now, blocking attacks from all sides. They could feel each others adrenaline through the bond.

Hiji Ren, sensing Rey's distraction with her two foes, and Kylo's endurance beginning to waver, pulled back from where he helped battle against the errant knight, leaving him to the other three, and hurled a poison tipped dagger towards Rey. She felt it coming through the force, but she was locked saber to vibropike against Fresza Ren, and also pivoting to dodge a swing from Cend Ren's vibroax. There were just too many of them!

But Kylo sensed her danger in that moment, and suddenly his own opponents didn't matter anymore, the only thing that mattered was stopping that dagger, and so he threw himself in front of the blade. With the last burst of energy he could muster as it pierced though his stomach, he released the force with such magnitude that he blew back all the other knights, and even Rey.

She hit the ground and rolled herself upright, just in time to look up and see him lying on the ground. His hand ripping out the dagger as blood spurted through his fingers. "Get to the X-Wing, Rey. Run! Run, don't look back!" he shouted as he struggled to rise. But the other knights were getting back up as well.

"Ben!" she screamed, getting up to rush for him, but he outstretched one bloody gloved hand and held her back with the force.

"I'll be okay," he lied. "They won't kill me yet. Go!" he commanded again, shoving her back with what little of the force he could still muster as he tried to pull himself to his knees.

She looked at him in despair as tears streamed down her cheeks. He was dying before her eyes, she could feel it. Her only hope was in knowing that what he said earlier about them wanting him alive was still true.

Suddenly she dodged another thrown knife. She seemed to watch everything in slow motion as he swung back with his saber, taking the leg off Nezgul Ren in his fury. She screamed horribly as she dropped and her blood sprayed the forest around her. She watched as Fresza Ren shot a dart from a small gun into his chest, as he struggled to stand. She knew now that they were trying to take him alive.

"Ben, I'm coming back for you!" she shouted as she turned and ran, dodging the swing of Ereus Ren's sword as he barreled after her, but she was faster and easily outran him.

She ran and she ran, as the tears poured down her face. She didn't look back, she couldn't, she sensed two of them were still chasing her. She couldn't let his sacrifice be for nothing, she had to be able to come back for him.

"R2, wake up, hurry!" she called through the comlink that she had worn on her belt. "Start the Grey Wolf, now!" she barked to the droid who immediately jumped out of low-power mode and started loading himself into the ship.

She focused every ounce of power that she could muster with the force and pushed with all her might against her two pursuers. One flew back and hit a tree and was knocked cold. The other was pushed back enough to give her just enough time to jump into her X-Wing and pull up before he could reach her. She turned the Grey Wolf and fired energy blasts into the trees, but she was so exhausted she couldn't focus on a target and she knew she had to leave before their own ship would try to pursue her and track her back to the resistance. She couldn't afford to be followed.

She continued to cry bitterly as she pulled the ship up out of Dantooin's atmosphere. She searched for him in the bond.

Ben?

She called, but he did not hear her. She could still feel life in him, but it was weak, so terrifyingly weak.

If you can hear me, Ben. I swear I'm coming back for you. I promise!

A note from your humble author: Honeymoon is over kids. You didn't think I was going to let them happily ever after that easy, did you?

I know I'm going to have a blast writing the next chapter or two MWAHAHAHA

I want to thank everyone for all the overwhelming support and great feedback. Big thanks to all the new followers! I see a lot of you enjoyed the last chapter, and I'm so glad :) I really appreciate every review that is left for this story. They make me so happy and really help motivate me, so I really hope you guys keep the them coming.