Fresza Ren answered the urgent holovid call from Rando Calrissian.

"Has the resistance discovered you?" she asked.

"No, but the general has sent someone to investigate the freighters and my staff. It's not Luke Skywalker as we anticipated."

"Who is it?"

"His young female apprentice, she's here alone. Do you know of her?"

"You are certain she is alone?" she asked ignoring his question. Fresza Ren knew exactly who Rey was, she had fought her before. The Knights of Ren, having no knowledge of the concept of Grey Jedi, continued to assume that Rey was Luke Skywalker's padawan, but recent encounters showed them that she was far above the skill level of any student. To them, she was a Jedi, and just as dangerous as Luke Skywalker.

Fresza also knew that Rey was behind the abduction of Kylo Ren from the Finalizer, and that the resistance had helped her. The Supreme Leader had assured the Knights of Ren that Kylo Ren was still alive, and that he wanted his capture at any cost. He also wanted the female, but if she could not be taken alive, he would have her dead.

"Yes, she's alone. She has not discovered me, and thanks to the deception masking you've taught me, I have her complete trust. I know that she would be very valuable to the First Order. I could drug her and capture her alive, or if you prefer, I can poison her, and rid you of her entirely, but first you must meet my price," he demanded.

"Go on."

"I will give you the Jedi woman Rey in exchange for my father. I believe taking one of the resistance's Jedi would be far more devastating to them than the loss of a few supply freighters."

He had a big bargaining chip, indeed, but it wasn't just his father that he would be gaining. If he received his father he would have no reason to continue to let the First Order confiscate or destroy the resistance's supply chain. The First Order placed no intrinsic value on the life of Lando Calrissian, this would be a trade of a powerful Jedi warrior, for the right to continue his operation of supporting the resistance scum.

Fresza Ren was not without her ambitions, a power vacuum had taken place amongst the Knights of Ren since Kylo Ren turned traitor and the Supreme Leader had not yet chosen a new commander from his remaining knights. She suspected treachery, as was her nature, but she knew Rando Calrissian would do anything for the life of his father, and the Jedi female would be a far better prize in the eyes of her master than a blockade.

"Very well then, you have a deal. Bring her to me alive and I will exchange her life for your fathers'. Try anything…at all! And I will kill him, and you. Do I make myself clear?"

"I understand. When?"

"Tomorrow," she replied and closed the communication.

Rando ran his hands nervously over his face and swiveled his chair to face Rey who had been sitting where she would not been seen through the holovid.

"I hope this plan works," he said, and she could sense the panic and worry pouring from him.

"We can do this," she said as she tried to assure him. "Do you have it?"

She watched as Rando reached into his desk and handed her a small wooden box. When she opened the box she saw the orange vial of liquid nestled inside.

"Where's Ben?" he asked.

"Sulking. He's not entirely a fan of this idea. He thinks I'm putting myself too close to danger."

"He's still going to help, right? We can't make this happen without him!"

"Don't worry, he's in. He's just worried about me."

She watched as a sad and knowing sort of look passed over Rando's face. "You two are in love with each other aren't you?"

She had been waiting for a good time to tell Rando the truth. She had not liked leaving things so open to interpretation before, it felt dishonest. She liked Rando, she wanted to be his friend. She did not want to hurt him. Like her, he had lost his mother to the Knights of Ren. She sensed his pain and the fear he was experiencing knowing that his father was in danger. She didn't share a bond with him the way she did with Ben, but she understood him.

"Yes, I love him," she confessed, as much to Rando as to herself. She had never dared to accept it before, but when she had thought Ben had been so angry as to leave her, in that moment of panic, she knew that she could not live without him.

Rando felt his heart shatter. He hadn't known Rey for very long, but she had made a lasting impression on him. When he first met her, he was attracted to her beauty, but also the fierce strength that seemed to be radiating from her. Perhaps it was the force in him that sensed the power in her, but he had never felt anything like it. After she had told him about herself, about how she had been abandoned and lost her parents to the Knights of Ren, he had felt that perhaps it was destiny; someone who knew his pain and understood his loss. But it had become devastatingly apparent to him after they had gone over their plan - the way she and Ben Solo looked at each other.

"I'm not going to lie; I've grown rather fond of you, Rey. I've never met anyone like you. And I don't just let go of things easy. I'm not a quitter."

"Rando…"

"Don't worry. I won't interfere, but I will wait for you."

Rey couldn't help but feel a mixture of pity, but also anger that he would insinuate that her and Ben were just a temporary arrangement.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled, as she got up and left his office.

Rey made her way towards Ben's room. Just as she was about to knock the door flew open. He had sensed her approaching.

"Just like your mom," she commented with a shy smile.

He grabbed her arm and pulled her into his room, closing the door after them and nearly crushed her to him in his embrace.

"Rey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to push you away yesterday," he blurted before she even had time to collect herself.

"Ben, don't. I came here to apologize to you. You were right about Rando, and I doubted you. I should have trusted you, I'm so sorry," she apologized as she reached up to kiss his full lips.

He sighed and surrendered to her sweet mouth. The last night had been agony to him and he wanted to wash it all away. Gently he pulled back from their kiss to gaze into her warm hazel eyes.

"Rey, you know I can't lie to you right?"

She nodded, but he could sense she didn't really understand his meaning.

"I mean I literally can't mask deceptions from you because of our bond. A darkside user with knowledge of that skill can lie to just about any other force user, but I can't with you. I wanted you to know because it's important to me that you know you can trust me."

"Ben, I do trust you. I love you!"

Her words were like water to a desert parched soul. Never in his life could he have believed that anyone could ever truly love someone as damned as he was, but he felt the truth in her words.

She could feel his heart pounding fiercely next to her own. She savored the warmth of his trembling hand as he reached to caress her face. She watched as his eyes grew moist, and for just one moment she was afraid that perhaps he didn't feel the same, but he sensed that split second of doubt within her and silenced it at once.

"Rey, do you really love me?" he dared to ask, afraid again that he walked in a dream, afraid that everything would end if he only blinked his eyes. She was more than he deserved, but he couldn't deny that he wanted her just the same.

"Yes, I really do love you," she offered again, sensing fear and doubt mixing with his exhilarated joy. "I can't lie to you either."

"Rey, my beautiful Rey, I love you. I love you so much, more than anything," he confessed as he seized her lips in another passionate kiss. Their connection through the bond seemed to thrum with energy and power.

He suddenly scooped her up into his arms and carried her to his bed. Losing just that one night inside of her had felt like losing a lifetime. He needed to feel connected to her in every way, to possess her in every way.

Her need was as desperate as his own and together they began to tear off each other's clothes. She couldn't help but smile as she noted how he removed her clothes without ripping them, but that the mere seconds lost, frustrated him. At last free of every layer that could come between them, they wasted no time. She let out a blissful cry as he eagerly thrust his cock inside of her.

He growled in satisfaction as he claimed her. "Ugh, Rey, I love you," he breathed in her ear as he mercilessly hammered into her, she was already wet and ready. He could feel everything she could feel through the bond and it was driving him mad. "Tell me that you belong to me…tell me," he pleaded as he pulled up one of her thighs so that he could reach even deeper inside of her.

She could barely think straight as she felt his hard body bearing down against her own, his hands squeezing almost enough to bruise, but feeling delicious at the same time. All she could do was hang onto his strong shoulders and bite her lip as she felt the heat building within her core. "Ben, yes, I love you. I belong to you, please," she begged, and he nearly drowned her in his kiss as he continued to move inside of her.

She could barely catch her breath, the room seemed to be spinning, and suddenly she felt the powerful quake of her climax as her nails raked down his back.

He felt the delicious burn as she tore into his skin, and the exquisite tidal wave of her release, and he drove into her faster until with a feral cry of satisfaction, he came.

They lay panting and spent in each other's arms.

She was his. He had loved her from the first moment he met her, he knew it even though, in the beginning, he tried so hard to deny the truth. The force made no mistakes, she was meant to belong to him. He had always felt it. She was meant to save his soul. He could not lose her.

"I wish there was a better way," he finally said, referring to their plan against Fresza Ren.

"I'll be okay, Ben. I trust you."

Rando Calrissian stood at the window of his skyscraper and watched the horizon as the First Order shuttle approached. He slipped a small blaster inside of his vest pocket, just in case. Beside him lay Rey, unconscious in a transport pod. She had taken a powerful drug that would prove to Fresza Ren that she was of no threat, but the dosage was so precise that she would awaken within the half hour.

He gazed at her as she lay in repose. The timing would have to be perfect or the plan would fail. He hoped that he could count on Ben Solo.

He personally guided the hovering transport pod down in the lift and into the meeting hall, where several of his guards were waiting to stand with him during the exchange.

Fresza Ren entered the main hall, trailed by a dozen stormtrooers who held their blasters at the ready. Beside her, held onto by a stormtrooper on each side, walked Lando Calrissian. He looked tired, and Rando could see that they had not been treating him kindly, but he was alive, and that was all that mattered. He looked into his father's eyes and sensed his fear and anguish. He knew his father was disappointed in him for making this trade; his disapproval was all over his face.

"Governor Rando Calrissian, as you can see I have your father, before we make the exchange I demand to inspect the transport pod," stated Fresza Ren.

Rando simply waved his hand towards Rey's pod in a gesture welcoming the Knight of Ren to come forward if she pleased.

"Son, please! That Jedi is more important than I am!" begged Lando, who was promptly silenced when the stormtrooper to his left slammed into his stomach with the butt of his blaster.

Rando tried his best to suppress his rage at his father's mistreatment.

Fresza Ren opened the pod and checked it for weapons, of which there were none. She reached towards Rey's face and used her force abilities to sense the state of Rey's mind.

Rando could feel a bead of sweat drip down the side of his face, he managed to brush it away before Fresza Ren noticed him, but Lando noticed, and suddenly Rando could see a look of knowing in his father's face.

Rando tried to suppress the panic within him, he knew he could mask his deceptions against the Knight of Ren, but if she sensed what his father now knew, it could be their undoing. He had never prayed to the force before, but in that moment he prayed that she would pay Lando no more notice now that she had what she wanted.

Once Fresza was certain that Rey was truly drugged, and not just pretending or in a forced trance of any kind, she closed the pod lid and turned back to Rando.

"You've done well, Rando Calrissian," she spoke after an uncomfortable silence, and with a wave of her hand the two stormtroopers pushed Lando to the ground before his son. Lando stayed still with his eyes to the floor, now trying not to draw attention to himself.

Four troopers came forward and surrounded Rey's pod and began leading it out of the building.

Ben watched and waited until Fresza Ren and her dozen troopers had entered Rando's skyscraper, now was his time to attack. He used his com-link to signal to Lobot to cut all communication transmission in the parameter, which would prevent any of the stormtroopers waiting outside the building and around the shuttle from warning Fresza Ren that she had walked into a trap.

Rando had offered Ben several of his personal guards to join him in his attack, but he had refused, they would only get in his way.

Ben charged straight for the waiting formation of stormtroopers. They didn't recognize who he was, if they had known he was Kylo Ren, they would have known that the angel of death had come for them. When they finally opened fire, he deflected their blaster bolts with his crackling red saber, deflecting many of their shots back into their own numbers.

He slashed them down without mercy as their screams filled the air. Several futilely tried calling to Fresza to warn her that they were under attack, but were met with only static over their com-links just before the saber of their enemy cut them down.

A saber cauterizes most wounds but the way he was hacking off heads and limbs, soon the landing area was pooling with blood and he found himself smeared with gore.

Several troopers with vibromaces made one last valiant attempt to stop him, but even they could not hold back the fury he unleashed on them.

As Fresza Ren walked outside she was met with the utter devastation of all her troops, but she could see no attackers. She tightened her grip on her vibropike and prepared to fight.

Just then she noticed someone walking slowly down the ramp of her own shuttle. When he stepped from beneath the shuttle and into the light, she knew who it was – Kylo Ren. His crackling red cross-guarded lightsaber and the overwhelming presence of his force signature were unmistakable.

"Kylo Ren! Traitor!" she shouted as he continued to stalk closer to where she and the remainder of her troopers waited. "Halt! Or your woman dies!" she commanded as she twirled her vibropike in the air and held its tip above the glass of Rey's transport pod. She would have no trouble piercing straight through the pod and Rey.

Ben was in a berserker's fury. Once again he had known the taste of blood, and it returned the old familiar thrill of battle, of power, but this time something was different. Before he had always killed by the order of Supreme Leader Snoke, because he had been made to believe that power was the key to complete his grandfather's legacy, but now, he fought for her. When he watched Fresza Ren threaten his beloved's life, it was as if something inside him snapped, and he could feel the force flow through him with greater power than he had ever known before. He lashed out using this new raw power with all his might, and attacked straight into the mind of Fresza Ren.

She dropped her pike and let out a bloodcurdling scream as she grabbed the sides of her helmet. Her scream rent the air and suddenly her head exploded and splattered her troopers, who stood shocked and mortified as they watched her body crumple to the ground. With another mighty push of his power, he snapped every neck of the remaining troopers at once and watched as they all toppled over as if a breeze had merely knocked over grass in a field.

Once every enemy was eliminated, then, and only then, did the darkness pass over him and he rushed to her side. He ripped open the lid of the transport pod and pulled out Rey's still limp body. She was barely starting to come around, the drug wearing off.

She felt dizzy, and at first she wasn't certain who had grabbed her, until she felt his lips press into hers, and she thought she felt the taste of blood.

"Ben…are you okay?" she asked weakly.

"I'm fine. They're gone now, they're all gone. You're safe," he promised as he cradled her in his arms.

A note from your humble author: Looks like someone just took another walk on the darkside :D Two knights down, four more to go MWAHAHAHA

Thanks to all my lovely readers, and big thanks to everyone leaving me feedback on the story so far. I hope you guys like it, and if you do, please let me know how I'm doing! Your reviews keep my inspired!