A/N: Chapter contains mature themes


Chapter 9


Rey fell to the ground at the force of Luke's strike against her training Lightsaber and it dropped out of her hands, hitting the ground with a piercing squeal.

'Get up, Rey.'

Her master's voice was stern and Rey pushed herself up, grabbing for the Lightsaber and taking a defensive stance across from her master. He gestured once more to the modified seeker droid and it started up; shooting blaster bolts at them again, which Rey had to defend against whilst simultaneously defending against Luke's strikes. A bolt grazed her shoulder and she stuttered forward, gritting through the pain and protecting herself from another seemingly deadly strike from Luke.

It had been two days of this and to Rey it felt like she had not stopped. Though the combat had her physically exhausted, the Alter training halted her sleep. Her mind was so overrun with using the Force to manipulate the world around her, that all she could do was meditate once the day was through. It meant she had become much like a zombie and her thoughts of Kylo had reduced themselves to merely feeling glimpses of his emotions in her mind. She yearned for answers in her heart, but her mind was far too preoccupied.

Rey pushed her hand out, slowing a bolt with the Force so that she could move out of the way.

'You need to overpower me, Rey. Utilise the techniques you memorised, what works best against my stance.' Luke pushed, breathing heavily.

Rey searched her mind, blocking another blaster bolt with her blade and then one of Luke's slashes. She parried another of his strikes and then another bolt fired at her and she changed the angle of her Lightsaber, redirecting the bolt at Luke. It almost hit him in the chest, but he stopped it with the Force and a smile broke across his face.

'Exactly. Using the environment against your opponent is a good technique. It is just as much of an ally to you as having the high ground or known terrain.' Luke said, resetting his offensive stance.

Rey nodded and smiled weakly. 'Yes Master.' She took her defensive stance up again; her Lightsaber held just behind her facing her attacker and her free hand held out in front of her.

XxX

The combat training grew tougher and once Luke had asked Rey to combine the elements of the first three forms together along with the Alter training, the lack of sleep drove Rey to confusion. The endurance itself was part of her training, but she wished for sleep in every spare moment.

On the seventh day of Force training and after several hours of combat training, Luke had her try a new Alter ability. She had easily been able to showcase her skills in telekinesis and mind tricks so Luke wanted to see how she would fare with Tutaminis – Force absorb. He said it was a vital skill that would help her against blaster bolts, Lightsabers and even Force lightning; which he hoped she would not come up against.

Rey had thought it was simple enough, all she had to do was concentrate on the energy given off by a blaster bolt or Luke's Lightsaber and so beginning the practice seemed easy, it was just maintaining it that she found difficult.

They had a few rounds of Luke's seeker droid shooting low-energy bolts at Rey in quick succession and she could either dodge them, deflect them or try and absorb their energy. She held a blaster bolt for several seconds before dropping her hands, it blowing past her and carving a hole in a nearby rock.

'Try again, but concentrate on diffusing the energy within you,' Luke said.

Rey nodded and concentrated on channelling the power of the bolt, using all the energy she could muster and she blinked heavily, feeling suddenly immensely weak. Her arms grew weighted and heavy and as another bolt came towards her, it seemed to have slowed down immensely.

She blinked again and then after closing her eyes for a brief second longer, she opened them to see her surroundings had changed and was no longer on the rocky terrain of Ahch-To.

Rey was confused. There was white everywhere; blinding and painful. Every sense just felt bleached, nothing corporeal, nothing to indicate where she was and what she was doing. Even the Force had left her and Rey wanted to scream as she felt emptiness.

Then she was awake and the sun licked at the back of her neck and she had to squint as her eyes opened to the lower dunes of Jakku, not far from Niima Outpost. She got up from lying on her front and dusted the sand off, noting that she was in her old clothing. Her staff was off to her side and she looked at it with great confusion.

Rey picked up her staff and considered herself for a moment before deciding to make the slow trudge to the junkyard, noting that it remained how it was before she had left; before the First Order had destroyed much of it chasing after herself, Finn and BB-8. Recollecting the memory seemed to cause her pain, however and her head ached as she walked beneath the gate like entrance.

There were the usual looks as she walked through. Looks of hunger; both for food and for darkness and violence. Unkar Plutt was in his booth giving out rations whilst his men trudged around the small camp, giving menacing looks to all.

'Have you come back empty handed?'

Rey glanced towards the very familiar voice and Unkar was glaring at her. She had no response.

'You owe us for the destruction you caused and the ship you stole. You must pay for what you've done and then we can send you on your merry way to the First Order.' He leant forward in the booth, knocking several rations onto the floor which were swiftly grabbed by a Rodian.

Her heart felt like it stopped as a lump lodged itself in Rey's throat. She looked around and everyone was staring at her, most expressions calling for her blood and she was confused. How did she get to Jakku? How had they already rebuilt it all? Her mind came up with questions quicker than she could answer them and before she could reply, there was a hand around her wrist, locking it behind her back.

Rey struggled for a moment before thinking back to her training and reigning her fear into something controllable; into action.

She flung her head back next, hoping to injure the person holding her arm and once she was loose, she jumped back, barely avoiding the attacks of Unkar's men as well as others in the camp. She fought with her staff, but there seemed to be a never ending supply of fighters and then she heard the safety on several blasters.

Just as they were set off, she made a run and a jump, sliding across the cleaning table – knocking several pieces of scrap onto the ground – and hiding behind it.

If she had, had a Lightsaber she could have done something, but the Force was lost to her here and her staff couldn't protect her from blaster bolts.

Unkar's goons descended on her so Rey knew she had to move. She counted down from five and then burst out, hitting as many as she could with her staff, trying not to let the pain of bolts grazing her skin stop her as she moved as fast as she could, using what was left of her senses to avoid being hit full on.

'You will not win this fight, girl,' Unkar's voice sounded. He was laughing.

She lashed out, hitting an Abednedo across the face with her staff and then she felt the head of a gun pressed against her spine and she froze. Two others came and locked her arms in place and Unkar gestured as they led her away toward Unkar's shanty hut behind the booth, where he conducted his private business.

They walked her through to the back, chaining her arms behind her back with binders and roughly pushing her through the hut and then out into the back area.

It wasn't particularly private; it had a small perimeter electric fence, but you could see what remained of Niima Outpost and the vast desert of Jakku behind it. The sun was steadily sinking and Rey tried to gauge her surroundings, looking for a means of escape.

As they tied her to a post beside the backdoor, Rey saw darkness descend on her, knowing one of them had hit her with the butt of their blaster.

When Rey woke up again, she could feel her injuries. What felt like a bruised rib, a gash against her cheek; the blood now dried up and flaking from her skin and then the dull ache in the back of her skull.

Night had fallen and she shivered. It wasn't often she was out at night in Jakku and didn't have the warmth of her AT-AT to keep the heat in. She couldn't even wrap her arms around her, which had become numb from being behind her for so long.

She looked around feeling uneasy. How did she get here and why couldn't she use the Force? Then the biggest question of how would she get out?

Rey tried to figure out a way to slip from the binders but then paused hearing footsteps walk through the hut and then the door was opened. It was Unkar Plutt.

'You did not bring my recompense with you? Where is my ship?' he questioned. His skin was orange with anger and his fat hands grabbed her tightly by her shoulder.

'I don't know what you're talking about,' she responded.

He pulled on her arm then, forcing an extra strain in her shoulders and she winced.

'I will get my money in an alternative manner, then.'

He turned away and she watched his large frame go back through the door. She sighed and closed her eyes. Without access to the Force or simply some kind of tool or weapon, Rey feared she would be stuck here, subject to what she could only guess would be torture and then being sent straight to the First Order.

Then there were footsteps again and as Rey looked up after Unkar's retreating back, a man stomped through, a horrible look on his face.

'For payment,' he said with a grin.

Rey automatically felt her feet stand up under her despite having nowhere to go; the rope attached to her binders being only a few metres long.

He wasn't human, though apart from his nose, he looked like he could have been. The appendage was much larger than any human's Rey had ever seen and his nostrils flared. It reminded her of a Reek before it attacked and his grey skin looked like death. Despite being only slightly taller than her, he gave off an aura that chilled her to the bone.

'Don't be frightened,' he said. He seemed to be entertained by his words and stepped closer to Rey.

'Get away from me,' she demanded. She tried to stand in a stance where she could utilise her free legs, though Rey knew her trapped arms would hinder her balance.

He shook his head. 'You think too much about ways out, do not distract yourself from your fate.'

When he was less than a metre away, his face seemed to twitch slightly and two tentacles emerged from either side of his nose. The action instilled what felt like remembered fear in Rey and despite never having seen or heard of a creature like him, she felt like she knew. As if the Force had told her and warned her.

Rey begged the Force to manifest itself, not understanding why she could not utilise anything other than her senses and why she was here.

'The Force has left you,' he murmured with a smile. 'It is much better for me as I'm able to take advantage of your current weakness for my own gain and I do undoubtedly believe that you will taste delicious.'

He was reading her mind, Rey realised. It irked her that she was unable to block him and she wished she was able to fight him head on.

'Yes, you are correct,' he commented and then he grabbed onto her shoulder tightly. 'I don't even think I'll have to bend you to my will, which means this is an extra special day. It isn't often I find such a young powerful sentient as yourself,' he said with a predatory grin. 'Especially one that looks like you.'

Rey pulled at her shoulder and kicked at the man, but he seemed to see her moves coming and he grabbed her leg, forcing her into the sand and making her scream with pain as she felt her shoulder strain again, nearing being pulled from the socket.

His tentacles flicked at her face then, as if sensing the aura around her, not quite touching her. She struggled still, but she could not get her arms lose and her kicks were easily avoided by the man until he was holding them down and looking at her with a keen look.

'Any last words?' he questioned with a wicked smile.

Rey tried to move her legs, but she was trapped and then his tentacles were descending on her and his hands were pulling at her pants.

Then they weren't.

The aliens head turned swiftly, sensing destruction before the red blade of a Lightsaber went straight through him, burning through his heart and destroying him with a single blow.

Rey's eyes skittered and she saw the gloved hand that pushed the man aside and then the face it belonged to; hard edges, pale skin and a faint scar stretching across it.

Kylo's appearance let alone expression was unexpected. It was filled with ferocious anger and Rey imagined he had to refrain himself from striking the dead body several times.

Then he was reaching for Rey, the leather of his gloved hands grazing her cheeks, across the newly opened gash and he pulled her up from the ground to her knees. Before she could even say a word, the binders were broken from her wrists and her arms were free. They did not move to rub at her sore shoulders, however, but reached tightly around Kylo's neck, silent as she buried her face into the woollen material of his cloak, them both kneeling in the sand.

'What are you doing here?' His expression was filled with confusion as he looked from Rey in his arms to the body of the Anzat beside him, his tentacles still twitching in the sand.

'He was going to kill me…I couldn't use the Force, I haven't been able to use it.' Rey responded, muffled by his clothing.

Kylo narrowed his eyes. 'That Anzat couldn't have killed you, have you lost your mind?'

Rey pulled back, looking into Kylo's face and his hands tightened on her waist. He was looking at her with suspicion, which Rey did not like.

'Why would you be here? Like this? Why would you put yourself in this situation?' he asked, growing frustrated.

'I don't know how I got here,' Rey responded angrily. 'It's not my fault I couldn't use the Force. I was training with Luke and then I was here.'

Kylo looked confused again and he pulled Rey up from her kneeling position on the ground and as she did not loosen her tight grip on his shoulders, he was forced to pick her up. It triggered the memory of where he imagined this whole problem began. He began to walk back through Plutt's hut, the place abandoned and he was careful not to jostle Rey too much.

Rey looked around her surroundings, trying to utilise Kylo's body heat to protect her from the cold. It didn't make any sense. How he could be here, how she could be here.

He sensed it then. The absolute manic confusion and why this had happened after he hadn't seen her for nearly a week in either of their dreams. Rey didn't realise she was unconscious, not quite dreaming, not in a deep form of meditation but in an illusion of her creation. He looked into her eyes and saw himself. They were too similar. He had done this to himself too, he realised and now they had caught each other inflicting suffering on themselves. But then why was she suffering? Why was she doing this to herself?

The surroundings were already falling away around them and Rey didn't notice. Kylo couldn't imagine what condition she was in to have created such a detailed illusion and as well as that, what power she could possibly wield.

'You brought me here.' He murmured. 'Your calls brought me here while I was meditating.'

'I didn't call you,' she replied adamantly. 'I called for the Force to help me.'

Kylo didn't respond and there was silence between them as he still held tightly onto Rey and she did not make any moves to escape from his grasp.

He walked through the abandoned junk yard until the sun rose and they reached where Rey used to live. It happened in a matter of minutes, but Rey didn't question anything, she hadn't been paying attention, just staring at Kylo's tensed jaw.

'Thank you,' she murmured finally. It caught Kylo off guard, never having expected to hear those words from Rey.

She finally let go of him, allowing Kylo to put her down inside the turned-over AT-AT and he looked around. Her imagination and memories were definitely vivid, a skill that would definitely come in handy during combat.

Rey began to trace her fingers over her belongings before she looked up at the rigid Kylo and she let out a smile. She felt the cut on her cheek twinge because of the expression and touched it gently still feeling the wetness of blood which she began to stem with the edge of her arm wraps. 'It's nice to be home.'

Kylo couldn't take it anymore and took a deep breath. 'This isn't real. This is all in your imagination.'

She narrowed her eyes then and looked around, then pinched herself. 'Then why does it feel like this? It doesn't feel like a dream.'

'Because it isn't. You likely collapsed or you are being tested.'

'Then how are you here?' she questioned.

Kylo didn't have a response and he watched as Rey's expression soured to anger and then fear.

'Then you are an illusion too?'

He blinked and shook his head. 'I am real, as real as I can be within your own mind.'

'Liar.'

He sighed and then took a seat on Rey's cot. 'I cannot prove it, since this is your illusion. Believe what you wish.'

'You would only ever carry me all the way here in an illusion of my creation,' she responded.

Kylo's eyes snapped towards her and Rey tried to keep her composure through the mistake she had made. It seemed that the frequency of falling over her words when speaking to him was growing by the day.

'This connection…this bond, it has thrown me off, I think. Feeling what your enemy feels seems…'

'A little too poetic,' Kylo finished for her.

Rey nodded and then she made the decision to sit beside Kylo on the cot.

She didn't believe him, Kylo maintained. She truly thought he was in her mind, her conscience perhaps, someone to talk to in the visage of her enemy.

'When I close my eyes I can feel you right in the corner of my mind, and sometimes I'm not sure if my thoughts are mine or yours.' She rested her head on her hands as her elbows balanced on her knees. 'I wish I could make it stop.'

'Then turn away from the Force.'

Rey looked at him and Kylo looked passive. He knew the only other alternative was death, there was no way out of this.

'Or you could come with me, we could be partners and would be unstoppable in battle.'

She laughed then before she put her head in her hands. 'I'm losing my mind. Why do I even entertain you? Why do I listen to you?'

Kylo smiled weakly then. 'Now do you believe I am real?'

Rey nodded from her position. 'I would never be foolish enough to think something like that.'

'Is it really that ridiculous that we could work well together?'

She looked up to find Kylo looking at her and their gazes caught. Several moments of silence descended on them as Rey searched for words and Kylo sought an explanation for the ache in his mind and chest.

'No, it is ridiculous that you think you could convince me to follow you into the darkness and to fight for him.'

'This will never end then.'

Rey shook her head, breaking their eye contact. 'Not until one of us dies.' She straightened. 'It's a consolation that you are tainted by my presence each day. I'll live with the hope that it has some impact on you.'

'I didn't think you were one for false hope.'

She snorted. 'Don't pretend that you don't have access to my mind. We know each other's weaknesses, primarily this bond here, but we know what they are. I'll be sure to train hard and take advantage of that knowledge.'

She wouldn't. A part of her thought so, but Kylo knew so. He was riddled with weaknesses, as if a shifty Stormtrooper had been playing target practice with his mind and what was left was peppered with holes. Kylo had sensed her pity on many occasions and even though he wanted her to fall to him – to the darkness, he knew that if she did, he would still be her weakness and not just because of the bond.

They were silent and after several seconds, something seemed to change in the air. It seemed like the sun had set and risen again, but something else had changed too. When Rey looked at Kylo though, he looked the same, even up to the moles that speckled his face.

'Will you truly be able to resist me?'

Rey narrowed her eyes. 'Are you playing a game now?' she asked.

His expression intensified and he breathed heavily through his nose. 'It is no game; I still maintain my original goal.'

Rey laughed statically. 'Do you think I am so weak minded?'

'I think you are newly trained and human.'

'Are you not human also, or have you been a Hutt all along?' Rey responded in mirth.

'One without limits on how I can express my emotions.'

Rey fell silent then as Kylo's hand slipped over her arm, his cold fingers tracing ice on the inside of her wrist and all the way down to the inside of her elbow. She blinked and resisted by pulling her hand and trying to push his chest away, but stopped when his other hand had reached to touch the pulse point at the side of her neck.

His hands were like the darkness. So cold it felt like she was burning and Rey suddenly felt lost in it. In the darkness that grew more tolerable, attractive and exciting each day; that had manifested itself in the fingertips of Kylo Ren when it had ignored him for weeks.

'How are you?...' Her words broke off as he leaned into her and she did not lean away.

His cold fingers drifted across her arm and his rough lips grazed her neck until he had pressed them against her pulse point, causing her to further tilt her neck. Her hand tightened on his chest, feeling the muscles move beneath her fingers and she couldn't help groaning at the unfamiliar feeling in her chest and stomach.

She wanted to resist but couldn't, she realised.

Large hands roamed over her exposed skin, the ice no more than a tingle and feeling much more like a dangerous fire in her heart and she sank into it; into the feeling of full lips and teeth nibbling at her skin; at hands sliding over her body.

'Why have you resisted me for so long?' he questioned as his left hand undid the buckle on her belt and then slipped beneath her tabards to her tunic.

'It's not…it's not right,' she said. Her voice was quiet and then she felt his cold hand against the skin of her stomach and she jumped.

He smiled against her neck. 'Have you not been waiting for this since that first dream?' His lips moved up to her jaw and then across her cheek, not avoiding the deep cut which still dripped blood. The hand slid higher until he reached her breasts and his fingers touched her carefully before his thumb grazed over a raised nipple and Rey bit her lip, willing herself to stop this now before it went too far. His fingers stopped glancing on the skin of her arm and they pulled the tabards from her shoulders and tossed the belt to the side. The free hand reached around to her back, his fingers drawing a line down her spine. 'It was a gift from me.' His tongue reached out, licking at Rey's bleeding wound and soothing the injury.

Rey didn't understand and she was feeling so lightheaded; with desire, with confusion and then something else. It made her anxious as she felt as if something important had been forgotten.

'A gift?'

His lips moved away from her and Rey opened eyes she hadn't realised she had closed and was driven to silence. It wasn't him. No, it was him, but it wasn't.

The whole room was lit in ice cold fire and so was he. Kylo. Ben. He was the fire personified and even by the look in his eye as their gazes caught, the Darkness intoxicated her, knowing what would get a reaction out of her, what would pull her towards it, and it had won.

'My darling apprentice, whatever could be wrong?'

Kylo wasn't here anymore and she had no idea when he had disappeared. It was darkness in some manifestation, some horrific dream creature. It had finally reared its ugly head and had led her off her path; led her astray.

'I won't be…It won't…I am no subject of the dark,' she screamed, pushing the creature away.

It smiled, her blood coating its lips and it reached forward, stroking a tendril of hair behind her ear.

'But I know your desires. For power, for control, for him.'

'No,' she demanded. 'I feel none of that.'

It clicked its tongue. 'You cannot hide those things from me. I see everything, I feel everything, I know your heart.'

'I won't go to the darkness, I won't cause pain and suffering.'

The Darkness laughed then. 'Yours and his will be enough. Ah, star-crossed lovers, it makes my dark heart beat. It's fortunate that you had such an episode this afternoon, or I would not have been able to harness such a hold on you. You seem to have been avoiding me of late.'

Rey didn't know what to say or do but stood, making distance between herself and the Darkness. It reduced her to silence. The fact that it could take on Kylo's form and affect her like this chilled her. They looked identical, the only difference being the flames that wrapped themselves around his body trying to reach out and lick at her skin.

'You should have expected this, child. Do you think this wasn't orchestrated by the Force?'

She shook her head and stepped backward, bumping into a table and she felt the fire then. It was getting hotter and hotter.

'The Force is not your agent alone. Where you are there is always Light and I won't be swayed towards you. The Light will guide me even if you try to divert me from my path with these tricks and use my emotions to gain the upper hand.'

The creature clucked its tongue and stood. Kylo's cloak whipped around it, the edges of the material completely on fire.

'Humans are an interesting species,' the Darkness began. 'Led by emotions, such short life spans and oftentimes an obsessive dependency on the Force, even if they aren't sensitive to it at all. They also make for such weak-minded Jedi, Sith and whatever your dear Ben Solo identifies himself as.'

It reached for Rey. She couldn't avoid its grip on wrist and she let out a startled cry as her skin began to burn.

'Be sure, even if you do not see me again, I will always be here, watching and waiting for you to make your choice. Your humanity will not allow you to avoid me and he will be your downfall, I promise that. The seed has already been sown.'

The flames continued to grow until Rey felt as if her whole body were on fire and the Darkness disappeared into a ball of flame, leaving her screaming in pain.

'Rey? Rey?'

Rey's eyes blinked open and Luke was holding her steadily in his arms, his face full of worry. Her body had gone incredibly hot and then as cold as ice and he had feared she had somehow perished. Rey didn't understand. For a moment she didn't know who she was and what she was doing. It had felt so real and all that remained was the speedy beating of her heart as she looked to her Master.


Thanks for reading and thanks for the lovely reviews! I appreciate them and they motivate me. :D This chapter was a long one to make up for the last ;)