Ah, I made it! I struggled a bit with this chapter, but I like how it turned out in the end.

Only 704 days left!

Rey's never been this exhausted before.

She's panting as beads of sweat roll down the bridge of her nose, a few of them getting into her eyes. She wipes her face with the back of her hand and squeezes her staff tighter. She feels as if it's the only thing keeping her grounded at the moment, and for that, she's grateful. Her legs feel like they might give out soon, but she pushes herself further. She needs some way to express her feelings, needs to make room in her head or she'll go insane.

She's been training for what feels like hours. What began as meditating turned into practicing forms with her staff. Now she is outright fighting the air, swinging her staff wildly, trying to defeat the thoughts that wouldn't leave her alone. It's been a while since she's let out steam like this, but instead of feeling liberated, she just feels more anxious.

Her thoughts are chaotic, her emotions a wild storm.

Damn him, she thinks. Damn him to the furthest corners of the galaxy, and back.

Her swipes become angrier and more uncontrolled, her temper suddenly flares and she lets out a scream from the very depth of her soul.

It's Finn's voice that makes her snap back to reality, and she finds her staff a mere inch away from the column in front of her. As dread replaces anger, she realizes she was a moment away from breaking it. Her anchor. Her support.

"Finn," she breathes out.

He slowly walks up to her, his stance cautious. "Rey? Are you okay?"

She nods. "I am."

"It was like... like you completely lost control over yourself. Are you sure you're okay?"

He's looking at her like she's a time bomb; like she might explode raw power at moment and wipe out the entire planet. It makes her feel ashamed and she can't bring herself to look into his eyes. She feels like she failed him by losing control in such a way, and it makes her drop her staff. Her knees buckle and Finn catches her by the arms.

"I think you overdid yourself back there. You should take some rest," he tells her gently.

He leads her to a chair and helps her take a seat. The look on his face doesn't show any sort of hate or fear; he only seems very concerned for her. It will never stop amazing Rey what an amazing and caring friend he really is.

"What's going on, Rey? You've been acting weird lately."

She avoids his eyes. "Have I? I'm sorry, I... It's just been hard for me since Leia died. And Luke before her. And... Han," she closes her eyes at the mention of Han. Thinking of him still made her feel the most pain. "I've been trying to find answers in the Force, but I have no one to teach me and it's just been-"

"-hard," Finn finishes. "Hey, I'm no Jedi, but I understand. I know you're under a lot of pressure. Especially since everyone started talking about the 'mysterious last Jedi' who could defeat the First Order."

"I just..." Rey sighs. "I don't know if I can be what everyone wants me to be."

Finn looks at her like she's talking nonsense. "You don't have to be anything, Rey. No one can tell you, one of the last Force users in the galaxy, what you should do."

"But the Resistance-"

"The Resistance will be fine on its own. Look, we've been on Elior for only two weeks and we've already grown in numbers. Dozens of volunteers have already joined us. It's only a matter of time before we become a real threat to the First Order. But for now, you need to focus on yourself. If you don't train and grow as a Jedi, you won't be able to take down Kylo Ren. You know you're the only one who can defeat him."

She mulls over his words. A part of her knows Finn's right - her and Kylo were remnants of the Force and they'd have to face off eventually. She could feel that Kylo was getting stronger with every passing day, his strength fueled by something Rey couldn't put her finger on. But she could also sense her own power growing. It was like Snoke said - darkness rises, and light to meet it.

But did she even want to stand against him in a fight? The thought of him dying by her own hand felt utterly wrong. She knew she could never kill him.

"I never finished my third lesson," she tells him. "I wonder what it was."

Finn smiles warmly at her. "I'm sure it's not anything you don't already know."

Rey blinks, speechless by the amount of faith he has in her. "Thank you, Finn."

"Don't worry, whatever happens, I've got your back. Even if you decided to take up scavenging again, I would follow you back to Jakku."

She laughs. "No, you wouldn't."

"You're right, I wouldn't. It's so hot down there," he says and dissolves into a fit of laughter.

It feels nice to laugh like this again. Days have been bleak lately and Rey begins to wonder if maybe she just needed a good laugh with Finn to lift her spirits. Sitting here with him, talking, it feels like the good old days, before everything became so complicated and confusing feelings got in the way. She berates herself for thinking of Kylo again and tries her best to get him out of her mind.

"What would I do without you?" she asks him once their laughter subsided.

"I really don't know. I mean, look at me, I'm awesome."

That night, Rey falls into a deep sleep. She doesn't welcome it, though, because nightmares begin to dance in her mind the moment sleep overtakes her. However, to her, they seem more like visions.

The dream starts out on Jakku. Or at least Rey thinks it's Jakku. That desert air she's grown up with now makes it hard for her to breathe. She makes her way through a seemingly endless desert, trying to find her way back home. She hears voices all around her, they're trying to tell her something, but the cacophony makes it hard for her to make out any words.

She sees a figure in the distance and starts running toward it. She recognizes Luke's features and relief washes over her.

"Master Luke!"

"You will find what you need here, Rey," he says, but his voice sounds distant. "You and I share the same beginning, don't let us share the same ending."

She reaches the top of the dune where Luke was standing, and gasps, covering her mouth in shock.

Below her, lying on the hot desert sand, are dead bodies. She sees that some of them are missing limbs, and bile rises in her throat. She almost throws up, but she's shocked into absolute stillness when a figure kneeling among the bodies stands up. It slowly turns around to face her, and Rey has to stop herself from screaming when she sees Kylo's face. Except it's not really him - he looks stark raving mad, his face is somehow distorted and there is a sickening shade of yellow tainting his eyes.

Their eyes meet and a satisfied smirk crosses his features. Kylo looks at her like he's just found his new prey, and Rey realizes this would be the perfect time to run. If only she could; she was paralyzed with fear.

He slowly starts moving towards her, carelessly stepping over the bodies. Rey looks down and lets out a blood-curdling scream, falling backward onto the sand when she sees Poe's dead eyes staring back at her. She realizes that these bodies didn't belong to a group of random people she's never met. She sees a clump of black hair and recognizes Rose, sees a patch of dark skin and instantly knows she's looking at Finn. She sees two people with holes where their hearts are supposed to be, holding hands, and realizes it's Han and Leia. Luke is not far from them.

Her whole world starts crumbling down around her, but amidst the ruins, she finds another emotion to grab onto.

Anger. All-consuming, maddening rage.

She calls for Luke's old lightsaber and suddenly it flies into her hand. Kylo has almost reached her by now, but she charges at him before he has the chance to attack her. In an exact replica of their fight in the forest, she strikes him across the face with the lightsaber and he falls to the ground. When he sits up, the yellow from his eyes is gone.

The man staring at her isn't even Kylo Ren at this point, it's Ben Solo. He watches her as she holds her lightsaber, ready to strike.

"Kill me," he tells her. "Please."

"What?"

"Don't you see?!" he screams at her. "This is what I'll become if you don't kill me! I'll kill everyone you love, I'll take everything from you!"

Rey shakes her head, feeling powerless. "No, I can't accept that! There's still good in you, Ben!"

He seems completely broken as he looks up at her. "No, there isn't. I've given everything I have to the dark side, if I turn back now it will all be for nothing! Please, just kill me."

Rey's eyes fill with tears. "I can't."

Silence.

"Then you're a fool."

The last thing Rey sees before he lunges at her is the evil yellow glow in his eyes.

A scream wakes her. It takes her a moment to realize it's her own. She sits up in her bed and looks around, relieved to see the inside of her room. Across from her, Rose is sitting in her bed, staring at her with wide eyes.

"Rey?! What's wrong, are you okay?"

Rey shakes her head. "I'm fine."

"Bad dream?" Rose guesses.

"The worst nightmare I ever had."

Rose is quiet for a moment. "What was it about? ... Is it okay if I ask that?"

"I dreamed that..." Rey pauses, trying her best to form a coherent sentence. "I dreamed that Kylo Ren killed you all. He asked me to kill him before he became a real monster."

"That's horrible."

"But... even though he did all these terrible things, I still couldn't do it. I couldn't kill him, even in a dream. Why am I so weak?" she asks, feeling exhausted.

Rose smiles sadly at her. "You're not weak, Rey, you're human. It's hard for good people to take lives."

Her words are meant to be comforting, but Rey finds that she's too troubled at the moment to be comforted.

"Was there more?" Rose asks.

Rey thinks back to the dream, and her eyes widen. "Yes, there was! Master Luke was telling me something. He said I would find answers in that place."

Rose frowns. "What place?"

"I don't know... It seemed like I was on Jakku, but I wasn't. It was a desert planet of some sort, it felt so familiar to me." It was like with Ahch-To, she'd seen the place in her dreams, but she never knew what or where it was exactly.

"Well, Luke grew up on Tatooine," Rose says slowly. "Could it be that he was telling you to go to his home planet?"

Rey jumps from her bed, exhaustion suddenly replaced by excitement. "Yes! Yes, Rose, exactly! Where else would Luke send me? Could you go get Poe for me? I have to tell him I'm leaving."

"R-right now? You're leaving now?"

"There's no time to lose," Rey says hurriedly. "I'll start packing, please go fetch him for me. And tell him to ask Chewie if he's up for an adventure."

Rose looks unsure, but gives a small nod eventually. When she slips out of the room, Rey starts filling her bag with necessities.

"You're going somewhere in the middle of the night?" a voice suddenly asks behind her.

She doesn't turn around and continues to pack her things. "I don't want to talk to you right now."

"You never do."

"It's good you noticed," she says coolly.

"Is this another pointless mission of yours to bring peace to the galaxy?" his voice is positively dripping with sarcasm and it annoys Rey greatly.

"Is being the Supreme Leader so amazing that you don't even want to sleep so you wouldn't lose time of day?" she fires back and turns to look at him. "I mean, it's the only reason I can think of why you would be up at this hour."

He steps closer and she takes a step back. For a moment, Rey wonders if this is how it's always going to be. When one of them finally gathers the courage to take a step forward, will the other inevitably take a step back? A part of her hopes things will change. It would be nice to meet in the middle for once.

She blames the late hours of the night for making her cave so easily; she can't tear her eyes away from him even as she feels the air around them changing and his poorly concealed need to be closer to her. She feels like she did back in that cottage on Ahch-To, more than anything she wishes to at least touch his hands.

He takes another step forward and this time, she doesn't step back.

"Wherever you're going," he says in a low voice, "don't-"

Whatever he was going to say gets cut off, and Rey is left feeling cold and disappointed.

"-get yourself killed," Kylo finishes, a heavy sigh escaping him.

These two make me board the feel train every time... I want to write about them all the time, alas, I have an actual storyline in mind and if I focus only on Kylo and Rey nothing else will be written :(

As always, thank you for reading, if you have any thoughts let me know in a review. I hope I'm doing the characters justice, I try to really capture their personalities and if I can't imagine them saying something, I usually leave that part out.

I hope you have a lovely day and, of course, may the Force be with you :)