New chapter guys, I hope you like it! Thank you to my amazing reviewers, I really love all your observations! Xx

Kylo Ren was slowly recovering. Mercifully, Hux had kept away and he had enjoyed a day of complete rest. Rey had been a blessing for him: she filled his restricted room with sea breeze, her smile warm and her voice a balm. Kylo hoped what he felt in her presence wasn't too obvious. He didn't want her pity.

She was also a reminder that he had to look for useful information, anything to give the Resistance. But his methods of espionage weren't ordinary at all.

When Hux wasn't torturing him and when Snoke wasn't delving into his mind, he was confined to his room-prison, so that it was difficult to gather information. He had to rely on his meditation skills and his knowledge of the Force to be able to spy for Luke. Thankfully, the Force-suppression collar only quashed his ability to use it actively, to compel or attack people. When he cleared his mind and expanded it across the base, he could perceive every living thing inside it, their thoughts like multi-coloured fish darting around. He had to shield his own probing though, because Snoke knew his Force signature better than anyone, and if discovered, Kylo knew his death would be immediate.

The minds of the Stormtroopers were quite simple, emptied of almost everything that didn't revolve around fighting and obeying orders. Kylo knew he wouldn't obtain much from them, so he learned to isolate their thoughts and confine them to the background.

The officers were slightly more interesting, but they weren't likely to have a global knowledge of Snoke's plans: every one of them had a single task, and their focus never strayed far from it.

Kylo was looking for Hux's mind: the General wouldn't feel a foreign presence in his mind even if it hammered loudly against it, and with his arrogance and self-righteousness he would be the perfect source of information. However, Kylo learned that he had left the base. Frustratingly, all he could do now was wait.

Two days later Kylo was back on the island with Rey and Luke. His back was getting better, and the lost, broken look had disappeared from his eyes. This time, strangely, Snoke hadn't summoned him for the usual mind torture and probing. Apparently his attention was engaged elsewhere. When he told Luke and Rey, he felt a strong wave of relief that didn't belong to him. That made him smile.

After an intense meditation session, Rey and Kylo went back practicing how to hide their bond, although by now they could almost always conceal it from Luke when he entered their mind to search for it.

Kylo was eager to catch up on lost time, and he wanted to try touching Rey with his projection, just like she had done to him. They decided they'd begin the next day. This time Kylo lingered a little more than usual before disappearing, although his gaze wasn't fixed on the blue waves: he watched Rey stretching her muscles and yawning with a soft smile on his lips.

Rey awoke at dawn, startled out of a pleasant dream about rain and a forest. She had sensed something approaching, and the feeling increased now that she was awake; as she got up and went outside, she saw Luke standing not far from her, his gaze directed at the sky. A faint buzzing noise could be heard.

"Is that…?" Rey began, unsure.

"Yes. That's a ship. It's my sister."

Right then, a sleek Resistance vessel appeared, and in a few minutes it landed elegantly down at the small beach. Luke and Rey waited for the passengers to join them.

"Are we going to tell her about– about her son?" Rey asked.

"Let's hear what she has to say first, Rey. Then we'll talk."

She nodded, turning to look for Leia's small figure. She wondered whether Chewbacca would be with her. She missed him, and she missed being with him, because he made her feel Han's warm presence. Deep, sudden sorrow squeezed her heart for a moment.

When the General finally arrived though, Rey let out a scream of joy, and started running towards Finn, who smiled brightly and whooped when he spotted her. They hugged tightly, laughing, happy to be together, and alive, again.

"I'm so glad to see you! How's your back, did it heal completely? Are you alright?"

"I am fine, Rey, I am. I was out of it for a whole week, and when I woke up they told me you were gone! I'm sorry I couldn't be with you."

"Finn, are you kidding? You saved my life, and almost lost yours! You really don't have to apologise. What have you been doing at the Resistance base, then? Tell me everything!"

Finn was about to answer, when Leia Organa approached them, and smiling softly she said "I'm sorry to interrupt, but you'll have to wait to catch up. I need to speak with Luke and I'd like both of you to listen. Poe, you too."

Rey then looked beyond Finn, and saw a man she hadn't noticed before; the handsome pilot who had brought Finn to Jakku smiled at her, and said "Hello Rey. Long time no see."

She answered with a big smile of her own. "Hi Poe, I'm happy to see you."

"I didn't know you two knew each other" Finn said, looking between them.

"We met briefly during the celebrations for Starkiller's destruction" Rey told him.

"We bonded while you were out cold" Poe added, smirking. The he put his arms round Rey and Finn's shoulders, directing them to Luke and Leia.

A service droid had arranged some seats, so they all got comfortable and then moved their attention on Leia.

"I've come to tell you about a battle that took place a few days ago on Eufornis Minor. The Resistance was able to prevent an attack from the First Order. Our soldiers battled a small army of Stormtroopers, and our fleet defeated and scattered all the enemy's TIE fighters."

Finn and Poe nodded. They had both been there. Rey moved closer to Finn, feeling a little apprehension for her friend, although he had clearly come back from the battle unscathed.

"Hux was there," Finn added. "It's strange. Usually the General doesn't take part in operations like that. Kylo Ren does. But there was no sign of him."

While he talked, Leia's face was stony. Rey shot a glance at Luke.

"What was the First Order doing on Eufornis Minor?" she asked.

Leia looked at her brother. "We believe their mission was to kidnap children in order to replenish their troops."

Luke shifted. "I'm glad the information I gave you turned out to be useful."

Rey looked at him sharply. How..?

"It did. But Luke…" Leia looked at him pleadingly. "Please tell me how you got it. If– if you have a man on the inside, it could be vital for the Resistance. We could have an actual chance at defeating Snoke once and for all!"

Luke threw a meaningful look at Rey before answering. "I haven't exactly a man on the inside. It's much more complicated than that. You see, some time ago Rey started to–"

Rey stopped listening to him as an emotion, powerful and terribly painful, struck her like a hurricane. She brought a hand to her chest, gasping, looking frantically around to find him, when…

"WHAT THE HELL?" Finn's voice roared.

Everyone turned to look at him, and then followed the direction of his index finger. Not very far from them, Kylo Ren's dark figure stood against the pale light of the morning.

Kylo appeared on the island, eager to find Rey and start a new day of training. He looked around, and as he didn't see her or Luke, he wandered for a bit. What he saw, when he passed a small clump of rocks, left him shocked and frozen to the spot. Luke and Rey were not alone: there was a bunch of people with them, people he knew, people whose sight was not welcome at all. There was the pilot he had captured and interrogated a long time ago; there was the Stormtrooper traitor, FN-2187, talking with Rey. Their closeness sent a pang of raging jealousy in his chest. And then– Leia Organa sat in front of his uncle, talking quietly with her regal, familiar demeanour.

"No…" he whispered. The feelings that until then he had managed to keep bottled inside him exploded, and he couldn't bear to stay a second longer. He heard FN-2187 shouting something. He knew Rey was trying to lock eyes with him but he ignored her and disappeared back to his cell, his soul screaming and howling in agony.

"No… wait!" Rey called, when she saw him vanish. Finn looked at her as if she had suddenly grown a second head. Even Leia had lost her composure, and she regarded Rey and Luke with a frown.

"What's the meaning of this? Luke?"

The Jedi sighed. "Rey, go to him. Try to... calm him down if you can."

She nodded, and ignoring Finn's protests, she walked towards the cliffs to find a quiet corner, while Luke's calm voice explained Kylo's presence to Leia and the others. Rey steeled herself: she had no idea of what she would find. She only hoped she'd be able to help, somehow.

As soon as Rey appeared in the dark cell, a slight coppery smell hit her nose. Then she heard a horrible noise, like a rhythmical thumping: she turned and her eyes widened. Kylo Ren was repeatedly punching the wall with his right hand, which was now reduced to a pulp.

"Stop!" She grabbed his waist and pulled him away from the wall, directing him to the bed. He flopped down onto it, but his eyes were vacant, no sign of recognition or even pain, as if his soul had escaped his body and just left an empty shell.

"Kylo… Kylo, it's me! Say something! Kylo!" Rey shook him, touched his face, moved his hair out of his eyes, but he couldn't snap out of it. Then… "Ben. Ben, talk to me, please," she said.

That did the trick. He frowned, and then focused his gaze on her. "I told you not to call me Ben. I'm not Ben."

"I'm sorry but you weren't responding! You really scared me! Look at what you did to yourself, I–"

His eyes followed hers and he saw his bloody, broken hand. He looked almost surprised. He lifted it and examined it with interest. "It doesn't hurt. It doesn't hurt enough," he murmured. He stood, walking back towards the crimson-spattered wall. He clenched his left hand into a fist, and was about to throw a punch when Rey blocked his arm with the Force.

"Release me. Now," Kylo ordered, voice ice-cold.

"No. Why are you doing this?" Rey asked.

"I need it. Release me," he repeated.

"I won't let you hurt yourself. I won't," she told him, stubborn.

Kylo turned his head and looked at her. She swallowed. He hadn't looked at her like that in a long time. His eyes harboured a fury so intense she almost freed his arm.

"I can't let you do that. I can't," she told him, pleadingly. She felt tears prickle her eyes.

"I won't ask again. Let my arm go."

In that moment, Rey decided to do something awful. She knew it was wrong, but she was desperate. Desperate to understand, desperate to erase that cold look Kylo was directing at her. She entered his mind. She made his resistance crumble with a powerful shove of her will and looked for answers.

She saw that his pain had risen sky-high the moment his gaze had landed on Leia. The torture of being his father's murderer, the grief for a name that had once belonged to him, the heartbreak of never being able to hold his mother again. The suffering as a child, as a boy, the absence and solitude that had driven him away, but also the pain of having lost so many years trusting someone so unworthy. The agony of loving someone who would never lov–

"ENOUGH!" Kylo roared. He had freed himself from her hold, and he had thrown her out of his head.

Rey's eyes were full of tears, and she was about to say something, anything, to him when she felt the ground starting to vibrate, and long, thin cracks started to appear on the floor next to her feet.

How..? she thought, looking in disbelief at the collar still wound around Kylo's neck.

A noise from above made her lift her head in surprise, and thanks to her well-honed reflexes that made her dive to the left, she avoided a piece of ceiling that crashed and shattered in the spot she had been standing in. She might be a projection, but she preferred to avoid being trampled.

She looked at Kylo and knew he had completely lost control: his face was pale and blank, his eyes were the cold and empty eyes of a stranger. Rey's heart dropped, fearing the worst. Other cracks appeared on the ceiling above their heads, sharp debris falling down, cutting the skin of Kylo's forehead and cheeks.

"Please… calm down… Ben… you have to control it," she said faintly.

In a flash, the vibrations stopped. Kylo Ren turned, and emptied his stomach on the floor.

Rey took a step towards him. "Please…" she tried, desolate.

Coughing and trembling with rage, Kylo said "Don't come any closer! Leave. And don't ever come back."

Rey's eyes filled with tears, and though she wanted to stay and argue, she caught the finality of his tone, so she obeyed.