Hey everyone! Sorry it's been a week since I've updated anything, I've been sick and all I did was lay around and sleep until I felt better.
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Rey sorted through a bunch of junk, looking for spare parts to help fix C3PO's leg. He had been chasing after R2 when BB-8 had come out of nowhere, rolling right into his legs. She had listened to C3PO whine and complain about his leg not functioning properly for days. It had gotten so extreme, Rey had volunteered to fix the appendage as R2D2 refused once C3PO began the name calling. It turned out R2 had taken a liking to BB-8 and 3PO was not pleased about that in the slightest. She actually found it funny when 3PO huffed and squawked at the other two droids, chasing after them at his too slow pace, arms flailing madly as they just beeped mockingly and rolled away.
Rey sighed as she found the part she was looking for, carelessly tossing all of the remaining pieces that she had scattered around back into the box. Placing the box on the shelf, Rey left the parts room to fix the droid. She wandered from one hallway to the next, searching aimlessly for 3PO but she wasn't going to lie, she mostly went in the wrong direction to afford herself more time to be alone. Sometimes she just couldn't stand the protocol droid.
It had been a few weeks since she escaped the clutches of the First Order. A few weeks since she could finally begin to feel like herself again. A few weeks since she had seen Kylo Ren or heard from him. At first Rey thought that perhaps he had died after setting her free and she had lived with that guilt for days. It had eaten at her, consumed her whole.
And then one night when she finally fell asleep, she felt him. All of his pain and fear. His despair. It wasn't like any of her other dreams though. He wasn't present in her mind. It was residual, almost like she was feeling the aftershocks of pain that were being sent out from his mind.
It made sense. They were connected. But knowing that he was in so much excruciating agony, that Snoke was hurting him because he chose to set her free rather than let her die, it nearly killed Rey. How could she live with the knowledge that he had sacrificed everything for her? She wasn't even sure she was worth it, but she knew he could only grow to resent her the longer he remained alive and in torment.
Perhaps that was the point... Kylo had clearly displayed his loyalty to her over Snoke. Rey didn't think Snoke would be pleased with that at all. But what would hurt Kylo Ren more? Killing him outright and proclaiming him as a traitor or torturing him, reconditioning him until he was eventually dispatched to kill the one person he had absolutely tried to protect.
Rey sensed this as truth, knowing Snoke was a devious adversary. He was cunning and cruel and Rey believed absolutely that he would use Kylo against her, against himself in order to be on top.
It wasn't like he was a very forgiving leader either.
The monster made Kylo Ren look like a saint.
Sighing, Rey turned a corner and ending up in the mess hall, knowing she would find Finn and most likely Poe eating some sort of meal. The thought of food made her mouth water and her stomach growl. Suddenly Rey was ravenous.
Almost as soon as she felt the intense wave of hunger, her vision began to swirl around her, almost as if she were on the verge of passing out.
"You okay?" Finn came up to her, smiling as he placed a gentle hand on her shoulder to steady her.
Rey nodded although she felt anything but fine.
"I think I've gone a while without a meal."
"Well come on over here, have a seat and I will go to the line and grab something for you. Any preference?" Rey shook her head and Finn led her over to the table where Poe and a few other pilots were sitting, discussing something quite animatedly.
Finn nudged Rey into his seat, patting her shoulder comfortingly before heading off in the direction of food.
Poe took one look at her sallow face before breaking off a piece of his muffin and pushing it into her hands. "You look like you could use this."
Rey smiled wanly before taking a large bite of her muffin before fitting the rest of in her mouth, barely chewing before she swallowed the delicious treat. Another minute ticked by before her head began to feel normal, despite the lack of food.
Had she really gone so long without taking care of herself? To be honest, she couldn't really remember when the last time she had actually eaten a meal since she had been back. Her clothes were fitting her a bit more loosely than she was used to and she hadn't really been in the mess hall other than to grab a quick snack on the way to whatever training Master Luke had planned for her.
Rey looked down at her empty hands, realizing she had completely forgotten the part for 3PO in the other room. Clearly her head wasn't in the game.
"Here you go! Eat up, Rey." Finn placed a large platter of food in front of her on the table, handing her a fork and a napkin before sitting down at the vacant seat next to her and immediately joining Poe in on whatever conversation was taking place.
"What do you think, Rey?" Poe asked. All of the people at the table turned to gaze at her as she was digging into her food. Rey swallowed heavily, almost as if the gazes made it impossible for her to chew her food.
"Um. I'm afraid I wasn't actually listening."
The group laughed at that and Rey smiled sheepishly, taking another bite of her mashed potatoes.
"If you could pick an X-Wing or a Tie Fighter, which would you use?"
Rey almost told him she had never been inside of a Tie Fighter until the last time she had seen Kylo flashed before her eyes. She had in fact used a Tie Fighter to escape captivity, but to be honest with herself, she didn't exactly remember much about anything the first few days she had made it back to the Resistance. Too traumatic, she supposed.
"I do love an X-Wing," Rey murmured, trying desperately to keep her thoughts in check.
Looking down at her plate, Rey felt nausea creeping in at the once delicious meal. Why did they have to ask her such a question? Now all she could think about was Kylo and her guilt.
Rey stood up abruptly, her chair scraping back on the concrete with an ominous sound.
"I have a session with Master Luke. Thank you, Finn, for the food."
And with that Rey left in search of her Master, knowing she needed to clear her head and focus her energy on becoming one with the Force.
Rey had searched far and wide throughout the base, searching for Master Luke. She even used the Force to stretch her senses out slightly further than their hideout, but she still felt nothing of him. It was definitely odd. Rey could have sought out General Organa and discovered his whereabouts, but Rey would she was incredibly tired, almost to the point of lethargy.
Perhaps if she made it back to her room and took a nap she would feel better when she awoke. And if Master Luke was back from where ever he had ventured off to, she could seek him for counsel.
A few more twists and turns down the abandoned hallways, Rey was in her room, changing into a dressing gown that reached her knees before she placed her hair into a side braid, letting it fall over her shoulder and drape over her breast before ending near her stomach. Rey sighed as she realized she had left a small lock out of the braid before rolling her eyes and placing herself on her cot. With the covers cradled lovingly over her body, Rey shut her eyes and drifted off into what she assumed would be a peaceful sleep.
How wrong she had been.
Rey found herself standing in the same field Kylo had been fond of. It was light out, although the smoke that permeated throughout the air masked it quite well. Rey crinkled her nose, her eyes squinting from the heat of the flames.
Flames?!
Shrieking and then immediately coughing as she sucked smoke into her lungs, Rey ran in the opposite direction of the fire that lit up the field she was standing in the middle of.
The wheat slapped her exposed skin, hitting her face, legs and neck, slashing against her bare arms and catching in her hair. Rey didn't care, running even faster, ignoring the hard and sharp earth as it cut into her bare feet.
The further she went from the smoke, the darker the sky itself became. Lightning forked across the darkening sky, lighting up almost ominously as Rey ran, her heart pounding in her chest.
If she was right about Snoke and his plans, she doubted Kylo was in her dream to kiss her and confess his love. No, she knew whatever Kylo was in her dream for, it was nefarious. Sinister. Not wanting to face him, Rey ran headlong into a storm, raining slamming down on her body, soaking her creme colored gown and plastering itself to her body. Her braid was wet and slapped against her chest as she ran.
Another step and the scenery changed. No longer in a wheat field, Rey looked around and realized she was on the flat surface of a mountain. It looked remarkably similar to the image Kylo had shown her earlier, of where he had over taken the Jedi academy and killed almost everyone within. Almost.
Rey turned to glance behind her, wondering if she would see the glow of his morbid lightsaber reflecting off the rain as it came crashing down around them. There was nothing behind Rey that she could detect, only darkness as it began to close in on her.
Rey's foot slipped in front of her, causing her arms to flail as she tried to maintain her balance. Instead, she slid until her knee slammed into the mountain top painfully and she cried out in pain and panic.
She almost couldn't believe she had slipped and fallen. She was always so much more graceful than that, mostly due to the rigorous exercising and training she did by herself and with Master Luke.
But she acknowledged that this was her dream but Kylo Ren controlled it and therefore he was making it more difficult for her.
Rey stood up slowly, wincing as her knee throbbed painfully. She attempted to push pressure on it, hesitant at the pain before running anyway, aware that she heard a lightsaber ignite somewhere to the right of her. She jerked her head in that direction, her eyes narrowing as she gazed further into the darkness that seemed to keep rising out of nowhere, almost like pitch black smoke that began to billow around her, threatening to consume her entirely.
"Kylo?" Rey called out, her voice laced with a tiny bit of pain as she glanced towards the sound of the lightsaber she still could not see.
Where was he?
And then Rey was being lifted into the air by an unseen force, the breath leaving her lungs as her throat was being squeezed, closed until she clawed at her own throat, cutting it with her nails as she clawed at the unseen hand cutting off her oxygen.
Then her body moved further into the darkness before a hand shoved her own away, locking onto her throat and squeezing painfully.
Rey coughed and clawed at the actual hand that was slowly killing her. She followed the hand to a black clad arm to a black covered shoulder and finally to the masked face of Kylo Ren.
A tear fell down Rey's face when she saw him. He was killing her. He was under the influence of Snoke. He had to be.
"Do you cry because you know why I've come?" His distorted voice caressed over her body, causing her to shiver despite the cruel hands choking the life out of her. "Pathetic." He hissed, dropping his hand from her body.
Rey fell to the ground, her weak knee doing nothing to support her as she landed on her backside. Rey coughed and sputtered, hands holding her throat protectively before she looked up and stared at the man she was in love with.
The man who had just tried to kill her.
Rey knew she should have seen this coming. This change. He'd been under the influence of Snoke for years, did she really think his affection for her would allow him to hold out against the dark side?
He knelt down in front of her, his head tilting to the side as she breathed heavily, her chest rising and falling rapidly as his mask was only a few inches from her face.
"What are you going to do?"
A small laugh escaped his mask at that question.
"I'm going to finish what I've started." Kill her. He was going to kill her.
Rey sat in front of him, staring forlornly into the mask that hid his eyes. Then she flung her hands forward, shoving him about ten feet away from her with the Force. He flew back into the darkness, his cape billowing as he went.
Rey stood, ignoring the pain in her leg and focusing instead on waking herself up.
She was powerful and strong. She wouldn't die here in her dreams. She would survive and she would fight the evil spreading throughout Kylo. It was one thing to choose the dark on your own, but she sensed something far more sinister had befallen him.
"Did you think it would be that easy?" His voice whispered behind her an instant before his arms locked around her waist, forcing her into his dark embrace.
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