Chapter 4: Training
Cause my baby's sweet as can be
She'd give me toothaches just from kissin' me
Ren woke up with a sudden start; ever since the event on Starkiller Base his dreams have not been kind to him. His nights were plagued by nightmares of his father's death. The dreams were mostly the same; they would start with a nice memory from his childhood, him and his dad playing with toys in the Falcon, then all would would go red, blood falling from Han's eyes and mouth, a saber in his heart.
Ben Solo was still there; Ben ached for his father to be back again, to make his father proud by following in his mom and uncle's footsteps. But Ben Solo is weak, a dreamer, dead. Kylo Ren is strong, brave and fearless; if only the light would stop calling to him, it would be so much easier.
But it wasn't easy the light was twenty feet away peacefully sleeping in her little hut. Rey. No longer just the girl with the staff or the map to Luke Skywalker, she was the girl who rescued him, the girl who showed him mercy and who healed him. He couldn't bring himself to hate her anymore, and he didn't know why.
The moon was still high in the sky and a few clouds hung low, it was peaceful here Ren noted. A cool ocean breeze swept along the sand calming him after his nightmare. He felt as though he could stay he could stay here forever, but he knew that too was a dream for the weak. He would return to the First Order and he would finish what Darth Vader had started. But what had he started? Picking up the pieces of an already crumbling Empire?
Rey tossed and turned, the cool breeze blowing through the cabin chilling her to the bone. She too had nightmares. She dreamt about all the people who left her and all the people that hurt her. Kylo could see her dream in the back of his mind and he could feel her agony.
He could see her family leave her, Unkar Plutt throwing her to the ground and starving her, Han getting murdered, and him Kylo Ren. He saw himself the way she saw him, or had seen him, a monster; who killed his father, who kidnapped her, hurt her friends, and hurt her. How could anyone hurt her, he wondered, but then again he was one of them.
Ren was her dark shadow that haunted her, like she was the light that haunted him. He hurt her and he felt bad, this would not stand. Rey, Rey, he called but could still feel her dreaming. He called out again louder through the bond, Rey.
She bolted upright startled from her horrid dream. Rey, she heard him call in her head, Rey are you okay? She knew he saw the dream or felt her fear; I'm fine, she called back, I'm sorry for waking you. She was sorry, even though he was at fault for this bond. I was already awake. Did he too have nightmares, she wondered. Okay... well…goodnight, she answered.
She was dumbfounded, did he show care for her or was he just hoping to get some rest in the remanding hours of the night. He probably just wants sleep she thought. Ren tried to convince himself of that too, he could not be feeling compassion or sorrow for anyone, that was weak and he was not weak.
That morning she found him laying in the sand, his scarf for a blanket; he looked peaceful and she wondered if this was peaceful person last night helped out of a nightmare. She dismissed the thought and went into the nearby jungle to look for food and water. Before she got here Master Luke taught her how to find and get clean water. He taught her what kind of fruits and plants to eat and which to leave alone, and what kind of animals to hunt and which ones to not go near.
She filled up her canteens at the small stream that flows across the island; she picked fruit, and shot a small animal or two. When she got back to her cabin she saw Kylo still sleeping, the labors of yesterday still weighing on him. She went inside cleaned the food and had some water, she had no idea what was going to happen today so she might as well eat and be prepared.
When Kylo Ren woke up he found her yet again sitting in the sand meditating. He walked up and stood behind her, "If all you do here is just meditating, you'll get nowhere with your training." She chose to ignore him, meditating was the way she cleared her mind and felt calm, she wouldn't have him screw that up for her. "Spar with me," he blatantly said.
"What?" she replied, turning to face him. Spar with him, what was he thinking, he'd crush her.
"Spar with me. Your attacks are sloppy and your punches are weak. You may have gotten by like this on Jakku but this is your life now. So spar with me." She got up brushing the sand of her; she looked into his eyes fearing the worst. Stay calm and relaxed if you don't your opponent can easily overpower you, he told her.
They sparred for hours, he blocked and she punched, he punched and she blocked. They fought on the sand, he gave her tips on better fighting and she listened; he was helping her and she couldn't complain. She mostly did small exercises with Master Luke and if she had to learn from Kylo, so be it.
"Thank you," she said. It was a couple hours till dusk and they had sparred for the whole day with a few breaks here and there. Rey was actually able to pin Kylo to the ground a mere one or two times, but not for long. She was strong, but he was stronger and had experience; unlike her, he knew what he was doing.
Ren took it easy on her in the beginning but it was hard because he could see her moves a mile away. As time went on and she was getting the hang of it he started to show her some of his full strength. He was surprised by how well she kept up, then he remembered she was a lonely scavenger from Jakku, she had to be tough to survive. He could tell she hadn't physically trained all that much since the Starkiller Base, Luke's doing he presumed.
She was worn out and hungry, so she went into her small cabin and grabbed some of the dwindling rations she had left. She got some nuts, dried fruit, meat, and some water she got that morning. Rey found Kylo sitting in the sand looking at the ocean waves coming and going, she sat down next to him and gave him some food and water. Thank you, he whispered in his head.
He popped one of the bits of dried fruit into his mouth not remembering the last time he ate something so sweet. On the First Order ships the food was plain, simple, and gross, nothing sweet existed on those ships. For the first time in a long time Kylo was happy to be off those dreadful ships. Here it was peaceful and he could think without having someone else monitor his thoughts, well sort of. He didn't mind though because he could do the same with her thoughts.
Rey could feel his calm spirit so strongly and she bet she could if she was halfway across the galaxy. For once he wasn't being ordered around, for once he didn't have someone constantly breathing down his neck, and for not the first or last time she felt a brush a pity for him. She knew he was a monster but deeper down she knew he was Han and Leia's son. Deep down he was still Ben, no matter what he thought.
"Thank you for waking me last night," she said in attempt to break the silence. "The nightmares come and go, so hopefully I won't wake you up again."
"It's okay," was all he said. He couldn't let her know that Kylo Ren also had nightmares. They have plagued his sleep since he was a young boy and Snoke was just beginning to enter his mind. For a while he thought they had faded away, but then he saw her and was left for dead on the Starkiller.
He began to scratch the scar that ran from one side of his face to the other. It had become a habit of his he wished to stop but most of the time he didn't know he was doing it. In the back of his mind he saw the memory of that horrific night, though this time he saw it from Rey's perspective.
He saw a monster fling her back into to a tree without lifting a finger. He saw it attack her friend and barely leaving him alive. And again he saw this beast almost kill her. With a pang of sadness coming of Rey, Kylo Ren put his hand done and left the line of pink scar tissue alone.
At that moment, sitting quietly on the beach, he did not like being Kylo Ren, a monster, but he wasn't about to be Ben either. He never had a problem being Kylo Ren, so why was this lonely girl sitting not but three feet away from him, changing everything he felt? Why was this scavenger bringing out the light in him? The sooner he gets of the island the better, he thought.
Rey sat there next to him watching the ocean waves. She didn't mean for the memory to flash trough her mind but it did. She sat there feeling the sadness elope her, but she could also feel all the emotions emanating off of Ren. She could feel all the conflicting emotions inside of him; the anger versus the pride, the horror against the triumph, and the dark versus the light.
An unending battle she knew would always follow him. Whether he stayed to his dark path the light would follow or turned back to light the dark would be the shadows following him around. But no matter how he tried to hide it the light was there, and it would wait until he was ready to come back. And she knew it.
The sun was beginning set over the waves and turning the sky orange, pink, and purple. I want to show you something, he told her through the bond. He got up and she followed suit with nothing but nervous steps as she followed him. I'm not going to hurt you, he said feeling the anxiety coming off her.
They walked to where the jungle met sand in a tangle of leaves and vines. Kylo bent down rummaging though the sand, dirt, and dead leaves, obviously look in for something. He stood up with an object in his hand; Rey took a step back fear written all over her face. It took everything he had not to give her a sad chuckle, but he couldn't help but smirk; even more so when she clearly got angry at him for doing so.
You see this rock, he said taking a step forward so she could see it then three steps back to put some distance between them. "Yes," she replied. With another step back he threw the rock at her arm. "Ow!" she yelped holding in her arm where there would be a big bruise tomorrow. "I thought you said you weren't going to hurt me," she snapped with a hint of anger in her voice. Kylo just shrugged. Now throw it back at me, he said.
"You're crazy," she said, but she obliged. Rey picked up the rock about the size of her palm and chunked it at his forehead. But before it could hit its target, Kylo closed his eyes and stopped the rock with the force.
Rey's anger turned into awe and curiosity. How did you do that, she asked. He opened his eyes and the rock stayed; she took a couple steps closer to get a better look at the floating rock. She stood perpendicular to him able to see the space between the rock and Ren's forehead. And for the second time that night, but most certainly not the last, he flung the rock at her already bruised arm. "Ow", she screamed again, her anger coming back.
"Is there a point to all this or are you just trying to gloat?" she asked him.
"A true force user can sense an object coming at them and stop it before it lands its blow, before it hurts or kills them," he said gesturing towards her arm. Point, she snapped in his head. "Would you like me to teach you?" She nodded anger melting away.
They practiced for a good two to three hours, well into the night before they went to sleep. Thanks to Ren, Rey was getting stronger and more powerful with the force, though she wasn't that great at picking up the rock with her mind, she could not complain. From working all day Rey fell into a peaceful sleep the second she lay down. Kylo out again on the sand could feel her drag him into sleep too. Both too exhausted from the busy day, no nightmares came to either of them that night. Tomorrow was a new day with new challenges, but for right now they slept, dreaming of the stars.
Authors note: So sorry for taking so long to update, it has been very busy and crazy the last few days. But I hope you all liked this new chapter. Please review. And more coming soon. :)