AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hope you Enjoy! Also! I changed the cover p!icture of the story! What do you guys think? Also ALSO If you go down to the bottom of all my posted chapters, you'll see the title of my next chapter as a little sneak peek! ;)

DISCLAIM: I DO NOT OWN STAR WARS

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Chapter 11: A Mandatory Circumstance

. . .

Before his dinner with Rey, he was glad to have finished his day on a lighter note, meetings, calculations, and other things he cared very little for in the morning, and training at the end. The Star Destroyer was equipped with many athletic halls, most were equipped with range targets for the new recruits. There were a few for melee training, and Kylo Ren found himself in all of them on a routinely basis.

They were lined with holograms, bags, armor, and weapon racks upon weapon racks. The troops would struggle with combat, of course, their armor made it difficult. Hand to Hand combat training was mandatory, but it was considered a last resort in battle, hence the abundance of shooting ranges.

Even so, they're not that great at that either...

It was here that he was able to think and speak his mind, loud enough for him to fully be himself, but not loud enough for anyone else to hear. There was never anyone around, of course. Stormtroopers knew better than to step anywhere near Kylo Ren when he was holding anything remotely resembling a weapon, even though it was never the weapons they were afraid of.

Kylo Ren picked up one of the dummy-grams pods, he hardly needed to look, let alone lift his hand in this process. He tightened his hand in one of the gloves while moving the still, motionless figure to the large, white ring in the center of the mat. The small, beverage-coaster sized device was placed gently on the ground, and a large, blue figure emerged.

The figures in these were always faceless, fearless even. This particular pod was a gender neutral figure, readily stanced with a long saber. This was the very opponent Kylo Ren found himself with more evenings than he cared to admit, he was a decent fighter, but his programming was limited to an extent he'd seen many, many times. He thought about giving him a name, but then he chose not to.

The program's gaze stared intently, the vision flickered as Kylo Ren turned to face him. He tried to imagine a face upon his opponent's, more often than not, it was his father's face he imagined staring back at him. Even though his choice of weapon was a blaster, it helped to immerse himself into the reality that was his hatred.

He heard the locked door behind him open from the outside, and a pair of footsteps began making their way slowly to him. The trance had been broken, and Kylo Ren shut his eyes, trying to recollect himself with this foreign disruption coming closer to him. "Leave." He felt he only needed to demand once.

"Sir," The man rasped, he was weak and out of breath, as if he'd been running to this position, "You asked me to report if there had been any disturbances with your... associate."

Kylo Ren didn't turn upon hearing this, but his concentration had been officially broken. He knew there wasn't going to be any training after this, and he felt ignorant to the fact he wasn't keeping careful tabs on Rey like he instructed himself to do. "And?"

The man didn't speak for a moment, carefully choosing his words as to help Kylo Ren understand what he'd seen. He explained everything, even kept careful track of time during her disappearance. He reported his account like an officer should, knowing full well it was out of his jurisdiction to be working specifically for Kylo Ren.

"Who was the Stormtrooper." Kylo Ren commanded, hearing his electronic voice echo off the metal walls around him.

"We have reason to believe it was FN-217."

Kylo Ren turned his head, the dummy-gram faded into the air from inactivity.

"Detain him," He commanded again, "I want him in the interrogation chamber." He wasn't sure why, but he thought of Hux in this moment. Peering at him through his beady eyes, scrutinizing every move he was making and hearing every word, "No one else is to know."

"Yes sir," The greysuit nodded his head, turned on a foot, and began walking out of the area. His footsteps echoed until Kylo Ren couldn't hear them anymore...

He thought about Rey, whatever happened in that room, it was out of the Stormtrooper's authority. There was zero tolerance for such nonsensical action, they were hardly ever allowed to step foot out of alignment on duty...

The peculiarity, however, hardly seemed to matter at all. In fact the more he thought about it, the more it became shrouded in an unearthly feeling he recognized too well as rage.

His shoulders tensed, his blood began to heat, and he felt his fists rise and fall into the air, a childlike tendency he disliked intensely. The thought of a stormtrooper helmet crossed his mind, a young, new recruit that had taken a liking to the pretty trainee-... Little did he know who she belonged to.

Belonged to... That thought echoed again, recoiling through the pulsing fury inside him. Belongs to...

She belongs to me...

...She'll see after this...

...My devotion...

...My willingness to please her...

...This one will pay...

He led Rey into a small, dim chamber, no larger than the inside of her AT AT. The mirror before them made the room appear to expand, he saw himself in the mirror, but only at a glance. There was no furniture, no windows, no sound, just the door and the mirror.

"Rey," He spoke quietly, "I know what happened... But I want to make it right by you."

There was an electrical compartment near the window she didn't see until Ren placed his hand on it, hitting a switch with a click.

The mirror changed, it became a window. Rey was no longer looking at herself, but someone else.

Finn was strapped to some kind of standing device, it was tight across his armor, his head entirely free from his helmet.

Rey clenched her jaw, she felt her eyebrows furrow, and she found herself staring upon Finn. He looked so out of place, terrified, even. His eyes bulged, and Rey thought she saw a red drop from his eyebrow.

"What is this..." She spoke in a breath, obviously disturbed from this scene.

Kylo Ren did not hear the apprehensive tone in her voice, "This is an example." He spoke honestly, "I swore you protection you as long as you're with me." He looked to her, taking careful consideration of her state and gently lowering his tone, "This is what happens when someone disrespects that..."

Rey turned to him, his cold stare hardly matched his soft tone, and for a moment, she found comfort in it... But that very moment was brief, and Rey's stomach began to twist as she watched Kylo Ren's arm lift into the air. His fingers locked in their joints, as if grappling thin air... But it wasn't air at all, she knew.

Her head whipped to Finn, his head lurched back into the headrest, eyes rolling around in his skull, brown to white as if trying to see the hand that was clutching his throat. His gags were silent behind the mirror, but Rey realized he had been struggling to suck air back into his lungs, as it was abruptly cut off.

She clasped her hands over her lips, desperate to hold back a yelp, she hadn't realized she was crying until now.

"No..." She cried, soft enough to barely register she'd actually said it. She turned back to him, his usual look seemed unusually intensified in this moment as his head lowered ever slightly. This miniscule act reinforced pressure upon Finn's throat, Rey saw this through the changing color in Finn's face.

His lips pursed, desperate for a lick of air, but they flattened quickly. Again and again, this motion persisted... It wasn't a gasp for air, she knew... He was mouthing,

"Rey...

Rey...

Rey..."

"Stop it!" She seemed to slur, forcing her voice to articulate. His expression was left unchanged, Rey expected this much. She stood frozen, helpless to this malice.

He's gonna kill him, She heard herself think, You've gotta do something or he's gonna die, and you'll be stuck here forever.

Come on, come on...

He's only a man...

Rey's feet moved, but she didn't feel them. The kinetic wind brushed through her hair, but she did not feel it. Her eyes left her blind to the unknown as she felt her arms extend, fingers fully lengthened, reaching out to force whatever was in her path.

She came to her senses as a sudden force hit her knee, and she thought her cap would shatter on the impact. Rey realized she had meant to push Kylo Ren, or to grab him or tackle him or physically stop him in some way possible. With the pain crashing in both knees now, she knew this was a silly, impulsive thought. She hadn't even made it halfway to where he was standing.

Rey was afraid to meet his gaze, too embarrassed from herself and her lousy attempt at something half as heroic as she knew Finn would have done for her... But she did it anyway. When she looked up to where his black helm shined in the light, it was not there.

It was flickering upon the ground, its body struggling to take back its stance on the floor. A pair of black hands slammed on the ground, pushing back against the floor, lifting the rest of its torso.

She met the thin, silver lines upon its helm where a pair of eyes should have been. Rey didn't remember feeling an appendage, or a torso, or any part of his body. She knew it must have taken every bit of strength she had inside her and then some to take him fully to the ground, but she did not recall the impact.

"What did you do..."

Kylo Ren's voice was low, hellish, even. It was angry, furious at this rebellious attack, but also obviously disturbed at the same time.

Rey had no answer, her palms were suddenly drawn into the air, they were shaking. She felt her own teeth grit, and her once flimsy hands turned into fists made of steel.

"Leave him alone..."

He rose, his gaze unflinching from hers. He tried to pinpoint the exact location upon himself he had been forced off his feet, but he was unable to tell. It was hard to make out anything in this moment, but the look upon Rey's glowering rage had been enough to set the tone.

Kylo Ren looked to the stormtrooper in the strapped frame, his head was slumped across his chest, visibly unconscious, he wondered if he was dead.

Isn't that what she would have wanted?

Retribution?

"I don't understand." He finally spoke, honestly expressing his uncertainty. "I thought you'd be pleased..."

He watched as her eyes squinted, as if he had spoken in an entirely different language and she had to process exactly what he had said. "Pleased?" She hissed, a thin wisp of saliva slivered to the side of her lip, she seemed to care little, "You're a monster."

These words were weapons, daggers that lodged themselves inside of him somewhere, pressing deeply on his nerves and stoking his emotions far past the lump in his throat. He knew in this moment alone, he'd failed.

The evening dinners had failed.

The day where he would touch her hand with his own had failed.

The trust had failed.

But he wouldn't let it show... Kylo Ren wouldn't let it show.

"I told you I would protect you," He repeated coldly.

Kylo Ren watched her climb to her feet, her eyes never left his, and in that moment, he thought she'd seen the two brown eyes behind his silver slits. Her fists still balled, her stance ready... The nightgown made her appear more spirit-like, he thought, like a spirit from another world. "I can protect myself."

He should have been angry.

He should have thrown her across the room just as she did to him, or strangling her in a full rage for being the first person to ever have the audacity to force that vigor upon him. He knew he would have done it to anyone else in the galaxy...

"I have no doubt about that..." He spoke silently now, hoping to soothe some of the tension between them. "How did you do that..."

Rey's lip began to twitch, her fingers began to loosen like strings, and she became forced to the idea of what exactly happened.

Her mind made her believe she slipped, her hands went through the thin air and cut it like sand, but touched nothing at all. The air between them shifted in that moment of gravity, and she believed it was her own undoing.

But it was her own doing.

"I-..." She realized she'd said, the immense pressure of it pressing down and forcing her eyes to swell again, "I don't know..."

Her once reddened face from hatred now became flushed with anxiety, he realized the quiver in her lip was out of her control. Her hands lifted again, she looked upon them as if they were injured, like they had been ripped to shreds from the sheer impact that came from her. She began to shake, and her breaths shortened to the point he worried she would faint in the next few moments.

He knew.

It was the experience he'd felt the first time in Jedi Training.

Luke Skywalker.

'The Force.'

She feels it, too...

It unfolded before him, it had been before him this entire time... Even when it was planets away, it was all becoming real now...

Every fine detail that was once discarded came to light, the 'awakening' of their connection, their contact, and now this...

"Don't be afraid..." He told her, "It can't hurt you..." Kylo Ren took a step closer, Rey shuddered back in retreat, partly afraid of him and what else she was capable of doing to him given the opportunity. She seemed to wait for him to do something, her hands still frozen in that state, her eyes watching to see which arm was about to extend... "I'm not going to hurt you..."

He waited before thinking of making another step, her body was tense. Kylo Ren was unsure of how well he could handle Rey in this unpredictable state. Rey was powerful, he knew this from the moment they had first spoken, but this was something his mind never allowed him to imagine...

She was strong. Strong enough to launch him from his feet, there was no telling what else she was capable of...

But in this vulnerable state, he knew she could be contained-... to an extent.

He stepped forward again, waiting for an unsettling response from her, but there was none. The artificial light from above made her eyes appear to glisten even brighter as he drew nearer.

Her hands became empty cups at chest-level, holding them out before him in utter uncertainty. He imagined she hoped for knowledge or understanding, maybe even forgiveness in some way... They were pitiful, and far more heart-rending than her pathetic scene in the bathroom...

Kylo Ren took her hands inside of his own, filling the empty cups over the brims with his black hands. He could not feel the warmth from her touch, but he saw the red blush cross her cheeks, and knew this was enough. She was safe here.

"It's all right..." He comforted her again.

She looked upon the black hands that engulfed hers with no hesitance, no reluctance or impulse to pull away...

Kylo Ren felt her thin fingers within his own, he thought he could break them all with just a forceful squeeze of his hand. But he discarded that thought.

An impulse would find its way into the spotlight of his thoughts, then would quickly bury itself under his radar. Again and again and again, as if two sides of his mind were fighting for dominance, logic and urges, right and wrong.

This idea hazed his current state of turmoil so greatly, he didn't feel the slip of Rey's thin fingers through his hands. "What are you trying to do..."

The motion of her hand falling from his snug grip left him feeling cold, not only in his hands, but his emotional hold as well. She was slipping entirely from him, it was touch and go now. I have you, no you don't, there you are again, goodbye.

It was time for another strategy, he knew. Rey was not so easily enticed with beautiful rooms and food, he knew, she was not superficial in any way, shape or form, and he never imagined changing that.

She craved another kind of nourishment, he knew.

"I have another offer for you," He spoke so openly, almost kindly, she heard.

Rey almost scoffed to this, "What could you possibly have to offer me now..."

"Three weeks," He retorted against her sarcasm, "Three weeks for me to teach you, and then..." The hook was out, he knew Rey was enticed, but the next part came out more difficult to say than he imagined. "I'll release you."

A glimmer flashed as her glassy, brown eyes widened, Kylo Ren saw the intrigue just as he'd seen the nerf steak before her. She didn't say anything in that flash, but she chose her words bluntly, "Teach me what..."

He wanted to approach her, to distinguish the intensity and genuinely of his next words, but he didn't want to lose this grip any more than he already had, "I'll teach you the Force... And other useful trades."

She chuckled for a moment, then paused, a swollen smile waited as she expected a response quickly. "You're joking." There was no response. When the silence came back to them, her smile faded. "Why...?" She asked.

He swallowed again, not expecting to explain the reasoning behind this, and completely unprepared how to answer at all in a way she would understand and accept... "I want you to stay..."

He sounded pathetic, he knew. It was a new low to be giving out such declarations to someone, but it wasn't a new phenomenon at all, he also knew. She was still the same woman...

There's still time...

Whatever it takes to make her stay...

Make her change her mind...

Rey looked strangely calm, he thought. She wasn't disturbed or recoiled by this new statement, it almost worried him from the lack of reaction, but he continued nevertheless, "Three weeks of training, one day off during the week, and on your last day, every credit you've earned will be sent wherever you choose to go."

She heard this, but it was evident she was still processing, still toying with the idea of a window, a way out. Rey blinked, finally concluding what was just spoken and silencing the quiver in her lip with her teeth.

"I need to think about it."

He didn't hear her for a moment, the words did not match with the typical yes or no he was so used to, but her solemn face said more than needed to be heard. "What's there to think about?" He almost laughed, half insulted by the declined offer of this generous bargain.

"How do I know this isn't some trick... Or you won't honor your word?"

"I'll honor it," He said, noting the insult to injury, "As long as you hold yours." He reached, pointing his finger to her face. A cold gesture, he knew, but it was too late to let the catch go now, "Your work day ends at five, training is until six thirty, and then you join me for dinner each night."

"Dinner?"

"Yes," He worried he sounded too cheerful to say that, but Rey didn't seem to notice, "Consider it a mandatory circumstance."

Her head nodded slightly, if he would have blinked in that moment, he would have missed it. Her gaped lips and squinted eyes left him to believe this particular arrangement stood out significantly from the rest, "Fine."

Ren took a moment to process her final stance of reluctance, then let a feeling of relief press its hands into his shoulders. He lifted them against this feeling, straightening his back and refusing to let this moment be acknowledged. He was impressed with her, and himself, he was unsure as to what won her over so easily, but in the end, he knew it was something to do with credit.

If that's what it'll take, buy your own time then...

"Very well, then. Shall I escort you back to your room?"

Rey took one last look into the window, it had become dark, and whoever was on the other side was long gone now. Her eyes followed the tiles down the wall, until they met with the ones on the floor, to Kylo Ren's shoes, to his helmet.

"I suppose I have no choice, now." She knew.

Please tell me your thoughts and review as honestly as possible. No Star Wars FanFiction is perfect, unless it's written, sealed, signed, and kissed by George Lucas himself, but I hope this makes at least 1 person happy.

Thanks for reading! Come back for 'Chapter 12: More Than Ready.'