Chapter Text
The pressure of his heels against the glossy floors creates a clicking noise that he finds satisfactory. He storms the bridge, mask in tact, his hood raised. Hux turns to him, looking him up and down with a harsh stare before returning to his original focus. One day, Kylo Ren swears, he’ll give Hux something to look at. The man won’t know what hit him.
“We’ve received plans that the Resistance are traveling quickly to gather supplies from Lothal, they’re running low on just about everything so it seems,” the doors open again behind Ren as Captain Phasma enters, her clear voice echoing through the bridge.
Hux sucks in his cheek, his eyes glaze over in thought, “then this is our chance to corner the traitorous dogs.”
“If we position this spacecraft along the outer rim of Lothal, we can create a blockade to prevent their much needed supplies from ever getting back to them. When the Resistance drops out of hyperspace, we’ll take out their shields, which allows my fleet to attack from behind. They’ll be trapped and left to die where they stand,” the captain announces.
Ren nods, “execute this plan, I will detail it to the Supreme Leader.” The Knight turns to leave the command center with Hux following him, promising he will not let Ren take all the credit of the victory.
Lightspeed away and hours later, Rey sits in front of the fire, night has fallen over Yavin Four. Her eyes have fluttered close and she sits still, waiting to feel what the force is calling her to. Her master sits across from her, he’s he’s pushing the kindling around the flames with a small staff.
When the First Order fires upon the Resistance from their positions over Lothal, the campfire roars higher. Rey’s eyelids snap open and she gasps. “They’re in trouble!” she announces. Luke continues poking at the base of the fire. “Don’t you sense it?” Skywalker’s padawan hisses.
“Continue your meditation exercise, Rey,” his tone is a warning.
When she closes her eyes she sees Poe, the small amount of X-Wings the Resistance has on board their command ship are all deployed, they barely stand a chance against the First Order’s fleet. Poe evades the fire of many jet black TIE fighters, someone is yelling expletives behind him, Finn. The duo are paired up with each other, “just the old days,” Poe jokes.
“What old days?” Finn furrows his brow. A sharp laugh moves from the pilot’s throat to his gunner’s ears and Poe moves to barrell roll the starfighter. Finn yells in surprise.
Rey feels everything happen, tracing the X-Wing paths within her palm. “I have to go help them,” she rises from her position, Luke shakes his head.
“When I was training, I made the same mistake, Rey. I thought I could handle saving my friends, but that is when the seed of darkness was planted in my mind and left to grow,” her master’s stare softens at the memory.
“I can’t leave them to die, master,” she begins to gather her food rations and other items into her pack.
Luke sighs, “You are not ready to face Ren again.” Rey stops what she’s doing at looks back her master, surprised at the mention of his name. “I know you sense him, Rey. I know that you two experience a bond that even I cannot sever. You are not strong enough yet to take him in battle.”
“I’ve done it once,” Rey moves her bag over her shoulder, ignoring everything else he says on the matter, “it can’t be that hard a second time.”
The Jedi Master stands, calling after her as she hurries away from their campsite. “I’ll come right back!” Rey promises him before the darkness of the night and forest trees cover her completely.
“Chewie!” the padawan yells at she boards the Falcon. The Wookie is asleep in the crew bunks and Rey wastes no time in waking him up. “The Resistance is in trouble, we have to go,” she runs back to the cockpit and readies for takeoff, appreciating that Chewie has traveled with her. Now in possession of the Falcon once again, the wookie stayed on the ship to make repairs, the old freighter had collected too much dust and the engines were a little shot. He and Artoo worked diligently while she trained.
Chewbacca takes his place in the co-pilots chair and begins prepping for takeoff, Artoo lets out a small questioning chip. “We’re setting course for Lothal, Artoo,” Rey answers his question. Chewie lets out a whine at her response. “I know, I know, but we’ll only be there for a little bit,” she reasons.
Luke watches from his place at their, now his, campsite as the all too recognizable Corellian freighter exits the system.
Rey pushes the ship into hyperspace, she’s racing for her friends’ lives and she can’t afford to lose. The padawan gives a short praise to the ship for being so fast. When the freighter drops out of lightspeed, Captain Phasma’s fleet is beginning their attack.
Chewie roars as the pilot practices evasive maneuvers. “Get to the gunning chair! I’m going to try and reach Poe,” Rey picks up her comlink and dials to the Resistance’s channel. “Black Leader, come in Black leader, this is Rey on the Falcon, Poe, come in,” she calls out.
“Rey?” Finn’s voice breaks the static.
“Finn! What’s going on, are you okay?”
“We’re fine! What’re you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be with Skywalker?”
Rey flies over Phasma’s fleet and Chewie shoots two of them down. “I sensed you were in trouble and-”
“Rey!” Poe interrupts, “the First Order has established a blockade to the front of our forces and a wave of TIE fighters at our backs. And there’s one I can’t shake off my tail.”
“I can help with that,” Rey grits her teeth and she aligns the ship over Poe and Finn’s attacker. The ship goes down effortlessly.
Back on the bridge of the First Order’s blockade, Kylo Ren feels a new ship fly into the atmosphere. It’s the Falcon, he knows immediately. Ren tugs at her, using their connection to follow her signature. “I’m boarding their command ship,” the Knight announces, turning on his heels.
“I don’t remember that being a part of the plan we gave to the Great Leader,” Hux taunts.
“The girl Snoke wants is here, he would be most pleased if we were able to deliver her,” Kylo Ren lifts a hand to close the doors behind him.
With the distraction of the battle behind him, the dark apprentice’s escort isn’t noticed until it is landing in the Resistance’s hangar.
“Rey!” Poe’s voice travels through her communicator, “we’ve got new problems. A command shuttle has stormed the hangar, seems like our old buddy is on board.”
Images flicker behind her eyes at the mention of his name, his skin exposed to her, the hut made of sand, the sparks in his eyes, snow against her back. “Leave that to me,” her pulse begins to quicken at the thought of seeing him again.
The stormtroopers accompanying him raise their guns and immediately blast everything and everyone in sight upon docking. Kylo Ren walks past it all, waiting. He closes his eyes and pulls harder at her, something she won’t be able to deny. The Knight clenches his fists at the memory of who he is about to battle. He hasn’t seen her, here, physically, in months. She’s danced around his mind and his thoughts since their last meeting a couple weeks ago, her lips always ghosting over his.
He’s yanking at their connection, like a child grabbing its toy from another. Rey rolls her eyes and wants to tell him to calm down.
When the Falcon lands and she runs out, he isn’t prepared for it. Rey is frozen where she stands when she sees him. It’s the first time she’s seen him with his mask on in ages. Here he stands, Kylo Ren, in all his glory.
Rey wastes no time after she remembers why she’s here, pulling her saber from her belt and charging towards him. The Knight of Ren follows in suit, his unfinished and temperamental blade swinging through the air as he challenges her.
In a twisted sense, he’s proud of her for meeting his first blow. Rey grits her teeth and swings at his waist, he counters. Kylo spins his blade with one hand before pushing it towards the top of her head. Rey ducks and rolls her eyes, he’s barely even trying to actually fight her. Silence has fallen over the two warriors as their lightsabers tap each other, one rolling around the other and vice versa.
The Knight pushes Rey, subtly moving her away from the hangar into a more secluded area. Trying to keep her footing, Rey steps backwards into the hall, their blades still twirling around their bodies. Ren lifts a hand and a door behind his opponent flies open. The padawan takes her saber in both hands and slings it close to his face, Kylo Ren holds his blade likewise and brings it down on hers, they’re so close.
“Still hiding behind a mask,” Rey breaks the muteness between them, bitterness dripping in between words.
“Still sloppy with your techniques,” his voice modulator twisting his tone into something she barely recognizes. She presses hard into his saber, balancing all her weight against him.
The Knight of Ren pushes his hand out in the air, breaking their contact and she goes flying into the room behind her. Ren follows, the door shutting firmly behind them.
They’re alone, the thought blinds her. She’s alone with him, the man who doesn’t ever seem to leave her alone. Rey keeps a reasonable distance from him, her lightsaber still in hand, she’s still ready to attack.
He stands still, sounds of instability and static flying from his saber. Ben doesn’t say anything as his mask decompresses and he raises his arm to take the helmet from his head.
“Why’re you here?” she hisses.
“Just following orders,” his voice is music to her ears, “perhaps I came to see you,” Ben smirks.
Rey fights to stand passive, still ready to defend herself, to attack. He can’t get the best of her just because of the effect his words have over her, “I recall you not wanting to see me again.”
Her words sting. Ben extinguishes his saber and it returns to its place on his belt, hidden by his black robes. When they last met, she had rejected him, rejected his cause, rejected the idea of them. Being in a room with her now, alone, he aches for her.
Kylo Ren feels his heart burning with passion for seeing her, “I’m taking you with me this time,” he warns.
“Not on your life,” Rey bites her lip, she wants nothing more than to run to Ben and bury her head in his chest.
“Rey, drop your lightsaber.”
Ben takes a step towards her, their eyes locked on each other. “Rey,” his voice is like stone.
The padawan’s fingers betray her and she switches the blade off. Ben smirks and he closes the distance between them, taking both her hands in his, it’s becoming his signature move. The feeling of her skin under his gloves just about knocks the air out of his lungs. She’s real in front of him. For a moment Rey is terrified that she truly did dream everything that has happened between them.
Ben angles himself over her so that she can feel his breath against her face, the sensation makes her knees weak. “Rey,” he says her name again, this time it’s a soft plead.
“End the blockade,” her stare passes through him at first, she is firm and strong in what she knows she must do. Ben doesn’t so much as shift away from her. “I said, call off the blockade,” Rey repeats.
“I can’t do that.”
“Then leave.”
A small smile tugs at the corners of Ben’s lips, “you don’t want me to do that.”
Rey shakes her head, “my friends are dying and you think I want to be locked in a room with you?”
Kylo Ren steps back into place, the padawan can sense frustration working its way through his body, disappointment even, obvious to her. She wants to look into his mind, seeing what he really wants, why he’s here. A part of her wants him to look her in the eyes and tell her that he is here for her, to stay. He’s here for his mother, he’s tired of being a slave to the First Order, he needs to escape the hate his life has birthed. She wants him to look at her in eyes and say that he’s staying.
Before the Knight can answer, the ship rocks. “I swear if we must go through this one more time,” Ren curses, leaving the empty threat without an end. A loud explosion is heard.
“Maybe you should call off the attack so we both don’t go down,” Rey hisses, Ren shrugs.
Rey’s breaths become louder as he goes quiet, both won’t look away. The ground begins to shake again and Rey’s balance is lost. She curses when his arm intercept her from hitting the ground, he almost falls as well. When their eyes meet again, he is Ben through and through, as if Kylo Ren has never existed.
“I can’t call off the attack,” he says, remorseful. Rey digs deeper into his stare, challenging him. She’s making him choose between his personal desires and the First Order’s victory. “If you come with me,” she can almost see the gears in his mind begin to turn, “we will leave your friends alone.”
The padawan feels the offer like a blow to her chest. Faintly, she can hear Finn and Poe struggling, the entire Resistance is in more danger than they know. “You’ll drop the blockade?”
Ren’s eyes slightly light up at the idea of her considering it, “we will drop the blockade and I’ll call off the attack.”
Rey's eyes turn to daggers for a moment, her veins freeze to ice amidst her anger. The knight is almost overwhelmed at how frustrated she is, their connection flooded with her choice words for him in the moment. But, Finn and Poe are out there. General Organa is out there. They're counting on her. Master Luke is going to kill her for this one.
“Okay,” she breathes fire, “I’ll go.”
Kylo Ren presses a kiss against the corner of her mouth as he swipes his hand above her head, stealing her consciousness from her. Rey tries to avoid the gesture once she realizes what he is doing, but soon the world goes black. Ben Solo disappears under a black helmet. “Call off the attack,” Ren raises his comlink, “we have something more important.” Her knees buckle and he holds her bridal style, almost letting out a chuckle at how much has changed since the last time they’ve been in this position.
He always knew he would hold her like this again, perhaps one day, it’ll be happier occasion.