Chapter Text
Rey sprints through the twilit woods of Takodana, jumping logs and dodging tree trunks at full tilt.
This is a dream; she’s sure of it. The ground doesn’t feel quite solid beneath her feet. But the dark, hostile thing chasing her feels unnervingly real.
She's unarmed—no blaster, not even the fragments of Luke's lightsaber—and the heavy footfalls are getting closer.
As she dashes into a rock-strewn clearing, Rey suddenly remembers that she's not quite defenseless. She’s surrounded by power and potential weapons. Drawing on the Force, she lifts a boulder twice the size of BB-8, then whirls and launches it at whatever is chasing her.
The rock freezes in mid-air, just a few feet away from a tall figure in black. His hand is outstretched, halting the stone and then attempting to heave it back at her. He presses harder by the second, compelling Rey to match force with force.
"You still want to kill me," Kylo says in that detached tone of his. His face is impassive despite the tremendous power he’s exerting on the stone. It's all Rey can do to keep the boulder from hurtling back at her.
"I didn't know it was you," Rey says through gritted teeth. "I just knew something dark was chasing me."
Snow begins falling—first a few flakes, then more, then so many that his dark form is half veiled in white.
This push-of-war is pointless. They could keep it up until one of them wears out, but what would that prove? Fed up with conflict and stalemates, Rey sidesteps and releases the stone. It careens past her, carving a gulley in the snow as it disappears among the trees.
She half expects him to fling something else or ignite his crackling lightsaber, but he just stands motionless with his hands balled into fists.
"Is that all I am to you?" he asks. "Just something dark?" The snow is falling so thickly that she can’t read his expression, but his voice has a hard edge to it.
"I don't know anymore. Every time I think I know you, you turn my impression upside down. You flung me against a tree, then offered to be my teacher. You promised me I wasn't alone, then you said I was nothing and told me to abandon everyone I cared about."
The snow melts into a black puddle of glossy black stone, and the frosty pines fade to reveal a vast room draped with scarlet curtains. Snoke's throne sits empty and inviting, as if it’s waiting for some new tyrant to fill it. She suspects one already has.
"And what about you?" he counters. "You called me a snake and a liar, only to find that I was right all along. I saved you, offered my hand to you, but you reached for a weapon instead!"
Fire blooms on the curtains, eating away ragged windows to the blackness of space. Rampaging light creating swaths of darkness.
“I could never join the First Order!" she shouts. "I'm trying to make this galaxy a place where people don’t have to live in fear!”
“No, I'm the one doing that,” he thunders, “and I asked you to join me, but all you cared about was your anarchist friends and your lost cause!”
A bolt of blue lightning strikes the black throne, then the fires go out, plunging them into near darkness. She can barely see Kylo, but she can sense him loud and clear—a stormy cloud of anger, hurt, frustration, and longing.
More lightning flashes around them. By the flickering blue light, Rey sees stone spikes extending from Snoke’s throne, like giant, grasping talons. The throne faces an amphitheater filled with thousands of hooded figures, whispering in anticipation. Enormous, robed statues tower above them, their faces lost in darkness.
“What is this place?” Rey murmurs.
Kylo’s dark eyes sweep the immense hall then lock with hers, his jumbled emotions coalescing into adamantine resolve. “It’s our destiny.”
***
Kylo wakes to the sight of sterile, grey walls and the steady hum of the Finalizer’s engines. He can still see the shock and fear on Rey's face . . . because whether she admits it or not, she knows his words are true.
He'll chase her and challenge her until she unleashes the fierce darkness lurking behind her light facade. It’s only a matter of time before she joins him—he can feel it.
And when she does, they'll be unstoppable.