A/N: WARNING - contains Episode VII spoilers! I repeat: CONTAINS SPOILERS!

I know that a lot of what happened in the movie vs. what I wrote in this chapter doesn't exactly match up, I was unable to remember some (okay, maybe all) of the exact lines from the movie so I left a lot of the dialogue out or made up similar lines to what I could remember. But have no fear, once the movie comes out on DVD and I can pause and restart as many times as I want, I will go back and edit. In the meantime, please be kind.

Disclaimer: I do not own the universe of Star Wars, nor do I claim to.

The Apprentice

Chapter 1

He watched her as she slept. His eyes traced over her curves, only partially obscured by filthy, sand-stained sheets that hung from her shoulders to her belt. Everything about her was beautiful: her slender neck, her perfectly bowed lips, dark brown eyelashes against her closed eyes. Eyes that were the shade of brown that seemed to reach on for eternity. Even though he had only seen them for just a few moments, they were still etched in his mind.

Asleep, she seemed so frail and innocent – almost helpless, even – but Kylo Ren knew that she was anything but. He could sense it. He could feel her power. The air was alive with it. It pricked at the corner of his senses, filling his mind with static. Filling his mind with her. The force was strong in this young Resistance girl – perhaps too strong – and he started to doubt if the cuffs on her arms would be enough to hold her back from escaping.

He almost laughed at himself. Who was he kidding? This girl didn't have any training in the ways of the Force and he would've bet just about anything that she hadn't yet realized her potential. When he had chased her down in the Takodana woods, all she had done to protect herself was to fire several clumsily-aimed blaster shots. She hadn't even tried to tap into the Force. Kylo Ren straightened himself up where he sat. He needed to get a grip on himself. He would never become as strong as Darth Vader if he let some small, helpless girl intimidate him, force sensitive or not.

The girl woke with a jolt and when their eyes met, hers widened.

"Where am I? Where did you take me?" she demanded.

He sensed her fear - so intense that it felt like a jab to the pit of his stomach. He knew he shouldn't, but something made him want to reach out and console her. He wished that he could reassure her that there was nothing she should be afraid of.

Without thinking, he reached up and undid the fastens on his helmet and lifted it up from his face. Dark curls sprung free from it and coal black eyes peaked out from behind his abnormally large nose, imploring the girl to find reassurance in his sudden reveal. Underneath all the metal and machinery, he was human too.

Her face softened slightly, but her breaths still came out in short, ragged gasps so Kylo Ren reached his hand out toward her.

What the hell am I doing? Sith Lords don't get their strength from compassion, he tried to remind himself, it only makes us weak.

Instead, he drew upon the Force and pushed his way into the girl's mind, beginning to sift through her memories. She had a little piece of information that he needed. She knew the whereabouts of the droid BB-8 - the droid that just so happened to be carrying the map that led to Luke Skywalker's location. If only he could find Skywalker, then his problems would be over.

Skywalker, the last Jedi... If Kylo Ren could defeat him, the balance in the Force would finally return to totally favor the Dark Side and the First Order would be even more unstoppable than they already were.

As he sifted through her thoughts, visions of the desert world, Jakku, and her market village passed through his mind. And then the droid. With its round, white body and orange markings, it was unmistakably the one he was searching for.

Kylo Ren slowed down his search, making sure he wouldn't overlook a single detail. He kept combing through images of the defective Stormtrooper, gunfire on Jakku, the Millennium Falcon, Han Solo.

There it was.

The map.

And then Kylo Ren was thrown out of the girl's head.

She had seen it. Kylo had been right - the girl was all he had needed to take. Somewhere in her head, she had a memory of the map to Luke Skywalker. Once he extracted it from her mind, that information would be his.

Skywalker would be his.

Only, he needed a longer look at the map. He increased his efforts and threw everything he had at the girl, but it was almost as if she had built a brick wall around her mind. No matter how much he tried, he couldn't get in.

The girl was strong. Perhaps too strong.

"I know you've seen the map, give it to me," Kylo Ren growled at her.

"I will never," she spat. The girl's face contorted with pain, but her resolve still remained.

Kylo Ren narrowed his eyes and backed off, only to throw every ounce of power he had back at her. Pain pounded at the side of his head and sweat began to roll down the side of his face in tiny beads. The girl's eyes burned with pain, but they still held a fiery intensity. He knew she would not give up so easily; her resolve was far too strong. But Kylo Ren kept launching attack after attack on her. He was only chiseling at the stone wall protecting her mind, but he knew that with time, any wall could fall down.

And there it was, a crack.

The girl arched her back, straining against her bonds, and yelled out in pain. Guilt washed over Kylo Ren and his forehead wrinkled in confusion. Why did it have to be now that he started to feel emotions again. After years of training, he wasn't supposed to ever feel this much. Why did it have to be now? Why now, when he was so close?

It was those eyes. Those damn brown eyes. And that skin. It looked soft and he wanted desperately to reach out and touch it. To run his thumb down her cheek to her chin.

He immediately shook himself from the daydream, but in his ceasefire, she had already patched up the crack that he had started to worm his way into.

But those eyes….

Fuck it.

He needed to get a hold on himself. He ground his teeth together and tore himself away from her gaze before storming out of the room. The interrogation could always wait until later. He needed to clear his head. He needed to get her out of his head. Her image clouded his mind and blocked his power.

How dare she.

This job needed to be over quickly, before she could do any more damage. She was messing with his head and it was all her fault. Kylo Ren needed to get the map from her and then send her away - far away - as soon as possible. He slammed his fist into the corridor's wall, leaving a dent in it. He stood like that for a few minutes, breathing heavily and staring down at where his fingers met the steel. If the girl tried to mess with him again, he vowed to himself that he would crush her like a bug. She was nothing to him and he would treat her as such. If she dared to defy him again, he would make her writhe in agony until she fell to his feet, begging for mercy.

He would get that map.

With his anger raging inside of him, he strode back to the girl's cell, but when he got there, something was wrong. The door had been left open and the stormtrooper guarding her was nowhere in sight. Fearing the worst, he flung himself through the doorway.

The room was empty.

There was no sign of struggle; the locks on the girl's cuffs had been released and they lay open next to where she had been kept. How had she managed? No one before her had ever escaped without inside help.

But this girl wasn't just anybody. She was strong with the Force. She must have discovered her powers, Kylo Ren realized. She was somehow learning, teaching herself the ways with each passing moment.

"Find the girl," Kylo Ren commanded the stormtroopers that accompanied him. "And quickly. The longer she's out there, the more dangerous she becomes."

He took his lightsaber out and unsheathed its three glowing blades. A dull hum filled the room, but Kylo Ren didn't hear that over the thunder of his thoughts.

How could he have ever been so stupid to underestimate the girl? He roared as he lifted the lightsaber above his head and slashed it against the restraints. Sparks flew and Kylo Ren did not let up the attack. Again and again, he swiped his lightsaber, creating more and more smoldering divots. It wasn't until his arms were sore and sweat coated his neck in a thin, shimmering layer that he stopped to catch his breath.

Damn that girl and her endless brown eyes.

Damn her to the end of the Universe.

He wanted that girl like he had wanted no other. But not as a prisoner. No, she could be of a lot more value to him than that. She was a fighter and the Force was strong in her. She would make a good apprentice.

If only she would join him, they could rule the Universe together.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed the first chapter of The Apprentice! I just saw Episode VII last night and could not get this pairing out of my mind, so of course I had to write a fic about it.

Also, I've heard several fan theories about how Rey might be Luke's daughter, making Kylo and Rey cousins. What do you think of this? Will the ship sink or float? I'd love to know :)