Hi. This is the first fic I've written since I was about 14 (so like 10 years!), so any and all constructive criticism is greatly appreciated. I've already started writing a second chapter, so if people like chapter 1 and want more, I'll post it :D Thanks again!

3 years earlier...

The blue glow shot from the end of the lightsaber, spearing the guard's helmet. He dropped to the floor, dead, as Kylo rose to his feet. His eyes never left Rey's, anchoring him to the present as everything he had done hit him full force.

He'd spent his whole life under the influence of others. First his parents, then his uncle, the Jedi, the expectations people had of his bloodline, all while suffering that dark voice dragging against the nerves in his brain. But now, the silence was deafening, screaming through his brain that somehow, something was different, something was wrong. He had killed Snoke. And now his master's voice was gone, Kylo's mind finally his own, and he had no idea what to do next.

Rey turned from him, her eyes releasing him and allowing him to take note of his surroundings. The bodies of Snoke's elite Praetorian guards were scattered around the room, the curtains burned away entirely to show the full extent of the massacre still occurring on the tiny transports before them. Blood stained the ground in ever-growing pools, released by those unfortunate guards who had not been killed by lightsaber, but by their own blades and spears. The grotesque, disfigured body of his former master was split in half, one hand still resting on the arm of the throne.

Kylo did not regret what he'd done, not for a second, but the lack of guilt did not allow him any comfort. He was a ship set adrift on a stormy sea. He no longer had a place in the galaxy, nothing to anchor him but those eyes. He needed her by his side.

The galaxy would never understand them, the power they wielded, even his own family had abandoned him to it's mercy. But she would not, she never would. No matter his actions, no matter the extent to which her hatred of him grew, she would never judge him for his abilities. He had seen inside her mind and knew how she felt for him, the compassion she had for him that mirrored his own for her. But how could they be together?

There was a line that divided them, a question of morality, and it seemed that neither would ever be willing to give even an inch to the other. She may have seen the light that still burned within him, but she was blind to how much that light relied on the darkness. Instead she seemed determined to drive out the darkness, to mould him into another Jedi, as she perceived herself to be. He knew that he would never survive such a transformation.

And yet he'd seen their future, it was a vision he would forever have burned into his mind. It had been of the two of them together, almost childlike in it's simplicity. He couldn't tell you where they had been in his vision, at what point in the future it was, any real details other than that they had been together. He'd felt their bond, alive and burning like a fire in their minds, always together no matter how far apart they were. He hadn't killed Snoke for her, the pull and influence his master had had over his mind had been too strong to be destroyed by a mere scavenger. But for this trust and belonging he had felt in their joint future? For the hope that such a future might come to pass? He would see the entire galaxy in flames to ensure that it did.

'The fleet,' she called, 'order them to stop firing. There's still time to save the fleet'. Her words barely registered. There must be something, anything that he could say to get her to remain with him.

'Ben?' He would be her future, no one else needed her like he did.

'It's time for old things to die. Snoke, Skywalker, the Sith, the Jedi, the rebels, let it all die.' He turned to watch her reactions, stepping closer and closer to her. It was all he could offer her and yet it was everything, he would give her the galaxy, the planets, the moons, the stars. Now that Snoke was dead it was all his to give, he was the most powerful man in the galaxy and it was all in his power to give.

'Rey', his hand, reaching out for her as though reaching out to tempt a wild animal, 'I want you to join me'.

'We can rule together, bring a new order to the galaxy.' He would bring the galaxy to heel. People would bow at their feet and they would become untouchable. And together, they would have the power to destroy everything that had come before, to wash away their past lives and their past sins and begin anew, away from the cruel legacies of their parents.

Yet, somehow, seeing the look forming on her face as he spoke, she seemed almost… he could barely place the emotion. Was it sadness? Anger? Disappointment? He was offering her the chance to erase everything, to rule the galaxy by his side, why would she not take it from him?

'Don't do this Ben, please don't go this way.' He could feel his emotions roiling under the surface, monsters fighting against their restraints and begging to be released. He could almost hear Snoke's deep, resonating voice again, whispering in his ear. She would resist you? A scavenger! You offer her the galaxy because you are weak. You offer her your supplication because you are weak. You accept her refusals because you are WEAK! His brow furrowed as he tried to block out the voice ringing inside his own head. She was still trying to convince herself of her allegiance to the light, she would never accept him, his darkness, until she had let go of what she had been taught.

'No, no, you're still holding on. Let go!' He knew what it was that she truly couldn't let go of. It wasn't the general, her traitorous friends or the resistance that she was clinging to so fiercely, but the vaguest memories she had of her parents. He'd felt it within her, the resolve to be 'good' in the hopes that this would earn her the return of her parents. It was the ideology of a child, an ideology he himself had adhered to once, long ago, and one that she needed to be set free from. It was the greatest gift he could give to her, even more so than the death of his master. He would free her from the shadows of her parents, as he had been, and the hope that they would ever return for her. He would show her how similar they were to one another.

'Do you want to know the truth about your parents? Or have you always known?'

He slowly began to walk towards her, if he was to speak the truth of their connection aloud then no one else in the galaxy would hear it.

'You've just hidden it away.' This secret, this thing that bound them together would be theirs and no one else's. The world may only see her as a scavenger, in truth she WAS only a scavenger, but to him she was so much more than that. She was a kindred spirit, someone else who had known the betrayal of a family and he wanted no others to know of this truth that they shared. It was something that belonged to them alone.

'You know the truth, say it' He moved closer, towering over her as if trying to physically press the answers out of her.

'Say it' He whispered.

'They were nobody'

'They were filthy junk traders, who sold you off for drinking money.' Her breath caught at the revelations he was laying before her. It was breaking her heart to finally admit what she'd always known, yet all he could feel was gratitude to the drunkards who had brought her into the world. In leaving her behind on Jakku they had made her his equal. They had bestowed upon her the same pain that he had been forced to bear for so many years and planted within her a darkness that would never leave her.

'They're dead, in a pauper's grave in the Jakku desert. You have no place in this story.' Finally, her sobs began in earnest. Tears created streaked lines that ran through the dirt and sweat covering her face. Yes, it would hurt her now, but in time she would become stronger for it. They would become stronger for it as she left everything behind. She would come to realise that she would have a place in the story, from then on. Her connection to him would make her a part of the story.

'You come from nothing, you're nothing.' A flash of red cut sharply through the pain he could feel coming from her side of the bond. She was angry at him and her eyes narrowed slightly even as her tears continued to fall.

'But not to me.' And that was what had confused him most. He was a prince, heir to the most powerful bloodline in the galaxy. He shared the blood of Sith lords and Jedi masters, of Queens and so-called 'war heroes'. She was a filthy Jakku scavenger. She shared the blood of drunkards, people who would pawn away their child in the hopes it would earn them just a little more sustenance for their addictions. Who knew what other secrets lay in her family history; peasants, addicts, criminals, the worst that society had to offer no doubt. And yet to him she could never be nothing.

'Join me' Kylo's hand reached out to her, just as hers had done for him only hours before.

Everything in him was screaming out to just take her, but he knew that would not work this time. Before Starkiller, before the bond, before she had touched him and caused his visions… maybe. Now though? She was no longer afraid of him; her powers had manifested themselves into a raw strength he'd only ever felt within himself. Her eyes flicked to his hand and it unconsciously opened further to her. He was so desperate for her to stay, he would say anything to make her stay.

'Please'

She'd seen their future, it had been solid and clear in her head. They'd been together, their bond washing away the loneliness that had been the only legacy left to her by her parents. And even though she had begun to build a new family around herself, it would never be the same.

They would never understand the thin line she walked, the balance that held the galaxy together and the force that flowed through her, becoming just another facet of her own being. Even Leia, a woman with the potential of the Skywalker blood flowing through her veins, refused to understand. When her own son had manifested these abilities, she'd chosen to send him away rather than deal with the growing darkness within him. Leia and Han had been the cause of so many betrayals, just as her own parents had been, and Rey felt the echoes of Ben's lingering pain through their force bond. In so many ways, they were the same.

Rey reached for Kylo's hand, her own small fingers encompassing his much larger ones. She held onto his wrist, her eyes leaving his to look down at what she was doing. Moving to the hem of his glove, peeling it slowly down his hand until it was bared to her. She would not speak to Kylo, masked and covered and disguised.

'Ben,' her eyes flew back to his, 'come with me'.

'No' His hand suddenly gripped hers, causing her to flinch at the unexpected burst of pain, and she could sense his feelings rushing out through their bond; the rage and anger and betrayal that Kylo… no, that Ben felt. He had sacrificed everything for their shared vision of the future. His master lay dead on the floor behind them. Yet what had she given? Dragging him back to the resistance, back to the general, she would have everything, and he would have only her to cling to. They would never accept him back and he would never accept their skewed moralities, their belief that only theirs was the correct path.

'You're right, Ben,' his grip on her hand loosened slightly, 'I'd never ask you to go to the resistance. You don't belong there; but you don't belong here either.' She gently pulled on his open hand, pulling him a step closer to her and looking up into his face. His eyes, where only a moment before they had been alight with rage, were suddenly blown wide open. He looked so vulnerable in that moment. He was no longer in charge of their negotiations, was no longer the one offering her everything. Instead it was Rey, a mere scavenger, who held all the power.

'We'll run, as far as we need to go to be safe from them all. If we can't live in each other's worlds, then we'll create our own. Just please, order them to stop firing.' This was it, this was what she would give up to be with him. Her burgeoning family; Finn and Leia and Chewie, even BB-8, she would leave them all behind her but at least she would know that they were safe.

'Let it all go, Ben. Snoke, Luke, Leia, Han, the First Order, all of it.' There was a pause, 'Please'.

For a moment, everything was still. She could feel her pulse racing loudly in her ears as he considered her offer. He turned slightly away from her, extending his free hand to pull the Skywalker lightsaber towards him. Every nerve ending in her body was screaming out, a residual scavenger instinct of never allowing herself to be unarmed, especially in the presence of someone so dangerous and unstable. But she tamped her feelings down. She would trust him.

He rolled the lightsaber over and over in his palm, it was instantly familiar and practically singing in his hand. Only a short time before he would have destroyed her to get his hands on his family lightsaber. But he now knew that it wasn't his anymore. He had his own lightsaber, cracked and unstable and roughly made, but undeniably his.

He handed his grandfather's lightsaber over to its rightful inheritor, studying her face closely as he did so and seeing it relax at feeling the familiar weight in her palm. He almost roughly grabbed her chin, still not used to human contact that didn't involve violence and humiliation, and tilted her face upwards to meet his gaze.

'Together?' He whispered. She knew what he was asking of her, he was trusting her with everything he was. All the parts of Kylo and Ben that made up the man before her- the darkness, and the light. He was trusting her in the same way he had trusted his parents, and then his Jedi master, and then Snoke. She had the power to destroy him and he was asking her instead for her help to rebuild, to fix the parts of himself he had thought gone forever. She smiled at him warmly.

'We'll never have to be alone again'

He dragged her to him, lips crashing together. It took her a moment to overcome her shock, but she quickly responded, throwing her hand and the lightsaber it clutched around his neck. Rey knew exactly what this was, there was no romance behind this, no lust momentarily clouding his mind. This was need, a pure need to be with someone who would understand his torment and to no longer feel alone in the galaxy. Kylo had been right when he'd peered into her mind on Starkiller.

You've been so lonely; every moment on Jakku had been so terrifyingly lonely, but not anymore, she refused to be alone anymore.

Don't be afraid, I feel it too; words said in a different time with different meaning, yet now she understood them perfectly.

His own free hand curved around the back of her head, grasping her to him as his thumb moved fiercely and erratically against her cheek and jaw. Their lips were clumsy against each other, their grips too tight and their pulses running too fast. But in that moment, neither cared. This was their future. Together.