The Force Between Us

Chapter One

Rey was desperate to continue her training to become a Jedi Knight. After the events in Planet Crait, her experience as a padawan felt incomplete and unfinished. Her two weeks with Master Luke Skywalker had been barely enough to teach her the Jedi ways of being one with the Force. Her martial arts skills felt raw, unpolished; and her experience with Snoke's manipulation of her compassion for Kylo Ren taught her that she needed help blocking unwelcome intrusions into her mind.

Between her shifts in the Millenium Falcon transporting General Leia and the rebels as they search for allies and bases to hide, Rey skipped sleep and meditated instead to try searching the reaches of The Force for a possible teacher. To her surprise, she got herself blocked by three Jedi Knights in hiding. The first one was a blind teenager with scarred eyes living alone in a forested planet deep in the outer reaches of the galaxy. She smiled with pleasure at encountering Rey and whispered her sadness at losing Master Luke Skywalker. Before Rey could speak, however, the teen-aged knight gently but firmly put Rey aside, as if she was a child.

The second knight, a blonde middle-aged woman with blazing green eyes, hissed at Rey with utter hostility. Rey was only able to glimpse an ocean of pure emerald blue, a little rundown castle jutting out of white rock surrounded by sighing pines, and the woman's twin children: one blonde, one with strawberry red hair, the two of them laughing and playing among the waves. Though she was barely trained in the ways of the Force, Rey sensed in these twins a raw, untamed power. Even in their state of play, she was sure that they could crush her, Kylo Ren and the Praetorian guard under their thumbs. Their mother cursed at Rey and repelled her with a breathtaking wave of the Force. "You are not welcome," her voice spat out to Rey with venom, her eyes ablaze with hate. "Skywalker apprentice. Sith lover," she accused Rey. "And my children will never learn the ways of the Force."

The third Knight was a hermit brimming with old, dormant power, living alone in a vast temple filled with gigantic statues of old Jedi Masters. Rey walked the length of this forgotten sanctuary and stopped when she saw Luke Skywalker's statue, tall and imposing, his kind, familiar eyes gazing at her from above. "This is a mausoleum of the past, young padawan," the hermit told her, hooded and small, leaning on a staff for support. Rey looked up at her old Master, missing him, and tears began to run down her cheeks. "I feel lost," a sob escaped from her. "Unmoored. I doubt I can go on without his guidance." She felt a hand slip into hers, radiating comfort and strength. Rey looked down and saw a wrinkled green face smiling up at her. "Only the foolish surmise that their education is complete," he said to her. "The wise never stop doubting what they know. Be brave, young Rey. Your purpose lies ahead of you." She felt the hermit's pain at the loss of Luke Skywalker, and likewise a peace and joy from the thought that his old padawan had attained his purpose, choosing an honorable and beautiful death.

"Padawan?" Rey gasped, before their connection was severed and Rey was back in her cot in the Millenium Falcon, gasping for breath. Her sudden return to consciousness alarmed Chewbacca, who had been sitting guard near her with a couple of porgs asleep on his shoulder. It was still midnight, Rey felt completely exhausted, and asked Chewie how many days she'd been gone. Chewie assured her that she had only been meditating for an hour. "Rest," he scolded her. "Sleep." Rey lay on her cot and closed her eyes, feeling more weary at the clear message sent to her that the remaining Jedi knights have severed themselves from the Resistance and decided to end the rest of their days in peace.

Rey was still disturbed by this revelation for days after her venture through the Force. "I can't be the only Jedi who remains here with the Resistance, fighting the cause," she whispered to herself as she spent her waking hours helping Poe, Rose and Finn establish distant bases, repair and maintain aircraft, and complete missions with them for supply and reconnaissance. She did not try to reach the Jedi in hiding again, but instead meditated to strengthen her mind and discipline her control of the Force. Try as she might, she still could not control her own personal doubts.

"I am unschooled, untrained. I was only a padawan when I faced Snoke," she whispered to herself during one of her long nights when she could not sleep. Her friends lay deep in slumber in sleeping bags and hammocks around her, but she could not cease thinking about how unprepared she would be if she would ever face Kylo Ren, or any one of the Knights of Ren, in the future. She remembered how she barely fought off only one Praetorian guard at the time when she was in the Throne Room with Ben Solo. Ben …Kylo Ren…was more powerful, skilled, in martial arts and in the ways of the Force. He had easily slaughtered three Praetorian Guards with one blow. Rey had struggled with two, then one at the end, and to this day, could not for the life of her remember how she managed to defend herself and kill them off. She remembered worriedly that she had not been strong enough to resist Snoke and to cloak her mind against his powers. Kylo Ren had masked his true intention from his own Master before he killed him. That kind of power and skill…Rey inhaled deeply, acknowledging her apprehension of Ben Solo's talent. If Luke had been alive, I would have learned how or even where to begin to learn it.

Rey covered her face with her threadbare pillow, and let out a muffled, frustrated scream. She then felt a hand on her wrist, and immediately turned to see Poe, who had been sleeping in the hammock beside her, looking down at her with his eyes half-open from sleep, his curls tousled around his face like a halo. "Rey?" he murmured. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I'm sorry. Please go back to sleep." On impulse, without thinking, Rey leaned her face on his hand, which felt slightly roughened from years of repair and aircraft maintenance work. She didn't release her grip as she lay her head back on her pillow. Poe, slightly befuddled, didn't pull his hand back from Rey's hold. He shrugged and went back to sleep.

For minutes afterwards, Rey expected Poe to pull back his hand, but he never did. She smiled; Poe should be feeling his arm go numb now, but he seemed to be snoring softly, deep in slumber. Rey rose up on her knees and carefully tucked Poe's arm inside his hammock. Poe shifted his weight for comfort, but he raised his head for a second to peer sleepily at Rey.

"You okay now?" Poe asked softly. "You can hold my hand as long as you like. It's -hebijedgehumlebenim, Rey". Poe was so sleepy that his voice became an unintelligible murmur, and Rey chuckled soundlessly.

"No worries." Rey patted his arm soothingly until Poe's eyes closed and his head burrowed heavily to his pillow once more. Within seconds, he was snoring again. Rey gazed down at his slumbering profile, his mouth slightly parted from complete exhaustion. She felt like a monster for waking him up with her impromptu drama. To her surprise, however, within seconds after she returned to her cot, she was finally able to fall into a deep sleep.

In the nights that followed, it became Poe's habit to reach out to Rey and lend her his hand to help her fall asleep. Both of them thought nothing of this; but Finn, Rose and the rest of the rebels exchanged smiles and light banter each morning at the heartwarming scene of the pilot and the last Jedi asleep together in their separate hammocks: Poe, on his back, his hand resting between Rey's palms, and Rey, who always slept in a fetal position, facing Poe, and no longer plagued with nightmares or insomnia.

Without a teacher or a Master, Rey harked back to the lessons Luke taught her: meditate, fill yourself with the power of the Force, breathe. At night, she honed the little martial arts she knew with her staff and did exercises to build up her physical strength. R2D2 shared stories of Luke's training with the legendary master Yoda. From R2D2's description of the Master, Rey wondered if the green hermit she met in the Jedi temple had been him. The droid assured her that Luke had been taught only by Master Obi Wan Kenobi, a human, and a green, wispy-haired alien, Master Yoda, who had taught both Luke and his father, Anakin Skywalker. Rey studied holograms R2D2 recorded of Luke's training and tried her skill to move entire space ships and other heavy artillery, first, while remaining stationary and with her eyes closed, and later, open-eyed and in motion as she incorporated her combat moves. Her friends showed their appreciation of her increasing skills and powers, and wondered if she will ever be using them again.

"Maybe against Kylo Ren again?" Finn asked, as he handed an old beat-up spanner to Rey. They were fixing a broken-down Star X Wing fighter with Rose, who was above them fixing the controls of the vehicle's dilapidated hyperdrive. Finn could hardly control the excitement in his voice at the possibility of Rey kicking Kylo Ren's ass again. He had been telling everyone he knew about how Rey had almost killed the now-Supreme Leader before Rey had even begun training with Master Luke Skywalker. "How long has it been since you last saw him?"

Rey remembered the last sensory Force connection she had with Kylo Ren, almost more than a month ago in Planet Crait. He had let her and the rebels escape. Allowed them to travel by lightspeed undetected. She never heard from him or saw him again. Even when she was searching the Force for old Jedi Masters scattered throughout the universe, she had encountered several Sith who treated her with hostility and tried to poison her mind with lies and fake promises of glory. But her skill with the Force made her see into their true purposes. In her struggles with them, she had learned how to hide her presence and to escape without leaving trails. She never faced Kylo Ren in these travails, though his Force Signature was still alive and well, a pulsing aura of red and black at the edge of her mind. He was always there, yes, but she never turned her mind's eye to his direction. She would do anything to avoid connecting a force bond with him ever again.

"Since Crait, when he faced Master Luke," she replied to Finn, without telling him He let us escape. He saw us getting into the Millenium Falcon, and instead of ordering his men to shoot us down as we left the planet, he let us go.

"Do you think you will ever see him again?" Finn's question was innocent enough, but the thought of seeing Kylo Ren again quickened her heartbeat for a second.

"Yes," Rey replied. "I know I will, when the First Order attacks us again. It is only a matter of time when he finds out where we have set up a new base. Then we will face each other, fight, until one of us dies or surrenders."

Poe, listening to their conversation as he delivered a set of parts, chuckled. "Haven't you users of the Force learned already that these mano-o-mano duels are usually a diversion so that entire armies and fleets can escape undisturbed? Look at what happened in Crait. I wouldn't bet so much on this Kylo Ren's mojo if he was dumb enough to be hoodwinked by Luke Skywalker's hologram."

Rose narrowed her eyes at him and shook her head. "You surrendered all our intel after only five minutes of him probing your brain. Have you forgotten that?"

"No," Poe shot back defensively. "It was torture, he had all these scary evil powers. Frieking Master of the Knights of Ren. What could I have done?" They laughed and Rey patted his hand reassuringly.

"I've been there, too. At least you won't have to face him in battle again. His Master, Snoke, thought that I was his equal. He seemed to think that either of our deaths would mean supremacy over the Force and eventually, over the galaxy itself."

"And you believe him?" Finn asked. "You shouldn't have let that snake's words affect you, Rey. Is that why you've been training very hard in your spare time? Because you want to defeat him?"

"No, not to defeat him. To bring him back to the Light," Rey replied earnestly. They groaned, and Rey sighed in frustration. They never believed that Kylo Ren could be saved at all, from the very start. Only Chewbacca had believed in her mission to save him. Chewie, who had been Han Solo's faithful friend for so many years and had been there when Kylo Ren had just been Ben Solo, Han and Leia's beloved son, and not yet enamored with the dark ways of the Force. "Master Luke believed that I could save him. Despite everything's that happened, I think so too."

Rose, faithful and sweet Rose who, more than anyone, strove to see the good in people, finally said what was so obvious to everyone except Rey. "Even his own mother, General Organa, thought that he was lost and beyond saving. What makes you think you can succeed where she, General Han Solo and Master Skywalker failed?"

Rey looked at the doubtful faces of her friends: Rose's obvious worry, Poe's disbelief that she could ever think about saving someone as vile as Kylo Ren, Finn mirroring both of their emotions. All three of them thought that a monster like Kylo Ren was beyond redemption because of all that he had done. Even before she had entered the picture, Kylo Ren and the First Order had conquered entire civilizations, snuffed out millions of lives, all for the pursuit of power. Her friends had lost so many of their friends and loved ones fighting for the Rebellion. It was simply unthinkable to them for anyone, much more a Jedi warrior like her, to try to understand Kylo Ren on a personal level: to know his story, perceive his personal conflict, expend so much effort trying to bring him back to the Light. At the back of their minds, they were thinking that it would only end in two ways: her death, or her conversion to the Dark Side, having finally been seduced by Kylo Ren.

Rey closes her eyes for a moment, seeing the truth in their apprehensions. As if in response, the last words Kylo Ren had said to her echo in her mind, pleading with her to join him, his broken, tortured soul calling out to her to end his loneliness. Please, he had said, his dark eyes never leaving hers. You are nothing to them. But not to me.

"It's a long shot. I admit that I don't know how it will all end," Rey finally replies, mentally putting a lid on the wave of emotions that her memories of Kylo Ren always stirred up. She clears her mind and smiles down at her friends. "But I was able to see into his future when we connected through the Force in Ach-to. He struggles against the love he feels for the people of his past: his mother, his uncle, even for Chewie. He feels guilt for ending his father's life. There is a small window of hope there. I feel that I should not give up on him, even when everyone else has."

It was Finn, as always, who assured her of the support that she needed from them. Unconditional support borne from pure friendship. They loved and trusted her to do the right thing, despite the odds. "We're with you, Rey," he says to her. "Whatever you need to finish this mission from Master Luke, we have your back. Just tell us what you need."

Rey sighed in relief. She chuckled, and went back to her work of fixing the hard drives of the dilapidated Star Fighter. "For now, I need all the spare switches and tools we can get to fix this beat-up old thing. Wrench?"

It was after midnight when Rey repaired and carefully eased back the electrical motherboard of the dilapidated Star X Wing Fighter. She straightened up to ease the crick in her back, and saw that her friends were asleep a few feet away: Finn and Rose snuggled together in a thick caftan blanket; Poe sleeping with his mouth wide open, snoring slightly in his hammock with his leg dangling on the side. The entire hangar was quiet and silenced of the usual daytime sounds of technicians prepping and repairing aircraft, arriving and ascending trucks and wing fighters, General Organa's voice or that of her officers issuing instructions, the whooshes of opening and sliding doors. She took a spare woolen blanket from the pilot's chair and tucked it around Poe, who immediately pulled it around him and mumbled gibberish about "Blowing up the big guns". Rey laughed and gently pulled his dangling leg out of the side and inside the hammock.

BB8 quietly slid next to her and told her in droidspeak that she needed to rest. Rey patted his head, and told him that she needed to fire up the fixed motherboard first. BB8 hooted in alarm. "But nobody's here to help you! You can get electrocuted. You haven't calibrated the adaptors yet for the electrical wirings! Wait till tomorrow when Finn or Poe are awake," BB8 moaned in binary sounds, but Rey shushed him, and told him to stand by her side, "Quietly, now," she warned. "They have worked all day too. BB8, I can't know how to calibrate the adaptors if we don't know the voltage that the motherboard can take, alright? No need to disturb them when we can do this ourselves."

Rey checked to see if her little conversation with BB8 had woken her friends, but they were still sound asleep. She gave the go signal to BB8 and before he could stop her, lightly flipped the main switch for the vehicle.

As BB8 predicted, the motherboard became overwhelmed with a power surge from an uncalibrated adaptor. The power switch in Rey's hands cackled and she passed out from a stray electrical voltage that passed through her like a wave.

She woke up to the sensation of soft fingers gently pushing her hair from her forehead. Her own hands still tingled with the remembrance of the passing electrical current. She opened her eyes and realized that she was in a medical cot. Someone garbed in all-black was beside her, and he pulled his hand away when she shifted and looked up to see who it was. Kylo Ren, unmasked, his pale oval-shaped face framed by glossy, black waves of hair. Ben. His eyes, intense black pools filled with concern, visibly relaxed when she gazed up at him. His red lips curved slightly into a ghost of a smile.

"How did you get here?" Rey whispered, in half-amazement, half-fear. Or more importantly, WHY was he here? She remembered that she had not gotten any sleep or any dinner that night, and wondered if she was hallucinating from fatigue and hunger.

"The same way that I knew you were half-electrocuted from that faulty ship. The Force Bond," Kylo Ren replied. His eyes lit up in amusement as if he had been following her thoughts, "And no, this is not a delusion. Don't worry. The IV Fluid I found in the Medical Bay will compensate for the appalling lack of nutrients and minerals I was able to detect in your system."

Rey raised herself on her elbows to take a better look at him, and realized that not only was she divested of her regular clothes and now clothed in a hospital shift, but that the vein in her right arm was skillfully injected with IV Fluid flowing from a bag above her. Her mind refused to process the thought that it had been him who undressed her, gently slipped her naked body into the hospital shift, and precisely inserted the IV fluid into her arm. She glared at him doubtfully.

Kylo Ren gave her a little, knowing smile, his black eyes never wavering from her face. You better believe it, he spoke gently into her mind.

"Weeks and weeks of not seeing you, hearing from you," Rey finally spoke, visibly making an effort to close her mind against his. "And now you're here. Out of nowhere."

"You were in need. So I had to come," he replied quietly. He took her hands in his, and began gently massaging her fingers. He did not try to speak to her mind again. He must have felt her discomfort that it felt like an unwelcome intrusion. "That electrical bolt could have killed you." Rey found it difficult to concentrate when he was speaking to her in person, his voice in low dulcet tones that brought goosebumps to her skin. "You took the entire voltage straight from the generator. I have half a mind to put that spherical droid to scrap for not stopping you from flipping that switch."

As if on cue, BB8 rolled next to Kylo Ren and chirped excitedly when he saw that Rey was awake. Kylo Ren turned and glared at him menacingly. The poor droid jumped in fear, bowed his head and rolled away from them.

Rey was suddenly aware that she was in the Medical Bay of the Resistance Base. She peered at Kylo Ren still pinching and warming her fingers one by one, as if he had all the time in the world.

She swallowed nervously and began to speak. "You're being here and BB8 knowing about it…I don't know how you think this will play out. Kylo…Ben. BB8 will have informed the General already of your presence."

Kylo covered her hands with his and looked at her. "I don't know where you are. I only see the insides of the hangar where I saw you lie, the path that the droid led me towards the Medical Bay, and this bed, this chair . But I don't know the planet where this base is hidden. The star system, which part of the galaxy. If you choose not to share this information with me, I will never know."

Rey searched his mind to see if he was lying to her, but he was open and honest, and he shared his thoughts freely. Most of them were of concern for her health, his outrage at her lack of precaution in testing the motherboard, relief that she had not been fried alive. She also culled his thoughts as he carried her when he followed BB8 to the Medical Bay: how soft she felt, how beautiful he thought she was without the murderous glare that she usually gave him, her subtle fragrance of sweet pea and iris.

Such trivial things, she thought. And I thought his mind would be better preoccupied with things of a grander scale: his responsibilities as the newly crowned Supreme Leader of the First Order, which included, among other things, the need to wipe out each and every Resistance rebel base he could find.

A slight frown shivered through Kylo Ren's features as he listened to Rey's thoughts. "There are things I leave for another day," he said grimly. "Soon, the First Order will find you and this base. We will annihilate everything on sight, and finally bring order to the Galaxy with the capture of General Organa. But for now, at this moment, there's only you. Rey. "

"Please go," she murmured to him, a warmth spreading from her neck to her cheeks. She turned away from his intense, liquid gaze. "They'll be here any moment."

Kylo looked at her one last time, as if he meant to memorize each moment of their encounter, before he placed her fingers to his lips and gave them a soft, lingering kiss. Then he rose from his chair and disappeared like smoke from her view.

Seconds later, the nightshift doctor entered her room with BB8. He examined Rey carefully, and diagnosed her with a mild neurological shock from the electrocution. He was confused at the lack of electrocution burns on her hands and lower arms, but he concluded that given her affinity with the Force, she had probably healed herself of them during her sleep. BB8 started to volunteer information about her physical condition, but Rey gave him a knowing glare, and the droid stopped. The doctor looked at both of them questioningly. Rey did not tell him that a Sith Lord, Kylo Ren, had massaged them when he visited her through the Force Bond. So he has healing powers now too, Rey thought in half-admiration, half-shock. "Did that droid really carry you all the way up here from the aircraft hangar?" The doctor asked as he encoded his diagnosis and the result of his examination on a data pad. "That's a hundred yards away, and I didn't see any portable carrier by the door."

"BB8 might have alerted a passing aide about the emergency. Someone did carry me here. I'm sorry, I cannot remember who," Rey replied. The doctor looked at BB8 for confirmation. The droid looked at Rey, then at the doctor, before replying in binary sounds, "Yeah. What she said."

"Well, you'll be fine in a day or two. Just avoid taking a bath within the next 12 hours. I'll be back to examine your reflexes in a few hours or so," the doctor said. He smiled down at her admiringly. "I'm glad to see you're not in any danger, Master Rey." He patted BB8 affectionately and said to him, "Good job, old boy," before he exited the Medical Bay with a final, friendly wave to the patient.

When they were finally alone, BB8 turned to Rey and chirped nervously, "There were cameras. Someone might have seen who really carried you to the Medical Bay."

The door to the Medical Bay whooshed open, and General Leia Organa entered. Her beautiful dark eyes, so identical to Kylo Ren's, relaxed when they saw Rey sitting up and talking with BB8. Rey swallowed nervously, but she did not need to use the Force to find out that the General already knew the truth about who had saved her, and how.

The General looked at her kindly, and sat down on the stool where Kylo Ren had been massaging Rey's fingers only minutes before. She chose her words carefully before speaking. "He was here."

Rey paled, but there was no use denying it to a powerful Force-sensitive Skywalker like her. "Yes."

General Leia closed her eyes and nodded. "I felt him too. His panic. His helplessness when he realized he wasn't powerful enough to take you to the First Order's medical facilities, which are, let's face it, more superior than ours. I thought I had dreamt it all: his picking you up, leading you out of danger, following a droid in my own base so that he can give you immediate medical attention. But the security cameras show otherwise."

Rey smiled weakly. "I'm sorry, General. It was my fault, I was too hasty in testing the newly repaired X Wing we salvaged from our last mission. Because of my lack of caution-"

The general shook her head gently and put up a heavily ringed hand to cut her off. "No, I am not concerned about that, Rey. I am grateful for your help in repairing and maintaining these old crafts. You are the best mechanic the Rebellion's ever had since my brother. I am no Jedi knight or even a padawan. I don't know how the Force works, although, to my eternal sadness, I am sensitive to it, and I've passed that on to my son. But I do need to know, how this could have happened. How much information could he have retrieved from easily entering and exiting our base? Nobody, not even our most loyal allies, know about where we have hidden this time. We have not yet regained our former strength. As you know, we are reduced to salvaging decrepit fleet from the old wars to help in our missions. We have to stay secret if the Rebellion is to survive the next attack."

Rey felt as if the world was crashing down around her at these words. The General was right, of course. What General Leia tactfully did not tell her was that she was a liability to the cause. Her connection to the Force opened the gateway for the Supreme Leader of the First Order himself to enter the hideout without the slightest resistance.

"He told me that this connection we have through the Force only lets him see me the hangar where I lay, and the path that BB8 led him to the Medical Bay. But he cannot trace which planet, which star system, which quadrant in the Galaxy our base lies. He did clarify that it was only a matter of time, and he will someday find this place and annihilate it once and for all. He knows that we are reduced to fixing old X Wings and using scrap for our fleet. "

"So the Force only lets him see according to what is needed between the both of you. You needed medical attention, and it pointed him to the nearest clinic where you could be tended."

"Yes."

General Organa frowned slightly at this new information. "And how long has this been going on, this force-bond between the two of you?"

"Since my first capture. When he probed my mind for information, in the same way that was done to Poe. But I resisted him, I was able to perceive his mind instead. And this connection has only gotten stronger in time."

General Organa's eyes widened in disbelief. "Stronger? Did Luke know about this?"

"Yes. In Ach-to, the connection allowed me to access Ben's memories of what truly happened on that night he burned down the Jedi temple. I was also able to see into his mind, and see the struggle he suffered. There is still hope in him, General. Master Luke and I felt it, and when I touched his hand, hundreds of lightyears away through the Force, I could see his future. He could be redeemed. He could be turned back towards the Light."

A tear rolled down General Organa's cheek. She closed her eyes for a long moment, as she allowed herself a few precious seconds to face her sorrow. "His father thought so too. Luke was also certain of it. It comforts me that Ben has struggled with this guilt. It shows that he has remorse, and he has not become the heartless monster that I was afraid he would become." She opened her eyes and gazed at Rey affectionately. "Thank you, Rey. My mother's heart is comforted knowing that Ben has you to anchor him to the Light, no matter how tiny the hope."

Rey's cheeks flushed in embarrassment. General Leia's eyes were telling her that the only reason Ben was turning back to the Light was because of her. His soulmate in the Force. When all the efforts of his parents and family had failed, Ben's emotional armor as a mighty Knight of Ren suffered a chink because he finally fancied a girl. Rey wondered if this was the first time that Leia knew about her son's love life. "It—it's really nothing," Rey stammered, as General Organa's lips curved into a knowing smile. "This connection we have was an accident, pure and simple. And when I finally learn how to sever it, he will be rid of me. It will be as if none of the events in the past two months have happened."

"I highly doubt that," General Organa replied crisply. Her face lit up as her eyes took on a far-away look, culling memories from the past when she was still merely a mother to a growing son. "I know Ben. He rarely had friends in his youth, and though he was a looker like his father, his heart has never been ensnared like this. I hardly had to make any effort introduce him to daughters—and sons—of reliable families I knew. His dark, brooding charm was a honeypot; he was always surrounded by admirers. But he was never distracted like this. Obsessed like this, about any living person. It is clear to me now that his power in the Force, when he is not driven by this avarice to be stronger than Darth Vader, increases and ebbs because of you."

"That can't be true," Rey murmured, her heart constricting at the pleading, yearning look in the General's face. It was similar to the look Kylo Ren gave her in Crait, when he had asked her wordlessly one last time not to leave him. "I'm sorry, General. I know that Master Luke entrusted me with the mission to save Kylo Ren…Ben…and bring him back to the Light. But I can't be responsible forever for your son. I am no one, merely a scavenger, at the very least, a mechanic in the Rebellion. If I fail—"

"If you fail, it will be because you have succumbed to him. Joined him," General Organa said earnestly. "He loves you, Rey, and I know my son enough that when he loves something, or someone, he will direct all his energy and resources to make you love him back. He will never let you go. That is simply who he is. Your fate and that of my son's are now tied together through the Force. You will be each other's ruination or victory."

Rey tore her eyes away from General Organa's. Her mind drifted back to her last encounter with Kylo Ren. "I will help him, but he can't be my responsibility forever."

General Organa felt a wave of sadness settle in her heart, as she saw the determined jut in Rey's jaw, showing her resolve to put a wall against the inevitable. I suppose she has never fallen in love before, she thought. But to fall in love with someone like my son…it is a heavy burden indeed. I wouldn't blame her for wanting a way out. IF she can find it.

"I don't suppose you can find it in yourself to love my son, just a little? Despite what he is," she ventured quietly. Rey closed her eyes for a second, as if she wanted to block the thought. But when she opened them and gazed fearlessly at the General, she was smiling, half in jest and trepidation.

"If it comes to that," Rey finally admitted to the General. "Do I really have a choice, with a man like your son?"

The General chuckled, and couldn't resist hugging Rey affectionately. "You poor, lovesick dear," she said.

General Organa and Rey spoke for a couple more hours about their strategy in defending the base against possible attacks from the First Order. The General grilled Rey even more about what her son could have known or perceived during the last sensory force bond encounter. Rey assured her that Kylo was unable to lie to her through the force bond, and she believed him when he said that he could not trace which planet or star system they were currently based. She welcomed the General's suggestion that she should move their base, but stated that after their encounter, the First Order might be monitoring the galaxy for a heavy volume of air traffic and supply carriers coming from a single location. The First Order might predict that the rebels would get paranoid and not believe Rey's words that Kylo Ren could not trace her location through the force bond.

"So, we just stay put then," General Organa ventured. Rey nodded.

"Until at least we could regain the fleet, arms and supplies that we once had before the events in Crait. Poe and I will double our efforts to repair and maintain our fleet. Rose and Finn can take care of acquiring new ones from this planet."

"That is a sound strategy. Nevertheless, we should prepare for an emergency escape and fortify the defenses of this base, in case my son deliberately hid the truth from you. We can never be sure, you understand."

Rey nodded. "Perfectly, General."

The General rose to make her exit, but paused and smiled down at Rey. She tenderly laid a kiss on the young woman's forehead and curved a hand to caress her cheek. "The Rebellion is blessed to have you, Rey. Without your help, who knows if we would have been still fortunate enough to have this conversation."

Rey smiled at her in response. "It is always an honour, General Organa."

The General's eyes softened. "My son also knows what a treasure you are, and if I am correct, he will never stop trying to find you. I hope you will find it in your heart to be with him, if that is truly your desire. I'm afraid, his father and I didn't show him the love he thought he deserved when he was growing up. I regret it now. I should have told him every day that I cherish him, and always will."

Rey's mind harkened back to that dark day when Kylo Ren pierced Han Solo with his light saber, and then to the moment when he asked her to let go of the past and to join him in ruling the galaxy. "He has always made his own choices. The people who love him can not control him any more than we can control the ways of the Force."

The General nodded sadly, but she smiled one last time at Rey. "Thank you. You are always a great comfort to me."

"General."

After General Organa left, exhaustion finally seeped into Rey's limbs, and she allowed her consciousness to slowly fade into deep sleep. In her dreams, snatches of the conversation she had with General Leia echoed back. General Leia Organa Skywalker, a veteran of two intergalactic wars and the most powerful General that the Resistance had ever had, shared with Rey her hopes and fears as the mother of the Supreme Leader, Kylo Ren. Rey could not help tearing up at the emotional turmoil she must struggle with every day in fighting the First Order, knowing that her decisions could inadvertently kill her son.

Inadvertently? My mother and her armies always went for the kill.

Rey gasped at Kylo Ren's voice speaking to her mind, and violently willed herself to wake up. But she was still stuck in her dream. She suddenly found herself in a coast-side mansion in a blue ocean planet, the sun warm and golden on her skin. The place felt familiar, but she had never been inside a lush property like this before. She must be in someone else's memory…Kylo Ren's.

Naboo. My grandmother's home planet. This was the castle where she and my grandfather secretly wed. She was the most powerful Opposition Senator of the Republic, and he was a slave turned a Jedi Knight.

"This place is beautiful," Rey murmured. She saw them before her: the beautiful, delicate woman with kind eyes and a golden-haired Jedi knight with an intense gaze who was even taller than Kylo Ren. As the sun set, Rey watched them pledge their troth to each other, exchange rings, and kiss. The woman was happy and smiled widely into the Jedi knight's soulful blue eyes. His golden robotic arm glinted in the sunlight as it caressed his wife's tumbling brown hair.

"I know their story," Rey murmured, as the memory of the couple faded with the ocean breeze. The legend of Anakin and Padme Skywalker was beloved back in Jakku, and she had heard an old hermit tell it by firelight during one of the planet's rare blue moon festivals. The sea breezes tickled the wisps of hair framing Rey's face as she narrated the sad saga of the Skywalker family.

"Anakin Skywalker foresaw his wife's death and was seduced to the Dark Side in his quest to prevent it. But he was troubled, he suspected treachery even from her whom he loved more than life itself. She died of a broken heart giving birth to Master Luke and General Organa. Anakin's bestfriend, Master Obi Wan Kenobi dueled with him, and defeated him. He severed his former student's arms and legs, but he could not bring himself to kill Anakin, even after what he had done to Padme and the Jedi Order. Because of his master's compassion, Anakin Skywalker was able to survive and be reborn into Darth Vader. For years, Darth Vader was deluded into thinking the Rebels killed his wife and children until Master Luke Skywalker revealed the truth to him and brought him back to the Light."

It sounds so sad and bittersweet when you tell it.

"It is a sad and bittersweet story," Rey retorted. "Your family's story."

You realize that Anakin Skywalker became the most powerful Sith Lord because of his quest for revenge for Padme's death and that of their children. And what's worse was that they were lies: his children were alive, Padme never betrayed him at all.

"The lies were necessary to protect his children," Rey hotly argued. "They would have been raised as Sith if Darth Vader had his hands on them."

They would have been powerful, as twins who used the Force to conquer and rule the galaxy. That was what their father had always wanted for them.

"To be enslaved to the Dark Side? Trained from birth to use the Force to subjugate entire worlds through anger, fear and hate? That was not what their mother would have wanted for them."

And I suppose you would know.

"I do! Your mother suffers everyday because of the choices you make to be controlled by the First Order. She feels lost and she misses you every day. She would have given everything to have you back again, her son, Ben Solo. You think that being powerful and conflicted like the way you are is what she would've wanted for you when she bore you and raised you as a child?"

She would have accepted me, just as I was. If she loved me. I have always been conflicted. Broken. The Light she wishes for me was something I have always struggled with. The dark side of the Force accepted my flaws, and made me even stronger despite of them.

"You are still broken and conflicted. It saps whatever good and compassion you have for others. You become someone who is to be feared, instead of to be loved. You thrive on hate and fear."

That is not such a bad thing. Fear keeps you alive. Hate shields you from pain. From loss. If my mother loved me, she would have accepted me as I was, regardless of whether I was a Sith or a Jedi. She and Han Solo never could accept that the darkness in me was part of who I am.

Rey sighed, exhausted at trying to reason with him. "I'm sorry. But I cannot see it that way. Maybe your mother was right; maybe you are lost. Nobody can save someone who doesn't want to be saved."

And you? Are you so set in your ways and beliefs that you cannot bend them for the one you love?

Rey blushed. "I do not know who you mean. But the person I love would respect what I believe in. Love me despite of it. Accept me, and still be with me. He or she would just trust me to do the right thing."

You mean, to love blindly? To believe that everything will be set to rights because of love? Doesn't that sound familiar?

Rey felt a movement, a stirring in the air near her, and to her surprise, it was Kylo Ren, who had materialized out of nowhere to stand beside her. He leaned his elbows on the balustrade to stare at the same sunset that she was gazing at.

"Wasn't that what Anakin expected from Padme? What I needed from my parents?" He turned to her and his eyes rested on Rey's lips, travelled down the slender line of her throat, and slowly traced back up her hotly blushing cheeks. "It is the same thing that you would ask from the person you love," Kylo Ren murmured to her.

Rey sighed and closed her eyes. She willed herself to wake up; she could not believe that again, she was unable to control the frequency and holding power of the force bond she shared with this man.

"This may have started out as a dream. But I am as helpless against it now as you are," Kylo Ren spoke. Rey refused to believe it, and tried to imagine herself waking up in her cot, away from the memory she was stuck in with him. "I'm sorry if you don't believe me," he said as Rey remained where she was. She let out wave after wave of energy from her palms, shooting into the air, but the gushes of power merely travelled upwards like invisible clouds, disappearing with a slight whoosh.

She glared at him bitterly. "So what now? Are we going to be stuck here forever until we achieve a purpose?"

"You mean like the last time when we connected? When I was able to come back to wherever I was after I gave you medical attention?"

"Wasn't that why you were dragged in there in the first place?"

"You still doubt it? You were in need. I saw you fall." Kylo Ren's eyes bored into hers with pure intensity. "I had no choice but to come to your side."

Rey refused to be undone again by the hunger and passion in Kylo Ren's gaze. She looked away. "And now? Why are were here? Don't we have a say when and where we force-bond like this? Or is this all your doing?" she accused him.

Kylo beamed, and gazed down at Rey. He thought she looked even more beautiful being stubborn like this, pointedly ignoring the tumult of emotions and desire that rippled off her skin when he was near. "If I was the one controlling these force connections, believe me, I wouldn't choose Naboo to be with you. Romantic, as it is, and very beautiful. But full of my family's sad history." He quirked a lazy eyebrow at her. "Hardly a setting for making love."

The blush in Rey's cheeks reddened, but she was set against succumbing to him. Why are all these blue-blooded Skywalkers always so INFURIATING? Rey breathed furiously in and out of her nose, and struggled to think clearly above the haze of desire that suffused through her thoughts. "You were a fan of letting go of the past," she said. "Does this mean that you also deny your family's legacy to the Light? Your grandmother's sacrifice?"

Kylo Ren frowned at Rey, feeling defensive at her acerbic tone. "My parents have always rejected my grandfather's history, as if it was a blot that needed to be whitewashed and forgotten. Yet Darth Vader was stronger than any of us, stronger even than my Uncle. His love for my grandmother became his undoing, but only because he was manipulated and deceived. I will never make that mistake."

"No you won't, but you will still fail." Rey met Kylo Ren's glare levelly. Knowing that this was all a dream and that they were not actually meeting each other face to face gave Rey a peculiar kind of courage. "Your grandfather had a purpose to his quest for power. He wanted the skill to save his wife from death. Now that you have killed your father and forced your uncle to an untimely demise, why are you still holding on? To kill the love you still bear for your mother? Do you think that will make you stronger?"

Her words made their desired effect on Kylo Ren's emotions. At the mention of General Organa, a storm of anger and hatred passed over him, and he visibly quivered as he glared down at Rey.

"Do not presume to know me," he growled. "Maybe you think that this is all a dream, but I can still easily kill you right here and right now."

"Try it," Rey snarled back at him. "Killing me won't change a thing."

They glared at each other for several seconds, both of their hands itching to switch on their light sabers. But they had gone to this force bond unarmed. Rey waited for Kylo Ren to make his first move. Her mind was racing as to the possible scenarios that she could defend herself in hand-to-hand combat, when she saw his face suddenly soften with bewilderment.

"You weren't really thinking of defending yourself from me, were you?" he asked, incredulous at the genuine bloodlust that he saw in her eyes. "You really thought that I would hurt you?"

Rey was about to spit back a reply, when Kylo chuckled, bent down, and pressed a kiss on her forehead. Rey held out her palm to repel him with the Force, but he circled her wrist with his hand, and cupped her cheek with the other.

"I can't beat you," Kylo whispered close to Rey, sending chills up her spine as his breath warmed the hollow of her ear. "You are far better than me in many ways, including combat." He turned his head to inhale the scent of her hair. Rey closed her eyes against the feel of his lips on her scalp. "But I can love you. And when you finally love me back, we will be each other's damnation. You can either be at my side, ruling the galaxy through the dark side of the Force; or be a prisoner of my desire as my beautiful Jedi queen."

Kylo Ren dragged his lips down Rey's ear and into the intoxicating crook of her neck. Rey felt herself weaken as a pool of silky warmth gathered at the center of her loins . He pushed her back to lean against the nearest column, his mouth desperately kissing the smooth, fine skin of her jaw and Rey arched her back against the hard surface, her skin burning at the places that Kylo Ren touched possessively and hungrily. A low, guttural moan escaped from him as their lips met, open-mouthed, gasping for breath. Rey felt her legs give away, his arms wrapped around her to support her weight, and she closed her eyes as Kylo Ren parted her thighs with his knee.

"Be mine," he said, as his lips left trails of hot kisses between her breasts and on the delicate bones of her shoulder blades. "Rey."

"Rey," someone said urgently in another familiar voice. Poe's. Rey immediately opened her eyes, and saw that she was back in her hospital cot in the Resistance base. She was completely covered by the thick, multicolored woolen blanket that she had wrapped around the Poe last night. She was thankful for this, as her body was still tingling from her physical intimacy with Kylo Ren and she still felt a silky wetness trickling between her thighs. She was still unsure whether or not it had all been a dream. Above her were Poe, Finn and Rose's anxious and relieved faces. They grinned as she looked at them in wide-eyed surprise.

"Welcome back!" they chorused. They had brought hot soup and newly baked bread from the kitchens. They immediately began to apologize to her about not having been woken up to help her get into the medical bay.

"Who carried you to the medical bay?" Poe asked.

"Why didn't BB8 wake us up about what happened to you?" Rose asked.

"How did your talk with General Organa go?" Finn asked.

They waited until she had swallowed some soup and eaten the bread they had carried for her. She gathered her thoughts, and began telling them everything that she knew.

***End of Chapter One

~This was my first fanfiction story. I was a little disappointed that Rey's training with Luke seemed so perfunctory and blasé. I wanted to write a fic where Rey feels like she still has a lot to learn in learning the ways of the Force. As a reylo fan, I also wanted to explore the mysterious connection that Rey has with Kylo Ren. There was a little smut, which is inevitable when you have a pairing with such blistering hot chemistry as between Rey and Kylo Ren. But I still prefer a slow-burn story, with lots of meaningful imagery and talking by kindred spirits. I'm afraid I am one of those old-fashioned souls who find more romance and intimacy through conversation, and sees sex (hardcore or otherwise) as an inevitable outcome of two people coming together and giving in to their mutual attraction.

I know that there were a lot of weaknesses in this story because I'm not particularly skilled at all in writing fiction. I have ideas, tons of them, and I just wanted to string them together into one reasonably cohesive narration. I've crossed my fingers and thrown caution to the wind! I hope you enjoyed what I have written!