Author's Note: Hi guys, I'm taking the weekend off, so I'm posting two chapters today! Thanks for reading, and for your comments and votes <3

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I dream that I'm roaming the halls of the Capital starship. There's no one left in the Elimination Games, because I've killed them all except for Hux and Phasma. A sick feeling stirs in the pit of my stomach. I can't remember how I killed them all, I just know I did.

The rules have changed and only one person can win. I don't know if I want to live or die. If I live that means Phasma and Hux will die, and that I have to be the one to kill them. If I die then that means Rey will never see me again. I keep wandering and searching endlessly but all I find is more empty hallways humming with the sound of the ship's engine. The silence closes in around me and I want to scream.

I wake to a warm room and a stiff neck. I sit up slowly, my muscles aching.

Rey! I jump to my feet, then remember that she's okay and I found her this morning, or Hux did. I sit back down then quickly stand up again. Am I late for class? No, there aren't any classes now. I get to spend time with Rey, until the Elimination Games. I know I should try and find out more about the Games and prepare somehow, but I don't even want to think about it. My stomach swirls with so many emotions that it makes me nauseous.

My room is stuffy with the heat of mid-day. A familiar restlessness stirs inside of me, luring me with its intoxicating temptation. I can taste it, sweet and thick. I thought I'd mastered these desires, but maybe I only repressed them and now they're surfacing again, always at the worst time. I swallow hard. I have to stop thinking about it. I just need to get out of my room and take a walk.

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I stroll past the large tree in the middle of the cobblestone courtyard, at the center of the school buildings. No one seems to be anywhere, in the school rooms or outside. The buildings are quiet. The hot sun warms my back, reminding me of the first day of summer training this year. I was so excited to return for my fifth year with the First Order training program. Even knowing that I had to deal with Hux all summer didn't get me down. I frown now. I liked it better somehow, when I knew him as just a bully. It was less complicated that way.

I head for the dining hall for some food. Maybe there will be some students in there.

"You're so intense," Phasma says, sitting with me as I eat. She passed by me outside and followed me in. "When you love someone, you love them to death, don't you?"

"No, I don't." I rip a thick slice of bread in half and shove it in my mouth. I don't even know why she's sitting with me. It's not like she's eating. But maybe she's bored too. "Where's Hux?" I mumble, with bread in my mouth. "Why don't you go hang out with him?"

"Tell me about the little girl," Phasma says.

I drink some water then shrug, not sure what to say. "I don't know, she's special."

"Why?"

I shrug again.

"Well, you should let her go, she's an attachment."

I continue eating and don't reply. Phasma doesn't know anything about attachments.

"She doesn't belong in our world," she continues. "A world of fighting and killing. You're going to be a leader in the First Order someday."

I get up, leaving the rest of my food. "I have to go."

* * *

"Do you have a sea monster?" Rey asks, holding her cards awkwardly in her small hands. She's sitting cross-legged on my bed and I'm leaned up against the cold stone wall, trying to cool off in the warm evening.

I look down at my cards, which we borrowed from Phasma. She has a lot of weird stuff in her room, that she's traded and collected, like playing cards and scarves and necklaces. "Is this a sea monster?" I show Rey one of my cards that looks like a snake.

She grabs it out of my hand. "Yes!"

"I have two more."

"Then you have to give them to me!"

"What if I didn't tell you I had them, and I just kept them? You wouldn't know, and I wouldn't have to give them to you."

"You can't do that! You have to tell me if I ask you."

I hand over my two sea monster cards. "So this is a trust game?"

Rey sighs in a big exaggerated way and rolls her eyes. "No, it's a card game."

"Can we look at each other's cards?"

"No!" Rey pushes her cards against her chest.

"Oh. Then, I think Hux would win at this game every time."

"Now it's your turn to ask me," Rey says.

"Okay, do you have three sea monster cards?"

"Gahhhh," Rey throws herself back onto my pillow and kicks her feet in the air.

"What?" I ask. "I gave you three sea monster cards so I knew you had them."

"But they're mind now. You're so bad at playing cards!"

"I am?"

"Yes."

"Okay, okay. I think I get it. But you should put your three sea monsters to the side, because they're the points you won, right? And I can't take them back."

Rey sits back up. She attempts to remove her three cards from the rest in her hand but they all fall onto the bed. Now I know which cards to ask for. She quickly picks them back up.

"Do you have a..." I look into her big hazel eyes. "A, um, bird card?"

"Nope! You have to pick up a card now."

I pick up a card then remember the chocolate squares I brought with me.

"Hey Rey, guess what I found in the kitchen?"

"What?"

I reach for my bag of stuff I brought for us to do and take out a chocolate square wrapped in wax paper. I open the paper to reveal the chocolate square and Rey's eyes go wide. She drops her cards and reaches for it.

"Can I have it?" she says.

"Okay, but can I have a bite first?"

She hesitates, wringing her little fingers together as she thinks. "Um... okay."

The square is small and I have five more she doesn't know about, so I pop the whole thing into my mouth. Rey gasps, her eyes instantly filling with tears.

"Hey!" she gives me an angry look, but her bottom lip sticks out in a pout and she blinks back tears.

"I'm just playing with you, I have more," I say, grabbing the other pieces from the cloth bag. I hold them out to Rey but she turns her head away.

"Look." I show her the pieces again.

She crosses her arms and refuses to look at me. "I don't want one."

I set the pieces down and sigh. "I'm sorry. I was just joking." I put my hands in my pockets. "Do you want me to go get one more from the kitchen, since I ate that one?"

"No." Rey scoots away from me.

"Rey..." I reach for her. "I said I'm sorry."

She smiles a little, but tries hard to keep her angry face.

"Go away, you're mean and I don't want your dumb chocolate squares!" she says.

"What? But they're so good!" I pick one up and unwrap it, then hold it out to her. "I know you love them."

Rey shakes her head and turns her shoulders away in a dramatic display of ignoring me. I put the square in front of her face and she pushes it away and turns all the way around, with her back to me. I keep following her with the chocolate square as she turns.

"It's really yummy." I squish the square to her cheeks and she squeals, scrambling off the bed and running away. I chase after her. There isn't a lot of room for her to run and she jumps up onto my night table, then from there onto my bookcase.

"Rey, be careful!" I reach for her and she takes the chocolate square from my hand and shoves it in her mouth.

"Hey!" I say. "I want that back!"

Rey giggles as I squeeze her cheeks, pretending to try and get the square back. She jumps away from me and almost falls off the bookcase. I catch her and swing her up into my arms.

"Come on, let's finish our card game," I say, carrying her back to the bed. "And no cheating this time, okay?"

"I don't cheat!" she mumbles loudly with a mouth full of chocolate. I put her down then sit beside her.

"I'm so tired." I lay back with a dramatic sigh and cover my face with my arm. "I have to rest for a little bit." My short sleep this morning didn't make up for being out all night.

"No!" she smacks my arm. "You said we'd play."

"Yeah, but I thought you'd fall asleep by now. Why aren't you tired yet? It's the middle of the night."

"No, it's not." Rey tugs at my arm, trying to move it from my face.

"Wake up," she grunts. I drop my arm and she smacks my cheeks.

"Hey, I'm trying to sleep here," I laugh.

"No, you're not!"

"Okay, okay, no sleeping. But give me five minutes to just lay here okay?"

"How long is that?" Rey asks.

I close my eyes to think. How long is five minutes in Jakku time? What time do they follow?

"I don't know," I say. "It's just a short time, though."

Rey lays her head on my chest. "I can hear your heart beat," she says.

I take a breath and sigh, resting my hand lightly on her hair.

"And I can hear you breathing!" she says. I laugh lightly. "I can hear you laughing too!"

"I can hear you talking too much, when I'm trying to sleep," I say.

"No, you can't sleep..." she says softly, her breathing becoming deeper now. I move my hand away from her head and let it drop beside me.

"Rey?" I whisper, but she's already asleep. I close my eyes and let myself drift off to sleep, too.