Rey couldn't do it.

She starred down at Kylo Ren, her chest burning on the air she chocked down in her fury. The man only a few feet away from her blazing lightsaber had hunted and terrorized her friends, stalked her like prey through the woods on Takadona and taken her captive. He'd stolen her away from the only people in her life that she had ever felt close to. She hadn't known Finn, Chewie, or...

She felt her rage rise again as she thought about the next name. It got stuck in her head and she didn't want to think about him but she admired him to much to disgrace his memory with her weakness. Han Solo, in only a couple of short days, had been the only father figure she had ever known. Now he was gone. Executed by the man struggling to compose himself only a few feet away. Executed by his own son.

She had watched on in horror, unable to interfere from her position on the upper balcony. For a moment when Kylo Ren had offered Han his lightsaber, she thought he might join him. In her foolish ignorance she was some how convinced in the notion that The legendary Master of the Knights of Ren would give it all up, turn from the Dark side and join his father and family once more. Rey's hopes were shattered when she suddenly felt a suffocating shadow looming over her. She felt the darkness closing in and the sky behind her blackened. She was overwhelmed by the dark presence that slid past her, through her. It seemed to move with a life of its own in the form of ever consuming shadows. Crawling along the walls and floors, making its way out to the bridge on which the pair stood in confrontation. The exact moment the darkness crept over them a searing red plasma blade ignited, instantly pushing its way through Han's back. Rey cringed and turned from the memory.

She hadn't known any of them long, but their warmth had won her over completely. The three had welcomed her into their lives arms open and willing. They had asked nothing of her. Instead they band together to escape one threat after another, Han had even offered her a job on the Millennium Falcon. The bloody Millennium Falcon! She had refused of course, needing to get back to Jakku to wait for her family to return. Every minute she wasn't there was another minute she risked her parents returning to no daughter. That is, until Maz had told her what she already knew deep down! They were never coming back. Now Rey felt lost. She would have had a place to go, a job and a belonging with Han and Chewie but this man stole that from her. She was just a simple scavenger from the desert planet Jakku. A no one in the face of it all but the others had accepted her as one of them without hesitation or degradation

She couldn't go back to Jakku now even if she wanted to. She and the runaway storm trooper Finn, had stolen the Millennium Falcon from Unkar Plutt to escape the First Order and even if she had the ship to bring back, she wouldn't. It appeared that kylo Ren had fatally maimed Finn but some how she knew he was still alive, barely but he was and Chewi had disappeared after what happened to Han. She was alone with this man and she could kill him for taking everything that could have been away from her.

Rey glared down at Kylo Ren with a hate she had never even known she could harbor running through her body. Her center smoldered from it and when the heat became to hot for her core to handle, it spread. It traveled out from her until it found the hilt of Luke Skywalker's lightsaber clenched in her hand. The very same lightsaber that had been his fathers before him and would have undoubtedly belonged to Ren himself next.

Rey could feel the hate like an extension of herself. It squeezed with her hand, it urged her forward. The blue plasma blade could serve as a focal point for the rage, a release point, if only she'd just let it. It was his grandfathers lightsaber. It would be a poetic death. She thought. The irony of how obsessed he was with his grandfather was not lost on her while she pondered cutting him down with the very blade in which Anakin wielded as a Jedi. She twisted her hands along the hilt until they hurt. The rage inside of her was just itching to get out.

Rey's thoughts drifted back to how he'd terrorized her. Threatening her with the blade of his crimson red crossguard lightsaber the first time they'd met. He stood at her back and brandished it so close to her face, that she could feel the blade spitting and hissing in her ear. She had been helpless then, frozen in the force with which he wielded. He circled her like a predator stalking its prey. He painfully invaded her mind, searching her for information before forcing her unconscious under his power.

She woke in an unfamiliar cell, her arms and legs bound to some kind of upright table. At first the silence in the room had misled her to feel alone, her gut told her other wise. Her instincts picked his presence up immediately. Not that it was difficult to know he was there. She felt it. Somehow she felt him like she was feeling the anger in her chest now. She felt him as an extension of herself. And her survival instincts had confirmed any doubts she had about that feeling. She had that feeling you get when you think your being watched. There was a tingle on her face and her stomach rolled as if her brain thought she was standing on the edge of some where high while peeking over. It didn't even take seconds to confirm her paranoia, the second she looked down she found him crouched a few short feet in front of her. That hideous mask of black and sliver stared back at her as blank as a statue, probably just as soulless to.

Rey thought he'd physically torture her and she was ready for that kind of pain. The second she saw him she'd been preparing herself for it. Instead he had calmly no, gently, called her his guest. His deep mechanical voice was very low and calm when he spoke to her and she couldn't help but wonder how much effort he had to put into passing such gentleness through the modulator of his mask. Her brain wracked, still sore from his earlier assault. What was he playing at? Another chance to intimidate me. She surmised.

She made a conscious effort to ignore how weak and small he made her feel. At least now he was crouched beneath her line of sight, allowing her the opportunity to look down on him. She used that feeling to fortify herself. When she realized they were alone, she began to think about her allies. Had they been captured to or was it worse then that? Worry gripped her then and she couldn't help but ask him about them. It made him scoff. His helmet tilted ever so slightly before he disdainfully answered her and he didn't miss the opportunity to slander them as he did so.

"You mean the murderers, traitors and thieves you call friends?" There was a pause, as though he were considering his next words carefully. "You'll be relieved to hear I have no idea." He finally said, answering her inquiry.
She bit hard at her inner cheek to keep herself from picking a fight with him. She wanted to defend her friends but something inside of her warned her against it. Rey thought carefully about how to handle him. She'd never met him before today and yet she got the feeling that he was unstable, like he would go off at any moment for the slightest of reasons. She knew why Finn was willing to run from everything now. How he was willing to give up every possibility just to escape this... this thing, that crouched in front of her and she disliked Kylo Ren all the more for it.

Her body tensed when she thought she'd seen him flinch. His shoulders flexed and he straightened his back. He must have been slouching before because now he look even broader. It made her shift uncomfortably, feeling suddenly intimidated again. He looked ready to spring up and pounce at any moment. Rey's face hardened.
I wish I'd of landed a shot on him back when I had the chance. She inwardly cursed her lack of skill with a blaster.
"You still want to kill me." He stated calmly with an undertone of wonder in his voice.

She hadn't said anything between asking him where her friends were and now, yet he reacted to her thoughts as though she had spoken them clear as day. He was in my head again. She realized.

Rey flared at him, unable to control the outrage she felt at being invaded so callously as though she had no rights to her own privacy. She spoke too quickly, unable to control or filter what came out of her mouth in that moment.

"That's what happens when your being hunted by a creature in a mask." She fumed.

The moment Rey heard the words leave her mouth, she retreated back against the hard metal behind her.
She supposed the slip of her tongue didn't matter since he could just read her thoughts anyway. She waited for his anger. Waited for him to come crashing down on her like a blazing meteor. She steeled herself for the beating to come, but he didn't move. She swallowed hard and waited, watching him. Unable to tell what was going on behind that mask.

Was he waiting for her to drop her guard? Why did She feel something like conflict or maybe uncertainty coming off of him? Was it coming from him or was that just her projecting? Every time she thought one question, another followed. It was a slippery slope, but she knew nothing about him and that made him all the more dangerous.

When he finally moved she flinched but he didn't reach for her like Rey had expected. Instead, he raised his hands to either side of his helmet. She heard a distinct clicking sound and the releasing whoosh of hydraulics as the locks in the helmet came undone. She had no idea what to do so she just starred down at him while he slowly rose, lifting the helmet from his head in the same motion. Taking a deep breath, she mentally prepared herself for the reveal of the thing that hid within the helmet. Then she found herself only able to blink, completely caught of guard, her mind went blank at the sight of him. Her breath caught in her throat. Momentarily stunned by the face that looked back at her. He was... human.

His face was long and angular. He had a full mouth and a constellation of beauty marks that stood out against the pale ivory that was his skin. Everything about him was unexpected. There was something gentle about his profile, something soft and insecure. Thick, almost shoulder length curls the color of the deepest parts of space had framed it, making him seem even paler then was humanly possible. His brow was prominent and his nose was large and sharp at the same time. It complimented his deep set eyes.

Maker, this was not what She had prepared for. It wasn't the first time Rey had ever seen an attractive man before, but she found herself gapping at him anyway.

His looks weren't ruggedly handsome or roguishly charming as she found most men who were considered attractive to be. She couldn't understand why he didn't reek with confidence. Instead, she found herself taking note of how nervous his mouth looked as he sucked slightly on the corner of his bottom lip while she studied him. Had she not been looking so intently, Rey doubted she would have even noticed the small movement. He looked vulnerable. Like he didn't know he was beautiful. But he was! In such a masculine way, that he left her feeling more intimidated now then when he had just worn the damned helmet.

And when she found those intense eyes, Rey couldn't look away. She wasn't sure how she'd noticed the rest of his face after seeing those eyes. They drew her in. Demanded her attention. They were the darkest brown she had ever seen and they looked almost... sad. They seemed strained and tired from carrying the weight and responsibilities of a much older man. Stressed well beyond the years of what his actual age could have been. She couldn't help but wonder what torments he could have gone through to have had such shadows swirling in their depths. His gaze was so intense that she lost herself in it. It wasn't until she realized that she was literally suffocating that Rey broke eye contact with him just so she could breath. She didn't want to look back for fear of those smoldering eyes capturing hers. She grew angry at her weakness. Angry that she felt more uncomfortable looking at him like this, then with the foreboding mask of his helmet hiding his face.

She almost wished he would have kept that hideous thing on. It made it easier for her to dislike him. Now after seeing the humanity in those eyes, she found it difficult to think of him as anything but human rather then the creature she assumed he'd be and painted him as in her mind. In her defense, he had supplied the paints. She thought

Standing at his full height his presence filled the room, or maybe it had nothing to do with his height. It was more accurately just the sense he gave off in general. The way he carried himself. Layer after thick layer of that black armor wrapped around him like the night, covering him from toe all the way up to just below the jawline. She supposed this was the persona that he wanted to give off. He was menacing as a whole. The more she looked at him the smaller she felt.

He forcefully placed his helmet atop an ash covered table causing Rey to jump. She didn't want to think about where the ashes had come from, or what they had previously been. If he was trying to intimidate her, it was more then working. Rey found herself swallowing hard as she fought internally to stay strong on the exterior. She looked straight ahead, starring at nothing as he approached her.

He casually asked about the droid she'd been in possession of back in the forest on Takadona. Rey attempted to use her wit to play coy, trying to deflect the question by responding in a way she could answer him with out giving away any of the information he actually needed but he cut her off, thwarting her tactical maneuver. When he mentioned the navigational chart she shut down trying to think of anything else, determined to give him nothing.

He was confused or maybe just curious about why the droid had entrusted Rey with the sensitive information it carried.
He couldn't fathom how a scavenger had gained access to it. The disapproving way he had said the word had stung, bringing her insecurities to the surface. She felt her resolve falter when her eyes dropped to the floor and Rey knew the response had betrayed her. She didn't know why her insignificance had bothered her so much now when she had freely and proudly given the information to Han, Chewie, and Finn only the day before.

So much for looking strong. She'd thought. This must have been why he hadn't touched her yet. It would be a mental trial of strength. Well to Mustafar with him if thinks he can intimidate me or break me with his superiority.
Well he was only half right, I will never break! Rey thought as she mentally hardened herself.

She allowed herself only a second of inward retreat before she looked up at him. Her face still straight ahead, she glared at him. Her eyes were watering but she refused to let the traitorous tears fall. He was looking a way. His bottom teeth grabbing the corner of his mouth for a fraction of a moment. Similar to the way he'd done before when he'd first revealed his face under her scrutinous eyes. She wasn't expecting to find him like that and for a second, Rey thought he may have felt uncomfortable but she didn't have time to think on it when he suddenly looked back at her. His eyes catching hers as she feared they would if they ever met again.

"You know I can take whatever I want." He said, suddenly closing the space between them with his body.

She sucked in a sharp breath when his hand neared her face. Fearing he might strike her, Rey quickly turned away from him. Instead, his relaxed, open palm stopped before it had made contact with her. There was no threat behind it but still she flinched when his face followed the same path his hand took. He paused himself just behind it, perched himself just above her shoulder so their faces were aligned and rested his right forearm against the contraption that she was strapped to. His hand was still opened but he physically made no other contact between them. The shape and size of his face fit perfectly in the crest of her neck and shoulder. Rey swallowed hard and her tongue peeked out to wet her lips when they dried with her throat. He hovered there over her skin. She squeezed her eyes shut as though if she tried hard enough, she could make everything just go away. Rey remained silent as his eyes roamed between the side of her face, then back down over the top of her left shoulder.

Then Rey felt him probing her again. It wasn't the same as back on Takodona. She felt pressure in her head, but not the pain that she remembered following it. She was so panicked now and she didn't know if it was because of the invasion of her mind or her personal space. She could barley breath and she felt herself trembling. Her fists balled and she dug her nails into her palms as she fought to keep her composure.

His words were frighteningly gentle and he kept his face lower then hers as he spoke. She felt his breath hot against her skin and the weight of his hand disrupting the air between them. She noticed something else too... something she wasn't sure of. Some kind of... feeling between them. Like a heat between where their bodies were the closest.

I've never been so...was intimate the right word? She wondered before finishing the thought.
...with anyone before.

Rey lived as solitary of a life on Jakku as she could manage. Purposefully keeping her distance from the shady inhabitants of the planet. Now her most private thoughts were rolling out of her captors mouth as though he knew her all her life. As though he had the right to speak so freely of her insecurities and hopes. She was so embarrassed that hot tears rolled down her face. She hated how weak it made her feel. Then a gloved finger caressed her cheek and she felt a jolt of something warm and shocking under his touch. Rey was wholly confused. She wanted to retreat from him, but her body and mind were torn by the perverse situation she was in. Her head screamed against his invasiveness, while her skin welcomed his touch. No one had ever touched her so gently. The tingling sensation that followed where his finger trailed across her skin made her want to lean into the small contact. It was as alarming as it was disturbing.

Her head was reeling and it angered her. The way he invaded her space, crowded her mind with his. Plucking thoughts and memories from the most private recesses of her brain. All while being so... gentle with her. So careful as he walked the path of her mind leaving only tiny traces of himself as he moved through it. And then there was the feeling his nearness caused... This crackling and humming between them where ever their skin was closest. There was a trail of tingling heat where ever his gloved finger caressed her skin. Rey thought for sure he had to be responsible for it. Purposefully causing the confusion that made her body fight against her mind.

She wished he'd just take the damn information from her as he previously said he could. The aftermath would have been much easier to handle. Certainly as invasive, but much less intimate then... Rey found she didn't have a word for it; ...This! Her mind said generalizing the situation down to one word as best as it could.

She'd finally had enough when he mentioned Han Solo. Rey didn't want Kylo Ren corrupting the prideful memories she had of Han. Didn't want him twisting or distorting them as he had this whole situation. She was tired of him pretending to be kind. Confusing her, making her feel like this "false" closeness was anything more then his way of perversely manipulating her into giving him the information he'd said he needed. She ground her teeth and demanded he leave her head. She was surprised when he pulled back like he'd been avoiding the quick strike of a snake. It made her feel like she had some power in the humiliating position she found herself in.

That's when she learned that she could push back. The first time she felt the force since the vision touching Luke Skywalker's lightsaber had brought about. And Rey hadn't stopped pushing back since.

When he came at her in the woods after... no. She silenced that thought. She didn't want to think about him killing his father. It sickened her and it wouldn't help her control the rage she so desperately needed to quell in her head.
She had been so angry with him after witnessing that. Rey was tired of running and when she thought to make her stand, he took that from her to. He force pushed her into a tree before turning his venomous attention onto the first friend she'd made in a very very long time. When she woke, Finn laid face first in the snow. She'd been horrified to see the cauterized wound that ran along his spine nearly up to his neck.

kylo Ren stood with his back to her, his arm extended as he reached for something far enough away from her that her eyes had to strain through the darkness to see it. There in the distance was a lightsaber tucked in a blanket of snow like a swaddled child warm in its bed. He was attempting to call the lightsaber that Maz had tried to give her back at her castle on Takadona before he had abducted her. She imagined his men dragging her limp body onto to his ship and again she felt the rage building up in her. She didn't feel like herself in this state. Sure Rey could be an angry person when she needed to, sometimes even when she didn't. But she'd never felt this amount of rage. It was so raw so unrefined and relentless in its need to overwhelm her. It made her want to crawl out of her skin and yet, it had also given her the strength to defeat him. The only reprise she'd gotten from the tormenting anger was when Luke Skywalker's lightsaber had chosen her hand instead of his. She had been just as stunned as he looked. She thought she had seen him mouth something but she couldn't focus through the conflict going on in her head. There was a peace and a rage tugging at her. Similar to the way she felt now.

Rey watched on as he fought to sit himself up. He never gave up, always relentless in his passion and she couldn't help but wonder what drove him. The question left her mind addled but she found it to be a relief compared to the feeling of the ever consuming rage with which she was now fighting to control. She'd been furious with him over everything he'd done, everything he'd destroyed in the last few days, but it wasn't until he locked her at the edge of the chasm that Rey had started to feel like this.

He had fought her back easily, his strength and superior skills with a lightsaber had never been in question. She new it was foolish to challenge him, but she refused to stand idly by and watch him hack her friends down. She wasn't about to let him hack her down next, not with out so much as a fight. just because she was intimidated by him, didn't mean she'd kneel so he could behead her. When all you had to your name were the letters it was comprised of and your honor and integrity, you fought to keep them valuable, even if that was only to appease your own pride. Stand tall in the face of all odds. That had always been her way.

Kylo Ren knew he was a powerful, terrifying menace. He had no reason to hesitate when he could have easily cut her down from the beginning and for the life of her, she couldn't figure out why he hadn't done just that. Perhaps it was another cruel game he played. It wasn't until she was locked between him and the great chasm that she had any break from the onslaught that led her there. It took her several moments to regain herself and when he offered to teach her, speaking about the Force, it was like something inside her sparked to life. Suddenly, she remembered how she had pushed back against him in the interrogation room. Even though she feared touching such a deep dark place, a place in which she could fall into and never return, she reached out to his mind. It couldn't be any worse then him pushing her over the edge into the mouth of the pit behind her.

Surprised, Rey found he was open to the probing hand of her mind and like a clumsy thief she stumbled in, quickly taking only what she needed to survive. She didn't want to stay longer then she had to but there he was, open like the welcoming arms of an aspiring lover, warm and inviting. She shivered at the thought. She'd never had a lover and it confused her momentarily when she realized she'd made the comparison in reference to Kylo Ren. Perhaps he'd known she was there and had projected the notion into her mind. It could have also been the way her body responded to the nearness of his for the second time in a short span of hours.

He was staring down on her as though he could see into her soul. His eyes locked onto her lips after he extended her an invitation to join him in the Dark side as his apprentice. She blinked behind her eyelids trying to regain her focus and he raised his lightsaber higher along hers so he could see more of her face. Their Force signatures literally pulled them together like magnets. If she pulled back she'd tumble off the cliff to her death and yet in that moment she was less terrified to lean back, then forward.

As if sensing her insecurities Ren leaned in closer to her, allowing his Force to push against her ever so slightly.
He didn't take the opportunity to invade her mind but he easily could have. He merely offered a little less resistance to the pull between them. She thought the space between their bodies would fill with lightning and destroy them both at any second. There was a hot current running between them. She felts it in waves. It licked and crawled up her body and her skin tingled under the exposure.

No. She thought. She wouldn't be distracted or tempted by the weakness that was her lack of personal intimacy.

His mind was not at all like what she had felt back in the sterile room in which she'd first felt it. It was dark and twisted then, a foreboding shadow loomed in the blackness, filling the space down to every last crevice, nook, and cranny. He'd quickly caught her then and kicked her out with just as much speed. But now, he let her focus. Granted her as much time as she needed to search and with out the slightest hint of resistance. Rey didn't understand why. When she had enough knowledge that she felt confident enough to escape him, she withdrew.

She had been tempted, even if only for a second, to accept his offer to let him instruct her. It had only taken the brief scanning of the information in his mind to know that he hadn't been lying about how much he truly could show her about the Force. She was surprised by how much he knew about both the light and the dark. Rey had seen so much information in the very short time that she had to peek in. She wished she could understand and adopt all of the knowledge he held as her own, but it was way too much. She used what she had pilfered against him, wielding his own knowledge as a weapon, summoning the rage in the same way that he'd learned to. Rey used it to turn the tides of battle.
She had fought him back. Beat him down at every turn. She learned how to spot his moments of weakness. The rage sensed it every time he faltered. Still, she knew she was lucky he had been so wounded. Rey doubted it would have ended this way if he wasn't. That is, with her standing over him.

Now, if I could only just control the rage. Even the sound of her own voice in her head sounded frail under the restraints of the constricting rage. But she couldn't, it clouded her mind. She could feel it clawing at her insides.
It spoke to her... she could hear it. It told her, no...demanded, that she... kill him.

Those soft brown eyes met hers at just the rite moment and she forgot about everything that had transpired between them. She forgot what he'd done to her friends. Even the memory of him slaying his father and cutting Finn down only moments ago faded as she lost herself in those damning eyes. The sadness in them was stifling. And there was something else, something she couldn't put her finger on. Rey only ever saw it when he looked at her. It weakened the voice inside her head. It dampened the call for blood. As she fell into his eyes, she felt the darkness clouding her head begin to retreat from her.

She shouldn't have been surprised when another scare opened up in the ground in front of her, but she was. The Starkiller had been compromised and it was a wonder it took this long for the rest of the planet around the base to fall apart too. Then again, maybe the seemingly great amount of time that had passed between all of the evenings events, had only been minutes in reality. Maybe the time Rey spent lost in her thoughts, gazing down at him, trying to regain herself had only been seconds, though they felt so much more infinite. She was almost thankful now for the gaping crack in the surface of the planet as it forced distance between them.

"Scavenger."

Suddenly a familiar voice broke her thoughts and for a moment she thought it was his, but it couldn't be, he was on the other side of the opening between them. The world around them shook violently. The cracking groans and the howling wind around Rey made it hard for her to hear her own thoughts, let alone his. And when it came again...

"Run!"

She didn't hesitate. She obeyed. Rey darted between trees and rocks and a number of falling things around her.
The exertion slowly burned the rage down to a more controllable level. The adrenaline rush helped cool her mind.
It helped clear her head until the gnawing tendrils inside began to retreat. She ran until she came upon Finn's body. Rey dropped to her knees. Leaning above him, all of the rage left inside of her died. She had no room for it. Only concern and grief for her friend. Then like a beacon in the night, the Millennium Falcon found the pair and all she could do was hope it was in time to save him.

        *Hey guys n' gals thanks for reading! Please comment and vote if you liked it. *
            -DarkGuardian-