Ren instantly picked up on the change in her demeanor. He regretted leaving her mind after she'd relaxed into him earlier, now he wanted to see what had suddenly caused the anxiety she was sending in waves through her end of their bond, but he could feel how closed off she'd already become. If he delved now, it would feel like an intrusion... a painful one.

"What is it?" He asked calmly taking a half step next to he, and she shook her head, retreating two more steps back.

"It's nothing. I... why are you telling me this?" She asked angrily refusing to look him while she spoke.

He closed the space between them in one long step and grabbed her arm with his free hand leaving the rock to orbit on its own so he could stop her from back peddling any further.

"You're a terrible liar and the action doesn't suit you." He snapped. "Now what's wrong?" It was a question leaning on a demand and though Rey wanted to step up to the challenge she decided to answer him only because she really wanted to know what he'd say in response.

"Your teaching me to manipulate the Force like a Dark sider." She announced mater a factly. His head pulled back slightly and felt like she'd struck him. He was sharing something very personal with her and she was throwing it back in his face like he was doing something wrong.

"I'm not teaching you to manipulate it like anything. I'm just explaining the way I personally view and interact with the Force around me." He didn't mean to sound so offended, it's not like he was ashamed of aligning himself with the Dark side.

"Yes and your a Dark sider, you abuse the Force." She stated pointedly.

Again he recoiled. She seemed so certain of her accusations and it was offensive and very much starting to piss him off.

"So when your Master teaches you to manipulate the Force and shows you how to use the energy towards your current goal in a way that causes you to battle with the natural flow of the Force, that's ok? ...Because... he's a "Light side" user." Ren added air quotes around the words Light side and over exaggerated the word master so it came out more like a slander then a proper title.

"But when my way is different it's evil because I'm a "Dark side" user, even though my methods are based off of the natural flow and cycle of the Force." He repeats his air quotes and reiterates the situation in a way that makes Rey feel childish and she instantly gets defensive.

"Luke is not my Master, and he would have taught me the way you explained it if that was the correct way." She snaps defensively. He caught her verbal admittance of the dismissal of Luke as her master and as much as he wanted to focus on that, he pushed it aside for now.

"So it's not correct because... I'm a Dark sider? You realize I spent my whole life training to be a Jedi before I joined team Sith, right?" His eyes narrowed in challenge and he stepped forward. Rey took a cautious step back, keeping the distance between them where it belonged.

"I thought you weren't a Sith?" She questioned antagonistically.

"I'm not, but I never said I wasn't..." His eyes closed and he shook his head trying to keep his thoughts on topic. "...And that's not the point!" He retorted frustrated by how childish she was being.

"Oh...?" She poked, but he could see the relief on her face with his admittance. For some reason she cared wether or not he was that far into the Dark Side, like it changed anything. He was still a Dark Master, his training was still completed. He could become a Sith if he chose to but that was not his goal. It was to simple minded and primitive to ever be a goal of his. He wanted what was beyond that.

"There is no Light side or Dark side when it comes to manipulating the Force, Scavenger. There are only the differences in the techniques we use. Manipulation is manipulation. You don't get to choose which is right or wrong simply by declaring one side as pure and the other as corrupt. When you accepted his teachings on manipulating the Force as the correct way just because it's from him as a Light sider, you're splitting hairs and being hypocritical." He declared.

"But you consume its power into yourself before you manipulate it. Then you bend it to your will. That's an abuse of power! That's what makes it wrong!" She shoved at his chest and her grabbed her wrist.

"Your wrong, I said we can bend an object to our will, I didn't say I would. My Kyber crystal is a unique situation. When I sought one out to create my lightsaber we found each other, but make no mistake; The proper crystal will choose it's master first. It chose me long before I even noticed it. When you build your own lightsaber and you seek out your own crystal you too will feel the pull when the right match is made. Your Kyber crystal will call to you and it will challenge your power. It will test your worthiness and it will be your responsibility to overcome and subdue it's will with your own. It was my place and right to dominate it to my will so the power of the ancient crystal doesn't control me. There are very ancient objects in our history that have such great power that just owning them can effect our will right down to our very core. When I consume the Force into my power I'm feeding it. That's why it obeys me. Look around you; The Force moves within things that have an energy of their own and it avoids what sits stationary. It wants to mingle and belong. It wants to become something more then itself and it searches, always looking for a place and purpose. I accept it's belonging into me as another being of the Force and it accepts me because it's within its nature to exchange energy. It wants to coexist with something that will use it. It wants to thrive in something that will not just contain it, but help it grow." He lifted her arm higher when she tried to pull away.

"I allow myself to become one with the Force just as it allows me to accept it. It's a mutual exchange. The more powerful of the two will dominate the other because that's what the Force does. This is why our emotions effect our power so much, because emotions fuel the human spirit and ultimately that's what drives us. That is why your Jedi will die out! They're so short sighted and scared of what the Force really is. They will never be able to accept a balance. You and Luke think I'm this powerful because I'm evil, just like his council thought about my grandfather before me." He began getting upset the more personal the topic became to him and Rey could see his a;ready deep brown eyes growing darker.

"That so called Jedi counsel saw a boy who had emotions and attachments and they thought him corrupt because Maker forbid you be allowed to feel something other then peace which to the Jedi may as well be the equivalent of nothing!" Now he was near yelling and Rey could see his temper boiling over. She could feel his offense spilling into her already heated emotions.

She was the one who had the right to be angry here. She was the one in danger of becoming a puppet on the others strings.

Kylo's had closed for only a moment before his mouth opened to continue but Rey had already taken the opportunity to cut him off.

"And look how he turned out. He was mass genocidal. He destroyed planets and killed defenseless men, woman, and children, just like you!" She stepped into him until her toes touched.

Kylo's jaw locked as he clenched his fist over the hilt of her lightsaber trying to contain the emotions already causing him to teeter on the edge of his anger. He knew the wilder those emotions became the less control he'd maintain over his ever growing Darkness. It took everything in him right now not to physically lash out at her. It was normally his first response, this was the most communicative he'd been in years and all she did in response was attack him for his views. If she were anyone else he'd be seeing red by now. He'd have lost his temper completely as she'd be a corpse. As it was, he was getting close to that edge.

"Your right! In the end my grandfather fell because he couldn't control the darkness that ate at him but that darkness wasn't entirely his fault. That doubt and hate was forged over years of manipulation and rejection. He was manipulated into thinking his urges to feel and to love were corrupt. The Light side broke him under the weight of their endless rules and guilt long before he submitted to the dark. It corrupted even the compassion he'd had for my grandmother. Palpatine saw his masters reject him and he played Anakin against his own kind and they were so blinded by their foolish rules that they practically handed him over to the darkness. They tricked him and manipulated him until he felt isolated. Until he felt all he had left was the darkness. They let him suffer and fall alone until he lost himself completely. And when Padme died, when the last tie to his light died... so did his compassion. The loss of his humanity after that was only a matter of time. They rejected and feared him, leaving him alone for the darkness to feed on him when he needed them the most and when he lost her... a Dark sider who was just as manipulative as the Light side had recognized an opportunity to seize his mind. He prayed on him in the guise of the very council that tore him apart. His strength in the Light was destroyed before a mind greater in the Force then himself found him and consumed him like the inanimate object he'd became. The Light was just as responsible as the Dark for creating Darth Vader."

Rey now half dangled under his grip but still she said nothing while she listened to his view of what had happened to his grandfather. She was positive that he was not talking entirely about Anakin. This topic came across to her as very personal... to accurate to describe two generations apart. This was the story of Ben Solo... with some minor tweaks to cover up the truth of his pain. No wonder he understood his grandfather so well. Their backstories must have paralleled so closely but Rey didn't know enough to fully understand just how closely yet.

She almost couldn't picture the Anakin Skywalker she'd met as a force ghost as Darth Vader but she knew the two were one in the same. She'd only met him once, but she'd felt the love and light in him so easily. It had flowed in warm waves from his aura and she couldn't imagine how pure it must have been when he was a child, or how great a loss it must have been as it was slowly snuffed out of him by those he'd loved and admired. Rey's eyes dropped to the ground at the terrible comparison she'd made between him and his grandfather... because it was so accurate. But she also wondered if Kylo Ren was so far gone that he believed he truly had no light left in him, no humanity... She knew he had that light hidden away and she wondered with his astuteness to his grandfather's history;

Why would he hide that light away? Why would he fight it when he should be clinging to it, knowing the outcome and how his grandfather changed sides in the end, would Kylo Ren acceptingly traverse the same Dark path?

It took several moments for Ren to collect himself before he could continue. He was on a slippery slope with how he handled her now and he was headed in the opposite direction from where he wanted this conversation to go. He felt he'd been doing so well before and now he was screwing it all up. Now he was telling her things he'd never said out loud and hoping she didn't see in through him. He took a deep steadying breath and quietly continued.

"In the end Vader failed to surpass both sides. He couldn't learn how to coexist as one with the Force. Only our actions determine wether we are good or evil. And yes, both my grandfather and I have made some... regrettable decisions, but I will not follow where he did and I will not fail. I will not give into my darkness, I will own it! I will grow in the Force and I will not forget that my power is a means to an end. I am only as powerful as the Force around me allows, because I am one with it. I dominate it so it will not dominate me because that is the only way to keep your power in check. That is why I am not a Sith! You must feed the Force to maintain it or it will consume you and leave you as dead inside as that rock. As dead inside and as easily controllable as a Sith. I am on one side of the Force over the other only as a means to an end and only because groups like your Jedi deem there to be titles for how we Force sensitives interact with the energy that already wants to be apart of everything around it. It begs to be dominated and I do not fear the challenge, I comply with an eager willingness." He finishes mostly in a calm tone though the subject is still clearly a sore one.

Her head shot up to his and her eyes locked onto his pupils as though she could look through them to the center of his soul while he answered. "Is that what you're going to do to me?" She asked coldly. He blinked at her in utter confusion.

"What are you taking about?" He asked honestly having no idea what she was referring to.

She snatched the still glowing stone up from between them and the heat from the rock slithered into her skin. Her Force sucked up his like a sponge but she didn't notice what he did. She only noticed the stone cooling in her hand. She assumed it had lost its energy when it left its "Masters control", as he so delicately put it.

"Are you going to use our Force bond to consume my power and bend me to your will?" She blurted out flatly.

"What? Where would you get a notion like that?" He asked ignoring the image that his darkness had thrust to the front of his brain like a pep squad banner at a Resistance Rally. He saw her under his control, her wrist locked in his hand with her dark armor and crimson saberstaff matching his attire. He hadn't forgotten the image he knew she was probably picturing in her head as well. Maker, he'd never forget that image. There was after all, something dangerously appealing about it.

"Will you or will you not, force me under your will like you did this rock?" She asked bluntly finally getting to what was really bothering her. He watched while her eyes glossed over, filling with tears and fear.

"Scavenger, it's a rock." He said as though she were being ridiculous but the truth was, it was a very possible scenario.

He knew his Master would expect him to take control of her if she refused to join them. He also knew how their interactions in the less then twenty-four hours that he'd been here with her had gone, and based solely off of that, there was no way he could see it coming to him dominating her will. Besides, he wouldn't do that to her anyway... would he?

"Don't do that!" She fumed snatching her lightsaber back from his hand. "Don't treat me like I'm overthinking your lesson Master." She mocked. "Don't act like I'm being overdramatic where my future is concerned!" She stepped back and her anger ignited the azure lightsaber in her hands. She held it low at her side and twirled it with her wrist daring him to lie or to take her less serious then he should.

How, in the entire time that she had been here with Luke, had he not been able to teach this girl anything other then the basics. She was clearly an excellent student. She could have been a kriffing Jedi Master by now, under the correct instructor.

Kylo took notice on how her emotions were already synchronizing with the lightsaber. Already her relationship with the weapon had improved. Instead of verbally responding to her, he too pulled out his lightsaber.

Let's see how much she'd been paying attention. He thought as he ignited his own blade.

She jumped back, surprised by how close she still was when his lightsaber blazed to life. She stared at him in her fury and though there was no smile on his face, she took note of how his eyes looked down on her with amusement. She could see the reflection of her lightsaber shinning in his dark orbs and she knew that he was itching for a fight. She stepped into a lunge and he jumped back with surprise on his face and then used his lightsaber to push hers to the left rendering her strike to wide and the tip met with air instead of his side. Her brows pulled in anger as he smiled at her. She twirled her hand and cut at the air high above his head. kylo had seen the counter move coming and in turn he ducked out of the way, leaving only his saber behind to meet hers with a loud clash.

It was his turn now. He struck hard and fast at the air over her head purposefully aiming to far to the left and she parried much better then he thought she would. The saber seemed to fit better in her hands now. She gripped it solidly but didn't strangle the hilt as she had done earlier. Her movements had smoothed and she watched his form, using his body language to respond as he struck or parried. He was enjoying their sword play much more now. It felt less like they were novices playing with sticks. He felt her reaching in his head to pick through his knowledge and he let her have a little of this and a little of that but when she became greedy, he fed her other images. Memories from earlier this morning when she'd been wiggling in his lap and then how she'd clung to his leg like his own little pet. She flushed and started swinging angrily at him.

Once she'd gotten over her embracement, she'd started really trying to apply the techniques he'd offered up to her with out her knowing he willingly did so. She may not consider him her Master out loud but mentally she knew better and he would treat her as such while they sparred now. She needed to learn how to defend herself wether it was against Ren or someone else. She was apart of his world now regardless of if she accepted that or not and as such, she became a target. Someone would eventually come after her and the longer it took her to accept his claim on her as his apprentice, which he'd give her little choice over anyway, the greater risk of being attacked or worse, claimed by someone else. He'd take every opportunity to train her from here on out just in case she did manage to eventually kill him. He'd decided he would make sure she was capable of protecting herself no matter who the foe was that dared to face her. It was his responsibility as her Master, after all.

"Don't think about it so much." He Corrected when she focused more on his next strike then how to protect herself from the immediate. "Stop trying to guess where I'll strike next or you'll be to slow to respond if I throw a surprise strike at you." He warned. "If you're too busy trying to predict my movements you won't be able to track other threats around you. It's not usually a fair fight, scavenger." He advised. His breaths were steady and level while she was angrily breathing through her teeth and he hadn't even added any Force strikes or defensives yet.

"Your not..." She swung low at his legs and he jumped. "...My Master!" She finished through strikes and heavy breaths. She still wasn't listening, she was too focused on her opponents movements. Had it been a single target fight with no Force abilities she'd be spot on but fighting against such weak opponents would be far and few in between for her now. He let his lightsaber go and he stepped back. Her eyes widened as the blade moved on its own. It lunged and she barley dodged her invisible opponent.

"Now you don't have my movements to tell you where I'm going to strike." He announced ignoring her previous denial. "What are you going to do? How will you defend yourself when you don't have my form to guid you?" His asked flatly, still using the moment as an opportunity to instruct her.

Her eyes darted between Ren and the floating lightsaber and when he did no more then breath, she decided it was safe to focus solely on the blade. She thought about the lesson he'd been teaching her earlier and she stepped into combat with the plasma blade with a new set of eyes. She could see his force within the sabers hilt. It was dark and smoky like swirling shadows. There was almost an attractive hue of purple to it. She met his Force with her own and the two energies mingled.

Every time their blades made contact Rey accepted a little of his energy into herself and eventually her movements became fluid, like she'd always practiced this way. She heard his minds commands through their bond the same as his lightsaber did. It was easy to counter once she knew the actions the blade would take before it took them.

Ren smiled as she applied the lesson he'd taught her before their heated debate begain. It wasn't the solution that he wanted her to use but it certainly made him proud to know that not only had she been paying attention but she was adept enough to apply such a technical skill into her fighting style with no additional instruction or training. It was as impressive as Mustafar was hot. Of course it was technically cheating... but who was he to judge.

She was slowly consuming his Force energy into hers and it felt amazing. She was like a succubus to his Force. She was consuming a little bit at a time, fueling her own energy as she drained his. It was a very good thing that he understood the Force the way he did. It helped that he could continue to feed her with as much Force as she could take, as long as he could keep up with her.

Her determination and the accomplishments that followed never ceased to amaze him. And maker, it felt wonderful to feel his Force accumulating within her. It was like the first time they'd fought back on Starkiller, he could see himself in her eyes as he fueled her power and through their bond he could feel the euphoria that it gave her too. She nearly glowed from the mixture of his Force mingling within hers.

After a while she was smiling and she hadn't even noticed it while she burnt through her anger with his lightsaber against hers. It was like having her own personal teacher to learn from and she'd been waiting months for an experience like this. There were no expected emotions or feelings involved. There was no one but herself to be competitive with. She'd already learned a lot of footwork through a combination of both Luke and Ren and now she could focus on the saber strikes and movements that had previously been lacking in her routine. Then there was the heat and fire she felt growing inside of her as she accepted his Force with hers. She could feel him like the energy he'd described earlier. His power was coursing through her veins in dangerous amounts. She was almost dizzy from their Forces intertwining. He was an addictive drug that she knew she could happily take every day until she died and she'd do so craving more.

That's when she remembered who was still controlling the lightsaber and just how dangerous allowing his Force access to hers could be. Rey understood how susceptible she could become if she allowed enough of his power to course through her and it scared her white in the face. She locked his lightsaber against her own just as Ren had done to her twice before in the past and she eyed him. He was still faintly smiling at her, his eyes gleaming with satisfaction. It was not the victorious spider's caught the fly in the web smile that she'd expected to see as she felt she'd fallen into his trap by willingly absorbing his Force into hers. It was not even a sarcastic taunting smile, or a half playful sexually laced smile that made her toes tingle just as quickly as it made her want to smack it clean off of his face.

He was... proud. Infect, he beamed at her, a proud Master over his student and she loved it. She wanted to beam back but then she realized how much had changed in her world since he'd landed, or crashed here as it were, on the island.

Since he'd met up with her here he'd done nothing but instruct her and damn him if she hadn't improved by leaps and bounds. In one lesson he'd completely changed her view of how the Force worked and how she could exchange her energy with it rather then trying to fight against it, which admittedly now, seemed silly in comparison. Why fight with a substance that craved to be used. She admitted to herself. She knew he hadn't made that up because she could see it in the world around her.

And then there was the foot work she'd picked up, and that was nothing in comparison with how her lightsaber felt in her hands now. This was a whole new level of becoming one with your weapon. She could literally feel the blade respond to her thoughts and feelings. Not just from dark emotions like the anger that she'd expected Ren to focus her on in comparison to the peace Luke had her synchronizing with. No, now her Kyber crystal responded to everything she felt. When she was ecstatic after figuring out how to connect with Ren's Force as it resided within his lightsaber, she'd been overjoyed and her plasma blade had responded to her emotions like an actual extension of herself. It felt incredible. It even effected the power with which she could strike and block with the weapon. He taught her about the Force as a whole and in such a simple and understandable way that it made everything else she'd previously been taught seem minuscule and ridiculous! 

It helped that they could exchange information through their multiple links. Already having the Force bond they shared gave them a significant advantage as a pair, adding the Master-apprentice bond to that already very strong connection, toppled any other connection she could have possibly had with Luke. There were moments when they were sparring where Rey already felt like they were extensions of each other. There was no denying the complexity of their situation. They were stuck with one another for good. She couldn't imagine being apart from him now that their signatures had accepted one another so completely... and now thanks to his spontaneous training session, she'd never be able to go back to training with Luke. The very idea of it crippled her to her core.

Suddenly she was angrily charging at Ren. He did no more then lift his right palm in her direction and before they collided, her lightsaber was disengaged and gone from her hand. She tackled him to the ground and he landed on his back with a low grunt. Her much smaller form loomed high over his head while she balanced herself on her left knee and right toes. She grabbed and pinned his wrists with her upper body weight. When she settled over him he pulled his right knee up bending it slightly to lay flat on his back as though only casually resting in the grass while she fumed over him. Rey couldn't get her hand wrapped around the thickness of his wrists and his fingers just curled as though his arms weren't supporting the entirety of her upper body weight. He looked completely relaxed below her and she looked like she would angrily break if he did anymore then that.

"How is he supposed to teach me now?" Her soft voice was laced with more desperation then anger. "How am I supposed to learn from him as easily as I do you?" The more she spoke the harder it became to hold back the tears she could feel creeping up behind her eyes. "I can't now." Her breaking heart admitted. "You've ruined it. You've taken that possibility away from me just like you took him from me." She angrily grieved as though she'd permanently lost her now former teacher.

A tear escaped at the corner of one brilliantly hazel eye and it pooled on the peek of her cheek as she hung over him. She felt the loss of Luke as a teacher just as she suffered the loss of Han as a father figure. Another tear pooled at her duct and ran over the bridge of her nose to drip from the tip onto his skin. He watched the crystalline drop of her liquid pain fall in slow motion like rain from the sky. It collided with his skin as loud as an explosion and it stung somewhere deep upon its shattering impact. He never wanted to hurt her, but this wasn't something he alone caused. He couldn't take full responsibility for something that happened between them in the past. Especially since it had been mutual then.

She sat up embarrassed and still very angry but he stayed on his back absolutely motionless and just as silent with her tear still plastered across his face. Her weight rested across his thighs far enough back where neither were in any immediate danger of repeating the mishap that ensued earlier this morning. She stubbornly refused to look at him, refused to acknowledge his existence even while she sat across his legs. Instead Rey wiped away her tears on the back of her hand and moved to climb off of him.

Kylo grabbed her hand before she even saw him move. His gloved thumb caressed the streak of her tears, removing them from her skin with one long swipe. Her eyes grew wide and she locked onto his brown pools. They were so large and warm... and they were filled with sadness and pain. Regardless of what her mind thought, her heart ached for that pain and she hated herself for putting even a little of it there.

"I want to comfort you..." He openly admitted. "...But I'm not sorry!" She attempted to snatch her hand away from his grip but he held it there, careful not to hurt her and he quickly finished his line of thought before she got the wrong idea.

"I'll never apologize for having the bonds that I have with you. I'll never apologize for being a part of you and I'll never want anything less, then for you to acceptingly be apart of me... because you are." His voice wrapped around her and she almost sank into him but his words only confirmed the belonging that they had to each other and she was bitter about having no choice in that matter.

"But why?" She asked emotionally exasperated. She couldn't understand...

She was unable to fathom why he'd care about some silly girl. Some insignificant scavenger from a junkyard, rat hole of a planet. Surely he could find some one more appealing to play with if he just wanted a woman to take his pleasure with. If he wanted revenge for the past, there were a million ways he could have taken that by now... so what did he want?

His eyes were wide with knowing but he said nothing to answer her. She tried to push into his mind but she found him completely closed off to her probing no matter how hard she gritted her teeth and fought. He just stared back at her saying nothing as she inflicted pain upon herself in an attempt to mentally break down the gates of his mind just as he'd done repeatedly since the first time she'd cut him off from her mind months ago. It pained him to watch her harm herself in such a way but he couldn't let her in right now. Not while he was so mentally unstable, so fragile himself. He couldn't allow her the knowledge of what she was to him. He couldn't give her that kind of power over himself.

Rey was heaving and mentally exhausted by the time she gave up on infiltrating his mind. She was hurt in ways she couldn't understand and all he had done was accept her. She had never belonged before and she didn't know how to exist in that realm. She had always searched and hoped for belonging. Always waited for the family she'd lost only to find out that they'd never come back and now she was so consumed by the man underneath her, that she couldn't remember how to exist on her own. It terrified her and she felt like it was his fault. She had no choice in her bonds and that's exactly what they felt like now, heavy chains that weighed her down, binding her unwilling to her new master. She tugged her hand away from his and climbed to her feet, fuming as she gave him her back and needing space to herself, she walked away.

             *To all of the writers and astute readers out there... You know that moment when you know something big is about to happen and your soooo excited that you just can't wait....  like the first time you see a movie trailer that's not coming out for several more months (TLJViii) but you're dying for it now.... or when we Reylo's get to maturely say, "See, I told you it was canon."  But secretly we are laughing our butts off and yelling hahaha what now?!? While we beat on our mental chests like the imaginary gangsters we most certainly are not... I'm feeling like that right now! I'm so excited for what's next!*

     ~Comment and ⭐️ so I know that you're with me on this ship cuz it's go'n down! ( and I don't mean sinking)~
                   -DarkGuardian-