The helmet fit snugly over her mousy brown hair, the black bodysuit underneath the white-plated armor hugging every curve of her body. Needless to say, it wasn't the most comfortable thing Rey had ever worn. Then again, for years, she'd just been wearing the same clothes since she had been abandoned on Jakku as a kid. She shook her head as a sadness began to fill the void within her. No, now was not the time to be thinking of that. She had to focus on the mission.

Poe had insisted Rey should go solo on this one. More than one person would be too obvious. No, if they were to infiltrate Kylo's base, it had to be just Rey. But if she were being honest, she hated the idea of going alone. Just the thought of being surrounded by storm-troopers made her skin crawl. Trudging behind other troopers, she followed them into the base.

It was dark inside and it took a minute for her eyes to adjust behind the visor in her helmet. The scent of plastic filled her nose as she walked. It still smelled new in here, as if they'd only built it yesterday. After several minutes of following, Rey slipped away from the group and into a room of the main hallway. It hissed closed behind her. A sigh of relief emitted from her lips. She reached up a hand, sliding her fingers beneath the helmet and began to tug it free.

She almost had it when a frustrated sigh interrupted her. Rey almost jumped out of her skin when she looked up. Sitting on a couch with his back facing her was Kylo Ren. He held his head in his hands, dark hair fanning his face. And Rey realized with a start that this wasn't just any room...it was his room. And she'd just stumbled into it.

She turned to leave but as she did, her booted foot squeaked on the ebony tile. Kylo's head shot up, dark eyes snapping to her. She froze in place and her heart pounded in her chest.

"You there! What are you doing in here?! Don't you know these are my private quarters?!" Kylo hissed in anger, stalking towards her.

Words escaped Rey in that instant. Her tongue went dry and her mind went black. Kylo waited impatiently on her answer.

"I...um... There-there was a Code T-17 down in the...main sector...but we took care of it," she stuttered out, her words garbled into a more masculine voice through the mouthpiece in the helmet, "Just doing some check-up procedures now,"

He said nothing and her heart raced before finally, he nodded in approval. Rey let out a sigh of relief and Kylo shot her a funny look. Clearing her throat, she walked around him over to the small control console that was built into the wall, fiddling with the controls there. Kylo's heavy boots tromped over to the couch and she heard him sit down behind her.

"So what's your number?" he sighed, his deep voice like velvet.

Inside the helmet, she furrowed her eyebrows quizzically. He wasn't asking her out, was he? Was that normal behavior for Sith Lords? To ask out their storm-troopers?

"Excuse me?" she asked.

He gave out a frustrated sigh, "Your number! What do they call you?"

"Oh! Um..." Rey said, glancing up at a number written in tiny letters on the console, "2255, my lord,"

The couch's leather squeaked lightly as he leaned back into it.

"Well, you're lucky you're only a stormtrooper, 2255. I imagine life's much simpler that way," he said softly, surprising her.

"But you're Kylo Ren, Dark Lord of the Sith. You have power, strength...people look up to you, fear you. Surely it can't be that bad," Rey told him honestly.

He barked out a humorless laugh, shaking his head.

"But at what cost? I have no friends, no family to speak of. Everyone sees me as a monster. Just because I wanted more to life than what my parents had...to be somebody," he confessed.

Rey turned away from the control panel to face him. And suddenly, for the first time, she saw a brokenness in his brown eyes. They met hers and she sucked in a sharp breath, seeing him for the first time.

Maybe...just maybe...she'd never really known Kylo Ren.

Maybe she'd never known him at all.