Dawn slants through a break in the conical stone wall of the hut, announcing a bright new day by touching warm golden light to her cheek. Listening to the wind whistle softly through the same opening, Rey sits up on the stone bench she covered with a blanket from the Falcon. Eyes half closed as the fog of sleep clears from her mind, she enjoys the narrow beam of sunlight and wonders how the Jedi Master will begin their lessons.
The black mechnosutures have been removed; the torn flesh has mended and calmed. Bacta therapy was applied too late to prevent scarring, but a medical droid is sealing the tissue to minimize the mark that will forever linger. In a flurry of movement, three long, delicate, needle-like multiceps softly tink and swish as they join the edges of the thin scar that runs across his cheek, down his neck, and along his shoulder.
Ren sits quietly, patiently, meditatively as he waits for the droid to finish. Utterly still, he barely breathes, his energy trained inward.
Snoke must have been pleased with the attack on the Resistance fleet, for he has not summoned Ren. And as his current status is both alive and aboard the Supremacy, Ren assumes his master hasn’t fully forsaken him after all. He may have a chance to redeem himself.
With the Resistance incapacitated, the best way to atone for his failures would be to complete his outstanding orders—find Luke Skywalker, destroy him, and end the Jedi Order once and for all; then find the scavenger girl and bring her to Snoke for…
He isn’t completely certain what the Supreme Leader intends to do with her, but the peculiar wisp of dread that curls in his stomach at the idea of their meeting does not bode well.
While the map itself or copies of it are closer at hand, undoubtedly on the Resistance command ship, and would naturally be the more reliable source, Ren would prefer to locate the girl and force her to navigate. However, the decision to take her instead of the droid was the first stumbling misstep in his fall from grace. It would not be wise to make that choice again. Nevertheless, he wonders…
Where is she? What is she doing at this very moment?
Rey scratches her nose and glances around the hut lethargically.
Will she and Master Skywalker train with the lightsaber? Move things around without touching them? Read each other’s minds?
Her enthusiasm hardens into determination, driving away the dregs of sleep. Rather than learning to read minds, could Skywalker teach her how to properly block a mental invasion? She’ll never forget how violated she felt when Kylo Ren pushed his way into her mind and perused her thoughts, dreams, and emotions as if they belonged to him.
Recalling his unbridled depravity threatens to spoil the peaceful start to her day. Unwilling to grant him that power, she casts her mind around to think of something else.
Except…
What is that? Frowning, she glances to her right, looking for—something. Nothing in the hut has changed. Did she hear something outside? No, the change is inside her. A feeling, a sense—
Oh, no. Is this a Force thing? Is Skywalker doing this? Testing her? He said the lessons would start at dawn.
A figure appears in her peripheral vision. Her eyes snap to it, and she beholds—Kylo Ren?
Suddenly, the energy in the medbay stirs. Not a disturbance in the Force so much as a shift. Gaze sharpening as he’s pulled out of his musings, Ren looks to the left, trying to identify the cause. Lightly pushing the medical droid away—the noise of its work, however soft, was too close to his ear, too loud—he furrows his brow and focuses on the shift, allowing the sensation to wash over him. There’s something…
Ren faces forward—and there she is. The girl.
Rey.
Utter silence envelops them.
His lips part in shock. His pulse quickens. His shallow breaths echo in the stillness.
She’s just—there. Sitting on the station across the room from him. As if he invoked her presence with his thoughts.
She blinks, unable to believe her eyes. Kylo Ren? In her hut? On Ahch-To? How—?
He has never experienced the Force like this. Didn’t know it was possible. If he went to her, if he reached out—could he touch her? Is she actually, physically present, or is she merely a projection? Is it even really her, or just a manifestation of his obsession? How?
Kylo Ren. The murderer. The monster. In her hut.
A series of images pass before her mind’s eye. Han Solo gruffly asking her to work with him, fly with him. Han Solo, Chewie, and Finn sneaking onto Starkiller Base to help her.
Han Solo, impaled by a fiery red blade of light. A fiery red blade wielded by the shadowy figure currently, inexplicably, standing in her hut.
The vat of rage and grief that has simmered deep in her stomach since the moment of Han’s death heats to a boil, writhing and bubbling over into every part of her. Bearing her teeth in a snarl, she snatches her blaster from where it rests beside her, switches off the safety, and shoots the patricidal villain in his nonexistent heart.
Consumed by fascination and curiosity, drinking in the sight of her, he doesn’t register her movements or decipher her intention in time to anticipate the flash of crimson that sails toward him and collides with his midsection. Gasping and jolting violently in his chair—an overdue reflex—he looks down, expecting to see a charred, smoking hole in his gut. But as his eyes take in his pristine black uniform, his mind notes the absence of pain.
Breathing hard, shaking in the aftermath of surging adrenaline, he raises his gaze and sees through his dark, quivering locks an empty space where she sat a moment ago.
He perceives her with such a lack of animosity that he fails to remember—foolishly so—that her attitude toward him may not be as favorable. Even more humiliating is the fact that he’s well acquainted with her habit of shooting first and asking questions later. How many times now has the mere sight of him inspired her to pull the trigger? Yet he didn’t immediately ready his defenses. He was wide-eyed and unprepared.
His weakness, indeed.
He’s gone. Her rage receding, Rey stares at the crude new window she created in the wall of the hut. Where did he go? Did she hit him? Or did the bolt pass through him, like it would if he were a hologram? Was he ever really there? She couldn’t have been dreaming; it was too real. It felt real.
She hurries outside and glances at the rubble beneath the new window—she’ll fix that later—before jogging along the dirt path toward Skywalker’s hut. He can explain what happened. Maybe he orchestrated it. Some Jedi test. He’ll know what she saw. He’ll know what to do.
Her shot wasn’t physically present, so, logically, she must not have been, either. But logic rarely factors into the Force. Ren steps down from his chair with the lithe grace of a predator on the hunt for its prey. Tense, alert, he studies the area. Nothing out of place. No vengeful scavengers hiding in the corner. Hastening from the room, he slides to a halt in the middle of the dimly lit corridor, scanning the hall for signs of a visitor, feeling for one through the Force. Only a black, square-shaped custodial droid chirps and scuttles along the floor.
When the sensation once more trickles over him, he goes still and concentrates. Feeling her behind him, he whips his head around to look over his shoulder. And she’s there, standing mere feet from him. Taking a step back to view her squarely, Ren can’t contain his delight. This could be quite the boon, whatever it is that’s happening. If she’s forging this connection, somehow trying to find him—to exact retribution, no doubt—her raw skill, while strong, will be unstable—and easily manipulated.
On the path, Rey slows to a stop. There it is again—that subtle shift in her perception that alerts her to a new presence.
Resigned to whatever’s happening, she turns and squints in the cheerful sunlight—and finds Kylo Ren already gazing directly at her. He’s toying with her again, mocking her ignorance. He has to be, because he seems far too pleased with himself, and she’s certainly not causing this connection. Neither, she believes, is Skywalker.
Her rage rises to the surface once more, but she has a better grip on her impulses this time. Strengthened by the knowledge that he can’t hurt her since she clearly failed to shoot him, she defies his intense stare with a glare of her own, letting him know he couldn’t be more unwelcome.
Throwing up his arm, Ren reaches out toward her, reaches out to seize her with his more adept command of the Force, and demands, “You’ll bring Luke Skywalker to me.” No matter where she is, no matter what else she’s doing, she knows how to find the last Jedi, one way or another. He need only issue the order, and he could complete all of his unfinished assignments in one go.
While outrage straightens her spine, relief relaxes her shoulders. She feels absolutely no compulsion to do his bidding.
After a moment, Ren realizes that, like her inability to shoot him, he’s unable to control her through this unusual connection. Reason catches up with his ambition, and, disappointed and embarrassed, he drops his gaze. Working his jaw in a self-conscious manner, he retracts his arm and announces rather humbly, “You’re not doing this. The effort would kill you.”
He thought this was her doing? Rey would have laughed if she wasn’t so angry.
But…if he thought it was her, then it also can’t be him.
Ren supposes he can’t take advantage of something he doesn’t understand. Unconvinced she would remain if he took his eyes off her, he holds her in his gaze for a long moment before finally turning to survey the length of corridor behind him. “Can you see my surroundings?”
Affronted by his casual attitude when all she can do is seethe, she allows her rage to spew up and out of her mouth. “You’re gonna pay for what you did,” she menaces, hard and uncompromising, meaning every word. She will see to it herself.
Not in the least intimidated, he turns back to her and says thoughtfully, “I can’t see yours.” He observes what he can see with wonder. “Just you.”
An understatement; the moment he learned of this seemingly inconsequential girl, the internal structure which protects all of his preconceived notions and careful calculations began to crumble. With this development—this connection—another wall trembles. “No,” he whispers with baffled awe, his agenda all but forgotten. “This is something else.”
Unsure of what to make of all this, unsure of what she should do, she continues to glower at him.
Suddenly, a metallic clatter shatters the silence—the door of Skywalker’s hut scraping stone as it opens. Startled, Rey whips her head toward the sound, then brings it back around just as quickly. Did Kylo Ren hear that? He said he can’t see anything around her, but…
He watches her glance wildly over her shoulder, then squint at him with calculation. His eyes following the direction in which she looked, he sees nothing but the dark corridor of the medbay. But he knows that expression. She’s assessing his knowledge, wondering what he can see, hear, debating if he was lying to her when he said he couldn’t do either. What would she not want him to see or hear? What would she want desperately to hide from him? Despite a multitude of answers, there is one particular thing—person, rather—that she doesn’t want him to know about, to find. Something he wants but she won’t let him have.
“Luke,” he guesses with such assurance that it sounds more like a smug statement than an inquiry. She’s so artless. It amuses him.
“What’s that about?” Skywalker calls to her, his voice muffled. Her heart skips a beat. Is he talking about Kylo Ren? Can he see him? She turns to the Jedi as he gestures at something behind her—she spins back—
Two amphibious creatures are exclaiming over the new window in her hut. Dressed in white robes and head scarves, the creatures glare at her while making aggravated gestures. Kylo Ren is nowhere in sight.
Bemused, she pivots to see more similarly dressed creatures working in the ancient Jedi village, washing and airing linen, digging with a handmade tool, performing mundane tasks. Her mishap created more work for them. Feeling guilty and off-balance, she mumbles a response to Skywalker’s question. “I was cleaning my blaster. It went off.”
He regards her with a wizened gaze for the briefest of moments—does he sense the falsehood?—before accepting the explanation with a nod and ambling away. “Let’s get started.”
Before following him, Rey casts one last wary gander at the place where Kylo Ren stood only a moment ago.
What just happened?
Note: Writing a Force Bond scene was more of a challenge than I anticipated. One form of media doesn’t always translate well into other mediums, and while I originally wrote this switching viewpoint as often as the movie did, it sounded broken and disrupted, so I combined a few, and it reads more smoothly. So it’s not exactly as it happened in the movie. Also, I couldn’t decide how to format it to convey those alternating settings. The least complicated method I could come up with was spacing. I did my best, so hopefully it’s a decent translation.
If you liked this, let me know. If not, well, constructive criticism has its uses, too. Feel free to share excerpts on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, etc.–just please be sure to credit me and link back to this site. Thanks, guys!
A Child in a Mask – Ren’s first few scenes
Lesson One – Rey’s first lesson from Luke
A Monster – the second force connection
Your Greatest Weakness – Rey’s second lesson from Luke and the third force connection
Not Alone – Rey’s experience in the sea cave and the fourth force connection
His True Enemy – confronting Snoke
Let Old Things Die – the “proposal” scene
Let Old Things Die – revised and expanded
The Supreme Leader – Ren’s last few scenes
You’re Nothing – A Ben Solo Character Study
I have been obsessed with Reylo ever since I first watched The Last Jedi, finding good quality fan fiction is hard, but the I found you. THIS IS THE B E S T STAR WARS FANFIC I HAVE EVER READ I LOOOOOOOVE IT
Thank you!
Wow! I just read all three of these fics and in a way I don’t want to read the book of the movie now because there’s no way it can live up to these!
I love your characterisations of Rey and Kylo, they’re so full and real.
An excellent piece of work!
I’m loving this. And while I realise it’s fanfic and not precisely as in the movies, I’d like to share a thought. I think Kylo is smarter than most people give him credit for. And I think that (up until Snoke’s death) he’s had to be extremely careful, because otherwise Snoke would have offed him. He knew that – Han knew that and told him. Furthermore I think Kylo’s motives lie in removing his authority figures. They’ve all let him down. His goals were just temporarily aligned with those of the First Order.
I agree, more or less. He’s definitely smarter than people assume, but I think his emotions tend to override his reason, which is why he lashes out, why he kissed Snoke’s ass for so long, and how Rey managed to throw him off balance. How he was seduced to the dark side in the first place. As much as he wants to break away and stop needing people, particularly authority figures, part of him doesn’t want to have to be alone. He didn’t get the attention he needed as a child, and he’s been looking for it his whole life, though he may not consciously realize it. Or maybe he does, adding an element of self-loathing. Snoke knows this and manipulates it. After Snoke’s gone, I think Ben’s all for starting his own order, though not necessarily on the dark side. But he wants Rey to join him. I explore that train of thought on the page for Let Old Things Die. I hope I do a decent job depicting his vacillating motivations in my fics and making sense of him. He’s a complicated guy, and explaining what goes on inside his head is not easy. He was spinning 360s in A Child in a Mask. 🙂 Bizarrely, I suppose it’s the same principle as knowing you should eat more vegetables because they’re healthier for you, but you just can’t seem to stop ordering pizza, because you love the taste–and the comfort you receive from a satisfied craving. I’m glad you like the fics. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Bless you for sharing your thoughts and fan fiction. I have been obsessing over these two and you do such a great job of interpreting their thoughts and feelings. High quality fanfic can be a rare find and I’m so glad to have found yours!! So thank you!! And in the words of my sweet baby Kylo, first when having every gun fire on Luke’s projection and then when speaking to Rey, “MORE!” “Please.”
My exact thoughts