Chapter Text
She was running.
However, unlike Jakku, there was no hole to crawl into, no way to escape. He was coming for her, and she didn’t know how much of an advantage she had gained.
She stopped for a moment, her breath catching in misty puffs around her face. Looking into the distance she could see a flare of red peak through the foliage, much like it had in their fight months earlier. She could see the agonizingly stiff form in which he held himself as he sauntered over to her. His posture screamed a tight calmness, his face shadowed by his infamous mask, preventing her from getting a read on his mental state. His eyes were always his greatest weakness, in constant motion observing his environment, shuttering when she pushed him too far, and flickering to betray his stutter-step in attack.
He must have known this, for he had not removed his helmet since that fateful night on the Starkiller Base. He stopped abruptly about a foot away from her, silently observing her stronger, cleaner form. “You have benefitted from your training,” he commented monotonously through his distorter.
Rey huffed, “Master Luke has been most gracious in my training, and I have already learned so much,” she responded with a confused twinge to her voice; why was he bringing up her training with Master Luke?.
He hummed in response. “I suppose that will make it all the more disappointing when he inevitably fails you,” he sighed. “Because he will, fail you.”
And there it was.
“Why do you have so little faith in the world?” Rey questioned, frustrated beyond belief. “I understand that your childhood was rough, believe me, I do. But you can’t live on like this, harboring hate for anything or anyone that has done you wrong. Hate is easy, forgiveness is the difficult part.” She reasoned.
“You understand nothing. You’re weak, scavenger. Your ‘forgiveness’ is your weakness, my hate is my power.” He gave her a once-over. “It’s such a shame that you don’t understand that. Such a waste.” He commented in a mocking tone.
“Enough of this,” she huffed impatiently. “I won’t bring you to the light, and you won’t bring me to the dark side. Let’s get this on with then.” She reached into her holster, feeling the force singing in her veins as the blue saber hissed to life.
“As you wish,” he said as one would to appease a demanding child, and smoothly crouched into his starting form of Shii-Cho.
“Your mask, take it off,” she spouted to buy herself time, embracing the nearly electrical impulses of adrenaline marking its path through her body.
“Why? So you can see my expressive eyes? You should shield your thoughts better Rey,” he tsked in a disappointed manner. “You just never know who might be reading them.” He said as he reached for the clasp on the back of the helmet.
Shit, she mentally cursed, raising her shields back up. She forgot just how proficient he was in the force.
In response, he grinned at her, a dark desolate thing that made ice fight its path with the adrenaline rushing through her body. “Good, Rey.”
Thrown off by the mocking compliment, she appraised him, noting the scar that diagonally cut his face in two, curving its way around his left eye. She was always surprised when she saw him out of the mask, his youthful appearance contrasting with the way he spoke to her, as Master Luke would.
“Not looking too good, Ren. I can understand why you never want to take that thing off,” she gestured at the discarded mask with her non-dominant hand.
His head briefly followed her gesture, and he snarled at her with a wild rage, his body throwing itself at her with an overpowering combination attack that immediately put her on the defense. Her mind began to whirl, recognizing the broadness and power of his cuts to be Djem So. He relied primarily on perfect execution of simple attacks, while forcing his opponent into submission with his overpowering aggression and physical advantage.
She quickly parried his blows with her own stabbing movements from her lightsaber, her quarterstaff training curling around her mind with ease. She caught his eyes, and narrowly missed a death blow by catching his feint.
And so it went, his aggressive attacks setting the tone for the duel, as Rey held on as best as she could, waiting for him to eventually slip up. Someone as emotionally driven as Kylo Ren was bound to make a minor mistake, which is when she would deliver her own attack.
And there it was. The trailing hand that was just that little bit too slow, and Rey’s body moved at a speed that was nearly inhuman. In a split second, she had him pinned to the ground, with her lightsaber pointed to his neck.
She didn’t have the physical advantage on him, she realized belatedly. It was a position he could easily escape if he wanted to. Hell, he could even use the force. She was not as naïve to believe that she was stronger than him; she realized during their next battle that the duel on Starkiller Base was not an exhibition of his full strength.
He could remove himself from her hold, both physically and mentally, and yet, there he was, lying on the ground without a care in the world. It was the barely concealed delight in his eyes that unnerved her, that hint of pride buried deep under the darkness.
“You going to do it then? Kill me once and for all?” He lowly chuckled, and gestured as if to non-verbally say ‘go ahead.’
She raised her lightsaber above his neck, attempting to steady her shaking hands. She didn’t know if she could do it. Their fights had never reached the point where she had to decide whether he would live or die at her hands.
After a moment she shook her head minutely. This wasn’t the jedi-way that Luke had described to her on many occasions. She lowered her lightsaber slowly.
If anything, his expression heightened, and she could feel the revolting grin of victory from him. “At an impasse, aren’t we?”
She glanced up at him in defeat, part of her surprised that he hadn’t already taken advantage of her weakness and attacked.
“You won’t kill me because of some misplaced moral code, and me? I won’t kill you, because you’re just too much fun.” Which to Rey, were the words of the victor, someone who knew he would never be bested.
A slow rage began to thrum with every heartbeat, growing exponentially with every deep breath she took. She felt herself slot into place, a darkness growing within her. It was similar to the duel on Starkiller Base, after Kylo mentioned the power of the Force. The anger at his satisfaction, the humiliation of his taunting, the sadness for Ben, the revenge for Han, it all began to swirl in her. It gave her power, more than she had ever felt, and it was intoxicating, like an addict getting its fix.
She opened her eyes, and felt power radiate from them, as if they were glowing in the dark night. She could feel the shift in the air, her emotions nearly tangible. He could feel it too, as he met her expression; the smugness vanished, replaced with confusion and a dash of fear.
“I will end you, Kylo Ren. And I will mourn Han, and Ben, and any other beings you have murdered.” She spoke in a strangely detached voice, her body operating independent of her mind. She could feel her arms raising, her abdomen tensing in anticipation.
“Rey,” he responded softly, “stop.”
Her arms continued their ascent, and her eyes locked with his. She could no longer read them, she didn’t care for what she would see. She cocked her head dangerously as her hands snapped above her head with built tension from her biceps. “Rey,” he continued warningly, eyes flickering around him.
Kylo darted up, blocking her dominant saber hand and pulling at her non-dominant hand. His eyes suddenly flickered, as if he remembered something. He reached up at his neck at ripped off a well concealed necklace. It had a dark stone set in a worn leather chain that had a deep metallic sheen to it. He pushed it into her hands.
“This necklace…helps me. The light in it keeps me from going under at my worst,” he whispered as he folded her hand around it.
“What about your father?” She spat, still consumed with the dark rage of the dark side.
He looked away with a deep sigh. “I can assure you, that wasn’t my worst.”
Wasn’t his worst? If murdering his family wasn’t his worst, than what was? The rage came back at her like a wave, and she was submersed again, ready to bring down her hand to finish what she had started.
Until suddenly, she wasn’t.
Because she was frozen in place.
She huffed, looking at him impatiently. Did he really think a weak force trick would subdue her rage-fueled power? She dug deep, and began to push back against the hold. Her breath stuttered as she fought, unable to gain the upper hand.
“Rey?” He questioned, much like a child would; curiosity and shyness present in his tone.
He looked unnaturally still, and with a frown she realized that he was frozen as well. Her head jerked around in an attempt to find the perpetrator that had managed to force freeze two of the strongest users found in the galaxy.
When her search proved fruitless, her eyes descended on Kylo Ren again. He met her stare head on, as they both tried to fight their way out of their invisible bonds. A feeling of weightlessness began to settle in her bones as she fought with all of her might. A sudden coldness entrapped her feet, and began spindling its way up her shins, and then thighs. She looked up from her legs to Kylo, and mirrored his shocked expression when she realized her feet were no longer there. She opened her mouth to suck in a deep breath, to call for help, to make it stop. But before any sound escaped, darkness enclosed her, deep and impenetrable.
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Kylo Ren stared at the empty space that Rey had inhabited only seconds ago. He exhaled slowly, as his lips began to curl upwards.