What Becomes of the Brokenhearted?

REYLO

It’s a term that’s been around since December 2015, when The Force Awakens hit the theaters. The onscreen chemistry between Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) ignited two years of impassioned discussion among fans. Reylo (Rey + Kylo) is a thing. A thing. This post is likely to contain major spoilers. You’ve been warned.

This week, Jessica Lauren Draewell announced she’d won Disney and Lucasfilm’s The Last Jedi fan art contest with this image, which will be officially adopted into promotional material for the film. Yesterday, the new tv spot was released showing Rey wielding Kylo’s lightsaber (against Snoke, I hope). Say it with me: REY-LO.

I started supporting Reylo on Twitter a month after I joined in February 2016 to analyze, defend, and role-play Kylo Ren/Ben Solo. It’s been a bumpy ride. The amount of hate tweets thrown my way after I shipped Reylo was amazing. But enduring that social unpleasantry has come with rewards. Constantly defending my position has made me a better writer, given me confidence, and led to some lasting friendships with like-minded fans from around the world. And I’ve learned to chuckle when someone unfollows me when I tweet something Reylo. About half of my 1,000+ followers are Reylo shippers – people who believe in the power of love. Love against all odds.

Why do I think Reylo’s a thing? Simple. Love conquers all. It’s the human salve that heals all wounds. George Lucas set a precedence for featuring the power of love in his Star Wars sagas. In A New Hope, it was Han’s love for Leia that brought the selfish smuggler out of his looking-out-for-number-one attitude and awoke a sense of altruism in him, which led to the destruction of the Death Star. In the prequel series, Anakin Skywalker was denied love…and look what happened. Both Kylo and Rey weren’t loved enough as children. Both were abandoned — emotionally and physically. One of them found the strength to pull through on her own and the other did not. In the end, it’s her strength that’ll save the other, whether it’s romantic love or simple human compassion. Unconditional love.

And then there’s Adam Driver’s performance. In The Force Awakens, J. J. Abrams was in complete control of directing the delivery — facial expression, intonations, body language — of the actors. He was responsible for setting the mood of every scene. If he wasn’t happy with a performance, he would have asked an actor to do a scene over and over until he captured the delivery he wanted. So, if Abrams didn’t want Kylo Ren to be enamored with Rey, he would have looked for a different type of performance from Adam Driver.

Rey’s Abduction by Erik Maell

The first sign Kylo is taken with Rey is obvious before we even see his face. The scene comes at the end of their first confrontation, when he captures her in the forest of Takodona. What does he do? Instead of overpowering her with violent means — he doesn’t beat her up, cut off her blaster hand, or Force-choke her — he painlessly immobilizes her and, rendering her unconscious, he bridal-carries her to his shuttle. If his interest in her was solely as a prisoner, he would have just slunger her unconscious body over his shoulder and hauled her — unceremoniously — away. Or he would have left her for a stormtrooper to carry. But Kylo Ren picks Rey up like a lover.

Next, there’s the interrogation scene. Oh boy. Why Rey is still unconscious, we see him crouching in a corner, watching her. He’s already put her on a pedestal, making himself look smaller and less intimidating to her when she awakes. He didn’t do that with Poe. And he does little things to make her feel less threatened. He loosens her restraints and takes off his helmet so she can see he’s human. When he pushes into her mind, he goes gently (gee, like a considerate bridegroom on a wedding night!) whereas he just ripped into Poe’s mind. He instantly tunes into her feelings and respects them. “You’re so lonely. So afraid to leave.” He identifies with her, because he feels the same way. He’s alone, incredibly lonely, and wants desperately to go home, although he won’t admit it to himself. Then when she manages to turn the tables and gets inside his mind, he’s genuinely hurt. He’s taken aback and feels betrayed.

Fast forward to their next and last encounter, to the fight on Starkiller, where he doesn’t kill her but offers to train her. But let’s back up to the beginning of the scene where he confronts Rey and Finn as they try to escape. I don’t think he meant to slam Rey into a tree. He’s wounded, bleeding, enraged, in shock, in pain, and exhausted. His ability to control the Force is diminished to be sure. He can’t Force-summon the Skywalker lightsaber and it flies to Rey instead. But Ren is still a force to be reckoned with (pun intended). He could cut Finn to pieces, but he doesn’t. If he does, he’d never stand a chance with Rey. Once Finn is down, he could still kill Rey since she hasn’t tapped into the Force yet, but he doesn’t. He’s fascinated by her. Adam Driver puts it this way: “He has been aware of this ability in himself from such a young age, and I don’t think there’s a lot of people around him who are on the same level. I think there is something familiar there [in Rey], as well as something to be feared, or something…that he can’t quite place.” (Entertainment Weekly).

He’ll Never Be as Strong as Darth Vader

Do we have a suggestion from Driver that Ben and Rey knew each other in the past? I’m still hanging onto that theory, which is only made stronger in the novelization where Kylo murmurs, “It IS you,” when the lightsaber goes flying into Rey’s hand. The narrative continues in the novel: “His words unsettled her: Not for the first time, he seemed to know more about her than she did about herself.” (Foster, 2015, p. 250-251). After seeing the tv spot yesterday with the massive spoiler (Kylo’s lightsaber in Rey’s hand), I’m wondering if Kylo hasn’t had a Force-forward vision of this moment. She’s either going to overpower him again or partner with him in The Last Jedi or both. As EW suggests, the danger isn’t in Kylo Ren and Rey becoming enemies, it’s becoming allies — a danger for Snoke, or a danger that they’ll both fall into the dark side and overpower the galaxy together. Snoke has it coming though. 🙂

Another piece of evidence for Reylo is that every image in Rey’s Force-vision in The Force Awakens is that has something seemingly  to do with Ben Solo/Kylo Ren:

• Darth Vader battles Luke on Bespin. (Ben wants to be as strong as Darth Vader and overpower/overshadow his Jedi uncle)
• The boy at the end of the hall. (Many fans think the little boy is Ben).
• The Knights of Ren in the rain. (Kylo kills one to spare Rey).
• Luke and R2-D2 before the burning temple/academy. (Kylo destroys it).
• “I’ll come back for you, sweetheart! I promise!” (This scene doesn’t appear in the film but in the novelization — a voice calls out to her from the woods and she’s desperate to find the person. A Force-forward vision of separation from Kylo-Ben in the future…or in the past? Since Rey was left on Jakku at about age 5, Ben would have been about 15. “Sweetheart” isn’t a word a teenage boy would typically use, even if he had a soft spot for one of Luke’s padawans. But Padawan Ben Solo may have been connected to whoever abandoned Rey. I explored this idea in a series of stories in my fanfic.)
• Kylo Ren igniting his fiery lightsaber  in the woods of Takodana, where he captures Rey and the two become aware of each other again.

On December 2, 2016, Director Rian Johnson tweeted an image of a red

We Are Parallel Lines by quinndallin

thread to tease the Reylo fans. It’s in reference to The Red Thread of Fate, also referred to as The Red Thread of Marriage. According to Wikipedia, “the two people connected by the red thread are destined lovers, regardless of place or circumstances. This magical cord may stretch or tangle, but never break.” Just like a Force-bond, which is a strong connection in the Force between two Force-sensitive beings. In the novelization, Rey’s seen Kylo in dreams, visions, and nightmares before she’s captured by him. When he encounters her, the layers of the dark side that have shrouded Ben Solo start to peel away like an onion.

Will Kylo and Rey join forces? It may be too soon for them to join up in The Last Jedi. Entertainment Weekly points out, “He hates her. This girl. This garbage picker. This amateur who somehow drew his family lightsaber to her hand [and now his!], overpowering his own bond with the Force. And yet, Adam Driver says Kylo Ren can’t help but harbor an admiration for Daisy Ridley’s Rey. (This probably burns at Kylo too). (p.27) As for Rey, she hates Kylo for murdering the father she never had. All she’s ever wanted is family, so she can’t comprehend why someone would murder his own father. But “when Rey feels rejected by Luke Skywalker, who also sees parallels between the power in her and the abilities of his estranged nephew, he inadvertently pushes them toward each other.” (EW, 2017, p. 27) Rey feels this bond with Kylo that even Luke cannot sense.

Here’s how I think The Last Jedi may play out in regards to Kylo and Rey:

• Snoke sends out a siren song to Rey, and she comes before him either of her own accord (“Resist it Rey!”), or Kylo manages to capture her again and brings her to his master.
• Snoke tortures Rey and awakens — again — Kylo’s compassion, and he manages to save her, possibly at his own expense.
• Either he throws his lightsaber to her, or he’s incapacitated, and she summons it to her and manages to escape.
• Either they’ll be separated again at the end of Episode VIII (and come together again in Episode IX), or they’ll come together at the last minute in VIII and form Team Reylo on a cliffhanger in the battle against Snoke.
• The battle will continue in Episode IX and cannot be won until they’re a united team.

Whether romantic or platonic, you can’t deny the truth that is Reylo.

Your Place is Here with Me by Panda Capuccino

@MyKyloRen     8 December 2017

______________________________________________

Foster, A.D. (2015). Star Wars: The Force awakens. New York: Del Rey.

Message in a Bottle

He stood there with his back to her, a monk of the old Order, staring out into the sea. But he knew she was there and he knew why she had come. The past was repeating itself. It had caught up to him and wrapped him up in its sticky web. With a heavy heart, he turned to face her and lowered his hood. One hand of flesh and blood, one of servos and chrome.

It was him. She was sure of it. She needed no holos to confirm his identity.The Force screamed at her in its omnipresent whisper: Luke Skywalker.

She quickly dug into her satchel and pulled out the thing that belonged to him — and his father before him — and held it out in offering. He stayed where he was, his expression darkening. He moved his head ever so slightly, almost as if to shake it, as he eyed the loathsome thing in her hand. He couldn’t be that man, wouldn’t be that man, again.

She extended her arm further, imploring him with tearful eyes to take the lightsaber — the one that Anakin Skywalker had built. The one Obi-Wan had kept hidden. The one that had made Luke Skywalker a powerful Jedi.

And the girl? She was strong in the Force. Too strong for her own good.

He quickly shielded his mind from her. She had survived and overcome her spartan existence on Jakku and he was glad for it. It would have to be enough.

She tried a different tactic, putting away the lightsaber and drawing out another one. “Perhaps this one’s more to your liking?” She suggested with a hint of a hopeful smile.

Luke recognized the hilt — the lightsaber he repeatedly blamed himself for not being able to retrieve. The blue-bladed one belonging to Master Kenobi. Still, he said nothing, pushing past her and down the steps to the round stone huts clustered on the terrace below.

She followed. “There’s more,”  she told him firmly. “I have a message from General Organa.”

“I’m sure you do,” he grumbled, ducking into one of the huts. He bent low over the hearthfire and poked at the bundle of dried lichen and moss until the flames rekindled.

The girl peered into the dark interior. “She spent half a day recording it.”

He set an old pot on a tripod over the fire and straightened, but he did not turn to look at her. “He’s coming,” he said simply. “I know.”

“What?” she blinked, confused. When the Jedi said nothing more, she stowed away the lightsaber and drew out a holopad. This she placed on the low stone table. “Please,” she begged, activating a switch. “I’ve come all this way. Just listen. Then I’ll go.”

The transparent blue image of General Leia Organa projected from the center of the device. It flickered once then stabilized as Leia began to speak.

“Luke, this is Rey,” she said with a gesture aimed at introducing the young pilot who had sought him out. But Luke Skywalker kept his attention on the pot over the fire, adding a pinch of salt and herbs.

“She witnessed the events I know you’re aware of,” Leia went on almost in an accusatory tone, almost as if she knew her brother were only half-listening. “So, she’s worth hearing out. She can give you perspective I can’t. And she’s come a long way to find you.” Leia clasped her hands in front of her, giving him a sad sisterly smile. “You know through our bond that Han is gone, and I know you’re blaming yourself. You think you failed us because Ben turned to the Dark side.” Leia paused and let out a long breath. “It wasn’t you. You must know that. It was Snoke. Han and I made all the wrong decisions with Ben — to protect him — but Snoke was there to pick up the pieces. We knew a great evil existed, but it was so well disguised we were all deceived. It’s been seeking out and devouring Force-sensitives for thousands of years. That much I know from the intelligence I’ve gathered, which I’m sending to you with Rey.”

She lowered her head for a moment and took a deep breath. “We lost so much in the Hosnian System, but we struck a significant blow to the First Order with the destruction of Starkiller Base. But Snoke is still out there and part of his power comes from Ben. To stop Snoke, we must tear Ben away from him.” She made an imploring gesture. “Luke, you’re our only hope of breaking Snoke’s bond with Ben and of bringing our son home again. Hand would agree. He has a message for you too. I’ll let him say it in his own words.”

The image of Leia flickered and was replaced by a holo of Han — a younger Han by a few years — who stood holding a golden cube in his hands.”

“Hey, Luke, if you’re watching this, it means I wound up in a sarlacc pit or got frozen in carbonite again. Either way, the joke’s on me.” He smirked the old familiar smuggler’s smirk and spread his hands. “But when wasn’t it?” He held up the cube. “I know you’ve been crossing the galaxy looking for these things and I found this in a crate of old sabacc cards. Crazy, right?” He laughed lightly, tossing the cube from one hand to the other. “I was gonna give it to you, but you took off on us, so I’ve been keeping it safe. Only Jedi can open them, right? Ben tried, but he couldn’t, so I figured this has got to be pretty important.”

Secret Holocron by Drew Norman

Luke Skywalker stopped cold and turned from the hearth to stare at the holo, eyes widening., his face bathed in the bluish light. Rey watched him, chewing on a thumbnail.

“Oh, and you’re gonna want to do some sort of Jedi scan on the Falcon — if you can find her, that is. There’s some stuff hidden in places even Chewie doesn’t know about.”

Luke’s eyes darted briefly to Rey.

“We found her,” she confirmed softly.

“And Ben….” Han’s voice trailed off and he struggled to find the words. “We’ve lost him too. I’m hoping you can help Leia with that….” The old smuggler looked as serious as he ever did. “It’s been great knowing you, kid. May the Force be with you.”

The holo ended and winked out.

Rey held out the holocron — the gilded cube Han once held — to the Jedi Master.

 

@MyKyloRen  13 December 2016

Special thanks to Drew Norman for his inspired artwork.

Backstabbers

Kylo Ren, Master of the Knights of Ren, held up the pyramid-shaped vessel in great reverence. “The flames of her fire have died,” he told the clan of seven warriors gathered around him.

“But they have not gone out,” they intoned in answer and lifted their helmeted heads to the dark skies as one.

Ren added his voice to theirs, raising the blood-red vessel high above his head. “They shall be kindled again!” He brought it to his forehead and rested it there a moment’s contemplation, bringing the ritual to a close. As the men stood down, awaiting their leader’s orders, Ren wrapped the holocron in its black shroud and tucked it into the shielded container. This he carefully stowed in its ritual alcove on board the small freighter they’d brought down half a kilometer from Niima Outpost.

Before leaving the ship to guard-droids, he removed the ritual mask of the secret order and secured the identity-concealing black metal helmet upon his head. Outside with his men again, he said tersely, “Move out.” No further orders were needed. They knew what they had returned to Jakku for.

The girl.

A different one this time.

Not a clone, like all the others grown in the laboratory beneath Carbon Ridge. The transfer would be unique this time — as dangerous and unpredictable as its recipient, one that was not in stasis but conscious and strong in the Force. A ripple of excitement passed through their ranks as they made their way across the midnight desert toward the trading post.

Lightning flickered on the horizon.

They hadn’t gone a quarter of the distance when Ren brought his men to a halt. The dusty air was rife with the earthy smell of rain and the reptilian-like stench of a Kyuzo clovoc — a warrior clan. The Kyuzo were nowhere in sight yet, but he knew they were just over the ridge, some eyeing the Knights with bright golden eyes, others with insect-like compound eyes. Through the Force, he could see them in their wide-brimmed helms — a hundred maybe in the traditional armor of the clovoc. He knew who their leader was. The Acolytes of the Beyond had given him that much information, as well as the clan’s coordinates.

The Knights had come for the girl, but Ren had come for a particularly desirable artifact — one of Darth Vader’s most prized possessions. One that dangled from the belt of Zuvio, the Kyuzo constable of Niima Outpost. One Zuvio meant to trade to Lor San Tekka over in the village of Tuanal in a sweet deal. Zuvio was tracking Ren through slitted eyes. A shiver ran up his spine. He motioned his warriors to fan out.

Ren let them come. He could feel them circling like wolves, closing in on his small band. The Knights were outnumbered more than ten to one, but Ren sensed neither fear nor hesitation in his men. They stood in a circle back to back, hands gripping blasters, rifles, and servo-pikes. Ren unclipped his lightsaber from his belt.

“That’s far enough!” Zuvio called out of the darkness through an interpreter droid. “You’re not welcome here.”

Ren said nothing for a long moment, letting the not-so-distant thunder speak for him. At last he said with a sneer, “You know what I’ve come for.”

Zuvio didn’t hesitate. “I do. And you’ll have to fight all of us to get it. So you might was well turn around and get back in your ship. If you set foot on Jakku again, you’re dead men.”

“We’ll see.” Ren ignited his fiery lightsaber and gave it a spin.

In the next instant, the clan didn’t know what hit it. They ran at the small band of intruders, alien battle cries drowned by the crashing peel of thunder.

Or was it?

The vanguard of Kyuzo warriors fell in a wide circular swath as if they were toys and some huge invisible hand had knocked them all down. Their charge came to a halt as the rearguard stopped cold, stunned. They’d never seen so many of their brothers leveled like sheaves of grain — without being touched. The rain came down in sheets. In the center of the ring, the Knights stood motionless. As did Zuvio. The constable watched in horror as one of his warriors screamed and convulsed in the deepening puddles.

“See to your man,” Kylo Ren called to Zuvio as the remainder of the Kyuzo fled into the night, spooked by an invisible force.

The constable turned to stare in disbelief at his writhing clansman. Had he been hit by lightning? The warrior was in agony and dying, but not fast enough. Zuvio didn’t feel the tug at his belt as the lightsaber clipped there flew away in a Force-summons and into Ren’s outstretched hand. Zuvio was intent on ending his brother’s misery. The constable raised his pike over his head, ready to strike a killing blow when a crackly flame emerged from his chest. Zuvio shrieked.

Ren blinked. He wasn’t sure what he’d just seen. With the artifact firmly in his grasp, he’d meant to retreat, but there she was in front of him…and Zuvio had meant to kill her. Ren had acted on pure instinct — shoving his blade through the Kyuzo’s armor and on through the resistance of the rib cage. When the constable crumpled at his feet, the young woman had quickly staggered to her own, staring in horror. She took several steps back.

He recognized the scavenger, although she must have been just shy of twenty now. He blinked again and moved towards her as if in a dream. The day was bright. The girl — a five-year-old — reached out a thin arm to him and cried, “Come back!” In another blink, she was gone. Vanished. Back into the Force, surely. Ren stood alone with his knights in the pouring rain.

He looked down at the coveted lightsaber in his left hand and ignited the blue blade.

It was Kenobi’s all right. He extinguished it and clipped it to his belt.

“Forget the girl,” he told his men, hefting Zuvio’s cooling body over his shoulder. “We have what we need.”

@MyKyloRen   6 December 2016

Remember Me, My Friend

“We can’t leave here without a look through the Graveyard of Ships.” Ben Solo shoved a hand through his hair and looked intently at the woman he escorted through the ramshackle bazaar of Niima Outpost, his Jedi patience wearing thin. “Have you seen what they’re scavenging here?” He gestured expansively at the washing tables a few meters away from where they stood in a long line with other offworlders. “Datapads, droids, intact astromech memory cores, shield generators, sensor domes, hyperdrives, proton bombs, and tons of Imperial regalia – helmets, badges, blasters. It’s amazing!” He could hardly contain his excitement but lowered his voice to just above a whisper as they moved up a few paces in the queue. “There might even be something of my grandfather’s on that star destroyer we passed.”

Amanda Snoke mopped her forehead with the end of her head scarf. “Look at you,” she exhaled sharply. “You’re not even sweating. “How can you stand this heat?” What little breeze there was under the awnings wafted in off the superheated sands. “Don’t answer that question,” she said, heaving another sigh and giving the sixteen-year-old padawan’s cheek a pat. “I’m sure it’s got something to do with that mysterious Jedi endurance of yours.”

Ben ignored her. “You haven’t answered my question.”

She glanced about at the milling crowd and at the dealer whose booth they stood in front of – Bobbajo the Crittermonger, he was called – the only dealer sanctioned to sell food to spacers. She dreaded what they’d find once they reached the window. She’d seen a lot of unsavory-looking scraps carried off by customers ahead of them, but she and Ben couldn’t leave Jakku without restocking their water or food supplies.

She leaned in close to Ben and said quietly, “In case you hadn’t noticed, this place is full of unpleasant types who undoubtedly multiply after dark, as do the predators that crawl out of the sand the moment the sun goes down.” The padawan opened his mouth to protest but shut it when she held up a hand. “Not even the scavengers are out hunting treasures in this heat.”

Ben lifted his chin. “I can handle myself. The heat doesn’t bother me.” He tried again to infect her with his excitement. “But this is where the Empire staged its last stand. Rumors are that the Imperial ships went down protecting a secret base or treasure that the Emperor looted from ancient civilizations. Some say he had a throne room here. He’d planned to explore and conquer the rest of the galaxy from here.”

He fell sullenly silent as their turn came and they stepped up to the window. He watched as Amanda haggled with the creature named Bobbajo over packages of old Imperial or New Republic rations – all scavenged from downed ships – along with several kilos of water to get their recyclers started again, and baskets of fresh spinebarrel cactus. The water, such as it was – unfiltered and muddy-looking –  was the most costly, but with a subtle wave of his hand, Ben got the foodmonger to cut his price in half.

Amanda Snoke chuckled as they made their way back to the ship, followed by a luggabeast carrying their crates. “Remind me to take you every time I go shopping.” She gave him a gentle pat on the shoulder.

Ben was determined to make the most of her good humor. “So, can we stay one more night so I can have a look around that destroyer? If I can find anything that my grandfather touched, I can learn the truth. I’ll know it through the Force. I just need a….” His voice trailed off at the sound of a high-pitched familiar voice – a cry of desperation and despair.

“No! Come back!”

The young Jedi spun about to peer around the plodding luggabeast. He stopped cold when he saw little Rey straining against the grip of the rotund junk dealer known as Unkar Plutt.

“Quiet, girl!” Plutt growled, gripping her scrawny arm.

“Come back!” Rey wailed again, reaching out towards Ben.

Amanda Snoke turned.

“It’s Rey!” Ben cried. “What’s she doing with him?” It took the boy a second to put together the most plausible explanation. They’d left the child only nine nights ago with Lor San Tekka in the Village of Tuanul. “He sold her!” Ben shrieked. “That bastard sold her into slavery!” The anger boiled within him. “I’ll kill him!”

“Ben!” Amanda grabbed his arm and jerked him back as he made to rescue the girl. She quickly gripped him by both arms with all her might and looked him in the eye. “Listen to me.”

He didn’t want to, but he owed his friend and long-time guardian that much. She held up a hand. “I know it looks that way.” Her fingers curled slightly towards his face. “But you’ll do no such thing,” she intoned in a voice low and dangerous.

Within seconds, Ben gave a sharp cry, clutching at his head. A moment later, his knees buckled and he went down.

“San Tekka may be clueless, but he’s far too good at finding me Force-sensitives to be wasted.” She knelt beside him as he lay unconscious and stroked his dark hair. “And that will be the end of that, Ben Organa Solo,” she told him. “You’ll remember the girl no more.” She glanced up as a couple bystanders came running to offer assistance. “Heatstroke,” she announced. “He’ll be alright in a minute.”

 

@MyKyloRen    10 September 2016

Boy at the End of the Hall

“Jedi Killer!”

The voice was low and dangerous in Kylo Ren’s ears, yet somehow…appreciative, encouraging.

Ren tossed in his dream-sleep, gripping the coverlet so hard his knuckles went white. The light and heat were intense as the temple went up in flames around him, swirling in dizzying eddies along with the shrieks of younglings. He had to get away from the awful sound, the stench of death, the acrid smoke…and the Light…what was left of it. He needed the velvet calm of the Void, to fold himself into the Dark and be its nurtured fetus.

But the dream was always the same. The temple would not release him no matter how many corridors he ran down. The flames and the screams roared behind him, threatening to singe his soul, and before him scurried the last youngling – a boy of about nine with dark unruly hair and the braid of a padawan.

“Yes, good,” a gravelly voice purred in Ren’s ear. “He is trapped.” The voice dropped a notch in pitch. “You know what you have to do.”

With the boil of bloodlust from the Dark Side, Ren pursued the child through a maze of corridors that slanted and twisted in unnatural ways. The padawan’s evasive skills were impressive – catlike and slippery – but the child was unarmed and weak, his use of the Force clumsy. He was no match for the dark warrior shadowing him.

The masked hooded reaper reached out with the Force and pulled the boy to him with a vengeance, gripping him fast by the scruff of the neck. The padawan flailed and screamed as Ren raised his lightsaber to complete the cruel harvest.

“In our vain pursuit of life for one’s own end, will this crooked path ever cease to end?”

This was a new voice – one of patience and guidance, feminine in pitch and undoubtedly from the Light. He strengthened his grip on the struggling wretch.

The master sensed a hesitation and spoke to his apprentice in no uncertain terms. “Kylo Ren…you must finish your task.”

The boy was so helpless, his small voice pitiful and pleading for mercy. His young body delicate and agile – an innocent thing of grace and beauty – his young mind so full of compassion and potential. It would be a shame to ruin this little being.

I know what I have to do, Ren thought, but I don’t know if I have the strength to do it.

He instantly felt a sharp stab of excruciating pain rip through his head and snake down his spine. Snoke was growing impatient. Ren spun the young Jedi around as the boy’s howls increased in volume. He would snuff out this Light face to face – not in the back like a coward. He would slip faster into the Darkness this way.

But he wasn’t prepared for the soft eyes that stared up at him – green eyes full of fear but also full of self-preservation. Eyes brimming with a deep sadness and longing. He’d seen those eyes so many times in pools and mirrors, in the newly polished wall plates of the Millennium Falcon.

His eyes.

With a sharp intake of breath, he let the boy go. Then with a white fury, he grabbed the child again and flung him into a blackened chamber. Ren worked quickly to block the door with old furniture and chunks of temple debris.

He never wanted to see that face again.

The rest of ship’s night passed in a blissfully dreamless state until a scraping sound and a gentle voice made Kylo Ren sit bolt upright even before he was fully awake.

The girl – a wiry young woman who wore her hair in three distinct knots down the back of her head – was clearing away the debris piled against the chamber door. In the next moment, she had the door open and was beckoning to the dark-haired boy cowering in the corner.

“Ben,”she said. “It’s ok. You can come out now.”

 

@MyKyloRen  with special thanks for the inspiration to @Datscavenger        24 June 2016

Watching and Waiting

SUMMARY: [ABY 34.] Following the First Order’s success on Takodana, General Hux debriefs his officers on the mission and begins to outline future strategy for taking down the Resistance. Before Kylo Ren can share the intelligence he’s gathered, he receives a painful call from Supreme Leader Snoke.

Deep inside the halls of Starkiller Base, General Hux addressed an assembly of the First Order’s elite seated about a grand oval conference table. In their midst, a holo projector displayed an image of star map with a large sector deleted from the center.

“Through our informant, we tracked the BB-8 unit to the forests of Takodana, but Ren convinced us there was far greater intelligence to be gained from a prisoner he took there.” He turned to glare at the tall figure shrouded in black lurking in the shadows. “Ren can give you a full report on the interrogation.”

There was sudden intake of breath. A few of the officers swallowed or licked dry lips. Kylo Ren had that effect on most people – even the most composed officers – except Hux. Where other men would have given the helmeted figure a wide berth, Hux didn’t budge when Ren stepped forward and accessed the projector controls through the Force. The image rotated and zoomed in on a planet in the Outer Rim. The move was unexpected. Hux wasn’t entirely sure where Ren was going with it. He knew Ren hadn’t gained any information from the girl yet. She was still strapped down and unconscious.

A soft, inarticulate sound emanated from the voice changer in Kylo Ren’s helmet, and Hux thought the man inside it had cleared his throat. But in a swirl of frayed robes, Ren spun on his heel and was out the door making purposeful strides toward a dark, cavernous chamber Hux knew all too well. Only he, among all the First Order generals, knew the power of a summons from Supreme Leader Snoke.

Hux couldn’t suppress the smirk that tugged at the corners of his mouth.

Kylo Ren’s bootfalls echoed down the empty corridor in steady rhythm then abruptly faltered as he lurched to one side, clutching at his helmet. Glancing quickly about, he tore it off with a hiss and drew in great lungfuls of air, leaning heavily against the wall. He didn’t dare linger there long, but the pain was intense. He had to get it under control before he stepped through the door three paces ahead and into the dreaded chamber.

He screwed his eyes up tight and focused on damping down the searing tendril of fire that splintered through his head and wormed its way down his spine. In another second, the pain would bring him to his knees if he didn’t block the subsequent bolts that followed.

Supreme Leader was testing and punishing him. The test Ren understood. It was expected. Pain was a human’s gravest weakness and it had to be overcome. Snoke was generous enough to test him in private and with advanced warning, but punishment smote Kylo Ren at whim and at the most inopportune times. Ren also never knew what he was being punished for until he heeded the summons like a naughty schoolboy dragging his feet into the headmaster’s office.

Slowly, slowly, he numbed his body against the worst of the blinding pain and his breathing returned to normal. His head still throbbed with sharp little revolving pricks that were impossible to ignore, but he pushed himself away from the wall and staggered in through the tall doors that swished open to admit him.

Inside the darkened assembly hall, he advanced unsteadily up the aisle to the receiving platform where he stood before the huge blue-tinted holo of Supreme Leader Snoke. Ren waited for his master to address him, willing himself not to wince against the continuing threads of pain behind his eyes.

“You disappoint me, Kylo Ren,” Snoke declaimed. “Your focus has wandered from the mission at hand.”

Ren’s face began to burn with resentment, but he knew better than to interrupt. He steeled himself to feel nothing from the forthcoming verbal blows.

“Your thoughts return often to the girl.”

There was no use denying it. Ren knew Snoke could see right through him as if he himself were nothing but a holo image. But what Snoke failed to comprehend was the real reason for Ren’s fascination with the scavenger.

“She has seen the section of the map that we’re looking for,” Ren explained in an attempt to side-step the issue, “but she resisted the probe.”

“How?” The voice was low and dangerous. “She is unconscious.”

“I don’t know. I need more time with her.”

“You are developing feelings for her,” Snoke observed with a sneer.

Ren swallowed. “With time I can break her.”

“We don’t have time,” Snoke snapped. “You have one standard day. Then I want her terminated. She is no use to us. And you will finish what you started.” He leaned forward in his huge chair to loom over Ren. “Get…the…map.”

Ren said nothing but gave Snoke a curt bow before retreating, donning his helmet as he exited the hall and made his way back to the interrogation chamber.

She was just as he’d left her, asleep but tense. Her eyes fluttered, and for a moment he thought they would open, but her head lulled to the side. He watched her fingers curl into a fist at her side.

He stepped slowly about the restraining bed, eyeing her with intense curiosity. He had made some progress tapping into her mind, but he hadn’t found what he’d expected. Instead, he saw this scrawny thing of a child – a girl no older than five, or maybe seven if she was small for her age. Her hair was tied in knots the same way this scavenger wore her hair now. In her mind he saw the child strain against the one who was holding her. She turned her tiny, pitiful face up to his own and begged him – Kylo Ren – not to go. She begged him to come back.

Ren backed away from the girl in the restraints. He recognized neither one – the Jakku scavenger before him or the child that cried in her head – and yet both pulled at him.

He sat back on his heels, watching and waiting.

 

@MyKyloRen   28 March 2016

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Author’s note 24 December 2017: My main point in writing this story was to draw attention to the fact that Snoke tortures Kylo Ren — and Hux — as we saw in The Last Jedi, and he can do so at a distance. Nailed that one. I’m looking forward to the day when J.J. Abrams explains Rey’s Force-vision, but for now I’m clinging to the theory that Ben Solo and Rey knew each other as children.