The Resistance

An uneasiness had hung in the air. A thick tension. Rey and Kylo had barely spoken for days as the ship flew aimlessness, Ren attempting to use the force to pinpoint the location of such power, to fill in the missing piece of the map Darth Sidious had created before his death, before it could be completed.

Rey had almost barricaded herself in the small room that now belonged to her. She was willing to go along with his plan, not to help him however, but to buy time for her friends, for the Resistance, but after connecting with Ren so completely, so overpoweringly, she feared becoming any closer. She feared not only the poisoning of her mind, but feared that if a decisive moment came, and she had to make the decision to strike him down, she never would. So she’d shut him out completely, acting the part of a prisoner.

He’d left her alone, sending in the droid to deliver food and keep her company. Eagerly asking the droid to report back after every interaction.

The two had closed themselves off from each other, but within such close proximity, barricading each other had become physically draining; it was weakening them. Neither had the strength they once did. It had started the night Rey had agreed to join him. Their walls built up instantly, and from then on, every hour, they had grown weaker, until two days had passed in this way. It was why Ren had yet been able to locate the source. His unwillingness to push her too far away soon became overpowered by his frustration at the weakening of his mind, of his abilities. The only thing that gave his life meaning, purpose. That made others lower their eyes to him.

Ren had thrown a cot down on the floor of the small escape pod attached to the ship. He lay on his side, back to the entrance, looking out at the clear walls of the pod at the passing stars. Exhaling he turned onto his back, finding no comfort still. Everything ached, the edges of his mind trembled with exhaustion. He could not allow this to continue any further.

“Please” He whispered to her in a moment of weakness, reaching out with the last remnants of his mental strength. “I cannot sleep, I cannot think, I cannot eat. I know you feel it too. Please.” His jaw quivered with tension. He felt as if, had he been standing, he would have collapsed.

His eyes closed in pain. It had been getting worse. He’d never felt this before. He couldn’t fathom.

Soft footsteps echoed down the hall, and Rey, clutching the sides of walls, came into view. He had not seen her much as of late, and her appearance shook him. She looked much more pale, the petal colors of her cheeks gone. Eyes were not alight with their usual mischief or fire.

She arrived, standing in the doorway holding on to the frame. “Why?” Her face twisted slightly with pain.

He sat up, mustering the last of his physical strength. “I do not know, I don’t understand.”

She stepped closer. “I’m afraid.”

Ren reached out his hand. He hoped that if they were to continue barring each other mentally, physical contact would be the only thing to stop the drain upon both of them. His conviction had grown upon seeing her face just now, seeing her like that.

Rey reached out, pausing with hesitation, before letting her fingertips graze his. The split second of contact sent a jolt through them, galvanizing their bodies. Rens eyes panned over Rey, the color returned to her complexion, to her cheeks, her lips. Rey looked from Ren to her hand, still outstretched but out of reach from his.

A hunger grew in his eyes and with what strength the moment had given him he reached out further, grasping her hand and pulling her to him. Still sitting he pulled her into an embrace, holding onto her waste, head resting against her stomach as she stood in between his legs. It suddenly all flooded back, again that ecstasy, that power, the life and force flowing back into their bodies. It was like a breath of air after drowning. The small patch of greenery bursting through black volcanic rock. It was the sun streaking the horizon after a storm.

Rey held him back, arms gingerly holding his head, fingers tangled in his hair. She looked out at the stars, her breathing heavy.

“You are, and will always be a monster to me.” She whispered, unable to untangle herself from him. Unwilling to.

“I know.” He mumbled, his face buried into the folds of fabric draped around her waist.

“But we need this don’t we?” She asked, looking down. It was the most vulnerable she had ever seen him, clutching her like she was life itself. She knew this moment of weakness would never last. She knew what strength, what power meant to him, what meaning it gave him, she had seen it.

“I think we do.” He sighed, the last of the pain and tension leaving his body. He gripped her tighter. She smelled of clean linens and Ithorian roses. He shut his eyes tighter.

“I hate this.” Rey’s fingers clutched harder at the black locks of his hair.

“And you think I don’t? Do you think I enjoy this mental tug of war? Do you think I enjoy needing the help of a peasant to keep this physical draining at bay? Do you think I enjoy being a feeble weakling clutching at my enemy like a child to their blanket during strikes of lightning in the night sky?” Abruptly he let go and gently pushed her away, holding her at arms length, realizing the folly of the situation. Realizing his failings, his weakness.

“Come.” He said bluntly, the vulnerability gone from his baritone voice. He took her hand and and led her around the cot, swinging his legs to the other side. He tugged her down onto the cot next to him so that the two of them sat looking out at the clear wall of the pod. He kept a hold of her hand, and looked out at the vast blackness, unwilling to come to terms that each day was bringing about a new way in which he needed her.

Rey turned her head so that she could look at him. He felt her eyes on him but just couldn’t look back into those hazel pools. “I will help you fully, to find, this, this source. But my allegiance does and forever will lie with the Resistance. Before myself, and before you. Once we find whatever we are looking for I am leaving, whether you allow me to or not.”

“Go. Rest. Build what barriers you require, tomorrow we will join minds and search.” His tone was devoid of emotion. At his side, his other hand clenched and unclenched with tension.

Rey turned to look back out through the walls. “Do you think I can stay a little longer?”

He turned to look at her with surprise, noting the rapid rise and fall of her chest, the submissiveness of her hand in his. “Of course.”

***

“Stop!” Rey smiled, opening her eyes. “You’re getting sweat all over my hands.” She swatted his hands away.

She sat across from Ren in a pose of meditation, legs crossed. Their knees just barely touching. The small dining area had been cleared and they sat in the centre, preparing to join minds in search of the source.

“What do you want from me, my hands sweat, it is a natural human process what-” Ren glowered at her with mock anger.

“Shush” Rey smiled, trying to compose herself. She took his large hands and placed them palms down so that they were resting on her knees. He looked down raising a brow questioningly. She rolled her eyes before placing her palms down over top of his hands. Closing her eyes in concentration. He did the same, a hint of a smile lingering on his lips.

The galaxy suddenly lay before them behind their closed lids. Like a hologram, but every detail was present. Every crack in every asteroid.

Rey’s mouth opened involuntarily in wonderment. She hadn’t seen anything like it before.

“Here” Ren whispered, closing in on a specific region of the mental map before them. “Feel it, find it. I’ve come this way but my mind alone is not strong enough.”

Rey exhaled, closing in on to the spot he described. Moons and planets orbited an empty space. She brought herself closer but could feel something pushing her mind back. “It doesn’t want to be found.” She said softly as she continued her concentration.

Together they pushed back the mental resistance, coming closer and closer to the cloaked planet until it suddenly came into view below. Pitch black clouds enveloped the dark planet. Swirls of hurricanes dotted the surface above stormy seas. What little land they could see was desolate save for the remnants of a crumbling temple made of red stone, since turned muddy with weathering and ash.

Rey’s mind pushed further, coming to the entrance. Fallen stones lay in heaps. The place had looked untouched for millions of years. It was in complete ruin, and yet, as she peered through the doorway, there was only blackness, she did not see the tumbled stones that should have been visible on the other side.

“No” Ren said angrily, trying to hold Rey’s mind back as she tried to enter.

She mentally pushed him back and entered the dark, suddenly feeling his presence leave her altogether.

***
“Rey! Rey!” Ren cried out with concern. As soon as she’d mentally shaken him off and entered the temple his eyes had flown open, having felt her hands slip from atop his. She was convulsing on the floor, shaking and turning, her eyes looking out but seeing nothing, gurgling sounds escaping her lips.

“RD-12!” Kylo yelled, he needed help stabilizing her. The droid came equipped with internal medical equipment.

The droid came rushing over. Hovering over Rey’s convulsing body, unsure of what his master required of him.

“Sedate her!” He screamed, trying to cradle her head from thrashing against the hard floor of the room.

An internal storage unit quickly sprang out of the droid revealing an array of medical equipment. RD-12 pulled out a syringe. Holding Rey’s arm steady he injected her with the sedative. Her body instantly went limp.

Ren worriedly lowered his ear to her chest, assuring himself her heartbeat was still present. He threw off the extra cloak he was wearing, his body had become warmer with the intensity of his worry. Kneeling before her he placed his hands on either side of her head, fingers spread out, and lowered his temple to hers. He closed his eyes and looked inside.

As soon as he entered her mind his head filled with the sounds of her agonized screams. He could hear her all around, but couldn’t find her. He called her name again and again, wincing with every scream. It felt like wading through pitch black waters at night. There was no up or down, merely a tugging all around his body. He searched but saw nothing. An idea sprang to his mind, and in this mental limbo he reached his hands out, attempting something he had never done in the physical sphere. Sparks began to fly from his fingertips, illuminating patches of the darkness around him. He spotted her in the distance, the faint flicker of a pale cheek. He yelled with exhaustion as he used the internal force to bring her to him. She was convulsing just as her physical body had been.

He grabbed hold of her. Gathering his strength he tried to envelope her being, her mind, and push her out of the place. He held her as he body thrashed against hers and suddenly she vanished. But he remained.

As soon as she had left, the chilling black around him grew silent until a figure appeared abruptly before him, glowing red around the edges of the tall frame.

It was Snok.

He smirked down at Ren. “Foolish boy. You know nothing of me, of my species, of the dark.” He was plucking the questions right out of Ren’s mind.

Ren was paralyzed, his body frozen before Snok. Only his eyes could move, but there was nowhere to look but into the menacing eyes of his former master.

“It was never my intention to rule the Last Order. We sensed an awakening, a conflict, and I was sent to quelch it, but it seems I was mistaken. It is why I am here now. It is why I sent you in search of this place.” Snok began circling Ren. “For the first time in milleniums, the dark has the potential to succeed, succeed in the face of a single ray of light. I was sent to turn you but I felt your resolve for the dark slipping away. I used the girl, hoping you could turn her, hoping that the potential to have a companion at your side would force you to take control, to bring her into the folds of the dark.” Snok stopped circling him, his rustling robes stopping their swaying. “My death was written in time long before you knew of the girl, long before your conception. However, things are not as they should be. You are losing the fight to turn her.”

He bent down so that his piercing eyes were inches from Rens immobile frame.

“It is your destiny to rule. I feel you want no part, but it is the path chosen for you, and the one you must take. Turn her and she will rule at your side.” Snok turned to look off into the distance of the darkness. “Time stands before me like the branches of a tree, there are too many potential paths…” He brought his angry eyes back to Rens, “and only one leads to the dark. It is the path you must take.”

He reached out, grabbing hold of Ren’s frozen shoulder, and squeezed it, digging his fingers past the mental fabric and to the soft flesh. Ren wanted to scream out in pan, but he couldn’t.

Abruptly he fell to his knees, finally able to move as Snok released his grip and turned to leave, but not stopping and turning around, the hint of a smile around the edges of his grotesque mouth. “Ah, I forgot to add. What time has told me, what is also solidified. If the girl chooses the light, she will die.”

Rens eyes sprang open. He was on his back on the floor of the dining area, RD-12 anxiously sitting next to him. His shoulder flared with pain. After the brief shock of waking up he instantly searched with his eyes for her.

“I moved her sir, to her bed.” The droid stood up, reaching a hand out for Ren. Ren grabbed it and stood up. “She has since woken up.”

“How, how long have I been here?” He straightened out his tunic, mind still hazy.

“A little over an hour sir. I thought it best not to move you.”

“Thank you RD-12” Ren called behind him as he rushed to Reys room.

Her doors were open. She sat on the bed, knees drawn up so her chin rested on them, legs crossed at the ankles. Her eyes were cast down. He could feel the anxiety emanating from the room.

Her eyes lifted to meet his as she heard the so hard, determined sounds of his footfalls.

Without hesitation he walked into the room and knelt on the floor before the bed, never letting their locked eyes falter. “What happened.”

Rey shook her head, closing her eyes eyes. “I felt evil. I felt hate and anger all around me. It felt as if thousands of worms were burrowing under my skin and trying to find their way to my heart.” She opened her eyes, looking back at him with conviction as she placed her hands on his shoulders. Ren winced slightly. “Ben we cannot go to that place. I don’t know why, but something felt terribly terribly wrong. It was not as you described at all.”

He stood, looking away from her. “I know. I know.” He had gotten what he needed, guidance. He now knew where his allegiance stood, whether he truly wanted it or not. His was the path of the dark, with Rey at his side. He could not lose her to the light.

“Did, did you know this would happen?” She whispered, unwilling to believe he had foreseen the agony she had endured whilst in the dark.

Ren looked down at her imploring hazel eyes. “I did not. I, I would not have allowed that to... I didn’t know.”

“Are we done?” She shifted so that she was kneeling on the bed.

“No.” He choked out the word. In a sense, yes, yes they were done. He’d asked her to stay for the remainder of the quest, but things had not gone as planned. He’d only needed her mind. What he’d seen, the two of them fighting side by side must have been a mistake. But he could not let her go now. He had to do something, anything, to keep her. She couldn’t be allowed to return to the Resistance; where she joined the light she too would face death.

Suddenly the ship rumbled, shaking Ren off balance so he fell to the floor. Alarms began blaring, and he could hear RD-12’s panicked cries in the control room.

It was an explosion.