The Two Of Us (Reylo Fanfic)

Part 8: The Two of Them

For days, Rey could feel nothing of Kylo Ren. Not that long ago she would have begged for such a time. But now, she found herself missing the contact. Not the heavy weight of anger that had dogged her steps; that she was grateful to be rid of. No, it was the man that Rey missed. She fell asleep each night half hoping to find Kylo Ren/ Ben Solo waiting on the dream side. They would bicker and snipe at one another, Rey knew. But he would also hold her close in those long arms. She could rest her head on his chest and listen to his heart beat. For once, she would feel strangely safe and whole, finding comfort in the arms of her enemy. But, though she tried to reach out to him, Rey could feel nothing of the link they shared. She felt oddly abandoned once more.

The respite did, however, give Rey time to reflect over their times together. After all, Ben Solo had said that she had all the information she needed to answer her questions. She thought of the dark sky that had lowered over the pair of them as they had sat on the sand of Jakku. Ren had been oblivious to the dark clouds above. Then, similarly, there was the dark clouds surrounding Ben Solo and the field, producing faces that peered eerily out at them before disappearing. It had pulled them apart. At first, Rey had thought that the cloud and the darkness symbolised Kylo Ren. But then, how come he had been unable to see the darkness above them in the Jakku dream? And the rasping voice she had heard? What are you doing here? She shuddered at the thought of the rasping sound of the voice.

Rey went even further back, thinking of the small, gangly boy listening to his parents argue. She meditated on the scene, trying to recall everything in the room, from the shattered toys to the dirty clothes. One fresh detail became clearer in her mind. One corner of the room was strangely darkened. As she focussed on that corner, it seemed to almost come alive, whispering constantly. She could not exactly hear what it was saying, the voice was too low. However, she suspected that the boy could hear what the voice was mumbling.

It was Snoke that pushed him to do it...to murder his father.

Leia had said this to Rey. The older woman was so sad at the loss of the man she loved at the hands of her son. Yet, that was not the point. The name seemed to stick with Rey. Snoke was the leader of The First Order. Snoke was the master of Kylo Ren.

Part of Snoke was also a living presence inside Ben Solo.

Rey's eyes slowly, calmly, opened. Everything suddenly made so much more sense. Snoke had been that dark cloud that had hovered over Ben since he was no more than five or six years old, chattering bile into the young boy's ear. The sinister presence had been stoking the anger and hatred within him, seducing him to the dark side and turning him into Kylo Ren. She was not fighting against one. There were two of them. It was like the bond that Ren had described between master and apprentice. But this was so much more dangerous. Snoke had managed to stay hidden within young Ben Solo, even under the watchful eye of his force sensitive mother, Leia, and his powerful Jedi uncle, Luke.

Rey closed her eyes once more. She concentrated her focus on her breath, looking for the peace, the calm that would increase her awareness of the Force. If she was linked to Ben through the Force, she reasoned that through that all powerful web, she could find him. Rey directed her thoughts to Ben.

"No." she muttered, dismissively. "He is only Ben Solo to me. He sees himself as Kylo Ren."

Rey concentrated on everything about Kylo Ren that she could, recalling how he looked and how he moved. She thought about the high cheek bones set in the long thin face, with the dark, watchful eyes. In her mind's eye, she etched the scar across the right cheek, from the prominent nose to the edge of his jaw line. Rey then framed the face with the mass of thick, dark hair. With the image of his face in her mind, she recalled his lean, muscular body with his long arms and legs clad in the thick, black clothing. As she built the image of him in her mind, Rey began to feel once more the bond that lived between them. At first, it was tentative. Rey considered the possibility that Snoke was shielding Ren from her. She turned her attention from his looks to those things that they had in common, namely their shared, raw ability with the Force. With that, came certain ambitions and temptations; that she also recognised as a trait that they shared. Then there was the loneliness that had dogged both of them for most of their lives. Even Rey had to admit, their skill with the Force separated them from others. Ren was the only person she had met, apart from her master, who could understand their gift and its very great potential.