"You spent years in a dustbowl, scavenging for survival and counting stars, desperate for answers. Rey, I am standing in front of you, a traitor, to tell you it is right here, by my side."
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⟵ Midnight Visitor ⟶
Kylo Ren was not sleeping. His mistakes haunted his conscious like phantoms; blood on his hands drenched from night sweats of horrible nightmares. The reflections corrupted his essence, devouring him to the bone.
You're a monster.
His father's dying eyes swallowed him whole.
Come home, Ben.
Years of abuse chewed and gnawed at any last hope he might imprison.
You're just a child in a mask.
The disappointment embedded in her eyes spitting him out.
Please don't go this way.
She left him alive and the questions of what if left the Supreme Leader awake at night. She could have easily ended his life, the war would have been over and the Resistance would be triumphant. Instead, she demonstrated mercy on his unconscious soul.
Kylo Ren glared at himself in the mirror of his steam room. He was shirtless and probing his own body.
The wound constructed by Chewbacca's blaster on Starkiller Base was nothing more than a healed pocket, surrounded by scars and discoloration.
Kylo would secretly strike the wound to evoke the darkness, begging it for strength to power his destruction. Screaming in silence, he would reopen the wound and drain his own blood in the shower. Forcing himself to wither in pain was an outlet; a way to cope. The self-harm made the abuse easier to withstand.
His eyes met his own in the mirror. Darkened circles accentuated the amber hue. The scar of his grandfather's lightsaber has rehabilitated so well, it was almost gone. The thin laceration was a silent reminder that Rey was just as a capable and strong.
He turned the nozzle, suddenly slapping his face with glacial water. The freezing temperature flipped his pyrexia and conveyed his mind to a snow-kissed woods.
She stood in silence, a small smile on her face.
He hesitated but started to approach, his feet sinking with each step into the flurries that built their own kingdoms upon the ground. The snow drifted, surrounding them like a globe that was shaken up.
As he got closer he witnessed the flakes grace her face before melting away from the warmth she radiated.
"Are you cold?" he asked, already taking off his black coat. She didn't speak but her smile grew as a flower in sunlight from his kindness.
