Bonded in the Silence: A Reylo Fanfiction

Chapter 28: Traitor

Staring at the blue lightsaber with tears in her eyes, Rey stood from the grass and began to slowly move through some exercises; sweeping the lightsaber through the defense arc and pulling back to thrust forward to an attack. A pleasureable tickle in her chest almost made her smile.

The movements were familiar to her muscles, mirroring the way she moved on Ahch-To while practicing under the watchful eye of Luke. There was freedom on the island, allowing the force to flow through her and be one with it.

Her arm strangely quivered as it gripped the hilt, and her peripheral vision seemed to catch how the flesh barely rippled in response. Did she imagine it just now?

Holding the saber out, she studied her arm more closely but was unable to ascertain the peculiar feeling in her bicep and forearm that now turned to heat that spread into her chest. Overwhelmed by the sensation, Rey disengaged the lightsaber.

"I need to go" she said distantly, breathing through the nearly suffocating impression.

She could sense Ren's confusion hearing him rise from to his feet, but she didn't dare look at him.

"I just don't feel like myself..." she trailed off before trodding toward the trees. "I'll see you back at Maz's."

*

Ren was speechless as he solemnly watched Rey depart, her beige robes hastily disappearing between the foliage. The moment she was gone he picked up a rock bigger than his hand and hurled it angrily over the treetops in the opposite direction.

This is madness, his thoughts rang.

When was he going to divulge the discovery of her parents bodies? There never seemed to be a right moment between the two of them for him to broach the topic. If there wasn't imminent danger lurking, then there was always other people around. Whenever he and Rey got within close proximity to one another, it seemed magnetic and infallible the way they would become drawn together physically; something always managed to fall through however, the tension never quite seeming to be dealt with. The connection was always left bereft and denied.

Igniting his saber, he swung with maximum force to fell the wide birth of a tree trunk. Cracking and snapping filled the air as it began to topple, and he willed it to fall in the opposite direction. The ground shook as the massive tree crashed against others beside it before finally coming to rest on the ground. The act did not cure him of the rising frustration.

He'd dedicated over ten years of his life to this cause, this purpose of his to the First Order, and to the Dark Side. The betrayal of his uncle was the finishing blow in a series of events that put him on track to his current path.

"Ben!....No!" Luke pleaded before the roof came down on him.

He'd committed to it, and never looked back. All the way to killing his own father.

Ren took long strides over to another large tree, raising his saber again. Moments later, it joined the first on the ground.

"You have compassion for her."

Encountering Rey in the forest changed everything. He'd been enticed by the lingering feeling of familiarity between them, and taken her for other purposes.