Force Destiny

Of Nightmares and Bonds

Kylo Ren stood over her. It was a dream. She knew it was a dream, but she couldn't wake up. Turning away from the dark, imposing figure, Rey began running through a vast, shadowed forest. The cold of the snow leached through her boots. She shivered as she sprinted through the trees. She recognized this forest. It was the same one in her vision; it was Starkiller. Remembering the man in the mask in her vision, she only then realized it had predicted her future.

Rey stopped, pivoting in search of the masked wraith. When she turned, however, she no longer stood in a forest; a vast, barren landscape of ice stretched away as far as she could see. Kylo Ren stood in the snow next to a downed TIE fighter, his cloak coalesced with the black smoke billowing in the wind.

Rey turned and sprinted in the opposite direction. She found herself again contained in a dense forest. As she observed the snow blanketing the ground and tree limbs, she realized this place wasn't Starkiller. The trees were too red, the snow too deep, the dark between the trees too black; this place was somewhere else. Yet it was the same place she remembered from her vision. This was an extended sequence of her original vision, only it was playing in reverse. The thought was unnerving.

The sounds of battle echoed around her. Invisible lightsabers clashed, explosions vibrated through her body, the wounded cried out in pain, the smell of smoke invaded her senses. She looked down at her hands, and they were covered in blood. Somehow, she knew it wasn't her blood. Then she heard that voice. It was frighteningly familiar—the voice from her dreams. Barely more than a whisper, it was strained, but calm and kind. She heard it as clearly as if it whispered into her ear.

"Stay here. I'll come back for you." She turned, desperately searching in vain for the owner of that voice, but the forest remained empty.

"Where are you?" she called out to him. Her search became more frantic, her fear for him sending her pulse into overdrive. Coming back wasn't good enough; she wanted him to stay.

"I'll come back, sweetheart. I promise." She stopped running. She knew it was too late; he had left her. But where did he go? Her eyes shifted up to the dark sky above her as she searched the stars.

"Come back!" It was a child's voice. It was her voice, from a lifetime ago. A shadow stepped out in front of her, and she fell back.

She awoke with a start. Her heart was pounding in her chest, her hair drenched in sweat. She sighed. It was that dream again. Why did she still have that dream? She knew the voice was not her father's voice, as she had once believed. She realized now that they had never cared. They disposed of her like garbage, as Kylo had once said. They never would have told her that. They probably didn't even say goodbye.

She'd had a dream of that voice for as long as she could remember, so if her parents had not said those words to her, then she must have created that voice in denial—just as she had held onto the belief that they would come back. The denial she had once held onto, however, had been broken. If that voice she had dreamed of for all of those years was one that she created, then why was she still haunted by this dream?

She blinked as the room came into focus and startled when she noticed the shadow sitting in front of her. She reached out into the Force to sense the energy. Of course, it's you. The room was dark, but she could feel it. Kylo sat, hunched forward, his elbows on his knees, in a chair she had never seen.

She gasped despite herself. Sitting up, she moved on the makeshift bed as far away from him as she could. Murderer! "Why are you here?"

"You're – the one who did this," he said, gesturing to his scar. "You're afraid of me?" But she didn't sense a mocking or derisive tone. She sensed anger, but what was more unsettling was the voice in her head that shouldn't have been there. His voice. Not you, too.