Star Wars: Edge of Hope

Chapter Four: Things Change...So Do We...

Kylo Ren couldn't tell where the feeling was coming from, but it felt like it would tear him apart. Like the molecules binding him together were being stretched to their limits, as if the fabric of his soul were being torn straight down the middle, one piece belonging to him. And the other belonging to her. As the stretching sling shot them lifting them off the green paths in the Naboo jungle, they landed back on the rusted hulk of the Imperial ghost ship. The wreck was dotted with windswept water and rain pouring in through the broken hull. Kylo slid across the inverted floor, the landing taking nearly all the wind out of him, he heard Rey land behind him but she hit a protrusion which kept her from going off the broken edge. He took standing slowly, everything felt like it was wrong inside him, felt like he wasn't put back together the right way, as he looked at Rey...he doubted he could ever feel whole without her. As they stood, the space between them felt wider than it ever had before, and as much as they wanted to neither of them had the strength to close the gap.

Kylo Ren: So...

He was out of breath...the soreness from the rough landing made taking a breath difficult, and looking at her...almost impossible. He could see the pain she was trying to push down and hide from him. They were born to be stronger...to be faster and wiser...but underneath it all they were still only human.

Kylo Ren: So...

Rey: Take your time..I'll wait...

Kylo Ren: Doesn't feel like something's different from before. You can feel it too, I know you can...The Force isn't just connecting our minds...it's like it's trying to...

Rey: Trying to make the two of us One? Don't you see it, Ben? This isn't how we are....how things are meant to be...you can't deny it. I know you feel it too.

Kylo Ren: I've never heard of any Jedi...or Sith for that matter being able to travel through the Force. Bond or no, Rey...not everything goes the way you want it to. And you have to find a way to make your peace with that...I had to when you left. I'm not the only one denying a part of myself...you are too.

Rey: I don't deny it. I choose who I want to be, Ben. Just like you chose the Darkside over your own family...over your father...and your mother. Over me. Perhaps,...perhaps this is happening because you keep resisting that...

Kylo Ren: Resisting? Resisting what, Rey?

Rey: Yourself. Who you are? I refuse to believe you killed Snoke to simply take his place...you did it because...

Kylo Ren: Because of my feelings? Because of how I feel for you? Look how that's turned out, Rey! We're still on opposite sides of the board, just like before we even knew the other existed. As much as you want to believe in destiny and the Will of the Force being responsible for this...connection we have. It's just as probable its merely the broken parts of ourselves recognizing themselves in us. The Force doesn't care about you or me, it doesn't care about what we want for ourselves. It doesn't care who it destroys. Or who has to die to make it's perfect design reality. The Force doesn't care about you, Rey! But I do! I care..very much about you. And everytime I try to stop, try to push you away...you come right back to me..

His voice broke open as he tried to fight back the emotions. He couldn't help seeing the pain in her face. She was the reflection of everything he was..they were more a part of each other than either of them knew. They were the same,both of them broken so beautifully they shined, but the glow only kept the shadows at bay for so long.

Kylo Ren: You always come back and it makes life unbearable. Waking up every morning and wanting to see your face...in the soft glow of the sun...I have dreamed of a life beyond all of this. If you could just let go of this...we could be happy...we don't have to be...this way. We could be so much more, Rey...

Rey: It doesn't have to be...All or nothing, Ben. We don't...Argh!

The sky overhead began to rumble, streaks of lightning flashed across the sky, the ship began to shift and sway, the sound of sloshing water sounded like a beast drinking it's fill as the wreck slipped farther into the sea. They tried to keep their balance as the old ruin swayed under their unsteady feet.

Kylo Ren: Was? Was that you? Did you? Oh, I see now...Why you're so afraid...why you ran...

Rey: I doesn't have to be this way, Ben. We don't have to keep fighting each other...

As Rey started to tentatively walk forwards closing the distance between them another shift threw her sideways. Ben rushed to catch her before she could go over into open air. Just as his hand closed down on hers his feet sliding along the slick floor fighting for traction. The vroom of the remote came back into orbit startling Kylo Ren as it swooped brushing the top of his head.

Rey: This isn't the way...This isn't how this is supposed to be, Ben.

The remote comes around for another pass and the tension between Kylo Ren and Rey finally overflowed the cup. Rey lost her temper. Her eyes narrowed and she focused in on the remote as it prepared to try another pass at her.

Rey: Arghhh!

She knocked it out of its flight path and pinned it against the rough bark of a nearby tree where it quivered in anger. The random sporadic spurts of laser fire did little to divert Rey's focus. She motions a branch into her hand. Then she drives it through the remote straight through to the other side of the tree. The remote whirls one final time and then falls silent, it's last revenge throwing off a stream of sparks and sputters.

Rey: Like I was saying...before...I didn't run from you. I wasn't running at all, Ben. But you keep resisting what you know is true..Resisting me...

The world falls away again and the shift throws them down, like falling through the top of the world and landed on the floor at the bottom. They couldn't move...they can feel their energy draining away from them, all they can do is turn their heads and even that sends rivets of pain through their bodies. Which in turn are only maginified by the connection they share, his pain is hers and hers becomes his. As Kylo tries to catch his breath, rocking back and forth on the floor trying to find the strength to get to his feet again. Rey moans and manages to turn on her side, but her face is pale...her forehead bleeding from a cut he didn't remember being there before. Kylo gets to his knees and as he lifts his head up there standing in front of him, in the flash of a moment...is Rey...but it isn't her face. This was what she'd been hiding from him.
Fighting against, the thing that would always separate them, at last Kylo could see the secret...He could see her Darkside.

Kylo Ren: Rey?