Confronting Fear

Dyad

"But remember I am human
And I'm bound to sing this song
So hear my voice remind you not to bleed
I am here a savior
Will be there
When you are feeling alone, oh
A savior for all that you do
So you live freely without their harm"

Savior - Black Veil Brides

"What the fuck were you thinking?" Rey shouted at Kylo the second they reached the deserted corridor. "Princess, Princess?" her voice rising an octave each time she repeated the word. She didn't need the Force to sense his amusement, which only made her glower more. "I am a Jedi, a warrior, not some, some Princess!"

"Actually, you are, sweetheart." Kylo turned to face her after emphasizing the word sweetheart, looking all too pleased with himself.

"Sweetheart! How dare you! Why, am I a princess, because you named me one? Because that's what the Supreme Leader wants?"

"Not at all," he replied matter of factly. "You're the long lost grandaughter of the Emperor. His legal heir. If that doesn't make you a princess I don't know what does."

Rey felt her jaw drop as she realized the truth in his words. Princess. The nobody from Jakku was a fucking princess! Her mind processed this new information. Maybe it wasn't such a bad thing. After all Leia had been a princess... but not a Sith princess, the voice in the back of her mind reminded her.

Kylo was enjoy watching her fume. Rey was firey and there was a certain satisfaction that came with stoking it. He needed to keep her on her toes if he was to keep her by his side.

"Come on. We need to plan," as he motioned her towards the door to her suite. "Oh, and one more thing. Your saber." Her eyes were downcast as she handed it over without argument. That concerned him. Her fire, seemed to have been doused. Had he taken the light hearted teasing too far? No, he sensed unease and fear in her Force as they each sat down in an upholstered chair. "Food should be arriving any minute now. We can eat as we work." As if on cue, the door buzzed and a serving droid set a large tray on the table.

Rey picked at her meal as he went over the details of the First Order fleet and how it could best be utilized against Palpatine's forces, projecting them out from a holopad. Her aura remained troubled.

He decided to switch the topic to something more in her wheelhouse. Battleship maneuvers were not her forte and he could go over them with her when they were finalized. "I think we need to go to Mustafar."

That got her attention. "The nightmare we had, I think we were on Mustafar. I was just there a few days ago and I recognize that ravine. I think the Force was trying to tell us something. I know in the vision it didn't end well for us, but I think it's a chance we need to take."

She nodded in agreement. "I was thinking the same thing actually."

"Rey, what's wrong?"

"How did you know?About me, about Palpatine, about Exegol, about the Dyad, and what even is a Dyad? Tell me."

Kylo sat still as a statue, carefully planning his responses. This was not a conversation he wanted to have but had expected. His Scavenger was always questioning people's intentions. A byproduct of her upbringing in that wasteland full of vagrants no doubt.

"I met Palpatine." He could see her tense, ready to bolt from her chair. "I did what you were trying to do after the broadcast. I found a wayfinder, went to Exegol and found him. I had planned to kill him, but was unable. He told me who you really are, what happened to your parents."

She relaxed slightly, but still looked like prey cornered by a predator. He liked the idea of that.

"I saw his fleet. It's like nothing I've ever seen before. It's massive. He's been building it for 30 years. He offered it to me if I agreed to kill you. He thinks with you gone there will be none to threaten him." He had never seen her eyes so wide.

This next part was the trickiest, one wrong word could ruin it all. "I'm not going to kill you. I couldn't even if I wanted. I don't want to be Palpatine's puppet the way Snoke was, I want us to be free of him, for good." He pleaded with her, searching her hazel eyes.

He watched with bated breath as she relaxed in her chair, "I believe you."

Looking into his deep brown eyes, she did believe him. She believed that he wouldn't hurt her. She felt tears forming in the edges of her vision. "And the Dyad?" she asked in a whisper.

"After Crait, I went looking for answers. Snoke said he created the Force bond, but if that was true, it should have died with him. It was clear after we connected on Crait that he lied. He knew about it, but didn't create it."

Rey nodded, having come to that same conclusion herself.

"I still felt you in my mind, a constant hum. I started searching the old temples, Jedi and Sith. In one of the Jedi temples I found reference to a story about a Jedi and a Sith in a dyad bond. It sounded exactly like us. From what I was able to deduce, we're the first in centuries, maybe millenia"

Rey took it all in, almost not wanting to know the answer to her next question. "What does that mean, for us?"

"It means that we are two that are one in the Force, Rey. Every living thing has it's own place in the Force, separate from every other organism's place. I know you feel that." She nodded, remembering her lesson on Ach-to. "Our places in the Force overlap. We share our Force between each other. It's a special thing. It means neither of us are ever alone. I will always be with you, and you will always be with me."

He couldn't read her expression but felt the storm of emotions turning in her aura. He reached out to her mind but found himself thrown back, her defenses the highest they'd ever been.

Her voice was tight, controlled,  "One more question. Were you checking in on me over the past year? I swear I sensed your presence a few times. One night I even thought I saw you."

Kylo sighed, both of relief and apprehension that his secret was out. "Yes. I discovered how to control it on accident. I visited you a few times that way, just to see you. I wanted to see you."

Rey stood and walked over to the window, trying to hide the tears in her eyes from Kylo, her chest aching with stifled sobs. She felt a comforting warmth at her back, a soothing weight across her shoulders like a heavy blanket settled over her. Kylo had his long arms wrapped around her from behind, she felt his mouth barely resting against her temple feeling both right and wrong at the same time. She leaned into his embrace and let the tears flow.