2. First Blood

CHAPTER SUMMARY: Rey and Chewie receive unexpected visitors while scavenging for supplies.

The sound of blaster fire fills the hanger.

Rey's crouched next to Chewie behind a crude barricade, stacks of miscellaneous junk that's been gathering dust for decades in this abandoned rebel base.

The equipment here is so out of date it's barely functional. But these days, the Resistance takes what they can get…

After Crait, they had to get creative. Desperate for supplies, the General sent out small crews to old rebel bases to scavenge for anything that could be useful, a task for which Rey is particularly well-suited.

They have what they came for. The Falcon's packed with odds and ends she and Chewie collected over the past couple days. They were just getting ready to leave when a unit of Stormtroopers burst into the hanger.

The Falcon isn't far behind. They need to make a run for it.

There are about twenty troopers, less now that she and Chewie took some of them out. But aerial reinforcements can't be far…

They need to get out of here. Now.

If they both race to the ship, they'll be riddled with blaster fire before they get halfway there. But if one of them runs for it while the other distracts the troopers…

"Chewie, go!" Rey nods towards the Falcon.

Chewie baws in protest.

"GO!" She repeats. "If one of us doesn't get out now, neither of us will."

Chewie baws again, refusing to leave.

"I'm not going to die. I'll distract them long enough for you to take off, then I'll fight my way out and call you." She touches her commlink at her side.

He cocks his head, doubtful.

Rey rolls her eyes.

"We don't have time for this. GO!" She reaches for the lightsaber attached at her hip.

This one isn't Luke's. It's green and double-sided. Maz got it for her. It doesn't feel quite right, but it's better than nothing.

She ignites the weapon and leaps over the barricade, immediately Force-pulling a stack of crates onto a group of troopers. Rey lunges towards the others, lightsaber twirling around her, easily deflecting a barrage of blaster fire.

It's strange… this feeling, moving so quickly but perceiving everything as though it were slowed. She can sense every action before it happens. She knows where every plasma shot will land before it even leaves the blaster.

She strikes an attacker across the shoulder, another across the thigh, then somersaults high in the air, landing atop of a towering stack of crates. She instantly jumps off, Force-pushing the crates onto the troopers before she hits the ground. She waves a hand, tossing the crates across the hanger, knocking down troopers who just managed to stand.

The Falcon jets out of the hanger as she charges forward, deflecting blaster fire and slashing at the limbs of attackers. She flips and somersaults, tucks and rolls, dives and sidesteps, moving so fast she seems to be in two places at once. The troopers surround her and yet they can't touch her. She's too quick, too good at dodging— they just can't pin her down.

She Force-calls the blasters out of the hands of two troopers, smashing them against the wall. She kicks a crate into three more, throwing them off balance. She begins to lunge forward but suddenly stops cold.

The hanger falls silent. Dead silent.

No blaster fire. No kicking. No slashing. Only the hum of lightsabers.

The troopers stand unmoving, staring at something behind Rey. And she knows exactly who it is…

"I'll take it from here." His voice is calm but distorted.

The troopers file wordlessly out of the hanger, passing by Rey without a glance.

She waits a minute before turning.

He's wearing a mask. He looks exactly as he did when she first saw him, as though nothing's changed.

But many things have changed.

She sucks in a breath.

She's not prepared for this. Seeing him again. In person.

Since the Supremacy, she hasn't thought about it. Or, rather, she's avoided thinking about it. She knew she'd have to face him again eventually, but she assumed it would be far in the future, years even. With the Resistance as weak as it, she had no reason to think she'd ever cross paths with the Supreme Leader of the First Order.

And yet here he is.

This is the first time they've seen each other since the throne room. Excepting the Force bond.

And that hardly counts. They just ignore each other.

Mostly.

But they certainly can't do that now…

His saber glows red, fiery and unstable as though it could blow up in his hand. He cocks his head, examining her and stepping to the side. He begins to circle her, and she does this same, eyes fixed on that cold, blank mask.

The tension between them is thick. Neither of them particularly wants to hurt the other, yet they both simmer with emotions ready to boil into aggression… Her anger at his choice in the throne room. His resentment of her rejection.

Kylo Ren whips his saber once at his side then lunges.

Rey meets him without skipping a beat, locking a green edge of her saber with his and pushing forcefully.

He thrusts forward, and she stumbles. He lunges again but she tucks and rolls behind him, springing to her feet to strike at his back.

He snaps around to catch the blow, then strikes at her left, her right. She dodges the first strike and meets the second.

Determined to take the offense, she advances, twirling her saber around her body, swinging towards his head, his shoulder, his core.

He leans away from some blows and deflects others, stepping back with a calmness that infuriates her, one arm tucked behind him. She rears back and thrusts at his chest, but he swats her away with a powerful flick of his blade.

"It doesn't feel right, does it?" He takes a step away from her, creating some space between them. He swings his saber at his side, beginning to circle her.

She ignores the question, charging to strike.

Bursts of electric crackles fill the hanger as they thrash at one another, weaving around metal crates and junk strewn across the floor, Rey advancing on Kylo, Kylo advancing on Rey.

"The crystal in that saber…" He casually fends off blows. "It's not yours. It's not bonded to you. No matter how long you use it, it will never feel like yours."

Rey grows agitated, fire prickling under her skin.

Why is he doing this? Talking down to her as though he were her master and she his student. Why is he talking at all?

She swings at his core but he catches the blade and thrusts upwards, green and red crackling against one another. He inches her blade to her skin, that cold black face bearing down on her. The heat's so close it almost burns her, but she doesn't back down.

"Need a mask to fight me, aye?" She pushes hard, moving the sabers closer to him.

Suddenly, he steps back, switching off his weapon.

She balks, surprised, as he walks calmly to the side, bringing his hands up to unclick and remove his mask. He sets it on a nearby crate, then turns.

Rey instantly regrets goading him about the mask. Now that sees his face, the jagged scar cutting across his features, dark eyes strangely soft and vulnerable… She realizes she'd much rather fight him with it on.

"In the old days, the Jedi would take younglings to kyber mines in Ilum." He walks towards her, arms behind his back. "They'd search for days until the right crystal called to them. The call is a bond. Once the child bonds with the crystal, she can use the Force to attune it to the energy cell in a lightsaber." He stops a few feet in front of her. "But you aren't bonded to that weapon." He nods to the double-sided blade.

Rey rolls her eyes.

What is this, a fight or a lesson?

She lunges towards Kylo and he instantly ignites his saber, clashing with hers. He attacks with hard, precise strikes, and she fends him off, backing away. Suddenly, she somersaults over his head and takes the offense, swinging forcefully to his left, his right, again and again and again, bearing down relentlessly. Finally, she nabs his right shoulder.

He hisses as the blade sears his flesh.

"I don't know." Rey twirls her weapon smugly. "I seem to be doing pretty well with it."

Kylo's eyes darken. He shoots forward, raising his saber high and bringing it down hard overhead.

Rey ducks, stepping to the side, but he comes after her with full-throated fury, wild but practiced, swinging up, across, down. She struggles to fend off the blows, catching him just before he singes her thigh, her waist—

"GAH!"

Rey grabs her left shoulder, just below a fresh lightsaber wound.

Now Kylo's the one who looks smug.

She straightens, catching her breath.

She can't win this fight. They're too evenly matched. She'll be here all day until he gets bored and calls in his troopers.

Unless she can distract him…

She looks down at his blade, red hot and surging with unstable energy.

"What about your crystal?" She nods at him. "Are you bonded to it?"

He brings the saber close to his face, looking conflicted, as though he were holding a gift from an enemy.

"That's not how it works for us." He doesn't look up. "Dark siders don't bond with their crystals. They impose their will on it, molding it to their purpose. The process is called bleeding. It's why the saber turns red."

He gazes at the saber, seeming lost in memories.

Rey grips her weapon, preparing to strike.

"This is my first blood. My first act as Kylo Ren."

She loosens her hold.

"I took the crystal from my Jedi weapon and reformed it, bleeding it into this one." He's still examining it, dark eyes distant. "The crystal cracked but—" He whips it at his side, "that just made it more powerful." He looks up, eyes narrowed in cutting pride.

Rey stares at him, softening. She switches off her saber and steps forward.

He lowers his weapon, guarded but curious.

"Does…?" She hesitates. "Does a Jedi's bond with his crystal ever break?"

"Never." He turns his head sharply.

"Then… you were still bonded to that crystal when you bled it?" She raises an eyebrow.

He looks away.

"So… didn't cracking it… hurt you?"

"No."

She catches a subtle flinch when he says this.

Rey looks down, understanding what he left unspoken, what he outright denied.

It did hurt him. Cracking his crystal was an act of self-injury. First blood indeed…

Ben Solo's. His own.

Rey takes a breath, then sighs it out.

She's lost the appetite for a fight.

So has he, clearly, his weapon down at his side.

Her eyes slide to ignited saber, crackling softly. Out of nowhere, she fells a magnetic tug from within, drawing her to the crystal.

This weapon calls to her. Now that she thinks about it, maybe not for the first time. When she commanded it to her in Snoke's throne room, it felt natural, right. She's not sure why but… it feels like part of her in a way.

"It's the bond." Kylo says this as though he read her mind. "Ours. It means you share my bond with the crystal." He tightens his grip on his weapon.

She grips her own saber but doesn't ignite it.

They stare at one another for a minute, waiting for the other to make the next move.

Neither of them does anything.

Finally, Rey sighs and walks to a metal crate nearby. She takes a seat, placing her saber next to her. She turns to Kylo, nonchalant, relaxed even. Only her eyes tease a provoking glimmer.

"So, what now?" She places both palms on the crate and leans back. "You take me prisoner? Execute me? Make an example of me?" Her tone is half mocking tone. He has no intention of hurting her...

He grunts, switching off his saber as he turns away.

"It's not like you to surrender so easily." He strides to scoop up his mask from the crate. Then, he walks towards her.

Rey sits up, guarded. She eyes him closely as he approaches, then kneels just in front of her.

His eyes pierce hers, dark yet gentle. He reaches over, wrapping his fingers around her weapon then holding it up to her.

She takes it tentatively.

"As long as you're fighting with this, it's not a fair fight." His eyes are fixed on hers, seeming to look into her and not at her. "I have no interest in that. When I defeat you, I want you to be wielding your own weapon." He rises, bringing his mask overhead and clicking it into place.

He turns to exit the hanger.

"Find your own crystal," he calls back in a distorted voice. "Not Luke's. Not some other dead Jedi's." He turns when he reaches the opening. "Find your crystal. Forge your destiny. Don't fall back on someone else's."

He strides away without looking back.

Rey watches him leave, stunned. She sits alone for a few minutes. Before long, she hears the sound of First Order ships taking off into the sky.

Then silence.

She looks down at the lightsaber in her hand. She slides her thumb down the hilt, feeling the warm metal. Then she reattaches it to her waist.

She rises and exits the hanger, grabbing her commlink and bringing it to her lips.

"Chewie? Are you ok?" She hears him answer on the other end.

"The coast is clear. Let's get out of here."

He baws in assent and she returns the commlink to her side. She puts her hands on her hips and sighs, looking up into the grey sky.

Rey feels unsettled, blood like pin pricks in her veins.

Her nerves are frayed from seeing him again. Not just seeing him, but actually having to talk to him.

She's tried not to think about him since Crait.

Tried.

But she can't help it. If she's honest with herself, part of her is still shocked by how it all turned out. She was so sure of what she saw when she touched his hand on Ahch-To, so certain he was on the cusp of turning.

But when the crucial moment arrived, he didn't turn. Instead, he doubled down, gripped on to his delusions more tightly than ever.

He rejected the opportunity to admit the truth about himself, about the First Order. He rejected his true name.

So mostly when she thinks about him, she feels angry. Angry at him for making the wrong choice. Angry at herself for believing he'd make the right one, for not seeing that he is still very much Kylo Ren.

But today, she doesn't feel angry.

It doesn't make any sense. Seeing him again, being reminded of who he's chosen to be… shouldn't it infuriate her?

It should. He's still committed to his course. Still certain that she's the one who made the wrong choice. Such a lost cause…

He should infuriate her.

But no. Now that's she's actually engaged with him, she feels more disappointed than angry.

Disappointed. And sad. Because today she was reminded of something she's desperately tried to forget…

Ben Solo's still in there. He's suppressed, subjugated, dominated by Kylo Ren.

But he's still there. Still fighting to break free.