Reylo~Broken Souls--Kylo Ren and Rey

2. Remorse Does Radiate

Chapter Two

Rey POV

Rey is feeling more than guilt. She feels as though she has let down her parents, who raised her to be good. So Rey tries her best not to look at the man beside her, as they march, their boots crunching softly on the snow. Anakin's saber hangs heavy on her belt, but it is the first time that she has actually been happy to have it. To hold it. To wield it.

Thoughts churn inside her mind, terrifying thoughts that seem to push out the light. Because some part of her accepted Kylo Ren's offer on its own. Leia's pleading was not the only reason behind Rey's agreeing. Part of her was tempted.

Part of her wanted to feel it--the power of the Force. And for once, she wants to feel as though she is someone, not just a scavenger who lives alone on desolate Jakku.

The unmasked Kylo Ren does not look at her as they walk. Staring straight ahead, he walks powerfully, almost ignoring her. Moonlight offers her a glimpse of his face, but the rest of him is completely engulfed in dark cloth.

And yet, even now, out of the corner of her eyes, she can easily see what is buried deep inside his own eyes. There is pain and grief and stubborn harshness. And something else seems to radiate off of him.

Rey pushes to see it, but perhaps too hard because all of a sudden Kylo catches her off guard and turns to meet her gaze. The emotion flickers, and then disappears as he glares icily at her. But Rey catches it. She sees his fear.

"You took off your mask," she states. Certainly, she is not complaining. She would rather return to Leia with a human, rather than a creature in a mask.

Kylo does not turn. He walks and he glares, as though he is not capable of doing anything else, but nevertheless he responds. "Yes," he says stiffly, gruffly.

Rey pauses then, searching for the right words to say. "Not all of them."

Kylo stops then, quite abruptly, and turns to cast his eyes downward to her. He searches her face painfully slowly. "You sound like Han Solo." And then, as though he has insulted her in the greatest way imaginable, he walks forward once more, his posture impossibly upright.

Rey mumbles a curse under her breath; her legs are so much shorter than his own. Once she has caught up to the man, she dares herself to speak, knowing all the while that she is treading on thin ice. "I'm glad. He was a good man."

She waits for a reaction--any sort of emotion that would prove what Leia had been right about him. That he could be saved. That he was worth saving.

"Anyone says that about the dead."

And then, before Rey has a chance to respond, Kylo Ren is pointing her in the direction of his ship, all the while managing to lift an unconscious Finn from the cold forest floor.

Rey stands back, watching the scene with furrowed brows. Once again, she can see the mask of control and coldness he wears. But heavy is the head that wears the crown. And even from afar, Rey can see his crown of pain perched upon the brow of his stubborn self.

---

Kylo Ren has put his mask back on. A sort of voice alterer makes his voice sound deeper, more intimidating. And yet Rey is not afraid of the mask. True, she hates it. But she is not afraid of it. Instead, she feels as though she knows something others don't, because she has seen the feared man without his mask.

Something about knowing something even his soldiers do not makes a thin smile twitch across her face. Perhaps that is the reason she does not trail after him like a scared child as he leads her down the hallways.

"Your rooms are this way," Kylo says, pointing to a door a good fifteen feet in front of them. Stormtroopers stand guard outside. Are they to keep her inside? Rey purses her lips in response, and giving Kylo no other acknowledgement, continues to walk without him.

All of a sudden, gloved fingers wrap around her forearm, stopping her movements and pulling her softly back to him. "You are upset with me," he states. Rey rolls her eyes and tries to push herself away from him. But his grip is relentless, and so she is forced to stand there, out of earshot from the stormtroopers.

"You're keeping me prisoner?" She spits the word, and glares harshly at him.

There is a long pause, in which the fingers that previously held her unfurl themselves and drop to his side. She can see what he is trying to do. He is trying to demonstrate that he does trust her, and thus does not feel the need to hold her captive in his grip. "It was not my plan," Kylo tells her slowly, almost softly. "Snoke insisted."

Rey would have searched his eyes then, if they weren't covered with his mask. Instead she searches his voice. She had sensed an emotion when he spoke, an emotion that seems to almost radiate off of him now, invading her senses and tickling her mind. Remorse. Kylo Ren is remorseful.

"I will manage," she tells him, feeling the need to encourage the man who has just told her he does not approve of the actions of Snoke. The man who just gave her a sort of apology.

They continue down the hallway, toward the storm troopers and toward the rooms that she will live in.

"Get Rey whatever she needs," Kylo tells the storm troopers, who stand watch outside her rooms. And then he turns to her. "I trust you'll be comfortable?"

"Yes."

He nods. "We start tomorrow," he tells her gruffly, before turning on his heel and stalking down the hall.

Rey blinks. Hard. This was definitely not the way she thought this day was going to go. But she made a promise to Leia. And that promise she would keep. Even if it meant sacrificing a bit of her happiness for a time.

Her parents taught her to be good. To keep her promises. Even years after she had seen her family, Rey vowed to fulfill her promises. She made a promise to Leia. And so she enters the rooms.

Upon entry, Rey is more than surprised. Starkiller Base is a harsh, metal world, full of darkness. And so she had expected to find the room dimly lit, filled with night. The walls and floor are indeed made out of dark metal, but the bright colors of the carpet and the deep green of the blanket that is spread neatly over the bed make her stand still in her tracks.

The door shuts with a firm click behind her, urging Rey to more farther than the doorway.

The ceiling, where at least a dozen globes provide the light that spills over her shoulders, arches a good five feet above her head. Rey walks closer to the large window, the thick glass pane which grants a wide view of the stars.

Exhaustion calls her away from the window and toward the impossibly soft bed. This bed is ten times more comfortable than any cot she slept in on Jakku. She kicks off her boots and places her saber in the left shoe, before switching off the lights and burying herself under the blankets.

Perhaps, she thinks as she lies awake, a man who feels remorse can be saved.

AN: Hello everyone! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Look forward to the next one, in which Kylo and Rey will begin their training.

Feedback of any sort would be amazing. :)