Conflicted: A Reylo Fanfic

Help from the Enemy

Kylo stared in horror as Rey's body clearly disregarded her mind's command. He knew exactly what the strange disc was, knew the compulsion it drove deep within her, and knew the consequences to her safety should she succumb to its power. He cursed himself violently, knowing he should have warned her of this possibility. But the meager quantity of these discs in relation to the vastness of the galaxy was so inconsequential that he hadn't deemed it significant enough of a threat. Of course, that was being generous. In all actuality, he simply hadn't recalled their existence until he'd felt that horrible Darkness infecting Rey's mind, usually so bright with the Light Side of the Force. Now, as she touched the disc, he felt the last shred of that beautiful Light extinguish and watched Rey's body stiffen and shudder uncontrollably at his feet.

Bending to her in haste, he placed his hands on her, one at her forehead and one at her chest. Despite the violent trembling of her body, he closed his eyes and attempted to free her from the grip of the disc's Dark sorcery. As he'd known would happen, though, his efforts failed, his inability to access the Force through this bond thwarting him. But he also knew the consequences if he didn't try.

Abandoning his efforts to affect her directly, he turned inward, concentrating on his access to the Force to give him the information he required. Rey was still on Galea, which wasn't all that distant. But Cerisse was much closer and had already heard the call of her disc. Careful not to invade her consciousness enough to alert her to his presence, he felt the Knight's high excitement as she recognized the incredible strength of the Force-sensitive her disc had caught. Withdrawing swiftly, Kylo knew with absolute certainty he could not possibly reach Rey before Cerisse, and he knew exactly what the young Jedi's fate would be when his Knight found her, helpless and catatonic.

Looking about in growing anxiety, Kylo tried to think of anything else he could do. He could contact Cerisse and command her to his side with all haste, but he knew with utmost certainty that, while she might accede to his instructions, his underling would also carry out what she perceived to be her primary function first. She would deem his summons inferior to her mandate to eliminate all Force-sensitives from the galaxy and therefore make a quick stop on Galea to murder Rey before reporting to him. He could make stipulations that she come immediately, but he also knew the more insistently he phrased his command, the more suspicious she would become. And, he also knew, he couldn't afford that extra scrutiny now. No, he needed another solution.

But there wasn't one.

Feeling helplessness and frustration overcoming him, Kylo looked down at Rey, whose form had become silent and still as death. If he didn't know better, he'd believe she was dead. Anyone who was with her would surely...

Struck suddenly by an idea, he hurriedly renewed his grip on her body at mind and heart, bowing low over her inert form. His eyes closed as he pushed his consciousness further along the path of their bond than he'd ever dared before. He had no idea if this could possibly work, but he felt the desperation deep in his heart and knew it had to. It just had to. The alternative...was unbearable. Pressing his mind more and more insistently into hers, he felt beads of sweat break out on his brow as he grit his teeth and grunted in exertion. And, a hair's breadth from the limits of his endurance, he heard a startled gasp and a violent curse.

Snapping his eyes open, he found himself in a dense forest alongside a prominent rock formation. Rey lay still beneath his hands, a woman Kylo didn't recognize knelt alongside her opposite him, staring at him in blatant astonishment, and two men stood behind her, both looking ready to take his head off. Unlike the woman, he knew both these men: a Resistance fighter pilot he'd once interrogated long ago, and the traitor who'd helped him escape.