Steady On.

Chapter 51.

WARNING: MATURE CONTENT AHEAD.

( X )

She felt as though she had been waiting for hours.

With the sun at its full peak, she was sure of it.

She wasn't sure what made her so tired...

Maybe the exhaustion from searching for Flora in her mind... Maybe the journey to Naboo... The uncertainty...She just wasn't sure.

Her mind heavy with a dark cloud of sadness and worry, Rey let her body fall against the stone at her back, still at her place a few feet outside the large castle, Lando's guards patrolling the area.

She tried to count the clouds as they appeared to her above...

Soon enough, exhaustion won.

( X )

"It could work. He'll be distracted enough. This is great." Lando said to Kylo as they both made their way outside with long strides.

Kylo Ren felt an odd sense of pride and satisfaction fill him as he walked beside the man he once called an Uncle. Having told his plan to someone else, someone he felt confident in when it came to the strategy of battle, Kylo felt a wave of relief wash over him as he gained Lando's approval in this, the emotion quickly getting cleaned out by the hard scrub that is the dark side.

He wasn't sure how those emotions came through to him...Slipping through the cracks of the thick walls he had built so long ago as the apprentice of the dark side... It nearly made him scoff now, how casually the light settled on him in these little moments.

With a quick shake of his head, his jaw clenched as he regained his defensive stance, blocking everything out.

Behind him, Lando pauses to speak with one of his guards, asking for any update of their patrol. Kylo's eyes scanned the area just as his force did, searching for her.

His force felt it before his eyes saw it.

The cloud, the dark cloud hovering over Rey's light that seemed to work as a sponge more than a shield...

Gulping, Kylo's long legs made fast work of walking outside, cursing himself for leaving Rey alone for so long here. Just a few feet away from the tall doors, he spotted her laying down, sleep having taken her by full force as she lay beneath the sun.

Something deep within him made him hesitate to approach her sleeping form.

The cloud that loomed over her seemed to grow agitated with every inch he took towards her, a soft rumble throughout their bond as he timidly stepped closer, his mind already working to enter hers.

Even in her sleep, what seemed to be for the first time, her block was up, the thick doors of her mind closed so tightly that he nearly broke a sweat trying to enter, the storm within her swirling to a new height, begging and threatening him away.

Brows furrowed, face and mind concentrated, he forced his way in.

( X )

Her breathing quickened, her chest rising and falling so harshly that she nearly panicked at that alone.

She was back in the interrogation room on Starkiller Base, trapped in the chair.

Her head whipped around, looking for him, knowing he would be the one to save her...

But she couldn't find him.

She couldn't even feel him...

The room suddenly darkened, and a holo displayed in front of her, playing one of her own memories as her head throbbed with fear.