Bonded in the Silence: A Reylo Fanfiction

Chapter 23: Conflict

Author's Note: Thank you to all the readers who have continued to vote and comment - you truly keep the fire alive for this story. I'm so passionate about the slow build-up of relationship between Ben and Rey, and how they will sort through their issues while approaching conflict in this universe. Being married, I'm so passionate about the theme of conflict, as it is something that really defines the stability of a relationship because it's where we tend to show our true selves. 

*

The younger Rey looked on at her with shock and disbelief, stumbling back two steps on the snow-covered rocks.

"How is this possible?" her innocent voice breathed, one small hand gripping the blue lightsaber tightly.

Rey in the black robes stretched out each arm, noticing how shapely and toned each one was with defined forearms and slender fingers with a single silver ring around her forefinger. Her right hand held a double cylinder, its design foreign to her.

"You're a monster" Young Rey said through teary eyes filled with anguish, her gaze looking beyond the black-clothed version of herself.

Rey followed her gaze, looking over her shoulder to see three smoking bodies laying in the snow, spattered with red blood on the perimeter.

A brown pilot jacket over dark skin.

A tan shirt with light skin and dark hair. 

The snow-dusted bodies of Finn and Poe lay face down behind her.

The third body was on its side and the empty eyes of Kylo Ren staring back at her, locked in a death stare of shock and sadness. The sight of him was almost too real to be an illusion.

With a hoarse scream, Young Rey charged her with the outstretched lightsaber.

When she squeezed the foreign cylinder, it opened up, swinging on a hinge and locking into a double-edged sword. They engaged in battle, swinging and ducking from one another's moves.

Rey's black robes whirled around her as she spun, and that desirable, blood-thirsty feeling coiled within her gut again in response to the melee.

"Why did you kill them? I don't understand!" Young Rey shouted at her, as her lightsaber struck hard on one end of the red staff.

Angry at her accuser, Rey made blow after blow against Young Rey, forcing her to walk backwards from the onslaught. She could see her arms were tiring on each of the double strikes, and eventually there was an opening.

Rey thrust her lightsaber through the open spot, impaling her own self on the red blade. A look of horror and pain crossed Young Rey's face, and tears started to fall in her agony. She fell to the ground, at first presumably dead, but not before she started to crawl past Rey's feet towards the bodies. A moment of mercy was gifted to her as Rey looked on without pursuit. Pitifully, she crawled on her belly with one hand clutched to her abdomen, until she reached the body of Kylo Ren. She pulled herself beside him and cradled his face as she whispered his given name, weeping weakly for a few moments before all went quiet and still. The delicate hand on his cheek limply fell to the snow.

Deeply disturbed by what transpired, Rey felt her stomach turn over itself with the sensation of vomiting. Trying her best to swallow it back down, the horror of the scene before her was too much, and the contents of her insides erupted into her throat.

*

The sensation of fluid in her chest was strange. She felt like a waterfall was pouring out of her insides as she struggled to get some oxygen between heaving. The world was dark as she emptied herself, retching violently through the bruised, tearing pain in her chest.