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“You need a teacher!” Kylo Ren’s tone was pleading and insistent and it was enough to catch Rey off guard, but not enough to get her to lower her lightsaber. She was not about to die here.
She managed to push him back and kept her saber up. “What…” She stared into wild, unfocused eyes. “…what did you say?"
“You’re strong in the Force, but untrained. Unrefined. I can show you the ways of the Force. I can teach you…help you realize your true potential."
“Why do you want to help me?” She moved to slash at him again, only for him to block her blows, alternating between trying not to lose an arm and pounding on his wounds. Kylo Ren would not be bested by this girl. “Why should I even let you help me?"
“Because I see great potential in you…potential it would be a shame to let go to waste.” His tone was a bit calmer, but there was something very vulnerable in his voice. Something he was trying hard not to let show.
“And if I say no? Are you going to kill me?"
“Search your feelings, girl. If I wanted you dead, you would be already.” He was struggling to stay on his feet now, but it was try to convince her now or let her go. And the last thing he wanted to do was to let her go. “But know this: I don’t want to kill you. You can either defeat me here or someone else will come along…and they won’t be nearly as willing to take you alive as I am. They don’t feel the same way about you that I do."
His confession shook her to her core.
“What do you have to lose? I’ve been in your head. You have nothing to go back to. Nowhere to call home. Come with me and I will give you all of that.”
The planet underneath them lurched. He turned off his saber and held his hand out to her.
She looked into eyes that were both crazed and sincere. His face was dripping blood from the scar she’d given him.
“What do you have to lose?” He repeated.
Finn was probably dead. Han was dead. God knows what happened to Chewbacca. Her family was never coming back for her. And Jakku was a place she never wanted to return to. Everyone had hid things from her or lied to her (although she could forgive Finn because she could see why he didn’t want to admit he’d been a Stormtrooper), but Kylo Ren had not. He didn’t hide who he was with her, even if the truth was more brutal than she could handle. He had been completely honest with her, even when going into her head, and now, here he was, offering to teach her about a power she didn’t understand and couldn’t explain.
The idea of going to the Resistance scared her. So did the idea of going to an unknown teacher in Luke Skywalker who could probably reject her and force her to carve out an existence on the edges, a life probably no different from the one she’d always known. But on the other hand, so did the idea of going with a man she had just called a monster not an hour ago, who had beaten Finn and left him in the snow and shoved a lightsaber through Han Solo. And yet, this man was pleading with her. He wanted her as herself, something she’d never experienced before.
“Why didn’t you kill me?” She asked.
“I told you. I don’t want to kill you. I want to teach you. Come with me. Let me show you the ways of the Force."
Turning off her saber and feeling like she had either saved herself or dammned herself, she took his hand.
If he had had the energy left in him to do so, he would have smiled. The girl was his. He would show her the power of the Dark Side, show her all that she could be.
And in doing so, perhaps it would calm the raging storm she had kicked into motion inside of his heart.