The Spark Of Hope And Fire

Ilum

Being a scavenger had its perks. One is prepared for almost anything. Rey unpacked her lantern, and looked around. This temple was vastly different from the temple on Ahch-to. The jedi of times past had carved arches into the walls and ceiling of the rotunda,  and cleared a smooth floor of stone all the way to the towering frozen waterfall. There were carvings of cloaked jedi on either side of her, and a huge, glittering crystal suspended overhead. She broke through the ice, and peered into the dark caves beyond.
      The trek on foot left her exhausted, so she decided to find a decent place to rest. There were stairs heading above and below her. She settled into an alcove that was just ahead, on her right. The cave had been abandoned for many years, and it was unlikely that she would encounter any threats, but the alcove seemed better to her than sleeping in the rotunda.
       Sleep fell upon the young woman quickly and easily this time. Physical exhaustion is good for that. But the dreams were strange.
 
      Rey woke to a crash, and sudden blinding pain through her left thigh. The ground beneath her was rumbling. She couldn't reach her communicator. It had slid into the rotunda during the apparent avalanche. She just remembered the storm that was brewing as she entered the temple.
   Rey used the force to pull the communicator to her. It was dead. It didn't survive the falling rock. She took a deep breath in, then out, and force-lifted the large chunk of alcove from her leg.
      She could do some fascinating things through the force, but healing a broken leg was out of her range of possibilities. Day two has had an awful start.
   Ever the optimist, Rey pushed herself to sitting, with her back against the wall, and began flipping through the notes she wrote about this place from the jedi texts. Even if she had to scoot backwards the whole way, she was not going to die in here.

      Kylo Ren made it to just inside the temple before the avalanche covered the entryway with huge rocks and icy debris. The force was confusing in here, so he was not able to sense any other presence. But she could not have left already, and the storm outside would have killed her. He determinedly walked forward, overstepping fallen pieces of stone ceiling and shattered glass. 
      The temple was huge. The jedi had a history of grandiose places of residence. This one was one of the largest. There were many rooms in which a padawan could go for meditation, and constructing their lightsaber. He stopped in front of the icy waterfall looming at his right. It was broken through. She had apparently entered the caves. He carefully stepped past the shattered ice. It didn't take long before he found life. There was a hurried shuffle just ahead. There she is.

       "Kylo Ren. I don't have time for this. These force things need to stop!"
     "Rey... I-"
"Could you just not! Talking with you is the last thing I need right now!" Rey struggled to turn her back to him.
    "No..."  He stepped closer, and knelt beside her. "You're hurt. Let me help you." He offered his hand.
"I don't want your help." She said, slapping at  his hand, and shifting her weight across the floor to get away.
"You need it. Let me help you." It was more demand than request. "Is your leg broken? I need to see it. "
    Rey reluctantly conceded to his offer of help. Her efforts in getting away from him weren't working anyway. He reached beneath his cloak at his right side, and, in a quick movement, brandished a small dagger. Rey startled. This was different. This was not a force bond. The reality was even more upsetting. Kylo Ren was actually there. She was now sure he would use the dagger on her with a fatal strike. She let him get too close.
       "What are you doing here? Don't you have planets to destroy, or people to murder, or something?" Rey asked.
"I knew you'd come here."
"So you came to kill me?"
"If I wanted to kill you, you'd already be dead."
"Then why?"
     He avoided answering the question and slipped the dagger's blade into the fabric of Rey's pant leg. With a quick upward slash, he cut the fabric in a large slit, about ten to fifteen centimeters too high for her comfort.
"Hey!"
"It's necessary. I need to see where the break is."
"I could've told you where it is!" She protested.
      Without warning, he grabbed her thigh above and below the break, and set the bone. Rey howled in pain.
    "You need a splint..." he said. Kylo grabbed her quarter staff, broke it in two, putting the peices on either side of her leg. Disregarding her complaint, he continued, "I need something to tie this with."
     Kylo never thought he would be using first aid training. There have always been  droids around for such things. He especially never thought he'd be using such training on Rey. Yet here they both are.
      With tears of pain streaming her face, she reached for her satchel and pulled out the gauze she typically wore over her arms, and handed it to him. She couldn't have hated him more than she did right then.
       Kylo sat down next to her, his knees in the air. He didn't know how to start conversation. That was not something anyone thought to teach him. He didn't have any reason to be here. He couldn't think of a reason logical enough for him to come here, other than the one she assumes of him. Even more, he didn't know how she would react when he told her they would have to wait out the storm, and travel through to the other side of the cave, rather than risk leaving through the main temple entrance, already ruins, made worse by the avalanche. 
    
   He sat, with his knees up, his forearms resting on them, nearly motionless for more than forty five minutes, mute from the awkward situation he put himself in.
    "Could you just leave now?…You're making me uncomfortable. " Rey's cold voice broke the silence.
     "You still believe I came to kill you."
      "Are you surprised? After what you did...."
      He shuffled his position less than a meter from where he was. "Better?"
      "No. Not really."
Kylo ignored her snide reply, and remained in his current spot on the cave floor. Regardless of her current opinion of him, Kylo decided not to leave her. Especially since she was injured.
     They sat in silence for at least two more hours. Kylo was sore from the cold and discomfort, and starting to get hungry. He didn't plan on being here long (in fact, he didn't exactly have a plan at all), so he had eaten before he left the ship. Unwilling to expose any weakness, he leaned back, resting his head on the wall, and said nothing.
      Rey leaned to her side, grabbing her satchel. She had some rations, a container of bantha jerky, and a large thermos of water. Was the force bond doing that? Did she hear what he was thinking?
      She glanced at him with a mouth full of jerky. The force, or guilt, must have prodded her.
     She swallowed.  "Its been hours. Are you hungry?"
    He was a little surprised. Those were the first comparatively civil words from Rey since the death of master Snoke. Yet he knew Rey's compassionate heart. He suppressed the warm swell of gratefulness in his chest. He said a quiet "yes" and she offered a ration and a handful of jerky.
     "Thank you"
      "The cave entrance is blocked off." Kylo blurted awkwardly. "The storm caused an avalanche. And our use of the force is limited in here. Our only other way out is on the other side of the mountain. And you can't walk... I can help you get through."
       "Why would you want to help me?"
       He didn't answer. He took one last drink from the offered thermos, and handed it back to Rey. Averting her question, he continued.
        "I think you should get some sleep. We have a long way to go. "
        "I won't leave until I have done what I came here for."
         "You want to construct a new lightsaber.. you still want to be a jedi." He said, with obvious derision.
         "Yes."
         Kylo sat, brooding. The words slipped out before he realized,
          "... I can help you with that too. If you want."
       "Why?" Rey thought to herself. "Why is he offering so much help? Maybe an ice rock hit him in the head." She had to hide the smirk that came with the thought.

       They sat in further silence, tense, and full of unanswered questions. Rey's eyes were starting to become heavy. She couldn't tell whether it was the time of day, or her injury that caused her drowsiness. Though it did feel as if it were getting late. Rey battled to keep her eyelids open. She couldn't let herself fall asleep with that living nightmare sitting so close by.
      Much to her relief, Kylo fell asleep first. He lay on his side, his back against the wall, using his arm for a pillow. Rey saw glimpses of that peace she had seen on his face before, in the throne room after the lightsaber broke. He apparently only had that peace when he was asleep. She liked the way it looked on him, although trying hard to not admit that to herself.
     Her own eyes were closing now, slow and heavy. The splint helped ease the pain in her leg, and she finally found a comfortable position. She could hear Kylo's slow, rhythmic breathing, and it was  strangely comforting. She dozed off, feeling oddly safe.
      Kylo couldn't have been asleep long. Maybe an hour. He looked over to Rey, who had fallen asleep, but was shivering. He took the cloak from around his neck, and wrapped it loosely over her shoulders. He'd never seen such a strong girl before. Such a pretty girl. He regretted acknowledging the latter thought. But he couldn't ignore it. 
      Sitting down next to Rey, Kylo knew she would probably be upset at how close he was to her, but she has his cloak. And it's an ice planet. He's cold too. He's only doing so in an effort to keep warm, himself. That's what he was willing to acknowledge, anyway.
      It wasn't long before he had fallen back to sleep. Despite the cold, and the uncomfortable stone, he was actually sleeping well. For the first time in a long while, there were no nightmares. Just rest. In his sleep, kylo slumped from his sitting position against the wall, to laying on his side, with his back against Rey. Her body's warmth keeping shivers from running down his spine.