Bonded in the Silence: A Reylo Fanfiction

Chapter 19: Underground

The air unexpectedly started to distort as a familiar hollow sound rushed to her ears. 

"Rey" a low basal tone uttered in the shaft.

She turned around completely to see Kylo Ren sitting cross-legged on the floor, looking at her intensely as his eyes hid a degree of emotion that simmered there.

"I wouldn't stand up if I was you" she gestured to herself "it'd be a pretty tight fit."

"I'm on my way to your location, where is Hux?" he asked with a serious expression.

"Do you think you're coming to rescue me?" her question relayed confusion. "I came willingly."

"Hux is dangerous, Rey. He's-"

"Encouraging? Helpful?" She cut him off abruptly. "I can tell you for certain that he doesn't say I'm nothing." For some reason, his pursuit of warning her only aggravated her in this moment.

Ren looked perturbed at the past being brought up again. "I already told you...that isn't how I meant it. Now, you need to listen to me...he will get inside your head and tell you what you want to hear in order to get what he wants."

Rey didn't answer him as he spoke.

He swallowed uncomfortably. "I know he's taking you where your parents ship went down."

She stilled as she studied him. "How...How do you know my parents landed here? Hux didn't say this was their ship."

He hesitated, working his jaw back and forth the way he did in conversations with her.

"Not landed...they crashed. Not long after take off when they couldn't break the atmosphere."

"Kylo Ren...how in the universe would you know that?" she stepped forward aggressively.

"The vision." he sidestepped, not ready to discuss the truth. "When we touched hands, I saw your parents..." he trailed off; bringing up the most intimate moment they'd shared elicited painful memories of rejection.

Rey blinked several times as she processed his words.

"I've left Nima Outpost. I found the body of Unkar Plutt who was killed by a lightsaber." Ren spoke slowly and carefully. "Did Hux make you do it?"

Rey turned away shamefully, and Ren was surprised to see her capable of that emotion. Her goodness had been tainted, and she knew it.

"Rey?" he plied softly.

She turned to him, and for the first time in the history of their bond, Ren felt the connection ignite with a rage similar to that of the beast which haunted him.

"You are the LAST person to question me on the things that I've done. You've killed hundreds, maybe even thousands of  innocent people, including your own father. Unkar was abusing the girl who is now my replacement in his staff of scavengers, the very same way he abused me, and that was justified." The venom in her voice was scathing as she sufficiently enunciated the list of his crimes.

Ren's lips shut tightly till his mouth formed a thin line.

That's how it all starts, Rey. With injustice.

She shook her head as his voice echoed in her mind, fighting the truth that he'd always delivered her. There was a particular satisfaction when she'd reminded him of his past as he tried to prevent her from finding hers. 

A headache began to throb in Rey's temple as she realized her mind was trying to close the connection in an attempt to stop the conversation.

A frown crossed Kylo's face as he faded before her eyes. Rey breathed a sigh of relief in his absence, but her emotions continued to confuse her in this place. Wasn't she just reminiscing of last night before she arrived?

Taking three steps forward as she continued to rub the headache at her temples, a low tremor was apparent now that she hadn't noticed before from the surface level. Rey turned to her right and leaned full weight into her palm, hoping to get a better idea of the vibration strength.

As she leaned, the whole panel swung open to her surprise, and Rey shrieked as she tumbled out into the abyss. Reflexes screamed to grab the door that opened, and she twisted herself around as she fell; both hands made contact with the panel door and she held on for dear life as her legs completed the swing by smashing into the wall outside the door. 

Rey grunted with effort as she looked around wildly for direction before spying a bridge above her within climbing distance. Engaging her abdominal muscles, her boots reached a depression in the wall and her hands found pipes to transfer her weight to once she released the panel door.

She focused on securing her grip for every time a hand or foot moved up the wall; her shriek had echoed after nearly falling, giving her the impression she was in a very big space. Rey's fingers ached to the bone as she climbed toward the bridge, and it was several minutes before she reached it. 

Hoisting herself up onto the utility bridge, she collapsed from the exhaustion of her ascent as the sweat trickled down the sides of her face. Her arms and back felt like they were on fire.

She stared up into the darkness of the place she had entered; a gigantic shaft that disappeared into black at both ends, too long to see the end or the beginning; she shuddered to think of how long she would have fallen before reaching the bottom.

Faintly blue, a thin stream of energy was coursing through the shaft, most likely coming from the core of the vessel. The bridge was connected to a door on her left where she had climbed from the wall, but the other side of the bridge ended in only a platform that overlooked the energy stream.

Rising to her feet, Rey stood in awe of the black expanse that surrounded the bridge; a wave of disorientating nausea swept over her while wrapping her mind around the fact that whatever ship she was in, it expanded for several kilometres underground.

Something tells me this isn't a ship, Rey thought as she put her hand on the only door she could go through, anxious to know what she might find on the other side.