Bonded in the Silence: A Reylo Fanfiction

Chapter 21: Suffocate

Rey awareness of her body faded away into nothing as the party of two gently helped her into the water, hand still clinging desperately to the chair arm. She floated on her back in the dark water as it lapped at her cheeks, rocking her body from side to side as her eyes stared into another place unseen.

*

Kylo Ren could barely fit down the shaft after passing through the hatch. After sliding for as long as gravity would take him, attempted to get to his feet, but he was hunched over so far in the tunnel that it would almost be more efficient to crawl. Hissing loudly, he kept an arm tucked against the bruised side of his chest as he moved forward awkwardly.

As he made his way through the shaft, the circuitry and design jogged his memory. As a young apprentice under Snoke, he'd toured many of the First Order vessels, including the remains of prototype death stars. It was an uncanny resemblance to one of the first models in a series he'd only seen once; if the Empire had built one out on the outer rim some number of years before the completed model destroyed Alderaan, his mother's home world, then this one had been lost.

It's not possible that an entire death star is buried on this forsaken planet, he thought to himself. Around the bend of the shaft, Ren came across an open panel; his compounding claustrophobia receded as he peered out into the chasm to see the bridge above him and studied what he recognized as an imperial designed channel for the core. He looked down below, squinting in the obscurity to observe movement at the bottom.

Water filled the channel below, a clue to how far down the depth of the debris reached. The channel had no other access points except for the bridge suspended several meters above the panel door. A shred of fabric was hooked on the edge of the panel; he removed and examined it against his gloves, recognizing the piece of woven beige material as that of Rey's. He let the fabric shred float through the open air of the channel before preparing to exit the shaft, removing his gloves and tucking them inside his belt.

The ascent was challenging; it had been some time since he had done any climbing, and although his height gave him the advantage, the span of his hands and boots detracted from it. Finding a crevice or ledge deep and reliable enough was stressful, and by the time he reached the bridge, he had taxed the muscles of his forearms and fingers. Throwing his body onto the bridge was a small victory, and he dare not sit down for a rest lest he waste any time. The door behind him was ajar with a space small enough for the petite frame of Rey to squeeze through. He gripped it using the force and yanked violently to the side, the loud screeching sound of metal against metal echoed in the channel.

Ren entered the overgrown corridor through the doorway. His pace slowed as he took in the eeriness of the vegetation that had somehow thrived in the darkness of the ship debris. The air was cloudy and moist, with a cool clamminess settling beneath his clothes.

An unintelligible whisper in the corridor stopped him in his tracks, his heart beating faster as the release of adrenaline responded to the prick of fear penetrating his facade. The silence was like a roar as he waited for it to speak again, and his hand went to the lightsaber on his belt. He wondered briefly if it was Rey.

"Ben" it whispered, distinctly male with a softer tone this time.

Ren shrugged one shoulder uncomfortably as he stared down into the dark, seeing no entity that spoke his given name. A noticeable wave in the force passed through him in that moment, carrying Rey's distinct signature and it gave him relief. He walked forward again through the walls laden with vegetation.

"BEN" the voice whispered loudly to his left, this time sounding as if it was behind something.

He halted at a spot of the thickly covered wall, overgrown in the dark green foliage and he studied it intently before noticing grooves in the metal behind it all.