Bonded in the Silence: A Reylo Fanfiction

Chapter 23: Conflict

A broad hand on her back helped support her to sit up and lean forward, and everything in her vision was so vague through her stinging eyes. Strong hands, black shirt....dark hair. The scent of wet earth and leather was mildly detectable through her burning nostrils. Her fingers clawed against a firm chest as she struggled to breath through the torrent that kept gushing from her lungs, and Rey's mind was still trying to comprehend the vision she'd been immersed in; the images of the bodies laying in the snow were still painful and real. The coughing continued to rack her, and she groaned between each at the immense pain that accompanied every breath until she had calmed herself.

"It hurts to breathe" she managed to say with raw vocal cords.

Hazel eyes stared at her through dripping strands of wet hair in an intense mixture of sadness and relief; the eyes of Kylo Ren. She quickly realized that this was not a force bond connection and her fingers grasping the fabric of his tunic was a strange sensation in her hand. Shivering in her soaked state, she couldn't quite read the expression on his face but it blatantly reminded her of the very first time they connected on Ahch-To before she had pulled the trigger on the blaster. A look that was very different than on Starkiller base.

What? She wanted to say, but before she could say anything at all, he did something that took her by surprise in her shaken state.

With what appeared to be an immense amount of self-control, Ren leaned forward on his knees, and carefully put his arms around Rey. The contact was light at first but he sunk his arms around her fully as she leaned into his chest, his labouring breaths rattled just above her ear. The heat of his body penetrated his tunic and sufficiently warmed her as she pressed into him. The bond was full of mixed emotions, but an overwhelming and powerful wave of compassion covered all of them as they flowed through her. It was overjoyed relief that she was alive.

Her thoughts raced as she felt his breathing start to recover. He feared losing her.

"You'll turn...I'll help you."

In the strip lighting, she noticed two bodies were rolling in the gentle waves against the shore of the room, only a few steps away from them. She saw long hair on one, and a short cut on the other.

My parents...

She was afraid to ask. "Did you kill them?" was all she managed to utter quietly as she peered over his shoulder.

A pause ensued, followed by a "yes" rumbling through his chest.

Pain stabbed her in the heart again as a swell of grief attempted to rise.

"You're a monster" she whispered.

With what strength she could muster, she pulled back to look him in the face and struck him with a wet slap from her right hand. He simply closed his eyes to receive it, the bond surely giving away the action with a precursor from her tired, unprotected mind. At the moment her palm connected with his cheek, Rey let out a painful cry as she shook out her clenched hand. The unnatural soreness took her by surprise, bringing up her right hand to the dim light to reveal a small bore hole into the meaty part of her palm that was still bleeding. It was difficult to tell what damage had been caused by it.

Ren turned his face away from her, his expression indifferent and distant as she sensed the wall close up between their bond; he was protecting his thoughts from being read. The lack of reaction from him only infuriated her further. She raised her hand again but he snatched her wrist out of the air and pulled it to his shoulder, nearly nose to nose with Rey.

"Take a closer look at the bodies" he ordered with an ardent stare, "before you strike me again."

Yanking her wrist from his grasp with a burning look, Rey shakily stood from the ground on weakened legs that seemed only to muster the strength to take short, unstable strides past him. Her father's body was nearest, planted by a shoulder on part of the slanted floor as the rest of his body floated in the water. In the crimson light, she could already see the back of his neck appeared different. She grasped the top shoulder to pull the body toward her; when it flopped onto it's back, Rey gasped as she stumbled backward and fell on her rear.