Saving the Last Hope

Hello There!

One minute Kylo Ren is sitting in on a meeting with his generals, discussing possible locations of the Resistance's new base – not that Kylo cares, especially, about finding them at this point, considering the entire operation could fit inside of that flying pile of scrap metal, the Millennium Falcon, when they fled Crait. The next minute, he's in the middle of a desert, sand shifting under his feet, sun beating down and baking him under his layers of thick, black clothing.

He's not alone. She is here, the scavenger, Rey. He ignores the way his chest tightens at the sight of her for the first time in the months since their encounter on the Supremacy. He ignores the want, no, the need to take a step towards her, to close the distance between them. Instead, he focuses on the swirling emotions of betrayal and abandonment that accompany her memory.

She hasn't noticed him yet and he makes no sound, just watches her greedily. She cranes her neck, searching for something... or maybe someone? Who? The traitor? The pilot? His mo – the general? The thought that she is looking, waiting for someone else fills Kylo with a familiar, nearly all consuming, possessive jealousy. Still, he says nothing, just curls his hands into tight fists. He can only just hear the leather of his gloves cracking over the wind.

Rey whips around, maybe having felt his spike of emotion through the bond they share. Her eyes widen at the sight of him and then narrow angrily, murderously. The corner of Kylo's lips twitch upward at the sight, at the way she so easily draws on her anger.

"You!" She growls, her feet parting, her knees bending into a defensive stance. Her lightsaber – his grandfather's lightsaber, now repaired, he notices – is strapped to her hip. Her fingers twitch towards the hilt. Kylo does not move. "What is going on?"

"Where are you?" Kylo asks impassively. He looks around the desert spread before him. Rocky hills and cliffs dot the sandy expanse and line the horizon. He's never been here before, is this somewhere on Jakku? Why would she return here?

"As if I would tell you that!" She spits.

"I've never been able to see your surroundings before." He says ignoring the venom in her tone. He nearly smiles when his comment trips her up as much as he had hoped it would. Her eyes widen, searching around them and she takes a step back.

"You can see them now?"

"Is this where you're hiding? I have to say, I'm not impressed." He folds his arms and he ignores the sweat beginning to drip from his temple.

Kylo's brow furrows as Rey's fear and confusion dissolves into a wicked smile.

"Well, I can see your surroundings too."

Kylo nearly takes his own step back at that. She can? He had been in the middle of a very sensitive meeting, if she were to overhear anything...

"You can?" He asks, schooling his tone into one of bored curiosity and not nervous fear.

"What are you doing in the middle of the desert? You're not exactly dressed for it." She shakes her head and practically rolls her eyes.

"Wait... what?" It takes a moment for her words to catch up with his brain which is still very concerned with her overhearing sensitive First Order information. She though he had been in this desert? "I – I wasn't." He stammers, embarrassingly, but the words just won't come out smoothly. "I thought you were..."

"No, I was... No! You aren't going to trick me, I'm not telling you where we are." She grabs her lightsaber now, the blue blade humming to life in her hands, though she makes no move against him – not yet, anyway.