Author's Note: Writing this chapter was so enthralling - having these two characters finally in the same physical room after twenty-one chapters was pretty damn exciting. For those who have hung on this long, thank you! Building believable feelings between two intense people requires some real groundwork, and I really want them to be "solid" before any kind of a relationship progression. I'd like to be that author who can slam out a chapter every few days, but truthfully I sit and envision each and every action, conversation, battle as it's happening in my story, and I like the visual to be fairly rich. My medical background really benefit this chapter ;)
Enjoy this stunning art created for this chapter by @hal.issa_art on Instagram!
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Ren barrelled down the corridor, gaining speed as it continued to slope, ending in dark entrance to another room. He entered some kind of command bridge, splashing loudly and unexpectedly into water, slowing to a stop as he looked down to see dark water lapping at his calves.
His eyes adjusted to the strip lighting in the room that was full of shifting water. The chamber had similar, recognizable features to Snoke's throne room; a looking glass to watch the outside battles and large port windows, surrounded by steel walls that were dark with little detail, and uniformly designed.
At the centre of the room, partially submerged in water, was a chair that echoed future designs like snoke's throne.
Staring at it long and hard, he suddenly realized there was a hand desperately grasping the arm of the chair, bent at the wrist leading to the water beside it. Ren could make out a petite, pointed nose above the water and the curve of lips as the torso buoyed back and forth in the gentle waves of the water.
"Rey!" he called out as his legs drove him farther into the water, his voice barely controlled as he reigned in his fear. She shrieked only moments ago. That same hovering fear that touched him during the fight against the Praetorian guards of the red throne room of Snoke's ship; the fear for her safety.
Ren halted as the water around Rey's floating form suddenly came to life, two figures rising up out of the darkness, one swimming toward him until it could gain footing on the ground. It stood in the water, basked in the red lighting, the shape of a man in plain clothes. Without hesitation, he unclipped his lightsaber before igniting it. The amber glow illuminated the space between him and the man.
"Release her" he commanded, baring his teeth aggressively.
"Easy there, fella" the man said cautiously as he held a dripping hand up, "we're her parents."
Ren squinted at him in the red lighting to see the details of his face, and turned his head to see the woman. Their faces were familiar, but not quite right. Recounting the vision of them on the ship, he compared them to the flashes of memories, noting that there were similarities but some missing features with the man. The woman hardly looked like the one in his vision; same hair color and length, face shape and brow were correct, but everything else was perhaps a best guess for placement and shape, even her eyes were a different color than the vision.
Ren pointed the end of his humming blade at the man. "I don't know who you are, or even what you are...but you're not her parents. The bodies are still down here."
The man's face expressed uncertainty and he looked back at his companion who shook her head slightly with a serious expression. He pulled out a small cylinder and engaged it to open; it extended into a spear with prongs on the one end. They lit up, electrified with a deadly charge.
"Hold him off until it's finished" the female warned, treading water at Rey's side as she continued to float on her back.
Till what's finished?
The man backed up into the water till it was just past his knees, and Ren had enough forethought to see this would not be an easy fight; if the lightsaber dropped at any point in the water it would short out entirely and be of no use to him.
He disengaged it as the short-haired man looked on in suspicion, and Ren directed it with the force back toward the chamber opening where it landed on dry floor. Without hesitation, the man charged him with the pronged spear aimed at Ren's abdomen.
Ren twisted out of the way, grabbing the shaft with both hands as the prongs narrowly missed his midsection. They wrestled momentarily for control of the spear, causing the end of it to scratch the water's surface and release a hiss of steam. Ren yanked it sharply towards himself and when the man stumbled to maintain his balance, an elbow smashed into his face. He recovered, and released the spear before diving at Ren, catching him around the hips to knock them both down into the water.
The man was stronger than he anticipated, and an agile fighter. Perhaps even a bounty hunter at one time. With water up to his neck, Ren attempted to gather his feet beneath him and stand back up, but his opponents' short stature gave him the upper hand. The man had a firm grip on his collar and stood over him in an instant, driving a knee into his chest and sinking Ren below the surface.
Clutching at his throat with one hand, Ren reached up with the other and envisioned his fingers closing around his opponent's windpipe, effectively squeezing it with an ample amount of force. He counted the seconds as he held his breath, hoping his enemy went unconscious before he did. The shadow of the man wavered above the water and he released Ren's collar while taking a step back. Ren stood up to inhale finally, as he watched the man's eyes grow wide and fearful. Grunting as his face turned blue and his eyeballs bulged, everything went slack as the light died in his eyes, and his face transformed into something else as his body flopped into the water next to Ren.
Turning him over, he was shocked to find that the face of the man was no longer human, but almost reptilian in nature with a mossy green shade of skin and tight, rigid features.
A Clawdite, of the shapeshifter species.
He turned to the deeper water where Rey was, realizing that the woman must also be a shapeshifter. Since the body of Rey's mother was entirely decomposed, it would have been impossible to exactly replicate all of her features from the skull alone. The Clawdite could get close resemblance, but not a complete copy.
The woman stared angrily at him from the water, furious with the outcome of her partner's fight.
Rey's hand suddenly released from the arm of the chair leaving a streak of blood against the steel before it slid into the water alongside her floating body. Ren watched in horror as the female Clawdite pushed on Rey's chest and pushed her deeper, efficiently sinking her under the water.
"It's complete" she said, her eyes shining with victory, "but unfortunately for you, if Palpatine can't have her, then no one does."
Waste no time.
Before he could move, the female swam calmly towards him, and Ren staggered his stance as the waves of the water. Her eyes had turned predatory in appearance, and she lunged at him once she had got a footing on the bottom of chamber. He knocked her aside, but not before an incredible pain tore through his side, and he looked down to see a small blade sticking out of the side of his torso. Without thinking, he grabbed hold of the handle and pulled it out quickly. The Clawdite was panting hard, and produced another knife. She was quick and most likely lethal to her enemies.
Rey had already been under too long. Ren threw the knife back at her, guiding with an invisible force straight into her heart. The force pushed the end of the handle deep until it found its mark, and before her body could fall into the water, she too reverted to her true form. Her body floated past Ren toward the shore, leaving a trail of red in the dark water behind it.
Kylo strode forward urgently, the resistance of the water against each stride slowed him down; his eyes fixed on the area of water he saw Rey go down. The water finally got deep enough that his boots couldn't touch the ground, but that was close enough to the spot for him. He took a deep breath before diving under the black water.
The frigid water tickled his scalp as his whole body was submerged, an odd, heavy feeling when one wore anything but swimming costumes. Growing up on Chandrila, he had been graced with many years of swimming lessons, practising holding his breath for long periods at a time. He even beat Han once on a day at the beach.
His breaststroke was still powerful as his hands cut through the water and he opened his eyes, but there was nothing to see under the surface. Inwardly, he panicked as he groped around under the water, searching furiously for Rey's body in the abyss. The back of one hand knocked against something solid, and he wildly reached around underneath the water to find it again.
He finally was able to grasp her small arm, and worked his arms around her ribs before driving upward. Breaking the surface with a desperate gulp of air, he pulled Rey's torso up against him but her neck flopped backward limply. Fear flickered within him in response to her limpness.
Swimming on his back, he made it to the ground his boots could reach and used his footing to get up onto the shore. Once the water was only up to his waist, he cradled Rey's petite frame in his arms and lifted her up high against his chest. His thighs worked hard against the water as he struggled to quickly get onto the shore. He rushed to lay her down on the dry portion of the floor, her pale face turned to the side as he knelt beside her. Ren reached up to frantically rip the clasps to his cloak apart, releasing the lagging weight.
"Rey?" he controlled his voice as he shook her shoulder. "Rey, can you hear me?" urgently tapping her face with his gloved hand, but there was no response from her.
He grasped his forehead with both palms in overwhelming panic.
Think...think damn it!
He forced himself to breathe, and focused as the adrenaline ran its course through his body. He recalled the field training of the First Order included resuscitation protocols in very rare events, a review for him after being taught how to save a drowning victim on Chandrila.
Removing his gloves and tossing them onto the ground beside her, he hesitated before carefully and gingerly parting the v-neck of her robes in order to expose her chest more. The delicate fabric of a breastband was revealed, and he swallowed anxiously. He lined up his palm against the sternum between her small breasts and laid his other hand on top of it, interlacing the fingers together. Positioning himself with his shoulders over her, he proceeded to thrust down on her chest multiple times, and the sounds of ribs cracking caused shivers to travel up his spine.
Ren bent over her with a hand on her forehead, pinching her nose shut as he sealed his mouth over hers on the outside of her lips. Blowing sharply into her lungs twice, he watched for her chest to rise with each breath and continued thrusting on her chest. A single cycle of resuscitation was thirty thrusts and two breaths, and he vaguely recalled a minimum of five cycles was required.
Despair slowly crept in as he worked her body; desperation driving his movements until he began to realize that something deeper mattered here.
She mattered. Rey, who came from nothing.
The view of his hands madly pushing into her chest as her head rocked with each movement was in the tunnel of Ren's vision; pale lips still beautiful and alluring even in their faded color. Something in his chest clenched tightly as he desperately imagined her alive the last time they were present in the same place.
"Ben, please don't go this way" her voice pleaded, lips trembling as the tears began to fill up in her eyes. It tore him apart to hear Rey use his name, and it continued imparting damage as she broke down begging him.
"No, no you're still holding on...let go!" he shouted at her, and instantly regretted it. Looking back in the memory, he realized the anger rose up because he couldn't bear to be the object of her sorrow; he meant only to bring her back to reality. Ren had already crossed the threshold on his own and his mind was already made up regarding his feelings for Rey.
"You come from nothing...you're nothing. But not to me."
The emotions of the memory bubbled through as he gave her another two breaths, remembering how powerful desire consumed his soul after tossing the spear to the side.
On the third cycle, color returned to her face from the mechanical circulation Ren induced, but she still wasn't breathing on her own. He changed his hands over one another before continuing, hoping to get deeper compression on her small chest.
What would he do if she didn't revive? Crush the rebellion now that she and his mother were gone? It would be like picking off aimless ants with no queen and without the will to go on. Would he face Palpatine alone for rule as Supreme Leader, and even if he won, then what? Rule the galaxy forever from a bleak, sterile ship?
Another breath pushed into her mouth from his, followed by a second.
The aspirations seemed to all fade away into nothing as he proceeded through the fourth cycle of chest thrusts. The universe was shrinking rapidly from formerly large scale goals to focus in on the tragic event that lay beneath his hands; she would be the loss that would certainly send him over the edge. The girl who haunted his dreams and consumed his free thoughts,
"Breathe," he begged "come on, just breathe."
The muscles in his arms ached with fatigue, losing some of the force to produce the depth needed for adequate compression. He persevered by hinging his hips from the position on his knees to give him more leverage, but deep down Ren knew that he very well could be losing her.
Fifth cycle breaths were given, his eyes watching her for any signs of life as he expired the breath in his lungs to her mouth. Nearly at the pinnacle of grief, he abruptly halted compressions, raising a fist to forcefully thump on her chest again and again, like a man trapped for air himself fighting to break the barrier.
His ears were ringing with the silence that surrounded him, his fist thudding against her chest the only audible sound; finally his mind screamed a single, sorrowful word to the force.
PLEASE.
His answer came in the form of spluttering breaths from Rey as her body convulsed to forcefully spew black water from her lungs. She tried to sit up as she vomited and retched, coughing weakly between expelling more fluid. Sweet relief flooded his chest as he helped her lean forward to get gravity to assist her efforts.
Rey coughed intermittently as she looked at him in surprise. "It hurts to breathe" she croaked between heaving breaths, throat raw from the ordeal. Shivering in her wet clothes, her eyes searched Ren's face in confusion as she tried to determine the intense emotion radiating from him.
Panting through parted lips from his labour and wet sections of hair clinging to his cheek, she was about to say something else but not before his next action took her by surprise.
Ren's arms circled around her, carefully pulling her to him so as not to cause her further pain. Her head came to rest against his heaving chest, and her sluggish mind still overcoming unconsciousness slowly began to feel the bond come to life; intensely wound up grief unravelled itself and faded as sorrow took its place next, fluttering through her in sporadic waves. Finally, it hummed with welcome relief and one other warm, encompassing emotion that she couldn't seem to describe.
She weakly lifted her arms to put around his ribs, palms against his back. He smelled wet and earthly, as the heat of his body penetrated his garments and warmed her.
Two bodies bobbing against the shore in the dim strip-lighting caught her eye, and she lifted her chin from his chest.
"Did you kill them?" she asked fearfully.
Ren considered wording his reply carefully, but the truth would always be default.
"Yes."
There was a long pause in the chamber as Rey stiffened in his arms, thinking while the constant dripping echoed at the back of the room.
"You're a monster" she finally whispered into his shoulder.