Kylo suddenly found himself in the desert, which was…annoying. There was a moment like his ship had started falling through the sky and then…this. He stayed away from deserts. He didn't like the sand. It got in his boots, between his shoulder blades, the coarse grains even scraped the skin of his face inside the mask.

He looked around for her but all he found were a group of children playing not far off. It had been so long since the force last connected them. This time it was different.

He heard a quick, high scream. Not playing. He couldn't say why he ran towards it. Weakness, compassion. Boredom, curiosity.

There four children. Three larger boys were pulling at the little one's clothes and hair, ripping a bundle of parts from its arm. With a start, he realized it was a girl. Not just any girl.

He ran quicker.

They kicked and punched at her until she fell hard into the sand. He saw one child raise its boot and with a cry of rage, Kylo lifted his hand to send them all flying from her huddled body. They screamed and took off, but not without her things.

She peeked up at him from behind her arms but stayed in the fetal position. She seemed terrified he would continue where they left off. What little skin was showing of her face and arms were littered with bruises, some days old, some just beginning. How many times had they done this?

He ignited his lightsaber and began to pursue them. he would rip them limb from limb and the first thing he'd do when the Empire lay claim over everything was obliterate every grain of sand on this miserable excuse of a world.

Kylo had only taken a step forward when a gentle tugging at his cape stopped him. He raised his arm with the blade and she fell back in alarm. "Don't kill them!" she said.

And even though she was tiny and malnourished, it still managed to sound like the bossy, self-righteous scavenger he knew. His lip twitched in annoyance or amusement, he wasn't sure which.

"Why?" His voice came filtered through the mask.

Eyes round as saucers, she got on her tip toes to stare at him. What was she trying to figure out? "Why?" he prompted.

"I steal from them." she said.

"They just stole from you."

She looked around for a moment before she started to walk away, but not before she gave him a look of steel. "They took a few pieces of junk. Not even good junk. Plutt wont even take them, I bet. One of them has a tracker and – " She stopped, as if unsure whether or not she should tell him.

"And?"

She still seemed stubborn, but she decided to continue. "It'll end up in a pile at their place – with scraps that aren't useless."

"You're a thief." He should have known. Hadn't she taken his lightsaber like it was nothing?

She glared at him and his gut twisted uncomfortably. She couldn't have been past 7. But she was sharp, wasn't she? Rey had figured out a way to survive on this planet as young and small as she was. He'd always known she was a worthy opponent. "That's clever," Kylo struggled with what to say.

He was unprepared for the sight that met them when they took a sharp turn around a large sand dune. A small speeder, probably meant for a sand person, had been hidden among the rolling, shifting sand hills. It was just big enough for her.

Small Rey tried to start it and let out a huff of frustration when the engine didn't turn over.

She screamed so suddenly that it started Kylo. He thought the other children must be back. But no, she was smashing the side panel with her little fists and letting out growls of rage. "Argh!" she hopped down and kicked it for good measure.

"You won't get it started that way," he said.

She was still panting with rage when she turned to snarl at him. "It won't start at all. Not without hours of repair."

He should have been angry…but her anger seemed to sooth his away. That accent, when paired with the hint of a lisp in her child's voice, didn't feel so abrasive or threatening.

Her tiny hands began disassembling the engine. He looked over and saw she was right. He realized she was targeting the most valuable pieces of the engine to – she hobbled off, struggling to carry them all. He stared after her in amazement. She'd just scavenged her own kriffing cruiser!

He followed her. "Why not repair it?"

She gave him a stony look. She must have been born with that look. It looked right at home on her face, though her eyes seemed too large and she had more freckles than he'd ever seen. "And be out here at night? Happabores-brain."

Kylo, irritated at his own lack of a reply, grabbed the heaviest piece she was carrying with one hand.

She screeched like the little wretch she was, but he held her off with the other hand on her forehead. "Calm down, little scavenger. We'll travel faster if I carry this."

She stared at him. "I'm not going to Nima."

"Neither am I." He was strangely pleased to note that seemed to catch her off guard.

"Don't follow me!" She seemed on the verge of another fit.

Some part of it was fear, he could see that in the slight tremble. But mostly – she was so angry. This must have been not long after her parents left her. Her anger controlled her. It had helped her survive. Odd that she would turn from the darkness later. "You'd leave me alone in the desert to die?"

It was, perhaps, unfair of him to ask that. Her bottom lip quivered, and her eyes filled with tears. She wiped at them with her sleeve.

Kylo caught a glimpse of her first night in the desert alone. She'd run away from her master and had almost died.

Rey turned away from him and continued on at her slow child's pace. She hadn't invited him along or motioned him to follow, but he could tell his words had served their purpose. He was welcome to follow.

The walk was long. Kylo found himself zooming out, almost as if in a trance. The sun was setting in their eyes.

"Sometimes you see things," she said suddenly. "Don't be scared."

Mirages. He glanced at her and had another flash. She sees an ocean in her dreams, in the sands. He saw them before, of course, but this time they were clearer – but then they were gone. He didn't have time to dissect the images.

"I wish they hadn't taken my scarf."

Her scalp was becoming dark pink, the skin of her face was already a light red. He cursed and pulled off his cape. He spun her and put it on her shoulders. She seemed surprised. No more surprised than I am, little Rey. He used his lightsaber to cut the cloak to a reasonable length. She'd shrieked when she saw it again but seemed relieved for the relief against the setting sun.

Kylo didn't know what came over him. But he told himself they had a destiny to fulfill, after all.

It was nearly getting dark and she'd quickened her pace. She grabbed his hand and he pulled against her. But she held on for dear life and tugged him one step in her direction. "Sand pits," she gasped out between labored breaths.

Kylo swallowed. To his immediate left – an almost imperceptible change in the sand. He needed to pay more attention. He fought his admiration for the little girl. He knew the treachery of the pits.

She seemed more cheerful having seen him nearly fall. "That's why no one lives here. That's why I like it." She hadn't left go of his arm and was swaying it wildly back and forth as she showed him just where to step. She giggled when he stumbled once.

Psychotic. But still, he couldn't help a small smile beneath the mask. That Rey would have found her way through this maze – and made a game of it!

She was preparing to jump over a particularly large sinkhole when Kylo rolled his eyes and picked her up. His long legs hopped over it easily. She'd started with a small noise of dismay, but it ended in a giggle. "We have to hurry!" She said seriously. "I can't see them at night."

He tucked her easily under one arm and held the big machine part with the other. She called out directions and he did his best to run. "Left! Right! Jump! Sprint! Left!"

By the time he saw a silver dome rising out of the sand, his nerves were shot from nearly falling multiple times and he was out of breath from running with his burdens.

"There it is!" She cried out unnecessarily. She wiggled out of his arms with surprising grace and sprinted towards it. Kylo followed, doing his best to match her path.

She was unnaturally fast. She took a running leap and half-scrambled, half-scaled the dome of a fallen ship, some 20 feet off the sand. She was using the force. She probably didn't even know she was doing anything special.

He hauled himself up, feeling ridiculous. Only to find that the opening she'd disappeared into was miniature. He was surprised even she had been able to wiggle through it. He peered down and a cheeky face ginned up at him.

She was missing a few teeth and she was still pink from the sun and the run. And he didn't know what to do with that smile. "The big door's back at the bottom," she said like he was an idiot.

I am going to strangle her. That's what he would do. He slid down the dome and felt around its base before finally finding a folding panel that just barely allowed him to squeeze through.

She was set up in one of the smaller nooks in the downed ship. Her belongings, from what he could see, consisted of a small wooden box, a threadbare blanket, and a little pan.

She was cooking something green in the former. It didn't take long and it really didn't look appetizing. Nonetheless, she broke it in half and ate one half like she was starving. Because she is starving, he thought with anger. This is why the galaxy needs the Empire.

She held out the other to him. Kylo hesitated before removing his mask. She seemed surprised, but she brushed that off to stare at him. "Knew you weren't a droid."

He leaned against the far wall in the small space. It was a relief to feel air on his face, such that the stale air in the half-submerged ship was, but he didn't enjoy being scrutinized. "You keep it," he said of the strange bread-patty.

Her jaw clenched – with guilt? – but she ate it ravenously, just like the first piece.

It didn't take long for her to crawl under her blanket. She used her arm for a pillow and pulled the partial cloak that once belonged to him on top of the blanket.

She still stared at him with big eyes.

He grew more uncomfortable. "Not much of a conversationalist," he muttered.

"Talk to barter," she said after a few more moments of silence. "Listen to hear where to find ship parts. No one's around to just…talk. I'm alone."

"You're not alone." He swallowed. At least not tonight. "Get some sleep."

It took a few minutes. Her eyes were trained on him, but began closing of their own accord. He closed his eyes, too, so he wouldn't have to meet hers any longer.

"Are you my father?" She asked, half-asleep.

His eyes snapped open. "No. If I was, I wouldn't have left you." The words seemed to hurt getting out.

She gave a tiny nod.

She stared at him until her eyes grew sleepy again. "I like your scar."

I like it too. His mouth pulled into a sarcastic twist and he was about to speak when he realized she was already asleep. He shut up.

Rey came to with the lights from the window to the city still mapped in her brain. She drew a steadying breath. "Was it a dream?" A low, soft voice asked. Kylo was on the other side of her room, looking just as shaken as her. This was more what she expected from their force-bond. Kylo looked even more withdrawn than usual, but she caught a glimpse of his mind and saw herself as a child.

"A memory, I think," she answered quietly. "You weren't there before, but somehow when I think about that night, I see you."

"You were there the night my mother –"

He felt vulnerable. She felt it, too. It was too much to be enemies in this moment.

"What would you have done – what did you do, when I wasn't there?" he asked.

She remembered the older scavenger boys. They'd once seemed so important, but now they were faded in her mind. Like a holo out of focus. "I ran," she said. "And you?"

"What I had to," he said, as if it pained him. "I used to have nightmares about her eyes." He looked at her with a wonder that remarkably resembled the boy he had been. "I don't remember them anymore."

"I –" But Rey didn't know what to say.

"They never caught who sent her."

Rey knew how that must have added to his inability to sleep. She looked at him and saw the boy. "Kylo, Ben, whatever you want to call yourself – it doesn't matter. We will find ourselves on the same side. I know it. And you will have someone to watch over you, protect you. The way your parents should have. The way Luke should have."

He looked up and she wondered if she looked as broken as he did in that moment. Because she felt it. He held out his hand. "You will stand with me. I know that. And you won't have to be alone. You won't have to run."

It was a promise between two children who saw past the problems of the present. I will protect you, because no one else ever has. Was it her thought, or his?

Her hand fit in his palm and his fingers closed over hers.

The moment shattered and Rey and Kylo were once again on opposite sides of the galaxy. On opposite sides of the war.

Leia, she promised, I'm not going to save the little boy. I'm going to save the man.