How they came to be aboard the escape pod hurtling away from the exploding Star Destroyer was somewhat of a blur to Kylo Ren. He vividly recalled the brief but intense lightsaber battle which resulted in mutual disarmament, the collapse of the ship around them, and the mad dash for the pods, but as far as he could understand, his momentum had been insufficient to actually land him in the pod. Unless he had been… helped. Unless something, some force, pushed him. Unless her surprisingly small but powerful hand had caught his wrist at the last second and-

Gratitude is for the weak, a voice growled in his mind. But a different voice questioned her motives. Why the sudden benevolence when they had been at each other's throats not a moment before, and after his actions at their last meeting?

He glared through the slit in his helmet across the open area of the cramped ship. The slight girl at the control panel jerked the yoke back and forth to avoid bits of disintegrating Destroyer, her brow furrowed in concentration. The ship violently shifted this way and that, but Kylo hardly felt it. It was not simply that he was able to steady his balance using the Force (a simple trick- one of the first he had taught himself, actually), but the fact that her presence, her power, was overwhelming, that girl, that scavenger-

It had been a year since he had seen Rey, but her appearance had scarcely changed. In fact, she was still wearing the long tunic that cris-crossed her body, the same one she wore the first time they had encountered each other. Instead, it was her energy that seemed different. Fluctuating and unfocused before, her power now radiated from her in a well formed and nearly visible halo. Kylo was shocked to find that after all this time, and after all his training under Snoke, some small part of him still felt drawn to her light, like a moth to a flame. It made him angry.

He clenched his fists tightly, purposely digging the hard points of his gloved fingers into the softer palms of his hands. He conjured up the pain of the wounds Rey had inflicted upon him, and felt his scar throb under his mask. Yes, use this pain, Snoke's words echoed in his mind. Pain is hatred and hatred is power.

Kylo allowed the feeling to course through his veins, reveling in the energy it granted him. He added to it the hatred he had cultivated during his training for Rey, for the Resistance, for the Light. He honed and shaped it inside of himself, fashioning a point with which to pierce her halo and gain control of her mind-

"Will you stop that?!" Rey snapped, briefly shooting Kylo an intense glare over her shoulder. "It's hard enough not getting us both killed in this piece of junk without your noisy attempts to enter my mind!"

"Noisy?!" Kylo all but squawked. Though his mask did much to muffle the incredulity in his voice, this was not how he had imagined their second meeting would go. His momentum was lost, he had to focus…

"Yes, noisy! It was noisy then and it was noisy now," Rey replied tersely, not taking her eyes off the debris field outside the pod. "And I can still hear your power buzzing, so if you would please-" She stopped mid-request to flip a switch and turn the controls hard left, sending the pod into a sudden spiraling descent. Despite the quick maneuver, an impact shook the pod, actually managing to unbalance Kylo.

"Damn, that was engine one…" Rey muttered, flipping a number of other switches.

Kylo, thinking quickly, took advantage of her distraction to send a thin tendril of dark energy to probe her mind. This time, she was not so quick to react to his efforts, so he dived deeper, only to be forced out by a sudden push of light. She was aware of his presence, but too preoccupied to even bother to face him properly, cursing under her breath at the now less responsive controls. Kylo seethed at being taken so lightly. The ship is only a few paces wide, he observed, I could easily take her down with my bare hands. Clean and simple.

Rey was right though- avoiding the debris of the Destroyer, which was still in the process of exploding, would be difficult for Kylo alone (If not impossible, a voice in the back of his mind chided) with his minimal flight training. He resolved to wait until they were free of the outside threat, and then he would strike; but for now, he needed her alive. He elected instead to analyze the bit of information he had gained from his brief foray into her thoughts. It did not surprise him to find that Rey's destination was the Resistance base. What caught him more off guard was the thin mist of doubt that surrounded the destination in her mind- it was downright befuddling.

"We're nearly out of this debris field," Rey said with a shallow sigh before he could ponder it any further. "But we've been hit hard. Give me your helmet, I need something to wedge between the yokes."

She had asked so matter-of-factly that Kylo found his hands rising from his sides to release his helmet without further question. Becoming aware of his actions, he balled his hands into fists and thrust them back down. He crossed the pod to stand behind her chair in a few short steps, and had every intention of killing her there and then, until… he didn't. He weakly pressed the releases, and grudgingly pulled the helmet off.

Kylo slammed it down in front of Rey with a solid thunk and an accompanying grunt. "Thank you," Rey said with little sincerity. She made quick work of rigging it to hold the yokes steady, wedging one into the visor opening and hooking the other into the chin guard. She sighed with satisfaction and swung around in the chair to face Kylo, wearing a self-satisfied smirk. It faltered when she caught sight of the jagged scar running down the side of Kylo's face, from beneath his dark hair all the way to his lower jaw. She traced it with her eyes from top to bottom, making a poor attempt to disguise the action by pretending to examine the interior of the pod. The action, however, did not escape Kylo.

Rey stood, the top of her head only reaching his shoulder. He had forgotten that such a tiny body contained such an immense power. They had been in close proximity to her during their lightsaber battle, closer even, but standing there face to face, weaponless but for their minds, the sense of her touched every cell in his body.

"It's been quite a while, Kylo Ren… Ben Solo," Rey said finally, slipping past him to unfold a jump seat. She plopped down onto it in a relaxed action, too relaxed, carefully avoiding meeting his eyes. Kylo noted her actions carefully.

"There is no one aboard this pod by that name," he replied evenly. "That is the name of a dead man. There are only the most skilled Knight of the First Order and a scavenger who still does not know her place. I expect you to grant me control of this vessel so I may return to Lord Snoke with you as my prisoner."

Rey snorted then, again catching Kylo off guard. He was quickly tiring of that feeling. "This 'vessel' is hardly granting me control at this point, thanks to you," she said flatly. "What should've been an hour long journey now looks as though it will take two days at the least, thanks to that blown engine. This thing barely had the capacity for light speed as it was, now it's no faster than a hoverbike."

She popped up then suddenly, nearly pushing past Kylo in her rush to retake the pilot seat. He watched as she craned her neck looking out the front window of the pod, and catching sight of something, began to rhythmically flip a switch up and down. A flashing light from a partially cloaked X-Wing responded, and she replied with further switch flipping.

Apparently feeling Kylo's eyes on her back, Rey again turned to him. "That was my wingman, Poe Dameron, I believe you're acquainted?" she said with a smirk. "In fact, he escaped from the First Order's flagship about a year ago under your watchful eye, didn't he?"

Kylo returned the smirk in kind. "Calling for assistance, are we?" he scoffed, ignoring the dig. "Afraid of spending several days alone with me, constantly defending yourself? I have no need for sleep now, you know, I can sustain myself fully on the power of the Dark-"

"Sending him away, actually," Rey cut off his bragging. "I can handle you myself. Should make our arrival back at base more painless, anyway. He doesn't need to tail us any further."

Clever, he thought. Maintain the closed environment where you think you have the advantage. How optimistic. "Base, is it?" Kylo asked, injecting a feeling of surprise into his voice. He knew that she knew that he knew their destination, after his light mental prodding, but for the sake of the situation, he continued. "Not to your master for punishment and execution?"

"Your uncle has no more desire to kill you than your mother does, despite the pain you've put them through," Rey said, her voice heavy. "Nor do I," she added. To Kylo's ears, the remark sounded somewhat less sincere.

"Knights of the First Order have no family, and those that stand in my way will be destroyed, whither they harbor any malice towards me or no," he coolly countered. "That includes you, scavenger. Again I urge you to relinquish the controls, or-"

"Or what, you'll kill me?" Rey leapt to her feet, her power creating the feeling that she was much larger and more intimidating than she actually was. Kylo saw right through her, but she continued. "This pod barely has the fuel to get back to the Resistance base! So what do you intend to do, kill me and crash land on some desert planet? Live there in the burnt-out hull of this trashed pod until you waste away under the heat of the sun, never to see your great Lord Snoke ever a- hhhgk!"

Rey's words were cut short by a sudden invisible pressure around her throat. Kylo felt the slightest pang of guilt for taking advantage of her at her most vulnerable, but he kept his expression blank and cold. He reasoned that the feeling came from the desire to face her as an equal opponent, and pushed it to the back of his mind.

Kylo raised his hand slightly, lifting Rey's light body with the power of the Force. He indifferently watched her feet raise off the ground, kicking and struggling, actually managing to land a few blows to his lower shins, which he did not feel. It had been so quick and easy in Snoke's simulation, so simple to snap her neck with the force of his hatred and rage. But the once razor-sharp edge of the darkness within him suddenly felt blunted when he connected with her consciousness in any way, even a violent one such as this. Her energy invaded his being in a way that he both hated… and was addicted to.

Kylo realized too late that Rey had driven her energy into the gaps in his own, and he recoiled as he let her fall. She dropped into a squatting position, managing to knock his feet out from under him with a low, swinging kick, despite gasping for breath. Kylo fell hard on his back, the wind knocked out of him by the impact. He went to push himself up, but found an immensely heavy concentration of Force holding him to the floor. He redoubled his efforts, and let out a cry of frustration when he found them thwarted. His mind raced, searching for her weak points, trying to refocus his anger, trying to understand why his grip failed, questioning his own power and resolve-

Rey straddled his forcibly prone body and crouched, the tails of her loose tunic draping over Kylo's legs, her eyes boring into his. The move shocked him, bringing his viciously churning thoughts to a screeching halt.

"You cannot kill me," she began quietly. Kylo made a harsh sound of protest, but she spoke over him. "Just as I cannot kill you. You have the capacity to kill others, but not to kill me. Search your heart and mind, and you will find the truth."

"I do not need to, I know Resistance lies when I hear them!" Kylo spat up at her. Rey's words had the unintended effect of once again focusing the rage within him. Rage and… something else? Something he had felt from her before, something warm and unfamiliar…

She ignored him. "The moment you connected with my mind a year ago, I felt that you could not kill me. Why do you think I was able to repel you then? What I lacked in training then I made up for with knowledge of your heart- a knowledge that you gave me."

"I gave you nothing!" he hissed. "Whatever knowledge you have you took from me, just as I took what I wanted from you!"

"I took…?" Rey choked. Her eyes narrowed into a harsh glare. "I didn't want your negativity, your darkness, in my mind! It was only after a great deal of training that I managed to free myself from you! And may I remind you that you were unsuccessful in extracting Master Luke's map fragment from me?!"

Hearing Rey utter that name, referring to him as her master, pushed Kylo over the edge. He again cried out in rage, the feeling welling up in his chest and spilling over in a sudden explosion of Force. The pod itself rattled and the lights flickered in response to the blast of energy. The impact threw Rey off balance and she fell back, but not before Kylo pulled his legs out from under her, and ungracefully scooted himself across the floor of the pod until his back was against the wall. Panting, sweat beading on his forehead, he sized her up as she calmly returned to a crouching position. She crossed her arms over her knees, and simply looked at him.

Kylo visualized throwing his hand out, forcing her down with his power, standing over her as she had done him. The image again twisted the coil of anger within him; but her calm gaze worked against this coil, unravelling him at the very core. Despite having the imagination to concoct all sorts of offensive actions against her, he found that his motivation to actually undertake these actions melted away upon focusing on her form.

They sat for time like that in silence, except for their breathing- Kylo tensing and relaxing, Rey watching him evenly. At some point, soon after their breathing synchronized, Kylo Ren drifted to sleep.