Hello! I'm finally back and writing! It's been awhile, but summer means I (might) actually have time to write! This fic is definitely rated M, so be warned. At the beginning of each chapter I will give a song recommendation that I listened to while writing the chapter. I'm really excited about this fic. Reylo is such an interesting pairing. Anyway, enjoy, and review with any thoughts or questions!

Chapter song recommendation: "Human" Christina Perri

"Come to me."

Ren freezes mid-sentence as the order reverberates through him. He gives the expectantly staring Stormtrooper captain a pointed look, and the man hurriedly departs.

"Of course master," Ren replies.

"Master Luke!" Rey calls, trembling under the weight of her levitating boulders.

"Use Force speak, padawan."

She grits her teeth and pushes her thoughts toward him. "I can't hold this much longer."

"Draw strength from within, young padawan."

He has an acute distaste for General Hux. The man has both the appearance and demeanor of a garbage rat. (Incidentally, those awful rodents are the principle reason he will never return to Tatooine.)

"Master Ren," Hux all but sneers.

"Greetings," Ren responds, pointedly directing his gaze forward, and not in the direction of the general.

"The Supreme Leader called upon you too, it seems."

"Indeed."

Hux appears to have no response to this. They both stand at attention, awaiting the Supreme Leader.

She used to hate meditating.

They spend hours sitting on stiff ground dissolving from the world. Submitting to the Force.

For the first several months, she struggled considerably. She convinced herself that her senses had grown too attuned. That years in the desert, fending for herself, alert on constant watch for bounty hunters, has made it impossible to descend into her mind.

She could tell it frustrated Luke, even if he never spoke the words aloud. His thoughts were harsher against hers as he demanded she listen to the Force, perhaps oblivious to the irony of forced meditation.

So instead of eliminating her thoughts, she tries to focus on everything, letting it all in, seeing the vibrations and reverberations of the Force in everything, and refuses to decipher the important parts.

Luke isn't particularly fond of her method.

But she doesn't hate meditation any more.

In agitated anticipation of Snoke's arrival, Ren clenches his fists under the sleeves of his cloak (so that Hux cannot see his weakness).

The seconds tick by. An obvious power play by Snoke to keep them waiting.

Hux shifts awkwardly, clearing his throat in a too-obvious attempt to clear the silence from the room.

He fucking hates Hux.

The blue light of the projector flickers, and the large, bulbous head of the Supreme Leader shutters into focus.

"Greetings," growls Snoke's distinctive voice, deep and harsh like sandpaper.

"Greetings, Supreme Leader," Ren responds, not daring to tilt his chin upward to meet the master's gaze. He's been chastised for insolence before. But he senses Snoke's approval in the Force signature that faintly emanates from the projection.

"Greetings," Hux announces, clearly anxious that his inability to control the Force will leave him forgotten. "What would you have us do, Master?"

She's boiling water to cook the spongy roots they grow on Ahch-To when Luke enters her small cabin. (His place sits three ridges away, a difficult journey by foot.)

"Hello," she says when he sits at her table.

"Force-speak, young one."

She purses her lips, and sets in front of him a bowl of red berries she picked earlier that morning. "Of course, Master."

"I sense your frustration, padawan. The way of the Force does not promise ease. You must be dedicated to your efforts."

"Yes, Master Luke. I will try harder."

"General Hux, you will henceforth assume the role of commander of this vessel while Ren is off ship. Please inform all necessary personnel, and report to Deck C."

"Of course, Supreme Leader. Thank you for this great honor. I promise to serve the First Order as an effective leader."

Ren has trouble restrain the, "Fuck off, Hux," bubbling in his throat. The smug bastard sends a smirk his way before strutting out.

His insides squeeze at what could happen next. He doesn't like the idea of leaving the Finalizer long enough not to be its commander.

He turns his head upward to gauge Snoke. "Where will you have me go, Supreme Leader?"

"You need to finish what you started; find the scavenger girl, acquire the location of the Jedi Temple, and eliminate the threat she poses to the First Order."

"And how will I find her?"

Snoke glowers down at him. "I am extremely disappointed in you, Ren. That you did not have the sense to track her Force signature after your encounter shows your lack of foresight. Perhaps you are not prepared to complete this mission. Perhaps I should call upon another of my apprentices."

He clenches his fists again under his cloak, willing his anger and embarrassment to subside. (He tries to block out how this embodies the Jedi principles he learned from Luke.) In a measured voice he responds,"Your judgement far precedes mine. If you do not believe me to be competent, I will not go."

Snoke narrows his eyes, seeming to assess Ren's quivering form. A long pause before Kylo regains the nerve to speaks again.

"I do indeed know the location of her force signature, but it has grown fainter in the time since I have had contact with her."

"If you know her location, then you shall be the one to destroy her."

"Indeed, Master. Thank you for your confidence in me."

"Ensure that I have not misplaced it."

She doesn't think she can do this much longer. Master Luke tasked her to swim out to the farthest island from their mainland, to bring back supplies from their storehouse there.

About twenty minutes in, she momentarily forgets that she can't inhale cobalt-laced water the way she can air. Her lungs clench as she gasps, uncontrollably trying to expel the water from her lungs. She kicks her legs desperately, propelling her arms so she stays above the surface. Her mind races, and she feels her thoughts bordering on panicked.

"Rey, stay calm." Luke's voice invades her mind, stern and unforgiving. She detects a hint of disappointment too.

She hates disappointing him. She's his hope for the next generation of Jedi Masters, and she can't swim twenty minutes without drowning. It motivates her, the thought that she might let him down, but she often wonders if she'll ever live up to what Luke hoped for Ben Solo.

She tilts her head back to inhale a bit more oxygen and keeps swimming.

The small fighter jet he takes to Ahch-To is so tiny that his legs cramp beneath the pilot's seat. He wishes he were not alone on this mission. The hours drag on as he flies through uncharted space.

He can feel her signature growing stronger. He doesn't even need that map from her head. She herself is the map.

All the punishment he endured from Snoke over her escape was for nothing. Snoke digging around in his head, yanking on Ren's insecurities until he was nothing more than a shell of himself.

On his left, the blue planet emerges from the blackness. He wishes he had the Finalizer and could simply evaporate the girl and his old master.

But no. They should suffer for the pain they have caused him.

They should burn and bleed the way he too fucking burns and bleeds every fucking day because of their ignorance.

He prepares the fighter jet for descent.

Her whole body aches. Her strength dwindles at an alarming rate, and she vaguely wonders what would happen if she just stopped.

She tried to awhile back, at the last island, but Luke's voice had pressed insistently into her thoughts, propelling her forward.

She can see the land mass in the distance, but perhaps it's only a mirage. Twilight creeps over the sky, the clouds streaked with purple.

Something catches her eye. Something bright and orange, zipping across the purple like a jagged scar. She stares harder and realizes it's attached to a vessel.

Someone's come for her.

He must have incorrectly entered the calculations, but that doesn't explain why the jet won't calibrate. The atmosphere can't catch him; it's thin, too thin. The fighter cuts through it too quickly. The higher-than-average gravity pulls at him, dragging him closer to the surface. At this speed he'll never make a landing. He knows he can always escape and Force levitate himself to land, but he needs the jet to return to the Finalizer.

He desperately flips through the control panel, searching for anything that could slow him down.

The parachute deploys with a loud crack, but he's moving too quickly, and the wind rips right through it. He tries to steady the ship with the Force, imagining the thrusters slowing.

The shuttle lurches, but continues its downward trajectory. "Shit," he hisses. He attempts again, but the water below appoaches rapidly, and the Force won't respond to his panic. The best he can hope is to direct his fall as close to Rey's signature as possible.

But he doesn't even have enough time for that.

The ship will not make a good landing. She knows she should swim out that way, toward it to rescue any survivors, but she can't summon the energy. She can barely tred water and gawk simultaneously.

"Go!" comes the voice in her head. This voice doesn't sound like Luke's, but rather like own.

She feels the Force surge inside her, a second wind propelling her across the waves. She tries to reach her arm up to slow the descent of the ship, but her exertion to swim overpowers her efforts.

So she keeps striving forward.

He's going to have to jump. There's no other way out. There will have to be another way off this planet. The jet still free falls, and hell if he'll drown with it. He came to far to end here.

In the back of his mind he can feel the scavenger's presence growing stronger, but he tosses that thought aside, and throws himself from the cockpit in a perfect dive, slicing the waves evenly, his cloak billowing behind him.

The impact with the waves hits his chest so hard it knocks away his breath. He didn't anticipate the searing cold. The water must be near ice. His vision keeps going in and out. Thankfully, his mask keeps the water out of his lungs, but he feels himself fading into the blackness.

She sees a figure jump from the ship, submerge, and then fail to reappear.

"Luke!" she calls out, but she gets no response.

The ship hits the water, the impact ricocheting waves in every direction. Caught off guard, it pulls her beneath the surface, the wave crashing over her face. Rey kicks violently, a desperate attempt to find the surface. Her reaching fingers hit cold, and she pulls herself up.

She swims in the direction she thinks she saw the figure fall. Her muscles strain until she sees below her dark billowing robes. She inhales sharply and submerges her head, diving toward the limp form. With all the energy she has left, she grasps the edge of the black fabric and yanks.

And when the shimmer of his mask comes into view, she almost screams. He's haunted her nightmares for weeks now.

She wonders how she'll haul his body to shore without them both drowning.

She contemplates just leaving his body here.

But she feels Luke's presence in her mind, giving her just enough strength to collapse on the shore.

Oh no... What's going to happen to Rey when Ren wakes up? Is Luke going to continue to pester Rey for eternity? Is Hux going to crash the Finalizer and confirm Kylo's assumption that Hux is incompetent? Find out all this and more when you hit favorite/follow! Reviews expedite the writing process! Tell me your thoughts!