The nightmare came.

The room was hot, cramped and dusty like everything in his life. Light came from a few lamps scattered about. The wall's claw exterior scratched into the skin of his back, his tunic too thin to give him any amount of protection.

Hands that didn't belong on his person touched and pinched cruelly. Breath rot from poor hygiene sickened him as they pressed their faces close. They wanted from him, and they planned to take it. Three against him, holding down his arms and pressing into him as he tried to fight. Tried to scream past the dirty fleshy hand pressed tightly over his mouth. His heart hammered hard in his ears, fear fueling his frantic fight.

"We'll make you scream girlie," one of them said.

He looked to the side in a panic, eyes trying to plead with someone in the distance to make it all stop. The blob, no the male in the back just smirked as he watched the entire display. He could see the man evidently beginning to really enjoy the display. His hands drifted down to his pants and Kylo looked away as quickly as he could. He didn't want to see, didn't want that burned into his brain. Someone getting off on him being hurt.

"We'll make you scream, girlie."

Kylo threw out his hands in panic, calling up every bit of fight in him, every ounce of will to get free.

The Force rushed forward at his bidding, slamming against the farthest wall with every ounce of fear, of anger, of sheer panic, that had been trapped inside the girl, and now him. The furthest wall bulged, fractures splitting the spartan wall apart. But there was no one to take the brunt of the Force, no one in the room except Kylo himself.

His hands shook as they stayed held out, his breathing ragged and loud even in his own ears. He searched the room frantically for his attackers, but the light from outside showed no one lurking in the shadows. Nothing was out of place in the sparse metal room, save for the indented wall.

A dream? Kylo wondered as he slowly lowered his arms back to the bed. Why would he dream of something like this? He had no basis for such a vivid dream, nothing he could recall in his life ever came close to such. One trembling hand came up to brush his sweaty dark hair away from his face.

We'll make you scream, girlie.

His heart stopped in his chest. Every muscle in his body locked with tension at the voice. Girlie. It hadn't been him they'd been talking to.

They'd been talking about the scavenger.

His scavenger.

Rage was a powerful motivator and he felt it spark and ignite inside of him. He drowned in it. His heart pumped it through his whole body until the very room vibrated with it. Some people had tried to hurt his scavenger. They'd tried to take from her. Had they succeeded?

The thought was like throwing fuel onto a blazing fire.

Alarm bells rang out in the corridors as Kylo Ren emerged from his room, fully dressed for battle. Repair crews ran down the corridor towards him. He had no thought for them, simply shoved them out of his away. He didn't care if they hit the walls harder than necessary or if a few cried out in panic. He needed to get to his ship. Nothing was going to stand in his way.

He didn't stop but watched as his knights appeared in the hallway, each donned simpler outfits of black. Each brandished their own weapons as fell into line behind Kylo. They needed no order to assemble. He'd hardly been in the presence of mind to issue any command. But they knew their leader. Under his helmet, Kylo smiled darkly. Troops moved against the walls or turned around as they saw the Knights coming.

"What are our orders, sir?"

"To hunt."

The night air bit at Rey's skin as she walked further from basecamp. It was early, too early for most as the suns had yet to break the horizon yet. But the first wasn't far off, the darkness giving way to the light in the distance. Soon everyone would be up and the new day would begin. Rey needed to be back for the briefings, for the planning of the next raid.

But her nightmare lingered in her mind. She'd been younger, maybe too comfortable in the idea that something like that could not happen to her. Plutt was a greedy bastard. She should've known the offer of extra rations was too good, but he'd been stingy and she'd been hungry.

Rey shivered in the dark and it wasn't because of the chill.

She'd been lucky. She couldn't remember how but she'd gotten free. She'd fled like mad back into the desert. Plutt had been furious with her when she'd finally returned with salvage nearly a week later. More than once he'd taken a valuable part from her and given her nothing, claiming it as lost wages for her little stunt. She'd argued, but he'd just remind her she could do it properly if she wanted her full compensation.

Rey just let him have the parts. She'd learned her lesson though. Even in the Resistance base, she carried a small blade hidden on her. The staff kept the attackers at a distance, allowing her to fight of numerous. The blade was a last resort, a close combat weapon when there wasn't another choice.

She wouldn't go through that again.

Eventually Rey made her way back to base as dawn broke. Caff was being warmed up and distributed as the members began dragging themselves from their beds for another day of work. Rey snatched herself a cup and sat down at a makeshift table in their little makeshift dining area underneath the canopy of trees. No one enjoyed being cooped up in the ships more than necessary, so most of the camp was strewn about in the cover of the foliage and caves.

She'd hardly tucked into her cup when Finn came jogging around the area, head searching for her. "Rey! We need you in the debriefing," Finn called before jogging back the way he came. A twinge of annoyance shot through her. It was too early and she'd not slept enough for this. But still she dragged herself to her feet and took her caff with her to the meeting.

Inside one of the ships housed the debriefing room. The ship held what the Resistance had as top of the line (which meant it was years older than anything sold as new). Poe and Finn were already in the room, eyes glued to something on the monitors as several more higher-ranking officers gathered about. Leia watched Rey walk into the room, her face unreadable but her eyes as sharp as ever.

"This doesn't make any sense," Poe snapped as he watched the screen from his seat. He thumped the computer stand in frustration. "Why would he do this?"

"Maybe he was trying to get some information out of the guy?" Finn supplied as he leaned over his friend.

"But the guy had nothing. Rey would've known if he knew anything."

"Known what?" she asked. Everyone's eyes turned to her and it made her uncomfortable. She tried to ignore them as she circled around to see the screen.

Rey's hands went numb and the cup shattered on the floor.

"It's being broadcasted across the entire galaxy," Poe stated as he watched. "They're using it as some sort of propaganda about…" but Rey stopped listening.

The video was good quality, much better than anything that could be found out on Jakku. Someone made sure to deliberately film the hacked apart bodies in all of their gory glory. Each of the twelve piles was neatly kept away from the others in a line, too many pieces for them to be hacked apart at just the joints. The wounds were cauterized, leaving no blood seeping but the flesh an angry red when it had been removed. The heads were placed neatly on top of the piles, but the faces were bruised and bloody. Even with the amount of damage done to them, Rey would know the four in the center anywhere. They'd haunted her nightmares for years, and again only a few hours ago.

"Isn't that the junk guy in the middle?" Finn asked Rey. She simply nodded, not trusting her voice.

"Why would he do something like this?"

Rey said nothing. She honestly couldn't. All eyes were on her, and she felt every set like an itch on her skin. Her skin felt hot and tight and she just wanted to stop looking. But it was like watching a speeder crash, impossible to look away from the scene no matter how gruesome it was.

"Rey, are you alright?" Leia asked softly. Her hand touched Rey's shoulder, warm and comforting. But it was too much. Far too much.

"I need to lay down," Rey said quickly before fleeing the room as fast as possible. Too much, too much.

Blindly she raced out into the forest, limbs pumping to get her away. More than one person had yelled after her, but she didn't care. She just ran. Instinct guided her deeper into the forest than she'd ever been, telling her where to step, when to duck, when to leap and move to avoid tripping or falling. She didn't stop until she came to a small clearing, the canopy thick as the foliage and the light muted in this place.

He'd killed them.

"And I'd do it again," Kylo's rich voice whispered from behind.

Rey whirled around, seeing Kylo standing there in a simple black shirt and pants, his dark locks hung around his heated eyes. It stunned Rey to see him so dressed down. Though the shirt was not nearly as revealing as when he'd been without, it somehow felt intimate with his hair curling just so and his eyes shining with pride. Her mouth watered at the sight and her skin was too tight again. Something hummed deep inside of her.

"You killed them," she said aloud this time, like she needed to remind her of the fact. It should scare her.

"They touched you," his words burned like acid. Old fears crawled along her skin like the hands from her memory. She shuddered against the reality. The leather of his gloves creaked as he clenched his fists. Rey watched the thinly veiled control threaten to snap. "Their deaths were a gift to you."

"Because I am yours?" Rey breathed the question. It wasn't fair. There should be malice in her voice, her body should thrum with it. Instead she was holding her breath for his response.

"No," he said. His eyes spoke more than anyone she'd ever met. She could almost see the boy inside, yearning for some scrap of approval. He took a step towards her. Then another when she didn't move until he towered over her smaller frame. This was the closest they'd been since Snoke's throne room.

Rey remembered the vid. "There were twelve bodies." He had to have seen the memory, like she'd done in the past. He knew who had been present in the dirty hot space. He got the four and made them the center of the display. Why were there more?

Anger burned brightly in his eyes but he looked away for a moment and her heart stumbled. "You were not the only one." Dread weighed down her stomach. It was one thing to suspect, another to know. Rey had gone out of her way more times than she'd cared to admit to to warn any of the newest scavengers about Plutt's offer. While there weren't that many, each one she told she'd hoped was one saved from his filthy game.

Her hand, so small compared to him, cupped his scarred cheek and turned his dark gaze back to her. She could read the mirrored pain hidden there on his face. He relived the memory, she realized. It wasn't just her memory any more. She cursed silently. "Why, Ben?" she found herself asking, needing to hear the answer from his own lips.

His features hardened but the heat in his eyes changed into something richer. His own large hand reached out to cup her cheek as he pressed his face into her own. For all the world, he wouldn't look away from her with an almost endearing glint. "Because you wouldn't."