Blood and Fire: A Reylo Smut Sequel

The thought distracts him, and he is knocked to his knees. His opponent mashes a staff against his throat, choking him. He pushes against the guard's wrist, but he can feel his strength ebbing as his lungs begin to burn.

She calls his name. She has dispatched her final opponent, and he turns his gaze just in time to see her throw the lightsaber to him. It sails through the air and slams into his palm. Activating it for just a second, the fiery blade plunges directly into his attacker's head. The force against his throat slackens and there is a thud as a body hits the deck.

Suddenly, they are alone.

The throne room is a disaster of ash and fire. Charred bodies of Praetorian guards lie strewn about in various states of dismemberment. The red curtain lining the dome is nearly burnt away, and the two of them are both filthy bloody messes, tattered and bruised. Kylo rises to his feet, stunned, hollow. Rey says something, but he can't hear her. Her words echo hollowly as though coming to him from a great distance as turns to look at the throne. There, amongst all the other corpses, lies his dead master.

The Supreme Leader taught him so much. He has been such a constant in Kylo Ren's life. A part of him is shocked. But, he tells himself, all students must outgrow their masters and so has he with Snoke. It was time. And there is something more. Of the many things he feels, he notices that elation is one of them. Joy.

"Ben," Rey calls, and this time, he hears her and answers.

"It's time to let old things die. Snoke." He pulls his gaze from the fallen Supreme Leader to her. His future. "Skywalker. The Sith. The Jedi. The Rebels. Let it all die."

He moves close to her. She does not back away. Looking at her, he imagines all the possibilities of the galaxy spreading before them in this bold new beginning that is theirs alone, born in the flames of the burning past. He reaches for her, and she allows him to pull her against him. Bringing a gloved hand to the back of her head, he pulls her mouth against his, and they share a kiss that is wet and hot, and tastes of blood and ash. When it ends, he keeps one hand in her hair and lets the other drop to her belly.

He doesn't ask why she didn't tell him. He knows. But now things are different. Now he's proven himself to her by slaying his own master to save her. He chose her and to create this terrifying and glorious new beginning for them.

"Rey," he says, still holding her close. "I want you to join me. We can rule together and bring a new order to the galaxy."

Her face betrays her distress as plainly as their bond does.

"Don't do this, Ben," she says softly. "Please don't go this way."

Infuriating.

"No, no!" he shouts, feeling his anger rise and desperately attempting to keep it in check. "You're still holding on! Let go!"

Burning bits of the once glorious red tapestry that cloaked the throne room fall like a soft, fiery rain all around them. He can see tears beginning to well up in her eyes. He knows he will not win this argument with rage and fire. He cannot turn her, cannot bring her to his side, unless he convinces her that she needs him. She does need him. Just as desperately as he needs her. They are a pair, and it is their destiny to rule the galaxy together. He has to make her see it!

"Do you want to know the truth about your parents?" he asks, an impulse goading him to push at her weak point, hoping that it might give him leverage. "Or have you always known, and you've just hidden it away?"

He makes his voice soft, trying to coax her, trying to find traction. He holds her tightly against him, willing her to yield, and he can see the pain on her face, the indecision.

"You know the truth," he says, releasing his hand from her hair to touch her cheek. Tears slip free of her eyes, wetting his gloves. "Say it."

She stares up at him, and he can feel her resolve weakening. He watches it play across her face as her emotions shake the bond between them like vibrations along a taut steel cable.

"Say it," he repeats, even softer still, gazing down into her face as he strokes her. It's always such a thrill, waiting for her to yield, to submit and obey. He can't force her. He wouldn't want to. But watching her give up her struggle and yield to him of her own free will... That is its own kind of paradise. That is his island.

She does it.

"They were nobody," she says, her face forlorn, a tear sliding down her cheek.

She keeps clinging to this imagined past, to the idea of her parents, seeking acceptance and love everywhere and anywhere. But they both know that, ultimately, it's him she will be coming home to, like a vessel crossing the event horizon of a black hole. Inevitable.

"They were filthy junk traders who sold you off for drinking money," he says. He watches her face, drinking in her pain. "They're dead in a paupers' grave in the Jakku desert." He continues stroking her cheek, her tears making the fingertips of his glove slippery. "You have no place in this story. You come from nothing. You're nothing." He sees her face crumple and wonders if he's gone too far.

He cups her chin then and lifts her face up to look at him. She is so painfully beautiful. Beaten and bloodied, tear-stained and broken, but not defeated. Never defeated. She is all the more glorious and all the more beautiful for her scars and her damage.

"But not to me," he says.

And he means it, with every fiber of his being. She is everything. He must have her.

"Join me," he says, ducking his face low to kiss her again, and it is like the last time they were together, when she came to him for comfort, wet and needy and perfect. He can feel her poised on the edge, still undecided, teetering, and so he does something he has never done before.

"Please," he says, offering her his heart on a platter.

He cannot breathe as he waits for her answer. The moment stretches on until he thinks he must have died.

Then, like the strike of a desert viper, she snatches the lightsaber from his hand.

He grabs at it as she steps quickly back and away from him. Rage and pain slice into him like a garotte. How could she? The saber slides from both their fingers and hovers in midair, just centimeters beyond their fingertips as they both pull on it in a desperate tug of war with the Force. They fight and strain but only succeed in pushing each other further from the saber as it begins first to shudder in midair and then vibrate. There is a massive explosion and all goes dark.

...

Kylo Ren jerks awake, sensing danger. Everything hurts. He looks up just in time to see Hux's hand retreating from his blaster. The rat was going to shoot him where he lay. A rabid cur indeed. But a useful one. Snoke wasn't wrong.

"What happened?" Hux asks, trying to cover his aborted assassination attempt.

"The girl murdered Snoke," Kylo says, climbing to his feet. "What happened?"

"She took Snoke's escape craft."

She will pay for this. Oh, how she will pay.

"We know where she's going," Kylo says. "Get all our forces down to that Resistance base. Let's finish this."

Hux puffs up indignantly, like some kind of absurd fish. "Finish this? Who do you think you're talking to? You presume to command my army? Our Supreme Leader is dead! We have no ruler!"

With a curl of his fingers, Kylo Ren brings Hux to his knees, gasping for air.

"The Supreme Leader is dead," Kylo says.

"Long live the Supreme Leader," Hux gasps.

Chapter 9: Nothing lasts forever.

Back aboard the Falcon, Rey and Chewie rush to the planet's surface. Their friends are trapped in the old Rebel base. First Order forces are preparing a battering ram to break down the massive doors that protect them. They can see the tiny, poorly protected Resistance speeders that have been sent out in an attempt to destroy the ram. They are taking heavy losses, but when the Millenium Falcon is recognized, the attacking Tie fighters peel away and take up an attack formation against the infamous ship. Rey can feel Kylo Ren nearby. He is unhinged with rage.

"Chewie," cries Rey. "Pull off from the battle! Let's draw them away from the speeders."

Chewie roars assent and pulls the Falcon into a long arc away from the fight. The fighters remain in hot pursuit. As they follow, Chewie pilots through tight wedges of canyons, the walls picking off the less capable pilots and Rey in the gun turret picking off more still. Then they enter a massive subterranean cavern of red crystal lattice work, explosions of ships and ammunition making the crystals sparkle like fresh blood. They careen through the roof of the cavern and burst forth into the sky in a shower of rock, finally free of pursuers.

Something is happening to Ben--Kylo, but Rey can't tell what. His rage still flows through their bond unchecked, but now there is something more now. A wild thread of pain lancing through his other emotions. She pushes it aside. There is no time for his drama now. Artoo pulls out the transponder that Leia gave her and tries to locate the survivors. He emits an excited series of beeps.

"If the beacon's right beneath us," Rey says, "then they've got to be somewhere. Keep scanning for life forms."

Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she catches a glimpse of movement. Peering down through the view class, she sees a pack of crystalline foxes fleeing one of the many canyons that line the land beneath them.

"I see them! Chewie, there!"

Chewie brings the Falcon around. As soon as they have landed, she races down the rocky bank with the transponder in hand. It leads her to a wall where there must have been a recent landslide. She sees another fox wriggle out from between a small gap in the stones. There is a tunnel that has been blocked by the massive pile of rubble.

"Lifting rocks," she says to herself. Of course.

Taking a deep breath, she closes her eyes and extends a hand. She reaches deep into herself, into the very fabric of the galaxy, into the Force. She calls upon it and opens herself to it. It floods her with life and death and awareness.Through it she can feel the warm lights of her friends, trapped on the other side of the rockslide. Rey and the stones are one, and slowly, she lifts them, calling to them by name, and they float into the air one at a time. They become a tiny asteroid field, floating softly around her like an aura.

Her friends emerge from the tunnel. Finn is there! He races toward her, heedless of the massive boulders suspended in the air, and she casts them all aside as he reaches her. They embrace in wordless joy. The Force still flows through her, and she with it can feel the love radiating from Finn, a light to warm her broken heart.

When they break their embrace, she looks around and sees that the survivors are terrifyingly few. Suppressing feelings of rage and loss, she ushers them aboard the ship. All of them can fit easily aboard the Falcon. The entire Resistance. It horrifies her to think how many they have lost.

As the last of them walks up the ramp, she feels that strange connection coalesce into existence. The bridge forms, and she turns to see Ben. He is kneeling at the foot of the ramp, gazing up at her.

So. Snoke lied. The Supreme Leader is dead yet the bridge still exists, pressing them together. It is both horrifying and perversely satisfying to know that her bond with Ben is real, organic, and not just the manipulation of a vile puppet master. Seeing him now, part of her aches to go to him. And the look on his face tells her that he wants it just as much as she does. It breaks her heart all over again.

But he would have let all these people die. Would have killed them himself. He is a monster. A murderer. She has to accept--has to force her heart to accept--that he will not change. Master Skywalker was right. So, taking one last look at the man she wishes she did not love, she firmly presses the switch for the ramp and shuts him out without a word.

As the Falcon gets underway, Rey goes to sit with Leia.

"Luke is gone," Rey says.

Leia nods.

"I felt it," Rey says. "But it wasn't sadness or pain. It was peace and purpose."

"I felt it, too," Leia says.

"How do we build a rebellion from this?" Rey asks, looking around sadly at the handful of Resistance fighters.

Leia puts her hand atop Rey's and smiles. "We have everything we need."

Rey wants to believe. But she is afraid. She has doubts. She--

She is seized by a sudden fierce pain in her belly. Horrible cramping, like she has never had before.

The baby, she realizes. Something is wrong with the baby.

When did she start thinking of it as a baby? And not a creature?

She excuses herself. Leia looks concerned. Going to the Falcon's hygiene station, she lets herself in and locks the door. Pulling down her garments she finds... blood. So much blood. She shudders in horror and pain. She is miscarrying. Whether it was Snoke's torture, a blow dealt by one of the Praetorians, or the final explosion of the lightsaber, there is no way to know what might have caused it. Maybe everything combined. But something has upset the delicate balance of the life inside of her, and she can feel its light fading as the blood runs down her legs.

There is a knock at the door, and she stiffens. She doesn't answer.

The knock comes again, this time accompanied by a voice. "Rey, it's me."

Leia. The one person who could possibly understand.

She opens the latch, and Leia slips inside. Rey doesn't try to hide the blood. She lets Leia see it. The look of sadness on Leia's face--the woman who would have been a grandmother--makes tears rush up into Rey's eyes, hot and stinging.

"Oh, Rey," Leia says. "We'll get you to a doctor as soon as we reach the Outer Rim. We'll do everything we can."

Rey swallows the lump in her throat and nods.

...

As soon as they touch down, Leia whisks Rey off the Falcon and to a clinic of a physician friend. Rey watches the woman as she performs the tests and reads the results. Her face is a studied neutral expression, professional, giving away nothing. But Rey already knows the answer. She came only to appease Leia. Because now when Rey reaches into herself, that subtle wisp of light is gone. Snuffed out. There is a void where there was once potential.

The physician gives the prognosis, exactly as Rey knew it would be. She sees how hard it hits Leia, but she is too numb now to feel anything. She asks to be left alone for a while, and the physician leads Leia out, comforting her.

Sitting on the table, mostly undressed, Rey tries to absorb what has happened. Part of her is relieved. Part of her is broken even more than Kylo Ren himself could break her. She stands between the cliffs of these emotions, unsure what to do when... suddenly he is there.

His eyes wander over her, taking in her state of partial undress, the clinic gown she is wearing. And the streaks of blood drying on her legs.

"What happened?" he asks, his voice soft. Careful.

Somehow his gentleness only inspires her anger.

"What do you think happened?" she demands through clenched teeth.

She turns her head away, refusing to look him in the eye. It does nothing to stem the flood of his feelings as they flow into her through their bond. She is awash in his pain, loss, relief, guilt, and as always, a torrent of bubbling rage.

"Were you ever going to tell me?" he asks.

She shakes her head. "I wasn't even sure that I was going to keep it. I was afraid--" She breaks off, holding back a violent sob. The effort of it causes her throat to seize for a moment before she can continue. "I was afraid of what it would become."

He is silent for a moment. "And afraid of becoming your parents."

The insightfulness of the comment is like a knife to her chest. She cuts her eyes to him with a glare and snaps, "As if you would have made a good father. You're a monster. A murderer. Your heart is black. I thought you could change, but I was wrong. I'm done with you. Leave me alone."

She sees his face harden and feels his emotions collapse in around the hole she has just punched in them. But it's all true. Every word. She is done with him. Done hoping. And now she has been given a new freedom. There is no child to bind them together for the rest of their lives. Now they can both walk away.

And without another word, he does.

Epilogue: It's not over.

There is no higher purpose--no greater calling--than bringing an end to the Resistance so that he might tighten his grip upon the galaxy. When Supreme Leader Kylo Ren is not sending out spies, reviewing scouting reports, or taking briefings, he is researching the secret Sith planet of Exegol. Or training. Training until he is so exhausted that no nightmare can wake him.

His advisors beg him to let the physician examine him. They say he needs to rest. The manic, glassy look in his eyes scares them. But he knows that he must complete this mission before the Resistance has a chance to resurge. It is imperative. The pain and suffering only make him stronger. And he is getting closer to finding Exegol every day.

He knows now that he cannot bring himself to kill Rey. He does not have that power. It is a weakness, but one that he accepts and holds close. His darkest secret. He will have her at his side at all costs. If she will not yield, she will be imprisoned. She will be persuaded. He knows that a part of her yearns for the dark side. He only has to find a way to set this part of her free. Then nothing will stop them. They will be bound together in blood and darkness as the Supreme Rulers of the galaxy, bending the very nature of existence to their will.

Exegol holds the secrets he needs to achieve his purpose. He will not relent until he has crushed the Resistance to a fine dust beneath his boot heel and with Rey to his side.

To be continued...

Author's Note:

The keen reader will note that there are two inconsistencies between this story and Blood and Snow. I wrote BnS before Episode VIII came out, and in it 1) I described Rey's island as tropical, and 2) I made no mention of Kylo Ren's facial wound. This is obviously inconsistent with Episode VIII, but I didn't want to retcon these details back into BnS. So, I kept Blood and Fire consistent with Episode VIII (rocky island and big scar) but chose to leave BnS in its original form.