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2025-10-20
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I love you, it's ruining my life - REYLO FORTNIGHT AU

Summary:

Rey is locked in Snoke's laboratory to be studied. She tried to escape several times, but never succeeded. Her fate changes with the arrival of Snoke's new apprentice: Kylo Ren.

This work is inspired by the music video Fortnight by Taylor Swift.

Notes:

Hi guys, English is not my first language, so excuse any typos or mistakes!!

Chapter 1: days 1-5

Chapter Text

I LOVE YOU, IT’S RUINING MY LIFE – REYLO FORTNIGHT AU

Day 1 – Rey

Rey couldn’t remember the last sunrise she’d seen, but somewhere deep in her memory, she recalled that someone used to compare her to a ray of sunshine. It seemed so distant now it could’ve been a dream. Maybe it was a dream.

Time had dissolved into fragments of cold light and metallic footsteps in the corridor since she’d been imprisoned in Snoke’s laboratory, years ago. Everything smelled of burnt iron and ozone, and the world was always too white, too clean — as if sterility itself were a form of torture.

Her cell had no bars, only a thick, impenetrable glass, lit from within so she could always see her reflection. A constant reminder that she was completely alone. Not just there.

Everywhere.

Once, she tried to break it by throwing the bed. She managed to crack it, tried to escape, but was quickly subdued with the sleeping gas. The punishment that followed was so intense she didn’t try again for a long time. She’d bitten off part of an apprentice’s ear. Headbutted another. Got through a few rooms — but it never mattered. Snoke always won. Still, some stupid, primal part of her never lost hope.

Then, the sound that always came before the release of the gas echoed through the cell. Rey smelled that familiar chemical scent, and three seconds later, everything went dark.

When she woke, minutes later, she was strapped to the gurney, wearing the straitjacket she’d worn so many times before, along with the headgear — something like a crown, but just a contraption to measure her brain activity.

But that day, beside Snoke’s old, disfigured face, stood a man Rey had never seen before.

He was about her height, even with her lying on the elevated gurney. His broad shoulders told her he wouldn’t be easy to overpower. His dark hair was too well-kept to belong to one of the usual overworked apprentices. And that sharp, aquiline nose — she was sure she’d never seen him before.

“Be careful with her,” Snoke warned. “She always has a trick up her sleeve.”
Snoke held her chin, and Rey had to fight the urge to bite those wrinkled fingers. She knew the punishment wouldn’t be worth it. So she swallowed her rage and buried it deep inside, where she kept all the hatred she’d cultivated for him.

“She won’t try any with me,” the young man said, with a confidence that only made her want to prove him wrong.

Snoke shook his head. “Young Rey, meet my new and most powerful apprentice: Kylo Ren. He’ll be in charge of studying you for the next few days. Behave.”

Rey clenched her jaw but shifted her gaze toward Kylo, who remained expressionless. She’d never met someone she instantly disliked so deeply. Everyone else who entered the lab seemed to fear her — they knew the stories about what happened to those unfortunate enough to try to study her.

Why didn’t he?

“And if I don’t cooperate?” Rey taunted.

Snoke opened his mouth to respond, but Kylo was quicker.

“That’s fine. I like challenges.” He said it without breaking eye contact. A spark — something dangerous and forbidden — flickered between them.

Snoke cleared his throat and pulled Kylo away.

As they walked out, the new apprentice kept his gaze fixed on Rey. Even after he was gone, his eyes seemed to linger. And for the rest of the day, all she could think about was how satisfying it would be to wipe that arrogance off his face.

 

Day 2 – Rey

The next day, Rey woke up and focused on her usual tasks. She read, painted, embroidered — and as she lay on the bed, bored out of her mind, she started to feel like she was being watched. She knew that was what they all did behind the glass; that’s why she was there — to be studied.

She never really knew why, or what Snoke wanted from her. The other scientists never told her, not even under threat. But this time, she could feel someone’s eyes on her.
She didn’t know how — but she knew exactly who it was. She could almost picture his sharp nose and piercing eyes.

“You won’t last long here,” she thought.

A few seconds later, his voice echoed inside her mind: “Why not?”

For a moment, she was too startled to reply. “Because I break everyone who tries to control me,” she thought back.

“Then maybe I’ll break you first,” he answered.

After that, she stopped feeling him. Whatever happened between them — it was gone.

Day 3 – Kylo

Kylo had heard about that girl long before he met her. He could even say he’d always felt a strange fascination about her, after hearing the stories. Meeting her in person only intensified it.

He pretended to be indifferent, but something in her eyes — a fury that refused to bend, a fire that refused to die — unsettled him.

The girl had been born on Jakku, a forgotten colony on the edge of the system. She’d worked as a scavenger until rumors began to spread: sandstorms rose when she screamed, metal doors burst open when she panicked. Once, she’d been found sitting among wreckage, surrounded by charred bodies.

The scientists called it a “spontaneous Force discharge.” Snoke saw potential — and ordered her capture.

He wanted to replicate her, he believed the Force could be isolated, mapped, cloned. He wanted her power. Some said she was Palpatine’s creation, hidden away since the fall of the Empire.

Kylo watched her through the glass now, noticing the look in her eyes — someone who’d seen hell up close and learned how to breathe in it. A dangerous kind of desire drew him toward her. He couldn’t explain it.

Since childhood, he’d felt that his Skywalker blood was both a promise and a curse.

People always said he carried “the purest Force of his generation,” but no one told him what to do with the rage that came with it.

At sixteen, during training at his uncle’s academy, he lost control. A tragedy followed. After that, there was no home — only shame and fear. The Force, which should have made him extraordinary, made him dangerous instead. And guilt devoured him.
He ran away. That’s when he met Snoke — a scientist obsessed with studying the Force, determined to control it.

Snoke didn’t call Kylo a monster. He called him a miracle. Promised to teach him how to channel his anger, to be neither a victim of the light nor a prisoner of the dark. Kylo believed him — because he wanted to belong somewhere, even if it was in hell.

Over the years, Snoke molded him slowly — with discipline, punishment, and praise — until Kylo could no longer tell where fear ended and loyalty began.

He’d done Snoke’s dirty work for years, fought his battles, destroyed anyone who dared oppose him. But he realized his greatest test began the moment he was assigned to study that girl — the moment he walked into that room and saw her strapped to the gurney.

“Good morning,” he said.

She didn’t answer — just shot him a murderous look.

As he checked the machine’s readings, he could feel her Force energy, simmering like boiling water about to spill over.

“I was wondering when Snoke’s new lapdog would show up,” she hissed.

“I thought you’d felt my presence through the glass yesterday,” Kylo replied.

“I did. But I didn’t imagine a man your size would be cowardly enough to just stand there and watch.”

Kylo wet his lips. Her insolence was almost inspiring. “Predators spend time studying their prey before striking.”

“And you think you’re the predator here?” she raised an eyebrow.

“Well, I’m not the one strapped to a gurney in a straitjacket.”

She held his gaze. “Untie me, and we’ll see.”

“You’d love that, wouldn’t you?”

“Of course. Who doesn’t like freedom?”

Kylo studied her. “Some people don’t know what to do with it.”

“Is that your case? Is that why you decided to be Snoke’s lapdog?”

Kylo swallowed hard. “Master Snoke is wise. If you weren’t so insubordinate, maybe you’d understand that — and you wouldn’t be tied to a gurney right now.”

“At least I’m aware of the chains I wear. You…”

She didn’t finish.

Kylo said nothing. He finished writing down the data and left.
But her words kept circling in his mind for the rest of the day.

 

Day 4 – Rey

That day, Kylo was testing Rey’s reflexes when she began to notice his eyes.
She thought they were dark, but now, seeing them up close, she realized they were actually a light shade of brown — that, under certain light, could almost be considered green.

Like grass, like tree leaves — things she’d never seen herself, only heard about in stories — and she was starting to lose hope that she ever would.

They didn’t exchange a single word, and for some reason, that only made her anger toward him grow stronger.

 

Day 5 – Rey

The sleeping gas flooded Rey’s room once again, and everything went dark. When she woke up, she was in a new testing chamber. There was no sound except the hum of the machines and her own breathing. For the first time, Rey realized she wasn’t wearing a straitjacket — nothing restrained her at all.

She looked around and found Snoke watching her from a glass mezzanine above.

It would be so easy, she thought, to simply shatter that glass, bring him down, and use a shard to slit his throat. He would surely punish her if she tried and failed — but if he were dead, there would be no one left to punish her. She just couldn’t afford to fail.

Rey raised her hand, but before she had the chance to channel the Force, Kylo Ren entered the room with his own hand raised — and half a second later, her body was thrown violently against the wall.

The impact left her dizzy, and when she regained her senses, she saw him staring at her with that impassive expression. He wasn’t wearing the white lab coat this time — he was dressed in dark clothing, ready for combat.

As she got back on her feet, Rey was consumed by such intense rage that her head throbbed.

“Begin,” Snoke’s voice echoed from above. “I want to measure the intensity of the Force in each of you. Attack him, Rey.”

Rey lifted her hand. The air around them vibrated, as if the world itself were holding its breath. A metal panel behind Kylo cracked and twisted, but didn’t break.
He didn’t move, just raised his fingers, and her energy wave froze in the air, split in two.

The shock ran through both of them — invisible, violent.
Rey staggered. Kylo did too. For a second, the entire lab seemed to stop, and the Force between them expanded — hot, alive, intimate.

Images flashed through both their minds — fragments, memories that weren’t their own.

Sand. Rain. Grass. A lake. A scream. And a touch.

Rey gasped. Kylo released his control, and the metal panel crashed to the floor with a sharp clang.

Rey saw Snoke tilt his head, intrigued. “Fascinating. You balance each other. Her energy flows through you.” He smiled thinly. “Perhaps one could tame the other.”

Rey clenched her jaw, furious. “No one is going to tame me.”

Kylo gave her a faint smile — he seemed amused. He watched her, face lit by the white lights, hair clinging to her sweaty skin, eyes wild. “Careful,” he said softly, barely a whisper. “People who say that are usually already being tamed.”

Rey stepped forward, and in one swift motion, shoved him against the wall.
Her hand went to his throat and tightened.

“Says the man who’s Snoke’s lapdog.”

“And you think you’re so different from me?” he asked, smiling in a way she hadn’t seen before.

“At least I’m not here because I want to be.”

She squeezed his neck tighter. It should have hurt — it would have killed someone weaker — but he only looked at her, almost as if he… liked it.

“And what makes you think I want to be here?” was all he said.

They stayed there, face to face, breathing the same air, the same rage, the same heat.

“That’s enough for today,” Snoke’s voice boomed from above, like a decree.

Rey released Kylo and stepped back. Silence returned, but neither of them moved.
She could feel his heartbeat — fast, uneven — his hands trembling slightly.

For a moment, neither of them spoke. There was only the sound of their breathing and the sense that the entire universe had shifted without asking permission.

 

 

Chapter 2: Chapter 2 - days 6-9

Summary:

days 6 to 9, the tension between Kylo and Rey increases and it leads to a kiss

Notes:

Guys, since the news about the The Hunt For Ben Solo came out I've been truly delulu about everything related to Reylo!! Does anyone been feeling the same? It's like a hole in my soul that was open when TROS came out just got bigger but at the same time healed? I don't know

Chapter Text

Day 6 – Kylo

She was the opposite of him in every possible way, Kylo thought that again, like repeating a lesson his mind refused to learn. Untamed. Harsh. Brutal where he was calculated, fiery where he forced himself to be cold. He had been instructed to observe her, study her, measure her impulses, correct her deviations.

But the more he tried to control her, the more she disarmed him. There was something in her presence that pulled him to her, like two currents made of the same matter, inevitably doomed to collide.

At first, Kylo convinced himself it was nothing but curiosity—just another data point to collect. Until he realized that the mere thought of touching her made the Force between them pulse—hot, noisy, like drums hammering in his chest.

When she pinned him against the wall… her hand firm on his neck, her eyes burning… he almost got hard. The fury in her gaze should have been terrifying, but for him, it was exhilarating.

It made no sense.

She irritated him, challenged him, exposed the most fragile pieces of him. He should hate her.

He did hate her. What he felt was just… he didn’t know. Curiosity, fascination, desire. She was his enemy. Just a piece in a greater game. He couldn’t forget that.

But… that day, when he entered the experiment chamber, everything he knew collapsed the moment his gaze fell on her full lips, her green irises, the freckles dusting her skin like tiny maps.

I could count them, he caught himself thinking.

She only stared back at him with a kind of pity—something that made him want to rip it out of her.

“You should hate me,” he said, his voice low, rough, scraping through the silence.

Her face shut like a door. But there was tension there, a caged tremor.

“Who says I don’t?” she shot back.

His eyes narrowed.
“It doesn’t look like hate when you look at me like that.”

Rey bit her lip—more irritated with her own reaction than with his audacity.
“Like what?”

“Like you’re… hungry.”

“You’re being delusional.”

“The Force in you doesn’t lie. I can feel it.”

“Then you’re feeling wrong. The only thing I have hunger for is killing you.”

Kylo took a risk—his voice came out softer than he meant: “That’s not what it looked like yesterday when you had your hand around my neck. I felt it. And I know you did too.”

She averted her eyes. The silence between them gained weight. “You’re delusional.”

He leaned closer—just enough to see her breath hitch. He could almost taste her: sweat, metal, and a faint, stubborn scent that was hers alone.

“Am I? Because it seems to me you’re having the same reaction right now.”

“What reaction?” Her lips parted, her chest rising and falling.

“You’re desperate to feel this—and you can’t hide it.”

“Feel what?”

“Desire. Hunger. The urge to know something forbidden. Profane. Something you shouldn’t want—but every cell in your body begs you to.”

“And you talk like you’re not feeling the same,” she argued.

Kylo couldn’t deny it.
“I’m not denying anything.”

“Then why don’t you unbind me and do something about it?”

He swallowed hard. The sentence hit him like both an invitation and an accusation. For a moment, he imagined undoing the restraints, forgetting the oath, surrendering to an impulse that called to him with the force of an abyss.

What would she be like if she were free—if it were just the two of them, somewhere private?

It was a dangerously tempting idea.

But he couldn’t. He couldn’t betray Snoke. It would go against everything he’d ever believed. She was the key to controlling his power, and he couldn’t throw everything away just because… he couldn’t control himself around her.

Weakness was not something he was allowed. He inhaled deeply, gathering the self-discipline forged in years of punishment and obedience. He stepped back before he crossed a line he could never return from. His face hardened into a mask—tense, expressionless.

“You’d be my ruin,” he said, a barely contained tremor only he noticed. “And I cannot allow myself to fall.”

He turned away before more honest words could escape—and left the room. Behind him remained the echo of his steps and, between them, an invisible current still vibrating—promise and threat in equal measure.

 

Day 7 - Rey

The observation room lights were dim, casting long shadows over the walls. Rey stood in front of Kylo Ren again—but this time, there was something different, deeply unsettling, in his eyes. A kind of new desolation she had never seen before.

Snoke said nothing—just watched them from above, wearing that smile that seemed to guess every secret they tried to hide.

Rey was ready to fight when Snoke finally broke the silence: “Touch each other.” The order came calm—and cruel.

Rey frowned.
“For what?”

“I want to see what happens when your Forces unite,” Snoke replied, as if asking for a simple experiment. “For science.”

Kylo’s discomfort was visible. Snoke wasn’t just testing their power—he was testing their control. His control… and hers.

“Do it,” Snoke insisted. “Go on.”

Rey took a breath. For a moment, she considered refusing. Maybe even attacking him—to see whether Kylo would stop Snoke from punishing her. Would he let Snoke torture her like he did with the other apprentices? Or… would he be different?

She didn’t want to find out. So she obeyed.

She stepped forward. Then another step. Kylo remained still, watching every inch of her approach as if each one was dangerous.

She slowly extended her hand—and waited. She noticed the way he swallowed before removing his glove. Her breath stuttered when he extended his arm.

When their hands met, the Force exploded.

A silent wave tore through the room, making the walls vibrate.
Lights flickered, instruments beeped, glass trembled as if about to shatter.

Heat surged through Rey’s body—his touch wasn’t like anything.
It wasn’t power.
It was life.

She couldn’t explain it—but suddenly she felt what Kylo felt. She saw memories that weren’t hers: a boy surrounded by fire, a cruel master, loneliness.

And for a split second—she felt pity.

No. She couldn’t feel that. She couldn’t feel anything for him. He was just another one of Snoke’s puppets.

Rey pulled away, severing the connection. Air rushed back, heavy. Kylo stayed there, stunned, like he’d seen a ghost.

“Incredible… you are the same field divided into two bodies,” Snoke whispered. “If I control one, I control the other.”

“You’ll never control me.” Her voice trembled—but not from fear.

Snoke smiled.
“Oh, little one. I already do. You just haven’t realized it.”

Then he used the Force to lift her in the air—the same punishment as always, that crushing agony inside her skull.

Rey screamed, body twisting, eyes squeezed shut. Just when she was about to break, she heard Kylo’s voice: “Enough!”

Snoke released her, and she crashed to the floor. When she looked up, Kylo stood there with clenched fists and a rigid expression.

Snoke turned to him—slowly. “Interfering, my apprentice?”

The silence that followed cut sharper than any scream.
Kylo seemed to realize his mistake too late.

Snoke smiled—not surprised, but pleased.
As if he had waited exactly for this.

“Do you think she needs you, Ren?” Snoke’s voice dripped venom. “Or is it you who needs her?”

Rey looked at Kylo—really looked. And for the first time, she saw something vulnerable in his eyes. Not arrogance. Confusion.

She knew the feeling—because something too similar was growing inside her.

“Come, my apprentice. I have a lesson for you,” Snoke said, leaving the room.

For a few seconds, Rey and Kylo remained alone—surrounded by silence and by the tension still burning in the air between them.

When Kylo finally turned to leave, Rey realized— The real danger wasn’t Snoke.

It was what was growing between them— silent, inevitable, and impossible to control.

 

Kylo

“Emotions are failures. And I do not tolerate failure.” Snoke’s voice echoed against the metallic walls like a cold blade.

Kylo knelt on the floor, body arched in pain. Invisible chains woven from the Force held him in place.

Snoke approached, his shadow stretching long enough to cover Kylo’s face. “How dare you defy me… over that insignificant girl?” he murmured, disappointment dripping from every word.

The memory burned inside Kylo—Rey screaming, electricity ripping through her body, her beautiful face twisted in pain.

Kylo only knew one thing: he had to stop it. It was instinctive, impulsive… or something he couldn’t name.

Snoke watched him with cruel delight. “You belong to me. Every thought. Every weakness. Even that.”

The punishment lasted longer than usual. When it finally stopped, Kylo could barely breathe. Pain pulsed through his ribs with every movement.

Later, alone in his quarters, he tried to convince himself it would all end soon. That he only needed to remember what happened to the weak.

But then he thought of her again— her face, her eyes refusing to break.

And he finally understood: he was a prisoner too.

Not behind glass, like her, but inside a life with no choices.

Rey was a reflection of what he could have been if he had ever dared to disobey.

 

Day 8 — Kylo

When Kylo walked into her room that day, the air felt heavy. Rey was sitting at a table, seemingly absorbed in a painting. Her always-restless eyes found him with a mix of defiance and curiosity.

“Why did you help me?” she asked, voice hoarse but steady.

Kylo stopped just a few steps away, breath uneven.

“I didn’t help you,” he lied—far too quickly.

Her eyebrow arched.

“You tried to stop him from torturing me.”

“It meant nothing.” The words came out harsh, yet not even he believed them.

“Then why did you do it?”

He looked away, jaw clenched.

“I didn’t want to waste time with that… nonsense.”

Rey stood up. The silence between them crackled like static.

“If it was nonsense, then why challenge him?” She stepped forward. “Why risk punishment for me?”

Kylo inhaled sharply, but it felt like no air entered.

“Because I wanted to.”

“Then why go against him?” she pushed, voice dropping to a whisper. “Admit it.”

“What?”

She held his gaze.

“That I mean something to you.”

His heart skidded inside his chest. Rey could sense the Force shaking through him—wild, unstable.

“You…” He swallowed. “You mean nothing to me. You’re just an experiment.”

Rey smiled—briefly, and dangerously.

“Then why is your heart racing? Why is the Force in you… trembling?”

His fists tightened.

“Because you get under my skin.”

She tilted her head, moving closer, close enough for him to feel her warmth.

“Or maybe…” she whispered, “I have a hold over you.” The silence that followed was almost unbearable. Rey stood fiercely before him, chin raised, eyes blazing—not with fear, but with anger and something else. Something Kylo feared naming. “Won’t admit it?”

“No.”

“So that’s it,” she said with a crooked, taunting smile. “The great apprentice of Snoke—slave to his own cowardice.”

He stepped forward, eyes narrowing.

“Watch what you say.”

“Why? Going to threaten me?” She let out a sharp laugh. “You talk as if you have a choice, yet you obey like a shadow.”

Kylo closed the remaining distance. Thinking became impossible. Just looking at her eyes—her mouth—disarmed him completely.

“You don’t understand.”

“Oh, I understand so much more than you think.” She leaned in too, compressing the air between them. “I saw it. I felt it. The pain he inflicts on you. The fear you try to bury.”

He stared back, eyes dark and intense.

“Stop,” he whispered, gaze flicking down to her lips.

“Why? Does it hurt to touch the truth?”

The Force surged between them—thick, electric. A glass on the table nearby shattered; the crack splintered the silence. Neither of them looked away.

“You think you know me, but you don’t know what it is to be shaped since childhood to obey,” he said, each syllable a struggle to remain controlled.

“And you think I wasn’t shaped too?” Rey fired back. “The difference is I broke the mold.”

For a moment, Kylo faltered. She had seen him—truly seen him: the doubt, the exhaustion, the longing for something beyond fear.

“If you keep this up, Snoke will destroy you,” she murmured.

“Maybe he already has,” he replied, without a trace of sarcasm.

Rey inhaled, ready to speak—but the air caught in her throat. The tension between them thickened, almost tangible. His eyes lowered to hers—quick, involuntary.

“You should hate me,” he whispered.

“I should.” She hesitated. “But I don’t.”

Dangerous words, trembling in the air.
Kylo fought himself, facial muscles revealing every crack in his armor.
He stepped back, needing space before something detonated.

But Rey didn’t give him any. She stepped closer. Almost no distance remained between them—just a space that pulsed like a living thing.

She lifted her chin—defiant yet vulnerable.

Kylo breathed her in—the heat of her body clashing with the cold terror inside him—and knew: one more step and everything would change.

He didn’t move.
The moment stretched—tense, suspended, the silence before the fall.

Then Kylo spoke—barely more than breath: “Master Snoke says feelings are weaknesses.”

“They are,” she whispered back, leaning in just slightly—eyes locked on his—“But maybe it’s time to fail.”

And she pressed her lips to his.

He didn’t resist.
He couldn’t.
He wanted this more than anything he had ever wanted.

His hand slid to her waist, pulling her closer—as if she could fill every hollow in his soul. She gripped the back of his neck, fingers tangled in his hair.

The kiss deepened—urgent, fierce—until Kylo snapped back to himself.

This couldn’t happen.

He pulled away.

“I can’t,” he breathed.

“What do you have to lose?”

You, he thought.
But instead he said:

“Everything.”

And he walked out—fully aware that what had sparked between them could never be undone.

Day 9 — Rey

Kylo didn’t visit her that day.
And that absence weighed like a stone on her chest.

She tried to fill the hours: painted a lifeless picture, crocheted something crooked, ate tasteless food.

Her room looked grayer than ever. The loneliness… heavier.

It was ridiculous—she knew.
Kylo wasn’t an ally.
He wasn’t a friend.

She was nothing to him. He said so himself.

A kiss didn’t change anything.

She knew that deep down he would always obey Snoke. She was a distraction—momentary—and easily replaced once Snoke gave him another task.

Yet… she only had to close her eyes, and her heart clenched—her stomach tightened—as she remembered the way his lips moved against hers. His strong hands on her waist—violent, desperate.

As if he feared she might vanish.

Rey pressed her fingers to her temples.

Enough. She had to stop this.
Nurturing such a feeling was dangerous.

By nightfall, the door handle turned—and her heart leapt to her throat.

He came.

But as the door opened… the person she hated most stepped inside.

“Good evening, young Rey,” Snoke said, voice dripping false politeness.

“What do you want?” she growled.

He walked in slowly, surveying the room.

“I came to see how you were.”

“Locked up. Bored. Same as always. Why?”

He studied her—cold, calculating.

“There was a disturbance in the Force. Did you feel it?”

Rey held her breath.

“No.”

A small, chilling smile twisted his lips.

“I believe you’re not telling me the truth. I can sense it.”

She wet her lips. Ever since Kylo… something inside her had awakened. A fire once dormant—now burning violently.

“I don’t know what you want me to say,” she muttered, tense.

Snoke stepped closer—voice lowering, intimate—and dangerous.

“Do you believe my young apprentice has compassion for you? Is that what agitates you so?”

Rey clenched her fists but didn’t look away.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, you do,” he whispered. “I see the way you look at him. You think he could be the key to your freedom. That he will be your salvation.”

Her heart stuttered.
Just for a second.
But one second was enough—Snoke noticed.

“You’re delusional.” Her voice lacked conviction. And he heard it.

“Kylo Ren is mine,” Snoke said, savoring each word. “He is loyal to me. To my will. He will never choose you. Never.”

The words split something inside her—like her lungs had been struck with an axe.

“And why are you telling me this?” she forced out, refusing to let him see how much it hurt.

“So you remember who is truly in control here. You are not free to feel. Not free to want. You belong to me.”

He grabbed her chin with his rotting, wrinkled fingers.

“What do you want from me?” she hissed, trying to break free—but he held her fast.

“I want your power, Rey. All of it. But it cannot be taken. It must be given,” he murmured.

Rey stepped back—fear finally slipping past her anger.

“I would never do that.”

He stared at her for a long moment—as if calculating new ways to break her.

“We shall see,” he said at last, before leaving the room.