( Nothing but acid fills his stomach, so when he retches it's with a chemical burn clouding his sinuses and making his eyes water, as much as the debris and crystallized rock had when Ilum shattered around them like glass. His throat is raw when he's confident enough to bring his face and shoulders out of the grass without the threat of a second round taking him unexpectedly. Kylo hears her approach behind him, grass whispering as it parts to let her sift through it, but he doesn't immediately turn to face her, taking a moment instead to peer through the trees at the structure there while he wipes at his mouth with the back of his hand and catches his breath. Snoke would be disgusted with him. As Kylo looks over his shoulder to find Rey standing next to him, he finds that he doesn't care. )

Thank you. ( A pregnant pause fills the space between his words, and he looks up at her with a heavy look that tries to masquerade itself as a smirk, though like the lopsided smile he had attempted to quirk earlier, it looks unpleasant and out of practice. ) For knocking the wind out of me in a completely unnecessary and delusional moment of grandeur.

( The rest of his body follows the turn of his head, and rather than getting to his feet or even to his knees, he allows himself this moment of gravity and stays seated, letting his stomach settle and the restructuring of his mind take precedence over immediately standing in order to look capable in every possible way. Something in him feels significantly emptier than it had previously, as if a light has gone out and left him scraped to the bottom and cold. Where a void had once been filled, it now hangs open like a healed but hollow wound or like the scar tissue that pockmarks his face in a crooked reminder of the agony that had once been there. Almost disconnectedly, as if he's observing from far away, he watches Rey unravel the scraps of fabric that envelop her arms and examine the angry red shapes his fingers had left across her skin.

In conjunction with the sharp smell of acidic vomit next to him and the overwhelming perfume of Yavin IV, the welts that she reveals layer by layer make this all seem too real. He looks away when she questions him, wondering more than anything whether or not those bruises will appear on her arms once they emerge from this place, and, if they do, what scars he might also bear as a result of his own efforts. In direct response to her inquiry, Kylo finally pushes himself to his feet. The muscles in his calves and thighs feel weak, as if he's just pushed his body beyond the brink of its physical capacity. His head swims, but he remains steady. )

I don't know. ( He tells her plainly because there is no point in lying to her. In one way or another, he's been honest with her from the get-go. Knowing what she does now, having facilitated what she has, what they both have, it would be pointless to pretend like he knows better than she does. ) I hardly have experience in breaking a bond in this way. I don't think anyone has experience in breaking a bond this way. But you saw his power. He found us here as if it were no different than finding us outside of this place. Knowing how to block him or push him out when he finds us again does not change the inevitability of it. He will find us, if he hasn't already. What happens then - ( He spares a brief glance back at the fabric that covers her arms. ) - I don't know. ( A pause, and then he opens his mouth as if to say something before thinking better of it, considers a different angle and then proceeds however ill-advisedly. ) I wasn't sure if you were strong enough to withstand him.

( It's not an apology for the way he twisted her arm in his grasp, but it's about as close as he comes. )