Poe Dameron had completely lost his mind. Over the last couple of weeks since the battle on Crait, the rebels had been constantly on the move trying to get away from The First Order. It seemed no matter what the resistance did to evade them, The First Order was always one step ahead. It was as if someone was feeding them intelligence leaving just enough time for the resistance to get away unscathed. Needless to say, what was left of the resistance was restless and on edge.
After a couple days of quiet, however, everyone began to relax and recuperate. There were meetings being set up to plan their next move, but Rey was having none of it. She was still completely freaked out by what had happened to her since she had left Luke. She thought that maybe, if she had stayed with Luke instead of going to Kylo Ren maybe he'd still be here. Maybe he'd be able to help. But she couldn't afford to think like that. She also wondered what might have happened if she'd stayed with Ren. Maybe she could have convinced him to leave her friends alone. Maybe she could have convinced him to turn. No, that would take a miracle of The First Order, pun intended.
She didn't regret going to him. She needed to know once and for all if there was any light left in him. When they had fought together in the throne room, she thought, Ben Solo is back. He had saved her life when he killed Snoke and had continued to do so with every one of Snoke's guards they'd killed together. But when he asked her to join him, even after all they had been through, she couldn't do it. She couldn't turn her back on her friends. These people had given her so much, and they needed her. Looking into Ben's pleading, hurt, brown eyes though, she could see he needed her too. The thought of what could have been haunted her every day.
Poe and Finn could see that Rey was suffering and they wanted to do something to help. Eventually Poe came up with an idea; an absolutely crazy and evil idea. One night, Poe Dameron decided the resistance fighters needed a break. They'd heard nothing about the whereabouts of The First Order for a few days now, and it wouldn't kill them to take one night off. Poe got Finn, Rose, and Rey to walk into town near their base to get a drink, or a few. Rey agreed to go, under duress. She knew keeping her friends at arms length wouldn't help her much in the long run and she thought, maybe if she was able to talk about what happened, she'd be able to process it better.
They grabbed a table and sat down while Poe lumbered over to the bar to order the group the first round of drinks. Rey had zero experience drinking so she was pretty glad that Poe was taking charge of this. After they'd had a few sips, Poe broke the tension by asking the question everyone wanted the answer to. "Okay Rey, what the hell happened when you were training with Skywalker? General Organa told us a few things, but I'm pretty sure not even she knows the whole story." Rey pondered this for a second then asked, "What did she tell you?" To which Poe responded with, "She told us you trained with Luke and after some time decided to go take on Kylo Ren by yourself, what the hell were you thinking?" Rey tried not to show her anger in her next answer, "It's more complicated than that. Has anyone ever told you about force bonds?" At this, Poe and the rest of the table were intrigued.
Rey told them the whole story starting with her rocky beginning with Luke and her first force bond moment with Kylo. And ending with her final showdown with Kylo in the throne room. Everyone's interest was piqued. They interrupted only a few times to ask questions and take a drink pretty much every time Rey mentioned Kylo. At the end of her story, Rey finished her entire drink in one gulp and no one even batted an eyelash. In fact, Finn went to grab Rey another drink, knowing she needed it. They were all speechless until Poe asked, "Wait, you said the force connection between you and Kylo was created by Snoke right? After Kylo killed him, shouldn't it have gone away? How were you able to see him on Crait?" Rey gulped, "I don't know. The whole thing really doesn't make sense." Rose chimed in, "Have you seen him since? Through the force bond?" She asked, tinged with a bit of apprehension. "I know what you guys are thinking. I'm not the spy who's been tipping off The First Order. No, I haven't seen him since. Every once in a while, I feel a dark presence in the back of my mind, but I haven't seen or heard him since Crait," she said. "But in theory," Poe slurred, slightly tipsy "The connection is still there right?" "Yeah," she said, feeling rather light headed and awkward, "Yeah, in theory the connection is still there." Rey was beginning to feel the effects of the alcohol. She definitely shouldn't have drank it so fast. And she realized she was already halfway through her second drink. This was not going to end well.
All of a sudden, her friends and the bar around her was gone. All she could see was Kylo Ren, training with his lightsaber. He was shirtless, again, and glistening with sweat. All she could think about was how good he looked. And how much she wanted to touch his wet, warm, chest and run her fingers through his slightly damp hair. She realized that right now she had no control of her thoughts. She had to get control back, she couldn't let him see her. She used every ounce of her concentration to focus on the bar, and in the very last second, before the connection was severed, she saw his eyes dart over to hers. Their eyes met for a fraction of a second and he started to say, "Rey," before the connection was gone.
Rey flushed in embarrassment and looked at her friends around her. Poe was gesturing his left hand up and down in front of her face trying to get her attention and it was clear he'd been doing this for a good amount of time. "Rey, what just happened," and suddenly a realization dawned on him. "You saw him didn't you?" Poe hiccuped. Apparently there had been a lot of drinking in her absence. "Yes," Rey faltered. She couldn't lie, apparently the alcohol had completely gotten to her. "Did he see you?" Finn asked. "I think so," she gasped, "But only for a second," She thought. "Well I guess that answers that question," Poe belted. "I have an idea, let's play a game, Truth or Dare. I think we're all sufficiently intoxicated for it. Rey, truth or dare?" "Dare," Rey blurted, not even thinking about it. "Okay Rey, I dare you to bring back your force connection with Kylo and kiss him until….until he pushes you away." "What!" Finn yelled outraged, "He'll kill her!." Poe smirked, "Well if I recall correctly, Rey said she blasted him once through the force connection and he didn't die, so even if he wanted to kill her he couldn't, am I right?" Rey's face fell, "Yeah he's right," "Okay then, do it.." Poe taunted, without a second thought. "Wait, what if Ren can find us through the force connection? Isn't it really dangerous to take that kind of risk?" Rose implicated. "From what I understand it doesn't work that way, Rey said she and Kylo were connecting for months and he never found her. So if she's only there for a minute or two he can't find her. The point is, is she willing to take the risk?" Poe placated.
"I'll do it," Rey agreed, "If you promise to do all the repairs on the Falcon for the next month," she was sick and tired of fixing up that old rust bucket day in, and day out, and she might as well get something good out of this. "That's not how this works, in Truth or Dare I ask, you do, you don't get to make negotiations." Said Poe, "Watch me," Rey teased. "Falcon repairs or no deal." She narrowed her eyebrows. "Fine, go!" He yelled. "Wait, how will we know she actually did it? Only she and Kylo can see each other through the force connection." Rose pointed out. Rey determined Rose was not nearly drunk enough if she was finding all the holes in Poe's logic. The thought of it irritated her. "Yeah, she's got a point." Poe agreed, pausing to think. "Oh I know," he smiled, "You have to take something from him. Something small, something he won't notice missing." Poe pondered. "So now I have to kiss him and steal something from him, are you insane?" Rey spewed, exasperated. "No," Poe laughed, "I'm just trying to be fair," he deduced. "Fine, I'll take something, just give me a minute," Rey sighed.
She knew she was drunk but she also knew she'd seen Kylo through the force not that long ago, so she could do this. She concentrated all her force energy on finding him again, and sure enough, there he was. She could see they were in his quarters, she'd been there before. He had clearly just gotten out of the shower because he was dripping wet with only a towel around his waist. She'd never thought of Kylo Ren as particularly vain, but he was looking in the mirror, shaking out his raven locks in deep concentration. With her inhibitions gone, she had no qualms walking right up to him to do what she came here to do.
He had his back turned to her but, sensing a presence, he turned around quickly, reaching for his lightsaber, forgetting he'd left it on the bed. When he saw it was her, his face relaxed a little and then became enraged. What was she doing here? And why was she looking at him like that? With no sound escaping either of their lips and with no hesitation, Ray grabbed his toned, strong shoulders and forced her lips onto his. Expecting him to immediately push her off and run her through with his lightsaber, she was pleasantly surprised when he in fact wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her to him. She found that she liked the feeling of his hard, wet body pressed against hers. A part of her was upset she couldn't feel skin on skin contact, since she was still fully clothed. She moaned, allowing her lips to part and his tongue to find hers. She had no idea a kiss could feel like this. His hands moved from her waist to the small of her back under her shirt. This action pulled her even closer to him allowing her to feel a bulge protruding from under his towel. She thought she'd be freaked out by this, but instead, she wanted to feel more of him. Her hands moved up into his hair and she found that she liked that it was soft and wet. She then pulled her hands out of his hair, trying not to yank on it, which in turn caused him to moan. Her hands took in his strong shoulders, his lower back and….below that. She soon noticed that she'd been maneuvered next to his bed. One more step and they'd both fall back onto it. She blushed thinking of the things they could do there…. Her whole body was on fire and she never wanted it to end, but she knew if she didn't end it now she'd never be able to stop.
She pushed him away, nearly missing an aggravated growl coming from Ren as his eyes opened, pupils dilated, glaring at her. She didn't know if it was because he was angry at her for kissing him or angry because she stopped it. She slowly took all of him in and came back to reality. Before he could utter a word she ripped his towel from his waist, tried and failed not to look at...all of him...and broke the connection, breathless, red faced and flustered. When her senses took her back to the bar, her friends looked at her like she had two heads. She realized with a start that they had probably seen and heard pretty much everything and she was incredibly embarrassed. It was then she noticed Kylo Ren's towel clutched in her hands. It was still damp, proof that she really had just been with him. Without proper words to express what had happened, she threw the towel on the table and ran out of the bar, wanting to be alone.
Rey ran as far as her lungs would take her down the road back to base and then stopped, falling to her knees when she could no longer breathe. She placed her hands over her eyes for a second of defeat and her hands came back wet. Apparently she'd been crying. That would explain why she couldn't run very far. A part of her wanted to re establish the force connection and continue what she'd begun, but she knew that probably wasn't possible now. Especially since Rey heard a pair of footsteps running up behind her.
She figured it must have been Finn coming to comfort her. Rey yelled, "Leave me alone Finn, I don't want to talk about it." The footsteps stopped behind her and then she felt a hand on her shoulder, "Rey I'm sorry, this is all my fault." Said a dejected Poe. "Oh, Poe, it's you," Rey spoke, turning around, "Why did you do it?" She asked. "I don't know, I guess, I thought if he saw you and had you for a moment it would convince him to join our side finally," Rey looked puzzled, "What do you mean, join our side? He's the Supreme Leader of The First Order, he's not going anywhere," spewed Rey. "Actually, he is." Poe paused, trying to find the words to continue, "I don't know if General Organa ever told you this, but Ben and I used to be friends. We trained as pilots together for years before he was sent to Master Luke. We had a com link that we used as pilots and right after the battle on Crait, he contacted me. I guess he figured you wouldn't speak to him and he needed to know if you were alright. Once I decided he didn't have evil intentions, we got to talking. We talked about the resistance, his mother, Han, and you, mostly you. It seems you've had an effect on him, and based on tonight it seems he's had an effect on you too. You know how The First Order has been pretty close to catching us since Crait. That's because of me, Ben wanted to keep an eye on you. I had reservations about it at first but I really do believe he'll come back to us. He'll come back to you. I'm hoping, after tonight, it'll be enough to make him come back…." Poe met Rey's eyes, hoping that she'd understand.
"You've been talking to him about me for weeks?" Rey questioned, "Why are you so sure that he'll come back?" She continued. Poe spoke matter of factly, "Because in the last couple weeks that I've spent talking to him, I wasn't talking to Kylo Ren, I was talking to Ben Solo. Ben Solo cared about people, and I've never seen Kylo Ren care about anyone unless he intended to destroy them. I think he loves you Rey, in the only way that he can, and anyone who is capable of love is capable of being saved…." Rey considered this for a moment. She wasn't sure Poe was right about him loving her, but no one could kiss someone like that and not care for them a little. She knew he cared for her once. Perhaps Poe was right. After much ponderance Rey asked, "What do you think I should do?" she squirmed under his pensive gaze, unsure of how she wanted him to respond. Poe contemplated, than thoughtfully uttered, "Do you care for him, at least as much as he cares for you?" He mused. "Yes," Rey concluded, "I think perhaps I do," she smiled in recognition. "Then you need to fight for him." Poe exclaimed, "We all do," he declared. "Ben Solo is in there somewhere. I've seen him, and so have you," he expressed. "Our best shot of winning this war is to get him on our side. And I think, between the two of us, we can get him to see reason. Rey can you promise me that you will do everything in your power to reach out to him? Within the realm of reason," Poe asked. "Yes, I promise," she committed. "Then so will I, we'll bring him back on our side before too long," Poe smiled.