The battleground rapidly quieted as the news spread like wildfire:
The leaders of the First Order were down.
The reports varied: Hux and Kylo Ren were both dead, Hux was dead and Kylo was critically wounded, Kylo was dead and Hux had surrendered. Regardless of the specifics, the result was the same. Troopers were standing down left and right.
This climactic battle between the amassed forces of the Resistance versus what remained of the First Order came after a successful campaign of spacecraft battles spearheaded by Poe had whittled down the Order's fighting forces. As per the Resistance's tactical strategy, this battle had taken place in a largely uninhabited wilderness of a temperate planet. This hardly unnerved the scrappy force of Resistance foot soldiers who were more than prepared to use guerilla warfare tactics and passionate hand-to-hand combat instead of the typical both-sides-shoot-at-each-other-across-an-open-space-until-someone-withdraws strategy. The crisply traditional fighting style of much of the rank-and-file Trooper force was hardly an advantage in these conditions.
There had been some airborne fighting, but that segment of the battle had been decided in the Resistance's favor in the most spectacular fashion. The flaming carcass of the command ship that had unsuccessfully attempted to stay above the fray crashed to earth, lending credence to the rumors that Hux had been seriously wounded or even killed.
The whispers were everywhere flitting from ear to ear as quickly as the fire started from the crashed command ship leapt from tree to tree. "Hux and Ren were in that ship. There's no way they survived."
"I heard Ren had come down to fight on land."
"We're losing on land, too!"
"There's been no sign of Ren. He must have died."
"Or deserted. Rumor has it, he has the hots for that Force girl the Resistance found on Jakku."
Kylo heard the silence spreading as the fight went out of the demoralized rank-and-file of his Order. It was the calming of a distant chaos as his fight had led him away from the general melee.
And what a fight it had been. Grueling, in mind and in body, it had felt endless. Rey had made rapid progress in her mastery of the Force since he had last faced her, and her raw power was astonishing.
And, most troubling of all, every time had had gained the upper hand against her, the moment of his father's death had filled his mind's eye and his moment of hesitation while something he refused to call regret consumed him was all Rey needed to strike, usually painfully.
Now, overwhelmed by his injuries (when Rey landed a blow, she landed it hard), he lay on the ground, panting raggedly. His leg was in agony—when Rey fought, she hadn't only used a lightsaber, she punched, kicked, even bit, and her latest kick had been delivered with such furious energy that his leg had bent back the wrong way. That's when he went down.
Now Rey stood a few feet from him, panting, her fury being replaced by a deliberative calm as she realized she had won. Based on the sound of raucous celebration just beginning to erupt in the distance, it appeared she was not the only Resistance fighter tasting victory.
Kylo could guess what she was thinking, even though her mind was carefully guarded against his experimental attempt at a probe.
"Go on, do it, " he spat. "Finish what you started. I know you want to."
Rey looked warily taken aback. "What do you mean?"
"I don't need the Force to tell me that you're trying to decide whether to end me once and for all. So, go on, do it. Kill me." He was irritated that his voice broke at the end of his statement, making his command sound like pleading. Damn that broken leg and all its pain. It would be merciful to put him out of his suffering.
Rey took a step closer, her saber still humming and glowing softly. Kylo eyed it and looked up at her face again. He felt strangely at peace that her face, brow furrowed with indecision, would likely be the last thing he ever saw.
"Why do you want me to kill you?"
"I lost," he said flatly. "It is only fitting."
Her eyes were rounded with anxious conflict. Damn her hesitation. He had been feeling calm a moment ago. Now that look on her face, misleadingly delicate in appearance, reminded him too much of himself, of all the times he had felt such conflict, the feeling of being torn apart…
The memory of Snoke's voice echoed in his head. "You feel compassion for this girl?"
Dammit, what was wrong with him, feeling sorry for someone who felt conflicted over whether to kill him or not after crippling him? Pathetic. He never had been strong and never would be. Dammit all to hell. He was the one who was nothing, not her, and he had known it all along. Everyone had known it all along.
"Just kill me already! I'm the monster, aren't I?" His voice cracked again and tears pricked his eyes. Pathetic was truly a suitable word for him, crying at his conqueror's feet.
Rey watched in disbelief as Kylo-freaking-Ren got teary-eyed, lying helpless on the ground. He turned his face away from her, but his ragged breathing and the waves of distress emanating from him told her more than his facial expression could anyway.
She pressed the switch on her weapon, powering it down. It seemed much quieter now without it. She could hear his gasping breaths.
"Why are you crying?"
"Why are you waiting so long?" His voice was thick with anger and some sort of sad emotion that Rey couldn't quite place.
"Kylo Ren is a monster. But you're not Kylo Ren right now, are you? You're Ben Solo."
Maybe her hopes for Ben's redemption hadn't been misplaced. Either way, she wasn't going to kill a man lying helpless on the ground. She knew she was better than that.
She took another couple steps forward, bringing her to stand inches away from Ben. She looked him over, taking in the rips in his clothing where her saber had sliced through, revealing dark wounds beneath. His leg lay twisted at an ugly angle. He still resolutely kept his fact turned away. She hesitantly ventured a Force probe toward him, overwhelmingly curious about what was going on in his head. Perhaps his guard was down…
She was almost bowled over by the whirlwind of shame, hatred, dejection, and anger that she found herself in. Curiously, none of it seemed to be directed at her.
She beat a hasty retreat from his mind. That was not a place she wanted to be.
He snapped his head around to look at her. He pushed himself up onto one elbow, quickly brushing his other arm across his eyes. "What are you doing, having a bit of fun with me before you finally put me out of my misery?"
"You are miserable, aren't you?" Her voice was soft and sad.
"I don't need your pity!" he snapped.
"You don't have my pity. You have my compassion." She kneeled down, looking earnestly into his eyes. He absolutely refused to acknowledge the strange, fluttery sensation he felt in his stomach from her proximity.
"Ben," she said softly, brightly. "You don't have to keep fighting against everyone, everything. You don't have to keep fighting yourself. I can help you."
"Strange words coming from the person who just snapped my leg in half," he muttered, sullenly looking away from her annoyingly hopeful gaze.
"That's what happens when you make enemies of everyone around you. But we-"
"I didn't want to be enemies with you!" He raised his voice, eyes sparking with angry indignation. "You were the one who rejected me! I offered to be at peace with you-"
"Peace?" Now it was her turn for indignation. "You didn't want peace. You wanted domination. You wanted me to leave my family to die!"
He scoffed. "What are you talking about? You have no family, remember? You had no one. I was offering to relieve your loneliness."
"That's not true. My friends with the Resistance are my family." The words had come unexpectedly, but they felt sweet on her tongue. A triumphant smile forced its way onto her lips as she reveled in that truth. "Yes. I have a place where I belong." Her face darkened as she continued. "You're the one who had no one. You offered to relieve your own loneliness."
He wanted to scream until she stopped talking, but he was shaking and speechless with rage. He lunged towards her, not knowing what he intended, but the sudden wave of pain from his broken leg reminded him that he was immobilized. He half-laid, half-fell back onto the ground, a sharp intake of breath hissing through his bared teeth. The movement had closed the remaining distance between them, his side brushing against her knees.
She shifted away, feeling hotter that she remembered feeling a moment ago.
"Rey! Rey, where are you?" She could hear Finn's voice.
"Sounds like your family is looking for you," he said in a spiky voice.
"Ben, please, you can come with us-"
"And why would I want to do that?"
"Because it's better than rotting alone in the woods, isn't it? Surely I'm not that bad!"
Finn had heard her near-shout. "Rey? Is that you? Are you alright?" She turned her head toward the sound of approaching footsteps.
She stood up, and he suddenly felt her absence, not realizing she had been close enough for him to feel her warmth. He lifted his head and saw through locks of dark hair that she was walking away. He didn't want her to leave, he realized with rising panic. This would be it; he would either die a slow death of thirst or exposure or a passing Resistance squad would shoot him where he lay. This would be his last-ever chance to see her. And she was his only chance for survival. That was most assuredly the only reason he felt so crushingly upset by her leaving.
"Wait." he could hardly believe he was saying it.
Love can make a man do crazy things. It was something his father had said once in one of his insufferable glory days stories he told when Ben was young.
Well, that was a completely random and unwelcome memory. Why had he thought of it now?
Rey was staring at him quizzically. "What?"
The only words he could string together in his mind were "don't," "leave," and "me." That wouldn't do.
She sighed, exasperated. "Have you reconsidered or not? I'm going back- with or without you. What will it be?"
He wanted to live. That must have been why he answered, "With me."
Excitement flooded through Rey. It worked! He was going with her! She was so happy she could have kissed him.
She blushed, shocked at her own thought. Yet, she already knew, didn't she? She knew that the Force bond connections had become welcome to her. It all fell into place. Ben refusing to give up the Kylo Ren persona in the wake of Snoke's death had felt like a personal betrayal, hadn't it? And dammit if Ben hadn't appeared shirtless in her dreams—more than once.
Just then, Finn appeared. "REY!" He rushed towards her and gathered her up into a warm embrace.
He watched in disbelief. Were they…? That back-stabbing Storm Trooper was more traitorous than he realized. This wasn't fair. He was the one who had a Force bond with her, not that perfidious foot soldier. Hewanted Rey.
The weight of that realization made him dizzy. Perhaps he had felt a unique pleasure from sharing that powerful psychic connection with her that went beyond merely being pleased that he possessed a special power. Perhaps it had pained him to see Snoke torture her for reasons other than simply because he thought it was a waste to destroy such a talented Force user. Perhaps he had hesitated to bodily torture her during their first encounter for more than curiosity and subconscious remnants of the drivel about chivalry his father had planted in his head as a boy.
But that didn't matter, did it? Rey would never care about a monster like him anyway. But, still, she didn't have to rub it in like that. He couldn't stand watching the two of them be so damnably affectionate.
Finn had caught sight of the former Supreme Leader of the First Order lying prone on the ground nearby from over Rey's shoulder. His eyes widened and he drew back from Rey, reflexively adopting a defensive stance. "Rey- that- that's-"
Rey turned back towards Kylo. "Yes. He's coming with us."
"As a prisoner?" he asked breathlessly.
Kylo watched her face carefully. She looked at him pensively, making eye contact briefly. "I'm not sure."
He didn't know what that was supposed to mean, and based on that traitor's face, he didn't either.
"Soooo… can he walk?"
Kylo bristled. "No, he cannot walk because your girlfriend crippled him."
Finn looked taken aback. "Girlfriend?"
Rey was glaring at Kylo. At first, he thought the girlfriend comment had rubbed her the wrong way too, but as he felt the support of the ground fall away, he realized she was concentrating to pick him up using the Force. Surprisingly, she did it gently and evenly enough that his injured leg wasn't jostled in the process of being lifted off the ground.
"You'll never be able to-" He began to point out that the mental energy required for the task wasn't practical, but as Rey's focus snapped, he collided with the ground, breaking off from speech in favor of giving out an undignified yelp instead. Damn, damn, damn that leg.
"She would have been able to do it if you hadn't started complaining!" Finn scolded.
The nerve.
"No, I never would have been able to keep that up for long. He was right."
Take that. She agreed with me.
"Maybe he could walk if he was leaning on someone? Do you think he could do that?" Finn directed his question to Rey.
"For Force sake, I'm not unconscious! Why don't you ask me?"
"Fine." Finn threw his hands up defensively. "Can you?"
Kylo pushed himself up into a sitting position, gritting his teeth against the pain.
Finn glanced at Rey. "You want me to help him?"
She gave a curt nod in response.
Kylo was not looking forward to the long walk back to wherever they were taking him.
He woke up groggy from the effects of pain medication. He started when he saw Rey sitting at his bedside.
"What are you doing here? Watching me sleep?"
"I'm guarding you."
He sneered. "I'm still such a great threat, am I?"
"As some believe."
"And you? What do you believe?"
"What's that? Asking me directly instead of using a Force probe? You're getting quite gentlemanly."
He glowered.
"To answer your question, I personally think you are more likely to be harmed than to harm."
He blinked in surprise. "You don't think I'm a threat?"
She tilted her head, looking confused and almost disgusted. "Do you want me to see you as a threat?"
He looked away. "Why are you doing this? Why didn't you kill me in the woods? Am I not your enemy?"
"A friend of mine once said that we don't fight what we hate. We save what we love. That's the key to the success of the Resistance."
Ben looked at her disbelievingly. "Save what you love? But… you saved me."
Now it was Rey's turn to look away. A smile twitched across her face. "Yes. I guess I did."