"You're nothing…" Kylo stares into Rey's welling eyes,"...But not to me." His outstretched hand trembles. "Join me." His voice is uncharacteristically quiet. "Please."
Her loneliness is as real and tangible as the bodies scattered around them. But underneath, that spark of rebellion flickers like a fragile fire, searching for any fuel to stay alive. If he puts it out now, she can be reborn anew. She can be his.
But, should she reject him, she'll no doubt stand in his way. He can't allow that. Won't.
"Please." He begs her.
She only needs to take his hand for their fates to be united.
Rey's lips tremble, but her voice remains calm. "Ben, please don't do this."
"No!" Her resistance cuts into him. "You're still holding on. You have to let it go. The Empire, your parents, the Resistance, the Sith, the Jedi... let the past die." His breathing is ragged and his dark eyes meet hers. "Kill it, if you have to. That's the only way to become what you are meant to be."
Rey is trembling, the weight of her decision pulling her towards two impossibly different futures. Stray tears escape her welling eyes and her hand twitches towards his own.
So she'll concede after all, he thinks. A surge of excitement rushes through him. Once she stands with him, he can forgive her hesitation. More than anyone, he understands her fears.
They're nearly touching. Rey's hand passes his own and she darts forward, reaching for her lightsaber he'd tucked into his belt. He blasts her back with the force, sending her flying across the room. She regains her balance as he regains his composure. Rage is rolling off of him, even this far she can feel it and her stomach sours with fear. But she can't let that stop her.
With the force, Rey grabs hold of her lightsaber on his belt. It flies through the air towards her and is almost in her grasp when Kylo stops it mid-air. It hangs between them, shaking with the effort both light and dark exert in their hold over it.
Rey releases a guttural scream. Her connection to the force is stronger than his. She can win. She has to. Overcoming him is the difference between her friends' survival and certain death.
Kylo grits his teeth, sweat dripping down his face. This is more than just a fight for the destruction of the Resistance. If he loses, he loses the only person to have ever understood him. The sting of her betrayal is nearly as strong as his former master's.
All those years of training. And for what... Wait. She may be able to overpower him with brute force, but those years of training didn't count for nothing. He can outsmart her.
The lightsaber is breaking, pieces flying off between them. It's his chance. Kylo loosens his grip on the lightsaber.
Sensing his hold slipping, Rey yanks the lightsaber towards herself. In that same moment, Kylo let's go of it entirely.
The lightsaber soars towards her, past her outstretched hand, and smashes into her face. Her nose crunches under the cold metal. She bends over and curses.
He knows he only has a few seconds before Rey rights herself and fights him. Now, armed with a weapon, she's a veritable threat. He scans the floor for the handcuffs that she'd worn when he first brought her into this throne room. They'd been discarded carelessly in the heat of the battle against Snoke's guards.
His eyes pause at Rey's feet. The handcuffs are directly behind her.
Restrained hisses of pain escape Rey. Careful to avoid her tender, now crooked nose, she wipes at her watering eyes, retrieves the damaged lightsaber, and regains her balance. Her eyes lock with his.
"I don't want to fight you." She says.
Kylo circles around her left side, lightsaber in hand. "Then put down your arms. Join me."
She powers on her lightsaber. It shakes in her hands, thrumming. "There's still good in you. I can feel it."
"Do you remember what I said?"
Rey presses her lips together. "We don't have to do this, Ben. I can still help you."
"No. It's my turn to help you. Say it."
Rey tightens her grip on the lightsaber and looks over his shoulder. The window is still open, Resistance ships are exploding one by one in the distance. Tiny flashes of green light. Each one the end of countless lives. The sight causes her heart to squeeze so tight she can hardly breathe.
Was Poe already dead?
No. She can't think about that now. In the reflection of the glass, she sees her opportunity. Snoke's escape pod.
"Say it!" Kylo bellows.
Reaching out with the force. Rey rips the viewing glass from the wall, hurling it at Kylo. In the same breath, she charges him.
Kylo deflects the viewing glass and raises his lightsaber to meet hers. They clash. Rey's lightsaber shakes uncontrollably, buzzing in her grip. She swings at Kylo with all her might. He blocks. Not one to quit, she slashes at his side.
When their lightsabers collide, hers wavers, then disappears entirely. With the unexpected loss of resistance, she falls past Ren, landing on her shoulder and rolling.
They face each other. No, no, no. This couldn't be it. He'd circled her, cornering her with no escape. She bangs the end of the lightsaber a few times, willing it to roar back to life. Nothing. This is it. I'm as good as dead, she thinks to herself.
But I'll be damned if I don't go down without a fight.
She's scanning the room for additional weapons, when, to her surprise, Kylo lowers his lightsaber. Its red glow bathes the underside of his face. Using the force, he summons a pair of handcuffs to his hand. "Surrender to me."
"Never, you-" A series of explosions rock the entire ship. Both Rey and Kylo are thrown by their force.
Dazed and confused, with a faint ringing in his ears, Kylo gathers his senses. He still has the handcuffs and his lightsaber. But the girl. Rey. She's across the room, running towards Snoke's escape pod. Kylo's pulse races.
Reaching out with the force he grabs a hold of Rey and, without mercy, brings her crashing to the ground, dragging her towards him. He sprints clumsily across the room to meet her.
She's fighting his force grip so hard, that she's slowed his pull on her and is nearly standing. But her focus on the mental leaves her unprepared for his physical assault. Kylo barrels into her headlong, tackling her back to the ground.
Her skull slams into the hard floor with a sickening crack. Darkness claws at her vision and coughs rack her body as she tries to take in oxygen.
She's so small compared to him. So strong, yet so fragile. Wiry arms that could cut him in two while wielding a saber, yet her shuddering breaths unfocused gaze, and nose, now bent at the bridge, serve as a reminder of her fragile mortality. If she embraced her pain as he did, there'd be no stopping her.
Sparks fill the air and sirens wail through Starkiller Headquarters. Rey's vision clears enough that she can take in her surroundings and sees what Ren's holding. When she sees the handcuffs, she fills with fear. The sickening kind of fear that makes you want to scream and vomit at the same time. The feeling is so strong it's almost palpable to Ren. But he doesn't hesitate, he pins her to ground.
Rey bucks her hips and shoves at Ren's legs to try and unbalance him, but he's immovable. Moving his weight from her hips to her chest, he uses his knees to pin her arms down. Rey screams in protest.
"Get off! Let me go!"
His hands capture her wrists in one deft move and he moves his knees to bring them together in the handcuffs. Rey strains her muscles, fighting him every inch as he pulls her hands together, but it's not enough. He gathers her wrists into one hand and forces her into the handcuffs with the other.
Her skin is red and angry, but she can't feel the pain through the panic.
She'd expected a lightsaber, not handcuffs; death, not imprisonment. The prospect of failing her friends, here, now, and living, is too much.
The moment the handcuffs click shut, her devastation washes over him.
"Why?" She asks in a whisper, his weight still crushing her.
He smirks cruelly and leans down, his breath hot in her ear.
"You were a fool to come here willingly."