He wakes to a world on fire.
What remains of the Supreme Leader's chamber is burning all around him. The scent of carnage is still heavy in the air. Kylo Ren posts himself up on an arm, grunting with effort, and forces himself to his feet. Hair damp with sweat sticks to his face.
A haze lifts from around his mind and he remembers—
Please...
—the betrayal is still a fresh wound, and it bleeds profusely—
Don't go this way.
I want you to join me.
"—Rey—"
The force of the lightsaber's explosion propelled her further than he, but it takes only several steps for him to be upon her again. She's still unconscious, her arms resting limp at her sides. Panic rises within him, but for what purpose? Her rejection, her betrayal, was evidence enough to prove Snoke's claim to be true. Their bond had never been real, and as much could be said for any feelings he might have had for her. So why is it that he still feels everything?
Despite himself, he takes a knee at her side, and tugs off a glove. There are sparks and flames in the air, and the danger is palpable, and he hesitates when he brushes her hair out of her face. His fingers linger at the base of her throat before finding her pulse. He holds his breath—feels a heartbeat—and releases it slowly.
"What have you done, Ren?" asks a new voice.
Kylo glances over his shoulder.
"The Supreme Leader..." Hux's words trail off at the sight of the corpse, and slowly, his accusatory gaze slips to the girl on the ground. "What happened?"
"The Supreme Leader is dead," says Kylo Ren, for the first time aloud. But the panic in Hux's eye is enough for him to add lowly, "The girl killed him." He pulls his glove back on.
"Is that so?" The General's hand twitches for his hip, a movement that does not go unnoticed. "What remains of the Rebellion was last seen fleeing for Crait. It's a shame that she won't be awake to watch her friends die."
"We won't pursue."
"Are you really so presumptuous to believe that with the Supreme Leader gone you would be the one to give any—"
His hand thrusts forward, fingers arched. Hux hovers over the ground, grasping at his throat. A crunch sounds, giving way to another. His eyes bulge as he struggles.
"Who is the Supreme Leader?" Kylo Ren hisses.
"You...are..."
His hand falls. The General collapses in a heap, coughing as new orders are made: "Pull the fleet out. Everyone is to return to the Sovereign." Kylo Ren looks down at the girl, her face soft with sleep. There are bruises blooming along her cheekbone. "Kill anyone who defies the order."
"Yes, Supreme Leader," says Hux.
It isn't until he's gone moments later that Kylo gathers the girl into his arms, just as he had before in the forest on Takodana. He holds her close, close enough to feel the warmth radiating from her body. It would be fair, he knows, to leave her. It would make them even. But there's something in him that feels connected to her, something that confirms what he already knows: that he couldn't abandon her if he tried.
He flicks his fingers, and the broken pieces of the lightsaber rise. They fall in her lap.
He carries her the entire way to Snoke's personal craft, and sets her down on the secondary pilot's chair. Behind them, what remains of the Supremacy is burning, and soon all that will remain of it, Snoke, and the First Order as he once knew it, will all be cinders.
He sets the craft's navigational chart for the Executor-class Star Destroyer Sovereign, and tries not to think of Luke Skywalker, of Snoke, of the broken saber. Of the girl who called him by a dead boy's name, of the future he saw for them, together.
But the wound is still fresh, and still, he bleeds.
He fails. Miserably.