Rey

The elevator zoomed up through the central shaft of The Supremacy to the highest point of the super star destroyer, the supreme leader's throne room, to the rear of the bridge and the fore of the rocket engines, far above the hangar bay she had arrived at. Intense white light shone through the slats in the elevator walls, Rey glanced at her captor, his dark cape and hair a welcome respite from the glare of light beaming from the walls around her. The cart was big enough to hold several people comfortably and yet Rey felt like she was awkwardly close to Ben Solo. She glanced down at the floor, back up and moved closer.

"You don't have to do this, I feel the conflict in you Ben," she said, as she stepped forward to face him. "It's tearing you apart. Ben, that night, when we touched hands I saw your future. Just the shape of it but solid and clear as I see you standing in front of me now…..you'll not bow before Snoke….you'll turn, I know you will."

She looked up into his deep, dark eyes. They looked sad, tired, impassive, like they wanted to hope but had seen too much darkness to dare to do so. He towered over her, everything about him was big where she was petite, his face, his broad shoulders, huge chest and arms. Rey regarded his body then her eyes looked back up into his, in silence. Vaguely she pictured the time they'd connected when he'd been naked from the waist up. Why am I thinking about that now?

"I'll help you," she said, her voice no louder than a whisper.

"I saw something too," he replied, breaking the silence, though it wasn't an uncomfortable one. "Because of what I saw I know when the moment comes you'll be the one to turn. You'll stand with me, Rey, together we'll destroy our enemies and became the new rulers of the galaxy. I saw who your parents are."

She backed away from him in silence. Her initial thoughts were that he was lying to her, trying to deflect from the conflict she sensed within him, the battle between dark and light that was raging in his heart at that very moment. But something about the way he said it told her he was being sincere, that he believed every word he'd told her. Was he mistaken? Did his uncertainty cloud his vision? Or is it me who's made a mistake. No, Rey knew what she'd seen, she'd felt it as truly as she felt his fingers against hers that night in the hut. His touch had been delicate, his fingers softer and warmer than she'd expected. But still the proclamation of his own vision unsettled her. Why would he be able to see what I could not? Why could he see my parents?

She felt vulnerable but nevertheless there was something strangely reassuring that he'd used her name. It might've been the first time she'd heard him say it, and it was probably the first time I used his name, his real name.

The elevator came to a sudden stop and it was only then that Rey realised how fast they'd been moving. Her arms were held behind her back, handcuffed. Ben stepped forward, and she felt his hand push gently against the small of her back. They walked like that for a few steps, Rey upright, hands bound, pretending not to notice his hand resting on her back, comforting her. Then, when they stepped into the light his hand moved, grasping her by the arm though not very tightly. To anyone in front of them the shift in position would've been imperceptible.

Rey absorbed the scene before her. They were in a huge dome shaped chamber; crimson red from top to bottom and completely windowless. The floor beneath was immaculate black onyx, and the contrast in colour was startling and beautiful – black and red, violent colours. The room had a beautiful symmetry to it, as they crossed the walkway that lead them out from the elevator she saw two raised platforms equidistant from the centre of the chamber. One had a large, round glass mounted on it, the opposite a control panel the same colour as the floor. Gradually Rey noticed there were shapes around the far edge of the room right where the floor gave way to an abyss between itself and the walls of the chamber. They were statues all clad in the same crimson as the walls, camouflaging them, then she realised with a start of fear they weren't statues at all, they were guards. There were three either side of the room and although they wore the same crimson armour from head to foot Rey noticed that there were subtle differences in its design and their weaponry.

Directly ahead of them, at the far end of the chamber atop a dais stood an enormous, resolute throne. It was bordered by a black solid wall that extended up almost to the high ceiling, jutting out against the crimson walls, seeming like a gigantic extension of the throne itself, making it seem even larger than it already was. As they approached it Rey felt Kylo Ren loosen his hand and heard him go to one knee behind her, bending the heel to his Master. Rey carried on walking alone, dread rising inside her. No, he already has the undeserved loyalty of the man behind me, he won't have my fear too.

The supreme leader of the first order and de facto emperor of the galaxy sat lazily back upon his throne. His body was eerily gigantic; tall and slender and yet broader than any natural human's could be, garbed in a simple cloth-of-gold kimono. Even from afar Rey could see that there was something abhorrently wrong. His skin was a wrinkled patchwork stretched taut against deteriorating muscle and bone, simultaneously brought about and maintained by the corruption that spread from inside. His grin was extremely disconcerting to Rey, no man living such a vile existence had the right to smile so widely.

"Young Rey, so good to meet you at last."

Rey stopped in the centre of the room, even from this distance he seemed to loom over her, completely helpless as she was, weaponless and bound. I have the light, she thought, calming herself. Fate brought me here, showed me my way, and I am not alone. Her mind pictured the man behind her, down on his knees.

"Well done my good and faithful apprentice! My faith in you is restored," Snoke raised an arm from his throne and spread his fingers wide at Rey. For a moment her heart raced as she expected to feel herself jerk forward but just as quickly the lightsaber, Luke's lightsaber, flew from somewhere behind her and into the supreme leader's grasp. She glanced behind her and realised it had been plucked from Ben's belt, he too was looking up in surprise. For a second their eyes locked. Strength. Then she turned back to Snoke.

"Come closer child," as he said the words Rey heard the cuffs around her wrist click open and fall to the floor, she loosened her stiff arms and massaged her wrists where they'd been bound. Snoke placed the lightsaber down on the armrest of his throne, pointed away from him. "Darkness rises…and Light to meet it! I warned my young apprentice that as his strength grew, his equal in the Light would rise. Skywalker, I assumed, wrongly."

Snoke seemed to be enjoying all this, still grinning as he explained himself to Rey, glaring coldly back at him. That seemed to amuse him even more, she couldn't take his smirk a second longer.

"You underestimate Skywalker, and Ben Solo and me. It will be your downfall."

Snoke looked taken aback his face became startled and worried at what Rey had said.

"Is there something you have foreseen that I have not?! Something I have missed? A weakness in my apprentice? Is that that why you came? " Snoke started to laugh at her once more. A look of cold distaste returned to Rey's face as she regarded the man in front of her. "Young fool, did you truly think that you shared some deep connection to my apprentice?"

Rey kept her face impassive, she wouldn't give Snoke any satisfaction of seeing her even slightly thrown off balance. She couldn't see him yet somehow she knew Ben's bowed head had snapped up the moment Snoke had mentioned the Force bond.

"It was I who bridged your minds. I stoked Ren's conflicted soul, I knew that he was not strong enough to hide it from the girl who defeated him. And you were not wise enough to resist the bait. Day by day I watched as he drew you in, as you grew closer to him, laying your weaknesses bare before him. Touching really, and just as I planned. I said closer."

Ice cold chill spread through Rey's body. Snoke couldn't have been telling the truth, it was impossible. The bond she'd felt with Ben had been real, natural, she'd felt it and he'd felt it and no one could take that away from them. She felt her entire body grow tense and stiff, her breathing felt strained as though a sudden pressure had engulfed her. Slowly at first, then quickly she lifted off the floor and began to move forward, the tips of her feet sliding against the polished onyx, powerless to stop her. Dread began to spread to every corner of her body, her heart was thumping in her chest as she slid up the dais, the malevolent being sitting before her coming closer and closer. The insidious force that gripped her only ceased once she was right in front of Snoke, his face inches from hers and at a height with it even though she was standing and he sitting on his great throne.

Snoke lifted a long, slender arm and placed his gnarled hand on her cheek. Rey fought against it but the pressure around her body still held its iron grip, holding her in place, she was completely at Snoke's mercy, he could break her if he chose. She tried to recall her time on the island when Master Luke had told her to breathe, to focus on nothing else and to reach out with the force. It had been much easier on the tranquil island, hundreds of feet above the waves than it was with the supreme leader's hideous features swimming before her eyes, his cold, visceral hand caressing her cheek, sharp nails scratching her skin.

The helplessness reminded her of the time she'd awoken on Starkiller base with the masked visage of Kylo Ren staring blankly back at her. She'd been powerless then too, tied down in front of a monster that had stalked her unrelenting through the forest outside Maz Kanata's palace. Then he'd taken off his helmet and there wasn't a monster at all only a man. A man with deep dark eyes, troubled eyes. Don't be afraid, he'd told her, I feel it too. But what had he felt, way back then?

"And now you will give me Skywalker." Snoke commanded her, through rotting teeth. Up close he was even more hideous, there was something wholly unnatural about his face that unsettled her stomach. Corruption had spread all across it, and he had deep scars across his head and right cheek where the bone appeared to have vanished completely and his face collapsed in on itself making his chin stick out obscenely. He gave off a subtle musty, damp smell up close. But she wouldn't be afraid.

"I won't give you anything," she hissed back, defiantly.

His already twisted face contorted into an expression of pure loathing and irritation.

"Yes. You. Will. And then I will kill you with the cruellest stroke."

His hand caressed her cheek as she moved backwards, slowly at first then faster. Instead of sliding down the dais she felt her feet leave the floor entirely and she was levitating up to the perfect centre of the throne room. Once there her legs and shoulders seemed to lock in place, as if bound by invisible, immovable shackles. Rey felt her chest puff out, her spine was bending forward and her head and neck backwards in a perfect arc. In a moment she was overcome with terror as her spine continued to bend backwards, Snoke would snap her like a wooden puppet.

Then it seemed to stop, her body was held stiff in mid-air, but then the pain hit her. It split through her body all at once everywhere, it was excruciating, inescapable, every muscle in her body was cramping and it seemed as though her bones were being ripped from the rest of her. She tried to fight it but there was nothing to grasp, nothing to hold on to. She tried to focus but the pain was too intense, Snoke was too strong.

"Give me everything."

Then she began to scream.