Zap.
Ben awoke with a yelp of pain. His chest rose and fell in intermittent bursts as his head moved on a swivel, scanning his situation. He was uncomfortably tied down to some sort of torture rack. A small mechanical droid was attached next to the leather strap around his wrist on the left. Ben assumed its only function was to shock the prisoner — and judging from the stinging pain that remained in his forearm, the assessment was correct.
All of a sudden, Ben stiffened up. He hadn't needed to look up, but someone else was in the room. He felt her presence — her strength in the force. He knew exactly who it was, the girl who'd been staring daggers into him for the past half hour, silently waiting for him to stir.
"I was starting to think that you weren't going to wake up," the girl spoke... yet Ben didn't recognize the tone. It was so sinister and emotionless. Her voice was once tinged with a sense of wonder and fun, but it seems that had been purged. It had been a long time since he'd last spoken with her. "I know what you're thinking, Ben. 'Why am I still alive?' It's a fine question," she tiptoed over to him. Ben didn't want to look at her, fearing the emotional reaction that followed might be too much for him to stifle. "Death is a luxury I cannot currently afford to you. You're alive because I need some important information pertaining to your uncle. And you're going to give it to me," Ben could feel her hovering over him, her body language seemingly anxious for conversation.
"I don't want this to be done the hard way. I have the other traitors in my custody. Many of your friends died in the battle, yes. Like packs of fools. Worry not, though, the ones that you might actually care about are still breathing. For now," she gritted her teeth. Ben refusing to meet her gaze was infuriating. Anger started to drip into her usually monotonous tone as she spoke again. "Give me Skywalker's location or they WILL perish. Kanata's head will be on a pike at the snap of my fingers. That pilot — what's his name, Dameron? Phasma can be even more sadis—"
"You don't have my friends, Rey." Ben cut her off with the utmost confidence, finally raising his head to meet her stare. It was the first time he had seen her up close and in person since the incident. Ben had caught glimpses of her on the battlefield at Takodana... in fact, him stopping in shock and staring at the sight of her was the reason he ended up in this situation. He let his guard down and got stunned. Not very Jedi-like.
Unsurprisingly, she looked very different than she did that last night at Luke's temple. She was dressed in black robes, with armor patches at the shoulders, ribs, and legs. Her dark chestnut hair - the hair she once styled to look more like Leia - was now simply straightened and basic, ending at her shoulders. Her eyes stared into his soul... they lacked the hope and glee that Ben enjoyed looking at all those years ago. There was such a weight to her stare, he could see her seething rage and misery in it. Her eyes were so hateful. Ben hurt just by looking into them.
Rey's expression relaxed. She pursed her lips and gave a gentle shrug. "You're right. I don't have your friends," Rey assumed that after all this time, he wouldn't be able to call her bluff as instantly as he would back in the day. Even still, he could read her like a book. "All I needed was you. Why bother with rounding up the rest of the traitorous scum when we can exterminate them quite easily with this?" Rey's hands moved circularly, gesturing at her surroundings. Starkiller Base had the capability to wipe out systems of planets in an instant.
Ben stared blankly at her, before his lips curled into a condescending grin. "It's ironic hearing you hammering on about betrayal so much, you know that?" Rey's body stiffened. That one stung her, somehow. He hadn't expected it to — what she did the final day of Luke's academy was still fresh in his mind, and it was fresh in hers too. But he assumed that she was indifferent to the anguish she caused by now — perhaps it was the matter of her just realizing the irony of the situation.
"You're lucky I tolerate your sense of humor, Solo," Rey spat, pacing back and forth in front of him. "The supreme leader would not be so forgiving." Ben grimaced. Snoke was the one whispering in Rey's mind back at Luke's academy, he turned her right under Luke's nose. Ben remained silent, matching her gaze as she stalked around.
Her impatience grew to a peak and her hand snapped forward, her fingers reaching out. "I can take whatever I want from you. I don't want to do this the hard way," Rey repeated again.
"You don't want to because you can't."
"What makes you think I can't?"
"You have too much faith in the dark side of the force. It won't help you find the answers you seek."
"Let's test that, shall we?"
Rey was mere feet away from him. She stretched her hand towards his forehead, reaching out as if she was going to manually grab something from his mind. Ben started to break into a sweat, as he tried to resist her assault upon his memories. Rey let out a deep, irritated breath as she tried to access his mind. It was so much easier to use the technique on weak-minded soldiers of the resistance or token stormtroopers as opposed to trying to breach the mental defenses of a trained Jedi. Ben struggled against his straps, trying to rip his wrists through the shackles as he battled with her. "Let go, Ben."
They were both breathing heavily at this point — struggling with the brutal nature of the force.
"Let go! Show me. Show me what I need to see!"
Ben stared at her defiantly, the words she had just shouted at him replaying in his mind. Show me what I need to see.
Show me what I need to see.
It hit Ben like a brick wall.
He took a final inhale and exhale, and he cooled himself down. He stopped resisting. Rey allowed a victorious grin to form on her face, confident she had broken him. She was about to discover Skywalker's whereabouts. Ben's thoughts, memories, and emotions came through like a floodgate. Their minds were momentarily linked together, and she felt like she was drowning in the chaos. She tried to peruse it, to find the specific information that she desired, but she couldn't. She was overwhelmed by it all — memories of her and Ben as kids, training together, came through like an avalanche. Rey was forced to reminisce about the times she lived with the Solo family — her hugs with Chewie, her adoration for Han, her love for Leia. The great times they experienced together. Rey's eyes started watering, and she considered pulling away from him, but she decided against it. She couldn't quit now, this was her chance. The Supreme Leader had faith she would succeed, she wasn't going to let him down again. She needed the map to Skywalker.
The childhood memories evaporated, and Rey found herself in a blank, empty space. She felt another presence with her, in Ben's mind. She sensed that it was the owner of said mind. And he seemed... in control.
—
A sky, land, and beach started to materialize around her. "What's this? What's going on?!" She looked around, frantic and confused, as a whole planet came to fruition before her very eyes. The sky was a stunningly beautiful combination of a light orange and teal color. It was mixed and mashed together, she could lay down and look up at the sky like it was a work of art. She was tempted to never leave the spot. The sensation felt so familiar.
She listened to the waves roll against the beach's shores, watched the tide rise and fall, giving ground and taking it back. Balance. She could've probably laid on that beach front, and just studied the patterns of the sky for untold amounts of time, listening to the waves dance, but suddenly this faint noise started ringing in her ear, and it began getting louder. She started walking over to investigate, but her walk was cut short when she suddenly just reappeared several meters away from the source of the noise. This was still Ben's mind, but it was odd that she was getting teleported around without any say in it.
"Try the muffin, that's the best part!" Rey jumped at the sound of the voice. She knew who it belonged to all too well. The General of the Resistance.
Leia was significantly younger, with others that Rey couldn't yet recognize, sitting at a table. The falcon, looking more polished than usual, rested on the grasslands nearby. The other silhouettes sitting with Leia revealed themselves - Han, Chewie, Ben, and... Me, Rey thought to herself. A thirteen year old Rey sat next to General Leia, resting her head on Leia's arm as she chomped away at a delicious looking muffin. Leia was doing Rey's hair, and Han was ruffling Ben's on the other side of the table, telling jokes. Chewbacca just seemed to be enjoying himself. The whole group was energetic and having fun. They looked like a family. It was everything younger Rey had ever wanted — what she thought she needed.
This was a memory.
—
In that instant, the memory evaporated around her. Tears streamed down Rey's face, and she didn't even realize it because she was so enraptured with the memories. "How did that happen? How did you show me that?" Rey demanded answers again. Ben was willing to give them to her this time. "Well, we weren't looking into my mind. When you linked our minds together, I decided to look through yours. I elected to bring you with me as I did so," Ben stated calmly and matter-of-factly. Rey ended the mind link immediately after hearing those words, stopping her manual search for Luke's location as she did it. That was her memory?
Ben's eyes opened just as Rey unsheathed her double bladed lightsaber hilt and pressed the left side of it into Ben's neck, jamming it into his threat. Her thumb twitching on the ignition button, threatening to kill him. "Don't EVER do that again." she growled. She held it there a little longer for good measure, before disengaging and placing the hilt at her side. Rey paced back and forth at the other side of the interrogation cell, calming herself down before speaking again. "Why did you show me that?"
"Show you what?"
"Kairis! Why did you take me there?!"
"You remembered the planet name!" Ben almost cracked a smile. "It's good seeing part of you is still in there, Rey. I showed you because it was something you needed to see."
Rey stepped forward at him like she was preparing to pounce, her face red with anger. "Don't pretend to care about what I need!"
"I always did! We gave you everything you needed! We gave you a family when yours had left you! We loved you!"
"I don't care about any of that! You don't understand, you never did!"
"We gave you everything we had! What more could we have done?! I treated you like my sister! My parents treated you like a daughter!"
"That's what it is, right there! Your parents were royalty and war heroes! And they loved you more than anything! My parents were deadbeats, and they sold me off for shit! The people who MADE me, didn't CARE about me! You have no idea how that feels!" Any argument or rebuttal that was Ben was ready to respond with immediately died in the back of his mouth. Rey fought back more tears, her fists clenched as she shouted out what was years' worth of pent-up aggression and sorrow upon him. She'd always wanted to tell him how she felt about it, but she never did — until now. "Luke found me on Jakku, where I fended for myself and tried not to get beat within an inch of my life EACH and EVERY night. He saw my potential, my raw power, and he was sooooo happy he could turn my life around, right? That's why he gave me to your mom and dad. He didn't want to deal with me. They were doing him a favor. He wanted me to be another conversion to his credit, another story for his legend." Rey sounded genuinely hurt, her voice cracking a couple times as she yelled at Ben. Ben gritted his teeth. "None of that is true, Rey! That's Snoke in your head! He's manipulated you!"
Rey shook her head and chewed on her lip as he spoke blasphemy about Snoke. "And who told you all of this? Luke? He's quite the unbiased source of information. He convinced you that what, the Supreme Leader is just 'pure evil'?" Rey almost laughed at the irony. "The supreme leader has never lied to me. Not once. He has understood me since before I even came to him. He knows how I feel." Rey looked at Ben's eyes, seeing the conflicting emotions. She was amused. "Is that actually what he tells you? That night at the temple, when I brought his great big lie to an end... he says that I did it... because 'Snoke told me to'? He... he actually never told you? Wow. I wouldn't expect him to be so deceitful to his own nephew."
Ben shook his head. He didn't buy any of what she was saying. Not for a second. The dark side had turned her into a better liar. "You're lying. Hate has clouded your judgment." Rey squinted at him, before stepping up and crouching down in front of him so they could see eye-to-eye. "Really?" Her hand slowly moved towards Ben's forehead. Linking their minds together again would mean that they could visit her memories, too. "Allow me to show you."
"Kyra!" A First Order officer barged through the door, breaking Rey's concentration just before she was able to enter his mind. The officer bowed before relaying his order. "General Hux is speaking with the Supreme Leader! Your presence is required!"
"I need a minute." Rey scowled at the man at the door, but he shook his head. "It's urgent."
Rey stood up and stared down into Ben's eyes. So much had changed since she last saw him. There was such a determination in his eyes, and an anger... but it wasn't anger directed at her. Who was he angry with? Snoke? Luke? The war? The galaxy?
Rey sighed before turning on her heel and walking out the door. Before she exited, she stopped in the threshold to cast a look in his direction over her shoulder. "Perhaps another time then, Jedi." She stepped out of the cell, closing the door behind her.
Ben was left alone to contemplate about the truth.