He was on his knees. This was a sight Rey had dreamed about and she could not look away. Her cheeks fulstered as she thought about where her fantasies usually took her.

Kylo Ren was on his knees, in front of her though unknowingly, with his hands behind his back, his long hair falling upon his face.

As if sensing her, and she wondered if maybe he could, he lifted his chin up and stared at the glass. He could not see her, yet she could have sworn he did. He was looking in her eyes. She resisted the urge to look away, but her mind went back to what had happened earlier. How things could change in the glimpse of an eye.

A few hours before

"We should be killing him! I'll go further ans say we hav to kill him!" Dameron exclaimed and some of the Resistance agreed loudly.

Cheers from the audience and some random clapping made it very hard for Rey to remind herself they were all her friends. It seemed Friends had to disagree and this was a major issue, with possible long lasting results if they could not find a common ground.

"We will do no such thing," General Organa said, her tone as imperial as she looked.

Seemes they were on the same side when it came to that issue, and the young Jedi, though probably still a padawan, was proud to stand by her commander. Rey knew how hard the situation had to be on her. She couldn not fathom how the woman would fare, yet she did.

Rey had brought Kylo Ren back to their base in Endor, dragging his unconscious body behind her in a parachute. Quickly, Leia had acted as fast as she could, in order to do what she felt was best and to make sure he would not be harmed. She gave the orders for her son to be restrained with force-biding technology Rose and Rey had managed some time before to create after they had received their orders from their general. Then, they all came to face their allies, friends and family.

"Permission to speak freely," Dameron went on.

"Oh, because you haven't been speaking freely so far? I would hate to see what you have up your sleeve wehn you're not mincing your words."

"General…"

"Denied."

"General…" He started again, seemingly certain his thuoughts were required on the matter, and she could not restrain herself.

"Shut the hell up!" Rey found herself saying forcefully. "The General has spoken. Do you have no respect for your superior?"

Dear Lords, she felt ready to go to war for the woman.

"My respect notwithstanding, I am questioning her motives," Dameron went on, looking for the crowd's approval.

"I am right here," Leia said, matter-of-factly..

"Bullshit, you're trying to make her bend to your wishes… How dare…"

"Quiet!" Leia shouted, and silence fell upon the assembly. "Children," she tutted, as if she was speaking to herself.

Maybe she was, except she was addressing someone else, probably Luke or Han, or the both of them.

"We will not kill him." she claimed once again.

Anger and fear radiated from her, but Rey knew she was the only one who could feel it, as the Force was truly bondig.

"I just think that your feelings…."

"Permission to bash his head in?" Rey prompted, looking daggers at a man she considered a friend until then.

"Permission denied. But I appreciate the thought," Leia gibed.

"General," Finn started saying, and Rey turned her eyes on him.

Not Finn. Dameron was a fool, his head full of glory he hoped to reach, but Finn... He had been on both sides, surely he would agree... If it made sense to her, how could it not make sense for him?

"You're going to say something along the lines about us needing to kill Kylo Ren, and you'll divulge to the rest of our fighters that he happens to be my son, Ben Solo. You'll pretend you only have respect for me but you'll imply that I'm biased. Let me spare you the effort. Yes, he's my son, and no, we won't kill him, not because he's a part of me, but because it's the right thing to do."

Rey stayed close to the General. She could sense her emotions, through the Force, and it made it impossible for her to even think about doing anything against the woman's wishes, as pain radiated from her, alongside resignation. !rey could have hugged the woman, but she was absolutely certain the woman would not take kindly to her acting on what she felt, infringing on her privacy. She did wonder if Leia could feel what she was thinking. She hoped it was the case and tried to convey her support.

The Resistance fighters started speaking out loud upon discovery the lineage between their leader and their enemy. This was a detail all had left coneviently out of their narrative, knowing fully well it would lead to question about their leader's abilities. Until now, those who knew had silently agrred or so it felt, to eep this out of the public eye, until it could have an impact on what came next.

"Quiet, quiet!" Dameron exclaimed, managing to make people silence.

The way he handled the crowd felt like a btral, like it was the two of them against the worl, or mre accurately, the galaxy.

She wondered if he thought he was actually fooling her. She knew what he was thinking, she knew what he meant to do. There was nothing mysterious about the way he processed things and integrated them to hs own narrative. She had seen him do it time and time again, as if he had learnt nothing when they had fled to Crait and then from would be bos, but this boy was supposed to be a man who had learnt from his pas mistakes. Apparently, this could not be further from the truth.

He wanted to be a hero, come hell or high water. How could he be so blind? Couldn't he tell that Leia was being torn apart between her maternal instinct and her leader's duty? Why did he have to put his own interests forward? Did he realize he was doing it or did he genuinely feel like he was saving everybody, even those who didn't want or need his help?

"General, I can understand…"

"So kind of you to say that. Best news I've had all day," Leia said, and Rey found herself amazed by their leader's character.

It made complete sense for her to have been a key character in the rebellion's success thirty something years ago. When you had spirit, it never really went away.

"You did get your son back, sort of," Rey prompted.

"Point taken, second best news then."

"Leia…" Dameron started again.

Did he just go there? That boy needed someone to smack some sense into him and she wished to be that someone. No one got to call her by her name.

Rey could feel waves of pain, and she was certain her superior was thinking about two men saying her name.

"You'll address your commander with the respect due to her position." Rey said dryly. "Furthermore, you will stop your paternalistic pattern, and listen when spoken to. This is not a circus, just because we're supposed to be the good guys doesn't mean we get to forget about hierarchy"

"Sir, Yes Sir!" Dameron said mockingly with a salute.

She realized she had been about to attack him upon feeling Leia grab her arm.

"Kylo Ren is here, as you all know," the General started saying, making sure her voice carried out loudly for all to here. "I knew him as Ben Solo. I am aware that he has become Supreme Leader of the First Order. However, he is not anymore, and we just beheaded their movement by taking 'the' Kylo Ren alive. We have received news from more than one informant, confirming that Kylo Ren was the only thing keeping the first Order standing since Snoke had perished by his hand. They will be in disarray, torn between wanting their leader back and wanting to make do without hm. They will try to get him back and they will fail. This I can tell you with complete certainty…"

"I'm sorry, Ma'am, but I disagree," Finn said. "The stormtroopers…."

"Will do nothing."

"I still respectfully disagree. I took down Phasma, but someone else has to have taken her place. If this person is charismatic, more than Hux, we can assume that they could take over."

"What would you have us do then?" Rey asked.

She knew that she was overstepping. Sure, General Organa was lenient when it came to her, as she reminded him of her twin brother, but surely there was a line she was not supposed to cross and Rey couldn't tell if it was ahead of her or back in the distance.

"What would you have us do?" Finn countered.

"Wait for things to go to sh… mayhem, wait till the galaxy is ready for the Resistance to be the new Order, a democratic one. It will be a matter of days, a couple of weeks top, and then we can have peace."

"You're being naive and oprimistic. You're forgetting one thing, or one person."

"We're not killing Kylo Ren," General Organa intervened. "Notice how I called him by his new name and not by the name I chose for him. I am perfectly aware that he was the Head of the First Order, as I previously said, but since a reminder can never hurt, I guess I'll have to point out what I'm doing for peole to actually pay attention. However, killing him is not an option."

"He killed his father…" Dameron muttered.

"Do you think I don't know that? ", Leia snapped. "I felt it when it happened. My heart broke, and it's not done mending. I don't think it'll recover from such losses. Yet, I also know what we must do."

"We can't start killing everyone who was First Order if we want to have a chance at being whole again," Rey said.

It felt like a revelation for her but as she spoke those words she realized she meant them.

"Sure we can…" Dameron snorted.

"I swear by all that is holy, I will come and introduce you to my fist if you don't stop your "I'm a hero, no one understand me" routine."

The pilot glared at her.

"Rey…" Finn started.

"We can not kill them all. For the galaxy to be whole again, we must give our enemy a chance to redeem themselves. Yes, they killed so many of us, but we killed some of them too. There's always collateral damages when it comes to war."

"Rey is right. We must give all our enemies a chance to change their mind. If we go around killing everyone who does not agree with us, we'll be no better than they were. We just dealt them a major blow. Kylo Ren is in our hands, and he will remain there. If we were to kill him, we would give the Order a martyr, a good reason to stand against us. We will not."

"But Han, and Luke…"

"Ok, then," Rey exclaimed. "let's say we kill them all. Finn, where do we put the line? Do we kill anybody with Resistance blood on their hands? What if they did not bathed in our blood and only directed bombs and missiles at us? What if they were part of the maintenance crew on their ship? Does that make them guilty by association?"

"You're being unreasonable…"

"No, you are. You're my friend, Finn, but I need to know where you believe the line should be set. For exampe, when it comes to stormtroopers, do we kill them all, or do we wait for a sign from the Force to let us know which one to kill? What about the children, both those stolen from their parents to become fodder for the soldiers, and those born on ships flying under the First Order flag? If they were on any of the sips which struck us, they're guilty by association too. Where do we set the line? Or perhaps for kids, we can use age as a criterium? If they're seven of age, they get killed? Surely it would make sense according to what you're implying. Seven is said to be the age when you lose your innocence but if they're younger they live? What about you Finn? You were a stormtrooper. I know what you're going to say, you redeemed yourself and joined the Resistance. Why would you deny other stormtroopers to join us, same way you did? Or perhaps, you mean for us to kill you too? Where is the line, Finn? Where is the fucking line?" Rey said forcefully, unable to stop herself.

Silence had reigned. Then, they were finally able to discuss politely what they would do, and how they would do it.

Back to the present

Rey wondered if he was waiting to be killed. Was he daring her to come over and kill him? He should know better… She was the one who managed to trap him.

Her head felt empty, as he could not address her thus. She almost missed him. Well, truthfully…

"How is he?" General Organa asked, having entered without Rey noticing.

"Well… Hum, he's awake, and he's restrained. You already knew that… I can't hear his voice in my head anymore. The Force restraints really work."

"What should we do with him?"

"You're asking me?" Rey said.

"Maybe. Sure, I'm the leader and all that, but I can always enquire and get some advice,r ight? So, what should we do with him?"

"I … I wouldn't know."

"You were quite verbose, down there…"

"Yes, I guess I was. What will you do with him?" Rey asked, blushing.

"I don't know either."

Both women found themselves staring across the glass to the restrained man who was so significant to them for various reasons.

"Do you think he could come back?" Leia whispered.

"I saw... I had a vision of him, getting rid of Snoke and coming back to the Light. I don't know if that future is still in store. I cannot tell if Ben Solo is truly gone or if this is just a mere step on his journey bac to..."

She almost said "me".

"In his journey back to you," she corrected herself

"I like that vision."

"I do too."

"Let's pray it comes to pass."

"Let's do that."

Behind the glass, the man seemed beaten yet resilient. What would they do with him? Rey could almost read the betrayal on his face, knowing full well he would be mad for the trap he had fallen into, a set up she had orchestrated carefully, using her knowledge of him, the real man behind the mask.

"I… I knew I was going to get him back here, one way or another… I know you gave me permission to do this mission without asking for my plan, but I need you to know…"

"I know."

Rey and Leia fell silent, staring at a man they desperately wanted to save, finding themselves daring to hope. It was all it took, people said, a dash of hope and anything was possible. Rey prayed they were not wrong.