The Devil Inside

One

'So, it's decided then,' Rey says.

Finn is concerned by the blank look in her eyes. He thinks she might be in shock. He's seen Rey feisty and he's seen Rey stoic, but he's never heard this horrible flatness in her voice before. Nobody—Finn included—really thought the Jedi Council would come back with this, frankly, cold-hearted ruling. Then again, the Jedi way is centered on pragmatism over passion, so maybe this makes perfect sense. Still, every fibre of Finn's being balks against a Council of wizened old Jedi Masters deciding Rey's future like it's a matter of political strategy. His best friend's health, happiness and liberty should not be reduced to a kriffing contract dispute. Yet, that's exactly what's happened.

Finn slides his hand into Rey's, as General Organa looks on.

'I'm afraid so,' Leia says, and this might be the most bitter that Finn has ever seen the General. He knows how fiercely she believes in a woman's right to independence, to dignity, to freedom—as much as any man. The fact that Leia herself—a younger, more naïve version of herself—has played a role in creating this situation must be weighing heavily on her conscience. That, and Finn knows how close the two women have become, over the years that Rey's been apprenticed to Master Luke. 'If it had just been the contracts of intention between the families,' Leia visibly swallows, 'then the lawyers might have got around it, but—'

'I bonded with him,' Rey finishes Leia's explanation, voice flat. Finn squeezes her fingers and feels the tension shudder through Rey as she finally shakes her head and sinks down onto the chair behind her. They are huddled in what serves as the General's makeshift office space on this base. 'Kriff,' Rey sighs wearily, blinking up at Finn. 'What an idiot.'

'You couldn't have known,' Finn says, because he thinks he ought to say something. The truth is that the whole thing was recklessly done, and the consequences are going to be hard to live with. It was one thing for a young Leia and Han Solo to sign a contract betrothing their young Force-sensitive son to their best friend's Force-sensitive infant daughter. Such a contract is, Finn knows, not enforceable without the consent of both parties to the intended marriage, once they come of age. Though an antiquated practice outside of Galactic royalty, these kind of agreements are still common among followers of the Jedi way. Force-sensitive individuals are still rare, and any union that brings with it the likelihood of children strong with the Force is strongly encouraged by the Jedi Elders. That said, even the cool, detached Jedi aren't in the business of wedding people against their will. Usually.

'Things were…different, when you met Ben,' says Leia. Boy, is that the understatement of the century. Finn tries not to roll his eyes, because he respects the hell out of General Organa, but even he can tell there were some signs written on the wall that Leia The Mother should have picked up, before everything went to Hades in a handbasket. Before her Force-prodigy son, trained by his own uncle and on the brink of becoming the strongest Jedi Knight in a generation, decided to sign up to host a kriffing Sith Lord in his noggin.

Rey's worrying her bottom lip and avoiding her future and soon to be estranged mother-in-law's eyes. 'I thought we were…I thought I loved him,' she says. Finn's heard this story before, from general gossip on the base—which, naturally, he has shut down hard, even punching one pilot in the mouth for being particularly disrespectful about it—and, once, from Rey herself. They were both more than a little drunk at the time, but Finn will never forget the wrecked quality of Rey's voice as she'd tripped over Ben Solo's name.

Rey is so beloved by her friends in the Resistance, that Finn forgets how lonely her upbringing was. She may be the granddaughter of legendary Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi but, after her parents were killed in a shuttle crash on the desert wasteland of Jakku, Rey endured a terrifying eight years on her own. Rey had kept herself alive mainly by scavenging, until Obi-Wan's old apprentice Luke Skywalker had finally tracked her down and brought her to the Temple where he was training young Jedi padawans. It was there that seventeen-year-old Rey met Ben Solo, Luke's nephew and the boy her parents had betrothed her to all those years ago. In Finn's opinion, Luke is as useless a parental figure as absentee Leia was at this point, because the Jedi Master either didn't know or didn't mind that a young girl so utterly starved for human contact was promptly seduced by his twenty-something-definitely-old-enough-to-know-better nephew. Well, that's what Finn's decided happened anyway. He knows Rey thinks it was some romantic affair, but Finn worked with Ben Solo and Kylo Ren before he defected from the First Order and he can't imagine it was anything so innocent.

'No-one blames you for what happened, Rey,' Leia says. 'We all loved him. None of us knew the path he would choose.'

Of course, Finn thinks, it was same choice that Ben's grandfather made, not so many years before, and Anakin ended up hosting the legendary Darth Vader for the rest of his days, so, maybe, someone should have had an inkling. Or at least been keeping a sharp lookout. Not that Finn wants to judge, but Rey's whole future is now utterly kriffed because she's bonded to a man who's sharing a body with a Sith. Apparently, when you ratify a betrothal contract—literally sign it in your own blood—and then share a sexy Force-bond creating romp through each other's minds, the Jedi Elders will hold you to it. Even if you were seventeen and full of the folly of first love. Even if, before you can get to the actual marriage part, your beloved decides to join forces with the Dark Side and leaves you to work for a ghoulish old Sith in the pursuit of Galactic domination.

Finn feels sick. Rey looks like she might actually be sick.

'Do you,' she looks at Leia now, for guidance, or some kind of more-adult-than-me wisdom. 'Do you know how it works? With both of them in there?'

Since Ben made the dramatic and oh-so-Skywalker choice to offer himself as a host for a Sith spirit, everyone probably thought the issue of his engagement to Rey was null and void. The official First Order envoy, formally requesting a wedding date be set, came as something of a shock. Not least because, well, Ben isn't just Ben anymore. The Sith walking around wearing Ben Solo's face is known to the whole galaxy: Kylo Ren is Supreme Leader Snoke's right hand man and a weapon of utter, ruinous destruction for the First Order. Quite how her and Ben both get along sharing one body is a matter of much speculation, on both sides of the war. The mysterious ways of the Sith are one of the last true mysteries of the Universe.

At least one thing is clear: Snoke is apparently just as greedy to get his hands on some promising Force-user younglings as the Jedi Elders. Everyone knows Ben and Kylo don't jump without Snoke telling them how high. What other explanation can there be?

'Oh, Rey,' Leia's face crumples. She looks every one of her sixty-two years in this moment. 'I wish I could say that I understand exactly what you'll be walking into. I know Ben's still there, and I do believe he cared for you once, so I have to believe that you will be safe.'

That sounds less than reassuring, but Rey merely nods.

'Kylo Ren is a monster,' Finn said, hating how rough his voice sounded. He unclenches his fists and takes a deep breath. 'Don't let your guard down, but, look.' He rubs a hand over the top of his head, trying to find the right words. It's doubly awkward discussing this in front of the General, knowing he's seen more of her son as a grown man than she herself has. 'I've seen Ren in action. He blows hot and cold, but he's intelligent. You can bargain with him. And he's revered in the First Order. Yeah, he's had his moments, but he's generally more of a monster to the Order's enemies than he is to its friends.'

'I'm no friend of the First Order.' Rey flinches from the notion.

'You'll be married to one—uh, technically two maybe—of its senior commanders,' Finn says, trying to be gentle. Rey's face is already pained enough. 'I'm just saying, you can control the extent to which he sees you as a threat, or a…neutral.' He can't bring himself to say ally. Everything about this is sick and wrong.

Leia leans forward, resting her elbows on the table between them and assuming General Mode once more. 'The silver lining, if there is any in this kriffing mess, is that we have the best opportunity in a decade for a spy in the highest echelons of the Order.' Finn tries to check his reaction to this, hating that politics is once again taking priority over his friend being bartered away like a prize nerf stock. Leia catches his eye anyway. 'I know you hate me for saying it.'

'I get it,' Finn says. And he does. This war matters too much to pretend otherwise. It doesn't matter more than Rey, but, they are where they are. Rey's fate is sealed—she either goes through with the marriage or she takes her chances on the run from the mighty resources of the First Order, on her own once more. The Jedi Council won't gainsay the betrothal contract because of, you know, Force reasons, and the Resistance Leadership is salivating at the chance to get a spy in Ben Solo's bed. Doesn't mean Finn has to like it. None of them are going to have to be the one to actually marry Ben…and Kylo. Kriff. It hurts his head.

Rey sighs.

'No, it's good actually. Means I'll still have a purpose.' She huffs a little humorless laugh. 'Means I'll still be Resistance. The rest of it—the marriage—it's just like a deep cover.' She frowns. 'That potentially never ends.'

Leia reaches out to touch Rey's arm.

'One day at a time, baby girl.'

'Yeah,' Rey nods.

'Remember,' Finn says, feeling brave in his anger, 'no-one is expecting you to save Ben Solo. That ship has sailed.' He ignores Leia's sad little glare, focusing on his best friend's eyes. 'Do what you can, safely, to get information back to us. I know you're strong, I know you're Jedi-powerful. But. Don't put yourself at risk to try and bring Ben back to the Light. If you go up against Kylo Ren like that, he will destroy you.' Finn speaks firmly, trying to impress the importance of his words onto Rey's brain. Would that he could wield Jedi mind compulsion right now. 'Keep yourself safe. Keep yourself alive.'

'I promise,' Rey says. 'Finn, I won't do anything stupid.'

It's not enough, and Finn doesn't know how to be alright with this.

'You're so brave,' he tells her, pulling his best friend into his arms. 'I know you will get through this.'

Rey lets him wrap himself around her and, for a moment, with Leia looking stoically on, they pretend it will all be okay.

Three weeks later, Rey's on a transport heading for the neutral agreed upon location where she will marry Ben Solo and the Sith Lord sharing his body.