She lowered her head to the hand that had been holding Leia's and began to sob. Why does it always end like this? she thought. Why do I lose everyone I love? It's so wrong! She felt lost and alone. Again.
Although she could not hear his breathing through her sobs, she felt the familiar presence. He was here. Her grief exploded into rage. She stood and faced him. His expression was blank, and that fueled her anger even more.
"How dare you!" she growled at him. "How DARE you come here now. She's dead. Your mother is dead and it is ALL YOUR DOING!"
He stepped back from her as she advanced on him.
"You have destroyed everyone who ever cared about you! You truly are a monster, Kylo Ren and I was wrong for ever considering, even for a moment that you weren't!" she shrieked.
Poe, who had been waiting outside, ran through the door, blaster drawn. Without thinking, Rey Force-pushed him back into the hallway, slammed the door shut and locked it.
Ren spoke calmly.
"I told you I was a monster. I have never and I will never lie to you."
She flew at him, screaming in outrage and pounded her fists against his chest. He seized her wrists and said nothing; he just kept looking at her with no visible emotion.
"I will destroy you, Kylo Ren," she snarled in his face. "I swear right now, on the memory of your mother, I will destroy you if it kills me."
"I know you will." he said.
She screamed at him again and then slammed the link closed. She hadn't realized that she could close their connection at will, until she had done it on the Falcon.
She now heard frantic beating on the door and people yelling her name. She heaved a few heavy breaths, trying to dissipate her fury. A flick of her hand unlocked the door. Poe, Finn, and a security troop ran in, blasters drawn.
"Where is he Rey?" Poe asked, looking around wildly.
"Ren is here? How did he find us?" Fin asked, sounding panicked.
"No, he's not here." Rey said.
"But I heard you yell his name, you were shouting!" Poe said.
"No one was here," she lied. "I was just yelling at the air."
"Where's the general?" Poe asked, looking at the empty bed.
"She's gone" Rey said.
"Gone where? She can't walk – where did she go?" Poe asked, not understanding.
"She is one with the Force now. With Luke and their father." she explained. She didn't feel like talking anymore. The rage still burned in her and she was afraid of what she might do. She abruptly turned and left the med bay, leaving them and all their questions behind.
She returned to her small quarters and closed the door. Her fists were still tightly clenched, and she just now noticed the pain. She opened her palms and saw blood welling up in the dents her nails had made. She had never experienced such ice cold fury in her life. Not when Ren tried to torture her on the Finalizer, when she watched him kill his father, when she fought him at Starkiller base; not even facing Snoke. She wiped her bloody palms on her leggings, looked around her and then tore the room apart.
Kylo Ren stood behind the desk data station in his chambers on the Finalizer. He had never been on the receiving end of that kind of wrath. He blinked a few times, and shook his head slightly, trying to clear his mind.
He felt her loneliness as soon as the connection opened. It was the same need he had felt the night he spoke with her by the fire. He believed that it was that need that opened the path between them. He had been shocked at the brief meeting of their minds on Crait, even after Snoke was gone. Snoke, the accomplished liar and manipulator, hadn't been responsible for their bond after all.
He knew Leia Organa had survived the destruction of the bridge of the Resistance carrier. He had felt her presence on Crait. And of course he had known when she died. He felt it the instant it happened, just as he had with Luke. He told himself that he didn't care. It was actually good news. The Resistance leader was no more. They would fall apart without her. He felt nothing for the death of Leia Organa.
But what Rey had said. She had called him Kylo Ren. Those words had punched a hole through his soul more intense and painful than the bowcaster shot on Starkiller base.
Ben Solo was truly dead now. The last person who believed in him had finally given up. Ren was now free to fulfill his destiny and rule the galaxy, Supreme Leader of the First Order. The realization should have filled him with satisfaction, but he felt empty. And, as usual, rage surged up to fill the void. He couldn't have identified a target for his fury, but it was rising.
Rage, his nearly constant companion. They had made a casual acquaintance in his youth, when he still lived with his parents. They became intimate comrades the night he destroyed the Jedi temple. The stable presence he clung to during his "training" under Snoke. An old friend and one he now knew well.
The familiar, uncontrollable urge to destroy, to demolish everything in sight flooded through him. He started towards the closest data console to smash it, annihilate it, punish it for existing. But he stopped. This behavior was no longer acceptable in his position. He was the Supreme Leader. It was time to put childish tantrums away. Instead he called for General Hux.
Hux reported quickly. His body was still bruised and his pride still stung from the beating both had taken during the destruction of the Supremacy and on Crait.
"Yes, Supreme Leader" he said, barely managing to hide a sneer.
"I want you to hunt down the Resistance" Ren ordered.
"Really, Supreme Leader," he spoke condescendingly. "They are of no consequence to the First Order! A few ragged pieces of filth, hiding under a rock somewhere in the Outer Rim.."
His words were cut off when a motion from Ren sent his head snapping back and blood began to flow from his nose.
Ren spoke with fury.
"General Hux, you will not question my orders ever again."
Hux's hand pressed against his nose, trying to staunch the blood.
"Yes, Supreme Leader" his now nasally voice responded, almost with respect.
"You will hunt down every last 'piece of filth'. If we let them go, they will spread through every system, like a plague, until we fail exactly as the Empire did!" Ren's voice rose until he was almost shouting. A group of Storm troopers marching past the chamber quickly did an about face and marched the other way.
"We will devote every resource to this end and we will not stop until we burn out every last trace of the Resistance! Their ashes will be flaunted in every street of every city and every settlement, no matter how small, for all to see the cost of defiance. We will tear apart every planet, every ship, and every moon in the galaxy until we have eliminated this 'filth'! Do you understand? " Ren demanded.
"Of course Supreme Leader" Hux responded, turned and left to begin his mission.