In violent times
You shouldn't have to sell your soul
You can win wars without sacrificing integrity.
Rey knows it - she knows it because she sees her friends, upstanding and passionate, fight for what they think is right without losing sight of it in the process. She sees General Organa toiling away at her station, poring over plans and attack strategies - a beacon of hope and the fire of the Rebellion, burning bright and shining her light through all of them.
In black and white
They really really ought to know
War is hardly two-toned.
Take any aspect of it, Ben muses. Even the Light employs the tactics of the Dark to achieve its goal. And even the Dark needs the Light to pull it through their dark and dreary nights. And no side is above using a dirty trick, because they're all fighting towards the end - no one really cares about the means. Which is what makes Rey's naivete and stubborn belief in integrity so annoying because no, the former is a concept that died a long time ago. She will realise that eventually, but it will bring him no satisfaction when she does.
He wants to preserve her faith for as long as he can.
Those one track minds
That took you for a working boy
Kiss them goodbye
You shouldn't have to jump for joy
Scavenger. Junk trader. Nobody.
She is anything but the last.
Rey is a scavenger at heart - her skill at finding diamonds in the rough leaves him confounded, because she has found something salvageable in an utterly useless mess like him. She haggled and bargained her way into his heart, which clearly made her someone.
But her worth is far beyond his context.
She is a fierce warrior, a skilled duelist, and a leader - even if she doesn't believe she is any and either of that. She has the calm and wits of a strategist, the stamina of a fighter and compassion and open-mindedness of a true Jedi - and all of that stems from her and her alone. They are not qualities defined by someone else's perception of her - they are her.
She is fierce, beautiful beacon of light and hope, a true desert flower that doesn't need anything and anyone but itself to survive and thrive.
Shout, shout, let it all out
These are the things I can do without
Come on
I'm talking to you, come on
She's his conduit.
Rey knows his mind like her own now. The Force shows her his ongoing thoughts and state, but he shows her his true self. The terrors that plague his nights, the silver linings that keep him going - and there are far more dark clouds than there are silver linings to them.
She wants him to scream, to scream and scream until none of his anger and fears remain. She wants to cry, to weep until Kylo Ren is dead and gone and all that is left is Ben Solo, exhausted and shuddering on the ground but Ben alone.
Because his pain is her poison, and it is eating her alive.
They gave you life
And in return you gave them hell
What a selfish son, but what a selfless leader.
Rey is forever perplexed by his duality of persona, and it never ceases to amaze her that this spoiled brat, this pampered prince of a selfish son is the same man that is ready to destroy himself for a cause he doesn't even believe in anymore, solely because he is so far gone and doesn't want to disappoint anyone anymore.
He had a family, she angrily thinks to herself. A family that cared, cared enough to die if it meant it would save his soul.
"Do you think I wouldn't do the same?" He asks her, and of course she says no because if truly did care that much, he wouldn't have turned, wouldn't have done all that he has. "But you don't understand", he says again.
She sneers, mocking him to explain, please, explain how this death and destruction is somehow his way of saving his family.
As cold as ice
I hope we live to tell the tale
"The end of this war is the only to save my mother - to save anything and anyone she cares for." But that isn't good enough for her - no, not even close.
"If only you had joined me, Rey. We could have ended this war, then and there. The Resistance, the First Order, all would be disbanded. I would have established a new Republic, sent Hux to a place where he couldn't continue this." She scoffs, seeing how that ginger general is somehow still on the top of his list of priorities. "The Grey Jedi would have prevailed - a new Order, free from the stuffy rules of the Jedi and devoid of the Sith ways of violence and destruction. We could have finished what my grandfather started."
She tells that she wouldn't be part of a legacy of genocide and tyranny, thank you, and cuts their conversation.
And when you've taken down your guard
If I could change your mind
I'd really love to break your heart
I'd really love to break your heart
That doesn't stop him from trying.
Ben does his utmost to change her mind, tries to explain that Vader's legacy wasn't totalitarian rule to him. Not anymore, if that is any consolation.
He tries and tries and tries, and one exhausting night, Rey lets him in, lets him deliver his spiel. He talks about Anakin's past, talks about how, in the end, all he wanted was to free each and every slave in the galaxy. He talks about it with regret, about how he fell in love - how something that was supposed to save him is what ended up destroying him. How fear of losing his love is what made him drain the life out of her.
Somewhere in the middle of all this, Rey isn't sure it's Anakin he's talking about anymore.
Shout, shout, let it all out
(I'd really love to break your heart)
These are the things I can do without
(I'd really love to break your heart)
It's his coronation, and it's tearing him apart.
There is an expectation he is supposed to live up to - Supreme Leader Ren is fearless, ruthless, and has no mercy for enemies of the First Order. Supreme Leader Ren is meant to carry on the mantle of Snoke, is meant to restore the Empire's ideals and Vader's legacy to the galaxy and beyond.
What even is Vader's legacy anymore, he bitterly thinks. There is an ideal he wishes to enforce - a rule of fairness and justice. A rule free of war, free of sides - but that's not what they want from him. All they want is a marquee to post their own cruelty and depravity on, a conduit for their worst behaviour, justified by this man and his crown.
And then there is Rey, and there are her expectations.
She knows he's too far gone to defect, but that doesn't stop her from goading him. On the day of his ascension, he sees her standing behind him in the mirror, a hand on his shoulder. She wants him to be brave, oh so brave, he snaps at her, but she only shakes her head.
I want you to be free, she says, a calm smile on her face.
Coruscant is looking up to him, the rich with their smiles and their diamonds, the commoners with adoration and fear. The black and red banners flap around him, the sound lost in the roars of when they see him emerge on the balcony. Hux is smiling, Phasma standing behind him.
And behind them is Rey, leaning by a banner.
There is an idea in her head, an idea that screams danger, something that no person concerned with their safety would ever agree to. He can sense the Resistance fleet on standby, far enough from the sensors to be cloaked but not enough to hide their Force signatures, and the Rey here nods. Remember Anakin's legacy, her voice echoes in his head. You will finish what he started. And he will.
He will free all the slaves in the galaxy - starting with himself.
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