Disclaimer – I do not own Star Wars in any way, shape, or form. Only Neri is mine.

Chapter 9

Kylo Ren could feel rage building in his chest, rising from the name his student had just uttered. "Is this a game to you?" he asked through gritted teeth. He fought to maintain control. "Do you think that's funny?"

Neri shook beside him and he no longer cared that she feared him. "N-no master, I'm telling you the truth. Han saved me, let me stow away on his ship until I was safe."

"Why would he ever stick his neck out for you? Han Solo only cared for himself. He was always a selfish fool." He nearly spat from his anger and fought to maintain his distance from his student.

"He-you will hurt me if I tell you," Neri said, now still. She had, since being a slave, been able to accept pain once it was inevitable. She only wished that she could accept death if it was about to come to her.

Kylo Ren reached out an ungloved hand and she flinched without thinking, shrinking into herself. He did not strike her, but placed his palm on her forehead, needing the truth from what must be her lies.

My son is lost, said a voice is Neri's mind. Kylo tumbled into the memory helplessly, watching his father's pain and Neri's understanding. He felt himself in her body then, feeling the sympathy she had felt, the sadness. She gasped when he pulled his hand away, slumped back against the wall from the exertion of his intrusion.

"It isn't real," he said, standing unsteadily, needing to gain the upper hand over the again trembling woman at his feet. "It's a lie."

She was angry now, angry that Kylo Ren could not accept the man his father was. "He saved my life, took me from that place where I had only known pain from my mother's death. He didn't care what I had done, the wrongs I had allowed. He took care of me, taught me to fly. He took me to your m-General Organa when he was being hunted by every con in the galaxy. He kept me safe. Han Solo is-"

"Han Solo is dead!" he shouted, his face red from the mingling of rage and regret. "He is gone!"

Neri had tears in her eyes, refusing to let them fall. "I know that," she said quietly, stilled by his voice.

"I killed him."

She looked up at him, wiped at her face. "I know that too," she said, and she did. She had known it before he did.

Kylo Ren had turned from her, walked to the window to peer out into the vastness of space. "What?" he said, reeling on her. "Did you watch him fall with the rest of your pitiful Resistance friends? Did you watch him beg me to come home, as though I cared of him or his promises?"

The tears escaped Neri's eyes and she steadied herself. She stood, refusing to die sniveling at this man's feet when he inevitably let his rage take hold. "I dreamt it," she said, looking up at him. Her body was inches from his, and though she was much smaller and much weaker than him, Kylo Ren could feel the power radiating from her.

"I had been on the Falcon for months, working for your father. He is your father, no matter how you deny it." She set her jaw and steeled herself, knowing that these could be her last words. "I dreamt of you alone, running from the life you had chosen though you didn't realize it yet. I saw you beg him for help, saw him willing to do anything to save you. I saw your despicable red blade go through him before he fell, and the regret you felt after. When I awoke, I told him what I had seen."

Her master staggered back a step, bumping into the window. He could not escape her gaze, her accusations. He opened his mouth to speak, to regain his footing as her superior, but she interrupted his attempt.

"I said goodbye to him at the base, knowing that it would be the last time I ever saw him. He said goodbye and that he loved me, knowing this as well. He told your mother that he would bring you back, that Ben Solo would live again, but he lied. He knew that he was going to his death. I begged Poe to let me fly with them, thinking that I could stop what had already been set in motion, but I couldn't do it. I failed in my mission and I failed the only man who had ever tried to be a father to me. Because of you." She spat out the last sentence, unable to contain the pain she felt from the death of Han Solo any longer.

She hated Han at that moment, hated him for making her want to help the beast before her. Ben Solo was dead. Kylo Ren remained. The glimpses of humanity she had thought she saw were a lie.

Neri turned and ran from the apartment before he could retaliate. Her master sunk to the ground and wept.

A/N – A short but exhausting chapter! He couldn't be niceties and heart eyes forever. More soon!