The first thing Rey sees when she walks into Kylo's quarters for dinner are the slash marks and hardened streaks of melted durasteel that crisscross two interior walls. Those weren't there two days ago, she knows. It looks like Kylo took his sword to the walls. Repeatedly. "What happened?" she asks.
He looks away. "I got angry. That happens sometimes." He shrugs and brushes off her concern. "This is normal. Don't let it bother you."
"Riiiiight." She walks over to inspect the damage. Yes, this is definitely the aftermath of a sword. Lightsabers are powerful weapons. She remembers hers cutting right through a large rock on Ahch-To. Rey turns back to Kylo. "Was this about Hux?"
"No. He won't bother you and he won't talk. Hux knows how this works."
"Riiiiight," she nods again. That's two answers from Kylo that she doesn't quite believe.
"Come. Sit," he invites.
Their nightly routine resumes. Rey seats herself and mostly watches as Kylo eats. Tonight, he looks preoccupied. Very rattled. And tired. Like he didn't sleep at all last night. Kylo's first day as Emperor looks like it was rough, she decides.
"How is she?" Kylo asks abruptly. The 'she' is always his mother in their private conversations.
Rey doesn't sugarcoat the truth. "She's worse. I was there all day today and she didn't speak once. Usually she rouses a few times a day." It had been a very bad sign. This is very upsetting to Rey. Kylo is right that she latches onto people because Rey has become very invested in Leia Organa in a short time. Now that the end is coming fast, she is dismayed.
Kylo apparently is not. He says nothing.
"I spoke to the medics at length about her condition. Kylo, they t-think this is the e-end."
He doesn't react. He just looks away.
"You should go to her. Before it's t-too late." Rey stammers again because it is hard to say this out loud.
Kylo still refuses to engage.
Maybe this is none of her business, but Rey feels as though Kylo and his mother ought to at least attempt to speak, if only to provide some closure for one another. Death is a very final thing. Motherless Rey can't imagine not at least trying to reconcile somewhat. So, she persists. "I'm going back later tonight to sit with her. You could come with me," she suggests. "You don't have to say anything. Just be there."
That provokes a response. "No. You go."
"Kylo, she's your mother. She might be the enemy but she's your mother. And the war is over now. You've won."
He sighs, puts down his fork, and sits back. "She was a lousy mother, Rey."
"Yes, I think I'm learning that," she agrees. Leia Organa had a lot more priorities than her son. "But still—"
"She was a much better leader than she was a mother. She was a failure as a mother." Bitter Kylo now warms to this theme. "They were all failures. Luke was a much better Jedi than he was a teacher. He utterly failed as a teacher. Han Solo was better at everything than he was at being a husband and a father." Kylo looks away again. His expression is bleak. The man looks years older than his true age in this moment. Like the weight of the galaxy rests on his shoulders. Which it does, she realizes.
"I understand," Rey offers softly. "People let you down in life. My parents let me down." Her loser parents cruelly betrayed a four-year-old. "I'm facing that now. I lied to myself for years about my parents to cope. I'll probably never know the truth of why they did what they did. But I like to think that they were good intentioned . . ." she offers weakly. Rey knows she is grasping at straws, but it helps. Even now, she can feel tears spring to her eyes as she speaks of her abandonment. It is still very fresh.
"Good intentions don't always make good decisions," Kylo gripes. "That's pretty much the lesson of the New Republic right there. And of my family, too." He shakes his head and growls, "I suffered for their failures."
Rey nods. "So did I." Life on Jakku was mostly suffering. "I'm trying to accept that and maybe even learn from it. You can learn from others' failings just like you can learn from your own."
"Failure might be enlightening sometimes, but it's still failure!" he rails. "And there are consequences to failure." Kylo is bitter as he gives vent to his emotions. Rey reflexively glances over at the damaged walls. The heat of his anger is spent. Now, he's wallowing in the dejected aftermath. "It's not just about me," he complains. "Look at the state of the galaxy! A lot of people have died for my family's failures. The Skywalkers have a lot of collateral damage," he grumbles.
"They did their best." Rey firmly believes this. Leia Organa and Luke Skywalker both turned out to have very human failings. But that doesn't make them less than the heroes Rey had imagined them to be. Heroes are not perfect. And, looking across at the miserable young man who now rules the galaxy, Rey realizes that villains are not always evil. Life is complicated. Far less black and white than she expected. Far less black and white than she wants.
This is how her conversations with Kylo always are—raw and unfiltered. Something about their strange relationship feels very honest. It's been like this from their beginning conversations over the Force bond. They speak to one another bluntly. Unapologetically. And the topics are always important. There is no small talk with this man.
"Luke admitted that he had failed. By the time I found him, he had lost faith in his religion," Rey recalls. "But he didn't know where to go from there . . . "
"I'm trying to find a path forward." Kylo looks so earnest now as he meets her eyes. "But I worry . . . I worry . . . " His voice trails off and he doesn't finish his thought.
"Tell me," she prompts.
Kylo makes a face and works his jaw. "My mother and my uncle once had the same opportunity I do now. A blank slate and a chance to reinvent everything. To reform and renew the past in a way that made sense for the future."
"They tried to rebuild the Republic and create a New Jedi Order."
"Yes. But it didn't work out. I know she wants to blame me and Snoke, but the truth is that the fall of the Republic is about more than just us. The Republic failed for a lot of reasons."
"And you worry that you will fail too," Rey surmises.
He nods. "Yes. My family is full of people who dream big things but can't quite pull them off. They have so much potential. They get close. But, in the end, they all fail. The Skywalkers are one missed opportunity and tragic hero after another," he grouses. "It's why I need your help."
He meets her eyes and here it comes, she thinks. Another 'join me' speech. Rey preempts it this time. "I can't be what you want me to be. Kylo, I listened to that speech last night and I can't be a part of your Empire." This is what she has plans to tell Kylo tonight. That she has considered his offer and will turn it down.
"Hux isn't in charge. I'm in charge," he reminds her. "Nothing he says matters."
"Then why did you let him grandstand like that?" Last night was a huge missed opportunity, Rey thinks. But it was typical of the First Order. These people do what they want with no thought to others' views. Because if you're not with them, you're against them. "Hux did everything but shake his fist and pound his chest. Where was the message of healing and unity? Where was the gesture to all of us who lost the war and now have to live in your Empire?" she demands hotly.
Kylo takes this in stride. "Change is coming. Give me time. I may be the Emperor but I still have constituencies to appease. And I have to show a smooth transition of power from Snoke. If I move too fast, it could jeopardize my support. Last night, I needed to give the hardliners a victory lap."
"That sounds like an excuse to me." Rey shoots him a look.
"There's only so much I can do so fast. It hasn't even been a month. Change is coming. Be patient."
"What sort of change?" Rey's eyes narrow.
"We will take the best ideas of the Empire and the best ideas of the Republic and marry them. I'm not going to repeat Palpatine's mistakes or my mother's. This time, we will get it right." Kylo says this with a confidence she knows he does not feel. His face looks like he is trying to convince himself as much as he's trying to convince her. Still, it says something that this fearsome man allows himself to be vulnerable before her. Beneath the mask and behind closed doors, Kylo Ren is shockingly human. It keeps drawing her in.
"You alone will be in charge, right?" Rey gives Kylo a knowing look. "As sort of a benevolent dictator?"
"Yes. The local systems can keep their democratic governments, but the galaxy at large will be ruled by me." He is unapologetic about it, too.
That's very Sith of him, she thinks. Rey guesses, "This was your plan all along. To kill Skywalker and kill Snoke and take it all for yourself?"
"This became my plan over time. I knew the Republic and the Jedi weren't the answer. I came to see that Snoke's plans would only fail in time for the same reasons the old Empire fell. I learned what I could from both my Masters before I moved on." Kylo looks her in the eye and tells her, "I have been waiting for this moment for a long time. I will remake the galaxy and remake the Force. That is my destiny."
"I guess you've killed everyone who stood in your way," skeptical Rey observes dryly.
"Yes." Again, he is unapologetic. "The only way to do this is if the things holding me back fall away."
"Does that include me?" Rey asks pointedly.
"I hope not. I need your help. I need you as the influence of the Light."
Rey isn't buying this and she calls Kylo on it. This is just his ploy to neutralize her influence by confusing her loyalties. "You don't need me for the Light. Just listen to the call to the Light within yourself and heed it," Rey urges. This was the whole point of why Rey had surrendered to Snoke in the first place. To be the motivation for Kylo's return to the Light. "I'll help you," she reups her offer from the elevator on the Supremacy. That's basically the only way Rey will agree to stay after General Organa dies.
"No." Again, he shoots her down. "The answer isn't Dark or Light. The answer is the balance in between. The tension. The push-pull competition for dominance. The conflict is the balance. Skywalker never understood that. Neither did Snoke."
Rey counters, "Luke understood balance. Balance is how he explained the Force to me."
"No. Luke didn't get it. His version of balance was the Light unopposed. Luke thought he achieved balance after Endor. Until I came along."
"Yeah, that is how he described it," Rey recalls.
"He was wrong. I didn't upset the balance, I was the balance. There was a powerful Skywalker in the Light, so a powerful Skywalker arose on the Dark Side," Kylo contends.
That idea makes some sense, she thinks. "So the Light rises, and the Dark meets it?" She paraphrases Snoke from the throne room. "And vice versa?"
"Yes. Once my uncle retreated into exile and withdrew from the Force, the Light found another champion. You, Rey. Neither Snoke nor I counted on you." Kylo gives her a very approving look. "You shocked me on the Starkiller. Completely." He says this a little breathlessly, with a gleam in his eye. It's very attractive, she thinks. Suddenly, Rey has to blink away a mental flashback to last night's torrid kiss.
"I think I shocked myself," Rey admits, looking down. "It all happened so fast."
"That was the Force at work. When the Force intervenes, change happens fast. It sweeps you along with it."
"It did feel sort of like that," Rey admits. "I was making decisions but it all felt a bit out of control." Before she knew it, she was handing a lightsaber to a Jedi Master and shipping herself to Kylo in the Falcon's escape capsule.
Kylo is still looking at her with that strange look on his face. "It wasn't until afterwards that I realized that you were the equal I need. That with your help, the old ways could fall behind without throwing everything out of balance. Because your Light matches my Darkness. Rey," Kylo tells her solemnly, with great reverence, "the Force sent you to me so that together, we could rule it all and rule it well."
That sort grandiose destiny talk is scary because Kylo completely believes it, Rey knows. This man isn't the First Order zealot she expected. He's a Force zealot. "Are these Snoke's theories? Because Luke would not have agreed to this." Rey is very suspicious that she is being manipulated. And, ruling the galaxy looks pretty awful actually.
"They are my ideas based on what I learned from Snoke and from Luke. Snoke wanted to push Darkness to the brink," Kylo explains. "He sought to toe the line and stop short just before the Force pushed back with the Light. Snoke was a wise man who had seen a lot through the years and learned from it. He knew that Darkness couldn't win. Not in any permanent way. But Snoke was too much a Sith in the end. He wanted to trample the Light by killing its strongest supporters. The Light would persist but it would be a diffuse influence without a champion. That's why he wanted me to kill you. It's why he wanted to kill Skywalker."
"Kylo, I don't want to rule the galaxy." Rey wants to make this clear. Besides, she's not sure she could rule the galaxy, even if she tried. She's just a scavenger. "I've considered your offer and I'm turning it down."
Kylo is undeterred. "The Light needs a leader, and you are the logical choice. Rey, I need you. The galaxy needs you. Join me and we will all succeed and avoid more war."
"All I have ever seen you do is fight a war," she observes pointedly. "What makes you think that your plan will work? What do you know about peace?" Last night's speech sounded more like the First Order was planning to occupy the galaxy, rather than bring peace.
"The Sith believed that peace is a lie. That war is inevitable and useful. But I don't believe that."
"Yeah? And what about your methods? What about the Starkiller?" she demands.
"That was Snoke's pet project. He gave the order to fire, I didn't."
"What about no quarter at Crait? I hate what you did to the Resistance," she glares.
"I killed a handful of fighters to end the war. Their sacrifice achieved a greater good. And there was no compromise in those people. You know that."
"Those were my very first friends!" Rey objects.
"It was war." Kylo says this as if it excuses everything. And it probably does in his view. Kylo Ren's ends always justify his means, she knows.
"And Han Solo? You never gave me a straight answer about why you killed him."
He levels with her now. "Rey, I will always be more Dark than Light. I'm asking you to accept that and step up to be my counterbalance." He leans forward in his seat as he invites her, "Call my bluff. Tell me no. Push back to me."
Who is he kidding? This man doesn't take no for an answer. With Snoke gone, no one seems to influence him. Rey cocks her head at Kylo and now accuses, "You're asking me to condone your excesses, aren't you?"
"You will temper them."
"The First Order will never accept a Resistance girl leading with you."
"They don't need to know your past."
"They think I'm your little sister."
"They will think whatever I tell them to think."
"Did you see the holonet today?" Rey had been shocked to see pictures of her and Kylo splashed across the holonet when she logged on this morning.
Kylo is nonplussed. "You mean the pictures of us?"
"Yes. Those pictures don't make us look like brother and sister." Those pictures make them look like a couple. Especially the one with them running hand in hand from Kylo's big shindig like a pair of star-crossed First Order-Resistance lovers in a cheesy perfume ad.
He dismisses her concern with a blithe wave of his hand. "Pay them no heed."
"Easy for you to say! There is some very ugly speculation about us." A lot of nasty innuendo too. And now, it occurs to Rey that no one should ever have taken those pictures in the first place. "How did someone get pictures like that?" she wonders aloud. "There was security everywhere last night."
Kylo smirks. "There was security everywhere on the Starkiller too. You still escaped and helped to blow it up."
"Oh. Yeah." Good point.
"The holonet is full of haters. Anonymity emboldens people to say stupid shit. They will move on to something else in a few days. Ignore them."
That's easier said than done. Rey had panicked when she saw her face splashed over the holonet this morning. Luckily, they didn't have her name. "You're awfully cool about this," Rey observes.
"You're right. Here it is, my big night to be declared Emperor and all anyone can focus on is paparazzi photographs of my pretty girlfriend who's dressed up like mother. Are you always going to upstage me like this?" he smirks. "It's fine. I can get used to it."
"I'm not your girlfriend!" she retorts, putting down her fork. "Are you even listening to me?" Rey demands. "I'm turning you down, Kylo. Can you get that through your head?" She's feeling increasingly frustrated now.
He digests this a moment before he informs her quietly, "Destiny makes offers you can't refuse. We can do this the easy way and you join me now, or we can do this the hard way and let destiny intervene to force you to my side."
"The Force does not control my destiny!" Rey answers hotly. "I decide!"
Kylo looks across the table at her with true understanding now. "That's what I thought when I was your age. I was wrong. Powerful Force users like us are instruments of the cosmic Force. Our lives are larger than our own. It's not fair, but it's true. It's our lot in life."
"But I don't want this!" Rey explodes. "I don't want any of this!" She leaps up from her seat and crosses fast to the windows across the room. The Finalizer is still in orbit over Coruscant. The famed world that is the bright center of the universe fills the windows with its red-orange glow. It just serves to remind Rey that she is a long, long way from Jakku.
Rey is stressed, so her words spill out in a torrent of woe. She has her arms crossed to hug herself. These days, she needs comforting. "I found a droid in the desert and met your father and then I found the sword and met you and then your mother and your uncle. It's like everywhere I turn, I run into your family! I'm just a scavenger. I'm a nobody from nowhere—" She never signed up for this heroine role.
"Not to me." Kylo stands and crosses the room to head for her.
"And now my parents are dead and all my friends are dead and the last person I know other than you is dying downstairs in sickbay. Maybe even tonight."
Kylo comes up behind her and stops a step or two short. "You are not alone, Rey."
"Not yet, you mean!"
He steps forward now and Rey can feel his hands on her upper arms. "Join me—" he croons.
"Will you shut up about ruling the galaxy?" Rey snarls. She's still presenting her back to him. "I don't want to rule the galaxy! I care about people, not power! That's the difference between you and I. I would never let my mother die alone surrounded by strangers while I outsourced the pain of her passing to someone else. You are so damned casual about death that you delegate it to others!"
"Rey—"
But her tirade continues. "Why would I join you when you treat everyone in your family so awfully? I'm no fool, Kylo Ren! I'm a survivor and I don't take stupid risks and you are most certainly a stupid risk! I'm not ending up dead like your parents and your uncle and your Master-"
"I'm not going to hurt you." He squeezes her shoulders as if to emphasize this.
"I don't even trust you! I'm not even sure that I like you. It's more that I feel sorry for you . . ." She moves to step away, but his hands clamp down.
"It's more than that. We have a connection." Kylo whispers this over her shoulder directly into her ear. And then his lips find her neck. It feels heavenly. She and Kylo might bicker constantly, but they have an electric physical chemistry. Kylo voice is husky as he tells her, "I know you feel it too."
"Kylo, no." Rey breaks away and turns around. "No more of that. It's . . ." She fumbles for the words. "It's got to stop. We can't be together."
"We can do whatever we want."
"We can't be together," she firmly repeats.
"You mean you don't want us to be together."
"Correct! Have you heard nothing I've said?" This guy won't take no for an answer. It's like he won't even acknowledge her choice.
"Is this my mother's influence talking?"
"You asked me to think about your offer. And I have." Rey was up all last night obsessing over how turned off she had been by Kylo's big event and how turned on she had been by Kylo the man. Rey had always assumed that her lure to Darkness was a form of compassion. But now, she's not so sure it isn't simple lust. And that's not a good reason to join this Force strong murdering megalomaniac. Sex isn't that hard for a woman to find. Rey can get that without all the Dark Side strings attached, if she wants. She can find another tall, commanding, quirkily handsome man with soulful eyes and a chip on his shoulder. Right?
Kylo starts bargaining now. "It doesn't have to be a package deal. Forget ruling with me for now. We can just be together."
Oh, geez, he's standing close again. Looking so sincere with his wild hair falling across his face. Rey remembers the feel of that hair in her hands.
"Just you and me, Rey. No Empire, no politics . . . no Force, if you want. Just you and me. Let's see where this connection leads," he offers.
Focus, Rey, she chastises herself. Don't get distracted. She starts doubling down on her refusal now. "You're not hearing what I'm saying. Look, I lost my head last night. It was a mistake and I'm sorry if I led you on. But this isn't happening, Kylo. When your mother dies in the next day or so, I'm gone."
"You don't mean that," Kylo cajoles.
Rey holds firm. "I do. I'm telling you now."
"You're lying to both of us then. Don't tell me you don't feel our connection." Kylo tries a second time to take her in his arms, but again she resists.
"It doesn't matter!" she wails. Rey is determined to think with her head and not feel with her heart. And then, as if to belie her words, Rey bursts into tears.
What is it about this man that provokes such strong emotion from her? She's not a girl who cries. There was no point in crying on Jakku. Rey long ago learned a fierce stoicism to safeguard her psyche. Bad things happen, you deal with them, you move on. But all that mental toughness seems to desert her around Kylo Ren. Here she is again with tears running down her face. Just like when they had talked through the Force on Ahch-To. Just like in the aftermath of Snoke and the praetorian guards. Something about this man makes all those easily repressed feelings bubble up and spill over.
It's sort of humiliating. She's tougher than this. It's just that today she feels very overwhelmed and alone. She's dreading Leia Organa dying.
"Cry it out," Kylo soothes. "Vent your emotions. Don't bottle them up."
She is in his arms now, soaking his uniform with her tears. Rey isn't even sure why she is crying. Is she crying for dying Leia Organa? Is she crying for Finn, for Han Solo, for Chewbacca, for Luke Skywalker? Maybe for the rest of the brave Resistance fighters who gave all? Or is she crying for her faithless parents who were so misguided or so selfish or so addicted that they threw her life away along with their own? Perhaps she is crying for Kylo Ren? For the monster who presents himself as Prince Charming. He's willing to give her everything, but Rey mistrusts what he will demand in return.
"Don't fight it. This is destiny. I have foreseen it in the Force."
"But I don't want this!" she mumbles into his shoulder.
"Just think about it some more," he urges.
"Alright. Fine," she agrees, mostly to put him off. Rey steps back and starts regaining her composure. "I should get back down. I don't want your mother to be alone."
"Okay," he agrees. Dinner is over now.
"You should go see you mother," Rey tries again one last time. When Kylo doesn't answer, she departs.
Rey is still wiping away tears by the time she wanders into the infirmary. Everyone knows her here by now. Rey is normally polite, but tonight she breezes by the respectful nods and murmurs of 'milady.' Rey just wants to be alone with her thoughts. But when she marches past the stormtrooper guards into General Organa's small private room, Rey finds that she is not the only visitor tonight.
"Oh!" Rey reacts in surprise. She wasn't expecting this. "General," she nods to the First Order's famed orator. Who knew he would be here?
Hux favors her with a tight, smug smile. "Lady Ren. Just who I was hoping to find." Hux looks on as Rey moves past him to check the levels on the medical equipment that monitors the princess. Rey has learned during her vigil which measures matter. Hux watches with careful eyes as she assesses the patient's condition.
"I'm told you are here all the time. That you are a constant presence for the enemy's precious princess."
"Yes." All of the princess' vital signs and indicators have deteriorated in the hour since Rey was last here. She inhales a deep breath. The medics are right, Rey realizes. The end is near.
Ignoring the looming general, Rey takes a seat in the empty chair and reaches for Leia Organa's hand. "I'm here," Rey says aloud to the princess. "I will be here."
"I know why you are here," General Hux speaks softly. "I know who she is."
Rey refuses to be baited. "Then you know why we wish to give Darth Vader's daughter a dignified death."
"She's more than just Lord Vader's daughter," Hux dismisses this information that has been common knowledge for years. "I know why Ren spared her at Crait. I know why you sit vigil at her deathbed."
Rey ignores him. "Princess, don't try to talk. Save your strength," she soothes. "The General is leaving soon."
Hux declines to take the hint. He is nothing if not persistent. Hux walks closer to lean over Rey's shoulder. "Tell me, Lady Rey," he says in a stage whisper, "Does mother know you kiss your brother?"
Rey puts on her Jakku poker face and makes no comment.
"A lot of things become clear now that I know the truth. The only thing that isn't clear is where you have been all this time and whose side you are on. With your family, it can be difficult to tell," Hux sniffs.
Rey keeps her silence. She doesn't answer to this man.
"You were there when Snoke died. Tell me, why did Ren bring you to Snoke?"
"Leave us, General," Rey commands in her best cold and haughty Lady Ren voice.
"You don't command me," Hux answers calmly. "What were you and Ren up to with Snoke when he died?"
Rey, overwrought from her ugly scene with Kylo, deeply saddened by the nearness of Leia Organa's passing, and remembering Hux's hate filled rant last night, loses it a little. "General," she whirls and hisses. Her face is an ugly scowl. "Leave us! You don't belong here." Starkiller Hux shouldn't be anywhere near Alderaan's most famous survivor. "Only family is allowed," Rey smirks.
Hux laughs. It's an ugly chuckle. "You Skywalkers think you can command all of us. That because you have the magic Force you are worthy to rule. You and Ren should remember that there are far more of us than there are of you."
Rey of Jakku knows a threat when she hears one. And she long ago learned to shoot first. Standing here by Leia Organa's bedside, Rey has no weapon. But she has the Force.
"Careful, General," she warns as she summons the Force. Rey raises a hand and decides to give obnoxious Hux a lesson Vader-style. To scare him a little, Rey clenches her fist.
Hux starts to choke.
She's trying to chase Hux away and to get him to back off. But Kylo doesn't know this as he abruptly strides in. Emperor Ren looks from gasping Hux to Rey and back again. He is impressed.
"Don't kill him. Hux is useful," Kylo instructs. "It's tempting, I know. But release him."
"As you wish," Rey murmurs. She drops her hand and sputtering Hux struggles to stay upright. "The general was just leaving anyway," she adds with a glare.
"Good," Kylo approves.
Once the door slides shut behind red faced and wheezing Hux, Kylo moves to look over the patient. "How is she?" he asks. He looks concerned by what he sees.
"Not good," Rey answers. "I'm staying here tonight."
"I'll stay too," Kylo decides. He reaches for Rey's hand as they both face Leia Organa's deathbed. Kylo gives Rey's hand a silent squeeze of encouragement. Then his eyes dart to her questioningly. "Hux got you riled up."
"He knows that she is your mother. Hux made some ugly cracks."
Kylo is not troubled. "Hux was bound to figure it out. I'm surprised it stayed a secret this long. The war is over. The truth won't matter once she's gone."
Rey nods and sighs. "No, I guess not."
Kylo looks over at Rey with concern. "Are you okay? Force choking is not like you."
Embarrassed, she flushes. Rey knows she shouldn't have done that. It's like when she took her staff to Luke Skywalker in anger. Leia Organa would have been horrified if she had been conscious to know of it. "Well, you say we are all a mix of Light and Dark . . ."
"I'm not judging you." Kylo looks plaintively over at his comatose mother and sighs. "She might judge you, but I won't. I know this is hard for you. This is going to be a long night."
It's true. "I'm glad you're here," Rey whispers.
"I'm here for you. Not for her."
"I'm still glad you're here."