The stare Ben has aimed at her back burns with barley contained heat and anger.
Rey refuses to look at him though. Not since he came to get her from the infirmary, ordered her up, and then lead her down a long, ominous hallway. He simply pushed her up a flight of stairs, to which she didn't even honor him with a glare. He wanted a reaction from her, and she was more than happy to deny him.
There's nothing more to say between them.
Nothing.
Ben, of course, thought differently.
The two climb the last step and stop at a closed door, the only door, made of a dark oak that looks large and foreboding.
"Rey, please," Ben says one more time. He is trying to be soft but he can't help the inklings of frustration seeping into his tone. "It doesn't have to be like this."
She still refuses to face him. "I won't join you."
Nothing more to say.
Nothing more to say.
A huff of annoyance blows lightly against her neck. "Then you've decided both our fates."
It is an odd thing to say, but Ben has been anything but normal as of late. Rey swallows and pushes the large door open before he can further implore her.
The metal knob is rusted, and creeks annoyingly into the tense silence. Rey is happy for it, if only for the second it doesn't allow Ben to say something else.
The room is large, but dark, with dusky stone walls and a floor made of the same oak of the door. It is something like a dungeon, but admittedly nicer, with barred windows and flaming torches bolted into the walls. There is no tables or chairs, no furniture at all really, save a grotesque steel throne placed at the far end occupied by an even more grotesque looking man.
Rey has heard rumors of Snoke, but nothing confirmed. Few have ever personally been in his company. But what is said is that his skin is pale, sickly so, and his face marred from an attack from unknown assailant made in his younger days. Both accounts are true, as far as Rey can see. She has to steel her stomach to continue starring upon his morphed face. He is leaning against his chair, but there is a hunch to his shoulders, and robes of stale yellow cloak the rest of his body.
He truly is a sight to behold.
A slight pressure at her back has Rey moving a few feet forward, but then it is gone and she stops.
"Young Rey," Snoke calls from across the room. "We finally have the honor of being introduced."
"Lady Skywalker," Rey answers back immediately. "Only my close friends have the honor of calling me by my birth name."
She can practically hear Ben rolling his eyes.
Snoke chokes out a gurgle of a laugh. "But of course, please, accept my apology. But you must know our intentions here at the First Order to do away with such unnecessary pageantry."
"By killing hundreds of people? That seems to be the unnecessary factor in all of this."
"Oh, I assure you, it is most necessary. There are those who will never accept such a change. They cling to their power, their names, their pitiful existences like babes to their mother's tit. They must be disposed of."
"You're wrong. There can be other ways-"
"You're a child!" Snoke snarls, anger flung at her like an arrow released from a bow. "What would you know of such things? You have been sheltered in your manor and know nothing of the world. Just look at what has become of your precious cousin. Could you foretell his turn?"
No, she hadn't. The hard truth tightens Rey's fists and steels her spine.
Snoke grinned wickedly. "Of course not. And now he is my faithful servant, committed to our cause. You're as blind as your old fool of a guardian Skywalker."
"You underestimate Skywalker!" Rey asserts. "And me."
A beat passes.
"And Ben Solo."
The declaration thickens the already suffocating air.
Rey isn't sure why she said it. Ben, for all intents and purposes, has turned, taken her prisoner and brought her before this monster. But something inside her refuses to let all hope go. Perhaps he will prove her a fool. Perhaps she will die within the next few minutes. But she knows that when she goes to her deathbed, somewhere in her heart, no matter how small it may be, loves Ben Solo and always will. It is a small comfort. Small, but still a comfort.
Snoke laughs again. "Oh, how pitiful to see you cling to such a hope. It is sickening. Ben Solo is dead, Kylo Ren only exists now."
"You're wrong," Rey snaps. Ben has argued with her tooth and nail to reconsider. Not Kylo Ren.
Suddenly, she wishes she had looked at him one last time.
"Faithful apprentice," Snoke announces. "Rise and fulfill the prophecy. It is obvious this girl clings to her delusions like the rest of them."
Rey hears the slight sound of movement behind her and then a pressure at her shoulder. It is cold, hard, and she need not see it to know what it is.
A sword.
But Ben does turn her, pressing against her shoulder with the blade until she is completely facing him. Her skin stings a little but she barely registers it as she gazes upon Ben's face.
He is stoic, his eyes black and fathomless. She can not tell what he is thinking, what he is feeling, and only knows that he now stands before her with a blade against her neck.
"I know what I have to do," He whispers, but in the cold empty room it echoes all around.
Rey considers closing her eyes but then decides against it. She will stare him in the face as he kills her. He will be the last thing she sees.
And he will live with the image of killing her for the rest of his days.
"Do it," Snoke commands.
Ben pulls the sword back, obviously looking to get some momentum with his blow, and just as his shoulder shakes with the telltale sign of an attack ready to be dealt, his other hand, which had been almost lifeless against his side, flings forward.
Rey flinches as something whirs past her head.
She twirls around to see a dagger, small but lethal, plunge into Snoke's chest.
Her eyes widen just as the old man's does, and he remains frozen for a second. And then two. And then his body leans forward and thumps down hard onto the floor.
Maker.
Snoke is dead.
She's alive.
Ben killed him.
"Ben," Rey gasps, twirling to face him. "What have you done?"
"Do you think I could kill you?" He asks-no, shourts. Sad, but angry. Annoyed, yet accepting. Always a storm of emotions when it came to this boy. "You really think me capable of such a thing?"
"No," She answers truthfully. Because deep down, there had been the hope. Small, oh so small, but real. "I told him he underestimated you."
"Perhaps. But you expect too much."
Rey frowns. "What do you mean?"
"Rey, this is it. Our moment."
"Our-?"
"Join me," Ben interrupts. The torture that had been painted across his face dissipates into solid, and sure, passion. The darkness of his eyes brighten, and paniced gasps of air blow out steadily. "Snoke, Skylwaker, my parents, the Resistance and the First Order, forget them all. Let them die in the past where we need not let them hold us down. We can move forward, together, and make things the way we want them."
Rey feels her heart drop as loudly as Snoke's body did. "Ben, please, don't do this."
"You're still-holding on!" He cries, and they are so close his words are like slaps against her face. "Let go! You hold on to them because you're trying to have the parents you never did. They're not them, Rey, they never will be."
"Don't you think I know that?" Rey cries. Tears blur her vision. "But it-it doesn't matter. They are my family now. Ourfamily. We can't abandon them! We can't turn against them!"
"What have they done for us? My parents feared me their whole lives. I was an annoyance. A burden. Something to be ignored until I got older and could be sent away. And Luke, he sheltered you like a prized calf. His precious foster child who was too good to be tainted by the cruel world. He didn't treat you like a person, he treated you like a jewel to be locked in a chest."
Rey's lips gape, tremble, noises tumbling out but not making any true words. There is truth in Ben's words, but also other things. Exaggerations. Anger. Fear. It's not as awful as he makes it sound.
But is it not true? Her mind whispers wickedly. To some degree, is it not?
"But us," Ben continues, her silence making him bolder. "We never shunned each other. Never lied or pretended. There was nothing but truth between us. Even if it was ugly sometimes, it was still true. We had that, and we had love."
"Don't!" Rey exclaims. "Don't say that. There wasn't-it wasn't-"
"It was," Ben whispered, taking a step forward. "We might have fumbled along the way. And I may have made a mess of it, more than once, but it was always there Rey. It's still there."
Then he kissing her.
His lips bite rather sooth, and his touch is a command not a question.
Rey whimpers and her strong body crumbles into nothing but a doll made of straw.
It's all too much. Everything has happened so fast. The attack, getting taken again, Snoke, this-her, Ben. She can't process it all, or understand what she's feeling or even thinking and now Ben-now he's-
Oh.
His presence bypasses it all. Warm, strong, and sure, and just Ben. Rey melts against his touch. Her lips respond as soon as the shock is gone, driven by pure instinct and the want of more, and her arms wind around his neck. Ben groans as he feels her nails rack his scalp, and then he is bringing her body flush against him.
"Rey," He pulls back and whispers like a prayer against her lips. "Rey, Rey, my Rey-"
She kisses Ben now, standing on her tiptoes and pushing against him like he is the very air she breathes.
His hands grip her hips, tug at her tunic, wanting more, something, but unable to properly grab it.
"Please," He begs, fluttering kisses across her cheeks, nose, and forehead. "Please, please, please."
Rey wishes he would stop talking. But he won't. And reality won't wait for them.
"I can't," She whispers, broken and small. Rey pushes her face into the crook of his neck, hoping he'll just hold her a bit longer. Be quiet. Don't do this. Don't break us, again. "Please don't ask me. I can't."
"You can," His hands squeeze at her shoulders. "I know you can."
"This isn't the way."
"We can make it better. Together."
"Not like this."
"Then how, Rey?"
"Leave here, with me. Please, Ben."
Silence follows, both their requests hanging in the air.
His fingers press into her sides. A question, a fear. She nuzzles deeper into him, hoping her strength will seep into him. "Rey, I can't…it's not easy for me, after all that's happened-"
"I'll be with you, no matter." She promises, kissing his neck again, and again, and again. "I won't leave you. Please, please don't leave me."
"Rey…" Ben whispers, tugging her head back.
She barely sees into the warmth of his eyes before his lips claim her once more. Passion still drives the kiss, but it's something else now, something that gives Rey hope.
"Don't leave me," Rey begs again.
"I don't want to-"
"Then don't."
"Rey," Ben groans. "They'll lock me up again."
"You just killed Snoke, I believe that will buy you some clemency."
"I still believe in the things he did," He continues to protest. But hasn't moved away from her. Hasn't let her go. "I still want things to change."
"And they can!" Rey assures, pressing a quick kiss of promise to his lips. "But what the First Order has done, how far they've gone, I know you don't believe in that anymore. This isn't how to make the change you want happen."
His silence if all the answer she needs.
"Then come back with me."
"Rey," Ben cups her cheek, his leather glove surprisingly warm. "There are things you don't know. About us, Luke, the Force. This isn't as black and white as you think."
A memory comes back to her. On the battlefield, when the camp had been attacked and Ben's fury was a caged animal that had been unleased.
"Help? Don't lie to me. I know what you wanted to do with me, Uncle. Feed me to the wolves, forget your troubles, and hope I'd become some ugly distant memory. That's how you wanted to help me, isn't it?"
Luke frowned at the truth spat in his face. "I was scared," He admitted, his voice cracking a bit. "Scared for Rey. What you would do to her."
Ben laughed something awful. "Funny, I was afraid for her being around you, too."
Luke's face hardened in a second. "How dare you. I would never-"
"Hurt her? Just like you would never hurt me? What would you do, Uncle, to end this war? What dark path would you go down if it meant a quick victory? Kill your own daughter?"
Rey looked at him, outraged. How could he even suggest such a thing? Luke would never!
"Never," Luke swore.
"Liar," Ben snapped. "I've felt your thoughts, what dark places they brush against when you're weak and desperate."
The words had been poison to her ears. Even now, Rey immediately rages against them. But Ben had said them, for some reason, and now with the time to consider it, curiosity-treacherous dark curiosity-demands to know answers.
It can't all be true but there must be some story behind it all.
"Whatever it is," Rey whispers, hoping she sounds strong. For Ben, at the very least. To help him make this decision. "We will face it, together."
His face trembles, and frowns, the boy so unsure of himself stares helplessly back at her.
But then Ben's hand slips into hers, and a gasp so joyous bursts from Rey's lips.