The Endor Summer Palace, the Next Day...

"You seemed to enjoy all of the attention he was paying you," Ben pointed out with forced nonchalance as he and Yasha walked down the forest path along the outer grounds of the Summer Palace, needing to keep themselves otherwise occupied during the actual forum of delegates as they discussed more delicate matters. The day had been mostly one of taking Yasha around the grounds, bringing her into the kitchen to sample some of the dishes being prepared for the delebates. "Junior Officer Hux seemed to take a very genuine interest -"

"I don't care abut his interest," Yasha retorted. "Why do you?"

"Because I'm obviously the better choice," Ben said with a slight sneer - though in an instant, he realized that he wasn't entirely sure if he meant he was the better choice for Hux's attention... or Yasha's, which admittedly, he had somewhat missed when it was not directed towards him. He fully acknowledged his envy but didn't care to differentiate between the individuals at whom it could be directed.

"Hux wanted to speak to us both," Yasha replied curtly. "I don't think he was paying any more attention to me than he was to you -"

"It isn't a matter of how much attention," Ben said, striding forward with his long legs so that he cut Yasha off as she was walking, standing in her path. "It's a matter of what kind."

"Well, if you'd like to tell him to stop kissing my hand, I'd be all too grateful," Yasha said with a dismissive roll of her eyes, stepping around Ben to continue walking. He sneered slightly and, noting her unwillingness to discuss the issue further, strode off again ahead of her, relishing in the exasperated mumbles that came from her as he again pulled ahead on the forest path. Ben realized only after a few paces that Yasha was no longer next to him and had instead taken a seat on a nearby tree stump, yawning vigorously and rubbing her eyes.

"What's the matter with you?" he asked, doubling back and cocking his head to one side in annoyance. "Didn't sleep?"

"Not much," she mumbled tiredly.

"You're joking," Ben said with a slightly sardonic grin. "The softest bed you've probably ever slept in and now you choose not to get any rest?"

"Well, that's the point," Yasha said, her shoulders slumping slightly. "Mother of moons knows when the next time I'll get to lay on a bed like that again will be. Do you really think I'm going to sleep through it?"

So she did notice it, Ben thought to himself with more than a little satisfaction in the realization. She noticed that being here on Endor was a world apart from their life back at the Academy, and that now was the time, perhaps, to do things that would otherwise not be done.

He just had to convince her.

"Well, we can't meet Hux this evening with you yawning that way," Ben said, shaking his head. "Sleep here."

"In the woods?" Yasha asked skeptically. "I'll be eaten out here. You think I'm going to go to sleep?"

"I'll be watching you," Ben said, crossing his arms over his chest. "Honestly, you come away from the Academy for a couple of days and already you're becoming such a... a girl."

It was veiled as an insult, perhaps, but to Ben, it was a confession to say Yasha was acting like a girl - it was a confession that perhaps he, too, saw her as such. The constancy she had exhibited as his both his rival and his friend at the Academy was enough to solidify in his mind that she was worthy.

"We're really going to meet with him, then?" Yasha asked skeptically, breaking Ben out of his thoughtful silence. He flinched slightly, realizing that she had gotten to her feet and was now standing in front of him, her features creased in apprehension. In fear. "I don't know if I like that man, Ben. I think there's something -"

"You don't need to be scared, you know," Ben interrupted, waving his hand dismissively and chuckling at her hesitations. "I'm going to be there too."

And he looked her in the eyes this time - not a piercing, commanding stare, but rather a glance that for whatever reason, he sincerely hoped assuaged her worries. Didn't she have faith in him? Did she think that he would be incompetent enough to allow any harm to come her way in his presence?

"You should rest," he continued, though his hands fought against clenching into fists at his sides at the possibility that maybe Yasha believed him incapable of looking out for her. Yasha stared briefly, eyes filled with skepticism, but moved back over to sit next to the same tree stump where she had been sitting earlier, leaning back against it and allowing her eyes to drift shut. Satisfied that she'd at least complied, Ben moved over to sit on the tree stump and look down at her while she tried to sleep.

"It's almost a shame that we're leaving in a couple of days," Yasha yawned, her voice slightly muffled as she raised her arm to cover her mouth. "It's a little cruel, learning about the way other people live and never getting to live it..."

To Ben, hearing these words seemed to flip a switch in his mind, pulling him back to the same thoughts he'd had the night before, alone in his room. Did this mean that she had been thinking about him? As knowledgeable as Ben wanted to find himself, he wasn't sure. But if she was tired and relaxed, surely it would take very little to get into her mind. He'd been practicing, after all. He could see whatever answers he needed with just a moment's access... just a glimpse...

"Whatever you want to know, you could always ask. I'd tell you."

Ben's eyes, which had drifted shut as he began to try and enter Yasha's mind, quickly opened to find Yasha awake and staring at him with a raised eyebrow. He put on an air of nonchalance, though it admittedly stung a great deal that he'd not been able to breech her mental defenses undetected.

And even worse, she was angry. Yasha, exasperated, got to her feet and began storming away down the path, he fatigue forgotten. Ben's jaw clenched, and before he could help himself, he raised his hand and, with his brow creased in concentration, caused Yasha to freeze in her tracks. She let out an angry groan and narrowed her eyes as Ben briskly strode over to stand next to her.

"You think you can use your abilities for anything, you think it can get you anywhere," she snarled through gritted teeth, still trying to free her limbs from the hold that Ben had not yet released. "My thoughts are mine, Ben. You can't come and go from them as you please if you're going to call me your friend -"

"Perhaps I don't want to call you my friend, then."

And even though Ben released his hold on her, granting her control again over her own body, the only movement visible in her was her arms slumping down at her sides while she stared at him in confusion.

"Ben -"

"You're not only my friend, Yasha," he said, but while there was something honest, almost sweet about the sentiment, it seemed to perturb him - even to anger him. "And I need to know if you -"

But before his confession could go any further, Yasha had sucked in a deep breath and started down the path away from him, her own face angry and pale as well. Ben clenched his jaw and walked after her, reaching out and grabbing a hold of her forearm, firmly stopping her in her tracks so he was standing in front of her and blocking her path again.

"You told me that if I asked, you'd tell me," he said, his face twisting slightly in anger. "You said -"

"I know what I said, and I'm walking away before you ask a question that is going to ruin us both if I answer it," Yasha snapped, shaking her head and making a slicing gesture with her hands, as though doing so might dispel the situation, might cut away the thoughts together. "Someday soon, you and I are going to be Jedi, and this is going to be out of the question. If we even entertain the thought now, it'll only hurt us more -"

"So you've thought of it too," Ben said, drawing himself up to full height before closing the space between himself and Yasha, placing his hands on his shoulders to keep her from darting away. "Since I've known you, you've been constant. You've been true. You're going to be a good Jedi, and you make me want to be a better one - the best one. What else is there?"

"What you're thinking," Yasha began slowly, sounding almost as though she was sick to her stomach, "goes against everything that Master Skywalker taught us Jedi are supposed to be -"

"Then maybe he's wrong."

The suggestion, however, seemed to shock Yasha - the thought of Luke Skywalker being wrong, when she had dedicated herself wholly to the faithful following of his tutelage, was unheard of. She shut her eyes and began to shake her head, only to find her motions stopped, not by and psychic manipulation, but by Ben's slightly calloused hands resting on either side of her face and his lips pressing against hers. His hands were gentle, but he kissed her with a demand and an urgency which very much suited his demeanor.

If one were to be kissed by Ben Solo, Yasha thought while strangely dizzied in surprise by the moment, they should expect no less.

It took a moment to realize that she was not simply being kissed by Ben Solo. She was reciprocating. She let out a small gasp and pulled back, eyes widened in surprise. Ben, however, shot her a lopsided grin before reaching out for her hands again.

"You and I make one another better," he said matter-of-factly. "There can be nothing wrong with this. With us."

"But we're going to be Jedi," Yasha persisted. "And Master Skywalker -"

"- isn't going to live forever," Ben said, gesturing widely with his arms. "We're his best pupils. One day, you and I will make the rules. One day, it won't matter -"

"We don't get to make the rules," Yasha said, running a hand over her hair and turning away, unable to look into Ben's dark eyes as they had this conversation. "Just because we -"

"So you don't care for me?" Ben asked, his voice suddenly going quiet - almost cold in his disappointment. Yasha tensed as though a shock had run through her at the accusation. If she were to say that she didn't care for Ben, it would be a lie. She cared for him. She knew the things because she had thought them too - but unlike him, when weighing these thoughts and emotions against her sense of duty, the latter won out. Discipline over desire. Balance over self.

But if Ben asked, she had promised to answer. Was that, too, not duty?

"Do you care for me?" Ben repeated. Slowly, Yasha turned around, her face fearful as though she stood on the edge of a precipice. This moment, he knew now, would determine what Yasha Faygill would be to him thereafter.

"I do," she said in a quiet voice, only audible because of the stillness and quiet of the forest around them. Now, as though the admission, even in the absence of a plan of what came next, removed a weight from her shoulders as she rushed forward and embraced him tightly. Ben allowed a rare smile to rest on his face as he realized that she had accepted his reasoning.

"I'm pleasantly surprised," a voice came from the edge of the clearing, causing the pair to quickly separate and turn to face the source of the voice. Hux stepped out from the edge of the treeline and out into the open, chuckling slightly to himself. "I suppose the Jedi are nothing if not punctual."

Yasha glanced around and realized that they must have wandered right into the designated meeting place - that perhaps, Ben had been guiding them in this direction all along in his determination to have this meeting. Hux nodded for them to follow him back towards the trees, and as they went deeper into the forest, the metallic glint in the fading light betrayed the presence of a sleek, space-to-land vessel, a stealth cruiser that they had obviously taken and hidden away here. Hux hand been here the whole time.

The craft, despite its streamlined exterior, seemed strangely spacious on the inside, with a large cockpit and control room, and an elevator pad to an upper floor, concealed by a closed door.

"That is where the Senator will be conferring with you," Hux said, following Yasha's upwards gaze. "He will be glad that you and His Highness have granted him an audience. He'd like to speak with each of you personally, if you'll allow it."

"Of course. I will speak with him first," Ben spoke up haughtily without allowing Yasha the opportunity to protest. She felt her heart sink strangely at the sight of Ben, for whom she had finally been able to admit her feelings, approaching the elevator pad and being carried up to speak with the mysterious Senator Snoke.

"Don't be afraid," Hux said with a deceptively calm, almost kind expression on his face, his hand grasping Yasha's shoulder more firmly than was needed. "No harm will come to anyone as valuable as either of you."

Ben, on the other hand, felt his heart racing in anticipation - at meeting the mysterious Snoke, who sent only emissaries, who even his own mother had not met. He was worthy. He was best. As the elevator pad rose to the second level and came to a stop, however, Ben was taken aback by the sight which awaited him.

On a steel table at the center of this much smaller room, an orb like machine crackled to life and projected the image of a robed man into the center of the room. Slowly, ominously, he gestured for Ben to come forward.

"Young Prince," he said in a tone that Ben could not decipher as reverence or derision. "I am honored at the opportunity for an audience with you."

"I know, I've heard," Ben retorted before he could help himself - the reaction garnered a strange, cough-like laugh from the man.

"I have very much anticipated our meeting," Snoke nodded with a bow. "Young Prince, I believe the Force has drawn us to meet. I have long hoped for this - to meet the grandson of the great Darth Vader."

The great Darth Vader, Ben mulled over in his mind. He had heard precious little about his grandfather - only that he had been killed, and had died in an act of redemption. He did not know what his father needed redeeming for.

"Tell me, Ben Solo," Snoke said, his voice strangely melodic in spite of its age and hoarseness as though he was weaving some sort of spell like a siren song. "Why do you wish to become a Jedi when your grandfather wanted so much to end them?"

The question made Ben take a step backward as though it had been a physical blow. He had no answers. He wanted to be a Jedi because he had begun, because he was the best, because it validated his strength and his ability.

"I can see inside you that the way of the Jedi holds you back," Snoke continued. "I can see that the girl from Lothal occupies your mind. That you care deeply for her. That you wish to keep her at your side."

"I... do."

"And the Jedi cannot love, can they?" Snoke asked. "Is that not what you have been taught?"

"It is."

"Darth Vader died a hero because of... love," Snoke continued. "Love, hate, passion, anger... all of these things are forbidden to the Jedi. The wholeness and the fullness of life, of all your potential, is being kept from you, Your Highness. Surely, you see it too."

Ben fell silent. Perhaps he did see it. Perhaps these were the answers he sought, at nights when he could not sleep and could no longer believe Master Skywalker's teachings in his heart. Perhaps this was why he was simply stagnating, that he could not grow.

They were holding him back. Yasha made him better - she made him better because he loved her. And as a Jedi, as long as Luke Skywalker was at the helm of the order, he could not fully have her.

Were these his own thoughts? Did they belong to someone else?

"When you return to the clearing, a token of my appreciation will be waiting for you," Snoke said into the silence, his eyes piercing and cold. "Consider it a reminder of my hope that we will meet again in the near future, Your Highness."

"Ben?"

The elevator pad opened again to reveal Yasha, who had just been sent up by Hux. Ben cast one glance backward at Snoke, staring back before striding towards Yasha and, driven by some strange urge, kissing her soundly on the mouth before striding past her, leaving her to her conference with Senator Snoke.

While Ben had been anxious to meet with the mysterious man, Yasha showed much less willingness, standing a good distance away and staring at the projection of the man with her arms stiff at her sides.

"You do not need to fear me, my lady," Snoke said, his holographic face curling into a strange near-grin as he regarded the young woman before him. She, like Ben, exuded a raw energy, an untapped power - but what came from her was different in character from Ben's. In Ben, there was anger. In Yasha, there was desperation and pride. "You are my honored guest."

"I have no reason to be an honored guest," Yasha said sternly. "I'm a farm girl from Lothal, the daughter of a baker and a miner. Before I became a Jedi Initiate, I slept on the floor and fed livestock every morning. I don't harbor any delusions of being more than that."

"You are very much more than that, my lady," Snoke answered. "You are one of the most brilliant minds of the Jedi Academy. A loyal student. A faithful pupil. But... you are... doubtful -"

"I would appreciate if you stayed out of mind."

"And I honor your request," Snoke said, his lips curling into a smirk at her fiery temperament. "But I don't need to see into your mind to know that you care for Ben Solo. That you desire him."

Yasha tensed, her chest rising as she took in a deep breath. Her face contorted slightly in suspicion towards the man's intentions but knew that he was too important, too high in status to offend in such a manner.

"You believe that a Jedi is the only thing that you can be," Snoke said in a deceptively gentle tone. "And that is why you keep yourself from the one thing that would bring you happiness. Because a Jedi, your heart - your happiness - cannot matter. You are willing to make yourself a slave to the Force, rather than a master of it, because you are afraid."

"I'm not afraid," Yasha said firmly. "And I am no slave. I would like to leave now."

Snoke straightened up, having started to lean in closer to the young woman. He made a gesture like a bow and nodded - almost as though he admired her, while anyone else would have taken insult. "I apologize for having kept you, my lady," he began. "I very much hope for an audience with you again."

But Yasha could spare the man little more than a curt nod before walking briskly back toward the elevator pad, back to the main chamber of the stealth cruiser where Ben and Junior Officer Hux were waiting.

"Impeccable timing," Hux said with a grin - Yasha wa now more than ever beginning to feel extremely unsettled by the strange, saccharine demeanor granted to them by both Hux and Snoke. "I was just telling His Highness that the Senator has planned a very special show this evening, just for the both of you - as a show of our strength. We won't keep you any longer or you might miss it."

Yasha couldn't have left fast enough for her own taste, hurrying back into the clearing ahead of Ben with such haste that she tripped over what she assumed was a stone. She shuffled from her she had fallen and noticed that it was not a stone at all, but rather something that glinted in the newly minted moonlight. She reached over to pick it up, realizing that it was a helmet - all black and partially warped as though it had been burned.

"Yasha?" Ben said, crouching near where she had fallen in concern but quickly becoming distracted by what she was holding and reaching out to touch it himself. "What's -"

But before the question could leave his lips entirely, his mind was bombarded by an onslaught of images which he couldn't decipher. A horde of soldier in white armor. A space station like a moon. A man in all black, with a cape and mask... Darth Vader.

"This is mine," Ben said quickly as he opened his eyes, his expression desperate and furious as he pulled the helmet from Yasha's hands to her surprise. "Snoke told me that there would be something here for me. This is mine."

Yasha relinquished the strange helmet, getting to her feet and dusting herself off but not taking her gaze from Ben in the meantime. He got to his feet as well, holding the old, damaged helmet close to his abdomen as he locked eyes with the young woman in front of him.

"We need to go back, Ben," Yasha said shakily. "The Palace..."

But for a moment, Ben glanced back over his shoulder at the stealth cruiser's closed door, questioning whether he wanted to return at all. Snoke understood. Snoke saw potential in him, greater than in others. But Yasha's gaze pleaded with him to return, and for the moment he could not refuse it.

"Let's go," he said, reaching out for one of her hands and leading her back to the palace.

The journey back through the woods was a wordless one, and the pair made great haste back to the palace grounds, hurrying up the stairs and to the great wooden doors. Ben finally let go of Yasha's hand to open the door, only to find when he placed his hand on the handle that it opened without him applying any push - it swung open to reveal Princess Leia, staring sternly between her son and Yasha.

"Where have you been?" she asked, cocking her head to one side while Ben shuffled and kept the helmet hidden behind his back. "Ben? Yasha?"

"Your Highness, I'm sorry," Yasha spoke up first, before Ben could have the opportunity to say or do something rash. "I... I wanted to see more of the grounds before we had to leave, and Ben agreed to take me."

Leia, of course, was not blind. She saw that one of Ben's hands hid something behind him - but her gaze was drawn more to his other hand, which had darted over to take a hold of Yasha's. Whatever they had done, wherever they had been, at the very least Yasha had brought him back. Leia now locked eyes with the girl and opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, there was a loud sound like roaring thunder. The sky was suddenly illuminated, and the place in the sky which had once been occupied by one of Endor's gas moons was now taken by a ball of flame, and a wave of heat and sound that cascaded down to Endor.

Flanked by the two young teenagers, Leia hurried inside of the palace to regard the event from inside at the window, just in time to see flame and debris beginning to rain down on Endor from the destroyed moon.

This was the show of strength that Hux had spoken of, Ben and Yasha both realized as they locked eyes with one another. But while Yasha appeared horrified by the destruction of an entire moon, Ben looked impressed, almost enraptured. Leia saw the expression on her son's face and felt her heart sink.

Immediately, the other delegates present and staying in guest quarters in the palace were flooding into the great hall in various states of drowsiness and panic. Yasha flinched in surprise upon seeing Hux among them. Despite Leia's obvious concern for the pair before her, duty now called more loudly. Representative of the entire Republic looked to her now, and she began to move towards the platform to address them.

Ben regarded her with a small amount of bitterness until Yasha rested a hand on the crook of his arm, willing him to look at her. He complied briefly, but again found his gaze drawn to the window as the flaming debris continued to illuminate the night sky.

This was power, he realized, and he desired it.

He needed it.

A/N

I have to admit... writing Snoke and Hux is extra hard. I hope my readers got what they wanted from this first interaction, especially N Dot A Dot (guest), who specifically mentioned their hope to see the interaction. With all of this being said, the next chapter will go to present-day action, and taking this quick break has helped me get a better grasp on how I want to portray everything.

Also, I have been considering also alternating posting another story that I have some chapters written for, which is a Reylo Biker!AU, because I have really been wanting to get my muse for my Sons of Anarchy muses awake again. On the fence, because I already have very little time on my hands, but that might be on the horizon in the near future.

But for now, I am focused on developing this story, and as always, I'm glad for all the support I get from all of you, even in spite of the speedbumps along the way and the sometimes delayed updates. Until next time, cheers!

Next Time: The Resistance arrives to collect the Marelignium from Dantooine, but returns with more than they asked for.