Part II, Chapter X - Tit for Tat
[In which Rey and Kylo Ren talk politics.]

~o0o~

There had been a shower, food and a set of fresh clothes, all of which restored much of Rey's spirits. Not that it made much of a difference on this ship, but since the timer claimed it was 9 o'clock in the evening, Rey would have liked nothing more than to curl up in her corner of the training room and go to sleep - whatever state she had been in for the last week, it had not been a restful one, and she was still exhausted. Surely, what with everything, even Kylo Ren could be persuaded to skip evening sparring just this once, right?

Wrong, it turned out - he insisted on picking up their schedule where they had left it. Rey gritted her teeth in frustration, but then, on Jakku she had been forced to go out and scavenge for food whatever condition she was in, even that one time a cut had become infected and she had been plagued by fever for two weeks. And so it was that Kylo Ren and herself were circling each other once more, quarterstaff against training sword.

"A week of inactivity is unacceptable," he informed her, frowning at her sluggish movements. "You need this workout to get back to your old strength. I will not have you slack off."

"Slack off? I did not asked to be tortured into a coma." Rey asked, already getting furious at him once more, and reminded herself not to draw her power from a place of anger. He was baiting her, she was sure of it. One moment he helped her expel his Master's darkness, the next he tried to stir it - keeping up with him was quite a challenge. More calmly, she continued.

"What did you mean, earlier, that the matter has been laid to rest? Have the charges against me been dropped, just like that?"

"Don't let it concern you further. No one ever really suspected you. It was all more… political."

Rey shook her head. She had been tortured, had almost died, for something vague as that?

Kylo Ren could see that this explanation did not satisfy her at all, so he added: "The General was just diverting attention away from his strategic blunder and getting revenge for what happened in the hangar."

"That man is really out to get me," murmured Rey.

"His issue is with me. He is jealous of my position," Kylo Ren explained. "But he is not a warrior, just a jumped-up son of an Imperial officer. He enjoys intrigue and underhanded manoeuvres rather than facing me one-on-one."

Rey felt her anger well up anew, resenting to be caught up in this ridiculous power struggle between two rivalling First Order officers. She was not some kind of pawn.

"If he comes after me again, I'll kill him," she mumbled through gritted teeth.

"Be my guest. You are powerful enough to snap his neck from a distance within a few seconds," Kylo Ren said casually. "For your sake though, I advise you not to do so. The Supreme Leader would punish you severely."

"But you would really enjoy it if I killed the General, wouldn't you? Even though you are supposedly allies." Rey said, staring at him. Yet another oddity. "What is your game? I don't understand you."

"There is no game. You are my apprentice. I am your teacher. I am showing you the ways of the force." He suddenly struck out lightning-quick, and Rey blocked the attack without even taking off her eyes off his face. "And look how far you've come."

For a split second, Kylo Ren smirked proudly - genuinely, slightly mischievously and so much like Han Solo, Rey's heart twisted. This was not fair. Han's killer should be allowed to look so much like him. No son who murdered his father should.

Kylo Ren did not appear to have noticed what anguish this brief smile had occasioned in Rey; he simply continued to execute a flurry of swings. "All I want is for you to realise your full potential. You told me you did not want to be forced into the dark side, and your latest experience has shown that would be a fool's errand, anyway. You will be much stronger if you make this choice on your own."

Almost glad to be torn away from her earlier painful thoughts, Rey laughed in disbelief, trying to land a kick on the joint of his dominant leg while fending off his blows. "Choice? You have attacked me relentlessly. You are holding me prisoner. You are threatening Luke's life. What is that if not forcing me?"

"What the Supreme Leader did was forcing you. I want you to embrace the dark side on your own volition. You have the potential, we both know it."

Rey searched his face. Yes, she had had a taste of the dark side, enough to know that she did not want any part of it. She was not going to join him willingly in any form or fashion. Never. Why did he refuse to see that? Could he really be that insane, that deluded?

"Okay. But. See. I don't want to embrace the dark side," Rey said, slowly and deliberately as if talking to a particularly difficult child. "What are you going to do about it? How far will you go?"

If her tone annoyed him, he did not show it. "I don't expect you to see it right here and now. But soon your saberstaff will be finished, and then we can really gauge the difference between your power and mine. It will open your eyes. I know you'll see it, because I know you are not a fool. Just misguided."

"I might say the same thing to you!" Rey retorted.

"If you think so, let us see which of us is right about the other in a trial of strength," he shrugged.

"Do you always measure the validity of an argument by the strength of its proponent? Don't you think that is a little unfair, with you being like-?" Rey measured the towering form of Kylo Ren from head to toe in a frustrated gesture. This debate was ridiculous and if it was up to her, she would not even bother. But she felt that if she really wanted to defeat this man, she needed to find out what made him tick.

He paused, irritated. "Do not misunderstand me on purpose, Rey, you're smarter than this. Obviously I'm physically stronger than you - but I am talking about the force. In that regard, you are more than my equal. I know your strength; it would be foolish and dangerous for me to belittle you or hold back out of some misguided chivalrous notion."

Rey's eyes flitted to the scar on his face, and for a moment, their duel on Starkiller Base was back in both their minds.

"So, this trial of strength you're proposing," she said carefully. "When will that be?"

"How about when you have finished your saberstaff? I promise you right here and now: if you manage to beat me without tapping into the dark side, you are free to go. If not, my point remains. And you are free to challenge me again anytime."

Rey paused, once more somewhat taken aback. "Are you even in a position to offer me something like that? What about Snoke?"

"It doesn't matter either way," Kylo Ren replied calmly. "Because in order for you to defeat me, you will have to kill me."

"You are very sure of yourself, considering I have defeated you twice," Rey said.

"And are you not forgetting something crucial about these two instances?" He asked pointedly.

The cold hiss, the red mist, the storm of power, the rage of the beast - so dark and cruel it chilled her to the bone. How could she possibly forget? It was true: each time she had had Kylo Ren at her mercy, she had tapped into the dark side. Rey shuddered involuntarily.

"Alright. Let's assume for one moment I do willingly choose the dark side. Then what?"

"You will help me and the Supreme Leader bring order back to the galaxy, just as had been Vader's goal."

"Really not that interested in the galaxy," Rey replied, realising the truth of it as she said it. She had grown up all alone on a planet where people did not care if she lived or died. She was not the type to have idealistic goals, or profound political convictions.

"You say that, yet you would actively support the anarchists of the Resistance, purely out of personal affiliation," Kylo Ren pointed out. "Ties to other people are all that drives you. Do not deny it."

"At least the Resistance are not raiding villages and killing innocent people. Or blowing up entire planetary systems," Rey shot back sharply.

"Yet they support a system where settlements, planets, individual systems raid and slaughter each other on a daily basis. The New Republic is - was - a pathetic joke. The senate would watch the galaxy descend into civil war once more. Having no formal education, perhaps you can not be expected to understand this, but sometimes, a hard approach is needed to restore order. To be cruel to prevent greater cruelty. To end a conflict, one party must be prepared to do what is necessary. Our world is too large, too complex, our weapons too powerful. If order is not imposed from the top down, the galaxy will sink into chaos and death. History has shown us this, countless times."

Rey realised then they had long stopped exchanging blows - they had crossed straight into a full-blown ideological discussion. He was right though, in this she was way out of her waters. She did not know much about history, about politics. But she was familiar with bullies.

"Peace through oppression?" She said doubtfully. "I'm sure that's not what your mother taught you."

"My mother," he snorted disdainfully. "The daughter of Darth Vader, born with an immense force potential. If she had wanted to, she could have brought the peace and order to the galaxy that she so desperately longs for. But instead, she chose to aid chaos by clinging to a spineless, useless senate. No, Rey. If you are born with power such as yours or mine, you have a responsibility to use it for good. I will make you see that. I will make you see that ultimately, we both want the same thing."

"You will make me?" Rey repeated. "So there we are again: You are threatening me and forcing me, after all."

They looked at each other, and their respective frustration with the other was almost palpable.

"You're young, Rey. Naive," Kylo Ren eventually added softly. "So much so you can't see the benefit of all I am trying to teach you."

"You're not that much older." Rey remarked. How old was he anyway? With him, it was really hard to tell. Especially right now that he wasn't snarling or frowning, his face looked soft and youthful.

Kylo Ren appeared tired of the debate and, putting away the sword for today, changed the topic.

"I have wanted to ask you something."

Rey looked up in surprise at Kylo Ren's oddly earnest announcement.

"When you caused that odd phenomenon during the Supreme Leader's questioning, you were claiming that you could see my grandfather. You heard him say something. What was it?"

Rey opened her mouth to reply, then closed it again. She did remember, through a haze. That Jedi by Luke's bedside. Young, handsome. Hard to imagine him being anyone's grandfather. Hard to imagine him being one of the greatest Sith to menace the galaxy. He had told her his name. Had told her to tell Ben-

You are being deceived. You must finish what I started.

"Tit for tat, Kylo Ren," Rey said, not stopping to wonder about those cryptic words. "I know something about your family, you know something about mine."

"Very well," Kylo Ren conceded. "I was ready to tell you weeks ago, anyway. The name you gave me, of the man who claimed to be your father - it's a common false name used by Divinator agents. I did not know what it meant at the time, but nowadays I do. The Divinators are the First Order's secret service."

"Divinators? The ones who my mother said were watching the school?" Rey said in astonishment, remembering the memory Kylo Ren had shared with her back on Ahch-To. "So my father was from the First Order?"

"It seems too much of a coincidence for him not to be," Kylo Ren shrugged.

"But Luke said he had no reason to believe the man was not my father. Why would a First Order agent bring me to a Jedi?"

"No idea. I promised you back then I would look into it, and I requested these from our archives," Kylo Ren motioned her to follow. He led her back to the main room, to the corner in which the crate with the data cubes was slowly collecting dust.

Rey looked up to him, visibly excited. "What are those?"

"Divinator records from around fifteen years ago. You are free to search them yourself, but" - he caught her arm when she had already started to rush towards the pile of documents - "tit for tat, as you put it, scavenger."

"'You are being deceived. You must finish what I started'," Rey said. "That's what Anakin Skywalker said to tell you."

Kylo Ren frowned at her. "That is all? What does that mean?"

"I don't know. I wasn't exactly in a clear state of mind. I only saw him that one time."

If Kylo Ren was frustrated, he did not show it. Instead he turned away, frowning some more, and Rey took that as a sign that she was free to dig into the data. Finally, obviously distracted, Kylo Ren turned to leave his quarters.

"I have somewhere to be. Stay in this room."

Rey just made a noncommittal noise in reply. She was already busy reading.

~o0o~

Kylo Ren turned the molten helmet over and over in his hands.

Grandfather. What do you mean? I am finishing what you started. I have never done anything but.

'You are being deceived'. Kylo Ren was not a fool. The only person that could refer to was the Supreme Leader - but such words from Darth Vader? Who had just recently told him to trust in his mentor, to look to him for guidance? That was a contradiction. Something else must be at play.

Snoke had always been completely open with him about his goals, even when his plans and visions had initially shaken Kylo Ren in their unapologetic ruthlessness. He was old, experienced, incredibly powerful; Kylo Ren had never caught him lie or cheat.

The Supreme Leader had always laid out all his options before him, had shown him all the possible outcomes, had let him make his own conclusions. Or so Kylo Ren had always perceived it, always, even when he had been much younger. If Snoke was deceiving him - in what regard, and to what end?

His father's face flickered before his inner vision.

Snoke's using you for your power, manipulating your abilities. When he's gotten everything he wants out of you, he'll crush you. Toss you aside.

Yes, of course Han Solo would say that. But the Supreme Leader had never made a secret out of why he wanted Kylo Ren around. He was Darth Vader's grandson, born with a huge force potential - a "perfect focal point between the dark side and the light", Snoke had once said. No, there was nothing to be deceived about in that regard, either.

Could the girl simply have lied to him, to shake him in his conviction? That, too, was impossible. They shared a force bond, by now he could tell when she was lying even without having to probe into her mind.

"Talk to me, grandfather. Show me. Guide me."

But once again, all remained silent.

~o0o~

[to be continued]