"Rey? Are you okay?" It's Leia Organa asking, but all Rey can see is the piercing blue eyes of her Jedi brother. Alert and accusing. Staring down at her with undisguised hostility.
"Who are you? Who are you really?" Luke Skywalker demands in a harsh voice.
"I-I-" A still disoriented Rey falters. Her mind is rebooting in the aftermath of the Force vision. While this has happened once before, this time was even more terrifying. Rey's heart is racing and she's panting with exertion and adrenaline combined. The vivid, lurid Skywalker history still consumes her thoughts. "I-I-"
"Luke, give her a moment—" The Resistance general is kneeling at her side now. Rey slowly realizes that she's sprawled on the floor. The Force has literally knocked her off her feet, just like with the vision at Maz's castle.
"Answer me!" the Jedi demands again.
And seeing his face clouded with suspicion and anger, Rey wants nothing more than to run. Because in life, sometimes it's fight or flight and this man is the Jedi who killed two Sith so the choice is definitely flight. Rey hasn't survived this long without thinking fast. She climbs to her feet. She's poised to flee when she hears the distinctive snap-hiss of the Jedi's blade. Rey looks up to find a gleaming green lightsaber held steady before her face.
She's cornered. And now Leia Organa too turns accusing eyes on Rey.
"Answer me," the Jedi commands. "Who are you? Who are you that you speak to the Sith in the Force?" His eyes narrow on her and his voice becomes a roar of outrage. "Who are you that you address Snoke by name? That you thank him?"
And Rey realizes that her only choice is to talk her way out of this. And she won't be able to lie. So she starts babbling fast. "I'm the girl who found the BB8 droid with the map in the desert. On Jakku where I stole the Millennium Falcon. I was on the Starkiller with the deserter Finn, the wookiee Chewbacca and Han Solo."
"You were with Han?" the general whispers aloud. "Were you the girl the ex-trooper went back to save?"
"Yes!" Rey needs to make them understand that she is one of them. Well, sort of. "I was captured on Takodana. The First Order got me but they didn't get the droid."
"Go on," the Jedi prompts.
"After I escaped, I watched Kylo Ren kill Han Solo." Rey turns back to Kylo's mother now. Rey has been wanting to tell her this for a long time. "I'm sorry, General. I really liked Han Solo. He offered me a job and he was—"
"How do you know the Sith?" the Jedi interrupts. He wants her to get to the point.
But the story keeps bubbling out of a very nervous Rey. She's tripping over her tongue to get the words out fast enough. Her eyes keep darting to the buzzing saber tip in her face. "Finn had the sword—Maz said it was your sword! Finn had the sword and he fought Kylo Ren. He died. Finn was cut up the back and he died in the snow."
"Go on."
"I took up the sword and I fought Kylo Ren too. I won and then I lost. And when I woke up, the first thing I saw was Leader Snoke standing over me."
Leia Organa's face is hard now. "You told me that Kylo Ren made Hux evacuate you from the Starkiller."
"He did. Kylo Ren took me to his Master. They wanted me alive."
The Jedi nods. "And?"
Rey turns back to Leia Organa. "General, your brother is right. You can't win. Not really. Light and Dark will always coexist to some degree. That's why you can't kill Darth Plagueis. He's immortal and he is the devil himself."
"He's a Muun!" Leia Organa scoffs.
"No," Rey disagrees. "He is a Sith god." And now Rey has an idea for how to throw the Skywalker twins off the truth a bit. "He lives forever in the Force even though his body is broken. He can even bring people back to life with the Force. And he—he—" Rey pauses and deliberately strokes at her swollen belly. Luke Skywalker follows the movement with his eyes. "He even creates life in the Force."
"I lived with him for months. He has a library of old Sith books. A laboratory where he does experiments in the Force. And an old servant who he keeps alive in the Force." Rey keeps revealing truths, hoping that she is regaining credibility. "Snoke doesn't sleep. He would meditate all night when he wasn't working and wasn't t-t-ouching me."
"He is teaching you." This is a statement from the Jedi, not a question.
And Rey nods yes, but then she hastens to clarify. "He's not teaching me the Dark Side. He said I could never be Sith. Snoke doesn't want me to be Dark—he wants the Light. Snoke was teaching me to heal with the Force."
"Yes, of course he is. To heal him." Luke Skywalker's tone is harsh. "He's just using you. And when he gets what he wants, he'll destroy you. Just like he will Ben."
Rey keeps talking. "Snoke sent me to the First Order so that I could practice healing battle wounds. Snoke has lightsaber wounds from the Emperor who tried to kill him long ago. They are very bad and I don't have enough skill to heal them yet. I needed more practice."
"Some of those wounds are from me," the Jedi reveals.
But before Rey can ask about this, Leia Organa accuses, "You told me that you lived in General Hux's quarters on the Finalizer."
"It's true, I did. Hux got demoted over the Starkiller. I was given his old quarters. But they were a prison, General. I was marched to and from the medibay by a squad of stormtroopers. I tried to escape once. I shot General Hux and ran to steal a ship from the hangar. But I got caught by Kylo Ren. General, listen, I never lied to you. I am a scavenger from Jakku who got caught up in a war . . . I never even knew that I had the Force . . . I was a prisoner of the First Order for months . . . I never lied to you—"
"Except for the part about that being Hux's baby," Leia Organa snaps back.
"It's not Hux's child," Rey freely admits now. "General Hux never once touched me. He wouldn't dare. Snoke would kill any man who touched me."
"Then whose baby is it?" the general fires off the obvious follow-up question.
Luke Skywalker is staring at her now with an intensity that reminds Rey strongly of his nephew. And she feels the pressure in her ears that tells her the Jedi Master is summoning the Force. This, then, must be how the Light Side reads your thoughts. For the Jedi isn't invading her mind but Rey senses very strongly that she is being judged. And so, on a hunch, Rey deliberately thinks of Snoke calling her beautiful, Snoke untying her hospital gown that first night in his bed, and Snoke kissing and pawing at her and asking if she will sleep with him. She thinks of sleeping curled on Snoke's giant bed and of arriving back to the pomp and circumstance of the Finalizer as General Hux sneers about her being the Leader's 'special guest.' It's true, all of it. But it's not the whole truth.
"I think this child is Sith." Rey is truthful again, but deliberately vague.
"You think?" Leia Organa's tone is scornful sarcasm.
"I wasn't always sure what he d-did to me," Rey improvises, thinking of her confusion as Snoke had once fondled her while she was in the Force. "There was a slave woman once long ago. He created a child in her with the Force. There was no biological father . . . "
"Shmi Skyw—"
"He can do things like that! That's how powerful he is!" Rey looks Luke Skywalker in the eye now. "As soon as I realized that I might be pregnant, I escaped. Kylo Ren put me on the prisoner transport to be sent here."
"And why would Kylo Ren risk doing that?" the Jedi demands. "Why would he help you escape his Sith Master?"
"He knew that I was pregnant. He could sense it in the Force. And he felt sorry for me," Rey says earnestly. "Kylo Ren is not as bad as everyone says."
"Kylo Ren is a monster who killed my husband," Leia Organa's response is cold.
"And he murdered his fellow students and countless others in cold blood," Luke Skywalker finishes. "He didn't feel sorry for you, Rey," the Jedi shakes his head at her foolish naivete. He has it all figured out now. "Ben knew you were carrying the child that might someday be his replacement. He was getting rid of a future rival. That's why he helped you escape." The Jedi turns to his sister now. "Snoke will never let Ben reach his full potential in the Force. He won't risk having an apprentice he can't fully control. He will kill Ben long before that."
Rey is making headway now, so she keeps attempting to ingratiate herself with the Skywalker twins. "Kylo Ren is going to kill you," Rey warns the Jedi. "You know that, right? He and Snoke want to kill you."
Luke Skywalker shrugs. "First, they have to find me."
"Why did you lie to me?" Leia Organa is justifiably angry. And Rey feels bad for having manipulated this woman so.
"I thought that if you knew the truth, you wouldn't let me stay. And I have no money and nowhere to go. Plus, this is the safest place to hide from Snoke. He can't find me if he can't find you."
Luke Skywalker isn't buying this explanation. "Just now you sounded pretty chummy with Snoke. When you were talking to him in the Force, you—"
"That was an accident!" Rey stammers out. And it's true. She hadn't been trying to contact Snoke. "I was drowning in the Force and he helped me. I was relieved and I thanked him for helping me-that's all! I'm not going back to Snoke—I'm no fool!"
"No one drowns in the Force, Rey," the Jedi scoffs. "That's not how the Force works."
"That's how it works when I heal," Rey shoots back. "Snoke was teaching me how to control it so I don't drown. You can become one with the Force and accidentally lose yourself in it if you go deep enough."
"That's just a metaphor," the Jedi rejects this notion outright. "It doesn't truly happen."
"Yes, it does!" Rey holds firm. "It's happened twice to me already. And I've even seen an old Jedi describe it on a holochron. It's true-"
"It's not." Luke Skywalker's voice is quiet and final.
And Rey stops disputing the point. For Luke Skywalker is just how Snoke had described the Jedi: rigid and dogmatic about the Force.
"Do you really heal with the Force?" he asks Rey.
And rather than tell him, Rey decides to show him. Picking a wrench from her toolbelt, Rey drags it along her arm leaving a small bloody scrape. A mere moment of concentration erases the wound.
"Impressive." Skywalker makes a face as he says this. "Force healing is a Jedi skill. How is Snoke teaching you this?"
"The Force is the Force," Rey quotes the Sith Master. "How the Jedi connect with it and use it differs from the Sith. But it's still the same Force. And Snoke knows all there is to know about the Force. Snoke loves the Force."
"He loves its power," Kylo's uncle is dismissive. "The Sith crave power."
"Yes," Rey agrees. "Especially the Light Side power they cannot use."
"What?" Leia Organa looks confused.
"The Sith crave the Light," Rey reveals. "The Darker the Sith, the more they want the Light. For balance."
"There is no balance," Skywalker scoffs. "Don't believe Snoke's lies. Dark and Light cannot live in harmony." Luke Skywalker's face looks frustrated and annoyed. "There is no middle ground, Rey. We cannot coexist." And this is the crux of the issue that Leia Organa and her brother had been arguing about earlier, Rey realizes. How there can be no victor because neither the Light nor the Dark can succeed in destroying the other completely. So there is war without end over the Force, with this family and the galaxy caught in between. The Jedi looks so weary and resigned. So old right now. "There is no middle ground," he repeats, shaking his head with regret. "The Light and the Dark cannot coexist."
"Yes, they can," Rey disagrees. Because she has to believe that Snoke is right and the two opposing sides can balance even if they differ. And maybe it's not an equal balance in all things, or even at all. But surely there can be some mutual respect and tolerance of one side for the other? Otherwise, there is no hope for the future. And if a Dark Sith like Kylo can love the Light like Rey, then there has to be some common ground somewhere.
"You could have told us the truth." Leia Organa looks almost bitterly hurt. And suddenly, it's clear to Rey how much Leia Organa had liked her. And what a leap of faith she had taken to allow Rey to stay with the Resistance. It makes Rey feel awful. Truly awful for lying. And for continuing to lie.
Rey's eyes find the lightsaber still poised to strike. She stares at it a long moment before admitting, "I was wrong to let you believe a lie about General Hux. But I didn't think you would trust me if you knew the truth. I thought you might think I was a First Order spy. And I worried that you might want me to get rid of the child."
"Why are you keeping this child?" Luke Skywalker probes. And it's a fair question since she has led these people to believe she's carrying the Rosemary's baby of the Sith.
But Rey shoots him a defensive glare anyway. "Because all life has value, Jedi. That's the difference between us and the First Order, right? They don't care if innocent people die."
"Does Snoke know about the child?" Skywalker asks.
"I don't know," Rey confesses.
"If he can find you in the Force, then he must know where we are—" Leia Organa realizes aloud.
Again, Rey admits, "I don't know." For Rey truly doesn't know what Snoke had learned from their interaction. Maybe nothing. Maybe everything.
The Jedi too is suspicious. "She has compromised your base, Leia. You need to get her out of here. Right away. No matter what she promises, she cannot be trusted. She is Snoke's creature, through and through."
No, never Snoke's creature, Rey thinks to herself. But she is Kylo's in her heart and these people would view that as the same.
"Yes . . . you're right," Leia Organa agrees with her brother. "You had better get going, Luke. We'll put her on a transport and drop her on a neutral world tonight." The general takes her com from her waist, orders that a shuttle be made ready, and calls for security. The Jedi waits to deactivate his saber until four men arrive with guns drawn to handcuff Rey. Then he kisses his sister goodbye, speaks to her privately a moment and leaves. Both Rey and Leia Organa watch as Luke Skywalker's ancient T-65 X-wing lifts off from the far corner of the hangar.
A bitter Rey quietly speaks her thoughts aloud. "I was tortured protecting the map that led to him. I suffered for Luke Skywalker. For the dream that a Jedi hero might return to make things right. And when I escaped the First Order, I helped to blow up the Starkiller oscillator. To save the Resistance and keep other star systems from suffering the fate of Hosnia and the New Republic." Rey looks the battle hardened Alderaan survivor in the eye. Rey's words are part declaration, part apology. "I was once one of you."
"Until you met the Sith," Leia Organa replies sourly. "Whatever side you think you are on, Rey, it's not ours." And, really, she's right. Because time with Kylo and the First Order has muddied Rey's view of this war. She's not sure where her sympathies lie because they lie partly with both sides. And in a galaxy at war where 'if you're not with me, then you're my enemy' rules the day and no quarter is given, there is no place for conflicting allegiances.
The security detail marches Rey over to a rundown shuttle that is still warming up. "Drop her someplace neutral, close and urban," the general orders. "I want her off-base within the next ten minutes." Then Leia Organa eyes Rey. "Good luck," she says begrudgingly. "Don't be a fool and run back to Snoke. You'll end up dead, Rey. The Dark Side is full of promises that they never keep. Remember that."
Then the veteran Resistance general walks away. She's halfway across the hangar when the first alarm sounds. Within seconds, it's a full-scale alert with sirens blazing. Within two minutes, the hangar bay floods with pilots and techs scrambling to get fighters in the air.
It's the First Order. Kylo Ren has finally come for her.