A/N: For those who are interested, Matt Smith is totally playing the role of Bane. Also, Rey is fully awake now and things are about to get hella trippy.

CONTENT WARNINGS FOR THIS CHAPTER: lots of body horror (but none involving Reylo), and references to Rey's kidnapping, torture and mind-wiping at Alec's hands (however please note that there is no sexual violence in this fic).

"There I had fixed
Mine eyes till now, and pined with vain desire,
Had not a voice thus warned me; "What thou seest,
"What there thou seest, fair Creature, is thyself"

- John Milton, Paradise Lost

"I am free," Rey says. She rises to her feet and tilts her head, studying the flickering apparition before her. "You are a Sith."

The ghost smiles. It is not a cruel smile, merely honest. "I am," it agrees. "How did you know?"

"Your eyes. They glow yellow, even with…" she waves a hand to gesture at the faint blue light, "the rest of you."

The Sith—Bane he said he was called—laughs softly. "I should have known."

"Known what?"

"That a Jedi would recognize its opposite. You are a Jedi, are you not?"

"I am," she answers without hesitation. It is an understanding weaved into the marrow of her being, learned in a far-off place—an island. From Luke. "How did you know?"

The ghost shrugs. "A Sith, too, can always recognize its opposite."

"Why are you here?"

"This is my home," he says. "My tomb, to be exact." Their game is an echo of questions. "Why are you here?"

"I don't know," Rey admits. "I was asleep. I was gone…" Flashes of memories assault her like lightning, too distant and too brief to be seen clearly; she pushes them away. "I don't even know for how long, but he called to me. He brought me back."

"Who?"

Rey shifts her gaze down to the man lying peacefully upon the mossy bed she has made. "My love," she says. My husband, she thinks, and for a moment she is lost staring at his beautifully imperfect face. Full lips, strong nose, stern brow all unmarred. Even the black blood that covered him has disappeared.

Perfect, she thinks. You are perfect.

"You are generous," Bane says. He stands beside her now, though how and when he moved she does not know. He looks to be human or, that is, he was when still living. His golden eyes are deep-set and framed by strong cheekbones that sweep down to a thin, sardonic mouth. His face is not handsome, but compelling somehow. He appears not much older than Ben.

"You are strange," she tells him.

He raises a brow, much fainter than the shade of his brown hair. "Because I don't make flowers sprout from my fingers?"

It takes Rey a moment to follow. "Oh," she says, and blushes. "I didn't mean to. You must think I'm the one who is strange."

"Perhaps," Bane says, the ghost of a ghost's smile still lingering. "But the change is not a bad one. This place was due for redecorating."

All Rey can see, beyond what she has grown, is an endless black expanse for a ceiling and decaying pillars stretching into nothingness for walls. "What place is this?"

"Moraband."

"Moraband," she repeats. She remembers the name. It was in one of Ben's books. A real book, not a datapad. He kept so many; she can see them now, carefully organized onto shelves of black. Everything was black inside there, right down to the floor. The stone felt warm beneath her feet and the skies glowed orange. Curled up on his lap, Ben would read to her and she would never pay attention. She was too hungry for—

"You're blushing again," Bane says.

"I…" She struggles to make sense of her thoughts and certainly can't make sense of his. Ben is a potent distraction beside her, solid and real. She tries to see through the enigmatic specter instead. "It was taught to me but I don't think I was a very good student."

"I find that hard to believe."

What do you believe? "Why am I here?"

"You don't remember?"

She touches her forehead. "I remember too much. It's all swarming too quickly, and I can't take hold of it. I thought you might have seen something."

"Me? You did not ask your love?"

Ben sleeps but she could wake him and he would answer, give her anything she needed. But what would he need in return?

"Forgive me," Bane says, and his voice is different, contrite somehow. "That was unfair." Concern softens his unnatural yellow eyes.

"What do you know?" she says.

"Too much," he answers honestly.

"Tell me."

He shakes his head. "It is better if you see."

He leads her over to a great fissure in the ground, deep and dark as the wounds she has healed on Ben; this is one she has made. All around jagged boulders of black rock lay scattered, most piled high on the other side of the abyss, and now covered in lush green vines. It is what remains of the tower she had toppled after waking. She knows this part: it was night where she was, trapped on the very top, and far down below Ben was calling her name.

"Listen," Bane tells her, and she does.

The Force is all her senses and with it she can hear. The ones who hurt him lost somewhere amongst this black rock forest. Disoriented, injured and apart, each trying to find their way back to the others.

"Go on," Bane says. "You don't need my help."

Rey is tempted to ask what he means but she just knows. She is powerful here, more powerful than before the time she can remember. The Force feels close to her now; it nestles between her cells, moves in her blood. It is a willing partner and an eager helpmate. She sifts through the life essences wandering aimlessly on the other side of the great fissure and chooses the one that emits the warmest aura. Warm, but also vacant and oddly so. She plucks it out of the brush and carries it over the undulating height of sharp black rock. Soon a man comes into view, enormous, with head bald and arms bare, his leather-brown skin covered in intricate blue tattoos.

She feels the man's confusion and terror and, instinctively, she soothes it. The beast of a man immediately becomes docile, and she sets him on his feet. His dark eyes light on Bane.

"Master," he breathes.

"Not now," Bane says. "You will answer the lady's questions."

The beast looks to Rey.

Do I know you? Rey thinks. His expression is devoid of any answers, but she can make him tell her. Yes. Like this. Has she done this before? The Force beckons and she moves closer, reaching out until her fingers touch the man's forehead.

The sensation that follows is elemental, like passing through a door to teeter on the brink of a bottomless pit. It takes her a moment to get her bearings. She navigates his mind as if it is a derelict house. There are corridors with mud-brick walls and dirt and rock beneath. Doors of nothing more than twigs; she opens them all.

She sees a woman and children gathered beneath a giant oak tree. The woman draws ancient symbols in the soil, the same as those that now mark the beast's skin. But here, the beast is just a boy, sitting at his mother's feet.

Rey sees another tree. The beast sits beneath it, now a young man in a giant's body; he is struggling to read. A too-long limbed boy with thick black hair rests beside him. He is quiet and patient as he explains every word, and the beast is in awe. Rey's heart swells; the boy-teacher is Ben.

You were his friend, she thinks. She skips down another corridor to the next doorway. Here Ben and the beast, both still young but changed, leave the ruins of a burning temple. It is night and they are not alone. The beast plus four more cast in shadow; they all kneel as Ben gives himself another name.

What follows are years of struggle and deprivation, of selling their talents to the highest bidder. The boy works hard to become a warrior. He marks his skin with the symbols of his youth. He strives to be the strongest he can. His fellow knights—brothers, he calls them—wear masks, but he does not. A scar on Molta and a near cleft-open skull on Gamorrah are more terrifying than any metal visage. He falls in love with a girl named Jana and promises her his heart—until a golden-haired snake steals her away. Pale blue eyes lead to a duel on the sand. The beast chokes on blood.

She would have left you sooner or later, brother. That is what whores do.

The beast vows revenge and to never love again. His only loyalty is to his cause, to the Sith. To the one who leads them:

Kylo Ren.

Snoke is dead and Kylo calls his knights back. They kneel before him once more. Emperor now, he speaks of a Jedi. She must not be harmed. But why, the beast thinks? The Jedi are our enemy—

Through the beast's eyes, Rey meets this foe. It is her; dressed in rags and defiant, she crosses a vast field to where Ben waits. The Force is too loud and too painful and it drives them apart. The beast drags her to her quarters, but she struggles. He kicks her in a rage. She hurt his master! His violent anger is soon repaid by the butt of her staff. The Jedi has earned his grudging respect.

"Malaak," she whispers. My trusted guard. My protector. You were my friend as well.

Malaak shifts under the pressure of her fingertips. You were the Emperor's most trusted servant. His closest friend. All his bidding you did and it led you here. After that battle—blurred images flash around her—such horrible bloodshed, all your brothers maimed by their own hands. He was half-dead when he was brought to this place. What did they do? A dozen hungry Sith Lords and they feasted. Bane as well; Rey bristles at the thought. There is such unease in her friend's soul. Something was lost. Not just your mind. It was your heart, dearest Malaak. The one Jana scarred and you locked away but someone else found it. Rey cannot see her; she has been wiped from his memory but he thinks of snow and of winter. And on that untouched silver-white ground he leaves red drops of his blood.

She loved you, Rey whispers. Do not despair, old friend. You are known and you are loved.

The great beast visibly relaxes. His eyes are closed, but Rey can see traces of the loyal warrior she once knew in that lined but gentle face. She hugs him close and lays him down like a sleeping child.

"Must you do that?" Bane chides. "I'll never get any work from him now."

She turns to Sith ghost, angry. "You cannot keep him like this! You must let him remember."

"Is memory such a gift?"

"You must let him be free."

"I would have you seek your freedom first."

Annoyed and unsettled, Rey studies her friend. Malaak looks so content that she cannot bear to disturb him further; he deserves his rest just as Ben does so she makes him his own bed of moss. Like mother to them all, she searches for more wayward children and the next two life forces are called to her.

She levitates two men over the ruins of the shattered tower and the lacerated stone floor: a pale ugly warrior and a handsome dark-skinned knight. Contrasts in appearance but both enraged, struggling against her hold. When they see her, their anger turns to paralyzing poison.

I know you as well, Rey thinks, but this recognition is not a happy one.

Vines wind and twist like charmed snakes. Her devoted foot soldiers, they reach out and wrap around each man's limbs and neck until they are physically immobilized. The dark-skinned one cannot speak, his vocal cords irreparably scarred, but the pale one opens his vicious maw to spit and Rey binds it with a vine too. Hatred is dripping from their eyes, mixed with fear not just for themselves but the other. How curious. They can communicate without words, messages passed through the Force, and Rey silences them.

Despair, she thinks. This is what you must feel. I want you to, and so she wills it into being. The fight drains out until they turn static. Tears are in the dark one's good eye. The pale one is paler still; his eyes are bloodshot. Will you listen now? She draws them forth with a tug on the vines and holds them each by the hand. Show me what you know.

Their hands grip hers like crushing vises, but the pain Rey feels is not her own. Inside the dark one's mind there is nothing. He knows how to hide; his mental shields are strong. But the pale one? There is so much violence. Nothing is organized here. No doors or rooms. No sacred building to house his psyche's home. You were born a slave and you fought and you earned your keep by hurting others. You were not like the rest. You knew the Force. It made you strong and it kept you living even though your brothers and sisters were gone. You don't remember their names, just your own. Vadanav. In your native tongue it means lone one. You were the only one in your world, until you were not. A strange monk found you and told you there were more who were special and he took you back. You were still a slave, you thought, but this world was new and it was bigger than before. You could fight and fuck all you chose. Within rules. Stupid rules.

You didn't mind Ben. You didn't like him, but he could fight and he was strong and above all else that was what you respected.

My name is Ersn.

This was something else new. Something beautiful and wholly different. You did not need words. You did not need anything but the Force and your bodies. To fight and to fuck. This was all you knew. All you wanted.

Yes.

The stupid monk said no. No to everything that made life good and you would not be a slave anymore. So you followed Ben out of the temple and you fought and you fucked your way across the galaxy and your beautiful lover fought and fucked beside you too.

So why do you hate me? Rey thinks.

I will not be your slave. I am slave to no one. ERSN!

Rey strokes Vadanav's cheek. "Ssh. You don't have to fight anymore." He closes his eyes and his body goes limp with sleep. Ersn struggles anew beside him.

"Talk," Rey says, and her hand goes to the vine around Ersn's neck. She probes with the Force and can feel the place where his throat is ruined. It was me, she thinks. Did I hurt you? And she asks it not to be so.

The vine loosens. Ersn coughs and rasps then speaks. "What did you do to him?"

"He's only resting. He was tired. I think you're tired as well."

"Stay out of my head, you fucking witch!" Then his good eye widens. "What did you do to me?" he says, voice quiet with awe.

"I'm sorry I hurt you," Rey says. "But you hurt me. You hurt Ben. We all hurt each other. Why?"

"Why does it matter?" Then his good eye shifts to the still form of Vadanav.

For love, Rey thinks, for Ersn's mind is a Dark and singular thing. She can see all and nothing inside it. "For love."

"It was all for nothing."

Is this all for nothing? she thinks. "Why don't you rest together?" And before Ersn's can speak anymore, his good eye rolls back, his handsome head drops and his whole body droops. Two more for the pile. She casts their vines aside, keeping them restrained against a wall.

"Impressive," Bane says.

"Love has caused all this destruction."

"If that was your motive, then yes."

Rey cannot look at Ben. It will hurt her eyes and her heart. All these lives that they have ruined. What have we done?

They should have left you. We should have killed you.

The voice is not hers. It calls from the other side and she reaches out, answers back. An ominous presence looms but the body she brings forth is just a boy. Slender and feline. His face is almost pretty like a girl's. His eyes are empty. His eyes are full. His mouth smiles like he knows everything.

"Kira," he spits.

Rey trembles at the name. Her vines grow strong and thick with her fear and wrap bodily around the boy until only his head is visible.

"My name is Rey!"

"Says who? Do you even know who named you?"

"I…"

The boy starts laughing. "Gods, you're still so fucking stupid."

"Rey," Bane stands beside her. "Go carefully here."

"Can he see you?" she whispers.

"Not yet."

"Who are you talking to?" the boy demands. He does not miss a thing. "Is it your precious Ben? Did he enjoy my blade?"

Rey knows just what he means. That vile shikkar made of glass, it had caused the most pain and damage, so cursed she could not even touch it without the risk that it would poison herself. "That was you?"

"I would do it again and again, but they are so hard to come by. I should have saved it for you."

Rey squeezes a hand and the vines bind tighter.

The boy gasps and wheezes; fresh blood stains his smile. "Why don't you come closer?"

"Because if I touched you, you would drain my power."

"So you do remember."

"I…"

"Don't tell him," Bane says.

"I would suck you dry if I could," the boy goes on. "I would make you a husk and use your Force and maybe Alec could forget you. But he loves his useless things, that idiot fool."

"Who is Alec to you?"

"Who is Alec?" The boy is like a knife, as dangerous as that deadly blade he wields. Rey can see the demented rage in his eyes, how the Force calls like a mad starving animal deep inside him. "Why didn't you die when your parents left you? Why didn't they kill you? Worthless child—"

"Silence!" Rey clutches her head. There is hot sand blowing through her mind like thousands of tiny cuts; she cannot take it. The vines are so tight now, the boy's face is blue. "Why must you—?"

"I love him." The boy goes quiet. His eyes are glassy. His body is still.

Did I kill him? Rey thinks. There is no time to remember or feel. No time to understand. No time yet. Like the sands pouring though her, it is a constant thing without end. Like the Force. Like her love.

Ben.

Who is Alec?

"Come now," Bane says. He holds out his hand. His voice is soft and strangely comforting. "Don't be afraid of the past. It can not harm you now. Over there. Can you see it?"

"Yes."

There is one other. The only one who is left.

"If you are to be free, then you must face this."

Rey looks across the abyss where a figure stands, dressed in white and cast in blood. The face is a mask of pulped flesh and crushed metal.

"It's me," the face says. "Don't you remember? I could never forget you, Rey."

Rey drags him to her, not bothering to spare his body from any obstacle of rock as he is brought to her. The sands won't settle in her mind, but the pain is focused. It has but a single point. She lets his ruined face stop right before her own. "Then I guess you must be Alec."

The place where his mouth should be opens; broken teeth give the semblance of a smile. "You guess? You wound me, my love."

"I am not your love!"

The force of her words throws him backward. Her vines act with ferocious speed, binding hands and feet, tying arms to torso. She slams him against the remains of the felled tower and approaches cautiously. He has one human eye, swollen shut, and a metal eye and faceplate that have been dented in. The gash of his mouth exhales in a sigh.

"How can you make denials when you don't even recognize me?"

She feels Bane shift beside her; the ghost is growing more powerful, and she waves a hand in silence before he can speak. This is the crucible. This is the missing piece and the broken link and the architect of everything, she can feel it. She can feel his arrogance and lust and thirst for power. His reverence for her, adoration mixed with hatred and disgust. He wants this from her. To stand whole. His vanity is beyond measure and it means nothing to her, but…

"You hunger for me," she says. "For the power I possess."

"For every part, Rey," the gruesome face tells her. "Show me. Hold nothing back. Show me what you can do."

With a flick of her wrist she crushes his vocal chords; she will have no more words from him just now. But she is still curious. She is tired of looking at broken things. She brings her hands up to his face. Her palms do not touch his head but she closes her eyes and demands to see what was before. The Force listens, it slithers around her ankles like a loyal pet; it is curious too.

The metal half of his face is wrenched off and clatters to the ground. The crushed metal eye is pulled free. Alec screams without sound but Rey can feel his pain and it is a balm to her; she has waited for this, for reasons she cannot say. The bloodied pulp before begins to knit itself back together. Milk-pale orbs emerge out of empty sockets, reforming into human eyes; their color a devastating shade of ice blue. Skin grows and re-covers him, a smooth sunlit surface free of all scars.

He is beautiful, she thinks. A face far lovelier than Ben's; sharper and more deadly too. Golden hair appears to crown his head. He is an angel of light; a poison chalice. The blood begins to clean itself away from his garments and the white offends her so she waves it to black, the color she remembers. His lightsaber still hangs upon his belt and she casts it away, tossing it to the base of Ben's mossy bed.

She looks at the vile creature before her and the creature smiles back.

She slams the heel of her hand into his forehead, smashing into his mind. She has no intention of being careful, no reason to be gentle. She knows this; she wants to drink from his skull. But show me first, she thinks. You who would own me. She wants to re-live every part. The memories appear at her call and she tears through them like vellum.

A young boy on a green world with a golden, smiling family. A strange monk who invites him to train at his school. The long-limbed black-haired boy he both idolizes and hates. The young one who loves him so.

Years pass, his planet burns. Rey remembers this part—yes, she remembers—how he wanted to go but Luke bound him and locked him away. The Jedi do not interfere. His mother is dead; his brothers and sisters are nothing more than charred ash. The Jedi will pay; he will wipe their filth from the galaxy. He burns Luke's temple but feels no relief. He follows Ben into the night and swears fealty to revenge.

He rejoices when he learns of Luke's death; he only wished he could have killed the bastard himself. Done it properly. But he breathes easier. The Jedi are gone. The galaxy is cleansed of their stain. Except for one. He hears rumor of a girl. One last student Luke had trained.

He vows revenge again, ready to kill on sight but then he sees her—dressed like a peasant but with the bearing of a queen, crossing a field to hand herself over to his brother-Emperor. She is anything but what he expects.

He is in love. A consuming, endless need. He sees her in every woman he fucks, every endless night. His brother is a fool. A spoiled child who cannot fathom the gift he has been given. Who makes her cry. Alec would never hurt her.

She is in danger. Kylo tells him this. There are ghosts who hunger for her power; an undead Lord who hunts her in her dreams. Alec goes to Moraband to save her. A place of childhood heroes, but the legends are so much worse. And Bane is their leader. He pays a price for their gifts; his soul in exchange. The blue of his eyes bleeds away. Welcome, brother, you are truly a Sith now. A slow rot sets in his soul.

For you, he thinks, I have done this all for you. He tells her and he kisses but still, she does not understand. He will make her. It is that infernal bond. Kylo controls her; he has made her his slave when all Alec desires is to set her free. And, in the midst of it all, a casual discovery, a momentary slip that changes everything. A roomful of Resistance negotiators and she fells them all without shedding one drop of blood.

Alec falls in love in an entirely new way.

Plagueis was supposed to be an ally but he is a Sith and as a Sith himself knows: their promises are lies. His plan backfires and she is nearly lost. He gives himself to save her, but she uses those extraordinary powers to bring him back for she must love him; they are bonded now, not by force but by fate. Yes, he will have her. She is his. He vows this to himself. No matter if she marries another, no matter if she locks him away. He will have her and he will have her power and he will watch the galaxy burn as his home once did.

Rey stumbles backwards, desperate to get away. She finds herself on hands and knees, fingers grasping at the stone ground. Roots and grass spring up without thought; everywhere she moves, life follows, uncontrolled. She is weeping and the tears make the grass blossom into flowers. A garden thriving upon her sorrow. The pressure of a hand rests upon her forearm.

"You don't need him now," Bane says softly. "You know the rest yourself."

He is crouching down beside her, his form still a translucent blue, but less so. There is an energy to him, a warmth slowing permeating from his outline. It reassures her and draws her closer.

"Don't be afraid," he tells her. "I wish I could spare you this, but there is no other way."

Rey nods, wiping her tears. He is right. This is up to her now.

She closes her eyes and remembers. It is her mind and everything in it is exposed; it all belongs to her.

She is the Empress. She is Ben's wife. Alec is gone, sent into exile just like he promised, but the galaxy has been plunged into civil war. Ben's remaining brothers have betrayed him, all save Malaak, and he goes to fight them. He leaves her. He leaves—

It's like screaming for her parents all over again; inside her mind, the screams never stop. You left me, she thinks. When we should have fought side by side.

(You left me.)

She rules in his stead. She hates him. She was not made to be left (but you were you know this you have always known this). She rules in his name with unseeing eyes and an unfeeling heart. She will never forgive him. Stupid self-sacrifice and delusion. There is only Leia for comfort and Malaak her dear friend and Isolde her Confessor—Elsa—Rey's heart stutters as she can finally give name to the winter that owns Malaak's heart. Darling Elsa. Heavy with child. Does Malaak know? Rey thinks distractedly, but the press of a hand on the small of her back steadies her and makes her focus.

The war does not go well. Ben cannot find Hux or his knights and there is a voice calling to her…

A voice she knows. A voice that was bound to her until Ben sent it away. Alec. Bonded by her own foolish mercy, her guilt for not being able to love him the way that he wanted, for failing him.

Yet Alec calls to her. Malaak knew and she makes him show her, her poor beast of a friend reduced to a fearful puppy as she charges through the palace. You knew you knew you knew and you lied. He is here. He was never gone. Alec sleeps in a walled off tomb right where she lives. Her husband has been lying to her.

Her husband.

Ben?

Their bond breaks open and she sees him bound and masked and restrained, his eyes screaming. Did you lie? Is it true? He is sorry but he's in danger. And so is she. It is Pular who lays in a forced coma and Alec stands awake in flesh and blood. She must fight with all she has, Malaak by her side and her rage unending until Alec's face is sliced right through.

Ben.

She sees him standing on a ship with klaxons blaring. There is not much time. She must save him. But it's okay, he says. You're not alone. Neither are you. He loves her. It's too late. She feels his ship explode. Feels her soul wrench apart as he fades from existence. Feels the Force pouring out of her like fresh blood from an open wound. Pular is laughing, his emaciated hand clamped around her ankle. Alec's voice shouting somewhere far away. Her screams sounding like an echo when a flash of light blinds everything, the whole world shaking around her, and she knows no more.

She wakes in a dark chamber. This chamber, she thinks, the one she kneels in now. She lies restrained on a stone altar. There are ropes that bind her body. Alec hovers above her, his face half metal, and speaks soft words of love. She shouts curses at him, calling upon the Force to dismember him, but it will not obey. Pular is touching her hand and smiling. All her powers have been drained. She begins to cry. She thinks of Ben and prays for death. At least we could be together.

Dark shadows hover in the Force; a dozen Sith Lords surround them, their ghosts clamoring for a sacrifice, and their leader, the oldest and most powerful—Bane? He wants her. But Alec will not relent. He tosses Malaak to them like a pile of rotting meat. He is nothing but a corpse, yet the Lords descend like hungry dogs. Rey cannot watch; she cries more.

"What would you have of me?" The voice she hears is Bane's but it is not beside her; it distant and from this memory. He looks different as well, like a flaming skeleton clad in armor.

Alec kneels before him. "I must have her, all of her. I cannot use her like this."

"Foolish boy. You do not know what you ask."

"I will remake her."

"You should leave her with me."

"You have my allegiance! I serve none but you. But I must have her!"

The skull mask of Bane looks down at her. "So be it," he says. Rey screams, and then—

Nothing.

Dawn breaks through the palace windows on Theed. She is a clean slate. A well-fed princess and a dress-up doll. Dependent as a child, Alec watches with hunger in his eyes and plays at being nursemaid until he is allowed to play at something else. He calls her Kira. She calls him Beloved. In the present Rey wretches up bile; she can no longer feel Bane beside her.

Her days on Theed stretch into oblivion and she is nothing, less than nothing. Alec takes her to a chamber where she is made to wage war on her friends. How many of them has she killed? She sees Poe and Finn, Leia and a baby with blue skin and deep red eyes. I was his instrument, she thinks. I tortured you, just like the vision said would happen.

Alec tells her of a monster and how it destroyed her mind. She fears it so much she is afraid to sleep. And then she meets him. A corpse. Across time and space, how she does not know but he is there, she sees him in dreams and he knows her and—

He does not tell her who she is.

The corpse teases her with tales of his perfect Rey and she thinks herself so low and unworthy. The wound of her heart is an open sore, but he does not tell her the truth. He only plays games, makes twisted lessons. She is left again and she cannot be trusted, not even to know who she is. But she falls in love with him anyway (how could she not? In every lifetime she is destined to), and this love gives her the strength to run from her captors and straight into his arms.

Save me, she begs and in her dreams it feels like he does. They kiss and he bleeds and she saves him right back. The corpse is healed by her tears and her hands. He stands before her in that hut as beautiful as he lays here now. And because she loves him, she gives herself to him. Stupid Kira, so unworthy next to his perfect Rey. All the time she thinks it as he holds her and fucks her and says he loves her just the same.

Tell me what your Rey called you by.

Ben, he says.

I have loved none but you. Why didn't you tell me?

Rey blinks awake. She searches for Bane. More solid but still shadow, he stands several feet away. "You did this," she tells him. "You took everything from me." She unleashes all her fury with the Force and directs it at where his heart should be.

Bane blocks her effort with a wave of his hand. "I did what was asked of me. Would you rather that Alec tortured you until your mind could be claimed?"

"I should have died," she spits.

"I spared you. Thank me or hate me, it is no matter. You are still here," he glances to Ben's sleeping form, "and so is he. But you are not the only ones."

"I don't understand!" Too much life is around her and she cannot see, only feel, reaching out through temple walls and across the planet's surface. The Force stretches out beyond her hands, seeking as far as the atmosphere.

No, Rey. Look closer.

Where?

As close as where you are.

Rey closes her eyes.

Breathe, she thinks, just as Luke had said. Reach out with your feelings. What do you see?

Inside her there is rage never-ending. Rage and so much love. Life in her hands. Life that leads to death. Death that leads to decay that feeds new life.

She feels it. Inside of me. The haze of anger is fading until something else has taken its place. The tiniest flutter, a minuscule pulsing of Light, delicate and tenuous as the tracker she had once worn about her wrist. Warmth. Cold. Peace. Violence. Another life. A child.

Their child.

Rey presses her hands to her belly.

No seed will take root here. It is not possible.

It is.

She stares at Ben.

This changes nothing.

This changes everything.