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The commotion of the base hit Rey like a blow over the head the moment she returned from the quiet of the forest. Rey grimaced, weaving her way through the crowd until she reached the entrance to the meal hall.
"Rey!" Finn called and Rey cursed under her breath. She'd been hoping to find Leia before running into anyone else.
"You won't believe how much Poe won playing Dejarik last night-" Finn began excitedly when Rey cut him off.
"I'm sorry, Finn. I really need to find Leia. It's urgent. Have you seen her?" Rey asked, and Finn's smile melted off his face.
"No, but what's the problem?" He asked, "I thought you were training with her today."
"I was." Rey admitted and Finn's face morphed into one of confusion.
"Look, I'm sorry. I'll come find you later, okay?" Rey said, escaping quickly before he had the chance to question her further. Nearly running through the halls, Rey scanned the crowd for Leia's familiar bun. Seeing no sign of it, she sighed, turning down the corridor she knew led to the general's quarters.
Rey walked briskly, her heart pounding in her chest, before stopping in front of the door marked "General Organa". Taking a moment of calm herself, Rey lifted her hand and knocked. She waited a few moments, hoping against hope that Leia would open the door, when a familiar voice spoke from behind her.
"Rey?" Leia asked. Rey whipped around, turning to look at the general.
"I need to speak with you." Rey said, trying to keep her voice from betraying the turmoil she felt within. "In private."
Leia's eyebrows knitted together ever so slightly in worry and she nodded. "Come with me." Leia said, leading the way back down the hallway and into an empty conference room Rey had never seen before. With shaking hands, Rey sat down in one of the chairs near the head of the long table and Leia took the seat next to her, looking concerned.
"What is it?" Leia asked, and Rey shook her head, still processing the enormity of the news herself.
"Your...father...Anakin Skywalker visited me this morning." Rey said slowly, drawing a look of incredulity from Leia.
"My...father?" Leia asked, looking utterly bewildered. Whatever she had expected Rey to say, it certainly wasn't that.
Rey nodded, "He came to tell me Emperor Palpatine has returned." Rey said, watching as the colour drained from Leia's face. "He's back."
Leia frowned, shaking her head ever so slightly, "That's not possible. He died...Luke saw him die. Darth Vader killed him."
"Anakin said Dark Side users can cheat death." Rey said quietly.
Leia fell silent, staring at the table in front of her. After a moment, she looked up, a curious look on her face. "Why did he tell you this and not me?"
Rey shrugged, feeling her cheeks burn. She had been dreading this question. "I don't know." Rey lied, hoping Leia couldn't tell she was being untruthful. She had tried in vain to think of other ways to tell Leia Palpatine was back within revealing she had gotten the information from Anakin for precisely this reason. Under no circumstances was she about to tell Leia that Anakin wanted her to work with Kylo Ren.
If Leia was suspicious, she hid it well, and Rey let out the breath she had been holding in. "You know he's never visited me once." Leia said, after a moment, and Rey frowned, surprised. "He's visited Luke on more than one occasion, Ben intimated to me that he could sometimes hear his voice...but he's never visited me."
Rey remained silent, at a loss for words. Leia sounded almost...resentful.
"Why didn't you tell me this when we met earlier?" Leia asked, after a moment.
Rey bit her lip, "I didn't know how to tell you. I didn't know if you'd believe me - or him - I just...panicked."
Leia nodded, her eyes softening. "I believe you, Rey." She said, seriously, "As hard as it is to believe, I know you would never lie to me. However, we cannot very well tell the Resistance that Darth Vader appeared as a ghost and told you Palpatine has come back from the dead. They would never believe you and even if they did, they would never trust the word of my father."
"So then what do we tell them?" Rey asked. Leia hummed, thinking.
"We're in too weak a position to do anything but recruit and recover at the moment. Given this reality, perhaps it's best we didn't tell them yet." Leia said and Rey looked at her, surprised.
"But don't they deserve to know what we're up against?" Rey asked, and Leia nodded.
"Do we know what we're up against?" She asked, "Did Anakin tell you whether Palpatine has an army? How strong he is? Whether he intends to become the head of the First Order?"
Rey shook her head, "He didn't say anything except that it wouldn't be long before Kylo Ren finds out about Palpatine."
Leia's eyes darkened ever so slightly at the mention of her son, "Well then I think this gives us time to find out what is going on." She said decisively, standing up, "We'll send out a secret search team and begin checking star systems for hints of his activity. We'll increase our monitoring of First Order ships. If they discover Palpatine's location, we may be able to follow them to his hideout. And Rey, I want you to take a trip to Coruscant and scour the library there for any and all information on Palpatine you can find. We are, admittedly, grasping at straws here, but given our lack of information, it is all we can do for the moment."
Rey nodded, standing up as well. "Oh and Rey," Leia added, "Meet me tomorrow for training as soon as you're done breakfast. If what you say is true, we don't have the luxury of time anymore."
"What about Luke's lightsaber?" Rey asked.
"You don't need a lightsaber to learn the ways of the Force." Leia said, turning to leave. "If you want to train with it, you need to fix it first."
Rey unconsciously moved her hand to the satchel that contained the lightsaber. She could search for information on fixing lightsabers when she went to Coruscant, Rey realized.
"Why is it so important that I learn how to fix it?" Rey asked. To her surprise, Leia's face darkened in response.
"When you figure out how to fix it, you'll understand." Leia replied.
Kylo clenched his fists, sending the things on his desk flying across the room where they shattered against the wall. He was going to kill Hux. The moment the slimy redhead gave him the slightest opportunity to dispose of him, he would take it. His behaviour today, in front of the council, had been nothing short of a deliberate attempt to undermine his authority. The numerous snide remarks he had made had not been, by themselves, sufficiently egregious to warrant an actual punishment, despite having been made with the sole purpose of getting under Kylo's skin. However, Hux's question regarding the plausibility of Rey having actually been able to kill Snoke and the entire Praetorian guard by herself, and his suggestion that someone may have helped her, had sent Kylo into the rage he now found himself in.
Hux knew he had either killed Snoke or at least been complicit in his death. That much was clear. The knowledge of that fact filled Kylo with a cold dread. Hux wasn't loyal to anyone but himself and Kylo knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he would jump at the first opportunity to steal his place as Supreme Leader. Kylo clenched his jaw, glaring at the ground. Hux never had and never would respect him. The only way to deal with him was to terrify him into submission. He would need to keep a hold on power through fear alone. This was, admittedly, not the best strategy, as evidenced by Snoke's own demise. Fear was useful, but without respect and loyalty, it would make his grasp on power brittle and unstable. He would be liable to be murdered or overthrown by anyone capable and brave enough to do so.
Suddenly overwhelmed by the enormity of the problem Hux had created for him, Kylo slammed his fist into the wall, sending a shock wave of pain through his hand and arm.
"Ben?"
Kylo jumped, spinning around to stare at Rey. He had been so consumed in his anger, he hadn't even felt the bond begin.
"What's going on?" Rey asked, looking around herself at the mess he had created.
"Wait," Kylo said, "You can see my surroundings?"
Rey nodded, frowning. "Yes and it looks like a tornado came through here."
Kylo made no reply, his anger still simmering just beneath the surface. He didn't need to explain himself to her...a scavenger...a nobody...
"Are you okay?" Rey asked, interrupting his thoughts and evoking in him a million conflicting emotions. Of course he wasn't okay, was she blind? And what did she care? She had rejected him. How dare she pretend to care now. If she had accepted his offer then he wouldn't be in this mess in the first place. He wouldn't have had to sell the admittedly implausible lie that she had killed Snoke and his entire guard by herself.
"I'm fine." Kylo ground out, clenching and flexible the gloved fist he had slammed into the wall. From the way it hurt, it would likely bruise.
Rey sighed tiredly, "Okay, if you don't want to talk we can just ignore each other until the bond goes away."
Kylo felt her words cut him like a knife. Of course she would want to find an excuse to ignore him. "Fine by me." Kylo snapped, viciously, turning away from her.
Kylo glared at the table in front of him, clenching and unclenching his fist to contain his rage, when he felt a hand on his arm and tensed. He looked down slowly, his heart beating uncontrollably fast, as his eyes met Rey's. Subconsciously, he felt himself relax, just a little bit, by her presence.
She doesn't care about you, Kylo reminded himself. She left you. You begged her to stay and she humiliated you.
"Ben, what's wrong?" Rey asked for the millionth time, her grey eyes filled with a concern that looked so genuine it sent a sharp pain through Kylo's heart. Despite himself, he felt himself softening and giving in. He still couldn't tell her what had happened. If Rey knew his hold on power was as loose as it was, who knew what she might do with that information. She had made it abundantly clear that her loyalties lay with the Resistance and not with him. The Resistance, being as weak as it currently was, might very well leap at the chance to undermine his authority and destroy the fabric of the First Order from within.
"Have you told anyone?" Kylo asked, "About our connection?"
Rey's face fell, disappointed. She removed her hand, leaving Kylo's arm feeling comparatively cold, and stepped away. "No." She said, "Have you?"
Kylo almost laughed at this. "I'm the Supreme Leader of the First Order. If anyone knew I was in regular contact with a member of the Resistance..."
Rey nodded, "It would be almost as bad as if the Resistance found out I was bonded to Kylo Ren."
Kylo felt almost taken aback by her use of his chosen name. He had gotten so used to her calling him Ben, it felt wrong for her to say Kylo Ren. Almost as if she wasn't speaking to him.
"So we will keep this a secret." Rey said, when he didn't reply. Kylo nodded, thinking about what had happened when Luke had found out about their connection. He had been furious...and scared. Scared that Kylo would corrupt his precious apprentice the way he had the others.
Rey moved in front of him and bent down, picking up a couple of pens and a note pad that had fallen on the ground. She placed them on the table and then bent to pick up a now-broken commlink.
"What are you doing?" Kylo asked, as she stood up and placed it on the table.
"Cleaning up your mess." Rey said, without looking at him.
"I have cleaning droids for that." Kylo protested, utterly confused.
"Have you always had droids do everything for you?" Rey asked, continuing to pick up the items he'd knocked onto the floor.
Kylo frowned, suddenly defensive. "Well I didn't grow up in a broken AT-AT so yes, I had basic amenities."
"So every time you made a mess some droid would just come along and clean it up for you." Rey said, an edge to her voice. "No wonder you never learned to control your temper. You've never had to deal with the consequences of your actions."
Something in her words struck a nerve inside Kylo and he rounded on her, suddenly furious. "This is rich coming from someone as impulsive and irrational as you." Kylo snarled.
Rey set her jaw, her eyes stony and cold. How had it been just minutes ago that those same eyes had been filled with such genuine concern. What had changed?
"You're right." Rey said, her eyes suddenly too bright, "It was impulsive and irrational for me to come give myself up to the First Order on the belief that you would come back to the Light. Luke told me I was a fool to go and I defended you. I told him you were our last hope. Turns out Luke was right about you all along."
Kylo felt her words cut through him like a knife. She hated him; here was the proof. She was horrified by the monster he was, just like his parents had been...just like Luke had been. Their short-lived friendship, if he could even call it that, had been nothing more than a product of Snoke's manipulation. He had made her think Kylo was something he was not and when she had found out the truth, she'd left him.
"I offered you the galaxy." Kylo replied, trying desperately hard to keep his voice even.
"You expected me to leave my friends? The Resistance? To just let them die? To be complicit in their death?" Rey asked, sounding incredulous. "You really thought I would betray them for...what? A blood-stained throne?"
"You are more powerful and more suited for leadership than anything of the First Order council." Kylo insisted, desperate to make her understand just exactly what she was giving up by refusing him. "Together we would be unstoppable."
"Ben, I am never joining the First Order." Rey said, seriously, "Not now. Not ever."
"We'll see." Kylo said, clenching his fists. She would change her mind, he told himself. He'd been telling it to himself every day since she'd rejected him, half believing that if he repeated it enough it would become a reality. The more rational part of him knew, deep down, it was a lie, but he was unable to let go of hope entirely. Without hope that one day Rey would join him, what did his future hold? It would hold exactly what it had promised before he'd met Rey: a never-ending hell from which he could no longer escape. A hell he deserved but one he also wanted. A hell in which he was the one with all the power and no one would be able to tell him no.
A disturbance in the Force alerted Kylo to the fact that the bond was ending and he looked up, his eyes meeting Rey's for a split second before she disappeared. Kylo stared at the empty space where she had been moments before, feeling her absence like an ache in his chest. He looked back at his desk. Rey had rearranged everything that wasn't permanently broken, making it look almost as if his fit of rage had never occurred. Only it had and he was still in the same position as before. Hux was still a problem, Rey still hated him, and he was still alone.