After only a few short hours of flying through space, Rey finally landed her ship on the gray unnamed planet that was home to the once most powerful weapon in the galaxy… now reduced to an ocean of scattered junk and metal.

Rey closed her eyes and took a deep breath before stepping out of her spacecraft. The fragmented skeleton of the Death Star always scared Rey, but the thought of meeting Ben scared her more.

Rey was swimming in uncharted waters now. Or more accurately, drowning.

Rey wondered how long she could hold her breath before the ocean that was Ren pulled her down to its lightless depths for good.

Walking slowly but not without motivation, Rey made her way down to the shore. She passed over a slope and paused to take in the view: Stormy waters, a dark cloaked sky, a crescent-shaped structure that jutted out of the water. It could be considered both haunting and beautiful

Rey just thought it looked wet and dreary.

If she squinted, Rey could see the very platform where she and Kylo had once combated, unchanged even after all the time. Nothing really changed, after all. They hadn't changed. Ben still had his scar, was still as torn as ever.

Rey was still the scavenger she had always been. Hunting for scraps to sell, living alone in the desert because her parents are dead.

The only difference is that Rey wears black now, and the scraps she hunts are humans.


Rey followed a serpentine path leading down to the shore, and found an abandoned boat to carry her across the waters.

It wasn't easy, battling the tsunami-sized waves. Neither was climbing up the iron cliffs of the Death Star.

But life wasn't easy either, is it?

Rey steeled herself and keeps on going. Water splashed in her face and she wiped it away like tears.

By the time Rey made it to the top, she was two hours older, drowning in sweat and salt water, and her limbs felt like lead.

She found a secluded spot sheltered from the wind, settled down, and waited.

Ben was coming, she was sure of it. Rey could read him like the weather. Easily.


After an hour of waiting, Kylo Ren finally arrived. He came later than Rey had expected. Much, much later.

Too late.

The skies were already darkening and if Rey wasn't so irate from waiting for him she probably would've fallen asleep on the spot.

Rey didn't turn around when Ben approached— she didn't need to— and listened silently to the sounds his steps made against the metal core. It was a hollow sound. Like an echo, only real.

Rey thought it even sounded a little sad.


"I'm here," Kylo Ren said. Rey refused to turn to face him— she was probably angry or something, he supposed. As usual.

"You're late," she remarked.

"I ran into problems," Ben retorted.

"What kind of problems?" Rey probed. "Lost your lightsaber again?"

Ben sighed, pressing two fingers to his throbbing temples. "Abandoning duties whenever one feels like it isn't as easy as some people may think."

She huffed at him but said nothing. Ben supposed this counted as a draw, if their banter even counted as a competition.

They were always competing, weren't they? Ben wondered if that was a good thing. He thought about it for a moment and decided that it wasn't and he didn't care. If he wanted a healthy relationship he should try marrying a Wookiee or something.

"So…" Kylo began, unsure how to start the conversation. "… Why am I here again?"

"We're here," Rey resolutely said, sitting down and motioning for Kylo to follow her. "… To talk."

He looked at her, confused, marveling how Rey always managed to surprise him one way or another.

"Talk about what?" Ben asked, arching an eyebrow and plopping down beside Rey. She smiled sarcastically and rolled her eyes.

"We're currently planning to overthrow and completely reform the First Order as we know it… So… I think we have a great deal to talk about, don't you think?"

Kylo Ren sighed. He wasn't sure if spending all night scheming with Rey was a good thing or something terrible.

He thought maybe both.


"When do you think we should kill Palpatine?" Rey asked.

"Shouldn't you be worrying how we go about killing him instead of when? He is powerful, Rey. Probably the most."

Rey shrugged nonchalantly. "We'll figure something out."

"We could die."

A pause. A heavy silence. "… I know."

Something was off. "And you don't think that's a problem?"

Rey shook her head and decidedly avoided Kylo's gaze. "No," she said. "No, I don't."

He looked at her uncannily tranquil profile and let the weight of her words sink in. He understood. His thoughts came unveiled.

"Fuck," Ben spat. "Fuck…"

Rey looked at him curiously.

"… You're suicidal," he whispered.

Rey bit her lip and nodded. "Yes. Yes, I am." She was too tired to deny it any more. "Anything wrong with that?" she asked.

Only a thousand things. Or even more than that, Kylo wanted to say, yell at her. Instead, he simply said, "No."

"Good," Rey said and turned away.

The silence returned and for the first time Kylo didn't welcome it. The silence was like a flame, burning his skin and heart.

"… How long?" Kylo asked, hardly breathing. "How long have you wanted to…?"

"Take a guess," Rey answered emotionlessly, making Ben wonder what twisted game she had just pulled him into.

"When you first joined the Empire."

"No."

"After your first mission?"

"… No." She shook her head with a sigh. Kylo Ren closed his eyes and revisited all their distorted confrontations and encounters of the past. One sharded memory stood out amongst the rest.

Kylo Ren opened his eyes. He'd found it. The trigger, the breaking point or Rey the scavenger.

So she did have a heart after all.

"The war prisoners," he whispered. "The girl you had to kill."

Rey's eyes glistened with moisture for a moment, before she blinked the tears away. She nodded in affirmation.

Rey looked up at the sky and sighed— a slow breath of air, colored white in the cold wind. And she started talking.

"When I joined the First Order I was ignorant and naive. I thought I could run away from things just by switching sides," she confessed. "... But it doesn't really make a difference, does it?"

Kylo draped his cape closer to his body and shook his head. "I guess not."

"But then I met those prisoners and now I know. I know what war really is. What it does to people," Rey said bitterly. "You either die, or live on in suffering. There's no way out of it."

She lifted a cold hand and ran it over Ben's scar, the one she had given him so long ago. She leaned in and pressed a light kiss to his lips. Kylo wasn't sure how to react so he didn't react at all.

He felt numb.

"I didn't understand what I'd gotten myself into before..." Rey breathed. "Now I do." Her words fell like soft snow on Kylo's heart and froze him in place.

Rey let out a slow sigh and pulled her legs up to her chest. She seemed to grow smaller in front of Kylo's eyes, shivering in the darkness.

Kylo looked at Rey and she looked cold. Dead, almost. He hesitated for a moment, and then moved in to drape an arm around her frozen shoulders.

Rey tensed, and for a moment Kylo thought she might move away.

She didn't.

Surrounded by warmth but not burned by it, Rey closed her eyes and allowed herself to sink into his arms and into sweet nothingness.


They spent the night outside in the cold. Only it didn't feel so cold with company.

Rey slept soundly and without dreams (she only ever had nightmares, anyways).

Had it not been for her steady breathing against his neck and the calming throbbing of her heart, Kylo would've thought her dead.

She probably hadn't slept so deeply for a long time.

Kylo remained awake throughout the night. He held her warm, broken body to his chest and stared up at the stormy sky, feeling at peace but not tired at all.

Had there been stars he would've found them beautiful.

Ben bent down and pressed a soft kiss on Rey's cheek.

He looked at her sleeping, tranquil face, and thought he might just love her.