The Millennium Falcon pulled out of hyperspace, and Poe was immediately taken aback by the sheer amount of activity around Kuat. Part of it was certainly the shipyards, which circled the planet in a massive ring and made blatant the thriving industry of workers and pilots who lived and docked there.
But more importantly… It felt like a lifetime ago that Poe last made it to a planet so populated. Obviously the Resistance had been the only occupants of the planets where they made their base, but even factoring in the planets where he'd gone on missions for the Resistance, they hardly ventured beyond the Western Reaches and the Inner Rim. The First Order hadn't had the gall to truly assert themselves on these Core Worlds yet, so the Resistance hadn't been there either. A few covert trips for supplies and meetings with contacts, perhaps, but none of those missions had been Poe's.
So for the first time in years, he found himself remembering just how big the galaxy was.
Was this how Rey felt when she first got to Ajan Kloss?
Rey. Poe had tried very hard not to think about her on their flight, so he had obviously thought of little else. If Leia was to be believed, he would feel it in the Force, if she…
It had been hours since Leia felt Luke die, and Poe had still felt nothing. He had shared in Leia's grief, but he had felt no sense of Rey.
A hail came in from the shipyards, and Poe took a moment to inhale slowly before answering.
In the years since the war, one of Leia's old friends from the Rebellion had gotten a job at the Kuat Drive Yards and gradually worked his way up through the ranks. When Leia revealed this, it had been something of a surprise to Poe—the Kuat Drive Yards had been one of the largest providers of Imperial fighters and weaponry, and everything he understood from his parents, and from his time in the Defense Fleet, told him that it was the last place a Rebellion pilot would want to be even after the war.
"Many members of the Rebellion believed that the Empire would rise again in some form or another," Leia had told him. "I doubt we'll ever know quite how many laid the groundwork for the Resistance."
Lucky for them that they did. Her contact faked the work order that justified the Falcon's arrival at long-term docking, and Poe put on his best performance of an upstanding citizen as he cheerfully read the bull shit credentials.
He'd barely gotten the go-ahead to dock and shut off his mic before Finn's voice came from behind him. "I don't know if I've ever heard you sound so official."
"Oh, uh, hey, buddy." Poe twisted around, surprised by the fact that he… was surprised by his friend's arrival. In the past several months, the two of them had become plenty attuned to each other's presence in the Force. Not as attuned as Poe was to Rey (Rey…), but under normal circumstances, Poe should have known that Finn was there.
These were not normal circumstances, and Finn knew it.
But Finn also let it go. He leaned on the back of Poe's chair and he stared out at Kuat, breathing, "I've never seen anything like this."
Gods, of course he hadn't; Poe should have realized. He swallowed hard, trying not to feel irritated with himself for thinking, first and foremost, of the wonder that Rey would have experienced over this place, when she wasn't even there to see it.
"I've heard the planet is beautiful," Poe told him. His voice sounded wistful to his own ears. "They only really allow native Kuati onto the surface, as a way of keeping most of the riff-raff out. And even then, anyone who lives in the apartments on the shipyards is only allowed into Kuat City. The rest of the planet's covered in sprawling estates and beautiful gardens… Just for the wealthy to enjoy."
"Kriffin' figures." Finn scoffed and nudged Poe's shoulder with a loose fist. "Even so, maybe we can get down there some day."
"Sure, we'll just put the Resistance on hold to play tourist." Finn hesitated for a few moments, trying to gauge Poe's mood, and oh no—the pilot hadn't even realized how irritable he'd sounded, just because Finn decided to make a small joke. A joke about the future, about a some day. They all leaned into those often enough. "Frag, Finn, I'm sorry, I just—"
Finn rushed to jump in then. "Hey, no, it's okay. I thought maybe distracting you would be the best move right now, but I messed up. You're on edge, and I… I get it. I'm worried about her too."
Poe bit at the inside of his cheek. Yes, Finn had every reason to be worried about Rey; she was almost as big of a facet in his life as she was in Poe's. That said, there was part of Poe that longed to point out that it was different. Neither Poe nor Rey knew quite how to describe the way that they experienced simply being in close proximity to one another through the Force—they felt and understood and knew each other, and to not be able to sense her life through the Force now, to not know whether she was coming back to him…
It felt like half of Poe was gone, and he didn't even know whether to mourn her or try to save her. He should know, Leia had said that he would know, but he didn't kriffing know.
He did not dispute Finn's claim, because the part of Poe that retained some sense – that didn't feel like he was inches from crumbling – understood that Finn also saw that difference. The ex-stormtrooper's concern in no way undermined what Poe was feeling.
"Why haven't we heard from her?" Poe whispered at last. "Luke is dead, and we haven't heard from Rey, but we didn't even see a single First Order scout during the evacuation. Those pieces don't fit together, not with Rey's curse." Slowly, gently, the Falcon creaked into the dock, and Poe tried to put a smile on his face as he gave Chewie a good-natured nudge to celebrate. "You're a great co-pilot, buddy."
Not quite as good as Rey.
Damn it.
But Chewie replied with his gratitude in Wookiee before rising to his feet to go and meet Rose and Leia in the hold. Poe made to stand as well, but Finn put his hand on his arm and rushed to sit on the arm rest of the co-pilot's seat. "No, hang on a second, let's talk about this. Because I've been thinking about it too and you're right, it seems like we're missing something. Part of me… gods, Poe, please tell me I'm not crazy."
What if Rey broke her curse? The question nearly knocked Poe over with how hard Finn was radiating it—had been radiating it, Poe realized abruptly. It had clearly been on his friend's mind for ages. Frankly, Poe understood why Finn was reluctant to voice the question aloud: the idea felt absurd. Fantastical.
Poe had been wondering the exact same thing.
"You mean while she was searching for her crystal?"
"Maybe." Finn's eyes lit up as soon as he realized that perhaps he wasn't completely delusional for imagining this as a possibility. "When she was searching for it, or when she meditated with it, maybe…"
Words could not describe how much Poe wanted that to be true. And he couldn't have said, in the moment, whether it was foolish for him to feel it possible.
"So you're saying that maybe the First Order has her, but they can't use her? Can't make her do anything or get anything out of her?"
"Maybe. It… it seems possible, right?"
Yes. Did it also sound like they were reaching? Absolutely.
But they needed to move into the flat that had been secured for them. They needed to get in touch with Black Squadron to coordinate picking them up from the nearby moon where they had temporarily stored their fighters, and after that, they needed to… well. Begin to pick up the pieces of planning for their strike against Snoke, which was due to happen in less than two weeks.
It seemed that perhaps they needed to embrace the fantastical possibility, for at least a few hours.
Poe risked a smile. It didn't reach his eyes. "Yeah, it seems possible."
Rey found herself retracing her steps with the stormtroopers—led back down dreary hallways, back onto Kylo's ship, and back to the detention center. Except this time, when she was thrown into a cell, she was all alone. She glared up at the troopers from the floor of the cell, trying to maintain her fierce composure until the door eased shut.
As soon as that door was closed, everything that had just happened in the throne room hit her in a wave, and her body gave out. She dropped onto the floor, her hands still cuffed and her face against cold, hard metal, and she longed to weep, but no tears would come. Her body had betrayed her by crying in front of Snoke and Kylo as she resisted those orders, but now that she wanted nothing more than to cry, her eyes refused?
Instead, she trembled. She could inhale only short, breathless puffs of air.
Was Rey going to die here? If it had felt likely before, it felt almost inevitable now. Kylo had been her best chance at saving the Resistance, and the galaxy along with it, but he was just so kriffing stubborn. So stubborn that, the moment he needed to let go, he held tight to what he knew. He held tight to the lie that he had been fed for years despite the fact that Rey had seen it in his face when it clicked.
She tried to ground herself in the Force, but her heart was so troubled with all she had just learned and seen and done. Calm refused to come.
Now that her curse was broken, though – and now that her death seemed certain and the Resistance was undoubtedly long gone from Ilith – Rey felt no apprehensions about opening herself up to the Force more freely. Her eyes eased shut, and she reached out to the Force around her, seeking balance.
It still took what felt like an eternity, but gradually, her breathing slowed.
"You're something else, kid."
Rey looked up sharply. It was as though Luke was back in the cell again; he sat before her, clad in the same robes, his hair and beard just slightly unkempt. Only a lack of restraints set him apart from the figure she had just lost in the throne room on Snoke's ship.
"Luke." She whispered his name as though it was some great secret. "I'm so sorry."
He frowned, and it felt… almost stern. "What do you have to be sorry for? You've done so well."
Although she raised her voice to a more natural volume, Rey still felt as though she was saying something that she shouldn't utter aloud. "I'm sorry for what happened to you, Luke. I'm sorry that you died because of me. I'm sorry that I lost control because of it. And I'm sorry that I couldn't help Kylo back to the light. I thought he was faltering, but he… he just wouldn't listen."
"Oh, Rey." Luke – Force ghost Luke – knelt down from the bench, joining her on the floor so that he could lean in close. "You talk like you've disappointed me." Well, she certainly felt like she'd given him enough reason to feel disappointed. "That couldn't be further from the truth."
She bit her lip, scanning her eyes across his face. It was strange—she still couldn't feel him, not in the way that she had grown so accustomed to. "You really mean that, don't you?"
Luke chuckled. "Of course I do. Your desire to protect me and the Resistance was so strong that you broke the curse yourself. You are so brave and so strong. Everything that came after is just further proof."
Rey held his gaze warily. "You resisted the pull to kill Vader, but I couldn't do the same with Snoke. I was just so angry about losing you that I lost control and I…"
"And you understood at once that there was nothing for you in that pain besides empty promises. Seeing that after turning yourself over to it is… a remarkable feat, Rey."
"Is that why Kylo refused to hear me?"
"Mmm." Luke let out a low hum and held his hand out to her—oh, it was unnerving how solid he felt, even though there was no warmth or chill in his touch. He guided her to sit up, and she realized belatedly that her neck had been hurting from looking up at him. "I suspect my nephew heard you more than you think he did. Don't forget that you were both raised by three of the most stubborn people in the galaxy."
"I never do," Rey murmured.
Her words seemed to hit Luke hard, from the way that he suddenly couldn't seem to look her in the eye. Here she was, embarrassing a kriffing Force ghost. "That took a lot of strength too, Rey. To point that out to Ben. It's been nearly 20 years since you last saw him, but you were vulnerable with him anyway. I know how difficult that must have been. I guarantee that Ben knows, too."
Could that be true? Rey certainly wanted it to be true.
But she also found herself remembering something else, another conversation that she hadn't been vulnerable enough to have. Her gaze fell to the floor. Perhaps she couldn't feel Luke's emotions in the Force anymore, but her grief saturated the cell, filling every surface, each particle of air, until it was all that she could taste and breathe and feel. "Like you knew that Snoke was going to kill you."
Luke didn't answer, not for a few moments. Finally, the silence ate away at Rey enough that she looked up at him again, and something in his expression told her that it wasn't because he was searching for words—he just wanted to give her a few moments to feel the grief of that statement, and it only made her ache more.
"I knew that, once your curse was broken, I was going to die. I knew that Snoke would be there. I didn't know for certain that he was going to kill me, but yes, I saw how those pieces were likely to come together."
She felt her lips trembling. "How long did you know? How did you know?"
"The last day we were on Yavin, when I went to the Force tree to meditate. I felt it calling to me, and I saw… only glimpses, but enough to know what was coming."
"You've known since we went to Yavin?" For a flash, Rey felt a hint of frustration. For months, he had believed that he was going to die, and he had told her nothing. He had suggested that they go to Ossus even knowing that they might be in great danger—that they might bring about precisely the events he had seen. Perhaps he had even believed that the trip to Ossus would lead to their capture; to Rey's freedom; to his death. But he hadn't seen fit to discuss it with Rey? In fact, he'd allowed her to believe that he couldn't have known what might happen to them, any more than Rey did.
Through her frustration, though, she thought of her reluctance to ask him about it when she was first brought aboard Kylo's ship.
"I wouldn't have believed you, would I?"
He shook his head. "No, I don't believe so." His lips quirked up. "Particularly after Snoke did everything he could to shape you and Ben into the savior of the Sith, foretold in prophecy millennia ago, and you won't be the ones to bring it to pass because you decided that you didn't want it. Something tells me that you wouldn't have believed me."
Rey might have laughed if the thought didn't make her heart break.
And she was scared to say so, but what came out of her mouth hurt just as much. "How am I supposed to face the fact that everything I've been through was so easily rewritten?"
Luke's expression fell into one of deep, deep sadness, and it was enough that Rey finally felt tears welling up in her eyes. Before he had even spoken. "Nothing about your decision in the throne room was easy. You said that to Ben, and every word was true. Don't forget that, Rey."
"Order," she whispered softly. Automatically. And then she remembered, and she felt the corner of her mouth twitch up for an instant.
Her mentor, too, smiled for a moment before continuing. "Snoke believed that he could manufacture your future, but that's not possible, any more than I could have manufactured the circumstances that allowed you to break your curse. I brought you to Ossus knowing the likely result. That was all. Everything that's followed has been the product of a million different variables. Leading to my death, yes, but also leading to your choice to refuse the destiny that Snoke believed he'd laid out for you."
She swallowed hard. Looking down at her own lap, Rey traced over her memory of Luke after she refused Snoke's orders. She thought of the love and the pride in his eyes and understood anew that he was looking down at the child he'd been preparing to leave behind from the moment they left Yavin.
Her voice shook as she told him, "I love you so much, Luke."
"I know."
There was a feather-light hand smoothing over her hair, down to her cheek, and the gentle touch made Rey shut her eyes and inhale sharply.
When she opened her eyes again, she was alone, but the tender feeling of Luke's hand lingered.
Based on the way that Kylo spoke about Rey before the stormtroopers took her out of the throne room, she expected to be brought to an interrogation room at any moment. Thanks to Poe's nightmares, she could already picture it—being strapped to that table and tortured by Kylo until she revealed whatever information he wanted. She could already feel the agony as he tried to reach into her mind.
Time marched on, and no one came to Rey, save to shove a small tray of food into her hand.
(Gods, when was the last time she ate?)
Finally, though, the door creaked open, and she was led away.
Rey couldn't have known for sure whether it was the same room, but it was uncanny, to glance around and feel as though she already knew the circular walls, the foreboding look of the dim red lighting. She was strapped in (with the same straps that had wrapped around Poe's wrists?) and left alone. Agonizingly alone.
She closed her eyes and took a shaky breath, trying to steady herself in the Force.
Poe's voice rang through her, a distant memory from months ago. Stuck on that table while Kylo Ren broke into my head, running away didn't sound so bad.
He'd had the Resistance to protect, a whole slew of secrets, including the mission to seek out Luke. He wore a lifetime of hating the Empire and the First Order on his sleeve. And Kylo had ripped that away from him, at least enough for Poe to still feel ashamed about it months later.
What did Rey have? A desperate craving to be back at Poe's side and no knowledge of how to get there, or of how to even let him know that she was still alive.
The door slid open, and Rey's reaction was automatic: she had her guard up again, hiding herself from the Force. From Kylo, who strode in and closed the door behind him.
No, not Kylo. The Supreme Leader, if his intimidation of the two strangers in the throne room had stuck.
"Whatever you think you're going to be able to get out of me, it won't happen," Rey told him at once. "The moment Luke and I decided to go to Ossus, your mother made sure that none of the Resistance's plans made it… back. To me."
Rey trailed off toward the end, because there was something peculiar about the way that he was looking at her which she couldn't quite place. When it hit her, she didn't know quite what to think.
Confused.
He looked confused.
"I don't want to get anything out of you. I want to get you out of here."
"You… what?" Rey searched his expression frantically for any indication that he was lying, but she saw none. "But… you… when those soldiers came into the throne room…"
Ben's hands were at her wrist, and she realized abruptly that he was undoing one restraint—then reaching over and removing the other. "I lied, Rey. I'm sorry, I knew that you were still closed off to me, but I… I thought you would understand. Hux and Phasma were out for blood. If I had done anything else in that moment, we'd both be dead right now."
"We'd both…" She began to echo his words, then faltered, running over them in her mind.
Had he heard her after all? He was certainly staring at her with a warmth, an openness that she hadn't seen in his face since before Luke brought her to Ahch-To. His hands were twisting in front of him with what seemed to be genuine nerves. Before she could think better of it, Rey let her guard down.
She felt so much through the Force that she didn't know what to make of it, not at first.
Above all, it was the honesty radiating from Ben. Utter honesty.
Luke had been right. "You really listened to me," Rey said, incredulous. "Ben, I…" She reached out and grabbed his arms, holding them loosely. "I'm so happy, Ben. Leia will be so happy. We can get off this ship and I can figure out some way to get in touch with the Resistance and we'll just…"
Rey faltered again. Because she realized that Ben had no plans of leaving. He was struggling with how to say it aloud, but he was decided. He felt decided.
He said nothing, but he didn't need to.
"I don't understand," she murmured after a pregnant pause. Her hands fell back to her sides. "You can't honestly tell me that you still believe in the First Order if you understand that Snoke was lying to you."
"No, that's not…" Ben looked exasperated, and Rey felt like they were young and bickering again. "Yes. I listened, and I heard you, but I don't- The damage that I've done isn't so easy to repair. The galaxy turned on my mother when they learned about my grandfather. You can't honestly think that the Resistance would be any better if she took me in."
To this, Rey had an immediate rebuttal. "The Resistance already knows about Darth Vader. They already know about you."
But Ben was ready, too. "They know about me? Frag, Rey, do you think they have any interest in embracing me? Think of the pilot who gave you that ring." Rey looked down at her neck—she hadn't even realized that the necklace was visible, but at the sight of it, she knew at once what Ben was going to say. Without thinking, without meaning to, she got another flash of Poe's nightmares, and she saw the way Ben flinched upon feeling Poe's agony through Rey. "Would he celebrate if you got ahold of the Resistance and revealed that you'd brought Kylo Ren along with you? Would anyone, unless your plan was to lock me up and throw away the key?"
"That's not fair," she whispered. "You know I said that any change would involve atonement, and I understand very well that that path wouldn't be easy."
Not to mention what a low blow it was to ask about Poe, specifically. It had been some time since Rey and Poe had discussed Ben in any sort of depth, but she knew the gist. While Poe wanted to hope, for Leia and Rey's sake, that Ben might find his way back to the light, he found it immensely, exceedingly difficult not to harbor resentment against the man who'd tortured him to within an inch of his life. What were his words from the very first night she spent with him on the Millennium Falcon?
Part of me doesn't want him to come back from the dark side because it's easier to hate him for what he did.
Yes, mentioning Poe was not entirely fair. Ben made a valid point, but it was not fair.
Rey didn't know whether Ben sensed that particular frustration in her, or whether he would have said the following anyway: "I'm not convinced that that path is possible. Certainly not while the First Order is taking up all of their time and resources. And even if the Resistance can defeat the First Order… I don't know if I believe that I deserve a place in that world after everything I've done."
Rey crossed her arms and turned away from Ben, trying not to allow her anger to rise. "That's the whole point of a second chance, Ben. It's you, doing what you can to prove that you deserved the second chance that you were given. Proving that you can be better, and that you want better for everyone you've hurt. Leia and I know you can do that, and Luke knew it, too. I want you to have that chance."
A stretch of silence hung over them.
"Gods, I admire you so much," he told her at last. It was enough to startle Rey into looking back up at him again, frowning. "You have so much hope for the galaxy, and for me, even after everything you've been through. After everything we've been through."
"Sometimes hoping for something is the bravest thing you can do."
"That sounds like one of my mother's platitudes," Ben said with a smile. Perhaps Leia hadn't said those precise words to Rey, but he was right; it was very much Leia's influence shining through, and Rey couldn't help but smile a bit herself. "But I think right now, we're going to have to compromise, even if it means that neither of us is doing the bravest thing we can do."
Well, that didn't bode well.
Rey felt understandably wary, and she watched him carefully. "What do you mean?"
"You'll need me to stay in the hangar to stop anyone from shooting you out of the sky before you can make a jump to hyperspace. And even if I could join you… it's not happening. I meant what I just said: the Resistance wouldn't know what to do with me, and after everything I've just put you through… after everything Snoke put you through… I don't want you to have to fight to defend me. I refuse. Nothing that you say will change my mind."
"But—" He raised his eyebrows. Slowly, cautiously, Rey nodded and left the sentence there. Instead, she changed course. "What will that mean for you?"
"I'm not quite sure."
That was not strictly true. Both of them knew that the likely consequence for helping Rey to escape would be death. By remaining with the First Order, Ben was limiting the chance that he would ever have to do that arduous work of atoning.
She bit her lip while she tried to take that in.
"We'll see each other again," she told him at last.
Ben raised his eyebrows. He looked unamused by Rey's – being honest with herself – absurdly bold claim, perhaps an indication of how much he wanted it to be true. (She could feel it, how much he wanted it to be true.) "You hope we'll see each other again."
"No, we will." Rey swallowed hard, thinking all at once of Leia, and of Poe, and of every story she'd heard about the notorious Kylo Ren from other members of the Resistance. "So that you can see Leia again. So that you can apologize to Poe and give him an opportunity to punch you in the face like I think he might want to, if given the chance."
"Are you sure that's not just an excuse to get back at me for reprogramming Threepio to tell you scary stories before bed?"
"I never did get back at you for that, did I?"
That wretched senator from Kuat had happened before she could. Rey had spilled water on Ben, and her life had changed.
The suggestion was absurd and more than a little flippant—that Ben's childhood prank did anything to rival the agony he had caused in the years since he left Luke's temple. But Rey didn't resent him for it. He didn't believe that he stood a chance with the First Order, and if that was the case, he didn't want their parting words to be an argument over it.
He wouldn't agree, not even to appease her. Not if he didn't truly believe it. She'd known that about him for as long as she could remember.
Luke's fighter was apparently still in the hangar, and as Ben paced around the interrogation room, he explained what Rey would need to expect.
"Communications have been taken out, but the hyperdrive was left operational and a tracker was installed in the system. The hope was that if either of you even managed to escape, without comms you wouldn't have any choice but to lead us straight to the Resistance, or to allies of the Resistance. I sabotaged the tracker, but the comms are still shot. I know you don't know where the Resistance is right now, so you'll… have to figure out how to reach them on your own. I don't even know if I can promise you more than one trip in that thing after the way we tore it up. I'm sorry."
Rey took a deep breath. She knew no one outside of the Resistance proper, and she had been almost nowhere. How was she meant to reach out to them? But that wasn't even her greatest problem. "You should also settle on your destination now. The faster you can chart a course, the faster you can get away."
Again, she was at something of a loss.
Finally, though, she settled on what she knew would be her best chance. "Alright. Tell me what we're going to do."
Ben placed the cuffs back on her wrists and tucked the key into her hand. He informed the stormtrooper standing guard outside that he was bringing Rey back over to the other ship because "General Phasma wants to see her. We don't need an escort." Rey felt the influence of the Force on the trooper as he absently agreed.
"I wish you wouldn't do that in front of me," she whispered.
He glanced at Rey. Remorse hummed around them both. "We might run into more trouble if I don't." When Rey didn't answer, he got the message. "Alright."
Blaster shots were coming from all angles, and Ben was breathlessly deflecting them with his saber as Rey clambered into Luke's fighter.
She was taken aback when he shouted her name. Looking down at Ben, she saw him reach into his robes and pull out Leia's lightsaber, tossing it up toward the cockpit. "I nearly forgot to give you this."
When her fingers curled around the saber again, Rey felt a flash of warmth go through her. "This was your mother's once," she called. It was Leia's, and Ben had used it to protect Rey from the Imperial Guard.
"I know." Yes, she realized. He had felt it the moment he removed it from her satchel on Ossus. The knowledge had nestled into his gut and settled there.
Rey swallowed hard, then she booted up the fighter and closed the hatch.
Not to brag, but Ben took down quite a number of stormtroopers and even stopped any pilots from reaching the tie fighters to pursue Rey in her escape. By the time he was overwhelmed, he had no doubt that she was gone.
It was more than a little comical that the troopers seemed to be at a complete loss for the most appropriate response. Certainly they outnumbered him, but they were terrified of his power, and many of them didn't even seem positive that he'd betrayed the First Order. He'd just declared himself the Supreme Leader—perhaps he was executing some plan that they didn't yet understand, in which case they would do well not to interfere.
Phasma and Hux arrived, and they knew better.
"I fragging knew it," Phasma bellowed at once. "We should have killed both you and the girl the moment we discovered you chatting over the Supreme Leader's dead body."
Ben gazed up at her, indifferent. "You were scared that we would kill you first. It's not your fault that Rey and I have power that you couldn't dream of." Glancing at Hux, he smirked before looking back to Phasma. "At least you have some power, I suppose, unlike General Hux, who hides behind any strongman who will protect him."
"How dare you!" Hux exclaimed. He stepped forward as though to strike Ben, but Phasma held her arm out across his chest, stopping him in his tracks. "Let's kill him now, show all of our soldiers what happens when you betray the First Order for the kriffing Resistance."
For a long beat, Phasma said nothing. She looked down at Ben, and he stared back, even though he couldn't meet her eye through her helmet. But oh, he felt her thinking, and he knew that she knew it. "Ben Solo believes that we feel intimidated by his connection to an antiquated religion," she said at last. Disdain saturated her voice as she said his name. "I think there's a better way to prove to the galaxy that that religion has no power over us anymore."
Well. Perhaps there was the smallest chance that Rey was right after all.