Chapter Thirteen:

Back on Ajan Kloss, Poe and Finn rove through the streets as pale light floods overheard. They wear their weariness in the lines of their face, in their haggard appearances. It looks like they've just rolled out of bed.

Which is good, as that's exactly what they've just done.

"She said it was urgent or I wouldn't have bothered you," Poe says, trying to cleave through the dreadful silence between them.

"It's fine," Finn says. There's nothing mendacious in his reply, but there's nothing warm in it either.

Awkward silence fills the space between them, BB-8 rolling along behind them all the way to the cave where Leia sits with C-3PO.

Poe starts at the sight of her pale pallor and hunched form. He rushes to her side, falling to his knees before her. "What is it? Please, speak to me."

Leia smiles wearily at him. "I'm fine, but I have word from Rey and Rose that you're not going to like."

"Where are they? Are they hurt?" Finn demands, rushing forward.

Leia shakes her head. "They're fine too. They'll be arriving very soon."

Poe rises. He hadn't heard a ship take off in the night. His mind has been elsewhere through this turning of night.

"Where did they go?" Finn asks.

"I don't know. I didn't know. But Rey... it's hard to believe, but she has Kylo Ren."

That knocks them both speechless.

It seems too much of a dream, a tenuous hope, to believe it. Poe shakes his head, trying to find words.

Finn finds them first. "She has Ren? Then... It's over!"

"The First Order is more than just one man," Leia says gravely.

Poe remembers how to voice his thoughts gain. "But Finn's right. This is huge! We have Ren. The First Order will fall apart without him."

"I don't think it's that easy."

But Poe hardly hears her words. Eagerness builds through him, breaking through the disbelief. This is the moment they've been waiting for. "Hope. Isn't that what we're always talking about? This is what we need to build our own force. The galaxy will come to pick apart the pieces of the First Order when news that Ren's dead—"

"He's not dead," Leia says sharply.

Poe flinches, heat flooding through his cheeks. Finn throws him an apologetic look.

Leia rises stiffly, her face marred by a severe scowl. "There is more I would say, but peace for now. I want you with me when they arrive. Will you come?"

Poe nods. So does Finn.

She brushes past them.

Poe makes to follow, but Finn pulls him back for a second. "I have a bad feeling about this."

It wasn't a sure sign of forgiveness, but it was something. And Poe would have taken it happily if he didn't also think that this wasn't going to end well.

#

Rey peers anxiously through the cockpit window, out onto the lading strip where it seems like the entire Resistance has gathered in the early dawn to see what's up.

"So much for a quiet descent," she mutters.

"Maybe they won't recognize him without the mask."

"You're too optimistic for your own good."

Rey and Rose throw an eerily similar withering look back at Kylo.

He flinches back from them with a shrug. "Most of them saw me fighting on Crait."

"You mean when you got your butt kicked by a projection of Luke Skywalker?" Rose says. "I'm still upset I missed it."

Kylo glowers at her, but there's a quirk of a smirk on his lips. Rey can almost see the edges where Ben Solo wants to push through. It helps that he's wearing one of his father's own shirts in place of his tattered one. If not for his hands bound in charged restraints, this might be a moment of hopeful change.

"Well, let's get this over with."

Rose steps down first, Chewie at her back. Rey prods Kylo to follow them. He throws her back one last, silent, pleading look. She prods him harder. With a final grunt, he trudges down the ramp with Rey just a step behind.

The air is still, the group there silent in its greeting.

Rey avoids making contact with anyone, her eyes focused on Kylo's head. He glances back, meets her eyes.

Chewbacca stops abruptly. Kylo bumps unceremoniously into him, earning a begrudging growl. It's an improvement from strangulation.

Rey steps around Kylo, to see what's stopped Rose. Leia stands firm in their path, flanked on one side by Poe, Finn lingering just behind them.

Rose steps aside, Chewbacca follows suit.

Poe surges forward, to within a foot of Kylo Ren.

Kylo stares down at him. There's a palpable tension between them. "So who talks first? You talk first? I talk first?"

Poe's jaw clenches, his body stiffening. Rey's not sure if the twitch around his eye is a fight against laughter. It might be wishful thinking.

A gentle hand falls over Poe's shoulder.

With a begrudging sigh, he steps aside.

Leia steps up in his place. She stares up at him. The sorrow weaved into the lines of her fatigue jar Rey. She's never seen her look so tired, so old. "Ben..." Leia whispers.

Kylo averts his gaze, expression stricken.

A subtle murmuring floods the space around them. As the silence draws on, Rey steps forward to intervene. "Perhaps this would be better done in private."

Leia looks her way, eyes glazed, as if coming out of stupor. "Yes," she says. "Of course."

#

They find privacy in the caves where Leia has made her personal base. Kylo stands in the center of the room, eyes downcast, refusing to meet Leia's searching stare. Rey stands off to one side, eyes flitting between the two of them. She's here to mediate, if it comes to that.

"Will you not look at me, Ben?"

Kylo's answer is continued silence.

"Are you afraid of what you will see in me or what I will see in you?"

Kylo flinches soundlessly.

"You will find that I can be as stubborn as you. And even more patient."

Kylo tilts his head up for the briefest second, forces it down again.

Rey glances at Leia who purses her lips, gives a small shrug. At a loss herself, Rey casts her gaze towards the caves' exit. "Maybe. If I wasn't here..."

"No, stay. Please," Leia says quickly.

Kylo mutters something under his breath, too soft, too mumbled to be understood.

Leia leans forward eagerly, her eyes twinkling. "What was that?"

Kylo stiffens, gives a firm shake of his head.

Rey starts forward, tired of waiting. There's no time to be patient or stubborn when danger is looming dangerously close. The First Order may not be aware of how close they are at present, but Rey can't shake the dread of them discovering the truth at any second.

Before words can flee, Leia holds up a firm hand, a decisive call for her to hold.

She must have sensed something in the Force that Rey could not, because Kylo unfolds his stance at last. His head comes up.

"Tell me what is going to happen."

Leia straightens her back. "Why don't you tell me."

"You're going to let me go," he replies coolly.

Rey fights the urge to strangle him again. In a calmer voice that Rey admires, Leia says, "Oh, definitely not."

Kylo gives a rough shake of his head. "Then you might as well kill me."

"Ben—"

"My name is Kylo Ren."

The pompous twist of his voice digs into Rey's gut.

Leia takes it all with the same calm presence she's worn all this time. "No. You are my son. Ben Solo."

Her words echo with a force that even Rey shudders at. For a second, she believes it will change something. But then...

Kylo twists violently to face her. "Take me away from here."

The abruptness of his attention and words cause Rey to hesitate for a breath. "I can't. I—"

"You're twisted around her finger," he spits at her, spinning around to face Leia again. "And you don't understand. The Sith are returning."

Leia blanches, staggers, reaching for the wall behind her to steady herself. "The Sith?" she breathes out.

Rey speeds past Kylo to reach Leia's side. Leia's finger dig into her supportive arm.

Kylo hasn't moved but Rey can see his face and the deep grooves of telling concern worn into his brow.

He blinks quickly, forces a scowl as her stare lingers. "They've chosen a vessel. Endowed him with Their power. You won't be able to stand against Them."

Leia straightens again, her composure regained. "Then you must join forces with us. Ben—"

"I want no part in your Resistance," Kylo says, but his voice is a little less coarse, his eyes a little more dim. "And if you are wise, you would flee. This is not a fight you can win."

"They rarely are," Leia muses. "But the fight is all we have."

"I want no part in it," Kylo repeats. "I've almost died enough for one cycle."

Leia starts at that, looks to Rey. "What happened?"

"It's a long story—"

"And we don't have time for long stories," Kylo interrupts impatiently.

"Then you will have to tell it quickly," Leia says, the epitome of calm once more.

And so Rey does.

AN: This chapter was starting to run on so I cut it off here. Sorry for the abruptness of it. More coming soon ;)