Chapter Fifteen

Poe and Finn surge forward as Leia steps out of the caves. Before either can speak, she a raises a hand in protestation, and marches on past them, past all those who have begun to congregate around the caves, drawn in by a deeply rooted curiosity to know what will happen to the bitter enemy.

Finn glances aside. "What now?"

Poe shrugs, clasps Finn's shoulder. A reassuring pat. "Wait here, buddy."

He hurries after Leia, but makes it no further than the growing crowd when three people step in his path. Kaydel Ko Connix, Tammin 'Snap' Wesley, and Larma D'Acy.

"What's going on, Poe?" Snap demands.

Poe shrugs helplessly. "I'm still trying to found out."

"Is it really...?" Larma asks. "Is it?"

Poe nods once. "So far as I know."

The three of them exchange a glance. "What is she going to do with him?" Kaydel asks then.

"Again, I'm trying to find out."

They part to let him go, their eyes lingering on the cave.

Poe quickens his pace, pursing Leia to the very edge of the village. She pauses there.

He's never seen her look so old. It sets a quickening in his heart, one of compassion, one of concern. "You want to talk about it?"

Leia throws a single glance back at him, the sharp look in her eye warning him off.

But Poe, though her flounders and retreats a step, burns with a stubbornness that can't be quenched. "Whoever that guy is, he isn't your son anymore."

Leia scoffs, refuses to turn back towards him. "Oh, Poe, you do say the stupidest things sometimes. I just want to be alone for a moment."

Poe hovers still. He's not so good with the letting go. "Are you sure?"

"Pretty damn."

After one final wavering moment of hesitation, Poe turns and trudges away, back to the caves, feeling just as lost as ever.

But no more lost than Leia. In the stillness of loneliness, she closes her eyes and breathes in deep, reaching for the Force, for those lives tethered to it. "Help me. Han. Luke. Help me bring him back."

The air around her stirs, a gentle whispering that returns some peace to her strained expression.

#

Back in the caves, Kylo kneels on the floor, trying to find a centre of calm while the air around him crackles and shivers with anxiety and dread. It doesn't help that he can feel a singular pair of eyes boring into his back, watching him intently.

He knows words are coming, but he doesn't ask for them, only waits for her to find the courage.

"Can I ask you a question?" Rey's voice is soft with uncertainty.

Kylo rolls his eyes behind closed lids. "You wasted one already asking for my permission."

"Why are you upset with her?"

It's not the profound words he was expecting from her. In fact, they bore him. "Because I am an angry, bad person."

Her eyes jerk away from him. He looks up as he feels her attention slip, as he feels another presence coming into the room.

He recognizes the man, but doesn't know his name. Only a number. FN-2187. There's no point in learning the names of these people.

The man who was FN-2187 glowers down at him.

Kylo holds his gaze for a second, then looks aside. "Oh goodie. Here comes the judge and jury."

He can sense the ripple of ire that his words send through the man, but they are not enough to prompt a retort. The only words he speak are not intended for him. "A moment?"

Kylo twists his head back, towards Rey.

She holds his gaze, wary eyes assessing him, as if wondering whether it's safe to leave him alone. He sighs heavily, lifts his cuffed hands in a show of defeat.

With a nod and a promise to "be right back", she takes her leave of him.

Kylo closes his eyes again, and focuses on hearing the conversation as they pass out of normal earshot.

"Do you know what Leia plans to do?" the man that was FN-2187 asks.

"Not yet," Rey lies—which causes Kylo to grin.

"Because the others are starting to get anxious."

"Anxious?"

"About him being here. They don't trust him. They think it's a trap."

"It's not. They should trust Leia on that."

"They should. But he's killed so many of us."

"I know."

"And no matter of trust in Leia can change that."

"I know."

Kylo opens his eyes, now putting his attention into blocking out the sound of their conversation. Let them decide that he is a lost cause. It's time they give up on him. It's time his mother—

Something painful stirs in him as the tiniest drop of compassion drips through him. He grimaces, gritting his teeth against the roiling wave.

"Hurts, doesn't it?"

Kylo jerks around, lurching to his feet. There, lingering as translucent force ghosts are the victims of his rage: Han Solo and Luke Skywalker.

"Told you I'd see you around," Luke says gruffly, a coy smirk playing on his lips.

For two dead men, they look annoyingly gleeful.

Kylo blinks, shakes his head, wishes them away, but they are beyond his power. With a shrug of his shoulders, he turns his back on them. "Took you long enough to come. I thought you had forgotten."

"Sounds like I rubbed off on him after all," Han says.

"Unfortunately," Luke agrees.

Somehow, this is worse than almost being killed by a possessed Hux. "What will it take to get you to leave me alone?"

"A lot more than you turning your back on us, son."

"Don't call em that." Kylo rounds on them.

"Lighten up, Ben," Luke says.

"Don't call me that either."

Luke and Han share a suddenly sober look, like an old married couple worried about a temperamental child.

"It's going to take a miracle," Luke says.

"Leia should give up," Han agrees.

Kylo couldn't agree more. "Yes! Tell her to give up. Please."

Luke scoffs. "Good boy you raised there, Han."

Han shrugs. "Apple of my eye. Saber in my gut."

Kylo grinds his teeth, sinks back onto his knees as the voices echo around him, bickering. Hurry back, Rey.

#

But Rey has voices of her own to contend with.

The Resistance mob has grown around the caves, armed with grudges and even worse, with blasters.

Her hands call for peace as her voice strains against theirs. "He's not a danger to you. I promise."

"How do you know?" Snap demands.

"The First Order have turned against him. We have one enemy between us now."

"And you think that makes us allies?" a particularly dour voices asks. Rey recognizes him as one of the newer recruits, Beaumont Kin.

"I do, and—"

"Rey!"

Leia's voice erupts above the crowd's.

Rey hurries forward, weaving through the crowd. They let her pass, turning with her.

Leia is at the edge of the group. Gone are the lines of worry and weariness. There's a lightness in her expression, aglow with hope.

It charges through Rey. "What is it?"

"I think I found a solution."

She hurries off and Rey follows at her feet, all the way to her own hut and the box of books that she brought from the Jedi temple on Ahch-To.

"I didn't even think... do you really believe there's an answer in there on how to stop the Sith?"

"I hope," Leia says, taking one book out and passing it to Rey.

The delicate old tomes seem to spark in their fingers with that hope. Rey had tried to interpret them long ago, but had given up on the ancient language employed in places and the wordy prose in the rest.

The restless sound of the crowd reaches to them. Rey hesitates. "What about Ben?"

"What about him?" Leia asks, settling on the floor, opening up one book upon her lap.

"What if they try something?"

Leia takes Rey's hand, pulls her down beside her. "Don't you worry about it. I've put my best man on it."