[Rey]

"So," Rey began when the silence began to get awkward. "There are a few things I should clear up. After, um, after I finished my training with Luke – Master Luke."

"Just Luke," Kylo said quietly, but it carried.

"I'll call him what I want," Rey said to him. He glanced away at the rebuke, but it wasn't like she didn't understand his objection. "Anyway, with Master Luke, I didn't come to Crait. Not directly. I went to … I went to the Supremacy."

Chewbacca whuffed affirmatively and leaned back in his seat. He, too, had been keeping this secret.

"You," Poe asked, "… you went to the Supremacy? Not just Finn and Rose's group?"

"Yes," she said. "I wanted to talk to Ben- Kylo?" She looked to him in uncertainty. She knew the name that resonated within him, but if he wanted to be called differently then she would.

"Kylo," he answered.

"I wanted to talk to Kylo."

Poe rubbed his forehead and said nothing.

Rey continued. "I was taken to Snoke. And Kylo killed him, defending me."

"Defending you?" Poe said. Everyone else around the table was quiet. Chewie and Kylo knew the story. She wasn't sure what Kylo had told Lando, but he didn't look surprised. Neither did Leia, come to think of it.

"He saved my life." Rey turned to Leia and Lando. "Did you both already know this?"

Leia said, "I suspected."

Lando put his hands out, palms up. "It's all new to me. I know enough about the Solos that I didn't ask questions." Kylo gave him a side-eye to dispute that. Lando said, "Okay, I didn't ask many questions. Certainly not all the questions I wanted to ask."

"And," Poe asked, "what happened after that?"

She shot Kylo a look. That had been … a complicated moment, and not one she wanted to deal with right now. "I left. I transferred to the Falcon and by the time we were leveled out again, there were drop-ships coming down on Crait. We waited to see what would happen. Once we saw there was a battle, we were inbound."

Poe nodded. "Yeah, I think we all know what happened after that."

Kylo gave Poe a look that wasn't entirely friendly. Poe either didn't notice it or was unfazed by it. Lando said, "I don't."

Poe rolled his eyes. "The Falcon drew off the TIE fighters and later evacuated the rest of us off the planet." Lando nodded, curiosity satisfied.

Rey felt Kylo relax almost palpably and she realized, or assumed, that he didn't want his showdown with Luke broadcast to everyone. She wondered if Poe knew that, had made a lucky guess as a fellow ego-centric personality, or was just skipping over it coincidentally. She didn't catch the expression Poe sent Kylo's way, but she felt his tension ease even further. Poe knew. And Kylo knew he wasn't surrounded by enemies.

Poe said to Kylo, "So the grounds for deposition we heard on the holos actually are true. You did kill him - Snoke." Kylo shrugged. Poe went on, "We assumed he was killed when the Raddus hit the Supremacy." He turned to Rey. "You didn't correct us."

She sighed. "It didn't matter."

Poe asked, "It didn't matter that the then-current supreme leader of the First Order had saved your life, and you had … like, the highest form of blackmail material on him?" She didn't answer. Poe smiled at her a little. He knew. Somehow. Was she being so transparent about her feelings? She felt her cheeks flush.

"What are you implying?" Kylo growled.

Poe leaned back, hands raised in surrender. "I'm implying there's still a gap in the who-did-what-and-why thing. Though I think the answer's pretty clear on that. I was just hoping someone would say it."

Rey said defensively, "I spoke to Luke about him. I know what happened between them! That's how I- why I had to go speak with him," she gestured at Kylo, "to explain that I knew the truth." Poe looked utterly unconvinced.

"The truth about what?" Leia asked. She'd stayed silent as she let Poe ask questions for her. It was a familiar enough routine that Rey suspected it was standard between them.

Rey waited a beat, stealing a glance at Kylo, who wasn't stopping her, nor was he any more tense than usual. He was resigned, maybe. Or stoic about it. There was a lot going on around the table as far as the swirling eddies of emotion in the Force, enough that it was tough to keep track of all of it. "The truth about the night the Jedi temple burned. Luke had gone to Ben's hut to … to better understand the darkness he was sensing from him. And its presence moved him to ignite his lightsaber and consider …"

Leia's eyes hardened. "Consider what?"

Rey swallowed. "Consider … killing Ben."

"What?" Poe said, but no one paid him any attention. Rey's eyes were locked with Leia's.

"Luke," Leia said, "was going to kill … Ben?" She glanced at Kylo, then back to Rey. "Ben was attacking him? Threatening him?"

Kylo stifled a single laugh. Rey could feel a sort of maniacal glee bubbling up in him, along with a dark satisfaction.

Rey shook her head. "Ben was asleep."

Lando said, "Wait, let me get this straight. Luke goes to his hut. At night. He's asleep." Lando gestured at Kylo. "And Luke ignites his lightsaber to kill him … in his sleep? Luke Skywalker?" Rey nodded. "Had they had a fight that day? An argument?" He turned to Kylo. "What happened?"

Kylo said, "The news that Leia was Darth Vader's daughter had broken that morning."

Lando leaned back. "Oh. Oh yeah. That answers everything."

Kylo said furiously, "It doesn't answer why he decided to kill me, in my sleep or otherwise!"

Lando bucked up. "I didn't say it did! He of all people should have known not to go jumping at shadows after something like that happened. Dark forces conspired to make that public. Did he think it was limited to her?" He gestured to Leia. "No. He should have known or at least wondered if he was as much a target as she was. And you a target as well."

Leia said quietly, "I have to wonder if he was the target."

Chewbacca said the same people who would want the New Republic to fail would also need the Jedi gone. Lando nodded. "Without the Jedi Academy, no more Jedi."

"Luke tried to kill you?" This was from Leia, who had turned to Kylo. It was like she needed to hear it again, from him directly.

"Yes," Kylo said emphatically.

Rey said, "He was … He considered it."

"He tried," Kylo insisted.

"He lit the saber and immediately regretted it," Rey said. "He regretted it so much he hid himself on Ach-to and cut himself off from the Force entirely, for years, until I went there and … when he refused to help me, I went to the Supremacy myself. Because Ben wasn't- Kylo wasn't … in the wrong. Not in what he'd seen that night. Not in the conclusions he'd reached based on what he knew. He didn't know how Luke felt about it or what Luke intended. He only knew what he saw and what he saw was his master about to kill him. Even Luke admitted that to me!"

She was quiet then. The door opened and Kaydel came in, bearing a glass bottle sheathed in decorated metal cladding about two-thirds of the way up. "This was all I could find on short notice." A stony silence met her. Leia made a gesture for her to bring the bottle to her.

When she set it down, Leia said, "Thank you."

"Of course." Kaydel left quickly.

Leia said to Lando, "I asked her to get us water, juice, and something stronger if she could find it."

"I could do with stronger," Lando said. "Put it right in the rest of my juice."

"You don't even know what it is." Leia poured it anyway. Her own glass was empty. She filled it halfway with a pale yellow liquid.

By then Lando had sampled it. He took the bottle from her and sniffed the opening. "Whiskey. Or any of thousands of similar. Probably jet juice or hooch, especially with that bottle." Rey knew what he meant was that it was a reusable bottle and therefore likely not the one it was originally sold in – if it had ever been sold at all.

"Hm," Leia hummed. She took a sip, grimaced, and made a wave around the table and a gesture at the bottle, asking if anyone else wanted some. No one did.

Lando asked Kylo, "So what happened after all that? You wake up, there he is, saber lit. Didn't he explain himself?"

"I summoned my own saber to me, lit it, and struck at him to distract him," Kylo said. "Then I pulled down the stone ceiling and buried both of us. But … myself … less than him. I was able to drag myself out. I knew he wasn't dead, but … I left."

"What happened with the other students?" Leia asked.

"We fought," Kylo said. "Some died. Some left with me. With Luke and Snoke both dead, they're finally free. So am I."

"This was a wild ride of a story," Poe said quietly.

Leia gave him a long look. "This needs to remain private."

"It will."

Kylo glanced between his mother and Poe, but didn't say anything. Rey sipped at her juice, having forgotten about it until just now. Her drinking prompted everyone else to do the same.

"Does anyone know this in the First Order?" Leia asked.

Kylo shook his head. "The Knights of Ren, but they've left the Order. Hux knows pieces. As do a few in Intelligence. They had to, to know what to listen for." His voice slowed. "But most of the Skywalker-Solo dirty laundry has been kept suitably secret."

"That's not what I was asking," Leia said irritably.

"It isn't?" Kylo asked. He sipped his water.

She gave him a baleful eye. "Were you followed here?"

"No."

Poe said, "Those First Order ships always come with a tracker."

Lando said, "I disabled it."

"After it reached Cloud City," Leia said. Lando shrugged.

"They didn't follow me," Kylo insisted.

"Why not?" Poe asked.

"If I could walk out of their prison on a star destroyer and steal a ship, then what are they going to do about me out here, where I can see them coming and pick my terms of engagement? Hux isn't going to throw away his people's lives just to annoy me. None of them will."

"You can see them coming?" Leia asked.

"Through the Force."

"Could you tell if the First Order had discovered us and was coming for us?"

"Perhaps."

"Probably," Rey said. He frowned at her.

Kylo said, "It would require meditation. And don't expect precision."

Leia nodded. "Will you do that for us?"

"Do you ask it of me?" Kylo asked, raising his chin.

Leia waited a beat, then said thoughtfully, "I do." She paused again, then added with difficulty, "Please."

"I will," he said in a subdued tone. He dropped his head, the posturing suddenly uncomfortable.

Leia turned to Lando, drawing attention away from Kylo. "How long were you planning on staying?"

He shrugged. "I have a good staff in place on Bespin. I can stay here as long as it doesn't get boring."

"That might be a long time," she said. "Around here, it never gets boring."

He chuckled. "Then maybe you can show me to whoever brewed your hooch. I could tell them a thing or two. Might make the time pass easier."

Leia said, "I pretend I don't know, but you should check the distillery tucked in behind the fuel lines at the west end of the hangar."

Poe winced. "Um, yeah. I, uh, don't know anything about that either, but I can introduce you to someone who might."

Leia said, "You may as well settle in. Both of you." She turned a lingering eye on Kylo. "We have some rooms we can offer."

Rey stood. "I could show you." She didn't miss how Poe smirked. Kylo rose smoothly, looking at her with anticipation.

"No," Leia said.

"What?" Rey asked.

"Poe can show them where we have some space," Leia said. "I want to talk with you."