[Rey]
Rey inhaled a deep breath and let it out slowly as General Hux left.
Once the man had left the shuttle entirely, Kylo said, "So. You've changed your mind."
"What?"
"'Let the past die'? No more sides?"
She slumped a little. "Not exactly."
She expected him to be disappointed or angry. Instead, he just said, "Tell me."
She tried to find the right words, but it felt like they were eluding her. She said something else, starting further back. "The First Order has a bad reputation on Jakku. Most of the reason why happened before I was born, but I still heard about it. I've heard about it all my life. They came back a year or two after the war – after scavengers had moved in and staked claims – and they took whatever they wanted, at gunpoint if necessary.
"They lifted entire ships out of the sand – the smaller ones, that is. They took salvaged components and when they paid for them at all, it wasn't much." She sighed. "They also bought children. They recruited the best workers – mechanics and restorers who'd come to set up shop. They even disappeared with bush pilots and cargo crew. There were rumors that not everyone went with them willingly, that they were abducted and pressed into service."
She swallowed. Kylo was listening attentively. She went on, "They kept coming, I'm told, every year or two until … I was young. For a long time, I told myself that was one of their ships I saw leaving with my parents on it." She studied Kylo's face, but he didn't speak.
They both knew the truth – her parents had sold her to Unkar Plutt. Plutt had been unable to resell her to the Order. Upon his return to attempt to get his money back, he'd found them drunk. She was locked outside while they argued. They died. She belonged to Plutt after that. It was a sordid past that could have belonged to any sad orphan, just another indirect victim of the galaxy's ongoing strife.
"That's … not really what happened, though. The First Order didn't take them." Her eyes watered. He leaned forward and reached out to touch her knee. "No, it's alright." She sniffed and wiped at her eyes. "It's … that was a long time ago."
"Not to you."
She sighed. "I know. And … I'll come to terms with it myself. But the point of all this is that I grew up hating the First Order. I blamed them for many things and everyone around me agreed. They were evil. They were opportunists. They were thieves, kidnappers, lawless … I don't even know the words in Basic." Most of them were curses anyway. "When I heard about the Resistance, about Luke Skywalker … I still wanted to wait for my parents, but I agreed with their mission – to destroy … all of this."
She gestured around at the shuttle. Kaydel came out of the back compartment, her hair wrapped up in a towel folded like a turban. She was dressed, still in the First Order disguise which was her only set of clothes. She looked between the two of them for a moment. Rey looked down pointedly, also, to conceal any sign of tears on her face. Kaydel headed outside. Soon thereafter, one of the stormtroopers came in and disappeared in the rear compartment for their own shower, never bothering to look their way.
"I hope there are enough towels," Rey said.
"There should be two," Kylo said.
Rey nodded. "When you asked me to join you in the First Order … I didn't want to. I wasn't going to." She waited for him to ask again if she'd changed her mind. He didn't. She breathed out heavily. "Then … when you came with Lando … you said … you said I wanted to use you. And you weren't wrong."
She chewed her lip, eyes watering again. "I wanted to use you against the First Order." She shook her head despondently. "The same as your mother did. Then we had the vision and everything has been busy since then and now we're here." She paused for a long moment. "I'm … meeting these people in the First Order. They aren't evil. I've known evil people. I belonged to Plutt for years. These people are … strict. But you were one of them."
"I was." Speaking slowly, Kylo added, "You know those ships they were recovering from Jakku were theirs."
"They were not!" she said crossly. "Scavenger's code! They'd been abandoned. People had claims."
He gave her a level look with only the barest hint of the smile he was suppressing. "Okay."
"Fine, they were theirs to start with." She rolled her eyes. "I'm just saying that I'm seeing a different point of view. I haven't changed my mind … exactly."
"Okay," he agreed again, with much the same expression.