[Rey]

Rey took a seat on the sleeping pad across from Kylo. They sat cross-legged. The holocron was between them, but she didn't expect to do anything with it. It was just a focus and an excuse. She'd been surprised when the lie worked. They had just confessed to being cut off from the Force, yet everyone went along with the story that she and Kylo needed to meditate and be excused from wing work.

Maybe the others didn't see meditation as being the same thing as using the Force. It wasn't, after all. And on the other hand, the stormtroopers weren't going to question it if Hux didn't, and Hux was probably running on fumes – broken sleep, night after night, did that to a person. The people on the Resistance side were likewise exhausted from the day before or simply not going to challenge them if they said they wanted privacy. And there were only so many tools to go around.

"So here we are," Rey said when they were both settled in. Kylo nodded. She asked, "Do you think we should reconnect to the Force?"

He shook his head. "Nothing has changed."

"What about Hux's threat?"

Kylo looked lost for a moment. "He didn't threaten us."

"That felt like a threat to me, that he was considering shooting all of us because we couldn't stop him."

"It wasn't," he said dismissively. "It was a joke."

"That's what he considers funny? Killing all of us?"

"Humor in the Order is a bit more black than the rest of the galaxy and his more than most. I'm not defending it."

"I should hope not." She laughed herself, though. She took a deep breath and let it out, letting her mind wander. "If we're not going to reconnect, then it's just us. Here and now."

He nodded, looking wistful. "Always."

That was so soothing to hear. She let out a deep breath, shedding some of her tension and trying to put herself in a meditative frame of mind. Maybe it hadn't been a lie after all. They did need this. People with the power they wielded needed to be centered and that came with understanding, of themselves and each other. "What are we, Kylo, without the Force? What are you? Who are you?"

He considered the question, glancing around as though to make sure they were as alone as they could get under the circumstances. Quietly, he said, "I'm the son of a smuggler, but there's no smuggling ring or crime lord I answer to." After a moment of further reflection, he said, "I'm a prince of Alderaan, but that means nothing. It's a legacy of dust; only words now, empty hope, a meaningless title. In another timeline, I would have been someone."

"You still are."

"Am I to you?" he asked, both coy and entreating. She smiled suddenly at him. He was clever, but so understated. She liked that about him. He sounded so pleased as he said, "Ah, I am." He brightened and sat up straighter. Her smile broadened. He said, "Who are you? You're not a nobody anymore. It's only been a week or two, yet my mother and the Resistance think so highly of you now. They imagine you're of use to them. Are you?"

Rey exhaled heavily again, letting her smile fade. He was also painfully incisive, which she also liked, but it hurt to have her illusions stripped away. "I'm not with them to be used."

"But that is what's happening." He tilted his head, giving her a knowing look she couldn't hide from.

"I know," she admitted.

"You brought them the map to Luke Skywalker," he said, not accusing – just stating facts. "You went to fetch him for them. You talked him into showing up on Crait. You shot down their enemy's fighters and evacuated the survivors. You've been of tremendous use to them. They wouldn't have made it without you."

"I did it so my friends would live. So they would survive. Not for politics."

"I know," he echoed her earlier answer. "But that is the essence of politics – changing the galaxy so your favored people have advantage. I've seen it over and over with my mother, with Snoke, with Hux."

"It wasn't for advantage," she insisted.

His voice was still soft, but just as insistent as hers. "Being alive is an advantage, isn't it?"

She rolled her eyes in concession. "Okay, yes, I was of use to them."

His leaned back as though satisfied. "Well," he said, "you're not a scavenger any longer. You have to be something. What is it?"

"How do you know I'm not a scavenger any longer?" she argued. "I haven't changed. My past defines me. But it doesn't limit me. Yours …? You are someone – not 'would have been' someone." At his humorless smirk, she said, "You must have grown up surrounded by- You knew people. You had to have. And they knew … who you were, so you benefitted that way, right? Was it all bad?"

"Was it for you, growing up on Jakku?" he said, turning it around on her. "No, don't answer. I know it wasn't. There were people at Niima Outpost you knew all your life. There was a sense of community, even if things were harsh. Nasha would braid your hair. Clendoran made your shoes, your bag, your belt, and other things. You sat around campfires at night talking to the same traders who would come by every month, listening to their stories of the galaxy, of the Rebellion and its heroes, and the whispers of the Resistance."

Rey frowned. "You know my whole past. I don't know yours. Tell me about it. Don't dodge the question again."

"You're right that I knew people," Kylo said. "I knew them too well. My friends were transient. The only constant was Snoke, but he was an easy secret to keep. Too easy. He promised me everything I wanted – companionship most of all – and he was likely why it was difficult for me to keep friends. Between him and the Force, I'm sure I seemed like a distracted, distant child who saw through the others my own age.

"He was better than any real friend could be - everything he said was about me. He was easy to listen to. He doted on me. Everything my parents said was about them, or about the galaxy, or about important people they both knew and I didn't – crime lords, planetary governors, senators, ambassadors, war heroes. I didn't fit in their world. I never did."

"But Snoke fit himself into yours?" she said.

"He poisoned every interaction I had," Kylo said.

"And you see that now?" she asked.

He nodded. "Now that he's gone, I see much more than I could before."

"Do you see how unfairly you judge your parents, then?"

Kylo scowled, his upper lip twitching as though he wanted very badly to twist it in anger. He bared his teeth at her. "You barely know them!"

"You barely know them either!"

"That was their choice!" He ground out, "It wouldn't have been so easy for Snoke if they had been there for me."

"Maybe so," she said. "Did you ever explain to them – about Snoke?"

"No, of course not!" He shook his head. "Rey, I was a child!" He looked around again, wary of being overhead, especially with his emotions running hot. "They assumed everything odd I did was due to the Force and I assumed they were right!"

"When was the last time you saw them? Your parents? Before lately, I mean."

He sighed. "When my mother took me to Luke's. My father didn't come. I sent them a few holos later. I saw a few back from them. They seemed detached and uninterested. Of course, that's what Snoke told me they were feeling. Over a transmission, I couldn't tell. He wouldn't have said anything that wasn't to his benefit, but they did look detached."

"I'm sorry."

"Well, you've seen them lately," he said snidely. "Apparently so much more than I have. What are they like?"

Buried under the sarcasm was pain. He did want to know. "Your father offered to take me on as crew."

"He never offered that to me," Kylo said bitterly.

"He knew me as an adult. He wouldn't have offered when I was a child. That's all he knew you as." She was quiet for a moment. Kylo was staring at the holocron disconsolately. "It wasn't a good offer. He'd just had most of his crew killed by rathtars that were his idea to transport."

Kylo glanced up at her. "He never did have good … judgment."

One side of her mouth quirked up at how true that was – hauling rathtars, having lost most of his crew, with two separate gangs hot on his heels for money he owed them, and he paused to steal their ship, with the expectation that he'd jettison them (the crew) into space where they might or might not survive. Which allowed both gangs to catch up and the whole fiasco to occur. "What do you remember of him? What was he like to you?"

Kylo huffed softly. "He taught me things – cards, ships, history, scams. He had stories about all of them. He didn't like that he couldn't exaggerate them to me or lie. But he wasn't happy with himself as he was. That was consistent through everything. He wasn't even happy with Mom. He said, 'A princess like her and a guy like me?' He didn't think he measured up, not against her, not against the politicians and everyone else she socialized with. He didn't fit in her world and she didn't in his. I knew how they felt. I couldn't not know. He couldn't see his own value, to me, to anyone. And so he left. People were always so transparent to me. It … made things difficult." He swallowed roughly.

"I understand people leaving you when you don't want them to." He gave her an acknowledging look, but said nothing. She asked softly, "Where do you want to fit? Who do you want to be?"

"What am I now? A monster? A murderous snake? Is there anything else you want to call me?" He gave her a wan smile. She smiled in return, but it was more a wince. She didn't take back her words from a few weeks before. He said, "Supreme Leader and Master of the Knights of Ren? More empty titles. They're meaningless." He was quiet for a while and she didn't interrupt his thoughts. Finally, he said, "I'm just Kylo. I'm still my parent's son, but the name, the legacy – it means nothing. I'd be rid of it if I could be with you."

"No last name?"

"No. I have one," he said with a sly smile. "I'm taking yours."

She laughed in surprise and decided to play along with the pretense that they were married. "Well, what happens if I make a name up or take some other one?" she said archly.

He teased, "Then that will be mine, too."

She pressed her lips together primly, then said, "We'll make one up together, then. For our new family."

His lips parted. He breathed out, "Rey …" She was reminded of how much not a pretense it was.

She pressed her lips together again and nodded, feeling her eyes water unaccountably. She wiped at her eyes. "Maybe … maybe that's premature."

"You saw my future," he said with a note of urgency. "What did you see? Is it?"

She swallowed and told him, trying to put into words something that didn't lend itself to it. "I saw the certainty of our love. I saw how we'll always be together, just as I wanted." It felt too good to be true. Could she really let herself have something like that, after all this time, all those hash marks etched into the wall of the AT-AT on Jakku, waiting for her life to resume?

"Then … it's not. Not premature." He looked back and forth at the floor between them. "Why didn't you take my hand then? If you knew …? In the throne room?"

"My friends were dying. I wasn't going to give them up for you. And we aren't meant to rule together. I don't see us together on a throne. But instead, walking the path of our shared lives. It was very clear," she said, the last bit emphatic as though she thought he would argue it. Like maybe he should, and tell her it was false or there was no way it could ever happen.

He reached out, hand up and fingers splayed, palm toward her. She matched him, pressing her smaller hand to his. They both shivered at the sensation. Kylo said, "That's what I want, too. I won't make my father's mistake."

"Which one?" There were, sadly, so many.

"Of living in different worlds. When Hux confronted me about the murder of Snoke – he had his say to me – but all I could think about was you. How if they deposed me, I'd be free to go to you. Even … go to my mother, but it was you that made the difference. You came for me when no one else did."

She entwined her fingers with his. "Why did Snoke bond us to one another if he intended you to kill me?"

"I think he wanted to have me destroy everything that linked me to any other than himself."

"Then why create such a link?" She gripped his hand, confused about this.

"So he could make me destroy it and prove I was utterly his. When I was entirely dark and lost to everyone but him, then my power would be his to control. Perhaps that's what Sidious is going to do with Hux. Maybe that's what we saw in the vision?"

"Why has Sidious come for Hux, and not you or me? Or both of us? We're much more powerful than Hux."

Kylo rubbed his thumb along the top of hers. "It must be genetic. He had clones made of himself. Neither of us are related to him in any way, except that we're human and Force users. Being able to use the Force might make it harder for him, since possession just a hopped-up mind-trick. He's not going to have it easy with Hux."

Rey made a wry expression. "I suppose it's unsurprising that a general, or really anyone who rises to such a position, would be strong-willed."

"You'd be surprised, then. Not so much in his case, but many of my mother's associates were easily led. They were promoted for that purpose. I saw the same in Snoke's other generals. It's no wonder that without Snoke or myself, Hux is the only one capable of holding the Order together."

"Is there … is there some element of the Force in your mother's political career? In her leadership?"

"I think so."

"Hm. Does she know?"

"It's who she is. Is there some element of the Force in your departure from Jakku? In your current 'career'?" He added gently, "Of course, there is. It's who you are. You have to learn to live with that. Let it 'define you' as you said. But not limit you."

"I will." Her voice was faint, remembering the fear she'd confessed to Luke on Ach-to. "I will," she said stronger. "But what of Sidious? We should plan. What if he attacks one of us and turns us against the other, like Snoke tried to do?"

Kylo shrugged. "We share a bond. Snoke tried to turn us against one another, but he didn't try to possess either of us and clearly he knew the secrets of it." Kylo gestured at the holocron with his free hand. "If he did try, he wouldn't be trying to possess one person, he'd be trying to possess two. Two Force users at once?" Kylo shook his head. "The Force may not have limits, but the people using it do."

"Two versus one?" she said, an idea forming in her head. Her grip on his hand slackened.

Kylo nodded. "We're not alone. Snoke's order would only have worked if I were willing. He couldn't force me to it and he knew that. That's why he wanted to me do it voluntarily."

Rey nodded. "Yes, but … hear me out. I have an idea." She pulled her hand back from holding his and let it rest on her knee. "Poe and Hux have found each other. They seem to have an affinity. What if … we bridged their minds like Snoke did for us and created a bond between them?"

Kylo stiffened at the suggestion. "They … can't use the Force."

"But the Force is in all of us. Just because they can't use it doesn't mean their lives aren't already interwoven with it. My only question is if they would want it. It's a lifelong commitment. I know Poe would make that sacrifice if he thought he had to. I think he already has – made that choice – thoughtfully and intentionally. But what about Hux?"

"Hux is no stranger to lifelong commitments," Kylo said. "It's all he's ever known. Here we are stranded and he's still playing general. He is a very driven and determined man. Poe would have to accept what Hux is to be bonded to him. And vice versa."

"We can show them how."

"We know Sidious possesses Hux."

"We know he tries," she corrected him.