Rey walks in the next morning and catches him brooding over the newsfeeds. He's watching the traitor stormtrooper who has promoted himself to general crow about the latest Resistance victory.

Rey recognizes the traitor's voice before he can mute it. "Finn has the Force," she announces.

"I know."

"You do?"

Kylo nods. "He served as a trooper on a raid under me once. I thought I sensed something then. When he fought me on the Starkiller, I knew for sure."

"Oh." Her flummoxed expression tells him that Rey herself had not picked up on the traitor's latent talent immediately.

Kylo shrugs. "I thought he died when the base blew." Too bad he didn't. General Finn is turning out to be an effective opponent for the First Order remnants. As a former stormtrooper, the guy knows far too much about the mindset of his enemy.

"Chewie got us both off just in time," Rey explains as she flops down on the couch.

"Snoke made Hux save me," he volunteers as he lays his datapad aside. That was a humiliating escape, even if he lived to fight another day. Even back then, he recalls, he was attempting to train Rey. "I guess after that fight, you never thought you'd accept my offer to teach you the ways of the Force . . . "

"That's right," she is blunt. "But assuming we figure this balance thing out," Rey ventures, "can we train Finn?"

Hell no. Not a chance. But . . . well . . . reminding himself that he's supposed to be charming this girl with kindness, he offers, "Sure. Why not?" The magnanimity is killing him. But perhaps his old colleagues will kill General Finn and the issue will become moot.

Rey is pleased. She even smiles a bit. And that makes the offer worth it.

It's time to get to work. They begin the day in meditation. Then, he gives his best Uncle Luke impression as he begins a rambling monologue of Force information. He's attempting to download years of Jedi knowledge with an emphasis on two ideas: do not fear the Dark Side and beware the will of the Force. Those points are not part of the traditional Jedi curriculum. They are his own gloss on what his uncle got wrong.

He and Rey are a strange pair as teacher and student. He is the one with years of formal training in both religions of the Force. It's more than mere book learning. He has lived according to the Jedi Code and enacted the rage of a true Sith. He's carried a blue sword and a red sword. He's been the good guy in the sandy tunic and the villain in a black hood. It's a truly unique set of experiences that few in history can equal.

But Rey doesn't seem to value it. That's partly the moral blinders she has on and partly her complete lack of Force knowledge and historical context. But he can't fault her for that ignorance. Unlike himself, she wasn't raised in the lore of the Force. She had no expectations of ever shouldering these responsibilities. These also weren't risks she ever expected to face. In some ways, that better positions Rey for their task of balancing the Force. She fails to appreciate just how daunting it is. He wishes that were the case for him.

But her skepticism for his version of the Light is frustrating. It becomes clear by mid-morning that he needs to tell Rey more than just how the Force works. He also needs to explain why he's arrived at those conclusions. It's the only way she will be convinced to step out of her mindset to see things from a different point of view. But fuck . . . he was hoping not to have to talk much about his uncle. But since Rey still clearly reveres Luke Skywalker, Kylo decides it's time to knock the guy off his pedestal. And so, slowly he starts to tell the tale he's obsessed over for years. And really, Rey ought to know this history. For it is not just a teachable moment for the Force. It's also the defining moment of his life.

He's analyzed it any number of ways, trying to glean information and explanations. The years distance has helped. He's no longer a crying wreck about it like he once was. Just last week, he was able to relate it all to Plagueis with a dispassionate, bored tone he was proud of. Kylo's well aware that his longtime default coping skill is to convince everyone just how little he cares about anything. When, in fact, he cares about everything . . . a lot. Somehow Rey realized that straightaway. That gives him comfort as he starts remembering aloud the night he destroyed the Jedi Temple and set the galaxy on the path to civil war.

"I was asleep with the others in the guys' dorm. Luke came in and I woke up at the sound of his saber lighting. Maybe a little sooner—it's hard tell. I barely had enough time to react as he swung at me for the kill." He had nightmares for years afterwards of his crazed uncle hacking away at him. Cutting off his limbs one by one until Luke announced that he had made him just like his grandfather. "Luke didn't even aim for the head," he snarls. "It has all the finesse of chopping wood."

Rey just listens for once.

"I had my sword by my bed. It leapt into my hand without even thinking. Maybe that was the Force trying to protect me, I don't know . . . It's hard to kill a Skywalker." Thank the Force for that. "I parried him in the nick of time and then I fought back. It all happened so fast. I was acting on instinct to survive."

Does she believe him? She needs to believe him. It's critical that Rey understands this wasn't intentional.

"There wasn't even a fight. I summoned a power I didn't know I had. It was a Force shockwave. A classic Dark Side move from the days of the Great Galactic War. Darth Malgus was famous for it," he tells her as she blinks at him blankly. "Before I could think, I threw up a hand in Luke's direction and I instantly destroyed the entire Temple. The whole place lay in ruins . . . like a seismic charge had gone off. Luke was gone. Everywhere people were dead. I was the only one standing . . . or so I thought at first."

There. He said it. And to his ears, it sounded composed and detached. So far, so good.

"It was an accident. I didn't mean to kill them. They were my friends. . . Well, some of them . . ."

Rey says nothing.

It makes him defensive. The scorched earth that is his conscience fights against the facts as he knows them. "You fight an enemy in a duel! You confront them and challenge them! You don't creep up to execute them unaware. Well, maybe a Sith would," he babbles nervously, "but not a Jedi. They're supposed to be better than that." His words are bitter even as he pleads for forgiveness. "It was self-defense! I was attacked."

Rey still says nothing.

"Apparently, Luke later sent some message to my mother claiming that he went to confront me about Snoke and I turned on him. That I went berserk and destroyed everything and killed everyone. Because Snoke had turned my heart Sith . . . because I was Dark . . . " In other words, his family's worst fears had come true.

All his effort at composure fails him now as anger at his treatment grows. "Luke lectured all the time about Darkness. Nagging that the Force is for defense, never for attack. But he was full of lust to kill that night! He was the guy who lit his sword and attacked, not me! There wasn't any talking! It wasn't some Jedi intervention! That night, Luke was every bit the Sith he was worried I would become."

"You did become that Sith," Rey finally speaks.

"Thanks to Luke," he snaps back. "Did my mother tell you? She and Luke always knew Snoke was out there. Maybe they knew he was Sidious, maybe not . . . I don't know . . . But my uncle still publicly claimed to have destroyed the Sith. He boasted that he had balanced the Force. . . that the Light had won along with the Rebellion and everything would be good again . . . the new Jedi would rise, the Republic would prosper, and it would be happily ever after. Luke believed that himself for a while, I think . . . until he knew better . . ."

"He and Snoke did balance in a way," Kylo supposes. "Luke rose and then Snoke emerged from the shadows. It's the classic pattern from all the Jedi-Sith conflict. One side rises and the other rises to meet it." That never-ending battle has always been a sort of counterbalancing status quo. Except this time with Sidious will be different, he vows. This time it ends and the past dies for good.

"My uncle liked to take me aside for private lectures on the evils of the Sith. I didn't know why back then. I didn't yet know that Vader was the Dark secret of the family tree. I thought I was being singled out because I was the only Skywalker student and I was such a lousy Jedi."

That description prompts a wry smile from Rey. "Face it, Ben. You are the worst Jedi ever."

Not really. Anakin Skywalker probably holds that title. But he is not far behind in second.

"I was terrible . . . just terrible," he recalls. "It frustrated Luke. It embarrassed my mother. They complained that I wasn't trying and that was sort of true. I wanted to be a normal kid with a normal life. To be in regular school, not a Jedi Temple. That was their dream, not mine." He scowls at the memory of the family fights of his childhood. Almost all of them were about him. About who he should become and how soon his uncle should train him. "Like it or not, I was supposed to live out their goal of reviving the Jedi Order to make amends for the sins of my secret grandfather. Except I didn't want it! I grew to hate it over time. I kept running away. That's how I met Snoke."

"You ran away from Luke?" He has Rey's attention now. Evidently, his mother omitted that part of the story.

Kylo nods. "I ran away a lot. I wasn't certain what I wanted when I was with Luke. And even when I finally got to Snoke, I still didn't know."

"Let me guess-Snoke lured you?"

"Oh, no. He sent me back."

"He did?"

"He sent me back a few times, actually. But Snoke gave me a way to contact him. Just in case, he said." Kylo sighs as he recalls, "After the news broke about my grandfather, I tracked him down. I wanted to know more about the Dark Side so I could understand who Darth Vader really was. I even asked Snoke to teach me the ways of the Force so I could become a Sith like my grandfather. I didn't really mean it . . . I just wanted to choose a different path from the Jedi life I was failing at . . ."

"And?"

"Snoke turned me down. He sent me home."

Rey squints at this unexpected move. "Why?"

"He said I wasn't ready. That the time wasn't right. Snoke refused take me on as the Apprentice until I impressed him." That was the master manipulator Darth Sidious playing him like a fiddle. Withholding the forbidden fruit of the Dark Side to make him lust for it more. Soft pedaling his recruitment into a very effective seduction.

Rey shoots him a look as she crosses her arms. "Let me guess, destroying Luke's Temple got you the job?"

"Yes. There was no going home after that. Luke would have killed me. He would have felt righteously justified about it too, since that shockwave proved him right. I was Dark and dangerous, Rey. He would have put me down like a rabid Lothcat and felt justified."

Does she agree? He can't tell. Rey might be too bamboozled by the fairytale version of his uncle who famously refused to fight his own father. Well, whatever qualms Luke once had clearly relaxed over the years. Because while he wouldn't duel with his enemy Sith Lord sire, he was perfectly fine executing his teenage nephew Padawan.

Does Rey understand? He was a scared a kid at the time. Frightened of the reckoning with his Jedi Master uncle. Terrified to be held accountable for all the deaths for which he was responsible. In retrospect coming from Kylo Ren, maybe this story seems to Rey like a violent rebellion. But in real time, it was more akin to a fugitive's desperation. Because back during that very distressing, horribly confusing time, the only truth left to cling to was the will to survive. He sure as Hell was not going down for his uncle's crime. He refused to present himself for punishment like a good Jedi. Because fuck all that. The dogma he had long resisted had failed him, Luke, and everyone at the Temple spectacularly.

It left him with two bad options. "I could either live life on the run or flee to Snoke."

Rey frowns. "You didn't think anyone would believe you?"

"Would you?" he challenges. "Would you take the word of a troubled kid over the legendary Jedi hero?" There was no way he was ever coming out of that scenario as anything other than the loser. "Like it or not, I was the Apprentice then. Snoke knew it and I knew it. We all knew it. None of this was intentional," Kylo mutters. "Not really." Not the way everyone thinks.

Rey starts in on her rebuttal now. "Luke said he saw your future. That you would bring destruction and pain and death and the end of everything he loved because of what you would become . . . that in a moment of pure instinct, he thought he could stop it."

"That's probably right," Kylo agrees. "He saw my Darkness. And then, Darkness arose in him. It was nothing new. I'd seen it before. Luke would repress it and it would surge from time to time. He was masterful at repressing it. I think the urge only grew stronger as he denied his Darkness and as his power grew."

He now tells Rey what prompted him to tell her this story in the first place. It's the punchline of the lesson he's trying to teach: "That night was a breaking point for my uncle. And it ruined my life."

But few know that. The truth of that what happened at the Temple was neatly hushed up after he fled. To the galaxy at large, he became the 'minor with name withheld' Jedi Academy school shooter who slaughtered his peers. The unnamed kid who would become Kylo Ren rage quit the New Jedi Order in a violent frenzy. The cover story was a lie for his family to save face. They went to great lengths to erase his memory, even going so far as to make him a victim. For officially young Ben Solo perished in the carnage.

Rey is still playing Jedi apologist even though he knows she has sympathy for his predicament. She's very troubled as she tells him, "Luke said he was no match for the Darkness rising within you."

Damn right, he wasn't. "Luke never saw that shockwave coming-but neither did I. He acted on Dark instinct to murder and I reacted on Dark instinct to save myself. Skywalkers are hard to kill. Luke lived. I did too."

"He said you disappeared with a handful of students."

"That's true. Three survived. I took them with me." He feared leaving them with crazy uncle Luke. Foolishly, he thought he was saving them. But he was leading them, like himself, into slavery to Snoke.

"Where are they now?" Rey asks.

"Dead." He still feels badly about that, even though he couldn't stop it. "Snoke initially wanted to make them a new version of the Imperial Inquisitors. But when they questioned the Dark Side one by one, he killed them." He sees now that was probably the plan all along. No doubt Darth Sidious didn't want any almost-Jedi lingering around. "Snoke wanted just me. Sidious wanted to use me to build his new empire and stage his comeback."

"Because you are a Chosen One," Rey astutely connects the dots.

Kylo nods. "He must have known that the Force would protect me and that the safest place for him to keep me was as his Apprentice. I was also the perfect strategic choice to pit against my mother and my uncle. I was a very different sort of enemy because I provoked their guilt."

And now, he gets to the most recent gloss on the tale—what a fucking chump he was as along. "I fell for it all. Rey, I couldn't be wholly Light—I never wanted to be a Jedi anyway—and at that point, I might as well be Dark. So, I embraced it. I fully embraced the character of Kylo Ren who Snoke created to become his new Vader. I thought it was my best option."

Going Dark seemed absurdly rational at the time. Fear makes a lot bad decisions seem good, he realizes now.

Rey is still processing what he has told her. She frowns at him. "Plagueis thinks like you do. He wants to make Luke the villain for denying the Dark Side within himself."

"That was just one of Luke's two mistakes."

Rey looks up sharply. "What was the other?"

"Attempting to change the future. The Cosmic Force always gets its way. Remember that."

She raises an eyebrow. "Are you saying that you were always fated to become Kylo Ren? That you had no choice in the matter?"

"Yes." She shoots him an irked look, but he presses his case. "Don't you see? In trying to kill me to change the future, Luke made it come true. You can't change destiny. You affirm it with your actions." Free will doesn't fight against fate, it enacts fate. "I made a lot of decisions before that day and after that day, but the course of events was not of my choosing." He firmly believes this. He acted and reacted against the will of the Force, but nothing he could do would ever stop it. "Stop presupposing a moral choice in the matter because none of it was intentional."

Rey suddenly looks spooked. "So . . . you're saying all Force visions come true?"

"Yes."

"But that was just one example . . . "

Does she need another? "Long ago, when Luke was training with Yoda, he saw a vision of his future. He saw Darth Vader advance on him. Luke lit his sword and they fought. In the vision, he decapitated Vader. The head and mask rolled away, and the mask broke open. Inside, Luke said he saw his own face staring back at him."

Rey nods slowly. "That sounds right. He did fear becoming Vader."

"Yes, but it was a fate he could not escape!" Is she getting this? "The Dark Side was strong in my uncle, like in his father before him. Like it is in every Chosen One."

"You're saying Luke's vision was always going to come true?"

"Yes. Luke took the vision to mean he could defeat the Darkness within. That he would triumph in the end—he was wrong! He didn't! The Darkness in him won that night at the Temple decades later and I bore the consequences."

"Along with the galaxy," she finishes glumly. And that comment more than anything tells him that Rey understands the stakes. Because when the Skywalkers fight each other, historically it means civil war.

"That vision showed my uncle that he would one day become like his father. It showed him that killing Darkness would require killing himself." Searching her eyes, Kylo pleads, "Heed my words when I tell you not to attempt to change what you see in a Force vision."

She looks away, shifts her weight, and mutters, "Too late."

Oh no. "Tell me!" he rasps with true alarm.

She tells him about a vision she had on Endor in the remains of the second Death Star. How she was confronted with a Darker version of herself. Aggressive and hateful with a red sword and black, hooded robes, the woman in the vision was everything Rey ever feared she might become had she accepted his offer in Snoke's throne room. It's clear she saw that vision and felt justified for making the right decision. The vision would later bolster her resolve to resist Darth Sidious on Exogol.

But now the implications of that vision scare her. "So you're telling me I will go Dark and I can't avoid it?" Rey sounds a little shrill at the thought. "Was that my version of Luke's vision with Vader?"

He hedges. "Perhaps it was showing you the Dark Side inherent within you."

"Ben, she was terrifying . . ."

"You can be a little scary."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Really? Oh, come on. "You're definitely not like other girls."

She glares and he continues, "That could have been Sidious manipulating you. He did that to me a lot, I'm learning." What he thought was the Force turned out to be Darth Sidious fucking with him. That guy was in his mind way too often.

"How will I know?" Rey frets.

"Time," he answers.

And now, he starts to connect the dots from his own personal struggle with his uncle to the larger story of the Skywalkers. "Can you see how this has played out? My grandfather marched into the Coruscant Jedi Temple with an army at his back. He slaughtered younglings, Padawans, and Masters alike. Then he hunted Jedi to the ends of the galaxy to exterminate them. All in order to end the Jedi Order that he blamed for the Clone Wars and for his own misfortune."

"Everyone knows that," Rey sighs.

Yes, but she doesn't recognize what that history means. "The one Jedi who lived when it was all over was his own son who Vader died saving. That son, together with his twin my mother, set out to undo everything my grandfather had accomplished. That included remaking the Jedi Order. Rey, that's not what the Force wants. The Jedi impede balance."

"I think I see that . . . in some ways . . . " she allows.

Encouraged, he continues. "In the end, the Force used me to teach my uncle a terrible lesson-"

"-that it is time for the Jedi to end," Rey whispers.

"Yes!" Finally, he feels like what he's saying is getting through. "The Force goaded Luke into action with that vision of my future. Then it humbled him. It destroyed his Temple, killed his students, and set me on a path to the Dark Side. I rather unwittingly finished what my grandfather started."

"You're saying that was all the Force at work?" Rey is dubious.

But he is firm. "Call it fate, call it destiny, call it a wrathful god that insists on its way. But it is real! The Cosmic Force will use you as an instrument of its will, whether you like it or not. I know firsthand."

"You're saying that the Force was with Vader in the Purge and with you that night at the Temple?"

"Absolutely. Face it, the galaxy's Jedi hero Luke Skywalker was wrong. Rey, my uncle wasn't all bad, but he was wrong about a great many things. He failed us all with his blind adherence to the old ways."

Rey grumbles, "Plagueis gave me this lecture already: don't be Luke Skywalker."

"Please don't," he immediately piles on. "Rey, I don't want that for you. Work with me and let's find true balance. So that there will be no more temple rampages killing Jedi students."

She objects to his words. Jumping to her feet, crossing her arms, and lifting her chin, Rey demands, "Is that a threat?"

"No," he complains and it comes out like a whine. "It's just that history has a way of repeating itself until we learn the lesson."

"Oh." She thinks this point over a moment before she responds. "I'm glad you told me about the Temple. What Luke did that night was wrong . . . I see that. And maybe you're right and the Force doesn't want the old Jedi Order back. But that doesn't mean everything about their ways is wrong. Or that everything about Luke was wrong. And," she shoots him some serious eye, "it doesn't excuse what you became."

Does she think he's making excuses? He is hurt. It makes him gruffly double down. "I don't need your forgiveness. I own who I am."

"And who is that exactly?" she challenges, lifting one arched eyebrow.

Seriously? "Are we back to this again? Is this another 'Ben Solo or Kylo Ren?' discussion?" He resents her determination to reduce his character to a name. "The point is that it's complicated. No one like us will ever be all Light or all Dark, and neither will the Force. Both the Jedi creed and the Sith religion were wrong in their insistence on extremes."

Feeling exasperated, he complains, "Didn't you ever wonder about the purpose of the bond? About why the Force bridged our minds and kept bringing us together?"

"I guess I believed Snoke when he said he did it," she answers.

"Do you still believe him? Because Snoke himself was a deception. Most everything he said or did was an attempt to mislead on behalf of Darth Sidious."

She falters. "I guess you're right."

Since he's already divulged uncomfortable truths this morning, he plunges headlong forward revealing more. "I thought the bond was a sign. Again, the Force was nudging me towards its aims."

Her eyes narrow. "What are you saying exactly?"

"That the Force wants us to unite. So much so that it stepped in to connect us time and time again. From across the galaxy and from opposite sides of a war, however inconvenient and awkward, it bonded us. Rey, our dyad was extraordinary."

This, at least, they agree upon. Rey whispers back, "It was extraordinary."

"It was the Force! Once more, fate was intervening to direct my life. You were my destiny," he blurts out. And fuck, he can feel his cheeks flame.

She turns away and paces a few steps. "That's all done now."

He can't tell if she's referring to the lapsed bond or to their shot at a relationship. But either way, he rejects her view. "No, it's not! The Force didn't send me back to the living without a purpose."

"To balance the Force," she supplies their mutual goal.

"Yes. Plagueis is good but he can only do what the Force will allow. All his sorcery notwithstanding, there has to be a purpose to the Force granting his wish." Kylo firmly believes that he didn't get this second chance for nothing. Vader didn't come back. Luke's still gone. His mother too. But he's here. There has to be a reason.

"The Force is with you?" Rey guesses.

"With us," he corrects. "The Force will be with us always, for better or for worse. That's what it means to be a favorite of the Force. We make decisions that shape the future but we are also instruments of its will."

"Did Snoke teach you this? Because Luke didn't—"

"I have lived this!" he grinds out. Did she not just hear his testimony? Or is it all simply too inconsistent with her view that an individuals' moral choices define history? All that 'choose your side' and 'choose your path' Jedi fearmongering is too simplistic for people like them.

To her credit, Rey is trying to understand. "So when I turned you down in Snoke's throne room—"

"That was free will pushing back against fate. The Force controls your actions but it also obeys your commands. It's the all-powerful mystical energy field that decides your destiny but lets you choose. That tension is like the tension between Light and Dark," he asserts. "The Force is full of inherent conflict."

"But it let me turn you down."

"Yes. It lets us make mistakes."

"That wasn't a mistake," she answers fast.

"It was a mistake. The Force wants us to unite."

"Well, I'm here," she reminds him.

He can't help but be a little smug about it. "Finally, you have joined me."

It's the wrong thing to say. "I haven't joined you—"

"Yes, you have," he insists, "and you should. We are destiny."

Rey shoots him a look. Clearly, she wouldn't choose him. And, truthfully, he probably wouldn't choose her. But the point remains—they don't get to choose.

Rey doesn't fit into any of the categories he assigns to women. She's not the nurturing mother variety who alternately worries, smothers, or nags. She's not the hot girl with femininity on conspicuous display via curves in tight clothes, long hair, and lip gloss. Neither is she the perky, eager-to-please assistant type, like so many of the female First Order officers with their shiny boots and scraped back hair. Rey is just . . . Rey. She's altogether different.

In fact, in many ways, she's all wrong. He's never been into brunettes. And while Rey's less sinewy than when he first met her, it's not by much. Even with regular meals, she's skinny and flat chested. Back in his Padawan days facing a life of noble celibacy, when he pictured the girl he would break his Jedi vows for, she was the stereotypical sex bomb every teenage boy covets. Frankly, if there was ever a girl for whom he would kill his Sith Master as a prelude to offering to co-rule the galaxy, she ought to be a total knockout. One part powerful Force goddess, one part high minded Light Side princess, and one part easygoing girlfriend who won't hog the limelight. The type who will stand by her Supreme Leader man and call him 'His Excellency' in formal public settings. The sort of girl who will give wise counsel and unflagging support behind the scenes.

But instead, he falls for Rey. She's a knockout quite literally because this girl can throw a punch and a Force push. Truthfully, he has a sneaking suspicion that she might be stronger in the Force than he is, and he's not sure how he feels about that. Rey will never address him with an honorific and he doubts she has any idea how to comport herself as an Empress. For starters, she might have to shave her legs and paint on lipstick. Moreover, Rey will never recede into the background hovering over the right shoulder of his throne. Nor will she ever agree to elegantly parade at his side holding his hand. Not that any of that matters at this point. But if it ever did . . . well, she'd be totally unsuitable. But still . . . prickly personality, nonexistent education, dirty boots and all, he's crazy about this girl. When she isn't trying to kill him, that is.

And right now, she sort of looks like she might like to kill him. So much for that 'we are destiny' line. Or any line, for that matter. He's probably talked more in the last two days than in the entire month before he died at Exogol. But all those words—all that truth—hasn't convinced her. So, mindful of old Plagueis' advice on how to conduct his next 'Join me' overture, he decides to kiss Rey.

He lunges two limping strides forward as his hands reach down for her face to upturn it. Then with a boldness he hopes would impress his Dark Side forebears, he kisses his startled enemy full on the lips.

It's a brief, soft salute. A means to get her attention and to make clear his intentions. Because this is about the Force and Darth Sidious but also so much more. He knows he's risking Rey igniting her sword—which is really his sword—so he will keep things respectful and non-threatening. He's not mauling her or raping her, for Force sake. He just wants to make his pitch a little differently this time. Because now he's not offering an empire, he's offering himself.

He pulls back and drops his hands immediately. Is she offended? He can't tell. Her feelings are as transparent as usual, except they're a mess of confusion in the moment. She's not caught entirely unaware that this might happen. Part of Rey is thrilled, he thinks. The rest is terribly uncomfortable. But he can't tell if that's because she didn't enjoy it or because she thinks she shouldn't have enjoyed it.

"We are destiny . . ." Rey repeats his words back to him breathlessly, her eyes locked with his. "I thought that once and sometimes . . . I . . ."

"You kissed me. Right before I died," he reminds her. He'd never have worked up the nerve to kiss her now had he not known she made the first move.

"Y-Yes. I did."

"I don't remember it."

"You don't?" she squeaks. "Then how did you know—"

"The Force." Well, mostly Darth Plagueis reading his mind with the Force. But he's not going to let that detail get in the way of his romantic 'we are destiny' argument. Still holding her gaze, hopeful rather than cocky, he asks, "What's a guy got to do to get another kiss?"

"D-Die, I guess?" she stammers, her artless words ending on an upward inflection like a question.

"I'm not waiting that long," he replies. And because she's not marching away or pulling her sword, he hazards another kiss. Chastity be damned, he's not a Jedi and neither will she be if he has anything to say about it. So this next kiss is of the torrid variety. She's in his arms held close, head bent back as he takes liberties he has fantasized about.

Is he doing this right? He doesn't know. The only women he has kissed were relatives. But if this is wrong, he will gladly take instruction because this is his new favorite pastime. If the Force were to smite him down just now, he would die a happy man.

Rey is stiff at first but she fast becomes an active participant. Her arms snake up to encircle his neck and soon she's on tiptoe stretched against him. That's all the encouragement he needs as his hands grip her waist. His tongue is in her mouth now and her slight breasts crush against his chest. This is everything he had been warned not to do at the Jedi Academy, and for good reason. For in this moment, he wants more. He's certain Rey does as well.

He and Rey have been volatile from the beginning, repeatedly provoking one another to violence and anger. But there is a begrudging mutual respect between them as well. And always, a subtext of attraction. Sparks of conflict but sparks of lust, kindled by the bond but dampened by mistrust. But here they are entwined in a passionate kiss that feels as never ending as it does inevitable. This is destiny and the Force is with them.

But, unfortunately, Darth Plagueis the Wise is with them too. He marches in to interrupt. The smug bastard doesn't even bother to hide his grin.

He and Rey spring back from one another guiltily.

"Do I detect a disturbance in the Force?" Plagueis smirks. "Who's dying this time—her or you?"

This is way worse than when his uncle caught them touching hands. Beside him, Rey's mortification is screaming out in the Force. For his part, Kylo is mad. He glares hard at the interloper who just ruined their big moment. "Go away."

Plagueis merely chuckles. "Oh, don't stop on my account. Carry on, carry on. But then please balance the Force. Kissing might be fun but it won't save the galaxy."

"Go away," he growls again.

But Darth Sidious is enjoying himself. "Apprentice, when I told you to teach her a few things, this is not what I had in mind. Or maybe she's the one teaching you?"

Now, it's his turn to be mortified. Because when Plagueis read his mind, did he learn that he's got zero experience with women? "Go away," humiliated Kylo growls with true menace.

The old Sith Master is amused by the repeated attempt at a dismissal. "I'm going. If I linger much longer, there's no telling what I'll see." But to belie his words, Plagueis tarries. "So if she'll kiss you now, does that mean she'll heal you? I tire of seeing you limp around."

"I'm not healing him," Rey answers.

"Stubborn as always," Plagueis issues a weary sigh and offers some advice. "Lord Ren, focus on getting her to heal you rather than go to bed with you. Get her to put out with power rather than . . . er . . . other things. Priorities," he chides. "Every good Sith knows the lust for power trumps the lust for sex."

"Go away." Can this guy not take a hint? Three's a crowd.

"I'm going, I'm going. I can't wait to tell Sheev about this."

Rey reacts first. "You talk to Darth Sidious?"

"Oh, yes. I've been trolling him in the Force for decades now off and on. It's fun," Plagueis declares with a downright impish grin.

"Fun . . . " Rey echoes warily as she exchanges looks with him.

"It's a good outlet for my Darkness and he's a worthy adversary," their host explains. "Don't get on my bad side. I am relentless," he promises. His eyes flash yellow momentarily, but Kylo catches it.