He's in a meeting when his personal comlink rings. Only about ten people have the codes to call him directly to bypass the chain of command. Looking around, Kylo sees that most of them are in the room with him currently. That gets his hopes up.
"Ren." He announces himself as he takes the call in audio mode only.
"Ben." It's Rey. He's both relieved and concerned to hear from her. It hasn't yet been a week since he reluctantly left his girl brooding on Jakku. She had been hostile and aggressive, but unwilling to accept help beyond basic supplies. So, he made a strategic retreat. Ever since, he's been hoping the bond will open. That hasn't happened, but now she's unexpectedly reaching out to him.
"Rey!" Kylo immediately stands from his seat at the head of the table to stalk to the corner. He presents his back to the room and talks softly for a modicum of privacy. "Are you alright?"
"Ben, you were right. Jakku is a mistake. It doesn't solve anything to hide here."
Excellent. "Sit tight. I'll send a ship to pick you up."
"No, I already left. I couldn't stay there any longer. It was making me feel . . . " She doesn't finish her sentence.
"Are you okay?" Rey sounds like she's crying. Or maybe she's struggling not to cry. But either way, she's distressed.
"I think you are right and I am struggling with . . ."
"Yes?" he prompts when her voice trails off into silence.
"I think I am s-struggling with—with D-Darkness." Rey sounds horrified at the admission, like he knew she would be. Over the comlink, he hears her start to sob, which makes sense. Dark power tends to encourage the surfacing of difficult emotions. His girl is generally shy of her feelings, so Kylo can imagine how triggering this is for her. How she must be suffering right now . . .
Kylo takes charge. "Where are you? I'll come for you myself." Because his war is important but the Force—and Rey—will always take precedence.
"I just stopped to refuel at a depot outside Ord Mantell."
"Mid Rim?"
"Yes. I can't refuel an X-wing in the Rim. Someone will shoot me."
She's right. Tensions are running at an all-time high of late.
"Can I come to you?" she asks hopefully.
It's sweet music to his ears. "Of course. I'll send coordinates." But his eyes narrow as soon as the words leave his mouth. For he is alert to trickery, even from Rey. He warns sternly, "We'll be expecting just a single X-wing."
"Ben, it's just me. I'm coming for you—to you," Rey corrects herself. He can feel the truth of her words in the Force. It satisfies him that there is no Republic ambush afoot. "You were right . . . you were right about me. I'm D-Dark," she confesses, sounding both aghast and defeated. It tells him that this is a personal crisis and not a political decision.
"Darkness is nothing to be ashamed of," he soothes. "There is more than one path to peace and justice. But you must learn to control it."
"Will you meet me in the hangar bay?" she pleads. He hears nervousness in her voice. "I don't want someone to arrest me . . . your people will recognize me . . . I'm flying an X-wing . . . "
"I'll be there," he promises.
"Thanks." He hears the relief in her voice.
"I will give orders to let you land. You are always welcome here."
"Make sure your people know that."
"I will."
The transmission fuzzes out.
Kylo turns now to face the roomful of high ranking First Order military commanders who have overheard. Some are looking at him curiously. Others with disapproval. He attempts to diffuse any criticism by claiming victory.
He announces, "Emperor Palpatine's wayward granddaughter, the Republic Jedi, wants to come home at last. She's been our best spy for months now, but it is time to welcome the heiress to the Empire back where she belongs." At his side, on his side, like the Force intends.
A few heads nod. Most glower. Rey's not popular with this crowd. Kylo is well aware that there are rumors about their personal relationship thanks to Rey's last visit, so he addresses them now. "Lady Ren has complicated loyalties. Like Darth Vader's children, Darth Sidious' granddaughter was stolen and hidden from her family. As a result, she is skeptical of our cause and shy of her role. I expect you to set an example for the rank and file by your acceptance of her presence here."
"Lady Ren? Don't you mean Lady Rey?" a rather flummoxed looking General probes.
That's exactly the attitude that prompts him to make a bold announcement: "Reina Palpatine, better known in the Republic as Rey of Jakku, is my wife." He indulges in a little revisionist history now to explain away Rey's Republic heroine role fighting Emperor Palpatine. "Snoke married us on the Starkiller, much to her dismay. It sent her running to the enemy and motivated her actions at Exogol. She's headstrong and very young, but she's also extremely useful and talented. I tolerate her whims and so shall you."
That juicy reveal silences everyone. Whatever they were expecting him to say, that wasn't it. But hopefully, giving Rey wife status will afford her some protection. As it is, she's a very visible representative of the enemy, and that puts her at risk.
Reading the depth of unspoken hostility in the room, Kylo feels compelled to embellish a bit more. "One day, she will join us openly. I have foreseen it," he outright lies.
The surly General connects the dots out loud. "Lord Vader's grandson married Lord Sidious' granddaughter . . . "
"The Force arranged it, and the Force makes no mistakes," Kylo shuts down any naysayers with a dose of Dark piety.
That's enough about his messy personal life. It's time to get back to work. "Colonel Crassus," he turns to his favorite aide, a crusty but smart Imperial veteran. "What is your assessment of our supply situation?" That's everyone's cue for the meeting to resume.
That meeting leads to another meeting and then yet another. He tries to keep his mind in the present, but it keeps wandering to the future . . . to Rey. He's on the bridge for a quick status update when a lone X-wing drops out of hyperspace nearby. It's Rey. She's here and she came alone like she promised.
He will keep his word to meet her in the hangar bay. But to waste no time, he commands Colonel Crassus to accompany him so he can continue to hear his report as they walk. His days are so jam packed lately that he is loath to waste a moment. He constantly multitasks, moving from crisis to crisis. Did his grandfather ever feel like this? Kylo wonders how Darth Vader managed to oversee a sprawling Empire for his fickle Sith Master. Ruling even half the galaxy is an awful lot of work.
But Rey is here, and that's real progress. "She's landed." His anticipation is so great that Kylo says the words aloud. He can feel her presence in the Force. She's upset, like he's expecting. Rey was a wreck when she called him this morning on the comlink. Her mood has not improved, he senses.
"Over there." Crassus points to the far end of the hangar bay close to the air lock. Sure enough, Rey has landed. She's climbing down from her high cockpit.
Kylo sets off to meet her.
Her arrival has not gone unnoticed. Rey's enemy fighter is a notable sight on his ship, and it has attracted attention. The hangar bay techs and a number of stormtroopers have gathered to gawk. Through the bond, Kylo can tell that Rey feels threatened. She's very tense.
"I told the deck officer to keep people away," Kylo grumbles as he picks up his pace. At his side, old Crassus struggles to keep up. "She didn't want this attention . . . "
Rey's on the ground now and she's having none of it. She responds to the curiosity with indignant aggression. She shrieks something he's too far away to hear as she lights her sword. Next, Rey makes a sweeping gesture with her left arm. It lets loose a mighty Force push that tosses thirty-odd men clear across the hangar bay. One lands in a heap in front of him as a grisly incoming missile.
"Fuck," Kylo swears under his breath as he steps over the casualty, never breaking stride. Things are not off to a good start introducing his Jedi ladylove to the crew. Couldn't Rey have at least tried to make a good first impression? Did she have to escalate things?
Rey plants her feet and starts hollering. This time, he's close enough to hear above the din of ion engines, refueling equipment, and ambient voice chatter.
"Kylo Ren! Where is Kylo Ren?"
"Wow . . . " The aide at his side is impressed. "She's uh . . . er . . . " The Colonel can't seem to find the words to describe his secret wife who currently wears an expression of Hell storming determination. Rey looks extremely pissed off. Like some wronged woman come for revenge, not a lost scavenger waif come seeking his help.
"Kylo Ren! Where is Kylo Ren?" Rey bellows for him like she's issuing a challenge to a duel, not being welcomed aboard his ship after she asked to visit.
"Fuck . . ." This entrance doesn't bode well. Kylo picks up his pace some more as he mutters, "This not how I thought this day would go."
Crassus looks increasingly alarmed. "Sir, shall we—"
"KYLO REN? WHERE IS KYLO REN?"
By this time, a new group of troopers have surrounded Rey with weapons drawn. Kylo hurries to insert himself. He gave orders to welcome Rey, but that was before she started throwing people around. She's definitely provoking violence. Soon, some trigger-happy deck officer is going to disobey orders and take a shot at the tempting target she presents. He'll claim it is self-defense, and he might be correct.
"Stand down!" Kylo's instruction is loud and firm. "I will deal with her myself. No one interferes."
That the Supreme Leader himself has appeared to issue the order seems to appease everyone. The troopers fall back and lower their rifles as they exchange incredulous looks.
It's not enough. "Dismissed!" Kylo barks, shooing everyone away. He and Rey don't need an audience, especially since she's in one of her moods.
The troops comply but hovering Crassus remains. "Is that wise, Sir? I mean—"
"You mean she's acting like a crazy bitch?" Kylo complains under his breath. He's eyeing Rey and he doesn't like what he sees.
"I was about to say that she's the enemy Jedi."
Kylo shakes his head. "Look at those eyes." Even standing thirty paces away, he can see Rey's unnatural Sith eyes gleaming. It's alarming. But to protect his cover story for her background, Kylo elaborates, "She's no Jedi. Reina Palpatine will never be a Jedi no matter how hard she tries. She's a Sith princess, like it or not."
"If you say so, Sir. Is she really the lost Imperial heiress?" Even Crassus is dubious.
He answers with a half-truth. "She calls herself Snoke's daughter."
The Colonel knows what the whole First Order knows: "Snoke was Lord Sidious' creation."
Kylo sticks to his story as he and Rey continue their silent stare down. "Lord Sidious had Snoke marry his granddaughter to his Apprentice." It's partly true since Snoke claimed to have bridged their minds and created the Force bond.
"Yes, but she claims to have killed Lord Sidious," Crassus worries.
"That's fake news." Because, among other things, Darth Sidious isn't dead. But Kylo can't acknowledge that openly.
The Colonel clears his throat. "Usually, we make up that sort of fake news."
Kylo slants his best aide some quelling side eye. "Are you doubting that the Republic lies to the galaxy?"
"No, Sir."
"Good."
"Kylo Ren!" Rey pops out her hip and gives her sword a splashy spin. He can feel her seething anger as she hisses, "Kylo Ren, you're a dead man!"
Yep, it's like he fears. She's here to kill him.
Kylo sighs and looks to the veteran campaigner at his side. "You got a wife, Crassus?" Admittedly, he's stalling for a moment. But he's disappointed that this latest reunion with Rey is yet another battle.
The Colonel answers, "Ex-wife."
"Did you ever fight?"
"All the time. But not with swords."
"Who won?"
"She did. She always won. Then, she took me to the cleaners in the divorce," the Colonel harrumphs, his eyes never leaving Rey.
"I understand," Kylo nods. His eyes never leave Rey either. "Every time my wife and I fight, she wins. It's because I'm not trying to hurt her."
"She looks ready to kill you," the Colonel observes pointedly. "Shall I call for reinforcements?"
Kylo repeats his orders, "No one interferes no matter what she does."
"Understood, Sir. Good luck, Sir. Women can be . . . can be . . ."
"Maddening?" Kylo volunteers the punchline.
"Quite so, Sir," his aide defers automatically. "Can't live with them, can't live without them . . . " the Colonel paraphrases the lament of the male species everywhere.
Assessing Rey in her current state, Kylo concurs wholeheartedly.
"Kylo Ren!" Rey raises her sword to eye level. She's staring down her blade at him in a showy challenge. It's something he would do. And damn this girl for always stealing his best moves.
Time to get this over with. He steps forward now. He crosses his arms, making a show of leaving his own weapon at his side. When he speaks, he matches Rey's intensity with a deliberate casualness that would shock his underlings.
"Good. You're here. Come," he beckons to Rey with a rare smile. "Let's talk in private." Away from the hangar bay filled with people glued to this lurid confrontation. Away where they can speak honestly without witnesses. "Come," he again encourages.
He's channeling Han Solo whose first instinct was to charm his way out of every sticky situation. Here's hoping he inherited some of that smooth talking swindler charisma, because he's going to need it. The bond tells him that Rey is very serious. She truly is here to kill him. That comlink conversation was a ruse and he fell for it completely.
Rey coolly declines. "I'm not here to talk."
"We'll get to that part later," he smirks out innuendo, still aiming for that cocksure, smuggler bravado. "But first, we should talk. Come." He beckons again.
Yellow-eyed Rey now starts girding her resolve. "I know what I have to do . . . " She looks fully committed, but her thoughts betray her through the bond. As if to convince herself, she repeats, "I know what I have to do!" louder this time.
But he knows her inner torment. It screaming out to his mind. Rey wants to kill him, but she doesn't want to kill him. She feels driven to this point and yet she's still reluctant. Because she doesn't know if she has the strength to do it. She's torn, like always, and full of self-doubt.
He seizes on her hesitation. "Rey, don't do this. I know you don't want to do this."
Can she go through with it? Can she kill him? She will do it if it will end the war. If it will end her position stuck between on the one hand her allegiance to the Republic and her regard for her friends, and on the other hand her need for a teacher and her personal feelings for him. Rey wants balance, but she wants to arrive there from the Light. But somehow, she and he have traded places and now she's staring him down with haunted yellow eyes that are Dark. She refuses to admit it, though. Kylo realizes that his confused girl thinks she's here as a Jedi. That bit on the comlink about struggling with Darkness was the truth, but poor self-deluded Rey thought it was strategic deception.
Kill him and she will end the war, please her friends, and remove the romantic temptation that she as a good Jedi ought to reject. It's three-way win, she figures. What does she have to lose? Just his knowledge. Although, apparently Rey thinks she doesn't need a teacher any longer. She's teaching herself the Force . . . and she has managed to teach herself Darkness.
Kylo knows firsthand what it feels like to be drunk on Dark power and lusting for a fight. He keeps talking Rey down. If he can, he will preempt a duel in which both of them lose. "Search your feelings. You can't do this."
"I have to do this!"
"No, you don't. People like you and me don't have to do anything. We answer only to history." Ordinary people follow orders. Skywalkers give them. "Come," he cajoles calmly. "Turn off the sword and let's talk."
"No. This is happening. Here. Now." Rey sinks into a posture of attack.
Kylo gulps. Here they go. But he refuses to reach for his weapon. He will continue to fight with words. "I feel the conflict within you. Let go of your hate. Rey, it will consume you." And damn, he thinks ruefully, he sounds like his uncle.
Rey snarls, "There is no conflict!"
"You can lie to yourself, but you can't lie to me. I see your every intent. I'm in your mind," he reminds her.
Rey advances and starts swinging. "I am here to end this war and to end us . . . by ending you."
He leaps back, dodging and weaving. He remains unarmed. "Why?"
"Why?" The question surfaces Rey's strong sense of desperation. She keeps slashing as he cedes ground. "I am being torn apart! I want to be rid of this pain . . . to end this guilt." She's furious with her position as an unwitting traitor to the Republic. She's angry at how sympathetic she has become to the First Order cause. She's worried that he may be right and she might actually be turning Dark like in her scary vision. It's why she's here today—to prove her Jedi status to herself and to the Republic by killing Darth Sidious' Sith Apprentice.
"That pain is not me," he warns. He thinks now of his dead father who he killed to prove his Dark cred to Snoke. He focused his inborn anger on Han Solo, like Rey is focusing her inherent Darkness on him now. It is a mistake that haunts him. Killing his father did nothing to resolve the pain of years of neglect and abandonment. The sweet relief that violence promised was a lie. And now, it's too late to change things. There will never be a satisfactory ending for him and his father.
And so, Kylo tells Rey the ugly truth. "That pain you feel is not me and not the war—that pain is the conflict in your soul. You are torn by your very nature. You will never be rid of it. You must embrace it. You cannot end it."
He should know. For something has been broken in him for as long as he can remember. He has tried to fix it through power and through blood . . . through achievements and headlines . . . through communing with artifacts and killing his father. And lately, through championing the dregs of the galaxy on a damned fool's crusade for revolution. Nothing has ever worked, and nothing ever will . . . but balance, he suspects. For his temperament as a Skywalker means he can neither succeed in the role of Light Side Jedi nor achieve the unwavering commitment to Darkness required of a Sith. He's unsuited to both religions, by his very nature incapable of their extremes. So will it be with Rey, he believes.
But she is adamant. "There is no conflict!"
He grimaces and starts spitting more truth. "Can you see yourself? A yellow eyed Jedi! Rey, you are the picture of conflict."
"You lie!" She punctuates her words with a vicious swipe.
The near miss has Kylo rethinking his resolve to remain unarmed. His sword now leaps to his grip and ignites purely out of self-preservation. He doesn't want to harm Rey, he wants to help her. But still, the battle is joined, despite his best intentions to the contrary.
Rey smiles as their sabers meet with a resounding crack of static. In the moment, she's an ugly and unnerving sight. Kylo instantly decides he doesn't like Sith assassin Rey. This version of his girl is so wrong. He knows Rey fears going Dark as much as she fears being alone. And yet here she is, yellow eyed and intent on killing the one person in the universe who can understand her plight. Kylo is horrified by how far she has fallen . . . and by how fast.
He disengages. "I will not fight you." He pities her more than anything.
She hisses back, "You are unwise to lower your defenses." Rey's swinging wildly now, like she's wielding her staff in the desert and not a lightsaber in a duel. It's blind rage, Kylo recognizes. Dark power uncontrolled and rampant. She tries a Force push, but he blocks it.
This is wrong . . . this is so, so wrong. Kylo is heartsick that things have come to this. He doesn't want to fight Rey, but he feels there is no other option. She doesn't want to kill him, but she feels driven to it as her best solution. It's like they are both going through the motions, rehearsing old arguments their predecessors mouthed as they reenact showdowns from bygone eras. This is why history repeats itself—because the past refuses to die. Kylo Ren is sick of it.
They have wandered far from her parked X-wing now. All activity in the hangar bay has ceased while his crew looks on. Their audience thinks this is the main event of the ongoing civil war. They don't know their leader is not fighting to win. Actually, that goal makes this duel especially dangerous. Rey doesn't fight in expected ways following the typical attack patterns and classic defenses. She improvises. As a result, she's hard to anticipate. It makes her a formidable opponent if you're trying to win, and it makes her a very difficult opponent if you're aiming for a draw, like he is now.
So, he tries another persuasion tactic. "Strike me down and I will always be with you. What the Force has joined together, you cannot put asunder. Kill me and you kill part of yourself."
She doesn't seem to care. "I want to be free of this pain!"
He understands . . . oh, how he understands. So again, he tries to explain. "Killing me won't end the conflict. It was born into you, like it was born into me. We are Skywalkers."
"I will do what I must. This is for the good of the galaxy. I am a Jedi," Rey announces with no sense of irony. "Like your uncle before me . . . like your mother."
Enough of that Jedi talk. "Stop it! Just stop it!" he commands, warning, "I am not the only one whose wrath you tempt."
"I'm not afraid of Darth Sidious," she snorts.
"I'm not talking about your grandfather." He's talking about Darth Plagueis whose patience has limits. "If you draw him out of exile, I cannot save you. You know that, right?" He's no match for that zombie Muun, and he knows it.
Rey is unconcerned. "I'll take the risk! If you die, the First Order will fall apart again. The Republic will win and the new Jedi will rise."
Looking at his yellow-eyed girlfriend, Kylo thinks he's all that stands between her and the Dark throne Darth Sidious offered at Exogol. Because whatever cult Dark Rey will revive, it sure won't be the Jedi. The moment he's dead, old Sheev Palpatine will crawl out from his hiding place and snare her into his clutches.
But there's no point in telling her that. Like all those futile years she spent waiting on Jakku, Rey is in deep, deep denial. So Kylo argues against her logic. "You can't win. Our mutual friend will only bring me back again."
"Not if I can stop him."
"You won't stop him. He'll destroy you, he'll destroy the Republic, he'll destroy all of it!" Darth Plagueis could do it too.
"Fine! Maybe it's better that way," desperate Rey veers hard into nihilism. "If there's only one of us, there will be less strife and less war . . . things will be decided and one side can move forward."
That is the tired old failed solution of the Jedi-Sith era. It's kept the galaxy reeling from a vicious cycle of civil war as things lurch from extreme to extreme. Kylo is exasperated. "You're missing the point of us! Rey, we are supposed to push and pull. That's how we will get to a new equilibrium."
"Balance?" she guesses, rolling her eyes.
"Yes! The bond pulls us together even as circumstances push us apart. We are archetypes, but we are people too. On Jakku, you yourself said we'd made a mistake by not leaving together." At the time, Kylo had been very encouraged by her regret.
Rey keeps swinging even as she laments, "It's too late for that."
"Yes, but the pull is still so strong, isn't it?" he presses. "I feel the call to the Light and to you . . . you are drawn to flirt with Darkness and with me. We vacillate to extremes, you and I. It's in our nature. It's why I am the only person who can help you. Rey, I know how you feel." He's full of compassion for her current state.
She rebuffs him. "I don't need your help."
"You need it desperately."
His battle strategy is to find an opening to disarm her. Unfortunately, Rey knows it. She's making it difficult. And so, their brawl keeps going. She's not tiring and neither is he. How does this end? Kylo can't help but see the parallels for the ongoing war. It too will keep grinding on because the two sides are evenly matched.
That uncomfortable thought prompts him to step back. Again, he attempts to disengage. "Rey, I will not fight you."
"If you will not fight, then you will meet your destiny." She comes at him, charging. And now their swords are connecting once again as she vents her fury.
He complains, "What brought this on? Is it just Jakku?"
"If I don't kill you, they will send Finn."
"He's no threat."
"I know! He's untrained. Ben, he's my friend. I won't let you kill him!"
"If they send him, I will kill him."
"I know!" she wails again. "It's why I have to kill you first." She means it, too. She has that look in her eye from the Starkiller forest. From when she called him a monster and decided to kill him. His girl is always trying to kill him. From their first meeting in the Takodana woods to this latest duel. They meet and they fight. It's what they do. Try as he might, Kylo can't seem to break them of this habit.
Rey now tosses a TIE fighter at him. It's so effortless, she might as well be tossing a child's ball. Luckily, it's an unwieldy object that's easy to dodge. He leaps out of the way of the careening ship with the help of the Force.
Rey looks proud of herself. "I'm from Jakku, I fight dirty," she boasts.
He refuses to be goaded into responding in kind. Plus, he hates to throw around stuff in a fight. There's a greater chance that he will trip over it than that it will fell his opponent.
Rey unsuccessfully tosses another TIE at him before she tires of that ploy. She moves back to swinging fast and furiously in a classic sword duel. She gets him close enough to land a kick on his chest. He goes down, but easily blocks her coup de grace. She's frustrated that he escapes and is back on his feet unharmed.
They circle one another while the entire Resurgence hangar bay looks on. Seeking to avoid more risky swordplay, Kylo now tries to distance Rey from her friends' politics. If he can't persuade her to join him, maybe he can persuade her to leave them.
"There is no compromise in FN-2187 or in any of the rest of your friends. It's why their Republic is doomed to fail. Democracy demands compromise. It won't work if everyone stands on principle."
"I know," she concedes.
"Dameron and your Chancellor speak of the sacred right to vote in hushed reverence but they plan to deny it to a third of the galaxy. Such hypocrisy!"
"I know," she sighs.
"They're afraid of the will of the people. They know that our ideas have merit. So they vilify us, hoping to quell the message."
"I know." Rey looks frustrated. The bond tells him she agrees with him far more than she lets on.
He continues, "I recognize Darkness when I see it! Do not underestimate the power of fear and hatred to overwhelm everything else. It's happened to you. It's happening to your Republic. It will happen to the entire galaxy soon."
She doesn't dispute him. She just grumbles, "We know that you're winning."
Winning? He doesn't feel like he's winning. "I'm winning the battle but losing the war."
The comment sets her off. "You're winning it all! That's why I'm here-to stop you!"
Kylo shakes his head. "I'm not winning what matters. I'm losing at balance and I'm losing you. Rey, don't give in to hate."
"I haven't given in the hate," she bristles. "I'm not killing what I hate, I'm saving what I love. I'm saving truth, justice, freedom, and the Light. I will do what I must for the Republic."
"You should do what's right for balance," he corrects her.
"Stop lecturing me!"
She's tiring now. It makes her especially ragged. He nearly takes her arm off when she doesn't feint as quickly as he expects. Yikes! That was close. She knows it, too. Rey shoots him a look so cold it would freeze water on hot Jakku.
Her timing is off, and unfortunately, he's also getting sloppy. Because as he attempts to push back Rey's latest aggressive drive, he miscalculates by an inch. It causes the upward arcing lunge he's expecting her to parry to connect. Too late she tries to block it. Too late he realizes his error. Momentum keeps him going. It drags his sword tip deep across Rey's midsection.
She cries out in pain and staggers back.
The duel is over. He has just won the contest he never wished to fight.
Kylo watches in horror as Rey buckles and sinks to her knees, clutching her waist. Her saber extinguishes and falls to roll away. She groans. Her sunkissed face pales.
"NO!" he gasps as he perceives what he has done.
Rey says nothing. She just pulls back her hand to look. It's bloody and dripping. She replaces it fast, but it does little to stem the torrent of blood gushing forth.
Through the bond Kylo feels her pain. It's searing, crippling, take-your-breath-away agony. His girl is tough, but she's no match for this injury. She whispers, "Help," before she goes down fully.
"REY!" He turns off his sword as he dives for where she lays sprawled on her back on the ground. "REY!" He begins babbling as he huddles over her, grabbing for her hand. "I'm sorry! Stay with me-stay with me!"
He's got his fucking gloves on. He rips them off, wanting their bare skin to connect. To give his girl a human touch. "Stay with me!"
"You killed me . . . " Rey looks dazed. Like she can't quite believe it.
He hollers, "Medic! Get me a medic!" over his shoulder.
"You killed me . . . " Her eyes are unfocused. Her breathing is shallow. Kylo has seen enough combat to know those are bad signs.
"Let me see." Still clutching her hand, Kylo looks down at her wound and gulps. It sure looks mortal. Lightsabers can make clean cauterized amputations, deadly puncture wounds from stabs, and painful, slashing burns. But when they hook into the body, they tend to carve out deep wounds that gut into internal organs. That appears to be what happened here.
"H-How b-bad?"
"It's uh . . . just a scratch. Help is coming."
She knows he's lying. "I always thought it would end like this . . . "
"Help is coming."
"It's o-okay, Ben . . . I s-started it." She starts repeating her earlier Dark death wish solution now. "One of these times, one of us was g-going to win. That was why . . . I c-came . . . " Her voice is growing weaker as she struggles. "I h-hope . . . you find . . . balance. Next t-time . . . find a g-girl who agrees with you . . . " She manages an unsteady smile. There are tears in her eyes. The hand he's holding trembles as she starts to convulse.
"There is you-only you, Rey," he promises. She is a gift to him. One half of an historic dyad that will balance the Force. Kylo turns to yell over his again shoulder. "Get me a medic!" He refuses to let her go.
"Ben . . . "
"Hold still. Don't talk." Again, he yells. "Get me a medic!"
"In another t-time . . . in a different s-setting . . . we could have been happy . . . "
"GET ME A MEDIC!" He gathers Rey close with one arm as he applies pressure to her wound with the other. It's a futile effort given the amount of hot, sticky blood pouring forth, but he refuses to give up. "Hold still . . . hang on . . . keep breathing . . . help is coming . . . "
Rey keeps talking, wasting her strength. "The F-Force is with you. Everyone who t-tries to stop you fails. Luke . . . your mother . . . Darth Sidious . . . even me . . ."
She's right. Nothing can stop him because the Force is with him. Miserable and heartsick, Kylo knows that's why he is the victor today. He's winning but he's losing, all because the Force is with him.
The Force is with him.
Of course! He doesn't need a medic, all he needs is the Force. He abruptly shifts Rey in his lap.
"Oooh," she groans in pain.
"Sorry," he yelps. "I want to try to heal you." He did this once before on Exogol, so he will at least make an attempt to save her now. Rey's the one who's good at this, but she sure doesn't look like she can heal herself. But it's so hard to focus. His mind is overwhelmed with guilt, stress, and fear. How did he do this before? Most of what happened right before he died is a complete blur in his memory. The best he can recall, he acted on impulse. But Rey's convulsing again and that is freaking him out. There isn't much time. He's losing her.
"Let go . . ." he counsels himself out loud. "Let go and find the Force." Those are the words of his first Jedi Master and also his introductory teaching from Snoke. Let go of your conscious self. Let the Force flow through you. For be it Dark or Light, the first step in training is to find the Force. To surrender to the ultimate power in the universe. It obeys your commands but it also controls your actions. Kylo is hoping for the latter just now for he knows nothing of clinical medicine. He's not going to even try to make any intentional actions to heal Rey. He will simply let the Force guide him, as he always does in moments of extreme risk. Trust in the Force.
"Let go . . ." he keeps talking himself through it. "Let go . . ." He closes his eyes and lets his consciousness blur into his surroundings. It's a familiar sensation to reach for the Force, but this time he doesn't angrily demand Darkness obey his command. Instead, he beseeches the Light for mercy. He's long out of practice from his Jedi days, but he worked on this connection some on Zakuul while teaching Rey. Will the Light come? And for him of all people? He's no reformed sinner seeking redemption. He's not on his knees begging for reconciliation. This is a purely selfish endeavor: he wants is to erase his mistake and to save the girl he will love if only she will let him.
Will the Light answer his call? Will it save the dyad it created? It does. Of course, it does. The Force never deserts a Skywalker. One and all, his kind fall victim to their own misjudgments, never to the neglect or wrath of their god.
The Light Side arrives as a pulsing, vibrant swell of power. The primal life force that animates us all overtakes him in an instant. This is the magic that soothes the mind, placates the soul, and renews the body. But most importantly, it heals. It's everything Rey needs right now. Kylo himself does nothing. He is merely a passive conduit of power. The Force rushes to him, and from him to Rey. He knows what will follow, and yet he is still astounded as the gaping gash across her middle knits itself back together in seconds.
Rey knows what's happening through the bond. She's relaxed under his touch. Her face is wide-eyed and her mouth a round 'oh' of surprise. She looks enraptured.
As soon as her skin is closed over and her cheeks have color, Kylo wrenches back his hand and his mind in self-preservation. He doesn't want a repeat of what happened last time. Even now, he feels very spent. The effort those few seconds of healing required is considerable. No wonder it killed him to revive her on Exogol.
Invigorated Rey begins to squirm in his lap, twisting as she sits up to inspect her wound. Yet again, they have switched places. For now, he's the unsteady and weak one, and she's recovered.
"Are you okay?" he rasps, feeling lightheaded.
"Yeah . . . yeah, I think I am. Are you?"
He ignores the question. He's too concerned about her. Rey's bent over, blocking his view. "Are you sure? Move. Let me see."
He pushes her back so he can inspect her midsection. "I think it's healed," he concludes.
"Yes, I feel fine." Rey grins at him, a little breathless. He feels her swelling gratitude through the bond. All her anger seems to have receded with his healing. "You did it again—you saved me!" She looks giddy with relief and delight. It's exactly how he feels himself.
But the miracles don't stop there. With enormous satisfaction, he sees that Rey's eyes are normal once more. The yellow hue of Darkness is gone. It must be a consequence of his infusion of Light. Somehow, he has healed both her suffering flesh and her suffering soul. His Light has banished her Darkness. Or maybe balanced it. He's not sure. But whatever happened, Kylo is utterly humbled by the awesome power of the Force.
"What?" Rey is worried at his serious expression.
He reaches to brush a stray strand of hair away from her forehead. "Your eyes are normal again."
She looks down and he feels her embarrassment through the bond. Rey doesn't want to admit that her eyes were yellow or that she was Dark. "I'm . . . I'm sorry for how I acted . . ." she sputters. "It's just . . ."
"This is hard," he finishes for her.
She nods. "Very hard."
"Killing each other isn't the solution."
Rey puts a reflexive hand to her healed stomach and grumbles, "At this point, I'm not sure the Force will let us kill one another."
"I hope not. But we need to stop fighting." Today was a close call. He's kicking himself for panicking and not trying to heal her straightaway. "This is not the way to end the war."
"No more fighting," she sheepishly agrees. Then, she squints at him, "That was the Light-you used the Light to heal me."
"Yes. It's like you said. I'm wasn't killing what I hate, I was saving what I love." In this case, intent matters. "The Force let me save you with the Light." Does she understand the significance of his feat? He's a Sith Apprentice who just healed with the Light. "Rey . . . oh Rey," he whispers, his voice cracking, "let this dispel any doubt. The Force is with me and with you. We are destiny." If Exogol didn't prove it, then today did.
She nods slowly, looking a bit scared. Kylo feels through the bond her acceptance at long last. It floods him with intense relief. Because together he and Rey can tackle any challenge, even Darth Sidious.
But he needs her all-in. So, he demands, "Say it! Say it-we are destiny!"
She doesn't say it. Instead, she leans in to kiss him on the lips in front of everyone. And yeah . . . that will suffice. If anyone doubted that she is the missus, the public kiss confirms it.
Red-faced Rey grins and, heedless of their audience, he beams back.
But a shadow crosses her features. Rey worries, "Are you going to die now?"
"I don't know. Kiss me again and let's see."
She scowls. "That's not funny!"
Kylo can't help himself. He looks down, then shudders, and pretends to falter some. Next, he slumps.
Rey immediately sits up to grab for him. "Ben!"
Is this working? Yes, it's working. "Rey . . . " he sighs theatrically, "Pass on what you have learned . . . "
"Ben! No! Nooooo!" Rey starts shrieking in distress. "Don't go! Don't leave me again!"
His girl is totally falling for his act. And why not? It must seem like the latest craziness in their tumultuous, improbable relationship. Because things like this can and do happen with them.
Rey is tugging on him none too gently now. Her eyes overspill with emotion. She's panicking. "Ben, I neeeeed you! Don't leeeeave me again! You said I'm not alone!" Her fingers are clamping down hard on his arms. Rey is fully prepared to tussle with the Force in a tug-of-war if it decides to take him. It's clear that she's not letting go. It's adorable and so her.
Time to fess up. His eyes pop open and he laughs. "Ha! Gotcha!"
Rey is not amused. She pushes him back hard as he tries to sit up. "That is NOT funny!"
He thinks it's hilarious. "You slay me, Rey. You really do," he snorts at his own joke.
"THAT IS NOT FUNNY!"
"You did come here to kill me, remember?" The irony of how this has played out is truly ridiculous but completely lost on Rey.
Huffing hard, she climbs to her feet and looks ready to resume the earlier duel. As she calls her castoff saber to her grip, for a second he thinks she will. But she stows the sword at her waist and then retrieves his weapon with the Force. "Here!" she grunts. "Now, get up! I don't like you on the floor. It makes me think you may still disappear."
"Sorry, milady," Kylo drawls as he stands up with restored weapon and bloodstained gloves. And wow, does he feel exhausted. No wonder she thought he was dying.
But is she truly alright? Rey's got her tart tongue back along with her habitual frown. She's standing upright and seems recovered. But still . . . that saber swing pretty much eviscerated her. It left a huge wound that seems impossible to recover from so quickly, even with Force healing. And while he doesn't sense any pain in the bond, adrenaline might be masking it.
Worried, he wants to confirm. "Seriously, Rey. Tell me—are you sure you're alright?" Because if so, he has an idea. A crazy idea. Like it or not, he was Darth Sidious' Apprentice and that means he has a strategic mind honed by Sith training. And so, as Kylo now looks at his recovered beloved, he sees leverage.
"Yes," Rey replies firmly. "I feel fine." She twists her jaw and issues a pseudo-apology. "I guess I deserved that prank . . ."
"You are forgiven. Come here," he invites, opening his arms. The entire hangar bay witnesses the Supreme Leader asking for a hug.
"Oh, okay," she relents. Rey promptly throws herself into his arms and buries her face in his chest.
Kylo can't resist. He closes his eyes for a brief moment to revel in her embrace. He's so used to Rey rejecting him. Moments like this are rare.
"Good," he whispers down into her ear, holding her close. "Gooood." Satisfied that she truly is fine, he waves his free hand and catches her unaware. Rey immediately slumps as he steals her consciousness with the Force. He might have been the Light Side hero moments ago, but in this act, he is a crafty Dark Sith. The Force sent Rey here to kill him so that they could reconcile. It presents an opportunity Kylo does not intend to waste.
Scooping Rey up high in his arms, he barks at the confused Colonel Crassus who has approached. "Alert the media team. Tell them to meet me in the detention center. We're going to record a message for the enemy."
"Sir?"
"Time for an ultimatum," Kylo plots. Then he limps off wearily with his scavenger girl safe in his arms.
At the detention center, he stages the backdrop perfectly. Rey is his prop. Once more she is strapped to an interrogation chair in a jail cell. She appears unconscious, her clothes bloodstained from her now healed wound. It's a dramatic, gory tableau with Rey displayed as the helpless, vanquished Jedi and him as the gloating, victorious Sith. Kylo is deliberately amping up the scary theatrics. He needs all the implicit menace he can muster for his big pitch.
It's time to catch the Republic off guard with an offer he hopes they cannot refuse. For weeks, Kylo has been pondering the endgame for the war, and he keeps coming back to the same two-state solution. If he can, he will partition the galaxy into two sovereign, politically independent territories. The Republic and his First Order Empire will exist side-by-side within secure and recognized borders, with neutral trade zones and maybe even a few shared hyperspace routes. All hostilities will cease and the war will end with a negotiated peace. He will claim the vast majority of the systems from a territorial perspective, but the Republic keeps the Core worlds with their enormous wealth and dense urban populations.
Kylo thinks of it akin to his parents' divorce: the Core and the Rim are like a couple with irreconcilable differences and diverging interests who decide to go their separate ways to end the conflict. There will still be ongoing interactions—the Core needs the Rim for manufacturing and raw materials, and the Rim needs the Core for capital and markets for finished goods. That's all fine. The more interconnected the two economies are the better, Kylo thinks. For that will incentivize both sides to keep the peace.
But how to get the Republic to agree? A threat, naturally.
He tapes a brief, terse message standing before Rey strapped on the torture rack. He offers an olive branch and also brandishes a stick. Then, he throws in unwitting Rey as an inducement.
He begins the recording with a mocking sneer. "I have something of yours. This is the third time you've sent her to kill me . . . and the third time she has failed."
The camera zooms in on captured, bloody Rey for some lurid closeups. Then, its focus is back on him.
"She cannot stop me. You cannot stop me. Nothing will stop me."
He's doing his very best master-of-the-universe Sith posturing. Speaking with slow unfolding intensity that makes a chest thumping boast sound like a lyric poem. He's the Supreme Leader now, and he can't stoop to hurling snarling threats at his enemy. He's a more sophisticated sort of adversary than his Apprentice days.
"I give you a choice: you can relinquish control of the Rim—both the inner and outer systems—to the First Order permanently under a negotiated ceasefire and peace accord . . . "
He pauses to let that bold ask sink in. You can't rush these things, or you ruin the effect. Has that been long enough? He now issues an outlandish threat.
"Or, I will invade the Core."
This is the move he has been subtly teasing off and on through backchannels for months now. It started out as a ridiculous taunt just to tweak the Republic to see how they reacted. It worked. They took him seriously, and the First Order has been feeding that paranoia ever since. Time to lean into their fear, Kylo decides, as he starts chewing the scenery like old Snoke liked to do.
"I will come for Coruscant, I will level Chandrila, I will raze Correllia, Kuat, and Praxlis. The Haves will experience what it feels like to be a Have Not. They will know siege, they will know famine, they will know scarcity and terror. They will know what it means to be hopeless and abandoned, to have their misery be ignored. I will make the Core into the Rim and our revenge will be complete."
"The choice is yours. Convene your leaders. Debate. Take a vote," he smirks, his voice laden with sarcasm. "You have twenty-four hours. And if you accept in twelve," he gestures magnanimously to sleeping Rey, "I will give you back your Jedi alive."
"A refusal will result in more death and much suffering. So choose wisely," he admonishes. Looking directly into the camera, Kylo does his best to emulate the smooth guile of his mentor, the very ironically democratically elected Chancellor Palpatine, Darth Sidious. With the hint of a genial smile about his lips, Kylo urges, "Choose peace," like he's the good guy.
Done. He instructs the media types, "Edit it how you like. I want to approve the final version before we send it."
Across the room, disapproving Colonel Crassus chokes. "Wait, Sir, we want peace?"
"We do now. We are the ones who want a peaceful, amicable coexistence. My mother always did this—she grabbed the moral high ground every chance she could."
He shouldn't have said that. References to Leia Organa make everyone nervous. One of the media types outright whines, "But we want to destroy the Republic."
"Indeed. We don't actually have to abide by our own peace terms forever," he reminds everyone present. To affirm his Sith cred, he dutifully purrs, "Peace is a lie."
The Colonel brightens. "We're lulling them into thinking the war is over?"
He nods. "We are declaring victory for over half the galaxy and getting the enemy to voluntarily withdraw from the occupied systems we don't have the means to liberate. It will save lives and save resources."
The Colonel summarizes, "This is a Dooku move. A secession."
"Yes, except this time, the war came first. This will reset things to our advantage," Kylo hopes, "and buy us time to regroup and rebuild so we can catch the Republic unaware in the future."
He now turns to the media team to instruct, "Keep the spin positive and high-minded. We are the ones who want to spare the galaxy's citizens more pain. If the Republic chooses war, we will give them war. But we are offering peace."
"We're making them be the bad guys?"
"Exactly."
"Understood, Sir."
The media team withdraws to get to work. When they are gone, the always discrete Colonel Crassus worries aloud, "Sir, we only have rudimentary plans for invading the Core. And we lack the resources to implement them."
Kylo freely admits, "It's a bluff."
The Colonel is clearly skeptical of the tactic, but he phrases it neutrally. "Sir, no one doubts that you want to invade the Core. Not after Hosnia. But they may doubt whether you can do it now. They know a lot more about our true capabilities of late."
That's correct. But as usual, his military minds are thinking of conventional warfare. He is not. "Colonel, you misunderstand how terrorism works. We don't have to invade and control the Core to make good on my threat. We just have to blow up enough museums, universities, corporate headquarters, and civic landmarks to scare them. Fear is our true weapon. Fear is highly motivating."
But the Colonel remains stuck in his old school mindset. "Is this the Tarkin Doctrine at work? Because that would be a lot more effective if we had Starkiller Base," he points out.
"True," Kylo concedes. "But I come from a family of Rebel terrorists. I know what destruction determined people can do. If need be, we will use the Republic's precious freedoms against them. An open society is an easy society to infiltrate. All that liberty is a weakness to exploit."
The Colonel eyes him before speaking with a frankness Kylo has come to value. "We're taking an awful risk, Sir. This had better work."
"They may refuse, but most likely this will become the beginning of a protracted negotiation," he predicts.
Crassus looks dubious. "Do we need to plan a small-scale attack for if they refuse?"
"Yes. Make it three or four separate attacks on different worlds. Pick any systems you want so long as one is Coruscant. Blow up something visible and important. Be sure to maximize the casualties. Fear is the goal."
"Yes, Sir." The Imperial veteran's lined eyes dart behind them to Rey. "Your . . . uh . . . wife won't like this . . . "
Kylo glances over at Rey. She's his sleeping beauty of the Force who destiny made his dyad and war made his enemy. But today, at least, they reached a tentative accord . . . he hopes. Flashing a fleeting, wry smile as he answers the Colonel. "Actually, I'm hoping she will love it." Rey came here in a misguided effort to the end the war, after all.
She is his sacrifice, Kylo realizes suddenly. She is what he must forfeit for peace. He will never sell this deal to the Republic without their Jedi mascot safely returned, hopefully to act as his clandestine advocate. That means the enemy's gain will be his loss. For finally, Rey comes to him and circumstances force him to send her away. Once again, they must endure a near miss at happiness. And honestly, he's resigned to that fate. For as champions of the Light and the Dark, he and Rey are the star-crossed lovers of the galaxy. It's never been about what they want for themselves, and it never will be.
And if the Republic refuses? Well, he'll figure that out as he goes along. But if they refuse, he's keeping Rey as his consolation prize, whether or not she agrees. For too long, they have been apart.