Epilogue

by blueenvelopes

After the Battle of Exogol, an old iconoclast emerges from exile. Fearing history will repeat itself, perpetuating the Jedi and the Sith, he takes matters into his own hands. He finds the lonely scavenger girl with amazing Force in the Tatooine desert and promises, "I can raise the dead." It's an offer he will not let Rey of Jakku refuse.

32. Chapter 32

The door to Rey's cell slides open. Finn walks in. She knew it was him thanks to the Force. She also knows that Poe and several others are in close proximity as everyone tries to solve the problem of her.

Finn meets her eyes, immediately glances away, and then starts reading words off a script on a datapad. "I'm supposed to tell you that you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. Do you understand the rights I have just read to you?"

Rey answers, "Yes." Anyone who has ever watched a holonet cop show knows how this part goes.

Sure enough, Finn presses, "With your rights in mind, do you wish to speak to me?"

"Yes."

He looks relieved. Finn now opens the door to admit a floating camera droid with a blinking red light. Again, he reads off the datapad. "This conversation will be recorded. Your attorney will have access to it. It is evidence that will be admissible in a court of law. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

There are still more preliminaries. Finn informs her, "There are a pair of guards outside that door and a squad of special ops stationed between you and the exit to this detention center. Don't try anything stupid. The first shot is set to stun. After that, it's live fire."

She calmly points out, "I haven't resisted arrest. I have no plans to escape."

Finn shoots her a point look. "We know what you are capable of. Keep cooperating. It's your best hope."

"Why did they send you?" she demands. She was expecting some official investigator type to do this initial interview. Instead, they sent her best friend. It's going to make this so much harder. Rey knows her betrayal is personal to Finn, not just political. This could get very ugly, very fast, she fears.

Finn answers curtly. "They didn't send me. I wanted to be the one to debrief you." He punches hard at the datapad he's still holding and then thrusts it down at her. "Here. Explain this." The datapad shows a picture of her kissing Kylo Ren.

"Swipe a few times," Finn sneers, "because there are plenty. That was you on the First Order flagship Resurgence swapping spit with the enemy."

Yes, she remembers.

"I don't even want to contemplate what you did with him when you weren't in public," Finn hisses. "See all the fake blood on your clothes? We thought that was real. We had just seen you lying unconscious on a torture rack with Ren standing in front of you gloating for the cameras. We thought you were suffering—we worried that we might have lost you for good this time. But instead, it was all a lie, wasn't it? Just like that story about how Ren magically healed you with the Force. There wasn't even a scar because it never happened. It was a lie . . . all of it was a lie!"

The kiss was real, the blood was real, and the healing was real. But Rey doesn't reply.

Her silence infuriates Finn. "IT WAS ALL A LIE!" he rages. It's intense emotion that she's only seen from easygoing Finn in the heat of battle when he is at his most focused. Never before has it been directed at her. It's weirdly reminiscent of Ben, and that makes it especially unnerving.

"We received those pictures and others. There's a full dossier of you flouncing around Ren's flagship in a pink dress attending meetings. Note the lack of handcuffs. Clearly, you were never a prisoner. You look like his guest. Like his Republic girlfriend who popped in for the weekend."

Still, she doesn't reply. Rey just swipes and keeps slowly swiping. It's mostly to stall for time as she decides how much honesty she should reveal. Since her arrest, she has been debating how to defend herself. The truth is incriminating. She knows she should refuse to answer any questions and consult with a lawyer, or risk convicting herself. But part of her wants to unburden her conscience and to explain her reasoning, even if it entails some martyrdom. Because she's not a traitor in the traditional sense-she never switched sides. She didn't join the First Order and she isn't looking for the Republic to fail. She wants both sides to win. From her point of view, she did what was best for everyone in the long run. Finn, Poe, and the rest are unlikely to ever see it that way, she knows. But still . . . owning up to her role and explaining it seems like the Jedi thing to do. Plus, ultimately as a Chosen One she answers to the Force and not to any civil authority.

Rey keeps slowly swiping . . . deciding.

Belatedly, she realizes that she allowed herself to be lulled into complacency, wrongly believing that she and Ben would get away with their conspiracy since nothing ever came of their all too public interaction on his ship. But Darth Sidious' minions are nothing if not patient. They waited thirty years to emerge after Endor. And this time, Rey surmises, they waited for the peace deal to be inked and the First Order to control the Rim before they made their move against her.

"There's more," Finn announces. "Your apartment was searched. We found a credit card with a balance of fifty thousand credits. The card is unaffiliated to any bank with untraceable origins. It's cryptocurrency like the kind spice kingpins and arms dealers use."

Rey looks up blankly. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Finn ignores the denial. "Where'd you get that kind of cash? From the First Order? Rey, did you betray us for credits?"

"No!" she reacts, shaking her head. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"So, I'm supposed to believe that someone just happened to leave that kind of cash laying around for you by accident?" Finn blusters. "Have you got a burner comlink to Ren hidden somewhere too that we didn't find?"

"No!" She doesn't need a comlink. She and Ben speak in the Force. "Whoever gave you these pictures must have planted that money as well . . . "

Finn doesn't counter that idea, he just keeps spouting off information. "Sources within the First Order tell us that Ren told his inner circle that you are really Reina Palpatine, the granddaughter of Sheev Palpatine. That you inherited your Force powers from Grandpa Darth Sidious who somehow lost you—or maybe it was hid you-on Jakku. Is that true?"

"NO! Absolutely not!"

Finn looks enormously relieved and, for the first time, encouraged by her emphatic denial. "No?" he asks hopefully.

"No." She looks Finn in the eye as she contends, "That's a lie Darth Sidious told me on Exogol. He wants to use me. To put me on the Dark throne as reigning Sith so he can control me. I refused and resisted him with Ben's help. You know that." She's told Finn and the rest of the Resistance leadership a barebones version of what happened with Darth Sidious . . . except for a few omissions she felt were too personal to share.

"If it's a lie, why does Ren tell people that you are the heiress to the Empire? Why does he tell people that you're his estranged wife?" Finn chokes out that last word, adding a resentful glare for good measure. "We have reports Ren tells people that Snoke married you on the Starkiller because he wanted Vader's grandson to marry Palpatine's granddaughter to consolidate the Imperial legacy into one family. Is that true? Are you Lady Kylo Ren?" Finn looks aghast at the possibility.

Is she married to Ben? Well, not in any legal sense. "The first time I met Kylo Ren was on the Starkiller Base as his prisoner. I escaped him. You know—Finn, you were there."

Her friend nods. "I remember."

"Snoke didn't marry us." Er . . . the Force married them . . . sort of . . . But Rey glosses over that point and focuses on refuting what Finn thinks he knows. "The first time I saw Snoke was in his throne room when Ben—I mean Ren-killed him. Finn, none of what he tells people is true!"

"Why would Ren tell that lie? What does he have to gain?"

Isn't it obvious? "It's a cover story to placate his people who aren't happy about their Supreme Leader talking to a Jedi."

"Those pictures make it look like you're doing a lot more than talking—"

"Finn, it's a cover story! We had to make it look good!" That's kinda, sorta true. "My name is not Reina Palpatine or Reina Ren or whatever . . . I'm Rey from Jakku. Like always."

Finn nods even as his eyes narrow. He's quick with the follow-up: "But you don't dispute that you met with Ren? That you plotted with Ren? Because there are lots of pictures of you with him."

"Ben and I are . . . we are . . ." She falters. Because what are they? Lovers? Co-conspirators? Friends? She has a lot of labels for them, but somehow they seem far too inadequate for what they mean to each other and to the galaxy.

"To be clear for the record," Finn presses with a glance at the recording droid, "you admit to meeting with Ren?"

"Yes," she answers softly.

"So, you do not contest the truth of these pictures?"

"No. They aren't fake. That's me. I was there."

Finn digests this unwelcome news with a groan. "Why? Why would you do this?" Loyal friend that he is, Finn immediately starts seeking to give her a way out. "Did Ren force you?" he posits hopefully.

She shoots down that theory. "No." At first, the bond was against her will and Ben truly was spying through their connection. But over time, she became an active, enthusiastic participant.

"Are you sure he didn't play on your guilt? He saved you on Exogol. He's been using that to manipulate you, hasn't he?"

She shakes her head. Damning herself, she begins telling the complete truth. Half-truths will only come back to haunt her if exposed, she worries. And then the Republic won't believe a word of what she says. Complete honesty is the best approach. So, she plows headlong into the first of many admissions: "I did this of my own free will."

"Why?"

"For peace." All along, from the moment she handed the lightsaber to Luke Skywalker, she has been trying to do the right thing and be a good Jedi. But that turned out to be far harder than she ever imagined. The Jedi were many things over the course of their thousand generation history, and some of them weren't good. But the enduring strength of the Jedi, she has decided, came from their desire to make peace. It was with that role in mind that Rey has rationalized her actions.

"I grew up scavenging in the wreckage of the last war . . . stepping over mummified bodies of Imperials and Rebels alike. Thirty years later, we're fighting the same war. Nothing is ever permanently settled and people keep suffering. Finn, more and more people die."

"Yeah, and Ren's killing them!" Finn is trying to understand as she metes out crumbs of information. "You were with us as much as anyone, Rey. You were Leia's student! We all trusted you! What happened?" Her friend is crushed by her actions.

Averting her eyes, guilty Rey now grumbles, "You know I haven't approved of our tactics in the Rim."

"That's what this is about?"

"Partly, yes. I didn't see the point in forcing people to stay in the Republic. I didn't like holding the galaxy together by war. That seems like something the old Empire would do—conquer people and tell them what to do. Finn, we're supposed to be better than that! If democracy is about self-determination and self-government, then the Republic should have let those people have their independence long ago."

Ben's cause is not new, he is just the Rim's latest and most successful champion. No one can deny that tribalism has been on the rise throughout the galaxy for decades. No doubt as a reaction to the incessant overbearing influence of the dominant Core culture that upholds a human, educated, elite, secular, individualist ideal. That standard ignores the fact that not everyone can or does aspire to an urban sophisticate lifestyle where a desk job is the embodiment of success. It overlooks the reality that many people would gladly trade some of their personal freedoms for economic opportunity and personal security in uncertain times. It presents a monolithic mindset that sneers at non adherents as stupid, misguided, fascist zealots.

Years ago, Mon Mothma created the Alliance to Restore the Galactic Republic to bring back a halcyon past. The problem was that not everyone recalled the Old Republic as fondly as she did. But that didn't stop her. That part is key: the Rebellion was not declared at the behest of the Rim common folk—it was declared in their interests by persons like Senator Mothma who were confident of their own judgement in such matters. They were doing it 'for the people.' For some of the people, that is. What about the rest of the people? Well, in time, Mothma and others figured, the rest would see how great democracy is. It's the very same motivation behind Finn and Poe's recent attempts to 'liberate' the Rim from the First Order. Rey finds it to be tone deaf. It smacks of condescension and paternalism to the people it purports to help. It balms over their legitimate complaints as unimportant.

Staunch democratic proponent that she is, Rey nonetheless recognizes that democracy is not the solution to every social ill. Democracy does not ensure decent living conditions and opportunities. Democracy does not necessarily distribute wealth fairly. Corruption, inequality, adversity, and poverty exist under every form of government, the Republic included. There's nothing magical about convening a Senate. Good government is more complicated than simply holding elections. Moreover, Rey knows what Finn and Poe refuse to acknowledge—that the First Order's base of support is better informed and far more reasonable and tolerant than the Core cognoscenti will admit. Quite simply, the Rimmers have tried democracy a few times without success. They don't want to do it again. They would prefer to give Kylo Ren a chance.

Finn disagrees, like Rey knew he would. "Look, I'm from the Rim, just like you are. I know the Republic has made mistakes out there—big ones. But by far the biggest mistake they made was allowing the First Order to rise and take a stranglehold on those systems." The former stormtrooper shakes his head in disbelief. "I can't believe what I'm hearing . . . I thought you believed in democracy . . . I thought you were studying to become a Jedi to help uphold the values of the Republic . . ."

She reminds him, "Until the Clone Wars, the Jedi were peacemakers and peacekeepers. Not soldiers and assassins. I am following that tradition." She's still bitter about all the pressure Finn, Poe, and others put on her to kill Ben. That pressure, together with the Force bond, ultimately led her to ally with her enemy. "A true Jedi works to promote peace and harmony."

Finn squints at her. He isn't following. "You betrayed the Republic to make peace? Is that your story?"

Yes. "I helped Ben to make peace so that hopefully soon we can balance the Force. Finn, this is mostly about the Force."

"You're telling me you turned traitor to help a Dark Side Sith because you're a good Light Side Jedi? Because that makes no sense!" Finn fumes.

"Ben is not a Sith—"

"I hate it when you call him that," Finn interrupts, grousing under his breath. "No one calls him that."

"I do." Kylo Ren has been Ben Solo ever since he touched her hand in the Force and told her she wasn't alone. Ever since that moment—when she saw the compassion and empathy deep within him—Rey knew his inner conflict. Snoke couldn't drive away his Light, just like Luke couldn't cast out his Darkness. Ben's a complicated guy, and Rey accepts him as is. She'll take the bad with the good.

And that's why she contends, "Ben is not a Sith. Not like Darth Sidious is. If you knew him . . . if you knew more about the Force, you would understand . . . "

"Try me! Because I want to hear all of it!" her friend snaps. "Tell me when you met, how you passed information, what you told him, what he wants. Start at the beginning. Give me specifics."

"Okay." She thinks a moment. "Ben and I began on the Starkiller Base. After he captured me looking for the map to Skywalker, he interrogated me with the Force."

"You mean he got in your head? Like he did to Poe?"

"Yes. But I fought back. I guess I pushed too hard or something, because I got in his head."

"In Ren's head?"

"Yes. It formed a connection that lasted."

"What sort of connection?"

"We created a Force bond. That means the Force connects our minds and it lets us know each other's thoughts and actions. I can see him on his ship giving orders. And he can see me sitting in meetings and talking to you. He also knows what I'm thinking."

"What does that mean? Is he in your head now? Is he hearing this?" Finn looks around like he might spot the enemy interloper in the corner of the small cell.

Rey hastens to assure him. "No. He's not here now. The bond's not open."

"Oh. Good."

"We can't control the bond. It opens when it opens."

"How often? When does this happen?"

"It varies. Sometimes it's several times a week. But sometimes the bond goes quiet. Ben thinks the bond opens when the Force wants us to know things or to see things, but I haven't seen that pattern. It often feels kind of random." Sometimes, she yearns to see Ben but the Force refuses to cooperate.

"So, this bond is how you meet him? How you tell him things?"

Rey cringes at the accusatory tone. "I can't help it, Finn. I can't stop it. At first, I tried. Really, I did. But Force bonds are for life. One of us has to die for the connection to sever."

"How long has this been going on? When did it start?"

"The bond first opened when I was with Luke."

"With Luke? Did he know?"

"Yes. Luke was powerful enough that he could see the bond. He could see Ben there watching me. Normal people—even Force sensitive people—can't do that." Rey looks down at her handcuffed wrists and recalls, "It was why we quarreled."

"Wait—you quarreled with Luke Skywalker?" Finn's eyes widen. "You never told us that."

She sighs as she admits, "Luke threw me off his island when he learned of the Force bond. He said I was drawn to the Dark Side and it scared him. Seeing me talking in the Force to his nephew was the last straw."

"I'll bet! Did Leia know?"

"No. I never told her." Again, Rey looks down at her bound hands as she sheepishly confesses, "I was afraid to tell her . . . Luckily, the bond never opened when she could see it."

"So, this has been going on the whole time and you never thought to tell any of us? How many secrets did he learn eavesdropping through you?"

Rey looks away as she mutters, "Too many."

Dismayed Finn visibly gulps. "Does this explain his return to power? Are you—is this Force bond—why the First Order is so hard to beat?"

"Partly, yes."

"Partly? What's that supposed to mean?"

"The Force is with him."

"The Hell it is!" Finn swears.

Rey stands by her assessment. "The Force is with him. Finn, Ben doesn't want to rule the galaxy. He just wants the Rim. He doesn't want more war. He wants peace."

"The Hell he does!" Finn won't hear of it. He is too blinded by mistrust. Too conditioned by his own experience as a stormtrooper to believe anything but the worst of the First Order and its notorious leader. It also doesn't help that he has a bionic spine now thanks to Ben's sword.

But Rey is equally convinced of her own view. She is emphatic as she looks up from her seated position to her agitated, pacing friend. "Ben agrees with me. He agrees that Darth Sidious is out there. Sheev Palpatine is who you need to fear, not Kylo Ren."

But Finn, as usual, brushes off that concern. "Don't start in on that—don't deflect the blame from Ren! You know how evil he is! No quarter at Crait? Come on, Rey—"

"You don't know him like I do." Why Ben does something is as important as what Ben does, Rey has decided. At Crait, he was doing his best to wipe out the Resistance so he could wipe out what remained of the Republic military. It was part of his zeal to let the past die—most importantly, the Jedi Republic past that his mother and uncle so enshrined. Yes, it was cruel. It was a Dark means to an end. But that end is balance, which mitigates things at least a little.

"What—so you're friends now? Chatting through the Force? Rey, Ren is the enemy!" Finn loudly asserts. "How could you have allowed yourself to lose sight of that? He's been working you over the whole time, hasn't he? Playing on your guilt and telling you lies. Dark Side guys deceive—you know that! How could you have allowed yourself to get talked into betraying us?"

She understands Finn's view. His skepticism is everything Rey expects given what she herself once thought of Ben. She tries to explain, "The bond put me in a terrible position. All those meetings I skipped and ducked out of early . . . "

"Yeah . . . yeah, I remember." Frowning Finn seems to appreciate at least some of her predicament. "You kept pulling back from the war effort just when we needed you most. Now I get it, I guess . . . But Rey, you should have told me!" A thought occurs to Finn now as he pieces together the meaning of her actions in light of what she's revealed: "He's why you left us for Jakku, right?"

"Yes. But then I realized that I can't avoid Ben. I had to find a way to live with him. To make peace with him. And that made me realize that the galaxy needs peace as well. Finn, we have to find a way to coexist and to tolerate people with different views."

"And so, you became Ren's spy?" Finn squints in confusion at her reasoning. He's too focused on the benefit to the First Order from her actions, and missing the larger benefit to everyone, the Republic included.

Rey points out, "I'm our spy as well. The bond works both ways. Finn, the Force connects us for a reason, and Ben and I both believe that reason is peace. Peace is the first step to balancing the Force."

"Ren doesn't want to balance the Force! He's a Sith, he wants power! He's just using you!"

"The bond is very powerful. It lets me know him in ways I never could otherwise. Finn, it lets me know his heart. Ben has a good heart. He's a good person under all that posturing and violence."

"I can't believe what I'm hearing."

Rey sighs, shakes her head, and looks down at the floor. This conversation is making her appreciate just how patient and persistent Ben had been with her own initial skepticism. She kept lighting her sword when Ben wanted to talk. She had been the consistent aggressor when he wanted to make peace. But back then she didn't trust Ben, like Finn doesn't now.

She complains to her friend, "I knew you wouldn't understand. You want to know why I didn't tell you? This is why I didn't tell you. Because your hatred of the First Order and your fear of the Sith blind you." They blinded her at first, as well. But Ben saved her life in Snoke's throne room, on Exogol, and then again on the Resurgence. And Ben truly cares about his cause and his people. Plus, when his version of the past came out, he was unexpectedly convincing as a victim. And so, even though Rey was determined to cast him in the role of villain, she couldn't ignore that Ben has true hero qualities. But his actions didn't fit within the standard good guy script, and that had confused her.

Finn's tone is equally as defeated and bitter. "I had hoped that somehow this was a setup . . . that those pictures were more fake news . . . that you could explain all that cash . . . But it's all true and you freely admit it!" Poor Finn is crushed. His handsome face that is so often in a wide smile now twists in a hard grimace. "I can hardly believe this. This . . . this is so devastating . . . to the Republic but also to me . . . " The Force tells Rey that her friend is absolutely appalled by what she is telling him.

She tries to make amends. "I'm sorry for hurting you. I'm sorry for misleading you." Rey is sincere.

"But you're not sorry you did it?" Finn challenges.

It's true. "Peace is worth it," she answers.

"Are you sure about that? Because you're in a lot of trouble."

She shrugs with feigned bravado. "I can handle myself. I knew the risks. Peace is worth it," she reaffirms.

Finn whirls away for a moment, hands on hips and shoulders heaving. The Force and his body language tell her that he needs to master his composure. That's how angry he is. When he turns back around, his expression is grimly resigned. "Alright. Tell us what you can, and I'll see if that can mitigate the circumstances. You need to cooperate fully and I'll try to get you some leniency."

"I don't have anything more to tell you." None of the details matter now that the ceasefire is agreed. And Rey is loath to flesh out all the ways in which Ben used the bond against the Republic. Nothing good will come of that given how little anyone trusts Kylo Ren currently. "Finn, there's nothing else important to know."

"You don't really expect me to believe that," he snaps back. "What can you tell us about Ren? You said the bond thing works both ways."

"I don't have anything more to tell you."

"Don't stonewall. It won't help."

"There's nothing to tell!" she holds firm. "We have a deal. We have peace. The war is over. It's over."

"Is it?" Finn fumes. "Can we trust this deal you helped us cut?"

"Yes! Whatever you think of me, don't let that stand in the way of peace." Rey alarmed to think that her role in things might jeopardize the ceasefire. "Finn, the deal still stands, right?"

"Yes, it stands," he answers glumly. "Poe thinks he's going to get a Chancellorship out of this, so he's willing to keep the agreement even though you sold us out."

Rey scowls at his phrasing. "Regardless of how we got there, the ceasefire is a good compromise."

"Hardly." Finn shoots her a cold look. "We got played by Ren yet again, and you helped him!" He begins again urging, "Rey, you need to tell us all you know."

She refuses. "It's over. You don't need intelligence on the First Order."

"You will betray us, but you won't betray him?" Finn is indignant.

"No. I won't betray him."

"Why? Is it this bond? Is that the hold Ren has over you?"

Rey averts her eyes. "You won't understand . . . "

"Try me! Talk to me, Rey," Finn now outright pleads. He keeps alternating between righteous outrage and true sorrow over what he's learning. And that's Finn—a bighearted guy who wants to help when he sees a friend in trouble. "Help me understand why you would do this. Are you his secret Apprentice? Is that what's really going on? Is Ren teaching you?"

"He's taught me some things—"

"He has?"

"—but I'm not his Apprentice."

"Look me in the eye when you tell me that."

She does. "I am not his Apprentice."

Finn seems mollified on that point at least. "What has he promised you?"

"He promised me peace. Finn, this was a plot for peace. We agreed that he would work for peace from his position in the First Order using his knowledge of the Dark Side. My job was to work for peace from within the Republic from the perspective of the Light."

Finn shoots her a knowing look. "He promised you peace, eh? Darth Sidious promised the Separatist Leaders peace as well . . . before he had Darth Vader betray them to their deaths. That's what the Sith do—they lie and manipulate! Rey, it's not like you to be so gullible."

She lifts her chin. "One day, you will understand how hard Ben worked for this peace deal and how much opposition he faces within the First Order."

"Not anymore," Finn snorts. "We have unconfirmed reports that Ren massacred a third of his own senior staff right after the deal announced. You know what he's doing, right? He's consolidating power and wiping out all those who oppose him. He'll do the same with you. Once he gets what he wants, he'll crush you! For all we know, he's done that already by leaking your involvement himself. He's using us to do his dirty work for him." Finn swears and punches the air in utter frustration. "Yet again, that fucking Sith is playing us! Rey, stop being his willing victim!"

"You're wrong. This is all the work of Darth Sidious. I can't prove it, but I'm sure of it." And those senior staff members Ben killed must have been Final Order embeds. The pictures from within the meeting room on the Resurgence must have come from a highly placed Sith Eternal spy.

Finn shakes his head at her. "Emperor Palpatine is dead."

"He's alive! And like always, he wants back into power. Don't you see? Kylo Ren salvaged his power base and built him a new Empire. Sidious was fine to stay away while Ben fought his war. But now, he's going to try to reclaim his place again."

"Emperor Palpatine is dead!"

"I know that's the official line, but it's false hope. Finn, search your feelings—you will know it to be true! If Darth Sidious didn't die getting thrown down a reactor shaft in a Death Star that blew up mere minutes later, what makes you so sure he died at Exogol? Teaming up with Ben to balance the Force is the only way to truly defeat him!"

"So that's how Ren got to you . . . " Finn seems to think he's had a eureka moment. "Ren cast himself as the hero you needed to fight the nonexistent strawman villain Sidious. Rey, how could you fall for that?"

She now reveals, "Snoke actually was Sidious."

"W-What?" Finn reacts.

"Snoke was a puppet of Darth Sidious. Controlled from afar with the Force. It's true! Some highly placed embedded Final Order agents knew of it back then. Some in the First Order know it now."

Finn is skeptical. "You didn't think to tell us this earlier?"

"I didn't know until Exogol. By then, Sidious was through with his ruse. Snoke no longer mattered. Ben killed a puppet, but he didn't kill his real Master."

Her friend considers. "That was a good fake."

"I know. Even Ben was fooled by Snoke. Ben didn't know that he was serving Darth Sidious."

The comment sets Finn off again. "I hate it when you call him that. I HATE it! And I hate this whole situation!"

She does too. Rey herself has run through the entire gamut of emotions when it comes to her involvement with Kylo Ren. That's why her response is slow and intense with conviction. "This was very hard for me. I don't like lying to people. I never set out to deceive you or anyone else. But this is what the Force wants—for me and Ben to work together to achieve peace so that there will be balance."

"Oh, so this is the Force's fault?" her friend jeers. "The Force made you do it?"

"Essentially, yes."

"But you wanted to do it, too." Finn's look is knowing and reproachful.

Rey doesn't deny it. "I came to realize that what Ben is doing is noble and right. I don't always agree with his means—"

"I should hope not!"

"-but I honor his goals. Whether you will acknowledge it or not, this peace deal took a lot of courage for him."

"Yeah? Well, give me details. Rey, I need to know what Ren knows and how he knows it. We need to assess just how big of a security breach you have been."

"No." She refuses to disclose anything that Finn might use to restart the war or to invalidate the ceasefire agreement.

"You need to cooperate! These are very serious charges that you're facing."

"No." She digs in. "I'm not giving you anything, Finn."

"It's treason, then? Is that what you're doing telling me? You intentionally betray us to Ren to achieve his ruse ceasefire and now you protect him? That's treason and it carries a very severe penalty. Rey, don't do this! Give me something—anything—to show that you're still a little bit loyal to our cause."

"My allegiance is to the Republic—to democracy. Also, to the Jedi Order—to peace. But my first loyalty is to the Force, and in this case that means Ben."

Finn glances over to the droid recording their conversation. He shakes his head with regret and his next words are suddenly solemn. "You have allowed this Dark Lord to twist your mind until now you have become the very thing you swore to destroy. You were supposed to destroy that Sith, not join him—"

"Ben is not a Sith. Finn, he wants balance, not power—"

"You're a fool for him, aren't you?" her friend accuses softly.

The comment takes Rey aback. For the first time in this exceedingly uncomfortable conversation, she is truly flustered. Swallowing rising doubts, she divulges a deep secret. "I love him," she blurts out. It's a spontaneous confession, and not in her best interest.

It's also the very last thing Finn wants to hear. "What?" he gasps. "What did you say?"

There's no turning back now. Suddenly, Rey feels committed like she never has before. Saying the long awaited, but forbidden words out loud turns out to be deeply empowering. Because Ben followed through on his end, making peace in defiance of all odds. He's the only person in the whole galaxy who understands how she feels and why. He's proven he can be trusted with the Force, the future, and her heart. And so, in the face of a shameful charge of treason, Rey nonetheless affirms, "I love Ben Solo and he loves me."

Finn recoils. "You love Ren. Ren? FUCK!" he rages in horror. He throws up his hands in disbelief.

"Finn—"

"FUCK! This keeps getting worse!"

Rey lifts her chin and again announces, "I love Ben, and he loves me." She's saying it to the wrong man at the wrong time. But she's saying it anyway. It feels good. Overdue, but good.

"Rey, it's a lie!"

"He loves me! He loves me!" she maintains, sounding shrill in her defensiveness.

Finn looks ready to explode. Of all the ways she has shocked and disappointed him, this is clearly the worst. This takes the personal betrayal to a whole new level. Again, Finn is left grasping for excuses on her behalf. "He preyed on your loneliness, didn't he? Did he know about Jakku? He did, didn't he? I bet he knew just how to lure you with attention and promises. Here I worried he might seduce you to the Dark Side, never dreaming he would actually seduce you—"

"That's not what happened!"

"You fool!" Finn lashes out.

"You've got this all wrong!" she hollers back.

But Finn isn't listening. He's realizing aloud the implications for himself. "So when I asked you about us . . . when I thought that maybe you and I might someday be closer . . . but you said you were a Jedi married to the Force . . . no attachments and all that . . . it was another lie, wasn't it? Wasn't it?"

"Finn—"

"ANSWER ME!"

Rey hangs her head. "Yes." She's not trying to hurt Finn. She's trying to explain how much she believes in Ben. But in this, as in everything she has revealed today, she only succeeds in making Finn angrier.

Finn glowers. Heedless of the droid recording their conversation, he now gets very personal about his rejection. "So, you would prefer Kylo Ren who slaughters innocents and tramples democracy to me? You watched him murder his own father and cut me down on the Starkiller Base, and still you choose him? Him?"

Too afraid to say more that will inflame the situation, Rey simply nods.

Finn's longtime hopes for a romance between them were never a secret. At their initial meeting, he had wanted to know if she had a boyfriend. But while she and Finn share a special chemistry, for her it stops short of attraction. Even when she thought Ben was dead, she would never have pursued Finn. He's a dear friend, but nothing more. The lie about being married to the Force was more an attempt to let him down easy than anything else.

But Finn clearly is offended. He hisses, "Rey, how could you?"

The reason is simple: "The Force chose Ben for me." Warts and all, the Force put her and Ben together in a dyad until death. All the impediments to their relationship—from their own faults to the surrounding war context—are the very point of them. She and Ben are supposed to surmount all odds and find commonalities despite their personal and political differences. That is the point of balance. They are a microcosm of the larger universe that is full of varied beings with different ideas and diverse cultures. But if she and Ben can reach accord, then there is hope for everyone. This peace deal is the first step. And so, despite Finn's distress and all the serious trouble she is facing, Rey firmly feels that her actions are justified.

Finn keeps sputtering the awful truth. "You broke the Jedi Code with a Sith Apprentice? With the enemy Supreme Leader?"

"Yes."

"So you not only betrayed the Republic, but you betrayed the Jedi Order and our friendship too?"

"Yes."

"He's not worth it, Rey."

"I didn't do it for him. I did it for peace. But I love him. I truly, deeply love him." And love is worth everything.

"Never say those words to me again!" Finn rages.

That's when the cell door slides open and an unfamiliar woman in an official looking uniform interrupts. "General, we'll take it from here." The woman's tone is as stern as her demeanor. This is an intervention and everyone in the room knows it.

Finn looks grateful for the chance to escape. With one last cold glare at her, he turns on heel and marches out.