It was unfortunate that home sometimes consisted of the stark reality that Rey had willingly brought back an enemy of the Resistance with the illusion that everything would be merry and they would welcome him in with open arms after they finished polishing their blasters and flashing their torchlights. A fool's thought really, and a reality that nothing good would ever last where she was concerned. Simple logic; cold, cruel, but always reliable.

The contents of her room slowly blurred into focus.

I want a report every one to two hours.

"Oh, no." She whispered, sitting up in such a fit of panic that she'd nearly toppled off of her cot onto Ben who was adjusting to the dim light as he stirred. Her fingers reached overhead to punch at the buttons of the holoprojector until it was ringing for Poe.

In truth, he likely should not have been the first thought imprinted into her mind so early in the morning, rather focused on the other individual that she had shared a space with for the night and who until then she had completely forgotten about. It seemed her mind had a funny sense of humor, all things considered.

The ringing persisted, until it became clear that Poe was not going to answer.

Rey was still rubbing the exhaustion from her eyes when an intrusion shook Ben awake, catching him outside of her peripherals stiffening, frozen as though hearing something that she didn't. She almost asked, reached out through the force to gently reassure him-hold him, ground him-let him know that he was safe. He blocked her out, put up his walls, and guarded himself against her reassurance. He was immediately on the defensive before she could speak, bristling with panic and scrambling to his feet.

Then suddenly, she could hear it. The footsteps-urgent and with purpose. Her fear of Poe's silence was replaced instantaneously with a renewed kind of fear; a disorientation that braced her for some sort of attack. The saber from her bedside flew from its resting place into Ben's hand in an instant, but there was no time to reassure him. His panicked whisper of her name drowned out, the current confrontation coming in the form of Finn being a mediator to the news that Poe had intended to deliver. Several other resistance members in tow emerged through the curtain-all stern, eyes drawn and glaring daggers.

Seeing as he was armed, two of the resistance fighters stood just as equally on the defensive as their new prisoner, blasters trained on him, shifting restlessly, their fingers itching on the triggers.

"You said that I could stay here." Ben held one hand outstretched to her, the other gripping the saber in a white knuckled grip. Any hint of drowsiness was absent from his suddenly cold and calculated demeanor, backed into the farthest corner of her room like a caged animal prepared to pounce.

It twisted her heart and simultaneously crushed it.

Poe was unfazed by the display of hostility from Ben, Finn being the only person in the room besides herself treating the situation as it was. That Ben was scared even if he would deny so for the rest of his life. That he wouldn't hurt any of them if they gave him a choice. Rey liked to believe that it was because of Finn's previous occupation as a StormTrooper, or his unwavering faith in Rey despite his obvious doubt of her seemingly clouded judgment. It wasn't either, but he remained at least somewhat neutral if only because of her obvious care for their previous enemy.

"We just came to take you to your new quarters that we had arranged." His tone carried a more lighthearted and calm lilt, strongly contrasting with his co-general who was ever more eager to put Kylo Ren's head on a stick. "In exchange for letting you stay with the resistance, we have to make sure that our own people are safe first."

"And… uh," Finn added on more tentatively. "We're going to need you to hand that over." Motioning vaguely to the saber, he extended a hand, palm up.

"We're not letting you carry it around here in case you get the bright idea to stab someone in the back." Poe iterated. She had no doubt it was the unspoken opinion of what they had all been thinking-the Resistance.

Rey could see it. She could feel it through their Dyad however limited their connection was at that moment. Ben's mind was trained on the obvious notion that they were a threat, having dismissed himself as far back in the room as he possibly could, body poised for battle even if it wouldn't come to that. Even if it couldn't. His mind was running miles, running his body cold. He was reaching through the force, the walls trembling, subtle but it was there.

They intended to put Ben in a cell. She didn't have to peek into their minds to see it. Multiple times, she attempted to interject, to argue, but was shut down.

"No," Ben said quickly. Lightsaber ready at his side, he jerked back from them when Finn advanced. His voice maintained a tone of empathy, of control, but the tremor betrayed any show of confidence completely. At least to Rey, he'd never been able to hide his thoughts, his mannerisms, and his expressions without betraying any inward thought completely. The mask had been his only shelter, but without that or his rage to hide him, he was left completely vulnerable to the people he so obviously didn't trust.

And he hated it, she knew.

By the force, he hated it.

"If I wanted to kill you, I'd have done it already." Impatience spit out every word. "I could drop the entire cave on your heads. I don't need my lightsaber to do that." Both of his hands dropped abruptly to his side, palms facing outward as some show of truce. Except, he was reading their intentions, adrenaline and cloudiness causing him to shake.

"We know that you could." Finn said more carefully, holding out one hand of his own, taking one careful agonizingly careful step that caused Ben to recoil back, but he was running out of space. His back brushed against the farthest wall, and Rey could have sworn she felt the floor shift.

"This is for the ease of the resistance Ben." Finn went on to assure him, retaining a surprising sense of calm despite the anxiety emanating off of the others surrounding him. "They're not going to feel safe if we let the previous supreme leader walk around armed."

Poe's impatience overlapped any other uneasy feelings, squaring his shoulders to appear taller, his hands moving to place on his hips instead, one hand still outstretched for the weapon even if Finn's warning glare warded him against it. "Don't make this harder than it needs to be."

Everyone's fingers twitched at their weapons, the previous cool morning air gave way to a suffocating heat along with the rising tension-as if it could get any higher. Rey swam through the thickness of it, feeling the tremble of the force as Ben seized its power for himself.

Poe motioned behind him for his fighters to stand down, and with one doubtful exchange of glances, they only reluctantly did.

Poe surrendered, his blaster being inserted in its holster at his belt. "We don't want to hurt anyone, but we need you to comply with our orders now. If you're wanting to stay on the ship with Rey."

Rey glowered at the unfairness of it all throwing the force user in his own face, but for the moment Poe was grasping for the high ground, searching for some sort of edge to hold over him. She was the only connection he had to the resistance, and that seemed like the best bargaining chip to get him to comply. Even if she was silently urging him to walk out of there. Not to stay as a prisoner for her sake.

She wasn't a pawn, a thing to just torment him with. Her softness towards the former Supreme Leader was common knowledge, and it simultaneously proved to be their undoing, but hearing her friends wield it like a weapon hit her with a dread that did not so easily waver.

Ben scoffed, anger boiling just below the surface of his defensive demeanor. His fingers twitched, curling into a fist.

Yesterday, the pilot would have been dead by now Rey knew, feeling the tingle of the force at his fingers, the gentle pull that was bending the metal of the ship. It would have been so simple for Ben to choke him-no one would have time to react if they were not expecting it. He made no attempt to straighten up to counter Poe's show of dominance, instead bending his head to look into his eyes, as if reminding him that he was still looking down on him.

He smiled an unsteady smile, and peering through the force she could feel his mind half occupied with letting his opposition know that he was the one in control, half occupied with the nausea in the pit of his stomach building from the memory that it was something only Kylo Ren would do.

This wasn't Ben.

Rey's own heartbeat roared in her ears as Ben shook his head and reached down for the weapon again. Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber, passed down to Luke and now to him. A burden of the Skywalker name that had fallen on his shoulders all his life; never good enough unless his gift was to be used for the dark side.

A shadow had always been cast over Ben Solo that nobody had warned him about until he was well past twenty, old enough to be scared of what was too late and already set in stone, and just as quickly he'd snuffed that fear out in service to Snoke. "I want it back." Ben addressed Finn, disregarding Poe completely. The tone of his voice as he spoke was low, tight with attempted control and absent of the mask of Kylo Ren that made both the panic and anger so much easier to read. "I won't carry it, but Rey can take it. Nobody else."

It would be so easy now to press reassuring words into his head, at least would have been if he hadn't blocked her out. Their thread in the force was trembling, vibrating but neither side yielding in their defenses. The storm mounted a newfound ferocity in him, not the raw, cold animosity of Kylo Ren, but something more potent, something stirring and awaiting release. She felt the cave floor quake beneath her feet as if that power was excited by her newfound knowledge.

Ben didn't need a lightsaber to level the entire resistance camp. Rey had witnessed the destruction wrought from his very hands in his quest for power, his mind so much more sharply honed to the force than her own. Regardless, she played along as if only to ease the tension that coiled them all tightly and threatened to bring a ceiling in on their heads.

"That's fair," She urged almost desperately, looking as Ben extended the saber's hilt to her. "If it's necessary, then I will take it with me at all times." She retrieved it, silently cursing and just imagining the deprivation that her companion would soon suffer.

Deprived of his family saber.

Deprived of decency.

Deprived of respect.

Stripped of anything that could nurture Ben and keep Kylo Ren buried. They were only doing more harm to his mental state than good, but she hadn't any reason to believe they could ever actually care as far as he was concerned.

Fighting her own gentle tug to the dark side-that internalized anger clawing its way up was much harder to push down in that moment as well.

But the first half of negotiations were done and concluded. Rey sheathed the sabers, making exaggerated motions to show how carefully she handled it and ultimately sheathed it while ignoring a pointed look from Poe. They were given little time to prepare after that, so Rey worked out the soreness in her muscles in the brisk walk to wherever. Thankfully that force pulling on the ship released, and she could scarcely hear the bend of the metal moving back into place.

Ben was flanked by the pair of resistance fighters and Rey took her place behind them aside Finn-Poe of course taking the lead, however insecure he likely felt doing so after attempting to square up to Kylo Ren. Easing into the leader position was a transition the new general was not enjoying in place of Leia, especially the barriers of discontent it wrought through him and his friends.

"It's a cell isn't it?" Rey hissed between clenched teeth, her voice hushed.

"Well, it's not really a cell." Finn answered sheepishly. "It's like his own little area. It's secluded and peaceful and…" He gave up his facade half way, deflating. "Rey. he needs to be controlled. We have to be sure."

"This isn't going to help things. You couldn't convince Poe to just leave him be? At least for a few days to adjust?"

"Yeah," Finn rubbed at the nape of his neck as they passed through the rocky crags outside of the cave and approached the old Tantive IV. He continued to ramble on while Rey thought of the possibility that they would actually bunk Ben with the others despite being concerned for their safety and his recklessness. "I don't know what happened there. I just believed in what I was saying and then Poe went along with it. But it was something else, too. I just don't know how to really describe it."

The mention of his earlier negotiations drew her attention back. She opened her mouth to press further, only to be silenced when they were led through the winding corridors of the flagship and approached the only observation room harbored upon it. It'd never been used-Leia not being fond of the idea of hostages. At the most, they were used for the more eccentric resistance fighters, and even then it was only when they were intoxicated and happened to get into a dispute.

It had been hollowed out. A single thick durasteel door sat in the very center while a massive viewing window stretched the length of the room. There was nothing more aside from that than a separate stall that led to a refresher obscured in one corner, a cot in the very middle and a table that had been taken from one of the bunk rooms and one single chair. Rey didn't make out much more of the room, her heart dropping in the pit of her stomach and replaced with a renewed fury.

"Poe!" Rey started past Finn who grabbed for her, but was instantly seized when she raised her hand and froze him in his tracks. His entire body went rigid, her control lacking in the moment of anger and sending him stumbling backwards by an invisible force.

"Calm down. We will discuss terms back in my office after the first break," Poe spoke up, knowing full well that her spike of emotions would come with the realization that the Force pair were to be separated. The door slid open, the air hissing from the release valves as the resistance fighters gestured for Ben's compliance.

"No, we need to discuss this now," she stepped towards the general close enough she had to tilt her face to acknowledge him, though he did not have much height on her. Not in the way Ben had, whose statue gave her a mysterious thrill that she had no explanation for.

With me. She stole a breath, stealing a look over as the resistance fighters ushered him none too gently inside of the room. The glass and the steel may as well have been one of the chasms upon Exegol, depthless, empty, threatening to split them apart when the ground had opened up to swallow them.

But with her promise to Leia, she wasn't giving up on him, wouldn't allow him to feel like so much less than he actually was. They gave them long enough for her to seize his hand beyond the threshold of the door before it clicked shut between them. The touch was much too quick, too fleeting, and left Rey fighting against the nauseating waves of wrath that threatened to overtake the common sense that warded her against lashing out.

At least Poe was accepting of quicker negotiations, taking a step back and gesturing for her to follow him down the hall towards his office. Leia's office, Rey realized. Her force hold on Finn laxed in the moment, making him shake off the invisible grip while muttering under his breath. Something along the lines of I hate when she does that. There they left Ben to be holed up, alone, with little explanation of their further intentions that was overshadowed only by their concern for safety.

When he passed the threshold of Leia's office, his hardened expression changed into a more relaxed anticipation, chewing at his lower lip while the doors behind them seamlessly pulled shut. "I know how you feel." He began before she could say anything, positioning himself behind Leia's—now his—desk, palms planted against its surface. His head sunk between his shoulders as though preparing for her scorn and bracing himself for words laced with venom.

In the moment that was all she had.

"You're angry, but this is what would make everyone feel safe." Everyone in the resistance had already voiced their concern for Kylo Ren being on their ship, their hushed whispers, their quiet rage, their want for blood. Children had been kept under a watchful eye, and Ben never went anywhere without a pair of eyes on him. "We have to do this. If he's going to stay on the ship then he is being kept under careful surveillance. I can allow you to escort, but he's going to have to remain compliant." And the words felt final, agonizingly so as the general straightened, watching her with a look of utter defeat. He couldn't please everyone, but at that point he was damn well trying. "I'm doing this for you, Rey. The terms might not be fair, but for someone like him it's a way better punishment than what we had originally decided for him."

Life on Jakku had created inhabitants as harsh and unforgiving as its climates. Rey had thought she buried that part of her, left it back there to be swallowed up in the shifting and collapsing never to see the light of day again, but she realized now more than ever how severe a weapon all of that solitude made her. She'd passed through the doorway of Leia's office — now Poe's office — with her tongue and words primed and ready, to turn on him with all the animosity reserved for a feral animal. Except there, behind the desk, she only found her friend and not the obstacle she tried to envision.

Her anger melted away to a heavy grievance that made her shoulders sag in visible defeat. "It is fair," she agreed, albeit miserably and clearly defeated. She approached the desk that separated them, but did not make any further motions to sit or relax herself. "I can't expect everyone to understand or believe what it is I know to be true," she replayed the translucent vision of Leia in her mind, and felt the way she hid behind the former General's words like a shield to protect herself from admitting the truth:

Rey had put all of her hope and faith into Ben's ascension. Seeing him slip in the least second only to come back a heavier force than before. She had tread on glass for him, had endured battle after battle for him, but she could not expect everyone else to do the same. Rey sighed and nodded her head, as if resigning to an internal argument that pinched her soft features into a scowl.

Compromising was better than nothing. She took his word that these terms were much more than Ben deserved, all things considered. She had not been so quick to forget who Kylo Ren was, but finding and learning about Ben Solo made it easier. Her friends, the rest of the resistance, did not yet have that luxury. But perhaps eventually they would.

"Okay," she started, squaring her shoulders before proceeding, "Let me escort him as long as he remains... compliant. There is no need for the extra surveillance seeing as our surplus of fighters since the battle on Exogol. When I'm occupied—" Her face twisted into one of discontent as she struggled to speak of him more like a human being deserving of his personal freedoms, and not like a pet to be crated when no one would be able to watch him, "When… When I'm occupied, he can remain in his quarters." She could do it. The intrusive thought pushed its way through. If she wanted, she could reach into Poe's mind and rearrange his thoughts enough to graciously fall to her suggestions, and more.

Instead, she planted her feet and swallowed hard, fighting the appeal of such an easy way out by extending an invitation of trust instead. Friends didn't manipulate friends even if the situation called for it. Despite the gratitude she still wanted to extend to Finn for keeping Poe from following through whatever the initial decisions had been about Ben's existence within their ranks. Her mind flickered to Finn then, suddenly anxious to seek him out and further discuss the incident personally.

"That's all I wanted you to understand." Poe yielded, shrugging helplessly but at least meeting her gaze without shrinking too far. "I'm not happy with the arrangement either way, but we all owe you. For whatever you did. Winning us this war, we couldn't have done it without you. I'm sure General..." He paused, shaking his head, the grief from her loss still too heavy a burden on his shoulders.

"Leia saw that too." His next words came out with a grimace, eyes downcast. "And although I will never find it in myself to trust him, he is her son. I imagine she'd been waiting for this for a long time." With a slow nod, his head rose to address her once again, but only to dismiss her and the conversation further. No more begging and pleading, Rey had to take the decision for what it was. Their decision. At least he was taking steps to somewhat tolerate Ben, despite how much he so obviously despised the thought.

It wasn't a victory, but Rey could chalk it up to something more than she had anticipated walking into the conversation initially. Satiated, she nodded to the curly haired man from across the desk. The compromise was difficult for him, and it weighed on him to admit that he was trying to do what Leia would do while simultaneously doing right by the resistance. "I'm doing this for her too," Rey whispered, albeit quiet, nearly inaudible and she wouldn't have been surprised if he hadn't heard her.

"Thank you, Poe," was all she managed to offer him. Despite the divide between them, a solution had been offered, a fragile show of truce. For that alone, Rey was relieved. She nodded to him, quick and with finality before turning and leaving him behind in the office.


Finn had stayed behind on watch outside of Ben's "room", still shaking off the force hold that she had once gripped him with, still grumbling about how much he hated it, but also watching Ben attentively through the glass. Doing nothing more than sitting. The lights blaring down on him as though he were a trophy.

Irritation emanated faintly from Finn, but Ben looked so startlingly calm, the two males locking eyes, a different sort of tension drifting through the air between them in waves. She tried to look in order to find the source, her curiosity carrying her through the thread that entangled them, catching just a glimpse of Ben's memory of sleeping in her quarters before she was promptly shut out.

Was Finn frowning?

Just out of the corner of her eye, she could've sworn she saw Ben smirk, subtle but it was there.

She shook it away for now, making a mental note to ask either about it later. "Hey, Finn."

Finn caught Rey's approach and loudly cleared his throat, struggling to compose himself with a sudden rush of blood to his cheeks.

"He... Hey Rey!" He greeted her almost too eagerly. "You-You talked to Poe? What's up?" And then Finn grinned, again almost too forced, and the slight mocking she could feel radiating off of Ben—something she swore she wasn't imagining—Finn shot a glare in the man's direction who didn't even spare him a second glance.

"Listen, can we- Can we talk?" She cast another glance to Ben and tried to disguise the longing that seized her, if only to reassure herself that he would be okay where he was-as awful as that sounded to her.

Finn cast one almost victorious look to Ben, although the context of that win was seemingly unknown, but the feel of tension in the force did heighten somewhat. "Yeah-Yeah sure. We can talk."

Rey led Finn down the corridor that winded back to the bunks. In the middle of the day, they were generally empty, apart from a couple of the night shifters who were sleeping off their hours in the far corners where light could not permeate through the glass panels.

"Tell me more about yesterday, about the thing you said you did," she made an awkward gesture to her head, insinuating she was trying to talk about his influence over Poe without dropping any names. Even if the bunks were spacious and their conversation muffled by various empty beds, she didn't want to risk anyone overhearing.

Her question proved to be more difficult to explain, evident by his simple shrug. "I'm not sure. Poe just wasn't exactly being fair—to you—and something happened, a kind of weird feeling and it's like I knew exactly what to do or what to say rather." His brows pinched together. "And Poe just agreed with me, but I mean I saw you do it once. I figured it was just normal, you know? I don't... really know much more than that." Ever so gently his nails scraped at the back of his head, almost sheepishly like he was being reprimanded by her. "I didn't mean to. But it got Ben a lighter sentence, right? So I figured you know if anything while it seems immoral, it was the right thing to do at the time."

One more pause and he was looking at her, chewing at his lower lip and then releasing it. "Rey, there was something that I had been trying to tell you, you knew throughout everything before Exogol and the battle. I kept getting interrupted actually." He laughed, soft and awkward, shifting his feet and grasping for the right words.

But she knew. Of course she knew.

"I know that you- I mean, I find it very flattering that you would feel… like that, for me." Now it was Rey's turn to stumble, scratching at her nose as she averted her eyes to avoid his incredulous expression. "But I'm not-I'm not really looking for any-"

"What?!" Poe gasped, almost a little too loudly. It drew some attention their way from a few passersby, but she was already continuing before he could stop her.

"I'm saying that I understand. We've been friends for a while yet, and I think of you quite dearly-"

"Rey, no! No! I mean-" Finn exhaled, a sound of frustration escaping him as he drew a hand down his face. Reaching out, his hands gripped her shoulders, giving her a gentle shake to stop her ceaseless and regrettably nervous ramblings.

"Rey, I think that I might be force sensitive."