"Do you love him?" Rey's thoughts were foggy as the serum surged through her veins. It filled her with a warmth that loosened her tongue and her thoughts all at once, urging her to spill them to the two positioned directly in front of her. Of course she had expected it to do just that, she just hadn't imagined the extent of the means of what it could have been used for.

Regardless of the serum's presence, heavy and distorting, forcing her to blink furiously to maintain some semblance of cohesive thought, she still hesitated to answer their questions. "How is that relevant to-"

"Rey, this will go much quicker if you comply," Poe interrupted before nodding to the resistance member at his side, a notable figure in the room that she didn't recognize but who wore enough medals and ribbons that practically screamed accomplishment and authority at the breast of her uniform.

Rey thought that she was glaring at Poe now, felt the slightest pinch in her brows, but her eyes slowly drifted upward, rolling without constraints into the back of her head. She blinked, shook her head, a small grunt of frustration escaping her as the inner workings of her mind became more muddled.

"Continue," Poe's voice blurred among everything else, crouched down beside whom Rey had decided earlier was an interrogator, she herself sitting stiff in a metal chair, worn and creaking with every shift. No amount of squirming in it granted her any reprieve, but it proved to be a welcome distraction, something that she could easily focus on. Something that would divert her from their pressing insistence instead.

The interrogator-that definitely sounded more appropriate-cleared her throat and repeated the question. "Do you have any compromising feelings for the former Supreme Leader of the First Order, our enemy, and currently, our captive guest, Kylo Ren?"

Rey hummed.

"Would these feelings otherwise cloud your judgement or cause you to act irrationally?" She went on.

"His name... is Ben... Solo." Rey blinked again, squeezed her eyes shut, shook her head as she descended further into her disoriented state.

"Rey, I just need you to answer the questions that I have laid out for you." The interrogator advised. Gentle, but unsympathetic. "Otherwise I will have to make my own assumptions. Can you do that?"

Slowly, her eyes drifted to the holographic data panels on the other side of the room, showing nothing relative to what they were asking her now, just various graphs and map data that pinpointed possible locations. Locations for what she assumed would serve as the resistance's new home base. Ajan Kloss, she couldn't exactly tell.

"Rey, are you listening? I need you to describe your relationship with Ben Solo to us."

And Rey laughed at that as she turned her head back. It wasn't a friendly laugh, but one that practically screamed "unbelievable" without her having to say it herself; underlining the very definition of condescending. "I don't know." She mumbled, leaning her head back, then lifting up all at once. "I don't know what you are asking me."

Poe's back was turned to the door as he hovered nearby, turning in one spot, watching her with anticipation. He wanted to know just as badly, wanted to hear the confession of what everyone assumed from her lips personally.

She couldn't do it; couldn't give them that satisfaction. If not to just protect her, then to at least protect Ben too.

The serum however was making that increasingly more difficult.

In the small secluded room on the Tantive IV, the quirky comforting demeanor that Poe seemed to so easily carry around was lost in a moment and replaced with something else. Something much less reassuring than what he had been thus far. His brows took on a slight arch, drawn, looking into her as far as her medicated induced state could see.

Searching.

Prying.

He pushed the flaps of his jacket aside, perched his hands against his hips. "What's your name?"

"Rey."

"Rey, who?"

"Just Rey." She answered with a heavy huff, her hardened gaze faltering as she squinted against the heavy torchlight that suddenly flashed in her eyes. "Can you get that out of my face, please?"

"Poe, I've got this." The interrogator assured him gently, pushing the torchlight into the ground and only with great reluctance did he finally back off, but not without a huff of indignation in turn. "Were you in the room with Kylo-"

"Ben."

"Ben Solo," She corrected herself pausing to look over Rey critically, "At approximately 2:15 a.m.?" Any form of concern was noticeably absent from her otherwise dry tone, hunched over in what looked to be a more comfortable chair-Rey had to notice as hers was still rubbing uncomfortably against her back-hands clasped together.

"Yes," Rey answered. "But no. I mean-"

"So you were in the room during the initial attack?" The woman dipped her chin, scrutinizing her expression with a sudden interest. A seeping satisfaction in the fact that she had caught her in what was almost a lie. Almost.

"I walked in after the attack had happened." Every word was spoken with practiced restraint. Every confession only sinking Ben further into a hole that he wouldn't be able to crawl out of this time.

"So you confirm that you did not see the exchange between the resistance member and Ben Solo until after?" Her tone was firm, but skeptical.

"I saw that the resistance member was unharmed."

"But did you see the resistance member attack Ben Solo?"

"I didn't." That much she could at least say was the truth.

"This is a waste of time." Poe grunted behind them, sucking in his teeth. "The kid won't say what happened-"

"We just got started." The interrogator reminded him with a soft hush. "We found the pieces of the droid, and all that was salvaged was the audio. We need to do this if we want to learn what exactly happened."

"Come on Rey," Poe urged, attempting to meet her line of sight that had squandered off at some obscure point on the other side of the room. "He will be facing attempted murder if you don't give us something."

Something that would paint him out as the villain, she knew.

But she didn't want them to see her eyes, didn't want them to be able to read what they wanted from her face. But she assumed they knew or at least had some idea of what they wanted to hear. That Ben was a murderer, that without her presence in the room, he may have just killed that kid.

Rey didn't believe that.

She sat up a little taller, taking back a posture that assumed confidence, but not matching the groggy, heavy awkwardness that she actually felt. Her head whipped to look past the interrogator, locked onto Poe with an undenying determination. "It was self defense."

"You were not in the room when the attack happened." The interrogator reminded her. "We heard Ben Solo threaten him. He very clearly told him in his own voice that he could kill him, and stated that he was no different from a common murderer that could do it correctly if I recall."

"I do know that the child walked into his cell that was locked and threatened him with a blaster. He shot first." Rey shot back. "There are indentations in the wall and I am sure it is in your audio if you want proof that isn't otherwise obvious."

"And how do we know that your Jedi mind tricks were not somehow involved in the event?" The interrogator leaned forward, pressuring glare coming through slits.

Even in her current state, Rey scoffed at the display and looked at her. Looked into the very deepest part of her being, a switch flipped or perhaps something dark stirring underneath all of the light inside of her and casting a shadow across the wall. She had other things to be worried about, other people to be worried about, and that did not include sitting there and answering pointless questions when she could hardly think straight.

How many pieces of Ben's reputation would she have to pick up after this? How much would she have to sacrifice if she couldn't convince them?

Dread settled deep within her, her nails digging against her forearms, her stomach in knots and the loud thrum of her heartbeat raging in her ears, rattling the inside of her skull. Each pulse struck her as loud and as violent as thunder, riding out the storm raging through her very disgruntled being.

The interrogator's lethal glare pierced through her, noticeably growing impatient. "If you do not comply, there will be nothing that we can do to protect him. Word will pass through the resistance." Her warning came like a crack of thunder, and in truth it only made Rey more angry.

"The wrong word I am sure." She bit back, squinting as the world shifted unnaturally one way. The figures of her newfound parasite and Poe tilted and merged together briefly.

If the situation hadn't been so dire, she may have just laughed at her own misfortune in some strange state of denial mixed with whatever it was that she felt now.

May have.

But she was already biting against her cage, and their insistence that Ben was somehow in the wrong only drove her deeper into her hazed fury, absent of any meager attempts at maintaining a semblance of calm. "Ben Solo was attacked. He defended himself and both are still standing here now. It was an altercation that could have been prevented if he had just been left alone."

Rey held a lot of internalized frustration. Too much of it. Enough that she didn't think was possible just coming from her, and silently she wondered if any of Ben's own frustration was passing through the thread to her as well. Allowing her to feel his insecurities that so easily blended with her own that she couldn't tell them apart.

She didn't know that for sure, but she knew that he wasn't ignorant enough that he couldn't piece together what she had been called here for. Every bit of her emotions rolled to him, unable to find the ability to block him out as she could before. Maybe it was the serum pricking and tugging at the inside of her mind and laying her insides out for everyone to see, or maybe it was her own insistence at letting him know that she held a faith in him. That she knew he was not going to be painted the villain this time.

At least, not by her.

"What were your original intentions for lying about your involvement in the incident?"

"I knew that if I had claimed an involvement, then you would not be as adamant about finding someone to blame." And Rey didn't need any truth serum to tell them that. A small laugh danced within the words, mouth pulled back into a dry smile. "If I was accused of attempted murder, I imagine this entire incident would be swept underneath a rug, wouldn't it?"

"We're just looking after your well-being as well as the resistance." Poe piped up. "We don't want to see him drag you down with him. And he will."

"Where is Finn?" Rey inquired suddenly, head swiveling around the room with a drowsiness very unlike her. Her eyelids fluttered, but she attempted to maintain a serious expression. It was more likely that she looked like she'd had enough to drink. She felt like she had. "Does he know that you were going to drug me just to ask me questions about Ben?"

"Rey-" Poe started.

"You know, frankly I think I like him better than you right now." She was rambling, and she couldn't stop herself now. Her hands perched on her knees, pushing herself into a standing position. The chair grinded against the floor, metal against metal and the screech that followed sent her head spinning.

Poe held out his hands, but Rey was quick to slap him away, albeit fumbling before their hands finally connected. Clumsy, but she met her mark.

"I killed Kylo Ren." Rey repeated for the umpteenth time.

Was it really Ben? Sometimes she swore she could still see Kylo under the surface but things weren't as black and white as she'd like for them to be, and they never could. Kylo Ren was dead, Ben Solo was alive, but just like Rey would always be a Palpatine, Ben would carry the burden of Kylo Ren's crimes for the rest of his life.

The resistance constantly reminding him of that was unacceptable.

Perhaps it was naive of her to think otherwise, perhaps it had been naive of her to expect and hope that the Resistance would play fairly, but Rey was tired. So tired of fighting one war after the other, against enemies and friends; family.

"Kylo Ren is dead," she proclaimed and met every word with a startling conviction, brows drawn; hands clenched at her sides and dug into her palms. Something else to keep her distracted, but grounded. "The Resistance is punishing an innocent man for crimes he's already repented for."

It wasn't as simple as that, and it never would be, but she didn't care.

"That man that you have locked up here is not the same. I understand your hesitance to trust him, but by the Force, expel him if you can't make up your mind of what to do with him." She rounded on Poe, jabbing a finger into his shoulder as sharply as a knife.

Rey swayed, and the interrogator's hand connected with her forearm in a viselike grip. She wrenched it away, batting it away to make her point all the more clear. They were studying her, a shattered individual struggling to grasp for something to keep her afloat. Keep them both afloat.

"Do not touch me," She hissed through clenched teeth. "I don't like being touched."

"We know how you feel about Ben," Poe said at last, more gentle, more reassuring.

But he didn't know.

Even now Ben had an ominous look about him, one that shouldn't have been as exhilarating as it was, and she shouldn't have enjoyed watching his journey from the dark side to the light. In the caves of Exogol when he showed her such raw, unrefined emotion for the first time…

She'd been mesmerized. Attracted to that danger in his eyes, and that strength that towered over her so easily but the pure fact that he never realized he did it every single time. It'd been refreshing watching his panic dissolve when she came back to life for what was likely the last time, that stillness in his shuddering pupils, the quivering of his lips when they kissed for the first time, and he'd come back from his nightmare. Rey had pulled him back from crashing into a harsh reality.

Harsher than what made up his reality now.

"But our job is to look after our own. That includes you." Poe tried to reason.

"That includes Ben," Rey quipped. "He was a bigger part of the resistance before he was walking. He was misguided, and Leia would be ashamed if she saw how you were treating him now."

"Don't bring Leia into this." Poe bristled, ran his fingers through his hair, down his face. "You're looking at him like all of the shit he stirred up should just be forgotten because he had a sudden change of heart. He didn't have any remorse when he killed so many of our numbers, none when he stabbed Han through. He was ready to kill Luke, kill you, and you're asking the resistance to let him walk among them like an old friend? Do you hear yourself?"

"Poe-" The interrogator prodded gently, laying a hand on his forearm, but he was furious, practically spitting out his disgust.

Hearing it out loud, Rey understood and couldn't blame him, but she was set in her ways, and too stubborn to so easily conform to his idea. "I just want the resistance to give him a chance to prove himself." She pleaded.

"And when he doesn't get into a fight with our recruits and doesn't threaten to bring the roof down on our heads, then we'll talk. Until then, the tally is mostly on our side. If it comes down to him, or us, we're not going to keep turning a blind eye because of your belief that he's changed." With a snarl of his lip, and a defeated nod of his head-a signal that he had given up arguing with her about it, his head turned to the woman at his left.

The only thing saving Ben right now was the fact that he was Leia's son and Rey being unrelenting about the fact that he wasn't the enemy they knew. Poe didn't care about Ben, likely reminded of his brutal interrogation and the last recollection being Finn distraught on Kef Bir when Rey had thrown him away from where the two had been fighting.

They had been enemies once. Not anymore.

"You were a spice runner." Rey reminded him. "Finn was a Stormtrooper, and I was nothing. She gave us all a chance." She was grasping at straws now, but they would both be damned if she didn't at least try. "We've finished Leia's mission which was stopping the First Order. I was dead. Ben gave me my second chance, and all I am asking is for you to let me pay it forward. Help me pay it forward."

Running his hand through disheveled, almost tired curls, Poe pulled up a chair in front of Rey, plopped down into the seat. When he leaned forward, he perched his elbows on his knees, leaned his chin into curled fists. "Just finish the damn interrogation so we can get the hell out of here. I'm done."

With that, the interrogator took her rightful place at Rey's front. Their voices were a dull hum in her ears, and they likely would have been drowned out as she slowly allowed herself to succumb to her disoriented state, to let the serum allow its full descent into her being and send her mind soaring across a vast galaxy, but the repeated question permeated the air in the otherwise empty room, bounced off of four white walls and sent her heart thumping wildly in her chest.

"Do you have any compromising feelings for the former Supreme Leader of the First Order, our enemy, and currently our captive guest, Ben Solo?"