A/N: Alright! Chapter 11 is finally here. Is it kind of not my favorite? But at the same time, it is? I don't know. In the process of writing this one I somehow started writing parts of the ending for this story. It just kind of popped into my head and it came spilling out. But don't worry, it's gonna be awhile before we get there. And also thank you to the people who have commented! You're all awesome.

Enjoy!

Chapter 11: Brightside

Poe's jaw dropped to the floor when the turbolift doors hissed open. The site he was seeing couldn't be real. It was glorious. Magnanimous

"How is this here?" Poe couldn't take his eyes off of the view. It was an underground bunker. They had to be about 1,000 meters deep into the base. Poe's ears had popped as they took the turbolift down.

"This is beautiful." He walked alongside the ship with his hand resting on the siding. It was a Rendili Stardrive light corvette with a Class 720 freighter docked in between its long prongs.

"Isn't it?" Leia smiled at the pilot.

"But how is this still here?" Rey asked, her eyes wide with wonder.

"I'm guessing after we blew up the second Death Star, the Empire abandoned this place. And since they were pretty much dismantled, after a couple of years, it was simply forgotten." Leia explained.

"And how was this found? I thought the Alliance would have raided this place." Connix asked. She couldn't remove her eyes from the ship. It was as if the ship came right off the factory line. Pristine condition.

"I'm not sure how we missed this. But thanks to BeeBee-Ate here, he was able to, somehow, slice into a top-secret database." Leia smiled as she tapped her cane against the bulbous droid.

He responded with a whirl and happy beeps.

"Of course R2 helped" C-3PO added

"Of course." Leia continued to smile. "Oh and this? This isn't all. Stay here and give me a moment. BB8 would you please? " with another set of happy beeps, BB8 rolled towards a set of rusted keypads on the other side of the hanger. Leia slowly followed the droid.

Poe and the rest of the small crew watched as BB8 popped out one of his metal limbs and into a keypad on the wall. With a few beeps and whirs, there was a sudden rumble. The wall in front of them hadn't been a wall at all but another set of bay doors.

The doors split slowly as they screeched along their tracks. The sound was deafening and echoed through the hanger. A dim artificial light gleamed between the opening slit. Poe stepped forward, along with the rest of the crew.

Leia stepped aside with BB8 and uttered one word with a brilliant and bright smile as her crew walked passed her.

"Hope."

There was a shift in the Force. Vrei felt it as she practiced her forms in the dark forest. She paused to catch her breath, not from the physical exertion, but from a spiritual one. The ripple hit her like a blast to the chest, knocking the air from her lungs. Her head was spinning. But the moment passed quickly. The time was getting closer.

Keir and Darik ran to the Force-sighted woman. "Vrei!" they yelled in unison

"I felt it too" Vrei lifting her hand toward the two Knights and grabbing her chest.

"So it's truly happening?" Keir asked, panting

"It's time to get ready. It's going to happen quickly." Vrei warned

"How many rotations?" Darik paced back and forth with his hand stroking the back of his helmet.

"Three," Vrei affirmed as she gathered herself.

"I'm still not sure about this. This is going against everything we've done in the last 8 years." Darik worried.

"This is right. This is treason" Keir said, helping Vrei up.

"Yes, yes it is." Vrei agreed

"They are still our brothers" Darik pleaded to his Knight sisters.

"I know" Darik looked at Vrei's non-existent eyes. "this must be done. They have shamed Kylo, they have shamed us. They have conspired against our leader."

"What Kylo is going to do to them, will be deserved."

"But how can we trust him after this?" Darik asked. Keir slapped the face of his helmet, using the Force as an extra strength.

"Are you questioning your loyalty as well? We were forced into this life, Darik. It was slaughter or survival. We all chose Kylo no matter what!"

"No" Darik shook his head as he straightened himself up. "But we need to get her out of that base first."

The crew continued to walk through the opening doors. Behind the doors, there was a small fleet of new and abandoned ships. This hangar was bigger than the one they just walked in from. Everything from TIE fighters, to Imperial support vessels, to Lambda-class T-4a shuttle, to a few ISP-6 Imperial Shuttle pods, to TIE Interceptors.

"Is that a VT-49 Decimator?" Poe yelled in excitement and ran to the ship. He tenderly caressed the hull of the ship like it was a newborn.

"This…" Rey was astonished, to say the least. She had seen most of these ships on Jakku, but they were all rusted and hollowed out by scavengers. She was excited to see them in their full glory.

"By the Force. Oh, I can't wait to get my hands on that bad boy." Cova Nell eyeing one of the TIE silencers in the back.

"Not so fast, Cova." Leia interrupted. "Chewie has been looking over the some ship's data. Some of these ships had flaws and some were simply unflyable. We believe this is why they were stored down here."

"You have got to be kidding me?" Finn cried out in frustration. All Rey could do was place a calming hand on her friend.

"Now that we have our best pilots down here, maybe we can figure out some of the flaws and work on them?" Leia looked over to Cova and Poe.

"You don't have to ask me twice." Poe jumped onto the ship and entered the cockpit. "As a kid, I've always wanted to fly one of these babies." Rey laughed at her friend's enjoyment. The spark in their eyes and especially in their hearts had returned. Rey felt it along through the thrum of the Force around them.

Rey looked around as the crew ogled over the ships in excitement. Cova Nell spoke with C'ai Threnalli under a TIE fighter. Connix trying to flirt with Poe as he checked over the Decimator's cockpit. Rey hadn't noticed the older General standing by her side.

"Rey" Leia gripped her cane.

"Leia, this is wonderful. This is what we needed." Rey gave her a small smile

"Rey, can we speak somewhere private, please?"

"Of course," Rey felt Leia's worry. "Is everything ok?" The General gave her a small nod.

After a few quiet minutes up the turbolift, they were back to the main level, while everybody was still downstairs admiring the small fleet.

"Rey. I know"

"I'm sorry?" Rey confused.

"Ben." Rey looked at her with wide eyes and flushed cheeks. "I felt him."

"I was going to tell you" Rey lied. Leia lifted her brow to the girl, sensing she wasn't telling the truth "One day.."

"How long has this been happening?"

"Um…" Rey stuttered "Since Ahch-To, I guess."

"Do you know how this has happened?"

"Snoke" Rey said quickly as not have that name in her mouth. "When I tried to turn Kylo to our side, Snoke said he had 'bridged' our minds because Kylo was weak and that I was naive enough to take the bait. He wasn't wrong" Rey lowered her head and looked away.

"Mm" Leia nodded

"I'm so sorry I couldn't change him." tears stinging Rey's eyes.

"Oh Rey. You already have." She reassured the tearing girl. "I felt it in him. He's changed somehow. All that malice I felt on the Raddus, it's simmered, significantly."

"I highly doubt it. He's still Supreme Leader." scoffed Rey as she wiped the escaped tear.

There's more than he's letting on, Rey." Leia gave Rey one last smile. "Also, Rey? You don't have to travel and risk your safety if you are not comfortable."

"General, I want to. If it will help the Resistance in any way. And if we're able to fix any of those ships down there, like you said, it's the hope we've all been searching for. What we've all been holding out for."

Kylo continued to sit in the main hold of the ship, legs cramping under the console. His thoughts running wild. What were his Knights going to do to her before he arrived? Was it even worth it? He still needed the four of his Knights to 'play' along with the two defectors, even if that meant causing Rey harm in the process.

A familiar purr of the Force enveloped him. Again, there she was, sitting in his co-pilot seat.

"Ben" Rey's smile was bright this time.

"Rey" he twitched at the sound of his name "That's not my name"

"That again?" she rolled her eyes

"Why are you so happy? I can feel it." Kylo scrunched his face as he kept looking out of the viewport of the ship.

"Wouldn't you love to know?" Rey dripping with sarcasm.

"No, not really" he lied. There was silence between them, again. Kylo saw Rey standing and walk over to an invisible spot and sit back down again, but this time she was on the floor, near the center holo-console table of the bridge

"Why didn't you take my hand, Rey?" Kylo asked, all emotion forcibly absent from his voice. His eyes silent with remorse and still focusing on the hyperspace lights.

"You know I couldn't," she said with a hitched breath

"Yes, you could have." Kylo quickly whipped his head in her direction. "You would have had everything, Rey." The pain in his throat made his voice quiver. "We would have had it all, together!"

"Ben… I'm sorry" her heart shattered more once as she looked into his deep brown eyes and feeling his own anguish roaring through the Force. "I couldn't leave my friends to die. I couldn't…" Rey began to choke on her words as tears began to sting her eyes, once again.

"You couldn't what?" Kylo's anger beginning to rise. The Force around him quivering with the dark.

"You know what. I couldn't let Leia die."

"Parental figures" Kylo crossed his arms across his chest and leaned back in his pilot seat.

"I'm not having this conversation with you" Rey wiped the tears from her face.

"So be it" Kylo lifted himself from his chair, walked away and left the cockpit.

"Ben!" He ignored her and continued to walk. Rey rose to her feet and followed. "Where are you going?" Her own legs struggling to keep up with strides of his long legs.

Kylo slowed his stride down the corridor. He could still hear Rey's feet following behind.

"Ben, please" Rey pleaded "Please understand. They… they're the only family I've ever known. And you know that."

He stopped his pace and turned to her. His head was down, his face staring at where her reflection should be on the shiny black floor.

"I know you wanted to join me, Rey. I saw it in you. In the vision when we touched hands," He said lowly without raising his head. "You were by my side with the galaxy in our hands." His left arm lifted and hand clenched into a fist. But there was no bitterness in his voice.

"Yes, I did. But not that way. I had seen the same thing, Ben. You were at my side but we weren't ruling, we were fighting for a better cause. To find balance in the galaxy." Rey slowly stepped toward him. "Finding our place in all of this.

The drumming of their Force intertwining with each other, bringing them both calm. Rey rose her hand to Kylo's balled fist. Electricity ran through them, making them shiver. Her hand was warm against his forever cold skin.

"Ben, it doesn't have to be this way. Come home." Kylo opened his balled fist and laced them between Rey's. "Your mother misses you."

Kylo's hand tenderly tightened between hers. He closed his eyes as Rey reached up to touch the scar she had given him. Kylo let out a shuddered breath and leaned into her touch.

"I'm so sorry" her fingers continued to travel down his scar, from his face to chin, down to the side of this throat. She stopped at the hem of his collar and looked up into his brown eyes. She felt all he had. All of his sorrow, his torment, all of his regrets and shame. All of those feelings were about her and her alone.

Kylo shut his eyes. "I deserved it"

And once again, the Force separated them. The lingering of Rey's touch burned Kylo's skin.

"Three more rotations" he repeatedly whispered to himself in the hall.