Sitting at the snub end of her bar counter, Leia chewed her dinner without tasting it because her eyes were racing across the screen of a datapad by her elbow. Threepio stepped up and poured new water in her tea.

Without preamble, Leia burst in a laugh. She turned her eyes to look behind her at the man standing parade rest by her front door. "How did you end up contracting Bothan lice?"

Ren closed his eyes and grinned through an embarrassed squint. He hadn't realized what she was reading. "I was on assignment."

Leia swiveled around fully on the bar stool and faced the man down from the distance. "What was the assignment?"

"I was charged with infiltrating a rebel spy network."

She could only grin at that. "Did you catch them?"

"No."

She swiveled back to face the bar and looked at the date. It was only a month before the Battle of Endor. She stabbed her next bite and considered this as she chewed. "Is that why you weren't on the second Death Star at Endor?'

His mouth fidgeted a little, but he answered. "Yes."

"So you saved yourself but couldn't save your team."

"In a way."

Her tone was chill. "Explain." She kept her back to him.

He lifted his chin, prepared for debate. "I didn't catch them because I didn't try."

To this, Leia sat up and swiveled herself back around to stare at him.

And he just stared back.

"Why didn't you try?"

"Because I knew the Emperor would be on board when you attacked."

Leia considered that a long moment, then turned her back to him again. "I don't believe you."

His voice was quieter. "I don't expect you to."

The door beeped to unlock and Chewie came in with a sack of take out boxes of rich-smelling meat. He elbowed the door closed again, eyed Ren, barked at him, and took the package to the bar counter on which Leia was having her supper.

The Wookiee warbled conversationally and pulled out one of the meals, peaking to see what it was.

Leia looked over and grinned, "They sounded like they were having a good time."

Chewie warbled.

"No, go ahead. I'm already eating this." She pointed at her steamed vegetable medley with her fork.

Chewie sat down at the bar and Threepio offered him a plate, but the Wookiee was already gobbling the food from the take out container and shook his head.

Leia continued to read. Chewie ruffed that the stuff was good and reached over a forkful for her to taste. She gladly opened her mouth at let him feed her a bite.

In a flash, Ren jumped over to the bar and put his hand in front of her mouth. "Spit it out."

Leia wrinkled her brows at him and chewed anyway. "Why?"

"Because you don't know where this came from." He pulled over the sack and dug for clues.

Chewie complained at him.

Leia pointed with her fork. "It's from that Tatooine place Luke and Kess go to all the time. They never had any problems."

"They're not the Lord Chamberlain," Ren muttered, not seeing anything to raise alarm, but the foreign food was alarming by itself. "C -3PO, could you kindly run this through the ingredient analysis, please?"

Threepio took the second box of dinner and turned away with it. Chewie warbled another complaint at the man.

Ren eyed him back.

Half grinning, Leia combed a bite from a molar with her tongue. "He said he's already taste-testing it for me."

"I know what he said," Ren hissed firmly at her, but he sighed to regain his composure. "My lady, you don't know what lengths they will go to just to get you off that spire one way or another."

Actually, she did, but she answered with political calm. "And you do?"

"It's my job to know, madam." He opened the smaller, third package and found a slice of something chocolaty inside. He pushed it across the counter to Threepio. "Test this one, too."

Leia crumbled to a real laughter at this man. His concern was so genuine that it was comical. "Ren, sit down," she ordered.

"Beg your pardon?"

Leia motioned Threepio over with the now-tested plastic package. "Give it here."

Hesitantly, Ren half sat on the stool between Chewie and Leia, uncertain what she was up to.

Leia shoved the package of greasy food in front of the prim man and stabbed a fork in it until it stood up by itself. "Eat."

Chewie woofed with soft laughter.

"Um, madam, this is highly inappropriate."

"It's been tested now," Leia pointed out. "Shut up and eat."

Ren hadn't entirely sat down yet, much less pick up the fork. Chewie didn't bother to look as he reached over and grabbed Ren's forearm. The big furry palm slowly twisted the black sleeve backwards behind the man.

"All right. All right." Ren wriggled his arm free of the Wookiee's grip. Finally, he sat down fully on the stool and gave Leia a dark look. "Don't tell my supervisors." And he took a bite.

Chewie glanced over at that and huffed a single scoff of humor. Leia smiled at Chewie and back at Ren. "We'll make a rebel out of you yet."

Ren's eyes shot up at the insult before he realized it was supposed to be a compliment. His lips parted, unsure how to respond. Leia just chuckled at him, and Chewie chortled with similar soft humor. Threepio came back over with the now-tested chocolate something and Leia swallowed fast to wave that over too. "That one is for me."

The unfinished plate of vegetables slid away from her and the chocolaty slab of something slid into its place. She aimed her fork for a bite-

And her eyes flicked up.

Ren chewed oddly as he secretly watched Leia eat the chocolate torte without care. Leia's Jedi senses read man's discomfort clearly, and she warmed to find this man's entire bailiwick was a simple concern for her safety.

Brown eyes humored, Leia cut the first bite of the torte and set her elbow on the counter, offering a bite to him.

Ren blinked.

"Just to be sure it's not poisonous," she teased.

And he grinned suddenly. His eyes dashed down in silent admittance that he was perhaps going a little overboard with his safety measures. When his eyes came back up to meet hers, they bowed with humble apology. "Thank you, no."

Eyeing him with deep consideration, Leia promptly took a bite of the chocolate torte.

Ren considered her stare politely and tried to continue eating the greasy meat despite it.

"Why did you say?" She asked.

"Where?"

"In the Empire."

Ren stared at the food he hesitated to eat for a moment before raising his face to her. "Because I felt I could do more good within it, than I could outside of it."

Leia considered his words.

Ren angled his head and sighed, but he met her eyes with honesty again. "I'm not a spy. I'm not a rebel. I'm not built for that... And the Emperor wasn't The Empire. Things could still be... accomplished. Moments could still be swayed. And swayed better and easier from within the ranks than outside of them."

Leia listened as she took another tasty bite.

"The Empire wasn't all bad. It wasn't all good either. And I, myself, had better chance to make a positive affect by working with it than against it."

"Such as failing; to catch the Bothan spy network?" She dared to inquire, eye to eye.

Ren pinched his lips and turned his eyes to his greasy plate.

"Such as avoiding the second Death Star when you knew we were coming? And not telling your superiors to pass that word onto Palpatine?"

Ren's eyes shot up. "With respect, if you think he didn't know you were coming, you're damn fool."

Leia pressed a tight grin. "No, his fatal detriment was his arrogance to think we couldn't beat him."

"And now you've made a martyr of him," Ren pointed out gently. "Imagine how much more effective it would have been had you simply politicized him out of power."

She blinked with difficulty. "Without a Senate?"

Ren shook his head gently. "That's not the only form of political power."

Leia looked at her cake a moment, but didn't take another bite. Instead, she set down her fork and challenged him directly. "What do you think we should have done?"

But Ren only lifted his chin and met her challenge with direct eyes of his own. "I don't know."

Leia settled.

"I'm not a politician," he said. "I'm a security guard and soldier. I don't understand the inner workings of it. Certainly not as well as you." He admitted with true respect. "All I know is that direct confrontation isn't the only way to get it done."

To this, Leia pressed her lips and nodded. The man was right about that much.

"As for my part, at first, he had some good ideas. He seemed to cut through the tangle and get done what needed to get done. But, eventually, as always, absolute power corrupts absolutely. And he grew more interested in protecting his power than sorting things out for his people."

Leia eyed him, hearing him, learning to understand him and all the others that fell into that same belief.

Ren eyed the food and finally stabbed out a healthy bite for himself. "What we seem to all forget ... was that, in the beginning, it all made a little more sense. The plans had traction. The propaganda was believable. The enemies," he motioned respectfully to her, "were legitimate."

Leia rubbed her lips in thought.

"It was until the middle that patterns emerged. It wasn't until the end that we realized we were at the whims of a monster." He tightened his eyes and shook his head, "But he wasn't always a monster." He toyed with the food a moment, then stabbed another bite. "So, give us some credit for the ideals we had hoped he would finally be able to bring about... the kind of ideals that the former Senate couldn't begin to touch."

Leia took a bite of the chocolate torte as she considered this deeply from an Imperial loyalist point of view. Senates are messy. And the people were frustrated with their inaction, their inability to affect certain things. Couple that with controlled media full of propaganda and one had the perfect recipe for the rise of a fascist regime.

Finally, Leia realized what Ren was trying to say, underneath all that he was actually saying. He was once an Imperial loyalist, but over the course of years implementing the authority of that same Emperor, somehow Ren woke up and began to see what it had truly become.

"What turned you?" She dared to ask.

"Ma'am?"

"You've made clear why you held hopes for him and his Empire in the beginning. What was it that turned you to work against him toward the end?"

Ren's eyes were direct. His mouth closed with severity. His voice was cold. "They blew up my home planet."

The words hit her in the soul, not because she felt the same way, but because she was reminded that she wasn't the only one who felt the same way. She bowed her chin to show her respect for that answer.

Ren admit humbly. "A bickering congress is frustrating beyond beleif." Then he smiled, "But, good Lord, it's better than the alternative."

Leia grinned and nodded agreement to that. Then she cut out a bite of torte and offered it over to him. "Peace offering?"

Ren's eyes shined, and this time, he took the bite.