Rey follows Kylo Ren across the salt plain to his command shuttle. His heavy boots leave blood-red footsteps on the white ground. She keeps her eyes trained on the back of his head, watching as the wind whips through his dark hair, hoping to distract herself from the reality of what she has just done.
She has surrendered herself to the First Order – to him. Though she did want to take his hand in the throne room, she hadn't wanted this. She wanted Ben Solo. I still do, she thinks, her heart sinking at the thought of what could have been. Can Force visions be so wildly inaccurate? When they touched hands, she had seen what his Force signature would look like in the future, so drenched in light that her heart hurt from the beauty of it.
But how do I find the man within the monster again?
Ben whirls on her, eyes blazing. She barely stops herself from slamming into him face-first. "What's wrong?" she asks.
"Ben Solo is dead," he says, his voice dark. "I killed him long ago, and I am the monster you think I am. You would do well to remember that."
Fear and indignation fill her. Still, some sort of lingering hurt comes over her as well. "How did you know that I was thinking – "
He scoffs. "You really think Snoke created our bond? We did that, in the interrogation room. Snoke may have sensed it, but if anything, he stifled its full power. With him dead, we're going to have to get used to this – this melding of our minds, until we can figure out how to control it."
"What are you saying?" she demands. "I don't understand."
He takes a step towards her. "Don't you feel it? The thoughts that aren't yours? The emotions that are coming from nowhere?"
"It's been a long day – "
"And you thought you were imagining it." He shakes his head. "You're not."
Rey's mind reels at the revelation. It has only been a few hours since Snoke's death. How could the bond grow that much stronger so quickly? Worse than that, how had she not noticed his presence in her head? Now that he has brought it to her attention, she can feel him, a looming shadow that sticks to the darkest parts of her inner self. Without even thinking about it, she prods at him experimentally, her consciousness brushing his. "Why can't I hear your thoughts?"
"Because I'm shielding them from you. Which you would know how to do, if Skywalker had been a decent teacher."
"And you're a decent teacher?"
"Yes."
She considers him for several moments before shrugging. "I guess we'll never know."
He growls under his breath and turns back to his ship. "Come along, Rey."
They make their way up the ramp into his command shuttle, Rey's heart pounding. What happens to prisoners of the First Order? Will she be locked away in a cell on a cold ship? Left to fend for herself on some desolate planet? Paraded around at Ben's side in chains, an example to the galaxy of what happens to those who defy his power?
Ben clenches his fist and throws her a quick glance over his shoulder.
Rey winces. He must have heard all of that.
This is going to take some getting used to.
General Hux approaches them, sneering. "What is this Rebel scum doing on your ship, Supreme Leader?"
Ben turns, wrapping a hand around Rey's upper arm and pulling her forward roughly. "This is the scavenger girl, Rey. The one who killed Snoke."
The shuttle goes absolutely silent, as if everyone inside is holding their breath. No one dares to move.
"Ah." Hux turns his gaze to her. "Shall we plan a public execution, then?"
Ben's rage courses through Rey. She sways on her feet, overwhelmed by the press of his emotions as they overlay her own.
"Anyone who touches her will answer to me," he says, voice low and dangerously soft. "She is to be crowned Empress."
Rey's heart stops. She tries to wrench her arm away from Ben's grip, but he holds fast. "What?!"
Hux sputters, his face turning nearly as red as his hair. "So we reward the desert rat for murdering our leader?"
"No. We take away the Resistance's last hope by making their precious Jedi one of us." Ben tilts his head. "Surely even you can see the benefit of that, General Hux."
Despite the insult, Hux seems to enjoy the idea. He smirks. "Well done, Ren. You're thinking like a politician now instead of a soldier."
Ben ignores the backhanded compliment. "She and I will be married, and I will teach her the ways of the Force – of the dark side."
Rey finally explodes, unable to hold back her anger and confusion any longer. "I will never surrender to the dark side. You can't make me, I'll – "
Ben turns to her then. He gives her a look so fierce that the words die in her throat. "You surrendered yourself to me, and I am the dark side. You swore to stand at my side if I spared your Resistance. Are you breaking that vow? I am more than willing to continue the attack on their hideout if you are."
She tries to take a breath, to calm herself. Why is he doing this? She wants to scream, to hurt him, to beg him to come back – to reveal the quiet, gentle man who reached for her hand and told her she wasn't alone. Instead, she forces herself to reply through gritted teeth, "No. I am not breaking that vow."
He dips his head. "Then it's time we left Crait."
The tension in the shuttle finally breaks at the words, his underlings scurrying to prepare for launch.
Ben turns to Hux once more. "Rey and I will discuss the terms of our agreement in private." Without waiting for the general's reply, he leads Rey to the back of his shuttle and through a black door, into a small room off of the main control area.
The moment the door is closed, Rey pulls away from Ben as hard as she can, finally managing to free herself from his grip. "Are you insane?" she hisses. She can feel her eyes filling with tears, but she struggles to hold them back. "I said that I would join you, not marry you."
"You said that you would be anything I asked you to be. I'm asking you to be my wife."
"No, you are telling me that I am going to be your wife. You're not asking me anything. I didn't agree to this!"
His hurt washes over her through their bond, aching like an old wound that has been reopened. Unwanted, his mind whispers, the thought slipping through the shields he has in place. She flinches. He looks at her with such pain in his dark eyes that she almost reaches out to comfort him. How can he go from cruel and imposing to vulnerable and uncertain so quickly?
"So you would rather be locked away in a cell than be with me," he says softly.
She lets out a breath. Of course not. Doesn't he understand what she was trying to show him earlier? She wants to be with him. She wouldn't have delivered herself right to the heart of enemy territory today if she did not care about him.
Ben's eyes widen as her thoughts fill his mind.
"Kriff," Rey mutters, rubbing a hand across her brow in embarrassment. "This is going to be really annoying. You need to teach me how to shield my thoughts."
He swallows hard and works his jaw. "I care about you, too." He lifts a trembling, gloved hand, just like he did in the throne room earlier.
She simply looks at him for a moment. Here again is Ben Solo, though he so viciously denies it. She can't help but think that maybe, just maybe, she can draw him out for good if she stays – if she agrees to marry him.
Anger flares in him again. "I'm not two separate people, Rey. If you say yes, you are tying yourself to Kylo Ren. That is who I am. That is who I choose to be." Just as quickly as it came, though, his anger fades, replaced by a deep sadness. "I accept you as you are, for both your light and your darkness. Not once have I asked you to change for me. Why do you expect me to change for you?"
She frowns. "Are you serious? You just said that you were going to turn me to the dark side. You don't think that's asking someone to change for you?"
"What was I supposed to say to Hux? He wouldn't have accepted anything else."
"You could have told me that you didn't mean it."
"I'm telling you now." He lifts his hand a little higher, his eyes imploring her to take it.
Rey bites her lip in thought. It is a far better deal than she expected when she made the decision to bargain with him. He is promising to let the Resistance live, and he is offering her a place at his side.
"We'll be equals," she says slowly. "You will be Emperor, and I will be…Empress."
"Yes."
"And I can advocate for what I believe is right, regardless of what the First Order thinks."
"There will be no First Order once we are crowned, but yes."
"Then what will there be?" she asks, scrunching her nose.
"Something different. I told you it was time to let old things die." He takes a step towards her. "We will create something better, Rey."
She lets herself imagine it – a galaxy without war. Children who will never know hunger like she did. Families that can stay together. Planets free from slavery and exploitation.
It is everything she has ever wanted for the galaxy.
And then there is Ben. She cannot help but think that he is everything she has ever wanted.
This time, Rey takes his hand.
A/N: I'm still not sure if this is going to become a full-fledged fic yet - my brain hasn't decided! But this second part had to be written. Thank you again for reading!