A/N: Thanks for reviewing! Please don't be mad at me for how this chapter ends - you'll like tomorrow's, I promise!

Battles with the mind and the timid stand off, slightest bit of pain and those tender folk scoff

Rey brandished her lightsaber and stepped between the throne and Ben. "What do you want?" she snarled.

Her dark reflection only smiled more broadly. "Come here, Kylo," she crooned.

To Rey's shock, Ben – or perhaps really Kylo – walked around her and knelt before the throne, holding out his lightsaber hilt. "Ben?" she whispered, confused and uncertain how much of this was real. If any of it was.

"Is this not what you wanted, Rey? Him to serve you?"

"No!" The word was both an answer and a reaction to Kylo Ren fading, as did the throne, as the Dark one approached her. "Ben!" she called, hurrying forward with no clear goal in mind.

She was halted when her shadow ignited her saber and blocked her path. Recoiling, Rey lifted her own weapon and swung, furious at having been stopped when she was so close.

"Are you sure you didn't want him as your own slave? You could have made him leave the Supremacy with you, become the Resistance's real hero, like you wanted," the other version of herself suggested with a cold smile as she easily parried Rey's attack.

That made her hesitate in spite of herself and her shadow laughed.

"You were their hero for hardly a day, and already looking for a way out. You just wanted to be a footnote in the story, the one who brought Luke Skywalker back to save the galaxy. And when that wasn't working out, you thought you'd bring back Leia Organa's lost son. Anything to keep from having to shoulder the burden yourself."

"That's not true," she whispered. But her chest constricted with the knowledge that, on some level, it was. She was no hero – she had loved the stories and had always imagined herself in one, but the responsibility of saving the galaxy on her own was too daunting to accept. Too much pressure when all she knew was how to survive. Besides, who was she to take up such a mantle? She was just a scavenger. She was nobody.

"Nothing?" her shadow suggested, almost gently.

She drew back again, watching the double-bladed lightsaber the Dark one had. Other than keeping her from rushing after Ben, her shadow hadn't moved it to attack. Obviously she didn't need to, Rey thought grimly, when her words were effective enough.

"I'm not nothing," she answered through clenched teeth.

"No? Then why did you spend the last year hiding on the Resistance base?"

"I was training!" she snapped.

The woman's laugh was sharp, like the sound of a bone snapping. "Training? Whatever for?"

That threw her. Why had she insisted on training? Her friends had never questioned it, just thought obviously she would want to hone her skills. But Ben had still easily outmatched her on the Death Star wreckage. She had learned to heal with the Force, which was a rare power, but Ben had brought her back from the dead. No one else in the galaxy was a match for her in the Force except for him. And her training had been of no use against the Emperor. So why had she isolated herself and relied on that excuse to keep from leaving the base?

"You were afraid you might see him. And that you wouldn't be able to leave him a second time," her shadow said, cutting to the truth with ease.

"I…" She faltered, her lightsaber wavering in her hand as she was forced to admit it, at least to herself. Her friends trusted her and she had been desperately afraid of them finding out about Ben, just as she had always been afraid of anyone finding out about her abilities when she was younger. Both were gut reactions to save her own hide, but what was the point when they made her miserable? When she had to pretend to be someone else, while cutting off the one person who understood her?

"Is that why you killed him? So you wouldn't have to resist anymore?"

"I didn't!" Rage and hurt coursed through her and she swung her weapon at her shadow, who parried easily. Rey advanced anyway, driving the woman back as she continued to respond with only defensive maneuvers. It felt familiar, like she was training alone. She stopped abruptly and the Dark one did not attack, stopping as well. Her eyes narrowed as she considered how to deal with her.

The shadow relaxed, watching her. "You did kill him," she reminded her gently.

"No! He chose to give his life –"

"Not then, dear. He got distracted and you stabbed him through the chest."

Blinking back tears, Rey looked away as the wave of emotions she'd been repressing rolled over her. Why had she done that? She had asked herself that question every night for weeks, aching for sleep to release her from it. He hadn't intended to hurt her, that was clear – he had paused to let her catch her breath several times. He made it clear he could win if killing or even incapacitating her was what he wanted. But it wasn't. He wanted her to go with him, to give up the fight and join him.

She had pushed Finn away – thrown him, really. She hadn't wanted him to overhear whatever Ben might say to her. Because it would be something true and she didn't know how long she could keep up the fight, how long she could keep resisting his offer. Then he had gotten distracted as he stood over her and she was just so frustrated with him, with what he meant, wishing she could just be a normal hero who was happy with her Resistance friends and who would never consider joining someone who was supposed to be her enemy.

So she had reacted, like she always did. Self-preservation was fully ingrained into her instincts – shoot first, ask questions later. She had done it upon their first meeting, and at the first sign of their bond's capabilities. She had fought Finn at their meeting as well, she reflected miserably.

"Maybe you should stop assuming the worst intentions in everyone you meet," her shadow suggested.

"Even you?" Rey shot back, taking another swing at her.

The other woman easily moved out of the way, not even bothering to parry. "I'm only here to help."

"Help me with what? To remind me of my worst doubts and biggest mistakes?"

"Yes."

Shocked at the honesty of the answer, Rey stared at her. "Why?"

"Why did you come here, Rey?"

"To rescue Ben," she answered immediately.

Her shadow nodded. "Rescue him from what, exactly?"

"From this terrible place. To bring him back to life."

"This place is terrible? Out there, he was preyed upon for years, betrayed by his family for being their legacy. Forced to kill his own father. Used as just a tool in Snoke's plans and then Palpatine's. Why would he want to go back?"

Rey shuddered at the realization that he may be happier here. "His masters are all dead. He would be no one's tool."

"Not even yours?"

"Of course not!"

The Dark one smiled, seeming pleased at her angry reaction. Rey frowned and forced herself to calm down, lowering her saber though she continued to hold tightly to the hilt. "And what, exactly, do you plan to do with him when you have him back?"

The hopes Rey had been holding onto returned unbidden, of settling down somewhere to raise Force-sensitive children, with Ben at her side. Other dreams she had developed while sitting in all those frustrating meetings, of Ben being there and knowing how to solve the problem. Of him being able to deal with the politics far more effectively than she could, helping her make the difference she wanted.

"Seems like you do want a tool, a nice tool who will adore you and let you use him up doing your bidding."

Her horror tied her tongue. The shadow of herself leaned forward, close enough to speak into her ear as she stared, unseeing, into the darkness surrounding them.

"You scarred him and sliced up his face the first time you fought. You forced his hand on the Supremacy, making him kill Snoke for you, and then refused him when he offered you everything he had. You left him to deal with the fallout after he failed to become the shining beacon for the Resistance on your terms. He offered himself to you again and you stabbed him in the chest."

"I… I healed him," she correctly hesitantly but her shadow continued relentlessly.

"You killed him and he still came to rescue you from your impulsive plan to defeat the Emperor alone. He ran to you, and all you did was give him a weapon you weren't using. He was thrown into a pit while you called all the Jedi to you, helping only yourself."

She swallowed. "They helped me defeat the Emperor."

Scoffing, the Dark one drew back. "Fine. Then you died and he crawled, bruised and broken, to you, only to give you the last of his life Force. He did all that, and now you want him back? To take him out of this place of peace to a galaxy where all he felt was pain and misery?"

Rey had no answer for that. She dropped her lightsaber and knelt on the rocky ground. Perhaps it was true, that she had no right to take him back. Perhaps she was a fool to come here, thinking she could be the hero in this tale. Perhaps it was time to leave.