The catharsis of crying was helpful, even if the swollen eyes and snot were not, and Rey woke refreshed the next morning after a deep sleep, and feeling steadier about the events of the previous day. Sometime overnight she had come to the conclusion that she was not alone, and although she'd been told that before, she had never needed to believe it quite so much. Today promised to be challenging, but she would face it with her friends on her side, and an ally in the enemy camp.

She met the Resistance negotiation team outside the meeting room five minutes before the appointed time as agreed, and they looked almost as nervous as she felt.

'Remember the plan,' whispered Poe as droids swept open two sets of double doors at precisely the same time and both sides entered the chamber from opposite ends.

Numbers were limited. During the initial negotiations several mediators had been proposed but neither the Resistance nor the First Order had been able to agree on a single candidate felt by both sides to be impartial so the peace talks were to progress without a formal facilitator. To address the consequent risk of an all out gun battle in the negotiating chamber dampening fields had been installed, to ensure that no energy related blade could be generated or projectile fired, and magnetic emitters in the ceiling would pull all metal implements well out of reach. Three delegates each were allowed. One Force user for each side had been written into the truce protocol, with the intention that this would counteract any attempts at mind control; two senior military personnel could also attend.

Rey recognised both the First Order generals from HoloNet – the ginger one, Hux, prone to shouting and wild hysteria and a more recent recruit who had only come to power after the death of Snoke. General Pryde embodied his name, a ramrod straight, severe individual as serious as his counterpart was excitable, who usually popped up with dire threats and warnings, all issued with a contemptuous curl of the lip. They flanked the Supreme Leader, whom Rey could not yet look in the eye and took their seats at the oval conference table.

In contrast, Poe and Rose spent some time fiddling with the various pads and storage devices they were carrying, dropping one on the table with a clatter and then pulling out chairs in a scraping clash, as legs tangled and bashed together. Rey extracted her own chair more calmly, her peripheral vision letting her know that the Supreme Leader's dark eyes were watching her and he only seated himself when she was down.

There was a short pause, during which she studied the glossy surface of the table and felt the tension in the man to her right rise. Poe really hated silences. She tapped a fingernail to get his attention. 'Agenda.'

'Yes, right. Introductions. I'm General Dameron and this is General Tico. This is Rey, she didn't want to be a general but she's pretty important anyway.' He eyeballed the rest of the table. 'General Hugs, your mother sends her regards, and you in the black – long time, no see – love what you've done with your hair. And General Pryde, welcome to the gang. Shall we get down to business?'

General Pryde shifted in his chair, pulling his own device closer and quoting from something on screen. 'Participants shall refrain from addressing each other by anything other than given name, rank or title. Failure to do so will result in the termination of proceedings.' He flicked his eyes up at Poe. 'I believe this was drafted with you in mind, General?'

Rose gave Poe a look, and took over. 'Item two on the agenda is Resistance truce proposals. Our proposals are simple. We propose that the First Order surrenders to us immediately. The terms of surrender are the forfeiture of all weapons, military equipment and transports, including navy and land craft and the immediate demobilisation of the army. This will be accompanied by withdrawal from all First Order occupied territories and restoration of all preceding governance arrangements at the First Order's cost, including the re-instatement of deposed governments, monarchs and collectives. In return, we propose that all First Order collaborators below the rank of general will be released without charge and persons holding the rank of general and above will be subject to Republic laws and sanctions, which will involve public trials.'

There was absolute silence.

He was still looking at her. The weight of his attention was so heavy she felt it on her shoulders and she risked a glance across the room to see how he'd taken Rose's words. There was no sign that he'd heard. She met his stare but there was no hostility in it. Instead, his eyebrows raised fractionally in a question.

This was no time to speak to him, and in any case she couldn't give away the fact that they'd been in touch while he was sitting in the middle of his high command so instead she blinked once, slowly enough to indicate that it was deliberate. She was fine.

A line developed between his eyebrows and the skin under his eyes tightened a notch. He didn't believe her.

She ducked her chin in a camouflaged nod. She was sure she was fine.

His features smoothed out, reassured.

Next to him General Hux started laughing, a high pitched, nasal sound. 'You want to put the First Order on trial?' Hux could barely contain his glee.

'Wait, what?' Ben's reaction was delayed, but predictably angry when it came.

General Pryde was moving, fingers tapping urgently on a datacube. 'You expect us to surrender to you?' he asked, in a tone of disdain. A map of the galaxy filled the air above the table, First Order territories marked out in little red circles. 'This is the First Order. This is what we control. We own the Core Worlds, the Colonies, the Inner Rim and most of the Expansion Region. We have significant holdings in the Mid Rim and more of the Outer Rim comes under our dominion every day. Whereas this is you.'

He pressed another button and a light scattering of blue dots appeared on the map. 'This is the sum total of all the progress your pitiful Resistance has managed to make over the last year.' He pointed out key elements on the map. 'A foothold in the Outer Rim. A couple of bases in the Mid Rim. A quite pathetic attempt to explore wild space. And that's it. So tell me – why would we surrender to you? What possible incentive could there be for us to accept your ludicrous offer?'

Ben leant forward, addressing his apparent outrage directly at Rey. 'This is the best you could come up with? I offer you peace and the price of that is that I – all of us – have to submit to a trial, and probable execution at your hands?' He hammered a finger at the table. 'That is not an acceptable solution.'

Rey spread her hands. 'What did you think would happen? You have to make amends.'

'I will make amends in my own way,' he all but shouted, and then shot a hasty glance at his uniformed counterparts. 'Not that I have anything to make amends for.'

Rose chipped in, steely and determined. 'You are war criminals, all of you. The First Order has blood on its hands. The galaxy will not allow you to walk off quietly into the sunset when so many people have died. We need justice.'

'You want vengeance,' Ben snapped. 'Not justice. Who are you anyway? Who is this, Rey?'

She gave him a sad smile. 'Someone who lost her sister. She deserves an apology.'

He reared back in his chair. 'I've made it perfectly clear that…'

Poe cut in, in a loud enough voice to drown out even the Supreme Leader's protestations. 'Agenda item three. Negotiations. Rose, play it.'

Rose reached for her own projector, played the holovid she'd spent two days on Kijimi preparing. The same star chart appeared in the air above the table, the galaxy scattered with the same red dots as before.

'This is you. Core Worlds, Colonies, Inner Rim, blah, blah. These are the worlds on which you have a presence anyway. And these are the worlds on which there isn't already a rebellion against you. These are the planets you can genuinely say you control.' The horde of red dots reduced down to a mere handful. She thumbed another button. 'Whereas this is the Resistance.' The galaxy lit up in an enormous sweep of blue.

'The Outer Rim is ours, most of the Mid Rim too. We have cells poised to overthrow you on every single outpost you have in the Inner Rim and you're so thinly spread in the Expansion Region you haven't even noticed we're already taking over.' She sat back in her chair, steepled her fingers in obvious satisfaction. 'You've missed the armada we have gathering in wild space, waiting for the signal to attack. The Core is yours, I'll give you that, but only because we've been too busy to bother with it yet. You can keep it for a couple more weeks if you like.'

'This is a bluff.' General Pryde shook his head.

'You've done all this in a year?' Hux commented, in a tone that was almost awe.

'You've had help.' Ben tightened his hand into a fist. 'You're working with an informant inside the First Order. That's the only explanation.'

'It doesn't matter how this happened,' Pryde chipped in. 'What matters is what happens next. Your freedom fighters are no match for our army. We will crush your armada and your resistance cells and you will beg us for peace before we're finished.'

'Actually, we won't.' Poe kicked back from the table, linking his fingers behind his head. 'Because I know a guy.'

'You know a guy?' The contempt in General Pryde's voice would have floored a lesser man.

'Play it again, Rose.'

Rose toggled a few more buttons. 'It's been apparent for a while that the First Order has been overreaching itself. The colonisation of the planets you've been annexing hasn't been popular with the people that live on them, not only because of the repression of free speech and the summary justice, but because of the taxes you've imposed, the assets you've stolen, the trade you've prevented. We've been talking to 'guys' all over the galaxy about it.'

She nodded at Rey. 'Stall holders on Naboo. The big banks who've loaned you credits, the cartels you've been ripping off, the merchant houses, the guilds, weapons manufacturers, your suppliers. You aren't popular with any of them but they didn't want to support us until they were sure we could win. Then you showed your weakness and offered us a truce. Over the last two days we've solidified our support and now we're ready to take you down. You may have an army, but as soon as your supplies run out they'll stop being fed, and you'll have no credit left to keep them going. You can crush our armada but we have the promise of more ships, unlimited numbers, straight out of the shipyards to take the place of any you destroy. We have enough funding to crew a whole fleet with mercenaries, if we need to.'

She clicked off the projection in a sudden silence. 'No one holds peace talks unless they're about to lose.'

Poe smiled. 'We are not alone. Good people will fight if we lead them. But so will bad people if they think they'll make money from it.'

Hux exploded from his seat in a froth of rage. 'We should never have called these talks. I said we...'

Ben extended a finger calmly and his subordinate's words were choked off. 'We will discuss your offer and reconvene tomorrow.' His cloak swirled as he marched from the room.

'That went well,' remarked Poe.

Rey went back to her room and waited. She had a couple of hours to wonder about the extent of his reaction before her comms channel rang with a call connected through from reception.

It was audio only, the voice on the other end clipped and taut. 'I need to see you. Immediately.'

He cut the call before she could respond, leaving her in no doubt that she had been summoned in the same way that the rest of his employees were summoned and her first instinct was not to reply. She sat for a few minutes seething quietly before reminding herself that she was supposed to be trusting him, and he had spent yesterday evening saving her from the wrong side of the Force, which probably merited some patience. She pushed away her annoyance, and, rationalising that she couldn't just wander into his bedroom without raising some serious questions she marshalled her power and concentrated on his lesson of yesterday. She focused on her impressions of him, and although she attempted to use neutral observations like the colour of his hair or the size of his boots what came to her most strongly was the feel of his mouth on hers, the shape of his lips when he was kissing her.

She concentrated on that and once the connection between them sparked into life there was a quiet blur and his room popped into being before her eyes. It wasn't in the hotel.

She was standing in the living room of his suite on board the Dreadnaught, which was looking much tidier than the last time she'd seen it, halfway through nearly crashing into Coruscant. Someone had reordered the desk and through an archway into the next room, his bed had been made and his clothes re-hung. He was standing with his back to her at the comms relay, tapping his chin as he studied a large number of holographic simulation exercises the machinery had conjured into being. In front of him, spread out on a map of the galaxy red dots and blue dots formed ranks, wiped each other out and then started all over again.

He shot her a glance before turning back to the battle simulations on screen. 'Pryde has sent out probes to every planet on which you claim to have a presence and he has scouts en route to wild space to track down this armada of yours. What will he find?'

She wandered over to the map, responding to the dispassionate tone he was using with some calm of her own. 'Exactly what we said he'd find. Bases, temporary camps, fortified locations, ground transportation, maintenance facilities, cargo, medical supplies, landing craft, shuttles, frigates, cruisers.' She shrugged. 'The Resistance.'

He made a few movements with his hands and the speed of the simulations increased but he continued to be immersed in the display. 'Then why do you need me? If you're this close to defeating the First Order I don't understand why you need me on your side.'

She drifted away, examining the devices strewn on the desk with a feigned curiosity. 'I don't need you on my side, I want you on my side.'

'Why?'

Turning from the desk, she took a few paces into the bedroom. 'Because if you can help me negotiate peace we won't have to fight the First Order and many lives will be saved.'

Glancing over her shoulder she saw that the simulations were now running at a speed almost too fast to register and his shoulders had hunched as he concentrated. 'Is that the only reason?'

She took a few more steps away, just in case. 'Yes.'

'Then this was all a ploy to get me to declare a truce? You took advantage of my… weakness when my mother died to manipulate me into giving in to your demands. You said you'd only help me if I arranged peace talks because you knew that would signal to your supporters that the Order could be defeated. You played me.'

She stopped where he couldn't see her, frowning. 'That's a very selective view. You came to me, remember. You asked for help. I gave you what you wanted.'

There was a loud crash from the other room as something broke but his reply was still unnaturally calm. 'What would really help, is some idea of numbers so I can work out if there is any way we can beat you. How many cruisers do you have? How many mercenaries? What's your defensive capability? Where are your supply lines?'

She was silent, padding around the bed on noiseless feet and opening the storage cabinet she'd found the last time she came, reaching inside for the half empty bottle of perfume. 'And why would I tell you any of that?'

'Because it would really help to convince the army that we can't win. They're not going to surrender if there's any way they can avoid it.'

That wasn't the answer she'd been expecting. She straightened sharply to find him propped in the doorway regarding her with his arms folded. 'Of course, there's also the problem of how you're going to defeat our huge fleet of decommissioned Imperial Star Destroyers which have been mothballed in the Unknown Regions for years. Pryde will have activated them by now, they'll be on their way.'

That wasn't the answer she'd been expecting either and she fumbled when he threw a storage card across the room, missed the catch. 'The co-ordinates are on that. Maybe you should go and check it out.'

She stared at him in amazement. She hadn't expected him to take the Resistance's negotiating position well. They hadn't trusted his desire to defect from the first time she'd revealed it and there was a collective view that the Resistance should attempt to maximise their advantage, making the best of whatever opportunities Ben Solo's bleeding heart might be able to offer. Rey had little choice but to go along with it, because until the events of the previous evening she hadn't really trusted him either, and once in the negotiating room it was too late to turn back.

But she felt slightly ashamed, standing there in his bedroom, feeling like she'd let him down.

'I understand,' he said, and there was badly concealed hurt in his eyes. 'Trust is earned, not given. I've been untrustworthy and you need time to learn to trust me.'

She bit her lip, on the verge of apologising.

'Just one thing - are you really going to go ahead with the trial?'

She shrugged. 'You won't be executed. I can get you off if you collaborate.'

'Glad to hear it. Will I be incarcerated for the rest of my life instead?'

'Exiled. If I can get them to agree to it.'

'I'll accept that on one condition.' He jabbed a finger in the air. 'You're coming with me.'

'And why would I agree to that?'

He was across the room in three strides, leaning close enough to place his words directly into her ear. 'Because last time you were on this ship you enjoyed kissing me so much you nearly crashed it.'

The connection broke with the force of her irritation, leaving her back in her hotel room throwing the bottle she was still carrying at the wall.