AN: Trying this again, since there was a glitch in my last upload. Though I ship them, this is very much NOT a Relyo fic, but I do promise, I have some works in progress that are.


Kylo Ren held his second bottle of Tevraki whiskey in his hand before turning it upside down, as if there may be an answer somewhere in that last drop. When no solace came from the spirit, he tossed the empty bottle aside. From his position on the floor, he looked for a third bottle, but there was none. Nothing to blur out the image stained in his mind.

The force hadn't bound them for all these long months, not since she shut the door on him on Crait. So why did it choose now, when she was in the throes of ecstasy, on some filthy rebel base somewhere, with that damned pilot of all people? At first she hadn't noticed him as she rode Dameron, hips gyrating as she leaned over the rebel, but then she looked up and their eyes met. She didn't stop, didn't bother to cover herself. Unabashed, she returned her eyes to the man moaning beneath her.

Ren was willing to give up everything for her, killed his own master for her, but she couldn't bring herself to do the same. She instead chose the dying resistance over him.

Knocking over a table, he stood to his feet, stumbling towards a cabinet. He rifled through it for another bottle he knew had to be there somewhere. "Kriff!" he shouted so loudly he could probably be heard outside. But he didn't care; the Knight of Ren he had on guard knew better than to let anybody in.

He turned from the cabinet, lunging towards his desk, in the search of more distilled amnesia. Instead, he found her standing in front of him. Her hair was askew and she wore a shirt too large for her. Why must she taunt him by wearing the bastard's shirt?

"What do you want?!" he spat out.

"What is your problem, Kylo?" she demanded. It stung when she used that name. He despised his given name, but when she said it, it felt so right, like she was pulling from inside his soul to piece him back together. But now, he was just Kylo Ren, Supreme Leader of the First Order, and her sworn enemy.

"I gave up everything for you, Rey, only for you to throw it back at me, to hold onto what? A bunch of doomed rebels?"

Incredulous, she shot back, "Don't you dare lie to me like that. You did it for the same reason you wanted me: for power."

"That's not true! ...It's not true.." he trailed off, trying to convince himself of his own words. He loved her, but was that really his driving motive?

"You made orders to have me and my friends killed! Forgive me if I assumed I was allowed to move on."

"I told you the truth, and your response was to summon a lightsaber. When I woke up, you were gone. You turned on me and left me, Rey!" Ben fell to his knees, defeated and weighed to the ground by the alcohol. Rey watched him with judging eyes, but what was she judging? he wondered. "I could've given you the galaxy."

She stared at him, her eyes suddenly glistening like they had on the Supremacy, as she knelt before him, condemned by Snoke. "I didn't want the galaxy. I just wanted Ben Solo."

"And I wanted you, a nobody from Jakku. Only you weren't nobody, not to me," he said, holding back a sob he wouldn't let her see.

"That's where you're wrong, Kylo Ren. I don't need you to be somebody." And just like that, she shut him out.

"Ren let out an anguished scream as he was left back in his solitude with only empty bottles by his side.