"All three of you," Snoke begins, leaning forward in his throne and glaring at the masked Knight, the stiff General, and the chrome-plated Captain. "Are embarrassments to the First Order!"
"Supreme Leader—" Hux tries.
"Silence, General!" Snoke barks. Try as he might, Kylo can only muster small seeds of satisfaction from the General's scolding. "First, Captain, for all your prowess and respect in the stormtrooper division, you let a Wookiee, a smuggler, and a traitor threaten you into lowering the shields of the weapon we spent so long mastering!"
Hux nods. Kylo wants to kick him.
"My apologies, Supreme Leader," Captain Phasma says.
"And you, General: you've done nothing but snivel since coming here. You are too ambitious, I think, for your own good. It'd be wise for you to take a good look at your own capacities, and be honest with yourself about them."
Not a muscle twitches on Hux's face, but Kylo can feel the hate seeping off the General. Hate not for Snoke, but for Kylo Ren.
"And you, Kylo Ren—you may try to deceive me, but I can still sense it. Have you forgotten that it was I who created you? You are nothing without me." His words echo inside Kylo, stinging and smarting. "The Light still grows inside you. Still."
Hux and Phasma stare at him, and Kylo tries to shake off this uncomfortable, prickly feeling. "Supreme Leader—"
"We will take care of the Resistance as soon as we can, but if we must take out your mother first, we will," Snoke growls.
"Of course," Kylo manages, hating how his heart jumps at Snoke's words. She means nothing to me. The words are in his mind, on his tongue, but he can't fling them into reality.
What does she think of him now? Surely she knows. The girl and Chewbacca would have told her.
It doesn't matter what she thinks!
Hux tosses him a sardonic smirk. Kylo ignores him, even though he's itching to throw the General through a wall. But, as condescending as Snoke is to Hux, he finds him useful and considers the stormtrooper program worthwhile.
A clone army would still be better.
Rey speaks. Are you considering matricide now, too?
Go away! Kylo presses against her voice, tries to block her—he cannot let her hear Snoke's plans, he can't be responsible for further weakening the First Order—
"The First Order is now being laughed at," Snoke informs them. "Because of all of your irresponsible, self-serving actions. The Resistance has hope, and hope spurs new recruits. Instead of wiping them out, the Resistance is surging.'
"If you just took the droid," Hux growls. "Instead of the girl, the First Order would be in a much better—"
"General! I will speak!" Snoke threatens. Kylo watches as Phasma, beneath her helmet, glances at Hux, presumably with the same annoyance Kylo feels.
But Hux is right, and Kylo knows it, and he hates Hux for it.
"As for you, Kylo Ren," Snoke says. "You can help the General with this new Starkiller project."
"But my training—" he objects.
"You don't seem very focused on it," Snoke snarls. "But I will contact you each day to train you."
Not in person? It feels like a slight, like Snoke doubts him again. Kylo swallows, but his mouth is so dry it feels like he's swallowing needles.
"You seem distracted," Luke observes as Rey drops R2-D2 again.
"I'm sorry," she gasps. "You okay?"
The blue and white droid whizzes and beeps.
Luke peers at her as he leans against a wall made of stones. "Are you sure you want to train?"
What? "Of course," Rey stammers. "I came all this way for—you're the galaxy's last hope."
"No," Luke corrects her. "You are." He tugs at a loose stone, attempting to jostle it loose. Stubborn, it stays. "The Jedi are. But Rey, I'll never force you to train. Not if you don't want to."
Heat plunges through her cheeks. "I do want to." I just have your crazy nephew's voice in my head and he's thinking of his mother and it sounds ominous.
What if it's his goal to distract her? So she's less of a threat? Rey closes her eyes, envisioning Finn falling to the icy ground again. Finn, who cared enough to come back for her…
Energy sparks within Rey. She raises her hand, and R2 chirps as it rises. The sun blazes overhead and the waves sparkle beyond the gray and green scenery. Rey smiles.
Next time, Finn, I'll be ready.
"Good!" Luke exults. "Now put R2 back down. Carefully."
R2 lands with a clunk, but she didn't let him fall. Rey's pleased.
"For the record, Rey," Luke says as he approaches her. "I don't mean to sound as if I'm expressing any sort of—a lack of confidence in you. I just—I never want to force someone to train."
Something unspoken hovers at the end of that sentence. Again? "Is that what happened? With the Jedi academy?"
"Not exactly. Sort of." Luke shrugs. "Someday I'll tell you, Rey, but that's a story for another time."
Shadows drape the island. Rey glances up to see clouds storming the horizon.
"The Light Side is all about control," Luke tells her. "Controlling yourself, that is. Not controlling others."
"That's the First Order," Rey muses. Although she wonders how exiling oneself is control. Maybe Luke really did believe the galaxy was better off without him. But without the Jedi, without the Light, how could he possibly believe that? Especially knowing what Kylo Ren had become.
She feels a surge of irritation and anger, red hot, in her mind. Not her emotions. Stop. No. Not now.
And cold blue fear spikes through her. How can I control myself if someone else is constantly in my mind?
It's been less than a day. It might not be constant. Somehow, though, Rey knows Kylo Ren's voice is not going away. What if he leads me to the Dark Side? What if his presence means the Dark Side already has me?
She remembers Han, and Leia, and Finn. No.
Maybe growing stronger in the Force will teach her to keep him out. She can only hope.
Thunderclouds keep rolling in as evening descends, and Rey and Luke take shelter in the Millennium Falcon with Chewie and R2. Luke volunteers to make dinner as Rey's eyes, heavy with stress, close.
Rage grabs her, pulling her from the dregs of sleep, rage that isn't hers, and something else—pain. Screaming. Before she can stop herself, she blurts out: What are you doing?
The fury abates to a simmer. Smashing the control panels, comes the sneering response.
Like a child? Why?
The anger sparks again. Please don't mock me. I don't need one more person—
Fear closes in. Rey lies still, determined not to alert anyone else. Why can I hear you? Why can you hear me? Did you do something to me?
No! And she feels it—it's true.
Have you told your master?
No.
The Supreme Leader would see it for what it is—a weakness, Rey realizes. Kylo Ren's become a liability.
But so has she.
Ask your master, he suggests.
No.
Luke might not be suspicious if you ask about Force bonds, in general.
Now Rey's eyes fly open, and she sits up. Force bonds? What are those? Is that was this is?
I don't know!
She watches R2 and Chewie play on the hologame table, blissfully unaware that the enemy was in Rey's mind. She wonders whether Han and his son had ever played, before the boy became Kylo Ren.
I'll ask, she tells him, but he's already gone.
Kylo paces his chambers, gazing at the helmet in desperation. "Help me," he mutters. "Help me, Grandfather."
He's already smashed up everything else in his chambers—the bed, the chairs, the table. Everything except the helmet.
The girl was in his father's ship, with Chewie, Ben's childhood partner in crime. The Wookiee was always willing to participate in whatever crazy scheme Ben came up with, even if it meant damaging the Millennium Falcon by rearranging different parts of the hyperdrive (temporarily).
"Why would you do that?" his father screamed at him, until Chewie intervened and Han rolled his eyes.
But Ben never got to say the real reason: because I didn't want you to leave again.
You're so lonely, so afraid to leave.
Rey was like a mirror. Until he'd looked into her mind, he had no idea it was possible for someone to feel as lonely as he does.
"Grandfather, help me," he pleads again, louder this time. "The Supreme Leader senses it again, I know it. He can't find—I can't—if I'm to finish what you started, I need your help."
Ben waits, the silence chewing his eardrums. He usually draws strength from this supplication, from quiet meditation in front of the relic. But today, only emptiness flows into him. Emptiness, and memories that rattle around inside his skull.
Come home.
When will you come back home, Father?
We miss you.
Father! You're back! I missed you!
In that moment, when his father still called him his son, wanted to see his face, Kylo wanted to agree, to go home with him because for so many years, he believed that they'd given up on him, that they believed they'd lost their son, forever.
Your son is dead.
No, my son is alive.
Kylo feels the war inside him again, remembering how it reached a crescendo, the dark and the light clobbering each other, destroying him, one side screaming to go home, give up his lightsaber, the other whispering for him to just do it, end the light, stab it through once and for all.
He'd never realized that, for all the years he served Snoke, what he wanted more than anything was for his father to walk through the doors. I've been waiting for this day for a long time.
Because that day would end the struggle.
But it hadn't, and now Kylo has no hope, because there is no Han Solo to walk through to his own demise, or to rescue his son.
You killed him because you were afraid. Fear is supposed to lead to the Dark Side, strengthen him, but when Kylo extends his hands, all he feels is the limp motivation, the strangely dull power, the urge to look over his shoulder. The Dark Side needs to consume him. Maybe it is consuming him.
"I'm sorry, Grandfather," Kylo ekes out. "I—I can't—"
You're afraid… that you'll never be as strong as Darth Vader!
His fears are realized, Kylo knows. He will never be like Darth Vader. Sentiment.
Instead of smashing his room, Kylo cries.
Rey starts by asking Luke about different abilities of the Force. She knows about mind tricks, levitation, telekinesis.
"You're quite skilled with mind tricks," Luke tells her, one eyebrow raised. Not for the first time, Rey wonders what her mentor knows about her past, about her family.
She has more pressing questions tonight, though. Swallowing the lump in her throat, Rey asks about telepathic communication.
"Sometimes," Luke answers. "And sometimes, I've heard, that there can be a force bond between Jedi masters and padawans. I never experienced that, though—not with my teacher, or with my padawans."
You need a teacher!
He's not my teacher! Rey thinks frantically. "So… does it have to be between a teacher and a padawan?"
Luke pauses, swirling his cup of water around. Rain pounds the outside of the ship. "I've never heard otherwise, but I imagine it could form between any two Jedi with a close attachment."
"I think it'd be frustrating to have someone in your thoughts all the time," Rey says.
"Well, I don't think it works quite like that. A Jedi should be able to block thoughts. And it'd be an advantage if two Jedi needed to communicate in war time… or find each other."
Find.
Find each other? Like location?
A barrage of curse words in many languages swell up in Rey as she feels Kylo's interest peak.
"Don't worry," Luke says. "I don't think we're Force bonded."
"Mm-hm." Rey nods, using all her willpower to block Kylo from getting her location. I'm not giving you anything!
We'll see. She feels something else from him, something almost like hope, but far more jagged and fraying and desperate.
Rey pushes back to see his thoughts, she's sucked into what feels like a maelstrom of violent thoughts: Find out where Skywalker is—tell Snoke, he'll be proud of you again, you'll make up for it, the weakness will fall away—no, it won't, it will never go away because you can't revive him—you're alone, so alone—he's gone—
Loneliness screams, and Rey yanks herself back, stunned. Ben? she asks, not knowing why she chooses his birth name.
He doesn't answer, but she senses his horror, mingled with his shame.
"How much longer are you going to give them?" Poe inquires. He winks at Finn as he slips in the door.
General Organa sighs. "It's only been a few weeks, Dameron. I've been waiting for years."
"But it's so close now," C-3PO opines. "So close, and yet—"
"That's enough, 3PO," Poe says.
The golden droid drops its head. "I miss Master Luke as well."
"We have the map," Poe says. "Why don't we just go to him?"
Finn nods, agreeing with Poe.
"I can fly you there," Poe says. "You know I can."
"I'm well aware of your piloting skills," General Organa says with almost motherly affection. "But Luke's been away for a long time. There's much—much that needs to be said, and much that needs to be accounted for. If he wanted to see me, he would."
"Then why were we all risking our lives to find him?" Poe demands.
"Because the galaxy needs balance, and for that, the galaxy needs Jedi. Rey is with Luke. There's hope." General Organa paces, staring out at the tiny window.
"You keep telling yourself that, but I know you're upset," Poe says, distressed. "You've been through enough."
She snorts. "That is certainly true." When she turns to face them again, she's smirking. "Let's—try to radio them. Ask how it's going."
"Yes!" Poe thrusts his fist in the air. "Hey, where you going?" he calls to Finn.
"Giving her some privacy?"
"No," Poe says, grabbing Finn's arm. "You're Rey's friend. She'll be happy to hear from you."
"Boys, we're all leaving. I don't have a transceiver in here," General Organa says with a wry smile.
She leads them to a small room, far smaller than Finn's, even, crammed with a narrow bed and a small metal table to the side. The General squats down and rifles through a drawer, pulling out a radio. Finn catches a glimpse of what looks like an infant's cap inside.
The notion of Kylo Ren as a baby is too strange for Finn. He shudders.
"Chewbacca," the General says. "Chewbacca, come in, please. It's me."
A roar echoes from the transceiver. Finn smirks as he remembers Han Solo's walking carpet of a companion.
"Is Rey there? My brother?" Her voice wavers, so full of hope and trepidation.
"Leia?"
"Rey!" Finn shouts, because he can't help himself.
Poe casts him a sidelong smile.
"Finn?"
"Yeah, it's me!" She remembers him. She's excited to hear from him. Finn grins so much he must look stupid, but he doesn't care.
"How are you?"
"Good—good, I'm good!"
Her laugh carries. "I can hear you just fine. You don't have to yell."
"How are things going, Rey?' the General inquires.
There's a pause. "Fine. Good. Luke's a good teacher."
"And my brother?"
"He's well, Leia." Finn sees relief wash over the General's face.
"Are you planning on returning here anytime soon?"
"Um—" Rey's voice cracks. "Soon. I think. Just not right now. I think training by the—by the temple is helping me." She clears her throat.
Finn doesn't understand the Force much, but hey, if the temple was important enough for Luke to abandon the entire galaxy for, who is he to question Rey?
"Is my brother there, Rey?"
"He's asleep. It's night here. I could wake him up…" Rey sounds uncertain, and the General's already shaking her head.
"You don't have to lie for him, Rey. I'll wait. Just—don't take too long, okay? Make sure you're both back before the First Order starts building another Starkiller Base." The General shakes her head.
"Of course." Rey's voice sounds thinner than Finn remembers it.
"Are they really?" Poe asks. "Building—another?"
General Leia shakes her head. "According to our intelligence… yes."