"Going to the colony soon?" Finn greets Poe as his friend ambles to the small kitchen area, his hair still mussed from sleep. Finn only slept for a few hours before waking and wandering past Ben's open door and realizing where he probably was. It doesn't bother Finn as much as it should, but it still kept him awake.
Poe nods, yawning as he pours some of the blue milk he bought the day before. "Want to come? Or are you going to train with Rey and Ben?"
"They're still asleep," Finn says. He won't reveal that they're both asleep in the same room. "How is it? Being back here?"
"It's good." Poe shrugs. "It makes me miss my family, though."
Finn wonders whether he has a family, whether they miss him. Poe sighs as if he knows what Finn's thinking. "What happened to your parents?"
Poe sips his milk. "Mom got sick. She died when I was eight. Dad died ten years ago, on a mission. I was off flying for the New Republic then." He shakes his head. "The last time I came here was right after he died. He'd be proud I'm working for the Resistance. I know it."
"I wonder about mine," Finn admits. "Were they Force sensitive? Do they miss me? Are they alive?"
"We can try to find them," Poe suggests.
Hope sparks. "Is there a way?"
Poe frowns. "I'm sure there's got to be. We'll find a way. We'll try."
"Thanks," Finn says, moved that Poe wants to help him. He gives a timid smile. "Why did you sign up with the Resistance? Was it because of your parents' connections?"
"Sort of. It's a long story. I worked for the New Republic before then, because I knew that I wanted to be a pilot, but I also wanted to work for the right..." Poe exhales. "Do some good for the galaxy. Be a hero, you know?"
"No." Finn leans back. Maybe he knows now. "I only ever wanted to fit in with the stormtroopers when I was growing up. I never really did."
"And that's what made you a hero." Poe winks, and Finn's heart lurches. He doesn't understand why.
Poe swigs down his milk as someone pounds on the door. He almost chokes.
"Who's that?" Finn demands.
Poe shakes his head, gulping air and hacking.
"What if the First Order—"
"Here!" Poe thrusts Rey's lightsaber hilt at him and grabs a blaster for himself as they both slink towards the door.
"Poe Dameron!" Leia's voice, muffled but no less enraged, calls. "Poe, we know you're in there!"
A Wookiee roars. Finn gapes at Poe, switching off the lightsaber.
"I had no idea they were coming!" Poe insists, reaching for the door and opening it to find not just Leia, her lips set in a line too straight, and Chewie, towering over them, but a happy R2 who rushes towards BB-8 cooing and beeping, a bitter C-3PO complaining about how he's not suited for this terrain, and a somber man draped in Jedi robes and clutching a lightsaber as green as a TIE fighter cannon shot.
"How nice to see you," Poe squeaks.
Leia marches in, face softening when she catches sight of Finn. "Good to see you in one piece, Finn."
The man—Luke Skywalker, Finn realizes—glances at the lightsaber hilt in Finn's hand. "It's Rey's. She's asleep. I'm just holding it for her," he says quickly.
"How did you get past the First Order?" Poe inquires, still coughing.
"There was no First Order in the area, so it was quite easy," Leia informs him, scanning the place like she knows.
"You lied to us?" Poe gapes.
One glower from Leia shuts Poe up.
"Really, Master Poe, after the trick you and Rey pulled on Ahch-To, it should be no surprise—" tuts C-3PO.
BB-8 starts to blurt out a message that Poe wildly waves his arms and cuts off. R2 mews.
"Okay, fair," Poe admits. "I'm sorry about that, General."
"Well, in all fairness, my brother once abandoned his training to rescue a friend too," Leia says. "And me."
Luke nods. "That I did." He studies Finn. "How did you escape?"
"We can wake Rey up," Poe suggests. "Seher managed to heal her—"
Finn copies Poe's earlier arm motions to BB-8. No! No! No! Why can't he and Poe share a Force bond or something like that?
Poe cocks his head quizzically. Luke studies Finn, and Chewie grumbles.
Finn gives Poe a pointed look, and Poe's face blanches. "Oh," he says. "Okay. Well—maybe we should let her sleep a bit longer—still recovering and all—" Poe darts into the kitchen. "Milk?" He lifts the jug as if offering them liquid Force. "Do you want some milk?"
Neither Skywalker appears amused.
"We have a lot of questions for Rey," Luke puts in. "Questions that can't wait."
"Questions for Rey?" Finn asks. "Why?"
"Search the house," Leia tells Chewie and the droids.
BB-8 squeals and whizzes out a message that Finn doesn't understand, but judging by the way everyone turns to the corner with Rey's door, the droid's just given away where she is.
"BB-8!" Poe scolds.
"Why don't you want us to talk to her, Dameron?" demands Leia, stalking towards the door with Luke on her heels.
"That's not it at all!" Poe protests, sounding like a little child. "General—"
"What is going on?" Rey shouts from behind the door. "Finn, Poe—who—?"
"Shit," groans Poe as Leia jerks open the door to reveal Rey standing next to the bed, her hair strewn around her face and for reasons Finn will probably never understand, wearing Kylo Ren's shirt, and Ben, shirtless, frantically backing up on the bed as if terrified.
"Well, this is awkward," proclaims C-3PO.
"Yes, thank you, 3PO, we didn't already know that," Finn hisses.
"I'll get dressed," Rey says quickly, moving to block Ben from view.
Leia and Luke back away, Leia's face gray. Chewie isn't even making a sound.
"He helped me escape," Finn offers.
Rey yanks off the stupid shirt she fell asleep in and tosses it at Ben, whose face has taken on a distinct green pallor. His lips pucker as if he's about to vomit.
"Are you okay?" she asks, pulling on her top. It's only slightly damp from yesterday's swimming experiment.
"I'm not ready for this," he mutters, leaning forward and squeezing his forehead as if he'd like to break his skull.
"Well, they're here regardless." Rey pulls on her sleeves and twists her hair up into its requisite three knots.
He grimaces as he holds the black garment. "I just—I don't know what I can possibly say."
"There really isn't much you can say," Rey admits, rounding the bed to hold his arms. "You'll have to prove it to her. To them."
"What if I can't?"
"You've already proven yourself to me. To Finn, and Poe, and BB-8."
Ben pulls back and Rey closes her eyes, entering his mind. She sees him walking out on a bridge, focusing on one thought: find the girl.
But other thoughts beckon, including the sensation that his father is close, very close.
Don't let Snoke know you've failed. Find her. End them.
"Ben!"
The shout, the voice, it's desperate and furious, and Kylo's heart stops. His throat tightens, and it's the moment he knows Snoke's been waiting for, the moment his hatred for his father reaches its peak—but he hates his father for calling out to him, for putting him in this position, and he hates himself because there's a soft glow of hope lighting up in his stomach, traveling to his fingertips, and he doesn't know if the hope is dark or light, power or grace.
"Han Solo," he says. You know what you need to do He means nothing to you, he is nothing to you, stop! "I've been waiting for this day for a long time."
"Take off that mask. You don't need it." And his father comes closer, steps onto the bridge for him, and Kylo wants to run, flee, get away because he sees care in his father's eyes, love, and Kylo knows in that instant he still loves his father, too.
"What do you think you'll see if I do?" A monster? Maybe he's wrong. Maybe his father does hate him, despise him for what he's become.
"The face of my son."
You cannot deny the truth that is your family.
No, no—I have to. Snoke. You are Kylo Ren, not Ben Solo! "Your son," he sneers. "Is gone." But his voice comes out far more desperate than he intended. "He was weak and foolish like his father, so I destroyed him!"
"No." Kylo hasn't seen this much love, this much hope, on his father's face since he was five or six. "That's what Snoke wants you to believe, but it's not true. My son is alive."
"No," Kylo Ren insists. "The Supreme Leader is wise." And Snoke is. He needs it to be true. He needs to trust in the Supreme Leader. He cannot let his father seduce him. By the grace of your training…
"Snoke is using you for your power. When he gets what he wants, he'll crush you. You know it's true."
He's scared for me, Kylo realizes, and he wants to throw himself at his father's feet and cry like a child, but he can't. Snoke would find him. He'd kill them all. And after all you've done... His worst fears froth up, and Kylo admits it out loud: "It's too late."
"No, it's not. Leave here with me. Come home."
There's so much hope now, and it's light hope, hope from the Light, and Kylo wants to drown in it. But the Dark sinks its claws in, threatening to destroy him.
"We miss you."
Those three words promise him everything, and Kylo's heart leaps. Everything, he thinks, including pain, misery, and humiliation. You'd have to work for the Resistance and help them set up a new blasted Republic.
But they miss him.
"I'm being torn apart. I want to be free of this pain." And he does, oh he does, and somehow on this bridge it will end, and Kylo's not even sure how he wants it to end. "I know what I have to do, but I don't know if I have the strength to do it." Kill Han Solo. Leave Snoke. Which one? "Will you help me?"
"Anything."
Kill him. Do it now. But Kylo still hesitates, watches as the first seeds of doubts enter his father's face, and he heeds Snoke's voice and kills him.
"No!" Rey screeches.
"Thank you," he breathes, a lie if there ever was one, because when his father touches his face, gazing at him in horror and yet without acceptance, he knows. He knows before Han falls, before he falls to his knees, that this isn't over. That the war inside of him rages on, and instead of relief, he feels only weakness, burning, devouring blackness.
Rey snaps out of Kylo's—Ben's—mind, watching him as he looks at her in fear, as if he expects her to announce it was all a mistake, that she despises him now, as if he expects her to plunge a lightsaber into him.
She pulls him close, pressing her forehead against his. "He loved you. He'd want you to do this." Her voice drops. "It's not too late."
He looks at her as if he wants desperately to believe her.
Do you want me to stay with you?
He shakes his head. "You need to talk to Luke. I'll wait in here."
I'll still be with you, she promises. If you need me, just ask.
He nods.
Rey strides outside, feeling her face flush as Finn and Poe chat with R2 and BB-8—or Poe chats, at least. Chewie comes up to Rey, embracing her.
"Thanks, Chewie," she mumbles, catching sight of Luke and Leia standing in the doorway, both lost in a whirlwind of thoughts and memories and regrets.
"Rey." Finn hands over her lightsaber.
"Um." Rey clears her throat, and the Skywalker twins both turn to her. "Leia… he's in there."
The general nods and wipes at her eyes with shaking fingers.
Rey wonders if her mother ever cried for her.
The belonging you seek is not behind you, but ahead.
Maybe now, it's all around her.
She turns to Luke, who inclines his head as if asking her to follow him as he steps outside and sits on the grass. Rey copies him.
He looks at her as if she were her own daughter. "You and Kylo Ren share a Force bond."
She nods. "Are you mad at me?"
"No." Luke looks to the sky. "I'm mad at me."
Rey waits, feeling the sunlight pour down her back, dribble down her spine. It's soothing.
"When you came to me on Ahch-To, I wasn't surprised, because I always knew that someone would find me. The Force would send someone again." Luke sighs. "But I'd been running for so long."
Rey's confused. "I'm sorry I left."
Luke laughs. "Don't be sorry, Rey. I would have done the same thing. I did do the same thing—I left Yoda to rescue Han and Leia. Obi-Wan wasn't pleased either."
"Who's Obi-Wan?"
"Kenobi. He's—" Luke launches into the story of Obi-Wan, starting with Leia's plea, with the Ben Kenobi he knew growing up. He details how Obi-Wan began his training, how Luke's own father cut him down, but he didn't tell Luke Darth Vader was his father. "I'm going to be more honest with you."
"What do you mean?"
"Leia and I spoke with Maz, Rey. We have reason to believe—we think you're Obi-Wan's granddaughter."
For all her years, Rey's wanted a place to belong, a family, and now that she hears that she might have a surname—Kenobi—it feels strangely empty. And yet she searches with the force, and she knows it's true. Part of her wants to ask how, demand details, and yet part of her wants to wait.
"Tell me about the Force bond," Luke encourages.
"No, R2, I'll be fine," Leia says as she pauses outside the door her son hides behind.
You think I want to forget him? I want him back!
We can still save him. Me. You.
If you see our son, bring him home.
And Ben murdered his own father, and yet somehow, he's here. Finn claims he rescued him.
Leia pushes open the door and lets it seal behind her. There, she sees her son for the first time as a man.
Ben's standing below the window, taller than Leia pictured. He whirls around and drops to his knees before her.
He doesn't speak, but Leia can see him trembling as he drops his head. He wraps his arms around himself, squeezing tightly, too tightly.
Leia reaches down, unclasps his hands. "Don't!" That is not the word she's looking for. "I mean—Ben—"
His shoulders shake, and Leia hears him gasping, and she remembers all the nightmares he used to have. "Ben." She eases herself onto the bed, letting go of his hands to reach down and grasp his chin, lift his face.
His cheeks are thinner now than when she last saw him, but he still looks like the child she remembers, albeit with tears filling his eyes, eyes that scrabble to look anywhere but at her and fail—he's looking straight at her now. A jagged burn scar falls from his forehead to his cheek. Leia's throat constricts. Her boy. Her son. She wants to take her hands and wipe away the scar like she once wiped his tears.
Her own cheeks are wet. "Ben," she says again, because it's the only thing she wants to say. Ben. His name. The name Han picked for their son.
He shakes his head, opens his mouth to speak and finds he can't.
"I know," she says finally. "I know, Ben. I know what you did." White-hot pain flames through her as she remembers.
"I'm sorry," he says, and his voice—she hasn't heard it in fifteen years, hasn't ever heard it so deep. No matter what Snoke's done to her child, what he's done to himself, his voice is still softer than she expects.
He bites his lip as if disgusted with how frail his words sound. "I loved him. I love him. I did—I do. I'm sorry." He drops his face again, sobs tearing him apart. "I wish—I could take it back. I wish it were me."
"He wouldn't wish that, though," Leia chokes out.
"I know."
"And you can't undo it."
"I know."
"Come up here." She tugs his arm, pulls him up to sit next to her. She envelops him in her arms, cradling him, breathing the scent of his hair, absorbing his shuddering cries. "I love you."
"Why?" He sounds strangled, desperate.
"Because you're my son." She kisses his forehead. "And all I've ever wanted is you home, and you're here. You're back."
"I thought you would forget me."
"Never," she says. "Not even if I died. Ben, I want you back."
"I'm here," he whispers, lifting his head to look into her eyes. "I'm not with Snoke anymore. Or the Dark Side."
"I know, baby," she soothes, rocking him back and forth. Because she does know. The Force tells her.
"Mother… he touched my face. He told me he missed me," Ben sobs. "I'm a monster."
"He didn't believe that," Leia insists.
Ben deflates in her arms. "I know."
We can still save him. Me. You.
We still can, Han, Leia thinks. Me. You.
Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! May you have plenty of chocolate. I hope you've enjoyed this weekend of fluffy happy chapters, because things are going to take a darker turn very soon.