"You haven't run away again yet," Leia says to her brother on Monday. She crosses her arms. "I'm impressed."

Luke swallows. Artoo sits by his feet. "Leia, you know I couldn't… I couldn't face you. Not after Ben left, and I—I was so depressed. I felt like such a failure. I—"

"I could have helped you!" Leia shakes her head, anger storming up her throat. "I wouldn't have—I know you weren't in the best frame of mind to get anything done, to look for him after everything happened—but I would have helped you. Been there for you." Because no one was there. Her son ran and she couldn't find a trace of him. Her brother left weeks later. Her husband grew distant, taking long, overseas assignments, leaving Leia with only Alderaan House as a glue to keep herself together.

Except, Leia already knows that her work healed her and tore her family apart. Just like Han's work. If they'd been there for Ben…

But they couldn't have. They'd both established their reputations long before Ben was born. He never had a chance.

"I don't know how much help I can be," Luke says quietly. "I don't know whether I want to be that much help. I don't know whether you'd want me to."

"Why wouldn't I? FO Tech needs to be taken down. Between Han's story and Poe's investigation, we could do it." They need to do it. Leia's seen too many mothers' tears, the children asking where their fathers are. She can't tolerate it anymore.

"Because you know as well as I do that your son works there. He's a higher-up. If Snoke goes down, he goes down."

"It's the greater good."

"Isn't that exactly the attitude that lost you Ben?" Luke points out.

"What do you suggest, Luke?" Leia demands. "If Ben goes to jail, he'll still be here. I'll know he's alive. I'll be able to see him. That's all I want."

It's not, though. She wants to hold her baby in her arms again, run her hand over the black tufts of his hair, wrap her love around him and know that he feels loved and safe and secure.

It's too late, Han told her brokenly through a smashed lip and with blood still trickling from a gash on his temple. And then her ex doubled over and sobbed.

It's not too late. If Ben can get away from Snoke's influence… even in prison, he'd be freer than he is now. Leia knows Snoke, and what he can do.

He doesn't want to protect us, Chewie whispered when Luke shared his theory as to why Kylo was looking for him.

What if he does? There's still light in him, I know it.

"How long have you known he was Kylo Ren?" Luke inquires.

"We heard of Kylo Ren six years ago. I didn't think anything of it. I paid so many private investigators, Luke—you know I couldn't make it public. People were still looking to harm me, to harm him. For years, I thought they might've found him, or that he was lying dead in a gutter." Leia blinks back tears. "They never found him. But when we found out about FO Tech selling to cartels—at least, when Poe found some evidence, I called Han. I asked him to get involved." And he came, her ex-husband, because even in spite of all the fights and all the hateful words slung at each other, she loves him. And Ben binds them together, in their best and worst moments. "He found out who Kylo Ren was. Recently."

And she'd crumpled when she heard it, because she knew she should have looked harder at Snoke. You missed your chance.

She sees Luke close his eyes and arch his neck, no doubt thinking the same. If they'd just pursued harder.

And Han's beating sends a clear message.

Still, Leia believes. There will be more chances. Always.

When Snoke summons Hux, he knows why.

I'm dead.

Hix stands and checks his image in the small decorative mirror on his wall. Hair smooth and clothing unwrinkled, without even a cat hair. He can do this.

You're Brendol Hux's son. You do not apologize. You can explain.

Hux strides down the hallways, jaw set and fists tightened. He takes the elevator up, keeping his breaths short and constriction. Don't waver.

"Come in," Snoke directs. The fury blazing from each line in his face strikes Hux in the chest. He steps forward, wishing he could run.

"Can you tell me," Snoke seethes. "What in the hell you thought you were doing?"

"I thought if we could—"

Snoke leans across his desk, eyes dark and rabid and snapping. "Thought. On what evidence? I advise risks, Hux, but not blind ones!"

"Kylo Ren needs to be—"

"I trust Kylo Ren at the moment more than I trust you! You, who seemed so competent—" Snoke shakes his head. "You come running to me to tattle on Kylo Ren, and think that does you favors while you're concealing your own missteps? Your father would be so disappointed in you."

Hux thinks of Kylo's father, calling out for a son who's now a ghost.

"He didn't believe you could go very far, thought you were too foolish," Snoke continues. "I saw something in you. I gave you this job and you proved him wrong every day, until now. Was I wrong?"

Hux shakes his head. "No, Snoke—I—it won't happen again."

"It won't," Snoke agrees, leaning back and flicking his fingers.

"If they have Luke Skywalker—he was the best at what he did. You know it, and I know it. He brought down Empire. I think it's reasonable to be concerned—"

"I am concerned, Hux. Which is why I am proceeding cautiously." Snoke sighs. "As for Phasma—"

A lump grows in Hux's throat. "It was my idea, not hers. I take full responsibility."

"Good. Have her track that kid. The one who left, the scholarship recipient. I have it on good authority he lives with Kylo Ren's girlfriend. And that Dameron character."

"So you agree?" Hux asks. "We should be keeping tabs on Kylo Ren?"

"I didn't say I agreed or not, Hux. I simply said it. It has nothing to do with Kylo Ren. Tell Phasma to do what she can to use what that boy knows for our greater good."

"And how is she to do that?"

"She'll know."

"Nines?"

"The other kid? I plan on firing him and teaching him a lesson."

Hux cannot lose another valuable member of his program. Not two in one month. "Do we need to resort to such drastic measures? It's not as if he's a random we hired. He's talented. He's dedicated. Maybe reassign him, watch him more carefully—but I assure you if he didn't think—"

"Fine," Snoke snaps. He shakes his head. "You can go."

"I won't disappoint you again, Snoke," Hux insists before turning for the door.

"I know you won't," Snoke answers.

He knows Hux won't. Because Hux is predictable. And predictability is a trait Hux has always valued.

But as he tries to predict the rest of his future, Hux isn't sure he likes what he sees.

Finn wanders back towards Alderaan House on his lunch break when a familiar voice shouts his name from behind him.

Oh no.

Oh fuck.

Finn takes off, running as fast as he can past confused couples and mothers with strollers. He can hear her footsteps pounding the pavement behind him, catching up. She's got at least six inches on him. He has no chance—please—

Her hand snakes out and grabs his shoulder, twisting him into a side alley and slamming him up against a brick building. Finn gapes into Phasma's face, knotted with fury.

"What do you want?" Finn gags. He considers screaming let go of me, but it won't work. If she's found him once, she can find him again.

There's no hiding from FO Tech.

The only one who did it successfully is Luke Skywalker, and now everyone knows he's back.

"An explanation," Phasma sneers.

"I gave you it that day at Niima—" His windpipe constricts, and it isn't from her arm. Finn gulps for air.

"No. Now you're working for Alderaan House. Now you're—"

"Happy?" Finn manages. "Happy that I'm not participating in slaughtering—"

"We gave you everything. From the time you were in high school. Without us, you'd be stuck at some community school, serving McDonald's."

"Yeah?" Finn stammers, trying to focus, focus on Rey, on Poe, on Leia. "I'd still have a conscience."

Phasma's face blanches, and she removes her arm from Finn's neck. "I took care of you, Finn. If you let this ridiculous guilt—"

"That's what you're worried about!" Realization shatters the cage of anxiety closing in on him. "You're worried I'll go to the police and share some shady details. You're worried about you."

"It's a legitimate concern," Phasma snarls. "And it's not just me. It's the company. I care about FO Tech."

Finn remembers all her impassioned speeches, starting with her recruitment at his high school, and then all the little speeches about what a powerful and great company FO Tech was that she gave to Finn over the phone, when he struggled in his college classes. Why is she so loyal to FO Tech? Finn wonders. "If I haven't turned you in for running—that guy—over, what makes you think that—"

"Yet." Phasma glowers at him.

I'm in charge now, Finn realizes. I hold the power. Sort of. I'm in charge. Take that, Phasma!

Bring it down, Finn, bring it down, he tells himself. She could easily send thugs after him. "Everything was classified at FO Tech anyways," he tells her. "I just want to be free to live my own life, away from FO Tech. I won't interfere." Except, will he? When he thinks about what they did to Poe…

You're a liar.

"What did we do wrong?" Phasma asks.

Oh for God's sake! "It's not you, it's me," Finn tells her drolly. "Now I'm going to go back to work, okay?"

"No." Phasma grabs his arm again. "It's not—"

"What the hell?"

"You're the only person from our scholarship program, who's been given so much, to leave, and I—"

"Just because FO Tech gave you everything you wanted doesn't mean it ever gave me—"

"Everything I wanted?" Phasma snorts. "Hardly. It helped me see that my wants are insignificant. I was part of their first batch of scholarship students, you know. No one thought I could do any good, but I did. You reminded me of me, Finn, and now Snoke is—"

"Finn? You okay?" Rey's voice, sweet and yet powerful, interrupts. She and another girl—Jess, if Finn remembers correctly—stare at the two of them.

"Um, yeah," Finn says, glancing at Phasma. "I'm fine. We're fine."

He's about to tell Phasma that he's going to go now, but the look on Phasma's face, the hungry, familiar way she looks at Rey, stalls him. "I'll catch up with you," he tells Rey and Jess, who nod.

"So she's your friend," Phasma states. "Your roommate, and your dear friend."

"What do you know about her?" Finn demands, blood surging hot under his skin.

"Rey? I know that she was dumped off as a foster kid when she was five. I know her parents were no ones. I also know the court tried to place her with Luke Skywalker, but he reneged on their deal. And that Kylo Ren is utterly infatuated with her and Snoke doesn't like it one bit."

Finn feels as if he's standing still while everything—the brick building, the trees, the smog-infected sky—spins. "Rey and Luke Skywalker? Snoke and—oh my God."

Does Luke know?

Finn has no idea. Rey certainly doesn't.

"Your side keeps secrets too," Phasma taunts him.

"You're lying."

"Am I?" Phasma crosses her arms. "Hux ordered me to research the girl. I can keep her off the radar, provided you keep your mouth shut about everything you know about FO Tech."

No. No no no—his freedom disintegrates in his fingers. "I already told you I won't—"

"And," Phasma continues. "Should the day ever come where you need to warn us—about anything, because yes, I know who your other roommate is—you will do so."

"Or what?" Finn snarls.

Phasma crosses her arms, her eyes like dark pools simmering with cruelty. "Or Kylo Ren will lose his girlfriend."

"Stupid thing," Han mutters, slamming several keys on his computers as Jess waves goodbye to Rey.

Rey's stomach twists itself as she ponders Finn arguing with that woman. The same woman who he argued with in Niima Coffee Post.

"Hey, kid," Han says, waving at Rey. Chewie nods at her.

"Here to see Leia?" Rey asks.

"Kind of. And Luke. Heard he was at your place on Saturday." Han's eyes sweep her up and down.

"You should put aloe on that burn," Chewie suggests.

"I have been," Rey admits. The blisters are finally starting to burst and run, and she has to wear long sleeves even though it hurts just so that people won't think she has bubonic plague.

"Yeesh," Chewie comments.

Han mutters something at his screen again. "Oh, come on now."

"Computer troubles?" Rey asks.

"Yeah, one of my encryptions is being… difficult."

"I might be able to fix it," Rey offers.

"You?" Han looks at her in shock. The coffee girl? he's probably thinking.

"Yeah. I'm quite good with computers." Rey reaches for his laptop, and Han hands it over. Within five minutes, she hands it back to him with a smile.

"What'd you do?" Han asks, eyeing her in suspicion.

"Well, see, I went through the—"

"Nope, never mind. I don't have time for that mumbo-jumbo." Han shakes his head. "Good job, kid."

Rey peers at his face. His bruises have faded from maroon and indigo to yellow and brown. "Are you doing okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Han waves his hand and glances at Chewie.

"It's your son, right?" Rey quizzes, heart pounding. She wants to gauge his reaction. Does he hate Kylo?

Han shrugs, but the look in his eyes is one of raw, searing pain. Rey swallows.

Whatever journalist project he's working on, Rey thinks. It could bring his son down too. And he has to know that. "Do you still love him?" Probably not a polite question to ask, Rey.

"Of course I do," Han spits, as if the suggestion otherwise nauseates him. "He's my son. I might've lost him for good, but I'll never—I'll always—" He stops himself. Chewie groans.

Lost him for good.

Has he?

Would Han think that, if he knew of the guilt stirring within Kylo? Within Ben?

"So Rey and I saw Finn talking to a woman from FO Tech. The one who heads up all that recruiting. Phasma," Jess says, hooking her fingers in her pockets.

"And…?" Poe drawls.

"And, it looked like an intense conversation. Like they were arguing."

Anger flares through Poe. Poor Finn. "They were probably harassing him."

"Maybe." Jess's tone irks Poe. Leia trusts Finn, he trusts Finn, everyone trusts Finn. Even Jess said she liked him two friggin' days ago.

Poe pushes his chair back and storms away. He passes Luke in the hall and nods at him. "Sir."

"Nose doing okay?" Luke calls.

Poe stops. "Yeah. Not the first time it's been broken. Probs not the last."

Luke studies Poe and smiles. "You look like your mother."

"Really?" Poe's face flushes to the roots of his hair.

"You've got her hair and eyes," Luke says. "She and Kes were dear friends of mine."

Poe nods, a lump in his throat. "Thank you." He's lived his whole life for their values, hoping that wherever they are, they're proud of him.

Luke's gaze travels past Poe and hones in on Rey, who chats with Chewie. Shadows fall over Luke's face, and Poe cocks his head.

"See you later," Luke tells Poe, clapping him on the shoulder and heading towards Leia's office.

That night, Finn drives Poe and Beebee-Ate home. Rey claimed she was meeting friends. Although Poe suspects she's just meeting one friend, and doesn't want to deal with the inevitable grief they'll give her.

"How was your day?" Poe questions, studying Finn.

"Fine." Finn clenches his fingers against the steering wheel.

Poe waits for Finn to speak. Instead, Finn seems to swallow his words.

No. Poe's not having any of this shit. He's not letting Jess's implications influence him, fed by a silent void. "Jess told me she and Rey saw you arguing with someone from FO Tech."

Finn exhales. "Yeah. Phasma. She's the one who recruited me. Back in high school." His voice shakes.

"What did she want?"

"To know why, what went wrong, stuff like that. I didn't really want to tell her anything besides that I was sick of working for them and I want to live my own life."

"Okay… are you okay?"

Finn shrugs. "I'll be fine."

But when they arrive at their apartment and Finn goes to his room, Poe hears the telltale gasps of a panic attack. Poe pauses outside Finn's door, his hand hovering over the doorknob.

He doesn't twist it open.

"I thought about going out, but then I figured we could just eat here," Kylo says nervously as Rey enters his house. And it'd be safer.

Rey grins. "Can we eat out by the pool? It's not too hot and it's getting dark, so we won't burn."

"I don't have a table—"

"Lounge chairs are fine," Rey declares. The skin on her forehead is starting to peel, and Kylo knows his skin looks the same. But her olive green top calls out the green in her eyes, and Kylo's heart skips a beat.

She agreed to spend time with him. Again. Why?

He's spent the past week agonizing over his work and helping Hux on this Starkiller project as little as he can while still coming across as working hard. He might earn back Snoke's trust. And if he can do that, maybe he can be free to pursue something with Rey.

"I did stop at a place and pick up Italian," Kylo says. "And I have wine."

"As long as it's red wine." Rey winks.

"Done." He has both red and white.

When he envisioned this dinner in his mind, he never pictured eating with a plate on his lap, a wine glass resting on the concrete near his pool. But Rey's with him and they're both laughing and she hasn't brought up his parents so far.

Their conversation lulls, and Rey sighs. "One of the people from FO Tech came after Finn today."

"A tall woman?"

"Yup."

"Phasma," Kylo says, rolling his eyes. "I'll tell her to stop." Although, since he already did, he's not sure what good it'll do. Anger simmers. How dare she?

"Good. Finn deserves to be left alone by your goons." Rey pours herself a second glass of wine, and tops off Kylo's. "And Poe, too."

"If you think my work is so terrible, why don't you think I'm terrible?' Kylo asks as he swallows the sour wine. It churns in his mind.

"I don't know," Rey admits. Kylo's heart plummets. "But you're not."

You're not. You're not terrible.

"I can't reconcile it. I don't want to be your friend, not when you work for them. But you helped me. I don't understand. Aren't you better than them?"

"What if I'm not?"

"What if you are?"

How can she even still ask that? "How is my—Han Solo?"

Rey pauses, spinning her finger around the rim of her glass. A moan erupts from it. She stops. "I talked to him today, actually. He needed computer help."

Kylo smirks.

"He said he loves you." Rey meets his eyes and downs half her glass.

The words get stuck. Kylo can't process them. "Did you—"

"I didn't tell him I knew you," Rey interrupts. "I just… asked. And he said he still loves you. That he'll always love you."

No. He can't have. The words, they caress Kylo's face and he wants to shy away, wants to stab them away, erase them because he knows Rey wouldn't lie to him about this and yet he wants to jump and scream at her that she's a liar, because to believe it would be to swallow razor blades, to bleed out from his own mistakes. "He didn't," is all Kylo can manage.

"He did." Rey finishes her second glass and peers at him. Kylo chugs his own wine, wanting to numb these feelings, the pain twisting and scraping his insides.

"He doesn't, though."

"Yes, he does. Aren't parents supposed to love you?"

"Did yours?" Kylo asks. It's almost completely dark, and indigo shadows cloak Rey's frame.

"I don't know who they are. Presumably not." Rey grabs the wine and pours a third glass, but doesn't raise it to her lips. "But yours do. All mine would have to do is… frickin' show up."

Kylo's heart aches, and it has less to do with him and more to do with the raw agony seeping through Rey's tone. "Do you remember them at all?"

She shakes her head. "Nope." She sips the wine and makes a face. "I remember my father's voice, though. At least I think it was my father. He said: 'stay here, sweetheart. I'll come back for you.'" She lets out a barking laugh. "He didn't."

"I'm so sorry," Kylo says.

"Why won't you go to your parents?" Rey demands, her voice wobbling. "You have them."

"They weren't there for me either. I mean, not in the same way yours weren't… but they still weren't. Snoke was."

Rey sets her wine down. "Why would you trade something freely given for something you have to earn?"

Kylo shakes his head, searching his mind, his feelings, trying to find a thread of reason as to why. "Because it's easier to trust that way? You don't have to rely on other people. You only have to rely on yourself." He pushes his wine away.

Rey's still watching him. "You love your mother. Luke said—he thinks you're looking for him, to protect her."

Kylo grabs the bottle of wine and pours more into his glass, splashing some of the red liquid onto the cement.

"You're not denying it?"

"Just because she doesn't love me doesn't mean I want her to suffer," Kylo snaps. "And she's going to create problems. As she always does. I'm protecting my company. And myself." And her. "It's more complicated than just that, though." He needs Luke because Snoke needs the files on Galactic Manufacturing, because Snoke's trying to create a superweapon that he doesn't have the knowledge to create on his own, a weapon GM drafted plans to create years earlier. In fact, Kylo wouldn't be shocked if the Starkiller deal provides enough money for Snoke to create whatever this weapon is. Except, if he finds Luke, which he can certainly do now... there's no telling what Snoke will want done to him. And Kylo's not sure he can go through with it. Not again.

"She is suffering. She misses you… misses Ben."

He'll always love you. Kylo presses his burned, peeling face into his knees. "You think I'm a bad person."

"Not really."

"If I were to go back," Kylo hears his own voice coming muffled. "They would hate me. They hate what I stand for. They would never understand."

"How did you wind up working for Snoke exactly?" Rey questions, leaning back on the chair. "If you were raised to believe in your mother's—"

"Weapons protect people, Rey. My mother's wrong about that. At least in part."

"Weapons also kill," Rey points out.

"Yeah, but—" Kylo swallows. "My parents used to take me on trips with them. To war-torn regions so my father could report and my mother could work her magic." He laughs because what he's saying isn't funny at all, and it's his flimsiest defense. "I made a friend there when I was eleven. His name was Luca—similar to my uncle's, and he was nice and we liked comic books and we stole one of his father's cigarettes to try together and almost choked ourselves. And then we left, and I had his address, and Mom said Luca and several others would get visas processed soon." He glugs the wine, feeling it burn his throat and wanting to drown himself in it. "But he didn't. People broke in. They massacred them all."

"I'm so sorry," Rey whispers.

Kylo closes his eyes. "If they'd been able to defend themselves… that's what Snoke said, anyways."

"How old were you when Snoke said that?" Rey demands.

"Fifteen." Kylo keeps his eyes squeezed shut as he feels a hand on his face, pressing against his fraying skin. She's sitting on his chair, eyes boring into his as she shakes her head.

"I don't know, Rey. There aren't any good answers, not really, are there? Weapons could have saved them. Or not. But they could have, and—" Kylo shakes his head.

"Do you still miss him?"

Kylo nods. "I wanted the people who killed him to suffer. I still want them to suffer. Mom would say how wrong revenge is, how it's just 'a cycle of hurt' and it's not any good, but God, I wanted it." He blinks. "And Snoke sells to the government opposing this group. That's good, to me."

"Is it? Don't they have families too?" Rey asks.

Kylo shrugs. He doesn't want to cry. Not in front of Rey. "If Snoke lets me take over the company... eventually. I won't run it the same way. I can't."

"Ben," she says, and he jumps.

Kylo shoves his wine glass onto the ground and watches the crimson liquid spill. "Ben's gone."

"Do you want him to be?" Rey asks, voice somewhat slurred.

Kylo can't answer. Her face hovers in front of his, and he leans in and opens his mouth over hers. Her lips open, and he tastes the eggplant parmagiana and the wine on her tongue. Her chest presses against his, and he grips her shoulders as if she's keeping him afloat. Her fingers rove through his hair, and he whispers her name when he comes up for air, before sinking back down into her lips. She wants him. She knows, and she still cares.

And then her hand presses against a blister on the back of his neck, and he gasps.

"Sorry," Rey pants as she pulls away. Her fingers rest just over where his pulse throbs in his neck.

She kissed him. The first girl he's kissed since, quite literally, high school. And that girl had gone on to say she'd only done it on a dare, because he was ugly with his oversized nose and ears and lips.

Rey's lips curve into a smile, and Kylo doesn't understand. He wants to kiss her again, dive in to unchartered waters. Then Rey burps, and Kylo remembers how much wine they've both had to drink.

"I'll call you a taxi," he murmurs.