Rey gaped at the speaker but all it could offer was a small snick and the hiss of distance. Apprentice? Apprentice? That was what he wanted her to join him for - so he could have her permanently on her knees being shouted at? He was planning on relaxing on the throne while she skivvied around doing the dirty work, exactly as he had done for Snoke.

She hit herself on the forehead with the heel of her palm. How had she fallen for all the lies he'd spun – all that 'let the past die' and the world with no Sith? How could she have been so stupid? Because she'd held his hand – that was why. Because back on Ahch-To she'd sat across a fire and looked into his eyes and she'd felt something – a connection, an understanding, something more even. She thought he'd felt it too.

When he'd said, 'join me, please,' his voice had cracked, and she'd thought his heart had cracked with it. But now she realised that simply wasn't the case. He had no intention of changing for her, he was the same man he'd always been. And that man was Kylo Ren.

As if she'd conjured him his hologram appeared on the comms panel in front of her, complete with mask and cowl, and when he spoke it was obvious he'd turned the voice modifier setting in his helmet from 'scary' to 'downright terrifying'.

'You know me,' he said, and she'd forgotten how alien he sounded, the creature in the mask.

'Today the Resistance has destroyed the Supremacy, and assassinated Supreme Leader Snoke. It is a black day for the First Order. But you know me, and you know I will not let this go unpunished.'

He wasn't talking to her, not specifically, this must be the announcement he'd mentioned, his way of rallying the troops after a heavy defeat, broadcasting on all frequencies to the hordes of acolytes currently abandoning ship. The space around her shuttle was thick with them.

'I have assumed command as Supreme Leader. General Hux remains in post. Other appointments will be confirmed when an inventory has been taken of our losses. We are joined by a new senior appointment, Rey of the Jedi, who has defected from the Resistance today.'

She was horrified to see a three-dimensional image of herself replacing Kylo Ren's pitted mask. It must have been taken aboard the Supremacy, but someone had been playing with the picture – her clothes were no longer white and beige, for example, they had been recoloured to appear black, and the natural brown of her hair was re-tinted several shades darker. Her cheekbones were never that prominent, outlined in dark shadows, and the menacing glint in her eye wasn't something that had ever appeared in a mirror.

She put her head in her hands, 'What have I done?'

Kylo wasn't finished though. 'She speaks with the authority of the Supreme Leader and is to be obeyed as you would obey me.' His visage appeared on the hologram again, in all its shiny glory.

'The Reaper is on its way to pick up survivors from the Supremacy, but in the meantime, we will regroup on Crait, where we will find the remains of the Resistance and take vengeance for our fallen comrades. You know me, as I know you. Together, we will not fail.'

The picture winked out and the control panel lit up in brilliant blinking lights as the computer received co-ordinates along with the message. Beside her ship the whole phalanx began to turn towards the planet.

Rey banged her hand on the metal, hard enough to hurt. This was her fault, she should have struck him down when she had the chance, just ignored the 'please' and the begging eyes, picked up her lightsaber and smashed it in his face. Now she was flying into battle on the wrong side because of the mistakes she'd made.

It wasn't too late though, there was still something she could do, although she was effectively a prisoner in a flying gaol. He'd underestimated her abilities as a pilot, and he'd left her a ship, and that was going to be his downfall – all she had to do was override the controls, locate the guns and blast his shuttle out of the sky, or failing that, ram it and take him down with her. Either way, neither of them was getting out of this alive.

She gritted her teeth, kicked off the underside of the control panel and started fiddling with the wires.

His voice hissed though the speaker a couple of minutes later. 'What are you doing? Your shuttle is sending me malfunction messages.'

'I'm so terribly sorry, oh my lord and master. Pray forgive your unworthy apprentice. I must have pushed the wrong button. Just ignore me.'

There was a long silence on the other end of the line, and then one by one, the panels around her began to go dark.

'I'm shutting down the power to the weapons systems, primary and secondary, long range communications, navigation, as well as both propulsion drives and the standby power cell. I'll tow you in. We can talk about this later.'

She slammed both hands against the floor, watched as a sleek black ship manoeuvred into place in front of her. Now he was right where she wanted him, she just had to figure out a way to get the blasters back up without him noticing. Unless…

She thought hard for a minute. Unless there was another way to do this that wasn't quite so …well… Resistance. Something that was maybe a little bit more Supreme Leader.

He'd left her with short range comms, and perhaps that was enough. She toggled the switch to send, using the same channel as the broadcast message, happy to send out a signal to as many of the fleet as possible.

'This is Rey of the First Order, I speak with the authority of the Supreme Leader. My comms channel is malfunctioning, could someone please patch me through to General Hux.'

Hux popped up on her holoscreen almost before she'd finished speaking, so keen were the rest of the army to obey their black clad commandant.

'Hello General. Is this a secure line?'

'Yes, Supreme Leader.'

'Excellent. I take it we're in the process of attacking the rebel base on Crait – how long until we're in range?'

'We'll be landing in around half an hour. It will take another two to prepare the ground forces and travel to their exact location.'

'Thank you. And do you know how many rebels there are on Crait?'

'Our estimates are around forty-six, Supreme Leader.'

'Forty-six battalions, or forty-six people?'

'The latter, Supreme Leader.'

'And how many are there of us?'

'Two hundred and twenty-six thousand, four hundred and forty, Supreme Leader.'

'I see. Then the rebels on Crait must be very important, or have something of value for us to be wasting our resources on them. Which is it?'

'I don't know, Supreme Leader.'

'Can you find out? I know you have an intelligence service. Can I speak to whoever heads it up?'

'Connecting you now, Supreme Leader.'

Another face appeared on the holoscreen, a more elderly man with a craggy mien, and a shock of bright white hair, sticking up directly from his skull like frozen smoke.

She gave him a friendly smile. 'Hello, I'm Rey. And you are?'

'Captain Ocram.' The man nodded back, but his caution was clear. Next to him on the comms pad, Ben's image also popped up, still covered by the ridiculous mask.

She ignored him. 'Captain Ocram. Apart from General Organa, who are the current leaders of the Resistance?'

He named around ten individuals, two of whom she'd never heard of, and the rest were dead. She pointed this out. 'None of these people are currently active. What transport do they have?'

'A cruiser.'

'Destroyed.'

'Bombers.'

'Destroyed.'

'A medical frigate.'

'Also destroyed.'

'Ten ageing X wings fighters.'

'I think you got eight of them, according to your records.'

'A couple of transports.'

'Fair enough, we'll give them that. What resources do they have that we need? Any secret weapons? Important plans? Missing bits of maps?'

'None, as far as I know.'

She thought Captain Ocram could probably tell where she was going by the small smile he gave her.

'Then why are we sending two hundred and twenty-six thousand, four hundred and forty personnel, along with all their associated armour, transportation and weapons to attack forty-six people who have nothing of value to us whatsoever?'

'Because they are the Resistance,' chipped in General Hux, 'And we must wipe them out.'

She leaned back in her chair. 'They aren't though, are they? They're no threat to you. They can't resist you in any practical sense. All they are is a name. A hope. A legend. Can you kill a legend, General Hux? Can you blow it up? Can you shoot it dead?'

'Of course not.' He looked flustered by the question.

'Captain Ocram, how many other insurgencies are there currently underway among the systems controlled by the First Order?'

'Five hundred and thirty-one.'

'Five hundred and thirty-one rebellions? Five hundred and thirty-one different resistance groups? And how may of them have more than forty-six members, Captain Ocram?'

'All, Supreme Leader.' He was openly grinning at her now.

'Then why is the one on the planet below so important? Aside from the personal grudge that some of us might have against it, of course. Why is it important?'

There was complete silence on the comms channel. She leaned forward again.

'Because you're making it important. You, the First Order, are giving it the only real importance it has. There are forty-six people down on that planet and how many more are coming? Want to know the answer? None. The only thing that works on this ship is the communications system and I can see that they've been sending out messages, but no one is answering. They have no support. They're an irrelevance. So, treat them like that. Treat them like all the other five hundred and thirty-one other rebellions that you've got going on. But whatever you do, don't go down to that planet, all guns blazing and let them become the rag tag band of freedom fighters who all died heroically for their cause. Don't help them create a legend. No one wants to join a rebellion with forty-six people, no resources and no support, but everyone loves a legend.'

'But,' Hux said weakly. 'If we don't destroy them now they will regroup, and come back stronger, and we've already lost two Dreadnaughts in the past month.'

She sighed. 'Captain Ocram. You have a means of tracking General Organa, I assume? She's the only leader they have left.'

He replied with an encouraging nod. 'Of course, and if they do regroup I'll know where they are, and we can destroy them more easily. Kill her, and I won't know who to track.'

Rey nodded. 'Perfect. Do you still want to attack the forty-six rebels on Crait, Supreme Leader?'

Ben's image winked out.

'I'll take that as a no. General – I suggest you send a small detachment to clear the rebel base. Don't make a big fuss about it. And make sure General Organa gets away. Then spend your time and effort planning how to rebuild those Dreadnaughts, not chasing shadows. '

'Thank you, Supreme Leader.' He actually sounded grateful.

'Could you come and see me tomorrow please Captain Ocram? I'd like to discuss your five hundred rebellions.'

'Yes ma'am.'

And that, thought Rey, contentedly, was how the save the Resistance from the inside.

But just to make sure she closed her eyes and tried the use the Force to connect telepathically with the one person she was sure had the skills to hear.

'Leia,' she said. 'They are coming. You have two hours to escape. Call the Falcon, it's still nearby. They have next to no intelligence about anyone apart from you, so make sure you're visible, and everyone else can get on with rebuilding. Good luck.'

In her head Ben said, 'You're shouting again.'