Rey had a headache by the time her day was over, which was in the early hours of the following morning. Most of the night had been spent thrashing out a deal that both new members of the alliance could live with, a deal helped by the superb negotiation skills of Lieutenant Vanya and Captain Ocram's seasoned wisdom. Nevertheless, Rey felt drained and retreated to her empty bed to sleep, waking the next afternoon with another call from the military council, enquiring as to why she was late.

She wanted very much to walk away from the whole sorry exercise, the inevitable confrontation which had been looming since she'd first stepped on board the ship, months ago, but instead, she slung something on from the wardrobe and went next door.

The tension in the room was palpable, mostly because the keen, new general was pinned to the wall breathing his last. She flicked him loose without bothering to ask what he'd done.

Ben glared at her from the other end of the table as she seated herself. 'I didn't like his report,' he explained.

Captain Ocram shuffled his papers to cover the fact that he was favouring her with a very long, and a very direct stare, with more than a hint of sympathy in it.

'I'm next on the agenda. I'm pleased to say we have fifty-seven requests to join the First Order's alliance, and I'm expecting the overall number to have reached two hundred by the end of the week. Each system has submitted its list of conditions for our approval. How would you like to proceed?'

Rey groaned. 'I can't go through another meeting like yesterday's again. They'll just have to all come in together and sort it out at the same time.'

Captain Ocram asked carefully, 'You'd like representatives of all these systems to gather at the same time and agree how they can work together and with us?'

'That's not such a stupid idea, is it? The logistics would be a problem, of course. We'd need to find a really big room somewhere and then have a way to stop them all shouting over each other at once, but it might work. With two hundred planets in the alliance, we can build all the ships we want, invest in training, and expand the army.'

'And what will your army do as part of this new alliance, Rey?' Ben's words were innocuous, but the tone was sharp.

She shot him a look. 'It's Armitage's army, not mine. But I think they'll protect our allies from our enemies, and each other, they'll police the systems and tackle the crime syndicates, their strength will deter attacks on us and with them we can expand our reach, if we need to.'

'For what purpose?'

She frowned at that. 'I've asked myself the same question. You say the purpose of the First Order is to remove the disorder from existence, to provide stability and promote progress. I can see a way to achieve that and we're on the way there. But I've never understood the next bit. Once we have power, what do we do with it then?' She shrugged. 'Change things for the better, I suppose.'

Ben tightened his fist on the table. 'It's quite clear to me what you want power for, Rey. In fact, it's clear to me why you were so keen to accept when I asked you to join me in the first place. It isn't just me you want to change, it's the entire Order. You're bringing back the Republic. All these "allies" and this council sitting around chatting about what to do and the army reduced to a peace keeping force? You're never happy with things just as they are, are you? Nothing is ever good enough.' He stabbed a finger at the table. 'This experiment stops, and it stops now. The First Order is a regime, it's a belief system, a way of life. You can't walk in here and expect all that to change just because of you.'

Simmering anger bubbled under the calm surface of his face, long held grievances coming to the fore which had nothing to do with politics.

'This isn't about the First Order, Ben. It's about you and me. It's always just been about you and me. But I agree. Change doesn't happen unless you want it to. And sometimes, it doesn't happen unless you force it.'

She broke eye contact then and slowly ran her attention around the other occupants of the room, the majority of whom were glancing backwards and forwards between the two black clad figures at either end of the table.

She took a deep breath. 'Join me. If you want change, stand with me.'

But it wasn't Ben she was addressing this time. It took him a minute to realise that, a denial already halfway out of his mouth before he paused, then rose to his feet, a looming shade of past nightmares. 'But if you believe in the First Order, if you love it as it is—like I do—then you'll stand with me.'

The room hushed, and although she knew that somewhere the engines were turning, and people were hurrying about their daily lives, in this room silence reigned. A sudden clatter broke the moment as the new, keen general hastened from Ben's side of the table to stand behind Rey.

'You're choosing her?' Ben sounded incredulous. 'Why?'

'Because the life expectancy in my job is three weeks since you've been in charge,' the man shot back. Then, seemingly stunned by his own temerity, he hid behind her chair.

Captain Ocram got to his feet, as she knew he would, came to stand at her back. 'Because she asked about the point of power.'

Lieutenant Vanya jumped to her feet. 'Because she listened to me.'

Major Breen was behind her a second later. 'Because she looked at the detail.'

Captain Matandari said nothing, simply flicking her substance stick in a supportive manner.

A second general, whose name she didn't know and whose face she didn't recognise, got to his feet. 'Because I've seen her fight.'

But General Hux sat at the far end of the table, flanked by his remaining colleagues, saying nothing, and Rey knew that without him, this gamble would never pay off.

He was perfectly still for another few seconds, and when he did speak, she had the impression he'd been rehearsing the words for a very long time.

'The army is the First Order. We made it. We built it from scratch in the Unknown Regions from the ashes of the Empire, and it took effort. It took work. An army is not just a collection of men and machinery. It's as you say,' he nodded at Ben. 'A belief system, a way of life. And a purpose.'

His eyes narrowed as he continued, 'But the only purpose that the Sith have ever given it is your own. You, and Snoke before you, and Vader and Palpatine, you're all the same. Expending thousands of men on your own grandiose schemes. Pursuing the Jedi down to the very last one, chasing the Resistance off a cliff without a thought for the consequences. You let both our Dreadnaughts be destroyed, you lost us Starkiller Base, wiped out more of your own troops than theirs in the process, and you brought us to the edge of ruin.'

He pushed back his chair with a sharp snap and stood, glaring at Ben. 'I love the First Order. But I'll stand with her because the Order is not your plaything.' He strode to Rey's side, trailed by the remaining generals. 'And neither am I.'

The expression on Ben's face was uncomprehending for a split second, but she knew it would quickly move to anger. He hadn't seen this coming. He hadn't realised over the last few weeks, the extent to which the balance of power between the two Supreme Leaders had shifted.

She might not be Rey of Jakku any more, or Rey of the Jedi, or even Rey of the Resistance, and her clothes might be black and the glint in her eye a shade more menacing, but she hadn't changed who she was, not for love and not for anything. In loving him, she didn't want to become more like him. There was no question that he would be allowed to wipe out settlements, slaughter women and children, torture his staff, murder and maim and kill with impunity while she was around. Nobody changes for love, not that much, as any concerned uncle or father figure could have told him. And she wasn't a nobody anymore, she wasn't nothing. She had written her own place in this story, and now she was Rey of the First Order, Supreme Leader.

The fury she predicted didn't come. Instead, his face appeared to collapse in on itself, leaving him looking hurt and vulnerable, rather than terrifyingly enraged. That impulse to protect him surged through her again, stinging her sore heart.

'And you?' he asked softly. 'Why are you doing this?'

She steeled herself against the tears. 'You were the one who knew the visions we had were wish fulfilment Ben, not real. That very first one, back at the fire on the island where you thought I would turn – you always knew that wasn't true. You knew I was never going to change, but you asked me to join you anyway. I've thought a lot about why, and it comes down to this. You see, 'join me' wasn't what I heard. It wasn't what you were really asking. You didn't just want me to join you Ben. You wanted me to save you. And that's what I'm going to do.'

She took a step forward, held out her hand. 'Let it go. Let it all die. The Sith, the Jedi, the dark side, the light, Kylo Ren, your past. Start again. Become who you want to be, not what everyone else expects.'

It was now or never, and she'd never been more afraid.

'Join me.' She swallowed hard, and her hand shook, wanting so badly for him to take it that her voice cracked into a ruined whisper. 'Please.'