"You don't mean that."
Rey responds.
She stares at former Supreme Leader Kylo Ren for a long time. Even if he did want his revenge on General Hux, she found it hard to believe that suddenly he would want to destroy the entire First Order along with him.
Ren doesn't answer.
"We should contact the resistance, they can help…"
"NO!" he barks his reply. "Don't get any delusions. I'm never rejoining the resistance, and if they appear before me I'll slaughter them just the same."
Now she's getting annoyed.
"So, you expect just the two of us to take on the entire First Order, without a plan and without backup?"
There's a long pause and then he breathes, "We're strong enough…"
A vision of Snoke's throne room flashes between them.
She lets out an exasperated sigh and sits back in the seat. Rey rubs her face with her hands. She's glad he thinks so highly of her strength but that's not the point.
"You were on the inside then. You brought me into that throne room. We're outsiders now. How can we get back in to do enough damage?"
"I have my ways," he says mysteriously with a look that amounts to a pout.
Rey twists her lips to keep herself from smiling.
She imagines Leia may have laughed if the stakes were not so grave. From the few stories Leia had told her about Han, his motis operandi was leaping before he looked, and never wanting to know the odds.
She won't push the matter now, but she knows they can't do this alone. Rey changes the subject instead.
"Where are we going?"
"A very special place…"
"Oh?" This peaks her interest but he says nothing further.
Still sitting back in her chair, she observes him punching in some new coordinates. If you had told her 3 standard days ago that she would be flying through the galaxy with a deposed Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, ALONE, on a mission to rebuild her lightsaber and bring down the First Order (after having seen him naked I might add), she would have told you to get your head checked at the medical unit immediately. And yet here they were, sitting side by side, allies by necessity.
He was focused on his calculations. Was it supposed to be this comfortable between them? Their banter? Their proximity? Why was being his friend and ally so much easier than being his enemy?
After a while Ben retreats to the small sitting and kitchenette area of the personal shuttle. Rey's incessant staring is starting to bother him. All of this happened so quickly, he hasn't had a moment to process it.
He was no longer Supreme Leader of the First Order…_temporarily…_he told himself. But, it didn't eat at him the way he imagined it would. He felt FREE truth be told. Free to explore the mysteries that were currently burning inside him.
He thought about what the Jedi ghost had told him. He doesn't believe that Rey and himself are reincarnations of his grandparents, not for a moment. The Jedi often spoke in riddles, but there was an obvious objective they wanted to accomplish here. He'd be damned if he was going to be used by some dead hypocrites. But still… there was something he wanted to check first…
He's deep in thought as he pulls out food stuffs and starts preparing a meal. There was that feeling of familiarity when we first met… that fleeting sense that we knew each other well during the interrogation…
He frowned as he set meat to sizzle on a small skillet, with vegetables. Other items were being reheated. Cooking was among his secret skills and past times, along with calligraphy. It soothed him, and he made sure that his personal shuttle was well stocked with fresh foods, a perk of being Supreme Leader.
Rey is lured in by the scent like an animal stalking prey.
Her eyes are wide and her mouth is drooling. She'd never smelled anything so wonderful in her life…
"Ben, what is that?"
"Food…"
"No, but why does it look like that?"
He is not following her questions.
"Is it reconstituted? rehydrated? What kind of rations are those?"
Ahh, it dons on him that she's never seen real food in her entire life, and it elicits an odd sensation in his chest.
"This is real food Rey. Meat, beans grown from a plant. No rations."
Her eyes are alight like a child in wonderland.
"This is not for you." He says cruelly.
The speed with which her face drops into despair and pleading puppy-dog eyes draws a chuckle he just can't stop.
He covers his mouth trying to hide his amusement.
"But…" she says.
Before she can argue further he slides all the food onto a plate in front of her. He pulls large, fluffy biscuits from a re-heater and water from a dispenser, placing them before her as well.
Her heart swells in disbelief! He was feeding her! Real, amazing, incredible food! Genuine affection rises in her chest.
Then she's tearing through it with her hands like an animal and Ben turns away a bit disturbed but still highly amused. He sets to work on making another plate for himself.
If he had known food was all it took to sway her heart, he would have had a buffet set up behind him in that throne room…she never would have denied him then.
—
They sit quietly eating on the shuttle. Anyone else in the galaxy who saw it would think it bizarre sight. The Supreme Leader & Jedi Killer, having a comfortable quiet dinner with the Last Jedi. The force hums it's contentment, and a sense of peace subconsciously falls over them.
Rey smiles at a particularly delicious bite, and Ben's heart twangs strangely when… an alarm starts to sound.
Ben heads for a console.
"What is it?" Rey asks.
"A Holonet alert."
They look at each other knowingly, as he hits the button activating the Holonet feed. A blaring alert, with flashy graphics and grave music, plays over them. A two headed announcer speaks. "Stunning news for galactic citizens worlds over. The young charismatic Supreme Leader of the First Order has been killed. According to the Order he died bringing the Jedi assassin who slew Supreme Leader Snoke to justice. Both Leader Kylo Ren and the Jedi scavenger Rey are said to have died in a battle on Gallanco, an unpopulated world in the outer rim."
"In his place rises Supreme Commander Armitage Hux who had this to say, 'Leader Ren sacrificed his life to bring an end to the Jedi and their violent ways. No longer will ancient religions and sorcery dictate the future of the Galaxy. Military strength will bring peace and order to all – No system will stand in our way." You heard it there, another leader rises to head the galactic power that is the First Order. Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, and Jedi fugitive Rey of Jakku, both killed in a battle on the outer rim."
Ben switches it off.
There's a long silence before Rey says, "Did everyone think you were charismatic?"
He shoots her a dirty look and she smirks. If he can toy with her then she can toy with him.
"I look forward to the shocked faces when I return and reclaim my place…"
"I'm not going to help you reclaim your place," Rey says firmly.
Deathly stares. There it was again. Had they forgotten so easily that they were enemies? Their objectives remained as polar opposite as possible, only agreeing that each wanted the other on their side. She can see the frustration in his eyes.
"I've said it before, I'll fight for YOU Ben. Not for the First Order or the dark side. Just YOU! You are not those things… you're so much more…"
"Get some rest," he cuts her off, tearing his eyes away. "We arrive in 10 standard hours." He disappears into his sleeping cabin.
—-
The news reaches the rebel base and Finn falls to his knees. It can't be true. He knows it's not…but that is the planet they left her on, smoldering in ruins in the holo-net report.
They were in the middle of preparing a rescue mission when… this.
He feels a firm hand on his shoulder.
"They're not dead," Leia says and Finn scrambles to his feet.
"How do you know?"
She closes her eyes, "I would have felt it. If anything happened to either of them it would have torn through the force."
She looks at him with twinkling eyes again, "They're alive Finn."
"Then we need to find them… well her, we need to find her. Oh God what if they're together? What if he's kidnapped her and is torturing her?"
Leia raises an eyebrow.
"Something tells me it's likely the other way around."