Rey jumps slightly as the door slams. She frowns. How will they ever find the common ground they need to find? How will she save her friends AND Ben Solo?
She looks around the kitchenette/common area. Tiny droids start to clean up their mess. She's impressed by the luxury of it all.
There's a table and black cushioned benches around the circular room. One door leads to the cockpit. Another to Ben's private quarters. Next to that appears to be a refresher room, and then a small hallway that should lead to some crew quarters. To the left of that, what she imagines are the engine room and other equipment compartments. And finally the short corridor to the ramp.
She explores the crew hallway.
Rey finds a closet sized room with cots stacked four high. This craft was designed to operate with a small, to non-existent staff.
She collapses into the bottom cot, sliding her bag beneath her and taking out the broken pieces of Luke's lightsaber. The shattered shards, so much like her and Ben. She has no idea if they can ever be brought back together again…
Sleep is impossible for Kylo Ren, or is he Ben Solo? He doesn't even know anymore. If his mask was a childish disguise… what does that mean for his name? A name that instilled fear worlds over. What did it mean now that everyone thought him dead? Should he reclaim his place, or build something new for himself…
NO, he had sacrificed too much for it to end like this. As Supreme Leader he would finally put an end to this damned conflict, a war to end all wars. Peace through strength and control… no more families like his… no more lies…
But then, Ben wasn't sure what was lie and what truth was anymore. He gripped his head as he lay on a queen sized bed (an upgrade he made sure to demand), black sheets twist around his legs. The memories flood him again. Once tainted and hidden… now bright and pure and heart wrenching… and… had that really been Han Solo he heard whisper in his ear…
Shouting a grunt he kicks away the sheets and flings open the door.
All is quiet. Too quiet. Painfully quiet. He's alone with his mind, his memories and his crimes.
Ben flees to the cockpit, trying to focus on the instruments.
What would he do if he was back on the Supremacy right now? If he hadn't followed this damned girl across the galaxy. If he hadn't felt that urgent tug of the force in his chest…
Perhaps this was a very round-about machination of the force… perhaps this was how he would convince Rey to join his side and rule with him like she was meant to do.
Most beings were not intelligent enough to govern themselves, they needed the First Order, but not with that sniveling sycophant Hux at the reigns. That weak wretch. He savored all the ways he could kill him painfully and slowly.
It was with these fantasies in mind that he finally drifted off into a fitful sleep, in the captain's chair of his cockpit, the universe flying over him.
That's how Rey finds him hours later.
She had woken with a jolt. It took some time to realize where she was and what was happening.
I'm on board a luxury shuttle with Kylo Ren, she tells herself. We escaped a coup attempt. We're flying across the galaxy to repair my lightsaber and bring down the first order... Well… he may actually be using me to reclaim his throne…. But I won't make the same mistake twice.
She would save Ben Solo or kill them both trying.
Rey sighs darkly, her stomach dropping. She rolls out of the cot, knowing she's unlikely to fall back to sleep with the anxiety filling her. She starts digging through some compartments looking for clothes. Her current attire is torn, burnt and filthy.
She finds some underclothes, thick black leggings and a black, long sleeve shirt. They'll have to do for now.
In the refresher she tries to clear her head, relishing the feel of warm mist on her skin. But the lack of a clear plan leaves her with a cold dread inside that the warm water can't reach.
Donning her temporary attire and toweling her hair, Rey walks back into the common area when she notices the cockpit compartment is slid open.
Walking towards it, she sees the top of that head.
A jet black mop of curls dangle over the headrest. His breathing is slow and steady. She peaks around him to steal a look at his sleeping face. He looks so much more peaceful that the last time she'd seen him like this, unconscious in the ruins of Snoke's throne room, covered in debris and blood. He's back in his black tank top and softer looking pants... Is that real silk?
Looking back up, her fingers inch towards those raven locks. Looks so soft…
But she catches herself.
The last time she had to stop herself from killing him. Now she has to stop herself from… she doesn't know what she's trying to do.
Rey sighs and slumps into the co-pilot seat beside him. What a strange turn of fate…
Rey closes her eyes and loses herself in thought…about everything that's happened…about the people she misses… her friends. She recounts the memories she's made with her group of rebels in the last few months… picturing every smile in her mind… feeling more love in that short time than she'd experienced her entire life. They banished her loneliness… but only one person had ever really told her she wasn't alone… they made her feel important… but only one person had told her she wasn't nothing, and offered her everything. And the last smile she remembers… is Ben's… on the planet when she told him they'd kill Hux together… and with that image she drifts off to sleep beside him in the cockpit.
Beep, beep, beep, beep.
A low alarm sounds and Ben is jolted awake. He stands and hits a button. They're about to drop out of light speed. Had he slept that long?
He lifts an arm to massage a kink in his neck when he turns and sees a figure in the seat beside him.
Ben startles and stumbles back, knocking over a hydro spanner, making a ruckus.
Rey wakes a little and rubs her eyes, moaning her annoyance at the noise.
"What are you doing?" comes his low angry voice.
Her eyes fly open mid-stretch and she jumps to her feet.
Shit!
"I… I fell asleep."
His mind races. She must have walked in here, seen him asleep in the chair and decided to stay? Should he be Angry? He can't decide what he feels except shock.
"Don't do that," he says darkly.
Her eyes are wide as she fumbles for something to say.
"I didn't… I mean…"
She feels fear and hurt rolling off of him again, bubbling up from someplace deep.
"If you don't want me, If you won't stand with me, then don't pretend like you do, don't pretend like you will," he practically growls.
Rey winces and it's like a blow to her chest.
There are those truly terrifying swirl of emotions again, both from him and from herself, the ones she doesn't want to acknowledge. She won't help him reclaim his place of evil, but that doesn't means she doesn't want...
The craft lurches, they stumble as their ship drops out of light speed.
Ben grabs the console, steadying himself. He turns his attention to the readouts. They're right where they need to be.
"Mustafar," he whispers, turning to the task at hand.
Rey looks out at a seemingly black world.
"What is this place?"
Ben shoots her an angry, childish look as he straps himself into the captains chair. She follows suit, buckling in. When he doesn't answer, Rey feels her anger rising as well.
"I'm here aren't I?" she practically yells and he looks at her. "If I didn't want to be, I would have stabbed you in your sleep. You're not the only one who got hurt so get over yourself."
He raises his eyebrows a touch and looks at her thoughtfully. This only annoys her more.
"Now tell me where the fuck we are," Rey could swear with the best of them if she had to, she was no wilting flower, and she wasn't going to put up with his phony victim bullshit.
His eyebrows go higher. Before he makes a "tch" sound and looks back ahead.
"This is the world Darth Vader made into his home."
She gasps softly.
Soon they're flying over a volcanic world, a landscape of molten lava as far as the eye can see. But in the midst of the seemingly endless desolation, a mountain like structure appears over the horizon, only it's not a mountain. Rey is amazed to see that it's actually a castle, jutting high into the sky.
They land on a metal grated landing pad.
This is the exact spot from Kenobi's vision. Ben thinks.
They look out at the castle anxiously before Ben rises. He disappears into his quarters and reemerges with thin, cool black pants. He still dons just a tank top.
"Grab a pack," he says. Rey obeys, emptying her pack and slingling it over her shoulder. He has a pack also.
They're down the hallway, getting ready to lower the ramp when Ben looks down at Rey.
"What are you wearing?" he asks.
She looks down at herself, "My clothes were ruined," she says matter-of-factly, "this was all I could find on board."
Without another thought, Ben puts a hand on each of her shoulders... and RIPS the sleeves off her shirt.
"HEY!" She screams. Rey tries pushing him off but he wont let go until the sleeves are fully torn away. Then he rips a line down from the collar for good measure.
She finally force pushes him back into the wall.
"What in the holy living Kriff do you think you're doing!?"
Ben stands and dusts himself off, hitting the ramp button like nothing happened at all.
"It's too hot for that," he says impassive. "You're welcome."
She just cannot respond for a moment. Now she's wearing something closer to a tank top like him. Her breast band peaking through the low ripped holes from the sleeves.
"You're welcome?" she fumes, "Do you normally run around ripping women's clothes off?"
He turns to her sharply, "The only pervert on this shuttle, is you." He points at Rey's face and she's left sputtering.
"Me... what... how... how dare..."
Ben leans into her, stopping just short of her face.
"You're the one creeping around at night, spying on men when they sleep," he says in that soft deep voice of his. "Try to control yourself, alright?"
Ben smiles a smarmy smile that reminds her of Han Solo, and struts away down the ramp, leaving the thoroughly flustered and angry young would-be jedi in the doorway.
He relishes the sound of her mumbling and cursing behind him.
She think she's so going to get him for this.