Chapter 7
"What you're asking us to do is suicide." Poe looked between Rey and Finn.
"I know it looks that way," Rey started, holding up a hand when Poe opened his mouth to interject. "But we don't need an army to take down the First Order. We just need to get rid of Hux."
"Oh is that all?" Poe asked sarcastically.
"Look," said Finn, "I had friends when I was in the First Order. I think I could turn them?"
Poe raised his eyebrows. "Is that a question? If that's true, then why haven't you tried that before? You were on the Supremacy."
Finn shook his head. "There wasn't time. Look. I know we're asking for a lot of faith, but our mission, the mission of the Resistance, is to take down the First Order and all we've done so far is run and hide."
Poe looked like he was about to take offence when Rey cut him off. "The First Order is here and they're not giving up. They haven't left Naboo airspace since they arrived. The Queen has had to deal with First Order questioning daily on our whereabouts. There are patrols scouring the planet looking for us. We can't just sit here and do nothing. Hux knows we're here."
Poe looked thoughtful for a moment, looking between them again. "Why are you trying to convince me? Why not talk to Leia?"
Rey hesitated before answering. "Leia…Leia is unwilling to do anything that might endanger what is left of the Resistance because our mission would include saving her son."
Poe nodded, putting a hand over his mouth and pacing away a couple of steps. "You said Hux." He turned to look at Rey.
"What?" Rey asked, confused.
He gestured towards her. "Just now. You said Hux knows we're here. And you said our mission is to save her son." He took a step towards her, lowering his voice. "We both know that Kylo Ren in Ben Solo and that he is the one leading the First Order. What aren't you telling me?"
Rey looked at Finn, who shrugged. "You've got to come clean sometime if we're really going to do this," he said.
Rey nodded, huffing out a breath, squaring her shoulders, and clearing her throat. "I have a…connection with Ben Solo."
Poe shook his head, confused. "A connection? What do you mean you have a connection?"
"Through the force," Rey answered. "The force connects us. We can see each other, talk to each other."
Poe frowned. "How long has this been going on?"
Rey looked away. "Since I was on the island with Luke."
Poe raised his eyebrows again. "And you're only saying something now?" Anger seeped into his voice. "Is this how he found us?"
Rey shook her head vigorously. "No. I've been careful. We can't see each other's surroundings." Unless they were touching, she didn't add. "And it's only recently opened back up. I thought I shut it off after Crait, but it reignited again when we got to Naboo. He…He was just tracking us. I promise." Rey lowered her voice. "Hux has him imprisoned for coming to find me behind his back. Hux has taken over leading the First Order and he has Ben-
"Kylo Ren," Poe interrupted.
Rey blinked at him. "What?"
"Hux has Kylo Ren. That man, that person he is now, is not Ben Solo."
Rey placed a hand on Poe's arm. "I know what he's done. I'm not blind. But he's not the same man he was months ago, when he tortured you. He is the one who killed Snoke, not me or anyone else. Ben Solo still exists within him. And we have to save him."
Poe shook his head again, but Rey cut him off. "Hux is torturing him. If you won't do it for him, then please do it for Leia. She may not be willing to risk the safety of her people for her own personal gain, but he is all the family she has left. She's lost nearly everything, every friend and family member she has. Ben is all that's left. We have to try."
Poe regarded her for a long moment, before nodding once. "Alright. Tell me this plan of yours."
Days and nights blurred together for Kylo. Since taking his sight, Hux had not returned, though he had sent med droids to patch up the various wounds covering Kylo's body, including the damage to his eyes. His sight was not returned, but he was at least able to move his eyelids now. With nothing but darkness as his companion he had plenty of time to contemplate his situation, to run through every wrong move he had made. He second guessed his decision to make Jesmaae his third in command, having obviously miscalculated her loyalty. He second guessed himself for having missed the signs of her disloyal attitude. He wondered how the rest of his team was fairing, guilt and anger both warring within him at his role in their imprisonment.
He was unsure how much time had passed since he lost his sight, having nothing by which to measure it. Occasionally, at seemingly random times, he would feel a sudden burst of hope, though the feeling usually faded as quickly as it appeared. He suspected this was Rey's doing, though he had no idea why she would do it. The last thing he had said to her was that she was a fool, when in truth it was he who was the fool. He had time and again put his trust in the wrong people and had paid the price for it every time. It was as he was contemplating this very thing that he felt the thread within him tug. He kept his head down at first, not wanting to sense her pity once she realized he was blind.
He heard an intake of breath and then a whispered, "Ben."
He looked up at his name, a reflex from before he had lost his sight, and let out a shaky breath of shock when he saw Rey standing before him. He saw her eyes widen as she took in his features, no doubt realizing what had been done to him, but he only stared at her, drinking in the sight of her. He only saw her. Everything else was still black around her, but she was in sharp detail.
"I can see you," he breathed, talking more to himself than her.
A wrinkle appeared between her brows. She took a hesitant step closer. "You…are you – can you see?"
He didn't answer for a moment, his breath rate increasing as the shock that he could see Rey rolled over him. It wasn't until she said his name again that he snapped out of it, shaking his head.
"No," he said, shock still coloring his voice. "I can't see." He looked in her eyes. "But I can see you."
Rey swallowed and walked the rest of the way to him, kneeling in front of him. He tracked her movement, happy to see anything at all. She reached a hand out towards him before catching herself and pulling it back.
"What happened?" she asked quietly.
He glanced away from her. "My Knight, Jesmaae, used my saber on my eyes."
"I felt it," Rey said, reaching her fingers up to her own eyes. "My vision blacked out for a moment and I felt it." She dropped her hand. "Ben I'm so sorry – "
"Why are you here?" He asked, interrupting her, not wishing to hear her pity.
She shook her head. "I didn't do this. I felt a shift in the force and you appeared before me, like always."
So she hadn't come of her own free will. This news caused his heart to plummet.
"Wait," she said, "You said you can see me."
Looking at her, he nodded slowly.
"But…"Rey looked around. "Can you see anything else?"
He shook his head. "No. Just you." The phrase echoed in his head, reminding him of the first time the force had connected them.
"How is that possible?" Rey asked, her gaze roving over him, no doubt cataloguing his various new injuries.
He shook his head. "I don't know."
They looked at one another for several moments, neither saying a word. Kylo swallowed thickly, wanting to ask questions but after the way he brushed her aside the last time they spoke, he wasn't sure she would answer him. Rey started to reach a hand out to him again, but stopped short, pulling it back, as if unsure whether she could touch him.
He tracked the movement before blurting, "How long has it been?" He raised his eyes to her face. "Since you were here last? With my…" He sighed. "Without my vision I don't know how much time has passed."
Rey swallowed. "Less than a week."
Kylo's head fell forward. Less than a week. The longest week he had endured. His spirit withered with the thought that so little time had passed.
"I want to try something," Rey said, reaching out her hand again.
Lost in his own thoughts he didn't at first register that Rey spoke, his head snapping up when she laid a hand on his arm. He gasped as the world around him changed from black to what must surely be Rey's surroundings.
"How is this possible?" he rasped, gazing at the furnished room.
"Can you see my surroundings?" Rey asked.
Overcome, his breath coming in short bursts, he nodded. Rey looked around the room as well.
"I can see yours as well," she said, before looking back at him. "I don't know why, or how it works, but it happened the last time I came. Before you woke up, I touched you and your surroundings faded in. When I let go they disappeared." She looked thoughtful for a moment as Kylo continued to look around, his mind own mind racing.
"It's the connection," he said suddenly, snapping his eyes back towards her at the realization. "The reason I can see you is because it's through the force. I don't use my eyes to see you when we're connected." He looked around again. "It's why we can see each other's surroundings when we touch."
Rey frowned. "How do you know this?"
Kylo shook his head. "It's the only thing that makes sense. For some reason the connection is getting stronger." He sensed alarm as she yanked her hand back, her surroundings winking out around him as she did so.
"But why?" she asked. "I thought Snoke was the one who connected us. Why would the connection still exist if that were true? Why would it be getting stronger?" Before he could answer she continued. "But no. That doesn't make sense. If Snoke was the one who connected us then the connection would have died when he did right? So this has to be something else."
Kylo frowned. What she said made sense. Why hadn't he thought of it before? He felt the familiar sensation of hurt and betrayal as he thought of Snoke and tried to force it away. Of course. It was yet another in a long string of manipulations his former master had used on him. And he had been fool enough to never question it. The acrid taste of bitterness filled his mouth at the thought.
He thought back to his initial thoughts on their connection. "The force is doing this," he said aloud, hardly realizing he was speaking.
Rey frowned. "The force? Can it do that? I thought it was the thing that binds all living things, not…not a sentient being."
Kylo thought for a moment, to the teachings he had received, to the books he had read. When at Skywalker's academy he had devoured any and all information available to him regarding the force. Admittedly there hadn't been much, not in comparison to the days before the Empire, when there had been such vast stores of knowledge that it would have been nearly impossible for any being to learn it all. But there had been some knowledge to be gained. And during his time with Snoke he had conducted as much research as he could on the grandfather his family had hidden from him. The curious thing had been that no one knew who had Anakin's father had been, his mother having been a slave. There had been rumors of the force creating him back in the days when Anakin was a war hero, but very few people gave credence to such rumors, not once Vader had terrorized the galaxy. But if such a thing were possible…
"The force isn't just the thing that binds things," he said. "It's an energy. And in all my research there was never anyone who claimed to know all of its secrets. Back in the days before the Jedi ruled there were bonds created by the Sith who craved power. They could harness the power and knowledge of the other person across vast distances." He looked back at Rey. "When Snoke admitted to bridging our minds, I thought that explained the connection. But either what he created could not be broken simply by his death or he was lying and it was created another way."
"That day," Rey said suddenly. He looked at her, confused. "When you used the force to read my mind, when I was your prisoner. I pushed you out and went into your mind instead. What if that was when it was created?"
Bested by a girl who had barely held a lightsaber! The words of his former master echoed in his head and he frowned. He had been wounded, both physically and emotionally after he killed his father when he had lost to Rey, but maybe there had been more to it than that.
"Ok," he replied. "But that doesn't explain why the connection is getting stronger."
Rey shook her head. "I don't know either, but I think we can use this to our advantage."
She reached out to touch him again, looking presumably at his surroundings. "We've got a plan to get you out."
He stared at her in shock. "What do you mean 'get me out'?"
She looked back at him. "The First Order knows we're here and they're not leaving until they get us. So that leaves two options. Either we sit around waiting and hoping they'll leave, or we attack first."
Kylo shook his head. "You're what? A couple dozen people? There's no plan you have that won't end in disaster. And why waste any time trying to free me? I told you already that I don't want to go back. I can't go back."
Rey shook her head back at him. "I don't care what you want. You're Leia's last surviving relative. You're her son. We can't just leave you there to die."
He looked away, trying furiously to tamp down his feelings regarding his mother. "So you'll rescue me, likely losing more people along the way, so the Resistance leaders can kill me instead?"
"One problem at a time," Rey replied. Snatching her hand off his arm, she looked behind her shoulder. "I have to go," she said turning back around. Her gaze burned into his as she departed with a simple, "Have hope. We're coming for you." And then he was left once more with darkness for his only companion.
A/N: Thanks so much for reading! Apologies for the long wait. It's been...a long month. Lots of stuff going on to prevent me from writing. But hopefully life will get back to normal soon so I can write more often. Reviews are always appreciated. Thanks!