"What did she say?"
Kylo Ren searched Rey's eyes, glistening in the warm light of the unsteady electric light.
"She says you still feel the pull to the light," Rey answered, her voice trembling.
He pulled away from her then, her hand dropping back to her lap.
"She was wrong," he answered darkly.
"Search your feelings, you know it's true." Rey implored.
"Did she say anything else?" His voice had a deadness to it now.
"She loved you, she always loved you, even..." Rey's voice broke as a sob caught in her throat, Kylo Ren saw the red gleam of his light saber piercing Han Solo's body flash across her mind. "No matter what you did," she finished weakly.
His face worked in a battle against his emotions, contorting and fighting against the urge to lose all control and be shaken by violent sobs once again.
He stood up and circled his chair before facing her once again, "What else?"
Rey took a deep breath, slowly, "She knew there is still good in you."
"Stop!" He commanded.
"No, if you're so committed to the dark side of the force to…to Darth Vader, then why can't you hear this? I can feel your confusion, Leia did too." Rey said standing to her feet to meet his eyes, "It's tearing you apart. Snoke is gone now, you killed him, and you broke his hold on you. We both know why."
"It was my chance to take his power, to gain command of the First Order." Kylo Ren stood even taller somehow.
"You know that isn't true," she said softly yet holding her ground.
"It won't matter for long anyway, not if Hux is successful in what he seems to have planned."
He turned away from her, trying to shield himself from the guilt and shame he felt when her eyes bore into his, seeing through his facade that fooled so many others.
He wanted to reach across the lightyears and pull her toward him, to hold her beside him where she belonged. As if holding her close to him could make her see everything as he did, would make her understand the galaxy as he did.
It would never work, even if he could hold her, her spirit would never be his. Rey was everything he was not and he could never control her, she was his equal in every way.
"Would you have stayed," he proceeded quickly, but still not turning to face her, so as to protect himself from her rejection that would inevitably come once again. "If I had ordered an end to the attack on the Resistance transport ships, would you have stayed with me?"
"That's not fair, Ben." She whispered.
Ben spun to face her but it was useless, he had already felt her slip away. He closed his eyes for a moment.
He slowly walked out of his quarters and into the cockpit of his command ship. The crew was performing the last preflight checks.
"At your ready, sir." The captain said, respectfully avoiding eye contact.
"To Riosa," Kylo Ren commanded as the ship's engines engaged.
"Yes, sir."
Rey looked down at her trembling hand, remembering the warmth of his hand covering her own.
"What was that?" A woman's voice asked from the door.
"Vi," Rey grimaced, shaking her head.
"What just happened here?" Vi pressed again.
"It's difficult to explain." Rey answered.
"Ok," Vi said, moving closer to her, "So, I gather you've met Kylo Ren..." She nodded casually, in a blatant attempt to get Rey to open up to her.
Rey nodded slowly.
"He asked you to stay...with him?" Vi tilted her head and raked her fingers through her hair.
Rey nodded again.
"But you said no, the First Order thing...that was the problem." Vi surmised, motioning to Rey, palms up.
"Yeah, it's a problem." Rey looked away.
"But if it wasn't..."
"I don't know." Rey answered quickly.
"The whole dark side thing?" Vi pressed her lips together.
Rey sighed standing to her feet, "I need to get some air."
Poe, Finn and Connix stared in disbelief at the transmissions coming in to the comms console.
"What is it?" Rey asked, coming up behind them into the make shift control center they had set up in the largest hut of the abandoned village.
"There's something happening in the First Order. It's not completely clear." Connix answered.
Rey looked at the console herself.
Poe motioned to the map, "Kylo Ren's command ship separated from the rest of the fleet. Since then, the fleet's movements have changed, they became chaotic at first, and then..."
"What?" Rey asked.
"We're not sure." Poe answered, he shook his head once.
"We need eyes on the inside, it's the only way we're going to find out what they're up to." Vi said, striding up to the group.
Cardinal waited behind her, looking unsure about entering the room.
"We're running out of options and man power." Poe responded.
"We have an asset now," Vi said motioning to the figure leaning against the door.
"What could he do? Haven't his codes been terminated?" Finn asked.
Cardinal pushed off the door and approached them slowly, "My command level codes were terminated, pretty much before I left," he looked at Vi, who perched her lips to the side, blushing slightly, "But I helped design the algorithm that generates the lower level trooper codes."
Finn's eyes widened, "You can defragment the trooper codes?"
Cardinal nodded, with a slight shrug.
Finn's eyebrows flew up, "We can use this."
"We would want to slip in and out completely unnoticed. This is a fact finding mission only." Connix said, thinking out loud. "Finn, you and Cardinal would have the easiest time blending in."
Finn looked at Cardinal, "You ready to go back in?"
A small smile crept across Cardinal's face.
"It might mean a slight demotion?" Finn asked.
Cardinal laughed, "Let's go."
Rey looked at Connix, "Where did Kylo Ren's ship go?"
"Riosa, it showed up on scanners about an hour ago." Connix answered.
"Riosa?" Rey asked.
"It's a centrist planet, in the Inner Rim. One of their Senators was instrumental in the formation of the First Order. Our sources have indicated that the Knights of Ren occasionally use it as a meeting place. But it's more politically important; really, he's probably trying to shore up support for the First Order-"
"I need a ship." Rey interrupted.
Connix looked at her, confused.
Vi Moradi nodded, "I can help with that."