Rey Skywalker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thatwaslucky) wrote2019-08-02 07:50 pm
thatwaslucky) wrote2019-08-02 07:50 pm
The Supremacy- Friday? Saturday?
Rey would be the first to say that her plan was probably very stupid, and it hinged entirely on putting her faith in someone who hadn't earned it. But it was a plan she believed in. She'd tried to talk herself out of it, but it seemed to her that the Force had shown her what to do, and now she had to actually do it.
Chewbacca hadn't been thrilled about it, either, but he'd helped her into the Falcon's escape pod and shuttled her off the ship towards the Dreadnought that served as Supreme Leader Snoke's flagship. It felt like it took forever until they brought her on board, forever spent being equal parts terrified and hopeful inside something that looked uncomfortably like a coffin, truly confident in what she'd seen in that moment in the hut. This would work. She would bring Kylo Ren back to the light side, and they could end this all now, before anyone else had to suffer. She'd bring Leia's son back to her, and maybe she didn't have to lose one more person in all of this. And maybe, just maybe, if she were really being honest with herself, there would be someone after all these years of loneliness that understood her.
That confidence wavered the moment the pod hatch cracked open, leaking vapor. She'd actually looked forward to seeing him, and that was immediately crushed by the fact that Kylo Ren stood there with several stormtroopers behind him, ready with binders for her.
Binders were unnecessary. She was here willingly. He had the troopers put them on anyway.
"I'll take that," Kylo said, collecting Luke's lightsaber. "It belongs to me."
"Strange, then, that it called to me at the castle," Rey noted, "and not to you."
It almost- almost- looked like he appreciated that.
The stormtroopers walked with them until they reached the turbolift, and having been on a solitary island for several days while she was working through things, it was disconcerting to realize how much she could feel off of the troopers. There was a surprising lot of anxiety shot with fear- not of her, but of Kylo.
She didn't blame them. His turmoil all but filled the Force around them. The troopers couldn't sense it the way she could, but that wasn't the same as not being able to sense it all. It was one thing to avoid someone you knew was having a bad day so as not to get caught in the crossfire; it was another to do that with someone who saw Darth Vader as a goal.
Kylo dismissed the troopers at the lift and ushered Rey inside, leaving them alone for the moment. It was an important moment, she knew.
"You don't have to do this. I feel the conflict in you," Rey insisted. "It's tearing you apart."
He was still contemplating the lightsaber in his hands, which she felt only emphasized her point.
"Look at me. Ben," she said, and for a split second she found herself both surprised and unsurprised that he let her call him that, that he didn't recoil, and instead met her eyes. She took that as an invitation to step closer, lowering her voice. "When we touched I saw your future. Just the shape of it, but solid, and clear. You will not bow before Snoke. You will turn. I'll help you. I saw it."
His face remained impassive. "I saw something, too," he said, just as quiet. "And because of what I saw I know when the moment comes, you'll be the one to turn. You'll stand with me. Rey, I saw who your parents are."
Rey blinked. There was no lie there, she knew, even if it filled her with an odd sense of dread after her experience in the cave. A terrifying realization came to mind: his churning emotions weren't just about himself. They were also about her.
Frowning, she stepped back away from him, a moment before the turbolift stopped, and the door slid open.
The first thing she noticed was not the room itself, which was covered in red, and sparse aside from the throne and some displays. It wasn't the red-armored guards strategically placed around the room with their deadly weapons ready. It wasn't even exactly Snoke himself. He was at least humanoid, very tall even while sitting, but his skin had withered and it looked a bit like part of his face had caved in. He was dressed in decadent gold robes, almost slouching on the throne, like they weren't worth more than that.
No, what got her attention were his eyes, piercing and hungry and focused on her. Their pull was akin to what she'd felt near the pit on Ahch-To, like they held ancient, hidden knowledge that would destroy the weak but elevate the strong. She wanted no part of it.
Snoke grinned at her and then turned those eyes on Kylo instead. "Well done, my good and faithful apprentice! My faith in you is restored. Young Rey. Welcome."
He waved his hand and the binders around Rey's wrists clattered to the floor. "Come closer, child."
Rey didn't move. She barely even blinked, already firmly set on defiance.
"So much strength," he continued, his voice slow. "Darkness rises, and light to meet it. I warned my young apprentice that as he grew stronger, his equal in the light would rise." With a casual, lazy wave of his hand, Luke's lightsaber ripped itself free of Kylo's grasp and tumbled past Rey, into Snoke's hand. He studied the weapon admiringly for a moment. "Skywalker, I assumed. Wrongly."
He set the lightsaber down on the throne's armrest and pinned Rey with his gaze. "Closer, I said."
Rey again didn't budge, but this time Snoke didn't give her a choice. With a crook of his finger, he used the Force to bodily yank her across the floor, her feet dragging as she tried to resist it. She hated it. It was like having her mind and body invaded by someone else, leaving her helpless against their actions.
It didn't stop her from trying to resist it anyway. It had worked against Kylo, maybe she could find a way to make it work here, too.
"You underestimate Skywalker," Rey told him, and found that somehow, she actually still did believe that. "And Ben Solo. And me. It will be your downfall."
Snoke responded to that with amusement. "Oh? Have you seen something? A weakness in my apprentice? Is that why you came?"
It was the mocking tone that made Rey realize she was in more trouble than she'd anticipated. This wasn't mocking her to say that she was wrong. This was mocking her to say he already knew what she was thinking, that nothing was safe from him.
"Young fool," he laughed. "It was I who bridged your minds. I stoked Ren's conflicted soul. I knew he was not strong enough to hide it from you- and you were not wise enough to resist the bait."
Rey was physically unable to look at Kylo, but she desperately wanted to, at the same time knowing that was why she shouldn't. She felt the flash of surprise off of him, sickly waves of pain and confusion, and tried to ignore that, to ignore her own shock and dismay, and to refocus.
A moment later, Snoke was dragging her the rest of the way to the throne until she was uncomfortably close to his giant face, close enough that he could bring his hand to her own face in a gesture she remembered from the forest on Takodana, at Starkiller Base. She knew what was coming.
"And now you will give me Skywalker," he said, every word sounding like its very own threat. "Then I will kill you with the cruelest stroke."
"No," she said, jaw clenched.
"Yes," he returned, and pushed off into the air with his hand to send her flying, stopping her a considerable distance off the ground, frozen in place not quite parallel to the ceiling. She tried to resist him as she had Kylo, but that particular invasion had been more curious, his odd way of trying to work her out like he would a puzzle.
"Give me everything."
This, instead, felt violent. Snoke smashed through her resistance and began rifling through her thoughts and memories in a way that she could feel as if it were physical, carelessly sifting and sorting through what he had no right to, what he didn't even care about. Unlike with Kylo, there was no sense of his own mind being open to her in return. It was as if the air around her was bending and wavering, a manifestation of what he was doing, and she felt like she was thrashing around even as her body actually remained still in the air.
Random bits of memory came back to her as Snoke scrutinized them and cast them aside. Here she was, alone at sunset on Jakku. Waking from a dream of a cool island in a gray sea. Stunned and reeling beneath Maz's castle. Holding a lightsaber hilt out in mute appeal.
She felt his interest quicken at that last moment, burned into her mind. That was what he wanted: Skywalker's island, and the planet of which it was a part, what it was called and how she had reached it.
Rey tried to blank her mind, to shut him out, to fight him off.
None of it worked. Snoke had found what he wanted, took it, and discarded her.
Rey found herself on the floor of the throne room, writhing in pain and hating him even more.
He just laughed at her.
"Well, well," he said, pleased. "I did not expect Skywalker to be so wise. We will give him and the Jedi Order the death he desires. After the rebels are gone we will go to his planet and obliterate the entire island."
Even Rey didn't know how she managed to pop to her feet so fast after all of that, but she outstretched her hand towards Luke's lightsaber and willed it to her. It flew into the air and towards her- and then past, circling back to hit her in the back of the head before ending back at its place on Snoke's arm rest.
"Suck spunk," Snoke laughed. "Look here now."
She felt herself picked up again, and she wasn't sure if she was unable to move her limbs or scared to, more focused on bracing herself for whatever was coming. She moved through the space too fast, coming to an abrupt stop, and when Rey opened her eyes she was almost startled that there wasn't an immediate horror greeting her vision.
That was because it took a moment for her to realize that she'd been suddenly set down in front of a viewscreen that showed the vast expanse of space, and the comparatively tiny ships that were being shot down in it by the First Order's larger one.
"The entire Resistance is on those transports," Snoke delighted in telling her. "Soon they will be gone. For you, all is lost."
No.
Rey turned towards him, teeth bared, and reached out again. But instead of going for Luke's lightsaber, she went for Kylo's. He hadn't moved from the spot where he'd knelt upon bringing her in here, and he didn't even react as the lightsaber was ripped from his belt and flew to her. She ignited it, feeling the weapon thrumming and snarling under her hands and ignoring it, similarly ignoring the guards who were brandishing their weapons, ready for her.
She didn't care. She'd handle them if she had to. They just weren't her focus.
Snoke raised a hand to stop them, chuckling. "Still that fiery spark of hope. You have the spirit of a true Jedi," he said, using the Force to send her sprawling again across the floor. The lightsaber landed at Kylo's feet, spinning like a top. "And because of that, you must die."
Rey had expected to find herself bodily moved across the room again, but she found herself spun onto her knees maybe a couple inches off the floor and dragged to a spot directly in front of Kylo Ren, so that she had to stare up at his expressionless face with her arms pinned to her sides.
"My worthy apprentice, son of darkness, heir apparent to Lord Vader," Snoke drawled. "Where there was conflict, I now sense resolve. Where there was weakness, strength. Complete your training and fulfill your destiny."
Kylo picked up the lightsaber and walked the couple steps toward her till she was within reach of his blade, and she tried to see something in him. Anything. His sense in the Force was icy cold, and she got nothing from his face, nothing in his eyes. It was like he didn't even see her.
"I know what I have to do," he said simply.
"Ben," she pleaded, half a whisper, desperate to get through to him.
Snoke laughed, and Rey tried to ignore him, but looking up at Kylo hurt even worse than anything Snoke could say. "You think he will turn, you pathetic child? I cannot be betrayed. I cannot be beaten. I see his mind. I see his every intent. Yes! I see him turning the lightsaber to strike true. And now, foolish child, he ignites it, and kills his true enemy!"
It was the last thing the Supreme Leader ever said.
Rey head the lightsaber ignite, and the next thing she knew she was on the floor again, but she didn't feel hurt. She looked back at the throne, and saw the blue blade of Luke's lightsaber skewered through Snoke's midsection, his mouth open in slack-jawed shock, unmoving.
Kylo Ren had spared her, and killed his Master.
Still lit, the lightsaber flew towards them, and Rey's hand shot up in time to grab it in mid-air. She stood carefully, her eyes on Kylo the entire time. His face lit up in crimson light as he ignited his own lightsaber, and gave a nod.
Rey took a breath and turned, steeling herself for what was coming next. Back to back with Kylo, they were suddenly encircled by the guards- four sets of pairs, each pair brandishing the same variant of edged weapons. It was too late to save their master, but they could at least avenge his murder.
It was chaos. They attacked not all at once, but in a way that meant that they could get at their prey without attacking each other by accident. At first she and Kylo seemed to be fighting in tandem; he moved forward as she had to move back to kick a guard in the chestplate, so that for a moment she might have actually been on his back.
But with eight on two, that only lasted as long as the guards allowed, and Rey found herself being drawn away to fight her own enemies while she could hear fighting going on elsewhere in the room. She brought her blade up to meet one guard's polearm as he tried to split open her skull, but the lightsaber didn't cleave the other weapon apart as expected. It merely blocked the blow, and she was able to take care of him with a blow to his side, an apparent weak spot in the armor.
Immediately Rey found herself having to dodge the segmented whip of another guard. She expected her lightsaber would take care of that, too, but instead she found the whip wrapped around her blade, the guard drawing her in closer rather than giving up her weapon, until the guard could grab her by the neck. Grunting, Rey moved down and under his arm, till she was just far enough behind him to plunge the lightsaber into his back. The segmented whip went flying off the blade, sparking into the red wall.
The wall caught fire. Sparks from that set off a smaller fire in another section.
Rey couldn't worry about that; another guard, who had just had the whip fly past his head, twirled his weapon and then separated it into two pieces that he could wield with both hands at once.
Fine. Rey roared at him, and charged.
She was used to fighting two-handed herself, but she wasn't doing that now, and she was at a disadvantage. She stabbed at him with her blade, but he dodged, blocking with one of his own blades, and striking at her with the other. Something warned her that that blow was coming, so she mostly dodged it herself, crying out as it sliced her upper arm, though it was better than it could have been.
He drove her back, as she swung wildly with the lightsaber, and he kicked her leg out from under her, sending her falling forward onto the floor. She bounced back up immediately and swung again. She tried to anticipate his movements, she knew she could do that, but there was too much happening, and she was tiring. Her form with a lightsaber wasn't great, she didn't know how to conserve energy in a fight. Her experience had always taught her that you beat the other person until they stopped trying to beat you, so that was what she was attempting to do, and it wasn't working.
She was too close when she struck, and the guard was able to trap her upper arm in the crook of his armored elbow, immobilizing her entire arm and keeping her struggling with his other sharp blade pressing towards her neck. She tried to grasp for her lightsaber and couldn't, and then she ducked back and low enough so that when she let go of the hilt, she was able to catch it with her other hand. She easily sliced him through the middle with it, striking him in the face too, for good measure.
Rey stood and looked around, ready for whatever came next. Most of the guards were already dead. The red covering of the transparisteel walls had already burned and melted almost entirely away, revealing the actual battle happening outside in the black of space. The air glittered with sparks, from both the guards' weapons and the fire itself.
There was one guard left, and he had Kylo on his knees with his back to him. The guard's weapon was tight across Kylo's neck, preventing him from moving, and he was struggling.
"Ben!" Rey called, and switched off the lightsaber before hurling it towards him.
Kylo caught it easily, the blade end facing backwards, and ignited it into the final guard's helmet, leaving a smoking hole.
The guard dropped, and in the immediate silence, Rey realized she could breathe again.
And that the others needed help.
"The fleet!" she said, running towards the viewport. "Order them to stop firing! There's still time to save the fleet!"
She heard nothing from Kylo. Instead, he was silent, slowly walking towards the throne, which still had the lower half of Snoke's body seated on it.
A pit dropped into Rey's stomach, and even if she had a horrible feeling about what seemed to be happening, she still desperately hoped she was wrong. "Ben?"
He didn't say anything at first, but he faced her. "It's time to let old things die. Snoke, Skywalker, the Sith, Jedi, the rebels… Let it all die. Rey, I want you to join me. We can rule together, and bring a new order to the galaxy."
Mere days ago, Rey wouldn't have expected to feel crushed by this. He'd tortured her, he'd hurt Finn, he'd killed Han, he matter-of-factly called himself a monster, but she knew he could be better than this. She knew it for a fact. She'd tried her best to give him a chance to be better, nearly been killed for it, and he was still rejecting it.
"Don't do this, Ben. Please don't go this way," she managed, her voice a half whisper around the knot in her throat. Her chest felt tight, like her heart was cracking in two.
It was entirely possible he was as upset about her reaction as she was his, but he chose the option of yelling at her. "No, no, no! You're still holding on! Let go!" And then, calming, he asked, "Do you know the truth about your parents? Or have you always known?"
Now her eyes filled with tears, because she knew what was coming. He'd been inside her head. She'd invited him there. Not at first. But it had happened.
"You've just hidden it away. You know the truth. Say it," he pressed, like he did when getting her to ask about Han. When she didn't, he repeated, more firmly, "Say it."
"They were nobody," she whispered.
It hurt. She'd held onto the thought for most of her life that her parents were coming back, and that they had to have left her for a reason. That they were offworlders, traders who had been caught up in some terrible circumstances on Jakku, or that they were important and couldn't chance coming back, that they were like Han and Leia and it wasn't that they didn't want to be with her, it was because they couldn't. That maybe she herself was somehow important, and not destined to wither away and die alone in some desert wasteland, and she wasn't wasting her life by waiting.
He twisted the knife. "They're filthy junk traders. Sold you off for drinking money. They're dead, in a pauper's grave in the Jakku desert. You have no place in this story. You come from nothing. You're nothing."
Rey didn't bother trying to hide the tears, though she wouldn't look at him. He'd seen her cry before, and she didn't care. She felt stupid, and embarrassed, and raw, like she'd been cut open and exposed, and it was made worse with silence long enough to hear her sniffle.
"But not to me," he said, and held his hand out to her. "Join me."
Her gaze flicked back to him, and while he was impassive so much of the time, she could read something else in his face. It was that loneliness that she'd felt in him while she'd fought against his probe at Starkiller Base, but nakedly visible. However much he was hurting her right now, he needed that connection just as much as she did.
And then he said, "Please."
Slowly, keeping her emotions even and not breaking eye contact, she lifted her hand as if to meet his, and then suddenly grabbed her lightsaber with the Force to pull it back to her.
He was too quick- maybe he'd expected it, maybe she wasn't as good at keeping herself blank as he was, maybe he didn't really trust her- and reached for it at almost the same time, leaving the lightsaber suspended in air between them as they both struggled for it. The problem with equal power was that neither seemed to be able to make any real headway, instead building a tension….
...which finally snapped, exploding between them.
Luckily, Rey was the first to come to. She woke up on the floor, a good distance across the room from Kylo, who lay unmoving on his side. She looked around for the lightsaber, and found it between them, split into two halves. It was useless, and Rey felt another pang of sadness at that. She picked it up anyway.
Kylo Ren was alive. She stood over him, and it was very clear what she could do. She could see herself taking up his lightsaber and ending his life, and in the same moment knew that she wouldn't.
Luke's error had been to assume Ben Solo's future was predetermined- that his choice had been made. Her error was to assume that Kylo Ren's choice was simple- that turning on Snoke was the same as rejecting the pull of darkness.
The future, she saw now, was a range of possibilities, which were constantly reshaped by the outcome of events that seemed minor and decisions that seemed small. It was very hard not to see the future that dominated your hopes or fears as fixed and immutable, when in fact it was just one of many. She knew now that the Force could show you the future, but which future?
The Force was not her instrument. In fact, it was the other way around.
The Force wasn't finished with Kylo Ren, for whatever reason. His life wasn't hers to take, no matter what the future she thought she saw ahead of him.
So she left him there, hurrying towards safety and hoping she could leave before he woke up, and found a ship to escape on, hiding low enough that the First Order should not detect her. And then, once Chewie arrived on the Falcon, maybe they could still help their friends.
[CW for super nonconsensual mental torture and gaslighting. Parts taken from The Last Jedi novelization by Jason Fry. I want to watch this scene 17 times now.]
Chewbacca hadn't been thrilled about it, either, but he'd helped her into the Falcon's escape pod and shuttled her off the ship towards the Dreadnought that served as Supreme Leader Snoke's flagship. It felt like it took forever until they brought her on board, forever spent being equal parts terrified and hopeful inside something that looked uncomfortably like a coffin, truly confident in what she'd seen in that moment in the hut. This would work. She would bring Kylo Ren back to the light side, and they could end this all now, before anyone else had to suffer. She'd bring Leia's son back to her, and maybe she didn't have to lose one more person in all of this. And maybe, just maybe, if she were really being honest with herself, there would be someone after all these years of loneliness that understood her.
That confidence wavered the moment the pod hatch cracked open, leaking vapor. She'd actually looked forward to seeing him, and that was immediately crushed by the fact that Kylo Ren stood there with several stormtroopers behind him, ready with binders for her.
Binders were unnecessary. She was here willingly. He had the troopers put them on anyway.
"I'll take that," Kylo said, collecting Luke's lightsaber. "It belongs to me."
"Strange, then, that it called to me at the castle," Rey noted, "and not to you."
It almost- almost- looked like he appreciated that.
The stormtroopers walked with them until they reached the turbolift, and having been on a solitary island for several days while she was working through things, it was disconcerting to realize how much she could feel off of the troopers. There was a surprising lot of anxiety shot with fear- not of her, but of Kylo.
She didn't blame them. His turmoil all but filled the Force around them. The troopers couldn't sense it the way she could, but that wasn't the same as not being able to sense it all. It was one thing to avoid someone you knew was having a bad day so as not to get caught in the crossfire; it was another to do that with someone who saw Darth Vader as a goal.
Kylo dismissed the troopers at the lift and ushered Rey inside, leaving them alone for the moment. It was an important moment, she knew.
"You don't have to do this. I feel the conflict in you," Rey insisted. "It's tearing you apart."
He was still contemplating the lightsaber in his hands, which she felt only emphasized her point.
"Look at me. Ben," she said, and for a split second she found herself both surprised and unsurprised that he let her call him that, that he didn't recoil, and instead met her eyes. She took that as an invitation to step closer, lowering her voice. "When we touched I saw your future. Just the shape of it, but solid, and clear. You will not bow before Snoke. You will turn. I'll help you. I saw it."
His face remained impassive. "I saw something, too," he said, just as quiet. "And because of what I saw I know when the moment comes, you'll be the one to turn. You'll stand with me. Rey, I saw who your parents are."
Rey blinked. There was no lie there, she knew, even if it filled her with an odd sense of dread after her experience in the cave. A terrifying realization came to mind: his churning emotions weren't just about himself. They were also about her.
Frowning, she stepped back away from him, a moment before the turbolift stopped, and the door slid open.
The first thing she noticed was not the room itself, which was covered in red, and sparse aside from the throne and some displays. It wasn't the red-armored guards strategically placed around the room with their deadly weapons ready. It wasn't even exactly Snoke himself. He was at least humanoid, very tall even while sitting, but his skin had withered and it looked a bit like part of his face had caved in. He was dressed in decadent gold robes, almost slouching on the throne, like they weren't worth more than that.
No, what got her attention were his eyes, piercing and hungry and focused on her. Their pull was akin to what she'd felt near the pit on Ahch-To, like they held ancient, hidden knowledge that would destroy the weak but elevate the strong. She wanted no part of it.
Snoke grinned at her and then turned those eyes on Kylo instead. "Well done, my good and faithful apprentice! My faith in you is restored. Young Rey. Welcome."
He waved his hand and the binders around Rey's wrists clattered to the floor. "Come closer, child."
Rey didn't move. She barely even blinked, already firmly set on defiance.
"So much strength," he continued, his voice slow. "Darkness rises, and light to meet it. I warned my young apprentice that as he grew stronger, his equal in the light would rise." With a casual, lazy wave of his hand, Luke's lightsaber ripped itself free of Kylo's grasp and tumbled past Rey, into Snoke's hand. He studied the weapon admiringly for a moment. "Skywalker, I assumed. Wrongly."
He set the lightsaber down on the throne's armrest and pinned Rey with his gaze. "Closer, I said."
Rey again didn't budge, but this time Snoke didn't give her a choice. With a crook of his finger, he used the Force to bodily yank her across the floor, her feet dragging as she tried to resist it. She hated it. It was like having her mind and body invaded by someone else, leaving her helpless against their actions.
It didn't stop her from trying to resist it anyway. It had worked against Kylo, maybe she could find a way to make it work here, too.
"You underestimate Skywalker," Rey told him, and found that somehow, she actually still did believe that. "And Ben Solo. And me. It will be your downfall."
Snoke responded to that with amusement. "Oh? Have you seen something? A weakness in my apprentice? Is that why you came?"
It was the mocking tone that made Rey realize she was in more trouble than she'd anticipated. This wasn't mocking her to say that she was wrong. This was mocking her to say he already knew what she was thinking, that nothing was safe from him.
"Young fool," he laughed. "It was I who bridged your minds. I stoked Ren's conflicted soul. I knew he was not strong enough to hide it from you- and you were not wise enough to resist the bait."
Rey was physically unable to look at Kylo, but she desperately wanted to, at the same time knowing that was why she shouldn't. She felt the flash of surprise off of him, sickly waves of pain and confusion, and tried to ignore that, to ignore her own shock and dismay, and to refocus.
A moment later, Snoke was dragging her the rest of the way to the throne until she was uncomfortably close to his giant face, close enough that he could bring his hand to her own face in a gesture she remembered from the forest on Takodana, at Starkiller Base. She knew what was coming.
"And now you will give me Skywalker," he said, every word sounding like its very own threat. "Then I will kill you with the cruelest stroke."
"No," she said, jaw clenched.
"Yes," he returned, and pushed off into the air with his hand to send her flying, stopping her a considerable distance off the ground, frozen in place not quite parallel to the ceiling. She tried to resist him as she had Kylo, but that particular invasion had been more curious, his odd way of trying to work her out like he would a puzzle.
"Give me everything."
This, instead, felt violent. Snoke smashed through her resistance and began rifling through her thoughts and memories in a way that she could feel as if it were physical, carelessly sifting and sorting through what he had no right to, what he didn't even care about. Unlike with Kylo, there was no sense of his own mind being open to her in return. It was as if the air around her was bending and wavering, a manifestation of what he was doing, and she felt like she was thrashing around even as her body actually remained still in the air.
Random bits of memory came back to her as Snoke scrutinized them and cast them aside. Here she was, alone at sunset on Jakku. Waking from a dream of a cool island in a gray sea. Stunned and reeling beneath Maz's castle. Holding a lightsaber hilt out in mute appeal.
She felt his interest quicken at that last moment, burned into her mind. That was what he wanted: Skywalker's island, and the planet of which it was a part, what it was called and how she had reached it.
Rey tried to blank her mind, to shut him out, to fight him off.
None of it worked. Snoke had found what he wanted, took it, and discarded her.
Rey found herself on the floor of the throne room, writhing in pain and hating him even more.
He just laughed at her.
"Well, well," he said, pleased. "I did not expect Skywalker to be so wise. We will give him and the Jedi Order the death he desires. After the rebels are gone we will go to his planet and obliterate the entire island."
Even Rey didn't know how she managed to pop to her feet so fast after all of that, but she outstretched her hand towards Luke's lightsaber and willed it to her. It flew into the air and towards her- and then past, circling back to hit her in the back of the head before ending back at its place on Snoke's arm rest.
"Suck spunk," Snoke laughed. "Look here now."
She felt herself picked up again, and she wasn't sure if she was unable to move her limbs or scared to, more focused on bracing herself for whatever was coming. She moved through the space too fast, coming to an abrupt stop, and when Rey opened her eyes she was almost startled that there wasn't an immediate horror greeting her vision.
That was because it took a moment for her to realize that she'd been suddenly set down in front of a viewscreen that showed the vast expanse of space, and the comparatively tiny ships that were being shot down in it by the First Order's larger one.
"The entire Resistance is on those transports," Snoke delighted in telling her. "Soon they will be gone. For you, all is lost."
No.
Rey turned towards him, teeth bared, and reached out again. But instead of going for Luke's lightsaber, she went for Kylo's. He hadn't moved from the spot where he'd knelt upon bringing her in here, and he didn't even react as the lightsaber was ripped from his belt and flew to her. She ignited it, feeling the weapon thrumming and snarling under her hands and ignoring it, similarly ignoring the guards who were brandishing their weapons, ready for her.
She didn't care. She'd handle them if she had to. They just weren't her focus.
Snoke raised a hand to stop them, chuckling. "Still that fiery spark of hope. You have the spirit of a true Jedi," he said, using the Force to send her sprawling again across the floor. The lightsaber landed at Kylo's feet, spinning like a top. "And because of that, you must die."
Rey had expected to find herself bodily moved across the room again, but she found herself spun onto her knees maybe a couple inches off the floor and dragged to a spot directly in front of Kylo Ren, so that she had to stare up at his expressionless face with her arms pinned to her sides.
"My worthy apprentice, son of darkness, heir apparent to Lord Vader," Snoke drawled. "Where there was conflict, I now sense resolve. Where there was weakness, strength. Complete your training and fulfill your destiny."
Kylo picked up the lightsaber and walked the couple steps toward her till she was within reach of his blade, and she tried to see something in him. Anything. His sense in the Force was icy cold, and she got nothing from his face, nothing in his eyes. It was like he didn't even see her.
"I know what I have to do," he said simply.
"Ben," she pleaded, half a whisper, desperate to get through to him.
Snoke laughed, and Rey tried to ignore him, but looking up at Kylo hurt even worse than anything Snoke could say. "You think he will turn, you pathetic child? I cannot be betrayed. I cannot be beaten. I see his mind. I see his every intent. Yes! I see him turning the lightsaber to strike true. And now, foolish child, he ignites it, and kills his true enemy!"
It was the last thing the Supreme Leader ever said.
Rey head the lightsaber ignite, and the next thing she knew she was on the floor again, but she didn't feel hurt. She looked back at the throne, and saw the blue blade of Luke's lightsaber skewered through Snoke's midsection, his mouth open in slack-jawed shock, unmoving.
Kylo Ren had spared her, and killed his Master.
Still lit, the lightsaber flew towards them, and Rey's hand shot up in time to grab it in mid-air. She stood carefully, her eyes on Kylo the entire time. His face lit up in crimson light as he ignited his own lightsaber, and gave a nod.
Rey took a breath and turned, steeling herself for what was coming next. Back to back with Kylo, they were suddenly encircled by the guards- four sets of pairs, each pair brandishing the same variant of edged weapons. It was too late to save their master, but they could at least avenge his murder.
It was chaos. They attacked not all at once, but in a way that meant that they could get at their prey without attacking each other by accident. At first she and Kylo seemed to be fighting in tandem; he moved forward as she had to move back to kick a guard in the chestplate, so that for a moment she might have actually been on his back.
But with eight on two, that only lasted as long as the guards allowed, and Rey found herself being drawn away to fight her own enemies while she could hear fighting going on elsewhere in the room. She brought her blade up to meet one guard's polearm as he tried to split open her skull, but the lightsaber didn't cleave the other weapon apart as expected. It merely blocked the blow, and she was able to take care of him with a blow to his side, an apparent weak spot in the armor.
Immediately Rey found herself having to dodge the segmented whip of another guard. She expected her lightsaber would take care of that, too, but instead she found the whip wrapped around her blade, the guard drawing her in closer rather than giving up her weapon, until the guard could grab her by the neck. Grunting, Rey moved down and under his arm, till she was just far enough behind him to plunge the lightsaber into his back. The segmented whip went flying off the blade, sparking into the red wall.
The wall caught fire. Sparks from that set off a smaller fire in another section.
Rey couldn't worry about that; another guard, who had just had the whip fly past his head, twirled his weapon and then separated it into two pieces that he could wield with both hands at once.
Fine. Rey roared at him, and charged.
She was used to fighting two-handed herself, but she wasn't doing that now, and she was at a disadvantage. She stabbed at him with her blade, but he dodged, blocking with one of his own blades, and striking at her with the other. Something warned her that that blow was coming, so she mostly dodged it herself, crying out as it sliced her upper arm, though it was better than it could have been.
He drove her back, as she swung wildly with the lightsaber, and he kicked her leg out from under her, sending her falling forward onto the floor. She bounced back up immediately and swung again. She tried to anticipate his movements, she knew she could do that, but there was too much happening, and she was tiring. Her form with a lightsaber wasn't great, she didn't know how to conserve energy in a fight. Her experience had always taught her that you beat the other person until they stopped trying to beat you, so that was what she was attempting to do, and it wasn't working.
She was too close when she struck, and the guard was able to trap her upper arm in the crook of his armored elbow, immobilizing her entire arm and keeping her struggling with his other sharp blade pressing towards her neck. She tried to grasp for her lightsaber and couldn't, and then she ducked back and low enough so that when she let go of the hilt, she was able to catch it with her other hand. She easily sliced him through the middle with it, striking him in the face too, for good measure.
Rey stood and looked around, ready for whatever came next. Most of the guards were already dead. The red covering of the transparisteel walls had already burned and melted almost entirely away, revealing the actual battle happening outside in the black of space. The air glittered with sparks, from both the guards' weapons and the fire itself.
There was one guard left, and he had Kylo on his knees with his back to him. The guard's weapon was tight across Kylo's neck, preventing him from moving, and he was struggling.
"Ben!" Rey called, and switched off the lightsaber before hurling it towards him.
Kylo caught it easily, the blade end facing backwards, and ignited it into the final guard's helmet, leaving a smoking hole.
The guard dropped, and in the immediate silence, Rey realized she could breathe again.
And that the others needed help.
"The fleet!" she said, running towards the viewport. "Order them to stop firing! There's still time to save the fleet!"
She heard nothing from Kylo. Instead, he was silent, slowly walking towards the throne, which still had the lower half of Snoke's body seated on it.
A pit dropped into Rey's stomach, and even if she had a horrible feeling about what seemed to be happening, she still desperately hoped she was wrong. "Ben?"
He didn't say anything at first, but he faced her. "It's time to let old things die. Snoke, Skywalker, the Sith, Jedi, the rebels… Let it all die. Rey, I want you to join me. We can rule together, and bring a new order to the galaxy."
Mere days ago, Rey wouldn't have expected to feel crushed by this. He'd tortured her, he'd hurt Finn, he'd killed Han, he matter-of-factly called himself a monster, but she knew he could be better than this. She knew it for a fact. She'd tried her best to give him a chance to be better, nearly been killed for it, and he was still rejecting it.
"Don't do this, Ben. Please don't go this way," she managed, her voice a half whisper around the knot in her throat. Her chest felt tight, like her heart was cracking in two.
It was entirely possible he was as upset about her reaction as she was his, but he chose the option of yelling at her. "No, no, no! You're still holding on! Let go!" And then, calming, he asked, "Do you know the truth about your parents? Or have you always known?"
Now her eyes filled with tears, because she knew what was coming. He'd been inside her head. She'd invited him there. Not at first. But it had happened.
"You've just hidden it away. You know the truth. Say it," he pressed, like he did when getting her to ask about Han. When she didn't, he repeated, more firmly, "Say it."
"They were nobody," she whispered.
It hurt. She'd held onto the thought for most of her life that her parents were coming back, and that they had to have left her for a reason. That they were offworlders, traders who had been caught up in some terrible circumstances on Jakku, or that they were important and couldn't chance coming back, that they were like Han and Leia and it wasn't that they didn't want to be with her, it was because they couldn't. That maybe she herself was somehow important, and not destined to wither away and die alone in some desert wasteland, and she wasn't wasting her life by waiting.
He twisted the knife. "They're filthy junk traders. Sold you off for drinking money. They're dead, in a pauper's grave in the Jakku desert. You have no place in this story. You come from nothing. You're nothing."
Rey didn't bother trying to hide the tears, though she wouldn't look at him. He'd seen her cry before, and she didn't care. She felt stupid, and embarrassed, and raw, like she'd been cut open and exposed, and it was made worse with silence long enough to hear her sniffle.
"But not to me," he said, and held his hand out to her. "Join me."
Her gaze flicked back to him, and while he was impassive so much of the time, she could read something else in his face. It was that loneliness that she'd felt in him while she'd fought against his probe at Starkiller Base, but nakedly visible. However much he was hurting her right now, he needed that connection just as much as she did.
And then he said, "Please."
Slowly, keeping her emotions even and not breaking eye contact, she lifted her hand as if to meet his, and then suddenly grabbed her lightsaber with the Force to pull it back to her.
He was too quick- maybe he'd expected it, maybe she wasn't as good at keeping herself blank as he was, maybe he didn't really trust her- and reached for it at almost the same time, leaving the lightsaber suspended in air between them as they both struggled for it. The problem with equal power was that neither seemed to be able to make any real headway, instead building a tension….
...which finally snapped, exploding between them.
Luckily, Rey was the first to come to. She woke up on the floor, a good distance across the room from Kylo, who lay unmoving on his side. She looked around for the lightsaber, and found it between them, split into two halves. It was useless, and Rey felt another pang of sadness at that. She picked it up anyway.
Kylo Ren was alive. She stood over him, and it was very clear what she could do. She could see herself taking up his lightsaber and ending his life, and in the same moment knew that she wouldn't.
Luke's error had been to assume Ben Solo's future was predetermined- that his choice had been made. Her error was to assume that Kylo Ren's choice was simple- that turning on Snoke was the same as rejecting the pull of darkness.
The future, she saw now, was a range of possibilities, which were constantly reshaped by the outcome of events that seemed minor and decisions that seemed small. It was very hard not to see the future that dominated your hopes or fears as fixed and immutable, when in fact it was just one of many. She knew now that the Force could show you the future, but which future?
The Force was not her instrument. In fact, it was the other way around.
The Force wasn't finished with Kylo Ren, for whatever reason. His life wasn't hers to take, no matter what the future she thought she saw ahead of him.
So she left him there, hurrying towards safety and hoping she could leave before he woke up, and found a ship to escape on, hiding low enough that the First Order should not detect her. And then, once Chewie arrived on the Falcon, maybe they could still help their friends.
[CW for super nonconsensual mental torture and gaslighting. Parts taken from The Last Jedi novelization by Jason Fry. I want to watch this scene 17 times now.]